The complete works of Robert Burns. Including his correspondence, etc

Preface

In introducing this edition of Robert Burns’s Poetical Works to the public, the Editor has to state that his aim has been to produce, as far as possible, an edi¬ tion which might lay claim to completeness. He is aware that many readers, whose opinion he has every desire to respect, may not agree with him as to the propriety of reproducing every line of each poem in all cases ; but a very con¬ siderable experience of men in relation to books induces him to believe that a large proportion of the reading public — and that not the least fastidious in matters of feeling and taste — prefer to have an author’s works as they came from his pen. He also believes that the number of Bowdlerised editions of popular authors which circulate at the present day is the result of a want of courage on the part of publishers, who have a dread of offending the fancied over-sensitiveness of the bulk of the reading public ; for he does not believe that such a feeling exists to an extent which would warrant the indiscreet purification of the bulk of our standard literature. No admirer of the poet can defend the too frequent coarse¬ ness of many of the poems ; but it should be remembered that Burns himself, in the two editions of his works which he lived to see through the press, did not include any of those which offend against good taste ; — most of them refer to purely local matters, and were evidently looked upon by the Poet as the mere fugitive emanations of his Muse, hurriedly produced for the amusement of his friends. No poet was so prodigal in giving MS. copies of his poems to his inti¬ mates and correspondents ; and after his death, when every line he had written was eagerly collected and read, no difficulty was found in gathering them to¬ gether, and no regard for the Poet’s memory or good name prevented their pub¬ lication.

While the occasional grossness of Burns is not to be denied, it may with safety be affirmed that there is positively nothing demoralising or seductively impure in his writings— nothing that can for one moment be put in comparison with the deliberate and pernicious prurience of the modem sensation novel, which finds its thousands of readers. In a sense, the bad even springs from the good —

“ Misled by Fancy’s meteor ray,

By passion driven ;

But yet the light that led astray Was light from Heaven.”

The descriptive improprieties are but the momentary excesses of a healthy and vigorous nature, which, though prone to err, was seldom designedly gross or

PREFACE.

•wicked. Besides, the censorious critics have too often forgotten his services on the side of purity. It ought to be remembered that he found the Scottish Muse a dirty, ribald bawd, and that he made her presentable everywhere. But for him the ancient lyric poetry of our country would at the present day have been all but dead and forgotten — he breathed through it the spirit of his own genius, and it is now as imperishable as the more immediate of his creations.

The moderate price of the series to which this volume belongs rendered a very full annotation impossible ; but every Poem, Song, and Epigram, the history of whose production is known, will be found to have its illustrative note, care hav¬ ing been taken, from a collation of authorities, to be as accurate as possible. The Editor believes that in no similar edition hitherto published has any attempt been made in this direction, and this must be his apology for having ventured upon his present task. In preparing the Glossary, he has been guided in his renderings of Scottish words and phrases more by the meaning conveyed in the text than by the arbitrary meanings given by Jamieson and other authorities. Burns’s phraseology was in many cases his own ; and, like all men of true creative power, he made his native tongue his slave, and adapted and moulded it to the expression of his genius. The Poems, Epistles, Epigrams, and Songs are arranged separately, and as nearly as can be ascertained in the order in which they were produced. The Editor believes that this mode of arrangement will be found to have its advantages.

The Appendix to the graphic Biographical Sketch by Mr William Gunnyon, in which are. grouped together all the authentic personal sketches of the poet by his friends and intimates, will, it is hoped, very materially assist the reader in judging what manner of man he was, and the personal and intellectual impression he made on his contemporaries.

The Editor has to thank several friends for assistance received ; and he desires specially to note the valuable service rendered by Mr Alexander Gunn, a reader at Paul’s Work printing-office. Authors and others who are hourly indebted to the intelligence and industry of the reading staff at their printer’s will readily appreciate the value of such assistance, more especially when it is stated that any editorial labour bestowed on the present edition was given from day to day as the sheets passed through the press, and in the midst of the harass and worry of business.

It is all but needless to acknowledge obligations to previous editors and bio¬ graphers of the Poet. The Editor knows that every page will show that his humble labours would have been impossible had it not been for the many emi¬ nent workers in the same field, from Dr Currie down to Mr Robert Chambers, the latest and ablest of them all.

