University 01 
 
 California 
 
 Trvine
 
 PRESS NOTICES OF FIRST EDITION 
 
 1 Never before has there been represented with go much care the increasing 
 purpose which ran through Scottish literature from the day that a variety 
 of the Teutonic dialect of Northumbria established itself north of the Tweed 
 to the time when the Scottish Vernacular produced in Robert Burns its 
 "strong man rejoicing to run a race." In Mr. Henderson's pages not only 
 do the old "makaris" live and sing again, but the obligations to them of 
 writers like Burns are fully made out. Gavin Douglas, the early Chaucerians, 
 and the anonymous writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a re- 
 markable if skulking band have for the first time been adequately 
 appraised. ' Spectator. 
 
 ' The publication of the volume marks a step in the advance of Scottish 
 scholarship.' New York Nation. 
 
 ' When one sees the history of Scottish Literature set out in so attractive a 
 form as Mr. T. F. Henderson has here accomplished, one wonders that the 
 project has been so long in finding an author to take it up.' Aberdeen Free 
 Press. 
 
 ' It may be said at the outset that the present task could not have fallen 
 into abler hands. The subject is one in which Mr. Henderson takes both a 
 scientific and an antiquarian interest ; he is sympathetic, free from prejudice, 
 and he has analytical instinct and power. Above all, Scottish minstrelsy, in 
 its earlier as in its later forms, is to him an open book.' Leeds Mercury. 
 
 1 Mr. Henderson's account of Dunbar and Burns the greatest names in 
 Scottish Vernacular Literature, for Scott belongs elsewhere is enough to 
 put the seal of excellence on his book, though his full and skilful treatment 
 of the fragments and authors are all but unknown to the general reader, will 
 be considered more valuable by students. His book is an admirable piece 
 of work.' Manchester Guardian.
 
 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR 
 LITERATURE 
 
 A SUCCINCT HISTORY 
 
 BY 
 
 VaX* 
 
 T. F. HENDERSON 
 
 THIRD REVISED EDITION 
 
 JOHN GRANT 
 
 1910
 
 First Edition, . . 1S98 
 Second Edition, revised, 1900 
 Third Edition, revised, 1910
 
 PREFACE 'TO THE THIRD EDITION 
 
 ON the appearance, some twelve years ago, of the first 
 edition of this book, doubt was expressed as to the 
 fitness of the term "vernacular" to designate the 
 literature of which it treats. It may, therefore, be 
 explained that here the term is not used to denote 
 merely a common, vulgar, provincial or dialect litera- 
 ture, but what, in a loose form, may be termed native 
 or national Scottish literature, as distinguished from the 
 Scottish literature for which the medium of expression 
 is modern English. If the application of the terms 
 " native," " national," or " vernacular " to this literature 
 be objected to as more or less incorrect, more or less 
 lacking in definiteness and precision, one can only 
 plead the peculiarities of the case. They are such 
 that no particular term can define them with quite 
 sufficient exactness ; but " vernacular " is probably the 
 nearest approximation to definiteness and precision 
 that a single adjective can supply. Some may, of 
 course, object that the term " native " or " vernacular " 
 is more properly applicable to Gaelic as the earliest 
 variety of Scottish literature that now survives ; but
 
 vi SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 this literature is sufficiently defined as Gaelic, and to 
 terra it " vernacular " would, however abstractly correct, 
 only tend to mislead. That being so, this possible 
 use of the term may be left out of account, while 
 it is a by no means unfit description of a literature 
 which, whatever its linguistic source, became so coloured 
 with special Scottish characteristics, and so identified 
 with the nation's individual history. 
 
 The fortunes of this Scottish literature have been 
 quite exceptional. After the Teutonic speech of 
 Northern England had overspread the whole of Low- 
 land Scotland, acquiring certain linguistic peculiarities 
 from its contact with other dialects, and developing a 
 literature with very definite Scottish characteristics, 
 this special variety of Teutonic was again superseded 
 both as literature and as a spoken language by modern 
 English, so that to the Scotsman of to-day it is almost 
 a dead language. Such of its antique peculiarities 
 as survive, survive mainly as the language of the 
 common people ; and the modern form of the literature, 
 while owing much to the classics of the earlier cen- 
 turies, is, also, partly of a popular character, as well 
 as modified by modern English influences. 
 
