179^' CHARACTER OF G. BUCHANAN. "i^ij 



the principal fectioHS into which his original poeirs 

 have ufually been divided. It feems unnsceffary to 

 r-ieak here of his pf;ilms, as they are In the hands of 

 every fchool-boy. 



I. It has alren<ly been obferved, that, by the defire 

 of James V. he began a poem ^ entitled Francifcnims. 

 After an exile of twenty-four years he returned to his 

 native country, " no-.r," as he f^iys, « beyond the 

 " hopes of all men, happily dclii'ered from the tyranny 

 *« of monfters.'" His fatire left unfinifiied for fo great 

 a lapfe of time, was publifncd in the year 1564, with a 

 dedication to his friend, the wcU-kuown Earl of Mur- 

 ray. Buchanan was now at the age of fifty-eight 5 he 

 had rambled over a great part of Europe, had feen, and 

 fuflcred, and reflected much, and he polTefied, in an am- 

 ple degree, the proverbial fenfibillty of a poet. We are 

 therefore entitled to expeft a fuperior monument of his 

 abilities and his vengeance. The Francifcan will f^tis- 

 fy cur moll fanguine wilhes. It extends to nine hundred 

 and thirty-fix lines, and opens by the author enquiring 

 at an acquaintance, a Francifcan noviciate, what he 

 means by this fudden grimace, and afFedfatlon of fanc- 

 tity In his appearance. He adjures him., in the moft 

 folemn manner, to fpurn the trammels of vulgar fuper- 

 ftition, to diftruft the pomp of the hierarchy, fo much 

 admired by the mailers of mankind, and examine Chrif- 

 tianity by the facred light of reafon. He proceeds, in 

 a vein of irony, to tell him that he himfelf had once 

 indulged the fame fort of frenzy, but had been divert^ 

 ed from it by the fage advice of his friend Eubulus. 

 The author next repeats his admonitions, in the form 

 of a harangue, from this Imaginary preceptor, who goes 

 on for a fev.- fentences In a calm, temperate ftile, with 

 an evident defign to gain the conJidence of the reader. 

 But fuddeiily, as if impatient to repair the lofs of timcj 

 Eubulus, or rather Buchanan, burlts out In a torrent of 

 reproach. A literal tranflation of the poem would ext 

 tend to the fize of a pamphlet. Every fentence a* 



