7 1

Urban the eighth, himself a poet of no mean talents, is said to have averred that " 'twas pity it was written by so great a heretic, for otherwise it should have been sung in all churches under his authority." The famous Bishop Bedell "loved it beyond all other Latin poetry ;" and Nicolas Bourbon, who was himself a poet of considerable celebrity, declared that he would rather have been the author of this paraphrase than archbishop of Paris."

When Buchanan consigned his psalms to the printer, he was probably engaged in superintending the classical studies of Queen Mary; and to that most accomplished and hopeful princess, he gratefully inscribed a work destined for immortality. His dedication has received, and indeed is entitled to the highest commendation for its terseness, compression, and delicacy.

Nympha, Caledoniæ quæ nunc feliciter ora
Missa per innumeros sceptra tueris avos;
Quæ sortem antevenis meritis, virtutibus annos,
Sexum animis, morum nobilitate genus,

morum.-The edition of Chytræus, which has frequently been reprinted, is accompanied with the music. Dempster mentions an earlier edition of Buchanan's psalms, " quos musicis legibus accommodavit Jo. Servianus, et edidit Lugduni anno M.D.LXXIX." (Hist. Ecclesiast. Gent. Scotor.

p. 109.)

k Sir John Denham's preface to his Version of the Psalms. Lond. 1714, 8vo.

1 Burnet's Life of Bishop Bedell, p. 77. Lond. 1685, 8vo.

Menage, Observations sur les Poësies de M. de Malherbe, p. 895.

Accipe (sed facilis) cultu donata Latino
Carmina, fatidici nobile regis opus.

Illa quidem Cirrha procul et Permesside lympha,
Pene sub Arctoi sidere nata poli:

Non tamen ausus eram male natum exponere fœtum,"

Ne mihi displiceant quæ placuere tibi.

Nam quod ab ingenio domini sperare nequibant,
Debebunt genio forsitan illa tuo.

q

Buchanan recommended himself to the queen by other poetical tributes. One of his most beautiful productions is the epithalamium which he composed on her first nuptials. This attractive subject had also excited the poetical talents of De l'Hospital and Turnebus; but the rival composition of Buchanan displays a fertility of fancy, and a felicity of diction, which preclude all comparison. His encomium on his native land it would be unpardonable to overlook.

Illa rpharetratis est propria gloria Scotis,
Cingere venatu saltus, superare natando

"This verse is sometimes misunderstood. It evidently alludes to the practice of exposing deformed or sickly infants. "I durst not however expose my unpromising offspring."

o Invideo Pisis, Laurenti, nec tamen odi,

Ne mihi displiceat quæ tibi terra placet.

POLITIANI Opera, sig. gg. 5. Venet: 1498, fol. P This famous epigram is imitated by Johnston in the dedication of his psalms, and by Dempster in that of his Latin version of Montgomery's Cherrie and Slae.

9 Buchanani Silvæ, iv.

r" Nostra autem ætate," says Crinitus, " [Scotorum] complures cum Carolo Francorum rege Italiam invaserunt, qui sub ejus signis militarent: sunt enim in dirigendis maxime sagittis viri acres atque egregii." (De Hones

Flumina, ferre famem, contemnere frigora et æstus;
Nec fossa et muris patriam, sed Marte tueri,
Et spreta incolumem vita defendere famam ;
Polliciti servare fidem, sanctumque vereri
Numen amicitiæ, mores, non munus amare.s
Artibus his, totum fremerent cum bella per orbem,
Nullaque non leges tellus mutaret avitas
Externo subjecta jugo, gens una vetustis

Sedibus antiqua sub libertate resedit.

Substitit hic Gothi furor, hic gravis impetus hæsit

Saxonis, hic Cimber superato Saxone, et acri

Perdomito Neuster Cimbro.

