NOTES TO THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT. (The numbers refer to lines.) THIS is the best known of Burns's longer poems. As we have already learned from our study of the poet, his father's cottage supplied the principal features. But the poem has a far wider significance. It is a description of the ideal peasant life of Scotland. In its substantial elements, an exemplification might have been found in a thousand homes. Said an old Scotch servingwoman, to whom a copy of "The Cotter's Saturday Night" had been given for perusal, "Gentlemen and ladies may think muckle o' this; but for me it's naething but what I saw i' my faither's house every day, and I dinna see how he could hae tell't it ony ither way." It would lead us too far to inquire particularly into the causes that have produced this beautiful peasant life. No doubt the basis of it is to be found in the native sturdiness of the Scotch character. But the immediate cause must be sought in religion. The truths and duties of Christianity occupied a large place in the daily thought and life. The sentiment of reverence, which seems to be sadly lacking at the present time, was carefully cultivated. Family worship was general; the Sabbath was strictly observed; the Bible was revered and studied to an unusual degree. "The Cotter's Saturday Night" shows us how a humble, laboring life may be glorified by a simple, earnest, reverent piety. I. R. Aikin, to whom the poem is inscribed, was an attorney of Ayr, and a man of worth. 2. Mercenary bard. - The poem was inspired, not by the hope of pecuniary reward, but simply by the promptings of friendly affection. 5. Lays = songs, lyric poems. A favorite word with poets in the last century. Another favorite word, much used by 9. Ween think, imagine. From A. S. wenan, to imagine. 10. Sugh a sighing sound as of wind in the trees. = The local fea Pleugh = plough. tures of the poem are in the Ayrshire dialect, the poet's vernacular. 12. Miry covered with mire or wet soil. 14. Cotter = cottager; a small farmer. 21. Wee-things little things, children. - Stacher = = 22. Flichterin' = fluttering. stagger. 23. Ingle fire, fireplace. — Blinkin' bonnily blazing cheerfully. = 26. Carking = distressing, oppressive. = 27. Toil. This word seems to have been pronounced tile. century oi frequently had the sound of long i. 28. Belyve heedfully run. 31. Cannie 34. Braw = = drive the plough. Literally, call. Tentie is a corruption of attentive. = trustworthy, careful. - Neebor neighbor. brave, in the sense of fine, handsome. 35. Deposit has the accent on the first syllable. — Sair-won = - Penny fee wages paid in money. Penny is used vaguely for money. 38. Spiers inquires. 44. Gars auld claes, etc. = makes old clothes look almost as well as the 92. Halesome parritch = wholesome porridge, oatmeal pudding. = Hawkie = a cow; properly one with a white 94. 'Yont beyond. - Hallan = screen or low partition between the fireplace and the door. Chows her cood chews her cud. 99. How 'twas a towmond, etc. how it was a twelvemonth old since flax was in the bloom; that is, the cheese was a year old last flax-blossoming. 103. Ha'-Bible or chief room. hall Bible; that is, the family Bible kept in the hall 104. Bonnet = a cap or covering for the head, in common use before the introduction of hats, and still used by the Scotch. III. Dundee, Martyrs, Elgin names of Scottish psalm-tunes. 113. Beets= adds fuel to. 121. Amalek's ungracious progeny: = the Amalekites, a fierce and war like Canaanitish nation. They were uncompromising in their hostility to the Israelites. See Deut. xxv. 17-19. 122. Royal bard = David. See 2 Sam. xii. 16. 133. He the Apostle John. - Patmos = an island in the Ægean Sea, to which John was banished in the year 94, and where he wrote Revelation. 135. Babylon = the figurative Babylon spoken of in Rev. xviii. 2-24. Usually interpreted among Protestants as referring to papal Rome. 138. From Pope's "Windsor Forest." 143. Society social enjoyment. = 150. Sacerdotal stole = priestly vestments or robes. 156. Secret homage = private devotions. 166. From Pope's "Essay on Man." the national hero of Scotland. He lived in the thirteenth TO A MOUSE. 1. Sleekit = sly. — Cow'rin' = cowering, crouching through fear. 5. Wad be, etc. = would be loathe to run. 6. Pattle: = a paddle for cleaning the soil from the plough. 13. Whyles 14. Maun = must. 15. Daimen rare, now and then; daimen-icker able quantity. = = an ear of corn now Thrave: two shocks or twenty-four sheaves of corn; a consider |