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The character of Wyntown as an historian is in a great measure common to the other historians and writers of his age, who generally admitted into their works the absurdities of tradition along with authentic narrative, and often without any mark of discrimination, esteeming it a sufficient standard of historic fidelity to narrate nothing but what they found written by others before them.

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With respect to his poetical talents, the opinion of his editor, Mr. Macpherson, is, that "his work, in general, partakes little or nothing of the nature of poetry, unless rhyme can be said to constitute poetry; yet he now and then throws in some touches of true poetic description." 66 This, indeed," adds Mr. Ellis, seems as much as can be fairly expected from a metrical annalist, for dates and numerals are of necessity unpoetical; and perhaps the ablest modern versifier, who should undertake to enumerate in metre the years of our Lord in only one century, would feel some respect for the ingenuity with which Wyntown has contrived to vary his rhymes throughout such a formidable chronological series as he has ventured to encounter. His genius is certainly inferior to that of his predecessor Barbour; but at least his versification is easy, his language pure, and his style often animated."

JAMES THE FIRST OF SCOTLAND.

(1394-1436.)

James the First was born in July 1394, of Anabella Drummond, the admirable queen of Robert III., in the 37th year of their marriage. He was committed to the care of Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews, who inspired him with his early love of letters.

After the assassination of David, prince of Scotland, Robert resolved, by the advice of Wardlaw, to send his only remaining son, James, to France, for safety rather than for education. This purpose was not quite concealed from the Duke of Albany and his associates. Sir David Fleming, the king's kinsman, was intrusted to convey the infant prince to his place of embarkation. In pursuance of this trust, Sir David placed the prince within the Bass, an inaccessible rock in the Forth, towards the end of March 1405, there to remain till the ship should arrive from Leith which was to carry him to France; but Sir David, returning with his friends from North Berwick, through Haddingtonshire, was attacked by James Douglas, of Balveny, the laird of Dirleton, and, after a stout resistance, slain. The prince meanwhile remained in the castle of the Bass, and when the ship came down from Leith sailed for France; but cruising on

the northern coast of England, and landing near Flamborough Head for refreshments (Palm Sunday, 1405), he was taken prisoner, and carried to Henry IV. at Windsor.

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That Henry had no right to consider as a prisoner the sovereign of an independent nation, whom an act of insolent violence had placed within his power, is perfectly evident; but the accident was perhaps ultimately advantageous to the prince himself, as well as to the nation which he was born to govern. He was at this time only ten years of age; and Henry, though he treated him with rigour, and even kept him for two years confined in the Tower, took the greatest care of his education, and appointed as his governor Sir John Pelham, a man of worth and learning, under whose tuition he made so rapid a progress, that he soon became a prodigy of talents and accomplishments. His character, as drawn by the historians of that age, is such as we seldom see realised. We are assured that he became a proficient in every branch of polite literature-in grammar, oratory, Latin and English poetry, music, jurisprudence, and the philosophy of the times; and that his dexterity in tilts and tournaments, in wrestling, in archery, and in the sports of the field, was perfectly unrivalled. Some parts of this description are probably exaggerated; but the ex

cellent laws which James enacted after his return to Scotland, and the happiness which his people enjoyed in consequence of his policy, his firmness, and his justice, bear the most unequivocal testimony to the truth of one portion of the picture; and his poetical remains are sufficient to evince that his literary talents were not overrated by his contemporaries.

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During fifteen years of his captivity he seemed forgotten, or at least neglected, by his subjects. The admiration of strangers, and the consciousness of his own talents, only rendered his situation more irksome; and he had begun to abandon himself to despair, when he was fortunately consoled for his seclusion at Windsor Castle by a passion of which sovereigns in quiet possession of a throne have seldom the good fortune to feel the genuine influence. The object of his adoration was Lady Jane Beaufort, daughter of John duke of Somerset, whom he afterwards married, and in whose commendation he composed his principal work, called the King's Quhair. This poem, consisting of 197 stanzas, divided into six cantos, has much allegorical machinery, which was apparently suggested to him by the study of Boethius, the favourite author of the time; but it also contains various particulars of his own life, is full of simplicity and feeling, and is not inferior in poetical merit to any similar production of Chaucer: indeed, some of the verses are so highly finished, that they would not disfigure the compositions of Dryden, Pope, or Gray. Nor was King James's talent confined to serious and pathetic works. Two poems of a ludicrous cast, and which have been the constant favourites of the Scottish people to the present day, are now universally attributed to this monarch. These are Christ's Kirk on

