The Book of Scottish Song/Bonnie Jean 2
Bonnie Jean.
[The tune called "Bonnie Jean" is a very old Scottish melody. Its full name was originally "Bonnie Jean of Aberdeen," and there was an old song with these words as a burthen, but it is now supposed to be lost. The following was written by Ramsay to the old air: both the words and music appear in the Orpheus Caledonius, 1725.]
Love's goddess, in a myrtle grove,
Said, Cupid, bend thy bow with speed,
Nor let thy shaft at random rove,
For Jeany's haughty heart maun bleed.
The smiling boy with art divine,
From Paphos shot an arrow keen,
Which flew, unerring, to the heart,
And kill'd the pride of bonnie Jean.
Nae mair the nymph, wi' haughty air,
Refuses Willie's kind address;
Her yielding blushes show nae care,
But too much fondness to suppress.
Nae mair the youth is sullen now,
But looks the gayest on the green,
Whilst ev'ry day he spies some new
Surprising charms in bonnie Jean.
A thousand transports crowd his breast,
He moves as light as fleeting wind;
His former sorrows seem a jest,
Now when his Jeany is turn'd kind:
Riches he looks on wi' disdain;
The glorious fields of war look mean;
The cheerful hound and horn give pain,
If absent from his bonnie Jean.
The day he spends in amorous gaze,
Which ev'n in summer shorten'd seems:
When sunk in downs, wi' glad amaze,
He wonders at her in his dreams.
A' charms disclos'd, she looks more bright
Than Troy's fair prize, the Spartan queen;
Wi' breaking day he lifts his sight,
And pants to be wi' bonnie Jean.