1
00:00:07,300 --> 00:00:12,200
"Dumfries, July 12th 1796."

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00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:16,000
"My dear cousin, when you
offered me money assistance,

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00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,840
"little did I think
I should want it so soon.

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"A rascal of a haberdasher,

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"to whom I owe a considerable bill,

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"taking it into his head
that I am dying,

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"has commenced the process
against me and will infallibly

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00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:31,920
"put my emaciated body in jail."

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00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,500
Robert Burns achieved more
with his poetry

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00:00:37,500 --> 00:00:40,880
than any writer since Shakespeare.

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With poems about
the ordinary world,

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he inspired everyone
from Byron to Beethoven.

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To this day, his birthday
is celebrated all around the world.

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In his own lifetime, he was famous
beyond belief - rock star famous -

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and acclaimed as a genius,

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but dead in this house
just two weeks
after writing a begging letter.

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"Will you be so kind
as to accommodate me

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"by return of post with £10?

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00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:14,040
"Ah, James,
did you know the pride of my heart
you would feel doubly for me.

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"Alas, I am not used to beg."

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So what brought Robert Burns,
the greatest man of his age,

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to the point
where he would die a beggar?

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When I look at this letter and see
him begging a cousin for money

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to pay off a haberdasher,
right at the end of his life,

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I feel heart-sore for him.

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He was a man desperate to the end -

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fulfilling his father's grave
warning that he might fail in life.

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And it raises a question.

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What is it about Robert Burns?
What is it about genius?

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What is it about his character,
fame itself in fact,

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that could cause this man to fail?

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I think one of the reasons people
love Robert Burns is because his
work speaks to them so personally.

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I'm Andrew O'Hagan - a writer born
and brought up in Burns country.

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And this is a journey
to the heart of my Robert Burns -

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a search for what made my favourite
writer into what he was

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and to find his raw spirit here,
in the everyday places

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that inspired him and
that still pulse with life today.

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O, once I lov'd a bonnie lass,

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Ay, and I love her still;

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And whilst that virtue
warms my breast,

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I'll love my handsome Nell.

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As bonnie lassies I hae see,
And mony full as braw;

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But, for a modest gracefu' mein,
The like I never saw.

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Robert Burns's first discovery
as a writer was intensely personal,

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inspired by a girl
he met in the fields.

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You know our country custom of
coupling a man and woman together

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as partners
in the labours of harvest.

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In my 15th autumn, my partner
was a bewitching creature,

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a year younger than myself.

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My scarcity of English
denies me the power of doing
her justice in that language

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but you know the Scotch idiom.
She was a bonnie, sweet, sonsy lass.

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A gaudy dress and gentle air
May slightly touch the heart;

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But it's innocence and modesty
That polishes the dart.

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'Tis this in Nelly pleases me,
'Tis this enchants my soul;

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For absolutely in my breast,
She reigns without control.

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That was Robert Burns's first ever
poem, written when he was only 15.

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Not bad for a 15-year-old

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but there's no way his gigantic
reputation would've been made
by that poem alone.

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What it was though, was a start.

60
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,160
'It was also the result
of years of study.

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00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:46,240
'Despite a lowly station in life,
Burns's father insisted that
his children were educated.

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'But just after writing
Handsome Nell,

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'Burns and his family
fell heavily into debt

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00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:57,320
'and were almost forced from
their home by a cruel landlord.'

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My father's generous master died
and, to clench the misfortune,
we fell into the hands of a factor.

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00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:12,320
My indignation yet boils
at the scoundrel factor's
insolent threatening letters,

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which used to set us all in tears.

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It was something
he would never forget.

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It might even be a key
to understanding the man
Burns would become.

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'His head filled with poetry
and learning,

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'young Robert Burns grew restless
to escape the small farming life

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'but didn't quite know how.'

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The great misfortune of my life
was to want an aim.

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I saw that my father's situation
entailed on me perpetual labour.

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00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,680
In my 17th year,
to give my manners a brush,

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00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:00,680
I went to a country dancing school.

77
00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:09,000
'This village of Tarbolton
became the focus of young Burns's
social life

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00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,520
'and the girls of the parish
filled his teenage imagination.'

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My heart was completely tender

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and was eternally lighted up
by some goddess or other

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and, as in every other warfare
in this world,

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my fortune was various.

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00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:42,680
Burns also sought relief from the
toil of the fields in the company
of other spirited young men.

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He became the central figure
in a group who were as hungry
for life and for ideas as he was.

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They organised themselves into
the Tarbolton Bachelors' Club

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and their aims were to forget
their cares and labour
in mirth and diversion.

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They rented out this room

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and turned it into their very
own debating chamber.

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00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:07,760
For generations of poetry lovers,

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00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,360
Robert Burns was the
ultimate sentimentalist.

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00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,920
He represented all the virtues
of the rural hearth and home,

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00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,000
of the simplicity of poverty,

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but in actual fact,
Burns was a radical.

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Both in sexual and political terms,

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00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,440
he believed in improvement
and openness and freedom.

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00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,360
Here in Tarbolton
at the Bachelors' Club,

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he would sit down
with like-minded young men

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and debate some of the great
controversial topics of their day

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and they did so in a spirit of
self-improvement, of openness.

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They wanted change
and they didn't want
the dark instruction of the Church

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to darken down their own
particular needs for freedom.

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00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,440
'Burns grew eloquent
as a maker of radical arguments

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'and a maker of rhymes -

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00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,360
'rhymes that were drawn from life.'

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00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:03,960
"A shire is world enough",
wrote Shakespeare,

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and for Burns, it was Ayrshire.

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This pub in Mauchline
is the dead centre of his universe.

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Marion, can I have a whisky, please?
A whisky.

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PEOPLE SING

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00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,360
'Burns was a genius at taking
the carnival of life

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'he encountered in ordinary places,
like this village pub,

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'and transforming it into art
of the highest order.

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00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,480
'The Jolly Beggars,
one of his neglected masterpieces,

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'was inspired by the goings-on here,

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00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,960
'back when this place was more
than just a lively local.'

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This is the Jolly Beggars.
It was a place of ill repute.

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It was a brothel
at that time of Burns.

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The upper-class would like to think

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that Burns was never in
this establishment.

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We all know better than that!

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THEY SING AND CHANT

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00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,680
'The Jolly Beggars is more of
a mini-opera than a poem -

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'a beggar's opera that celebrates
life at the bottom of society.

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'I've come along tonight to hear
a raucous rendition being performed

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'in the very place
that originally inspired it.'

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# And now tho' I must beg,
with a wooden arm and leg... #

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And now tho' I must beg,
witha a wooden arm and leg

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And many a tatter'd rag
hanging over my bum,

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I'm as happy with my wallet,
my bottle, and my callet,

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As when I used in scarlet
to follow the drum.

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# ..La, la, la-la, la la... #

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Who's this for? Is that for you?

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In the Jolly Beggars the people
that he chose are rough and ready.
Oh, rough and ready, aye.

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Would you say the clientele has
changed over the years? No' really!

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00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:11,360
# ..What is title?
What is treasure...? #

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00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:13,640
What is title? What is treasure?

137
00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,960
What is reputation's care?

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00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:23,360
If you lead a life of pleasure,
who's to worry who or where?

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As a poet, Robert Burns is famous
for his simplicity,

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his honesty, his human empathy,

141
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but actually at the same time,

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he has massive sophistication
as an artist.

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00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:40,640
The Jolly Beggars gives evidence
of the most incredibly
sophisticated literary mind.

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It's a massive barbaric
yop of a poem -

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going right to the heart
of pub culture, of everyday life.

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00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,880
Burns was a master at getting in
among all that -

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00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:55,920
singing songs about a life
that he loved to live himself
and that he wanted to celebrate.

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00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:01,600
# ..A fig for those by law protected
A fig for those by law protected.

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00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:05,720
# Liberty's a glorious feast
Liberty's a glorious feast.

150
00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:09,600
# Courts for cowards were erected
Courts for cowards were erected,

151
00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:14,200
# Churches built
to please the priest... #
Churches built to please the priest.

152
00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:19,200
'Burns showed his true colours
in these uncompromising lines.

153
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'He didn't hide the fact that he
was a radical and a freedom lover.

154
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'In fact, he revelled in it.

155
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'Even if that put him at odds
with the traditional
Ayrshire community he lived in.'

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00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,120
# ..La-la, la, la, la! #
RAUCOUS CHEERS

157
00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:38,080
Polemical divinity about this time
was putting the country half mad

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and I, ambitious of shining

159
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in conversation parties on Sundays,

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between sermons at funerals,
used the three years afterwards

161
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to puzzle Calvinists
with so much heat and indiscretion

162
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that I raised the hue and cry
of heresy against me.

163
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Today Mauchline Parish is a warm
and welcoming place but back then,

164
00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,960
it was where the increasingly
notorious young poet

165
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most frequently clashed
with Mauchline's moral guardians.

166
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In the days of Robert Burns,
drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking,

167
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non-attendance at worship,
fornication and adultery

168
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were particularly frowned upon...

169
00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:23,480
'In those days, fornicators -
known fornicators at least -

170
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:26,320
'had to come out
in front of the congregation

171
00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,800
'and sit in a special
penitents' seat, the cuttie-stool.'

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00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:31,960
This was a stool of repentance,

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a seat set apart in church
on which sinners had to appear,

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before the worshipping congregation,
to confess their waywardness

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and to receive the public rebuke
of the minister.

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00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:46,880
'The idea was
that the local congregation
was controlled through shame.

177
00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:49,600
'But it didn't always work.

178
00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:56,120
'When Burns first did penitence
on the cuttie-stool, seven other
fornicators sat beside him.'

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00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,840
Burns was always in two minds
about religion.

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00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,520
On the one hand he believed in God
but, on the other,

181
00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:09,160
he felt that church hypocrisy was a
blight on the Scotland of his day.

182
00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:11,920
Here lie the remains
of Willie Fisher -

183
00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:14,960
who was an elder
of the Mauchline Kirk -

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00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,520
and he became the subject
of one of the most scabrous,

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00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:24,360
comical and wonderful satires on
religious hypocrisy in any language.

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00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,800
That poem is Holy Willie's Prayer.

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00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,960
Oh Lord, yestreen, Thou kens,
wi' Meg -

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00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:34,600
Thy pardon I sincerely beg,

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00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:38,640
O may't ne'er be a livin' plague
To my dishonour,

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00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:43,360
An' I'll ne'er lift a lawless leg
Again upon her.

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00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,760
The poem takes the form of
a confessional prayer,

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00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:50,840
in which Holy Willie makes excuses
for his own sins,

193
00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:54,840
the very same sins that,
as an elder of the Kirk,

194
00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:56,960
he would have condemned in others.

195
00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:00,920
But Lord, that Friday I was fou,
When I cam near her,

196
00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:05,760
Or else, Thou kens, Thy servant true
Wad never steer her.

197
00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:11,800
Loved poet, scathing satirist,
political radical,

198
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:16,800
it all fed Robert Burns's
local reputation

199
00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,280
but he still lacked an aim in life.

