'RHYMER RAB-PATRIOT BARD' -a Play.

Price £4 . Email me if you want a copy of a new radical play about the life of Robert Burns.

pburton300@live.co.uk


 

RHYMER RAB

Act One Scene 1

‘Ye Jacobites by Name’ is being played as audience enters.

There is a blown up article from the Glasgow Herald about Bob Dylan being most influenced by Burns ‘ poem “ A Red Red Rose” and this is projected on to a wall.

MC Enters and surveys the audience then pauses:

MC: Observations, Hints, Songs, Scraps of poetry &c., by Robt Burness:

a man who had little art in making money, and still less in keeping it;

But was, however, a man of some sense, a great deal of honesty, and unbounded good-will to every creature-rational or irrational. As he was but little indebted to scholastic education, and bred at a plough-tail, his performances must be strongly tinctured with his unpolished, rustic way of life: but, as I believe they are really his own, it may be of some entertainment to a curious observer of human nature to see how a ploughman thinks and feels under the pressure of Love, Ambition, Anxiety, Grief, with the like cares and passions, which, however diversified by the modes and manners of life, operate pretty much alike, I believe, in all the Species. 

And now fir a wee bit o’ previous verse from Robins’ guid friend John Syme (sweeping arm to usher John into space)

John:   The Bard

Sincere ,natural peasant-bard
profound confessor of all human emotion

Singing his way into a nations' hearts
with his courage, self-worth and fierce independence

an exposer of corrupt effete
humbug ,cant and church ceremonial

impious hands on the ark of the covenant
suffering unbaptised children 'goin to the deil'

tender,indignant
good-natured, serious

wise perceiver of
voguish public favour

a persecuted prophet
both feared and revered

all the world loves you
now you're safely dead !!  Exits

‘Ye Jacobites by Name’ starts up again.

 MC -‘I think ye all ken the words to this by now so join in. I’ll be given ye all a nod when I want ye to participate later on. There’s nothing tae fear-they’re all well kent songs.’

‘Ye Jacobites by Name’ is sung by cast as MIC is lowered into centre of

area.

                                     Ye Jacobites by Name

Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, Your fautes I will proclaim, Your doctrines I maun blame, you shall hear. What is Right, and What is Wrang, by the law, by the law? What is Right and what is Wrang by the law? What is Right, and what is Wrang? A short sword, and a lang, A weak arm and a strang, for to draw. What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar? What makes heroic strife famed afar? What makes heroic strife? To whet th' assassin's knife, Or hunt a Parent's life, wi' bluidy war? Then let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state, Then let your schemes alone in the state. Then let your schemes alone, Adore the rising sun, And leave a man undone, to his fate.

William Burnes’ cottage- small settle, table, bed with curtains, a few chairs and open hearth. We can hear wind outside and rain. William Burnes enters space.

Agnes: Ye’ve done a grand job wi’ this house William-and this inglenook- well-ony women would be proud o’ it.

William (Smiling) Aye it’s been hard getting it right Agnes, but there’s no a house like it in Ayr. And when a think ay aw the hardships after the 45’

Agnes:  Aye the Keith’s - driven off their land at the Mearns wi’ everybody else then payin’ for the folly.

William: But it cannae affect our laddies, Agnes. Education is the only way out of poverty for them. Our boys will get a good education.

Agnes:  But it’s so difficult now William, - wi the banks collapsing , credit difficult to get, folks no trustin' o’ each other.

William: Aye times are hard Agnes, but the boys will prosper wi a good education. A good Dominie is the key and I must tak’ soundings for a local school.

Agnes:  And maybe a religious manual for the boys?

William: (Lit up)  : An excellent idea – Agnes – makes sure the boys have a moral code. I’ll start on that the morn.

Agnes begins to rock in the chair and hums – she starts to  sing the’ Life and Age of Man’. William sits down to listen and gradually falls asleep.

 (There is a photo of people queuing outside Northern Rock projected on to the wall).

Scene Two

A big pop- up book stands in the middle of a pub but is closed. William Burns enters the pub in Ayr to meet with John Murdoch. They shake hands.

William: You’ll join me in a drink, Sir?

John:  I don’t normally partake, Sir, but if I am going to be a tutor to your sons

then we may seal the bargain with a dram after agreement about a curriculum

is reached.

