TABLE OF CONTENTS. George Bannatyne's Epistle to the Reader 6. Haif hairt in hairt, ye hairt of hairtis, haill (Anon.) 7. The anschir to the ballat of hairtis 8. Hence, hairt, with hir that must departe 11. Only to yow in erd that I lufe best ... ... 12. Rycht as the glass bene thirlit thrucht with bemis vii INTRODUCTION. THE monks at a certain monastery were accustomed to listen at meal-times to a discourse on the life of one of the deceased members of their order. One day the reader gave out a name unfamiliar to them all, and he alarmed the hungry brethren by announcing that he would group his remarks under three headings. Firstly, What do we know of our deceased brother? Secondly, is his history authentic? Thirdly, can further light be expected? The alarm that dinner would grow cold was dispelled, as the reader proceeded to say that under the first head he had but one observation-That we know very little about the deceased brother; and as to the second, he stated that the little we did know was very doubtful; and under the third, his only remark was that it was extremely unlikely we shall ever know more. It is an unpleasant fact that this discourse might be made concerning several Scottish writers, and on more appropriately than Alexander Scott. His Poems are preserved mainly in the manuscript collection of Scottish poetry, which was made in 1568 by George Bannatyne to while away a time of enforced retirement when the city of Edinburgh was suffering from a visitation of plague. This enables us to say that the poems were all written before 1568. So far as I know Alexander Scott's name is not referred to in the writings of his contemporaries.1 It is hardly possible to fix the dates of any of the 1 David Irving, The History of Scottish Poetry, p. 418, as perhaps referring to Scott. It is doubtful if they do. date of the sonnet, though it cannot have been written Montgomery was born about 1545. quotes the lines below We do not know the much before 1570, as Ye knaw ill guyding genders mony gees, [aberrations] Ye can pen out tua cuple and ye pleis, Yourself and I, old Scot and Robert Semple: poems by internal evidence, except The New Yeir Gift. In the poem, Quha lykis to luve, there is a reference to an epidemic of plague then said to be raging: this may refer the poem to 1529, which was the first year in the century in which plague was rampant in Edinburgh, and it did not break out again until the time Bannatyne made his transcript of Scottish verse in 1568. The Lament of the Maister of Erskyn may refer to the Master of Erskyn who lost his life at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. From what Knox1 says of him it seems that he was a man well known in society, and the Lament may have been written after the news of his fate had reached the capital. The poem of May has a reference to the dramatic entertainment of Robin Hood. There was a notable disturbance of the peace in Edinburgh in 1560 over this forbidden pastime, and it may be that the fifth stanza of the poem is an allusion to that event. Then there comes the verses to Queen Mary on her return to Scotland, and we may safely refer them to 1561, and judging from the matter of the verses we are inclined to think that they are the production of a man who had reached years of maturity and discernment, and who had become reminiscent. I think it may be conjectured that Scott was born some time in the reign of James IV., and that he lived down to the time of Queen Mary, or perhaps to early in the reign of James VI. Scott's love poems are among the best produced in Scotland in the sixteenth century. Some of them express in melodious verse genuine feeling; and there is a vein of sly humour which warns the fair ones not to give too much trouble in wooing. It was this gaiety of disposition which made Pinkerton speak of Scott as the Scottish Anacreon. The satirical poems indicate a very low state of morals among both sexes; but Scott is not the only Scottish poet who castigates his countrymen. The reforming divines used to ascribe the low state of morals to French influences introduced by Queen Mary, at least such was the opinion Knox expressed in his History of the Reformation, Book IV., in a passage of sufficient interest to deserve quotation. "In the verie tyme of the Generall Assemblie, thair cumis to publyct knawlege ane heinous murdour committed in the Courte, yea, not far from the Quenis awin lap; for ane Frenche woman, that servit in the Queneis chalmer had playit the hure with the Quenis 1 History of the Reformation, Guthrie's. Ed., 1898, at p. 87. awin hipoticary. The woman conceveit and bare ane child quhome with commoune consent the father and the mother murthered. Yit wer the cryis of ane new borne barne hard; searche wes maid, the chylde and mowther wes baith deprehendit, and so wer baith the man and the woman dampned to be hangit upoun the publict streit of Edinburgh. The punischment was notable, because the cryme wes heinous. Bot yit wes not the courte purged of hureis and huredome, quhilk wes the fontane of sik enormiteis, for it wes weill knawin that schame haistit the mariage betwixt Johne sempill, callit the Danser, and Marie Levingstoune, surnameit the Lustie. What bruit the Maries and the rest of the dansaris of the Courte had the ballatis of that aige did witnes, quhilk we for modesteis sake omit. Bot this wes the commoune complaint of all godlie and wyse men, that giff thai thochht that sick ane Courte soulde lang continew, and giff thai luikit for no uther lyffe to cum, thay wald haif wissit thair soneis and dochteris rather to have bene brought up with fydlars and dansaris, and to have bene exerceit in flinging upone ane flure, and in the rest that thairof followis, than to haif bene nurisched in the companie of the godlie & exerceissit in vertew, quhilk in that Courte wes haittit, and fylthines not onlie maintenit, bot also rewairded. Witnes the Lordschip of Abercorne, the baronie of Authormortie, & diverse utheris pertenyng to the patrimonie of the Crowne, gyffin heritage to scouparis [skippers] dansaris, and dalliaris with damis. This wes the begyning of the regement of Marie Quene of Scottis, and thir wer the fructeis that sche brocht furth of France." Whether Queen Mary really was responsible for a deterioration of morals is doubtful, as we find Dunbar in the reign of James IV. writing in a similar strain to Scott before Mary was born. The poem, To luve vnluvit it is ane pane, seems to show that Scott's wife was unfaithful; perhaps this embittered his feelings and caused him to denounce womankind in general. The satirical poems are not pessimistic; the poet seems to revel in unmasking the vices of the time; whether his victims amend or not, he is determined to publish their failings on the housetops. Ane New Yeir Gift shows Scott to have been on the side of the reformation. The literature of the earlier generation was full of the wrongs suffered by the labouring classes. The Complainte of Scotlande sets forth how they were harassed by the clergy and the nobility; but the reformation movement did not mend matters, and Scott bitterly denounces the rapacity of those who under the pretence of religious reforms had seized the church lands, and placed a heavier burden on the backs of the peasants than they had to bear before. Scott's poems have been several times printed. Allan Ramsay inserted seven in the Evergreen, 1724; Lord Hailes printed seven in |