صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

the Border Ballad, first published in Scott's Minstrelsy; and one of the most lively of Sir Richard's own poems, his "Complaint against the Border Robbers," also finds a place in that collection.

He was the son of William Maitland of Lethington, by Martha, daughter of George Lord Seaton, and was born in 1496. He was educated at St Andrews, but completed his studies for the bar in France. His first service was under King James V., and after that monarch's death he became Lord Privy Seal, during the regency of the Queen Dowager. In 1554, he was appointed an extraordinary Lord of Session; and in 1561, an ordinary Lord, notwithstanding his having lost the use of his eyesight. In 1567, he resigned the office of Lord Privy Seal in favour of his second son, but he retained his seat on the bench till 1584. The King's letter anent his resignation, in his 88th year, bears testimony to the faithful discharge of his important public duties in the service of his "grandsire, goodsire, gooddame, mother, and himself." Sir Richard died in 1586, in his ninetieth year. His eldest son was William Maitland, Queen Mary's famous secretary, who possessed more than his father's talents, but less than his father's virtues.

Maitland's claim upon the gratitude of posterity is as a collector of the poems of his predecessors and contemporaries, rather than as a contributor to the volume of Scottish literature. His collection consists of two manuscript volumes, one of which is in the handwriting of his daughter Mary, who is herself the writer of come verses preserved in it.

These two volumes are now preserved in the library of Magdalene College, Cambridge; and a third, containing most of his own poems, was presented to the Edinburgh College Library by William Drummond of Hawthornden. Selections from his collections were first published by Pinkerton in 1786.

The specimen of Maitland's poetry quoted, is on a subject which has been treated by his contemporary Lindsay with much more force and liveliness, but with much less nicety, both in thought and expression.

Of George Bannatyne's personal history almost nothing is known. Some verses in his famous collection are by himself; but his skill as a poet was not great, and would hardly have sufficed to give his name a place among the ancient singers, but for the fortunate inspiration that impelled him to devote three months of enforced abstention from his ordinary pursuits to the collection and preservation of the fast fleeting effusions of the early Muse of his country. His manuscript, which is the most valuable literary legacy that has been preserved to us, is a folio volume of eight hundred pages, and is stated by himself, in rhyme, to have been

"Written in tyme of pest, When we frae labour was compeld to rest, Into the three last monthes of this year, From our Redeemar's birth, to knaw it heir Ane thousand is, fyve hundreth, thre scoir, awcht."

In reference to the sources of his information, and the arrangement of his matter, he writes :

"Ye reverend redaris, thir workis revolving right,

[blocks in formation]

That in fyve pairtis it is dewly devydit:

instead of having any misgivings in regard to his dealings with the MS., felt that he rather deserved credit for what he did; and those who allow for the disadvantages under which he laboured, will not blame him for his incompetence as an editor, which was his misfortune, not his fault. In 1770, the manuscript was again drawn upon by Lord Hailes, who, with greater accuracy than Ramsay, published a volume of selec

The first concernis Godis gloir and ouir tions from it. In 1772, it was present

saluation,

The nixt are morale, grave and als besyd it Grund on gud counsale; the third I will nocht hyd it,

ed by the Earl of Hyndford to the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh, and forms one of its chief treasures. It is

Ar blyith and glaid, made for our consollation; now, for the first time, in process of
The ferd of luve and thair richt reformation; being printed in its entirety.
The fyift are tailis and storeis weill discryit :-
Reid as ye pleiss, I neid no mair narration."

After having survived the chances of accident and change for nearly a century and a-half, it found its way into the hands of Allan Ramsay, to whom it was lent by the Honourable William Carmichael, brother-german to the Earl of Hyndford. Allan had the taste and sagacity to see somewhat of the value of the treasure that had been entrusted to him, and used it as the chief source of his collection called "The Evergreen," published in 1724. It is easy, from our present conceptions of the duties and obligations of an editor of antiquarian lore, to condemn Ramsay's dealings with the contents of the Bannatyne Manuscript; but we are apt to overlook the dormant state of literary opinion in his day, and that he was himself the first to stimulate into life the present spirit of appreciation of our ancient poetry. We believe that "honest Allan," as he has been called,

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »