IN ANSWER TO AN obliging letter HE SENT Would to God I had one like a beam of the sun,

Why did they not come along with you, Du- Then take what gold can never buy,

UPON

SCOTTISH POETRY,

INCLUDING THE POETRY of burns,

BY DR. CURRIE

turies, were coeval with the fathers of poetry in England; and in the opinion of Mr. Wharton, not inferior to thein in genius or in composition. Though the language of the two countries gradually deviated from each other during this period, yet the difference on the whole was not considerable; nor perhaps greater than between the different dialects of the different parts of England in our own time.

THAT Burns had not the advantages of a clas- | ed in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth censical education, or of any degree of acquaintance with the Greek or Roman writers in their original dress, has appeared in the history of his life. He acquired indeed some knowledge of the French language, but it does not appear that he was ever much conversant in French literature, nor is there any evidence of his having derived any of his poetical stories from that source. With the English classics he became well acquainted in the course of his life, and the effects of this acquaintance are observable in his latter productions; but the character and style of his poetry were formed very early, and the model which he followed, in as far as he can be said to have had one, is to be sought for in the works of the poets who have written in the Scottish dialect in the works of such of them more especially, as are familiar to the peasantry of Scotland. Some observations on these may form a proper introduction to a more particular examination of the poetry of Burns. The studies of the editor in this direction are indeed very recent and very imperfect. It would have been imprudent for him to have entered on this subject at all, but for the kindness of Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, whose assistance be is proud to acknowledge, and to whom the reader must ascribe whatever is of any value in the following imperfect sketch of literary compositions in the Scottish idiom.

At the death of James the Fifth, in 1542, the language of Scotland was in a flourishing condition, wanting only writers in prose equal to those in verse. Two circumstances, propitious on the whole, operated to prevent this. The first was the passion of the Scots for composition in Latin; and the second, the accession of James the Sixth to the English throne. It may easily be imagined, that if Buchanan had devoted his admirable talents, even in part, to the cultivation of his native tongue, as was done by the revivers of letters in Italy, he would have left compositions in that language which might have excited other men of genius to have followed his example,† and give duration to the language itself. The union of the two crowns in the person of James, overthrew all reasonable expectation of this kind. That monarch, seated on the English throne, would no longer be addressed in the rude dialect in which the Scottish clergy had so often insulted his dignity. He encouraged Latin or It is a circumstance not a little curious, and English only, both of which he prided himself which does not seem to be satisfactorily explain-on writing with purity, though he himself never ed, that in the thirteenth century the language of the two British nations, if at all different, differed only in dialect, the Gaelic in the one, like the Welch and Armoric in the other, being confined to the mountainous districts. The English under the Edwards, and the Scots under Wallace and Bruce, spoke the same language. We may observe also, that in Scotland the history ascends to a period nearly as remote as in England. Barbour and Blind Harry, James the First, Dunbar, Douglas, and Lindsay, who liv

• Historical Essays on Scottish Song, p. 20, by Mr. Ritson.

could acquire the English pronunciation, but spoke with a Scottish idiom and intonation to the last. Scotsmen of talents declined writing in their native language, which they knew was not acceptable to their learned and pedantic monarch; and at a time when national prejudice and enmity prevailed to a great degree, they disdained to study the nicities of the English tongue, though of so much easier acquisition than dead language. Lord Stirling and Drummond of Hawthornden, the only Scotsmen who wrote

teg. The Authors of the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum, &c.

poetry in those times, were exceptions. Theytish literature. Scotland possessed her four uni studied the language of England, and composed versities before the accession of James to the in it with precision and elegance, They were English throne. Immediately before the union, however the last of their countrymen who deshe acquired her parochial schools. These esserved to be considered as poets in that century. The muses of Scotland sunk into silence, and did not again raise their voices for a period of eighty years.

tablishments combining happily together, made the elements of knowledge of easy acquisition, and presented a direct path, by which the ardent student might be carried along into the recesses of science or learning. As civil broils ceased, and faction and prejudice gradually died away, a wider field was opened to literary ambition, and the influence of the Scottish institutions for instruction, on the productions of the