Si volvere priscos

Non piget annales, hic et victoria fixit

Præcipitem Romana gradum : quem non gravis Auster
Reppulit, incultis non squalens Parthia campis,

Non æstu Meroe, non frigore Rhenus et Albis
Tardavit, Latium remorata est Scotia cursum :
Solaque gens mundi est, cum qua non culmine montis,
Non rapidi ripis amnis, non objice silvæ,
Non vasti spatiis campi Romana potestas,
Sed muris fossaque sui confinia regni

Munivit gentesque alias cum pelleret armis

:

Sedibus, aut victas vilem servaret in usum
Servitii, hic contenta suos defendere fines
Roma securigeris prætendit mania Scotis:
Hic

spe progressus posita, Carronis ad undam
Terminus Ausonii signat divortia regni.

ta Disciplina, p. 56, edit. Lugd. 1554, 8vo.) It was however a general characteristic of our ancestors to place very little reliance on missile weapons. $ One of the most learned of Buchanan's friends had bestowed similar praise.

Si cui simplicitas, et priscæ sæcula vitæ,
Sors sine dissidiis, mens sine fraude placet,
Ne Scotia dextras, hirsutaque pectora spernat :
Haud bene junguntur luxus et arma simul.

JUL. SCALIGERI Poemata, tom. i, p. 553,

Neve putes duri studiis assueta Gradivi

Pectora mansuetas non emollescere ad artes,

Hæc quoque, cum Latium quateret Mars barbarus orbem,
Sola prope expulsis fuit hospita terra Camoenis.

The elegant poem which he composed on the birth of his future pupil King James, affords an interesting proof of the early solicitude with which he regarded his destiny, as connected with the welfare of his native country.

Vos quoque felices felici prole parentes,

Jam tenerum teneris puerum consuescite ab annis
Justitiæ, sanctumque bibat virtutis amorem
Cum lacte; et primis pietas comes addita cunis
Conformetque animum, et pariter cum corpore crescat.
Non ita conversi puppis moderamine clavi!
Flectitur, ut populi pendent a principe mores.
Non carcer, legumque minæ, torvæque secures
Sic animos terrent trepidos formidine pœnæ,
Ut veræ virtutis honos, moresque modesti
Regis, et innocui decus et reverentia sceptri
Convertunt mentes ad honesta exempla sequaces."

Several of his miscellaneous poems of less importance relate to the same accomplished princess; who was not insensible of his powerful claims upon the protection of his country. In the year 1564, she had rewarded his literary merit by conferring on him the temporalties of the

ແ

Archbishop Usher has remarked that this part of the poet's encomium belongs to Ireland, the Scotia of the ancients. Quod de sua cecinit poeta optimus, de nostra Scotia multo rectius possit usurpari." (Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge, præf. Dublin. 1632, 4to.)

Buchanani Silvæ, viii.

abbey of Crossragwell; which amounted in annual valuation to the sum of five hundred pounds in Scotish currency.*

But while he thus enjoyed the favour of the queen, he did not neglect his powerful friend the earl of Murray. To that nobleman he inscribed his Franciscanus during the same year. The date of the earliest edition is uncertain; but the dedication was written at St. Andrews on the fifth of June 1564, when he was perhaps residing in the earl's house.

He at the same time prepared for the press his miscellany entitled Fratres Fraterrimi; a collection of satires, almost entirely directed against the impurities of the Popish church. The absurdity of its doctrines, and the immoral lives of its priests, afforded him an ample field for the exercise of his formidable talents; and he has alternately employed the weapons of sarcastic irony and vehement indignation. His admirable wit and address must have contributed to promote the cause which Luther had so ardently espoused; and Buchanan ought also to be classed with the most illustrious of the reformers. Guy Patin was so fascinated with his satirical powers, that he committed to memory all his epigrams, his Franciscanus, and his Fratres Fra

Mr. Ruddiman has published the writ of privy seal, dated at Holyroodhouse on the ninth of October 1564. Animadversions, p 86.) The abbacy was then vacant "throw the deceis of umquhile Master Quintene Kennedie late abbot thairof." Quintin Kennedy, a man of learning, was the brother of Buchanan's late pupil. (Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, p. 136.)