Hoc Jacobus aget quintus rex stirpe suorum
Inclytus offitium, quod sibi Jure vacat.
Clarior haud bello quisqs, nec pacis amator
Ancus pace fuit, Relligione numa.

Mascula thoracem vertus huic pectora fortem
Induet, et galeam spes geret ampla suam.
Ferripidem urgenti viso calcaribus hoste
Aggressoq. hastam porriget alma fides.
Periure nulla dextre formidine pulsus,
Subueniet miseris, colla superba premens.
Hectore nec tantum sua troia superstite gaudens:
Nec fuit eacide gretia beta suo:
Quantum gaudebit promisso principe fatis
Scotia, solus erit ille daturus opem.
Omnia que tanto felicem principe terram
Effitiant, diuum sedula cura geret.
Eia age, phebe tuis circundes ignibus orbem
Et plaga feruores sentiat illa tuos.
Temperiem diffunde bonam, sit grata colonis
Ut veniat messis semine digna suo.
Nos quoq pro ñre prolis faciemus honore

Quod bene susceptum, secula cuncta canent.
Delius ut cartam legit, gramioque reclusam
Condidit, expediam jussa totantis, ait.
Alipedes premittit equos, curruq. sequutus
Auriuomo, placida dirigit ora manu.
Vertice ceruleo summus se extollit olympus.
Et fugiunt toto nubila densa polo.
Hinc natura suas varie et subtiliter artes
Perq. astra exercet, viscera aperq. soli.
Id mirata, colunt Imasque numina terras,
Que degunt tremulis flumina clara vadis.
Frugiferum hoc celum (dixerunt) destinat annum.
Florescet leto germine terra ferax.

Scotia (sentimus) tardo subjecta boete,
Rege sub excelso fenora larga dabit.
Mox capiunt fauni siluas, hortisq. priapus
Pomiferis prohibet sidere nudus aues.
Flora recens campos gemmato vestit honore,
Officio dryadum pascua leta virent.
Herbida gramineos exhalat terra sapores,
Inq. nouum pergunt, sponte fruteta decus,
Per valles blando lapidosas murmure serpunt
Flumina, nereides flumina clara tenent.
Seminibus paleata ceres fecundat opimis
Jugera, que nullo culta labore forent.
Ingentemq. auidi spem non lusura coloni
Sydere promittit grana legenda suo.
Pan curare greges, pan cogere montibus agnos
Armentisque studet claudere septa vagis.
Maiori redeunt spumantia mulctra colostro,
Et solito pecudes grandius vber habent.
Res Ita disposuit nostra clementia diuum,
Propitios meminit quis magis ante deos.
Interea Jouis ipse puer placidissima regni
Sceptra gerens, populo dat bona Jura suo.

Finis.

Impressum Ediburgi apud
Thomam Dauidson,

1512.

REMARKS.

James V. was born on the twelfth of April, He died on the fourteenth of December, 1542. He took upon himself the government

in July 1528. He obtained the supreme authority by expelling the faction of the Douglases, who, for their own selfish and ambitious purposes held him in a sort of thraldom.

The STRESA, printed above, was evidently addressed to King James V. on this memorable occasion of his triumph over a factious party.

The first manuscript note informs us how this Poem came into the King's library by purchase, at West's sale. The reference to Herbert's edition of Ames in this manuscript note, should be 1472. The following description which there occurs is curious enough.

"It is a thin quarto it is unique."

The second manuscript note, which is, seemingly, the intimation of a Scotish Antiquary of the last century, is quite apocryphal.

Davidson, who stands at the head of the second dynasty of Scotish printers was appointed printer to the King in December 1541. This STRENA was printed by him before this epoch of his good fortune, otherwise he would have been naturally proud, and have avowed the honourable distinction he had obtained.

I suspect, from various circumstances, that Daviesone, or Davidson, for there was no uniform orthography in these times, did not begin to print in Scotland before the year 1540, whatever the said Scotish Antiquary may affirm, or Herbert may intimate: and this year may be, in

my

my opinion, safely assigned as the real period when the Strena was printed.

As to its merit as a composition, no great deal can be said. The author seems to have been tolerably well read in the Classics, and has borrowed very freely from Ovid. As a whole, however, it is far from contemptible.

ARISTEAS.

ARIȘTEAS, the presumed author of this book, was an officer in the service of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and of Jewish extraction. This Ptolemy desired Eleazar, the High Priest of the Jews, to send him some persons properly qualified to translate the Books of the Jewish Law out of Hebrew into Greek.

Eleazar selected seventy-two for this purpose, from which circumstance this Version obtained the name of the Septuagint. This book of Aristeas gives the history of this Version; but it is fabulous, and not the work of Aristeas, a heathen, and an officer of Ptolemy, but of an Hellenistic Jew of Alexandria.

That it was an imposture, there can be no doubt, from the numerous anachronisms by which it is distinguished. In sanction of this opinion, Archbishop Usher thus expresses himself in his Historia Dogmatica Controversiæ inter Orthodoxos et Pontificios de Scripturis et Sacris Vernaculis. P. 317.

"Non illubens equidem concedo Aristeæ historiam ab Impostore quodam Judæo longe post Philadelphi tempora confectam esse, ante Phi