'For thy trespas thow sall mak na defence, For to excuse, thow can na cause pretend; 2 On to the gallous harlit1 be the feit.' As said is in the Lawis Spirituall ; Of all victour upon the strenth dependis Also, it semis1 nocht your celsitude 2, 'My lyfe is lytill worth, my deith is less, 4 For oft is sene, ane man of small stature Quhen scho wes gone, the Lyoun held to hunt, And slew baith tayme and wylde, as he wes wont, Till at the last, the pepill fand the way This cruell Lyoun how that they mycht tak, And in ane rod, quhair he wes wont to ryn, With raipis rude fra tre to tre it band: 2 • appeased. 10. i.e. they 5 that was just upon the point of being overthrown. 7 caused. 12 scrub. Fell in the nett, and hankit1 fute and heid, Welterand about with hiddeous rummissing?, Quhyles to, quhyles fra, gif he mycht succour get; The mair he flang3, the safter wes the net; The raipis rude wes sa about him plet*, 'O lamit Lyoun! liggand heir sa law, Quhair is the mycht of magnificence? Of quhome all brutall beistes in eird stude awR, 'Thair is na wy that will my harmis wreck, Quha sall me bute 10? quha sall my bandis brek ? Throw aventure 12 the lytill Mous come neir, And suddandlie it come in till hir mynd 14 That it suld be the Lyoun did hir grace, 'Lo!' quod the Mous, 'this is the samin Lyoun And now is fast heir bundin in presoun, Brekand his heart, with sair murning and mane; Cum help to quyte ane gude turne for ane uther; 2 Go, louse him sone;'—and they said, 'Yea, gude brother.' They tuke na knyfe, their teith wes scharp aneuch: Befoir, behind, sum yeild3 about, sum under, i knows. luose. 4 cut. weut. WILLIAM DUNBAR. [Born 145-, died 1513 (?).] M. TAINE, in his History of English Literature, leaps from Chaucer to Surrey with the remark, 'Must we quote all these good people who speak without having anything to say?.. dozens of translators, importing the poverties of French poetry, rhyming chroniclers, most commonplace of men.' Of this period he mentions only and merely names Gower and Lydgate and Skelton. The more genuine successors of Chaucer were the Scotch poets, who, almost alone in our island, lit up the dusk of the 15th century with some flashes of native power. Neither James I nor Henryson was commonplace, and Dunbar, the most conspicuous of the group, displays in his best work a distinct original genius. William Dunbar was born, probably in East Lothian, between 1450 and 1460. He entered the University of St. Andrews in 1475, and took his full degree in 1479. In early life, according to his own account, he went about from Berwick to Dover, and passed over to Calais and Picardy, preaching and alms-gathering as a Franciscan noviciate; but he became dissatisfied with this life and does not seem to have taken the vows of the order. It has been inferred from allusions in his verse that he was for some years employed in connection with foreign embassies. Toward the close of the century we find him in attendance on the Scotch Court, a poet with an established reputation, and a continual suitor for place. In 1500 he received from the king (James IV) a pension of £10, raised by degrees, during the next ten years to £80-then a respectable annuity: but he never obtained the Church promotion, to which on somewhat irrelevant grounds he constantly laid claim. Dunbar revisited England in 1501, when the king's marriage with the Princess Margaret was being negotiated. The Thistle and the Rose in commemoration of that event was composed on the 9th of May, 1503. The Golden Targe and the Lament for the |