[362] words, boasts.

[363] a small piece of straw.

[364] gone astray.

[365] strong.

[366] such practice.

[367] afraid.

[368] storm.

[369] Gaul, son of Morni, first the enemy and afterwards the ally of Fingal, is one of the chief heroes of the Ossianic poems.

[370] belongings.

[371] in such fashion.

[372] covenant.

[373] Making light of.

[374] taken.

[375] know.

[376] well I know.

[377] Robert Stewart, Lord D’Aubigny and Mareschal of France, descended from the Darnley and Lennox family, was Captain of the Scots Guards of the King of France in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Readers of Quentin Durward will remember Scott’s description of the post as held by Lord Crawford.

[378] choose.

[379] nimbly.

[380] in warlike garb.

[381] stretched.

[382] before.

[383] coif, band.

[384] hold.

[385] caparisoned.

[386] crimson cloth.

[387] over the rough grassy ground.

[388] morning.

[389] beat.

[390] made.

[391] such a fright.

[392] covering.

[393] embroidered.

[394] doubt.

[395] staves, spears.

[396] Wonderfully.

[397] tough.

[398] dashed.

[399] flatwise.

[400] nimbly.

[401] gallantly.

[402] once.

[403] seized.

[404] grasped.

[405] well pleased.

[406] these.

[407] Boldly to prove their strength they pressed.

[408] coursing room was from the extremity, À l’outrance.

[409] swerved.

[410] course.

[411] violent.

[412] bolted.

[413] bound.

[414] each.

[415] match.

[416] pike, spear.

[417] cuirasse.

[418] place.

[419] joust.

[420] compact.

[421] lose.

[422] pavilion.

[423] embraced.

[424] gallantly.

[425] These are two of the last stanzas of “The Testament of Squyer Meldrum,” a composition chiefly occupied with the doughty squire’s directions for a sumptuous funeral. The lady to whom they are addressed was Marion Lawson, the young widow of John Haldane of Gleneagles, slain at Flodden, for whom the Squyer upon his return to Scotland in 1515 had formed a strong attachment, and by whom he had become the father of two children. In August, 1517, according to Pitscottie, Meldrum had, in gallantly defending his possession of this lady, been crippled and left for dead on the road to Leith by his rival Luke Stirling, brother of the laird of Keir, who followed him from Edinburgh and attacked him with fifty men.

[426] shining.

[427] beauty.

[428] Star.

[429] much.

[430] evening and morning.

[431] if.

[432] wish.

[433] fashion.

[434] bought you from woes.

[435] Redeeming.

[436] seated.

[437] mistuned.

[438] love.

[439] goods.

[440] make me know.

[441] Quick.

[442] God knows.

[443] vile.

[444] entry.

[445] these failings.

[446] what the devil is that thou tearest?

[447] ears.

[448] talk.

[449] burnt.

[450] dash.

[451] by the time that.

[452] whole clothes.

[453] learn.

[454] but if, unless.

[455] Leap.

[456] though.

[457] death.

[458] tether, halter.

[459] emptied.

[460] pitcher.

[461] Haste.

[462] hobgoblin.

[463] much.

[464] truth.

[465] The Court of Session had been established by James V. in May, 1532. The Seinzie was the older ecclesiastical consistory, or bishops’ court.

[466] company.

[467] hoar.

[468] i.e. in panniers, the ancient means of carriage.

[469] separate.

[470] kine.

[471] Ayrshire cattle were, to judge from this reference, as much esteemed in the sixteenth century as they are in the nineteenth.

[472] died.

[473] pasturing.

[474] Formerly the fine paid the feudal superior for relief from armed service; afterwards a fine of the best chattel, exacted by the landlord on the death of a tenant.

[475] clutched.

[476] uppermost clothes.

[477] coarse woollen.

[478] The reference here, says Laing, is to the cors present, or funeral gift to the clerk, the exaction of which had become a heavy grievance to the poor.

[479] parson.

[480] fourpence.

[481] Trowest.

[482] gander.

[483] pig.

[484] ask.

[485] stupefied.

[486] without.

[487] lot.

[488] The retailing of papal indulgences, here satirized by Lyndsay, was one of the chief abuses against which Luther had raised the indignation of Germany.

[489] grope, grip.

[490] naughty.

[491] lay.

[492] tricks.

[493] fellows.

[494] I know by heart.

[495] Sorrow destroy.

[496] knave.

[497] smothered in their baptism-cloth.

[498] dark.

[499] Khan.

[500] The real jawbone of Fingal.

[501] See introduction to King James the Fifth, p. 143.

[502] tail.

[503] snout.

[504] go.

[505] Belial.

[506] jest.

[507] vexation.

[508] cumber.

[509] blame.

[510] rascal, lit. gallowsful.

[511] fourth-day or intermittent fever.

[512] laid hold of.

