In the midst of an edifying converfation concerning the fall of man and the origin of human mifery, our author, before he proceeds to his main subject, thinks it neceffary to deliver a formal apology for writing in the vulgar tongue. He declares that his intention is to inftruct and to be understood, and that he writes to the people. Mofes, he says, did not give the Judaic law on mount Sinai in Greek or Latin. Aristotle and Plato did not communicate their philosophy in Dutch or Italian. Virgil and Cicero did not write in Chaldee or Hebrew. Saint Jerom, it is true, translated the bible into Latin, his own natural language; but had faint Jerom been born in Argyleshire, he would have tranflated it into Erfe. King David wrote the pfalter in Hebrew, because he was a Jew. Hence he very fenfibly takes occafion to recommend the propriety and neceffity of publishing the scriptures and the misfal, and of compofing all books intended for common use, in the respective vernacular language of every country. This objection being anfwered, which fhews the ideas of the times, our author thus describes the creation of the world and of Adam.

Quhen god had made the hevinnis bricht,
The fone, and mone, for to gyf licht,
The starry hevin, and cristalline;
And, by his fapience divine,

The planeits, in their circles round
Quhirlyng about with merie found :-
He clad the erth with herbs and treis;

All kynd of fischis in the feis,
All kynd of best he did prepair,
With foulis fleting in the air.-

2 Quharefore to colyearis, carteris, and to cukis,
To Jok and Thome, my ryme fall be dereftit.

Rr 2

SIGNAT. C. i.

When

When hevin, and erth, and thare contents,
Were endit, with thare ornaments,

Than, last of all, the lord began

Of most vile erth to make the man:

Not of the lillie or the rofe,

Nor cyper-tre, as I fuppofe,

Nether of gold, nor precious ftonis,

Of earth he made flefche, blude, and bonis;
To that intent he made him thus,

That man shuld nocht be glorious,

And in himself no thinge fhulde fe
But matter of humilite ".

Some of these nervous, terfe, and polished lines, need only to be reduced to modern and English orthography, to please a reader accustomed folely to relish the tone of our present verfification.

To these may be added the deftruction of Jerufalem and Solomon's temple.

Prince Titus with his chivalrie

With found of trumpe triumphantlie,
He enterit in that greit citie, &c.
Thare was nocht ells but tak and flay,
For thence might no man win his way.
The ftramis of blude ran thruch the ftreit,
Of deid folk tramplit under feit;
Auld wydowis in the preis were fmorit ",
Young virgins fchamefullie deflorit.
The tempill greit of Solamone,
With mony a curious carvit ftone,
With perfyt pinnakles on hicht,

Quhilks wer richt bewtifull and wicht',

SIGNAT. C. iii.

i Escape.

* Smothered.

1 White.

Quharein

Quharein riche jowells did abound,
Thay rufcheit" rudely to the ground;
And fet, in tyll their furious ire",
Sanctum Sanctorum into fire".

The appearance of Chrift coming to judgement is poetically painted, and in a style of correctnefs and harmony, of which few specimens were now feen.

As fire flaucht hastily glanfing",
Difcend shall the most hevinly king;
As Phebus in the orient
Lichinis in haift to occident,
So plefandlie he shall appeir
Among the hevinlie cloudis cleir.-
The angellis of the ordours nyne
Inviron fhall his throne divyne.-
In his presence thare falbe borne
The fignis' of cros, and croun of thorne,
Pillar, nailis, fcurgis, and fpeir,

With everilk thing that did hym deir ',
The tyme of his grym paffioun:

And, for our confolatioun,

Appeir fall, in his hands and feit,
And in his fyde the print compleit
Of his fyve woundis precious
Schyning lyke rubies radious.

When Chrift is feated at the tribunal of judging the world,

he adds,

Thare fall ane angell blawe a blast

Quhilk fall make all the warld agast ‘.

Among the monarchies, our author defcribes the papal fee: whofe innovations, impostures, and errors, he attacks with much good sense, folid argument, and fatirical humour; and whofe imperceptible increase, from fimple and humble beginnings to an enormity of spiritual tyranny, he traces through a gradation of various corruptions and abuses, with great penetration, and knowledge of history".

Among antient peculiar customs now loft, he mentions a fuperftitious idol annually carried about the streets of Edinburgh.

Of Edingburgh the great idolatrie,

And manifeft abominatioun !

On thare feist day, all creature may fee,

Thay beir ane ald stok-image" throw the toun,
With talbrone*, trumpet, fhalme, and clarioun,
Quhilk has bene ufit mony one yeir bigone,
With priestis, and freris, into proceffioun,
Siclyke' as Bal was borne through Babilon".

He also speaks of the people flocking to be cured of various infirmities, to the auld rude, or cross, of Kerrail *.

SIGNAT. P. iii. "SIGNAT. M. iii.

w An old image made of a stock of wood. * Tabor.

y So as.

2 SIGNAT. H. iii.

SIGNAT. H. i. For allufions of this kind the following ftanza may be cited, which I do not entirely understand. SIGNAT. H. iii.

This was the practick of fum pilgrimage,
Quhen fillokis into Fyfe began to fen
With Jok and Thome than tuke thai thair
voyage

In Angus to the field chapel of Dron:
Than Kittock tharę alf cadye as ane Con,
Without regard other to fyn or fchame,
Gave Lowrie leif at lafer to loup on,

Far better had bene till have biddin at
hame.

I will here take occafion to explain two
lines, SIGNAT. I. iii.

Nor yit the fair madin of France
Danter of Inglish ordinance.

That is Joan of Arc, who fo often daunted
or defeated the English army. To this
heroine, and to Penthefilea, he compares
Semiramis.

Our

Our poet's principal vouchers and authorities in the MoNARCHIE, are Livy, Valerius Maximus, Jofephus, Diodorus Siculus, Avicen the Arabic physician, Orofius, faint Jerom, Polydore Virgil, Cario's chronicle, the FASCICULUS TEMPORUM, and the CHRONICA CHRONICARUM. The FASCICULUS TEMPORUM is a Latin chronicle, written at the clofe of the fifteenth century by Wernerus Rolewinck, a Weftphalian, and a Carthufian monk of Cologne; a most venerable volume, closed with this colophon. "FASCICULUS TEMPORUM, a Carthufiense compilatum in formam cronicis figu"ratum ufque in annum 1478, a me Nicolao Gatz de Seltz"tat impreffum "." The CHRONICA CRONICARUM or CHRONICON MUNDI, written by Hartmannus Schedelius, a phyfician at Nuremburgh, and from which our author evidently took his philofophy in his DREME, was printed at Nuremburgh in 1493. This was a most popular compilation, and is at present a great curiofity to those who are fond of history in the Gothic ftyle, confifting of wonders conveyed in the black letter and wooden cuts. Cario's chronicle is a much more rational and elegant work: it was originally compofed, about the beginning of the fixteenth century, by Ludovicus Cario, an eminent mathematician, and improved or written anew by Melancthon. Of Orofius, a wretched but admired chriftian hiftorian, who compiled in Latin a series of univerfal annals from the creation to the fifth century, he cites a translation.

The tranflatour of Orofius

In his cronicle wryttis thus *.

I know of no English translation of Orofius, unless the Anglo-faxon verfion by king Alfred; and which would per

See it also among SCRIPTOR. GERMAN. per J. Piftorium, tom. i. p. 580.

Again, ibid. by Joh. Schenfperger.

1497. fol.
SIGNAT. F. ii.

haps