gistrates. As the poet, after the hour of prime, is sitting in his oratory and reading Boccace De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, he suddenly perceives a wounded man standing before him with pale visage and deadly cheer. His visiter, who proves to be the ghost of Cardinal Beaton, requests him to commit his story to writing, in conformity to the narration which is about to be delivered. To this proposal he readily assents: and the woebegone cardinal begins a relation of the principal events of his life; but the tale, though sufficiently moral, is not told with much elegance or energy.

In The Deploratioun of the Deith of Quene Magdalene many feeble passages occur. This work however is not entirely devoid of poetical beauties. The Ansuer to the Kingis Flyting will please such readers as can be pleased with obscenity; a quality which too frequently predominates in the pages of Lindsay. Candour will be inclined to refer this coarseness to the general character of

In the Advocates Library I find an English poem on the same model, inscribed with the name of John Woodward. This neglected MS. is entitled The Life and Tragedy of the Heroicall Lady, Mary late Queene of Scotts. It begins,

Baldwin awake! thy pen hath slept tó long,

A prose account of Queen Mary's execution is subjoined. The same library contains another unpublished composition of Woodward's, entitled Prince Henry bis Life, Death, and Funeralles. This biographical sketch is in prose.

the æra at which he flourished; and he may at least claim an indulgence which must sometimes be granted to poets of the Augustan age.

The Complaint and Publict Confessioun of the Kingis Auld Hound callit Basche is a production of no very remarkable features. In his Supplicatioun direct to the Kingis Grace in Contemptioun of Syde Taillis, he evinces himself a zealous reformer of manners. He seems to have contemplated side tails and muzzled faces with an unnecessary degree of alarm: but, like a good Christian, he recollected that a long tail proceeds from pride, and pride from the Devil. In the warmth of his zeal to reform others, he has, like many other satirists, neglected himself: several of his expressions are rank and gross.

Kitteis Confessioun, "compylit as is beleuit, be S. Dauid Lyndesay," contains several happy strokes of humour. It is a well-directed satire against the absurd practice of auricular confession, and may safely be regarded as the composition of Lindsay. The sanctified lasciviousness of a father confessor is depicted with no unskilful pencil :

Quhen scho was talkand as scho wist,
The curate Kittie wald haue kist;
But zit ane countenance he bure
Degest, devoit, dane, and demure.
Quhen scho in minde did mair reuolue,
Quod he, I can not zou absolue :

But to my chalmer cum at ewin,
Absoluit for to be and schreuin.

Quod scho, I will pas to ane vther;
And I met with Sir Androwis' brother,
And he full clenelie did me schriue;

Bot he was sum thing talkatiue :
He speirit monie strange cace;

How that my lufe did me embrace,

Quhat day, how oft, quhat sort, and quhair ?

Quod he I wald I had bin thair.

The Fusting betuix James Watsoun and John Barbour, a poem which comprises the only specimen of the heroic couplet that Lindsay has exhibited, may be considered as a successful attempt at ludicrous composition. The following quotation will perhaps support this decision:

From time thay enterit war into the feild,
Full womanlie they weildit speir and scheild,
And wichtlie waiuit in the wind thair heillis,
Hobland like cadgeris rydand on thair creillis.
Bot ather ran at vther with sic haist,

Yat they culd neuer yair speir get in the raist.
Quhen gentil James trowit best with Johne to meit,
His speir did fall amang the horsis feit.

I am

richt sure, gud James had bene vndone,

War not that Johne his mark tuk be the mone.

Quod Johne, Howbeit thou thinkis my leggis like roks,

My speir is guid: now keip thé fra my knoks.

Tary, quod James, ane quhile: for, be my thrift,
The feind ane thing I can se bot the lift.
Na mair can I, quod Johne; be Goddis breid,
I se na thing except the stepill heid.

Zit thocht thy branis be like twa barrow trammis,
Defend thé, man! Than ran thay to like rammis.
At that rude rink, James had bin strikkin doun,
War not that Johne for feircsnes fell in swoun:
And richt sa James to Johne had done greit deir,
War not twixt his hors feit he brak his speir.
Quod James to Johne, Yit, for our ladeis saikis,
Let us togidder strike thre market straikis.

Squyer Meldrum displays a lively vein of description: but although the work comprehends a narrative of considerable extent, it is not constructed with much attention to the general rules of criticism. The poetical effect is not always secured. With regard to the fate of the Irish lady we are left in a situation of disagreeable suspense. To her the squire pledges his faith when about to rejoin his countrymen :

Ladie! I say zou in certane,
Ze sall have lufe for lufe agane,
Trewlie unto my lyfis end.

Yet after his return to Scotland, he meets with a fair paramour in Strathern, and without compunction abandons his former love. The most satisfactory apology which can be offered for Lindsay's deviation from the rules of poetical justice, is that his invention was circumscribed

by the conformity which was due to truth. He professes to have derived a part of his information from the hero of his story and the romantic adventures of William Meldrum were yet fresh in the memory of his countrymen ".

That Lindsay wished to render his deceased friend an object of ridicule can hardly be supposed: yet several passages of Squyer Meldrum have an appearance of intentional burlesque. The following verses, for example, resemble the style of Butler:

Cupido with his fyerie dart

Did peirs him so out throw the hart,
Sa all that nicht he did bot murn it,
Sum tyme sat up, and sum tyme turnit,
Sichand with monie gant and grane,
To fair Venus makand his mane.

But in obsolete poetry, it must be recollected, the serious cannot always be readily distinguished from the ludicrous. Terms may be deprived of their original dignity; and the notions which they express may at length be viewed in a less favourable light. The revolutions of language and manners it would be impossible to anticipate.

Like other productions of that æra, Squyer Meldrum sometimes offends by its incongruities:

"Lindsay's History of Scotland, p. 200.