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

^37'^^'>IV.JAMES I (OF SCOTLAND).ABOUT A.D. 1423.James I., the second son of Robert III., was born in 13945 andwas murdered on the 20th of February, 1437. In 1405 he wascaptured by an English vessel whilst on his way to France, andTwo years afterwards heimprisoned in the Tower of London.was taken to Nottingham, but in 14 14 was again sent back to theTower, where however he remained but a few months, and wasthen removed to Windsor. Whilst a prisoner at Windsor, andprobably not long before his release, which took place in 1424,he wrote his principal poem, known as 'The Kingis Quhair,' i.e.'The King's Quire or Book,' which extends to nearly 1400 lines.The subject of it is the poet's love for the Lady Jane Beaufort,whom he first beheld walking in the garden beneath his prisonwindow, much as Palamon and Arcite first beheld Emelye. Hemarried the lady in February, 1424, and in May of the same yearwas crowned king of Scotland at Scone. The rest of his lifebelongs to Scottish history. 'The Kingis Quhair' is written inseven-lined stanzas, a favourite measure of Chaucer and hissuccessors,which received the name of the rime ' roial,' from beingthus employed by a king. Only one MS. of the poem is extant,with the mark Arch. Seld. B. 24, in the Bodleian Library; andThe poem was printedfrom this the following extract is printed.by Tytler in 1783, and by Chalmers in 1824 ;a large portion ofit occurs in Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry. Instead ofthe extract usually given (which describes how the poet firstsaw Lady Jane) I give his curious description of Fortune andher wheel, preceded by a description of a landscape filled withanimals, as seen in a vision.