]
_4th December, 1792._
The foregoing ["Auld Rob Morris," and "Duncan Gray,"[206]] I submit, my
dear Sir, to your better judgment. Acquit them or condemn them, as
seemeth good in your sight. "Duncan Gray" is that kind of light-horse
gallop of an air, which precludes sentiment. The ludicrous is its
ruling feature.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 206: Songs CLXXXIII. and CLXXXIV.]
* * * * *
CCXLII.
TO MRS. DUNLOP.
[Burns often discourses with Mrs. Dunlop on poetry and poets: the
dramas of Thomson, to which he alludes, are stiff, cold compositions.]
_Dumfries, 6th December, 1792._
I shall be in Ayrshire, I think, next week; and, if at all possible, I
shall certainly, my much-esteemed friend, have the pleasure of
visiting at Dunlop-house.
Alas, Madam! how seldom do we meet in this world, that we have reason
to congratulate ourselves on accessions of happiness! I have not
passed half the ordinary term of an old man's life, and yet I scarcely
look over the obituary of a newspaper, that I do not see some names
that I have known, and which I, and other acquaintances, little
thought to meet with there so soon. Every other instance of the
mortality of our kind, makes us cast an anxious look into the dreadful
abyss of uncertainty, and shudder with apprehension for our own fate.
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