'Cant about Decorum': George Thomson's singular edition of Robert Burns's 'The Jolly Beggars'

McCue, K. and Mckeever, G. L. (2023) 'Cant about Decorum': George Thomson's singular edition of Robert Burns's 'The Jolly Beggars'. Review of English Studies, 74(316), pp. 684-696. (doi: 10.1093/res/hgad058)

Abstract

Robert Burns’s song editor George Thomson (1757–1851) issued the poet’s cantata ‘Love and Liberty’, also known as ‘The Jolly Beggars’, for the first time with music in 1818 (a setting of Burns’s text for narrator, solo singers, choir, and piano trio). The musical score was by London theatre composer Sir Henry Bishop and the text was edited by Thomson in line with his strict policy of decency and politeness. This essay tracks Thomson’s editorial curation of Burns’s text in the context of polite ‘improvement’ and argues that while pursuing apparent ‘decorum’, Thomson’s treatment struggles to negotiate the unruliness at the centre of what is now considered one of Burns’s most important works. The article pays particular attention to the complicated publication history of this work, revealing a chronology of popular print editions in advance of Thomson’s own, as well as the notable influence of Walter Scott’s remarks on the piece in the Quarterly Review. Examining the musical context of Thomson’s ‘Jolly Beggars’ alongside the text reveals a similar aspiration for elevation and the article presents the conversation between Thomson and Bishop, from manuscript correspondence.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Research for this article was encompassed by the AHRC-funded project ‘Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century’, 2011–16 (AH/I003738/1).
• Keywords: Robert Burns Scots Song Henry Bishop Jolly Beggars
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Mckeever, Dr Gerard Lee and McCue, Professor Kirsteen
• Authors: McCue, K., and Mckeever, G. L.
• Subjects: M Music and Books on Music > ML Literature of music; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature; College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > Scottish Literature
• Journal Name: Review of English Studies
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 0034-6551
• ISSN (Online): 1471-6968
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023
• First Published: First published in Review of English Studies 74(316): 684–696
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
190381		Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century	Gerard Carruthers	Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	AH/I003738/1	Arts - Scottish Literature