at least. All in negative and quasi-negative sentences often has the sense of any; so nas (as the N.T. où dikawbńσerai #âσa oȧpέ K.T.λ.—Rom. iii, 20), omnis (as in sine omni, etc., in Plaut., Ter., and Ovid). Thus at all in any wise, anyhow. Lowland Scotch adverbializes all by means of the prep. of. In Cant. Tales, 5628, the prep. in is used. But, perhaps more probably, ava = Anct. Eng. awa, ava, always, ever. Comp. Mæs. G. aiw, Lat. ævum, Gr. aiwv. 51. racked rents = rents raised to the greatest possible amount; lit. rents strained, drawn out to the utmost. Comp. M. of Ven. I. i. 180:

"Try what my credit can in Venice do,

That shall be rack'd even to the uttermost."

rent is close cognate with render, Low Lat. rendo, Lat. reddo.

52. kain or cane, or canage = "a duty paid by a tenant to his landlord in kind," as "cane cheese," ," "cane fowls," &c. (Jamieson). Kain bairns = children paid as tribute by witches to their lord the devil. See Bord Minst.

stents = "assessments, dues" (Gloss. Burns, Globe Edn.). Jamieson derives the word from extendere in the sense of "æstimare, appretiare." Comp. cess from assess. The Promp. Parv. gives "stente or certeyne of valwe ordrede and other lyke (of value or dette), taxacio." 54. at the bell. Comp. Marmion, III. xxix. :

"Blithe would I battle, for the right

To ask one question at the sprite-"

=

57. steeks = interstices, reticulations; strictly stitches. Steek, or steik, stitch, stick, are all various forms from Ancient Eng. stician. With stick and stitch, comp. brig and bridge, læccan and latch, thack and thatch, &c.

58. keeks peeps.

The word is used in Northumb. Intueri is the equivalent given by the Promp. Parv. In Dutch there is Kijken.

[Geordie. Give other instances, both ancient and modern, of coins being called after the monarchs uttering them.]

59. [its. Try to explain the use of its].

but is a shortened form of butan be-outan = except.

61. stechin cramming. "O. Teut. staecken, stipare." (Jamieson.)

[What is the exact force of the imperfect Present tense here?]

62. pechan stomach.

63. ragouts = radically, things to revive the appetite. The stem of the latter syllable is gustus.

trashtrie. For the trie, the t is an "auxiliary (inorganic) consonant," as the d in gender, Fr. gendre, number, &c., i.e. trashtrie trashrie. (See Peile's Introd. to Greek and Latin Etymology, Lect. xiv.); the rie or ry is a termination with a collective, and so sometimes a generalising force. Comp. chivalry, cavalry, infantry, peasantry, heraldry, yeomanry, Irishry, rivalry, Jewry, gentry; so pastry. Comp. Fr. gaucherie, causerie, &c. So wastrie in the following line. Comp. Lowland S. snastry.

65. wonner wonder, here in a contemptuous sense. So elsewhere Burns uses ferlie. Comp. how uncouth, Bápßapos, Fr. outré, &c. come to have a bad meaning. Whatever is unusual and so excites surprise is apt to be despised. These words express the very spirit of conventionality. "I am surprised, or astonished, or amazed, at your conduct," as a rule, = “I am much dissatisfied with it."

66. elf. Comp. the sense of datμóvios, as in Iliad. ii. 190:

δαιμόνι', οὗ σε ἔοικε κακὸν ὡς δειδίσσεσθαι.

Similar perhaps is the history of wight; see Trench's Select Gloss. s. v.

69. painch. So hainch.

119. 71. fash't troubled. It is used in Northumb. It is from the Fr. facher.

[What is the force of eneugh or enough here?]

72. sheugh or seuch a furrow, a ditch; see above, 1. 30.

=

73. dyke wall. So in some parts of England. Radically, dike is connected with dig, and denotes perhaps first the ditch dug (= Lat. fossa), then the mound, formed of the earth thrown up out of the ditch ( = Lat. agger, also vallum when stockaded).

76. smytrie = "a numerous collection of small individuals” (Jamieson). The stem is smyte, a small bit, a particle; for the rie see above on trashtrie.

duddie, see above, 1. 20.

77. darg or dark is said to be a corruption of day-wark.

77. [What is the grammatical construction of nought but his han' darg?]

78. in thack an' rape under a good roof. Thack thatch. Rape or rap or raip= rope; in this phrase, the rope with which the thatch was fastened on to the rafters and walls. 81. maist = most = here, almost.

82. maun. Other forms are mon, mun, mune. In one form or another the word prevails in North English dialects in the sense of the Southern must. It is an Old Norse verb. 82. o'. We should say with; but we say "he died of a fever," &c. For various old uses of of, see Wright's Bible Word-book.

85. buirdly or burdly "large and well-made;" so Jamieson, who makes it of Icelandic origin.

chiels, radically, = children, then servants (comp. puer, waîs, knave, garçon, &c.), then, generally, fellows.

