Epigraph
“Mediæval Scottish Poetry” is a meritorious and a welcome popularisation of some of the best examples of our fifteenth century verse.
—Scottish Leader.
This volume more than fulfils the promise of the first.—Modern Church.
The second volume of Mr. Eyre-Todd’s “Abbotsford Series” amply fulfils the promise of the earlier instalment, as regards all that the editor himself could be responsible for.—Glasgow Herald.
The editor has done his work wonderfully well, and, considering the aim of the series, with perfect thoroughness.—Freeman’s Journal.
A useful little volume of selections from the Mediæval Poetry of Scotland.—Daily News.
Note
This series is a most excellent one, and its production deserves every encouragement. It promises to be a permanent addition to the very few works we have which deal with Scottish poetical literature as a literature; and one speciality in it worthy of all praise is the concise and scholarly way in which the editing has been done.—Aberdeen Daily Free Press.
Footnotes
1 Respectively the friend and the historian of the Bruce.
2 Included in Dalzell’s Scotish Poems of the XVIth Century, Edin. 1801, and reprinted in 1868. The following opening lines afford a specimen of the adaptation of a “prophaine sang”:—
Quho is at my windo? who? who?
Goe from my windo; goe, goe:
Quha calles there, so like ane stranger?
Goe from my windo, goe.
Lord, I am heir, ane wratched mortall
That for thy mercie dois crie and call
Vnto thee, my Lord Celestiall.
See who is at my window, who.
3 The influences which went to fashion and to disintegrate the speech of the North are very clearly and systematically traced in Dr. J. A. H. Murray’s introduction to his Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, London, 1873.
4 Dr. Murray in a note (p. 71) upon the dialect of Scottish poets of the modern period remarks, “‘Scots wha hae’ is fancy Scotch—that is, it is merely the English ‘Scots who have,’ spelled as Scotch. Barbour would have written ‘Scottis at hes’; Dunbar or Douglas, ‘Scottis quhilkis hes’; and even Henry Charteris, in the end of the sixteenth century, ‘Scottis quha hes.’”
5 From an eye-witnesslike allusion to the walking-length of Italian ladies’ dresses in his “Contemptioun of Syde Taillis,” and from the Courteour’s speech in “The Monarche” (line 5417) alluding apparently to the Pope’s presence at the siege of Mirandola in 1511.
“I saw Pape Julius manfullye
Passe to the feild tryumphantlye
With ane rycht aufull ordinance
Contrar Lowis, the kyng of France.”
6 Play, Davie Lyndsay.
7 An old Scottish tune.
8 Given in facsimile by Mr. Laing in his introduction to Lyndsay’s works, p. xxiv.
9 Pitscottie’s History, Edin. 1728, p. 160.
10 Charteris’s Preface to Lyndsay’s works, Edin. 1582.
11 General introduction to Lyndsay’s works, Early English Text Society’s edition.
12 In his poem on the marriage of Queen Mary with the Dauphin.
13 though.
14 Exercised.
15 promised.
16 began to go.
17 wrapped.
18 afterwards.
19 nimbly.
20 Perhaps the Sir Guy of romance.
21 since.
22 Butler, Cup-bearer, and Carver.
23 treasurer.
24 usher.
25 loyalty.
26 Praise.
27 such.
28 able.
29 high of spirit.
30 describe.
31 true lovers.
32 Many of the prophecies of The Rhymer, Bede, and Merlin were printed in a small volume by Andro Hart at Edinburgh in 1615.
33 The Red Etin, a giant with three heads, was the subject of a popular story mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland. William Motherwell has a poem “The Etin of Sillarwood.” The Gyre Carlin, or huge old woman, was the gruesome Hecate, or mother-witch, of many peasant stories.
34 banished.
35 bush.
36 lain waking.
37 beams.
38 quickly.
39 Yet fared I forth, speeding athwart.
40 divert, lit. shorten time.
41 hillside.
42 disguised in sad attire.
43 violent.
44 oppressed.
45 formerly.
46 cursed.
47 frail.
48 sufferest.
49 fair, lit. shining.
50 Robs.
51 Concealed.
52 by myself.
53 High.
54 Without delay.
55 idleness.
56 rolling.
57 scowling.
58 rude, boisterous.
59 bellow.
60 over the open field.
61 without.
62 know.
63 knowledge.
64 oppressed.
65 every.
66 must.
67 wasted, laid waste.
68 regard.
69 causes.
70 An allusion to the departure of the Regent Albany.
71 lost.
72 loyalty.
73 robbery.
74 tedious.
75 These lazy sluggards.
76 i.e. personal interest caused.
77 Quickly.
78 cares, business.
79 know.
80 complain.
81 money. Fr. dénier.
82 every host.
83 each.
84 St. John be your surety.
85 sorrowful.
86 steeped.
87 above.
88 Over outland and mountain.
89 From John the Commonweill, says Sibbald, it has been suggested that Arbuthnot caught the first hint of his celebrated John Bull.
90 presently.
91 opposite.
92 a cruel fright.
93 Stones were the bullets of that age.
94 shout.
95 pleasure.
96 intellect.
97 Solomon-like.
98 writing.
99 every.
100 high.
101 Sir Gilbert Hay, Merser, and two Rowles, one of Aberdeen and one of Corstorphine, are mentioned in Dunbar’s “Lament for the Makaris.” Henryson and Sir Richard Holland, the author of “The Houlate,” are well known. Sir John Rowle’s “Cursing vpon the Steilaris of his fowlis” is preserved in the Bannatyne MS.
102 their books live.
103 stream.
104 alive.
105 describe.
106 these.
107 write pleasantly.
108 A chaplain at court, and reputed author of the “Complaynt of Scotland,” Inglis was made abbot of Culross by James V. He was murdered by the baron of Tullialan a few months after this mention of him.
109 A considerable number of poems bearing the colophon “quod Stewart” are preserved by Bannatyne, but nothing is known of their separate authorship.
110 speak, narrate.
111 skilful.
112 though.
113 know.
114 garden.
115 every one.
116 ere.
117 popinjay, parrot.
118 writing.
119 banished.
120 worth.
121 deserves.
122 jest.
