This awefull beift full terrible was of cheir, Reid of his cullour as the ruby glance, This is an elegant and ingenious mode of blazoning the Scottish arms, which are a lion with a border, or treffure, adorned with flower de luces. We fhould remember, that heraldry was now a science of high importance and esteem. NATURE lifting up his cluvis cleir, or fhining claws, and suffering him to reft on her knee, crowns him with a radiant diadem of precious stones, and creates him the king of beasts at the fame time fhe injoins him to exercise justice with mercy, and not to suffer his fubjects of the smallest fize or degree, to be oppreffed by thofe of fuperiour strength and dignity. This part of NATURE'S charge to the lion, is closed with the following beautiful stroke, which indicates the moral tenderness of the poet's heart. k And lat no bowgle with his busteous hornis She next crowns the eagle king of fowls; and sharpening his talons like darts of fteel, orders him to govern great and fmall, the wren or the peacock, with an uniform and equal impartiality. I need not point out to my reader the political leffons couched under thefe commands. NATURE now calls the flowers; and obferving the thistle to be furrounded * Fierce. h Encircled. iSt. xiv. *Boifterous. Strong. 1 Plough-ox. m St. xvi. with a bush of spears, and therefore qualified for war, gives him a crown of rubies, and fays, "In field go forth and "fend the laif". The poet continues elegantly to picture other parts of the royal arms; in ordering the thistle, who is now king of vegetables, to prefer all herbs, or flowers, of rare virtue, and rich odour: nor ever to permit the nettle to afsociate with the flour de lys, nor any ignoble weed to be ranked in competition with the lily. In the next stanza, where NATURE directs the thistle to honour the rose above all other flowers, exclufive of the heraldic meaning, our author with much' addrefs infinuates to king James the fourth an exhortation to conjugal fidelity, drawn from the high birth, beauty, and amiable accomplishments, of the royal bride the princess Margaret°. Nor hald no udir flower in fic denty As the fresche Rose, of cullour reid and quhyt; "O lufty NATURE then addreffes the rose, whom she calls, daughter most benyng," and whofe lineage fhe exalts above that of the lily. This was a preference of Tudor to Valois. She She crowns the rofe with clarefied gems, the luftre of which illumines all the land. The rofe is hailed queen by the flowers. Last, her praises are fung by the universal chorus of birds, the found of which awakens the poet from his delightful dream. The fairy fcene is vanished, and he calls to the mufe to perpetuate in verfe the wonders of the fplendid vifion. Although much fine invention and fublime fabling are difplayed in the allegorical vifions of our old poets, yet this mode of compofition, by dealing only in imaginary perfonages, and by excluding real characters and human actions, neceffarily fails in that chief fource of entertainment which we seek in antient poetry, the reprefentation of antient manners. Another general obfervation, immediately resulting from the fubject of this poem, may be here added, which illuftrates the present and future ftate of the Scotch poetry. Themarriage of a princess of England with a king of Scotland, from the new communication and intercourse opened between the two courts and kingdoms by fuch a connection, must have greatly contributed to polish the rude manners, and to improve the language, literature, and arts, of Scotland. The defign of Dunbar's GOLDEN TERGE, is to fhew the gradual and imperceptible influence of love, when too far indulged, over reason. The discerning reader will obferve, that the cast of this poem is tinctured with the morality and imagery of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, and the FLOURE AND LEAFE, of Chaucer. The poet walks forth at the dawn of a bright day. The effects of the rifing fun on a vernal landscape, with its accompaniments, are thus delineated in the manner of Lydgate, yet with more ftrength, distinctness, and exuberance of ornament. Richte Richte as the ftarre of day began to fchyne, Full angelyk the birdis fang thair houris, X Within their courtings grene, within thair bouris For mirth of May, with skippis and with hoppis, Down thruch the ryfsane revir ran with stremis That all the lake as lamp did leme of licht, The bank was grene, the fon was ful of bemis, The cryftall cleir, the fapheir firmament, i Kest beryl bemis on emerault bewis grene, With purpour, afure, gold, and gowlis' gent, Through the bushes, the trees. Rice, or Ris, is properly a long branch. This word is ftill used in the weft of England. Chaucer, MILLER'S TALE, V. 215. P. 26. Urr. edit. And thereupon he had a fair furplice As white as is the blosome on the rice. Welcum oure rubent rois [rofe] upon the rice. Hot pefcode own [one] began to crye, Straberys rype, and cherryes in the RYSE. That is, as he paffed through London streets, they cried, hot peafe, ripe ftrawberries, and cherries on a bough, or twig. • Pleasant. The water blazed like a lamp, and 1 Gules. The heraldic term for red. The rock, glittering with the reflection of the river, illuminated as with fire all the bright leaves. Low is flame. "ST. i. feq. Compare Chaucer's Morning, in the KNIGHT'S TALE, V. 1493P. 12. Urr. The mery lark, meffengere of the day, Our |