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197.

198.

SWEET AFTON

In a letter sent with the poem to Mrs. Dunlop Feb. 5, 1789, Burns states that the poem was written as a compliment to the "small river Afton that flows into Nith, near New Cummock, which has some charming, wild, romantic scenery on its banks." Probably no special heroine was in the poet's mind.

WILLIE BREW'D A PECK OF MAUT

"The air is Masterton's; the song mine. The occasion of it was this:-Mr. Wm. Nicol of the High School, Edinburgh, during the autumn vacation being at Moffat, honest Allan (who was at that time on a visit to DalswinWe had ton) and I went to pay Nicol a visit. such a joyous meeting that Mr. Masterton and I agreed, each in our own way, that we should celebrate the business."-Burns, in Interleaved Masterton teacher in the Edinburgh High School from 1789 to his death, in 1799.

Copy.

Allan

TAM GLEN

was

a

21. It was a custom for young men and maidens to pair off by drawing slips of paper with names written on them.

THOU LING'RING star

as ever After a

This poem is sometimes entitled To Mary in Heaven. The subject of the song was Mary Campbell, daughter of a sailor at Clyde. She is commemorated in several other poems by Burns. "My 'Highland Lassie' was a warmhearted, charming young creature blessed a man with generous love. pretty long tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met by appointment on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot by the banks of Ayr, where we spent the day in taking farewell, before she should embark for the West Highlands to arrange matters At the close for our projected change of life. of the autumn following she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days, before I could even hear of her illness."-Burns's Note to My Highland Lassie, 0, in Interleaved Copy.

TAM O' SHANTER

This poem is based upon legends current in the neighborhood of Burns's birth-place, which is within a mile of Alloway Kirk and the old bridge over the River Doon.

The following legend, sent by Burns to Francis Grose, is one of the many witch-stories relating to Alloway Kirk :

reached Alloway it was the wizard hour between night and morning. Though he was terrified with a blaze streaming from the Kirk, yet, as it is a well-known fact, that to turn back on these occasions is running by far the greatest risk of mischief, he prudently advanced on his road. When he had reached the gate of the Kirkyard, he was surprised and entertained, through the ribs and arches of an old Gothic window, which still faces the highway, to see a dance of witches merrily footing it around their old sooty blackguard master, who was keeping them all alive with the power of his bagpipe. The farmer, stopping his horse to observe them a little, could plainly descry the faces of many old women How of his acquaintance and neighborhood. the gentleman was dressed, tradition does not say, but that the ladies were all in their smocks; and one of them happening unluckily to have a smock which was considerably too short to answer all the purpose of that piece of dress, our farmer was so tickled that he involuntarily burst out with a loud laugh, 'Weel luppen, Maggy wi' the short sark!' and recollecting himself, instantly spurred his horse to the top of his speed. I need not mention the universally known fact, that no diabolical power can pursue you beyond the middle of a running stream. Lucky it was for the poor farmer that the River Doon was so near, for notwithstanding the speed of the horse, which was a good one, when he reached the middle of the arch of the bridge, and consequently the middle of the stream, the pursuing vengeful hags were so close at his heels that one of them actually sprang to seize him but it was too late; nothing was on her side of the stream but the horse's tail, which immediately gave way at her infernal grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning; but However, the farmer was beyond her reach. the unsightly tailless condition of the vigorous steed was, to the last hour of the noble creature's life, an awful warning to the Carrick farmers not to stay too late in Ayr markets."

"I The poem was a favorite with Burns. look on Tam o' Shanter to be my standard performance in the poetical line. "Tis true both the one [his new-born son] and the other discover a spice of roguish waggery that might perhaps be as well spared; but then they also show, in my opinion, a force of genius and a finishing polish that I despair of ever excelling."-Burns, in Letter to Mrs. Dunlop, April 11, 1791.

