YE
JACOBITES
BY NAME.
Robert Burns
FAIR ELIZA.
_A Gaelic Air. _
[The name of the heroine of this song was at first Rabina: but
Johnson, the publisher, alarmed at admitting something new into verse,
caused Eliza to be substituted; which was a positive fraud; for Rabina
was a real lady, and a lovely one, and Eliza one of air. ]
I.
Turn again, thou fair Eliza,
Ae kind blink before we part,
Rue on thy despairing lover!
Canst thou break his faithfu' heart?
Turn again, thou fair Eliza;
If to love thy heart denies,
For pity hide the cruel sentence
Under friendship's kind disguise!
II.
Thee, dear maid, hae I offended?
The offence is loving thee:
Canst thou wreck his peace for ever,
Wha for time wad gladly die?
While the life beats in my bosom,
Thou shalt mix in ilka throe;
Turn again, thou lovely maiden.
Ae sweet smile on me bestow.
III.
Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride o' sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,
All beneath the simmer moon;
Not the poet, in the moment
Fancy lightens in his e'e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gies to me.
* * * * *
CXXX.
YE JACOBITES BY NAME.
Tune--"_Ye Jacobites by name. _"
["Ye Jacobites by name," appeared for the first time in the Museum: it
was sent in the handwriting of Burns. ]
I.
Ye Jacobites by name, give and 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.
II.
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.
III.
What makes heroic strife, fam'd afar, fam'd afar?
What makes heroic strife, fam'd afar?
What makes heroic strife?
To whet th' assassin's knife,
Or hunt a parent's life
Wi' bluidie war.
IV.
