THE original manuscript of one of Robert Burns’ most famous poems Ae Fond Kiss is to go on show for a very brief spell in Glasgow next Wednesday, the 258th anniversary of the poet’s birth.
It will go on show at the National Library of Scotland’s premises in the Kelvin Hall from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. Entry is free. The viewing is limited due to the need to restrict the amount of time the 226-year-old document is exposed to light.
WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND IT?
AFTER he became famous across Scotland for his Kilmarnock edition of ‘Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect’, Burns visited Edinburgh where he was lionised by polite society.
He met and began a relationship with Agnes MacLehose, the daughter of a prominent Glasgow surgeon, Andrew Craig. She was married to a rather unpleasant lawyer, James MacLehose, who had seduced Agnes, always known as Nancy, while travelling on the horsed coach between Glasgow and Edinburgh – he bought all the other tickets so he could be alone with her.
Debt-ridden and possibly mentally ill, MacLehose left her after she had given birth to his four children, leaving Nancy behind in Edinburgh while he went off to be a slaver in Jamaica.
A renowned beauty, Nancy nevertheless lived a frugal and virtuous life as her family were in “society” – her cousin became Lord Craig, a judge.
Along came the ploughman poet and they were soon engaged in an epistolary romance, sending poems back and forward to each other under the code names of Sylvander and Clarinda.
The poems are full of high-falutin’ classical language, and Burns was clearly infatuated. He sent her two wine glasses and these lines: Fair Empress of the Poet’s soul, And Queen of Poetesses; Clarinda, take this little boon, This humble pair of glasses.
Well, no one said he was a perfect poet all the time…
SO WHAT MADE BURNS WRITE AE FOND KISS?
IT is one of the most intriguing questions about Burns – did he and Nancy have a full sexual affair? She maintained they never did, and he went off and bedded her servant, Jenny Clow, with whom he had a son, so possibly not.
Eventually there came a parting, when Nancy attempted a reconciliation with her husband in Jamaica in late 1791. Burns thought she would never be back, so penned Ae Fond Kiss, notably in his own Scots language.
It remains his finest love poem, known across the globe, and the musical version has been recorded many times. In 2004, there was a Ken Loach-Paul Laverty film named after the song, and plans to make a film about the “Clarinda” romance have been around for ages without coming to fruition.
SO HOW DID IT ALL END?
NANCY got to Jamaica and found her husband had a slave mistress and daughter, and she did not stay long. Burns died in 1796, without meeting her again.
Did she love Rabbie? Of course she did. In old age, Nancy wrote in her journal on December 6, 1831: “This day I never can forget. Parted with Burns, in the year 1791, never more to meet in this world. Oh may we meet in Heaven.”
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