Speaker 1: Almost every sound in Scottish is done in front of
Speaker 1: your teeth because it's cold. It's cold, don't move over
Speaker 1: a mouse too much. You always see in those northern
Speaker 1: countries where it's your lips are always very close together
Speaker 1: because they're very cold, so pursed lip. Same with Russian,
Speaker 1: very cold Russia. Don't if your mouth very wide open.
Speaker 1: Same in Minnesota, Canada. You know you don't open your
Speaker 1: mouth very much. Meanwhile, down in the South where it's
Speaker 1: a hundred degrees and ball me your mouth is a
Speaker 1: wild over time Ben block is that you desert been
Speaker 1: a murder. No one will ever do an accident as
Speaker 1: well as Daniel Craig doing Ben wild Block. I saw
Speaker 1: some people complaining about it, like I'm on the South
Speaker 1: and that's not how you know whatever. I was like,
Speaker 1: it's a very affected Southern accident. It's not you know.
Speaker 1: I know you're not going to go out in Atlanta
Speaker 1: and hear that accent in the wild necessarily the man
Speaker 1: is literally playing a cartoon character like it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to be. I'm fine with it. It's amazing. I could
Speaker 1: listen to it all day long. There's only one accent
Speaker 1: for me. I can't even do it ONCC the I'm
Speaker 1: not Daniel Craig. Daniel Craig and Rachel Vice. I would
Speaker 1: love to do them on the show. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: would do I would love to do on the show.
Speaker 1: I don't make people listen to that. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: it would be our most popular episode. You don't know that,
Speaker 1: haven't has anyone ever done a porn podcast? We're just
Speaker 1: listening to someone, got it. I'm sure there's erotica podcasts, obviously,
Speaker 1: but like just somebody gasping and moaning what you see? Anything?
Speaker 1: Is that hot or not hot? Or not hot or
Speaker 1: not audio? No titties or dicks, nothing, just you just
Speaker 1: hear it slapping sound. Well, that did not turn me on.
Speaker 1: Whatever you just did your moistures A SMR, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure there's some that's a good point.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's some people get very turned on by
Speaker 1: their s m R. Okay, I decided the a s
Speaker 1: m R that I want is Rachel Weiss making out
Speaker 1: with Daniel Craig, but he's doing the Ben wa Blanc voice.
Speaker 1: I want to fall asleep to that. Well, Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: how's it going, y'all? I'm Eli Diana. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: show in this New Year, New Year's it's our Okay,
Speaker 1: it's our second episode of the year, but it's our
Speaker 1: New Year's episode. I'm going to call it. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: just how the timing works out around here. But I
Speaker 1: did really want to do this one, you know, as
Speaker 1: close to the years as possible, because you know, look,
Speaker 1: year after year, I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 1: find myself asking the same question around January one, what's
Speaker 1: my New Year's resolution? No, I think the most important
Speaker 1: question around January one is what the hell does all
Speaker 1: lang sign mean? Oh? Well, yeah, alright. That one does
Speaker 1: come up every year. I ask it. Every year. I
Speaker 1: google it and I go, oh, yeah, that's right, and
Speaker 1: then I spend the next twelve months forgetting what it meant.
Speaker 1: It never does come up again any other time of year.
Speaker 1: It's not like June and you're going, wait, all lang
Speaker 1: sign that mean no, you just forget about it. But
Speaker 1: this year was a little different. I asked myself, Wait
Speaker 1: a minute, who wrote all lang sign is? Literally December
Speaker 1: thirty one? I asked myself this question, googled it, and
Speaker 1: of course the answer is the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns,
Speaker 1: and he's a pioneer of romanticism. He's the National poet
Speaker 1: of Scotland. He is a celebrated lyricist across the globe.
Speaker 1: But come to find out, lucky us. A lot of
Speaker 1: his work was inspired by his many loves, and particularly
Speaker 1: with the whirlwind romance he had with the Belle of Macklin,
Speaker 1: Gene Armor. So I mean, just serendipity. I happened to
Speaker 1: look this fact up and it ended up being a
Speaker 1: ridiculous romance episode, Like yeah, so yeah, let's let's dive in.
Speaker 1: Let's hear the story of Scotland's most romantic poet and
Speaker 1: the woman who held his life together. Let's go, Hey,
Speaker 1: their French, come listen. Well, Eli and Diana got some
Speaker 1: stories to tell. There's no match making, no romantic tips.
Speaker 1: It's just about ridiculous relationships. A lover, it might be
Speaker 1: any type of person at all, and abstract concept are
Speaker 1: a concrete wall. But if there's a story, were the
Speaker 1: second Glance Ridiculous Romance A production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Robert Burns. He was born in seventeen fifty nine, just
Speaker 1: south of Air on the southwest coast. Of Scotland. His
Speaker 1: father was a tenant farmer and things were rough growing
Speaker 1: up for them. Robert had to do a lot in
Speaker 1: the physical labor just by nature of being a boy
Speaker 1: on the farm. You know, that's why you have kids,
Speaker 1: especially now. His father did teach Robert and his six
Speaker 1: younger siblings a lot of the basic subjects, you know, reading, writing,
Speaker 1: arithmetic and all that, but Robert never really got much
Speaker 1: of a formal education growing up. Then when he was fifteen,
Speaker 1: remember he was the oldest son, and so he was
Speaker 1: kind of the main man on the farm and he
Speaker 1: headed up most of the physical work. And there was
Speaker 1: a young girl named Nellie Kirkpatrick, and she lived a
Speaker 1: few miles away, so she would walk over and help
Speaker 1: on the farm. And Robert one day heard her singing.
Speaker 1: And he had always thought that songwriting was this like
Speaker 1: very complex thing that you know, only brilliant and educated
Speaker 1: folks could do it like that. That's not for me.
Speaker 1: Only special people write songs. But he heard this girl
Speaker 1: singing this song and found out that it had been
Speaker 1: written by some local village boy, like he wrote it
Speaker 1: because he fell in love with some girl and he
Speaker 1: wrote this little song and Robert said quote, I saw
Speaker 1: no reason why I might not rhyme as well as he.
Speaker 1: Thus with me began love and posy posy, meaning poetry posy.
Speaker 1: I kind of love that Nellie inspired Robert to write
Speaker 1: his first verse, and that brings us down to Posy
Speaker 1: Corner for a selection from Once I loved a bonny last.
Speaker 1: Once I loved a bonny last, And I love her still,
Speaker 1: And whilst that virtue warms my breast, I'll love my
Speaker 1: handsome nill. A bonny lass I will confess is pleasant
Speaker 1: to the but without some better qualities. She's no one
Speaker 1: lass for me. Tis this in Nelly pleases me? Tis
Speaker 1: this enchance my soul? For absolutely in my breast. She
Speaker 1: raised without control. I love that I reign without control.
Speaker 1: I reign without control in your breast. I yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, arm no, you do just you know, is
Speaker 1: it a good thing? Or is that disastrous? And I'm
Speaker 1: kind of sorry I asked not turning out great in
Speaker 1: this story, But I like in the middle stands out there.
Speaker 1: He says, you know, she's she could be beautiful, but
Speaker 1: if she's not, also some other good things not for me.
Speaker 1: She's no less for me. That's that's about you. You're beautiful,
Speaker 1: But so what if you were dumb or annoying. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't care. But you're smart. I'm glad I'm not dumb
Speaker 1: and annoying to my husband, all right. So Robert's father
Speaker 1: was struggling to turn a prophet on his farms, and
Speaker 1: the family moved several times, so poor Nelly was left behind.
