_From Thee, Eliza, I Must Go_, supposed to be
addressed to Elizabeth Miller, also belongs to this summer, and is
taken to refer to another of the "under-plots in his drama of love."
Meantime, at the suggestion of his friend and patron, Gavin Hamilton,
Burns had begun to arrange for a subscription edition of his poems. It
seems to have been only after he went to Mossgiel that he had
seriously conceived the idea of writing for publication, and the
decision was followed by a year of the most extraordinary fertility in
composition. To 1785-1786 are assigned such satires as _Holy Willie_
and the _Address to the Unco Guid_; a group of the longer poems
including _The Cotter's Saturday Night_, _The Jolly Beggars_,
_Halloween_, _The Holy Fair_, _The Twa Dogs_ and _The Vision_; some
shorter but no less famous pieces, such as the poems _To a Louse_, _To
a Mouse_, _To the Deil_, _To a Mountain Daisy_ and _Scotch Drink_; and
a number of the best of his _Epistles_. Many of these, especially the
church satires, had obtained a considerable local fame through
circulation in manuscript, so that, proposals having been issued for
an edition to be printed by Wilson of Kilmarnock, it was not found
difficult to obtain subscriptions for more than half the edition of
six hundred and twelve copies. The prospect of some return from this
enterprise induced James Armour to take legal measures to obtain
support for Jean's expected child, and Burns, fearing imprisonment,
was forced to go into hiding while his book was passing the press.
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