This is Gershon Legman's 1965 bibliography of the various versions of the Merry Muses of Caledonia in his type-facsimile edition of the 1st edition. This is an essential resource for those interested in Burnsiana.
Please note that this text has not been edited or modified except for formatting. When the bibliography refers to "the present edition" it is talking of Legman's Merry Muses of Caledonia type-facsimile edition of 1965 of which this bibliography is a part. The text below is used by kind permission of Mrs. Legman and all rights are reserved.
Merry Muses Bibliography
©1965 by G. Legman
THIS bibliography describes most of the known editions and reprints of the collection known as The Merry Muses of Caledonia. The principal omissions are of various untraceable reprints of the so-called '1827' [really 1872] edition, of which the text is, in any case, almost entirely falsified and is hardly even an approximation of the original. It should be observed that no two editions which are not specifically reprints, one of the other, and with the same ostensible date, have the same contents. Also, not one of the editions reprints more than about half of the contents of the original of circa 1800, except the editions of Farmer (1895-97), McNaught (1911), Smith, Barke & Ferguson (1959), and Legman (1965). Only the last of these that is to say, the present work reprints the entire contents of the original edition, and in its original order.
The editions are given here chronologically, except for reprints, which are grouped under the prototype edition. All circa dates, and in particular those ascribed simply to a decade, as ' c. 1830,' have been arrived at by a careful study of both typography and text, and may be considered reasonably close. Where a date is followed by a question-mark, the evidence is not conclusive. The bracketed dates preceding the descriptions are intended simply for convenience of reference, and will be found given with greater precision in the descriptions themselves Reprints are indicated by two dates in the brackets preceding the description, the first being the date of the prototype edition, the second that of the re print itself. The title of most of the editions, other than the original and its scholarly reprints (noted in the paragraph preceding), is simply The Merry Muses, with no mention of ' Caledonia.'
A good deal of care has been taken with the analysis of the special contents of the various editions particularly the non-scholarly editions before 1895. It should be specifically recollected, however, that the new songs appearing in these chapbook editions, all falsely presented as The Merry Muses collection stemming from Robert Burns, have in most cases nothing whatsoever to do with Burns, were neither collected nor written by him, and are seldom Scottish songs at all. An extended study of the types and general themes of these apocryphal Merry Muses songs will be found in The Horn Book (1964) by G. Legman, p. 170-236, under the title "The Merry Muses as Folklore."
Where only one copy of a specific edition is given location in the
present bibliography, at the end of the description and after an opening
bracket, this copy is in every case believed to be unique. At least, no
other copy is known in any repository library. The three most important
collections of editions of The Merry Muses are in the following
collections: the British Museum (Private Case, Ashbee Bequest); the Hornel
Library, Castle-Douglas, Kirkcudbright; and the Murison Burns Collection,
Dunfermline Public Library. Less extensive collections are those of the
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; and
in American libraries. The compiler wishes here to express his very great
indebtedness to all of the libraries above-mentioned, and to the numerous
other libraries and individuals noted as holding certain rare editions, for
their exceedingly kind help in preparing this bibliography. It is his fault,
and not theirs, that it has not been possible wholly to differentiate the
confusing reprints of the edition falsely dated '1827,' of which more (and
of differing contents) may exist than are listed here.
[1800.]
Merry Muses of Caledonia; A Collection of favourite Scots songs, ancient and modern; selected for use of the Crochallan Fencibles. "Say, Puritan, can it be wrong, To dress plain truth in witty song. What honest Nature says, we should do; What every lady does, or would do." [Edinburgh? Peter Hill? circa 1800.] 127 p. sm.12mo.
[Lord Rosebery.
(Photostatic copies: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; and another formerly paenes Mr. Sydney Goodsir Smith.) That the secret publisher and probable editor of this, the original edition was the Edinburgh bookdealer, Peter Hill, is argued in The Horn Book (1964) by G. Legman, p. 164-6, and in the Introduction to the present edition, p. lv. The watermark date 1799 appears on leaves B3 and C3 of this unique copy; the date 1800 on leaves DI, E3, F3, HI, II, K3, and LI. This copy formerly belonged to the great editor of Burns, W. Scott Douglas, who made a number of variorum scrawls, ascriptions to Burns, &c., in the margins, and added a MS. copy of "THE COURT OF EQUITY" and other materials on 8 leaves at the end. It then passed into the hands of William Craibe Angus, a Glasgow bibliophile, who ceded it to R. T. Hamilton Bruce about 1893. Before parting with it, Angus had two complete MS. copies made by James Cameron Ewing the bibliographer of Burns, 'with the intention of having a new edition of the book edited by Mr. William Ernest Henley privately printed; that intention, however, was never carried out.' One of Ewing's two MS. copies is preserved in the Murison Burns Collection, Dunfermline. The other apparently passed from Henley to his collaborator, John Stephen Farmer, who made from it the reprints in his Merry Songs and Ballads (1895-97). See at this date, below, and also Farmer's 'manuscript issue' of the complete text at date 1903.
Contents: 87 songs, almost all Scottish and printed for the first
time here, 41 of which (nearly half) were never again reprinted in any
edition entitled The Merry Muses until the scholarly reprintings
undertaken by John S. Farmer and others after 1895. The entire contents
of this original edition are given in type-facsimile in the present
volume, as noted following. None of the scholarly editions at dates 1895
to 1959, below, actually reprints the original edition of c. 1800
either completely or in the original order, and they are therefore not
treated here as reprints.
[1800-1965.]
__ The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Collected and in part written by Robert Burns. A new edition, now reprinted for the first time in type-facsimile of the unique original. With additional songs from the Cunningham Manuscript and other sources. Edited by G. Legman. New Hyde Park, New York: University Books, Inc. (1965.)
