The hero lived, of matchless strength, The bravest heart in battle’s day. Lovely those lips with welcomes rich, Which women like so well to kiss; Lovely the chief whom men obeyed, Lovely those cheeks like roses red, Than raven’s hue more dark his hair, Redder than hero’s blood his cheeks; Softer than froth of streams his skin, Whiter it was than whitest snow, His hair in curling locks fell down, His eye more blue than bluest ice; Than rowans red more red his lips, Whiter than blossoms were his teeth; Tall was his spear like any mast, Sweeter his voice than sounding chord. None could better swim than Fraoch Who ever breasted running stream. Broader than any gate his shield; Joyous he swung it o’er his back; His arm and sword of equal length, In size he like a ship did look. Would it had been in warrior’s fight That Fraoch, who spared not gold, had died; ’Twas sad to perish by a Beast, ’Tis just as sad he lives not now.
Another characteristic feature of the collection is strings of homely proverbial saws such as this, going to show Scottish Sabbatarianism older than communications with Geneva--
’Tis not good to travel on Sunday, Whoever the Sabbath would keep; Not good to be of ill-famed race; Not good is a dirty woman; Not good to write without learning; Not good are grapes when sour; Not good is an earl without English; Not good is a sailor, if old; Not good is a bishop without warrant; Not good is a blemish on an elder; Not good a priest with but one eye; Not good a parson, if a beggar; Not good is a palace without play; Not good is a handmaid if she’s slow; Not good is a lord without a dwelling; ... Not good is a crown without supremacy; Not good is ploughing by night; Not good is learning without courtesy; Not good is religion without knowledge.
Among matters handled in this anthology, one which suggests the priest rather than the poet, is an unchivalrous estimate of the fair sex, here, indeed, most emphatically expressed by a rhymer taken to be the Irish Earl Gerald Fitzgerald of Desmond--
May my curse ’mongst woman rest, Although for a time I mixed with them; As for men who still are single, ’Tis best to have nought to do with women.
Another bard whose sentiments would shock suffragettes, is suspected for no other than Black Duncan himself, who would thus appear as taking a cynical view of the world he did so much to change. Some verses again are of ecclesiastically edifying tone; yet there are sly hits at monastic life, a sign of the times in which Henry VIII. took a strong view of the same subject, that, to be sure, supplies a favourite topic for mediæval poetry, and is all along very freely handled by the Muse of Lowland Scotland. The Dean himself could have been no model Churchman, for he left two sons to be legitimatised, one of whom succeeded to his clerical dignity, while the other is, in 1552, found formally renouncing his allegiance to the Macgregor chief and taking as his lord Campbell of Glenorchy, who, two generations back, had supplanted the Macgregors at the foot of Loch Tay.