Original Preface ,

Dedication to Edinburgh Edition Memoir . . .

Appendix To Memoir

The Poet’s Letter to Dr Moore Letter of Gilbert Burns to Mrs Dunlop Letter from Mr John Murdoch Sketch by David Sillar Recollections of William Clark Sketch by Dugald Stewart Sketch by Professor Walker .

Sketch by Sir Walter Scott Two Sketches by Mrs Riddel of Woodle;

Park .....

Account by Dr Adair of a Journey with the Poet .....

Sketches by Mr Ramsay of Ochtertyre Account by Mr Syme of a Journey with the Poet .....

Domestic Sketch of the Poet .

Personal Sketch of the Poet .

Letter from Mr Eindlater Letter from Mr James Gray to Gilbert Burns Letter from Mr George Thomson li

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lx

lxii

Ixii

Ixiii

lxvi

lxvii

lxvii

lxxi

lxxii

Ixxii

lxxiii

Ixxiv

Ixxv

lxxvi

lxxviii

POEMS.

A Bard’s Epitaph ....

Adam A - ’s Prayer

A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton, Esq.

A Dream .....

Address of Beelzebub to the President of the Highland Society ....

Address Spoken by Miss Eontenelle on her Benefit Night .

Address to Edinburgh Address to the Deil ....

Address to the Shade of Thomson, on Crowning his Bust at Ednam, Roxburghshire, with Bays Address to the Toothache . ...

Address to the Unco Guid, or the Rigidly Right eous .

A Mother’s Lament for the Death of her Son Answer to a Poetical Epistle sent to the Author by a Tailor .

A Prayer, Left by the Author at a Reverend Friend’s House, in the Room where he Slept A Prayer in the Prospect of Death A Prayer under the Pressure of Violent Anguish A Winter Night ....

Castle Gordon ....

Death and Dr Hornbook Delia ..•••• Despondency : an Ode

Elegy on Cap thin Matthew Henderson Elegy on Miss Burnet of Monboddo Eiegy on Peg Nicholson

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Elegy on the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq., of Arniston ......

Elegy on the Death of Robert Ruisseaux .

Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair . Elegy on the Year 1788 ....

Epistle from Esopus to Maria

Epitaph on Holy Willie ....

Halloween ......

Holy Willie’s Prayer ....

Impromptu on Mrs Riddel’s Birthday Invitation to a Medical Gentleman to Attend a Masonic Anniversary Meeting .

Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn Lament occasioned by the Unfortunate Issue of a Friend’s Amour ....

Lament of Mary Queen of Scots on the approach of Spring ......

Liberty : a Fragment ....

Lines on Fergusson .....

Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer .

Lines sent to Sir John Whitefoord, Bart., of Whitefoord . . . . •

Lines Written in a Wrapper, enclosing a Letter to Captain Grose .

Lines Written in Friars’ Carse Hermitage, on the Banks of the Nith .....

Lines Written in Friars’ Carse Hermitage, on Nithside ......

Lines Written on a Bank-Note Lines Written to a Gentleman who had Sent him a Newspaper, and offered to Continue it free of Expense ......

Lines Written with a Pencil over the Chimneypiece in the Parlour of the Inn at Kenmore, Taymouth . ....

Lines Written with a Pencil, Standing by the Fall of Fyers, near Loch N ess

Man was Made to Mourn ....

Mauehline Belles .....

Monody on a Lady Famed for her Caprice

Nature’s Law .

Ode : Sacred to the Memory of Mrs Oswald Ode to Ruin

Oh, why the Deuce should I Repine On Sharing some Water-fowl in Loch Turit On Sensibility .

On the Birth of a Posthumous Child On the Death of a Favourite Child .

Poem on Pastoral Poetry .

Poetical Address to Mr William Tytler . Prologue for Mr Sutherland’s Benefit Night, Dum¬ fries . . . •

Prologue, Spoken at the Theatre, Dumfries, on New-Year’s Day Evening, 1790 . . •

Prologue, Spoken by Mr Woods on his Benetu Night .

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