n,
and more than once Barton sailed into Leith with a string of English
prizes. When he fell with all his nobility at Flodden, there came upon
Scotland the woe with which she was so familiar--

"Woe to that realme that haith an ower young king."

A long regency followed; disturbing elements of religion entered into the
life of the nation, and the historical stream which had flowed smoothly
for a series of years became all at once convulsed and turbulent, as if
it had entered upon a gorge of rapids. It was in this pleasant
interregnum of the reign of the fourth James, when ancient disorders had
to a certain extent been repressed, and when religious difficulties ahead
were yet undreamed of, that the poet Dunbar flourished--a nightingale
singing in a sunny lull of the Scottish historical storm.

Modern readers are acquainted with Dunbar chiefly through the medium of
Mr. David Laing's beautiful edition of his works published in 1834, and
by good Dr. Irving's intelligent and admirable compacted "History of
Scottish Poetry," published the other day. Irving's work, if deficient
somewhat in fluency and grace of style, is characterised by
conscientiousness of statement and by the ripest knowledge. Yet, despite
the researches of these competent writers, of the events of the poet's
life not much is known. He was born about 1460, and from an unquotable
allusion in one of his poems, he is supposed to have been a native of the
Lothians. His name occurs in the register of the University of St.
Andrews as a Bachelor of Arts. With the exception of these entries in
the college register, there is nothing authentically known of his early
life. We have no portrait of him, and cannot by that means decipher him.
We do not know with certainty from what family he sprang. Beyond what
light his poems may throw on them, we have no knowledge of his habits and
personal tastes. He exists for the most part in rumour, and the vague
shadows of things. It appears that in early life he became a friar of
the order of St. Francis; and in the capacity of a travelling priest
tells us that "he preached in Derntown kirk and in Canterbury;" that he
"passed at Dover across the Channel, and went through Picardy teaching
the people." He does not seem to have taken kindly to his profession.
His works are full of sarcastic allusions to the clergy, and in no
measured terms he denounces their luxury, their worldly-mindedness, and
their desire for high