William:  That makes sense, John. Well, I have two sons- Robert and Gilbert. They are good, God- Fearin’ boys. Both will receive some instruction in Religious matters (Hands John the Manual) – Perhaps you could go over this and improve on aspects of its Grammar?

Murdoch: I would be glad to assist Sir (Hesitates).  I am of New Licht persuasion –would that be an issue?

William: (Smiling) No quarrel there, John. But what of a Curriculum?

Murdoch: I will teach Gilbert and Robert how to turn verse into prose, substitute synonyms and expressions for poetical words, supply ellipses. They will receive instruction in spelling, the Bible, the New Testament, of course, and  ‘Masson’s Collection of Prose and Verse’.

William (Smiling). That’s agreed! Now let’s have that dram tae seal the deal.

(The two men, clink a glass together, take a sip and walk over to the pop-up book Murdoch opens the book. Pictures pop –up of Shakespeare, Addison, Milton, Thompson, Pope, Gray, Shenstone, Akenside. There is an image from Paradise Lost of Lucifer falling from the sky in the centre. He has Robin’s’ face and a pair of Rae ban specs on. He descends slowly on to a Triumph motorbike. Robin is playing a fiddle with a leer on his face. He wears Brando’s gear from ‘The Wild One’ - his leather jacket has “Robbie“ on it. William Burnes and John Murdoch look back to the audience while still pointing to the book, they both point to Robert with full stretched arms and smile in frozen time. Cardboard cut outs of Che Guevara, Dylan and Brando on motorbikes are projected on to a back wall).

Scene Three

Robin is reading Addison aloud by candlelight in his bedroom and successfully memorising a poem. His book Masson’s’ looks well-worn

Robin:  ‘For though in dreadful whirls we hung,

High on the broken wave’ Repeats without looking.

Gilbert  checks him :

Gilbert: We have a hard day’s work ahead tomorrow Robin .

Robin: So, Gilly – What do you thing o’ Murdoch – our new Dominie?

Gilbert: I like him. We can both learn  much from him Robin. Bit  what are your thoughts?

Robin: (Suspicious)  Aye, all that knowledge. He’s a bit pedantic like, and the way he motions.

Gilbert: Motions ?

Robin – Aye- Like this.

Robin gets up -points quickly as if at Blackboard and them quickly back at boys

Gilbert laughs and blows out a candlelight giving Robert no choice but to go to a bed that they share . Robin gets up after Gilbert is asleep , re-lights candle and looks through books at desk, Paine’s ‘Common  Sense’,  Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’, ‘A Manual of Religious belief in an Dialogue between Father and Son’, Hume’s  ‘Essay concerning Human Understanding’, ‘ The Life of Hannibal’.’ The Man of Feeling’ by Henry Mackenzie and Blind Harry’s  Wallace. He flicks through ‘Common Sense’ and stops at one page and whispers to audience:

Robin: “Of more worth is one honest man to society in the sight of God than all the crowned Ruffians that ever lived.”

Continues to read- silently.

Next morning early it’s windy and raining, Gilbert ploughs while Robert drains and moves hard rocks. Robin coughs and holds his back after ploughing for a while then suddenly dances in and around Gilbert in quirky way while Gilbert begins to plough. Gilbert smiles.

He reads out part of Holy Fair orally at which Gilbert gives shocked laugh

Robin  Recites:

But yet, O Lord! confess I must,
At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust:
An' sometimes, too, in wardly trust,
Vile self gets in:
But Thou remembers we are dust,
Defil'd wi' sin.

Gilbert gives light applause.

Robert takes over plough.

Gilbert : It's guid Robin, but whit are your plans for it?

Robin: Write it a’ doon, circulate It – what else?

Gilbert: But what about the Kirk Elders Robin? 

Robin: What of them?

Gilbert: For the great crimes of travellin’ on the Sabbath, not reading the Bible on a Sunday and getting a servant to dig potatoes on the Sabbath Gavin Hamilton is to be excommunicated. So what will they do to you for this if they excommunicate him for digging potatoes ?

Robin  laughs.

