O gude ale comes & gude ale goes' and an unknown song

Key details

Archive number: NTS/02/25/BRN/02/61
Alt. number: 3.6202
On display: No
Creator: Burns, Robert (Author)

Description

O gude ale comes & gude ale goes' and an unknown song. 5 four-line verses, with chorus. On the reverse is the deleted ms, of a six-line poem beginning "I courted a lassie, I courted her long".

This manuscript contains two songs, one on each side. The first song, O, Gude Ale Comes is most likely a song collected by Burns and reworked before it was sent to James Johnson for inclusion in the Scots Musical Museum. The song tells of the highs and lows of enjoying 'gude ale' to excess.

The reverse shows a fragment of an unfinished song, which Burns has crossed out. It is unknown whether Burns wrote this on his own or if he based it on an earlier song he had gathered from around Scotland. This song tells the tale of a spurned lover and how he is glad to see his unfaithful lover go.

Archive information

Themes

Hierarchy

Robert Burns, collection of poems and songs ( )
O gude ale comes & gude ale goes' and an unknown song

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