Read The Canongate Burns Online
Authors: Robert Burns
The Canongate Burns (132 page)
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
ALTHO' thou maun never be mine,
shall
      Altho' even hope is denied;
'Tis sweeter for thee despairing,
      Than ought in the warld beside â Jessy.
Chorus
5
Here's a health to ane I loe dear,
one, love
       Here's a health to ane I loe dear;
Thou art sweet as the smile when fond lovers meet,
      And soft as their parting tear â Jessy.
I mourn thro' the gay, gaudy day,
10
      As hopeless I muse on thy charms;
But welcome the dream o' sweet slumber,
      For then I am lockt in thine arms â Jessy.
            Here's a health &c.
This was sent to Thomson in April 1796. It was written about Jessy Lewars (1778â1855), daughter of John Lewars, the poet's colleague in the Excise.Â
First printed in Cunningham, 1834.
Talk not to me of savages
      From Afric's burning sun,
No savage e'er can rend my heart
      As, Jessy, thou hast done.
But Jessy's lovely hand in mine,
      A mutual faith to plight,
Not even to view the heavenly choir
      Would be so blest a sight.
This was supposedly written on the reverse side of a sheet of paper advertising a travelling show which was handed to Burns during his last illness. On Jessie Lewars, see notes above to
Here's a Health to Ane I Loe Dear
.
First printed in Cunningham, 1834.
FILL me with the rosy wine;
Call a toast â a toast divine;
Give the Poet's darling flame,
Lovely Jessy be her name;
Then thou mayest freely boast,
Thou hast given a peerless toast.
This was, according to Cunningham, inscribed on a goblet presented to Miss Jessy Lewars.
First printed in Cunningham, 1834.
Say, sages, what's the charm on earth
      Can turn Death's dart aside?
It is not purity and worth,
      Else Jessy had not died.
First printed in Cunningham, 1834.
But rarely seen since Nature's birth,
      The natives of the sky;
Yet still one seraph's left on earth,
      For Jessy did not die.
Dumfries, with Books which the Bard Presented Her
First printed in Currie, 1800.
THINE be the volumes, Jessy fair,
And with them take the Poet's prayer;
That Fate may in her fairest page,
With every kindliest, best presage,
5
Of future bliss, enrol thy name:
With native worth, and spotless fame,
And wakeful caution, still aware
Of ill â but chief, Man's felon snare;
All blameless joys on earth we find,
10
And all the treasures of the mind â
These be thy guardian and reward;
So prays thy faithful friend, the Bard.Â
Robert Burns.
June 26th, 1796Â
These lines were inscribed by Burns in a copy of James Johnson's
Scots
Musical Museum
which Burns paid for as a present to Miss Jessy Lewars. Jessy lived almost opposite the Burns family house in the Mill Hole Brae (now Burns Street) and tended the poet during his final illness and assisted Jean during and after her pregnancy in July 1796.
Tune: Lennox Love to Blantyre
First printed in Currie, 1800.
Oh wert thou in the cauld blast,
cold
      On yonder lea, on yonder lea;
pasture
My plaidie to the angry airt,
plaid, wind's direction
      I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee:
5
Or did Misfortune's bitter storms
      Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
blow
Thy bield should be my bosom,
shelter
      To share it a', to share it a'.
all
Or were I in the wildest waste,
10
      Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
so
The desart were a paradise,
      If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
Or were I monarch o' the globe,
      Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign;
15
The brightest jewel in my crown,
      Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.
would
These beautiful lyrics, among the last Burns wrote, were dedicated to Jessy Lewars on her helping the poet (and Jean) during his illness.
Tune: Rothiemurchie
First printed in Currie, 1800.
FULL well thou know'st I love thee dear,
Couldst thou to malice lend an ear!
O, did not Love exclaim, âForbear,
      Nor use a faithful lover so.'â
Chorus
5
Fairest maid on Devon banks,
Crystal Devon, winding Devon,
Wilt thou lay that frown aside,
      And smile as thou wert wont to do.
Then come, thou fairest of the fair,
10
Those wonted smiles O let me share;
And by thy beauteous self I swear,
      No love but thine my heart shall know. â
            Fairest maid &c.
This was sent to Thomson on 12th July, 1796 when Burns was at the Brow Well, on the Solway Firth, hoping its bitter iron-dark waters and sea-bathing would help alleviate his rapidly deteriorating health. Letter 706 is profoundly moving; Burns, uncharacteristically, pleads with Thomson, forced to swallow his pride and independent spirit so normally fixed against being paid for song-writing, promptly to despatch
£
5 to him. As he told Thomson, a âcruel scoundrel of a Haberdasher' had started legal action against him for a minor debt that, at this moment, he could not afford to pay. For Burns, this was his father's nightmare come back to haunt the son. The âhorrors of a jail' he exclaimed exacerbated his illness and shook his nervous framework to the core. He had told Dr Moore that it was death that saved his father from the humiliation of being jailed for a debt. This was the last song and letter from Burns to Thomson. It was printed by Thomson in 1801.
First printed in Currie, 1800.
THE friend whom, wild from Wisdom's way
      The fumes of wine infuriate send,
(Not moony madness more astray)
      Who but deplores that hapless friend?
Mine was th' insensate, frenzied part,
      (Ah! why did I those scenes outlive,
Scenes so abhorrent to my heart!)
