BIB_ID
301542
Accession number
MA 46.11
Creator
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796, sender.
Display Date
Dumfries, Scotland, 1788 December 7.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, before 1913.
Description
1 item (11 pages, with address) ; 23 x 19.2 cm
Notes
This letter is incomplete. It originally included an additional folded sheet (to follow page 5) containing 1. alternate verses to "Auld lang Syne" (not printed or given as variant lines in Kinsley; see Ferguson for text); 2. the verses to "My bony Mary" (first line: Go fetch to me a pint o' wine); 3. The first half of "Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" (ll. 1-26).
Written from Ellisland.
Postmarked, "Mauchline," with seal; address panel reads "Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop / at Dunlop / Stewarton."
Docketed "B to Mrs. D / Decr. 1799 / Immatirial [sic]." Also with the notes "A Folio 26" (canceled) and "7 Decr. 88." With additional notes on p. 1 ("C 179" (canceled), "good," and "64").
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" is titled in reference to his "Written in Friar's Carse Hermitage on the banks of Nith -- June -- 1788" (first line: Thou whom chance may hither lead).
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" differing from the version as published in Kinsley.
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" first line: Thou whom chance may hither lead.
"Tam Glen -- Tune, Merry beggars" as published in Kinsley.
"Tam Glen -- Tune, Merry beggars" first line: My heart is breaking, dear Tittie.
Watermark: horn GR.
Part of a collection of 54 letters and poems from Robert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop between 1786 and 1796. Also housed with MA 45. See related records for more information.
Written from Ellisland.
Postmarked, "Mauchline," with seal; address panel reads "Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop / at Dunlop / Stewarton."
Docketed "B to Mrs. D / Decr. 1799 / Immatirial [sic]." Also with the notes "A Folio 26" (canceled) and "7 Decr. 88." With additional notes on p. 1 ("C 179" (canceled), "good," and "64").
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" is titled in reference to his "Written in Friar's Carse Hermitage on the banks of Nith -- June -- 1788" (first line: Thou whom chance may hither lead).
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" differing from the version as published in Kinsley.
"Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" first line: Thou whom chance may hither lead.
"Tam Glen -- Tune, Merry beggars" as published in Kinsley.
"Tam Glen -- Tune, Merry beggars" first line: My heart is breaking, dear Tittie.
Watermark: horn GR.
Part of a collection of 54 letters and poems from Robert Burns to Mrs. Dunlop between 1786 and 1796. Also housed with MA 45. See related records for more information.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from the London dealer Quaritch in June, 1906.
Summary
Discussing their relationship, noting "goodness on your part, and gratitude on mine, began a tie which has gradually & strongly entwisted itself among the dearest chords of my bosom"; asking after her failing health; fearing "if you continue so to be deaf, I am afraid a visit will be no great pleasure to either of us"; describing his "small scale of farming" and referencing his article (signed A Briton) to be published in the Edinburgh Evening Courant on 22 November; responding to some of her poems and noting that his song Clarinda was based on a real affair, but that "circumstances are too romantic to be credited even almost from the mouth of Truth herself"; permitting her to show his letters to friends and giving the verses to "Altered from the foregoing -- Dec -- 1788" (only ll. 27-55 present) and to "Tam glen," noting that he has just finished the latter and sent it to Johnson for publication.
Catalog link
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