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it was wonder to wyte. And it befel thus, that Dioclesian thought to marry his daughters among all those kings that were of that solemnity. And so they spake and did, that Albine, his eldest daughter, and all her sisters, richly were married unto thirty-three kings, that were lords of great honour and of power, at this solemnity. And when the solemnity was done, every king took his wife, and led them into their own country, and there made them queens.

The story then goes on to relate how these thirty-three wives conspired to kill their husbands, all on the same night, and "anon, as their lords were asleep, they cut all their husbands' throats; and so they slew them all.”

When that Dioclesian, their father, heard of this thing, he became furiously wroth against his daughters, and anon would them all have brente." But all the barons and lords of Syria counseled not so for to do such straitness to his own daughters; but only should void the land of them for evermore; so that they never should come again; and so he did.

And Dioclesian, that was their father, anon commanded them to go into a ship, and delivered to them victuals for half a year. And when this was done, all the sisters went into the ship, and sailed forth in the sea, and took all their friends to Apolin, that was their God. And so long they sailed in the sea, till at the last they came and arrived in an isle, that was all wilderness. And when dame Albine was come to that land, and all her sisters, this Albine went first forth out of the ship, and said to her other sisters: For as much, (said she,) as I am the eldest sister of all this company, and first this land hath taken; and for as much as my name is Albine, I will that this land be called Albion, after mine own name. And anon, all her sisters granted to her with a good will.

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WILLIAM DUNBAR is pronounced by Ellis, to be "the greatest poet Scotand has produced." His writings, however, with scarcely an exception, emained in the obscurity of manuscript, till the beginning of the last century; but his fame since then has been continually rising. His chief poems are THE THISTLE AND THE ROSE, THE DANCE, and THE GOLDEN TERGE. The Thistle and the Rose was occasioned by the marriage of James IV. of Scotland with Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. of England, a. event in which the whole future political state of both nations was vitally interested, and which ultimately produced the union of the two crowns and

2 Burnt.

3 Strictness.

1 Know. 4 Specimens of the Early English Poeta,” vol. 1. p. 377: but should he not have excepted Burns and Sir Walter Scott

kingdoms, in the person of James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England, 16031625 This poem opens with the following stanzas, remarkable for their do scriptive and picturesque beauties:

Quhen' Merche wes with variand windis past,
And Appryll had with hir silver shouris
Tane leif at Nature, with ane orient blast,
And lusty May, that muddir3 is of flouris,
Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris,
Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt
Quhois harmony to heir it wes delyt:

In bed at morrow sleiping as I lay,
Methocht Aurora, with her cristall ene
In at the window lukit by the day.
And halsit me with visage pale and grene;
On quhois hand a lark sang, fro the splene,7
"Awak, luvaris,8 out of your slemering,9
Se how the lusty morrow dois upspring!"

Methocht fresche May befoir my bed upstude,
In weid depaynt of mony diverse hew,
Sober, benyng, and full of mansuetude,
In bright atteir of flouris forgit11 new,

Hevinly of color, quhyt, reid, brown, and blew,
Balmit in dew, and gilt with Phebus' bemys;
Quhil al the house illumynit of her lemys.12

THE DANCE of the Seven Deadly Sins through Hell has much merit. On the eve of Lent, a day of general confession, the poet, in a dream, sees a display of neaven and hell. Mahomet,13 or the devil, commands a dance to be performed by a select party of fiends, and immediately the Seven Deadly Sins appear. The following is a description of ENVY

Next in the dance followit INVI,
Fild full of feid 14 and fellony,
Hid malyce and dispyte;

For pryvie haterit 15 that tratour trymlit,16
Him followit mony freik dissymlit,17
With feynit wordis quhyte.

And flattereis into mens facis,
And back-byttaris 18 of sundry racis,
To ley 19 that had delyte.

With rownaris 20 of fals lesingis: 21
Allace! that courtis of noble kingis

Of tham can nevir be quyte!" 22

As a specimen of one of his minor poems take the following, containi nuch wholesome advice:

1 When. Qu has the force of w. With good will. • Lovers.

2 Taken leave. 8 Mother. 4 Whose. 6 Looked. • Halled. Slumbering. 10 Attire. 11 Forged, made. 12 Brightness.

13 The Christians, in the crusades, were accustomed to hear the Saracens swear by their Prophet Mahomet, who then became, in Europe, another name for the Devil.

14 Enmity.

16 Hatred. 16 Trembled. 17 Dissembling gallant. 18 Backbiters. 19 Lie. *Rounders, whispers. To round in the ear, or simply to round, was to whisper in the ear. Falsitics.

22 Free.

1 Wisdom.

NO TREASURE WITHOUT GLADNESS.

I.

Be merry, man! and take not sair in mind
The wavering of this wretchit world of sorrow!
To God be humble, and to thy friend be kind,
And with thy neighbours gladly lend and borrow.
His chance to-night, it may be thine to-morrow.
Be blithe in heart for any áventure;

For oft with wysure' it has been said aforrow,2
Without gladnéss availis no treasure.

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Though all the werk that ever had livand wight
Were only thine, no more thy part does fall
But meat, drink, clais,8 and of the laif a sight!
Yet, to the Judge thou shall give 'compt of all.
Ane reckoning right comes of ane ragment 10 small,
Be just, and joyous, and do to none injúre,

AND TRUTH SHALL MAKE THEE STRONG AS ANY WALL:
Without gladnéss availis no treasure.

2 A-fore, before.

3 Merchandise, treasure; that is, world's trash without health Here we see the original, etymological meaning of the preposition but to be without. 4 Thou canst enjoy all the remainder only with bale, or sorrow. 6 Originally pity and piety are the No longer than a sound. 7 Possessions. 8 Clothes. Remainder. P One accomp

same.