123 country lasses who keep kine and ewes.
124 lost.
125 The ancient name for Stirling.
126 The curious earthworks about which the sports of the Knights of the Round Table took place are still to be seen under the Castle-hill at Stirling.
127 Linlithgow.
128 pattern.
129 pleasant.
130 range in row.
131 wretched.
132 feigned to weep.
133 Dispose of your goods.
134 faults.
135 croaking.
136 a hawk.
137 croaking.
138 prayer for the dead.
139 par cœur.
140 God knows if we have.
141 pilfer.
142 services of thirty masses each.
143 prattle, rattle off.
144 make chickens squeak.
145 The old Scottish liturgy was according to the usage of Sarum.
146 as surety.
147 funeral cry.
148 the great creed.
149 graceful.
150 your mouth across their meadows.
151 truly.
152 consistory court.
153 charge.
154 peacock.
155 testament.
156 pleasant.
157 regret.
158 practice.
159 quickly.
160 ere.
161 passed to and fro.
162 region. Lat. plaga.
163 by thy high intelligence.
164 without lies.
165 mix, deal.
166 utter note.
167 severe.
168 a little.
169 primitives.
170 preaching.
171 feared not the hurt.
172 healed many hundreds.
173 begat.
174 reigned.
175 Already in “The Dreme,” Laing remarks, Lyndsay had mentioned the fatal effects of the Emperor’s liberality to Pope Sylvester in conferring riches on the Church of Rome.
176 caused.
177 eyes.
178 A.D. 314–335.
179 rest.
180 Very pleasing.
181 God knows if then.
182 forgot.
183 by the word of.
184 bondage.
185 pleasant lives.
186 purveyance, management.
187 she could get no settlement.
188 She marched.
189 overbearingly ordered her.
190 entrance.
191 With one counsel, unanimously.
192 greatly abused.
193 hence.
194 sighing.
195 news.
196 weak.
197 cast wide their doors.
198 South of.
199 lament.
200 A convent founded on the Burgh-muir by the Countess of Caithness for Dominican nuns of the reformed order of St. Catherine of Sienna, from whom the place got its name of Siennes or Sheens.
201 armed.
202 a cannon braced up in hoops.
203 hard blows.
204 storm.
205 artillery.
206 dwelling.
207 assuredly.
208 choosing.
209 Without.
210 reckless.
211 blame.
212 door.
213 preaching.
214 leapers over wall.
215 innocent.
216 gourmand.
217 trucksters.
218 Lay, unlearned.
219 court-following.
220 waiting.
221 thirst.
222 skill.
223 gamester.
224 fell vacant.
225 law.
226 parson.
227 lose.
228 wish.
229 worthy.
230 coarse white woollen.
231 Laying hold.
232 crimson cloth.
233 meniver, marten, grey, and rich ermine furs.
234 pain.
235 fringes.
236 trappings.
237 hurt.
238 each.
239 athwart.
240 by the time that.
241 if I lie.
242 Raven. Fr. corbeau.
243 Overman.
244 Owl.
245 mantle.
246 pure eyes.
247 Bat.
248 burnished.
249 Cuckoo.
250 ivory.
251 without doubt.
252 rose-red, purple, and cinnabar.
253 labour.
254 liver and lung.
255 seize.
256 must from.
257 the woods hoar.
258 sting and shock.
259 death.
260 pungent.
261 to pull and tear.
262 gluttonlike.
263 reach.
264 the lot, lit. 128 lb. weight.
265 beshrew, curse.
266 that sad dividing.
267 let me stretch a rope, i.e. let me hang for it.
268 Complain.
269 smothered.
270 clutched in his claw.
271 the rest.
272 Beseeching.
273 composition.
274 to be put forward.
275 quire, book.
276 worth.
277 kindred.
278 forswear.
279 learn.
280 This burlesque is said to have been written for the entertainment of the court upon occasion of the home-coming of Mary of Loraine in 1538. As the “Dreme” had been a political satire, and the “Testament of the Papyngo” a satire upon church abuses, this, like the “Contemptioun of Syde Taillis,” was a satire on a social fashion. Chalmers mentions an anterior English poem, “The Turnament of Tottenham, or the wooing, winning, and wedding of Tibbe, the Reeve’s daughter,” printed in Percy’s Reliques, as a similar burlesque upon the custom of the tourney; but an example nearer home is to found in Dunbar’s “Justis betuix the Tailyour and the Sowtar.” Watsoun and Barbour were, according to the Treasurer’s Accounts, actual personages in the royal household.
281 banneret, a knight made in the field.
282 physician.
283 surgeon.
284 Bent old women he would cause.
285 gallantly waved.
286 hawkers.
287 distaffs.
288 by my livelihood.
289 the heavens.
290 by the altar.
291 running, course.
292 hurt.
293 three aimed strokes.
294 wreaked.
295 ere.
296 match.
297 reached him a blow.
298 struck.
299 in truth.
300 speak.
301 gloves.
302 know.
303 separate.
304 by the time that.
305 belongings.
306 Praise.
307 wished.
308 grave.
309 modest.
310 examine.
311 goods.
312 stole.
313 enquire.
314 played with.
315 know.
316 I know not.
317 The writings of the Reformers were, before 1560, printed in England and on the Continent. The Bible, in particular, was for this reason known as “the English Book.”
318 know.
319 “Sir” was by courtesy the ordinary title of churchmen.
320 hap, event.
321 the third of a penny.
322 Though.
323 much.
324 kindred.
325 each day.
326 cause.
327 Afterwards.
328 by heart.
329 “five and six,” terms in dice play.
330 Collars.
331 coals.
332 lard.
333 grains.
334 handfuls.
335 without.
336 own.
337 dream.
338 deceive.
339 entice.
340 to make stout and strong.
341 describe.
342 Perhaps the ill-natured rhetorician mentioned by Virgil, Eclogues, v. and vii.
343 belly.
344 The hero of the romance of which this forms the most important episode, was an actual contemporary of Lyndsay, some of whose romantic adventures are referred to by Pitscottie in his History, p. 129. Upon the conclusion of his youthful adventures Meldrum settled in Kinross, where he owned the estate of Cleish and Binns; and being appointed deputy of Patrick, Lord Lyndsay, Sheriff of Fife, is said to have administered physic as well as law to his neighbours.
