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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32642-8.txt b/32642-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ba2856 --- /dev/null +++ b/32642-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4908 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Allan Ramsay, by William Henry Oliphant +Smeaton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Allan Ramsay + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: William Henry Oliphant Smeaton + + + +Release Date: June 1, 2010 [eBook #32642] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +ALLAN RAMSAY + +by + +OLIPHANT SMEATON + +Famous Scots Series + + + + + + + +Published by Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier +Edinburgh and London + +The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, and +the printing from the press of Messrs. Morrison & Gibb, Edinburgh. + + + + +TO + +DAVID MASSON, LL.D. + +EMERITUS-PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE +IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY + +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED + +in grateful acknowledgment of kindly encouragement given in years +long gone by, and of intellectual stimulus received from him by +his former student + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +Since this Volume was in type, I have received some additional +information which I feel constrained to lay before my readers. + +With reference to the Easy Club, I have been favoured, through the +courtesy of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, with a sight of the complete +Minutes of the Club. From them I observe that Ramsay was one of the +earliest members admitted, and that his song 'Were I but a Prince or +King' was formally presented to the Club after his admission not before, +though its rough draft must have been shown to the members prior to that +event. + +Next, as regards the Editions of _The Gentle Shepherd_, a valued +correspondent, Mr. J. W. Scott, Dowanhill, Glasgow, kindly calls my +attention to two 'Translations into English' of the Poem which appear to +have hitherto escaped notice. These are '_Allan Ramsay's Gentle +Shepherd, translated into English by W. Ward, 8vo, 1785._' Ward, as Mr. +Scott states, seems to have been a 'naturalised Englishman' residing at +Musselburgh. Five years after Ward's production, appeared another, and +in many respects a better Edition, to wit, '_The Gentle Shepherd, a +Scotch Pastoral by Allan Ramsay, Attempted in English by Margaret +Turner, London, 1790._' It was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and its +list of Subscribers contains the names of most of the nobility of +Scotland. Is this not a reliable gauge of the popularity of the Poem? + +_EDINBURGH, March 1896._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +CHAPTER I + +THE FAMILY TREE 9 + + +CHAPTER II + +RAMSAY'S APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 23 + + +CHAPTER III + +SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; + RAMSAY'S MARRIAGE--1707-12 28 + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 41 + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAVOURITE OF THE 'FOUR 'OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; + THE QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 56 + + +CHAPTER VI + +RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR: _THE TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY_ + AND _THE EVERGREEN_--1721-25 68 + + +CHAPTER VII + +_THE GENTLE SHEPHERD_; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; + RAMSAY'S PASTORALS--1725-30 85 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; + HIS BOOK OF _SCOTS PROVERBS_--1730-40 97 + + +CHAPTER IX + +CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; + HIS PORTRAITS--1740-58 112 + + +CHAPTER X + +RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST 122 + + +CHAPTER XI + +RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER 144 + + +CHAPTER XII + +RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION 154 + + + + +ALLAN RAMSAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FAMILY TREE + + +'Ye'd better let me gang doon wi' the wig, Miss Kirsty,' said Peggy, the +'serving-lass' in the household of Mr. James Ross, writer, of the +Castlehill. + +'Oh no! I'd as leif take it doon mysel' to Allan Ramsay's, for the sake +o' the walk and the bit crack wi' the canty callant,' replied the young +lady, a blush crimsoning her fair, rounded cheek. + +And Peggy would retire from these periodical but good-humoured +passages-at-arms, with a knowing smile on her face, to confide the fact, +mayhap,--of course as a profound secret,--to her cronies in the same +stair, that Miss Kirsty Ross was 'unco ta'en up wi' that spruce genty +wigmaker, Maister Allan Ramsay, doon ayont the Tron Kirk.' + +Yea! verily, it was a love drama, but as yet only in the first scene of +the first act. The 'Miss Kirsty' of the brief dialogue recorded +above--for the authenticity of which there is abundant evidence--was +Miss Christian Ross, eldest daughter of Mr. James Ross, a lawyer of some +repute in his day, whose practice lay largely in the Bailie's and +Sheriff's Courts, and with minor cases in the Justiciary Court, but not +with civil business before the Court of Session, an honour rigorously +reserved for the members of that close Corporation--the Writers to His +Majesty's Signet. + +But though not belonging, in slang phrase, 'to the upper crust' of the +legal fraternity, James Ross was a man of some social consideration. +Though he appears to have had a strain of the fashionable Pharisee in +him, and to have esteemed gentle birth as covering any multitude of sins +and peccadilloes, he manifested, throughout his intercourse with Ramsay, +certain countervailing virtues that render him dear to the lovers of the +poet. He made distinct pretensions to the possession of culture and a +love of _belles-lettres_. To the best Edinburgh society of the period he +and his had the _entrée_, while his house in Blair's Close, on the +southern slope of the Castlehill, was the rendezvous for most of the +_literati_ of the city, as well as for the _beaux esprits_ of the Easy +Club, of which he was a member. + +His acquaintance with the young wigmaker--whose sign of the 'Mercury,' +situate in the High Street, or, as the poet himself writes, 'on +Edinburgh's Street the sun-side,' was almost immediately opposite +Niddry's Wynd, and at the head of Halkerston's Wynd, and within sixty +yards of the Tron Church--had originated in the weekly visits paid by +him to Allan's shop for the purpose of getting his wig dressed. While +waiting until this important item in an eighteenth-century gentleman's +toilet was accomplished, he had enjoyed many a 'crack' with the young +craftsman, so shrewd, so witty, so genial, yet withal so industrious. +The man of pleas and precepts discovered him of powder and perukes to +be as deeply interested and, in good sooth, as deeply versed in the +literature of his own land as the lawyer himself. Chance acquaintance +gradually ripened, on both sides, into cordial esteem. James Ross +invited Ramsay to visit him at his house, and there the young +_perruquier_ beheld his fate in Christian, or Kirsty, Ross. + +If Allan were fascinated by Kirsty's rare beauty and piquant +_espièglerie_, by her sweet imperiousness and the subtle charm of her +refined femininity, exercised on a nature whose previous experience of +the sex had been limited to the bare-legged Amazons of Leadhills or the +rosy-cheeked ministering Hebes, whom the high wages of domestic service +attracted to town; she, in turn, was no less captivated by the manly, +self-possessed demeanour, and the ingratiating qualities, both social +and intellectual, of her father's guest. If he had mingled too little +with society for his manners to be tinged with the polish of the +_débonnair_ gallant, his natural good-breeding and ready tact, united, +it must be confessed, to a not inconsiderable spice of vanity, doubtless +prevented any lapse into those nervous _gaucheries_ wherewith a youth's +first appearance in good society is often accompanied. + +Allan has drawn with truth and graphic power his own portrait as he +appeared at this time-- + + '_Imprimis_--then for tallness I + Am five feet and four inches high; + A black-a-vic'd, snod, dapper fellow, + Nor lean, nor overlaid wi' tallow; + With phiz of a Morocco cut, + Resembling a late man of wit, + Auld-gabbet Spec, who was so cunning + To be a dummie ten years running. + + Then for the fabric of my mind, + 'Tis more to mirth than grief inclined; + I rather choose to laugh at folly + Than show dislike by melancholy: + Well judging a sour heavy face + Is not the truest mark of grace.' + +Existing portraits, including the one most valued for its fidelity +to the original, that by his son, Allan Ramsay, the artist +(Portrait-painter in Ordinary to King George III.), show him to have +possessed features that were delicate and sharply chiselled, keen dark +eyes, a mobile, sensitive mouth, a complexion dark almost to +swarthiness, and a high rounded forehead. To these items may be added +those others coming as side-lights, thrown on a man's character and +individuality by the passing references of contemporaries. From such +sources we learn that his face was one whereon were writ large, +contentment with himself and with the world, as well as a certain pawky +shrewdness and unaffected _bonhomie_. This expression was largely +induced by the twinkling of his beadlike eyes, and the lines of his +mouth, which curved upwards at the corners; almost imperceptibly, it is +true, yet sufficiently to flash into his countenance that subtle element +of humorous _canniness_ which has been accepted by many as the prime +attribute of his character. He may probably have had his own feelings in +view when he makes his Patie say in _The Gentle Shepherd_-- + + 'The bees shall loath the flow'r, and quit the hive, + The saughs on boggy ground shall cease to thrive, + Ere scornfu' queans, or loss o' warldly gear, + Shall _spill_ my rest, or ever force a tear.' + +His figure was thickset, but had not as yet acquired the squatness of +later days. If in the years to come he grew to resemble George Eliot's +portrait of Mr. Casson, when the inevitable penalty of sedentariness and +good living has to be paid in increasing corpulence, he never lost his +tripping gait which in early manhood earned for him the _sobriquet_ of +'Denty Allan.' In deportment and dress he was 'easy, trig and neat,' +leaning a little to vanity's side in his manners, yet nathless as +honourable, sound-hearted, clean-souled a gentleman as any that lounged +around Edinburgh Cross of a sunny Saturday afternoon. Such was the youth +that presented himself to bonny Kirsty Ross at her father's tea-table. + +The acquaintance soon expanded into friendship. Before long, as has been +stated, the household observed, not without amusement, that whenever +Saturday came round, on which day James Ross' wig was sent down to +receive its week's dressing from young Ramsay, Kirsty found she needed a +walk, which always seemed to take her past the sign of 'the flying +Mercury,' so that she could hand in the wig and call for it as she +returned. Ah, artful Miss Kirsty! As the idyll progressed, the interim +walk was abandoned, and the fair one found it pleasanter, as she said, +to pass the time in conversation with the young _coiffeur_ as he combed +the paternal wig. The intercourse thus commenced on both sides, more as +a frolic than aught else, speedily led to warmer feelings than those of +friendship being entertained, and in the spring of 1711 Allan Ramsay +asked the daughter of the lawyer to share life's lot with him. + +The lovers were, of course, too well aware of the dissimilarity in their +social stations to hope for any ready acquiescence in their matrimonial +projects by the ambitious Edinburgh lawyer. To win consent, the matter +had to be prudently gone about. The position Ramsay's family had held +in the past reckoned for something, it is true, in the problem, but the +real point at issue was, What was the social status of the swain at that +moment? Ah, there was the rub! All very well was it for a +literary-minded lawyer to patronise his wigmaker by inviting him to +drink a dish of tea with his family, or to crack a bottle with him over +Jacobite plots or the latest poems of Swift or Pope; but to give him his +daughter in marriage, that was altogether another question. Mrs. Grundy +was quite as awe-inspiring a dame then as now. James Ross and his spouse +would require to make a careful investigation into the pedigree of the +'mercurial' artist in crinology--to import a trade term of the present +into the staid transactions of the past--before such an alliance could +be thought of. Many and long were the family councils held. Every item +of his descent, his relatives, his character, his prospects, was +discussed, and this is what they discovered. + +Allan Ramsay was born on the 15th of October 1686, in the little town of +Leadhills, situate in the parish of Crawfordmuir, in the upper ward of +Lanarkshire, and in the very heart of the bleak, heathy Lowther hills. +The house wherein he saw the light is now 'a broken-down byre,' +according to Dr. John Brown in _Horæ Subsecivæ_. Standing, as it does, +1400 feet above the level of the sea, the village is chiefly notable as +being the most elevated inhabited ground in Scotland. The industry of +the district, then as now, was almost entirely devoted to lead-mining. +The superior of the parish was the Earl of Hopetoun, and on his behoof +the mines were wrought. The male population, with but few exceptions, +were in his lordship's service. A more desolate and dreary spot could +scarcely be conceived. The rugged ranges, destitute of wood, were +scarred by the traces of former workings, and intersected, moreover, by +narrow rocky ravines, down which brawled foaming mountain burns. Perched +like an eyrie on some steep cliff, the view from the vicinity of the +town is magnificent, ranging over fair Clydesdale, and the lands +formerly owned by the Earls of Crawford, 'the Lindsays, light and gay,' +whose ancient castle stands on Clydeside. + +In the days of the Stuarts gold used to be found in considerable +quantities in the locality, from which was struck the gold issue bearing +the head of James V., wearing a bonnet; hence the old term for it--a +'bonnet-piece.' + +The inhabitants of the town and district of Leadhills had imbibed in +Ramsay's days something of the stern, forbidding character of the +scenery. The ruggedness of their surroundings had evidently sunk deep +into their temperament,--and ofttimes the teaching of nature in +situations like this is of the most lasting kind. So it was with them. +They were a community apart: gloomily, almost fanatically, religious; +believing in miracles, visions, and in the direct interposition of +Providence,--in a word, carrying to the extreme of bigotry all the grand +attributes of Scottish Presbyterianism and Covenanting sublimity of +motive. They married and gave in marriage among themselves, looking the +while rather askance at strangers as 'orra bodies' from the big world +without, who, because they _were_ strangers, ran a strong chance of +being no better than they should be! + +To this 'out-of-the-way' corner of the planet there was sent, towards +the close of the year 1684, as manager of Lord Hopetoun's mines, a gay, +happy-hearted, resourceful young Scotsman, by name Robert Ramsay. The +poet, when detailing his pedigree to the father of his _inamorata_, had +boasted that he was descended, on the paternal side, from the Ramsays of +Dalhousie (afterwards Earls of that Ilk). Such was literally the case. +Ramsay of Dalhousie had a younger brother, who, from the estate he +held--a small parcel of the ancestral acres--bore a name, or rather an +_agnomen_, yet to be historic in song, 'The Laird of Cockpen.' Whether +in this case, like his descendant of ballad fame, the said laird was +'proud and great'; whether his mind was 'ta'en up wi' things o' the +State,' history doth not record. Only on one point is it explicit, that, +like his successor, he married a wife, from which union resulted Captain +John Ramsay, whose only claim to remembrance is that he in turn married +Janet Douglas, daughter of Douglas of Muthil, and thus brought the poet +into kinship with yet another distinguished Scottish family. To the +captain and his spouse a son was born, who devoted himself to legal +pursuits, was a writer in Edinburgh, and acted as legal agent for the +Earl of Hopetoun. Through his interest with the earl, Robert Ramsay, his +eldest son, was appointed manager of the lead mines in the Lowther +hills, and set out to assume his new duties towards the close of the +year 1684. + +From this pedigree, therefore, the fact is clear of the poet's right to +address William Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie, in terms imitated from +Horace's famous Ode to Maecenas-- + + 'Dalhousie, of an auld descent, + My chief, my stoup, my ornament.' + +But to our narrative. Apparently the young mine-manager found the lines +of his life by no means cast in pleasant places amid the rough +semi-savage community of Leadhills in those days. He felt himself a +stranger in a strange land. To better his lot, though he was still very +young, he determined to marry. The only family with which he could hold +intercourse on terms of equality, was that of William Bower, an English +mineralogist who had been brought from Derbyshire, to instruct the +Scottish miners more fully in the best methods then known for extracting +the metal from the refractory matrix. But to Robert Ramsay the chief +attraction in the family was the eldest daughter of his colleague, Alice +Bower, a vivacious, high-spirited girl, with a sufficient modicum, we +are told, of the Derbyshire breeziness of nature to render her +invincibly fascinating to the youth. Alone of all those around she +reminded him of the fair dames and damsels of Edinburgh. Therefore he +wooed and won her. Their marriage took place early in January 1686. In +the October of the same year the future poet was born. + +But, alas! happiness was not long to be the portion of the wedded pair. +At the early age of twenty-four Robert Ramsay died, leaving his widow, +as regards this world's gear, but indifferently provided for, and, +moreover, burdened with an infant scarce twelve months old. + +Probably the outlook for the future was so dark that the young widow +shrank from facing it. Be this as it may, we learn that three months +after Robert Ramsay was laid in his grave she married David Crichton, +finding a home for herself and a stepfather for the youthful Allan at +one and the same time. Crichton was a small peasant-proprietor, or +bonnet-laird, of the district. Though not endowed with much wealth, he +seems to have been in fairly comfortable circumstances, realising his +stepson's ideal in after-life, which he put into the mouth of his +Patie-- + + 'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep; + The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep.' + +Much has been written regarding the supposed unhappiness of Ramsay's +boyhood in the household of his step-parent. For such a conclusion there +is not a tittle of evidence. Every recorded fact of their mutual +relations points the other way. David Crichton was evidently a man of +high moral principle and strength of character. Not by a hairbreadth did +he vary the treatment meted out to Allan from that accorded to his own +children by the widow of Robert Ramsay. To the future poet he gave, as +the latter more than once testified, as good an education as the parish +school afforded. That it embraced something more than the 'three R's,' +we have Ramsay's own testimony, direct and indirect--direct in the +admission that he had learned there to read Horace 'faintly in the +original'; indirect in the number and propriety of the classical +allusions in his works. He lived before the era of quotation books and +dictionaries of phrase and fable,--the hourly godsend of the +penny-a-liner; but the felicity of his references is unquestionable, and +shows an acquaintance with Latin and English literature both wide and +intimate. At anyrate, his scholastic training was sufficiently catholic +to imbue his mind with a reverence for the masterpieces in both +languages, and to enable him to consort in after years, on terms of +perfect literary equality, with the lawyers and the _beaux esprits_ of +witty Edinburgh, such as Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Webster, and Lord Elibank. + +Until his migration to the Scottish capital, at the age of fifteen, +Ramsay was employed, during his spare hours, in assisting his stepfather +in the work of the farm. The intimate acquaintance he displays in his +pastoral with the life and lot of the peasant-farmer, was the result of +his early years of rural labour among the Lowther hills. That they were +years of hardship, and a struggle at hand-grips with poverty, goes +without the saying. The land around the Lowthers was not of such a +quality as to render the bonnet-laird's exchequer a full one. As a +shepherd, therefore, young Ramsay had to earn hardly the bread he ate at +his stepfather's table. The references to his vocation are numerous in +his poems. In his Epistle to his friend William Starrat, teacher of +mathematics at Straban in Ireland, he adverts to his early life-- + + 'When speeling up the hill, the dog-days' heat + Gars a young thirsty shepherd pant and sweat; + I own 'tis cauld encouragement to sing, + When round ane's lugs the blattran hailstanes ring; + But feckfu' fouk can front the bauldest wind, + And slunk through muirs, an' never fash their mind. + Aft hae I wade through glens wi' chorking feet, + When neither plaid nor kilt could fend the weet; + Yet blythly wad I bang out o'er the brae, + And stend o'er burns as light as ony rae, + Hoping the morn might prove a better day.' + +The boy, meantime, must have been photographing on the retentive +negatives of his mind the varied scenes of rural life, the labours +incidental to the alternating seasons, which he was to employ with +effect so rare in his inimitable pastoral. During the winter months, +when the snow lay deep on hill and glen, over scaur and cleugh among +the lonely Lowthers, when the flocks were 'faulded' and the 'kye' housed +in the warm byres, when the furious blasts, storming at window and door, +and the deadly nipping frost, rendered labour outside impracticable, +doubtless in David Crichton's household, as elsewhere over broad +Scotland, the custom prevailed of sitting within the _lum-cheek_ of the +cavernous fireplaces, or around the _ingle-neuk_, and reciting those +ancient ballads of the land's elder life, that had been handed down from +True Thomas and the border minstrels; or narrating those tales of moving +accidents by flood or field, of grim gramarye, and of the mysterious +sights and sounds of other days, whose memory floated down the stream of +popular tradition from age to age. In days when books were so costly as +to be little more than the luxury of the rich, the art of the fireside +rhapsodist was held in a repute scarcely less high, than in that epoch +which may justly be styled the period of Grecian romance--the days of +'the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.' At that spring there is +abundant evidence that young Allan Ramsay had drunk deep. + +To another well, also, of genuine inspiration he must by this time have +repaired--that of our native Scottish literature. Though some years had +yet to elapse before he could read Hamilton of Gilbertfield's poem, the +'Dying Words of Bonnie Heck,' which he afterwards praised as stimulating +him into emulation, there is little doubt he had already caught some +faint echoes of that glorious period in Scottish literature, which may +be said to have lasted from the return of the poet-king (James I.) in +1424, from his captivity in England, to the death of Drummond of +Hawthornden in 1649. Without taking account of Barbour's _Bruce_ and +Blind Harry's _Wallace_, which partake more of the character of rhyming +chronicles than poems,--though relieved here and there by passages of +genuine poetic fire, such as the familiar one in the former, beginning-- + + 'Ah! fredome is a nobill thynge, + Fredome maks men to haiff liking,' + +--the literary firmament that is starred at the period in question with +such names as King James I., Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Walter +Kennedy, Gavin Douglas, Sir David Lyndsay, Alexander Montgomery, William +Alexander (Earl of Stirling), Sir Robert Ayton, Robert Sempill, and +Drummond of Hawthornden, need not fear comparison with the contemporary +poetry of the sister land. The greatest name in the list, that of +William Dunbar, was undoubtedly the leading singer of his age in the +British Isles, but inacquaintance with his works has prevented his +genius obtaining that recognition it deserves. Sir Walter Scott +considered Dunbar in most qualities the peer, in some the superior, of +Chaucer, and his opinion will be endorsed by all those who are able to +read Dunbar with enjoyment. Though Spenser's genius may have had a +richer efflorescence than Dunbar's, if the mass of their work be +critically weighed, quality by quality, the balance, when struck, would +rest remarkably evenly between them. Drummond of Hawthornden is perhaps +the most richly-gifted writer in early Scottish literature, as an +all-round man of letters. But as a poet the palm must ever remain with +Dunbar. + +The study of the breaks which occur in the poetic succession of any +literature is always interesting. In English literature such gaps +recur, though not with any definite regularity--for example, after the +death of Chaucer and Gower, when the prosaic numbers of Occleve and +Lydgate were the sole representatives of England's imaginative +pre-eminence; and the penultimate and ultimate decades of last century, +when Hayley was regarded as their acknowledged master by the younger +school of poets. In Scotland, it is to be noted, as Sir George Douglas +points out in his standard work, _Minor Scottish Poets_, that from 1617, +the date of the publication of Drummond's _Forth Feasting_, until 1721, +when Ramsay's first volume saw the light, no singer even of mediocre +power appeared in Scotland. + +There were editions of many of the poems of James I., Dunbar, Stirling, +Drummond, and Sempill, which Ramsay may have seen. But he was more +likely to have gained the knowledge we know he possessed of the early +literature of his country from the recitals by fireside _raconteurs_, +and from the printed sheets, or _broadsides_, hawked about the rural +districts of Scotland during the closing decades of the seventeenth and +the initial ones of the eighteenth centuries. From specimens of these +which I have seen, it is evident that Henryson's _Robene and Makyn_, +Dunbar's _Merle and the Nightingale_ and the _Thistle and the Rose_, +with several of Drummond's and Stirling's poems, were circulated in this +way, thus becoming familiarly known in rural districts where the volumes +of these authors never could have penetrated. On these _broadsides_, +then, it must have been that the dormant poetical gifts of the youthful +Ramsay were fed, and in after years he showed his liking for this form +of publication by issuing his own earlier poems in the same way. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 + + +As much, perhaps, to obtain release from employment so laborious as that +on the farm, as from a desire to be independent, young Ramsay consented +to his stepfather's proposal that he should be apprenticed to a wigmaker +in Edinburgh. + +It has been urged, in proof of Crichton's harshness to his stepson, that +Ramsay, after he left Leadhills in 1700, never seems to have had any +further intercourse with them. Not so much as a chance reference in a +letter reveals that he ever had any future dealings with the Crichton +family. But this is not to be wondered at. The fact of the death of his +mother in 1700 does not wholly explain the matter, I admit. But we need +only recall the exclusive character previously attributed to the people +of Leadhills, their antipathy to any intrusion upon them by strangers of +any kind, to understand the case. They were a type of Scottish Essenes, +a close community, akin to the fisher-communities of Newhaven and +Fisherrow, with their distinctive customs, traditions, and prejudices. +For a gay young Edinburgh spark such as Ramsay, fond of fine clothes, +with a strong spice of vanity and egotism in his nature, to sojourn +amongst the _dour_, stolid, phlegmatic miners, would have been to foster +the development of asperities on both sides, calculated to break off all +further intercourse. Met they may have, and parted on the terms we +surmise, but of such meeting no hint was ever dropped, and a veil of +separation drops between the household at Crawfordmuir and the young +Jacob who thus was sent forth, from the shadow of what was to him the +paternal roof, to war with the world at his own charges. That David +Crichton had done his duty nobly by the lad was evident; but other +children were shooting up to youth's estate, and when the elder bird was +full fledged, it must e'en take its flight from the parent nest to make +room for others. + +There is another view of the case not so creditable to the future poet, +but still within the range of possibility--that the scion of the house +of Ramsay, whose anxiety to let the world know he was of gentle lineage +was so chronic, may have felt himself a cut above the children of the +bonnet-lairdie. Ramsay's nature was not one wherein the finer sympathies +and delicate regard for the feelings of others were mortised into a +sturdy independence and a desire to carve his fortunes out of the block +of favouring opportunity. From start to finish of his career a subtle +egoism, born of his lonely situation in life and fostered by his +inordinate vanity, was his distinguishing trait. Generous acts he did, +benevolent and kindly on numerous occasions he undoubtedly was, but his +charity was not altruism. He was not the man to deny himself for the +good of others. + +Henceforth Edinburgh was to be Ramsay's life's home. He was enrolled as +an apprentice early in January 1701. Although, as an apprentice, he was +obliged to undertake duties distinctly domestic and menial,--for, in +those days of strict social and ecclesiastical discipline, a master was +expected to discharge towards those indentured to him much that +appertains solely to the province of the parent,--still, there would be +many spare hours wherein he would be free to devote himself to such +pursuits as his taste led him. + +What induced him to select wig-making as his life's _métier_ is unknown. +Perhaps his stepfather may have had some friend in that line of business +who for 'auld lang syne' was willing to take the boy and teach him his +trade. There is, of course, the other side of the question to be taken +into account, that the work did not demand much bodily strength for its +successful prosecution, and that it was cleanly, neat, and artistic. The +recent development of the art of the _coiffeur_ in France, in +consequence of the attempts of Louis XIV. to conceal his natural defects +of diminutive stature and a phenomenally small head,--defects impairing +the effect of that majestic mien which the pupil of Mazarin so +persistently cultivated,--had spread into England, and thence into +Scotland. The enormous periwigs rendered fashionable by _Le Grand +Monarque_ admitted of a variety of artistic treatment. The heyday of +wig-making may therefore be said to have extended over at least the +greater part of Ramsay's career in this branch of trade, and in his day +the poet was reckoned the most ingenious of Edinburgh _perruquiers_. + +Another consideration probably influenced him in his choice to proceed +to Edinburgh. The change to lighter labour would enable him to filch +from hours allocated to sleep precious moments for private reading, +which the arduous nature of his employment at Crawfordmuir had +prevented. Besides, he was in a 'city of books'--books only waiting to +be utilised. That he did take advantage of his opportunities during his +apprenticeship, and that it was at this period that the poetic instinct +in him took fire, on coming in contact with the electric genius of +Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and other master-minds of English +literature, is a fact to which he refers more than once in his poems. + +From 1701-7,--in other words, from his fifteenth to his twenty-first +year,--while he was serving his apprenticeship, there is a gap in the +continuity of the records we have of the poet; a _lacuna_ all the more +regrettable as these were the true germing years of his genius. Of the +name of his trade-master, of the spot where the shop of the latter was +situated, of his friends at that time, of his pursuits, his amusements, +his studies, we know little, save what can be gathered from chance +references in after-life. That they were busy years as regards his trade +is certain from the success he achieved in it; and that Ramsay was +neither a lazy, thriftless, shiftless, or vicious apprentice his after +career effectually proves. That they were happy years, if busy, may, I +think, be accepted as tolerably certain, for the native gaiety and +hilarity of his temperament underwent no abatement. Whether or not his +fashionable Edinburgh relatives took any notice of him, whether he was a +guest at his grandfather, the lawyer's house, or whether the latter and +his family, hidebound by Edinburgh social restrictions, found it +necessary to ignore a Ramsay who soiled his fingers with trade, is +unknown. Probably not, for it is matter of tradition that it was the +fact of his family connections which weighed with Writer Ross in +consenting to the union of his daughter with a tradesman. + +In the spring of 1707 Allan Ramsay received back his indentures, signed +and sealed, with the intimation from the ancient and honourable +'Incorporation of Wigmakers' that he was free of the craft. He appears +almost immediately thereafter to have commenced business on his own +account in the Grassmarket, being admitted at the same time, in virtue +of being a craftsman of the town, a burgess of the City of Edinburgh. +Though no trace can be found that the wigmakers ranked amongst the +forty-two incorporated Societies or Guilds of the city (for their name +does not appear), that they must have enjoyed the same privileges as the +other trades, is evident from the fact of Ramsay being enrolled as a +burgess, the moment he had completed his apprenticeship. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; RAMSAY'S +MARRIAGE--1707-12 + + +An important stage in Allan Ramsay's life's journey had now been +reached. He was of age, he was a burgess of the town, he was a member, +or free, of one of the most influential of the Crafts, or Guilds, in the +capital, but, greatest step of all, he had started in business for +himself, and had flung himself, with a sort of fierce determination to +succeed, into that hand-to-hand fight with fortune for the sustenance of +life, from which each of us emerges either made or marred. + +At a time when all the youthful Ramsay's faculties were beginning to be +strung to their utmost tension of achievement, strange would it have +been if that of observation were not as eagerly exercised. + +Scotland in general, and Edinburgh in particular, were at this period in +the throes of a new political birth. The epoch of transition commenced +in 1707, and ended only when the dangers of the repeated rebellions of +1715 and 1745 showed the supercilious statesmen by the Thames--the +Harleys, the Walpoles, the Pelhams--that conciliation, not intimidation, +was the card to play in binding Scotland to her greater neighbour. A +patriotism that had burned clear and unwavering from the days of +Wallace and Bruce to those of the exiled and discredited Stuarts, was +not to be crushed out by a band of political wirepullers, by whom State +peculation was reduced to an art and parliamentary corruption to a +science. + +Although the ultimate effects of the Union between England and Scotland +were in the highest degree beneficial upon the arts, the commerce, and +the literature of the latter, the proximate results were disastrous in +the extreme; yet the step was imperative. So strained had become the +relations between the two countries, consequent on the jealousy of +English merchants and English politicians, that only two alternatives +were possible--war, or the corporate union of the whole island. Yet in +Scotland the very mention of Union was sufficient to drive the people +into a paroxysm of rage. The religious animosity between the two +countries was as important a factor in producing this feeling as any +other. + +English churchmen boasted that with any such Union would come the +restoration of Episcopacy north of the Tweed, and the abolition of the +Church of Scotland. The latter retaliated by pushing an Act of Security +through the Scottish Legislature, which demanded an oath to support the +Presbyterian Church in its integrity from every sovereign on his +accession. The Scottish Whigs and the Scottish Jacobites, despite +political differences wide as the poles, joined hands in resistance to +what they considered the funeral obsequies of Scottish nationality. For +a time the horizon looked so lowering that preparations actually were +begun in Scotland to accumulate munitions of war. + +But the genius, the patience, and withal the firmness, of Lord Somers, +the great Whig Richelieu of his time, gradually overcame all +difficulties, though he was reduced to wholesale bribery of the Scottish +peers to effect his end. As Green puts it: 'The Scotch proposals of a +federative rather than a legislative Union were set aside by his +firmness: the commercial jealousies of the English traders were put by; +and the Act of Union, as finally passed in 1707, provided that the two +Kingdoms should be united into one under the name of Great Britain, and +that the succession to the crown of this United Kingdom should be ruled +by the provisions of the English Act of Settlement. The Scotch Church +and the Scotch Law were left untouched, but all rights of trade were +thrown open, and a uniform system of coinage adopted.' + +Of all the negotiations for the consummation of the Union, Ramsay, +doubtless, was an interested spectator. Patriotic to his heart's core, +and sympathising as a Jacobite with the chivalrous feeling of his nation +for the dynasty they had given to England, and which, after only +eighty-six years of alternate loyalty and revolt, the Southrons had +driven into exile, the keenly observant lad would follow every detail in +the closing chapter of Scotland's history as an independent nation, with +a pathetic and sorrowful interest. Undoubtedly, while yet an apprentice, +with a few months of his time unexpired, he must have watched the last +observance of that ancient and picturesque spectacle, annually +recurring, but now to be abolished for ever--the 'Riding of the +Parliament,' or the procession of members to the opening of the sittings +in the old Parliament House. Perhaps he may even have secretly gained +admission to overhear the fiery debates on the Union in that ultimate +session of the Scottish legislature. Certainly he must have been one of +the thousands of spectators who day by day thronged the purlieus of the +hall where the national assembly met. Of the rage, brooding and deep, or +loud and outspoken, according to temperament, which prevailed amongst +the Edinburgh people at the mere idea of Union with the hated +'Southrons,' he must have been a witness. Nay, he may have been an +onlooker, if not a participant, in that riot which occurred after all +was over,--after Lord-Chancellor Seafield had uttered his brutal _mot_, +'There is the end o' an auld sang,' which gathered up for him the gall +of a nation's execration for a century to come; and after the +Commissioners of both nations had retired to sign the Treaty of Union. +Not, however, to any of the halls of Court did they retire, but to a +dingy cellar (still existing) of a house, 177 High Street, opposite the +Tron Church--being nearly torn limb from limb in getting there. Then the +mob, suddenly realising that now or never they must + + 'Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen,' + +besieged the cellar, intending to execute Jeddart justice or Lynch law +on those they esteemed traitors to their country. Fortunately there was +another means of egress; the party hastily took flight to an arbour in +the garden of Moray House, where the remaining signatures were appended, +and whence all the Commissioners fled post-haste to England, bearing +with them the signed copy of the Treaty. + +That stirring time, so pregnant with mighty issues, a time when the weal +or the woe of the future British Empire trembled in the balance,--for +what of achievement could England alone have accomplished, with +Scotland as a hostile neighbour dogging her heels?--must of itself have +been an education to young Ramsay. It both confirmed his patriotism and +widened his political outlook. + +Yet when the play was over, the curtain rung down, and the lights gone +out, the lapse of time must to him, as to other observers of the period, +have driven home with stunning force the conviction that the Union +spelled ruin for Scotland as a nation and Edinburgh as a city. For five +decades to come a listless apathy, born of despair, strangled Scottish +enterprise in its birth. The immediate effect of the Union was a serious +diminution in the national trade and commerce. The jealousy of English +merchants, as it had frustrated the Darien Scheme in the previous +century, now closed every possible avenue of commercial activity for the +renumerative utilisation of Scottish capital. 'We are dying by inches,' +wrote James, Earl of Bute, to a friend. And the signs of the times did +not seem to belie the assertion. + +In Edinburgh, also, the change was severely felt. The removal of the +Court to London, a hundred and four years before, had drawn a large +number of the Scottish nobility to the vortex of fashion. The money they +were wont to spend during their stay in Edinburgh, while the Court +_season_ lasted, was diverted into another channel. The town houses +which they had been forced to maintain in the Scottish metropolis, were +in many cases relinquished, and the place that so long had known them +knew them no more. At that time Scottish merchants and shopkeepers had +suffered severely, yet they had the satisfaction of knowing that the +seat of Scottish government remained north of the Tweed. + +But now a change even more radical was inaugurated. The national +Parliament, whose sittings had always necessitated the attendance of a +considerable proportion of the nobility and gentry of the country, +during a certain part of the year, was merged in that of the larger +country. Those of the purely Scottish peerage, whom choice or political +duties had retained in Scotland, now found no need to maintain their +costly Edinburgh establishments. Many a noble ancestral home, that for +three or four hundred years had sheltered the household and retainers of +families, whose deeds were interwoven with the historic records of +Scotland's most glorious epochs, was now advertised for sale. An exodus +to London on a vast scale set in, and the capital of Scotland ere long +settled down, in the apathy of despair, to play the _rôle_ of a +provincial centre. Henceforward her 'paper lords,' otherwise Judges of +the Court of Session, were to represent her titled magnates. + +The bitterness of spirit which such a course of action as this migration +inspired in the minds of the residents of the Scottish capital, Ramsay, +as a young journeyman, or as a master craftsman who had only newly +commenced business for himself, would fervently reciprocate. In two +places at least in his works he pathetically, yet vigorously, protests +against the cream of Scottish youth being sent away out of the country. + +In one of the most suggestively beautiful of his minor pastorals, _Betty +and Kate_, he thus writes-- + + 'Far, far, o'er far frae Spey an' Clyde, + Stands that great town o' Lud, + To whilk our best lads rin an' ride, + That's like to put us wud [mad]; + For sindle times they e'er come back + Wha anes are heftit there; + Sure, Bess, thae hills are nae sae black, + Nor yet thir [these] howms sae bare.' + +And in _The Gentle Shepherd_, after the discovery has been made of +Patie's noble birth, his fellow-herd, Roger, remarks-- + + 'Is not our master an' yoursell to stay + Amang us here? or, are ye gawn away + To London Court, or ither far aff parts, + To leave your ain poor us wi' broken hearts?' + +The five intercalary years between Ramsay's commencing in business on +his own account and his marriage, were those which may properly be +designated his intellectual seedtime. That he was exercised over any of +the deeper and more complex problems of life, death and futurity; that +he was hagridden by doubt, or appalled by the vision of man's motelike +finitude when viewed against the deep background of infinity and +eternity, we have no reason to suppose. Never at any epoch of his life a +'thinker,' in the true sense of the word, he was inclined, with the +genial insouciant Hedonism always characteristic of him, to slip +contentedly into the Pantheism of Pope, to regard humanity and the world +without as + + ----'but parts of a stupendous whole + Whose body nature is, and God the soul, + +--the superficial, ethical principle permeating which is summed up in +the dictum, _Whatever is, is right_. Though he had no sympathy with the +Puritanic austerity of Presbyterianism, albeit a regular attendant on +the ministrations of Dr. Webster of the Tolbooth Church, one of the +sections whereinto the magnificent cathedral of St. Giles was of old +divided, he was tinctured neither with French scepticism nor with the +fashionable doubts which the earlier deistical writers of the century, +Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, Toland, and Blount, were sowing +broadcast over Great Britain. In his _Gentle Shepherd_ he makes Jenny, +when Glaud, her father, had remarked, with respect to the prevailing +disregard of religion and morality among the youth of the better +classes, + + ----'I've heard mysell + Some o' them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell,' + +make the following reply, which savours strongly of the slippered +orthodoxy of _The Essay on Man_-- + + 'Watch o'er us, father! hech, that's very odd; + Sure, him that doubts a doomsday, doubts a God.' + +But though he appears to have given a wide berth to the ponderous +theology, the narrow ethics, and the hair-splitting metaphysics of the +time, his whole nature seems to have been stirred and awakened more +deeply than ever by his study of the elder poets in English literature. +Not that their music tended to make him discontented with his lot, or +unhinged the lid of his resolution to become a thoroughly efficient man +of business. Ramsay, unlike many of his brethren of the lyre, was of an +eminently practical temperament. Rumour says that in earlier boyhood he +cherished a desire of becoming an artist. But his stepfather not +possessing the means to furnish him with the necessary training, he +wisely sloughed all such unreasonable dreams, and aimed at independence +through wig-making. + +Wisdom as commendable was displayed now. Though his studies must have +kindled poetic emulation in him; though the vague unexpressed longings +of a richly-gifted nature were doubtless daily present with him, no +thought ever seems to have entered his mind of relinquishing trade for +poetry. On his ambition, also, he kept a steady curb, determining to +publish nothing but what his more matured judgment would approve. Not to +him in after years would the regret come that he had cursed his fame by +immaturity. + +From 1707 until 1711, during the dreary depression of the time +immediately succeeding the Union, when Scotsmen preferred apathy to +action, Ramsay sought surcease from his pangs of wounded patriotism by +plunging into studies of various kinds, but principally of English +poetry. In a letter, hitherto unpublished, addressed to his friend +Andrew Gibb, who appears to have resided at or near West Linton, he +remarks: 'I have rowth of good reading to wile my heart from grieving +o'er what cannot be mended now,--the sale o' our unhappy country to the +Southron alliance by a wheen traitors, who thought more o' Lord Somers' +gold than Scotland's rights. In Willie Shakspeare's melodious numbers I +forget the dark days for trade, and in auld Chaucer's Tales, and +Spenser's 'Queen,' in John Milton's majestic flow, in Giles and Phineas +Fletcher, in rare Ben and our ain Drummond, I tine the sorrows o' the +day in the glories o' the days that are past.' + +That we may accept Ramsay's account of the studies of Patie, the Gentle +Shepherd, as a type of his own is warranted by something more than +tradition. The internal evidence of his works throws a strong colour of +probability over the theory. When Sir William Worthy, who as a Royalist +had been compelled to flee into exile during the times of the +Commonwealth, inquires what were the books his son, whom he had +committed to the care of Symon, his shepherd, to be reared as his own +child, was in the habit of reading, the honest old servant replies-- + + 'When'er he drives our sheep to Edinburgh port, + He buys some books o' hist'ry, sangs, or sport; + Nor does he want o' them a rowth at will, + And carries aye a poochfu' to the hill. + Aboot ane Shakspeare--an' a famous Ben, + He aften speaks, an' ca's them best o' men. + How sweetly Hawthornden an' Stirling sing, + An' ane ca'd Cowley, loyal to his king, + He kens fu' weel, an' gars their verses ring. + I sometimes thought he made owre great a phrase + About fine poems, histories, and plays. + When I reproved him ance, a book he brings, + "Wi' this," quoth he, "on braes I crack wi' kings."' + +By the side-light thrown on Ramsay's life from this passage we gain some +idea of his own studies during those years of germination. To the poets +more exclusively Scottish, whether writing in the current literary +medium of the day or in the vernacular of the country; to Robert +Sempill's _Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan_; to William +Cleland's _Highland Host_--in addition to Drummond and the Earl of +Stirling, mentioned in the passage quoted above; to William Hamilton of +Gilbertfield's verses, _The Dying Words of Bonnie Heck_, and to others +of less note, he seems to have devoted keen and enthusiastic attention. +Lieutenant Hamilton it was (as Ramsay admits in the poetical +correspondence maintained between them) who first awakened within him +the desire to write in the dialect of his country-- + + 'When I begoud first to cun verse, + And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse, + Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce, + It warm'd my breast; + Then emulation did me pierce, + Whilk since ne'er ceast.' + +There was, however, another influence at work, quite as potent, +stimulating his poetic fancy. Amid the beauties of the 'Queen of Cities' +he lived, and the charms of his surroundings sank deep into his +impressionable nature. In whatever direction he looked, from the ridgy +heights of the Castlehill, a glorious natural picture met his eye. If to +the north, his gaze caught the gleam of the silvery estuary of the +Forth, with fertile reaches of green pasture-land intervening, and the +little villages of Picardy, Broughton, and Canonmills peeping out from +embosoming foliage, while beyond the silver streak, beautified by the +azure enchantment of distance, glowed in the sunshine the heath-clad +Lomonds and the yellow wealth of the fields of Fife. Did the youthful +poet turn eastward, from yonder favourite lounge of his on Arthur Seat, +the mouth of the noble Firth, dotted with sail, was full in view, with +the shadowy outlines of the May Island, peeping out like a spirit from +the depth of distance, and nearer, the conical elevation of North +Berwick Law and the black-topped precipitous mass of the Bass; while +seemingly lying, in comparison, almost at his feet, was the magnificent +semicircular sweep of Aberlady Bay, with its shore-fringe of whitewashed +villages gleaming like a string of glittering pearls, behind which +stretched the fertile carse of East Lothian, rolling in gently +undulating uplands back to the green Lammermoors. Or if he gazed +southward, did his eye not catch the fair expanse of Midlothian, as +richly cultivated as it was richly wooded, extending before him like a +matchless picture, dotted with homesteads, hamlets, and villages, past +Dalkeith--'which all the virtues love,' past Lasswade, past Roslin's +castled rock, past Dryden's groves of oak, past caverned Hawthornden, +until earth and sky seemed to meet in the misty horizon line of the +Moorfoots? And westward, was not the eye guided by the grassy grandeur +of the Pentland Range, until beauty was merged in indefiniteness across +the wide strath lying like a painted scroll from Edinburgh to +Linlithgow? + +Fairer scene never nurtured poet in 'the fine frenzy of his art'; and in +long excursions during his spare hours, amidst the silent glens and +frowning _cleughs_ of the Pentlands, amidst the romantic scenery +clothing the banks of both the Esks, by Almond's gentle flow, and by the +wimpling waters of the Water of Leith, our Caledonian Theocritus fed his +germing genius on food that was destined to render him at once the +greatest and the most breezily objective of British pastoral poets. + +From 1707 to 1711 thus did Allan Ramsay 'live and learn,'--a youth whose +nature, fired by the memories of Scotland's greatness in years gone by, +already longed to add something of value to the cairn of his country's +literature. Such, too, were the facts of which, at his request, the +worthy lawyer, Mr. James Ross, was placed in possession when he was +called on to decide whether his friend, the 'poetically-minded +wigmaker,' should be regarded as a _persona grata_ from the point of +view of a prospective son-in-law. That the 'pedigree' of the young +aspirant was accepted as satisfactory may be regarded as certain from +the fact that the marriage of Allan Ramsay and Christian Ross was +celebrated during the New Year festivities of 1712. A woman, at once of +considerable personal attractions, sound common sense and practical +knowledge of the world, a capital housewife withal, and though not +devoid of a certain modicum of literary appreciation, by no means a +blue-stocking, such, in brief, was the lady who for thirty years was to +be the faithful partner of Ramsay's fortunes, rejoicing with him in +success, sympathising with him in reverse--one who merited to the full +the glowing lines wherein he described her. The song of 'Bonny Chirsty' +was written after nearly seven years of wedded life. The sentiments +therein expressed speak better than comment as to the happiness of +Ramsay's marriage. One verse of it may be quoted-- + + 'How sweetly smells the simmer green! + Sweet taste the peach and cherry; + Painting and order please our een, + And claret makes us merry: + But finest colours, fruits, and flowers, + And wine, though I be thirsty, + Lose a' their charms and weaker powers, + Compared wi' those of Chirsty.' + +About a year before his marriage, Ramsay had left the shop in the +Grassmarket, where he had commenced business in 1707, and had +established himself in the High Street in premises already described, +and which exist to this day. There, under his sign of the 'Flying +Mercury,' he toiled and sang, and chatted and cracked jokes with all and +sundry, from sunrise to sunset, his wit and his humour, and, as time +rolled on, his poetic genius, bringing many customers to his shop. +Verily, a sunny-souled man, in whom 'life with its carking cares' could +never extinguish his cheery _bonhomie_ and self-confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 + + +Ramsay's marriage was the turning-point of his career. To him, as to +every man who realises not alone the moral but the social obligations he +assumes when undertaking the holy charge of rendering a woman's life +happier and brighter than ever before, the responsibilities of his new +relation crystallised into the mould of definite effort the energies +hitherto diffused throughout numberless diverse channels. Seldom has the +philosophy of wedded bliss been more felicitously stated than in his +_Advice to Mr. ---- on his Marriage_. He remarks, as though drawing on +the fund of his own experience-- + + 'Alake! poor mortals are not gods, + And therefore often fall at odds; + But little quarrels now and then, + Are nae great faults 'tween wife and man. + These help right often to improve + His understanding, and her love. + If e'er she take the pet, or fret, + Be calm, and yet maintain your state; + An' smiling ca' her little foolie, + Syne wi' a kiss evite a tulzie. + This method's ever thought the braver + Than either cuffs or _clish-ma-claver_. + It shows a spirit low an' common + That wi' ill-nature treats a woman. + They're of a make sae nice and fair + They maun be managed wi' some care; + Respect them they'll be kind an' civil, + But disregarded, prove the devil.' + +But for another reason the year 1712 is as interesting to us as students +of his career as it was important to him. In the early months of it he +was introduced to the 'Easy Club,' one of those politico-convivial +societies that sprang into existence early in the century, and were +conspicuous features in the social customs of the period, until its +eighth and ninth decades, when, consequent upon the expansion of the +city north and south, the tavern conviviality of 1740 was succeeded by +the domestic hospitality of 1790. + +At the time of which we write, the capital of Scotland was virtually +represented by the one long street called the High Street, or 'Edinburgh +Street,' which crowned the summit of the ridge extending from the Castle +to Holyrood Palace, the ancient home of the Stuarts. From this main +artery of traffic, smaller veins, in the shape of narrow darksome +closes, branched out, leading to a second artery in the Cowgate, and to +yet a third one in the Grassmarket. During the panic that prevailed +after the Battle of Flodden, a wall of defence was drawn around the +town. By it the area of Edinburgh was grievously circumscribed. Only +what might be termed the heart of the city was included, all lying +beyond falling within the anomalous designation of _suburbs_. For two +hundred years this seemingly impassable girdle sternly checked the +natural _overflow_ of the city's life. To reside outside the _ports_ or +gates was not only considered dangerous--it was unfashionable. And as +there was not accommodation for a tenth part of the inhabitants in the +houses of two, or at most three, storeys which prevailed about the time +of the Reformation, the architects of the Restoration period commenced +the erection of those towering tenements, or _lands_,--twelve, fourteen, +and even sixteen storeys high,--for which Edinburgh has been celebrated +among the cities of Europe. Thus the families of the Scottish metropolis +were packed together, one on the top of the other, like herrings in a +barrel, in those quaint old houses, with their grim timber fronts, their +crow-stepped gables and dormer windows, that remain even until to-day to +show us the circumstances under which our fathers lived and loved. + +In circumstances such as these, domestic comfort and the sweet seclusion +of home were out of the question. So criminally overcrowded was the town +that well-born gentlemen and their households were content with two or +three rooms, wherein all the manifold duties of social and domestic life +had to be performed. Robert Chambers, in his charming _Traditions of +Edinburgh_, relates how the family of Mr. Bruce of Kennet, a leading +lawyer, afterwards raised to the Bench, lived in a house of three rooms +and a kitchen--a parlour, a consulting-room for Mr. Bruce, and a +bedroom. The children, with their maid, had beds laid down for them at +night in their father's room, the housemaid slept under the kitchen +dresser, and the one man-servant was turned at night out of the house. +Even a more striking example of the lack of accommodation was to be +found in connection with the household arrangements of Mr. Kerr, the +eminent goldsmith of Parliament Square, who 'stowed his _ménage_ in a +couple of small rooms above his booth-like shop, plastered against the +wall of St. Giles Church; the nursery and kitchen, however, being in a +cellar under the level of the street, where the children are said to +have rotted off like sheep.... The town was, nevertheless, a funny, +familiar, compact, and not unlikable place. Gentle and semple living +within the compass of a single close, or even a single stair, knew and +took an interest in each other.' + +Such was the kind of home to which Allan Ramsay brought his bride. Two +rooms, with a closet and a kitchen, for many a long year were the extent +of their household accommodation. Such a state of things was not +favourable to the development of the virtues purely domestic. Hence with +Ramsay, as with other men, tavern life was accepted as a substitute for +those comforts the sterner sex could not get at home. As Grant remarks +in his _Old and New Edinburgh_: 'The slender house accommodation in the +turnpike stairs compelled the use of taverns more than now. There the +high-class advocate received his clients, and the physician his +patients--each practitioner having his peculiar _howff_. There, too, +gentlemen met in the evening for supper and conversation, without much +expense, a reckoning of a shilling being a high one--so different then +was the value of money and the price of viands.' + +Mr. Logie Robertson, in his graphic and admirable introduction to the +_Poems of Allan Ramsay_ in the Canterbury Series, adds: 'Business +lingered on all over the town to a much later period than is customary +now, but by eight o'clock every booth was deserted and every shop +closed, and the citizens for the most part gave themselves up to cheap +conviviality and pastime for the next hour or two. Almost every +tradesman had his favourite place in his favourite tavern, where, night +after night, he cracked a quiet bottle and a canny joke before going +home to his family. It was first business, then friendship; and the +claims of family after that.' + +Out of this general spirit of conviviality arose those numberless Clubs +wherein, upon the convivial stem, were graffed politics, literature, +sport, science, as well as many other pursuits less worthy and less +beneficial. No custom, no usage, no jest, in fact, seemed too trivial to +be seized upon as the pretext to give a colour of excuse for founding a +Club. Some of them were witty, others wise, others degrading. Such +designations as the _Cape Club_,--so called from doubling the Cape of +Leith Wynd, when half-seas over, to get home to the burgh of Low Calton, +where several of the members lived; the _Pious Club_, because the +brethren met regularly to consume pies; the _Spendthrift Club_, because +no _habitué_ was permitted to spend more than _fourpence halfpenny_, and +others, were harmless in their way, and promoted a cheap _bonhomie_ +without leading the burghers into disgraceful excesses. But the +_Hell-fire Club_, the _Sweating Club_, the _Dirty Club_, and others of a +kindred order, were either founded to afford an opportunity for +indulgence in riot and licence of every kind, or were intended to +encourage habits as disgusting as they were brutal. + +Not to be supposed is it that Ramsay had lived six-and-twenty years of +his life without having practised, and we have no doubt enjoyed, the +widespread conviviality of the period. Hence, though the Easy Club was +the first of the social gatherings wherewith he actually informs us he +was connected, we have no reason to doubt he had been associated with +several of them before. In fact, in that poetical 'Essay' of his which +stands first in the chronological order of composition, though not of +publication, the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, who died anno 1711--an +alewife whose little farm and hotel were situated in the village of +Morningside, just beyond the Bruntsfield Links,--he seems to imply that +a club of some kind met there. The third stanza runs as follows-- + + 'And there by dizens we lay down; + Syne sweetly ca'd the healths aroun', + To bonny lasses, black or brown, + As we loo'd best: + In bumpers we dull cares did drown, + An' took our rest.' + +But to the Easy Club[1] must be assigned the honour of having stimulated +the nascent genius of the poet to achieve something that would convey to +its members the fact that it was no ordinary tradesman who solicited +admission into the charmed circle of the Society. James Ross, whose zeal +for the poetic young wigmaker's social recognition was now materially +increased, used all his influence to obtain for his son-in-law an +_entrée_ into the Club of which he was himself a member. Questionable, +indeed, it is, when we consider the exclusive character of the +association in question, the high social position of its members, and +their avowed Jacobitical tenets, if even the influence of James Ross, +powerful though it was, would alone have secured for Ramsay admission. +But an inspiration, as happy as it was original, prompted him to embody +his petition for admission into the Club in a poetical address. Such a +course was of itself sufficient to recommend him to men like Dr. +Ruddiman and Dr. Pitcairn. The poem, addressed to 'The Most Happy +Members of the Easy Club,' proceeded, in a felicitous strain of gentle +satire, blended with genial humour not unlike Gay at his best, to plead +his own cause why he should be admitted as 'an _Easy_ fellow.' His +application was successful, and he was duly enrolled as a member. The +following lines extracted from it will exhibit the character of the +piece, which takes rank as the earliest of his published poems-- + + 'Were I but a prince or king, + I'd advance ye, I'd advance ye; + Were I but a prince or king, + So highly I'd advance ye! + Great wit and sense are ever found + Among ye always to abound; + Much like the orbs that still move round, + No ways constrained, but easy. + Were I but, etc. + + Most of what's hid from vulgar eye, + Even from earth's centre to the sky, + Your brighter thoughts do clearly spy, + Which makes you wise and easy. + Were I but, etc. + + All faction in the Church or State, + With greater wisdom still you hate, + And leave learn'd fools there to debate,-- + Like rocks in seas you're easy. + Were I but, etc. + + I love ye well--O let me be + One of your blythe Society; + And like yourselves I'll strive to be + Aye humorous and easy. + Were I but, etc. + + +The benefits received by the self-confident young poet were not alone of +an intangible character. Praise is an excellent thing of itself, but a +modicum of pudding along with it is infinitely better. To Ramsay the +Easy Club was the means of securing both. The _rôle_ of his literary +patrons was at once assumed by its members. They printed and published +his _Address_ at their own expense, appointed him, within a few months' +time, their 'Poet Laureate,' and manifested, both by counsel and the +exercise of influence, the liveliest interest in his welfare. No trivial +service this to the youthful poet on the part of his kindly club +brethren. How great it was, and how decisive the effect of their +generous championship in establishing Ramsay's reputation on a sure +basis, will best be understood by glancing for a moment at the character +of the Easy Club and the _personnel_ of its membership. + +Originally founded, under a different name, as a means of frustrating, +and afterwards of protesting against, the Union, the Club, after its +reconstruction in 1711, became a Jacobite organisation pure and simple. +As Ramsay himself stated in after years: 'It originated in the antipathy +we all of that day seemed to have at the ill-humour and contradiction +which arise from trifles, especially those which constitute Whig and +Tory, _without having the grand reason for it_.' The grand reason in +question was the restoration of the Stuarts. To give a _soupçon_ of +mystery to their proceedings, as well as to veil their identity when +thus plotting against the 'powers that be,' each member assumed a +fictitious name, generally that of some celebrated writer. The poet, as +he himself relates, at first selected Isaac Beckerstaff, suggestive of +Steele and the _Tatler_. Eventually, however, he altered his +_nom-de-guerre_ to Gawain Douglas, one more in accordance with his +patriotic sentiments. + +The membership was limited to _twelve_, but at the time when Ramsay made +his application we only know the names of five of those who belonged to +it. Hepburn of Keith, in East Lothian, an antiquarian of no mean +standing; Professor Pitcairn, late of Leyden, but at that time in the +enjoyment of one of the largest practices as a physician in the +Edinburgh of the period; Dr. Patrick Abercrombie, the eminent historian +and antiquarian, author of _The Martial Achievements of the Scottish +Nation_; Dr. Thomas Ruddiman, philologist, grammarian, printer, and +librarian of the Advocates' Library,--one of the few Scottish polymaths +over and above the Admirable Crichton and George Buchanan,--and James +Ross the lawyer. Tradition has stated that Hamilton of Gilbertfield was +also one of the 'Easy fellows,' as they dubbed themselves, but no +confirmation of this fact could be discovered. + +We reach now the commencement of Ramsay's literary career. For four +years--in fact, until the breaking up of the Society after the Rebellion +of 1715--all he wrote was issued with the _imprimatur_ of the Easy Club +upon it. That they were proud of him is evident from the statement made +by Dr. Ruddiman in a letter to a friend: 'Our Easy Club has been +increased by the admission of a young man, Ramsay by name, _sib_ to the +Ramsays of Dalhousie, and married to a daughter of Ross the writer. He +will be heard tell o' yet, I'm thinking, or I am much out of my +reckoning.' + +The next pieces which our poet read to his patrons were two he had +written some time previous--to wit, a little Ode on the preservation +from death by drowning of the son of his friend John Bruce, on August +19, 1710; and the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, the alewife, to which +reference has already been made. The first of these bears evident traces +of youth and inexperience, in both the esoteric and exoteric or +technical mysteries of his art. For example, when referring to the +danger wherein the lad and his companions had been placed, he remarks-- + + 'Whilst, like the lamp's last flame, their trembling souls + Are on the wing to leave their mortal goals'; + +and he conjures up the following extraordinary spectacle of angelic +gymnastics, whereby the rescue of the lads was effected-- + + 'Angels came posting down the divine beam + To save the helpless in their last extreme.' + +Little promise was visible in that piece of future excellence, yet +within eighteen months he had written the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, to +which the critics of the Easy Club gave unstinted praise. For humorous +description of the convivial habits of the day, and graphic +word-painting, the poem is exceedingly happy. But alas! judged by our +latter-day standard of refinement, good taste, and morality, it is +_caviare_ to the general. Only to antiquarians and students of by-past +customs do its allusions contain much that is either interesting or +edifying. + +To follow Ramsay's poetic development through all his earlier pieces +would simply exhaust the interest of the reader. Suffice it to say, +that, at the request of the Easy Club, he wrote an Elegy on the death +of Dr. Pitcairn in 1713, but the poem contained so many political +references and satirical quips that he omitted it from the collected +edition of his works in 1721. Pitcairn was a sort of Scottish Voltaire, +a man far in advance of his time, who paid in popular suspicion and +reprobation for his liberality and tolerance. What Robert Chambers +remarks of him is well within the facts of the case. 'His sentiments and +opinions on various subjects accord with the most enlightened views of +the present day, and present a very striking and remarkable contrast to +the ignorance and prejudice with which he was surrounded. Fanatics and +bigots he detested, and by fanatics and bigots, as a matter of course, +he was abused and calumniated. He was accused of being an atheist, a +deist, a mocker and reviler of religion, ... _and one who was twice +drunk every day_.' Ramsay, in his _Elegy_, rebutted those grossly +malevolent falsehoods, not only clearing the memory of his patron from +such foul dishonour, but with bitingly sarcastic humour he turned the +tables on the calumniators, by showing, over their action in connection +with the Union, who in reality were the traitors. + +To the instigation of the Easy Club we also owe the piece on _The +Qualifications of a Gentleman_, published in 1715, subsequent to a +debate in the Society on the subject. Ramsay versified the arguments +used by the various speakers, executing the task in a manner at once so +graceful and witty that the Club formally declared him to be 'a +gentleman by merit.' Only a periphrastic method of signifying their +approbation of his work was this, and did not imply any reflection upon +his birth, as might at first glance be supposed. For in the concluding +lines of the poem Ramsay, with his genial _bonhomie_ and humour had +said-- + + 'Yet that we more good humour might display, + We frankly turned the vote another way; + And in each thing we common topics shun, + So the great prize nor birth nor riches won. + The vote was carried thus:--that easy he + Who should three years a social fellow be, + And to our Easy Club give no offence, + After triennial trial, should commence + A gentleman; which gives as just a claim + To that great title, as the blast of fame + Can give to those who tread in human gore.' + +In 1715, also, he amused the members of the Club, and after them the +wits of Edinburgh, with some lines on the current predictions regarding +_The Great Eclipse of the Sun_, foretold to take place during April +1715. The following picture, descriptive of the awe and terror produced +on ignorant minds and on the brute creation by the occurrence of the +eclipse, is as pithily effective in its simplicity and fidelity to life +and nature as anything in Crabbe's _Tales in Verse_ or Shenstone's +_Schoolmistress_-- + + 'When this strange darkness overshades the plains, + 'Twill give an odd surprise to unwarned swains; + Plain honest hinds, who do not know the cause, + Nor know of orbs, their motions or their laws, + Will from the half-ploughed furrows homeward bend + In dire confusion, judging that the end + Of time approacheth; thus possessed with fear, + They'll think the gen'ral conflagration near. + The traveller, benighted on the road, + Will turn devout, and supplicate his God. + Cocks with their careful mates and younger fry, + As if 'twere evening, to their roosts will fly. + The horned cattle will forget to feed, + And come home lowing from the grassy mead. + Each bird of day will to his nest repair, + And leave to bats and owls the dusky air; + The lark and little robin's softer lay + Will not be heard till the return of day.' + +The years 1715-16 were evidently periods of great activity on Ramsay's +part, for at least five other notable productions of his pen are to be +assigned to that date. To him the revelation of his life's _métier_ had +at last come, and his enthusiasm in its prosecution was intense. +Henceforward poetry was to represent to him the supreme aim of +existence. But like the canny Scot he was, he preferred to regard its +emoluments as a crutch rather than a staff; nay, on the other hand, the +determination to discharge his daily duties in his trade, as he executed +his literary labours, _con amore_, seems to have been ever present with +him. On this point, and referring to his dual pursuits as a wigmaker and +a poet, he writes to his friend Arbuckle-- + + 'I theek the out, and line the inside + Of mony a douce and witty pash, + And baith ways gather in the cash. + + . . . . . + + Contented I have sic a skair, + As does my business to a hair; + And fain would prove to ilka Scot, + That pourtith's no the poet's lot.' + +During the years in question Ramsay produced in rapid succession his +poem _On Wit_, the Club being again responsible for this clever satire; +and also two humorous _Elegies_, one on John Cowper, the +Kirk-Treasurer's-Man, whose official oversight of the _nymphes de pave_ +furnished the poet with a rollickingly ludicrous theme, of which he made +the most; the other, an _Elegy on Lucky Wood_, alewife in the Canongate, +also gave Ramsay full scope for the exercise of that broad Rabelaisian +humour, of his possession of which there was now no longer to be any +doubt. + +Finally, in 1716, he achieved his great success, which stamped him as +unquestionably one of the greatest delineators that had as yet appeared, +of rural Scottish life amongst the humbler classes. As is well known, a +fragment is in existence consisting of one canto of a poem entitled +_Christ's Kirk on the Green_. Tradition and internal evidence alike +point to King James I. as the author. The theme is the description of a +brawl at a country wedding, which breaks out just as the dancing was +commencing. 'The king,' says Ramsay, 'having painted the rustic squabble +with an uncommon spirit, in a most ludicrous manner, in a stanza of +verse, the most difficult to keep the sense complete, as he had done, +without being forced to bring in words for crambo's sake where they +return so frequently, I have presumed to imitate His Majesty in +continuing the laughable scene. Ambitious to imitate so great an +original, I put a stop to the war, called a congress, and made them sign +a peace, that the world might have their picture in the more agreeable +hours of drinking, dancing, and singing. The following cantos were +written, the one in 1715 (O.S. corresponding to January 1716), the other +in 1718, about three hundred years after the first. Let no worthy poet +despair of immortality,--good sense will always be the same in spite of +the revolutions of fashion and the change of language.' + +The task was no easy one, but Ramsay succeeded with remarkable skill in +dovetailing the second and third cantos into the first, so that they +read as the production of one mind. For faithful portraiture of Scottish +rural manners, for a fidelity, even in the minutest details, recalling +Teniers and his vividly realistic pictures of Dutch rustic life, the +cantos are unrivalled in Scottish literature, save by the scenes of his +own _Gentle Shepherd_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See Preface. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAVOURITE AT THE 'FOUR-OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; THE +QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 + + +Ramsay's fame as a poet, writing in the Scots vernacular, was now +thoroughly established. Though the patronage of the Easy Club could no +longer be extended to him, as the Government of the Elector of +Hanover--lately crowned King of England under the title of George +I.--had directed its suppression, the members of it, while in a position +to benefit him, had laid the basis of his reputation so broad and deep +that virtually he had now only to build on their foundation. + +He was distinctly the favourite of the 'auld wives' of the town. In +quarto sheets, familiarly known as _broadsides_, and similar to what had +been hawked about the country in his youth, his poems had hitherto been +issued. It became the fashion, when four o'clock arrived, to send out +their children, or their 'serving-lass,' with a penny to procure Allan +Ramsay's latest piece, in order to increase the relish of their +'four-oors' Bohea' with the broad humour of _John Cowper_, or _The Elegy +upon Lucky Wood_, or _The Great Eclipse_. + +During the year or two immediately preceding the publication of the +quarto of 1721 this custom greatly increased. Of course, a supply had +to be forthcoming to meet such a demand, but of these, numberless +pieces, on topics of political or merely ephemeral interest, were never +republished after their appearance in _broadside_ form. By an eminent +collector of this species of literature the fact is stated, that there +are considerably over two score of poems by Ramsay which have thus been +allowed to slip into oblivion. Not that such a fate was undeserved. In +many cases their indelicacy would debar their admission into any edition +nowadays; in others, their lack of permanent general interest. Such +subjects as _The Flytin' of Luckie Duff and Luckie Brown_, _A Dookin' in +the Nor' Loch_, and _A Whiggish Lament_, were not the kind of themes his +calmer and maturer judgment would care to contemplate being handed down +to posterity as specimens of his work. + +In 1719 Ramsay appears to have concluded, from the extensive sale his +poems enjoyed even in _broadside_ form, that the trade of a bookseller +would not only be more remunerative than a wigmaker's, but would also be +more in accord with his literary tastes and aspirations. For some months +he had virtually carried on the two trades concurrently, his reputation +undoubtedly attracting a large number of customers to his shop to have +their wigs dressed by the popular poet of the day. But as his fame +increased, so did his vanity. Of praise he was inordinately fond. 'Tell +Allan he's as great a poet as Pope, and ye may get what ye like from +him,' said the witty and outspoken Lord Elibank to a friend. The charge +had more than a grain of truth in it. That man did not lack more than +his share of self-complacent vanity who could write, as the vicegerent +of great Apollo, as he informs us in _The Scribblers Lashed_, such lines +as these-- + + 'Wherefore pursue some craft for bread, + Where hands may better serve than head; + Nor ever hope in verse to shine, + Or share in Homer's fate or----' + +Alas! Allan, 'backwardness in coming forward' was never one of thy +failings! + +To Allan, _digito monstrari_ was a condition of things equivalent to the +seventh heaven of felicity; but he felt it would be more to his +advantage to be pointed out as a bookseller than as a wigmaker, when his +reputation as a poet would cause his social status to be keenly +examined. We learn that he consulted his friend Ruddiman on the step, +who spoke strongly in its favour, and gave him good sound advice as to +the kind of stock most likely to sell readily. The 'Flying Mercury,' +therefore, which up to this date had presided over the 'theeking' of the +_outside_ of the 'pashes' (heads) of the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie, was thereafter to preside, with even increased lustre, over the +provision of material for lining the _inside_ with learning and culture. + +That the time was an anxious one for the poet there can be little doubt. +He was virtually beginning the battle of life anew; and though he did so +with many advantageous circumstances in his favour, none the less was +the step one to be undertaken only after the gravest consideration and +calculation of probabilities. But by its results the change is shown to +have been a wise one. From the outset the bookselling business proved a +lucrative venture. The issue of his own _broadsides_, week by week, was +of itself a considerable source of profit. These, in addition to being +sold at his shop and hawked about the country, were disposed of on the +streets of Edinburgh by itinerant stallkeepers, who were wont to regard +the fact as one of great moment to themselves when they could cry, 'Ane +o' Maister Ramsay's new poems--price a penny.' In this manner his famous +piece, _The City of Edinburgh's Address to the Country_, was sown +broadcast over the county. + +Meantime, while Ramsay's literary and commercial prosperity was being +established on so firm a basis, he was becoming quite a family man. The +little house opposite Niddry's Wynd was gradually getting small enough +for his increasing _ménage_. Since his marriage in 1712, happiness +almost idyllic, as he records, had been his lot in his domestic +relations. He had experienced the pure joy that thrills through a +parent's heart on hearing little toddling feet pattering through his +house, and sweet childish voices lisping the name 'father.' The +following entries in the Register of Births and Baptisms for the City of +Edinburgh speak for themselves:-- + +'At Edinburgh, 6th October 1713. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, periwige-maker, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, New Kirk Parish--a son, Allan. Witnesses, John Symer, William +Mitchell, and Robert Mein, merchant, burgesses; and William Baxter. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, burges, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, North East (College Kirk) Parish--a daughter named Susanna. +Witnesses, John Symers, merchant, and John Morison, merchant. The child +was born on the 1st instant. 3rd October 1714. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish--a son, Niell. Witnesses, Walter Boswell, sadler, and +John Symer, merchant. 9th October 1715. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish--a son, Robert. Witnesses, John Symer, merchant, and +Walter Boswell, sadler. The child was born on the 10th instant. 23rd +November 1716. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, bookseller, and Christian Ross, his +spouse--a daughter named Agnes. Witnesses, James Norie, painter, and +George Young, chyrurgeon. Born the 9th instant. 10th August 1725.' + +Besides these named above, Chalmers states that Christian Ross brought +Allan Ramsay three other daughters, who were not recorded in the +Register,--one born in 1719, one in 1720, and one in 1724,--who are +mentioned in his letter to Smibert as 'fine girls, no ae wally-draigle +among them all.' + +In 1719 our poet published his first edition of 'Scots Songs,'--some +original, others collected from all sources, and comprising many of the +gems of Scottish lyrical poetry. The success attending the volume was +instant and gratifying, and led, as we will see further on, to other +publications of a cognate but more ambitious character. Almost +contemporaneously was published, in a single sheet or _broadside_, what +proved to be the germ of the _Gentle Shepherd_--to wit, a _Pastoral +Dialogue between Patie and Roger_. The dialogue was reprinted in the +quarto of 1721, and was much admired by all the lovers of poetry of the +period. + +A reliable gauge of the estimation wherein Ramsay was now held, as +Scotland's great vernacular poet, is afforded in the metrical epistles +sent to him during the closing months of 1719 by Lieutenant William +Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to which Allan returned replies in similar +terms. This was not a poetical tourney like the famous 'flyting' between +Dunbar and Kennedy, two hundred and thirty years before. In the latter, +the two tilters sought to say the hardest and the bitterest things of +each other, though they professed to joust with pointless spears; in the +former, Hamilton and Ramsay, on the contrary, vied each with the other +in paying the pleasantest compliments. Gilbertfield contributed a +luscious sop to his correspondent's vanity when he saluted him, in a +stanza alluded to by Burns in his own familiar tribute, as-- + + 'O fam'd and celebrated Allan! + Renowned Ramsay! canty callan! + There's nowther Highland-man nor Lawlan, + In poetrie, + But may as soon ding down Tantallan, + As match wi' thee.' + +Then he proceeds to inform honest Allan that of 'poetry, the hail +quintescence, thou hast suck'd up,' and affirms that-- + + 'Tho' Ben and Dryden of renown + Were yet alive in London town, + Like kings contending for a crown, + 'Twad be a pingle, + Whilk o' you three wad gar words sound + And best to jingle.' + +After such a glowing tribute, Allan could do no less than dip deep into +his cask of compliments also, and assure Gilbertfield that he felt +taller already by this commendation-- + + 'When Hamilton the bauld and gay + Lends me a heezy, + In verse that slides sae smooth away, + Well tell'd and easy.' + +Then he proceeds to shower on his correspondent his return compliments +as follows-- + + 'When I begoud first to cun verse, + And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse, + Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce, + It warmed my breast; + Then emulation did me pierce, + Whilk since ne'er ceast.' + +Three epistles were exchanged on either side, bristling with flattery, +and with a little poetic criticism scattered here and there. In Ramsay's +second letter his irrepressible vanity takes the bit in its teeth and +runs away with him. He appends a note with reference to his change of +occupation, as though he dreaded the world might not know of it. 'The +muse,' he says, 'not unreasonably angry, puts me here in mind of the +favours she had done by bringing me from stalking over bogs or wild +marshes, to lift my head a little brisker among the polite world, which +could never have been acquired by the low movements of a mechanic.' He +was a bookseller now, of course, and could afford to look down on +wigmakers as base mechanics! His lovableness and generosity +notwithstanding, Ramsay's vanity and self-complacency meets us at every +turn. To omit mentioning it would be to present an unfaithful portrait +of the honest poet. On the other hand, justice compels one to state +that, if vain, he was neither jealous nor ungenerous. He was always +ready to recognise the merits of others, and his egoism was not +selfishness. Though he might not care to deny himself to his own despite +for the good of others, he was perfectly ready to assist his neighbour +when his own and his family's needs had been satisfied. + +At this time, also, Sir William Scott of Thirlestane, Bart., a +contemporary Latin poet, as Chalmers records, of no inconsiderable +powers, hailed Ramsay as one of the genuine poets whose images adorned +the temple of Apollo. In the 'Poemata D. Gulielmi Scoti de Thirlestane,' +printed along with the 'Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcarnii' +(Edinburgh, 1727), the following lines occur-- + + '_Effigies Allani Ramsæi, Poëtæ Scoti, inter cæteras Poëtarum + Imagines in Templo Apollinis suspensa_: + + Ductam Parrhasiâ videtis arte + Allani effigiem, favente Phoebo, + Qui Scotos numeros suos, novoque + Priscam restituit vigore linguam. + Hanc Phoebus tabulam, hanc novem sorores + Suspendunt lepidis jocis dicatam: + Gaudete, O Veneres, Cupidinesque, + Omnes illecebræ, facetiæque, + Plausus edite; nunc in æde Phoebi + Splendet conspicuo decore, vestri + Allani referens tabella vultus.' + +As much as any other, this testimony evinces how rapidly our poet's +reputation had increased. + +At last, in the spring of 1720, Allan Ramsay came before the public, and +challenged it to endorse its favourable estimate of his fugitive pieces +by subscribing to a volume of his collected poems, 'with some new, not +heretofore printed.' As Chambers remarks: 'The estimation in which the +poet was now held was clearly demonstrated by the rapid filling up of a +list of subscribers, containing the names of all that were eminent for +talents, learning, or dignity in Scotland.' The volume, a handsome +quarto, printed by Ruddiman, and ornamented by a portrait of the author, +from the pencil of his friend Smibert, was published in the succeeding +year, and the fortunate poet realised four hundred guineas by the +speculation. Pope, Steele, Arbuthnot, and Gay were amongst his English +subscribers. + +The quarto of 1721 may be said to have closed the youthful period in the +development of Ramsay's genius. Slow, indeed, was that development. He +was now thirty-five years of age, and while he had produced many +excellent pieces calculated to have made the name of any mediocre +writer, he had, as yet, given the world nothing that could be classed as +a work of genius. His sketches of humble life and of ludicrous episodes +occurring among the lower classes in Edinburgh and the rustics in the +country, had pleased a wide _clientéle_ of readers, because they +depicted with rare truth and humour, scenes happening in the everyday +life of the time. But in no single instance, up to this date, had he +produced a work that would live in the minds of the people as expressive +of those deep, and, by them, incommunicable feelings that go to the +composition of class differences. + +As a literary artist, Ramsay was destined to develop into a _genre_ +painter of unsurpassed fidelity to nature. As yet, however, that which +was to be the distinctive characteristic of his pictures had not dawned +upon his mind. But the time was rapidly approaching. Already the first +glimmerings of apprehension are to be detected in his tentative +endeavours to realise his _métier_ in the pastoral dialogue of _Patie +and Roger_ republished in his volume. + +The quarto of 1721 contained, moreover, several pieces that had not been +previously printed. These we will at present only mention _en passant_, +reserving critical analysis for our closing chapters. Not the least +noticeable of the poems in the volume are those wherein he lays aside +his panoply of strength,--the 'blythe braid Scots,' or vernacular,--and +challenges criticism on what he terms 'his English poems.' These were +undoubtedly the most ambitious flights in song hitherto attempted by the +Scottish Tityrus. To the study of Dryden, Cowley, Swift, Pope, and +Arbuthnot, he had devoted himself,--particularly to Pope's translation +of Homer's _Iliad_, and to the collected edition of the works of the +great author of the _Rape of the Lock_, issued in 1717. He had been in +correspondence for some years previous with several of the leading +English poets of the day, and with other individuals well known both in +politics and London society, such as Josiah Burchet, who, when he died +in 1746, had been Secretary to the Admiralty for forty-five years, and +had sat in six successive Parliaments. This was the friend whose +admiration for Ramsay was so excessive as to prompt him to send (as was +the custom of the time) certain recommendatory verses for insertion in +the quarto, wherein he hailed honest Allan in the following terms-- + + 'Go on, famed bard, the wonder of our days, + And crown thy head with never-fading bays; + While grateful Britons do thy lines revere, + And value as they ought their Virgil here.' + +Small wonder is it that, stimulated by such flattery, Allan should have +desired to evince to his friends by the Thames, that the notes of their +northern brother of the lyre were not confined to the humble strains of +his own rustic reed. + +In the quarto, therefore, we have a poem, _Tartana, or The Plaid_, +written in heroic couplets, with the avowed desire to reinstate in +popular favour the silken plaid, which, from time immemorial, had been +the favourite attire of Scots ladies, but, since the Rebellion of 1715, +had been somewhat discarded, in consequence of Whiggish prejudices that +it was a badge of disloyalty to the reigning house. Then we have +_Content_, a long piece of moral philosophy in verse, and the _Morning +Interview_, a poem written under the spell of Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, +wherein the very machinery of the sylphs is copied from the great +English satire. Nor is the 'South Sea Bubble,' which ran its brief +course from 1718 to 1720, forgotten in _Wealth, or The Woody_ (gallows), +and two shorter poems illustrative of the prevailing madness. Epigrams, +Addresses, Elegies, and Odes are also included, along with one or two of +his famous poetical _Epistles_, modelled on those of Horace, and +brimming over with genial _bonhomie_ and good-humoured epicureanism. In +this volume, also, we have additional evidence afforded how fondly he +had become attached to Edinburgh and its environs. Scarce a poem is +there in the book that lacks some reference to well-known features in +the local landscape, showing that he still retained the love of +wandering, in his spare hours, amid Pentland glens and by fair Eskside. +Only with one extract will the reader's patience be taxed here. It is +from his _Ode to the Ph--_, and is obviously an imitation of Horace's +Ode to Thaliarchus. All the sunny glow of the great Roman's genius seems +reflected in this revival of his sentiments, albeit under varying +physical conditions, well-nigh three hundred and fifty _lustra_ +afterwards. The lines cleave to the memory with a persistence that +speaks volumes for the catholicity and appropriateness of the thoughts-- + + 'Look up to Pentland's tow'ring tap, + Buried beneath big wreaths o' snaw, + O'er ilka cleugh, ilk scaur, and slap, + As high as ony Roman wa'. + + Driving their ba's frae whins or tee, + There's no ae gowfer to be seen; + Nor doucer fouk, wysing a-jee + The biassed bowls on Tamson's green. + + Then fling on coals, and ripe the ribs, + And beek the house baith butt and ben; + That mutchkin stoup it hauds but dribs, + Then let's get in the tappit hen. + + Guid claret best keeps out the cauld, + An' drives awa' the winter soon: + It makes a man baith gash and bauld, + An' heaves his saul ayont the moon. + + Leave to the gods your ilka care; + If that they think us worth their while, + They can a rowth o' blessings spare, + Which will our fashous fears beguile.