No. CCXXIV. TO MRS. RIDDEL, Who was about to bespeak a Play one evening at the Dumfries Theatre. "Address" to some I AM thinking to send my periodical publication, but it has not got your sanction, so pray look over it. "The As to the Tuesday's play, let me beg of you, my dear Madam, to give us, "The Wonder, a Woman keeps a Secret!" to which please add, Spoilt Child"-you will highly oblige me by so doing. Ah, what an enviable creature you are. There now, this cursed gloomy blue-devil day, you are going to a party of choice spirits— "To play the shapes Of frolic fancy, and incessant form Where lively wit excites to gay surprise; Or folly-painting humour, grave himself, Calls laughter forth, deep-shaking every nerve." But as you rejoice with them that do rejoice, do also remember to weep with them that weep, and pity your melancholy friend. R. B. [This lady, to whom the bard has so happily and justly applied the above quotation, paid the debt of nature a few months ago. The graces of her person were only equalled by the singular endowments of her mind, and her poetical talents rendered her an interesting friend to Burns, in a part of the world where he was in a great measure excluded from the sweet intercourse of literary society. GILBERT BURNS, 1820.] No. CCXXV. TO A LADY, IN FAVOUR OF A PLAYER'S BENEFIT. MADAM, Dumfries, 1794. You were so very good as to promise me to honour my friend with your presence on his benefit night. That night is fixed for Friday first: the play a most interesting one! "The Way to Keep Him." I have the pleasure to know Mr. G. well. His merit as an actor is generally acknowledged. He has genius and worth which would do honour to patronage: he is a poor and modest man ; claims which from their very silence have the more forcible power on the generous heart. Alas, for pity! that from the indolence of those who have the good things of this life in their gift, too often does brazen-fronted importunity snatch that boon, the rightful due of retiring, humble want! Of all the qualities we assign to the author and director of Nature, by far the most enviable is-to be able "To wipe away all tears from all eyes." O what insignificant, sordid wretches are they, however chance may have loaded them with wealth, who go to their graves, to their magnificent mausoleums, with hardly the consciousness of having made one poor honest heart happy! But I crave your pardon, Madam; I came to beg, not to preach. R. B. No. CCXXVI. TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN, With a Copy of Bruce's Address to his Troops at MY LORD, Dumfries, 12th January, 1794. WILL your lordship allow me to present you with the enclosed little composition of mine, as a small tribute of gratitude for the acquaintance with which you have been pleased to honour me. Independent of my enthusiasm as a Scotsman, I have rarely met with any thing in history, which interests my feelings as a man, equal with the story of Bannockburn. On the one hand, a cruel, but able usurper, leading on the finest army in Europe to extinguish the last spark of freedom among a greatly-daring and greatly-injured people; on the other hand, the desperate relics of a gallant nation, devoting themselves to rescue their bleeding country, or perish with her. Liberty! thou art a prize truly, and indeed invaluable ! for never canst thou be too dearly bought! If my little ode has the honour of your lordship's approbation, it will gratify my highest ambition. I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. No. CCXXVII. TO CAPTAIN MILLER, DALSWINTON. DEAR SIR, The following ode is on a subject which I know you by no means regard with indifference. Oh, Liberty, "Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay, Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day." It does me much good to meet with a man whose honest bosom glows with the generous enthusiasm, the heroic daring of liberty, that I could not forbear sending you a composition of my own on the subject, which I really think is in my best manner. I have the honour to be, R. B. [Captain Miller, the "sodger youth" of one of Burns's election ballads, was member of Parliament in those days for the Dumfries district of boroughs: he has long ago retired from both the House of Commons and the army, and lives at the Forest on Nithside, almost opposite Friar's Carse. He inherits, it is said, not a |