Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Treatise callit The court of Venus

XXX
INTRODUCTION.
The fault I said, for hir saik I suld mend it
Quhair scho befoir with strange termis was offendit.
I promeist hir of honestie to quyte thame,
And with toun termes my bow it suld be bendit
Fra Clerklie termes my pen suld be suspendit,
And in my verse be na way I suld wryte thame.
Ze sail all knaw doutles that I despyte thame.” 1
At the end of this work he adds a short poem entitled
“Ane short schawing quhair and quhen, and at quhais
requeist this buik was translatit out of prois in Scottis
Meter,” in which the date of its composition is stated. He
says :—
“ Sa in seuin oulkis this quair was clene copleit
Out of plane prois, now keipand meteris feit,
Within the Fort and Towre of Tamtalloun,
Quhen the Inglis Floit beside Inchekeith did fleit
Vpon the sey, in that greit birning heit,
Baith Scottis & Inglis of Leith lay at ye toun,
With schairp asseige, and garneist garisoun,
On ather side, quhair sindrie loist the sweit,
That samin time I maid this translatioun.”
The colophon is “ Quod Holland, 1560.”2
This siege can be no other than that which the French
bore so gallantly in Leith during the spring and early sum¬
mer of 1560. The English Admiral arrived in the Firth of
Forth about the 22d of January, and peace was concluded
by the treaty of Edinburgh in July. From the expression,
“ in that greit birning heit,” it may be inferred that he
wrote it between the end of May and the conclusion of the
treaty. The composition of ‘The Gourt of Venus’ must
then have been prior to 1560, although it was not published
till 1575. There may be a little ground for saying that the
learned author added some lines at least to the original
before sending it to press. Thus, we know that in the
1 ‘ The Seven Sages,’ A iij. back.
2 Ibid, last leaf.