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BOOK REVIEWS
Can
anything new be written about Robert Burns?
It certainly seems so. In
Tae the Lasses author Maureen Bell has found an original and
diverting point of view – that of the womenfolk in his life.
Forty of them – by no means all that there were, and not necessarily
his lovers – are recalled in short biographies.
We
begin with ‘Handsome Nell’ (surname unrecorded) with whom in the harvest
fields at the age of 14 he fell in love, and end with Jessie Lewars, a gifted
musician who lived opposite the Burns family and who nursed him when he was
dying. For her he wrote his swansong of love ‘O Wert Thou In
The Cauld blast’.
And
perhaps this is what makes Tae The Lasses so special.
Not only does it contain the lives and, where possible, illustrations of
these 40 women, but also the 102 songs which Burns dedicated to them.
And
what a sparky bunch of women they were, from Agnes Fleming with whom he may or
may not have had an affair but for whom he wrote the beautiful song ‘My Nanie
O’. She died unmarried at a
great age leaving behind her the enigmatic comment “Aye atweel he made a great
wark (fuss) about me”. Then
there was Jean Jaffrey, the minister’s daughter and poetess from Lochmaben who
tells us, “I was only fifteen and sic a wee bit lassie that Burns danced out
with me in his arms and put me into the carriage to my father, singing ‘Green
Grow The Rashes’”. For
her Burns wrote two songs, including ‘The Blue-Eyed Lassie’.
There
is also the somewhat sad story of Elizabeth Park Burns, Burns’ daughter by
Anna Park, who was only five when Burns died and who was brought up by Jean
Armour. She is said to have
had her father’s poetic spirit but for her, unlike her mother for whom he
composed ‘Yestreen I Had A Pint O’ Wine’ (“the best love-song I ever
composed in my life, though not quite a lady’s song”), there was no
associated ballad.
My
only quarrel with this book is its presentation – chunks of separated
paragraphs without indentations makes it harder not easier to read.
But for those Burns Supper enthusiasts who have to make or reply to the
‘toast To the Lassies’ this must surely become the definitive handbook.
We
are now into the season when new publications are added to the existing bulk of
Burnsiana – a hairst which so often leaves the disappointed reader with a
rehash of existing material or a crass misreading of the poet’s work and life.
But in Maureen Bell’s Tae The Lasses you will
find a worthy addition to the Burns’ canon.
In her preface the author declares “…this work is not about Robert
Burns, although he is part and parcel of every page and sentence of it”.
Ms
Bell has set out to fill the details of 40 lasses who inspired the poet to song
– either by sharing his bed, or by being in the right place at the right time
to spark the poet’s lyrical genius and in doing so gave themselves a kind of
immortality.
After
introducing the Burns family, the author lets us meet the Lasses in the
chronological order that Burns met them, starting with Handsome Nell in 1774 and
ending with Jessy Lewars in 1796. The
entries vary from a page and a half to 30 pages for Agnes McLehose (Clarinda)
and Jean Armour. Each
portrait has a footnote detailing the song(s) she inspired and turning to Part
Three of the book, you will find the song and music fully printed – again in
chronological order. To this
(amateur) Burns enthusiast the research is excellent and the plan of the book
makes it very easy to go from the portrait to the song.
This
is a very easy read. The
prose is flowing and often refreshingly colloquial.
On Burns and Clarinda, “It is easy to see why each was so taken with
the other. Both were incredible Drama Queens”.
On
Jean Armour, “What Jean gave him (Burns) was unconditional love.
Though I hope that now and then she also gave him a good swift kick,
because he certainly merited it”.
This
would have been an unwieldy volume if Maureen Bell had not restricted it to
women who inspired a song (or two) – but I do miss a few others, among them my
favourite, Mrs Dunlop. Do not
borrow this book – buy it! You
will want to come back to it often, not just in the run up to the annual cairry-on
that is the 25th January.
Books for the Burns Season - Beautifully Produced!
Ross-shire
Journal, January 2002
As Burns supper season fast approaches there are two new books on the market, well worth examining for excellent speech material, both written by Burns expert Maureen Bell.
