Robert Burns: How To Know Him Part 29

Are handed round wi' right gude-will; The canty auld folk crackin' crouse, [cheerful, talking brightly]

The young anes ranting through the house-- My heart has been sae fain to see them That I for joy hae barkit wi' them.

Still it's owre true that ye hae said, Sic game is now owre aften play'd. [too often]

There's mony a creditable stock O' decent, honest, fawsont folk, [well-doing]

Are riven out baith root and branch Some rascal's pridefu' greed to quench, Wha thinks to knit himsel the faster In favour wi' some gentle master, Wha, aiblins, thrang a-parliamentin', [perhaps, busy]

For Britain's gude his soul indentin-- [indenturing]

CAESAR

Haith, lad, ye little ken about it; For Britain's gude!--guid faith! I doubt it!

Say rather, gaun as Premiers lead him, [going]

And saying ay or no's they bid him!

At operas and plays parading, Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading.

Or maybe, in a frolic daft, To Hague or Calais taks a waft, To make a tour, an' tak a whirl, To learn _bon ton_ an' see the worl'.

There, at Vienna, or Versailles, He rives his father's auld entails; [splits]

Or by Madrid he takes the rout, To thrum guitars and fecht wi' nowt; [fight with bulls]

Or down Italian vista startles, [courses]

Wh.o.r.e-hunting amang groves o' myrtles; Then bouses drumly German water, [muddy]

To make himsel' look fair and fatter, And clear the consequential sorrows, Love-gifts of Carnival signoras.

For Britain's gude!--for her destruction!

Wi' dissipation, feud, and faction!

LUATH

Hech man! dear sirs! is that the gate [way]

They waste sae mony a braw estate?

Are we sae foughten and hara.s.s'd [troubled]

For gear to gang that gate at last? [money, go, way]

O would they stay aback frae courts, An' please themselves wi' country sports, It wad for every ane be better, The laird, the tenant, an' the cotter!

For thae frank, rantin', ramblin' billies, [those]

Fient haet o' them's ill-hearted fellows: [Devil a bit]

Except for breakin' o' their timmer, [wasting, timber]

Or speaking lightly o' their limmer, [mistress]

Or shootin' o' a hare or moor-c.o.c.k, The ne'er-a-bit they're ill to poor folk.

But will ye tell me, Master Caesar?

Sure great folk's life's a life o' pleasure; Nae cauld nor hunger o'er can steer them. [touch]

The very thought o't needna fear them.

CAESAR

Lord, man, were ye but whyles where I am, [sometimes]

The gentles ye wad ne'er envy 'em, It's true, they needna starve or sweat, Thro' winter's cauld or simmer's heat; They've nae sair wark to craze their banes. [hard]

An' fill auld age wi' grips an' granes: [gripes, groans]

But human bodies are sic fools.

For a' their colleges and schools, That when nae real ills perplex them, They make enow themselves to vex them, An' aye the less they hae to sturt them, [fret]

In like proportion less will hurt them.

A country fellow at the pleugh, His acres till'd, he's right eneugh; A country la.s.sie at her wheel, Her dizzens done, she's unco weel; [dozens]

But gentlemen, an' ladies warst, Wi' ev'ndown want o' wark are curst, [positive]

They loiter, lounging, lank, and lazy; Though de'il haet ails them, yet uneasy; [devil a bit]

Their days insipid, dull, and tasteless; Their nights unquiet, lang, and restless.

And e'en their sports, their b.a.l.l.s, and races, Their galloping through public places; There's sic parade, sic pomp and art, The joy can scarcely reach the heart.

The men cast out in party matches, [quarrel]

Then sowther a' in deep debauches: [solder]

Ae night they're mad wi' drink and whoring, [One]

Neist day their life is past enduring. [Next]

The ladies arm-in-arm, in cl.u.s.ters, As great and gracious a' as sisters; But hear their absent thoughts o' ither, They're a' run de'ils and jades thegither. [downright]

Whyles, owre the wee bit cup and platie, They sip the scandal-potion pretty; Or lee-lang nights, wi' crabbit leuks, [live-long, crabbed looks]

Pore owre the devil's picture beuks; [playing-cards]

Stake on a chance a farmer's stack-yard, And cheat like ony unhang'd blackguard.

There's some exception, man and woman; But this is gentry's life in common.

By this the sun was out o' sight, And darker gloamin' brought the night; [twilight]

The b.u.m-clock humm'd wi' lazy drone, [c.o.c.kchafer]

The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan; [cattle, lowing, lane]

When up they gat and shook their lugs, [ears]

Rejoiced they werena men but dogs; And each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.

The satirical tendency becomes more evident in _The Holy Fair_. The personifications whom the poet meets on the way to the religious orgy are Superst.i.tion, Hypocrisy, and Fun, and symbolize exactly the elements in his treatment--two-thirds satire and one-third humorous sympathy. The handling of the preachers is in the manner we have already observed in the other ecclesiastical satires, but there is less animus and more vividness. Nothing could be more admirable in its way than the realism of the picture of the congregation, whether at the sermons or at their refreshments; and, as in _Halloween_, the union of the particular and the universal appears in the essential applicability of the psychology to an American camp-meeting as well as to a Scottish sacrament--

There's some are fou o' love divine, There's some are fou o' brandy.

--not to finish the stanza!

THE HOLY FAIR

_A robe of seeming truth and trust Hid crafty Observation; And secret hung, with poison'd crust, The dirk of Defamation: A mask that like the gorget show'd, Dye-varying on the pigeon; And for a mantle large and broad, He wrapt him in religion._ HYPOCRISY A LA MODE.

Upon a simmer Sunday morn, When Nature's face is fair, I walked forth to view the corn, An' snuff the caller air. [fresh]

The risin' sun, owre Galston muirs, Wi' glorious light was glintin'; The hares were hirplin' down the furrs, [limping, furrows]

The lav'rocks they were chantin' [larks]

Fu' sweet that day.

As lightsomely I glowr'd abroad, [stared]

To see a scene sae gay, Three hizzies, early at the road, [girls]

Cam skelpin' up the way. [scudding]

Twa had manteeles o' dolefu' black, But ane wi' lyart lining; [gray]

The third, that gaed a wee a-back, [went a little]

Was in the fas.h.i.+on s.h.i.+ning Fu' gay that day.

The twa appeared like sisters twin, In feature, form, an' claes; Their visage wither'd, lang an' thin, An' sour as ony slaes: [sloes]

The third cam up, hap-stap-an'-lowp, [hop-step-and-jump]

As light as ony lambie, An' wi' a curchie low did stoop, [curtsey]

As soon as e'er she saw me, Fu' kind that day.

Wi' bonnet aff, quoth I, 'Sweet la.s.s, I think ye seem to ken me; I'm sure I've seen that bonnie face, But yet I canna name ye.'

Quo' she, an' laughin' as she spak, An' taks me by the hands, 'Ye, for my sake, hae gi'en the f.e.c.k [most]

Of a' the ten commands A screed some day. [rent]

'My name is Fun--your crony dear, The nearest friend ye hae; An' this is Superst.i.tion here, An' that's Hypocrisy.