[513] street-walker.

[514] scoundrel.

[515] Though you stay a year.

[516] one.

[517] counsel.

[518] without doubt.

[519] your fate you curse.

[520] speak.

[521] drivelling.

[522] my whole body I cross.

[523] At the horne, proclaimed rebel. Outlawry was proclaimed with three blasts of a horn. In 1512 Gavin Douglas was one of a great assize which passed an Act anent “the resset of Rebellis, and Personis being at our souerane Lordis horne.”

[524] bless.

[525] ropes.

[526] gout.

[527] search.

[528] go.

[529] coin.

[530] excuse.

[531] complain.

[532] Consistory.

[533] craves.

[534] whole.

[535] till then.

[536] place.

[537] I know full surely.

[538] frail.

[539] Ere.

[540] heat.

[541] evacuate fÆces.

[542] gums.

[543] confounded.

[545] by the altar.

[546] blow.

[547] sport.

[548] Quick, fellows!

[549] Laing quotes from the chartulary of Newbattle a grant by Seyer de Quency, lord of the manor of Tranent, of a coal-pit and quarry on the lands of Preston; which shows mining and quarrying to have been industries there as early as 1202.

[550] company.

[551] eight.

[552] a Scots plack equalled the third of a penny.

[553] halfway.

[554] device.

[555] croaked.

[556] each.

[557] fared.

[558] describe.

[559] fell.

[560] twigs.

[561] beryl.

[562] moist empurpled.

[563] embroidered.

[564] dark.

[565] sojourn.

[566] wandering.

[567] sure guide.

[568] care.

[569] breaking forth.

[570] boughs.

[571] Æolus.

[572] peacock pruning his feathers fair.

[573] thrush.

[574] pleasant.

[575] salute.

[576] partly.

[577] rocks.

[578] The name is spelt variously, Ballantyne, Ballenden, Bellendyne, &c.

[579] Murray’s Dialects of the Southern Counties of Scotland, p. 61.

[580] According to Hume’s History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, p. 258.

[581] In the appendix to Scotstarvet’s History Sir John Bellenden is stated to have been Justice-Clerk from 1547 till 1578.

[582] Dr. Irving quotes the statements of Conn, Bale, and Dempster respectively for these three facts. But both the date and place remain, as he remarks, uncertain; and by some, as by Sibbald in his Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Bellenden is stated to have died at Paris.

[583] Hector Boece, born 1465–66, was Principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, then newly founded by Bishop Elphinstone; and he died Rector of Tyrie in Buchan, in 1536. The second edition of his History was not published till 1574. It included the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth book by Boece, and a continuation to the end of the reign of James III. by the celebrated scholar Ferrerius.

[584] On the title page the translator is styled “Archdene of Murray and Chanon of Rosse,” and, as Irving points out, he was not in possession of these titles at the time of purchasing escheat in 1538. The date of 1536 sometimes assigned to this edition is probably therefore a mistake. Only two copies of the edition are now known to exist.

[585] This MS., by the older writers on Bellenden, is called sometimes the “Carmichael Collection,” from the name of the owner who lent it to Allan Ramsay, sometimes the “Hyndford MS.,” from John, third Earl of Hyndford, who presented it to the Advocates’ Library. This difference of appellation has not lessened the confusion hitherto involving the poet and his work.

[586] The prohemes from the translation of Boece, after being copied in part by Bannatyne in his MS., were included in Ramsay’s Evergreen and in Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry. The prologue to Livy was printed first by Dr. Leyden in the dissertation prefixed to his edition of The Complaynt of Scotland.

[587] From dark.

[588] Above.

[589] valued.

[590] could.

[591] unworthy.

[592] Till.

[593] harried.

[594] though.

[595] cares.

[596] doom yet constantly endures.

[597] earthly.

[598] swam.

[599] That grave deliberation.

[600] slothful.

[601] Diffusing.

[602] penetrative.

[603] loud noise.

[604] fourth.

[605] over the grasslands.

[606] revenues.

[607] was named.

[608] as they deemed best.

[609] splendour.

[610] enterprise.

[611] choose.

[612] most agreeable.

[613] Who.

[614] earth.

[615] powerful.

[616] live.

[617] By sight of these.

[618] doubt.

[619] was taken.

[620] without.

[621] prevent.

[622] must.

[623] devoured.

[624] folded.

[625] To caress and embrace.

[626] wit.

[627] pleasure.

[628] float.

[629] give practice.

[630] with forward-moving wheels.

[631] shires, lit. districts sheared off.

[632] vexing.

[633] much pain.

[634] end.

[635] war.

[636] overcome.

[637] constant warfare.

[638] makes breach in.

[639] serene.

[640] not be daunted.

[641] certain.

[642] shall vanish without delay.

[643] gone.

[644] know.

[645] In such fashion.

[646] smoky.