Tae The Lasses contains biographies of 40 women in the life of the Bard, among the subjects are the well known Jean Armour, Agnes McLehose and Maria Riddell, however, others like Jenny Clow and Polly Stewart may be less familiar names. The book also contains the music of all the songs that Burns wrote for the Lasses and his comments on each piece.
Published at the same time, The Burns Calendar, a 192 page book, recounts one or more Burnsian events for every day of the calendar year. Beautifully produced it fills the year with interesting episodes that affected the life of Burns with a wealth of accompanying pictures.
Tae The Lasses is packed with material depicting the perilous environment that Burns and his acquaintances endured, fully detailing the relationships, kindnesses and cruelties that were dealt between Burns and his female friends. The text is amply backed up by well researched extracts from journals and letters.
Raise Your Glass to Maureen Bell
History Scotland, November/December 2002
Travelling to work on a bus in late January I overheard an interesting exchange. One man said to another, ‘Did you do anything for Burns’ Night yesterday’? The second replied, ‘No nothing, I couldn’t be bothered. It’s not like Rabbie Burns has done anything new lately’.
I pondered this attitude and agreed that not much new stuff comes from Burns these days. Not outside the groves of academia. Encouragingly we now have something delightfully fresh.
Maureen Bell’s illustrated book Tae The Lasses is a stimulating gallop through a catalogue of the women who influenced the poetry and the life of Robert Burns. The book is well structured; beginning with a history of the Bard and his antecedents there follows a brief introduction To the Lasses. We then get a lucid biography of each and the associated songs they inspired. By now you’ve had your money’s worth. If that wasn’t enough there ensues the tunes and songs and a truly fantastic, and occasionally quirky, ‘Burns-own’ notes to the songs. A letter to Dr. John Moore on song 2 ‘Now Westlin’ Winds’ is wonderful (p.407).
But the biographies. This is the real meat of the book. Bell draws on poems, songs, letters and contemporary gossip to celebrate the women who so irrevocably changed the life of Burns. Some were pretty youngsters acting simply as the poet’s muse and evoking a pastoral and lyric expression. Others were clearly more significant; some arousing the poet’s passionate love and some his ascorbic wrath and others, well, they clearly brought the bacon home. Burns was passionate about them all.
For anyone starting with Burns this is a good introduction to the hypocrisy ridden, class divided and inelegantly political late 18th century that he had to endure. Bell lets her collection point out that ploughman poets did not easily consort with the upper social orders in Edinburgh and excisemen did not easily support socialist ideology in Dumfries. Despite the social mores of Edinburgh society, the Kirk and the Excise Commission, Burns pursued his passions, sometimes without honour, to the hilt. But this book is really all about the Lasses, God bless them. If you want a warm window into what inspires a fiery and passionate man of the soil and soul, read this book. Don’t let the boyfriends and husbands get hold of it though, it may give them ideas!
Maureen Bell was very busy in 2001. The Burns Calendar is the revival of a book by the same name published in 1874 by James McKie, but radically augmented. Something of Burns seems to have stuck with Bell, as this illustrated account of the history of Burns and his contemporaries fills 366 days with ease. In a broad sweep this diary encompasses everything from the birth of Burns’ maternal grandparents in 1731 to the establishment of a plaque to Agnes McLehose in Edinburgh in 1937. The scope may be wider. Each date has several entries from many years before and after. Each month is concluded with events appropriate to the month but with only the year stated. You get your money’s worth here too. The Burns Calendar is an exhaustive and unusual cornucopia of ‘Burnsean Stuff’; but not to be read from start to finish in my mind, far too may people die. A lot goes on in two hundred years around a person’s life. This book is entertaining to dip into and you can cross-reference with Tae The Lasses to see that Bell has done her homework thoroughly.
Bells’ love of the muse and the ‘Poetic Heart’ is clear from the preface of both books. If you raise your Christmas glass to Cheer, raise it to Maureen Bell and Tae The Lasses. Jamie Hamilton - Edinburgh.