Still have we left a sacrifice A foreign and fanatic sway But there is nocht for us or ours, THE DEATH SONG. BURNS. SCENE-A Field of Battle.-TIME OF THE DAY-Evening.-The Wounded and Dying of the Victorious Army are supposed to join in the following Song: FAREWELL, thou fair day, thou green earth, and ye skies, Now gay with the bright setting sun; Farewell, loves and friendships, ye dear tender ties, Our race of existence is run! Thou grim King of Terrors, thou life's gloomy foe, Go teach them to tremble, fell tyrant! but know, Thou strikest the dull peasant; he sinks in the dark, Thou strikest the young hero-a glorious mark! In the proud field of honour-our swords in our hands, Our king and our country to save * From Mr Hogg's Jacobite Relics, 1821. While victory shines on life's last ebbing sands, O! who would not die with the brave! SUCH A PARCEL OF ROGUES IN WRITTEN ON OCCASION OF THE UNION. FAREWELL to a' our Scottish fame, To mark where England's province stands: What force or guile could not subdue, But English gold has been our bane: I would, ere I had seen the day, We're bought and sold for English gold: FAREWELL to Lochaber, farewell to my Jean, Though hurricanes rise, thongh rise every wind, Then glory, my Jeanie, maun plead my excuse; I gae then, my lass, to win honour and fame; And if I should chance to come glorious hame, I'll bring a heart to thee with love running o'er, And then I'll leave thee and Lochaber no more.* *Although the air of Farewell to Lochaber is completely identified in the mind of a Scotsman with the idea of quitting his native country, and seems as if composed on purpose to express the mournful associations connected with that idea, it, in reality, appears to have been originally adapted to a song of a totally different cast. In a MS. book of Scottish airs, compiled in the reign of William III., (in the possession of Mr Andrew Blaikie, engraver, Paisley,) it is entitled, King James's March to Ireland. FALSE LUVE! AND HAE YE PLAY'D ME THIS. FALSE luve! and hae ye play'd me this, In summer, 'mid the flowers? I shall repay ye back again In winter, 'mid the showers. But again, dear luve, and again, dear luve, Will ye not turn again? As ye look to other women Shall I to other men? * From Herd's Collection, 1776.-A slightly different version is put by Sir Walter Scott into the mouth of Davie Gellatley, in the celebrated novel of Waverley: "False love, and hast thou play'd me this In summer, among the flowers? I will repay thee back again In winter, among the showers. As you with other maidens rove, There is, in Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, [Edin. 1827,] a wild and very poetical old ballad, entitled The Gardener, where, after a person of that profession has entreated the love of a young lady, by promising her a dress made up of his best flowers, she answers thus: "O, fare ye weil, young man, she says, Gin ye've provided a weed for me It's I've provided another for you "The new-fawn snaw to be your smock, It becomes your bodie best; Your heid sall be wrapt in the blae east wind, And the cauld rain on your breist." FOR LACK OF GOLD. DR AUSTIN. TUNE-For lack of Gold. FOR lack of gold she has left me, O, And to endless woe she has left me, O. For glittering show she has left me, O. No cruel fair shall ever move Though she has ever left me, O.* *This song was written by the author, on his being jilted by Miss Jean Drummond, daughter of John Drummond, Esq. of Megginch, Perthshire; who, after having given him some encouragement, thought proper, on the 7th of May, 1749, to marry a nobler though an older suitor, James, second Duke of Athole, maternal grandfather and paternal granduncle of the present most noble possessor of that title. She had no issue by his Grace, after whose death she married Lord Adam Gordon, (fourth son of Alexander, second Duke of Gordon,) Commander of the Forces in Scotland. She died at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, on the 22d of February, 1795, and was buried at Inveresk. Of Dr Austin all I know is, that he resided for many years, during the latter half of the last century, in a house in Brown's Square, Edinburgh, where he practised as a physician. Mr Thomson, in his excellent collection of Scottish music and song, mentions, that an old lady of his acquaintance remembers a line of a song, once popular, regarding the heroine: "Bonnie Jeanie Drummond, she towers aboon them a'." The song, "For lack of Gold," appeared in Herd's Collection, 1776. |