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

358
NOTES TO MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
XI.
3, 4. That blindit boy, the god of love,
All creatur espyis.
Compare Chaucer :—
,l And in his hande me thought I saugh him holde
Twoo firy dartes, as the gledes rede,
And aungelyke hys wynges saugh I sprede,
And, al be that men seyn that blynd ys he,
Algate me thoghte that he myghte se ;
For stemely on me he gan byhold,
So that his loking dooth myn herte colde.”
—‘ Prologue to the Legende of Goode Women,’ vol. viii. pp. 51, 52.
Shakespeare:—
“ Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
—‘ Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act i. sc. i.
And Coleridge :—
“ I’ve heard of reasons manifold
Why love must needs be blind,
But this the best of all I hold,
His eyes are in his mind.”
—‘To a Lady offended by a Sportive Observation.’
35. Lyk burning gold, &c. Compare Dunbar :—
“ Thair brycht hairis hang gletering on the strandis
In tressis clere, wyppit wyth goldyn thredis.”
—‘The Goldyn Targe,’ 11. 61, 62.
41, 42. Hir deasie colour, rid and vhyte, &c. Compare Proper¬
tius :—
Chaucer
“Nec me tam facies, quamvis sit Candida, cepit,
(Lilia non domina sint magis alba mea;
Ut Maeotica nix minio si certet Hibero,
Utque rosae puro lacte natant folia).”
—‘Eleg.,’ Bk. II. iii. 9-12.
“ Her visage is of lovely rede and white.”
—‘The Court of Love,’ vol. iv. p. 159.
“ With angel visage, lusty red and white.”—Ibid., p. 161.
Shakespeare :—
“ ’Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on.”
—‘Twelfth Night,’Act i. sc. 5.
And Richard Allison :—
‘ ‘ There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies grow.”
—‘ An Howres Recreation in Musike.’