Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Poems of Alexander Scott

no NOTES TO NEW 3EIR GIFT TO QUENE MARY (143-177).
143. Quent= frequent, prevalent; cowth = well - known, common,
usual.
145 et seq. Protestandis takis }>e freiris auld antetewmc, &c. The
Reformers had been anticipating many beneficial changes from the
new order of things. Tenants thought they would have their holdings
on easier terms, and obtain relief from the payment of tithes and
other burdens that pressed heavily upon them; while the ministers
expected the teinds to be apportioned to their own uses and neces¬
sities. (See Davidson’s “Ane Mutuall Talking betuix a Clerk and ane
Courteour,” in ‘ Sat. Poems,’ vol. i. pp. 296-324.) But the nobility
in great part, “ perceaving thair carnall liberty and warldly commodity
sumquhat to be impaired thareby,” flouted these new-fangled ideas as
“ devoit imaginatiounis.”
Knox, speaking of the nobility who had got the Church property
into their hands, says: “ Sum wer licentious; sum had gredily
grippit the possessions of the Kirk; and uthers thocht they wald
not lack thair parte of Christ’s cote. . . . Thare war nane within
the Realme more unmercifull to the puir Ministeris thane war they
that had the grittest rentes of the Kirkes.”—‘ History of the Reforma¬
tion,’ pp. 256, 257 ; ed. 1732.
150. Keir= drive. I cel. keyra.
156. Zy///^ = either “daubed,” “smeared”—Lat. lutare,X.o bedaub
with mire; or “stained”—Icel. lita, to dye. Hailes and Laing
read kyttit. The Transcript of the Hunterian Club has byttit.
Hailes in his Glossary says, “ probably an error for knyttitd The
initial letter in the MS. is blurred; but the sense and the alliteration
alike require the reading in the text.
174. To saw and scheir= to sow and reap.
177-192. Latt all thy realine, &c. Compare with these stanzas the
following from Sir R. Maitland’s Poem “In Honour of the Quenis
Maryage to the Dolphin of France” (1558):—
“All lustie vowaris and hardie chevaleiris,
Go dress your hors, your harnes, and your geiris,
To rin at listis, to just, and to turnay,
That it may come into your ladeis earis
Quha in the feild maist valiantlie him beiris;
And ye, fair ladeis / put on your best array ;
Requeist young men to ryd in your levray,
That for your saik thai may break twentie speiris,
For luife of you, young lustie ladeis gay.
Ye lordis all and barownes of renowne,
And all estaittis in this natioune,
Mak great triumphe, mak banquet and gude cheir,
And everilk man put on his nuptiallgowne :
Let it be sein into the burrows-towne
That in your coffaris hes lyin this monie yeir;