"For strong, the busy, the learned, the gay, and the vailed for the national songs and music. fair continued to speak their native dialect, and many years," says Mr Ramsay, "the singing of that with an elegance and poignancy of which songs was the great delight of the higher and Scotsmen of the present day can have no just middle order of the people, as well as of the notion. I am old enough to have conversed peasantry; and though a taste for Italian music with Mr Spittal, of Leuchat, a scholar and a has interfered with this amusement, it is still man of fashion, who survived all the members very prevalent. Between forty and fifty years of the Union Parliament, in which he had a ago, the common people were not only exceedseat. His pronunciation and phraseology dif-ingly fond of songs and ballads, but of metrical fered as much from the common dialect, as the history. Often have I, in my cheerful morn language of St James's from that of Thames of youth, listened to them with delight, when Street. Had we retained a court and parlia- reading or reciting the exploits of Wallace and ment of our own, the tongues of the two sister Bruce against the Southrons. Lord Hailes kingdoms would indeed have differed like the was wont to call Blind Harry their Bible, he Castilian and Portuguese; but each would being their great favourite next the Scriptures. have its own classics, not in a single branch, When, therefore, one in the vale of life felt the but in the whole circle of literature. first emotion of genius, he wanted not models sui generis. But though the seeds of poetry were scattered with a plentiful hand among the Scottish peasantry, the product was probably like that of pears and apples-of a thousand that sprung up, nine hundred and fifty are so bad as to set the teeth on edge; forty-five or more are passable and useful; and the rest of an exquisite flavour. Allan Ramsay and Burns are wildings of this last description. They had the example of the elder Scottish poets; they were not without the aid of the best English writers; and, what was of still more importance, they were no strangers to the book of nature, and to the book of God." "Ramsay associated with the men of wit and fashion of his day, and several of them attempted to write poetry in his manner. Persons too idle or too dissipated to think of compositions that required much exertion, succeeded very happily in making tender sonnets to favourite tunes in compliment to their mistresses, and transforming themselves into impassioned shepherds, caught the language of the characters they assumed. Thus, about the year 1731, Robert Crawfurd of Auchinames, wrote the modern song of Tweedside, which has been so much admired. In 1743, Sir Gilbert Elliot, the first of our lawyers who both spoke and wrote English elegantly, composed, From this general view, it is apparent that in the character of a love-sick swain, a beauti- Allan Ramsay may be considered as in a great ful song, beginning, My sheep I neglected, I measure the reviver of the rural poetry of his lost my sheep-hook, on the marriage of his mis- country. His collection of ancient Scottish tress, Miss Forbes, with Ronald Crawfurd. poems under the name of The Ever-Green, his And about twelve years afterwards, the sister collection of Scottish songs, and his own poems, of Sir Gilbert wrote the ancient words to the the principal of which is the Gentle Shepherd, tune of the Flowers of the Forest,tand supposed have been universally read among the peasantry to allude to the battle of Flowden. In spite of his country, and have in some degree superof the double rhyme, it is a sweet, and though seded the adventures of Bruce and Wallace, in some parts allegorical, a natural expression as recorded by Barbour and Blind Harry. of national sorrow. The more modern words Burns was well acquainted with all of these. to the same tume, beginning, I have seen the He had also before him the poems of Fergusson smiling of fortune beguiling, were written long in the Scottish dialect, which have been producbefore by Mrs Cockburn, a woman of great ed in our own times, and of which it will be wit, who outlived all the first group of literati necessary to give a short account. of the present century, all of whom were very fond of her. I was delighted with her company, though when I saw her, she was very old. Much did she know that is now lost." Fergusson was born of parents who had it in their power to procure him a liberal education, a circumstance, however, which in Scotland, implies no very high rank in society. From In addition to these instances of Scottish a well written and apparently authentic account songs, produced in the earlier part of the present of his life,* we learn that he spent six years century, may be mentioned the ballad of Hardi- at the schools of Edinburgh and Dundee and senute, by Lady Wardlaw; the ballad of William veral years at the universities of Edinburgh and and Margaret; and the song entitled the Birks St Andrew's. It appears that he was at one time of Invermay, by Mallet; the love-song, begin-destined for the Scottish church; but as he adning, For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove, pro-vanced towards manhood, he renounced that duced by the youthful muse of Thomson; and intention, and at Edinburgh entered the office the exquisite pathetic ballad, the Braes of of a writer to the signet, a title which desigYarrow, by Hamilton of Bangour. On the nates and separates a higher order of Scottish revival of letters in Scotland, subsequent to the attorneys. Fergusson had sensibility of mind, Union, a very general taste seems to