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of cattle. Merry Makyne said to him.-u Robene, take pity on me. I have loved me openly and secretly.w These years two or three. My sorrow, in secret, unless thou share.- Undoubtedly I shall die.

II. Robene answered, by the rood.- Nothing of love I know. But keep my sheep under yon wood. Lo where they range in a row.-d What has marred thee in thy mood. Makyne, show thou to me.- Or what is love or to be loved.-Fain would I learn that law (of love). III. h At the lore of love if thou wilt learn. Take there an A, B, C.- Be kind, courteous, and fair of aspect or feature.-k Wise, hardy, and free. See that no danger daunt thee.-m Whatever sorrow in secret thou sufferest. Exert thyself with pains to thy utmost power. - Be patient and privy.

VI.

He. Makyne, to morne this ilka tyde,
And ye will meit me heir f;

Peradventure my scheip may gang besydes,
Quhill we haif liggit full neir,

Bot maugre haif I, an I byde,

Fra they begin to steir,

Quhat lyis on hairt I will nocht hyd,
Makyne then mak gud cheir.

IV. P Robene answered her again.- I wot not what is love. But I (have) wonder, certainly. What makes thee thus melancholy. The weather is fair, and I am glad. My sheep go healthful above (or in the uplands). -If we should play in this plain. They would reprove us both.

W

V. x Robene, take heed unto my tale.-y And do all as I advise. And thou shalt have my heart entirely.a Since God sends good for evil-b And for mourning consolation - I am now in secret with thee, but if I separate.-d Doubtless I shall die (broken-hearted).

VI. Makyne, to-morrow this very time. If ye will meet me here. Perhaps my sheep may go aside.h Until we have lain near.

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X.

Makyne went hame withouttin faills,
Full werry aftir couth weiph,
Than Robene in a full fair daill,+
Assemblit all his scheip.

Be that sum parte of Makyne's ail',
Ourthrow his hairt cowd creip,
He followit hir fast thair till assaill,
And till hir tuke gude keep'.

VIL i Robene, thou robbest my quiet and rest.—j I but thee alone-k Makyne, adieu, the sun goes west. The day is nearly gone.- Robene, in sorrow I am so beset. That love will be my bane.-o Go love, Makyne, where thou wilt.--P For sweetheart I love none.

VIII. Robene, I am in such a state. I sigh, and that full sore. Makyne, I have been here some time. At home God grant I were." My sweet Robene, talk a while. If thou wilt do no more.- Makyne, some other man beguile. For homeward I will fare.

IX. 7 Robene on his way went. As light as leaf of tree. Makyne mourned in her thoughts.-b And thought him never to see.-e Robene went over the hill.

Then Makyne cried on high.-e Now you may sing, I am destroyed. What ails, love, with me?

X. Makyne went home without fail.- Full after she would weep. By that (time) some of Makyne's sorrow. Crept through his heart. He followed fast to lay hold of her. And held good watch of her.

• Pinkerton absurdly makes this word roiss; it is roi in the Bannatyne MS.

The line. Than Robene in a full fair daill," may either mean that he assembled his sheep in a fair full number, or in a fair piece of low ground; the former is the more probable meaning.

The word werry I am unable to explain.

XI.

XVI.

Makyne went hame blythe aneuchef, Attoure the holtis hairs;

Robene murnit, and Makyne leuch1,

Scho sang, he sichit sair.

And so left him baith wo and wreuch',
In dolour and in cairk,

Kepand his hird under a heuch',
Amang the holtis hair.

m Abide, abide, thou fair Makyne.-n A word for any thing's (sake). For all my love shall be thine.P Without departing.-9 To have thy heart all mine.- Is all that I covet.- My sheep, to-morrow, till nine.t Will need no keeping.

XII. V u For you made game of my pain. I shall say like you.- Mourn on, I think to do better (than be in love). XV. Makyne, the hope of all my health.-y My heart is on thee set. And (1) shall ever more be true to thee. While I may live, without ceasing.- Never to fail as others fail.-e Whatever favour I obtain.-d Robene, with thee I will not deal.-e Adieu! for thus we met.

