Sempill wrote other pieces, which have not been preserved. He was a royalist, and fought on the side of Charles I.

WILLIAM CLELAND.

·

WILLIAM CLELAND (circa 1661-1689) wrote a Hudibrastic satire on the Jacobite army known as the Highland Host,' in 1678. He was author also of a wild, fanciful piece,Hallo, my Fancy.' Cleland commanded the Covenanting forces, and fell in the moment of victory at Dunkeld. The poems of this gallant young officer were not published till 1697. Sir Walter Scott, in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' has stated that Colonel Cleland was father of a certain Major Cleland, the friend of Pope, whose name is signed to a letter prefixed to the 'Dunciad; but this is an error; the Covenanting officer was only twelve or thirteen years of age when Major Cleland was born.

The Highland Host

But those who were their chief com-
manders,

As such who bore the pirnie (1) standarts;
Who led the van and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted of their gear;
With brogues, and trews, and pirnie
plaids,

And good blue bonnets on their heads,
Which on the one side had a flipe (2)
Adorned with a tobacco pipe;

With dirk, and snap-work, (3) and suuff-
mill,

A bag which they with onions fill,
And, as their strict observers say,
A tass-horn filled with usquebae;

A slashed-cut coat beneath their plaids,
A targe of timber, nails, and hides;
With a long two-handed sword,
As good's the country can afford-

Had they not need of bulk and bones,
Who fight with all these arms at once?
It's marvellous how in such weather,
O'er hill and moss they came together;
How in such storms they came so far;
The reason is they're smeared with tar,
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it does their sheep protect. (4).
Nought like religion they retain,
Of moral honesty they're clean;
In nothing they're accounted sharp,
Except in bagpipe and in harp.
For a misobliging word

She'll durk her neighbour o'er the board;
And then she'll flee like fire from flint,
She'll scarcely ward the second dint;
If any ask her of her thrift,

Foorsooth, her nainsel lives by theft.

From Hallo, my Fancy.'
When I look before me,

There I do behold

There's none that sees or knows me;
All the world's a-gadding,

Running madding;

None doth his station hold.

He that is below envieth him that riseth,

And he that is above, him that's below despiseth,
So every man his plot and counter-plot deviseth.
Hallo, my fancy, whither wilt thou go?

Look, look, what bustling

Here I do espy;

Each another jostling,
Every one turmoiling,

Th' other spoiling,

As I did pass them by.

1 Having unequal threads or different colours.

2 A fold, a lap.

3 Pistol.

4 The Highlanders at an early period wore linen shirts smeared with wax or tar.

One sitteth musing in a dumpish passion,

Another hangs his head because lie 's out of fashion,
A third is fully bent on sport and recreation.

Hallo, my fancy, whither wilt thou go?

Amidst the foamy ocean,

Fain would I know

What doth cause the motion,

And returning

In its journeying,

And doth so seldom swerve!

And how these little fishes that swim beneath salt water,
Do never blind their eye; methinks it is a matter

An inch above the reach of old Erra Pater!

Hallo, my fancy, whither wilt thou go?

Fain would I be resolved

How things are done;

And where the bull was calved

Of bloody Phalaris,

And where the tailor is

That works to the man i' the moon!

Fain would I know how Cupid aims so rightly;
And how these little fairies do dance and leap so lightly;
And where fair Cynthia makes her ambles nightly.
Hallo, my fancy, whither wilt thou go?

In conceit like Phaeton,

I'll mount Phoebus' chair,

Having ne'er a hat on,
All my hair a-burning
In my journeying,

Hurrying through the air.

Fain would I hear his fiery horses neighing,
And see how they on foamy bits are playing;
All the stars and planets I will be surveying!
Hallo, my fancy, whither wilt thou go?

Hallo, my fancy, hallo,

Stay, stay at home with me;
I can thee no longer follow,
For thou hast betrayed me,
And bewrayed me;

It is too much for thee.

Stay, stay at home with me; leave off thy lofty soaring;
Stay thou at home with me, and on thy books be poring;
For he that goes abroad, lays little up in storing:

Thou 'rt welcome home, my fancy, welcome home to me.

Some of the interesting ballads and fragrants in Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' belong to this period. One of these is Gilderoy' (that is, the Red Lad), a Highland freebooter, who was executed in 1636. He was a noted cateran or robber, but a dashing one like Captain Macheath, with roses in his shoon, silken hose, and fine garters. There is one true touch of feeling in the ballad. Alluding to the scene of Gilderoy's death on the scaffold, the heroine who laments his fate, says:

I never loved to see the face
That gazed on Gilderoy.

Another ballad entitled 'Lady Ann Bothwell's Lament' is about the same date:

Balow,(1) my babe, lie still and sleep;
It grieves me sair to hear thee weep:
If thou'lt be silent, I'll be glad;

Thy mourning makes my heart full sad.

One of the finest of these poetical relics (for which, Professor Aytoun says, there is evidence to shew that it was composed before 1566) we print entire:

We should perhaps include among the poetical productions of this time the translation of the Psalms which is still sung in the Scottish Presbyterian churches. A version was made in 1643 by a Puritanical versifier, FRANCIS ROUSE (1579–1659), which was revised and adopted as now in use. The fine old version of the Hundredth Psalm, however, was in use, words and music, so early as 1565.

