A collection of ancient and modern Scottish ballads, etc

290
CHRISTIS KIRK OF THE GRENE.
[This poem, -'like the preceding, is a humorous picture of
rustic merriment and rustic quarrels.—The earliest edi-
tion of the first canto, (which, unquestionably, was writ-
ten by James I.) was pubhshed at Oxford in 1691 by
Bishop Gibson, who ascribes it to James V., but on what
authority does not appear. Slight as are the grounds on
which this opinion rests, it has given rise to a contro-
versy as to the real author of the poem, in which several
eminent writers, who have bestowed great attention on
the early poetry of the country, have coincided with
Bishop Gibson, but evidently without examination, for
Dr Irvine, the learned author of the *' Lives of the
Scotish Poets," in his memoir of Jame« I., after a dis-
passionate inquiry into the claims of both monarchs to
this inimitable production, not only refutes the argu-
ments of the writers who attribute it to James V., but
produces the most convincing evidence to prove it to be
the work of the elder James. That the real author of
** Christis Kirk of the Grene," he says, " wls James the
First, is rendered more than probable by the testimony
of George Bannatyne. James the Fifth died in 15if2
Bannatyne formed his collection of Scotish poetry about
the year 1568; and, if that monarch had in reality been
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