their story, and even their very names have been forgotten. When proper models for pastoral songs were produced, there would be no want of imitators. To succeed in this species of composition, soundness of understanding and sensibility of heart were more requisite than flights of imagination or pomp of numbers. Great changes have certainly taken place in Scottish song-writing, though we cannot trace the steps of this change; and few of the pieces admired in Queen Mary's time are now to be discovered in modern collections. It is possible, though not probable, that the music may have remained nearly the same, though the words to the tunes were entirely new-modelled." herds, easy in their circumstances, and satisfied with their lot. Some sparks of that spirit of chivalry for which they are celebrated by Froissart, remained sufficient to inspire elevation of sentiment and gallantry towards the fair sex. The familiarity and kindness which had long subsisted between the gentry and the peasantry, could not all at once be obliterated, and this connexion tended to sweeten rural life. In this state of innocence, ease, and tranquillity of mind, the love of poetry and music would still maintain its ground, though it would naturally assume a form congenial to the more peaceful state of society. The minstrels, whose metrical tales used once to rouse the borderers like the trumpet's sound, had been, by an order of the These conjectures are highly ingenious. It Legislature (1579), classed with rogues and va- cannot, however, be presumed, that the state of gabonds, and attempted to be suppressed. Knox ease and tranquillity described by Mr. Ramsay and his disciples influenced the Scottish parlia- took place among the Scottish peasantry inunement, but contended in vain with her rural diately on the union of the crowns, or indeed muse. Amidst our Arcadian vales, probably during the greater part of the seventeenth cenon the banks of the Tweed, or some of its tri- tury. The Scottish nation, through all ranks, butary streams, one or more original geniuses was deeply agitated by the civil wars, and the may have arisen who were destined to give a religious persecutions which succeeded each new turn to the taste of their countrymen.other in that disastrous period; it was not till They would see that the events and pursuits after the revolution in 1688, and the subsequent which chequer private life were the proper sub-establishment of their beloved form of church jects for popular poetry. Love, which had for- government, that the peasantry of the Lowlands merly held a divided sway with glory and am- enjoyed comparative repose; and it is since that bition, became now the master-passion of the period that a great number of the most admired soul. To portray in lively and delicate colours,Scottish songs have been produced, though the though with a hasty hand, the hopes and fears tunes to which they are sung, are in general of that agitate the breast of the love-sick swain, much greater antiquity. It is not unreasonable or forlorn maiden, afford ample scope to the to suppose, that the peace and security derived rural poet. Love-songs, of which Tibullus from the Revolution, and the Union, produced himself would not have been ashamed, might a favourable change on the rustic poetry of be composed by an uneducated rustic with a Scotland; and it can scarcely be doubted, that slight tincture of letters; or if in these songs the institution of parish schools in 1696, by the character of the rustic be sometimes assum- which a certain degree of instruction was difed, the truth of character, and the language of fused universally among the peasantry, contrinature, are preserved. With unaffected sim-buted to this happy effect. plicity and tenderness, topics are urged, most Soon after this appeared Allan Ramsay, the likely to soften the heart of a cruel and coy Scottish Theocritus. mistress, or to regain a fickle lover. Even in such as are of a melancholy cast, a ray of hope breaks through, and dispels the deep and settled gloom which characterizes the sweetest of the Highland luinags, or vocal airs. Nor are these songs all plaintive; many of them are lively and humorous, and some appear to us coarse and indelicate. They seem, however, genuine descriptions of the manners of an energetic and sequestered people in their hours of mirth and festivity, though in their portraits some objects are brought into open view, which more fastidious painters would have thrown into shade. "As those rural poets sung for amusement, not for gain, their effusions seldom exceeded a love-song, or a ballad of satire or humour, which, like the words of the elder minstrels, were seldom committed to writing, but treasured up in the memory of their friends and neighbours. Neither known to the learned nor patronized by the great, these rustic bards lived and died in obscurity; and by a strange fatality, He was born on the high mountains that divide Clydesdale and Annandale, in a small hamlet by the banks of Glengonar, a stream which descends into the Clyde. The ruins of this hamlet are still shown to the inquiring traveller. He was the son of a pea sant, and probably received such instruction as his parish-school bestowed, and the poverty of his parents admitted. Ramsay made his appearance in Edinburgh, in the beginning of the present century, in the humble character of an apprentice to a barber; he was then fourteen, or fifteen years of age. By degrees he acquired notice for his social disposition, and his talent for the composition of verses in the Scottish idiom; and, changing his profession for that of a bookseller, he became intimate with many of the literary, as well as the gay and fashionable characters of his time. Having published a "He was coeval with Joseph Mitchell, and his club of small wits, who, about 17 9, published a very poor miscellany, to which Dr. Young, the author of parts allegorical, a natural expression of national sorrow. The more modern