have pre-a warm and generous heart, and talents for so Beginning, What beauties does Flora disclose! +Begiuning, I have heard a lilting at our ewes-milking, * In the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. See also, Campbell's Introduction to the History of Po etry in Scotland, See p. 288. ciety, of the most attractive kind. To such a From this account of the Scottish poems known to Burns, those who are acquainted with them will see they are chiefly humorous or pathetic; and under one or other of these descriptions most of his own poems will class. Let us compare him with his predecessors under each of these points of view, and close our examination with a few general observations. describes, in the first canto, a rustic dance, and afterwards a contention in archery, ending in an affray. Ramsay relates the restoration of concord, and the renewal of the rural sports with the humours of a country wedding. Though each of the poets describes the manners of his respective age, yet in the whole piece there is a very sufficient uniformity; a striking proof of the identity of character in the Scottish peasantry at the two periods, distant from each other three hundred years. It is an honourable distinction to this body of nien, that their character and manners, very little embellished, have been found to be susceptible of an amusing and interesting species of poetry; and it must appear not a little curious, that the single nation of modern Europe which possesses an original poetry, should have received the model, followed by their rustic bards, from the monarch on the throne. The two additional cantos to Christis Kirk of the Grene, written by Ramsay, though objectionable in point of delicacy, are among the happiest of his productions. His chief excellence indeed, lay in the description of rural characters, incidents, and scenery; for he did not possess any very high powers either of imagination or of understanding. He was well acquainted with the peasantry of Scotland, It has frequently been observed, that Scot- their lives and opinions. The subject land has produced, comparatively speaking, few was in a great measure new; his talents writers who have excelled in humour. But were equal to the subject, and he has this observation is true only when applied to shown that it may be happily adapted to those who have continued to reside in their pastoral poetry. In his Gentle Shepherd, the own country, and have confined themselves to characters are delineations from nature, the composition in pure English; and in these cir- descriptive parts are in the genuine style of cumstances it admits of an easy explanation. beautiful simplicity, the passions and affections The Scottish poets, who have written in the dia- of rural life are finely portrayed, and the lect of Scotland, have been at all times remark- heart is pleasingly interested in the happiness able for dwelling on subjects of humour, in which that is bestowed on innocence and virtue. indeed some of them have excelled. It would Throughout the whole there is an air of reality be easy to show, that the dialect of Scotland which the most careless reader cannot but perhaving become provincial, is now scarcely suit- ceive; and in fact no poem ever perhaps acquir ed to the more elevated kinds of poetry. If ed so high a reputation, in which truth receivwe may believe that the poem of Christis Kirked so little embellishment from the imagination. of the Grene was written by James the First of Scotland,† this accomplished monarch, who had received an English education under Henry the Fourth, and who bore arms under his gallant successor, gave the model on which the greater part of the humorous productions of the rustic muse of Scotland had been formed. Christis Kirk of the Grene was reprinted by Ramsay, somewhat modernized in the orthography, and two cantos were added by him, in which he attempts to carry on the design. Hence the poem of King James is usually printed in Ramsay's works. The royal bard In his pastoral songs, and his rural tales, Ramsay appears to less advantage, indeed, but still with considerable attraction. The story of the Monk and the Miller's Wife, though somewhat licentious, may rank with the happiest productions of Prior or La Fontaine. But when he attempts subjects from higher life, and aims at pure English composition, he is feebe and uninteresting, and seldom even reaches mediocrity.* Neither are his familiar epistles and elegies in the Scottish dialect entitled to much approbation. Though Fergusson had higher powers of imagination than Ramsay, his genius was not of the highest order; nor did his learning, which was considerable, improve his genius. His poems written in pure English, in which he often follows classical models, though superior to the English poems of Ramsay, seldom rise above mediocrity; but in those • See The Morning Interview, &c composed in the Scottish dialect he is often very successful. He was, in general, however, less happy than Ramsay in the subjects of his muse. As he spent the greater part of his life in Edinburgh, and wrote for his amusement in the intervals of business or dissipation, his Scottish poems are chiefly founded on the incidents of a town life, which, though they are not susceptible of humour, do not admit of those delineations of scenery and manners, which vivify the rural poetry of Ramsay, and which so agreeably amuse the fancy and interest the heart. The town eclogues of Fergusson, if we may so denominate them, are however faithful to nature, and often distinguished by a very happy vein of humour. His poems entitled The Daft Days, The