There's monie a lass has broke my rest, O lay thy loof, &c. O GUID ALE COMES. CHORUS. O guid ale comes, and guid ale goes, I HAD Sax Owsen in a pleugh, Guid ale hauds me bare and busy, This song, which occurs in Johnson's Musical Museum, "corrected by R. Burns," has been collated with a copy in the Poet's own autograph. O WHY THE DEUCE. EXTEMPORE. APRIL, 1782. O WHY the deuce should I repine, I gat some gear wi' meikle care, But now it's gane and something mair, These lines, which were found in a common-place book of the Poet's, are indicative of his state of mind when they were written. In a letter to Miss Chalmers about December, 1787, or January, 1788, he says, 66 I have this moment got a hurt.......................I fear I am something like—undone but I hope for the best. Come, stubborn pride and unshrinking resolution! accompany me through this, to me, miserable world! You must not desert me. Your friendship I think I can count on, though I should date my letter from a marching regiment. Early in life, and all my life, I reckoned on a recruiting drum as my forlorn hope. Seriously though, life at present presents me with but a melancholy path: but-my limb will soon be sound, and I shall struggle on." POLLY STEWART. TUNE-YE'RE WELCOME CHARLIE STEWART.' CHORUS. O lovely Polly Stewart, O charming Polly Stewart, THE flower it blaws, it fades, it fa's, May he, whase arms shall fauld thy charms, Possess a leal and true heart; To him be given to ken the heaven This song is in Johnson's Museum, with the name of the author. ROBIN SHURE IN HAIRST. CHORUS. Robin shure in hairst, I shure wi' him, Fient a heuk had I, Yet I stack by him. I GAED up to Dunse, To warp a wab o' plaiden, At his daddie's yett, Wha met me but Robin. Was na Robin bauld, Tho' I was a cotter, Play'd me sic a trick And me the eller's dochter? Robin shure, &c. Robin promis'd me A' my winter vittle; Fient haet he had but three Goose feathers and a whittle. Robin shure, &c. This song is in the Musical Museum, p. 562, with Burns' name to it. THE FIVE CARLINS.-AN ELECTION BALLAD. TUNE- CHEVY CHACE.' THERE were five Carlins in the south, They fell upon a scheme, To send a lad to Lon'on town To bring us tidings hame. Not only bring us tidings hame, And aiblins gowd and honour baith The "five carlins" were the five boroughs of Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbright, which sent one member to Parliament. At the time to which the ballad refers they were strongly contested by Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, supported by the Duke of Queensberry and the Whigs, and Sir James Johnstone, of Westerhall, who was assisted by the Tories. Burns sent a copy of the ballad to Mr. Graham, of Fintray, 9th December, 1789, saying, "The election ballad, as you will see, alludes to the present canvass in our string of boroughs. I am too little a man to have any political attachments, I am deeply indebted to, and have the warmest veneration for individuals of both parties, but a man who has it in his power to be the father of a country, and who.........is a character that one cannot speak of with patience. Sir J. J. does what a man can do, but yet I doubt his fate." The suppressed passage seems to have contained a severe reflection on the Duke of Queensberry. Miller, however, succeeded, and Mr. Allan Cunningham has printed another ballad by Burns, at the close of the election. |