[647] converts sores.

[648] the day star, i.e. the sun.

[649] perfects.

[650] without peer.

[651] wipe, cleanse.

[652] sphere.

[653] called.

[654] hurts.

[655] mingled.

[656] warlike rage.

[657] slit.

[658] delicate.

[659] warlike.

[660] reigned.

[661] drove from their realms.

[662] bite.

[663] lost.

[664] stop.

[665] daunted by his war.

[666] children.

[667] acquire substance.

[668] deified.

[669] illustrious.

[670] high above genius.

[671] repulsive.

[672] darkness.

[673] solely.

[674] would not.

[675] lives as beast conscious of knowledge.

[676] ages.

[677] overhauls.

[678] barren wife.

[679] the prolific fails.

[680] And then possess.

[681] cover over.

[682] strong, raging.

[683] adorn.

[684] praise.

[685] champion.

[686] the praise is.

[687] those who propose to take place.

[688] must.

[689] which.

[690] fearful.

[691] strain, race.

[692] courtesy.

[693] same stock.

[694] overcome.

[695] host.

[696] come, begotten.

[697] care.

[698] dying.

[699] powerful deeds.

[700] who could.

[701] save, preserve.

[702] The prologue consists of twenty stanzas, of which the first four and the last are here printed.

[703] hazards of war.

[704] map of the world.

[705] diffuse.

[706] the spirits of my dull intelligence.

[707] glittering.

[708] flame.

[709] stars.

[710] stop.

[711] strong, hard to encounter.

[712] hard rock.

[713] lost.

[714] perish long ere.

[715] Spirit.

[716] Some are deep-thinking.

[717] war.

[718] cares.

[719] rage.

[720] feud.

[721] death.

[722] lives.

[723] of good fellows counts not a bean.

[724] He burns, without regard.

[725] living.

[727] compliant and attentive.

[728] of your courtesy forbear with it.

[729] composition.

[730] scattered.

[731] earth.

[732] declared rebel. See note, p. 97.

[733] same.

[734] limbo.

[735] From the time when.

[736] lament.

[737] own.

[738] lost.

[739] end.

[740] aggravated.

[741] suffer.

[742] death.

[743] The dramatic incidents of the raid have been immortalized in famous ballads like “Johnnie Armstrong,” “The Sang of the Outlaw Murray,” and “The Border Widow’s Lament.”

[744] History of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 361, and note z. The historian shows that the attempt to poison the king was by no means the first capital offence of which Lady Glammis had been convicted, though her youth and beauty were used by the reforming party to excite popular feeling against James.

[745] Orlando Furioso, canto xiii., stanzas 8 and 9.

[746] Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry.

[747] Irving’s History of Scottish Poetry, p. 145.

[748] The failure of Dunbar, Asloan, and Lyndsay to mention James I. upon the strength of “The Kingis Quair” may be accounted for by the situation of that poem, the only copy now known to exist being that contained in the Selden MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. No such argument can account for the overlooking of popular pieces like “Christis Kirk” and “Peblis to the Play” had they been then in existence.

[749] In “Christis Kirk” occur the expressions—

and in “The Justyng” we find—

[750] See Murray’s Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, pp. 56 and 69.

[751] Rogers’ Poetical Remains of King James I., 1873.

[752] In 1526–27, according to the Treasurer’s Accounts, £13 6s. 8d. was paid “to Johne Murray the Kingis barbour, for corsbowis, windaiss, and ganzies” (crossbows, pulleys, and arrows). And Alexander Scot in his poem “Of May,” circa 1550, describes the merry gathering of archers “To schute at buttis, at bankis, and brais.”

[753] Introduction to The Kingis Quair, Scottish Text Society, 1883–84.

[754] In The Daily News, March 19, 1892.

[755] Beltane, believed to be from the Gaelic Beal-tein, or Baal fire, was the great Druid festival of the first of May. The sports of Beltane, it appears, were celebrated at Peebles till a recent date, when a market was established, known as the Beltane Fair.

[756] when each person sets forth.

[757] By outland.

[758] went.

[759] clad.

[760] time, occasion.

[761] turmoil.

[762] For preparation and sport.

[763] kerchiefs.

[764] gloomy.

[765] Said she.

[766] collarette.

[767] permitted not.

[768] band, ribbon.

[769] so foolish and playful.

[770] knew.

[771] weep not.

[772] lost.

[773] market.

[774] so badly sunburnt.

[775] carry my rags, i.e. woven cloth.

[776] shall once venture.

[777] look by stealth.

[778] Man, woman, and prentice-lad (Hob, caile, curdower).

[779] Gathered out thick-fold.

[780] thronged out.

[781] steadings unnumbered.

[782] over the plain.

[783] started in that place.

[784] lively.

[785] become not weary.

[786] clear, mild.

[787] raised a high rough song.