200
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:24,120
But all that was about to change.

201
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,080
This is Mossgiel Farm
in Mauchline in Ayrshire -

202
00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,280
the place where Burns moved
with his entire family in the 1780s.

203
00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,320
He worked hard here as a farmer
on tough ground

204
00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:40,400
but he also wrote his
greatest work here -

205
00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:44,120
poems that would change not only
the course of Scottish literature

206
00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:45,640
but world literature as well.

207
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,000
'After a day labouring
in the fields,

208
00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:54,160
'Burns would come back
to this farmhouse to write.

209
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,240
'It continues
as a working farm to this day.'

210
00:14:57,240 --> 00:14:59,480
HE KNOCKS AT DOOR

211
00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:06,640
I entered on this farm
with a full resolution,
come go to, I will be wise.

212
00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:11,000
I read farming books, I calculated
crops, I attended markets.

213
00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:17,200
Hello, Mr Wylie. How are you?
Good to see you. Are you well? Aye.

214
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:21,320
How long have you lived here
at Mossgiel? All my days.

215
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:23,600
Since you were a baby?

216
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:27,560
87 year...next week.

217
00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:32,160
87 next week. And have your people
always lived hereabouts?

218
00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:37,680
They've lived here since...1806.

219
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:39,640
So not long after Burns's death?

220
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,360
Four or five years
after Burns went out.

221
00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:49,440
And you've got some photographs
we could look at that show
the past of your family here. Aye.

222
00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,240
Can you think, Mr Wylie,

223
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:55,200
what the birthdays of some of these
people in the photograph,

224
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,280
the older ones, would have been?

225
00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,320
What year would they be born -
this fellow for instance?

226
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:06,280
I think my grandfather
was born in 1848.

227
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:09,400
Great-Grandfather
definitely knew Burns.

228
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:14,400
The great-grandmothers of some
of these people could conceivably
have been girlfriends of Burns.

229
00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:18,520
There's a chance! He seemed to go
for every lassie in Mauchline!

230
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:23,960
If they attended dances, they
would've been in the crossfire. Aye.

231
00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:30,120
Burns's father is said to have
cast doubt from his deathbed

232
00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,200
on whether his aimless son,
Robert, would succeed in life

233
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:39,640
but here at Mossgiel Farm, in the
year after his father's death,

234
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,120
Burns wrote poetry
like never before.

235
00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:45,400
He gave life
to some of his greatest work,

236
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,320
poems such as To A Mountain Daisy,

237
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,640
Scotch Drink, The Twa Dogs.

238
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:57,280
In that year, as he tried to make
a success of his farm

239
00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:58,720
and of his life,

240
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:02,960
it seemed like the smallest
of things could inspire him.

241
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,080
Something happened in this field.

242
00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:12,320
It was a cold, wet, November day

243
00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:16,880
and Robert Burns came out into the
field to work the plough as usual

244
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:21,120
and whilst doing so, he accidentally
turned up a mouse's nest

245
00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:23,880
and that gave rise
to one of the most beautiful,

246
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,200
most empathetic poems
in any language -

247
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,880
a political poem - To A Mouse.

248
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:33,000
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin,
tim'rous beastie

249
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,400
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

250
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:39,800
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi' bickering brattle

251
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,720
I wad be laith to rin an' chase
thee, Wi' murd'ring pattle

252
00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,240
I'm truly sorry man's dominion

253
00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:50,120
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,

254
00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:52,440
Which makes thee startle

255
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,360
At me, thy poor,
earth-born companion,

256
00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:57,880
An' fellow-mortal!

257
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,360
'Did the ploughed-up mouse's nest

258
00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:08,760
'stir up Burns's
own painful memories?

259
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,080
'Had he done to a tiny fieldmouse

260
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:15,040
'what landlords had threatened
to do to him and his family?

261
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,320
'It certainly inspired him

262
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,280
'to create one of the most
empathetic poems ever.

263
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,440
'In line after line,
he invited the world

264
00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:27,440
'to feel the pulse
of universal fellowship

265
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,120
'with that one insignificant animal.

266
00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:35,000
'To understand, as he did, that
life was a struggle against loss,

267
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:40,000
'that in the midst of living,
we are also dying.

268
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:41,720
'Towards the end of the poem,

269
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:47,360
'he even longed to be like the
mouse, to have no past to regret,

270
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:50,680
'nor any future to fear.'

271
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,760
Still thou art blest,
compar'd wi' me

272
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,360
The present only toucheth thee:

273
00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:58,920
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e.

274
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,120
On prospects drear!

275
00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:04,160
An' forward, tho' I canna see,

276
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:06,280
I guess an' fear!

277
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:16,840
It's hard to think of many poets

278
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,280
who had Burns's intimate sympathy
for the natural environment -

279
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,800
for animals
and for the life of nature -

280
00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,280
but actually, farm work itself
was something Burns hated.

281
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:32,160
The long, laborious days in rain
and snow was too much for him.

282
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:37,120
What he really yearned for was
human company, the life of the town.

283
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:46,080
# I'm on my way
to what I want from this world

284
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:50,160
# And years from now
You'll make it in the next world

285
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,720
# And everything
that you receive up yonder... #

286
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:58,440
'By 1785, Burns had an illegitimate
child on the way with a local girl

287
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,240
'called Betsy Payton and,
in nearby Mauchline,

288
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,840
'his infamy was growing.

289
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:07,600
'But many of the town's women
caught his eye

290
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,960
'and he would turn on the charm
to catch theirs,

291
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:12,480
'both in person and in rhyme.'

292
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,200
# ..I took the road that
brought me to your home town... #

293
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:19,800
'I've come to the line dancing
at Mauchline Community Centre

294
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,800
'because I want to ask these women
about that other side of Burns -

295
00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,320
'the rakish side,
the side of the serial charmer.'

296
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,520
When people say that Rabbie Burns
was obsessed with sex,

297
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,600
that his main preoccupation
was the lassies,

298
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:37,680
do you think that's true? ALL: Yes!
Why do you say that?

299
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:42,360
There's another name for that
but I'll not say it! There is!

300
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,520
This is a family programme!
Exactly!

301
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:50,840
As a piece of male behaviour,
does that surprise you? ALL: No.

302
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:55,240
You'd take it if you lived
in this day and age.
You would be highly delighted!

303
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,240
Who would be delighted, him or you?

304
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,840
RAUCOUS LAUGHTER
You never know!

305
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,040
In Mauchline there dwells
six proper young belles,

306
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:16,600
The pride of the place
and its neighbourhood a',

307
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:20,280
Their carriage and dress
a stranger would guess,

308
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:22,680
In Lon'on or Paris,
they'd gotten it a',

309
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,640
Miss Miller is fine,
Miss Murkland's divine,

310
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,040
Miss Smith she has wit
and Miss Betty is braw;

311
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,320
There's beauty and fortune
to get with Miss Morton,

312
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,800
But Armour's the jewel
for me o' them a'.

313
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:38,640
Side, together, side shuffle...

314
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:48,280
# In Mauchline there dwells
six proper young belles,

315
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,520
# The pride of the place... #

316
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:52,640
Of all the women Robert Burns knew,

317
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,080
there was only really one
that conquered his affections.

318
00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,640
Her name was Jean Armour.
She lived here in the Cowgate.

319
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,680
He set many traps to catch her,
and he did catch her,

320
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:04,160
but as he said in his famous poem,

321
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,280
"The best-laid schemes
o' mice an' men

322
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:07,960
"Gang aft agley".

323
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,120
That's to say,
they can lead to trouble.

324
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,320
'For a brief moment in 1785,

325
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:22,040
'Jean Armour alone
seems to have been the tenant
of Robert Burns's heart,

326
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,720
'so much so that within a year,
Jean was pregnant.

327
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:27,440
'In small town Mauchline,

328
00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,680
'there was only so long that he and
Jean could keep it to themselves.

329
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:34,520
'The holy beagles,
as Burns called them,

330
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,480
'soon got the scent
of a full-blown scandal.'

331
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:45,960
'Back in the church,
a remarkable document survives
from the 18th Century.

332
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,960
'It reveals just how the church
authorities tried to deal with it.'

333
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:57,160
The writing's difficult here.
Robert Burns and Jean Armour

334
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:02,680
appeared before the congregation,
professing their repentance.

335
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,800
Given Burns's poems on the question
of hypocrisy in the Church,

336
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:11,760
we wonder how utterly sincere
that repentance was.

337
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:16,920
"For fornication,

338
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:21,560
"and having each appeared
to several Sabbaths

339
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,200
"were this day rebuked

340
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,080
"and absolved from the scandal."

341
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,200
Absolved from the scandal is good.

342
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:37,000
I wonder if you ever truly were
absolved from such a scandal
in a small town like Mauchline.

343
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,440
Thank you so much. Pleasure.

344
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,920
Jean Armour's parents wanted nothing
to do with the notorious local poet

345
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,760
and they stopped Jean
from seeing him.

346
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:02,880
I have tried often to forget her.

347
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:06,200
I have run into all kinds
of dissipation and riots,

348
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,120
Mason meetings, drinking matches
and other mischief,

349
00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:12,160
to drive her out of my head,

350
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,240
but all in vain.

351
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:21,200
'By all accounts heartbroken,

352
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,400
'with at least three illegitimate
children and on the verge of ruin,

353
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,600
'Robert Burns came up with a plan
that would fix everything.'

354
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:38,000
# It was in sweet Senegal
that my foes did me enthral... #

355
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,840
'Robert Burns decided
to emigrate to Jamaica,

356
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,280
'where he planned
to find work on a plantation.

357
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,320
'He said as a "poor Negro driver".'

358
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:54,360
"July 30th, 1786,
my hour has now come.

359
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:56,760
"You and I will never meet
in Britain more,

360
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:01,320
"I have orders
within three weeks at furthest
to repair aboard the Nancy."

361
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,800
Of course, Burns was the
great laureate of human freedom

362
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,600
and therefore the Jamaica plan
stands as a puzzle.

363
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:12,600
It's hard to understand how the man
who wrote A Man's A Man For A' That,

364
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,000
and The Slave's Lament,
could even contemplate leaving

365
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,760
and crossing the sea
to become a slave driver.

366
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:20,680
It really is a conundrum.

367
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:23,480
It's the one thing about Burns,
of all the elements,

368
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,280
that could cause us to worry
about his integrity.

369
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:31,200
'To me, it's the action
of a desperate man -

370
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,840
'a man who has made
a mess of his life

371
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:37,480
'but who can't afford to be as
principled as I'd like him to be.'

372
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,920
'To put his affairs in order,
and make
any money that he possibly could,

373
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,440
'Burns decided
to get his poems published.

374
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,760
'Any poems that may have got him
into hot water with Church or State

375
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,600
'were prudently set aside
for another day,

376
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,640
'but all the poems
of Burns's great creative period

377
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:05,560
'were set in good black print
and bound together,

378
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:09,240
'soon to be hailed
as a masterpiece.'

