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DESCRIPTION OF SQUYRE MELDRUM.

He was bota twintie yeiris" of age,
Quehen he began his vassalage:
Proportionat weill, of mid statùre:
Feiried and wichte and micht endure
Ovirset with travell both nicht and day,
Richt hardie baith in ernist and play:
Blyith in countenance, richt fair of face,
And studer weill ay in his ladies grace :
For he was wondir amiabill,
And in all deidis honourabill;
And ay his honour did advance,

In Ingland first and syne in France ;
And thare his manheid did assail
Under the kingis great admirall,
Quhen the greit navy of Scotland
Passit to the sea againis Ingland.

HIS GALLANTRY TO AN IRISH DAMSEL.

And as they passit be Ireland coisti
The admirall gart land his oist);
And set Craigfergus into fyre,
And saifit nouther barne nor byrek:
It was greit pitie for to heir',
Of the pepill the bail-full cheir;
And how the landfolk were spuilyeit",
Fair women under fute were fuilyeito.

But this young Squyer bauld and wicht
Savit all women qulaire he micht;
All priestis and freyeris he did save;
Till at the last he did persave
Behind ane gardin amiabill',
Ane woman's voces richt lamentabill;
And on that voce he followit fast,
Till he did see her at the last,
Spuilyeit, nakit" as scho' was born;
Twa men of weirw were hir beforne,
Quhilk were richt cruel men and kene,
Partand the spuilyie thame between.
Ane fairer woman nor sho wesa
He had not sene in onieb place.
Befoire him on hir kneis scho fell,
Sayand, "for him that heryeit hell,
Help me sweit sir, I am ane maid ;"
Than softlie to the men he said,
I pray yow give againe hir sarke,
And tak to yow all uther wark.

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Hir kirtill was of scarlot reid',
Of gold ane garland of hir heid,
Decorits with enamelyne :
Belt and brochis of silver fyne.
Of yellow taftaish wes hir sark,
Begaryit all with browderit wark,
Richt craftilie with gold and silk.
Than, said the ladie, quhytei as milk,`
Except my sark nothing I crave,
Let thame go hence with all the lave.
Quod they to hir be Sanct Fillane
Of this ye get nathing agane.
Than, said the squyer courteslie,
Gude friendis I pray you hartfullie,
Gif ye be worthie men of weir,
Restoir to hir agane hir geir;
Or be greit God that all has wrocht,k
That spuilyie sall be full dere bocht'.
Quod they to him we the defy,
And drew their swordis hastily,
And straik at him with sa greit ire,
That from his harness flew the fyre:
With duntis" sa derfly" on him dang",
That he was never in sic ane thrang1 :
Bot he him manfullie defendit,
And with ane bolt on thame he bendit.

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The trenchour of the Squyreis speir
Stak still into Sir Talbart's geir;
Than everie man into that steidi
Did all beleve that he was dede.
The Squyer lap richt haistillie
From his coursour deliverlie,
And to Sir Talbart made support,
And humilliek did him comfort.
When Talbart saw into his schield
Ane otter in ane silver field,
This race, said he, I sair may rew,
For I see weill my dreame was true;
Methocht yon otter gart! me bleid,
And buirm me backwart from my sted;
But heir I vow to God soverane,
That I sall never just" agane.
And sweitlie to the Squiyre said,
Thou knawis the cunning? that we made,
Quhilk of us twa suld tyne the field,
He suld baith hors and armour yield
Till him that wan, quhairfore I will
My hors and harness geve thé till.
Then said the Squyer, courteouslie,
Brother, I thank you hartfullie ;
Of you, forsooth, nothing I crave,
For I have gotten that I would have.

SQUYRE MELDRUM, AFTER MANY FOREIGN EXPLOITS, COMES
HOME AND HAS THE FOLLOWING LOVE-ADVENTURE.

Out throw the land then sprang the fame,
That Squyer Meldrum was come hame.
Quhen they heard tell how he debaitit',
With every man he was sa treitet",

That quhen he travellit throw the land,
They bankettit him fra hand to hand
With greit solace, till, at the last,
Out throw Stratherne the Squyer past.
And as it did approach the nicht,
Of ane castell he gat ane sicht,
Beside ane montane in ane vale,
And then eftir his greit travaill
He purposit him to repoise
Quhare ilk man did of him rejois.
Of this triumphant pleasand place
Ane lustie lady was maistrés,
Quhais lord was dead schort time befoir,
Quhairthrow her dolour wes the moir:
Bot yit scho tuik some comforting,
To heir the plesant dulce talking
Of this young Squiyer, of his chance,
And how it fortunit him in France.
This Squyer and the ladie genta
Did wesche, and then to supper went :
During that nicht there wes nocht ellis
But for to heir of his novellise.
Enéas, quhen he fled from Troy,
Did not Quene Dido greiter joy:

