Pauper.
Nae, then gossip, give me my groat again.
What say ye maister, call ye this good
reason?

That he should promise me ane gay pardon,
And he receive my money in his stead,
Syne make me nae payment till I be dead.
When I am dead, I wat full sickerly,
My silly soul will pass to purgatory :
Declare me this: now God, nor Belial bind
thee,

When I am there, curst carl, where shall
I find thee?

Not into heaven, but rather into hell:
When thou art there thou cannot help
thysell;

When thou art come my dolours till abate,
Or I thee find, my hips will get ane hait.

Trows thou, butcher, that I will buy blind lambs:

Give me my groat; the devil dryte in thy gams.

Pardoner.

Swith! stand aback! I trow this man be mangèd : 1

Thou gets not this, carl, though thou should be hanged.

Pauper.

Give me my groat weel bound intill ane clout,

Or, by God's bread, Robin 2 shall bear ane

rout.

[Here shall they fight, and PAUPER shall cast down the board and relics in the water.]

JOHN BELLENDEN.

1492 (?)—1550 (?).

It was

THIS learned ecclesiastic is more dis- | inconstancy of court favour. tinguished as a prose writer and scholar, than as a poet; and there is no reason for supposing that he cultivated poetry to any great extent. Neither the date nor the place of his birth are knownHaddington and Berwick shires are the only places even suggested. The date of his matriculation at St Andrews, 1508, gives the nearest approximation as data for estimating the time of his birth. He completed his education at the University of Paris, where he took his degree of doctor of divinity. He himself states that he was in the service of James V. from his infancy, as clerk of his accounts, but that he experienced the

probably during his temporary aliena-
tion from court that Lindsay, in the
"Complaint of the Papyngo," describes
him as-

"Ane plant of poetis, called Ballendyne,
Whose ornate workis my wit cannot define :
Get he into court auctoritie,
He will precell Quintyn and Kennedy."

It would not be long after this that he was recalled, for, in 1530, and the three following years, it is shown by the Treasurer's accounts that he was engaged upon the Translation of Livy, and Boece's History of Scotland, by

Mad.

2 Robin Rome-raker, the Pardoner.

request of the King. For the former, which only extended to the first five books, he was paid £36, and for the latter £78.

But besides these payments, he was promoted to the Archdeaconry of Moray, and, about the same time, was made a Canon of Ross.

A POLITICAL HOMILY.
Proheme to Boece's Chronicles.

I.

Thou martial book! pass to the noble prince,

King James the Fift, my Sovereign maist And gif some time thou gettis audience, preclair,

In humble wise unto his grace declare

2

My wakerif nightis and my labour sare,
Whilk ithandly has for his pleasure tak,
While golden Titan with his burnand chair
Has past all signis of the Zodiac.

harrows

II.

Has filled her granges 3 full of every corn;
And stormy Chiron with his bow and

The translation of Boece was printed soon after it was written, but the year is not given in the title-page or elsewhere. Livy remained in MS. till 1822, when it was published in the complete edition of his works edited by Maitland, from the MS. in the Advocate's Library. These two works, says While busy Ceres with her plough and Dr Irving, "exhibit the most ample specimen of ancient Scottish prose that has descended to our times, and are distinguished beyond most others by their fluency and neatness of style; nor can we peruse these translations without being convinced that the writer's learning and talents had qualified him for original compositions." The "Epistle to James V.," which prefaces Boece's History, is written with a manly boldness and dignity, which is creditable to both the King and the author. It also conveys a high idea of his skill and taste in the art of poetical composition.

Bellenden was strenuously opposed to the Reformation; but having gone to Rome, he is said to have died there in 1550, before that mighty current of religious and political thought had swept away that ecclesiastical system which, if all its priesthood were Bellendens, would at least have presented a more venerable aspect to posterity.

arrows

Has all the cloudis of the heavenis shorn,
And schill Tryton with his windy horn
Ourewhelmed all the flowand ocean;
And Phoebus turned under Capricorn,
The samen greis 4 where I first began.

III.

Sen thou art drawen sae compendius
Frae flowand Latin into vulgar prose,
Show now what princes been maist
vicious,

And wha has been of chivalry the rose.
Wha did their kingrik5 in maist honourjois, 6
And with their blood our liberties has coft ;7

Regarding not to die among their foes,
Sae that they might in memory be brought.

Has brought this realm with honour to
our days,

Aye fightand for their liberties and rightis
With Romans, Danes, Englishmen, and
Picktis,

As courteous readers may through thy
process ken.

VIII.

The awful churl is of ane other strynd,1
Through he be born to vilest servitude;
There may nae gentrice sink into his mind,
To help his friend or neighbour with his
good.

The bloody wolf is of the samen stud; Therefore, thou ganis1 for nae caitive He fears great beasts and rages on the

Ane other kind there is of nobleness,
That comis by infusion natural;

small,

And lives in slaughter, tyranny, and blood,
But 3 any mercy where he may ourethrawl.4

IX.

This man is born ane noble, thou will say,
And given to sleuth 5 and lust immoderate;
All that his elders won he puts away,
And frae their virtue is degenerate.
The more his elders' fame is elevate,
The more their life to honour do approach;
Their fame and loving aye interminate,
The more is aye unto his vice reproach.

X.

Among the host of Greekis, as we heard,
Two knightis were, Achilles and Tersite;
That ane maist valiant, this other maist
coward.

Better is to be, says Juvenal the poet,
Tersitus' son, havand Achilles spreit,"
With manly force, his purpose to fulfil,
Than to be lord of every land and street,
And syne maist coward, comen of Achill.

XI.

Man called aye maist noble creature,
Because his life maist reason does essay;

And makis ane man sae full of gentleness, Aye askand honour with his busy care,

Sae courteous, pleasant, and so liberal,
That every man does him ane noble call.
The lion is sae noble (as men tells),
He cannot rage against the beastis small,
But on them whilk his majesty rebels.

And is nae noble when honour is away.
Therefore he is maist noble man, thou say.
Of all estatis under reverence,

That valiantly does close the latter day,
Of native country dieand in defence.

Havand ane lion agains the hounds to four, Shrink not, therefore, but bide at thy

For glore to nobles is ane grounden spur.3 And yet, because my time has been so short,

Than ever was read in any book, but Leir 6 kings to hate all people vicious,

Show many reasons how nae king might | For, when their subdittis are oppressed sair, have