"Probably Burns drew the suggestion of his hero, Tam o' Shanter, from the character and adventures of Douglas Graham (1739-1811), son of Robert Graham, farmer of Douglastown, tenant of the farm of Shanter on the Carrick Shore, and owner of a boat which he had named Tam o' Shanter. Graham was noted for his convivial habits, which his wife's rating tended rather to confirm than to eradicate. Tradition relates that once, when his long-tailed gray mare had waited even longer than usual for her master at the tavern door, certain humorists plucked her tail to such an extent as to leave it little better than a stump, and that Graham, on his attention being called to its state next morning, swore that it had been depilated by the witches at Alloway Kirk."-MS. Notes by D. Auld of Ayr in Edinburgh University Library, quoted by Henley and Henderson.

"On a market-day in the town of Ayr, a farmer from Carrick, and consequently whose way lay by the very gate of Alloway Kirkyard, in order to cross the River Doon at the old bridge, which is about two or three hundred yards further on than the said gate, had been detained by his business till by the time he 199, 56–66.

Cf. Shelley's Lines, 6-10 (p. 743).

201.

202.

YE FLOWERY BANKS

Burns wrote three versions of this song; the others are entitled Sweet are the Banks and The Banks o' Doon.

"I do not know whether anybody, including the editor himself, has ever noticed a peculiar coincidence which may be found in the arrangement of the lyrics in Sir Francis Palgrave's Golden Treasury. However that may be, two poems, each of them extremely well known, are placed side by side, and their Juxtaposition represents one vast revolution in the poetical manner of looking at things. The first is Goldsmith's almost too well known

When lovely woman stoops to folly And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy? What art can wash her guilt away? "Immediately afterwards comes, with a sudden and thrilling change of note, the voice of Burns:

Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon
How can ye blume sae fair?

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae fu' o' care?

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonie bird
That sings upon the bough;

Thou minds me of the happy days,
When my fause Love was true.

"A man might read those two poems a great many times without happening to realize that they are two poems on exactly the same subject-the subject of a trusting woman deserted by a man. And the whole difference the difference struck by the very first note of the voice of anyone who reads them— is this fundamental difference that Goldsmith's words are spoken about a certain situation, and Burns's words are spoken in that situation. In the transition from one of these lyrics to the other, we have a vital change in the conception of the functions of the poet; a change of which Burns was in many ways the beginning."-Chesterton, in Robert Browning (1903).

AE FOND KISS

This poem was sent to a Mrs Maclehose, of Edinburgh, with whom Burns had a love affair just before his marriage with Jean Armour. Scott once remarked that the first four lines of the poem were worth a thousand

romances.

Cf. Burns's poem with the following opening stanza from The Parting Kiss by Robert Dodsley (1703-64):

One fond kiss before we part,
Drop a tear and bid adieu;
Tho' we sever, my fond heart

Till we meet shall pant for you.

SAW YE BONIE LESLEY

"Bonie Lesley" was Miss Leslie Baillie, of Mayfield, Ayrshire. "Mr. B., with his two daughters, passing through Dum

203.

fries a few days ago on their way to England, did me the honor of calling on me; on which I took my horse-though God knows I could ill spare the time and accompanied them fourteen or fifteen miles, and dined and spent the day with them. 'Twas about nine, I think, that I left them, and riding home I composed the following ballad."-Burns, in Letter to Mrs. Dunlop, Aug. 22, 1792.

HIGHLAND MARY

The subject of this song was Mary Campbell. See note to Thou Ling'ring Star, p. 1215. "The foregoing song pleases me; I think it is in my happiest manner. . The subject

of the song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthful days; and I own that I would be much flattered to see the verses set to an air which would ensure celebrity. Perhaps, after all, 'tis the still glowing prejudice of my heart that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of the composition."-Burns, in Letter to Thomson, Nov. 14, 1792.

