"With mighty matters mind I not to mell, As copping courts, or commonwealths, or kings Whas craig yokes fastest, let them say themsel; My thought could never think upon sic things: I wantonly write under Venus' wings; Till time may serve, perforce I must refrain, None of our ancient poets had attained to that artless naturalness, which, since Burns' time, is recognized, in the delineation of the passions, as the perfection of art; therefore all their productions on the subject of love appear to us somewhat affected; but, taking the old standpoint, the following sonnet is an excellent specimen of the ancient manner, and forecasts some of the features of the new. Indeed, to none of the ancients is the new school more indebted for their bard-craft than to Montgomery, who may be regarded as the last pure representative of the school of Dunbar. TO THEE FOR ME. "Sweet nightingale! in holene green that haunts, Το sport thyself, and special in the Spring: Thy chivring chirls whilk changingly thou chants, Make all the roches round about thee ring; "The Flyting betwixt Montgomery and Polwart," though in imitation of that between Dunbar and Kennedy, is perhaps better known than its prototype, and certainly excels it in length, and consequently in the amount of playful but vile abuse with which the respective champions pelt each other, for the sport of the philosophic King and his courtiers. Montgomery begins the match with a piece of most skilful light raillery :— "Polwart, ye peep like a mouse amongst thorns, ye Beware what thou speaks, little foul earth tade, With thy Cannigate breeks, beware what thou speaks writer; and "Admonition to Young Lasses," though hardly a song, is a gem of its kind. But The Cherrie and the Slae," notwithstanding its defective structure, is the best test of his poetical power. We agree with Dr Irving in thinking that the poet changed his purpose in regard to its meaning-beginning it as a love Or there shall be wat cheeks, for the last that allegory, and ending it as a moral homily, thou made; Greedy gouked, poor and plucked, ill instruct! ye's be knocked; but "missing stays" in both respects. Its failure in point of purpose, or even of meaning, must be taken as an indication of the author's defect in the faculty of design. We have quoted it to the end of the love section, which is the most poetical; the remainder is a continuation of the debate which is begun in stanzas xxvii. and xxviii., between the opposing qualities of the mind, as to whether it is better for the man to overcome the obstacles that intervene between him and that which is confessedly best, or to rest content with that which is easily obtained, but of inferior worth. The advocates for the nobler, but more difficult end, carry the day; and on the resolution to overcome the difficulties Gleyed gangrell, auld mangrell! to the hang- being taken, they vanish; for the cherries, rell and sae pyne: which are meant to symbolize the prize of valour, have ripened, and fall at the man's feet before resolution evolves into action. The allegory has also been explained as referring to the choice between a mistress of rank and beauty, and one of humble origin; but this is so repugnant to taste and feeling, and the conditions of allegorical structure, as to be quite inadmissible. Montgomery, like Dunbar, whom, in much of his mental and moral constitution, he resembles, appears to have turned pious in his old age, and wrote a short series of devotional poems, an extract or two from one of which throws some characteristic light upon his muse in her penitential mood. "Suppose I slide, let me not sleep in sleuth, In stinking stye with Satan's sinful swine, But make my tongue the trumpet of Thy truth, And lend my verse sic wings as are divine. Sen Thou has granted me so good ingine To love thee, Lord, in gallant style and gay, Let me no more so trim a talent tine: Peccavi Pater, miserere mei. "Thy spirit, my spirit to speak, with speed, inspire: Help, Holy Ghost! and be Montgomerie's Fly down on me in forkèd tongues of fire, Peccavi Pater, miserere mei. "Stoup, stubborn stomach, that has been so stout, Stoup, filthy flesh and carrion of clay, Stoup, hardened heart before the Lord, and lout; Stoup, stoup in time, defer not day by day; Thou knows not weel when thou maun pass away, The tempter als is busy to betray, Confess thy sins and shame not for to say, Peccavi Pater, miserere mei." But his poems do not show that he took an active part in the religious controversies of his time, nor is it certain to what section of the Church he adhered. That he lived till 1592 is proved by his having written the epitaphs of two friends, one of whom was Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock, grandfather to William Drummond of Hawthornden, who died in that year. Dr Irving thinks it probable that he survived till 1605, when his "Mindes Melodie" was published; it is certain, however, that he died before 1615, when Hart's edition of "The Cherrie and the Slae," revised not long before the author's death, was published. Taking his age to be seventy, and 1605 the year of his death, this would give 1535 as the year of his birth. His sonnets are preserved in a manuscript presented by Drummond of Hawthornden to the Edinburgh College Library. The jargon of the jangling jays And Echo answers all, His shadow in the well.6 III. I saw the hurcheon 7 and the hare With birssy 13 bears and brocks; 14 Wherewith their heavy heads declined, In Mayis colours cled, Some knopping, some dropping Through Phoebus' halesome heat. V. Methought an heavenly heartsome thing, To study on the flurist twists, Whereof some sweetest honey sought, For winter they provide. VI. |