King's Birth day in Edinburgh, Leith Races, and The Hallow Fair, will justify this character. In these, particularly in the last, he imitated Christis Kirk of the Grene, as Ramsay had done before him. His Address to the Tron-kirk Bell is an exquisite piece of humour, which Burns has scarcely excelled. In appreciating the genius of Fergusson, it ought to be recollected, that his poems are the careless effusions of an irregular though amiable young man, who wrote for the periodical papers of the day, and who died in early youth. Had his life been prolonged under happier circumstances of fortune, he would probably have risen to much higher reputation. He might have excelled in rural poetry, for though his professed pastorals on the established Sicilian model, are stale and uninteresting, The Farmer's Ingle, which may be considered as a Scottish pastoral, is the happiest of all his productions, and certainly was the archetype of the Cotter's Saturday Night. Fergusson, and more especially Burns, have shown, that the character and manners of the peasantry of Scotland, of the present times, are as well adapted to poetry, as in the days of Ramsay, or of the author of Christis Kirk of the Grene. The humour of Burns is of a richer vein than that of Ramsay or Fergusson, both of whom, as he himself informs us, he had "frequently in his eye, but rather with a view to kindle at their flame, than to servile imitation " His descriptive powers, whether the objects on which they are employed be comic or serious, animate, or inanimate, are of the highest order. -A superiority of this kind is essential to every species of poetical excellence. In one of his earlier poems his plan seems to be to inculcate a lesson of contentment on the lower classes of society, by showing that their superiors are neither much better nor happier than themselves; and this he chooses to execute in the form of a dialogue between two dogs. He introduces this dialogue by an account of the persons and characters of the speakers. The first, whom he has named Cæsar, is a dog of condition : *The farmer's fire-side. "His locked, letter'd, braw brass-collar, Showed him the gentleman and scholar.” High-bred though he is, he is however full of condescension: "At kirk or market, mill or smiddie, The other Luath, is a "ploughman's-collie," but a cur of a good heart and a sound under standing. "His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face, Never were twa dogs so exquisitely delineat ed. Their gambols, before they sit down to moralize, are described with an equal degree of happiness; and through the whole dialogue, the character, as well as the different condition of the two speakers, is kept in view. The speech of Luath, in which he enumerates the comforts of the poor, gives the following account of their merriment on the first day of the year: "That merry day the year begins, Of all the animals who have moralized on hu. man affairs since the days of Esop, the dog seems best entitled to this privilege, as well from his superior sagacity, as from his being, more than any other, the friend and associate of man. The dogs of Burns, exceping in their talent for moralizing, are downright dogs; and not like the horses of Swift, or the Hind and Panther of Dryden, men in the shape of brutes. It is this circumstance that heightens the humour of the dialogue. The "twa dogs are constantly kept before our eyes, and the contrast between their form and character as dogs, and the sagacity of their conversation, heightens the humour, and deepens the impression of the poet's satire. Though in this poem the chief excellence may be considered as humour, yet great talents are displayed in its composition; the happiest powers of description and the deepest insight into the human heart.* " * When this poem first appeared, it was thought by some very surprising, that a peasant who had not an opportunity of associating even with a simple gentleman, On another occasion,* choosing to exalt whisky above wine, he introduces a comparison between the natives of more genial climes, to whom the vine furnishes their beverage, and his own countrymen who drink the spirit of malt. The description of the Scotsman is humorous: "But bring a Scotsman frae his hill, Here the notion of danger rouses the nation of the poet. He goes on thus: Again, however, he sinks into humour, and concludes the poem with the following most laughable, but most irreverent apostrophe: "Scotland, my auld, respected mither! Freedom and Whisky gang thegither, tions. Of this union of humour, with the higher in the poem entitled Death and Dr Hornbook, powers of imagination, instances may be found and in almost every stanza of the Address to the Deil, one of the happiest of his producwith all his "doings" and misdeeds, in the After reproaching this terrible being course of which he passes through a series of Scottish superstitions, and rises at times into a high strain of poetry; he concludes this address, delivered in a tone of great familiarity, not altogether unmixed with apprehension, in the following words: "But, fare ye weel, auld Nickie-ben I'm wae to think upo' yon den Ev'n for your sake! Humour and tenderness are here so happily intermixed, that it is impossible to say which preponderates. Fergusson wrote a dialogue between the Causeway and the Plainstones,* of Edinburgh. This probably suggested to Burns his dialogue between the Old and New Bridge over the river Ayr. The nature of such subjects requires that they shall be treated humorously, and Fergusson has attempted nothing beyond this. Though the Causeway and the Plainstones talk together, no