Bridging the Continental divide: neo-Latin and its cultural role in Jacobean Scotland, as seen in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (1637)

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Eclogue II: Amaryllis runs in joy to meet the king as he approaches Perth

1Come now, Amaryllis, freely cast off the weighty worries from your innermost heart, and lift up your happy head with its happy face. Behold the long awaited day returns for you to wash away your tears from your tender face. Daphnis, whom you looked out for every hour, is here, and gently with his friendly face he so happily looks upon your countenance after 15 years. Now let the trumpets sound for you, let the hollow cymbals redouble the unaccustomed Paean and reverberate through the light breezes, and let the hollow drum rehearse its new songs. Now is the time to strike out the dirt, now the streets are to be paved in so many places, and let the walls rise up in fitting size, restored from their former ruins. But now no pavement is supported by its arches, nor by marble columns, and seven lustra a have passed with little work on it. Good Daphnis will make sure all of it is restored, repaired under his inspection, shining with his own polish, and completed with its ancient sheen.

18Therefore most celebrated glory of Caledonia, and great promise of your race, for whom alone a friendly divinity has allowed to count sceptre-bearing ancestors across twenty generations now, by whom the iron doors of war-bearing Janus have been locked shut with a strong chain, whom the divine power of the eternal right hand has allowed to tame the age happily with wars put aside, you, long-hoped for, now return. Your nation, roused to happy uproar looks out for you, and rises to meet you as you approach with due honour, wonderstruck at your countenance; and sceptres  [p37]have been joined to pious sceptres, unstained by any blood of men!

29So often thought to have been destroyed by foreign steel, and its own, Britannia, divinely one now for so many years, once split into ten kingdoms, unites so peacefully into one kingdom. What the Scots held, and the native Britons before, and the hand of the Picts subjected to the Scots in triumph, and the power of the Saxons formerly split into seven kingdoms, afterwards ceded to the fierce Dane, and the invading Normans, now joined by fate, they all pledge their titles to your right hand. And lest anyone say that you have not succeded as rightful heir to these sceptres, or else thinks that these kingdoms have fallen unduly to your lot, there was no one, to whom in any way any part of Britain has given its sceptres to be ruled, who would deny that you were born of their blood, and that you were summoned into their kingdom by divine right, and who would not yield the reins of governance to you, as long as he were still breathing, and your given lot had not denied you such a long time in the light of life.

46Look at who last directed the sceptres of the British, which would be given to the Saxon yoke, after hostile fortune had decreed that their kingdom consider toilsome flight, as the oppressive enemy bore down, since they at that time would not put their trust in their fighting skills. It is said that this prophesy dropped into the ears of a prophet from a heavenly breeze, as he rested his limbs in sleep: 'the final day of the state is nigh, and the pitiable death of your kingdom, Briton, a savage foe will crush all: do not attempt further danger in grim war, but rather, when thinking of your bitter destruction, hide this solace in your mind: a sprig will grow from your seed, which will become a master of an empire of a land far and wide, and a master of arms, where winding Britannia stretches out on its vast expanse, and is washed by the wandering waves of the Ocean.'

60Henceforth your ancestor, b after eight generations, the same ancestor of the British who has bound the warring roses in the peace and love for you, he handles the reins of the Saxons for you, an ancestor of the British because he is the heir of the line of Cadwallar, who finally bent the chains of the British with his hand; joined by the love of wedding torch from the Saxons - the Saxons who, through their own victory, brought an end to the seven kingdoms,  [p38]which were assaulted in battle by the Danes and Normans. This man has, with the roses united c after the thousand hazards of war, kindled a civic passion with the wars put aside. Hence your maternal grandfather, d the illustrious offspring of your great-grandfather's marriage, arose from blood shared with the English, from the honour of a marriage bed that pleased wedded Margaret. e After the death of your grandfather took away the male line, a royal child was brought forth and renewed the line, a girl born from the seed of her great grandmother Margaret. f Or should I call to mind your forefather born from a Danish mother, g who mixed Normano-English with Scottish blood in marriage? How your sacred family line indicates that your family has been blessed in every direction, and that you should be honoured by your very great pedigree? Who would pass over you in silence, memorable father Henry, h who was worthy of the lofty bed of Queen Mary? Should I bring to mind how your noble family flows on from the titles of both parents, how it bursts forth so deeply from one bloodline? How it comes together into one offspring, and how, in peace, into one and the same crown that befits your countless attributes - a crown which better times (harmless times, with wars at an end) consecrates upon your head, Daphnis.