Speaker 1: And when Robert was twenty a friend of his read
Speaker 1: some of his lyrics and he's like, dude, these are fire.
Speaker 1: You should send these to some magazines, get published, you know,
Speaker 1: And that gave Robert the confidence to pursue poetree like
Speaker 1: more seriously. So never leave off a word of encouragement
Speaker 1: to your our truetistic friends. So he starts writing more
Speaker 1: and more after this, and he began to have his
Speaker 1: poems and songs published. But while Robert was writing, he
Speaker 1: was still working the farm with his brother Gilbert. His
Speaker 1: recognition as a writer was growing, but that didn't pay
Speaker 1: the bills historically nor today, and when their father passed
Speaker 1: away in four when Robert was twenty five, they ended
Speaker 1: up moving the family to another farm at ms Kill
Speaker 1: in Machlin Machlin Owes, the small town just northeast of
Speaker 1: Air and it's known for its granite and sandstone, as
Speaker 1: well as clockmaking, and apparently for its smoking hotties. In five,
Speaker 1: just a few months after he arrived, six women inspired
Speaker 1: Robert Burns to write a song with one woman standing
Speaker 1: out above the rest. So let's go back down Deposy Corner,
Speaker 1: and here the bells of Macklin and Mackland. There dwells
Speaker 1: six proper young bills. The pride of the place and
Speaker 1: its neighborhood, of their carriage and dress, A stranger would
Speaker 1: guess in London or Paris, They've gotten it all. Miss
Speaker 1: Miller's fine, Miss Markland's divine. Ms Smith she has wit,
Speaker 1: and Miss Betty is bra There's beauty and fortune to
Speaker 1: get with Miss Morton, but armors the jewel from me
Speaker 1: of them all beautiful story. Uh. Six ladies have definitely
Speaker 1: inspired me to write some poetry in the past, But
Speaker 1: there's always one. This is really the mambo number five time,
Speaker 1: A wee bit of Miss Miller by my side, A
Speaker 1: bit Miss Markland's so divine, so good. Also want to
Speaker 1: say about Macklin, I said it was known for its
Speaker 1: granite and sandstone. They also famously make curling Stone for
Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, it is kind of the number one
Speaker 1: industry there for a while, a Scottish game, like I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it originated in Scotland. Maybe I couldn't speak the
Speaker 1: history off the top of my head. I know they
Speaker 1: love it in Canada too, but I would guess the
Speaker 1: Scotts came up with it. Scott's love games. I just
Speaker 1: see him throwing big rocks, you know, trees, and here's
Speaker 1: macin tiny little golf balls, you know, small and large multitudes.
Speaker 1: And in twenty seventeen, Tony Grace of the Calgary Burns
Speaker 1: Club published a paper called The Real Gene Armor Robert
Speaker 1: Burns's Bonnie Jean, and it's one of the most detailed
Speaker 1: accounts of Jean's life and her relationship with Robert. So
Speaker 1: we're borrowing a lot of the work the Calgary Burns
Speaker 1: Club did here. So we'll tell some doers to them tonight.
Speaker 1: To the Calgary Burns Club, thank you for all the information.
Speaker 1: They actually they sound like a lot of fun they
Speaker 1: I guess they started nineteen sixty four and uh they focused.
Speaker 1: They foster an interest in Scottish literature, art and music
Speaker 1: by sharing its talents with the community and through supportive
Speaker 1: events involving Scottish cultural activities. Fun. I would totally go
Speaker 1: to some Scottish cultural activity, probably to watch some big
Speaker 1: rocks get thrown across the field or something. Hopefully they
Speaker 1: don't hear this episode and our accents and say no,
Speaker 1: you're not You're nay allowed here. It's all from love
Speaker 1: we loved Yeah, Okay, So Gene Armor she was about
Speaker 1: six years younger than Robert. She was born in seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty five and her father was James Armor. He was
Speaker 1: one of Macklin's central characters. He was like a highly
Speaker 1: respected freemason, a tradesman and a builder. He owned a
Speaker 1: bunch of properties. Everyone sought his advice and he was
Speaker 1: a pillar office kirk or church. And he was also
Speaker 1: very rigid and conservative in his beliefs. He really, to
Speaker 1: me comes off as like the dad in Footloose. Oh
Speaker 1: no dancing, yeah, although I think everybody danced, so he
Speaker 1: wasn't like anti dancing, but he was definitely just that
Speaker 1: sort of strict this is how things are done around here.
Speaker 1: There was the time and place for frivolity. That Gene
Speaker 1: and her father had a great relationship. Just one of
Speaker 1: those perfect daddy daughter like she's the apple of my eye,
Speaker 1: he's the man I worship kind of thing going on.
Speaker 1: He taught her to read and write, which was also
Speaker 1: unusual for a girl her age at the time, and
Speaker 1: she also grew to be an amazing singer and the
Speaker 1: most popular dancing partner at the town's weekly dances. She
Speaker 1: was at one of these dances when she saw this
Speaker 1: new poet in town, Robert Burns, trying to dance with
Speaker 1: all these other ladies, but every time he danced he
Speaker 1: got interrupted because Robert had a border colligue named Lua,
Speaker 1: which is Gaelic for swift. But this dog was obsessed
Speaker 1: with Robert and he went everywhere he did, including to
Speaker 1: this dance, And every time Robert went into invital Aid
Speaker 1: to dance and started dancing, Lua would jump up and
Speaker 1: try and cut it. Jean actually overheard him say to
Speaker 1: one of his dancing partners quote, I wish I could
Speaker 1: get any of the losses to like me as well
Speaker 1: as my dog, but he keeps getting Collie blocked. Well,
Speaker 1: Robert and Jean didn't meet that night, but maybe Lua
Speaker 1: knew none of those girls were right for Robert, because
Speaker 1: later that year, Jean and her sister Nelly were out
Speaker 1: spreading their laundry on the village Bleaching Green to whiten
Speaker 1: in the sun. I love the village Bleaching Green. I
Speaker 1: guess it must be where everybody goes to whiten their
Speaker 1: sheets on the sun. It is one of those things
Speaker 1: where in my mind it's so pastoral and beautiful and
Speaker 1: I'm just seeing those green rolling hills and then I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the bugs and the dirt and the no air
Speaker 1: conditioning stuff like yeah, well, and also this village Bleaching
Speaker 1: Green was probably like the only patch of sunshine, and
Speaker 1: so that's why they had to be like, this is
Speaker 1: where everybody goes. So they did there. They laid everything
Speaker 1: out and the sisters lay down kind of rest in
Speaker 1: the sunshine and enjoy it. When suddenly Lua came running
Speaker 1: up and started trampling as dirty paws all over their
Speaker 1: white sheets. And that would be annoying in today's age,
Speaker 1: but when you had to scrub everything by hand, honestly,
Speaker 1: you get real mad about this kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: Gina Nelly freaked out. They started yelling and throwing stones
Speaker 1: toward the dog, trying to scare it away, and Robert
Speaker 1: Burns walked up like ready to fight these girls that
Speaker 1: were throwing rocks at his dog, but then he saw
Speaker 1: Jean and realized, like, oh, she pretty good looking, so
Speaker 1: he decides to impress her instead. Robert walks up and
Speaker 1: he takes a firm stance, puts his hands on his hips,
Speaker 1: and he says, quote, if you had any respect for
Speaker 1: Poet Burns, you would not be throwing stones at his
Speaker 1: poor wee dog. And Jean, you know, she cocks her
Speaker 1: out of the side, takes one look at him and
Speaker 1: clip back quote, I have no respect for Poet Burns,
Speaker 1: nor has anyone else in this hound that I've heard
Speaker 1: her tell of. You roasted Robert. His jaw just dropped
Speaker 1: and his face turns bright red. He's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: dare you say not to me? He is totally speechless.
