The poems of William Dunbar, collected, with notes and a memoir of his life by D. Laing, Volume 2

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Page 244 - quhair will ye, man? Bot now I luif that graceles gane." PROLOGUE TO THE TRETIS OF THE TUA MARIIT WEMEN AND THE WEDO Apon the Midsummer evin, mirriest of nichtis, I muvit furth allane, neir as midnicht wes past, Besyd ane gudlie grein garth, full of gay flouris, Hegeit, of ane huge hicht, with hawthorne treis; Quhairon ane bird, on ane bransche...
Page 235 - ... fogs Of an infected darkness : in this place Dwell many thousand thousand sundry sorts Of never-dying deaths: there damned souls Roar without pity; there are gluttons fed With toads and adders; there is burning oil Pour'd down the drunkard's throat; the usurer Is...
Page 293 - Mihi est propositum in taberna mori ; Vinum sit appositum morientis ori : Ut dicant, cum venerint, angelorum chori, Deus sit propitius huic potatori.
Page 328 - a poet," which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages. It cometh of this word Poiein, which is "to make": wherein, I know not whether by luck or wisdom, we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him "a maker...
Page 335 - My ancestors are turned to clay, And many of my mates are gone; .My youngers daily drop away, And can I think to 'scape alone? No, no; I know that I must die, And yet my life amend not I.
Page 424 - The immortal mind, that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook : And of those...
Page 234 - A lightless sulphur, chok'd with smoky fogs Of an infected darkness : in this place Dwell many thousand thousand sundry sorts Of never-dying deaths: there damned souls Roar without pity; there are gluttons fed With toads and adders; there is burning oil...
Page 196 - The discerning reader will observe, that the cast of this poem is tinctured with the morality and imagery of the ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, and the FLOURE AND LEAFE, of Chaucer.
Page 258 - ... might have been composed about the year 1500. Sir David Lyndsay, in a poem written in 1530, thus alludes to the Merchants of Edinburgh, in lines which may be contrasted with Dunbar's satire. Adew EDINBURGH, thou heich tryumphand toun, Within quhose boundis richt blythful have I bene, Of trew merchandis, the rute of this regioun, Most reddy to ressave Court, King, and Quene. Thy policie and justice may be sene, War devotioun, wysedome, and honestie, And credence tint, thay micht be found in thee.
Page 64 - Muses," whose poetical merits Sir Walter Scott, from some points of view, can hardly be said to have exaggerated, when declaring him to have been "justly raised to a level with Chaucer by every judge of poetry, to whom his obsolete language has not rendered him unintelligible.

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