Kings used not to wear clothes in they And ran again, Mayok for to get. days, But yeid' naked, as mine author says: Well could he play in clarschot2 and on lute, And ane bend aiprin bow, and nipschot shoot; He was ane stalwart man of heart and hand, He wowit 3 the golk seven year, of Maryland, Mayiola, and she was but years three, Ane bony bird and had not but ane ee; Nevertheless King Berdock loved her weel, For her forefoot was longer than her heel. The King Berdock he fure4 o'er sea and land To reveiss Mayok, the golk of Maryland. And nane with him but ane bow and ane bolt ;5 Syne happened him, to come among the nolt ;6 And as this Berdock about him could espy, He saw Mayok milkand her mother's kye; And in ane creill7 upon his back her kest; When he come hame it was ane howlat's nest The king of Fairy her father then blew out, And fought Berdock all the land about, There was the kings of Pechtis and Portugal, The king of Naipillis, and Navern all hail, With bows and brands, with sieges they umbeset him; Some bade tak some slay, some bade bide untill they get him; They stealèd guns to the Killogy laith, But soon the gracious god Mercurius They trowed it was ane ghost, and they to go. Thir fell kings, thus, Berdock would have slain Full of skait birds, and then this Berdock All this for love, loveris sufferis pain. grett 10 6 Cattle. Boece said, of poets hat was flower Though love be sweet, oft syith it is full sour. I Went. 2 Harp. 3 Wooed. 4 Fared, went. 5 Arrow. PATRICK JOHNSTOUN. II. For suth it is, that every man mortall This fair exampill to se quotidiane,3 THE name is almost all that is known | Als fresche, als fair, als lusty to behald; of this poet. He is one of those whom Quhan thou lukis on this suth exemplair, Dunbar mentions in his "Lament for the Off thy self, man, thou may be richt unbald. Deth of the Makers," and he is also referred to in "The Treasurer's Accounts, 1488-1492." "The Thre Deid Powis " is the only poem ascribed to him, and even it is claimed by Dr Laing and the Maitland MS. for Henryson. The Bannatyne MS., however, assigns it to Johnstoun, and is followed by Lord Hailes, Sibbald, and Dr Irving. No opinion on the point is here indicated by placing it under his name. Lord Hailes observes that "the fancy of introducing three deaths-heads is odd; and the more so because they all speak at once. The sentiments are such as the contemplation of mortality produces. If likeness inferred imitation, Shakespeare, in the scene of the grave-diggers, might be supposed to have copied from Patrick Johnstoun— —an obscure versifier of whom he never heard." III. O wantone yowth! als fresche as lusty May, eine ; Full cairfully conclud sall dulefull deid, 66 MERSAR, whose Christian name is un- | Bannatyne MS., subscribed Quod known, has his fame thus preserved in Dunbar's famous "Lament Mersar." Dr Irvine says of it, that it is "too inconsiderable to enable us to ascertain how far he may have merited the commendation bestowed upon him by Dunbar and Lindsay." The spelling of the MS. is here retained, for the same reason as that assigned as regards the last piece. The language of both poems is very much alike, and it will be observed that, apart from the language, the structure of the composition is almost as direct and regular as poetry of the present day. It may be inferred that their authors were contemporaries. 5 Countenance. 1 Abiding. 6 Learning. 2 Reign. |