EPITAPH ON MISS JESSY LEWARS. [The same Lady complaining of some slight indisposition, Burns told her he should take care to have an Epitaph ready for her in case of the worst, which he likewise wrote on a glass tumbler, to make a pair with the other, as follows:] 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. ON HER RECOVERY. BUT rarely seen since Nature's birth, TO THE SAME. About the end of May, 1796, the Surgeon who attended Burns in his last illness, happened to call on him at the same time with Miss Jessy Lewars. In the course of conversation Mr. Brown mentioned, that he had been to see a collection of wild beasts just arrived in Dumfries. By way of aiding his description, he took the advertisement (containing a list of the animals to be exhibited) from his pocket. As he was about to hand it to Miss Lewars, the Poet took it out of his hand, and with some red ink standing beside hin, wrote on the back of the advertisement the following lines. TALK not to me of savages From Afric's burning sun, No savage e'er could rend my heart, But Jessy's lovely hand in mine, A mutual faith to plight, Not ev❜n to view the heavenly choir, LINES Written on the back of a Bank Note. WAE worth thy power, thou cursed leaf, I see the children of affliction Unaided, through thy curs'd restriction. For lack o' thee I leave this much-lov'd shore, R. B. LINES ON MISS J. SCOTT, OF AYR. OH! had each Scot of ancient times, Been, Jeany Scott, as thou art, The bravest heart on English ground Had yielded like a coward. LINES On being asked, why God had made Miss Davies so little, and Mrs. *** so large. Written on a pane of glass in the Inn at Moffat. LINES Written under the picture of the celebrated Miss Burns. CEASE, ye prudes, your envious railing, True it is, she had one failing Had a woman ever less. LINES Written and presented to Mrs. Kemble, on seeing KEMBLE, thou cur'st my unbelief Of Moses and his rod; At Yarico's sweet notes of grief The rock with tears had flow'd. Dumfries Theatre, 1794. LINES Written on a window at the King's Arms Tavern, Dumfries. YE men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering 'Gainst poor Excisemen? give the cause a hearing. What are your landlords' rent-rolls? taxing ledgers. What premiers, what? even Monarchs' mighty guagers: Nay, what are priests? those seeming godly wisemen; What are they, pray? but spiritual Excisemen VERSES Written on a window of the Inn at Carron. WE cam na here to view your warks But only, lest we gangs to hell, But when we tirl'dh at your door, TO DR. MAXWELL, On Miss Jessy Staig's Recovery. MAXWELL, if merit here you crave, You save fair Jessy from the grave! EPIGRAM ON A HENPECKED COUNTRY SQUIRE. O DEATH! hadst thou but spar'd his life, Ev'n as he is, cauld in his graff," ANOTHER. ONE Queen Artemisia, as old stories tell, But Queen N*******, of a different complexion, A TOAST [At a meeting of the Dumfries-shire Volunteers, held to commemorate the Anniversary of Rodney's Victory, April 12, 1782; Burrs was called upon for a song, instead of which he delivered the following lines extempore.] INSTEAD of a song, boys, I'll give you a toastHere's the memory of those on the twelfth that we [found, That we lost, did I say? nay, by Heav'n that we For their fame it shall last while the world goes lost; round. The next in succession, I'll give you the King, Whoe'er would betray him, on high may he swing; n Grave. And here's the grand fabric, our free Constitution, On Mrs. R's birth-day, 4th Nov. 1793. That brilliant gift will so enrich me, THE LOYAL NATIVES' VERSES. 9 At this period of our Foet's life, when political animosity was made the ground of private quarrel, the above foolish verses were sent as an attack on Burns and his friends for their political opinions. They were written by some member of a club styling themselves the Loyal Natives' of Dumfries, or rather by the united genius of that club, which was more distinguished for drunken loyalty, than either for respectability or poetical talent. The verses were handed over the table to Burns at a convivial meeting, and he instantly endorsed the subjoined reply.-Reliques, p. 108. |