Mir. Gudewives shoud ay be subject to their men ;
I'll ne'er speak contrar to your will again.
Gaf. That's richt, gudewife,—I'm sure I weel may say,
Glen-feoch never saw sae blest a day.
Young fouks,—we'll set the bridal day the morn,—
But, Lucky, haste ! bring ben the Christmas horn, [1]
Let's pour ae sacred bumper to the Laird ;
A glass, to croun a wish, was never better wair'd.
Harry. While I was yet a boy, my parents died,
And left me poor and friendless, wand'ring wide,
Your goodness found me, neath your fost'ring care
I learn'd those precepts which I'll still revere,
And now, to Heav'n, for length of life I pray,
With filial love your goodness to repay.
Gaf. This sacred maxim let us still regard,
That “Virtue ever is its own reward.”
And what we give to succour the distrest,
Calls down from Heav'n a blessing on the rest. [2]
[1] The drinking cup—Ed.
[2] Note by Lamb.—“In writing The Soldier's Return, Tannahill had evidently Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd closely in his eye,—the construction of the one poem being quite like the other. Even the manner is closely observed in the way the Dramatis Personae are stated, in the description of the scenes, and so on. Motherwell says of this dramatic composition that it was unsuccessful, and that it was wisely omitted in editions subsequent to the first. We do not leave it out in this edition [3] —first, because we wish to make this a complete one; and, second, because in The Soldier's Return some of the poet's finest songs, including the delightful lyric ‘We'll meet beside the dusky glen’ appeared, and we do not desire to take them out of his own setting. As the volume containing The Soldier's Return is the only volume of his writings which was printed in his lifetime, and the proof sheets of which, indeed, he doubtless revised, The Soldier's Return, is printed now exactly as he printed it then, with capitals, italics, contractions, Sic., save in a few trifling exceptions, where the spelling was evidently wrong. Mr. Hugh Macdonald, who is a good authority, thinks—or, as he says, suspects—that the vicinity of the Alt-Patrick Burn is the scene of The Soldier's Return, in one of the songs of which he makes his persona allude to natural beauties, including wild fruits similar to those of this locality.”
[3] Lamb's edition of 1873.—Ed.