345 Henry VIII. lay at Calais in July, 1513.
346 array.
347 Making war.
348 pikes.
349 this news.
350 view, visit.
351 chose.
352 host.
353 champion.
354 go.
355 Throughout.
356 Readers of Wyntoun’s Cronykil will remember that in the description of the great tournament at Berwick in 1338 it is a knight of the same name, Sir Richard Talbot, who is defeated in somewhat similar fashion by Sir Patrick Græme. See Early Scottish Poetry, p. 173.
357 tokens of war.
358 caused be made.
359 fight.
360 a valiant warrior.
361 To-morrow.
362 words, boasts.
363 a small piece of straw.
364 gone astray.
365 strong.
366 such practice.
367 afraid.
368 storm.
369 Gaul, son of Morni, first the enemy and afterwards the ally of Fingal, is one of the chief heroes of the Ossianic poems.
370 belongings.
371 in such fashion.
372 covenant.
373 Making light of.
374 taken.
375 know.
376 well I know.
377 Robert Stewart, Lord D’Aubigny and Mareschal of France, descended from the Darnley and Lennox family, was Captain of the Scots Guards of the King of France in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Readers of Quentin Durward will remember Scott’s description of the post as held by Lord Crawford.
378 choose.
379 nimbly.
380 in warlike garb.
381 stretched.
382 before.
383 coif, band.
384 hold.
385 caparisoned.
386 crimson cloth.
387 over the rough grassy ground.
388 morning.
389 beat.
390 made.
391 such a fright.
392 covering.
393 embroidered.
394 doubt.
395 staves, spears.
396 Wonderfully.
397 tough.
398 dashed.
399 flatwise.
400 nimbly.
401 gallantly.
402 once.
403 seized.
404 grasped.
405 well pleased.
406 these.
407 Boldly to prove their strength they pressed.
408 coursing room was from the extremity, à l’outrance.
409 swerved.
410 course.
411 violent.
412 bolted.
413 bound.
414 each.
415 match.
416 pike, spear.
417 cuirasse.
418 place.
419 joust.
420 compact.
421 lose.
422 pavilion.
423 embraced.
424 gallantly.
425 These are two of the last stanzas of “The Testament of Squyer Meldrum,” a composition chiefly occupied with the doughty squire’s directions for a sumptuous funeral. The lady to whom they are addressed was Marion Lawson, the young widow of John Haldane of Gleneagles, slain at Flodden, for whom the Squyer upon his return to Scotland in 1515 had formed a strong attachment, and by whom he had become the father of two children. In August, 1517, according to Pitscottie, Meldrum had, in gallantly defending his possession of this lady, been crippled and left for dead on the road to Leith by his rival Luke Stirling, brother of the laird of Keir, who followed him from Edinburgh and attacked him with fifty men.
426 shining.
427 beauty.
428 Star.
429 much.
430 evening and morning.
431 if.
432 wish.
433 fashion.
434 bought you from woes.
435 Redeeming.
436 seated.
437 mistuned.
438 love.
439 goods.
440 make me know.
441 Quick.
442 God knows.
443 vile.
444 entry.
445 these failings.
446 what the devil is that thou tearest?
447 ears.
448 talk.
449 burnt.
450 dash.
451 by the time that.
452 whole clothes.
453 learn.
454 but if, unless.
455 Leap.
456 though.
457 death.
458 tether, halter.
459 emptied.
460 pitcher.
461 Haste.
462 hobgoblin.
463 much.
464 truth.
465 The Court of Session had been established by James V. in May, 1532. The Seinzie was the older ecclesiastical consistory, or bishops’ court.
466 company.
467 hoar.
468 i.e. in panniers, the ancient means of carriage.
469 separate.
470 kine.
471 Ayrshire cattle were, to judge from this reference, as much esteemed in the sixteenth century as they are in the nineteenth.
472 died.
473 pasturing.
474 Formerly the fine paid the feudal superior for relief from armed service; afterwards a fine of the best chattel, exacted by the landlord on the death of a tenant.
475 clutched.
476 uppermost clothes.
477 coarse woollen.
478 The reference here, says Laing, is to the cors present, or funeral gift to the clerk, the exaction of which had become a heavy grievance to the poor.
479 parson.
480 fourpence.
481 Trowest.
482 gander.
483 pig.
484 ask.
485 stupefied.
486 without.
487 lot.
488 The retailing of papal indulgences, here satirized by Lyndsay, was one of the chief abuses against which Luther had raised the indignation of Germany.
489 grope, grip.
490 naughty.
491 lay.
492 tricks.
493 fellows.
494 I know by heart.
495 Sorrow destroy.
496 knave.
497 smothered in their baptism-cloth.
498 dark.
499 Khan.
500 The real jawbone of Fingal.
501 See introduction to King James the Fifth, p. 143.
502 tail.
503 snout.
504 go.
505 Belial.
506 jest.
507 vexation.
508 cumber.
509 blame.
510 rascal, lit. gallowsful.
511 fourth-day or intermittent fever.
512 laid hold of.
513 street-walker.
514 scoundrel.
515 Though you stay a year.
516 one.
517 counsel.
518 without doubt.
519 your fate you curse.
520 speak.
521 drivelling.
522 my whole body I cross.
523 At the horne, proclaimed rebel. Outlawry was proclaimed with three blasts of a horn. In 1512 Gavin Douglas was one of a great assize which passed an Act anent “the resset of Rebellis, and Personis being at our souerane Lordis horne.”
524 bless.
525 ropes.
526 gout.
527 search.
528 go.
529 coin.
530 excuse.
531 complain.
532 Consistory.
533 craves.
534 whole.
535 till then.
536 place.
537 I know full surely.
538 frail.
539 Ere.
540 heat.
541 evacuate fæces.
542 gums.
543 confounded.
544 rag.
545 by the altar.
546 blow.
547 sport.
548 Quick, fellows!
549 Laing quotes from the chartulary of Newbattle a grant by Seyer de Quency, lord of the manor of Tranent, of a coal-pit and quarry on the lands of Preston; which shows mining and quarrying to have been industries there as early as 1202.
