Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong, The wretch's destinie! M'Pherson's time will not be long On yonder gallows-tree. O, what is death but parting breath? On many a bloody plain I've dar'd his face, and in this place Untie these bands from off my hands, I've liv'd a life of sturt and strife; It burns my heart I must depart, Now farewell, light, thou sunshine bright, The wretch that dares not die ! trouble lawless; vagrant orgie spare rags Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, And my fause luver staw my rose false lover stole Written for the Musical Museum, and published in vol. iv., 1792. It is the best of four sets of verses on the river Doon. O' randie, gangrel bodies Wi' quaffing and laughing First, niest the fire, in auld red rags, And knapsack a' in order; She blinket on her sodger : baking-plate next sweetheart whisky leered gives-tipsy mouth alms Every another-sounding Ilk smack still did crack still Like onie cadger's whip; Then swaggering an' staggering, He roared this ditty up : AIR. TUNE-Soldier's Joy. I am a son of Mars who have been in many wars, hawker's And show my cuts and scars wherever I come : Lal de daudle, &c. My prenticeship I past where my leader breath'd his last, When the bloody die was cast on the heights of Abram : And I served out my trade when the gallant game was play'd, And the Moro low was laid at the sound of the drum. I lastly was with Curtis among the floating batt'ries, And now tho' I must beg, with a wooden arm and leg, What tho', with hoary locks, I must stand the winter shocks, With the ready trick and fable Round we wander all the day; And at night, in barn or stable, Hug our doxies on the hay. Does the train-attended carriage Thro' the country lighter rove? Does the sober bed of marriage Witness brighter scenes of love? Life is all a variorum, We regard not how it goes; Let them prate about decorum Who have character to lose. Here's to budgets, bags and wallets! Here's to all the wandering train ! Here's our ragged brats and callets! One and all, cry out, Amen! corner shrieked dear 'This puissant and splendid production,' as Matthew Arnold called it, is believed to have been inspired by a visit of the poet to a lodging-house for beggars kept in Mauchline by Poosie Nansie, otherwise Agnes Ronald, wife of George Gibson, previously convicted by the kirk session of resetting stolen goods. It was written during the Mossgiel period, but was not published during Burns's lifetime. The Rigs o' Barley. Chorus-Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, An' corn rigs are bonie : It was upon a Lammas night, The sky was blue, the wind was still, The moon was shining clearly; I set her down, wi' right good will, I ken't her heart was a' my ain; I lock'd her in my fond embrace; I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear; I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear; Tho' three times doubl'd fairly ridges took my way careless over happy money-making Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy : Fare thee-weel, thou first and fairest ! Sent to Clarinda, 27th December 1791. One pledge Editions, biographies, and estimates of Burns are innumerable. The most notable editions of the poems alone are the Kilmarnock (1786), Edinburgh (1787), London (1787), Edinburgh and London (1793), Centenary Edition by W. E. Henley and T. F. Henderson in 1896. The chief editions with Life and Letters are those of Currie (1800), Allan Cunningham (1834), W. Scott Douglas (1882), and Robert Chambers (1851; revised by present writer in 1896). The best Biography pure and simple is that of Lockhart (1828). The most famous Essays are those of John Wilson (collected works, 1858), Thomas Carlyle (1831), and R. Louis Stevenson (1882). WILLIAM WALLACE. Richard Gall (1776-1801) was born near Dunbar, and whilst employed as a printer in Edinburgh, threw off some Scottish songs that became favourites. A 'Farewell to Ayrshire' and one or two more were printed as by Burns; the best-known, 'My only jo and dearie,' is rather in Tannahill's manner. One verse runs : The birdie sings upon the thorn Nae care to mak it eerie O; Lady Nairne (1766-1845), though she lived to near the middle of the nineteenth century, was born but seven years after Burns, and was writing verses in 1792. Carolina Oliphant, born at the 'auld house' of Gask in Perthshire, was the third daughter of its Jacobite laird. In 1806 she married her second cousin, Major William Murray Nairne (1757-1830), who in 1824, on the restoration