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR; THE 'TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY' AND THE +'EVERGREEN'--1721-25 + + +The popularity accruing to Ramsay from the publication of the quarto of +1721 was so great that his fame was compared, in all seriousness, with +that of his celebrated English contemporaries, Pope, Swift and Addison. +No better evidence of the unfitness of contemporary opinion to gauge the +real and ultimate position of any author in the hierarchy of genius +could be cited than the case now before us. The critical perspective is +egregiously untrue. The effect of personality and of social qualities is +permitted to influence a verdict that should be given on the attribute +of intellectual excellence alone. Only through the lapse of time is the +personal equation eliminated from the estimate of an author's relative +proportion to the aggregate of his country's genius. + +Nor were his countrymen aware of the extravagance of their estimate when +such a man as Ruddiman styled him 'the Horace of our days,' and when +Starrat, in a poetical epistle, apostrophises him in terms like these-- + + 'Ramsay! for ever live; for wha like you, + In deathless sang, sic life-like pictures drew? + Not he wha whilome wi' his harp could ca' + The dancing stanes to big the Theban wa'; + Nor he (shame fa's fool head!) as stories tell, + Could whistle back an auld dead wife frae hell.' + +James Clerk of Penicuik considered Homer and Milton to be the only +worthy compeers of the Caledonian bard; and Sir William Bennet of +Marlefield insisted the Poet-Laureateship should be conferred on Ramsay, +as the singer who united in himself the three great qualifications--genius, +loyalty, and _respectability_! Certainly honest Allan would have been a +Triton amongst such minnows as Nicholas Rowe, who held the bays from +1714-18, or Laurence Eusden, whose tenure of the office lasted from 1718 +to 1730, but of whose verse scarce a scrap remains. + +Compliments reached Ramsay from all quarters of the compass. Burchet, +Arbuckle, Aikman, Arbuthnot, Ambrose Philips, Tickell, and many others, +put on record their appreciation of his merits as a poet. But of all the +testimonies, that which reached him from Pope was the most valued, and +drew from Allan the following lines, indicative of his intense +gratification, while also forming a favourable example of his skill in +epigram-- + + 'Three times I've read your Iliad o'er: + The first time pleased me well; + New beauties unobserved before, + Next pleased me better still. + + Again I tried to find a flaw, + Examined ilka line; + The third time pleased me best of a', + The labour seem'd divine. + + Henceforward I'll not tempt my fate, + On dazzling rays to stare; + Lest I should tine dear self-conceit + And read and write nae mair.' + +His position in Edinburgh society was greatly improved by the success of +the volume. The magnates of 'Auld Reekie' who still clung to the capital +their forefathers had loved,--the legal luminaries of Bench and Bar, the +Professors of the University, the great medicos of the town,--all were +proud to know the one man who was redeeming the Scottish poetry of that +age from the charge of utter sterility. There was the Countess of +Eglinton, 'the beautiful Susannah Kennedy of the house of Colzean,' +whose 'Eglinton air' and manners in society were, for half a century, +regarded as the models for all young maidens to imitate. Living as she +did until 1780, when she had attained the great age of ninety-one, she +was visited by Dr. Johnson during his visit to Scotland in 1773. On that +occasion it transpired that the Countess had been married before the +lexicographer was born; whereupon, says Grant, 'she smartly and +graciously said to him that she might have been his mother, and now +adopted him; and at parting she embraced him, a mark of affection and +condescension which made a lasting impression on the mind of the great +literary bear.' She was one of Ramsay's warmest admirers. Then there +were Lord Stair and his lovely lady, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, then +about to become Lord Advocate: also, Laurence Dundas, Professor of +Humanity; Colin Drummond, of Metaphysics; William Law, of Moral +Philosophy; Alexander Monro (_primus_), of Anatomy, and George Preston, +of Botany, all of the University of Edinburgh--and all deeply +interested in the quaint, cheery, practical-minded little man, who +combined in himself the somewhat contradictory qualities of an excellent +poet and a keen man of business. Thus the influence was a reciprocal +one. His poetry attracted customers to his shop, while his bookselling +in turn brought him in contact with social celebrities, whose good +offices the self-complacent poet would not suffer to be lost for lack of +application. + +In 1722 the proprietor of the famous John's Coffee House and Tavern, in +Parliament Close, off the High Street,--which, by the way, still +exists,--was a man named Balfour. The latter, who had lived for some +time in London, had acquired a smattering of literary culture, and +conceived the idea of rendering his house the Edinburgh counterpart of +Will's or Button's. He set himself to attract all the leading wits and +men of letters in the Scottish metropolis at the time, and speedily +raised his house to considerable celebrity during the third and fourth +decades of last century. To Allan Ramsay he paid especial court, and the +poet became a daily visitor at the tavern. Here he would meet many of +the judges and leading lawyers, the professors from the College, any +visitors of note who might be in town; also Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, Preston and +Crawford, the rising young song-writers of the day, as well as Beau +Forrester, the leader of fashion in Edinburgh, who is recorded to have +exhibited himself, once at least, in an open balcony in a chintz +nightgown, and been dressed and powdered by his _valet de chambre_ as an +object-lesson to the town dandies how to get themselves up. There, too, +among many others, he probably met the famous, or rather infamous, John +Law of Lauriston, banker, financier, and cheat, who was in Edinburgh in +1722, after having brought France to the verge of bankruptcy and ruined +thousands by his financial schemes. A motley crowd, in good sooth; yet +one whence our poet could draw many a hint for future use. + +The success of the quarto encouraged Ramsay to redoubled efforts, and +the next six or seven years are the period of his greatest literary +fertility. In 1722 appeared his _Fables and Tales_ and _The Three +Bonnets_, a poem in four cantos. In some criticisms of Ramsay the +statement has been made that he owed the idea of his _Fables_ to Gay's +inimitable collection. That this is an error is evident, seeing the +latter did not publish his volume until 1726. In his preface to the +_Fables and Tales_ the poet says: 'Some of the following are taken from +Messieurs la Fontaine and La Motte, whom I have endeavoured to make +speak Scots with as much ease as I can; at the same time aiming at the +spirit of these eminent authors without being too servile a translator.' +Ramsay took as his prototypes in this species of composition, Phaedrus, +La Fontaine, and Desbillons, rather than Æsop. Many of the incidents he +drew from occurrences in the everyday life around him. For example, +_Jupiter's Lottery_ has obvious reference to the South Sea Bubble +lotteries; while _The Ass and the Brock_ was thought at the time to be a +sly skit on the addle-pated Commissioners Walpole had that year sent up +to Scotland to nip northern Jacobitism in the bud. + +Ramsay's _Tales_ in verse contain some of his daintiest though not his +strongest work. He makes no claim to originality with respect to them, +but admits they are drawn in many cases from La Motte and other sources. +In his preface he says: 'If my manner of expressing a design already +invented have any particularity that is agreeable, good judges will +allow such imitations to be originals formed upon the idea of another. +Others, who drudge at the dull verbatim, are like timorous attendants, +who dare not move one pace without their master's leave.' Some of the +_Tales_ are obviously modelled on those of Chaucer and Boccaccio, but in +most of his, he insinuates a political or social moral, while they +narrate the story for the story's sake. _The Three Bonnets_ is a satire +on his countrymen for being so shortsighted, in their own interests, as +to consent to the Union. Bristle, the eldest of the three brothers in +the tale, was intended to represent the Tories and Scots Jacobites, who +were opposed to the scheme, and he is therefore drawn as a man of great +resolution and vigour of character. Bawsy, the youngest, or weak +brother, shadowed forth the character of those who consented under the +persuasion of the nobility; while Joukum, the second eldest of the +trio,--a vicious, dissipated _roué_,--stood for the portrait of those +Scots noblemen who accepted Lord Somers' bribes, and sold their country +to the English alliance. The story ran that their father, Duniwhistle, +on his deathbed, had, to each of the brothers, presented a bonnet with +which they were never to part. If they did so, ruin would overtake them. +Joukum falls in love with Rosie, a saucy quean, who demands, as the +price of her hand, that he should beg, borrow, or steal for her the +three bonnets. Joukum proceeds to Bristle, and receives a very angry +reception; he next repairs to lazy Bawsy, who, dazzled by the promises +the other makes as to the good things he will receive after the wedding, +surrenders his bonnet, which Joukum lays with his own at the feet of +Rosie. The latter agrees to wed Joukum, and a vivid picture is drawn of +the neglected state of poor Bawsy after this is accomplished. Rosie +proves a harridan, leading Joukum a sorry dance; and the poem concludes +with the contrasted pictures of the contented prosperity of +Bristle--Scotland as she might have been had she not entered the +Union--and the misery of Bawsy, representing Scotland as she then was. +Somewhat amusing is it to conjecture what Ramsay's feelings would be on +this subject could he for an instant be permitted to witness the +progress of Scotland during the past hundred and thirty years, and the +benefits that have accrued to her from the Union. + +Amongst his metrical tales, one of the finest, without question, is _The +Lure_, a satirical fable or allegory, whereof the moral, as may best be +stated in the poet's own words-- + + ----'shews plainly, + That carnal minds attempt but vainly + Aboon this laigher warld to mount, + While slaves to Satan.' + +The narrative, however, though possessing many merits, is too indelicate +for latter-day taste even to be sketched in outline. + +In 1723 appeared his poem _The Fair Assembly_, directed against the +Puritanic severity of that section of the community which took exception +to dancing and such pleasant amusements, alike for young and old. +Nothing reveals to us more vividly the strange contrasts in the +religious life of the time, than the fact that the clergy winked at the +drunkenness which was so prominent a feature in the social customs of +the eighteenth century, and fulminated unceasingly against dancing. +Those who indulged in it were in many instances barred from sacramental +privileges, and had such pleasant epithets as 'Herodias' and 'Jezebel' +hurled at them. As Chambers states in his _Traditions of Edinburgh_: +'Everything that could be called public or promiscuous amusement was +held in abhorrence by the Presbyterians, and only struggled through a +desultory and degraded existence by the favour of the Jacobites, who +have always been a less strait-laced part of the community. Thus there +was nothing like a conventional system of dancing in Edinburgh till the +year 1710,' when at length--induced, probably, by the ridicule cast on +the ascetic strictness of Scottish social functions by the English +visitors who from time to time sojourned in 'the grey metropolis of the +north'--a private association commenced weekly _réunions_, under the +name of 'The Assembly.' Its first rooms, according to Arnot's _History +of Edinburgh_, were in a humble tenement in the West Bow (standing on +the site now occupied by St. John's Free Church), where they continued +to be located until 1720, when they were removed to Old Assembly Close. +In the West Bow days it was, as Jackson tells us in his _History of the +Stage_, that the Presbyterian abhorrence of 'promiscuous dancing' once +rose to such a height that a crowd of people attacked the rooms when an +'Assembly' was being held, and actually perforated the closed doors with +red-hot spits. + +As affording an interesting picture of the austerity of the time, a +sentence or two may be quoted from a little pamphlet in the Advocates' +Library entitled, 'A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his +Friend in the City, with an Answer thereto concerning the New Assembly.' +The author writes: 'I am informed there is lately a Society erected in +your town which I think is called an "Assembly." The speculations +concerning this meeting have of late exhausted the most part of the +public conversation in this countryside. Some are pleased to say 'tis +only designed to cultivate polite conversation and genteel behaviour +among the better sort of folks, and to give young people an opportunity +of accomplishing themselves in both; while others are of opinion it will +have quite a different effect, and tends to vitiate and deprave the +minds and inclinations of the younger sort.' + +The Assemblies themselves must have been characterised by the most +funereal solemnity, particularly during the _régime_ of the famous +'Mistress of Ceremonies,' or directress, Miss Nicky Murray. So late as +1753, when the horror at 'promiscuous dancing' might be supposed to have +mitigated a little, Goldsmith, who then visited the Assembly, relates +that, on entering the room, he saw one end of it 'taken up by the +ladies, who sat dismally in a group by themselves. On the other side +stand their pensive partners that are to be, but with no more +intercourse between the sexes than between two countries at war. The +ladies, indeed, may ogle and the gentlemen sigh, but an embargo is laid +on any closer commerce.' + +As might well be supposed, such bigoted austerity had no friend in Allan +Ramsay. All that he could do he did to dissipate the mistaken ideas of +the Scottish clergy and the stricter section of the Presbyterian Church, +on the subject of dancing and the holding of the Assemblies. In the +preface to his poem of _The Fair Assembly_ he remarks: 'It is amazing to +imagine that any are so destitute of good sense and manners as to drop +the least unfavourable sentiment against the Assembly. It is to be owned +with regret, the best of things have been abused. The Church has been, +and in many countries is, the chief place for assignations that are not +warrantable.... The beauty of the fair sex, which is the great preserver +of harmony and society, has been the ruin of many. So places designed +for healthful and mannerly dancing have, by people of an unhappy turn, +been debauched by introducing gaming, drunkenness, and indecent +familiarities. But will any argue from these we must have no churches, +no wine, no beauties, no literature, no dancing? Forbid it, Heaven! +whatever is under your auspicious conduct must be improving and +beneficial in every respect.' + +His poem is an ode in praise of dancing, and of the manner in which the +Assemblies were conducted. Fortifying his case with Locke's well-known +sentence--'Since nothing appears to me to give children so much becoming +confidence and behaviour, and so raise them to the conversation of those +above their age, as dancing, I think they should be taught to dance as +soon as they are capable of learning it,' he boldly avows himself as an +advocate for the moderate indulgence in the amusement, both as +health-giving and as tending to improve the mind and the manners, and +concludes with these two spirited stanzas, which are quoted here as +space will not permit us to refer to the piece again-- + + 'Sic as against the Assembly speak, + The rudest sauls betray, + Where matrons, noble, wise, and meek, + Conduct the healthfu' play. + Where they appear, nae vice dare keek, + But to what's good gives way; + Like night, soon as the morning creek + Has ushered in the day. + + Dear Em'brugh! shaw thy gratitude, + And of sic friends make sure, + Wha strive to make our minds less rude, + And help our wants to cure; + Acting a generous part and good, + In bounty to the poor; + Sic virtues, if right understood, + Should ev'ry heart allure.' + +But we must hasten on. In 1724 Ramsay published his poem on _Health_, +inscribed to the Earl of Stair, and written at the request of that +nobleman. In it Ramsay exhibits his full powers as a satirist, and +inculcates the pursuit of health by the avoidance of such vices as +sloth, effeminacy, gluttony, ebriety, and debauchery, which he +personifies under the fictitious characters of Cosmelius, Montanus, +Grumaldo, Phimos, Macro, etc. These were said to be drawn from +well-known Edinburgh _roués_ of the time, and certainly the various +types are limned and contrasted with a masterly hand. To the cultured +reader, this is the poem of all Ramsay's minor works best calculated to +please and to convey an idea of his style, though at times his genius +seems to move under constraint. + +But in 1724 our poet showed himself ambitious of winning distinction in +a new field. In 1718, as was stated previously, he had published a +volume of _Scots Songs_, some of them original, but a large number of +them adapted from older and imperfect copies. So successful had the +venture been, that a second edition had been called for in 1719, and a +third in 1722. To attempt something of a cognate character, yet upon a +larger scale, Ramsay now felt encouraged. In January 1724 appeared the +first volume of the _Tea-table Miscellany: a Collection of Scots Sangs_. +The second volume was published in 1725, with the note by Ramsay: 'Being +assured how acceptable new words to known good tunes would prove, I +engaged to make verses for above sixty of them in these two volumes; +about thirty were done by some ingenious young gentlemen, who were so +pleased with my undertaking that they generously lent me their +assistance.' 'Among those young gentlemen,' as Professor Masson says in +his excellent monograph on Ramsay in his _Edinburgh Sketches and +Memories_, 'we can identify Hamilton of Bangour, young David Malloch +(afterwards Mallet), William Crawford, William Walkinshaw,' to which we +would add James Preston. A third volume of the _Miscellany_ appeared in +1727 and a fourth in 1732, though, as regards the last, grave doubts +exist whether Ramsay were really its editor or collector. Few +compilations have ever been more popular. In twenty-five years twelve +large editions were exhausted, and since Ramsay's death several others +have seen the light, some better, some worse, than the original. All +classes in the community were appealed to by the songs contained in the +_Miscellany_. That he intended such to be the case is evident from the +first four lines of his dedication, in which he offers the contents-- + + 'To ilka lovely British lass, + Frae ladies Charlotte, Anne, and Jean, + Down to ilk bonny singing Bess, + Wha dances barefoot on the green.' + +In the collection each stratum of society finds the songs wherewith it +had been familiar from infancy to age. Tunes that were old as the days +of James V. were wedded to words that caught the cadences of the music +with admirable felicity; words, too, had tunes assigned them which +enabled them to be sung in castle and cot, in hall and hut, throughout +'braid Scotland.' The denizens of fashionable drawing-rooms found their +favourites--'Ye powers! was Damon then so blest?' 'Gilderoy,' 'Tell me, +Hamilla; tell me why'--in these fascinating volumes, even as the Peggies +and the Jennies of the ewe-bughts and the corn-rigs rejoiced to note +that 'Katy's Answer,' 'Polwart on the Green,' 'My Daddy forbad, my Minny +forbad,' and 'The Auld Gudeman,' had not been lost sight of. For many a +long day, at each tea-party in town, or rustic gathering in the country, +the _Tea-Table Miscellany_ was in demand, or the songs taken from it, +for the entertainment of those assembled. + +The widespread delight evoked by the _Miscellany_ allured Ramsay to +essay next a task for which, it must be confessed, his qualifications +were scanty. Nine months after the publication of the first volume of +the _Miscellany_--to wit, in October 1724--appeared another compilation, +_The Evergrene: being ane Collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the +Ingenious before 1600_. It was dedicated to the Duke of Hamilton, and +in the dedicatory epistle he informs his Grace that 'the following old +bards present you with an entertainment that can never be disagreeable +to any Scotsman.... They now make a demand for that immortal fame that +tuned their souls some hundred years ago. They do not address you with +an indigent face and a thousand pitiful apologies to bribe the goodwill +of the critics. No; 'tis long since they were superior to the spleen of +these sour gentlemen.' He had been granted access to the 'Bannatyne +MSS.'--the literary remains of George Bannatyne, poet, antiquarian, and +collector of ancient manuscripts of Scottish poetry. This valuable +repository of much that otherwise would have perished was lent to Ramsay +by the Hon. William Carmichael of Skirling, advocate (brother to the +Earl of Hyndford), with permission to extract what he required. From +this priceless treasure-trove he drew specimens of Dunbar, Henryson, +Alexander Scott, Lyndsay, Kennedy, Montgomery, Sempill, Gavin Douglas, +and others. A similar favour was in 1770 granted to Lord Hailes when +preparing his volume, _Ancient Scottish Poems_. Interesting, therefore, +it is, to compare the manner in which the two editors respectively +fulfilled their tasks. + +In Ramsay's case the poems he selected from the Bannatyne MSS. were +passed through the alembic of his own brain. Everything was sacrificed +to popularity and intelligibility. Lord Hailes, on the other hand, was +the most scrupulous of editors, refusing to alter a single letter; for, +as he said, the value of the poems lies in the insight they afford us +into the state of the language at the periods when the various pieces +were written. Alter them in any degree, even the slightest, and you +destroy the intrinsic character of the composition. 'In making his +compilation from the Bannatyne MSS.,' continued Lord Hailes, 'Ramsay has +omitted some stanzas and added others, has modernised the versification +and varied the ancient mode of spelling.' To offend thus was to render +himself liable to the severest censure from all literary antiquarians. +The fault was as inexcusable as would be a trader's in palming off +shoddy goods as those of the best materials. As an example of the +ruthless liberties our poet took with the text, it may be well to follow +Chalmers' example, and print side by side a stanza of Ramsay's +'paraphrase' and Lord Hailes' severely accurate rendering of the opening +of Dunbar's 'Thistle and the Rose'-- + + _Ramsay._ + + 'Quhen Merch with variand winds was overpast, + And sweet Apryle had with his silver showers + Tane leif of Nature with an orient blast, + And lusty May, that mudder is of flowrs, + Had maid the birds begin the tymous hours; + Amang the tendir odours reid and quhyt, + Quhois harmony to heir was grit delyt.' + + _Hailes._ + + 'Quhen Merche wes with variand windis past, + And Appryll had with her silver shouris + Tane leif at Nature with ane orient blast, + And lusty May, that mudder is of flouris, + Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris + Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt, + Quhois harmony to heir it wis delyt.' + +In Dunbar's 'Lament for the Deth of the Makkaris' he not only varied but +added several lines, and these in the silliest manner possible. For +example, at the conclusion of Dunbar's noble elegy, Ramsay must needs +tack on three stanzas, as a prophecy by Dunbar himself, wherein the +vanity-full poet is introduced as 'a lad frae Hethermuirs.' What censure +could be too strong for inappropriate fooling like the following, coming +in to mar the solemn close of Dunbar's almost inspired lines?-- + + 'Suthe I forsie, if spaecraft had, + Frae Hether-muirs sall rise a lad, + Aftir two centries pas, sall he + Revive our fame and memorie: + + Then sal we flourish _evirgrene_; + All thanks to careful Bannatyne, + And to the patron kind and frie + Wha lends the lad baith them and me. + + Far sall we fare baith eist and west, + Owre ilka clime by Scots possest; + Then sen our warks sall never dee, + _Timor mortis non turbat me_.' + +In the _Evergreen_ Ramsay published two of his own poems, _The Vision_ +(in which the author bewails the Union and the banishment of the +Stuarts) and _The Eagle and the Robin Reid-breist_ (likewise a Jacobite +poem), wilfully altering the spelling in both, and introducing +archaicisms into the thought, so as to pass them off as 'written by the +ingenious before 1600.' He also inserted _Hardyknute_, a fragment, which +subsequent research has proved to have been written by Lady Elizabeth +Wardlaw, a contemporary of Ramsay's. Although the _Evergreen_ did much +to revive popular interest in early Scottish poetry, and thus prepare +the way for Lord Hailes and Bishop Percy, from a critical point of view +it was worse than worthless, inasmuch as many of the errors and +alterations appearing in Ramsay's specimens of our early Scots literary +remains, have not been corrected even to this day. + +But though Ramsay, in the estimation of stern literary antiquarians, has +been guilty of an offence so heinous,--an offence vitiating both the +_Tea-Table Miscellany_ and the _Evergreen_,--on the other hand, from the +point of view of the popular reader, his action in modernising the +language, at least, was not only meritorious but necessary, if the +pieces were to be intelligible to the great mass of the people. +Remembered, too, it must be, that Ramsay lived before the development of +what may be styled the antiquarian 'conscience,' in whose code of +literary morality one of the cardinal commandments is, 'Thou shalt in no +wise alter an ancient MS., that thy reputation and good faith may be +unimpugned in the land wherein thou livest, and that thou mayest not +bring a nest of critical hornets about thine ears.' + +In his _Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh_, Dr. Daniel Wilson thus +succinctly states the case: 'Ramsay had much more of the poet than the +antiquary in his composition; and had, moreover, a poet's idea of +valuing verse less on account of its age than its merit. He lived in an +era of literary masquerading and spurious antiques, and had little +compunction in patching and eking an old poem to suit the taste of his +Edinburgh customers.' He was no Ritson,--and, after all, even Plautus +had, for three hundred years after the revival of learning, to await his +Ritschl! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +'THE GENTLE SHEPHERD'; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; RAMSAY'S +PASTORALS--1725-30 + + +In the quarto of 1721, not the least remarkable of its contents had been +two Pastoral Dialogues, the one between Richy (Sir Richard Steele) and +Sandy (Alexander Pope), and based on the death of Addison: the other +between Patie and Roger, and concerning itself solely with a +representation of rural life. Amongst the best pieces in the volume both +undoubtedly ranked. In 1723 appeared another metrical dialogue, _Jenny +and Meggy_, betraying obvious kinship with _Patie and Roger_. So +delighted were his friends, the Clerks and the Bennets, Professors +Drummond and Maclaurin, and many others, with the _vraisemblance_ to +Scottish rural life, and with the true rustic flavour present in the two +dialogues, that they entreated him to add some connecting links, and to +expand them into a pastoral drama. Doubtful of his ability to execute a +task demanding powers so varied, and so supreme, Ramsay for a time +hesitated. But at length, induced by their advice, he threw himself into +the undertaking with enthusiasm. In a letter to his kinsman William +Ramsay of Templehall, dated April 8, 1724, he writes: "I am this +vacation going through with a Dramatick Pastoral, whilk I design to +carry the length of five acts, in verse a' the gate, and, if I succeed +according to my plan, I hope to tope [rival] with the authors of _Pastor +Fido_ and _Aminta_." + +On the scenes wherewith he had become acquainted during his manifold +rambles over the hills and the vales, the glens and glades, of fair +Midlothian, he now drew, as well as from the quaint and curious types of +character--the Symons, the Glauds, the Bauldies, the Rogers, the Madges, +and the Mauses--wherewith he had come into contact during such seasons. +That he stinted either time or trouble in making the drama as perfect as +possible is evident from the prolonged period over which its composition +was spread, and the number of drafts he made of it. Some of the songs, +he informed Sir David Forbes, had been written no fewer than six times. +At length, early in July 1725, prefaced by a dedication in prose from +himself to the Right Hon. Susannah, Countess of Eglinton, and by a +poetical address to the same beautiful patroness, from the pen of +William Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, _The Gentle Shepherd_ made its +appearance. + +Its success from the very outset was unparalleled in Scottish literature +up to that date. It seemed literally to take the country by storm. By +all ranks and classes, by titled ladies in their boudoirs, as well as by +milkmaids tripping it to the bughts with leglins and pails, the poem was +admiringly read, and its songs sung. Its performance on the stage in +1726, only served to whet the public appetite. By the leading poets of +the day, Pope, Swift, Gay, Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and Lord Lansdowne, +as well as by the most influential critics, Dennis, Theobald, and Dr. +Ruddiman, the work was hailed as one of the most perfect examples of the +pastoral that had appeared since the _Idylls_ of Theocritus. No less +eminent a judge of poetry than Alexander Pope considered it in many +respects superior to the _Shepherds' Calendar_; while Gay was so +enthusiastic in his admiration that he sent the work over to Swift, with +the remark, 'At last we have a dramatic pastoral, though it _is_ by a +Scot.' + +The first edition of _The Gentle Shepherd_ was exhausted in a few +months, and in January 1726 Ruddiman printed the second, while the third +and a cheaper one was called for towards the close of the same year. The +enormous sale of the poem may be estimated by the fact that the tenth +edition was printed in 1750 by R. & A. Foulis of Glasgow. So great was +the accession of popularity accruing to Ramsay through the publication +of _The Gentle Shepherd_, and so rapid the increase in his bookselling +business, that he found it absolutely necessary to shift his place of +business, or _Scotice dictu_, to 'flit' to larger premises, in the first +storey of the eastern gable-end of the Luckenbooths, a block of towering +_lands_ or tenements which, until 1817, stood in the very centre of the +High Street, obstructing the thoroughfare, and affording a curious +commentary on the expedients to which the burgesses of Edinburgh were +compelled to resort, to eke out to the utmost the space enclosed within +the charmed circle of the Flodden Wall. + +At his 'flitting,' also, he changed his sign, and, thinking the 'Flying +Mercury' no longer applicable to his new pursuits, he adopted the heads +of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, a sign which in local +parlance gradually grew to bear the title of 'The Twa Heids.' In his new +premises also, Ramsay extended the scope of his business, adding to the +other attractions of his establishment a circulating library, the first +of its kind in Scotland. He entered his new shop in May 1726. Sixty +years after, the ground-floor of the same _land_, together with the flat +where formerly Ramsay was located, were in the occupancy of William +Creech, the first of the great Edinburgh Sosii that were yet to include +the Constables, the Blackwoods, the Chambers, the Blacks, and others of +renown in their day. With the Luckenbooths' premises it is that _The +Gentle Shepherd_ is always associated. From them Ramsay dated all his +editions subsequent to the first two, and there he reaped all the +gratifying results of its success. + +The poem, which takes its name from the 12th eclogue of Spenser's +_Shepherds' Calendar_, whose opening runs as follows-- + + 'The Gentle Shepherd satte beside a spring, + All in the shadow of a bushy brere,'-- + +may certainly be ranked in the same category with the _Idylls_ of +Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, the _Aminta_ of Tasso, the _Pastor Fido_ +(faithful shepherd) of Guarini, and Spenser's great poem referred to +above. In _The Gentle Shepherd_ Ramsay rises to a level of poetic +strength, united to a harmony between conception and execution, so +immeasurably superior to anything else he accomplished, that it has +furnished matter for speculation to his rivals and his enemies, whether +in reality the poem were his own handiwork, or had been merely fathered +by him. Lord Hailes, however, pricks this bubble, when dealing with the +ill-natured hypothesis raised by Alexander Pennecuik--the doggerel poet, +not the doctor--that Sir John Clerk and Sir William Bennet had written +_The Gentle Shepherd_, when he remarks, 'that they who attempt to +depreciate Ramsay's fame, by insinuating that his friends and patrons +composed the works which pass under his name, ought first to prove that +his friends and patrons were capable of composing _The Gentle +Shepherd_.' Not for a moment can the argument be esteemed to possess +logical cogency that, because he never equalled the poem in question in +any of his other writings, he was therefore intellectually incapable of +composing that masterpiece which will be read after his other +productions are forgotten, as long, in fact, as Scots poetry has a niche +in the great temple of English literature. + +To define pastoral poetry, as Ramsay understood it, without at the same +time citing examples lying to hand in the works of our author, is a +somewhat difficult task. But as reasons of space will not permit us to +duplicate extracts, and as it is proposed to relegate all criticism to +the closing chapters of the book, we shall, at present, only glance in +passing at the great principles of composition Ramsay kept in view while +writing his pastoral. + +In the _Guardian_, Addison has stated, with his wonted lucidity and +perspicuity, those mechanical rules to which, in his idea, the type of +poetry termed 'pastoral' should conform. He maintained it should be a +reflection, more or less faithful, of the manners of men 'before they +were formed into large societies, cities built, or communities +established, where plenty begot pleasure.' In other words, that 'an +imaginary Golden Age should be evolved by each poet out of his inner +consciousness.' Then the Ursa Major of criticism, Dr. Johnson, after +growling at all preceding critics on the subject, and remarking that +'the rustic poems of Theocritus and the eclogues of Virgil precluded in +antiquity all imitation, until the weak productions of Nemesian and +Calphurnius, in the Brazen Age of Latin literature,' proceeds to say: +'At the revival of learning in Italy it was soon discovered that a +dialogue of imaginary swains might be composed with little difficulty, +because the conversation of shepherds excludes profound or refined +sentiment.' Rapin, in his _De Carmine Pastorali_, observes: ''Tis hard +to give rules for that in which there have been none already given. Yet +in this difficulty I will follow Aristotle's example, who, being to lay +down rules concerning epics, proposed Homer as a pattern, from whom he +deduced the whole art. So will I gather from Theocritus and Virgil, +those fathers of pastoral, what I deliver on this account, their +practice being rules in itself.' And Pope, in his _Discourse on Pastoral +Poetry_, says: 'Since the instructions given for any art are to be +delivered as that art is in perfection, they must of necessity be +derived from those in whom it is acknowledged so to be. It is therefore +from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed authors +of pastoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions +concerning it.' And Boileau, in his _Art Poetique_, after cautioning +writers of pastoral against the introduction of bombast splendour or +pomp on the one hand, and the use of low and mean language on the other, +making shepherds converse _comme on parle au village_, observes that +'the path between the two extremes is very difficult'; while Dryden, in +his preface to Virgil's _Pastorals_, defines pastoral to be 'the +imitation of a shepherd considered under that character.' Finally, to +quote Dr. Johnson once more, he remarks, in his _Lives of the Poets_, +'truth and exactness of imitation, to show the beauties without the +grossness of country life, should be the aim of pastoral poetry.' + +By all these critics pastoral poetry is considered in its abstract or +ideal form. They never dreamed of bidding poets descend to the concrete, +or to actual rural life, as Beattie puts it, 'there to study that life +as they found it.' Dr. Pennecuik justly remarks, in his essay on _Ramsay +and Pastoral Poetry_: 'Of the ancient fanciful division of the ages of +the world into the _golden_, _silver_, _brazen_, and _iron_, the first, +introduced by Saturn into Italy, has been appropriated to the shepherd +state. Virgil added this conceit to his polished plagiarisms from +Theocritus; and thus, as he advanced in elegance and majesty, receded +from simplicity, nature, reality, and truth.' + +To Ramsay's credit be it ascribed, that he broke away from these rank +absurdities and false ideas of pastoral poetry, and dared to paint +nature and rural life as he found it. His principles are thus stated by +himself: 'The Scottish poet must paint his own country's scenes and his +own country's life, if he would be true to his office.... The morning +rises in the poet's description as she does in the Scottish horizon; we +are not carried to Greece and Italy for a shade, a stream, or a breeze; +the groves rise in our own valleys, the rivers flow from our own +fountains, and the winds blow upon our own hills.' + +To the fact that Ramsay has painted Scotland and Scottish rustics as +they are, and has not gone to the hermaphrodite and sexless inhabitants +of a mythical Golden Age for the characters of his great drama, the +heart of every Scot can bear testimony. Neither Burns, supreme though +his genius was over his predecessors, nor Scott, revelling as he did in +patriotic sentiments as his dearest possession, can rival Ramsay in the +absolute truth wherewith he has painted Scottish rustic life. He is at +one and the same time the Teniers and the Claude of Scottish +pastoral--the Teniers, in catching with subtle sympathetic insight the +precise 'moments' and incidents in the life of his characters most +suitable for representation; the Claude, for the almost photographic +truth of his reproductions of Scottish scenery. + +That Ramsay was influenced by the spirit of his age cannot be denied, +but he was sufficiently strong, both intellectually and imaginatively, +to yield to that influence only so far as it was helpful to him in the +inspiration of his great work, but to resist it when it would have +imposed the fetters of an absurd mannerism upon the 'machinery' and the +'atmosphere' of his pastoral. The last decades of the seventeenth, and +the first two or three of the eighteenth centuries, were periods when +pastoral poetry was in fashion. Italian and French literary modes were +supreme. Modern pastoral may be said to have taken its rise in the +_Admetus_ of Boccaccio; in the introductory act of the _Orfeo_ of +Politian, written in 1475, and termed _Pastorale_, and in the _Arcadia_ +of Jacopo Sanazzara. But, according to Dr. Burney, the first complete +pastoral drama prepared for the stage was the _Sacrificio Favola +Pastorale_ of Agostino de Beccari, afterwards published in _Il Parnasso +Italiano_. They followed the _Aminta_ of Tasso and the _Filli di Sciro_ +of Bonarelli in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In Italy and +France, thereafter, pastoral became the literary mode for the time +being; to Clement Marot, with his _Complaint of Louise of Savoy_, +belonging the honour, as Professor Morley says, of producing the first +French pastoral. It invaded all the fine arts,--music, painting, +sculpture, romance, were all in turn conquered by it. From France it +spread to England and to Scotland, and thereafter a flood of shepherds +and shepherdesses, of Strephons and Chloes, of Damons, Phyllises, and +Delias, spread over literature, of which the evidences in England are +Spenser's _Shepherds' Calendar_, Sidney's _Arcadia_; and in Scotland, +Robert Henryson's _Robene and Makyne_. Nor did Milton disdain this form +for his _Lycidas_; Pope also affected it, as well as Ambrose Philips; +while, under the title of _The Shepherd's Week_, Gay produced one of the +most charming of his many charming works, in which our age, by +consigning them to oblivion, has deliberately deprived itself of genuine +poetic enjoyment. To the extent of the name, and of that only, was +Ramsay influenced by his time. As regards all else he struck out a new +line altogether. + +With regard to the _locale_ where Ramsay laid the scene of the drama, +two places have laid claim to it; the first, and the least probable, +being situate near Glencorse, about seven miles from Edinburgh; the +second, one and a half miles from the village of Carlops, about twelve +miles distant from the metropolis, and five farther on from the +first-mentioned spot. The balance of probability lies strongly in favour +of the Carlops 'scene.' In the first named, only the waterfall and one +or two minor details can be identified as corresponding to the natural +features of the scenery in the poem; in the second, every feature named +by Ramsay is full in view. Here are 'the harbour-craig,' 'the trottin' +burnie,' 'the little linn' making 'a singin' din,' 'the twa birks,' +'the pool breast-deep,' 'the washing-green,' 'the loan,' 'Glaud's +onstead,' 'Symon's house,' 'the craigy bield,' 'Habbie's Howe' or house, +and many others. Another strong point is that in Act ii. scene 2 of _The +Gentle Shepherd_, Glaud threatens to set his biggest peat-stack on fire, +through sheer joy over Sir William Worthy's prospective return. Around +the Glencorse site for the action of the drama, there is not a peat to +be dug in the whole parish; at the Carlops 'scene,' peat is the staple +fuel of the district. Near by, also, is Newhall, the estate which in +Ramsay's days was in possession of the Forbes family, who had purchased +it from Dr. Pennecuik, the author of the _Description of Tweeddale_ and +other works. John Forbes of Newhall was one of Ramsay's dearest friends, +and many relics of the poet are still preserved at the mansion house; +but it was with the Pennecuik family Ramsay associated his poem. In _The +Gentle Shepherd_, Sir William Worthy is described as having had to fly +into exile-- + + 'Our brave good master, wha sae wisely fled, + And left a fair estate to save his head; + Because, ye ken fu' weel, he bravely chose + To stand his liege's friend wi' great Montrose.' + +Newhall was purchased by Dr. Pennecuik's father two years before Charles +I. was beheaded. The doctor himself was contemporary with Cromwell, +Montrose, Monk, and Charles II., all of whom appear so distinctly in the +pastoral as associated with the action of the piece. He had to go into +hiding during the Commonwealth, for his support of Charles I., and for +sheltering Montrose after the battle of Philiphaugh. Pennecuik the +younger (great-grandson of the doctor), in his _Life of Ramsay_, states +that the poet appeared to have been indebted to Dr. Pennecuik for the +_Story of the Knight_, but to have drawn the character from that of his +friend Sir David Forbes. + +The issue of the successive editions of _The Gentle Shepherd_, though +occupying a large share of his time not engrossed by the cares of +business, did not altogether preclude him from writing some fresh pieces +when occasion arose. In 1727 appeared a 'Masque,' which was performed at +the celebration of the nuptials of James, Duke of Hamilton, and the Lady +Ann Cochrane. In this form of poetry Ramsay revived a good old type very +popular amongst the Elizabethan poets and dramatists, and even +descending down to the days of Milton, whose _Masque of Comus_ is the +noblest specimen of this kind of composition in modern literature. +Ramsay's _dramatis personæ_ are rather a motley crew, but on the whole +he succeeds in managing the dialogue of his gods, and goddesses very +creditably, though any admirer of his genius can see it moves on stilts +under such circumstances. _The Pastoral Epithalamium_ upon the marriage +of George Lord Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule is of a less ambitious cast, +both as regards form and thought; the consequence being, that the poet +succeeds admirably in expressing the ideas proper to the occasion, when +he was not bound by the fetters of an unfamiliar rhythm. + +Ramsay's later poems had in turn attained, numerically speaking, to such +bulk as fairly entitled him to consider the practicability of issuing a +second quarto volume, containing all of value he had written between +1721 and 1728. From all quarters came requests for him so to do. +Therefore, towards the close of 1728 he issued his second volume of +collected poems. The interest awakened by _The Gentle Shepherd_ still +burned with a clear and steady glow. From this fact, gratifying, indeed, +as regards the proximate success of the individual book, but prophetic +also in an ultimate sense of the stability of reputation to be his lot +in the republic of letters, he concluded, as he says in one of his +letters to the Clerks of Penicuik, 'to regard himself as ane o' the +national bards of Scotland.' That he was justified in doing so, the +future amply testified. + +The realisation that he had now won for himself a permanent place in the +literature of his land operated, however, rather injuriously upon the +continued fecundity of his genius. He became timorous of further appeals +to the public, lest he should injure his fame. Allan Ramsay, in his own +eyes, became Ramsay's most dreaded rival. At length he deliberately +adopted the resolution that the better part of valour was discretion, +and that he would tempt fortune in verse no more. With the exception of +his poetical epistle to the Lords of Session, and his volume of metrical +_Fables_, Ramsay's poetical career was completed. Henceforth he was +occupied in preparing the successive editions of his _Works_ and of the +_Tea-Table Miscellany_, and in compiling his collection of _Scots +Proverbs_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; HIS BOOK OF 'SCOTS +PROVERBS'--1730-40 + + +Ramsay had now reached the pinnacle of his fame. He was forty-four years +of age, prosperous in business, enjoying a reputation not alone confined +to Great Britain, but which had extended to France, to Holland, and to +Italy. His great pastoral was lauded in terms the most gratifying by +critics everywhere as the most perfect example of the pure idyll that +had appeared since the days of Theocritus. The proudest of the nobility +were not ashamed to take his arm for a walk down High Street, or to +spend an hour cracking jokes and discussing literature with him under +the sign of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden. + +What Chambers says in his _Eminent Scotsmen_, from which are culled the +following facts, is strictly accurate: 'Ramsay had now risen to wealth +and high respectability, numbering among his familiar friends the best +and the wisest men in the nation. By the greater part of the Scottish +nobility he was caressed, and at the houses of some of the most +distinguished of them, Hamilton Palace, Loudoun Castle, etc., was a +frequent visitor.' With Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate (and before many +years to be Lord President), with Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, near +Edinburgh, he lived in the habit of daily, familiar, and friendly +intercourse. With contemporary poets his relations were likewise of the +most friendly kind. The two Hamiltons, of Bangour and Gilbertfield, were +his constant associates. To Pope, to Gay, and to Somerville; to Meston, +to Mitchell, and to Mallet, he addressed poetical greetings, and several +of them returned the salutations in kind. From England, too, came +another and a different proof of his popularity, in the fact that, when +in 1726 Hogarth published his 'Illustrations of Hudibras' in twelve +plates, these were dedicated to 'William Ward of Great Houghton, +Northamptonshire, and Allan Ramsay of Edinburgh.' Edinburgh itself was +proud of her poet, and was not averse to manifesting the fact when +fitting opportunity offered. He was a frequent visitor at the +University, and Dugald Stewart relates that an old friend of his father +informed him, the students of the fourth and fifth decades of last +century used to point out a squat, dapper, keen-eyed little man, who was +wont to walk up and down the space in front of their classrooms with +Professors Drummond and Maclaurin, as 'the great poet, Allan Ramsay.' +The narrator also added, he felt a secret disappointment when thus +viewing for the first time a real live poet, and noting that he differed +neither in dress nor mien from ordinary men. From his studies among the +classics, and from the prints in the early editions of Horace and +Virgil, he had been led to imagine the genus poet always perambulated +the earth attired in flowing singing robes, their forehead bound with a +chaplet, and carrying with them a substantial looking lyre! + +The year 1728 had witnessed, as we have seen, the publication of Allan +Ramsay's last original work. Thereafter he was content to rest on his +laurels, to revise new editions of his various poems, and to add to his +_Tea-Table Miscellany_ and _Scots Songs_. Perhaps he may have been +conscious that the golden glow of youthful imagination at life's +meridian, had already given place to those soberer tints that rise +athwart the mental horizon, when the Rubicon of the forties has been +crossed. In 1737, when writing to his friend Smibert, the painter (then +in Boston, America, whither he had emigrated), Ramsay states, with +reference to his relinquishment of poetry: 'These six or seven years +past I have not written a line of poetry; I e'en gave over in good time, +before the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me +risk the reputation I had acquired.' He then adds in the letter the +following lines of poetry, from which we gather, further, that his +determination was the result, not of mere impulse, pique, or chagrin, +but of reasoned resolve-- + + 'Frae twenty-five to five-and-forty, + My muse was neither sweer nor dorty; + My Pegasus would break his tether, + E'en at the shaking of a feather, + And through ideas scour like drift, + Straking his wings up to the lift. + Then, then my soul was in a low, + That gart my numbers safely row; + _But eild and judgment 'gin to say, + Let be your sangs and learn to pray_.' + +By 1730, then, Ramsay's work, of an original kind at least, was over. In +that year, however, he published another short volume of metrical +fables, under the title, _A Collection of Thirty Fables_. Amongst them +we find some of the most delightful of all our poet's work in this vein. +_Mercury in Quest of Peace_, _The Twa Lizards_, _The Caterpillar and the +Ant_, and _The Twa Cats and the Cheese_, possess, as Chalmers truly +says, 'all the _naïveté_ of Phædrus and La Fontaine, with the wit and +ease of Gay.' + +And thus Ramsay's literary career closed, after well-nigh two decades of +incessant intellectual activity. Begun, as Professor Masson says, 'in +the last years of the reign of Queen Anne, and continued through the +whole of the reign of George I., it had just touched the beginning of +that of George II. when it suddenly ceased. Twice or thrice afterwards, +at long intervals, he did scribble a copy of verses; but in the main, +from his forty-fifth year onwards, he rested on his laurels. +Henceforward he contented himself with his bookselling, the management +of his circulating library, and the superintendence of the numerous +editions of his _Collected Poems_, his _Gentle Shepherd_, and his +_Tea-Table Miscellany_.' + +In pursuance of this determination, Ramsay, in 1731, at the request of a +number of London booksellers, edited a complete edition of his works, +wherein all the poems published in the quartos of 1721 and 1728 were +included, in addition to _The Gentle Shepherd_. The success attending +this venture was so great that, in 1733, a Dublin edition had to be +prepared, which also handsomely remunerated both author and publishers. +From the American colonies, likewise, came accounts of the great +popularity of Ramsay's poems, both among the inhabitants of the towns +and the settlers in the mighty forests. Of the latter, many were +Scotsmen, and to them the vividly realistic scenes and felicitous +character-drawing of _The Gentle Shepherd_ touched, with a power and a +pathos almost overwhelming, the subtlest fibres of that love for +'Caledonia, stern and wild,' which, deepened by distance as it is, and +strengthened by absence, seems so inwoven with the very warp and woof of +the nature of her children that, go where they will, it can never be +eradicated, until the last great consummation overtakes them, when earth +returns to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. + +Our poet now had more time on his hands for those social duties and +convivial pleasures wherein he took such delight. His new premises in +the Luckenbooths, facing down towards, and therefore commanding a full +view of, the magnificent thoroughfare of the High Street, were +immediately opposite the ancient octagonal-shaped Cross of Edinburgh, +where all official proclamations were made. The vicinity of the Cross +was, on favourable afternoons, the fashionable rendezvous of the period. +No sooner was the midday dinner over, than the fair ladies and gallants +of the town--the former in the wide hoops, the jewelled stomachers, the +silken _capuchins_ (cloaks), the _bongraces_ (hoods), and high +head-dresses of the day; the latter in the long, embroidered coats, +knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes, tye-wigs, and +three-cornered hats peculiar to the fourth decade of last +century--issued from their dingy turnpike stairs in the equally darksome +closes, pends, and wynds, to promenade or lounge, as best pleased them, +in the open space around the Cross. Here were to be met all sorts and +conditions of men and women. Viewed from the first storey of the +building wherein Allan Ramsay's shop was situated, the scene must have +been an exceedingly animated one. Mr. Robert Chambers, with that +graphic power of literary scene-painting he possessed in measure so +rich, represented the picture, in his _Traditions of Edinburgh_, in +colours so vivid, and with a minuteness of detail so striking, that +subsequent descriptions have been little more than reproductions of his. +Let us take advantage of his admirable sketch of the scene round the +Cross, filling in any important details he may have omitted. + +The jostlement and huddlement was extreme everywhere. Ladies and +gentlemen paraded along in the stately attire of the period: grave Lords +of Session, and leading legal luminaries, bustling Writers to the Signet +and their attendant clerks, were all there. Tradesmen chatted in groups, +often bareheaded, at their shop doors; _caddies_ whisked about, bearing +messages or attending to the affairs of strangers; children darted about +in noisy sport; corduroyed carters from Gilmerton are bawling 'coals' +and 'yellow sand'; fishwives are crying their 'caller haddies' from +Newhaven; whimsicals and idiots going about, each with his or her crowd +of tormentors; _tronmen_ with their bags of soot; town-guardsmen in +rusty uniform, and with their ancient Lochaber axes; water-carriers with +their dripping barrels; Highland drovers in philabeg, sporran, and cap; +Liddesdale farmers with their blue Lowland bonnets; sedan chairmen, with +here and there a red uniform from the castle--such was the scene upon +which, in the early months of the year 1732,--alas! his last on +earth,--the celebrated London poet, John Gay, gazed from the windows of +Allan Ramsay's shop. Beside him stood the redoubtable Allan himself, +pointing out to him the most notable personages in the motley crowd, +and every now and then called upon to explain some Scotticism in his +speech which reminded Gay of passages in _The Gentle Shepherd_ that Pope +had desired him to get explained from the author himself. And worthy +Allan is flattered yet flustered withal with the honour, for beside them +stand the famous Duchess of Queensberry--better known as Prior's +'Kitty,' otherwise Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of the Earl of +Clarendon--and her miser husband, who only opened his close fist to +build such palatial piles as Queensberry House, in the Edinburgh +Canongate, and Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire. They have brought Gay +up north with them, after his disappointment in getting his +play--_Polly_, the continuation of the _Beggars' Opera_--refused +sanction for representation by the Duke of Grafton, then Lord +Chamberlain. Ah! how honest Allan smirks and smiles, and becks and bows, +with a backbone that will never be as supple in _kotowing_ to anyone +else. For does he not, like many more of us, dearly love a lord, and +imagine the sun to rise and set in the mere enjoyment of the ducal +smile? + +A pleasant visit was that paid by Gay to Scotland in 1732, before he +returned to London to die, in the December of the same year. He spent +many of his spare hours in the company of Ramsay, and that of the two +friends in whose society much of the latter's time was now to be +passed--Sir John Clerk of Penicuik and Sir Alexander Dick of +Prestonfield. By all three, Gay was deeply regretted,--by Clerk and Dick +chiefly, because he had so much that was akin to their own genial +friend, Allan Ramsay. + +In 1736 our poet published a collection of _Scots Proverbs_, which, for +some reason or another, has never been printed with his poems in those +editions that are professedly complete. Only in Oliver's pocket edition +is this excellent thesaurus of pithy and forcible Scottish apophthegms +presented with his other works. That it is one of the best repertories +of our proverbial current coin that exists, particularly with regard to +the crystallised shrewdness and keen observation embodied in them, must +be apparent to any reader, even the most cursory. To supersede the +trashy works of Fergusson and Kelly was the reason why Ramsay set +himself to gather up the wealth of aphoristic wisdom that lay manna-like +on all sides of him. As might be expected, it is richest in the sayings +common throughout the three Lothians, though the Lowlands, as a whole, +are well represented. Of Gaelic proverbs there is scarce a trace, +showing how faintly, despite his Jacobitism, his sympathies were aroused +by Celtic tradition or Celtic poetry. Many of the sayings were +undoubtedly coined in Ramsay's own literary mint, though the ideas may +have been common property among the people of his day. But how close the +union between the ideas and their expression in this collection! Of +looseness of phrase there is scarce a trace. How apt the stereotyping of +current idioms in such pithy verbal nuggets as--'Ne'er tell your fae +when your foot sleeps,' 'Nature passes nurture,' 'Muckledom is nae +virtue,' 'Happy the wife that's married to a motherless son,' 'Farmers' +faugh gar lairds laugh.' + +Ramsay's dedication of his volume of _Scots Proverbs_ to 'The Tenantry +of Scotland, Farmers of the Dales and Storemasters of the Hills,' shows +the value he attached to this kind of literature. He writes in the +colloquial Scots, and his words are valuable as presenting us with a +reliable example of the Scots vernacular as spoken in educated circles +early last century. 'The following hoard of _Wise Sayings_ and +observations of our forefathers,' he remarks, 'which have been gathering +through many bygone ages, I have collected with great care, and restored +to their proper sense, which had been frequently _tint_ [lost] by +publishers that did not understand our landwart [inland] language.... As +naething helps our happiness mair than to hae the mind made up with +right principles, I desire you, for the thriving and pleasure of you and +yours, to use your een and lend your lugs to these guid auld says, that +shine wi' wailed sense and will as lang as the warld wags. Gar your +bairns get them by heart; let them hae a place among your family-books; +and may never a window-sole through the country be without them. On a +spare hour, when the day is clear, behind a rick, or on the green howm, +draw the treasure frae your pooch and enjoy the pleasant companion. Ye +happy herds, while your hirdsels are feeding on the flowery braes, ye +may eithly mak yoursels masters of the holy ware.' + +Hitherto the sky of Ramsay's life had been well-nigh cloudless. +Misfortune and failure had never shrivelled his hopes or his enterprises +with the frost of disappointment. Nothing more serious than an envious +scribbler's splenetic effusions had ever assailed him. Now he was to +know the sting of mortification and the pinch of financial loss. + +We have already adverted to the gloomy bigotry of a certain section of +the Scottish clergy of this period. To them everything that savoured of +jollity and amusement was specially inspired by the Evil One, for the +hindrance of their ministerial labours. The references to this matter +are manifold throughout Ramsay's poetry. Though no one had a deeper +respect for vital piety than he, no one more bitterly reprobated that +puritanic fanaticism that saw sin and wrong-doing in innocent recreation +and relaxation. Against Ramsay the ecclesiastical thunder had commenced +to roll some years before (according to Wodrow), when he started his +circulating library. That the works of Shakespeare, Beaumont and +Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Dryden, Waller, and the romances of +chivalry, should be placed in the hands of the youth of Edinburgh, was +accounted a sin so grave as to merit Presbyterial censure. Accordingly, +a party, amongst whom was the infamous Lord Grange, attempted to +suppress the library. But the _ægis_ of the redoubtable Dr. Webster had +been thrown over him, and the pother in time died away. It appears, +however, that Ramsay, in 1736, had imported a large stock of +translations of the most celebrated French plays of the day, and had +added them to his library. Sufficient was this to blow into a blaze the +smouldering embers of clerical indignation. From pulpit and press our +poet was fulminated at. Not that he gave the smallest sign that he cared +one jot for all their denunciations. He attended to his shop and his +library, and quaffed his claret at the _Isle of Man Arms_, at Luckie +Dunbar's in Forrester's Wynd, or at the famous John's Coffee House, with +the cynical response that 'they might e'en gang their ain gate.' + +But just at this precise time Ramsay conceived the idea of becoming a +theatre-proprietor, and thus benefiting the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie by erecting a house where standard dramas might be performed. The +very proposal raised a storm of indignation in clerical circles, against +which even Dr. Webster and his friends were powerless. Hitherto the +opposition of the Presbyterian ministers had prevented the erection of +any theatre in the town. The companies of itinerating players who might +chance to visit the town from time to time, were compelled to hire a +hall or a booth for their performances. Prior to the Commonwealth, +_histrionic_ exhibitions were frequent in Edinburgh. But from 1650 to +the Union, fanaticism became paramount and sternly repressed them. One +of the earliest mentions of dramatic representations after that date +occurs in 1710, and again in 1715, when a regular company of players +performed certain dramas in the Long Gallery and in the Tennis Court at +Holyrood-house. In the subsequent winter, as we learn from the _Scots +Courant_ of December 16, 1715, the plays were represented in the old +magazine-house at the back of the foot of the Canongate, on which +occasion, said the notice, 'the several parts would be performed by some +new actors just arrived from England.' + +On the last night of the year 1719 Ramsay supplied a prologue for the +performance of Otway's play, 'The Orphan,' and 'The Cheats' of Scapin, +'by some young gentlemen,' wherein he remarked-- + + 'Somebody says to some folk, we're to blame; + That 'tis a scandal and a burning shame + To thole young callants thus to grow sae snack, + And learn--O mighty crimes!--to speak and act! + But let them talk. In spite of ilk endeavour, + We'll cherish wit, and scorn their fead or favour.' + +In 1722 he wrote an epilogue, to be spoken after the acting of 'The +Drummer'; in 1726 a prologue, to be addressed to the audience by the +famous Tony Aston on the first night of his appearance; in 1727 a +prologue, to be delivered before the acting of 'Aurenzebe,' at +Haddington School; and finally, an epilogue, recited after the +performance of 'The Orphan' and 'The Gentle Shepherd,' in January 1729. +All these, and probably others that have not been preserved, evince that +Ramsay cherished a warm affection for the drama, with an earnest desire +to see his fellow-countrymen profit by it. After the indignant +remonstrance-- + + 'Shall London have its houses twa, + And we be doomed to nane ava? + Is our metropolis ance the place + Where lang-syne dwelt the royal race + Of Fergus, this gait dwindled doun + To the level o' a _clachan_ toun? + While thus she suffers the desertion + Of a maist rational diversion,' + +he commenced to erect, in 1736, a playhouse in Carrubber's Close. In his +advertisement in the _Caledonian Mercury_, announcing the prospective +opening, he states, he had built the house 'at vast expense,' in order +that, during the winter nights, the citizens might enjoy themselves in +hearing, performed by competent actors, dramas that would amuse, +instruct, and elevate. + +His advertisement, in the issue of the _Mercury_ for September 15, 1736, +reads:-- + + 'The new theatre in Carrubber's Close being in great forwardness, + will be opened on the 1st of November. These are to advertise the + ladies and gentlemen who incline to purchase annual tickets, to + enter their names before the 20th of October next, on which day + they shall receive their tickets from Allan Ramsay, on paying 30s., + no more than forty to be subscribed for; after which none will be + disposed of under two guineas.' + +Meantime the clerical party and the enemies of Ramsay had joined hands +in common opposition to his plans. 'Hardly had he begun operations' +(writes Professor Masson) 'when there came the extraordinary statute of +10 Geo. II. (1737), regulating theatres for the future all over Great +Britain. As by this statute, there could be no performance of stage +plays out of London and Westminster, save when the king chanced to be +residing in some other town, Ramsay's speculation collapsed.' In fact, +the municipal authorities, at the instigation of the clergy, employed +the force of the statute peremptorily to close his theatre. In vain he +appealed to law. 'He only received a quibble for his pains. He was +injured without being damaged,' said the lawyers. In vain he appealed in +a poetical epistle, to President Duncan Forbes of the Court of Session, +wherein he says-- + + 'Is there aught better than the stage + To mend the follies o' the age, + If managed as it ought to be, + Frae ilka vice and blaidry free? + Wherefore, my Lords, I humbly pray + Our lads may be allowed to play, + At least till new-house debts be paid off, + The cause that I'm the maist afraid of; + Which lade lyes on my single back, + And I maun pay it ilka plack.' + +Well might the good-hearted, honourable-minded poet dread the future. +The responsibility lay upon him alone for the expense of the building, +and from many intimations he let drop the failure of the speculation +well-nigh ruined him. But the increasing sale of his books, and the +expanding prosperity of his business, soon recouped his outlay. That he +was much depressed by his losses, heavy and unexpected as they were, is +evident from a private letter he wrote at this time to the President, +and which is still preserved at Culloden House. 'Will you,' he writes, +'give me something to do? Here I pass a sort of half-idle, scrimp life, +tending a trifling trade that scarce affords me the needful. Had I not +got a parcel of guineas from you, and such as you, who were pleased to +patronise my subscriptions, I should not have had a gray groat. I think +shame--but why should I, when I open my mind to one of your +goodness?--to hint that I want to have some small commission, when it +happens to fall in your way to put me into it.' + +Not without an element of pathos is the scene that is here presented, of +him, who had done so much to amuse and elevate his fellows, being +compelled to make such a request. Satisfactory is it, however, to know +that, though the poetical epistle 'to the Lords' was fruitless of +practical benefit in the way he desired, albeit exciting for him the +warmest sympathy among the worthy senators of the College of Justice, +there is reason to believe the President was able to throw 'some small +commission' in Ramsay's way, and thus, by his opportune generosity, to +dispel the thunderclouds of misfortune hurrying hard upon the poet's +steps. + +Of course, to his enemies (amongst whom was Pennecuik, the poet), as +well as to the more bigoted of the clergy, his trials were a judgment +upon his conduct. A shoal of pamphlets and pasquinades appeared, as +though to rub salt into the raw wounds of his mortified feelings: such +despicable effusions--written in more than one case by 'ministers of the +Gospel'--as 'The Flight of Religious Piety from Scotland, upon account +of Ramsay's lewd books and the Hell-bred comedians, who debauch all the +Faculties of the Soul of our Rising Generation,' 'A Looking-Glass for +Allan Ramsay,' 'The Dying Words of Allan Ramsay,' etc. As Chalmers +remarks: 'The lampooners left intimations of what must have been of +considerable consolation to our adventurous dramatist; that "he had +acquired wealth"; that "he possessed a fine house"; that "he had raised +his kin to high degree."' Such topics of censure did more honour than +hurt to Ramsay. To their ribald raillery the poet replied only by a +contemptuous silence, infinitely more galling than if he had turned on +the wasps and crushed them, thus bespeaking for them a prominence in no +measure merited. Their spleen he forgot amid the engrossments of a +closer attention to business, and the charms of friendship's +intercourse. + +It may be added, however, that the whirligig of time brought in for +Ramsay his revenges upon his enemies. The theatre which in 1746 was +erected in Playhouse Close in the Canongate, though only by a quibbling +evasion of the statute, so Draconic were its provisions, was largely due +to his energy and exertions. Thus, says a biographer, Ramsay, at the age +of sixty, had the satisfaction to see dramatical entertainments enjoyed +by the citizens, whose theatrical tastes he had kindled and fostered. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; HIS +PORTRAITS--1740-58. + + +Little more of a biographical character is there to relate. The last +seventeen years of Ramsay's life were passed in the bosom of his family, +and in attention to his business. His son, Allan--afterwards an artist +of great celebrity, and portrait painter to George III.,--after +studying, as the proud father informs his friend Smibert in a letter +about this time, with Mr. Hyffidg in London, and spending a little time +at home 'painting like a Raphael,' had been sent to Rome, where he made +good use of his opportunities. The father's heart yearns over the boy, +and he pathetically adds: 'I'm sweer to part with him, but canna stem +the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own +inclination.' His three daughters were growing up into 'fine, handsome +girls,' while 'my dear auld wife is still my bedfellow.' + +What a beautiful picture we get of the kindly old poet, drawn +unconsciously by himself in this letter. Domesticity and parental +affection were two qualities pre-eminently present in Ramsay's nature. + +From Mrs. Murray of Henderland we also receive a delicious side-peep +into Allan's character. In 1825 she informed Mr. Robert Chambers that +'he was one of the most amiable men she had ever known. His constant +cheerfulness and lively conversational powers had made him a favourite +amongst persons of rank, whose guest he frequently was. Being very fond +of children, he encouraged his daughters in bringing troops of young +ladies about the house, in whose sports he would mix with a patience and +vivacity wonderful in an old man. He used to give these young friends a +kind of ball once a year. From pure kindness for the young, he would +help to make dolls for them, and cradles wherein to place these little +effigies, with his own hands.' + +From 1740 to 1743 he enjoyed to the full the idyllic happiness and peace +described in his epistle to James Clerk of Penicuik-- + + 'Though born to not ae inch of ground, + I keep my conscience white and sound; + And though I ne'er was a rich heaper, + To make that up I live the cheaper; + By this ae knack I've made a shift + To drive ambitious care adrift; + And now in years and sense grown auld, + In ease I like my limbs to fauld. + Debts I abhor, and plan to be + Frae shochling trade and danger free, + That I may, loos'd frae care and strife, + With calmness view the edge of life; + And when a full ripe age shall crave, + Slide easily into my grave.' + +In 1742, finding himself in a position to take more ease than his busy +life had hitherto permitted to him, he bought a piece of ground on the +Castlehill, overlooking the valley of the North Loch, and there erected +that curious house, with its octagonal-shaped frontage, copied from a +Neapolitan villa, and designed by his son Allan, which so long was an +ornament on the northern slope overlooking the New Town of Edinburgh. +From his windows a reach of scenery was commanded, probably not +surpassed in Europe, stretching from the mouth of the Firth of Forth on +the east to the Grampians on the west, and extending far across the +green hills of Fife to the north. The poet, however, becoming alarmed at +the expense he was incurring, altered his son's design after the +building was half completed. In consequence, the mansion presented a +very quaint appearance. Tradition states that Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun +(afterwards Lord Milton) first detected the resemblance to a goose-pie. +Be this as it may, Allan was grievously vexed by the comparison, and one +day, when showing it, in the pride of his heart, to the witty Lord +Elibank, who duly admired its unrivalled prospect, he added, 'And yet, +my lord, thae toon wits say it's like naething else than a guse-pie.' +'Deed, Allan, noo I see ye intilt, I'm thinkin' the wits are no' sae far +wrang.' History does not record Allan's rejoinder. + +Scarcely had he entered his new mansion, however, expecting to enjoy +there many years of domestic happiness and peace, than the great sorrow +of his life fell upon him. In March 1743, his faithful and loving +partner, who had stood by him amid all the storm and stress of his busy +career, was taken from him, after thirty years of unbroken affection and +devotion. She was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, as the cemetery +records show, on the 28th of March 1743. So intense was her husband's +grief that he, who for many another had written elegies instinct with +deep sympathy and regret, could not trust himself to write of her, 'lest +I should break doon a'thegither into my second bairnhood.' Alas! poor +Allan! + +But his daughters, realising to the full the part that now devolved on +them, stepped into the gap left in his domestic circle. Nobly they +fulfilled their duty, and amongst the most affecting tributes Ramsay +paid, is that to the filial affection of 'his girls,' over whom, after +their mother had gone from them, he watched with a wealth of paternal +love and an anxious solicitude, as unsparing as it was unremitting. + +And thus did the life of Allan Ramsay roll quietly onward through placid +reaches of domestic and social happiness, during the closing fourteen +years of existence. Though he did not formally retire from business +until 1755, he left it almost entirely in the hands of capable +subordinates. He had worked hard in his day, and now, as he said-- + + ----'I the best and fairest please, + A little man that lo'es my ease, + And never thole these passions lang + That rudely mint to do me wrang.' + +Accordingly, he lived quietly in the 'goose-pie,' 'faulding his limbs in +ease,' and absolutely refusing to concern himself with anything +political, social, or ecclesiastical calculated to bring worry and +trouble upon him. + +During the Rebellion of 1745, tradition states that Prince Charles +Edward, after the capture of the city by the Highland army, sent a +message to Ramsay, asking him to repair to Holyrood, that some mark of +his new sovereign's favour might be bestowed on him. Singular, indeed, +it was, that the poet should have selected the day in question to repair +to his friend James Clerk's mansion at Penicuik, and that he should +there have been seized with so severe an indisposition as to prevent him +returning to Edinburgh for nearly five weeks. Though a Tory and a +Jacobite, honest Allan knew upon which side his bread was buttered. Such +honours as would have been conferred would have been inconvenient. +Moreover, the Rebellion had not yet attained dimensions sufficient to +transmute it from a rebellion into a revolution. Pawkiness and caution +were prominent traits in his character, and they were never used to more +salient advantage than in the instance in question. + +To the end of life, Ramsay remained the same kindly, genial, honourable +man, whose appearance in any of the social circles he frequented, was +the signal for 'quips and cranks and wreathèd smiles' to go round, and +for the feast of reason and the flow of soul to commence. His squat, +podgy figure waddling down the High Street on his way to his shop in the +Luckenbooths, his head covered with the quaint three-cornered hat of the +period, beneath which peeped his tie-wig, was one of the familiar sights +of Edinburgh, to be pointed out to strangers with a pride and an +affection that never diminished. In his little villa on the Castlehill +he entertained his friends in true Horatian style, and with a +hospitality every whit as warm, though it was every whit as simple as +that which the great Roman promised Mæcenas, he made them free of what +was in his power to give. + +Foibles he had,--and who is without them? faults, too,--for what +character lacks them? yet his very foibles and his faults leaned to +virtue's side. Vain he certainly was, deny the fact who can? his +egotism, also, may have jarred on some whose individuality was as strong +as his own, but whose liberality in making allowances for human +weaknesses was less. Nay, he may even in some respects have been 'near' +with regard to certain little things, though this was the result of his +humble upbringing, where, in the household economy of the Crichtons, a +pound was a fortune. But once break through the crust of his +old-fashioned formalism with the thrust of some pressing appeal for aid, +and instantly we touch the core of a ready and warm sympathy--a sympathy +as catholic in the radius of its beneficence as it was munificent in the +measure of its benefactions. To the poor, to the suffering, to the widow +and the orphan, to the fatherless and the friendless, Allan Ramsay was +ever the readiest to help where help was really needed; and if his +vanity liked the fact to be made public property, wherein lay the harm? +Do our published subscription-lists to-day not testify to the existence +of the same foible in nine-tenths of us? To the improvident, however, to +the lazy, to the genteel beggar, and to the thousand and one forms +mendicity--supported by mendacity--takes to extort money, Allan was as +adamant. 'Gang your wa's,' he would say to such; 'gar your elbuck earn +what your mooth eats, and ye'll be a better man.' + +Allan has had the misfortune to be rated by what he did not do in the +way of charity, rather than by what he did. Because he esteemed charity +to begin at home, and that he should provide for his own before +participating in any schemes for providing for others, he has been rated +as selfish and miserly. The opposite is the case. Prudent, careful, and +economical,--into no speculation would he go from which he did not see +the probability, at least, of an adequate return. Hence, during the +South Sea madness, he kept his head when many a better man went mad with +the speculative mania. He was pious, without his piety being black-edged +with that gloomy bigotry which characterised much of the Presbyterianism +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Scotland. As he put the +matter himself in his _Epistle to James Arbuckle_: + + 'Neist, Anti-Toland, Blunt, and Whiston, + Know positively I'm a Christian, + Believing truths and thinking free, + Wishing thrawn parties would agree.' + +He delighted in sociality and conviviality, but recoiled from aught +savouring of licence or excess. To coarseness, it is true, he may at +times have stooped in his work; but we must remember the spirit of the +times was in favour of calling a spade a spade, and not 'an implement +for disintegrating planetary particles.' To no degree greater than did +Swift, or Steele, or Arbuthnot, or Gay, can Allan Ramsay be considered +to have smirched his pages with references either ribald or indelicate. +The spirit of the age was in fault when coarseness was rated as wit; and +to be true to life, the painters of the manners around them had to +represent these as they were, not as they would have liked them to be. + +On the 9th May 1755 Ramsay, when writing to his friend, James Clerk of +Penicuik, a rhyming epistle, had said-- + + 'Now seventy years are o'er my head, + And thirty mae may lay me dead.' + +Alas! the 'Shadow feared of man' was already sitting waiting for him at +no great distance farther on in his life's journey. For some years he +had suffered acutely from scurvy in the gums, which in the end attacked +his jawbone and affected his speech. To the close, however, he retained +his cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits. When the last great summons at +length came to him, he met it with a manly fortitude and Christian +resignation. + +Amongst his last words, according to his daughter Janet, who survived +until 1807, were these: 'I'm no' feared of death; the Bricht and Morning +Star has risen and is shining mair and mair unto the perfect day.' And +so he passed 'into the unseen' on the 7th January 1758, in the +seventy-second year of his age. He was interred two days after in the +Greyfriars Churchyard, where his gravestone is still visible, bearing +the inscription: 'In this cemetery was interred the mortal part of an +immortal poet, Allan Ramsay, author of _The Gentle Shepherd_ and other +admirable poems in the Scottish dialect. He was born in 1686 and died in +1758. + + 'No sculptured marble here, no pompous lay, + No storièd urn, no animated bust; + This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way + To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.[2] + + Though here you're buried, worthy Allan, + We'll ne'er forget you, canty callan; + For while your soul lives in the sky, + Your "Gentle Shepherd" ne'er shall die.' + +Sir John Clerk, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, who +admired his genius and was one of his most intimate friends, erected at +his family seat at Penicuik an obelisk to his memory; while Mr. +Alexander Fraser-Tytler, at Woodhouselee, near the Glencorse _locale_ +of _The Gentle Shepherd_, has erected a rustic temple which bears the +inscription-- + + 'ALLANO RAMSAY ET GENIO LOCI. + + 'Here midst those streams that taught thy Doric Muse + Her sweetest song,--the hills, the woods, and stream, + Where beauteous Peggy strayed, list'ning the while + Her Gentle Shepherd's tender tale of love. + Scenes which thy pencil, true to Nature, gave + To live for ever. Sacred be this shrine; + And unprofaned, by ruder hands, the stone + That owes its honours to thy deathless name.' + +Ramsay was survived by his son Allan, the painter, and by his two +daughters, Christian and Janet, who amongst them inherited the poet's +fortune. The house on the Castlehill fell to his son, and remained in +the possession of the family, as Mr. Logie Robertson records, until +1845, when it changed hands at the death of General John Ramsay, the +poet's grandson, and the last of his line. For many years it stood, an +object of interest to all admirers of the bard, until 1892, when, just +as the building was beginning to show signs of age, the site was bought +for the erection of the new students' boarding-house, 'University Hall,' +which so imposingly crowns the ridge of the Castlehill. With a reverence +for the memory of the poet as rare as it is commendable, the promoters +of the scheme resolved to preserve as much as possible of the house, and +the greater part of it has been incorporated in the new building. + +Of Ramsay we have only two portraits remaining that are of any real +value,--that painted by his son Allan, and that by Smibert, the poet's +lifelong friend. The latter represents him in youth, the former in +age--both being considered, at the time of execution, striking +likenesses. But perhaps the best idea of the appearance of the poet may +be gathered from Sir John Steele's fine statue of him (designed from his +son's portrait) which now stands at the corner of West Princes Street +Gardens, Edinburgh, immediately below the site of his house. There, with +his familiar 'nightcap' on his head, he stands, watching the busy crowds +passing to and fro in front of him, wearing the while an expression on +his face as though he were saying with his Patie-- + + 'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep, + The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep; + Content's the greatest bliss we can procure + Frae 'boon the lift: without it, kings are poor.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The first stanza is in reality by Burns, and is identical with that +he placed on the tombstone he erected over the remains of Fergusson, the +poet, in the Canongate Churchyard. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST + + +In attempting a critical estimate of the value of Ramsay's works, for +the purpose of analysis it will be most convenient to consider the great +body of his writings under certain classified headings--(1) Ramsay as a +Pastoral Poet and an Elegist; (2) Ramsay as a Satirist and a +Song-writer; (3) Ramsay's Miscellaneous Works. + +In the chapter on _The Gentle Shepherd_, we noted the distinctive +constituents of pastoral poetry, as currently defined, and also wherein +Ramsay's principles, as exemplified in practice, differ from those of +other writers of pastoral. To furnish examples illustrative of our +contention is now all that remains to be done. Early in his poetical +career, as soon, in fact, as he had completed his first tentative +efforts, Ramsay seems to have become conscious, with that rare gift of +prevision always distinguishing him, that his strength lay in a +picturesque yet truthful delineation of rural life. His earliest pieces, +although termed elegies, exhibit, rather, many of the characteristics of +pastorals, in the broad humour and in the graphic and vivid colouring +wherewith he depicts the scenes at Maggy Johnston's tavern at +Morningside, or the incidents in the life of Luckie Wood or of Patie +Birnie. But, as he has termed them _elegies_, under that heading let +them be considered, though a humorous or mock elegy is somewhat of a +contradiction in terms. + +Roughly classified, Ramsay's pastorals may be stated as follows:--the +dialogues between _Richy_ (Sir Rich. Steele) _and Sandy_ (Alex. Pope), +on the death of Mr. Addison; between _Robert, Richy, and Sandy_, on the +death of Matthew Prior; _Keitha_, on the death of the Countess of +Wigton; an _Ode with a Pastoral Recitative_, on the marriage of James +Earl of Wemyss to Miss Janet Charteris; _A Masque_, performed at the +celebration of the nuptials of James Duke of Hamilton and Lady Ann +Cochrane; _A Pastoral Epithalamium_, on the marriage of George Lord +Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule; _Betty and Kate_, a pastoral farewell to Mr. +Aikman; and finally, _The Gentle Shepherd_. + +Of Ramsay's less important pastorals, the distinguishing characteristics +are their simplicity, their tenderness, and their freedom from aught +didactic. In conforming to the conventional idea of pastoral,--the idea, +that is, of the shepherd state being a condition of perfect peace and +Arcadian felicity and propriety,--in place of copying direct from +nature, they one and all differ from _The Gentle Shepherd_. The picture +of burly Sir Richard Steele and of crooked little Alexander Pope, clad +in shepherd's weeds, and masquerading with dogs and pipes and what not, +savours somewhat of the ludicrous. Then, in _Richy and Sandy_, he makes +Pope bewail the death of Addison, with whom he had been on anything but +friendly terms for years previous; while the following picture of the +deceased grave-visaged Secretary of State, in such a position as +described in the following lines, tends to induce us profane Philistines +of these latter days, to smile, if not to sneer-- + + 'A better lad ne'er leaned out o'er a kent, + Nor hounded collie o'er the mossy bent: + Blythe at the bughts how oft hae we three been, + Heartsome on hills, and gay upon the green.' + +This, however, was the fashion in vogue, and to it our poet had to +conform. In _Richy and Sandy_, in _Robert, Richy, and Sandy_, and in his +earlier pastorals generally, we seem to see the poet struggling to rid +himself of the conventional prejudices against painting rural nature in +the real, and in favour of 'a golden-age rusticity' purely imaginary. +Not by this is it implied that I claim for our poet the credit of first +insisting on reverting to nature for the study of scenes and character. +The same conviction, according to Lowell, was entertained by Spenser, +and his _Shepherds' Calendar_ was a manifestation, however imperfect and +unsatisfactory, of his desire to hark back to nature for inspiration. In +_Keitha_ the same incongruity, as noted above, is visible. The poem in +question, with that on the _Marriage of the Earl of Wemyss_, can neither +be ranked as conventional pastoral nor as pure pastoral, according to +Ramsay's later style. We note the 'Colins' and 'Ringans,' the +'shepherd's reeds' and 'shepherd's weeds,' and the picture of + + ----'the singing shepherd on the green + Armyas hight, wha used wi' tunefu' lay + To please the ear when he began to play,' + +--an imitation of Milton's immortal lines in _Comus_, which are too well +known to need quotation. All of a piece this with the 'golden-age +pastoral.' In the same poems, however, occur intimations that the +incongruity was perceived by the author, but that, as yet, he did not +see any means of remedying the uniform monotony of the conventional +form. The leaven was at work in Ramsay's mind, but so far it only +succeeded in influencing but the smallest moiety of the lump. + +In the _Masque_, written in celebration of the marriage of the Duke of +Hamilton, the sentiments expressed are wholly different. Written +subsequently to _The Gentle Shepherd_, Ramsay exhibited in it his +increased technical deftness, and how much he had profitted by the +experience gained in producing his great pastoral. The _Masque_, albeit +professedly a dramatic pastoral, entirely abjures the lackadaisical +shepherds and shepherdesses of conventional pastoral, and, as a poem of +pure imagination, reverts to the ancient mythology for the _dramatis +personæ_. + +All these pieces, however, though they exhibit a facility in +composition, a fecundity of imagination, a skilful adaptation of theme +to specific metrical form, a rare human sympathy, and a depth of pathos +as natural in expression as it was genuine in its essence, are only, so +to speak, the preludes to _The Gentle Shepherd_. In the latter, Ramsay's +matured principles of pastoral composition are to be viewed where best +their relative importance can be estimated, namely, when put into +practice. + +By competent critics, _The Gentle Shepherd_ is generally conceded to be +the noblest pastoral in the English language. Dr. Hugh Blair, in his +lectures on _Rhetoric and Belles Lettres_, styled it 'a pastoral drama +which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of +this kind in any language.... It is full of so much natural description +and tender sentiment as would do honour to any poet. The characters are +well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and +just.' And one of Dr. Blair's successors in the Chair of Rhetoric and +English Literature in the University of Edinburgh,--a man and a Scotsman +who, in his day, has done more than any other to foster amongst our +youth a love of all that is great and good and beautiful in our +literature; a teacher, too, whose students, whom he has imbued with his +own noble spirit, are scattered over the world, from China to +Peru,--Emeritus-Professor David Masson, has observed in his charming +_Edinburgh Sketches_: 'The poem was received with enthusiastic +admiration. There had been nothing like it before in Scottish +literature, or in any other: nothing so good of any kind that could be +voted even similar; and this was at once the critical verdict.' + +To anyone who will carefully compare the _Idylls_ of Theocritus, the +_Eclogues_ of Virgil, and the _Aminta_ of Tasso, with Ramsay's great +poem, the conviction will be driven home,--in the face, it may be, of +many deeply-rooted prejudices,--that the same inspiration which, like a +fiery rivulet, runs through the three former masterpieces, is present +also in the latter--that inspiration being the perfect and unbroken +homogeneity existing between the local atmosphere of the poem and the +characteristics of the _dramatis personæ_. This fact it is which renders +the _Aminta_ so imperishable a memorial of Tasso's genus; for it is +Italian pastoral, redolent of the air, and smacking of the very soil of +sunny Italy. The symmetrical perfection of _The Gentle Shepherd_, in +like manner, is due to the fact that the feelings and desires and +impulses of the characters in the pastoral are those distinctively +native and proper to persons in their sphere of life. There is no +dissidence visible between what may imperfectly be termed the _motif_ of +the poem and the sentiments of even the most subordinate characters in +it. Therein lies the true essence of literary symmetry--the symmetry not +alone of mere form, though that also was present, but the symmetry +resulting from the harmony of thought with its expression, of scene and +its characters, of situation and its incidents. Such the symmetry +exhibited by Homer's _Iliad_, by Dante's _Inferno_, by Milton's +_Paradise Lost_, by Cervantes' _Don Quixote_, by Camoens' _Lusiad_, by +Scott's _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, by Tennyson's _Idylls_. + +Frankly, it must be admitted that only in his _Gentle Shepherd_ does +Ramsay attain this outstanding excellence. His other pieces are +meritorious,--highly so; but they could have been produced by many a +writer of the age with equal, perhaps superior, felicity, and they shine +only in the reflected light of _The Gentle Shepherd_; even as Scott's +_Lord of the Isles_ and _Harold the Dauntless_ were saved from being +'damned as mediocrity' only by the excellence of the _Lay of the Last +Minstrel_ and _Marmion_. + +The great charm of _The Gentle Shepherd_ lies in the skilfully-balanced +antithesis of its contrasts, in the reflected interest each type casts +on its opposite. As in Molière's _Tartuffe_, it is the vivid contrast +created between the hypocrisy of the title-character and the easy +good-nature of Orgon, that begets a reciprocal interest in the fortunes +of both; as in Balzac's _Pere Goriot_, it is the pitiless selfishness of +his three daughters on the one hand, and the doting self-denial of the +poor old father on the other, that throws both sets of characters into +relief so strong: so, in _The Gentle Shepherd_, it is the subtle force +of the contrast between Patie's well-balanced manliness and justifiable +pride, and Roger's _gauche_ bashfulness and depression in the face of +Jenny's coldness; between Peggy's piquant lovableness and maidenly joy +in the knowledge of Patie's love, and Jenny's affected dislike to the +opposite sex to conceal the real state of her feelings towards Roger in +particular, that impart to the poem the vivid interest wherewith its +scenes are perused. Minor contrasts are present too, in the faithfulness +of Patie to Peggy, as compared with the faithlessness of Bauldy to Neps. +The whole drama, in fact, might be styled a beautiful panegyric on +fidelity in love. Such passages as the following are frequent-- + + 'I'd hate my rising fortune, should it move + The fair foundation of our faithfu' love. + If at my feet were crowns and sceptres laid + To bribe my soul frae thee, delightful maid, + For thee I'd soon leave these inferior things + To sic as have the patience to be kings.' + +As a pastoral poet, Ramsay excels in painting all those homely virtues +that befit the station to which most of his characters belonged. A +fault, and a serious one, it was among the writers of conventional +pastoral, to make their shepherds and shepherdesses talk like +philosophers, and reason upon all the mysteries of life, death, and +futurity. What reader of Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_, but must have +smiled over the shepherds in that delicious romance discussing love, and +treating of its metaphysical causes and effects, as profoundly as any + + ----'clerke of Oxenforde also + Who unto logik hadde long y-go.' + +The extravagances of conventional pastoral had been keenly satirised by +Gay, who made his Lobbin Clouts and Cloddipoles, his Blowzalinds and +Bowzabees and Bumkinets, in the _Shepherd's Week_, 'talk the language +that is spoken neither by country maiden nor courtly dame; nay, not only +such as in the present time is not uttered, but never was in times past, +and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future.' But by +Ramsay the silliness of the prevailing mode, both of British and French +pastoral, was more aptly satirised, by presenting, as a contrast, a +picture of rural life absolutely truthful in all its details, and thus +slaying falsehood by the sword of truth. + +Of _The Gentle Shepherd_, the plot is simplicity itself. It describes +the love of a young Pentland shepherd named Patie for a country maiden +named Peggy. The pastoral drama, the time of whose action is all +embraced within four-and-twenty hours, thus preserving one, at least, of +the Greek dramatic unities as defined by the French critics, opens at +early morning with the two young shepherds, Patie and Roger, feeding +their flocks on the hills, and discussing the progress of their +love-suits. The scene is charmingly realistic and natural. Patie is +happy in his love for Peggy who reciprocates it; Roger, in despair over +his ill-success with 'dorty Jenny.' His friend, however, raises his +spirits by telling him how he once served Peggy when she had a fit of +tantrums, by feigning indifference to her, a course which soon brought +the fair one to reason. He exhorts Roger to adopt the same line, +conveying his counsel in the following terms, that contain excellent +advice to young lovers, and might have given a hint to Burns for his +song, 'Duncan Gray'-- + + 'Dear Roger, when your jo puts on her gloom, + Do ye sae too, and never fash your thumb; + Seem to forsake her, soon she'll change her mood; + Gae woo anither, and she'll gang clean wood.' + +Roger agrees to take the advice, and the scene concludes with a +delightful picture of a shepherd's meal-- + + 'But first we'll tak a turn up to the height, + And see gif all our flocks be feeding right; + By that time, bannocks and a shave of cheese + Will make a breakfast that a laird might please,-- + Might please the daintiest gabs, were they sae wise + To season meat with health instead of spice. + When we have ta'en the grace-drink at this well, + I'll whistle syne'-- + +The second scene opens with an exquisite description of + + 'A flowrie howm between twa verdant braes, + Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes; + A trottin' burnie wimpling through the ground, + Its channel, pebbles, shining, smooth and round. + Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear.' + +These are Peggy and Jenny. The latter proposes to begin their work on +the 'howm' or green in question, but Peggy entreats her to + + Gae farer up the burn to Habbie's How, + Where a' that's sweet in spring and simmer grow; + Between twa birks out o'er a little linn + The water fa's, and makes a singin' din; + A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass, + Kisses wi' easy whirles the bordering grass. + We'll end our washing while the morning's cool, + And when the day grows het we'll to the pool, + There wash oursels; 'tis healthfu' now in May, + And sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.' + +The girls then enter on a discussion regarding Jenny's cruel +indifference to Roger. The maiden, who by the way is a bit of a prude, +affects to despise love and marriage, but in the end, overcome by +Peggy's beautiful description of conjugal happiness, is obliged to +confess her love for Roger. What more delightful picture of maternal +yearning over the young have we in all English literature, than Peggy's +splendid defence of motherhood?