Robin:  ‘And here’s me thinkin’ it wis tae dae wi Gavin letting people aff wi their debts’- pauses – ‘I’ll use a false name-Ruisseux’ after Jean Jacques Rousseux.Ye’’ll give me yer thoughts when the poem is complete Gilly?

Gilbert: Oh Aye – thoughts. The two young men blow on their hands and fall silent to concentrate on work.

Scene Four

We hear the sound of church bells and see people going to Kirk. Robin arrives with his family and a new addition Betty Davidson-  the maid. He is carrying the Bible .As they are all in the process of sitting a young woman is instructed to move her seat by a young fat, pompous aristocrat. A few people wear black sack cloths. James and Mary Armour are in expensive pews.

Young Aristocrat (arrogantly): You are in my pew! Remove yourself!

The girl, embarrassed shuffles along and goes to the side of the Kirk at the back.

Robin: The arrogant rascal!

Robin begins to stand up.

Gilly: Robin!! (Grabbing Robin back into his seat)

Robin: (to Gilly) Pompous Ass!

This is noticed by James Armour, Father Auld, Holy Willie and John Russell to their collective facial displeasure at Robert Burns. (Elders always physically close to each other). His father is both fearful and proud. Robin sits back down, still angry. The girl smiles at Robin .He smiles back and begins to stare at a creepy crawly on the ladies hat in the pew in front. He smiles. He opens his Bible and reads while swinging his crossed leg  to and fro as Father Auld preaches.

Father Auld:  God will smite all unbelievers ! Some will say different. Some believe in a more personal relationship  with God. But here this- God is a jealous God ,God is an angry God , God does  not forgive sinners.(glances  at Robin who is reading his Bible while swinging his crossed leg even more rapidly back and forth ).Hellfire is certain for some.(now staring at nonchalant Robin)-Absolutely certain!

Betty narrows her eyes !

Lights Out

Scene Five

Lights Up .William and Agnes’ cottage.

There is a poem by Langston Hughes called ‘Ballad of a Landlord’ projected on to a back wall juxtaposed with  an image of Luath and Caesar from the ‘Twa Dogs’. William receives a letter demanding more money than is owed in rent by the factor.

William:  It’s a factors letter Agnes:

Agnes: Aye a ken. Well there’s no’ much point keepin’ it sealed up. We’ll jist get another, even more threaten’ .

William slowly opens the letter and reads it to himself.

Agnes: Well?

William: The Landlord – he’s raisin’ the rent. Says he’s no choice,

the bank raised the interest on his loans and won’t gie him further credit.

Agnes. Oh William – bit we’re barely makin’ ends meet now. I can’t remember the last time we ate meat. And how is the bank collapsin’ our fault ?

William: Aye a ken Agnes. Bit it’s pay up or get out. He’s clear about that !

Children over hear and are tearful- Comforted by Agnes and maid Betty Davidson, William is angry at affect on his young girls.

William (angrily) I’m going to fight ony eviction Agnes- as God is my witness !  I’ll see the lawyer Aitkin –tomorrow !! (Crushes letter in hand)

Betty gathers children around (two young girls and a young boy) and beckons them to sit down.

Betty: Twas on market day in the town of Ayr a farmer from Carrick and consequently whose way lay by the very gate of Alloway Kirk yard, in order to cross the river Doon at the old bridge, which is about two hundred yards further on than the said gate…..

(Children gradually stop crying, start to listen, sniffling instead. Gilly  and Robin listen also.)

(continues)had been detained by his business, till by the time he reached Alloway it was the wizard hour between night and morning.

Betty catches Agnes’ eye and Agnes nods and smiles while turning back to comfort William. Betty smiles and nods back.

Scene Six

A card board cut out of Alan Ginsburg looks on. James Armour reads out part of ‘Holy Willies Prayer’ to his wife. This is read off large cards which she holds up and drops when he has reached the end of each  line. James puts on half-moon specs to read.

Slow, quiet at first, getting slightly faster, louder, angrier.

Holy Willies Prayer (first two stanzas)

 O Thou, who in the heavens does dwell,
Who, as it pleases best Thysel',
Sends ane to heaven an' ten to hell,
A' for Thy glory,
And no for ony gude or ill
They've done afore Thee!

Starts muttering almost inaudibly other lines while pacing up and down,

occasionally stopping, Mary Armour dropping each card on the floor.

