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poetical experiments began as early as 1581.[1] Whatever the exact date, it is clear that they were carried on under the guidance of Montgomerie and not of Buchanan, who died September 29, 1582, and some time before had ceased to perform his duties as tutor. The King's reliance on the master poet is everywhere traceable in both his precepts and his practice.
To this period may also be assigned Montgomerie's Flyting with Polwart, the King's enjoyment of which is spoken of in one of Montgomerie's sonnets (XXVII):
"Vhose Highnes laughed som tym for to look
Hou I chaist Polwart from the chimney nook."
The Flyting is true to its uncomely type, and to modern taste more grotesquely coarse than either lascivious or amusing; but it is not necessary to make it the chief index of James's early taste in poetry he was also the translator of Du Bartas's Uranie, ou Muse Celeste.
Montgomerie's poem, like the King's Admonition (LI), illustrates the good-natured fellowship which existed between the young monarch and his poetical familiars. Celebrations inspired by Bacchus as well as the Muses were not infrequent. Indeed, from such evidence as we can gather the joke on Archbishop Adamson,[2] the boisterous tone of the Flyting and similar pieces, his final surrender to the god of wine[3] one pictures "beloved Sanders" as a jovial, not altogether reputable character such as Scott would have enjoyed painting, gifted with intelligence and some genius, yet quite capable of the role of court jester or abbot of unreason when occasion permitted.
The order of March 21, 1588-1589, restoring Montgomerie's pension,[4] informs us that he left Scotland on the King's business in the autumn of 1586, with license to "pass of this realme to the pairtis of France, Flanders, Spaine,
