RESPONSIO REGIS.

[The King's Answer.]

After our writings, Thesaurar,
Tak in this gray horse, auld Dunbar,
Whilk in my aucht,' with service true,
In lyart changed is his hue;

Gar house him now agains this Yule,
And busk him like ane bishop's mule :
For, with my hand, I have indost
To pay whatever his trappours 3 cost.

TO A LADY.

I.

Sweet Rose of virtue and of gentleness; Delightsome Lily of every lustiness, Richest in bounty, and in beauty clear, And every virtue that is held most dear, Except only that ye are merciless.

II.

Into your garthe 5 this day I did pursue, There saw I flowris that fresh were of hue; Both white and red most lusty were to seen, And halesome herbis upon stalkis green; Yet leaf nor flower find could I none of rue.

III.

But I can not in all my wit, Sae true a sentence find of it, As say it is deceivable.

IL

For yesterday, I did declare
How that the time was soft and fair,
Come in as fresh as peacock fedder,'
This day it stangis like an adder,
Concluding all in my contrair.

III.

Yesterday, fair upsprung the flowris,
This day they are all slain with showris:
And fowlis in forest that sang clear,
Now weepis with ane dreary cheer,
Full cauld are baith their beds and bowris.

IV.

So next to summer winter been ;
Next after comfort caris keen;
Next after night the mirthful morrow;
Next after joy aye commis sorrow;
So is this world, and aye has been.

LAMENT FOR THE MAKARS. WHEN HE WAS SICK.

keen,

Has slain this gentle herb, that I of mean, Whose piteous death does to my heart sic pain,

That I would make to plant his root again, So comfortand his leavis unto me been.

OF THE CHANGES ON LIFE.

I.

I seek about this world unstable, To find ane sentence conveneable,

1 Possession.

2 Gray.

3 Trappings. 5 Garden. 4 Goodness 6 Fear.

11.

2 See under Hucheon.

passage doubtful.

7 Dunbar's contemporary and friend : no poems preserved.

4 See under Henry the 8 No one of his

Minstrel.

poems

are preserved.

Come in with mony sundry guise,

But yet leuch? never Mahoun,

As the rival of Dunbar in the famous "Flyting," an interest has attached to the name of Walter Kennedy which none of the few other poems that are ascribed to him serve to increase. His share of the "Flyting "-about twothirds of the whole piece-may be said to be quite equal to that of Dunbar, and is the best test that we possess of his skill in the use of his poetic weapons. By their contemporary, Gavin Douglas, and their successor Lindsay, Kennedy is ranked at least equal to, if not higher

5 The sixth son of Lord Kennedy, of Cassillis and Dunure.-Paterson's Life and Poems of Dunbar, 1860.