The Cambridge History of English Literature (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...Schortlie I slaid, and fell upoun my hips, Doun in ane midow, besyde ane busk of mynt; I socht my self, and I was sevin yeir tynt4, Yit in ane mist I fand me on the morne. We need not follow his adventure with the Pundler and the three white whales which appeared at the blast of the 'elriche home/ The conclusion is suggestive. When Lichtoun monicus5 awakes, he asks: Quhair, trow ye, that I was? Doun in ane henslaik6, and gat ane felloun fall, And lay betuix ane pieher and the wall. And he adds: As wyffis commandis, this dreme I will conclude; God and the rude mot turn it all to gud Gar fill the cop, for thir auld carlingis7 clames That gentill aill is oft the causs of dremes. Another wife, in later verse, warned her Tarn how by bousing at the nappy' he would be 'catch'd wf warlocks in the mirk.' In the bacchanalian quality shown in different ways in these rustic sketches and elfin dream-poems we have a third tradition of Scottish verse. It would, of course, be vain to seek a complete explanation of the eighteenth century convivial muse in the historical evidences of a literary habit--as vain as to estimate the general effect of Burns's work as an editorial modification of old material; but the testimony of historical continuity, in theme, in attitude and in technique, is too strong to be overlooked in a survey of Scottish literature. The more thorough and connected the survey is, the clearer will it appear that the rusticity, the wild humour and the conviviality are not more the idiosyncrasies of Burns and his fellow poets than the persistent, irrepressible habits of the literature itself. Criticism has been too willing to treat pieces like Burns's Scotch Drink as mere personal enthusiasm. The best of all the Middle Scots convivial verse is...