words to the same tune, beginning, I have seen the smiling of fortune beguiling, were written long before by Mrs. Cockburn, a woman of great wit, who outlived all the first group of literati 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." volume of poems of his own in 1721, which shepherds, caught the language of the characters was favourably received, he undertook to make they assumed. Thus, about the year 1781, a collection of ancient Scottish poems, under the Robert Crawfurd of Auchinames, wrote the title of the Ever-Green, and was afterwards modern song of Tweedside, which has been encouraged to present to the world a collection so much admired. In 1743, Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Scottish songs. "From what sources he the first of our lawyers who both spoke and procured them," says Ramsay of Ochtertyre, wrote English elegantly, composed, in the cha"whether from tradition or manuscript, is un-racter of a love-sick swain, a beautiful song, certain. As in the Ever- Green he made some beginning, My sheep I neglected, I lost my rash attempts to improve on the originals of his sheep-hook, on the marriage of his mistress, ancient poems, he probably used still greater Miss Forbes, with Ronald Crawfurd. And freedom with the songs and ballads. The truth about twelve years afterwards, the sister of Sir cannot, however, be known on this point, till Gilbert wrote the ancient words to the tune of manuscripts of the songs printed by him, more the Flowers of the Forest,+ and supposed to alancient than the present century, shall be pro-lude to the battle of Flowden. In spite of the duced, or access be obtained to his own papers, double rhyme, it is a sweet, and though in some if they are still in existence. To several tunes which either wanted words, or had words that were improper or imperfect, he or his friends adapted verses worthy of the melodies they accompanied, worthy indeed of the golden age. These verses were perfectly intelligible to every rustic, yet justly admired by persons of taste, who regarded them as the genuine offspring of the pastoral muse. In some respects Ramsay had advantages not possessed by poets writing in the Scottish dialect in our days. Songs in In addition to these instances of Scottish the dialect of Cumberland or Lancashire, could songs, produced in the earlier part of the prenever be popular, because these dialects have sent century, may be mentioned the ballad of never been spoken by persons of fashion. But Hardiknute, by Lady Wardlaw; the ballad of till the middle of the present century, every William and Margaret; and the song entitled Scotsman, from the peer to the peasant, spoke the Birks of Invermay, by Mallet; the lovea truly Doric language. It is true the English song, beginning, For ever, Fortune, wilt thou moralists and poets were by this time read by prove, produced by the youthful muse of Thomevery person of condition, and considered as the son; and the exquisite pathetic ballad, the Braes standards for polite composition. But, as na- of Yarrow, by Hamilton of Bangour. On the tional prejudices were still strong, the busy, the revival of letters in Scotland, subsequent to the learned, the gay, and the fair continued to speak Union, a very general taste seems to have pretheir native dialect, and that with an elegance vailed for the national songs and music. and poignancy of which Scotsmen of the present many years," says Mr. Ramsay, "the singing day can have no just notion. I am old enough of songs was the great delight of the higher and to have conversed with Mr. Spittal, of Leuchat, middle order of the people, as well as of the a scholar and a man of fashion, who survived peasantry; and though a taste for Italian music all the members of the Union Parliament, in has interfered with this amusement, it is stil which he had a seat. His pronunciation and very prevalent. Between forty and fifty years phraseology differed as much from the common ago, the common people were not only exceeddialect, as the language of St. James's from that ingly fond of songs and ballads, but of metrical of Thames Street. Had we retained a court history. Often have I, in my cheerful morn of and parliament of our own, the tongues of the two sister kingdoms would indeed have differed like the Castilian and Portuguese; but each would have its own classics, not in a single branch, but in the whole circle of literature. "For youth, listened to them with delight, when reading or reciting the exploits of Wallace and Lord Hailes Bruce against the Southrons. was wont to call Blind Harry their Bible, he being their great favourite next the Scriptures. "Ramsay associated with the men of wit When, therefore, one in the vale of life felt the and fashion of his day, and several of them at- first emotion of genius, he wanted not models tempted to write poetry in his manner. Per- sui generis. But though the seeds of poetry sons too idle or too dissipated to think of com- were scattered with a plentiful hand among the positions that required much exertion, succeeded Scottish peasantry, the product was probably very happily in making tender sounets to fa- like that of pears and apples-of a thousand vourite tunes in compliment to their mistresses, that sprung up, nine hundred and fifty are so and transforming themselves into impassioned bad as to set the teeth on edge; forty-five or he Night Thoughts, prefixed a copy of verses." Estract of a letter from Mr Ramsay of Ochtertyre to the Editor. *Beginning, What beauties does Flora disclose + Beginning, I have heard a lilting at our ewes. milking more are passable and useful; and the rest of der each of these points of view, and close our an exquisite flavour. Allan Ramsay and Burns examination with a few general observations. 