The king, when that the mass was done, If that their faes on horse would hald Death of Sir And when Gloster and Hereford were And toward him he went in hy. (7) Saw him come, forouth all his fears, His heart nocht sicker (3) for to stand they That would stand with him to the cnd, That nane for doubt of deid (5) should fail Quhill (6) discomfit were the great battaile. Henry de Bohun. Sprent they samen intill a lyng; (9) Blamed him, as they durst, greatumly, To meet sae stith a knicht, and stour, (10) The Battle. The Scottismen commonally Sir Ingram (13) said: Ye say sooth now- That you men will all win or die; For doubt of deid (14) they sall not flee.' On either side men micht then see Thus were they bound on either side; 1 The holes which had been dug in the field. 6 Till. 15 The van of the English army. 5 Noao or tear of death. 8 Openly. 10 Steady a knight, and battle. 13 Sir Ingram d'Umphraville, 11 Loss. 14 Fear of death. 16 Edward Bruce.. They dang on other with wappins sair, Some of the horse. that stickit were, Rushit and reclit richt rudely. . The gude earl (1) thither took the way, With his battle, in gude array, And assemblit sae hardily. ... That men micht hear had they been by, The grass waxed with the blude all red Some held on loft; some tint the seat. 'On them! On them! On them! They fail!' With that sae hard they gan assail, That what for them, that with them faucht, That sac great routis to them raucht, Mony great wounds gan them ma', The appearance of a mock host, composed of the servants of the Scottish camp, completes the panic of the English army; the king fees, and Sir Giles d'Argentine, rather than live shamefully and flee,' bids the king farewell, and rushing again into the fight, is slain. The narrative adds: They were, to say sooth, sae aghast, And Bannockburn, betwixt the braes, Of men, of horse, sae steekit (6) was, That, upon drownit horse and men, Men micht pass dry out-ower it then. ANDREW WYNTOUN. About the year 1420, ANDREW WYNTOUN, or, as he describes himself, Androwe of Wyntoune, a canon of St. Andrews, and prior of St. Seri's Monastery in Lochleven, completed, in eight-syllabled metre, 1 the Earl of Murreff or Murray 2 Lost among so great a company. 3 Exchanged.. 4 Company. 5 Also. 6 Shut up. an‘Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland,' including much universal history, and extending down to his own time: it may be considered as a Scottish member of the class of rhymed chronicles, and belongs in style to the authors in this section, though produced in part at a later period than Barbour's history. The prior undertook his chronicle at the suggestion of Sir John Weymss. He divides it into nine books, 'in henowre of the ordrys nyue.' It contains a considerable number of fabulous legen is, such as we may suppose to have been told beside the evening-fire of a monastery of those days, and which convey a curious idea of the credulity of the age. The chronicle has little poetical merit, and is greatly inferior to Barbour's Bruce,' but is interesting for the view it affords of the language, attainments, and manners of the author's time and country. A fine edition of the work, edited by David Macpherson, was published in 1795. The time of Wyntoun's death has not been stated, but he is supposed to have died shortly after completing his chronicle. Macbeth and the Weird Sisters. A nycht he thowcht in hys dreamyng, The tothir woman sayd agane, 'Of Morave yhondyre I se the thane!' And Dame Grwok, (4) his emys wyf, Quhen he was kyng with crowne rygnend All thus quhen his eme was dede, And sevyntene wyntyr full rygnand Quhen Leo the tend was Pape of Rome,(6) St. Serf and Satan.* While St. Serf, intile a stead, Foul wretch, what is that for thee?' The devil said: This questión I ask in our collatión Say where was God, wit ye oucht,' wroucht?' was St. Serf said: In himself steadless *St. Serf lived in the sixth century, and was the founder of the monastery of which the author was prior. The spelling of the above extract is modernised, 1 Cromarty. 2 Youthhood. 3 Uncle (Ang.-Sax.cam). 4 Gruoch, 5 Degrees (Fr.gre). 6 A chronological error of nearly five hundred years, for Macbeth visited Rome during the Pontificate of Leo the Ninth.Irving. 9 Caed, 7 Scattered, distributed. 8 From the Danish mister, to want. To make the creatures that he made?' The devil askit him: Why God of noucht His werkis all full gude had wroucht?' In Paradise, after his sin?' 