Robert Burns: How To Know Him Part 1

Robert Burns.

by William Allan Neilson.

CHAPTER I

BIOGRAPHY

"I have not the most distant pretence to what the pye-coated guardians of Escutcheons call a Gentleman. When at Edinburgh last winter, I got acquainted at the Herald's office; and looking thro'

the granary of honors, I there found almost every name in the kingdom; but for me,

My ancient but ign.o.ble blood Has crept thro' scoundrels since the flood.

Gules, purpure, argent, etc., quite disowned me. My forefathers rented land of the famous, n.o.ble Keiths of Marshal, and had the honor to share their fate. I do not use the word 'honor' with any reference to political principles: _loyal_ and _disloyal_ I take to be merely relative terms in that ancient and formidable court known in this country by the name of 'club-law.' Those who dare welcome Ruin and shake hands with Infamy, for what they believe sincerely to be the cause of their G.o.d or their King, are--as Mark Antony in _Shakspear_ says of Brutus and Ca.s.sius--'honorable men.'

I mention this circ.u.mstance because it threw my Father on the world at large; where, after many years' wanderings and sojournings, he picked up a pretty large quant.i.ty of observation and experience, to which I am indebted for most of my pretensions to Wisdom. I have met with few who understood Men, their manners and their ways, equal to him; but stubborn, ungainly Integrity, and headlong, ungovernable Irascibility, are disqualifying circ.u.mstances; consequently, I was born, a very poor man's son."

"You can now, Sir, form a pretty near guess of what sort of Wight he is, whom for some time you have honored with your correspondence. That Whim and Fancy, keen sensibility and riotous pa.s.sions, may still make him zig-zag in his future path of life is very probable; but, come what will, I shall answer for him--the most determinate integrity and honor [shall ever characterise him]; and though his evil star should again blaze in his meridian with tenfold more direful influence, he may reluctantly tax friends.h.i.+p with pity, but no more."

These two paragraphs form respectively the beginning and the end of a long autobiographical letter written by Robert Burns to Doctor John Moore, physician and novelist. At the time they were composed, the poet had just returned to his native county after the triumphant season in Edinburgh that formed the climax of his career. But no detailed knowledge of circ.u.mstances is necessary to rouse interest in a man who wrote like that. You may be offended by the self-consciousness and the swagger, or you may be charmed by the frankness and dash, but you can not remain indifferent. Burns had many moods besides those reflected in these sentences, but here we can see as vividly as in any of his poetry the fundamental characteristics of the man--sensitive, pa.s.sionate, independent, and as proud as Lucifer--whose life and work are the subject of this volume.

1. Alloway, Mount Oliphant, and Lochlea

William Burnes, the father of the poet, came of a family of farmers and gardeners in the county of Kincardine, on the east coast of Scotland. At the age of twenty-seven, he left his native district for the south; and when Robert, his eldest child, was born on January 25, 1759, William was employed as gardener to the provost of Ayr. He had besides leased some seven acres of land, of which he planned to make a nursery and market-garden, in the neighboring parish of Alloway; and there near the Brig o' Doon built with his own hands the clay cottage now known to literary pilgrims as the birthplace of Burns. His wife, Agnes Brown, the daughter of an Ayrs.h.i.+re farmer, bore him, besides Robert, three sons and three daughters. In order to keep his sons at home instead of sending them out as farm-laborers, the elder Burnes rented in 1766 the farm of Mount Oliphant, and stocked it on borrowed money. The venture did not prosper, and on a change of landlords the family fell into the hands of a merciless agent, whose bullying the poet later avenged by the portrait of the factor in _The Twa Dogs_.

I've noticed, on our Laird's court-day,-- And mony a time my heart's been wae,-- Poor tenant bodies, scant o' cash, How they maun thole a factor's snash; He'll stamp and threaten, curse and swear, He'll apprehend them, poind their gear; While they maun stan', wi' aspect humble, And hear it a', and fear and tremble!

In 1777 Mount Oliphant was exchanged for the farm of Lochlea, about ten miles away, and here William Burnes labored for the rest of his life. The farm was poor, and with all he could do it was hard to keep his head above water. His health was failing, he was hara.s.sed with debts, and in 1784 in the midst of a lawsuit about his lease, he died.

In spite of his struggle for a bare subsistence, the elder Burnes had not neglected the education of his children. Before he was six, Robert was sent to a small school at Alloway Mill, and soon after his father joined with a few neighbors to engage a young man named John Murdoch to teach their children in a room in the village. This arrangement continued for two years and a half, when, Murdoch having been called elsewhere, the father undertook the task of education himself. The regular instruction was confined chiefly to the long winter evenings, but quite as important as this was the intercourse between father and sons as they went about their work.

"My father," says the poet's brother Gilbert, "was for some time almost the only companion we had. He conversed familiarly on all subjects with us, as if we had been men; and was at great pains, as we accompanied him in the labours of the farm, to lead the conversation to such subjects as might tend to increase our knowledge, or confirm our virtuous habits. He borrowed Salmon's _Geographical Grammar_ for us, and endeavoured to make us acquainted with the situation and history of the different countries in the world; while, from a book-society in Ayr, he procured for us Derham's _Physics and Astro-Theology_, and Ray's _Wisdom of G.o.d in the Creation_, to give us some idea of astronomy and natural history. Robert read all these books with an avidity and industry scarcely to be equalled. My father had been a subscriber to Stackhouse's _History of the Bible_ ...; from this Robert collected a competent knowledge of ancient history; for no book was so voluminous as to slacken his industry, or so antiquated as to dampen his researches. A brother of my mother, who had lived with us some time, and had learned some arithmetic by our winter evening's candle, went into a book-seller's shop in Ayr to purchase the _Ready Reckoner, or Tradesman's Sure Guide_, and a book to teach him to write letters. Luckily, in place of the _Complete Letter-Writer_, he got by mistake a small collection of letters by the most eminent writers, with a few sensible directions for attaining an easy epistolary style. This book was to Robert of the greatest consequence. It inspired him with a strong desire to excel in letter-writing, while it furnished him with models by some of the first writers in our language."

