[The dragon guarding the Hesperian fruit, was simply a military
officer, who, with the courtesy of those whose trade is arms, paid
attention to the lady.
officer, who, with the courtesy of those whose trade is arms, paid
attention to the lady.
Robert Burns
B.
* * * * *
CCLXXXIV.
TO CAPTAIN MILLER,
DALSWINTON.
[Captain Miller, of Dalswinton, sat in the House of Commons for the
Dumfries district of boroughs. Dalswinton has passed from the family
to my friend James M'Alpine Leny, Esq. ]
DEAR SIR,
The following ode is on a subject which I know you by no means regard
with indifference. Oh, Liberty,
"Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay,
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. "
ADDISON.
It does me so much good to meet with a man whose honest bosom glows
with the generous enthusiasm, the heroic daring of liberty, that I
could not forbear sending you a composition of my own on the subject,
which I really think is in my best manner.
I have the honour to be,
Dear Sir, &c.
R. B.
* * * * *
CCLXXXV.
TO MRS. RIDDEL.
[The dragon guarding the Hesperian fruit, was simply a military
officer, who, with the courtesy of those whose trade is arms, paid
attention to the lady. ]
DEAR MADAM,
I meant to have called on you yesternight, but as I edged up to your
box-door, the first object which greeted my view, was one of those
lobster-coated puppies, sitting like another dragon, guarding the
Hesperian fruit. On the conditions and capitulations you so obligingly
offer, I shall certainly make my weather-beaten rustic phiz a part of
your box-furniture on Tuesday; when we may arrange the business of the
visit.
Among the profusion of idle compliments, which insidious craft, or
unmeaning folly, incessantly offer at your shrine--a shrine, how far
exalted above such adoration--permit me, were it but for rarity's
sake, to pay you the honest tribute of a warm heart and an independent
mind; and to assure you, that I am, thou most amiable and most
accomplished of thy sex, with the most respectful esteem, and fervent
regard, thine, &c.
R. B.
* * * * *
CCLXXXVI.
TO MRS. RIDDEL.
[The patient sons of order and prudence seem often to have stirred the
poet to such invectives as this letter exhibits. ]
I will wait on you, my ever-valued friend, but whether in the morning
I am not sure. Sunday closes a period of our curst revenue business,
and may probably keep me employed with my pen until noon. Fine
employment for a poet's pen! There is a species of the human genus
that I call _the gin-horse class:_ what enviable dogs they are! Round,
and round, and round they go,--Mundell's ox that drives his
cotton-mill is their exact prototype--without an idea or wish beyond
their circle; fat, sleek, stupid, patient, quiet, and contented; while
here I sit, altogether Novemberish, a d--mn'd melange of fretfulness
and melancholy; not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of
the other to repose me in torpor, my soul flouncing and fluttering
round her tenement, like a wild finch, caught amid the horrors of
winter, and newly thrust into a cage. Well, I am persuaded that it was
of me the Hebrew sage prophesied, when he foretold--"And behold, on
whatsoever this man doth set his heart, it shall not prosper!
* * * * *
CCLXXXIV.
TO CAPTAIN MILLER,
DALSWINTON.
[Captain Miller, of Dalswinton, sat in the House of Commons for the
Dumfries district of boroughs. Dalswinton has passed from the family
to my friend James M'Alpine Leny, Esq. ]
DEAR SIR,
The following ode is on a subject which I know you by no means regard
with indifference. Oh, Liberty,
"Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay,
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. "
ADDISON.
It does me so much good to meet with a man whose honest bosom glows
with the generous enthusiasm, the heroic daring of liberty, that I
could not forbear sending you a composition of my own on the subject,
which I really think is in my best manner.
I have the honour to be,
Dear Sir, &c.
R. B.
* * * * *
CCLXXXV.
TO MRS. RIDDEL.
[The dragon guarding the Hesperian fruit, was simply a military
officer, who, with the courtesy of those whose trade is arms, paid
attention to the lady. ]
DEAR MADAM,
I meant to have called on you yesternight, but as I edged up to your
box-door, the first object which greeted my view, was one of those
lobster-coated puppies, sitting like another dragon, guarding the
Hesperian fruit. On the conditions and capitulations you so obligingly
offer, I shall certainly make my weather-beaten rustic phiz a part of
your box-furniture on Tuesday; when we may arrange the business of the
visit.
Among the profusion of idle compliments, which insidious craft, or
unmeaning folly, incessantly offer at your shrine--a shrine, how far
exalted above such adoration--permit me, were it but for rarity's
sake, to pay you the honest tribute of a warm heart and an independent
mind; and to assure you, that I am, thou most amiable and most
accomplished of thy sex, with the most respectful esteem, and fervent
regard, thine, &c.
R. B.
* * * * *
CCLXXXVI.
TO MRS. RIDDEL.
[The patient sons of order and prudence seem often to have stirred the
poet to such invectives as this letter exhibits. ]
I will wait on you, my ever-valued friend, but whether in the morning
I am not sure. Sunday closes a period of our curst revenue business,
and may probably keep me employed with my pen until noon. Fine
employment for a poet's pen! There is a species of the human genus
that I call _the gin-horse class:_ what enviable dogs they are! Round,
and round, and round they go,--Mundell's ox that drives his
cotton-mill is their exact prototype--without an idea or wish beyond
their circle; fat, sleek, stupid, patient, quiet, and contented; while
here I sit, altogether Novemberish, a d--mn'd melange of fretfulness
and melancholy; not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of
the other to repose me in torpor, my soul flouncing and fluttering
round her tenement, like a wild finch, caught amid the horrors of
winter, and newly thrust into a cage. Well, I am persuaded that it was
of me the Hebrew sage prophesied, when he foretold--"And behold, on
whatsoever this man doth set his heart, it shall not prosper!