87. negleckit. It is not uncommon in England to hear imperfectly-educated persons say "objec," "subjec," &c. In all languages, both in their literary and their provincial forms, such signs of a desire for easier articulation may be found. See Max Müller's Lectures on the Science of Language, 2nd Series.

92. brook badger.

94. Comp. Chevy Chase:

"For Widrington my heart is woe, &c.

96. thole suffer, from Ancient Eng. tholian.

Burns is here doubtless thinking of certain bitter experiences of his own youth during his father's tenure of Mount Oliphant farm.

[What is the common Eng. name for such an agent as is called a factor here?]
snast = abuse, from the "Sueo-Gothic," according to Jamieson.

=

98. poind distrain, lit. pound, shut up, from Ancient Eng. pyndan, to shut up. 104. poortith poverty. Another form is purtye (Old Fr. poureté). Perhaps poortith is formed from this form purtye, the -th being a secondary substantival affix, the French form being Englished by this affix, so common in English words, as youth (= young-th), health, length, strength, tilth, &c. Comp. bountith.

120. 105. [What is there noticeable in this line as compared with the common English usage? How would you explain it?]

110. blink. In common English twinkling is used for a very short space of time.

112. grushie = "of thriving growth." Another form used is grush. It is from the same root as gross, grow, great, Germ. gross, &c. In Old. Eng, gross = simply, large, as in King Lear, IV. vi. 14.

113. just. This adverb is now so commonly used by Scotchmen, as to be specially characteristic. Such phrases as "it was just delightful," "I was just weary of it," &c., at once indicate the nationality of the speaker. An Englishman qualifies certain adverbs as now, enough, by just; and also verbs, as "I just touched him," &c.; with adjs. he scarcely uses it at all.

=

115. nappie fine ale. Strictly, nappy is an adj. signifying strong-"noppy (as ale is), vigoureux" (Palsgrave). Burns speaks of a "nappie callan": = strong boy.

BB

In a song called

The Tale of the Cobbler and the Vicar of Bray, ascribed erroneously to "Hudibras " Butler, is the phrase nappy ale:

"A dozen of your nappy ale

Will set 'em right again."

Halliwell and Wright in their ed. of Nares' Glossary quote from Harry White's Humour,

1659:

An old Borough' proverb runs :

"M.P. wisheth happy
Successe and ale nappy,
That with the one's paine
He the other may gaine—"

"The nappy strong ale of Southwark

Keeps many a gossip frae the kirk."

But commonly the ale is understood; comp. Lat. merum, mulsum, Gr. áκparos, and especially Eng. Stout. Halliwell and Wright apparently (see 1. c.) derive nappy from nap, as = napinspiring, sleepy-making. Johnson makes it spumy, frothy, from nap down, &c. Lye, quoted by Johnson, refers it to A. S. nappe, a cup.

122. ferlie wonder.

The word occurs in Old English, and in Northumberland now.

Fer-lie is the Ancient Eng. faer-lic fear-like.

123. [When is Hallowmas? Derive, and illustrate the name.]

126. [How can the singular verb be defended here?]

127. blinks = glances. Comp. "ae blink o' the bonie burdies" in Tam o' Shanter. So in common English twinkle, as in Dryden's Don Sebastian: "I come, I come; the least twinkle had brought me to thee." How different Burns' blinker (a bright-glancing girl) from the Eng. blinkard.

siaps, as hits in Love's L. L. IV. i. 109-141.
The A. S. is ream.

131. ream = cream. weakening of sound in Eng

Perhaps the prefixed c is due to the is, in fact, a compensation, some ringent sound being felt to be onomatopeically necessary. Hence in Lowland Scotch, where the r has not suffered such debilitation, the c has not been required.

reeks smokes. Comp. Germ. rauchan.

133. luntin smoke-emitting. Jamieson refers the subst. lunt to "Teut. lonte, fomes igniarius" fuel, or "kindling," or "eldin."

mill="a snuff-box, properly of a cylindrical form." So Jamieson, who connects with "Isl. mel-ia contundere, the box being formerly used in the country as a mill for grinding the dried tobacco leaves." But it is not necessary to go to Islandic for the root. "Miln" is found in Ancient English. Comp. Germ. mühle.

134. [To which subject does the predicate strictly apply? Quote other instances of such a zeugma].

135. cantie cheerful. A word of Gaelic extraction, according to Jamieson.

crackin chattering, gossiping. So in Norfolk (Halliwell). Often talking boast

fully; see note to Cotter's S. N. 67.

crouse = "merry, brisk, lively, bumptious." So Halliwell, who connects with crus wrathful-as in Havelek, 1966, where it has much the sense of cross.

136. rantin. See l. 24.

142. fawsont = "seemly." Gloss. Burns, Globe Ed.

121. 147. ablins.

thrang.

a = on.

