ON JOHN DOVE, INNKEEPER, MAUCHLINE. HERE lies Johnny Pigeon; Wha e'er desires to ken, To some other warl' Maun follow the carl, For here Johnny Pigeon had nane! A dram was memento mori; But a full-flowing bowl Was the joy of his soul, And port was celestial glory. THE JOLLY BEGGARS: A CANTATA. This poem is understood to have been founded on the poet's observation of an actual scene which one night met his eye, when, in company with his friends John Richmond and James Smith, he dropped accidentally at a late hour into the humble hostelry of Mrs. Gibson, more familiarly named Poosie Nansie. After witnessing much jollity amongst a company who by day appeared abroad as miserable beggars, the three young men came away, Burns professing to have been greatly amused with the scene, but particularly with the gleesome behavior of an old maimed soldier. In the course of a few days, he recited a part of the poem to Richmond, who used to say, that, to the best of his recollection, it contained, in its original complete form, songs by a sweep and a sailor, which did not afterwards appear. The cantata was first published in a piratical edition of the author's poems by Stewart, Glasgow, 1801. RECITATIVO. WHEN lyart leaves bestrew the yird, gray-earth Or wavering like the baukie-bird, Bedim cauld Boreas' blast; When hailstanes drive wi bitter skyte And infant frosts begin to bite, In hoary cranreuch drest; bat impulse hoar-frost Ae night at e'en a merry core O' randie, gangrel bodies, sturdy - vagrant superfluous clothes In Poosie Nansie's held the splore, merry-meeting To drink their orra duddies: Wi' quaffing and laughing They ranted and they sang; Wi' jumping and thumping, The vera girdle1 rang. First, niest the fire, in auld red rags, 1 An iron plate, used in Scottish cottages for baking cakes over the fire. And knapsack a' in order; The tither skelpin' kiss, While she held up her greedy gab tipsy smacking Ilk smack still, did crack still, mouth AIR. TUNE-Soldiers' Joy. I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars, And shew my cuts and scars wherever I come; This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench, When welcoming the French at the sound of the drum. Lal de daudle, etc. 1 The Scottish beggars used to carry a large wooden dish for the reception of any alms which took the shape of food. The same utensil seems to have once been (if it is not so still) a part of the accoutrements of a continental beggar. When the revolted Netherlanders, in the sixteenth century, assumed the character of Les Gueux, or the Beggars, a beggar's wooden cup was one of their insignia. 2 A cadger is a man who travels the country with a horse or ass, carrying two panniers loaded with various merchandise for the country-people. - CROMEK. My 'prenticeship I past where my leader breathed his last, When the bloody die was cast on the heights 1 of Abram; I served out my trade when the gallant game was played, And the Morro 2 low was laid at the sound of the drum. Lal de daudle, etc. I lastly was with Curtis, among the floatingbatteries, 3 And there I left for witness an arm and a limb; Yet let my country need me, with Elliot to head me, I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum. Lal de daudle, etc. 1 The battle-ground in front of Quebec, where Wolfe fell victoriously, September, 1759. 2 El Morro, the castle which defends the entrance to the harbor of Santiago or St. Jago, a small island near the southern shore of Cuba. It is situated on an eminence, the abutments being cut out of the limestone rock. - Logan's Notes of a Tour, etc. Edinburgh, 1838. In 1762, this castle was stormed and taken by the British, after which the Havana was surrendered, with spoil to the value of three millions. 8 The destruction of the Spanish floating-batteries during the famous siege of Gibraltar in 1782 on which occasion the gallant Captain Curtis rendered the most signal service — is the heroic exploit here referred to. — MOTHERWELL. 4 George Augustus Elliot, created Lord Heathfield for his And now though I must beg, with a wooden arm and leg, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle and my callet, wench As when I used in scarlet to follow a drum. Lal de daudle, etc. What though with hoary locks I must stand the winter shocks, Beneath the woods and rocks oftentimes for a home, When the t'other bag I sell, and the t'other bottle tell, I could meet a troop of h at the sound of a While frighted rattons backward leuk, And seek the benmost bore. A fairy fiddler frae the neuk, He skirled out "Encore!" But up arose the martial chuck, And laid the loud uproar. innermost squealed admirable defence of Gibraltar during a siege of three years. Born 1717, died 1790. |