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and desire. The human Heart, in its youth and old age, in its joys and sorrows, its follies and repentance, is made the hero of the poem, which is advantageously distinguished from many other similar attempts, both by the consistency of the development and the comprehensive range of its plot, which is readily surveyable. The whole course of human life, from tender youth up to death-with all the predominant inclinations of the heart-is vividly described. within a limited space and only a small outlay of means.

Of suggestions and prototypes of various kinds there existed plenty for Douglas, yet in this poem he has more distinctly than usual given proof of his own originality. Among his direct sources we have, in the first place, to consider the "Séjour d'honneur," an autobiography of Octavien de St. Gelais, which is taken in the abstract and worked out allegorically in a mixture of prose and verse. The author, an earlier contemporary of the Scottish poet, was, like Douglas, a bishop and a translator of Vergil. This autobiography had already furnished Douglas with some features for his "Palace of Honour," it now offered him the fundamental motives for his "King Hart." In addition to this work, some scenes from "The Vision of Piers Plowman" rose vividly before the poet's mind. Douglas draws less fully from his sources than Langland-at all events, he maintains greater reserve-but he is clearer, more perspicuous, shows a decidedly greater appreciation of artistic arrangement and finish; and his allegory, in spite of greater consistency, is no less pregnant than that of his great predecessor. How happily invented, among other things, is the following feature: King Hart finds himself forsaken by Youtheid (Youthhead is of the male sex) and his brothers Disport and Wantonness, who are about to ride away; Deliverance comes running up and offers to be their guide; and all slip away by a back gate without taking formal leave. Thereupon Delight comes hurrying up, pulls Youthhead by the sleeve, and says, "Abide a little, good fellow, lend me thy cloak, to disguise myself for a while, without thy mantle I shall certainly do mischief, I will follow thee before thou goest a mile." Delight enters the castle, and all who look at him from behind take him to be Youthhead, and believe him to have remained. Afterwards,

however, upon speaking to him, they find they have been deceived. When Delight has enjoyed himself as much as he wished, the colour of his courtly mantle begins to fade, "thriftless, threadbare, and ready for to spill, like failed black, which was before time blue." *

In "King Hart" the delineation is much simpler than in "The Palace of Honour :" we have less description, no mythological or learned reminiscences, less abundance and superfluity. The poet has here found the most concise and, at the same time, the most pithy and choice forms possible for expressing his thoughts. The versification, also, is more correct in every respect, more highly finished than in the work of his youth; Chaucer's eight-lined strophe is handled with masterly skill. Taken as a whole, the

narrative reminds one of the style of the great Master in his strophic Tales; only Chaucer is more varied, more concrete, more vivid, Douglas, on this occasion, perhaps the more concise.

"King Hart" is unquestionably the most mature of Douglas's productions, and occupies a significant place in the poetry of personification. It forms an important stage. towards the "Fairy Queen." And, considering the part which allegory plays in poems which do not altogether belong to the category (the numerous instances where, for example, Shakspere condenses allegorical ideas and lifts them into a higher sphere of poetic thought), a work seems to increase in significance when the but little sympathetic theme is brought home to us by the ingenious way in which it is handled.

Douglas, unlike the hero of his last poem, bade goodbye to his youth of his own accord, and early in life; the approach of old age had, perhaps, given premature signs of its coming. Still, he never knew the infirmities of old age; he was spared a visit from Decrepitus, whose spear in the end wounds King Hart. And yet Douglas's last days were but little happy.

Queen Margaret had returned to Scotland, but her heart was estranged from her husband. Angus had shown his consort but little affection or consideration in times of trouble and ill-health-had, indeed, been unfaithful to her

*The Poetical Works of Gawin Douglas, ed. John Small, i. 103.

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and the Queen wished to be freed from her marriage bond; she also wished to avenge herself against Douglas, for it was said to have been at his advice that Angus appropriated Ettrick Forest, which belonged to her. Soon after her return, her interest became centred in the Duke of Albany, who, wearied of the Scottish feuds, had resigned his position of Regent, and retired to France. By urgent entreaties Queen Margaret succeeded in persuading Albany to return. In November, 1521, he arrived in Scotland, and received a most friendly welcome. An intimate relation sprang up between them soon afterwards, and Angus, prepared for the worst, fled to the English frontier, but despatched his uncle Gawin to London to further his interests at the English court.

