The Book of Scottish Song/Last May a braw Wooer

Last May a braw Wooer.

[Burns wrote his first version of this clever characteristic song in 1787, for the second volume of Johnson's Museum, but, through some means or other, it was not inserted there. In 1795, he revised it, and sent it to Gteorge Thomson's collection, where it appeared, and speedily became popular. Johnson afterwards produced the original version of the song in the sixth volume of his Museum. There is not much difference between Johnson's and Thomson's version. We here follow the latter, with the exception of one line in last verse but one, where we keep by Johnson's reading. It is the line—

"And how my auld shoon fitted her shauchled feet,"

which Thomson reads thus—

"And how her new shoon fit her auld shauchled feet,"

But as "auld shoon" is a common phrase for a discarded lover who pays his addresses to another, the sarcasm, according to Johnson's reading, is the more biting. The song is sung to an old tune called "The Queen of the Lothians," to which there are also old words, beginning.

The Queen o' the Lothians cam' cruising to Fife,
⁠Fal de ral, lal de ral, lairo,
To see gin a wooer wad tak her for life,
⁠Sing hey! fal lal de ral, lal de ral, lal de ral,
⁠Hey! fal lal de ral, lairo.

—But we need not quote any more of this.]

Last May a braw wooer cam' down the lang glen,
⁠And sair wi' his love he did deave me;
I said there was naething I hated like men;
⁠The deuce gae wi' him to believe me, believe me,
⁠The deuce gae wi' him to believe me!

He spak' o' the darts o' my bonnie black e'en,
⁠And vow'd for my love he was deein',
I said he micht dee when he liked for Jean;
⁠The guid forgi'e me for leein', for leein',
⁠The guid forgi'e me for leein!

A weel-stockit mailin', himsel' for the laird,
⁠And marriage aff-hand, were his proffer.
I never loot on that I kenn'd it or cared;
⁠But thocht I micht ha'e a waur offer, waur offer,
⁠But thocht I micht ha'e a waur offer.

But what wad ye think, in a fortnicht or less—
⁠The deil's in his taste to gang near her!—
He up the lang loan to my black cousin Bess—
⁠Guess ye how, the jaud! I could bear her, could bear her,
⁠Guess ye how, the jaud! I could bear her:

But a' the next week, as I fretted wi' care,
⁠I gaed to the tryst o' Dalgarnock;
And wha but my braw fickle wooer was there?
⁠Wha glowr'd as he had seen a warlock, a warlock,
⁠Wha glowr'd as he had seen a warlock.

Out ower my left shouther I gi'ed him a blink,
⁠Lest neebors micht say I was saucy;
My wooer he caper'd as he'd been in drink,
⁠And vow'd I was his dear lassie, dear lassie,
⁠And vow'd I was his dear lassie.

I speir'd for my cousin, fu' couthie and sweet,
⁠Gin she had recover'd her hearin'?
And how my auld shoon fitted her shauchled feet?
⁠Gude sauf us! how he fell a-swearin', a-swearin',
⁠Gude sauf us! how he fell a-swearin'.

He begged, for gudesake! I wad be his wife,
⁠Or else I wad kill him wi' sorrow;
Sae, e'en to preserve the puir body in life,
⁠I think I maun wed him to-morrow, to-morrow,
⁠I think I maun wed him to-morrow.

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