Hume of Godscroft, who was himself a poet, has remarked that "in his prologues before every book, he sheweth a natural and ample vein of poesy, so pure, pleasant and judicious, that he believes there is none that hath written before or since but cometh short of him. is not such a piece to be found as is the prologue to the eighth book, at least in our language." There His prologues to the seventh and twelfth books display an admirable vein of descriptive poetry. They have been exhibited in an English dress by Mr Fawkes. The prologue to the twelfth book has also been modernized by Jerom Stone. The prologue to the supplement of Vegius presents us with a poetical description of an evening in June. These are the only works of Douglas which have descended to our times. In the Conclusion of his Virgilian task, he avows a resolution to devote his future days to the glory of God and the service of the commonwealth. He elsewhere hints a suspicion that he should be considered as negligent of divine studies, and too much captivated by secular learning: and, to heighten his apprehensions, the story of St Jerom intrudes itself upon his mind, vius observes, in hyperbolical terms, that he excelled almost every poet who had flourished during the space of a thousand years. (Elogia Virorum Literis Illustrium, p. 196.) Quhow he was doung and beft into his slepe, For his consolation he might however have recollected, that if Jerom was warned in a vision against the perusal of prophane authors, Dionysius of Alexandria was admonished by a voice from heaven to study them without restriction*. The earliest of Douglas's performances appears to have been a translation of Ovid De Remedio Amoris, of which no copy is known to be extant. He thus speaks of the work: Lo thus, followand the floure of poetry, Of Ovideis Lufe the Remede did translate, Bale mentions another of his compositions by the title of Aurea Narrationes'; which Sage supposes to be the short commentary noticed in the concluding address to Lord Sinclair : k Tyrie the Jesuit was also favoured with a divine vision of the same complexion. "Nocte quadam apparuit illi Sanctus P. N. Ignatius, et graviter increpitum, quòd plus litteris quam pietati acquirenda se impenderet, paternè hortatus est, ut litteris quidem operam daret, sed non tanto ardore, ut spiritus exinde maneret oppressus. Quae admonitio ita infixa per totam vitam ejus inhæsit memoriæ, ut magno ei semper stimulo fuerit ad omnem perfectionem." (Sotvelli Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Jesu, p. 390. b. Romæ, 1676, fol.) Balei Scriptores Britanniæ, cent. xiv. p. 218. Í haue also ane schorte commend compyld, This comment, it is probable, was merely a brief explication of the classical mythology, intended for the use of his noble friend. If we may credit Bale and Dempster ", he likewise composed comedies: but those rhapsodical biographers delight in multiplying books as well as authors. m Dempster. Hist. Ecclesiast. Gent. Scotor. p. 221. I 2 |