550 company.
551 eight.
552 a Scots plack equalled the third of a penny.
553 halfway.
554 device.
555 croaked.
556 each.
557 fared.
558 describe.
559 fell.
560 twigs.
561 beryl.
562 moist empurpled.
563 embroidered.
564 dark.
565 sojourn.
566 wandering.
567 sure guide.
568 care.
569 breaking forth.
570 boughs.
571 Æolus.
572 peacock pruning his feathers fair.
573 thrush.
574 pleasant.
575 salute.
576 partly.
577 rocks.
578 The name is spelt variously, Ballantyne, Ballenden, Bellendyne, &c.
579 Murray’s Dialects of the Southern Counties of Scotland, p. 61.
580 According to Hume’s History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, p. 258.
581 In the appendix to Scotstarvet’s History Sir John Bellenden is stated to have been Justice-Clerk from 1547 till 1578.
582 Dr. Irving quotes the statements of Conn, Bale, and Dempster respectively for these three facts. But both the date and place remain, as he remarks, uncertain; and by some, as by Sibbald in his Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Bellenden is stated to have died at Paris.
583 Hector Boece, born 1465–66, was Principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, then newly founded by Bishop Elphinstone; and he died Rector of Tyrie in Buchan, in 1536. The second edition of his History was not published till 1574. It included the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth book by Boece, and a continuation to the end of the reign of James III. by the celebrated scholar Ferrerius.
584 On the title page the translator is styled “Archdene of Murray and Chanon of Rosse,” and, as Irving points out, he was not in possession of these titles at the time of purchasing escheat in 1538. The date of 1536 sometimes assigned to this edition is probably therefore a mistake. Only two copies of the edition are now known to exist.
585 This MS., by the older writers on Bellenden, is called sometimes the “Carmichael Collection,” from the name of the owner who lent it to Allan Ramsay, sometimes the “Hyndford MS.,” from John, third Earl of Hyndford, who presented it to the Advocates’ Library. This difference of appellation has not lessened the confusion hitherto involving the poet and his work.
586 The prohemes from the translation of Boece, after being copied in part by Bannatyne in his MS., were included in Ramsay’s Evergreen and in Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry. The prologue to Livy was printed first by Dr. Leyden in the dissertation prefixed to his edition of The Complaynt of Scotland.
587 From dark.
588 Above.
589 valued.
590 could.
591 unworthy.
592 Till.
593 harried.
594 though.
595 cares.
596 doom yet constantly endures.
597 earthly.
598 swam.
599 That grave deliberation.
600 slothful.
601 Diffusing.
602 penetrative.
603 loud noise.
604 fourth.
605 over the grasslands.
606 revenues.
607 was named.
608 as they deemed best.
609 splendour.
610 enterprise.
611 choose.
612 most agreeable.
613 Who.
614 earth.
615 powerful.
616 live.
617 By sight of these.
618 doubt.
619 was taken.
620 without.
621 prevent.
622 must.
623 devoured.
624 folded.
625 To caress and embrace.
626 wit.
627 pleasure.
628 float.
629 give practice.
630 with forward-moving wheels.
631 shires, lit. districts sheared off.
632 vexing.
633 much pain.
634 end.
635 war.
636 overcome.
637 constant warfare.
638 makes breach in.
639 serene.
640 not be daunted.
641 certain.
642 shall vanish without delay.
643 gone.
644 know.
645 In such fashion.
646 smoky.
647 converts sores.
648 the day star, i.e. the sun.
649 perfects.
650 without peer.
651 wipe, cleanse.
652 sphere.
653 called.
654 hurts.
655 mingled.
656 warlike rage.
657 slit.
658 delicate.
659 warlike.
660 reigned.
661 drove from their realms.
662 bite.
663 lost.
664 stop.
665 daunted by his war.
666 children.
667 acquire substance.
668 deified.
669 illustrious.
670 high above genius.
671 repulsive.
672 darkness.
673 solely.
674 would not.
675 lives as beast conscious of knowledge.
676 ages.
677 overhauls.
678 barren wife.
679 the prolific fails.
680 And then possess.
681 cover over.
682 strong, raging.
683 adorn.
684 praise.
685 champion.
686 the praise is.
687 those who propose to take place.
688 must.
689 which.
690 fearful.
691 strain, race.
692 courtesy.
693 same stock.
694 overcome.
695 host.
696 come, begotten.
697 care.
698 dying.
699 powerful deeds.
700 who could.
701 save, preserve.
702 The prologue consists of twenty stanzas, of which the first four and the last are here printed.
703 hazards of war.
704 map of the world.
705 diffuse.
706 the spirits of my dull intelligence.
707 glittering.
708 flame.
709 stars.
710 stop.
711 strong, hard to encounter.
712 hard rock.
713 lost.
714 perish long ere.
715 Spirit.
716 Some are deep-thinking.
717 war.
718 cares.
719 rage.
720 feud.
721 death.
722 lives.
723 of good fellows counts not a bean.
724 He burns, without regard.
725 living.
726 loyal.
727 compliant and attentive.
728 of your courtesy forbear with it.
729 composition.
730 scattered.
731 earth.
732 declared rebel. See note, p. 97.
733 same.
734 limbo.
735 From the time when.
736 lament.
737 own.
738 lost.
739 end.
740 aggravated.
741 suffer.
742 death.
743 The dramatic incidents of the raid have been immortalized in famous ballads like “Johnnie Armstrong,” “The Sang of the Outlaw Murray,” and “The Border Widow’s Lament.”
744 History of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 361, and note z. The historian shows that the attempt to poison the king was by no means the first capital offence of which Lady Glammis had been convicted, though her youth and beauty were used by the reforming party to excite popular feeling against James.
745 Orlando Furioso, canto xiii., stanzas 8 and 9.
746 Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry.
747 Irving’s History of Scottish Poetry, p. 145.
748 The failure of Dunbar, Asloan, and Lyndsay to mention James I. upon the strength of “The Kingis Quair” may be accounted for by the situation of that poem, the only copy now known to exist being that contained in the Selden MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. No such argument can account for the overlooking of popular pieces like “Christis Kirk” and “Peblis to the Play” had they been then in existence.
