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

  [p154]

Sylva I: the consecration of James VI, king of Scots

1Dear boy, ornament of your nation, and the singular offspring, long awaited, of your parents, from a long line of ancestors: now joyfully lift up the eyes owed to Caledonian rule: as long as it does not trouble you to rise up from your cradle, or to leave behind the sweet breasts of your wetnurse, while a seer binds your golden locks with the crown, and while eternal honours are picked out which will adorn you and your descendants in the coming age. For I am mistaken, the predictions of a mind free from responsibility for human affairs do not have any weight, except, after God thundered out a lightning bolt from his left hand (a sure sign!), he fixed upon his beloved Stewarts for every age of kings. The gods have concern for your utmost wellbeing.

14Scarcely had Phoebe renewed again the pale horns of the moon, from whence the high-minded heroes in your crowd (so Nemesis punishes with her whip, and lays bare forbidden acts) had brought back a joyful triumph from a wicked enemy: a when your mother, the most beautiful amongst the shapely nymphs, exhausted by a labour greater than Hercules', gave over to you the rule of the nation, and the honours of the kingdom. b As Atlas, stooped by the oppressive weight of the heavens, calls earnestly in his prayers for another to support the poles: and as an athlete, exhausted by the breath-taking lap of the stadium and handing over the glowing torch withdraws from the arena: so the queen, long buffeted by a multitude of storms, and looking for a port providing calm from a shipwrecking sea, put off rule from herself, and handed over the burdens of rule to you, and the reins for governing affairs to you. So it pleased the gods. No more pleasing a gift has befallen the people since the wave-tossed queen, a spouse bereaved of her husband, traversed the sea in her boat and returned to her native shores. c As much as the spouse yields to her husband, and glass is inferior to emeralds; as much, o Sun, as lilies overshadow dry grass: as much as the fruit is more pleasing than the tree and the grapes than the vine;   [p155]so much awe remains for the tender child, as once existed among the nobles for the mother who was discharged from her office. But look, now! The time is at hand when the imperial rank of the parliament, together with the common people and happy wishes of your nation, confer upon you the governance of your ancestral kingdom. Now the nobility have assembled, now behold the famous crown, standing around the cradle of the king apparent, has promised the titles of heroes and ancestral honours. Here other citizens (the image of the mother of the nation) make known their utmost joy with the type of applause usually reserved for the theatre.

46If broken promises, if ever falsely-spoken oaths, or if ever hands long dipped in the blood of the citizenry and previous forgetfulness of our sacred duties have merited a penalty, we will suffer it as expiation. Jupiter has now had enough of the recent slaughter, and the deity's wrath was assuaged by the violence. Pious prayers have not been carried on the fleeting clouds of the West Wind, nor have we made offerings at the sacred altars, without effect. Because our prayers have reached the gods, and Jupiter himself, the creator of gods and of men, who resides in the sacred places of starry Olympus and who is lord over our fates, and who when it pleases him, at a nod, turns the outsplayed reins of the world in another direction: in his pity at our human fate and bitter tears, he brought forth a child from the ancient blood of kings, who rules over our territories, who checks our savage breasts with the laws of the nation, and who comforts the Scots bereft of their ruler. What more can be hoped for? What greater have the gods to give? Whoever you are here present, look upon the diadem caressing his brow, how brilliantly it blazes around the royal body, and how well the purple mantle gathers around his tender limbs, and how the sceptre and golden sword glitter more brilliantly in his hand. Such great honour rises from his brow, a brilliance which leaps forth from eyes that imitate the constellations of heavenly light. What brilliance in his face, how sweet the grace in his rosy lips, how golden the hair, hanging from the the top of his head, that flows down over his milk-white neck? O, how many thoughts, held deep within, does his high-spirited breast nourish? His face delights to keep a sweet countenance, no greater in splendour, than it ought to be revered for its majesty. Indeed, your good looks, most beautiful of kings, are so well-fitted for rule   [p156]that if ever the golden age had brought you forth, Jupiter as an eagle would have plucked you up into the heavenly airs, and the predator would have paid you the honours owed to Ganymede: d or conversely, if lying against the edge of a freezing pool you had cast a shadow on the rippling waters with a golden flash, its empty image would not have amused Narcissus, e nor would Venus have favoured her Adonis over you. f