-- + + 'Yes, it's a heartsome thing to be a wife, + When round the ingle-edge young sprouts are rife. + Gif I'm sae happy, I shall have delight + To hear their little plaints, and keep them right. + Wow, Jenny! can there greater pleasure be, + Than see sic wee tots toolying at your knee; + When a' they ettle at,--their greatest wish, + Is to be made of and obtain a kiss? + Can there be toil in tenting day and night + The like of them, when love makes care delight?' + +The first scene of the Second Act opens with a picture of a peasant +farmer's 'onstead'; to wit, his dwelling and outhouses-- + + 'A snug thack-house; before the door a green; + Hens on the midden, ducks in dubs are seen; + On this side stands a barn, on that a byre: + A peat stack joins, and forms a rural square.' + +Here the neighbours, Glaud and Symon, meet. The latter has been into +Edinburgh to sell his 'crummock and her bassened quey,' and over their +pipes he informs his friend that their landlord, Sir William Worthy, +who, as a Royalist, had been compelled to go into exile during the +Commonwealth, would now, owing to the Restoration, be able to return +home again, when all would be well. Symon has heard the news from the +laird's servant, 'Habbie,' after whom the 'How' or _house_ is named. +Glaud is so overjoyed at the news that he seeks to persuade Symon to +remain and dine with him, offering, for it was before the age of good +roads and carts, + + 'To yoke my sled, and send to the neist town + And bring a draught o' ale baith stout and brown.' + +But Symon wishes to exercise hospitality himself, and insists upon +Glaud, his sister Madge, his daughter Jenny, and his niece Peggy, all +dining with him, in honour of the day. This they are to do. We have here +presented a graphic picture of rural fare on fête-days-- + + 'For here yestreen I brewed a bow of maut, + Yestreen I slew twa wethers prime and fat. + A furlet of good cakes, my Elspa beuk, + And a large ham hangs reesting in the neuk. + I saw mysel', or I cam o'er the loan, + Our muckle pot that scads the whey, put on, + A mutton-bouk to boil, and ane we'll roast; + And on the haggies Elspa spares nae cost. + Small are they shorn, and she can mix fu' nice + The gusty ingans wi' a curn of spice; + Fat are the puddings,--heads and feet weel sung.' + +The second scene introduces a new element into the drama. Another +shepherd, Bauldy (Archibald) by name, has also been smitten with Peggy's +charms--and it affords an excellent idea of the simplicity of these +rural districts in Scotland, when he repairs to a poor old woman named +Mause, whom the district reputes to be a witch, to entreat her aid in +turning Peggy's heart towards himself. Bauldy's picture of Peggy, in his +soliloquy, is beautiful in its very simplicity-- + + 'O Peggy! sweeter than the dawning day, + Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mawn hay; + Blyther than lambs that frisk out o'er the knowes, + Straighter than aught that in the forest grows. + Her een the clearest blob of dew out-shines, + The lily in her breast its beauty tines; + Her legs, her arms, her cheeks, her mouth, her een, + Will be my deid'-- + +The existence of superstition among the Scottish peasantry, a state of +things lasting until well on into last century, is also well brought out +in Bauldy's soliloquy, when he refers to Mausy, 'a witch that for sma' +price, can cast her cantrips, and gie me advice.' Mause, meaning to read +the faithless lover of Neps a lesson, consents to help him. The fourth +scene of the Second Act is undoubtedly one of the finest in the +drama--the meeting of the lovers, Patie and Peggy. The two great +constituents of a successful piece, strength and pathos, are both +present in rich measure. To test her lover's fidelity, the maiden, with +coy coquetry, affects to think that he might alter his mind and deceive +her if she trusted him too implicitly. To this Patie replies that she +deeply wrongs him in doubting his fidelity, and that he would be dull +and blind + + 'Gif I could fancy aught's sae sweet and fair + As my sweet Meg, or worthy of my care. + Thy breath is sweeter than the sweetest brier, + Thy cheek and breast the finest flowers appear, + Thy words excel the maist delightfu' notes + That warble through the merle or mavis' throats; + With thee I tent nae flowers that busk the field, + Or ripest berries that our mountains yield; + The sweetest fruits that hing upon the tree + Are far inferior to a kiss frae thee.' + +With all a loving woman's sweet perversity, however, Peggy still affects +to doubt, only to be indulged in the delicious bliss of hearing her +lover's vows anew-- + + 'Sooner a mother shall her fondness drap, + And wrang the bairn sits smiling in her lap; + The sun shall change, the moon to change shall cease; + The gaits to climb, the sheep to yield the fleece; + Ere aught by me be either said or done + Shall do thee wrang;--I swear by all aboon.' + +In no scene does Ramsay exhibit his wonderful knowledge of the human +heart to such advantage as in the one before us. Peggy and Patie then +sing a duet, taking alternate verses, into which are introduced many of +the old Scots songs,--'The Broom o' Cowdenknowes,' 'Milking the Ewes,' +'Jenny Nettles,' 'Thro' the Wood, Laddie,' 'The Boatman,' 'Maggie +Lauder,' 'The Lass o' Patie's Mill,' and the curtain falls over one of +the most delightful scenes illustrative of pure affection, in modern +drama. + +The Third Act sees the return of Sir William Worthy, who, in the +disguise of a wizard, introduces himself into the company, merry-making +at Symon's. Here he tells Patie's fortune, and the surprising discovery +is ere long made that the youth is Sir William's only son, placed under +Symon's care when the knight had to go into exile on the execution of +Charles I. The description of the little festivity at Symon's is well +wrought out. The third scene contains the love-making of Jenny and +Roger, where the faithful swain's happiness is rendered complete. With +great gusto Ramsay paints this episode, as well as with consummate +fidelity to nature,--a fact becoming increasingly apparent when one +notes the marked difference between the love-scene wherein Patie and +Peggy take part, and that wherein Jenny declares her love for Roger. The +latter scene is more decidedly tinged with rusticity than the former. In +the fourth scene Sir William reveals himself to Symon, and inquires +eagerly about the progress made by his son during his years of absence. +Symon praises the youth's devotion to letters, and then hints at his +love for Peggy, which Sir William declares must be forgotten. + +The first scene of the Fourth Act relieves, by the introduction of +humorous episodes, the sentimentality whereinto the drama at this stage +shows signs of lapsing. Mause, Madge, and Bauldy have an interview, at +which the two last named come to blows; and when Bauldy has taken +himself off, the two women perfect their plans for playing on the +foolish fellow's superstitious fears. The remainder of the Fourth Act +deals with Patie's sorrow and Peggy's anguish when Sir William's +decision is made known. Of course, they vow everlasting fidelity to each +other. The scene between the lovers is a very powerful one, wherein +Ramsay evinced his sway over the subtler emotions. Yet here, as +elsewhere, his simplicity constitutes his strength. He never attempts to +depict any complex interaction of human passions. Like Æschylus, he +contents himself with the representation of one elemental emotion at a +time, and he thoroughly exhausts the one '_moment_' before he passes on +to another. Few passages are there in literature more genuinely +pathetic, yet keeping more rigidly within the modesty of nature, than +that wherein poor Peggy, after dwelling on the golden past, tries to +picture the dull grey round of duty in the future when Patie shall have +been taken from her-- + + 'Speak on, speak ever thus, and still my grief; + But short, I dare to hope the fond relief. + New thoughts a gentler face will soon inspire, + That with nice airs swims round in silk attire; + Then I, poor me! with sighs may ban my fate, + When the young laird's nae mair my heartsome Pate. + Nae mair again to hear sweet tales expresst + By the blyth shepherd that excelled the rest,-- + Nae mair be envied by the tattling gang + When Patie kissed me when I danced or sang; + Nae mair, alake! we'll on the meadows play, + And rin half-breathless round the rucks of hay, + As aft-times I have fled from thee right fain, + And fa'n on purpose, that I might be tane.'-- + +But Patie reiterates his vows to her, and Peggy, comforted, declares she +will set herself to learn 'gentler charms, through ilka school where I +may manners learn.' Patie applauds her resolution, but declares that + + ----'without a' the little helps of art + Thy native sweets might gain a prince's heart, + Yet now, lest in our station we offend, + We must learn modes to innocence unken'd.' + +The scene closes with Peggy's vows of fidelity. In this scene Ramsay +touched the high-water mark of his genius, and for the elements of +simplicity, strength, and propriety of the sentiments expressed by each +character with the root-idea of that character, it is rivalled by very +few scenes of its kind in the literature of our land. + +The first scene of the last Act opens with Bauldy's fright. He had gone +to fulfil his engagement to meet Mause, the pretended witch, who was to +turn Peggy's heart to him. But as he had insulted Madge, Peggy's aunt, +in the fore part of the day, the latter, to punish him by taking +advantage of his dread of ghosts, meets him at the dead hour of the +night when he is repairing to Mause's cottage. She is draped in a white +sheet, and utters ghastly groans. Bauldy, having sunk terror-stricken to +the ground, is soundly cuffed and trounced by the two women. As soon, +therefore, as daylight breaks, he seeks an interview with Sir William to +entreat redress. The latter, who had been passing the night in Symon's +house, enters fully into the spirit of the joke, and orders Mause to be +brought before him. + +The second scene exhibits Glaud's 'onstead' again, and the family +preparing to go down to Symon's to take their leave of Patie. Peggy is +very sad,--so much so that her sharp-tongued aunt cannot refrain from +jeering at it-- + + 'Poor Meg!--Look, Jenny, was the like e'er seen? + How bleared and red wi' greetin' look her een! + This day her brankan wooer taks his horse + To strut a gentle spark at Edinburgh Cross. + But Meg, poor Meg! maun wi' the shepherds stay, + And tak what God will send in hodden gray.' + +To this ill-timed speech Peggy makes a pathetic reply, that must have +caused a pang of remorse to her aunt. But when Glaud ventures to warn +her against being too free with Patie, seeing he could not marry her +now, she replies with gentle reproach-- + + 'Sir William's virtuous, and of gentle blood; + And may not Patrick too, like him, be good?' + +Glaud's answer exhibits the simple faith of the rural inhabitants of the +district in a striking light-- + + 'That's true and mony gentry mae than he, + As they are wiser, better are than we; + But thinner sawn: they're sae pufft up wi' pride, + There's mony o' them mocks ilk haly guide + That shows the gate to heav'n. I've heard mysel + Some of them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell.' + +The last scene of the pastoral contains the _dénouement_. With great +artistic skill, so as to avoid wearying the reader, Ramsay only +represents the delivering of the verdict upon Bauldy's appeal against +Mause, the result being that the former was informed he only got what he +deserved. At this moment, however, Madge, Peggy, and Jenny enter the +room where Sir William was sitting. On Peggy Sir Williams gazes with +interest, but presently starts with surprise. Her features are those of +his long-dead sister. Eagerly he inquires from Glaud if she be his +daughter. Glaud, after some hesitation, declares her to be a foundling. +At this juncture, however, old Mause steps forward and unravels the +tangled skein. She first calls on Sir William to say if he does not +recall her features as his own old nurse. Sir William joyfully +recognises her, and then she relates how she had brought Peggy as a babe +thither, to save its life from those who had usurped its rights after +his sister's death. She declares that Peggy is indeed his own niece, and +Patie's full cousin. + +Patie's joy is now complete, and the two lovers, their prospective union +blessed by Sir William, fall into one another's arms; while the +happiness of the shepherds and rustics is consummated when Sir William, +restored to his possessions, announces his intention never more to leave +them. To Symon and Glaud he assigns their _mailings_ (farms) in +perpetual feu, while Roger is made his chamberlain. As the curtain then +descends over general happiness, Sir William pronounces the usual moral +admonition, without which no pastoral of the time was complete-- + + 'My friends, I'm satisfied you'll all behave, + Each in his station as I'd wish and crave. + Be ever virtuous, soon or late ye'll find + Reward and satisfaction to your mind. + The maze of life sometimes looks dark and wild, + And oft when hopes are highest we're beguiled; + Oft when we stand on brinks of dark despair + Some happy turn with joy dispels our care.' + +The relative proportions of the various characters have been preserved +with rare skill, and the individuality of each is as firmly and clearly +differentiated in a few rapid incisive strokes, as though he had +expended pages of description on each, like Pope and Gay. Patie's cheery +_bonhomie_ and vivacious nature, his love of learning and his wise views +of life and its duties, find an excellent foil in the slow, bashful, +phlegmatic Roger, whose very 'blateness' denies him the bliss he covets +in Jenny's love. Peggy is altogether charming,--a lovely, pure-souled, +healthful, sport-loving maiden, with enough of her sex's foibles in her +to leave her a very woman, yet with as few faults as it is possible for +faulty human nature to be without. One of the most delightful heroines +in pastoral poetry is Peggy. Jenny's prudish airs and affected dislike +to the sterner sex are delicately yet incisively portrayed, while the +staunch fidelity of Symon, the cheery chirpiness of Glaud, the bucolic +ignorance and superstition of Bauldy, the cankered impatience of +Madge--a spinster against her will, and the pathetic, age-worn weariness +of Mause, are depicted with the assured hand of a master. Many of the +lyrics interspersed throughout the pastoral are gems of rustic song; +not high-class poetry, otherwise they would have been as out of place as +would the Johnsonian minnows, talking, as Goldsmith said, like whales. + +Only to one other production of Ramsay's genius will attention be called +under this head, namely, his continuation of James the First's poem, +_Christ's Kirk on the Green_. Of this, the first canto only was written +by its royal author. Ramsay, therefore, conceived the design of +completing it, as was remarked before. The king had painted with great +spirit the squabble that arose at a rustic wedding at Christ's Kirk, in +the parish of Kinnethmont, in that part of the county of Aberdeen near +Leslie called the Garioch. Ramsay seems to have mistaken it for Leslie +in Fife. Two cantos were added by our poet to the piece, in the one of +which he exhibited the company, their differences ended, as engaging in +feasting and good cheer; in the other, their appearance the following +morning, after they had slept off the effects of the orgies, and when +they proceed to the bridegroom's house to offer gifts. The skill +wherewith Ramsay dovetailed his work into that of his royal predecessor, +and developed the king's characters along lines fully in accord with +their inception, is very remarkable. There is a Rabelaisian element in +the headlong fun and broad rough-and-tumble humour Ramsay introduces +into his portion of the poem, but it is not discordant with the king's +ideas. The whole piece is almost photographic in the vividness of the +several portraits; the 'moment' of delineation selected for each being +that best calculated to afford a clue to the type of character. The +following picture of the 'reader,' or church precentor in Roman +Catholic times, has often been admired, as almost Chaucerian, for its +force and truth-- + + 'The latter-gae of haly rhime, + Sat up at the boord head, + And a' he said 'twas thought a crime + To contradict indeed. + For in clerk lear he was right prime, + And could baith write and read, + And drank sae firm till ne'er a styme + He could keek on a bead + Or book that day.' + +The coarseness of the pieces cannot be denied. Still, withal, there is a +robust, manly strength in the ideas and a picturesque force in the +vocabulary that covers a multitude of sins. His picture of morning has +often been compared with that of Butler in _Hudibras_, but the advantage +undoubtedly lies with Ramsay. Butler describes the dawn as follows-- + + 'The sun had long since in the lap + Of Thetis taken out his nap, + And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn + From black to red began to turn.' + +Ramsay, in his description, says-- + + 'Now frae th' east neuk o' Fife the dawn + Speel'd westlines up the lift; + Carles wha heard the cock had crawn, + Begoud to rax and rift; + And greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn, + Cry'd "Lasses, up to thrift"; + Dogs barkèd, and the lads frae hand + Bang'd to their breeks like drift, + Be break o' day.' + +It must be remembered, the poem was addressed to rustics, who would +neither have understood nor appreciated anything of a higher or less +broadly Hogarthian nature. In _Christ's Kirk on the Green_ we have +stereotyped to all time a picture of manners unsurpassed for vigour and +accuracy of detail, to which antiquarians have gone, and will go, for +information that is furnished in no other quarter. + +In his elegies pure and simple, namely, those divested of any humorous +element, Ramsay has done good work; but it is not by any means on a par +with what is expected from the poet who could write _The Gentle +Shepherd_. A painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and +farcical was Ramsay's distinctive _métier_. Pity it was his vanity and +ambition ever induced him to turn aside from the path wherein he was +supreme. His 'Ode to the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the +Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John Clerk on the death of his +son James Clerk, and the 'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,' +are his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas expressed +are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and the modesty of nature +are not infringed by any exaggerated expressions of grief, but the glow +of genius is lacking, and the subtle union of sentiment and expression +that are so prominent features in his greater poem. + +His two finest efforts as an elegist were his _Ode to the Memory of Mrs. +Forbes_, beginning-- + + 'Ah, life! thou short uncertain blaze, + Scarce worthy to be wished or loved, + Why by strict death so many ways, + So soon, the sweetest are removed! + + If outward charms and temper sweet, + The cheerful smile, the thought sublime, + Could have preserved, she ne'er had met + A change till death had sunk with time;' + +also the one on the _Death of Sir Isaac Newton_, wherein occur two +memorable stanzas-- + + 'Great Newton's dead!--full ripe his fame; + Cease vulgar grief, to cloud our song: + We thank the Author of our frame, + Who lent him to the earth so long. + + For none with greater strength of soul + Could rise to more divine a height, + Or range the orbs from pole to pole, + And more improve the human sight.' + +His 'humorous elegies,' written in a mock heroic strain, and sometimes +upon persons still living, though, for the purposes of his art, he +represented them as dead, as in the case of John Cowper, are instinct +with broad, rollicking, Rabelaisian fun. Their vivid portrayal of the +manners and customs of the time renders them invaluable. What better +description of the convivial habits of Edinburgh society early last +century could be desired, than the graphic pictures in _Luckie Wood's +Elegy_, particularly the stanza-- + + 'To the sma' hours we aft sat still, + Nick'd round our toasts and sneeshin'-mill; + Good cakes we wanted ne'er at will, + The best of bread; + Which aften cost us mony a gill + To Aitkenhead.' + +Than his elegies on Luckie Spence, John Cowper, and Patie Birnie, no +more realistic presentation of low-life manners could be desired. They +are pictures such as Hogarth would have revelled in, and to which he +alone could have done justice in reproduction. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER + + +Difficult it is to make any exact classification of Ramsay's works, +inasmuch as he frequently applied class-names to poems to which they +were utterly inapplicable. Thus many of his elegies and epistles were +really satires, while more than one of those poems he styled satires +were rather of an epic character than anything else. By the reader, +therefore, certain shortcomings in classification must be overlooked, as +Ramsay's poetical terminology (if the phrase be permissible) was far +from being exact. + +As I have previously remarked, Ramsay's studies in poetry, in addition +to the earlier Scottish verse, had lain largely in the later +Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods. In these, Milton, Cowley, +Dryden, and Pope were his favourites, and their influence is to be +traced throughout his satires. To Boileau he had paid some attention, +though his acquaintance with French literature was more through the +medium of translations, than by drawing directly from the fountainhead. +Ramsay's satires exhibit all the virtues of correct mediocrity. Their +versification is smooth, and they generally scan accurately: the ideas +are expressed pithily, at times epigrammatically and wittily. The +faults and foibles satirised in most cases are those that richly merited +the satiric lash. Yet, all these merits granted, the reader feels +something to be lacking. The reason is not far to seek. Ramsay never +felt at home in what may be termed 'polished satire.' He was as much out +of place as would a low comedian on being suddenly called upon to +undertake 'drawing-room comedy.' Perpetually would he feel the +inclination to rap out one of the rousing, though vulgar, jokes that +inevitably evoked a roar of applause from the gallery, and sooner or +later he would give way to it. Ramsay was in precisely the same +position. The consequence is that in the _Morning Interview_, +professedly an imitation of Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, there are +incongruous images introduced, for the purpose of relieving the piece by +humorous comparisons, which offend the taste even of the most cursory +reader. Such allusions as that to 'soft fifteen on her feet-washing +night,' and others of a cognate character, are entirely out of place in +'polished satire.' If he attempted the type of composition, he ought to +have conformed to its rules. + +Of course, Ramsay wrote certain satires, _The Last Speech of a Wretched +Miser_ and the like, in the Scots vernacular, and addressed to the lower +classes in the community, where his genius is seen at its best, because +dealing with 'low-life satire' and the types of character he loved most +of all to paint. But his _Wealth or the Woody_, his _Health_--a poem +addressed to Lord Stair, his _Scribblers Lashed_, _The General Mistake_, +_The Epistle to Lord Ramsay_, and the _Rise and Fall of Stocks in 1720_, +exhibit Ramsay's genius moving in fetters. His touch lacks piquancy and +epigrammatic incisiveness,--lacks, too, that determinate deftness so +characteristic of Horace, as well as those subtle _nuances_ of +double-meaning wherein Pope and Arbuthnot excelled, and of which the +latter's terrible 'Epitaph on Colonel Chartres' is a favourable example. +Ramsay hits with the hammer of Thor, when he should tap as lightly as +'twere reproof administered by a fair one with her fan. Witness his +portrait of Talpo in _Health_--a poem in many respects one of Ramsay's +best. With what airy satiric touches Pope or Gay would have dashed off +the character. Note the laboured strokes wherewith Ramsay produces his +picture-- + + 'But Talpo sighs with matrimonial cares, + His cheeks wear wrinkles, silver grow his hairs, + Before old age his health decays apace, + And very rarely smiles clear up his face. + Talpo's a fool, there's hardly help for that, + He scarcely knows himself what he'd be at. + He's avaricious to the last degree, + And thinks his wife and children make too free + With his dear idol; this creates his pain, + And breeds convulsions in his narrow brain. + He's always startled at approaching fate, + And often jealous of his virtuous mate; + Is ever anxious, shuns his friends to save: + Thus soon he'll fret himself into a grave; + There let him rot'-- + +But Ramsay's distinguishing and saving characteristic in satire was the +breadth and felicity of his humour. To satire, however, humour is less +adapted than wit, and of wit Ramsay had, in a comparative sense, but a +scanty endowment. He was not one of those who could say smart things, +though he could depict a humorous episode or situation as felicitously +as anyone of his age. Like Rabelais, he was a humorist, not a wit, and +his satires suffered accordingly. Perhaps the best of his satires is +_The Last Speech of a Wretched Miser_, wherein his humour becomes +bitingly sardonic. The wretch's address to his pelf is very powerful-- + + 'O dool! and am I forced to dee, + And nae mair my dear siller see, + That glanced sae sweetly in my e'e! + It breaks my heart! + My gold! my bonds! alackanie + That we should part. + + Like Tantalus, I lang have stood, + Chin-deep into a siller flood; + Yet ne'er was able for my blood, + But pain and strife, + To ware ae drap on claiths or food, + To cherish life.' + +Different, indeed, is the case when we come to consider Ramsay as a +song-writer and a lyrist. To him the former title rather than the latter +is best applicable. This is not the place to note the resemblances and +the differences between the French _chanson_, the German _lied_, the +Italian _canzóne_, and the English song or lyric. But as indicating a +distinction between the two last terms, Mr. F. T. Palgrave, in the +introduction to his invaluable _Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics_, +regards a 'lyric' as a poem turning on 'some single thought, feeling, or +situation'; Mr. H. M. Posnett, in his thoughtful volume on _Comparative +Literature_, remarks that the lyric has varied from sacred or magical +hymns and odes of priest bards, only fulfilling their purpose when sung, +and perhaps never consigned to writing at all, down to written +expressions of individual feeling from which all accompaniments of dance +or music have been severed. But approximately defined, a lyric may be +said to be a poem--short, vivid, and expressive of a definite emotion, +appealing more to the eye than with any ultimate view of being set to +music; a song, as a composition appealing more to the ear, wherein the +sentiments are more leisurely expressed, with the intention of being +accompanied by music. Mr. E. H. Stoddard, in the preface to his _English +Madrigals_, defines a lyric 'as a simple, unstudied expression of +thought, sentiment, or passion; a song, its expression according to the +mode of the day.' The essence of a lyric is point, grace, and symmetry; +of a song, fluency, freedom, and the expression of sympathetic emotions. + +Ramsay, according to this basis of distinction, was, as has been said, +rather a song-writer than a lyrist. The works of Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, abound in lyrics, but +contain comparatively few songs, in the modern sense of the word, in +which we speak of the songs of Burns, Moore, and Barry Cornwall. Ramsay, +in his songs, sacrificed everything to mode. In nine cases out of ten he +had the tune for the song in his mind when he was writing the words. In +Scotland, as is well known, there is an immense body of music, some of +it ancient, some of it comparatively modern, though none of it much +later than the Restoration. That was the mine wherein Ramsay dug long +and deep for the music for his _Tea-Table Miscellany_. To those ancient +tunes he supplied words--words that to this day remain as a memorial of +the skill and sympathy wherewith he wedded the spirit of the melodies to +language in keeping with their national character. + +To a _soupçon_ of diffuseness the poet must, however, plead +guilty--guilty, moreover, because of the invincible temptation to pad +out a line now and then 'for crambo's sake' when the ideas ran short. +Ramsay possessed all the qualities constituting a song-writer of great +and varied genius. His work exhibits ease and elasticity of rhythm, +liquid smoothness of assonance, sympathetic beauty of thought, with +subtle skill in wedding sense to sound. Though his verse lacked the +dainty finish of Herrick and Waller, the brilliant facet-like sparkle of +Carew, Suckling, and Lovelace, the tender grace of Sedley, and the +half-cynical, half-regretful, but wholly piquant epicureanism, of +Rochester and Denham, yet Ramsay had a charm all his own. Witness the +'Lass o' Patie's Mill'; is it not entirely _sui generis_? + + 'The lass o' Patie's Mill, + So bonny, blythe, and gay, + In spite of all my skill, + She stole my heart away. + When tedding of the hay, + Bareheaded on the green, + Love midst her locks did play, + And wantoned in her een. + + Her arms, white, round, and smooth, + Breasts rising in their dawn, + To age it would give youth + To press 'em with his hand + Thro' all my spirits ran + An ecstasy of bliss + When I such sweetness fan' + Wrapt in a balmy kiss. + + Without the help of art, + Like flowers that grace the wild, + She did her sweets impart + Whene'er she spoke or smil'd. + Her looks they were so mild, + Free from affected pride, + She me to love beguiled, + I wished her for my bride.' + +Take also 'Bessy Bell and Mary Gray'; what a rich fancy and charming +humour plays throughout the piece, united to a keen knowledge of the +human heart-- + + 'O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, + They are twa bonny lasses; + They bigg'd a bower on yon burnbrae, + And theek'd it o'er with rashes. + Fair Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen, + And thought I ne'er could alter; + But Mary Gray's twa pawky e'en, + They gar my fancy falter,' + +or that verse in his 'Scots Cantata,' with what simplicity, yet with +what true pathos, is it not charged?-- + + 'O bonny lassie, since 'tis sae, + That I'm despised by thee, + I hate to live; but O, I'm wae, + And unco sweer to dee. + Dear Jeany, think what dowy hours + I thole by your disdain: + Why should a breast sae saft as yours + Contain a heart of stane?' + +George Withers' famous lines, 'Shall I, wasting in despaire,' are not a +whit more pathetic. Then if we desire humour pure and unadulterated, +where can be found a more delightful _lilt_ than 'The Widow'? + + 'The widow can bake, and the widow can brew, + The widow can shape, and the widow can sew,[3] + And mony braw things the widow can do,-- + Then have at the widow, my laddie.' + + +Or if you affect a dash of satire in your songs, what more to your taste +than-- + + 'Gi'e me a lass wi' a lump o' land, + And we for life shall gang thegither, + Though daft or wise I'll ne'er demand, + Or black or fair it maks na whether. + I'm aff wi' wit, and beauty will fade, + And blood alane is no worth a shilling; + But she that's rich, her market's made, + For ilka charm aboot her's killing.' + +Or if the reader desire the wells of his deepest sympathies to be +stirred, what more truly pathetic than his 'Auld Lang Syne,' which +supplied Burns with many of the ideas for his immortal song; or his +version of 'Lochaber No More'-- + + 'Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell my Jean, + Where heartsome wi' thee I've mony day been; + For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more, + We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more,' + +--a song than which to this day few are more popular among Scotsmen. As +a song-writer Ramsay appeals to all natures and all temperaments. He was +almost entirely free from the vice of poetic conventionality. He wrote +what seemed to him best, undeterred by the dread of offending against +poetic canons, or the principles of this, that, or the other school of +poetry. He was a natural singer, not one formed by art--a singer, +voicing his patriotic enthusiasm in many a lay, that for warmth of +national feeling, for intense love of his species, for passionate +expression of the tenderer emotions, is little behind the best of the +songs of Robert Burns. Granted that his was not the power to sweep, +like Burns, or Béranger, or Heine, with masterful hand over the entire +gamut of human passions; that to him was not given, as to them, the +supremely keen insight into the workings of the human heart, and the +magical witchery of wedding sense to sound so indissolubly, that alter +but a word in the texture of the lines and the poem is ruined. Yet, in +his province, Ramsay was dowered with a gift but little less notable, +that of portraying so faithfully the natural beauties of his country, +and the special characteristics of his countrymen, that, in a greater +degree even than Burns,--were Ramsay's songs only recognised as his, in +place of being ascribed to others,--he has a right to the proud title of +Scotland's national song-writer. Not for a moment do I seek to place +Ramsay on a pedestal co-equal with Burns--that were an error worse than +folly; not for a moment do I seek to detract from the transcendent merit +of our great national poet. But though I do not rate Burns the less, I +value Ramsay the more, when I say that, had there been no Ramsay there +might have been no Burns nor any Fergusson--at least, the genius of the +two last named poets would not have found an adequate vehicle of +expression lying readymade to their hand. Ramsay it was who virtually +rendered the Scots vernacular a possible medium for the use of Burns; +and this service, unconsciously rendered by the lesser genius to the +greater, is generously acknowledged by the latter, who could not but be +aware that, as his own star waxed higher and yet higher from the horizon +line of popularity, that of his elder rival waned more and more. +Therefore his noble panegyric on Ramsay is but a tribute to his 'father +in song'-- + + 'Thou paints auld nature to the nines, + In thy sweet Caledonian lines; + Nae gowden stream through myrtle twines, + Where Philomel, + While nightly breezes sweep the vines, + Her griefs will tell. + + In gowany glens thy burnie strays, + Where bonnie lassies bleach their claes; + Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes, + Wi' hawthorns gray, + Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays + At close o' day. + + Thy rural loves are nature's sel'; + Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell; + Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell + O' witchin' love, + That charm that can the strongest quell, + The sternest move.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Pronounced in Scots, _shoo_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION + + +Our survey is now drawing to a close. To say a word upon those +miscellaneous poems that do not fall naturally into any convenient +category for classification is all that remains to be done. + +Already attention has been called to the poem on _Content_, when its +purpose was sketched. Though containing many passages of no little power +and beauty, yet as a whole it is heavy and uninteresting. Written during +the time when the glamour of Pope's influence was upon Ramsay, it +exhibits many of Pope's faults without his redeeming features. True, the +characters are drawn with great vigour and distinctive individuality, +but the trail of dulness lies over it, and _Content_ slumbers, with +James Thomson's _chef d'oeuvre_ on _Liberty_, on the top shelf amongst +the spiders. The description of the palace of the goddess Content has, +however, often been praised for its vigorous scene-painting-- + + 'Amidst the glade the sacred palace stood, + The architecture not so fine as good; + Nor scrimp, nor gousty, regular and plain, + Plain were the columns which the roof sustain; + An easy greatness in the whole was found, + Where all that nature wanted did abound: + But here no beds are screen'd with rich brocade, + Nor fuel logs in silver grates are laid; + Nor broken China bowls disturb the joy + Of waiting handmaid, or the running boy; + Nor in the cupboard heaps of plate are rang'd, + To be with each splenetic fashion changed.' + +_The Prospect of Plenty_ is another poem wherein Ramsay allows his +reasoning powers to run away with him. As Chalmers remarks: 'To the +chimerical hopes of inexhaustible riches from the project of the South +Sea bubble, the poet now opposes the certain prospect of national wealth +from the prosecution of the fisheries in the North Sea--thus judiciously +pointing the attention of his countrymen to the solid fruits of patient +industry, and contrasting these with the airy projects of idle +speculation.' The poem points out that of industry the certain +consequence is plenty, a gradual enlargement of all the comforts of +society, the advancement of the useful, and the encouragement of the +elegant arts, the cultivation of talents, the refinement of manners, the +increase of population--all that contributes either to national +prosperity or to the rational enjoyments of life. The composition and +structure of the poem are less deserving of encomium than the wisdom of +its precepts. Like _Content_, it is tedious and dull, yet there is one +vigorous passage in it, beginning: 'A slothful pride! a kingdom's +greatest curse,' and dealing with the evils arising from the separation +of the classes, which has often been quoted. Nor must we forget _The +Vision_, which in the opinion of many must rank amongst the best of +Ramsay's productions. Published originally in the _Evergreen_, over the +initials 'A. R. Scot,' for some time it was believed to be the work of a +Scots poet, Alexander Scott, who lived in the reign of Queen Mary. But +Janet Ramsay put the matter beyond a doubt before her death by declaring +the poem to have been written by her father. The merits of _The Vision_ +are considerable. The language is majestic and dignified, the ideas +lofty, and the characters drawn with vigour and precision. Had the +spelling not been so archaic, the poem would have been much more popular +than it is. + +For Horace, Ramsay always professed a deep admiration. Upon the style of +the great Roman satirist he sought to model his 'Epistles,' which +undoubtedly deserve something more than mere passing mention. In them +Ramsay endeavours to give the friend, whom at the moment he addresses, a +glimpse into the pursuits with which, for the time being, he was +occupying himself. Taking this for his text, he digresses into apt and +amusing dissertations on any subject of public, municipal, or social +interest that might be engrossing the attention of the town. His +epistles to Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to James Arbuckle, to the Earl of +Dalhousie, to Mr. Aikman, to Sir W. Bennet, to William Starrat, to +Joseph Burchet, to Somerville the poet, to Gay, to Clerk of Penicuik, +and others, are altogether delightful--happy, cheery, humorous, gossipy +productions, neither too full of fun to be frivolous, nor too didactic +to be tiresome. Take, for example, his epistle to Robert Yarde of +Devonshire,--how apt are his allusions, how racy his tit-bits of local +news! He addresses the epistle + + 'Frae northern mountains clad with snaw, + Where whistling winds incessant blaw, + In time now when the curling-stane, + Slides murm'ring o'er the icy plain'; + +and he asks his correspondent how, under these conditions, + + 'What sprightly tale in verse can Yarde + Expect frae a cauld Scottish bard, + With brose and bannocks poorly fed, + In hodden gray right hashly clad, + Skelping o'er frozen hags with pingle, + Picking up peats to beet his ingle, + While sleet that freezes as it fa's, + Theeks as with glass the divot wa's + Of a laigh hut, where sax thegither + Lie heads and thraws on craps of heather?' + +--this being a humorous allusion to the prevalent idea in England at the +time, that the Scots were only a little better off than the savages of +the South Seas. + +Finally, in his translations, or rather paraphrases, from Horace, Ramsay +was exceedingly happy. He made no pretensions to accuracy in his +rendering of the precise words of the text. While preserving an +approximation to the ideas of his original, he changes the local +atmosphere and scene, and applies Horace's lines to the district around +Edinburgh, wherewith he was so familiar. With rare skill this is +achieved; and while any lover of Horace can easily follow the ideas of +the original, the non-classical reader is brought face to face with +associations drawn from his own land as illustrative, by comparison and +contrast, of the text of the great Roman. Few could have executed the +task with greater truth; fewer still with more felicity. Already I have +cited a portion of Ramsay's rendering of Horace's famous Ode, _Vides ut +alta stet nive candidum Soracte_. There are two other stanzas well +worthy of quotation. Ramsay's rendering of the famous _Carpe diem_, +etc., passage is all I have space for-- + + 'Let neist day come as it thinks fit, + The present minute's only ours; + On pleasure let's employ our wit, + And laugh at fortune's feckless powers.' + +Reference has also been made to his apt translation of the ideas +contained in Horace's 1st Ode to Maecenas, by making them express his +own feelings towards Lord Dalhousie. Two of his aptest renderings of the +original, however, were those of Horace's 18th Ode to Quintilius Varus +(_Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem_), which our poet +renders-- + + 'O Binny, cou'd thae fields o' thine + Bear, as in Gaul, the juicy vine, + How sweet the bonny grape wad shine + On wa's where now + Your apricock and peaches fine + Their branches bow. + + Since human life is but a blink, + Then why should we its short joys sink; + He disna live that canna link + The glass about; + Whan warm'd wi' wine, like men we think, + An' grow mair stout.' + +The 31st Ode (B. 1.) to Apollo is thus felicitously rendered-- + + 'Frae great Apollo, poets say, + What would'st thou wish, what wadst thou hae + Whan thou bows at his shrine? + Not Carse o' Gowrie's fertile field, + Nor a' the flocks the Grampians yield + That are baith sleek and fine; + Not costly things, brocht frae afar, + As iv'ry, pearl and gems; + Nor those fair straths that watered are + Wi' Tay an' Tweed's smooth streams. + Which gentily and daintily + Eat down the flow'ry braes, + As greatly and quietly + They wimple to the seas.' + +Ramsay had the misfortune never to have studied the _technique_ of his +art, so that in no respect is he a master of rhythm. The majority of his +longer poems, including _The Gentle Shepherd_, are written in the +ordinary heroic measure, so popular last century because so easily +manipulated. His songs for the most part are written in familiar metres, +not calculated to puzzle any bonny singing Bess as she danced and lilted +on the village green. As a metrist, therefore, Ramsay can claim little +or no attention. His poetry was the spontaneous ebullition of his own +feelings, and for their expression he seized upon the first measure that +came to hand. + +Such, then, is Ramsay! In his matchless pastoral he will ever live in +the hearts of Scotsmen; and were proof needed, it would be found in the +increasing numbers of pilgrims who year by year journey to Carlops to +visit the scenes amongst which Peggy lived and loved. To any one save +the historian and the antiquarian, the remainder of his poetry may now +be of little value,--probably of none,--amidst the multifarious +publications which day by day issue from the press. But by Scotsmen the +memory of the gentle, genial, lovable Allan will ever be prized as that +of one who, at a critical time, did more to prevent Scottish national +poetry from being wholly absorbed by the mightier stream of English song +than any other man save Scott. Worthy of such veneration, then, is he, +both as a poet and as a man; and though the extravagant admiration +wherewith he was regarded in his own day, has given place to a soberer +estimate of his rank in the hierarchy of letters, yet Allan Ramsay can +never be held as other than one of the most delightful, if he can no +longer be rated as one of the greatest, of Scottish poets. That his +immortal pastoral can ever be consigned to the limbo of oblivion is as +improbable as that our posterity will forget _Tam o' Shanter_ and the +_Cotter's Saturday Night_. The opinion of Robert Burns regarding the +permanence of his 'poetical forebear's' fame will be cordially endorsed +by every leal-hearted Scot, in whose memory the sturdy manliness of +Patie and the winning beauty of Peggy are everlastingly enshrined-- + + 'Yes! there is ane: a Scottish callan, + There's ane; come forrit, honest Allan, + Thou needna jouk behint the hallan, + A chiel' sae clever: + The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan, + But thou's for ever!' + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY*** + + +******* This file should be named 32642-8.txt or 32642-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/4/32642 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Allan Ramsay</p> +<p> Famous Scots Series</p> +<p>Author: William Henry Oliphant Smeaton</p> +<p>Release Date: June 1, 2010 [eBook #32642]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Susan Skinner<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 59px;"> +<img src="images/spine.jpg" width="59" height="600" alt="Spine" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 394px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="394" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> + +</div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span></p> + + + + + +<h1 style="margin-bottom: 10em;">ALLAN<br /> +RAMSAY</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 341px;"> +<img src="images/title.jpg" width="341" height="600" alt="ALLAN +RAMSAY + +BY + +OLIPHANT +SMEATON + +FAMOUS +SCOTS +SERIES + +PUBLISHED BY +OLIPHANT ANDERSON +& FERRIER EDINBURGH +AND LONDON" title="" /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: x-large;">ALLAN<br /> +RAMSAY</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">BY<br /> +OLIPHANT<br /> +SMEATON</p> + + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">FAMOUS<br /> + +·SCOTS·<br /> +·SERIES·</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +OLIPHANT ANDERSON<br /> +& FERRIER · EDINBURGH<br /> +AND LONDON</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, +and the printing from the press of Messrs. Morrison & Gibb, +Edinburgh.</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class='center'> +TO<br /> +<br /> +DAVID MASSON, LL.D.<br /> +<br /> +EMERITUS-PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE<br /> +IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY<br /> +<br /> +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED<br /> +<br /> +in grateful acknowledgment of kindly encouragement given<br /> +in years long gone by, and of intellectual stimulus<br /> +received from him by his former student<br /> +<br /> +THE AUTHOR<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>Since this Volume was in type, I have received some additional +information which I feel constrained to lay before my readers.</p> + +<p>With reference to the Easy Club, I have been favoured, through the +courtesy of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, with a sight of the complete +Minutes of the Club. From them I observe that Ramsay was one of the +earliest members admitted, and that his song 'Were I but a Prince or +King' was formally presented to the Club after his admission not before, +though its rough draft must have been shown to the members prior to that +event.</p> + +<p>Next, as regards the Editions of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, a valued +correspondent, Mr. J. W. Scott, Dowanhill, Glasgow, kindly calls my +attention to two 'Translations into English' of the Poem which appear to +have hitherto escaped notice. These are '<i>Allan Ramsay's Gentle +Shepherd, translated into English by W. Ward, 8vo, 1785.</i>' Ward, as Mr. +Scott states, seems to have been a 'naturalised Englishman' residing at +Musselburgh. Five years after Ward's production, appeared another, and +in many respects a better Edition, to wit, '<i>The Gentle Shepherd, a +Scotch Pastoral by Allan Ramsay, Attempted in English by Margaret +Turner, London, 1790.</i>' It was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and its +list of Subscribers contains the names of most of the nobility of +Scotland. Is this not a reliable gauge of the popularity of the Poem?</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span><i>, March 1896.</i><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">{7}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="right" colspan="2">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Family Tree</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ramsay's Apprenticeship; a Burgess of the Town—1701-7</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Scotland in the Eighteenth Century; the Union; Ramsay's Marriage—1707-12</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Easy Club; Early Poems; Edinburgh of Last Century—1712-16</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Favourite of the 'Four 'Oors'; from Wigmaker to Bookseller; the Quarto of 1721—1717-21</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ramsay as an Editor: <i>The Tea-Table Miscellany</i> and <i>The Evergreen</i>—1721-25</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_68">68</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">{8}</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap"><i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>; Scottish Idyllic Poetry; Ramsay's Pastorals—1725-30</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Resting on his Laurels; Builds his Theatre; his Book of <i>Scots Proverbs</i>—1730-40</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Closing Years of Life; his House on Castlehill; his Family; his Portraits—1740-58</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ramsay as a Pastoral Poet and an Elegist</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ramsay as a Satirist and a Song-Writer</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ramsay's Miscellaneous Poems; Conclusion</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ALLAN_RAMSAY" id="ALLAN_RAMSAY"></a>ALLAN RAMSAY</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">THE FAMILY TREE</span></h2> + + +<p>'Ye'd better let me gang doon wi' the wig, Miss Kirsty,' said Peggy, the +'serving-lass' in the household of Mr. James Ross, writer, of the +Castlehill.</p> + +<p>'Oh no! I'd as leif take it doon mysel' to Allan Ramsay's, for the sake +o' the walk and the bit crack wi' the canty callant,' replied the young +lady, a blush crimsoning her fair, rounded cheek.</p> + +<p>And Peggy would retire from these periodical but good-humoured +passages-at-arms, with a knowing smile on her face, to confide the fact, +mayhap,—of course as a profound secret,—to her cronies in the same +stair, that Miss Kirsty Ross was 'unco ta'en up wi' that spruce genty +wigmaker, Maister Allan Ramsay, doon ayont the Tron Kirk.'</p> + +<p>Yea! verily, it was a love drama, but as yet only in the first scene of +the first act. The 'Miss Kirsty' of the brief dialogue recorded +above—for the authenticity of which there is abundant evidence—was +Miss Christian Ross, eldest daughter of Mr. James Ross, a lawyer of some +repute in his day, whose practice lay largely in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span> Bailie's and +Sheriff's Courts, and with minor cases in the Justiciary Court, but not +with civil business before the Court of Session, an honour rigorously +reserved for the members of that close Corporation—the Writers to His +Majesty's Signet.</p> + +<p>But though not belonging, in slang phrase, 'to the upper crust' of the +legal fraternity, James Ross was a man of some social consideration. +Though he appears to have had a strain of the fashionable Pharisee in +him, and to have esteemed gentle birth as covering any multitude of sins +and peccadilloes, he manifested, throughout his intercourse with Ramsay, +certain countervailing virtues that render him dear to the lovers of the +poet. He made distinct pretensions to the possession of culture and a +love of <i>belles-lettres</i>. To the best Edinburgh society of the period he +and his had the <i>entrée</i>, while his house in Blair's Close, on the +southern slope of the Castlehill, was the rendezvous for most of the +<i>literati</i> of the city, as well as for the <i>beaux esprits</i> of the Easy +Club, of which he was a member.</p> + +<p>His acquaintance with the young wigmaker—whose sign of the 'Mercury,' +situate in the High Street, or, as the poet himself writes, 'on +Edinburgh's Street the sun-side,' was almost immediately opposite +Niddry's Wynd, and at the head of Halkerston's Wynd, and within sixty +yards of the Tron Church—had originated in the weekly visits paid by +him to Allan's shop for the purpose of getting his wig dressed. While +waiting until this important item in an eighteenth-century gentleman's +toilet was accomplished, he had enjoyed many a 'crack' with the young +craftsman, so shrewd, so witty, so genial, yet withal so industrious. +The man of pleas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span> and precepts discovered him of powder and perukes to +be as deeply interested and, in good sooth, as deeply versed in the +literature of his own land as the lawyer himself. Chance acquaintance +gradually ripened, on both sides, into cordial esteem. James Ross +invited Ramsay to visit him at his house, and there the young +<i>perruquier</i> beheld his fate in Christian, or Kirsty, Ross.</p> + +<p>If Allan were fascinated by Kirsty's rare beauty and piquant +<i>espièglerie</i>, by her sweet imperiousness and the subtle charm of her +refined femininity, exercised on a nature whose previous experience of +the sex had been limited to the bare-legged Amazons of Leadhills or the +rosy-cheeked ministering Hebes, whom the high wages of domestic service +attracted to town; she, in turn, was no less captivated by the manly, +self-possessed demeanour, and the ingratiating qualities, both social +and intellectual, of her father's guest. If he had mingled too little +with society for his manners to be tinged with the polish of the +<i>débonnair</i> gallant, his natural good-breeding and ready tact, united, +it must be confessed, to a not inconsiderable spice of vanity, doubtless +prevented any lapse into those nervous <i>gaucheries</i> wherewith a youth's +first appearance in good society is often accompanied.</p> + +<p>Allan has drawn with truth and graphic power his own portrait as he +appeared at this time—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'<i>Imprimis</i>—then for tallness I<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am five feet and four inches high;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A black-a-vic'd, snod, dapper fellow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor lean, nor overlaid wi' tallow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With phiz of a Morocco cut,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resembling a late man of wit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Auld-gabbet Spec, who was so cunning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be a dummie ten years running.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Then for the fabric of my mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis more to mirth than grief inclined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I rather choose to laugh at folly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than show dislike by melancholy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well judging a sour heavy face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is not the truest mark of grace.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Existing portraits, including the one most valued for its fidelity to +the original, that by his son, Allan Ramsay, the artist +(Portrait-painter in Ordinary to King George III.), show him to have +possessed features that were delicate and sharply chiselled, keen dark +eyes, a mobile, sensitive mouth, a complexion dark almost to +swarthiness, and a high rounded forehead. To these items may be added +those others coming as side-lights, thrown on a man's character and +individuality by the passing references of contemporaries. From such +sources we learn that his face was one whereon were writ large, +contentment with himself and with the world, as well as a certain pawky +shrewdness and unaffected <i>bonhomie</i>. This expression was largely +induced by the twinkling of his beadlike eyes, and the lines of his +mouth, which curved upwards at the corners; almost imperceptibly, it is +true, yet sufficiently to flash into his countenance that subtle element +of humorous <i>canniness</i> which has been accepted by many as the prime +attribute of his character. He may probably have had his own feelings in +view when he makes his Patie say in <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The bees shall loath the flow'r, and quit the hive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The saughs on boggy ground shall cease to thrive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere scornfu' queans, or loss o' warldly gear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall <i>spill</i> my rest, or ever force a tear.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His figure was thickset, but had not as yet acquired the squatness of +later days. If in the years to come he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span> grew to resemble George Eliot's +portrait of Mr. Casson, when the inevitable penalty of sedentariness and +good living has to be paid in increasing corpulence, he never lost his +tripping gait which in early manhood earned for him the <i>sobriquet</i> of +'Denty Allan.' In deportment and dress he was 'easy, trig and neat,' +leaning a little to vanity's side in his manners, yet nathless as +honourable, sound-hearted, clean-souled a gentleman as any that lounged +around Edinburgh Cross of a sunny Saturday afternoon. Such was the youth +that presented himself to bonny Kirsty Ross at her father's tea-table.</p> + +<p>The acquaintance soon expanded into friendship. Before long, as has been +stated, the household observed, not without amusement, that whenever +Saturday came round, on which day James Ross' wig was sent down to +receive its week's dressing from young Ramsay, Kirsty found she needed a +walk, which always seemed to take her past the sign of 'the flying +Mercury,' so that she could hand in the wig and call for it as she +returned. Ah, artful Miss Kirsty! As the idyll progressed, the interim +walk was abandoned, and the fair one found it pleasanter, as she said, +to pass the time in conversation with the young <i>coiffeur</i> as he combed +the paternal wig. The intercourse thus commenced on both sides, more as +a frolic than aught else, speedily led to warmer feelings than those of +friendship being entertained, and in the spring of 1711 Allan Ramsay +asked the daughter of the lawyer to share life's lot with him.</p> + +<p>The lovers were, of course, too well aware of the dissimilarity in their +social stations to hope for any ready acquiescence in their matrimonial +projects by the ambitious Edinburgh lawyer. To win consent, the matter +had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span> be prudently gone about. The position Ramsay's family had held +in the past reckoned for something, it is true, in the problem, but the +real point at issue was, What was the social status of the swain at that +moment? Ah, there was the rub! All very well was it for a +literary-minded lawyer to patronise his wigmaker by inviting him to +drink a dish of tea with his family, or to crack a bottle with him over +Jacobite plots or the latest poems of Swift or Pope; but to give him his +daughter in marriage, that was altogether another question. Mrs. Grundy +was quite as awe-inspiring a dame then as now. James Ross and his spouse +would require to make a careful investigation into the pedigree of the +'mercurial' artist in crinology—to import a trade term of the present +into the staid transactions of the past—before such an alliance could +be thought of. Many and long were the family councils held. Every item +of his descent, his relatives, his character, his prospects, was +discussed, and this is what they discovered.</p> + +<p>Allan Ramsay was born on the 15th of October 1686, in the little town of +Leadhills, situate in the parish of Crawfordmuir, in the upper ward of +Lanarkshire, and in the very heart of the bleak, heathy Lowther hills. +The house wherein he saw the light is now 'a broken-down byre,' +according to Dr. John Brown in <i>Horæ Subsecivæ</i>. Standing, as it does, +1400 feet above the level of the sea, the village is chiefly notable as +being the most elevated inhabited ground in Scotland. The industry of +the district, then as now, was almost entirely devoted to lead-mining. +The superior of the parish was the Earl of Hopetoun, and on his behoof +the mines were wrought. The male population, with but few exceptions, +were in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span> his lordship's service. A more desolate and dreary spot could +scarcely be conceived. The rugged ranges, destitute of wood, were +scarred by the traces of former workings, and intersected, moreover, by +narrow rocky ravines, down which brawled foaming mountain burns. Perched +like an eyrie on some steep cliff, the view from the vicinity of the +town is magnificent, ranging over fair Clydesdale, and the lands +formerly owned by the Earls of Crawford, 'the Lindsays, light and gay,' +whose ancient castle stands on Clydeside.</p> + +<p>In the days of the Stuarts gold used to be found in considerable +quantities in the locality, from which was struck the gold issue bearing +the head of James V., wearing a bonnet; hence the old term for it—a +'bonnet-piece.'</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of the town and district of Leadhills had imbibed in +Ramsay's days something of the stern, forbidding character of the +scenery. The ruggedness of their surroundings had evidently sunk deep +into their temperament,—and ofttimes the teaching of nature in +situations like this is of the most lasting kind. So it was with them. +They were a community apart: gloomily, almost fanatically, religious; +believing in miracles, visions, and in the direct interposition of +Providence,—in a word, carrying to the extreme of bigotry all the grand +attributes of Scottish Presbyterianism and Covenanting sublimity of +motive. They married and gave in marriage among themselves, looking the +while rather askance at strangers as 'orra bodies' from the big world +without, who, because they <i>were</i> strangers, ran a strong chance of +being no better than they should be!</p> + +<p>To this 'out-of-the-way' corner of the planet there was sent, towards +the close of the year 1684, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span> manager of Lord Hopetoun's mines, a gay, +happy-hearted, resourceful young Scotsman, by name Robert Ramsay. The +poet, when detailing his pedigree to the father of his <i>inamorata</i>, had +boasted that he was descended, on the paternal side, from the Ramsays of +Dalhousie (afterwards Earls of that Ilk). Such was literally the case. +Ramsay of Dalhousie had a younger brother, who, from the estate he +held—a small parcel of the ancestral acres—bore a name, or rather an +<i>agnomen</i>, yet to be historic in song, 'The Laird of Cockpen.' Whether +in this case, like his descendant of ballad fame, the said laird was +'proud and great'; whether his mind was 'ta'en up wi' things o' the +State,' history doth not record. Only on one point is it explicit, that, +like his successor, he married a wife, from which union resulted Captain +John Ramsay, whose only claim to remembrance is that he in turn married +Janet Douglas, daughter of Douglas of Muthil, and thus brought the poet +into kinship with yet another distinguished Scottish family. To the +captain and his spouse a son was born, who devoted himself to legal +pursuits, was a writer in Edinburgh, and acted as legal agent for the +Earl of Hopetoun. Through his interest with the earl, Robert Ramsay, his +eldest son, was appointed manager of the lead mines in the Lowther +hills, and set out to assume his new duties towards the close of the +year 1684.</p> + +<p>From this pedigree, therefore, the fact is clear of the poet's right to +address William Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie, in terms imitated from +Horace's famous Ode to Maecenas—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Dalhousie, of an auld descent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My chief, my stoup, my ornament.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>But to our narrative. Apparently the young mine-manager found the lines +of his life by no means cast in pleasant places amid the rough +semi-savage community of Leadhills in those days. He felt himself a +stranger in a strange land. To better his lot, though he was still very +young, he determined to marry. The only family with which he could hold +intercourse on terms of equality, was that of William Bower, an English +mineralogist who had been brought from Derbyshire, to instruct the +Scottish miners more fully in the best methods then known for extracting +the metal from the refractory matrix. But to Robert Ramsay the chief +attraction in the family was the eldest daughter of his colleague, Alice +Bower, a vivacious, high-spirited girl, with a sufficient modicum, we +are told, of the Derbyshire breeziness of nature to render her +invincibly fascinating to the youth. Alone of all those around she +reminded him of the fair dames and damsels of Edinburgh. Therefore he +wooed and won her. Their marriage took place early in January 1686. In +the October of the same year the future poet was born.</p> + +<p>But, alas! happiness was not long to be the portion of the wedded pair. +At the early age of twenty-four Robert Ramsay died, leaving his widow, +as regards this world's gear, but indifferently provided for, and, +moreover, burdened with an infant scarce twelve months old.</p> + +<p>Probably the outlook for the future was so dark that the young widow +shrank from facing it. Be this as it may, we learn that three months +after Robert Ramsay was laid in his grave she married David Crichton, +finding a home for herself and a stepfather for the youthful Allan at +one and the same time. Crichton was a small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span> peasant-proprietor, or +bonnet-laird, of the district. Though not endowed with much wealth, he +seems to have been in fairly comfortable circumstances, realising his +stepson's ideal in after-life, which he put into the mouth of his +Patie—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Much has been written regarding the supposed unhappiness of Ramsay's +boyhood in the household of his step-parent. For such a conclusion there +is not a tittle of evidence. Every recorded fact of their mutual +relations points the other way. David Crichton was evidently a man of +high moral principle and strength of character. Not by a hairbreadth did +he vary the treatment meted out to Allan from that accorded to his own +children by the widow of Robert Ramsay. To the future poet he gave, as +the latter more than once testified, as good an education as the parish +school afforded. That it embraced something more than the 'three R's,' +we have Ramsay's own testimony, direct and indirect—direct in the +admission that he had learned there to read Horace 'faintly in the +original'; indirect in the number and propriety of the classical +allusions in his works. He lived before the era of quotation books and +dictionaries of phrase and fable,—the hourly godsend of the +penny-a-liner; but the felicity of his references is unquestionable, and +shows an acquaintance with Latin and English literature both wide and +intimate. At anyrate, his scholastic training was sufficiently catholic +to imbue his mind with a reverence for the masterpieces in both +languages, and to enable him to consort in after years, on terms of +perfect literary equality, with the lawyers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span> and the <i>beaux esprits</i> of +witty Edinburgh, such as Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Webster, and Lord Elibank.</p> + +<p>Until his migration to the Scottish capital, at the age of fifteen, +Ramsay was employed, during his spare hours, in assisting his stepfather +in the work of the farm. The intimate acquaintance he displays in his +pastoral with the life and lot of the peasant-farmer, was the result of +his early years of rural labour among the Lowther hills. That they were +years of hardship, and a struggle at hand-grips with poverty, goes +without the saying. The land around the Lowthers was not of such a +quality as to render the bonnet-laird's exchequer a full one. As a +shepherd, therefore, young Ramsay had to earn hardly the bread he ate at +his stepfather's table. The references to his vocation are numerous in +his poems. In his Epistle to his friend William Starrat, teacher of +mathematics at Straban in Ireland, he adverts to his early life—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When speeling up the hill, the dog-days' heat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gars a young thirsty shepherd pant and sweat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I own 'tis cauld encouragement to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When round ane's lugs the blattran hailstanes ring;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But feckfu' fouk can front the bauldest wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And slunk through muirs, an' never fash their mind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aft hae I wade through glens wi' chorking feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When neither plaid nor kilt could fend the weet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet blythly wad I bang out o'er the brae,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stend o'er burns as light as ony rae,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hoping the morn might prove a better day.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The boy, meantime, must have been photographing on the retentive +negatives of his mind the varied scenes of rural life, the labours +incidental to the alternating seasons, which he was to employ with +effect so rare in his inimitable pastoral. During the winter months, +when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span> the snow lay deep on hill and glen, over scaur and cleugh among +the lonely Lowthers, when the flocks were 'faulded' and the 'kye' housed +in the warm byres, when the furious blasts, storming at window and door, +and the deadly nipping frost, rendered labour outside impracticable, +doubtless in David Crichton's household, as elsewhere over broad +Scotland, the custom prevailed of sitting within the <i>lum-cheek</i> of the +cavernous fireplaces, or around the <i>ingle-neuk</i>, and reciting those +ancient ballads of the land's elder life, that had been handed down from +True Thomas and the border minstrels; or narrating those tales of moving +accidents by flood or field, of grim gramarye, and of the mysterious +sights and sounds of other days, whose memory floated down the stream of +popular tradition from age to age. In days when books were so costly as +to be little more than the luxury of the rich, the art of the fireside +rhapsodist was held in a repute scarcely less high, than in that epoch +which may justly be styled the period of Grecian romance—the days of +'the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.' At that spring there is +abundant evidence that young Allan Ramsay had drunk deep.</p> + +<p>To another well, also, of genuine inspiration he must by this time have +repaired—that of our native Scottish literature. Though some years had +yet to elapse before he could read Hamilton of Gilbertfield's poem, the +'Dying Words of Bonnie Heck,' which he afterwards praised as stimulating +him into emulation, there is little doubt he had already caught some +faint echoes of that glorious period in Scottish literature, which may +be said to have lasted from the return of the poet-king (James I.) in +1424, from his captivity in England, to the death of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span> Drummond of +Hawthornden in 1649. Without taking account of Barbour's <i>Bruce</i> and +Blind Harry's <i>Wallace</i>, which partake more of the character of rhyming +chronicles than poems,—though relieved here and there by passages of +genuine poetic fire, such as the familiar one in the former, beginning—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ah! fredome is a nobill thynge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fredome maks men to haiff liking,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—the literary firmament that is starred at the period in question with +such names as King James I., Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Walter +Kennedy, Gavin Douglas, Sir David Lyndsay, Alexander Montgomery, William +Alexander (Earl of Stirling), Sir Robert Ayton, Robert Sempill, and +Drummond of Hawthornden, need not fear comparison with the contemporary +poetry of the sister land. The greatest name in the list, that of +William Dunbar, was undoubtedly the leading singer of his age in the +British Isles, but inacquaintance with his works has prevented his +genius obtaining that recognition it deserves. Sir Walter Scott +considered Dunbar in most qualities the peer, in some the superior, of +Chaucer, and his opinion will be endorsed by all those who are able to +read Dunbar with enjoyment. Though Spenser's genius may have had a +richer efflorescence than Dunbar's, if the mass of their work be +critically weighed, quality by quality, the balance, when struck, would +rest remarkably evenly between them. Drummond of Hawthornden is perhaps +the most richly-gifted writer in early Scottish literature, as an +all-round man of letters. But as a poet the palm must ever remain with +Dunbar.</p> + +<p>The study of the breaks which occur in the poetic succession of any +literature is always interesting. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span> English literature such gaps +recur, though not with any definite regularity—for example, after the +death of Chaucer and Gower, when the prosaic numbers of Occleve and +Lydgate were the sole representatives of England's imaginative +pre-eminence; and the penultimate and ultimate decades of last century, +when Hayley was regarded as their acknowledged master by the younger +school of poets. In Scotland, it is to be noted, as Sir George Douglas +points out in his standard work, <i>Minor Scottish Poets</i>, that from 1617, +the date of the publication of Drummond's <i>Forth Feasting</i>, until 1721, +when Ramsay's first volume saw the light, no singer even of mediocre +power appeared in Scotland.</p> + +<p>There were editions of many of the poems of James I., Dunbar, Stirling, +Drummond, and Sempill, which Ramsay may have seen. But he was more +likely to have gained the knowledge we know he possessed of the early +literature of his country from the recitals by fireside <i>raconteurs</i>, +and from the printed sheets, or <i>broadsides</i>, hawked about the rural +districts of Scotland during the closing decades of the seventeenth and +the initial ones of the eighteenth centuries. From specimens of these +which I have seen, it is evident that Henryson's <i>Robene and Makyn</i>, +Dunbar's <i>Merle and the Nightingale</i> and the <i>Thistle and the Rose</i>, +with several of Drummond's and Stirling's poems, were circulated in this +way, thus becoming familiarly known in rural districts where the volumes +of these authors never could have penetrated. On these <i>broadsides</i>, +then, it must have been that the dormant poetical gifts of the youthful +Ramsay were fed, and in after years he showed his liking for this form +of publication by issuing his own earlier poems in the same way.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">HIS APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN—1701-7</span></h2> + + +<p>As much, perhaps, to obtain release from employment so laborious as that +on the farm, as from a desire to be independent, young Ramsay consented +to his stepfather's proposal that he should be apprenticed to a wigmaker +in Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>It has been urged, in proof of Crichton's harshness to his stepson, that +Ramsay, after he left Leadhills in 1700, never seems to have had any +further intercourse with them. Not so much as a chance reference in a +letter reveals that he ever had any future dealings with the Crichton +family. But this is not to be wondered at. The fact of the death of his +mother in 1700 does not wholly explain the matter, I admit. But we need +only recall the exclusive character previously attributed to the people +of Leadhills, their antipathy to any intrusion upon them by strangers of +any kind, to understand the case. They were a type of Scottish Essenes, +a close community, akin to the fisher-communities of Newhaven and +Fisherrow, with their distinctive customs, traditions, and prejudices. +For a gay young Edinburgh spark such as Ramsay, fond of fine clothes, +with a strong spice of vanity and egotism in his nature, to sojourn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span> +amongst the <i>dour</i>, stolid, phlegmatic miners, would have been to foster +the development of asperities on both sides, calculated to break off all +further intercourse. Met they may have, and parted on the terms we +surmise, but of such meeting no hint was ever dropped, and a veil of +separation drops between the household at Crawfordmuir and the young +Jacob who thus was sent forth, from the shadow of what was to him the +paternal roof, to war with the world at his own charges. That David +Crichton had done his duty nobly by the lad was evident; but other +children were shooting up to youth's estate, and when the elder bird was +full fledged, it must e'en take its flight from the parent nest to make +room for others.</p> + +<p>There is another view of the case not so creditable to the future poet, +but still within the range of possibility—that the scion of the house +of Ramsay, whose anxiety to let the world know he was of gentle lineage +was so chronic, may have felt himself a cut above the children of the +bonnet-lairdie. Ramsay's nature was not one wherein the finer sympathies +and delicate regard for the feelings of others were mortised into a +sturdy independence and a desire to carve his fortunes out of the block +of favouring opportunity. From start to finish of his career a subtle +egoism, born of his lonely situation in life and fostered by his +inordinate vanity, was his distinguishing trait. Generous acts he did, +benevolent and kindly on numerous occasions he undoubtedly was, but his +charity was not altruism. He was not the man to deny himself for the +good of others.</p> + +<p>Henceforth Edinburgh was to be Ramsay's life's home. He was enrolled as +an apprentice early in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span> January 1701. Although, as an apprentice, he was +obliged to undertake duties distinctly domestic and menial,—for, in +those days of strict social and ecclesiastical discipline, a master was +expected to discharge towards those indentured to him much that +appertains solely to the province of the parent,—still, there would be +many spare hours wherein he would be free to devote himself to such +pursuits as his taste led him.</p> + +<p>What induced him to select wig-making as his life's <i>métier</i> is unknown. +Perhaps his stepfather may have had some friend in that line of business +who for 'auld lang syne' was willing to take the boy and teach him his +trade. There is, of course, the other side of the question to be taken +into account, that the work did not demand much bodily strength for its +successful prosecution, and that it was cleanly, neat, and artistic. The +recent development of the art of the <i>coiffeur</i> in France, in +consequence of the attempts of Louis XIV. to conceal his natural defects +of diminutive stature and a phenomenally small head,—defects impairing +the effect of that majestic mien which the pupil of Mazarin so +persistently cultivated,—had spread into England, and thence into +Scotland. The enormous periwigs rendered fashionable by <i>Le Grand +Monarque</i> admitted of a variety of artistic treatment. The heyday of +wig-making may therefore be said to have extended over at least the +greater part of Ramsay's career in this branch of trade, and in his day +the poet was reckoned the most ingenious of Edinburgh <i>perruquiers</i>.</p> + +<p>Another consideration probably influenced him in his choice to proceed +to Edinburgh. The change to lighter labour would enable him to filch +from hours allocated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span> to sleep precious moments for private reading, +which the arduous nature of his employment at Crawfordmuir had +prevented. Besides, he was in a 'city of books'—books only waiting to +be utilised. That he did take advantage of his opportunities during his +apprenticeship, and that it was at this period that the poetic instinct +in him took fire, on coming in contact with the electric genius of +Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and other master-minds of English +literature, is a fact to which he refers more than once in his poems.</p> + +<p>From 1701-7,—in other words, from his fifteenth to his twenty-first +year,—while he was serving his apprenticeship, there is a gap in the +continuity of the records we have of the poet; a <i>lacuna</i> all the more +regrettable as these were the true germing years of his genius. Of the +name of his trade-master, of the spot where the shop of the latter was +situated, of his friends at that time, of his pursuits, his amusements, +his studies, we know little, save what can be gathered from chance +references in after-life. That they were busy years as regards his trade +is certain from the success he achieved in it; and that Ramsay was +neither a lazy, thriftless, shiftless, or vicious apprentice his after +career effectually proves. That they were happy years, if busy, may, I +think, be accepted as tolerably certain, for the native gaiety and +hilarity of his temperament underwent no abatement. Whether or not his +fashionable Edinburgh relatives took any notice of him, whether he was a +guest at his grandfather, the lawyer's house, or whether the latter and +his family, hidebound by Edinburgh social restrictions, found it +necessary to ignore a Ramsay who soiled his fingers with trade, is +unknown. Probably not,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span> for it is matter of tradition that it was the +fact of his family connections which weighed with Writer Ross in +consenting to the union of his daughter with a tradesman.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1707 Allan Ramsay received back his indentures, signed +and sealed, with the intimation from the ancient and honourable +'Incorporation of Wigmakers' that he was free of the craft. He appears +almost immediately thereafter to have commenced business on his own +account in the Grassmarket, being admitted at the same time, in virtue +of being a craftsman of the town, a burgess of the City of Edinburgh. +Though no trace can be found that the wigmakers ranked amongst the +forty-two incorporated Societies or Guilds of the city (for their name +does not appear), that they must have enjoyed the same privileges as the +other trades, is evident from the fact of Ramsay being enrolled as a +burgess, the moment he had completed his apprenticeship.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; RAMSAY'S MARRIAGE—1707-12</span></h2> + + +<p>An important stage in Allan Ramsay's life's journey had now been +reached. He was of age, he was a burgess of the town, he was a member, +or free, of one of the most influential of the Crafts, or Guilds, in the +capital, but, greatest step of all, he had started in business for +himself, and had flung himself, with a sort of fierce determination to +succeed, into that hand-to-hand fight with fortune for the sustenance of +life, from which each of us emerges either made or marred.</p> + +<p>At a time when all the youthful Ramsay's faculties were beginning to be +strung to their utmost tension of achievement, strange would it have +been if that of observation were not as eagerly exercised.</p> + +<p>Scotland in general, and Edinburgh in particular, were at this period in +the throes of a new political birth. The epoch of transition commenced +in 1707, and ended only when the dangers of the repeated rebellions of +1715 and 1745 showed the supercilious statesmen by the Thames—the +Harleys, the Walpoles, the Pelhams—that conciliation, not intimidation, +was the card to play in binding Scotland to her greater neighbour. A +patriotism that had burned clear and unwavering from the days of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span> +Wallace and Bruce to those of the exiled and discredited Stuarts, was +not to be crushed out by a band of political wirepullers, by whom State +peculation was reduced to an art and parliamentary corruption to a +science.</p> + +<p>Although the ultimate effects of the Union between England and Scotland +were in the highest degree beneficial upon the arts, the commerce, and +the literature of the latter, the proximate results were disastrous in +the extreme; yet the step was imperative. So strained had become the +relations between the two countries, consequent on the jealousy of +English merchants and English politicians, that only two alternatives +were possible—war, or the corporate union of the whole island. Yet in +Scotland the very mention of Union was sufficient to drive the people +into a paroxysm of rage. The religious animosity between the two +countries was as important a factor in producing this feeling as any +other.</p> + +<p>English churchmen boasted that with any such Union would come the +restoration of Episcopacy north of the Tweed, and the abolition of the +Church of Scotland. The latter retaliated by pushing an Act of Security +through the Scottish Legislature, which demanded an oath to support the +Presbyterian Church in its integrity from every sovereign on his +accession. The Scottish Whigs and the Scottish Jacobites, despite +political differences wide as the poles, joined hands in resistance to +what they considered the funeral obsequies of Scottish nationality. For +a time the horizon looked so lowering that preparations actually were +begun in Scotland to accumulate munitions of war.</p> + +<p>But the genius, the patience, and withal the firmness, of Lord Somers, +the great Whig Richelieu of his time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span> gradually overcame all +difficulties, though he was reduced to wholesale bribery of the Scottish +peers to effect his end. As Green puts it: 'The Scotch proposals of a +federative rather than a legislative Union were set aside by his +firmness: the commercial jealousies of the English traders were put by; +and the Act of Union, as finally passed in 1707, provided that the two +Kingdoms should be united into one under the name of Great Britain, and +that the succession to the crown of this United Kingdom should be ruled +by the provisions of the English Act of Settlement. The Scotch Church +and the Scotch Law were left untouched, but all rights of trade were +thrown open, and a uniform system of coinage adopted.'</p> + +<p>Of all the negotiations for the consummation of the Union, Ramsay, +doubtless, was an interested spectator. Patriotic to his heart's core, +and sympathising as a Jacobite with the chivalrous feeling of his nation +for the dynasty they had given to England, and which, after only +eighty-six years of alternate loyalty and revolt, the Southrons had +driven into exile, the keenly observant lad would follow every detail in +the closing chapter of Scotland's history as an independent nation, with +a pathetic and sorrowful interest. Undoubtedly, while yet an apprentice, +with a few months of his time unexpired, he must have watched the last +observance of that ancient and picturesque spectacle, annually +recurring, but now to be abolished for ever—the 'Riding of the +Parliament,' or the procession of members to the opening of the sittings +in the old Parliament House. Perhaps he may even have secretly gained +admission to overhear the fiery debates on the Union in that ultimate +session of the Scottish legislature. Certainly he must have been one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span> of +the thousands of spectators who day by day thronged the purlieus of the +hall where the national assembly met. Of the rage, brooding and deep, or +loud and outspoken, according to temperament, which prevailed amongst +the Edinburgh people at the mere idea of Union with the hated +'Southrons,' he must have been a witness. Nay, he may have been an +onlooker, if not a participant, in that riot which occurred after all +was over,—after Lord-Chancellor Seafield had uttered his brutal <i>mot</i>, +'There is the end o' an auld sang,' which gathered up for him the gall +of a nation's execration for a century to come; and after the +Commissioners of both nations had retired to sign the Treaty of Union. +Not, however, to any of the halls of Court did they retire, but to a +dingy cellar (still existing) of a house, 177 High Street, opposite the +Tron Church—being nearly torn limb from limb in getting there. Then the +mob, suddenly realising that now or never they must</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>besieged the cellar, intending to execute Jeddart justice or Lynch law +on those they esteemed traitors to their country. Fortunately there was +another means of egress; the party hastily took flight to an arbour in +the garden of Moray House, where the remaining signatures were appended, +and whence all the Commissioners fled post-haste to England, bearing +with them the signed copy of the Treaty.</p> + +<p>That stirring time, so pregnant with mighty issues, a time when the weal +or the woe of the future British Empire trembled in the balance,—for +what of achievement could England alone have accomplished, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span> +Scotland as a hostile neighbour dogging her heels?—must of itself have +been an education to young Ramsay. It both confirmed his patriotism and +widened his political outlook.</p> + +<p>Yet when the play was over, the curtain rung down, and the lights gone +out, the lapse of time must to him, as to other observers of the period, +have driven home with stunning force the conviction that the Union +spelled ruin for Scotland as a nation and Edinburgh as a city. For five +decades to come a listless apathy, born of despair, strangled Scottish +enterprise in its birth. The immediate effect of the Union was a serious +diminution in the national trade and commerce. The jealousy of English +merchants, as it had frustrated the Darien Scheme in the previous +century, now closed every possible avenue of commercial activity for the +renumerative utilisation of Scottish capital. 'We are dying by inches,' +wrote James, Earl of Bute, to a friend. And the signs of the times did +not seem to belie the assertion.</p> + +<p>In Edinburgh, also, the change was severely felt. The removal of the +Court to London, a hundred and four years before, had drawn a large +number of the Scottish nobility to the vortex of fashion. The money they +were wont to spend during their stay in Edinburgh, while the Court +<i>season</i> lasted, was diverted into another channel. The town houses +which they had been forced to maintain in the Scottish metropolis, were +in many cases relinquished, and the place that so long had known them +knew them no more. At that time Scottish merchants and shopkeepers had +suffered severely, yet they had the satisfaction of knowing that the +seat of Scottish government remained north of the Tweed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span></p> + +<p>But now a change even more radical was inaugurated. The national +Parliament, whose sittings had always necessitated the attendance of a +considerable proportion of the nobility and gentry of the country, +during a certain part of the year, was merged in that of the larger +country. Those of the purely Scottish peerage, whom choice or political +duties had retained in Scotland, now found no need to maintain their +costly Edinburgh establishments. Many a noble ancestral home, that for +three or four hundred years had sheltered the household and retainers of +families, whose deeds were interwoven with the historic records of +Scotland's most glorious epochs, was now advertised for sale. An exodus +to London on a vast scale set in, and the capital of Scotland ere long +settled down, in the apathy of despair, to play the <i>rôle</i> of a +provincial centre. Henceforward her 'paper lords,' otherwise Judges of +the Court of Session, were to represent her titled magnates.</p> + +<p>The bitterness of spirit which such a course of action as this migration +inspired in the minds of the residents of the Scottish capital, Ramsay, +as a young journeyman, or as a master craftsman who had only newly +commenced business for himself, would fervently reciprocate. In two +places at least in his works he pathetically, yet vigorously, protests +against the cream of Scottish youth being sent away out of the country.