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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A panegyric to the most serene and powerful King James VI, upon entering the city of Perth five days before the calends of June 1580

1Bright Phoebus, lift up from the ocean your head distinguished by its brilliant rays, and after you have been borne into rosy Olympus, beautifully extend your beautiful golden-haired light through the sky, and as you shine your new light with its unaccustomed splendour, direct your flame-bearing chariot over heaven's court; and may the sea's dissolution, raging uncontrollably, set aside its fierce roars; and, as it gently blows with a soft breeze, may the West Wind sweep harmlessly on pleasant wings across the airy plains with a warming breath.

10O glory, o remarkable divinity of a pleasing light, o outstanding day, white on snowy wings, who is the zenith of our kingdom, and the praise-worthy brilliance of the great universe, happily do you come hence to our city! Unless worthless prophecies trick my mind, you will be added to the fasti a for ever, o glorious day!

16Therefore, father of the fatherland, high hope of Britain, and nourishing light of your nation, having been long hoped-for you are here - you whom God in his pity - after the many bitter deaths of your people and savage disasters of sword and flame, and the wretched cities were worn down by many calamities - placed upon your ancestral throne, and whose tender hair God bound with your native crown, whom God made commander over powerful peoples far and wide, and he subjected and tamed martial hearts with his high sceptre, where the famous region of the Caledonian shore extends itself, and contains a breed marked out by its rich fertility. This welcoming and most pleasing land receives your presence with eagerness;  [p19]and may it convey honours worthy for you on your arrival. For you will deem your native race worthy of your favourable light, and as you return ackowledge your old citizen from your ancient stock, and upon your return to your city, enter our meagre homes as our great guest. Also, fired with a befriending passion, may you regard us ready spirits, who will follow you (wherever you lead) through harsh misfortunes, through fierce dangers; you are the glory and utmost extent of our sacred wishes.

37Yet you will not expect the ignoble riches that either the Pactolus expels from its swift sands, or the Tagus, or that which the very rich Ganges expels from its golden currents. b Let those sorts of rewards excite minds stooped only towards the bowels of the earth. Receive those minds ready and eager to follow orders and hearts hungry for life, whenever the fates summon you; instead of money receive these ready gifts, father of the fatherland, whenever Mars threatens in Northern affairs and rouses the audacious enemy into wretched wars; and may that glory rise up for you and spread abroad among unknown tribes, and may it breach the farthest reaches of the earth en masse.

48There are not enough tongues to supply praises worthy of you, nor do we sufficiently appreciate your glories, o unconquerable king. Look around you: truly everywhere the skilful earth itself applauds with an approving look; indeed you can see that the nature of the universe richly pours forth her charming glories from her all-producing bosom; and that her thunderstruck walls in heaven attest their joy with their own clap, just as the Saturnian Kingdom attests with its gentle child; and that a new age has come and the universe has changed! c Moreover, the commoners appear left and right roaring favourably and they fill the air with their agreeable applause; with genuine affection they rush forward with the people and the nobles, and they freely converge into one body to submitt their necks tamely to your bridles.

62Indeed, where the city bends towards the western regions, as the day shone at midday, as the violent North Wind puts the clouds to flight from the North Pole, most pleasingly it extended its plains, and marked out and enclosed them with an extended boundary where a happy troop invite you with friendly pursuits: d   [p20]whether the jousts of hoofed horses hold you, or you delight in driving them in flight round a blistering lap, or in the hunt; or your better judgement suggests an ancient wrestling match; or should you be fond of the theatre, or direct the arrow-point from a distance with your fine bow.

73Look no less kindly upon the easter parts, king, which the Tay, noted for its pleasing waters, nourishes with its deep river across the banks rich in verdant lawn, and it supports well-kept estates as it rolls on with its fertile tides. On it a high bridge stands over the deep, eddying tides, and it bestrides it with twelve arches. e And curved into extended arcs all along, it embraces the vast river with not just one bosom - even if inimicable fortune has struck it with harsh storms, and on occasion made it shudder violently. Yet your ingenuity (which no far-off day, or age long in the future will silence) ready to alleviate the harsh times that the ferocity of the fierce waves brought, lifted columns cut from hard rock into the deep, and joined their welcome weight to a beautiful arch. f

88What thanks will Perth's legions give to you for such great works? What thanks will the whole of Scotland itself, so rich in precious metal seams, give? And although no following age will ever state that we were ungrateful, nevertheless these deeds, along with the many other things done by so great a leader, will live for ever far and wide across the unknown world, where the Sun spreads out its friendly light upon distant lands, if Apollo has any power at all in far-off towns, and also the chaste Muses of Helicon when one drinks from their spring.

97Moreover, surrounded by your ministers, enter the inner sanctum of the holy temple in which the divine mysteries of the sacred word resounds; and in the middle of an assembly of crowded people, and prominent upon your high throne, in dutiful supplication call upon the eternal father to hear your chaste prayers. After having performed such great duty, happily make your way to your palace panelled with kingly splendour, and honour your followers with a joyous oration, and give a pleasing speech with friendly words.  [p21]And may you not leave the reception without any devotion from a fair city that has so readily submitted its sacred fasces g to you, and so profusely surrounded you with its assembled throng.

