AULD LANG SYNE.* SHOULD auld acquaintance be forgot, CHORUS. For auld lang syne, my dear,3 For auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,* VAR. thought upon. 2 Let's hae a waught o' Malaga, 3 jo, For auld lang syne. 4 Let's hae a waught o' Malaga. Burns sent this beautiful song to Mrs. Dunlop, in December, 1788, saying: Is not the Scotch phrase, 'Auld lang' syne, exceedingly expressive? There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch songs-I shall give you the verses on the other sheet-Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet, who composed this glorious fragment." In September, 1793, Burns wrote to Thomson, "One song more, and I have done: Auld lang syne.' The air is but mediocre; but the following song, the old song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor We twa hae run about the braes, And pu'd the gowans fine; We twa hae paidl't i' the burn, But seas between us braid hae roar'd And here's a hand, my trusty fiere, And gie's a hand o' thine; And we'll tak a right guid willie-waught, For auld, &c. And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp, And surely I'll be mine; VAR. 5 pou't. even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to recommend any air." Notwithstanding these assertions, that the song was an old composition, all his Editors have considered it to have been written, either partially or wholly, by Burns; and the circumstance that two copies in his own hand exist, containing the variations now given, tends to show that it was his own, difficult as it certainly is to reconcile that fact with his letters to Mrs. Dunlop and Mr. Thomson. BANNOCKBURN.+ ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY. TUNE- HEY TUTTIE TATTIE.' Scors, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Now's the day, and now's the hour; See approach proud Edward's power- Wha will be a traitor knave? Traitor coward! turn and flee? + This celebrated song was conceived by the Poet during a storm of rain and lightning among the wilds of Glen-ken in Galloway. Burns on sending it to Mr. Thomson in September, 1793, said: "You know that my pretensions to musical taste are merely a few of nature's instincts, untaught and untutored by art. For this reason, many musical compositions, particularly where much of the merit lies in counterpoint, however they may transport and ravish the ears of your connoisseurs, affect my simple lug no otherwise than merely as melodious din. On the other hand, by way of amends, I am delighted with many little melodies which Wha for Scotland's King and law By oppression's woes and pains! Lay the proud usurpers low! Forward! let us do, or die! the learned musician despises as silly and insipid. I do not know whether the old air 'Hey tuttie taittie' may rank among this number; but well I know that, with Fraser's hautboy, it has often filled my eyes with tears. There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places of Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my solitary wanderings, warmed me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of Liberty and Independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air that one might suppose to be the gallant Royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning. So may God ever defend the cause of Truth and Liberty, as he did that day!-Amen. I shewed the air to Urbani, who was highly pleased with it, and begged me to make soft verses for it; but I had no idea of giving myself any trouble on the subject, till the accidental recollection of that glorious struggle for freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient, roused my rhyming mania. Clarke's set of the tune, with his bass, you will find in the THE GALLANT WEAVER. TUNE THE AULD WIFE AYONT THE FIRE.' WHERE Cart rins rowin to the sea, Oh I had wooers aught or nine, museum; though I am afraid that the air is not what will entitle it to a place in your elegant selection." He soon afterwards sent the improved version, given in the text, saying, he "had altered the song," and that the last stanza was borrowed from the stall edition of Wallace : A false usurper sinks in every foe, And liberty returns with every blow A couplet worthy of Homer." Mr. Thomson having suggested some verbal alterations, Burns replied in terms which show his consciousness of its merits: Who shall decide when doctors disagree?' My ode pleases me so much, that 1 cannot alter it. Your proposed alterations would, in my opinion, make it tame. I am exceedingly obliged to you for putting me on reconsidering it; as I think I have much improved it. Instead of 'sodger! hero!' I will have it Caledonian! on wi' me!' I have scrutinized it over and over; and to the world some way or other it shall go as it is." |