SECTION XXXI.

ANOTHER of the distinguished luminaries, that marked

the restoration of letters in Scotland at the commencement of the sixteenth century, not only by a general eminence in elegant erudition, but by a cultivation of the vernacular poetry of his country, is Gawen Douglass. He was descended from a noble family, and born in the year 1475. According to the practice of that age, especially in Scotland, his education perhaps commenced in a grammar-school of one of the monasteries: there is undoubted proof, that it was finished at the university of Paris. It is probable, as he was intended for the sacred function, that he was sent to Paris for the purpose of studying the canon law: in consequence of a decree promulged by James the First, which tended in some degree to reform the illiteracy of the clergy, as it enjoined, that no ecclesiastic of Scotland should be preferred to a prebend of any value without a competent skill in that science f. Among other high promotions in the church, which his very singular accomplishments obtained, he was provost of the collegiate church of saint Giles at Edinburgh, abbot of the opulent convent of Abberbrothrock, and bishop of Dunkeld. He appears also to have been nominated by the queen regent to the archbishoprick, either of Glasgow, or of saint Andrew's: but the appointment was repudiated by the popes. In the year 1513, to avoid the persecutions of the duke of Albany, he fled from Scotland into England, and was most graciously received by king Henry the Eighth; who, in consideration of his literary merit, allowed

Hume, HIST. DOUGL. p. 219. f Lesl. REB. GEST. SCOT. lib. ix.

g Thynne, CONTINUAT. HIST. SCOT. 455.

him a liberal pension". In England he contracted a friendship with Polydore Virgil, one of the classical scholars of Henry's court. He died of the plague in London, and was buried in the Savoy church, in the year 1521*.

In his early years he translated Ovid's ART OF LOVE, the favorite Latin system of the science of gallantry, into Scottish metre, which is now lost'. In the year 1513, and in the space of sixteen months", he translated into Scotch heroics the Eneid of Virgil, with the additional thirteenth book by Mapheus Vegius, at the request of his noble patron Henry earl of Sinclair ". But it was projected so early as the year 1501. For in one of his poems written that year, he promises to Venus a translation of Virgil, in atonement for a ballad he had published against her court: and when the work was finished, he tells Lord Sinclair, that he had now made his peace with Venus, by translating the poem which celebrated the actions of her son Eneas". No metrical version of a classic had yet appeared in English; except of Boethius, who scarcely deserves that appellation. Virgil was hitherto commonly known, only by Caxton's romance on the subject of the Eneid; which, our author says, no more resembles Virgil, than the devil is like saint Austin 9.

This translation is executed with equal spirit and fidelity: and is a proof, that the lowland Scotch and English languages were now nearly the same. I mean the style of composition; more especially in the glaring affectation of anglicising Latin

h Hollinsh. Scor, 307.-iii. 872. i Bale, xiv. 58.

Weever, FUN. MON. p. 446. And Stillingfl. ORIG. BRIT. p. 54.

See edit. Edinb. fol. 1710. p. 483, In the EPISTLE, or EPILOGUE, to Lord Sinclair. I believe the editor's name is ROBERT FREEBAIRN, [Thomas Ruddiman] a Scotchman. This translation was first printed at London, 1553. 4to. bl. lett.

Lesl. REB. GEST. Scor. lib. ix. p. 379. Rom. 1675. n EPIL. ut supr. "The PALICE OF HONOUR. ad calcem.

P EPIL. ut supr.

PROLOGUE to the Translation, p. 5. The manuscript notes written in the margin of a copy of the old quarto edition of this translation, by Patrick Ju nius, which bishop Nicolson (HIST. LIBR. p. 99.) declares to be excellent, are of no consequence, Bibl. Bodl. ARCHIV. SELD. B. 54. 4to. The same may be said of Junius's Index of obsolete words in this translation, Cod. MSS. Jun. 114. (5225.) See also Mus, Ashmol. Diverse Scotch words, &c. Cod. ASHм. 846. 13.

words. The several books are introduced with metrical prologues, which are often highly poetical; and shew that Douglas's proper walk was original poetry. In the prologue to the sixth book, he wishes for the Sybill's golden bough, to enable him to follow his master Virgil through the dark and dangerous labyrinth of the infernal regions'. But the most conspicuous of these prologues is a description of May. The greater part of which I will insert. $

As fresche Aurore, to mychty Tithone spous,
Ischit of her saffron bed, and euyr" hous,
In crammesy clad and granite violate,

W

With sanguyne cape, the selvage purpurate;
Unschet the wyndois of hir large hall,
Spred all with rosis, and full of balme royall.
And eik the hevinly portis cristallyne
Upwarpis brade, the warlde till illumyne.
The twynkling stremouris of the orient

Sched purpour sprayngis with gold and asure ment*.
Eous the stede, with ruby hammys rede,

Abouf the seyis liftis furth his hede

Of culloure sore, and somedele broun as bery,

For to alichtin and glad our emispery;

The flambe out brastin at the neis thirlis.

