And then they gart1 me cast out mony plakkis,2
And gart me pay for four-and-twentie actis;
Bot or they cam half gate3 to concludendum,
The feind ane plack was left for to defend him.
Thus they postpon'd me twa yeir with their traine,
Syne, hodie ad octo, bade me come againe.
And then thir rukis they rowpit4 wonder fast,
For sentence silver they cry'd at the last;
Of pronunciandum they made wonder fain,
But I gat never my gude grey mear again."

Many interesting sketches of national manners are to be found in this satire; yet we must be on our guard against the error of considering Lindsay's descriptions as exactly faithful to truth and nature. The probability is, that they were strong caricatures the trick of all political satirists, who, getting hold of an idea originally true, pare it down, or dress it up, to suit their own purposes, till it loses its identity, although it gains in the power of exciting ridicule.

All abuses having been duly investigated, and a remedy provided, Correction proposes that John Commonweill should be stripped of his ragged habiliments, clothed in a new suit "of satin damas, or of velvet fine," and placed amongst the lords in the parliament. He is accordingly arrayed gorgeously, and, having taken his place, Correction congratulates the audience :—

"All vertuous pepill5 now may be rejosit,6

Sen Commonweill has gottin ane gay garmount,7
And ignorants out of the kirk deposit;
Devout doctouris, and clarkis of renoun,

Now in the kirk shall have dominioun ;

And gude Counsall, with ladie Veritie,
Are ministeris to our King's Majesty.

Blist is that realm that hes ane prudent king,
Quhilk dois delyte to heir the veritie,

Punisching thame that plainly dois maling,
Contrair the Commonweill and equitie."

Proclamation is then made of the acts of the parliament; Theft, Deceit, and Falsehood are hanged, after having severally addressed the people; Folly is indulged with a reprieve; and the piece concludes with an epilogue by Diligence, entreating the audience to take " their lytil sport" (such is the term he uses for a play lasting nine hours) in patience, making allowances for the rudeness of the matter, and the poverty of the style.

As to the manner in which this piece was performed, it seems to have been acted in the open air, the king, lords, and ladies, occupying raised seats, or covered galleries, and the dramatis personæ, according to the progress of the entertainment, coming out or going into a pavilion pitched on the green field, where the stage was erected. This is evident from some of the marginal directions, such as, "Here shall Gude Counsall show himself in the fields; here they depart and pass to the pailzion; here shall the carle loup off the scaffold." Of scenery there can be traced no vestige; but, as a hill and a running stream appear in the play, the ground where it was acted was so chosen that nature supplied them; and, in other respects, the machinery required seems to have been extremely simple. A throne or royal seat for the mimic king, benches for his parliament,

a pulpit from which Folly preaches his sermon, the stocks, which are frequently used as a punishment throughout the piece, and a gallows, on which malefactors are hanged, constitute the whole. Some of the stage-directions are quaint and amusing. "Here shall the wyvis ding their gudemen with silence; here shall Flattery spy Veritie with ane dumb countenance; here sall Johne Commonweill loup the stank, or else fall in it;”—a singular alternative to be left to honest Johne, who, at this time, is represented as clothed in tattered garments, and almost naked.

There is a letter published by Pinkerton, in the appendix to his History, from Sir Ralph Evre to the Lord Privy Seal of England, in which a marked allusion is made to this play of Lindsay's having been acted before the king. It appears that Sir Ralph had been commissioned by Henry the Eighth to sound the Scottish monarch as to his disposition to reform the spiritual estate in his dominions, after the same system that his uncle had pursued in England. "I had divers communings," says Evre," with Sir Thomas Bellenden, one of the said councillors for Scotland, a man, by estimation, appearing to be the age of fifty years or above, and of gentle and sage conversation, touching the staye of the spiritualitie in Scotland. And, gathering him to be a man inclined to the sort used in our sovereign's realm of England, I did so largely break with him in those behalves, as to move to know of him what minde the king and council of Scotland was inclined unto, concerning the Bishop of Rome, and for the reformation of the misusing of the spiri

tualitie in Scotland. Whereunto he gently and lovingly answered, shewing himself well contented of that communing, and did say that the King of Scotland himself, with all his temporal council, was greatly given to the reformation of bishops, religious persons, and priests within the realme; and so much, that by the king's pleasure, he being privy thereunto, they have had ane interlude played in the feast of the Epiphanie of our Lorde last paste, before the king and queen, at Lithgow, and the whole counsil spiritual and temporal. The whole matter thereof concluded upon the declaration of the naughtiness in religion, the presumption of bishops, the collusion of the spiritual courts, called the consistory courts, in Scotland, and misusing of priests. I have obtained a note from a Scotsman of our sorte, being present at the playing of said enterlude, of the effect thereof, which I send unto your lordship by this bearer. My lord, the same Mr. Bellenden shewed me that after the said enterlude finished, the King of Scots did call upon the Bishop of Glasgow, being Chancellor, and divers other bishops, exhorting them to reform their factions and manner of living, saying, that unless they so did, he would send sax of the proudest of them unto his uncle of Englonde; and as those were ordered, so he would order all the rest who would not amend." The note of the play here alluded to, and transmitted along with this letter, clearly proves that the interlude enacted at Linlithgow, in 1540, was materially different from the play as published by Lindsay.

Lindsay had already been employed in a suc

cessful negotiation with the Estates of the Netherlands, and in 1536 he was despatched by his royal master on a matrimonial mission to the court of France, along with Sir John Campbell, of London. James's object was to demand a daughter of the house of Vendosme, and the ambassadors, who soon after followed Lindsay's mission, selected Marie de Bourbon. The king sent her his picture, and a treaty of marriage was actually in the course of negotiation, when some unforeseen difficulties occurred to interrupt it. Angry at the delay, and intent upon effecting an alliance with France, the youthful monarch determined to proceed thither in person, and set sail in 1536, though the expedition was much against the opinion of many of his nobles. Sir James Hamilton had the courage, when he slept, to steer again to Scotland, but no excuses could mollify the king, who embarked again, and at Dieppe paid a visit at the palace of Vendosme, where, notwithstanding his strict incognito, the Princess Mary, from his resemblance to the picture he had sent her, soon discovered her royal lover. Upon this, James ardently embraced the duke and duchess, and saluted them, with their daughter, not passing over the grandees and ladies of the court who were present. On the part of his host no respect was omitted which befitted such an occasion. Music, with galliard dancing in masks, farces and plays, with jousting and running at the ring, and every species of gallant amusement, occupied the time. A costly palace was prepared for the Scottish monarch, the apartments of which were splendidly decorated, hung with tapestry of