 A literature with so peculiar a history, and blasted 
 with so undeserved and mournful a fate, has a 
 certain special claim on the attention of even the 
 merely curious antiquary. But it is well worth 
 perusal for its own sake. Notwithstanding its 
 antique form and language, the literary vitality of 
 much of it is undeniable and even astonishing. Once
 
 PKEFACE TO THE THIKD EDITION vii 
 
 its language is mastered, its native charm can hardly 
 fail to disclose itself, especially to the Scot; for 
 the bulk of it is exceptionally graphic and sincere, 
 and its accent, its temper, its genius is Scottish to 
 the core. 
 
 If only for the sake of Burns who inherited much 
 of its tradition, profited greatly by its models, and, 
 partly by his skill in the utilisation of its forgotten 
 and fragmentary lyrics, became, in a quite peculiar 
 sense, the national lyrist of Scotland this ancient 
 literature makes a special appeal for perusal by the 
 educated Scot. The exact scope and character of the 
 genius of Burns cannot, in truth, be properly under- 
 stood without a considerable acquaintance with the 
 older Scottish poetry, which, in a partly revived form, 
 culminated in him. But the mere fact that without 
 it he could not have been the characteristically 
 national poet that he is, is sufficient evidence of its 
 intrinsic merit. Would it be blasphemous even to 
 affirm that in one of these old "makaris" Burns has 
 his fellow ? That while a more accomplished, a more 
 finished, poetic artist than he, Dunbar possesses very 
 similar qualities as a humorist and satirist, and an 
 almost equally graphic realism? True, Dunbar can 
 never be to us what Burns is, but Burns has been 
 dead for only a little over a hundred years, and 
 Dunbar for nearly four centuries. Moreover, Dunbar 
 is very far from comprehending all that is great in 
 ancient Scottish literature. Knox, who, however, wrote 
 a kind of Scoto-English, is not excelled, if equalled,
 
 viii SCOTTISH VEKNACULAK LITERATUKE 
 
 as a prose writer by any of the early Elizabethans; 
 and such writers of verse as Barbour, James I., Henry- 
 son, Alexander Scott, and Sir David Lyndsay have a 
 classic excellence of their own: they all possess a 
 certain individual worth which, one may venture to 
 predict, will preserve its fragrance during many future 
 generations; and amongst the ancient Scottish verse 
 to which no name is attached, leaving out of account 
 the ballads which, as now known to us, are a curious 
 patchwork of old and new, of ancient sincerity and sim- 
 plicity corrupted by modern solecisms and vulgarisms, 
 or ingenious attempts to amend them there are many 
 pieces of quite remarkable excellence and a few worthy 
 to rank with the classic lyrics of all time. 
 
 Apart, also, from its literary merits, this ancient 
 Scottish literature possesses a very special historic, as 
 distinguished from an antiquarian, value. It permits us 
 a glimpse of the modes and manners, of the spirit and 
 temper, of those ancient times such as cannot be obtained 
 from the incidents of royal lives, the details of sieges 
 and battles, or the dry records of industry. True, the 
 glimpse is but partial; and, indeed, the spirit of the 
 dead past can never be altogether appreciated and 
 understood even by the joint aid of literature and his- 
 tory. The standpoints of some of the ancient writers 
 as Knox and Sir David Lyndsay are also extremely 
 one-sided, but their representations can be supplemented 
 and corrected by those of such writers as Barbour, 
 Wyntoun, Henryson, Dunbar, Maitland, and Scott to 
 name but these and a great variety of anonymous
 
