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Full suddenly she hath (them) up ythrungen,1
And set them on again full safe and sound;
And ever I saw a new swarm abound,
That (did) to climb upward upon the wheel,
Instead of them that might no longer rele."

WILLIAM DUNBAR.

(1460 ?-1520 ?)

DUNBAR, whom Ellis styles" the greatest poet that Scotland has produced," was born in the latter half of the fifteenth century, at Saltoun in East Lothian. He was educated at St Andrews, and entered the order of Franciscan friars. In this capacity he travelled through England and France, and he laments the sins, " probably professional frauds," with which this period of his life is stained. Though apparently a personal favourite of James IV., and mingling familiarly in the gaieties of that monarch's festive court, he never obtained from the king any ecclesiastical preferment, and was but scantily pensioned. Dunbar has been too little known. His works remained, till a comparatively recent date, buried in manuscript. He is a varied and powerful writer; great alike in descriptive, didactic, and humorous poetry; and rich in the knowledge of men and of life. His "Golden Targe" is an allegorical piece, illustrative of the power of reason in preventing the misery of indulgence in headlong passion. The "Thistle and the Rose" is like the "Golden Targe," an allegory embodied in a vision. Both poems are gorgeously adorned with imagery and "aureate termes ;" and characterized by ingenuity in the construction of the fable; and wisdom in the lessons conveyed by the allegory. "The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins" will bear comparison with Collins' Ode on the Passions. The cheerful philosophy of Dunbar's shorter poems, as well as the simplicity and grace of their style, remind us of Horace. His comic pieces are clever, but full of the usual grossness of similar writings in these times.

FROM THE "THRISSLE AND THE ROSE."

THEN all the burdis sang with voice on hight,
Whose mirthful sound was marvellous to hear.

The mavis3 sang; "Hail rose most rich and right,"
That does upflourish under Phoebus speir !7
Hail plant of youth! Hail prince's daughter dear!

Thring, to thrust, to press, to throw; Ang. Sax. thringan; hence throng, a press. 2 Whirl; reel. For an interesting account of James I. see "A Royal Poet," in Washinton Irving's Sketch Book. 3 Thrush.

The Princess Margaret, Henry VII.'s eldest daughter. The" Thistle and the Rose" was written in honour of her marriage with James IV., and abounds with delicate compliments and advices to that prince. For a description of the magnificent festivities at the Scottish court on this occasion, see Scott's " History of Scotland," and "Tales of a Grandfather." Rose is appropriate to Margaret. It is the emblem at once of England and of Lancaster, from which family the Tudors sprung. 5 Excellent or beautiful.

The Scottish poetry never has the st in the 2d per. sing. "Cheerfully thou glinted forth."-Burns. This omission is sometimes practised by English poets, apparently for smoothness Thou my song inspire Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire.-Pope.

1 Sphere.

Hail blossom breaking out of the blood royal,
Whose precious virtue is imperial!”

The common voice uprose of burdis small
Upon this wise; "Oh blessed be the hour
That thou wast chosen to be our principal.1
Welcome be to our princess of honour,
Our pearl, our pleasaunce, and our paramour;
Our peace, our play, our plain felicity;
Christ thee conserve from all adversity !"s

FROM THE

DANCE OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS."

AND first of all in dance was Pride,
With hair wiled back and bonnet on side,
Like to make vaistie wanes,5
And round about him as a wheel,
Hung all in rumples to the heel,
His kethat for the nanes.8

Mony proud trompour9 with him trippit;
Through scalding fire ay as they skippit,
They girned1o with hideous granes.11

Then Ire came in with sturt1 and strife;
His hand was aye upon his knife,
He brandished13 like a bear.
Boasters, braggers, and bargainers,
After him passit into11 pairs,

All bodin in feir of weir;15

In jacks,16 strips,17 and bonnets of steel,
Their legs were chenyied18 to the heel.
Frawart was their affeir.19

Some upon others with brands beft,20

1 Sovereign lady.

4 Drawn-combed.

2 Object of chivalrous love.

In the concluding lines the poet has attempted the Saxon ornament of alliteration. 5 Likely to produce wasteful wants."-Campbell. Draped folds. 7 Cassock, robe. 8 Nonce, occasion; see above, p. 7, note 14. Deceiver, (Fr. tromper, deceive.) 10 Grinned, gnashed their teeth.

