NOTES.
125
burgh, W. 5. 14. espouses the episcopalian cause with more inveteracy than ingenuity, and inscribes his poems to Graham of Claverhouse, in the following lines:
Magnifico, generose, tuo pro munere, Greme,
Accipe nunc animi, parvula dona, mei,
Carmina quæ, tenui, modulatur arundine, pauca,
Et cecinit, rudibus, nostra Thalia, modis.
Horrida, pestiferæ, hic cernes molimina, sectæ,
Immanesque ausus, facta cruenta, neces;
Quæque sub eximia pietatis imagine fictæ,
Crimina, cum gemitu, turba scelesta tegit:
Mira quibus nunquam poterat clementia regis,
Aut venia, indignis jam satis esse data,
Gratia munifici regis, quæ, pectora sæva,
Lenire, et populi carnivori, poterat,
Atque Getas, Scythicas tribus, Arabesque feroces
Mollire, haud illis, petora dira valet:
Munere, nec capitur fanatica turba, nec ullis
Flectitur officiis, gens malesana, bonis:
Sola quidem strictæ, veneranda potentia legis
Armata et gladiis, hos retinere potest,
Hoc equidem docuistis, enim, specimine digno,
Vos, columen patriæ tempus in omne tuæ.
Accipe nunc animi, parvula dona, mei,
Carmina quæ, tenui, modulatur arundine, pauca,
Et cecinit, rudibus, nostra Thalia, modis.
Horrida, pestiferæ, hic cernes molimina, sectæ,
Immanesque ausus, facta cruenta, neces;
Quæque sub eximia pietatis imagine fictæ,
Crimina, cum gemitu, turba scelesta tegit:
Mira quibus nunquam poterat clementia regis,
Aut venia, indignis jam satis esse data,
Gratia munifici regis, quæ, pectora sæva,
Lenire, et populi carnivori, poterat,
Atque Getas, Scythicas tribus, Arabesque feroces
Mollire, haud illis, petora dira valet:
Munere, nec capitur fanatica turba, nec ullis
Flectitur officiis, gens malesana, bonis:
Sola quidem strictæ, veneranda potentia legis
Armata et gladiis, hos retinere potest,
Hoc equidem docuistis, enim, specimine digno,
Vos, columen patriæ tempus in omne tuæ.
In this style proceeds the invective of this Goth, or Vandal, or Hun; for in point of Latinity it is scarcely possible to be more barbarous; who appears to have been one of the last Scotish poets who employed the Latin language, and certainly one of them who least deserves to be known. How inferior is his style to that of the elegant Pitcairn! It must have been a great satisfaction to a Presbyterian of the old school, to see so much viru-
