Pinkerton published the poem in 1783 from a transcript made by Bishop Percy with his own hand from the MS. at Cambridge. We follow Pinkerton, only modifying his punctuation a little for sense's sake. 'Play,' like ploy' in modern Scotch, means entertainment, festivity. It is noticeable that the last line or refrain of the stanza does not as a rule connect in sense with the words preceding. The stanzas are usually printed (as by Pinkerton) with a short line of two syllables between the eighth and last lines. The Bannatyne MS., however (printed for the Hunterian Society), tacks this short line on to the eighth in the quite similar stanza of Chrystis Kirk— of which the following are the first four stanzas : Was nevir in Scotland hard nor sene He chereist hir, scho bad ga chat him, limbsdistaffs In a rage 'ane bent a bow' and 'chesit a flame' -chose an arrow; and when the toder said Dirdum dardum' to insult him, he let fly, determining to pierce him through the cheeks or inflict other serious injury: Bot be an akerbraid it come nocht neir him; At Chrystis kirk of the grene. With that a freynd of his cryd Fy! And vp ane arrow drew; He forgit it so fowriously marred drew it so furiously fragments Finally there was a general mêlée, bloody faces, cudgels in use, 'hiddous yells' from the women; the common bell rang so rudely that the steeple 'rokkit,' and many of the merrymakers are left on the green faint and 'forfochin' or in a state of collapse. The scene of this Scottish Donnybrook may have been the village still called Christ's Kirk or Rathmuriel, near Insch, in Aberdeenshire. If the bob-wheel of the third stanza (especially) be dropped, the resemblance in rhythm to 'Sally in our Alley' is very marked. The rude is the red or ruddy part of the skin-here the cheeks; the lyre the part naturally white. The Scottish ballads are treated at pages 520-541. In this connection reference may be made to the pieces named in The Complaynt of Scotlande, and to the list of works Lyndsay (q.v.) says he read to the young king; to Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poems (1770); Pinkerton, Ancient Scotish Poems (1786); Irving, History of Scotish Poetry (1828-61); Laing, Early Popular Poetry of Scotland (1822-26; republished in 1895); T. F. Hender. son, Scottish Vernacular Literature (1898); to many of the publications of the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, and of the Scottish Text Society; as also to the Bannatyne MS., as published in full by the Hunterian Club of Glasgow (8 parts, 1874-87). John Major was one of two contemporary Scottish authors who wrote only in Latin, and deserve mention for their eminence and for their influence on the thought of the nation: one is conspicuously, yet not wholly, a mediævalist, the other in literary style at least a representative of the Renaissance. Major-or Mair-born near North Berwick in 1469, studied at Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris, and at Paris became one of the most distinguished lecturers on scholastic logic and philosophy. He also wrote voluminous commentaries on Peter Lombard and numerous other works in theology and philosophy, and in 1521 printed at Paris his famous Historia Majoris Britanniæ, a history of England and Scotland. In 1518 he was teaching in the college of Glasgow, where he had Knox among his pupils; at St Andrews (1523-25) he had Patrick Hamilton and George Buchanan. In 1525 Major returned to Paris, where he remained till about 1530, admired and honoured by all who still held out against the new light of the Renaissance, and acclaimed as head of the scholastic philosophy and prince of the divines of Paris. In 1533 he became provost of St Salvator's College, St Andrews, an office which he held till his death in 1550. Mair's Latin is crabbed school Latin, and he was a stout defender of mediæval philosophy and theological orthodoxy, although a Gallican and not an ultramontane-he recognised and protested against many ecclesiastical abuses. In some things he was more modern in spirit than Boece. He was distinctly sceptical about many of the marvels Boece swallowed wholesale; he abstained from pushing the genealogy of the Scottish kings into an indefinite antiquity; he was not unwilling to admit the superiority of England to Scotland in many matters, and was in favour of a union of the kingdoms. But most chiefly he was a strong Liberal in politics, and taught that the power of kings came from the people. In this respect Buchanan was a faithful if not very grateful pupil. Knox inherited this part of his teaching, which has never lacked supporters in Major's native land. The History has been admirably translated by Mr Constable (Scottish Hist. Soc. 1891). In the appendix Dr Law has given a bibliography of works by Major's