379
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,280
You will have heard that I am
going to commence poet in print

380
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:19,520
and tomorrow my works
go to the press.

381
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:23,800
I expect it will be a volume
of about 200 pages.

382
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,440
It is just the last foolish action
I intend to do

383
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,680
and then turn a wise man
as fast as possible.

384
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,280
'Here at the Irvine Burns Club,

385
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:38,840
'they have a rare copy
of that very thing

386
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,840
that Robert Burns put together
in such desperate circumstances.'

387
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,320
This is the book I believe
you're interested to view.

388
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:49,480
It's a first edition Kilmarnock,
Robert Burns.

389
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:51,200
Wow. Amazing. Thanks very much.

390
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,520
Extremely rare.
It's like the holy book, this.

391
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:16,280
Wow! There's nothing like
the smell of time.

392
00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:22,480
Robert Burns was so sociable,
he could have I suppose just gabbed
away his poems in the pub,

393
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:24,440
but that's not what he did.

394
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,920
He created this book -
the Kilmarnock Edition.

395
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:32,200
An absolute work of genius, unlike
anything published in his day,

396
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:36,000
and still, even now,
there's nothing like it.

397
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,920
A book is, after all, a little
intellectual and moral machine

398
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,120
and Burns made his contribution.
What a contribution!

399
00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:48,240
I can't believe I'm holding
a first edition of that masterpiece,

400
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:53,120
opened here at the page with
the very first poem, The Twa Dogs.

401
00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:55,640
"Twas in that place o' Scotland's
isle,

402
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:57,840
"That bears the name o' auld
King Coil,

403
00:27:57,840 --> 00:27:59,280
"Upon a bonnie day in June

404
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,720
"When wearin' thro' the afternoon,

405
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:05,360
"Twa dogs,
that were na thrang at hame,

406
00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:07,760
"Forgather'd ance upon a time."

407
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,760
Scottish literature had never heard
that voice before that.

408
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,920
It was the opening of an absolutely
spectacular career.

409
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,200
'The book -

410
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,240
' "Poems Chiefly
In The Scottish Dialect",

411
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:22,840
'was a runaway success.

412
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,080
'It sold out within a few months

413
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,320
'and made Burns a £20 profit.'

414
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,240
'And now Burns shelved his plans
for escape to Jamaica

415
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,800
'and began to contemplate
a whole new future.

416
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:41,360
'Could a bigger audience exist
for these poems?

417
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,800
'Could a bigger print run
make him rich?

418
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:48,960
'And could Robert Burns
finally make a success of his life?'

419
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,840
'To find out, he'd have to leave
behind his childhood landscape -

420
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:57,000
'the inspiring world of Ayrshire -

421
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,320
'and try his luck
in Scotland's capital, Edinburgh.'

422
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,360
Ayrshire, to Burns,
had been the whole world.

423
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,920
He knew its byways
and its characters extremely well

424
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:15,160
but the rest of the world,
the rest of Scotland even,
was a bit of a mystery to him.

425
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:19,520
Edinburgh seemed like
an exotic Babylon
when he set out to reach there

426
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,960
but he suspected that if he got to
know it, and if he succeeded there,

427
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,320
it might change his world forever.

428
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,880
At Edinburgh, I was in a new world

429
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,200
and mingled among
many classes of men,

430
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,800
but all of them new to me,

431
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,680
and I was all attention to catch
the character of their manners,

432
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:43,240
living as they rise.

433
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,160
'I'm coming to what was called
the Athens of the North,

434
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:54,080
'to search for the story
of Burns's success here.

435
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:59,000
'But also, perhaps, to find the
seeds of a struggle for survival

436
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,040
'that exists at the centre
of Burns's life.

437
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,280
'Burns came to Edinburgh
with a clear mission to make money.

438
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,480
'But I think he was looking
for something else too.

439
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,400
'Back in Ayrshire he'd been
infamous, notorious even,

440
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:18,720
'but that wasn't enough for him.

441
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,440
'Burns also wanted
to measure himself

442
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,880
'against the greatest men
of his age.'

443
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:33,240
'18th-century Edinburgh
was a hub of philosophical, medical,

444
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,960
'legal and journalistic genius.

445
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,200
'David Hume, Adam Smith,
James Hutton,

446
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,720
'Joseph Black and James Boswell -

447
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:46,200
'a seemingly endless list
of great men had placed Edinburgh

448
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:51,040
'at the very centre
of Europe's intellectual life.

449
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:56,040
'What's more, a sophisticated
literary culture existed here.

450
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,440
'And Burns arrived from Ayrshire,
determined to chance his hand

451
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,640
'and find his place in it.'

452
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,640
Burns hit the ground running
in Edinburgh.

453
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,400
He'd come into contact
with the publisher William Creech,

454
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,920
whose offices were in
this very close.

455
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:17,000
The idea was that he would raise
subscribers for this new edition,

456
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,960
so Burns put his mind to that
and got busy.

457
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:26,880
'But would the inhabitants
of this most refined of cities

458
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,520
'really want to subscribe
to an expensive book

459
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,880
'containing rustic poems
such as To A Mouse,

460
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:37,240
'which said that man
was no more significant
than the smallest creature?'

461
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,920
'It was down to Burns himself
to drum up interest in the book

462
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,720
'and just a few days after
he arrived in Edinburgh,

463
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:50,120
'he got a great helping hand,
with a review from Henry Mackenzie -
Edinburgh's leading critic.'

464
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:56,040
'It's something that I have
long heard of but never seen.'

465
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,440
Andrew. How nice to see you again.
It's great to see you.

466
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:04,400
'Here at the National Library
of Scotland, they keep a copy
of that very publication.'

467
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,720
And what you are coming to see is
The Lounger. All right, in you come.

468
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,200
Thank you. Here we are.
This is the famous review.

469
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:18,520
And it's most famous of all,
I think, for the wonderful passage
on the final page,

470
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,960
where he says, "You will perceive

471
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,240
"with what uncommon penetration
and sagacity

472
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,480
"this Heaven-taught ploughman,

473
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,160
"from his humble
and unlettered station,

474
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:31,320
"has looked upon men and manners."

475
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,160
And Burns rose to this splendidly.

476
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:34,880
In a way, this was good fodder

477
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,440
because he liked to go around
as the Heaven-taught ploughman.

478
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,400
He wore nothing but boots
in Edinburgh,

479
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,560
when people wore silk stockings.

480
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:45,800
But he wore boots,
as if he'd come from the field.

481
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,720
He wore buckskins
on great occasions.

482
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,120
And of course, that phrase,
"Heaven-taught ploughman" stuck.

483
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:56,880
That's right and Mackenzie was
solely responsible for the image.

484
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,400
Presumably, The Lounger
had no massive circulation.

485
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,840
How important would a review like
this have been in the day?

486
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:06,320
It would have been very important

487
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:11,280
because the Edinburgh establishment
would have read this periodical.

488
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,880
This is the Advocates Library copy.

489
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,400
We can speculate with certainty

490
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:23,080
that this very copy was read
by many of the leaders
of the Scottish Enlightenment -

491
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,560
certainly those members
of the Faculty of Advocates.

492
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:30,720
And, on one of these pages, there
is a very gratifying claret stain

493
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:35,680
which shows it was read
with enjoyment! Perhaps by Burns
himself. Possibly by Burns.

494
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:40,960
'In the pages of The Lounger,
Burns read the review

495
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:43,200
'that would change his life.'

496
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,640
Burns must have had a few pints
in celebration when he got this!

497
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:54,160
"I know not if I shall be accused
of such enthusiasm and partiality

498
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:58,320
"when I introduce
to the notice of my readers
a poet of our own country,

499
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,600
"with whose writings
I have lately become acquainted.

500
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,920
"But if I am not greatly deceived,
I think I may safely pronounce him

501
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:08,520
"a genius of no ordinary rank."

502
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,240
This must have blown Burns away.

503
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:22,200
There is something also
quite patronising about his tone
throughout the review.

504
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:25,440
He keeps referring
to his "lowly station"

505
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,800
and "a man with his disadvantages"
and so on.

506
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,840
If you were to put that
into a review nowadays,

507
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,720
it would be considered completely
horrendous and unacceptable.

508
00:34:35,720 --> 00:34:39,840
With the sense that, well, we
must make allowances for this guy,

509
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:43,440
you know, he's been working
in the fields and he's untutored.

510
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:45,120
And there it is.

511
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:54,680
"Heaven-taught ploughman"

512
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:58,440
gives a notion of a guy who's just,
you know,

513
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:00,640
doused by the muse one day,

514
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,360
out in the fields,
who it all came to from the sky.

515
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:08,520
Well, of course, Burns had
a pretty good classical education.

516
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,280
And yet he accepted this label.

517
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:17,640
He realised, at any rate, that it
was a way of identifying himself.

518
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:19,880
It was the great point
of difference.

519
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,880
Burns wasn't just a genius,

520
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,560
he was a genius
who came from a farm.

521
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:34,320
The review in The Lounger catapulted
Burns into Edinburgh's high society.

522
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,600
And, all at once,
Burns had the fame he'd craved.

523
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:43,040
"I have been introduced
to a good many of the noblesse.

524
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:48,320
"I have warm and wise friends
among the literati.

525
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:52,680
"I was, sir, when I was first
honoured with your notice,
too obscure.

526
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,560
"Now I tremble,
lest I should be ruined

527
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,800
"by being dragged too suddenly
into the glare of polite
and learned observation."

528
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:03,080
'Burns shone in the limelight.

529
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:06,400
'With his farmers' boots
and a formidable eloquence,

530
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,960
'honed in his Ayrshire debating
club, he dazzled all he met here.

531
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,560
'Performing his poems at soirees and
private gatherings across the city,

532
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:18,600
'holding forth on the great topics
of the day.'

533
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,480
'The closest thing to it
for a writer today

534
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,360
'is the Edinburgh International
Book Festival.'

535
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,600
There is no poet in any country,
in any language...

536
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:31,600
'Writers turn into performers

537
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,640
'and get the chance to explain
their work and their influences.'

538
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,720
..with brilliance and excellence
in the way that Robert Burns does.

539
00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:43,760
He is the world's best poet.
APPLAUSE

540
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,440
'He would have loved it up here.'

541
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,360
O wad some Power the giftie gi' us,

542
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,200
To see oursels as ithers see us!

543
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,480
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,

544
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,080
An' foolish notion:

545
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:59,760
What airs in gait an' dress
wad lea'e us,

546
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,040
An' ev'n devotion!

547
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:12,200
'Burns was a genius, a legend,
so any too strong association
of his experience with mine,

548
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:13,800
'would just be comical.'

549
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:19,280
'But I think this city's
ongoing fascination
for the business of literature

550
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,840
'is something he would recognise.

551
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:25,400
'Writers today have got it
much easier than Burns ever had.

552
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,240
'When he performed
in small private gatherings,

553
00:37:28,240 --> 00:37:31,120
'he was hoping to raise subscribers
to his edition.

