I'LL NE'ER BEGUILE THEE. My sweetest May, let love incline thee, How tempting sweet these lips of thine are! Though kith and kin and a' shou'd revile thee, Alane through flow'ry hows I dander, This song is the composition of Allan Ramsay, but on perusing it the fancy is borne away to a far earlier period, and the name of the air suggests a lyric which may have made the heroes of Otterburn or Flodden smile. Indeed if Ramsay knew the old song, and composed his verses on the principle of purity which he states in his preface, there is an end to my lamentation; for if the old words exceeded his by a shade or so in indelicacy, it was wise in our ancestors to forget them. There is a curious remnant of ancient manners recorded in the song-presenting the thumb to be touched, as a pledge of perfect sincerity. It is known among rustics by the name of "lick thumb." At school all the little bargains which the boys make with each other are sealed by this mystic ceremony. Each wets his thumb with his tongue, then they join them together, then hook them into each other, and finally both ratify all in rhyme: Ring thumbs, ring the bell Them that rue first gang to hell. In Johnson's Musical Museum may be found a song as old as Ramsay's, adapted to the same air, which seems a half English and half Scottish production. In the same work there is a song called "Sweetest May," written by Burns. Part is a parody on Allan's song, and what is not parodied is borrowed: Sweetest May, let love inspire thee- As thy constant slave regard it; Proof o' shot to birth or money ;— PEGGY AND PATIE. When first my dear laddie gade to the green hill, When corn-riggs wav'd yellow, and blue heather-bells When thou ran, or wrestled, or putted the stane, 1992 * ། ་** , ի. Our Jenny sings saftly the "Cowden Broom-knowes," And Rosie lilts sweetly the "Milking the Ewes ;" There's few "Jenny Nettles" like Nancy can sing ; With "Thro' the wood, Laddie," Bess gars our lugs ring: But when my dear Peggy sings with better skill The "Boat-man,” “ Tweedside," or the "Lass of the Mill," "Tis many times sweeter and pleasing to me; For though they sing nicely, they cannot like thee. How easy can lasses trow what they desire, The pastoral accuracy of this song is its chief commendation-the nature is the nature with which we are familiar, and all the imagery and allusions pertain to Scotland. This is a praise which we cannot extend to some far cleverer songs. Ramsay was born in a district which gave him an early acquaintance with the sharp birn and the blae heather-bell;-the ewe-bughts and the milking-pails were presented sooner to his eye than corn-riggs waving yellow. This is one of the songs in the "Gentle Shepherd." THE BOB OF DUMBLANE. Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle, If ye'll go dance the Bob of Dumblane. Be better than dancing the Bob of Dumblane. Be frank, my lassie, lest I grow fickle, And try with me the Bob of Dumblane. When Burns passed through Dumblane, he had the good fortune to find an old lady, at one of the principal inns, who had the courage to repeat some of the words of the old song, which the verses of Allan Ramsay superseded. |