Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Allan Ramsay – serie

Allan Ramsay was central to all aspects of Scottish literary culture in the eighteenth century, working simultaneously in editing, playwriting, theatre management, song collecting and bookselling, as well as founding and directing Britain’s first circulating library. It was, however, his own original work as a poet which had a transformative influence on the way in which Scottish literature would develop in the ensuing decades and, indeed, centuries. Emerging as a published author in the early 1710s, Ramsay built a remarkably prominent profile as a poet of the Scots language whose work appealed to a diverse range of readers, allowing him to produce prestigious subscribers’ editions of his poems in 1721 and 1728 and to continue as a poet until his death in 1758. This definitive and ground-breaking edition of Ramsay’s poems reflects the fifty-year career of an influential cultural and literary innovator, which will open new avenues for research.

Allan Ramsay was central to all aspects of Scottish literary culture in the eighteenth century, working simultaneously in editing, playwriting, theatre management, song collecting and bookselling, as well as founding and directing Britain’s first circulating library. It was, however, his own original work as a poet which had a transformative influence on the way in which Scottish literature would develop in the ensuing decades and, indeed, centuries. Emerging as a published author in the early 1710s, Ramsay built a remarkably prominent profile as a poet of the Scots language whose work appealed to a diverse range of readers, allowing him to produce prestigious subscribers’ editions of his poems in 1721 and 1728 and to continue as a poet until his death in 1758. This definitive and ground-breaking edition of Ramsay’s poems reflects the fifty-year career of an influential cultural and literary innovator, which will open new avenues for research.

Ramsay’s pastoral comedy The Gentle Shepherd (1725; 1729) went through over a hundred editions, was performed many hundreds of times, and inspired a wide range of visual representations and critiques. Although it is one of the most important printed texts in Scots literature, there has never been a scholarly edition which does justice to its complicated genesis, and to the music of its many songs. This groundbreaking and definitive edition will be welcomed by scholars, teachers, and practitioners of literature, drama and music, and opens up new avenues for research and performance.

Ramsay’s pastoral comedy The Gentle Shepherd (1725; 1729) went through over a hundred editions, was performed many hundreds of times, and inspired a wide range of visual representations and critiques. Although it is one of the most important printed texts in Scots literature, there has never been a scholarly edition which does justice to its complicated genesis, and to the music of its many songs. This groundbreaking and definitive edition will be welcomed by scholars, teachers, and practitioners of literature, drama and music, and opens up new avenues for research and performance.

This edition of The Tea-Table Miscellany is the first ever produced, bringing together the four volumes of this collection of songs published between 1723 and 1737. TTM combines traditional Scottish song, works by Allan Ramsay and his contemporaries, together with material from D’Urfey, Playford and the English stage and broadside, in a collection of 399 songs. This edition offers, for the first time, annotations, background, and a study of origins for all the songs and tunes examining both Ramsay’s categorisation of the authorship and origin of the song texts and tunes to which it was most likely he was referring. As such, the edition consists of a detailed introduction, the clearly presented song texts, notes on the songs that identify both their print and musical antecedents, musical illustrations that show major variations in the contemporary tunes with which the songs are associated, illustrations of the title pages, and the main design features and ornaments used in Ruddiman’s original edition.