749 In “Christis Kirk” occur the expressions—
“His lymmis wes lyk twa rokkis;...
Ran vpoun vtheris lyk rammis;...
Bet on with barrow trammis;”
and in “The Justyng” we find—
“Quod Jhone, ‘Howbeit thou thinkis my leggis lyke rokkis...
Yit, thocht thy braunis be lyk twa barrow-trammis,
Defend thee, man!’ Than ran thay to, lyk rammis.”
750 See Murray’s Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, pp. 56 and 69.
751 Rogers’ Poetical Remains of King James I., 1873.
752 In 1526–27, according to the Treasurer’s Accounts, £13 6s. 8d. was paid “to Johne Murray the Kingis barbour, for corsbowis, windaiss, and ganzies” (crossbows, pulleys, and arrows). And Alexander Scot in his poem “Of May,” circa 1550, describes the merry gathering of archers “To schute at buttis, at bankis, and brais.”
753 Introduction to The Kingis Quair, Scottish Text Society, 1883–84.
754 In The Daily News, March 19, 1892.
755 Beltane, believed to be from the Gaelic Beal-tein, or Baal fire, was the great Druid festival of the first of May. The sports of Beltane, it appears, were celebrated at Peebles till a recent date, when a market was established, known as the Beltane Fair.
756 when each person sets forth.
757 By outland.
758 went.
759 clad.
760 time, occasion.
761 turmoil.
762 For preparation and sport.
763 kerchiefs.
764 gloomy.
765 Said she.
766 collarette.
767 permitted not.
768 band, ribbon.
769 so foolish and playful.
770 knew.
771 weep not.
772 lost.
773 market.
774 so badly sunburnt.
775 carry my rags, i.e. woven cloth.
776 shall once venture.
777 look by stealth.
778 Man, woman, and prentice-lad (Hob, caile, curdower).
779 Gathered out thick-fold.
780 thronged out.
781 steadings unnumbered.
782 over the plain.
783 started in that place.
784 lively.
785 become not weary.
786 clear, mild.
787 raised a high rough song.
788 fared.
789 wood.
790 way.
791 conceit, opinion.
792 that.
793 dispose of.
794 remainder.
795 play the fool with.
796 Swiftly.
797 encountered.
798 young woman.
799 maukin, a little maid.
800 to play the mate so.
801 override.
802 too good.
803 go.
804 Laughed.
805 Was come.
806 jollity.
807 words wondrous brave.
808 Have done (?).
809 “Set up the board,” he calls soon.
810 dance, party.
811 napery be white.
812 good woman, hostess.
813 wall.
814 Wait till we reckon our lawing (bill).
815 that ye owe.
816 laugh.
817 scorn.
818 twopence half-penny.
819 over stupid.
820 deserved a blow.
821 pointed staff.
822 Wincing as he were mad.
823 uproar.
824 earth.
825 clearance, settlement.
826 slid.
827 Thirty-three lay there.
828 Tumbling about.
829 distiller’s waste.
830 A hawker on the market street.
831 debate, battle.
832 overtake.
833 Two lines of the stanza have here apparently been lost.
834 glimpse.
835 separate.
836 leaped.
837 girthing.
838 At once.
839 dirtied.
840 became.
841 low-born.
842 counsel.
843 Go home his ways.
844 defiled.
845 See how.
846 treated.
847 great.
848 hinder.
849 know.
850 fatigued.
851 then.
852 By the time that.
853 notches (of bows).
854 broil.
855 grovelling.
856 Had rather given.
857 Ere.
858 favourite.
859 a dance now unknown.
860 jerked, rocked.
861 how.
862 dwelling.
863 performs wondrous long.
864 laughed.
865 hence your ways.
866 enough.
867 So fiercely fire-hot.
868 Tibbie, Isabella.
869 latch.
870 encountered.
871 all the men to cackle.
872 quite nothing.
873 the wenches and wooers parted.
874 Alison.
875 damsel.
876 swooned that sweet one of the glen foot.
877 sipped, uttered a sipping sound.
878 weeping.
879 shock of lips, i.e. osculation.
880 The Christ’s Kirk of the poem, in Tytler’s opinion, was that near Dunideer in Aberdeenshire. About the burial ground of the ancient kirk was a green where, so late as the end of last century, a yearly fair was still held on the 1st of May. “In former times,” says Tytler, “this fair was continued during the night, from which circumstance it was called by the country people Sleepy Market. On such occasions it was natural that such disorders as are so humorously described by the royal author should have taken place.”
881 merriment, disorder.
882 wooers.
883 think.
884 Kittie, now the common abbreviation of Catherine, was in James’s time the general name for a playful girl.
885 prepared.
886 gay of manners.
887 doeskin.
888 coarse woollen.
889 Lincoln-green.
890 simple, foolish.
891 approached.
892 goats, kids.
893 slim, dainty.
894 the ruddy part of the face.
895 skin.
896 Full.
897 frail, i.e., she was love-sick.
898 death.
899 girded.
900 mocked him by making mouths.
901 go hang himself.
902 counted.
903 clucks.
904 distaffs.
905 how he did launch (the fiddle bow).
906 shrill.
907 an ancient dance.
908 forsake.
909 behaved.
910 stepping in with long strides.
911 course.
912 Flat-footed.
913 bounds.
914 He leaped till he lay on his buttocks.
915 exerted.
916 coughed.
917 began.
918 dragged.
919 drove him side-wise (gable-wards).
920 The angry man clutched the stave.
921 did not they have by the ears.
922 blow of the fist.
923 pulled.
924 such wrath did move him.
925 Great hurt was it to have frightened.
926 chose an arrow.
927 become.
928 other.
929 pierce.
930 pierced.
931 acre’s breadth.
932 let fly.
933 splinters.
934 knew.
935 enough.
936 giddy fellow.
937 skilful.
938 Snatched.
939 delay.
940 enraged.
941 did vary.
942 escaped.
943 designed.
944 arrow did feather.
945 offered, promised.
946 to wager a wether.
947 on the belly a knock.
948 sounded.
949 conceited.
