He then describes his dream:

Methought that y Hoved on High on an Hill,
And loked Doun on a Dale Depest of othre;

Ther y Sawe in my Sighte a Selcouthe peple;

The Multitude was fo Moche, it Mighte not be nombred:
Methoughte y herd a Crowned Kyng, of his Comunes axe
A Soleyne (f) Subsidie, to Sufteyne his werres.

* * * * *

With that a Clerk Kneled adowne and Carped these wordes,
Liege Lord, yif it you Like to Listen a while,

Som Sawes of Salomon y fhall you fhewe fone.

The writer then gives a folemn lecture to kings on the art of governing. From the demand of fubfidies to fufleyne his werres,' I am inclined to believe this poem compofed in the reign of K. HENRY Vth, as the MS. appears from a fubfequent entry to have been written before the 9th of Henry VI. The whole poem contains but 146 lines.

The Alliterative Metre was no lefs popular among the old Scottish poets, than with their brethren on this fide the Tweed. In Maitland's Collection of ancient Scottish Poems, MS. in the Pepyfian library, is a very long poem in this fpecies of verfification, thus infcribed:

HEIR begins the Tretis of the Twa Marriit Wemen, and the W do, compylit be Maifter WILLIAM DUNBAR (g).

"Upon the Midfummer evven Mirriest of nichtis

"I Muvit furth alane quhen as Midnight was past

() folemn.

(g) Snce the above was written, this poem hath been printed in "Ancient Scottish Poems, &c. from the MS. Collections of Sir R. "Maitland, of Lethington, knight, of London, 1786,” 2 vols. 12mo. The two first lines are here corrected by that edition.

"Belyd

"Befyd ane Gudlie Grene Garth (b), full of Gay flouris
"Hegeit (i) of ane Huge Hicht with Hawthorne treeis
"Quairon ane Bird on ane Branfche so Birst out hir notis
"That nevir ane Blythfuller Bird was on the Beuche (k) hard &c

The Author pretends to over-hear three goffips fitting in an arbour, and revealing all their fecret methods of alluring and governing the other fex; it is a fevere and humorous fatire on bad women, and nothing inferior to Chaucer's Prologue to his Wife of Bath's Tale. As DUNBAR lived till about the middle of the fixteenth cen tury, this poem was probably compofed after SCOTTISH FIELD (defcribed above, in p. 277,) which is the latest fpecimen I have met with written in England. This poem contains about five hundred lines.

But the current ufe of the Alliterative Metre in Scotland, appears more particularly from those popular vulgar prophecies, which are ftill printed for the ufe of the lower people in Scotland, under the names of THOMAS the RYMER, Marvellous MERLING, &c. This collection feems to have been put together after the acceffion of James I. to the crown of England, and most of the pieces in it are in the metre of Pierce Plowman's Visions. The first of them begins thus:

"Merling fayes in his book, who will Read Right,

"Although his Sayings be uncouth, they Shall be true found. "In the feventh chapter, read Whofo Will,

"One thousand and more after Chrift's birth, &c."

And the Prophefie of BEID:

"Betwixt the chief of Summer and the Sad winter;
"Before the Heat of fummer Happen shall a war
"That Europ's lands Earnestly shall be wrought
"And Earneft Envy fhall last but a while, &c."
(k) Bough.

(b) Garden.

(i) Hedged.

So again the Prophefie of BERLINGTON:
"When the Ruby is Raised, Reft is there none,
"But much Rancour fhall Rife in River and plain
"Much Sorrow is Seen through a Suth-hound

"That beares Hornes in his Head like a wyld Hart, &c.”

In like Metre is the Prophefie of WALDHAVE:

"Upon Lowdon Law alone as I Lay,

"Looking to the Lennox, as me Lief thought,

"The first Morning of May, Medicine to seek

"For Malice and Melody that Moved me fore, &c."

And lastly, that intitled, The Prophefie of GILDAS.

"When holy kirk is Wracked and Will has no Wit
"And Paftors are Pluckt, and Pil'd without Pity
"When Idolatry Is In ENS and RE

"And fpiritual paftours are vexed away, &c."

It will be obferved in the foregoing fpecimens, that the Alliteration is extremely neglected, except in the third and fourth inftances; although all the rest are written in imitation of the cadence used in this kind of metre. It may perhaps appear from an attentive perufal, that the poems afcribed to Berlington and Waldhave are more ancient than the others: indeed the firft and fifth appear evidently to have been new modelled, if not intirely compofed about the beginning of the last century, and are probably the latest attempts ever made in this fpecies of verse.

In this and the foregoing ESSAY are mentioned all the fpecimens I have met with of the Alliterative Metre without rhyme: but inftances occur fometimes in old Manufcripts, of poems written both with final rhymes and the internal cadence and alliterations of the Metre of Pierce Plowman.

THE END OF THE ESSAY.

THE

THE following Song, intitled, THE COMPLAINT OF CONSCIENCE, is printed from the Editor's folio Manuscript: Some corruptions in the old copy are here corrected; but with notice to the Reader wherever it was judged necessary, by inclofing the corrections between inverted commas.

A

'

SI walked of late by an' wood fide,

To God for to meditate was my entent;

Where under a hawthorne I fuddenlye spyed
A filly poore creature ragged and rent,

With bloody teares his face was besprent,

His fleshe and his color confumed away,

And his garments they were all mire, mucke, and clay.

This made me muse, and much 'to' desire
To know what kind of man hee shold bee;
I ftept to him straight, and did him require
His name and his fecretts to fhew unto mee.
His head he caft up, and wooful was hee,
My name, quoth he; is the cause of my care,
And makes me fcorned, and left here fo bare.

10

Then ftraightway he turnd him, and prayd 'me' fit downe, And I will, faithe he, declare my whole greefe ; 16 My name is called CONSCIENCE: wheratt he did frowne,

He pined to repeate it, and grinded his teethe,

· Thoughe now, filly wretche, I'm denyed all releef,'

'Yet' while I was young, and tender of yeeres, 20 I was entertained with kinges, and with peeres.

There was none in the court that lived in fuch fame,
For with the kings councell'I' fate in commiffion;
Dukes, earles, and barrons esteem'd of my name;
And how that I liv'd there needs no repetition;
I was ever holden in honeft condition,

For how foever the lawes went in Westminster-hall,
When sentence was given, for me they wold call,

No incomes at all the landlords wold take,

But one pore peny, that was their fine;

And that they acknowledged to be for my fake.
The poore wold doe nothing without_councell mine:
I ruled the world with the right line :

25

30

For nothing was pafled betweene foe and friend,
But Confcience was called to bee at the end. 35

Noe bargaines, nor merchandize merchants wold make But I was called a witteneffe therto:

No ufe for noe money, nor forfett wold take,

But I wold controule them, if that they did foe:
• And' that makes me live now in great woe,
For then came in Pride, Sathan's difciple,
That is now entertained with all kind of people.

40

He brought with him three, whose names thus they call' That is Covetousnes, Lecherye, Ufury, befide:

Yer, 23. he fate. MS. V. 35. an end. MS. V.43. they be these. MS.

They