XCVI.
Reading edition
COCK UP YOUR BEAVER.
Tune—“Cock up your beaver.”
[“Printed,” says Sir Harris Nicolas, “in the Musical Museum, but not with Burns’s name.” It is an old song, eked out and amended by the poet: all the last verse, save the last line, is his; several of the lines too of the first verse, have felt his amending hand: he communicated it to the Museum.]
I.
When first my brave Johnnie lad Came to this town, He had a blue bonnet That wanted the crown; But now he has gotten A hat and a feather,— Hey, brave Johnnie lad, Cock up your beaver!
II.
Cock up your beaver, And cock it fu’ sprush, We’ll over the border And gie them a brush; There’s somebody there We’ll teach better behaviour— Hey, brave Johnnie lad, Cock up your beaver!