by Robert Burns
5 O cauld blaws the e’enin blast cold blows
When bitter bites the frost,
And in the mirk and dreary drift dark
The hills and glens are lost.
Ne’er sae murky blew the night so dirty
10 That drifted o’er the hill,
But bonie Peg a Ramsey
Gat grist to her mill. got
This is often printed under the title Cauld is the E’enin Blast, but Mackay’s title is probably best suited because it emphasises the sexual metaphor of milling associated with Peggy Ramsay, a name famed in bawdy song from before the time of Shakespeare. (In Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3, Sir Toby Belch says, ‘Malvolio’s a Peg-a-Ramsay’.)
There was a Bonie Lass
First printed in Johnson, 1803.0
THERE was a bonie lass,
And a bonie, bonie lass,
And she lo’ed her bonie laddie dear; loved
Till war’s loud alarms
5 Tore her laddie frae her arms, from
Wi’ monie a sigh and a tear. many
Over sea, over shore,
Where the cannons loudly roar;
He still was a stranger to fear:
10 And nocht could him quail, nothing
Or his bosom assail,
But the bonie lass he lo’ed sae dear. loved so
This is probably based on a traditional song which editors have been unable to trace. Henderson and Henley call it a ‘cento of old catchwords’ (Vol. III, p. 445).
There’s News Lasses News
Tune: Captain MacKenzie’s Reel
First printed in Johnson, 1803.
THERE’S news, lasses, news,
Gude news I’ve to tell, good
There’s a boatfu’ o’ lads
Come to our town to sell.
Chorus
5 The wean wants a cradle, child lacks
And the cradle wants a cod, pillow
An’ I’ll no gang to my bed not go
Until I get a nod.
Father, quo’ she, Mither, quo’ she, mother
10 Do what you can,
I’ll no gang to my bed go
Until I get a man.
The wean &c.
I hae as guid a craft rig have, good, croft ridge
As made o’ yird and stane; earth, stone
15 And waly fa’ the ley-crap woe befall, meadow crop
For I maun till’d again. must till it
The wean &c.
Here Burns has woven together a fragment of a song from the Herd collection (1769), along with a traditional lyric I Wanna Gang to My Bed Until I Get a Man. The final stanza is from Burns.
O that I had Ne’er been Married
First printed in Johnson, 1803.
O that I had ne’er been married,
I wad never had nae care, would, no
Now I’ve gotten wife and bairns children
An’ they cry crowdie ever mair. for food, more
Chorus
5 Ance crowdie, twice crowdie,
Three times crowdie in a day;
Gin ye crowdie onie mair, if, any more
Ye’ll crowdie a’ my meal away. eat all
Waefu’ Want and Hunger fley me, woeful, terrify
10 Glowrin by the hallan en’; staring, porch entrance
Sair I fecht them at the door, sore, fight
But ay I’m eerie they come ben. always, afraid, inside
Ance crowdie &c.
Johnson prints this as ‘Corrected by R. Burns’. Only the final verse, by far the most distinctive part of the song, is by Burns: the main text is traditional.
On Rough Roads
First printed in Scott Douglas, 1876.
I’m now arriv’d — thanks to the Gods! —
Through pathways rough and muddy,
A certain sign that makin roads
Is no this people’s study: not
Altho’ I’m not wi’ Scripture cram’d,
I’m sure the Bible says
That heedless sinners shall be damn’d,
Unless they mend their ways.
This first appears with Scott Douglas in 1877 who estimates the composition date for sometime in 1786. This is probably in error. It is accepted to the canon by Mackay (p. 256) but placed in Dubia by Kinsley (no. 629), who questions whether it is by Burns. Kinsley remarks ‘… if Burns wrote the piece, it more probably belongs to the period of the Highland tour’ (Vol. III, no. 629, p. 1529). The reference to Psalms cxxv, v. 5 is in the manner of Burns, although the first section is linguistically weak. If Scott Douglas transcribed it from a letter he saw (as claimed) which was later destroyed, then it is probably authentic. There is no extant manuscript, but the transcript in the Wisbech and Fenland Museum records that it was written on a window of an Inn at Moffat, suggesting a later date, possibly when Burns lived in Dumfries. It is probably his.
The German Lairdie
First printed in Barke, 1955.
WHAT merriment has taen the whigs, taken
I think they be gaen mad, Sir, gone
Wi’ playing up their whiggish jigs,
Their dancin may be sad, Sir. —
Chorus
5 Sing heedle liltie, teedle liltie,
Andumn tandum tandie;
Sing fal de lal, de dal lal lal,
Sing howdle liltie dandie. —
The Revolution principles
10 Has put their heads in bees, Sir; buzzing/spinning
They’re a’ fa’n out amang themsels, all fallen, among
Deil tak the first that grees, Sir. — agrees
Sing heedle &c.
