Cuttie's Wedding.
[From "Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland," collected by Peter Buchan: Edinburgh, 1828.]
Busk and go, busk and go,
Busk and go to Cuttie's wedding!
Wha wad he the lass or lad
That wadna gang an they were bidden?
Cuttie he's a lang man,
O he'll get a little wifie;
But he'll tak' on to the town loan
When she tak's on her fickie-fykie.
Cuttie he cam' here yestreen;
Cuttie he fell ower the midden;
He wat the house, and tint his shoon,
Courtin' at a cankert maiden.
He sat him doun upon the green,
The lass cam' till him wi' a biddin';
He says. Gin ye were mine, my dame,
Monie ane's be at our weddin'.
Busk and go, busk and go,
Busk and go to Cuttie's wedding!
Wha wad be the lass or lad
That wadna gang an they were bidden?
Behold the hour.
[Written by Burns for Thomson's collection to an Irish air called "Oran gaoil." The subject of the song was Clarinda, who contemplated going to the West Indies.]
Behold the hour, the boat arrive;
Thou goest, thou darling of my heart!
Sever'd from thee, can I survive?
But fate has will'd, and we must part,
I'll often greet this surging swell,
Yon distant isle will often hail:
"E'en here I took my last farewell,
There latest mark'd her vanish'd sail."
Along the solitary shore,
While flitting sea-fowl round me cry,
Across the rolling, dashing roar,
I'll westward turn my wistful eye:
Happy, thou Indian grove, I'll say.
Where now my Nancy's path may be!
While through thy sweets she loves to stray,
Oh, tell me, does she muse on me?
My bonnie Mary.
[In a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, dated 17th Dec., 1788, Burns quotes this song, and "Should auld acquaintance be forgot," as old compositions, with which he is much pleased. He afterwards, in his Notes on the Museum, says, "The silver Tassie: The air is Oswald's; the first half stanza of the song is old; the rest mine." Mr. Peter Buchan gives the ballad, from which Burns borrowed the first four lines of this charming song. It commences thus:
"As I went out to take the air,
'Twas on the banks of Diveron water,
I chose a maid to be my love,
Were it my fortune for to get her."
And towards the close of the ballad occurs the verse of which Burns took advantage:
"Ye'll bring me here a pint of wine,
A server and a silver tassie,
That I may drink, before I gang,
A health to my ain bonnie lassie."
The ballad, Mr. Buchan says, was composed in the year 1636, by Alexander Lesley, Esq. of Edin on Diveronside, in honour of a certain Helen Christie. Burns wrote his song after seeing a young officer take leave of his sweetheart at the pier of Leith, and embark for foreign service.]
Go fetch to me a pint o' wine,
And fill it in a silver tassie;
That I may drink, before I go,
A service to my bonnie lassie.
The boat rocks at the pier of Leith,
Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the ferry;
The ship rides by the Berwick Law;
And I maun lea' my bonnie Mary.
The trumpets sound, the banners fiy;
The glittering spears are ranked ready;
The shouts o' war are heard afar;
The battle closes thick and bloody:
But it's not the roar of sea or shore,
Would mak' me langer wish to tarry;
Nor shouts of war, that's heard afar,
It's leaving thee, my bonnie Mary.
