Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/277

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[" old song," says Burns, "so pregnant with Scottish naivete and energy, is much relished by all ranks, notwithstanding its broad wit and palpable allusions. Its language is a precious model of imitation: sly, sprightly, and forcibly expressive. Maggie's tongue wags out the nick-names of Rob the piper, with all the careless lightsomeness of unrestrained gaiety."—The author of "Maggie Lauder" is generally said to be, Esq. of Beltrees in Renfrewshire, who lived about the middle of the seventeenth century, and who is also the reputed author of the songs entitled "The Blythsome Bridal" and "She rose and let me in," (see pages 99 and 244.) Semple was the descendant of a poetical family. A progenitor of his—Robert, Lord Semple, was a voluminous versifier in the previous century, and published a number of works between the years 1565 and 1573. The cousin-german of this writer, Sir James Semple of Beltrees, was author of "The Packman's Pater-noster;" his successor, Robert Semple, was author of the celebrated "Epitaph on Habbie Simpson," and father of Francis Semple, the subject of the present notice. Besides the songs ascribed to him, Francis Semple was author of "The Banishment of Poverty," and some epitaphs in Pennycooke's collection of Poetical Pieces. Mr. Motherwell, we know, at one time contemplated collecting and publishing the works of the Semples of Beltrees; but whether he had proceeded any way in the undertaking before his lamented death we cannot say. Doubts as to Semple being the author of "Maggie Lauder" have been thrown out, on two grounds: first, that the scene of the song belongs to Fifeshire, and secondly, that the song, if so old as Semple's day, would have appeared in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, which it does not. To these objections it may be answered, that, although the heroine, Maggie Lauder, professedly belongs to Anster in Fife, the scene of the song is not laid there; for the third line says, "A piper met her gaun to Fife." The allusion also to "Habbie Simpson" in the last stanza, "Sin' we lost Habbie Simpson," may be considered favourable to Semple's claim, for Habbie was a noted piper in Kilbarchan, a village in Renfrewshire, contiguous to the estate of Beltrees. A statue of Habbie is still to be seen in a niche of the village steeple of the place. As to the song not appearing in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, that might arise from accident or oversight: the tune of "Maggie Lauder" can at least be traced as far back as the beginning of the last century, and Gay introduces it in his musical opera of Achilles, printed in 1733. With all this, we candidly confess, that, judging from internal evidence, we would be inclined to pronounce "Maggie Lauder" to be a production subsequent, and not anterior, to the days of Ramsay.]