II.

JOHN ANDERSON MY JO.

A SCOTTISH SONG.

While in England verse was made the vehicle of controversy, and popery was attacked in it by logical argument, or stinging satire; we may be sure the zeal of the Scottish Reformers would not suffer their pens to be idle, but many a pasquil was discharged at the Romish priests, and their enormous encroachments on property. Of this kind perhaps is the following, (preserved in Maitland's MS. Collection of Scottish poems in the Pepysian library:)

"Tak a Wobster, that is leill, And a Miller, that will not steill, With ane Priest, that is not gredy, And lay ane deid corpse thame by, And, throw virtue of thame three, That deid corpse sall qwyknit be."

Thus far all was fair: but the furious hatred of popery led them to employ their rhymes in a still more licentious manner. It is a received tradition in Scotland, that at the time of the Reformation, ridiculous and obscene songs were composed to be sung by the rabble to the tunes of the most favourite hymns in the Latin service. _Green sleeves and pudding pies_ (designed to ridicule the popish clergy) is said to have been one of these metamorphosed hymns: _Maggy Lauder_ was another: _John Anderson my jo_ was a third. The original music of all these burlesque sonnets was very fine. To give a specimen of their manner, we have inserted one of the least offensive. The reader will pardon the meanness of the composition for the sake of the anecdote, which strongly marks the spirit of the times.

In the present Edition this song is much improved by some new readings communicated by a friend; who thinks by the "Seven Bairns," in st. 2d. are meant the Seven Sacraments; five of which were the spurious offspring of Mother Church: as the first stanza contains a satirical allusion to the luxury of the popish clergy.

The adaptation of solemn church music to these ludicrous pieces and the jumble of ideas thereby occasioned, will account for the following fact.--From the Records of the General Assembly in Scotland, called, _The Book of the Universal Kirk_, p. 90, 7th July, 1568, it appears, that Thomas Bassendyne printer in Edinburgh, printed "a psalme buik, in the end whereof was found printit ane baudy sang, called, _Welcome Fortunes_."[519]

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[In the first edition of the _Reliques_ the number of the bairns is fixed at five instead of seven, and the rhyme to five is thrive instead of threven. The last line is

"For four of them were gotten, quhan Willie was awa."

The present copy has thus been altered to support the untenable position that the seven bairns were meant to represent the seven sacraments.

According to tradition John Anderson was formerly the town crier of Kelso, and the song is not of any great antiquity, for it is first found in the Skene MS., the date of which Dauney (_Ancient_ _Scottish Melodies_, p. 219) fixes at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but which includes, according to Mr. Chappell, an English country dance that first appeared in 1698 (_Popular Music of the Olden Time_, vol. ii. p. 770).

Burns wrote his song--

"John Anderson my jo John When we were first acquent,"

to the old tune, for Johnson's _Musical Museum_.]

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WOMAN.

John Anderson my jo, cum in as ye gae bye, And ye sall get a sheips heid weel baken in a pye; Weel baken in a pye, and the haggis in a pat: John Anderson my jo, cum in, and ye's get that.

MAN.

And how doe ye, Cummer?[520] and how hae ye threven? And how mony bairns hae ye? WOM. Cummer, I hae seven. MAN. Are they to your awin gude man? WOM. Na, Cummer, na; For five of tham were gotten, quhan he was awa.'

FOOTNOTES:

[519] See also _Biograph. Britan._ 1st edit. vol. i. p. 177.

[520] [gossip.]