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." It has frequently been observed, that Scotland has produced, comparatively speaking, few writers who have excelled in humour. But this observation is true only when applied to those who have continued to reside in their own country, and have confined themselves to composiFrom this general view, it is apparent that tion in pure English; and in these circumAllan Ramsay may be considered as in a great stances it admits of an easy explanation. The measure the reviver of the rural poetry of his Scottish poets, who have written in the dialect country. His collection of ancient Scottish of Scotland, have been at all times remarkable poems under the name of The Ever-green, his for dwelling on subjects of humour, in which collection of Scottish songs, and his own poems, indeed some of them have excelled. It would the principal of which is the Gentle Shepherd, be easy to show, that the dialect of Scotland have been universally read among the peasantry having become provincial, is now scarcely suitof his country, and have in some degree super-ed to the more elevated kinds of poetry. If we seded the adventures of Bruce and Wallace, as recorded by Barbour and Blind Harry. Burns was well acquainted with all of these. He had also before him the poems of Fergusson in the Scottish dialect, which have been produced in our own times, and of which it will be necessary to give a short account. may believe that the poem of Christis Kirk 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 Fergusson was born of parents who had it in muse of Scotland had been formed. Christis their power to procure him a liberal education, Kirk of the Grene was reprinted by Ramsay, a circumstance, however, which in Scotland, somewhat modernized in the orthography, and implies no very high rank in society. From a two cantos were added by him, in which he atwell written and apparently authentic account tempts to carry on the design. Hence the poem of his life, we learn that he spent six years at of King James is usually printed in Ramsay's the schools of Edinburgh and Dundee, and se- works. The royal bard describes, in the first veral years at the universities of Edinburgh and canto, a rustic dance, and afterwards a contenSt. Andrew's. It appears that he was at one tion in archery, ending in an affray. Ramsay time destined for the Scottish church; but as relates the restoration of concord, and the rehe advanced towards manhood, he renounced newal of the rural sports with the humours of a that intention, and at Edinburgh entered the country wedding. Though each of the poets office of an attorney. Fergusson had sensibility describes the manners of his respective age, yet of mind, a warm and generous heart, and ta- in the whole piece there is a very sufficient unilents for society, of the most attractive kind. formity; a striking proof of the identity of chaTo such a man no situation could be more dan-racter in the Scottish peasantry at the two pegerous than that in which he was placed. The riods, distant from each other three hundred excesses into which he was led, impaired his years. It is an honourable distinction to this Reble constitution, and he sunk under them in body of men, that their character and manners, the month of October, 1774, in his 23d or 24th very little embellished, have been found to be year. Burns was not acquainted with the susceptible of an amusing and interesting spepoems of this youthful genius when he himself cies of poetry; and it must appear not a little began to write poetry; and when he first saw curious, that the single nation of modern Euthem, he had renounced the muses. But while rope which possesses an original poetry, should he resided in the town of Irvine, meeting with have received the model, followed by their rusFergusson's Scottish Poems, he informs us that tic bards, from the monarch on the throne. he "strung his lyre anew with emulating vi- The two additional cantos to Christis Kirk gour." Touched by the sympathy originating of the Grene, written by Ramsay, though obin kindred genius, and in the forebodings of si-jectionable in point of delicacy, are among the milar fortune, Burns regarded Fergusson with happiest of his productions. His chief excela partial and an affectionate admiration. Over lence indeed, lay in the description of rural chahis grave he erected a monument, as has al-racters, incidents, and scenery; for he did not ready been mentioned; and his poems he has in several instances made the subjects of his imitation. possess any very high powers either of imagination or of understanding. He was well acquainted with the peasantry of Scotland, their From this account of the Scottish poems lives and opinions. The subject was in a great known to Burns, those who are acquainted measure new; his talents were equal to the with them will see they are chiefly humorous subject, and he has shown that it may be hapor pathetic; and under one or other of these pily adapted to pastoral poetry. In his Gentle descriptions most of his own poems will class. Shepherd, the characters are delineations from Let us compare him with his predecessors un-nature, the descriptive parts are in the genuine His locked, letter'd, braw brass collar, style of beautiful simplicity, the passions and may be considered as a Scottish pastoral, is the affections of rural life are finely portrayed, and happiest of all his productions, and certainly the heart is pleasingly interested in the happi- was the archetype of the Cotter's Saturday ness that is bestowed on innocence and virtue. Night. Fergusson, and more especially Burns, Throughout the whole there is an air of reality have shown, that the character and manners of which the most careless reader cannot but per- the peasantry of Scotland, of the present times, ceive; and in fact no poem ever perhaps ac-are as well adapted to poetry, as in the days of quired so high a reputation, in which truth re- Ramsay, or of the author of Christis Kirk of ceived so little embellishment from the imagina- the Grene. tion. In his pastoral songs, and his rural tales, The humour of Burns is of a richer vein than Ramsay appears to less advantage, indeed, but that of Ramsay or Fergusson, both of whom, as still with considerable attraction. The story of he himself informs us, he had "frequently in his the Monk and the Miller's Wife, though some-eye, but rather with a view to kindle at their what licentious, may rank with the happiest flame, than to servile imitation." His descripproductions of Prior or La Fontaine. But when tive powers, whether the objects on which they he attempts subjects from higher life, and aims are employed be comic or serious, animate, or at pure English composition, he is feeble and inanimate, are of the highest order.