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The wonderis that he did rehers,
Were langsum for to put in vers,
Of quhilk this lady did rejois :
They drank and syned went to repois,
He found his chalmer well arrayit
With dornik work on bord displayit :
Of venison he had his waills,
Gude aquavitae, wyne, and aill,
With nobill confeittis, bran, and geillh
And swa the Squyer fuiri richt weill.
Sa to heir mair of his narration,
The ladie cam to his collation,
Sayand he was richt welcum hame,
Grand-mercie, then, quod he, Madame!
They past the time with ches and tabill,
For he to everie game was abill.
Than unto bed drew everie wicht;
To chalmer went this ladie bricht;
The quilk this Squyer did convoy,
Syne till his bed he went with joy.
That nicht he sleepit never ane wink,
But still did on the ladie think.
Cupido, with his fyrie dart,
Did piers him sa throwout the hart,
Sa all that nicht he did but murnit-
Sum tyme sat up, and sum tyme turnit―
Sichand, with mony gant and grane,
To fair Venus makand his mane,
Sayand', fair ladie, what may this mene,
I was ane free man lait" yestreen,
And now ane cative bound and thrall,
For ane that I think flowr of all.

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I pray God sen scho knew my mynd,
How for hir saik I am sa pynd:
Wald God I had been yit in France,
Or I had hapnit sic mischance;
To be subject or serviture

Till ane quhilk takes of me na cure.
This ladie ludgit" nearhand by,
And hard the Squyer prively,
With dreidful hart makand his mane,
With monie careful gant and grane;
Hir hart fulfillit with pitie,
Thocht scho wald haif of him mercie,
And said, howbeit I suld be slane,
He sall have lufe for lufe agayne:
Wald God I micht, with my honour,
Have him to be my paramour.
This was the mirrie tyme of May,
Quhen this fair ladie, freshe and gay,
Start up to take the hailsum P air,
With pantouns 4 on hir feit ane pair,
Airlie into ane cleir morning,
Befoir fair Phoebus' uprysing:
Kirtill alone, withoutin clok,
And saw the Squyers door unlok.
"Lodged. • Groan. P Wholesome.

She slippit in or evir he wist,

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And feynitlie past till ane kist,

And with hir keys oppenit the lokkis,
And made hir to take furth ane boxe,
Bot that was not hir errand thare :
With that this lustie young Squyar
Saw this ladie so pleasantlie
Com to his chalmer quyetlie,
In kirtill of fyne damais brown,
Hir golden tresses hingand doun;
Hir pappis were hard, round, and quhyte,
Quhome to behold was greit deleit;
Lyke the quhyte lillie was her lyre";
Hir hair wes like the reid gold weir;
Hir schankis quhyte, withouten hois",
Quhareat the Squyar did rejois,

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CALLED the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, who suffered in the reign of Q. Mary, was born at Allington Castle, in Kent, in 1503, and was educated at Cambridge. He married early in life, and was still earlier distinguished at the court of Henry VIII. with whom his interest and favour were so great as to be proverbial. His person was majestic and beautiful, his visage (according to Surrey's interesting description) was "stern and mild:" he sung and played the lute with remarkable sweetness, spoke foreign languages with grace and fluency, and possessed an inexhaustible fund of wit. At the death of Wolsey he could not be more than 19; yet he is said to have contributed to that minister's downfall by a humorous story, and to have promoted the reformation by a seasonable jest. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn he officiated for his father as ewerer, and possibly witnessed the eeremony not with the most festive emotions, as there is reason to suspect that he was secretly attached to the royal bride. When the tragic end of that princess was approaching, one of the calumnies circulated against her was, that Sir Thomas Wyat had confessed having had an illicit intimacy with her. The scandal was certainly false; but that it arose from a tender partiality really believed to exist between them,

seems to be no overstrained conjecture. His poetical mistress's name is Anna and in one of his sonnets he complains of being obliged to desist from the pursuit of a beloved object, on account of its being the king's. The perusal of his poetry was one of the unfortunate queen's last consolations in prison. A tradition of Wyat's attachment to her was long preserved in his family. She retained his sister to the last about her person; and as she was about to lay her head on the block, gave her weeping attendant a small prayer-book, as a token of remembrance, with a smile of which the sweetness was not effaced by the horrors of approaching death. Wyat's favour at court, however, continued undiminished; and notwithstanding a quarrel with the Duke of Suffolk, which occasioned his being committed to the Tower, he was, immediately on his liberation, appointed to a command under the Duke of Norfolk, in the army that was to act against the rebels. He was also knighted, and, in the following year, made high sheriff of Kent.