950 Loosed.
951 aimed at the man.
952 cowhouse.
953 quiver.
954 let (drive).
955 kicked.
956 stout fellows.
957 roof beams.
958 buffeted.
959 Till they of men made bridges.
960 uproar.
961 spars.
962 ridges, backs.
963 my love lies.
964 snarled and let drive with groans.
965 vexed the other.
966 pikes.
967 dwellings.
968 proved.
969 unbruised bones.
970 Where fighters were hurt.
971 Tall.
972 a hazel twig.
973 separate.
974 rumble.
975 mowed.
976 mice.
977 inactive fellow.
978 stout.
979 With such wranglers to jumble.
980 struck a slice.
981 “A truce.”
982 prevent.
983 deemed.
984 feud.
985 distressed.
986 debate, broil.
987 shoemaker.
988 swollen with rage.
989 clotted, lit. broidered.
990 delayed.
991 till he was chased.
992 jest.
993 knocked he their crowns.
994 The whole ambush.
995 fought, rattled upon.
996 ox-collars of bent willow.
997 hams.
998 crofters, country men.
999 in warlike array.
1000 their mouths were unclad, i.e. unguarded.
1001 gums.
1002 barked, clotted.
1003 worried.
1004 youngsters (perhaps Dutch jonker) engaged.
1005 lightning.
1006 stout fellows.
1007 carls, men.
1008 did each other quell.
1009 belched.
1010 bellowed.
1011 firewood burnt in flames.
1012 overpowered were with burdens.
1013 these fatigued fools.
1014 turfs cut for burning.
1015 goals, stations.
1016 struck.
1017 numbers.
1018 forthwith.
1019 multitude, lit. waggon-load.
1020 mean fellows, sneaks.
1021 folly-mouth.
1022 drubbing.
1023 strike no other.
1024 An ancient Scots name for a hawker, from gaber, a wallet, and lunyie, the loin. Literally, “The man who carries a wallet on the loin.” Throughout this poem, it will be observed, the consonant sound of “y” is represented by the letter “z.” This peculiarity is preserved to the present day in several Scottish proper names, such as Dalziel, Zair, Culzean.
1025 sly, artful.
1026 frail.
1027 beyond.
1028 cheerfully.
1029 become weary.
1030 lively.
1031 her old mother know.
1032 busy.
1033 if.
1034 go.
1035 I’d clothe me gay.
1036 a little.
1037 open field.
1038 enquire.
1039 went.
1040 goods.
1041 chest.
1042 stolen.
1043 alone.
1044 loyal, true.
1045 churn.
1046 Go to the outer apartment.
1047 to the inner apartment.
1048 did say.
1049 O haste, cause to ride.
1050 troublesome.
1051 afoot.
1052 mad, furious.
1053 far hence, out over.
1054 slice.
1055 proving, tasting.
1056 Ill-favouredly.
1057 she’d never trust.
1058 chalk and ruddle (for marking sheep).
1059 small perforated stones used in spinning.
1060 bend.
1061 cloth, rag.
1062 set forth.
1063 country farm-steading.
1064 behind.
1065 cautiously.
1066 talk.
1067 my honey and my dove.
1068 “They’ll tear all my meal bags, and do me great harm.” In rural districts of Scotland as late as a century ago beggars carried under each arm a wallet in which they collected the doles of the farmers’ wives. The expected gratuity, which was rarely withheld, was a “gowpen,” or double handful of oatmeal.
1069 sorrow.
1070 a silver coin worth 13⅓ d. Stg.
1071 wet-nurse wage.
1072 rags.
1073 such.
1074 The Bannatyne MS. furnished the greater part of the contents of that effective but unreliable publication, Ramsay’s Evergreen, in 1724, and a further selection from its pages, under the title of Ancient Scottish Poems, was printed by Lord Hailes in 1770. In 1829 the Bannatyne Club published the Memorials of George Bannatyne, by Sir Walter Scott, containing all the ascertained facts of the collector’s life; and this and the complete contents of the famous MS. were finally printed together by the Hunterian Club, 1878–1886.
1075 An entry in the Chartulary of Dryburgh bears that this ancestor, also a Sir Richard Maitland, disponed certain of his lands to that abbey in 1249.
1076 During the reign of Robert III., in the year 1400, according to Wyntoun, Sir Robert Maitland took the castle of Dunbar by strategy from his mother’s brother, the Earl of March.
1077 The letter of James VI. dated 1st July, 1584, respecting Maitland’s retirement from the bench, states that the latter had served the king’s “grandsire, goodsire, goodame, mother, and himself.”
1078 Sadler’s State Papers, vol. i., p. 70.
1079 Printed in the appendix to the Maitland Club volume of Sir Richard’s works.
1080 Seen both in town and country.
1081 fair.
1082 causeway.
1083 The hospitality of the religious houses was from time to time greatly abused by the nobles. Upon one occasion an Earl of Douglas compelled the Abbot of Aberbrothock to entertain him and a thousand of his followers for a considerable time.
1084 The performance of these mediæval masquerades, containing traces of the ancient miracle-plays and allusions to the exploits of the Knights Templar, is still a favourite pastime in rural districts on Hallowe’en.
1085 Churchmen made no scruple of appearing armed, like lay barons, on the battlefield. Thus two bishops and two abbots fell among the Scottish nobles at Flodden.
1086 choir.
1087 learn.
1088 formerly.
1089 love.
1090 Easter.
1091 cause.
1092 plenty.
1093 known.
1094 ancestors.
1095 truss, caparison. Fr. trousse.
1096 long forms, settles.
1097 For our prodigality some blame plays.
1098 go.
1099 Till.
1100 cumber.
1101 trespass upon.
1102 knowledge.
1103 This was a common abuse of the time. The Earl of Bothwell, when called to answer for the murder of Darnley, appeared in Edinburgh with a following of five thousand men.
1104 overbear and intimidate the judge.
1105 approval.
1106 slighted because of abuse.
1107 blame.
1108 wondrous.
1109 know.
1110 spend.
1111 novelty.
1112 to add to.
1113 marvel.
1114 many.
