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Toast to
the Lassies presented at the Burns Supper of the Scottish American
Club of Indiana on Saturday, January 26, 2002.
I will not embarrass them
by asking them to stand, but, before I begin, will you join me in
recognizing this event’s organizers, two (2) remarkable lassies,
Marguerite Hendrie and Cheryl Currie?
(Applause)
How remarkable it is that,
as you leave this place, I will be remembered as the Speaker with the
"funny accent!"
If, in fact, a transcript
of my remarks is made available, I will prevail upon the printer to
provide you with a proper translation.
(Pause)
It has long been observed,
"A woman can make an
average man great, and a great man average."
Burns could not have
attained the status he has so long enjoyed, were it not for the fact that
he was surrounded by remarkable women.
The women of whom Burns
wrote, were not the frail, timid ladies of English Nobility, they were
neither weaker vessels, nor victims, they were the proud descendants of
Celtic womanhood.
When the Ancient Romans
encountered the Celtic tribes inhabiting Northern Europe, in an area north
of the Alps, and extending from Turkey in the east, to Ireland in the
west, they were impressed with equal station enjoyed by their women.
Celtic women enjoyed an
unusual degree of freedom by standards known in the Ancient and Medieval
worlds.
They were renowned for
their individuality and courage, and were particularly praised for their
qualities of self-respect and independence.
Celtic women could inherit
land and title, no less than their male siblings.
A woman could serve as
chief of the clan, and enter into battle, just as men did, in time of war.
The ferocity of the Celtic
warrior women is the subject of legend.
The Romans were shocked by
the sexual liberty enjoyed by Celtic women, who extended what the Celts
euphemistically referred to as, "the friendship of the thighs."
Proper Roman matrons, with
the false standards of "respectability" imposed upon them by their men
folk, found lovers among those prepared to indulge in secret liaisons.
Due, perhaps, to the sexual
liberty of the Celts, succession within their tribes and clans was
matrilineal because, amid such general promiscuity, it could be difficult
to ascertain who the father of a particular child had been.
A Celtic woman could
divorce her husband if he failed to support her, or treat her with
respect, if he was impotent, homosexual, sterile, or gossiped about their
sex lives.
She could leave him if he
was fat, a snorer, or just plain repulsive.
It was to the inheritors of
the Spirit of Celtic womanhood, and to the literary celebration of their
many virtues, that Burns devoted so much of his energy:
The farmer’s daughter,
Nelly Kilpatrick, known to us as
Handsome Nell,
Peggy Thompson, whose
memory is preserved in Now Westlin
Winds and Slaught’ring Guns,
Burns only bride, Jean
Armour, who bore him two (2) sets of twins, before their wedding,
inspiration for A Wife’s
a Winsome Wee Thing,
Mary Campbell, immortalized
as Highland Mary,
Nancy Craig MacLehose,
known secretly to Burns, and now, to all the world as Clarinda, who
inspired Ae Fond Kiss,
and
Anna Parke, celebrated as
Anna with the Golden Locks.
The irresistible beauty,
and the sensuality, of the women who inhabited the world of Burns is
evidenced by the fact that he fathered no fewer than thirteen (13)
children through liaisons with no fewer than five (5) women whose names
are known to us.
Clearly, Burns enjoyed "the
friendship of the thighs," and found, in that, his greatest inspiration.
The strength of Celtic
women is demonstrated in the person of his wife, Jean Armour who, for
reasons even the most generous would have difficulty comprehending, chose
to take the daughter of one of Burns liaisons into her own home.
But we can easily imagine
that there were exchanges in the Burns home which provided the model for
the ferocity of Tam O’ Shanter’s missus.
(Pause)
Burns could not have
attained the status he has so long enjoyed, were it not for the fact that
he was surrounded by remarkable women.
And, aren’t we all?
His love of the lassies, is
best summarized in this excerpt from
Green Grow the Rashes:
Auld Nature swears the
lovely dears
Her noblest work she
classes;
Her ‘prentice han’ she
tried on man,
And then She made the
lasses!
And so we toast the
daughters of the Celts, and All the members of the fairer sex who
are the inheritors of the Spirit of the Celts, as celebrated in the
verse of Robert Burns, in all their beauty, dignity, strength, and, yes,
in their ferocity.
"A woman can make an
average man great, and a great man average."
Let each man consider this
proposition, quietly, and to himself, for in doing so aloud, he places
himself in grave peril.
Gentlemen! Be up, on your
feet, and join me in a Toast to the Lassies!
(Pause)
To the Lassies!
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