LINES SENT TO A GENTLEMAN WHOM HE HAD OFFENDED. THE friend whom wild from wisdom's way, Mine was th' insensate frenzied part, 'Tis thine to pity and forgive. "The insensate frenzied part," which the Poet intimates he had acted under the influence of wine, was at the too hospitable table of Mrs. Riddel: he was unsparing in speech, and on this occasion spoke of thrones and dominations, and "epauletted puppies" with a sarcastic vehemence offensive to many. These midnight quarrels, when the wine is lord of the ascendant, should be allowed to pass unless they are personal. Burns had suffered much, and was then suffering on account of his unbridled licence of speech: the power of utterance was not given to him that he might conceal his thoughts. The reparation offered in these lines was warmly accepted, and the current of friendship ran smooth as before. ADDRESS, SPOKEN BY MISS FONTENELLE ON HER BENEFIT-NIGHT. STILL anxious to secure your partial favour, 66 Ma'am, let me tell you," quoth my man of rhymes "I know your bent-these are no laughing times: Can you but, Miss, I own I have my fears, Dissolve in pause-and sentimental tears With laden sighs, and solemn-rounded sentence, Rouse from his sluggish slumbers, fell Repentance; Paint Vengeance as he takes his horrid stand, Waving on high the desolating brand, Calling the storms to bear him o'er a guilty land?” I could no more-askance the creature eyeing, And so, your servant! gloomy Master Poet! Firm as my creed, Sirs, 'tis my fix'd belief, I also think-so may I be a bride! That so much laughter, so much life enjoy'd. Thou man of crazy care and ceaseless sigh, Thou other man of care, the wretch in love, To sum up all, be merry, I advise ; And as we're merry, may we still be wise. On the 4th of December, 1795, this address was spoken by Miss Fontenelle, at the Dumfries theatre. Some of the audience who knew or guessed the poetic condition of the Bard's affairs sympathized in the lines on Misfortune : "Thou man of crazy care and ceaseless sigh, To make three guineas do the work of five." At this time be it remembered that Burns had suffered much affliction in the loss of a favourite child, and from ill-health in his own person, and in his own words :— "In faith sma' heart had he to sing." "We have had a brilliant theatre here this season," the Poet writes to Mrs. Dunlop; "only, as all other business does, it experiences a stagnation of trade from the epidemical complaint of the country, want of cash. I mention our theatre merely to lug in an Occasional Address which I wrote for the benefit night of one of the actresses." ON SEEING MISS FONTENELLE IN A FAVOURITE CHARACTER. SWEET naïveté of feature, Simple, wild, enchanting elf, Wert thou awkward, stiff, affected, Loves and graces all rejected, Then indeed thou'd'st act a part. R. B. Miss Hyslop of Dumfries-to whom these volumes are under other obligations than this-transmitted to the Editor these clever lines: the original in the Poet's own hand is still preserved. I know not to what character Burns alludes; but he was a person not easily pleased; he loved natural acting, such as we are not often favoured with. |