According to Kinsley, Burns has abridged the long political ballad What Murrain Now has Tae’n the Whigs. The original was in vogue after the 1688 revolution, as mentioned at l. 9.
Coila, by the Banks of Nith
First printed here as poetry by Burns.
By Banks of Nith I sat and wept,
When Coila I thought on;
In midst therof I hung my harp
The willow trees upon –
This fragment is included by Burns in a letter to John Beugo, an Edinburgh Engraver, dated 9th September, 1788 (Letter 268). It is, of course, a parody of Metrical Psalm 137, vv. 1–2.
Fragment to Clarinda
First printed by Alexander Cunningham, 1834.
Innocence
Look’d, gayly smiling on; while rosy Pleasure
Hid young Desire amid her flowery wreath,
And pour’d her cup luxuriant; mantling high,
The sparkling heavenly vintage, Love and Bliss!
These lines first appear with Cunningham, but Scott Douglas suggests they might be from Milton, although he prints them (Vol. II, p. 232). There is no trace of the lines in Milton. They have not been printed by any editor during the 20th century. Professor Delancey Ferguson observes in a footnote to his edition of the poet’s letters that the lines were attributed to Burns by J.B. Reid in his 1889 Concordance to the Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, published in Glasgow. There are several poetic quotes in the same letter by Burns, all of them within quotation marks. Ferguson states, ‘The absence of quotation marks in the MS suggests that Reid may have been right’ (Letter 181).
The Ruin’d Maid’s Complaint (final stanza)
First printed in Hogg and Motherwell, 1834.
But Heaven’s curse will blast the man
Denies the bairn he got,
Or leaves the merry lass he lo’ed loved
To wear a ragged coat.
Of the seven stanzas in this traditional work, the final lines are almost certainly the work of Burns. They do not feature in the original song and are on a subject close to the poet’s heart, taking responsibility for begetting children. Stenhouse and other editors during the 19th century attributed this stanza to Burns, but modern editors have tended to overlook this last stanza aware that Burns did not write the entire song. This stanza, almost word for word, is also employed by Burns to end his bawdy song
Wha’ll Mow Me Now.
On Marriage
First printed in Henley and Henderson, 1896.
That hackney’d judge of human life,
The Preacher and the King,
Observes: ‘The man that gets a wife
He gets a noble thing.’
But how capricious are mankind,
Now loathing, now desirous!
We married men, how oft we find
The best of things will tire us!
This appears in Henley–Henderson and the Chambers–Wallace edition and features in Kinsley’s Dubia section only because he could not date the composition (Vol. III, p. 1527). It is by Burns.
The Book-Worms – 1
First printed in Cunningham, 1834.
Through and through the inspired leaves,
Ye maggots, make your windings;
But, oh! respect his lordship’s taste,
And spare his golden bindings.
The Book-Worms – 2
Free thro’ the leaves ye maggots make your windings,
But for the Owner’s sake oh spare the Bindings!
The original printed by Cunningham and a transcript by John Syme are both given here. Burns may have written two versions of these lines, or the differences may derive from John Syme’s deficient memory. Syme wrote: ‘A friend of the Bard having bought a Bible which was elegantly bound requested him to write something on the blank leaf. Extempore — written with his pencil.’
Kinsley states, ‘Said by Cunningham to have been written in a volume of Shakespeare in a nobleman’s library. The variant copied by Syme was written in a Bible which a friend offered Burns for his inscription’ (Vol. III, p. 1526). Mackay records, almost verbatim, ‘Said by Cunningham to have been inscribed in a volume of Shakespeare in a nobleman’s library. A variant copied by John Syme was written in a Bible which a friend offered Burns for his inscription’ (p. 608).
Her Flowing Locks
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
Her flowing locks, the raven’s wing,
Adown her neck and bosom hing;
How sweet unto that breast to cling,
And round that neck entwine her!
Her lips are roses wat wi’ dew, wet with
O, what a feast, her bonie mou! mouth
Her cheeks a mair celestial hue, more
A crimson still diviner.
This fragment, accepted by modern editors, although it features in Kinsley’s Dubia (as an undated composition) was probably meant to be set to a musical air, but Burns left it unfinished.
Epitaph for Hugh Logan, Esq. of Logan
Here lyes Squire Hugh — ye harlot crew,
Come mak your water on him,
I’m sure that he well pleas’d would be
To think ye pish’d upon him.
Hugh Logan (1739–1802) was laird of Logan, near Cumnock. In an age when aristocratic gentleman could purchase a small volume with personal details and a description of the active Edinburgh prostitutes, it is almost certain Burns picked up some gossip about Logan’s connection with them.
