The rivers fresh, the caller streams The condition of the Scottish labourer would seem to have been then more comfortable than at present, and the climate of the country warmer, for Hume describes those working in the fields as stopping at mid-day, 'noon meat and sleep to take,' and refreshing themselves with 'caller wine' in a cave, and 'sallads steep'd in oil.' As the poet lived four years in France previous to his settling in Scotland, in mature life, we suspect he must have been drawing on his continental recollections for some of the features in this picture. At length 'the gloaming comes, the day is spent,' and the poet concludes in a strain of pious gratitude and delight : What pleasure, then, to walk and see The salmon out of cruives and creels, The bells and circles on the weills O sure it were a seemly thing, KING JAMES VI. In 1584, the Scottish sovereign, KING JAMES VI., ventured into the magic circle of poesy himself, and weak at arguments, and the rules and cautelis' of the royal author are puerile and ridiculous. His majesty's verses, considering that he was only in his eighteenth year, are more creditable to him, and we shall quote one from the volume alluded to. Ane Schort Poeme of Tyme. As I was pansing in a morning aire, And could not sleip nor nawyis take me rest, Did dewlie helse all thame on earth do dwell. So willingly the precious tyme to tine: And how they did themselfis so farr begyle, To fushe of tyme, which of itself is fyne. Fra tyme be past to call it backwart syne Is bot in vaine: therefore men sould be warr, To sleuth the tyme that flees fra them so farr, For what hath man bot tyme into this lyfe, Which gives him day's his God aright to know ! Wherefore then sould we be at sic a stryfe, So spedelie our selfis for to withdraw Evin from the tyme, which is on nowayes slaw To flie from us, suppose we fled it noght? More wyse we were, if we the tyme had soght. But sen that tyme is sic a precious thing, I wald we sould bestow it into that Which were most pleasour to our heavenly King. Flee ydilteth, which is the greatest lat; Bot, sen that death to all is destinat, Let us employ that tyme that God hath send us, In doing weill, that good men may commend us. Falkland Palace, The favourite early residence of King James VI. published a volume entitled, Essayes of a Prentice in the Divine art of Poesie, with the Rewlis and Cautelis to be pursued and avoided. Kings are generally, as Milton has remarked, though strong in legions, but EARL OF ANCRUM-EARL OF STIRLING, Two Scottish noblemen of the court of James were devoted to letters, namely, the EARL OF ANCRUM (1578-1654) and the EARL OF STIRLING (1580-1640) The first was a younger son of Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehurst, and he enjoyed the favour of both James and Charles I. The following sonnet by the earl was addressed to Drummond the poet in 1624. It shows how much the union of the crowns under James had led to the cultivation of the English style and language : Sonnet in Praise of a Solitary Life. Sweet solitary life ! lovely, dumb joy, That need'st no warnings how to grow more wise By other men's mishaps, nor the annoy Which from sore wrongs done to one's self doth rise. The morning's second mansion, truth's first friend, north. He realised an amount of wealth unusual for a poet, and employed part of it in building a hand Most happy state, that never tak'st revenge The court's great earthquake, the griev'd truth of change, Nor none of falsehood's savoury lies dost hear; Nor knows hope's sweet disease that charms our sense, Nor its sad cure dear-bought experience! The Earl of Stirling (William Alexander of Menstrie, created a peer by Charles L.) was a more prolific poet. In 1637, he published a complete edition of his works, in one volume folio, with the title of Recreations with the Muses, consisting of tragedies, a heroic poem, a poem addressed to Prince Henry (the favourite son of King James), another heroic poem entitled Jonathan, and a sacred poem, in twelve parts, on the Day of Judgment. One of the Earl of Stirling's tragedies is on the subject of Julius Cæsar. It was first published in 1606, and contains several passages resembling parts of Shakspeare's tragedy of the same name, but it has not been ascertained which was first published. The genius of Shakspeare did not disdain to gather hints and expressions from obscure authors-the lesser lights of the age-and a famous passage in the Tempest is supposed (though somewhat hypercritically) to be also derived from the Earl of Stirling. In the play of Darius, there occurs