Interesting as are the details as to the antiquated manuals from which Burns gathered his general information, it is more important to note the more personal implications in this account. Respect for learning has long been wide-spread among the peasantry of Scotland, but it is evident that William Burnes was intellectually far above the average of his cla.s.s. The schoolmaster Murdoch has left a portrait of him in which he not only extols his virtues as a man but emphasizes his zest for things of the mind, and states that "he spoke the English language with more propriety--both with respect to diction and p.r.o.nunciation--than any man I ever knew, with no greater advantages."

Though tender and affectionate, he seems to have inspired both wife and children with a reverence amounting to awe, and he struck strangers as reserved and austere. He recognized in Robert traces of extraordinary gifts, but he did not hide from him the fact that his son's temperament gave him anxiety for his future. Mrs. Burnes was a devoted wife and mother, by no means her husband's intellectual equal, but vivacious and quick-tempered, with a memory stored with the song and legend of the country-side. Other details can be filled in from the poet's own picture of his father's household as given with little or no idealization in _The Cotter's Sat.u.r.day Night_.

THE COTTER'S SAt.u.r.dAY NIGHT

My lov'd, my honour'd, much respected friend!

No mercenary bard his homage pays: With honest pride I scorn each selfish end, My dearest meed a friend's esteem and praise: To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays, The lowly train in life's sequester'd scene; The native feelings strong, the guileless ways; What Aiken in a cottage would have been-- Ah! tho' his worth unknown, far happier there, I ween.

November chill blaws load wi' angry sough; [wail]

The shortening winter-day is near a close; The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh; The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose: The toil-worn Cotter frae his labour goes, This night his weekly moil is at an end, Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes, Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend, And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend.

At length his lonely cot appears in view, Beneath the shelter of an aged tree; Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin', stacher through [stagger]

To meet their dad, wi' flichterin' noise an' glee. [fluttering]

His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonnilie, [fire]

His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile, The lisping infant prattling on his knee, Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile, [worry]

An' makes him quite forget his labour an' his toil.

Belyve, the elder bairns come drapping in, [Soon]

At service out, amang the farmers roun'; Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin [drive, heedful run]

A cannie errand to a neibor town: [quiet]

Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman-grown, In youthfu' bloom, love sparkling in her e'e, [eye]

Comes hame, perhaps to shew a braw new gown, [fine]

Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee, [hard-won wages]

To help her parents dear, if they in hards.h.i.+p be.

With joy unfeign'd brothers and sisters meet, An' each for other's weelfare kindly spiers: [asks]

The social hours, swift-wing'd, unnoticed fleet; Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears; [wonders]

The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years; Antic.i.p.ation forward points the view.

The mother, wi' her needle an' her sheers, Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new; [Makes old clothes]

The father mixes a' wi' admonition due.

Their master's an' their mistress's command The younkers a' are warned to obey; [youngsters]

An' mind their labours wi' an eydent hand, [diligent]

An' ne'er, tho' out o' sight, to jauk or play: [trifle]

'And O! be sure to fear the Lord alway, An' mind your duty, duly, morn an' night!

Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray, [go]

Implore His counsel and a.s.sisting might: They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright!'

But hark! a rap comes gently to the door; Jenny, wha kens the meaning o' the same, [knows]

Tells how a neibor lad cam o'er the moor, To do some errands, and convoy her hame.

The wily mother sees the conscious flame Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek; Wi' heart-struck anxious care, inquires his name, While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak; [half]

Weel pleased the mother hears it's nae wild worthless rake.

Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben; [in]

A strappin' youth; he takes the mother's eye; Blythe Jenny sees the visit's no ill ta'en; The father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye. [chats, cows]

The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy, But blate and laithfu', scarce can weel behave; [shy, bashful]

The mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy What makes the youth sae bashfu' an' sae grave; Weel-pleased to think her bairn's respected like the lave. [child, rest]

O happy love! where love like this is found; O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare!

I've paced much this weary mortal round, And sage experience bids me this declare:-- 'If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, One cordial in this melancholy vale, 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair In other's arms breathe out the tender tale, Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale.'

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart-- A wretch, a villain, lost to love and truth-- That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art, Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth?

Curse on his perjur'd arts, dissembling, smooth!

Are honour, virtue, conscience, all exil'd?

Is there no pity, no relenting ruth, Points to the parents fondling o'er their child?

Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their distraction wild?

But now the supper crowns their simple board, The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia's food: [wholesome]

The sowpe their only hawkie does afford, [milk, cow]

That 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood; [beyond, part.i.tion, The dame brings forth in complimental mood, cud]

To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck, fell; [well-saved cheese, And aft he's prest, and aft he ca's it good; strong]

The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell How 'twas a towmond auld sin' lint was i' the bell. [twelve-month, flax, flower]

The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face They round the ingle form a circle wide; The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, The big ha'-bible, ance his father's pride: [family-Bible]

His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare; [gray hair on temples]