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After some time

What through the merry fowlis harmony,
And through the river's sound that ran me by,
On Flora's mantle I sleeped where I lay;
Where soon, unto my dreamis phantasy,
I saw approach, against the orient sky,
A sail, as blossom [white] upon the spray,
With mast of gold, bright as the star of day,`
Which tended to the land full lustily.

And, hard on board, into the bloomed meads,
Amongst the greene rispis1 and the reeds,
Arrived she; where-from anon there lands
And hundred ladies, lusty intil weeds,2

As fresh as flowers that in the May up-spreads
In kirtles green, withouten kell,3 or bands,
Their bright hair hang glittering on the strand;
In tresses clear wypit + with golden threads,
With pawpis white, and middles small as wands.

These are allegorical ladies, viz. Nature, Venus, Aurora, &c.

Bulrushes.

• Pleasing in their attire,

Cawls, or caps, to confine their hair.

• Whipped or tied, or enwoven,

• Breasts.

Full lustily thir ladies, all in fere,'
Enter'd within this park of most plaisir,
Where that I lay heled with leavis rank;
The merry fowlis, blissfullest of cheer,
Salust 3 Nature, methought, in their manere;
And every bloom on branch, and eke on bank,
Open'd and spread their balmy leavis dank,
Full low inclining to their queen full clear,
Whom, for their noble nourishing, they thank.

The ladies are followed by a male group, consisting of Cupid, and various other gods, who invite them to dance. The poet, quitting his ambush to view this spectacle, is discovered by Venus, who bids her keen archers arrest the intruder. Her attendants, dropping their green mantles, discover their bows, and advance against him. These assailants are Youth, Beauty, &c. whose darts are long ineffectual against the golden targe of Reason, till at length Presence (į. e. the habit of seeing the beloved object) throws a magical powder into the eyes of Reason, and the poet is overpowered by his allegorical adversaries, tempted by Dissimulation; terrified by Danger; and delivered over to Heaviness; after which Eolus blows a bugle; a storm arises, and the ladies take to their ship, which • Together. • Covered. • Saluted.

disappears, after a discharge of artillery, so loud that the rainbow seemed to break, while the smoke rose to the firmament. This strangely terrible incident seems to have been introduced, for the purpose of contrasting with the beautiful appearance of real nature, to which the poet is awakened.

Sweet was the vapours, and soft the morrowing, Wholesome the vale depaint' with flowers ying, &c.

The poem concludes with some laboured compliments to Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate.

Of Dunbar's comic pieces, all of which possess considerable merit, the most excellent are his two tales of the "two married Women and the Widow," and the "Friars of Berwick;" the latter, in particular, is admirable; but its merit would evidently be lost in an abridgment.

I believe that no edition of this elegant and original writer has yet been published.

Gawin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, was born in the end of 1474, or in the beginning of 1475. He was third son of Archibald, the great earl of Angus; was educated at St. Andrews, is supposed to have spent some time in travelling, and on his return to Scotland, became provost of St. Giles's church in Edinburgh. In 1514, the queen-mother (who afterwards married his nephew the earl of

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Angus) presented him to the abbey of Aberbrothock, and soon after to the archbishopric of St. Andrews; but, the pope having refused to confirm his nomination, he never assumed the title. In the next year (1515) he became bishop of Dunkeld; and, after some struggle, obtained peaceable possession of that See: but neither his ecclesiastical character, nor his learning, nor his many virtues, were able to preserve him, in those times of violence, from the proscription which involved the whole family of Douglas; so that towards the close of the year 1521, he was compelled, by the persecution of the duke of Albany, to seek for protection in England, where he died about the month of April, 1522.

The only remaining works of this poet are, 1. King Hart; 2. The Palace of Honour; and 3. a translation of Virgil's Æneid. Mr. Pinkerton has printed the first of these, from a MS. in the Maitland collection, in his Ancient Scotish Poems, (London, 1786) and the second, from the edition of 1533, in the first volume of his Scotish Poems, 1792. Of the third, there have been many editions, of which the best is that of Edinburgh, 1710, published by Mr. Ruddiman, with an excellent life of the author, and a very curious and valuable glossary.

King Hart is an allegorical representation of human life. The heart being the noblest part of man, is represented as his sovereign; and the court of this imaginary monarch is composed of the several attributes of youth. King Hart is assaulted by queen Pleasance, whom, after a long resistance, he marries. At length, Age arrives at their castle, and insists on being admitted: Age is immediately followed by Conscience; queen Pleasance takes her departure; Decrepitude attacks and wounds the king, who dies, after making his testament.

The Palace of Honour is also an allegory; the general object of which is to represent the vanity and instability of worldly glory, and to shew that virtue is the truest guide to happiness. The plan of this work was perhaps suggested by the Sejour d'Honneur of Octavien de St. Gelais; but as the merit of such works is now thought to consist only in the accidental beauties, which they may be found to possess, their contrivance and fabric is scarcely worth analysing. St. Gelais, who was a great translator, made a French version of the Eneid, which, though miserably executed, may possibly have recommended him to this author's notice.

Gawin Douglas began his translation of the Eneid in January, 1512, and finished it, together with the supplement written by Mapheus Vegius,

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