SCOTS, WHA HAE

In a Letter to Thomson, Sept., 1793, after remarking on the tradition that the old air Hey Tutti Taitti was Robert Bruce's march at the Battle of Bannockburn, Burns says: "This thought, in my solitary wanderings, roused me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of liberty and independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air, that one might suppose to be the gallant royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning." That the French Revolution was partly responsible for the poem is clear from the Postscript. in which Burns says: "The accidental recollection of that glorious struggle for freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other strug gles of the same nature, not quite so ancient, roused my rhyming mania."

Robert Bruce and the Scots won a decisive victory over the English at Bannockburn, June 24, 1314, and made Scotland independent until the kingdoms were united in 1603.

A RED, RED ROSE

The way in which Burns built up some of his poems from old songs and ballads is admirably shown by comparing this famous song with the following stanzas, taken from the songs indicated:

Her cheeks are like the roses
That blossom fresh in June;
O, she's like a new-strung instrument
That's newly put in tune.

-The Wanton Wife of Castle Gate.
Now fare thee well, my dearest dear,
And fare thee well awhile;
Altho' I go, I'll come again
If I go ten thousand mile,

Dear love,

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1217

See Burns's The Jolly Beggars, 255-82 (p. 184).

O, WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST This poem was written during Burns's last illness, in honor of Jessie Lewars, who was of great service to the Burns household at that time. Burns composed the verses to a favorite melody of Miss Lewars, after she had played it on the piano. She is commemorated also in other songs by Burns.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST, OR KILMARNOCK
EDITION OF BURNS'S POEMS

10. See Songs of Solomon, 4:12.-"A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed;" also Isaiah, 29:11-"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed."

GEORGE GORDON BYRON
(1788-1824) p. 484

EDITIONS

"The piece has at least the merit of being a regular pastoral; the vernal morn, the summer noon, the autumnal evening, the winter night, are regularly rounded."-Burns, in Let- Poetical Works (Oxford University Press, 1896). ter to Thomson, Nov., 1794. The subject of the poem was the daughter of William Lorimer, a farmer near Dumfries; she is com

memorated in a number of Burns's songs. "I assure you that to my lovely friend you are indebted for many of your best songs of mine. Do you think that the sober gin-horse routine

of existence could inspire a man with life, and love, and joy-could fire him with enthusiasm or melt him with pathos equal to the genius of your Book? No, No! Whenever I want to be more than ordinary in song-to be in some degree equal to your diviner airs--do you imagine I fast and pray for the celestial emanation? Tout au contraire! [all to the contrary] I have a glorious recipe; the very one that for his own use was invented to the Divinity of Healing and Poesy, when erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus. I put my self in the regimen of admiring a fine woman; and in proportion to the adorability of her charms, in proportion you are delighted with my verses."--Letter to Thomson.

The "Divinity of Healing and Poesy" is Apollo. For slaying the Cyclopes, Apollo was forced to serve as a shepherd to Admetus, King of Thessaly. See Lowell's The Shepherd of King Admetus.

IS THERE FOR HONEST POVERTY

The meter and the phrase "for a' that" Burns borrowed from older songs. A Jacobite song, published in 1750, has the following chorus:

Poetical Works, ed., with a Memoir, by E. H.
Coleridge (London, Murray, 1905; New York,
Scribner).

Works: Poetry, 7 vols., ed. by E. H. Coleridge;
Letters and Journals, 6 vols., ed. by R. E.
Prothero (London, Murray, 1898-1904; New
York, Scribner).

Complete Poetical Works, ed., with a Biographical
Sketch, by P. E. More (Cambridge ed., Bos-
ton, Houghton, 1906).

Letters, 1804-1813, ed. by W. E. Henley (Vol. 1 of "Works"; no more published. London, Mac

millan, 1897).

Letters and Journals, selections, ed. with an Introduction, by Mathilde Blind (Camelot ed.: London, Scott, 1886).

