Camden tell us that Anne, the wife of this monarch, brought in the fashion of high caps and We learn from Hemingford that long gowns. a zealous ecclesiastic of that age wrote a treatise, "Contra Caudas Dominarum." Chaucer's parson protests against the "costlie claithing" both of men and women, especially reprehending the superfluity in ladies' gowns. Lydgate raises his voice against the high attire of women's heads; Hoccleve against "waist claithing." Dunbar lashes the splendour of the "farthingaillis;" and, finally, Lindsay presents his supplication against "sydetaillis."*"Your Majesty," says he, "has now introduced order and good government both into the highlands and border; there is yet ane small fault which requires reformation." "Sir, tho your Grace has put great order To have some reformatioun Of ane small fault which is not treason, Have men to bear well up their tails, For dignity of their office. Right so a king or an empress; Howbeit they use such dignity, Conforming to their majesty. Chalmers' Works of Lindsay, vol. ii. p. 196. Tho their robe-royals be upborne, That every lady of the land Should have her side-tail sa trailland; In their clothing most triumphant Yet when they travel thro the towns, In the same poem Lindsay complains violently of a fashion introduced by the Scottish ladies, in covering up their faces, so that nothing is seen but their eyes. "Another fault, sir, may be seen, They hide their face all but their een. They get no more gude days fra me." These veiled faces of the women excited the indignation of the Parliament of James II., which published an ordinance, "that na woman come to the kirk or market with her face mussal'd, that she may not be kend, under the pain of escheit of the curch." Lindsay's concluding admonition to the king upon the long trains is brief and emphatic. "Wad your Grace my counsel tak,1 Ane proclamation ye should mak,2 Baith thro the land and burrowstouns,3 To shaw their face and cut their gowns." 1 take. 2 make. 3 burghs. The only other work of our author's, written during the lifetime of his royal master, was his attack upon auricular confession, known by the title of "Kitty's Confession;" of which the coarseness is not redeemed either by its wit or its poetry. The death of the king, in 1542, left Lindsay at full liberty to join the party of the reformers. However disposed James might have been in 1540 to favour the schemes which were then agitated for the reformation of the church, it is well known that he soon after determined upon a war with England, chose for his principal adviser the Cardinal Beaton, and adopted principles entirely opposed to all alliance with Henry VIII., or any changes in the ecclesiastical establishment of the kingdom. Lindsay, to a certain degree, must have been influenced by the opinions of a monarch by whose patronage he had been cherished, and in whose service he filled an honourable and ancient office. Now he was at liberty to act uninfluenced by selfinterest, without any outrage offered to the decencies of gratitude or affection, and he hesitated not a moment to unite himself to the party of the reformers; one of the results of this was his publication of the tragedy of the "Cardinal." The murder of Beaton, one of the most flagrant acts which has been perpetrated in any age or country, took place, as is well known, at St. Andrews, on the 29th May, 1546. Into its secret history we will not now enter, remarking only that the plot can be traced, upon evidence of the most unquestionable authenticity, to Henry VIII.; that the assassins have been detected in intimate correspondence with that monarch; proposing the cut ting off this able enemy; receiving his approval of the design; supported by his money; and encouraged by the promise of a shelter in his dominions.* To Lindsay, and many of the reformers, the atrocity of the deed was forgotten in the feelings of triumph and gratulation with which they regarded the removal of their ablest and most determined enemy. The tone of the Lord Lion, however, is more quiet and decorous than that adopted by Knox. Sitting in his oratory, and pondering in a thoughtful and melancholy mood over Boccaccio's work on the "Downfall of Princes," a grisly ghost glides into the chamber with a pale countenance, and the blood flowing from many wounds over its rich ecclesiastical vestments: "I sitting so upon my book reading, This, as may be easily anticipated, is the apparition of the once proud cardinal, who is made to rehearse his own story, to expose his ambition, prodigality, and oppression; from which he takes occasion to admonish his brethren the prelates upon the criminal courses in which they indulged, and to enter a solemn caveat to all earthly princes against their indiscriminate presentation of ecclesiastical benefices to ignorant and unworthy pastors. "Mak him bishop that prudentlie can preich As doth pertain till his vocation; Appendix to the Life of Sir Thomas Craig, No. I. Ane persoun quhilk his parochoun can teiche, And, als, I mak you supplicatioun, Mak your abbottis of richt religious men, Quilk Christis law can to their convent ken." Any further quotation from this piece is unnecessary. In the pages of our contemporary historians during this period, we see so little of the private life and manners of the times, that everything must be welcome which can supply this defect; and in such a light "Lindsay's History of Squire Meldrum" is particularly valuable and interesting. It was composed about the year 1550, and contains a biography of a gallant feudal squire of those days, drawn up from his own recital by the affectionate hand of his friend and contemporary. "With help of Clio I intend, Sa Minerve would me sapience lend, Describe the deeds, and eke the man.' We have accordingly the birth, parentage, education, adventures, death, and testament of "Ane noble and vailiant Squire, William Meldrum, umquhyle (lately) Laird of Cleish and Binns." We first learn that he was of noble birth: "Of noblesse lineally descendit, Quhilk their gude fame has aye defendit. * Poems, vol. ii. p. 245. |