The king, when that the mass was done,
Went forth to see the potis (1) soon,
And at his liking saw them made,
On either side right weill braid.
It was pitied, as I have tauld,

If that their faes on horse would hald
Forth in that way, I trow they sal
Nocht weill escape for-outen a fall.
Throughout the host then gart (2) he cry
That all should arm them hastily,
And busk them on their best manner;
And when they assembled were,
He gart array them for the fight:
And syne gart cry oure all on height,
That wha soever he were that fand

The Battle.

The Scottismen commonally
Kneelit all douu, to God to pray.
And a short prayer there made they
To God, to help them in that ficht.
And when the English king had sicht
Of them kneeland, he said, in by:
'You folk kneel to ask mercy.'

Sir Ingram (13) said: Ye say sooth now-
They ask mercy, but not of you;
For their trespass to God they cry:
I tell you a thing sickerly,

That you men will all win or die;

1 The holes which had been dug in the field.
3 Secure.
4 Chance (Fr. eur, hazard).
7 Haste.
9 Sprang forward in a line.
12 Moaned, lamented.

10 Steady a knight, and battle. 13 Sir Ingram d'Umphraville,

The appearance of a mock host, composed of the servants of the Scottish camp, completes the panic of the English army; the king fees, and Sir Giles d'Argentine, rather than live shamefully and flee,' bids the king farewell, and rushing again into the fight, is slain. The narrative adds:

ANDREW WYNTOUN.

About the year 1420, ANDREW WYNTOUN, or, as he describes himself, Androwe of Wyntoune, a canon of St. Andrews, and prior of St. Seri's Monastery in Lochleven, completed, in eight-syllabled metre,

2 Lost among so great a company. 3 Exchanged.. 4 Company. 5 Also. 6 Shut up.

an‘Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland,' including much universal history, and extending down to his own time: it may be considered as a Scottish member of the class of rhymed chronicles, and belongs in style to the authors in this section, though produced in part at a later period than Barbour's history. The prior undertook his chronicle at the suggestion of Sir John Weymss. He divides it into nine books, 'in henowre of the ordrys nyue.' It contains a considerable number of fabulous legen is, such as we may suppose to have been told beside the evening-fire of a monastery of those days, and which convey a curious idea of the credulity of the age. The chronicle has little poetical merit, and is greatly inferior to Barbour's Bruce,' but is interesting for the view it affords of the language, attainments, and manners of the author's time and country. A fine edition of the work, edited by David Macpherson, was published in 1795. The time of Wyntoun's death has not been stated, but he is supposed to have died shortly after completing his chronicle.

Macbeth and the Weird Sisters.

A nycht he thowcht in hys dreamyng,
That syttand he wes besyd the kyng
At a sete in hwntyng; swa
Intil his leisch had grewhundys twa:
He thowcht, quhile he wes swa syttand,
He sawe thre wemen by gangand;
And thai wemen than thowet he
Thre werd systrys mast lyk to be.
The first he hard say, gangang by,
'Lo, yhondyr the Thane of Crumbawch-
ty ! (1)

The tothir woman sayd agane,

'Of Morave yhondyre I se the thane!'
The thryd than sayd, 'I se the kyng!'
All this he herd in his dreamyng.
Sone eftyre that, in his yhowthad, (^)
Of thyr thanydoms he thane wes made;
Syne neyst he thowcht to be king,
Fra Dunkanyis dayis had tane endyng.
The fantasy thus of his dreme
Movyd hym mast to sla his eme; (3)
As he dyd all furth in-dede,
As before yhe herd one rede,

And Dame Grwok, (4) his emys wyf,
Tuk, and led wyth hyr hys lyf,
And held hyr bathe hys wyf and queyne,
As befor than scho had beyne
Till hys eme qwene, lyvand

Quhen he was kyng with crowne rygnend
For lytil in honowre than had he
The greys (5) of affynyte.

