Pale, pale indeed, O lovely, lovely youth! Return, return, O mournful, mournful bride, Thy lover heeds nought of thy sighs, Of this song Mr. Pinkerton says, "It is in very bad taste, and quite unlike the ancient Scottish manner; even inferior to the poorest of the old ballads with this title. His repeated words and lines causing an eternal jinglehis confused narration and affected pathos throw this piece among the rubbish of poetry." I have ever observed, that when Pinkerton pauses a little, gathers himself up, and utters a weighty and deliberate judgment, he is sure to make a mistake. In matters of poetic taste, trust only his hurried glance or his hasty allusion,— when he thinks seriously, he thinks wrong. It is one of the very sweetest and tenderest productions of the Muse. Among the admirers of the "Braes of Yarrow," let me mention Wordsworth, who in all that relates to taste and genius is well worth as many Pinkertons as could stand between Rydal-mount and Yarrow. He calls it the exquisite ballad of Hamilton; and in his Yarrow Unvisited and Yarrow Visited-poems that would immortalise any stream-his allusions to the song are frequent and flattering. He had a vision of his own—an image nobler and lovelier which the song had created in his fancy-he saw the stream and said— And is this Yarrow ?-This the stream Of which my fancy cherish'd An image that hath perish'd! MY PEGGY IS A YOUNG THING. My Peggy is a young thing, Just enter'd in her teens, Fair as the day, and sweet as May, Fair as the day, and always gay. My Peggy is a young thing, My Peggy speaks sae sweetly, I wish nae mair to lay my care, My Peggy speaks sae sweetly, But she gars a' my spirits glow My Peggy smiles sae kindly, That I look down on a' the town, It makes me blyth and bauld, My Peggy sings sae saftly, And in her sangs are tauld, The songs which Ramsay wrote for his "Gentle Shepherd" are inferior to that fine pastoral; instead of adorning the text, they encumber it. They are, however, so generally known, and so popular through the aid of the drama, that a collection would be reckoned incomplete without them. They echo, and echo faintly, the preceding text; and they have little of the readiness of language and alacrity of humour, and lyric grace of composition, which distinguish many of Allan's songs. "My Peggy is a young thing" is partly founded on an old song which commences thus If the wit and the humour of this ancient lyric were not enclosed with grossness and indelicacy, as a thistle bloom is beset with its prickles, it would be worthy of acceptation in any company. THE YOUNG LAIRD AND EDINBURGH KATY. Now wat ye wha I met yestreen, Since ye're out of your mither's sight, O Katy, wiltu' gang wi' me, And leave the dinsome town a while? The blossom's sprouting frae the tree, Soon as the clear goodman of day There's up into a pleasant glen, Which circling birks have form'd a bow'r: And love and kiss, and kiss and love. Allan Ramsay wrote this very clever and very natural song, and printed it in his collection in 1724. It was composed to take place of an old and licentious lyric of the same name; and it has been so successful, that its impure predecessor has wholly disappeared. There was |