The Jolly Beggars : Fiddlers Tune
written in 1785
The Jolly Beggars : Fiddlers Tune - context Summary
Composed 1785 for Bawdy Collection
Written in 1785 and associated with the ribald collection The Merry Muses of Caledonia, "The Jolly Beggars: Fiddlers Tune" places a convivial fiddler at the center of a boisterous communal song. In broad Scots voice, the speaker invites a partner to share food, drink, music and sexual company while dismissing hunger, cold, and worry. The poem captures Burns’s interest in the lives and voices of common people, celebrating defiant sociability and improvisatory humor rather than moral instruction. Its repeated refrain reinforces a shrugging, live-for-the-moment attitude.
Read Complete AnalysesLet me ryke up to dight that tear, An' go wi' me an' be my dear; An' then your every care an' fear May whistle owre the lave o't. I am a fiddler to my trade, An' a' the tunes that e'er I played, The sweetest still to wife or maid, Was whistle owre the lave o't. At kirns an' weddins we'se be there, An' O sae nicely's we will fare! We'll bowse about till Daddie Care Sing whistle owre the lave o't. Sae merrily's the banes we'll pyke, An' sun oursel's about the dyke; An' at our leisure, when ye like, We'll whistle owre the lave o't. But bless me wi' your heav'n o' charms, An' while I kittle hair on thairms, Hunger, cauld, an' a' sic harms, May whistle owre the lave o't. I am a fiddler to my trade, An' a' the tunes that e'er I played, The sweetest still to wife or maid, Was whistle owre the lave o't.
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