I bless and praise Thy matchless might,
When thousands Thou hast left in night,
That I am here afore Thy sight,
For gifts an' grace
A burning and a shining light
To a' this place.

Shock, disbelief and anger are mixed the more he reads.

Suddenly, even louder

James :  Bit listen tae this Mary….it gits even worse !

Lord, hear my earnest cry and pray'r,
Against that Presbyt'ry o' Ayr;
Thy strong right hand, Lord, make it bare
Upo' their heads;
Lord visit them, an' dinna spare,
For their misdeeds.  

James becomes extremely angry. Mary  throws last piece of card on floor and becomes  just as angry.

Mary : But who can hae written this?

James: It’s signed Ruisseux but I ken whit rascals’ responsible ! Ruisseux indeed – Rab Mossgiel is behind this!!  

(They both storm off.walking over cards)

‘Holy Willies Prayer’ is being passed from hand to hand, individual lines being read out by Kirk Elders. Elder’s are visibly apoplectic  while ordinary people are gleeful and shocked at the same time as they dart in and out and dance.

Father Auld: (Curious- looking down over half-moon specs .He looks like Jeremy Kyle): Lord, hear my earnest cry and pray'r, Against that Presbyt'ry o' Ayr.

Willie Fisher: Thy strong right hand, Lord, make it bare
Upo' their heads.

John Russell: Lord visit them, an' dinna spare, for their misdeeds.  

Father Auld ; The rascal !

Willie Fisher : Blasphemer !

John Russell: Rabble Rouser !

The cast continue to dance as the  lights gradually fade and up

 Robin is walking through  Mauchline with his  dog Luath - (carrying Blind Harry’s Wallace) . Jean Armour is washing clothes on the ground. The dog goes in and out the washing soiling it. Jean chases it.

Jean – Get out o’ here, ye daft mutt. Hav ye nae idea how lang it taen me tae wash these sheets?

 Robin:   If ye cared out for me lassie, ye widnae harm ma dug.

Jean : I wadnae care much for you at ony rate!

Robin:  Luath – heel!  Luath immediately follows  Robin. He walks on to meet up with Elizabeth Paton.

Lizzie:  Oh Robin. (Running to him) Bit where hae ye been ?

Robin : Blame Luath here. Likes tae get up tae mischief- don’t you ?

Lizzie: Jist like his master – (giggles)

Robin (Smiling) Aye – a bit like his Master –(looking her up and down)- Talkin' o’ mischief – it’s a braw day fir a walk in the woods Lizzie . Are ye up for it ?

Lizzie:  You don’t waste time Robin.

Robin: Tempus fuggit and all that , Lizzie.

Lizzie giggles, and nods.

Robin: Well- what are we waitin’ for.

She grabs him by the arm and they both walk off smiling.

Scene Seven

In the cottage night time Robin and Gilly come down stairs.

William . (looking disapprovingly at Robin, fillemont plaid hair wrapped around shoulders, buckled shoes, buckskin breeches- a dandy). And where do you think you're going dressed like that?

Robin: Tarbolton – to the Dancin’.

Father: You are not !

Robin. There’s nowt  wrang  wi’  dancin’ Father !

William : Aye but ye ken fine whaur it leads? Thinks I’m daft Agnes.

Agnes gives Robin a cool look.

Robin: It’s dancin’  Father- and none of the French or English kind neither

-but Bab at the Bowster, Tullochgorum, Loch Erroch Side. And me and Gilly- well-we’re thinkin o’ startin’ a bachelors club fir debatin’ -and joinin’  the Lodge in aw’-a place whaur a man can speak his mind!

Gilly who is sitting at the bottom of the stairs holds his head in his hands

Robins starts to dance  and sing simultaneously.

“Like midges sporting in the mottie sun, or craws prognosticating a storm in a hiarst day” (Reaches door)

William’s eyes widen, Gilbert tries to suppress a laugh, Agnes shakes her head.

Robin dances out  the door as his fathers’ mouth drops.

In Morton Hall Robert sees Jean and looks at her legs while couples dance and a teacher looks on.

Robin : (To himself) Tis’ a pity Jeanie  is  nae blonde- but those legs ! -the rigs o’ barley.

