“He tore his feedreme[100] that was schene,
And slippit owt of it full clene,
And in a myre, up to the ene,
Amang the glar did glyd.
The fowlis at all the feathers dang,
As at a monster thame amang,
Quhill all the pennis of it owsprang
In till the air full wyde.
“And he lay at the plunge evirmair,
Sa lang as any ravin did rair;
The crawis him socht with cryis of cair
In every schaw besyde.
Had he reveild bene to the rukis,
They had him revin all with thair clukis:
Thre dayis in dub amang the dukis
He did with dirt him hyde.
“The air was dirkit with the fowlis,
That come with yawmeris and with yowlis,
With skryking, skrymming and with scowlis,
To tak him in the tyde.
I walknit with the noyis and schowte,
So hiddowis beir was me abowte;
Sensyne I curss that cankerit rowte
Quhairevir I go or ryde.”
To Dunbar’s younger contemporary, Sir David Lyndsay, Stirling was not “every court-manis fo,” but was the ideal place of residence in which to spend the summer months. The words which he put into the mouth of James V.’s “papyngo” or parrot were doubtless in agreement with the poet’s own views:
“Adew, fair Snawdoun! with thy touris hie,
Thy Chapell Royall, park and tabyll rounde!
May, June and July walde I dwell in thee,
War I ane man, to heir the birdis sounde,
Quhilk doith agane thy royall roche resounde.”
Lyndsay knew Stirling well, for he was principal attendant upon young James V.:
“Thy purs master and secreit Thesaurare,
Thy Yschare, aye sen thy natyvitie,
And of thy chalmer cheiffe Cubiculare.”
And as Stirling was the home of the King’s boyhood, it was in the castle that the usher romped with his royal charge and for his amusement played upon the lute:
“Quhow, as ane chapman beris his pak,
I bure thy Grace upon my back,
And sumtymes, stridlingis on my nek,
Dansand with mony bend and bek,
The first sillabis that thow did mute
Was PA, DA LYN, upon the lute.”
Pleasing pictures Lyndsay gives in “The Dreme” and in “The Complaynt to the King” of this happy comradeship with the boy sovereign. In after years, when he was free from the Douglas tutelage, James rewarded his old companion by bestowing upon him the honour of knighthood and making him Chief Herald, or Lord Lyon King of Arms.