If patriotic Scots wish to justify the achievement of Burns on
moral grounds, it is here that their argument lies: for whatever of
coarseness and license there may have been in his life and writings,
it is surely more than counter-balanced by the restoration to his
people of the possibility of national music and clean mirth.
One can not classify the songs of Burns into two clearly separated
groups, original and remodeled, for no hard lines can be drawn. Since
he practically always began with the tune, he frequently used the
title or the first line of the old song. He might do this, yet
completely change the idea; or he might retain the idea but use none
of the old words. In other cases the first stanza or the chorus is
retained; in still others the new song is sprinkled with here a phrase
and there an epithet recalling the derelict that gave rise to it. Some
are made up of stanzas from several different predecessors, others are
almost centos of stock phrases.
The contribution thus made to Johnson's collection, of songs rescued
or remade or wholly original, amounted to some one hundred
eighty-four; to Thomson's about sixty-four. Some examples will make
clear the nature of his services.
_Auld Lang Syne_, perhaps the most wide-spread of all songs among the
English-speaking peoples, is in its oldest extant form attributed on
uncertain grounds to Francis Sempill of Beltrees or Sir Robert
Aytoun.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92