[658] V. 11. raigne, Puttenham.
[659] Scil. the Queen of Scots.
[660] V. 22. That discorde aye, Har.
[661] V. 23. formor, Put.
[662] V. 27. realme brookes no seditious Sects, Har.
[663] V. 32. "such like" is supplied from Harrington's ed., in which are other variations, that seem meer mistakes of the transcriber or printer.
XVI.
KING OF SCOTS AND ANDREW BROWNE.
This ballad is a proof of the little intercourse that subsisted between the Scots and English, before the accession of James I. to the crown of England. The tale which is here so circumstantially related does not appear to have had the least foundation in history, but was probably built upon some confused hearsay report of the tumults in Scotland during the minority of that prince, and of the conspiracies formed by different factions to get possession of his person. It should seem from ver. 97 to have been written during the regency, or at least before the death, of the earl of Morton, who was condemned and executed June 2, 1581; when James was in his 15th year.