Allan Ramsay (1686-1758)

Allan Ramsay (1686-1758)

Poem/song

The Boatman

Portraits

Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald

 By Allan Ramsay 1713-1784 (son of poet of same name)

 "Bonnie Prince Charlie portrait found by art historian Bendor Grosvenor"

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

 Public domain

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Allan Ramsay (1686-1758)

The Boatman

The poem and song The Boatman by 

Allan Ramsay describes a girl waiting for a boatman to bring her lover across the waters. Although no names are mentioned the girl is believed to be Flora MacDonald, who helped Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. 

 String and chorus arrangements by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) were commissioned by George Thomson (1757-1851), the Edinburgh music publisher.

 The son of the poet also called Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) was a famous painter who in 1745 was commissioned to paint Bonnie Prince Charlie when the Jacobite army was in Edinburgh. In 1749-50 he would also paint the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald.

The Boatman

Ye gales that gently wave the sea

And please the canny boatman,
Bear me frae hence, or bring to me
My brave, my bonny Scotman.
In haly bands we joined our hands,
Yet may not this discover,
While parents rate a large estate
Before a faithful lover.

But I loor chuse in highland glens
To herd the kid and goat, man.
Ere I could for sic little ends
Refuse my bonny Scotman.
Wae worth the man who first began
The base ungen'rous fashion
Frae greedy views love's art to lose
While stranger to its passion.

Frae foreign fields, my lovely youth,
Haste to thy longing lassie.
Who pants to press thy balmy mouth,
And in her bosom hause thee.
Love gives the word, then haste on board
Fair winds and tenty boatman,
Wast o'er, wast o'er from yonder shore,
My blithe, my bonny Scotman.

Love Inviting Reason

When innocent Pastime our Pleasure did crown,
Upon a green Meadow, or under a Tree,
E’er Annie became a fine Lady in Town,
How lovely and loving and bony was she?
Rouze up thy Reason, my beautifu’ Annie,
Let ne’er a new Whim ding thy Fancy ajee,
O! as thou art bonny be faithfu’ and canny,
And favour thy Jamie wha doats upon thee.

Does the Death of a Lintwhite give Annie the Spleen?
Can tyning of Trifles be uneasy to thee?
Can Lap-dogs and Monkies draw Tears frae these Een,
That look with Indifference on poor dying me?
Rouse up thy Reason, my beautifu’ Annie,
And dinna prefer a Paroquet to me,
O! as thou art bony, be prudent and canny,
And think on thy Jamie, wha doats upon thee.

Ah! shou’d a new Manto or Flanders Lace Head,
Or yet a wee Cottie, tho never sae fine,
Gar thee grow forgetfu’ and let his Heart bleed,
That anes had some Hope of purchasing thine.
Rouse up thy Reason, my beautifu’ Annie,
And dinna prefer ye’r Fleegeries to me;
O! as thou art bonny be solid and canny,
And tent a true Lover that dotes upon thee.

Shall a Paris Edition of newfangle Sany,
Tho gilt o’er wi’ Laces and Fringes he be,
By adoring himself be admir’d by fair Annie,
And aim at these Bennisons promis’d to me.
Rouse up thy Reason, my beautifu’ Annie,
And never prefer a light Dancer to me;
O! as thou art bonny be constant and canny,
Love only thy Jamie wha doats upon thee.

O! think, my dear Charmer, on ilka sweet Hour,
That slade away saftly between thee and me,
E’er Squirrels or Beaus or Fopery had Power
To rival my Love and impose upon thee.
Rouse up thy Reason, my beautifu’ Annie,
And let thy Desires be a’ center’d in me,
O! as thou art bonny be faithfu’ and canny,
And love him wha’s langing to center in thee.

Lochaber No More

Farewell to Lochaber! and farewell, my Jean,
Where heartsome with thee I hae mony day been;
For Lochaber no more, Lochaber no more,
We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more!
These tears that I shed they are a' for my dear,
And no for the dangers attending on wear,
Though borne on rough seas to a far bloody shore,
Maybe to return to Lochaber no more.

Though hurricanes rise, and rise every wind,
They'll ne'er make a tempest like that in my mind;
Though loudest of thunder on louder waves roar,
That's naething like leaving my love on the shore.
To leave thee behind me my heart is sair pained;
By ease that's inglorious no fame can be gained;
And beauty and love's the reward of the brave,
And I must deserve it before I can crave.

Then glory, my Jeany, maun plead my excuse;
Since honor commands me, how can I refuse?
Without it I ne'er can have merit for thee,
And without thy favor I'd better not be.
I gae then, my lass, to win honor and fame,
And if I should luck to come gloriously hame,
I'll bring a heart to thee with love running o'er,
And then I'll leave thee and Lochaber no more.

Allan Ramsay was born in LeadhilIs (Lanarkahire) on 15 October 1684. His father, who was factor (estate manager) to the Earl of Hopeton, died soon after the birth, and Ramsay's mother subsequently married a farmer. In the early 1700's Ramsay was apprenticed to an Edinburgh wig maker, and in 1710 he opened his own shop in the Grassmarket. In 1712 he co-founded the Easy Club, a literary society with Jacobite leanings, for which he adopted the pseudonyms "Isaac Bickerstaff" (taken from Swift) and "Gawin Douglas". Despite his Jacobite sympathies and strong nationalist views, however, Ramsay took no part in the 1715 uprising.

In 1720 he became a bookseller, first at a shop in Niddry's Wynd (Niddry St) and then from 1726 at another shop in the Luckenbooths on the High Street near St Giles, where he created (in 1728) what is generally considered to have been Britain's first circulating library. By then he had already established himself as a poet (his first collection was published in 1721). In those days publishers and booksellers were effectively equivalent, and Ramsay was in a good position to promote his own work. He also edited and anthologised the writing of others, most notably in The Tea Table Miscellany (1724-37), an important collection of ballads and songs (often heavily altered) which helped stimulate a revival of interest in traditional folk-song. Ramsay had an interest in early Scots poetry, and wrote additional verses to the anonymous burlesque poem Christis Kirk on the Green which is usually attributed to James I or James V.

Ramsay extended his literary interests to the theatre, opening a playhouse in Carruber's Close in 1736 (he wrote a single play, the popular verse drama The Gentle Shepherd, published in 1725). The playhouse was soon closed because the Licensing Act of 1737 banned theatrical performances outside the City of Westminster.

It was at his home, on Castle Hill that Ramsay died in January 1758 (the exact date is unknown), and he was buried on 9 January in Greyfriars' Churchyard

Allan Ramsay's eldest son was the portrait painter Allan Ramsay (1713-84), who pursued a literary career of his own (essays and pamphlets) after 1770.

Source - Allpoetry 

https://allpoetry.com/Allan-Ramsay

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