ET. 34.] MY WIFE'S A WINSOME WEE THING. MY WIFE'S A WINSOME WEE THING. "In the air My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing, if a few lines smooth and pretty can be adapted to it, it is all you can expect. The following were made extempore to it; and though, on further study, I might give you something more profound, yet it might not suit the light-horse gallop of the air so well as this random clink."- Burns to Mr. Thomson, Nov. 8, 1792. SHE is a winsome wee thing, With artless look and soul sincere, For Celia thus my heart has moved, I've liked before, but never loved, My fate before your feet I lay, And since you wear an angel's face, O show an angel's mind! 1 Manuscript "She is a winsome wee thing." The alter ation was by Mr. Thomson. I never saw a fairer, I never lo'ed a dearer, And niest my heart I'll wear her, She is a winsome wee thing, This sweet wee wife o' mine. be lost "The subject of the song is one of the most inter esting passages of my youthful days, and I own that I should be much flattered to see the verses set to an air which would insure celebrity."— Burns to Mr Thomson, 14th Nov. 1792. YE banks, and braes, and streams around ET. 34.] HIGHLAND MARY. 29 Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, Your waters never drumlie! There simmer first unfauld her robes, And there the langest tarry; For there I took the last fareweel muddy How sweetly bloomed the gay green birk, Wi' monie a vow, and locked embrace, We tore oursels asunder: But, oh! fell death's untimely frost, That nipt my flower sae early! Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay, O pale, pale now, those rosy lips And closed for aye the sparkling glance And mouldering now in silent dust THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, AN OCCASIONAL ADDRESS SPOKEN BY MISS FONTENELLE ON HER BENEFIT-NIGHT [NOV. 26, 1792]. In those days, the little theatre of Dumfries was pretty regularly open each winter, under the care of a Mr. Sutherland, whom we have already seen Burns patronizing while he resided at Ellisland. In the corps dramatique was a Miss Fontenelle, a smart and pretty little creature, who played Little Pickle in the Spoiled Child, and other such characters. Burns admired the performances of Miss Fontenelle, and was disposed to befriend her. We find him taxing his Muse in her behalf. WHILE Europe's eye is fixed on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of state must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man; First, in the sexes' intermixed connection, Our second Right - but needless here is caution; Would swagger, swear, get drunk, kick up a riot, Nay, even thus invade a lady's quiet. Now, thank our stars! these Gothic times are fled; Now, well-bred men - and you are all well bred Most justly think (and we are much the gainers) Such conduct neither spirit, wit, nor manners.1 1 An ironical allusion to the annual saturnalia of the CaleAnian Hunt at Dumfries. |