82Perhaps a man begotten from humble stock, with this face, could have been deserving of the kingdom; a greater origin, the nobility of a worthy line and race, mark you out, and a virtue which surpasses the birth of greater men. For if it may please you to unroll ancient annals, after King Fergus, the founder of your maternal bloodline, kin to and descended from the Spanish, g you will count a hundred names of ancestors in a continual chain, reaching heaven with its sublime peak. Here, Maitland, you shine, h and here Bruce, i a warrior hero indeed, shines, and there the powerful lord of fertile Jerusalem; j and the conquering leaders who bring back laurels in your name, and the father, whom the Douglas race brought hence, k for long the most famous among all Scot-born people: what does the house of Stewart, and the longest chain of English kings, adorn? What glory of noble ancestors, marked by eternal monuments, recommends you? Always (I have remembered this much), when our lands were given up to death, after your father was incorporated among the stars and increased the number of heaven-dwellers, and the rule of the kingdom was given to a tender girl, there was one alone in our prayers: all were singing with a single mouth: 'when will be that day, when a tiny boy (you, most beautiful one) will call for the mother of the nymphs with an agreeable mouth; when will be that day, where rule will be given to the Stewarts to enjoy, and an infant will sit on the ancestral throne?' The best father, smiling, gave his assent with an agreeable mouth when you were born, and condemned the guilty rejoicing at your prayer. And now a child more beautiful from a beautiful mother holds the rule of the kingdom, and sits on the ancestral throne. Now Mother Nature has produced so great a king born from so great a family tree: so that if the choice is freely ours, or if the highest power can grant our prayer,  [p157] the loyalty of the human mind may not demand another. Thus the nobility rejoice at a king who is not lacking divine approval, and eagerly we give kisses to your sacred right hand, kisses bearing witness to the love of a devoted mind: and we freely vow deference and good fortune to you. Sooner will Lomnud l advance as far as the Eastern fields, or oppresses the sandy deserts of parched Libya, sooner fish leap from the glassy surface of the Tay and feed upon snub-nosed she-goats among the shrubs, sooner (I pray) will Jupiter drive us into Stygian gloom, than the promise contracted and bound over to you give service to a foreign tyrant, and us know wicked men by their treachery. Undoubtedly all men freely accept your rule because they have not been forced to submit, for who would refuse to obey he who their own votes have given the deserved kingdom?

128What, Bothwell, m you incendiary, you foulest plague of our people (I beg you, speak), has it benefited you to have defiled your wicked hands with the noble blood of an innocent king; so that you begin to stir up savage hatred, and words and arms against you, for the wicked crime of a handsome king? What has it benefited you to demand a similar outrage against the head of a tiny prince, bound with the sacred crown, and to reveal the shortcomings of the mother you have snatched away? So that, with victory-palms raised up towards the shining stars for the boy, and with continual mourning among mothers, the holiest troops invoke the death penalty, the heavenly deities and the gods, and your abominable crime turns so many spears, so many pikes, and so many drawn noble swords against you? Ah, was it ever enough to spend your life in private with your own wife? n Then neither would the eyes of the mob or the terrifying wrath of the judge reserved for the guilty frighten you: a shifting apparition would not disturb peaceful sleep, or a mind conscious of its crimes quake at empty gusts of air: instead, an infamous adulterer draws the widowed queen to himself to associate in the marriage bed with deathly consequence for all, and after losing the kingdom and her reputation forever, has fled across land and sea the supplication prepared for your wickedness. o However, you cannot boast that you have avoided the supplication prepared: rage on all sides   [p158]holds him fast; and the companion of disgrace is dishonour in life. Go, although reliant on the gloom of shadowy night; now go, and with a troop of mercenaries surrounding your body, may you seek royal roofs; may the fiery passion falter in your wicked eyes, and the fire depart from your flared nostrils. You who are exceedingly cruel, and more hostile than the Furies themselves, deliver the king, safe from forfeiture, by means of your head and neck, and worn out by the double blow, give up your life soon after. See! now a child more fiercely spirited by far than his mother takes a stand, known by his sceptre, who stirred by righteous anger will lay waste to you and your house, torn up from its barren root, and will hand over the arms of the enemy, wretched offerings (such are the rewards of so great a sin) to ancient hands, p and will expiate murder with enemy murder. Because grief for the slaughtered king, and the tears of his son, and the betrothal of his abducted q mother, rouse the gods. Fire from on high, stirred by gunpowder, rushes down upon the royal ceilings, their walls shaken by fire as they witness ruin beneath the terrifying thunder of the king: it knocks flat neighbouring houses and the battlements of the city: neither can any of the conflagrations yet be put out, nor can any force tear the kingdom of the Scots from the ancient Stewarts. The right of rule will remain with those born from this race as long as Titan r shines on the earth with its usual light, and the world stands fixed on its immoveable hinge.

