a speech or two, the whole has escaped my memory. The following, which I most distinctly remember, was an exclamation from a great character-great in occasional instances of generosity, and daring at times in villainies. He is supposed to meet with a child of misery, and exclaims to himself—

4

3

ALL villain' as I am-a damnèd wretch,
A hardened, stubborn, unrepenting sinner,2
Still my heart melts at human wretchedness;
And with sincere but 3 unavailing sighs
I view the helpless children of distress:
With tears indignant I behold the oppressor
Rejoicing in the honest man's destruction,
Whose unsubmitting heart was all his crime.
Ev'n you, ye hapless crew! I pity you;
Ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity;
Ye poor, despised, abandoned vagabonds,
Whom Vice, as usual, has turned o'er to ruin.
Oh! but for friends and interposing Heaven,"
I had been driven forth like you forlorn,
The most detested, worthless wretch among you!
O injured God! Thy goodness has endowed me
With talents passing most of my compeers,
Which I in just proportion have abused—
As far surpassing other common villains
As Thou in natural parts hast given me more.

1 VAR. "devil" (MS.).
2 VAR. "villain" (MS.).
3 VAR. "tho'" (MS.).
VAR. "helpless" (MS.).

5 VAR. "O, but for kind, tho' ill-requited friends' (MS.).

6

The version printed by Cromek wants the last five lines, which are found in the " Commonplace Book" under the date March, 1784, when the piece was, perhaps, revised.

THE TARBOLTON LASSES.

If ye gae up to yon hill-tap,
Ye'll there see bonie Peggy;
She kens her father is a laird,
And she forsooth's a leddy.

There Sophy tight, a lassie bright,
Besides a handsome fortune:
Wha canna win her in a night,
Has little art in courtin.

Gae down by Faile, and taste the ale,
And tak a look o' Mysie;
She's dour1 and din,2 a deil within,
But aiblins3 she may please ye.

If she be shy, her sister try,
Ye'll may be fancy Jenny;
If ye'll dispense wi' want o' sense—
She kens hersel she's bonie.

As ye gae up by yon hillside,
Speer in for bonie Bessy;

She'll gie ye a beck, and bid ye light,
And handsomely address ye.

There's few sae bonie, nane sae guid, In a' King George' dominion;

If

ye

should doubt the truth o' thisIt's Bessy's ain opinion!

AH, WOE IS ME, MY MOTHER DEAR.'
Paraphrase of Jeremiah, 15th Chap., 10th verse.2
Ан, woe is me, my Mother dear!

A man of strife ye've born me:
For sair contention I maun bear;
They hate, revile, and scorn me.
I ne'er could lend on bill or band,
That five per cent. might blest me;
And borrowing, on the tither hand,
The deil a ane wad trust me.

Yet I, a coin-denièd wight,

By Fortune quite discarded;
Ye see how I am, day and night,
By lad and lass blackguarded!

1 Burns in 1785 said, "I don't well know what is the reason of it, but somehow or other though I am, when I have a mind, pretty generally beloved; yet I never could get the art of commanding respect." And, referring to his early boyhood, he wrote in his autobiography: "At those years, I was by no means a favourite with anybody." David Sillar, speaking of Burns in 1781, said, "His social disposition easily procured him acquaintances; but a certain satirical seasoning, while it set the rustic circle in a roar, was not unaccompanied by its kindred attendant, suspicious fear. I recollect hearing his neighbours observe he had a great deal to say for himself, but that they suspected his principles.'

It cannot be stated positively when these lines were composed. Burns wrote them on the fly-leaf of his copy of Fergusson's poems.

2 "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me."

MONTGOMERIE'S PEGGY.1

ALTHO' my

bed were in yon muir, Amang the heather, in my plaidie; Yet happy, happy would I be,

Had I my dear Montgomerie's Peggy. When o'er the hill beat surly storms, And winter nights were dark and rainy ; I'd seek some dell, and in my arms I'd shelter dear Montgomerie's Peggy. Were I a Baron proud and high,

And horse and servants waiting ready; Then a' 'twad gie o' joy to me,—

The sharin't with Montgomerie's Peggy.

THE PLOUGHMAN'S LIFE.2

As I was a-wand'ring ae morning in spring,
I heard a young ploughman sae sweetly to sing;
And as he was singin', thir words he did say,-
There's nae life like the ploughman's in the
month o' sweet May.

"Montgomerie's Peggy" was Burns's "deity for six or eight months." "I began the affair," he says, "merely in a gaieté de cœur, or, to tell the truth (what would scarcely be believed) a vanity of showing my parts in courtship, particularly my abilities at a billet-doux." Mrs. Begg says: "The lady was housekeeper at Coilsfield House; my brother Robert had met her frequently at Tarboth Mill; they sat in the same church, and contracted an intimacy together; but she was engaged to another before ever they met. So, on her part, it was nothing but amusement, and on Burns' part, little more, from the way he speaks of it."

2 Gilbert Burns doubted whether his brother wrote

The lav'rock in the morning she'll rise frae her

nest,

And mount i' the air wi' the dew on her breast, And wi' the merry ploughman she'll whistle and sing,

And at night she'll return to her nest back again.

THE RONALDS OF THE BENNALS.1

IN Tarbolton, ye ken, there are proper young

And

men,

But ken

proper young

ye

lasses and a', man ;

the Ronalds that live in the Bennals, They carry the gree' frae them a', man.

Braid

money

Their father's a laird, and weel he can spare't,
to tocher3 them a’, man;
To proper young men, he'll clink 1 in the hand
Gowd guineas a hunder or twa, man.

4

There's ane they ca' Jean, I'll warrant ye've

seen

As bonie a lass or as braw," man ;

these and other lines found in his handwriting, and printed by Cromek.

1 The Bennals is a farm in the parish of Tarbolton, about five miles from Lochlie. "Jean" and "Anna," the belles of the district, were fairly educated, and the children of a man of reputed wealth. Gilbert Burns wooed the elder sister, Jeanie Ronald, who refused him on account of his poverty. The younger sister, Anne, appears to have taken the poet's fancy, but he did not propose to her. In 1789 Burns wrote that Mr. Ronald was bankrupt, and referred to "his insolent vanity in his sunshine of life." 3 dower. 4 count out. 5 fine.

2 victory.