See note to sidelong, Des. V. 29. For the derivation, comp. Gk. duvarus.
See 1. 5.

See note to L'Alleg. 20.

148. indenting selling; strictly, bargaining-as in 1 Hen. IV. I. iii. 86:

=

I

"Shall we buy treasure? and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?"

The word is now not used except in its literal sense. The secondary sense arose from some custom of notching the edges of the parchment or paper on which contracts were drawn up. "The term indenture implies that the deed is of two parts, that is, two parts or copies exactly alike, and that the two parts were divided by the line to afford additional means of authentication." (Standard Libr. Cycl. of Pol. Knowledge.)

149. haith faith, as in the following line. There is no class of words more liable to corruption than those containing oaths. With them affectation and caprice have their fullest sway. A perpetual tendency prevails to disguise the oath, as it were-to make the mere form of it nonsense. Observe such strange shapes as 'slud, zounds, oons, &c., &c. Even so little outrageous an expression as "in faith" becomes faith, faith, faix, &c.

151. [gaun. What part of the verb is gaun?]

155. daft. See note, l. 43.

162. guitar is ultimately derived from the Gk. κiðαpá.

nowt cattle; here bulls. Other Scotch forms are nout and nolt (used for black

cattle); see Jamieson. Comp. Eng. neat, Isl. naut.

163. See The Traveller, 152.

165. bouses. See "bouzing can" in Faerie Q. I. iv. 22, “quaff and bowze" in Harington's Epigrams (quoted in Nare's Gloss., ed. Halliwell and Wright), "bousy poet" apud Dryden, "sup and bowse from horn and can in Keats' lines on The Mermaid Tavern. Johnson quotes Dutch buysen.

=

drumly muddy. The word is used in Northumb. (Halliwell) as a verb-in

Highland Mary:

"Ye banks and braes and streams around

The Castle o' Montgomery,

Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,

Your waters never drumlie."

169. hech. Comp. heigh-ho, as in Amiens' song in As you like it, II. vii.

Dear sirs is a sort of wondering appeal to the world in general, just as Ye gods, Great Heavens, &c. to Heaven. The plural sirs occurs in Author. Version of the Acts of the Apostles, xiv. 15, &c., &c. In the Elizabethan poets it is sometimes used in addressing ladies. There is no etymological reason why it should not be so.

=

173. aback on back backward. Chaucer has this form.

178. Fient. See above, 1. 16. hait "the least thing.'

(Gloss. Burns, Globe Ed.)

whit, aught, A. S. aht, awhit. Fient haet devil a bit. In 1. 206 there is deil haet. 179. timmer. The b in the common form timber is merely auxiliary; see note on 1. 63. carpenter, &c. Here perhaps timmer fences.

Tymmer-man

180. limmer = mistress. This word, used generally in a disparaging sense, is seemingly connected by Jamieson with limm limb, i.e., a limb of Satan, a devil's limb. Comp. imp. But such a derivation seems much to be doubted. Ben Jonson uses limmer, Sad Shepherd, II. ii.

182. Ne'er a bit. See note to Alex. Feast, 70.

122. 185. steer common Eng, stir.

188. [The gentles. Mention other adjectives that are treated so completely as substantives as to receive a plural inflection.]

189. [What is meant by starve here?]

194. for a'. See note to Hymn Nat. 73.

197. sturt = start, startle, and so trouble, vex. See Halloween, of the bold Jamie Fleck :

66

"He marches thro' amang the stacks,

Tho' he was something sturtin."

201. [How do you scan "this line?]

262. dizzen a dozen "cuts" of yarn a hank or hesp.

203. [Explain warst here.]

204. ev'n down= downright. With the use of even comp. that of flat in such phrases a flat contradiction."

205. lank languid. A. S. hlanc = lean, meagre. Germ. Schlank.

206. deil haet. See above, l. 178.

209. at least.

Horse Races have been our great national sport since the time of the Restoration

"cast

213 Cast out = quarrel. Outcast, a quarrel (Jamieson). Wyntown uses to words" in this sense; comp. Swedish ord kastas. In "cast out," as used in the text, the object of the verb is omitted; the "out" gives intensity. With this use of "cast" comp. Lat jacere in such phrases as "in feminas inlustres probra jecerat." (Tac. Ann. xi. 13.)

214. sowther solder (lit. make solid).

216. [What " part of speech " is past here?]

218. [Explain great here. Comp. great friends."]

220. [What part of the verb is run here?]

jads. Wedgwood connects jade with the Lat. ilia through the Span. ijada, and so makes the radical meaning a panting broken-winded horse, one that "ilia ducit." (Hor. Ep. I. i. g.)

221. Comp. Rape of the Lock, 297–306.

123. 223. lee-lang livelong. See note to sidelong, Des. V., and Phil. Soc. Transactions for 1862-3.

227. [Is there anything noticeable in the language of this line?]

230. gloamin, A. S. glomung.

235. See Cotter's S. N. 154.