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ject of religion, or from more interested motives, that with such earnest and early zeal he threw the whole weight of his abilities into the scale of the reformers; attacking the Catholic clergy and the ancient ceremonies of the Catholic church with a coarseness and bitterness of satire, of which the gross indelicacy renders quotation impossible. That the lives of many of the prelates, the licentiousness of the monastic orders, the gross ignorance in which they retained the minds of the people, the shutting up the Bible in an unknown language, and the mischievous assumption of temporal power by the Papacy, all called loudly for that reformation, which, under the blessing of God, was introduced into the country, no one who tries the subject by the test of Scripture will deny. But, whilst this is admitted, nothing can be more erroneous than the very common idea that, in those dark and troubled times, the name of a reformer was synonymous with truth and religious sincerity, whilst that of a Romanist was only another word for all that was licentious, bigoted, and hypocritical. It is the prerogative of an infinitely wise, good, and powerful God to overrule even the most corrupted instruments, so that unknowingly they shall accomplish his predestined purposes; and never was this divine attribute more signally displayed than in the history of the Scottish reformation. At first, regarding this great event with a hasty and somewhat superficial eye, we see two great parties, two living phalanxes of human opinion, ranged in mortal opposition to each other; the one proclaiming themselves to be the congregation of the Lord, and not unfrequently branding

their antagonists with the epithet of the Congregation of Satan: and the other, whilst they repel this odious charge, arrogating to themselves the exclusive character of being the sole supporters of the Church of Christ. A second and more attentive consideration will probably be shocked at the discovery of the selfishness, the hypocrisy, and the sin which often lurked under the professions of both. A third, a more profound, a more heavenlyguided examination, will see the working of that Almighty arm, which, in the moral as well as in the physical world, can guide the whirlwind and direct the storm; which educes good out of evil, and compels the wrath of man to praise him. These observations are peculiarly applicable to the satirical effusions of Lindsay; for, whilst it cannot be denied that his writings had a powerful effect in preparing the way for the reformation, none will be so hardy as to attempt a defence, and it will even be difficult to discover an extenuation for their occasional grossness and profanity.

Cast down as he must have been by the sudden death of his scarcely wedded Queen, James V. was not prevented from looking to France for her successor and a matrimonial embassy, consisting of the Cardinal Beaton, Lord Maxwell, and the Master of Glencairn, having proceeded to that kingdom, the Scottish King selected Mary of Guise, widow of the Duke of Longueville, who proceeded to Scotland in June, 1538. She was conducted by D'Annabault, an Admiral of France, and having landed at Balcomie, in Fife, was met by the King, who carried her to St. Andrew's, where the marriage was celebrated with much rejoicing.

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Here the talents of Sir David Lindsay were again brought into request in the construction and composition of the court festivals and pageants. 'James,' says Pitscottie, entertained his bride with great honors and playes made for her; and first she was received at the New Abbey, upon the east side whereof there was made a triumphant arch by Sir David Lindsay, lyon herauld, which caused a great cloud to come out of the heavens, above the gate, and open instantly, and there appeared a fair lady most like an angel, having the keys of Scotland in her hand, and delivered them to the Queen, in sign that all the hearts of Scotland were open to receive her Grace, with certain orations and exhortations made by the said Sir David Lindsay to the Queen, instructing her to serve God, and obey her husband according to God's commandments. Here the King and Queen remained forty days, with great merriness, such as justing, running at the lists, archery, hunting, hawking, with singing and dancing in masquery, and playing, and all other princely games, according to a King and Queen*.' It was during these festivities that the Lion King composed his satirical poem entitled

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The Justing between James Watson and John Barbour,' in which his object was to ridicule the splendid solemnities and unnecessary bloodshed often caused by the tournaments. It is the least happy of his productions,-ponderous, laboured, and far inferior to a contemporary piece written with the same design by an English author, 'The Tournament of Tottenham.' It will be seen at

* Lindsay of Pitscottie, pp. 248, 249. VOL. III.

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once by a short quotation that Lindsay's measure cramps the easy flow of his humour :—

In St. Andrew's, on Whitsun-Monoday,
Two campions thair manhood did assay
Past to the barres, enarmed, head and hands,
Was never seen sic justing in na1 lands.
In presence of the kingis grace and queen,
Where mony lustre ladie micht be seen.

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The ane of them was gentle James Watsoun,
And Johne Barbour the other campioun3;
Unto the king they were familiars,
And of his chalmer both cubiculars.

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Fra time they entered were into the field
Full womanlie they weilded spear and schield;
Aud wightly waiffit* in the wind their heels,
Hobbling like cadgers 5, ryding on their creels.
The poet of The Tournament of Tottenham
has wisely selected a merrier species of rhythm.

He that beareth him best in the tournament

Shall be granted the gree6 by the common assent,
For to win my daughter with doughty dent,

And copple my brood hen that was brought out of Kent,

And my dun cow;

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For no spenee will I spare,
For no cattle will I care,

He shall have my grey mare and my spotted sow. Neither of these parodies, however, possess any high merit.

It was, perhaps, a little previous to this that Lindsay composed his answer to the King's Flyting. It appears that James had attacked his Lord Lion in some verses, whose ornate metre Sir David

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highly commends, although their object was to make him' abominable in the sight of the ladies, and to banish him, on account of his age and infirmities, from the Court of Venus. In these abusive poetical contests, entitled Flytings,' it is no disparagement to Lindsay when we say he does not equal the multifarious and recondite scurrility of Dunbar or Kennedy; whilst, if we are to judge of the 'dittay' of the king by the coarseness and vulgarity of the reply, it is not much to be regretted that the royal Flyting has perished. In his concluding stanza, the monarch is highly compli mented on his poetical talents; he is styled of flowing rhetorick the flower;' nor,-making all due allowance for the strain in which a poet may be supposed to indulge himself when addressing a prince, was the praise of the Lion King overstrained. We have seen the vicious and neglected education under which the youth of James V. had been blighted; yet there emerged out of this ungenial nurture a character of that strength and vigour which soon enabled him to make up for the time which he had lost. Amongst other qualities, he possessed that genius for the fine arts, and more especially for poetry and architecture, which had distinguished the first and third James; and it is easy to see that a congeniality of taste had recommended the Lion Herald to his royal master. We learn from Drummond that the king naturally given to poesie, as many of his verses yet exstant testify;' and few readers of Scottish poetry are unacquainted with the admirable ballad of the Gaberlunzieman,' which we owe to this monarch.

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