more perfect than it is in its present ftate, and which he earneftly defired to have feen accomplished by those who were properly authorized.' Though fuch was his difpofition, fuch his defire, he at the fame time expreffed his most ardent wish that it might remain in its prefent form, until the alterations propofed to be made therein were all agreed upon and finally fettled; for he wifely forefaw the dangerous confequences that may arife to a long-eftablished religious or civil government, from altering or doing away any part of it, however warranted by reafon or found policy, before it is abfolutely determined what fhall in future be adopted.' For the fake of thofe who may think on the fubject of reformation as Mr. Jenyns thought,—of those who would be glad to fee fome things amended, but would wish for more peaceable times, till the alterations propofed are all finally fettled, and till there be a profpect of changing long established systems for the better without any rifque of dangerous confequenceswe will conclude this article with a juft and excellent obfervation, made by one who is a much better reafoner, and a much brighter ornament of our church and ftate, than even Mr. Jenyns was: "After returning thanks," fays Mr. Archdeacon Paley," in the name of the fraternity, to all who touch the burden of our grievances, with but one of their fingers, I would wish to leave with them this obfervation, that as the man who attacks a flourishing eftablishment writes with a halter round his neck, few ever will be found to attempt alterations but men of more fpirit than prudenee, of more fincerity than caution, of warm, eager, and impetuous tempers; that, confequently, if we are to wait for improvement till the cool, the calm, the difcreet part of mankind begin it, till church governors folicit, or minifters of itate propofe it-I will venture to pronounce, that (without bis interpofition with whom nothing is impoffible) we may remain as we are, 'till the renovation of all things." See Rev. vol. li. p. 465. ART. XIII. The Bruce; or the Hiftory of Robert I. King of Scotland. Written in Scottish Verse by John Barbour. The firft genuine Edition, publifhed from a MS. dated 1489; with Notes and a Gloffary. By J. Pinkerton. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. Boards. Nicol. 1790 *. MAN ANY perfons, in this and other countries, have lately beftowed confiderable pains in furnishing their refpective nations with correct and elegant editions of the works of their antient original writers; and the labour is useful and commendable, even where the works themselves are not diftinguished by very fuperior literary merit. The republication *Though this publication has accidentally remained thus long unnoticed, we cannot fuffer it to pafs for ever unrecorded in our work. Gg 4 of of these early national productions not only ferves to amuse the profeffed antiquary, and to gratify that curiofity, which most men feel, of knowing how their ancestors acquitted themselves in pursuits that have fince become fo interefting to their pofterity, but also tends to throw great light on the events, incidents, manners, and cuftoms of former times, and greatly contributes likewise to unfold the genuine original ftructure and compofition of our native language:-in courfe, it cannot but be highly ferviceable both to the hiftorian and the philofophical grammarian. Befides the foregoing claims to notice, which the prefent work poffeffes in common with other remains of antient national literature, this oldest monument of the Scottish language may fairly affert a fuperior right to engage the public attention, on the ground of its merit as a poetical compofition. Its prefent editor fays that taking the total merits of this work together, he prefers it to the early exertions of even the Italian mufe, to the melancholy fublimity of Dante, and the amorous quaintnefs of Petrarca.' Whatever drawback fome may be difpofed to make from this praife, on account of the supposed partiality of an editor for his author and his countryman, yet we think that few of thofe, who have read the poem, (which, though never before in so correct a ftate, has been long known to the world,) will refuse their affent to the following teftimony in its favour: Here indeed the reader will find few of the graces of fine poetry, little of the Attic drefs of the mufe: but here are life, and spirit, and eafe, and plain fenfe, and pictures of real manners, and perpetual incident, and entertainment. The language is remarkably good for the time; and far fuperior, in neatnefs and elegance, even to that of Gawin Douglas, who wrote more than a century after. But when we confider that our author is not only the first poet, but the earlieft hiftorian of Scotland, who has entered into any detail, and from whom any view of the real ftate and manners of the country can be had; and that the hero, whofe life he paints fo minutely, was a monarch equal to the greateft of modern times; let the hiftorical and poetical merits of his work be weighed together; and then oppofed to thofe of any other early poet of the prefent nations in Europe. It is indeed pofterior in time to the earliest poetry of most modern nations; but it must be confidered that Scotland hardly had one writer till the thirteenth century; and this poem was written in the fourteenth.' Of the author of this poem, John Barbour, very little is known, except