177But you, worthy of the imperial pride of the Scots, until your age may arrive, flourishing, from its childhood years, turn your mind to what a reward of good fortune the gods bless you with, and what a bountiful sovereignty of youth. I will not yet call to mind here the weights from mountains swollen with tawny gold, or veins of sky-blue silver, nor mention fertile fields full of the cattle of Ceres, or rolling rivers, snow-white gems, or homes of splendour, or towns built from marble: other kings have these things in common with you. This is the prime and particular glory of your kingdom: this land, abounding in arms and fighting men and set under you, acknowledges its king and makes ready for him. The strengths of this nation of axe-wielding Scots are   [p159]to lie at ease in encampments, to withstand famine and thirst, to lie in wait for the enemy, to laugh off cold and to suffer heat, to outrun stags in their course, and to overcome moats with a leap, and rivers with a stroke, to scale inaccessible crags, to jump over battlements, to cast around the deadly weights of sulphurous cannonballs: to twirl the swift arrow from taut muscle, to turn the hoof-footed beast, to fight fiercely with the pike at close quarters, and when burning force enters the breast via the sword, soon to run away, and to shun wounds, and to look for a famous death and reputation in a life of no consequence.

202With these skills the checked fierceness of the Pict, the fury of the Cimbrian, and the arms of the ravening Saxon were cut down. s With these Scotland has endured, and with Mars as father and without law Scotland was protected by his rule when Mar's Rome had bound the whole world with its battlements and laws. Thanks to these skills too, and to the usual strength of your people, renown accrues to you that no age can blot out. With you as leader Scottish youths, following Mars, will go into the farthest lands: with you as leader, the noble company of troops, unharmed, will bring back victory signs after the war: or if it may please you, to conquer lands where after night has fled the sun raises his golden-haired head from Eastern fields, and sinks back down again into the glassy waters of the Ocean: a ready hand, and one best-suited to savage war, will provide you with it: they will conquer the lands where after night has fled the sun raises his golden-haired head from Eastern fields, and sinks back down again into the glassy waters of the Ocean. Or if you rather prefer to lay chains across a swollen sea, these men will throw fixed chains upon the captive sea. t

221I will not repeat the prophecies described by trifling Bede, u nor the admonitions of sorcerors, nor the doubtful snakes of Apollo, v nor the foretellings from deceptive sleep, nor is my love so great that I can foreknow the doubtful circumstance of a future time, so that it might please you to go down into the deepest depths of the earth, or to break open the gates of heaven. But, if sure signs are sought from past events, this day - where the sight of a child in mourning has terrified the armed battle-line, and forced the rebel enemy   [p160]shamefully to turn their backs to flight after throwing off their shields - shows what great victory remains for your adulthood.

232There is a bridge in Lothian near the sea: here Carberry hill w reveals itself from the turf of a small hillock, and moats encircled all round in the manner of castles reveal the tower kept safe on all sides by your troops. The story goes (if you believe it true) that on this heap the Picts, in troop formation, and their putrid household gods had resided: x it was here that Paris came with a half-man retinue, y snatching the captive queen with him among his plunder, spewing out slaughter and clamour among our encampments, and vomiting out many terrifying words and gusts with no power. In that place the famous phalanx, resplendent in bronze, blazed, and the standards were carrying back the bloody lions, z and the hoof-footed beasts were filling the fields with din and raucous neighing, and they covered over the sun with dry powder. The royal murderer himself, high among the first men, exults while brandishing a spear with his unyielding arms: the battle-line advances, and the standard-bearer unfurls his sign right there: once the image of the weeping prince has made conspicuous the slaughter of his father, aa the murderer's breast freezes over with cold; he drops the weapon from his hands; he suddenly flees from the sloping mount as the incautious traveller, unaware that he has stood upon a snake concealed beneath his feet, stops and turns his feet and limbs backwards. No sooner had he stood still than he abandoned the wife he had seized and shut his trembling body up in the fortified tower. Indeed, she could have spurred unfeeling rocks into battle who thanks to her beauty surpassed all others, nor did he yet dare, who was throwing himself at Achilles, ab either (in my opinion) to engage his life in such a contest. Then he also began to see the troops distributed at fixed intervals, the cowards that were running off into every field, withdrawing themselves from the field into caves and valleys. The leader feared his shadow: if a shadow scared his company, what kind and how great would the fear be in a man who will strike down the breasts of kings, after a thin beard stains his cheeks with down, and in who there will be no other more preferable leader: he will carry victorious phalanxes into fierce war,   [p161]will there be any prince or greatest man the whole world over who would dare to lift his daring countenance against his wrath? Or who will refuse to submit humbly to his dominion? But just as those who, once having seen the Gorgon and assumed the form of rock, had laid aside their human figure, so either he is terrified with the name 'James' alone called to mind, just as he is moved at his master's will.