of the attainted Scottish peerages, became the sixth Lord Nairne; to him she bore one son, William (1808-37). They settled near Edinburgh, and after her husband's death the Baroness Nairne lived for three years in Ireland, then for nine on the Continent, returning at last to the new house of Gask-the old one had been pulled down in 1801. Her eighty-seven songs appeared first under the pseudonym 'Mrs Bogan of Bogan' or 'B. B.' in The Scottish Minstrel (1821-24), and posthumously under her own name as Lays from Strathearn. Her songs show, in the poetic-reminiscence stage, the family Jacobitism; but no Jacobite in his own day ever concealed his colours with more jealous care and elaborate pains than all her life long Lady Nairne did her authorship. Not a few of her songs are substantially recastings and adaptations of old popular favourites in the tone of which there was something to disapprove. But some of them-including a few incorporating old fragments are pure inspirations, true and all but perfect lyrics, in poetic worth coming nearest to Burns's best; as many as eight or ten of them live in the hearts of the Scottish people with the airs to which they are wedded-the exquisite 'Land o' the Leal' (c. 1798) and 'Caller Herrin',' 'The Laird o' Cockpen,' 'The Auld House,' 'The Rowan Tree,' 'The Hundred Pipers,' 'He's owre the hills that I lo'e weel,' 'Will ye no come back again?' and 'Charlie is my Darling'-a list which indicates the variety of the notes she struck. The last two, though there were older songs with the same title and to the same general purpose, have completely superseded the other versions. 'Farewell, Edinburgh,' is also well known in Scotland; and 'Would you be young again' reveals the characteristic temper of Lady Nairne's later years. Her Jacobitism, like Burns's, Scott's, Hogg's, and that of the writers of almost all the best-known Jacobite songs, was historical, sentimental, poetical, and entirely consistent with the most perfect loyalty to the reigning House; Queen Victoria had no more faithful subject than this beloved and idealised champion of Prince Charlie's claims on romantic affection, who took a lively interest in Christian missions, in church extension, and in all philanthropic schemes. It should be added that in the songs the words often convey quite obviously the thoughts of a lady born, not of colliers or fishwives, and the Scotch is the Scotch of one bred to speak and write English habitually. Angels do not beckon in Scotch; dwell and well rhyme conveniently in 'The Laird o' Cockpen,' but should be dwall and weel; throughout Scotland willows are always saughs, and billows is a word wholly alien to the dialect of Newhaven. The Land o' the Leal. I'm wearin' awa, John, Like snaw-wreaths in thaw, John; To the land o' the leal. There's neither cauld nor care, John; The day's aye fair In the land o' the leal. Our bonny bairn 's there, John; She was baith gude and fair, John; And, oh! we grudged her sair To the land o' the leal. But sorrow's sel' wears past, JohnAnd joy 's a-comin' fast, John— The joy that's aye to last In the land o' the leal. Sae dear's that joy was bought, John, Oh, dry your glistening ee, John! To the land o' the leal. Oh, haud ye leal and true, John! Your day it's wearin' through, John; And I'll welcome you To the land o' the leal. Now, fare-ye-weel, my ain John; In the land o' the leal. Leal, another form of legal and loyal, means in Middle English and Scotch loyal, faithful, honest, true, lawful, just, fair, and noble, and lives on in the dialects of the north of England and Scotland. In this particular case the land of the true-hearted' is obviously meant for the home of the faithful, heaven. The Laird o' Cockpen. The Laird o' Cockpen he's proud and he's great, But favour wi' wooin' was fashious to seek. troublesome Down by the dyke-side a lady did dwell, At his table-head he thought she'd look well; pow dered His wig was weel pouthered, and as gude as new ; gate She put aff her apron, and on her silk gown, cap [And now that the Laird his exit had made, Mistress Jean she reflected on what she had said; 'Oh! for ane I'll get better, it's waur I'll get tenI was daft to refuse the Laird o' Cockpen.' Next time that the Laird and the lady were seen, They were gaun arm in arm to the kirk on the green; Now she sits in the ha' like a weel-tappit henBut as yet there's nae chickens appeared at Cockpen.] The last two verses were added by Miss Ferrier, authoress of Marriage, and are now always printed as part of the song. They're bonny fish and halesome farin'; New drawn frae the Forth? When ye were sleepin' on your pillows, A' to fill the woven willows? Wha 'll buy my caller herrin'? &c. Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? They 're no brought here without brave darin'. Hauled through wind and rain, Wha 'll buy my caller herrin'? &c. Wha 'll buy my caller herrin'? &c. Wha'll buy my caller herrin'? &c. Truth will stand when a' thing's failin'. Wha 'll buy my caller herrin'? &c. Neil Gow (1727-1807) was a violinist and composer, famous for strathspeys and reels; so was his son Nathaniel, for whom this song was written and by whom the tune was composed. Dr Charles Rogers wrote the Life and Songs of Lady Nairne (1869), and there is a small work on her by the Rev. Geo. Henderson (1800); see also Kington Oliphant's Jacobite Lairds of Gask (1870). Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), a lyrical poet, some of whose songs rival all but the best of Burns's in popularity, was born in Paisley, and, early sent to the loom, continued to follow the staple trade of his native town until his twenty-sixth year, when, with one of his younger brothers, he removed to Lancashire. There he continued two years, till, hearing of his father's ill-health, he returned in time to receive his dying blessing. Soon after he wrote to a friend : 'My brother Hugh and I are all that now remain at home with our old mother, bending under age and frailty; and but seven years back nine of us used to sit at dinner together.' In The Filial Vow he inscribed this monument to her memory: 'Twas hers to guide me through life's early day, The lines indicate the writer's filial piety, but their inferiority to his Scottish songs shows how little at home he was in English poetry. Though Tannahill, an enthusiastic student of Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns, composed verses from a very early age, it was not till after this time that he passed mediocrity. Encouraged by R. A. Smith, a musician and composer, he applied himself sedulously to song-writing; and when Smith had set some of his songs to original airs, he in 1807 ventured on the publication of a volume of poems and songs, of which the first impression, consisting of nine hundred copies, was sold in a few weeks. He afterwards contributed songs to George Thomson's Select Melodies. Meanwhile he himself, always reserved, shy, and of slight and feeble physique, fell into a state of morbid despondency, aggravated by bodily weakness and a phthisical tendency. He had prepared a new edition of his poems for the press; but when Constable the publisher returned the copy because he already had on hand more new works than he could undertake that season, the disappointment preyed on the spirits of the sensitive poet; he burnt the manuscripts of a hundred new songs, and sank into a state of profound melancholia. One night in May 1810 he left his bedroom unperceived, and next day his body was found in the canal. The longer poems of this modest, ill-starred weaverpoet are greatly inferior to his songs, and are commonplace and artificial; but some of the lyrics are original, sincere, and touching, though often over-sentimental, and disfigured (e.g. the 'Flower o' Dumblane') by appallingly prosaic phrases. He is mainly remembered for about halfa-dozen songs, including, besides those given below, 'Loudon's Bonnie Woods and Braes' and 'The Bonnie Wood o' Craigielea.' Semple in his edition of the Poems (with Life, 1876) has 'restored' the Scots words to his idea of propriety and regularity. The Braes o' Balquhither. Let us go, lassie, go, To the braes o' Balquhither, 'Mang the bonny Highland heather; Where the deer and the rae, Lightly bounding together, I will twine thee a bower By the clear siller fountain, Wi' the flowers of the mountain; I will range through the wilds, To the bower o' my dearie. When the rude wintry win' Idly raves round our dwelling, On the night-breeze is swelling, As the storm rattles o'er us, Wi' the light lilting chorus. Wi' the flowers richly blooming, A' the moorlands perfuming; Let us journey together, The Braes o' Gleniffer. waterfall The auld castle turrets are covered wi' snaw; Amang the broom bushes by Stanley green shaw! The wild-flowers o' simmer were spread a' sae bonnie, The mavis sang sweet frae the green birken tree; But far to the camp they hae marched my dear Johnie, And now it is winter wi' nature and me. Then ilk thing around us was blythesome and cheerie, That murmured sae sweet to my laddie and me. lad |