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I sall amend, gif it lies in my micht;
But, soothfastly, gif I have perfit sicht,
Unto my doom, I saw you never ere.1

Fain would I wit when, on what wise, or where
Againist you trespassit aught have I."

"Weell," quoth the tother, "would thou mercy cry,
And mak amends, I sall remit this fault;
But, otherwise, that seat sall be full salt.2
Knaws thou not MAPHÆUS VEGIUS, the poet
That on to Virgil's lusty Bookès sweet
The thirteenth Bookè eked3 Æneidane?
I am the samin, and of thee naething fain,1
That has the tother twelve into thy tongue
Translate anew.5 They may be read and sung
Ower Albion Isle into your vulgar lede ;6
But to my book yet list thee tak nae heed."
"Master," I said, "I hear weell what ye say;
And in this case of pardon I you pray;
Not that I have you ony thing offendit,
But rather that I have my time misspendit,
So lang on Virgil's volume for to stare,
And laid aside full mony grave matter,
That, would I now write in that treaty 7 more,
What suld folk deem but all my time forlore ?8
Also, sundry holdès, father, trustes me,
Your book ekit but ony necessity,9
As to the text according never a deal
Mair than langis 10 to the cart a fifth wheel.

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;
And, gif thou has aforetime gaen unricht,13
Followand sae lang Virgil, a Gentile clerk,

Why shrinkès thou from my short Christian wark?
For, though it be but poetry we say,

My book and Virgil's moral been, baith tway.
Lend me a fourteen-nicht, however it be ;
Or, by the father's soul me gat," quoth he,

"Thou sall dear bye 14 that ever thou Virgil knew!"

2 Your condition will be troublesome.
5 Translated newly.
8 Lost.

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
10 Belongs. 11 Coward, sneak.
14 Shalt pay dearly.

And, with that word, doun of1 the seat me drew;
Syne2 to me with his club he made a braid,
And twenty routs upon my rigging laid,
Till "Deo, Deo, mercy!" did I cry,

And, by my richt hand streekit3 up on high,
Hecht to translate his Book, in honour of God
And his Apostles twelve, in the number odd.5

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.
Sir, I beseek thine Excellence,
Hear my Complaint with patience;
My dolent heart does me constrain
Of my infortune to complain :-
Howbeit I stand in great doubtance,
Whom I sall wyte1 of my mischance;
Whether Saturnès cruelty,

1 Blame.

Ringand in my nativity

By bad aspect, whilk works mischance;

Or other heavenly influence;

Or give3 I be predestinate
In Court to be infortunate,

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Whilk has so lang in service been
Continually with King and Queen,
And entered to thy Majesty
The day of thy nativity :1-

Where-through2 my friendès been ashamit,
And with my faes I am defamit;
Seeand that I am nocht regardit,
Nor with my brethren in Court rewardit ;
Blamand my sleuthful negligence,
That seekès nocht some recompense.
When divers men does me demand,
"Why gets thou nocht some piece of land
Als weell as other men has gotten?"
Then wish I to be dead and rotten,
With sic extreme discomforting
That I can make no answering.

I can nocht blame thine Excellence,
That I so lang want recompense:
Had I solicitit like the lave,3
My réward had nocht been to crave.
But now I may weell understand,
Ane dumb man yet won never land;
And, in the Court, men gets nae thing
Without ane opportune asking.
Alas, my sleuth and shamefulness
Debarred frae me all greediness!
Greedy men that are diligent
Richt oft obtainès their intent,
And failès nocht to conquess lands,
And namely at young princes' hands:
But I took never none other cure
In special, but for thy pleasure.

But now I am nae mair despaired

But I sall get princely rewaird;
The whilk to me sall be mair glore

Nor them thou did reward afore.

When men does ask aucht at ane king,
Suld ask his Grace ane noble thing,
To his Excellence honourable,

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 pray thy Grace for to consider
Thou has made baith lordès and lairds,
And has given mony rich rewairds
To them that was full far to seek 2
When I lay nichtly by thy cheek.

I tak the Queenès grace, thy mother,
My lord Chancellor, and mony other,
Thy Nourice, and thine auld Maistress,1
I tak them all to bear witness;
Auld Willie Dillie," were he alive,
My life full weell he could descrive ;Ĝ—
How, as ane chapman' bears his pack,
I bore thy Grace upon my back,
And sometimes stridelings on my neck,
Dansand with mony bend and beck.9
The first syllables that thou did mute10
Was "Pa-Da-Lin!" 11 Upon the lute,
Then played I twenty springs, perqueir,12
Whilk was great pleasure for to hear.
Frae play thou let me never rest,
But Ginkertoun 13 thou loved aye best.
And aye, when thou come frae the school,14
Then I behoved to play the fool..

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I wat 15 thou loved me better than 16
Nor now some wife does her gude-man.
Then men till other did record,

"Said Lyndsay wad be made a lord."
Thou hast made lords, Sir, by Saint Geill,18
Of some that has nocht served so weell !

FROM THE DREAM.

COMPLAINT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF SCOTLAND.

And thus, as we were talking to and fro,
We saw a bousteous berne 19 come o'er the bent,20
But 21 horse, on foot, as fast as he micht go;
Whose raiment was all ragged, riven, and rent;
With visage lean, as he had fasted Lent;

1 Sluggish. 2 That were far from you.
5 Some aged servant of the king.
8 Astride.

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

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