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