Speaker 1: He'd never been spoken to with such dislesspect. And they
Speaker 1: just stared at each other in stunned silence for a moment,
Speaker 1: and Jean saw this guy's face like turning purple, and
Speaker 1: she just bust out laughing that. Robert, of course, at
Speaker 1: this moment, softens to probably realized is how ridiculous he looks.
Speaker 1: And I guess that was a little arrogant. So he
Speaker 1: helps Jean gather up the sheets and take them up
Speaker 1: to the pump for a rents and they are just
Speaker 1: talking and laughing the whole time, so much so that
Speaker 1: Jean's sister Nelly just rolled her eyes and went home.
Speaker 1: She's like, Okay, these two are on a thing now,
Speaker 1: but I'm done waiting. But she was worried for Geane
Speaker 1: because she was acting glakett or foolish or silly, and
Speaker 1: Burns was a very handsome young man who was known
Speaker 1: to be pretty flirtatious. Well, she was not wrong to
Speaker 1: be worried. And we will hear about all the chaos
Speaker 1: that Robert would bring to Jean and her family's life
Speaker 1: right after these words, welcome back to the show me friends.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Scrooge McDuck. I'll tell you what this is
Speaker 1: one of the things I love though, Uh like the
Speaker 1: Scottish accent. There's like a cartoony version of it, right
Speaker 1: like Scrooge McDuck. But then you hear David Tennants speak
Speaker 1: in real life and he just says like that, it's
Speaker 1: so great. I love it. I love it. I love
Speaker 1: the accents, even the weird words like lake kits and
Speaker 1: stuff really fun to say. Alright, So by the summer
Speaker 1: of five, Robert was madly in love with gene Armor,
Speaker 1: the only last for me. But her father, James Armor,
Speaker 1: knew about Robert and his reputation for being a rascal,
Speaker 1: a womanizer, and a bad farmer worst of all, so
Speaker 1: he forbid them from even having a friendship, let alone
Speaker 1: a romantic relationship. And things got even more awkward between
Speaker 1: them when Robert's mother's former serving girl popped out a
Speaker 1: baby that everyone learned was robert baby. He had knocked
Speaker 1: up the serving girl, Elizabeth Patton before they even moved
Speaker 1: to Macklin. Great job, Robert, but the baby Lizzie was
Speaker 1: really cramping his reputation. Yeah, So Elizabeth Patton shows up
Speaker 1: with this baby in Macklin, and Robert's mother was like, well, Robert,
Speaker 1: you should marry Elizabeth. I mean, you'll got a baby together.
Speaker 1: But Robert, his brother Gilbert, and all their sisters were like, no,
Speaker 1: bad idea. They thought that Elizabeth was quote rude and
Speaker 1: uncultivated to a great degree, a great degree no matter
Speaker 1: how much she loved Robert. They said, bad idea. Robert's
Speaker 1: mother was like fine, Instead, she agreed that she would
Speaker 1: raise young Lizzie herself. Sort of as punishment for getting
Speaker 1: this young, unmarried girl pregnant, Robert had to pay a
Speaker 1: fine of a guinea, which, putting into a pretty complicated
Speaker 1: calculator here, is about four U s. Dollars today, kind
Speaker 1: of cheap for it doesn't seem like much right. In
Speaker 1: addition to that, he also had to do penance before
Speaker 1: the congregation at the Kirk. But after this whole kerfuffle,
Speaker 1: James Armor, Jean's father definitely did not want his daughter
Speaker 1: to have anything to do with this guy. Robert Burns
Speaker 1: well tough Tartan's James, because Robert and Jean were going
Speaker 1: to spend as much time together as they could. Whenever
Speaker 1: James was out on business, Jean would slip out to
Speaker 1: go see Robert and they would sit in inns and
Speaker 1: taverns together and Robert would read his poetry to crowds
Speaker 1: of cheering drunk one of the finest audiences you can get.
Speaker 1: Some of his most famous poems were written at this time,
Speaker 1: like Halloween Death and dr Hornbook and the twa Dogs.
Speaker 1: But we found another fun one from this time that
Speaker 1: was definitely being stung around Scottish taverns. Some of these
Speaker 1: cheering drunks favorite ones, probably, so let's go back to
Speaker 1: Poosy Corner for a selection from Robert Burns Scotch drink
Speaker 1: Let other poets raise a crack us about vines and
Speaker 1: wines and drunken bacchus and great our lug. I've seen
Speaker 1: the juice Scotch bear cannock us in glass or jug.
Speaker 1: Food fills the waim and keeps us leaving those. Life's
Speaker 1: a gift thou worth receiving when heavy drag with iron
Speaker 1: and grieving but oiled by the the wee old is
Speaker 1: a life gate downhill, screaming with rattle and glee when
Speaker 1: neighbors anger at a plea. Unjust as wood as wood
Speaker 1: can be, how easy can the barley bree cement the quarter?
Speaker 1: It's I the chiefest lawyers, speed to taste the battle.
Speaker 1: I spent some time with this poem, I think, but
Speaker 1: he's basically saying, look, Scotch is great. You know you
Speaker 1: can talk about your wine, which was kind of a
Speaker 1: wealthier drink like Scotch was the people's drink um. Life
Speaker 1: is not a gift worth receiving if you're all sad
Speaker 1: and grieving all the time, but oiled by thee but
Speaker 1: with but lubricated with a little scotch, the wheels of
Speaker 1: life go downhill, screaming with rattle and glee. Like that's
Speaker 1: so fun. You should teach a poetry class. He's basically saying, Look,
Speaker 1: scotch is great. Also like, uh, it can meant the quarrel.
Speaker 1: It's the cheapest lawyer's fee. He's like, if you're fighting,
Speaker 1: just have some scotch. It's a lot cheaper than go
Speaker 1: and taking things to court. I guess that's true. You'll
Speaker 1: either forget where you were arguing about, or you'll fight
Speaker 1: it out like men. So Jean very stricken with Robert,
Speaker 1: having a great time hanging out with him when she
Speaker 1: snuck away to the taverns, but she was worried about
Speaker 1: his future with this struggling farm at Mosquille, and she
Speaker 1: also knew that her parents just were never going to
Speaker 1: accept him. The Kirk, especially where they were very embedded,
Speaker 1: did not take too kindly to some of his more
Speaker 1: satirical poems about organized religion. They do not like it.
Speaker 1: But despite her reservations about what their future might hold,
Speaker 1: Jean could not stay away from him, and of course,
Speaker 1: inevitably she got pregnant. In six Tony Grace writes that
Speaker 1: she and Roberts signed an acknowledgement of marriage, which was
Speaker 1: a legally binding note, even though the Kirk might not
Speaker 1: accept it because it wasn't a religious marriage. But soon
Speaker 1: Jean had to go tell her parents. You know, and okay,
Speaker 1: you might think that James Armor was going to be
Speaker 1: upset about, you know, his perfect number one girl getting
Speaker 1: pregnant by the exact guy that he forbade her to see.