'Seven hours,' Serf said, 'bade he there- 'When was Eve made?' saith Sathanas. Men are quite delivered free, Through Christ's passion precious boucht, Fell through your awn iniquity; 'Where God made Adam, the first man?' Then saw the devil that he could noucht, 'In Ebron Adam formit was,' St. Serf said. And till him Sathanas: St. Serf said: Where he was made.' With all the wiles that he wrought, While Wyntoun was initing his legendary chronicle in the priory at Lochleven, a secular priest, JOHN FORDUN, canon of Aberdeeir cathedral, was gathering and recording the annals of Scotland in Latin. Fordum brought his history, Scotichronicon,' down to the death of David I. in 1153, but had collected materials extending to the year 1385, about which time he is supposed to have diet. His history was then taken up and continued to the death of James I. (1437) by WALTER BOWER OF BOWMAKER, abbot of the monastery of St. Colm, in the Firth of Forth. PROSE LITERATURE. SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. The translation of King Alfred, the Saxon Chronicle, Saxon laws, charters, and ecclesiastical histories, more or less tinctured with the Norman-French, are our earliest prose compositions. The first English book was SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE'S Travels,' written in 1356. Mandeville was born at St. Albans in the year 1300, and received the liberal education requisite for the profession of medicine, During the thirty-four years previous to 1356, he travelled in Eastern countries (where he appears to have been received with great kindness); and on his return to England, wrote an account of all he had seen, mixed with innumerable fables, derived from preceding historians and romancers, as well as from hearsay. His book was originally written in Latin, then translated into French, and finally into English, that every man of my nacioun may undirstonde it.' The following extract, in the original spelling, is from the edition of 1839, edited by J. O. Halliwell: The Beginning of Mohammed. And yee schull understonde, that Machamote was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave, that kepte cameles, that wenten with marchantes for marchandise; and so befelle that he wente with the marchantes in to Egipt: and thei weren thanue cristene, in tho partyes. And at the deserts of Arabye he wente into a chapelle, where a eremyte duelte. And whan he entered into the chapelle, that was but a lytille and a low thing, and had but a lytyl dore and a low, than the entree began to wexe so gret, and so large, and so high, as though it hadde ben of a gret mynstre or the gate of a paleys. And this was the first myracle, the Sarazins seyn, that Machomete dide in his youthe. Aftere began he for to wexe wyse and ryche, and he was a grete astronomer. In the following the spelling is simplified: A Mohammedan's Lecture on Christian Vices. And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords and other; for he would speak with me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. An I said [to] him: Right well, thonked be God.' And he said [to] me: Truly nay; for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day nd all night. and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. The shoulden beu simple, meek, and true, and full of aims-deed, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they ben all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they ben so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serven God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living (as they ben now), we have no dread of 'em in no kind; for here God will not helpen em in no wise.' And then I asked him how he knew the state of Christian men. And he answered me, that he knew all the state of the commons also by his messengers; that he sent to all londs, in manner as they were merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold, and of other things, for to knowen the manner of every country amongs Christian men. And then he let clepe in all the lords that he made voiden first out of his chamber; and there he shewed me four that were great lords in the country, that tolden me of my country, and of many other Christian countries, as well as if they had been of the same country; and they spak French right well, and the Soudan also, whereof I had great marvel. Alas, that it is great slander to our faith and to our laws, when folk that ben withouten law shall reproven us, and undernemen us of our sins. And they that shoulden ben converted to Christ and to the law of Jesu, by our good example and by our acceptable life to God, ben through our wickedness and evil living, far fro us; and strangers fro the holy and very belief shall thus appellen us and holden us for wicked levirs and cursed. And truly they say sooth. For the Sara cens ben good and faithful. For they keepen entirely the commandment of the holy book Alcoran, that God sent 'em by his messager, Mohammed; to the whick as they Bayen, St. Gabriel, the angel, oftentime told the will of God. E. L. v. 1-3 |