He hears Neil Gow’s  ‘Amang the Trees’ played (solo fiddle)

He approaches her.

Robin : May I have the honour Jean of this dance , tis my favourite song ?

She smiles and nods: They start to dance.

Jean: Where’s your wee friend this evenin’?

Robin ; Oh Luath is nae dancer Jean, but you have done this before I see.

Jean:  I have !

Robin : (smiling and raising eyebrows) And whit else gives ye pleasure ?

Jean (smiling)  Well-my favourite pastime is singing ballads.

Robin (Overjoyed)  Ballads !! – ancient and modern -they are the source of exquisite enjoyment Jean. I hope you won’t deny me the pleasure of listening to some of them soon?

Jean smiles and nods and they fall silent to dance more rigorously.

Robert Burns - The Peoples Poet - BBC Documentary 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq1ZVUJX-OI

Radical Burns by Peter Burton

The 250th Centenary year of Robert Burns’s birth has seen even more events and merry-making than usual. The writer Andrew O Hagan has a series on TV, there are highlights of Burns poems on Wiseman dairies Milk cartons, and a bunch of new books on the bard –Robert Crawford and Patrick Hogg have produced new biographies, Donald Smith has written a Novel and photographer Andy Hall has persuaded Sir Alex Fergusson and other famous people to pick a favourite poem and say a few words about what Burns has meant to them. The Hall book and Patrick Hogs’ biography are actually worthwhile – particularly Hogs’ radical reinterpretation of Burns’ work.

The Burns events form part of the Scottish Governments’ year long ‘Homecoming Scotland’ campaign designed on the surface to help celebrate Scottish culture and boost Tourist trade in these hard credit crunch times. Nothing to do then with the fact that there is a referendum on Independence next year which the SNP has no guarantee of winning. Once again-for the millionth time – Burns is being used
by politicians with agendas –plus ca change!

To begin to understand Burns it is necessary to place him in his historical context. He was a product of Scottish enlightenment ideas in an Age of Revolutions – first the American then the French. The peasantry were being squeezed and many farms were failing with peasants unable to maintain their debt bondage to Landowners.

A teacher , John Murdoch hired by his father William Burnes' helped create a voracious reader and wordsmith from an early age . Arthur Masson’s ‘Collection of Prose and Verse’ which included the work of Shakespeare, Milton Thompson,Pope,Gray,Shenstone,Addison and Akenside was read by Burns till it fell apart . Of these Joseph Addison was seminal .Fellow Scottish poet Robert Fergusson became Burns greatest influence

In the aftermath of the French revolution Robert Burns was engaged in refuting accusations that he was a member of the reforming Friends of the People in Dumfries and in joining a rendition of the French revolutionary song ‘Ca Ira’ in the Dumfries theatre.

His denials came against a background of Louis XV’s execution in France
and the arrest and charge of the lawyer and reformer Thomas Muir. (Muir was sentenced to 14 years in Botany Bay). The British state was stepping up its persecution of dissenters in fear of the reform movement in Britain and the ideas
of the French revolution that movement stood for. By 1793 the repression
aimed at nothing less than the crushing of the whole democratic and reform movement and a network of spies was on the hunt for examples the State
could use to crush dissent.

Robert Burns had by this time become an Exciseman after successive attempts
at make a living as a ploughman from farming had failed. His class was being squeezed out of existence by enclosure and agrarian ‘reform and Burns knew it.
He feared for the destitution of his family and dealt with the repression by using the guile and native wit of an educated poor peasant –a public face of being a good excise men to his employers and maintaining good personal relations with them – Burns came up with the idea of a local tax on the breweries in Ayrshire netting the
excise vastly increased revenue. He combined this public face with the sending of radical poems and songs anonymously or pseudonymously to dissenting papers such as the Edinburgh Gazetteer. Morning Chronicle (London) and Glasgow Advertiser.

Burns survived by being careful who he sent his work to refusing to even acknowledge the existence of some poems to publishers he did not trust He also avoided the Mail system. The Victorian mythologizes who presented Burns as a heaven taught ploughman who quickly gave up dissenting work when the going got tough could not have been more wrong. Poems and Songs such as’ Scots What hae’ were coded attacks on the ongoing repression of the Pitt government .Ostensibly this Song was about the Bruce and Wallace of centuries ago but was really full of veiled references to the French Revolution. Its last line ‘let us do or die’ came from the famous Tennis court Oath made during the French Revolution

By Oppression’s woes and pains!
By your Sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
Lay the proud Usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty’s in every blow!-
Let us Do or Die!

