A new ed. / four volumes complete in one. With many additional poems and songs, and an enlarged and corrected glossary. From the last London ed. of 1825
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) (also known as Robbie Burns,Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard)was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose"; "A Man's a Man for A' That"; "To a Louse"; "To a Mouse"; "The Battle of Sherramuir"; "Tam o' Shanter"; and "Ae Fond Kiss".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns
James Currie (1756 – 1805) was a Scottish physician, best known for his anthology and biography of Robert Burns and his medical reports on the use of water in the treatment of fever.
He became a Fellow of the London Medical Society and was a founder member of the Liverpool Literary Society. He was an early advocate of the abolition of slavery and wrote several political letters and pamphlets.
Currie was an admirer of Burns's poetry and met him once. One of his wife Lucy's relatives, Mrs Dunlop, was a close friend of the poet. Burns visited Mrs Dunlop at her home on five occasions and over a period of ten years they exchanged a great number of letters, 186 of which survive to this day. After Burns's death, Currie was entrusted with the publication of an authoritative anthology. Although inexperienced in such a task, he had many advantages, including access through Mrs Dunlop to original manuscripts of poems and letters and help from Gilbert Burns, Robert's brother, and several of Burns's friends. When The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns: With Explanatory and Glossarial Notes; And a Life of the Author was published in four volumes in 1800, it met with immediate success and second, third and fourth editions were published in 1801–03. In addition to containing revised versions of Burns' songs such as "The Battle of Sherramuir", it also contained an introductory criticism and an essay on the character and condition of the Scottish peasantry.
The work remains an authoritative source, but not without criticism. It is claimed that Currie exaggerated Burns's fondness for drink and that he deliberately misdated some of Burns's letters to Mrs Dunlop.[11] An eighth edition, published in 1820, included an additional section Some Further Particulars of the Author's Life by Gilbert Burns. However, the publishers advised Gilbert not to impugn Currie's accuracy and the legend that Burns was an incurable alcoholic remained unchallenged.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Currie_(physician)
Added title-page, engraved, with vignette
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