To what causes are we to attribute this extreme depression among a people comparatively learned, enterprising, and ingenious? Shall we impute it to the fanaticism of the covenanters, or to the tyranny of the house of Stuart after their restoration to the throne? Doubt-press, became more and more apparent. less these causes operated, but they seem unequal to account for the effect. In England similar distractions and oppressions took place, yet poetry flourished there in a remarkable degree. During this period, Cowley, and Waller, and Dryden sung, and Milton raised his strain of unparalleled grandeur. To the causes already mentioned, another must be added, in accounting for the torpor of Scottish literature-the want of a proper vehicle for men of genius to employ. The civil wars had frightened away the Latin muses, and no standard had been established of the Scottish tongue, which was deviating still farther from the pure English idiom. The revival of literature in Scotland may be dated from the establishment of the union, or rather from the extinction of the rebellion in 1715. The nations being finally incorporated, it was clearly seen that their tongues must in the end incorporate also; or rather indeed that the Scottish language must degenerate into a provincial idiom, to be avoided by those who would aim at distinction in letters, or rise to eminence in the united legislature.

It seems indeed probable, that the establishment of the parochial schools produced effects on the rural muse of Scotland also, which have not hitherto been suspected, and which, though less splendid in their nature, are not however to be regarded as trivial, whether we consider the happiness or the morals of the people.

There is some reason to believe, that the original inhabitants of the British isles possessed a peculiar and interesting species of music, which being banished from the plains by the successive invasions of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, was preserved with the native race, in the wilds of Ireland and in the mountains of Scotland and Wales. The Irish, the Scottish, and the Welsh music, differ indeed from each other, but the difference may be considered as in dialect only, and probably produced by the influence of time, like the different dialects of their common language. If this conjecture be true, the Scottish music must be more immediately of a Highland origin, and the Lowland tunes, though now of a character somewhat distinct, must have descended from the mountains

Soon after this, a band of men of genius ap-in remote ages. Whatever credit may be given peared, who studied the English classics, and to conjectures, evidently involved in great unimitated their beauties in the same manner as certainty, there can be no doubt that the Scotthey studied the classics of Greece and Rome. tish peasantry have been long in possession of a They had admirable models of composition late- number of songs and ballads composed in their ly presented to them by the writers of the reign native dialect, and sung to their native music. of Queen Anne; particularly in the periodical The subjects of these compositions were such as papers published by Steele, Addison, and their most interested the simple inhabitants, and in associated friends, which circulated widely the succession of time varied probably as the through Scotland, and diffused every where a condition of society varied. During the sepataste for purity of style and sentiment, and for ration and the hostility of the two nations, these critical disquisition. At length, the Scottish songs and ballads, as far as our imperfect docuwriters succeeded in English composition, and a ments enable us to judge, were chiefly warlike; union was formed of the literary talents, as well such as the Huntis of Cheviot, and the Battle as of the legislatures of the two nations. On of Harlaw. After the union of the two crowns, this occasion the poets took the lead. While when a certain degree of peace and tranquillity Henry Home, Dr. Wallace, and their learned took place, the rural muse of Scotland breathed associates, were only laying in their intellectual in softer accents. "In the want of real evistores and studying to clear themselves of their dence respecting the history of our songs," says Scottish idioms, Thomson, Mallet, and Hamil-Ramsay of Ochtertyre, "recourse may be had tou of Bangour, had made their appearance be- to conjecture. One would be disposed to think, fore the public, and been enrolled on the list of that the most beautiful of the Scottish tunes English poets. The writers in prose followed -a numerous and powerful band, and poured their ample stores into the general stream of Bri

Lord Kaims.

were clothed with new words after the union of the crowns. The inhabitants of the borders, who had formerly been warriors from choice, and husbandmen from necessity, either quitted the country, or were transformed into real shep