TO DR. BLACKLOCK.* Ellisland, 21st Oct. 1789. OW, but your letter made me vauntie ! Lord send you aye as weel's I want ye, * In answer to the following Poetical Epistle from Dr. Blacklock. Edinburgh, 24th August, 1789. "Dear Burns, thou brother of my heart, Both for thy virtues and thy art: If art it may be call'd in thee, For me, with grief and sickness spent, The ill-thief blaw the Heron* south! I lippen'd to the chiel in trouth, And bade nae better. But aiblins honest Master Heron, And holy study; And tir'd o' sauls to waste his lear on, But what d'ye think, my trusty fier, Ye'll now disdain me! And then my fifty pounds a year No more to gloomy thoughts a prey, "THO. BLACKLOCK." It was through Dr. Blacklock's exertions that the Poet was induced to abandon his intention of going to Jamaica, in 1786. * Robert Heron, author of a History of Scotland, and of a Life of Burns. Ye glaiket, gleesome, dainty damies, That strang necessity supreme is ’Mang sons o men. I hae a wife and twa wee laddies, They maun hae brose and brats o' duddies; But I'll sned besoms-thraw saugh woodies, Lord help me thro' this warld o' care! Not but I hae a richer share 30 But why should ae man better fare, And a' men brithers? Come, Firm Resolve, take thou the van, And let us mind, faint heart ne'er wan Wha does the utmost that he can, Will whyles do mair. But to conclude my silly rhyme, (I'm scant o' verse, and scant o' time), To make a happy fire-side clime To weans and wife, That's the true pathos and sublime Of human life. My compliments to sister Beckie; As e'er tread clay! And gratefully, my guid auld cockie, 60 ROBERT BURNS. PROLOGUE, SPOKEN AT THE THEATRE, ELLISLAND.* O song nor dance I bring from yon great city That queens it o'er our taste-the more's the pity; Tho', by-the-by, abroad why will you roam? I come to wish you all a good new-year! * In a letter from Ellisland, 11th January, 1790, Burns says, "We have gotten a set of very decent players here just now. I have seen them an evening or two. David Campbell, in Ayr, wrote to me by the manager of the company, a Mr. Sutherland, who is a man of apparent worth. On Newyear's-day evening I gave him the following Prologue, which he spouted to his audience with applause;" and on the 9th of the next month he said, "I have given Mr. Sutherland two Prologues, one of which was delivered last week." 10 The sage grave ancient cough'd, and bade me say, Who think to storm the world by dint of merit, 20 In his sly, dry, sententious, proverb way; Last, tho' not least in love, ye youthful fair, For our sincere, tho' haply weak endeavours, With grateful pride we own your many favours; And howsoe'er our tongues may ill reveal it, Believe our glowing bosoms truly feel it. 30 |