234 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



Trew is that trenth qnhilk Christ in Gospell spak 

 That snch as hes shall grow, and yet have more, 



And from the emptie he will even tak 



What'evr it was which they enjoyed before." 



Then Sedan bruiki'* ^j^^t God hes to thee given, 

 SainctAndros sicV^ that thou are all wanthriven.^^ 



Cast in a different mould is the sonnet, addressed by 

 Melville, to his celebrated contemporary, and Berwickshire 

 neighbour, " M. David ^[ume] " of Gowkscroft, or " Gods- 

 croft" for thus Hume renamed his estate. Perhaps in 

 allusion to this foible of Hume's, the last line contains a 

 sly pun upon the name of the Historian of " the House 

 and Race of Douglas and Angus " : 



" Ood's Graft can mend mair nor the Devil can mar." 

 This sonnet is headed in Hebrew : — 



n n X ^ ^ D 



[the broken vessel.] 



" The cracked pitcher set up in a neuck, 



Be-girthed with grace keips well gude wyne and aill. 

 When gilted goblets stately places tuke 

 Propyning prophets poisone in their kaill." 



A more human document is the love sonnet entitled 

 Acteon. Beneath its stilted classical 



His Second phraseology one can almost detect the beat- 

 Marriage, ing of the author's heart, while Melville's 

 allusions to the maid, in stature "the portrat 

 just of prettie Gupid," " whait and read as lilly and 

 as rose" with " eyes lyk Venus" and " head bedecJct wt 

 burnist gold" may well have been inspired by Deborah 

 Clarke, the Mellitissima Melissa of Andrew Melville's 



^^brnik^enjoy or 



i« Sigh. 



^^ Wanthriven=un-thriven. 



