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

——40 8 NOTES.—XI.(A)WILLIAM DL^^BAR.The Thrissill and the Rois.Dunbar has been highly praised by Wart on. Hist. Eng, Poetry,sect. XXX. ; G. Ellis, Specimens of English Poetry, i.377 ; Pinkerton,Ancient Scottish Poetr}% i. pref. p. xciv. ; and others. Dr. Langhomesays of him'In nervous strains Dunbar's bold music flows,And time yet spares The Thistle and the Rose.'The reader may consult with advantage an article on Dunbar'swritings in Mr. W' right's Essays on the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 291.The poems of Dunbar are chiefly contained in two MSS., of whichone, called the Bannat}'ne MS., is described in ' Memorials of George'Bannatyne, 1546-169S ; Edinburgh, 1S29. This MS. was WTitten outby Bannatyne in 1548. The second, or Maitland MS., is in thePepysianLibrary at Cambridge, and is described by Pinkerton in his ' AncientScottish Poems.'Some account of the marriage of James TV is given in Leland'sCollectanea, vol. iii. p. 265, ed. 1770; see also IrWng's Lives of ScottishPoets, i. 203.Stanza i. Thair honris, their orisons. In the poem called The Courtof Love, wrongly attributed to Chaucer, the different parts of a morningservice are sung by various birds.See Warton's note.2. Window. This reminds us of Milton's L'Allegro, 1. 46'And at my window bid good morrow.*AwalJi.Eng. Text Society), 1. 1049This form occurs in Lancelot of the Laik (ed. Skeat, Early'Saying, " Awalk ! it is no tyme to slep." '3. IVeid, &c., 'garment, painted with many diverse hues.'5. Ring, reign ; i. e. the wind blows so strongly in the season o^-May.6. Ross, the Rose, i.e. Margaret Tudor; it is a very appropriatesymbol, as it is the emblem both of England and of the houses of Lancasterand York. The second line of the stanza is copied from Chaucer'sKnightes Tale. 1. 187, which see.7. Doing fleit is the same as fleitand, i.e. flowing; just as doing cbacein the next stanza merely means cba.-ing. Hence the phrase meansflowing down, or dripping, with dew.9. ' And, like the blissful sound of a hierarchy ; ' cf. Job xxx\'iii. 7. Theangels were divided into three hierarchies, each containing three orders.