He had the observant
eye, the power of selection, command of the telling phrase and happy
epithet, the sense of the comic and the pathetic. Beyond Chaucer he
had passion and the power of rendering it, so that he might have
reached greater tragic depth, as he surpassed him in lyric intensity.
As it is, however, Chaucer stands alone as a story-teller, for _Tam o'
Shanter_ is with Burns an isolated achievement. There are three
distinct elements in the work--narrative, descriptive, and reflective.
The first can hardly be overpraised. We are made to feel the
reluctance of the hero to abandon the genial inn fireside, with its
warmth and uncritical companionship, for the bitter ride with a sulky
sullen dame at the end of it; the rage of the thunderstorm, as with
lowered head and fast-held bonnet the horseman plunges through it; the
growing sense of terror as, past scene after scene of ancient horror,
he approaches the ill-famed ruin. Then suddenly the mood changes.
Emboldened by his potations, Tam faces the astounding infernal revelry
with unabashed curiosity, which rises and rises till, in a pitch of
enthusiastic admiration for Cutty-Sark, he loses all discretion and
brings the "hellish legion" after him pell-mell. We reach the
serio-comic catastrophe breathless but exhilarated.
The descriptive background of this galloping adventure is skilfully
indicated. Each scene--the ale-house, the storm, the lighted church,
the witches' dance--is sketched in a dozen lines, every stroke
distinct and telling.
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