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,
A little heat appeared in my face,

Whilk had tofore 2 been pale and void of blood:
Tho3 in my sweven I met a ferly case.5

1 Know not (ne-wot).

2 Before. 3 Then.

4 Dream, swoon

I thocht me set within a desert place
Amid a forest, by a hideous Flood1
With grisly fish; and, shortly till conclude,
I sall describe, as God will give me grace,
Mine Visioun in rural termès rude. . . .

My ravished spreit,2 in that desért terrible,
Approachit near that ugly Flood horrible:
Like to Cocyte, the River Infernál,

With vile water whilk made a hideous trible,3
Rinnand owerhead, blood-red, and impossíble
That it had been a river naturál,

5

With braès bare, raif rockès like to fall,
Whereon nae gerss 7 nor herbès were visible,
But swappès burnt with blastès boreal:

This laithly Flood, rumbland as thunder, routit ;9
In whilk the fish, yelland as elvès,10 shoutit;
Their yelpès wild my hearing all fordeavit ;11
The grim monsters my spreits abhorred and doubtit.
Nought through the soil but muskane 12 treès sproutit,
Combust,13 barren, unbloomèd and unleavit;
Auld rotten runts 14 wherein nae sap was leavit;
Amidst the waste, with withered grainès,15 moutit
A ganand Den,16 where murtherers men reivit : 17

Wherefore myselven was richt sair aghast.
This Wilderness, abominable and waste,
In whilk naething was nature comfortand,
Was dark as roke 18 the whilk the sea upcast;
The whistling wind blew many bitter blast;
Runtès rattled; and unneth 19 micht I stand.
Out through the wood I crap 20 on foot and hand.
The river stank; the treès clattered fast;

The soil was nocht but marish,21 slike,22 and sand.

THE WELL OF THE MUSES.

We passed the floods of Tigris and Phison,
Of Thrace the rivers Hebron and Strymon,
The mount of Modan, and the flood Jordane,

1 A rushing torrent.

5 Banks.

2 Spirit.
3 Trouble.
6 Torn, loose. 7 Grass.

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,
Baith dedicate to Venus in certain;
We passed the hill and desert of Libane,
O'er mount Cinthús where God Apollo shone,
Straicht to the Muses' Caballine Fontain.1

Beside that crystal Well, sweet and digest,2
Them to repose, their horse refresh and rest,
Alichtit doun 3 thir4 Muses clear of hue.
The company all hailly, least and best,

Thrang to the Well to drink, whilk ran south-west,
Throughout ane mead where all-kind flowers grew.
Amang the lave7 full fast I did pursue

To drink; but sae the great press me opprest
That of the water I micht not taste a drew.9

Our horses pastured in ane pleasant plain,
Low at the foot of ane fair green montain,
Amid ane mead shadowed with cedar trees;
Safe frae all heat there micht we weell remain.
All kind of herbès, flowers, fruit, and grain,
With every growand tree, there men micht chees: 10
The beryl streams, rinnand 11 o'er stanerie grees,12
Made sober noise; the shaw dinnit again
For birdès sang and sounding of the bees.

13

The Ladies fair on divers instruments
Went playand, singand, dansand o'er the bents; 14
Full angel-like and heavenly was their soun: 15
What creature amid his heart imprents 16
The fresh beauty, the goodly represents,17
The merry speech, fair havings,18 high renown,
Of them, wald set a wise man half in swoun :
Their womanliness writhed 19 the elements,
Stonied 20 the heaven and all the earth adoun.21

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 curious thochtès what but musardry? I
Your fremit2 gladness lasts nocht ane hour's length ;
Your sport for shame ye dare not specify;
Your fruit is but unfructuous fantasy;

Your sorry joys been but jangling and japes; 3
And your true servants silly goddès-apes.*

Your sweet mirthès are mixt with bitterness ;
What is your dreary game? A merry pain!
Your work unthrift; your quiet is restless;
Your lust liking in languor to remain ;
Friendship torment, your trust is but a train."
O Love, whether are you joy or foolishness,
That makes folk sae glad of their distress?
Solomon's wit, Samson thou robst his force,
And David thou bereft his prophecy;
Men says thou bridled Aristotle as ane horse,
And creelit up the flower of poetry.
What sall I of thy michtès notify?

Farewell! Where that thy lusty dart assails,
Wit, strength, riches, nae thing, but grace, avails.

Thou chain of love, ha, benedicite !

How hard strainès thy bandès every wicht !7
The god above, from his high majesty,

With thee y-bound, low on a maid did licht:
Thou vanquisht the strong giant of great micht:
Thou art mair forcy than the dead sae fell;

9

8

Thou plenest Paradise, and thou herriet 10 Hell! . . .

Thou swelth !11 Devourer of time unrécourable ! 12
O lust, infernal furnace inéxtinguible,

Thyself consuming, worths 13 insatiable!

14

Quaint fiendès net, to God and man odible,1
Of thy trigits 15 what tongue can tell the trible? 16
With thee to warstle,17 thou waxes evermore wicht: 18
Eschew thine hand, and minès sall 19 thy micht.

2 Strange.

1 Musing, dreaming.
6 Caged.
7 Creature.
10 Invadedst (A.-S. herian).

Prologue to Book IV.

3 Jests. 4 Naturals, idiots. 5 Snare.
8 Mighty. 9 Fillest (Lat. plenus), full.
11 Glutton. 12 Unrecoverable. 13 Grows.

A SCOTCH WINTER EVENING IN 1512.

4

The frosty region ringès1 of the year,
The time and season bitter cauld and pale,
They short dayès that clerkès clepe brumale ;2
When that brim blastès of the northern art3
O'erwhelmit had Neptunus in his cart,*
And all to-shake the leavès of the trees.
The rage and storm o'erwalterand wally seas,
Rivers ran red on spate with water brown,
And burnès hurlès all their bankès down.
The soil y-soupit into water wack,9

16

The firmament o'ercast with rokès 10 black,
The ground fadit, and fauch11 wox all the fields,
Mountain-tops sleekit with their snaw ower-heilds ;12
On ragged rockes of hard harsk whin-stane,
With frozen fronts cauld clinty clewès shane.13
Beauty was lost, and barren shew the lands;
With frosty hair o'er-fret the fieldès stands.
Sour bitter bubbès 14 and the showers snell
Seemed on the sward ane similtude of Hell,
Reducing to our mind in every stead 15
Ghostly shadows of eild and grisly dead;
Thick drumly scuggès1 darkened so the heaven.
Dim skyès oft forth warpit 18 fearful levin,19
Flaggès 20 of fire, and mony feloun flaw,2
Sharp sops of sleet and of the snipand snaw.
The dowie dikès 22 were all dank and wet;
The low valley was flooderit all with spate ;23
The plain streetès and every high way
Was full of flushes, dubbès,24 mire, and clay.
Laggerit 25 leas wallowit fernès 26 shew;
Brown moors kithit their wizzened mossy hue;
Bank, brae, and bottom, blanchèd wax and bare ;
For gurl128 weather gruit 29 beastès hair;

21

The wind made wave the red weed on the dike.
Bedoven in dankès deep 30 was every sike ;31

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.