The present edition, offering the entire contents of the original edition, in type-facsimile and in the original order; with textual and musical notes, bibliography, and glossary. The additional songs are:
A MASONIC SONG, p. 127
THE BONNIEST LASS, 130
THE MEIKLE DE'IL DAMN
THIS C--T O' MINE, 129
WANTON WILLIE YIR
WAME RINS OUT, 123
WAT YE WHAT MY MINNIE DID, 124
WHIRLIE-WHA, 125
[1806.]
The Giblet Pye, being the Heads, Tails, Legs, and Wings, of the Anacreontic songs of the celebrated R. Burns, G. A. Stevens, Rochester, T. L--tie, and others, Some of which are taken from the Original Manuscripts of R. Burns, never before published. To which is added, The History of Choice Spirits, and Ballad singing. "For neither Pedant nor for Prude, These Sonnets took their Birth, But are dish'd up as Pleasant Food, For Sons of Social Mirth." Shamborough: Printed for John Nox, and sold By the Booksellers. [1806.] 136 p. 24to (5.7 x 3.5 in.)
[W. N. H. Harding, Chicago.
The 'T. L[it]tle' referred to in the title is the Irish poet, Thomas Moore. The imprint is naturally fictitious, jesting at the expense of the reformer, John Knox. The actual place of publication is unknown This is the first partial reprint of The Merry Muses of Caledonia, and is discussed in The Horn Book (1964) p. 178-81, observing that it 'is composed, as its title implies, of a mixture of texts reprinted from the first edition of The Merry Muses, and partly of English and other poems (twenty-one by George Alexander Stevens, three by ... Thomas Moore, toward the end, &c.), mixed together in a one-to-one alternation, Scottish and Stevens, for the first half of the volume, to p. 69, and about six-to-six thereafter, like riffling together a deck of cards.' The Giblet Pye also adds, at the end of the volume, for the first time in editions of The Merry Muses, a series of "Toasts and Sentiments," though these are not the same toasts as those that are printed in later editions.
Contents: 69 songs, plus "Toasts and Sentiments." 30 of the songs are
reprinted from the edition of c. 1800, and 39 are new here
(insofar as printing in editions of The Merry Muses is
concerned). Of the new songs, 27 are not reprinted in any later edition.
Aside from the 21 songs by George Alexander Stevens and the 3 by Thomas
Moore (p. 126, 130, 132), there are 15 new songs in this edition, as
follows, some of which are identical in title but not in text with
certain of the songs of c. 1800 (on which see The Horn Book,
p. 181):
COMIN' THRO' THE RYE, 108
DARBY'S KEY TO UNA'S LOCK, [?]
DON'T BE IN SUCH A HURRY, 96
EPPIE MCNAB, 87
FOR A' THAT, AN' A' THAT, 124
KEY HOLE, 16
LULLABY, 121
SWEET SALLY, 103
SYLVIA, 14
THE AULD MOULIE MAIDENHEAD, 87
THE DEEP NINE, 112
THE MEIKLE DE'iL DAMN
THIS C--T O' MINE, 103
THE PHILIBEGS, 83
THE WARMING PAN, 128
UNA'S LOCK, 99
[1825.]
The Merry Muses; A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say Puritan [&c., as in original edition]." Dublin: Printed for the Booksellers. Price Three Shillings, [c. 1825.] 126 p. I2mo (7.5 x 4.5 in.)
[British Museum, Private Case 31 e 20. '
The H. Spencer Ashbee copy, with his rebus booklabel dated 1895. This volume contains extended MS. additions by Allan Cunningham on additional pages bound in and numbered 127-78, of which the most important additional songs are printed and discussed in The Horn Book (1964) by G. Legman, for the first time, p. 129-69, as "The Rediscovery of Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia: The Cunningham Manuscript. " See also the further discussion in the introduction to the present volume.
The words 'of Caledonia' in the original title of c. 1800 are here dropped, and 'Scots' changed to 'favourite,' out of respect to the (presumable) Irish provenance of this edition, but were not restored, even in Scottish editions, till 1911. After the price of 'Three Shillings' on the title-page is added in ink: '& 6.' In the Burns Chronicle, 1894, the editor Duncan McNaught described another copy of this edition as of 127 pages, but this final leaf has been removed from the Ashbee copy (possibly with loss of some text of the final item, "Sportsmens Toasts"). McNaught's copy, which he states in any case to have been lacking pages here and there in the text is now lost.
Contents: 85 songs, &c., of which 45 are reprinted directly or indirectly from the edition of c. 1800, and 12 from the edition of 1806. Of the 28 new songs, 17 are not reprinted in any later edition, and four (asterisked below) are reprinted from Herd's collection of 1776. The new songs &c. are:
BARM, 96*
BLACK JOCK, 123
CHASTITY, 92
CHLOE, 86
DEAR VARIETY, 60
FANNY, 85
LANGOLEE [I], 64
LET HIM, FOND OF FIBBING, 89
LET ME IN THIS AE NIGHT, 97*
LYDY CHURNING, 117
MY THING IS MY OWN, 81
ROGER AND MOLLY, 116
SOFTLY, 106
SPORTSMENS TOASTS, 126
THE BRITISH FAIR, 121
THE BUMPER, 118
THE CHAMBERMAID, 49
THE COURTSHIPS, 77
THE CRICKET AND CRAB-LOUSE, 69
THE FAIR PENITENT, 84
THE FEMALE PORCUPINE, 62
THE LANG DOW, 75
THE MAID GAED TO THE MILL, 111*
THE MARRIAGE MORN, 102
THE TAILOR, 109*
THE TREE OF LIFE, 100
VENUS AND LOVE, 99
['1827.']
The Merry Muses. ' 1827.' See at date [1872].
[1830a.]
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. [Price obliterated, c. 1830.] 107 p. 24to (5.3 x 3.3 in.)
[B.M. P.C. 31 h 24.
Identical in text with the following edition, of 'Dublin . . . Four Shillings,' but set in a somewhat larger and clearer typeface. On the title-page and pp. 26 and 42 of this 'Glasgow' edition are the reverse stains of engravings not now present at one time facing these pages.