DRAMATISTS.

JASPER MAYNE.

Two comedies, illustrative of city manners in the time of Charles I. were produced by JASPER MAYNE (1604-1672). The first of these, 'The City Madam' (1639), is one of the best of our early comedies -humorous, but not indelicate; the second, entitled 'The Amorous

1 Balow, a lullaby; probably from the French bas, la le loup, be still, the wolf is coming.

2 Waly, expressive of lamentation (Ang. -Sax. wa-la, from wa, woe, and la, oh !).

War,' is a tragi-comedy, published in 1648. Mayne was a native of Devonshire, educated for the church, and afterwards archdeacon of Chichester, and chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II. He was a humorist, and has been compared even to Dean Swift,* though little remains to justify the comparison. Besides his plays, he wrote occasional poems, and translated Lucian's 'Dialogues.' The Puritans, of course, found no favour with this dramatic divine.

A Puritanical Waiting-maid.

AURELIA. BANESWRIGHT.

AURELIA. Oh, Mr. Baneswright. are you come? My woman
Was in her preaching fit; she only wanted
A table's end.

BANESWRIGHT. Why, what's the matter?
AUR. Never

Poor lady had such unbred holiness
About her person; I am never drest
Without a sermon; but am forced to prove
The lawfulness of curling-irons before

She'll crisp me in a morning. I must shew
Texts for the fashions of my gowns. She'll ask
Where jewels are commanded? Or what lady

I' the primitive times wore robes of pearl or rubies?
She will urge councils for her little ruff,

Called in Northamptonshire; and her whole service
Is a mere confutation of my clothes.

BANE. Why, madam, I assure you, time hath been,
However she be otherwise, when she had

A good quick wit, and would have made to a lady
A serviceable sinner.

AUR. She can't preserve

The gift for which I took her; but as though
She were inspired from Ipswich, she will make
The acts and monuments in sweetmeats; quinces,
Arraigned and burnt at a stake; all my banquets
Are persecutions; Diocletian's days

Are brought for entertainment; and we eat martyrs.
BANE. Madam, she is far gone.

AUR. Nay, sir, she is a Puritan at her needle too.
BARE. Indeed!

AUR. She works religious petticoats; for flowers
She'll make church histories. Her needle doth

So sancify my cushionets! Besides,

My smock-sleeves have such holy embroideries,
And are so learned, that I fear, in time,

All my apparel will be quoted by

Some pure instructor. Yesterday I went

To see a lady that has a parrot; my woman,

While I was in discourse, converted the fowl;

And now it can speak nought but Knox's works;

So there's a parrot lost.

*A practical joke is related of him. One of his servants waiting upon him with attention in his last illness, was told by his master that if he would look in one of his chests, after his death, he would find something that would make him drink. The man redoubled his attentions; and after the master's death, on examining the chest, found that his legacy was a red herring!

DAVENANT AND DRYDEN.

The civil war was for a time fatal to the dramatic Muse. In 1612, the nation was convulsed with the elements of discord, and in the same month that the sword was drawn, the theatres were closed. On the 2d of September, the Long Parliament issued an ordinance, ‘suppressing public stage-players throughout the kingdom during these calamitous times. An infraction of this ordinance took place in 1644, when some players were apprehended for performing Beaumont and Fletcher's 'King and no King''-an ominous title for a drama at that period. Another ordinance was issued in 1647, and a third in the following year, when the House of Commons appointed a provost-marshal for the purpose of suppressing plays and seizing ballad-singers. Parties of strolling actors occasionally performed in the country; but there were no regular theatrical performances in London, till Davenant brought out his opera, the Siege of Rhodes,' in the year 1655. Two years afterwards, he removed to the Cockpit Theatre, Drury Lane, where he performed until the eve of the Restoration. A strong partiality for the drama existed in the nation, which all the storms of the civil war, and the zeal of the Puritans, had not been able to crush or subdue. At the restoration of the monarchy, the drama was also restored, and with new lustre, though less decency. Two theatres were licensed in the metropolis, one under the direction of Sir William Davenant, whose performers were, in compliment to the Duke .of York, named the Duke's Company. The other establishment was managed by Thomas Killigrew, a well-known wit and courtier, whose company took the name of the King's Servants. Davenant effected two great improvements in theatrical representation-the regular introduction of actresses, or female players, and the use of movable scenery and appropriate decorations. Females had performed on the stage previous to the Restoration, and considerable splendour and variety of scenery had been exhibited in the court masks and revels. Neither, however, had been familiar to the public, and they now formed a great attraction to the two patent theatres. Unfortunately, these powerful auxiliaries were not brought in aid of the good old dramas of the age of Elizabeth and James. Instead of adding grace and splendour to the creations of Shakespeare and Jonson, they were lavished to support a new and degenerate dramatic taste, which Charles II had brought with him from the continent. Rhyming or heroic plays had long been fashionable in France, and were dignified by the genius of Corneille and Racine. They had little truth of colouring or natural passion, but dealt exclusively with personages in high life and of transcendent virtue or ambition; with fierce combats and splendid processions; with superhuman love and beauty; and with long dialogues alternately formed of metaphysical su ilety and the most extravagant and bombastic expression. 'Blank verse,' says Dryden, 'is