sity, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1478, and in 1481 was elected one of the four Examiners of that Univercity. He appears to have resided principally in Ayrshire, and is supposed, on probable grounds, to have filled the offices of Bailie-depute of Carrick, and Provost of the Collegiate Church of Maybole, founded by his ancestor Sir John Kennedy, whose heirs held the patronage. He also appears to have resided in Edinburgh, and to have had some knowledge of court life. This is all that is known regarding him, beyond wha may be inferred from certain personal allusions in the "Flyting." There are also some references to his history in Dunbar's share of that composition, which, like all caricature, may be supposed to be exaggerations of the truth; yet it is manifest that many circumstances are pure inventions, any modification of which would be dishonourable, if true, of the person to whom they refer. In reference to the sources of his own and Dunbar's poetic inspiration, he not inelegantly says :— I perambulated of Parnassus the mountain, Inspired with Mercury frae his golden sphere; And dulcely drank of eloquence the fountain, When it was purified with frost and flowèd clear ! And thou come fool! in March or Februeir, There till ane pool, and drank the paddock rude,2 That gars thee rhyme into thy termis glude,3 And blabberis that, noyis men's ears to hear, 1 Paterson says he abandoned the church, married, and had two sons, one of whom, his namesake, became Provost of Maybole. 2 Frog-spawn. 3 Slimy (?) He also calls Dunbar his "imperfyte" (inferior) in poetry or prose, and styles himself the Rose of Rhetoric. In reference to his loyalty and relations with the king, he says— I am the king's blood, his true special clerk, That never yet imagined his offence, Constant in mind, in thought, word, and werk, Only dependant upon his excellence; Trustand to have of his magnificence. Guerdon, reward, and benefice bedeen ;* When that the ravens shall rive out both thy een, And on the ratts 2 shall be thy sesidence. The last stanza gives a good idea of the Billingsgate of the piece, while it confirms the opinion elsewhere stated, as to the sportive, tournamentile character of the composition. The ascription of Lollardism to Dunbar also shows that the tendency of his writings toward Protestantism was not unmarked by his brother churchmen; yet the fact of his being one of the orthodox and more rigid party does not appear to have acted as a restraint upon Kennedy's freedom of vituperative expression. Duelbeir, thy speir of weir, but feir thou yeild, Hangit, mangit, eddir stangit stryndie stultorum, To me, maist hee Kennydie, and flie the field, Pickit, wickit, stickit, convickit lamp Lollardorum. Diffamit, schamit, blamit Primus Paganorum. Out! out! I schowt, upon that snout that snevillis. Tailltellar, rebellar, indwellar with the divillis, Spink, sink with stink ad Tartara Termagorum. V. That my light youth-head is opprest and Law, love, and lawtie, graven 1low they lie; done, Honour with age to every virtue draws. II. Dissimulance has borrowed conscience clais; Aithis, writ, wax nor seals are nought set by;2 Green youth, to age thou mon2 obey and Flattery is fostered both with friends and ANONYMOUS POETRY. THE FRIARS OF BERWICK. that no one would dispute that his genius was equal to its production; yet the more we consider it, the less does it seem to us to be his writing. The fact of its appearing anonymously in both the manuscripts in which most of Dunbar's poems are preserved, is perhaps the strongest external objection to his authorship; | yet neither this, nor the alleged modernness of the language, would weigh much against the assumption in our estimation, did the literary structure of the art of poetry, which, without exception, marks all Dunbar's poems. [THIS very excellent tale has been preserved, in both the Bannatyne and Maitland MSS., without any author's name in either. It has been printed so early as 1603, by Robert Charteris, Edinburgh; but the earliest edition preserved is that of Raban of Aberdeen, 1622, of which only a single copy is known. In 1723, Allan Ramsay made a transcript of it from the Bannatyne | MS., on which he founded his tale of composition exhibit that mastery of the "The Monk and the Miller's Wife," without however acknowledging his indebtedness. Pinkerton printed the Maitland Ms. version in 1786, attributing the authorship to Dunbar; while Sibbald, in 1802, reprinted Pinkerton's edition, collating it with the Bannatyne MS., and ascribing the authorship to the unknown author of the "Priests of Peebles." Dr David Laing printed the Bannatyne MS. version, in his edition of Dunbar s Works, 1834, in which, on the authority of Pinkerton, he places it among poems attributed to Dunbar. He remarks :-"That the Friers of Berwick | praise." Without detracting in the is a composition belonging to the commencement of the sixteenth century, and not later than the minority of James Fifth, cannot, I think, be doubted, That it affords such intrinsic evidence as might warrant an unhesitating ascription of it to Dunbar, seems much less certain. Pinkerton's reasons on this head are certainly not very conclusive." Mr Fraser Tytler remarks that :"There are few of Chaucer's tales which are equal, and certainly none of them superior to this excellent piece of satire. The whole management of the story, its quiet comic humour, its variety and natural delineation of human character, the freshness and brilliancy of its colouring, the excellence and playfulness of its satire upon the hypocritical and dissolute lives of many of the monastic orders, and the vigorous versification into which it is thrown, are entitled to the highest least from Mr Tytler's estimate of the piece as a tale, and even admitting it to be superior, in that aspect of it, to anything Dunbar has written, yet we cannot see that in literary finish, and that masterly ironic ease that characterises Dunbar's analysis of character, and that penetrating insight that dissects the motives of human action with a We have said, in the life of Dunbar, skill that has seldom been equalled, the Where many a lady (als) been, fair of face, With kirnalis 2 wrought craftily with all; That it might be of nae manner of might, The town, the castle, and the pleasant land; The sea wall is upon the other hand; The Jacobine friars of the white hue, Friar Allan said than, "Good brother, dear, Sae winned there ane wonder good hostellar ous. Thir silly friars when they come to the house, With fair hailsing and becking courteously, To them she answered again in hye.5 Friar Robert speirèd after the goodman, And she again answered them than ; "He went frae hame, God wait, on Wednesday, Into the country, to see for corn, and hay, And other thingis, whereof we have need." Friar Allan said, "I pray great God him speed, And save him sound in till his travale." Friar Robert said, "Dame fill ane stoup of ale, That we may drink, for I am wonder dry." With that the wife went forth right shortly; And filled the stoup, and brought in bread and cheese : They ate, and drank, and sat at their ain ease. Friar Allan said to the goodwife in hye, "Come hither, dame, and sit you down me by, And fill this stoup again, anis1 to me;" Friar Robert said, " Full weell payed shall ye be." The friars were blithe, and merry tales could tell : And even with that they heard the prayer bell Of their ain Abbey; and then they were aghast, Then auld Friar Allan said, "Nae, fair dame, For Godis love hear me what I shall say; Therefore of very need we maun bide still, And us commit all hail into your will." The goodwife looked at the friars tway ;And, at the last, to them thus gan she say: "Ye bide not here, by Him that us all coft, 2 But gif ye list to lig3 up in yon loft, send; Where and ye list, pass on baith in feir;4 For on no wayis will I repair have hear." Her maiden then she sendis on before, And her they followed baith withouten more. They were full blithe to do as she them kend: And up they went, into the hallis end, Because they wist the yetts were locked Intill ane loft was made for corn and hay. fast, That they might not frae then get entery. The goodwife then they prayed for charity, To grant them herbery? there that ane night. She made their bed, and syne went,-but5 delay, Closed the trap, and they remained still Into the loft, they wanted of their will. Friar Allan liggis down as he best might. But she to them gave answer with great Friar Robert said, "I hecht? to walk this |