In fret-wise couched with pearlis white, XXVIII. Full of quaking spangis 3 bright as gold, XXIX. About her neck, white as the fyre amaille,7 'A sort of precious stones (says Urry) brought from Balassia, in India. Tyrwhitt says, the balais Fr. is a sert of bastard ruby. 3 Spangles. Shining. 4 "Made in the form of a love-knot or garland." (Tytler.) 5 Probably the fleur de genêt, (genista) broom. The repetition of this word is apparently a mistake of the original transcriber. 7 Qu. Is this an error for fair email, i. e. enamel ? Fr. Goldsmith's-work. • Fire. (Ruddiman's Glossary.) Seemed burning upon her white throat: XXX. And for to walk, that freshe Maye's morrow, 2 1 As I suppose; and girt she was a lyte;' Thus halfling loose for haste, to such delight It was to see her youth in goodlihead, That, for rudeness, to speak thereof I dread. XXXI. In her was youth, beauty, with humble aport, It would, perhaps, be difficult to select even from Chaucer's most finished works a long specimen of descriptive poetry so uniformly elegant as this: indeed some of the verses are so highly finished, that they would not disfigure the compositions of Dryden, Pope, or Gray. Nor was King James's talent confined to serious and pathetic compositions. Two poems of a ludicrous cast, and which have been the constant favourites of the Scotish people to the present day, are now universally attributed to this monarch. These are Christ's Kirk on the Green, and Peblis to the Play; the first composed in the northern, and the second in the southern dialect of Scotland. A third, called Falkland on the Green, which Mr. Pinkerton supposes to have described the popular sports of the central district of the kingdom, and to have been written in the Fifeshire dialect, has hitherto eluded the researches of antiquaries. In Mr. Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems (London, 1786, p. 214) is found a Song on Absence, which the editor suspects to be the same described by Major, as beginning with the words Yas sen &c. Of the King's Quair only one MS. is known to exist it is a small folio, in the Bodleian library (Seld. Archiv. B. xxiv.). Mr. Tytler, having procured a transcript of this MS. published it at Edinburgh, 1783, together with Christ's Kirk on the Green, under the title of "Poetical Remains of James I." The work is illustrated with copious notes, and with two dissertations; the first on the life and writings of the author, and the second on Scotish music. A strange fatality seems to have attended the literature of this period. It has been just observed that King James's work was lately recovered by the casual preservation of a single manuscript. His contemporary, CHARLES DUKE OF ORLEANS, father of Louis XII. is still very imperfectly known to the public by means of some short specimens of his poetry given in the Annales Poetiques (Paris, 1778), and of a few more published in M. de Paulmy's Mélanges d'une grande Bibliotheque. It is singular enough, that the two best poets of the age, both of royal blood, both prisoners at the same court, both distinguished by their military as well as literary talents, both admired during their lives, and regretted after death, as the brightest ornaments of their respective nations, should have been forgotten by the world during more than three centuries, and at length restored to their reputation at the same period. The Duke of Orleans, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, acquired such a proficiency in our language, during a stay of twenty years in this country, as to write several small pieces of English poetry, which are said to be still preserved in MS. in the Royal Library at Paris. These may possibly not be worth transcribing; but, whatever be their poetical merit, they may fairly be adduced as a Mr. Ritson has printed (page 47 of his Dissertation on Ancient Songs and Music, prefixed to his Ancient Songs, London, 1792) a specimen of this prince's English poetry, copied from No. 682 of the Harleian MSS. It is a dialogue between a lover and his mistress, but, being founded on a strange sort of pun or play on words, it is very obscure, and apparently not worth unriddling. Another MS. in the Museum (Bibl. Reg. 16. F. ii), solely consisting of poems by the Duke of Orleans, affords three speciments of his attempts at English poetry; and, as they are very short, and never were printed, I shall here subjoin them all, in their original orthography. CHANSON. Go forth, my hert, with my lady! To serve her with such lolynes Go forth, &c. Iniust as a helis body Abyde alone in hevynes; And ye shall dwell with your mastrès In plaisauns, glad and mery. Go forth &c. ་ Care, attention. ? If that ? • Lowliness. * At any time? • I cannot understand the word iniust; perhaps it means exactly. Helis is perhaps hele-less, i, e. unhealthy, diseased. |