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, That raise in Britane evir, quha reidis richt', 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, 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? And first of all in dance was PRYD, And round about him as a quheill", Many proud trumpour' with him trippit, S Several holy harlots follow, attended by monks, who make great sport for the devils. W Heilie Harlottis in hawtain wyis*, But yet luche nevirz Mahoun: a Quhill priestis cum with bair schevin nekks, 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; He brandeist lyk a beir: Bostaris, braggarists, and barganeris, 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, 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, Hid malyce and dispyte; For pryvie haterit that tratour trymlit, With feynit wordis quhyte. And flattereris into mens facis, And back-byttaris of sundry racis, With rownaris" of fals lesingis": 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, Full slepy was his grunyie. i Mony sweir bumbard belly-huddroun©, Evir lascht thame on the lunyie". 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. |