they are set to a deficiency already complained of by Thomas Percy after the publication of the first edition, and never remedied in spite of the promise given in the advertisement of that edition. It has been my special care to satisfy this demand on the basis of modern research. On the other hand, a great and important part of the entire material had to be excluded from this selection: Professor Child's comprehensive work made a reprint of the ballads unnecessary. That distinguished scholar was the first to go back to the Herd MSS., where he found a great many of his most valuable versions. From this it seemed probable that in respect of songs similar discoveries could be made in the same volumes. And the sup position was amply confirmed by the notes in Henley and Henderson's Centenary Edition of Burns's poetical works, from which I may be allowed to quote the following passage: "As regards unpublished material, we might speak in no measured terms of the Herd MS. (British Museum)-given by Herd to Archibald Constable-which has hitherto escaped the notice of Burns's Editors; which includes all the songs, ballads, and scraps that David Herd-the most indefatigable and the most conscientious of the old Scots collectors-had picked together; and which distinguishes between numbers unprinted and numbers printed in Herd's own 1769 and 1776 Editions, or elsewhere. Burns may, of course, have had other knowledge of some of the matter here sequestered; but that he had access to the MS. while it was in Herd's hands-(the probability is that it was submitted to him in the autumn of 1787)—and made large use of it in connexion with the Museum is (as we think) made abundantly clear in our Notes. It supplied him with the beginnings of over twenty songs: some set down hitherto as wholly his own, and a few vaguely described as 'old,' while the rest have been riddled with speculations or assertions more or less unwarrantable and erroneous." (Vol. III, pp. 296-97.) This confirmed me in my plan of basing the present edition on the MSS. themselves, and of reprinting the whole song-material contained in them, including, of course, several pieces given in the notes to the Centenary Edition. That some pieces might be found offensive could not prejudice the selection. On their worth or worthlessness we are free to entertain any opinion, but in dealing with popular poetry drawing-room considerations must not be allowed to interfere. A chapter of itself could be written on the destructive influence of "cleansing," i.e. spoiling of old texts. Nor could seemingly insignificant fragments be excluded, since they were the only remnants of old texts still to be found in Herd's days. In this manner the number of fragments has considerably increased in comparison with the original editions. None of those pieces which Herd took over into his printed editions from the "various Miscellanies, wherein they formerly lay dispersed" have been here reprinted, especially as, with very few exceptions, they do not occur in his MSS. I have likewise dispensed with a reprint of the ballad-imitations, although they occur in the MSS. It is, in fact, on the remainder-still of no small compass-that the real merit of Herd's collection rests. As Burns regarded them with delight and brought them into fresh blossom by his incomparable art, so they still attract us through that peculiar savour of the soil and that spell of imperishable youth, which distinguishes them from the quickly fading products of artificial poetry. I hope the complete rearrangement of the material will prove acceptable, although the mixed style of the songs did not admit of absolutely strict limits being assigned to the different groups. The footnotes, chiefly illustrating Burns's arrangements of the texts for Johnson's Musical Museum, may be of interest to some, particularly as they claim for Burns verses which have not yet been assigned to him. I gratefully acknowledge my obligations to the officials of the British Museum, London; the Advocates' Library, University Library, and Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh; as also to Professors R. Priebsch and W. P. Ker, of London, to Professor G. Saintsbury, Dr. David Patrick, Mr. G. Gregory Smith, and Mr. John Glen, of Edinburgh. To my publisher I am indebted for many valuable contributions to the Notes, and to Dr. A. B. Gough, Lecturer on English at the University of Kiel, for kindly assisting me in reading the proofs. KIEL, August 1904. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . Herd's Manuscripts I and II (see Introduction). The Poetry of Robert Burns, edd. Henley The Life and Works of Robert Burns, by The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Early Scottish Melodies: written and arranged by John Glen, 1900. The Scots Musical Museum, ed. James Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. T. F. Henderson, 1902, vols. I-IV. Herd's Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. 1776. Herd's Collections of Songs and Ballads, 1769 and 1776. Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland, by William Stenhouse. Additional Notes and Illustrations by David Laing, 1853. |