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It was no need I wis,

To bid us other kiss;

There might no hearts more joy receive,
Nor either could of other have :
Thus brought were we to bliss.

KING BERDOCK.

DR LAING says:-"This singular fragment, preserved in George Bannatyne's well-known manuscript, has been overlooked by the different editors of early Scottish poetry, except John Leyden, who alludes to it in his interesting and learned introduction to the Complaynt of Scotland.

"Although it may now be impossible to ascertain the individual work, the ludicrous nature of this fairy tale plainly intimates that it was intended as a burlesque of some 'geste' or romantic story, which may have been popular at the time of its composition."

It displays a nimble playfulness of fancy not often associated with the poetry of our sober latitudes; and contains some words and phrases for which we have been unable to find explanations.

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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 Mary-
land,

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,
And Berdock fled intill a killogy ;1
There was no grace, but get him or else
die.

There was the kings of Pechtis and Por-
tugal,'

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,
And proppit guns with bulletis of radish:
Then Jupiter prayed to god Saturn
In likeness of an tod3 he would him
turn.

But soon the gracious god Mercurius
Turned Berdock intill ane bracken 4 bush.
And when they saw the bush wag to and
fro,

They trowed it was ane ghost, and they
to go.

Thir fell kings, thus, Berdock would have slain

Full of skait birds,9 and then this Berdock All this for love, loveris sufferis pain. grett to

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Boece said, of poets hat was flower
Though love be sweet, oft syith it is full

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PATRICK JOHNSTOUN.

II.

For suth it is, that every man mortall
Mon suffer deid,' and de, that lyfe has tane;
Na erdly stait aganis deid ma prevaill;
The hour of deth and place is uncertane,
Quhilk is referrit to the hie God allane:
Herefoir haif mynd of deth, that thou
mon dy;

This fair exampill to se quotidiane,3
Sowld cause all men fro wicket vycis flie?

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."

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III.

Owantone yowth! als fresche as lusty May,
Farest of flowris, renewit quhyt and reid,
Behald our heidis, O lusty gallands gay!
Full laithly thus sall ly thy lusty heid,
Holkit and how, and wallowit 5 as the weid,
Thy crampland hair, and eik thy cristall
eine;

Full cairfully conclud sall dulefull deid,
Thy example heir be us it may be sene.

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66

MERSAR, whose Christian name is un- | Bannatyne MS., subscribed Quod known, has his fame thus preserved in Dunbar's famous "Lament

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one of half-a-dozen poets, who

levand."

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 spell-

ing of the MS. is here retained, for the
same reason as that assigned as regards
the last piece. The language of both

"Thoucht thay be deid, thair libellis bene 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 temporaries.

His only known poem, "Perell of Paramours," which may he reckoned a song, has been preserved in the

1 Reflect.

2 Fault.

3 Without.

4 Ashes.

5 Countenance.

6 Learning.

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