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Full secretly, new comen her to pleyne,1
The fairest or the freshest younge flow'r
That ever I saw, methought, before that hour;
For which sudden abate, anon astert 2
The blood of all my body to my heart.

XXII.

And though I stood abased tho a lite,3
No wonder was; for why? my wittis all
Were so overcome with pleasance and delight,
Only through letting of mine eyen fall,
That suddenly my heart became her thrall
For ever; of free will; for of menáce
There was no token in her sweete face.

XXIII.

And in my head I drew right hastily;
And [then] eft-soons I lean'd it out again:
And saw her walk that very womanly,

With no wight mo but only women twain.
Then gan I study with myself, and sayn,

"Ah sweet, are ye a worldly creatúre,
"Or heavenly thing in likeness of nature?

This seems to mean complain, but should it not rather be playen, to play or sport?

Started back.

• A little.

XXIV.

"Or are ye god Cupidis own princess?
"And comen are to loose me out of band.
"Or are ye very nature the goddess,

"That have depainted with your heavenly hand. "This garden full of flowers as they stand? "What shall I think, alas! what reverence "Shall I mestér unto your excellence ?

XXV.

"Giff ye a goddess be, and that ye like "To do me pain, I may it not astart;

"Giff ye be worldly wight, that doth me sike, "Why list God make you so, my dearest heart, "To do a silly prisoner thus smart,

"That loves you all, and wots of nought but wo:

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And, therefore, mercy sweet! sen it is so."

The dress and figure of his mistress are minutely painted as follows:

XXVII.

Of her array the form if I shall write,
Toward her golden hair and rich attire,
In fret-wise couched with pearlis white,
And greate balas' lemyng as the fire,

2

A sort of precious stones (says Urry) brought from

With many an emerald and fair saphire,
And, on her head a chaplet fresh of hue,
Of plumis, parted red, and white, and blue,

XXVIII.

Full of quaking spangles bright as gold,
Forged of shape like to the amourettes;
So new, so fresh, so pleasant to behold;
The plumis eke like to the flour-jonnettis,▾
And other of shape like to the flour-jonettis;2
And above all this, there was, well I wote,
Beauty enough to make a world to dote !

XXIX.

About her neck, white as the fair émail,3
A goodly chain of small orfevrerie ; 4
Whereby there hang a ruby without fail,
Like to an heart y-shapen verily,

That as a spark of lowe,5 so wantonly

Balassia, in India. Tyrwhitt says, the balais, Fr. is a sort of bastard ruby.

1

2

Shining.

Probably the fleur de genêt, (genista) broom.

• The repetition of this word is apparently a mistake of

the original transcriber.

3 Fr. Enamel.

4 Fr. Goldsmith's-work.

Fire. (Ruddiman's Glossary.)

Seemed burning upon her white throat:
Now gif there was good party, God it wot.

XXX.

And for to walk, that freshe Maye's morrow,
An hook she had upon her tissue white,
That goodlier had not been seen to-forrow,
As I suppose; and girt she was a lite;2
Thus halfling loose for haste, to such delight.
It was to see her youth in goodlihead,

That, for rudeness, to speak thereof I dread.

XXXI.

In her was youth, beauty, with humble aport,
Bounty, richesse, and womanly feature;
God better wrote than my pen can report:
Wisdom, largess, estate, and cunning sure,
In every point so guided her measure,
In word, in deed, in shape, in countenance,
That nature might no more her child avance.

It would, perhaps, be difficult to select, even from Chaucer's most finished works, a long specimen of descriptive poetry so uniformly elegant as this indeed some of the verses are so highly finished, that they would not disfigure the compo

1 Before.

VOL. I.

⚫ A little.

X

• Half.

sitions of Dryden, Pope, or Gray. Nor was King James's talent confined to serious and pathetic compositions. Two poems of a ludicrous cast, and which have been the constant favourites of the Scotish people to the present day, are now uni.versally attributed to this monarch. These are "Christ's Kirk on the Green," and "Peblis on the Play;" the first composed in the northern, and the second, in the southern dialect of Scotland. A third, called " Falkland on the Green," which Mr. Pinkerton supposes to have described the popular sports of the central district of the kingdom, and to have been written in the Fifeshire dialect, has hitherto eluded the researches of antiquaries. In Mr. Pinkerton's "Ancient Scotish Poems," (London, 1786), is found a "Song on Absence," which the editor suspects to be the same which is described by Major, as beginning with the words "y as 'sen," &c.

Of the King's Quair only one MS. is known to exist: it is a small folio, in the Bodleian library, (Seld. Archiv. B. xxiv.) Mr. Tytler, having procured a transcript of this MS. published it at Edinburgh, 1783, together with "Christ's Kirk on the Green," under the title of "Poetical Remains of James I.:" the work is illustrated with copious notes, and with two dissertations; the first on the

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