rigour, and even kept him confined for two years in the Tower, took the greatest care of his education, and appointed, as his governor, Sir John Pelham, a man of worth and learning, under whose tuition he made so rapid a progress, that he soon became a prodigy of talents and accomplishments. His character, as drawn by the historians of that age, is such as we seldom see realized. We are assured, that he became a proficient in every branch of polite literature; in grammar, oratory, Latin and English poetry, music, jurisprudence, and the philosophy of the times: and that his dexterity in tilts and tournaments, in wrestling, in archery, and in the sports of the field, was perfectly unrivalled.

It might be objected, that those who possess only a part of these accomplishments, are apt to gain credit for all the rest; that the owner of a crown is seldom judged with severity; that unmerited misfortune is sure to excite sympathy and commiseration; and that as James united all these claims to popular favour, some parts of the preceding description, are likely to have been somewhat exaggerated. But the excellent laws which he enacted after his return to Scotland, and the happiness which his people enjoyed in consequence of his policy, his firmness, and his justice, bear the most unequivocal testimony to the truth of one

part of the picture; and his poetical remains are sufficient to evince, that his literary talents were not over-rated by his contemporaries.

During fifteen years of his captivity, he seemed forgotten, or at least neglected, by his subjects. The admiration of strangers, and the consciousness of his own talents, only rendered his situation more irksome; and he had begun to abandon himself to despair, when he was fortunately consoled, for his seclusion at Windsor castle, by a passion of which sovereigns, in quiet possession of a throne, have seldom the good fortune to feel the influence. The object of his adoration was the lady Jane Beaufort (daughter of John Beaufort duke of Somerset, and grand-daughter of John of Gaunt), whom he afterwards married, and in whose commendation he composed his principal poetical work, called the King's Quair.

This poem, consisting of 197 stanzas, divided into six cantos, has much allegorical machinery, which was apparently suggested to him by the study of Boethius, the favourite author of the time; but it also contains various particulars of his life; it is full of simplicity and feeling, and is not inferior, in poetical merit, to any similar production of Chaucer. The following extract is taken from the second canto, in which no allega

rical painting is introduced, and which contains little more, than an account of his own adventures.

X.

The longe dayes and the nightis eke

I would bewail my fortune in this wise;
For which, against distress comfort to seek,
My custom was on mornis for to rise
Early as day: O happy exercise!
By thee come I to joy out of torment :-
But now to purpose of my first entent.

XI.

Bewailing in my chamber thus alone,
Despaired of all joy and remedy,
For-tired of my thought, and woe-begone,
Unto the window gan I walk in hie;

To see the world and folk that went forby ;
As, for the time, (though I of mirthis food
Might have no more) to look it did me good.

XII.

Now was there made, fast by the touris wall,
A garden fair; and in the corners set

1 The gardens of this period seem to have been very small. In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, we find the same place indifferently called a garden and a yard; and this

An herbergreen; with wandis long and small
Railed about, and so with treeis set

Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet; That life was none [a] walking there forby, That might within scarce any wight espie.—

XIV.

And on the smalle greene twistis sat

The little sweete nightingale, and sung So loud and clear, the hymnis consecrate Of lovis use, now soft, now loud among, That all the gardens and the wallis rung Right of their song; and on the couple next 3 Of their sweet harmony: and lo the text.

at Windsor, fast by the tower's wall, was probably either in the yard or on the terrace.

"Adoune the staire anon right tho she went

"Into her garden," &c.

"This yerde was large, and railed all the aleyes,

"And shadowed wel with blossomy boughis green;
"And benched new, and sanded all the ways,

"In which she walked," &c.

Troilus and Cress. Book ii. 1. 813, &c.

1 Probably an arbour, though the word is also very frequently used for an herbary, or garden of simples.

3 Mr. Tytler imagines that this relates to the pairing of the birds but the word couple seems here to be used as a musical term.

XV.

"Worshippe ye that lovers be this May,
"For of your bliss the calends are begun:
"And sing with us, away! winter away!

"Come summer, come! the sweet season and sun! "Awake, for shame! that have your heavens won! "And amorously lift up your headis all ; "Thank love, that list you to his mercy call!"

XVI.

When they this song had sung a little throw

2

They stent awhile, and therewith unafraid,

As I beheld, and cast mine eyen a-lowe,

From bough to bough they hipped3 and they play'd, And freshly, in their birdis kind, array'd Their feathers new, and frit 4 them in the sun,

And thanked love that had their makis 5 won.

These, and a few more stanzas, are preparatory to the appearance of his mistress, his first sight of whom is thus described.

XXI.

And therewith cast I down mine eye again,

Whereas I saw, walking under the tow'r,