His Tales and Fables, a species of writing which he himself deemed as "casten for his share," display great ease and readiness of versification, with much comic vivacity. The best of these are the Twa Cats and the Cheese; the Lure, in which the Falconer's "foregathering with auld Symmie" is excellently described; and the Monk and the Miller's Wife, for the story of which he is indebted to Dunbar. As a song writer we are not inclined to give Ramsay a very high place. His mind had not those deep and energetic workings of feeling that fitted Burns so admirably for this difficult species of writing. He is stiff, where passion is required; and is most easy, as usual, where he is comic. Several of his songs yet retain their popularity; but even of these none are without some faults. We prefer the Highland Laddie, Gie me a Lass wi' a Lump o' Land, The Carle he came o'er the Craft, The Lass of Patie's Mill and Jenny Nettles.
His Christ's Kirk is no mean effort of his muse; the idea of continuing King James's production was good, and he has executed it happily. Ramsay's humour must, however, be acknowledged to be inferior to the pure, strong, irresistible merriment that shines even through the dim and nearly obsolete language of his royal master. In the Third Canto, the morning, with its effect on the crapulous assemblage, is well painted.
Now frae east nook o' Fife the dawn
Speel'd[32] westlins up the lift,
Carles wha heard the cock had crawn
Begoud, &c.
An' greedy wives, wi' girning thrawn,
Cry'd lasses up to thrift;
Dogs barked, an' the lads frae hand
Bang'd[33] to their breeks,[34] like drift,
Be break o' day
Of a character similar to the first two lines of the above stanza, are the following other passages of Ramsay's works, which remind us a little of the Italian poets;—
Now Sol wi' his lang whip gae cracks
Upon his nichering coosers'[35] backs,
To gar them tak th' Olympian brae,
Wi' a cart-lade o' bleezing day.
Tale of the Three Bonnets.
And ere the sun, though he be dry,
Has driven down the westlin sky,
To drink his wamefu' o' the sea.
Fables and Tales.
Soon as the clear goodman o' day
Does bend his morning draught o' dew.
Fables and Tales.
To sum up our opinion of Ramsay's merits as a poet—he was fortunate, and he deserved well, in being the first to redeem the Muse of Scotland from wasting her strength in a dead language, which, since the days of Buchanan, had been the freezing vehicle of her exertions. He re-established the popularity of a dialect, which, since the removal of the Scottish Court, had received no honour from the pen of genius, but which, near two hundred years before, had been sublimed into poetical dignity by Dunbar and the bards of that age. To Ramsay, and to his treasures of Scottish phraseology, succeeding poets have been much indebted; he knew the language well, and had imbibed the facetious and colloquial spirit of its idioms. Ramsay, therefore, when he employs his beloved dialect, manages it masterly, and, though never lofty, he is always at his ease: Burns, in his highest flights, soared out of it. The genius of the first was pleasing, placid, versatile, in quest rather of knacks, and felicities of expression, than originating bold and masculine thoughts: The genius of the latter was richer, more original, more impressive, and formidable, but less equal, and less careful of the niceties and tricks of phraseology. The tone of Ramsay's mind was good-humoured composure, and facile pleasantry; of Burns's, intensity of feeling, tenderness, and daring elevation approaching to sublimity. Of Burns's superiority no man is doubtful; but Ramsay's merits will not be forgotten; and the names of both will be forever cherished by the lovers of Scottish poetry.
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