504 ERSCHE MEN GRIT RUME THAY TUKE IN HELL. Than the fowll monster GLUTTONY, To daunce syn did him dress: Full many a waistless wally-drag3, At this infernal dance no minstrels plaid. No GLEEMAN, or minstrel, ever went to hell; except one who committed murder, and was admitted to an inheritence in hell by brief of richt, that is, per breve de rectolo. This circumstance seems an allusion to some real fact. The concluding stanza is entirely a satire on the highlanders. Dunbar, as I have already observed, was born in Lothian, a county of the Saxons. The mutual antipathy between the Scottish Saxons and the Highlanders was excessive, and is not yet quite eradicated. Mahoun, or Mahomet, having a desire to see a highland pageant, a fiend is commissioned to fetch Macfadyen; an unmeaning name11, chosen for its harshness. As soon as the infernal messenger begins to publish his summons, he gathers about him a prodigious crowd of Ershe men; who soon took up great room in hell. These loquacious termagants began to chatter like rooks and ravens, in their own barbarous language: and the devil is so stunned with their horrid yell, that he throws them down to his deepest abyss, and smothers them with smoke. 1 Womb. Belly. 6 Gape. 10 ST. x. Than cryd Mahoun for a heleand padyane, Be he the correnoth had done schout13, 2 Cup. 3 Out-cast. 7 Hot lead to drink, to lap. 4 Wombs. Bellies. 5 Fat. 9 St. ix. 12 Nook. 8 Desire. Appetite. 11 But a common one in Scotland.-A. M. 13 As soon as he had made the cry of distress, what the French call a l'aide. Some suppose, that the correnoth, or corynoch, is a highland tune. In MAK-GREGOR'S TESTAment, [MSS. infr. citat.] the author speaks of being out-lawed by the CORrinoch, v. 51. The loud CORONACH1 then did me exile, Throw Lorne, Argyle, Monteith, and Braidalbane, &c. That is, The Hue and Cry. I presume, what this writer, in another place, calls the KINGSHORN, is the same thing, v. 382. Quhen I have beine aft at the KINGIS-HORNE. 1 Coronach means lament or wailing at the death-song of the chief, and not the Hue and Cry; in the writings of Sir W. Scott now made known to all the world. KING'S-HORN again is the name of an ancient burgh in Fife.-Wharton evidently knew little of Scotland.-A. M. Thae turmagantis1 with tag and tatter The devil sa devit3 wes with thair yell He smorit them with smoke1. I have been prolix in my citations and explanations of this poem, because I am of opinion, that the imagination of Dunbar is not less suited to satirical than to sublime allegory: and that he is the first poet who has appeared with any degree of spirit in this way of writing since Pierce Plowman. His THISTLE AND ROSE, and GOLDEN TERGE, are generally and justly mentioned as his capital works: but the natural complexion of his genius is of the moral and didactic cast. The measure of this poem is partly that of Sir THOPAS in Chaucer: and hence we may gather by the way, that Sir THOPAS was anciently viewed in the light of a ludicrous composition. It is certain that the pageants and interludes of Dunbar's age must have quickened his invention to form those grotesque groupes. The exhibition of MORALITIES was now in high vogue among the Scotish. A morality was played at the marriage of James IV. and the princess Margaret. Mummeries, which they call GYSARTS, composed of moral personifications, are still known in Scotland: and even till the beginning of this century, especially among the festivities of Christmas, itinerant maskers were admitted into the houses of the Scottish nobility 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 Gawain Douglas. He was descended from a noble family, and born in the year 14755. 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 1 Perhaps the poet does not mean the common idea annexed to termagant. The context seems to shew, that he alludes to a species of wild-fowl, well known in the highlands, and called in the Scottish statute-book termigant). Thus he compares the highlanders to a flock of their country birds. For many illustrations of this poem, I am obliged to the learned and elegant editor of ANCIENT SCOTTISH POEMS, lately published from Lord Hyndford's MSS. and to whom I recommend a task, for which he is well qualified, The History of Scottish Poetry. 3 Deafened. 4 ST. xi. 2 Chattered hoarsely. 1 Ptarmigan.-A. M. 506 GAWAIN DOUGLAS, THE SCOTTISH POET AND CLASSIC. 