The standard edition is that of W. W. Skeat for the Scottish Text Soc., new ed., 1911, from which our text is taken. The question of the authorship is debated in J. T. T. Brown's The Authorship of the King's Quair, Glasgow, 1896; Jusserand's Jaques 1re d'Ecosse fut-il poète, Paris, 1897; R. S. Rait's The King's Quair and the new Criticism, 1898; A. Lawson's Kinge's Quair and the Quare of Jelusy, Edinburgh, 1910. For sources, see W. A. Neilson's Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, Boston, 1899, pp. 152, 232 ƒ. ROBERT HENRYSON ALMOST nothing is known of Henryson, one of the greatest of the Scottish Chaucerians. He lived perhaps from 1425 to 1500. He may be the master Robert Henryson, already "licentiate in arts and bachelor in degrees," incorporated a member of Glasgow University in 1462; and he is called "schoolmaster of Dumfermlin" in the earliest edition of his Fables (1560). His Testament of Cresseid, written mostly in Chaucer's seven-line stanza, is, although a bit laden with medieval machinery at the start, one of the most powerful and affecting poems of the century, as his Robyn and Makyn is one of the most graceful and pleasing of pastorals. The thirteen Fables are perhaps an even more significant accomplishment, for to this time-honored theme Henryson has brought so much vivacity and acute, syinpathetic observation of men and beasts, that no fables have more flavor than his. Besides these Henryson wrote a dozen or more short poems. His works have been edited by D. Laing, Edinburgh, 1865; and by G. G. Smith for the Scottish Text Soc., 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1906-8. Our selections are from the latter, in the Testament and the fable of The Two Mice following the Charteris text, in The Fox, the Wolf, and the Cadger that of the Harleian MS. WILLIAM DUNBAR DUNBAR lived from about 1460 to 1520. He graduated bachelor of arts at St. Andrews in 1477, and master in 1479. He was probably of noble kin, but relatively humble station; and it is possible that he was for a time a wandering friar, though the biographical details that have been drawn from his poem on "How Dunbar was desyrd to be ane Freir" should be accepted cautiously on account of the obviously farcical nature of the poem. Later he was a priest at court, accompanied certain expeditions on the king's business, and received certain pensions and grants of livery. A poet's position in the beginning of the sixteenth century is still like Chaucer's. Dunbar's two most important allegorical poems are those given in our text — The Thistle and the Rose, a parliament of beasts and birds in imitation of Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls, written in honor of the betrothal of James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England; and The Golden Targe, wherein the poet represents himself as trying in vain to ward off the arrows of love by the shield of reason. These elegant stanzas are written in the Middle Scots "aureate style, and in conscious emulation of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, characteristic praise of whom is to be found at the end of The Golden Targe. There is the same polish in several of the occasional pieces here given; but it is in the Seven Deadly Sins, the Dregy, and Kind Kittok that those qualities for which Dunbar is most famous appear- audacious fancy and rollicking humor, an astonishing virtuosity in every metre, and a cataclysmic wealth of strange words. Dunbar wrote in all about a hundred poems. The most useful editions are those of J. Schipper, Vienna, 1894, and of John Small and others in the Scottish Text Soc., 1884–93. Our texts are from the latter. Schipper has also written a biographical and critical study, William Dunbar, sein Leben und seine Gedichte, Berlin, 1884. GAVIN DOUGLAS GAVIN DOUGLAS (c. 1475-1522) was third son of the great Earl of Angus, Archibald Bell-the-Cat. He was educated at St. Andrews, entered the church, and after many vicissitudes - for he was deep in the politics of a most turbulent period became bishop of Dunkeld. All his literary work appears to have been done while he was Deau of St. Giles in Edinburgh, from 1501 to 1513. His Æneid (1513), "the first version of a great poet in any English dialect," is a translation of Virgil's twelve books, and the thirteenth of Mapheus Vegius, in vigorous Middle Scots. Peculiarly interesting are the original prologues to all the books, on the seasons or other subjects not at all connected with the poems. That to the twelfth book is perhaps the most overwhelming example of the "fresch anamalit termes celicall," the "sugurit," "aureate,” “mellifluate,” coinages of these late Scottish mediævalists, who at the same time begin to show the influence of the Revival of Learning. King Hart is of course the human heart in the castle of the body, surrounded by his servitors, the five senses: it is a fairly well constructed allegory of over 900 lines. The Palace of Honour, Douglas's earliest work (1501), comprises 2166 lines in nine-line stanzas. It is an over-elaborate dream-vision, stuffed with all manner of mediæval motives, where the poet finds Venus and Prince Honour in a mansion somewhat like that in Chaucer's House of Fame. The only collected edition of Douglas's works is that by John Small, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1874, from which our text is taken. SIR DAVID LYNDESAY SIR DAVID LYNDESAY lived approximately from 1490 to 1555. He may have attended St. Andrews University; thereafter, for most of his life, he was a personal attendant, in various offices, upon James V of Scotland, finally in 1529 attaining knighthood and the office of chief herald, or Lyon King of Arms. He was sent on several missions abroad, sat for a while as member of Parliament, and was a general master of ceremonies at the Scottish court. In The Dream (1134 lines) Lyndesay is seeking to edify his young prince by an allegorical vision somewhat in Chaucer's style, wherein after a visit to Hell, Purgatory, and the various spheres, his guide, Dame Remembrance, displays to him the native resources of his own Scotland; and when the author asks, "Why, then, is it so poor?" she replies, "Because of misgovernment"; and anon follows the excerpt given in our text, where John the Common Wealth lays bare in trenchant fashion the evils under which Scotland suffered. The date of composition may be 1528. The Testament and Complaint of our Sovreign Lord's Papyngo (1190 lines) is one of Lyudesay's most polished satires. The papyngo or parrot is blown from the top of a high tree which she ought never to have climbed, and fatally hurt. She laments her ambition, and sends one warning epistle to the king, and another to her brethren of the court, which latter ends with the first three stanzas of our extract. Kitty's Confession is one of Lyndsay's best short satires, posing an obvious specific abuse. reasonable, pungent, and ex Squire Meldrum (1847 lines) is a little romance, which recalls in a way the old mediæval romances, but which is brought quite up to date- being founded indeed upon contemporary happenings. The Fifeshire hero-squire defeats the English champion in France, wins a sea-fight, also a lovely lady, takes a great castle, is at last dreadfully wounded and left for dead by brutal assailants, but recovers to live to a good old age and make the Testament which is given in our extract. The chief works of Lyndesay's not represented here are The Dialogue betwixt Experience and a Courtier (6333 lines), called also The Monarchy, an account of certain biblical stories and church doctrines, and A Pleasant Satire of The Three Estates (4652 lines), a unique sort of morality play of great length and scope, a keen and amusing satire directed against the weaknesses of the nobles, the burgesses, and the clerics indeed one of the most remarkable and entertaining works of the time, and the most vivacious and realistic of moralities. Lyndesay is the last of the Scottish Chaucerians: he cites reverently the master's name along with those of Lydgate and Gower, but he is touched by the spirit of the Reformation and the Renaissance, and is as much a reformer as a poet. The principal edition of his works is that by David Laing, 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1879. That by F. Hall and J. A. H. Murray for the E. E. T. S., from which our texts are taken, is unfinished. |