The Henpeck’d Husband
First printed in Stewart, 1801.
Curs’d be the man, the poorest wretch in life,
The crouching vassal to the tyrant wife,
Who has no will but by her high permission;
Who has not sixpence but in her possession;
5 Who must to her his dear friend’s secret tell;
Who dreads a curtain-lecture worse than hell.
Were such the wife had fallen to my part,
I’d break her spirit, or I’d break her heart;
I’d charm her with the magic of a switch,
10 I’d kiss her maids, and kick the perverse bitch.
This is given without comment in Kinsley’s Dubia section, leaving readers to ponder whether he considered it to be an undated composition by Burns or that he rejected it. Mackay accepts it as a work of Burns. It was first printed in Glasgow in 1801 among Poems Ascribed to Robert Burns. There are several short pieces on the theme of tyrannical wives preserved at the British Museum’s archive of single sheet poetry from the 1790s. Burns may have seen some of these.
Here’s a Bottle and an Honest Friend
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
There’s nane that’s blest of human kind
But the cheerful and the gay, man.
Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man? would, more
Wha kens, before his life may end, who knows
What his share may be o’ care, man.
Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man: —
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not ay when sought, man. always
This is another work on which Kinsley makes no comment, either to include or reject from the canon. Mackay accepts it. It was apparently seen in manuscript by the 1839 Aldine editor. The inscription is probably the work of Burns as well.
Pretty Peg
First printed in The Edinburgh Magazine, January 1808.
As I cam in by our gate-end, went
As day was waxin weary,
O wha cam tripping down the street who
But pretty Peg, my dearie!
5 Her air sae sweet, and shape complete,
Wi’ nae proportion wanting, no
The Queen of Love could never move
Wi’ motion mair enchanting. more
With linked hands we took the sands
10 Adown yon winding river;
And, oh! that hour, and broomy bower,
Can I forget it ever! —
This appears first in the Edinburgh Magazine along with a copy of Adam Armour’s Prayer. A second version, from a manuscript copy, features in the same magazine in January 1818. It is this latter, shorter version that is accepted as the improved lyric taken by Burns from a traditional song.
No Cold Approach
Tune: Ianthy the Lovely
First printed in Johnson, Vol. IV, 1792.
No cold approach, no alter’d mien,
Just what would make suspicion start,
No pause the dire extremes between:
He made me blest — and broke my heart.
These lines were added by Burns to a song written by Miss Cranstoun, The Tears I Shed, to make the lyric better fit the music. In notes to the Interleaved S.M.M. Burns records, ‘It wanted four lines to make all the stanzas suit the music, which I added’ (Henley– Henderson, Vol. IV, p. 103).
The Vowels: a Tale
First printed in Cromek, 1808.
’TWAS where the birch and sounding thong are plyed,
The noisy domicile of Pedant-pride;
Where Ignorance her darkening vapour throws,
And Cruelty directs the thickening blows;
5 Upon a time, Sir Abece the great,
In all his pedagogic powers elate,
His awful Chair of state resolves to mount,
And call the trembling Vowels to account. —
First enter’d A; a grave, broad, solemn Wight,
10 But ah! deform’d, dishonest to the sight!
His twisted head look’d backward on his way,
And flagrant from the scourge he grunted, AI!
Reluctant, E stalk’d in; with piteous race, speed
The jostling tears ran down his honest face!
15 That name, that well-worn name, and all his own,
Pale he surrenders at the tyrant’s throne!
The Pedant stifles keen the Roman sound
Not all his mongrel diphthongs can compound;
And next the title following close behind,
20 He to the nameless, ghastly wretch assign’d.
The cob-webb’d, Gothic dome resounded, Y!
In sullen vengeance, I, disdain’d reply:
The Pedant swung his felon cudgel round,
And knock’d the groaning Vowel to the ground!
&nb
sp; 25 In rueful apprehension enter’d O,
The wailing minstrel of despairing woe;
Th’ Inquisitor of Spain the most expert
Might there have learnt new mysteries of his art:
So grim, deform’d, with horrors, entering U,
30 His dearest friend and brother scarcely knew!
As trembling U stood staring all aghast,
The Pedant in his left hand clutch’d him fast;
In helpless infants’ tears he dipp’d his right,
Baptiz’d him EU, and kick’d him from his sight.
This exists in manuscript although its provenance has been questioned. The manuscript has corrections by Burns, suggesting at the very least, that he either improved the lines on behalf of another author, or polished up a work of his own. It is rightly accepted by Kinsley and Mackay. Kinsley states, ‘Dewar suggested that Burns may have “copied out a poem sent to him and corrected it for the author”… But it would not have been necessary to make a fair copy in order to insert a few minor corrections’ (Vol. III, p. 1527).