88Who would take from you the sister kingdoms of your Scottish parents, who smashed the Pictish strongholds in righteous victory, or who would deny that you maintain your ancestral sceptres? What of it that Ireland, the glory of the sons of Hector, rushes before all others to approve of your great titles? For the forefathers of Caledonia came from that source, and also the noble power of the Kings descended from Fergus, i who enclose twenty generations within their fasti.

96Now unless the oracles of the prophets deceive, even greater things should come: I pray that under these happy signs that you take advantage of whatever fate God will bestow. O gentle love of the great world, whom the greatest revolutions of affairs (which are exposed to countless worries) detains, whether God will dictate that either Roman or Byzantine strongholds be brought low by your victories, do not feign in your good fortune to remember lesser matters, nor ever let die the gentle flame for Amaryllis in your dutiful heart; whether while detained among your own, or when  [p39]a far-off, pathless region keeps you away on an adventure in its rough terrain - whatever emergency in your affairs summons you.

108How easily I think upon the most pleasing tokens of my lover, who did not disdain to prefer my face to those of the other nymphs after childhood; and he raised me and my head above the other cities! Such a dutiful family, and such venerable hearts of dutiful parents decided to honour me before the rest with their gifts; I offer evidence from so many ages: because of him, the fierce river Tay, and the Almond with its wild currents, have forced me to leave my ancient haunts, and to seek out new dwellings under a better guardian spirit. Through him I so nobly inhabit a pleasing position of strength, and a city outstanding in location with its fortifications. Should I sing of the bridge and the rivers? Of the meadows spread out all around and encircling my walls? Should I sing of the swift Almond? Which has forgotten its guardian spirit after its many travels, as it so unhappily refuses to rest upon its own river bed without me, as it follows my footsteps across the broad fields, as it reaches out against my walls with its quivering arms; as it prepares to envelop me in gentle, moist applause, it washes my boundaries with harmless waves; held not by an errant path, but rather by a sweet love for my situation to serve me with an inexhaustible supply of water in all directions, wherever the fierce northern wind breaks forth, wherever the south wind pours out its cloud-produced waters from clouds, wherever the evening falling upon the sky directs the stars that rise to meet our people. With its huge current, the Tay, the ruler of the Grampian's waters, flows back and forward through the alcoves of the marble bridge, and slides on under the eleven arches; and the nymphs have their beautiful homes, their bright grotto (perhaps Narcissus had happily seen his face in such water as here) under its shell.

140Should I go over different things? Your presence, your august sight pleases me more than gifts, the passion of your honest heart too. You yourself are more gratifying to me than all presents: the love given does not touch me, but rather the love of the person giving touches my insides. While I bemoan your absence, while I am abandoned in sadness,  [p40]the light is displeasing to my eyes, it can scarce drive out my gloomy clouds of worries: without you there is no urge capable of soothing my heart, and of calming the unconquerable sorrows of my soul; nor is it possible to destroy such a great heap of worries.

150O may I match my time with you to the ages passed through Nestor j very long years, as long as our love holds you safe in our land; and may by happy fate the thread-spinning sisters spin a sturdy thread of peaceful old age for you. Alas, my prayers fall in vain; make an end and limit on your tears, Amaryllis: while the fates are distributed, happily enjoy your love (for your time is brief).

158How shall I repay you with a reward worthy of such great gifts? Your fortune is not wanting our help: since the reward is the love of the lover, my first delight is to love my Daphnis, even from the fire of a lover who will leave.