The public faith shall save our souls,

A noble heart doth teach a virtuous scorn.
And good out-works together ;

To scorn to owe a duty overlong;
And ships shall save our lives, that stay

To scorn to be for benefits (forborne ;
Only for wind and weather.

To scorn to lie, to scorn to do a wrong.
But when our faith and works fall down, To scorn to bear an injury in mind;
Aad all our hopes decay,

To scorn a free-born heart slave-like to bind.
Our acts will bear us up to heaven,
The clean contrary way.

But if for wrongs we needs revenge must have,

Then be our vengeance of the noblest kind; Song.—The Royalist.

Do we his body from our fury save,

And let our hate prevail against our mind ? (Written in 1646.)

What can 'gainst him a greater vengeance be,
Come, pass about the bowl to me;

Than make his foe more worthy far than he ?
A health to our distressed king!
Though we're in hold, let cups go free,

Had Mariam scorn'd to leave a due unpaid,
Birds in a cage do freely sing.

She would to Herod then have paid her love, The ground does tipple healths apace,

And not have been by sullen passion sway'd.
When storms do fall, and shall not we?

To fix her thoughts all injury above
A sorrow dares not show its face,

Is virtuous pride. Had Mariam thus been proud,
When we are ships and sack 's the sea. Long famous life to her had been allow'd.
Pox on this grief, hang wealth, let's sing,
Shall kill ourselves for fear of death ?

SCOTTISH POETS.
We'll live by the air which songs doth bring,
Our sighing does but waste our breath :

ALEXANDER SCOT.
Then let us not be discontent,
Nor drink a glass the less of wine ;

While Sidney, Spenser, Marlow, and other poets, In vain they'll think their plagues are spent,

were illustrating the reign of Elizabeth, the muses When once they see we don't repine.

were not wholly neglected in Scotland. There was,

however, so little intercourse between the two na. We do not suffer here alone,

tions, that the works of the English bards seem to Though we are beygar'd, so's the king ; 'Tis sin t' have wealth, when he has none;

have been comparatively unknown in the north, and

to have had no Scottish imitators. The country Tush ! poverty's a royal thing!

was then in a rude and barbarous state, tyrannised When we are larded well with drink, Our heads shall turn as round as theirs,

over by the nobles, and torn by feuds and dissenOur feet shall rise, our bodies sink

sions. In England, the Reformation had proceeded

from the throne, and was accomplished with little Clean down the wind, like cavaliers.

violence or disorder. In Scotland, it uprooted the Fill this unnatural quart with sack,

whole form of society, and was marked by fierce Nature all vacuums doth decline,

contentions and lawless turbulence. The absorbing Ourselves will be a zodiac,

influence of this ecclesiastical struggle was unfavourAnd every month shall be a sign.

able to the cultivation of poetry. It shed a gloomy Methinks the travels of the glass

spirit over the nation, and almost proscribed the study Are circular like Plato's year,

of romantic literature. The drama, which in England Where everything is as it was;

was the nurse of so many fine thoughts, so much Let's tipple round; and so 'tis here.

stirring passion, and beautiful imagery, was shunned

as a leprosy, fatal to religion and morality. The LADY ELIZABETH CAREW.

very songs in Scotland partook of this religious chaLADY ELIZABETH CAREw is believed to be the that ALEXANDER Scot, in his New Year Gifi to the

racter; and so widely was the polemical spirit diffused, author of the tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Queen, in 1562, saysJewry, 1613. Though wanting in dramatic interest and spirit, there is a vein of fine sentiment and feel- That limmer lads and little lasses, lo, ing in this forgotten drama. The following chorus, Will argue baith with bishop, priest, and friar. in Act the Fourth, possesses a generous and noble Scot wrote several short satires, and some miscellasimplicity :

neous poems, the prevailing amatory character of [Revenge of Injuries.]

which has caused him to be called the Scottish AnaThe fairest action of our human life

creon, though there are many points wanting to com

plete his resemblance to the Teian bard. As speciIs scorning to revenge an injury ; For who forgives without a further strife,

mens of his talents, the two following pieces are His adversary's heart to him doth tie.

presented :And 'tis a firmer conquest truly said, To win the heart, than overthrow the head.

