of the plague in London in 1522, and was buried in the church of the Savoy, in the Strand. The translation of the Eneid was considered, in the age when it was written, to be a masterpiece of scholarship, no such complete and correct translation of Virgil having yet been achieved. Philologically, the book is very interesting yet; but the portions of it of most direct and poetical interest for modern readers are the Prologues which precede the several books into which the epic is divided. These contain passages of astonishing beauty. Some of the Prologues are humorously autobiographic, and exhibit a joyous contentment of spirit, a constitutional purity and high-mindedness, while now and again there are revelations of a sadder and higher mood; and it may be specially noticed of Douglas that his descriptions of nature are not merely Chaucerian echoes, like most English poetry after Chaucer, but are the result of independent observation. His pictures, both within and without doors, are therefore faithfully Scottish. It is true that wild geese no longer fly clacking round about the city of Edinburgh in winter nights, disturbing the slumber of poets, but other facts described by Douglas are as familiar to Scotchmen to-day as they were to him three centuries and a half ago. The wizzened mossy hue of the brown moors, the "gurll weather," and the wind that "made wave the red weed on the dyke," are still characteristic facts in many a Scottish landscape. The high poetic merits of Douglas have probably been obscured, for modern readers, by the difficulty of his language. It is unusually full of momentary formations from the Latin, as well as of genuine old Teutonic words that have fallen out of use in more recent Scotch. FROM THE PALACE OF HONOUR. DREAM OF THE LOATHLY LANDSCAPE. Yet, at the last, I n'ot1 how lang a space, Whilk had tofore 2 been pale and void of blood: 1 Know not (ne-wot). 2 Before. 3 Then. 4 Dream, swoon I thocht me set within a desert place My ravished spreit,2 in that desért terrible, With vile water whilk made a hideous trible,3 5 With braès bare, raif rockès like to fall, This laithly Flood, rumbland as thunder, routit ;9 Wherefore myselven was richt sair aghast. The soil was nocht but marish,21 slike,22 and sand. THE WELL OF THE MUSES. We passed the floods of Tigris and Phison, 1 A rushing torrent. 5 Banks. 2 Spirit. 9 This loathsome flood roared, rumbling as thunder. 11 Deafened. 12 Rotten. 16 There mouthed a gaping Den. 13 Burnt up. 17 Robbed. 14 Stumps. 18 Fog. The facund well and hill of Helicon, The mount Erix, the well of Acheron, Beside that crystal Well, sweet and digest,2 Thrang to the Well to drink, whilk ran south-west, To drink; but sae the great press me opprest Our horses pastured in ane pleasant plain, 13 The Ladies fair on divers instruments 1 The "Caballine Fountain," literally Horse Fountain (Lat. Fons Caballinus), was Hippocrene in Mount Helicon. It was fabled to have been produced by the stroke of the hoofs of the horse Pegasus; hence the name. 2 Wholesome. 3 Alighted down. 4 These. 5 Wholly. 7 Rest. 9 Drop. 10 Choose. 8 Crowd. 12 Gravelly (stony) steps (degrees). 14 Grassy ground. 15 Sound. 6 Thronged. 11 Running. 13 Wood resounded (dinned). 16 Imprints. 17 Appearance. FROM THE PROLOGUES TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE ÆNEID. TO LOVE THE ENSLAVER. What is your force but feebling of the strength? Your sorry joys been but jangling and japes; 3 Your sweet mirthès are mixt with bitterness ; Farewell! Where that thy lusty dart assails, Thou chain of love, ha, benedicite ! How hard strainès thy bandès every wicht !7 With thee y-bound, low on a maid did licht: 9 8 Thou plenest Paradise, and thou herriet 10 Hell! . . . Thou swelth !11 Devourer of time unrécourable ! 12 Thyself consuming, worths 13 insatiable! 14 Quaint fiendès net, to God and man odible,1 2 Strange. 1 Musing, dreaming. Prologue to Book IV. 3 Jests. 4 Naturals, idiots. 5 Snare. A SCOTCH WINTER EVENING IN 1512. 4 The frosty region ringès1 of the year, 16 The firmament o'ercast with rokès 10 black, 21 The wind made wave the red weed on the dike. 1 Reigns, prevails. .31 2 These short days that learned men call brumal (i.e. wintry; Lat. bruma, winter, from a word meaning "to shorten"). 3 Point of the compass; German, ort, place; modern Scotch, airt, direction 4 Chariot. 5 Wavy. 6 În flood. 7 Streams violently drive. 10 Fogs. 11 Yellow or dun-red. whence. 8 Became soaked. 9 In weak water. 12 Smoothed with their snowy coverings. 13 Cold splintery cliffs shone. 14 Squalls. 15 Bringing to our mind in every place. 16 Age and grisly death. 17 Thick turbid shadows. 18 Cast forth. 19 Lightning. 20 Flashes. 22 Dismal mounds. 23 Rain-flood. 24 Muddy heaps. 21 Blasts. 25 Bemired. 26 Exhibited withered ferns. 27 Showed. |