DESCRIPTION OF SQUYRE MELDRUM. He was bota twintie yeirish of age, Quehen he began his vassalage : Proportionat weill, of mid statùre : Feiried and wichte and micht endure Ovirseth with travell both nicht and day, Richt hardie baith in ernist and play : Blyith in countenance, richt fair of face, And studes weill ay in his ladies grace : For he was wondir amiabill, And in all deidis honourabill ; And ay his honour did advance, In Ingland first and syneb in France ; And thare his manheid did assail Under the kingis great admirall, Quhen the greit navy of Scotland Passit to the sea againis Ingland. Hir kirtill was of scarlot reid', Of gold ane garland of hir heid, Decorits with enamelyne : Belt and brochis of silver fyne. Of yellow taftaish wes hir sark, Begaryit all with browderit wark, Richt craftilie with gold and silk. Than, said the ladie, quhytei as mill Except my sark nothing I crave, Let thame go hence with all the lav Quod they to hir be Sanct Fillane Of this ye get nathing agane. Than, said the squyer courteslie, Gude friendis I pray you hartfullie, Gif ye be worthie men of weir, Restoiri to hir agane hir geir ; Or be greit God that all has wrocht, That spuilyie sall be full dere bocht! Quodm they to him we thé defy, And drew their swordis hastily, And straik at him with sa greit ire, That from his harness flew the fyre With duntis“ sa derflyo on him dang That he was never in sic ane thrang Bot he him manfullie defendit, And with ane bolt on thame he bende But this young Squyer bauld and wicht Savit all women quhair” he micht; All priestis and freyeris he did save; Till at the last he did persave, Behind ane gardin amiabill', Ane woman's voces richt lamentabill; And on that voce he followit fast, Till he did see her at the last, Spuilyeit', nakit" as scho' was born ; Twa men of weirw were hir befornes, Quhilky were richt cruel men and kene, Partandthe spuilyie thame between. Ane fairer woman nor sho wesa He had not sene in onieb place. Befoire him on hir kneis scho fell, Sayand, “ for him that heryeitd hell, Help me sweit sir, I am ane maid ;" Than softlie to the men he said, I pray yow give againe hir sarko, And tak to yow all uther wark. a But. b Years. c When. d Courageous. e Active. I Could endure excessive fatigue. j Host, army. k Cowhouse. Hear. m People. Spoilt. • Abused. p Where. 4 Perceive. r Beautiful. s Voice. i Spoiled. u Naked. She. w War. * Before. y Who. 2 Parting. a Than she was. e Before. d Means for him, viz. Christ, who conquered or plundered hell. e Shift. MELDRUM'S DUEL WITH THE ENGLISH CHA TALBART ...... Then clariouns and trumpets blew, And weiriours' many hither drew ; On eviry side comew mony man To behald wha the battel wan. The field was in the meadow green, Quhare everie man micht weil be seen The heraldis put tham sa in order, That na man past within the border, i Red. & Adorned. h Mr. Chalmers omits explaining this word in sary to Lyndsay. [The meaning is plain enou sark or shirt was of yellow taffeta.) i White, k Wrought. I Bought. m Quoth. • Strongly. P Drove. 9 Throng, trouble. " Grass & Dress, clothing. t Took his leav u Without more ado. v Warriors b Any That quhen he travellit throw the land, * * This race, The trenchourh of the Squyreis speir said he, I sair may rew, The wonderis that he did rehers, w Toil. * Repose. b Else. e Chamber. i Fared. k Sighing. 1 Saying. SQUYRE MELDRUM, AFTER MANY FOREIGN EXPLOITS, COMES HOME AND HAS THE FOLLOWING LOVE-ADVENTURE. Out throw the land then sprang the fame, That Squyer Meldrum was come hame. Quhen they heard tell how he debaitit', With every man he was sa treitet", Pressed. y Spears. z Shew. a Prove. b Tried. e Course-room. d Swerved from the course. e Loth, Wroth. & Course. h Head of the spear. I In that situation. j Courser. k Humbly. I Made. m Bore. n Joust. o Thou knowest. P Agreement or understanding. q Which Lose. s To him. Fought. u Entertained. h Jelly. i Slept. m Late. I pray God sen scho knew my mynd, 9 Slippers. She slippit in or evir he wist, r Feigningly. & Pretended. + Hanging. u Throat. Hose, stockings. w Happen what may. p Wholesome. Called the Elder, to distinguish him from his seems to be no overstrained conjecture. His son, who suffered in the reign of Q. Mary, was poetical mistress's name is Anna : and in one of born at Allington Castle, in Kent, in 1503, and his sonnets he complains of being obliged to was educated at Cambridge. He married early desist from the pursuit of a beloved object, on in life, and was still earlier distinguished at the account of its being the king's. The perusal court of Henry VIII. with whom his interest of his poetry was one of the unfortunate queen's and favour were so great as to be proverbial. last consolations in prison. A tradition of His person was majestic and beautiful, his visage Wyat's attachment to her was long preserved (according to Surrey's interesting description) | in his family. She retained his sister to the last was "stern and mild :” he sung and played the about her person ; and as she was about to lay lute with remarkable sweetness, spoke foreign her head on the block, gave her weeping attend. languages with grace and fluency, and possessed ant a small prayer-book, as a token of rememan inexhaustible fund of wit. At the