And in the courte bene present in thir dayis, STEWART of Lorne will carpe richt curiouslie2, But now of late is starte up haistelie, Ane cunnyng clark, quhilk wrytith craftelie: write. * I know nothing of Sir James Inglis, or of his ballads, farces, and pleasant plays. But one John Inglish was master of a company of players, as we have before seen, at the marriage of James the Fourth. Here is a proof, however, that theatrical representations were now in high repute in the court of Scotland. [The only poem at present known which is attributed to Sir James Inglis, is one contained both in the Bannatyne and Maitland manuscript, and called "A general Satyre." In the former this piece is given to Dunbar; in the latter to Sir James. The Scottish antiquaries seem to incline to the authority of the Maitland MS.-EDIT.] Yet in knowing. [Proved or practised in knowledge.-EDIT.] See some of his satirical poetry, ANC. Sc. P. p. 151. a These two poets are converted into one, under the name of GABRIELL KINLYCK, in an edition of some of Lyndesay's works first turned and made perfect Englishe, printed at London by Thomas Purfoote, A. D. 1581. p. 105. This edition often omits whole stanzas; and has the most arbitrary and licentious misrepresentations of the text, always for the worse. The editor, or translator, did not understand the Scottish language; and is, besides, a wretched writer of English. But the attempt sufficiently exposes itself. b I presume this is John Balantyn, or Ballenden, archdeacon of Murray, canon of Rosse, and clerk of the register in the minority of James the Fifth and his successour. He was a doctor of the Sorbonne at Paris. G. Con, De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos, lib. ii. p. 167. At the command of James the Fifth, he translated the seventeen books of Hector Boethius's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. Edinb. by T. Davidson, 1536. fol. The preface is in verse, "Thow marcyal buke pas to the nol yll prince." Prefixed is the COSMOGRAPHY of Boethius's History, which Mackenzie calls, A Description of Albany, ii. 596. Before it is a Prologue, a vision in verse, in which VIRTUE and PLEASURE address the king, after the manner of a dialogue. He wrote an addition of one hundred years to Boethius's history: but this does not appear in the Edinburgh edi 7 Get he into the courte auctorite, He will precell Quintyn and Kennedie. The Scotch, from that philosophical and speculative cast which characterises their national genius, were more zealous and early friends to a reformation of religion than their neighbours in England. The pomp and elegance of the catholic worship made no impression on a people, whose devotion sought only for solid edification; and who had no notion that the interposition of the senses could with any propriety be admitted to co-operate in an exercise of such a nature, which appealed to reason alone, and seemed to exclude all aids of the imagination. It was natural that such a people, in their system of spiritual refinement, should warmly prefer the severe and rigid plan of Calvin: and it is from this principle, that we find most of their writers, at the restoration of learning, taking all occasions of censuring the absurdities of popery with an unusual degree of abhorrence and asperity. In the course of the poem before us, an allegory on the corruptions of the church is introduced, not destitute of invention, humour, and elegance; but founded on one of the weak theories of Wickliffe, who not considering religion as reduced to a civil establishment, and because Christ and his apostles were poor, imagined that secular possessions were inconsistent with the simplicity of the gospel. In the primitive and pure ages of christianity, the poet supposes, that the Church married Poverty, whose children were Chastity and Devotion. The emperour Constantine soon afterwards divorced this sober and decent couple; and, without obtaining or asking a dispensation, married the Church with tion: also Epistles to James the Fifth, and On the Life of Pythagoras. Many of his poems are extant. The author of the article BALLENDEN, in the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA, written more than thirty [years] ago, says, that "in the large collection of Scottish poems, made by Mr. Carmichael, there were some of our author's on various subjects; and Mr. Laurence Dundass had several, whether in manuscript or printed, I cannot say. vol. i. p. 461. His style has many gallicisms. He seems to have been a young man, when this compliment was paid him by Lyndesay. He died at Rome, 1550. Dempst. ii. 197. Bale, xiv. 65, Mackenz. ii. 595. seq. SIGNAT. K. great solemnity to Property. Pope Silvester ratified the marriage and Devotion retired to a hermitage. They had two daughters, Riches and Sensuality; who were very beautiful, and soon attracted such great and universal regard, that they acquired the chief ascendancy in all spiritual affairs. Such was the influence of Sensuality in particular, that Chastity, the daughter of