BIOGRAPHY

Ackermann, R.: Lord Byron, sein Leben, seine
Werke, sein Einfluss auf die deutsche Littera-
tur (Heidelberg, 1901).
Boynton, P. H.: "The London of Lamb and
Byron," London in English Literature (Univ.
of Chicago Press, 1913).

Castelar, E.: Vida de Lord Byron (Havana,

1873); English Translation by Mrs. A. Arnold (London, 1875; New York, Harper, 1876). Dallas, A. R. C. : Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron, from the Year 1808 to the End of 1814 (London, C. Knight, 1824).

Elze, K.: Lord Byron (Berlin, 1870); English
Translation (London, Murray, 1872).

Galt, J.: The Life of Lord Byron (London, Col-
burn, 1830; Sisley, 1908; New York, Cassell,
1911).

Barsdorf, 1893).

Gamba, P.: A Narrative of Lord Byron's Last Brandes, G.: Shelley und Lord Byron (Leipzig,
Journey to Greece (London, Murray,
1825).

Graham, W.: Last Links with Byron, Shelley,
and Keats (London, Smithers, 1899).
Gribble, F. H.: The Love Affairs of Lord Byron
(New York, Scribner, 1910).
Guiccioli, Teresa: Lord Byron jugé par les témoins
de sa vie (Paris, 1868); English Translation
by H. E. H. Jerningham, My Recollections of
Byron and those of Eye-Witnesses of his Life
(London, 1869).

Brougham, H.: "Hours of Idleness," The Edin-
burgh Review, Jan., 1808 (11:285).
Caine, T. Hall: Cobwebs of Criticism (London,
Stock, 1882, 1885).

Chesterton, G. K.: "The Optimism of Byron,"
Twelve Types (London, Humphreys, 1902,
1910); Varied Types (New York, Dodd, 1903,
1909).

Chew, S. C.: The Dramas of Lord Byron (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1915).

Hayman, H.: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Collins, J. C.: "The Collected Works of Byron," Feb., 1894 (88:365).

Hobhouse, J. C. (Lord Broughton): Recollections

of a Long Life, 6 vols. (London, Murray, 1909-11). Hunt, Leigh: Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries; with Recollections of the Author's Life, and of his Visit to Italy, 3 vols. (Paris, 1828; London, Colburn). Jeaffreson, J. C.: The Real Lord Byron, 2 vols. (London, Hurst, 1883).

Koeppel, E.: Lord Byron (Berlin, 1903).

Mayne, Ethel C.: Byron, 2 vols. (New York,
Scribner, 1913).

Studies in Poetry and Criticism (London, Bell, 1905; New York, Macmillan, 1906); printed in The Quarterly Review, April, 1905 (202:429).

Dawson, W. J.: The Makers of English Poetry (New York and London, Revell, 1906). Dowden, E.: "Renewed Revolutionary Advance," The French Revolution and English Literature (New York and London, Scribner, 1897). Eckermann, J. P.: Conversations with Goethe (Leipzig, 1837); English Translation by S. M. Fuller (Boston, Munroe, 1839); by J. Oxenford, 2 vols. (London, 1850).

Medwin, T.: Conversations of Lord Byron (Lon- Edgcumbe, R.: Byron: the Last Phase (New York, don, Colburn, 1824).

Scribner, 1909).

Mondot, A.: Historie de la vie et des écrits de Edinburgh Review, The: See Brougham, Jeffrey, Lord Byron (Paris, Durand, 1860).

Moore, T.: The Life of Lord Byron with his Let-
ters and Journals and Illustrative Notes (Lon-
don, Murray, 1830).
Nichol, J.: Byron (English Men of Letters Se-
ries: London, Macmillan, 1880; New York,
Harper).

Noel, R.: Life of Byron (Great Writers Series:
London, Scott, 1890; New York, Scribner;
Simmons).

Trelawny, E. J.: Recollections of the Last Days
of Shelley and Byron (London, Moxon, 1858);
Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author,
2 vols. (London, Pickering, 1878; Frowde,
1906; New York, Dutton, 1905; Oxford Univ.
Press, 1906).

