And there he lived on limpets in her wame, Till harvest time, that herdis drave them hame.

By this was done, the tother twa returned To swallow me; great dool I made and murned :

Down in ane henslaik,' and got ane felon fall,

And lay betwixt ane pitcher and the wall! As wiffis commands, this Dream I will conclude,

God and the Rood mot turn it all to good! Methought I fled, and through a park Gar fill the cup, for thir auld carlings

claims

could pass, And wakened syne; where trow ye that That gentle ale is oft the cause of I was? dreams.

JAMES V.
1512-1542.

shows what the character of that poem was, and that its loss is not a matter of popular regret. Bishop Percy, and Mr Callander of Craigforth, concur in recognising "The Gaberlunzie Man" as James's; and Ritson and Lord Orford credit him with "The Jolly Beggar," which Sir Walter Scott described as the best comic ballad in any language; but Chalmers and Sibbald dispute his right to either. In giving these two ballads under his name, we are not supposed to have decided the question of their authorship, beyond placing them under the only name with which they have been popularly associated. It is very obvious that the versions we have got are much modernized,—a fact which renders the question of authorship doubly puzzling.

JAMES THE FIFTH's title to the authorship of "The Gaberlunzie Man" and "The Jolly Beggar " is not so well established as to justify our unhesitatingly ascribing them to him. That they refer to adventures in his life is very probable; and we are not aware of their being attributed to any other author. That James wrote poetry himself, and was a generous patron of poets, is placed beyond dispute by Lindsay and Bellenden; yet, curiously enough, while they both praise his poetical gifts, neither of them specifies the title of any of his pieces; nor do they give such indications of their contents as enable us to decide whether the poems in question were known to them. Drummond of Hawthornden also bears testimony to James's poetical gifts, as, he says, "many of his works yet extant testify." But, The chief events of the King's life, so as Chalmers remarks, it is easier to far as they bear upon his poetical genius prove James a poet than to produce and the cultivation of it, are referred to specimens of his poetry. Lindsay's in Lindsay's life. Although his forma answer to "The King's Flyting" education may be said to have been Fowl's crib (?)

1 Belly.

THE GABERLUNZIE MAN.

I.

The pawkyauld carle came o'er the lee,
Wi' many good e'ens and days to me,
Saying, Goodwife, for your courtesie,

Will you lodge a silly poor man?
The night was cauld, the carle was wat,
And down ayont the ingle he sat ;
My daughter's shoulders he 'gan to clap,
And cadgily ranted3 and sang.

11.

discontinued at the age of twelve, yet,
possessed as he was of a vigorous mind,
and a hereditary love of literature,
which, during his juvenile years, must
have been stimulated by the precept
and example of his tutor, Gavin Dun-
bar, and Lindsay and Bellenden, it is
but what we would expect to find,-
when he came to be his own master,
-his encouraging and promoting those
friends of his youth. But considering
the counter-influences that were ex-
erted to lead his taste in other direc-
tions, it is much to the credit of his char-
acter that he preferred to encourage
such as Buchanan, and those other
literary men whose works are an honour
to their age and country. His establish-
ment of a permanent and organized
judicature, his vigorous and enlightened
measures for the proper conduct of pub-
lic affairs, and the promoting the public
welfare, all heighten our respect for the
memory of a king whose premature
death was a great loss to his subjects.
In estimating his character, much allow.
ance has to be made for the transitional
condition of his age, and the inevitably
intriguing circumstances, if not disposi-
tions, of many of the men through whom
he had to govern; yet the unfortunate
war, whose failure and disgrace he was
unable to bear up against, must be
placed to the discredit of his own judg-Up in the morn the auld wife raise,

O wow! quo' he, were I as free
As first when I saw this countrie,
How blythe and merry wad I be!

And I wad never think lang.
He grew canty, and she grew fain,
But little did her auld minny 5 ken
What thir slee twa thegither were say'ng,
When wooing they were sae thrang."

ment.

Solway Moss was as fatal to James V., although he died in his bed at Falkland, as Flodden was to his father. He died on the 14th December 1642, in the thirtieth year of his age.

III.

And O, quo' he, an' ye were as black
As e'er the croun of my daddy's hat,
'Tis I wad lay thee by my back,

And awa' wi' me thou shou'd gang.
And O, quo' she, an I were as white
As e'er the snaw lay on the dike,
I'd cleed me braw and lady-like,

And awa' wi' thee I would gang.

IV.
Between the twa was made a plot;
They rose a wee before the cock,
And wilily they shot the lock,

And fast to the bent are they gane.

And at her leisure pat on her claise;

Syne to the servant's bed she gaes,

To speer9 for the silly poor man.
5 Mother.
6 Busily.

I Knowing and wag-
gish.

2 Beyond the fireside.

3 Merrily chanted.

4 Merry.

7 Clad.

8 Afield.

9 Inquire.

ALEXANDER SCOTT.

ALL the poems of this poet that are known to us, owe their preservation to the manuscript collection of George Bannatyne. Beyond the few inferences, deducible from these products of his elegant muse, there is almost nothing that can, with any degree of confidence, be asserted concerning him. That he was in the vigorous exercise of his poetical powers in 1562, is certified by his having, in that year, written the longest of his poems, "Ane New Year's Gift to the Queen Mary when she first' came hame in 1562." "To Love, Unloved," subscribed in the MS., "Quod Scott when his wife left him," might reasonably be thought to infer the real occurrence of the unhappy event indicated; yet the last two stanzas, taken in connection with the sentiments of "Return thee, Heart,”—and indeed his whole treatment of the subject of love-his blowing hot and cold alternately make it doubtful if his love poems have reference to particular events in his own career. His "Lament of the Master of Erskyn," whether referring to a real or a feigned situation, shows how artfully he could assume the attitude of the parting lover, for the purpose of imparting dramatic force to the sentiments proper to such a position; and at least suggests the possibility of his assuming similar circumstances concerning himself, to serve the same end.

An entry in the Privy Seal Register, for 1549, recording the legitimation of John and Alexander Scott, natural sons of Alexander Scott, Prebendary of the

Chapel Royal, Stirling, is hesitatingly supposed by Dr Laing, in his Collected Edition of Scott's Poems, Edinburgh 1821, to indicate the poet's parentage; but he concludes that he must have resided chiefly in Edinburgh.

With the exception of the burlesque poem, "The Justing betwixt Adamson and Sym," at the Drum, near Dalkeith, and his "Address to Queen Mary," his original poems are all amatory. The "Justing," which is in the measure of "Christ's Kirk on the Green,” though wanting the rude but natural vigour and simple freshness of that racy sketch of rustic recreation, is not devoid of humour, and, in common with all Scott's poems, exhibits that skill in the art of poesy which is his most distinguishing characteristic ; indeed, so great is their artistic perfection, that they convey an impression of elegant insincerity, such as we attach to the character of a gay gallant, or an accomplished man of the world. Their passion seems more the product of observation and reflection, than the spontaneous burst of feeling that wells from the overflowing heart, and touches our sympathy into irresistible response.

Dr Irving considers that his ". 'productions may be classed with the most elegant Scottish poems of the sixteenth century," and adds, "that his lyric measures are skilfully chosen ; and his language, when compared with that of contemporary poets, will be found to possess an uncommon share of terseness and precision." He also ranks him