With scrip on hip, and pykstaff in his hand, Quod I, Gude man, I wald fane understand, The reply of SYR COMMONWEALTH to our poet's question, is a long and general satire on the corrupt state of Scotland. The spiritual prelates, he says, have sent away Devotion to the mendicant friars: and are more fond of describing the dishes at a feast, than of explaining the nature of their own establishment. Sensual Plesour hes baneist Chaistitie. Liberality, Loyalty, and Knightly Valour, are fled, And Cowardice, with lordis is laureate, From this sketch of Scotland, here given by Lyndesay, under the reign of James the Fifth, who acted as a viceroy to France, a Scotch historian might collect many striking features of the state of his country during that interesting period, drawn from the life. The poet then supposes, that REMEMBRANCE conducts him back to the cave on the sea-shore, in which he fell asleep. He is awakened by a ship firing a broadside. He returns home, and entering his oratory, commits his vision to verse. To this Henry the Fifth, before Hareflete, received a taunting message from the Dauphine of France, and a ton of tennisballs by way of contempt, "he anoone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin myght, and they were great cONNESTONES [Henry's ship] in all the haste that they for the Dolfin to playe with alle." But this game at tennis was too rough for the besieged, when Henry "playede at the tenes with his harde GONNESTONES," &c. See Strutt's CUSTOMS AND MANNERS oF THE ENGlish, vol, ii, p, 32, Ļond, 1775, is added an exhortation of ten stanzas to king James the Fifth: in which he gives his majesty advice, and censures his numerous instances of misconduct, with incredible boldness and asperity. Most of the addresses to James the Fifth, by the Scotch poets, are satires instead of panegyrics. I have not at present either leisure or inclination, to enter into à minute enquiry, how far our author is indebted in his DREME to Tully's DREAM OF SCIPIO, and the HELL, PURGATORY, and HEAVEN, of Dante, a Lyndesay's poem, called the MONARCHIE, is an account of the most famous monarchies that have flourished in the world: but, like all the Gothic prose-histories, or chronicles, on the same favorite subject, it begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the day of judgment. There is much learning in this poem. It is a dialogue between EXPERIENCE and a courtier. This mode of conducting a narrative by means of an imaginary mystagogue, is adopted from Boethius. A descriptive prologue, consisting of octave stanzas, opens the poem, in which the poet enters a delightful park. The sun clad in his embroidered mantle, brighter than gold or precious stones, extinguishes the horned queen of night, who hides her visage in a misty veil. Immediately Flora began to expand hir tapistrie Wrocht be dame NATURE queynt and curiouslie, In a manuscript at Lambeth [332.] this poem is said to have been begun Jun. 11, 1556. This is a great mistake. [The meaning is, that the transcript was begun on that day.-Chalmers.] It was printed Hafn. 1552. 4to. a In the Medicean library at Florence, Julius Niger, SCRIPTOR. FLORENT. and the Ambrosian at Milan, there is a P. 404. long manuscript Italian poem, in three books, divided into one hundred chapters, written by Matteo Palmeri, a learned Florentine, about the year 1450. It is in imitation of Dante, in the terza rima, and entitled. CITTA DI VITA, or The City of Life. The subject is, the peregrination of the soul, freed from the shackles of the body, through various ideal places and situations, till at length it arrives in the city of heaven. This poem was publicly burnt at Cortona, because the author adopted Origen's heresy concerning a third class of angels who for their sins were destined to animate human bodies. See Trithem. c.797. See SIGNAT. i. B. A park is a favorite scene of action in our old poets. Chaucer's COMPL. BL. KN. v. 39. Toward a park enclosid with a wall, &c. And in other places. Parks were antiently the constant appendage of almost every considerable manerial house. The old patent-rolls are full of licences for imparcations, which do not now exist. Meanwhile, Eolus and Neptune restrain their fury, that no rude sounds might mar the melody of the birds which echoed among the rocks, d In the park our poet, under the character of a courtier, meets EXPERIENCE, reposing under the shade of a holly. This pourtrait is touched with uncommon elegance and expression. Into that park I saw appeir Ane agit man, quhilk drew me neir; Amangis the flowris soft and sweit.f In the midst of an edifying conversation concerning the fall of man and the origin of human misery, our author, before he proceeds to his main subject, thinks it necessary to deliver a formal apology for writing in the vulgar tongue. He declares Instead of Parnassus he chuses mount Calvary, and his Helicon is the stream which flowed from our Saviour's side on the cross, when he was wounded by Longinus, that is LONGIAS. This is a fictitious personage in Nicodemus's Gospel. I have mentioned him before. Being blind, he was restored to sight by wiping his eyes with his hands which were bloody. See more of him in Chaucer's LAMENTAT. MARY MAGD. v. 176. In the Gothic pictures of the Crucifixion, he is represented on horseback, piercing our Saviour's side: and in Xavier's Persic History of Christ, he is called a horseman. This notion arose from his using a spear, or lance: and that weapon, Aoyxn, undoubtedly gave rise to his ideal name of Longias, or Longinus. He is afterwards supposed to have been a bishop of Cesarea, and to have suffered martyrdom. See Tillemont. MEMOR. HIST. ECCLESIAST. tom. i. pp. 81. 251. And Fabric. APOCR. Nov. TESTAM. tom. i. p. 261. In the old Greek tragedy of CHRIST SUFFERING, the CONVERTED CENTURION is expressly mentioned, but not by this name. Almost all that relates to this person, who could not escape the fictions of the monks, has been collected by J. Ch. Wolfius, CUR. PHILOL. ET CRIT. in S. EVANGEL. tom. i. p. 414. ii. 984. edit. Basil. 1741. 4to. See also Hoffman. LEXIC. UNIVERSAL. CONTINUAT. in Voc. tom. i. p. 1036. col. 2. Basil. 1683. fol. fSIGNAT. B. i. that his intention is to instruct and to be understood, and that he writes to the people. Moses, 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 saint Jerom been born in Argyleshire, he would have translated it into Erse. King David wrote the psalter in Hebrew, because he was a Jew. Hence he very sensibly takes occasion to recommend the propriety and necessity of publishing the scriptures and the missal, and of composing all books intended for common use, in the respective vernacular language of every country. This objection being answered, which shews the ideas of the times, our author thus describes the creation of the world and of Adam. Quhen God had maid the hevinis bricht, The planeitis, in thair circles round All kynd of fisches in the seis, With fowlis fleing in the air. Quhen hevin, and erth, and thair contentis, Wer endit, with thair ornamentis, Than, last of all, the lord began Off maist vyle erth to mak the man: Nocht of the lillie nor the rose, Nor cyper-tre, as I suppose, Nouther of gold, nor precious stanis, Of erth he maid flesche, blude, and banis; To that intent God maid him thus, Some of these nervous, terse, and polished lines need only to be reduced to modern and English orthography, to please a reader accustomed solely to relish the tone of our present versification. To these may be added the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple. Prince Titus with his chevalrye With sound of trompe tryumphandlye, He enterit in that greit citie, &c. Thare wes nocht ellis bot tak and slay, For thare micht na man win away. The strandis of blude ran throuch the streitis, Of deid folk trampit under feitis; Auld wedowis in the preis war smorit*, Young virginis, schamefully deflorit. The greit tempill of Salamone, With mony ane curious carvit stone, Quhilkis war richt bewtifull and wicht', m Thay ruscheit rudelie to the ground; And set, in till thair furious ire", Sancta Sanctorum into fire.° The appearance of Christ coming to judgement is poetically painted, and in a style of correctness and harmony, of which few specimens were now seen. As fyreflaucht haistely glansing", Discend sall the maist hevinly king; |