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Almighty God forbede!

To you, when I began:

I will not to the green wood go;

I am no banished man."

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1 Yede, went. The old verb " gan," to go, had for its past tense "eode," spelt afterwards "yode." The past tense now in use," went,”

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To the generation that produced the ballad of the "Nut-brown Maid," which is by an unknown author, seems to have belonged also the first pastoral in our literature, "Robin and Makyn," by Robert Henryson. Henryson was the oldest of an important group of Scottish poets who, at the close of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, were filling our North country with music. Licentiate in Arts and Bachelor in Decrees when admitted, in 1462, to the newly-founded University of Glasgow, he became notary public and schoolmaster at Dunfermline, lived to be an old man, and was dead in 1508.

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A KNIGHT TAKING HIS RANK. From Harleian MS. 4431, p. 114.

Here may ye see, that women be In love, meek, kind, and stable; Let never man reprove them than, Or call them variable;

is from another verb, "wendan," of which the present is not quite cbsolete. We may still say that a person "wends his way."

1 The spleen. Not from the heart, but from the spleen, which was once regarded as the source of anger and melancholy, and thence associated with hasty and variable conduct. Thus, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Women Pleased" ("Give 'em their sovereign wills and pleased they are "), the usurer Lopez says to his wife Isabella"You must be wise then,

And live sequester'd to yourself and me,

Not wand'ring after every toy comes cross ye,
Nor struck with every spleen."

SCHOOLMASTER AND PUPIL. From Reisch's "Margarita Philosophica" (1513).

ROBIN AND MAKYN.3
Robin sat on gude green hill
Kepand a flock of fe:4
Mirry 5 Makyn said him till,"
"Robin, thou rue on me;

I have thee lovit, loud and still,

These yearis two or three;

My dule7 in dern but if thou dill," Doubtless, but 10 dreid, I dee."

2 If they be, to try whether they continue in faith and charity.

3 Makyn (Mawkyn or Malkin), little Moll; from "Mary." Fe, sheep, cattle. First English "feo."

5 Mirry, gentle, soft. First Fnglish "mirig." See Note 8, page 18. 6 Him till, to him. 7 Dule (French "deuil "), sorrow.

8 Dern, secret. First English "dyrne."

9 Dill, share. First English "dælan," divide; "dal" (Germar "theil "), a part.

10 But, without.-But dreid, certainly. So in the refrain to the

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* Lair (First English "lár"), lore. 5 Hend, gentle.

6 Feir (First English "feorh "), life or soul. "Love's ABC" begins, therefore: be gentle, courteous, fair of soul; be wise, be bold, be free.

7 Deir, hurt. First English "derian," to injure. 8 Dre, endure. First English "dreogan."

9 Preiss thee, &c.: endeavour, with pains, to the utmost of your power. (A common Scottish phrase, "at a' will," means to the utmost of one's wish.) Be patient, and betray no trust.

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17 Bute (First English "bót "), remedy. 18 Baill (First English "bealu "), evil, calamity, sorrow, bale. 19 My dule with thee, &c. This seems to be a repetition of the thought in lines 7 and 8 of the first stanza, "My dule in dern bot if thou dill," &c., and "in dern with thee" may have been repeated instead of "my dule with thee" by a slip of the pen. Campbell, accepting "in dern with thee," paraphrased "I am now in secret with thee, but if I separate, doubtless I shall die;" and Lord Hailes made it "I dern with thee," &c.-"We watch together; we are alone; unless I share of your favour I am lost." I have ventured to suggest a restoration of the text by substituting "My dule" for "In dern."

Makyn went hame withouten fail Full wery 35 after couth weep: Then Robin in a ful fair dale Assemblit all his sheep.

20 To morne, to-morrow.-Ilka (First English "yle"), same.-Peraventure, two lines lower down, was pronounced swiftly, p'ra'ntúre. 21 But maugré, &c. Thomas Campbell skipped over these four lines when giving, in "Specimens of the English Poets," his modern paraphrase of " Robin and Makyn." The veteran scholar, Dr. David Laing, in the notes to his edition of Henryson, only quotes Chalmers, who says that maugre "is here used in the sense of ill-will or spite," and that, "in this sense, Henryson's verse would mean, 'But ill-will may I have if I stay.'" Yet surely that is not its meaning. What is done malgré, is done against one's will or inclination; and when Makyn would occupy Robin with love talk, Robin's practical mind, yet untouched by love, answers, "Makyn, you may come here tomorrow, and if we sit in one place, occupied with ourselves, our sheep may be straying; but I have maugre"-it is against my inclina. tion-"an I bide"-if I remain in one place-that is to say, it is much against my will if I do not move after them-" fra they begin to steir "-from the time when they begin to stir, or move over the pas. tures in their grazing. In short, "I am too busy to attend to you." 22 Reivis me, robbest me. 23 Roif, quiet. See Note to line 28. 24 Dule, grief. 25 Drest, treated, ill-treated.

26 Bone (First English "bén "), petition, prayer. "I must pray for the love that alone will ease my grief."

27 Leman, a sweetheart, male or female. First English "leve-man," loved person. 28 Sicht, sigh.

29 Robin, weary of Makyn's voice of love, suggests that her talk has kept him waiting on the pasture for some time, and that he wishes to get home.

30 Intent, direction of one's course. From Latin "intendere." Robin went his way home lightly, and Makyn hers with a heavy heart. 31 Brayd attour the bent, started across the coarse grass or rushes by the hill-side. 32 On hie, on high. 33 Shent, put to shame. 35 Wery, feeble, sorrowful,

34 Alis at me, ails me.

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"My honey, Robin, talk awhile,

If thou will do na mair." (Lines 61, 62.) Departing, division, by giving others a share.

7 All haill, &c. Dr. David Laing, a master in Scottish literature, to whom we are much indebted for the only collected edition of the "Poems and Fables of Robert Heuryson," prints "All haill!" as an exclamation. But the line is clearly a response to Makyn's once rejected offer. She had said (line 35), And thow sall haif my hairt all haill;" now Robin says, "All haill thy hairt for till haif myne "— for to have all thy whole heart mine is all my coveting; and then, with another playful reversal of the former dialogue, proceeds to discover that he has nine hours' time to-morrow at her service, let bis sheep stir as they may (see note to line 45).

Ele, increase the cold cares of the first who trouble themselves to seek you for a playfellow. "Janglour, teller of tales.

Wend, expected, weened.

10 Perfay (par foi), in faith.

13 But let, without hindrance.

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13 Attour (at-over), above or across.

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14 Holtis hair, hoary woods. 15 See lines 58 and 71. The tables are now turned. It is Boten who mourns, Makyn who laughs. She sang, he sighed; and so she left him, woeful and peevish, in sorrow and care, keeping his hard an der woods. grey a crag among the cold 16 Under, mata. 17 By chance, on caiss. 18 For all, of all.

19 Examples, sic sampillis, such examples.

20 He and he, a Scottish phrase for one and the other, sers to hart taken place of the one syllable (equivalent to First English they), which completed the metre.

21 By skill, by reason. It is unreasonable that any man should flime It is blaming God; for it was God's will to give the liness, Lim ness, or deformity of feature. Still, silen", secret.

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