ROWALLAN'S POEMS.

129

PLAY thou the Sidney to thy native soyle,

And rousse thy silwer pen, yat sleept this quhyle, And spair not for thy tyme-beguyling toyle;

Nor spend thy gallant spirit in exyle!

For first, thou art ane Lower by thy style,

Then borne ane Westerne, quhair those Ladyes wse,— And they the only object of this Ile

Quhoise rair renouned worth I kna thou lowse,
May moue thee as thair Champioun, quhom they chuse,
To cheir thy braines and grace tham with the best.
Sprang thou from Maxwell and Montgomeries muse?
To let our poets perisch in the West!

No, no! braue youth, continow in thy kynd,
No sueitar subject sall thy Muses fynd!

Of the author of these spirited lines, there appears no clearer intelligence than what the prefixed initials afford. However, they were probably written about the year 1617; and in some editions of the Sempills of Beltrees' contemporary satire of the Packman and the Priest, appears a not unequal sonnet ascribed to an Alexander Sempill: if correct, possibly a son or near relation of the family, and it may be, the writer of these laudatory verses addressed to our author.

The name of Marwell, which here occurs as a then recognised poet, has perhaps perished! The relation, however, assigned him to Sir W. Mure, whose grandmother was a daughter of Maxwell of New-wark, Renfrewshire, would seem pretty certainly to indicate his descent from that branch of the Maxwells. Almost nothing, indeed, seems known of the history of poetry in the West Lowlands of Scotland. And it is pleasing to learn, Mr. Motherwell of Paisley purposes soon to supply an entire and creditable edition of the poetical writings of the Sempills of Beltrees above alluded to, with memoirs of that interesting and very remarkable family.

The orthography of these two Sonnets, and of the Epitaphs which follow, has carefully been preserved as in the original papers. Small thanks, we are aware, must be due to us by the antiquary, for the pains we have taken to conform the preceding portion of these selections, to the spelling of the present day; but in a compilation more intended for ordinary than antiquarian use, such an alteration seemed somewhat imperious. This, however, is the utmost license which has been taken, as, we think, the critical reader will easily be satisfied of.

THE EPITAPH

OF THE RYT. VENERABLE GODLY AND LEARNED FATHER GEORGE, BE GRACE FROM GOD ORDERLY CALLIT, AND BE HIS PRINCE APOYNTED TO BE GREATEST PRELATE IN SCOTLAND, ARCHBISCHOPE OF SANCTANDROIS, &c.

BEREFT of breath, yit nocht from lyfe depoised,
Heir lyes inclosid Sanctandrois richest treassour:
A pearle but meassour hath ye wordill loossed,
Quhoise mynd repoissed in no decaying pleassour.
A matchles Phoenix, quho from mein estait,
Becam a Prelat and a Prince's mait.

A painfull Pastour, worthy such a place;

Too schort a space his natioune hath decoired; Quho now, restored to earth, doth rest in peace; Receaued in grace, the heawinis in Sanctis hath stoired: Quhoise corpis t'intomb, glaid ar ye sensles stones, Promou'd to honour by his buried bones.

ROWALLAN'S POEMS.

131

In Zoilum.

Thou then, quho by thy false and fenzied fact,
Strywes to detract this prudent Prelat's name,
Bewar such schame becum thy suirest hap,
Thrawin from ye tap of fortoune to defame.
No blot, no blemisch, no defect, no moth
Presum'd to enter in so rich a cloth!

ANE EPITAPH

EFTER YE VULGAR OPINIOUNE WPON YE DEATH OF GEORGE GLAID-
STANES, B. OF S. A.

GLAIDSTANES is gone! his corpis doth heir duell,
Bot quhair be his oyer halfe, no man can tell:
The heauinis doth abhor to ludge such a ghost,
Quho still quhill he liued to Pluto raid post;
The earth hath expell'd him, as loathing such load,
Quho honoured Bacchus and no other god.
Since both then reiect him, t' this outcast of heavin
In midst of ye Furies a place must be giwin:
Qubose covetouse mynd no richesse contented,
Bot heiping wp treassour wnmyndful quho lent it;
Till contrary fortoun, by turning ye dyce,
Metamorphos'd his thousands in millions of lyce!
Quhich endit ye dayes of this sensuall slave-
Wnwordy the earth sould yeild him a grave!

By him quho wischeth, that this wretches fait
May giwe exemple wnto ewery stait:
That hyer powares be with feir regairdit;
Or, by this Athist's punischment rewairded!

Finis-1615.

These curious verses would seem at least a not unapt comment on the conflicting rancour of the period to which they belong; and so far may apologise for their present appearance.

George Gladstanes, the prelate to whom they appear to relate, was advanced to the metropolitan see of St. Andrews in 1606, and died in the incumbency, May 2, 1615. "He was son of Halbert Gladstanes, Clerk of Dundee; and had his education in the Latin there. He seems to have brought on his own death upon himself, by indulging his appetite. He lived a filthy belly-god; he died of a flthy and loathsome disease, σκωληχο βρωτος.” Wodrow MS. in Bib. Col. Glas. where other epitaphs on the same prelate, of no higher delicacy, and certainly not less virulent, are recorded.

Spotswood, who ran perhaps as high on the opposite side, though doubtless somewhat more tempered, characterises the archbishop as a man of good learning, ready utterance, and great invention; but of an easy nature, and induced by those he trusted, to do many things hurtful to the see."

Three other Epitaphs occur in the MSS. one on the "Lady Arnestoun," 1616; and another, dated 1617, is inscribed to the memory of the "Laird of Arnestoun, youngar;"—of both, the poet has to deplore their "vntymelie fait." The third Epitaph, which want of room alone precludes being now printed, is dated 1614; and records the premature death of the "excellent gentiluoman A. C. [Agnes Cuningham] sister to ye Laird of Caprintoun," Ayrshire.

OVERTOUN, July, 1827.

SECTION III.

SONGS AND BALLADS,

TRADITIONAL AND SELECTED.

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