Contents: 77 songs, of which 38 are reprinted directly or indirectly from the edition of c. 1800; 4 from the edition of 1806, and 10 from the edition of c. 1825. Includes 29 new songs, all of which are reprinted in later chapbook editions to 1872. The new songs &c. are:
A SENTIMENTAL SPRIG, 17
AS I WENT THROUGH LONDON CITY, 79
BOTANY BAY, 57
BURLESQUE ON "STELLA," 84
BURLESQUE ON "THE HIGHLAND LADDIE," 25
BURLESQUE ON "THE HAPPY MILLER OF MANSFIELD," 31
CUPID S FROLIC, 30
DAINTY DAVY, 35
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA, 50
FANNY'S BLACK JOCK, 14
GREEN LEAVES ON THE GREEN O, 70
JACK OF ALL TRADES, 101
LANGO LEE [II], 83
MY ANGEL I WILL MARRY THEE, 33
PARODY ON "CORN RIGGS," 73
PARODY ON "SHEPHERDS I HAVE LOST MY LOVE, " 34
THE BOTTLE, 93
THE BROWN ----OF OLD ENGLAND, 56
THE CITADEL, 45
THE FEMALE F-----R, OR THE BATTERED BEAU, 92
THE GOLDFINCH'S NEST, 16
THE GREY JOKE, 78
THE LITTLE TENEMENT, 95
THE MOUSE'S TAIL, 42
THE ORIGIN OF THE POX, 49
THE REELS OF BOGIE, 10
THE WISHES, 89
THERE WAS A PIOUS PARSON, 52
TOASTS AND SENTIMENTS, 103
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" Dublin: Printed for the Booksellers. Price Four Shillings, [c. 1830.] 107 p. 24to (5.5 x 3.3 in.)
[Hornel
Library; B.M. P.C. 31 h 25. Identical in text with the preceding
edition, but set in a smaller and less legible typeface, page for page.
[1832.]
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" Dublin: Printed for the Booksellers, 1832. 112 p. 12mo.
[Hornel Library. (Photostatic copy: G. Legman.)
Contents: The text of this dated Dublin edition is not identical with that of the 107-page 'Dublin' edition of c. 1830. This 1832 edition is actually of Irish provenance and contains 60 songs, of which 10 are reprinted directly or indirectly from the edition of c. 1800; apparently none from the edition of 1806; 6 from the edition of c. 1825, and 21 from the edition of c. 1830. Includes 23 new songs, almost all Irish in origin, of which 21 were not reprinted later. (The two 'new' songs appearing in this edition, which were reprinted in later editions of The Merry Muses, are "THE BLUEBELLS OF IRELAND," reprinted in the edition of c. 1840, p. 101; and "THE PLENIPOTENTIARY," reprinted in almost all the later chapbook editions, and in the scholarly edition of 1959!) The new songs of this edition are as follows:
AMORET AND PHILLIDA, 99
BURLESQUE ON "THE FAIR THIEF," 74
COMICAL JACK, 91
COXHEATH, 100
FAIR LADY LAY YOUR LOVELY LEGS ASIDE, 13
FATHER PAUL, 55
GULLIVER IN LILLIPUT, 35
PARODY ON "HOW SWEET'S THE LOVE THAT MEETS RETURN," 7
PATRICK QUIMES, 59
PAUDIEEN O'RAFFERTY, 44
SHEELA-NA-GUIRY, 54
THE BLUEBELLS OF IRELAND, 38
THE DOUBLE BLESSING, 97
THE FRIAR, 46
THE FRIAR, OR A NEW WAY TO PARDON SINS, 106
THE PARSON AND CLERK, 67
THE PLENIPOTENTIARY, 21
THE REASONABLE F-----R, 79
THE WEDDING NIGHT, 87
THERE WAS A VERY SWEET, YOUNG MAID,
III
THEY ALL DO IT, 49
WOULD YOU DO IT, 51
[1840.]
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "He saw the Minister m[owin]g the Fiddler's wife, And a gude lang bow drew he." London: Printed for the Booksellers. Price 4s.6d. [c. 1840?]
[Hornel Library.
This copy also contains a second or preliminary title-page reading: ' The Merry Muses . . . Printed in Glasgow, Price 45.' This edition is the only one, with title The Merry Muses, that does not give the four lines of doggerel beginning 'Say, Puritan,' on the title-page. The casual change of imprint here, from Glasgow to London, on increasing the price from 4s. to 4s.6d., suggests that neither was actually the place of publication.
Contents: This is basically a reprint of the c. 1830 edition,
almost page for page, containing only 4 new songs (which are not
reprinted later). It contains 78 songs, 38 reprinted indirectly from the
edition of c. 1800, 5 from the edition of 1806, 10 from the
edition of c. 1825, and 26 from the edition of c. 1830. Of
the new materials of the edition of c. 1830, this reprint omits
"JACK OF ALL TRADES," "THE FEMALE F-----R, OR THE BATTERED BEAU," and
the "TOASTS AND SENTIMENTS."
[1843.]
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say, Puritan, [&c.]" London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1843. 162 p. 24to (5 x 3.3 in.)
[B.M. P.C. 31 h 26.
Aside from The Giblet Pye of c. 1806, which mentions Burns' name on its title-page twice over, this is the first edition as The Merry Muses giving Burns' name. This does not appear here on the title-page, but only as a sort of afterthought, in the runningtitle "Burns' Merry Muses" at the head of pp. 19 to 160 (beginning with signature B). McNaught in 1894 gives the measurement of this edition as 6.5 x 4 inches, but as the British Museum copy the only one now known to exist is uncut except at the bottom edge (and there certainly not of so much as 1.5 in.), the reference is possibly to a now untraced reprint. Compare the reprint of 8.3 x 5.2 in. described immediately below.
