NOTES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, TO POSTHUMOUS WORKS. ABBREVIATIONS : PAGE c. s. p. ; COLUMN ; STANZA ; I. LINE. Letters are referred to in these [Where Notes, the pages indicated will be found in Prose Works.] of Eobert as our readers will THE Posthumous Works Burns, of the very finest lyrical compositions of our Author. The observe, are very numerous and miscellaneous. They have first in order, which is also the most beautiful been recovered at various from various and dates, sources, by p. 325. MARY MORISON : Is surely one of the tenderest; various collectors and we have endeavoured to most indefatigable ; truthful, and exquisite serenades ever imagined or in- as as apportion them accurately possible, having due regard dited by a youth to propitiate an unconscious or indifferent to that each discoverer in this maiden. competing claims, interesting How Burns should have estimated this so slightly field have his credit and is one of might authority unimpaired. A the many inexplicable problems of his psychological considerable number of the songs which in Johnson's existence. Its date is as its appear very early simplicity bespeaks ; Museum and in Thomson's Collection might also in a certain and the heroine, unless related to Mr. Morison, cabinetmaker, sense be called Posthumous, inasmuch as these works were Mauchline, is unknown. The supremacy of this type of in- the nocence not completed until long after the Author's death. But and beauty in the dance, adding splendour to, or compositions contributed by him to their pages were already surpassing in splendour, the brightest and loveliest, in her as the author intended absence and the and silent in their respective publishers' hands very ; rapt wonder of the lover as them to appear, so that the delay in their appearance until he sees her in his imagination float or whirl along, or brings after his death was only an accident. Thomson's Collection her into comparison with the others, has a beautiful and nearly in was originally designed to be in four volumes only, and our perfect counterpart Dante's vision of the Dance in Paradise, selections from that work have been limited accordingly to the characters alone, male and female, being transposed. those volumes. Two volumes more were subsequently added, E come surge e va ed entra in ballo in which a few of Burns's songs still in the editor's hands Vergine lieta sol per fare onore Alia non alcun fallo but as these Mr. Thomson's novizia, per ; were printed ; songs, by generous Cosl vid' io lo schiarato splendore had in Dr. Currie's edition, permission, already appeared they Venire a' due che si volgeano a ruota, have been placed by us foremost under his name as post- Qual conveniasi al loro ardente amore. Misesi 11 nel canto e nella nota : humous Dr. Currie in this, and in many other publications. E la mia donna in lor tenne 1' aspetto all other edi- respects, enjoyed an immense advantage over Pur come sposa tacita ed immota. Pur. Cant. xxv. tors the Posthumous Works of our Author as collected ; yet As rises up and enters on the dance numerous and are far from The innocent of by him, although important, being joyful virgin guile ; To the Bride alone she doth advance : the most important discovered since the Author's death. The greet " So saw I on the pair that wheeled the while " and " Willie's which Jolly Beggars alone, Holy Prayer," New splendour added like a meteor glance, con- Such as became their love. Even were first given to the world surreptitiously by Stewart, flaming so, In song and string alike it seemed to glow. with Currie's third edition, would be enough temporaneously But fixed on them alone my lady held her eye, their and with the to ensure high immortality for Author; As some rapt spouse unmoved and silently. " " " Cotter's Tarn o' Shanter," Death and Saturday Night," Yestreen, when to the trembling string, to the and some The dance thro' the ha' Doctor Hornbook," the "Address Deil," gaed lighted ; To thee took its constitute the immutable foundation of his fame in my fancy wing, others, I sat hut neither heard or saw. that department. Tho' this was fair, and that was braw, And yon the toast of a' the town, CURRIE'S EDITION. I sighed, and said amang them a', " " Ye are na Mary Morison ! in Currie are fifteen in number (the The songs properly " This and the other to Nanie, O" but this in sixteenth in our edition being the duplicate version, p. 328, song, My and include several some pre-eminently, as having more passionate fer- not given by, although known to, him), respects LIFE AND WORKS [NOTES CRITICAL in vour it, combined with the utmost grace we may pronounce elapsed, and how different is it all now from the innocent, to be the first most characteristic and perfect