Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY 141
centor in Roman Catholic times, has often been admired,
as almost Chaucerian, for its force and truth
' The latter-gae of haly rhime,
—
Sat up at the boord head,
And a' he said 'twas thought a cnme
To contradict indeed.
For in clerk lear he was right prime,
And could baith write and read,
And drank sae firm till ne'er a styme
He could keek on a bead
Or book that day.'
The coarseness of the pieces cannot be denied. Still,
withal, there is a robust, manly strength in the ideas
and a picturesque force in the vocabulary that covers
a multitude of sins. His picture of morning has often
been compared with that of Butler in Hudibi^as^ but
the advantage undoubtedly lies with Ramsay. Butler
describes the dawn as follows—
' The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap.
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn.'
Ramsay, in his description, says
—
' Now frae th' east neuk o' Fife the dawn
Speel'd westlines up the lift
Carles wha heard the cock had crawn,
Begoud to rax and rift ;
And greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn,
Cry'd "Lasses, up to thrift";
Dogs barked, and the lads frae hand
Bang'd to their breeks like drift,
Be break o' day.'
It must be remembered, the poem was addressed to
rustics, who would neither have understood nor
appreciated anything of a higher or less broadly
;