THE following lines, if they display no rich | the nobilitie incline to favour her partie : vein of poetry, are yet so strongly character- some of them desirous of innovation in the istic of their great and spirited authoress, state: others aspiring to greater fortunes by that the insertion of them will be pardoned. her libertie and life: the queene our soveThey are preserved in Puttenham's " Arte of raigne ladie, to declare that she was nothing English Poesie:" a book in which are many ignorant of those secret practizes, though she sly addresses to the queen's foible of shining had long with great wisdome and pacience as a poetess. The extraordinary manner in dissembled it, writeth this dittie most sweete which these verses are introduced shows and sententious, not hiding from all such what kind of homage was exacted from the aspiring minds the danger of their ambition courtly writers of that age, viz. and disloyaltie: which afterwards fell out most truly by th' exemplary chastisement of sundry persons, who in favour of the said Scot. Qu. declining from her majestie, sought to interrupt the quiet of the realme by many evill and undutifull practizes." "I find,” says this antiquated critic, "none example in English metre, so well maintaining this figure [Exargasia, or the Gorgeous, Lat. Expolitio] as that dittie of her majesties owne making, passing sweete and harmonicall; which figure beyng as his very originall name purporteth the most bewtifull and gorgious of all others, it asketh in reason to be reserved for a last complement, and desciphred by a ladies penne, herself beyng the most bewtifull, or rather bewtie of queenes.* And this was the occasion; our soveraigne lady perceiving how the Scottish queenes residence within this realme at so great libertie and ease (as were skarce meete for so great and dangerous a prysoner) bred secret factions among her people, and made many of Pronounced after the northern manner dec. This sonnet seems to have been composed in 1569, not long before the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Pembroke and Arundel, the Lord Lumley, Sir Nich. Throcmorton, and others, were taken into custody. See Hume, Rapin, &c. It was originally written in long lines or alexandrines, each of which is here divided into two. The present edition is improved by some readings adopted from a copy printed in a collection from the papers of Sir John Harrington, intituled, "Nuga Antiquæ," Lond. 1769, 12mo., where the verses are accompanied with very curious letter, in which this sonnet is said to be "of her Highness own THIS ballad is a proof of the little intercourse that subsisted between the Scots and English, before the accession of James I. to the crown of England. The tale which is here so circumstantially related, does not appear to have had the least foundation in history, but was probably built upon some confused hearsay report of the tumults in Scotland during the minority of that prince, and of the conspiracies formed by different factions to get possession of his person. It should seem from ver. 97 to have been written during the regency, or at least before Ver. 1, dread, al. ed. V. 9, toyes, al. ed. the death, of the Earl of Morton, who was condemned and executed June 2, 1581; when James was in his fifteenth year. The original copy (preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society, London) is entitled, A new ballad, declaring the great treason conspired against the young king of Scots, and how one Andrew Browne an English-man, which was the king's chamberlaine, prevented the same. To the tune of Milfield, or els to Green-sleeves." At the end is subjoined the name of the author, W. Elderton. "Imprinted at London for Yarathe *She evidently means here the Queen of Scots. James, dwelling in Newgate Market, over against Ch. Church," in black-letter folio. This Elderton, who had been originally an attorney in the sheriff's court of London, and afterwards (if we may believe Oldys) a comedian, was a facetious fuddling companion, whose tippling and rhymes rendered him famous among his contemporaries. He was author of many popular songs and ballads; and probably other pieces in this work, besides the following, are of his composing. He is believed to have fallen a victim to his One Browne, that was an English man, And hard the ladies piteous crye, He met the bishop coming fast, bottle before the year 1592. His epitaph has been recorded by Camden, and translated For feare that Browne would make a fray. by Oldys. Alas, for woe, &c. 26 3309 36 This was a posset indeed, quoth Brown! As soon as the king got word of this, 60 15 For that he did perceive and know, 20 Alas, he said, unhappie realme, My father, and grandfather slaine: 65 Ver. 67, His father was Henry Lord Darnley. His grandfather the old Earl of Lenox, regent of Scotland, and father of Lord Darnley, was murdered at Stirling, Sept. 5. 1571. IN December 1591, Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, had made an attempt to seize on the person of his sovereign James VI., but being disappointed, had retired towards the north. The king unadvisedly gave a commision to George Gordon, Earl of Huntley, to pursue Bothwell and his followers with fire and sword. Huntley, under cover of executing that commission, took occasion to revenge a private quarrel he had against James Stewart, Earl of Murray, a relation of Bothwell's. In the night of Feb. 7, 1592, he beset Murray's house, burnt it to the ground, and slew Murray himself; a young nobleman of the most promising virtues, and the very darling of the people. See Robertson's History. The present Lord Murray hath now in his possession a picture of his ancestor naked and covered with wounds, which had been carried about, according to the custom of that age, in order to inflame the populace to revenge his death. If this picture did not flatter, he well deserved the name of the "Bonny Earl," for he is there represented as a tall and comely personage. It is a tradition in the family, that Gordon of Bucky gave him a wound in the face: Murray, half expiring, said, "you hae spilt a better face than your awin." Upon this, Bucky, pointing his dagger at Huntley's breast, swore, "You shall be as deep as I;" and forced him to pierce the poor defenceless body. King James, who took no care to punish *Queen Elizabeth. Ir has been suggested to the Editor, that this ballad covertly alludes to the indiscreet partiality, which Queen Anne of Denmark is said to have shown for the "Bonny Earl of Murray;" and which is supposed to have influenced the fate of that unhappy nobleman. Let the reader judge for himself. The following account of the murder is given by a contemporary writer, and a person of credit, Sir James Balfour, knight, Lyon King of Arms, whose MS. of the Annals of Scotland is in the Advocate's Library at Edinburgh. The reasons of a proper and gallant man. The following ballad is here given from a copy printed not long since at Glasgow, in one sheet 8vo. The world was indebted for its publication to the Lady Jean Hume, sister to the Earl of Hume, who died at Gibraltar. "The seventh of Febry, this zeire, 1592, the Earle of Murray was cruelly murthered by the Earle of Huntley at his house in Dunibrissel in Fyffe-shyre, and with him Dunbar, sherriffe of Murray. It was given out and publickly talkt, that the Earle of Huntley was only the instrument of perpetrating this facte, to satisfie the King's jealousie of Murray, quhum the Queene, more rashly than wisely, some few days before had commendit of Downe, a seat belonging to the family of Murray. in the king's hearing, with too many epithets ABOUT Zule, quhen the wind blew cule, *Castle downe here has been thought to mean the Castle This extract is copied from the Critical Review. |