ÆT. 34.] EDITORIAL ARRANGEMENTS. 297 criminal indolence should lead me an uneasy life of reproach. I ought long ago to have written you on this very business. * Now, to try a language of which I am not half master, I shall assume as well as I can, the man of business. I suppose, at a gross guess, that I could add of new materials to your two volumes, about fifty pages. I would also correct and retrench a good deal. These said fifty pages you know are as much mine as the thumb-stall I have just now drawn on my finger which I unfortunately gashed in mending my pen. A few books which I very much want are all the recompence I crave, together with as many copies of this new edition of my own works as Friendship or Gratitude shall prompt me to present. There are three men whom you know, and whose friendly patronage I think I can trouble so far-Messrs. M'Kenzie, D. Stewart, and F. Tytler; to any of these I shall submit my MSS. for their strictures; and also let them say on my informing them-I mean any of them-what Authors I want, to what value of them I am entitled. If he adjudge me a "Tom Thumb" I am content. The "Man of Feeling," and Professor Stewart are, I hear, busy with works of their own, for which reason I shall prefer Tytler. So soon as I hear from you, I shall write Mr. Tytler, and in a fortnight more I shall put my MSS. in his hands. If the thing were possible that I could receive the proof-sheets by our Dumfries Fly, which runs three times a week, I would earnestly wish to correct them myself. I have the honor to be, Sir, your very humble servt., ROBT. BURNS. † *See page 284, supra. For access to the original MS. of this important letter, we are indebted to the representatives of Mr. Creech. 298 A DARLING SON OF INDOLENCE. [1792. (6) TO MR. JAMES JOHNSON, ENGRAVER, LAWNMARKET, EDINBURGH. (DOUGLAS, 1877.) * DUMFRIES, May 1792. DR. SIR,-This will be presented to you by one of your subscribers, and a gentleman to whose musical talents you are much indebted for getting your Scotch tunes. Let him know your progress, and how you come on with the work. Inclosed is one song out of many I have yet to send you; and likewise I inclose you another, and I think, a better set of Craigieburnwood, which you will give to Mr. Clarke to compare with the former set, as I am extremely anxious to have that song right,-I am, dr. Sir, yours, ROBT. BURNS. (1) TO MR. STEPHEN CLARKE, ORGANIST, EDINBURGH. (CROMEK, 1808.) DUMFRIES, 16th July 1792. MR. BURNS begs leave to present his most respectful compliments to Mr. Clarke. Mr. B. some time ago did himself the honor of writing Mr. C. respecting coming out to the country, to give a little musical instruction in a highly respectable family, where Mr. C. may have his own terms, and may be as happy as indolence, the Devil, and the gout will permit him. Mr. B. knows well how Mr. C. is engaged with another family; but cannot Mr. C. find two or three weeks to spare to each of them? Mr. B. is deeply impressed * From the original MS. in the British Museum, London. ET. 34.] FOURTH VOLUME OF THE MUSEUM. 299 with, and awfully conscious of, the high importance of Mr. C.'s time, whether in the winged moments of symphonious exhibition at the keys of harmony, while listening Seraphs cease from their own less delightful strains; or in the drowsy hours of slumb'rous repose, in the arms of his dearly beloved elbow-chair, where the frowsy, but potent Power of indolence, circumfuses her vapors round, and sheds her dews on, the head of her darling Son. But half a line conveying half a meaning from Mr. C. would make Mr. B. the very happiest of mortals. PREFACE TO VOL. IV. OF JOHNSON'S WHEN the Editor published the third volume of this work, he had reason to conclude that one volume more would finish the Publication. Still, however, he has a considerable number of Scots airs and Songs more than his plan allowed him to include in this fourth volume. These, though in all probability they will not amount to what he has hitherto published as one volume, he shall yet give to the world; that the Scots Musical Museum may be a Collection of every Scots song extant. To those who object that this Publication contains pieces of inferior, or little, value, the Editor answers by referring to his plan. All our songs cannot have equal merit. Besides, as the world has not agreed on any unerring balance, any undisputed standard, in matters of taste, what to one person yields no manner of pleasure, may to another be a high enjoyment. EDIN., August 13, 1792.* It may be of some interest here to enumerate a few of the more popular 300 THE GLENRIDDELL MANUSCRIPT. [1792. (3) TO ROBERT RIDDELL, ESQ., OF GLEN RIDDELL. (CUNNINGHAM, 1834.) [Dumfries, 1792.] MY DEAR SIR,-On rummaging over some old papers I lighted on a manuscript of my early years, in which I had determined to write myself out; as I was placed by fortune among a class of men to whom my ideas would have been nonsense. I had meant that the book should have lain by me, in the fond hope that, some time or other, even after I was no more, my thoughts would fall into the hands of somebody capable of appreciating their value. It sets off thus: "OBSERVATIONS, HINTS, SONGS, SCRAPS OF POETRY, &c., By R. B. (See Common-place Book, Vol. V.) The foregoing is extracted from the MS. book of Letters collected by the author for his friend, Captain Riddell, and forms the Introduction to an Abridgement of his first Common-place Book. In that abridged copy, the poet made a few verbal alterations in course of transcribing, but these are unimportant; for instance, the substitution of the expression 'courted," for coveted, and "language of the Hebrew bard," for language of Scripture. He closes the selections in these songs of Burns that made their first appearance in the volume above referred to: Ae fond kiss, and then we sever. Flow gently sweet Afton. The Whistle of worth. The Posie. The gallant Weaver. O meikle thinks my love o' my beauty. She's fair and fause. Turn again, thou fair Eliza. The deil's awa wi' the Exciseman. What can a young lassie do wi' an auld man? words :-"This is all that, and perhaps more than, is worth quoting in my MSS." We come now to a letter which is very difficult to place in its proper chronological order. It is impossible to say at what date our author was prevailed on by his kind friend Mr. M'Murdo to undergo an introduction to, and personal interview with, the Duke of Queensberry, the bare mention of whose name had, for a series of years, been sufficient to rouse him into indignation. Certain it is, however, that such a personal meeting between the poet and the Whig Peer did take place, as the following letter addressed to the Duke shortly thereafter, informs us. It is copied into the Glenriddell collection of the poet's letters, without any date attached or suggested; and we present it under the latest probable date, as the bard was not likely to send, in manuscript, his poem of the Whistle to any one after it was published to the world. This Peer would be about 66 years old in 1792. He survived till 23rd December 1810. (1) TO THE DUKE OF QUEENSBERRY, (DOUGLAS, 1877.) MY LORD DUKE,-Will your Grace pardon this approach in a poor Poet, who perhaps intrudes on your converse with Princes, to present you-all he has to offer his best ballad, and to beg of you-all he has to ask your gracious acceptance of it? Whatever might be my opinion of the merits of the poem, I would not have dared to take the liberty of presenting it thus, but for your Grace's acquaintance with the Dramatis Persona of the piece.* The identical Whistle won by Craigdarroch at the celebrated bacchanalian contest on 16th October 1789, was produced at the anniversary dinner of the Edinburgh Burns Club, 1867, by its vice-president, Mr. Maitland of Eccles, the |
