The songs of Scotland, ancient and modern; with an introd. and notes, historical and critical, and characters of the lyric poets Volume 4

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825 edition. Excerpt: ...his song, employs a proverbial expression in a way which persuades me that he did not understand it. When a lady dismisses her lover, the unfortunate swain is called her " auld shoon"--she wore him while she pleased, and then put him off. For one girl to wear the " auld shoon " of another is, in the rude figurative language of the peasantry, to accept the addresses of the other's discarded lover. In this way the vaunt in an old song is explained:--Ye may tell the coof that gets her, How he gets but my auld shoon. In Burns, the first inquiry of the lady for her cousin Bess is sufficiently malicious:--I speer'd for my cousin fu' couthy and sweet, Gin she had recover'd her hearin. But the next question is utterly unintelligible--" and how her new shoon suited her shauchled feet"--unless we suppose that she meant to insinuate only that the feet of her cousin were " shauchled," or ill formed. By a slight alteration, I have made the line allude satirically to her cousin's situation with the discarded lover; and I imagine I have restored it to the sense which Burns intended. OH, WERT THOU IN THE CAULD BLAST? Oh, wert thou in the cauld blast, On yonder lea, on yonder lea? My plaidie to the angry airt, I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee. Or did misfortune's bitter storms Around thee blaw, around thee blaw, Thy bield should be my bosom, To share it a', to share it a'. Or were I in the wildest waste, Sae black and bare, sae black and bare, The desert were a paradise, If thou wert there, if thou wert there. Or were I monarch o' the globe, Wi' thee to reign,'wi' thee to reign, The brightest jewel in my crown Wad be my queen, wad be my queen. In Burns's manuscripts, among which this sweet little song was found, it is called " Address to a Lady." The...