1115 “Of finest cambric their foc’sles,” an allusion to the actual turret which formed the forecastle of ancient ships of war, to which the high breast-trimming of ladies’ dresses probably presented some likeness.
1116 hanging.
1117 jelly bags.
1118 Their under-petticoats must.
1119 Broidered.
1120 sewed with stripes of lace or silk.
1121 enquire.
1122 Barred above with drawn head-pieces. O. Fr. teste, tête.
1123 necklaces and throat beads.
1124 set high.
1125 young person. Perhaps Dutch jonker.
1126 sandals anciently worn by persons of rank.
1127 lament.
1128 doing what is becoming.
1129 Be assured.
1130 many a parcel, fortune.
1131 learn.
1132 clothe.
1133 to glide across the street.
1134 no mumming cards (playing cards with figures) early or late.
1135 able.
1136 Frequent.
1137 to con by heart.
1138 Leave off.
1139 aspersion.
1140 cambric kerchiefs.
1141 suffer.
1142 country.
1143 Wearing.
1144 over.
1145 attend to.
1146 inquire.
1147 complain.
1148 made him angry.
1149 deemed.
1150 kinship.
1151 made my way.
1152 went.
1153 give.
1154 seized.
1155 fist.
1156 help.
1157 full.
1158 kindred.
1159 bought and sold.
1160 reck.
1161 Of which if he fail then.
1162 joy.
1163 vexation.
1164 above.
1165 lover.
1166 partly, lit. greyish.
1167 lose.
1168 impoverish.
1169 harry, ruin.
1170 leaking boat.
1171 farm.
1172 substance.
1173 tills.
1174 known it.
1175 suffer.
1176 boldly.
1177 rob.
1178 great.
1179 path.
1180 gate.
1181 abides, withstands.
1182 They leave quite nothing.
1183 almost wholly harried.
1184 choose.
1185 with theft so wasted.
1186 Those wicked villains.
1187 rendered inactive.
1188 aught.
1189 Blackmail was the yearly sum paid by farmers on the Highland and English borders to some powerful chieftain like Rob Roy or Johnnie Armstrong, who in return undertook to make good any losses by depredation.
1190 wrecked.
1191 accommodated.
1192 broth made without meat.
1193 carry off.
1194 walls.
1195 despoil.
1196 stores.
1197 reel and distaff.
1198 Searches chest.
1199 Too good a guide.
1200 robs her web.
1201 rest.
1202 stomach.
1203 such access.
1204 to make contention for.
1205 herd, protect.
1206 stir.
1207 oppress.
1208 Though all perish.
1209 Till.
1210 So brittle and slippery.
1211 withstand.
1212 if.
1213 fault.
1214 strive.
1215 lawful.
1216 As already stated, the preservation of all the extant compositions attributed to Scot is owed to Bannatyne’s MS. From this several pieces were printed by Ramsay, Hailes, Pinkerton, and Sibbald, in their several collections. The poems were first gathered into one volume by Laing, who printed an octavo edition of one hundred copies for private circulation at Edinburgh in 1821. Another edition, of seventy copies, by Alexander Smith, was printed at Glasgow in 1882. And in 1887 a modernised version of considerable merit by William M’Kean, “based mainly on Laing’s collection,” and not containing all the author’s work, was printed at Paisley.
1217 Memorials of George Bannatyne, Edin. 1829, p. 47.
1218 a lady comely and neat.
1219 stout fellows.
1220 beat.
1221 The Drum was a house belonging to Lord Somerville, situated between Dalkeith and Edinburgh.
1222 douze pairs, the twelve peers of Charlemagne.
1223 wars.
1224 stir, move.
1225 pricking, spurring.
1226 briers.
1227 hot.
1228 known.
1229 was stronger of body.
1230 promised.
1231 If.
1232 youngsters. (Perhaps Dutch jonker, young nobleman.)
1233 sprightly.
1234 foam.
1235 cornets.
1236 course.
1237 lost or won.
1238 fashion.
1239 pikes.
1240 hurt.
1241 too sluggishly.
1242 as active as a fawn.
1243 stolen.
1244 death.
1245 pledged to the peacock.
1246 feud.
1247 sun and moon.
1248 ranged.
1249 breakfast. O. Fr. desjune.
1250 ere noon.
1251 prepared.
1252 pained, punished.
1253 oaths.
1254 by the time that.
1255 Anger-mad, furious.
1256 from his companion to fetch.
1257 neither lad nor knave.
1258 a baked loach.
1259 fullness, drunkenness.
1260 astir.
1261 in company.
1262 from having combat could not desist.
1263 incited Will to war.
1264 dreaded.
1265 buying hides.
1266 wether.
1267 the groom, the gallant.
1268 to live in peace.
1269 joint.
1270 by three such.
1271 flight.
1272 jibe.
1273 over meek.
1274 four together.
1275 distaff.
1276 to make your rump smoke.
1277 nothing at all.
1278 laughed.
1279 take.
1280 do it so reluctantly.
1281 roe.
1282 steep bank.
1283 declivity.
1284 limb.
1285 rushed.
1286 feared.
1287 go.
1288 thrust.
1289 rumbled.
1290 rolled.
1291 limb, bough.
1292 belongings.
1293 full and crammed.
1294 malt liquor, lit. grains.
1295 worthy.
1296 jacket of mail.
1297 held at feud.
1298 Above.
1299 Woe befell the man that awaited it.
1300 gap, opening between hills.
1301 crupper.
1302 with many a boast and fib.
1303 ways.
1304 From the time when.
1305 full.
1306 lost.
1307 faith.
1308 served long.
1309 Prepare.
1310 haste.
1311 beleaguered.
1312 wholly.
1313 per-equal, i.e. quite worthy.
1314 garden.
1315 rest.
1316 whole.
1317 kiss.
1318 Enwrapped without recovery.
1319 aid.
1320 endure.
1321 blame.
1322 lore.
1323 kind of.
1324 besets.
1325 lament.
1326 Though thou shouldst perish.
1327 choose.
1328 worthless.
1329 unrest.
1330 treated.
1331 daily pained.
1332 glancing.
1333 made thee stare and idle.
1334 slacken, abate thy sighing.
1335 range.
1336 earth.