[788] fared.

[789] wood.

[790] way.

[791] conceit, opinion.

[792] that.

[793] dispose of.

[794] remainder.

[795] play the fool with.

[796] Swiftly.

[797] encountered.

[798] young woman.

[799] maukin, a little maid.

[800] to play the mate so.

[801] override.

[802] too good.

[803] go.

[804] Laughed.

[805] Was come.

[806] jollity.

[807] words wondrous brave.

[808] Have done (?).

[809] “Set up the board,” he calls soon.

[810] dance, party.

[811] napery be white.

[812] good woman, hostess.

[813] wall.

[814] Wait till we reckon our lawing (bill).

[815] that ye owe.

[816] laugh.

[817] scorn.

[818] twopence half-penny.

[819] over stupid.

[820] deserved a blow.

[821] pointed staff.

[822] Wincing as he were mad.

[823] uproar.

[824] earth.

[825] clearance, settlement.

[826] slid.

[827] Thirty-three lay there.

[828] Tumbling about.

[829] distiller’s waste.

[830] A hawker on the market street.

[831] debate, battle.

[832] overtake.

[833] Two lines of the stanza have here apparently been lost.

[834] glimpse.

[835] separate.

[836] leaped.

[837] girthing.

[838] At once.

[839] dirtied.

[840] became.

[841] low-born.

[842] counsel.

[843] Go home his ways.

[844] defiled.

[845] See how.

[846] treated.

[847] great.

[848] hinder.

[849] know.

[850] fatigued.

[851] then.

[852] By the time that.

[853] notches (of bows).

[854] broil.

[855] grovelling.

[856] Had rather given.

[857] Ere.

[858] favourite.

[859] a dance now unknown.

[860] jerked, rocked.

[861] how.

[862] dwelling.

[863] performs wondrous long.

[864] laughed.

[865] hence your ways.

[866] enough.

[867] So fiercely fire-hot.

[868] Tibbie, Isabella.

[869] latch.

[870] encountered.

[871] all the men to cackle.

[872] quite nothing.

[873] the wenches and wooers parted.

[874] Alison.

[875] damsel.

[876] swooned that sweet one of the glen foot.

[877] sipped, uttered a sipping sound.

[878] weeping.

[879] shock of lips, i.e. osculation.

[880] The Christ’s Kirk of the poem, in Tytler’s opinion, was that near Dunideer in Aberdeenshire. About the burial ground of the ancient kirk was a green where, so late as the end of last century, a yearly fair was still held on the 1st of May. “In former times,” says Tytler, “this fair was continued during the night, from which circumstance it was called by the country people Sleepy Market. On such occasions it was natural that such disorders as are so humorously described by the royal author should have taken place.”

[881] merriment, disorder.

[882] wooers.

[883] think.

[884] Kittie, now the common abbreviation of Catherine, was in James’s time the general name for a playful girl.

[885] prepared.

[886] gay of manners.

[887] doeskin.

[888] coarse woollen.

[889] Lincoln-green.

[890] simple, foolish.

[891] approached.

[892] goats, kids.

[893] slim, dainty.

[894] the ruddy part of the face.

[895] skin.

[896] Full.

[897] frail, i.e., she was love-sick.

[898] death.

[899] girded.

[900] mocked him by making mouths.

[901] go hang himself.

[902] counted.

[904] distaffs.

[905] how he did launch (the fiddle bow).

[906] shrill.

[907] an ancient dance.

[908] forsake.

[909] behaved.

[910] stepping in with long strides.

[911] course.

[912] Flat-footed.

[913] bounds.

[914] He leaped till he lay on his buttocks.

[915] exerted.

[916] coughed.

[917] began.

[918] dragged.

[919] drove him side-wise (gable-wards).

[920] The angry man clutched the stave.

[921] did not they have by the ears.

[922] blow of the fist.

[923] pulled.

[924] such wrath did move him.

[925] Great hurt was it to have frightened.

[926] chose an arrow.

[927] become.

[928] other.

[929] pierce.

[930] pierced.

[931] acre’s breadth.

[932] let fly.

[933] splinters.

[934] knew.

[935] enough.

[936] giddy fellow.

[937] skilful.

[938] Snatched.

[939] delay.

[940] enraged.

[941] did vary.

[942] escaped.

[943] designed.

[944] arrow did feather.

[945] offered, promised.

[946] to wager a wether.

[947] on the belly a knock.

[948] sounded.

[949] conceited.

[950] Loosed.

[951] aimed at the man.

[952] cowhouse.

[953] quiver.

[954] let (drive).

[955] kicked.

[956] stout fellows.

[957] roof beams.

[958] buffeted.

[959] Till they of men made bridges.

[960] uproar.

[961] spars.

[962] ridges, backs.

[963] my love lies.

[964] snarled and let drive with groans.