554
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,840
'And there would be no print run
without them.'

555
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:44,120
'With every invitation he accepted,
every supper party he joined, he was
creating demand for his new book.'

556
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:49,520
'Even if that meant playing the part
of the Heaven-taught ploughman.'

557
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,560
That I have some merit
I do not deny.

558
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,360
But I see with frequent wringings
of heart

559
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,240
that the novelty of my character,

560
00:37:59,240 --> 00:38:02,320
and the honest national prejudice
of my countrymen,

561
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,880
have borne me to a height altogether
untenable to my abilities.

562
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:09,920
I am in a fair way of becoming
as eminent

563
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,600
as Thomas a Kempis or John Bunyan.

564
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,800
And you may expect, henceforth,
to see my birthday inserted

565
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:19,240
among the wonderful events
in the Poor Robin's Almanac.

566
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:23,080
In all probability,
I shall soon be the tenth worthy

567
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,040
and the eighth wise man
of the world.

568
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,280
'Edinburgh was a kind of mirage
for Burns -

569
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,880
'something he knew wouldn't last.

570
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:44,080
'You get a deeper sense of that
here in Canongate churchyard.'

571
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:49,920
I suppose this might be the ultimate
tribute from one poet to another.

572
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,960
"No sculptured marble here,
nor pompous lay,

573
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,080
"no storied urn nor animated bust,

574
00:38:57,080 --> 00:39:01,560
"This simple stone directs pale
Scotia's way,

575
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:05,640
"To pour her sorrows
o'er the Poet's dust."

576
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,800
This monument
was raised by Robert Burns

577
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:11,440
to honour fellow poet
Robert Fergusson,

578
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:14,120
who had died -
penniless and insane -

579
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,720
only a few years
before Burns arrived here.

580
00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:23,560
'Robert Fergusson
was a huge inspiration to Burns.

581
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,080
'He wrote in Scots too.

582
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:30,480
'He had been rejected by the same
Edinburgh that now embraced Burns.

583
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:33,640
'Before Burns came, Fergusson's
grave had been unmarked.'

584
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:41,240
'I think Burns saw Fergusson
as a sort of warning about what
could happen to poets in Scotland.

585
00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,920
'Fergusson's sad death
in dire poverty

586
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:48,080
'was something Burns
became determined to avoid.'

587
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:52,160
Is there for honest Poverty

588
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:55,480
That hings his head for a' that;

589
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:57,720
The coward slave - we pass him by,

590
00:39:57,720 --> 00:40:00,600
We dare be poor for a' that!

591
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,680
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure for a' that,

592
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:07,200
The rank is but a guinea's stamp,

593
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,840
The Man's the gowd for a' that.

594
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,400
'Burns seized every opportunity

595
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,880
'to mingle with
the upper echelons of society.

596
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:26,040
'Those who might help him, or
be in a position to buy his book.

597
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,320
'He was already a Freemason
from his days in Ayrshire.

598
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,240
'And shortly after arriving
in Edinburgh,

599
00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:34,040
'he was taken up by a coterie
of leading men

600
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,000
'who were also Freemasons.

601
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:39,840
'From them he received an accolade
that overwhelmed him -

602
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,920
'taking up his appointment
as Caledonia's bard.'

603
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:46,200
Yes, by all means, come in, please.

604
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,320
"I went to a Mason lodge
yesternight,

605
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:52,400
"where the most worshipful master,
among other general toasts,

606
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:56,520
"gave Caledonia and
Caledonia's bard, brother Burns.

607
00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:01,560
"Which rang through the whole
assembly with multiple honours
and repeated acclamations.

608
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:03,960
"As I had no idea
such a thing would happen,

609
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:10,480
"I was downright thunderstruck
and, trembling in every nerve,
made the best return in my power."

610
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:14,480
They seemed to find in Burns here,
among his Masonic brethren,

611
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:16,600
a man they wanted to believe in.

612
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:20,120
They really wanted
to push him forward, didn't they?

613
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:22,840
Well, absolutely.
Like the Kilmarnock Edition,

614
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,280
if you look at the subscribers
to the Edinburgh Edition,

615
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,760
a very large number are Freemasons.

616
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:32,840
And, in fact,
lodges bought his book in bulk.

617
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:36,880
The Masonic temperament,
if you like, was quite close to him.

618
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,280
He felt it was important.
Why do you think that was?

619
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,920
Well, probably simply because
everybody's equal.

620
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:47,120
There are people who are just
ordinary men meeting,

621
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:50,240
as we say in Freemasonry,
"On the level".

622
00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:54,560
So everyone is equal. Is that
how it's said, "On the level"? Yes.

623
00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:58,440
The rank is but a guinea's stamp,

624
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:01,840
The Man's the gowd for a' that.

625
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:05,800
Would you show me through?
Certainly, yes. Come this way.

626
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,040
Wow. So, it has an atmosphere
all of its own.

627
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:19,280
As I say, a purpose-built building -
a purpose-built lodge building.

628
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,760
Yes. And the oldest in the world.

629
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:28,200
We know that Burns was definitely in
this room on the 1st February 1787.

630
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,120
In this exact spot here? Yes.

631
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,600
He was recorded by the lodge
secretary as being a visitor
to the lodge and he is named.

632
00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:37,520
They didn't name every visitor.

633
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:42,080
But Burns was, of course, famous and
so... Where would he have stood?

634
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:45,600
Well, he could sit
really anywhere he liked.

635
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:50,640
Again, because we're all
on the level within Freemasonry,

636
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:56,120
there is no specific place except
for the people who are performing,
if you like, the actors.

637
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,800
'Burns loved equality.

638
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:01,320
'And it occurs to me

639
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:04,840
'that the brotherly atmosphere
he enjoyed in these secret rooms

640
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,960
'may have played into
his true values as a writer.'

641
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:12,920
You're putting me in mind of
something I hadn't thought of in
relation to Burns.

642
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:18,960
That some of the levelling
is very much there in the work
and there in his character. Yes.

643
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:23,000
And it chimes with Freemasonry,
as you describe it -

644
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:28,880
a sense of the high-heedyins
and the lower orders coming in
to a common space. Exactly.

645
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:31,000
And that again is typical of...

646
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,080
'One of Burns's fellow Masons,

647
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,800
'one of Scotland's
most eminent men, Lord Glencairn,

648
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,920
'certainly pulled some Masonic
strings for Caledonia's bard.

649
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:43,440
'He persuaded all 100 members
of his other elite club,

650
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:47,000
'the Caledonia Hunt,
to subscribe en masse.'

651
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:52,080
'The literati,
the aristocracy, the Masons.

652
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,400
'Edinburgh had taken up Robert Burns

653
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:58,640
'in a way he could never have
expected when he left Ayrshire.'

654
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,720
Burns was now an
official national curiosity.

655
00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:10,240
And people all over the place
wanted to see what the rustic
genius looked like.

656
00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:12,160
So what are we still missing?

657
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,440
Yes. A portrait.

658
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:25,360
Today we are very familiar
with the process of fame-building.

659
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:29,280
But Robert Burns in his own day
was completely familiar with it too.

660
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,120
He built a celebrity image
for himself,

661
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:36,160
and an important element in that,
perhaps the most important element,

662
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,920
was to have a great portrait.
And this is it.

663
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,120
The Naismith portrait of Burns,

664
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:44,240
which was famous in his own day
through reproductions,

665
00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:50,800
but in all the years since then
has become the garlanding image
on a million shortbread tins.

666
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,600
Sitting for a portrait
was only for the elite.

667
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:00,400
But this wasn't to be
the only portrait

668
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,800
Burns would have done
in Edinburgh.

669
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:08,320
"My honoured friend, I will soon
be with you in good black print.

670
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:12,480
"I am getting my phiz done
by an eminent engraver

671
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:18,240
"and will appear like all other
fools, looking to my title page."

672
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:23,960
John Bugle, Edinburgh's leading
engraver, also went to work

673
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:28,600
on Burns's face, creating a timeless
image of a strikingly handsome Burns

674
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:30,720
at the very height of his fame.

675
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,360
With this image on its inside cover,

676
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:38,040
the package for the new print run
of his poems was complete.

677
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:45,000
Close observers could have asked,
as I do myself,

678
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,560
where the radical Burns is, in
all this excellent self-promotion.

679
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,320
I see a poet ever ready
to greet his applause.

680
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:57,520
But what about his strongest
feelings regarding church hypocrisy
and political compromise?

681
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,280
He did write some new poems
in Edinburgh,

682
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:04,400
but it was almost as if he was
trying too hard to please his hosts.

683
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,160
Fair fa' your honest sonsie face

684
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:10,880
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race

685
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:13,200
Aboon them a' ye tak your place

686
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:15,080
Painch, tripe or thairm

687
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:19,760
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
as lang's my arm

688
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,920
The groaning trencher there ye fill
Your hurdies like a distant hill

689
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:26,640
Your pin wad help
to mend a mill in time o need

690
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:32,120
While thro' your pores
the dews distil like amber bead

691
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:37,120
His knife see rustic labour dight
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight

692
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:40,560
Trenching your gushing
entrails bright, like ony ditch

693
00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:46,000
And then, O what a glorious sight
Warm-reekin, rich.

694
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:55,240
At the moment of his greatest
visibility, he could have created
a platform for protest.

695
00:46:55,240 --> 00:46:57,160
But he didn't.

696
00:46:58,720 --> 00:47:02,080
He gave the people a colourful
and cheerful piece of whimsy.

697
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:05,520
A poem about a simple national dish.

698
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:11,440
Sorry, we've no whisky.

699
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,680
Keith's a Glayva man.
Is he?

700
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:22,200
I think whisky should be drunk
before or after. But not with.

701
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,680
You can't taste the haggis.

702
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:27,640
And you can't appreciate the whisky.
That's my view.

703
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:33,360
The people who were feeling critical
of Burns might say that he lent his
name too easily to the promotion

704
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:37,000
of national mythology
and a sense of Scotland.

705
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,080
I wonder if he wanted...

706
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,720
to see himself
as the Caledonian bard,

707
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:45,520
and having a national dish
to promote

708
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:48,200
must have helped his sense of that.

709
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:52,760
But did people think of it as a
national dish before he wrote that?

710
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:58,320
I think it suited him,
because it was humble,

711
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,360
and, you know, I think he could see

712
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:04,040
that it summed up Scotland's
personality.

713
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:08,600
But I don't know if anyone
would have ever thought to have
written a poem about it before.

714
00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:13,400
And I think maybe
that's why it was so striking.

715
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,200
He just notices things,

716
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:21,480
but he notices timeless things. And
that's another reason why I think we
still bother to talk about him today.

717
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:26,400
I think the other point to make is,
Burns Night is secular.

718
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:28,640
There's no religion.

719
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:31,440
I'm going to sound
like John Lennon now!

720
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:33,200
But, you know, I think that's helped.

721
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,360
That's possibly the first time
in history where John Lennon

722
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:40,400
and his aesthetic
has been linked to haggis! Why not?

