ing been some feathers in the wings, which yearned and coveted the midaen and not the skies!" The king, with culpable recklessness, presented this quack to the vacant abbacy of Tungland and Galloway. Dunbar happily satirised the quack, representing him as flying in the air, though he never got upon wing, and as assailed by all the indignant birds:

And ever the cushats at him tuggit,

The rooks him rent, the ravens him druggit,
The hooded-craws his hair forth rugged,"
The heaven he might not bruik.

·

Pinkerton ascribes to Dunbar a comic tale apparently of about the same date as the poet's acknowledged works, entitled The Freirs of Berwick.' _The argument' of this piece is the 'merry adventure' of two White Friars of Berwick detecting Friar John, superior of the Gray Friars of the same place, in an intrigue with a farmer's wife. The tale is told with great humour and spirit, and the denouement, the detection and punishment of Friar John, is brought about by a series of highly-amusing incidents. There is no authority for assigning this piece to Dunbar, but it is worthy of him or of Chaucer.

The Merle and Nightingale.

In May, as that Aurora did upspring,
With crystal een chasing the chuddes sable,
I heard a Merle with merry notis sing

A sang of love, with voice right comfortable,
Again' the orient beamis, amiable,
Upon a blissful branch of laurel green;
This was her sentence, sweet and delectable,
A lusty life in Lovis service been.

Under this branch ran down a river bright,
Of balmy liquor, crystalline of hue,
Again' the heavenly azure skyis light,
Where did upon the tother side pursue
A nightingale, with sugared notis new,
Whose angel feathers as the peacock shone;
This was her song, and of a sentence true-
All love is lost but upon God alone.

With notis glad, and glorious harmony,
This joyful Merle, so salust she the day,
While rung the woodis of her melody,
Saying, Awake, ye lovers of this May;
Lo, fresh Flora has flourished every spray,
As nature has her taught, the noble queen
The field been clothit in a new array;
A lusty life in Lovis service been.

Ne'er sweeter noise was heard with living man,
Na made this merry gentle Nightingale;
Her sound went with the river as it ran,

Out through the fresh and flourished lusty vale;
O Merle quoth she, O fool! stint of thy tale,
For in thy song good sentence is there none,
For both is tint, the time and the travail
Of every love but upon God alone.

1 Age.

Cease, quoth the Merle, thy preaching, Nightingale :
Shall folk their youth spend into holiness?

Of young sanctís grows auld feindís, but fable;
Fye, hypocrite, in yeiris tenderness,

Again' the law of kind thou goes express,
That crookit age makes one with youth serene,
Whom nature of conditions made diverse;
A lusty life in Lovis service been.

The Nightingale said: Fool, remember thee.
That both in youth and eild, (1) and every hour,
The love of God most dear to man suld be;
That him, of nought, wrought like his ain figour,
And died himself, fro' dead him to succour;

O, whether was kythit (2) there true love or none?
He is most true and steadfast paramour,

And love is lost but upon him alone.

The Merle said: Why put God so great beauty

In ladies, with sic womanly having,

But gif he would that they suld lovit be?
To love eke nature gave them incliníng,
And He of nature that worker was and king,
Would nothing frustir put. nor let be seen,
Into his creature of his own making;
A lusty life of Lovis service been.

The Nightingale said: Not to that behoof
Put God sic beauty in a lady's face,
That she suld have the thank therefor or luve,
But He, the worker, that put in her sic grace;
Of beauty, bounty, riches, time. or space,
And every gudeness that been to come or gone,
The thank redounds to Him in every place :
All love is lost but upon God alone.

O Nightingale! it were a story nice,
That love suld not depend on charity;
And gif that virtue contrar be to vice,
Then love maun be a virtue, as thinks me;
For, aye, to love envy maun contrar' be:

God både eke love thy neighbour fro the spleen; (3)
And who than ladies sweeter neighbours be?

A lusty life in Lovis service been.

The Nightingale said: Bird, why does thou rave?
Man may take in his lady sic delight,

Him to forget that her sic virtue gave,

And for his heaven receive her colour white:

Her golden tressit hairis redomite, (4)

Like to Apollo's beamis tho' they shone,

Suld not him blind fro' love that is perfite;

All love is lost but upon God alone.

The Merle said: Love is cause of honour aye,
Love makis cowards manhood to purchase,
Love makis knichtis hardy at essay,

Love makis wretches full of largéness,

3 Equivalent to the modern phrase, from the heart.

2 Shewn.

4 Bound, encircled.

Love makis sweir (1) folks full of business,
Love makis sluggards fresh and well be seen,
Love changes vice in virtuous nobleness;
A lusty life in Lovis service been.

