by Robert Burns
On Mr. Walter Riddell, Esq.
First printed in 1801 by Oliver (Edinburgh);
then by Duncan, 1801 (Glasgow).
So vile was poor Wat, such a miscreant slave,
That the worms ev’n damn’d him when laid in his grave.
‘In his scull there is famine,’ a starv’d reptile cries;
‘And his heart it is poison,’ another replies.
Walter Riddell (1764–1802) was Robert Riddell’s younger brother.
He married Maria Woodely in 1790 and lived at Woodley Park.
On the Seas and Far Away
Tune: O’er the Hills
First printed in Currie, 1800.
How can my poor heart be glad,
When absent from my Sailor lad;
How can I the thought forego,
He’s on the seas to meet the foe:
5 Let me wander, let me rove,
Still my heart is with my Love;
Nightly dreams and thoughts by day
Are with him that’s far away.
Chorus
On the seas and far away,
10 On stormy seas and far away,
Nightly dreams and thoughts by day,
Are ay with him that ’s far away. always
When in summer noon I faint,
As weary flocks around me pant,
15 Haply in this scorching sun
My Sailor ’s thund’ring at his gun:
Bullets spare my only joy!
Bullets spare my darling boy!
Fate do with me what you may,
20 Spare but him that ’s far away.
Chorus
On the seas and far away,
On stormy seas and far away,
Fate, do with me what you may,
Spare but him that’s far away.
25 At the starless midnight hour
When Winter rules with boundless power;
As the storms the forests tear,
And thunders rend the howling air:
Listening to the doubling roar,
30 Surging on the rocky shore,
All I can — I weep and pray
For his weal that ’s far away.
Chorus
On the seas and far away,
On stormy seas and far away,
35 All I can — I weep and pray
For his weal that ’s far away.
Peace, thy olive wand extend
And bid wild War his ravage end,
Man with brother Man to meet,
40 And as brother kindly greet:
Then may Heaven with prosperous gales
Fill my Sailor’s welcome sails,
To my arms their charge convey,
My dear lad that ’s far away.
Chorus
45 On the seas and far away,
On stormy seas and far away,
To my arms their charge convey,
My dear lad that ’s far away.
This was sent to Thomson on 30th August, 1794. Picking up on the poet’s self-effacing remarks on the song (Letter 635), Thomson rejected it claiming that the young lady referred to would not plead that ‘bullets’ should spare her lover. It is more probable Thomson rejected it on the grounds of its anti-war stance, given that he disliked every anti-war lyric by Burns. The lyric, like the new radical song The Ewe Bughts, is in the feminine voice.
To Dr. Maxwell,
On Miss Jessy Staig’s Recovery
First printed in Currie, 1800.
Maxwell, if merit here you crave,
That merit I deny:
You save fair Jessie from the grave!
An ANGEL could not die.
Jessy Staig was the daughter of David Staig, the Provost of Dumfries. Dr William Maxwell, son of James Maxwell of Kirkconnell, was born in 1760 and died in 1834. He studied medicine at Paris. He was a member of the guard at the execution of the King and Queen of France, before returning to Scotland to practise medicine. When he raised a subscription to manufacture daggers for the French Republican army he was dubbed by the London Sun newspaper as Britain’s most dangerous Jacobin. Burns, obviously proud of his friend, describes him to Mrs Dunlop as ‘the identical Dr Maxwell whom Burke mentioned in the House of Commons’ (Letter 637). See commentary on The Dagger. Robert Thornton’s William Maxwell to Robert Burns (Edinburgh, 1979) is informative but politically naïve
Ca’ the Yowes to the Knowes
Second Version
First printed in Currie, 1800.
Hark, the mavis’ evening sang thrush, song
Sounding Clouden’s woods amang; among
Then a faulding let us gang, to sheep pens, go
My bonie Dearie.
Chorus
5 Ca’ the yowes to the knowes, call, ewes, hill slopes
Ca’ them whare the heather grows, call/drive
Ca’ them where the burnie rowes, stream flows
My bonie Dearie.
We’ll gae down by Clouden side, go
10 Thro’ the hazels spreading wide
O’er the waves, that sweetly glide
To the moon sae clearly. so
Ca’ the yowes, &c.
Yonder Clouden’s silent towers
Where, at moonshine’s midnight hours,
15 O’er the dewy bending flowers
Fairies dance sae cheary.
Ca’ the yowes, &c.
Ghaist nor bogle shalt thou fear; ghost, demon
Thou’rt to Love and Heaven sae dear,
Nocht of Ill may come thee near, nothing
20 My bonie Dearie.
Ca’ the yowes, &c.
Fair and lovely as thou art,
Thou hast stown my very heart; stolen
I can die – but canna part, cannot
My bonie Dearie.
