On ilk scaffold to play ane fundrie storie': Thow faw mony ane luftie fresche galland Syne next in ordour paffing throw the toun, Thow fhuld have hard the ornate oratouris, Boith of the clergy toun and counfalouris,} With mony notable narratioun. Thow fuld have fene her coronation, Sic banketting, fic awfull tournamentis On hors and fute, that tyme quhilk fuld have bene, And craftie mufick, &c. Exclusive of this artificial and very poetical mode of introducing a description of these fplendid fpectacles, instead of faying plainly that the queen's death prevented the superb ceremonies which would have attended her coronation, these stanzas have another merit, that of transmitting the ideas of the times in the exhibition of a royal entertainment *. Our author's COMPLAYNT contains a curious picture, like that in his DREME, of the miserable policy by which Scotland was governed under James the fifth. But he diverfifies and enlivens the fubject, by fuppofing the public felicity which would take place, if all corrupt minifters and evil counsellors were removed from the throne. This is described by striking and picturesque personifications. Justice holds her fwerd on hie, Has bannifchit Senfualitie. Dame Riches takes on the fic cure, * The curious reader may compare" The "ordynaunce of the entre of quene Ifabell into the towne of Paris," in Froiffart. Berners's Tranfl. tom. ii. c. clvii. f. 172. b. SIGNAT. G. i. I here take occafion to explain the two following lines. Als Jhone Makray, the kingis fule, Gat dowbyll garmountis agane the zule. That is, "The king's fool got two fuits "of apparel, or garments doubly thick, "to wear at Christmas." SIGNAT, G.i. Zule is Christmas. So James the first, in his declaration at an affembly of the Scotch Kirk at Edinburgh, in 1590, "The "church of Geneva keep Pafche and "YULE," that is, Eafter and CHRISTMAS. Calderwood's HIST. CH. SCOT. p. 256. Our author, in The COMPLAYNT OF THE PAPYNGO, fays that his bird fung well enough to be a minstrel at Christmas. SIGNAT. A. iii. Scho micht have bene ane menftrall at the zule. Thus Sf 2 I know not whether it be worth obferving, that playing at cards is mentioned in this poem, among the diverfions, or games, of the court. Thar was no play but CARTIS and dice®. And it is mentioned as an accomplishment in the character of a bishop. Bot geve thay can play at the CAIRTIS‘. Thus, in the year 1503, James the fourth of Scotland, at an interview with the princess Margaret in the castle of Newbattle, finds her playing at cards. "The kynge came prively to the faid caftell, and entred within the chammer [chamber] with a small cumpany, whare he founde the quene playing at the CARDES." Thus Robert of Brunne, in his chronicle, fpeaking of King Arthur keeping Chriftmas at York. On gole day mad he fest With many barons of his geste. See Hearne's ROB. GLOUC. vol. ii. p. 678. And Leland's ITIN. vol. ii. p. 116. In the north of England, Christmas to this day is called ule, yule, or youle. Blount fays," in the northern parts they have an "old cuftom, after fermon or service on "Christmas-day; the people will, even " in the churches, cry ule, ule, as a token "of rejoycing, and the common fort run "about the streets finging, “ULE, ULE, ULE, "Three puddings in a pule, "Crack nuts, and cry ÜLE." DICTION. Voc. ULE. In Saxon the word is gehul, gehol, or geol. In the Welch rubric every faint's day is the Wyl, or Gaul, of that faint: either from a British word fignifying watching, or from the Latin Vigilia, Vigil, taken in a more extended enfe. In Wales vyliau or gwyliau hado lig, fignifies the Christmas holidays, where wyla or gwyliau is the plural of wyl or gwyl. Í alfo take this opportunity of obferving, that the court of the Roman pontiff was exhilarated by a fool. The pope's fool was in England in 1230, and received forty fhillings of king Henry the third, de dono regis. MSS. James, xxviii. p. 190. SIGNAT. F. iii. d SIGNAT. G. i. e Leland. COLL. APPEND. iii. p. 284. ut fupr. In our author's TRAGEDIE of CARDINAL BETOUN, a foliloquy spoken by the cardinal, he is made to declare, that he played with the king for three thousand crowns of gold in one night, at cartis and dice. SIGNAT. I. ii. They are also mentioned in an old anonymous Scotch poem, Of COVETICE. ANC. Sc. P. ut fupr. p. 168. ft. iii. Halking, hunting, and swift horfe rynning, hawking, Prophefies of apparent impoffibilities were common in Scotland: fuch as the removal of one place to another. Under this popular prophetic formulary, may be ranked the prediction in Shakespeare's MACBETH, where the APPARITION says, that Birnam-wood shall go to Dufinane. In the fame ftrain, peculiar to his country, fays our author, Quhen the Bas and the isle of May Beis fet upon the mount Sinay, Quhen the Lowmound befyde Falkland Beis liftit to Northumberland. But he happily avails himself of the form, to introduce a ftroke of fatire. Quhen Kirkman zairnis' no dignite, Nor wyffis no foveranite. The minority of James the fifth was diffipated in pleafures, and his education moft industriously neglected. He hawking, and hunting; and not as a fpecies of gaming. See also, IBID. p. 146. ft. v. Cards are mentioned in a ftatute of Henry the feventh, xi. Hen. vii. cap. ii. That is, in 1496. Du Cange cites two Greek writers, who mention card-playing as one of the games of modern Greece, at least before the year 1498. GLOSS. GR. tom. ii. V. XAPTIA. p. 1734. It feems highly probable, that the Arabians, fo famous for their ingenuity, more efpecially in whatever related to numbers and calculation, were the inventors of cards, which they communicated to the Conftantinopolitan Greeks. Carpentier fays, that cards, or folia luforia, are prohibited in the STATUTA CRIMIN. Saonæ. cap. xxx. p. 61. But the age of thefe itatutes has not occured to me. SUPPLEM. LAT. GLOSS. Du Cange, V. CARTE. tom. i. p. 842. Benedictus Abbas has preferved a very curious edict, which thews the state of gaming in the chriftian army, commanded And kyng Rychard ftode and playe lbid. SIGNAT. H, i, was was flattered, not inftructed, by his preceptors. His unguarded youth was artfully expofed to the most alluring temptations". It was in this reign, that the nobility of Scotland began to frequent the court; which foon became the theatre of all thofe idle amusements which were calculated to folicit the attention of a young king. All these abuses are painted in this poem with an honest unreserved indignation. It must not in the mean time be forgotten, that James poffeffed eminent abilities, and a love of literature: nor is it befide our present purpose to obferve, that he was the author of the celebrated ballad called CHRIST'S KIRK ON THE GREEN'. The COMPLAYNT of the Papingo is a piece of the like tendency. In the Prologue, there is a curious and critical catalogue of the Scotch poets who flourished about the fourteenth, fifteenth, and fixteenth centuries. As the names and works of many of them feem to be totally forgotten, and as it may contribute to throw fome new lights on the neglected history of the Scotch poetry, I shall not scruple to give the paffage at large, with a few illuftrations. Our author declares, that the poets of his own age dare not afpire to the praife of the three English poets, Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. He then, under the fame idea, makes a tranfition to the most distinguished poets, who formerly flourished in Scotland. Schir, whan ye pleis to Linlithquow pas, Quad the third man, thow dois bot mow; Schir quod the fourth, tak my counfell, Compare Buchanan, HrsT. lib. xiv. ad fin. |