death of brance, with a smile of which the sweetness was Wolsey he could not be more than 19 ; yet he is not effaced by the horrors of approaching death. said to have contributed to that minister's down Wyat's favour at court, however, continued fall by a humorous story, and to have promoted undiminished ; and notwithstanding a quarrel the reformation by a seasonable jest. At the with the Duke of Suffolk, which occasioned his coronation of Anne Boleyn he officiated for his being committed to the Tower, he was, immefather as ewerer, and possibly witnessed the diately on his liberation, appointed to a command erremony not with the most festive emotions, as under the Duke of Norfolk, in the army that was there is reason to suspect that he was secretly to act against the rebels. He was also knighted, attached to the royal bride. When the tragic and, in the following year, made high sheriff of end of that princess was approaching, one of the Kent. calumnies circulated against her was, that Sir When the Emperor Charles the Fifth, after Thomas Wyat had confessed having had an the death of Anne Boleyn, apparently forgetting illicit intimacy with her. The scandal was cer the disgrace of his aunt in the sacrifice of her tainly false ; but that it arose from a tender successor, showed a more conciliatory disposition partiality really believed to exist between them, towards England, Wyat was, in 1537, selected to cere. go as ambassador to the Spanish court. His view with Francis, and another with the Emperor, situation there was rendered exceedingly difficult, whose friendship for the king of France he proby the mutual insincerity of the negotiating nounced, from all that he observed, to be insinpowers, and by his religion, which exposed him “ He is constrained (said the English to prejudice, and even at one time to danger from ambassador) to come to a show of friendship, the Inquisition. He had to invest Henry's meaning to make him a mockery when he has bullying romonstrances with the graces of mode done.” When events are made familiar to us rate diplomacy, and to keep terms with a by history, we are perhaps disposed to underbigoted court while he questioned the Pope's value the wisdom that foretold them ; but this supremacy. In spite of those obstacles, the much is clear, that if Charles's rival had been dignity and discernment of Wyat gave him such as wise as Sir Thomas Wyat, the Emperor weight in negotiation, that he succeeded in ex would not have made a mockery of Francis. pelling from Spain his master's most dreaded Wyat's advice to his own sovereign at this enemy, Cardinal Pole, who was so ill received at period, was to support the Duke of Cleves, and Madrid that the haughty legate quitted it with to ingratiate himself with the German pro. indignation. The records of his different embas testant princes. His zeal was praised ; but the sies exhibit not only personal activity in follow advice, though sanctioned by Cromwell, was not ing the Emperor Charles to his most important followed by Henry. Warned probably, at last, interviews with Francis, but sagacity in fore of the approaching downfall of Cromwell, he seeing consequences, and in giving advice to his obtained his final recal from Spain. On his own sovereign. Neither the dark policy, nor return, Bonner had sufficient interest to get him the immoveable countenance of Charles, eluded committed to the Tower, where he was harshly his penetration. When the Emperor, on the treated and unfairly tried, but was nevertheless death of Lady Jane Seymour, offered the most honourably acquitted ; and Henry, satisfied King of England the Duchess of Milan in mar of his innocence, made him considerable donariage, Henry's avidity caught at the offer of her tions of land. Leland informs us, that about duchy, and Heynes and Bonner were sent out to this time he had the command of a ship of war. Spain as special commissioners on the business ; The sea service was not then, as it is now, but it fell off, as Wyat had predicted, the tinct profession. Spanish monarch's insincerity. Much of his time, however, after his return Bonner, who had done no good to the English to England, must be supposed, from his writings, mission, and who had felt himself lowered at the to have been spent at his paternal seat of AllingSpanish court by the superior ascendancy of ton, in study and rural amusements. From that Wyat, on his return home sought to indemnify pleasant retreat he was summ omoned, in the autumn himself for the mortification, by calumniating his of 1542, by order of the king, to meet the Spanish late colleague. In order to answer those calum ambassador, who had landed at Falmouth, and nies, Wyat was obliged to obtain his recal from to conduct him from thence to London. In his Spain; and Bonner's charges, on being investi zeal to perform this duty he accidentally overgated, fell to the ground. But the Emperor's heated himself with riding, and was seized, at journey through France having raised another Sherborne, with a malignant fever, which carried crisis of expectation, Wyat was sent out once him off, after a few days' illness, in his thirtymore to watch the motions of Charles, and to fathom his designs. At Blois he had an inter a dis ninth year. |