the Green, and Peblis on the Play; the first composed in the northern, the second in the southern dialect of Scotland. A third, called Falkland on the Green, which Pinkerton supposes to have described the popular sports of the central district of the kingdom, and to have been written in the Fifeshire dialect, has hitherto eluded the research of antiquaries. Notwithstanding the high character of this prince, he was assassinated at Perth on the 21st February, 1437, in the 43d year of his age and the 31st of his reign, by Robert Stewart and Patrick Graham, at the instigation of William Earl of Athol. The assassins were punished with a barbarity which excited pity for the sufferers rather than indignation at the crime.

BENEDICT BURGH.

(Circa 1410-1483.)

Benedict Burgh, master of arts of Oxford, archdeacon of Colchester, prebendary of St. Paul's, and canon of St. Stephen's chapel at Westminster, translated, about 1470, the popular distichs entitled Cato's Morals into octave stanzas, then called the royal stanza, for the use of his pupil, Lord Bourchier, son of the Earl of Essex. He is the author also of "A Cristemasse Game, made by Maister Benet, how God almyhtie seyde to his Apostelys, and echeon of them were baptiste, and none knew of other;" a piece in twelve stanzas, an apostle being assigned to each stanza. Another work by our author is Aristotle's A B C, made by Maister Benet. Burgh also translated into English verse Daniel Churche's Cato Parvus. Both the Catos of his version occur among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum, as forming one and the same work, viz. Liber Minoris Catonis et Majoris, translatus ex Latino in Anglicum per Mag. Benet Borugh. Burgh's performance is altogether of the most jejune character. It is, indeed, true that the only critical excellence of the original, which consists of a terse conciseness of sentences, although not always expressed in the purest latinity, will not easily bear to be transfused. Burgh, but without sufficient foundation, is said to have finished Lydgate's Governance of Princes.

JOHN WALTON.

(Circa 1410.)

John Walton, the only poet assigned by Warton to the reign of Henry IV., and who is poetically better known as Johannes Capel

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lanus, or John the Chaplain, was canon of Oseney, and died sub-dean of York. He was patronised by the learned Thomas Chaundler, chancellor of Wells. His poetical talents were applied to a translation into verse of Boethius de Consolatione.

THOMAS BRAMPTON.

(Circa 1414.)

Thomas Brampton is the author of a metrical version of the Seven Penitential Psalms, first printed by the Percy Society from a manuscript in the British Museum. The author was a confessor of the Minorite Friars, but in what part of England does not appear. As to the character of his work (written in 1414), the editor, Mr. Black, observes: "The religious poetry of the Middle Ages consists for the most part of dull versification, ennobled with few of the lofty sentiments that pure Christianity inspires, and enlivened with few flights of imagination, except those derived from a wild and dreary superstition. That of our own language, therefore, is chiefly valuable for its philological data, and as constituting a part of our national literature." Brampton's poem, however, contains some sentiments of piety and some touches of poetry, that may render it more acceptable than its contemporaries. Mr. Black conjectures that Brampton was the author also of the poem Against Lollardie, printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs; the style and metre of which are very like those of the paraphrase of the Seven Psalms, and suggest the probability, further, for a like reason, that he wrote the Ploughman's Tale, which in some old copies of the Canterbury Tules is inserted as a supplement to Chaucer's works. The author's religious notions were what might be expected of that dark age. He represents himself, in an elegant introduction, as restless, rising at midnight from his bed, repeating an antiphona from his breviary, going to his confessor, and receiving instructions for the relief of his conscience; one of these was to say over the seven psalms, which he proceeds to do, verse by verse, making the first words of his favourite antiphona the burden of his meditation. The poem is erroneously ascribed by Warton conjecturally, and by Ritson, suo more, dogmatically, to Bishop Alcock.

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