s daintiest though not his
strongest work. He makes no claim to originality with respect to them,
but admits they are drawn in many cases from La Motte and other sources.
In his preface he says: 'If my manner of expressing a design already
invented have any particularity that is agreeable, good judges will
allow such imitations to be originals formed upon the idea of another.
Others, who drudge at the dull verbatim, are like timorous attendants,
who dare not move one pace without their master's leave.' Some of the
_Tales_ are obviously modelled on those of Chaucer and Boccaccio, but in
most of his, he insinuates a political or social moral, while they
narrate the story for the story's sake. _The Three Bonnets_ is a satire
on his countrymen for being so shortsighted, in their own interests, as
to consent to the Union. Bristle, the eldest of the three brothers in
the tale, was intended to represent the Tories and Scots Jacobites, who
were opposed to the scheme, and he is therefore drawn as a man of great
resolution and vigour of character. Bawsy, the youngest, or weak
brother, shadowed forth the character of those who consented under the
persuasion of the nobility; while Joukum, the second eldest of the
trio,--a vicious, dissipated _roue_,--stood for the portrait of those
Scots noblemen who accepted Lord Somers' bribes, and sold their country
to the English alliance. The story ran that their father, Duniwhistle,
on his deathbed, had, to each of the brothers, presented a bonnet with
which they were never to part. If they did so, ruin would overtake them.
Joukum falls in love with Rosie, a saucy quean, who demands, as the
price of her hand, that he should beg, borrow, or steal for her the
three bonnets. Joukum proceeds to Bristle, and receives a very angry
reception; he next repairs to lazy Bawsy, who, dazzled by the promises
the other makes as to the good things he will receive after the wedding,
surrenders his bonnet, which Joukum lays with his own at the feet of
Rosie. The latter agrees to wed Joukum, and a vivid picture is drawn of
the neglected state of poor Bawsy after this is accomplished. Rosie
proves a harridan, leading Joukum a sorry dance; and the poem concludes
with the contrasted pictures of the contented prosperity of
Bristle--Scotland as she might have been had she not entered the
Union--and the misery of Bawsy, representing Scotland as she then was.
Somewhat amusing is it to conjecture what Ramsay's feelings w