could be more beautiful or appropriate than Dunbar's fine allegorical vision, the Thistle and the Rose.' We have no reason to believe, however, that its author experienced any substantial instance of royal gratitude. He continued to reside at court, to share in the amusements, and bear a part in the revels of his gay and thoughtless master; but he saw others preferred, whilst he was thrust back or neglected; and his poetry is, in many places, little else than a severe and biting commentary on the arrogance of court minions, the insolence of wardrobe keepers, deputy treasurers, and other minor officials. One of these indignant castigations is, from its humour, worthy of notice. The queen's keeper of the robe was Jamie Doig, or as it was then probably pronounced in Scotland-Dog; who, on some occasion, had been ordered by the queen to present the poet with a velvet doublet, a command which he obeyed with so ill a grace, that Dunbar addressed this poetical complaint to the prin

cess

ON JAMES DOIG, KEEPAR OF THE QUEEN'S WARDROP.
TO THE QUEEN.

The Wardroper of Venus bowre,
To give a doublet is as doure1,
As it were for ane fute side frog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog."

When that I show to him your marks,
He turns to me again and barks,
As he were worrying ane hog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog.

1 obstinate or difficult.

When that I show to him your writing,
He girns that I am red for flyting,
I would he had a heavy clog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog.
When that I speak to him friend-like,
He growls like ony midden tike2,
War-chasing cattle thro a bog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog.
He is ane mastiff, strong of might,
To keep your wardrobe over night
From the great Soldan, Gog-magog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog.
Oure large he is to be your messan3,
you advise to get a less ane*,

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His tread gars all your chambers schog:
Madame, ye have a dangerous Dog.

as

Jamie Doig, however, appears soon after to have relented, the promised suit is delivered from the wardrobe, and the poet changes his verses easily and readily as he does his doublet. The dangerous Dog is tranformed into a Lamb; and in the lines 6 on the said James when he had pleased him,' we learn some particulars which say little for the matrimonial felicity of the worthy wardraipair :

The wife that he had in his inns,

That with the tangs 5 wad break his shins,

I wad she drownd were in a dam,

He is na Dog-he is ane Lamb*.

Jamie Doig himself, whose strength and make were so great that his step shook the chambers of his royal mistress, is one of those whom the

1 complaining bitterly.

3

* lap-dog

2 dunghill cur.
5 tongs.

4 a smaller one.
*Poems, vol. ii. pp. 110, 111,

treasurer is ordered to furnish with a dress of state for the marriage*.

On another occasion the poet addresses the King in the character of the Grey Horse, auld Dunbar,' complaining that, when idler steeds are tenderly cared for, and clothed in gorgeous trappings, he who had done his Majesty good service is neglected in his old age:

3

Thocht in the stall I be nocht clappit,
As coursours that in silk beine trappit,
With ane new hous I wald be happit,
Against this Christmas for the cauld1;
Sir, let it nevir in town be tald 2
That I suld be a Yuillis yald3.

I am ane auld horse, as ye knaw,
That evir in dule3 dois dring and draw;
Great court-horse puttis me fra the staw 6,
To fang the fog be firth and fald ;
Sir, let it nevir in town be tald
That I suld be a Yuillis yald.

I haif lang run forth in the field,
On pastouris that ar plane and peil'd 3,
I micht be now tane in for eild 9,
My banes are showing he and bald.
Sir, let it nevir in town be tald,
That I suld be a Yuillis yald.
My mane is turned into quhyte 10,
And thereof ye haif all the wyte
Quhan uther horse had bran to bite,
I had but gress 12, knip gif I wald;
Sir, let it nevir in town be tald
That I suld be a Yuillis yald.

*Treasurer's Books, August 3, 1503.

1 cold.

2 told.

a useless old horse, turned into a straw-yard at Yule, or

Whether this remonstrance was attended by any substantial or permanent benefit to the Auld Grey Horse' is doubtful; but it is certain the King replied in the following fashion, which, as the only poetical effort of this gallant prince, is worth preservation:

RESPONSIO REGIS.

Efter our writtingis treasurer,

Tak in this Grey Horse, auld Dunbar,
Quhilk in my aucht with service trew
To lyart changeit is his hew ".

5

Gar howse him now aganis this Yuill,
And busk 7 him like ane bischoppis muill8;
For with my hand I have indost 9

To pay quhat evir his trappouris 10 cost.

A curious feature in the poetical literature of this age is to be found in that species of rhythmical invective termed Flyting or Scolding, for which Dunbar appears to have made himself especially illustrious. It is difficult to determine whether the enmity and rivalry of two poets, who gave themselves up to this coarse sort of buffoonery, was real or pretended. The probability seems to be, that it was considered both by the authors and their audience, as a mere pastime of the imagination-a licence to indulge in every kind of poetical vituperation—a kind of literary "trappings

1 cool.

2 over-worked mule.

* spurred at every bone.
hue.
7 adorn.
10 trappings.

5 true.
⚫ indorsed.

Saturnalia or licentious badinage, which, in its
commencement, and in the received principles by
which it was regulated, did not imply any real
hostility of feeling, but was very likely to lead
to it. Lord Hailes has well remarked, that Luigi
Pulci and Matteo Franco, although dear and in-
timate friends, for their own amusement, and the
gratification of their readers, have indulged in a
similar species of abuse; and it seems impossible
to believe that the affectionate regret with which
Dunbar mentions Kennedy, in his Lament for
the Death of the Makars,' could have proceeded
from an enemy.
With regard to the poetry itself,
if we may use so high a name, it consists of a
succession of stanzas of coarse and vulgar invec-
tive, of such strange antiquarian Billingsgate, that
they are happily almost wholly unintelligible. A
single stanza from Kennedy's attack, and the
reply of his antagonist, is amply sufficient :-

Dreid, dirtfast dearch, that thou hes dissobey it, -
My cousing Quintene and my commissar.
Fantastick fule-traist well thou sall be fleyit.
Ignorant elf, ape, owl, irregular

Skaldit skaitbird, and common skamelar,

Wan thriven funling, that Nature made ane yrle, Baith Johne the Ross and thou sall squeill and skirle.

To this trash Dunbar, with equal perspicuity

and elegance, replies:

Revin ragged ruke, and full of rebaldrie,

Scarth fra scorpione, skaldit in scurrilitie;

I see thee haltane in thy venomie,

And into uther science nathing slie,

Of every verteu void as men may see;

Quytelame clergie, and clerk to the' ane club;

Ane baird blasphemar, in brybrie ay to be,

For wit and wisdom ane wisp fra thee may rub. VOL. III.

I