Ca’ the yowes, &c.
This improved version was sent to Thomson in September 1794 (See Letter 636). He eventually printed the song in 1805. The Clouden is a small tributary of the river Nith and the ‘silent towers’ refer to Lincluden Abbey, built on the same design as Paisley Abbey. It is still a beautiful area to walk, especially in Autumn.
She Says She Lo’es me Best of a’ –
Or Sae Flaxen were her Ringlets
Tune: Oonagh’s Waterfall
First printed by Johnson in S. M. M., December 1796.
Sae flaxen were her ringlets, so
Her eyebrows of a darker hue,
Bewitchingly o’er arching
Twa laughing een o’ bonie blue.— two, eyes
5 Her smiling, sae wyling, so, beguiling
Wad make a wretch forget his woe; would
What pleasure, what treasure,
Unto those rosy lips to grow:
Such was my Chloris’ bonie face,
10 When first that bonie face I saw;
And ay my Chloris’ dearest charm, always
She says, she lo’es me best of a’. — loves, all
Like harmony her motion;
Her pretty ankle is a spy,
15 Betraying fair proportion,
Wad make a saint forget the sky. —
Sae warming, sae charming, so
Her fautless form and gracefu’ air, faultless
Ilk feature — auld Nature each, old
20 Declar’d that she could dae nae mair: do no more
Hers are the willing chains o’ love,
By conquering Beauty’s sovereign law;
And ay my Chloris’ dearest charm,
She says, she lo’es me best of a’. —
25 Let others love the city,
And gaudy shew at sunny noon; show
Gie me the lonely valley, give
The dewy eve, and rising moon
Fair beaming, and streaming
30 Her silver light the boughs amang; among
While falling, recalling,
The amorous thrush concludes his sang; song
There, dearest Chloris, wilt thou rove
By wimpling burn and leafy
shaw, wood
35 And hear my vows o’ truth and love,
And say, thou lo’es me best of a’. —
This fine lyric is based on an old song Burns collected for The Merry Muses, to which he adapted ‘decent’ verses, dedicating them to his ‘Chloris’ (Jean Lorimer). It was sent to both Johnson and Thomson. We have returned a few words spelt in English in previous editions to the original Scots.
Why Should We Idly Waste Our Prime
Or a Revolutionary Lyric
First printed by Cunningham, 1834.
Why should we idly waste our prime
Repeating our oppressions?
Come rouse to arms! ‘Tis now the time
To punish past transgressions.
5 ’Tis said that Kings can do no wrong —
Their murderous deeds deny it,
And since from us their power is sprung,
We have a right to try it.
Now each true patriot’s song shall be —
10 ‘Welcome Death or Libertie!’
Proud Priests and Bishops we’ll translate
And canonize as Martyrs;
The guillotine on Peers shall wait;
And Knights shall hang in garters.
15 Those Despots long have trode us down,
And Judges are their engines:
Such wretched minions of a Crown
Demand the people’s vengeance!
To-day ’tis theirs. To-morrow we
20 Shall don the Cap of Libertie!
The Golden Age we’ll then revive:
Each man will be a brother;
In harmony we all shall live,
And share the earth together;
25 In Virtue train’d, enlighten’d Youth
Will love each fellow-creature;
And future years shall prove the truth
That Man is good by nature:
Then let us toast with three times three
The reign of Peace and Libertie!
This song is given, on the basis of recent research, as one improved by Burns. The song originally appears, according to Mackay, in Cunningham (1834), then in Chambers (1838). Neither question its authenticity, given that it was, as Scott Douglas comments in the 1870s, found in manuscript. Scott Douglas dismissed it with The Tree of Liberty on tenuous grounds:
The present editor has little doubt that this production, and also The Tree of Liberty, if really taken from Burns’s MS, [must] have been merely transcribed by him from the pages of some wild Magazine of the period (Vol. II, p. 392).
This anti-radical prejudice was endorsed by Henderson and Henley in 1896. Robert Hughes, though, accepted the song in the 1920s. James Barke also endorsed it. Kinsley (1968) ignored it. Mackay followed suit, placing it in Appendix B of his Burns: A-Z, The Complete Wordfinder (no. 51, p. 731). Ross Roy brushed it aside in Poems and Songs Spuriously Attributed to Robert Burns without any argument (See Critical Essays on Robert Burns, ed. Carol McGuirk, G. K. Hall, New York, 1998, pp. 225–37).
