[Page 203]

THE SILLER CROUN.

Air The Siller Croun.
1 AND ye shall walk in silk attire,
2 And siller hae to spare,
3 Gin ye'll consent to be his bride,
4 Nor think o' Donald mair.
5 O wha wad buy a silken goun
6 Wi' a poor broken heart!
7 Or what's to me a siller croun,
8 Gin frae my love I part!
9 The mind wha's every wish is pure
10 Far dearer is to me;
11 And ere I'm forc'd to break my faith
12 I'll lay me doun an' dee!
13 For I hae pledg'd my virgin troth
14 Brave Donald's fate to share;
15 And he has gi'en to me his heart,
16 Wi' a' its virtues rare.
[Page 204]
17 His gentle manners wan my heart,
18 He gratefu' took the gift;
19 Could I but think to seek it back
20 It wad be waur than theft!
21 For langest life can ne'er repay
22 The love he bears to me;
23 And ere I'm forc'd to break my troth
24 I'll lay me doun an' dee.
1. The above exquisite lyric forms the 240th song in Johnston's "Scots Musical Museums" vol. iii. p. 249, first published in Edinburgh in 1790. Mr Stenhouse, in his notes to that work, which was republished in 1839, by Mr Blackwood, enriched with a preface, introduction, and additional illustrations, by David Laing, Esq., Keeper of the Signet Library, says: "This fine song was originally published by Napier as a single sheet song, from which it was copied into the Museum; but neither the author nor the composer are yet known." Mr Stenhouse wrote this note more than twenty years ago. In the additional illustrations, written by Mr Laing, in vol. vi. p. 522 of the Museum, I have most unintentionally led that gentleman into error concerning Miss Blamire, which information he politely requested me to furnish him; it was the best I had at the time to give, but unfortunately many of the statements I have since found to be very incorrect. The song may be found beautifully set in R. A. Smith's "Scottish Minstrel," vol. ii. p. 25.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 101K / ZIP - 11K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 758 / ZIP - 599 )

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 2.4M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): THE SILLER CROUN.
Themes:
Genres: song

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 203-204.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Susanna Blamire