I sall amend, gif it lies in my micht; Fain would I wit when, on what wise, or where "Weell," quoth the tother, "would thou mercy cry, Thus, sin ye been a Christian man at large, Lay nae sic thing, I pray you, to my charge.". "Yea, smy," quoth he, "would thou escape me sae? In faith we sall not thus part or 12 we gae!... I let thee wit I am nae heathen wicht; Why shrinkès thou from my short Christian wark? My book and Virgil's moral been, baith tway. "Thou sall dear bye 14 that ever thou Virgil knew!" 2 Your condition will be troublesome. 1 Upon my fate, I never saw you before. 3 Added. 4 Not at all friendly with you. 6 In your common speech. 7 Subject, treatise. 9"Also sundry people are without any necessity." 13 Gone wrong. 12 Before. of opinion, believe me, that your book is added And, with that word, doun of1 the seat me drew; And, by my richt hand streekit3 up on high, SIR DAVID LYNDSAY. (1490-1557.) SIR DAVID LYNDSAY was born in the early years of the reign of James IV., thirty years later than Dunbar and Skelton, and fifteen years after Gavin Douglas. In 1529 he was made Lyon King of Arms, or chief Herald, and also knighted, by James V.; and he was employed during that king's reign in various important embassies in France and Germany. He sat in the Scottish parliaments of 1544, 1545, and 1546, representing Cupar in Fife, and was one of the most notable supporters of the principles of Knox and the Reformation. His earliest works, the Dream and the Complaint, were written when he was about thirty-eight years of age, and record very pleasantly many details of the early life of James V., when Lyndsay was his favourite attendant and the companion of his play-hours. He wrote also a Satire of the three Estates, a kind of drama or Morality, which was acted before James V. at Linlithgow in 1539, and before Mary of Guise at Edinburgh in 1554; a Tragedy, or narrative (after the manner of Boccaccio's De Casibus, which Lydgate translated) concerning the death of Cardinal Beaton by assassination at St. Andrews in 1546; the History of Squire Meldrum, and many other minor pieces. His last and most important work, The Monarchy, was finished in 1553, the year of Edward VI.'s death, when Mary Queen of Scots was still a child at the court of France, and Mary of Guise ruled as Regent in Scotland. It consists of a Dialogue between Experience and a Courtier on the miserable state of the 4 Engaged. 1 Off. 2 Then. 3 Stretched. 51.e. Book XIII. world, much after the manner of Gower's Confessio Amantis, in course of which the history of the human race is narrated, with moral comments, from Adam onwards. The Prologue is its most poetical portion, and was written in the sevenlined stanza of Dunbar's Thrissel and Rose. Towards the end of his life Lyndsay appears to have lived in retirement upon his estate, called The Mount, in Fifeshire, where he is believed to have died in the year 1557, the year before Queen Elizabeth commenced her reign. Whilst he lived, and for a considerable period afterwards, Lyndsay was the most popular poet Scotland had yet produced. His poems, first collected in 1558 by Jascuy, a French printer in Rouen, ran through eleven editions before the close of the century, three of which, in 1566, 1575, and 1581, appeared in London. His popularity was to a great extent the result of his outspoken “Radicalism" in politics and religion. He was a humourist and satirist in the guise of a poet. His affection for the young king did not prevent him from addressing to him expostulations and warnings in the boldest language. He was from the first upon the side of the people, and wrote for them and in their behalf, rather than for courts and learned men. His language, it will be seen, is much less archaic, much more like modern Scotch, than that of Douglas. FROM THE COMPLAINT TO THE KING. APPEAL TO JAMES V., WITH REMINISCENCES OF HIS CHILDHOOD. 1 Blame. Ringand in my nativity By bad aspect, whilk works mischance; Or other heavenly influence; Or give3 I be predestinate Whilk has so lang in service been Where-through2 my friendès been ashamit, I can nocht blame thine Excellence, But now I am nae mair despaired But I sall get princely rewaird; Nor them thou did reward afore. When men does ask aucht at ane king, And to the asker profitable. 1 Lyndsay was appointed principal page to James V. at the date of his birth, April 12, 1512, and continued in this post until the Revolution in 1524. For about four years Lyndsay was separated from the king. But in 1528 James threw off the dominion of the Douglases, and assumed at the age of sixteen the complete rights of royalty. Immediately after this, Lyndsay addressed to him The Complaint, and was forthwith created "Lyon King of Arms," a post of high honour and confidence. 2 i.e. "my infortune." 3 Rest. 4 Acquire. 5 Chiefly. 7 More glory. 8 Than theirs to them. 9 They should. 6 Care. Though I be in my asking lidder,1 I tak the Queenès grace, thy mother, I wat 15 thou loved me better than 16 "Said Lyndsay wad be made a lord." FROM THE DREAM. COMPLAINT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF SCOTLAND. And thus, as we were talking to and fro, 1 Sluggish. 2 That were far from you. 3 Nurse. 4 Governess. 6 Describe. 7 Pedlar. 9 Gesture. 10 Mutter. 14 For schoolroom. 11 Interpreted "Papa David Lindsay," the a in "David" pronounced Scottie; but surely the proper reading is "Play, Da-Lin." 12 Twenty times off-hand. 13 A Scotch tune, not now extant. 16 Then. 19 Boisterous fellow. 17 Than. 15 Wot. 18 St. Giles, the tutelar saint of Edinburgh. 20 Moor or fields. 21 Without |