-A supeuninteresting, and seldom even reaches medio- riority of this kind is essential to every species erity. Neither are his familiar epistles and of poetical excellence. In one of his earlier elegies in the Scottish dialect entitled to much poems his plan seems to be to inculcate a lesson approbation. Though Fergusson had higher of contentment on the lower classes of society, powers of imagination than Ramsay, his genius by showing that their superiors are neither was not of the highest order; nor did his learn- much better nor happier than themselves; and ing, which was considerable, improve his ge- this he chooses to execute in the form of a dianius. His poems written in pure English, in logue between two dogs. He introduces this which he often follows classical models, though dialogue by an account of the persons and chasuperior to the English poems of Ramsay, sel-racters of the speakers. The first, whom he dom rise above mediocrity; but in those com- has named Cæsar, is a dog of condition :— posed 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 suscepti-« ble 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 effu- Never were twa dogs so exquisitely delineatsions of an irregular though amiable young man, ed. Their gambols, before they sit down to who wrote for the periodical papers of the day, moralize, are described with an equal degree of and who died in early youth. Had his life been happiness; and through the whole dialogue, prolonged under happier circumstances of for-the character, as well as the different condition tune, he would probably have risen to much of the two speakers, is kept in view. The higher reputation. He might have excelled in speech of Luath, in which he enumerates the rural poetry, for though his professed pastorals comforts of the poor, gives the following acon the established Sicilian model, are stale and count of their merriment on the first day of the uninteresting, The Farmer's Ingle, which year: High-bred though he is, he is however full of condescension: At kirk or market, mill or smiddie, The other, Luath, is a plougman's-collie," but a cur of a good heart and a sound understanding. His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face, The farmer's fire-side. "That merry day the year begins, They bar the door on frosty winds. The nappy reeks wi' mantling ream, Freedom and Whisky gang thegither, Of this union of humour, with the higher powers of imagination, instances may be found in the poem entitled Death and Dr. Hornbook, and in almost every stanza of the Address to the Deil, one of the happiest of his productions. After reproaching this terrible being with all which he passes through a series of Scottish his "doings" and misdeeds, in the course of 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 eye weel, auld Nickie-ben! I'm wae to think upo' yon den Ev'n for your sake! Of all the animals who have moralized on human 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, excepting in their talent for moralizing, are downright dogs. 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. It is seldom, however, that the humour of Burns appears in so simple a form. The liveliness of his sensibility frequently impels him to introFergusson wrote a dialogue between the duce into subjects of humour, emotions of ten- This probably suggested to Burns his dialogue Causeway and the Plainstones,* of Edinburgh. derness or of pity; and, where occasion admits, between the Old and New Bridge over the river he is sometimes carried on to exert the higher Ayr. The nature of such subjects requires that powers of imagination. In such instances he leaves the society of Ramsay and of Fergusson, they shall be treated humorously, and Fergusson and associates himself with the masters of Eng-the Causeway and the Plainstones talk tohas attempted nothing beyond this. Though lish poetry, whose language he frequently asgether, no attempt is made to personify the speakers. sumes. Humour and tenderness are here so happily intermixed, that it is impossible to say which preponderates. Of the union of tenderness and humour, examples may be found in The Death and Dying In the dialogue between the Brigs of Ayr, the poet, 66 press'd by care," or Words of poor Mailie, in The auld Farmer's inspired by New-Year's Morning Salutation to his Mare whim," had left his bed in the town of Ayr, Maggie, and in many other of his poems. The litude of a winter night, to the mouth of the and wandered out alone in the darkness and sopraise of whisky is a favourite subject with Burns. To this he dedicates his poem of river, where the stillness was interrupted only Scotch Drink. After mentioning its cheering by the rushing sound of the influx of the tide. influence in a variety of situations, he describes, had struck two, and the sound had been reIt was after midnight. The Dungeon-clock with singular liveliness and power of fancy, its stimulating effects on the blacksmith working at his forge: peated by Wallace-Tower. All else was hushed. The moon shone brightly, and "The chilly frost, beneath the silver beam, Crept, gently-crusting, o'er the glittering stream." In this situation, the listening bard hears the "clanging sugh" of wings moving through the air, aud 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 times. They differ, as may be ex • Plainstones-ide-pavement. |