His 'Lochaber no More' is a strain of manly feeling and unaffected pathos. The poetical epistles of Ramsay were undoubtedly the prototypes of those by Burns, and many of the stanzas may challenge comparison with them. He makes frequent classical allusions, especially to the works of Horace, with which he seems to have been well acquainted, and whose gay and easy turn of mind harmonised with his own. In an epistle to Mr. James Arbuckle, the poet gives a characteristic and minute painting of himself: Imprimis, then, for tallness, I Auld gabbet Spec, (2) who was so cun- To be a dummie ten years running. 'Tis mair to mirth than grief inclined: Well judging a sour heavy face Ramsay addressed epistles to Gay and Somerville, and the latter paid him in kind, in very flattering verses. In one of Allan's answers is the following picturesque sketch, in illustration of his own contempt for the stated rules of art: I love the garden wild and wide, May sometimes cheat the gardener's care, Heaven Homer taught the critic draws The Gentle Shepherd' is the greatest of Ramsay's works, and perhaps the finest pastoral drama in the world. It possesses that air of primitive simplicity and seclusion which seems indispensable in compositions of this class, at the same time that its landscapes are filled with lifelike beings, who interest us from their character, situa tion, and circumstances. It has none of that studied pruriency and unnatural artifice which are intruded into the Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher, and is equally free from the tedious allegory and forced conceits of most pastoral poems. It is a genuine picture of Scottish life, but of life passed in simple rural employments, apart from the guilt and fever of large towns, and reflecting only the pure and un 1 Dark complexioned. From black and Fr. vis, the visage. 2 The Specutor, No. 1, by Addison. 3 A Sirloin. sophisticated emotions of our nature. The affected sensibilities and feigned distresses of the 'Corydons' and 'Delias' find no place in Ramsay's clear and manly page. He drew his shepherds from the. life, placed them in scenes which he actually saw, and made them speak the language which he every day heard-the free idiomatic speech of his native vales. His art lay in the beautiful selection of his materials--in the grouping of his well-defined characters-the invention of a plot, romantic, yet natural--the delightful appropriateness of every speech and auxiliary incident—and in the tone of generous sentiment and true feeling which sanctifies this scene of humble virtue and happiness. The love of his 'gentle' rustics is at first artless and confiding, though partly disguised by maiden coyness and arch humour; and it is expressed in language and incidents alternately amusing and impassioned. At length the hero is elevated in station above his mistress, and their affection assumes a deeper character from the threatened dangers of a separation. Mutual distress and tenderness break down reserve. The simple heroine, without forgetting her natural dignity and modesty, lets out her whole soul to her early companion, and when assured of his unalterable attachment, she not only, like Miranda, 'weeps at what she is glad of,' but, with the true pride of a Scottish maiden, she resolves to study gentler charms,' and to educate herself to be worthy of her lover. Poetical justice is done to this faithful attachment, by both the characters being found equal in birth and station. The poet's taste and judgment are evinced in the superiority which he gives his hero and heroine, without debasing their associates below their proper level; while a ludicrous contrast to both is supplied by the underplot of Bauldy and his courtships. The elder characters in the piece afford a fine relief to the youthful pairs, besides completing the rustic picture. While one scene discloses the young shepherds by craigy bields' and crystal springs,' or presents Peggy and Jenny on the bleaching. green A trotting burnie wimpling through the ground another shews us the snug thatched cottage with its barn and peatstack, or the interior of the house, with a clear ingle glancing on the floor, and its inmates happy with innocent mirth and rustic plenty. The drama altogether makes one proud of peasant-life and the virtues of a Scottish cottage. In imitation of Gay in his 'Beggar's Opera,' Ramsay interspersed songs throughout the Gentle Shepherd,' which tend to interrupt the action of the piece, and too often merely repeat, in a diluted form, the sentiments of the dialogue. These songs in themselves, however, are simple and touching lyrics, and added greatly to the effect of the drama on the stage. In reading it, the songs may be advantageously passed over, leaving undisturbed the most perfect delineation of rural life and manners, without vulgar humility or affectation, that was ever drawn. Ode from Horace. Look up to Pentland's towering tap, Driving their ba's frae whims or tee, The biassed bowls ou Tamson's green. Then fling on coals, and ripe the ribs, Good claret best keeps out the cauld, Leave to the gods your ilka care, If that they think us worth their while; They can a rowth of blessings spare, Which will our fashous fears beguile. For what they have a mind to do, That will they do. should we gang wud; If they command the storms to blaw, Then upo' sight the hailstanes thud. But soon as e'er they cry, Be quiet,' move, But cour into their caves, and wait The high command of supreme Jove. Let neist day come as it thinks fit, On pleasure let's employ our wit, Be sure ye dinna quat the grip And lay ye twafald o'er a rung. Sweet youth's a blithe and heartsome time; Then lads and lasses, while it's May, Watch the saft minutes of delight, On you, if she kep ony skaith. 'Haith, ye 're ill-bred,' she 'll smiling say; 'Ye'll worry me, you greedy rook ;' Syne frae your arms she 'll rin away, And hide hersell in some dark nook. Her laugh will lead you to the place, Where lies the happiness you want, And plainly tells you to your face, Nineteen naysays are half a grant. Now to her heaving bosom cling, These benisons, I'm very sure, Are of the gods' indulgent grant; Thenly carles, whisht, forbear To p. gue us with your whining cant. In this instance, the felicitous manner in which Ramsay has preserved the Horatian ease and spirit, and at the same time clothed the whole in a true Scottish garb, renders his version superior even to Dryden's English one. For comparison two stanzas of the latter are subjoined: Secure those golden early joys, That youth unsoured with sorrow bears, Ere withering time the taste destroys The appointed hour of promised bliss, The laugh that guides thee to the mark, When the kind nymph would coyness feign, And hides but to be found again; These, these are joys the gods for youth ordain. 1 Cleugh, a hollow between hills; scaur, a bare hill-side: slap, a narrow pass be tween two hills. 2 A large bottle of claret holding three magnums or Scots pints. Song.-Tune, 'Bush Aboon Traquair.' At setting day and rising morn, With soul that still shall love thee, Where first thou kindly told me To all our haunts I will repair, Lochaber ro More. Farewell to Lochaber, and farewell my Jean, Though hurricanes rise, and rise every wind, Then glory, my Jeanie, maun plead my excuse; Rustic Courtship -From the 'Gentle Shepherd.'-Act I. Hear how I served my lass I lo'e as weel For yet the sun was wading through the mist, And she was close upon me ere she wist; Her straight bare legs, that whiter were than snaw. Her haffet locks hang waving on her cheek; I careless cried, and lap in o'er the dike. Dialogue on Marriage. PEGGY and JENNY. JENNY. Come, Meg, let's fa' to wark upon this green, This shining day will bleach our linen clean; The water clear, the lift unclouded blue, Will mak them like a lily wet wi' dew. PEGGY. Gae far'er up the burn to Habbie's How, A pool breast-deep, beneath as clear a glass, What ails ye at him? Troth, between us twa, JENNY. I dinna like him, Peggy, there's an end; A herd ma sheepish yet I never kend. He kame: his hair, indeed, and gaes right snug, And spreads his gartens diced beneath his knee He falds his o'erlay down his breast wi' care, Except, How d' ye ?'-or, There's a bonny day.' PEGGY. Ye dash the lad wi' constant slighting pride, Hatred for love is unco sair to ide: But ye'll repent ye, if his love grow cauld— What likes 's a dorty maiden when she 's auld? ... When round the ingle-edge young sprouts are rife. To hear their little plaints, and keep them right. |