Page:Buke of the Howlat.djvu/41

xxii meaning so entirely, that when his production is read from one end to the other, no point of resemblance occurs between his libel and its object, which might not be equally applicable to any King and people of the period. It would be idle to express a positive opinion on a subject obscured by the mist of so many ages; but until some coincidence is shewn, stronger than any which we are able to perceive betwixt the fable of the Howlat and the History of James II., we cannot but think it equally probable, that instead of writing a satire, amused his leisure at Ternoway by compiling a poetical apologue, upon a plan used not only by Chaucer, but by many of the French minstrels, without any view whatever to local or national politics. The praises of the Douglasses are introduced in an inartificial manner; but such digressions are not uncommon in the authors of a rude age. The hymn to the virgin (Stanza .) is just such an effusion of episodical devotion, as the panegyric on the Douglasses is a burst of friendly enthusiasm. Nay, the very circumstance, that they are brought forward without parable, or without disguise, seems to make against the opinion that there is a political allegory in the rest of the poem Had the Douglas been introduced as the eagle or falcon, there would have been better reason to suppose that the King was sketched under the