Then from his lordship I shall learn, One rank as weel's another; For he but meets a brother. THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. PROLOGUE SPOKEN BY MISS FONTENELLE ON HER WHILE Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things, * Burns sent this Prologue to Miss Fontenelle, with the following letter :— 66 'Madam,-In such a bad world as ours, those who add to the scanty sum of our pleasures, are positively our benefactors. To you, Madam, on our humble Dumfries boards, I have been more indebted for entertainment than ever I was in prouder Theatres. Your charms as a woman would insure applause to the most indifferent Actress, and your theatrical talents would secure admiration to the plainest figure. This, Madam, is not the unmeaning, or insiduous compliment of the frivolous or interested; I pay it from the same honest impulse that the sublime of Nature excites my admiration, or her beauties give me delight. "Will the foregoing lines be of any service to you on your approaching benefit night? If they will, I shall be prouder of my Muse than ever. They are nearly extempore: I know they have no great merit; but though they shall add but little to the entertainment of the evening, The Rights of Woman merit some1 attention. Now, thank our stars! those Gothic times are fled; VAR. claim some small. 2 idle. 3 Got drunk, would swagger, swear. they give me the happiness of an opportunity to declare how much I have the honor to be," &c. On forwarding a copy to Mrs. Dunlop, in Dunbar, 1792, he said, "We in this country here have many alarms of the reforming, or rather, the republican spirit, of your part of the kingdom. Indeed, we are a good deal in commotion ourselves. For me, I am a placeman, you know; a very humble one indeed, Heaven knows, but still so much so as to gag me. What my private sentiments are you will find out without an interpreter. "I have been taking up the subject in another view; and the other day, for a pretty actress's benefit-night, I wrote an address, which I will give on the other page, called The Rights of Woman.'” According to Mr. Allan Cunningham, Miss Fontenelle "was young and pretty, and indulgent in levities both of speech and action." Most justly think (and we are much the gainers) Such conduct, neither spirit, wit, nor manners. * For Right the third, our last, our best, our dearest, That Right to fluttering female hearts the nearest, Which even the Rights of Kings in low prostration Most humbly own1—'tis dear, dear admiration! In that blest sphere alone we live and move; There taste that life of life-immortal Love.— Sighs, tears, smiles, glances, fits, flirtations, airs, 'Gainst such an host what flinty savage daresWhen awful Beauty joins with all her charms, Who is so rash as rise in rebel arms? Then truce with kings, and truce with constitutions, With bloody armaments and revolutions! ADDRESS, SPOKEN BY MISS FONTENELLE, ON HER BENEFIT-NIGHT, DECEMBER 4, 1795, AT THE THEATRE, DUMFRIES. STILL anxious to secure your partial favour, Told him I came to feast my curious eyes; VAR. Must fall before. 5 And thence. * An ironical allusion to the Saturnalia of the Caledonian Hunt. Said, nothing like his works was ever printed; I could no more--askance the creature eyeing, D'ye think, said I, this face was made for crying? I'll laugh, that's poz--nay, more, the world shall know it; And so, your servant! gloomy Master Poet! Thou other man of care, the wretch in love, Laugh at her follies-laugh e'en at thyself: VERSES TO A YOUNG LADY, WITH A PRESENT OF SONGS. 1 In July, 1794, Burns told Thomson, "I have presented a copy of your songs to the daughter of a much-valued and much-honoured friend of mine, Mr. Graham, of Fintry. I wrote, on the blank side of the title-page, the following address to the young lady:" HERE, where the Scotish Muse immortal lives, So may no ruffian feeling in thy breast Or Pity's notes, in luxury of tears, As modest Want the tale of woe3 reveals; While conscious Virtue all the strain endears, And heaven-born Piety her sanction seals! VAR. his poems. 3 secret tale. 2 strains divine and sacred. 4 Virtue, conscious, |