English language. They were also translations, freely made; five of them from Mantuanus, and three from Eneas Silvius.

The "Castle of Labour" was another work, by Barclay, translated from the French; the purpose of

which is to shew

"That Idleness, mother of all adversity,

Her subjects bringeth to extreme poverty."

At the request of Sir Giles Alyngton, Barclay also translated, from the Latin of Dominicke Mancini, "The Mirrour of Good Manners," which he styles "a Right Fruitful Treatise" on the four cardinal virtues.

The Duke of Norfolk, another of Barclay's patrons, employed him to make a translation of Sallust's Jugurthine War, which he executed, not only with accuracy, but with considerable elegance.

Barclay was also the author of several "Lives of Saints;" a book, entitled "The figure of our Mother Holy Church oppressed by the French King;" and a Treatise against Skelton, the Poet Laureate, a great enemy to the priesthood, a circumstance which is supposed to have turned his brother satirist's pen against him.* T. B.

* In consequence of a satire, which Skelton wrote against the "cankered Cardinal Wolsey," he was obliged to take refuge, from his vengeance, in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. It was a spirited reprobation of the barons of England for their mean compliances with the arrogance of that haughty prelate; and does a degree of honor to the courage of the poet, which the sa

tire of even so able a writer as Barclay cannot diminish. A few lines will shew the nerve with which it was written.

And, beneath him, they're so stout,
That no man of them dare rout,
Duke, earl, baron, nor lord,
But to his sentence must accord;
Whether he be knight or squire,
All must follow his desire.

A. S.

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY.

FEW of our Scottish poets have been treated more unkindly or more unjustly by the critics, than Alexander Montgomery. Men who have been unbounded in their praise of Allan Ramsay, have been able to discover no merit in a poet whom Ramsay both admired and studied; and one writer, indeed,* who represents Ramsay's Vision as one of the finest antient Scottish poems extant, thinks "The Cherry and the Slae," Montgomery's chief production, absolutely "beneath contempt;" although it is a fact, that the Vision was formed on the model of the Cherry and the Slae, and is indebted to it for whole lines and couplets of some of its most striking stanzas. The description of the Genius of Caledonia in the Vision, which has been particularly admired † by all critics, is, after all, no more than a very literal, though undoubtedly happy, paraphrase of the following description of Cupid, by Montgomery.

Sae myld lyke and chyld lyke,
With bow three quarters scant,
Sae moylie and coylie,

He lukit lyk ane sanct.

* Pinkerton.

+ See Life of Ramsay.

Ane cleinly crisp, hang oure his eyis,
His quiver by his nakit thyis,
Hang in ane silver lace;

Of gold betwixt his schoulders grew
Twa pretty wings, quhairwith he flew,
On his left arm ane brace.

*

Amaisit, I gaisit,

To see his geir sae gay,
Persaiving myne haveing
He countit me his prey.

Cherrie and Slae, st. 8, 9.

The following is the parallel passage of Ramsay, the resemblance of which, both in structure and imagery, will instantly strike the most indifferent hearer.

A man with aspeck kynd,

Richt auld lyke, and bauld lyke,
With baird thre quarters skant;
Sae braef lyke, and graif lyke,
He seemt to be a sanct.
Grit daring dartit frae his ee,
A braid sword schogled at his thie,
On his left arm a targe;

A shinnand speir fill'd his richt hand,
Of stalwart mak in bane and brawnd,
Of just proportions large.

Amaisit, I gaisit,

To se led at command,
A strampant and rampant
Ferss lyon in his hand.

st. 4 and 5.

Again, in Montgomery, we have a thirst for liberty thus expressed:

My heart ay did start ay

The fyrie flamis to fiie,

Ay howping, throw lowping,

To leap at libertie.

st. 20.

And in Ramsay, the same sentiment, with an alteration not to the better, of the image from a fire to a flood:

Quhase mynds zet, inclyndis zet

To damn the rapid spate;

Devysing and prysing

Freidom at ony rate.

Vision, st. 7.

Nor was it merely while writing a poem on the model of the Cherry and the Slae, that Ramsay fell into these imitations of its beauties; for, in others of his works, there are proofs that he kept Montgomery in his remembrance. In the Cherry and the Slae, the poet tells us :

I saw a river rin

Out owr a steipie rock of stane,
Syne lichtit in a lin.

Every person familiar with the Gentle Shepherd
must be ready to repeat the well-known passage:
Between twa birks, out o'er a little lin,
The water fa's, and maks a singin din.

Examples might be multiplied, but it is unnecessary; as the comparison is not instituted invidiously,