</p> + +<p>In one of the most suggestively beautiful of his minor pastorals, <i>Betty +and Kate</i>, he thus writes—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Far, far, o'er far frae Spey an' Clyde,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Stands that great town o' Lud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whilk our best lads rin an' ride,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That's like to put us wud [mad];<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span> +<span class="i0">For sindle times they e'er come back<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Wha anes are heftit there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sure, Bess, thae hills are nae sae black,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nor yet thir [these] howms sae bare.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And in <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, after the discovery has been made of +Patie's noble birth, his fellow-herd, Roger, remarks—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Is not our master an' yoursell to stay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amang us here? or, are ye gawn away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To London Court, or ither far aff parts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To leave your ain poor us wi' broken hearts?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The five intercalary years between Ramsay's commencing in business on +his own account and his marriage, were those which may properly be +designated his intellectual seedtime. That he was exercised over any of +the deeper and more complex problems of life, death and futurity; that +he was hagridden by doubt, or appalled by the vision of man's motelike +finitude when viewed against the deep background of infinity and +eternity, we have no reason to suppose. Never at any epoch of his life a +'thinker,' in the true sense of the word, he was inclined, with the +genial insouciant Hedonism always characteristic of him, to slip +contentedly into the Pantheism of Pope, to regard humanity and the world +without as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">——'but parts of a stupendous whole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose body nature is, and God the soul,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—the superficial, ethical principle permeating which is summed up in +the dictum, <i>Whatever is, is right</i>. Though he had no sympathy with the +Puritanic austerity of Presbyterianism, albeit a regular attendant on +the ministrations of Dr. Webster of the Tolbooth Church, one of the +sections whereinto the magnificent cathedral of St. Giles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span> was of old +divided, he was tinctured neither with French scepticism nor with the +fashionable doubts which the earlier deistical writers of the century, +Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, Toland, and Blount, were sowing +broadcast over Great Britain. In his <i>Gentle Shepherd</i> he makes Jenny, +when Glaud, her father, had remarked, with respect to the prevailing +disregard of religion and morality among the youth of the better +classes,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">——'I've heard mysell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some o' them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>make the following reply, which savours strongly of the slippered +orthodoxy of <i>The Essay on Man</i>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Watch o'er us, father! hech, that's very odd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sure, him that doubts a doomsday, doubts a God.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But though he appears to have given a wide berth to the ponderous +theology, the narrow ethics, and the hair-splitting metaphysics of the +time, his whole nature seems to have been stirred and awakened more +deeply than ever by his study of the elder poets in English literature. +Not that their music tended to make him discontented with his lot, or +unhinged the lid of his resolution to become a thoroughly efficient man +of business. Ramsay, unlike many of his brethren of the lyre, was of an +eminently practical temperament. Rumour says that in earlier boyhood he +cherished a desire of becoming an artist. But his stepfather not +possessing the means to furnish him with the necessary training, he +wisely sloughed all such unreasonable dreams, and aimed at independence +through wig-making.</p> + +<p>Wisdom as commendable was displayed now. Though his studies must have +kindled poetic emulation in him;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span> though the vague unexpressed longings +of a richly-gifted nature were doubtless daily present with him, no +thought ever seems to have entered his mind of relinquishing trade for +poetry. On his ambition, also, he kept a steady curb, determining to +publish nothing but what his more matured judgment would approve. Not to +him in after years would the regret come that he had cursed his fame by +immaturity.</p> + +<p>From 1707 until 1711, during the dreary depression of the time +immediately succeeding the Union, when Scotsmen preferred apathy to +action, Ramsay sought surcease from his pangs of wounded patriotism by +plunging into studies of various kinds, but principally of English +poetry. In a letter, hitherto unpublished, addressed to his friend +Andrew Gibb, who appears to have resided at or near West Linton, he +remarks: 'I have rowth of good reading to wile my heart from grieving +o'er what cannot be mended now,—the sale o' our unhappy country to the +Southron alliance by a wheen traitors, who thought more o' Lord Somers' +gold than Scotland's rights. In Willie Shakspeare's melodious numbers I +forget the dark days for trade, and in auld Chaucer's Tales, and +Spenser's 'Queen,' in John Milton's majestic flow, in Giles and Phineas +Fletcher, in rare Ben and our ain Drummond, I tine the sorrows o' the +day in the glories o' the days that are past.'</p> + +<p>That we may accept Ramsay's account of the studies of Patie, the Gentle +Shepherd, as a type of his own is warranted by something more than +tradition. The internal evidence of his works throws a strong colour of +probability over the theory. When Sir William Worthy, who as a Royalist +had been compelled to flee into exile during the times of the +Commonwealth, inquires what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span> were the books his son, whom he had +committed to the care of Symon, his shepherd, to be reared as his own +child, was in the habit of reading, the honest old servant replies—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When'er he drives our sheep to Edinburgh port,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He buys some books o' hist'ry, sangs, or sport;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor does he want o' them a rowth at will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And carries aye a poochfu' to the hill.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aboot ane Shakspeare—an' a famous Ben,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He aften speaks, an' ca's them best o' men.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweetly Hawthornden an' Stirling sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' ane ca'd Cowley, loyal to his king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He kens fu' weel, an' gars their verses ring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sometimes thought he made owre great a phrase<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About fine poems, histories, and plays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I reproved him ance, a book he brings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Wi' this," quoth he, "on braes I crack wi' kings."'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By the side-light thrown on Ramsay's life from this passage we gain some +idea of his own studies during those years of germination. To the poets +more exclusively Scottish, whether writing in the current literary +medium of the day or in the vernacular of the country; to Robert +Sempill's <i>Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan</i>; to William +Cleland's <i>Highland Host</i>—in addition to Drummond and the Earl of +Stirling, mentioned in the passage quoted above; to William Hamilton of +Gilbertfield's verses, <i>The Dying Words of Bonnie Heck</i>, and to others +of less note, he seems to have devoted keen and enthusiastic attention. +Lieutenant Hamilton it was (as Ramsay admits in the poetical +correspondence maintained between them) who first awakened within him +the desire to write in the dialect of his country—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When I begoud first to cun verse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span> +<span class="i0">Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">It warm'd my breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then emulation did me pierce,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Whilk since ne'er ceast.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There was, however, another influence at work, quite as potent, +stimulating his poetic fancy. Amid the beauties of the 'Queen of Cities' +he lived, and the charms of his surroundings sank deep into his +impressionable nature. In whatever direction he looked, from the ridgy +heights of the Castlehill, a glorious natural picture met his eye. If to +the north, his gaze caught the gleam of the silvery estuary of the +Forth, with fertile reaches of green pasture-land intervening, and the +little villages of Picardy, Broughton, and Canonmills peeping out from +embosoming foliage, while beyond the silver streak, beautified by the +azure enchantment of distance, glowed in the sunshine the heath-clad +Lomonds and the yellow wealth of the fields of Fife. Did the youthful +poet turn eastward, from yonder favourite lounge of his on Arthur Seat, +the mouth of the noble Firth, dotted with sail, was full in view, with +the shadowy outlines of the May Island, peeping out like a spirit from +the depth of distance, and nearer, the conical elevation of North +Berwick Law and the black-topped precipitous mass of the Bass; while +seemingly lying, in comparison, almost at his feet, was the magnificent +semicircular sweep of Aberlady Bay, with its shore-fringe of whitewashed +villages gleaming like a string of glittering pearls, behind which +stretched the fertile carse of East Lothian, rolling in gently +undulating uplands back to the green Lammermoors. Or if he gazed +southward, did his eye not catch the fair expanse of Midlothian, as +richly cultivated as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span> was richly wooded, extending before him like a +matchless picture, dotted with homesteads, hamlets, and villages, past +Dalkeith—'which all the virtues love,' past Lasswade, past Roslin's +castled rock, past Dryden's groves of oak, past caverned Hawthornden, +until earth and sky seemed to meet in the misty horizon line of the +Moorfoots? And westward, was not the eye guided by the grassy grandeur +of the Pentland Range, until beauty was merged in indefiniteness across +the wide strath lying like a painted scroll from Edinburgh to +Linlithgow?</p> + +<p>Fairer scene never nurtured poet in 'the fine frenzy of his art'; and in +long excursions during his spare hours, amidst the silent glens and +frowning <i>cleughs</i> of the Pentlands, amidst the romantic scenery +clothing the banks of both the Esks, by Almond's gentle flow, and by the +wimpling waters of the Water of Leith, our Caledonian Theocritus fed his +germing genius on food that was destined to render him at once the +greatest and the most breezily objective of British pastoral poets.</p> + +<p>From 1707 to 1711 thus did Allan Ramsay 'live and learn,'—a youth whose +nature, fired by the memories of Scotland's greatness in years gone by, +already longed to add something of value to the cairn of his country's +literature. Such, too, were the facts of which, at his request, the +worthy lawyer, Mr. James Ross, was placed in possession when he was +called on to decide whether his friend, the 'poetically-minded +wigmaker,' should be regarded as a <i>persona grata</i> from the point of +view of a prospective son-in-law. That the 'pedigree' of the young +aspirant was accepted as satisfactory may be regarded as certain from +the fact that the marriage of Allan Ramsay and Christian Ross was +celebrated during<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span> the New Year festivities of 1712. A woman, at once of +considerable personal attractions, sound common sense and practical +knowledge of the world, a capital housewife withal, and though not +devoid of a certain modicum of literary appreciation, by no means a +blue-stocking, such, in brief, was the lady who for thirty years was to +be the faithful partner of Ramsay's fortunes, rejoicing with him in +success, sympathising with him in reverse—one who merited to the full +the glowing lines wherein he described her. The song of 'Bonny Chirsty' +was written after nearly seven years of wedded life. The sentiments +therein expressed speak better than comment as to the happiness of +Ramsay's marriage. One verse of it may be quoted—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'How sweetly smells the simmer green!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweet taste the peach and cherry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Painting and order please our een,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And claret makes us merry:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But finest colours, fruits, and flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wine, though I be thirsty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lose a' their charms and weaker powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Compared wi' those of Chirsty.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>About a year before his marriage, Ramsay had left the shop in the +Grassmarket, where he had commenced business in 1707, and had +established himself in the High Street in premises already described, +and which exist to this day. There, under his sign of the 'Flying +Mercury,' he toiled and sang, and chatted and cracked jokes with all and +sundry, from sunrise to sunset, his wit and his humour, and, as time +rolled on, his poetic genius, bringing many customers to his shop. +Verily, a sunny-souled man, in whom 'life with its carking cares' could +never extinguish his cheery <i>bonhomie</i> and self-confidence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY—1712-16</span></h2> + + +<p>Ramsay's marriage was the turning-point of his career. To him, as to +every man who realises not alone the moral but the social obligations he +assumes when undertaking the holy charge of rendering a woman's life +happier and brighter than ever before, the responsibilities of his new +relation crystallised into the mould of definite effort the energies +hitherto diffused throughout numberless diverse channels. Seldom has the +philosophy of wedded bliss been more felicitously stated than in his +<i>Advice to Mr. —— on his Marriage</i>. He remarks, as though drawing on +the fund of his own experience—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Alake! poor mortals are not gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And therefore often fall at odds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But little quarrels now and then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are nae great faults 'tween wife and man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These help right often to improve<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His understanding, and her love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If e'er she take the pet, or fret,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be calm, and yet maintain your state;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' smiling ca' her little foolie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Syne wi' a kiss evite a tulzie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This method's ever thought the braver<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than either cuffs or <i>clish-ma-claver</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shows a spirit low an' common<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wi' ill-nature treats a woman.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span> +<span class="i0">They're of a make sae nice and fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They maun be managed wi' some care;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Respect them they'll be kind an' civil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But disregarded, prove the devil.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But for another reason the year 1712 is as interesting to us as students +of his career as it was important to him. In the early months of it he +was introduced to the 'Easy Club,' one of those politico-convivial +societies that sprang into existence early in the century, and were +conspicuous features in the social customs of the period, until its +eighth and ninth decades, when, consequent upon the expansion of the +city north and south, the tavern conviviality of 1740 was succeeded by +the domestic hospitality of 1790.</p> + +<p>At the time of which we write, the capital of Scotland was virtually +represented by the one long street called the High Street, or 'Edinburgh +Street,' which crowned the summit of the ridge extending from the Castle +to Holyrood Palace, the ancient home of the Stuarts. From this main +artery of traffic, smaller veins, in the shape of narrow darksome +closes, branched out, leading to a second artery in the Cowgate, and to +yet a third one in the Grassmarket. During the panic that prevailed +after the Battle of Flodden, a wall of defence was drawn around the +town. By it the area of Edinburgh was grievously circumscribed. Only +what might be termed the heart of the city was included, all lying +beyond falling within the anomalous designation of <i>suburbs</i>. For two +hundred years this seemingly impassable girdle sternly checked the +natural <i>overflow</i> of the city's life. To reside outside the <i>ports</i> or +gates was not only considered dangerous—it was unfashionable. And as +there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span> was not accommodation for a tenth part of the inhabitants in the +houses of two, or at most three, storeys which prevailed about the time +of the Reformation, the architects of the Restoration period commenced +the erection of those towering tenements, or <i>lands</i>,—twelve, fourteen, +and even sixteen storeys high,—for which Edinburgh has been celebrated +among the cities of Europe. Thus the families of the Scottish metropolis +were packed together, one on the top of the other, like herrings in a +barrel, in those quaint old houses, with their grim timber fronts, their +crow-stepped gables and dormer windows, that remain even until to-day to +show us the circumstances under which our fathers lived and loved.</p> + +<p>In circumstances such as these, domestic comfort and the sweet seclusion +of home were out of the question. So criminally overcrowded was the town +that well-born gentlemen and their households were content with two or +three rooms, wherein all the manifold duties of social and domestic life +had to be performed. Robert Chambers, in his charming <i>Traditions of +Edinburgh</i>, relates how the family of Mr. Bruce of Kennet, a leading +lawyer, afterwards raised to the Bench, lived in a house of three rooms +and a kitchen—a parlour, a consulting-room for Mr. Bruce, and a +bedroom. The children, with their maid, had beds laid down for them at +night in their father's room, the housemaid slept under the kitchen +dresser, and the one man-servant was turned at night out of the house. +Even a more striking example of the lack of accommodation was to be +found in connection with the household arrangements of Mr. Kerr, the +eminent goldsmith of Parliament Square, who 'stowed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span> his <i>ménage</i> in a +couple of small rooms above his booth-like shop, plastered against the +wall of St. Giles Church; the nursery and kitchen, however, being in a +cellar under the level of the street, where the children are said to +have rotted off like sheep.... The town was, nevertheless, a funny, +familiar, compact, and not unlikable place. Gentle and semple living +within the compass of a single close, or even a single stair, knew and +took an interest in each other.'</p> + +<p>Such was the kind of home to which Allan Ramsay brought his bride. Two +rooms, with a closet and a kitchen, for many a long year were the extent +of their household accommodation. Such a state of things was not +favourable to the development of the virtues purely domestic. Hence with +Ramsay, as with other men, tavern life was accepted as a substitute for +those comforts the sterner sex could not get at home. As Grant remarks +in his <i>Old and New Edinburgh</i>: 'The slender house accommodation in the +turnpike stairs compelled the use of taverns more than now. There the +high-class advocate received his clients, and the physician his +patients—each practitioner having his peculiar <i>howff</i>. There, too, +gentlemen met in the evening for supper and conversation, without much +expense, a reckoning of a shilling being a high one—so different then +was the value of money and the price of viands.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Logie Robertson, in his graphic and admirable introduction to the +<i>Poems of Allan Ramsay</i> in the Canterbury Series, adds: 'Business +lingered on all over the town to a much later period than is customary +now, but by eight o'clock every booth was deserted and every shop +closed, and the citizens for the most part gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span> themselves up to cheap +conviviality and pastime for the next hour or two. Almost every +tradesman had his favourite place in his favourite tavern, where, night +after night, he cracked a quiet bottle and a canny joke before going +home to his family. It was first business, then friendship; and the +claims of family after that.'</p> + +<p>Out of this general spirit of conviviality arose those numberless Clubs +wherein, upon the convivial stem, were graffed politics, literature, +sport, science, as well as many other pursuits less worthy and less +beneficial. No custom, no usage, no jest, in fact, seemed too trivial to +be seized upon as the pretext to give a colour of excuse for founding a +Club. Some of them were witty, others wise, others degrading. Such +designations as the <i>Cape Club</i>,—so called from doubling the Cape of +Leith Wynd, when half-seas over, to get home to the burgh of Low Calton, +where several of the members lived; the <i>Pious Club</i>, because the +brethren met regularly to consume pies; the <i>Spendthrift Club</i>, because +no <i>habitué</i> was permitted to spend more than <i>fourpence halfpenny</i>, and +others, were harmless in their way, and promoted a cheap <i>bonhomie</i> +without leading the burghers into disgraceful excesses. But the +<i>Hell-fire Club</i>, the <i>Sweating Club</i>, the <i>Dirty Club</i>, and others of a +kindred order, were either founded to afford an opportunity for +indulgence in riot and licence of every kind, or were intended to +encourage habits as disgusting as they were brutal.</p> + +<p>Not to be supposed is it that Ramsay had lived six-and-twenty years of +his life without having practised, and we have no doubt enjoyed, the +widespread conviviality of the period. Hence, though the Easy Club was +the first of the social gatherings wherewith he actually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span> informs us he +was connected, we have no reason to doubt he had been associated with +several of them before. In fact, in that poetical 'Essay' of his which +stands first in the chronological order of composition, though not of +publication, the <i>Elegy on Maggy Johnston</i>, who died anno 1711—an +alewife whose little farm and hotel were situated in the village of +Morningside, just beyond the Bruntsfield Links,—he seems to imply that +a club of some kind met there. The third stanza runs as follows—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'And there by dizens we lay down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Syne sweetly ca'd the healths aroun',<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bonny lasses, black or brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">As we loo'd best:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In bumpers we dull cares did drown,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">An' took our rest.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But to the Easy Club<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> must be assigned the honour of having stimulated +the nascent genius of the poet to achieve something that would convey to +its members the fact that it was no ordinary tradesman who solicited +admission into the charmed circle of the Society. James Ross, whose zeal +for the poetic young wigmaker's social recognition was now materially +increased, used all his influence to obtain for his son-in-law an +<i>entrée</i> into the Club of which he was himself a member. Questionable, +indeed, it is, when we consider the exclusive character of the +association in question, the high social position of its members, and +their avowed Jacobitical tenets, if even the influence of James Ross, +powerful though it was, would alone have secured for Ramsay admission. +But an inspiration, as happy as it was original, prompted him to embody +his petition for admission into the Club in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span> a poetical address. Such a +course was of itself sufficient to recommend him to men like Dr. +Ruddiman and Dr. Pitcairn. The poem, addressed to 'The Most Happy +Members of the Easy Club,' proceeded, in a felicitous strain of gentle +satire, blended with genial humour not unlike Gay at his best, to plead +his own cause why he should be admitted as 'an <i>Easy</i> fellow.' His +application was successful, and he was duly enrolled as a member. The +following lines extracted from it will exhibit the character of the +piece, which takes rank as the earliest of his published poems—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Were I but a prince or king,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I'd advance ye, I'd advance ye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were I but a prince or king,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So highly I'd advance ye!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great wit and sense are ever found<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among ye always to abound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much like the orbs that still move round,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">No ways constrained, but easy.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Were I but, etc.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Most of what's hid from vulgar eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even from earth's centre to the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your brighter thoughts do clearly spy,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Which makes you wise and easy.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Were I but, etc.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All faction in the Church or State,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With greater wisdom still you hate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave learn'd fools there to debate,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Like rocks in seas you're easy.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Were I but, etc.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I love ye well—O let me be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One of your blythe Society;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And like yourselves I'll strive to be<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Aye humorous and easy.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Were I but, etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span></p> + +<p>The benefits received by the self-confident young poet were not alone of +an intangible character. Praise is an excellent thing of itself, but a +modicum of pudding along with it is infinitely better. To Ramsay the +Easy Club was the means of securing both. The <i>rôle</i> of his literary +patrons was at once assumed by its members. They printed and published +his <i>Address</i> at their own expense, appointed him, within a few months' +time, their 'Poet Laureate,' and manifested, both by counsel and the +exercise of influence, the liveliest interest in his welfare. No trivial +service this to the youthful poet on the part of his kindly club +brethren. How great it was, and how decisive the effect of their +generous championship in establishing Ramsay's reputation on a sure +basis, will best be understood by glancing for a moment at the character +of the Easy Club and the <i>personnel</i> of its membership.</p> + +<p>Originally founded, under a different name, as a means of frustrating, +and afterwards of protesting against, the Union, the Club, after its +reconstruction in 1711, became a Jacobite organisation pure and simple. +As Ramsay himself stated in after years: 'It originated in the antipathy +we all of that day seemed to have at the ill-humour and contradiction +which arise from trifles, especially those which constitute Whig and +Tory, <i>without having the grand reason for it</i>.' The grand reason in +question was the restoration of the Stuarts. To give a <i>soupçon</i> of +mystery to their proceedings, as well as to veil their identity when +thus plotting against the 'powers that be,' each member assumed a +fictitious name, generally that of some celebrated writer. The poet, as +he himself relates, at first selected Isaac Beckerstaff,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span> suggestive of +Steele and the <i>Tatler</i>. Eventually, however, he altered his +<i>nom-de-guerre</i> to Gawain Douglas, one more in accordance with his +patriotic sentiments.</p> + +<p>The membership was limited to <i>twelve</i>, but at the time when Ramsay made +his application we only know the names of five of those who belonged to +it. Hepburn of Keith, in East Lothian, an antiquarian of no mean +standing; Professor Pitcairn, late of Leyden, but at that time in the +enjoyment of one of the largest practices as a physician in the +Edinburgh of the period; Dr. Patrick Abercrombie, the eminent historian +and antiquarian, author of <i>The Martial Achievements of the Scottish +Nation</i>; Dr. Thomas Ruddiman, philologist, grammarian, printer, and +librarian of the Advocates' Library,—one of the few Scottish polymaths +over and above the Admirable Crichton and George Buchanan,—and James +Ross the lawyer. Tradition has stated that Hamilton of Gilbertfield was +also one of the 'Easy fellows,' as they dubbed themselves, but no +confirmation of this fact could be discovered.</p> + +<p>We reach now the commencement of Ramsay's literary career. For four +years—in fact, until the breaking up of the Society after the Rebellion +of 1715—all he wrote was issued with the <i>imprimatur</i> of the Easy Club +upon it. That they were proud of him is evident from the statement made +by Dr. Ruddiman in a letter to a friend: 'Our Easy Club has been +increased by the admission of a young man, Ramsay by name, <i>sib</i> to the +Ramsays of Dalhousie, and married to a daughter of Ross the writer. He +will be heard tell o' yet, I'm thinking, or I am much out of my +reckoning.'</p> + +<p>The next pieces which our poet read to his patrons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span> were two he had +written some time previous—to wit, a little Ode on the preservation +from death by drowning of the son of his friend John Bruce, on August +19, 1710; and the <i>Elegy on Maggy Johnston</i>, the alewife, to which +reference has already been made. The first of these bears evident traces +of youth and inexperience, in both the esoteric and exoteric or +technical mysteries of his art. For example, when referring to the +danger wherein the lad and his companions had been placed, he remarks—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Whilst, like the lamp's last flame, their trembling souls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are on the wing to leave their mortal goals';<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and he conjures up the following extraordinary spectacle of angelic +gymnastics, whereby the rescue of the lads was effected—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Angels came posting down the divine beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To save the helpless in their last extreme.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Little promise was visible in that piece of future excellence, yet +within eighteen months he had written the <i>Elegy on Maggy Johnston</i>, to +which the critics of the Easy Club gave unstinted praise. For humorous +description of the convivial habits of the day, and graphic +word-painting, the poem is exceedingly happy. But alas! judged by our +latter-day standard of refinement, good taste, and morality, it is +<i>caviare</i> to the general. Only to antiquarians and students of by-past +customs do its allusions contain much that is either interesting or +edifying.</p> + +<p>To follow Ramsay's poetic development through all his earlier pieces +would simply exhaust the interest of the reader. Suffice it to say, +that, at the request of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span> Easy Club, he wrote an Elegy on the death +of Dr. Pitcairn in 1713, but the poem contained so many political +references and satirical quips that he omitted it from the collected +edition of his works in 1721. Pitcairn was a sort of Scottish Voltaire, +a man far in advance of his time, who paid in popular suspicion and +reprobation for his liberality and tolerance. What Robert Chambers +remarks of him is well within the facts of the case. 'His sentiments and +opinions on various subjects accord with the most enlightened views of +the present day, and present a very striking and remarkable contrast to +the ignorance and prejudice with which he was surrounded. Fanatics and +bigots he detested, and by fanatics and bigots, as a matter of course, +he was abused and calumniated. He was accused of being an atheist, a +deist, a mocker and reviler of religion, ... <i>and one who was twice +drunk every day</i>.' Ramsay, in his <i>Elegy</i>, rebutted those grossly +malevolent falsehoods, not only clearing the memory of his patron from +such foul dishonour, but with bitingly sarcastic humour he turned the +tables on the calumniators, by showing, over their action in connection +with the Union, who in reality were the traitors.</p> + +<p>To the instigation of the Easy Club we also owe the piece on <i>The +Qualifications of a Gentleman</i>, published in 1715, subsequent to a +debate in the Society on the subject. Ramsay versified the arguments +used by the various speakers, executing the task in a manner at once so +graceful and witty that the Club formally declared him to be 'a +gentleman by merit.' Only a periphrastic method of signifying their +approbation of his work was this, and did not imply any reflection upon +his birth, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span> might at first glance be supposed. For in the concluding +lines of the poem Ramsay, with his genial <i>bonhomie</i> and humour had +said—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Yet that we more good humour might display,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We frankly turned the vote another way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in each thing we common topics shun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So the great prize nor birth nor riches won.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The vote was carried thus:—that easy he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who should three years a social fellow be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to our Easy Club give no offence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After triennial trial, should commence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gentleman; which gives as just a claim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To that great title, as the blast of fame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can give to those who tread in human gore.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In 1715, also, he amused the members of the Club, and after them the +wits of Edinburgh, with some lines on the current predictions regarding +<i>The Great Eclipse of the Sun</i>, foretold to take place during April +1715. The following picture, descriptive of the awe and terror produced +on ignorant minds and on the brute creation by the occurrence of the +eclipse, is as pithily effective in its simplicity and fidelity to life +and nature as anything in Crabbe's <i>Tales in Verse</i> or Shenstone's +<i>Schoolmistress</i>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When this strange darkness overshades the plains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twill give an odd surprise to unwarned swains;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plain honest hinds, who do not know the cause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor know of orbs, their motions or their laws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will from the half-ploughed furrows homeward bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In dire confusion, judging that the end<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of time approacheth; thus possessed with fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'll think the gen'ral conflagration near.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The traveller, benighted on the road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will turn devout, and supplicate his God.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span> +<span class="i0">Cocks with their careful mates and younger fry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if 'twere evening, to their roosts will fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The horned cattle will forget to feed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And come home lowing from the grassy mead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each bird of day will to his nest repair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave to bats and owls the dusky air;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lark and little robin's softer lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will not be heard till the return of day.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The years 1715-16 were evidently periods of great activity on Ramsay's +part, for at least five other notable productions of his pen are to be +assigned to that date. To him the revelation of his life's <i>métier</i> had +at last come, and his enthusiasm in its prosecution was intense. +Henceforward poetry was to represent to him the supreme aim of +existence. But like the canny Scot he was, he preferred to regard its +emoluments as a crutch rather than a staff; nay, on the other hand, the +determination to discharge his daily duties in his trade, as he executed +his literary labours, <i>con amore</i>, seems to have been ever present with +him. On this point, and referring to his dual pursuits as a wigmaker and +a poet, he writes to his friend Arbuckle—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'I theek the out, and line the inside<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of mony a douce and witty pash,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And baith ways gather in the cash.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">. . . . .<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Contented I have sic a skair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As does my business to a hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fain would prove to ilka Scot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That pourtith's no the poet's lot.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>During the years in question Ramsay produced in rapid succession his +poem <i>On Wit</i>, the Club being again responsible for this clever satire; +and also two humorous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span> <i>Elegies</i>, one on John Cowper, the +Kirk-Treasurer's-Man, whose official oversight of the <i>nymphes de pave</i> +furnished the poet with a rollickingly ludicrous theme, of which he made +the most; the other, an <i>Elegy on Lucky Wood</i>, alewife in the Canongate, +also gave Ramsay full scope for the exercise of that broad Rabelaisian +humour, of his possession of which there was now no longer to be any +doubt.</p> + +<p>Finally, in 1716, he achieved his great success, which stamped him as +unquestionably one of the greatest delineators that had as yet appeared, +of rural Scottish life amongst the humbler classes. As is well known, a +fragment is in existence consisting of one canto of a poem entitled +<i>Christ's Kirk on the Green</i>. Tradition and internal evidence alike +point to King James I. as the author. The theme is the description of a +brawl at a country wedding, which breaks out just as the dancing was +commencing. 'The king,' says Ramsay, 'having painted the rustic squabble +with an uncommon spirit, in a most ludicrous manner, in a stanza of +verse, the most difficult to keep the sense complete, as he had done, +without being forced to bring in words for crambo's sake where they +return so frequently, I have presumed to imitate His Majesty in +continuing the laughable scene. Ambitious to imitate so great an +original, I put a stop to the war, called a congress, and made them sign +a peace, that the world might have their picture in the more agreeable +hours of drinking, dancing, and singing. The following cantos were +written, the one in 1715 (O.S. corresponding to January 1716), the other +in 1718, about three hundred years after the first. Let no worthy poet +despair of immortality,—good sense will always be the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span> same in spite of +the revolutions of fashion and the change of language.'</p> + +<p>The task was no easy one, but Ramsay succeeded with remarkable skill in +dovetailing the second and third cantos into the first, so that they +read as the production of one mind. For faithful portraiture of Scottish +rural manners, for a fidelity, even in the minutest details, recalling +Teniers and his vividly realistic pictures of Dutch rustic life, the +cantos are unrivalled in Scottish literature, save by the scenes of his +own <i>Gentle Shepherd</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">THE FAVOURITE AT THE 'FOUR-OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; THE QUARTO OF 1721—1717-21</span></h2> + + +<p>Ramsay's fame as a poet, writing in the Scots vernacular, was now +thoroughly established. Though the patronage of the Easy Club could no +longer be extended to him, as the Government of the Elector of +Hanover—lately crowned King of England under the title of George +I.—had directed its suppression, the members of it, while in a position +to benefit him, had laid the basis of his reputation so broad and deep +that virtually he had now only to build on their foundation.</p> + +<p>He was distinctly the favourite of the 'auld wives' of the town. In +quarto sheets, familiarly known as <i>broadsides</i>, and similar to what had +been hawked about the country in his youth, his poems had hitherto been +issued. It became the fashion, when four o'clock arrived, to send out +their children, or their 'serving-lass,' with a penny to procure Allan +Ramsay's latest piece, in order to increase the relish of their +'four-oors' Bohea' with the broad humour of <i>John Cowper</i>, or <i>The Elegy +upon Lucky Wood</i>, or <i>The Great Eclipse</i>.</p> + +<p>During the year or two immediately preceding the publication of the +quarto of 1721 this custom greatly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span> increased. Of course, a supply had +to be forthcoming to meet such a demand, but of these, numberless +pieces, on topics of political or merely ephemeral interest, were never +republished after their appearance in <i>broadside</i> form. By an eminent +collector of this species of literature the fact is stated, that there +are considerably over two score of poems by Ramsay which have thus been +allowed to slip into oblivion. Not that such a fate was undeserved. In +many cases their indelicacy would debar their admission into any edition +nowadays; in others, their lack of permanent general interest. Such +subjects as <i>The Flytin' of Luckie Duff and Luckie Brown</i>, <i>A Dookin' in +the Nor' Loch</i>, and <i>A Whiggish Lament</i>, were not the kind of themes his +calmer and maturer judgment would care to contemplate being handed down +to posterity as specimens of his work.</p> + +<p>In 1719 Ramsay appears to have concluded, from the extensive sale his +poems enjoyed even in <i>broadside</i> form, that the trade of a bookseller +would not only be more remunerative than a wigmaker's, but would also be +more in accord with his literary tastes and aspirations. For some months +he had virtually carried on the two trades concurrently, his reputation +undoubtedly attracting a large number of customers to his shop to have +their wigs dressed by the popular poet of the day. But as his fame +increased, so did his vanity. Of praise he was inordinately fond. 'Tell +Allan he's as great a poet as Pope, and ye may get what ye like from +him,' said the witty and outspoken Lord Elibank to a friend. The charge +had more than a grain of truth in it. That man did not lack more than +his share of self-complacent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span> vanity who could write, as the vicegerent +of great Apollo, as he informs us in <i>The Scribblers Lashed</i>, such lines +as these—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Wherefore pursue some craft for bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where hands may better serve than head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor ever hope in verse to shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or share in Homer's fate or——'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Alas! Allan, 'backwardness in coming forward' was never one of thy +failings!</p> + +<p>To Allan, <i>digito monstrari</i> was a condition of things equivalent to the +seventh heaven of felicity; but he felt it would be more to his +advantage to be pointed out as a bookseller than as a wigmaker, when his +reputation as a poet would cause his social status to be keenly +examined. We learn that he consulted his friend Ruddiman on the step, +who spoke strongly in its favour, and gave him good sound advice as to +the kind of stock most likely to sell readily. The 'Flying Mercury,' +therefore, which up to this date had presided over the 'theeking' of the +<i>outside</i> of the 'pashes' (heads) of the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie, was thereafter to preside, with even increased lustre, over the +provision of material for lining the <i>inside</i> with learning and culture.</p> + +<p>That the time was an anxious one for the poet there can be little doubt. +He was virtually beginning the battle of life anew; and though he did so +with many advantageous circumstances in his favour, none the less was +the step one to be undertaken only after the gravest consideration and +calculation of probabilities. But by its results the change is shown to +have been a wise one. From the outset the bookselling business proved a +lucrative venture. The issue of his own <i>broadsides</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span> week by week, was +of itself a considerable source of profit. These, in addition to being +sold at his shop and hawked about the country, were disposed of on the +streets of Edinburgh by itinerant stallkeepers, who were wont to regard +the fact as one of great moment to themselves when they could cry, 'Ane +o' Maister Ramsay's new poems—price a penny.' In this manner his famous +piece, <i>The City of Edinburgh's Address to the Country</i>, was sown +broadcast over the county.</p> + +<p>Meantime, while Ramsay's literary and commercial prosperity was being +established on so firm a basis, he was becoming quite a family man. The +little house opposite Niddry's Wynd was gradually getting small enough +for his increasing <i>ménage</i>. Since his marriage in 1712, happiness +almost idyllic, as he records, had been his lot in his domestic +relations. He had experienced the pure joy that thrills through a +parent's heart on hearing little toddling feet pattering through his +house, and sweet childish voices lisping the name 'father.' The +following entries in the Register of Births and Baptisms for the City of +Edinburgh speak for themselves:—</p> + +<p>'At Edinburgh, 6th October 1713.</p> + +<p>'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, periwige-maker, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, New Kirk Parish—a son, Allan. Witnesses, John Symer, William +Mitchell, and Robert Mein, merchant, burgesses; and William Baxter.</p> + +<p>'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, burges, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, North East (College Kirk) Parish—a daughter named Susanna. +Witnesses, John Symers, merchant, and John Morison, merchant. The child +was born on the 1st instant. 3rd October 1714.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span></p> + +<p>'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish—a son, Niell. Witnesses, Walter Boswell, sadler, and +John Symer, merchant. 9th October 1715.</p> + +<p>'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish—a son, Robert. Witnesses, John Symer, merchant, and +Walter Boswell, sadler. The child was born on the 10th instant. 23rd +November 1716.</p> + +<p>'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, bookseller, and Christian Ross, his +spouse—a daughter named Agnes. Witnesses, James Norie, painter, and +George Young, chyrurgeon. Born the 9th instant. 10th August 1725.'</p> + +<p>Besides these named above, Chalmers states that Christian Ross brought +Allan Ramsay three other daughters, who were not recorded in the +Register,—one born in 1719, one in 1720, and one in 1724,—who are +mentioned in his letter to Smibert as 'fine girls, no ae wally-draigle +among them all.'</p> + +<p>In 1719 our poet published his first edition of 'Scots Songs,'—some +original, others collected from all sources, and comprising many of the +gems of Scottish lyrical poetry. The success attending the volume was +instant and gratifying, and led, as we will see further on, to other +publications of a cognate but more ambitious character. Almost +contemporaneously was published, in a single sheet or <i>broadside</i>, what +proved to be the germ of the <i>Gentle Shepherd</i>—to wit, a <i>Pastoral +Dialogue between Patie and Roger</i>. The dialogue was reprinted in the +quarto of 1721, and was much admired by all the lovers of poetry of the +period.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span></p> + +<p>A reliable gauge of the estimation wherein Ramsay was now held, as +Scotland's great vernacular poet, is afforded in the metrical epistles +sent to him during the closing months of 1719 by Lieutenant William +Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to which Allan returned replies in similar +terms. This was not a poetical tourney like the famous 'flyting' between +Dunbar and Kennedy, two hundred and thirty years before. In the latter, +the two tilters sought to say the hardest and the bitterest things of +each other, though they professed to joust with pointless spears; in the +former, Hamilton and Ramsay, on the contrary, vied each with the other +in paying the pleasantest compliments. Gilbertfield contributed a +luscious sop to his correspondent's vanity when he saluted him, in a +stanza alluded to by Burns in his own familiar tribute, as—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O fam'd and celebrated Allan!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Renowned Ramsay! canty callan!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's nowther Highland-man nor Lawlan,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In poetrie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But may as soon ding down Tantallan,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As match wi' thee.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then he proceeds to inform honest Allan that of 'poetry, the hail +quintescence, thou hast suck'd up,' and affirms that—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tho' Ben and Dryden of renown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were yet alive in London town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like kings contending for a crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">'Twad be a pingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilk o' you three wad gar words sound<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And best to jingle.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After such a glowing tribute, Allan could do no less than dip deep into +his cask of compliments also, and assure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span> Gilbertfield that he felt +taller already by this commendation—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When Hamilton the bauld and gay<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Lends me a heezy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In verse that slides sae smooth away,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Well tell'd and easy.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then he proceeds to shower on his correspondent his return compliments +as follows—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When I begoud first to cun verse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It warmed my breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then emulation did me pierce,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whilk since ne'er ceast.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Three epistles were exchanged on either side, bristling with flattery, +and with a little poetic criticism scattered here and there. In Ramsay's +second letter his irrepressible vanity takes the bit in its teeth and +runs away with him. He appends a note with reference to his change of +occupation, as though he dreaded the world might not know of it. 'The +muse,' he says, 'not unreasonably angry, puts me here in mind of the +favours she had done by bringing me from stalking over bogs or wild +marshes, to lift my head a little brisker among the polite world, which +could never have been acquired by the low movements of a mechanic.' He +was a bookseller now, of course, and could afford to look down on +wigmakers as base mechanics! His lovableness and generosity +notwithstanding, Ramsay's vanity and self-complacency meets us at every +turn. To omit mentioning it would be to present an unfaithful portrait +of the honest poet. On the other hand, justice compels one to state +that, if vain, he was neither jealous nor ungenerous. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span> always +ready to recognise the merits of others, and his egoism was not +selfishness. Though he might not care to deny himself to his own despite +for the good of others, he was perfectly ready to assist his neighbour +when his own and his family's needs had been satisfied.</p> + +<p>At this time, also, Sir William Scott of Thirlestane, Bart., a +contemporary Latin poet, as Chalmers records, of no inconsiderable +powers, hailed Ramsay as one of the genuine poets whose images adorned +the temple of Apollo. In the 'Poemata D. Gulielmi Scoti de Thirlestane,' +printed along with the 'Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcarnii' +(Edinburgh, 1727), the following lines occur—</p> + +<p class='center'>'<i>Effigies Allani Ramsæi, Poëtæ Scoti, inter cæteras Poëtarum +Imagines in Templo Apollinis suspensa:</i></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ductam Parrhasiâ videtis arte<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Allani effigiem, favente Phœbo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qui Scotos numeros suos, novoque<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Priscam restituit vigore linguam.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hanc Phœbus tabulam, hanc novem sorores<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Suspendunt lepidis jocis dicatam:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gaudete, O Veneres, Cupidinesque,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Omnes illecebræ, facetiæque,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plausus edite; nunc in æde Phœbi<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Splendet conspicuo decore, vestri<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Allani referens tabella vultus.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As much as any other, this testimony evinces how rapidly our poet's +reputation had increased.</p> + +<p>At last, in the spring of 1720, Allan Ramsay came before the public, and +challenged it to endorse its favourable estimate of his fugitive pieces +by subscribing to a volume of his collected poems, 'with some new, not +heretofore printed.' As Chambers remarks: 'The estimation in which the +poet was now held was clearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span> demonstrated by the rapid filling up of a +list of subscribers, containing the names of all that were eminent for +talents, learning, or dignity in Scotland.' The volume, a handsome +quarto, printed by Ruddiman, and ornamented by a portrait of the author, +from the pencil of his friend Smibert, was published in the succeeding +year, and the fortunate poet realised four hundred guineas by the +speculation. Pope, Steele, Arbuthnot, and Gay were amongst his English +subscribers.</p> + +<p>The quarto of 1721 may be said to have closed the youthful period in the +development of Ramsay's genius. Slow, indeed, was that development. He +was now thirty-five years of age, and while he had produced many +excellent pieces calculated to have made the name of any mediocre +writer, he had, as yet, given the world nothing that could be classed as +a work of genius. His sketches of humble life and of ludicrous episodes +occurring among the lower classes in Edinburgh and the rustics in the +country, had pleased a wide <i>clientéle</i> of readers, because they +depicted with rare truth and humour, scenes happening in the everyday +life of the time. But in no single instance, up to this date, had he +produced a work that would live in the minds of the people as expressive +of those deep, and, by them, incommunicable feelings that go to the +composition of class differences.</p> + +<p>As a literary artist, Ramsay was destined to develop into a <i>genre</i> +painter of unsurpassed fidelity to nature. As yet, however, that which +was to be the distinctive characteristic of his pictures had not dawned +upon his mind. But the time was rapidly approaching. Already the first +glimmerings of apprehension are to be detected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span> in his tentative +endeavours to realise his <i>métier</i> in the pastoral dialogue of <i>Patie +and Roger</i> republished in his volume.</p> + +<p>The quarto of 1721 contained, moreover, several pieces that had not been +previously printed. These we will at present only mention <i>en passant</i>, +reserving critical analysis for our closing chapters. Not the least +noticeable of the poems in the volume are those wherein he lays aside +his panoply of strength,—the 'blythe braid Scots,' or vernacular,—and +challenges criticism on what he terms 'his English poems.' These were +undoubtedly the most ambitious flights in song hitherto attempted by the +Scottish Tityrus. To the study of Dryden, Cowley, Swift, Pope, and +Arbuthnot, he had devoted himself,—particularly to Pope's translation +of Homer's <i>Iliad</i>, and to the collected edition of the works of the +great author of the <i>Rape of the Lock</i>, issued in 1717. He had been in +correspondence for some years previous with several of the leading +English poets of the day, and with other individuals well known both in +politics and London society, such as Josiah Burchet, who, when he died +in 1746, had been Secretary to the Admiralty for forty-five years, and +had sat in six successive Parliaments. This was the friend whose +admiration for Ramsay was so excessive as to prompt him to send (as was +the custom of the time) certain recommendatory verses for insertion in +the quarto, wherein he hailed honest Allan in the following terms—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Go on, famed bard, the wonder of our days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crown thy head with never-fading bays;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While grateful Britons do thy lines revere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And value as they ought their Virgil here.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Small wonder is it that, stimulated by such flattery, Allan should have +desired to evince to his friends by the Thames, that the notes of their +northern brother of the lyre were not confined to the humble strains of +his own rustic reed.</p> + +<p>In the quarto, therefore, we have a poem, <i>Tartana, or The Plaid</i>, +written in heroic couplets, with the avowed desire to reinstate in +popular favour the silken plaid, which, from time immemorial, had been +the favourite attire of Scots ladies, but, since the Rebellion of 1715, +had been somewhat discarded, in consequence of Whiggish prejudices that +it was a badge of disloyalty to the reigning house. Then we have +<i>Content</i>, a long piece of moral philosophy in verse, and the <i>Morning +Interview</i>, a poem written under the spell of Pope's <i>Rape of the Lock</i>, +wherein the very machinery of the sylphs is copied from the great +English satire. Nor is the 'South Sea Bubble,' which ran its brief +course from 1718 to 1720, forgotten in <i>Wealth, or The Woody</i> (gallows), +and two shorter poems illustrative of the prevailing madness. Epigrams, +Addresses, Elegies, and Odes are also included, along with one or two of +his famous poetical <i>Epistles</i>, modelled on those of Horace, and +brimming over with genial <i>bonhomie</i> and good-humoured epicureanism. In +this volume, also, we have additional evidence afforded how fondly he +had become attached to Edinburgh and its environs. Scarce a poem is +there in the book that lacks some reference to well-known features in +the local landscape, showing that he still retained the love of +wandering, in his spare hours, amid Pentland glens and by fair Eskside. +Only with one extract will the reader's patience be taxed here. It is +from his <i>Ode to the Ph—</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span> and is obviously an imitation of Horace's +Ode to Thaliarchus. All the sunny glow of the great Roman's genius seems +reflected in this revival of his sentiments, albeit under varying +physical conditions, well-nigh three hundred and fifty <i>lustra</i> +afterwards. The lines cleave to the memory with a persistence that +speaks volumes for the catholicity and appropriateness of the thoughts—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Look up to Pentland's tow'ring tap,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Buried beneath big wreaths o' snaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er ilka cleugh, ilk scaur, and slap,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As high as ony Roman wa'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Driving their ba's frae whins or tee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There's no ae gowfer to be seen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor doucer fouk, wysing a-jee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The biassed bowls on Tamson's green.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then fling on coals, and ripe the ribs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And beek the house baith butt and ben;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That mutchkin stoup it hauds but dribs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then let's get in the tappit hen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Guid claret best keeps out the cauld,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' drives awa' the winter soon:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It makes a man baith gash and bauld,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' heaves his saul ayont the moon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Leave to the gods your ilka care;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If that they think us worth their while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They can a rowth o' blessings spare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which will our fashous fears beguile.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR; THE 'TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY' AND THE 'EVERGREEN'—1721-25</span></h2> + + +<p>The popularity accruing to Ramsay from the publication of the quarto of +1721 was so great that his fame was compared, in all seriousness, with +that of his celebrated English contemporaries, Pope, Swift and Addison. +No better evidence of the unfitness of contemporary opinion to gauge the +real and ultimate position of any author in the hierarchy of genius +could be cited than the case now before us. The critical perspective is +egregiously untrue. The effect of personality and of social qualities is +permitted to influence a verdict that should be given on the attribute +of intellectual excellence alone. Only through the lapse of time is the +personal equation eliminated from the estimate of an author's relative +proportion to the aggregate of his country's genius.</p> + +<p>Nor were his countrymen aware of the extravagance of their estimate when +such a man as Ruddiman styled him 'the Horace of our days,' and when +Starrat, in a poetical epistle, apostrophises him in terms like these—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ramsay! for ever live; for wha like you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In deathless sang, sic life-like pictures drew?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not he wha whilome wi' his harp could ca'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dancing stanes to big the Theban wa';<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor he (shame fa's fool head!) as stories tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could whistle back an auld dead wife frae hell.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>James Clerk of Penicuik considered Homer and Milton to be the only +worthy compeers of the Caledonian bard; and Sir William Bennet of +Marlefield insisted the Poet-Laureateship should be conferred on Ramsay, +as the singer who united in himself the three great +qualifications—genius, loyalty, and <i>respectability</i>! Certainly honest +Allan would have been a Triton amongst such minnows as Nicholas Rowe, +who held the bays from 1714-18, or Laurence Eusden, whose tenure of the +office lasted from 1718 to 1730, but of whose verse scarce a scrap +remains.</p> + +<p>Compliments reached Ramsay from all quarters of the compass. Burchet, +Arbuckle, Aikman, Arbuthnot, Ambrose Philips, Tickell, and many others, +put on record their appreciation of his merits as a poet. But of all the +testimonies, that which reached him from Pope was the most valued, and +drew from Allan the following lines, indicative of his intense +gratification, while also forming a favourable example of his skill in +epigram—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Three times I've read your Iliad o'er:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The first time pleased me well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New beauties unobserved before,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Next pleased me better still.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Again I tried to find a flaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Examined ilka line;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The third time pleased me best of a',<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The labour seem'd divine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Henceforward I'll not tempt my fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On dazzling rays to stare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest I should tine dear self-conceit<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And read and write nae mair.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His position in Edinburgh society was greatly improved by the success of +the volume. The magnates of 'Auld Reekie' who still clung to the capital +their forefathers had loved,—the legal luminaries of Bench and Bar, the +Professors of the University, the great medicos of the town,—all were +proud to know the one man who was redeeming the Scottish poetry of that +age from the charge of utter sterility. There was the Countess of +Eglinton, 'the beautiful Susannah Kennedy of the house of Colzean,' +whose 'Eglinton air' and manners in society were, for half a century, +regarded as the models for all young maidens to imitate. Living as she +did until 1780, when she had attained the great age of ninety-one, she +was visited by Dr. Johnson during his visit to Scotland in 1773. On that +occasion it transpired that the Countess had been married before the +lexicographer was born; whereupon, says Grant, 'she smartly and +graciously said to him that she might have been his mother, and now +adopted him; and at parting she embraced him, a mark of affection and +condescension which made a lasting impression on the mind of the great +literary bear.' She was one of Ramsay's warmest admirers. Then there +were Lord Stair and his lovely lady, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, then +about to become Lord Advocate: also, Laurence Dundas, Professor of +Humanity; Colin Drummond, of Metaphysics; William Law, of Moral +Philosophy; Alexander Monro (<i>primus</i>), of Anatomy, and George Preston, +of Botany, all of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span> University of Edinburgh—and all deeply +interested in the quaint, cheery, practical-minded little man, who +combined in himself the somewhat contradictory qualities of an excellent +poet and a keen man of business. Thus the influence was a reciprocal +one. His poetry attracted customers to his shop, while his bookselling +in turn brought him in contact with social celebrities, whose good +offices the self-complacent poet would not suffer to be lost for lack of +application.</p> + +<p>In 1722 the proprietor of the famous John's Coffee House and Tavern, in +Parliament Close, off the High Street,—which, by the way, still +exists,—was a man named Balfour. The latter, who had lived for some +time in London, had acquired a smattering of literary culture, and +conceived the idea of rendering his house the Edinburgh counterpart of +Will's or Button's. He set himself to attract all the leading wits and +men of letters in the Scottish metropolis at the time, and speedily +raised his house to considerable celebrity during the third and fourth +decades of last century. To Allan Ramsay he paid especial court, and the +poet became a daily visitor at the tavern. Here he would meet many of +the judges and leading lawyers, the professors from the College, any +visitors of note who might be in town; also Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, Preston and +Crawford, the rising young song-writers of the day, as well as Beau +Forrester, the leader of fashion in Edinburgh, who is recorded to have +exhibited himself, once at least, in an open balcony in a chintz +nightgown, and been dressed and powdered by his <i>valet de chambre</i> as an +object-lesson to the town dandies how to get themselves up. There, too, +among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span> many others, he probably met the famous, or rather infamous, John +Law of Lauriston, banker, financier, and cheat, who was in Edinburgh in +1722, after having brought France to the verge of bankruptcy and ruined +thousands by his financial schemes. A motley crowd, in good sooth; yet +one whence our poet could draw many a hint for future use.</p> + +<p>The success of the quarto encouraged Ramsay to redoubled efforts, and +the next six or seven years are the period of his greatest literary +fertility. In 1722 appeared his <i>Fables and Tales</i> and <i>The Three +Bonnets</i>, a poem in four cantos. In some criticisms of Ramsay the +statement has been made that he owed the idea of his <i>Fables</i> to Gay's +inimitable collection. That this is an error is evident, seeing the +latter did not publish his volume until 1726. In his preface to the +<i>Fables and Tales</i> the poet says: 'Some of the following are taken from +Messieurs la Fontaine and La Motte, whom I have endeavoured to make +speak Scots with as much ease as I can; at the same time aiming at the +spirit of these eminent authors without being too servile a translator.' +Ramsay took as his prototypes in this species of composition, Phaedrus, +La Fontaine, and Desbillons, rather than Æsop. Many of the incidents he +drew from occurrences in the everyday life around him. For example, +<i>Jupiter's Lottery</i> has obvious reference to the South Sea Bubble +lotteries; while <i>The Ass and the Brock</i> was thought at the time to be a +sly skit on the addle-pated Commissioners Walpole had that year sent up +to Scotland to nip northern Jacobitism in the bud.</p> + +<p>Ramsay's <i>Tales</i> in verse contain some of his daintiest though not his +strongest work. He makes no claim to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span> originality with respect to them, +but admits they are drawn in many cases from La Motte and other sources. +In his preface he says: 'If my manner of expressing a design already +invented have any particularity that is agreeable, good judges will +allow such imitations to be originals formed upon the idea of another. +Others, who drudge at the dull verbatim, are like timorous attendants, +who dare not move one pace without their master's leave.' Some of the +<i>Tales</i> are obviously modelled on those of Chaucer and Boccaccio, but in +most of his, he insinuates a political or social moral, while they +narrate the story for the story's sake. <i>The Three Bonnets</i> is a satire +on his countrymen for being so shortsighted, in their own interests, as +to consent to the Union. Bristle, the eldest of the three brothers in +the tale, was intended to represent the Tories and Scots Jacobites, who +were opposed to the scheme, and he is therefore drawn as a man of great +resolution and vigour of character. Bawsy, the youngest, or weak +brother, shadowed forth the character of those who consented under the +persuasion of the nobility; while Joukum, the second eldest of the +trio,—a vicious, dissipated <i>roué</i>,—stood for the portrait of those +Scots noblemen who accepted Lord Somers' bribes, and sold their country +to the English alliance. The story ran that their father, Duniwhistle, +on his deathbed, had, to each of the brothers, presented a bonnet with +which they were never to part. If they did so, ruin would overtake them. +Joukum falls in love with Rosie, a saucy quean, who demands, as the +price of her hand, that he should beg, borrow, or steal for her the +three bonnets. Joukum proceeds to Bristle, and receives a very angry +reception; he next repairs to lazy Bawsy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">{74}</a></span> who, dazzled by the promises +the other makes as to the good things he will receive after the wedding, +surrenders his bonnet, which Joukum lays with his own at the feet of +Rosie. The latter agrees to wed Joukum, and a vivid picture is drawn of +the neglected state of poor Bawsy after this is accomplished. Rosie +proves a harridan, leading Joukum a sorry dance; and the poem concludes +with the contrasted pictures of the contented prosperity of +Bristle—Scotland as she might have been had she not entered the +Union—and the misery of Bawsy, representing Scotland as she then was. +Somewhat amusing is it to conjecture what Ramsay's feelings would be on +this subject could he for an instant be permitted to witness the +progress of Scotland during the past hundred and thirty years, and the +benefits that have accrued to her from the Union.</p> + +<p>Amongst his metrical tales, one of the finest, without question, is <i>The +Lure</i>, a satirical fable or allegory, whereof the moral, as may best be +stated in the poet's own words—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">——'shews plainly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That carnal minds attempt but vainly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aboon this laigher warld to mount,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While slaves to Satan.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The narrative, however, though possessing many merits, is too indelicate +for latter-day taste even to be sketched in outline.</p> + +<p>In 1723 appeared his poem <i>The Fair Assembly</i>, directed against the +Puritanic severity of that section of the community which took exception +to dancing and such pleasant amusements, alike for young and old. +Nothing reveals to us more vividly the strange contrasts in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></span> +religious life of the time, than the fact that the clergy winked at the +drunkenness which was so prominent a feature in the social customs of +the eighteenth century, and fulminated unceasingly against dancing. +Those who indulged in it were in many instances barred from sacramental +privileges, and had such pleasant epithets as 'Herodias' and 'Jezebel' +hurled at them. As Chambers states in his <i>Traditions of Edinburgh</i>: +'Everything that could be called public or promiscuous amusement was +held in abhorrence by the Presbyterians, and only struggled through a +desultory and degraded existence by the favour of the Jacobites, who +have always been a less strait-laced part of the community. Thus there +was nothing like a conventional system of dancing in Edinburgh till the +year 1710,' when at length—induced, probably, by the ridicule cast on +the ascetic strictness of Scottish social functions by the English +visitors who from time to time sojourned in 'the grey metropolis of the +north'—a private association commenced weekly <i>réunions</i>, under the +name of 'The Assembly.' Its first rooms, according to Arnot's <i>History +of Edinburgh</i>, were in a humble tenement in the West Bow (standing on +the site now occupied by St. John's Free Church), where they continued +to be located until 1720, when they were removed to Old Assembly Close. +In the West Bow days it was, as Jackson tells us in his <i>History of the +Stage</i>, that the Presbyterian abhorrence of 'promiscuous dancing' once +rose to such a height that a crowd of people attacked the rooms when an +'Assembly' was being held, and actually perforated the closed doors with +red-hot spits.</p> + +<p>As affording an interesting picture of the austerity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span> the time, a +sentence or two may be quoted from a little pamphlet in the Advocates' +Library entitled, 'A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his +Friend in the City, with an Answer thereto concerning the New Assembly.' +The author writes: 'I am informed there is lately a Society erected in +your town which I think is called an "Assembly." The speculations +concerning this meeting have of late exhausted the most part of the +public conversation in this countryside. Some are pleased to say 'tis +only designed to cultivate polite conversation and genteel behaviour +among the better sort of folks, and to give young people an opportunity +of accomplishing themselves in both; while others are of opinion it will +have quite a different effect, and tends to vitiate and deprave the +minds and inclinations of the younger sort.'</p> + +<p>The Assemblies themselves must have been characterised by the most +funereal solemnity, particularly during the <i>régime</i> of the famous +'Mistress of Ceremonies,' or directress, Miss Nicky Murray. So late as +1753, when the horror at 'promiscuous dancing' might be supposed to have +mitigated a little, Goldsmith, who then visited the Assembly, relates +that, on entering the room, he saw one end of it 'taken up by the +ladies, who sat dismally in a group by themselves. On the other side +stand their pensive partners that are to be, but with no more +intercourse between the sexes than between two countries at war. The +ladies, indeed, may ogle and the gentlemen sigh, but an embargo is laid +on any closer commerce.'</p> + +<p>As might well be supposed, such bigoted austerity had no friend in Allan +Ramsay. All that he could do he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span> did to dissipate the mistaken ideas of +the Scottish clergy and the stricter section of the Presbyterian Church, +on the subject of dancing and the holding of the Assemblies. In the +preface to his poem of <i>The Fair Assembly</i> he remarks: 'It is amazing to +imagine that any are so destitute of good sense and manners as to drop +the least unfavourable sentiment against the Assembly. It is to be owned +with regret, the best of things have been abused. The Church has been, +and in many countries is, the chief place for assignations that are not +warrantable.... The beauty of the fair sex, which is the great preserver +of harmony and society, has been the ruin of many. So places designed +for healthful and mannerly dancing have, by people of an unhappy turn, +been debauched by introducing gaming, drunkenness, and indecent +familiarities. But will any argue from these we must have no churches, +no wine, no beauties, no literature, no dancing? Forbid it, Heaven! +whatever is under your auspicious conduct must be improving and +beneficial in every respect.'</p> + +<p>His poem is an ode in praise of dancing, and of the manner in which the +Assemblies were conducted. Fortifying his case with Locke's well-known +sentence—'Since nothing appears to me to give children so much becoming +confidence and behaviour, and so raise them to the conversation of those +above their age, as dancing, I think they should be taught to dance as +soon as they are capable of learning it,' he boldly avows himself as an +advocate for the moderate indulgence in the amusement, both as +health-giving and as tending to improve the mind and the manners, and +concludes with these two spirited stanzas, which are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span> quoted here as +space will not permit us to refer to the piece again—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Sic as against the Assembly speak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The rudest sauls betray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where matrons, noble, wise, and meek,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Conduct the healthfu' play.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where they appear, nae vice dare keek,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But to what's good gives way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like night, soon as the morning creek<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has ushered in the day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dear Em'brugh! shaw thy gratitude,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And of sic friends make sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wha strive to make our minds less rude,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And help our wants to cure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Acting a generous part and good,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In bounty to the poor;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sic virtues, if right understood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Should ev'ry heart allure.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But we must hasten on. In 1724 Ramsay published his poem on <i>Health</i>, +inscribed to the Earl of Stair, and written at the request of that +nobleman. In it Ramsay exhibits his full powers as a satirist, and +inculcates the pursuit of health by the avoidance of such vices as +sloth, effeminacy, gluttony, ebriety, and debauchery, which he +personifies under the fictitious characters of Cosmelius, Montanus, +Grumaldo, Phimos, Macro, etc. These were said to be drawn from +well-known Edinburgh <i>roués</i> of the time, and certainly the various +types are limned and contrasted with a masterly hand. To the cultured +reader, this is the poem of all Ramsay's minor works best calculated to +please and to convey an idea of his style, though at times his genius +seems to move under constraint.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span></p> + +<p>But in 1724 our poet showed himself ambitious of winning distinction in +a new field. In 1718, as was stated previously, he had published a +volume of <i>Scots Songs</i>, some of them original, but a large number of +them adapted from older and imperfect copies. So successful had the +venture been, that a second edition had been called for in 1719, and a +third in 1722. To attempt something of a cognate character, yet upon a +larger scale, Ramsay now felt encouraged. In January 1724 appeared the +first volume of the <i>Tea-table Miscellany: a Collection of Scots Sangs</i>. +The second volume was published in 1725, with the note by Ramsay: 'Being +assured how acceptable new words to known good tunes would prove, I +engaged to make verses for above sixty of them in these two volumes; +about thirty were done by some ingenious young gentlemen, who were so +pleased with my undertaking that they generously lent me their +assistance.' 'Among those young gentlemen,' as Professor Masson says in +his excellent monograph on Ramsay in his <i>Edinburgh Sketches and +Memories</i>, 'we can identify Hamilton of Bangour, young David Malloch +(afterwards Mallet), William Crawford, William Walkinshaw,' to which we +would add James Preston. A third volume of the <i>Miscellany</i> appeared in +1727 and a fourth in 1732, though, as regards the last, grave doubts +exist whether Ramsay were really its editor or collector. Few +compilations have ever been more popular. In twenty-five years twelve +large editions were exhausted, and since Ramsay's death several others +have seen the light, some better, some worse, than the original. All +classes in the community were appealed to by the songs contained in the +<i>Miscellany</i>. That he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span> intended such to be the case is evident from the +first four lines of his dedication, in which he offers the contents—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'To ilka lovely British lass,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Frae ladies Charlotte, Anne, and Jean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to ilk bonny singing Bess,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wha dances barefoot on the green.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the collection each stratum of society finds the songs wherewith it +had been familiar from infancy to age. Tunes that were old as the days +of James V. were wedded to words that caught the cadences of the music +with admirable felicity; words, too, had tunes assigned them which +enabled them to be sung in castle and cot, in hall and hut, throughout +'braid Scotland.' The denizens of fashionable drawing-rooms found their +favourites—'Ye powers! was Damon then so blest?' 'Gilderoy,' 'Tell me, +Hamilla; tell me why'—in these fascinating volumes, even as the Peggies +and the Jennies of the ewe-bughts and the corn-rigs rejoiced to note +that 'Katy's Answer,' 'Polwart on the Green,' 'My Daddy forbad, my Minny +forbad,' and 'The Auld Gudeman,' had not been lost sight of. For many a +long day, at each tea-party in town, or rustic gathering in the country, +the <i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i> was in demand, or the songs taken from it, +for the entertainment of those assembled.</p> + +<p>The widespread delight evoked by the <i>Miscellany</i> allured Ramsay to +essay next a task for which, it must be confessed, his qualifications +were scanty. Nine months after the publication of the first volume of +the <i>Miscellany</i>—to wit, in October 1724—appeared another compilation, +<i>The Evergrene: being ane Collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the +Ingenious before 1600</i>. It was dedicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span> to the Duke of Hamilton, and +in the dedicatory epistle he informs his Grace that 'the following old +bards present you with an entertainment that can never be disagreeable +to any Scotsman.... They now make a demand for that immortal fame that +tuned their souls some hundred years ago. They do not address you with +an indigent face and a thousand pitiful apologies to bribe the goodwill +of the critics. No; 'tis long since they were superior to the spleen of +these sour gentlemen.' He had been granted access to the 'Bannatyne +MSS.'—the literary remains of George Bannatyne, poet, antiquarian, and +collector of ancient manuscripts of Scottish poetry. This valuable +repository of much that otherwise would have perished was lent to Ramsay +by the Hon. William Carmichael of Skirling, advocate (brother to the +Earl of Hyndford), with permission to extract what he required. From +this priceless treasure-trove he drew specimens of Dunbar, Henryson, +Alexander Scott, Lyndsay, Kennedy, Montgomery, Sempill, Gavin Douglas, +and others. A similar favour was in 1770 granted to Lord Hailes when +preparing his volume, <i>Ancient Scottish Poems</i>. Interesting, therefore, +it is, to compare the manner in which the two editors respectively +fulfilled their tasks.</p> + +<p>In Ramsay's case the poems he selected from the Bannatyne MSS. were +passed through the alembic of his own brain. Everything was sacrificed +to popularity and intelligibility. Lord Hailes, on the other hand, was +the most scrupulous of editors, refusing to alter a single letter; for, +as he said, the value of the poems lies in the insight they afford us +into the state of the language at the periods when the various pieces +were written.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span> Alter them in any degree, even the slightest, and you +destroy the intrinsic character of the composition. 'In making his +compilation from the Bannatyne MSS.,' continued Lord Hailes, 'Ramsay has +omitted some stanzas and added others, has modernised the versification +and varied the ancient mode of spelling.' To offend thus was to render +himself liable to the severest censure from all literary antiquarians. +The fault was as inexcusable as would be a trader's in palming off +shoddy goods as those of the best materials. As an example of the +ruthless liberties our poet took with the text, it may be well to follow +Chalmers' example, and print side by side a stanza of Ramsay's +'paraphrase' and Lord Hailes' severely accurate rendering of the opening +of Dunbar's 'Thistle and the Rose'—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><i>Ramsay.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Quhen Merch with variand winds was overpast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And sweet Apryle had with his silver showers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tane leif of Nature with an orient blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lusty May, that mudder is of flowrs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had maid the birds begin the tymous hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amang the tendir odours reid and quhyt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quhois harmony to heir was grit delyt.'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><i>Hailes.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Quhen Merche wes with variand windis past,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Appryll had with her silver shouris<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tane leif at Nature with ane orient blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lusty May, that mudder is of flouris,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quhois harmony to heir it wis delyt.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In Dunbar's 'Lament for the Deth of the Makkaris' he not only varied but +added several lines, and these in the silliest manner possible. For +example, at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span> conclusion of Dunbar's noble elegy, Ramsay must needs +tack on three stanzas, as a prophecy by Dunbar himself, wherein the +vanity-full poet is introduced as 'a lad frae Hethermuirs.' What censure +could be too strong for inappropriate fooling like the following, coming +in to mar the solemn close of Dunbar's almost inspired lines?—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Suthe I forsie, if spaecraft had,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frae Hether-muirs sall rise a lad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aftir two centries pas, sall he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Revive our fame and memorie:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then sal we flourish <i>evirgrene</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All thanks to careful Bannatyne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the patron kind and frie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wha lends the lad baith them and me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far sall we fare baith eist and west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Owre ilka clime by Scots possest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then sen our warks sall never dee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Timor mortis non turbat me</i>.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the <i>Evergreen</i> Ramsay published two of his own poems, <i>The Vision</i> +(in which the author bewails the Union and the banishment of the +Stuarts) and <i>The Eagle and the Robin Reid-breist</i> (likewise a Jacobite +poem), wilfully altering the spelling in both, and introducing +archaicisms into the thought, so as to pass them off as 'written by the +ingenious before 1600.' He also inserted <i>Hardyknute</i>, a fragment, which +subsequent research has proved to have been written by Lady Elizabeth +Wardlaw, a contemporary of Ramsay's. Although the <i>Evergreen</i> did much +to revive popular interest in early Scottish poetry, and thus prepare +the way for Lord Hailes and Bishop Percy, from a critical point of view +it was worse than worthless, inasmuch as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span> many of the errors and +alterations appearing in Ramsay's specimens of our early Scots literary +remains, have not been corrected even to this day.</p> + +<p>But though Ramsay, in the estimation of stern literary antiquarians, has +been guilty of an offence so heinous,—an offence vitiating both the +<i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i> and the <i>Evergreen</i>,—on the other hand, from the +point of view of the popular reader, his action in modernising the +language, at least, was not only meritorious but necessary, if the +pieces were to be intelligible to the great mass of the people. +Remembered, too, it must be, that Ramsay lived before the development of +what may be styled the antiquarian 'conscience,' in whose code of +literary morality one of the cardinal commandments is, 'Thou shalt in no +wise alter an ancient MS., that thy reputation and good faith may be +unimpugned in the land wherein thou livest, and that thou mayest not +bring a nest of critical hornets about thine ears.'</p> + +<p>In his <i>Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh</i>, Dr. Daniel Wilson thus +succinctly states the case: 'Ramsay had much more of the poet than the +antiquary in his composition; and had, moreover, a poet's idea of +valuing verse less on account of its age than its merit. He lived in an +era of literary masquerading and spurious antiques, and had little +compunction in patching and eking an old poem to suit the taste of his +Edinburgh customers.' He was no Ritson,—and, after all, even Plautus +had, for three hundred years after the revival of learning, to await his +Ritschl!