[965] vexed the other.

[966] pikes.

[967] dwellings.

[968] proved.

[969] unbruised bones.

[970] Where fighters were hurt.

[971] Tall.

[972] a hazel twig.

[973] separate.

[974] rumble.

[975] mowed.

[976] mice.

[977] inactive fellow.

[978] stout.

[979] With such wranglers to jumble.

[980] struck a slice.

[981] “A truce.”

[982] prevent.

[983] deemed.

[984] feud.

[985] distressed.

[986] debate, broil.

[987] shoemaker.

[988] swollen with rage.

[989] clotted, lit. broidered.

[990] delayed.

[991] till he was chased.

[992] jest.

[993] knocked he their crowns.

[994] The whole ambush.

[995] fought, rattled upon.

[996] ox-collars of bent willow.

[997] hams.

[998] crofters, country men.

[999] in warlike array.

[1000] their mouths were unclad, i.e. unguarded.

[1001] gums.

[1002] barked, clotted.

[1003] worried.

[1004] youngsters (perhaps Dutch jonker) engaged.

[1005] lightning.

[1006] stout fellows.

[1007] carls, men.

[1008] did each other quell.

[1009] belched.

[1010] bellowed.

[1011] firewood burnt in flames.

[1012] overpowered were with burdens.

[1013] these fatigued fools.

[1014] turfs cut for burning.

[1015] goals, stations.

[1016] struck.

[1017] numbers.

[1018] forthwith.

[1019] multitude, lit. waggon-load.

[1020] mean fellows, sneaks.

[1021] folly-mouth.

[1022] drubbing.

[1023] strike no other.

[1024] An ancient Scots name for a hawker, from gaber, a wallet, and lunyie, the loin. Literally, “The man who carries a wallet on the loin.” Throughout this poem, it will be observed, the consonant sound of “y” is represented by the letter “z.” This peculiarity is preserved to the present day in several Scottish proper names, such as Dalziel, Zair, Culzean.

[1025] sly, artful.

[1026] frail.

[1027] beyond.

[1028] cheerfully.

[1029] become weary.

[1030] lively.

[1031] her old mother know.

[1032] busy.

[1033] if.

[1034] go.

[1035] I’d clothe me gay.

[1036] a little.

[1037] open field.

[1038] enquire.

[1039] went.

[1040] goods.

[1041] chest.

[1042] stolen.

[1043] alone.

[1044] loyal, true.

[1045] churn.

[1046] Go to the outer apartment.

[1047] to the inner apartment.

[1048] did say.

[1049] O haste, cause to ride.

[1050] troublesome.

[1051] afoot.

[1052] mad, furious.

[1053] far hence, out over.

[1054] slice.

[1055] proving, tasting.

[1056] Ill-favouredly.

[1057] she’d never trust.

[1058] chalk and ruddle (for marking sheep).

[1059] small perforated stones used in spinning.

[1060] bend.

[1061] cloth, rag.

[1062] set forth.

[1063] country farm-steading.

[1064] behind.

[1065] cautiously.

[1066] talk.

[1067] my honey and my dove.

[1068] “They’ll tear all my meal bags, and do me great harm.” In rural districts of Scotland as late as a century ago beggars carried under each arm a wallet in which they collected the doles of the farmers’ wives. The expected gratuity, which was rarely withheld, was a “gowpen,” or double handful of oatmeal.

[1069] sorrow.

[1070] a silver coin worth 13? d. Stg.

[1071] wet-nurse wage.

[1072] rags.

[1073] such.

[1074] The Bannatyne MS. furnished the greater part of the contents of that effective but unreliable publication, Ramsay’s Evergreen, in 1724, and a further selection from its pages, under the title of Ancient Scottish Poems, was printed by Lord Hailes in 1770. In 1829 the Bannatyne Club published the Memorials of George Bannatyne, by Sir Walter Scott, containing all the ascertained facts of the collector’s life; and this and the complete contents of the famous MS. were finally printed together by the Hunterian Club, 1878–1886.

[1075] An entry in the Chartulary of Dryburgh bears that this ancestor, also a Sir Richard Maitland, disponed certain of his lands to that abbey in 1249.

[1076] During the reign of Robert III., in the year 1400, according to Wyntoun, Sir Robert Maitland took the castle of Dunbar by strategy from his mother’s brother, the Earl of March.

[1077] The letter of James VI. dated 1st July, 1584, respecting Maitland’s retirement from the bench, states that the latter had served the king’s “grandsire, goodsire, goodame, mother, and himself.”

[1078] Sadler’s State Papers, vol. i., p. 70.

[1079] Printed in the appendix to the Maitland Club volume of Sir Richard’s works.

[1080] Seen both in town and country.

[1081] fair.

[1082] causeway.