countrymen in Paris who were also his disciples in scholasticism-David Cranstoun, George Lokert [Lockhart], William Manderston, and Robert Caubraith [Galbraith]. Hector Boece was the principal redactor of that extraordinary tissue of preposterous fable and serious fact which till the days of Father Innes (1729) was usually accepted as the history of Scotland. He was born at Dundee about 1465, and studied at Paris, where from about 1492 to 1498 he was a professor of philosophy and a friend of Erasmus. Thence he was called by Bishop Elphinstone to preside over his newly-founded university of Aberdeen, and became canon of the Cathedral. In 1522 he published his Lives, in Latin, of the Bishops of Mortlach and Aberdeen (Bannatyne Club, 1825; trans. by Moir for New Spalding Club, 1895); in 1527, also in Latin, his famous History of Scotland. He based largely on Bower's Fordun (see above, page 182), partly on Wyntoun, and partly on some more doubtful authorities—a certain Veremundus, a Spaniard, and one John Campbell, whose MSS. he says came to him from Iona. It may be that he had seen such MSS., though he was long suspected of having invented them as well as the tales he took from them. Certainly the fabulous reached its culmination in his work, written in Latin so comparatively elegant as to justify us in calling him a humanist, in contrast with the scholastic yet more critical Major. Buchanan was also much more discreet, though he followed Boece in the main. The patriotic mania for believing and proving the incomparable antiquity and dignity of the Scottish monarchy, as compared with that of England, must have moved either Boece or some of his predecessors to the deliberate invention of utterly baseless facts, which, patriotically invented, were patriotically believed in long after their baselessness was pretty obvious. The king rewarded him with a pension, and he was promoted to a benefice a year or two before his death in 1536. (See page 256.) The Scots Wyclifite New Testament.— It has often been remarked with surprise that the Scots had made no attempt to render the Scriptures into their own vernacular, but were content to import English versions, which must have been with difficulty understood by the mass of the people. The statement can, however, no longer be made so absolutely. In 1895 Lord Amherst of Hackney became the fortunate possessor of a manuscript, which from the handwriting is ascribed to the first decade of the sixteenth century, containing a Scottish version of Purvey's revision of Wyclif's New Testament (see above, page 87), with certain lessons from the Old Testament. The author's name is unknown, but the work probably proceeded from the Lollards of Ayrshire; and the manuscript was for many generations in the possession of the Nisbet family. The vocabulary of this interesting version is not so distinctly Scottish as it would have been if it had been made directly from the Vulgate; for, though the grammar and spelling are purely Scottish, the reviser has followed Purvey closely in his vocabulary, making alterations only where the English would have been unintelligible or unfamiliar north of the Tweed. Thus Purvey writes, Suffre ye litle children to come to me, and forbede ye hem not.' The Scots version similarly, Suffir ye litil childire to cum to me, and forbid ye thame nocht;' while in Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism (1552) we have, 'Thoile young barnis to cum.' But the list of Middle English words and phrases for which the Scottish reviser was constrained to find for his readers more familiar expressions is a large one, and it is this which gives to his version for students of the language an almost unique philological value. In the Scots New Testament the last eight verses of the first chapter of Matthew's gospel are thus worded: Bot the generatioun of Crist was thus: Quhen Marie the Moder of Jesu was spousit to Joseph, before thai com togeddir, scho was fundin hauyng of the Haligast in wambe. And Joseph hir husband, for he was richtiuse, and wald not publice hir, he wald priuelie haue left hir. Bot quhile he thouchte this thingis, Lo the angel of the Lord apperit to him in slepe, and said, Josephe, the sonn of Dauid, wil thou nocht drede to tak Marie thin wif: for that that is born of hir is of the Haligast. And scho sal bere a sonn, and thou sal cal his name Jesus: for he sal mak his pepele saif fra thar synnis: Forsuth al this was done that it suld be fulfillit that was said of the Lorde be a prophet, sayand, Lo a virgine sal haue in wambe, and scho sal bere a sonn, and thai sal cal his name Emmanuel, that is to say, God with vs. And Joseph raise fra slepe and did as the angel of the Lord comandit him, and tuke Marie his spous: and he knew hir nocht til scho had