Thus men like Alexander, Earl of
Stirling, and William Drummond of Hawthornden belong both in language
and literary tradition to the English Elizabethans.
Religion, society, and literature having all thrown their influence
against the native speech of Scotland, it followed that the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the progressive disuse of
that speech among the upper classes of the country, until by the time
of Burns, Scots was habitually spoken only by the peasantry and the
humbler people in the towns. The distinctions between social classes
in the matter of dialect were, of course, not absolute. Occasional
members even of the aristocracy prided themselves on their command of
the vernacular; and among the country folk there were few who could
not make a brave attempt at English when they spoke with the laird or
the minister. With Burns himself, Lowland Scots was his customary
speech at home, about the farm, in the tavern and the Freemasons'
lodge; but, as we have seen, his letters, being written mainly to
educated people, are almost all pure English, as was his conversation
with these people when he met them.
The linguistic situation that has been sketched finds interesting
illustration in the language of Burns's poems. The distinction which
is usually made, that he wrote poetry in Scots and verse in English,
has some basis, but is inaccurately expressed and needs qualification.
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