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The Friend thou valued'st, I the Patron lov'd;
His worth, his honour, all the world approv'd.
We'll mourn till we too go as he has gone,

And tread the dreary path to that dark world unknown.

TAM O' SHANTER.'

A TALE.

Brownyis and of Bogilis full is this Buke.-Gawin Douglas.

WHEN chapman billies leave the street,

And drouthy neebors, neebors meet,
As market-days are wearing late,
An' folk begin to tak the gate;
While we sit bousing at the nappy,'
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We thinkna on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Whare sits our sulky sullen dame,
Gath'ring her brows like gath'ring storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam O'Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter,
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonny lasses).

O Tam! hadst thou but been sae wise,
As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou wast a skellum,3
A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum ;*
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou was nae sober;
That ilka melder,5 wi' the miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on,
The smith and thee gat roaring fou on;
That at the Lord's house, ev'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday.

This poem was written to illustrate a drawing of Alloway Kirk, by Captain Grose, in whose "Antiquities of Scotland" it was published. The poet versified the chief circumstances of the historical story. Gilbert Burns specifies those of "a man riding home very late from Ayr in a stormy night, his seeing a light in Alloway Kirk, his having the curiosity to look in, his seeing a dance of witches with the Devil playing on the bagpipe to them, the scanty covering of one of the witches, which made him so far forget himself as to cry-Weel loupen, short sark!' with the melancholy catastrophe of the piece." The poet has given a fuller and racier description of the original scene in a letter to Grose. 2 Ale.

3 Worthless fellow.

+ Idle talker.

5 Every time that corn was sent to be ground. 6 Kirkton is the distinctive name of a village in which the parish kirk stands.

She prophesy'd that, late or soon,

Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doon;
Or catch'd wi' warlocks' i' the mirk,2
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,3
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen'd, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises !
But to our tale: Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right;
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,
Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely;
And at his elbow, Souter Johnny,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony;
Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter;
And ay the ale was growing better:
The landlady and Tam grew gracious,
Wi' favours, secret, sweet, and precious:
The souters tauld his queerest stories;
The landlord's laugh was ready chorus:
The storm without might rair and rustle,
Tam did na mind the storm a whistle.

Care, mad to see a man sae happy,
E'en drowned himself amang the nappy!
As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure,
The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure:
Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O'er a' the ills o' life victorious!

But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white-then melts for ever;
Or like the borealis race,

That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form

Evanishing amid the storm.

Nae man can tether time or tide ;

The hour approaches Tam maun ride;

That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane,
That dreary hour he mounts his beast in ;
And sic a night he taks the road in,

As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in.

1 Wizards.

2 Dark.

3 Makes me weep.

• Frothing ale.

5 Shoemaker.

The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last;
The rattling show'rs rose on the blast;
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd;
Loud, deep, and lang, the thunder bellow'd:
That night, a child might understand,
The Deil had business on his hand.

Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg,
A better never lifted leg,

Tam skelpit' on thro' dub and mire,
Despising wind, and rain, and fire;
Whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet ;
Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet;
Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares,
Lest bogles catch him unawares;
Kirk Alloway was drawing nigh,
Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry.
By this time he was cross the ford,
Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor'd ;2
And past the birks3 and meikle1 stane,
Whare drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane;
And thro' the whins, and by the cairn,
Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn;
And near the thorn, aboon the well,
Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.
Before him Doon pours all his floods;
The doubling storm roars thro' the woods
The lightnings flash from pole to pole ;
Near and more near the thunders roll:
When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees,
Kirk Alloway seem'd in a bleeze;

;

Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing;
And loud resounded mirth and dancing.
Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquebae, we'll face the Devil!
The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.
But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,
She ventur'd forward on the light;
And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight!
Warlocks and witches in a dance;
Nae cotillion brent new frae France,

1 Went at a smart pace.

2 Smothered.
5 Hole in the wall,

3 Birches.

• Big.

But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels,
Put life and mettle in their heels.

At winnock-bunker1 in the east,

There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast;
A towzie2 tyke, black, grim, and large,
To gie them music was his charge:
He screw'd the pipes and garts them skirl,"
Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.—
Coffins stood round, like open presses,
That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses;
And by some devilish cantrips slight
Each in its cauld hand held a light,-
By which heroic Tam was able
To note upon the haly table,

A murderer's banes in gibbet airns ;6
Twa span-lang, wee, unchristen'd bairns;
A thief, new-cutted frae a rape,
Wi' his last gasp his gab did

gape;
Five tomahawks, wi' blude red rusted;
Five scymitars, wi' murder crusted ;
A garter, which a babe had strangled;
A knife, a father's throat had mangled,
Whom his ain son o' life bereft,
The grey hairs yet stack to the heft;
Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu’,
Which ev'n to name wad be unlawfu',

As Tammie glowr'd, amaz'd, and curious,
The mirth and fun grew fast and furious :
The piper loud and louder blew ;

The dancers quick and quicker flew ;

They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit,
Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,

And coost her duddies' to the wark,

And linket at it in her sark!

Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans
A' plump and strapping in their teens;
Their sarks, instead o' creeshie9 flannen,
Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linnen! 10
Thir11 breeks o' mine, my only pair,
That ance were plush, o' gude blue hair,
I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies,12
For ae blink o' the bonnie burdies!

[blocks in formation]

11 These.

10 The manufacturing term for a fine linen, woven in a reed of 1700 divisions.-Cromek.

8 Forced.
8 Tripped along.

4 Scream.

5 Magic.

9 Greasy.

12 Loins.

But wither'd beldams, auld and droll, Rigwoodie hags, wad spean a foal, Lowping and flinging on a crummock,1 I wonder didna turn thy stomach.

But Tam kend what was what fu' brawlie, "There was ae winsome wench and walie," That night enlisted in the core,

(Lang after kend on Carrick shore ;
For mony a beast to dead she shot,
And perish'd mony a bonnie boat,
And shook baith meikle corn and bear,2
And kept the country-side in fear)
Her cutty sark, o' Paisley harn,*
That, while a lassie, she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,

It was her best, and she was vauntie.-
Ah! little kend thy reverend grannie,
That sark she coft for her wee Nannie,
Wi' twa pund Scots, ('twas a' her riches,)
Wad ever grac'd a dance of witches!

But here my muse her wing maun cour;
Sic flights are far beyond her pow'r ;
To sing how Nannie lap and flang,
(A souple jade she was, and strang),
And how Tam stood, like ane bewitch'd,
And thought his very e'en enrich'd;
Even Satan glowr'd, and fidg'd fu' fain,
And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main :
Till first ae caper, syne anither,
Tam tint his reason a' thegither,

And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!"
And in an instant all was dark;

And scarcely had he Maggie rallied,
When out the hellish legion sallied.
As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke,8
When plundering herds assail their byke;"
As open pussie's mortal foes,

When, pop! she starts before their nose;
As eager runs the market-crowd,

When, "Catch the thief!" resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi' monie an eldritch skreech and hollow.

Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin! In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin!

1 Short staff. Very coarse linen. 8 Bustle.

2 Barley.

5 Bought.

3 Short.
6 Then.
9 Hive.

7 Lost.

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