 PKEFACE TO THE THIKD EDITION ix 
 
 verse; and the aid thus afforded towards the realisation 
 of the character of these ancient times is by no means 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 To conjoin Scottish literature with Scottish history 
 in the proposed, or almost achieved, Glasgow professor- 
 ship was thus, for historical reasons alone, a happy 
 thought, almost as happy a thought as that of making 
 the proposed professorship an excuse for a great Scottish 
 Historical Exhibition. The arrangement suggests the 
 possibility of treating the subject of Scottish history 
 from a somewhat new standpoint, and in a form less 
 hackneyed and more emancipated from narrow patriotic 
 and ecclesiastical prejudices than, with some exceptions, 
 has hitherto prevailed. At the same time, can it be too 
 much insisted on that this ancient Scottish literature 
 is worthy of perusal for its own sake ? To make it a 
 mere aid towards historical conclusions or a mere 
 medium for the study of its language, would this not 
 be to subject it to a despiteful treatment which deserves 
 no better name than barbarous ? Academical prelec- 
 tions, or handbooks like the present one, on Scottish 
 vernacular, or any other, literature, can they be justified 
 except as a means for promoting and aiding the actual 
 study of the literature at first hand? If they leave 
 the hearer or reader content with the knowledge gained 
 from the prelection or the handbook, or if they are 
 utilised merely as an aid towards university cram, or 
 the acquirement by rote of literary opinions and 
 dates, have they served any really literary purpose? 
 And if this ancient Scottish literature is really not
 
 x SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 worth perusal for its own sake, does it really deserve 
 to be prelected on, or made the subject of a historical 
 handbook ? 
 
 One difficulty in the way of a more general perusal 
 of the old " makaris " is the lack of editions of them at 
 a reasonable price. Splendid pioneer work has been 
 done by the Scottish Text and other learned societies ; 
 and a good popular beginning was made in the publica- 
 tion of Dunbar edited by the late Professor Bellyse 
 Baildon; but what is needed is a collected edition of 
 the bulk of this old Scottish verse. It is, of course, 
 only a question of demand ; and so rapidly has interest 
 in the subject augmented within recent years, that such 
 a demand may not be a very distant possibility. 
 
 20th July 1910.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 IN his Preface to The Evergreen, Allan Kamsay 
 explains that he had intended to have given 'an 
 account of the Authors of the following Collection/ 
 but had 'delayed the Design' for the sufficient 
 reason that he had not been 'furnished with such 
 distinct Information as could be wished for that 
 End at present'; and he virtually had to content 
 himself with 'marking the Names of the Authors 
 before and after their poems.' 
 
 Such was the total oblivion which, in the course 
 of a few short generations, had engulfed the old 
 'makaris' and all their works! Already had they 
 
 become 
 
 ' subjects all 
 To envious and calumniating time.' 
 
 But many things have happened since the days 
 of Ramsay, among them the birth of Robert Burns, 
 whose striking poetic success, very much on the 
 lines of the old vernacular ' makaris,' inevitably 
 tended to strengthen the reviving interest in those 
 forgotten masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth
 
 xii SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 centuries. Within the present century those old 
 'makaris' ceased among the educated Scots to be 
 merely 'names/ and again became poetic person- 
 alities; and within the last few years the studious 
 attention directed to this old vernacular poetry has 
 been rapidly widening even on the Continent and in 
 the United States, where many professors of English 
 Literature have set an example to those in Great 
 Britain by systematically including the subject in 
 the English Literature course. 
 
 In such auspicious circumstances a succinct hand- 
 book of the whole subject a handbook which should 
 summarise the main features of this in many ways 
 admirable literature, should trace its interdependence, 
 even in prosody, from its earliest beginnings down 
 to Burns and his immediate successors, and should 
 serve as, at least, an introduction and guide to its 
 more general and systematic study is surely an 
 almost imperative desideratum. No such handbook 
 has up to the present been attempted, nor does any 
 History of Scottish Literature exist that can be re- 
 garded as a substitute for it, the few Histories that 
 have from time to time appeared, embracing only 
 special aspects or special periods of general Scottish 
 literature, while in none has the vernacular literature 
 been dealt with as a separate entity. 
 
 It is only within recent years that such a hand-
 
 PPcEFACE TO THE FIKST EDITION xiii 
 
 book as that attempted in the following pages 
 has become possible. It in a sense represents and 
 summarises the labours of many preceding editors 
 labours whose results are here thankfully acknow- 
 ledged from Pinkerton, Laing, Irving, and other 
 pioneers, to those of the Early English and Scottish 
 Texts. Those Text Societies are, it may be, devoted 
 more to the philological and antiquarian than the 
 strictly literary aspects of the subject, but it is 
 owing mainly to them and other learned Clubs as 
 the Bannatyne, the Maitland, the Roxburgh, the 
 Hunterian that Scottish Vernacular Literature has 
 begun to assert its title to full literary recognition. 
 
