ROWALLAN'S POEMS.

131

In Zoilum.

Thou then, quho by thy false and fenzied fact,
Strywes to detract this prudent Prelat's name,
Bewar such schame becum thy suirest hap,
Thrawin from ye tap of fortoune to defame.
No blot, no blemisch, no defect, no moth
Presum'd to enter in so rich a cloth!

ANE EPITAPH

EFTER YE VULGAR OPINIOUNE WPON YE DEATH OF GEORGE GLAID-
STANES, B. OF S. A.

GLAIDSTANES is gone! his corpis doth heir duell,
Bot quhair be his oyer halfe, no man can tell:
The heauinis doth abhor to ludge such a ghost,
Quho still quhill he liued to Pluto raid post;
The earth hath expell'd him, as loathing such load,
Quho honoured Bacchus and no other god.
Since both then reiect him, t' this outcast of heavin
In midst of ye Furies a place must be giwin:
Quhose covetouse mynd no richesse contented,
Bot heiping wp treassour wnmyndful quho lent it;
Till contrary fortoun, by turning ye dyce,
Metamorphos'd his thousands in millions of lyce!
Quhich endit ye dayes of this sensuall slave-
Wnwordy the earth sould yeild him a grave!

By him quho wischeth, that this wretches fait
May giwe exemple wnto ewery stait:
That hyer powares be with feir regairdit;
Or, by this Athist's punischment rewairded!

Finis-1615.

These curious verses would seem at least a not unapt comment on the conflicting rancour of the period to which they belong; and so far may apologise for their present appearance.

George Gladstanes, the prelate to whom they appear to relate, was advanced to the metropolitan see of St. Andrews in 1606, and died in the incumbency, May 2, 1615. "He was son of Halbert Gladstanes, Clerk of Dundee; and had his education in the Latin there. He seems to have brought on his own death upon himself, by indulging his appetite. He lived a filthy belly-god; he died of a flthy and loathsome disease, σκωληχο βρωτος.” Wodrow MS. in Bib. Col. Glas. where other epitaphs on the same prelate, of no higher delicacy, and certainly not less virulent, are recorded.

66

Spotswood, who ran perhaps as high on the opposite side, though doubtless somewhat more tempered, characterises the archbishop as a man of good learning, ready utterance, and great invention; but of an easy nature, and induced by those he trusted, to do many things hurtful to the see."

Three other Epitaphs occur in the MSS. one on the "Lady Arnestoun," 1616; and another, dated 1617, is inscribed to the memory of the "Laird of Arnestoun, youngar;"-of both, the poet has to deplore their "vntymelie fait." The third Epitaph, which want of room alone precludes being now printed, is dated 1614; and records the premature death of the "excellent gentiluoman A. C. [Agnes Cuningham] sister to ye Laird of Caprintoun," Ayrshire.

OVERTOUN, July, 1827.

SECTION III.

SONGS AND BALLADS,

TRADITIONAL AND SELECTED.

N

BALLADS AND SONGS,

TRADITIONAL AND SELECTED.

LORD DELAWARE.

IN the Parliament House,

A great rout has been there,

Betwixt our good King

And the Lord Delaware:

Says Lord Delaware

To his Majesty full soon,

Will it please you, my Liege,
To grant me a boon?

What's your boon, says the King,

Now let me understand? It's, give me all the poor men

We've starving in this land; And without delay, I'll hie me To Lincolnshire,

To sow hemp-seed and flax-seed, And hang them all there.