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">'THE GENTLE SHEPHERD'; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; RAMSAY'S PASTORALS—1725-30</span></h2> + + +<p>In the quarto of 1721, not the least remarkable of its contents had been +two Pastoral Dialogues, the one between Richy (Sir Richard Steele) and +Sandy (Alexander Pope), and based on the death of Addison: the other +between Patie and Roger, and concerning itself solely with a +representation of rural life. Amongst the best pieces in the volume both +undoubtedly ranked. In 1723 appeared another metrical dialogue, <i>Jenny +and Meggy</i>, betraying obvious kinship with <i>Patie and Roger</i>. So +delighted were his friends, the Clerks and the Bennets, Professors +Drummond and Maclaurin, and many others, with the <i>vraisemblance</i> to +Scottish rural life, and with the true rustic flavour present in the two +dialogues, that they entreated him to add some connecting links, and to +expand them into a pastoral drama. Doubtful of his ability to execute a +task demanding powers so varied, and so supreme, Ramsay for a time +hesitated. But at length, induced by their advice, he threw himself into +the undertaking with enthusiasm. In a letter to his kinsman William +Ramsay of Templehall, dated April 8, 1724, he writes: "I am this +vacation going through with a Dramatick Pastoral, whilk I design to +carry the length of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span> five acts, in verse a' the gate, and, if I succeed +according to my plan, I hope to tope [rival] with the authors of <i>Pastor +Fido</i> and <i>Aminta</i>."</p> + +<p>On the scenes wherewith he had become acquainted during his manifold +rambles over the hills and the vales, the glens and glades, of fair +Midlothian, he now drew, as well as from the quaint and curious types of +character—the Symons, the Glauds, the Bauldies, the Rogers, the Madges, +and the Mauses—wherewith he had come into contact during such seasons. +That he stinted either time or trouble in making the drama as perfect as +possible is evident from the prolonged period over which its composition +was spread, and the number of drafts he made of it. Some of the songs, +he informed Sir David Forbes, had been written no fewer than six times. +At length, early in July 1725, prefaced by a dedication in prose from +himself to the Right Hon. Susannah, Countess of Eglinton, and by a +poetical address to the same beautiful patroness, from the pen of +William Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> made its +appearance.</p> + +<p>Its success from the very outset was unparalleled in Scottish literature +up to that date. It seemed literally to take the country by storm. By +all ranks and classes, by titled ladies in their boudoirs, as well as by +milkmaids tripping it to the bughts with leglins and pails, the poem was +admiringly read, and its songs sung. Its performance on the stage in +1726, only served to whet the public appetite. By the leading poets of +the day, Pope, Swift, Gay, Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and Lord Lansdowne, +as well as by the most influential critics, Dennis, Theobald, and Dr. +Ruddiman, the work was hailed as one of the most perfect examples of the +pastoral that had appeared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span> since the <i>Idylls</i> of Theocritus. No less +eminent a judge of poetry than Alexander Pope considered it in many +respects superior to the <i>Shepherds' Calendar</i>; while Gay was so +enthusiastic in his admiration that he sent the work over to Swift, with +the remark, 'At last we have a dramatic pastoral, though it <i>is</i> by a +Scot.'</p> + +<p>The first edition of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> was exhausted in a few +months, and in January 1726 Ruddiman printed the second, while the third +and a cheaper one was called for towards the close of the same year. The +enormous sale of the poem may be estimated by the fact that the tenth +edition was printed in 1750 by R. & A. Foulis of Glasgow. So great was +the accession of popularity accruing to Ramsay through the publication +of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, and so rapid the increase in his bookselling +business, that he found it absolutely necessary to shift his place of +business, or <i>Scotice dictu</i>, to 'flit' to larger premises, in the first +storey of the eastern gable-end of the Luckenbooths, a block of towering +<i>lands</i> or tenements which, until 1817, stood in the very centre of the +High Street, obstructing the thoroughfare, and affording a curious +commentary on the expedients to which the burgesses of Edinburgh were +compelled to resort, to eke out to the utmost the space enclosed within +the charmed circle of the Flodden Wall.</p> + +<p>At his 'flitting,' also, he changed his sign, and, thinking the 'Flying +Mercury' no longer applicable to his new pursuits, he adopted the heads +of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, a sign which in local +parlance gradually grew to bear the title of 'The Twa Heids.' In his new +premises also, Ramsay extended the scope of his business, adding to the +other attractions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span> his establishment a circulating library, the first +of its kind in Scotland. He entered his new shop in May 1726. Sixty +years after, the ground-floor of the same <i>land</i>, together with the flat +where formerly Ramsay was located, were in the occupancy of William +Creech, the first of the great Edinburgh Sosii that were yet to include +the Constables, the Blackwoods, the Chambers, the Blacks, and others of +renown in their day. With the Luckenbooths' premises it is that <i>The +Gentle Shepherd</i> is always associated. From them Ramsay dated all his +editions subsequent to the first two, and there he reaped all the +gratifying results of its success.</p> + +<p>The poem, which takes its name from the 12th eclogue of Spenser's +<i>Shepherds' Calendar</i>, whose opening runs as follows—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The Gentle Shepherd satte beside a spring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in the shadow of a bushy brere,'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>may certainly be ranked in the same category with the <i>Idylls</i> of +Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, the <i>Aminta</i> of Tasso, the <i>Pastor Fido</i> +(faithful shepherd) of Guarini, and Spenser's great poem referred to +above. In <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> Ramsay rises to a level of poetic +strength, united to a harmony between conception and execution, so +immeasurably superior to anything else he accomplished, that it has +furnished matter for speculation to his rivals and his enemies, whether +in reality the poem were his own handiwork, or had been merely fathered +by him. Lord Hailes, however, pricks this bubble, when dealing with the +ill-natured hypothesis raised by Alexander Pennecuik—the doggerel poet, +not the doctor—that Sir John Clerk and Sir William Bennet had written +<i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, when he remarks, 'that they who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span> attempt to +depreciate Ramsay's fame, by insinuating that his friends and patrons +composed the works which pass under his name, ought first to prove that +his friends and patrons were capable of composing <i>The Gentle +Shepherd</i>.' Not for a moment can the argument be esteemed to possess +logical cogency that, because he never equalled the poem in question in +any of his other writings, he was therefore intellectually incapable of +composing that masterpiece which will be read after his other +productions are forgotten, as long, in fact, as Scots poetry has a niche +in the great temple of English literature.</p> + +<p>To define pastoral poetry, as Ramsay understood it, without at the same +time citing examples lying to hand in the works of our author, is a +somewhat difficult task. But as reasons of space will not permit us to +duplicate extracts, and as it is proposed to relegate all criticism to +the closing chapters of the book, we shall, at present, only glance in +passing at the great principles of composition Ramsay kept in view while +writing his pastoral.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Guardian</i>, Addison has stated, with his wonted lucidity and +perspicuity, those mechanical rules to which, in his idea, the type of +poetry termed 'pastoral' should conform. He maintained it should be a +reflection, more or less faithful, of the manners of men 'before they +were formed into large societies, cities built, or communities +established, where plenty begot pleasure.' In other words, that 'an +imaginary Golden Age should be evolved by each poet out of his inner +consciousness.' Then the Ursa Major of criticism, Dr. Johnson, after +growling at all preceding critics on the subject, and remarking that +'the rustic poems of Theocritus and the eclogues of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span> Virgil precluded in +antiquity all imitation, until the weak productions of Nemesian and +Calphurnius, in the Brazen Age of Latin literature,' proceeds to say: +'At the revival of learning in Italy it was soon discovered that a +dialogue of imaginary swains might be composed with little difficulty, +because the conversation of shepherds excludes profound or refined +sentiment.' Rapin, in his <i>De Carmine Pastorali</i>, observes: ''Tis hard +to give rules for that in which there have been none already given. Yet +in this difficulty I will follow Aristotle's example, who, being to lay +down rules concerning epics, proposed Homer as a pattern, from whom he +deduced the whole art. So will I gather from Theocritus and Virgil, +those fathers of pastoral, what I deliver on this account, their +practice being rules in itself.' And Pope, in his <i>Discourse on Pastoral +Poetry</i>, says: 'Since the instructions given for any art are to be +delivered as that art is in perfection, they must of necessity be +derived from those in whom it is acknowledged so to be. It is therefore +from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed authors +of pastoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions +concerning it.' And Boileau, in his <i>Art Poetique</i>, after cautioning +writers of pastoral against the introduction of bombast splendour or +pomp on the one hand, and the use of low and mean language on the other, +making shepherds converse <i>comme on parle au village</i>, observes that +'the path between the two extremes is very difficult'; while Dryden, in +his preface to Virgil's <i>Pastorals</i>, defines pastoral to be 'the +imitation of a shepherd considered under that character.' Finally, to +quote Dr. Johnson once more, he remarks, in his <i>Lives of the Poets</i>, +'truth and exactness of imitation, to show<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span> the beauties without the +grossness of country life, should be the aim of pastoral poetry.'</p> + +<p>By all these critics pastoral poetry is considered in its abstract or +ideal form. They never dreamed of bidding poets descend to the concrete, +or to actual rural life, as Beattie puts it, 'there to study that life +as they found it.' Dr. Pennecuik justly remarks, in his essay on <i>Ramsay +and Pastoral Poetry</i>: 'Of the ancient fanciful division of the ages of +the world into the <i>golden</i>, <i>silver</i>, <i>brazen</i>, and <i>iron</i>, the first, +introduced by Saturn into Italy, has been appropriated to the shepherd +state. Virgil added this conceit to his polished plagiarisms from +Theocritus; and thus, as he advanced in elegance and majesty, receded +from simplicity, nature, reality, and truth.'</p> + +<p>To Ramsay's credit be it ascribed, that he broke away from these rank +absurdities and false ideas of pastoral poetry, and dared to paint +nature and rural life as he found it. His principles are thus stated by +himself: 'The Scottish poet must paint his own country's scenes and his +own country's life, if he would be true to his office.... The morning +rises in the poet's description as she does in the Scottish horizon; we +are not carried to Greece and Italy for a shade, a stream, or a breeze; +the groves rise in our own valleys, the rivers flow from our own +fountains, and the winds blow upon our own hills.'</p> + +<p>To the fact that Ramsay has painted Scotland and Scottish rustics as +they are, and has not gone to the hermaphrodite and sexless inhabitants +of a mythical Golden Age for the characters of his great drama, the +heart of every Scot can bear testimony. Neither Burns,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span> supreme though +his genius was over his predecessors, nor Scott, revelling as he did in +patriotic sentiments as his dearest possession, can rival Ramsay in the +absolute truth wherewith he has painted Scottish rustic life. He is at +one and the same time the Teniers and the Claude of Scottish +pastoral—the Teniers, in catching with subtle sympathetic insight the +precise 'moments' and incidents in the life of his characters most +suitable for representation; the Claude, for the almost photographic +truth of his reproductions of Scottish scenery.</p> + +<p>That Ramsay was influenced by the spirit of his age cannot be denied, +but he was sufficiently strong, both intellectually and imaginatively, +to yield to that influence only so far as it was helpful to him in the +inspiration of his great work, but to resist it when it would have +imposed the fetters of an absurd mannerism upon the 'machinery' and the +'atmosphere' of his pastoral. The last decades of the seventeenth, and +the first two or three of the eighteenth centuries, were periods when +pastoral poetry was in fashion. Italian and French literary modes were +supreme. Modern pastoral may be said to have taken its rise in the +<i>Admetus</i> of Boccaccio; in the introductory act of the <i>Orfeo</i> of +Politian, written in 1475, and termed <i>Pastorale</i>, and in the <i>Arcadia</i> +of Jacopo Sanazzara. But, according to Dr. Burney, the first complete +pastoral drama prepared for the stage was the <i>Sacrificio Favola +Pastorale</i> of Agostino de Beccari, afterwards published in <i>Il Parnasso +Italiano</i>. They followed the <i>Aminta</i> of Tasso and the <i>Filli di Sciro</i> +of Bonarelli in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In Italy and +France, thereafter, pastoral became the literary mode for the time +being; to Clement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span> Marot, with his <i>Complaint of Louise of Savoy</i>, +belonging the honour, as Professor Morley says, of producing the first +French pastoral. It invaded all the fine arts,—music, painting, +sculpture, romance, were all in turn conquered by it. From France it +spread to England and to Scotland, and thereafter a flood of shepherds +and shepherdesses, of Strephons and Chloes, of Damons, Phyllises, and +Delias, spread over literature, of which the evidences in England are +Spenser's <i>Shepherds' Calendar</i>, Sidney's <i>Arcadia</i>; and in Scotland, +Robert Henryson's <i>Robene and Makyne</i>. Nor did Milton disdain this form +for his <i>Lycidas</i>; Pope also affected it, as well as Ambrose Philips; +while, under the title of <i>The Shepherd's Week</i>, Gay produced one of the +most charming of his many charming works, in which our age, by +consigning them to oblivion, has deliberately deprived itself of genuine +poetic enjoyment. To the extent of the name, and of that only, was +Ramsay influenced by his time. As regards all else he struck out a new +line altogether.</p> + +<p>With regard to the <i>locale</i> where Ramsay laid the scene of the drama, +two places have laid claim to it; the first, and the least probable, +being situate near Glencorse, about seven miles from Edinburgh; the +second, one and a half miles from the village of Carlops, about twelve +miles distant from the metropolis, and five farther on from the +first-mentioned spot. The balance of probability lies strongly in favour +of the Carlops 'scene.' In the first named, only the waterfall and one +or two minor details can be identified as corresponding to the natural +features of the scenery in the poem; in the second, every feature named +by Ramsay is full in view. Here are 'the harbour-craig,' 'the trottin' +burnie,' 'the little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span> linn' making 'a singin' din,' 'the twa birks,' +'the pool breast-deep,' 'the washing-green,' 'the loan,' 'Glaud's +onstead,' 'Symon's house,' 'the craigy bield,' 'Habbie's Howe' or house, +and many others. Another strong point is that in Act ii. scene 2 of <i>The +Gentle Shepherd</i>, Glaud threatens to set his biggest peat-stack on fire, +through sheer joy over Sir William Worthy's prospective return. Around +the Glencorse site for the action of the drama, there is not a peat to +be dug in the whole parish; at the Carlops 'scene,' peat is the staple +fuel of the district. Near by, also, is Newhall, the estate which in +Ramsay's days was in possession of the Forbes family, who had purchased +it from Dr. Pennecuik, the author of the <i>Description of Tweeddale</i> and +other works. John Forbes of Newhall was one of Ramsay's dearest friends, +and many relics of the poet are still preserved at the mansion house; +but it was with the Pennecuik family Ramsay associated his poem. In <i>The +Gentle Shepherd</i>, Sir William Worthy is described as having had to fly +into exile—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Our brave good master, wha sae wisely fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And left a fair estate to save his head;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because, ye ken fu' weel, he bravely chose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stand his liege's friend wi' great Montrose.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Newhall was purchased by Dr. Pennecuik's father two years before Charles +I. was beheaded. The doctor himself was contemporary with Cromwell, +Montrose, Monk, and Charles II., all of whom appear so distinctly in the +pastoral as associated with the action of the piece. He had to go into +hiding during the Commonwealth, for his support of Charles I., and for +sheltering Montrose after the battle of Philiphaugh. Pennecuik the +younger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span> (great-grandson of the doctor), in his <i>Life of Ramsay</i>, states +that the poet appeared to have been indebted to Dr. Pennecuik for the +<i>Story of the Knight</i>, but to have drawn the character from that of his +friend Sir David Forbes.</p> + +<p>The issue of the successive editions of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, though +occupying a large share of his time not engrossed by the cares of +business, did not altogether preclude him from writing some fresh pieces +when occasion arose. In 1727 appeared a 'Masque,' which was performed at +the celebration of the nuptials of James, Duke of Hamilton, and the Lady +Ann Cochrane. In this form of poetry Ramsay revived a good old type very +popular amongst the Elizabethan poets and dramatists, and even +descending down to the days of Milton, whose <i>Masque of Comus</i> is the +noblest specimen of this kind of composition in modern literature. +Ramsay's <i>dramatis personæ</i> are rather a motley crew, but on the whole +he succeeds in managing the dialogue of his gods, and goddesses very +creditably, though any admirer of his genius can see it moves on stilts +under such circumstances. <i>The Pastoral Epithalamium</i> upon the marriage +of George Lord Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule is of a less ambitious cast, +both as regards form and thought; the consequence being, that the poet +succeeds admirably in expressing the ideas proper to the occasion, when +he was not bound by the fetters of an unfamiliar rhythm.</p> + +<p>Ramsay's later poems had in turn attained, numerically speaking, to such +bulk as fairly entitled him to consider the practicability of issuing a +second quarto volume, containing all of value he had written between +1721 and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span> 1728. From all quarters came requests for him so to do. +Therefore, towards the close of 1728 he issued his second volume of +collected poems. The interest awakened by <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> still +burned with a clear and steady glow. From this fact, gratifying, indeed, +as regards the proximate success of the individual book, but prophetic +also in an ultimate sense of the stability of reputation to be his lot +in the republic of letters, he concluded, as he says in one of his +letters to the Clerks of Penicuik, 'to regard himself as ane o' the +national bards of Scotland.' That he was justified in doing so, the +future amply testified.</p> + +<p>The realisation that he had now won for himself a permanent place in the +literature of his land operated, however, rather injuriously upon the +continued fecundity of his genius. He became timorous of further appeals +to the public, lest he should injure his fame. Allan Ramsay, in his own +eyes, became Ramsay's most dreaded rival. At length he deliberately +adopted the resolution that the better part of valour was discretion, +and that he would tempt fortune in verse no more. With the exception of +his poetical epistle to the Lords of Session, and his volume of metrical +<i>Fables</i>, Ramsay's poetical career was completed. Henceforth he was +occupied in preparing the successive editions of his <i>Works</i> and of the +<i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i>, and in compiling his collection of <i>Scots +Proverbs</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; HIS BOOK OF 'SCOTS PROVERBS'—1730-40</span></h2> + + +<p>Ramsay had now reached the pinnacle of his fame. He was forty-four years +of age, prosperous in business, enjoying a reputation not alone confined +to Great Britain, but which had extended to France, to Holland, and to +Italy. His great pastoral was lauded in terms the most gratifying by +critics everywhere as the most perfect example of the pure idyll that +had appeared since the days of Theocritus. The proudest of the nobility +were not ashamed to take his arm for a walk down High Street, or to +spend an hour cracking jokes and discussing literature with him under +the sign of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden.</p> + +<p>What Chambers says in his <i>Eminent Scotsmen</i>, from which are culled the +following facts, is strictly accurate: 'Ramsay had now risen to wealth +and high respectability, numbering among his familiar friends the best +and the wisest men in the nation. By the greater part of the Scottish +nobility he was caressed, and at the houses of some of the most +distinguished of them, Hamilton Palace, Loudoun Castle, etc., was a +frequent visitor.' With Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate (and before many +years to be Lord President), with Sir John<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span> Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, near +Edinburgh, he lived in the habit of daily, familiar, and friendly +intercourse. With contemporary poets his relations were likewise of the +most friendly kind. The two Hamiltons, of Bangour and Gilbertfield, were +his constant associates. To Pope, to Gay, and to Somerville; to Meston, +to Mitchell, and to Mallet, he addressed poetical greetings, and several +of them returned the salutations in kind. From England, too, came +another and a different proof of his popularity, in the fact that, when +in 1726 Hogarth published his 'Illustrations of Hudibras' in twelve +plates, these were dedicated to 'William Ward of Great Houghton, +Northamptonshire, and Allan Ramsay of Edinburgh.' Edinburgh itself was +proud of her poet, and was not averse to manifesting the fact when +fitting opportunity offered. He was a frequent visitor at the +University, and Dugald Stewart relates that an old friend of his father +informed him, the students of the fourth and fifth decades of last +century used to point out a squat, dapper, keen-eyed little man, who was +wont to walk up and down the space in front of their classrooms with +Professors Drummond and Maclaurin, as 'the great poet, Allan Ramsay.' +The narrator also added, he felt a secret disappointment when thus +viewing for the first time a real live poet, and noting that he differed +neither in dress nor mien from ordinary men. From his studies among the +classics, and from the prints in the early editions of Horace and +Virgil, he had been led to imagine the genus poet always perambulated +the earth attired in flowing singing robes, their forehead bound with a +chaplet, and carrying with them a substantial looking lyre!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span></p> + +<p>The year 1728 had witnessed, as we have seen, the publication of Allan +Ramsay's last original work. Thereafter he was content to rest on his +laurels, to revise new editions of his various poems, and to add to his +<i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i> and <i>Scots Songs</i>. Perhaps he may have been +conscious that the golden glow of youthful imagination at life's +meridian, had already given place to those soberer tints that rise +athwart the mental horizon, when the Rubicon of the forties has been +crossed. In 1737, when writing to his friend Smibert, the painter (then +in Boston, America, whither he had emigrated), Ramsay states, with +reference to his relinquishment of poetry: 'These six or seven years +past I have not written a line of poetry; I e'en gave over in good time, +before the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me +risk the reputation I had acquired.' He then adds in the letter the +following lines of poetry, from which we gather, further, that his +determination was the result, not of mere impulse, pique, or chagrin, +but of reasoned resolve—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Frae twenty-five to five-and-forty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My muse was neither sweer nor dorty;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Pegasus would break his tether,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en at the shaking of a feather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through ideas scour like drift,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straking his wings up to the lift.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then, then my soul was in a low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gart my numbers safely row;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But eild and judgment 'gin to say,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Let be your sangs and learn to pray.'</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By 1730, then, Ramsay's work, of an original kind at least, was over. In +that year, however, he published another short volume of metrical +fables, under the title,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span> <i>A Collection of Thirty Fables</i>. Amongst them +we find some of the most delightful of all our poet's work in this vein. +<i>Mercury in Quest of Peace</i>, <i>The Twa Lizards</i>, <i>The Caterpillar and the +Ant</i>, and <i>The Twa Cats and the Cheese</i>, possess, as Chalmers truly +says, 'all the <i>naïveté</i> of Phædrus and La Fontaine, with the wit and +ease of Gay.'</p> + +<p>And thus Ramsay's literary career closed, after well-nigh two decades of +incessant intellectual activity. Begun, as Professor Masson says, 'in +the last years of the reign of Queen Anne, and continued through the +whole of the reign of George I., it had just touched the beginning of +that of George II. when it suddenly ceased. Twice or thrice afterwards, +at long intervals, he did scribble a copy of verses; but in the main, +from his forty-fifth year onwards, he rested on his laurels. +Henceforward he contented himself with his bookselling, the management +of his circulating library, and the superintendence of the numerous +editions of his <i>Collected Poems</i>, his <i>Gentle Shepherd</i>, and his +<i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i>.'</p> + +<p>In pursuance of this determination, Ramsay, in 1731, at the request of a +number of London booksellers, edited a complete edition of his works, +wherein all the poems published in the quartos of 1721 and 1728 were +included, in addition to <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>. The success attending +this venture was so great that, in 1733, a Dublin edition had to be +prepared, which also handsomely remunerated both author and publishers. +From the American colonies, likewise, came accounts of the great +popularity of Ramsay's poems, both among the inhabitants of the towns +and the settlers in the mighty forests. Of the latter, many were +Scotsmen, and to them the vividly realistic scenes and felicitous +character-drawing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span> of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> touched, with a power and a +pathos almost overwhelming, the subtlest fibres of that love for +'Caledonia, stern and wild,' which, deepened by distance as it is, and +strengthened by absence, seems so inwoven with the very warp and woof of +the nature of her children that, go where they will, it can never be +eradicated, until the last great consummation overtakes them, when earth +returns to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.</p> + +<p>Our poet now had more time on his hands for those social duties and +convivial pleasures wherein he took such delight. His new premises in +the Luckenbooths, facing down towards, and therefore commanding a full +view of, the magnificent thoroughfare of the High Street, were +immediately opposite the ancient octagonal-shaped Cross of Edinburgh, +where all official proclamations were made. The vicinity of the Cross +was, on favourable afternoons, the fashionable rendezvous of the period. +No sooner was the midday dinner over, than the fair ladies and gallants +of the town—the former in the wide hoops, the jewelled stomachers, the +silken <i>capuchins</i> (cloaks), the <i>bongraces</i> (hoods), and high +head-dresses of the day; the latter in the long, embroidered coats, +knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes, tye-wigs, and +three-cornered hats peculiar to the fourth decade of last +century—issued from their dingy turnpike stairs in the equally darksome +closes, pends, and wynds, to promenade or lounge, as best pleased them, +in the open space around the Cross. Here were to be met all sorts and +conditions of men and women. Viewed from the first storey of the +building wherein Allan Ramsay's shop was situated, the scene must have +been an exceedingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span> animated one. Mr. Robert Chambers, with that +graphic power of literary scene-painting he possessed in measure so +rich, represented the picture, in his <i>Traditions of Edinburgh</i>, in +colours so vivid, and with a minuteness of detail so striking, that +subsequent descriptions have been little more than reproductions of his. +Let us take advantage of his admirable sketch of the scene round the +Cross, filling in any important details he may have omitted.</p> + +<p>The jostlement and huddlement was extreme everywhere. Ladies and +gentlemen paraded along in the stately attire of the period: grave Lords +of Session, and leading legal luminaries, bustling Writers to the Signet +and their attendant clerks, were all there. Tradesmen chatted in groups, +often bareheaded, at their shop doors; <i>caddies</i> whisked about, bearing +messages or attending to the affairs of strangers; children darted about +in noisy sport; corduroyed carters from Gilmerton are bawling 'coals' +and 'yellow sand'; fishwives are crying their 'caller haddies' from +Newhaven; whimsicals and idiots going about, each with his or her crowd +of tormentors; <i>tronmen</i> with their bags of soot; town-guardsmen in +rusty uniform, and with their ancient Lochaber axes; water-carriers with +their dripping barrels; Highland drovers in philabeg, sporran, and cap; +Liddesdale farmers with their blue Lowland bonnets; sedan chairmen, with +here and there a red uniform from the castle—such was the scene upon +which, in the early months of the year 1732,—alas! his last on +earth,—the celebrated London poet, John Gay, gazed from the windows of +Allan Ramsay's shop. Beside him stood the redoubtable Allan himself, +pointing out to him the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span> most notable personages in the motley crowd, +and every now and then called upon to explain some Scotticism in his +speech which reminded Gay of passages in <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> that Pope +had desired him to get explained from the author himself. And worthy +Allan is flattered yet flustered withal with the honour, for beside them +stand the famous Duchess of Queensberry—better known as Prior's +'Kitty,' otherwise Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of the Earl of +Clarendon—and her miser husband, who only opened his close fist to +build such palatial piles as Queensberry House, in the Edinburgh +Canongate, and Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire. They have brought Gay +up north with them, after his disappointment in getting his +play—<i>Polly</i>, the continuation of the <i>Beggars' Opera</i>—refused +sanction for representation by the Duke of Grafton, then Lord +Chamberlain. Ah! how honest Allan smirks and smiles, and becks and bows, +with a backbone that will never be as supple in <i>kotowing</i> to anyone +else. For does he not, like many more of us, dearly love a lord, and +imagine the sun to rise and set in the mere enjoyment of the ducal +smile?</p> + +<p>A pleasant visit was that paid by Gay to Scotland in 1732, before he +returned to London to die, in the December of the same year. He spent +many of his spare hours in the company of Ramsay, and that of the two +friends in whose society much of the latter's time was now to be +passed—Sir John Clerk of Penicuik and Sir Alexander Dick of +Prestonfield. By all three, Gay was deeply regretted,—by Clerk and Dick +chiefly, because he had so much that was akin to their own genial +friend, Allan Ramsay.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1736 our poet published a collection of <i>Scots Proverbs</i>, which, for +some reason or another, has never been printed with his poems in those +editions that are professedly complete. Only in Oliver's pocket edition +is this excellent thesaurus of pithy and forcible Scottish apophthegms +presented with his other works. That it is one of the best repertories +of our proverbial current coin that exists, particularly with regard to +the crystallised shrewdness and keen observation embodied in them, must +be apparent to any reader, even the most cursory. To supersede the +trashy works of Fergusson and Kelly was the reason why Ramsay set +himself to gather up the wealth of aphoristic wisdom that lay manna-like +on all sides of him. As might be expected, it is richest in the sayings +common throughout the three Lothians, though the Lowlands, as a whole, +are well represented. Of Gaelic proverbs there is scarce a trace, +showing how faintly, despite his Jacobitism, his sympathies were aroused +by Celtic tradition or Celtic poetry. Many of the sayings were +undoubtedly coined in Ramsay's own literary mint, though the ideas may +have been common property among the people of his day. But how close the +union between the ideas and their expression in this collection! Of +looseness of phrase there is scarce a trace. How apt the stereotyping of +current idioms in such pithy verbal nuggets as—'Ne'er tell your fae +when your foot sleeps,' 'Nature passes nurture,' 'Muckledom is nae +virtue,' 'Happy the wife that's married to a motherless son,' 'Farmers' +faugh gar lairds laugh.'</p> + +<p>Ramsay's dedication of his volume of <i>Scots Proverbs</i> to 'The Tenantry +of Scotland, Farmers of the Dales and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span> Storemasters of the Hills,' shows +the value he attached to this kind of literature. He writes in the +colloquial Scots, and his words are valuable as presenting us with a +reliable example of the Scots vernacular as spoken in educated circles +early last century. 'The following hoard of <i>Wise Sayings</i> and +observations of our forefathers,' he remarks, 'which have been gathering +through many bygone ages, I have collected with great care, and restored +to their proper sense, which had been frequently <i>tint</i> [lost] by +publishers that did not understand our landwart [inland] language.... As +naething helps our happiness mair than to hae the mind made up with +right principles, I desire you, for the thriving and pleasure of you and +yours, to use your een and lend your lugs to these guid auld says, that +shine wi' wailed sense and will as lang as the warld wags. Gar your +bairns get them by heart; let them hae a place among your family-books; +and may never a window-sole through the country be without them. On a +spare hour, when the day is clear, behind a rick, or on the green howm, +draw the treasure frae your pooch and enjoy the pleasant companion. Ye +happy herds, while your hirdsels are feeding on the flowery braes, ye +may eithly mak yoursels masters of the holy ware.'</p> + +<p>Hitherto the sky of Ramsay's life had been well-nigh cloudless. +Misfortune and failure had never shrivelled his hopes or his enterprises +with the frost of disappointment. Nothing more serious than an envious +scribbler's splenetic effusions had ever assailed him. Now he was to +know the sting of mortification and the pinch of financial loss.</p> + +<p>We have already adverted to the gloomy bigotry of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span> certain section of +the Scottish clergy of this period. To them everything that savoured of +jollity and amusement was specially inspired by the Evil One, for the +hindrance of their ministerial labours. The references to this matter +are manifold throughout Ramsay's poetry. Though no one had a deeper +respect for vital piety than he, no one more bitterly reprobated that +puritanic fanaticism that saw sin and wrong-doing in innocent recreation +and relaxation. Against Ramsay the ecclesiastical thunder had commenced +to roll some years before (according to Wodrow), when he started his +circulating library. That the works of Shakespeare, Beaumont and +Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Dryden, Waller, and the romances of +chivalry, should be placed in the hands of the youth of Edinburgh, was +accounted a sin so grave as to merit Presbyterial censure. Accordingly, +a party, amongst whom was the infamous Lord Grange, attempted to +suppress the library. But the <i>ægis</i> of the redoubtable Dr. Webster had +been thrown over him, and the pother in time died away. It appears, +however, that Ramsay, in 1736, had imported a large stock of +translations of the most celebrated French plays of the day, and had +added them to his library. Sufficient was this to blow into a blaze the +smouldering embers of clerical indignation. From pulpit and press our +poet was fulminated at. Not that he gave the smallest sign that he cared +one jot for all their denunciations. He attended to his shop and his +library, and quaffed his claret at the <i>Isle of Man Arms</i>, at Luckie +Dunbar's in Forrester's Wynd, or at the famous John's Coffee House, with +the cynical response that 'they might e'en gang their ain gate.'</p> + +<p>But just at this precise time Ramsay conceived the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span> idea of becoming a +theatre-proprietor, and thus benefiting the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie by erecting a house where standard dramas might be performed. The +very proposal raised a storm of indignation in clerical circles, against +which even Dr. Webster and his friends were powerless. Hitherto the +opposition of the Presbyterian ministers had prevented the erection of +any theatre in the town. The companies of itinerating players who might +chance to visit the town from time to time, were compelled to hire a +hall or a booth for their performances. Prior to the Commonwealth, +<i>histrionic</i> exhibitions were frequent in Edinburgh. But from 1650 to +the Union, fanaticism became paramount and sternly repressed them. One +of the earliest mentions of dramatic representations after that date +occurs in 1710, and again in 1715, when a regular company of players +performed certain dramas in the Long Gallery and in the Tennis Court at +Holyrood-house. In the subsequent winter, as we learn from the <i>Scots +Courant</i> of December 16, 1715, the plays were represented in the old +magazine-house at the back of the foot of the Canongate, on which +occasion, said the notice, 'the several parts would be performed by some +new actors just arrived from England.'</p> + +<p>On the last night of the year 1719 Ramsay supplied a prologue for the +performance of Otway's play, 'The Orphan,' and 'The Cheats' of Scapin, +'by some young gentlemen,' wherein he remarked—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Somebody says to some folk, we're to blame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That 'tis a scandal and a burning shame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To thole young callants thus to grow sae snack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And learn—O mighty crimes!—to speak and act!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let them talk. In spite of ilk endeavour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'll cherish wit, and scorn their fead or favour.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>In 1722 he wrote an epilogue, to be spoken after the acting of 'The +Drummer'; in 1726 a prologue, to be addressed to the audience by the +famous Tony Aston on the first night of his appearance; in 1727 a +prologue, to be delivered before the acting of 'Aurenzebe,' at +Haddington School; and finally, an epilogue, recited after the +performance of 'The Orphan' and 'The Gentle Shepherd,' in January 1729. +All these, and probably others that have not been preserved, evince that +Ramsay cherished a warm affection for the drama, with an earnest desire +to see his fellow-countrymen profit by it. After the indignant +remonstrance—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Shall London have its houses twa,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we be doomed to nane ava?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is our metropolis ance the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lang-syne dwelt the royal race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Fergus, this gait dwindled doun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the level o' a <i>clachan</i> toun?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While thus she suffers the desertion<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a maist rational diversion,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>he commenced to erect, in 1736, a playhouse in Carrubber's Close. In his +advertisement in the <i>Caledonian Mercury</i>, announcing the prospective +opening, he states, he had built the house 'at vast expense,' in order +that, during the winter nights, the citizens might enjoy themselves in +hearing, performed by competent actors, dramas that would amuse, +instruct, and elevate.</p> + +<p>His advertisement, in the issue of the <i>Mercury</i> for September 15, 1736, +reads:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The new theatre in Carrubber's Close being in great forwardness, +will be opened on the 1st of November. These are to advertise the +ladies and gentlemen who incline to purchase annual tickets, to +enter their names before the 20th of October next, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span> which day +they shall receive their tickets from Allan Ramsay, on paying 30s., +no more than forty to be subscribed for; after which none will be +disposed of under two guineas.'</p></div> + +<p>Meantime the clerical party and the enemies of Ramsay had joined hands +in common opposition to his plans. 'Hardly had he begun operations' +(writes Professor Masson) 'when there came the extraordinary statute of +10 Geo. II. (1737), regulating theatres for the future all over Great +Britain. As by this statute, there could be no performance of stage +plays out of London and Westminster, save when the king chanced to be +residing in some other town, Ramsay's speculation collapsed.' In fact, +the municipal authorities, at the instigation of the clergy, employed +the force of the statute peremptorily to close his theatre. In vain he +appealed to law. 'He only received a quibble for his pains. He was +injured without being damaged,' said the lawyers. In vain he appealed in +a poetical epistle, to President Duncan Forbes of the Court of Session, +wherein he says—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Is there aught better than the stage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mend the follies o' the age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If managed as it ought to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frae ilka vice and blaidry free?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore, my Lords, I humbly pray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our lads may be allowed to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At least till new-house debts be paid off,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cause that I'm the maist afraid of;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which lade lyes on my single back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I maun pay it ilka plack.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Well might the good-hearted, honourable-minded poet dread the future. +The responsibility lay upon him alone for the expense of the building, +and from many intimations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span> he let drop the failure of the speculation +well-nigh ruined him. But the increasing sale of his books, and the +expanding prosperity of his business, soon recouped his outlay. That he +was much depressed by his losses, heavy and unexpected as they were, is +evident from a private letter he wrote at this time to the President, +and which is still preserved at Culloden House. 'Will you,' he writes, +'give me something to do? Here I pass a sort of half-idle, scrimp life, +tending a trifling trade that scarce affords me the needful. Had I not +got a parcel of guineas from you, and such as you, who were pleased to +patronise my subscriptions, I should not have had a gray groat. I think +shame—but why should I, when I open my mind to one of your +goodness?—to hint that I want to have some small commission, when it +happens to fall in your way to put me into it.'</p> + +<p>Not without an element of pathos is the scene that is here presented, of +him, who had done so much to amuse and elevate his fellows, being +compelled to make such a request. Satisfactory is it, however, to know +that, though the poetical epistle 'to the Lords' was fruitless of +practical benefit in the way he desired, albeit exciting for him the +warmest sympathy among the worthy senators of the College of Justice, +there is reason to believe the President was able to throw 'some small +commission' in Ramsay's way, and thus, by his opportune generosity, to +dispel the thunderclouds of misfortune hurrying hard upon the poet's +steps.</p> + +<p>Of course, to his enemies (amongst whom was Pennecuik, the poet), as +well as to the more bigoted of the clergy, his trials were a judgment +upon his conduct. A shoal of pamphlets and pasquinades appeared, as +though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span> to rub salt into the raw wounds of his mortified feelings: such +despicable effusions—written in more than one case by 'ministers of the +Gospel'—as 'The Flight of Religious Piety from Scotland, upon account +of Ramsay's lewd books and the Hell-bred comedians, who debauch all the +Faculties of the Soul of our Rising Generation,' 'A Looking-Glass for +Allan Ramsay,' 'The Dying Words of Allan Ramsay,' etc. As Chalmers +remarks: 'The lampooners left intimations of what must have been of +considerable consolation to our adventurous dramatist; that "he had +acquired wealth"; that "he possessed a fine house"; that "he had raised +his kin to high degree."' Such topics of censure did more honour than +hurt to Ramsay. To their ribald raillery the poet replied only by a +contemptuous silence, infinitely more galling than if he had turned on +the wasps and crushed them, thus bespeaking for them a prominence in no +measure merited. Their spleen he forgot amid the engrossments of a +closer attention to business, and the charms of friendship's +intercourse.</p> + +<p>It may be added, however, that the whirligig of time brought in for +Ramsay his revenges upon his enemies. The theatre which in 1746 was +erected in Playhouse Close in the Canongate, though only by a quibbling +evasion of the statute, so Draconic were its provisions, was largely due +to his energy and exertions. Thus, says a biographer, Ramsay, at the age +of sixty, had the satisfaction to see dramatical entertainments enjoyed +by the citizens, whose theatrical tastes he had kindled and fostered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; HIS PORTRAITS—1740-58.</span></h2> + + +<p>Little more of a biographical character is there to relate. The last +seventeen years of Ramsay's life were passed in the bosom of his family, +and in attention to his business. His son, Allan—afterwards an artist +of great celebrity, and portrait painter to George III.,—after +studying, as the proud father informs his friend Smibert in a letter +about this time, with Mr. Hyffidg in London, and spending a little time +at home 'painting like a Raphael,' had been sent to Rome, where he made +good use of his opportunities. The father's heart yearns over the boy, +and he pathetically adds: 'I'm sweer to part with him, but canna stem +the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own +inclination.' His three daughters were growing up into 'fine, handsome +girls,' while 'my dear auld wife is still my bedfellow.'</p> + +<p>What a beautiful picture we get of the kindly old poet, drawn +unconsciously by himself in this letter. Domesticity and parental +affection were two qualities pre-eminently present in Ramsay's nature.</p> + +<p>From Mrs. Murray of Henderland we also receive a delicious side-peep +into Allan's character. In 1825 she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span> informed Mr. Robert Chambers that +'he was one of the most amiable men she had ever known. His constant +cheerfulness and lively conversational powers had made him a favourite +amongst persons of rank, whose guest he frequently was. Being very fond +of children, he encouraged his daughters in bringing troops of young +ladies about the house, in whose sports he would mix with a patience and +vivacity wonderful in an old man. He used to give these young friends a +kind of ball once a year. From pure kindness for the young, he would +help to make dolls for them, and cradles wherein to place these little +effigies, with his own hands.'</p> + +<p>From 1740 to 1743 he enjoyed to the full the idyllic happiness and peace +described in his epistle to James Clerk of Penicuik—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Though born to not ae inch of ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I keep my conscience white and sound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though I ne'er was a rich heaper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make that up I live the cheaper;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By this ae knack I've made a shift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drive ambitious care adrift;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now in years and sense grown auld,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In ease I like my limbs to fauld.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Debts I abhor, and plan to be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frae shochling trade and danger free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I may, loos'd frae care and strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With calmness view the edge of life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when a full ripe age shall crave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slide easily into my grave.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In 1742, finding himself in a position to take more ease than his busy +life had hitherto permitted to him, he bought a piece of ground on the +Castlehill, overlooking the valley of the North Loch, and there erected +that curious house, with its octagonal-shaped frontage, copied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span> from a +Neapolitan villa, and designed by his son Allan, which so long was an +ornament on the northern slope overlooking the New Town of Edinburgh. +From his windows a reach of scenery was commanded, probably not +surpassed in Europe, stretching from the mouth of the Firth of Forth on +the east to the Grampians on the west, and extending far across the +green hills of Fife to the north. The poet, however, becoming alarmed at +the expense he was incurring, altered his son's design after the +building was half completed. In consequence, the mansion presented a +very quaint appearance. Tradition states that Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun +(afterwards Lord Milton) first detected the resemblance to a goose-pie. +Be this as it may, Allan was grievously vexed by the comparison, and one +day, when showing it, in the pride of his heart, to the witty Lord +Elibank, who duly admired its unrivalled prospect, he added, 'And yet, +my lord, thae toon wits say it's like naething else than a guse-pie.' +'Deed, Allan, noo I see ye intilt, I'm thinkin' the wits are no' sae far +wrang.' History does not record Allan's rejoinder.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he entered his new mansion, however, expecting to enjoy +there many years of domestic happiness and peace, than the great sorrow +of his life fell upon him. In March 1743, his faithful and loving +partner, who had stood by him amid all the storm and stress of his busy +career, was taken from him, after thirty years of unbroken affection and +devotion. She was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, as the cemetery +records show, on the 28th of March 1743. So intense was her husband's +grief that he, who for many another had written elegies instinct with +deep sympathy and regret, could not trust himself to write of her, 'lest +I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span> should break doon a'thegither into my second bairnhood.' Alas! poor +Allan!</p> + +<p>But his daughters, realising to the full the part that now devolved on +them, stepped into the gap left in his domestic circle. Nobly they +fulfilled their duty, and amongst the most affecting tributes Ramsay +paid, is that to the filial affection of 'his girls,' over whom, after +their mother had gone from them, he watched with a wealth of paternal +love and an anxious solicitude, as unsparing as it was unremitting.</p> + +<p>And thus did the life of Allan Ramsay roll quietly onward through placid +reaches of domestic and social happiness, during the closing fourteen +years of existence. Though he did not formally retire from business +until 1755, he left it almost entirely in the hands of capable +subordinates. He had worked hard in his day, and now, as he said—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">——'I the best and fairest please,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little man that lo'es my ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never thole these passions lang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That rudely mint to do me wrang.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Accordingly, he lived quietly in the 'goose-pie,' 'faulding his limbs in +ease,' and absolutely refusing to concern himself with anything +political, social, or ecclesiastical calculated to bring worry and +trouble upon him.</p> + +<p>During the Rebellion of 1745, tradition states that Prince Charles +Edward, after the capture of the city by the Highland army, sent a +message to Ramsay, asking him to repair to Holyrood, that some mark of +his new sovereign's favour might be bestowed on him. Singular, indeed, +it was, that the poet should have selected the day in question to repair +to his friend James Clerk's mansion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span> at Penicuik, and that he should +there have been seized with so severe an indisposition as to prevent him +returning to Edinburgh for nearly five weeks. Though a Tory and a +Jacobite, honest Allan knew upon which side his bread was buttered. Such +honours as would have been conferred would have been inconvenient. +Moreover, the Rebellion had not yet attained dimensions sufficient to +transmute it from a rebellion into a revolution. Pawkiness and caution +were prominent traits in his character, and they were never used to more +salient advantage than in the instance in question.</p> + +<p>To the end of life, Ramsay remained the same kindly, genial, honourable +man, whose appearance in any of the social circles he frequented, was +the signal for 'quips and cranks and wreathèd smiles' to go round, and +for the feast of reason and the flow of soul to commence. His squat, +podgy figure waddling down the High Street on his way to his shop in the +Luckenbooths, his head covered with the quaint three-cornered hat of the +period, beneath which peeped his tie-wig, was one of the familiar sights +of Edinburgh, to be pointed out to strangers with a pride and an +affection that never diminished. In his little villa on the Castlehill +he entertained his friends in true Horatian style, and with a +hospitality every whit as warm, though it was every whit as simple as +that which the great Roman promised Mæcenas, he made them free of what +was in his power to give.</p> + +<p>Foibles he had,—and who is without them? faults, too,—for what +character lacks them? yet his very foibles and his faults leaned to +virtue's side. Vain he certainly was, deny the fact who can? his +egotism, also, may have jarred on some whose individuality was as strong +as his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span> own, but whose liberality in making allowances for human +weaknesses was less. Nay, he may even in some respects have been 'near' +with regard to certain little things, though this was the result of his +humble upbringing, where, in the household economy of the Crichtons, a +pound was a fortune. But once break through the crust of his +old-fashioned formalism with the thrust of some pressing appeal for aid, +and instantly we touch the core of a ready and warm sympathy—a sympathy +as catholic in the radius of its beneficence as it was munificent in the +measure of its benefactions. To the poor, to the suffering, to the widow +and the orphan, to the fatherless and the friendless, Allan Ramsay was +ever the readiest to help where help was really needed; and if his +vanity liked the fact to be made public property, wherein lay the harm? +Do our published subscription-lists to-day not testify to the existence +of the same foible in nine-tenths of us? To the improvident, however, to +the lazy, to the genteel beggar, and to the thousand and one forms +mendicity—supported by mendacity—takes to extort money, Allan was as +adamant. 'Gang your wa's,' he would say to such; 'gar your elbuck earn +what your mooth eats, and ye'll be a better man.'</p> + +<p>Allan has had the misfortune to be rated by what he did not do in the +way of charity, rather than by what he did. Because he esteemed charity +to begin at home, and that he should provide for his own before +participating in any schemes for providing for others, he has been rated +as selfish and miserly. The opposite is the case. Prudent, careful, and +economical,—into no speculation would he go from which he did not see +the probability, at least, of an adequate return. Hence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span> during the +South Sea madness, he kept his head when many a better man went mad with +the speculative mania. He was pious, without his piety being black-edged +with that gloomy bigotry which characterised much of the Presbyterianism +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Scotland. As he put the +matter himself in his <i>Epistle to James Arbuckle</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Neist, Anti-Toland, Blunt, and Whiston,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Know positively I'm a Christian,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Believing truths and thinking free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wishing thrawn parties would agree.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He delighted in sociality and conviviality, but recoiled from aught +savouring of licence or excess. To coarseness, it is true, he may at +times have stooped in his work; but we must remember the spirit of the +times was in favour of calling a spade a spade, and not 'an implement +for disintegrating planetary particles.' To no degree greater than did +Swift, or Steele, or Arbuthnot, or Gay, can Allan Ramsay be considered +to have smirched his pages with references either ribald or indelicate. +The spirit of the age was in fault when coarseness was rated as wit; and +to be true to life, the painters of the manners around them had to +represent these as they were, not as they would have liked them to be.</p> + +<p>On the 9th May 1755 Ramsay, when writing to his friend, James Clerk of +Penicuik, a rhyming epistle, had said—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Now seventy years are o'er my head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thirty mae may lay me dead.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Alas! the 'Shadow feared of man' was already sitting waiting for him at +no great distance farther on in his life's journey. For some years he +had suffered acutely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span> from scurvy in the gums, which in the end attacked +his jawbone and affected his speech. To the close, however, he retained +his cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits. When the last great summons at +length came to him, he met it with a manly fortitude and Christian +resignation.</p> + +<p>Amongst his last words, according to his daughter Janet, who survived +until 1807, were these: 'I'm no' feared of death; the Bricht and Morning +Star has risen and is shining mair and mair unto the perfect day.' And +so he passed 'into the unseen' on the 7th January 1758, in the +seventy-second year of his age. He was interred two days after in the +Greyfriars Churchyard, where his gravestone is still visible, bearing +the inscription: 'In this cemetery was interred the mortal part of an +immortal poet, Allan Ramsay, author of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> and other +admirable poems in the Scottish dialect. He was born in 1686 and died in +1758.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'No sculptured marble here, no pompous lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No storièd urn, no animated bust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though here you're buried, worthy Allan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'll ne'er forget you, canty callan;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For while your soul lives in the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your "Gentle Shepherd" ne'er shall die.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Sir John Clerk, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, who +admired his genius and was one of his most intimate friends, erected at +his family seat at Penicuik an obelisk to his memory; while Mr. +Alexander<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span> Fraser-Tytler, at Woodhouselee, near the Glencorse <i>locale</i> +of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, has erected a rustic temple which bears the +inscription—</p> + +<p class='center'>'<span class="smcap">Allano Ramsay et Genio Loci.</span></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Here midst those streams that taught thy Doric Muse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her sweetest song,—the hills, the woods, and stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where beauteous Peggy strayed, list'ning the while<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her Gentle Shepherd's tender tale of love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scenes which thy pencil, true to Nature, gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To live for ever. Sacred be this shrine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And unprofaned, by ruder hands, the stone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That owes its honours to thy deathless name.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ramsay was survived by his son Allan, the painter, and by his two +daughters, Christian and Janet, who amongst them inherited the poet's +fortune. The house on the Castlehill fell to his son, and remained in +the possession of the family, as Mr. Logie Robertson records, until +1845, when it changed hands at the death of General John Ramsay, the +poet's grandson, and the last of his line. For many years it stood, an +object of interest to all admirers of the bard, until 1892, when, just +as the building was beginning to show signs of age, the site was bought +for the erection of the new students' boarding-house, 'University Hall,' +which so imposingly crowns the ridge of the Castlehill. With a reverence +for the memory of the poet as rare as it is commendable, the promoters +of the scheme resolved to preserve as much as possible of the house, and +the greater part of it has been incorporated in the new building.</p> + +<p>Of Ramsay we have only two portraits remaining that are of any real +value,—that painted by his son Allan, and that by Smibert, the poet's +lifelong friend. The latter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span> represents him in youth, the former in +age—both being considered, at the time of execution, striking +likenesses. But perhaps the best idea of the appearance of the poet may +be gathered from Sir John Steele's fine statue of him (designed from his +son's portrait) which now stands at the corner of West Princes Street +Gardens, Edinburgh, immediately below the site of his house. There, with +his familiar 'nightcap' on his head, he stands, watching the busy crowds +passing to and fro in front of him, wearing the while an expression on +his face as though he were saying with his Patie—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Content's the greatest bliss we can procure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frae 'boon the lift: without it, kings are poor.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span></div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST</span></h2> + + +<p>In attempting a critical estimate of the value of Ramsay's works, for +the purpose of analysis it will be most convenient to consider the great +body of his writings under certain classified headings—(1) Ramsay as a +Pastoral Poet and an Elegist; (2) Ramsay as a Satirist and a +Song-writer; (3) Ramsay's Miscellaneous Works.</p> + +<p>In the chapter on <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, we noted the distinctive +constituents of pastoral poetry, as currently defined, and also wherein +Ramsay's principles, as exemplified in practice, differ from those of +other writers of pastoral. To furnish examples illustrative of our +contention is now all that remains to be done. Early in his poetical +career, as soon, in fact, as he had completed his first tentative +efforts, Ramsay seems to have become conscious, with that rare gift of +prevision always distinguishing him, that his strength lay in a +picturesque yet truthful delineation of rural life. His earliest pieces, +although termed elegies, exhibit, rather, many of the characteristics of +pastorals, in the broad humour and in the graphic and vivid colouring +wherewith he depicts the scenes at Maggy Johnston's tavern at +Morningside, or the incidents in the life of Luckie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span> Wood or of Patie +Birnie. But, as he has termed them <i>elegies</i>, under that heading let +them be considered, though a humorous or mock elegy is somewhat of a +contradiction in terms.</p> + +<p>Roughly classified, Ramsay's pastorals may be stated as follows:—the +dialogues between <i>Richy</i> (Sir Rich. Steele) <i>and Sandy</i> (Alex. Pope), +on the death of Mr. Addison; between <i>Robert, Richy, and Sandy</i>, on the +death of Matthew Prior; <i>Keitha</i>, on the death of the Countess of +Wigton; an <i>Ode with a Pastoral Recitative</i>, on the marriage of James +Earl of Wemyss to Miss Janet Charteris; <i>A Masque</i>, performed at the +celebration of the nuptials of James Duke of Hamilton and Lady Ann +Cochrane; <i>A Pastoral Epithalamium</i>, on the marriage of George Lord +Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule; <i>Betty and Kate</i>, a pastoral farewell to Mr. +Aikman; and finally, <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>.</p> + +<p>Of Ramsay's less important pastorals, the distinguishing characteristics +are their simplicity, their tenderness, and their freedom from aught +didactic. In conforming to the conventional idea of pastoral,—the idea, +that is, of the shepherd state being a condition of perfect peace and +Arcadian felicity and propriety,—in place of copying direct from +nature, they one and all differ from <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>. The picture +of burly Sir Richard Steele and of crooked little Alexander Pope, clad +in shepherd's weeds, and masquerading with dogs and pipes and what not, +savours somewhat of the ludicrous. Then, in <i>Richy and Sandy</i>, he makes +Pope bewail the death of Addison, with whom he had been on anything but +friendly terms for years previous; while the following picture of the +deceased grave-visaged Secretary of State,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span> in such a position as +described in the following lines, tends to induce us profane Philistines +of these latter days, to smile, if not to sneer—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'A better lad ne'er leaned out o'er a kent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor hounded collie o'er the mossy bent:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blythe at the bughts how oft hae we three been,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heartsome on hills, and gay upon the green.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This, however, was the fashion in vogue, and to it our poet had to +conform. In <i>Richy and Sandy</i>, in <i>Robert, Richy, and Sandy</i>, and in his +earlier pastorals generally, we seem to see the poet struggling to rid +himself of the conventional prejudices against painting rural nature in +the real, and in favour of 'a golden-age rusticity' purely imaginary. +Not by this is it implied that I claim for our poet the credit of first +insisting on reverting to nature for the study of scenes and character. +The same conviction, according to Lowell, was entertained by Spenser, +and his <i>Shepherds' Calendar</i> was a manifestation, however imperfect and +unsatisfactory, of his desire to hark back to nature for inspiration. In +<i>Keitha</i> the same incongruity, as noted above, is visible. The poem in +question, with that on the <i>Marriage of the Earl of Wemyss</i>, can neither +be ranked as conventional pastoral nor as pure pastoral, according to +Ramsay's later style. We note the 'Colins' and 'Ringans,' the +'shepherd's reeds' and 'shepherd's weeds,' and the picture of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">——'the singing shepherd on the green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Armyas hight, wha used wi' tunefu' lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To please the ear when he began to play,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—an imitation of Milton's immortal lines in <i>Comus</i>, which are too well +known to need quotation. All of a piece this with the 'golden-age +pastoral.' In the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span> poems, however, occur intimations that the +incongruity was perceived by the author, but that, as yet, he did not +see any means of remedying the uniform monotony of the conventional +form. The leaven was at work in Ramsay's mind, but so far it only +succeeded in influencing but the smallest moiety of the lump.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Masque</i>, written in celebration of the marriage of the Duke of +Hamilton, the sentiments expressed are wholly different. Written +subsequently to <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, Ramsay exhibited in it his +increased technical deftness, and how much he had profitted by the +experience gained in producing his great pastoral. The <i>Masque</i>, albeit +professedly a dramatic pastoral, entirely abjures the lackadaisical +shepherds and shepherdesses of conventional pastoral, and, as a poem of +pure imagination, reverts to the ancient mythology for the <i>dramatis +personæ</i>.</p> + +<p>All these pieces, however, though they exhibit a facility in +composition, a fecundity of imagination, a skilful adaptation of theme +to specific metrical form, a rare human sympathy, and a depth of pathos +as natural in expression as it was genuine in its essence, are only, so +to speak, the preludes to <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>. In the latter, Ramsay's +matured principles of pastoral composition are to be viewed where best +their relative importance can be estimated, namely, when put into +practice.</p> + +<p>By competent critics, <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> is generally conceded to be +the noblest pastoral in the English language. Dr. Hugh Blair, in his +lectures on <i>Rhetoric and Belles Lettres</i>, styled it 'a pastoral drama +which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of +this kind in any language.... It is full of so much natural description +and tender sentiment as would do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span> honour to any poet. The characters are +well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and +just.' And one of Dr. Blair's successors in the Chair of Rhetoric and +English Literature in the University of Edinburgh,—a man and a Scotsman +who, in his day, has done more than any other to foster amongst our +youth a love of all that is great and good and beautiful in our +literature; a teacher, too, whose students, whom he has imbued with his +own noble spirit, are scattered over the world, from China to +Peru,—Emeritus-Professor David Masson, has observed in his charming +<i>Edinburgh Sketches</i>: 'The poem was received with enthusiastic +admiration. There had been nothing like it before in Scottish +literature, or in any other: nothing so good of any kind that could be +voted even similar; and this was at once the critical verdict.'</p> + +<p>To anyone who will carefully compare the <i>Idylls</i> of Theocritus, the +<i>Eclogues</i> of Virgil, and the <i>Aminta</i> of Tasso, with Ramsay's great +poem, the conviction will be driven home,—in the face, it may be, of +many deeply-rooted prejudices,—that the same inspiration which, like a +fiery rivulet, runs through the three former masterpieces, is present +also in the latter—that inspiration being the perfect and unbroken +homogeneity existing between the local atmosphere of the poem and the +characteristics of the <i>dramatis personæ</i>. This fact it is which renders +the <i>Aminta</i> so imperishable a memorial of Tasso's genus; for it is +Italian pastoral, redolent of the air, and smacking of the very soil of +sunny Italy. The symmetrical perfection of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, in +like manner, is due to the fact that the feelings and desires and +impulses of the characters in the pastoral are those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span> distinctively +native and proper to persons in their sphere of life. There is no +dissidence visible between what may imperfectly be termed the <i>motif</i> of +the poem and the sentiments of even the most subordinate characters in +it. Therein lies the true essence of literary symmetry—the symmetry not +alone of mere form, though that also was present, but the symmetry +resulting from the harmony of thought with its expression, of scene and +its characters, of situation and its incidents. Such the symmetry +exhibited by Homer's <i>Iliad</i>, by Dante's <i>Inferno</i>, by Milton's +<i>Paradise Lost</i>, by Cervantes' <i>Don Quixote</i>, by Camoens' <i>Lusiad</i>, by +Scott's <i>Lay of the Last Minstrel</i>, by Tennyson's <i>Idylls</i>.</p> + +<p>Frankly, it must be admitted that only in his <i>Gentle Shepherd</i> does +Ramsay attain this outstanding excellence. His other pieces are +meritorious,—highly so; but they could have been produced by many a +writer of the age with equal, perhaps superior, felicity, and they shine +only in the reflected light of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>; even as Scott's +<i>Lord of the Isles</i> and <i>Harold the Dauntless</i> were saved from being +'damned as mediocrity' only by the excellence of the <i>Lay of the Last +Minstrel</i> and <i>Marmion</i>.</p> + +<p>The great charm of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i> lies in the skilfully-balanced +antithesis of its contrasts, in the reflected interest each type casts +on its opposite. As in Molière's <i>Tartuffe</i>, it is the vivid contrast +created between the hypocrisy of the title-character and the easy +good-nature of Orgon, that begets a reciprocal interest in the fortunes +of both; as in Balzac's <i>Pere Goriot</i>, it is the pitiless selfishness of +his three daughters on the one hand, and the doting self-denial of the +poor old father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span> on the other, that throws both sets of characters into +relief so strong: so, in <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, it is the subtle force +of the contrast between Patie's well-balanced manliness and justifiable +pride, and Roger's <i>gauche</i> bashfulness and depression in the face of +Jenny's coldness; between Peggy's piquant lovableness and maidenly joy +in the knowledge of Patie's love, and Jenny's affected dislike to the +opposite sex to conceal the real state of her feelings towards Roger in +particular, that impart to the poem the vivid interest wherewith its +scenes are perused. Minor contrasts are present too, in the faithfulness +of Patie to Peggy, as compared with the faithlessness of Bauldy to Neps. +The whole drama, in fact, might be styled a beautiful panegyric on +fidelity in love. Such passages as the following are frequent—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'I'd hate my rising fortune, should it move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fair foundation of our faithfu' love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If at my feet were crowns and sceptres laid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bribe my soul frae thee, delightful maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thee I'd soon leave these inferior things<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sic as have the patience to be kings.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As a pastoral poet, Ramsay excels in painting all those homely virtues +that befit the station to which most of his characters belonged. A +fault, and a serious one, it was among the writers of conventional +pastoral, to make their shepherds and shepherdesses talk like +philosophers, and reason upon all the mysteries of life, death, and +futurity. What reader of Sir Philip Sidney's <i>Arcadia</i>, but must have +smiled over the shepherds in that delicious romance discussing love, and +treating of its metaphysical causes and effects, as profoundly as any</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">——'clerke of Oxenforde also<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who unto logik hadde long y-go.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The extravagances of conventional pastoral had been keenly satirised by +Gay, who made his Lobbin Clouts and Cloddipoles, his Blowzalinds and +Bowzabees and Bumkinets, in the <i>Shepherd's Week</i>, 'talk the language +that is spoken neither by country maiden nor courtly dame; nay, not only +such as in the present time is not uttered, but never was in times past, +and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future.' But by +Ramsay the silliness of the prevailing mode, both of British and French +pastoral, was more aptly satirised, by presenting, as a contrast, a +picture of rural life absolutely truthful in all its details, and thus +slaying falsehood by the sword of truth.</p> + +<p>Of <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, the plot is simplicity itself. It describes +the love of a young Pentland shepherd named Patie for a country maiden +named Peggy. The pastoral drama, the time of whose action is all +embraced within four-and-twenty hours, thus preserving one, at least, of +the Greek dramatic unities as defined by the French critics, opens at +early morning with the two young shepherds, Patie and Roger, feeding +their flocks on the hills, and discussing the progress of their +love-suits. The scene is charmingly realistic and natural. Patie is +happy in his love for Peggy who reciprocates it; Roger, in despair over +his ill-success with 'dorty Jenny.' His friend, however, raises his +spirits by telling him how he once served Peggy when she had a fit of +tantrums, by feigning indifference to her, a course which soon brought +the fair one to reason. He exhorts Roger to adopt the same line, +conveying his counsel in the following terms, that contain excellent +advice to young lovers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span> and might have given a hint to Burns for his +song, 'Duncan Gray'—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Dear Roger, when your jo puts on her gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do ye sae too, and never fash your thumb;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seem to forsake her, soon she'll change her mood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gae woo anither, and she'll gang clean wood.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Roger agrees to take the advice, and the scene concludes with a +delightful picture of a shepherd's meal—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'But first we'll tak a turn up to the height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And see gif all our flocks be feeding right;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By that time, bannocks and a shave of cheese<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will make a breakfast that a laird might please,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might please the daintiest gabs, were they sae wise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To season meat with health instead of spice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we have ta'en the grace-drink at this well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll whistle syne'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The second scene opens with an exquisite description of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'A flowrie howm between twa verdant braes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A trottin' burnie wimpling through the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its channel, pebbles, shining, smooth and round.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These are Peggy and Jenny. The latter proposes to begin their work on +the 'howm' or green in question, but Peggy entreats her to</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gae farer up the burn to Habbie's How,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where a' that's sweet in spring and simmer grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between twa birks out o'er a little linn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water fa's, and makes a singin' din;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kisses wi' easy whirles the bordering grass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'll end our washing while the morning's cool,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the day grows het we'll to the pool,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There wash oursels; 'tis healthfu' now in May,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The girls then enter on a discussion regarding Jenny's cruel +indifference to Roger. The maiden, who by the way is a bit of a prude, +affects to despise love and marriage, but in the end, overcome by +Peggy's beautiful description of conjugal happiness, is obliged to +confess her love for Roger. What more delightful picture of maternal +yearning over the young have we in all English literature, than Peggy's +splendid defence of motherhood?—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Yes, it's a heartsome thing to be a wife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When round the ingle-edge young sprouts are rife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gif I'm sae happy, I shall have delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hear their little plaints, and keep them right.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wow, Jenny! can there greater pleasure be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than see sic wee tots toolying at your knee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When a' they ettle at,—their greatest wish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is to be made of and obtain a kiss?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can there be toil in tenting day and night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The like of them, when love makes care delight?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The first scene of the Second Act opens with a picture of a peasant +farmer's 'onstead'; to wit, his dwelling and outhouses—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'A snug thack-house; before the door a green;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hens on the midden, ducks in dubs are seen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this side stands a barn, on that a byre:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A peat stack joins, and forms a rural square.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here the neighbours, Glaud and Symon, meet. The latter has been into +Edinburgh to sell his 'crummock and her bassened quey,' and over their +pipes he informs his friend that their landlord, Sir William Worthy, +who, as a Royalist, had been compelled to go into exile during the +Commonwealth, would now, owing to the Restoration, be able to return +home again, when all would be well. Symon has heard the news from the +laird's servant,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span> 'Habbie,' after whom the 'How' or <i>house</i> is named. +Glaud is so overjoyed at the news that he seeks to persuade Symon to +remain and dine with him, offering, for it was before the age of good +roads and carts,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'To yoke my sled, and send to the neist town<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bring a draught o' ale baith stout and brown.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Symon wishes to exercise hospitality himself, and insists upon +Glaud, his sister Madge, his daughter Jenny, and his niece Peggy, all +dining with him, in honour of the day. This they are to do. We have here +presented a graphic picture of rural fare on fête-days—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'For here yestreen I brewed a bow of maut,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yestreen I slew twa wethers prime and fat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A furlet of good cakes, my Elspa beuk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a large ham hangs reesting in the neuk.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I saw mysel', or I cam o'er the loan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our muckle pot that scads the whey, put on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mutton-bouk to boil, and ane we'll roast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the haggies Elspa spares nae cost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Small are they shorn, and she can mix fu' nice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gusty ingans wi' a curn of spice;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fat are the puddings,—heads and feet weel sung.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The second scene introduces a new element into the drama. Another +shepherd, Bauldy (Archibald) by name, has also been smitten with Peggy's +charms—and it affords an excellent idea of the simplicity of these +rural districts in Scotland, when he repairs to a poor old woman named +Mause, whom the district reputes to be a witch, to entreat her aid in +turning Peggy's heart towards himself. Bauldy's picture of Peggy, in his +soliloquy, is beautiful in its very simplicity—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O Peggy! sweeter than the dawning day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mawn hay;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blyther than lambs that frisk out o'er the knowes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straighter than aught that in the forest grows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her een the clearest blob of dew out-shines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lily in her breast its beauty tines;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her legs, her arms, her cheeks, her mouth, her een,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will be my deid'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The existence of superstition among the Scottish peasantry, a state of +things lasting until well on into last century, is also well brought out +in Bauldy's soliloquy, when he refers to Mausy, 'a witch that for sma' +price, can cast her cantrips, and gie me advice.' Mause, meaning to read +the faithless lover of Neps a lesson, consents to help him. The fourth +scene of the Second Act is undoubtedly one of the finest in the +drama—the meeting of the lovers, Patie and Peggy. The two great +constituents of a successful piece, strength and pathos, are both +present in rich measure. To test her lover's fidelity, the maiden, with +coy coquetry, affects to think that he might alter his mind and deceive +her if she trusted him too implicitly. To this Patie replies that she +deeply wrongs him in doubting his fidelity, and that he would be dull +and blind</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Gif I could fancy aught's sae sweet and fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As my sweet Meg, or worthy of my care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy breath is sweeter than the sweetest brier,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy cheek and breast the finest flowers appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy words excel the maist delightfu' notes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That warble through the merle or mavis' throats;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thee I tent nae flowers that busk the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ripest berries that our mountains yield;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweetest fruits that hing upon the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are far inferior to a kiss frae thee.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>With all a loving woman's sweet perversity, however, Peggy still affects +to doubt, only to be indulged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span> in the delicious bliss of hearing her +lover's vows anew—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Sooner a mother shall her fondness drap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wrang the bairn sits smiling in her lap;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun shall change, the moon to change shall cease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gaits to climb, the sheep to yield the fleece;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere aught by me be either said or done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall do thee wrang;—I swear by all aboon.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In no scene does Ramsay exhibit his wonderful knowledge of the human +heart to such advantage as in the one before us. Peggy and Patie then +sing a duet, taking alternate verses, into which are introduced many of +the old Scots songs,—'The Broom o' Cowdenknowes,' 'Milking the Ewes,' +'Jenny Nettles,' 'Thro' the Wood, Laddie,' 'The Boatman,' 'Maggie +Lauder,' 'The Lass o' Patie's Mill,' and the curtain falls over one of +the most delightful scenes illustrative of pure affection, in modern +drama.</p> + +<p>The Third Act sees the return of Sir William Worthy, who, in the +disguise of a wizard, introduces himself into the company, merry-making +at Symon's. Here he tells Patie's fortune, and the surprising discovery +is ere long made that the youth is Sir William's only son, placed under +Symon's care when the knight had to go into exile on the execution of +Charles I. The description of the little festivity at Symon's is well +wrought out. The third scene contains the love-making of Jenny and +Roger, where the faithful swain's happiness is rendered complete. With +great gusto Ramsay paints this episode, as well as with consummate +fidelity to nature,—a fact becoming increasingly apparent when one +notes the marked difference between the love-scene wherein<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span> Patie and +Peggy take part, and that wherein Jenny declares her love for Roger. The +latter scene is more decidedly tinged with rusticity than the former. In +the fourth scene Sir William reveals himself to Symon, and inquires +eagerly about the progress made by his son during his years of absence. +Symon praises the youth's devotion to letters, and then hints at his +love for Peggy, which Sir William declares must be forgotten.</p> + +<p>The first scene of the Fourth Act relieves, by the introduction of +humorous episodes, the sentimentality whereinto the drama at this stage +shows signs of lapsing. Mause, Madge, and Bauldy have an interview, at +which the two last named come to blows; and when Bauldy has taken +himself off, the two women perfect their plans for playing on the +foolish fellow's superstitious fears. The remainder of the Fourth Act +deals with Patie's sorrow and Peggy's anguish when Sir William's +decision is made known. Of course, they vow everlasting fidelity to each +other. The scene between the lovers is a very powerful one, wherein +Ramsay evinced his sway over the subtler emotions. Yet here, as +elsewhere, his simplicity constitutes his strength. He never attempts to +depict any complex interaction of human passions. Like Æschylus, he +contents himself with the representation of one elemental emotion at a +time, and he thoroughly exhausts the one '<i>moment</i>' before he passes on +to another. Few passages are there in literature more genuinely +pathetic, yet keeping more rigidly within the modesty of nature, than +that wherein poor Peggy, after dwelling on the golden past, tries to +picture the dull grey round of duty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span> in the future when Patie shall have +been taken from her—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Speak on, speak ever thus, and still my grief;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But short, I dare to hope the fond relief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New thoughts a gentler face will soon inspire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with nice airs swims round in silk attire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then I, poor me! with sighs may ban my fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the young laird's nae mair my heartsome Pate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae mair again to hear sweet tales expresst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the blyth shepherd that excelled the rest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae mair be envied by the tattling gang<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Patie kissed me when I danced or sang;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae mair, alake! we'll on the meadows play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rin half-breathless round the rucks of hay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As aft-times I have fled from thee right fain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fa'n on purpose, that I might be tane.'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Patie reiterates his vows to her, and Peggy, comforted, declares she +will set herself to learn 'gentler charms, through ilka school where I +may manners learn.' Patie applauds her resolution, but declares that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">——'without a' the little helps of art<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy native sweets might gain a prince's heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet now, lest in our station we offend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We must learn modes to innocence unken'd.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The scene closes with Peggy's vows of fidelity. In this scene Ramsay +touched the high-water mark of his genius, and for the elements of +simplicity, strength, and propriety of the sentiments expressed by each +character with the root-idea of that character, it is rivalled by very +few scenes of its kind in the literature of our land.