Transcription
A BURNS COMPANION
A BURNSCOMPANIONALAN BOLDPalgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-21167-8ISBN 978-1-349-21165-4 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21165-4 Alan Bold 1991Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 978-0-333-42270-0All rights reserved. For information, write:Scholarly and Reference Division,St. Martin's Press, lnc., 175 Fifth Avenue,New York, N.Y. 10010First published in the United States of America in 1991ISBN 978-0-312-04500-5library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBold, Alan Norman, 1943A Bums companion I Alan Bold.p.em.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 978-0-312-04500-51. Burns, Robert, 1759-1796.2. Poets, Scottish -18th centuryBiography.I. Title.PR4331.B641991821'.6 -dc20[B]89-70109CIP
ContentsList of PlatesixPrefacexiAbbreviationsxiiiPART I: BURNS IN CONTEXTA Burns ChronologyThe Burns CircleA Burns Topography132162PART II: ASPECTS OF BURNSDialect and Diction in BurnsBums and ReligionBums and PoliticsBums and PhilosophyBums and BoozeBums and the TheatreThe Bawdy BumsA Technical Note777989100109116123133143PART III: AN APPROACH TO BURNS149PART IV: THE ART OF BURNS175POEMSThe Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie,the Author's only Pet Yowev177
viContentsHoly Willie's PrayerDeath and Doctor HornbookThe Holy FairThe VisionHalloweenThe Twa DogsThe Jolly BeggarsThe Cotter's Saturday NightTo a MouseTo a LouseThe Auld Farmer's New-Year Morning Salutation tohis Auld Mare, MaggieAddress to the DeilThe Author's Earnest Cry and PrayerThe OrdinationAddress of BeelzebubA DreamAddress to the Unco GuidThe CalfThe Brigs of AyrA Winter NightThe Kirk's AlarmElegy on Captain Matthew HendersonTam o ShanterThe Tree of Liberty180185189193199203208217223226VERSE EPISTLESEpistle to John RankineEpistles to DavieEpistles to J. LapraikTo William Simson, OchiltreeEpistle to John GoldieEpistle to the Rev John McMathTo J. SmithTo Gavin Hamilton, Esq., MauchlineEpistle to James Tennant of GlenconnerEpistle to a Young FriendReply to a Trimming EpistleEpistle to Captain William LoganTo the Guidwife of Wauchope 232236240242246249253254259262267272281
ContentsviiEpistle to Hugh ParkerEpistle to Robert Graham, Esq., of FintryEpistle to Dr BlacklockTo Alexander FindlaterEpistle to Colonel De Peyster306307308309311THE SONGSHandsome NellNow Westlin WindsThe Lass of Cessnock BanksMary MorisonThe Rigs o BarleyGreen Grow the Rashes, 0When Guildford GoodMy Highland Lassie, 0The gloomy night is gath'ring fastRantin, Rovin RobinWhere, braving angry winter's stormsMy Peggy's FaceOf a' the airts the wind can blawAuld Lang SyneThe Silver TassieThe Banks o DoonAe Fond KissThe Devil's awa wi' th' ExcisemanThe Chevalier's LamentScots Wha HaeA Red Red RoseAs I stood by yon roofless towerIt was a' for our rightfu kingA Man's a Man for a' That0, Wert Thou in the Cauld BlastFairest Maid on Devon 333334336337338339341344347348351352ELECTION BALLADS354EPITAPHS AND EPIGRAMS360THE LETTERS365
ContentsviiiTHE COMMON PLACE BOOKS382PART V: SELECT BIBLIOCRAPHY389PART VI: APPENDIXES401A: Preface to the Kilmarnock EditionB: Dedication to the Caledonian HuntC: The Autobiographical Letter0: Gilbert's Narrative403405407418Glossary432General Index440Index of Poems445
List of PlatesThe author and publishers wish to acknowledge with thanks thefollowing illustration sources, and to state that in cases where theymay have failed to contact all copyright holders, they will be pleasedto make the necessary arrangement at the first p of the Burns Country. Katrina Ellor.Agnes Broun, the poet's mother. The Scottish National PortraitGallery.Burns Cottage. The Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway. Photograph by McKissack Photographers, Ayr.Mount Oliphant Farm. Prof. Robert T. Fitzhugh.Lochlea Farm, Tarbolton, Ayrshire. Prof. Robert T. Fitzhugh.Mossgiel Farm. Prof. Robert T. Fitzhugh.Robert Fergusson, attributed to Alexander Runciman. TheScottish National Portrait Gallery.Robert Fergusson's Poems: Rt. Hon. the Earl of Rosebery.National Library of Scotland.'The Cotter's Saturday Night': David Allan (1744-96). TheMansell Collection.Burns and 'Highland Mary' 1796: etching by W. B. Scott. TheMansell Collection.The Kilmarnock Edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.Bums Cottage Museum, Alloway. Photograph by McKissockPhotographers, Ayr.Gilbert Bums, brother of the poet. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery.Dr. Thomas Blacklock: William Bonnar. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.Peter Taylor's portrait of Robert Burns in Edinburgh in 1786.The Scottish National Portrait Gallery.Henry Mackenzie. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery.ix
2.33.34.35.36.37.List of PlatesMrs. Frances Anna Dunlop. The Scottish National PortraitGallery.Margaret Chalmers. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery.Robert Bums, 1787: Alexander Nasmyth. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.John Beugo's engraving of Robert Bums, based on AlexanderNasmyth's bust portrait, February 1787. National Library ofScotland.John Miers's silhouette of Robert Bums, 1787. The ScottishNational Portrait Gallery.Neil Gow (1727-1807): Sir Henry Raeburn. The ScottishNational Portrait Gallery.William Smellie, Printer. The Scottish National Portrait GalleryWilliam Creech, Publisher. The Scottish National PortraitGallery.Miers's silhouette of Agnes McLehose. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.Ellisland Farm, Dumfriesshire. Prof. Robert T. Fitzhugh.Maria Riddell: Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.'Tam o Shanter', holograph from the Afton Manuscript inthe Bums Cottage Museum, Alloway. National Library ofScotland.Kirk Alloway. National Library of Scotland.The Theatre Royal, Shakespeare Street, Dumfries. Photographby David Hope, Dumfries.Bums House, Dumfries. Bums Museum, Dumfries.Scale model showing Dumfries in 1794. Robert Bums Centre,Dumfries. Photograph by David Hope, Dumfries.Dr. William Maxwell. Kind permission of Francis MaxwellWitham, Kirkonue House, New Abbey, Dumfries. Photographby David Hope, Dumfries.Jessy Lewars. Prof. Robert T. Fitzhugh.Alexander Reid's miniature of Robert Bums, 1795. The ScottishNational Portrait Gallery.Alexander Skirving's red-chalk portrait of Robert Bums, basedon Nasmyth's bust portrait, c. 1797. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.Jean Armour, the poet's widow, in 1821. The Scottish NationalPortrait Gallery.Bums Mausoleum, Dumfries. Bums Museum, Dumfries.
