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I leif my Flatterie, and Fals Dissembling,
Unto the FRERIS, thai sa weill can fleitche',
With mair profit throwe ane marriage-making
Nor all the lentrane" in the kirk to preiche".
Thai gloiss the scripture, ever quhen thai teache,
Moer in intent the auditouris to pleiss,

Nor the trew worde of god for to appeiss P.

Thir gifts that dame Nature has me lent
I have disponit heir, as ye may see:
It nevir was, nor yit is, my intent,

t

That trew kirkmen get acht belongis to me :
But that haulis Huredome and Harlottrie,
Gluttony, Invy, Covatice, and Pryde,

My executouris I mak tham at this tyde.

Adew ali friends, quhill" after that we meit,
I cannot tell yow quhair, nor in quhat place;
But as the lord dispousis for my spreit,
Quher is the well of mercie and of grace,
That I may [stand] befoirr his godlie face:
Unto the devill I leif my synnis" all,

Fra him thai came, to him agane thei fall. *

Some readers may perhaps be of opinion, that Makgregor was one of those Scottish lairds, who lived professedly by ra

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pine and pillage: a practice greatly facilitated, and even supported, by the feudal system. Of this sort was Edom o'Gordon, whose attack on the castle of Dunse is recorded by the Scotch minstrels, in a pathetic ballad, which begins thus.

It fell about the Martinmas,

Qhen the wind blew schril and cauld,
Saint Edom o'Gordon to his men,

We maun draw to a hauld:

And quhat a hauld sall we draw to,

My mirry men and me?

We wul gae to the house o' the Rhodes,

To see that fair ladie. "

Other parts of Europe, from the same situations in life, afford instances of the same practice. Froissart has left a long narrative of an eminent robber, one Amergot Marcell; who became at length so formidable and powerful, as to claim a place in the history of France. About the year 1380, he had occupied a strong castle for the space of ten years, in the province of Auvergne, in which he lived with the splendor and dominion of a petty sovereign: having amassed, by pillaging the neighbouring country, one hundred thousand francs. His depredations brought in an annual revenue of twenty thousand floreins. Afterwards he is tempted imprudently to sell his castle to one of the generals of the king for a considerable sum. Froissart introduces Marcell, after having sold his fortress, uttering the following lamentation, which strongly paints his system of depredation, the feudal anarchy, and the trade and travelling of those days. "What a joy was it when we rode forthe at adventure, and somtyme found by the way a ryche priour, or marchaunt, or a route of mulettes, of Montpellyer, of Narbone, of Lymons, of Fongans, of Tholous, or of Carcassone, laden with clothe of Brusselles, or peltre ware comynge from the fayres, or laden with spycery from Bruges, from Damas, or

Percy's BALL. i. 100.

from Alysaunder! Whatsoever we met, all was ours, or els raunsomed at our pleasures. Dayly we gate newe money; and the vyllaynes of Auvergne and of Lymosyn dayly provyded, and brought to our castell, whete mele, breed [bread] ready baken, otes for our horses and lytter, good wynes, beffes, and fatte mottons, pullayne, and wylde foule. We were ever furnyshed, as though we had been kings. Whan we rode forthe, all the country trembled for feare. All was oures, goynge or comynge. Howe toke we Carlaste, I and the Bourge of Companye! and I and Perot of Bernoys toke Caluset. How dyd we scale with lytell ayde the strong castell of Marquell pertayninge to the erle Dolphyn! I kept it not past fyve dayes, but I receyved for it, on a fayre table, fyve thousand frankes; and forgave one thousand, for the love of the erle Dolphyn's chyldren. By my faithe, this was a fayrie and goodlie life!" &c."

But on the whole I am inclined to think, that our testator Makgregor, although a robber, was a personage of high rank, whose power and authority were such, as to require this indirect and artificial mode of abuse. For the same reason, I be

lieve the name to be fictitious.

I take this opportunity of observing, that the old Scotch poet Blind Harry belongs to this period; and, at the same time, of correcting the mistake, which, in conformity to the common opinion, and on the evidence of Dempster and Mackenzie, I have committed, in placing him towards the close of the fourteenth century. John Major the Scotch historian, who was born about the year 1470, remembered Blind Harry to have been living, and to have published a poem on the achievements of Sir William Wallace, when he was a boy. He adds, that he cannot vouch for the credibility of those tales which the bards were accustomed to sing for hire in the castles of the nobility. I will give his own words. "Integrum librum

See tom. ii. cap. 170. fol. 115. a. And tom. i. cap. 149. fol. 73. See also ibid. cap. 440. fol. 313. b. Berners's Translation,

a See supr. vol. ii. p. 157. Dempster says he lived in 1361.

The poem as now extant has probably been reformed and modernised.