XVI. f Makyne went home blythe enough.-g Over the hoary woodlandsf.- Robene mourn'd, and Makyne laughed. She sang, he sighed sore. And so left him woeful and overcome. In dolour and care. Keeping his herd under a cliff.-m Among the hoary hillocks.

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WILLIAM DUNBAR.

[Born, 1460? Died, 1520 ?]

THE little that is known of Dunbar has been gleaned from the complaints in his own poetry, and from the abuse of his contemporary Kennedy, which is chiefly directed against his poverty. From the colophon of one of his poems, dated at Oxford, it has been suggested, as a conjecture, that he studied at that university. By his own account, he travelled through France and England as a novice of the Franciscan order; and, in that capacity, confesses that he was guilty of sins, probably professional frauds, from the stain

of which the holy water could not cleanse him. On his return to Scotland he commemorated the nuptials of James IV. with Margaret Tudor, in his poem of the Thistle and Rose; but we find that James turned a deaf ear to his remonstrances for a benefice, and that the queen exerted her influence in his behalf ineffectually+. Yet, from the verses on his dancing in the queen's chamber, it appears that he was received at court on familiar terms.

THE DAUNCE OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS THROUGH HELL.

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Let's

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's see, quoth he, now quha begins": With that the fowll Sevin Deidly Sins',

Begowth to leip at anis'.

And first of all in dance was Pryd,
With hair wyld bak, and bonet on side",
Like to mak vaistie wainis;

And round about him, as a quheill",
Hang all in rumpilis to the heill3,

His kethat for the nanis".

Mony proud trompour with him trippit', Throw skaldan fyre ay as they skippita, They girnd with hyddous granis.

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I. a The fifteenth night.-b Before the day-light.-c I lay in a trance.-d And then I saw both heaven and hell. Methought among the fell fiends.-f The devil made proclaim a dance.-g Of sinners that were never shriven. The evening preceding Lent. To make their observance. He bade (his) gallants go prepare a masque. And cast up dances in the skies.

II. Holy harlots in haughty guise.-m Came in with many sundry masks. But yet Satan never laughed.• While priests came with their bare shaven necks.P Then all the fiends laughed and made signs of derision. - Names of spirits.

[† Dunbar in 1477 was entered among the Determinantes, or Bachelors of Arts, at Salvator's College, St. Andrew's, and in 1479 he took his degree there of Master of Arts. (See Laing's Dunbar, vol. i. p. 9.) That he studied at Oxford at any time is highly improbable.]

IV.

Then Ire cam in with sturt and strife", His hand was ay upon his knyfe,

He brandeist lyk a beir; Bostaris, braggaris, and barganeris", After him passit into pairise,

All bodin in feir of weirf.

III. Let's sec, quoth he, now who begins- With that the foul seven deadly sins.-t Began to leap at once. - With hair combed back (and) bonnet to one side.▾ Likely to make wasteful wants.- Like a wheel.* Hung all the rumples to the heel.-y His cassock for the nonce. Many a proud impostor with him tripped.a Through scalding fire as they skipt.-b They grinned with hideous groans.

IV.

c Then Ire came with trouble and strife.d Boasters, braggarts, and bullies- After him passed in pairs. All arrayed in feature of war.

[In 1500 he received a yearly pension of ten pounds from King James," to be pait to him for al the dais of his life, or quhil he be promovit be our Souerane Lord to a benefice of xl li. or aboue." The pension was raised to xx li. in 1507, and to lxxx li. in 1510, the latter to be paid till such time as he should receive a benefice of one hundred pounds or upwards.]

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In coats of armour and bonnets of steel.-h Their legs were chained to the heel. (Probably it means covered with iron net-work).—¡Froward was their aspect.-J Some struck upon others with brands. Some stuck others to the hilt With knives that sharply could mangle.

V. Followed Envy.-n Filled full of quarrel and felony. For privy hatred that traitor trembled.-P Him followed many a dissembling renegado.- With feigned words fair, or white. And flatterers to men's faces.⚫ And backbiters in secret places. To lie that had delight. And spreaders of false lies.- Alas that courts of noble kings. Of them can never be rid. VI. Covetousness.-y Root of all evil and ground of vice. Caitiffs, wretches, and usurers.- Misers, hoarders, and gatherers-b All with that barloch or male fiend went. Out of their throats they shot on (each) other. Hot molten gold, methought, a vast quantity.Like fire flakes most fervid.-f Aye as they emptied themselves of shot. With gold of all kind of coin.