The Nightingale said: True is the contrary;
Sic frustir love it blindis men so far,
Into their minds it makis them to vary;

In false vain-glory they so drunken are,

Their wit is went, of woe they are not 'ware,

While that all worship away be fro' them gone,

Fame, goods, and strength; wherefore well say I dars
All love is lost but upon God alone.

Then said the Merle; Mine error I confess :
This frustir love is all but vanity:

Blind ignorance me gave sic hardiness,

To argue so again' the verity;

Wherefore I counsel every man that he

With love not in the feindis net be tone, (2)
But love the love that did for his love die:

All love is lost but upon God alone.

Then sang they both with voices loud and clear;
The Merle sang: Man, love God that has thee wrough
The Nightingale sang: Man love the Lord most dear,
That thee and all this world made of nought.

The Merle said: Love him that thy love has sought
Fro' heaven to earth, and here took flesh and bone.
The Nightingale sang: And with his dead thee bought
All love is lost but upon Him alone.

Then flew thir birdis o'er the boughis sheen,

Singing of love amang the leavis small

Whose eidant plead yet made my thoughtis grein, (3)
Both sleeping, waking, in rest and in travail;

Me to recomfort most it does avail,

Again for love, when love I can find none,

To think how sung this Merle and Nightingale:
All love is lost but upon God alone.

The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins.

1 Slothful. or reluctant.

II.

Helie harlots on hawtane wise, (1)
Come in with mony sundry guise,
But yet leuch never Mahoun,
While priests come in with bare shaven
necks;

Then all the fiends leuch, and made gecks,
Black-Belly and Bawsy-Brown. (8)

III.

Let see, quoth he, now wha begins:
With that the foul Seven Deadly Sins
Begoud to leap at anis.

And first of all in Dance was Pride,

2 Ta'en, taken.

3 Whose diligent pleading made my thoughts grane or long for love.

4 Mahoun, or the devil. proclaimed a dance of sinners that had not received absolution.

5 The evening before Lent, which was usually a festival at the Scottish court.

6 Gambols.

7 Holy harlots (hypocrites), in a haughty manner. The term harlot was applied in discriminately to both sexes.

8 Names of spirits, like Robin Goodfellow in England, and Brownie in Scotland,

With hair wyld back, and bonnet on side,
Like to make vaistie wanis; (1)
And round about him, as a wheel,
Haug all in rumples to the heel

His kethat for the nanis : (2)
Mony proud trumpour (3) with him trip-
pit

Through scalding fire, aye as they skippit
The girned with hideous granis. (4)

IV.

Then Ire came in with sturt and strife;
His hand was aye upon his knife,

He brandished like a beir: (5)
Boasters, braggars, and bargainers, (6)
After him passit in to pairs,

All boden in feir of weir; (7)

In jacks, and scryppis, and bonnets of
steel,

Their legs were chainit to the heel, (8)
Frawart was their affeir: (9)

Some upon other with brands beft, (10)
Some jaggit others to the heft,

With knives that sharp could shear.

V.

Next in the Dance followit Envy,
Filled full of feud and felony,
Hid malice and despite:

For privy hatred that traitor tremlit;
Him followit mony freik dissemlit, (11)
With fenyeit wordis quhyte: (12)
And flatterers into men's faces;
And backbiters in secret places,
To lie that had delight;
And rownaris of false lesings, (13)
Alace! that courts of noble kings
Of them can never be quit.

VI.

Next him in Dance came Covetyce,
Root of all evil, and ground of vice,
That never could be content:
Catives, wretches, and ockeraris, (14)
Hudpikes, (15) hoarders, gatheraris,
All with that warlock went:
Out of their throats they shot on other
Het, molten gold, me thocht, a futher(16)

As fire-flaucht maist fervent;
Aye as they toomit them of shot,
Fiends filled them new up to the throat
With gold of all kind prent. (17)

VII.

Syne Sweirness, at the second bidding,
Came lik a sow out of a midding,

Full sleepy was his grunyie: (18)
Mony swear bumbard belly huddroum, (15)
Mony slut, daw, and sleepy duddroun,
Him servit aye with sonnyie; (20)
He drew them furth intill a chair,
And Belial with a bridle rein

Ever lashed them on the lunyie: (21)
In Daunce they were so slaw of feet,
They gave them in the fire a heat,

And made them quicker of cunyie. (22)

VIII.