Contents: As is the preceding edition, of c. 1840, this is
basically a reprint of the edition of c. 1830, to which it adds 3
new songs (which are not reprinted later), and Capt. Morris' "THE
PLENIPOTENTIARY." It contains 81 songs, 38 reprinted indirectly from the
edition of c. 1800, 4 from the edition of 1806, 10 from the
edition of c. 1825, and the 29 new songs of c. 1830. The 3
new (non-erotic) songs of 1843 are:: "THE GIPSEY GIRL,"
"HERE'S A BUMPER TO HER," and "FANNY IS THE GIRL FOR ME."
[1843-1880.]
The Merry Muses: A Choice collection of favourite songs. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1843 [c. 1880?] 108 p. 8vo (8.3 x 5.2 in.)
[Hornel Library; Murison Coll.
An elegant reprint of the 1843 chapbook edition, now on fine laid
paper watermarked 'H. M. Greville Turkey Mill.' Whatman's Turkey Mill
paper dates from at least 1873, and this very exact reprint was probably
not made before then.
[1872.]
(Not for maids, ministers, or striplings.) The Merry Muses [swash initials with long forelegs]. A Choice collection of favourite songs gathered from many sources, by Robert Burns. To which is added two of his letters and a poem hitherto suppressed and never before printed. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" Privately printed. (Not for sale). 1827. [London: John Camden Hotten, 1872.] xi, 125 p. sq. 16mo (6.3 x 4.8 in.)
[B.M. P.C. 24 a 7.
This is probably the first edition of this much falsified text (as discussed below under Contents), with the last two digits of the date simply reversed. This copy was accessioned by the British Museum 6 April 1881, and therefore cannot be later than that date. The initials of the words The Merry Muses on the title-page are in swash form, the M's with elongated forelegs, the T looking almost like a J. (NOTE: All the following reprints of this '1827' edition include the parenthetical 'Not for maids, ministers, or striplings' at the head of their title-pages.)
The history and true date of this edition are discussed at length in The Horn Book (1964) p. 199-204, along with the numerous progeny of its reprints, as below; observing that the text 'was completely revised and ruinously "improved" to suit the taste of the times in England, very probably by one of the hacks accustomed to preparing bawdy songs and parodies for the early music-halls ... It must be said, in fairness, that the Scottish texts of the ' 1827' edition are the part of the volume least revised and manhandled, though that is not saying much. The reason is that Hotten planned to add, and did add, Burns' name on the title-page, for the first time in any edition of the Muses since The Giblet Pye, about 1806, and the hack-editor was apparently told to leave the Scottish dialect pieces relatively "unimproved." Burns' undeniable contributions to the volume are set first in the text, principally those songs in the early editions of the Muses that had also been printed in his openly published works, such as "ANNA" and "THE RANTIN' DOG, THE DADDY O'T".'
Contents: This '1827' [1872] edition is essentially a reprint of the 1843 edition, which is in turn a reprint of that of c. 1830. All three have the same principal contents, but the erotic folk-songs of these earlier chapbook editions have been ruthlessly revised and vulgarized in Hotten's 1872 version, in particular "THE MOUSE'S TAIL." (See The Horn Book, p. 185.) Certain of the titles are also unrecognizably changed, as for instance "THE FEMALE F-----R, OR THE BATTERED BEAU" of the earlier editions becoming "THE VIGOROUS COURTEZAN" in that of 1872. The two letters announced on the title-page are that to James Johnson, 25 May 1788 (often publicly reprinted), and the remarkable letter of phallic brag to Robert Ainslie, 3 March 1788, which is actually the one most valuable offering of the so-called '1827' edition, since this letter is otherwise lost. (It is still omitted from all editions of Burns' Letters, but appears in all reprints of the '1827' edition of The Merry Muses; in the American reprint of c. 1927 of Duncan McNaught's Burns Federation edition of The Merry Muses of Caledonia a reprint distinguishable by its long Introduction being signed 'Editor,' instead of 'Vindex' at p. 139; and in The Horn Book, 1964, p. 1489.)
As McNaught remarks, 'The unpublished poem introduced with such a
flourish of trumpets' on Hotten's title-page of '1827,' as 'hitherto
suppressed and never before printed,' is "THE COURT OF EQUITY," also known
as "LIBEL SUMMONS," which had in fact first been printed privately by James
Maidment in 1823 [not 'about 1810,' as stated by McNaught], as The
Fornicators Court. Hotten's version is in any case 'both inaccurate and
incomplete,' adds McNaught, 'as we have proved by comparing it with the
Egerton MSS. in the British Museum. We have seen another version as an
appendix to an Alnwick edition of Burns, published about the same date [?];
a third will be found in the Aldine edition of 1893; while a fourth, for
private circulation, was published in Glasgow about half-a-dozen years ago
[1899]. An edition, "printed for the author," was published in Edinburgh in
1910. The majority of these are either garbled or incomplete.' (See the
further and better printings of this text listed at the end of the
contents-note on edition [1959] below.)
[1872-1880.]
The Merry Muses [hollow white initials on decorative square black blocks] . . . 1827 [c. 1880]. viii, 124 p. sq. 16mo (6.2 x 4.7 in.)
[B.M. P.C. 31 g 16. On verso of title-page: 'Only 99
copies printed.'
[1872-1881.]
The Merry Muses [swash initials with long forelegs, as in 1st. ed. above] . . . To which are added . . . 1827 [c. 1881]. (3), vii, (9)-90 p. sq. 16mo (6.9 x 4.4 in.)
[Hornel Library; National Library of Scotland; B.M. P.C. 31 e 19.
Evidently a reprint, as shown by the correction of 'To which is
added' to 'are added' on the title-page, and the much more compact
setting of the type to reduce the volume to 90 p. The B.M. copy has MS.
note in contemporary hand: 'October 1881.'
[1872-1903.]
