[Housewifely Physic.] Good huswife provides, ere a sickness do come, Get water of fumitory, liver to cool, And others the like, or else lie like a fool. [Moral Reflections on the Wind.] Though winds do rage, as winds were wood,1 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY. While Surrey and Wyatt were imparting fresh beauties to English poetry, Dunbar and his contem Sir David Lyndsay. poraries were succeeded in Scotland by several poets of considerable talent, whose improvements, however, 1 Mad fell far short of those effected in the literature of their southern neighbours. The most eminent of these writers was SIR DAVID LYNDSAY, born about 1490, who, after serving King James V., when that monarch was a boy, as sewer, carver, cup-bearer, purse-master, chief cubicular; in short, everything -bearing him as an infant upon his back, and dancing antics for his amusement as a boy-was appointed to the important office of Lord Lyon King at Arms, and died about the year 1555. He chiefly shone as a satirical and humorous writer, and his great fault is an entire absence of that spirit of refinement which graced the contemporary literature of England. The principal objects of Lyndsay's vituperations were the clergy, whose habits at this period (just before the Reformation) were such as to afford unusually ample scope for the pen of the satirist. Our poet, also, although a state officer, and long a servant to the king, uses little delicacy in exposing the abuses of the court. His chief poems are placed in the following succession by his editor, Mr George Chalmers:-The Dreme, written about 1528; The Complaynt, 1529; The Complaynt of the King's Papingo (Peacock), 1530; The Play (or Satire) of the Three Estates, 1535; Kitteis Confession, 1541; The History of Squire Meldrum, 1550; The Monarchie, 1553. The three first of these poems are moralisings upon the state and government of the kingdom, during two of its dismal minorities. The Play is an extraordinary performance, a satire upon the whole of the three political orders-monarch, barons, and clergy-full of humour and grossness, and curiously illustrative of the taste of the times. Notwithstanding its satiric pungency, and, what is apt to be now more surprising, notwithstanding the introduction of indecencies not fit to be described, the Satire of the Three Estates was acted in presence of the court, both at Cupar and Edinburgh, the stage being in the open air. Kitteis Confession is a satire on one of the practices of Roman Catholics. By his various burlesques of that party, he is said to have largely contributed to the progress of the Reformation in Scotland. The History of Squire Meldrum is perhaps the most pleasing of all this author's works. It is considered the last poem that in any degree partakes of the character of the metrical romance. Of the dexterity with which Lyndsay could point a satirical remark on an error of state policy, we may judge from the following very brief passage of his Complaynt, which relates to the too early committal of the government to James V. It is given in the original spelling. Imprudently, like witles fules, Thay tuke the young prince from the scules, Was learnand vertew and science, And hastilie pat in his hand The governance of all Scotland: As quha wald, in ane stormie blast, Quhilk first devisit that counsell; I pray God lat me never see ring 5 [A Carman's Account of a Law-suit.] Of tails I will no more indite, Marry, I lent my gossip my mare, to fetch hame coals, Notwithstanding, I will conclude, And he her drounit into the quarry holes; And I ran to the consistory, for to pleinyie, And there I happenit amang ane greedie meinyie.1 And syne I gat-how call ye it ad replicandum; Supplication in Contemption of Side Tails. Sovereign, I mean3 of thir side tails, Richt so ane queen or ane emprice; Should have her tail so side trailand; May think of their side tails irk ;4 Gif they could speak, they wald them wary. Poor claggocks clad in Raploch white, Then when they step furth through the street, That of side tails can come nae gude, Quoth Lindsay, in contempt of the side tails, [The Building of the Tower of Babel, and Confusion of Tongues.] (From the Monarchie.) Their great fortress then did they found, That till the heaven it should ascend: The translator of Orosius Intil his chronicle writes thus; At noon, when it doth shine maist bricht, Afore that time all spak Hebrew, Then brocht they to them stocks and stanes; But never ane word they understood. * Constrained were they for till depart, A Praise of his (the Poet's) Lady. Give place, you ladies, and be gone. Boast not yourselves at all! For here at hand approacheth one, Whose face will stain you all! The virtue of her lively looks Excels the precious stone: I wish to have none other books In each of her two crystal eyes It would you all in heart suffice I think Nature hath lost the mould, She may be well compared Unto the phoenix kind, Whose like was never seen nor Leard, In life she is Diana chaste, In word and eke in deed steadfast: * Her roseal colour comes and goes At Bacchus' feast none shall her meet, The modest mirth that she doth use O Lord, it is a world to see As doth the gilly flower a weed, How might I do to get a graff When Death doth what he can, Her honest fame shall ever live Within the mouth of man. Amantium Ira amoris redintegratio est. [By Richard Edwards, a court musician and poet, 1523-1566.] In going to my naked bed, as one that would have slept, I heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had wept. She sighed sore, and sang full sweet, to bring the babe to rest. That would not cease, but cried still, in sucking at her breast. She was full weary of her watch, and grieved with her child, She rocked it, and rated it, until on her it smil'd; Then did she say, 'Now have I found the proverb true to prove, The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.' Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to write, In register for to remain of such a worthy wight. she sat ; And proved plain, there was no beast, nor creature bearing life, Could well be known to live in love without discòrd and strife: Then kissed she her little babe, and sware by God above, "The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.' 'I marvel much, pardie,' quoth she, 'for to behold the rout, To see man, woman, boy, and beast, to toss the world about; Some kneel, some crouch, some beck, some check, and some can smoothly smile, And some embrace others in arms, and there think many a wile. Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble, and some stout, Yet are they never friends indeed until they once fall out.' Thus ended she her song, and said, before she did remove, 'The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.' [Characteristic of an Englishman.] [By Andrew Bourd, physician to Henry VIII. The lines form an inscription under the picture of an Englishman, naked, with a roll of cloth in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other.] I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here, Musing in my mind what garment I shall wear, For now I will wear this, and now I will wear that, Now I will wear I cannot tell what: All new fashions be pleasant to me, I will have them whether I thrive or thee: Then I am a minion, for I wear the new guise, The next after I hope to be wise year Not only in wearing my gorgeous array, For I will go to learning a whole summer's day; I overcome my adversaries by land and by sea: And meddle with no matters but to me pertaining, No man shall let me, but I will have my mind, The Nut-Brown Maid. [Regarding the date and author of this piece no certainty exists. Prior, who founded his Henry and Emma upon it, fixes its date about 1400; but others, judging from the comparatively modern language of it, suppose it to have been composed subsequently to the time of Surrey. The poem opens with a declaration of the author, that the faith of woman is stronger than is generally alleged, in proof of which he proposes to relate the trial to which the Not-Browne Mayde' was exposed by her lover. What follows consists of a dialogue between the pair.] HE. It standeth so; a deed is do', My destiny is for to die A shameful death, I trow; Or else to flee: the one must be, But to withdraw as an outlaw, Wherefore adieu, my own heart true! For I must to the green wood go, SHE. O Lord, what is this world's bliss, My summer's day in lusty May I hear you say, Farewell: Nay, nay, Why say ye so? whither will ye go? SHE. Now sith that ye have showed to me I shall be plain to you again, I will not live behind; Shall never be said, the Nut-Brown Maid For in my mind, of all mankind HE. I counsel you, remember how To wood with an outlaw; A bow, ready to draw; And as a thief, thus must you live, Whereby to you great harm might grow: That I had to the green wood go, SHE. I think not nay, but, as ye say, But love may make me for your sake, To come on foot, to hunt and shoot For, in my mind, of all mankind HE.-Yet take good heed, for ever I dread The thorny ways, the deep valleys, The snow, the frost, the rain, The cold, the heat; for, dry or weet, We must lodge on the plain; And us above, none other roof That I had to the greenwood go, SHE. Sith I have here been partinèr I must also part of your wo Yet I am sure of one pleasure, That, where ye be, me seemeth, pardie, Without more speech, I you beseech For, in my mind, of all mankind HE. If ye go thither, ye must consider, There shall no meat be for you gete, None other house but leaves and boughs, To cover your head and mine. Oh mine heart sweet, this evil diet, SHE.-Among the wild deer, such an archer, As men say that ye be, Ye may not fail of good vittail, With which in heal, I shall right weel For, in my mind, of all mankind HE.-Lo yet before, ye must do more, If ye will go with me; As cut your hair up by your ear, With bow in hand, for to withstand And this same night, before day-light, If that ye will all this fulfill, Do't shortly as ye can: Else will I to the green wood go, SHE.-I shall, as now, do more for you, Oh, my sweet mother, before all other Where fortune doth me lead. HE.-Nay, nay, not so; ye shall not go, For like as ye have said to me, Ye would answer whoever it were, In way of company. It is said of old, soon hot, soon cold; And so is a woman, SHE. If ye take heed, it is no need Yet have you proved how I you loved, And ever shall, whatso befal; For, in my mind, of all mankind HE.-A baron's child to be beguiled, It were a cursed deed! To be fellàw with an outlaw, It better were, the poor squièr Than I should say, another day, That, by my cursed deed, We were betrayed: wherefore, good maid, The best rede that I can, Is, that I to the greenwood go, 1 Disposition. SHE. Whatever befall, I never shall, Be so unkind to leave behind, For, in my mind, of all mankind HE. If that ye went, ye should repent; I have purveyed me of a maid, I dare it weel avow, And of you both each should be wroth It were mine ease to live in peace; Wherefore I to the wood will go, SHE.-Though in the wood I understood All this may not remove my thought, And she shall find me soft and kind Command me to my power. Of them I would be one; For, in my mind, of all mankind HE.-Mine own dear love, I see thee prove Of maid and wife, in all my life, The best that ever I knew. Be merry and glad; no more be sad; For it were ruth, that, for your truth, Be not dismayed; whatever I said I will not to the greenwood go: I am no banished man. SHE. These tidings be more glad to me, If I were sure they would endure: When men will break promise, they speak Ye shape some wile me to beguile, And steal from me, I ween: Than were the case worse than it was, And I more woe-begone : For, in my mind, of all mankind I love but you alone. HE.-Ye shall not need further to dread : I will not disparage, You (God defend !) sith ye descend Of so great a lineage. Now understand; to Westmoreland, I will you bring; and with a ring, I will you take, and lady make, As shortly as I can: Thus have you won an earl's son, 5# |