Essay on Burns · Thomas Carlyle
ESSAY ON BURNS.[1]
Carlyle, in his lecture on _The Hero as Man of Letters_, in _Heroes and Hero-Worship_, develops his own point of view more fully. [78] Burns himself says of his father: "I have met with few who understood Men, their manners and their ways, equal to him." [79] These words seem like a prophecy of Carlyle's own career, which was just beginning when this essay was written. [80] See _The Cotter's Saturday Night_. [81] Wordsworth: _Resolution and Independence_ (1807 edition). Our editions read: "Following his plough, along the mountain side." The reference in the poem is to Burns. [82] Apparently the "best evidence" is conflicting. Burns, in his autobiographical letter to Dr. Moore, says of himself as a boy: "I was, perhaps, the most ungainly, awkward being in the parish." And Murdock, Burns's schoolmaster, in a letter printed in Currie's _Life_ and reproduced in Lockhart's, says: "Robert's ear was remarkably dull, and his voice untamable.... Robert's countenance was generally grave and expressive of a serious, contemplative, and thoughtful mind." [83a] The phrases are drawn from Burns's letter to Dr. Moore. [83b] The phrases are drawn from Burns's letter to Dr. Moore. [84] _Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr_. The last line should read:-- Farewell, the bonie banks of Ayr. [85] Shakespeare, Richard II. iv. 1. Carlyle was a man of enormous reading, and no one can hope to recognize _all_ his allusions. But the two books to which he, like most of the great writers of modern England, refers most frequently, are within the reach of every one: they are the Bible and Shakespeare.
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