VII. Then Sloth at a second bidding. Came like a sow from a dunghill. Full sleepy was his grunt.Many a lazy glutton. Many a drowsy sleepy sluggard. -Him served with care.

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n He drew them forth in a chain.-0 And Belial with a bridle-rein.-P Ever lashed them on the back.- In dance they were so slow of feet. They gave them in the fire a heat. And made them quicker of apprehension.

VIII. Then Lechery, that loathsome body." Rearing like a stallion.-"And Idleness did him lead. There was with him an ugly sort.-x That had been dead in sin. - When they were entered in the dance. Like torches burning red.

IX. a Of womb insatiable and greedy.-b To dance then addressed himself.-e Him followed many a foul drunkard.-d Different names of drinking vessels.- Full many a waistless sot. With bellies unwieldable did drag forth.-s In grease that did increase. The fiends gave them hot lead to lap.-i Their love of drinking was not the less.

X. No minstrels without doubt.-k For gleemen there were kept out. By day and by night.-m Except a minstrel that slew a man." So till he won his inheritance.• And entered by letter of right.

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DAVID LYNDSAY, according to the conjecture of his latest editor*, was born in 1490. He was educated at St. Andrew's, and leaving that university, probably about the age of nineteen, became the page and companion of James V. during the prince's childhood, not his tutor, as has been sometimes inaccurately stated. When the young king burst from the faction which had oppressed himself and his people, Lyndsay published his Dream, a poem on the miseries which Scotland had suffered during the minority. In 1530, the king appointed him Lyon King at Arms, and a grant of knighthood, as usual, accompanied the office. In that capacity he went several times abroad, and was one of those who were sent to demand a princess of the Imperial line for the Scottish sovereign. James having, however, changed his mind to a connexion with France, and having at length fixed his choice on the Princess Magdalene, Lyndsay was sent to attend upon her to Scotland; but her death happening six weeks after her arrival, occasioned another poem from our author, entitled the "Deploracion." On the arrival of Mary of Guise, to supply her place, he superintended the ceremony of her triumphant entry into Edinburgh; and, blending the fancy of a poet with the godliness of a reformer, he so constructed the pageant, that a lady like an angel, who came out of an artificial cloud, exhorted her majesty to serve God, obey her husband, and keep her body pure, according to God's commandments.

On the 14th of December, 1542, Lyndsay witnessed the decease of James V., at his palace of Falkland, after a connexion between them which had subsisted since the earliest days of the prince. If the death of James (as some of his biographers

*Mr. G. Chalmers.

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have asserted) occasioned our poet's banishment from court, it is certain that his retirement was not of long continuance; since he was sent, in 1543, by the Regent of Scotland, as Lyon King, to the Emperor of Germany. Before this period the principles of the Reformed religion had begun to take a general root in the minds of his countrymen; and Lyndsay, who had already written a drama in the style of the old moralities, with a view to ridicule the corruptions of the popish clergy, returned from the Continent to devote his pen and his personal influence to the cause of the new faith. In the parliaments which met at Edinburgh and Linlithgow, in 1544-45 and 46, he represented the county of Cupar in Fife; and in 1547, he is recorded among the champions of the Reformation, who counselled the ordination of John Knox.

The death of Cardinal Beaton drew from him a poem on the subject, entitled, a Tragedy, (the term tragedy was not then confined to the drama,) in which he has been charged with drawing together all the worst things that could be said of the murdered prelate. It is incumbent, however, on those who blame him for so doing, to prove that those worst things were not atrocious. Beaton's principal failing was a disposition to burn with fire those who opposed his ambition, or who differed from his creed; and if Lyndsay was malignant in exposing one tyrant, what a libeller must Tacitus be accounted!

His last embassy was to Denmark, in order to negotiate for a free trade with Scotland, and to solicit ships to protect the Scottish coasts against the English. It was not till after returning from this business that he published Squyre Meldrum, the last, and the liveliest of his works.

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