Thursday, August 30, 2012
To Be Merry Is Best
Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586), Advice to Leesome Merriness, in The Northern Muse: An Anthology of Scots Vernacular Poetry, ed. John Buchan (1924; rpt. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., 1947), p. 387:
warldis (2): world's
Sa brukil and sa slidder (3): So brittle and so slippery
thocht, thoch, nicht, nocht (14-16): thought, though, night, nought
murne (15): mourn
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When I have done considerLeesome (title): lawful
This warldis vanitie,
Sa brukil and sa slidder,
Sa full of miserie;
Then I remember me 5
That here there is no rest;
Therefore apparentlie
To be merrie is best.
Let us be blyth and glad,
My friendis all, I pray. 10
To be pensive and sad
Na thing it help us may.
Therefore put quite away
All heaviness of thocht:
Thoch we murne nicht and day 15
It will avail us nocht.
warldis (2): world's
Sa brukil and sa slidder (3): So brittle and so slippery
thocht, thoch, nicht, nocht (14-16): thought, though, night, nought
murne (15): mourn