The Merry Muses [arabesque decorated initials] . . . 1827 [1903]. (I), vi, (blank leaf), (9)-90 p. sq. 16mo (6.5 x 4.2 in.)
[Bodleian, Phi f 30; Murison Collection; National Library of Scotland; B.M. P.C. 15 e 3.
Pp. v and vi are both numbered 'vi' on the inner corner. The
Bodleian copy catalogued as 'really 1903' and accessioned in that year.
The text follows the swash-initial edition of 90 p. [1881]
page-for-page. This 1903 edition is rather common and may have been
issued more than once. It occurs bound in 3/4 roan, red or green,
with slight differences in the size of various copies.
[1872-1905a.]
The Merry Muses [Old English initials 'with the additional ornament of a printed line running down each'] . . . 1827 [c. 1905?] xii, (13)-122 p.
[Mitchell Library, Glasgow.
The title, Burns' name, and the imprint are printed in red. Paper
watermarked 'Van G[elder].' This reprint has not been examined
personally and may be identical with the following:
[1872-1905b]
The Merry Muses [Gothic initials] . . . 1827 [c. 1905?] xi, 124 p.
[Hornel Library.
'Only 90 copies printed.' Not seen; see note preceding.
[1872-1907a.]
The Merry Muses of Robert Burns. [Stock cut of lamp, scroll, books, &c.] "Say, Puritan [&c.]" Made in fac-simile of original edition. Privately printed for member [sic] of the Caledonian Society. [U.S., c, 1907.] frontispiece-portrait, 128 p. 12mo.
[Duke University. (Photocopy: New York Public Library, 3*.)
Verso of title-page notes:
'The original manuscript of these poems was sold at Christy's, London,
England, in 1907, for £1,800.' This indicates both the provenance of
this edition, as obviously American, and its date as circa or
post 1907. It is of course not true that the 'original manuscript'
of Burns' Merry Muses was sold in 1907, as this MS. was probably
burnt by a Mr. Greenshields of Lesmahago before 1871 (see The Horn
Book, p. 169). This edition is also not a 'fac-simile of original
edition,' nor of any other edition, not even of its basic prototype of
1872.
[1872-1907b.]
The Merry Muses of Robert Burns. Made in fac-simile of original edition. (Not for sale.) [U.S., c. 1910?] 119 p.
[Cleveland Public Library; Kinsey Coll., Institute of Sex Research; New York Public Library, 3*; Yale Univ.
Apparently a reissue of the preceding, as indicated by the wording of
the title. It includes at the end, however, two texts from the 1872
prototype which are omitted in the 'Caledonian Society' reprint: "DAVID
AND BATHSHEBA" and "THE PLENIPOTENTIARY."
[1872-1910.]
The Merry Muses [heavy uncial initials with double center-bars in the M's. Title continues as 1872 prototype] . . . To which is added . . . 1827 [c. 1910?] xi, 126 p. sq. 16mo (6.1 x 4.8 in.)
[National Library of Scotland.
Laid paper, watermarked 'Van Gelder,'
the laylines of the paper running vertically in the wrong direction.
Ornaments: p.(I), two birds and dish; p. vii, stock cut of a horseshoe.
Accessioned by the National Library of Scotland in 1926.
[1872-1920.]
The Merry Muses [uncial initials as in edition preceding] ... 1827 [c. 1920?] xi, (blank leaf), 126p. sq. 16mo (5.8 x 4.8 in.)
[Mr. Sydney Goodsir Smith, Edinburgh,
Wove paper. Ornaments: p.(I) and vii, floral spray. Evidently reset
from the preceding edition, as "LIBEL SUMMONS" is noted in the Contents
as at p. 120 correct for the preceding edition though it begins at
p. 122 here. The date of this reprint may be much closer to that of the
preceding than the decade here implied.
[1872-1925.]
The Merry Muses . . , Verbatim reprint of the MDCCCXXVII edition. For myself and my friends. [Britain, c. 1925?] (iv), 82 p.
[Hornel Library.
[1872-1930.]
The Merry Muses [square roman initials] . . . Privately Printed (Not for sale). (1827.) [London, 1930.] (iii)-xv, 126 p. sq. 16mo (5.9 x 4.9 in.)
[Harvard Univ.; Coll. G. Legman.
Bound in white vellum paper, stamped in gold. Facing title-page:
'NOTE. This edition consists of One Hundred Numbered Copies Only,
PRIVATELY PRINTED, MAY 1930, by a Gentleman of London for distribution
among his friends. It is NOT TO BE SOLD or sent through the Post, or
shown to Persons of Immature Intellect. This is No. . . . [numbered in
ink].' Additional "Preface to this Edition," p.(xi)-xii, not reprinted
from the prototype edition of 1872, and remarking: 'we cannot fuck
zestfully the way Burns could fuck. We are afraid of fucking. We call it
"sex," we study it scientifically . . .' The additional preface notes
also the 'happy coincidence that two men of Scotland, Burns and Norman
Douglas, each in their day, made a collection of the popular bawdy
verse,' the reference being to Douglas' Some Limericks, [Florence] 1928, on which see
The Limerick (Paris, 1953),
Bibliography.
[1872-1962a.]
The Merry Muses: A Selection of Favorite Songs . . . To Which Are Added One of his Letters formerly suppressed And a Group of Merry Toasts and Sentiments. Hand Made at the Light Year Press, San Francisco, for City Lights Books (1962). 37 p. sq. 12mo (7x5 in.)
[Coll. G. Legman.
The booklet has actually only 36 p., the text of the Preface being concluded on the inside back cover. The spine of each leaf is shorn clear and stuck into a backing of rubber-glue, in what is technically known (probably sardonically) as ' perfect binding.'
Contents: An abbreviated selection of the texts of the 1872
prototype, not forgetting to include Morris' "THE PLENIPOTENTIARY," with
the Ainslie Letter of 3 March 1788. The front cover is illustrated with
a reproduction of an old engraving for "THE MOUSE'S TAIL."
