"Yea, by cock! nay, by cock!"-some 'gan cry. Some sang of Jenkin and Julian1 for their meed. But, for lack of money, I might not speed. Then into Cornhill anon I yode, Where was much stolen gear; among To buy my own hood I thought it wrong; The taverner took me by the sleeve, "Sir," says he, "will you our wine assay ?" JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. (1395-1437.) THE truth of this great prince's life is stranger than fiction. His elder brother, the Duke of Rothesay, had fallen a victim to the criminal ambition of his uncle Albany; and his father, Robert III., in affectionate anxiety to avert a similar fate from his surviving son, determined to send James, at that time about eleven years old, to the court of France. The vessel in which he had embarked was captured by an English cruiser, although a truce then subsisted between the countries. From political motives, he was ungene rously detained prisoner in England by Henry IV.; but that monarch mitigated the baseness of his conduct by bestowing upon James an education worthy of his rank. His captivity in Windsor Castle matured him as a knight, a scholar, a statesman, and a gentleman. Its severity was softened by the poetic susceptibilities of his ardent mind; hope and the name of the Lady Jane Beaufort sustained the energies of the captive knight. After nearly twenty years of imprisoned exile, the policy or generosity of the English government permitted his ransom. He returned with his bride to Scotland; but he experienced the fate common to reformers in advance of their age. A barbarous nobility bore ill the restraints which civilization and law would have laid on their savage license, and James fell a victim to conspiracy at Perth in 1437. He possessed the qualities of a great man, a patriot king, and a true poet. He has sometimes been ranked in merit along with Chaucer. His chief poem is the "King's Quhair," (that is, Quire, book). Sleep 1 Ballads. 2 In the fifteenth century, a penny represented a much higher value than it now does. A labourer's wages were threepence a-day, equal, perhaps, to three or four shillings of modern money. 25 lessly bewailing his unhappy lot, he rises from his couch to attempt to forget his sorrows in the consolations of study. As he looks out on the fresh morning, he suddenly beholds in the garden beneath his prison tower a lady of transcendant beauty, the sight of whom affects his heart with incurable love. He is carried in vision by Hope to the court of Venus, who, after testing the purity of his attachment, sends him to Minerva. She, after some virtuous advice, bids him go in quest of Fortune. That goddess teaches him so to climb her wheel as to arrive at the summit of his desired felicity. The piece concludes with an enthusiastic expression of gratitude for the blessing he enjoys in his lady's love and worth. The whole poem is adorned with beautiful reflections and brilliant description. The language and versification are musical and elegant beyond what could be expected from the other poems ascribed to James are "Christ's Kirk on the Green" and "Peeblis to the Play;" both descriptive of the amusements and humours of age. The the Scottish peasantry. SPRING. QUHAIR: CANTO II. IN Ver, that full of virtue is and good, High in the east, a morrow soft and sweet, II. Passit but midday four 'greïs, even Of length and breadth his angel wingis bright JAMES BEWAILS THE HARDSHIP OF HIS LOT. CANTO II. Whereas in ward full oft I would bewail, 1 Enterprise ;-active operation. tive of while; umquhile (adj.) deceased. Apollo and Diana are named Cynthius and Cynthia from Mount Cynthus in the Isle of Delos, their birth-place. Degrees. 4 At morning. 5 The Ram of the Zodiac. That I should lose. C That I behold,—and I, a creature Put from all this :-hard is mine aventùre. VIII. "The bird, the beast, the fish eke in the sea, What shall I sayn? What reason may I find JAMES FIRST BEHOLDS THE LADY JANE. CANTO II. XII. Now there was made fast, by the tower's" wall, An herbere green, with wandis long and small Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet, XIII. So thick the boughis and the leavis green Growing so fair, with branches here and there, The boughis spread the arbour all about. 1 Each one. XXI. And, therewith, cast I down mine eye again The irregularity in the agreement of nominative and verb in old 3 Reason with. English has been noticed above. Perhaps we should read, "Was none that wight that," &c. i. e. "No one was such a person as took pity on my sufferings." Rought, past tense of rue, to care for; to have compassion. 5 In Windsor Castle. A herbary; an arbour. 8 Living person. 9 Beside. 7 Surrounded; beset. 10 As is often found subjoined to the adverbs where, when, there, &c.-It seems used as a relative pronoun;-where as, at the place at which; when as, at the time at which. The accounts in the dictionaries of the origin and composition of the relative pronouns and adverbs appear unsatisfactory. To play; to amuse herself. James, however, uses this word in the sense of complain. Vid. Canto II. St. 51 and 54. For which suddèn abate,1 anon2 astart XXII. 3 And though I stood abaisit tho a lyte, XXIII. And in my head I drew right hastily; XXIV. "Or are ye god Cupidis own princess, That have depainted with your heavenly hand XLVIII. And, when she walked had, a little thrawlo 1 This word seems to be taken in the sense of the French verb abattre, to beat down; abate, here, is an unexpected stroke that paralyzes the faculties. 2 The alleged etymology is on an, i. e. one; on one time; at once; immediately. 3 Abashed then a little (sc. time): abash and abase from French abaisser, to lower :tho, (Sax.) those or then. 4 Wits. Slave; it is applied to feudal serfs. See Ivanhoe, Chap. I. Eft, aft, after. Coleridge, in imitating the old dialect, uses "eftsoons" in the Ancient Mariner. Used like so; no that ill, (Scotch). 8 Minister. His particular description of the Lady Jane in Stanzas xxvii-xxxi. is very beautiful. 10 A throw, i. e. a cast or glance of the eye; hence a short time. The word is often used by Chaucer and Gower. "Sifted and ypicked many a throw."-Chauc. 13 See. μ Then. 12 Anguish. AND underneath the wheelé saw I there That to behold thereon I quoke2 for fear; XII. But for to see the sudden weltering Of that ilk wheel, that sloppares was to hold, XIII. And, on the wheel, was little void space, XIV. I sawé also, that, where some were slungen, This extract is introduced as a succinct example of the allegorical style of the period. 2 Quaked. Rolling; Ang. Sax. waeltan, to revolve; hence wallow." 5 Slippery. 4 Same. Would have climbed the auxiliary have is often thus omitted in the older writers. So Burns "The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last."-Tam o' Shanter. Clomb is used as the past tense and participle of climb ; "That looking down whence lately I was cloame."-Mirror for Magistrates. "So clomb this first grand thief into God's fold."-Milton. And Coleridge, imitating the old dialect, has-" Till clomb above the eastern bar the horned moon."-Ancient Mariner. 7 Overthrown. The explanations given of this obscure passage are unsatisfactory; it may possibly be paraphrased thus.-There was a little void space in the nearly perpendicular part of the wheel between the highest and lowest points; and those must have been cautious and skilful that could long hold their place there, she (Fortune) did so totter (or shake) it awry. Law, Scotch for low; were seems to be used in the sense of must have been ware, wary; tolter, to move unequally-totter-perhaps there is an inversion for "so di she at times writhe herself to make it totter "-Jamieson in allusion to this passage. This construction would make to wry, a verb. Tolter, alleged etymology, to welter; so toddis to waddle; twinkle, to winkle sultry, sweltry. Tolter is also an adjective, unsteady. On her tolter wheel Every wight clever ith in his stage. Quhair, Cant. I. 9. |