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the Thistle's bush of spears, and it is gallantly charged :

In fielde go furth and fend the laif.

The ROSE, or the Queen, is then delicately recommended to the tenderness and protection of the THISTLE, addressed in some ornate verses, and exalted above the Lily,-a courtly compliment to the House of Tudor at the expense of that of Valois.

THE GOLDEN TERGE, which couches a moral end under an allegorical contest between Love and Reason, and their respective satellites, has some flowery, sweet, but rather diffuse description; for the early poets adorned Nature, as they ascribed charms to their mistresses, with more exuberance of ornament than discrimination of taste.

The following description, with which the poem commences, is pointed out by Warton, who warmly praises Dunbar. The scene is the fresh dawn of a May-day :

Richte as the starre of day began to schyne,
When gone to bed was Vesper and Lucyne,
I raise, and by a rosier (a) did me rest:
Upsprang the golden candle matutyne,
With cleir depurit (b) bemys chrystallyne,
Glading the mirry fowlis in thair nest:
Or Phebus was in purpour kaip (c) revest,

Upsprang the lark, the hevenis menstral syne, (d)
In May intill a morrew mirthfullest.

(a) Rose-tree.

(b) Purified.

Phebus was dressed in his purple robe.

(c) Cape. Ere

(d) Then.

Full angelyk the birdis sang thair houris,

Within their courtings (a) grene, within thair bouris
Apparrellit quhaite and reid with blumys sweit:
Ennamelit was the feild with all cullouris,

The perlit droppis schuke as in silver schouris, (b)
While al in balme did branche and levis fleit
Depairt from Phebus, did Aurora greit,

Hir chrystall teiris I saw hing on the flouris,
Quhilk he for lufe all drank up with his heit.

For mirth of May, with skippis and with hoppis,
The birdis sang upon the tendir croppis, (c)
With curious notes, as Venus' chapell-clarkes :
The rosis reid, now spreiding of their knoppis, (d)
Were powderit (e) bricht with heavenly beryl-droppis,
Throw bemys reid lemyng as ruby sparks;

The skyis rang with schoutyng of the larks,
The purpour hevin owreskalit in silver sloppis (ƒ)
Owregilt the treis, branchis, levis and barks.

Down thruch the ryss (g) ane revir ran with stremis
So lustely upoun the lykand (h) lemis,

That all the lake as lamp did leme of licht,

Quhilk shaddowit all about with twynkling glemis; (¿)
The bewis (k) baithit war in secound bemis,
Through the reflex of Phebus' visage bricht
On every side the egè raise on hicht: (7)
The bank was grene, the son was ful of bemis,
The streimeirs cleir as starres in frostie nicht.

(a) Curtains.

(b) The pearled drops fell from the (d) Knobs ;

trees like silver showers.
(e) Besprinkled.

buds.

(c) Branches.

(f) Covered with streaks,

(g) Through the bushes, the trees. (h) Pleasant.

slips, of silver.
Rice, or ris, is properly a long branch.

(i) The water blazed like a lamp, and threw about it shadowy

gleams of twinkling light.

high-raised edges or bank.

(k) Boughs.

(2) The

There is much of the flowery voluptuousness of some of Spenser's descriptions in the following opening stanzas. The poet, who drops asleep on Flora's mantle, sees a fairy-vessel, superbly decorated, sail on through a sunny bay, and land its fair freight of an hundred nymphs among the green rushes and reeds of an enamelled meadow. This fair group,

Als fresche as flowrs that in the May upspreids
In kirtills grene, withoutin kell (a) or bands
Their bricht hair hung glittering on the strand
In tressis cleir, wypit (b) with golden threidis ;
With pawpys whyt, and meddills small as wands,

are Venus, Aurora, Flora, May, and her sister Months, the goddess of the woodis grene, with their attendants. Cupid leads on another group, with Bacchus, the gladder of the table; and this brilliant assemblage dance under the trees, and sing love-ditties to the harp and lute, till, incited by Venus, they attack the poet, who is defended by Reason, shielded by his GOLDEN TERGE. As is usual in such contests, this, though stoutly maintained, is at last gained by Love. The shout of victory awakens the poet,—the fairy-vision has fled, -he is again alone in the forest where he fell asleep, with the birds singing merrily, and the brook flowing on.

As a teacher of life, Dunbar deserves notice. The following lines have a tone of cheerful good

(a) Caul.

(b) Bound.

D

sense and moral dignity not frequent among writers of the fifteenth century:

I.

BE merry, man! and take not far in mind
The wavering of this wretched world of sorrow!
To God be humble, to thy friend be kind,
And with thy neighbours gladly lend and borrow:
His chance to-night, it may be thine to-morrow.
Be blithe in heart for any aventure;

For oft with wysure (a) it has been said aforrow, (b)
Without gladness availis no trèsure.

II.

"Make thee good cheer of it that God thee sends,
For worldis wrak, (c) but welfare, nought avails;
No good is thine, save only but thou spends,
Remenant (d) all thou brookest but with bales,
Seek to solace when sadness thee assails,
In dolour long thy life may not endure;
Wherefore of comfort set up all thy sails;
Without gladness availis no treasure.

III.

Follow on pity; fly trouble and debate;
With famous folkis hold thy company:
Be charitable, and humble in thine estate,
For worldly honour lastis but a cry, (e)
For trouble in earth take no melancholy;
Be rich in patience, if thou in goods be poor:
Who lives merry, he lives mightily:

Without gladness availis no treasure.

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Though all the werk (f) that ever had living wight,

Were only thine, no more thy part does fall

(a) Wisdom.

treasure, &c.

(b) A-fore, before.

(c) Merchandize,

(d) Thou canst enjoy all the remainder (e) No longer than a sound.

only with bale, or sorrow. (f) Possessions.

But meat, drink, clothes, and of the laif (a) a sight!
Yet, to the judge thou shall give 'compt of all.
A reckoning right comes of a ragment (b) small.
Be just, and joyous, and do to none injure,
And Truth shall make thee strong as any wall:
Without gladness availis no treasure.

DUNBAR'S DANCE OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS THROUGH HELL, a bold and spirited sketch of the personified vices, mixes the comic and grotesque with the horrible in a manner more wild than agreeable. It is literally a dance; the figures of this hideous, and yet ludicrous masque, or mumming, just appear, startle the spectator, and evanish, before his alarm gives place to the disgust or contempt which their prolonged appearance could not fail to produce.

GAWIN DOUGLAS, third son of the Earl of Angus, named BELL-THE-CAT, flourished about the same time as Dunbar. He was born in 1475, studied at St Andrews, and travelled. Douglas, through his family-interest, obtained high church preferment, and was Bishop of Dunkeld. During the regency of the Duke of Albany, he found it necessary to seek protection at the court of Henry VIII., and died in London of the plague in 1521. His original works are King Hart, an allegorical romance on human life, in which a warfare is car

(a) Remainder.

(b) Account.

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