born hir first begettin sonn: and callit his name Jesus. How closely this follows the English rendering from which it was adapted will be seen on comparing Purvey's version of the same passage as given in Dr Skeat's Wyclifite New Testament, reprinted from Forshall and Madden (Clarendon Press, 1879): But the generacioun of Crist was thus. Whanne Marie, the modir of Jhesu, was spousid to Joseph, bifore thei camen togidere, she was foundun hauynge of the Hooli Goost in the wombe. And Joseph, hire hosebonde, for he was rightful and wold not puplisch hir, he wolde pruieli haue left hir. But while he thoughte these thingis, lo! the aungel of the Lord apperide in sleep to hym, and seide, Joseph the sone of Dauid, nyl thou drede to take Marie, thi wijf; for that thing that is borun in hir is of the Hooli Goost. And she shal bere a sone, and thou shalt clepe his name Jhesus; for he schal make his puple saaf fro her synnes. For al this thing was don, that it schuld be fulfillid that was seid of the Lord bi a prophete, seiynge, Lo! a virgyn shal haue in wombe, and she schal bere a sone and thei schulen clepe his name Emanuel, that is to seie, God with vs. And Joseph roos fro sleepe and dide as the aungel of the Lord comaundide hym, and took Marie his wijf; and he knew her not, til she hadde borun her firste bigete sone, and clepide his name Jhesus. The Parable of the Virgins begins thus in the Scots, in direct agreement with the English: Than the kingdome of heuinis salbe like to ten virginis, the quhilk tuke thare lampis and went out aganes the spouse and the spouses. And v of thame war fules, and v prudent. Bot the v fules tuke thare lampis, and tuke nocht oile with thame: Bot the v prudent tuke oile in thare veschels with thare lampis. And while the spouse tariet al thai nappit and slepit. Bot at midnycht a crie was made, Lo the spouse cummis: ga ye out to meet him. Than al the virginis raise vp and arayit thare lampis. And the fules said to the wise, Gefe ye to vs of your oile for our lampis ar sloknyt [Engl. 'ben quenchid']. The prudent ansuerde and saide, Or peraventure it suffice nocht to vs and you: ga ye rather to men that sellis and by to you. And quhile thai went for to by, the spouse com; and thai that war reddy enteret with him to the weddingis: and the yet was closet. T. G. L. [This Scots New Testament, interesting from so many points of view, was in 1899-1900 being edited for the Scottish Text Society by Dr Thomas Graves Law, to whom we owe the above account of the work, as well as the extracts from it. ་ The close dependence of the Scots version on Purvey's English wording is conspicuous in every verse, the usual difference being merely that Scots spellings or forms are put-word for word-in place of the corresponding English or southern ones-ga and gais for go and goith; fra for fro; kirk for chirche; quhat, quhen, quham for what, when, whome; thou knawis' for 'thou knowist;' 'quhy brekis thy disciplis' for 'whi breken thi disciplis;' and so on. Sometimes, of course, a distinct northern word is used-biggit his hous on a staan' for 'bildid his hous on a stoon.' Rarely the changes seem needless and arbitrary; but mirk and mirknesse are regularly substituted for derk and derkness, though derk is a common Scots word. Not seldom, as might be expected from the date and other circumstances, the Scottish version is nearer the modern English than the old English; rarely, but occasionally, more archaic. In Matthew's gospel there are only two or three passages in which the Scottish scribe either deliberately chooses a slightly different rendering, or perhaps follows a copy with readings different from those of the printed editions of Purvey; thus in All 3e that travailes and ben chargid, come to me, and Y schal fulfille you,' the Scots makes it, 'Al ye that travales and ar chargit, cum to me, and I sal refresch you,' where the older Wyclifite version has 'fulfille or refresch; and in the phrase 'schal not quenche a smok. ynge flax,' the Scots has 'slokin a smewkand brand.' Almost the only word that need seriously puzzle a Scotsman who knows modern Scotch is in the phrase 'a flok of mony swyne lesewand '—lesewand, unusual in Scotch, being an adapted Scottish spelling of the standard old English lesewynge, pasturing,' which is Purvey's word. The Scots has peple for the English puple (people), paralasie for palesie, except for outtakun, adultrie for avowtrie, thaim and thair for hem and her (in the sense of them and their), abide and abidis for abiden and abidith, realme for reume, liand for liggynge, call for clepe, follow for sue, seuche for diche-gif a blindman leid a blindman bathe falle doun into the seuche.' The English toon and tothir are not represented in Scots by tane and tother, but by that ane and that