[1872-1962b.]
The Merry Muses . . . Toasts and Sentiments. City Lights Books. (San Francisco, 1962.) 40 p. sq. 12mo (7x5 in.)
[Coll. G. Legman.
Facing the title-page: 'This is an offset copy of the limited
letterpress edition handset and printed in 1962 by Miles Payne at the
Light Year Press San Francisco.' Note that these two issues of 1962 are
not the first publicly issued reprints of the 1872 text, though they
appear to be so. Compare the following:
[1872-?]
The Merry Muses . . . Tonawanda, New York [c. 1900?]
[Coll. G. Legman.
No copy of this curious edition seems to have been preserved in any
repository library, and the compiler's own copy is not at present
available for examination. There is a slock cut of an owl on the
titlepage. The texts are dash-expurgated, as is usual, but it is not now
possible to examine their relationship to the 1872 prototype. This
appears to be the first openly published edition of The Merry Muses,
giving the printer's name and the real place of publication.
[1872-?]
The Merry Muses . . . Privately Printed (Not for Sale), [no date, c. 1900?] 104 p. sq. 12mo.
[Murison Collection.
Very poorly printed, and probably issued in Scotland at an
indeterminable date somewhere between 1890 and 1920, the Murison
Collection having been presented to the Dunfermline Public Library in
1921. (This edition is omitted from, or incorrectly described as of 127
p. in the Catalogue of the Murison Burns Collection, 1953, p.
53.) As noted in The Horn Book (1964) p. 203, this edition adds
one authentic Scottish song, "COMIN" THRO' THE CRAIGS O' KYLE," p.
101-2, as an afterthought, probably by the printer, after " LIBEL
SUMMONS. " This is a charming metaphoric piece about a ' bonnie lassie,
Smuggling whisky in a blether,' and has never been printed elsewhere.
Burns' expurgation is printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, no. 328, though of course it cannot now be known how close Burns'
prototype text was to the modern text here printed before 1920.
[1872?]
NOTE: The above listing of reprints of the edition falsely dated
'1827' [i.e. 1872] is almost certainly not exhaustive. A few
other editions of The Merry Muses, reported to but not seen by
the present compiler, may also very well belong to this group, and
should eventually be examined to determine their actual makeup and the
provenance of their texts. Prof. Joel Egerer, the most recent
bibliographer of Burns, and the first to deal frankly with The Merry
Muses, notes for instance two editions with rubrics: 'Edinburgh [no
date]' and 'Edinburgh, 1884.' (It will be observed that no
editions with rubric, Edinburgh, are listed anywhere in the present
bibliography before 1959.) He also mentions in a private communication
of 24 Jan. 1960 an Irish edition preserved in the Linenhall Library in
Belfast, though this last may well be of much earlier date (see, above,
dates 1825, 1830b, and 1832), and without relation to the [1872]
text. In the same way, the existence of various editions
published in Glasgow if not so rubricked, from the 1860's to the 1890's
has been hinted at by writers such as Duncan McNaught, but these are now
unknown.
[1890.]
Forbidden Fruit: A Collection of popular tales by popular authors, including Meitor, Walker, Caesar Cowper, Turnor, Ryder, Wyper, Lover, Howitt Burns. Also the Expurgated [sic] Poems of Robert Burns, known as Burns' Merry Muses, Copied from authentic M.S.S. The whole forming the most unique collection on an all-absorbing topic ever issued. Not for sale. [Scotland, c. 1890.] (at head: Not for Maids, Mothers, or Ministers.) 145 p. sm. 8vo.
[Murison Collection.
The unique copy of this work in the Murison Burns Collection, Dunfermline Public Library, is fitted with a brass lock set into the fore-edge of the binding, and the spine is lettered simply: BURNS ETC. This work, its contents, and a suggested publisher are discussed at length erroneously as to the publisher and date by G. Legman, in The Horn Book (1964) p. 205-9.
This is an erotic miscellany, the first half of the volume containing
erotic songs (many Scottish) not appearing in any edition of The
Merry Muses, humorous obscoena such as that worked into the title,
above and several prose and verse pornographica. An abridged version
of The Merry Muses follows, p. (83)-142, with a separate
half-title, the text being taken from Hotten's falsified edition of
1872, which is recollected in the 'Not for Maids, Mothers, or Ministers'
at the head of the title, parodying Hotten's 'Not for Maids, Ministers,
or Striplings' in the same position. The only date occurring in the
volume is 1824, at p. 44, but there are references, in the section of
erotic riddles, p. 35-37, to the Queen (Victoria), Princess Alexandra,
Gladstone, Annie Besant, Charles Stewart Parnell and Mrs. O'Shea, the
last indicating a date somewhere in the 1890's, Parnell's political
career having been ruined by the publicity given to Capt. O'Shea's
divorce accusations in Nov. 1890.
[1895-97.]
Merry Songs and Ballads prior to the year A.D. 1800. Edited by John S. Farmer. [London?] Privately printed for subscribers only. [1895-] 1897. (at head: National Ballad and Song.) 5 vols. sq. 8vo.
[Library of Congress; N.Y.P.L.
As originally issued this work was limited to one volume only, under
the title Merry, Facetious and Witty Songs and Ballads (Privately
Printed, 1895), 280 p. sq. 8vo, this volume which is extremely scarce
with the original title-page being reissued as vol. 1 of the 5-volume
set in 1897. At the end of each volume Farmer gives a selection of texts
from the authentic c. 1800 edition of the Merry Muses of
Caledonia, from a MS. copy probably made available to him by William
Ernest Henley, as discussed at date c. 1800 above. Reissued as:
[1895-1964-]
Merry Songs and Ballads . . . Edited by John S. Farmer. Introduction by G. Legman. New York: Pageant Books, 1964. 5 vols.
An offset reissue of the preceding work.
[1903.]
