stancy, and happy issue, are all set forth by way of allegorical vision, according to the reigning taste of the age of King James I. as we find from the poems of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, his contemporaries. The taste for poetical allegory and vision was derived from the Provençal writers, which probably was introduced into England by Richard I. who ranks among the most eminent of the Troubadours. It was highly in fashion in the age of Lydgate, Gower, and Chaucer, and continued to be so down to the age of Spencer, and the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Every story had its moral, and was told in the way of allegory and vision. The machinery of these poems were fiery dragons, giants, and fairies; the scenery enchanted forests, castles, and lakes. The virtues, vices, and passions were personified, and the mythology was a mixture of the Greek, Roman, Arabian, and Christian. The advancement of learning has long banished this false taste; and it cannot be denied, that perhaps the meanest modern composition, even the flimsy flowers of a monthly miscellany, will better stand the test of criticism; yet how fleetly do these short-lived embryos vanish, never to appear again, at the approach of the great visionary figures, called up by our old bards! How is the imagination carried away, in

their lofty flights into the regions of fancy, adorned with the glow of genuine poetry!

In pursuing the several parts of the allegorical vision in King James's poem, perhaps it may appear prolix, a fault which attends almost every allegorical poem. It might be imputed to prejudice, were I to rank our Royal poet with Chaucer, his contemporary, whose genius, like the morning-star, broke out after a long obscure night!

Chaucer, the father of English poetry, as he may be styled the first, so he is the best poet of his time. His universal genius has comprehended, in his Canterbury Tales, the various manners and humours of every rank of men in his age and country, from his accomplished knight, who had served in the holy wars, down to the reeve, ploughman, and miller: And he has shewn the extent of his genius and learning, in almost every species of poetry, from his heroic poem of Palamon and Arcite to his ballads.-Having said this in preference of Chaucer,

I may, however, be allowed to compare the episode of the Court of Venus, in the following poem of James, with the Court of Love of Chaucer; in

which view, if I am able to judge, our poet will lose nothing by the comparison, particularly in the portraiture of the mistress of each poet. The Jane of King James is painted with as much beauty, and with more tender delicacy, than the buxom Rosial of Chaucer.

The Seldenian manuscript, from which the present copy is taken, appears to be of an old date; in many places it was not easy to find out the proper sense of the passage, and in many passages it was obviously erroneous. The writer of the old MS. seems to have been but little acquainted with classical learning; hence it appears, that he has often erroneously substituted one name in place of another, of which many gross instances occur. Many other apparent inaccuracies run through it, which, however, ought not always to be placed to the account of the transcriber: The poet himself is answerable for many liberties which he takes in his poem, which the custom of that age gave a sanction to.

Great freedom is used in the orthography or spelling, which is often various in the same word. Not unfrequently words are omitted or under

F

stood, which the reader is left to supply, so as to make out the sense of the passage.

To such as are not versant in the old poets, Chaucer, Gower, &c. the numbers of the verses will often appear to be unequal, as the apostrophes, signs of contraction, elisions, and marks for the division of the syllables for the sake of the verse, which were used by the old poets, are now lost. For understanding of these, I cannot do better than recommend to the reader the excellent general rules prefixed to the learned glossary in Gavin Douglas's Virgil.

For the ease of the reader, I have divided the poem into cantos, according to the various episodes contained in it; and, throughout the whole, I have, by explanatory notes, endeavoured to render the sense, frequently obscure, as easy as was in my power. In many places I am afraid I have not been so successful as I could have wished.

It must be confessed, that many of the beauties of this ancient poem must escape us, from the mutability of the language in the space of near 400 years; an imperfection attendant on every living language. What Waller says, in his elegant vers

es on Chaucer, in the last century, may, with equal force, be applied to the poetical remains of King James I. of Scotland:

Poets, that lasting marble seek,

Must carve in Latin or in Greek:
We write in sand; our language grows;
And, like the tide, our work o'erflows.

Chaucer his sense can only boast,

The glory of his numbers lost!

Years have defac'd his matchless strain,
And yet he did not write in vain.

Upon the whole: If the present publication, which has been the amusement of leisure hours, and a relief from more serious occupations, shall entertain the few who have a relish or esteem for the genuine poetical productions of their ancestors, it will sufficiently reward my pains, in the satisfaction I shall have of having rescued from oblivion this genuine remain of the works of a genius, one of the best and wisest of Kings! one of the most illustrious characters of his age!