Bannatyne Club > Philotus

PREFACE. iii
Dempster, the poet died in 1595 ; ' but the peer is known to have
survived till iGll. Whatever credit may be due to this literary
historian, there are other circumstances more than sufficient to
render their identity extremely dubious. Montgomery, in a sonnet
addressed to Robert Hudson, specifies Semple as not exempted
from the ordinary misfortunes of poets ; and as this sonnet appears
to have been written when he was advanced in years, it affords
another presumption against the identity of the poet and the peer.
Ye knau ill guyding genders mony gees,
And specially in poets : for example,
Ye can pen out tua cuple, and ye pleis.
Yourself and I, old Scot and Robert Semple.'
It IS not perhaps to be considered as very probable that Montgo-
mery would have applied these expressions to the presumptive heir
of a baron ; and it is certain that he would not thus have described
the baron himself There is some reason to believe that Semple
was a captain in the army : he speaks of himself as having been
present at the siege of Edinburgh Castle ; in the progress of his
narrative, he specifies particular incidents which he had not himself
' Dempster! Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, p. 602— He represents Sem-
ple as exhibiting the combined excellencies of Propertius, TibuUus, Ovid, and Calli-
raachus; an eulogium which cannot but be regarded as extravagant by those who
have perused such of his compositions as are now to be found.
' Montgomery's Poems, p. 75. Edinb. 1821, 8vo.