uses, and which are equally incompatible with her sex and profession. The second edition contains an additional treatise on the art of angling; as also a sort of lyrical epilogue to the book of hunting, which is not entirely devoid of merit. An edition was printed by W. Powel in 1550, under the title of The Gentleman's Academy, or the Book of St. Alban's concerning Hawking, Hunting, and Armory. The latest edition is that by Mr. Haslewood.

SIR DAVID LINDSAY.

(Circa 1490-1557.)

Sir David Lindsay, the descendant of an ancient family, was born in or about the year 1490, at his paternal seat, The Mount, near Cupar, in Fife. Having been educated at St. Andrew's, he travelled through England, France, Italy, and Germany, and returned to Scotland about 1514. Soon after his return, he became one of the gentlemen of the king's chamber, and had the charge of superintending the education of the young prince, afterwards King James V. About 1537 he was employed by that monarch as his ambassador to the Emperor Charles V., as also to France, to negotiate the king's marriage,- —a proof that he possessed much of his master's confidence; which, indeed, he seems to have deserved by the affection with which he served him, and by the honest and wise counsels which he never failed to offer. But the only permanent establishment he ever gained at court was the post of Lyon king-at-arms, an office of more honour than emolument.

Of James V. he always speaks in terms of affection; and although it appears from his own works that he experienced occasional mortifications, yet his attachment continued without diminution. He was one of the few courtiers who were present at the king's premature death. The enemies of whom he complains were probably the dignified clergy, whom he has satirised with unparalleled boldness, and whom he sometimes admonished of their duty with a degree of freedom which must have excited the keenest resentment. The king being one day surrounded by a numerous train of nobility and prelates, Lindsay approached him with due reverence, and began to prefer a humble petition that he would instal him in an office that was then vacant. "I have," said he, "servit your grace lang, and luik to be rewardit as others are; and now your maister taylor, at the pleasure of God, is departit, wherefor I would desire of your grace to bestow this little benefite upon me." The king replied that he

was amazed at such a request from a man who could neither shape nor sew. "Sir," rejoined the poet, "that maks nae matter; for you have given bishoprics and benefices to mony standing here about you, and yet they can nouther teche nor preche: and why not I as weill be your taylor, thocht I can nouther shape nor sew; seeing teching and preching are nae less requisite to their vocation than shaping and sewing to ane taylor?" James immediately perceived the object of his petition, and diverted himself at the expense of the enraged ecclesiastics.

Lindsay's hostility to the Church of Rome is, indeed, generally considered as the principal source of his disappointments. The Reformation was now advancing with gradual steps; and at an early stage of its progress he had boldly avowed his attachment. "The Scotch," says Warton, "with that philosophical and speculative cast which characterises their national genius, were more zealous and early friends to a reformation of religion than their neighbours in England. The pomp and elegance of the Catholic worship made no impression on a people whose devotion sought only for solid gratification, and who had no notion that the interposition of the senses could with any propriety be admitted to co-operate in an exercise of such a nature, which appealed to reason alone, and seemed to exclude all aids of the imagination."

To the consummation of this glorious undertaking, the literary compositions and personal consequence of Lindsay seem to have contributed with powerful effect. His writings tended to prepare the public mind for a systematic attempt toward the overthrow of papal superstition, and the establishment of the rational doctrines and forms of the Reformation. He is enumerated among those who, in 1547, counselled the ordination of John Knox, in whom his penetration must readily have discovered that energy of mind which qualified him for the arduous task he was destined to perform. "In fact,” says Pinkerton, "Sir David was more the reformer of Scotland than John Knox; for he had prepared the ground, and John only sowed the seed." Indeed, his works were so odious to the clergy, that by an Act of Assembly in 1558 they were ordered to be publicly burned; so that there is perhaps not one of the numerous editions through which they have passed that preserves the genuine text of the author.*

After the death of James V. in 1541, Lindsay is said to have enjoyed a degree of favour with the Earl of Arran; but having been deprived of this by means of a court intrigue, he retired to his country seat, where he lived tranquil and respected till the end of 1553, when he died at the age of sixty.

* The best edition is that by Chalmers, 1806.

In the works of Sir David Lindsay we do not often find either the splendid diction of Dunbar or the prolific imagination of Gawin Douglas; perhaps, indeed, his Dream is the only composition which can be cited as uniformly poetical; but his harmony, his good sense, his perfect knowledge of courts and of the world, the facility of his versification, and, above all, his peculiar talent of adapting himself to readers of all denominations, will continue to secure him a considerable share of that popularity for which he was originally indebted to the religious opinions he professed, no less than to his poetical merit. The Dream is a vision in which an allegorical lady, after transporting the poet successively to the infernal regions, to purgatory, through the earth, fire, water, and air, and showing him Paradise, brings him back to the cavern where he had fallen asleep, and where he is awakened by the noise of a ship firing a broadside. The poem, usually called the Monarchy, is a sort of abstract of universal history, in question and answer, the interlocutors being Experience and a Courtier. The most pleasing of this author's works, however, is The History of Squire Meldrum: the romantic and singular but authentic character of the hero is painted with great strength and simplicity; and the versification possesses a degree of facility and elegance at least equal to the most polished compositions of Drayton.