Merry Muses of Caledonia . . . [MS. issue, London? John S. Farmer, 1903.]
[Mr. Maurice Lindsay.
This is a MS. copy, apparently one of a number of copies so made,
based on the Ewing transcript of the original of c. \ 800 made
for William Craibe Angus in about 1893, as discussed at date c. 1800 above. Further discussion of this 'manuscript issue,' of a proposed
50 copies, will be found in The Horn Book (1964) p. 210,
observing: 'How many copies were actually made ... is not known, but one
of these copies in a stiff clerical hand, not Farmer's is now in
the possession of Maurice Lindsay, Esq; in whose Burns Encyclopedia,
London (why not Edinburgh?) 1959, at "Merry Muses," p. 167, this
issue is discussed. It must be admitted that there is something a little
tacky about Farmer's evident milking of the Ewing transcript for
needed cash: it smacks somehow of trafficking. One is sorry to learn
that it happened just that way but that is the way it is with solving
mysteries.'
[1911.]
The Merry Muses of Caledonia; (Original edition). A Collection of favourite Scots songs, ancient and modern; selected for use of the Crochallan Fencibles. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" A Vindication of Robert Burns, in connection with the above publication and the spurious editions which succeeded it. [Edited by Duncan McNaught. Kilmarnock: D. Brown & Co.] Printed and published under the auspices of the Burns Federation. For subscribers only. Not for sale. 1911. 135 p. 8vo. (Limited to 100 copies.)
[Mitchell Libr., Glasgow; Murison Collection; Harvard Univ.; Newberry Libr., Chicago.
The copy in the Murison Burns Collection, Dunfermline, contains, in an envelope addressed to Mr. Murison, 20 Feb. 1911, the private prospectus, and receipt for his order for this work, giving the publisher's name, D. Brown & Co., Successors to James McKie, and noting that the impression was to be limited to 100 copies.
This edition includes more or less correct texts of most of the materials in the original edition of c. 1800, but omits those songs available in publicly published editions of Burns' Works, and also omits probably accidentally the song "THERE'S HAIR ON'T" (c. 1800, p. 104), giving in its place the similarly titled "NAE HAIR ON'T" (c. 1800, p. 87). The edition also includes, in rewritten form, most of the MS. notes, and ascriptions of authorship to Burns, made by Scott Douglas in his unique copy of the original edition. The editor of this edition was Duncan McNaught, editor of the Burns Chronicle, and his "Introductory and Corrective" here, signed 'Vindex,' consists of a partial abridgement and conflation of his two signed articles on The Merry Muses, which had appeared in the Burns Chronicle, 1894, III. 24-45, and 1911, xx. 105-19; on the last page of which second article McNaught notes the appearance of this his own pseudonymous edition, as follows: 'We understand that a limited reprint of the Crochallan volume with introduction and notes, is about to be issued by the successors of James McKie, Kilmarnock, for subscribers only. The motif [sic] is commendable, and we wish it all success.'
An additional leaf is pasted in at the end of the text, after the
verso of p. 121 and preceding the half-title of the Appendix ("THE COURT
OF EQUITY"), reading as follows: 'NOTE. The most of the foregoing
pieces are printed in "Merry Songs and Ballads prior to the year
A.D. 1800, edited by John S. Farmer. Privately Printed for Subscribers
only. MDCCCXCVII." The notes which accompany the text in that work give
no clue whereby their authenticity may be ascertained.' This additional
leaf is not included in the American reprint following:
[1911-1927.]
The Merry Muses of Caledonia; A Collection of favourite Scots songs, Ancient and Modern, Selected for Use of the Crochallan Fencibles by Robert Burns. "Say, Puritan [&c.]" With Introduction, Notes and Glossary. Privately Printed for Subscribers Only. [Philadelphia: Nathan Young, c. 1927.] xxxi, (33)-143 p. 8vo. (9.3 x 6.3 in.)
[Kinsey Coll., Institute of Sex Research, Indiana Univ.; Univ. of Minnesota; Univ. of Virginia; Univ. of Wisconsin; Yale Univ.
A reprint of the Burns Federation edition of 1911, preceding,
omitting the additional leaf (concerning Farmer's Merry Songs and
Ballads), but adding the Ainslie letter of 3 March 1788 (p.
139) from Hotten's 1872 edition, as well as a Scottish glossary, p.
140-43. The statement on the verso of the title-page, 'strictly limited
to 750 numbered copies for America,' is probably no more true than most
such limitations in recent years.
[1916.]
A Suppressed Ballad, by Robert Burns. [London:] (Clement Shorter, 1916.) 14 p. 8vo. (9 x 7.5 in.)
[Mr. Freeman Bass, London.
Includes a facsimile of the second page of the song, and the letter.
Note on last page of text: 'Of this set of verses 25 copies only have
been printed by Clement Shorter for private circulation.' The song is
"POOR BODIES DO NAETHING BUT M-W," p. 80 in the original ed. of
c. 1800, here printed from the holograph MS. by Burns, with his
letter of transmission to Cleghorn, 12 Dec. 1792.
[1959.] The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Edited by James
Barke and Sydney Goodsir Smith. With a Prefatory Note and some authentic Burns texts contributed by J. DeLancey Ferguson. Edinburgh: M. Macdonald, 1959. (Verso of title: 'For private distribution to members of the Auk Society only.') 175 p., illus. & facsimiles, 8vo.
For location of over twenty copies in America, see Library of Congress, National Union Catalog, 1958-1962 (1963) VII.. 297. This is the first publicly published edition of the Merry Muses in Great Britain and is to be commended for its courage. It reprints most of the contents of the original edition of c. 1800 (and certain new songs, as below), but not in the original order, and substituting texts from Burns' surviving holograph MSS. for the same texts as printed in c. 1800, often with interesting differences, and occasionally under differing titles. As with the McNaught edition of 1911, those songs are also omitted that are available in publicly published editions of Burns' Works. The editing of the texts from MS. is by Prof. Ferguson; the editing of the texts from printed sources by Mr. Smith, with the assistance of the late James Barke. Mr. Smith's brief "Merry Muses Introductory," unfortunately replaces his capital and much longer article on Robert Burns and The Merry Muses of Caledonia, which appeared in Arena (London, 1950, No. 4), and was reprinted with Burns' songs delicately letter-expurgated in Hudson Review (New York, 1954, vol. VII)..
