Maria Riddki.l, hie I-riicnd (jf Burns. 33 



" Farewell, thou stream that winding flows 

 Around Eliza's dwelling ! 

 O ]Meniory spare the cruel throes 

 Within my bosom swelling." 



There is nothing" lo be objected to in the change of name of 

 the heroine of this poem ;'^^ indeed, under the circumstances 

 it was perhaps only natural, but Burns in October, 1794, 

 showed his spite in a jiremature epitaph on Walter Riddel! : — 



" So vile was poor Wat, sucli a miscreant slave, 



That the worms even damned him \\hen laid in his grave 

 ' In his scull there's a famine,' a .starved reptile cries; 

 ' And his heart, it is poisoii,' another replies." 



Burns' poem, written on November 17th, 1794, and 

 which is believed lo have been sent to Mrs. Maria Riddell, 

 runs : — 



"Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie? 

 Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie! 

 Well thou know'st my aching heart. 



And canst thou leave me thus for pity? 



Is this thy plighted, fond regard: 



Thus cruelly to part, my Katie? 

 Is this thy faithful swain's reward: 



An aching broken heart, my Katie? 



Farewell ! And ne'er such sorrows tear 

 That fickle heart of thine, my Katie ! 



Thou may'st find those will love thee dear, 

 But not a love like min(>, my Katie. 



Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie ! 



Canst thou leave me thus, my Katie! 

 Well thou know'st my aching heart. 



And canst thou leave me thus For pity?" 



46 Procedure, somewhat jjarallel to the al>ove, is to be found in 

 the case of Burns' verses beginning "Thine am I, my faithful 

 Fair." A copy of these was apparently sent to Maiia Riddell (see 

 Appendix B, Xo. 482), but on August 2nd, 1795, being then " very 

 much on with Jean Lorimer," Burn^ wrote to Thomson ordering 

 him to change the first line to "Thine am 1, my Chloris Fair." 

 (Henley and Henderson's The Poetry of liohert Burns, vol. iii. 

 (1901), p. 479.). 