When the Emperor Charles the Fifth, after the death of Anne Boleyn, apparently forgetting the disgrace of his aunt in the sacrifice of her successor, showed a more conciliatory disposition towards England, Wyat was, in 1537, selected

His

to go as ambassador to the Spanish court. situation there was rendered exceedingly difficult, by the mutual insincerity of the negotiating powers, and by his religion, which exposed him to prejudice, and even at one time to danger from the Inquisition. He had to invest Henry's bullying romonstrances with the graces of moderate diplomacy, and to keep terms with a bigoted court while he questioned the Pope's supremacy. In spite of those obstacles, the dignity and discernment of Wyat gave him such weight in negotiation, that he succeeded in expelling from Spain his master's most dreaded enemy, Cardinal Pole, who was so ill received at Madrid that the haughty legate quitted it with indignation. The records of his different embassies exhibit not only personal activity in following the Emperor Charles to his most important interviews with Francis, but sagacity in foreseeing consequences, and in giving advice to his own sovereign. Neither the dark policy, nor the immoveable countenance of Charles, eluded his penetration. When the Emperor, on the death of Lady Jane Seymour, offered the King of England the Duchess of Milan in marriage, Henry's avidity caught at the offer of her duchy, and Heynes and Bonner were sent out to Spain as special commissioners on the business; but it fell off, as Wyat had predicted, from the Spanish monarch's insincerity.

Bonner, who had done no good to the English mission, and who had felt himself lowered at the Spanish court by the superior ascendancy of Wyat, on his return home sought to indemnify himself for the mortification, by calumniating his late colleague. In order to answer those calumnies, Wyat was obliged to obtain his recal from Spain; and Bonner's charges, on being investigated, fell to the ground. But the Emperor's journey through France having raised another crisis of expectation, Wyat was sent out once more to watch the motions of Charles, and to fathom his designs. At Blois he had an inter

view with Francis, and another with the Emperor, whose friendship for the king of France he pronounced, from all that he observed, to be insincere. "He is constrained (said the English ambassador) to come to a show of friendship, meaning to make him a mockery when he has done." When events are made familiar to us by history, we are perhaps disposed to undervalue the wisdom that foretold them; but this much is clear, that if Charles's rival had been as wise as Sir Thomas Wyat, the Emperor would not have made a mockery of Francis. Wyat's advice to his own sovereign at this period, was to support the Duke of Cleves, and to ingratiate himself with the German protestant princes. His zeal was praised; but the advice, though sanctioned by Cromwell, was not followed by Henry. Warned probably, at last, of the approaching downfall of Cromwell, he obtained his final recal from Spain. On his return, Bonner had sufficient interest to get him committed to the Tower, where he was harshly treated and unfairly tried, but was nevertheless most honourably acquitted; and Henry, satisfied of his innocence, made him considerable donations of land. Leland informs us, that about this time he had the command of a ship of war. The sea service was not then, as it is now, a distinct profession.

Much of his time, however, after his return to England, must be supposed, from his writings, to have been spent at his paternal seat of Allington, in study and rural amusements. From that pleasant retreat he was summoned, in the autumn of 1542, by order of the king, to meet the Spanish ambassador, who had landed at Falmouth, and to conduct him from thence to London. In his zeal to perform this duty he accidentally overheated himself with riding, and was seized, at Sherborne, with a malignant fever, which carried him off, after a few days' illness, in his thirtyninth year.

ODE.

THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THE UNKINDNESS OF HIS LOVE.

My lute, awake! perform the last Labour that thou and I shall waste, And end that I have now begun ; For when this song is sung and past, My lute be still, for I have done.

As to be heard where ear is none,
As lead to grave in marble stone,
My song may pierce her heart as soon:
Should we then sing, or sigh, or moan?
No, no, my lute! for I have done.

The rocks do not so cruelly
Repulse the waves continually,
As she my suit and affection;
So that I am past remedy;
Whereby my lute and I have done.

Proud of the spoil that thou hast got
Of simple hearts, thorough Love's shot,
By whom, unkind! thou hast them won;
Think not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.

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