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Scots Wha Hae
(Tune: Hey Tuttie Tattie)
'Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae your gory bed,
Or tae Victorie!
'Now's the day, and now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power -
Chains and Slaverie!
'Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!
'Wha, for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',
Let him on wi' me!
'By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
'Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow! -
Let us do or dee!'
It will soon be 24th June – a day that I’d suggest should be our national holiday rather than St Andrews Day. Burns wrote “Scots Wha Hae” to celebrate the Scottish people’s struggle for Independence and Freedom. But it’s not Wallace or Bruce who is the true hero of “Scots Wha Hae”, much though Burns admired them, but another later champion of Liberty.
Burns wrote this poem/song during a time of great hope and great repression. The French Revolution and Tom Paine’s “Rights of Man” inspired the Scots lawyer, Thomas Muir, to found the “Friends of the People” in 1792 to campaign for greater democracy.
After its first convention he travelled to France to unsuccessfully plead for the French King’s life – he feared a backlash that would follow the execution - and returned via Ireland in order to meet with the United Irishmen.
In his absence Muir was charged with sedition, a charge imported from English law and contrary to the Scottish judicial independence supposedly guaranteed in the Act of Union.
On his return from Ireland in 1793, Muir was arrested at Stranraer. Carried to Edinburgh in chains, Burns was staying with a friend at Gatehouse-of-Fleet as Muir’s convoy went past. Burns went home and began composing a poem which as he said in a letter written that same evening was not just about Wallace’s martyrdom but "about another man who paid dearly for standing up to tyranny" (Muir). He also wrote to his publisher that he had been inspired by Bruce's “glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient”.
Read in this light the lines of the poem take on a new significance – “Noo’s the day and noo’s the hour” means that the time to take up arms against the state’s repression (“Chains and slaverie”) is not in some mythical past but right now.
Nor is Burns being a simple patriot when he asks “Wha’ for Scotland’s king and law, Freedom’s sword will strongly draw?” The king he supports is the same good king as found in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” (Freedom) and he is calling on all free men to take up arms in defence of liberty and the right to be tried under Scotland’s laws.
Burns recognised that what was at stake was not only the Scottish people’s own freedom but that of their children and his sentiments are the same as those of La Passionara during the Spanish Civil War - “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”. Or as he put it “We shall drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free”. For music, Burns chose a pipe tune, “Hey Tuttie Tattie” which if oral tradition is true, Bruce’s army marched to as they made their way to immortality at Bannockburn.
Thomas Muir was given a show trial before the infamous hanging judge Lord Braxfield and a hand-picked jury of Tory Yeomanry. In a travesty of impartial “justice” Braxfield made his views plain at the start of the case. Greater democracy, such as Muir had called for, could not be countenanced as the "Government in this country is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented". To ensure a guilty verdict he then invented the crime of “unconscious sedition".
When Muir attempted to defend himself by claiming that he had never advocated anything that was not in line with Christ’s teaching Braxfield leaned over to the jury and said “Much guid did it dae him. He was hingit tae!”
Muir was convicted and sentenced to 14 years penal transportation to Botany Bay. Though eventually rescued by the French he died of wounds sustained in a sea-battle on his voyage home and never saw his native land again.
Burns, fearful for his own freedom after Muir’s conviction, had “Scots Wha Hae” published anonymously. He was not openly acknowledged as its author until years after his death.
Burns was right to be fearful. He had already been carpeted by Customs and Excise for being amongst a crowd of theatre-goers in Dumfries who had sung the French Revolutionary anthem “Ca Ira” in preference to “God Save the King”. An understandable preference given the latter’s anti-Scottish sentiments! Lamely Burns gave the excuse that he had not sung “Ca Ira” himself but admitted to not having sung “God Save the King” when he should have – that is he had smoked, but not inhaled, the weed of sedition!
Thus the real tyrants of “Scots Wha Hae” are not that weakling Edward II but the UK Government ,and its Scottish Raj, Henry Dundas, the Home Secretary, of Burns’ own day - busy taking away hard won civil liberties to protect their own power. The poem therefore could not be more relevant today.
As in Burns’ time people are being arrested and transported in chains to places far from any hope of aid from friends and family. Botany Bay or Guantanamo Bay? Suspension of Habeas Corpus or 42 day detention? Our children in English chains or asylum seekers children in Dungavel? The cowards’ flight from, or the brave’s stand against, Tyranny? - We today face the same choices as Wallace and Burns faced. Burns believed that it was the very act of struggling for freedom that ennobled humankind – not hereditary titles. That is why I believe that our national day and public holiday should not be St Andrews Day – decent man though he was - but the far more “sacred” anniversary of Bannockburn.
After all it was the Wars of Independence which ensured that we today still have a place called “Scotland” within which we can campaign for future independence and freedom. Bannockburn represents everything best about Scotland and its people. It should not only be a symbol and lesson to Scots but to oppressed people throughout the world, that only one thing is worth fighting and dying for – freedom from tyranny. What nobler sacrifice could we have to remember?
As we gather this year to celebrate that day nearly 700 years ago I’d urge people to remember the words Abraham Lincoln, said about another battlefield in another war fought for freedom from slavery –
“... we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract”.
Will we remember the sacrifices made by Wallace, Muir and those that died at Bannockburn for our freedom? Will we rededicate ourselves to fight, not only for Independence, but what it alone can safeguard? - the precious liberties hard won by our parents and grandparents. Or will we sit idly by whilst our freedoms are stolen from us, and generations to come, by the Westminster Parliament? Remember - “Libertie's in every blow, Let us do or dee!”
Comments
Chris Walker 23/06/08 |
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees".
Once again Bill Scott takes an old sentiment and gives it a contemporary resonance.
'On his knees'figuratively last week with the most powerful man on the planet by his side and in front of the world's cameras in 10 Downing Street Prime Minister Brown embodied that reality. Big Clunkin paid more than due obeisance. I find it impossible to believe that a Scottish Prime Minister of an independent Scotland would perform this grinning monkey role and, to repeat, with such enthusiasm at that. The organ grinder by his side, aka the war criminal Bush, smiled that rictus grin affably as the public debasement was played out and beamed across the globe.
Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!"
Indeed.
Thanks Bill for reminding us so vividly of the potency of deja vu. |
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Alan Clayton 06/06/08 |
This is an excellent piece and ought to be read by everyone.Burns was also an enthusiastic supporter of the American revolution. He wrote a poem on George Washington's birthday.He turned against the French revolution when the appalling violence developed.Some historians argue that this violence was initiated by British agents provocateur. |
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David Park 08/06/08 |
An enlightening and enjoyable read - thanks. |
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Rona MacInnes 09/06/08 |
Very enlightening and a very new slant on what one would think was well-known. Will read it gain in ore depth. Thanks |
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Aileen Orr 10/06/08 |
One of these pieces you wish you had written yourself!
I remember being beaten at school for speaking in dialect, and lying to protect myself. Fear does strange things when punishment is close. Our problem is trying to claw back our liberty. I fully understand the onlookers perception of Burns, I still only speak in my true Borders dialect away from strangers, but self preservation has a high price, the fear persists.
If Scotland lacks one thing it is confidence within its own country. Scots are perfectly able to speak openly away from these shores, so what keeps us in a state of limbo?
Bill is right, things haven't changed much, probably only technology has moved on, though it was Orwell who predicted the true nature of that enemy.
All these years and still fighting Unionists or are our demons self created? Great piece Bill.
Aileen Orr |
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