‘To be your bride I am too young,
To be your loun wad shame my kin;
So therefore, pray, young man, begone,
For you never, never shall my favour win.’
237
THE DUKE OF GORDON’S DAUGHTER
a. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Daughter,’ The Duke of Gordon’s Garland, Percy Papers, and another edition in a volume of garlands formerly in Heber’s library. b. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Daughters,’ a stall-copy, printed for John Sinclair, Dumfries. c. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Daughters,’ Stirling, printed by M. Randall. d. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Three Daughters,’ Peterhead, printed by P. Buchan. e. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Three Daughters,’ Kinloch MSS, I, 125. f. ‘The Duke o Gordon’s Daughters,’ Murison MS., p. 90, Aberdeenshire. g. ‘The Duke o Gordon’s Daughter,’ Gibb MS., p. 13, No 3, from the recitation of Mrs Gibb, senior. h. ‘The Duke of Gordon’s Three Daughters,’ Macmath MS., p. 31, a fragment recited by Mrs Macmath, senior, in 1874, and learned by her fifty years before.
A copy of a was reprinted by Ritson, Scotish Songs, 1794, II, 169. (There are three slight variations in Ritson, two of which are misprints.) Fifteen stanzas are given from Ritson in Johnson’s Musical Museum, ‘The Duke of Gordon has three daughters,’ No 419, p. 431, 1797 (with a single variation and the correction of a misprint). Smith’s Scotish Minstrel, IV, 98, repeats the stanzas in the Museum, inserting a few words to fill out lines for singing. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 2, has made up a ballad from three “traditional” copies. A fragment of four stanzas in Notes and Queries, Second Series, VII, 418, requires no notice.
Burns gave the first stanza as follows (Cromek’s Reliques, p. 229, ed, 1817; Cromek’s Select Scotish Songs, I, 86, 1810):
The lord o Gordon had three dochters,
Mary, Marget, and Jean;