his nobles; but at the same time it is easy to see that his poverty was often extreme, subjecting him to the most mortifying repulses from the lowest officers about the court. The pangs of deferred hope, the pride of insulted genius, the bitter repentance that he had devoted himself to so thankless and ill-requited a service, and the biting satire against kings and favourites, by which many of his productions are distinguished, all form a painful but instructive commentary on the history of a man of letters, who has relinquished the more humble walk in which, with a little labour, he might have provided for his own wants, and finds, when it is perhaps too late, that distinction is not synonymous with independence. It seems to have been in one of these moods that he indited his complaint addressed to the king: Of wrangis and of great injures But it is time we should leave these ebullitions of wounded pride, or disappointed ambition, to consider some of the higher efforts of his genius. On the 8th of August, 1503, James IV. was espoused to the Princess Margaret of England, an event which it was earnestly hoped would have the most beneficial effects in removing, or at least diluting, the feelings of mutual hostility which had so long and so frequently arrayed the two kingdoms in mortal warfare against each other. The 1 acquire * Poems, vol. ii. p. 142. ceremony was accompanied with every species of feudal triumph and solemnity; and the event was commemorated by Dunbar, in a poem entitled the 'Thistle and the Rose,' which, had he never written another line, is of itself amply sufficient to place him in a high rank of genius. It commences with the following beautiful stanzas: Quhen Marche wes with variand windis past, 2 In bed ae morrow, sleeping as I lay, And halsit me with visage pale and grene, 8 saluted me. glitters. With scarce the difference of a word, the whole of this fine description may be read as English poetry, not inferior in the brilliancy of its fancy or the polish of its versification to Spenser : When March with varying winds had onward past, And lusty May, that mother is of flowers, Aurora, with her eyne as crystal clear, In bright attire of flowers all budding new, And in mine honour something new go write; The poet having excused his slumbers on the ground of the inclemency of the season and the boisterous blasts of Lord Æolus, which had silenced himself and many other tuneful birds, is reminded by May that he had promised, when her sweet Now rise, season began, to describe the rose. Go see the birdis how they sing and dance, He arises, casts his serk and mantill' over him, and follows the goddess into a lovely garden, redolent with flowers, which are glittering in the morning dew. The sun rises, and as his first level rays gild the face of nature, a blissful song of welcome bursts from every bush and grove. The whole description is exquisite : The purpour sone, with tendyr bemys reid, Quhois gilt tressis schone so wondir cleir, And as the blessful soune of cherachy, O luvaris fo, away thou dully Nycht, And welcum Day that comfortis every wicht, The glorious sun, with beams as ruby red, Which soon all sable from the heavens did chase. 1 enamelled. *Poems, vol. i, p. 5. And as the glorious orb drove up the sky, Sang every bird through comfort of the light, And with their sweet melodious throats 'gan cry, Lovers awake, away thou dully Night; Welcome, sweet Day, that comforts every wight; Hail May, hail Flora, hail Aurora, sheen, Hail princess Nature, hail Love's loveliest Queen. Dame Nature, having first commanded fierce Neptune and Eolus the bald not to perturb the water nor the air And that na schouris snell1, nor blastes cauld, issues next her mandate to the beasts, the birds, and the flowers, to attend her court, as they are wont on the first of May: Scho ordaind eik that every bird and beist, The swift-footed roe is despatched as the herald to warn the beasts of the forest, the restless swallow to bear her commands to the denizens of the air, and, obedient to the summons, all instantly appear before the queen 1 Piercing. |