</p> + +<p>The first scene of the last Act opens with Bauldy's fright. He had gone +to fulfil his engagement to meet Mause, the pretended witch, who was to +turn Peggy's heart to him. But as he had insulted Madge, Peggy's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span> aunt, +in the fore part of the day, the latter, to punish him by taking +advantage of his dread of ghosts, meets him at the dead hour of the +night when he is repairing to Mause's cottage. She is draped in a white +sheet, and utters ghastly groans. Bauldy, having sunk terror-stricken to +the ground, is soundly cuffed and trounced by the two women. As soon, +therefore, as daylight breaks, he seeks an interview with Sir William to +entreat redress. The latter, who had been passing the night in Symon's +house, enters fully into the spirit of the joke, and orders Mause to be +brought before him.</p> + +<p>The second scene exhibits Glaud's 'onstead' again, and the family +preparing to go down to Symon's to take their leave of Patie. Peggy is +very sad,—so much so that her sharp-tongued aunt cannot refrain from +jeering at it—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Poor Meg!—Look, Jenny, was the like e'er seen?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How bleared and red wi' greetin' look her een!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This day her brankan wooer taks his horse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To strut a gentle spark at Edinburgh Cross.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Meg, poor Meg! maun wi' the shepherds stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tak what God will send in hodden gray.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To this ill-timed speech Peggy makes a pathetic reply, that must have +caused a pang of remorse to her aunt. But when Glaud ventures to warn +her against being too free with Patie, seeing he could not marry her +now, she replies with gentle reproach—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Sir William's virtuous, and of gentle blood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And may not Patrick too, like him, be good?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Glaud's answer exhibits the simple faith of the rural inhabitants of the +district in a striking light—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'That's true and mony gentry mae than he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As they are wiser, better are than we;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But thinner sawn: they're sae pufft up wi' pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's mony o' them mocks ilk haly guide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shows the gate to heav'n. I've heard mysel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some of them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The last scene of the pastoral contains the <i>dénouement</i>. With great +artistic skill, so as to avoid wearying the reader, Ramsay only +represents the delivering of the verdict upon Bauldy's appeal against +Mause, the result being that the former was informed he only got what he +deserved. At this moment, however, Madge, Peggy, and Jenny enter the +room where Sir William was sitting. On Peggy Sir Williams gazes with +interest, but presently starts with surprise. Her features are those of +his long-dead sister. Eagerly he inquires from Glaud if she be his +daughter. Glaud, after some hesitation, declares her to be a foundling. +At this juncture, however, old Mause steps forward and unravels the +tangled skein. She first calls on Sir William to say if he does not +recall her features as his own old nurse. Sir William joyfully +recognises her, and then she relates how she had brought Peggy as a babe +thither, to save its life from those who had usurped its rights after +his sister's death. She declares that Peggy is indeed his own niece, and +Patie's full cousin.</p> + +<p>Patie's joy is now complete, and the two lovers, their prospective union +blessed by Sir William, fall into one another's arms; while the +happiness of the shepherds and rustics is consummated when Sir William, +restored to his possessions, announces his intention never more to leave +them. To Symon and Glaud he assigns their <i>mailings</i> (farms) in +perpetual feu, while Roger is made his chamberlain. As the curtain then +descends over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span> general happiness, Sir William pronounces the usual moral +admonition, without which no pastoral of the time was complete—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'My friends, I'm satisfied you'll all behave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each in his station as I'd wish and crave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be ever virtuous, soon or late ye'll find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reward and satisfaction to your mind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The maze of life sometimes looks dark and wild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft when hopes are highest we're beguiled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft when we stand on brinks of dark despair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some happy turn with joy dispels our care.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The relative proportions of the various characters have been preserved +with rare skill, and the individuality of each is as firmly and clearly +differentiated in a few rapid incisive strokes, as though he had +expended pages of description on each, like Pope and Gay. Patie's cheery +<i>bonhomie</i> and vivacious nature, his love of learning and his wise views +of life and its duties, find an excellent foil in the slow, bashful, +phlegmatic Roger, whose very 'blateness' denies him the bliss he covets +in Jenny's love. Peggy is altogether charming,—a lovely, pure-souled, +healthful, sport-loving maiden, with enough of her sex's foibles in her +to leave her a very woman, yet with as few faults as it is possible for +faulty human nature to be without. One of the most delightful heroines +in pastoral poetry is Peggy. Jenny's prudish airs and affected dislike +to the sterner sex are delicately yet incisively portrayed, while the +staunch fidelity of Symon, the cheery chirpiness of Glaud, the bucolic +ignorance and superstition of Bauldy, the cankered impatience of +Madge—a spinster against her will, and the pathetic, age-worn weariness +of Mause, are depicted with the assured hand of a master. Many of the +lyrics<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span> interspersed throughout the pastoral are gems of rustic song; +not high-class poetry, otherwise they would have been as out of place as +would the Johnsonian minnows, talking, as Goldsmith said, like whales.</p> + +<p>Only to one other production of Ramsay's genius will attention be called +under this head, namely, his continuation of James the First's poem, +<i>Christ's Kirk on the Green</i>. Of this, the first canto only was written +by its royal author. Ramsay, therefore, conceived the design of +completing it, as was remarked before. The king had painted with great +spirit the squabble that arose at a rustic wedding at Christ's Kirk, in +the parish of Kinnethmont, in that part of the county of Aberdeen near +Leslie called the Garioch. Ramsay seems to have mistaken it for Leslie +in Fife. Two cantos were added by our poet to the piece, in the one of +which he exhibited the company, their differences ended, as engaging in +feasting and good cheer; in the other, their appearance the following +morning, after they had slept off the effects of the orgies, and when +they proceed to the bridegroom's house to offer gifts. The skill +wherewith Ramsay dovetailed his work into that of his royal predecessor, +and developed the king's characters along lines fully in accord with +their inception, is very remarkable. There is a Rabelaisian element in +the headlong fun and broad rough-and-tumble humour Ramsay introduces +into his portion of the poem, but it is not discordant with the king's +ideas. The whole piece is almost photographic in the vividness of the +several portraits; the 'moment' of delineation selected for each being +that best calculated to afford a clue to the type of character. The +following picture of the 'reader,' or church precentor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span> in Roman +Catholic times, has often been admired, as almost Chaucerian, for its +force and truth—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The latter-gae of haly rhime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sat up at the boord head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a' he said 'twas thought a crime<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To contradict indeed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For in clerk lear he was right prime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And could baith write and read,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drank sae firm till ne'er a styme<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He could keek on a bead<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Or book that day.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The coarseness of the pieces cannot be denied. Still, withal, there is a +robust, manly strength in the ideas and a picturesque force in the +vocabulary that covers a multitude of sins. His picture of morning has +often been compared with that of Butler in <i>Hudibras</i>, but the advantage +undoubtedly lies with Ramsay. Butler describes the dawn as follows—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The sun had long since in the lap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Thetis taken out his nap,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From black to red began to turn.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ramsay, in his description, says—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Now frae th' east neuk o' Fife the dawn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Speel'd westlines up the lift;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Carles wha heard the cock had crawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Begoud to rax and rift;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cry'd "Lasses, up to thrift";<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dogs barkèd, and the lads frae hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bang'd to their breeks like drift,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Be break o' day.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It must be remembered, the poem was addressed to rustics, who would +neither have understood nor appreciated anything of a higher or less +broadly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span> Hogarthian nature. In <i>Christ's Kirk on the Green</i> we have +stereotyped to all time a picture of manners unsurpassed for vigour and +accuracy of detail, to which antiquarians have gone, and will go, for +information that is furnished in no other quarter.</p> + +<p>In his elegies pure and simple, namely, those divested of any humorous +element, Ramsay has done good work; but it is not by any means on a par +with what is expected from the poet who could write <i>The Gentle +Shepherd</i>. A painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and +farcical was Ramsay's distinctive <i>métier</i>. Pity it was his vanity and +ambition ever induced him to turn aside from the path wherein he was +supreme. His 'Ode to the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the +Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John Clerk on the death of his +son James Clerk, and the 'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,' +are his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas expressed +are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and the modesty of nature +are not infringed by any exaggerated expressions of grief, but the glow +of genius is lacking, and the subtle union of sentiment and expression +that are so prominent features in his greater poem.</p> + +<p>His two finest efforts as an elegist were his <i>Ode to the Memory of Mrs. +Forbes</i>, beginning—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ah, life! thou short uncertain blaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Scarce worthy to be wished or loved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why by strict death so many ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So soon, the sweetest are removed!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If outward charms and temper sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cheerful smile, the thought sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could have preserved, she ne'er had met<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A change till death had sunk with time;'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>also the one on the <i>Death of Sir Isaac Newton</i>, wherein occur two +memorable stanzas—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Great Newton's dead!—full ripe his fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cease vulgar grief, to cloud our song:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We thank the Author of our frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who lent him to the earth so long.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For none with greater strength of soul<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could rise to more divine a height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or range the orbs from pole to pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And more improve the human sight.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His 'humorous elegies,' written in a mock heroic strain, and sometimes +upon persons still living, though, for the purposes of his art, he +represented them as dead, as in the case of John Cowper, are instinct +with broad, rollicking, Rabelaisian fun. Their vivid portrayal of the +manners and customs of the time renders them invaluable. What better +description of the convivial habits of Edinburgh society early last +century could be desired, than the graphic pictures in <i>Luckie Wood's +Elegy</i>, particularly the stanza—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'To the sma' hours we aft sat still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nick'd round our toasts and sneeshin'-mill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good cakes we wanted ne'er at will,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">The best of bread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which aften cost us mony a gill<br /></span> +<span class="i8">To Aitkenhead.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Than his elegies on Luckie Spence, John Cowper, and Patie Birnie, no +more realistic presentation of low-life manners could be desired. They +are pictures such as Hogarth would have revelled in, and to which he +alone could have done justice in reproduction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER</span></h2> + + +<p>Difficult it is to make any exact classification of Ramsay's works, +inasmuch as he frequently applied class-names to poems to which they +were utterly inapplicable. Thus many of his elegies and epistles were +really satires, while more than one of those poems he styled satires +were rather of an epic character than anything else. By the reader, +therefore, certain shortcomings in classification must be overlooked, as +Ramsay's poetical terminology (if the phrase be permissible) was far +from being exact.</p> + +<p>As I have previously remarked, Ramsay's studies in poetry, in addition +to the earlier Scottish verse, had lain largely in the later +Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods. In these, Milton, Cowley, +Dryden, and Pope were his favourites, and their influence is to be +traced throughout his satires. To Boileau he had paid some attention, +though his acquaintance with French literature was more through the +medium of translations, than by drawing directly from the fountainhead. +Ramsay's satires exhibit all the virtues of correct mediocrity. Their +versification is smooth, and they generally scan accurately: the ideas +are expressed pithily, at times epigrammatically and wittily. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span> +faults and foibles satirised in most cases are those that richly merited +the satiric lash. Yet, all these merits granted, the reader feels +something to be lacking. The reason is not far to seek. Ramsay never +felt at home in what may be termed 'polished satire.' He was as much out +of place as would a low comedian on being suddenly called upon to +undertake 'drawing-room comedy.' Perpetually would he feel the +inclination to rap out one of the rousing, though vulgar, jokes that +inevitably evoked a roar of applause from the gallery, and sooner or +later he would give way to it. Ramsay was in precisely the same +position. The consequence is that in the <i>Morning Interview</i>, +professedly an imitation of Pope's <i>Rape of the Lock</i>, there are +incongruous images introduced, for the purpose of relieving the piece by +humorous comparisons, which offend the taste even of the most cursory +reader. Such allusions as that to 'soft fifteen on her feet-washing +night,' and others of a cognate character, are entirely out of place in +'polished satire.' If he attempted the type of composition, he ought to +have conformed to its rules.</p> + +<p>Of course, Ramsay wrote certain satires, <i>The Last Speech of a Wretched +Miser</i> and the like, in the Scots vernacular, and addressed to the lower +classes in the community, where his genius is seen at its best, because +dealing with 'low-life satire' and the types of character he loved most +of all to paint. But his <i>Wealth or the Woody</i>, his <i>Health</i>—a poem +addressed to Lord Stair, his <i>Scribblers Lashed</i>, <i>The General Mistake</i>, +<i>The Epistle to Lord Ramsay</i>, and the <i>Rise and Fall of Stocks in 1720</i>, +exhibit Ramsay's genius moving in fetters. His touch lacks piquancy and +epigrammatic incisiveness,—lacks, too,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span> that determinate deftness so +characteristic of Horace, as well as those subtle <i>nuances</i> of +double-meaning wherein Pope and Arbuthnot excelled, and of which the +latter's terrible 'Epitaph on Colonel Chartres' is a favourable example. +Ramsay hits with the hammer of Thor, when he should tap as lightly as +'twere reproof administered by a fair one with her fan. Witness his +portrait of Talpo in <i>Health</i>—a poem in many respects one of Ramsay's +best. With what airy satiric touches Pope or Gay would have dashed off +the character. Note the laboured strokes wherewith Ramsay produces his +picture—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'But Talpo sighs with matrimonial cares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His cheeks wear wrinkles, silver grow his hairs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before old age his health decays apace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And very rarely smiles clear up his face.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Talpo's a fool, there's hardly help for that,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He scarcely knows himself what he'd be at.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's avaricious to the last degree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thinks his wife and children make too free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With his dear idol; this creates his pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And breeds convulsions in his narrow brain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's always startled at approaching fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often jealous of his virtuous mate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is ever anxious, shuns his friends to save:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus soon he'll fret himself into a grave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There let him rot'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Ramsay's distinguishing and saving characteristic in satire was the +breadth and felicity of his humour. To satire, however, humour is less +adapted than wit, and of wit Ramsay had, in a comparative sense, but a +scanty endowment. He was not one of those who could say smart things, +though he could depict a humorous episode or situation as felicitously +as anyone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span> of his age. Like Rabelais, he was a humorist, not a wit, and +his satires suffered accordingly. Perhaps the best of his satires is +<i>The Last Speech of a Wretched Miser</i>, wherein his humour becomes +bitingly sardonic. The wretch's address to his pelf is very powerful—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O dool! and am I forced to dee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nae mair my dear siller see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That glanced sae sweetly in my e'e!<br /></span> +<span class="i8">It breaks my heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My gold! my bonds! alackanie<br /></span> +<span class="i8">That we should part.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like Tantalus, I lang have stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chin-deep into a siller flood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet ne'er was able for my blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">But pain and strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To ware ae drap on claiths or food,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">To cherish life.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Different, indeed, is the case when we come to consider Ramsay as a +song-writer and a lyrist. To him the former title rather than the latter +is best applicable. This is not the place to note the resemblances and +the differences between the French <i>chanson</i>, the German <i>lied</i>, the +Italian <i>canzóne</i>, and the English song or lyric. But as indicating a +distinction between the two last terms, Mr. F. T. Palgrave, in the +introduction to his invaluable <i>Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics</i>, +regards a 'lyric' as a poem turning on 'some single thought, feeling, or +situation'; Mr. H. M. Posnett, in his thoughtful volume on <i>Comparative +Literature</i>, remarks that the lyric has varied from sacred or magical +hymns and odes of priest bards, only fulfilling their purpose when sung, +and perhaps never consigned to writing at all, down to written +expressions of individual feeling from which all accompaniments of dance +or music have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span> been severed. But approximately defined, a lyric may be +said to be a poem—short, vivid, and expressive of a definite emotion, +appealing more to the eye than with any ultimate view of being set to +music; a song, as a composition appealing more to the ear, wherein the +sentiments are more leisurely expressed, with the intention of being +accompanied by music. Mr. E. H. Stoddard, in the preface to his <i>English +Madrigals</i>, defines a lyric 'as a simple, unstudied expression of +thought, sentiment, or passion; a song, its expression according to the +mode of the day.' The essence of a lyric is point, grace, and symmetry; +of a song, fluency, freedom, and the expression of sympathetic emotions.</p> + +<p>Ramsay, according to this basis of distinction, was, as has been said, +rather a song-writer than a lyrist. The works of Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, abound in lyrics, but +contain comparatively few songs, in the modern sense of the word, in +which we speak of the songs of Burns, Moore, and Barry Cornwall. Ramsay, +in his songs, sacrificed everything to mode. In nine cases out of ten he +had the tune for the song in his mind when he was writing the words. In +Scotland, as is well known, there is an immense body of music, some of +it ancient, some of it comparatively modern, though none of it much +later than the Restoration. That was the mine wherein Ramsay dug long +and deep for the music for his <i>Tea-Table Miscellany</i>. To those ancient +tunes he supplied words—words that to this day remain as a memorial of +the skill and sympathy wherewith he wedded the spirit of the melodies to +language in keeping with their national character.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span></p> + +<p>To a <i>soupçon</i> of diffuseness the poet must, however, plead +guilty—guilty, moreover, because of the invincible temptation to pad +out a line now and then 'for crambo's sake' when the ideas ran short. +Ramsay possessed all the qualities constituting a song-writer of great +and varied genius. His work exhibits ease and elasticity of rhythm, +liquid smoothness of assonance, sympathetic beauty of thought, with +subtle skill in wedding sense to sound. Though his verse lacked the +dainty finish of Herrick and Waller, the brilliant facet-like sparkle of +Carew, Suckling, and Lovelace, the tender grace of Sedley, and the +half-cynical, half-regretful, but wholly piquant epicureanism, of +Rochester and Denham, yet Ramsay had a charm all his own. Witness the +'Lass o' Patie's Mill'; is it not entirely <i>sui generis</i>?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The lass o' Patie's Mill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So bonny, blythe, and gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In spite of all my skill,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She stole my heart away.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When tedding of the hay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bareheaded on the green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love midst her locks did play,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wantoned in her een.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her arms, white, round, and smooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Breasts rising in their dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To age it would give youth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To press 'em with his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro' all my spirits ran<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An ecstasy of bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I such sweetness fan'<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wrapt in a balmy kiss.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Without the help of art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like flowers that grace the wild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She did her sweets impart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whene'er she spoke or smil'd.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her looks they were so mild,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Free from affected pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She me to love beguiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I wished her for my bride.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Take also 'Bessy Bell and Mary Gray'; what a rich fancy and charming +humour plays throughout the piece, united to a keen knowledge of the +human heart—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They are twa bonny lasses;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bigg'd a bower on yon burnbrae,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And theek'd it o'er with rashes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thought I ne'er could alter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Mary Gray's twa pawky e'en,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They gar my fancy falter,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>or that verse in his 'Scots Cantata,' with what simplicity, yet with +what true pathos, is it not charged?—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O bonny lassie, since 'tis sae,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That I'm despised by thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hate to live; but O, I'm wae,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And unco sweer to dee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear Jeany, think what dowy hours<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I thole by your disdain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should a breast sae saft as yours<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Contain a heart of stane?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>George Withers' famous lines, 'Shall I, wasting in despaire,' are not a +whit more pathetic. Then if we desire humour pure and unadulterated, +where can be found a more delightful <i>lilt</i> than 'The Widow'?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The widow can bake, and the widow can brew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The widow can shape, and the widow can sew,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mony braw things the widow can do,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Then have at the widow, my laddie.'<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span></p> + +<p>Or if you affect a dash of satire in your songs, what more to your taste +than—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Gi'e me a lass wi' a lump o' land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And we for life shall gang thegither,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though daft or wise I'll ne'er demand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or black or fair it maks na whether.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'm aff wi' wit, and beauty will fade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And blood alane is no worth a shilling;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she that's rich, her market's made,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For ilka charm aboot her's killing.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or if the reader desire the wells of his deepest sympathies to be +stirred, what more truly pathetic than his 'Auld Lang Syne,' which +supplied Burns with many of the ideas for his immortal song; or his +version of 'Lochaber No More'—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell my Jean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where heartsome wi' thee I've mony day been;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—a song than which to this day few are more popular among Scotsmen. As +a song-writer Ramsay appeals to all natures and all temperaments. He was +almost entirely free from the vice of poetic conventionality. He wrote +what seemed to him best, undeterred by the dread of offending against +poetic canons, or the principles of this, that, or the other school of +poetry. He was a natural singer, not one formed by art—a singer, +voicing his patriotic enthusiasm in many a lay, that for warmth of +national feeling, for intense love of his species, for passionate +expression of the tenderer emotions, is little behind the best of the +songs of Robert Burns. Granted that his was not the power to sweep,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span> +like Burns, or Béranger, or Heine, with masterful hand over the entire +gamut of human passions; that to him was not given, as to them, the +supremely keen insight into the workings of the human heart, and the +magical witchery of wedding sense to sound so indissolubly, that alter +but a word in the texture of the lines and the poem is ruined. Yet, in +his province, Ramsay was dowered with a gift but little less notable, +that of portraying so faithfully the natural beauties of his country, +and the special characteristics of his countrymen, that, in a greater +degree even than Burns,—were Ramsay's songs only recognised as his, in +place of being ascribed to others,—he has a right to the proud title of +Scotland's national song-writer. Not for a moment do I seek to place +Ramsay on a pedestal co-equal with Burns—that were an error worse than +folly; not for a moment do I seek to detract from the transcendent merit +of our great national poet. But though I do not rate Burns the less, I +value Ramsay the more, when I say that, had there been no Ramsay there +might have been no Burns nor any Fergusson—at least, the genius of the +two last named poets would not have found an adequate vehicle of +expression lying readymade to their hand. Ramsay it was who virtually +rendered the Scots vernacular a possible medium for the use of Burns; +and this service, unconsciously rendered by the lesser genius to the +greater, is generously acknowledged by the latter, who could not but be +aware that, as his own star waxed higher and yet higher from the horizon +line of popularity, that of his elder rival waned more and more. +Therefore his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span> noble panegyric on Ramsay is but a tribute to his 'father +in song'—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Thou paints auld nature to the nines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thy sweet Caledonian lines;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae gowden stream through myrtle twines,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Where Philomel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While nightly breezes sweep the vines,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Her griefs will tell.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In gowany glens thy burnie strays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where bonnie lassies bleach their claes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Wi' hawthorns gray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays<br /></span> +<span class="i8">At close o' day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy rural loves are nature's sel';<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell<br /></span> +<span class="i8">O' witchin' love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That charm that can the strongest quell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sternest move.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span></div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION</span></h2> + + +<p>Our survey is now drawing to a close. To say a word upon those +miscellaneous poems that do not fall naturally into any convenient +category for classification is all that remains to be done.</p> + +<p>Already attention has been called to the poem on <i>Content</i>, when its +purpose was sketched. Though containing many passages of no little power +and beauty, yet as a whole it is heavy and uninteresting. Written during +the time when the glamour of Pope's influence was upon Ramsay, it +exhibits many of Pope's faults without his redeeming features. True, the +characters are drawn with great vigour and distinctive individuality, +but the trail of dulness lies over it, and <i>Content</i> slumbers, with +James Thomson's <i>chef d'œuvre</i> on <i>Liberty</i>, on the top shelf amongst +the spiders. The description of the palace of the goddess Content has, +however, often been praised for its vigorous scene-painting—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Amidst the glade the sacred palace stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The architecture not so fine as good;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor scrimp, nor gousty, regular and plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plain were the columns which the roof sustain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An easy greatness in the whole was found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where all that nature wanted did abound:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here no beds are screen'd with rich brocade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fuel logs in silver grates are laid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor broken China bowls disturb the joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of waiting handmaid, or the running boy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor in the cupboard heaps of plate are rang'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To be with each splenetic fashion changed.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>The Prospect of Plenty</i> is another poem wherein Ramsay allows his +reasoning powers to run away with him. As Chalmers remarks: 'To the +chimerical hopes of inexhaustible riches from the project of the South +Sea bubble, the poet now opposes the certain prospect of national wealth +from the prosecution of the fisheries in the North Sea—thus judiciously +pointing the attention of his countrymen to the solid fruits of patient +industry, and contrasting these with the airy projects of idle +speculation.' The poem points out that of industry the certain +consequence is plenty, a gradual enlargement of all the comforts of +society, the advancement of the useful, and the encouragement of the +elegant arts, the cultivation of talents, the refinement of manners, the +increase of population—all that contributes either to national +prosperity or to the rational enjoyments of life. The composition and +structure of the poem are less deserving of encomium than the wisdom of +its precepts. Like <i>Content</i>, it is tedious and dull, yet there is one +vigorous passage in it, beginning: 'A slothful pride! a kingdom's +greatest curse,' and dealing with the evils arising from the separation +of the classes, which has often been quoted. Nor must we forget <i>The +Vision</i>, which in the opinion of many must rank amongst the best of +Ramsay's productions. Published originally in the <i>Evergreen</i>, over the +initials 'A. R. Scot,' for some time it was believed to be the work of a +Scots poet, Alexander<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span> Scott, who lived in the reign of Queen Mary. But +Janet Ramsay put the matter beyond a doubt before her death by declaring +the poem to have been written by her father. The merits of <i>The Vision</i> +are considerable. The language is majestic and dignified, the ideas +lofty, and the characters drawn with vigour and precision. Had the +spelling not been so archaic, the poem would have been much more popular +than it is.</p> + +<p>For Horace, Ramsay always professed a deep admiration. Upon the style of +the great Roman satirist he sought to model his 'Epistles,' which +undoubtedly deserve something more than mere passing mention. In them +Ramsay endeavours to give the friend, whom at the moment he addresses, a +glimpse into the pursuits with which, for the time being, he was +occupying himself. Taking this for his text, he digresses into apt and +amusing dissertations on any subject of public, municipal, or social +interest that might be engrossing the attention of the town. His +epistles to Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to James Arbuckle, to the Earl of +Dalhousie, to Mr. Aikman, to Sir W. Bennet, to William Starrat, to +Joseph Burchet, to Somerville the poet, to Gay, to Clerk of Penicuik, +and others, are altogether delightful—happy, cheery, humorous, gossipy +productions, neither too full of fun to be frivolous, nor too didactic +to be tiresome. Take, for example, his epistle to Robert Yarde of +Devonshire,—how apt are his allusions, how racy his tit-bits of local +news! He addresses the epistle</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Frae northern mountains clad with snaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where whistling winds incessant blaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In time now when the curling-stane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slides murm'ring o'er the icy plain';<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span></div></div> + +<p>and he asks his correspondent how, under these conditions,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'What sprightly tale in verse can Yarde<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expect frae a cauld Scottish bard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With brose and bannocks poorly fed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hodden gray right hashly clad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Skelping o'er frozen hags with pingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Picking up peats to beet his ingle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While sleet that freezes as it fa's,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Theeks as with glass the divot wa's<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a laigh hut, where sax thegither<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lie heads and thraws on craps of heather?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—this being a humorous allusion to the prevalent idea in England at the +time, that the Scots were only a little better off than the savages of +the South Seas.</p> + +<p>Finally, in his translations, or rather paraphrases, from Horace, Ramsay +was exceedingly happy. He made no pretensions to accuracy in his +rendering of the precise words of the text. While preserving an +approximation to the ideas of his original, he changes the local +atmosphere and scene, and applies Horace's lines to the district around +Edinburgh, wherewith he was so familiar. With rare skill this is +achieved; and while any lover of Horace can easily follow the ideas of +the original, the non-classical reader is brought face to face with +associations drawn from his own land as illustrative, by comparison and +contrast, of the text of the great Roman. Few could have executed the +task with greater truth; fewer still with more felicity. Already I have +cited a portion of Ramsay's rendering of Horace's famous Ode, <i>Vides ut +alta stet nive candidum Soracte</i>. There are two other stanzas well +worthy of quotation. Ramsay's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span> rendering of the famous <i>Carpe diem</i>, +etc., passage is all I have space for—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Let neist day come as it thinks fit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The present minute's only ours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On pleasure let's employ our wit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laugh at fortune's feckless powers.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Reference has also been made to his apt translation of the ideas +contained in Horace's 1st Ode to Maecenas, by making them express his +own feelings towards Lord Dalhousie. Two of his aptest renderings of the +original, however, were those of Horace's 18th Ode to Quintilius Varus +(<i>Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem</i>), which our poet +renders—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'O Binny, cou'd thae fields o' thine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear, as in Gaul, the juicy vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweet the bonny grape wad shine<br /></span> +<span class="i8">On wa's where now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your apricock and peaches fine<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Their branches bow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Since human life is but a blink,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then why should we its short joys sink;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He disna live that canna link<br /></span> +<span class="i8">The glass about;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whan warm'd wi' wine, like men we think,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">An' grow mair stout.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The 31st Ode (B. 1.) to Apollo is thus felicitously rendered—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Frae great Apollo, poets say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What would'st thou wish, what wadst thou hae<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whan thou bows at his shrine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not Carse o' Gowrie's fertile field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor a' the flocks the Grampians yield<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That are baith sleek and fine;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not costly things, brocht frae afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">As iv'ry, pearl and gems;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor those fair straths that watered are<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Wi' Tay an' Tweed's smooth streams.<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Which gentily and daintily<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Eat down the flow'ry braes,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">As greatly and quietly<br /></span> +<span class="i6">They wimple to the seas.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ramsay had the misfortune never to have studied the <i>technique</i> of his +art, so that in no respect is he a master of rhythm. The majority of his +longer poems, including <i>The Gentle Shepherd</i>, are written in the +ordinary heroic measure, so popular last century because so easily +manipulated. His songs for the most part are written in familiar metres, +not calculated to puzzle any bonny singing Bess as she danced and lilted +on the village green. As a metrist, therefore, Ramsay can claim little +or no attention. His poetry was the spontaneous ebullition of his own +feelings, and for their expression he seized upon the first measure that +came to hand.</p> + +<p>Such, then, is Ramsay! In his matchless pastoral he will ever live in +the hearts of Scotsmen; and were proof needed, it would be found in the +increasing numbers of pilgrims who year by year journey to Carlops to +visit the scenes amongst which Peggy lived and loved. To any one save +the historian and the antiquarian, the remainder of his poetry may now +be of little value,—probably of none,—amidst the multifarious +publications which day by day issue from the press. But by Scotsmen the +memory of the gentle, genial, lovable Allan will ever be prized as that +of one who, at a critical time, did more to prevent Scottish national +poetry from being wholly absorbed by the mightier stream of English song +than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span> any other man save Scott. Worthy of such veneration, then, is he, +both as a poet and as a man; and though the extravagant admiration +wherewith he was regarded in his own day, has given place to a soberer +estimate of his rank in the hierarchy of letters, yet Allan Ramsay can +never be held as other than one of the most delightful, if he can no +longer be rated as one of the greatest, of Scottish poets. That his +immortal pastoral can ever be consigned to the limbo of oblivion is as +improbable as that our posterity will forget <i>Tam o' Shanter</i> and the +<i>Cotter's Saturday Night</i>. The opinion of Robert Burns regarding the +permanence of his 'poetical forebear's' fame will be cordially endorsed +by every leal-hearted Scot, in whose memory the sturdy manliness of +Patie and the winning beauty of Peggy are everlastingly enshrined—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Yes! there is ane: a Scottish callan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's ane; come forrit, honest Allan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou needna jouk behint the hallan,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">A chiel' sae clever:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">But thou's for ever!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='center'>THE END.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <a href="#PREFACE">Preface</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The first stanza is in reality by Burns, and is identical +with that he placed on the tombstone he erected over the remains of +Fergusson, the poet, in the Canongate Churchyard.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Pronounced in Scots, <i>shoo</i>.</p></div> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 32642-h.txt or 32642-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/4/32642">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/4/32642</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Allan Ramsay + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: William Henry Oliphant Smeaton + + + +Release Date: June 1, 2010 [eBook #32642] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +ALLAN RAMSAY + +by + +OLIPHANT SMEATON + +Famous Scots Series + + + + + + + +Published by Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier +Edinburgh and London + +The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, and +the printing from the press of Messrs. Morrison & Gibb, Edinburgh. + + + + +TO + +DAVID MASSON, LL.D. + +EMERITUS-PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE +IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY + +THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED + +in grateful acknowledgment of kindly encouragement given in years +long gone by, and of intellectual stimulus received from him by +his former student + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +PREFACE + + +Since this Volume was in type, I have received some additional +information which I feel constrained to lay before my readers. + +With reference to the Easy Club, I have been favoured, through the +courtesy of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, with a sight of the complete +Minutes of the Club. From them I observe that Ramsay was one of the +earliest members admitted, and that his song 'Were I but a Prince or +King' was formally presented to the Club after his admission not before, +though its rough draft must have been shown to the members prior to that +event. + +Next, as regards the Editions of _The Gentle Shepherd_, a valued +correspondent, Mr. J. W. Scott, Dowanhill, Glasgow, kindly calls my +attention to two 'Translations into English' of the Poem which appear to +have hitherto escaped notice. These are '_Allan Ramsay's Gentle +Shepherd, translated into English by W. Ward, 8vo, 1785._' Ward, as Mr. +Scott states, seems to have been a 'naturalised Englishman' residing at +Musselburgh. Five years after Ward's production, appeared another, and +in many respects a better Edition, to wit, '_The Gentle Shepherd, a +Scotch Pastoral by Allan Ramsay, Attempted in English by Margaret +Turner, London, 1790._' It was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and its +list of Subscribers contains the names of most of the nobility of +Scotland. Is this not a reliable gauge of the popularity of the Poem? + +_EDINBURGH, March 1896._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +CHAPTER I + +THE FAMILY TREE 9 + + +CHAPTER II + +RAMSAY'S APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 23 + + +CHAPTER III + +SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; + RAMSAY'S MARRIAGE--1707-12 28 + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 41 + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAVOURITE OF THE 'FOUR 'OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; + THE QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 56 + + +CHAPTER VI + +RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR: _THE TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY_ + AND _THE EVERGREEN_--1721-25 68 + + +CHAPTER VII + +_THE GENTLE SHEPHERD_; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; + RAMSAY'S PASTORALS--1725-30 85 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; + HIS BOOK OF _SCOTS PROVERBS_--1730-40 97 + + +CHAPTER IX + +CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; + HIS PORTRAITS--1740-58 112 + + +CHAPTER X + +RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST 122 + + +CHAPTER XI + +RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER 144 + + +CHAPTER XII + +RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION 154 + + + + +ALLAN RAMSAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FAMILY TREE + + +'Ye'd better let me gang doon wi' the wig, Miss Kirsty,' said Peggy, the +'serving-lass' in the household of Mr. James Ross, writer, of the +Castlehill. + +'Oh no! I'd as leif take it doon mysel' to Allan Ramsay's, for the sake +o' the walk and the bit crack wi' the canty callant,' replied the young +lady, a blush crimsoning her fair, rounded cheek. + +And Peggy would retire from these periodical but good-humoured +passages-at-arms, with a knowing smile on her face, to confide the fact, +mayhap,--of course as a profound secret,--to her cronies in the same +stair, that Miss Kirsty Ross was 'unco ta'en up wi' that spruce genty +wigmaker, Maister Allan Ramsay, doon ayont the Tron Kirk.' + +Yea! verily, it was a love drama, but as yet only in the first scene of +the first act. The 'Miss Kirsty' of the brief dialogue recorded +above--for the authenticity of which there is abundant evidence--was +Miss Christian Ross, eldest daughter of Mr. James Ross, a lawyer of some +repute in his day, whose practice lay largely in the Bailie's and +Sheriff's Courts, and with minor cases in the Justiciary Court, but not +with civil business before the Court of Session, an honour rigorously +reserved for the members of that close Corporation--the Writers to His +Majesty's Signet. + +But though not belonging, in slang phrase, 'to the upper crust' of the +legal fraternity, James Ross was a man of some social consideration. +Though he appears to have had a strain of the fashionable Pharisee in +him, and to have esteemed gentle birth as covering any multitude of sins +and peccadilloes, he manifested, throughout his intercourse with Ramsay, +certain countervailing virtues that render him dear to the lovers of the +poet. He made distinct pretensions to the possession of culture and a +love of _belles-lettres_. To the best Edinburgh society of the period he +and his had the _entree_, while his house in Blair's Close, on the +southern slope of the Castlehill, was the rendezvous for most of the +_literati_ of the city, as well as for the _beaux esprits_ of the Easy +Club, of which he was a member. + +His acquaintance with the young wigmaker--whose sign of the 'Mercury,' +situate in the High Street, or, as the poet himself writes, 'on +Edinburgh's Street the sun-side,' was almost immediately opposite +Niddry's Wynd, and at the head of Halkerston's Wynd, and within sixty +yards of the Tron Church--had originated in the weekly visits paid by +him to Allan's shop for the purpose of getting his wig dressed. While +waiting until this important item in an eighteenth-century gentleman's +toilet was accomplished, he had enjoyed many a 'crack' with the young +craftsman, so shrewd, so witty, so genial, yet withal so industrious. +The man of pleas and precepts discovered him of powder and perukes to +be as deeply interested and, in good sooth, as deeply versed in the +literature of his own land as the lawyer himself. Chance acquaintance +gradually ripened, on both sides, into cordial esteem. James Ross +invited Ramsay to visit him at his house, and there the young +_perruquier_ beheld his fate in Christian, or Kirsty, Ross. + +If Allan were fascinated by Kirsty's rare beauty and piquant +_espieglerie_, by her sweet imperiousness and the subtle charm of her +refined femininity, exercised on a nature whose previous experience of +the sex had been limited to the bare-legged Amazons of Leadhills or the +rosy-cheeked ministering Hebes, whom the high wages of domestic service +attracted to town; she, in turn, was no less captivated by the manly, +self-possessed demeanour, and the ingratiating qualities, both social +and intellectual, of her father's guest. If he had mingled too little +with society for his manners to be tinged with the polish of the +_debonnair_ gallant, his natural good-breeding and ready tact, united, +it must be confessed, to a not inconsiderable spice of vanity, doubtless +prevented any lapse into those nervous _gaucheries_ wherewith a youth's +first appearance in good society is often accompanied. + +Allan has drawn with truth and graphic power his own portrait as he +appeared at this time-- + + '_Imprimis_--then for tallness I + Am five feet and four inches high; + A black-a-vic'd, snod, dapper fellow, + Nor lean, nor overlaid wi' tallow; + With phiz of a Morocco cut, + Resembling a late man of wit, + Auld-gabbet Spec, who was so cunning + To be a dummie ten years running. + + Then for the fabric of my mind, + 'Tis more to mirth than grief inclined; + I rather choose to laugh at folly + Than show dislike by melancholy: + Well judging a sour heavy face + Is not the truest mark of grace.' + +Existing portraits, including the one most valued for its fidelity +to the original, that by his son, Allan Ramsay, the artist +(Portrait-painter in Ordinary to King George III.), show him to have +possessed features that were delicate and sharply chiselled, keen dark +eyes, a mobile, sensitive mouth, a complexion dark almost to +swarthiness, and a high rounded forehead. To these items may be added +those others coming as side-lights, thrown on a man's character and +individuality by the passing references of contemporaries. From such +sources we learn that his face was one whereon were writ large, +contentment with himself and with the world, as well as a certain pawky +shrewdness and unaffected _bonhomie_. This expression was largely +induced by the twinkling of his beadlike eyes, and the lines of his +mouth, which curved upwards at the corners; almost imperceptibly, it is +true, yet sufficiently to flash into his countenance that subtle element +of humorous _canniness_ which has been accepted by many as the prime +attribute of his character. He may probably have had his own feelings in +view when he makes his Patie say in _The Gentle Shepherd_-- + + 'The bees shall loath the flow'r, and quit the hive, + The saughs on boggy ground shall cease to thrive, + Ere scornfu' queans, or loss o' warldly gear, + Shall _spill_ my rest, or ever force a tear.' + +His figure was thickset, but had not as yet acquired the squatness of +later days. If in the years to come he grew to resemble George Eliot's +portrait of Mr. Casson, when the inevitable penalty of sedentariness and +good living has to be paid in increasing corpulence, he never lost his +tripping gait which in early manhood earned for him the _sobriquet_ of +'Denty Allan.' In deportment and dress he was 'easy, trig and neat,' +leaning a little to vanity's side in his manners, yet nathless as +honourable, sound-hearted, clean-souled a gentleman as any that lounged +around Edinburgh Cross of a sunny Saturday afternoon. Such was the youth +that presented himself to bonny Kirsty Ross at her father's tea-table. + +The acquaintance soon expanded into friendship. Before long, as has been +stated, the household observed, not without amusement, that whenever +Saturday came round, on which day James Ross' wig was sent down to +receive its week's dressing from young Ramsay, Kirsty found she needed a +walk, which always seemed to take her past the sign of 'the flying +Mercury,' so that she could hand in the wig and call for it as she +returned. Ah, artful Miss Kirsty! As the idyll progressed, the interim +walk was abandoned, and the fair one found it pleasanter, as she said, +to pass the time in conversation with the young _coiffeur_ as he combed +the paternal wig. The intercourse thus commenced on both sides, more as +a frolic than aught else, speedily led to warmer feelings than those of +friendship being entertained, and in the spring of 1711 Allan Ramsay +asked the daughter of the lawyer to share life's lot with him. + +The lovers were, of course, too well aware of the dissimilarity in their +social stations to hope for any ready acquiescence in their matrimonial +projects by the ambitious Edinburgh lawyer. To win consent, the matter +had to be prudently gone about. The position Ramsay's family had held +in the past reckoned for something, it is true, in the problem, but the +real point at issue was, What was the social status of the swain at that +moment? Ah, there was the rub! All very well was it for a +literary-minded lawyer to patronise his wigmaker by inviting him to +drink a dish of tea with his family, or to crack a bottle with him over +Jacobite plots or the latest poems of Swift or Pope; but to give him his +daughter in marriage, that was altogether another question. Mrs. Grundy +was quite as awe-inspiring a dame then as now. James Ross and his spouse +would require to make a careful investigation into the pedigree of the +'mercurial' artist in crinology--to import a trade term of the present +into the staid transactions of the past--before such an alliance could +be thought of. Many and long were the family councils held. Every item +of his descent, his relatives, his character, his prospects, was +discussed, and this is what they discovered. + +Allan Ramsay was born on the 15th of October 1686, in the little town of +Leadhills, situate in the parish of Crawfordmuir, in the upper ward of +Lanarkshire, and in the very heart of the bleak, heathy Lowther hills. +The house wherein he saw the light is now 'a broken-down byre,' +according to Dr. John Brown in _Horae Subsecivae_. Standing, as it does, +1400 feet above the level of the sea, the village is chiefly notable as +being the most elevated inhabited ground in Scotland. The industry of +the district, then as now, was almost entirely devoted to lead-mining. +The superior of the parish was the Earl of Hopetoun, and on his behoof +the mines were wrought. The male population, with but few exceptions, +were in his lordship's service. A more desolate and dreary spot could +scarcely be conceived. The rugged ranges, destitute of wood, were +scarred by the traces of former workings, and intersected, moreover, by +narrow rocky ravines, down which brawled foaming mountain burns. Perched +like an eyrie on some steep cliff, the view from the vicinity of the +town is magnificent, ranging over fair Clydesdale, and the lands +formerly owned by the Earls of Crawford, 'the Lindsays, light and gay,' +whose ancient castle stands on Clydeside. + +In the days of the Stuarts gold used to be found in considerable +quantities in the locality, from which was struck the gold issue bearing +the head of James V., wearing a bonnet; hence the old term for it--a +'bonnet-piece.' + +The inhabitants of the town and district of Leadhills had imbibed in +Ramsay's days something of the stern, forbidding character of the +scenery. The ruggedness of their surroundings had evidently sunk deep +into their temperament,--and ofttimes the teaching of nature in +situations like this is of the most lasting kind. So it was with them. +They were a community apart: gloomily, almost fanatically, religious; +believing in miracles, visions, and in the direct interposition of +Providence,--in a word, carrying to the extreme of bigotry all the grand +attributes of Scottish Presbyterianism and Covenanting sublimity of +motive. They married and gave in marriage among themselves, looking the +while rather askance at strangers as 'orra bodies' from the big world +without, who, because they _were_ strangers, ran a strong chance of +being no better than they should be! + +To this 'out-of-the-way' corner of the planet there was sent, towards +the close of the year 1684, as manager of Lord Hopetoun's mines, a gay, +happy-hearted, resourceful young Scotsman, by name Robert Ramsay. The +poet, when detailing his pedigree to the father of his _inamorata_, had +boasted that he was descended, on the paternal side, from the Ramsays of +Dalhousie (afterwards Earls of that Ilk). Such was literally the case. +Ramsay of Dalhousie had a younger brother, who, from the estate he +held--a small parcel of the ancestral acres--bore a name, or rather an +_agnomen_, yet to be historic in song, 'The Laird of Cockpen.' Whether +in this case, like his descendant of ballad fame, the said laird was +'proud and great'; whether his mind was 'ta'en up wi' things o' the +State,' history doth not record. Only on one point is it explicit, that, +like his successor, he married a wife, from which union resulted Captain +John Ramsay, whose only claim to remembrance is that he in turn married +Janet Douglas, daughter of Douglas of Muthil, and thus brought the poet +into kinship with yet another distinguished Scottish family. To the +captain and his spouse a son was born, who devoted himself to legal +pursuits, was a writer in Edinburgh, and acted as legal agent for the +Earl of Hopetoun. Through his interest with the earl, Robert Ramsay, his +eldest son, was appointed manager of the lead mines in the Lowther +hills, and set out to assume his new duties towards the close of the +year 1684. + +From this pedigree, therefore, the fact is clear of the poet's right to +address William Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie, in terms imitated from +Horace's famous Ode to Maecenas-- + + 'Dalhousie, of an auld descent, + My chief, my stoup, my ornament.' + +But to our narrative. Apparently the young mine-manager found the lines +of his life by no means cast in pleasant places amid the rough +semi-savage community of Leadhills in those days. He felt himself a +stranger in a strange land. To better his lot, though he was still very +young, he determined to marry. The only family with which he could hold +intercourse on terms of equality, was that of William Bower, an English +mineralogist who had been brought from Derbyshire, to instruct the +Scottish miners more fully in the best methods then known for extracting +the metal from the refractory matrix. But to Robert Ramsay the chief +attraction in the family was the eldest daughter of his colleague, Alice +Bower, a vivacious, high-spirited girl, with a sufficient modicum, we +are told, of the Derbyshire breeziness of nature to render her +invincibly fascinating to the youth. Alone of all those around she +reminded him of the fair dames and damsels of Edinburgh. Therefore he +wooed and won her. Their marriage took place early in January 1686. In +the October of the same year the future poet was born. + +But, alas! happiness was not long to be the portion of the wedded pair. +At the early age of twenty-four Robert Ramsay died, leaving his widow, +as regards this world's gear, but indifferently provided for, and, +moreover, burdened with an infant scarce twelve months old. + +Probably the outlook for the future was so dark that the young widow +shrank from facing it. Be this as it may, we learn that three months +after Robert Ramsay was laid in his grave she married David Crichton, +finding a home for herself and a stepfather for the youthful Allan at +one and the same time. Crichton was a small peasant-proprietor, or +bonnet-laird, of the district. Though not endowed with much wealth, he +seems to have been in fairly comfortable circumstances, realising his +stepson's ideal in after-life, which he put into the mouth of his +Patie-- + + 'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep; + The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep.' + +Much has been written regarding the supposed unhappiness of Ramsay's +boyhood in the household of his step-parent. For such a conclusion there +is not a tittle of evidence. Every recorded fact of their mutual +relations points the other way. David Crichton was evidently a man of +high moral principle and strength of character. Not by a hairbreadth did +he vary the treatment meted out to Allan from that accorded to his own +children by the widow of Robert Ramsay. To the future poet he gave, as +the latter more than once testified, as good an education as the parish +school afforded. That it embraced something more than the 'three R's,' +we have Ramsay's own testimony, direct and indirect--direct in the +admission that he had learned there to read Horace 'faintly in the +original'; indirect in the number and propriety of the classical +allusions in his works. He lived before the era of quotation books and +dictionaries of phrase and fable,--the hourly godsend of the +penny-a-liner; but the felicity of his references is unquestionable, and +shows an acquaintance with Latin and English literature both wide and +intimate. At anyrate, his scholastic training was sufficiently catholic +to imbue his mind with a reverence for the masterpieces in both +languages, and to enable him to consort in after years, on terms of +perfect literary equality, with the lawyers and the _beaux esprits_ of +witty Edinburgh, such as Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Webster, and Lord Elibank. + +Until his migration to the Scottish capital, at the age of fifteen, +Ramsay was employed, during his spare hours, in assisting his stepfather +in the work of the farm. The intimate acquaintance he displays in his +pastoral with the life and lot of the peasant-farmer, was the result of +his early years of rural labour among the Lowther hills. That they were +years of hardship, and a struggle at hand-grips with poverty, goes +without the saying. The land around the Lowthers was not of such a +quality as to render the bonnet-laird's exchequer a full one. As a +shepherd, therefore, young Ramsay had to earn hardly the bread he ate at +his stepfather's table. The references to his vocation are numerous in +his poems. In his Epistle to his friend William Starrat, teacher of +mathematics at Straban in Ireland, he adverts to his early life-- + + 'When speeling up the hill, the dog-days' heat + Gars a young thirsty shepherd pant and sweat; + I own 'tis cauld encouragement to sing, + When round ane's lugs the blattran hailstanes ring; + But feckfu' fouk can front the bauldest wind, + And slunk through muirs, an' never fash their mind. + Aft hae I wade through glens wi' chorking feet, + When neither plaid nor kilt could fend the weet; + Yet blythly wad I bang out o'er the brae, + And stend o'er burns as light as ony rae, + Hoping the morn might prove a better day.' + +The boy, meantime, must have been photographing on the retentive +negatives of his mind the varied scenes of rural life, the labours +incidental to the alternating seasons, which he was to employ with +effect so rare in his inimitable pastoral. During the winter months, +when the snow lay deep on hill and glen, over scaur and cleugh among +the lonely Lowthers, when the flocks were 'faulded' and the 'kye' housed +in the warm byres, when the furious blasts, storming at window and door, +and the deadly nipping frost, rendered labour outside impracticable, +doubtless in David Crichton's household, as elsewhere over broad +Scotland, the custom prevailed of sitting within the _lum-cheek_ of the +cavernous fireplaces, or around the _ingle-neuk_, and reciting those +ancient ballads of the land's elder life, that had been handed down from +True Thomas and the border minstrels; or narrating those tales of moving +accidents by flood or field, of grim gramarye, and of the mysterious +sights and sounds of other days, whose memory floated down the stream of +popular tradition from age to age. In days when books were so costly as +to be little more than the luxury of the rich, the art of the fireside +rhapsodist was held in a repute scarcely less high, than in that epoch +which may justly be styled the period of Grecian romance--the days of +'the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.' At that spring there is +abundant evidence that young Allan Ramsay had drunk deep. + +To another well, also, of genuine inspiration he must by this time have +repaired--that of our native Scottish literature. Though some years had +yet to elapse before he could read Hamilton of Gilbertfield's poem, the +'Dying Words of Bonnie Heck,' which he afterwards praised as stimulating +him into emulation, there is little doubt he had already caught some +faint echoes of that glorious period in Scottish literature, which may +be said to have lasted from the return of the poet-king (James I.) in +1424, from his captivity in England, to the death of Drummond of +Hawthornden in 1649. Without taking account of Barbour's _Bruce_ and +Blind Harry's _Wallace_, which partake more of the character of rhyming +chronicles than poems,--though relieved here and there by passages of +genuine poetic fire, such as the familiar one in the former, beginning-- + + 'Ah! fredome is a nobill thynge, + Fredome maks men to haiff liking,' + +--the literary firmament that is starred at the period in question with +such names as King James I., Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Walter +Kennedy, Gavin Douglas, Sir David Lyndsay, Alexander Montgomery, William +Alexander (Earl of Stirling), Sir Robert Ayton, Robert Sempill, and +Drummond of Hawthornden, need not fear comparison with the contemporary +poetry of the sister land. The greatest name in the list, that of +William Dunbar, was undoubtedly the leading singer of his age in the +British Isles, but inacquaintance with his works has prevented his +genius obtaining that recognition it deserves. Sir Walter Scott +considered Dunbar in most qualities the peer, in some the superior, of +Chaucer, and his opinion will be endorsed by all those who are able to +read Dunbar with enjoyment. Though Spenser's genius may have had a +richer efflorescence than Dunbar's, if the mass of their work be +critically weighed, quality by quality, the balance, when struck, would +rest remarkably evenly between them. Drummond of Hawthornden is perhaps +the most richly-gifted writer in early Scottish literature, as an +all-round man of letters. But as a poet the palm must ever remain with +Dunbar. + +The study of the breaks which occur in the poetic succession of any +literature is always interesting. In English literature such gaps +recur, though not with any definite regularity--for example, after the +death of Chaucer and Gower, when the prosaic numbers of Occleve and +Lydgate were the sole representatives of England's imaginative +pre-eminence; and the penultimate and ultimate decades of last century, +when Hayley was regarded as their acknowledged master by the younger +school of poets. In Scotland, it is to be noted, as Sir George Douglas +points out in his standard work, _Minor Scottish Poets_, that from 1617, +the date of the publication of Drummond's _Forth Feasting_, until 1721, +when Ramsay's first volume saw the light, no singer even of mediocre +power appeared in Scotland. + +There were editions of many of the poems of James I., Dunbar, Stirling, +Drummond, and Sempill, which Ramsay may have seen. But he was more +likely to have gained the knowledge we know he possessed of the early +literature of his country from the recitals by fireside _raconteurs_, +and from the printed sheets, or _broadsides_, hawked about the rural +districts of Scotland during the closing decades of the seventeenth and +the initial ones of the eighteenth centuries. From specimens of these +which I have seen, it is evident that Henryson's _Robene and Makyn_, +Dunbar's _Merle and the Nightingale_ and the _Thistle and the Rose_, +with several of Drummond's and Stirling's poems, were circulated in this +way, thus becoming familiarly known in rural districts where the volumes +of these authors never could have penetrated. On these _broadsides_, +then, it must have been that the dormant poetical gifts of the youthful +Ramsay were fed, and in after years he showed his liking for this form +of publication by issuing his own earlier poems in the same way. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 + + +As much, perhaps, to obtain release from employment so laborious as that +on the farm, as from a desire to be independent, young Ramsay consented +to his stepfather's proposal that he should be apprenticed to a wigmaker +in Edinburgh. + +It has been urged, in proof of Crichton's harshness to his stepson, that +Ramsay, after he left Leadhills in 1700, never seems to have had any +further intercourse with them. Not so much as a chance reference in a +letter reveals that he ever had any future dealings with the Crichton +family. But this is not to be wondered at. The fact of the death of his +mother in 1700 does not wholly explain the matter, I admit. But we need +only recall the exclusive character previously attributed to the people +of Leadhills, their antipathy to any intrusion upon them by strangers of +any kind, to understand the case. They were a type of Scottish Essenes, +a close community, akin to the fisher-communities of Newhaven and +Fisherrow, with their distinctive customs, traditions, and prejudices. +For a gay young Edinburgh spark such as Ramsay, fond of fine clothes, +with a strong spice of vanity and egotism in his nature, to sojourn +amongst the _dour_, stolid, phlegmatic miners, would have been to foster +the development of asperities on both sides, calculated to break off all +further intercourse. Met they may have, and parted on the terms we +surmise, but of such meeting no hint was ever dropped, and a veil of +separation drops between the household at Crawfordmuir and the young +Jacob who thus was sent forth, from the shadow of what was to him the +paternal roof, to war with the world at his own charges. That David +Crichton had done his duty nobly by the lad was evident; but other +children were shooting up to youth's estate, and when the elder bird was +full fledged, it must e'en take its flight from the parent nest to make +room for others. + +There is another view of the case not so creditable to the future poet, +but still within the range of possibility--that the scion of the house +of Ramsay, whose anxiety to let the world know he was of gentle lineage +was so chronic, may have felt himself a cut above the children of the +bonnet-lairdie. Ramsay's nature was not one wherein the finer sympathies +and delicate regard for the feelings of others were mortised into a +sturdy independence and a desire to carve his fortunes out of the block +of favouring opportunity. From start to finish of his career a subtle +egoism, born of his lonely situation in life and fostered by his +inordinate vanity, was his distinguishing trait. Generous acts he did, +benevolent and kindly on numerous occasions he undoubtedly was, but his +charity was not altruism. He was not the man to deny himself for the +good of others. + +Henceforth Edinburgh was to be Ramsay's life's home. He was enrolled as +an apprentice early in January 1701. Although, as an apprentice, he was +obliged to undertake duties distinctly domestic and menial,--for, in +those days of strict social and ecclesiastical discipline, a master was +expected to discharge towards those indentured to him much that +appertains solely to the province of the parent,--still, there would be +many spare hours wherein he would be free to devote himself to such +pursuits as his taste led him. + +What induced him to select wig-making as his life's _metier_ is unknown. +Perhaps his stepfather may have had some friend in that line of business +who for 'auld lang syne' was willing to take the boy and teach him his +trade. There is, of course, the other side of the question to be taken +into account, that the work did not demand much bodily strength for its +successful prosecution, and that it was cleanly, neat, and artistic. The +recent development of the art of the _coiffeur_ in France, in +consequence of the attempts of Louis XIV. to conceal his natural defects +of diminutive stature and a phenomenally small head,--defects impairing +the effect of that majestic mien which the pupil of Mazarin so +persistently cultivated,--had spread into England, and thence into +Scotland. The enormous periwigs rendered fashionable by _Le Grand +Monarque_ admitted of a variety of artistic treatment. The heyday of +wig-making may therefore be said to have extended over at least the +greater part of Ramsay's career in this branch of trade, and in his day +the poet was reckoned the most ingenious of Edinburgh _perruquiers_. + +Another consideration probably influenced him in his choice to proceed +to Edinburgh. The change to lighter labour would enable him to filch +from hours allocated to sleep precious moments for private reading, +which the arduous nature of his employment at Crawfordmuir had +prevented. Besides, he was in a 'city of books'--books only waiting to +be utilised. That he did take advantage of his opportunities during his +apprenticeship, and that it was at this period that the poetic instinct +in him took fire, on coming in contact with the electric genius of +Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, and other master-minds of English +literature, is a fact to which he refers more than once in his poems. + +From 1701-7,--in other words, from his fifteenth to his twenty-first +year,--while he was serving his apprenticeship, there is a gap in the +continuity of the records we have of the poet; a _lacuna_ all the more +regrettable as these were the true germing years of his genius. Of the +name of his trade-master, of the spot where the shop of the latter was +situated, of his friends at that time, of his pursuits, his amusements, +his studies, we know little, save what can be gathered from chance +references in after-life. That they were busy years as regards his trade +is certain from the success he achieved in it; and that Ramsay was +neither a lazy, thriftless, shiftless, or vicious apprentice his after +career effectually proves. That they were happy years, if busy, may, I +think, be accepted as tolerably certain, for the native gaiety and +hilarity of his temperament underwent no abatement. Whether or not his +fashionable Edinburgh relatives took any notice of him, whether he was a +guest at his grandfather, the lawyer's house, or whether the latter and +his family, hidebound by Edinburgh social restrictions, found it +necessary to ignore a Ramsay who soiled his fingers with trade, is +unknown. Probably not, for it is matter of tradition that it was the +fact of his family connections which weighed with Writer Ross in +consenting to the union of his daughter with a tradesman. + +In the spring of 1707 Allan Ramsay received back his indentures, signed +and sealed, with the intimation from the ancient and honourable +'Incorporation of Wigmakers' that he was free of the craft. He appears +almost immediately thereafter to have commenced business on his own +account in the Grassmarket, being admitted at the same time, in virtue +of being a craftsman of the town, a burgess of the City of Edinburgh. +Though no trace can be found that the wigmakers ranked amongst the +forty-two incorporated Societies or Guilds of the city (for their name +does not appear), that they must have enjoyed the same privileges as the +other trades, is evident from the fact of Ramsay being enrolled as a +burgess, the moment he had completed his apprenticeship. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; RAMSAY'S +MARRIAGE--1707-12 + + +An important stage in Allan Ramsay's life's journey had now been +reached. He was of age, he was a burgess of the town, he was a member, +or free, of one of the most influential of the Crafts, or Guilds, in the +capital, but, greatest step of all, he had started in business for +himself, and had flung himself, with a sort of fierce determination to +succeed, into that hand-to-hand fight with fortune for the sustenance of +life, from which each of us emerges either made or marred. + +At a time when all the youthful Ramsay's faculties were beginning to be +strung to their utmost tension of achievement, strange would it have +been if that of observation were not as eagerly exercised. + +Scotland in general, and Edinburgh in particular, were at this period in +the throes of a new political birth. The epoch of transition commenced +in 1707, and ended only when the dangers of the repeated rebellions of +1715 and 1745 showed the supercilious statesmen by the Thames--the +Harleys, the Walpoles, the Pelhams--that conciliation, not intimidation, +was the card to play in binding Scotland to her greater neighbour. A +patriotism that had burned clear and unwavering from the days of +Wallace and Bruce to those of the exiled and discredited Stuarts, was +not to be crushed out by a band of political wirepullers, by whom State +peculation was reduced to an art and parliamentary corruption to a +science. + +Although the ultimate effects of the Union between England and Scotland +were in the highest degree beneficial upon the arts, the commerce, and +the literature of the latter, the proximate results were disastrous in +the extreme; yet the step was imperative. So strained had become the +relations between the two countries, consequent on the jealousy of +English merchants and English politicians, that only two alternatives +were possible--war, or the corporate union of the whole island. Yet in +Scotland the very mention of Union was sufficient to drive the people +into a paroxysm of rage. The religious animosity between the two +countries was as important a factor in producing this feeling as any +other. + +English churchmen boasted that with any such Union would come the +restoration of Episcopacy north of the Tweed, and the abolition of the +Church of Scotland. The latter retaliated by pushing an Act of Security +through the Scottish Legislature, which demanded an oath to support the +Presbyterian Church in its integrity from every sovereign on his +accession. The Scottish Whigs and the Scottish Jacobites, despite +political differences wide as the poles, joined hands in resistance to +what they considered the funeral obsequies of Scottish nationality. For +a time the horizon looked so lowering that preparations actually were +begun in Scotland to accumulate munitions of war. + +But the genius, the patience, and withal the firmness, of Lord Somers, +the great Whig Richelieu of his time, gradually overcame all +difficulties, though he was reduced to wholesale bribery of the Scottish +peers to effect his end. As Green puts it: 'The Scotch proposals of a +federative rather than a legislative Union were set aside by his +firmness: the commercial jealousies of the English traders were put by; +and the Act of Union, as finally passed in 1707, provided that the two +Kingdoms should be united into one under the name of Great Britain, and +that the succession to the crown of this United Kingdom should be ruled +by the provisions of the English Act of Settlement. The Scotch Church +and the Scotch Law were left untouched, but all rights of trade were +thrown open, and a uniform system of coinage adopted.' + +Of all the negotiations for the consummation of the Union, Ramsay, +doubtless, was an interested spectator. Patriotic to his heart's core, +and sympathising as a Jacobite with the chivalrous feeling of his nation +for the dynasty they had given to England, and which, after only +eighty-six years of alternate loyalty and revolt, the Southrons had +driven into exile, the keenly observant lad would follow every detail in +the closing chapter of Scotland's history as an independent nation, with +a pathetic and sorrowful interest. Undoubtedly, while yet an apprentice, +with a few months of his time unexpired, he must have watched the last +observance of that ancient and picturesque spectacle, annually +recurring, but now to be abolished for ever--the 'Riding of the +Parliament,' or the procession of members to the opening of the sittings +in the old Parliament House. Perhaps he may even have secretly gained +admission to overhear the fiery debates on the Union in that ultimate +session of the Scottish legislature. Certainly he must have been one of +the thousands of spectators who day by day thronged the purlieus of the +hall where the national assembly met. Of the rage, brooding and deep, or +loud and outspoken, according to temperament, which prevailed amongst +the Edinburgh people at the mere idea of Union with the hated +'Southrons,' he must have been a witness. Nay, he may have been an +onlooker, if not a participant, in that riot which occurred after all +was over,--after Lord-Chancellor Seafield had uttered his brutal _mot_, +'There is the end o' an auld sang,' which gathered up for him the gall +of a nation's execration for a century to come; and after the +Commissioners of both nations had retired to sign the Treaty of Union. +Not, however, to any of the halls of Court did they retire, but to a +dingy cellar (still existing) of a house, 177 High Street, opposite the +Tron Church--being nearly torn limb from limb in getting there. Then the +mob, suddenly realising that now or never they must + + 'Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen,' + +besieged the cellar, intending to execute Jeddart justice or Lynch law +on those they esteemed traitors to their country. Fortunately there was +another means of egress; the party hastily took flight to an arbour in +the garden of Moray House, where the remaining signatures were appended, +and whence all the Commissioners fled post-haste to England, bearing +with them the signed copy of the Treaty. + +That stirring time, so pregnant with mighty issues, a time when the weal +or the woe of the future British Empire trembled in the balance,--for +what of achievement could England alone have accomplished, with +Scotland as a hostile neighbour dogging her heels?--must of itself have +been an education to young Ramsay. It both confirmed his patriotism and +widened his political outlook. + +Yet when the play was over, the curtain rung down, and the lights gone +out, the lapse of time must to him, as to other observers of the period, +have driven home with stunning force the conviction that the Union +spelled ruin for Scotland as a nation and Edinburgh as a city. For five +decades to come a listless apathy, born of despair, strangled Scottish +enterprise in its birth. The immediate effect of the Union was a serious +diminution in the national trade and commerce. The jealousy of English +merchants, as it had frustrated the Darien Scheme in the previous +century, now closed every possible avenue of commercial activity for the +renumerative utilisation of Scottish capital. 