Next in the dance followed Envy,
Filled full with feud and felony,

Hid malice and despite;

For privy hatred that traitor trembled;

Him followed many a rogue dissembled
With feigned wordės white:

And flatterers untó men's faces;
And backbiters in secret places
To lie that had delight;
And whisperers of false lesings, 12
Alace! that courts of noble kings
Of them can never be quyte.13

35

40

Next him in dance came Covetice, Root of all ill, and ground of vice,

55

That never could be content:

Catiffs, wretches, and usurers,
Misers, hoarders, gatherers,

All with that warlook went:

Out of their throats they shot on other Hot, molten gold, me thocht, a futher14 As fire-flaught15 maist fervent;

Aye, as they emptied them of shot, Fiends filled them new up to the throat, With gold of all kind prent.16 . . .

THE LAMENT FOR THE MAKERS1

WHEN HE WAS SICK

I that in health was and gladnéss,
Am troubled now with great sickness,
And feeble with infirmity;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Our pleasunce here is all vain glory,
This false warld is but transitory,
The flesh is bruckle,2 the Fiend is slee;3
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

5

The state of man does change and vary,
Now sound, now sick, now blithe, now sary, 10
Now dancing merry, now like to dee;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

No state on earth stands fast, I find;
As osiers light wave in the wind,
So waveth this warld's vanity;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Down unto death go all estates,

Prelates, and kings, and potentates,
Baith rich and poor of all degree;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Death strikes the knichts upon the field,
Full armoured, under helm and shield,
Victor in every fight is he;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

That strong, unmerciful tyránd5

Taks, on the mother's breast sowkand,
The babe full of benignity;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

15

20

25

17 Breve of Recto, a writ which in feudal Scotland established a right to succession.

18 In Dunbar's time and for long after, the Highlanders were regarded with a feeling of mingled dread and contempt by the more settled and prosperous people of the South. Cf. the attitude of Baillie Nichol Jarvie in Scott's Rob Roy.

19 An opponent of Wallace, the Scotch patriot. After swearing allegiance to Edward Ist, Makfadyane fled to a cave, where he was surprised and killed. Hence the assertion that he was fetched from a "nook" in the "northwest."

He taks the champion in the stour,'
The captain closed in the tour,
The lady in bour ful of beautie;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

He spares no lord for his puissance,
No clerk for his intelligence;
His awful stroke may no man flee;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Masters of magic and astrology,
Of rhetoric, logic or theology,
Are helped by no conclusions slee;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

In medecine the best practiciáns,
Of leeches, surgeons, and physicians,
Themselves from death may not supplie;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

I see that Makers, amang the lave,"
Play here their pageants, then go to grave;
Death does not spare their facultie;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

He came most piteously to devour
The noble Chaucer, 10 of Makers' flower,
The Monk of Bury, and Gower, all three;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

The gude Sir Hugh of Eglington,
And eke Heriot, and Wyntown,

He hath ta'en out of this countree;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

He hath restrained (that scorpion dark)
Maister James Afflek and John Clerk
Frae ballad-making and tragedy;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Holland and Barbour he has bereft;
Alas, he has not with us left
Sir Mungo Lockhart of the Lea!
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Clerk of Tranent eke he has ta'en,
That made th' adventures of Gawain,
Sir Gilbert Hay ended has he;

Timor Mortis conturbat me.

He has blind Harry and Sandy Traill
Slain with his shot of mortal hail,
Which Patrick Johnstoun micht not flee;
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

He has reft" Merseir his endite," 12
That did of luve so lively write,
So short, so quick, of sentence hie;13
Timor Mortis conturbat me.

Among the rest.

7 Storm, stir or tumult of battle. 8 Defend. 10 Among the twenty-four poets celebrated by Dunbar, Chaucer alone remains a living power in literature. Barbour, Gower, Lydgate and Henryson hold a secure and honorable place; while a few others, as Blind Harry and Walter Kennedy, although less known, are still nominally remembered. Some of the remainder are more or less securely established on the right side of oblivion, while others, in Sir T. Browne's phrase, "Subsist under naked nominations, without deserts and noble acts, which are the balsam of our memories." 13 High

11 Snatched.

12 Manuscript.

(From the Prologue to the Eneid,1 Bk. XII)

Welcome, the lord of licht, and lamp of day, Welcome, fost'rer of tender herbés green,

Welcome, quick'ner of blooming blossoms sheen,

Welcome, support of every root and vein,

Welcome, comfort of all-kind fruit and grain, 5
Welcome, the birdės bield2 upon the brere,3
Welcome, maistér and ruler of the year,
Welcome, welfare of farmers at the ploughs,
Welcome, repairer of woods, trees, and boughs,
Welcome, depainter of the blooming meads, 10
Welcome, the life of everything that spredes,
Welcome, the strength of all-kind bestial,
Welcome be thy bricht beamés gladding all,
Welcome, celestial mirror and aspy,"
Arresting all that practise sluggardy.

15

1 The translation of the Eneid is generally acknowl edged to be Douglas's most important work. It is noteworthy as the earliest attempt to reproduce a great classical poem in English verse. The prologues prefaced to the various books, contain some vivid and forcible descriptions of Nature, and are intrinsically the most interesting parts of the work.

2 Nest.

3 Briar.

i. e. the one who gives success to the farmer's labors. the source of his welfare. • Sentinel.

575

Writ not in Caldie language, nor in Grew;
Nor yet writ in the language Saracene;
Nor in the natural language of Hebrew;
But in the Roman tongue, as may be seen,
Whilk was their proper language, as I ween,
When Romans ranked domínators, indeed,
The ornate Latin was their proper leid. . . . 579

1 The Monarchy, or Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour, Lyndsay's last poem, is a lengthy survey of the history of the world, with a prophecy of the millenium, when all things shall be made new.

2 Lat. vulgaris, popular.

'Learned writers.

Greek.

• Dispraised. • Said.

1 Lat. ornatus, means here proper or fitting. * Original.

Language.

LEAVE ME NOT

(Psalm XXVII, 9)

Ah! my Lord, leave me not,
Leave me not, leave me not,
Ah! my Lord, leave me not,
Thus mine alone:

With ane burden on my back
I may not bear, I am so weak,
Lord, this burden from me tak,
Or else I am gone.

With sins I am laden sair,1
Leave me not, leave me not,
With sins I am laden sair,
Leave me not alone:

I pray thee, Lord, therefore,
Keep not my sins in store;
Loose me, or I am forlore,2

680

5

10

15

And hear thou my moan.

For he is bound fast to a tree,

And talk of Guy and Robin Hood

In the greenwood where they be.

90

The second shot Sir Guy shot,
He shot within the garland;21
But Robin Hood shot it better than he,
For he clove the good prick-wand.

"God's blessing on thy heart!" says Guy,
"Good fellow, thy shooting is good;
For an thy heart be as good as thy hands,
Thou were better than Robin Hood.

"Tell me thy name, good fellow," quoth Guy, 'Under the leaves of lyne:"

"Nay, by my faith," quoth good Robín, "Till thou have told me thine."

130

136

"I dwell by dale and down," quoth Guy, "And I have done many a curst turn; And he that calls me by my right name,

Calls me Guy of good Gisborne."

"My dwelling is in the wood," says Robin; "By thee I set right nought;

My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale,
A fellow thou hast long sought."

He that had neither been of kith nor kin
Might have seen a full fair sight,

To see how together these yeomen went,
With blades both brown and bright.

140

145

150

110

They cut them down the summer shroggs18 115
Which grew both under a brere, 19

And set them three score rods in twain,
To shoot the pricks full neare.