And the learned James Duport has not disdained to make the same allusion: In Andream Melvinum, Scotum, De suâ Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoriâ, Sapphico versu conscriptâ. Quàm Smectymnuo es affinis, vox sesquipedalis, O Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria. Utraque sic tibi, Scote, Anglorum Academia sordet? Nec CAMUS purâ aut TAMUS abundat aquâ ? Quâ nec sub sole est ecclesia clarior ulla, At pius HERBERTUS tua plumbea tela retorsit. Lascivum et prodit Sapphica musa caput. Qui non MEL sed FEL, non VINUM das, sed ACETUM, Let it not, however, be inferred from these verses, that Andrew Melville always sought to dip his pen in gall; that he was principally delighted with the severity of satire and invective. He occasionally diverted his muse to the subject of just panegyric. In many of his epigrams he has celebrated the literary attainments of bis contemporaries. He has endeared his name to posterity by his encomium on the profound learning of the two Scaligers, and the classic elegance of Buchanan, his preceptor, and the parent of the Muses. His Latin h GEORGE BUCHANAN is celebrated by Julius Cæsar Scaliger, by Joseph Scaliger, by Turnebus, by Beza, and other foreigners, as a prodigy of learning :—“ Buchananum omnibus antepono—Haddonum nemini postpono," were the expressions paraphrase of the Song of Moses is truly excellent. It is inscribed to James VI. whom he styles a boy : Sancte Puer, cape sacra meæ primordia Musæ, Non secus ae grati prima elementa animi: Parva quidem tanto fateor munuscula regi; Parva, sed immensi munere magna Dei. Of the exordium, and, indeed, of the whole poem, it may be pronounced, that they perfectly correspond to the character which Isaac Walton gives of his poetic genius: Vos æterni ignes, et conscia lumina mundi, Falantesque polo flammæ i, vosque humida regna, Et cœlum et tellus (ego vos nunc alloquar), aures expressions of Queen Elizabeth. His works are fraught with all the beauty and elegance of classic antiquity. He finished the greatest part of his incomparable version of the Psalms when in a state of confinement, at a monastery in Portugal, under the care of certain monks, who were directed to instruct him in the principles of religion, and whom he characterises as men of great humanity, and goodness; but totally ignorant of divinity-Omnis religionis ignari. Prefixed to his Poems is a short "History of his Life," written by himself. The following anecdote is extracted from the Diary of Mr. James Melville: 66 Sept. 1582.-During the vacance my uncle, Mr. Andrew, Principal of the "New College, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, Provost of Kilkaldie, and I, hearing "that Maister George Buchanan was weakly, and his History in the press, "passed over to Edenbrugh anes eirand to visit him, and to see the wark. "Whan we cam to his chalinber we found him sitting in his chaire, teaching "his young man, that served him in his chalmber, to spell AB, EB, IB, &c.— “After salutation, Mr. Andrew says, 'I see, Sir, you are not idle.' • Better "this (quoth hee) than stealing sheipe, or sitting idle, whilk is als ill."" i "And ye five other wand'ring fires that move VOL. II. MILT. PAR. LOST, B. V. 177. The following lines are exquisitely beautiful:--See Deut. xxxii. 10, 11........ ...ceu pupula, cornu Quam vitreo murus cingit chrystallinus; et quam, Ac veluti alituum princeps, fulvusque Tonantis Vela legens, humiles tranat sub nubibus oras. Fertque refertque suos vario, moremque volandi Paulatim incipiunt pennis se credere cœlo Impavidi: tantum à teneris valet addere curam. This description of the eye seems to be taken from "Cicero de Natura Deorum." L. II. 57. "Munitæ sunt palpebræ tanquam vallo pilorum." |