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NOTES TO CANTO THIRD.
Doeth make them lead suche lives,
as neither God nor man,
Without revenge for their desartes,
permitte or suffer can.
Thus friers are the cause,
the fountain and the spring,
Of hurleburles in this laude,
of eche unhappie thing.
Thei cause them to rebell
against their soveraigne quen;
And through rebellion often tymes,
their lives doe vanishe clene.
So as by friers meanes,
in whom all follie swimme,
The Irishe karne doe often lose
the life, with hedde and limme.[1]
as neither God nor man,
Without revenge for their desartes,
permitte or suffer can.
Thus friers are the cause,
the fountain and the spring,
Of hurleburles in this laude,
of eche unhappie thing.
Thei cause them to rebell
against their soveraigne quen;
And through rebellion often tymes,
their lives doe vanishe clene.
So as by friers meanes,
in whom all follie swimme,
The Irishe karne doe often lose
the life, with hedde and limme.[1]
As the Irish tribes, and those of the Scottish Highlands, are much more intimately allied, by language, manners, dress, and customs, than the antiquaries of either country have been willing to admit, I flatter myself I have here produced a strong warrant for the character sketched in the text. The following picture, though of a different kind, serves to establish the existence of ascetic religionists, to a comparatively late period, in the Highlands and Western Isles. There is a great deal of simplicity in the description, for which, as for much similar information, I am obliged to Dr John Martin, who visited the
- ↑ This curious Picture of Ireland was inserted by the author in the republication of Sonmers' Tracts, Vol. I., in which the plates have been also inserted, from the only impressions known to exist, belonging to the copy in the Advocate's Library. See Somers' Tracts, Vol. I. p. 591, 594.