 The older vernacular literature being comparatively 
 unknown, more quotation has been deemed advisable 
 than is usual in literary histories. In the quota- 
 tions no attempt has been made to modernise the 
 spelling, because (1) the special pronunciation is an 
 essential part of the poetical effect, and (2) a proper 
 knowledge of Scottish vernacular or any other litera- 
 ture is not obtainable by means of short cuts. It is 
 hoped, however, that the side glossary will not only 
 sufficiently guide the ' general reader' to an intelligent 
 appreciation of the quotations, but tend to quicken 
 an interest in one of the most graphic of literary 
 dialects a dialect which perhaps even yet has not 
 wholly lost its efficacy to enrich modern English
 
 xiv SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 To various peculiarities in spelling, as ' quh ' for ' wh,' 
 ' u ' for ' v/ 'v' for ' u,' ' z' for ' y,' ' a' for ' o ' (e.g. ' ane ' 
 for ' one '), and the dropping of the consonants at the 
 end of words (e.g. 'fu" for 'full'), the reader will 
 gradually become reconciled by practice. 
 
 T. F. HENDERSON. 
 
 October 10, 1898.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 i. The Scottish Vernacular, .... 1 
 
 II. Minstrelsy and Eomance, . . . .16 
 
 in. Historical Poetry, . . . . .40 
 
 iv. The Scottish Fabliau and the Decay of Romance, . 76 
 
 v. The Early Chaucerians, etc., . . . .94 
 
 vi. Dunbar and Walter Kennedy, .... 142 
 
 vii. Gavin Douglas and Sir David Lyndsay, . . 188 
 
 vin. Minor and Later Poets of the Sixteenth Century, . 232 
 
 ix. Anonymous Poetry of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth 
 
 Centuries, ...... 277 
 
 x. Vernacular Prose, . . . . .301 
 
 xi. Traditional Ballads and Songs, . . .335 
 
 xii. Before Ramsay, ..... 386 
 
 xin. Ramsay to Burns, ..... 400 
 
 xiv. Burns and afterwards, ..... 427 
 
 INDEX, .... . 459
 
 THE SCOTTISH VERNACULAR 
 
 THE Scottish vernacular is mainly a development of 
 the Teutonic dialect of that Northumbria which 
 embraced the more eastern portion of Scotland and 
 Britain from the Humber to the Frith N rthuml >ria. 
 of Forth. Here the Saxons obtained a firm footing 
 early in the sixth century, the Cymri being, after a 
 series of desperate struggles, either conquered or 
 forced gradually westwards until they concentred in 
 Cumbria or Strathclyde, between the Mersey and the 
 Clyde, where for some centuries they maintained a 
 fragile independence. But the Saxons never wholly 
 suspended their westward incursions ; while the Scots 
 or Gaels of the western regions beyond the Clyde 
 indulged in attacks, of ever-augmenting severity, on 
 their Cymric kinsmen from the north. During the 
 next century the Northumbrian Saxons began also 
 to push their conquests northwards over the Picts 
 beyond the Forth, and succeeded in mastering certain 
 districts south of the Tay ; but after the great Pictish 
 victory of Dunuichen in 685, the Saxon settlers in 
 Pictland were either conquered or expelled; and 
 although the Northumbrians renewed the struggle,
 
 3 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 they failed to obtain permanent dominion beyond the 
 Pentlands and the Forth. Their lack of success was 
 due partly to internal contests, but chiefly to the 
 creation of a new political influence through the 
 union of the Picts and Scots under Kenneth M' Alpine 
 some time before 843. If this federation was at first 
 imperfect, and on the part of the Picts a matter 
 rather of necessity than choice, it nevertheless created 
 the germs of a northern potency, not only qualified 
 to hold Northumbrian aggression in check, but 
 destined to extend its influence southwards, until 
 it embraced Northumbria north of the Tweed, and 
 Cumbria north of the Sol way. 
 