Gulielmi Wallacei Henricus, a nativitate luminibus captus, meæ infantiæ tempore cudit: et quæ vulgo dicebantur carmine vulgari, in quo peritus erat, conscripsit. Ego autem talibus scriptis solum in parte fidem impertior; quippe qui HISTORIARUM RECITATIONE CORAM PRINCIPIBUS victum et vestitum, quo dignus erat, nactus est." And that, in this And that, in this poem, Blind Harry has intermixed much fable with true history, will appear from some proofs collected by sir David Dalrymple, in his judicious and accurate annals of Scotland, lately published.

I cannot return to the English poets without a hint, that a well-executed history of the Scotch poetry from the thirteenth century, would be a valuable accession to the general literary history of Britain. The subject is pregnant with much curious and instructive information, is highly deserving of a minute and regular research, has never yet been uniformly examined in its full extent, and the materials are both accessible and ample. Even the bare lives of the vernacular poets of Scotland have never yet been written with tolerable care; and at present are only known from the meagre outlines of Dempster and Mackenzie. The Scotch appear to have had an early propensity to theatrical representations; and it is probable, that in the prosecution of such a design, among several other interesting and unexpected discoveries, many anecdotes, conducing to illustrate the rise and progress of our ancient drama, might be drawn from obscurity.

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SECTION XXXIII.

MOST of the poems of John Skelton were written in the reign of king Henry the Eighth. But as he was laureated at Oxford about the year 1489, I consider him as belonging to the fifteenth centry.

Skelton, having studied in both our universities, was promoted to the rectory of Diss in Norfolk. But for his buf

* See supr. vol. ii. p. 440.

f At least before the year 1507. For at the end of his TRENTALE for old John Clarke, there is this colophon. "Auctore Skelton rectore de Dis. Finis, &c. Apud Trumpinton, script. per Curatum ejusdem quinto die Jan. A.D. 1507." See the РITHY, PLEASAUNT AND PROFITABLE WORKES OF MAISTER SKELTON, reprinted at London, 1736, 12mo. pag. 272. He was ordained both deacon and priest in the year 1498. On the title of the monastery de Graciis near the tower of London. REGISTR. Savage. Episc. Lond. There is a poem by Skelton on the death of king Edward the Fourth, who died A. D. 1483. WORKES, ut supr. p. 100. This is taken into the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRAtes.

Skelton's poems were first printed at London, 1512. 8vo. A more complete edition by Thomas Marshe appeared in 1568. 12mo. From which the modern edition, in 1786, was copied. Many pieces of this collection have appeared separately. We have also, CERTAINE BOKES OF SKELTON. For W. Bonham, 1547. 12mo. Again, viz. Five of his poems, for John Day, 1583. 12mo. Another collection for A. Scolocker, 1582. 12mo. Another of two pieces, without date, for A. Kytson. Another, viz. MERIE TALES, for T. Colwell, 1575. 12mo. MAGNIFICENCE, a goodly Interlude and a mery devysed and made by mayster Skelton, poet laureate, late deceased, was printed by Rastell, in 1533. 4to.

This is not in any collection of his poems. He mentions it in his CROWNE OF LAWBELL, p. 47. "And of MAGNIFICENCE, a notable mater," &c. Pinson also printed a piece of Skelton, not in any collection, "How yong scholars now a days emboldened in the fly blowne blast of the moche vayne glorious," &c. Without date, 4to. There are also, not in his Works, Epitaph of Jasper duke of Bedford, Lond. 4to. And, Miseries of England under Henry Seventh, Lond. 4to. See two of his epitaphs in Camden's EPITAPHIA REGUM, &c. Lond. 1600. 4to. See a distich in Hollinsh. iii. 878. And Stanzas presented to Henry the Seventh, in 1488, at Windsor, in Ashmole's ORD. GART. chap. xxi. SECT. vii. P. 594. A great number of Skelton's pieces remain unprinted. See MSS. Harl. 367. 36. fol. 101. seq.-2252. 51. fol. 134. seq. MSS. Reg. 18. D. 4. 5. MSS. C.C.C. Cambr. G. ix. MSS. Cotton. VITELL. E. x. 28. And MSS. Cathedr. Linc. In the CROWNE OF LAWRELL, Skelton recites many of his own pieces. p. 47. seq. The soverayne Interlude of Virtue. The Rosiar. Prince Arthur's creacion. Of Perfidia. Dialogues of Ymaginacion. The comedy of Achademios. Tullis familiars, that is, a translation of Tully's Familiar Epistles. Of good Advisement. The Recule against Guguine. See p. 47. 162. The Popingay. A noble pamphelet of soveraintie. The Play of Magnificence, above mentioned. Maters of Myrth to maistres Margery.

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