Speaker 1: But when she told him, James Armor immediately stood up,
Speaker 1: passed out, and woke up seconds later screaming for vengeance
Speaker 1: upon the head of the rotten piece of filth who
Speaker 1: despoiled this daughter. So, you know, I think it's open
Speaker 1: to interpretation how he felt about no word, how he
Speaker 1: really felt that. Yeah, tell us James that James snatched
Speaker 1: up the letter that they'd signed saying that they were married,
Speaker 1: and he brought it to his lawyer, who literally cut
Speaker 1: their names out of it, which effectively nullified the whole
Speaker 1: acknowledgement of marriage. There's no marriage anymore, which is so crazy.
Speaker 1: You can just cut names out. I know, I earned
Speaker 1: the whole thing instead of well, I've got a marriage
Speaker 1: certificate here, but God knows who it's for. We might
Speaker 1: want to use it for someone else. And justin start
Speaker 1: a couple of names say at this time, so James
Speaker 1: is pissed, and he ordered Jean to go live with
Speaker 1: her aunt and Paisley. And remember you know, as much
Speaker 1: as she loved Robert Burns, Jean loved her daddy, and
Speaker 1: she accepted his plans. She told Robert Burns that she
Speaker 1: was leaving and that he should make no effort to
Speaker 1: contact her. Robert begged James to reconsider, but he kicked
Speaker 1: him out and he said never to come back here again,
Speaker 1: and I'll cut more than your name out real. Some
Speaker 1: biographers suggest that Robert Burns might have been dealing with
Speaker 1: bipolar disorder. The Journal of Royal College of Physicians in
Speaker 1: Edinburgh did a study in of more than eight hundred
Speaker 1: letters and journals written by Robert Burns, and they say
Speaker 1: that he had quote periods of intense creativity, a temperamental
Speaker 1: personality and an unstable love life. According to the BBC,
Speaker 1: professor Daniel Smith at the University of Glasgow said they
Speaker 1: hope to study quote will contribute to discussions on the
Speaker 1: links between mental illness and creativity and helped to destigmatize
Speaker 1: psychiatric disorders. And then this past fall, just the actor
Speaker 1: Alan Cumming We All Know and Love, did a one
Speaker 1: man show on stage where he played Robert Burns, and
Speaker 1: in studying all of Burns's letters, he told New York
Speaker 1: Times quote, you realize he's much more fragile, more florid,
Speaker 1: and often depressed. And we mentioned this because this is
Speaker 1: one of the tougher times in Robert's life. Jean told
Speaker 1: him that she still loved him, but her family would
Speaker 1: never allow it, and he couldn't afford a marriage anyway.
Speaker 1: He couldn't support a wife, so he wrote in letters
Speaker 1: how angry he was for Jean choosing her father's wishes
Speaker 1: over him, but he also couldn't get her out of
Speaker 1: his mind or his heart. Maybe because he was torn
Speaker 1: by this, he went back to an old flame of
Speaker 1: his And this brings us to this episode's side. Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess Mary Campbell a k A. Highland. Mary and
Speaker 1: Robert had actually been seeing each other a little on
Speaker 1: the side whenever Jean couldn't get away from her father Um.
Speaker 1: But Jean was like never jealous of her. She was
Speaker 1: fine with it. She's probably like, Okay, when I'm not around,
Speaker 1: you can go spend time with Mary. But Mary knows
Speaker 1: damn well that I'm number one around here. That's right,
Speaker 1: as long as Mary knows who comes first. Well. Now
Speaker 1: that a marriage to Jean seemed impossible, Robert went back
Speaker 1: to Mary and he really fell in love with her
Speaker 1: over the next few months, and they agreed to marry.
Speaker 1: Robert asked her to go with him to Jamaica, where
Speaker 1: they could start a new and she agreed. She went
Speaker 1: back to her family's home in Campbelltown to prepare to
Speaker 1: leave the next fall. Meanwhile, Robert was still really hurting
Speaker 1: over Jean. Grace says that he wrote in early June, quote,
Speaker 1: one thing I know she has made me completely miserable.
Speaker 1: Never man loved or rather adored a woman more than
Speaker 1: I did her. And to confess the truth between you
Speaker 1: and me, I do still love her to distraction, though
Speaker 1: I won't tell her so mm hmm. He did everything
Speaker 1: he good to try and get her out of his mind.
Speaker 1: He went to Mason meetings, he went out drinking, he
Speaker 1: wrote poems, but nothing could stop him from thinking about her.
Speaker 1: On September three, Jean gave birth and it was twins. Surprise. Well,
Speaker 1: the families talked the Armors and the burns Is and
Speaker 1: they agreed that it was a boy to girl. They
Speaker 1: agreed that the boy, whose name was Robert, also would
Speaker 1: be raised by Robert's mother along with the child she
Speaker 1: was already raising of Roberts Lizzie his his other little
Speaker 1: whoopsie baby um. The girl of these twins, who was
Speaker 1: also named Jean. Apparently that was a rule of the
Speaker 1: church is that if they if unwed couples had children,
Speaker 1: they were is named after the couple themselves. Okay, I
Speaker 1: was about staying. Not very creative name. Think for a poet.
Speaker 1: He could come up with some other name. He couldn't
Speaker 1: think of one other name in the world. He's sitting
Speaker 1: up all night. He's got a waste basket full of
Speaker 1: crumpled up paper. I can't think of anything, but well,
Speaker 1: Jean would stay with the Armor family in Macklin. So
Speaker 1: good on Robert's mother for bailing him out twice by
Speaker 1: raising two of his illegitimate children. Right, I guess she's
Speaker 1: a long suffering lady. Right after having but six seven
Speaker 1: kids of her own. I know, she might just be like,
Speaker 1: I'll throw him in here, I won't even notice. I
Speaker 1: don't know what else to do besides kids. I haven't
Speaker 1: doing him my whole damn life. Whatever. We kept all
Speaker 1: the baby clothes from the last one, right, Yeah, just
Speaker 1: throw him in here now. Even while Robert waited for
Speaker 1: Mary to return to Macklin for them to leave for Jamaica,
Speaker 1: Robert was still hoping that Jean's parents would finally accept him.
Speaker 1: He even once forced his way into Jean's room so
Speaker 1: he could see her in the twins and while he
Speaker 1: is there, he broke down in tears, but James never relented.
Speaker 1: And then just a month later, in October, Robert received
Speaker 1: a letter saying that Highland Mary had contracted typhoid fever
Speaker 1: and died. Yeah. Well, this left Robert even more depressed
Speaker 1: and confused about his future. He had raised some money
Speaker 1: for Jamaica by publishing a book called Poems Chiefly in
Speaker 1: the Scottish dialect, which is known better as the Kilmarnock Volume,
Speaker 1: and it was successful. Quickly it started spreading his name
Speaker 1: across the country, but Robert postponed his trip. He's probably
Speaker 1: still hoping for another shot with Jean. In November of
Speaker 1: seventy six, a month after Highland Mary died, he was
Speaker 1: still fighting with the armors, so he decided to get
Speaker 1: the hell out of town and try out the big
Speaker 1: city of Edinburgh. And when he got there, he popped off.
