Address of Beelzebub by Robert Burns

Name: Address of Beelzebub
Author: Robert Burns

Beelzebub addresses the Earl of Breadalbane, praising him and M'Kenzie of Applecross for trying to prevent five hundred Highlanders from leaving Glengarry’s lands for Canada in pursuit of “Liberty.” In a fiercely sarcastic voice, he treats the emigrants as the property of their “lawful lords and masters” and warns that, if allowed across the water, they may make their own laws and be inspired by figures such as Hancocke, Franklin, Washington, and Montgomery. Such impoverished “sons of dirt and mire,” he says, might even dare to claim Patrician rights. He argues that no great authorities remain to suppress them and asks where men like Howes and Clintons can be found to force rebels into obedience and preserve national honour. He indignantly denies that the Highlanders have any right to food, sleep, daylight, wealth, power, or freedom except what their lord chooses to grant. Turning to Glengarry, Beelzebub complains that the landlords’ agents, grieves, trustees, and bailies have not been harsh enough. Although they seize and harry the people, he urges them to crush the Highlanders completely, imprison debtors, drive young men into labour through whipping, work, and hunger, and send attractive young women to be “lesson’d” in Drury-lane. If wives and children come begging at the doors, ragged and vermin-ridden, he advises using whips or dogs to drive them away. Beelzebub concludes by promising Breadalbane an honoured place in his own house, seated among Herod, Polycrate, Almagro, and Pizarro, as a reward for the cruelty he commends.

By Robert Burns · First published 1786 · Genre: Satirical Poetry, Political Satire, Epistolary Poem · 841 words

First lines

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Breadalbane, President of the Right Honourable and Honourable the Highland Society, which met on the 23rd of May last at the Shakespeare, Covent Garden, to concert ways and means to frustrate the designs of five hundred Highlanders, who, as the Society were informed by Mr. M'Kenzie of Applecross, were so audacious as to attempt an escape from their lawful lords and masters whose property they were, by emigrating from the lands of Mr. Macdonald of Glengary to the wilds of Canada, in search of that fantastic thing-Liberty.

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Address of Beelzebub is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Burns, dated 1786 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Robert Burns
Date: 1786 CE
Language: English
Genres: Satirical Poetry, Political Satire, Epistolary Poem, Scottish Dialect Poetry, Social Protest Poetry
Length: 841 words
Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Satirical Poetry — The work is a verse satire that adopts the voice of Beelzebub to mock aristocratic and landowning hostility toward Highland emigrants and their desire for liberty.
Political Satire — It attacks systems of landed power, social hierarchy, imperial repression, and the denial of freedom to poor Highland tenants through bitterly ironic praise.
Epistolary Poem — Structured as a formally addressed message to the Earl of Breadalbane and signed by Beelzebub, it imitates the conventions of a public letter or dedicatory address.
Scottish Dialect Poetry — Burns uses Scots vocabulary, spelling, idiom, and rhythms, including terms such as 'nae,' 'wark,' 'hizzies,' and 'duds,' as central features of its style.