utterances of unsullied days of Mary Morison and Nanie ! the great unsuspected flood of lyric melody that was hidden p. 329. CA' THE YOWES TO THE KNOWES : an exquisite in the it it seems Author's soul : he sang them thus, and he knew not. pastoral, given by us as appears in Currie, and which p. 325. WILL YE GO TO THE INDIES, MY MARY? speaks there to be perfect. In Chambers's and Cunningham's edi- for itself, and for its Author, and for Mary, at the date of tions, however, four additional lines are found, which belong their betrothal, in its own passionate unmistakable way. to a much older version, revised and improved by Burns for " " p. 326. STREAMS THAT GLIDE IN ORIENT PLAINS: a the Museum [p. 191, s. vi.] The present song is entirely farewell compliment to the Duke and Duchess of Gordon, on his own, and it could not be improved by the addition of a leaving their residence abruptly during his northern tour in single word or sentence. 1787, carries us in an opposite direction. The passionate love p. 330. SAW YE MY PIIELY ? another pastoral, written of is the irritation under for the music : and an. avowed com- liberty, however, predominant ; but apparently MY CHLORIS, which the lines were written is not manifest. The Author pliment to Miss Lorimer, which the Author esteems for " " " was in fact dragged away, by his friend Nicol's ill-humour, simplicity and tenderness as being pretty well" letter from the most captivating society, where he had intended to (41) to Thomson. bestow himself for a week; but atoned to his noble enter- p. 330. 'TWAS NA HER BONIE BLUE E'E, may deserve tainers for his beautiful in the and hasty leave-taking by this ode same encomium ; their honour. [Compare Highland Tour, Appendix, p. x.] p. 331. How CRUEL ARE THE PARENTS: altered from an p. 326. MY LOVELY NANCY : we need hardly remind our old English song, is but the musical reiteration of many an readers, is a compliment to Clarinda, although, in letter (37) ineffectual sermon on a painful and revolting theme. But to her, he wishes to disguise the fact. the concluding song in this list, p. 327. MY WIFE'S A WINSOME WEE THING: declared by p. 331. WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST ? has a sort himself letter (3) to Thomson to have been extemporaneous, of dramatic interest that requires to be reverentially specified. might be in compliment to Mrs. Burns, as we rather suppose, The song itself, which is said to have been absolutely extem- or by poetical license to some imaginary spouse. pore, was composed for Jessy Lewars, as she sat at the piano- melodies a p. 327. MEG o' THE MILL : the only presentable version forte entertaining the Poet with some old Scotch of a very rude ballad transformed for Thomson's Collection few weeks before his death. Her own account of the matter by our Author, in whose hands its rudeness totally disappears. is, that whilst beginning seriously to ail (end of May, 1796), The old original, a little dressed up by him also, may be found he called on her one morning, and desired her to select and in the Museum but has not been extracted us. edi- for him tune she most that he ; by The play any preferred, might adapt " tion here given was very highly valued by its author. words to it for her sake. The air she chose was The Eobin p. 327. PHILLIS THE FAIR: may be a tribute to Miss came to the Wren's Nest," which she continued to play until and his ear the and in a few minutes M'Murdo; DELUDED SWAIN, which follows, may have caught rhythm completely ; had some It original ; but they were both written to accommo- afterwards the above beautiful song was composed. was date the exigencies of the musician, and to supply a page in long afterwards set to deeply pathetic music by the gifted his popular publication. Felix Mendelssohn. pp. 328-29. THE LAST TIME I CAME O'ER THE MOOR, p. 331. ELEGY ON THE LATE Miss BURNET; unfinished: and FAREWELL THOU STREAM THAT WINDING FLOWS : see Heroines of Burns. which are but two versions of the same song, the one adopted p. 332. SONNET ON HEARING A THRUSH SING, in a by Currie, and the other rejected are of a very different morning walk, on the Author's birthday, 1793: beautiful in order and that refer to as a in ; they both Mrs. Eiddel is undeniable. any circumstances prayer, which Faith, Humility, are far too to and are all combined but inex- They profoundly passionate be merely imagin- Gratitude, Charity equally ; and the visible conflict and estimation when ary ; between right and wrong, in pressibly touching, beyond valuable, which the horrors of moral perdition are involved, is too real one remembers how that birthday of his has ever since been to leave any doubt of the actual state of the Author's mind sanctified in the memories and hearts of his fellow-men.