The Book of Scottish Song/The Robin's Testament

The Robin's Testament.

[From Herd's Collection, 1776. "'Gude day to you, Robin,'" says Mr. Robert Cliambers, "is a song which I have heard sung by old women and nurses in my own young days. It may be localized, from the various allusions, as belonging to Clydesdale; and I should suppose it to have been written some time after 1622, probably not long, as the old bridge of Tay at Perth, built by Robert Bruce, gave way that year, and was not again built till 1772. The mending or re-erection of the bridge of Tay was a matter of agitation during the reign of Charles I.: and that sovereign, when Scotland in 1641, subscribed an hundred pounds for the purpose. May not the song have been written at that precise era?"]

Gude day now, bonnie Robin,
⁠How lang ha'e ye been here?
I've been a bird about this bush
⁠This mair than twenty year.

But now I am the sickest bird
⁠That ever sat on brier;
And I wad mak' my testament,
⁠Gudeman, if ye wad hear.

Gar tak' this bonnie neb o' mine,
⁠That picks upon the corn
And gi'e't to the duke o' Hamilton,
⁠To be a hunting-horn.

Gar tak' thae bonnie feathers o' mine,
⁠The feathers o' my neb;
And gi'e to the lady Hamilton,
⁠To fill a feather bed.

Gar tak' t'ais gude richt leg o' mine,
⁠And mend the brig o' Tay;
It will be a post and pillar gude,
⁠It will neither bow nor gae.

And tak' this other leg of mine,
⁠And mend the brig o' Weir;
It will be a post and pillar gude,
⁠It will neither bow nor steer.

Gar tak' thae bonnie feathers o' mine,
⁠The feathers o' my tail;
And gi'e to the lads o' Hamilton
⁠To be a barn-flail.

And tak' thae bonnie feathers o' mine,
⁠The feathers o' my breast;
And gi'e them to the bonnie lad,
⁠Win bring to me a priest.

Now in there cam' my lady wren,
⁠Wi' mony a sigh and groan,
O what care I for a' the lads,
⁠If my ain lad be gone!

When Robin turn'd him round about,
⁠E'en like a little king;
Gae pack ye out at my chamber-door,
⁠Ye little cutty-quean.

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