Venus, somewhat platonic and metaphysical for the queen of becks and wreathed smiles,' contains some beautiful poetry. Nor is it unworthy of notice, that although a pagan divinity is introduced, her cour.sels do not breathe the licentious spirit of the Cyprian queen of classical antiquity, but are founded on better and holier principles: the Venus of the royal bard is the goddess of lawful disport and pure and virtuous love. She first ascertains that her votary is none of those

That feynis truth in love but for a while,
The silly innocent woman to beguile:

comparing them to the fowler, imitating the various notes of the birds that he may decoy them into his net; and after having satisfied herself that he is consumed by the flame of a virtuous attachment, he is addressed in the language of encouragement, assured of her benign assistance, and despatched, under proper guidance, to seek counsel of Minerva. The precepts of this sage goddess present rather a monotonous parallel to the advice of Venus; after which, the votary of love is dismissed from her court, and, like Milton's Uriel, descends upon a sunbeam to the earth:

-right anon

I took my leave, as straight as any line,
Within a beam that from the clime divine
She piercing thro the firmament extended,
And thus to earth my sprite again descended.

We cannot follow the poet in his quest of Fortune, which occupies the fifth canto, but its opening verses are singularly beautiful :

Qubare in a lusty' plane I took my way Endlang a ryver, plesand to behold, 1 delightful.

2

" along the brink of a river.

Embrondin all with fresche flouris gay,
Quhare thro' the gravel, bright as ony gold,
The cristal water ran so clere and cold,
That in mine ear it made continually
A maner soun mellit with harmony.
That full of lytill fischis by the brym,

Now here now there with bakkis blewe as lede,
Lap and playit, and in a rout gan swym
So prettily, and dressit thame to sprede
Their crural fynnis, as the ruby red,
That in the sonne upon their scalis brycht,
As gesserant' ay glitterit in my sight.

Beside this pleasant river he finds an avenue of trees covered with delicious fruits, and in the branches and under their umbrageous covert are seen the beasts of the forest :

The lyon king and his fere lyonesse;
The pantere like unto the smaragdyne;
The lytill squerell full of besynesse;

The slawe asse, the druggare beste of pyne3;
The nyce ape, and the werely porpapyne;
The percying lynx, the lufare unicorn
That voidis venym with his evoure" horne.
Thare sawe I dress hym new out of his haunt
The fere tigere, full of felony;
The dromydare, the stander elephant;
The wyly fox, the wedowis enemy;

The clymbare gayte, the elk for arblastrye;
The herkner boar7, the holsom grey for sportis,
The haire also that oft gooth to the hortis.

2 jacinth. the sluggish ass, beast of painful drudgery. 4 warlike. 5 ivory.

1

a pleasant sound mingled with harmony.

6 the strings of the arblast or cross-bow, were probably formed out of the tough sinews of the elk.

7 herknere boar-probably hearkening boar. It is the habit of the buffalo to listen for the breath of any person extended on the ground before attacking him, so as to ascertain whether he be a living being. The same propensity, in all

Thus slightly modernised:

The lion king and his fierce lioness;
The panther spotted like the smaragdine;
The tiny squirrel, full of business;

The patient ass that drudgeth still in pine;
The cunning ape; the warlike porcupine ;
The fire-eyed lynx; the stately unicorn,
That voideth venom from his ivory horn.

There saw I rouse, fresh-wakening from his haunt,
The brindled tiger, full of felony;
The dromedare and giant elephant;
The wily fox, the widow's enemy;
The elk, with sinews fit for arblastrye;
The climbing goat, and eke the tusked boar,
And timid hare that flies the hounds before.

These stanzas are, as it will be seen, scarcely altered from the original; and it would be diffi cult, in any part of Chaucer or Spenser, to discover comprised in so small a compass so picturesque and characteristic a description of the tenants of the forest.

Being guided by Good Hope to the goddess. Fortune, he finds her sitting beside her wheel, clothed in a parti-coloured petticoat and ermine tippet, and alternately smiling and frowning, as it became so capricious a lady. The meeting and the parting with her are described in such a manner as rather to excite ludicrous ideas than any feelings befitting the solemnity of the vision. She inquires into his story, rallies him on his pale and

probability, belongs to the wild boar. I remember hearing that the late Dr. R. saved himself from the attack of a wild boar, when botanising in a German forest, by resolutely keeping himself quite motionless till the creature, tired of snuffing and walking round him, went off. I have extracted the above ingenious conjecture from the letter of a literary friend.

VOL. III.

F

wretched looks; and when he pleads his love and despair, places him upon the wheel, warning him to hold fast there for half an hour. She then bids him farewell, assures him that he will be fortunate in his love, and in departing gives him a shake, not by the hand, but by the ear; the prince now suddenly awakes, and pours out this beautiful address to his soul:

Oh besy ghoste! ay flickering to and fro,
That never art in quiet nor in rest

Till thou come to that place that thou come fro,
Which is thy first and very proper nest;
From day to day so sore here art thou drest,
That with thy flesch ay waking art in trouble,
And sleeping eke, of pyne so hast thou double.

Walking to his prison window in much perplexity and discomfort, he finds himself unable to ascertain to what strange and dreamy region his spirit had wandered, and anxiously wishes he might have some token whether the vision was of that heavenly kind to whose anticipations he might give credit

Is it some dream, by wandering fancy given, Or may I deem it, sooth, a vision sent from heaven. At this moment he hears the fluttering of wings, and a milk-white dove flies into his window. She alights upon his hand, bearing in her bill a stalk of gilliflowers, on the leaves of which, in golden letters, is written the glad news, that it is decreed he is to be happy and successful in his love:

This fair bird rycht into her bill gan hold,
Of red jerrofleris, with stalkis grene,

A fair branche, quhairin written was with gold,
On every lefe with letters brycht and shene,
In compas fair, full plesandly to sene,

A plane sentence, which, as I can devise,
And have in mind, said rycht upon this wise:
Awake, awake, I bring, lufar, I bring

The newis glad that blissful bene and sure
Of thy comfort; now laugh, and play, and sing,
That art beside so glad an aventure,

For in the heav'n decretit is thy cure,
And unto me the flowers did present;
With wyngis spread, her ways furth then she went.

How easy do these sweet verses, with scarce any alteration, throw themselves into a modern dress!

This lovely bird within her bill did hold,

Of ruddy gilliflowers, with stalkis green,

A branch, whereon was writ, in words of gold,

Pourtray'd most plain, with letters bright and sheen, A scroll, that to my heart sweet comfort told; For wheresoe'er on it I cast mine eyes, This hopeful sentence did before me rise: Awake, awake, I, lover, to thee bring

Most gladsome news, that blissful are and sure; Awake to joy-now laugh and play and sing,

Full soon shalt thou achieve thine adventure, For heav'n thee favours, and decrees thy cure! So with meek gesture did she drop the flowers, Then spread her milk-white wings, and sought her airy

bowers.

C

From these extracts the reader may have some idea of the King's Quhair,' the principal work of James I. That it is faultless, nothing but a blinded enthusiasm would affirm; but whatever may be its defects, it is certainly not inferior in fancy, elegance of diction, and tender delicacy of feeling to any similar work of the same period, produced either in England or in his own country. It has been already remarked that its blemishes are those