Speaker 1: People loved his poetry and he was welcomed in by
Speaker 1: all of the fancy writer's clothed Wow. Nice, welcome to
Speaker 1: own Robert, join us as we write poetry. And that's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what a cool club to hang out in, right,
Speaker 1: I mean Edinburgh, you know, not a bad place to
Speaker 1: go if you're a storyteller, comedian, art scene. There's pretty popping,
Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah. While he was there, tiny little side
Speaker 1: romance that probably could be its own episode. He had
Speaker 1: a sexy little correspondence with a surgeon's daughter named Agnes
Speaker 1: Macleios and they would send secret letters to each other
Speaker 1: under pseudonyms. His was Sylvander and hers was Clorinda. But
Speaker 1: again they had they had quite a dalliance that we
Speaker 1: won't get into today. That went on for quite a while,
Speaker 1: but she never did want to get into a physical
Speaker 1: relationship with him. It was mostly letters and you know,
Speaker 1: flirtatious hangouts. So when she turned him down, he went
Speaker 1: and banged her serving girl, Jenny Clowe. Jenny Clowe ended
Speaker 1: up having his bay be another one. This was like this,
Speaker 1: this way, I did not want to have to with you.
Speaker 1: I hear you're very fertile, Robert. You keep voiceding these
Speaker 1: babies onto people, and you don't want one. No. The
Speaker 1: biographers do say that Robert Burns really loved all the
Speaker 1: children that he had from his very first one. He
Speaker 1: felt very fatherly and wanted to provide for them as
Speaker 1: best he could, even though he often didn't have very
Speaker 1: much money. So he did offer to take the child
Speaker 1: from Jenny Cloud, but Jenny refused. She wanted to keep
Speaker 1: the baby herself. Ultimately, she really didn't want much to
Speaker 1: do with Robert, so he sent her some money instead.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more story there that we won't get
Speaker 1: into today. But but Jenny Cloud stayed behind Netinburgh with
Speaker 1: all those baby mamas and still wanting to be a
Speaker 1: good father. He's kind of all dirty bastards. He made
Speaker 1: pretty good money off the sale of his books, but
Speaker 1: this wasn't a regular predictable income, so he still needed
Speaker 1: steady work. Farm life was not doing it for him,
Speaker 1: and he had given his shares of Moskiel to his
Speaker 1: brother Gilbert long ago to help pay his way out
Speaker 1: of trouble for all the pregnancies, so kind of wasn't
Speaker 1: an option anyway. So Robert pushed hard in Edinburgh to
Speaker 1: become an exciseman. And there's attacks on all Scotch whiskey,
Speaker 1: and a Scotch whiskey dot com says quote, Once attacks
Speaker 1: is placed on any commodity, someone somewhere seeks to avoid
Speaker 1: paying it. True words. So the exciseman were basically tax collectors,
Speaker 1: specifically for alcohol, and it wasn't a very popular job,
Speaker 1: as it probably does not surprise you to hear. It
Speaker 1: seems weird for this man of the people to become
Speaker 1: a nark like this, but he just knew he had
Speaker 1: no other marketable skills. Um he did have connections that
Speaker 1: could get him the job, so that was kind of
Speaker 1: basically all that was available to him. But Robert Burns
Speaker 1: dot org says quote, there is some evidence to suggest
Speaker 1: that he was not one hund to present comfortable in
Speaker 1: his profession, and that brings us back to posy corner.
Speaker 1: For Robert Burns his poem The Deals Away with the Exciseman.
Speaker 1: The Dell came fiddling through the town and darts away
Speaker 1: with the exciseman and ilkal life cries old mahoon, and
Speaker 1: I wish you look at the prize man. The deals away,
Speaker 1: the Del's away, The Dell's away with the Exciseman. He
Speaker 1: danced away, he danced away. He danced away with the Exciseman.
Speaker 1: There's threesome reels. There's more some reels, there's horn pipes
Speaker 1: and struts, baseman. But the best dancer came to the
Speaker 1: land was the Del's away with the Exciseman. He's like
Speaker 1: the devil dances with the tax collectors. Okay, that's how
Speaker 1: I feel. But with a steady job and a bunch
Speaker 1: of newfound fame, he returned to Macklin and that meant
Speaker 1: one more shot with gene armor and we will hear
Speaker 1: more about that right after this. Welcome back your bunny
Speaker 1: lads and lassies and listeners, so very nice. Saved it
Speaker 1: at the end. There you're thrown ah at the end.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. Okay, Yeah, that's our advice. If you want
Speaker 1: to do a Scottish accent, just talk normally and go
Speaker 1: oh at the end. In sevent seven, Robert returned to
Speaker 1: Macklin and he found Jean and their daughter Jeans sunning
Speaker 1: themselves on the lawn. Robert and Jeane sr. We're so
Speaker 1: happy to see each other. Is like all the bad
Speaker 1: blood seemed to be gone, like nothing in the last
Speaker 1: year or so, it even happened. In fact, it was
Speaker 1: such a good reunion. Grace writes that later that month,
Speaker 1: Jean was pregnant again. Boom, It's like Robert can't even
Speaker 1: be within ten feet of a woman. This guy is
Speaker 1: fully loaded now. Not knowing that she was pregnant, Jean's
Speaker 1: parents were actually being shockingly uncruel to Robert. They tolerated him.
Speaker 1: They even invited him into their home once. It was
Speaker 1: such a happy time for Jeanne. But Robert was going
Speaker 1: to have to take off for a few tours where
Speaker 1: he would be reading his poetry and lecturing across Scotland.
Speaker 1: But later that year, all that happiness went away. In October,
Speaker 1: while Robert was in Edinburgh between tours, their daughter Jean
Speaker 1: died in Machlin. Additionally, when Mama Jean confessed to her
Speaker 1: parents that she was pregnant a second time with Robert
Speaker 1: Burns's kid, they kicked her out of the house. On
Speaker 1: hearing about this, Robert found her an apartment to stay in,
Speaker 1: and he wrote to Jean's mother to try to reconcile them,
Speaker 1: and they did patch things up, but she still was
Speaker 1: not allowed to come home, especially once James learned that
Speaker 1: Jean and Robert were still talking and this guy holds
Speaker 1: it rush. He realized, like, you, if you're not done
Speaker 1: with him, then you've got to be done with me.
Speaker 1: So Robert bought Jean at He paid for her living costs,
Speaker 1: and he promised to help Jean in a quote marriage
Speaker 1: by habit and repute, although he asked, as Tony Grace
Speaker 1: puts it, that she quote make no husbandly claim upon him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he really like, I didn't want to get married.
Speaker 1: I guess no. Yeah, he really loved Jean. But I
Speaker 1: feel like Robert was always of two minds about marriage.
Speaker 1: He like, would meet some girl and be like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I love you so much, let's get married.
Speaker 1: But also, especially at this point in his life when
Speaker 1: his fame was kind of growing, He's like, but I
Speaker 1: like getting laid wherever I go by different people, So
Speaker 1: maybe we shouldn't do the marriage thing because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do that. You know, He's like, I'll marry you an
Speaker 1: all but name Jane, but I just want you to
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna sleep with other people when I go
Speaker 1: to Edinburgh. A yeah, man. But Jean was also like
Speaker 1: not opposed to this was this is not something to
Speaker 1: bother her. You know, his relationship with Mary Campbell never
Speaker 1: bothered her. She was surprisingly accepting of his extracurricular activities.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. I wonder. I mean, I know some people
Speaker 1: are simply don't have that problem with that, but I
Speaker 1: wonder what made her so particularly like, oh, that's just Robert.