[1084] The performance of these mediÆval masquerades, containing traces of the ancient miracle-plays and allusions to the exploits of the Knights Templar, is still a favourite pastime in rural districts on Hallowe’en.

[1085] Churchmen made no scruple of appearing armed, like lay barons, on the battlefield. Thus two bishops and two abbots fell among the Scottish nobles at Flodden.

[1086] choir.

[1087] learn.

[1088] formerly.

[1089] love.

[1090] Easter.

[1091] cause.

[1092] plenty.

[1093] known.

[1094] ancestors.

[1095] truss, caparison. Fr. trousse.

[1096] long forms, settles.

[1097] For our prodigality some blame plays.

[1098] go.

[1099] Till.

[1100] cumber.

[1101] trespass upon.

[1102] knowledge.

[1103] This was a common abuse of the time. The Earl of Bothwell, when called to answer for the murder of Darnley, appeared in Edinburgh with a following of five thousand men.

[1104] overbear and intimidate the judge.

[1105] approval.

[1106] slighted because of abuse.

[1107] blame.

[1108] wondrous.

[1109] know.

[1110] spend.

[1111] novelty.

[1112] to add to.

[1113] marvel.

[1114] many.

[1115] “Of finest cambric their foc’sles,” an allusion to the actual turret which formed the forecastle of ancient ships of war, to which the high breast-trimming of ladies’ dresses probably presented some likeness.

[1116] hanging.

[1117] jelly bags.

[1118] Their under-petticoats must.

[1119] Broidered.

[1120] sewed with stripes of lace or silk.

[1121] enquire.

[1122] Barred above with drawn head-pieces. O. Fr. teste, tÊte.

[1123] necklaces and throat beads.

[1124] set high.

[1125] young person. Perhaps Dutch jonker.

[1126] sandals anciently worn by persons of rank.

[1127] lament.

[1128] doing what is becoming.

[1129] Be assured.

[1130] many a parcel, fortune.

[1131] learn.

[1132] clothe.

[1133] to glide across the street.

[1134] no mumming cards (playing cards with figures) early or late.

[1135] able.

[1136] Frequent.

[1137] to con by heart.

[1138] Leave off.

[1139] aspersion.

[1140] cambric kerchiefs.

[1141] suffer.

[1142] country.

[1143] Wearing.

[1144] over.

[1145] attend to.

[1146] inquire.

[1147] complain.

[1148] made him angry.

[1149] deemed.

[1150] kinship.

[1151] made my way.

[1152] went.

[1153] give.

[1154] seized.

[1155] fist.

[1156] help.

[1157] full.

[1158] kindred.

[1159] bought and sold.

[1160] reck.

[1161] Of which if he fail then.

[1162] joy.

[1163] vexation.

[1164] above.

[1165] lover.

[1166] partly, lit. greyish.

[1167] lose.

[1168] impoverish.

[1169] harry, ruin.

[1170] leaking boat.

[1171] farm.

[1172] substance.

[1173] tills.

[1174] known it.

[1175] suffer.

[1176] boldly.

[1177] rob.

[1178] great.

[1179] path.

[1180] gate.

[1181] abides, withstands.

[1182] They leave quite nothing.

[1183] almost wholly harried.

[1184] choose.

[1185] with theft so wasted.

[1186] Those wicked villains.

[1187] rendered inactive.

[1188] aught.

[1189] Blackmail was the yearly sum paid by farmers on the Highland and English borders to some powerful chieftain like Rob Roy or Johnnie Armstrong, who in return undertook to make good any losses by depredation.

[1190] wrecked.

[1191] accommodated.

[1192] broth made without meat.

[1193] carry off.

[1194] walls.

[1195] despoil.

[1196] stores.

[1197] reel and distaff.

[1198] Searches chest.

[1199] Too good a guide.

[1200] robs her web.

[1201] rest.

[1202] stomach.

[1203] such access.

[1204] to make contention for.

[1205] herd, protect.

[1206] stir.

[1207] oppress.

[1208] Though all perish.

[1209] Till.

[1210] So brittle and slippery.

[1211] withstand.

[1212] if.

[1213] fault.

[1214] strive.

[1215] lawful.

[1216] As already stated, the preservation of all the extant compositions attributed to Scot is owed to Bannatyne’s MS. From this several pieces were printed by Ramsay, Hailes, Pinkerton, and Sibbald, in their several collections. The poems were first gathered into one volume by Laing, who printed an octavo edition of one hundred copies for private circulation at Edinburgh in 1821. Another edition, of seventy copies, by Alexander Smith, was printed at Glasgow in 1882. And in 1887 a modernised version of considerable merit by William M’Kean, “based mainly on Laing’s collection,” and not containing all the author’s work, was printed at Paisley.

[1217] Memorials of George Bannatyne, Edin. 1829, p. 47.

[1218] a lady comely and neat.

[1219] stout fellows.

[1220] beat.

