air, in a climate of perpetual serenity1. From a fair fountain, springing in the midst of this ambrosial garden, descend four rivers, which water all the east. It is inclosed with walls of fire, and guarded by an angel The cuntre closit is about full richt, With wallis hie of hote and birnyng fyre, And straitly kepit by and angell bricht"." From Paradise a very rapid transition is made to Scotland. Here the poet takes occasion to lament, that in a country so fertile, and filled with inhabitants so ingenious and active, universal poverty, and every national disorder, should abound. It is very probable, that the poem was written solely with a view of introducing this complaint. After an enquiry into the causes of these infelicities, which are referred to political mismanagement, and the defective administration of justice, the COMMONWEALTH OF SCOTLAND appears, whose figure is thus delineated. We saw a bustcous berne3 cum oer the bent1, The reply of SYR COMMONWEALTH to our poet's question, is a long and general satire on the corrupt state of Scotland. The spiritual plelates, 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 Pleasure has banished Chastity, Liberality, Loyalty, and Knightly Valour, are fled, And Cowardice with lords is laureate. From this Sketch of Scotland, here given by Lyndesay, under the reign of James V., who acted as a viceroy to France, a Scottish 1'Paradisus tantæ est altitudinis, quod est inaccessibilis secundum Bedam ; et tam altus, 'quod etheream regionem pertingat, &c.' CHRON. NUR, ut supr. f. viii. b. 5 Without. SIGNAT. E. iii. G Riven. 8 Boisterous fellow 7 If you please. 4 Coarse grass. 9 JOHN, for what reason I know not, is a name of ridicule and contempt in most modern languages. 10 SIGNAT. F. i. 522 SCOTTISH POEMS ON ROYALTY SATIRES, NOT PANEGYRICS. 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 broadside1. He returns home, and entering his oratory, commits his vision to verse. To this is added an exhortation of ten stanzas to king James V: 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 V., by the Scottish poets are satires instead of panegyrics. I have not at present either leisure or inclination, to enter into a minute enquiry, how far our author is indebted in his DREME to Tully's DREAM OF SCIPIO, and the HELL, the PURGATORY, and the HEAVEN, of Dante2. Lyndesay's poem, called 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 favourite subject, it begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the day of judgment3, 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, brigther than gold or precious stones, extin guishes the horned queen of night, who hides her visage in a misty veil. Immediately Flora began to expand. 1 They spared not the powder nor the stones. A proof that stones were now used instead of leaden bullets. At first they shot darts, or carrieaux, i. e. quarrels, from great guns. Afterwards stones, which they called gun-stones. In the BRUT OF ENGLAND, it is said, that when Henry V., before Hareflete, received a taunting message from the Dauphine of France, and a ton of tennis-balls by way of contempt, 'he anoone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin (Henry's ship) in all the haste that they 'myght, and they were great CONNESTONES 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. Lond. 1775 In the Medicean library at Florence, and the Ambrosian at Milan, there is a long MSS. Italian poem, in 3 books, divided into 100 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 bodics. Trithem. c. 797. Julius Niger, SCRIPTOR. FLORENT. P. 404. 3 In a MSS. at Lambeth (332.) this poem is said to have been begun Jun. 11, 1556. This is a great mistake. It was printed Hasn. 1552. 4to. 4 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. Parks were anciently the constant appendage of almost every con- And in other places. siderable manorial house. do not now exist. hir tapistry Wrocht by dame NATURE queynt and curiouslie, Meanwhile, Eolus and Neptune restrain their fury, that no rude sounds might mar the melody of the birds which echoed among the rocks1. 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 One agit man, quhilk drew me neir; His habit angellyke of hew Of colour lyke the sapheir blew : Under the schaddow of that tre, [SIGNAT. B. i.] In the midst of 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 writting in the vulgar tongue. He declares that his intention is to instruct and to be understood, and that he writes to the people2. Moses, he says, did not give the Judiac 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. St. Jerom, it is true, translated the bible into Latin, his own natural language; but had St. Jerom been born in Argyleshire, he would have translated 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 1 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. 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, λoxy, 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. 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. Hoffman. LEXIC. UNIVERSAL. CONTINUAT. in Voc. tom. i. p. 1036. col. 2. Basil. 1741, 4to. 1683. fol. 2 Quharefore to colyearis, carteris, and to cukis, To Jok and Thome, my ryme sall be derectit.-SIGNAT. C. i. 524 LYNDESAY ON THE CREATION, AND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 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 made the hevinnis bricht, The sone, and mone, for to gyf licht, The starry hevin, and cristalline; And, by his sapience divine, He clad the erth with herbs and treis; All kynd of best he did prepair, With foulis fleting in the air.- Than, last of all, the lord began Of most vile erth to make the man: Not of the lillie or the rose, No cyper-tre, as I suppose, Nether of gold, nor precious stonis, Of earth he made flesche, blude, and bonis ; And in himself no thinge shulde sc But matter of humilite'. 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 chivalrie With sound of trumpe triumphantlie, Thare was nocht ells but tak and slay, Auld wydowis in the preis were smorit3, Quhilks wer richt bewtifull and wicht1. And set, in tyll their furious ire", Sanctum Sanctorum into fire. The appearance of Christ coming to judgement is poetically painted, 1 SIGNAT. C. iii. 5f. Rased. 2 Escape 6 In their rage. 3 Smothered. 4 White. and in a style of correctness and harmony, of which few specimens were then seen. As fire flaucht hastily glansing1, As Phebus in the orient Lichinis in haist to occident, In his presence thare salbe borne With everilk thing that did hym deir1, The tyme of his grym passioun: And, for our consolatioun, And in his syde the print compleit Of his fyve woundis precious Schyning lyke rubies radious. When Christ is seated at the tribunal of judging the world, he adds, Thare sall ane angell blawe a blast Quhilk sall make all the warld agast3. Among the monarchies, our author describes the papal see: whose innovations, impostures, and errors, he attacks with much good sense, solid argument, and satirical humour; and whose imperceptible increase, from simple 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 ancient peculiar customs now lost, he mentions a superstitious idol annually carried about the streets of Edinburgh. Of Edinburgh the great idolatrie, And manifest abominatioun ! On thare feist day, all creature may see, Thay beir ane ald stok-image' throw the toun, He also speaks of the people flocking to be cured of various infirmities, to the auld rude, or cross, of Kerrail11. 11 SIGNAT. H. i. For allusions of this kind not entirely understand. SIGNAT. H. iii. This was the practick of sum pilgrimage, With Jok and Thome than tuke thai thair voyage Than Kittock thare als cadye as ane Con, Gave Lowrie leif at laser to loup on, following stanza may be cited, which I do Quhen fillokis into Fyfe began to fen I will here take occasion to explain two lines, SIGNAT. I. iii. Nor yit the fair madin of France Danter of Inglish ordinance. That is Joan of Arc, who so often daunted or defeated the English army. To this heroine, and to Penthesilea, he compares Semiramis. |