CRITICISM

Arnold, M.: Essays in Criticism, Second Series (London, Macmillan, 1888).

Austin, A.: "Wordsworth and Byron," The

Bridling of Pegasus (London and New York,
Macmillan, 1910).
Blackwood's Magazine: “Lord Byron," Feb., 1825

and Wilson.

Estève, E.: Byron et le romantisme français
(Paris, Hachette, 1907).

Fuess, C. M.: Lord Byron as a Satirist in Verse
(Columbia University Press, 1912).
Hancock, A. E.: The French Revolution and the
English Poets (New York, Holt, 1899).
Henley, W. E.: Views and Reviews (London,
Nutt, 1890; New York, Scribner).
Hutton, R. H.: Literary Essays (London, Mac-
millan, 1871, 1908).

Jack, A. A.: "Byron (Oratorical Poetry)," Poetry
and Prose (London, Constable, 1911).
Jeffrey, F.: Criticisms in The Edinburgh Review:
"Beppo," Feb., 1818 (29:302); "Cain," Feb.,
1822 (36:413); "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage,"
Cantos I and II, Feb., 1812 (19:466), Canto
III, Dec., 1816 (27:277); "Heaven and
Earth," Feb., 1823 (38:27); "Manfred," Aug.,
1817 (28:418); "Marini Faliero," July, 1821
(35:271); "Sardanapalus," Feb., 1822
(36:413); "The Bride of Abydos," April, 1814
(23:198); "The Corsair," April, 1814
(23:198); "The Giaour," July, 1813 (21:299);
"The Prisoner of Chillon and Other Poems,"
Dec., 1816 (27:277); "The Prophecy of
Dante," July, 1821 (35:271); "The Two
Foscari," Feb., 1822 (36:413).

(17:131); "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto
IV," May, 1818 (3:216); "Don Juan," Aug.,
1819 (5:512), July, 1823 (14:88); "Heaven
and Earth," Jan., 1823 (13:72); "Manfred,"
June, 1817 (1:289); "Mazeppa," July, 1819 Lang, A.:
5:429); "The Doge of Venice," April,

1821 (9:93); "The Lament of Tasso,"
Nov., 1817 (2:142; "Werner," Dec., 1822
(12:710).

Brandes, G. "Byron, The Passionate Personal

ity," Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, 4 vols. (London, Heinemann, 190105; New York, Macmillan, 1906). '

Letters to Dead Authors (London and New York, Longmans, 1886, 1892; Scribner, 1893).

Leonard, W.: Byron and Byronism in America
(New York, Lemcke, 1907).

Macaulay, T. B.: "Moore's Life of Byron," The
Edinburgh Review, June, 1830 (53:544);
Critical and Historical Essays, 2 vols. (Lon-
don and New York, Longmans, 1898).

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Miller, Barnette: Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley, and Keats (Columbia Univ. Press, 1910).

More, P. E.: "The Wholesome Revival of Byron," The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., 1898 (82:801).

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More, P. E.: "A Note on Byron's Don Juan," Shelburne Essays, Third Series (New York, and London, Putnam, 1906). Morley, J.: Critical Miscellanies, First Series (London, Macmillan, 1871). Payne, W. M.: The Greater English Poets of the Nineteenth Century (New York, Holt, 1907, 1909).

Pyre, J. F. A.: "Byron in our Day," The Atlantic

Monthly, April, 1907 (99:542). Quarterly Review, The: "Cain," July, 1822 (27:476); "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Cantos I and II, March, 1812 (7:180), Canto III, Oct., 1816 (16:172), Canto IV, April, 1818 (19:215); "Lara," July, 1814 (11:428); "Marino Faliero," July, 1822 (27:476); “Sardanapalus," July, 1822 (27:476); "The Bride of Abydos," Jan., 1814 (10:331); "The Cor sair," July, 1814 (11:428); "The Glaour," Jan., 1814 (10:331); “The Prisoner of Chillon," Oct., 1816 (16:172); "The Two Foscari," July, 1822 (27:476).