other. English taris is Scots (with gloss) dornells (or weidis); sour dous becomes sour dauche (or laven); busschel is buschel (or furlot); eris of corn are ekiris (Burns's ickers); strongere becomes starker; pathis, roddis; gessen, wene; greten, salus; repen, scheris; herying, lonyng; mesils, lepermen. In the parable of the talents we have besaunt (Engl.) and besand respectively, 'pupplicans and hooris' and 'puplicanis and hures.' In 'synagogis or corneris of stretis' the Scotsman rejects the French word corneris (Fr. cornière) and prefers the Anglo-Saxon neukis. Chandelar is one of the very few cases where the Scots prefers a French form for the English candilstike. Describing Christ's boat 'schoggid with wawis' (so Purvey), the Scotsman puts 'catchet with waivis ;' and for 'hilid with wawes,' 'keuerit with waivis' (i.e. covered). The 'reed wawed with the wynd becomes, less solemnly, 'waggit with wind.' 'Nouther cast ye your margaritis befor swyne' is the Scots respelling of 'nethir caste 3e 3our margaritis before swyne;' and Purvey's description of Matthew 'sittynge in a tolbothe' (i.e. in the customhouse) is faithfully reproduced in the Scots 'sittand in a tolbuthe.' The Scots simply repeats the English mutatis mutandis in 'draw on breed thar philateries and magnifies hemmis;' 'that teendis mynt' is an obvious alteration; less so 'clengeand a myge bot suelliand a camele' for 'clensinge a gnatte but swolewynge a camele.' Eddris and eddris birdis 'is almost literatim (= vipers and generation of vipers); and so is 'abhominatioun of discomfort (A.V. 'desolation'). The Scots has 'tolbuthe' again where the English has moot halle' for the hall in the governor's house where Christ was crowned with thorns. 'Pilate of Pounce' in both oddly represents Pontius Pilate; and Symount' or 'Symont,' the usual form in the English, is in the Scots 'Symon.'-ED.] The Complaynt of Scotlande is a puzzling book, and many of the opinions in regard to it cherished by the most competent scholars have since 1890 been completely overthrown. The work was originally published soon after the disastrous battle of Pinkie, when internal factions and foreign intrigues had reduced the country's credit and prosperity to the lowest pass. The author was a strong upholder of the French alliance, and the aim of the book was to denounce and render impossible any rapprochement to England. The original issue, printed apparently in Paris in 1549, is extremely scarce: only four copies have come down to modern times. Dr John Leyden edited and reprinted it in 1801, and Dr J. A. H. Murray, with much scholarly learning, in 1872, under the auspices of the Early English Text Society. But neither editor had any suspicion the work was not original; that it was mainly unacknowledged translation or plagiarism. Murray agrees with Leyden that 'the Complaynt is well written and fraught with great learning; the style of remark is shrewd and forcible, though frequently quaint and affected; and the arrangement, though sometimes careless, is not devoid of method.' And Professor Masson treated the work as the most notable book of impassioned prose that had till then been produced in either England or Scotland. But, alas! the learning is almost wholly second-hand, the plan and arrangement mainly that of a famous old French poet's work, and much of the most impassioned and effective prose in it a direct translation from the French. Mr Neilson has proved that the plan of the whole is mutatis mutandis that of the Quadrilogue Invectif of Alain Chartier (13861458), an appeal to all ranks and conditions of the French nation to unite against the English invaders and tyrants; and long passages of the Complaynt are mere translations, with occasional adaptations. Plagiarisms from other sources have also been pointed out. The Scottish translator-adapter follows his model in exhorting the three estates to be vigilant for the commonweal, and in ransacking Hebrew, Greek, and Roman history and literature for examples of the curse attending on discord, self-seeking, indolence, and other public and private crimes. Fatigued by his argument, he seeks rest in the wholesome air of the country, beneath verdant trees and by beryl streams, sleeps, and has a vision (as in so many poems of that and preceding ages), in this case of Dame Scotia and her three sons - Nobility, Spirituality, and Commons or labourers. Then the argument begins anew, the dramatic form being little heeded. The 'affligit lady' reasons with her sons, hears their mutual recriminations, and reprimands and warns them sharply, with much more exhortation, to concord and union against the public enemy. The 'Monologue Recreative' or 'Monolog of the Actor' thrust into the middle of the argument is a very odd but interesting interruption, and