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it was wonder to wyte. And it befel thus, that Dioclesian thought to marry his daughters among all those kings that were of that solemnity. And so they spake and did, that Albine, his eldest daughter, and all her sisters, richly were married unto thirty-three kings, that were lords of great honour and of power, at this solemnity. And when the solemnity was done, every king took his wife, and led them into their own country, and there made them queens.

The story then goes on to relate how these thirty-three wives conspired to kill their husbands, all on the same night, and "anon, as their lords were asleep, they cut all their husbands' throats; and so they slew them all.”

When that Dioclesian, their father, heard of this thing, he became furiously wroth against his daughters, and anon would them all have brente. But all the barons and lords of Syria counseled not so for to do such straitness3 to his own daughters; but only should void the land of them for evermore; so that they never should come again; and so he did.

And Dioclesian, that was their father, anon commanded them to go into a ship, and delivered to them victuals for half a year. And when this was done, all the sisters went into the ship, and sailed forth in the sea, and took all their friends to Apolin, that was their God. And so long they sailed in the sea, till at the last they came and arrived in an isle, that was all wilderness. And when dame Albine was come to that land, and all her sisters, this Albine went first forth out of the ship, and said to her other sisters: For as much, (said she,) as I am the eldest sister of all this company, and first this land hath taken; and for as much as my name is Albine, I will that this land be called Albion, after mine And anon, all her sisters granted to her with a good

own name.

will.

WILLIAM DUNBAR. 1465-1530.

WILLIAM DUNBAR is pronounced by Ellis,4 to be "the greatest poet Scotland has produced." His writings, however, with scarcely an exception, remained in the obscurity of manuscript, till the beginning of the last century; but his fame since then has been continually rising. His chief poems are THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE, THE DANCE, and THE GOLDEN TERGE. The Thistle and the Rose was occasioned by the marriage of James IV. of Scotland with Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. of England, an event in which the whole future political state of both nations was vitally interested, and which ultimately produced the union of the two crowns and

2 Burnt.

8 Strictness.

. Know.
4 Specimens of the Early English Poets,"
vol 1. p. 577: but should he not have excepted Burns and Sir Walter Scott?

kingdoms, in the person of James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England, 1603-
1625. This poem opens with the following stanzas, remarkable for their de
scriptive and picturesque beauties:

Quhen' Merche wes with variand windis past,
And Appryll had with hir silver shouris
Tane leif at Nature, with ane orient blast,
And lusty May, that muddir3 is of flouris,
Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris,
Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt
Quhoiss harmony to heir it wes delyt:

In bed at morrow sleiping as I lay,
Methocht Aurora, with her cristall ene
In at the window lukits by the day,
And halsit me with visage pale and grene;
On quhois hand a lark sang, fro the splene,7
"Awak, luvaris,8 out of your slemering,9
Se how the lusty morrow dois upspring!"

Methocht fresche May befoir my bed upstude,
In weid10 depaynt of mony diverse hew,
Sober, benyng, and full of mansuetude,
In bright atteir of flouris forgit new,

Hevinly of color, quhyt, reid, brown, and blew,
Balmit in dew, and gilt with Phebus' bemys;

Quhil al the house illumynit of her lemys.12

THE DANCE of the Seven Deadly Sins through Hell has much merit. On the eve of Lent, a day of general confession, the poet, in a dream, sees a display of heaven and hell. Mahomet,13 or the devil, commands a dance to be performed by a select party of fiends, and immediately the Seven Deadly Sins appear. The following is a description of ENVY

Next in the dance followit INVI,

Fild full of feid 14 and fellony,

Hid malyce and dispyte;

For pryvie haterit 15 that tratour trymlit,16
Him followit mony freik dissymlit,17

With feynit wordis quhyte.

And flattereis into mens facis,
And back-byttaris 18 of sundry racis,
To ley19 that had delyte.

With rownaris 20 of fals lesingis: 21
Allace! that courtis of noble kingis

Of tham can nevir be quyte!” 22

As a specimen of one of his minor poems take the following, containing much wholesome advice:

1 When. Qu has the force of w.

7 With good will. 8 Lovers.

2 Taken leave. 8 Mother. 4 Whose. 6 Looked. 6 Hailed. • Slumbering. 10 Attire. 11 Forged, made. 12 Brightness.

13 The Christians, in the crusades, were accustomed to hear the Saracens swear by their Prophet Mahomet, who then became, in Europe, another name for the Devil.

14 Enmity.

15 Hatred. 16 Trembled. 17 Dissembling gallant. 18 Backbiters. 20 Rounders, whispers. To round in the ear, or simply to round, was to whisper in the ear.

19 Lie.

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NO TREASURE WITHOUT GLADNESS.

I.

Be merry, man! and take not sair in mind
The wavering of this wretchit world of sorrow!
To God be humble, and to thy friend be kind,
And with thy neighbours gladly lend and borrow:
His chance to-night, it may be thine to-morrow.
Be blithe in heart for any áventure;

For oft with wysure' it has been said aforrow,2
Without gladnéss availis no treasure.

11.

Make thee good cheer of it that God thee sends,
For worldis wrak3 but welfare, nought avails:
Na good is thine, save only but thou spends;
Remenant all thou brockis but with bales.4
Seek to solace when sadness thee assails:

In dolour lang thy life may not endure;
Wherefore of comfort set up all thy sails:
Without gladnéss availis no treasure.

III.

Follow on pity;5 flee trouble and debate;
With famous folkis hold thy company;
Be charitable, and humble in thine estate,
For worldly honour lastis but a cry;6
For trouble in earth take no melancholy;

Be rich in patience, gif thou in goods be poor;
Who livis merry, he livis mightily:

Without gladness availis no treasure.

IV.