the Church by Poverty, was exiled: she tried, but in vain, to gain protection in Italy and France. Her success was equally bad in England. She strove to take refuge in the court of Scotland: but they drove her from the court to the clergy. The bishops were alarmed at her appearance, and protested they would harbour no rebel to the See of Rome. They sent her to the nuns, who received her in form, with processions and other honours. But news being immediately dispatched to Sensuality and Riches, of her friendly reception among the nuns, she was again compelled to turn fugitive. She next fled to the mendicant friers, who declared they could not take charge of ladies. At last she was found secreted in the nunnery of the Burrowmoor near Edinburgh, where she had met her mother Poverty and her sister Devotion. Sensuality attempts to besiege this religious house, but without effect. The pious sisters were armed at all points, and kept an irresistible piece of artillery, called Domine custodi nos. Within quhose schot, thare dar no enemies That dame Sensuall with seige dar nocht assailze, I know not whether this chaste sisterhood had the delicacy to observe strictly the injunctions prescribed to a society of nuns in England; who, to preserve a cool habit, were ordered d hard dints. e busy bees. f artillery. SIGNAT. C. ii. to be regularly blooded three times every year, but not by a secular person, and the priests who performed the operation were never suffered to be strangers &. I must not dismiss this poem, without pointing out a beautiful valediction to the royal palace of Snowdon; which is not only highly sentimental and expressive of poetical feelings, but strongly impresses on the mind an image of the romantic magnificence of antient times, so remote from the state of modern manners. Adew fair Snawdoun, with thy towris hie, Quhilk doth againe thy royall roche redound! Our author's poem, To the Kingis grace in contemptioun of syde taillis, that is, a censure on the affectation of long trains worn by the ladies, has more humour than decency. He allows a tail to the queen, but thinks it an affront to the royal dignity and prerogative, that Every lady of the land Suld have hir taill so syde trailland. '— Quhare ever thay go How kirk and calsay it may be sene thay soup clene. Kittok that clekkit was yestrene", The morne wyll counterfute the quene. In barn, nor byir, scho will nocht byde MSS. JAMES. xxvi. p. 32. Bibl. chief complaint is against pendent sleeves, Bodl. Oxon. h round table, tournaments. iSIGNAT. B. iii. Compare a manuscript poem of Occléve, Of Pride and wast clothing of Lordis men which is axens her astate. MSS. LAUD. K. 78. f. 67. b. Bibl. Bodl. His sweeping the ground, which with their fur amount to more than twenty pounds. 1 SIGNAT. L. ii. They waist more claith [cloth] within few yeiris Than wald cleith fyftie score of freris." In a statute of James the Second of Scotland', about the year 1460, it was ordered, that no woman should come to church or to market with her face mussaled, that is muzzled, or covered. Notwithstanding this seasonable interposition of the legislature, the ladies of Scotland continued muzzled during three reigns'. The enormous excrescence of female tails was prohibited in the same statute, "That na woman wear tails unfit in length." The legitimate length of these tails is not, however, determined in this statute; a circumstance which we may collect from a mandate issued by a papal legate in Germany, in the fourteenth century. "It is decreed, that the apparel of women, which ought to be consistent with modesty, but now, through their foolishness, is degenerated into wantonness and extravagance, more particularly the immoderate length of their petticoats, with which they sweep the ground, be restrained to a moderate fashion, agreeably to the decency of the sex, under pain of the sentence of excommunication." The orthodoxy of petticoats is not precisely ascertained in this salutary edict: but as it excommunicates those female tails, which, in our author's phrase, keep the kirk and causey clean, and allows such a moderate standard to the petticoat, as is compatible with female delicacy, it may be concluded, that the ladies who covered their feet were looked upon as very laudable conformists; an inch or two less would have been avowed immodesty; an inch or two SIGNAT. L. iii. He commends the ladies of Italy for their decency in this article. r ACT. 70. 'As appears from a passage in the poem before us. Bot in the kirk and market placis Baith throw the land, and Borrow- He adds, that this is quite contrary to Hail ane Frence lady quhen ye pleis, "Velamina etiam mulierum, quæ ad verecundiam designandam eis sunt concessa, sed nunc, per insipientiam earum, in lasciviam et luxuriam excreverunt, et immoderata longitudo superpelliceorum, quibus pulverem trahunt, ad moderatum usum, sicut decet verecundiam sexus, per excommunicationis sententiam cohibe To schaw thair face, and cut thair antur." Ludewig, RELIQ. DIPLOM gownis. tom. ii. p. 441. |