CXLV.
Reading edition
ON
SEEING MISS FONTENELLE
IN A FAVOURITE CHARACTER.
[The good looks and the natural acting of Miss Fontenelle pleased others as well as Burns. I know not to what character in the range of her personations he alludes: she was a favourite on the Dumfries boards.]
Sweet naiveté of feature, Simple, wild, enchanting elf, Not to thee, but thanks to nature, Thou art acting but thyself. Wert thou awkward, stiff, affected, Spurning nature, torturing art; Loves and graces all rejected, Then indeed thou’dst act a part.
R. B.