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 promulgated by James I., which tended in some degree to reform the illiteracy of the clergy, as it injoined, that no ecclesiastic of Scotland should be preferred to a prebend of any value without a competent skill in that science1. Among other high promotions in the church, which his very singular accomplishments obtained, he was provost of the collegiate church of St. Giles at Edinburgh, abbot of the opulent convent of Abberbrothock, and bishop of Dunkeld. He appears also to have been nominated by the queen regent to the archbishoprick, either of Glasgow, or of St. Andrew's but the appointment was repudiated by the pope2. 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 Henry VIII. who, in consideration of his literary merit, allowed him a liberal pension3. 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 15215. 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 Scottish 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 Eneas1o. 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 St. Austin11. 1 Lest. REB. GEST. SCOT. Lib. ix. 2 Thynne, CONTINUAT. HIST. SCOT. 455. 3 Hollinsh. ScOTS. 307.-iii. 872. 4 Bale, xiv. 58. 5 Weever, FUN. MON. p. 446. And Stillingfl. ORIG. BRIT. p. 54. 6 Edit. Edinb. fol. 1710. p. 483. In the EPISTLE, or EPILOGUE, to Lord Sinclaire. I believe the editor's name is ROBERT FREEBAIRN, a Scotchman. This translation was first printed at London, 1553. 4to. bl. lett. 7 Lesl. REB. GEST. SCOT. lib. ix. p. 379. Rom. 1675. 8 EPILOGUE, ut supr. 10 EPIL. ut supr. 9 The PALICE OF HONOUR. ad calcem. 11 PROLOGUE to the Translation, p. 5. The MSS. notes writen in the margin of a copy of the old qto. edition of this translation, by Patrick Junius, 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. 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 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 regions1. 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, Sched purpour sprayngis with gold and asure mentR. Of culloure sore, and somedele broun as bery, The flambe out brastin at the neis thirlis. Quhil schortlie, with the blesand1o torche of day, The stabillyt 18 wyndis, and the calmyt se; The soft sessoun19, the firmament serene; The loune illuminate are20, and firth21 amene: 1 In the PROLOGUE to the eighth book, the alliterative manner of Pierce Plowman is adopted. 2 Page. 400. 6 Edge. 9 Streaks mingled with, &c. 11 Fr. Habille. Cloathed. 13 Curled locks. 15 Fanes, or vanes, of gold. 17 Only with one glance. 19 Season. 14 Whose excessive brightness. 16 Ocean. 20 Air without wind, &c. 21 Frith. 508 MAY, A POEM THE ENEID OF GAWAIN DOUGLAS. The silver scalit fyschis on the grete1, Ouer thowrt2 clere stremes sprinkilland3 for the hete. Forgane the stanryis schene, and beriall strandis: The bene bonkis9 kest ful of variant glemes: Quhais blysful branchis, porturate13 on the ground, Stude payntit, every fane, phioll15, and stage16, Schrowdis the scherand fur22, and every fale23 Had in thare pasture ete and gnyp away: And blyssful blossomys in the blomyt zard Submittis thare hedys in the zoung sonnys safgard: Furth of fresche burgeouns29 the wyne grapis30 zing 1 Sand, gravel. 2 Athwart, across, through. 3 Gliding swiftly, with a tremulous motion, or vibration, of their tails. 4 Cinnabar. 5 Tails shaped like chissels. 7 Illuminating. 6 Swimming swiftly, darting hastily. 8 Over, upon, over-against, the bright gravel, or small stones, thrown out on the banks of rivers. Hence, the strands were all of beryl. 9 Pleasant banks. 10 Brilliant, glittering. 11 Bladed with grass, and embroidered with strange colours. 13 Portrayed, painted, reflected. 16 Story. 14 Battlements. 17 Their own shadow. 15 Round tower. 21 Earth. 22 Furrow. 12 Boughs. 18 Having. 23 Turf. 24 It is evident our author intends to describe two distinct things, viz. corn-fields, and meadows or pasture-lands: the former in the three first lines; THE VARYANT VESTURE, &c. is plainly arable, and the FULZEIS AND FYGURIS FULL DYUERS, are the various leaves and flowers of the weeds growing among the corn, and making a piece of embroidery. And here the description of corn-fields ends: and that of pasture-lands begins at, THE 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 29 Sprigs. 30 Young. 25 Leaves. 26 Mead. 27 Ivy-leaves. 28 Rampart. |