Speaker 1: Maybe she's like, that's just what he is and I
Speaker 1: love him. He was certainly honest about it, at least
Speaker 1: there's that. It was maybe that she was like, I'd
Speaker 1: rather you tell me and lie, so if I freak
Speaker 1: out every time, you won't tell me. Look at these options.
Speaker 1: I got people like my father who's like Mr Strict,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure he never cheated on his wife. But
Speaker 1: it was just like, this is the rigid rules you
Speaker 1: live by every day of your life. Or you know,
Speaker 1: probably other folks around town that we're all like cheating
Speaker 1: on their wives without telling anybody sneaking around and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, just like this is this ain't so bad? Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe it's like the humiliation of being lied to is
Speaker 1: worse than be know, wearing your out for somebody else.
Speaker 1: And I still know that you love me, so I
Speaker 1: don't really care. And she was, you know, for as
Speaker 1: much as a perfect princess she was to her dad,
Speaker 1: I think as she grew up to she she liked
Speaker 1: to be a little bit of a rebel and kind
Speaker 1: of live a bit of a don't alternative lifestyle. You
Speaker 1: can see. I mean, it's just getting pregnant out of wedlock.
Speaker 1: It's pretty. She's hanging out with poets and singers out
Speaker 1: in taverns and stuff, you know, revolutionaries. A lot of
Speaker 1: these guys were Republicans, you know, who were kind of
Speaker 1: anti monarchy across Europe. So they were all kind of rebellious,
Speaker 1: but marking the kind of dark streak that she was on.
Speaker 1: In March of sev seven, Jean gave birth to twins again,
Speaker 1: but sadly, these two both only lived a few days. Robert, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: knew that book sales were not gonna last forever and
Speaker 1: that he'd have to go back to farming. Sooner or
Speaker 1: later he would keep his excise job as backup income basically,
Speaker 1: so he hunted down some money that he was odin
Speaker 1: and borrow for some of his books, and then he
Speaker 1: signed a long term lease on a farm at ellis
Speaker 1: Land in Dumfrieze in June of eight. He had to
Speaker 1: take six weeks of training for the excise, and during
Speaker 1: that time Jean went to go live on the Burns
Speaker 1: family farm at Moscow to learn the ways of a
Speaker 1: farm wife, and while she was there she got to
Speaker 1: spend time with her surviving son, Robert Jr. Who, of
Speaker 1: course Robert's mother was raising At this point, Robert Sr.
Speaker 1: Agreed to let Jean make a husbandly claim of him
Speaker 1: right well, uh Tony Grace writes quote, I like to
Speaker 1: think Robert came to the conclusion that his popularity in
Speaker 1: Edinburgh was on the Wayne, and he knew no farmer
Speaker 1: could run a farm without the help of a wife.
Speaker 1: So they entered into a civil marriage at first, which
Speaker 1: the kirk later confirmed they were officially married in all respects,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until April of seventeen eighty nine that
Speaker 1: they both finally moved to their new farmhouse at ellis Land.
Speaker 1: And I should say that this point, James Armor finally
Speaker 1: starting to come around. The fame helped a little. Uh,
Speaker 1: the fact that he had a steady job as an
Speaker 1: exercise men helped a little. So he and and the
Speaker 1: fact that they did finally officially get married, even with
Speaker 1: the church is starting to be like okay with it
Speaker 1: or resigned to his fate. So the darkness kind of
Speaker 1: turned back around. Because Jean loved being Mrs Burns, the
Speaker 1: farm wife. She gave birth to a boy, Francis Wallace Burns,
Speaker 1: in August of nine. Robert Jr. Came to live with them,
Speaker 1: as did Robert's first daughter, by Elizabeth Patton, remember that
Speaker 1: serving girl. And they were calling her Bessie. Now they
Speaker 1: called her Lizzie earlier, probably called her best for a while.
Speaker 1: Now it's Bessie all the different. And they worked all
Speaker 1: day and then Robert worked on poetry and songs at night,
Speaker 1: and Jean was his editor and inspiration. She was an
Speaker 1: honest critic for him, and she helped his songs, especially
Speaker 1: because she was such a good singer. Remember she was
Speaker 1: like the best singer and the best dancer when she
Speaker 1: was a kid in in her hometown. But unfortunately the
Speaker 1: good times didn't last long, because within a year it
Speaker 1: was obvious that the farm was just a big money pit.
Speaker 1: Robert was appointed a writing officer by the Excise, which
Speaker 1: gave them a decent steady income, but it meant that
Speaker 1: he was away from most of the week and writing
Speaker 1: up to two miles a week, and whatever weather was
Speaker 1: going on meant that his health began to suffer as well.
Speaker 1: In October of nine, it had been three years since
Speaker 1: Highland Mary's death, and Jeane could see that Robert was
Speaker 1: getting depressed around this anniversary. She knew how much Mary
Speaker 1: had meant to him and how deeply her death had
Speaker 1: affected him. Jean really respected the relationship that they had had.
Speaker 1: He would just walk around the barnyard at night, kind
Speaker 1: of just staring into the starry sky, and she came
Speaker 1: out to find him lying in a pile of straw.
Speaker 1: She begged him to come inside and sit by the fire,
Speaker 1: which he did, and he sat down at his desk
Speaker 1: and immediately wrote a tribute to Highland Mary, which ended
Speaker 1: up being one of his most famous poems. So let's
Speaker 1: go back to posy card there, and he had a
Speaker 1: selection from two Mary in heaven, thou lingering star with
Speaker 1: lessening ray that loves to greet the early morn again,
Speaker 1: Thou usherst in the day my Mary from my soul
Speaker 1: was torn, Oh Mary, dear departed shade. Where is thy
Speaker 1: place of blissful rest? Seest thou, thy lover, lowly laid
Speaker 1: hearst thou the groans that rend his breast that sacred hour?
Speaker 1: Can I forget? Can I forget the hallowed grove whereby
Speaker 1: the winding hour we met to live one day of
Speaker 1: parting love? Eternity will not efface those records. Dear of
Speaker 1: transports past thy image at our last embrace a little
Speaker 1: thought which was our last heartbreaking man. Yea, Sometimes you
Speaker 1: read poetry and you're like whatever, You're like, I'm crying
Speaker 1: for real, and that they should look up. I mean
Speaker 1: you should look up a lot of his poems. There
Speaker 1: are many of them are available online and in the
Speaker 1: translations like a little bit different. But Jean understood how
Speaker 1: deeply he was hurt by the loss of Mary. But
Speaker 1: Robert did write frequently of his love for Gene and
Speaker 1: his poetry too. It's one of the things Tony Grace
Speaker 1: points out in his article some people kind of say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: he never felt it strongly about Jean as he did
Speaker 1: about Mary, but he has several poems where he writes
Speaker 1: about her. They just didn't have as much I guess
Speaker 1: lingering impact as Hyland Mary poem did. Yeah, that one
Speaker 1: stood out so much, or or they're more like embedded
Speaker 1: into poems about other things as opposed to being dedicated specifically,
Speaker 1: like here's how beautiful Gene is. He was just like,
Speaker 1: one day, while I was sitting happily with my amazing
Speaker 1: wife Jean, I saw a stone and like, and then
Speaker 1: he goes off about that never was I happier than
Speaker 1: with my beautiful wife. The man has written hundreds and
Speaker 1: hundreds of poems, so we don't have time for them
Speaker 1: all here today, unfortunately, but do go do some reading.
