Upon the strength of these four compositions a place may be claimed for James V. in the first rank of the writers of humorous pastoral poetry—poetry which finds its inspiration in the actual common life of the people. In this department the king has been rivalled, though hardly surpassed, only by the inspired peasant, Burns himself. Regarding the vitality of his work a trenchant remark has recently been made by one of the foremost critics of the day.[754] “While much of the contemporary and earlier poetry of Scotland,” he says, “is now read only as an historical illustration of the development of literature, that of James V., if he really wrote the gay pieces attributed to him, is read for its native merit.”
[PEBLIS TO THE PLAY.]
At Beltane,[755] quhen ilk bodie bownis[756]
To Peblis to the play,
To heir the singin’ and the soundis,
The solace, suth to say;
Be firth[757] and forrest furth they found[758],
Thay graythit[759] tham full gay;
God wait that wald thay do that stound[760],