bears evidence of having been much extended after the first draft. For not only does it describe with extraordinary particularity the sounds and voices of a great variety of beasts and birds, but adds an account of a sea-fight with the names of the tackle and the shouts of the seamen. Then an exposition of the excellence of the shepherd's life leads to an exposition of the cosmogony, and a page or two on meteorology; with a long list of tales then current in Scotland (as told by the highly intelligent shepherds, their sons and daughters, to one another), with the songs they sang and the tunes they danced to; together with a catalogue of medicinal herbs! The list of popular stories and romances (The Well of the World's End, The Red Etin, Lancelot du Lac, Arthur Knight, Wallace, The Bruce, &c.) and the songs (Pastance with good Company, Under the Leavis Green, The Frog cam to the Mill Door, The Battle of Harlaw, The Hunt of Cheviot, The Sang of Gilquhiskar, &c.) is much more interesting than the political disquisitions. Some parts of this 'Monologue Recreative' are, we may be confident, translations or adaptations also; some must surely be original, such as, for example, this description of a Scottish shepherd's al-fresco breakfast after the naval battle: [The noise of the engagement was 'hiddeus;'] ‘and the stink of the gun puldir fylit ale the ayr, maist lyke as plutois paleis had been birnand in ane bald fyir, quhilk genrit sik mirknes and myst that I culd nocht see my lyntht about me. Quhar for. I rais and returnit to the fresche feildis that I cam fra, quhar I beheld mony hudit hirdis blawand ther buc hornis and ther cornepipis, calland and convoyand mony fat floc to be fed on the feildis. Than the scheiphirdis pat their scheip on bankis and brais and on dry hillis to get ther pastour. Than I beheld the scheiphirdis wyvis and ther childir that brocht ther morning bracfast to the scheiphirdis. Than the scheiphirdis wyvis cuttit raschis and seggis, and gadrit mony fragrant grene meduart, witht the quhilkis tha covvrit the end of ane leye rig, and syne sat doune al togyddir to tak there refectione, quhar they maid grit cheir of evyrie sort of mylk, baytht of ky mylk and zoue mylk, sueit mylk and suir mylk, curdis and quhaye, sourkittis, fresche buttir and salt buttir, reyme, flot quhaye, grene cheis, kyrn mylk. Everie scheiphird hed ane horne spune in the lug of there bonet: thai had na breid bot ry caikis and fustean skonnis maid of flour. Than after there disjune, tha began to talk of grit myrrines that was rycht plesand to be hard. Bald fyir, bale-fire, bonfire; raschis and seggis, rushes and sedges; meduart, meadwort, meadow-sweet (in modern Scotch, 'queen-of-the-meadow'); sourkittis, clouted cream; flot qukaye, boiled whey; fustean skonnis, homely scones; disjune, déjeuner. The language is Scottish of the middle period and of the southern type, but is a literary or 'Ciceronian' style, full of Latin and French words utterly unknown to shepherds or plain vernacular Scotsmen at any date. The book, early known as 'Wedderburn's Complaynt,' has been attributed (as by Leyden) to Sir David Lyndsay; (as by Laing) to Robert Wedderburn, vicar of Dundee, one of the same family to which we owe the Gude and Godlie Ballatis (pages 216-17); to Sir James Inglis, abbot of Culross (died in 1531); and to Sir James Inglis, chaplain of Cambuskenneth Abbey-in no case on conclusive evidence. Thus Leyden, having remarked on imitations of Gavin Douglas in the Complaynt, insisted that the coincidences in detached thoughts, arguments, illustrations, and words between the Complaynt and Sir David Lyndsay's works were sufficient to justify the attribution of the Complaynt to the Lyon King (four of whose acknowledged works are called Complaynt). Mr Craigie's discovery that the author of the Complaynt plagiarised from an unprinted translation of Ovid, by Octavien de St Gelais, Bishop of Angoulême-possibly from the same MS. now in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal— makes it almost certain that the work was written as well as printed in Paris, and probable that the author was in attendance on the young Queen of Scotland. Robert Wedderburn was also, it should be noted, in Paris in 1534-49. The following is another portion of this odd miscellany, the 'Monologue': There eftir I herd the rumour of rammasche foulis ande of beystis that made grite beir, quhilk past besyde burnis and boggis on green bankis to seik ther sustentatione. Their brutal sound did redond to the hie skyis, quhil the deepe hou cauernis of cleuchis and rotche craggis ansuert vitht ane high not of that samyn sound as thay beystis hed blauen. It aperit be presumyng and presuposing that blaberand Eccho had been hid in ane hou hole, cryand hyr half ansueir, quhen