She turned has, and furth her wayis went; The 'King's Quhair' was written while James was confined in Windsor Castle, and it is supposed that he wrote several poems descriptive of humorous rustic scenes after he ascended the Scottish throne; none of these, however, can be identified. James was followed in comparatively rapid succession by such writers as Henryson, Dunbar, Douglass and Lyndsay, of whom Warton remarks that 'they displayed a degree of sentiment and spirit, a command of phraseology, and a fertility of imagination not to be found in any contemporary English poets.' ROBERT HENRYSON, the first of these writers, followed king James after an interval of about a half a century. Of this poet there are no personal memorials farther than that he was a schoolmaster of Dunfermlane, and that he died about 1508. His principal poem is The Testament of Cresseid, being a sequel to Chaucer's romantic poem Troilus and Cresseide. Henryson also wrote a series of fables, thirteen in number, and some miscellaneous poems chiefly of a moral character. One of his fables is the common story of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, which he treats with much humor and characteristic description, and concludes with the following beautifully expressed moral:-- Blissed be simple life, withouten dreid; Wha has eneuch of no more has he neid, Though it be little into quantity. Grit abundance, and blind prosperity, Oft timis make ane evil conclusion; The sweetest life, theirfor, in this country, Is of sickerness, with small possession. To these lines we may add the following pointed though fanciful descrip tion of THE GARMENT OF GOOD LADIES. Would my good lady love me best, I should a garment goodliest Of high honour should be her hood, 1 Cause to be made to her shape. 2 No opinion should injure her. Her sark1 should be her body next, With shame and dread together mixt, Her kirtle should be of clean constance, The mailies of continuance, Her gown should be of goodliness, Her belt should be of benignity, Her mantle of humility To thole both wind and weit.8 Her hat should be of fair having, Her sleeves should be of esperance, To keep her fra despair: To hide her fingers fair. Her shoen should be of sickerness, Would she put on this garment gay, I durst swear by my seill,11 That she wore never green nor gray That set12 her half so weel. WILLIAM DUNBAR, the poet who follows Henryson, was born at Salton, in 1465. Of his early life little is farther known than that, though poor, he was educated at the university of St. Andrews, where he is represented to have taken the degree of master of arts in 1479, when not yet fifteen years of age. Having, soon after he closed his studies, entered the Franciscan Order of Friars, he travelled for a number of years in Scotland, England, and France, as a novitiate of that Order, preaching, and living by the alms of the pious—a mode of life which he himself afterward acknowledged involved him in the constant exercise of falsehood, deceit, and flattery. In 1490, Dunbar, when in the twenty-fifth year of his age, returned to 3 Lawful. 1 Shift. 4 Eyelet-holes for lacing her kirtle. 6 Each. 9 Thinking. 11 Salvation. 2 Perfect. 5 Parfilé (French), fringed or bordered. 12 Became. his own country, and having soon after renounced his sordid profession, entered into the service of the king. He was employed from that time until 1500, in some subordinate, though not unimportant capacity, in connection with various foreign embassies, and thus visited Germany, Italy, Spain, and France, besides England and Ireland. He could not, in such a mode of life, fail to acquire much of that knowledge of mankind which forms so important a part of the education of a poet. 1 For these various services, 'Dunbar, in 1500, received from the king an annual pension of ten pounds, soon afterward increased to twenty, and eventually to eighty." He is supposed to have been employed by James about this time, in some of the negotiations preparatory to the marriage of that prince with the princess Margaret, daughter of Henry the Seventh of England, which took place in 1503. It was on this occasion that Dunbar wrote the Thistle and the Rose, one of his allegorical poems. For a number of years after this important marriage, Dunbar continued to reside at court, regaling his royal master with various poetic compositions, and probably also with his conversation, the charms of which, if we may judge from his writings, must have been very great. His situation, however, was far from being happy; for he seems constantly to have repined at the servile course of life which he was condemned to lead, and to have anxiously longed for some more independent means of subsistence. But he sadly realized that while the great listen with delight to the flattering compliments of the learned, they seldom adequately reward their merit. He died in 1530, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The poetic genius of Dunbar, in the judgment of Sir Walter Scott, and also of Mr. Ellis, was superior to that of any other poet that Scotland ever produced; and it is a matter of great surprise, therefore, that, with few exceptions, his poems should have remained in the obscurity of manuscript for nearly two centuries after they were written. 'These poems may be divided into three classes, the Allegorical, the Moral, and the Comic; besides which there is a vast number of productions composed on occasions affecting himself alone, and which may, therefore, be called Personal poems.'2 His principal Allegorical poems are the Thistle and the Rose, a Nuptial Song to celebrate the union of King James with the princess Margaret, The Dance, and The Golden Terge. Perhaps the most remarkable of all his poems is 'The Dance.' It describes a procession of the seven deadly sins in the infernal regions, and for strength and vividness of painting, would bear a comparison with any other poem in the language. From this great poem we offer the following brief extract: Let see, quoth he, who now begins --- Begoud to leap at anes. And first in all the Dance was Pride, 1 Pinkerton. .1 Like to mak vaistie wanes ;1 Mony proud trumpour with him trippit; He brandished like a bear, '5 All boden in 'feir of weir,' 5 In jacks, and scrips, and bonnets of steel; Some upon other with brands beft,6 Some jaggit others, to the heft, With knives that sharp could shear. Next in the Dance followed Envy, Hid malice and despite: For privy hatred that traitor trembled; And flatterers into men's faces; And backbiters in secret places, To lee that had delight; And rouners of fals lesings, Next him in Dance came Covetice, 9 Out of their throats they shot on other Ay as they toomit them of shot, Fiends filled them new up to the throat With gold of all kind prent.11 Of Dunbar's moral poems the most solemn and impressive is the one in which he represents a Thrush and a Nightingale taking opposite sides in a debate upon earthly and spiritual affections, the Thrush ending line. Something touching puffed-up manners appears to be hinted at in this obscure 2 Large folds. 3 Robe. 4 For the occasion. 6 Gave blows. 9 Misers. 5 Arrayed in the accoutrements of war. 7 Contentious persons. 10 Great quantity. 8 Usurers. 11 Every coinage. every stanza with a recommendation of 'A lusty life in Love's service,' and the Nightingale with the more melodious declaration that 'All love is lost but upon God alone.' From this poem we present, with much pleasure, the following stanzas :— THE MERLE AND THE NIGHTINGALE. In May, as that Aurora did upspring, A sang of love, with voice right comfortable, Under this branch ran down a river bright, Of balmy liquor, crystalline of huc, The field been clothit in a new array; A lusty life in Lovis service been. Ne'er sweeter noise was heard with living man, Cease, quoth the Merle, thy preaching, Nightingale: Of young sanctis, grows auld feindis, but fable; Fye, hypocrite, in yeiris tenderness, Again' the law of kind thou goes express, That crookit age makes one with youth serene, A lusty life in Lovis service been. The Nightingale said, Fool, remember thee, 1 Age. |