Than said the Angell chaist, Elizabeth thy cousing also, Call him Johne, sayis the Angell bricht, The first part ends with the above hymn, and a note is added as follows:Heir endis the Spirituall Sangis, and beginnis the Psalmes of David, with other new pleasand Ballattis. Transslatit out of Enchiridion Psalmorum, to be sung. The first stanza of the following, which most closely adhere to the old song, of which it is a parody, sufficiently indicates the character of the hymns, and the tunes to which they were sung. Quho is at my windo? quho, quho? So quho is at my windo, quho. On croce cruellie. La, lay, la. Johne, cum kis me now, That Johne dois thee call; Be grace celestial, Quhen that thou loist this name. Downe be yone river I ran, That brocht me to libertie; And I ane sinful man. [The air of the following is said to have been a favourite with Henry VIII. The first mention of it by a Scottish poet is by Henryson. As showing the anti-Popish spirit of the times, we give the first four stanzas.] With huntis up, with huntis up, It is now perfite day, Quha lykis to speid thay may. This lang and mony ane day, Devouring scheip, quhill he micht creip, Nane micht him schaip 3 away. It did him gude to laip the blude Of young and tender lammis; Nane culd he mis for all was his, The young anes with thair dammis. Who chooses to ex2 Rocks. pound. 3 Scare. do not enable us to say when she was born; but in the dedication to her of his Poems, in 1598, Alexander Hume gives as a reason for such dedication, "because ye delite in poesie yourselfe, and as I unfainedly confes, excelles any of your sexe in that art that ever I heard within this nation. I have seen your compositiones so copious, so pregnant, so spirituall, that I doubt not but it is the gift of God in you." As might be expected of the author of "The Godly Dream," she took an active part in the religious controversies of her day, and strongly sympathized with the Presbyterian cause in its struggles. of the sentiments that inspired the religious struggles of early Presbyterianism, it is of much historical value; and, considering religion as one of the most powerful forces that move the human spirit, its vivid, but sincere and artless exhibition of a poetic imagination under the dominant influence of this power, is an instructive study, and could hardly incur the contempt of a wise and wide observer of human nature. ANE GODLY DREAM, COMPILED IN SCOTTISH METRE BY M. I. UPON ane day, as I did mourn full sore, With sundry things wherewith my soul was grieved, My grief increased, and grew more and more, My comfort fled, and could not be relieved; chieved, I loathed my life, I could not eat nor drink, But mused alone, and divers things did think. The first edition of "The Dream "is dated Edinburgh, 1603, but it is very likely to have been composed somewhat earlier. That it was very popular among the Presbyterians is amply shown by the number of editions which Dr Laing has quoted in his prefatory note to the edition which appears in his Early Metrical Tales, Edinburgh, 1826. This circumstance, he remarks, "might have obtained for it a more favourable regard than it has yet experienced. But," he continues, "when writers who have treated of early Scottish poets are so ungallant as to dismiss a poem of considerable beauty and imagination, as either unworthy of a single passing remark, or as being a nonsensical religious I thought upon this false and iron age; rhapsody, which should be consigned to oblivion-surely this is to be considered either as prejudice on their part, or the want of taste and discernment, so essential in giving a just estimate of the character and genius of our poetical writers." As an exponent of the spirit that animated, and as a record II. The wretched world did sae molest my mind, And how our hearts were sae to vice in clined, That Satan seemed maist fearfully to rage. My soul was drowned into maist deep And went to bed because I thought it Whom would thou have? In what place best : With heaviness my spreit was sae opprest, I fell on sleep, and sae again, methought, I made my moan, and then my grief increased, And from the Lord, with tears, I succour sought. XI. "Lord Jesus, come," said I, "and end my grief! My spreit is vext, the captive would be free; All vice abounds, O send us some relief! I loath to live, I wish dissolved to be: My spreit does long and thirsteth after Thee, would thou be? Faint not sae fast in thy adversity, not mend; Lift up thy heart, declare thy grief to me, Perchance thy pain brings pleasure in the end." XIV. I sighed again, and said, "Alas! for woe! My sins, alas! increases more and more; As thirsty ground requires ane shower of I long to live with my Redeemer dear." Ane angel bright, with visage shining And thou shall have thy heavy heart's clear, I Fight. desire: ' Countenance. 2 Dwindling away. 3 Sorrowful. |