723
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:46,160
The second edition of the book
was a huge success.

724
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:50,560
He knew how the public saw him
and he gave them what they wanted.

725
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:54,640
He'd raised enough subscriptions
to make several years of wages
in pure profit.

726
00:48:56,280 --> 00:49:00,000
Edinburgh, the Athens of the North,
was heroically conquered.

727
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:07,320
Then he sold away the rights
to the poems.

728
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:11,040
And from that moment on, he wouldn't
make another penny from them.

729
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:15,760
But getting any of the money
his publisher, Creech, owed him
wouldn't be easy.

730
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,560
So Burns fell back on
his usual enjoyments.

731
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:20,960
He had affairs with women
of all classes,

732
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,800
and took up with a notorious
drinking club,

733
00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:29,320
a group of Edinburgh grandees
and self-styled wits,
the Crochallan Fencibles.

734
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:32,440
Have you still got your
facsimile skull of Burns?

735
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:34,600
Where is it? It's in the house.

736
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:37,240
You left the skull at home?!

737
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:46,760
This group meets to keep
the spirit of that particular
episode in Burns's life alive.

738
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:54,120
They've invited me to one of their
dinners in the Officers' Mess
at Edinburgh Castle.

739
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:55,600
Welcome.

740
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:58,400
Good evening, gentlemen.

741
00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:00,640
THEY CLAP

742
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:03,280
Take a seat. Thank you so much.

743
00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:07,160
We're about to launch into a small
passage from The Libel Summons.

744
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:11,240
Before we do that, would you like
a glass? I'd love one, thank you.

745
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:18,200
These men are true Burns devotees

746
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:24,200
and they take turns to perform
his work and other poems that
they think Burns would have liked.

747
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:27,200
By virtue of the acerbic nature
of Burns's tongue,

748
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:30,120
he would also have appreciated...

749
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,480
Once on a time

750
00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:36,160
I fair Usebia kissed

751
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:38,080
Whose nose...

752
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:41,040
was too distinguished to be missed

753
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:42,560
LAUGHTER

754
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:45,840
Quoth I, Sweet wench
fain would I kiss you closer

755
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:47,880
But though your lips say aye

756
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:49,840
Your nose says no, sir

757
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,000
LAUGHTER

758
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:57,200
The maid was equally to fun inclined

759
00:50:57,200 --> 00:51:01,120
And placed her lovely
lily hand behind

760
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:04,600
Here swain, cried she,
mayst thou securely kiss

761
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:07,720
Where there's no nose
to interrupt thy bliss.

762
00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:09,680
LAUGHTER

763
00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:18,000
'The Cochallan Fencibles were those

764
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,680
'who occupied fairly prominent
positions in Edinburgh society'

765
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:25,000
of the day - Writers of the Signet,
rector of the High School,

766
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,120
Latin master of the High School,

767
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:29,840
Governor of Edinburgh Castle,
they were Fencibles.

768
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,720
They last met in 1795.

769
00:51:32,720 --> 00:51:38,120
And in 1993, then the Adjutant
and myself decided

770
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:42,000
there should be
a modern-day equivalent
of the Cochallan Fencibles,

771
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,680
hence the Cochallan Fencibles
Second Battalion.

772
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:50,080
No-one would confuse
this gathering with a rally
on political correctness

773
00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:54,440
but then that some
of Burns's poems aren't the
most politically correct, either.

774
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:58,880
As has been pointed out
already, Burns was a great
lover of the lassies.

775
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:03,720
He also did not thole the other side
of women terribly well.

776
00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:05,800
He gave this advice

777
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:10,880
to a man who was unfortunate
in the wife that he had. He says...

778
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:14,720
Curs'd be the man
The poorest wretch in life

779
00:52:14,720 --> 00:52:18,000
The crouching vassal
o' a tyrant wife

780
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,760
Who has no will
but by her high permission

781
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:24,440
Who has but sixpence
but in her possession

782
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:28,120
Who must to her
his dear friend's secrets tell

783
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:31,560
Who dreads a curtain lecture
worse than hell

784
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,000
If such a wife
were fallen to my part

785
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:37,520
I'd break her spirit
or I'd break her heart

786
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:40,920
I'd charm her
with the magic of a switch

787
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:44,320
I'd kiss her maids
And I'd kick the perverse bitch.

788
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:46,000
LAUGHTER

789
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:52,400
Listening to these entertaining
gentlemen, I begin to wonder

790
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:58,280
if there isn't a side to Burns -
the less soothing side, perhaps -
that only appeals to men.

791
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:04,960
Would anybody care
to take up the cudgels on behalf
of Burns and yourselves

792
00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:09,200
in defence of male company
and its exclusive jokes?

793
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:13,880
He did it with tongue in cheek.

794
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:17,440
I think a lot
of the "anti" ladies...

795
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:21,560
I know that when we all do Burns
suppers, most of the Fencibles

796
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:25,160
all perform at different times
and in different ways,

797
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:29,720
at different suppers. But at the end
of the day, we all appreciate that

798
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:34,720
we couldn't live without the lasses,
and I think Burns
accepted that as well.

799
00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:38,640
I think he summed it up in one
of his earliest songs,

800
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:40,680
which he never bettered.

801
00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:43,520
Auld Nature swears
the lovely dears

802
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:46,320
Her noblest work
she classes, O

803
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:51,520
Her prentice hand she tried on man
And then she made the lasses, O.

804
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:53,200
That sums it up.

805
00:53:55,480 --> 00:54:00,040
We'll start off canny
with a chorus and you can join in.

806
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:05,400
# Ye Jacobites by name

807
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:07,760
# Lend an ear, lend an ear

808
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:09,640
# Ye Jacobites by name

809
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:12,360
# Lend an ear

810
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:15,360
# Ye Jacobites by name... #

811
00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:19,640
These men also celebrate
Burns's musical side.

812
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:23,280
The poet met a song collector at
one such meeting, James Johnson,

813
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:28,560
who would remain in Burns's life
after so much of the Edinburgh
glow had gone.

814
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:32,480
# ..What is right, what is wrong
By the law, by the law?

815
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:36,400
# What is right, what is wrong
By the law...? #

816
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:41,800
As Burns lingered among the
drinking clubs of Edinburgh,
his mind was increasingly

817
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:45,280
on what he'd do once the great
mirage disappeared,

818
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:49,080
when his season among the
great men of his time was over.

819
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:02,640
Edinburgh's grandees didn't really
want him to stay,

820
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:08,560
they wanted him to go back to the
country, to return to that rustic
life that had first inspired him.

821
00:55:10,720 --> 00:55:16,840
But Burns was in turmoil about that
life and about ever being able
to support his family that way.

822
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:28,160
He drifted back and forth
from Edinburgh to Ayrshire,

823
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:31,120
where he reconciled with
his sweetheart, Jean Armour.

824
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:35,400
He toured the country, collecting
songs, but he couldn't settle.

825
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:39,760
Then he did something
really quite astonishing.

826
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:45,520
At the height of his fame,
he decided to try to join
the Customs and Excise.

827
00:55:47,520 --> 00:55:51,200
He wrote to his masonic friend,
Lord Glencairn, someone he knew

828
00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:54,440
who could pull strings for him,
and he turned on the charm.

829
00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:02,960
"My Lord, I know your Lordship will
disapprove of my ideas in a request
that I'm going to make to you.

830
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:05,720
"I wish to get into the Excise.

831
00:56:05,720 --> 00:56:10,960
"I am told that your Lordship's
interest will easily procure me
the grant from the commissioners."

832
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:16,400
'Burns puts the matter
very strongly in the letter.'

833
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:21,520
He talks about the possibility
of extraordinary distress
or helpless old age,

834
00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:25,920
how they've often harrowed
my soul with fears, he says.

835
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,120
"I've one or two claims on me
in the name of father."

836
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:32,920
That must be the understatement
of the 18th century.

837
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:36,600
This is a guy who has more than
a few small claims on him as father.

838
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:40,760
He'd weans from one end
of Ayrshire to the other,
if some are to be believed.

839
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:48,040
He's always mindful,
Burns, that he's a duty of care

840
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:55,040
to his family, and he's
asking Lord Glencairn to put
his affection for him to good use,

841
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:59,240
to help Burns get a position
in life which would actually
let him pay the bills.

842
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:06,760
This is a man who has been through
all the trials and tribulations

843
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:09,560
of the small farming life
in Ayrshire.

844
00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:11,920
He really dreads the idea
of going back to that.

845
00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:17,720
He knows it could be ruinous,
it could be failure,
so the Excise offers a lifeline.

846
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:23,200
Poet Burns, poet Burns
Wi' your priest-skelping turns

847
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:26,480
Why desert ye your old native shire?

848
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:29,520
Though your muse is a gypsy
Yet were she even tipsy

849
00:57:29,520 --> 00:57:32,840
She could ca' us nae waur
than we are, Poet Burns

850
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:35,640
She could ca' us
nae waur than we are.

851
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:41,280
The Edinburgh gamble
had largely paid off.

852
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:46,320
But Burns was once again at a
crossroads. His rural roots
were calling him back.

853
00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:01,120
How monie hearts this day converts

854
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:02,880
O' sinners and o' lasses

855
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,600
Their hearts o' stane
gin night are gane

856
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:07,720
As saft as ony flesh is...

857
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:08,920
Come on, hit it!

858
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:11,360
..There's some are fou
o' love divine

859
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:13,640
There's some are fou o' brandy

860
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,640
An' monie jobs that day begin
May end in houghmagandie

861
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:19,960
Some ither day.

862
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:35,880
These men are trying to get a ham
wrapped up in a sheet and nailed
to the top of this greasy pole.

863
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:42,320
This is one of the highlights of
a fair that has been taking place

864
00:58:42,320 --> 00:58:45,280
in Irvine, near my home town,
since medieval times.

865
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:50,080
Robert Burns would have known
about this fair and fairs like it.

866
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:54,800
They were the focus of
community life in rural Scotland.

867
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:59,840
In his early years, he had found
great inspiration in this world.

868
00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:02,520
But the success
of his first book of poems

869
00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:08,880
had lured him away to Edinburgh
and I think that as a poet,
he had lost his way a bit there.

870
00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:14,120
He needed to be close to this
carnival of Ayrshire voices,
to create his best work.

871
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:17,840
What the BLEEP are ye yappin'?
Will you BLEEP get here? Hurry up!

872
00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:21,600
Now Burns had several hundred
pounds in his pocket

873
00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:26,480
and the acclaim of the great city of
Edinburgh still echoing behind him.

874
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:29,000
But all he could think about

875
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:32,960
was how he was going to
find a life of security
for him and for his family.

876
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:47,680
When he came back from Edinburgh,
Burns married Jean Armour, his
understanding Ayrshire sweetheart,

877
00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:52,120
the woman who later said that our
Rabbie should have had twa' wives.

878
00:59:53,040 --> 00:59:57,800
"There is, you must know, a certain
clean-limbed, handsome, bewitching

879
00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:04,800
"young hussy of your acquaintance,
to whom I have lately and privately
given a matrimonial title."

