II
THE STUDY OF POETRY UNDER MONTGOMERIE
"Beloved Sanders maistre of our art."
Admonition, l. 2.
The arrival in Scotland of Esme Stuart d'Aubigny in September, I579,[1] and the King's "first and magnificent" entry into Edinburgh in the next month, mark the beginning of a complete change from the latter's quiet life at Stirling. D'Aubigny was a cousin of James's father, a man of "cumlie proportion and civil behaviour," according to Melville, "upright, just, and gentle, but wanting experience in the state of the country."[2] "False"[3] has been added; yet it is likely that his influence over the young King was gained at first by nothing more objectionable than his personal charm and the boy's natural feeling for his kindred. Together, amid the grief and railings of the Kirk, they set about the overthrow of the Regent Morton and the collection at court of more congenial followers. "Papists with great ruffes and syde bellies were suffered in the presence of the Kynge."[4] "His Majesties chaste ears were frequently abused with unknown Italian and French forms of oaths, days were turned into nights, and Arran's mistress infected the air of the court." In milder language, James was easily distracted by less elevated phases of humanism than the study of the classics and Calvinistic theology.
Among those who found the change not unpleasant was
- ↑ D'Aubigny arrived at Stirling September 15. James entered Edinburgh on the 29th of the same month, but the formal celebration did not take place until the i5th of October. (Moysie's Memoirs, Bann. Club, p. 25.)
- ↑ Memoirs, Bann. Club, p. 240.
- ↑ Andrew Lang, History of Scotland, Vol. II, p. 264. D'Aubigny is thought to have served the Catholic interest (which, be it said in his favor, was by no means his own) throughout his stay in Scotland.
- ↑ Bowes' Correspondence, Surtees Soc., p. 136.
xxv