that he feems to have been born about 1326; See the editor's Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the year 1056, Part vi. chap. 2,' he that he was archdeacon of Aberdeen in 1357, in which year travelled to Oxford, and was also appointed by the Bp. of Aberdeen one of the commiffioners for the ranfom of David II. king of Scotland; and that in 1365 he accompanied fix knights to St. Denis near Paris. He wrote the prefent poem, as he himself tells us, book xiii. 700, in the year 1375, at which time bis great contemporary Chaucer was little known to fame; and he died at an advanced age in 1396. Of the prefent edition of the work Mr. Pinkerton gives the following account: The poem now prefented to the reader for the first time, in its genuine ancient drefs, has already gone thro' about twenty editions in Scotland fince the year 1616, in which the first edition which can be discovered, was printed at Edinburgh, 12mo. But all thefe editions are modernized; and it was impoffible to judge of the real ancient poem from them. The editor, zealous to give an edition of this interefting work, the most ancient production of the Scottish mufe extant, in the very language, and orthography, of its author, had recourse to a manufcript written in the year 1489, preferved in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; a collection which does great honour to that refpectable fociety, and to their country. The fociety having, with much politenefs, permitted a copy to be taken for publication, the editor was equally fortunate in the condescending affiftance of the Earl of BUCHAN, a nobleman well known as the founder of the Scotish Society of Antiquaries; and as the friend of the ancient literature, and prefent welfare and honour of his country. This public-fpirited peer caufed the tranfcript to be taken under his own eye; and accompanied it with this atteftation: "I David Steuart, Earl of Buchan, have compared this tranfcript of the MS. dated 1489, in the Lawyers' Library at Edinburgh, with the original, and find it to be a true copy, having corrected fuch errors as I have been able to obferve, in the courfe of a very minute inveftigation and comparifon; (figned) "BUCHAN:" and dated, "Edinburgh, September 27th, 1787." That those who have not yet perufed this early effort of the Caledonian mufe may be enabled to form fome judgment of its nature and merit, and that fuch as are better acquainted with it may have an opportunity of feeing how Mr. Pinkerton has acquitted himfelf as an editor, we will prefent the reader with the following fhort fpecimens of the poem; premifing the observation which the editor has prefixed to his Gloflary; viz. the chief obstacle in perufing this work arifes from the orthography, which is extremely irregular. To understand many words it is only neceflary to pronounce them aloud; and the meaning, which is obfcured by the fpelling, will be evident from the found.' A! fredome is a nobill thing! Fredome mayfe man to haiff liking; Makes man to have joy. Fredome 4 9 6 Fredome all folace to man giffis : That gyff man bad hys thryll oucht do, I leve all the folutioun Till thaim that ar off mar renoun. 2 Na ellys nocht; nor any thing else. 3 fre liking; free will. S yharnyt our; defired above. angyr; quære, angys, i. e. anguish? 6 perquer; perfectly. wyt; know. 7 not, is here used for nocht, i. e. nothing. 8 has not fo much as free will to leave undone, or to do, that which his whole heart and foul is fet on doing, or not doing. The flave feems to be here placed in the fituation of a bridegroom, whofe wife is just come home to him, claiming the attention due to her as a bride. The duties and ceremonies, requifite in fuch a fituation, have been generally deemed by the world a valid excuse for poftponing all other concerns. "I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come," fays the man in the gospel, whom the parable represents as putting things fpiritual on the fame footing as temporal things. 10 bet, is used for bate or abate, i. e. make it yield, fubmit, or give way. I owcht; owed, or was bound to pay.-lyne; after. And The halle conditioun off a thryll.' We will add the account of King Robert's death, caufed by the leprofy, at Cardross, 7th June 1329, aged 55. On his death-bed, repenting of the horrid flaughter which he had occafioned, and, in conformity to the wretched notions of religion entertained in those times, after having made ample donations to the church, he ordered that fome one of his chieftains on Goddis fayis his hart fuld ber;' as, by his approaching end, he forefaw that he fhould be prevented from carrying war and deftruction into the holy land in perfon, which he had always intended to do before his death, that he might thus, by murdering an equal or fuperior number of heathens and heretics, obtain pardon for his having murdered fo many Chriftians! 6 Let us now behold the monarch on his dying couch, a prey to forrow and fuperftition, justly lamenting and weakly feeking to atone for the blood which he had fhed in his former days! "For throuch me, and my werraying, 2 Off blud has bene rycht gret fpilling; 12 thoucht; tho' it. 13 much worse than death. 14 It, i. e. flavery, marrs, haraffes, or plagues him, body and bones. annoys him but once. 'Saklefs men; innocent men. 15 death fichyt fekyrly; fixed furely. 3 fauffyt; faved. quharin confawyt; wherein conceived. 5 euirilkane; every one. That |