Ze reverend redaris, thir workis revolving richt,
Gif ze get crymes correct thame to zour micht,

And curss na clark that cunyngly thame wrait,
Bot blame me baldly brocht this buik till licht
In tenderest tyme quhen knawlege was nocht bricht ;
Bot lait begun to lerne and till translait

My copeis auld, mankit, and mvtillait ;
Quhais trewth as standis zit haif I, sympill wicht,
Tryd furth thairfoir excuse sumpairt my stait.

Now ze haif heir this ilk buik so provydit,
That in fyve pairtis it is dewly devydit.

The first conteynis Gods gloir and ouire saluatioun :
The nixt are morale, grave, and als besyd it
Grund in gud counsale: the thrid, I will nocht hyd it,
Ar blyith and glaid, maid for ouire consollatioun :
The ferd of luve and thair richt reformatioun :

The fyift ar tailis and storeis weill dissydit.

Pend as ze pleis: I neid no moire narratioun.

Another address of The Wryttar to the Redare occurs at the close of the volume:

Heir endis this buik, writtin in tyme of pest
Quhen we fra labor was compeld to rest,
In to the thre last monethis of this zeir,
From oure redimaris birth, to knaw it heir,
Ane thousandth fyve hundredth threscore aucht.
Off this purpois namair it neiddis be taucht :
Swa, till conclude, God grant us all gude end,
And eftir deth eternall lyfe us send.

This transcript, completed in the space of three months, extends to more than seven hundred pages in folio.

Bannatyne's MS. appears to have been presented by one Foulis to the Hon. William Carmichael; and afterwards to have been associated with two others in the same volume. That volume the Earl of Hyndford presented to the Advocates Library in the year 1772. Bannatyne's collection was in the possession of the Foulis family about half a century after it had been completed: at the hundred and eleventh page occurs the inscription of Jacobus Foulis 1623."

66

ONE of the most persevering and most unsuccessful versifiers of this period was Robert Semple; whom a late writer, who amuses himself with perpetual conjectures, ridiculously supposes to have been a Scotish peer". His different poems were published about the year 1570. If we may credit Dempster, he died in 1595. The eulogium which that writer has bestowed on Semple's genius is highly extravagant, and must have been conceived without any previous acquaintance with his writings: he represents him as exhibiting the combined excellencies of Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, and Callimachus". Some pieces by

m Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol. iii. p. 397.

n Dempster's panegyric is too remarkable to be omitted: "Semple claro nomine poeta, cui patrius sermo tantum debet, ut nulli plus debere eruditi fateantur; felix in eo calor, temperatum judicium, rara inventio, dictio pura ac candida; quibus dotibus Regi Jacobo charissimus fuit. Scripsit---carmina amatoria, ut Propertii sanguinem, Tibulli lac, Ovidii mel, Callimachi sudorem æquasse plerisque doctis videatur."

DEMPSTER. Hist. Ecclesiast. Gent. Scotor. P. 601.

this poetaster are to be found in The Ever-Green; and Mr Dalyell has lately republished others from the original editions. They are equally indecent and unpoetical. The following epitaph on the Earl of Murray is selected as a specimen of the composition of a writer whom Dempster has not scrupled to rank with the greatest of our poets:

Heir lyis the corps (gude pepill) of a prince,
Quhais saule in heuin is glorifeit :
James Regent was murdreitt without offence,
Be ane false tratour, sa knawin and notifeit,
Quha wes anis bound to haif bene justifeit.
He gaif him grace, allace, aganis all ressoun.
O Hammiltoun, it schawis weill thou wes feit
Be all that clan for to commit this tressoun.

Quhat mouit thé to do this insolence,

And mak that clan sa to be falsifeit,

To quhoem, God knawis, he schew his greit clemence,
Thocht thou with tressoun hes him gratifeit?
With all gude vertewis he wes amplifeit;
With all foul vice thou hes defylde thair maisoun.
Resetting thé, now haif thay varefeit

That thay bene weill contentit of this trasoun.

Indeid, I grant that bis greit patience
Aganis him self this deid hes testifeit;
For had he put zou doun with diligence,

Zour tressoun had not this bene ratifeit.

Dalyell's Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century. Edinb. 1801, 2 vols, 12mo.

Ze wer anis all in his will signifeit
At the Langsyde, sensyne in euerie sessoun.

Now with greit honour is he magnifeit,

And with greit schame ze sall thoil for this tressoun.

This epitaph is the production of a man who, according to Mr Sibbald, " continued to profess the Catholic religion." If Robert Lord Semple was a Papist, he cannot very rationally be considered as the author of the poems which we are now reviewing. The question however is of little moment; and may properly be left to those who are fond of antiquarian trifles.

Non equidem hoc studeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis.
Pagina turgescat, dare pondus idonea fumo.

PERSIUS.

His Legend of the Bischop of St Androis Lyfe is a most gross and illiberal attack upon the character of Dr Patrick Adamson; a prelate of ingenuity and of erudition who has often been scandalously traduced. Instead of transcribing from the disgusting pages of Semple, I shall subjoin a specimen of the Latin poetry of the accomplished Adamson. The following is an affecting address to his departing soul; an address as much superior to that of Adrian, as Christianity is superior to Paganism :

O anima! assiduis vitæ jactata procellis,
Exilii pertesa gravis, nunc lubrica tempus

Regna tibi, et mundi invisas contemnere sordes :
Quippe parens rerum cæco te corpore clemens
Evocat, et verbi crucifixi gratia cœli
Pandit iter, patrioque beatam limine sistet.
Progenies Jovæ, quò te cœlestis origo
Invitat, fœlix perge, æternumque quiesce.
Exuviæ carnis cognato in pulvere vocem
Angelicam expectent, sonitu quo putre cadaver
Exiliet redivivum, et totum me tibi reddet.
Ecce beata dies! nos agni dextera ligno
Fulgentes crucis, et radiantes sanguine vivo
Excipiet: quàm firma illic, quàm certa capesses
Gaudia, fœlices inter novus incola cives !

Alme Deus! Deus alme! et non effabile numen !
Ad te unum et trinum moribundo pectore anhelo P.

Two poets of the name of Stewart are mentioned by Sir David Lindsay. Under that signature several pieces occur in the collections of Lord Hailes, Allan Ramsay, and Mr Sibbald. Galbreith and Kinloch, two poets mentioned by the same writer, are only known by name. Poems by Fethy, Fleming, and John Blyth, occur in Lord Hailes's collection. The names of Norval and Allan Watson also appear in Bannatyne's MS. A dull poem, entitled The Lamentatioun of Lady Scotland, was published at St Andrews in the year 1572; and many others of a similar denomination were produced about the same period.

P Adamsoni Poemata Sacra, sig. V. 3. b. Lond. 1619, 4to.