{"id":131,"date":"2011-11-23T12:50:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T12:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technogypsie.com\/faerie\/?p=131"},"modified":"2011-11-23T12:50:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T12:50:34","slug":"burns-tam-oshanter-1792-1855-illustrations-sexy-witch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/burns-tam-oshanter-1792-1855-illustrations-sexy-witch\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Burns\u0092 Tam O\u0092Shanter, 1792 (1855 illustrations) \u00ab Sexy Witch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Burns\u0092 Tam O\u0092Shanter, 1792 (1855\u00a0illustrations)<\/h2>\n

\u0093Tam O\u0092Shanter\u0094 is a ghost story written in verse by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns<\/a>. Burns persuaded his friend Francis Grose to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk, in his Antiquities of Scotland<\/em> (1791), which Grose promised to do if Burns would supply him with a ghost story to go with it. Burns wrote a brief version of the story in prose before starting his 224 line poem. Both versions have been quoted in the following account (see here<\/a> for the prose and here<\/a> for the poem).
\nThe poem concerns a farmer, Tam. After a night of drinking and story-telling, Tam must ride home to Carrick through a heavy storm. As Tam passes Alloway kirk-yard it is \u0093the wizard hour, between night and morning\u0094. He sees a bright light streaming from the ruined church and, on investigating, he is \u0093surprised and entertained, thorough the ribs and arches of an old gothic window \u0085 to see a dance of witches merrily footing it round\u0094. As the dance grows \u0093fast and furious\u0094 the women cast aside their cloths and dance in their \u0093sark\u0094 (undershirt). Alone among the many \u0093wither\u0092d beldams, auld and droll\u0094 (withered grandmothers, old and comical) Tam notices a \u0093winsome wench\u0094 in a \u0093cutty sark\u0094 (short shirt). After some time observing the young witch dancing, Tam unwisely cries out \u0093Weel done, Cutty-sark!\u0094; at which, the music stops, the lights go out and all the witches give chase. Tam makes for the bridge (since a witch can\u0092t cross running water): \u0093the pursuing, vengeful hags were so close at his heels, that one of them actually sprung to seize him: but it was too late; nothing was on her side of the stream but the horse\u0092s tail, which immediately gave way to her infernal grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning.\u0094
\nThe poem was immediately, and immensely, popular: it has been illustrated many times. Artists have shown particular relish in depicting Nannie (the young witch) dancing, chasing Tam, and grasping the tail of Tam\u0092s horse, Meg (or Maggie). The three illustrations below are by John Faed<\/a> (and engraved by Lumb Stocks and James Stephenson for the 1855 edition). These are some of the best and most frequently reprinted or copied illustrations to Burns\u0092 poem. I have accompanied each illustration (or detail) with a passage from the poem.\u00a0 (Follow link above or below for the author’s article to continue …)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

http:\/\/sexywitch.wordpress.com\/2006\/09\/15\/burns-tam-oshanter\/ <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burns\u0092 Tam O\u0092Shanter, 1792 (1855 illustrations) \u00ab Sexy Witch. Burns\u0092 Tam O\u0092Shanter, 1792 (1855\u00a0illustrations) \u0093Tam O\u0092Shanter\u0094 is a ghost story written in verse by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns. Burns persuaded his friend Francis Grose to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk, in his Antiquities of Scotland (1791), which Grose promised to do if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,38,57],"tags":[76,230,620,1052,1222,1223,1224],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magic-the-occult","category-religion","category-witchcraft","tag-76","tag-burns-tam-oshanter","tag-illustrations","tag-sorcery","tag-witchcraft","tag-witchcraft-illustrations","tag-witches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/lore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}