Mrs Gibson and her daughter Jess kept and managed the pub/lodging house in Mauchline through which flowed the tide of lower life. By the time Burns wrote this work, the goings-on there were deemed to be “decorously lewd”.
Thus he was inspired to create the frantic world of the “Jolly Beggars”, a poem which his mother and his brother Gilbert tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade him from printing!
Once the day is done and they gather to pick over the spoils of the day, cripples are miraculously “healed”; the blind can see; the lame can walk.
Be warned : all is not what it seems. As is the case with our Beggar Pawn. Turn him around and see what surprises might lie in store…
“What is title? What is treasure? What is reputation’s care? If we lead a life o’ pleasure, Tis no matter how or where.
A fig for those by law protected! liberty’s a glorious feast! Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priests.”