Narcissus rycht sorye socht for his saruandis, quhen he vas in ane forrest, far fra ony folkis, and there eftir for loue of Eccho he drounit in ane drau vel. Nou to tel treutht of the beystis that made sic beir, and of the dyn that the foulis did, ther syndry soundis hed nothir temperance nor tune. For fyrst furtht on the fresche fieldis the nolt maid noyis vitht mony loud lou. Baytht horse and meyris did fast nee, and the folis nechyr. The bullis began to bullir, quhen the scheip began to blait, because the calfis began till mo, quhen the doggis berkit. Than the suyne began to quhryne quhen thai herd the asse rair, quhilk gart the hennis kekkyl quhen the cokis creu. The chekyns began to peu quhen the gled quhissillit. The fox follouit the fed geise and gart them cry claik. The gayslingis cryit quhilk quhilk, and the dukis cryit quaik. The ropeen of the rauynis gart the crans crope. The huddit crauis cryit varrok varrok, quhen the suannis murnit, because the gray goul mau pronosticat ane storme. The turtil began for to greit, quhen the cuschet zoulit. The titlene followit the goilk, and gart hyr sing guk guk. The dou croutit hyr sad sang that soundit lyik sorrou. Robeen and the liti vran var hamely in vyntir. The jargolyne of the suallou gart the iay iangil, than the maueis maid myrtht, for to mok the merle. The lauerok_maid melody vp hie in the skyis. The nychtingal al the nycht sang sueit notis. The tuechitis cryit theuis nek, quhen the piettis clattrit. The garruling of the stirlene gart the sparrou cheip. The lyntquhit The grene sang cuntirpoint quhen the oszil zelpit. serene sang sueit, quhen the gold spynk chantit. The rede schank cryit my fut my fut, and the oxee cryit tueit. The herrons gaif ane vyild skrech as the kyl hed bene in fyir, quhilk gart the quhapis for fleyitnes fle far fra hame. Rammasche (Fr. ramassée), collected; beir, birr, noise; cleughs, dells; rotche (Fr. roche), rock; blaberand, whispering; nolt, neatcattle; gled, kite; crans, cranes; goul mau, gull maw; cuschet, cushat-dove: titlene, hedge-sparrow: goilk, gowk, cuckoo; dou, dove; maneis, thrush; merle, blackbird; lauerok, lark; tuechitis, pee-wits, lapwings; piet, magpie; stirlene, starling; lyntquhit, linnet; os3il, ousel; grene serene, greenfinch; gold spynk, goldfinch; oxee, ox-eye tomtit; quhapis, whaups, curlews; fleyitnes, frightenedness. The odd list of beast and bird cries has a noteworthy resemblance to the seventy-one given by Urquhart in translating from Rabelais, Book iii. chap. 13, though only a few of Urquhart's quite. correspond (e.g. kekyl instead of cackle; rammasche and ramage are used differently). Rabelais had but nine cries, the rest being Urquhart's additions. Not merely the sudden and incongruous transitions of the 'Monologue,' but its method of giving detailed and preposterous lists of odd or unusual words and names is in the Rabelaisian manner; and Pantagruel's voyage in Book iv.-if we were sure that it was by Rabelais and was known before the Complaynt in its first form was issued-might almost be held to have suggested several things in the 'Monologue'-the nautical words of command, shipmen's chanties, the list of culverins and other guns, and the confounding noise of the gunnery in the naval battle. Thus it is difficult to believe, for example, that the odd cry holabar is other than the hault la barre shouted in the storm in Rabelais. The third book was doubtless the book of the season at Paris in 1546; and the fourth, like the third, may have been read in MS. before it was printed or published. See the editions of Leyden and Murray, above mentioned; for the dependence on Alain Chartier, see Mr W. A. Neilson, in the Journal of Germanic Philology, No. 4; for the plagiarism from St Gelais, Mr Craigie in the Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature, No. 4 (1899). John Bellenden was born towards the close of the fifteenth century, and in 1508 matriculated at St Andrews as 'of the Lothian nation.' He completed his education at Paris, where he took the degree of D.D. at the Sorbonne. He was attached to the court of James V., had some charge of the young king's studies, and for him executed his famous translation of Boece's Historia Gentis Scotorum. This and his version of the first five books of Livy (both done in 1533) are interesting as early specimens of Scottish prose. On the strength of his metrical 'Prohemes,' or prologues, the Dictionary of National Biography has described him as a poet. The Croniklis of Scotland is a very free rendering, and contains so many passages not to be found in Boece that it is in some places almost an original work -though not an original authority. Bellenden enjoyed great favour at the court of James V., at whose request he executed the translations. As a |