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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 427

 
 
W. J. Mickle. (1734–1788) (continued)
 
There ’s little pleasure in the house
  When our gudeman ’s awa’.
          The Mariner’s Wife. 1
4578
    His very foot has music in ’t
  As he comes up the stairs.
          The Mariner’s Wife. 2
 
John Langhorne. (1735–1779)
 
4579
    Cold on Canadian hills or Minden’s plain,
Perhaps that parent mourned her soldier slain;
Bent o’er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew,
The big drops mingling with the milk he drew
Gave the sad presage of his future years,—
The child of misery, baptized in tears. 3
          The Country Justice. Part i.
 
Isaac Bickerstaff. (1735–1787)
 
4580
    Hope! thou nurse of young desire.
          Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 1.
4581
    There was a jolly miller once,
  Lived on the river Dee;
He worked and sung from morn till night:
  No lark more blithe than he.
          Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2.
4582
    And this the burden of his song
  Forever used to be,—
I care for nobody, no, not I,
  If no one cares for me. 4
          Love in a Village. Act i. Sc. 2.
 
Note 1.
”The Mariner’s Wife” is now given “by common consent,” says Sarah Tytler, to Jean Adam (1710–1765). [back]
Note 2.
”The Mariner’s Wife” is now given “by common consent,” says Sarah Tytler, to Jean Adam (1710–1765). [back]
Note 3.
This allusion to the dead soldier and his widow on the field of battle was made the subject of a print by Bunbury, under which were engraved the pathetic lines of Langhorne. Sir Walter Scott has mentioned that the only time he saw Burns this picture was in the room. Burns shed tears over it; and Scott, then a lad of fifteen, was the only person present who could tell him where the lines were to be found.—Lockhart: Life of Scott, vol. i. chap. iv. [back]
Note 4.
If naebody care for me,
I ’ll care for naebody.
Robert Burns: I hae a Wife o’ my Ain. [back]