attempt is made to personify the speakers. A "cadie" heard the conversation, and reported it to the poet. imagi-Burns himself is the auditor, and the time and In the dialogue between the Brigs of Ayr, "Nae cauld faint-hearted doubtings teaze him; His latest draught o' breathing lea'es him should have been able to portray the character of highlife with such accuracy. And when it was recollected that he had probably been at the races of Ayr, where nobility as well as gentry are to be seen, it was con cluded that the race ground had been the field of his observation. This was sagacious enough; but it did not require.such instruction to inform Burns, that human nature is essentially the same in the high and low; and a genius which comprehends the human mind, easily comprehends the accidental varieties introduced by situ ation. *The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scotch Representatives in Parliament, p, 92. † Of whisky, occasion on which it occurred is related with great circumstantiality. The poet, "press'd "The chilly frost, beneath the silver beam, The middle of the street, and the side-way. "all before their sight sent to his fancy, and at length it suggests to him a fairy dance of aerial beings, under the beams of the moon, by which the wrath of the Genii of the Brigs of Ayr is appeased. Incongruous as the different parts of this poem are, it is not an incongruity that dis pleases; and we have only to regret that the poet did not bestow a little pains in making the figures more correct, and in smoothing the versification. In this situation, the listening bard hears the "clanging sugh" of wings moving through the air, and speedily he perceives two beings, reared, the one on the Old, the other on the New Bridge, whose form and attire he describes, and whose conversation with each other he rehearses. These genii enter into a comparison of the respective edifices over which they preside, and afterwards, as is usual between the old and young, compare modern characters and manners with those of past The epistles of Burns, in which may be intimes. They differ, as may be expected, and cluded his Dedication to G. H. Esq. discover, taunt and scold each other in broad Scotch. like his other writings, the powers of a supeThis conversation, which is certainly humor-rior understanding. They display deep insight ous, may be considered as a proper business of into human nature, a gay and happy strain of the poem. As the debate runs high, and reflection, great independence of sentiment, threatens serious consequences, all at once it and generosity of heart. It is to be regretted, is interrupted by a new scene of wonders: that in his Holy Fair, and in some of his other poems, his humour degenerates into personal satire, and is not sufficiently guarded in other respects. The Halloween of Burns is free from every objection of this sort. It is interesting not merely from its humorous description of manners, but as it records the spells and charms used on the celebration of a festi val, now, even in Scotland, falling into neglect, but which was once observed over the greater part of Britain and Ireland.* These charms are supposed to afford an insight into futurity, especially on the subject of marriage, the most interesting event of rural life. In the Halloween, a female, in performing one of the spells, has occasion to go out by moonlight to dip her shift-sleeve into a stream running towards the South. It was not necessary for Burns to give a description of this stream. But it was the character of his ardent mind to pour forth not merely what the occasion required, but what it admitted; and the tempta. tion to describe so beautiful a natural object by moonlight, was not to be resisted A fairy train appear'd in order bright; "The Genius of the Stream in front appears, Next follow a number of other allegorical beings, among whom are the four seasons, Rural Joy, Plenty, Hospitality, and Courage. "Benevolence, with mild benignant air, A female form, came from the tow'rs of Stair: To rustic Agriculture did bequeath The broken iron instrument of Death; At sight of whom our Sprites forgat their kindling wrath." This poem, irregular and imperfect as it is, displays various and powerful talents, and may serve to illustrate the genius of Burns. In particular, it affords a striking instance of his being carried beyond his original purpose by the powers of imagination. In Fergusson's poem, the Plainstones and Causeway contrast the characters of the different persons who walked upon them. Burns probably conceived, that, by a dialogue between the Old and New Bridge, he might form a humorous contrast between ancient and modern manners in the town of Ayr. Such a dialogue could only be supposed to pass in the stillness of night; and this led our poet into a description of a midnight scene, which excited in a high degree the powers of his imagination. During the whole dialogue the scenery is pre "Whyles owre a linn the burnie plays, Wi' bickering dancing dazzle; Those who understand the Scottish dialect will allow this to be one of the finest instan-. ces of description which the records of poetry afford.-Though of a very different nature, it may be compared, in point of excellence, with Thomson's description of a river swollen by the rains of winter, bursting through the streights that confine its torrent, "boiling, wheeling, foaming, and thundering along." In pastoral, or, to speak more correctly, in rural poetry of a serious natural, Burns ex * In Ireland it is still celebrated. It is not quite in disuse in Wales. See page 115. t See Thomson's Winter. |