1337 failedst thou to grasp.
1338 must.
1339 high.
1340 folded.
1341 What a stupid fool.
1342 Since well I know.
1343 goes.
1344 want of ease.
1345 poor.
1346 quarrel.
1347 boughs.
1348 each.
1349 thrush.
1350 swallow and nightingale.
1351 sound.
1352 hedgehog.
1353 rabbit.
1354 polecat.
1355 skipping.
1356 kept their haunts.
1357 wild.
1358 bough.
1359 cliff.
1360 budding.
1361 ringdove.
1362 shrill.
1363 stared.
1364 Ovid, Metamorphoses, iii. 407, and on. The legend is alluded to by Shelley in “The Sensitive Plant,” when he describes the narcissus flowers,
“Who gaze on thine eyes in the stream’s recess
Till they die of their own dear loveliness.”
1365 twigs.
1366 Till.
1367 pool under a cataract.
1368 descending.
1369 The syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, so, la, are said, says Dr. Cranstoun, “to have been first used in the teaching of singing by Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century. Le Maire, a French musician of the seventeenth century, added si for the seventh of the scale.”
1370 i.e. the throat of Echo, one of the cavern elves.
1371 are accustomed to be.
1372 above.
1373 Till Cupid wakens.
1374 earth.
1375 mildly and quietly.
1376 veil of cobweb lawn.
1377 arm-covering.
1378 marvels.
1379 Perceiving my behaviour.
1380 jested.
1381 to hold sway.
1382 wooed, made sign for.
1383 have it gladly.
1384 resigns.
1385 higher than.
1386 burned.
1387 flame.
1388 foolishly fond of.
1389 by suit.
1390 upon it.
1391 hews (a tree) too high.
1392 splinter.
1393 An allusion to the fable of Æsop, versified by Henryson. The swallow, seeing a farmer sowing flax, begged the other birds to help her to pick up the seed, as the thread produced from it should compose the fowler’s snare. Being twice refused and ridiculed, she resolved to quit the society of her thoughtless fellows, and has ever since frequented the dwellings of men.
1394 shut.
1395 stolen.
1396 is ignorant of, refuses to acknowledge.
1397 From the time when.
1398 groaning.
1399 booty.
1400 hurt.
1401 staggering state.
1402 under (beyond) cure I got such check.
1403 prevent (receiving check).
1404 either be stale or checkmated.
1405 fainted and swooned.
1406 ere I wakened from.
1407 spoiled.
1408 staring at the stars.
1409 brains.
1410 disordered.
1411 sighed till.
1412 by such a boy.
1413 shake fist at and curse.
1414 disorder, consternation.
1415 strange.
1416 Unburnt and unboiled.
1417 By love’s bellows blown.
1418 to smother it.
1419 endeavouring without ceasing.
1420 skeleton.
1421 withered.
1422 throbbing.
1423 My pulses leaped.
1424 get.
1425 it behoved to abide.
1426 enclosed.
1427 overcome and upset.
1428 In death-agony still living.
1429 though.
1430 death.
1431 straining and thrusting.
1432 more troubled.
1433 ease.
1434 annoyance.
1435 oppressed.
1436 drought.
1437 dry grass stalks.
1438 No token.
1439 at once.
1440 groans.
1441 sheer.
1442 A bush of sloes.
1443 crag.
1444 perfectly.
1445 tough twigs.
1446 through burden of their produce.
1447 sheltered place.
1448 knobs.
1449 In ripples like diaper figuring.
1450 Half-way.
1451 Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 452, and on.
1452 without tiring.
1453 use.
1454 endeavour.
1455 steep and wearisome.
1456 far up, tall, and slender.
1457 to essay it.
1458 At times trying, at times stopping.
1459 To stretch above my reach.
1460 but foolish that has aught to do.
1461 To dastards hard hazards.
1462 Is death ere.
1463 Softly.
1464 Take care.
1465 thou catch no hurt.
1466 few times thou seest.
1467 Foolish haste.
1468 Beguiles.
1469 considers not.
1470 learn.
1471 Atropos, eldest of the Fates, presiding over death.
1472 youngest of the Fates, presiding over birth.
1473 “Extremes are vicious.” The poet here advocates Horace’s “golden mean,” the counsel of the Greek proverb Μηδὲν ἄγαν, said to have been one of the inscriptions on the tripod of the oracle at Delphi.
1474 signs.
1475 knowest.
1476 although.
1477 slake.
1478 drought.
1479 Than fight with ten at once.
1480 practice.
1481 liefer, rather.
1482 “This lovely poem is one of the happiest efforts of Montgomerie’s muse, and shows his lyric genius at its best. It is perhaps the oldest set of words extant to the air ‘Hey tuttie, taittie’—the war-note sounded for the Bruce on the field of Bannockburn, and familiarized to everyone by Burns’ ‘Scots wha hae.’ The song was one of those chosen for adaptation by the Wedderburns in their ‘Compendious Buik of godly and spirituall Sangis.’”—(Cranstoun, Notes, p. 371.)
1483 dawns.
1484 the coverts attire themselves.
1485 throstle-cock.
1486 scatter.
1487 daisies.
1488 flame.
1489 As red as the rowan, mountain ash.
1490 partner.
1491 Toss high their tines, antlers.
1492 hedgehogs.
1493 each one.
1494 attends.
1495 mates.
1496 prepare.
1497 foes.
1498 i.e. The stallion.
1499 rears (?)
1500 gallops.
1501 men, stout fellows.
1502 strong weapons.
1503 throne.
1504 change quarters.
1505 Then gallants.
1506 On white steeds that neigh.
1507 cause.
1508 scare.
1509 feigning.
1510 wrestle.
1511 have; i.e. possession already half satisfies.
1512 smith.
1513 boldly.
1514 must.
1515 plentiful.
1516 learn.
1517 for a time.
1518 parting.
1519 Since then.
1520 separate.
1521 key.
1522 feared.
1523 holly.
1524 quivering trills.
1525 though.
1526 frail, innocent.
1527 thorns prick.
1528 bonnie breast.
1529 likewise tried.
1530 threatening.
1531 my conquest (or object of conquest) quit.
1532 without peer.