How blythe and mirry wad I be!
And I wad never think lang.

He grew canty, and scho grew fain
But little did her auld minny ken
What thir slee twa togidder war sayen,
Whan wooing they war sae thrang.

And O! quo' he, ann zee war as black, As evir the crown o' your daddy's hat, 'Tis I wad lay thee be me bak,

And awa wi' thee I'd gang.

And O! quo' sho, ann I war as whyte
As er the snaw lay on the dyke,
I'd cleid me braw and lady like,
And awa wi' thee I'd gang.

IV.

Between the twa was made a plot,
They raise a wee befor the cock,
And wylily they shot the lock,

And fast to the bent ar they gane.
Upon the morn the auld wyf raise,
And at her leisure pat on her claise,
Syne to the servants' bed scho gaes,
To speir for the silly poor man.

V.

She gaed to the bed whar the beggar lay,
The strae was cauld, he was away;
Scho clapt her hands, cry'd, dulefu-day!

For some o' our gier will be gane.

Sume ran to coffers, and sume to kists,
But nought was stown that cou'd be mist;
She dancid her lane, cry'd, Praise be blest!
I have ludg'd a leil poor man.

VI.

Since nathing's awa, as we can learn,
The kirn's to kirn, and milk to earn,
Gae butt the house, lass, and waken my bairn,
And bid her come quickly ben.
The servant gaed quhar the dochter lay,
The sheits war cauld, scho was away,
And fast to her gudewife 'gan say,
Scho's aff wi' the Gaberlunzie man.

VII.

O fy gar ride, and fy gar rin,

And haste ye find these traiters agen!
For scho's be burnt, and hee's be slean;
The weirifou' Gaberlunzie-man.

Some rade upo' horse, some ran a-fit,
The wife was wude, and out o' her wit;
Scho cou'd na gang, nor yet cou'd scho sit,
But ay scho curs't and scho bann'd.

VIII.

Mein tym far hind out ow'r the lee,
Fu' snug in a glen whar nane cou'd see,
Thir twa, wi' kindly sport and glee,

Cut frae a new cheese a whang.

The prieving was good, it pleas'd them baith, To lo'e her for ay, he gae her his aith,

Quo' she, to leave thee I will be laith,
My winsom Gaberlunzie-man.

IX.

O kend my minny I war wi' you,
Ill-fardly wad she crook her mou',
Sic a pure man she'd nevir trow,

After the Gaber.nzie-man.

My dear, quod he, zere zet ow'r zoung,
An' hae na learn'd the beggar's tongue,
To fallow me frae toun to toun,
And carry the Gaberlunzie on.

X.

Wi' kauk and keel I'll win zour bread,
And spinnels and quhorles for them wha need,
Whilk is a gentle trade indeed,

To carry the Gaberlunzie on.

I'll bow my leg and crook my knee,
An' draw a black clout ow'r my eye,
A cripple or blind they will ca' me,
While we will sing and be merrie.

T. C.

WILLIAM DUNBAR.

THE village of Salton, on the coast of the Forth in
East Lothian, is supposed to have given birth to
William Dunbar, one of the greatest of our antient
Scottish poets. In the piece, called The Flyting be-
tween Kennedy and Dunbar, the former tells Dunbar,
Thy geir and substance is a widdy teuch
On Saltoune Mount, about thy craig to rax;
And yet Mount Saltoune gallows is our fair
For to be fleyt with sic a frontles face, &c.

Dunbar himself, in the same piece, says,
I haif on me a pair of Lowthiane hipps.

His Thistle and

The date of his birth is uncertain. Rose, which was certainly written in 1503, bears evident marks of being the composition of an experienced hand; and he says of himself in it, that he was a poet who had already written" mony sangis." If we suppose him to have been then in the prime of life, his birth must have fallen about the year 1460 or 1465.

Of Dunbar's parentage, youth, and education, nothing is known. The first character in which we meet with him, is that of a travelling noviciate of the Franciscan Order of Friars. In one of his pieces, entitled "How Dunbar was designed to be ane Friar," he thus addresses St. Francis:

Gif evir my fortoune was to be a freir,
The dait thairof is past full mony a yeir,
For into every lusty town and place
Of all Yngland, from Berwick to Calaice,
I haif into my habeit maid gud cheir.
In freiris weid full fairly haif I fleichit;
In it haif I in pulpit gane and preichit,
In Derntoun kirk, and eik in Canterberry.
In it I past at Dover ou'r the ferry;

Throw Picardy, and thair the people teachit.

This mode of life appears not to have been very agreeable to his inclination; he confesses, that it compelled him to have recourse to many a pious fraud, from the guilt of which no holy water could cleanse him. He returned to Scotland, as is generally supposed, about the year 1490; and, though he had now abandoned the character of mendicant or itinerant friar, his hopes appear still to have rested on promotion in the church. His smaller poems abound with allusions to this effect.

I knaw nocht how the kirk is gydit,
Bot beneficis ar nocht leil devydit;
Sum men has sevin, and I nocht nane,
Quhilk to consider is ane pane.

And sum, unworthy to brouk ane stall,
Wald clym to be ane cardinall:
Ane bishopric may nocht him gane.
Quhilk to consider is ane pane.

Unwourthy I, amang the laif,

Ane kirk dois craif, and nane can have, &c.

On the Warld's Instabilitie, addressed to the King.