880
01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:13,080
Burns was loath to give up the
chance of the idea of becoming a
traditional, successful farmer.

881
01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:18,040
This is Ellisland farm
in Dumfriesshire

882
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:20,400
which sits along the
beautiful River Nith.

883
01:00:20,400 --> 01:00:26,680
Burns came here in the early
summer of 1788, full of hopes.
It was a new chapter in his life.

884
01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:35,000
This farm was Robert Burns'
new hope, the place
he chose to start again,

885
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:39,240
the place where the poet
would bring up his family.

886
01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:43,920
Burns even had a safety net,
something to calm any insecurities
about the farming life.

887
01:00:46,200 --> 01:00:51,920
The commission in the Excise that
he had long petitioned the great
Glencairn for, finally came through.

888
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,280
And what a relief it was.

889
01:00:54,280 --> 01:01:00,880
"My dear friend, I know not
how the word Exciseman
will sound in your ears.

890
01:01:00,880 --> 01:01:07,440
"I too have seen the day when my
auditory nerves would have felt
very delicately on this subject.

891
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:13,040
"But a wife and children are things
which have a wonderful power in
blunting those kind of sensations.

892
01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:16,240
"£50 a year for life and a provision
for widows and orphans,

893
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:19,720
"you will allow,
is no bad settlement for a poet."

894
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:25,000
Ellisland in some ways
represents the last attempt

895
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:29,560
to live the kind of life that his
father would have liked him to live.

896
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:35,360
To be an effective farmer,
an effective Christian
and a good family man.

897
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:39,640
It's the part of Burns's life where
I feel closest to him in some ways

898
01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:43,280
because writers
have all that public life

899
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:48,080
of signings and public events and
even in his day, the local fame.

900
01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:54,240
Everybody in Mauchline
had known Rabbie Burns
but he'd come away from all of that,

901
01:01:54,240 --> 01:01:59,160
he'd come away from the lads
and the hubbub of life
and the drinking and the reputation

902
01:01:59,160 --> 01:02:01,280
and come to this table.

903
01:02:01,280 --> 01:02:04,720
He'd come in after a long day
working for the Excise

904
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:07,760
and he'd be drying himself
beside this very oven here

905
01:02:07,760 --> 01:02:09,880
and trying to write.

906
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:13,720
You suddenly get a sense of this
phenomenon that he's come
to seem to us,

907
01:02:13,720 --> 01:02:16,720
this phenomenon
was really just a man.

908
01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:21,640
Perhaps this genius,
for all his love of freedom,

909
01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:25,280
ultimately was a victim
of the very opposite of freedom.

910
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:28,960
He was imprisoned by duty
and responsibility.

911
01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:37,240
Yet amazingly, he turned himself
into the 18th century equivalent

912
01:02:37,240 --> 01:02:40,840
of a hit factory when it came
to the production of songs.

913
01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:47,680
"Besides my farm business,
I ride on my Excise matters
at least 200 miles every week.

914
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:50,720
"I have not by any means
given up the muses.

915
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:55,560
"You'll see in the third volume
of Johnson's Scots songs that
I've contributed my mite there."

916
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:07,800
# ..Every hour that passes, O
What signifies the life o' man

917
01:03:07,800 --> 01:03:12,760
# 'Twere na for the lasses, O

918
01:03:12,760 --> 01:03:16,400
# Green grow the rashes, O... #

919
01:03:16,400 --> 01:03:21,280
I've come to a homely gathering
of musicians who have a lot of time
for Burns's devotion to song.

920
01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:23,560
# ...That e'er I spend

921
01:03:23,560 --> 01:03:28,480
# I spent among the lasses, O... #

922
01:03:28,480 --> 01:03:31,680
'A lot of people have written through
the 19th century into the 20th,'

923
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:34,200
"What was he doing wasting his time?

924
01:03:34,200 --> 01:03:37,200
"We could have had more good poetry
in those last years."

925
01:03:37,200 --> 01:03:39,840
Basically, music
and the notion of song

926
01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:42,680
was important to Burns
from the very start.

927
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:49,640
His early life, he did dabble
in some songwriting but the first
publications included mostly poetry.

928
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:55,880
It's really the trip to Edinburgh
and a chance meeting, or perhaps
it was a fateful meeting,

929
01:03:55,880 --> 01:04:03,280
with James Johnson, the publisher,
that kind of provided a catalyst
to Burns becoming really obsessed,

930
01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:07,120
to all intents and purposes, with
songs in the last years of his life.

931
01:04:07,120 --> 01:04:11,720
# ..I spent among the lasses, O. #

932
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:16,480
"I am engaged in assisting an honest
Scotch enthusiast, a friend of mine

933
01:04:16,480 --> 01:04:19,880
"who is an engraver and has taken it
into his head to publish

934
01:04:19,880 --> 01:04:22,520
"a collection of all of our songs
set to music.

935
01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:27,120
"This you will easily guess is
an undertaking exactly to my taste.

936
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:32,760
"I have collected, begged,
borrowed and stolen
all the songs I could meet with."

937
01:04:32,760 --> 01:04:35,400
# ..Green grow the rashes, O... #

938
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:38,240
'The influences come from
a whole variety of places.'

939
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:42,480
They come from him listening to
people sing and noting things down.

940
01:04:42,480 --> 01:04:47,520
They come from wee fragments
that he finds in a whole
wide variety of publications.

941
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:51,280
I think we often think he's
kind of the man of the folk

942
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:56,680
and he's keen to note down people
singing folk songs in
the field or at convivial gatherings,

943
01:04:56,680 --> 01:05:04,680
which indeed he did,
but he's also incredibly well read in
terms of all the song publications.

944
01:05:04,680 --> 01:05:09,600
# Should auld acquaintance
be forgot... #

945
01:05:09,600 --> 01:05:13,080
And he pinches and steals and
chooses a phrase from here

946
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:17,760
or a chorus from there,
and that just inspires him.

947
01:05:17,760 --> 01:05:24,840
# Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne... #

948
01:05:24,840 --> 01:05:30,880
There's not really far off about
400 songs that we can kind of
prove he had his hands on.

949
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:38,240
Auld Lang Syne was already
the title of a song.

950
01:05:38,240 --> 01:05:44,280
Burns took it, he set it to
new music and transformed
it into something magical.

951
01:05:44,280 --> 01:05:49,320
And, to him, it was for offering
to posterity as a gift.

952
01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:51,960
Burns himself never made
a penny from it.

953
01:05:54,040 --> 01:05:58,600
He seemed far more reluctant
than you might expect
to charge them for it.

954
01:05:58,600 --> 01:06:02,080
He didn't rush towards them
with invoices.

955
01:06:02,080 --> 01:06:04,480
Quite the opposite. Why was that?

956
01:06:04,480 --> 01:06:08,280
Did he see it as a national service?
As something to be
given to the nation?

957
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:11,280
I think he did. I think he
felt very strongly about that.

958
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:14,440
He didn't seek funding or any kind
of payment from Johnson.

959
01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:19,400
And it's funny that Burns critics,
after his death, have, you know,
laid the blame

960
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:23,120
very much at the editors' doors and
said, you know, "Those horrible men.

961
01:06:23,120 --> 01:06:26,040
"Made him do all that work
and never paid a penny for it."

962
01:06:26,040 --> 01:06:30,440
As if they exploited him. As if they
exploited him. But the correspondence
doesn't suggest that at all.

963
01:06:56,760 --> 01:07:00,760
By late 1790,
Burns was in perfect voice.

964
01:07:00,760 --> 01:07:05,280
And he was about to stun
the world of poetry again.

965
01:07:05,280 --> 01:07:08,760
Something extraordinary
was brewing in his imagination.

966
01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:12,920
And like so many of his poems, it's
kept alive today by performance.

967
01:07:13,880 --> 01:07:16,880
Good morning. Good morning.

968
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:18,600
We're going to do Tam O' Shanter.

969
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:21,000
Tell me about Tam O' Shanter.

970
01:07:21,000 --> 01:07:23,720
Who wrote it?
ALL: Robert Burns.

971
01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:25,760
So, let's just go from the beginning.

972
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:29,200
First four or five lines... When
chapman billies leave the street

973
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:31,360
And drouthy neibors, neibors meet

974
01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:33,400
As market days are wearing late

975
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:35,760
And folk begin to tak the gate

976
01:07:35,760 --> 01:07:38,320
While we sit bousing at the nappy

977
01:07:38,320 --> 01:07:41,120
An' getting fou and unco happy

978
01:07:41,120 --> 01:07:44,240
We think na on the lang Scots miles

979
01:07:44,240 --> 01:07:47,640
The mosses, waters,
slaps and stiles

980
01:07:47,640 --> 01:07:50,120
That lie between us and our hame

981
01:07:50,120 --> 01:07:53,560
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame

982
01:07:53,560 --> 01:07:57,160
Gathering her brows
like gathering storm

983
01:07:57,160 --> 01:08:00,480
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm

984
01:08:00,480 --> 01:08:02,720
..She's nursing her wrath
to keep it warm.

985
01:08:02,720 --> 01:08:06,560
Do you think she' sitting at home
going, "I can't wait for Tam
to come back,

986
01:08:06,560 --> 01:08:10,600
"I'll make his dinner, we'll watch
EastEnders, it'll be fantastic"?

987
01:08:10,600 --> 01:08:12,760
No. What is she waiting to do?

988
01:08:12,760 --> 01:08:16,120
Kill him.
Kill him? Well, I hope not!

989
01:08:16,120 --> 01:08:18,640
Maybe give him a good
slap over the ear?

990
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:23,200
Right, OK. So, he comes
outside and it's raining.

991
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:25,080
It's windy.

992
01:08:25,080 --> 01:08:27,640
And the thunder's really loud!

993
01:08:28,920 --> 01:08:32,400
BELL TOLLS

994
01:08:34,680 --> 01:08:38,040
That night a child might understand

995
01:08:38,040 --> 01:08:41,400
The deil had business on his hand

996
01:08:42,480 --> 01:08:45,400
SCREAMING

997
01:08:48,000 --> 01:08:50,040
How did Tam O' Shanter come about?

998
01:08:50,040 --> 01:08:54,120
Well, very simply. Burns was having
dinner with Captain Francis Grose,

999
01:08:54,120 --> 01:09:00,000
the famous antiquarian, who
was collecting stories of Scotland
for his book, The Antiquities.

1000
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:03,840
He asked Burns if he had any ideas
about buildings that he might take

1001
01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:07,480
an interest in and Burns immediately
said, "Auld Alloway Kirk".

1002
01:09:07,480 --> 01:09:09,840
"Fine", said Gross.

1003
01:09:09,840 --> 01:09:14,360
"But you write me a supernatural
story to accompany the picture."

1004
01:09:14,360 --> 01:09:16,840
Right, so let's get into our groups.

1005
01:09:16,840 --> 01:09:18,560
The witches over here.

1006
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:22,000
Witches over there and the
third group of witches over here.