 The southern expansion of this northern state 
 this strange amalgamation of diverse races and 
 The Danish principalities which became fused into 
 ""the* ' ' ns> the political entity known as Scotland 
 Sn^nof was powerfully aided by the effects of 
 Scotland. the great Danish immigrations of the 
 ninth and tenth centuries, and the struggles between 
 northern and southern England. Amid much that 
 is uncertain as to the relations of the Scottish kings 
 to these struggles, this much is clear, that, though 
 they at first combined with the Danes of Northumbria 
 and the Cymri of Cumbria in resisting the northward 
 swoops of the west Saxons, they finally from com- 
 pulsion or self-interest came to an understanding 
 with the southern kings. Whether, or how jar, they 
 admitted the overlordship of these kings Saxon or 
 Danish is of minor moment, since in the long-run
 
 THE SCOTTISH VEENACULAE 3 
 
 they were able to disregard it. Partly by right of 
 conquest, partly by promises to assist the southern 
 kings, the Scottish kings (1) were given in 945 a 
 kind of deputed authority over Cumbria, which they 
 ultimately succeeded in retaining in their full posses- 
 sion as far south as the Solway; and (2) between 
 970 and 975 obtained hold whether in trust or not 
 of Northumbria north of the Tweed, which was 
 also formally conceded to King Malcolm of Scotland 
 in 1018. 
 
 But while the dominion of the Scottish kings 
 was being thus consolidated in the south, it was 
 threatened with dire peril through the 
 
 The rebellion 
 
 remarkable and strenuous career of of Macbeth, 
 
 and the Saxon- 
 Macbeth, Maarmor of Moray. Though isingofscot- 
 
 regarded by some as mainly the cham- 
 pion of the conquered Picts, Macbeth seems to have 
 succeeded at last in enlisting the aid of the whole of 
 northern Scotland. But whatever the exact blazon 
 on his standard whatever the special cause, political, 
 racial, or dynastic, which he professed to champion 
 the movement he inaugurated virtually perished 
 with his defeat and death in 1057. Subsequent 
 Maarmors gave the Scottish kings occasional trouble, 
 but among none of the leaders of northern or 
 north-western insurrections did there arise a second 
 Macbeth. If his adventurous purpose was in any 
 sense fruitful of political consequences, it was in a 
 direction entirely opposite to that intended by him 
 towards weakening rather than strengthening the
 
 4 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 northern influences, whether Pictish, Scotic, or Norse. 
 On the full rehabilitation of the old rule, mainly by 
 southern aid, the southern civilisation gradually 
 became dominant; nor was its dominance affected 
 by subsequent temporary partitions of the kingdom. 
 Through the marriage of Malcolm Canmohr con- 
 queror of Macbeth with Margaret, sister of Edgar 
 the Atheling, the old Scoto-Pictish dynasty became 
 virtually Saxonised ; and the triumph of the Saxon 
 element was finally assured by the great influx of 
 Saxons during the period of the Norman Conquest. 
 Already much of the seaboard of Scotland north of 
 the Forth had been overrun by the Scandinavian 
 Vikings; and with the advent of the fugitive 
 Northumbrians, the Teutonic speech and civilisation 
 gradually penetrated into every district of the Scottish 
 lowlands. 
 
 The direct effects of the Norman Conquest were 
 late in reaching Scotland, nor when they appeared 
 Norman were they so potent as in the south. 
 censurable, Though there was war with the Norman 
 
 Hteratu^Td" km S S > ther6 W&S U N rman ConqUCSt of 
 
 only slight Scotland. The migration of Norman 
 
 fragments of 
 
 nobles thither was gradual and peaceful. 
 
 preserved in . 
 