PrefaceThis Companion has been designed as a biographical and critical guide to Bums, indicating the personal outlines and socialbackground of the personality; and assessing the most importantpoems and songs in some detail. It is in six parts.Part I places Bums in context. The Chronology follows his career,'The Bums Circle' describes his friends and enemies, and the Topography looks at those places that meant most to him as a manand a poet.Part II explores significant Bumsian issues. Short essays on his useof language and technique frame discussions of his position withregard to religion, politics, philosophy, drink, drama and sex.Part III is a more extended essay on Bums as a poetic phenomenonand, with its consideration of role-playing and reality, is intended tostimulate debate about the relevance of Bums to his time and ours.The longest section of the book, Part IV: 'The Art of Bums',examines twenty-five poems, eighteen verse epistles and twenty-sixsongs. It also comments on his other writings: Election Ballads,Epigrams and Epitaphs, the Letters and the Common Place Books.A Select Bibliography (Part V) and four Appendixes (Part VI) arefollowed by a Glossary of Scots words, a general index, and an indexof poems.The aim of the Companion is to inform and advise on the complexnature of this seemingly uncomplicated poet. This Companion iscomplete in itself in that biographical allusions and literary echoes inthe poems discussed are elucidated and the poet's critical reputationis considered. Bums, of course, speaks for himself through theextensive quotations.I would like to thank Oxford University Press for allowing me tomake reference, throughout this Companion, to James Kinsley'sxi
xiiPrefacemonumental three-volume edition of The Poems and Songs of RobertBurns (1968); and the same editor's one-volume version of thatedition, Burns: Poems and Songs (1969), available as an OxfordPaperback. I am similarly grateful to James A. Mackay for allowingme to make reference to his two editions, both authorised by theBums Federation: The Complete Works of Robert Burns (1986) and TheComplete Letters of Robert Burns (1987). Part III of the Companion, 'AnApproach to Bums', adapts material from two sources: my essay'Robert Burns: Superscot' from The Art of Robert Burns, edited byR. D. S. Jack and Andrew Noble and published by Vision Press(London) and Barnes and Noble (Totowa, New Jersey) in 1982; andmy article 'Skulduggery with the Bard's Brains' in the ObserverScotland (22 January 1989).I am indebted to two colleagues for professional advice and assistance: Sarah Roberts-West, my thoughtful editor at Macmillan Press;and Anthony Grahame, who edited the text of the Companion.Finally, I would like to thank two friends: Thomas Crawford, ofAberdeen University, who read the book in typescript and madeuseful comments; and Frank McAdams, of Strathclyde University,who kindly and expertly indexed the book.A.B.
AbbreviationsPoems are cited with reference to two sources: the number assignedto them in James Kinsley's three-volume The Poems and Songs ofRobert Burns (1968) and his one-volume Burns: Poems and Songs(1969), available as an Oxford Paperback; and the page numbersfrom James A. Mackay's one-volume The Complete Works of RobertBurns (1986), authorised by the Bums Federation. Thus 'Tam oShanter' (321/CW, 410-15) indicates that the poem is numbered321 by Kinsley and printed on pp. 410-15 of Mackay's edition.For further details about the titles listed below, see the Select Bibliography.ALThe Autobiographical Letter of 2 August 1787 from Bumsto Dr John Moore (see Appendix C).BEMaurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia (3rd edn., 1980).CBRaymond Lamont Brown (ed.), Robert Burns' CommonPlace Book (1 %9).CHDonald A. Low (ed.), Robert Burns: The Critical Heritage(1974).CLJames A. Mackay (ed.), The Complete Letters of RobertBurns (1987).Crawford Thomas Crawford, Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs(1960).CurrieJames Currie, The Works of Robert Burns (1800; rept. 1815,ed. Alexander Peterkin)cwJames A. Mackay (ed.), The Complete Works of Robert Burns(1986).xiii
AbbreviationsxivFitzhugh Robert T. Fitzhugh, Robert Burns: The Man and the Poet(1970).GNGilbert's Narrative (see Appendix 0).HechtHans Hecht, Robert Burns: The Man and His Work (1936;rept. 1971), containing Robert Heron's Memoir (1797).KinsleyJames Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns(3 vols, 1968).SnyderFranklyn Bliss Snyder, The Life of Robert Burns (1932).
The aim of the Companion is to inform and advise on complex nature of this seemingly uncomplicated poet. This Companion is complete in itself in that biographical allusions and literary echoes in the poems discussed are elucidated and poet's critical reputation is co
