LINES WRITTEN BY BURNS, WHILE ON HIS DEATH-BED, TO THE SAME. HE who f Ranken sang, lies stiff and dead, EXTEMPORE. [At a meeting of the Dumfriesshire Volunteers, held to commemorate the anniversary of Rodney's victory, April 12th, 1782, Burns was called upon for a song, instead of which he delivered the following lines extempore.] INSTEAD of a song, boys, I'll give you a toast, For their fame it shall last while the world goes round. The next in succession, I'll give you the king, EXTEMPORE, ON THE LATE MR. WILLIAM SMELLIE. To Crochallan came The old cock'd hat, the gray surtout, the same; TO MR. S**E, ON REFUSING TO DINE WITH HIM, AFTER HAVING BEEN PROMISED THE FIRST OF COMPANY, AND THE FIRST COOKERY. No more of your guests, be they titled or not, Who is proof to thy personal converse and wit, December, 17, 1795. Mr. Smellie and Burns were both members of a club in Edinburgh, called the Crochallan Fencibles. TO MR. S**E, WITH A PRESENT OF A DOZEN OF PORTER. O HAD the malt thy strength of mind, EXTEMPORE, WRITTEN IN ANSWER TO A CARD FROM AN INTIMATE OF BURNS'S, INVITING HIM TO SPEND AN hour at A TAVERN. THE king's most humble servant, Or else the Deil's be in it. EXTEMPORE, WRITTEN IN A LADY'S POCKET-BOOK. GRANT me, indulgent Heav'n! that I may live LINES ON MISS J. SCOTT, OF AYR. Он! had each Scot of ancient times, LINES WRITTEN UNDER THE PICTURE OF THE CELEBRATED MISS BURNS. CEASE, ye prudes, your envious railing, Lovely Burns has charms-confess! True it is, she had one failing; Had a woman ever less? LINES, ON BEING ASKED WHY GOD HAD MADE MISS DAVIS SO LITTLE, AND MISS SO LARGE; WRITTEN ON A PANE OF GLASS, IN THE INN AT MOFFAT. ASK why God made the gem so small, Because God meant mankind should set LINES WRITTEN AND PRESENTED TO MRS. KEMBLE, ON SEE ING HER IN THE CHARACTER OF YARICO. KEMBLE, thou cur'st my unbelief Of Moses and his rod; At Yarico's sweet notes of grief, Dumfries Theatre, 1794. 29* |