victim to the tyranny of Henry VIII.: but it is presumed most of them were composed before the death of Sir Thomas Wyat, in 1541.-See Surrey's Poems, 4to, folios 19, 49.

Though written perhaps near half a century before the Shepherd's Calendar, this will be found far superior to any of those Eclogues, in natural unaffected sentiments, in simplicity of style, in easy flow of versification, and all other beauties of pastoral poetry. Spenser ought to have profited more by so excellent a model.

PHYLIDA was a faire mayde,

As fresh as any flowre;

Whom Harpalus the herdman prayde
To be his paramour.

Harpalus, and eke Corin,

Were herdmen both yfere;

And Phylida could twist and spinne,

And thereto sing full clere.

But Phylida was all tò coye
For Harpalus to winne;
For Corin was her onely joye,
Who forst her not a pinne.

How often would she flowers twine,
How often garlandes make

Of couslips and of colombine?
And al for Corin's sake.

But Corin, he had haukes to lure,
And forced more the field;
Of lovers lawe he toke no cure:
For once he was begilde.

Harpalus prevailed nought,
His labour all was lost:

For he was fardest from her thought,
And yet he loved her most.

Therefore waxt he both pale and leane,
And drye as clot of clay;

His fleshe it was consumed cleane;

His colour gone away.

1 First published in 1579.

His beard it had not long be shave;
His heare hong all unkempt:
A man most fit even for the grave,
Whom spitefull love had spent.

His eyes were red, and all 'forewacht ;'
His face besprent with teares;

It semde unhap had him long 'hatcht,'
In mids of his dispaires.

His clothes were blacke, and also bare;
As one forlorne was he;

Upon his head alwayes he ware

A wreath of wyllow tree.

His beastes he kept upon the hyll,

And he sate in the dale;

And thus with sighes and sorrowes shril,

He

gan to tell his tale.

"Oh Harpalus!" (thus would he say)

45

"Unhappiest under sunne!

The cause of thine unhappy day,

By love was first begunne.

He eats the frutes of thy redresse;

Thou reapst,' he takes the sheaves.

"My beastes a whyle your foode refraine,
And harke your herdmans sounde,
Whom spitefull love, alas! hath slaine,
Through-girt with many a wounde.

Ver. 33, &c. The corrections are from ed. 1574.

60

"The ewe she hath by her the ramme; The young cow hath the bull;

The calfe with many a lusty lambe

Do fede their hunger full.

75

80

“Here lieth unhappy Harpalus
By cruell love now slaine;
Whom Phylida unjustly thus
Hath murdred with disdaine.'”

XIII.

Robin and Makyne.

AN ANCIENT SCOTTISH PASTORAL.

The palm of pastoral poesy is here contested by a contemporary writer
with the author of the foregoing. The critics will judge of their
respective merits; but must make some allowance for the preceding
ballad, which is given simply as it stands in the old editions: whereas
this which follows has been revised and amended throughout by Allan
Ramsay, from whose Ever-Green, vol. i., it is here chiefly printed. The
curious reader may however compare it with the more original copy,
printed among "Ancient Scottish Poems, from the MS. of George
Mr. Robert Henryson (to
Bannatyne, 1568, Edinb. 1770, 12mo."
whom we are indebted for this poem) appears to so much advantage
among the writers of eclogue, that we are sorry we can give little other
account of him besides what is contained in the following eloge, written
by W. Dunbar, a Scottish poet, who lived about the middle of the 16th
century:

"In Dumferling, he [Death] hath tane Broun,
With gude Mr. Robert Henryson."

Indeed, some little further insight into the history of the Scottish bard is gained from the title prefixed to some of his poems preserved in the British Museum; viz. "The morall Fabillis of Esop compylit be Maister Robert Henrisoun, scolmaister of Dumfermling, 1571.”Harleian MSS. 3865, § 1.

In Ramsay's Ever-Green, vol. i., whence the above distich is extracted, are preserved two other little Doric pieces by Henryson; the one entitled The Lyon and the Mouse; the other, The garment of gude Ladyis. Some other of his poems may be seen in the " Ancient Scottish Poems, printed from Bannatyne's MS." above referred to.

ROBIN sat on the gude grene hill,
Keipand a flock of fie:

Quhen mirry Makyne said him till,
"O Robin rew on me;

Lo quhair they raik on raw.

Quhat can have mart thee in thy mude,
Thou Makyne to me schaw;

Or quhat is luve, or to be lude?

Fain wald I leir that law."

"The law of luve gin thou wald leir,
Tak thair an A, B, C ;

Be heynd, courtas, and fair of feir,
Wyse, hardy, kind and frie.
Sae that nae danger do the deir,
Quhat dule in dern thou drie ;
Press ay to pleis and blyth appeir,
Be patient and privie.”

Robin, he answert her againe :
"I wat not quhat is luve,

But I haif marvel in certaine,

Quhat makes thee thus wanrufe.
The wedder is fair, and I am fain,
My sheep gais hail abuve,

And sould we pley us on the plain,
They wald us baith repruve."

'Robin, tak tent unto my tale,

And wirk all as I reid,

And thou sall haif my heart all hale,

35

Ver. 19, Bannatyne's MS. reads as above, heynd, not keynd, as in the

Edinb. edit. 1770.

V. 21. So that no danger. Bannatyne's MS.