[1221] The Drum was a house belonging to Lord Somerville, situated between Dalkeith and Edinburgh.

[1222] douze pairs, the twelve peers of Charlemagne.

[1223] wars.

[1224] stir, move.

[1225] pricking, spurring.

[1226] briers.

[1227] hot.

[1228] known.

[1229] was stronger of body.

[1230] promised.

[1231] If.

[1232] youngsters. (Perhaps Dutch jonker, young nobleman.)

[1233] sprightly.

[1234] foam.

[1235] cornets.

[1236] course.

[1237] lost or won.

[1238] fashion.

[1239] pikes.

[1240] hurt.

[1241] too sluggishly.

[1242] as active as a fawn.

[1243] stolen.

[1244] death.

[1245] pledged to the peacock.

[1246] feud.

[1247] sun and moon.

[1248] ranged.

[1249] breakfast. O. Fr. desjune.

[1250] ere noon.

[1251] prepared.

[1252] pained, punished.

[1253] oaths.

[1254] by the time that.

[1255] Anger-mad, furious.

[1256] from his companion to fetch.

[1257] neither lad nor knave.

[1258] a baked loach.

[1259] fullness, drunkenness.

[1260] astir.

[1261] in company.

[1263] incited Will to war.

[1264] dreaded.

[1265] buying hides.

[1266] wether.

[1267] the groom, the gallant.

[1268] to live in peace.

[1269] joint.

[1270] by three such.

[1271] flight.

[1272] jibe.

[1273] over meek.

[1274] four together.

[1275] distaff.

[1276] to make your rump smoke.

[1277] nothing at all.

[1278] laughed.

[1279] take.

[1280] do it so reluctantly.

[1281] roe.

[1282] steep bank.

[1283] declivity.

[1284] limb.

[1285] rushed.

[1286] feared.

[1287] go.

[1288] thrust.

[1289] rumbled.

[1290] rolled.

[1291] limb, bough.

[1292] belongings.

[1293] full and crammed.

[1294] malt liquor, lit. grains.

[1295] worthy.

[1296] jacket of mail.

[1297] held at feud.

[1298] Above.

[1299] Woe befell the man that awaited it.

[1300] gap, opening between hills.

[1301] crupper.

[1302] with many a boast and fib.

[1303] ways.

[1304] From the time when.

[1305] full.

[1306] lost.

[1307] faith.

[1308] served long.

[1309] Prepare.

[1310] haste.

[1311] beleaguered.

[1312] wholly.

[1313] per-equal, i.e. quite worthy.

[1314] garden.

[1315] rest.

[1316] whole.

[1317] kiss.

[1318] Enwrapped without recovery.

[1319] aid.

[1320] endure.

[1321] blame.

[1322] lore.

[1323] kind of.

[1324] besets.

[1325] lament.

[1326] Though thou shouldst perish.

[1327] choose.

[1328] worthless.

[1329] unrest.

[1330] treated.

[1331] daily pained.

[1332] glancing.

[1333] made thee stare and idle.

[1334] slacken, abate thy sighing.

[1335] range.

[1336] earth.

[1337] failedst thou to grasp.

[1338] must.

[1339] high.

[1340] folded.

[1341] What a stupid fool.

[1342] Since well I know.

[1343] goes.

[1344] want of ease.

[1345] poor.

[1346] quarrel.

[1347] boughs.

[1348] each.

[1349] thrush.

[1350] swallow and nightingale.

[1351] sound.

[1352] hedgehog.

[1353] rabbit.

[1354] polecat.

[1355] skipping.

[1356] kept their haunts.

[1357] wild.

[1358] bough.

[1359] cliff.

[1360] budding.

[1361] ringdove.

[1362] shrill.

[1363] stared.

[1364] Ovid, Metamorphoses, iii. 407, and on. The legend is alluded to by Shelley in “The Sensitive Plant,” when he describes the narcissus flowers,

[1365] twigs.

[1366] Till.

[1367] pool under a cataract.

[1368] descending.

[1369] The syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, so, la, are said, says Dr. Cranstoun, “to have been first used in the teaching of singing by Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century. Le Maire, a French musician of the seventeenth century, added si for the seventh of the scale.”

[1370] i.e. the throat of Echo, one of the cavern elves.

[1371] are accustomed to be.

[1372] above.

[1373] Till Cupid wakens.

[1374] earth.

[1375] mildly and quietly.

[1376] veil of cobweb lawn.

[1377] arm-covering.

[1378] marvels.

[1379] Perceiving my behaviour.

[1380] jested.

[1381] to hold sway.

[1382] wooed, made sign for.

[1383] have it gladly.

[1384] resigns.

[1385] higher than.

[1386] burned.

[1387] flame.

[1388] foolishly fond of.

[1389] by suit.

[1390] upon it.

[1391] hews (a tree) too high.

