The Jolly Beggars : Sir Wisdom's a Fool When He's Fou
written in 1785
The Jolly Beggars : Sir Wisdom's a Fool When He's Fou - meaning Summary
Composed in 1785
This comic monologue has a speaker who accepts and even boasts of being a professional fool. Through self-mockery and anecdotes about drinking, womanizing, and run-ins with authorities, the poem critiques social hypocrisy: magistrates, clergymen, and courts are portrayed as no less foolish or corrupt than the narrator. Its tone mixes bawdy humor with rueful honesty, reflecting Burns’s observations of Scottish society and his own precarious place within it. The final lines underline a resigned pragmatism: personal folly is preferable to pretending greater virtue.
Read Complete AnalysesSir Wisdom's a fool when he's fou; Sir Knave is a fool in a Session; He's there but a 'prentice, I trow, But I am a fool by profession. My grannie she bought me a beuk, An' I held awa to the school; I fear I my talent misteuk, But what will ye hae of a fool? For drink I would venture my neck; A hizzie's the half of my Craft; But what could ye other expect Of ane that's avowedly daft? I, ance, was tied up like a stirk, For civilly swearing and quaffing; I, ance, was abus'd i' the kirk, For towsing a lass i' my daffin. Poor Andrew that tumbles for sport, Let nae body name wi' a jeer; There's even, I'm tauld, i' the Court A Tumbler ca'd the Premier. Observ'd ye yon reverend lad Mak faces to tickle the Mob; He rails at our mountebank squad, It's rivalship just i' the job. And now my conclusion I'll tell, For faith I'm confoundedly dry; The chiel that's a fool for himsel, Guid Lord! he's far dafter than I.
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