APOSTROPHE TO FREEDOM. Ah! freedom is a noble thing! Then all perquier1 he should it wit: DEATH OF SIR HENRY DE BOHUN. And when the king wist that they were In hale2 battle, coming so near, 1 'Perquier:' perfectly.-2 2 Hale:' whole.-3 Gart:' caused. Before them all there came ridand, And by the crown that was set Also upon his bassinet. And toward him he went in hy.2 Saw him come, forouth all his feres,5 In hy till him the horse he steers. He thought that he should well lightly Sprent they samen into a lyng;7 The hand-axe shaft frushit 10 in two; 76 1 Raw:' row.-2 Hy:' haste.-3 Apertly:' openly, clearly.-4 Forouth:' beyond.-Feres:' companions.-6' Forouten:' without. Sprent they samen into a lyng:' they sprang forward at once, against each other, in a line.-8 Raucht:' reached.-Harns:' brains.-10 Frushit:' broke. And he down to the yird1 'gan go Have slain a knight so at a straik, Blamed him, as they durst, greatumly, To meet so stith2 a knight, and stour, Was with the stroke broken in two. 3 " 1 Yird:' earth.-2 'Stith:' strong. Tynsal:' destruction.- 'Maini :' lamented. ANDREW WYNTOUN. THIS author, who was prior of St Serf's monastery in Loch Leven, is the author of what he calls 'An Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland.' It appeared about the year 1420. It is much inferior to the work of Barbour in poetry, but is full of historical information, anecdote, and legend. The language is often sufficiently prosaic. Thus the poet begins to describe the return of King David II. from his captivity, referred to above. 'Yet in prison was king Davy, And when a lang time was gane bye, To Berwick castle brought was he, And als prelates that wisest were,' &c. Contemporary, or nearly so, with Wyntoun were several other Scottish writers, such as one Hutcheon, of whom we know only that he is designated of the 'Awle Ryall,' or of the Royal Hall or Palace, and that he wrote a metrical romance, of which two cantos remain, called 'The Gest of Arthur;' and another, named Clerk of Tranent, the author of a romance, entitled 'The Adventures of Sir Gawain.' Of this latter also two cantos only are extant. Although not perhaps deserving to have even portions of them extracted, they contain a good deal of poetry. A person, too, of the name of Holland, about whose history we have no information, produced a satirical poem, called 'The Howlate,' written in the allegorical form, and bearing some resemblance to Pierce Plowman's Vision.' BLIND HARRY. ALTHOUGH there are diversities of opinion as to the exact time when this blind minstrel flourished, we prefer alluding to him at this point, where he stands in close proximity to Barbour, the author of a poem on a subject so cognate to Wallace' as 'Bruce.' Nothing is known of Harry but that he was blind from infancy, that he composed this poem, and gained a subsistence by reciting or singing portions of it through the country. Another Wandering Willie, (see 'Redgauntlet,') he 'passed like night from land to land,' led by his own instincts, and wherever he met with a congenial audience, he proceeded to chant portions of the noble knight's achievements, his eyes the while twinkling, through their sad setting of darkness, with enthusiasm, and often suffused with tears. In some minds the conception of this blind wandering bard may awaken ludicrous emotions, but to us it suggests a certain sublimity. Blind Harry has powerfully described Wallace standing in the light and shrinking from the ghost of Fawdoun, (see the ‘Battle of Black-Earnside,' in the 'Specimens,') but Harry himself seems walking in the light of the ghost of Wallace, and it ministers to him, not terror, but inspiration. Entering a cot at night, and asked for a tale, he begins, in low tones, to recite that frightful apparition at Gaskhall, and the aged men and the crones vie with the children in drawing near the 'ingle bleeze,' as if in fire alone lay the refuge from 'Fawdoun, that ugly sire, That haill hall he had set into a fire, As to his sight, his OWN HEAD IN HIS HAND.' Arriving in a village at the hour of morning rest and refreshment, he charms the swains by such words as 'The merry day sprang from the orient With beams bright illuminate the occident, High in the sphere the signs he made declare. |