For if thou dost, hurt is thine honesty
Considering that no flower is so perfect,
So full of virtue, pleasance and delight,
So full of blissful angelic beauty,
Imperial birth, honour and dignity.'"

*Guarded.
**Rest = others.

By the Thistle, of course, Dunbar means James IV, and by the Rose
the Princess Margaret.

Then to the Rose Dame Nature spoke, and crowned her with "a
costly crown with shining rubies bright." When that was done all
the flowers rejoiced, crying out, "Hail be thou, richest Rose."
Then all the birds - the thrush, the lark, the nightingale--cried
"Hail," and "the common voice uprose of birdies small" till all
the garden rang with joy.

"Then all the birdies sang with such a shout,
That I anon awoke where that I lay,
And with a start I turned me about
To see this court: but all were went away:
Then up I leaned, half yet in fear,
And thus I wrote, as ye have heard to forrow,*
Of lusty May upon the nineth morrow."

*Before = already.

Thus did Dunbar sing of the wedding of the Thistle and the Rose.