12 Turmoil. This combination occurs repeatedly in Dunbar and Lyndsay.

13 Apparently used intransitively.

Groans.

14 In. These prepositions are interchangeable in Scotch. Burns uses in for into: "Deil mak his king's hood in a spleuchan." In Latin there is but one form for both, with a distinction in the government.

15 Accoutred in equipment of war. Bodin signifies prepared; equally matched.

I trow he would be hard to slay,

An he were bodin evenly.-Barbour, vii. 103.

Bode in Scotland is the bidding of a price at an auction sale. Feir, effeir, fere, effere, affer, signifies, 1. condition; 2. equipment for war; 3. appearance, show; 4. demeanour.-Jamieson; see above, p. 16, note 8. Fere is also entire, as in the phrase "hale and fere."

16 Steel armour.

17 This word is given differently in different copies of the poemscryppis-strippis-stirps: it perhaps implies slips of plate armour. 18 Probably encased in chain armour." 20 Beff or buff is to beat; hence busset, rebuff.

19 See note 15.

Some jaggit' others to the heft2

With knives that sharp could shear.

Next in the dance followed Envỳ,
Filled full of feud and felony,

Hid malice and despite.

For privy hatrent that traitor trembled.
Him followed mony freik3 dissembled
With feigned wordis white;
And flatterers into men's faces;
And backbiters, in secret places
To lie that had delight;
And rownaris of false lesings:
Alas, that courts of noble kings

Of them can never be quyte!

Then cried Mahoun for a Hieland padyan,"
Syns ran a fiend to fetch Macfadyan,
Far northwart in a neuk :9

By10 he the coroneth had done shout,
Earsell men so gathered him about,
In Hell great room they took.
Thae termagants, 12 with tag and tatter,
Full loud in Earse begoud to clatter,

And rowp13 like raven and rook;
The devil so deaved1 was wi their yell,
That in the deepest pit of hell

He smoorit1s them with smuke.16

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[THE poet having fallen asleep amid the beauty of a May morning, sees in a dream a ship approach, from which there land " a hundred ladies, as fresh as flowers that in the May upspreads."

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Fierce person; freik (adj.), is eager, prompt: hence freak, freakish. Whisperers; see note 4, p. 17. 5 Compare Dunbar's personifications with Spencer; Faery Queen, Book I. cant. 4: and with P. Fletcher's Purple Island, cantos 9, 10. Mahomet; applied to the Devil; see Burns' song, "The Exciseman." "Pageant? 9A corner. Macfadyan is a name chosen simply for rhyme. 10 By the time that he had shouted the Coronach, a Highland dirge.

8 Then.

11 See note 13, on Barbour, p. 21.

12 Alleged to be from ter, thrice; and magnus, great; sc. deus; Latin: or from tyr, intensive prefix; and magan, mighty; Ang -Sax.-Applied to idol gods:

He said, "Childe, by Termagaunt,

But if thou prick out of mine haunt,

Anon I slay thy steed."-Chauc. Rime of Sir Topar.
The pagan vaunt

Of mighty Mahound and great Termagaunt.-Hall's Satires, Book i. sat. 1. It was used formerly without distinction of gender; it is now restricted to a quarrelsome woman. Warton supposes Dunbar here to mean the Highland bird ptarmigan.

13 To cry hoarsely and roughly.

14 Deafened.

15 Smothered.

16 Dunbar was a Lothian man. This stanza illustrates the hostile feeling that subsisted between the population of the northern and southern portions of the kingdom.-See Scott's Lady of the Lake, Canto v.

These are Nature, Venus, &c. They are followed by Cupid and other personages. During their sports the poet is discovered, and Venus orders her train to attack him.]

AND first of all, with bow in hand ay bent,

Came Beauty's dame right as she would me schent;1
Syne followed all her damosels in feir,?

