Annotation:Good Night and God Be with You (1)
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GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BE WITH YOU. English, Scottish; Air (cut time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Playford): AABB (Manson): AABBCCDDEEFF (Oswald). The tune in its 18th century form was first published in London in Henry Playford's Scotch Tunes (1700), although the title (and sentiment) is old older and appears in the Skene Manuscript c. 1620-30). The tune in the Skene may or may not be ancestral to the one published by Playford, but if so it is highly distanced. Playford's melody proved the lasting one for the next century or two and was used as the vehicle for a songs in ballad operas (c.f. Highland Fair; or, Union of the Clans, 1731). It was entered into the music manuscript collection of Scottish musician James Gillespie (The Gillespie Manuscript of Perth, 1768) and the music copybook of Thomas Molyneaux (Nova Scotia, 1788).
James Johnson prints the song, penned by Robert Burns, in his Scots Musical Museum, vol. 6 (1803, Song 600, p. 620). The first few stanzas go:
The night is my departing night,
The morn's the day I maun awa,
There's no a friend or fae o' mine,
But wishes that I were awa.
What I hae done for lack o' wit
I never never can reca'
I trust ye're a' my friends as yet,
Gude night and joy be wi' you a'.
Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu!
Dear brothers of the mystic tye!
Ye favour'd, ye enlighen'd Few,
Companions of my social joy!
Tho' I to foreign lands must hie,
Pursuing Fortun's slidd'ry ba',
With melting heart, and brimful eye,
I'll mind you still, tho' far awa'
