The Complete Works. Robert Burns

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СКАЧАТЬ his conjuring hammer,

      Ye midnight b–s!

      It’s tauld he was a sodger bred,

      And ane wad rather fa’n than fled;

      But now he’s quat the spurtle-blade,

      And dog-skin wallet,

      And ta’en the—Antiquarian trade,

      I think they call it.

      He has a fouth o’ auld nick-nackets:

      Rusty airn caps and jinglin’ jackets,

      Wad haud the Lothians three in tackets,

      A towmont guid;

      And parritch-pats, and auld saut-backets,

      Afore the flood.

      Of Eve’s first fire he has a cinder;

      Auld Tubal-Cain’s fire-shool and fender;

      That which distinguished the gender

      O’ Balaam’s ass;

      A broom-stick o’ the witch o’ Endor,

      Weel shod wi’ brass.

      Forbye, he’ll shape you aff, fu’ gleg,

      The cut of Adam’s philibeg:

      The knife that nicket Abel’s craig

      He’ll prove you fully,

      It was a faulding jocteleg,

      Or lang-kail gully.—

      But wad ye see him in his glee,

      For meikle glee and fun has he,

      Then set him down, and twa or three

      Guid fellows wi’ him;

      And port, O port! shine thou a wee,

      And then ye’ll see him!

      Now, by the pow’rs o’ verse and prose!

      Thou art a dainty chiel, O Grose!—

      Whae’er o’ thee shall ill suppose,

      They sair misca’ thee;

      I’d take the rascal by the nose,

      Wad say, Shame fa’ thee!

      CXVII. WRITTEN IN A WRAPPER, ENCLOSING A LETTER TO CAPTAIN GROSE

      [Burns wrote out some antiquarian and legendary memoranda, respecting certain ruins in Kyle, and enclosed them in a sheet of a paper to Cardonnel, a northern antiquary. As his mind teemed with poetry he could not, as he afterwards said, let the opportunity, pass of sending a rhyming inquiry after his fat friend, and Cardonnel spread the condoling inquiry over the North—

      “Is he slain by Highlan’ bodies?

      And eaten like a wether-haggis?”]

      Ken ye ought o’ Captain Grose?

      Igo and ago,

      If he’s amang his friends or foes?

      Iram, coram, dago.

      Is he south or is he north?

      Igo and ago,

      Or drowned in the river Forth?

      Iram, coram, dago.

      Is he slain by Highlan’ bodies?

      Igo and ago,

      And eaten like a wether-haggis?

      Iram, coram, dago.

      Is he to Abram’s bosom gane?

      Igo and ago,

      Or haudin’ Sarah by the wame?

      Iram, coram, dago.

      Where’er he be, the L—d be near him!

      Igo and ago,

      As for the deil, he daur na steer him!

      Iram, coram, dago.

      But please transmit the enclosed letter,

      Igo and ago,

      Which will oblige your humble debtor,

      Iram, coram, dago.

      So may he hae auld stanes in store,

      Igo and ago,

      The very stanes that Adam bore,

      Iram, coram, dago.

      So may ye get in glad possession,

      Igo and ago,

      The coins o’ Satan’s coronation!

      Iram, coram, dago.

      CXVIII. TAM O’ SHANTER. A TALE

      “Of brownys and of bogilis full is this buke.”

Gawin Douglas

      [This is a West-country legend, embellished by genius. No other Poem in our language displays such variety of power, in the same number of lines. It was written as an inducement to Grose to admit Alloway-Kirk into his work on the Antiquities of Scotland; and written with such ecstasy, that the poet shed tears in the moments of composition. The walk in which it was conceived, on the braes of Ellisland, is held in remembrance in the vale, and pointed out to poetic inquirers: while the scene where the poem is laid—the crumbling ruins—the place where the chapman perished in the snow—the tree on which the poor mother of Mungo ended her sorrows—the cairn where the murdered child was found by the hunters—and the old bridge over which Maggie bore her astonished master when all hell was in pursuit, are first-rate objects of inspection and inquiry in the “Land of Burns.” “In the inimitable tale of Tam o’ Shanter,” says Scott “Burns has left us sufficient evidence of his ability to combine the ludicrous with the awful, and even the horrible. No poet, with the exception of Shakspeare, ever possessed the power of exciting the most varied and discordant emotions with such rapid transitions.”]

      When chapman billies leave the street,

      And drouthy neebors neebors meet,

      As market-days are wearing late,

      An’ folk begin to tak’ the gate;

      While we sit bousing at the nappy,

      An’ gettin’ fou and unco happy,

      We think na on the lang Scots miles,

      The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,

      That lie between us and our hame,

      Where sits our sulky sullen dame,

      Gathering her brows like gathering storm,

      Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

      This truth fand honest Tam O’ Shanter,

      As he frae Ayr ae night did canter,

      (Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses,

      For honest men and bonny lasses.)

      O Tam! hadst thou but been sae wise,

      As ta’en thy ain wife Kate’s advice!

      She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,

      A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum;

      That frae November till October,

      Ae market-day thou wasna sober;

      That ilka melder, wi’ the miller,

      Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;

      That ev’ry naig was ca’d a shoe on,

      The smith and thee gat roaring fou on;

      That at the Lord’s house, ev’n on Sunday,

      Thou drank wi’ Kirton Jean till Monday.

      She prophesy’d, that late or soon,

      Thou would be found deep drown’d in Doon;

      Or catch’d wi’ warlocks in the mirk,

      By СКАЧАТЬ