[387] [pierced through.]
[388] [mates.]
[389] [ready.]
[390] [captive.]
XIII.
ROBIN AND MAKYNE.
An Ancient Scottish Pastoral.
The palm of pastoral poesy is here contested by a contemporary writer with the author of the foregoing. The critics will judge of their respective merits; but must make some allowance for the preceding ballad, which is given simply as it stands in the old editions; whereas this, which follows, has been revised and amended throughout by Allan Ramsay, from whose Evergreen, vol. i. it is here chiefly printed. The curious reader may, however, compare it with the more original copy, printed among Ancient Scottish Poems, from the MS. of George Bannatyne, 1568, Edinburgh, 1770, 12mo. Mr. Robert Henryson (to whom we are indebted for this poem) appears to so much advantage among the writers of eclogue, that we are sorry we can give little other account of him besides what is contained in the following eloge, written by W. Dunbar, a Scottish poet, who lived about the middle of the sixteenth century:
"In Dunfermline he [Death] hes done roun
Gud Maister Robert Henrisoun."