Reid, W.: American and English Studies, 2 vols. (New York, Scribner, 1913). Sainte-Beuve, C. A.: Chateaubriand et son Groupe littéraire, Vol. 1, ch. 15 (Paris, Garnier,

1848).

CRITICAL NOTES

"The great thing in Byron is genius, that quality so perilous to define, so evanescent in its aroma, so impossible to mistake. If ever a man breathed whom we recognize (athwart much poor and useless work, when strictly tested) as emphatically genius made poetry its mouthpiece, covering with the genius, that man was Byron; and, if ever

its transcendent utterances a multitude of sins whether against art or against the full stature of perfect manhood, Byron's is that poetry."-W. M. Rossetti, in Lives of Famous Pocts (1878).

verse.

"Few poets excel him in the instantaneous sympathy he creates, even among minds having no mental affinity with his own. He is eminently the poet of passion. In almost all the changes of his mood, the same energy of feeling glows in his mind at any one time, whether it be bad or good, The thought or emotion uppermost in his of his nature. He has a passionate love for evil, seems to sway, for the moment, all the faculties a passionate love for nature, for goodness, for beauty, and, we may add, a passionate love for himself. When he sits in the place of the scoffer, his words betray the same inspiration from imbitterness and mockery."-E. P. Whipple, in pulse, the same passion, though condensed into Essays and Reviews, 1845).

See Keats's To Byron (p. 752); also Jeffrey's criticism on Byron (pp. 904 ff.). Byron is caricatured in Mr. Cypress in Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey.

Schmidt, G. B. O.: Rousseau und Byron (1890). 484. Schmidt, J.: Portraits aus dem neunzehnten Jahrhundert: 1 Lord Byron (Berlin, Hertz,

1878).

Sichel, W.: "Byron as War Poet," The Fort-
nightly Review, Jan., 1916 (105:127).
Swinburne, A. C.: Essays and Studies (London,
Chatto, 1875).
Swinburne, A. C. :

"Wordsworth and Byron," Miscellanies (London, Chatto, 1886, 1911; New York, Scribner).

Symonds, J. A.: In Ward's The English Poets, Vol. 4 (London and New York, Macmillan, 1880, 1911).

Symons, A.: The Romantic Movement in English Poetry (London, Constable, 1909; New York, Dutton).

Trent, W. P.: "The Byron Revival," The Author

ity of Criticism (New York, Scribner, 1899). Watts-Dunton, T.: In Chamber's Cyclopædia of English Literature, Vol. 3 (Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1904). Woodberry, G. E.; "Byron's Centenary," Studies

in Letters and Life (Boston, Houghton, 1890); Makers of Literature (London and New York, Macmillan, 1901).

Woodberry, G. E.: The Inspiration of Poetry (New York, Macmillan, 1910).

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LACHIN Y GAIR

One of the poems in Hours of Idleness. "Lachin y Gair, or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, Loch na Garr, towers proudly preeminent in the Northern Highlands. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be that as it may, it is certainly one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our 'Caledonian Alps.' Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of eternal snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the recollection of which has given birth to the following stanzas."-Byron's Preface.

17-18; 25-26. The two quotations in this poem have not been identified. In phrasing they bear striking similarity to expressions in Macpherson's Ossian, of which Byron was a great admirer. Note the following, which occur frequently in Ossian: "ghosts of the dead," "night came rolling down," "sweet as breathing gale." Numerous rhythmic sentences like the following also are found: "Her voice was like the harp, when the distant sound comes, in the evening, on the soft rustling breeze of the vale!"-(The War of InisThona).

ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS

A hostile criticism of Byron's Hours of Idleness in The Edinburgh Review, Jan., 1808,

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