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 fays, 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 plea-. fures, and his education moft industriously neglected. He hawking, and hunting; and not as a species of gaming. See alfo, 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 leaft before the year 1498. GLOSS. GR. tom. ii. V. XAPTIA. p. 1734. It seems 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. Saone. cap. xxx. p. 61. But the age of thefe ftatutes 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 fhews the itate of gaming in the chriftian army, commanded And kyng Rychard ftode and playe 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 amufements 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 prefent 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 fcruple 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 praise of the three English poets, Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. He then, under the fame idea, makes a transition to the most distinguished poets, who formerly flourished in Scotland. Schir, whan ye pleis to Linlithquow pas,. Quod the third man, thow dois bot mow; Schir quod the fourth, tak my counfell, Compare Buchanan, HIST. lib. xiv. ad fin. 1 Or quho can now the workis contrefait* Of KENNEDIE', with termis aureait ? Or of DUNBAR, quha language had at large, As may be fene intyll his GOLDIN TARGE"? QUINTYN", MERSER, ROWL', HENDERSON, HAY', and Thocht thay be deid, thair libellis bene livand', Quhilk to reheirs makis redaris to rejoife. Allace for one quhilk lamp was of this land, * Imitate. The 1 I fuppofe Walter Kennedie, who wrote a poem in Scottish metre, whether printed I know not, on the Paffion of Chrift. MSS. Coll. Gresham, 286. Some of Kennedie's poems are in MSS. Hyndford. Flyting between Dunbar and Kennedy is in the EVERGREEN. See Dunbar, ut fupr. P. 77. And ibid. p. 274. And Kennedy's PRAIS OF AGE, ibid. p. 189. He exceeds his cotemporary Dunbar in smoothnefs of verfification. The poem examined above, p. 264. n He flourished about the year 1320. He was driven from Scotland under the devastations of Edward the firft, and took refuge at Paris. He wrote a poem, called the Complaint of the Miferies of his Country, printed at Paris, 1511. Dempft. xv. 1034. • Merfer is celebrated by Dunbar, LA- That did in luve fo lyfly wryte, ▸ Dunbar mentions Rowll of Aberdeen, and Rowll of Corstorphine," twa bettir "fallowis did no man fie." Ibid. p. 77. In Lord Hyndford's Manufcript [p. 104. 2.] a poem is mentioned, called "RowLL's CURSING. ibid. p. 272. There is an allufion in this piece to pope Alexander the fixth, who prefided from 1492 to 1503. 9 Perhaps Robert Henrifon. See Dunbar, ubi fupr. p. 77. And ibid. p. 98. feq. In MSS. Harl. are, "The morall "fabillis of Efope compylit be Maister "Robert Henryfount fcholmaister of Dum ferling, 1571." 3865. 1. He was most probably a teacher of the youth in the Benedictine convent at Dunfermline. See many of his poems, which are of a grave moral turn, in the elegant Scottish Midcellany juft cited. His I know not if he means Archibald Hay, who wrote a panegyric on Cardinal Beaton, printed at Paris, 1540. 4to. He alfo tranflated the HECUBA of Euripides from Greek into Latin. MSS. HATTON. But I have seen none of his Scotch poetry. • See Dunbar, ut fupr. p. 77. poem, called the HOWLATT, is in the Manufcripts of Lord Hyndford, and Lord Auchinleck. In this are described, the Kyndis of inftrumentis, the fportaris, [juglers] the Irish bard, and the fule." It was written before the year 1455 66 'Living. u Stream. And And as Phebus dois Cynthie precell; Had, quhen he was into this land on lyve, Both in practick and fpeculatioun. I fay no more: gude redaris may discryve Of Virgill, quhilk bene confolatioun To cunnyng men to knawe his greit ingyne, And in the court bene present in their dayis, STEWART of Lorne will carp richt curiouflie2, Bot now of late is start up haistelie, One cunnyng clarke, quhilk wrytith craftelie: Quhofe ornate workis my wit can nocht defyne: He will precell Quintyn and Kennedie ‘. The Scotch, from that philosophical and speculative cast which characterises their national genius, were more zealous and early friends to a reformation of religion than their neighbours in England. The pomp and elegance of the catholic worship made no impreffion on a people, whose devotion fought only for folid edification; and who had no notion that the interpofition of the fenfes could with any propriety be admitted to cooperate in an exercise of such a nature, which appealed to reafon alone, and feemed to exclude all aids of the imagination. It was natural that such a people, in their fyftem of spiritual refinement, should warmly prefer the fevere and rigid plan of Calvin: and it is from this principle, that we find most of their writers, at the restoration of learning, taking all occafions of cenfuring I prefume this is John Balantyn, or Ballenden, archdeacon of Murray, canon of Roffe, and clerk of the register in the minority of James the fifth and his fucceffour. He was a doctor of the Sorbonne at Paris. G. Con, De duplici ftatu religionis apud Scotos, lib. ii. p. 167. At the command of James the fifth, he tranflated the feventeen books of Hector Boethius's HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. Edinb. by T. Davidfon, 1536. fol. The preface is in verfe, "Thow marcyal buke pas to the "nobyll prince." Prefixed is the CosMOGRAPHY of Boethius's Hiftory, which Mackenzie calls, A Defcription of Albany, ii. 596. Before it is a Prologue, a vifion in verfe, in which VIRTUE and PLEASURE addrefs the king, after the manner of a dialogue. He wrote an addition of one hundred years to Boethius's hiftory: but Vol. II. this does not appear in the Edinburgh e- T t SIGNAT. K. the |