You actually would not know me if you saw me--Pale, emaciated,
and so feeble, as occasionally to need help from my chair--my spirits
fled!
and so feeble, as occasionally to need help from my chair--my spirits
fled!
Robert Burns
Farewell,
R. B.
P. S. You should have had this when Mr. Lewars called on you, but his
saddle-bags miscarried.
* * * * *
CCCXXXVII.
TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
[Few of the last requests of the poet were effectual: Clarke, it is
believed, did not send the second _note_ he wrote for: Johnson did not
send the copy of the Museum which he requested, and the Commissioners
of Excise refused the continuance of his full salary. ]
_Brow, Sea-bathing quarters, 7th July, 1796. _
MY DEAR CUNNINGHAM,
I received yours here this moment, and am indeed highly flattered with
the approbation of the literary circle you mention; a literary circle
inferior to none in the two kingdoms. Alas! my friend, I fear the
voice of the bard will soon be heard among you no more! For these
eight or ten months I have been ailing, sometimes bedfast and
sometimes not; but these last three months I have been tortured with
an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced me to nearly the last
stage.
You actually would not know me if you saw me--Pale, emaciated,
and so feeble, as occasionally to need help from my chair--my spirits
fled! fled! but I can no more on the subject--only the medical folks
tell me that my last only chance is bathing and country-quarters, and
riding. --The deuce of the matter is this; when an exciseman is off
duty, his salary is reduced to 35_l. _ instead of 50_l. _--What way, in
the name of thrift, shall I maintain myself, and keep a horse in
country quarters--with a wife and five children at home, on 35_l. _? I
mention this, because I had intended to beg your utmost interest, and
that of all the friends you can muster, to move our commissioners of
excise to grant me the full salary; I dare say you know them all
personally. If they do not grant it me, I must lay my account with an
exit truly _en poete_--if I die not of disease, I must perish with
hunger.
I have sent you one of the songs; the other my memory does not serve
me with, and I have no copy here; but I shall be at home soon, when I
will send it you. --Apropos to being at home, Mrs. Burns threatens, in
a week or two, to add one more to my paternal charge, which, if of the
right gender, I intend shall be introduced to the world by the
respectable designation of _Alexander Cunningham Burns. _ My last was
_James Glencairn_, so you can have no objection to the company of
nobility. Farewell.
R. B.