Or in another poem about the French revolution published posthumously

The Tree of Liberty

"Heard ye o' the tree o' France,
I watna what's the name o't;
Around it a' the patriots dance,
Weel Europ kens the fame o't.
It stands where ance the Bastille stood,
A prison built by kings, man,
When superstition's hellish brood
Kept France in leading strings, man.

"Upo' this tree there grows sic fruit,
Its virtues a' can tell, man,
It raises man aboon the brute,
It maks him ken himsel, man.
Gif ance the peasant taste a bit,
He's greater than a Lord, man,
And wi' the beggar shares a mite
O' a' he can afford, man.

Last Verse

"Wae worth the loon wha wadna eat
Sic halesome dainty cheer, man;
I'd gie my shoon frae aff my feet,
To taste sic fruit, I swear, man.
Syne let us pray, auld England may
Sure plant this far-famed tree, man;
And blythe we'll sing, and hail the day
That gave us liberty, man."

Burns had written political poetry all his life .In ‘Holy Willies Prayer’ he attacked the idiocies of the salvation of the elect that Calvinism stood for– again circulating the poem privately amongst friends.

In a fantastic piece entitled ‘Address to Beelzebub’ Burns combined support for the ideas of the American and French revolutions with reference to the Highland Clearances and the escape by the poor to the colonies. It is a dramatic monologue in form addressed from hell and one of Burns best , if lesser known poems.


Address Of Beelzebub

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Breadalbane, President of the Right
Honourable and Honourable the Highland Society, which met on the 23rd of May last at the Shakespeare, Covent Garden, to concert ways and means to frustrate the designs of five hundred Highlanders, who, as the Society were informed by Mr. M'Kenzie of Applecross, were so audacious as to attempt an escape from their lawful lords and masters whose property they were, by emigrating from the lands of Mr. Macdonald of Glengary to the wilds of Canada, in search of that fantastic thing-Liberty.
1786


Long life, my Lord, an' health be yours,
Unskaithed by hunger'd Highland boors;
Lord grant me nae duddie, desperate beggar,
Wi' dirk, claymore, and rusty trigger,
May twin auld Scotland o' a life
She likes-as butchers like a knife.

Faith you and Applecross were right
To keep the Highland hounds in sight:
I doubt na! they wad bid nae better,
Than let them ance out owre the water,
Then up among thae lakes and seas,
They'll mak what rules and laws they please:
Some daring Hancocke, or a Franklin,
May set their Highland bluid a-ranklin;
Some Washington again may head them,
Or some Montgomery, fearless, lead them,
Till God knows what may be effected
When by such heads and hearts directed,
Poor dunghill sons of dirt and mire
May to Patrician rights aspire!
Nae sage North now, nor sager Sackville,
To watch and premier o'er the pack vile, -
An' whare will ye get Howes and Clintons
To bring them to a right repentance-
To cowe the rebel generation,
An' save the honour o' the nation?
They, an' be d-d! what right hae they
To meat, or sleep, or light o' day?
Far less-to riches, pow'r, or freedom,
But what your lordship likes to gie them?




But hear, my lord! Glengarry, hear!
Your hand's owre light to them, I fear;
Your factors, grieves, trustees, and bailies,
I canna say but they do gaylies;
They lay aside a' tender mercies,
An' tirl the hallions to the birses;
Yet while they're only poind't and herriet,
They'll keep their stubborn Highland spirit:
But smash them! crash them a' to spails,
An' rot the dyvors i' the jails!
The young dogs, swinge them to the labour;
Let wark an' hunger mak them sober!
The hizzies, if they're aughtlins fawsont,
Let them in Drury-lane be lesson'd!
An' if the wives an' dirty brats
Come thiggin at your doors an' yetts,
Flaffin wi' duds, an' grey wi' beas',
Frightin away your ducks an' geese;
Get out a horsewhip or a jowler,
The langest thong, the fiercest growler,
An' gar the tatter'd gypsies pack
Wi' a' their bastards on their back!
Go on, my Lord! I lang to meet you,
An' in my house at hame to greet you;
Wi' common lords ye shanna mingle,
The benmost neuk beside the ingle,
At my right han' assigned your seat,
'Tween Herod's hip an' Polycrate:
Or if you on your station tarrow,
Between Almagro and Pizarro,
A seat, I'm sure ye're well deservin't;
An' till ye come-your humble servant,

Beelzebub.
June 1st, Anno Mundi, 5790.

