No. XXXVII. BURNS TO G. THOMSON. August, 1793. DAINTY DAVIE. I. Now rosy May comes in wi' flowers, Meet me on the warlock knowe, The scented breezes round us blaw, A wandering wi' my Davie. III. When purple morning starts the hare, To steal upon her early fare, Then thro' the dews I will repair, To meet my faithfu' Davie. IV. When day, expiring in the west, And that's my ain dear Davie. So much for Davie. The chorus, you know, is to the low part of the tune.-See Clarke's set of it in the Museum. N. B. In the Museum they have drawled out the tune to twelve lines of poetry, which is cursed nonsense. Four lines of song, and four of chorus, is the way. [The reader will find an earlier song to this air in Vol. IV., page 121. The Poet has added a very happy chorus, and made some alterations, they are curious— as showing the care with which he sometimes revised compositions from which he hoped for fame." Dainty Davie " is the name of an old merry song, from which Burns has borrowed nothing save the title and the measure. It relates the adventure of David Williamson, a preacher of the days of the Covenant: he was pursued by Dalzell's dragoons, and seeking refuge in the house of Cherrytrees, the devout lady put the man of God into a bed beside her daughter to hide him from the men of Belial the return which the reverend gentleman made for this is set forth very graphically in the old verses. The young lady sings— "Being pursued by a dragoon, Within my bed he was laid down, And weel I wat he was worth his room- The lady of Cherrytrees is not the only example of strong faith in the fair sex. Sir Robert Strange, the eminent engraver, fled in his youth from a field of battle, where he had fought in vain for his native princes, and being hotly pursued, sought refuge in a gentleman's house, where a lady-beautiful and young-concealed him under her hooped-petticoat. When days of peace came and fortune smiled, the grateful rebel wooed his protectress and made her his wife she was equally witty and lovely, and figured among the fashionables of London till the death of her husband. The Nithsdale lady went to no such extremities in her affection-her name has not transpired-the name of one who had courage to keep a tryste on the "Warlock knowe," is worthy of remembrance.—ED.] No. XXXVIII. G. THOMSON TO BURNS. MY DEAR SIR: Edinburgh, 1st Sept. 1793. SINCE writing you last I have received half a dozen songs, with which I am delighted beyond expression. The humour and fancy of "Whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad," will render it nearly as great a favourite as "Duncan Gray." "Come, let me take thee to my breast," "Adown winding Nith," and "By Allan stream," &c., are full of imagination and feeling, and sweetly suit the airs for which they are intended.—" Had I a cave on some wild distant shore" is a striking and affecting composition. Our friend, to whose story it refers, read it with a swelling heart, I assure you. The union we are now forming, I think, can never be broken these songs of yours will descend with the music to the latest posterity, and will be fondly cherished so long as genius, taste, and sensibility exist in our island. While the muse seems so propitious, I think it right to inclose a list of all the favours I have to ask of her-no fewer than twenty and three! I have burdened the pleasant Peter with as many as it is probable he will attend to most of the remaining airs would puzzle the English poet not a little; they are of that peculiar measure and ryhthm, that they must be familiar to him who writes for them. [Thomson at first spoke of twenty or five and twenty songs at the time when he wrote this letter he had received seven and twenty, yet he requests three and twenty more because the muse was propitious and the Poet enthusiastic! It will be seen that the list was not limited to this number. When Burns refused money, it was for the songs which he had undertaken to supply: there is no word of any recompence for the new batch of lyrics.— ED.] |