Welcum Fortoun, welcum againe,
The day and hour I may weill blis,
Thou hes exilit all my paine,
Quhilk to my hart greit plesour is.
For I may say, that few men may,
Seing of paine I am ’trest,
I haif obtenit all my pay,
The lufe of hir that I lufe best.
I knaw nane sic as scho is one
Sa trew, sa kynde, sa luiffandlie,
Quhat suld I do and scho war gone;
Allace yet had I lever die.
To me scho is baith trew and kynde,
Worthie it war scho had the praise,
For na disdane in hir I find,
I pray to God I may hir pleis.
Quhen that I heir hir name exprest,
My hart for joy dois loup thairfoir;
Abufe all uther I lufe hir best,
Unto I die, quhat wald scho moir.
This unique edition, and certainly the earliest known, although I do not by any means consider it the first, in its contents other than the above, agrees with Dr. Laing’s reprint, and I only regret that he should have been removed by the grim tyrant demanding his heriot before the discovery was made. The fortunate owner of the precious brochure is Patrick Anderson, Esq., merchant, Dundee, who, by a curious coincidence, resides in the ancient home of Alexander Wedderburn, Town Clerk of Dundee, and who entertained his sapient Majesty James VI., of tobacco-defaming notoriety, on his visit to Dundee in 1617.
Leith, N.B.
P. J. MULLIN.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
The Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.