Quhil schortlie, with the blesand torche of day,
Abulzeit in his lemand fresche array,

Furth of his palice ryall ischit Phebus,
With golden croun and visage glorious,

f

Crisp haris, bricht as chrissolite or thopas;
For quhais hew mycht nane behold his face :
The firie sparkis brasting from his ene,

To purge the air, and gilt the tender grene.

In the PROLOGUE to the eighth book, the alliterative manner of Pierce Plow

a

streamers.

streaks, mingled with, &c. bblazing.

Fr. habille; cloathed.

d luminous.

e curled locks.

f whose excessive brightness.

1

The auriat phanis of his trone soverane
With glitterand glance overspred the octiane";
The large fludis, lemand all of licht,
Bot with ane blenk of his supernal sicht,
For to behald, it was ane glore to se
The stabillyt wyndis, and the calmyt se ;
The soft sessoun, the firmament serene;
The loune illuminate arem, and firth amene:

n

The silver-scalit fyschis on the grete°,

Ouer thowrt clere stremes sprinkilland for the hete,
With fynnys schinand broune as synopare',

And chesal talis, stourand here and there':

The new cullour, alichting" all the landis,

Forgane the stanryis schene ", and beriall strandis :

Quhil the reflex of the diurnal bemes

The bene bonkis* kest ful of variant glemes:
And lustie Flora did her blomes sprede

Under the fete of Phebus fulzeart stede,

The swardit soyll enbrode with selkouth hewis 2,
Wod and forest obumbrate with bewis 2,
Quhais blysful branchis, porturate on the ground,
With schaddois schene schew rocchis rubicund:
Towris, turrettis, kirnallis, and pynnakillis hie,
Of kirkis, castellis, and ilk faire citie,

Stude payntit, every fane, phioll, and stage,
Apoun the playn grounde by thaire awn umbrage.

Of Eolus north blastis havands no drede,
The sulze spred hir brad bosum on brede1.—
The cornis croppis, and the bere new-brerde',
With gladsum garment revesting the erde.--
The variant vesture of the venust vale

Schrowdis the scherand fur', and every falem
Ouerfrett" with fulzeis°, and fyguris ful dyuers,
The pray" bysprent with spryngand sproutis dyspers,
For callour humours on the dewy nycht,
Rendryng sum place the gyrs pylis thare licht,
Als fer as catal the lang somerys day

Had in thare pasture ete and gnyp away:

And blyssful blossomys in the blomyt zard
Submittis thare hedys in the zoung sonnys safgard :
Iue leius rank ouerspred the barmkyn' wall,
The blomit hauthorne cled his pykis all,
Furth of fresche burgeouns the wyne grapist zing
Endlang the trazileys" dyd on twistis hing,
The loukit buttouns on the gemyt treis

W

Ouerspredand leuis of naturis tapestryis.

Soft gresy verdoure eftir balmy schouris,
On curland stalkis smyland to thare flowris:
Behaldand thame sa mony divers hew

Sum piers, sum pale sum burnet, and sum blew,
Sum gres, sum gowlis, sum purpure, sum sanguane,
Blanchit or broun, fauch zallow mony ane,

g having.

here the description of corn-fields ends:

The soil, the country, spread abroad and that of pasture-lands begins at, The her expansive bosom.

i new-sprung barley. k earth.

1 furrow.

m turf. "It is evident our author intends to describe two distinct things, viz. cornfields and meadows or pasture-lands: the former in the three first lines; the varyant vesture, &c. is plainly arable, and the fulzeis and figuris full dyuers, are the various leaves and flowers of the

weeds growing among the corn, and making a piece of embroidery. And

pray bysprent, &c. Pray, not as the
printed glossary says, corruptedly for
spray, but formed, through the French,
from the Lat. Pratum, and Spryngand
Sproutis, rising springs, from the Ital.
spruzzare, spruzzolare, aspergere.
。 leaves.