All thus quhen his eme was dede,
He succeedyt in his stede;

And sevyntene wyntyr full rygnand
As kyng-he wes than in-til Scotland.
All hys tyme wes gret plenté
Abowndand, bath on land and se.
He was in justice rycht lawchful,
And till hys legis all awful.

Quhen Leo the tend was Pape of Rome,(6)
As pylgryne to the court he come;
And in his almus he sew (7) sylver
Till all pure folk that had myster; (8)
And all tyme oysyd (9) he to wyrk
Profitably for haly kyrke.

St. Serf and Satan.*

While St. Serf, intile a stead,
Lay after matins in his bed,
The devil came, in foul intent
For til found him with argument,
And said: 'St. Serf, by thy werk
I ken thou art a cunning clerk.'
St. Serf said: 'Gif I sae be,

Foul wretch, what is that for thee?'

The devil said: This questión

I ask in our collatión

Say where was God, wit ye oucht,'
Before that heaven and erd

wroucht?'

was

St. Serf said: In himself steadless
His Godhead hampered never was.'
The devil then askit: 'What cause he had

*St. Serf lived in the sixth century, and was the founder of the monastery of which the author was prior. The spelling of the above extract is modernised,

1 Cromarty. 2 Youthhood. 3 Uncle (Ang.-Sax.cam). 4 Gruoch, 5 Degrees (Fr.gre). 6 A chronological error of nearly five hundred years, for Macbeth visited Rome during the Pontificate of Leo the Ninth.Irving. 9 Caed,

7 Scattered, distributed.

8 From the Danish mister, to want.

To make the creatures that he made?'
To that St. Serf answered there:
Of creatures made he wos maker.
A maker micht he never be,
But gif creatures made had he.'

The devil askit him: Why God of

noucht

His werkis all full gude had wroucht?'
St Serf answered: That Goddis will
Was never to make his werkis ill,
And as envious he had been seen,
Gif nought but he full gude has been.'
St. Serf the devil askit than:

In Paradise, after his sin?'

'Seven hours,' Serf said, 'bade he there-
in.'

'When was Eve made?' saith Sathanas.
In Paradise, Serf said, 'she was.'
The devil askit: Why that ye

Men are quite delivered free,

Through Christ's passion precious boucht,
And we devils sae are noucht ?'
St. Serf said: For that ye

Fell through your awn iniquity;
And through ourselves we never fell,
But through your fallon false counsel.'

'Where God made Adam, the first man?' Then saw the devil that he could noucht,

'In Ebron Adam formit was,'

St. Serf said. And till him Sathanas:
'Where was he, eft that, for his vice,
He was put out of Paradise?'

St. Serf said: Where he was made.'
The devil askit: How lang he bade

With all the wiles that he wrought,
Overcome St. Serf. He said then
He kenned him for a wise man.
Forthy there he gave him quit,
For he wan at him na profit.

While Wyntoun was initing his legendary chronicle in the priory at Lochleven, a secular priest, JOHN FORDUN, canon of Aberdeeir cathedral, was gathering and recording the annals of Scotland in Latin. Fordum brought his history, Scotichronicon,' down to the death of David I. in 1153, but had collected materials extending to the year 1385, about which time he is supposed to have diet. His history was then taken up and continued to the death of James I. (1437) by WALTER BOWER OF BOWMAKER, abbot of the monastery of St. Colm, in the Firth of Forth.

PROSE LITERATURE.

SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.

The translation of King Alfred, the Saxon Chronicle, Saxon laws, charters, and ecclesiastical histories, more or less tinctured with the Norman-French, are our earliest prose compositions. The first English book was SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE'S Travels,' written in 1356. Mandeville was born at St. Albans in the year 1300, and received the liberal education requisite for the profession of medicine, During the thirty-four years previous to 1356, he travelled in Eastern countries (where he appears to have been received with great kindness); and on his return to England, wrote an account of all he had seen, mixed with innumerable fables, derived from preceding historians and romancers, as well as from hearsay. His book was originally written in Latin, then translated into French, and finally into English, that every man of my nacioun may undirstonde it.' The following extract, in the original spelling, is from the edition of 1839, edited by J. O. Halliwell:

The Beginning of Mohammed.

