The Gentle Shepherd

The first full and consistent edition of Allan Ramsay’s most influential text, The Gentle Shepherd 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.