the following reflection Let Greatness of her glassy sceptres vaunt, some mansion in Stirling, which still survives, a monument of a fortune so different from that of the ot sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruised, soon broken: ordinary children of the muse. And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant, All fades, and scarcely leaves behind a token. The lines of Shakspeare will instantly be recalled And like this insubstantial pageant, faded, None of the productions of the Earl of Stirling touch the heart or entrance the imagination. He has not the humble but genuine inspiration of Alexander Hume. Yet we must allow him to have been a calm and elegant poet, with considerable fancy, and an ear for metrical harmony. The following is one of his best sonnets: I swear, Aurora, by thy starry eyes, And by those golden locks, whose lock none slips, The lady whom the poet celebrated under the name of Aurora, did not accept his hand, but he was married to a daughter of Sir William Erskine. The earl concocted an enlightened scheme for colonising Nova Scotia, which was patronised by the king, yet Fas abandoned from the difficulties attending its accomplishment. Stirling held the office of secretary of state for Scotland for fifteen years, from 1626 to 1641-a period of great difficulty and delicacy, when Charles attempted to establish episcopacy in the and English poetry, and imbued with true literary taste and feeling, Drummond soared above a mere local or provincial fame, and was associated ia friendship and genius with his great English contemporaries. His father, Sir John Drummond, was gentleman usher to king James; and the poet seems to have inherited his reverence for royalty No author the most interesting of Gothic ruins; and the whole course of the strong and the narrow glen is like the ground-work of some fairy dream. The first publication of Drummond was a volume of occasional timent, and grace of expression. Drummond wrote a number of madrigals, epigrams, and other short pieces, some of which are coarse and licentious. The general purity of his language, the harmony of his ductions, are his distinguishing characteristics. With more energy and force of mind, he would have been poems; to which succeeded a moral treatise in verse, and the play of fancy, in all his principal pro prose, entitled, the Cypress Grove, and another poetical work termed, the Flowers of Zion. The death of a lady, to whom he was betrothed, affected him deeply, a greater favourite with Ben Jonson--and with pos to The River of Forth Feasting. What blustering noise now interrupts my sleeps? and he sought relief in change of scene and the ex- terity. citement of foreign travel. On his return, after an absence of some years, he happened to meet a young lady named Logan, who bore so strong a resemblance the former object of his affections, that he solicited and obtained her hand in marriage. Drummond's felings were so in tand in the side of the royalists, And seem to call me from my watery court? that the execution of nearles is said to have hastened What melody, what sounds of joy and sport, his death, which took place at the close of the same Bear, December 1649. Drummond was intimate with With what loud murmurs do the mountains ring, Are convey'd hither from each night-born spring? Ben Jonson and Drayton; and his acquaintance Which in unusual pomp on tiptoes stand, with the former has rendered memorable by a visit paid to him at been renden, by Jonson, in the Whence come these glittering throngs, these meteor And, full of wonder, overlook land? spring of 1619. opinions expressed by Scottish potest and chro This golden people glancing in my sight? hided some of his the gretailings. For this his Whence doth this praise, applause, and love arise; mory has been keenly attacked and traduced. It What load-star draweth us all eyes? De remembered that his notes were private Am I awake, or have some dreams conspir'd Thermoranda, never published by itself and make sense with what I most desir'd? their truth has beenbjartly confirmed from other View I that living face, see I those looks, hesording faithfully his of his most hores, there seems no malignity or meanness in Which with delight were wont t' amaze my brooks distinguished contem is impressione poetry of Drum- This age's glory, by these banks The kept notes of the bright, 1 I behold that worth, that man divine, singular sweetness and harmony of versi- Then find i fication. He was of of mine? true what I long wish'd in vain; thereal in thought a the schgination. His Tears on So unto