And yee schull understonde, that Machamote was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave, that kepte cameles, that wenten with marchantes for marchandise; and so befelle that he wente with the marchantes in to Egipt: and thei weren thanue cristene, in tho partyes. And at the deserts of Arabye he wente into a chapelle, where a eremyte duelte. And whan he entered into the chapelle, that was but a lytille and a low thing, and had but a lytyl dore and a low, than the entree began to wexe so gret, and so large, and so high, as though it hadde ben of a gret mynstre or the gate of a paleys. And this was the first myracle, the Sarazins seyn, that Machomete dide in his youthe. Aftere began he for to wexe wyse and ryche, and he was a grete astronomer.

In the following the spelling is simplified:

A Mohammedan's Lecture on Christian Vices.

And therefore I shall tell you what the Soudan told me upon a day, in his chamber. He let voiden out of his chamber all manner of men, lords and other; for he would speak with me in counsel. And there he asked me how the Christian men governed 'em in our country. An I said [to] him: Right well, thonked be God.' And he said [to] me: Truly nay; for ye Christian men ne reckon right not how untruly to serve God. Ye should given ensample to the lewed people for to do well, and ye given 'em ensample to don evil. For the commons, upon festival days, when they shoulden go to church to serve God, then gon they to taverns, and ben there in gluttony all the day nd all night. and eaten and drinken, as beasts that have no reason, and wit not when they have enow. And therewithal they ben so proud, that they knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now short, now strait, now large, now sworded, now daggered, and in all manner guises. The shoulden beu simple, meek, and true, and full of aims-deed, as Jesu was, in whom they trow; but they ben all the contrary, and ever inclined to the evil, and to don evil. And they ben so covetous, that for a little silver they sellen 'eir daughters, 'eir sisters, and 'eir own wives, to putten 'em to lechery. And one withdraweth the wife of another; and none of 'em holdeth faith to another, but they defoulen 'eir law, that Jesu Christ betook 'em keep for 'eir salvation. And thus for 'eir sins, han [have] they lost all this lond that we holden. For 'eir sins here, hath God taken 'em in our honds, not only by strength of ourself, but for 'eir sins. For we knowen well in very sooth, that when ye serve God, God will help you; and when he is with you, no man may be against you. And that know we well by our prophecies, that Christian men shall winnen this lond again out of our honds, when they serven God more devoutly. But as long as they ben of foul and unclean living (as they ben now), we have no dread of 'em in no kind; for here God will not helpen em in no wise.'

And then I asked him how he knew the state of Christian men. And he answered me, that he knew all the state of the commons also by his messengers; that he sent to all londs, in manner as they were merchants of precious stones, of cloths of gold, and of other things, for to knowen the manner of every country amongs Christian men. And then he let clepe in all the lords that he made voiden first out of his chamber; and there he shewed me four that were great lords in the country, that tolden me of my country, and of many other Christian countries, as well as if they had been of the same country; and they spak French right well, and the Soudan also, whereof I had great marvel. Alas, that it is great slander to our faith and to our laws, when folk that ben withouten law shall reproven us, and undernemen us of our sins. And they that shoulden ben converted to Christ and to the law of Jesu, by our good example and by our acceptable life to God, ben through our wickedness and evil living, far fro us; and strangers fro the holy and very belief shall thus appellen us and holden us for wicked levirs and cursed. And truly they say sooth. For the Sara cens ben good and faithful. For they keepen entirely the commandment of the holy book Alcoran, that God sent 'em by his messager, Mohammed; to the whick as they Bayen, St. Gabriel, the angel, oftentime told the will of God.

E. L. v. 1-3