1007
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,600
Tam O' Shanter
and the horse, Meg, over here.

1008
01:09:28,240 --> 01:09:32,840
So, Meg is trotting
up to the graveyard.

1009
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:36,400
Look through the window, Tam,
see the devil

1010
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:40,640
having a good time. The big black dog
who's playing the bagpipes

1011
01:09:40,640 --> 01:09:42,640
and all the witches are dancing.

1012
01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:45,760
And having a great time
and screaming...

1013
01:09:45,760 --> 01:09:48,280
And how Tam stood
like ane bewitch'd

1014
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:50,720
And thought his very een enrich'd

1015
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:53,840
Even Satan glowr'd
and fidg'd fu' fain

1016
01:09:53,840 --> 01:09:56,720
And hotch'd and blew
wi' might and main

1017
01:09:56,720 --> 01:09:59,720
Till first ae caper, syne anither,

1018
01:09:59,720 --> 01:10:02,160
Tam tint his reason a' thegither

1019
01:10:02,160 --> 01:10:05,360
And roars out
"Weel done, Cutty-sark!"

1020
01:10:06,360 --> 01:10:08,840
And in an instant all was dark

1021
01:10:08,840 --> 01:10:11,280
SCREAMING

1022
01:10:13,400 --> 01:10:15,720
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied

1023
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:18,360
When out the hellish legion sallied

1024
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:21,000
As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke

1025
01:10:21,000 --> 01:10:23,520
When plundering herds
assail their byke

1026
01:10:23,520 --> 01:10:25,440
As open pussie's mortal foes

1027
01:10:25,440 --> 01:10:28,560
When, pop!
She starts before their nose

1028
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:32,600
So, what do you think of the
graveyard then and the old graves?

1029
01:10:32,600 --> 01:10:35,840
It's fantastic, isn't it?

1030
01:10:35,840 --> 01:10:41,160
This haunted kirkyard in Alloway,
the very place where, in Burns's
imagination, he figured witches

1031
01:10:41,160 --> 01:10:47,400
and Satan performing their
hellish jig, was a place
he knew well in real life.

1032
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:49,840
His own father was buried here.

1033
01:10:54,600 --> 01:10:58,840
So, remember, Tam has come
scootling down here on his horse,
so what I want you to do is,

1034
01:10:58,840 --> 01:11:03,400
as soon as I clap my hands, I want
you to scream as loud as possible

1035
01:11:03,400 --> 01:11:07,760
and when I clap my hands, I want you
to run as fast as you possibly can.

1036
01:11:07,760 --> 01:11:11,000
But, not too fast cos Nannie
has got to get your tail.

1037
01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:15,240
For Nannie, far before the rest

1038
01:11:15,240 --> 01:11:17,440
Hard upon noble Maggie prest

1039
01:11:17,440 --> 01:11:20,520
And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle

1040
01:11:20,520 --> 01:11:23,040
But little wist she Maggie's mettle

1041
01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:25,960
Ae spring brought off her
master hale

1042
01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:28,640
But left behind her ain gray tail

1043
01:11:28,640 --> 01:11:31,200
The carlin claught her by the rump

1044
01:11:31,200 --> 01:11:34,080
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.

1045
01:11:35,200 --> 01:11:39,400
How many witches and ghouls
do you think you could get
on this bridge?

1046
01:11:39,400 --> 01:11:42,400
About 3,500. Exactly 1,500?

1047
01:11:42,400 --> 01:11:44,960
3,000.

1048
01:11:44,960 --> 01:11:47,920
'When Tam o' Shanter's old mare,
Meg, disappeared

1049
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:52,640
'over the brig here at Alloway,
she arrived in literary legend.'

1050
01:11:52,640 --> 01:11:57,720
Even at the time, Robert Burns
understood that out of the wonderful

1051
01:11:57,720 --> 01:12:01,600
fog of his own creativity,
out of all the supernatural past

1052
01:12:01,600 --> 01:12:08,080
of his childhood, in fact, out
of the culture of a whole country,
he had produced his masterpiece.

1053
01:12:11,800 --> 01:12:15,400
Burns is said to have written the
whole of Tam O' Shanter at Ellisland

1054
01:12:15,400 --> 01:12:18,560
in just one day
by the banks of the river Nith.

1055
01:12:20,680 --> 01:12:24,080
But if the scenery was
inspiring to him as a poet,

1056
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:27,560
the stony soil did nothing but crush
his hopes for success as a farmer.

1057
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:35,120
"Dear brother, my nerves
are in a cursed state.

1058
01:12:35,120 --> 01:12:41,720
"I feel that horrid hypochondria
pervading every atom
of both body and soul.

1059
01:12:41,720 --> 01:12:45,720
"This farm has undone
my enjoyment of myself.

1060
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:48,720
"It is a ruinous affair
on all hands."

1061
01:12:57,120 --> 01:13:02,600
Burns was anxious to escape
the dreadful toil and insecurity
of farmwork.

1062
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:05,240
And when a new position came up
in the Excise in Dumfries,

1063
01:13:05,240 --> 01:13:08,960
the heaven-taught ploughman
severed his ties with the land.

1064
01:13:16,920 --> 01:13:23,760
Robert Burns was now 100%
a civil servant in a prosperous
regional town, with status,

1065
01:13:23,760 --> 01:13:28,920
a permanent salary, a new house
and even prospects of promotion...

1066
01:13:28,920 --> 01:13:30,920
if he could keep his nose clean.

1067
01:13:33,800 --> 01:13:36,960
Burns became a founding member
of Dumfries's new theatre.

1068
01:13:36,960 --> 01:13:40,640
But one evening in late 1792,

1069
01:13:40,640 --> 01:13:44,600
something happened here that
would threaten his position.

1070
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:49,000
He was a Government officer, but
he didn't always behave like one.

1071
01:13:49,000 --> 01:13:53,320
Now, was it a rowdy place,
this theatre, during those years?

1072
01:13:53,320 --> 01:14:00,240
Would it have been a place where the
free expressers of Dumfries would
have come with a drink in them?

1073
01:14:00,240 --> 01:14:03,280
There is every chance
that would be the case.

1074
01:14:03,280 --> 01:14:05,880
It was very much a social centre.

1075
01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:09,160
Now it seats something like 200.

1076
01:14:09,160 --> 01:14:14,200
Then, it could seat or stand 600.
Oh, really.

1077
01:14:14,200 --> 01:14:22,080
And during that time, remembering the
French Revolution was on, Dumfries
was completely split politically

1078
01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:25,520
between radicals like Robert Burns

1079
01:14:25,520 --> 01:14:32,000
and others of a very right-wing
nature, called the Loyal Natives.

1080
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:37,160
And they wanted to keep the
radicals, sort of, in their place.

1081
01:14:37,160 --> 01:14:42,000
'One evening,
the rowdy atmosphere got the better
of the radicals in the pit.'

1082
01:14:42,000 --> 01:14:50,600
Yes, that night, he was down there
as God Save The King was being
played, or was being introduced.

1083
01:14:50,600 --> 01:14:56,920
Lo and behold,
some of the folks in the pit decided
that they wanted something else.

1084
01:14:56,920 --> 01:14:59,880
# Ah! Ca ira, ca ira, ca ira

1085
01:14:59,880 --> 01:15:03,000
# Les aristocrates
a la lanterne... #

1086
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:07,280
They wanted Ca Ira,
which was a song,

1087
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:10,280
and the song of the
French revolutionaries.

1088
01:15:10,280 --> 01:15:11,800
What did it say?

1089
01:15:11,800 --> 01:15:18,800
It said that les aristocrates ought
to be burned or hanged or whatever.

1090
01:15:18,800 --> 01:15:20,840
And this was quite a statement.

1091
01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:22,840
# ..Ni nobles, ni pretres

1092
01:15:22,840 --> 01:15:25,560
# Ah! Ca ira, ca ira, ca ira... #

1093
01:15:25,560 --> 01:15:28,240
And did Burns participate
in the singing of the song?

1094
01:15:28,240 --> 01:15:30,200
Hah! This is the question.

1095
01:15:30,200 --> 01:15:37,360
He may well have mouthed something,
but he stated that he did not
participate at all.

1096
01:15:37,360 --> 01:15:41,160
He stated, however, that, yes,
this was happening,

1097
01:15:41,160 --> 01:15:45,640
and a small group of people round
about him were causing this trouble.

1098
01:15:45,640 --> 01:15:48,280
So maybe he was mouthing,
"It wasnae me!"

1099
01:15:48,280 --> 01:15:52,400
He could easily have been
mouthing that, you never know!

1100
01:15:52,400 --> 01:15:55,600
But definitely,
he was a radical, definitely.

1101
01:15:55,600 --> 01:15:59,200
We know where his
sentiments would have been.

1102
01:15:59,200 --> 01:16:07,160
# O, wert thou in the cauld blast...

1103
01:16:07,320 --> 01:16:11,120
Someone in the Theatre Royal
that night reported Burns,

1104
01:16:11,120 --> 01:16:15,360
and he was soon exposed to the
cauld blast of official scrutiny.

1105
01:16:16,960 --> 01:16:22,720
"I have been surprised,
confounded and distracted
by Mr Mitchell, the collector,

1106
01:16:22,720 --> 01:16:28,720
"telling me that he has received
an order from your board to inquire
into my political conduct,

1107
01:16:28,720 --> 01:16:32,880
"and blaming me as a person
disaffected to government."

1108
01:16:32,880 --> 01:16:37,680
Do you think this was a
contradiction that Burns had
to carry through that time?

1109
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:43,400
That he, as you say, was a radical,
he was certainly a democrat, a
free-thinker, and yet his position

1110
01:16:43,400 --> 01:16:47,040
in the Excise as a Government
official denied the possibility

1111
01:16:47,040 --> 01:16:50,680
of him giving too free an
expression to that side of himself?

1112
01:16:50,680 --> 01:16:52,640
That sums the whole thing up, yes.

1113
01:16:52,640 --> 01:16:54,960
He had to be very, very careful.

1114
01:16:54,960 --> 01:17:00,640
Most of the time he was,
but sometimes after a wee
bit of whisky or whatever,

1115
01:17:00,640 --> 01:17:08,080
especially in the Globe Inn,
he would possibly make statements
that he ought not to have made.

1116
01:17:10,920 --> 01:17:16,600
'It took three months for Burns
to learn that he was to be cleared
and keep his job.

1117
01:17:16,600 --> 01:17:19,280
'But no matter how hard he tried,

1118
01:17:19,280 --> 01:17:24,040
'Burns couldn't always hold back
his well-known political opinions.

1119
01:17:24,040 --> 01:17:28,440
'This was a time when
Britain and France were at war,

1120
01:17:28,440 --> 01:17:31,840
'so political temperatures
were running high

1121
01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:34,240
'and so were political fears.

1122
01:17:34,240 --> 01:17:38,440
'Burns's misbehaviour in Dumfries
was a real threat to him,

1123
01:17:38,440 --> 01:17:42,000
'to his well-being and that of
his children. He understood that.'