276Yet he, someone who forbids poetry unless it is daring, and is not moved excessively by an aversion to the thankless Muse, helps with his talent to promote the talents which should be known by a prince destined to conquer. ac Now the gods, with the whole theatre applauding, rejoice that you reign. But where, greatest prince, is your dominion, where does your rule flourish, where the highest power, if having scorned the study of virtue you do not condemn every unworthy thing, and do not lead a life of worth to your nation? It is virtue which lifts sceptre-bearers above the heavens; it is infamy which pays out sin and a sinful life. Thus may honour be cherished by you, if there is glory in your heart, to seek out the path of virtue, to seek out modesty: he who sits in falsified garb deceives human minds concealed by a false image: soon he shows himself, with vices overcoming her, and soon loosens the tongues of the mob in savage outcry: but he who is born to the role nourishes his people with an innate sweetness, and never inflames them with a love fated to die, and may you also hold the course more easily with this footpath, to so moderate your actions, to so direct the events of your life, lest stooped old age arrive without benefit. Now, in your tender years, drink in the prime elements of pure virtue. Now hold fast to your chief men as wool to colours, and thus the mind holds and in a more mature state builds upon this first principle, which a soft woman, with strength not yet established, had seized upon. If you desire the easy gold of a God favourable to you, let religion be your concern, and let there be concern for all things sacred, and let your land be hospitable to the crowd of Muses. The people fashion themselves after the example of the king, and the wickedness of a ruler will make the mob think that every kind of crime is lawful. If uncontrollable lust seizes you unexpectedly, and if you desire to have plots arranged,   [p162] to defile the beds of married men, and to have seized the riches of good men: and anything your ill-advising will commands you to bring to completion, ad alas, what kind of madness, tell me, will seize the people, drawing a deadly poison from the example of their king? Thus whatever of desire and sin that the dire fotrix ae eagerly arranges as crimes permissable to the man who dares them, as much as there is no wrath of the harsh judge to be feared by you, and you can mock the stern looks of men under the king's law, yet you will be praised as much, by living your rule honestly, to uphold your reputation with probity. No worthier words (believe me) can be spoken by a noble prince, than by their own will to surround the latticed barrier of laws with the freedom being enjoyed by themselves. But above all the bloody reputation of a tyrant, severity of speech, and the creases of a harsh face must be shunned by you: for who endeavours to build his rule upon unfaithful fear draws a noose for himself, and hangs a sword bound to the ceiling above their noble head, and rather directs their life towards a fatal funeral.

327Is there any labour that you can bring to your mind, in which foreign kings, whose utmost concern was to be feared, had been annihilated to destruction? The death of Dionysius is well-known, an exile who stained with Sicilian blood ended his unclean life: af so too did unconquered Rome refuse to bear proud king Tarquinius. ag Impatient for rule after a long span of time, the noble offspring of Brutus pierced Caesar's breast through with many a wound. ah But I don't much care for foreign examples here. Our celebrated race, the scions of Scota - which by its own will submits itself to you who bears the rule, and is accustomed to defending good kings using their bodies as a shield, and which will yield to no danger while it keeps the sword away from the holy body of the king - that same race, if at any time a fierce and blood-thirsty person rises up who wishes to conquer the brave senate along with the fearful people and to infringe upon the laws of the nation, does not suffer it, but instead rumour flies, and with sudden uproar the armed strength of the outraged people heroically ai seizes the power of rule, and shortly after bridles the tyrant thrown from his seat, now with a harsh prison and now with a horrible death.   [p162] Do not let these things befall you, do not let the avenger of bloodshed press disaster upon you, the path of virtue, most apt for a king, must be walked so that the name of 'blessed king' is deserved: this flourishing circumstance will give you a kingdom, and a favourable people, and neighbours pacified, under a firm contract. Meanwhile, while a small cradle holds your body, while hope is nourished, and our harvest is yet still in the fields, we rejoicing delight to celebrate this festive day: one part recites poems, the other joyfully leads songs, and town crossroads blaze with kindled fires: aj the meadows grow green, the earth laughs, and the sky-blue waters of the gentle sea imitate the wavy hair of maidens in their flow. No day has dawned more joyful to us, since when the land became inhabited with Scottish settlers in its woodlands. You alone tiny boy, the single hope of salvation for the nation, the only salvation for the nation, may Jupiter give the sign to with his words. Live long, and reign happily for many years.