The Works of Robert Burns

THE letters of Burns extend over a large portion of his life they are varied, vigorous, and characteristic. They are addressed to persons of almost all conditions: a few are to humble farmers and little lairds: some to village shopkeepers and parish schoolmasters: a number are to writers: not a few to clergymen many to noblemen and ladies of beauty and rank, while a great variety are written to men of high literary eminence, such as the Tytlers, Blair, Stewart, Alison, and Moore. They contain much of the personal history of the Poet: exhibit numerous sketches of character, pictures of manners, and views of domestic life; with many of those vivid touches and original sallies

which communicate to prose the feeling and sentiment of poetry. Almost all the letters which Burns wrote will be found in this edition of his works: from that first humble one which he addressed to his father, on the darkness of his future prospects, till that last and most mournful one written to Mauchline, begging his mother-in-law to hasten to Dumfries, for that his wife was about to be confined, and he was himself dying.

Of the literary merits of these, in many instances, hurried compositions, various opinions have been expressed." The letters of Burns," says Sir Walter Scott," although containing passages of great eloquence, bear, occasionally, strong marks of affectation, with a tincture of pedantry, rather foreign to the Bard's character and education. They are written in various tones of feeling and modes of mind: in some instances exhibiting all the force of the writer's talents, in others only valuable because they bear his signature." Another critical judge has delivered a much sterner opinion." The prose works of Burns," says Jeffrey, "consist almost entirely of his letters. They bear, as well as his poetry, the seal and impress of his genius: but they contain much more bad taste, and are written with far more apparent labour. His poetry was almost all written primarily from feeling, and only secondarily from ambition. His letters seem to have been nearly all composed as exercises and for display. There are few of them written with sim

plicity or plainness: and, though natural enough as to the sentiment, they are, generally, very strained and elaborate in the expression. A very great proportion of them, too, relate neither to facts nor feelings peculiarly connected with the author or his correspondent, but are made up of general declamation, moral reflections, and vague discussionsall evidently composed for the sake of effect."

In the critic's almost wholesale condemnation of the prose of Burns, the world has not concurred: he sins, somewhat indeed, in the spirit of Jeffrey's description, but his errors are neither so serious nor so frequent as has been averred. In truth, his prose partakes largely of the character of his poetry : there is the same earnest vehemence of language : the same happy quickness of perception: the same mixture of the solemn with the sarcastic, and the humorous with the tender; and the presence everywhere of that ardent and penetrating spirit which sheds light and communicates importance to all it touches. He is occasionally turgid, it is true; neither is he so simple and unaffected in prose as he is in verse but this is more the fault of his education than of his taste. His daily language was the dialect of his native land; and in that he expressed himself with almost miraculous clearness and precision the language of his verse corresponds with that of his conversation; but the etiquette of his day required his letters to be in English; and in that, to him almost foreign tongue, he now and then

« Նախորդը Շարունակել »

Books

The Works of Robert Burns: With His Life, Հատոր 6