The Four Wise Men.—One of the most interesting poems in the Book of the Dean of Lismore is a dialogue between four men who are supposed to stand at the grave of Alexander the Great. It appears to be somewhat older than the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It illustrates the strong masculine character of those earlier ballads, where sense is not buried under a heap of verbiage. Whoever the author was, he was evidently a man of sound judgment and cultured common sense. Being of more than average merit in the original, the poem bears translation better than other inferior productions in the Dean’s Book. It has been excellently done by the late Mr Thomas Pattison, and I avail myself of his version. It is very interesting to read the moralisings of Highlanders some five hundred years ago.
[Four wise men] met beside the grave
Where the Prince of Greece was laid—
The mightiest Alexander;
And these true words they said:—
“But yesterday, to serve his need,
The world’s great host would rise;
And there, alas!” the first man said,
“To-day he lonely lies.”
“Proudly rode he on the earth