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No subject is inore interesting and instructive than the history of Biblical Literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. We have before spoken of the claims of John Wielif to our lasting gratitude, for having given us the first Er.glish version of the Bible. But that was made, not from the originals, but from the Latin Vulgate. Wiclif died 1384. About twenty-four years after his death, Archbishop Arundel, in a convocation of the clergy of his province assembled at Oxford, published a constitution, by which it was decreed, "that no one should thereafter translate any text of Holy Scripture into English, by way of a book, a little book, or tract; and that no book of this kind should be read that was composed lately in the time of John Wiclif, or since his death."

The Latin Bible, or Vulgate, was first printed on the continent in 1462; the Old Testament in Hebrew, 1488, and the New Testament in Greek about 1518. When these sacred oracles were brought into England, with the introduction of printing, the illiterate and terrified monks declaimed from their pulpits, that there was now a new language discovered, called Greek, of which people should beware, since it was that which produced all the heresies. that in this language was come forth a book called the New Testament, which was now in everybody's hands, and was full of thorns and briers: that there was also another language now started up, which they called Hebrew, and that they who learned it were termed Hebrews. One of the priests declared, with a most prophetic wisdom, "We must root out printing, or printing will root out us." But, notwithstanding the clamors of the monks, and the persecutions of the secular clergy, William Tyndale, in the reign of Henry VIII., undertook to translate the Scriptures from the original Hebrew and Greek into English, though he knew it would be done at the hazard of his life.

Tyndale was born about the year 1477. At an early age he entered the University of Oxford, and while there was a most diligent student: thus he laid the foundation of that skill in the learned languages essential to the suc tessful accomplishment of that enterprise which he was soon to take upon himself.

Soon after leaving the University, he became tutor and chaplain in the family of Sir John Welsh, a knight of Gloucestershire, whose liberal table was sure to procure him the frequent visits of the neighboring prelates and clergy. On one occasion, being in company with a popish divine, he argued so conclusively in favor of a vernacular translation of the Bible, that the divine, unable to answer him, exclaimed, "We had better be without God's law than the pope's." This fired the spirit of Tyndale, and he ind gnantly replied, "I defy the pope and all his laws; and if God gives me life, ere many years the ploughboys in England shall know more of the Scriptures than you do;"-a pledge which, in a few years, he most nobly redeemed. Finding that he could not accomplish his plans at home, Tyndale, in th year 1523, became a voluntary exile from his native land, which he was never more to revisit. He went to Antwerp, and there, with great assiduity, prosecuted his design of translating the Scriptures into English. The New Testament was finished in 1526. It sold so rapidly that the following year another edition was published, and the year after another, each consisting of five thousand. Great numbers of these were imported into England and speedily sold, though the importers were prosecute 1 with great rigor.

His retreat at Antwerp was hidden for some time from those who had marked him for their prey. But at length, in 1534, he was betrayed by the spies employed by Henry VIII., and imprisoned. Every thing was done by the English merchants at Antwerp to release him, and one of them, by the name of Thomas Pointz, was so ardent in his cause, that he went to England in person, to exert what influence he could in his favor. In the mean time the noble martyr was not inactive, but while in prison prepared another edition of the Testament, peculiarly adapted to the agricultural laborers; thus fulfilling his pledge that the " ploughboys" should have it for themselves.

But his invaluable life was now drawing to a close. The formalities of a trial were gone through; he was condemned for heresy; and in September, 1536, he was brought out of prison to suffer the dreadful sentence,-burning at the stake. In that appalling moment he exhibited the firmness and resig nation only to be found in the certain confidence of having his portion with those "shining ones" (in Bunyan's phrase) who had come out of great tribalation, and who had

for Jesus' sake,

Writhed on the rack, or blacken'd at the stake.

While the horrid preparations of death and of burning were going on in full view around him, his last thoughts were turned upon the welfare of that country which had driven him forth a fugitive; and his dying voice was that of intercession for his royal persecutor. "O Lord, open the King of Eng land's eyes," were his well-known last words at the stake.

Rome thunder'd death, but Tyndale's dauntless eye

Look'd in death's face and smiled, death standing by.

In spite of Rome, for England's faith he stood,
And in the flames he seal'd it with his blood.

It rests on indubitable evidence that Tyndale's voice was hardly hushed in death, before his last prayer was answered in a remarkable manner; for that capricious tyrant soon issued an injunction, ordering that the Bible should be placed in every church for the free use of the people.

Tyndale's translation of the New Testament is admirable both for style and accuracy; and our present version has very closely followed it through out. To use the words of a profound modern scholar, "It is astonishing how little obsolete the language of it is, even at this day; and, in point of perspi cuity and noble simplicity, propriety of idiom, and purity of style, no English version has yet surpassed it." The following is a fair specimen of this translation.2

And marke's A Certayne Lawere stode vp' and tempted hym sayinge: Master what shall I do' to inheret eternall lyfe? He sayd vnto him: What ys written in the lawe? Howe redest thou? And he answered and sayde: Thou shalt love thy lorde god' wyth all thy hert' and wyth all thy soule' and with all thy strengthe' and wyth all thy mynde: and thy neighbour as thy sylfe. And he sayd vnto hym: Thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live. He willynge to iustifie hym sylfe' sayde vnto Jesus: Who ys then my neighbour?

1 Dr. Geddes.

2 See a beautiful edition of Tyndale's Testament, by Rev. J. P Dabney, with an interesting memoir, published at Andover, Mass. 8 Behold

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