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FAMOUS SONGS |
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prior to the close of the seventeenth centuiy. An early version of the song is to be found in James Watson's collection of Scottish Songs, published in 1711, and it will be seen from the verses quoted below, that Burns very spiritedly changed the weak periphrasis of the old poet into the tender and beautiful phrase so peculiarly pathetic and Scotch:
" Should old acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon, The flame of love extinguished And fairly past and gone ? Is thy land heart now grown so cold, In that loving breast of thine, That thou canst never once reflect On old long syne.''
Here we have a very fine idea badly expressed —the touch of sincerity seems lacking, whilst the art is commonplace. This stanza is from a poem written by Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638) of Kincaldie. He was the friend of Ben Jonson and other Elizabethan writers, very likely Shakespeare himself. Sir Robert undoubtedly obtained the phrase from current idiomatic ex-pressions. He wrote several pieces of minor power. Allan Ramsay, who, before the advent of Burns, was making an encouraging reputation as a writer of verses and a compiler of old songs
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