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Description: | Verse 1: 'She's fair & fause that causes my smart, I lo'ed her meikle and lang; She's broken her vow, She's broken my heart, And I may e'en gae hang. A coof cam in wi' routh o' gear, And I hae tint my dearest dear, But women is, but warld's gear, Sae let the bonie lass gang.' 'Fause' is 'false', a 'coof' is a 'fool' or 'simpleton' and 'routh' is 'plenty'.
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
It is thought this song was written by Robert Burns around 1789. The tune, however, is considered to be much older. According to John Glen (1900), it was originally known under the title 'The Lads of Leith' and appeared in Book Four of James Oswald's 'Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759). Making an even earlier appearance than Oswald's collection, it also featured in the third edition of Walsh's 'Caledonian Country Dances', which is thought to have been published no later than 1736. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume IV, song 398, page 411 - 'She's f | Go to resource |
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