 Scotland. They were patronised and favoured by 
 the Scottish kings from the time of the marriage in 
 1100 of Matilda, sister of Edgar of Scotland, to Henry 
 of England. Many of them accompanied David I., 
 Matilda's brother, when from the Norman court of 
 England, where he had spent his youth, he arrived
 
 THE SCOTTISH VEENACULAR 5 
 
 in Scotland in 1107 to succeed to the throne of 
 southern Scotland. Both in this southern Scotland 
 and in northern Scotland, or Alban, to which he 
 succeeded in 1124 the kingdom being reunited 
 under his rule he introduced a feudal system of 
 government, modelled after that of Norman England. 
 Thus, though the Normans never effected any formal 
 conquest of Scotland, they left indelible marks on its 
 political and social system ; and though their speech 
 adopted at court did not so strongly colour the 
 final vocabulary as in the south, yet, as in England, 
 so in Scotland, it lent its aid in effecting that radical 
 change in the form of the language by which, from 
 being inflectional and synthetic, it became non- 
 inflectional and analytic. Materials illustrative of the 
 process of transformation are, however, in all respects, 
 much scantier in Scotland than in England, and in 
 truth can scarce be said to exist. Of the earlier 
 Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian, there survive only 
 fragmentary remains on stone and monumental 
 crosses, and a few Saxon words interwoven in 
 charters and other Latin documents. Even of the 
 minstrelsy or romances of the Normans at least 
 one of the fountainheads of Scottish poetry not a 
 verse has in Scotland been preserved ; and only after 
 the stage of transmutation is over, and the language 
 has developed into a form of Early English, do proper 
 data exist for determining its character. 
 
 When it first emerges from obscurity towards the 
 close of the fourteenth century, the literary language
 
 6 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 of the Scottish lowlands is found to be practically 
 identical with that of England north of the Humber : 
 The Scottish it belongs to the Northern dialect of 
 origin"' Earl J English. 1 Compared with the Mid- 
 identical with j d and Southern dialects, the Early 
 
 the Northern 
 
 dialect of Northern English, or Lowland Scottish, 
 
 Early English, 
 
 gradually shows more traces of Scandinavian and 
 modmedby Frisian, and less of Norman influences, 
 "reign with But in Scotland this Northern dialect 
 tongues. necessarily underwent a process of gradual 
 
 change other than that merely of natural develop- 
 ment. It was placed in a new environment which 
 exposed it on all sides to infection from foreign 
 tongues. For the most part, also, the process of 
 change affected the oral speech before it manifested 
 its presence in the literary language. The literary 
 language tended at first to become stereotyped to 
 remain assimilated to the language of Northumbria 
 south of the Tweed; and latterly, it was in some 
 degree biassed by the ascendency of Chaucer and 
 other southern writers; but the spoken dialect was 
 being brought into contact with an immense variety 
 of subtle linguistic forces Cymric, Pictish, Gaelic, 
 Norse, French which, while they in many ways 
 modified its pronunciation and altered its idioms, 
 also enormously enriched its expressiveness. 
 
 The causes that co-operated to refashion the three 
 
 1 It is almost unnecessary to mention the invaluable aid to the 
 study of Early English which has been rendered by such pioneers 
 as Dr. J. A. H. Murray, Richard Morris, and Professor Skeat.
 
 THE SCOTTISH VERNACULAR 7 
 
 dialects of Early English Northern, Midland, and 
 Southern into two allied, but in many 
 
 , . . ., . _ ,. . Severance of 
 
 respects dissimilar, languages English Scotland from 
 and Scottish were mainly twofold: (1) influences, 
 the Midland dialect for reasons that lie S^^SJ! 8 
 outside the present theme gradually results on the 
 
 * vernacular. 
 
 became the sole literary language of 
 England, the Northern and Southern dialects not 
 being absorbed in it, but vanishing almost entirely 
 from English literature ; and (2) Scotland where the 
 Northern dialect obtained supremacy became, after 
 Bannockburn, more and more severed from English 
 influences, and, besides accomplishing its civilisation 
 through the commingling of the diverse races within 
 its own territory, entered into intimate relations with 
 France. Scotsmen began to flock to France rather 
 than to England to complete their education; in large 
 numbers they also entered the French service, and 
 many of them winning high renown under French 
 banners were made naturalised citizens of France; 
 Paris became a great Scottish resort ; the Frenchman 
 and the Scot associated as sworn comrades against a 
 common foe ; the royal houses of the two countries 
 got to be strongly knit together by marriage ties, and 
 the Scottish court formed a special centre of French 
 customs and gaiety and culture, which began to give 
 a certain veneer of refinement and civility to the 
 rude and sombre Scottish manners ; every variety of 
 commercial interchange rapidly expanded ; among 
 the educated classes there was a flourishing apprecia-
 
 8 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 tion of French literature, and the French language 
 was more and more taught and spoken. 
 
