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bereft of flowers, herbs, and grass: in every holt and forest, the woods were stripped of their array. Boreas blew his bugle horn so loud, that the solitary deer withdrew to the dales: the small birds flocked to the thick briers, shunning the tempestuous blast, and changing their loud notes to chirping: the cataracts roared, and every linden-tree whistled and brayed to the sounding of the wind. The poor labourers went wet and weary, draggled in the fen. The sheep and shepherds lurked under the hanging banks, or wild broom.-Warm from the chimney-side, and refreshed with generous cheer, I stole to my bed, and laid down to sleep; when I saw the moon shed through the windows her twinkling glances, and watery light: I heard the horned bird, the night-owl, shrieking horribly with crooked bill from her cavern: I heard the wild-geese, with screaming cries, fly over the city through the silent night. I was soon lulled asleep; till the cock clapping his wings crowed thrice, and the day peeped. I waked and saw the moon disappear, and heard the jack-daws cackle on the roof of the house. The cranes, prognosticating tempests, in a firm phalanx, pierced the air with voices sounding like a trumpet. The kite, perched on an old tree, fast by my chamber, cried lamentably, a sign of the dawning day. I rose, and half-opening my window, perceived the morning, livid, wan, and hoary; the air overwhelmed with vapour and cloud; the ground stiff, gray, and rough; the branches rattling; the sides of the hills looking black and hard with the driving blasts; the dew-drops congealed on the stubble and rind of trees; the sharp hailstones, deadly-cold, hopping on the thatch and the neighbouring causeway," &c.

Bale, whose titles of English books are often obscured by being put into Latin, recites among Gawin Douglass's poetical works, his Narrationes aurea, and Comœdiæ aliquot sacræ Of his NARRATIONES AUREÆ, our author seems to speak in the EPILOGUE to VIRGIL, addressed to his patron lord Sinclair *, Ut supr. p. 483.

i xiv. 58.

I have also a strange command [comment] compyld,

To expone strange hystoryes and termes wild.

Perhaps these tales were the fictions of antient mythology. Whether the COMEDIA were sacred interludes, or MYSTERIES, for the stage, or only sacred narratives, I cannot determine. Another of his original poems is the PALICE OF HONOUR, a moral vision, written in the year 1501, planned on the design of the TABLET of Cebes, and imitated in the elegant Latin dialogue De Tranquillitate Animi of his countryman Florence Wilson, or Florentius Volusenus'. It was first printed at London, in 1553". The object of this allegory, is to shew the instability and insufficiency of worldly pomp; and to prove, that a constant and undeviating habit of virtue is the only way to true Honour and Happiness, who reside in a magnificent palace, situated on the summit of a high and inaccessible mountain. The allegory is illustrated by a variety of examples of illustrious personages; not only of those, who by a regular perseverance in honourable deeds gained admittance into this splendid habitation, but of those, who were excluded from it, by debasing the dignity of their eminent stations with a vicious and unmanly behaviour. It is addressed, as an apologue for the conduct of a king, to James the Fourth; is adorned with many pleasing incidents and adventures, and abounds with genius and learning.

Lugd. apud Seb. Gryph. 1549, 4to, "In quarto. Again, Edinb. 1579. 4to. "When pale Aurora with face lamentable." [Mr. Pinkerton has since published another allegorical poem by Douglas, called King Hart. Vide Ancient Scottish Poems. 1786.-EDIT.] Douglas also wrote a small Latin His

tory of Scotland. See also a DIALOGUE concerning a theological subject to be debated between duos famatos viros, G. Douglas provost of saint Giles, and master David Cranstoun bachelour of divinity, prefixed to,John Major's Com MENTARII in prim, Sentent. Paris. 1519. fol,

SECTION XXXII.

WITH Dunbar and Douglass I join Sir David Lyndesay, although perhaps in strictness he should not be placed so early as the close of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been employed in several offices about the person of James the Fifth, from the infancy of that monarch, by whom he was much beloved; and at length, on account of his singular skill in heraldry, a science then in high estimation and among the most polite accomplishments, he was knighted and appointed Lion king of arms of the kingdom of Scotland. Notwithstanding these situations, he was an excellent scholar".

Lyndesay's principal performances are The DREME, and The MONARCHIE. In the address to James the Fifth, prefixed to the DREME, he thus, with much tenderness and elegance, speaks of the attention he paid to his majesty when a child.

Quhen thou wes young, I bure the in myne arme
Full tenderlye, till thow begouth to gang°;

And in thy bed, oft happit the full warme
With lute in hand, syneP softlye to the sang.

He adds, that he often entertained the young prince with various dances and gesticulations, and by dressing himself in feigned characters, as in an interlude. A new proof that theatrical diversions were now common in Scotland.

