Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Satirical poems of the time of the reformation > Volume 2, 1893

NOTES TO THE COMPLAINT OF SCOTLAND (13-84). 75
godly man”—a character no one by the wildest stretch of imagination
would ever dream of according to Henry Stewart. But, more than all,
it is evident from line 101 that the person shot is not the king, for
assuredly he is unscathed, and his faithful subjects are entreated to
defend him, while they are called upon to avenge the death of the
murdered man. There can therefore be no doubt that this piece was
written on the assassination of the Regent Murray, and that it ought
to be assigned to the year 1570. The title, as Leyden has remarked
in his preliminary dissertation to ‘ The Complaynt of Scotland ’—a
very different work—seems to have been a common one about the
period.
13. 7/z/^>=wholly devoted to me.
23. Lym nor lyth = \imb nor joint—
“ Thow art mair lerge of lyth and lym,
Nor I am, be sic thre.”
—Alex. Scott, ‘TheJusting and Debait,’
11. 122, 123.
“ Ilka member, lith and lim,
Was souple, like a doken.”
—Ramsay, ‘ Christ’s Kirk on the Green,’
canto iii. 11. 214, 215.
28. Sen Fergus first, &c. See Poems v. 1. 105 and xxviii. 1. 98, and
notes thereto.
36. Wa worth thy da! The Hamiltons. Cf. Poems x. 11. 405-408
and xx. 1. 34.
58. This line alone is sufficient to show that the murder of Darnley
is not the subject of the poem. Apart altogether from the “ gunne,”
according to all authorities so far was his body from being torn, that
not a mark or blood-stain was upon it. See Poem iv. 11. 76, 77, note ;
and cf. with 11. 56-60 of this piece Poem xiv. 11. 41-50.
61. 0 cursit Cain! Cain at this period was synonymous with Satan,
or one of his children. The usual spelling with the earlier poets is
Cairn or Caym, and the word is generally, as it ought to be, a dis¬
syllable.
62, 63. O bludie bairne of Ishmaell!
Gedaliah quhen thow did steir.
“ Surrexit autem Ismahel, filius Nathaniae, et decern viri qui cum eo
erant, et percusserunt Godoliam, filium Ahicam, filii Saphan, gladio,
et interfecerunt eum quern praefecerat rex Babylonis terras.”—Jer. xli. 2.
83. With fresche cfidr—wnXh fresh warlike equipment—
“ And fast thai come full awful in effeir."
—‘ Wallace,’ Bk. iii. 1. 132.
84. Dintis dourc=\\zx& blows. “With” is understood before these
words.