Rondel of Love. If we a worthy enemy do find,

Lo what it is to luve, To yield to worth it must be nobly done ;

Learn ye that list to pruve, But if of baser metal be his mind,

By me, I say, that no ways may, In base revenge there is no honour won.

The grund of greif remuve. Who would a worthy courage overthrow,

But still decay, both nicht and day; And who would wrestle with a worthless foc ?

Lo what it is to lure ! We say our hearts are great, and cannot yield ;

Luve is ane fervent fire, Because they cannot yield, it proves them poor :

Kendillit without desire, Great hearts are task'd beyond their power, but seld

Short plesour, lang displesour; The weakest lion will the loudest roar.

Repentance is the hire; Truth's school for certain doth this same allow,

Ane pure tressour, without messour; High-heartedness doth sometimes teach to bow.

Luve is ane fervent fire.

FROM 1658

ALEXANDER HUME.

ALEXANDER HUME, who died, minister of Logie, in 1609, published a volume of Hymns or Sacred Songs, in the year 1599. He was of the Humes of Polwarth,

Leave, burgess men, or all be lost,
On your wifis to mak sic cost,
Whilk may gar all your bairnis bleir.1
She that may not want wine and roast,
Is able for to waste some geir.
Between them, and nobles of blude,
Nae difference but ane velvet hude !
Their camrock curchies are as deir,
Their other claithis are as gude,
And they as costly in other geir.
Of burgess wifis though I speak plain,
Some landwart ladies are as vain,
As by their claithing may appeir,
Wearing gayer nor them may gain,
On ower vain claithis wasting geir.

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY.
ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY was known as a poet in
1568 ; but his principal work, The Cherry and the
Slae, was not published before 1597. The Cherry and
the Slae is an allegorical poem, representing virtue
and vice. The allegory is poorly managed; but
some of Montgomery's descriptions are lively and
vigorous; and the style of verse adopted in this
poem was afterwards copied by Burns. * Divested of
some of the antique spelling, parts of the poem secm
as modern, and as smoothly versified, as the Scottish
poetry of a century and a half later.

The cushat crouds, the corbie cries,
The cuckoo couks, the prattling pyes

To geck there they begin ;
The jargon of the jangling jays,
The craiking craws and keckling kays,

They deave't me with their din.
The painted pawn with Argus eyes

Can on his May-cock call ;
The turtle wails on wither'd trees,

And Echo answers all,

Repeating, with greeting,
How fair Narcissus fell,
By lying and spying

His shadow in the well.
I saw the hurcheon and the hare
In hidlings hirpling here and there, *

To make their morning mange.
The con, the cuning, and the cat,
Whose dainty downs with dew were wat,

With stiff mustachios strange.
The hart, the hind, the dae, the rae,

The foumart and false fox;
The bearded buck clamb up the brae

With birsy bairs and brocks;

Some feeding, some dreading
The hunter's subtle snares,
With skipping and tripping,

They play'd them all in pairs.
The air was sober, saft, and sweet,
Nae misty vapours, wind, nor weet,

But quiet, calm, and clear,
To foster Flora's fragrant flowers,
Whereon Apollo's paramours

Had trinkled mony a tear;
The which like silver shakers shined,

Embroidering Beauty's bed,
Wherewith their heavy heads declined

In May's colours clad.

Some knoping, some dropping
Of balmy liquor sweet,
Excelling and smelling

Through Phæbus' wholesome heat.
· Cry till their eyes become red.

Burns, in describing the opening scene of his Holy Fair, har

• The hares were hirpling down the furs.'

Logie Kirk. and, previous to turning clergyman, had studied the law, and frequented the court; but in his latter years he was a stern and even gloomy Puritan. The most finished of his productions is a description of a summer's day, which he calls the Day Estival. The various objects of external nature, characteristic of a Scottish landscape, are painted with truth and clearness, and a calm devotional feeling is spread over the poem. It opens as follows:

O perfect light, which shed away

The darkness from the light,
And set a ruler o'er the day,

Another o'er the night.
Thy glory, when the day forth ilies,

More vively does appear,
Nor at mid-day unto our eyes

The shining sun is clear.
The shadow of the earth anon

Removes and drawis by,
Syne in the east, when it is gone,

Appears a clearer sky.
Whilk soon perceive the little larks,

The lapwing and the snipe ;
And tune their song like Nature's clerks,

O'er meadow, muir, and stripe.
The summer day of the poet is one of unclouded
splendour.