'We are dying by inches,' +wrote James, Earl of Bute, to a friend. And the signs of the times did +not seem to belie the assertion. + +In Edinburgh, also, the change was severely felt. The removal of the +Court to London, a hundred and four years before, had drawn a large +number of the Scottish nobility to the vortex of fashion. The money they +were wont to spend during their stay in Edinburgh, while the Court +_season_ lasted, was diverted into another channel. The town houses +which they had been forced to maintain in the Scottish metropolis, were +in many cases relinquished, and the place that so long had known them +knew them no more. At that time Scottish merchants and shopkeepers had +suffered severely, yet they had the satisfaction of knowing that the +seat of Scottish government remained north of the Tweed. + +But now a change even more radical was inaugurated. The national +Parliament, whose sittings had always necessitated the attendance of a +considerable proportion of the nobility and gentry of the country, +during a certain part of the year, was merged in that of the larger +country. Those of the purely Scottish peerage, whom choice or political +duties had retained in Scotland, now found no need to maintain their +costly Edinburgh establishments. Many a noble ancestral home, that for +three or four hundred years had sheltered the household and retainers of +families, whose deeds were interwoven with the historic records of +Scotland's most glorious epochs, was now advertised for sale. An exodus +to London on a vast scale set in, and the capital of Scotland ere long +settled down, in the apathy of despair, to play the _role_ of a +provincial centre. Henceforward her 'paper lords,' otherwise Judges of +the Court of Session, were to represent her titled magnates. + +The bitterness of spirit which such a course of action as this migration +inspired in the minds of the residents of the Scottish capital, Ramsay, +as a young journeyman, or as a master craftsman who had only newly +commenced business for himself, would fervently reciprocate. In two +places at least in his works he pathetically, yet vigorously, protests +against the cream of Scottish youth being sent away out of the country. + +In one of the most suggestively beautiful of his minor pastorals, _Betty +and Kate_, he thus writes-- + + 'Far, far, o'er far frae Spey an' Clyde, + Stands that great town o' Lud, + To whilk our best lads rin an' ride, + That's like to put us wud [mad]; + For sindle times they e'er come back + Wha anes are heftit there; + Sure, Bess, thae hills are nae sae black, + Nor yet thir [these] howms sae bare.' + +And in _The Gentle Shepherd_, after the discovery has been made of +Patie's noble birth, his fellow-herd, Roger, remarks-- + + 'Is not our master an' yoursell to stay + Amang us here? or, are ye gawn away + To London Court, or ither far aff parts, + To leave your ain poor us wi' broken hearts?' + +The five intercalary years between Ramsay's commencing in business on +his own account and his marriage, were those which may properly be +designated his intellectual seedtime. That he was exercised over any of +the deeper and more complex problems of life, death and futurity; that +he was hagridden by doubt, or appalled by the vision of man's motelike +finitude when viewed against the deep background of infinity and +eternity, we have no reason to suppose. Never at any epoch of his life a +'thinker,' in the true sense of the word, he was inclined, with the +genial insouciant Hedonism always characteristic of him, to slip +contentedly into the Pantheism of Pope, to regard humanity and the world +without as + + ----'but parts of a stupendous whole + Whose body nature is, and God the soul, + +--the superficial, ethical principle permeating which is summed up in +the dictum, _Whatever is, is right_. Though he had no sympathy with the +Puritanic austerity of Presbyterianism, albeit a regular attendant on +the ministrations of Dr. Webster of the Tolbooth Church, one of the +sections whereinto the magnificent cathedral of St. Giles was of old +divided, he was tinctured neither with French scepticism nor with the +fashionable doubts which the earlier deistical writers of the century, +Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, Toland, and Blount, were sowing +broadcast over Great Britain. In his _Gentle Shepherd_ he makes Jenny, +when Glaud, her father, had remarked, with respect to the prevailing +disregard of religion and morality among the youth of the better +classes, + + ----'I've heard mysell + Some o' them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell,' + +make the following reply, which savours strongly of the slippered +orthodoxy of _The Essay on Man_-- + + 'Watch o'er us, father! hech, that's very odd; + Sure, him that doubts a doomsday, doubts a God.' + +But though he appears to have given a wide berth to the ponderous +theology, the narrow ethics, and the hair-splitting metaphysics of the +time, his whole nature seems to have been stirred and awakened more +deeply than ever by his study of the elder poets in English literature. +Not that their music tended to make him discontented with his lot, or +unhinged the lid of his resolution to become a thoroughly efficient man +of business. Ramsay, unlike many of his brethren of the lyre, was of an +eminently practical temperament. Rumour says that in earlier boyhood he +cherished a desire of becoming an artist. But his stepfather not +possessing the means to furnish him with the necessary training, he +wisely sloughed all such unreasonable dreams, and aimed at independence +through wig-making. + +Wisdom as commendable was displayed now. Though his studies must have +kindled poetic emulation in him; though the vague unexpressed longings +of a richly-gifted nature were doubtless daily present with him, no +thought ever seems to have entered his mind of relinquishing trade for +poetry. On his ambition, also, he kept a steady curb, determining to +publish nothing but what his more matured judgment would approve. Not to +him in after years would the regret come that he had cursed his fame by +immaturity. + +From 1707 until 1711, during the dreary depression of the time +immediately succeeding the Union, when Scotsmen preferred apathy to +action, Ramsay sought surcease from his pangs of wounded patriotism by +plunging into studies of various kinds, but principally of English +poetry. In a letter, hitherto unpublished, addressed to his friend +Andrew Gibb, who appears to have resided at or near West Linton, he +remarks: 'I have rowth of good reading to wile my heart from grieving +o'er what cannot be mended now,--the sale o' our unhappy country to the +Southron alliance by a wheen traitors, who thought more o' Lord Somers' +gold than Scotland's rights. In Willie Shakspeare's melodious numbers I +forget the dark days for trade, and in auld Chaucer's Tales, and +Spenser's 'Queen,' in John Milton's majestic flow, in Giles and Phineas +Fletcher, in rare Ben and our ain Drummond, I tine the sorrows o' the +day in the glories o' the days that are past.' + +That we may accept Ramsay's account of the studies of Patie, the Gentle +Shepherd, as a type of his own is warranted by something more than +tradition. The internal evidence of his works throws a strong colour of +probability over the theory. When Sir William Worthy, who as a Royalist +had been compelled to flee into exile during the times of the +Commonwealth, inquires what were the books his son, whom he had +committed to the care of Symon, his shepherd, to be reared as his own +child, was in the habit of reading, the honest old servant replies-- + + 'When'er he drives our sheep to Edinburgh port, + He buys some books o' hist'ry, sangs, or sport; + Nor does he want o' them a rowth at will, + And carries aye a poochfu' to the hill. + Aboot ane Shakspeare--an' a famous Ben, + He aften speaks, an' ca's them best o' men. + How sweetly Hawthornden an' Stirling sing, + An' ane ca'd Cowley, loyal to his king, + He kens fu' weel, an' gars their verses ring. + I sometimes thought he made owre great a phrase + About fine poems, histories, and plays. + When I reproved him ance, a book he brings, + "Wi' this," quoth he, "on braes I crack wi' kings."' + +By the side-light thrown on Ramsay's life from this passage we gain some +idea of his own studies during those years of germination. To the poets +more exclusively Scottish, whether writing in the current literary +medium of the day or in the vernacular of the country; to Robert +Sempill's _Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan_; to William +Cleland's _Highland Host_--in addition to Drummond and the Earl of +Stirling, mentioned in the passage quoted above; to William Hamilton of +Gilbertfield's verses, _The Dying Words of Bonnie Heck_, and to others +of less note, he seems to have devoted keen and enthusiastic attention. +Lieutenant Hamilton it was (as Ramsay admits in the poetical +correspondence maintained between them) who first awakened within him +the desire to write in the dialect of his country-- + + 'When I begoud first to cun verse, + And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse, + Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce, + It warm'd my breast; + Then emulation did me pierce, + Whilk since ne'er ceast.' + +There was, however, another influence at work, quite as potent, +stimulating his poetic fancy. Amid the beauties of the 'Queen of Cities' +he lived, and the charms of his surroundings sank deep into his +impressionable nature. In whatever direction he looked, from the ridgy +heights of the Castlehill, a glorious natural picture met his eye. If to +the north, his gaze caught the gleam of the silvery estuary of the +Forth, with fertile reaches of green pasture-land intervening, and the +little villages of Picardy, Broughton, and Canonmills peeping out from +embosoming foliage, while beyond the silver streak, beautified by the +azure enchantment of distance, glowed in the sunshine the heath-clad +Lomonds and the yellow wealth of the fields of Fife. Did the youthful +poet turn eastward, from yonder favourite lounge of his on Arthur Seat, +the mouth of the noble Firth, dotted with sail, was full in view, with +the shadowy outlines of the May Island, peeping out like a spirit from +the depth of distance, and nearer, the conical elevation of North +Berwick Law and the black-topped precipitous mass of the Bass; while +seemingly lying, in comparison, almost at his feet, was the magnificent +semicircular sweep of Aberlady Bay, with its shore-fringe of whitewashed +villages gleaming like a string of glittering pearls, behind which +stretched the fertile carse of East Lothian, rolling in gently +undulating uplands back to the green Lammermoors. Or if he gazed +southward, did his eye not catch the fair expanse of Midlothian, as +richly cultivated as it was richly wooded, extending before him like a +matchless picture, dotted with homesteads, hamlets, and villages, past +Dalkeith--'which all the virtues love,' past Lasswade, past Roslin's +castled rock, past Dryden's groves of oak, past caverned Hawthornden, +until earth and sky seemed to meet in the misty horizon line of the +Moorfoots? And westward, was not the eye guided by the grassy grandeur +of the Pentland Range, until beauty was merged in indefiniteness across +the wide strath lying like a painted scroll from Edinburgh to +Linlithgow? + +Fairer scene never nurtured poet in 'the fine frenzy of his art'; and in +long excursions during his spare hours, amidst the silent glens and +frowning _cleughs_ of the Pentlands, amidst the romantic scenery +clothing the banks of both the Esks, by Almond's gentle flow, and by the +wimpling waters of the Water of Leith, our Caledonian Theocritus fed his +germing genius on food that was destined to render him at once the +greatest and the most breezily objective of British pastoral poets. + +From 1707 to 1711 thus did Allan Ramsay 'live and learn,'--a youth whose +nature, fired by the memories of Scotland's greatness in years gone by, +already longed to add something of value to the cairn of his country's +literature. Such, too, were the facts of which, at his request, the +worthy lawyer, Mr. James Ross, was placed in possession when he was +called on to decide whether his friend, the 'poetically-minded +wigmaker,' should be regarded as a _persona grata_ from the point of +view of a prospective son-in-law. That the 'pedigree' of the young +aspirant was accepted as satisfactory may be regarded as certain from +the fact that the marriage of Allan Ramsay and Christian Ross was +celebrated during the New Year festivities of 1712. A woman, at once of +considerable personal attractions, sound common sense and practical +knowledge of the world, a capital housewife withal, and though not +devoid of a certain modicum of literary appreciation, by no means a +blue-stocking, such, in brief, was the lady who for thirty years was to +be the faithful partner of Ramsay's fortunes, rejoicing with him in +success, sympathising with him in reverse--one who merited to the full +the glowing lines wherein he described her. The song of 'Bonny Chirsty' +was written after nearly seven years of wedded life. The sentiments +therein expressed speak better than comment as to the happiness of +Ramsay's marriage. One verse of it may be quoted-- + + 'How sweetly smells the simmer green! + Sweet taste the peach and cherry; + Painting and order please our een, + And claret makes us merry: + But finest colours, fruits, and flowers, + And wine, though I be thirsty, + Lose a' their charms and weaker powers, + Compared wi' those of Chirsty.' + +About a year before his marriage, Ramsay had left the shop in the +Grassmarket, where he had commenced business in 1707, and had +established himself in the High Street in premises already described, +and which exist to this day. There, under his sign of the 'Flying +Mercury,' he toiled and sang, and chatted and cracked jokes with all and +sundry, from sunrise to sunset, his wit and his humour, and, as time +rolled on, his poetic genius, bringing many customers to his shop. +Verily, a sunny-souled man, in whom 'life with its carking cares' could +never extinguish his cheery _bonhomie_ and self-confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 + + +Ramsay's marriage was the turning-point of his career. To him, as to +every man who realises not alone the moral but the social obligations he +assumes when undertaking the holy charge of rendering a woman's life +happier and brighter than ever before, the responsibilities of his new +relation crystallised into the mould of definite effort the energies +hitherto diffused throughout numberless diverse channels. Seldom has the +philosophy of wedded bliss been more felicitously stated than in his +_Advice to Mr. ---- on his Marriage_. He remarks, as though drawing on +the fund of his own experience-- + + 'Alake! poor mortals are not gods, + And therefore often fall at odds; + But little quarrels now and then, + Are nae great faults 'tween wife and man. + These help right often to improve + His understanding, and her love. + If e'er she take the pet, or fret, + Be calm, and yet maintain your state; + An' smiling ca' her little foolie, + Syne wi' a kiss evite a tulzie. + This method's ever thought the braver + Than either cuffs or _clish-ma-claver_. + It shows a spirit low an' common + That wi' ill-nature treats a woman. + They're of a make sae nice and fair + They maun be managed wi' some care; + Respect them they'll be kind an' civil, + But disregarded, prove the devil.' + +But for another reason the year 1712 is as interesting to us as students +of his career as it was important to him. In the early months of it he +was introduced to the 'Easy Club,' one of those politico-convivial +societies that sprang into existence early in the century, and were +conspicuous features in the social customs of the period, until its +eighth and ninth decades, when, consequent upon the expansion of the +city north and south, the tavern conviviality of 1740 was succeeded by +the domestic hospitality of 1790. + +At the time of which we write, the capital of Scotland was virtually +represented by the one long street called the High Street, or 'Edinburgh +Street,' which crowned the summit of the ridge extending from the Castle +to Holyrood Palace, the ancient home of the Stuarts. From this main +artery of traffic, smaller veins, in the shape of narrow darksome +closes, branched out, leading to a second artery in the Cowgate, and to +yet a third one in the Grassmarket. During the panic that prevailed +after the Battle of Flodden, a wall of defence was drawn around the +town. By it the area of Edinburgh was grievously circumscribed. Only +what might be termed the heart of the city was included, all lying +beyond falling within the anomalous designation of _suburbs_. For two +hundred years this seemingly impassable girdle sternly checked the +natural _overflow_ of the city's life. To reside outside the _ports_ or +gates was not only considered dangerous--it was unfashionable. And as +there was not accommodation for a tenth part of the inhabitants in the +houses of two, or at most three, storeys which prevailed about the time +of the Reformation, the architects of the Restoration period commenced +the erection of those towering tenements, or _lands_,--twelve, fourteen, +and even sixteen storeys high,--for which Edinburgh has been celebrated +among the cities of Europe. Thus the families of the Scottish metropolis +were packed together, one on the top of the other, like herrings in a +barrel, in those quaint old houses, with their grim timber fronts, their +crow-stepped gables and dormer windows, that remain even until to-day to +show us the circumstances under which our fathers lived and loved. + +In circumstances such as these, domestic comfort and the sweet seclusion +of home were out of the question. So criminally overcrowded was the town +that well-born gentlemen and their households were content with two or +three rooms, wherein all the manifold duties of social and domestic life +had to be performed. Robert Chambers, in his charming _Traditions of +Edinburgh_, relates how the family of Mr. Bruce of Kennet, a leading +lawyer, afterwards raised to the Bench, lived in a house of three rooms +and a kitchen--a parlour, a consulting-room for Mr. Bruce, and a +bedroom. The children, with their maid, had beds laid down for them at +night in their father's room, the housemaid slept under the kitchen +dresser, and the one man-servant was turned at night out of the house. +Even a more striking example of the lack of accommodation was to be +found in connection with the household arrangements of Mr. Kerr, the +eminent goldsmith of Parliament Square, who 'stowed his _menage_ in a +couple of small rooms above his booth-like shop, plastered against the +wall of St. Giles Church; the nursery and kitchen, however, being in a +cellar under the level of the street, where the children are said to +have rotted off like sheep.... The town was, nevertheless, a funny, +familiar, compact, and not unlikable place. Gentle and semple living +within the compass of a single close, or even a single stair, knew and +took an interest in each other.' + +Such was the kind of home to which Allan Ramsay brought his bride. Two +rooms, with a closet and a kitchen, for many a long year were the extent +of their household accommodation. Such a state of things was not +favourable to the development of the virtues purely domestic. Hence with +Ramsay, as with other men, tavern life was accepted as a substitute for +those comforts the sterner sex could not get at home. As Grant remarks +in his _Old and New Edinburgh_: 'The slender house accommodation in the +turnpike stairs compelled the use of taverns more than now. There the +high-class advocate received his clients, and the physician his +patients--each practitioner having his peculiar _howff_. There, too, +gentlemen met in the evening for supper and conversation, without much +expense, a reckoning of a shilling being a high one--so different then +was the value of money and the price of viands.' + +Mr. Logie Robertson, in his graphic and admirable introduction to the +_Poems of Allan Ramsay_ in the Canterbury Series, adds: 'Business +lingered on all over the town to a much later period than is customary +now, but by eight o'clock every booth was deserted and every shop +closed, and the citizens for the most part gave themselves up to cheap +conviviality and pastime for the next hour or two. Almost every +tradesman had his favourite place in his favourite tavern, where, night +after night, he cracked a quiet bottle and a canny joke before going +home to his family. It was first business, then friendship; and the +claims of family after that.' + +Out of this general spirit of conviviality arose those numberless Clubs +wherein, upon the convivial stem, were graffed politics, literature, +sport, science, as well as many other pursuits less worthy and less +beneficial. No custom, no usage, no jest, in fact, seemed too trivial to +be seized upon as the pretext to give a colour of excuse for founding a +Club. Some of them were witty, others wise, others degrading. Such +designations as the _Cape Club_,--so called from doubling the Cape of +Leith Wynd, when half-seas over, to get home to the burgh of Low Calton, +where several of the members lived; the _Pious Club_, because the +brethren met regularly to consume pies; the _Spendthrift Club_, because +no _habitue_ was permitted to spend more than _fourpence halfpenny_, and +others, were harmless in their way, and promoted a cheap _bonhomie_ +without leading the burghers into disgraceful excesses. But the +_Hell-fire Club_, the _Sweating Club_, the _Dirty Club_, and others of a +kindred order, were either founded to afford an opportunity for +indulgence in riot and licence of every kind, or were intended to +encourage habits as disgusting as they were brutal. + +Not to be supposed is it that Ramsay had lived six-and-twenty years of +his life without having practised, and we have no doubt enjoyed, the +widespread conviviality of the period. Hence, though the Easy Club was +the first of the social gatherings wherewith he actually informs us he +was connected, we have no reason to doubt he had been associated with +several of them before. In fact, in that poetical 'Essay' of his which +stands first in the chronological order of composition, though not of +publication, the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, who died anno 1711--an +alewife whose little farm and hotel were situated in the village of +Morningside, just beyond the Bruntsfield Links,--he seems to imply that +a club of some kind met there. The third stanza runs as follows-- + + 'And there by dizens we lay down; + Syne sweetly ca'd the healths aroun', + To bonny lasses, black or brown, + As we loo'd best: + In bumpers we dull cares did drown, + An' took our rest.' + +But to the Easy Club[1] must be assigned the honour of having stimulated +the nascent genius of the poet to achieve something that would convey to +its members the fact that it was no ordinary tradesman who solicited +admission into the charmed circle of the Society. James Ross, whose zeal +for the poetic young wigmaker's social recognition was now materially +increased, used all his influence to obtain for his son-in-law an +_entree_ into the Club of which he was himself a member. Questionable, +indeed, it is, when we consider the exclusive character of the +association in question, the high social position of its members, and +their avowed Jacobitical tenets, if even the influence of James Ross, +powerful though it was, would alone have secured for Ramsay admission. +But an inspiration, as happy as it was original, prompted him to embody +his petition for admission into the Club in a poetical address. Such a +course was of itself sufficient to recommend him to men like Dr. +Ruddiman and Dr. Pitcairn. The poem, addressed to 'The Most Happy +Members of the Easy Club,' proceeded, in a felicitous strain of gentle +satire, blended with genial humour not unlike Gay at his best, to plead +his own cause why he should be admitted as 'an _Easy_ fellow.' His +application was successful, and he was duly enrolled as a member. The +following lines extracted from it will exhibit the character of the +piece, which takes rank as the earliest of his published poems-- + + 'Were I but a prince or king, + I'd advance ye, I'd advance ye; + Were I but a prince or king, + So highly I'd advance ye! + Great wit and sense are ever found + Among ye always to abound; + Much like the orbs that still move round, + No ways constrained, but easy. + Were I but, etc. + + Most of what's hid from vulgar eye, + Even from earth's centre to the sky, + Your brighter thoughts do clearly spy, + Which makes you wise and easy. + Were I but, etc. + + All faction in the Church or State, + With greater wisdom still you hate, + And leave learn'd fools there to debate,-- + Like rocks in seas you're easy. + Were I but, etc. + + I love ye well--O let me be + One of your blythe Society; + And like yourselves I'll strive to be + Aye humorous and easy. + Were I but, etc. + + +The benefits received by the self-confident young poet were not alone of +an intangible character. Praise is an excellent thing of itself, but a +modicum of pudding along with it is infinitely better. To Ramsay the +Easy Club was the means of securing both. The _role_ of his literary +patrons was at once assumed by its members. They printed and published +his _Address_ at their own expense, appointed him, within a few months' +time, their 'Poet Laureate,' and manifested, both by counsel and the +exercise of influence, the liveliest interest in his welfare. No trivial +service this to the youthful poet on the part of his kindly club +brethren. How great it was, and how decisive the effect of their +generous championship in establishing Ramsay's reputation on a sure +basis, will best be understood by glancing for a moment at the character +of the Easy Club and the _personnel_ of its membership. + +Originally founded, under a different name, as a means of frustrating, +and afterwards of protesting against, the Union, the Club, after its +reconstruction in 1711, became a Jacobite organisation pure and simple. +As Ramsay himself stated in after years: 'It originated in the antipathy +we all of that day seemed to have at the ill-humour and contradiction +which arise from trifles, especially those which constitute Whig and +Tory, _without having the grand reason for it_.' The grand reason in +question was the restoration of the Stuarts. To give a _soupcon_ of +mystery to their proceedings, as well as to veil their identity when +thus plotting against the 'powers that be,' each member assumed a +fictitious name, generally that of some celebrated writer. The poet, as +he himself relates, at first selected Isaac Beckerstaff, suggestive of +Steele and the _Tatler_. Eventually, however, he altered his +_nom-de-guerre_ to Gawain Douglas, one more in accordance with his +patriotic sentiments. + +The membership was limited to _twelve_, but at the time when Ramsay made +his application we only know the names of five of those who belonged to +it. Hepburn of Keith, in East Lothian, an antiquarian of no mean +standing; Professor Pitcairn, late of Leyden, but at that time in the +enjoyment of one of the largest practices as a physician in the +Edinburgh of the period; Dr. Patrick Abercrombie, the eminent historian +and antiquarian, author of _The Martial Achievements of the Scottish +Nation_; Dr. Thomas Ruddiman, philologist, grammarian, printer, and +librarian of the Advocates' Library,--one of the few Scottish polymaths +over and above the Admirable Crichton and George Buchanan,--and James +Ross the lawyer. Tradition has stated that Hamilton of Gilbertfield was +also one of the 'Easy fellows,' as they dubbed themselves, but no +confirmation of this fact could be discovered. + +We reach now the commencement of Ramsay's literary career. For four +years--in fact, until the breaking up of the Society after the Rebellion +of 1715--all he wrote was issued with the _imprimatur_ of the Easy Club +upon it. That they were proud of him is evident from the statement made +by Dr. Ruddiman in a letter to a friend: 'Our Easy Club has been +increased by the admission of a young man, Ramsay by name, _sib_ to the +Ramsays of Dalhousie, and married to a daughter of Ross the writer. He +will be heard tell o' yet, I'm thinking, or I am much out of my +reckoning.' + +The next pieces which our poet read to his patrons were two he had +written some time previous--to wit, a little Ode on the preservation +from death by drowning of the son of his friend John Bruce, on August +19, 1710; and the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, the alewife, to which +reference has already been made. The first of these bears evident traces +of youth and inexperience, in both the esoteric and exoteric or +technical mysteries of his art. For example, when referring to the +danger wherein the lad and his companions had been placed, he remarks-- + + 'Whilst, like the lamp's last flame, their trembling souls + Are on the wing to leave their mortal goals'; + +and he conjures up the following extraordinary spectacle of angelic +gymnastics, whereby the rescue of the lads was effected-- + + 'Angels came posting down the divine beam + To save the helpless in their last extreme.' + +Little promise was visible in that piece of future excellence, yet +within eighteen months he had written the _Elegy on Maggy Johnston_, to +which the critics of the Easy Club gave unstinted praise. For humorous +description of the convivial habits of the day, and graphic +word-painting, the poem is exceedingly happy. But alas! judged by our +latter-day standard of refinement, good taste, and morality, it is +_caviare_ to the general. Only to antiquarians and students of by-past +customs do its allusions contain much that is either interesting or +edifying. + +To follow Ramsay's poetic development through all his earlier pieces +would simply exhaust the interest of the reader. Suffice it to say, +that, at the request of the Easy Club, he wrote an Elegy on the death +of Dr. Pitcairn in 1713, but the poem contained so many political +references and satirical quips that he omitted it from the collected +edition of his works in 1721. Pitcairn was a sort of Scottish Voltaire, +a man far in advance of his time, who paid in popular suspicion and +reprobation for his liberality and tolerance. What Robert Chambers +remarks of him is well within the facts of the case. 'His sentiments and +opinions on various subjects accord with the most enlightened views of +the present day, and present a very striking and remarkable contrast to +the ignorance and prejudice with which he was surrounded. Fanatics and +bigots he detested, and by fanatics and bigots, as a matter of course, +he was abused and calumniated. He was accused of being an atheist, a +deist, a mocker and reviler of religion, ... _and one who was twice +drunk every day_.' Ramsay, in his _Elegy_, rebutted those grossly +malevolent falsehoods, not only clearing the memory of his patron from +such foul dishonour, but with bitingly sarcastic humour he turned the +tables on the calumniators, by showing, over their action in connection +with the Union, who in reality were the traitors. + +To the instigation of the Easy Club we also owe the piece on _The +Qualifications of a Gentleman_, published in 1715, subsequent to a +debate in the Society on the subject. Ramsay versified the arguments +used by the various speakers, executing the task in a manner at once so +graceful and witty that the Club formally declared him to be 'a +gentleman by merit.' Only a periphrastic method of signifying their +approbation of his work was this, and did not imply any reflection upon +his birth, as might at first glance be supposed. For in the concluding +lines of the poem Ramsay, with his genial _bonhomie_ and humour had +said-- + + 'Yet that we more good humour might display, + We frankly turned the vote another way; + And in each thing we common topics shun, + So the great prize nor birth nor riches won. + The vote was carried thus:--that easy he + Who should three years a social fellow be, + And to our Easy Club give no offence, + After triennial trial, should commence + A gentleman; which gives as just a claim + To that great title, as the blast of fame + Can give to those who tread in human gore.' + +In 1715, also, he amused the members of the Club, and after them the +wits of Edinburgh, with some lines on the current predictions regarding +_The Great Eclipse of the Sun_, foretold to take place during April +1715. The following picture, descriptive of the awe and terror produced +on ignorant minds and on the brute creation by the occurrence of the +eclipse, is as pithily effective in its simplicity and fidelity to life +and nature as anything in Crabbe's _Tales in Verse_ or Shenstone's +_Schoolmistress_-- + + 'When this strange darkness overshades the plains, + 'Twill give an odd surprise to unwarned swains; + Plain honest hinds, who do not know the cause, + Nor know of orbs, their motions or their laws, + Will from the half-ploughed furrows homeward bend + In dire confusion, judging that the end + Of time approacheth; thus possessed with fear, + They'll think the gen'ral conflagration near. + The traveller, benighted on the road, + Will turn devout, and supplicate his God. + Cocks with their careful mates and younger fry, + As if 'twere evening, to their roosts will fly. + The horned cattle will forget to feed, + And come home lowing from the grassy mead. + Each bird of day will to his nest repair, + And leave to bats and owls the dusky air; + The lark and little robin's softer lay + Will not be heard till the return of day.' + +The years 1715-16 were evidently periods of great activity on Ramsay's +part, for at least five other notable productions of his pen are to be +assigned to that date. To him the revelation of his life's _metier_ had +at last come, and his enthusiasm in its prosecution was intense. +Henceforward poetry was to represent to him the supreme aim of +existence. But like the canny Scot he was, he preferred to regard its +emoluments as a crutch rather than a staff; nay, on the other hand, the +determination to discharge his daily duties in his trade, as he executed +his literary labours, _con amore_, seems to have been ever present with +him. On this point, and referring to his dual pursuits as a wigmaker and +a poet, he writes to his friend Arbuckle-- + + 'I theek the out, and line the inside + Of mony a douce and witty pash, + And baith ways gather in the cash. + + . . . . . + + Contented I have sic a skair, + As does my business to a hair; + And fain would prove to ilka Scot, + That pourtith's no the poet's lot.' + +During the years in question Ramsay produced in rapid succession his +poem _On Wit_, the Club being again responsible for this clever satire; +and also two humorous _Elegies_, one on John Cowper, the +Kirk-Treasurer's-Man, whose official oversight of the _nymphes de pave_ +furnished the poet with a rollickingly ludicrous theme, of which he made +the most; the other, an _Elegy on Lucky Wood_, alewife in the Canongate, +also gave Ramsay full scope for the exercise of that broad Rabelaisian +humour, of his possession of which there was now no longer to be any +doubt. + +Finally, in 1716, he achieved his great success, which stamped him as +unquestionably one of the greatest delineators that had as yet appeared, +of rural Scottish life amongst the humbler classes. As is well known, a +fragment is in existence consisting of one canto of a poem entitled +_Christ's Kirk on the Green_. Tradition and internal evidence alike +point to King James I. as the author. The theme is the description of a +brawl at a country wedding, which breaks out just as the dancing was +commencing. 'The king,' says Ramsay, 'having painted the rustic squabble +with an uncommon spirit, in a most ludicrous manner, in a stanza of +verse, the most difficult to keep the sense complete, as he had done, +without being forced to bring in words for crambo's sake where they +return so frequently, I have presumed to imitate His Majesty in +continuing the laughable scene. Ambitious to imitate so great an +original, I put a stop to the war, called a congress, and made them sign +a peace, that the world might have their picture in the more agreeable +hours of drinking, dancing, and singing. The following cantos were +written, the one in 1715 (O.S. corresponding to January 1716), the other +in 1718, about three hundred years after the first. Let no worthy poet +despair of immortality,--good sense will always be the same in spite of +the revolutions of fashion and the change of language.' + +The task was no easy one, but Ramsay succeeded with remarkable skill in +dovetailing the second and third cantos into the first, so that they +read as the production of one mind. For faithful portraiture of Scottish +rural manners, for a fidelity, even in the minutest details, recalling +Teniers and his vividly realistic pictures of Dutch rustic life, the +cantos are unrivalled in Scottish literature, save by the scenes of his +own _Gentle Shepherd_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See Preface. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FAVOURITE AT THE 'FOUR-OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; THE +QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 + + +Ramsay's fame as a poet, writing in the Scots vernacular, was now +thoroughly established. Though the patronage of the Easy Club could no +longer be extended to him, as the Government of the Elector of +Hanover--lately crowned King of England under the title of George +I.--had directed its suppression, the members of it, while in a position +to benefit him, had laid the basis of his reputation so broad and deep +that virtually he had now only to build on their foundation. + +He was distinctly the favourite of the 'auld wives' of the town. In +quarto sheets, familiarly known as _broadsides_, and similar to what had +been hawked about the country in his youth, his poems had hitherto been +issued. It became the fashion, when four o'clock arrived, to send out +their children, or their 'serving-lass,' with a penny to procure Allan +Ramsay's latest piece, in order to increase the relish of their +'four-oors' Bohea' with the broad humour of _John Cowper_, or _The Elegy +upon Lucky Wood_, or _The Great Eclipse_. + +During the year or two immediately preceding the publication of the +quarto of 1721 this custom greatly increased. Of course, a supply had +to be forthcoming to meet such a demand, but of these, numberless +pieces, on topics of political or merely ephemeral interest, were never +republished after their appearance in _broadside_ form. By an eminent +collector of this species of literature the fact is stated, that there +are considerably over two score of poems by Ramsay which have thus been +allowed to slip into oblivion. Not that such a fate was undeserved. In +many cases their indelicacy would debar their admission into any edition +nowadays; in others, their lack of permanent general interest. Such +subjects as _The Flytin' of Luckie Duff and Luckie Brown_, _A Dookin' in +the Nor' Loch_, and _A Whiggish Lament_, were not the kind of themes his +calmer and maturer judgment would care to contemplate being handed down +to posterity as specimens of his work. + +In 1719 Ramsay appears to have concluded, from the extensive sale his +poems enjoyed even in _broadside_ form, that the trade of a bookseller +would not only be more remunerative than a wigmaker's, but would also be +more in accord with his literary tastes and aspirations. For some months +he had virtually carried on the two trades concurrently, his reputation +undoubtedly attracting a large number of customers to his shop to have +their wigs dressed by the popular poet of the day. But as his fame +increased, so did his vanity. Of praise he was inordinately fond. 'Tell +Allan he's as great a poet as Pope, and ye may get what ye like from +him,' said the witty and outspoken Lord Elibank to a friend. The charge +had more than a grain of truth in it. That man did not lack more than +his share of self-complacent vanity who could write, as the vicegerent +of great Apollo, as he informs us in _The Scribblers Lashed_, such lines +as these-- + + 'Wherefore pursue some craft for bread, + Where hands may better serve than head; + Nor ever hope in verse to shine, + Or share in Homer's fate or----' + +Alas! Allan, 'backwardness in coming forward' was never one of thy +failings! + +To Allan, _digito monstrari_ was a condition of things equivalent to the +seventh heaven of felicity; but he felt it would be more to his +advantage to be pointed out as a bookseller than as a wigmaker, when his +reputation as a poet would cause his social status to be keenly +examined. We learn that he consulted his friend Ruddiman on the step, +who spoke strongly in its favour, and gave him good sound advice as to +the kind of stock most likely to sell readily. The 'Flying Mercury,' +therefore, which up to this date had presided over the 'theeking' of the +_outside_ of the 'pashes' (heads) of the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie, was thereafter to preside, with even increased lustre, over the +provision of material for lining the _inside_ with learning and culture. + +That the time was an anxious one for the poet there can be little doubt. +He was virtually beginning the battle of life anew; and though he did so +with many advantageous circumstances in his favour, none the less was +the step one to be undertaken only after the gravest consideration and +calculation of probabilities. But by its results the change is shown to +have been a wise one. From the outset the bookselling business proved a +lucrative venture. The issue of his own _broadsides_, week by week, was +of itself a considerable source of profit. These, in addition to being +sold at his shop and hawked about the country, were disposed of on the +streets of Edinburgh by itinerant stallkeepers, who were wont to regard +the fact as one of great moment to themselves when they could cry, 'Ane +o' Maister Ramsay's new poems--price a penny.' In this manner his famous +piece, _The City of Edinburgh's Address to the Country_, was sown +broadcast over the county. + +Meantime, while Ramsay's literary and commercial prosperity was being +established on so firm a basis, he was becoming quite a family man. The +little house opposite Niddry's Wynd was gradually getting small enough +for his increasing _menage_. Since his marriage in 1712, happiness +almost idyllic, as he records, had been his lot in his domestic +relations. He had experienced the pure joy that thrills through a +parent's heart on hearing little toddling feet pattering through his +house, and sweet childish voices lisping the name 'father.' The +following entries in the Register of Births and Baptisms for the City of +Edinburgh speak for themselves:-- + +'At Edinburgh, 6th October 1713. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, periwige-maker, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, New Kirk Parish--a son, Allan. Witnesses, John Symer, William +Mitchell, and Robert Mein, merchant, burgesses; and William Baxter. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, burges, and Christian Ross, his +spouse, North East (College Kirk) Parish--a daughter named Susanna. +Witnesses, John Symers, merchant, and John Morison, merchant. The child +was born on the 1st instant. 3rd October 1714. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish--a son, Niell. Witnesses, Walter Boswell, sadler, and +John Symer, merchant. 9th October 1715. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, weegmaker, and Christian Ross, his spouse, +North East Parish--a son, Robert. Witnesses, John Symer, merchant, and +Walter Boswell, sadler. The child was born on the 10th instant. 23rd +November 1716. + +'Registrate to Allan Ramsay, bookseller, and Christian Ross, his +spouse--a daughter named Agnes. Witnesses, James Norie, painter, and +George Young, chyrurgeon. Born the 9th instant. 10th August 1725.' + +Besides these named above, Chalmers states that Christian Ross brought +Allan Ramsay three other daughters, who were not recorded in the +Register,--one born in 1719, one in 1720, and one in 1724,--who are +mentioned in his letter to Smibert as 'fine girls, no ae wally-draigle +among them all.' + +In 1719 our poet published his first edition of 'Scots Songs,'--some +original, others collected from all sources, and comprising many of the +gems of Scottish lyrical poetry. The success attending the volume was +instant and gratifying, and led, as we will see further on, to other +publications of a cognate but more ambitious character. Almost +contemporaneously was published, in a single sheet or _broadside_, what +proved to be the germ of the _Gentle Shepherd_--to wit, a _Pastoral +Dialogue between Patie and Roger_. The dialogue was reprinted in the +quarto of 1721, and was much admired by all the lovers of poetry of the +period. + +A reliable gauge of the estimation wherein Ramsay was now held, as +Scotland's great vernacular poet, is afforded in the metrical epistles +sent to him during the closing months of 1719 by Lieutenant William +Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to which Allan returned replies in similar +terms. This was not a poetical tourney like the famous 'flyting' between +Dunbar and Kennedy, two hundred and thirty years before. In the latter, +the two tilters sought to say the hardest and the bitterest things of +each other, though they professed to joust with pointless spears; in the +former, Hamilton and Ramsay, on the contrary, vied each with the other +in paying the pleasantest compliments. Gilbertfield contributed a +luscious sop to his correspondent's vanity when he saluted him, in a +stanza alluded to by Burns in his own familiar tribute, as-- + + 'O fam'd and celebrated Allan! + Renowned Ramsay! canty callan! + There's nowther Highland-man nor Lawlan, + In poetrie, + But may as soon ding down Tantallan, + As match wi' thee.' + +Then he proceeds to inform honest Allan that of 'poetry, the hail +quintescence, thou hast suck'd up,' and affirms that-- + + 'Tho' Ben and Dryden of renown + Were yet alive in London town, + Like kings contending for a crown, + 'Twad be a pingle, + Whilk o' you three wad gar words sound + And best to jingle.' + +After such a glowing tribute, Allan could do no less than dip deep into +his cask of compliments also, and assure Gilbertfield that he felt +taller already by this commendation-- + + 'When Hamilton the bauld and gay + Lends me a heezy, + In verse that slides sae smooth away, + Well tell'd and easy.' + +Then he proceeds to shower on his correspondent his return compliments +as follows-- + + 'When I begoud first to cun verse, + And could your "Ardry Whins" rehearse, + Where Bonny Heck ran fast and fierce, + It warmed my breast; + Then emulation did me pierce, + Whilk since ne'er ceast.' + +Three epistles were exchanged on either side, bristling with flattery, +and with a little poetic criticism scattered here and there. In Ramsay's +second letter his irrepressible vanity takes the bit in its teeth and +runs away with him. He appends a note with reference to his change of +occupation, as though he dreaded the world might not know of it. 'The +muse,' he says, 'not unreasonably angry, puts me here in mind of the +favours she had done by bringing me from stalking over bogs or wild +marshes, to lift my head a little brisker among the polite world, which +could never have been acquired by the low movements of a mechanic.' He +was a bookseller now, of course, and could afford to look down on +wigmakers as base mechanics! His lovableness and generosity +notwithstanding, Ramsay's vanity and self-complacency meets us at every +turn. To omit mentioning it would be to present an unfaithful portrait +of the honest poet. On the other hand, justice compels one to state +that, if vain, he was neither jealous nor ungenerous. He was always +ready to recognise the merits of others, and his egoism was not +selfishness. Though he might not care to deny himself to his own despite +for the good of others, he was perfectly ready to assist his neighbour +when his own and his family's needs had been satisfied. + +At this time, also, Sir William Scott of Thirlestane, Bart., a +contemporary Latin poet, as Chalmers records, of no inconsiderable +powers, hailed Ramsay as one of the genuine poets whose images adorned +the temple of Apollo. In the 'Poemata D. Gulielmi Scoti de Thirlestane,' +printed along with the 'Selecta Poemata Archibaldi Pitcarnii' +(Edinburgh, 1727), the following lines occur-- + + '_Effigies Allani Ramsaei, Poetae Scoti, inter caeteras Poetarum + Imagines in Templo Apollinis suspensa_: + + Ductam Parrhasia videtis arte + Allani effigiem, favente Phoebo, + Qui Scotos numeros suos, novoque + Priscam restituit vigore linguam. + Hanc Phoebus tabulam, hanc novem sorores + Suspendunt lepidis jocis dicatam: + Gaudete, O Veneres, Cupidinesque, + Omnes illecebrae, facetiaeque, + Plausus edite; nunc in aede Phoebi + Splendet conspicuo decore, vestri + Allani referens tabella vultus.' + +As much as any other, this testimony evinces how rapidly our poet's +reputation had increased. + +At last, in the spring of 1720, Allan Ramsay came before the public, and +challenged it to endorse its favourable estimate of his fugitive pieces +by subscribing to a volume of his collected poems, 'with some new, not +heretofore printed.' As Chambers remarks: 'The estimation in which the +poet was now held was clearly demonstrated by the rapid filling up of a +list of subscribers, containing the names of all that were eminent for +talents, learning, or dignity in Scotland.' The volume, a handsome +quarto, printed by Ruddiman, and ornamented by a portrait of the author, +from the pencil of his friend Smibert, was published in the succeeding +year, and the fortunate poet realised four hundred guineas by the +speculation. Pope, Steele, Arbuthnot, and Gay were amongst his English +subscribers. + +The quarto of 1721 may be said to have closed the youthful period in the +development of Ramsay's genius. Slow, indeed, was that development. He +was now thirty-five years of age, and while he had produced many +excellent pieces calculated to have made the name of any mediocre +writer, he had, as yet, given the world nothing that could be classed as +a work of genius. His sketches of humble life and of ludicrous episodes +occurring among the lower classes in Edinburgh and the rustics in the +country, had pleased a wide _clientele_ of readers, because they +depicted with rare truth and humour, scenes happening in the everyday +life of the time. But in no single instance, up to this date, had he +produced a work that would live in the minds of the people as expressive +of those deep, and, by them, incommunicable feelings that go to the +composition of class differences. + +As a literary artist, Ramsay was destined to develop into a _genre_ +painter of unsurpassed fidelity to nature. As yet, however, that which +was to be the distinctive characteristic of his pictures had not dawned +upon his mind. But the time was rapidly approaching. Already the first +glimmerings of apprehension are to be detected in his tentative +endeavours to realise his _metier_ in the pastoral dialogue of _Patie +and Roger_ republished in his volume. + +The quarto of 1721 contained, moreover, several pieces that had not been +previously printed. These we will at present only mention _en passant_, +reserving critical analysis for our closing chapters. Not the least +noticeable of the poems in the volume are those wherein he lays aside +his panoply of strength,--the 'blythe braid Scots,' or vernacular,--and +challenges criticism on what he terms 'his English poems.' These were +undoubtedly the most ambitious flights in song hitherto attempted by the +Scottish Tityrus. To the study of Dryden, Cowley, Swift, Pope, and +Arbuthnot, he had devoted himself,--particularly to Pope's translation +of Homer's _Iliad_, and to the collected edition of the works of the +great author of the _Rape of the Lock_, issued in 1717. He had been in +correspondence for some years previous with several of the leading +English poets of the day, and with other individuals well known both in +politics and London society, such as Josiah Burchet, who, when he died +in 1746, had been Secretary to the Admiralty for forty-five years, and +had sat in six successive Parliaments. This was the friend whose +admiration for Ramsay was so excessive as to prompt him to send (as was +the custom of the time) certain recommendatory verses for insertion in +the quarto, wherein he hailed honest Allan in the following terms-- + + 'Go on, famed bard, the wonder of our days, + And crown thy head with never-fading bays; + While grateful Britons do thy lines revere, + And value as they ought their Virgil here.' + +Small wonder is it that, stimulated by such flattery, Allan should have +desired to evince to his friends by the Thames, that the notes of their +northern brother of the lyre were not confined to the humble strains of +his own rustic reed. + +In the quarto, therefore, we have a poem, _Tartana, or The Plaid_, +written in heroic couplets, with the avowed desire to reinstate in +popular favour the silken plaid, which, from time immemorial, had been +the favourite attire of Scots ladies, but, since the Rebellion of 1715, +had been somewhat discarded, in consequence of Whiggish prejudices that +it was a badge of disloyalty to the reigning house. Then we have +_Content_, a long piece of moral philosophy in verse, and the _Morning +Interview_, a poem written under the spell of Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, +wherein the very machinery of the sylphs is copied from the great +English satire. Nor is the 'South Sea Bubble,' which ran its brief +course from 1718 to 1720, forgotten in _Wealth, or The Woody_ (gallows), +and two shorter poems illustrative of the prevailing madness. Epigrams, +Addresses, Elegies, and Odes are also included, along with one or two of +his famous poetical _Epistles_, modelled on those of Horace, and +brimming over with genial _bonhomie_ and good-humoured epicureanism. In +this volume, also, we have additional evidence afforded how fondly he +had become attached to Edinburgh and its environs. Scarce a poem is +there in the book that lacks some reference to well-known features in +the local landscape, showing that he still retained the love of +wandering, in his spare hours, amid Pentland glens and by fair Eskside. +Only with one extract will the reader's patience be taxed here. It is +from his _Ode to the Ph--_, and is obviously an imitation of Horace's +Ode to Thaliarchus. All the sunny glow of the great Roman's genius seems +reflected in this revival of his sentiments, albeit under varying +physical conditions, well-nigh three hundred and fifty _lustra_ +afterwards. The lines cleave to the memory with a persistence that +speaks volumes for the catholicity and appropriateness of the thoughts-- + + 'Look up to Pentland's tow'ring tap, + Buried beneath big wreaths o' snaw, + O'er ilka cleugh, ilk scaur, and slap, + As high as ony Roman wa'. + + Driving their ba's frae whins or tee, + There's no ae gowfer to be seen; + Nor doucer fouk, wysing a-jee + The biassed bowls on Tamson's green. + + Then fling on coals, and ripe the ribs, + And beek the house baith butt and ben; + That mutchkin stoup it hauds but dribs, + Then let's get in the tappit hen. + + Guid claret best keeps out the cauld, + An' drives awa' the winter soon: + It makes a man baith gash and bauld, + An' heaves his saul ayont the moon. + + Leave to the gods your ilka care; + If that they think us worth their while, + They can a rowth o' blessings spare, + Which will our fashous fears beguile.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR; THE 'TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY' AND THE +'EVERGREEN'--1721-25 + + +The popularity accruing to Ramsay from the publication of the quarto of +1721 was so great that his fame was compared, in all seriousness, with +that of his celebrated English contemporaries, Pope, Swift and Addison. +No better evidence of the unfitness of contemporary opinion to gauge the +real and ultimate position of any author in the hierarchy of genius +could be cited than the case now before us. The critical perspective is +egregiously untrue. The effect of personality and of social qualities is +permitted to influence a verdict that should be given on the attribute +of intellectual excellence alone. Only through the lapse of time is the +personal equation eliminated from the estimate of an author's relative +proportion to the aggregate of his country's genius. + +Nor were his countrymen aware of the extravagance of their estimate when +such a man as Ruddiman styled him 'the Horace of our days,' and when +Starrat, in a poetical epistle, apostrophises him in terms like these-- + + 'Ramsay! for ever live; for wha like you, + In deathless sang, sic life-like pictures drew? + Not he wha whilome wi' his harp could ca' + The dancing stanes to big the Theban wa'; + Nor he (shame fa's fool head!) as stories tell, + Could whistle back an auld dead wife frae hell.' + +James Clerk of Penicuik considered Homer and Milton to be the only +worthy compeers of the Caledonian bard; and Sir William Bennet of +Marlefield insisted the Poet-Laureateship should be conferred on Ramsay, +as the singer who united in himself the three great qualifications--genius, +loyalty, and _respectability_! Certainly honest Allan would have been a +Triton amongst such minnows as Nicholas Rowe, who held the bays from +1714-18, or Laurence Eusden, whose tenure of the office lasted from 1718 +to 1730, but of whose verse scarce a scrap remains. + +Compliments reached Ramsay from all quarters of the compass. Burchet, +Arbuckle, Aikman, Arbuthnot, Ambrose Philips, Tickell, and many others, +put on record their appreciation of his merits as a poet. But of all the +testimonies, that which reached him from Pope was the most valued, and +drew from Allan the following lines, indicative of his intense +gratification, while also forming a favourable example of his skill in +epigram-- + + 'Three times I've read your Iliad o'er: + The first time pleased me well; + New beauties unobserved before, + Next pleased me better still. + + Again I tried to find a flaw, + Examined ilka line; + The third time pleased me best of a', + The labour seem'd divine. + + Henceforward I'll not tempt my fate, + On dazzling rays to stare; + Lest I should tine dear self-conceit + And read and write nae mair.' + +His position in Edinburgh society was greatly improved by the success of +the volume. The magnates of 'Auld Reekie' who still clung to the capital +their forefathers had loved,--the legal luminaries of Bench and Bar, the +Professors of the University, the great medicos of the town,--all were +proud to know the one man who was redeeming the Scottish poetry of that +age from the charge of utter sterility. There was the Countess of +Eglinton, 'the beautiful Susannah Kennedy of the house of Colzean,' +whose 'Eglinton air' and manners in society were, for half a century, +regarded as the models for all young maidens to imitate. Living as she +did until 1780, when she had attained the great age of ninety-one, she +was visited by Dr. Johnson during his visit to Scotland in 1773. On that +occasion it transpired that the Countess had been married before the +lexicographer was born; whereupon, says Grant, 'she smartly and +graciously said to him that she might have been his mother, and now +adopted him; and at parting she embraced him, a mark of affection and +condescension which made a lasting impression on the mind of the great +literary bear.' She was one of Ramsay's warmest admirers. Then there +were Lord Stair and his lovely lady, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, then +about to become Lord Advocate: also, Laurence Dundas, Professor of +Humanity; Colin Drummond, of Metaphysics; William Law, of Moral +Philosophy; Alexander Monro (_primus_), of Anatomy, and George Preston, +of Botany, all of the University of Edinburgh--and all deeply +interested in the quaint, cheery, practical-minded little man, who +combined in himself the somewhat contradictory qualities of an excellent +poet and a keen man of business. Thus the influence was a reciprocal +one. His poetry attracted customers to his shop, while his bookselling +in turn brought him in contact with social celebrities, whose good +offices the self-complacent poet would not suffer to be lost for lack of +application. + +In 1722 the proprietor of the famous John's Coffee House and Tavern, in +Parliament Close, off the High Street,--which, by the way, still +exists,--was a man named Balfour. The latter, who had lived for some +time in London, had acquired a smattering of literary culture, and +conceived the idea of rendering his house the Edinburgh counterpart of +Will's or Button's. He set himself to attract all the leading wits and +men of letters in the Scottish metropolis at the time, and speedily +raised his house to considerable celebrity during the third and fourth +decades of last century. To Allan Ramsay he paid especial court, and the +poet became a daily visitor at the tavern. Here he would meet many of +the judges and leading lawyers, the professors from the College, any +visitors of note who might be in town; also Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, Preston and +Crawford, the rising young song-writers of the day, as well as Beau +Forrester, the leader of fashion in Edinburgh, who is recorded to have +exhibited himself, once at least, in an open balcony in a chintz +nightgown, and been dressed and powdered by his _valet de chambre_ as an +object-lesson to the town dandies how to get themselves up. There, too, +among many others, he probably met the famous, or rather infamous, John +Law of Lauriston, banker, financier, and cheat, who was in Edinburgh in +1722, after having brought France to the verge of bankruptcy and ruined +thousands by his financial schemes. A motley crowd, in good sooth; yet +one whence our poet could draw many a hint for future use. + +The success of the quarto encouraged Ramsay to redoubled efforts, and +the next six or seven years are the period of his greatest literary +fertility. In 1722 appeared his _Fables and Tales_ and _The Three +Bonnets_, a poem in four cantos. In some criticisms of Ramsay the +statement has been made that he owed the idea of his _Fables_ to Gay's +inimitable collection. That this is an error is evident, seeing the +latter did not publish his volume until 1726. In his preface to the +_Fables and Tales_ the poet says: 'Some of the following are taken from +Messieurs la Fontaine and La Motte, whom I have endeavoured to make +speak Scots with as much ease as I can; at the same time aiming at the +spirit of these eminent authors without being too servile a translator.' +Ramsay took as his prototypes in this species of composition, Phaedrus, +La Fontaine, and Desbillons, rather than Aesop. Many of the incidents +he drew from occurrences in the everyday life around him. For example, +_Jupiter's Lottery_ has obvious reference to the South Sea Bubble +lotteries; while _The Ass and the Brock_ was thought at the time to be a +sly skit on the addle-pated Commissioners Walpole had that year sent up +to Scotland to nip northern Jacobitism in the bud. + +Ramsay's _Tales_ in verse contain some of his daintiest though not his +strongest work. He makes no claim to originality with respect to them, +but admits they are drawn in many cases from La Motte and other sources. +In his preface he says: 'If my manner of expressing a design already +invented have any particularity that is agreeable, good judges will +allow such imitations to be originals formed upon the idea of another. +Others, who drudge at the dull verbatim, are like timorous attendants, +who dare not move one pace without their master's leave.' Some of the +_Tales_ are obviously modelled on those of Chaucer and Boccaccio, but in +most of his, he insinuates a political or social moral, while they +narrate the story for the story's sake. _The Three Bonnets_ is a satire +on his countrymen for being so shortsighted, in their own interests, as +to consent to the Union. Bristle, the eldest of the three brothers in +the tale, was intended to represent the Tories and Scots Jacobites, who +were opposed to the scheme, and he is therefore drawn as a man of great +resolution and vigour of character. Bawsy, the youngest, or weak +brother, shadowed forth the character of those who consented under the +persuasion of the nobility; while Joukum, the second eldest of the +trio,--a vicious, dissipated _roue_,--stood for the portrait of those +Scots noblemen who accepted Lord Somers' bribes, and sold their country +to the English alliance. The story ran that their father, Duniwhistle, +on his deathbed, had, to each of the brothers, presented a bonnet with +which they were never to part. If they did so, ruin would overtake them. +Joukum falls in love with Rosie, a saucy quean, who demands, as the +price of her hand, that he should beg, borrow, or steal for her the +three bonnets. Joukum proceeds to Bristle, and receives a very angry +reception; he next repairs to lazy Bawsy, who, dazzled by the promises +the other makes as to the good things he will receive after the wedding, +surrenders his bonnet, which Joukum lays with his own at the feet of +Rosie. The latter agrees to wed Joukum, and a vivid picture is drawn of +the neglected state of poor Bawsy after this is accomplished. Rosie +proves a harridan, leading Joukum a sorry dance; and the poem concludes +with the contrasted pictures of the contented prosperity of +Bristle--Scotland as she might have been had she not entered the +Union--and the misery of Bawsy, representing Scotland as she then was. +Somewhat amusing is it to conjecture what Ramsay's feelings would be on +this subject could he for an instant be permitted to witness the +progress of Scotland during the past hundred and thirty years, and the +benefits that have accrued to her from the Union. + +Amongst his metrical tales, one of the finest, without question, is _The +Lure_, a satirical fable or allegory, whereof the moral, as may best be +stated in the poet's own words-- + + ----'shews plainly, + That carnal minds attempt but vainly + Aboon this laigher warld to mount, + While slaves to Satan.' + +The narrative, however, though possessing many merits, is too indelicate +for latter-day taste even to be sketched in outline. + +In 1723 appeared his poem _The Fair Assembly_, directed against the +Puritanic severity of that section of the community which took exception +to dancing and such pleasant amusements, alike for young and old. +Nothing reveals to us more vividly the strange contrasts in the +religious life of the time, than the fact that the clergy winked at the +drunkenness which was so prominent a feature in the social customs of +the eighteenth century, and fulminated unceasingly against dancing. +Those who indulged in it were in many instances barred from sacramental +privileges, and had such pleasant epithets as 'Herodias' and 'Jezebel' +hurled at them. As Chambers states in his _Traditions of Edinburgh_: +'Everything that could be called public or promiscuous amusement was +held in abhorrence by the Presbyterians, and only struggled through a +desultory and degraded existence by the favour of the Jacobites, who +have always been a less strait-laced part of the community. Thus there +was nothing like a conventional system of dancing in Edinburgh till the +year 1710,' when at length--induced, probably, by the ridicule cast on +the ascetic strictness of Scottish social functions by the English +visitors who from time to time sojourned in 'the grey metropolis of the +north'--a private association commenced weekly _reunions_, under the +name of 'The Assembly.' Its first rooms, according to Arnot's _History +of Edinburgh_, were in a humble tenement in the West Bow (standing on +the site now occupied by St. John's Free Church), where they continued +to be located until 1720, when they were removed to Old Assembly Close. +In the West Bow days it was, as Jackson tells us in his _History of the +Stage_, that the Presbyterian abhorrence of 'promiscuous dancing' once +rose to such a height that a crowd of people attacked the rooms when an +'Assembly' was being held, and actually perforated the closed doors with +red-hot spits. + +As affording an interesting picture of the austerity of the time, a +sentence or two may be quoted from a little pamphlet in the Advocates' +Library entitled, 'A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his +Friend in the City, with an Answer thereto concerning the New Assembly.' +The author writes: 'I am informed there is lately a Society erected in +your town which I think is called an "Assembly." The speculations +concerning this meeting have of late exhausted the most part of the +public conversation in this countryside. Some are pleased to say 'tis +only designed to cultivate polite conversation and genteel behaviour +among the better sort of folks, and to give young people an opportunity +of accomplishing themselves in both; while others are of opinion it will +have quite a different effect, and tends to vitiate and deprave the +minds and inclinations of the younger sort.' + +The Assemblies themselves must have been characterised by the most +funereal solemnity, particularly during the _regime_ of the famous +'Mistress of Ceremonies,' or directress, Miss Nicky Murray. So late as +1753, when the horror at 'promiscuous dancing' might be supposed to have +mitigated a little, Goldsmith, who then visited the Assembly, relates +that, on entering the room, he saw one end of it 'taken up by the +ladies, who sat dismally in a group by themselves. On the other side +stand their pensive partners that are to be, but with no more +intercourse between the sexes than between two countries at war. The +ladies, indeed, may ogle and the gentlemen sigh, but an embargo is laid +on any closer commerce.' + +As might well be supposed, such bigoted austerity had no friend in Allan +Ramsay. All that he could do he did to dissipate the mistaken ideas of +the Scottish clergy and the stricter section of the Presbyterian Church, +on the subject of dancing and the holding of the Assemblies. In the +preface to his poem of _The Fair Assembly_ he remarks: 'It is amazing to +imagine that any are so destitute of good sense and manners as to drop +the least unfavourable sentiment against the Assembly. It is to be owned +with regret, the best of things have been abused. The Church has been, +and in many countries is, the chief place for assignations that are not +warrantable.... The beauty of the fair sex, which is the great preserver +of harmony and society, has been the ruin of many. So places designed +for healthful and mannerly dancing have, by people of an unhappy turn, +been debauched by introducing gaming, drunkenness, and indecent +familiarities. But will any argue from these we must have no churches, +no wine, no beauties, no literature, no dancing? Forbid it, Heaven! +whatever is under your auspicious conduct must be improving and +beneficial in every respect.' + +His poem is an ode in praise of dancing, and of the manner in which the +Assemblies were conducted. Fortifying his case with Locke's well-known +sentence--'Since nothing appears to me to give children so much becoming +confidence and behaviour, and so raise them to the conversation of those +above their age, as dancing, I think they should be taught to dance as +soon as they are capable of learning it,' he boldly avows himself as an +advocate for the moderate indulgence in the amusement, both as +health-giving and as tending to improve the mind and the manners, and +concludes with these two spirited stanzas, which are quoted here as +space will not permit us to refer to the piece again-- + + 'Sic as against the Assembly speak, + The rudest sauls betray, + Where matrons, noble, wise, and meek, + Conduct the healthfu' play. + Where they appear, nae vice dare keek, + But to what's good gives way; + Like night, soon as the morning creek + Has ushered in the day. + + Dear Em'brugh! shaw thy gratitude, + And of sic friends make sure, + Wha strive to make our minds less rude, + And help our wants to cure; + Acting a generous part and good, + In bounty to the poor; + Sic virtues, if right understood, + Should ev'ry heart allure.' + +But we must hasten on. In 1724 Ramsay published his poem on _Health_, +inscribed to the Earl of Stair, and written at the request of that +nobleman. In it Ramsay exhibits his full powers as a satirist, and +inculcates the pursuit of health by the avoidance of such vices as +sloth, effeminacy, gluttony, ebriety, and debauchery, which he +personifies under the fictitious characters of Cosmelius, Montanus, +Grumaldo, Phimos, Macro, etc. These were said to be drawn from +well-known Edinburgh _roues_ of the time, and certainly the various +types are limned and contrasted with a masterly hand. To the cultured +reader, this is the poem of all Ramsay's minor works best calculated to +please and to convey an idea of his style, though at times his genius +seems to move under constraint. + +But in 1724 our poet showed himself ambitious of winning distinction in +a new field. In 1718, as was stated previously, he had published a +volume of _Scots Songs_, some of them original, but a large number of +them adapted from older and imperfect copies. So successful had the +venture been, that a second edition had been called for in 1719, and a +third in 1722. To attempt something of a cognate character, yet upon a +larger scale, Ramsay now felt encouraged. In January 1724 appeared the +first volume of the _Tea-table Miscellany: a Collection of Scots Sangs_. +The second volume was published in 1725, with the note by Ramsay: 'Being +assured how acceptable new words to known good tunes would prove, I +engaged to make verses for above sixty of them in these two volumes; +about thirty were done by some ingenious young gentlemen, who were so +pleased with my undertaking that they generously lent me their +assistance.' 'Among those young gentlemen,' as Professor Masson says in +his excellent monograph on Ramsay in his _Edinburgh Sketches and +Memories_, 'we can identify Hamilton of Bangour, young David Malloch +(afterwards Mallet), William Crawford, William Walkinshaw,' to which we +would add James Preston. A third volume of the _Miscellany_ appeared in +1727 and a fourth in 1732, though, as regards the last, grave doubts +exist whether Ramsay were really its editor or collector. Few +compilations have ever been more popular. In twenty-five years twelve +large editions were exhausted, and since Ramsay's death several others +have seen the light, some better, some worse, than the original. All +classes in the community were appealed to by the songs contained in the +_Miscellany_. That he intended such to be the case is evident from the +first four lines of his dedication, in which he offers the contents-- + + 'To ilka lovely British lass, + Frae ladies Charlotte, Anne, and Jean, + Down to ilk bonny singing Bess, + Wha dances barefoot on the green.' + +In the collection each stratum of society finds the songs wherewith it +had been familiar from infancy to age. Tunes that were old as the days +of James V. were wedded to words that caught the cadences of the music +with admirable felicity; words, too, had tunes assigned them which +enabled them to be sung in castle and cot, in hall and hut, throughout +'braid Scotland.' The denizens of fashionable drawing-rooms found their +favourites--'Ye powers! was Damon then so blest?' 'Gilderoy,' 'Tell me, +Hamilla; tell me why'--in these fascinating volumes, even as the Peggies +and the Jennies of the ewe-bughts and the corn-rigs rejoiced to note +that 'Katy's Answer,' 'Polwart on the Green,' 'My Daddy forbad, my Minny +forbad,' and 'The Auld Gudeman,' had not been lost sight of. For many a +long day, at each tea-party in town, or rustic gathering in the country, +the _Tea-Table Miscellany_ was in demand, or the songs taken from it, +for the entertainment of those assembled. + +The widespread delight evoked by the _Miscellany_ allured Ramsay to +essay next a task for which, it must be confessed, his qualifications +were scanty. Nine months after the publication of the first volume of +the _Miscellany_--to wit, in October 1724--appeared another compilation, +_The Evergrene: being ane Collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the +Ingenious before 1600_. It was dedicated to the Duke of Hamilton, and +in the dedicatory epistle he informs his Grace that 'the following old +bards present you with an entertainment that can never be disagreeable +to any Scotsman.... They now make a demand for that immortal fame that +tuned their souls some hundred years ago. They do not address you with +an indigent face and a thousand pitiful apologies to bribe the goodwill +of the critics. No; 'tis long since they were superior to the spleen of +these sour gentlemen.' He had been granted access to the 'Bannatyne +MSS.'--the literary remains of George Bannatyne, poet, antiquarian, and +collector of ancient manuscripts of Scottish poetry. This valuable +repository of much that otherwise would have perished was lent to Ramsay +by the Hon. William Carmichael of Skirling, advocate (brother to the +Earl of Hyndford), with permission to extract what he required. From +this priceless treasure-trove he drew specimens of Dunbar, Henryson, +Alexander Scott, Lyndsay, Kennedy, Montgomery, Sempill, Gavin Douglas, +and others. A similar favour was in 1770 granted to Lord Hailes when +preparing his volume, _Ancient Scottish Poems_. Interesting, therefore, +it is, to compare the manner in which the two editors respectively +fulfilled their tasks. + +In Ramsay's case the poems he selected from the Bannatyne MSS. were +passed through the alembic of his own brain. Everything was sacrificed +to popularity and intelligibility. Lord Hailes, on the other hand, was +the most scrupulous of editors, refusing to alter a single letter; for, +as he said, the value of the poems lies in the insight they afford us +into the state of the language at the periods when the various pieces +were written. Alter them in any degree, even the slightest, and you +destroy the intrinsic character of the composition. 'In making his +compilation from the Bannatyne MSS.,' continued Lord Hailes, 'Ramsay has +omitted some stanzas and added others, has modernised the versification +and varied the ancient mode of spelling.' To offend thus was to render +himself liable to the severest censure from all literary antiquarians. +The fault was as inexcusable as would be a trader's in palming off +shoddy goods as those of the best materials. As an example of the +ruthless liberties our poet took with the text, it may be well to follow +Chalmers' example, and print side by side a stanza of Ramsay's +'paraphrase' and Lord Hailes' severely accurate rendering of the opening +of Dunbar's 'Thistle and the Rose'-- + + _Ramsay._ + + 'Quhen Merch with variand winds was overpast, + And sweet Apryle had with his silver showers + Tane leif of Nature with an orient blast, + And lusty May, that mudder is of flowrs, + Had maid the birds begin the tymous hours; + Amang the tendir odours reid and quhyt, + Quhois harmony to heir was grit delyt.' + + _Hailes._ + + 'Quhen Merche wes with variand windis past, + And Appryll had with her silver shouris + Tane leif at Nature with ane orient blast, + And lusty May, that mudder is of flouris, + Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris + Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt, + Quhois harmony to heir it wis delyt.' + +In Dunbar's 'Lament for the Deth of the Makkaris' he not only varied but +added several lines, and these in the silliest manner possible. For +example, at the conclusion of Dunbar's noble elegy, Ramsay must needs +tack on three stanzas, as a prophecy by Dunbar himself, wherein the +vanity-full poet is introduced as 'a lad frae Hethermuirs.' What censure +could be too strong for inappropriate fooling like the following, coming +in to mar the solemn close of Dunbar's almost inspired lines?-- + + 'Suthe I forsie, if spaecraft had, + Frae Hether-muirs sall rise a lad, + Aftir two centries pas, sall he + Revive our fame and memorie: + + Then sal we flourish _evirgrene_; + All thanks to careful Bannatyne, + And to the patron kind and frie + Wha lends the lad baith them and me. + + Far sall we fare baith eist and west, + Owre ilka clime by Scots possest; + Then sen our warks sall never dee, + _Timor mortis non turbat me_.' + +In the _Evergreen_ Ramsay published two of his own poems, _The Vision_ +(in which the author bewails the Union and the banishment of the +Stuarts) and _The Eagle and the Robin Reid-breist_ (likewise a Jacobite +poem), wilfully altering the spelling in both, and introducing +archaicisms into the thought, so as to pass them off as 'written by the +ingenious before 1600.' He also inserted _Hardyknute_, a fragment, which +subsequent research has proved to have been written by Lady Elizabeth +Wardlaw, a contemporary of Ramsay's. Although the _Evergreen_ did much +to revive popular interest in early Scottish poetry, and thus prepare +the way for Lord Hailes and Bishop Percy, from a critical point of view +it was worse than worthless, inasmuch as many of the errors and +alterations appearing in Ramsay's specimens of our early Scots literary +remains, have not been corrected even to this day. + +But though Ramsay, in the estimation of stern literary antiquarians, has +been guilty of an offence so heinous,--an offence vitiating both the +_Tea-Table Miscellany_ and the _Evergreen_,--on the other hand, from the +point of view of the popular reader, his action in modernising the +language, at least, was not only meritorious but necessary, if the +pieces were to be intelligible to the great mass of the people. +Remembered, too, it must be, that Ramsay lived before the development of +what may be styled the antiquarian 'conscience,' in whose code of +literary morality one of the cardinal commandments is, 'Thou shalt in no +wise alter an ancient MS., that thy reputation and good faith may be +unimpugned in the land wherein thou livest, and that thou mayest not +bring a nest of critical hornets about thine ears.' + +In his _Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh_, Dr. Daniel Wilson thus +succinctly states the case: 'Ramsay had much more of the poet than the +antiquary in his composition; and had, moreover, a poet's idea of +valuing verse less on account of its age than its merit. He lived in an +era of literary masquerading and spurious antiques, and had little +compunction in patching and eking an old poem to suit the taste of his +Edinburgh customers.' He was no Ritson,--and, after all, even Plautus +had, for three hundred years after the revival of learning, to await his +Ritschl! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +'THE GENTLE SHEPHERD'; SCOTTISH IDYLLIC POETRY; RAMSAY'S +PASTORALS--1725-30 + + +In the quarto of 1721, not the least remarkable of its contents had been +two Pastoral Dialogues, the one between Richy (Sir Richard Steele) and +Sandy (Alexander Pope), and based on the death of Addison: the other +between Patie and Roger, and concerning itself solely with a +representation of rural life. Amongst the best pieces in the volume both +undoubtedly ranked. In 1723 appeared another metrical dialogue, _Jenny +and Meggy_, betraying obvious kinship with _Patie and Roger_. So +delighted were his friends, the Clerks and the Bennets, Professors +Drummond and Maclaurin, and many others, with the _vraisemblance_ to +Scottish rural life, and with the true rustic flavour present in the two +dialogues, that they entreated him to add some connecting links, and to +expand them into a pastoral drama. Doubtful of his ability to execute a +task demanding powers so varied, and so supreme, Ramsay for a time +hesitated. But at length, induced by their advice, he threw himself into +the undertaking with enthusiasm. In a letter to his kinsman William +Ramsay of Templehall, dated April 8, 1724, he writes: "I am this +vacation going through with a Dramatick Pastoral, whilk I design to +carry the length of five acts, in verse a' the gate, and, if I succeed +according to my plan, I hope to tope [rival] with the authors of _Pastor +Fido_ and _Aminta_." + +On the scenes wherewith he had become acquainted during his manifold +rambles over the hills and the vales, the glens and glades, of fair +Midlothian, he now drew, as well as from the quaint and curious types of +character--the Symons, the Glauds, the Bauldies, the Rogers, the Madges, +and the Mauses--wherewith he had come into contact during such seasons. +That he stinted either time or trouble in making the drama as perfect as +possible is evident from the prolonged period over which its composition +was spread, and the number of drafts he made of it. Some of the songs, +he informed Sir David Forbes, had been written no fewer than six times. +At length, early in July 1725, prefaced by a dedication in prose from +himself to the Right Hon. Susannah, Countess of Eglinton, and by a +poetical address to the same beautiful patroness, from the pen of +William Hamilton of Bangour, the poet, _The Gentle Shepherd_ made its +appearance. + +Its success from the very outset was unparalleled in Scottish literature +up to that date. It seemed literally to take the country by storm. By +all ranks and classes, by titled ladies in their boudoirs, as well as by +milkmaids tripping it to the bughts with leglins and pails, the poem was +admiringly read, and its songs sung. Its performance on the stage in +1726, only served to whet the public appetite. By the leading poets of +the day, Pope, Swift, Gay, Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and Lord Lansdowne, +as well as by the most influential critics, Dennis, Theobald, and Dr. +Ruddiman, the work was hailed as one of the most perfect examples of the +pastoral that had appeared since the _Idylls_ of Theocritus. No less +eminent a judge of poetry than Alexander Pope considered it in many +respects superior to the _Shepherds' Calendar_; while Gay was so +enthusiastic in his admiration that he sent the work over to Swift, with +the remark, 'At last we have a dramatic pastoral, though it _is_ by a +Scot.' + +The first edition of _The Gentle Shepherd_ was exhausted in a few +months, and in January 1726 Ruddiman printed the second, while the third +and a cheaper one was called for towards the close of the same year. The +enormous sale of the poem may be estimated by the fact that the tenth +edition was printed in 1750 by R. & A. Foulis of Glasgow. So great was +the accession of popularity accruing to Ramsay through the publication +of _The Gentle Shepherd_, and so rapid the increase in his bookselling +business, that he found it absolutely necessary to shift his place of +business, or _Scotice dictu_, to 'flit' to larger premises, in the first +storey of the eastern gable-end of the Luckenbooths, a block of towering +_lands_ or tenements which, until 1817, stood in the very centre of the +High Street, obstructing the thoroughfare, and affording a curious +commentary on the expedients to which the burgesses of Edinburgh were +compelled to resort, to eke out to the utmost the space enclosed within +the charmed circle of the Flodden Wall. + +At his 'flitting,' also, he changed his sign, and, thinking the 'Flying +Mercury' no longer applicable to his new pursuits, he adopted the heads +of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, a sign which in local +parlance gradually grew to bear the title of 'The Twa Heids.' In his new +premises also, Ramsay extended the scope of his business, adding to the +other attractions of his establishment a circulating library, the first +of its kind in Scotland. He entered his new shop in May 1726. Sixty +years after, the ground-floor of the same _land_, together with the flat +where formerly Ramsay was located, were in the occupancy of William +Creech, the first of the great Edinburgh Sosii that were yet to include +the Constables, the Blackwoods, the Chambers, the Blacks, and others of +renown in their day. With the Luckenbooths' premises it is that _The +Gentle Shepherd_ is always associated. From them Ramsay dated all his +editions subsequent to the first two, and there he reaped all the +gratifying results of its success. + +The poem, which takes its name from the 12th eclogue of Spenser's +_Shepherds' Calendar_, whose opening runs as follows-- + + 'The Gentle Shepherd satte beside a spring, + All in the shadow of a bushy brere,'-- + +may certainly be ranked in the same category with the _Idylls_ of +Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, the _Aminta_ of Tasso, the _Pastor Fido_ +(faithful shepherd) of Guarini, and Spenser's great poem referred to +above. In _The Gentle Shepherd_ Ramsay rises to a level of poetic +strength, united to a harmony between conception and execution, so +immeasurably superior to anything else he accomplished, that it has +furnished matter for speculation to his rivals and his enemies, whether +in reality the poem were his own handiwork, or had been merely fathered +by him. Lord Hailes, however, pricks this bubble, when dealing with the +ill-natured hypothesis raised by Alexander Pennecuik--the doggerel poet, +not the doctor--that Sir John Clerk and Sir William Bennet had written +_The Gentle Shepherd_, when he remarks, 'that they who attempt to +depreciate Ramsay's fame, by insinuating that his friends and patrons +composed the works which pass under his name, ought first to prove that +his friends and patrons were capable of composing _The Gentle +Shepherd_.' Not for a moment can the argument be esteemed to possess +logical cogency that, because he never equalled the poem in question in +any of his other writings, he was therefore intellectually incapable of +composing that masterpiece which will be read after his other +productions are forgotten, as long, in fact, as Scots poetry has a niche +in the great temple of English literature. + +To define pastoral poetry, as Ramsay understood it, without at the same +time citing examples lying to hand in the works of our author, is a +somewhat difficult task. But as reasons of space will not permit us to +duplicate extracts, and as it is proposed to relegate all criticism to +the closing chapters of the book, we shall, at present, only glance in +passing at the great principles of composition Ramsay kept in view while +writing his pastoral. + +In the _Guardian_, Addison has stated, with his wonted lucidity and +perspicuity, those mechanical rules to which, in his idea, the type of +poetry termed 'pastoral' should conform. He maintained it should be a +reflection, more or less faithful, of the manners of men 'before they +were formed into large societies, cities built, or communities +established, where plenty begot pleasure.' In other words, that 'an +imaginary Golden Age should be evolved by each poet out of his inner +consciousness.' Then the Ursa Major of criticism, Dr. Johnson, after +growling at all preceding critics on the subject, and remarking that +'the rustic poems of Theocritus and the eclogues of Virgil precluded in +antiquity all imitation, until the weak productions of Nemesian and +Calphurnius, in the Brazen Age of Latin literature,' proceeds to say: +'At the revival of learning in Italy it was soon discovered that a +dialogue of imaginary swains might be composed with little difficulty, +because the conversation of shepherds excludes profound or refined +sentiment.' Rapin, in his _De Carmine Pastorali_, observes: ''Tis hard +to give rules for that in which there have been none already given. Yet +in this difficulty I will follow Aristotle's example, who, being to lay +down rules concerning epics, proposed Homer as a pattern, from whom he +deduced the whole art. So will I gather from Theocritus and Virgil, +those fathers of pastoral, what I deliver on this account, their +practice being rules in itself.' And Pope, in his _Discourse on Pastoral +Poetry_, says: 'Since the instructions given for any art are to be +delivered as that art is in perfection, they must of necessity be +derived from those in whom it is acknowledged so to be. It is therefore +from the practice of Theocritus and Virgil (the only undisputed authors +of pastoral) that the critics have drawn the foregoing notions +concerning it.' And Boileau, in his _Art Poetique_, after cautioning +writers of pastoral against the introduction of bombast splendour or +pomp on the one hand, and the use of low and mean language on the other, +making shepherds converse _comme on parle au village_, observes that +'the path between the two extremes is very difficult'; while Dryden, in +his preface to Virgil's _Pastorals_, defines pastoral to be 'the +imitation of a shepherd considered under that character.' Finally, to +quote Dr. Johnson once more, he remarks, in his _Lives of the Poets_, +'truth and exactness of imitation, to show the beauties without the +grossness of country life, should be the aim of pastoral poetry.' + +By all these critics pastoral poetry is considered in its abstract or +ideal form. They never dreamed of bidding poets descend to the concrete, +or to actual rural life, as Beattie puts it, 'there to study that life +as they found it.' Dr. Pennecuik justly remarks, in his essay on _Ramsay +and Pastoral Poetry_: 'Of the ancient fanciful division of the ages of +the world into the _golden_, _silver_, _brazen_, and _iron_, the first, +introduced by Saturn into Italy, has been appropriated to the shepherd +state. Virgil added this conceit to his polished plagiarisms from +Theocritus; and thus, as he advanced in elegance and majesty, receded +from simplicity, nature, reality, and truth.' + +To Ramsay's credit be it ascribed, that he broke away from these rank +absurdities and false ideas of pastoral poetry, and dared to paint +nature and rural life as he found it. His principles are thus stated by +himself: 'The Scottish poet must paint his own country's scenes and his +own country's life, if he would be true to his office.... The morning +rises in the poet's description as she does in the Scottish horizon; we +are not carried to Greece and Italy for a shade, a stream, or a breeze; +the groves rise in our own valleys, the rivers flow from our own +fountains, and the winds blow upon our own hills.' + +To the fact that Ramsay has painted Scotland and Scottish rustics as +they are, and has not gone to the hermaphrodite and sexless inhabitants +of a mythical Golden Age for the characters of his great drama, the +heart of every Scot can bear testimony. Neither Burns, supreme though +his genius was over his predecessors, nor Scott, revelling as he did in +patriotic sentiments as his dearest possession, can rival Ramsay in the +absolute truth wherewith he has painted Scottish rustic life. He is at +one and the same time the Teniers and the Claude of Scottish +pastoral--the Teniers, in catching with subtle sympathetic insight the +precise 'moments' and incidents in the life of his characters most +suitable for representation; the Claude, for the almost photographic +truth of his reproductions of Scottish scenery. + +That Ramsay was influenced by the spirit of his age cannot be denied, +but he was sufficiently strong, both intellectually and imaginatively, +to yield to that influence only so far as it was helpful to him in the +inspiration of his great work, but to resist it when it would have +imposed the fetters of an absurd mannerism upon the 'machinery' and the +'atmosphere' of his pastoral. The last decades of the seventeenth, and +the first two or three of the eighteenth centuries, were periods when +pastoral poetry was in fashion. Italian and French literary modes were +supreme. Modern pastoral may be said to have taken its rise in the +_Admetus_ of Boccaccio; in the introductory act of the _Orfeo_ of +Politian, written in 1475, and termed _Pastorale_, and in the _Arcadia_ +of Jacopo Sanazzara. But, according to Dr. Burney, the first complete +pastoral drama prepared for the stage was the _Sacrificio Favola +Pastorale_ of Agostino de Beccari, afterwards published in _Il Parnasso +Italiano_. They followed the _Aminta_ of Tasso and the _Filli di Sciro_ +of Bonarelli in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In Italy and +France, thereafter, pastoral became the literary mode for the time +being; to Clement Marot, with his _Complaint of Louise of Savoy_, +belonging the honour, as Professor Morley says, of producing the first +French pastoral. It invaded all the fine arts,--music, painting, +sculpture, romance, were all in turn conquered by it. From France it +spread to England and to Scotland, and thereafter a flood of shepherds +and shepherdesses, of Strephons and Chloes, of Damons, Phyllises, and +Delias, spread over literature, of which the evidences in England are +Spenser's _Shepherds' Calendar_, Sidney's _Arcadia_; and in Scotland, +Robert Henryson's _Robene and Makyne_. Nor did Milton disdain this form +for his _Lycidas_; Pope also affected it, as well as Ambrose Philips; +while, under the title of _The Shepherd's Week_, Gay produced one of the +most charming of his many charming works, in which our age, by +consigning them to oblivion, has deliberately deprived itself of genuine +poetic enjoyment. To the extent of the name, and of that only, was +Ramsay influenced by his time. As regards all else he struck out a new +line altogether. + +With regard to the _locale_ where Ramsay laid the scene of the drama, +two places have laid claim to it; the first, and the least probable, +being situate near Glencorse, about seven miles from Edinburgh; the +second, one and a half miles from the village of Carlops, about twelve +miles distant from the metropolis, and five farther on from the +first-mentioned spot. The balance of probability lies strongly in favour +of the Carlops 'scene.' In the first named, only the waterfall and one +or two minor details can be identified as corresponding to the natural +features of the scenery in the poem; in the second, every feature named +by Ramsay is full in view. Here are 'the harbour-craig,' 'the trottin' +burnie,' 'the little linn' making 'a singin' din,' 'the twa birks,' +'the pool breast-deep,' 'the washing-green,' 'the loan,' 'Glaud's +onstead,' 'Symon's house,' 'the craigy bield,' 'Habbie's Howe' or house, +and many others. Another strong point is that in Act ii. scene 2 of _The +Gentle Shepherd_, Glaud threatens to set his biggest peat-stack on fire, +through sheer joy over Sir William Worthy's prospective return. Around +the Glencorse site for the action of the drama, there is not a peat to +be dug in the whole parish; at the Carlops 'scene,' peat is the staple +fuel of the district. Near by, also, is Newhall, the estate which in +Ramsay's days was in possession of the Forbes family, who had purchased +it from Dr. Pennecuik, the author of the _Description of Tweeddale_ and +other works. John Forbes of Newhall was one of Ramsay's dearest friends, +and many relics of the poet are still preserved at the mansion house; +but it was with the Pennecuik family Ramsay associated his poem. In _The +Gentle Shepherd_, Sir William Worthy is described as having had to fly +into exile-- + + 'Our brave good master, wha sae wisely fled, + And left a fair estate to save his head; + Because, ye ken fu' weel, he bravely chose + To stand his liege's friend wi' great Montrose.' + +Newhall was purchased by Dr. Pennecuik's father two years before Charles +I. was beheaded. The doctor himself was contemporary with Cromwell, +Montrose, Monk, and Charles II., all of whom appear so distinctly in the +pastoral as associated with the action of the piece. He had to go into +hiding during the Commonwealth, for his support of Charles I., and for +sheltering Montrose after the battle of Philiphaugh. Pennecuik the +younger (great-grandson of the doctor), in his _Life of Ramsay_, states +that the poet appeared to have been indebted to Dr. Pennecuik for the +_Story of the Knight_, but to have drawn the character from that of his +friend Sir David Forbes. + +The issue of the successive editions of _The Gentle Shepherd_, though +occupying a large share of his time not engrossed by the cares of +business, did not altogether preclude him from writing some fresh pieces +when occasion arose. In 1727 appeared a 'Masque,' which was performed at +the celebration of the nuptials of James, Duke of Hamilton, and the Lady +Ann Cochrane. In this form of poetry Ramsay revived a good old type very +popular amongst the Elizabethan poets and dramatists, and even +descending down to the days of Milton, whose _Masque of Comus_ is the +noblest specimen of this kind of composition in modern literature. +Ramsay's _dramatis personae_ are rather a motley crew, but on the whole +he succeeds in managing the dialogue of his gods, and goddesses very +creditably, though any admirer of his genius can see it moves on stilts +under such circumstances. _The Pastoral Epithalamium_ upon the marriage +of George Lord Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule is of a less ambitious cast, +both as regards form and thought; the consequence being, that the poet +succeeds admirably in expressing the ideas proper to the occasion, when +he was not bound by the fetters of an unfamiliar rhythm. + +Ramsay's later poems had in turn attained, numerically speaking, to such +bulk as fairly entitled him to consider the practicability of issuing a +second quarto volume, containing all of value he had written between +1721 and 1728. From all quarters came requests for him so to do. +Therefore, towards the close of 1728 he issued his second volume of +collected poems. The interest awakened by _The Gentle Shepherd_ still +burned with a clear and steady glow. From this fact, gratifying, indeed, +as regards the proximate success of the individual book, but prophetic +also in an ultimate sense of the stability of reputation to be his lot +in the republic of letters, he concluded, as he says in one of his +letters to the Clerks of Penicuik, 'to regard himself as ane o' the +national bards of Scotland.' That he was justified in doing so, the +future amply testified. + +The realisation that he had now won for himself a permanent place in the +literature of his land operated, however, rather injuriously upon the +continued fecundity of his genius. He became timorous of further appeals +to the public, lest he should injure his fame. Allan Ramsay, in his own +eyes, became Ramsay's most dreaded rival. At length he deliberately +adopted the resolution that the better part of valour was discretion, +and that he would tempt fortune in verse no more. With the exception of +his poetical epistle to the Lords of Session, and his volume of metrical +_Fables_, Ramsay's poetical career was completed. Henceforth he was +occupied in preparing the successive editions of his _Works_ and of the +_Tea-Table Miscellany_, and in compiling his collection of _Scots +Proverbs_. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +RESTING ON HIS LAURELS; BUILDS HIS THEATRE; HIS BOOK OF 'SCOTS +PROVERBS'--1730-40 + + +Ramsay had now reached the pinnacle of his fame. He was forty-four years +of age, prosperous in business, enjoying a reputation not alone confined +to Great Britain, but which had extended to France, to Holland, and to +Italy. His great pastoral was lauded in terms the most gratifying by +critics everywhere as the most perfect example of the pure idyll that +had appeared since the days of Theocritus. The proudest of the nobility +were not ashamed to take his arm for a walk down High Street, or to +spend an hour cracking jokes and discussing literature with him under +the sign of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden. + +What Chambers says in his _Eminent Scotsmen_, from which are culled the +following facts, is strictly accurate: 'Ramsay had now risen to wealth +and high respectability, numbering among his familiar friends the best +and the wisest men in the nation. By the greater part of the Scottish +nobility he was caressed, and at the houses of some of the most +distinguished of them, Hamilton Palace, Loudoun Castle, etc., was a +frequent visitor.' With Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate (and before many +years to be Lord President), with Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Sir +William Bennet of Marlefield, Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, near +Edinburgh, he lived in the habit of daily, familiar, and friendly +intercourse. With contemporary poets his relations were likewise of the +most friendly kind. The two Hamiltons, of Bangour and Gilbertfield, were +his constant associates. To Pope, to Gay, and to Somerville; to Meston, +to Mitchell, and to Mallet, he addressed poetical greetings, and several +of them returned the salutations in kind. From England, too, came +another and a different proof of his popularity, in the fact that, when +in 1726 Hogarth published his 'Illustrations of Hudibras' in twelve +plates, these were dedicated to 'William Ward of Great Houghton, +Northamptonshire, and Allan Ramsay of Edinburgh.' Edinburgh itself was +proud of her poet, and was not averse to manifesting the fact when +fitting opportunity offered. He was a frequent visitor at the +University, and Dugald Stewart relates that an old friend of his father +informed him, the students of the fourth and fifth decades of last +century used to point out a squat, dapper, keen-eyed little man, who was +wont to walk up and down the space in front of their classrooms with +Professors Drummond and Maclaurin, as 'the great poet, Allan Ramsay.' +The narrator also added, he felt a secret disappointment when thus +viewing for the first time a real live poet, and noting that he differed +neither in dress nor mien from ordinary men. From his studies among the +classics, and from the prints in the early editions of Horace and +Virgil, he had been led to imagine the genus poet always perambulated +the earth attired in flowing singing robes, their forehead bound with a +chaplet, and carrying with them a substantial looking lyre! + +The year 1728 had witnessed, as we have seen, the publication of Allan +Ramsay's last original work. Thereafter he was content to rest on his +laurels, to revise new editions of his various poems, and to add to his +_Tea-Table Miscellany_ and _Scots Songs_. Perhaps he may have been +conscious that the golden glow of youthful imagination at life's +meridian, had already given place to those soberer tints that rise +athwart the mental horizon, when the Rubicon of the forties has been +crossed. In 1737, when writing to his friend Smibert, the painter (then +in Boston, America, whither he had emigrated), Ramsay states, with +reference to his relinquishment of poetry: 'These six or seven years +past I have not written a line of poetry; I e'en gave over in good time, +before the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me +risk the reputation I had acquired.' He then adds in the letter the +following lines of poetry, from which we gather, further, that his +determination was the result, not of mere impulse, pique, or chagrin, +but of reasoned resolve-- + + 'Frae twenty-five to five-and-forty, + My muse was neither sweer nor dorty; + My Pegasus would break his tether, + E'en at the shaking of a feather, + And through ideas scour like drift, + Straking his wings up to the lift. + Then, then my soul was in a low, + That gart my numbers safely row; + _But eild and judgment 'gin to say, + Let be your sangs and learn to pray_.' + +By 1730, then, Ramsay's work, of an original kind at least, was over. In +that year, however, he published another short volume of metrical +fables, under the title, _A Collection of Thirty Fables_. Amongst them +we find some of the most delightful of all our poet's work in this vein. +_Mercury in Quest of Peace_, _The Twa Lizards_, _The Caterpillar and the +Ant_, and _The Twa Cats and the Cheese_, possess, as Chalmers truly +says, 'all the _naivete_ of Phaedrus and La Fontaine, with the wit and +ease of Gay.' + +And thus Ramsay's literary career closed, after well-nigh two decades of +incessant intellectual activity. Begun, as Professor Masson says, 'in +the last years of the reign of Queen Anne, and continued through the +whole of the reign of George I., it had just touched the beginning of +that of George II. when it suddenly ceased. Twice or thrice afterwards, +at long intervals, he did scribble a copy of verses; but in the main, +from his forty-fifth year onwards, he rested on his laurels. +Henceforward he contented himself with his bookselling, the management +of his circulating library, and the superintendence of the numerous +editions of his _Collected Poems_, his _Gentle Shepherd_, and his +_Tea-Table Miscellany_.' + +In pursuance of this determination, Ramsay, in 1731, at the request of a +number of London booksellers, edited a complete edition of his works, +wherein all the poems published in the quartos of 1721 and 1728 were +included, in addition to _The Gentle Shepherd_. The success attending +this venture was so great that, in 1733, a Dublin edition had to be +prepared, which also handsomely remunerated both author and publishers. +From the American colonies, likewise, came accounts of the great +popularity of Ramsay's poems, both among the inhabitants of the towns +and the settlers in the mighty forests. Of the latter, many were +Scotsmen, and to them the vividly realistic scenes and felicitous +character-drawing of _The Gentle Shepherd_ touched, with a power and a +pathos almost overwhelming, the subtlest fibres of that love for +'Caledonia, stern and wild,' which, deepened by distance as it is, and +strengthened by absence, seems so inwoven with the very warp and woof of +the nature of her children that, go where they will, it can never be +eradicated, until the last great consummation overtakes them, when earth +returns to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. + +Our poet now had more time on his hands for those social duties and +convivial pleasures wherein he took such delight. His new premises in +the Luckenbooths, facing down towards, and therefore commanding a full +view of, the magnificent thoroughfare of the High Street, were +immediately opposite the ancient octagonal-shaped Cross of Edinburgh, +where all official proclamations were made. The vicinity of the Cross +was, on favourable afternoons, the fashionable rendezvous of the period. +No sooner was the midday dinner over, than the fair ladies and gallants +of the town--the former in the wide hoops, the jewelled stomachers, the +silken _capuchins_ (cloaks), the _bongraces_ (hoods), and high +head-dresses of the day; the latter in the long, embroidered coats, +knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes, tye-wigs, and +three-cornered hats peculiar to the fourth decade of last +century--issued from their dingy turnpike stairs in the equally darksome +closes, pends, and wynds, to promenade or lounge, as best pleased them, +in the open space around the Cross. Here were to be met all sorts and +conditions of men and women. Viewed from the first storey of the +building wherein Allan Ramsay's shop was situated, the scene must have +been an exceedingly animated one. Mr. Robert Chambers, with that +graphic power of literary scene-painting he possessed in measure so +rich, represented the picture, in his _Traditions of Edinburgh_, in +colours so vivid, and with a minuteness of detail so striking, that +subsequent descriptions have been little more than reproductions of his. +Let us take advantage of his admirable sketch of the scene round the +Cross, filling in any important details he may have omitted. + +The jostlement and huddlement was extreme everywhere. Ladies and +gentlemen paraded along in the stately attire of the period: grave Lords +of Session, and leading legal luminaries, bustling Writers to the Signet +and their attendant clerks, were all there. Tradesmen chatted in groups, +often bareheaded, at their shop doors; _caddies_ whisked about, bearing +messages or attending to the affairs of strangers; children darted about +in noisy sport; corduroyed carters from Gilmerton are bawling 'coals' +and 'yellow sand'; fishwives are crying their 'caller haddies' from +Newhaven; whimsicals and idiots going about, each with his or her crowd +of tormentors; _tronmen_ with their bags of soot; town-guardsmen in +rusty uniform, and with their ancient Lochaber axes; water-carriers with +their dripping barrels; Highland drovers in philabeg, sporran, and cap; +Liddesdale farmers with their blue Lowland bonnets; sedan chairmen, with +here and there a red uniform from the castle--such was the scene upon +which, in the early months of the year 1732,--alas! his last on +earth,--the celebrated London poet, John Gay, gazed from the windows of +Allan Ramsay's shop. Beside him stood the redoubtable Allan himself, +pointing out to him the most notable personages in the motley crowd, +and every now and then called upon to explain some Scotticism in his +speech which reminded Gay of passages in _The Gentle Shepherd_ that Pope +had desired him to get explained from the author himself. And worthy +Allan is flattered yet flustered withal with the honour, for beside them +stand the famous Duchess of Queensberry--better known as Prior's +'Kitty,' otherwise Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of the Earl of +Clarendon--and her miser husband, who only opened his close fist to +build such palatial piles as Queensberry House, in the Edinburgh +Canongate, and Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire. They have brought Gay +up north with them, after his disappointment in getting his +play--_Polly_, the continuation of the _Beggars' Opera_--refused +sanction for representation by the Duke of Grafton, then Lord +Chamberlain. Ah! how honest Allan smirks and smiles, and becks and bows, +with a backbone that will never be as supple in _kotowing_ to anyone +else. For does he not, like many more of us, dearly love a lord, and +imagine the sun to rise and set in the mere enjoyment of the ducal +smile? + +A pleasant visit was that paid by Gay to Scotland in 1732, before he +returned to London to die, in the December of the same year. He spent +many of his spare hours in the company of Ramsay, and that of the two +friends in whose society much of the latter's time was now to be +passed--Sir John Clerk of Penicuik and Sir Alexander Dick of +Prestonfield. By all three, Gay was deeply regretted,--by Clerk and Dick +chiefly, because he had so much that was akin to their own genial +friend, Allan Ramsay. + +In 1736 our poet published a collection of _Scots Proverbs_, which, for +some reason or another, has never been printed with his poems in those +editions that are professedly complete. Only in Oliver's pocket edition +is this excellent thesaurus of pithy and forcible Scottish apophthegms +presented with his other works. That it is one of the best repertories +of our proverbial current coin that exists, particularly with regard to +the crystallised shrewdness and keen observation embodied in them, must +be apparent to any reader, even the most cursory. To supersede the +trashy works of Fergusson and Kelly was the reason why Ramsay set +himself to gather up the wealth of aphoristic wisdom that lay manna-like +on all sides of him. As might be expected, it is richest in the sayings +common throughout the three Lothians, though the Lowlands, as a whole, +are well represented. Of Gaelic proverbs there is scarce a trace, +showing how faintly, despite his Jacobitism, his sympathies were aroused +by Celtic tradition or Celtic poetry. Many of the sayings were +undoubtedly coined in Ramsay's own literary mint, though the ideas may +have been common property among the people of his day. But how close the +union between the ideas and their expression in this collection! Of +looseness of phrase there is scarce a trace. How apt the stereotyping of +current idioms in such pithy verbal nuggets as--'Ne'er tell your fae +when your foot sleeps,' 'Nature passes nurture,' 'Muckledom is nae +virtue,' 'Happy the wife that's married to a motherless son,' 'Farmers' +faugh gar lairds laugh.' + +Ramsay's dedication of his volume of _Scots Proverbs_ to 'The Tenantry +of Scotland, Farmers of the Dales and Storemasters of the Hills,' shows +the value he attached to this kind of literature. He writes in the +colloquial Scots, and his words are valuable as presenting us with a +reliable example of the Scots vernacular as spoken in educated circles +early last century. 'The following hoard of _Wise Sayings_ and +observations of our forefathers,' he remarks, 'which have been gathering +through many bygone ages, I have collected with great care, and restored +to their proper sense, which had been frequently _tint_ [lost] by +publishers that did not understand our landwart [inland] language.... As +naething helps our happiness mair than to hae the mind made up with +right principles, I desire you, for the thriving and pleasure of you and +yours, to use your een and lend your lugs to these guid auld says, that +shine wi' wailed sense and will as lang as the warld wags. Gar your +bairns get them by heart; let them hae a place among your family-books; +and may never a window-sole through the country be without them. On a +spare hour, when the day is clear, behind a rick, or on the green howm, +draw the treasure frae your pooch and enjoy the pleasant companion. Ye +happy herds, while your hirdsels are feeding on the flowery braes, ye +may eithly mak yoursels masters of the holy ware.' + +Hitherto the sky of Ramsay's life had been well-nigh cloudless. +Misfortune and failure had never shrivelled his hopes or his enterprises +with the frost of disappointment. Nothing more serious than an envious +scribbler's splenetic effusions had ever assailed him. Now he was to +know the sting of mortification and the pinch of financial loss. + +We have already adverted to the gloomy bigotry of a certain section of +the Scottish clergy of this period. To them everything that savoured of +jollity and amusement was specially inspired by the Evil One, for the +hindrance of their ministerial labours. The references to this matter +are manifold throughout Ramsay's poetry. Though no one had a deeper +respect for vital piety than he, no one more bitterly reprobated that +puritanic fanaticism that saw sin and wrong-doing in innocent recreation +and relaxation. Against Ramsay the ecclesiastical thunder had commenced +to roll some years before (according to Wodrow), when he started his +circulating library. That the works of Shakespeare, Beaumont and +Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Dryden, Waller, and the romances of +chivalry, should be placed in the hands of the youth of Edinburgh, was +accounted a sin so grave as to merit Presbyterial censure. Accordingly, +a party, amongst whom was the infamous Lord Grange, attempted to +suppress the library. But the _aegis_ of the redoubtable Dr. Webster had +been thrown over him, and the pother in time died away. It appears, +however, that Ramsay, in 1736, had imported a large stock of +translations of the most celebrated French plays of the day, and had +added them to his library. Sufficient was this to blow into a blaze the +smouldering embers of clerical indignation. From pulpit and press our +poet was fulminated at. Not that he gave the smallest sign that he cared +one jot for all their denunciations. He attended to his shop and his +library, and quaffed his claret at the _Isle of Man Arms_, at Luckie +Dunbar's in Forrester's Wynd, or at the famous John's Coffee House, with +the cynical response that 'they might e'en gang their ain gate.' + +But just at this precise time Ramsay conceived the idea of becoming a +theatre-proprietor, and thus benefiting the worthy burgesses of Auld +Reekie by erecting a house where standard dramas might be performed. The +very proposal raised a storm of indignation in clerical circles, against +which even Dr. Webster and his friends were powerless. Hitherto the +opposition of the Presbyterian ministers had prevented the erection of +any theatre in the town. The companies of itinerating players who might +chance to visit the town from time to time, were compelled to hire a +hall or a booth for their performances. Prior to the Commonwealth, +_histrionic_ exhibitions were frequent in Edinburgh. But from 1650 to +the Union, fanaticism became paramount and sternly repressed them. One +of the earliest mentions of dramatic representations after that date +occurs in 1710, and again in 1715, when a regular company of players +performed certain dramas in the Long Gallery and in the Tennis Court at +Holyrood-house. In the subsequent winter, as we learn from the _Scots +Courant_ of December 16, 1715, the plays were represented in the old +magazine-house at the back of the foot of the Canongate, on which +occasion, said the notice, 'the several parts would be performed by some +new actors just arrived from England.' + +On the last night of the year 1719 Ramsay supplied a prologue for the +performance of Otway's play, 'The Orphan,' and 'The Cheats' of Scapin, +'by some young gentlemen,' wherein he remarked-- + + 'Somebody says to some folk, we're to blame; + That 'tis a scandal and a burning shame + To thole young callants thus to grow sae snack, + And learn--O mighty crimes!--to speak and act! + But let them talk. In spite of ilk endeavour, + We'll cherish wit, and scorn their fead or favour.' + +In 1722 he wrote an epilogue, to be spoken after the acting of 'The +Drummer'; in 1726 a prologue, to be addressed to the audience by the +famous Tony Aston on the first night of his appearance; in 1727 a +prologue, to be delivered before the acting of 'Aurenzebe,' at +Haddington School; and finally, an epilogue, recited after the +performance of 'The Orphan' and 'The Gentle Shepherd,' in January 1729. +All these, and probably others that have not been preserved, evince that +Ramsay cherished a warm affection for the drama, with an earnest desire +to see his fellow-countrymen profit by it. After the indignant +remonstrance-- + + 'Shall London have its houses twa, + And we be doomed to nane ava? + Is our metropolis ance the place + Where lang-syne dwelt the royal race + Of Fergus, this gait dwindled doun + To the level o' a _clachan_ toun? + While thus she suffers the desertion + Of a maist rational diversion,' + +he commenced to erect, in 1736, a playhouse in Carrubber's Close. In his +advertisement in the _Caledonian Mercury_, announcing the prospective +opening, he states, he had built the house 'at vast expense,' in order +that, during the winter nights, the citizens might enjoy themselves in +hearing, performed by competent actors, dramas that would amuse, +instruct, and elevate. + +His advertisement, in the issue of the _Mercury_ for September 15, 1736, +reads:-- + + 'The new theatre in Carrubber's Close being in great forwardness, + will be opened on the 1st of November. These are to advertise the + ladies and gentlemen who incline to purchase annual tickets, to + enter their names before the 20th of October next, on which day + they shall receive their tickets from Allan Ramsay, on paying 30s., + no more than forty to be subscribed for; after which none will be + disposed of under two guineas.' + +Meantime the clerical party and the enemies of Ramsay had joined hands +in common opposition to his plans. 'Hardly had he begun operations' +(writes Professor Masson) 'when there came the extraordinary statute of +10 Geo. II. (1737), regulating theatres for the future all over Great +Britain. As by this statute, there could be no performance of stage +plays out of London and Westminster, save when the king chanced to be +residing in some other town, Ramsay's speculation collapsed.' In fact, +the municipal authorities, at the instigation of the clergy, employed +the force of the statute peremptorily to close his theatre. In vain he +appealed to law. 'He only received a quibble for his pains. He was +injured without being damaged,' said the lawyers. In vain he appealed in +a poetical epistle, to President Duncan Forbes of the Court of Session, +wherein he says-- + + 'Is there aught better than the stage + To mend the follies o' the age, + If managed as it ought to be, + Frae ilka vice and blaidry free? + Wherefore, my Lords, I humbly pray + Our lads may be allowed to play, + At least till new-house debts be paid off, + The cause that I'm the maist afraid of; + Which lade lyes on my single back, + And I maun pay it ilka plack.' + +Well might the good-hearted, honourable-minded poet dread the future. +The responsibility lay upon him alone for the expense of the building, +and from many intimations he let drop the failure of the speculation +well-nigh ruined him. But the increasing sale of his books, and the +expanding prosperity of his business, soon recouped his outlay. That he +was much depressed by his losses, heavy and unexpected as they were, is +evident from a private letter he wrote at this time to the President, +and which is still preserved at Culloden House. 'Will you,' he writes, +'give me something to do? Here I pass a sort of half-idle, scrimp life, +tending a trifling trade that scarce affords me the needful. Had I not +got a parcel of guineas from you, and such as you, who were pleased to +patronise my subscriptions, I should not have had a gray groat. I think +shame--but why should I, when I open my mind to one of your +goodness?--to hint that I want to have some small commission, when it +happens to fall in your way to put me into it.' + +Not without an element of pathos is the scene that is here presented, of +him, who had done so much to amuse and elevate his fellows, being +compelled to make such a request. Satisfactory is it, however, to know +that, though the poetical epistle 'to the Lords' was fruitless of +practical benefit in the way he desired, albeit exciting for him the +warmest sympathy among the worthy senators of the College of Justice, +there is reason to believe the President was able to throw 'some small +commission' in Ramsay's way, and thus, by his opportune generosity, to +dispel the thunderclouds of misfortune hurrying hard upon the poet's +steps. + +Of course, to his enemies (amongst whom was Pennecuik, the poet), as +well as to the more bigoted of the clergy, his trials were a judgment +upon his conduct. A shoal of pamphlets and pasquinades appeared, as +though to rub salt into the raw wounds of his mortified feelings: such +despicable effusions--written in more than one case by 'ministers of the +Gospel'--as 'The Flight of Religious Piety from Scotland, upon account +of Ramsay's lewd books and the Hell-bred comedians, who debauch all the +Faculties of the Soul of our Rising Generation,' 'A Looking-Glass for +Allan Ramsay,' 'The Dying Words of Allan Ramsay,' etc. As Chalmers +remarks: 'The lampooners left intimations of what must have been of +considerable consolation to our adventurous dramatist; that "he had +acquired wealth"; that "he possessed a fine house"; that "he had raised +his kin to high degree."' Such topics of censure did more honour than +hurt to Ramsay. To their ribald raillery the poet replied only by a +contemptuous silence, infinitely more galling than if he had turned on +the wasps and crushed them, thus bespeaking for them a prominence in no +measure merited. Their spleen he forgot amid the engrossments of a +closer attention to business, and the charms of friendship's +intercourse. + +It may be added, however, that the whirligig of time brought in for +Ramsay his revenges upon his enemies. The theatre which in 1746 was +erected in Playhouse Close in the Canongate, though only by a quibbling +evasion of the statute, so Draconic were its provisions, was largely due +to his energy and exertions. Thus, says a biographer, Ramsay, at the age +of sixty, had the satisfaction to see dramatical entertainments enjoyed +by the citizens, whose theatrical tastes he had kindled and fostered. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CLOSING YEARS OF LIFE; HIS HOUSE ON CASTLEHILL; HIS FAMILY; HIS +PORTRAITS--1740-58. + + +Little more of a biographical character is there to relate. The last +seventeen years of Ramsay's life were passed in the bosom of his family, +and in attention to his business. His son, Allan--afterwards an artist +of great celebrity, and portrait painter to George III.,--after +studying, as the proud father informs his friend Smibert in a letter +about this time, with Mr. Hyffidg in London, and spending a little time +at home 'painting like a Raphael,' had been sent to Rome, where he made +good use of his opportunities. The father's heart yearns over the boy, +and he pathetically adds: 'I'm sweer to part with him, but canna stem +the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own +inclination.' His three daughters were growing up into 'fine, handsome +girls,' while 'my dear auld wife is still my bedfellow.' + +What a beautiful picture we get of the kindly old poet, drawn +unconsciously by himself in this letter. Domesticity and parental +affection were two qualities pre-eminently present in Ramsay's nature. + +From Mrs. Murray of Henderland we also receive a delicious side-peep +into Allan's character. In 1825 she informed Mr. Robert Chambers that +'he was one of the most amiable men she had ever known. His constant +cheerfulness and lively conversational powers had made him a favourite +amongst persons of rank, whose guest he frequently was. Being very fond +of children, he encouraged his daughters in bringing troops of young +ladies about the house, in whose sports he would mix with a patience and +vivacity wonderful in an old man. He used to give these young friends a +kind of ball once a year. From pure kindness for the young, he would +help to make dolls for them, and cradles wherein to place these little +effigies, with his own hands.' + +From 1740 to 1743 he enjoyed to the full the idyllic happiness and peace +described in his epistle to James Clerk of Penicuik-- + + 'Though born to not ae inch of ground, + I keep my conscience white and sound; + And though I ne'er was a rich heaper, + To make that up I live the cheaper; + By this ae knack I've made a shift + To drive ambitious care adrift; + And now in years and sense grown auld, + In ease I like my limbs to fauld. + Debts I abhor, and plan to be + Frae shochling trade and danger free, + That I may, loos'd frae care and strife, + With calmness view the edge of life; + And when a full ripe age shall crave, + Slide easily into my grave.' + +In 1742, finding himself in a position to take more ease than his busy +life had hitherto permitted to him, he bought a piece of ground on the +Castlehill, overlooking the valley of the North Loch, and there erected +that curious house, with its octagonal-shaped frontage, copied from a +Neapolitan villa, and designed by his son Allan, which so long was an +ornament on the northern slope overlooking the New Town of Edinburgh. +From his windows a reach of scenery was commanded, probably not +surpassed in Europe, stretching from the mouth of the Firth of Forth on +the east to the Grampians on the west, and extending far across the +green hills of Fife to the north. The poet, however, becoming alarmed at +the expense he was incurring, altered his son's design after the +building was half completed. In consequence, the mansion presented a +very quaint appearance. Tradition states that Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun +(afterwards Lord Milton) first detected the resemblance to a goose-pie. +Be this as it may, Allan was grievously vexed by the comparison, and one +day, when showing it, in the pride of his heart, to the witty Lord +Elibank, who duly admired its unrivalled prospect, he added, 'And yet, +my lord, thae toon wits say it's like naething else than a guse-pie.' +'Deed, Allan, noo I see ye intilt, I'm thinkin' the wits are no' sae far +wrang.' History does not record Allan's rejoinder. + +Scarcely had he entered his new mansion, however, expecting to enjoy +there many years of domestic happiness and peace, than the great sorrow +of his life fell upon him. In March 1743, his faithful and loving +partner, who had stood by him amid all the storm and stress of his busy +career, was taken from him, after thirty years of unbroken affection and +devotion. She was interred in the Greyfriars Churchyard, as the cemetery +records show, on the 28th of March 1743. So intense was her husband's +grief that he, who for many another had written elegies instinct with +deep sympathy and regret, could not trust himself to write of her, 'lest +I should break doon a'thegither into my second bairnhood.' Alas! poor +Allan! + +But his daughters, realising to the full the part that now devolved on +them, stepped into the gap left in his domestic circle. Nobly they +fulfilled their duty, and amongst the most affecting tributes Ramsay +paid, is that to the filial affection of 'his girls,' over whom, after +their mother had gone from them, he watched with a wealth of paternal +love and an anxious solicitude, as unsparing as it was unremitting. + +And thus did the life of Allan Ramsay roll quietly onward through placid +reaches of domestic and social happiness, during the closing fourteen +years of existence. Though he did not formally retire from business +until 1755, he left it almost entirely in the hands of capable +subordinates. He had worked hard in his day, and now, as he said-- + + ----'I the best and fairest please, + A little man that lo'es my ease, + And never thole these passions lang + That rudely mint to do me wrang.' + +Accordingly, he lived quietly in the 'goose-pie,' 'faulding his limbs in +ease,' and absolutely refusing to concern himself with anything +political, social, or ecclesiastical calculated to bring worry and +trouble upon him. + +During the Rebellion of 1745, tradition states that Prince Charles +Edward, after the capture of the city by the Highland army, sent a +message to Ramsay, asking him to repair to Holyrood, that some mark of +his new sovereign's favour might be bestowed on him. Singular, indeed, +it was, that the poet should have selected the day in question to repair +to his friend James Clerk's mansion at Penicuik, and that he should +there have been seized with so severe an indisposition as to prevent him +returning to Edinburgh for nearly five weeks. Though a Tory and a +Jacobite, honest Allan knew upon which side his bread was buttered. Such +honours as would have been conferred would have been inconvenient. +Moreover, the Rebellion had not yet attained dimensions sufficient to +transmute it from a rebellion into a revolution. Pawkiness and caution +were prominent traits in his character, and they were never used to more +salient advantage than in the instance in question. + +To the end of life, Ramsay remained the same kindly, genial, honourable +man, whose appearance in any of the social circles he frequented, was +the signal for 'quips and cranks and wreathed smiles' to go round, and +for the feast of reason and the flow of soul to commence. His squat, +podgy figure waddling down the High Street on his way to his shop in the +Luckenbooths, his head covered with the quaint three-cornered hat of the +period, beneath which peeped his tie-wig, was one of the familiar sights +of Edinburgh, to be pointed out to strangers with a pride and an +affection that never diminished. In his little villa on the Castlehill +he entertained his friends in true Horatian style, and with a +hospitality every whit as warm, though it was every whit as simple as +that which the great Roman promised Maecenas, he made them free of what +was in his power to give. + +Foibles he had,--and who is without them? faults, too,--for what +character lacks them? yet his very foibles and his faults leaned to +virtue's side. Vain he certainly was, deny the fact who can? his +egotism, also, may have jarred on some whose individuality was as strong +as his own, but whose liberality in making allowances for human +weaknesses was less. Nay, he may even in some respects have been 'near' +with regard to certain little things, though this was the result of his +humble upbringing, where, in the household economy of the Crichtons, a +pound was a fortune. But once break through the crust of his +old-fashioned formalism with the thrust of some pressing appeal for aid, +and instantly we touch the core of a ready and warm sympathy--a sympathy +as catholic in the radius of its beneficence as it was munificent in the +measure of its benefactions. To the poor, to the suffering, to the widow +and the orphan, to the fatherless and the friendless, Allan Ramsay was +ever the readiest to help where help was really needed; and if his +vanity liked the fact to be made public property, wherein lay the harm? +Do our published subscription-lists to-day not testify to the existence +of the same foible in nine-tenths of us? To the improvident, however, to +the lazy, to the genteel beggar, and to the thousand and one forms +mendicity--supported by mendacity--takes to extort money, Allan was as +adamant. 'Gang your wa's,' he would say to such; 'gar your elbuck earn +what your mooth eats, and ye'll be a better man.' + +Allan has had the misfortune to be rated by what he did not do in the +way of charity, rather than by what he did. Because he esteemed charity +to begin at home, and that he should provide for his own before +participating in any schemes for providing for others, he has been rated +as selfish and miserly. The opposite is the case. Prudent, careful, and +economical,--into no speculation would he go from which he did not see +the probability, at least, of an adequate return. Hence, during the +South Sea madness, he kept his head when many a better man went mad with +the speculative mania. He was pious, without his piety being black-edged +with that gloomy bigotry which characterised much of the Presbyterianism +of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Scotland. As he put the +matter himself in his _Epistle to James Arbuckle_: + + 'Neist, Anti-Toland, Blunt, and Whiston, + Know positively I'm a Christian, + Believing truths and thinking free, + Wishing thrawn parties would agree.' + +He delighted in sociality and conviviality, but recoiled from aught +savouring of licence or excess. To coarseness, it is true, he may at +times have stooped in his work; but we must remember the spirit of the +times was in favour of calling a spade a spade, and not 'an implement +for disintegrating planetary particles.' To no degree greater than did +Swift, or Steele, or Arbuthnot, or Gay, can Allan Ramsay be considered +to have smirched his pages with references either ribald or indelicate. +The spirit of the age was in fault when coarseness was rated as wit; and +to be true to life, the painters of the manners around them had to +represent these as they were, not as they would have liked them to be. + +On the 9th May 1755 Ramsay, when writing to his friend, James Clerk of +Penicuik, a rhyming epistle, had said-- + + 'Now seventy years are o'er my head, + And thirty mae may lay me dead.' + +Alas! the 'Shadow feared of man' was already sitting waiting for him at +no great distance farther on in his life's journey. For some years he +had suffered acutely from scurvy in the gums, which in the end attacked +his jawbone and affected his speech. To the close, however, he retained +his cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits. When the last great summons at +length came to him, he met it with a manly fortitude and Christian +resignation. + +Amongst his last words, according to his daughter Janet, who survived +until 1807, were these: 'I'm no' feared of death; the Bricht and Morning +Star has risen and is shining mair and mair unto the perfect day.' And +so he passed 'into the unseen' on the 7th January 1758, in the +seventy-second year of his age. He was interred two days after in the +Greyfriars Churchyard, where his gravestone is still visible, bearing +the inscription: 'In this cemetery was interred the mortal part of an +immortal poet, Allan Ramsay, author of _The Gentle Shepherd_ and other +admirable poems in the Scottish dialect. He was born in 1686 and died in +1758. + + 'No sculptured marble here, no pompous lay, + No storied urn, no animated bust; + This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way + To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.[2] + + Though here you're buried, worthy Allan, + We'll ne'er forget you, canty callan; + For while your soul lives in the sky, + Your "Gentle Shepherd" ne'er shall die.' + +Sir John Clerk, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, who +admired his genius and was one of his most intimate friends, erected at +his family seat at Penicuik an obelisk to his memory; while Mr. +Alexander Fraser-Tytler, at Woodhouselee, near the Glencorse _locale_ +of _The Gentle Shepherd_, has erected a rustic temple which bears the +inscription-- + + 'ALLANO RAMSAY ET GENIO LOCI. + + 'Here midst those streams that taught thy Doric Muse + Her sweetest song,--the hills, the woods, and stream, + Where beauteous Peggy strayed, list'ning the while + Her Gentle Shepherd's tender tale of love. + Scenes which thy pencil, true to Nature, gave + To live for ever. Sacred be this shrine; + And unprofaned, by ruder hands, the stone + That owes its honours to thy deathless name.' + +Ramsay was survived by his son Allan, the painter, and by his two +daughters, Christian and Janet, who amongst them inherited the poet's +fortune. The house on the Castlehill fell to his son, and remained in +the possession of the family, as Mr. Logie Robertson records, until +1845, when it changed hands at the death of General John Ramsay, the +poet's grandson, and the last of his line. For many years it stood, an +object of interest to all admirers of the bard, until 1892, when, just +as the building was beginning to show signs of age, the site was bought +for the erection of the new students' boarding-house, 'University Hall,' +which so imposingly crowns the ridge of the Castlehill. With a reverence +for the memory of the poet as rare as it is commendable, the promoters +of the scheme resolved to preserve as much as possible of the house, and +the greater part of it has been incorporated in the new building. + +Of Ramsay we have only two portraits remaining that are of any real +value,--that painted by his son Allan, and that by Smibert, the poet's +lifelong friend. The latter represents him in youth, the former in +age--both being considered, at the time of execution, striking +likenesses. But perhaps the best idea of the appearance of the poet may +be gathered from Sir John Steele's fine statue of him (designed from his +son's portrait) which now stands at the corner of West Princes Street +Gardens, Edinburgh, immediately below the site of his house. There, with +his familiar 'nightcap' on his head, he stands, watching the busy crowds +passing to and fro in front of him, wearing the while an expression on +his face as though he were saying with his Patie-- + + 'He that hath just enough can soundly sleep, + The o'ercome only fashes fouk to keep; + Content's the greatest bliss we can procure + Frae 'boon the lift: without it, kings are poor.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The first stanza is in reality by Burns, and is identical with that +he placed on the tombstone he erected over the remains of Fergusson, the +poet, in the Canongate Churchyard. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RAMSAY AS A PASTORAL POET AND AN ELEGIST + + +In attempting a critical estimate of the value of Ramsay's works, for +the purpose of analysis it will be most convenient to consider the great +body of his writings under certain classified headings--(1) Ramsay as a +Pastoral Poet and an Elegist; (2) Ramsay as a Satirist and a +Song-writer; (3) Ramsay's Miscellaneous Works. + +In the chapter on _The Gentle Shepherd_, we noted the distinctive +constituents of pastoral poetry, as currently defined, and also wherein +Ramsay's principles, as exemplified in practice, differ from those of +other writers of pastoral. To furnish examples illustrative of our +contention is now all that remains to be done. Early in his poetical +career, as soon, in fact, as he had completed his first tentative +efforts, Ramsay seems to have become conscious, with that rare gift of +prevision always distinguishing him, that his strength lay in a +picturesque yet truthful delineation of rural life. His earliest pieces, +although termed elegies, exhibit, rather, many of the characteristics of +pastorals, in the broad humour and in the graphic and vivid colouring +wherewith he depicts the scenes at Maggy Johnston's tavern at +Morningside, or the incidents in the life of Luckie Wood or of Patie +Birnie. But, as he has termed them _elegies_, under that heading let +them be considered, though a humorous or mock elegy is somewhat of a +contradiction in terms. + +Roughly classified, Ramsay's pastorals may be stated as follows:--the +dialogues between _Richy_ (Sir Rich. Steele) _and Sandy_ (Alex. Pope), +on the death of Mr. Addison; between _Robert, Richy, and Sandy_, on the +death of Matthew Prior; _Keitha_, on the death of the Countess of +Wigton; an _Ode with a Pastoral Recitative_, on the marriage of James +Earl of Wemyss to Miss Janet Charteris; _A Masque_, performed at the +celebration of the nuptials of James Duke of Hamilton and Lady Ann +Cochrane; _A Pastoral Epithalamium_, on the marriage of George Lord +Ramsay and Lady Jean Maule; _Betty and Kate_, a pastoral farewell to Mr. +Aikman; and finally, _The Gentle Shepherd_. + +Of Ramsay's less important pastorals, the distinguishing characteristics +are their simplicity, their tenderness, and their freedom from aught +didactic. In conforming to the conventional idea of pastoral,--the idea, +that is, of the shepherd state being a condition of perfect peace and +Arcadian felicity and propriety,--in place of copying direct from +nature, they one and all differ from _The Gentle Shepherd_. The picture +of burly Sir Richard Steele and of crooked little Alexander Pope, clad +in shepherd's weeds, and masquerading with dogs and pipes and what not, +savours somewhat of the ludicrous. Then, in _Richy and Sandy_, he makes +Pope bewail the death of Addison, with whom he had been on anything but +friendly terms for years previous; while the following picture of the +deceased grave-visaged Secretary of State, in such a position as +described in the following lines, tends to induce us profane Philistines +of these latter days, to smile, if not to sneer-- + + 'A better lad ne'er leaned out o'er a kent, + Nor hounded collie o'er the mossy bent: + Blythe at the bughts how oft hae we three been, + Heartsome on hills, and gay upon the green.' + +This, however, was the fashion in vogue, and to it our poet had to +conform. In _Richy and Sandy_, in _Robert, Richy, and Sandy_, and in his +earlier pastorals generally, we seem to see the poet struggling to rid +himself of the conventional prejudices against painting rural nature in +the real, and in favour of 'a golden-age rusticity' purely imaginary. +Not by this is it implied that I claim for our poet the credit of first +insisting on reverting to nature for the study of scenes and character. +The same conviction, according to Lowell, was entertained by Spenser, +and his _Shepherds' Calendar_ was a manifestation, however imperfect and +unsatisfactory, of his desire to hark back to nature for inspiration. In +_Keitha_ the same incongruity, as noted above, is visible. The poem in +question, with that on the _Marriage of the Earl of Wemyss_, can neither +be ranked as conventional pastoral nor as pure pastoral, according to +Ramsay's later style. We note the 'Colins' and 'Ringans,' the +'shepherd's reeds' and 'shepherd's weeds,' and the picture of + + ----'the singing shepherd on the green + Armyas hight, wha used wi' tunefu' lay + To please the ear when he began to play,' + +--an imitation of Milton's immortal lines in _Comus_, which are too well +known to need quotation. All of a piece this with the 'golden-age +pastoral.' In the same poems, however, occur intimations that the +incongruity was perceived by the author, but that, as yet, he did not +see any means of remedying the uniform monotony of the conventional +form. The leaven was at work in Ramsay's mind, but so far it only +succeeded in influencing but the smallest moiety of the lump. + +In the _Masque_, written in celebration of the marriage of the Duke of +Hamilton, the sentiments expressed are wholly different. Written +subsequently to _The Gentle Shepherd_, Ramsay exhibited in it his +increased technical deftness, and how much he had profitted by the +experience gained in producing his great pastoral. The _Masque_, albeit +professedly a dramatic pastoral, entirely abjures the lackadaisical +shepherds and shepherdesses of conventional pastoral, and, as a poem of +pure imagination, reverts to the ancient mythology for the _dramatis +personae_. + +All these pieces, however, though they exhibit a facility in +composition, a fecundity of imagination, a skilful adaptation of theme +to specific metrical form, a rare human sympathy, and a depth of pathos +as natural in expression as it was genuine in its essence, are only, so +to speak, the preludes to _The Gentle Shepherd_. In the latter, Ramsay's +matured principles of pastoral composition are to be viewed where best +their relative importance can be estimated, namely, when put into +practice. + +By competent critics, _The Gentle Shepherd_ is generally conceded to be +the noblest pastoral in the English language. Dr. Hugh Blair, in his +lectures on _Rhetoric and Belles Lettres_, styled it 'a pastoral drama +which will bear being brought into comparison with any composition of +this kind in any language.... It is full of so much natural description +and tender sentiment as would do honour to any poet. The characters are +well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and +just.' And one of Dr. Blair's successors in the Chair of Rhetoric and +English Literature in the University of Edinburgh,--a man and a Scotsman +who, in his day, has done more than any other to foster amongst our +youth a love of all that is great and good and beautiful in our +literature; a teacher, too, whose students, whom he has imbued with his +own noble spirit, are scattered over the world, from China to +Peru,--Emeritus-Professor David Masson, has observed in his charming +_Edinburgh Sketches_: 'The poem was received with enthusiastic +admiration. There had been nothing like it before in Scottish +literature, or in any other: nothing so good of any kind that could be +voted even similar; and this was at once the critical verdict.' + +To anyone who will carefully compare the _Idylls_ of Theocritus, the +_Eclogues_ of Virgil, and the _Aminta_ of Tasso, with Ramsay's great +poem, the conviction will be driven home,--in the face, it may be, of +many deeply-rooted prejudices,--that the same inspiration which, like a +fiery rivulet, runs through the three former masterpieces, is present +also in the latter--that inspiration being the perfect and unbroken +homogeneity existing between the local atmosphere of the poem and the +characteristics of the _dramatis personae_. This fact it is which renders +the _Aminta_ so imperishable a memorial of Tasso's genus; for it is +Italian pastoral, redolent of the air, and smacking of the very soil of +sunny Italy. The symmetrical perfection of _The Gentle Shepherd_, in +like manner, is due to the fact that the feelings and desires and +impulses of the characters in the pastoral are those distinctively +native and proper to persons in their sphere of life. There is no +dissidence visible between what may imperfectly be termed the _motif_ of +the poem and the sentiments of even the most subordinate characters in +it. Therein lies the true essence of literary symmetry--the symmetry not +alone of mere form, though that also was present, but the symmetry +resulting from the harmony of thought with its expression, of scene and +its characters, of situation and its incidents. Such the symmetry +exhibited by Homer's _Iliad_, by Dante's _Inferno_, by Milton's +_Paradise Lost_, by Cervantes' _Don Quixote_, by Camoens' _Lusiad_, by +Scott's _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, by Tennyson's _Idylls_. + +Frankly, it must be admitted that only in his _Gentle Shepherd_ does +Ramsay attain this outstanding excellence. His other pieces are +meritorious,--highly so; but they could have been produced by many a +writer of the age with equal, perhaps superior, felicity, and they shine +only in the reflected light of _The Gentle Shepherd_; even as Scott's +_Lord of the Isles_ and _Harold the Dauntless_ were saved from being +'damned as mediocrity' only by the excellence of the _Lay of the Last +Minstrel_ and _Marmion_. + +The great charm of _The Gentle Shepherd_ lies in the skilfully-balanced +antithesis of its contrasts, in the reflected interest each type casts +on its opposite. As in Moliere's _Tartuffe_, it is the vivid contrast +created between the hypocrisy of the title-character and the easy +good-nature of Orgon, that begets a reciprocal interest in the fortunes +of both; as in Balzac's _Pere Goriot_, it is the pitiless selfishness of +his three daughters on the one hand, and the doting self-denial of the +poor old father on the other, that throws both sets of characters into +relief so strong: so, in _The Gentle Shepherd_, it is the subtle force +of the contrast between Patie's well-balanced manliness and justifiable +pride, and Roger's _gauche_ bashfulness and depression in the face of +Jenny's coldness; between Peggy's piquant lovableness and maidenly joy +in the knowledge of Patie's love, and Jenny's affected dislike to the +opposite sex to conceal the real state of her feelings towards Roger in +particular, that impart to the poem the vivid interest wherewith its +scenes are perused. Minor contrasts are present too, in the faithfulness +of Patie to Peggy, as compared with the faithlessness of Bauldy to Neps. +The whole drama, in fact, might be styled a beautiful panegyric on +fidelity in love. Such passages as the following are frequent-- + + 'I'd hate my rising fortune, should it move + The fair foundation of our faithfu' love. + If at my feet were crowns and sceptres laid + To bribe my soul frae thee, delightful maid, + For thee I'd soon leave these inferior things + To sic as have the patience to be kings.' + +As a pastoral poet, Ramsay excels in painting all those homely virtues +that befit the station to which most of his characters belonged. A +fault, and a serious one, it was among the writers of conventional +pastoral, to make their shepherds and shepherdesses talk like +philosophers, and reason upon all the mysteries of life, death, and +futurity. What reader of Sir Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_, but must have +smiled over the shepherds in that delicious romance discussing love, and +treating of its metaphysical causes and effects, as profoundly as any + + ----'clerke of Oxenforde also + Who unto logik hadde long y-go.' + +The extravagances of conventional pastoral had been keenly satirised by +Gay, who made his Lobbin Clouts and Cloddipoles, his Blowzalinds and +Bowzabees and Bumkinets, in the _Shepherd's Week_, 'talk the language +that is spoken neither by country maiden nor courtly dame; nay, not only +such as in the present time is not uttered, but never was in times past, +and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future.' But by +Ramsay the silliness of the prevailing mode, both of British and French +pastoral, was more aptly satirised, by presenting, as a contrast, a +picture of rural life absolutely truthful in all its details, and thus +slaying falsehood by the sword of truth. + +Of _The Gentle Shepherd_, the plot is simplicity itself. It describes +the love of a young Pentland shepherd named Patie for a country maiden +named Peggy. The pastoral drama, the time of whose action is all +embraced within four-and-twenty hours, thus preserving one, at least, of +the Greek dramatic unities as defined by the French critics, opens at +early morning with the two young shepherds, Patie and Roger, feeding +their flocks on the hills, and discussing the progress of their +love-suits. The scene is charmingly realistic and natural. Patie is +happy in his love for Peggy who reciprocates it; Roger, in despair over +his ill-success with 'dorty Jenny.' His friend, however, raises his +spirits by telling him how he once served Peggy when she had a fit of +tantrums, by feigning indifference to her, a course which soon brought +the fair one to reason. He exhorts Roger to adopt the same line, +conveying his counsel in the following terms, that contain excellent +advice to young lovers, and might have given a hint to Burns for his +song, 'Duncan Gray'-- + + 'Dear Roger, when your jo puts on her gloom, + Do ye sae too, and never fash your thumb; + Seem to forsake her, soon she'll change her mood; + Gae woo anither, and she'll gang clean wood.' + +Roger agrees to take the advice, and the scene concludes with a +delightful picture of a shepherd's meal-- + + 'But first we'll tak a turn up to the height, + And see gif all our flocks be feeding right; + By that time, bannocks and a shave of cheese + Will make a breakfast that a laird might please,-- + Might please the daintiest gabs, were they sae wise + To season meat with health instead of spice. + When we have ta'en the grace-drink at this well, + I'll whistle syne'-- + +The second scene opens with an exquisite description of + + 'A flowrie howm between twa verdant braes, + Where lasses use to wash and spread their claes; + A trottin' burnie wimpling through the ground, + Its channel, pebbles, shining, smooth and round. + Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear.' + +These are Peggy and Jenny. The latter proposes to begin their work on +the 'howm' or green in question, but Peggy entreats her to + + Gae farer up the burn to Habbie's How, + Where a' that's sweet in spring and simmer grow; + Between twa birks out o'er a little linn + The water fa's, and makes a singin' din; + A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear as glass, + Kisses wi' easy whirles the bordering grass. + We'll end our washing while the morning's cool, + And when the day grows het we'll to the pool, + There wash oursels; 'tis healthfu' now in May, + And sweetly cauler on sae warm a day.' + +The girls then enter on a discussion regarding Jenny's cruel +indifference to Roger. The maiden, who by the way is a bit of a prude, +affects to despise love and marriage, but in the end, overcome by +Peggy's beautiful description of conjugal happiness, is obliged to +confess her love for Roger. What more delightful picture of maternal +yearning over the young have we in all English literature, than Peggy's +splendid defence of motherhood?-- + + 'Yes, it's a heartsome thing to be a wife, + When round the ingle-edge young sprouts are rife. + Gif I'm sae happy, I shall have delight + To hear their little plaints, and keep them right. + Wow, Jenny! can there greater pleasure be, + Than see sic wee tots toolying at your knee; + When a' they ettle at,--their greatest wish, + Is to be made of and obtain a kiss? + Can there be toil in tenting day and night + The like of them, when love makes care delight?' + +The first scene of the Second Act opens with a picture of a peasant +farmer's 'onstead'; to wit, his dwelling and outhouses-- + + 'A snug thack-house; before the door a green; + Hens on the midden, ducks in dubs are seen; + On this side stands a barn, on that a byre: + A peat stack joins, and forms a rural square.' + +Here the neighbours, Glaud and Symon, meet. The latter has been into +Edinburgh to sell his 'crummock and her bassened quey,' and over their +pipes he informs his friend that their landlord, Sir William Worthy, +who, as a Royalist, had been compelled to go into exile during the +Commonwealth, would now, owing to the Restoration, be able to return +home again, when all would be well. Symon has heard the news from the +laird's servant, 'Habbie,' after whom the 'How' or _house_ is named. +Glaud is so overjoyed at the news that he seeks to persuade Symon to +remain and dine with him, offering, for it was before the age of good +roads and carts, + + 'To yoke my sled, and send to the neist town + And bring a draught o' ale baith stout and brown.' + +But Symon wishes to exercise hospitality himself, and insists upon +Glaud, his sister Madge, his daughter Jenny, and his niece Peggy, all +dining with him, in honour of the day. This they are to do. We have here +presented a graphic picture of rural fare on fete-days-- + + 'For here yestreen I brewed a bow of maut, + Yestreen I slew twa wethers prime and fat. + A furlet of good cakes, my Elspa beuk, + And a large ham hangs reesting in the neuk. + I saw mysel', or I cam o'er the loan, + Our muckle pot that scads the whey, put on, + A mutton-bouk to boil, and ane we'll roast; + And on the haggies Elspa spares nae cost. + Small are they shorn, and she can mix fu' nice + The gusty ingans wi' a curn of spice; + Fat are the puddings,--heads and feet weel sung.' + +The second scene introduces a new element into the drama. Another +shepherd, Bauldy (Archibald) by name, has also been smitten with Peggy's +charms--and it affords an excellent idea of the simplicity of these +rural districts in Scotland, when he repairs to a poor old woman named +Mause, whom the district reputes to be a witch, to entreat her aid in +turning Peggy's heart towards himself. Bauldy's picture of Peggy, in his +soliloquy, is beautiful in its very simplicity-- + + 'O Peggy! sweeter than the dawning day, + Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mawn hay; + Blyther than lambs that frisk out o'er the knowes, + Straighter than aught that in the forest grows. + Her een the clearest blob of dew out-shines, + The lily in her breast its beauty tines; + Her legs, her arms, her cheeks, her mouth, her een, + Will be my deid'-- + +The existence of superstition among the Scottish peasantry, a state of +things lasting until well on into last century, is also well brought out +in Bauldy's soliloquy, when he refers to Mausy, 'a witch that for sma' +price, can cast her cantrips, and gie me advice.' Mause, meaning to read +the faithless lover of Neps a lesson, consents to help him. The fourth +scene of the Second Act is undoubtedly one of the finest in the +drama--the meeting of the lovers, Patie and Peggy. The two great +constituents of a successful piece, strength and pathos, are both +present in rich measure. To test her lover's fidelity, the maiden, with +coy coquetry, affects to think that he might alter his mind and deceive +her if she trusted him too implicitly. To this Patie replies that she +deeply wrongs him in doubting his fidelity, and that he would be dull +and blind + + 'Gif I could fancy aught's sae sweet and fair + As my sweet Meg, or worthy of my care. + Thy breath is sweeter than the sweetest brier, + Thy cheek and breast the finest flowers appear, + Thy words excel the maist delightfu' notes + That warble through the merle or mavis' throats; + With thee I tent nae flowers that busk the field, + Or ripest berries that our mountains yield; + The sweetest fruits that hing upon the tree + Are far inferior to a kiss frae thee.' + +With all a loving woman's sweet perversity, however, Peggy still affects +to doubt, only to be indulged in the delicious bliss of hearing her +lover's vows anew-- + + 'Sooner a mother shall her fondness drap, + And wrang the bairn sits smiling in her lap; + The sun shall change, the moon to change shall cease; + The gaits to climb, the sheep to yield the fleece; + Ere aught by me be either said or done + Shall do thee wrang;--I swear by all aboon.' + +In no scene does Ramsay exhibit his wonderful knowledge of the human +heart to such advantage as in the one before us. Peggy and Patie then +sing a duet, taking alternate verses, into which are introduced many of +the old Scots songs,--'The Broom o' Cowdenknowes,' 'Milking the Ewes,' +'Jenny Nettles,' 'Thro' the Wood, Laddie,' 'The Boatman,' 'Maggie +Lauder,' 'The Lass o' Patie's Mill,' and the curtain falls over one of +the most delightful scenes illustrative of pure affection, in modern +drama. + +The Third Act sees the return of Sir William Worthy, who, in the +disguise of a wizard, introduces himself into the company, merry-making +at Symon's. Here he tells Patie's fortune, and the surprising discovery +is ere long made that the youth is Sir William's only son, placed under +Symon's care when the knight had to go into exile on the execution of +Charles I. The description of the little festivity at Symon's is well +wrought out. The third scene contains the love-making of Jenny and +Roger, where the faithful swain's happiness is rendered complete. With +great gusto Ramsay paints this episode, as well as with consummate +fidelity to nature,--a fact becoming increasingly apparent when one +notes the marked difference between the love-scene wherein Patie and +Peggy take part, and that wherein Jenny declares her love for Roger. The +latter scene is more decidedly tinged with rusticity than the former. In +the fourth scene Sir William reveals himself to Symon, and inquires +eagerly about the progress made by his son during his years of absence. +Symon praises the youth's devotion to letters, and then hints at his +love for Peggy, which Sir William declares must be forgotten. + +The first scene of the Fourth Act relieves, by the introduction of +humorous episodes, the sentimentality whereinto the drama at this stage +shows signs of lapsing. Mause, Madge, and Bauldy have an interview, at +which the two last named come to blows; and when Bauldy has taken +himself off, the two women perfect their plans for playing on the +foolish fellow's superstitious fears. The remainder of the Fourth Act +deals with Patie's sorrow and Peggy's anguish when Sir William's +decision is made known. Of course, they vow everlasting fidelity to each +other. The scene between the lovers is a very powerful one, wherein +Ramsay evinced his sway over the subtler emotions. Yet here, as +elsewhere, his simplicity constitutes his strength. He never attempts to +depict any complex interaction of human passions. Like Aeschylus, he +contents himself with the representation of one elemental emotion at a +time, and he thoroughly exhausts the one '_moment_' before he passes on +to another. Few passages are there in literature more genuinely +pathetic, yet keeping more rigidly within the modesty of nature, than +that wherein poor Peggy, after dwelling on the golden past, tries to +picture the dull grey round of duty in the future when Patie shall have +been taken from her-- + + 'Speak on, speak ever thus, and still my grief; + But short, I dare to hope the fond relief. + New thoughts a gentler face will soon inspire, + That with nice airs swims round in silk attire; + Then I, poor me! with sighs may ban my fate, + When the young laird's nae mair my heartsome Pate. + Nae mair again to hear sweet tales expresst + By the blyth shepherd that excelled the rest,-- + Nae mair be envied by the tattling gang + When Patie kissed me when I danced or sang; + Nae mair, alake! we'll on the meadows play, + And rin half-breathless round the rucks of hay, + As aft-times I have fled from thee right fain, + And fa'n on purpose, that I might be tane.'-- + +But Patie reiterates his vows to her, and Peggy, comforted, declares she +will set herself to learn 'gentler charms, through ilka school where I +may manners learn.' Patie applauds her resolution, but declares that + + ----'without a' the little helps of art + Thy native sweets might gain a prince's heart, + Yet now, lest in our station we offend, + We must learn modes to innocence unken'd.' + +The scene closes with Peggy's vows of fidelity. In this scene Ramsay +touched the high-water mark of his genius, and for the elements of +simplicity, strength, and propriety of the sentiments expressed by each +character with the root-idea of that character, it is rivalled by very +few scenes of its kind in the literature of our land. + +The first scene of the last Act opens with Bauldy's fright. He had gone +to fulfil his engagement to meet Mause, the pretended witch, who was to +turn Peggy's heart to him. But as he had insulted Madge, Peggy's aunt, +in the fore part of the day, the latter, to punish him by taking +advantage of his dread of ghosts, meets him at the dead hour of the +night when he is repairing to Mause's cottage. She is draped in a white +sheet, and utters ghastly groans. Bauldy, having sunk terror-stricken to +the ground, is soundly cuffed and trounced by the two women. As soon, +therefore, as daylight breaks, he seeks an interview with Sir William to +entreat redress. The latter, who had been passing the night in Symon's +house, enters fully into the spirit of the joke, and orders Mause to be +brought before him. + +The second scene exhibits Glaud's 'onstead' again, and the family +preparing to go down to Symon's to take their leave of Patie. Peggy is +very sad,--so much so that her sharp-tongued aunt cannot refrain from +jeering at it-- + + 'Poor Meg!--Look, Jenny, was the like e'er seen? + How bleared and red wi' greetin' look her een! + This day her brankan wooer taks his horse + To strut a gentle spark at Edinburgh Cross. + But Meg, poor Meg! maun wi' the shepherds stay, + And tak what God will send in hodden gray.' + +To this ill-timed speech Peggy makes a pathetic reply, that must have +caused a pang of remorse to her aunt. But when Glaud ventures to warn +her against being too free with Patie, seeing he could not marry her +now, she replies with gentle reproach-- + + 'Sir William's virtuous, and of gentle blood; + And may not Patrick too, like him, be good?' + +Glaud's answer exhibits the simple faith of the rural inhabitants of the +district in a striking light-- + + 'That's true and mony gentry mae than he, + As they are wiser, better are than we; + But thinner sawn: they're sae pufft up wi' pride, + There's mony o' them mocks ilk haly guide + That shows the gate to heav'n. I've heard mysel + Some of them laugh at doomsday, sin, and hell.' + +The last scene of the pastoral contains the _denouement_. With great +artistic skill, so as to avoid wearying the reader, Ramsay only +represents the delivering of the verdict upon Bauldy's appeal against +Mause, the result being that the former was informed he only got what he +deserved. At this moment, however, Madge, Peggy, and Jenny enter the +room where Sir William was sitting. On Peggy Sir Williams gazes with +interest, but presently starts with surprise. Her features are those of +his long-dead sister. Eagerly he inquires from Glaud if she be his +daughter. Glaud, after some hesitation, declares her to be a foundling. +At this juncture, however, old Mause steps forward and unravels the +tangled skein. She first calls on Sir William to say if he does not +recall her features as his own old nurse. Sir William joyfully +recognises her, and then she relates how she had brought Peggy as a babe +thither, to save its life from those who had usurped its rights after +his sister's death. She declares that Peggy is indeed his own niece, and +Patie's full cousin. + +Patie's joy is now complete, and the two lovers, their prospective union +blessed by Sir William, fall into one another's arms; while the +happiness of the shepherds and rustics is consummated when Sir William, +restored to his possessions, announces his intention never more to leave +them. To Symon and Glaud he assigns their _mailings_ (farms) in +perpetual feu, while Roger is made his chamberlain. As the curtain then +descends over general happiness, Sir William pronounces the usual moral +admonition, without which no pastoral of the time was complete-- + + 'My friends, I'm satisfied you'll all behave, + Each in his station as I'd wish and crave. + Be ever virtuous, soon or late ye'll find + Reward and satisfaction to your mind. + The maze of life sometimes looks dark and wild, + And oft when hopes are highest we're beguiled; + Oft when we stand on brinks of dark despair + Some happy turn with joy dispels our care.' + +The relative proportions of the various characters have been preserved +with rare skill, and the individuality of each is as firmly and clearly +differentiated in a few rapid incisive strokes, as though he had +expended pages of description on each, like Pope and Gay. Patie's cheery +_bonhomie_ and vivacious nature, his love of learning and his wise views +of life and its duties, find an excellent foil in the slow, bashful, +phlegmatic Roger, whose very 'blateness' denies him the bliss he covets +in Jenny's love. Peggy is altogether charming,--a lovely, pure-souled, +healthful, sport-loving maiden, with enough of her sex's foibles in her +to leave her a very woman, yet with as few faults as it is possible for +faulty human nature to be without. One of the most delightful heroines +in pastoral poetry is Peggy. Jenny's prudish airs and affected dislike +to the sterner sex are delicately yet incisively portrayed, while the +staunch fidelity of Symon, the cheery chirpiness of Glaud, the bucolic +ignorance and superstition of Bauldy, the cankered impatience of +Madge--a spinster against her will, and the pathetic, age-worn weariness +of Mause, are depicted with the assured hand of a master. Many of the +lyrics interspersed throughout the pastoral are gems of rustic song; +not high-class poetry, otherwise they would have been as out of place as +would the Johnsonian minnows, talking, as Goldsmith said, like whales. + +Only to one other production of Ramsay's genius will attention be called +under this head, namely, his continuation of James the First's poem, +_Christ's Kirk on the Green_. Of this, the first canto only was written +by its royal author. Ramsay, therefore, conceived the design of +completing it, as was remarked before. The king had painted with great +spirit the squabble that arose at a rustic wedding at Christ's Kirk, in +the parish of Kinnethmont, in that part of the county of Aberdeen near +Leslie called the Garioch. Ramsay seems to have mistaken it for Leslie +in Fife. Two cantos were added by our poet to the piece, in the one of +which he exhibited the company, their differences ended, as engaging in +feasting and good cheer; in the other, their appearance the following +morning, after they had slept off the effects of the orgies, and when +they proceed to the bridegroom's house to offer gifts. The skill +wherewith Ramsay dovetailed his work into that of his royal predecessor, +and developed the king's characters along lines fully in accord with +their inception, is very remarkable. There is a Rabelaisian element in +the headlong fun and broad rough-and-tumble humour Ramsay introduces +into his portion of the poem, but it is not discordant with the king's +ideas. The whole piece is almost photographic in the vividness of the +several portraits; the 'moment' of delineation selected for each being +that best calculated to afford a clue to the type of character. The +following picture of the 'reader,' or church precentor in Roman +Catholic times, has often been admired, as almost Chaucerian, for its +force and truth-- + + 'The latter-gae of haly rhime, + Sat up at the boord head, + And a' he said 'twas thought a crime + To contradict indeed. + For in clerk lear he was right prime, + And could baith write and read, + And drank sae firm till ne'er a styme + He could keek on a bead + Or book that day.' + +The coarseness of the pieces cannot be denied. Still, withal, there is a +robust, manly strength in the ideas and a picturesque force in the +vocabulary that covers a multitude of sins. His picture of morning has +often been compared with that of Butler in _Hudibras_, but the advantage +undoubtedly lies with Ramsay. Butler describes the dawn as follows-- + + 'The sun had long since in the lap + Of Thetis taken out his nap, + And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn + From black to red began to turn.' + +Ramsay, in his description, says-- + + 'Now frae th' east neuk o' Fife the dawn + Speel'd westlines up the lift; + Carles wha heard the cock had crawn, + Begoud to rax and rift; + And greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn, + Cry'd "Lasses, up to thrift"; + Dogs barked, and the lads frae hand + Bang'd to their breeks like drift, + Be break o' day.' + +It must be remembered, the poem was addressed to rustics, who would +neither have understood nor appreciated anything of a higher or less +broadly Hogarthian nature. In _Christ's Kirk on the Green_ we have +stereotyped to all time a picture of manners unsurpassed for vigour and +accuracy of detail, to which antiquarians have gone, and will go, for +information that is furnished in no other quarter. + +In his elegies pure and simple, namely, those divested of any humorous +element, Ramsay has done good work; but it is not by any means on a par +with what is expected from the poet who could write _The Gentle +Shepherd_. A painter of low life in its aspects both humorous and +farcical was Ramsay's distinctive _metier_. Pity it was his vanity and +ambition ever induced him to turn aside from the path wherein he was +supreme. His 'Ode to the Memory of Lady Mary Anstruther,' that to 'the +Memory of Lady Garlies,' the one to Sir John Clerk on the death of his +son James Clerk, and the 'Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Forbes of Newhall,' +are his best elegies. The versification is correct, the ideas expressed +are sympathetically tender, poetic propriety and the modesty of nature +are not infringed by any exaggerated expressions of grief, but the glow +of genius is lacking, and the subtle union of sentiment and expression +that are so prominent features in his greater poem. + +His two finest efforts as an elegist were his _Ode to the Memory of Mrs. +Forbes_, beginning-- + + 'Ah, life! thou short uncertain blaze, + Scarce worthy to be wished or loved, + Why by strict death so many ways, + So soon, the sweetest are removed! + + If outward charms and temper sweet, + The cheerful smile, the thought sublime, + Could have preserved, she ne'er had met + A change till death had sunk with time;' + +also the one on the _Death of Sir Isaac Newton_, wherein occur two +memorable stanzas-- + + 'Great Newton's dead!--full ripe his fame; + Cease vulgar grief, to cloud our song: + We thank the Author of our frame, + Who lent him to the earth so long. + + For none with greater strength of soul + Could rise to more divine a height, + Or range the orbs from pole to pole, + And more improve the human sight.' + +His 'humorous elegies,' written in a mock heroic strain, and sometimes +upon persons still living, though, for the purposes of his art, he +represented them as dead, as in the case of John Cowper, are instinct +with broad, rollicking, Rabelaisian fun. Their vivid portrayal of the +manners and customs of the time renders them invaluable. What better +description of the convivial habits of Edinburgh society early last +century could be desired, than the graphic pictures in _Luckie Wood's +Elegy_, particularly the stanza-- + + 'To the sma' hours we aft sat still, + Nick'd round our toasts and sneeshin'-mill; + Good cakes we wanted ne'er at will, + The best of bread; + Which aften cost us mony a gill + To Aitkenhead.' + +Than his elegies on Luckie Spence, John Cowper, and Patie Birnie, no +more realistic presentation of low-life manners could be desired. They +are pictures such as Hogarth would have revelled in, and to which he +alone could have done justice in reproduction. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RAMSAY AS A SATIRIST AND A SONG-WRITER + + +Difficult it is to make any exact classification of Ramsay's works, +inasmuch as he frequently applied class-names to poems to which they +were utterly inapplicable. Thus many of his elegies and epistles were +really satires, while more than one of those poems he styled satires +were rather of an epic character than anything else. By the reader, +therefore, certain shortcomings in classification must be overlooked, as +Ramsay's poetical terminology (if the phrase be permissible) was far +from being exact. + +As I have previously remarked, Ramsay's studies in poetry, in addition +to the earlier Scottish verse, had lain largely in the later +Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods. In these, Milton, Cowley, +Dryden, and Pope were his favourites, and their influence is to be +traced throughout his satires. To Boileau he had paid some attention, +though his acquaintance with French literature was more through the +medium of translations, than by drawing directly from the fountainhead. +Ramsay's satires exhibit all the virtues of correct mediocrity. Their +versification is smooth, and they generally scan accurately: the ideas +are expressed pithily, at times epigrammatically and wittily. The +faults and foibles satirised in most cases are those that richly merited +the satiric lash. Yet, all these merits granted, the reader feels +something to be lacking. The reason is not far to seek. Ramsay never +felt at home in what may be termed 'polished satire.' He was as much out +of place as would a low comedian on being suddenly called upon to +undertake 'drawing-room comedy.' Perpetually would he feel the +inclination to rap out one of the rousing, though vulgar, jokes that +inevitably evoked a roar of applause from the gallery, and sooner or +later he would give way to it. Ramsay was in precisely the same +position. The consequence is that in the _Morning Interview_, +professedly an imitation of Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, there are +incongruous images introduced, for the purpose of relieving the piece by +humorous comparisons, which offend the taste even of the most cursory +reader. Such allusions as that to 'soft fifteen on her feet-washing +night,' and others of a cognate character, are entirely out of place in +'polished satire.' If he attempted the type of composition, he ought to +have conformed to its rules. + +Of course, Ramsay wrote certain satires, _The Last Speech of a Wretched +Miser_ and the like, in the Scots vernacular, and addressed to the lower +classes in the community, where his genius is seen at its best, because +dealing with 'low-life satire' and the types of character he loved most +of all to paint. But his _Wealth or the Woody_, his _Health_--a poem +addressed to Lord Stair, his _Scribblers Lashed_, _The General Mistake_, +_The Epistle to Lord Ramsay_, and the _Rise and Fall of Stocks in 1720_, +exhibit Ramsay's genius moving in fetters. His touch lacks piquancy and +epigrammatic incisiveness,--lacks, too, that determinate deftness so +characteristic of Horace, as well as those subtle _nuances_ of +double-meaning wherein Pope and Arbuthnot excelled, and of which the +latter's terrible 'Epitaph on Colonel Chartres' is a favourable example. +Ramsay hits with the hammer of Thor, when he should tap as lightly as +'twere reproof administered by a fair one with her fan. Witness his +portrait of Talpo in _Health_--a poem in many respects one of Ramsay's +best. With what airy satiric touches Pope or Gay would have dashed off +the character. Note the laboured strokes wherewith Ramsay produces his +picture-- + + 'But Talpo sighs with matrimonial cares, + His cheeks wear wrinkles, silver grow his hairs, + Before old age his health decays apace, + And very rarely smiles clear up his face. + Talpo's a fool, there's hardly help for that, + He scarcely knows himself what he'd be at. + He's avaricious to the last degree, + And thinks his wife and children make too free + With his dear idol; this creates his pain, + And breeds convulsions in his narrow brain. + He's always startled at approaching fate, + And often jealous of his virtuous mate; + Is ever anxious, shuns his friends to save: + Thus soon he'll fret himself into a grave; + There let him rot'-- + +But Ramsay's distinguishing and saving characteristic in satire was the +breadth and felicity of his humour. To satire, however, humour is less +adapted than wit, and of wit Ramsay had, in a comparative sense, but a +scanty endowment. He was not one of those who could say smart things, +though he could depict a humorous episode or situation as felicitously +as anyone of his age. Like Rabelais, he was a humorist, not a wit, and +his satires suffered accordingly. Perhaps the best of his satires is +_The Last Speech of a Wretched Miser_, wherein his humour becomes +bitingly sardonic. The wretch's address to his pelf is very powerful-- + + 'O dool! and am I forced to dee, + And nae mair my dear siller see, + That glanced sae sweetly in my e'e! + It breaks my heart! + My gold! my bonds! alackanie + That we should part. + + Like Tantalus, I lang have stood, + Chin-deep into a siller flood; + Yet ne'er was able for my blood, + But pain and strife, + To ware ae drap on claiths or food, + To cherish life.' + +Different, indeed, is the case when we come to consider Ramsay as a +song-writer and a lyrist. To him the former title rather than the latter +is best applicable. This is not the place to note the resemblances and +the differences between the French _chanson_, the German _lied_, the +Italian _canzone_, and the English song or lyric. But as indicating a +distinction between the two last terms, Mr. F. T. Palgrave, in the +introduction to his invaluable _Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics_, +regards a 'lyric' as a poem turning on 'some single thought, feeling, or +situation'; Mr. H. M. Posnett, in his thoughtful volume on _Comparative +Literature_, remarks that the lyric has varied from sacred or magical +hymns and odes of priest bards, only fulfilling their purpose when sung, +and perhaps never consigned to writing at all, down to written +expressions of individual feeling from which all accompaniments of dance +or music have been severed. But approximately defined, a lyric may be +said to be a poem--short, vivid, and expressive of a definite emotion, +appealing more to the eye than with any ultimate view of being set to +music; a song, as a composition appealing more to the ear, wherein the +sentiments are more leisurely expressed, with the intention of being +accompanied by music. Mr. E. H. Stoddard, in the preface to his _English +Madrigals_, defines a lyric 'as a simple, unstudied expression of +thought, sentiment, or passion; a song, its expression according to the +mode of the day.' The essence of a lyric is point, grace, and symmetry; +of a song, fluency, freedom, and the expression of sympathetic emotions. + +Ramsay, according to this basis of distinction, was, as has been said, +rather a song-writer than a lyrist. The works of Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, abound in lyrics, but +contain comparatively few songs, in the modern sense of the word, in +which we speak of the songs of Burns, Moore, and Barry Cornwall. Ramsay, +in his songs, sacrificed everything to mode. In nine cases out of ten he +had the tune for the song in his mind when he was writing the words. In +Scotland, as is well known, there is an immense body of music, some of +it ancient, some of it comparatively modern, though none of it much +later than the Restoration. That was the mine wherein Ramsay dug long +and deep for the music for his _Tea-Table Miscellany_. To those ancient +tunes he supplied words--words that to this day remain as a memorial of +the skill and sympathy wherewith he wedded the spirit of the melodies to +language in keeping with their national character. + +To a _soupcon_ of diffuseness the poet must, however, plead +guilty--guilty, moreover, because of the invincible temptation to pad +out a line now and then 'for crambo's sake' when the ideas ran short. +Ramsay possessed all the qualities constituting a song-writer of great +and varied genius. His work exhibits ease and elasticity of rhythm, +liquid smoothness of assonance, sympathetic beauty of thought, with +subtle skill in wedding sense to sound. Though his verse lacked the +dainty finish of Herrick and Waller, the brilliant facet-like sparkle of +Carew, Suckling, and Lovelace, the tender grace of Sedley, and the +half-cynical, half-regretful, but wholly piquant epicureanism, of +Rochester and Denham, yet Ramsay had a charm all his own. Witness the +'Lass o' Patie's Mill'; is it not entirely _sui generis_? + + 'The lass o' Patie's Mill, + So bonny, blythe, and gay, + In spite of all my skill, + She stole my heart away. + When tedding of the hay, + Bareheaded on the green, + Love midst her locks did play, + And wantoned in her een. + + Her arms, white, round, and smooth, + Breasts rising in their dawn, + To age it would give youth + To press 'em with his hand + Thro' all my spirits ran + An ecstasy of bliss + When I such sweetness fan' + Wrapt in a balmy kiss. + + Without the help of art, + Like flowers that grace the wild, + She did her sweets impart + Whene'er she spoke or smil'd. + Her looks they were so mild, + Free from affected pride, + She me to love beguiled, + I wished her for my bride.' + +Take also 'Bessy Bell and Mary Gray'; what a rich fancy and charming +humour plays throughout the piece, united to a keen knowledge of the +human heart-- + + 'O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, + They are twa bonny lasses; + They bigg'd a bower on yon burnbrae, + And theek'd it o'er with rashes. + Fair Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen, + And thought I ne'er could alter; + But Mary Gray's twa pawky e'en, + They gar my fancy falter,' + +or that verse in his 'Scots Cantata,' with what simplicity, yet with +what true pathos, is it not charged?-- + + 'O bonny lassie, since 'tis sae, + That I'm despised by thee, + I hate to live; but O, I'm wae, + And unco sweer to dee. + Dear Jeany, think what dowy hours + I thole by your disdain: + Why should a breast sae saft as yours + Contain a heart of stane?' + +George Withers' famous lines, 'Shall I, wasting in despaire,' are not a +whit more pathetic. Then if we desire humour pure and unadulterated, +where can be found a more delightful _lilt_ than 'The Widow'? + + 'The widow can bake, and the widow can brew, + The widow can shape, and the widow can sew,[3] + And mony braw things the widow can do,-- + Then have at the widow, my laddie.' + + +Or if you affect a dash of satire in your songs, what more to your taste +than-- + + 'Gi'e me a lass wi' a lump o' land, + And we for life shall gang thegither, + Though daft or wise I'll ne'er demand, + Or black or fair it maks na whether. + I'm aff wi' wit, and beauty will fade, + And blood alane is no worth a shilling; + But she that's rich, her market's made, + For ilka charm aboot her's killing.' + +Or if the reader desire the wells of his deepest sympathies to be +stirred, what more truly pathetic than his 'Auld Lang Syne,' which +supplied Burns with many of the ideas for his immortal song; or his +version of 'Lochaber No More'-- + + 'Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell my Jean, + Where heartsome wi' thee I've mony day been; + For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more, + We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more,' + +--a song than which to this day few are more popular among Scotsmen. As +a song-writer Ramsay appeals to all natures and all temperaments. He was +almost entirely free from the vice of poetic conventionality. He wrote +what seemed to him best, undeterred by the dread of offending against +poetic canons, or the principles of this, that, or the other school of +poetry. He was a natural singer, not one formed by art--a singer, +voicing his patriotic enthusiasm in many a lay, that for warmth of +national feeling, for intense love of his species, for passionate +expression of the tenderer emotions, is little behind the best of the +songs of Robert Burns. Granted that his was not the power to sweep, +like Burns, or Beranger, or Heine, with masterful hand over the entire +gamut of human passions; that to him was not given, as to them, the +supremely keen insight into the workings of the human heart, and the +magical witchery of wedding sense to sound so indissolubly, that alter +but a word in the texture of the lines and the poem is ruined. Yet, in +his province, Ramsay was dowered with a gift but little less notable, +that of portraying so faithfully the natural beauties of his country, +and the special characteristics of his countrymen, that, in a greater +degree even than Burns,--were Ramsay's songs only recognised as his, in +place of being ascribed to others,--he has a right to the proud title of +Scotland's national song-writer. Not for a moment do I seek to place +Ramsay on a pedestal co-equal with Burns--that were an error worse than +folly; not for a moment do I seek to detract from the transcendent merit +of our great national poet. But though I do not rate Burns the less, I +value Ramsay the more, when I say that, had there been no Ramsay there +might have been no Burns nor any Fergusson--at least, the genius of the +two last named poets would not have found an adequate vehicle of +expression lying readymade to their hand. Ramsay it was who virtually +rendered the Scots vernacular a possible medium for the use of Burns; +and this service, unconsciously rendered by the lesser genius to the +greater, is generously acknowledged by the latter, who could not but be +aware that, as his own star waxed higher and yet higher from the horizon +line of popularity, that of his elder rival waned more and more. +Therefore his noble panegyric on Ramsay is but a tribute to his 'father +in song'-- + + 'Thou paints auld nature to the nines, + In thy sweet Caledonian lines; + Nae gowden stream through myrtle twines, + Where Philomel, + While nightly breezes sweep the vines, + Her griefs will tell. + + In gowany glens thy burnie strays, + Where bonnie lassies bleach their claes; + Or trots by hazelly shaws and braes, + Wi' hawthorns gray, + Where blackbirds join the shepherd's lays + At close o' day. + + Thy rural loves are nature's sel'; + Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell; + Nae snap conceits, but that sweet spell + O' witchin' love, + That charm that can the strongest quell, + The sternest move.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Pronounced in Scots, _shoo_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +RAMSAY'S MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; CONCLUSION + + +Our survey is now drawing to a close. To say a word upon those +miscellaneous poems that do not fall naturally into any convenient +category for classification is all that remains to be done. + +Already attention has been called to the poem on _Content_, when its +purpose was sketched. Though containing many passages of no little power +and beauty, yet as a whole it is heavy and uninteresting. Written during +the time when the glamour of Pope's influence was upon Ramsay, it +exhibits many of Pope's faults without his redeeming features. True, the +characters are drawn with great vigour and distinctive individuality, +but the trail of dulness lies over it, and _Content_ slumbers, with +James Thomson's _chef d'oeuvre_ on _Liberty_, on the top shelf amongst +the spiders. The description of the palace of the goddess Content has, +however, often been praised for its vigorous scene-painting-- + + 'Amidst the glade the sacred palace stood, + The architecture not so fine as good; + Nor scrimp, nor gousty, regular and plain, + Plain were the columns which the roof sustain; + An easy greatness in the whole was found, + Where all that nature wanted did abound: + But here no beds are screen'd with rich brocade, + Nor fuel logs in silver grates are laid; + Nor broken China bowls disturb the joy + Of waiting handmaid, or the running boy; + Nor in the cupboard heaps of plate are rang'd, + To be with each splenetic fashion changed.' + +_The Prospect of Plenty_ is another poem wherein Ramsay allows his +reasoning powers to run away with him. As Chalmers remarks: 'To the +chimerical hopes of inexhaustible riches from the project of the South +Sea bubble, the poet now opposes the certain prospect of national wealth +from the prosecution of the fisheries in the North Sea--thus judiciously +pointing the attention of his countrymen to the solid fruits of patient +industry, and contrasting these with the airy projects of idle +speculation.' The poem points out that of industry the certain +consequence is plenty, a gradual enlargement of all the comforts of +society, the advancement of the useful, and the encouragement of the +elegant arts, the cultivation of talents, the refinement of manners, the +increase of population--all that contributes either to national +prosperity or to the rational enjoyments of life. The composition and +structure of the poem are less deserving of encomium than the wisdom of +its precepts. Like _Content_, it is tedious and dull, yet there is one +vigorous passage in it, beginning: 'A slothful pride! a kingdom's +greatest curse,' and dealing with the evils arising from the separation +of the classes, which has often been quoted. Nor must we forget _The +Vision_, which in the opinion of many must rank amongst the best of +Ramsay's productions. Published originally in the _Evergreen_, over the +initials 'A. R. Scot,' for some time it was believed to be the work of a +Scots poet, Alexander Scott, who lived in the reign of Queen Mary. But +Janet Ramsay put the matter beyond a doubt before her death by declaring +the poem to have been written by her father. The merits of _The Vision_ +are considerable. The language is majestic and dignified, the ideas +lofty, and the characters drawn with vigour and precision. Had the +spelling not been so archaic, the poem would have been much more popular +than it is. + +For Horace, Ramsay always professed a deep admiration. Upon the style of +the great Roman satirist he sought to model his 'Epistles,' which +undoubtedly deserve something more than mere passing mention. In them +Ramsay endeavours to give the friend, whom at the moment he addresses, a +glimpse into the pursuits with which, for the time being, he was +occupying himself. Taking this for his text, he digresses into apt and +amusing dissertations on any subject of public, municipal, or social +interest that might be engrossing the attention of the town. His +epistles to Hamilton of Gilbertfield, to James Arbuckle, to the Earl of +Dalhousie, to Mr. Aikman, to Sir W. Bennet, to William Starrat, to +Joseph Burchet, to Somerville the poet, to Gay, to Clerk of Penicuik, +and others, are altogether delightful--happy, cheery, humorous, gossipy +productions, neither too full of fun to be frivolous, nor too didactic +to be tiresome. Take, for example, his epistle to Robert Yarde of +Devonshire,--how apt are his allusions, how racy his tit-bits of local +news! He addresses the epistle + + 'Frae northern mountains clad with snaw, + Where whistling winds incessant blaw, + In time now when the curling-stane, + Slides murm'ring o'er the icy plain'; + +and he asks his correspondent how, under these conditions, + + 'What sprightly tale in verse can Yarde + Expect frae a cauld Scottish bard, + With brose and bannocks poorly fed, + In hodden gray right hashly clad, + Skelping o'er frozen hags with pingle, + Picking up peats to beet his ingle, + While sleet that freezes as it fa's, + Theeks as with glass the divot wa's + Of a laigh hut, where sax thegither + Lie heads and thraws on craps of heather?' + +--this being a humorous allusion to the prevalent idea in England at the +time, that the Scots were only a little better off than the savages of +the South Seas. + +Finally, in his translations, or rather paraphrases, from Horace, Ramsay +was exceedingly happy. He made no pretensions to accuracy in his +rendering of the precise words of the text. While preserving an +approximation to the ideas of his original, he changes the local +atmosphere and scene, and applies Horace's lines to the district around +Edinburgh, wherewith he was so familiar. With rare skill this is +achieved; and while any lover of Horace can easily follow the ideas of +the original, the non-classical reader is brought face to face with +associations drawn from his own land as illustrative, by comparison and +contrast, of the text of the great Roman. Few could have executed the +task with greater truth; fewer still with more felicity. Already I have +cited a portion of Ramsay's rendering of Horace's famous Ode, _Vides ut +alta stet nive candidum Soracte_. There are two other stanzas well +worthy of quotation. Ramsay's rendering of the famous _Carpe diem_, +etc., passage is all I have space for-- + + 'Let neist day come as it thinks fit, + The present minute's only ours; + On pleasure let's employ our wit, + And laugh at fortune's feckless powers.' + +Reference has also been made to his apt translation of the ideas +contained in Horace's 1st Ode to Maecenas, by making them express his +own feelings towards Lord Dalhousie. Two of his aptest renderings of the +original, however, were those of Horace's 18th Ode to Quintilius Varus +(_Nullam, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem_), which our poet +renders-- + + 'O Binny, cou'd thae fields o' thine + Bear, as in Gaul, the juicy vine, + How sweet the bonny grape wad shine + On wa's where now + Your apricock and peaches fine + Their branches bow. + + Since human life is but a blink, + Then why should we its short joys sink; + He disna live that canna link + The glass about; + Whan warm'd wi' wine, like men we think, + An' grow mair stout.' + +The 31st Ode (B. 1.) to Apollo is thus felicitously rendered-- + + 'Frae great Apollo, poets say, + What would'st thou wish, what wadst thou hae + Whan thou bows at his shrine? + Not Carse o' Gowrie's fertile field, + Nor a' the flocks the Grampians yield + That are baith sleek and fine; + Not costly things, brocht frae afar, + As iv'ry, pearl and gems; + Nor those fair straths that watered are + Wi' Tay an' Tweed's smooth streams. + Which gentily and daintily + Eat down the flow'ry braes, + As greatly and quietly + They wimple to the seas.' + +Ramsay had the misfortune never to have studied the _technique_ of his +art, so that in no respect is he a master of rhythm. The majority of his +longer poems, including _The Gentle Shepherd_, are written in the +ordinary heroic measure, so popular last century because so easily +manipulated. His songs for the most part are written in familiar metres, +not calculated to puzzle any bonny singing Bess as she danced and lilted +on the village green. As a metrist, therefore, Ramsay can claim little +or no attention. His poetry was the spontaneous ebullition of his own +feelings, and for their expression he seized upon the first measure that +came to hand. + +Such, then, is Ramsay! In his matchless pastoral he will ever live in +the hearts of Scotsmen; and were proof needed, it would be found in the +increasing numbers of pilgrims who year by year journey to Carlops to +visit the scenes amongst which Peggy lived and loved. To any one save +the historian and the antiquarian, the remainder of his poetry may now +be of little value,--probably of none,--amidst the multifarious +publications which day by day issue from the press. But by Scotsmen the +memory of the gentle, genial, lovable Allan will ever be prized as that +of one who, at a critical time, did more to prevent Scottish national +poetry from being wholly absorbed by the mightier stream of English song +than any other man save Scott. Worthy of such veneration, then, is he, +both as a poet and as a man; and though the extravagant admiration +wherewith he was regarded in his own day, has given place to a soberer +estimate of his rank in the hierarchy of letters, yet Allan Ramsay can +never be held as other than one of the most delightful, if he can no +longer be rated as one of the greatest, of Scottish poets. That his +immortal pastoral can ever be consigned to the limbo of oblivion is as +improbable as that our posterity will forget _Tam o' Shanter_ and the +_Cotter's Saturday Night_. The opinion of Robert Burns regarding the +permanence of his 'poetical forebear's' fame will be cordially endorsed +by every leal-hearted Scot, in whose memory the sturdy manliness of +Patie and the winning beauty of Peggy are everlastingly enshrined-- + + 'Yes! there is ane: a Scottish callan, + There's ane; come forrit, honest Allan, + Thou needna jouk behint the hallan, + A chiel' sae clever: + The teeth o' time may gnaw Tantallan, + But thou's for ever!' + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLAN RAMSAY*** + + +******* This file should be named 32642.txt or 32642.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/4/32642 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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