How monie hearts this day converts O' sinners and o' lasses! Their hearts o' stane, gin night, are gane, As saft as ony flesh is. There's some are fou o' love divine; An' monie jobs that day begin Some ither day. The names of persons in this satiric drama are given from the Poet's manuscripts; more about them will be found in the note to "The Ordination." The scene is laid in the church-yard of Mauchline: the clergyman of the parish, with his assistants, are exhibited on the stage, while the lay members of the congregation, swelled by auxiliary weavers from Kilmarnock, compose the numerous persons of the under-plot of the piece. The Poet seems at first to have contemplated the introduction of allegorical figurantes. The parts which Fun, Hypocrisy, and Superstition have alloted to them in conceiving the poem have not been indicated; and, perhaps, it was but the aim of the Poet to awaken the attention of the reader to the scenes of fun, superstition, and hypocrisy which he proposed to disclose on "the holy spot," where he desired to meet them. In these personages he had his eye on Fergusson's poem of "Leith Races :" "In July month, ae bonny morn, When Nature's robe lay green, Glowrin' about I saw a quean, The fairest 'neath the lift; Sae white that day." This personage upbraids Fergusson for going idly musing along the streets of Edinburgh, when he should be at Leith races to observe and sing of the fun and folly of mankind; the poet naturally inquires the name of his fair counsellor; she answers, like Fun in the " Holy Fair, " "I dwell among the cauler springs, That weet the land o' cakes, They ca' me MIRTH:-I ne'er was ken'd, To grumble or look sour; But blithe wad be a lift to lend, Gif ye wad sey my power, 66 And pith this day." Mirth, in her allegorical quality, neglects to accompany the Poet to the races-though he meets wi' muckle fun and daffin."-" There are traits of infinite merit,' says Jeffrey, in Scotch Drink,' The Holy Fair,' The Hallow E'en,' and several of the songs; in all of which it is very remarkable that he rises occasionally into a strain of beautiful description or lofty sentiment, far above the pitch of his original conception." THE ORDINATION. "For sense they little owe to frugal heav'n- KILMARNOCK Wabsters fidge an' claw, An' ye wha leather rax an' draw, Of a' denominations, Swith to the Laigh Kirk, ane an' a', An' there tak up your stations; For joy this day. Curst Common-sense, that imp o' hell, He'll clap a shangan on her tail, An' set the bairns to daud her Wi' dirt this day. * Alluding to a scoffing ballad which was made on the admission of the late reverend and worthy Mr. Lindsay to the Laigh Kirk. Mak haste an' turn king David owre, An' lilt wi' holy clangor; O' double verse come gie us four, This day the Kirk kicks up a stoure, And gloriously she'll whang her Come, let a proper text be read, How graceless Ham* leugh at his dad, Or Phineas + drove the murdering blade, Was like a bluidy tiger I' th' inn that day. There, try his mettle on the creed, That stipend is a carnal weed He taks but for the fashion; Genesis ix. 22. + Numbers xxv. 8. Exodus iv. 25. Now, auld Kilmarnock, cock thy tail, Nae mair thou'lt rowte out-owre the dale, For lapfu's large o' gospel kail An' runts o' grace the pick and wale, Nae mair by Babel's streams we'll weep, To think upon our Zion; And hing our fiddles up to sleep, Like baby-clouts a-dryin': Come, screw the pegs, wi' tunefu' cheep, Oh, rare! to see our elbucks wheep, Fu' fast this day! Lang Patronage, wi' rod o' airn, Our patron, honest man! Glencairn, And like a godly elect bairn He's wal'd us out a true ane, And sound this day. |