Though all the werk? that ever had livand wight
Were only thine, no more thy part does fall
But meat, drink, clais,8 and of the laif a sight!
Yet, to the Judge thou shall give 'compt of all.
Ane reckoning right comes of ane raginent 10 small,
Be just, and joyous, and do to none injure,
AND TRUTH SHALL MAKE THEE STRONG AS ANY WALL:
Without gladnéss availis no treasure.

2 A-fore, before.

1 Wisdom. 3 Merchandise, treasure; that is, world's trash without health. Here we see the original, etymological meaning of the preposition but to be without. 4 Thou canst enjoy all the remainder only with bale, or sorrow. 6 Originally pily and piety are the 6 No longer than a sound. 7 Possessions. Remainder. 10 One accompt.

same.

8 Clothes.

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SIR THOMAS MORE, 1480-1535.

MORE,

Who, with a generous though mistaken zeal,
Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage,

Like Cato firm, like Aristides just,

Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor

A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death.

THOMSON.

SIR THOMAS MORE was, without doubt, the most prominent character of
the reign of Henry VIII. He was born in London in the year 1480. When
a boy he was in the family of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who used to say
of him to his guests, "This boy who waits at my table, who lives to see it,
will prove a marvellous man." He entered the University of Oxford at the
age of seventeen, and at the age of twenty-two was elected member of Par
liament. In 1516 he was sent to Flanders on an important mission, and on
his return, the king conferred on him the honor of knighthood, and appointed
him one of his privy council. In 1529, on the disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey,
he was appointed Lord Chancellor, being the first layman who ever held the
office. But he was soon to experience in himself the language which Shak-
speare puts into the mouth of Wolsey to Cromwell,

"How wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors."

Henry VIII doubtless raised More to this high office, that he might aid him to obtain a divorce from his wife, and to marry Anne Boleyn. But More was sincerely attached to the Roman church, and looked with horror upon any thing that was denounced by the supreme head of the church, as the king's divorce was by the pope. He therefore begged that monster of wickedness, Henry VIII., to excuse him from giving an opinion. But the tyrant was relentless, and the result was, that when the Act of Supremacy was passed by Parliament, 1534, declaring Henry to be the supreme head of the church, More refused to take the oath required of him, and he died on a scaffold, a martyr to his adhesion to the papal church, and the supremacy of the pope, on the 5th of July, 1535. Nothing is wanting," (says Mr. Hume,) to the glory of this end but a better cause. But as the man followed his principles and sense of duty, however misguided, his constancy and integrity are not the less objects of our admiration."

More was a man of true genius, and of a mind enriched with all the learning of his time, and no one had a greater influence over his contemporaries. He held continued correspondence with the learned men of Europe. The great Erasmus went to England on purpose to enjoy the pleasure of his con versation. It is said that their first meeting was at the lord mayor's table, at that time always open to men of learning and eminence. but they were un known to each other. At dinner, a dispute arising on some theological points, Erasmus expressed himself with great severity of the clergy, and ridiculed, with considerable acrimony, the doctrine or transubstantiation. More rejoined with all his strength of argument and keenness of wit. Erasmus, thus assailed, exclaimed with some vehemence, "Aut tu Morus es, aut nullus;" to which More with great readiness replied, "Aut tu es Erasmus, aut Diabolus." 2

1 "You are either More or no one."

2 "Either you are Erasmus or the Devil"

In this contest Sir Thomas's wit, if not his arguments, rather prevailed; but not long after, Erasmus had a far greater advantage. More had lent Erasmus a horse, which he took over with him to Holland. Instead of returning it to the owner, he sent him the following epigram, intended as an answer to the former arguments of Sir Thomas on the subject of transubstantiation:

Quod mihi dixisti

De corpore Christi,

Crede quòd edas, et edis:

Sic tibi rescribo

De tuo palfrido,

Crede quod habeas, et habes.1

More was of a very cheerful or rather mirthful disposition, which forsook him not to the last, and he jested even when about to lay his head upon the block. The following couplet, which is attributed to him, indicates the state of mind, which may have partially enabled him to meet his fate with a fortitude so admirable:

If evils come not, then our fears are vain;

And if they do, fear but augments the pain.

Truth, however, compels me to add that his character presents many inconsistencies; for though he was a witty companion, he was a stern fanatic; though playful and affectionate in his own household, he lorded it with an iron rod over God's heritage; though an enlightened statesman, ably arguing in his study against sanguinary laws, from his chair of office he spared no pains to carry the most sanguinary into execution; and though ranked as a philosopher, he, every Friday, scourged his own body with whips of knotted cords, and by way of further penance, wore a hair shirt next to his lacerated skin.

The most celebrated work of Sir Thomas More was his UTOPIA.2 The title of it is as follows: ""A most pleasant, fruitful, and witty Work of the best State of the public Weal, and of the new Isle called Utopia." It is a philosophical romance, in which More, after the manner of Plato, erects an imaginary republic, arranges society in a form entirely new, and endows it with institutions more likely, as he thought, to secure its happiness, than any which mankind had hitherto experienced. But while there is much in it that is fanciful and truly Utopian, there is also much that is truly excellent and worthy to be adopted. Thus, instead of severe punishment for theft, the author would improve the morals and condition of the people, so as to take away the temptation to crime; for, says he, "if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education exposed them,

1 For want of a better, I give the following version:

Of Christ's body you sakl
Believe that 'tis bread,

And bread it surely will be;
Thus to you I write back-
Believe that your hack

Is with you, and with you is he.

* More properly written Eutopia, from the Greek en (tv) "well, happily," and topos (Toños) “a place:" that is, "a land of perfect happiness." The Utopia was written in Latin, and not translated till a subsequent age, by Bishop Burnet.

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