ce, can cast her cantrips, and gie me advice.' Mause, meaning to read
the faithless lover of Neps a lesson, consents to help him. The fourth
scene of the Second Act is undoubtedly one of the finest in the
drama--the meeting of the lovers, Patie and Peggy. The two great
constituents of a successful piece, strength and pathos, are both
present in rich measure. To test her lover's fidelity, the maiden, with
coy coquetry, affects to think that he might alter his mind and deceive
her if she trusted him too implicitly. To this Patie replies that she
deeply wrongs him in doubting his fidelity, and that he would be dull
and blind

'Gif I could fancy aught's sae sweet and fair
As my sweet Meg, or worthy of my care.
Thy breath is sweeter than the sweetest brier,
Thy cheek and breast the finest flowers appear,
Thy words excel the maist delightfu' notes
That warble through the merle or mavis' throats;
With thee I tent nae flowers that busk the field,
Or ripest berries that our mountains yield;
The sweetest fruits that hing upon the tree
Are far inferior to a kiss frae thee.'

With all a loving woman's sweet perversity, however, Peggy still affects
to doubt, only to be indulged in the delicious bliss of hearing her
lover's vows anew--

'Sooner a mother shall her fondness drap,
And wrang the bairn sits smiling in her lap;
The sun shall change, the moon to change shall cease;
The gaits to climb, the sheep to yield the fleece;
Ere aught by me be either said or done
Shall do thee wrang;--I swear by all aboon.'

In no scene does Ramsay exhibit his wonderful knowledge of the human
heart to such advantage as in the one before us. Peggy and Patie then
sing a duet, taking alternate verses, into which are introduced many of
the old Scots songs,--'The Broom o' Cowdenknowes,' 'Milking the Ewes,'
'Jenny Nettles,' 'Thro' the Wood, Laddie,' 'The Boatman,' 'Maggie
Lauder,' 'The Lass o' Patie's Mill,' and the curtain falls over one of
the most delightful scenes illustrative of pure affection, in modern
drama.

The Third Act sees the return of Sir William Worthy, who, in the
disguise of a wizard, introduces himself into the company, merry-making
at Symon's. Here he tells Patie's fortune, and the surprising discovery
is ere long made that the youth is Sir William's only son, placed under
Symon's care when the knight had to go into exile on the execution of
Charles I. The descrip