109Should we recall our descent from the very first origin of our history, and we delight to acknowledge the beginings of our (and your) city and race, both the glorious times in our fasti, and the dark misfortunes across so many ages, and the swift setbacks as our fortunes fell and rose, it will then stretch far beyond the ancient times of the British kings. The Picts had put them to flight towards the south when they established their homelands at the mouth of the upper Almond, where the ruined palaces of ancient Bertha h can be seen by its little streams, and on the bank of the river, where the Tay receives the Almond into its foaming tides, i it neither bitterly covers its surrounding fields with briney sea-water, nor intemperantly bursts its banks unless in a rage. After it had witnessed twelve ages turn upon their circuit, during which time the Picts' affairs had flourished in the kingdom, violent unrest scarely touched the neighbouring nations, then the Scots, renowned for martial success, opposed the Picts, and caused them to take the bloody path to exile; for after they had defeated the Picts, they then supplanted them.

128But as soon as the elder William then was directing the highest reins of the state, j orderedly and in welcome peace (alas how often delights are mixed with unexpected bitterness, and most welcome sweetness with ill-deserved poison!), then the savage Tay in incontrollable torrent, and savage Almond attacked, as black night covered the sky, and winter, fearful with its miserable storms, was just then rising in its raging force. Ah, so savagely it assailed the city with wretched disasters, and destroyed a not insubstantial part of the city's fabric with its cruel waves, and it engulfed it under its frightful deluge.

138Thereupon the father of the fatherland, lamenting the bitter disaster that his own citizens had endured so many ill-deserved deaths, transported the remains and the monuments of the wretched to a pleasant valley of fine excellence, where the Tay, and even the Almond under better direction, were both restrained with settled waters, and with their fury put aside, where they rolled on into the high sea with calmed waters.  [p22]Should I bring to mind the welcoming bays? The streets laid out in pleasant arrangement? And the walls turreted along its charming circuit and soaring on lofted wings? What about the people, and the holy fathers, the venerable assembly of the Senate, and the ministers laden with conspiuous honour, who conduct the sacred rites with ever-vigilant devotion? What about the squares, and the sacred precincts of the venerable Virgin? The gentle assembly of youths? The tribe in togas? k What about the band of merchants handsome in their finery? And the tribe of artisans, the choicest troops of the commoners, divided into their own orders, and arranged into a line in their order of precedence along the street? Should I bring to mind the temples with soaring columns, the tower pointing to the stars like a pyramid? The cymbals resounding with Apollo's song, as they exchange their gentle notes and, with such a great din, strike the clouds at a distance in the sky with their clash? Whenever the religious rites call, the Republic, mindful of its responsibilities, summons both people and the fathers together to discuss them - be that, for example, when the assembly desires in extreme gratitude to show tokens of its new joy in a sonorous hymn, and in a salute to the health of their king and fatherland, which the happy cohort celebrate as they justly exult and rejoice through the night and day, as Vulcan's torches subdue the darkness and still cold of night with their ruddy flames. O what a day under a smiling deity! Should I speak again about the delightful shows redolent with inummerable jokes? The historical recitations of the Martial deeds of our forefathers amid foreign tribes? The Danes tamed by our steel? The anger of the Saxons, which so often deprived our city of our murdered citizens, and who in turn felt the force of our sword? While savage Bellona was arming our peoples to kill each other (alas with awful violence), ah how much it delighted one kingdom of the Britons to run furiously to meet the swords of another! We hope that these kingdoms will soon come together into one kingdom, just as the sacred oracles of the ancient prophets promise; and which, while he was holding sceptres of Britain, and after he had been defeated by his bitter foe, the final heir to Cadwaller's line predicted would be fulfilled, l   [p23]and he ordered that their hope be placed in his descendants: and now, King, the oracles summon your gifts and talents.

185These predictions also first embraced Christ in their happy folds as he rose with his new light, and struck the sluggish crowds of profane Rome in their grand homes. And lest in ignorance future generations, won over by the enticing ministers of pleasure, abandon the new adventure, it mixed its temples and filthy altars with destruction, and its halls adorned in vain with its meaningless statues.

192Now that same generation readily rejoices that you are here and it falls down at your feet, and it prays for your fortune. Please take up these dutiful wishes with an accepting mind, most beautiful of beings, and do not avert your ears in welcome to our prayers.

196So may your virtue happily plant its roots deeply across the earth, and may it strongly flourish in lawful glory, and strike down upon nations and stun them with your boundless renown. Thus may piety and faith, eternally supported by God, inspire you, as you approach the top pf highest Olympus and also bloom in the flower of your youth's first age, and may it sustain you as you hurry along the right path. And thus may most fair Scotia, in wonder at your leadership of the state, and extremely averse to the stinking pools of vices, turn her holy face from the unclean crowd. Indeed may it also flee from the Hellish Hydra's death-bearing goblets filled full, which the Cerberus of the Roman court m has splattered across the regions of the whole world; and may it drink in the chaste love of sacred virtue, and health from the living fountains and body of the sacred word, under the dutiful minister's grateful instruction. See, however, how Minerva, most beautiful with rosey face, sends her own fortune to you from the starry heights so that the path bristling with stern thorn bushes, which leads through rough crags towards the upper citadel of snowy virtue, and through the places jaggy with rocks, and which shows the route to the ethereal spheres, may begin to reveal itself to all the people after it has been cleared under your guidance, and so that the glory of Apollo's Laurel may grow strong, and that a more just skill may fire sluggish minds after torpor has been banished (under your leadership, great king).  [p24]When you see him doing these things after he has matured into the serene time of his life, and has become gently mellowed by the peace of an extended old-age, o Scotland who is blessed by Mar's helping divinity, then finally, pacified with your wars at an end, how greatly you will be delighted with your blessed son!