R. B.
* * * * *
CCXXXVII.
TO MR. THOMSON.
[Thomson had delivered judgment on some old Scottish songs, but the
poet murmured against George's decree.]
MY DEAR SIR,
Let me tell you, that you are too fastidious in your ideas of songs
and ballads. I own that your criticisms are just; the songs you
specify in your list have, all but one, the faults you remark in them;
but who shall mend the matter? Who shall rise up and say, "Go to! I
will make a better?" For instance, on reading over "The Lea-rig," I
immediately set about trying my hand on it, and, after all, I could
make nothing more of it than the following, which, Heaven knows, is
poor enough.
When o'er the hill the eastern star, &c.[200]
Your observation as to the aptitude of Dr. Percy's ballad to the air,
"Nannie, O!" is just. It is, besides, perhaps, the most beautiful
ballad in the English language. But let me remark to you, that in the
sentiment and style of our Scottish airs, there is a pastoral
simplicity, a something that one may call the Doric style and dialect
of vocal music, to which a dash of our native tongue and manners is
particularly, nay peculiarly, apposite.
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