      'Tis thine to pity and forgive. â
Currie printed this work as written to a âgentleman' Burns had offended. Not in his commentary, but as a footnote to the poem in Vol. II, p. 642, Kinsley presents the following: â
To Mr. J. McKenzie
.
The recipient's note runs:
Mr. Robt. Burns with a pretended excuse for having used my character ill â 1796 â Delivered to me by Mr. Syme, â opposite the Inn possessed by Mrs. Riddick, in Bank Street.
BEFORE DINNER
First printed in Oliver, Edinburgh, 1801.
O Lord, when hunger pinches sore,
      Do Thou stand us in stead,
And send us from Thy bounteous store
      A tup-or wether-head!
ram or sheep-
                              Amen.
AFTER DINNER
â 1
First printed in Chambers, 1851.
O Lord, since we have feasted thus,
      Which we so little merit,
Let Meg now take away the flesh,
      And Jock bring in the spirit!
AFTER DINNER
â 2
First printed in
The Literary Magnet
, January 1826.
Lord we thank an' Thee adore,
      For temp'ral gifts we little merit;
At present we will ask no more,
      Let
William Hislop give the spirit
.
All of the above graces are meant to have been used by Burns at his favourite âhowff', the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, now known as the Burns Howff (it has a thriving Burns Club). The Selkirk Grace has been omitted given that it was not composed by Burns (see our Doubtful and Rejected section in Appendix).
at the Globe Tavern, Dumfries
First printed in Duncan, Glasgow, 1801.
The greybeard, old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures,
      Give me with gay Folly to live;
I grant him his calm-blooded, time-settled pleasures,
      But Folly has raptures to give.
This, and the following epigram, was written extempore by Burns on the windows of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries. The conjectural date is sometime in 1795. The glass panes were in the possession of a Mr J. P. Brunton of Galashiels during the 1890s.
ANOTHER
â
First printed in Duncan, Glasgow, 1801.
My bottle is a holy pool,
      That heals the wounds o' care an' dool;
woe
And pleasure is a wanton trout,
      An ye drink it, ye'll find him out.
if you
Kinsley, then Mackay print as the last of these epigrams, the lines beginning âIf in Politics thou wouldst mix'. There is no evidence they were etched by Burns with his diamond stylus during 1795. They have been moved to their proper chronological place, the first week in 1793.
First printed in Duncan, Glasgow, 1801.
I murder hate by field or flood,
      Tho' Glory's name may screen us;
In wars at hame I'll spend my blood,
      Life-giving wars of Venus:
5
The deities that I adore
      Are social Peace and Plenty;
I'm better pleas'd to
make one more
,
      Than be the death of twenty. â
I would not die like Socrates,
10
      For all the fuss of Plato;
Nor would I with Leonidas,
      Nor yet would I with Cato:
The zealots of the Church, or State,
      Shall ne'er my mortal foes be;
15
But let me have bold ZIMRI'S
1
fate
      Within the arms of COZBI! â
The first stanza of this song was etched by Burns on a window in the Globe Tavern, Dumfries. The song is an anti-war statement against Britain's war against America. This is certain due to the title on the Alloway mansucript,
On the Great Recruiting in the Year 17 â During
the American War
(See Kinsley, Vol. III, no. 534, p. 1494). In 1795 the contemporary resonance of the lyric would have been judged as a criticism of Britain being at war with France.
1
See Numbers, ch. 25, vv. 8â15.
Lines Written on a Window, at the King's Arms Tavern, Dumfries
First printed in Duncan, Glasgow, 1801.
Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering
      'Gainst poor Excisemen? Give the cause a hearing:
What are your landlord's rent-rolls? taxing ledgers:
      What premiers, what? even monarchs' mighty gaugers:
Nay, what are priests? those seeming godly wisemen:
      What are they, pray? but spiritual Excisemen.
Kinsley prints this as part of the Burns canon without commentary. Mackay estimates the date of composition as 1789 when Burns joined the Excise. However, it is unlikely that the poet frequented the King's Arms Tavern while residing at Ellisland in 1789. They are probably from a later period, possibly 1793 or later when this hotel was the meeting place of the Dumfries cell of the Friends of the People. There are overtones here of the friction between Burns and the Pittite Loyal Natives faction in Dumfries.
First printed in Lockhart, 1829.
Come, bumpers high, express your joy,
      The bowl we maun renew it;
must
The tappet-hen gae bring her ben,
big pewter jug, here
      To welcome Willie Stewart.Â
Chorus
5
You're welcome, Willie Stewart,
      You're welcome, Willie Stewart,
There's ne'er a flower that blooms in May,
      That's half sae welcome's thou art.
so
Â
May foes be strang, and friends be slack,
10
      Ilk action, may he rue it;
each
May woman on him turn her back,
      That wrangs thee, Willie Stewart.
wrongs
            You're welcome &c.
William Stewart (1749â1812), the factor of Closeburn estate, was the father of Polly Stewart and son of the inn owner at Closeburn, near Dumfries. Mackay (p. 522) quotes an anecdotal story (from Lockhart's biography of Burns (1829)), regarding a glass goblet with these lines allegedly inscribed, but he does not record the source. He again appears to have lifted the quotation from Kinsley (Vol. III, p. 1495). It is difficult to believe the entire song could have been written on a goblet.