Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XXII.SIR DAVID LYNDESAY.A.D. 1552.Sir David Lyndesay (generally surnamed * of the Mount/from the name of an estate in Fifeshire, in the parish of Monimail)was born about 1490, and educated at the university ofSt. Andrew's. He was the companion of the young Scottishprince, afterwards James V, whose coursehe watched from hisearliest days till his death in 1542. He was knighted by James,and made Lord Lyon King-at-Arms in 1530, though Sir WalterScott confers that title upon him seventeen years earlier, by apoetical license, as he tells us ; see IMarmion, canto iv. st. 7, andthe note. Lyndesay retired in his latter days to the Mount,where he died about 1557. His principal works are ' The Dreme,'written about 1528; 'The Complaynt,' 1529; 'The Complaynt'of the Kingis Papyngo' (PaiTot), 1530 ; Ane Satyre of the ThrieEstaits,'1535; 'The Historic of William Meldrum, Squyer,' before1550; and 'The Monarche' (i.e. Monarchic or Monarchy),y, 1552. The last and longest is an account of the most famousmonarchies that have flourished in the world. It commenceswith the Creation, and ends with the Day of Judgment. Itwas first printed by Jhon Skott in 1552, and has lately beenreprinted for the Early English Text Society, edited by FitzedwardHall. I follow this edition, and number the lines as theyare there numbered. The reader will see that Lyndesay was afierce Protestant.