See the WARKIS OF THE FAMOUS AND WORTHIE KNICHT SCHIR DAVID LYNDESAY of the Mount, &c. Newly correctit and vindicate from the former errouris, &c. Pr. by Johne Scott, A.D. 1568. 4to. They have been often printed. I believe the last edition is at Edinburgh, 1709. 12mo. [The last edition is by Mr. G. Chalmers, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1806. by which the present text has been corrected.-EDIT.]

began to walk.

P then.

So also his COMPLAYNT to the Kingis
Grace. SIGNAT. E. iii.

-As ane chapman beris his pack,
I bure thy grace upon my back;
And sumtymes stridlingis on my nek,
Dansand with mony bend and bek.-
And ay quhen thow come fra the scule,
Than I behuffit to play the fule.-
I wat thou luffit me better than
Nor now sum wyfe dois hir gude man.

Sumtyme, in dansing, feirelie I flang,
And sumtyme playand farsis' on the flure:

And sumtyme lyke ane feinds transfigurate,
And sumtyme lyke the grislie gaist of Gy',
In divers formis oftymes disfigurate,

And sumtyme disagysit full plesandlye".

In the PROLOGUE to the DREME, our author discovers strong talents for high description and rich imagery. In a morning of the month of January, the poet quits the copse and the bank, now destitute of verdure and flowers, and walks towards the sea-beach. The dawn of day is expressed by a beautiful and brilliant metaphor.

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That is, sewer, and cupper or butler.
He then calls himself the king's secreit
Thesaurar, and chief Cubicular. After-
wards he enumerates some of his own
works.

I have at lenth the storeis done discryve
Of Hector, Arthur, and gentill Julius,
Of Alexander, and worthy Pompeius.
Of Jason and Medea, al at lenth,
Of Hercules the actis honorabill,
And of Sampson the supernaturall
strenth,

And of leill luffaris [lovers] stories ami-
abill:

And oftymes have I feinzeit mony fabill,
Of Troylus the sorrow and the joy,
And seiges all of Tyre, Thebes, and

Troy.

The prophecyis of Rymour, Beid, and

Marling,

And of mony uther plesand storye,
Of the reid Etin, and the gyir carling.

That is, the prophecies of Thomas Rymour, venerable Bede, and Merlin. [See supr. vol. i. p. 79, 80. seq. And MSS. Ashm. 337. 6.] Thomas the RIMOUR, or Thomas Leirmouth of Erceldoun, seems to have wrote a poem on Sir Tristram. Rob. BRUNNE says this story would exceed all others,

If men yt sayd as made THOMAS. That is, "If men recited it according to the original composition of Thomas Erceldoun, or the RIMOUR." See Langtoft's CHRON. Append. Pref. p. 100. vol. i. edit. Hearne. Oxon. 1725. 8vo. He flourished about 1280. I do not understand, The reid Etin, and the gyir carling: but gyir is a maske or masquerade. [The tayle of the red Etin is mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland; as a popular story of a giant with three heads. Chalmers. The Gyir-carling is Hecate, or the mother witch of the [Scottish] peasants, Dr. Jamieson.]— Many of Lyndesay's Interludes are among Lord Hyndford's manuscripts of Scotch poetry, and are exceedingly obscene. One of Lyndesay's MORALTIES, called, ANE SATYRE OF THE THREE ESTAITS in commendation of vertew and vytuperation of vyce, was printed at Edinburgh, 1602. This piece, which is entirely in rhyme, and consists of a variety of measures, must have taken up four hours in the representation.

Be this, fair Titan with his lemis licht

Over all the land had spred his banner bricht.

In his walk, musing on the desolations of the winter, and the distance of spring, he meets Flora disguised in a sable robe."

I met dame Flora in dule weid disagysit*,
Quhilk into May was dulce and delectabill,
With stalwart stormis hir sweitnes wes supprysit,
Hir hevinly hewis war turnit into sabill,
Quhilkis umquhyle war to luffaris amiabill.
Fled from the frost the tender flouris I saw
Under dame NATURIS mantill lurkyng law.

The birds are then represented, flocking round NATURE, complaining of the severity of the season, and calling for the genial warmth of summer. The expostulation of the lark with Aurora, the sun, and the months, is conceived and conducted in the true spirit of poetry.

"Allace, AURORE, the sillie lark can cry,
Quhare hes thow left thy balmy liquour sweit,
That us rejosit, we mounting in the sky?
Thy silver droppis ar turnit into sleit !

O fair Phebus, quhare is thy hailsum heit?

*

Quhare art thow, MAY, with JUNE thy sister schene,
Weill bordourit with dasyis of delyte?

And gentill JULIE, with thy mantill grene

Enamilit with rosis reid and whyte ?"

The poet ascends the cliffs on the sea-shore, and entering a cavern, high in the crags, sits down to register in rhyme some mery mater of antiquitie. He compares the fluctuation of the sea with the instability of human affairs; and at length, being comfortably shrouded from the falling sleet by the closeness of

SIGNAT. D. ii.

* disguised in a dark [sad] garment. y violent.

once, one while, [formerly.]

a low.

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