as it shews the peculiar distinction antiently paid to those fathers of verse; and the high ideas which now prevailed, even in Scotland, of the improvements introduced by their writings into the British poetry, language, and literature.'

O reverend CHAUCERE, rose of rethoris all,
As in oure tong ane flour imperial

That raise in Britane evir, quha reidis richt',
Thou beris of makarisn" the tryumph ryall,
Thy fresche annamilit termes celestiall:
This mater coud illuminit haif full bricht";
Was thou noucht of our English all the licht,
Surmounting every tong terrestriall
Als fer as Mayis morrow dois midnycht.
O morale GoWER, and LYDGATE laureat,
Your sugarit lippis, and tongis aureat,
Bene to our eiris cause of grit delyte;
Your angel mouthis most mellifluate
Our rude langage hes cleir illumynat,
And fair owregilt our speche, that imperfyte
Stude, or your goldin pennis schup to wryt2,
This yle befoir wes bair and dissolat

Of rethorik, or lusty fresche indytec.d

This panegyric, and the poem, is closed with an apology, couched in elegant metaphors, for his own comparative humility of style. He addresses the poem, which he calls a litill quair. I know quhat thou of rethoric has spent;

Of all hir lusty rosis redolent

Is nane into thy gerland sett on hichte.

Eschame tharof, and draw the out of sicht!

Other instances occur in the elder Scotch poets. See supra, vol. ii. p. 437. one flower.

Ever rose, or sprung, in Britain, whoso reads right.

"Thou bearest of poets.

This subject would have appeared to some advantage, had not, &c.

ན

* sugared.

y lips.

to our ears.

a Ere your golden pens were shaped

to write.

b bare and desolate.

C

elegant composition.

d Sr. xxx.

No fresh and fragrant roses of rhetoric are placed on high in thy garland. f be ashamed.

Rude is thy weids, desteynit, bair, and rent,
Wele aucht thou be affeirit of the licht! h

Dunbar's DAUNCE has very great merit in the comic style of painting. It exhibits a groupe of figures touched with the capricious but spirited pencil of Callot. On the eve of Lent, a general day of confession, the poet in a dream sees a display of heaven and hell. Mahomet, or the devil, commands a dance to be performed by a select party of fiends; particularly by those, who in the other world had never made confession to the priest, and had consequently never received absolution. Immediately the SEVEN DEADLY SINS appear; and present a mask, or mummery, with the newest gambols just imported from France. The first is PRIDE, who properly takes place of all the rest, as by that SIN fell the angels. He is described in the fashionable and gallant dress of those times: in a bonnet and gown, his hair thrown back, his cap awry, and his gown affectedly flowing to his feet in large folds.

Let se, quoth he', now quha beginis?
With that the fowll Deadly Sinnis.
Begouth to leip attanis".

And first of all in dance was PRYD,
With hair wyld bak, bonet on syde,
Lyk to mak vaistie wanis ;

And round about him as a quheill",
Hang all in rumpillis to the heill,
His kethat for the nanis.

Many proud trumpour' with him trippit,
Throw skaldan fyr ay as they skippit

S

Several holy harlots follow, attended by monks, who make great sport for the devils.

W

Heilie Harlottis in hawtain wyis*,
Come in with mony sindrie gyis,

But yet luche nevirz Mahoun:

a

Quhill priestis cum with bair schevin nekks,
Than all the feynds lewche", and maid gekks,
Black-belly, and Bawsy-brown.

Black-belly and Bawsy-brown are the names of popular spirits in Scotland. The latter is perhaps our ROBIN GOODFELLOW, known in Scotland by the name of BROWNIE.

ANGER is drawn with great force, and his accompaniments are boldly feigned. His hand is always upon his knife, and he is followed, in pairs, by boasters, threateners, and quarrelsome persons, all armed for battle, and perpetually wounding one another.d

PART.

Than YRE come in with sturte and stryfe;
His hand was ay upon his knyfe,

He brandeist lyk a beir:

Bostaris, braggarists, and barganeris,
Efter hym passit in pairis,

All bodin in feir of weirf:

' deceiver. See Spenser's SIR TROMOr perhaps an empty fellow, a rattle. Or Trompour may be trumpeter, as in Chaucer's KNIGHT'S TALE, v. 2673. See Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES, with the NOTES of the very judicious and ingenious editor. Lond. 1775. vol. iv. p. 231. * scalding. they grinned hideously.

ST. iii.

V

ST. ii. haughty guise.

y gambols, [a mask.] never laughed.

a while priests came with bare-shaven. b laughed.

In jakkis, stryppis, and bonnettis of steil 8,
Thair leggis wer cheyned to the heill",
Frawart was thair affeiri;

Sum upon uder with brands beft *,

Sum jagit utheris to the heft!

With knyvis that scheirp coud scheirTM.

ENVY is equal to the rest.

Under this SIN our author takes

occasion to lament, with an honest indignation, that the courts of princes should still give admittance and encouragement to the whisperers of idle and injurious reports."

Next in the dance followit INVY,
Fild full of feid° and fellony,

Hid malyce and dispyte;

For pryvie haterit that tratour trymlit,
Him followit mony freik dissymlit',

With feynit wordis quhyte.

And flattereris into mens facis,

And back-byttaris of sundry racis,
To ley that had delyte.

With rownaris" of fals lesingis":
Allace! that courtis of noble kingis

AVARICE is ushered in by a troop of extortioners, and other miscreants, patronised by the magician Warloch*, or the demon of the covetous; who vomit on each other torrents of melted

gold, blazing like wild-fire: and as they are emptied at every discharge, the devils replenish their throats with fresh supplies of the same liquefied metal. ›

SLOTH does not join the dance till he is called twice: and his companions are so slow of motion, that they cannot keep up with the rest, unless they are roused from their lethargy by being sometimes warmed with a glimpse of hell-fire."

Syne SWEIRNES, at the secound bidding,
Come lyk a sow out of a midding,

Full slepy was his grunyie.

i

Mony sweir bumbard belly-huddroun©,
Mony slute daw and slepy duddround,
Him servit ay with sounyie.
He drew tham forth intill a chenyie',
And Belliall, with a brydill reynie,

Evir lascht thame on the lunyie".
In daunce thay wer so slow of feit
Thay gaif tham in the fyre a heit

And maid tham quicker of conyiei.

LUST enters, neighing like a horsek, and is led by IDLENESS. When his associates mingle in the dance, their visages burn red like the turkis-stone. The remainder of the stanza, although highly characteristical, is too obscene to be transcribed. But this gave no offence. Their manners were too indelicate to be shocked at any indecency. I do not mean that these manners had lost their delicacy, but that they had not yet acquired the sensibility arising from civilisation.:. In one of the Scotch interludes of this age, written by a fashionable court-poet, among other ridiculous obscenities, the trying on of a Spanish padlock in public makes a part of theatrical representation.