صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Why some were ferried o'er, and some refused?

"Son of Anchises! offspring of the gods! (The Sibyl said) you see the Stygian floods! The sacred streams which heaven's imperial state

Attests in oaths, and fears to violate.
The ghosts rejected are the unhappy crew
Reprived of sepulchres and funeral due :
The boatman, Charon: those, the buried
host,

He ferries over to the farther coast;

Nor dares his transport vessel cross the

waves

And Hesperus in the west with beamis bright

Upspringis, as forridar' of the night. Amid the haughs and every lusty vale, The recent dew beginnis down to skail,2 To meys 3 the burning where the sun had shine,

Whilk though was to the nether world decline.

At every pilis4 point and cornis crops
The techrys5 stood, as lemand berial' drops,
And on the hailsome herbis clean, but?
weeds,

Like crystal knoppis or small silver beads.

With such whose bones are not composed The light begouth to quynkill out and fail, in graves. The day to darken, decline and devail ; A hundred years they wander on the The gummys rises, down fallis the donk shore ; ryme At length, their penance done, are wafted Both here and there scuggis 10 and shadows o'er."

[blocks in formation]

With herbis, cornis, cattle and fruit trees,
Plenty of store, birdis and busy bees
In amerant meadis fleeand east and west,
After labour to take the nightis rest.
And as I blinkèd on the lift2 me by,
All burnand red gan wax the evening
sky:

The sun enfirèd haile, 3 as to my sight,
Whirled about his ball with beamis bright,
Declinand fast toward the north in deid;
And fiery Phlegon, his dim nightis steed
Douked his head sae deep in floodis gray
That Phoebus rolls down under hell away;

[blocks in formation]

dim.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Be quhais mychtys the Goddis ar ful An airy crowd came rushing where he laith,

stood,

And dredis sare to swere, syne fals thare Which filled the margin of the fatal flood: Husbands and wives, boys and unmarried

aith:

Al thir thou seis stoppit at the schore,
Bene helples folk unerdit and forlore :3
Yone grislie feriare, to name Charon hate,4
Thay bene al beryt he caryis in his bate:
It is not til him leful, he ne may
Thame ferry ouer thir rowtand fludis gray,
Nor to the hidduous yonder coistis have,
Quhil thare banis be laid to rest in grave.
Quha ar unberyit ane hundredth yere
mon bide

maids,

And mighty heroes' more majestic shades; And youths, intombed before their father's

eyes,

With hollow groans, and shrieks, and feeble cries.

Thick as the leaves in autumn strew the woods,

Or fowls, by winter forced, forsake the floods,

Wavrand and wandrand by this bankis And wing their hasty flight to happier

[blocks in formation]

lands

Such, and so thick, the shivering army stands,

And press for passage with extended hands.

Now these, now those, the surly boatman bore:

The rest he drove to distance from the shore.

The hero, who beheld with wondering eyes, The tumult mixed with shrieks, laments and cries,

Asked of his guide, what the rude concourse meant?

Why to the shore the thronging people bent?

What forms of law among the ghosts were used?

Why some were ferried o'er, and some refused?

"Son of Anchises! offspring of the gods! (The Sibyl said) you see the Stygian floods! The sacred streams which heaven's imperial state

Attests in oaths, and fears to violate.
The ghosts rejected are the unhappy crew
Reprived of sepulchres and funeral due :
The boatman, Charon: those, the buried
host,

He ferries over to the farther coast;

Nor dares his transport vessel cross the

waves

|

And Hesperus in the west with beamis bright

Upspringis, as forridar' of the night. Amid the haughs and every lusty vale, The recent dew beginnis down to skail,2 To meys 3 the burning where the sun had shine,

Whilk though was to the nether world decline.

At every pilis point and cornis crops
The techrys5 stood, as lemand berial' drops,
And on the hailsome herbis clean, but?
weeds,

Like crystal knoppis or small silver beads.

With such whose bones are not composed The light begouth to quynkill out and fail, in graves. The day to darken, decline and devail;

A hundred years they wander on the The gummys rises, down fallis the donk

shore ;

At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er."

A JUNE EVENING.

