Dunbar is not lefs fuited to fatirical than to fublime allegory: and that he is the first poet who has appeared with any degree of fpirit in this way of writing fince Pierce Plowman. His THISTLE AND ROSE, and GOLDEN TERGE, are generally and justly mentioned as his capital works: but the natural complexion of his genius is of the moral and didactic cast. The measure of this poem is partly that of Sir THOPAS in Chaucer and hence we may gather by the way, that Sir THOPAS was antiently viewed in the light of a ludicrous compofition. It is certain that the pageants and interludes of Dunbar's age must have quickened his invention to form. thofe grotefque groupes. The exhibition of MORALITIES was now in high vogue among the Scotch. A Morality was played at the marriage of James the fourth and the princess Margaret. Mummeries, which they call GYSARTS, compofed of moral perfonifications, are ftill known in Scotland: and even till the beginning of this century, efpecially among the festivities of Christmas, itinerant maskers were admitted into the houses of the Scotch nobility. d MEMOIR, ut fupr. p. 300. SECT. A SE C T. XIII. Nother of the distinguished luminaries, that marked the reftoration of letters in Scotland at the commencement of the fixteenth century, not only by a general eminence in elegant erudition, but by a cultivation of the vernacular poetry of his country, is Gawen Douglass. He was defcended from a noble family, and born in the year 1475°. According to the practice of that age, especially in Scotland, his education perhaps commenced in a grammar-school of one of the monafteries: there is undoubted proof, that it was finished at the university of Paris. It is probable, as he was intended for the facred function, that he was fent to Paris for the purpose of studying the canon law: in consequence of a decree promulged by James the firft, which tended in fome degree to reform the illiteracy of the clergy, as it injoined, that no ecclefiaftic of Scotland fhould be preferred to a prebend of any value without a competent skill in that fcience'. Among other high promotions in the church, which his very fingular accomplishments obtained, he was provost of the collegiate church of faint Giles at Edinburgh, abbot of the opulent convent of Abberbrothrock, and bishop of Dunkeld. He appears alfo to have been nominated by the queen regent to the archbishoprick, either of Glafgow, or of faint Andrew's: but the appointment was repudiated by the pope'. In the year 1513, to avoid the perfecutions of the duke of Albany, he fled from Scotland into England, and was moft graciously received by king Henry the eighth; who, in confideration of his literary merit, al Hume, HIST. DOUGL. p. 219. 'Lefl. REB. GEST. SCOT. Lib. ix. 455. Thynne, CONTINUAT. HIST. SCOT, lowed lowed him a liberal penfion". In England he contracted a friendship with Polydore Virgil, one of the claffical scholars of Henry's court'. He died of the plague in London, and was buried in the Savoy church, in the year 1521 *. In his early years he tranflated Ovid's ART OF LOVE, the favorite Latin system of the science of gallantry, into Scottish metre, which is now loft'. In the year 1513, and in the space of fixteen months", he tranflated into Scotch heroics the Eneid of Virgil, with the additional thirteenth book by Mapheus Vegius, at the request of his noble patron Henry earl of Sinclair ". But it was projected fo early as the year 1501. For in one of his poems written that year, he promises to Venus a translation of Virgil, in attonement for a ballad he had published against her court: and when the work was finished, he tells Lord Sinclair, that he had now made his peace with Venus, by tranflating the poem which celebrated the actions of her fon Eneas". No metrical verfion of a claffic had yet appeared in English; except of Boethius, who fcarcely deferves that appellation. Virgil was hitherto commonly known, only by Caxton's romance on the subject of the Eneid; which, our author fays, no more resembles Virgil, than the devil is like faint Auftin. This tranflation is executed with equal fpirit and fidelity: and is a proof, that the lowland Scotch and English languages were now nearly the fame. I mean the style of com h Hollinfh. Scoт. 307.-iii. 872. 1 Bale, xiv. 58. Weever, FUN. MON. p. 446. And Stillingfl. ORIG. BRIT. p. 54. See edit. Edinb. fol. 1710. p. 483. In the EPISTLE, or EPILOGUE, to Lord Sinclair. I believe the editor's name is ROBERT FREEBAIRN, a Scotchman. This tranflation was first printed at London, 1553. 4to. bl. lett. Lefl. REB. GEST. SCOT. lib. ix. p. 379. Rom. 1675. EPILOGUE, ut fupr. • The PALICE OF HONOUR, ad calcem. Vol. II. PEPIL. ut fupr. 9 PROLOGUE to the Tranflation, p. 5. The manufcript notes written in the margin of a copy of the old quarto edition of this tranflation, by Patrick Junius, which bishop Nicolfon (HIST. LIBR. p. 99.) declares to be excellent, are of no confequence, Bibl. Bodl. ARCHIV. SELD. B. 54. 4to. The fame may be faid of Junius's Index of obfolete words in this tranflation, Cod. MSS. Jun. 114. (5225.) See also Muf. Afhmol. Diverfe Scotch wards. &C. COD. ASHM. 846. 13." pofition; more efpecially in the glaring affectation of anglicifing Latin words. The feveral books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are often. highly poetical; and fhew that Douglas's proper walk was original poetry. In the prologue to the fixth book, he wishes for the Sybill's golden bough, to enable him to follow his master Virgil through the dark and dangerous labyrinth of the infernal regions'. But the most confpicuous of these prologues is a defcription of May. The greater part of which I will infert'. As fresche Aurore, to mychty Tithone fpous, Sched purpour sprayngis with gold and afure ment. Abouf the feyis liftis furth his hede Of culloure fore, and fomedele broun as bery, The flambe out brastin at the neis. thirlis. b Quhil schortlie, with the blefand torche of day, Furth of his palice ryall ischit Phebus, Crifp haris, bricht as chriffolite or thopas; n The loune illuminate are ", and firth amene: Ouer thowrt clere ftremes sprinkilland for the hete, And chefal talis, ftourand here and there': The new cullour, alichting" all the landis, Forgane the stanryis schene", and beriall ftrandis : The bene bonkis kest ful of variant glemes: And luftie Flora did her blomes fprede Under the fete of Phebus fulzeart' stede, The swardit foyll enbrode with felkouth hewis |