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Edited by Frank R.
Shaw, FSA Scot, Atlanta, GA,
jurascot@earthlink.net
Sir Walter Scott and Robert
Burns
There has been much written about
these two literary giants individually over the years. Everyone
has their favorite, but at this time in my studies, I’ll take
them both like a coin with two sides. At my house, you cannot
have one without the other.
Interestingly, one wrote many books
and poems. The other wrote only one book of poetry although
additional poems were added to later editions. One became rich
from his writing and publishing while the other had to work a
thankless job to provide a meager living for his family. One
took ten years to build the house of his dreams and the other
lived in farm houses or in town rental properties. One became
bankrupt but worked himself out of insolvency while the other
flirted with bankruptcy all of his life. One entertained his
king at one of the biggest and grandest celebrations ever held
in Scotland when one-seventh of the population of Scotland
turned out to greet George IV. The other, as far as I know,
never had the opportunity to look his king in the eye, much less
sit at a meal with the king or be knighted by him.
Yet, the latter is far more
celebrated annually by Scots around the world than the former.
As to which is the best literary representative of Scotland,
that will be left to the individual to decide. What I would like
to do with this article is list various references regarding Sir
Walter Scott’s deference, and love for Robert Burns.
Most of us are familiar
with the one time in history when Scott and Burns actually met
and had a conversation. Scott, a mere lad of fifteen, met the
twenty-seven-year-old Burns in the “winter of 1786-87” in
Edinburgh while visiting in the home of his good friend, Adam
Fergusson, where the movers and shakers of “Auld Reekie” met to
lionize the newly discovered poet Burns, who would become known
as Scotland’s National Bard, then and now. Scott recalls a
second sighting of Burns in the streets of Edinburgh one day
after their initial meeting, but there evidently was not an
opportunity to speak.
Many years later, Scott wrote to his
son-in-law, John Gibson Lockhart, that he recalled the poet’s
eyes as they “glowed under the influence of feeling”. There must
have been excitement in those eyes for Scott to recall and
describe the scene so vividly. Scott went on to describe how
self-confident Burns seemed in the presence of the city’s
literati, and he writes of Burns’ appearance as an “old-time
farmer”, all of which left an indelible impression on the young
teenager. Scott referred to Burns as “the Boast of Scotland”.
Hesketh Pearson, in his wonderful
book, Walter Scott, His Life and Personality,
(published in 1954 and a book on Scott that I highly recommend
to one and all) tells the story of an old school chum and
business partner of Scott’s, James Ballytyne, asking Scott how
his own genius compared to Robert Burns. Scott left no doubt
that Burns was number one when he replied, “There is no
comparison whatever: We ought not to be named in the same day.”
There is another great quote by
Scott in Edgar Johnson’s definitive two volumes on Sir
Walter Scott, The Great Unknown. I have used it for
years in speeches and articles since it shows Scott’s true
feeling about his older literary colleague: “Long life to thy
fame and peace to thy soul, Rob Burns. When I want to express a
sentiment which I feel strongly, I find the phrase in
Shakespeare or thee.” Scott, always humble, went on to say, “The
blockheads talk of my being like Shakespeare - not fit to tie
his brogues.”
When Charles Robert Leslie, the
painter commissioned by Professor George Ticknor of Harvard to
paint a portrait of Scott, was working at Scott’s Abbotsford
home, he asked if he would likely be able to meet with a haggis.
Scott, ever the considerate host, replied, “I don’t know a more
likely house than the one you are in” and Scott had a haggis
prepared for the following evening. Later Leslie tells how,
“holding out his hand over the dish, Scott recited Burns’s
Address to the Chieftain of the Pudding Tribe, or
To A Haggis. We do that at each Burns’ Night or, as my
St. Andrew’s Society of Atlanta members like to say, “Burns
Nicht”, a nice Scottish touch. Incidentally, Leslie played
another part in Scott’s life when he carried a mourning ring to
Scott which had been left to Sir Walter by none other than his
good friend, Lord Byron. .
Another favorite quote of Burns that
Scott often used was “Come, firm resolve, take thou the van/
Thou stalk of Carle-Hemp in man”. I haven’t taken the time to
research its meaning, so I will let the Burns scholars sort that
out.
Hesketh Pearson says “Of his
(Scott’s) contemporaries his favourites were Joanna Baillie,
Crabbe, Burns, Byron, Wordsworth, and Southey.” I wonder if
Burns ever dreamed he would be included in such great literary
company by one of Scotland’s top two or three greatest writers?
A son of Burns, home from India on
leave, was once guest of honor at Abbotsford. He and his wife
dined with Scott. Again the affable host invited the neighboring
gentry for a special meal, and the crowd was so large they
spilled out from the dining room into the library and Chinese
drawing room. (This comes from Johnson’s Volume II, and I’ve
never understood why someone who has written the definitive
volume on Scott does not tell you which son of Burns was the
honored guest.)
In the 1897 issue of the
Robert Burns Chronicle, there is reference to thousands
of items about, by, or belonging to Burns being exhibited in
Glasgow. There was one item on loan from the Abbotsford Library
that sparked a bit of excitement. It was a copy of a Burns book
owned by Scott that he had written his name in.
I will close with this notation even
though it has nothing to do with Burns. I always like to point
out that, unknown by many Americans or Scots for that matter,
Scott is remembered quite frequently in Washington, DC and any
place the President of the United States of America goes where “Hail
to the Chief” is played. It comes from The Lady of
the Lake written by my favorite Scottish writer, Sir
Walter Scott.
If any of you have other references
of Scott’s deference to Burns, please let me know at the above
email, and I will include them in a future article on the two
great Scots! Naturally, proper credit will be given. (Frank R.
Shaw, 11-9-06) |