Contents: Aside from extra and related texts, here reprinted from
standard sources (principally Herd's Ancient and Modern Scots Songs,
1776, and Herd's MS. collection as published by Prof. Hans Hecht,
1904), the following songs are printed in this edition for the first
time, from MS.: "GREEN SLEEVES", "MY GIRL SHE'S AIRY", "SING, UP WI'T,
AILY", "THERE CAM A SOGER", "THERE WAS TWA WIVES", "TO ALEXANDER
FINDLATER", "TODLEN HAME, " and "WHILE PROSE WORK AND RHYMES." The
following are also given, from printed sources, that do not appear in
any earlier edition under the title of The Merry Muses: "EPPIE
MCNAB" (from The Giblet Pye, 1806), "GRIZZEL GRIMME," and "TWO
EPITAPHS" (from The Court of Equity, An Episode in the Life of Burns,
Printed for Private Circulation, Edinburgh, 1910). "THE BONNIEST
LASS", "THE REELS OF BOGIE" and "UNA'S LOCK" are reprinted from the
'1827' [1872] falsified edition (the text of "THE REELS OF BOGIE" being
badly tampered with, though a much better folk-version is available, as
"CALD KAILL OF ABERDENE," in James Maidment's Ane Pleasant Garland,
1835, reprinted in Farmer's Merry Songs and Ballads,
1897, v.
265); as also Capt. Morris' "THE PLENIPOTENTIARY," which might well have
been sacrificed in favor of the texts omitted from the original edition.
An excellent text of " LIBEL SUMMONS" (also known as "THE COURT OF
EQUITY" and "THE FORNICATOR'S COURT") is given from the collation by
Prof. Hans Hecht, originally printed in the Archiv fόr das Studium
der neueren Sprachen (1913) cxxx. 57ff. This is superior to
the text given in the edition of 1872, and to the collation from the
same MSS. (made by John S. Farmer?) given in the edition of 1911.
[1959-1964.]
The Merry Muses of Caledonia . . . New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons (1964). (at head: Robert Burns.) 224 p., illus. & facsimiles, 8vo.
[Library of Congress; &c.
A reprint of the Edinburgh, 1959, edition, giving Burns' name very
prominently at the head of the title-page; with a brief additional
"Foreword," p. 5-6, by Mr. Smith, and an excellent Glossary.
[1962.]
Songs from Robert Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia sung by Ewan MacColl. Produced by Kenneth S. Goldstein and Harry Oster. Edited and Annotated by Kenneth S. Goldstein. Limited edition. Distributed by Folk-Lyric Records. [Baton Rouge, Louisiana] (1962). 23 p. 4to (11 x 8.5 in.)
[Coll. G. Legman.
A pamphlet-garland of authentic texts from the
original edition of c. 1800 (taken from the Edinburgh, 1959
reprinting, above), with excellent notes and musical references by Dr.
Goldstein. This booklet accompanies an unexpurgated phonograph recording
of the same title, Folk-Lyric Records, "Dionysus" label, D.I, issued in
1962, and presenting these texts as sung by Ewan MacColl. A discussion
of this recording, and an appreciation of MacColl's superb singing, will
be found in The Horn Book (1964) p. 213-17, which also discusses
a much inferior and wholly expurgated recording of the same type, Bobby Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia
(New York: "Elektra" label,
155, issued in 1958), weakly performed by a Mr. Paul Clayton, 'with an
expurgated wordbook illustrated, for some reason, with Japanese armorial
crests, which gives some idea of the authenticity of the whole
enterprise.'
[1964.]
The Horn Book: Studies in erotic folklore and bibliography. By G. Legman. New Hyde Park, New York: University Books, Inc. (1964). 567 p. lg.8vo.
[Library of Congress; &c.
Section II, "The Rediscovery of Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia," p. 129-236, announces the discovery of the Cunningham MS., and gives a complete dιpouillement of its text, as "The Cunningham Manuscript," p. 131-69, with the first publication of the following Merry Muses texts from that manuscript: "DAINTY DAVIE," p. 134; "WANTON WILLIE YIR WAME RINS OUT," p. 136; " WAT YE WHAT MY MINNIE DID," p. 137; "WHIRLIE-WHA," p. 138; "ON A REPORT OF THOS. PAINED DEATH," p. 150; "ON COLONEL DE PEYSTER . . . ," p. 154; and "IMPROMPTU & REPROOF," p. 154. (Most of these texts are reprinted, for the first time in any edition of The Merry Muses, in the present volume.) Also printed for the first time are "A MASONIC SONG," by Burns, p. 140, from the Kinloch MS. at Harvard; and a Burns forgery, "ODE TAE A PENIS," p. 144, collected in Edinburgh in 1962.
A further part of Section II, " The Merry Muses
as Folklore,"
p. 170-236, discusses at some length the genres and motifs of the
various songs appearing in the spurious editions of The Merry Muses
later than 1800, and prints for the first time "AIR: BLACK JOKE," p.
192, from Scott Douglas' addenda to his unique copy of the original
edition, noting that a very similar text of this folk-mummery, later
collected in Canada, is given in Arthur H. Fauset's Folklore from
Nova Scotia (1931) p. 133. The matching discussion of the songs in
the original edition of c. 1800 will be found in the Notes to the
present volume:
[1965.]
The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Edited by G. Legman.
See at date [1800-1965].
This bibliography is ©1965 by G. Legman and is used on this website by kind permission of Mrs. Legman .