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"the little gnat or fly. Under the boughs that screen the " valley, or within the pale-inclosed park, the nimble deer trooped in ranks, the harts wandered through the thick woody fhaws, and the young fawns followed the dappled does. Kids skipped through the briers after the roes; "and in the pastures and leas, the lambs, full tight and trig, "bleated to their dams. Doris and Thetis walked on the "falt ocean; and Nymphs and Naiads, wandering by spring"wells in the graffy groves, plaited lufty chaplets for their hair, of blooming branches, or of flowers red and white. They fung, and danced, &c.-Meantime, dame Nature's "minftrels raife their amorous notes, the ring-dove coos "and pitches on the tall copfe, the ftarling whistles her " varied defcant, the sparrow chirps in the clefted wall; the goldfinch and linnet filled the fkies, the cuckow cried, the quail twittered; while rivers, fhaws, and every dale refounded; and the tender branches trembled on the trees, "at the fong of the birds, and the buzzing of the bees, &c." This Landscape may be finely contrasted with a description of WINTER, from the Prologue to the feventh book", a part of which I will give in literal profe.

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The fern withered on the miry fallows: the brown "moors affumed a barren moffy hue: banks, fides of hills, " and bottoms, grew white and bare: the cattle looked hoary from the dank weather: the wind made the red "weed waver on the dike: From crags and the foreheads of "the yellow rocks hung great icicles, in length like a spear: "the foil was dusky and gray, bereft of flowers, herbs, and

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grafs in every holt and foreft, the woods were stripped "of their array. Boreas blew his bugle horn fo loud, that "the folitary deer withdrew to the dales: the small birds "flocked to the thick briers, fhunning the tempestuous "blast, and changing their loud notes to chirping: the cata

P. 200. fol. edit.

"racts

"racts roared, and every linden-tree whistled and brayed to "the founding of the wind. The poor labourers went wet " and weary, draggled in the fen. The sheep and fhepherds "lurked under the hanging banks, or wild broom.-Warm "from the chimney-fide, and refreshed with generous cheer, "I ftole to my bed, and laid down to fleep; when I saw the

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moon, shed through the windows her twinkling glances, "and watery light: I heard the horned bird, the night"owl, fhrieking horribly with crooked bill from her cavern: "I heard the wild-geefe, with fcreaming cries, fly over the city through the filent night. I was foon lulled asleep; "till the cock clapping his wings crowed thrice, and the day peeped. I waked and faw the moon disappear, and "heard the jack-daws cackle on the roof of the house. The cranes, prognofticating tempefts, in a firm phalanx, pierced the air with voices founding like a trumpet. The kite, perched on an old tree, fast by my chamber, cried lamentably, a fign of the dawning day. I rofe, and halfopening my window, perceived the morning, livid, wan, " and hoary; the air overwhelmed with vapour and cloud; "the ground ftiff, gray, and rough; the branches rattling; "the fides of the hills looking black and hard with the

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driving blasts; the dew-drops congealed on the stubble "and rind of trees; the fharp hail-ftones, deadly-cold, hopping on the thatch and the neighbouring causeway, &c."

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Bale, whofe titles of English books are often obfcured by being put into Latin, recites among Gawin Douglass's poetical works, his Narrationes aureæ, and Comœdiæ aliquot facræ1. Of his NARRATIONES AUREÆ, our author feems to speak in the EPILOGUE to VIRGIL, addreffed to his patron lord Sinclair *.

I have also a strange command [comment] compyld,
To expone strange hyftoryes and termes wild.

i xiv. 58.

* Ut fupr. p. 483.

Perhaps

Perhaps these tales were the fictions of antient mythology. Whether the COMOEDIÆ were facred interludes, or MYSTERIES, for the ftage, or only facred narratives, I cannot determine. Another of his original poems is the PALICE OF HONOUR, a moral vifion, written in the year 1501, planned on the defign of the TABLET of Cebes, and imitated in the elegant Latin dialogue De Tranquillitate Animi of his countryman Florence Wilfon, or Florentius Volufenus'. It was first printed at London, in 1553". The object of this allegory, is to fhew the inftability and infufficiency of worldly pomp; and to prove, that a conftant and undeviating habit of virtue is the only way to true Honour and Happiness, who refide in a magnificent palace, fituated on the fummit of a high and inacceffible mountain. The allegory is illuftrated by a variety of examples of illuftrious perfonages; not only of those, who by a regular perfeverance in honourable deeds gained admittance into this fplendid habitation, but of those, who were excluded from it, by debafing the dignity of their eminent stations with a vicious and unmanly behaviour. It is addressed, as an apologue for the conduct of a king, to James the fourth; is adorned with many pleasing incidents and adventures, and abounds with genius and learning.

