Letter from Robert Burns to Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop, 4 April or May 1789

Ellisland 4th April 1789

You see, Madam, that I am returned to my folio epistles again
I no sooner hit on any poetic plan or fancy but I wish to
send it you; & if knowing & reading them gives half the plea-
sure to you, that communicating them to you gives to me, I
am satisfied. -

As I am not devoutly attached to a certain monarch, I cannot say
that my heart run any risk of bursting, on Thursday was se'ennight
with the struggling emotions of gratitude. - G- forgive me for speaking
evil of dignities! But I must say, that I look on the whole business
as a solemn farce of pageant mummery. - The following are
a few stanzas of new Psalmody for that "Joyful Solemnity"
which I sent to a London Newspaper with the date & preface
following. -

Kilmarnock 25th April -

Mr Printer
In a ^certain chapel, not fifty leagues from the market-cross
of this good town, the following Stanzas of Psalmody, it is said
were composed for, & devoutly sung on, the late joyful solemnity of
June 23d -

O sing a new Song to the L-,
Make, all and every one,
A joyful noise, even for the king,
His restoration. -

The sons of Belial in the land
Did set their heads together;
Come, let us sweep them off, said they,
Like an o'erflowing river. -

They set their heads together, I say,
They set their heads together

On right, and left, and every hand,
We saw none to deliver. -

Thou maddest strong two chosen ones,
To quell the Wicked's pride;
That young Man great in Issachar
The burden bearing tribe. -

And him, among the Princes chief
In our Jerusalem,
The Judge that's mighty in thy law,
The Man that fears thy name. -

Yet they, even they, with all their strength,
Began to faint and fail;
Even as two howling, ravening wolves
To dogs do turn their tail. -

Th' ungodly o'er the Just prevailed,
For so thou hadst appointed;
That thou might'st greater glory give
Unto thine own anointed. -

And now thou hast restored our State,
Pity our Kirk also,
For she by tribulations










Is now brought very low. -

Consume that high-place Patronage,
From off thy holy hill;
And in thy fury burn the book
Even of that man Mcgill. -

Now hear our prayer, accept our song,
And fight thy Chosen's battle:

We seek but little, L-, from thee,
Thou kens we get as little -
---------------------

[page torn] much for Psalmody. - You must know that the Publisher
of one of the most blasphemous party London Newspapers is an
acquaintance of mine, and as I am a little tinctured with Buff
& Blue myself, I now & then help him to a Stanza. -
I have another Poetic whim in my head which I as present dedicate
or rather inscribe to The R.t Hon’ble Ch. J. Fox Esquire; but
[page torn] long that fancy may hold, I can't say. - A few of the first
lines I have just rough-sketched as follows. -

Sketch -
How Wisdom & Folly meet, mix and unite:
How Virtue and Vice blend their black and their white;
How Genius, th' illustrious father of Fiction,
Confounds rule and law reconciles contradiction,
I sing: if these mortals, the Critics, should bustle,
I care not, not I, let the Critics go whistle. -

[page torn] now for a Patron whose name and whose glory,
[page torn] may illustrate & honour my story. -

[page torn] first of our Orators, first of our Wits,
Yet whose parts & acquirements seem just lucky hits:
With knowledge so vast, & with judgement so strong,
No man with the half of 'em e'er could go wrong;
With passions so potent, and fancies so bright,
No man with the half of 'em e'er could go right;
A sorry, poor misbegotten son of the Muses,
For using thy name offers fifty excuses. -
Good

Good L-d, what is man! for as simple he looks,
Do but try to develop his hooks and his crooks;
With his depths & his shallows, his good & his evil,
All in all he's a problem must puzzle the devil.

On his one ruling Passion Sir Pope hugely labours,
That like th' old Hebrew walking-switch, eats up its neighbours
Mankind are his show-box - a friend, would you know him?
Pull the string, Ruling Passion, the picture will show him.
What pity, in rearing so beauteous a system,
On trifling particular, Truth, should have missed him.
For spite of his fine theoretic positions,
Mankind is a science defies definitions. -

Some sort Human all our qualities, each to its tribe,
And think Human nature they truly describe. -
Have you found this, or t'other? there's more in the wind;
As by one drunken fellow his comrades you'll find.-
But such is the flaw, or the depth, of the plan
In the make of that wonderful creature called, Man;
No two virtues, whatever relation they claim,
Nor even two different shades of the same,
Though like as was ever twin brother to brother,
Possessing the one must imply you've the other -

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I beg your pardon for troubling you with the inclosed to the Major's ten
tenant before the gate - it is to request him to look me out two milk
cows: one for myself, & another for Capt.n Riddel of Glenriddel
a very obliging neighbour of mine. - John very obligingly
offered to do so for me; & I will either serve myself that way, or at Mauchline
fair. - It happens on the 20th Curr. and the Sunday preceding
it I hope to have the honour of assuring you in person
how sincerely I am, Madam, your highly obliged
& most obedient humble serv.t

Rob.t Burns.