Speaker 1: They're they're really beautiful. And Jean meanwhile, obviously put up
Speaker 1: with a lot from Robert because in when she was
Speaker 1: just days away from giving birth herself again, Robert showed
Speaker 1: up with another baby he produced from an affair with
Speaker 1: a girl named and Park, you all dirty bath start
Speaker 1: at it again. And Park worked at the end where
Speaker 1: he regularly stayed when he was off excising and couldn't
Speaker 1: get home overnight. Oh yeah, give you some exercise. But
Speaker 1: Jean looks this baby and basically said, the more the merrier,
Speaker 1: thrower on the pile, just like Robert's mother, and she
Speaker 1: agreed to raise this child too. Her name was Betty,
Speaker 1: another dominutive of Elizabeth, by the way, and Jean famously
Speaker 1: later said quote, rob should have had ta wives. She's
Speaker 1: just like, honestly, at the end of the day, this
Speaker 1: guy should have been married twice. And she's like, I
Speaker 1: could use some hands around here. She She's like a
Speaker 1: harem that's what you need. You're a hare m guy. Well, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the farm kept getting worse and worse, and Robert was
Speaker 1: like totally over the idea of being a successful farmer.
Speaker 1: His landlord had an offer to buy the farm, and
Speaker 1: Robert was like, yes, love it. Let's move to Dumfriese
Speaker 1: and live in a city house. But Jean wasn't as
Speaker 1: happy about the move. She really loved the open space
Speaker 1: of the farmland, where she had frequent visitors and farm
Speaker 1: hands to help out, but now with several children running around,
Speaker 1: they had to move to a much smaller space in
Speaker 1: a district of dumfries called stinking Ventyl. No thank you.
Speaker 1: If you came to me and said, hey, babe, I
Speaker 1: found us a great house the neighborhoods called stinks like
Speaker 1: Ship Street, I'd be like, find a different house, Hey babe,
Speaker 1: do you want to do you want to move to
Speaker 1: ass Stench Park? For some reason, I'm turned off by
Speaker 1: the prospect rents cheap. I'll tell you why. It's an
Speaker 1: appropriately named park. But Robert fared better in his poetry.
Speaker 1: He continued to write for the Scots Musical Museum and
Speaker 1: another project called a Select Collection of Scottish Airs, where
Speaker 1: Tony Grace says he quote wrote, rewrote and put words
Speaker 1: to existing melodies to enable Scotland to retain its musical memories. Well,
Speaker 1: it's wonderful, But sadly, his health continued to fail and
Speaker 1: his depression continued to grow with it. None of the
Speaker 1: doctor's recommendations seemed to help, though they tried very hard
Speaker 1: to save him. Jean did everything that she could to
Speaker 1: help try and nurse him back to health, but on Thursday,
Speaker 1: je Robert Burns died at home. The following Monday, thousands
Speaker 1: of more Ners lining the streets of Dumfries as Robert's
Speaker 1: cast get traveled through, but that same day, Jean gave
Speaker 1: birth to their last child. She named him Maxwell, after
Speaker 1: Robert's best doctor. Which is I mean, poor Jean who
Speaker 1: had to also give birth the last child the day
Speaker 1: of her husband's funeral. That's so sad. And how sad
Speaker 1: for Maxwell to like be born right after his father died.
Speaker 1: That's sad. Tony Grace writes that Robert wasn't exactly broke
Speaker 1: when he died, but he didn't leave Jean very much
Speaker 1: money either, and now she had five children of her own,
Speaker 1: plus Bessie and Betty from Robert's other dalliance. Now, the
Speaker 1: Excise gave her a pension of ten pounds per year,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't really a lot for a woman with
Speaker 1: seven children. But Robert Burns had been a beloved voice
Speaker 1: of the Scottish people, and they wanted to pay him
Speaker 1: back for all he'd done for them. So a lawyer friend,
Speaker 1: Alexander Cunningham, along with an another friend from the Excise,
Speaker 1: John Sime, arranged to organize a publicly sponsored fund for
Speaker 1: Robert's family, and they raised seven hundred pounds. A few
Speaker 1: years later, Dr James Curry edited Robert's works and wrote
Speaker 1: a biography of him, and he made it so that
Speaker 1: any profit would go to jean and the kids. So
Speaker 1: by eighteen hundred that got them two thousand pounds, so
Speaker 1: doing pretty good. Yeah, and all this allowed Jeanne to
Speaker 1: live comfortably until her kids were old enough to start
Speaker 1: earning for themselves. She never remarried. She politely rejected several
Speaker 1: offers over the years because she was only thirty one
Speaker 1: when Robert died, right, and still a hottie. I bet, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: But Tony Grace writes that jean was visited by thousands
Speaker 1: of strangers over the next few decades, who all wanted
Speaker 1: to see the home of the great Scottish bart and
Speaker 1: he says that she never refused a single visitor and
Speaker 1: quote seemed to believe that her house and memories of
Speaker 1: the poet were in some way the property of the public.
Speaker 1: That it's interesting I wonder if, like, is it partly
Speaker 1: how she felt about him always and that's why she
Speaker 1: wasn't really jealous when his attention. She's like, this is
Speaker 1: a public guy. Everybody loves him. He's not for me
Speaker 1: to like cage or was it like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we had a public fund to support me. You know
Speaker 1: that makes me feel like everything belongs to everyone now
Speaker 1: because you really, I mean, I wouldn't have it without you,
Speaker 1: you know, I think if there was maybe or a
Speaker 1: little both, or I'm sure a little of both, but
Speaker 1: I think the former is really interesting because I mean
Speaker 1: he was thought of, especially after his I mean, once
Speaker 1: his poetry took off, he was really thought of as
Speaker 1: this Scottish folk hero, like he was the one, like
Speaker 1: like Grace said, he was preserving Scottish memories and song.
Speaker 1: A lot of these folk songs that Robert wrote existed beforehand.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, they'd be sung in taverns and stuff,
Speaker 1: but nobody ever finished them or wrote them down. They
Speaker 1: were inconsistent. He set some old poems to tunes himself,
Speaker 1: like not all of his work was original, but it
Speaker 1: became his because he was the one who like put
Speaker 1: it in stone. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah. So I could
Speaker 1: totally see that where she's just like he is everyone's. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got lucky. I get to spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time with him, but he's not mine mine, Like there's
Speaker 1: no possess possession feelings. She actually ended up kind of
Speaker 1: selling off or giving away a lot of his possessions,
Speaker 1: including apparently the bed he died in. Everybody wanted a
Speaker 1: literal piece of so she would sell pieces of it
Speaker 1: and also had like, uh, you know posts from the
Speaker 1: bed carved into ornaments that people wanted and stuff like
Speaker 1: that too, and she gave away his gifts. That's pretty cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if about wanting someone's death bed, but
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they were like, it's just his bed,
Speaker 1: and they weren't specifically about he didn't die or if
Speaker 1: he did, that's not why I wanted, right, it was
Speaker 1: just said untily he died. Well, maybe he slept in
Speaker 1: it and lived in it, all right, it was just
Speaker 1: the last thing he did in it was dying. And
Speaker 1: I mean, just see all these kids. That's not all
Speaker 1: he did. Jean also would go regularly visit friends up
Speaker 1: in Edinburgh and they had parties erupt all the time
Speaker 1: with a song and dance. At one time, while she
Speaker 1: was there, a young man asked Jean, who was now
Speaker 1: in her sixties, if her dancing days were over. He said, quote,
Speaker 1: I have not seen you on the floor, and Jean replied, quote, well,
Speaker 1: that's no fault of mine. She's like nobody asked. Oh,
Speaker 1: so they asked her, and she challenged, accepted right exactly,
Speaker 1: and she stood up and she just absolutely delighted that
Speaker 1: crowd by springing into a jig, showing she hadn't lost
Speaker 1: a single step over all these years. And by the
Speaker 1: end of the night she had danced with everyone at
Speaker 1: that party. Gene is awesome. Everybody loves Gene. And that's
Speaker 1: that's again, what Tony Grace is kind of writing about
Speaker 1: is that a lot of her legacy is left behind.
