Page:New Poems by James I.djvu/45

 for Lady Arabella Stuart, and no doubt had some connection also with the royal marriage, which had been arranged for September 29, and for which a masque and masquers had been sent to Scotland by Elizabeth. It may be remembered that, from 1584 on, Constable was an active Catholic messenger both at home and abroad. By November 2, he was back again in London, where he was addressed by Robert Douglas in a friendly letter of that date from Edinburgh referring to the King's regard for him and to a manuscript of his poems.

Among Constable's sonnets are a series of four addressed to James, the first "to the King of Scots, whome as yet he has not seen," the second "touching the subject of his poems, dedicated wholie to heavenly matters," the third "upon occasion of a Sonnet the King wrote in complaint of a contrarie [wind] which hindred the arrivall of the Queene out of Denmark," and the fourth "upon occasion of his long stay in Denmark, by reason of the coldnesse of the winter, and freezing of the sea." The dates of these compositions are fixed by the fact that the news of the storm and Anne's delay reached Scotland September 15, 1589, and the king left on October 22, to seek his betrothed in person.

If the Constable mentioned in Montgomerie's sonnet (p. xxviii) was the poet, one may suppose the meeting of the two writers to have taken place at this time, or perhaps earlier during Montgomerie's stay in London. The possibility of their friendship is increased by the fact that Constable's sonnet beginning,—

appears in slightly altered form among the Drummond MS. poems of Montgomerie.