Had thay myndit till sic ane steir,
He had maid hevin and eirth to heir.
The General Assembly, in October 1577, presented a supplication to the regent Morton, requesting him to allow Mr Davidson to return home from England. Buik of the Universall Kirk, p. 70.The editor of Davidson’s Poetical Remains (lately printed) has furnished some interesting information concerning the author. I am indebted to him for correcting a mistake into which I had fallen in the Life of Melville. Davidson returned to Scotland during the lifetime of the regent, though not until his fall. Hume of Godscroft, in his account of Morton’s behaviour before his execution, says, “There he embraced Mr John Davidson, and said to him, you wrote a book, for which I was angry with you; but I never meant any ill to you,—forgive me. Mr Davidson was so moved herewith, that he could not refrain from weeping.” History of the House of Douglas and Angus, ii. 279, 12mo.
Verses to the memory of Knox.—Beza has inserted no verses to the memory of our Reformer, in his Icones, id est, Veræ Imagines Virorum Doctrina simul et Pietate Illustrium, published by him in Latin, anno 1580. But of this work, a French version was published under the title of Les Vrais Pourtraits des Hommes Illustres en Pieté et Doctrine. Geneve, 1581, 4to. In this translation are inserted original verses on Knox, &c. Irving’s Memoirs of Buchanan, 234. Having never seen this translation, I cannot say whether the verses which it contains coincide with those which I am about to quote.
Jacobus Verheiden published “Præstantium aliquot Theologorum, qui Romæ Antichristum oppugnarunt, Effigies, quibus addita eorum Elogia, librorumque Catalogi. Hag. Comit. 1602.” A new edition of this was published by Fredericus Roth‑Scholtz, under the title of “Jacobi Verheidenii Hagæ‑Comitis Imagines et Elogia, &c. Hagæ‑Comitum, 1725.” In this work the following lines are placed under the portrait of Knox:—
Scottorum primum te Ecclesia, Cnoxe, docentem,
Audiit, auspiciis estque redacta tuis.
Nam te cælestis pietas super omnia traxit,