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One of these is the Ænigme of Sleepe (XXXVI) , more pleasing in thought than in style, yet not unworthy of comparison with better-known essays on this familiar theme. The other two are the pair of sonnets on page 39, the first beginning,
"Not orientall Indus cristall streames,"
and the second,
"Faire famous Isle, where Agathocles rang."
In sustained music, conformity to the technique of the sonnet, and prettiness of fancy, if not elevation, these might find a place in even a limited anthology of the sonnets of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
A minor poet is fortunate if he has thus surpassed himself in two or three poems. Yet in the case of James, while it is hardly necessary to apply Sir James Melville's remark regarding Mary Stuart's lute playing, that she did "reasonably for a queen," it is still true that his verse derives its interest chiefly from his high political station and the consequent value attached to an intimate revelation of his personal character. In this respect, his poems do not reflect the vices and extreme feebleness of which he is often accused. They show, however, that though of an emotional temperament — quick to tears or laughter — James was blessed with little imagination or insight. Such gifts as he had were more distinctly intellectual — an orderly and inventive habit of mind, agility in debate, and a fondness for logical finesse which had been cultivated from his school days under Buchanan, who was himself both controversialist and poet.
The formula of his verse would include as important elements the extravagant style of Renaissance love poetry, imitated chiefly from Montgomerie; the limitations of theme and treatment due to his exalted position and his acceptance of the narrow views of Calvinism; and the tendency toward intellectual activity uncontrolled by good sense which was not uncommon in current discussions of