SIR RICHARD MAITLAND.

(1496-1586.)

Richard Maitland, a cultivator as well as preserver of Scottish poetry, was the son of William Maitland of Lethington, and of Martha his wife, the daughter of George Lord Seaton. He was born in 1496. Having finished his course of literature and philosophy in the University of St. Andrew's, he visited France, in order to prosecute the study of the laws. After his return to Scotland, he recommended himself to the favour of James V.; and in 1554 we find him an extraordinary lord of session. Sir John Scot affirms, that under the regency of Mary of Guise, Sir Richard Maitland was appointed lord privy seal; and it is certain, from his congratulatory ode on her daughter's arrival in Scotland, that he had borne some office. As early at least as 1561, Maitland was deprived of his sight; but this misfortune did not incapacitate him for business. In 1561 he was admitted an ordinary lord of session, by the title of Lethington; and in 1562 was also nominated lord privy seal and a member

of the privy council. His office as keeper of the seal he resigned, in 1567, in favour of his second son. In 1583 the lords of session had granted him immunity and license to attend when he pleased, having all commodities as if he were present; yet moved in conscience, lest justice should be retarded by his absence, he, in the following year, resigned in favour of Sir Lewis Ballenden. Sir Richard died on the 20th of March, 1586, at the age of ninety. His wife, a daughter of Thomas Cranston of Carsby, died on the day of his interment. His eldest son, Sir William, was the famous secretary of Queen Mary. A younger son, Thomas Maitland, is less remembered on account of his Latin poems (printed in the Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum) than as one of the interlocutors in the exquisite dialogue of Buchanan, De Jure Regni apud Scotos.

Sir Richard Maitland is celebrated as a man of learning, talents, and virtue. His compositions breathe the genuine spirit of poetry and benevolence. Poetry he did not begin to cultivate until he had nearly attained his sixtieth year. In his works of this kind, it would be therefore unreasonable to expect the effervescence of a youthful imagination, or the perpetual scintillations of a lively fancy. They are not, however, incapable of exciting interest; they present us with the thoughts, serious and gay, of an amiable old man habituated to courts, and accurately acquainted with men and manners. His poem on The Creation and Paradyce Lost was printed in Allan Ramsay's Ever-Green. A considerable number of his productions are to be found in Pinkerton's Ancient Scottish Poems, and many more remain unpublished.

JAMES V. KING OF SCOTLAND.*
(1512-1542.)

James V. was born on the 10th April, 1512; he was the son of James IV. by Margaret, the illustrious daughter of Henry VII. James V. lost his father on Flodden Field, upon the 9th September, 1513, on which disastrous day James IV. maintained the bloody conflict till he was actually cut in pieces. Deranged as the government of Scotland had often been by the infancy of her sovereigns, there now ensued a minority which was protracted beyond precedent, and turbulent beyond example. His mother, who was of a vigorous but intriguing character, assumed the administration, having Beaton, the archbishop of Glasgow, and the Earls of Angus, Huntly, and Arran, for her assessors. But she confided the education of her infant son to Gawyn Dunbar, Prior Whithorn, a person of learning and

merit, who rose by his conduct, amid great competition, to be archbishop of Glasgow.

At the age of twelve, James was called to the administration of the government by the intrigues of his mother, and brought from Stirling to Edinburgh, where he was proclaimed king, amid the acclamations of the people. This event happened on the 26th July,

1524.

His authority did not last long. A few months saw him placed in the interested hands of the Earl of Angus and his creatures, who flattered the king with deceptive liberty, while they retained their sovereign in real thraldom. Various intrigues were carried on, and some battles were fought for his relief; but the fortune of Angus, who had married his mother, always prevailed.

It was not till May 1545 that the king, who had accomplished his sixteenth year, made his escape from the fangs of the Douglases at Falkland to his mother's castle at Stirling. The secrecy and artifice wherewith this escape was contrived, and the address with which it was effected, evince that James IV. and the daughter of Henry VII. had stamped a very vigorous character on James V. He appears now to have assumed the government of his people. He soon after assembled the states of his kingdom in Stirling Castle, and declared that he would not be ruled by any one family, but be governed by the advice of his nobles. Angus was now attainted, and found shelter in England.