The time so tranquil is and clear,

That nowhere shall ye find,
Save on a high and barren hill,

An air of passing wind.
All trees and simples, great and small,

That balmy leaf do bear,
Than they were painted on a wall,
No more they move or steir.

156

The rivers fresh, the caller streams

weak at arguments, and the rules and cautelis' of O'er rocks can swiftly rin,

the royal author are puerile and ridiculous. His The water clear like crystal beams,

majesty's verses, considering that he was only in And makes a pleasant din.

his eighteenth year, are more creditable to him, and

we shall quote one from the volume alluded to. The condition of the Scottish labourer would seem to have been then more comfortable than at present, and the climate of the country warmer, for Hume

Ane Schort Poeme of Tyme. describes those working in the fields as stopping at mid-day, noon meat and sleep to take,' and re

(Original Spelling.) freshing themselves with caller wine' in a cave, and As I was pansing in a morning aire,

sallads steep'd in oil.' As the poet lived four years
in France previous to his settling in Scotland, in Furth for to walk, the morning was so faire,

And could not sleip nor nawyis take me rest, mature life, we suspect he must have been drawing

Athort the fields, it seemed to me the best. on his continental recollections for some of the

The East was cleare, whereby belyve I gest
features in this picture. At length the gloaming That fyrie Titan cumming was in sight,
comes, the day is spent,' and the poet concludes in a Obscuring chaste Diana by his light.
strain of pious gratitude and delight:-

Who by his rising in the azure skyes,
What pleasure, then, to walk and see

Did dewlie helse all thame on earth do dwell.
End-lang a river clear,

The balmie dew through birning drouth he dryis, The perfect form of every tree

Which made the soile to savour sweit and smell, Within the deep appear.

By dew that on the night before downe fell,

Which then was soukit up by the Delphienus heit
The salmon out of cruives and creele,
Uphailed into scouts,

Up in the aire: it was so light and weit.
The bells and circles on the weills

Whose hie ascending in his purpour chere
Through leaping of the trouts.

Provokit all from Morpheus to flee :
O sure it were a seemly thing,

As beasts to feid, and birds to sing with beir,
While all is still and calın,

Men to their labour, bissie as the bee :

Yet idle men devysing did I see,
The praise of God to play and sing,

How for to drive the tyme that did them irk,
With trumpet and with shalm.

By sindrie pastymcs, quhile that it grew mirk.
Through all the land great is the gild

Then woundred I to see them seik a wyle,
Of rustic folks that cry ;

So willingly the precious tyme to tine :
Of bleating sheep fra they be kill'd,

And how they did themselfis so farr begyle,
Of calves and rowting kye.

To fushe of tyme, which of itself is fyne.
All labourers draw hame at even,

Fra tyme be past to call it backwart syne
And can to others say,

Is bot in vaine : therefore men sould be warr,
Thanks to the gracious God of heaver, To sleuth the tyme that flees fra them so farr.
Whilk sent this summer day.

For what hath man bot tyme into this lyfe,

Which gives him dayis his God aright to know ! Wherefore then sould we be at sic a stryfe,

So spedelie our selfis for to withdraw In 1584, the Scottish sovereign, KING JAMES VI., Evin from the tyme, which is on nowayes slaw rentured into the magic circle of poesy himself, and To flie from us, suppose we fled it noght?

More wyse we were, if we the tyme had soght.
But sen that tyme is sic a precious thing,

I wald we sould bestow it into that
Which were most pleasour to our heavenly King.

Flee ydilteth, which is the greatest lat;

Bot, sen that death to all is destinat,
Let us employ that tyme that God hath send us,
In doing weill, that good men may commend us.

KING JAMES VI.

EARL OF ANCRUM-EARL OF STIRLING,

Two Scottish noblemen of the court of James were devoted to letters, namely, the EARL OF ANCRUM (1578-1654) and the EARL OF STIRLING (1580-1640). The first was a younger son of Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehurst, and he enjoyed the favour of both James and Charles I. The following sonnet by the earl was addressed to Drummond the poet in 1624. It shows how much the union of the crowns under James had led to the cultivation of the English style and language :

Falkland Palace,
The favourite early residence of King James VL.