Recent research located the original song, supposedly in the hand of the Scots London based radical leader of the London Corresponding Society, Thomas Hardy, a Scot, born in Larbert. The song is located in the Treasurer’s Solicitor’s Papers, Public Record Office, Kew, London, bundled among papers seized from Thomas Hardy’s house when he was arrested on a spurious charge of High Treason at the end of 1794 (See TS 11/959/3505). The manuscript indicates that the song was written to the tune The Vicar of Bray. It is not in the handwriting of Hardy. It has been transcribed by a government official after the seizure and indicates in a head-note that it was found in the handwriting of a person unknown. This, however, is contradicted at the close of the song where it states ‘in Hardy’s hand’. It would be wrong to suppose Hardy as the original author, even if the latter note is correct. He was not known to write any songs or poetry. As the prime mover in the London Corresponding Society, which established links throughout Britain with leading radicals – including Burns’s friend Lord Daer – it is almost certain that Hardy received the song from a reformist associate. Given that there is evidence a manuscript existed in Burns’s hand, he must have received a copy from a radical friend, possibly even Hardy himself. Here is the original:
A Revolutionary Lyric
Why should we vainly waste our prime
Repeating our oppressions?
Come rouse to arms ’tis now the time
To punish past transgressions.
5 ’Tis said that Kings can do no wrong -
Their Murderous deeds deny it,
And since from us their power has sprung,
We have the right to try it.
Chorus: Come rouse to arms &c.
The starving wretch who steals for bread
10 But seldom meets compassion -
And shall a Crown preserve the head
Of him who robs a Nation?
Such partial laws we all despise
See Gallia’s bright example
15 The glorious sight before our eyes
We’ll on every Tyrant Trample.
Come rouse to arms &c.
Proud Bishops next we will translate
Among Priest crafted Martyrs;
The guillotine on Peers shall wait;
20 And Knights we’ll hang in Garters.
Those Despots long have trod us down,
And judges are their Engines:
These Wretched Minions of a Crown
Demand a people’s Vengeance!
Come rouse &c.
25 Our juries are a venal pack
See Justice Topsy Turvy
In Freedom’s cause they’ve turn’d aback
Of Englishmen unworthy.
The Glorious work but once begun
30 We’ll Cleanse the Augean stable
A moment lost and we are undone.
Come strike while we are able.
Come rouse &c.
The Golden Age will then revive
Each Man shall be a Brother;
35 In peace and harmony will live,
And share the World together.
In Virtue train’d, Enlightened Youth
Will love each fellow creature;
And future years shall prove the truth
40 That man is good by nature.
This is evidently the work of a passionately radical poet. The two most likely authors of the original are Thomas Spence, author of Pig’s Meat, Address to the Swinish Multitude, and Joseph Mather, the Sheffield poet whose best known polemical works are True Reformers, Britons Awake and The File Hewer’s Lamentation. Despite finding the above text in manuscript, it is not possible, as yet, to establish for certain the original author. However, it seems pretty clear that for Burns to make his own manuscript version, he must first have seen the above, original text.
The difference between the two songs is that the original has two additional stanzas. Contextually, the song can be dated to late 1794 when the London treason trials began. The Burns-attributed version drops the chorus to a double-line refrain. The first of these appears to echo Scots Wha Hae, ‘Now each new patriot’s song shall be:- / ‘Welcome Death or Libertie’. The second sounds less like Burns, ‘To-day ’tis theirs. To-morrow we/ Shall don the Cap of Libertie’. The third refrain vividly echoes There Was A Lad ‘as sure as three times three …’: ‘Then let us toast with three times three, / The reign of Peace and Libertie!’ The final lines ring true to expected improvements from Burns and he, in so doing, would have cut away the weaker verses.
So, although the Burns manuscript is no longer extant, we can now compare and contrast the so-called Burns version and conclude with little doubt that the song is not his. It was written, almost certainly by an English radical poet. However, on the evidence that Burns appears to have seen the original and made improvements to it, the song can be added to the canon in the category of works he improved. Around thirty percent of the songs allowed to the canon are only partly his. The song, of course, gives further evid
ence of Burns’s integral relationship to British radicalism.
O Saw Ye My Phely
Tune: When She Cam Ben She Bobbit –
First printed in Currie, 1800.
O, saw ye my Dearie, my Phely?
O, saw ye my Dearie, my Phely?
She’s down i’ the grove, she’s wi’ a new Love,
She winna come hame to her Willy. — will not
What says she, my Dearest, my Phely?
What says she, my Dearest, my Phely?
She lets thee to wit she has thee forgot,
And for ever disowns thee her Willy. —
O had I ne’er seen thee, my Phely!
O had I ne’er seen thee, my Phely!
As light as the air, and fause as thou’s fair, false
Thou ’s broken the heart o’ thy Willy. —
This was sent to Thomson on 19th October, 1794. It is a variation on his earlier song My Eppie McNab.
How Lang and Dreary is the Night
Tune: Cauld Kail.
First printed by Thomson, 1798.
How lang and dreary is the night, long