[1392] splinter.

[1393] An allusion to the fable of Æsop, versified by Henryson. The swallow, seeing a farmer sowing flax, begged the other birds to help her to pick up the seed, as the thread produced from it should compose the fowler’s snare. Being twice refused and ridiculed, she resolved to quit the society of her thoughtless fellows, and has ever since frequented the dwellings of men.

[1394] shut.

[1395] stolen.

[1396] is ignorant of, refuses to acknowledge.

[1397] From the time when.

[1398] groaning.

[1399] booty.

[1400] hurt.

[1401] staggering state.

[1402] under (beyond) cure I got such check.

[1403] prevent (receiving check).

[1404] either be stale or checkmated.

[1405] fainted and swooned.

[1406] ere I wakened from.

[1407] spoiled.

[1408] staring at the stars.

[1409] brains.

[1410] disordered.

[1411] sighed till.

[1412] by such a boy.

[1413] shake fist at and curse.

[1414] disorder, consternation.

[1415] strange.

[1416] Unburnt and unboiled.

[1417] By love’s bellows blown.

[1418] to smother it.

[1419] endeavouring without ceasing.

[1420] skeleton.

[1421] withered.

[1422] throbbing.

[1423] My pulses leaped.

[1424] get.

[1425] it behoved to abide.

[1426] enclosed.

[1427] overcome and upset.

[1428] In death-agony still living.

[1429] though.

[1430] death.

[1431] straining and thrusting.

[1432] more troubled.

[1433] ease.

[1434] annoyance.

[1435] oppressed.

[1436] drought.

[1437] dry grass stalks.

[1438] No token.

[1439] at once.

[1440] groans.

[1441] sheer.

[1442] A bush of sloes.

[1443] crag.

[1445] tough twigs.

[1446] through burden of their produce.

[1447] sheltered place.

[1448] knobs.

[1449] In ripples like diaper figuring.

[1450] Half-way.

[1451] Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 452, and on.

[1452] without tiring.

[1453] use.

[1454] endeavour.

[1455] steep and wearisome.

[1456] far up, tall, and slender.

[1457] to essay it.

[1458] At times trying, at times stopping.

[1459] To stretch above my reach.

[1460] but foolish that has aught to do.

[1461] To dastards hard hazards.

[1462] Is death ere.

[1463] Softly.

[1464] Take care.

[1465] thou catch no hurt.

[1466] few times thou seest.

[1467] Foolish haste.

[1468] Beguiles.

[1469] considers not.

[1470] learn.

[1471] Atropos, eldest of the Fates, presiding over death.

[1472] youngest of the Fates, presiding over birth.

[1473] “Extremes are vicious.” The poet here advocates Horace’s “golden mean,” the counsel of the Greek proverb ??d?? ??a?, said to have been one of the inscriptions on the tripod of the oracle at Delphi.

[1474] signs.

[1475] knowest.

[1476] although.

[1477] slake.

[1478] drought.

[1479] Than fight with ten at once.

[1480] practice.

[1481] liefer, rather.

[1482] “This lovely poem is one of the happiest efforts of Montgomerie’s muse, and shows his lyric genius at its best. It is perhaps the oldest set of words extant to the air ‘Hey tuttie, taittie’—the war-note sounded for the Bruce on the field of Bannockburn, and familiarized to everyone by Burns’ ‘Scots wha hae.’ The song was one of those chosen for adaptation by the Wedderburns in their ‘Compendious Buik of godly and spirituall Sangis.’”—(Cranstoun, Notes, p. 371.)

[1483] dawns.

[1484] the coverts attire themselves.

[1485] throstle-cock.

[1486] scatter.

[1487] daisies.

[1488] flame.

[1489] As red as the rowan, mountain ash.

[1490] partner.

[1491] Toss high their tines, antlers.

[1492] hedgehogs.

[1493] each one.

[1494] attends.

[1495] mates.

[1496] prepare.

[1497] foes.

[1498] i.e. The stallion.

[1499] rears (?)

[1500] gallops.

[1501] men, stout fellows.

[1502] strong weapons.

[1503] throne.

[1504] change quarters.

[1505] Then gallants.

[1506] On white steeds that neigh.

[1507] cause.

[1508] scare.

[1509] feigning.

[1510] wrestle.

[1511] have; i.e. possession already half satisfies.

[1512] smith.

[1513] boldly.

[1514] must.

[1515] plentiful.

[1516] learn.

[1517] for a time.

[1518] parting.

[1519] Since then.

[1520] separate.

[1521] key.

[1522] feared.

[1523] holly.

[1524] quivering trills.

[1525] though.

[1526] frail, innocent.

[1527] thorns prick.

[1528] bonnie breast.

[1529] likewise tried.

[1530] threatening.

[1531] my conquest (or object of conquest) quit.

[1532] without peer.