Sonnet in Praise of a Solitary Life. published a volume entitled, Essayes of a Prentice in Sweet solitary life ! lovely, dumb joy, the Divine art of Poesie, with the Revlis and Cautelis That need’st no warnings how to grow more wise to be pursued and avoided. Kings are generally, as By other men's mishaps, nor the annoy Milton has remarked, though strong in legions, but Which from sore wrongs done to one's self doth rise.

The morning's second mansion, truth's first friend, north. He realised an amount of wealth unusual for

Never acquainted with the world's vain broils, a poet, and employed part of it in building a handWhen the whole day to our own use we spend,

And our dear time no fierce ambition spoils.
Most happy state, that never tak’st revenge

For injuries received, nor dost fear
The court's great earthquake, the griev'd truth of

change,
Nor none of falsehood's savoury lies dost hear ;
Nor knows hope's sweet disease that charms our sense,

Nor its sad cure-dear-bought experience !

The Earl of Stirling (William Alexander of Menstrie, created a peer by Charles I.) was a more prolific poet. In 1637, he published a complete edition of his works, in one volume folio, with the title of Recreations with the Muses, consisting of tragedies, a heroic poem, a poem addressed to Prince Henry (the favourite son of King James), another heroic poem entitled Jonathan, and a sacred poem, in twelve parts, on the Day of Judgment. One of the Earl of Stirling's tragedies is on the subject of Julius Cæsar. It was first published in 1606, and contains several passages resembling parts of Shakspeare's tragedy to of the same name, but it has not been ascertained which was first published. The genius of Shakspeare did not disdain to gather hints and expressions from obscure authors—the lesser lights of the age—and a famous passage in the Tempest is supposed (though somewhat hypercritically) to be also derived from the Earl of Stirling. In the play of Darius, there

House of the Earl of Stirling. occurs the following reflection

some mansion in Stirling, which still survives, a Let Greatness of her glassy sceptres vaunt,

monument of a fortune so different from that of the
Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruised, soon broken : ordinary children of the muse.
And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant,
All fades, and scarcely leaves behind a token.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND.
The lines of Shakspeare will instantly be recalled- A greater poet flourished in Scotland at the same
And like this insubstantial pageant, faded,

time with Stirling, namely, WILLIAM DRUMMOND of Leave not a wreck behind.

Hawthornden (1585-1649). Familiar with classic None of the productions of the Earl of Stirling touch the heart or entrance the imagination. He has not the humble but genuine inspiration of Alexander Hume. Yet we must allow him to have been a calm and elegant poet, with considerable fancy, and an ear for metrical harmony. The following is one of his best sonnets :

1

1

I swear, Aurora, by thy starry eyes,
And by those golden locks, whose lock none slips,
And by the coral of thy rosy lips,
And by the naked snows which beauty dyes ;
I swear by all the jewels of thy mind,
Whose like yet never worldly treasure bought,
Thy solid judgment, and thy generous thought,
Which in this darken’d age have clearly shin'd;
I swear by thosc, and by my spotless love,
And by my secret, yet most fervent fires,
That I have never nurst but chaste desires,
And such as modesty might well approve.
Then, since I love those virtuous parts in thee,
Should'st thou not love this virtuous mind in me?

The lady whom the poet celebrated under the name of Aurora, did not accept his hand, but he was

Drummond of Hawthornden. married to a daughter of Sir William Erskine. The earl concocted an enlightened scheme for colonising and English poetry, and imbued with true literary Nova Scotia, which was patronised by the king, yet taste and feeling, Drummond soared above a mere was abandoned from the difficulties attending its local or provincial fame, and was associated in accomplishment. Stirling held the office of secretary friendship and genius with his great English conof state for Scotland for fifteen years, from 1626 to temporaries. His father, Sir John Drummond, was 1641-a period of great difficulty and delicacy, when gentleman usher to king James ; and the poet seems Charles attempted to establish episcopacy in the to have inherited his reverence for royalty. No author