1 Lugd. apud Seb. Gryph. 1543. 4to.

In quarto. Again, Edinb. 1579. 4to. "When pale Aurora with face lamentable." Douglafs alfo wrote a fmall Latin History of Scotland. See alfo a DIALOGUE Concerning a theological fubject to be debated

between, duos famatos viros, G. Douglas provost of faint Giles, and master David Cranstoun bachelour of divinity, prefixed to John Major's COMMENTARII in prim. Sentent. Parif. 1519. fol.

SECT.

W

SECT. XIV.

Dunbar and Douglass I join Sir David Lyndesay,

although perhaps in strictness he should not be placed fo early as the clofe of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been employed in feveral offices about the person of James the fifth, from the infancy of that monarch, by whom he was much beloved; and at length, on account of his fingular skill in heraldry, a science then in high estimation and among the most polite accomplishments, he was knighted and appointed Lion king of arms of the kingdom of Scotland. Notwithstanding these fituations, he was an excellent fcholar ".

Lyndefay's principal performances are The DREME, and The MONARCHIE. In the addrefs to James the fifth, prefixed to the DREME, he thus, with much tenderness and elegance, speaks of the attention he paid to his majesty when a child.

When thou wes young, I bare thee in myne arme
Full tenderlie, till thow begouth to gang;
And in thy bed oft lappit thee full warme
With lute in hand, fyne' fweitlie to thee fang.

He adds, that he often entertained the young prince with various dances and gefticulations, and by dreffing himself in feigned characters, as in an interlude. A new proof that theatrical diverfions were now common in Scotland.

" See the WARKIS OF THE FAMOUS AND WORTHIE KNICHT SCHIR DAVID LYNDESAY of the Mount, &c. Newly correctit and vindicate from the former errouris, &c. Pr. by Johne Scott, A. D. 1568. 4to. They have been often printed.

I believe the laft edition is at Edinburgh, 1709. 12mo.

Began to walk.

P Then.

So alfo his COMPLAYNT to the Kingis Grace. SIGNAT. E.iii.

As

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And fumtyme lyke ane feind 'transfigurate,
And fumtyme lyke the grieflie gaist of Gy',
In divers formis oftymes disfigurate,
And fumtyme diffagift full plefandlie ".

In the PROLOGUE to the DREME, our author difcovers strong talents for high defcription and rich imagery.

As ane chapman bures his pak, I bure thy grace upon my bak; And fometimes ftridlingis on my nek, Danfand with many bend and bek.And ay quhen thow come from the scule, Than I behufit to play the fule.I wol thou luffit me better than Nor now fome wyfe dois hir gude man. Playing farces, frolics. In the shape of a fiend.

The griefly ghoft of Guy earl of Warwick.

"Difguifed, masked, to make sport. SIGNAT. D. i. He adds, what illuftrates the text, above.

So fen thy birth I have continuallie
Ben occupyit, and ay to thy plefour,
And fumtyme Sewar, Coppar, and Carvour.
That is, fewer, and cupper or butler. He
then calls himself the king's fecreit The-
faurar, and chief Cubicular. Afterwards
he enumerates fome of his own works.
I have at lenth the storeis done difcryve
Of Hector, Arthur, and gentill Julius,
Of Alexander, and worthy Pompeius.

Of Jafon and Medea, all at lenth,
Of Hercules the actis honorable,
And of Sampfon the fupernaturall ftrength,
And of leil luffaris [lovers] ftories amiable e;
And oftimes have I feinzeit mony fable,
Of Troilus the forrow and the joy,
And fieges all of Tire, Thebes, and Troy.

In a

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That is, the prophecies of Thomas Rymour, venerable Bede, and Merlin. [See fupr. vol. i. p. 74. 75. feq. And MSS. Afhm. 337.6.] Thomas the RIMOUR, or Thomas Leirmouth of Erceldoun, feems to have wrote a poem on Sir Triftram. Rob. BRUNNE fays this story would exceed all others,

If men yt fayd as made THOMAS. That is, "If men recited it according to "the original compofition of Thomas Er

66

celdoun, or the RIMOUR." See Langtoft's CHRON. Append. Pref. p. 100. vol. i. edit. Hearne. Oxon. 1725. 8vo. He flourished about 1280. I do not understand, The reid Etin, and the gyir catling: but gyir is a maske or masquerade. Many of Lyndefay's Interludes are among Lord Hyndford's manufcripts of Scotch poetry, and are exceedingly obfcene. One of Lyndefay's MORALITIES, called, ANE SATYRE OF THE THREE ESTAITS in commendation of vertew and vytuperation of vvce, was printed at Edinburgh, 1602. This piece, which is intirely in rhyme, and confifts of a variety of measures, must have taken up four hours in the reprefentation.

morning.

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