Against a background of a National Seamans’ strike
he wrote to a friend a satirical political song
“ Why shouldna poor folk Mo” . It was one of many bawdy
Songs that Burns used to undermine the repression of the State
and church authorities with their Calvinist ideas on sex and the pre-destination of the elect.

When Princes and Prilates and het-headed zealots (hot)
All Europe hae set in a lowe, (flame)
The poor man lies down, nor envies a crown,
And comforts himself with a mowe (fuck)

The poem goes on to express solidarity with the Poles who were
being oppressed by the Russia of Catherine the Great , each stanza undermining the pretentions and authority of those in power both here and internationally.


There were countless other satirical poems and Songs such as “ A Good Mowe ,and “Nine Inch Will Please a Lady” .Burns used bawdy verse to demonstrate the impotence of Church and State. He points up the hubris of totalitarian pretensions and their futile attempts to suppress sex by edicts. While other writers talked of the democracy of death, Burns preferred to contemplate the democracy of sex- Sex ran“frae the queen to the tinkler” ( ‘Bonie Mary’)

The Kirk and State may join and tell;
To do sic things I manna:
The Kirk and State may gae to h-ll,
An’ I shall gae to Anna

The sex drive outweighed Kirk, State and Houses of Parliament put together and burlesque anti- official language and popular culture were utilised by Burns to subvert authority and its
methods of control.

FIRST ,YOU,JOHN BROWN, there’s witness borne,
And affidavit made and sworn,
That ye hae bred a hurly- burly

‘Bout JEANY MITCHELL’S tirlie –whirlie,
And blooster’d at her regulator
,Till a’her wheels gang clitter-clatter.

Burns’ satire went as far as setting up a ‘court’ to penalise those
who were not good at fornicating amongst an Edinburgh society- “The Crochallian Fencibles”. They used the same legal language as the authorities in their poems and Songs .Burns was , of course , its President.

At the heart of all his political satires as well as his more straightforwardly political poems lay a deep desire to expose and defeat an absolute political power that was shored up by a reactionary institutional Christianity that presented hierarchy, Class, rank .status and power as natural givens .

This was an ambition shared by his contemporary Blake
though the two men seemed not to know of each other.
(Both men , as an aside ,were also obsessed by the ‘Book of Job’ in those repressive times)

Victorian Scotland turned Burns into an iconic national
figure of whiskey and shortbread and haggis eating at Burns suppers in opposition to the political values and aims he
had passionately stood for and there has been a terrible legacy
left from Victorian times. The first attempt to place Burns in historical context Catherine Carswells’ biography in the 1930’s led to her receiving a bullet through the post –but the arguments rage on.

Influences are way too many to list but the most intelligent and committed of Burns admirers were The Ulster poets , Burns ideas influencing the intellectuals of the 1798 rebellion.
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley were hugely influenced
by his work.Other disciples followed – Emerson and Whitman to Maya Angelou – the latter no doubt influenced by his song ‘The Slaves lament’ Burns translation into Russian by Marshak led to his celebration as the working class embodiment of the Soviet ideal and domestically he has been used by Gladstone in his Midlothian campaign to the opening of the Scottish parliament to the current Nationalist campaign for Independence – Cue




A Man’s A Man for A’that

Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The Man's the gowd for a' that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an' a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man's a Man for a' that:
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a cuif for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.


Recommended Texts

The Canongate Burns
The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
Patrick Scott Hogg and Andrew Noble.

Robert Burns – The Patriot Bard -Patrick Scott Hogg

Burns the Radical -Liam McILvanney

Robert Burns- The Lost Poems -Patrick Scott Hogg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns

http://www.robertburns.org/works/ (Not complete but most
of his work is here.)