Epigram – On My Lord Buchan’s vociferating, in an argument, that ‘Women must be always flattered grossly or not spoken to at all’.
First printed in Scott Douglas, 1876.
‘Praise Woman still,’ his Lordship roars,
‘Deserv’d, or not, no matter,’
But thee, Maria, while I praise,
There Flattery cannot flatter. —
Maria, all my thought and dream,
Inspires my vocal shell:
The more I praise my lovely Theme,
The more the truth I tell. —
This was written on the reverse of a manuscript of Scots Wha Hae. Maria Banks Woodley Riddell (1772–1808), daughter of William Woodley, married Walter Riddell (brother of Robert) in 1790 and lived at Goldielea house. It was later renamed Woodley Park. She published some minor verse after Burns’s death and through the poet became a friend of William Smellie who printed her travel book.
The 1862 manuscript sale by Puttock and Simpson in London contained a holograph copy of the above epigram titled ‘On My Lord Buchan’s vociferating, in an argument, that “Women must be always flattered grossly or not spoken to at all”’ (Autograph Poems of Robert Burns, The Sales Catalogue of Puttock and Simpson, May 1862, London, p. 14, printed by E.C. Bigmore). We have changed the standard sub-title given by Scott Douglas (used by subsequent editors) to that given by Burns.