them whose zenith is the pole, of Spenser, but less My much-beloved prince is come again. the Death of Moelicad end imagination, son of James I.) When six black months are past, the sun does roll : written in des (Prince Henry, souses, or the So after tempest to sea-tos de clear River Forth Feasting (a congratulatory poem to King James, on his Fair Helen's brothers show their clearing lighte : 1617, Arabia's wonder from her woods, fly, revisiting appeared in Ind placed him amoring Scotland), appets of his age. And far, far off is seen by Memphis' floods; His sonnets are bong the greatest poets of ve fewer The feather'd sylvans, cloud-like, by her sty ceit, and more a still higher castation of sen- And with triumphing plaudits beat the sky, 159 Nile marvels, Serap's priests entranced rave, In which Apollo's bird came to their clime. Let mother earth now deck'd with flowers be seen, And sweet-breath'd zephyrs curl the meadows green: Let heaven weep rubies in a crimson shower, Such as on India's shores they use to pour: Or with that golden storm the fields adorn And birds their ramagel did on thee bestow. Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more, Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear; For which be silent as in woods before: Which Jove rain'd when his blue-eyed maid was born. Or if that any hand to touch thee deign, May never hours the web of day outweave; May never night rise from her sable cave! Swell proud my billows, faint not to declare For murmurs hoarse sound like Arion's harp, Now delicately flat, now sweetly sharp; The crystal-streaming Nith, loud-bellowing Clyde, To virgins flowers, to sun-burnt earth the rain, [Epitaph on Prince Henry.] Stay, passenger, see where enclosed lies At least that part the earth of him could claim To his Lute. My lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow With thy green mother in some shady grove, When immelodious winds but made thee move, Milton has copied this image in his Lycidas"Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge Tike to that sanguine flower, inscribed with woe. Like widow'd turtle still her loss complain. Sweet bird! that sing'st away the early hours [Sonnets.] In Mind's pure glass when I myself behold, Though sure I know my labour's end is grief, I know that all beneath the moon decays, 1 Warbling: from ramage, French. ! 1 I know frail beauty like the purple flower, To which one morn oft birth and death affords, That love a jarring is of mind's accords, Where sense and will bring under Reason's power: Know what I list, all this cannot me move, But that alas! I both must write and love. SIR ROBERT AYTON, SIB ROBERT AYTON, a Scottish courtier and poet (1570-1638), enjoyed, like Drummond, the advantages of foreign travel and acquaintance with English poets. The few pieces of his composition are in pure English, and evince a smoothness and delicacy of fancy that have rarely been surpassed. The poet was a native of Fifeshire, son of Ayton of Kinaldie. Jaines I. appointed him one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber, and private secretary to his queen, besides conferring upon him the honour of knighthood. Ben Jonson seemed proud of his friendship, for he told Drummond that Sir Robert loved him (Jonson) dearly. [On Woman's Inconstancy.] I lov'd thee once, I'll love no more, He that can love unlov'd again, God send me love my debts to pay, If thou hadst still continued mine; And then how could I but disdain When new desires had conquer'd thee, Yea, it had been a sin to go Yet do thou glory in thy choice, The height of my disdain shall be, To love thee still, but go no more The morning rose, that untouch'd stands, Arm'd with her briers, how sweetly smells! But pluck'd and strain'd through ruder hands, Her sweets no longer with her dwells; But scent and beauty both are gone, * It is doubtful whether this beautiful, song (which Burns destroyed by rendering into Scotch) was actually the composition of Ayton. It is printed anonymously in Lawes's Ayres and Dialogues, 1659. It is a suspicious circumstance, that in Watson's Collection of Scottish Poems (1706-11), where several poems by Sir Robert are printed, with his name, in a cluster, this is inserted at a different part of the work, without his name. But the internal evidence is strongly in favour of Sir Robert Ayton being the author, as, in purity of language, elegance, and tenderness, it resembles his undoubted lyrics. Aubrey, in praising Ayton, says, 'Mr John Dryden has seen verses of his, some of the best of that age, printed with some other verses." 161 |