Toward the even amid the summer's heat,
When in the Crab Apollo held his seat,
During the joyous moneth time of June,
As gone near was the day, and supper done,
I walked forth about the fieldis tyte,'
Whilks though replenished stood full of
delight,

With herbis, cornis, cattle and fruit trees,
Plenty of store, birdis and busy bees
In amerant meadis fleeand east and west,
After labour to take the nightis rest.
And as I blinkèd on the lift2 me by,
All burnand red gan wax the evening
sky:

The sun enfirèd haile, 3 as to my sight,
Whirled about his ball with beamis bright,
Declinand fast toward the north in deid;
And fiery Phlegon, his dim nightis steed
Douked his head sae deep in floodis gray
That Phoebus rolls down under hell away;

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

The little midges, and the unrusum 5 flies,
Laborious emmets and the busy bees;
Als weel the wild as the tame beastial,
And every other thingis great and small,
Out-tak" the merry nightingale, Philomene,
That on the thorn sat singand fro the
spleen.7

Whose mirthful notis longing for to hear
Until a garth8 under a green lawrer 9
I walk anon and in a sege
10 down sat,
Now musand upon this, and now on that.
I see the pole, and eke the Ursus bright,
And horned Lucine castand but dim light,
Because the summer skyis shone sae clear;
Golden Venus the mistress of the year,
And gentle Jove with her participate,
Their beauteous beamis shed in blithe

estate:

That shortly, there as I was leaned down For nightis silence, and this birdis soun On sleep I slaid; where soon I saw appear Ane aged man, and said: what does thou here?

appearance is evidently suggested by Henryson's Esop,

"Lyke to some poet of the auld fassoune," informs Douglas that he is Maphæus Vegius, who added the thirteenth book to the Eneid, and demands that it be translated with the others. The poet excuses himself on the plea of having already spent too much time on such work, to the neglect of more serious studies; yet Maphæus, not heeding this excuse, adopts the undignified method of obtaining the poet's consent by the application of

"Twenty rowtis upon my rigging laid," with which he awakes, and promises to fulfil the additional task. It being now morning, he describes it as follows:

[blocks in formation]

And now is left but Lucifer alone.
And futhermore to blazon this new day,

This aged man, the manner of whose Who might discrive the birdis blissful bay??

[blocks in formation]

Belive 3 on wing the busy lark upsprang To salus the blithe morrow with her sang: Soon oure the fieldis shinis the light clear, Welcome to pilgrim both and labourer :3 Presently.

3 Stunted shrubbery.

9 Laurel.

1 Named.

10 A seat.

4 Enstabled lies.

5 Restless.

2 Notes.

Tyte on his hynis' gave the grieve a cry,

The dewy green, puldered with daisies gay,

Show on the sward a colour dapple gray; The misty vapours springand up full sweet, Maist comfortable to glad all mannis spreit; 2

Awake on foot, go till our husbandry;
And the herd callis forth upon his page
To drive the cattle to their pasturage.
The hynnis wife clepis 2 up Katheryn and
Gill:
Thereto, thir birdis singis in the shaws,
Yea, dame, said they, God wait with a As minstrels playing, The Joly day now
good will.

dawis.3

DAVID LINDSAY.

1490 (?)-1555.

Considering that David Lindsay may be said to have been bred at court, it is very much to his credit that he is the most popular of Scotland's ancient poets; and this for pandering to the prejudices of no section of society, but for his strong common sense, manly courage, and transparent honesty. These are qualities that are never vulgar, nor common, and prevent Lindsay from being characterized as such, although it may be admitted that his poetry is of a lower order than that of Dunbar, or even of Douglas.

He was the eldest son of David Lindsay of The Mount, a small estate about three miles north of Cupar, in Fife; and, by the general opinion of his biographers, he was born there about the year 1490. Dr David Laing states that there is no positive information bearing on the date, or the place of his birth, and considers that he may, for anything known to the contrary, have been born at Garmylton, two miles from Haddington; which estate came into the

Quick on the hinds. 2 The hind's wife calls.

possession of his grandfather, of the same name, in 1478. It was to his mansionhouse here, that the poet, on his dismissal from court favour in 1524, retired; and here he commenced his literary career. This estate, now called Garelton, formed part of the barony of Byres, and with it passed into the possession of the Earl of Wemyss, in 1724, having previously (in 1586) passed out of the possession of the Lindsays.

Little or nothing is known of his boyhood and early training; and the first notice that in all probability refers to him, is the name "Da. Lindesay," in the register of incorporated students, at St Andrews University, for 1508-9. Three years' attendance being necessary to incorporation, his entrance upon his course would take place in 1505, when he would be about fifteen years old. The name "Da. Betone," the future Cardinal of tragic memory, follows next on the register. There is nothing to

[blocks in formation]
« السابقةمتابعة »