I knew very little of Rabbie Burns until I went to the UK, where labor historians introduced me to his work. In Scotland, he is rightly treated as a national treasure. The language peculiarities are both his charm and an obstacle to appreciation. For us, I suppose, "A Man's a Man for All That."
"Is there for honest Poverty That hings his head, an' a' that; The coward slave-we pass him by, We dare be poor for a' that! For a' that, an' a' that. Our toils obscure an' a' that, The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The Man's the gowd for a' that." And... ". . . let us pray that come it may, (As come it will for a' that,) That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth, Shall bear the gree, an' a' that. For a' that, an' a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That Man to Man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that." I'd take issue with the article's misrepresentation of both the Jacobites and Burns assessment of them. The name's the dead giveaway...Jacobites were supporters of James and the Stuart dynasty when it was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It represented a reassertment of "the divine right of kings" against a constitutionally mediated parliamentary monarchy. Jacobite attempts to restore a more serious monarchy failed in several abortive risings prior to "the Forty-Five" in 1745 when "Bonnie Prince Charlie"--a real piece of work in that he was a living, breathing argument against monarchy if ever there was one--landed in Scotland and offered himself to restore himself to power in Scotland. If you have your calculators, you can see that this was over fifty-five years after the Stuarts had been booted out.... Charlie landed in Scotland because he understaoos that some of the clans had their own reasons for assisting him, but his goal was to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne in England. In other words, there were many English Jacobites and most Scots had little desire to aid the Jacobite rising. Notwitstanding the viciousness of the Hanoverian slaughter at Colloden and after--or the human toll of the Highland Clearances, it'd be hard to see the Jacobites as offering anything particularly positive. Perhaps due to his time in places like Edinburgh, Burns clearly appreciated the romance but developed a strong for the "schemes," as indicated in his rewriting of an older song about the rising.... Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, Your fautes I will proclaim, Your doctrines I maun blame, you shall hear. What is Right, and What is Wrang, by the law, by the law? What is Right and what is Wrang by the law? What is Right, and what is Wrang? A short sword, and a lang, A weak arm and a strang, for to draw. What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar? What makes heroic strife famed afar? What makes heroic strife? To whet th' assassin's knife, Or hunt a Parent's life, wi' bluidy war? Then let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state, Then let your schemes alone in the state. Then let your schemes alone, Adore the rising sun, And leave a man undone, to his fate. ML ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