Full of zeal, the Bishop of Dunkeld devoted himself to his diplomatic task. But while he was addressing letters to Cardinal Wolsey, and raising complaints against the Duke of Albany in a memorial to Henry VIII., one jeremiad after another reached him from Scotland. His nephew, the Earl of Angus, turned traitor to his own cause, seemed disposed to consent to the Queen's wish for a divorce, and was endeavouring through her mediation to obtain a pardon from the Regent. By the death of Andrew Forman, the archbishopric of St. Andrew's and the abbotship of Dunfermline became vacant, and Douglas's rival, James Beaton, the Archbishop of Glasgow, set heaven and earth in motion to prevent Gawin's receiving these appointments. The political complications favoured Beaton's intrigues, for war was declared between England and Scotland, and Scotland formed an alliance with France against the Emperor Charles and King Henry VIII. The Bishop of Dunkeld found himself in the most awkward position: out of favour with his Queen and the Regent, deserted by the nephew for whose sake he had placed himself in his present position, and—at the time of the declaration of war-in the enemy's country as the representative of an unsuccessful cause, and rejected by its head. Beaton did not fail to make use of all these circumstances. He caused a proclamation to be issued in the name of the youthful King James V. which declared the Bishop of Dunkeld guilty of high treason; his bishopric was to be temporarily placed under the control

of the Vicar-General of St. Andrew's, and all vassals of the kingdom were prohibited, under penalty of high treason, from assisting him with money, or communicating with him by letter or messenger. Such was the end of Douglas's brilliant career: despised as a traitor, forsaken by relatives and old associates, in a foreign land, and in financial distress. A dim ray of light illumined his last days in the form of a new friendship, the outcome of services rendered in common to the Muses. Gawin, in London, made the acquaintance of Polydore Vergile of Urbino, who in 1501 had been sent to England to collect the tax called Peter'spence, and had eventually settled there. This learned Italian had been appointed Archdeacon of Wells, enjoyed the favour and friendship of Cardinal Wolsey, and was on intimate terms with many persons at court conspicuous by their rank and learning. Polydore Vergile was at work upon his "Historia Anglica," which in 1534 was published with a Dedication to King Henry VIII. Douglas took a lively interest in this work, at least in the portions referring to Scottish concerns, and voluntarily contributed material relating to the origin of the Scottish people. Polydore was, however, not long to enjoy his assistance; for, as early as September, 1522, Bishop Douglas was carried off by the plague which was raging in London at the time. In accordance with the directions of his last will, he was buried in the Hospital Church of the Savoy. Eighteen months after his death, justice was done to his memory by the Scottish parliament declaring the accusation of high treason that had been raised against him to be null and void.

Douglas has, however, been more fully appreciated by posterity. He was a man of a firm yet frank nature, not without ambition, and to his misfortune was involved in the party-feuds of the Scottish nobility, but full of genuine kindliness of feeling; as an ecclesiastic and prelate, a man of sound religious principles, opposed to scholastic cavilling, and faithfully attached to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith; above all, a devoted servant of the Muses and a zealous promoter of high culture. As a poet he is not one of the first rank; but, among those occupying the second stage, he was one of the most influential. As the translator of Vergil, the sublime painter

ENGLISH POETRY IN THE DAYS OF HENRY VII. 93

of nature, the keen observer, the earnest and skilful delineator of life and of the human heart, Douglas will be remembered as long as Scottish literature is able to attract sympathetic admirers.

II.

Our history now returns to English poetry, which had not yet again risen to the eminence it had attained in Scotland. The epoch which there receives its chief brilliancy from Dunbar and Douglas, is in England represented by three names in particular: Stephen Hawes, Alexander Barclay, and John Skelton. Hawes is a belated child of the Middle Ages; Barclay's work, in many instances, reminds one of Douglas's, who, as a poet, however, is much his superior; and Skelton's character and writings are supposed to show certain peculiarities of Dunbar's talent and disposition.

Stephen Hawes is peculiarly the poet of the times of Henry VII. A country which has passed from a period of violent disturbances into peaceful circumstances, in the first place usually devotes itself to rest and comfortable enjoyment; and the special favourites of the day are those who contribute to this enjoyment by holding up to it the image of its intellectual character and possessions, without pointing to new aims in any exciting manner. Hawes's poetry corresponded perfectly with the average level of culture attained by the court circles of those days. In like manner his staidness coincided admirably with the but little enthusiastic, but eminently practical, character of the monarch who inaugurated in England the era of the modern type of kingdom.

Henry VII. was not, in any way, one of the great patrons of art and learning. And yet intellectual interests were not foreign to him. He took care that his sons received a thoroughly classical education. And he was himself especially devoted to mathematics, and at times, also, to theology from its practical and polemical side. And for poetry, too, he had a certain appreciation, and sometimes. rewarded or rendered assistance to poets. He was especially fond of reading the fashionable French poetical literature of the day.