1124
01:17:42,000 --> 01:17:44,640
Hi there. Hello, can I help you?

1125
01:17:44,640 --> 01:17:48,200
He lived in fear
of being dismissed from the Excise,

1126
01:17:48,200 --> 01:17:51,320
a job that he'd sought
with such energy,

1127
01:17:51,320 --> 01:17:54,280
and he'd really compromised himself
to get that job.

1128
01:17:54,280 --> 01:17:59,080
And yet he would go out
some evenings and just let rip.

1129
01:18:01,960 --> 01:18:07,680
'One night, at a drinking party,
Burns raised a toast in company.

1130
01:18:07,680 --> 01:18:10,720
"May our success in the present war

1131
01:18:10,720 --> 01:18:13,920
"be equal to the justice
of our cause."

1132
01:18:17,440 --> 01:18:20,640
'One of the other drinkers
took offence

1133
01:18:20,640 --> 01:18:24,120
'and the incident threatened
to escalate out of control.'

1134
01:18:24,120 --> 01:18:29,240
Would you like anything in this?
Some ice would be great, thanks.

1135
01:18:29,240 --> 01:18:33,120
Had I had nobody's welfare
to care for but my own,

1136
01:18:33,120 --> 01:18:35,760
we should have come, according
to the manners of the world,

1137
01:18:35,760 --> 01:18:38,720
to murdering one another
about the business.

1138
01:18:38,720 --> 01:18:43,120
The words were such that I believe
normally end in abrasive pistols.

1139
01:18:43,120 --> 01:18:46,680
FIDDLE PLAYS

1140
01:18:46,680 --> 01:18:50,480
'The next morning, Burns was
terrified that news would get out

1141
01:18:50,480 --> 01:18:52,520
'and he'd lose his livelihood,

1142
01:18:52,520 --> 01:18:55,240
'so he was forced to write a letter,

1143
01:18:55,240 --> 01:18:59,760
'imploring those at the drinking
party to hush up his behaviour.'

1144
01:18:59,760 --> 01:19:04,360
"You know that the report of certain
political opinions being mine

1145
01:19:04,360 --> 01:19:07,960
"has already once before brought me
to the brink of destruction.

1146
01:19:07,960 --> 01:19:12,240
"I dread lest last night's business
be misrepresented in the same way.

1147
01:19:12,240 --> 01:19:16,280
"You, I beg,
will take care to prevent it."

1148
01:19:16,280 --> 01:19:22,120
Some people took against this
contradiction, this hypocrisy
in Burns, in a big way.

1149
01:19:22,120 --> 01:19:24,240
Because here, after all,

1150
01:19:24,240 --> 01:19:28,760
was the guy who had really put his
finger on hypocrisy in the church,

1151
01:19:28,760 --> 01:19:31,920
and in the state,
in a way that nobody else had.

1152
01:19:31,920 --> 01:19:37,000
He'd built his entire reputation
on being an enemy of hypocrisy.

1153
01:19:37,000 --> 01:19:41,440
He'd satirised the double-dealers
in the society of his day.

1154
01:19:43,800 --> 01:19:46,320
'But was he himself a double-dealer?

1155
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:51,040
'Was Burns himself a hypocrite?'

1156
01:19:51,040 --> 01:19:55,320
I think, to some extent,
he knew that it was unsustainable,

1157
01:19:55,320 --> 01:19:59,240
that he'd lost sight of the person
he used to be

1158
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:03,200
and that's the Burns
that I feel is most pitiable.

1159
01:20:03,200 --> 01:20:07,480
The one who wanted freedom
but couldn't afford it.

1160
01:20:23,520 --> 01:20:27,520
'Burns's loyalty to King and country
would be tested one more time.

1161
01:20:29,200 --> 01:20:31,840
'Fear of a French invasion
was growing

1162
01:20:31,840 --> 01:20:35,520
'and all over Britain
local militias were being set up.'

1163
01:20:37,240 --> 01:20:40,160
'This time, Burns acted impeccably,

1164
01:20:40,160 --> 01:20:43,240
'leaving no question
over his loyalty,

1165
01:20:43,240 --> 01:20:47,160
'by being one of the Dumfries
Volunteers' founder members.

1166
01:20:47,160 --> 01:20:51,120
'And he even got into debt
to pay for his scarlet uniform.

1167
01:20:53,800 --> 01:20:59,680
'But within a few months
of joining up, it was apparent
that something was wrong.

1168
01:20:59,680 --> 01:21:03,640
'It wasn't his political enemies
that threatened Burns,

1169
01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:07,160
'it was the oldest enemy of all -
bad health.'

1170
01:21:13,200 --> 01:21:17,920
'In no time, he was in the grip
of the most wracking illness.'

1171
01:21:22,480 --> 01:21:27,520
'Soon he was so sick that he could
no longer work for the Excise.

1172
01:21:27,520 --> 01:21:31,400
'Wasted, feverish, in pain,
his doctor diagnosed gout

1173
01:21:31,400 --> 01:21:34,760
'and prescribed a course
of sea bathing.

1174
01:21:36,280 --> 01:21:38,800
'So Burns came here to Solway Firth,

1175
01:21:38,800 --> 01:21:41,800
'where he waded out chest deep
every day.'

1176
01:21:45,760 --> 01:21:50,840
"Were you to see
the emaciated figure
who now holds the pen to you,

1177
01:21:50,840 --> 01:21:53,600
"you would not know your old friend.

1178
01:21:53,600 --> 01:21:57,880
"Whether I shall ever get about
again is only known to Him,

1179
01:21:57,880 --> 01:22:01,880
"the great unknown,
whose creature I am.

1180
01:22:01,880 --> 01:22:04,800
"I begin to fear the worst."

1181
01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:11,200
'Desperate for a medical miracle,

1182
01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:14,800
'Burns continued to bathe
in the freezing sea water.'

1183
01:22:16,880 --> 01:22:21,920
'While back in Dumfries,
a debtor was closing in.

1184
01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:28,800
'The haberdasher who supplied
Burns's military uniform

1185
01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:32,760
'had heard the rumour that Burns
was dying and called in his debt.

1186
01:22:32,760 --> 01:22:36,600
'But this was a debt
that Robert Burns couldn't pay.'

1187
01:22:44,360 --> 01:22:49,160
'The money from the poems
was long gone on failed farms.

1188
01:22:49,160 --> 01:22:51,400
'The copyright profits
sold long ago.

1189
01:22:51,400 --> 01:22:53,640
'His songs he had given away,

1190
01:22:53,640 --> 01:22:58,320
'and the Excise salary
had been cut due to ill health.'

1191
01:23:03,400 --> 01:23:06,680
'Now Burns feared he would
be thrown into a debtor's prison,

1192
01:23:06,680 --> 01:23:08,680
'to die there - the very same threat

1193
01:23:08,680 --> 01:23:12,960
'that had hung over his own father's
head, almost till the grave.'

1194
01:23:19,440 --> 01:23:23,840
'So Caledonia's bard was forced
to write a begging letter,

1195
01:23:23,840 --> 01:23:28,120
'to his cousin,
asking for £10 to pay off his debt.'

1196
01:23:34,360 --> 01:23:38,440
'Then Robert Burns
went home to die.'

1197
01:24:20,800 --> 01:24:27,120
Robert Burns used his diamond
stylus to strike his name
into the glass here.

1198
01:24:27,120 --> 01:24:31,800
There: "Robert Burns."

1199
01:24:43,840 --> 01:24:48,240
It's actually quite moving
to be in this room,

1200
01:24:48,240 --> 01:24:51,480
after all the years I've spent
thinking about Burns

1201
01:24:51,480 --> 01:24:53,520
and reading him and admiring him.

1202
01:24:53,520 --> 01:24:56,680
To think that he came to such a...

1203
01:24:56,680 --> 01:24:59,800
sad end here, at the age of 37.

1204
01:25:06,760 --> 01:25:10,360
'Everything in Burns's life
seemed to be dramatic

1205
01:25:10,360 --> 01:25:13,160
'and his death was no different.'

1206
01:25:16,240 --> 01:25:18,640
As he lay dying,
his wife, Jean Armour,

1207
01:25:18,640 --> 01:25:21,120
was in the room behind me,

1208
01:25:21,120 --> 01:25:24,240
days away from giving birth
to their latest child.

1209
01:25:28,000 --> 01:25:29,840
His last words, allegedly, were,

1210
01:25:29,840 --> 01:25:34,160
"Don't let the awkward squad
fire over me."

1211
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:36,760
He was keen to go into
the next world

1212
01:25:36,760 --> 01:25:41,320
very much as he'd wanted to be
in this one - a freedom fighter,

1213
01:25:41,320 --> 01:25:45,440
somehow above or apart
from authority,

1214
01:25:45,440 --> 01:25:47,320
from government,

1215
01:25:47,320 --> 01:25:49,120
and from control.

1216
01:25:56,400 --> 01:25:59,600
'Two days after Robert Burns died,

1217
01:25:59,600 --> 01:26:03,000
'the last of his 13
known children was born.

1218
01:26:03,000 --> 01:26:04,840
'As well as his children,

1219
01:26:04,840 --> 01:26:09,880
'he left behind countless letters
and around 600 poems and songs.

1220
01:26:09,880 --> 01:26:14,720
'The population of Dumfries
was then just 5,000,

1221
01:26:14,720 --> 01:26:17,240
'but it's said that 10,000 people

1222
01:26:17,240 --> 01:26:20,880
'watched Robert Burns's coffin
travel to the graveyard.'

1223
01:26:32,240 --> 01:26:35,440
'Robert Burns,
the Heaven-taught ploughman,

1224
01:26:35,440 --> 01:26:38,680
'died on the 21st of July 1796.

1225
01:26:38,680 --> 01:26:41,560
'He was 37 years old.

1226
01:26:41,560 --> 01:26:45,200
'He once wrote that
the whole of life is but a day

1227
01:26:45,200 --> 01:26:49,160
'and what a glorious day
Robert Burns spent on earth.'

1228
01:26:50,680 --> 01:26:53,000
"For a' that an' a' that,

1229
01:26:53,000 --> 01:26:55,360
It's coming yet for a' that,

1230
01:26:55,360 --> 01:26:58,760
"That Man to Man,
the whole world o'er,

1231
01:26:58,760 --> 01:27:01,360
"Shall brothers be for a' that."

1232
01:27:01,360 --> 01:27:05,320
That was his message to the world
but as he lived and breathed,

1233
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:07,760
Robert Burns could never have
guessed

1234
01:27:07,760 --> 01:27:11,800
that his fame would spread over
centuries and over continents.

1235
01:27:11,800 --> 01:27:15,520
He's become part
of the general oxygen,

1236
01:27:15,520 --> 01:27:17,520
part of the common air -

1237
01:27:17,520 --> 01:27:22,760
the people's poet, the writer's
writer, the friend's friend.

1238
01:27:22,760 --> 01:27:25,960
At least,
that's what Robert Burns is to me.