Speaker 1: But she was in a lot of ways as beloved
Speaker 1: over the next thirty years of her life, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: as Robert Burns was by the time he died. She
Speaker 1: was just like this public figure that everybody had a
Speaker 1: great time around. And she was so nice and inviting
Speaker 1: and just open. That's cool. She seems like just probably
Speaker 1: hit some really cool energy to be around. It's just
Speaker 1: a warm persons. I have been able to find so
Speaker 1: little negativity in her. She straight up raised two of
Speaker 1: his other sons with other women, all right, one of
Speaker 1: them one of them he had while they were married.
Speaker 1: I mean, you would think that would be where the
Speaker 1: line would be drawn. And apparently Jean and Betty were
Speaker 1: actually very close for many years, and Betty lived with
Speaker 1: her until she got married in eight There was even
Speaker 1: a fund also set up specifically for Robert's two illegitimate children.
Speaker 1: They raised four hundred pounds to split between the two
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, amazing that Jean lived until sixty nine
Speaker 1: years old. She passed away in eighteen thirty four after
Speaker 1: a stroke. Well In when writing for the Scott's Musical Museum,
Speaker 1: Robert Burns immortalized the song old Lang Sign, which was
Speaker 1: borrowed from an existing folk song, but it was never
Speaker 1: printed until Robert wrote it in full. So, like you
Speaker 1: were saying, it sort of became his work because he's
Speaker 1: the one who wrote it down. Yeah, and there was
Speaker 1: a verse or two, but he wrote most of it.
Speaker 1: I see. He extrapolated existing Old lang Sign literally means
Speaker 1: old long since or less literally times long past, basically saying,
Speaker 1: for the sake of old times, should old acquaintance be forgot?
Speaker 1: Is it right that old times be forgotten? And then
Speaker 1: the song answers itself that we should remember old friendships,
Speaker 1: So let's us take one last trip to Posy Corner
Speaker 1: for old lang Sign. She would all the acquaintance be forgot?
Speaker 1: And never brought to mind, should all the acquaintance be forgot,
Speaker 1: and all lang Zigne, And surely he'll be here in
Speaker 1: pine Stoop, and surely I will be mine, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk a cup of kindness. Yet for all lang Sign,
Speaker 1: we run about the race and power. The gown's fine,
Speaker 1: but we've wandered money. A weary fit synord lang Signa
Speaker 1: had peddled in the burn frame morning suntil dine, but
Speaker 1: says between a sprayed heeadroard sinald lang Sign and there's
Speaker 1: a hand my trusty fare and he's a hand design
Speaker 1: and we'll talk erect good willy wacht for old lang Zigne,
Speaker 1: for all Blindsign my job for all Blansign, well talk
Speaker 1: cup kind yacht, far old old he had to do
Speaker 1: the bass I try. We started too low. Happy new Year.
Speaker 1: Everybody like to well, they say, um. The tune that
Speaker 1: we hear now was originally recorded in like seventine, just
Speaker 1: a few years after Robert Burns's death. They're not sure
Speaker 1: if that's the tune Robert Burns intended or not. Some
Speaker 1: of his songs did have sheet music included with them,
Speaker 1: and he had specific tunes or he would rewrite words
Speaker 1: to old existing folk tunes or sometimes set new poems
Speaker 1: too old tunes. Maybe he didn't like the original lyrics,
Speaker 1: Like it's kind of the weird out of his day.
Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, I can fix it. You
Speaker 1: can fix it. Um. Some interesting little after facts that
Speaker 1: I found because of all the many children that he had,
Speaker 1: of seven surviving children that that Jean raised and Jenny
Speaker 1: Cloud's baby that she kept between all them. It said
Speaker 1: that Burns is now thought to have over nine hundred
Speaker 1: living descendants Charlemagne right. Among his living descendants includes Tommy
Speaker 1: ill figure. According to Scottsman dot com, American fashion designer,
Speaker 1: he told Vogue in twelve that quote it was never
Speaker 1: discussed in my house because it was said that Robert
Speaker 1: Burns was a womanizer and a boozer. They were embarrassed
Speaker 1: he was related. So we weren't told until we were
Speaker 1: in our teens or maybe twenties. So that is a
Speaker 1: rumor that has persisted about Robert Burns for a long time,
Speaker 1: that he was kind of a drunk too. Um. But
Speaker 1: Jean actually really hated those rumors. Tony Grace writes that
Speaker 1: she said quote never either before or after they're on marriage,
Speaker 1: that I see him intoxicated, and never once was he
Speaker 1: seen home or in the least difficulty as to dispose
Speaker 1: himself when he arrived home. So she said, no, he
Speaker 1: was never like a stumble and drunk who had a
Speaker 1: hard time. Yeah, nobody had to bring him home in
Speaker 1: a wheelbarrow, right right? Also interesting In two thousand nine STV,
Speaker 1: which is a I guess a public TV station in Scotland,
Speaker 1: they ran a series and the public vote on who
Speaker 1: was the greatest scott of all time? And Robert Burns
Speaker 1: one narrowly defeating William Wallace. And only one of them
Speaker 1: was played by Mel Gibson. Yeah, but one of them
Speaker 1: was played by Alan Cumming. I know who wins that?
Speaker 1: Not bad? Amazing, what a great story and how sweet that.
Speaker 1: You know, he and Jean were clearly made for each other, right,
Speaker 1: but he have found someone like her that would have
Speaker 1: been so accepting of his peccadillos, right, extra babies and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Maybe not? You know, she was she
Speaker 1: was like the perfect girl for him. It's no wonder
Speaker 1: she had such a special place in his heart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're a great couple. I'm really fascinated by them. Yeah, great,
Speaker 1: just again, happenstance googling that just let this whole story
Speaker 1: I know. And these poet, these writers, you know, they
Speaker 1: keep giving it to us. Yeah, they did like to
Speaker 1: get it. Have wild lives, I guess something to write about. Well,
Speaker 1: next time you're singing a old lang sign, you know,
Speaker 1: I know that if you're ever singing old lang sign,
Speaker 1: you're probably a little tipsy. Just think of Robert Burns
Speaker 1: and everything he went through that song. So hopefully you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode as much as we did. I loved
Speaker 1: learning about Robert Burns and good old Gene Armor, the
Speaker 1: best dancer Scotland's ever seen. Um, So reach out and
Speaker 1: let us know what you got. We love hearing from
Speaker 1: you guys. Tell us about your favorite old langzign, memory,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Our email is ridic Romance at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com right, or you can find us sense, Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli, I'm at
Speaker 1: Dianamite Boom, and the show is at ridic Romance right,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for listening. We love spending
Speaker 1: time with y'all. We live see you next time. Bye,
Speaker 1: so long, friends, it's time to go. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to our show. Tell your friend's name's uncle Sandece to
Speaker 1: listen to a show ridiculous roll dance