With mony divers awful instrument,

Into the press fair Having with her went,

Syne Portrator,3 Pleasance, and lusty Cheer;
Then Reason came with shield of gold so clear:

In plate of mail, as Mars Armipotent,

Defended me that noble chevaleir.

[These and other assailants are repelled by the Golden Targe.]

When Venus had perceived this rebute,

She bade Dissemblance gae mak a pursuit,

With all her power to press the Golden Targe;

And she, that was of doubleness the root,

Asked her choice of Archers in resute ;*

Venus the best bade her to wale at large.

[Dissemblance then chooses her auxiliaries in the assault.]
Thick was the shot of grundin" arrows keen;
But Reason, with the Golden Shield sae sheen,
Weirly defended whosoe'er assayed;

The awful shower he manly did sustene,
Till Presence cast a powder in his een,

Then as a drunken man he all forwayed;

When he was blind, the fool they with him played,

And banished him among the boughis green:

That sight sae sairs me suddenly affrayed.
Then was I wounded till the death full near,
And yoldin' as ane woful prisoner,

To Lady Beauty, in a moment's space;
Methought she seemed lustier of cheerio
After that Reason had tint11 his een clear,
Than of before, and lovarly of face.

Why was thou blinded Reason? Why? Alace!

I Would have destroyed;-the omission of the auxiliary has been noticed above. Schend, (Ang. Sax. Scendan,) to confound, disgrace, ruin; shent, blamed. Shakesp.

2 See note 15, in the preceding extract, p. 30. Portraiture, i. e. of the beloved object, personified into one of the assailants of the affections.

A second attempt; from ressuyer, (Fr.) to attempt anew.

6 Warlikely.

5 Ground-sharpened.

Another personified assailant; the

8 So melancholy.

presence of the beloved object being one of the greatest incitements to affection.

9 Yielded.

10 Cheer; (French chere); (Ital.ciera); the countenance, look, aspect:-its metapho rical applications in modern English may easily be traced from the original idea. Cheer has been personified above as one of the assailants. 11 Lost.

[Several personages then disturb his captivity with temptations and sorrows; till he is delivered over to Heaviness; when suddenly "God Eolus his bugle blew;" the whole scene disappears; he sees the ladies and their ship vanish in a discharge of artillery so loud,]

The rockis all resounded with the rak,

For reird it seemed that the rainbow brak:

[He starts to his feet; and finds himself again alone with the birds and flowers of May.]

And as I did awake off this swouning,
The joyful minstrels merrily did sing,

For mirth of Phoebus tender beamis sheen.
Sweet were the vapours, saft the morrowing,
Hailsome the vale depaint with flowers ying;1
The air attemper'd, sober, and amene;2
In white and red was all the earth beseen
Thro nature's noble fresh enamelling,

In mirthful May of every moneth queen.

1 Young.
4 Wisdom.

NO TREASURE WITHOUT GLADNESS.

BE merry, man, and tak nought far in mynd3

The wavering of this wretched world of sorrow,
To God be humble, to thy friend be kind,

And with thy neighbours gladly lend and borrow;
His chance to-night it may be thine to-morrow.
Be blythe in heart for ony aventùre;

For with wysane1 it hath been said aforrow,5
Without gladness availeth no treasure.

Mak the gude cheer of it that God thee sends;

For warld's wrack but weilfare nought avails,
Na gude is thine, save only but thou spends-
Remenant all, thou bruikis but with bails?
Seek to solàce when sadness thee assails,
In dolour lang thy life may not endure;

Wherefore of comfort set up all thy sail,
Without gladness availís no treasure.

Follow on pity; flee trouble and debate;
With famous folkís hold thy company.
Be charitable and humble in thine estate,

3 Take not too much to heart. Any thing worthless, dilapidated; here applied to

2 Lat. Amanus, pleasant. $ Before. worldly possessions;-but, without.

All that remains thou enjoyest only with misfortunes.-Comp. Mark x. 29–30; bruik; brook; to enjoy, to possess: now applied to the suffering of an injury or insult;-bail, bale, woe, grief; hence baleful.

Comp. Shakesp.

"It is meet

That noble minds keep ever with their likes."-Jul. Cæs. Act i. sc. 2.

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