Then cried Mahoun3 for a Hieland padyan,* 33 [The poet having fallen asleep amid the beauty of a May morning, sees in a dream a ship approach, from which there land "a hundred ladies, as fresh as flowers that in the May upspreads." These are Nature, Venus, etc. They are followed by Cupid and other personages. During their sports the poct is discovered, and Venus orders her train to attack him.] AND first of all, with bow in hand aye bent, Came Beauty's dame right as she would me schent;14 1 Whisperers; see note 4, p. 18. 2 Compare Dunbar's personifications with Spencer; Faery Queen, Book I. cant. 4 : and with P. Fletcher's Purple Island, cantos 9, 10. a Mahomet; applied to the Devil; See Burns' song, "The Exciseman." 4 Pageant. $ Then. A corner. Macfadyan is a name still found in the Highlands. By the time that he had shouted the Coronach, a Higliland dirge. ? Alleged to be from ter, thrice; and magnus, great; sc deus; Latin: or from tyr intensive prefix; and magan, mighty; Ang. -Sax.-Applied to idol gods: He said, "Childe, by Termagaunt, But if thou prick out of mine haunt, Anon I slay thy steed."-Chauc. Rime of Sir Topar. Of Mighty Mahound and great Termagaunt.-Hall's Satires, Book i. sat. 1 It was used formerly without distinction of gender. 10 To cry hoarsely and roughly. 11 Deafened. 12 Smothered. 13 Dunbar was a Lothian man. This stanza illustrates the hostile feeling that subsisted between the population of the northern and southern portions of the kingdom. Would have destroyed;-The omission of the auxiliary has been noticed above. Schend (Ang -Sax. Scendan), to confound, disgrace, ruín; shent, blamed.— Shakesp. Syne followed all her damosels in feir,1 Into the press fair Having with her went, Syne Portrator,2 Pleasance, and lusty Cheer; Then Reason came with shield of gold so clear: [These and other assailants are repelled by the Golden Targe.] When Venus had perceivéd this rebute, She bade Dissemblance gae mak a pursuit, With all her power to press the Golden Targe; Asked her choice of Archers in resute;3 Venus the best bade her to wale at large. [Dissemblance then chooses her auxiliaries in the assault.] Thick was the shot of grundin' arrows keen; The awful shower he manly did sustene, Then as a drunken man he all forwayed; When he was blind, the fool they with him played, To Lady Beauty, in a moment's space; Methought she seeméd lustier of cheer Why was thou blinded Reason? Why? Alace! * * * [Several personages then disturb his captivity with temptations and sorrows; till he is delivered over to Heaviness; when suddenly "God Eolus his bugle blew;" the whole scene disappears; he sees the ladies and their ship vanish in a discharge of artillery so loud,] The rockis all resounded with the rak, For reird it seeméd that the rainbow brak: 1 See note 12, in the preceding extract, p. 32. 2 Portraiture, i. e., of the beloved object, personified into one of the assailants of the affections. 3 A second attempt; from ressuyer (Fr.), to attempt anew. 4 Ground-sharpened. 5 Warlikely. Another personified assailant; the presence of the beloved object being one of the greatest incitements to affection. ? So melancholy. 8 Yielded. Cheer; (French chere); (Ital. ciera); the countenance, look, aspect :-its metaphorical applications in modern English may easily be traced from the original idea. Cheer has been personified above as one of the assailants. 10 Lost. NO TREASURE WITHOUT GLADNESS. 35 [He starts to his feet; and finds himself again alone with the birds and flowers of May.] And as I did awake off this swouning, For mirth of Phoebus tender beamis sheen. In mirthful May of every moneth queen. NO TREASURE WITHOUT GLADNESS. BE merry, man, and tak not far in mynd3 The wavering of this wretched world of sorrow, And with thy neighbours gladly lend and borrow; For with wysane it hath been said aforrow, Mak the gude cheer of it that God thee sends; Wherefore of comfort set up all thy sail, 8 Follow on pity; flee trouble and debate; 1 Young. 2 Lat. Amanus, pleasant. 3 Take not too much to heart. 4 Wisdom. 5 Before. Anything worthless, dilapidated; here applied to worldly possessions; — but, without. All that remains thou enjoyest only with misfortunes.-Comp. Mark x. 29-30; bruik; brook; to enjoy, to possess: now applied to the suffering of an injury or insult; bail, bale, woe, grief; hence baleful. 8 Comp. Shakesp. "Tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes."-Jul. Cæs. Act i. sc. 2. • Endures. HAVE mind that eild' aye follows youth; Wealth, warldly gloir,2 and rich array, O'er cowered with flowers laid in a train: * * * Freedom returns in wretchedness, Virtue returns into vice, With covetyce is conscience slain : Since earthly joy abideth never, GAWAIN OR GAVIN DOUGLAS, BISHOP OF DUNKELD. (1474-1522.) THIS amiable prelate was the son of Archibald, the fifth Earl of Angus, surnamed Bell-the-cat, from his share in the conspiracy against James Third's ministers at Lauder. Destined for the church, Gawain was liberally educated. The stormy factions that ensued in Scotland after the defeat of James IV. at Flodden, and his relationship to the house of Angus involved him in the political movements of the period. During these troubles the influence of the queen mother, Margaret, and her husband, Angus, Gawain's nephew, raised him to the see of Dunkeld in 1516. He seems to have devoted himself with great earnestness, while the turbulence of the times permitted, to the temporal and spiritual interests of his bishopric. Five or six years after, the power of the Regent Albany expelled the Douglases from Scotland, and the Bishop of Dunkeld died in London of the plague in 1522. 1 Eld-old age. Freedom is here used for liberality, or free living. 2 Gloir-glory. THE PALACE OF HONOUR. 37 The largest work of Douglas is his translation of Virgil's Eneid into Scottish heroic verse, which forms the first instance of the rendering of a classic into any of the British tongues. The several books are prefaced by prologues, some of which are remarkably beautiful. His "Palace of Honour" is an allegory constructed somewhat on the plan of Dunbar's "Golden Targe." As appropriate to the instruction of a king, he dedicates it to James IV. "King Hart" (i. e., Heart, the sovereign of the body) is another allegorical poem illustrative of the accidents, tempta tions, and decline of human life. Douglas, as a writer, is inferior to Dunbar in nerve and in naturalness of conception. In many passages of the "Palace of Honour" his language is more obsolete and obscure. His descriptions are often magnificent, though too much overlaid by the Latinised phraseology which overspread our literature after the revival of learning. FROM THE PALACE OF HONOUR." [The Poet, in a dream, had joined a procession of allegorical personages in a pilgrimage to the Palace of Honour; he was committed by the muse Calliope to the charge of a nymph, who performs for him the part of the Sybil to Eneas, or of Virgil to Dante. From the hill of the Palace he sees among other things the following vision.] THE SHIPWRECK OF THE CARAVEL OF GRACE. PART III. STANZA VII. As we bene on the high hill situate, "Look down," quoth she, "conceive in what estate Of stormy sea whilk might nae manner 'suage. VIII. That terrible tempest's hideous wallís huge 1 Or wat, knows. 2 Contr. for blenkit, the past tense and particip. of blenk or blink, to look; used by Chaucer. 3 Shudder; commonly written grew or grue; hence gruesome, causing shuddering: dreadful. Fragile, from break. To praise; hence to permit; from Fr. allouer; Lat. adlaudare. 6 Waves. Terrible; Ang.-Sax. grislic; verb agrisan, to be horrified. To agrise is used by Chaucer, Spencer, and Drayton; grisly is a favourite adjective with the poets."So spake the grisly terror."-Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 704. |