724 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
birds of prey gather about the dying parrot professing them¬ 
selves ministers of religion is well done. The satire throughout 
is sharp and effective. 
The Testament of Squyer Meldrum (1550), also by Lynd- 
say, is a poem of two hundred and fifty-one lines in rime royal. 1 
It was written for a friend of Lyndsay’s whose history in the 
form of a biographical romance Lyndsay also wrote. 
In this testament the author moralizes on the transient na¬ 
ture of life, commits his soul to God and his wealth to his next 
of kin, makes elaborate provisions for his funeral, prescribes 
his epitaph, and says adieux to his friends. The piece is a 
dull conventional performance without a glimmer of anything 
like poetry. The mixture of pagan mythology with certain 
Christian conceptions is inartistic, and the funeral directions 
and the epitaph are characterized by a cheap vanity not at all 
consistent with the idea of a hero. 
The Wyll of the Deuyll and last Testament is a prose piece 
written about 1550. 2 It is a satire against the abuses practiced 
by various professions and the vices of various classes of so¬ 
ciety. It is especially severe in its attack on the priesthood of 
the Roman church. It is admirably conceived and well worked 
out, and must have been very effective. 
In this piece mention is twice made of Heresy's Testament. 
ISTothing further is known of this tract, but we can infer some¬ 
thing of its character from the statement of the deuyll that it 
attacked the true doctrine of Jesus. 
Cosmo Innes in Sketches of Early Scotch History analyzes, 
and in part quotes, a Scottish poem called Duncan Laideus* 
alias Makgregouris Testament . 3 4 This poem was written about 
1550 in the blank leaves of a manuscript copy of The Bulk of 
King A lexander the ConqueroureA The supposed testator was 
an historical character, but the poet who wrote the testament is 
unknown. First comes a long account of the testator’s life and 
1 J. Small, for the E. E. T. S., London, 1883, p. 321. 
2 Edited by Furnivall with Jyl of Brentford's Testament for private 
circulation, London, 1871. 
s Edinburgh, 1861, p. 355. 
4 A translation of Sir Gilbert Hay’s Roman d'Mexandre. 