Then Lechery, that laithly corpse,
Came berand like ane baggit horse, (23)
And Idleness did him lead;
There was with him ane ugly sort.
And mony stinking foul tramort, (24)
That had in sin been dead:

When they were enterit in the Dance,
They were full strange of countenance,
Like torches burning red.

IX.

Then the foul monster, Gluttony,
Of wame insatiable and greedy,
To Dance he did him dress:
Him followit mony foul drunkart,
With can and collop, cup and quart,
In surfit and excess;

Full mony a waistless wally-drag,
With wames unwieldable, did furth wag,
In creesh that did incress:

Drink! aye they cried, with mony a gaip,
The fiends gave them het lead to laip,
Their leveray was na less. (25)

X.

Nae minstrels played to them but doubt, (26)

For gleemen there were halden out,

1 Pride, with hair artfully put back, and bonnet on side: 'vaistie wanis' is now unintelligible; some interpret the phrase as meaning wasteful wants,' but this seems improbable considering the locality or scene of the poem.

2 His cassock for the nonce or occasion. 3 cheat or impostor (Fr. trompeur).

4 Groans. 5 Bear. 6 Boasters, braggarts, and bullies.

7 Arrayed in the accoutrements of war.

8 În coats of armour, and covered with iron network to the heel.

9 Wild was their aspect.

18 His grunt,

13 Brands beaten. 11 Many strong dissemblers. 12 With feigued words fair or white. 13 Spreaders of false report. 14 Usurers. 15 Misers. 16 A great quantity. 17 Gold of every coinage. 19 Many a lazy glutton. 20 Served with care (Fr. soigne, to care to be diligent). 21 Loins. 24 Corpse (mort, dead). 25 Their reward, or their desire not diminished. 26 No minstrels without doubt-a compliment to the poetical profession: there were no gleemen or minstrels in the infernal regions,

22 Quicker of apprehension.

23 Neighing like an entire horse.

Be day, and eke by nicht;
Except a minstrel that slew a man,
So to his heritage he wan,

And enterit by brieve of richt. (1)

Then cried Mahoun for a Hieland Pad-
yane : (2)

Syne ran a fiend to fetch Makfadyane,
Far northwast in a neuck;

Be he the coronach (3) had done shout,

Ersche men so gatherit him about,
In hell great room they took:
Thae tarmigants, with tag and tatter,,
Full loud in Ersche begoud to clatter,
And roup like raven and rook. (4)
The Devil sac deaved (5) was with their
yell,

That in the deepest pot of hell

He sinorit (6) them with smoke!

Tidings fra the Session.

A conversation between two rustics, designed to satirise the proceedings in the supreme civil law-court of Scotland.

Ane muirland man, of upland mak,
At hame thus to his neighbour spak:
What tidings, gossip, peace or weir?
The tother rounit (7) in his ear.

I tell you under this confession,
But lately lichtit off my meare,

I come of Edinburgh fra the Session.
What tidings heard you there, I pray you?
The tother answerit: I sall say you:
Keep well this secret, gentle brother;
Is na man there that trusts another:"

Ane common doer of transgression,
Of innocent folk preveens a futher: (8)

Sic tidings heard I at the Session.
Some with his fallow rouns him to please,
That wald for envy bite aff his nese; (9)
His fa' some by the oxter (10) leads;
Some patters with his mouth on beads,

That has his mind all on oppression;
Some becks full law and shaws bare heads,

Wad look full heigh were not the Session.
Some, bydand the law, lays land in wed; (11)
Some, super-expended, goes to bed;
Some speeds, for he in court has means;
Some of partiality compleens,

How feid (12) and favour flemis (13) discretion;
Some speaks full fair, and falsely feigns:
Sic tidings heard I at the Session.

Some castis summons, and some excepts;
Some stand beside and skailed law kepps;
Some is continued; some wins; some tynes;
Some maks him merry at the wines;

Some is put out of his possession;

Some herried, and on credence dines:
Sic tiding heard I at the Session.

Some swearis and forsakis God;

Some in ane lamb-skin is ane tod; (14)

Some in his tongue his kindness turses; (15)

1 Letters of right.

2 Pageant.

3 By the time he had done shouting the coronach or cry of help, the Highlanders speaking Erse or Gaelic gathered about him.

4 Croaked like ravens and rooks. 8 Is advanced before a great number. 12 Hostility.

5 Deafened.
9 Nose.

13 Banishes.

6 Smothered.
1) rmpit.
14 Fox.

7 Whispered.

11 Pledge.

15 Carries.