 Thus it comes about that while the Early Scottish 
 
 the Scottish of Barbour and Wyntoun differs but 
 
 slightly, if at all, from Northern English, 
 
 The vernacular , 
 
 of early and the Scottish of later writers as, tor 
 
 later writers. example> Dunbar an( j. DoUglaS and SlT 
 
 David Lyndsay of the Mount is a composite 
 language, which, however the vocabulary of one 
 writer may differ in many particulars from that of 
 another, is characterised universally by a great, and 
 in some respects barbarous, wealth of diction a 
 diction which, though it does not scruple to borrow 
 from Chaucer and other English poets, 1 is derived 
 largely from other sources than either the new Eng- 
 lish or the Northern dialect, and is coloured much 
 more strongly than any of the old dialects with a 
 French element an element not wholly naturalised. 
 Yet if the writers of this later period over-represent 
 the French element in the oral speech of Scotland, the 
 number both of French words and idioms which had 
 already passed into the texture of the language is 
 very great ; 2 nor can it be doubted that had the old 
 
 1 The old Scottish ' makaris ' regarded their language the language 
 of lowland Scotland as English. Thus Dunbar refers to Chaucer 
 as 'of our Inglisch all the lycht.' Douglas distinguishes between 
 Scottis and Inglis, and proposes to use mainly ' our own language,' 
 though he does not disdain the occasional use of ' sudrone ' speech ; 
 but Lyndsay actually refers to Douglas as ' in our Inglis rethorick 
 the rose.' 
 
 2 See specially on this subject Francisque-MichePs Critical 
 Inquiry into the Scottish Language, 1882.
 
 THE SCOTTISH VERNACULAR 9 
 
 external conditions not sustained a sudden wrench, 
 and had the Scottish vernacular literature been per- 
 mitted a longer lease of full and vigorous Enrichment of 
 
 .... -i n, j j , f the vernacular 
 
 activity so as to have afforded time for no tfuiiy 
 shedding of immaturities and accidental t 
 
 accretions, and for a more complete as- checked before 
 
 reaching full 
 
 similation of French and other elements, maturity. 
 a literary language would have obtained of a more 
 perfected individuality, of still greater variety, pic- 
 turesqueness, and power, and perhaps more than 
 rivalling literary English in fertility of idioms, and in 
 wealth, beauty, and efficacy of diction. Is it presump- 
 tuous to even express regret that these two streams, 
 issuing originally from a common fountainhead, had 
 not, after each gathering volume from its own special 
 rivulets, been permitted more fully to commingle, so 
 that the final literature of the two reunited peoples 
 should have represented even in its grammar and 
 vocabulary something more of the northern genius, 
 temperament, racial characteristics, and nationality ? 
 But instead of contributing to any such consummation, 
 the northern stream presently became dammed up and 
 sank into the earth ; and if at last it partially reap- 
 peared, it was in sadly diminished volume, and never 
 again as the complete medium of the nation's literary 
 expression. Before the influences which were fertilis- 
 ing and perfecting the language had time to become 
 properly absorbed, circumstances arose which mean- 
 while effectually hindered any further literary advance. 
 In truth, Scottish vernacular literature as a distinc-
 
 10 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 tively national possession had scarce begun to exist ere 
 it had ceased to be ; and in its original and unrevived 
 form may be said to have attained all the maturity 
 it was fated to reach some half-century before the 
 arrival of Shakespeare. 
 
 The Scottish Reformation, which the vernacular 
 
 literature in some sense heralded, and in many ways 
 
 assisted to bring about, in the end effec- 
 
 Scottish 
 
 literature tually smothered that literature. In 
 
 smothered by n i -i i -n p -t 
 
 theReforma- Scotland the -Reformation assumed a 
 complexion exceptionally stern and rigid: 
 a complexion not merely sentimentally, but Calvin- 
 istically and logically Puritan. It was particularly 
 inimical to art, as in part a specious variety of 
 idolatry, in part an insidious conspiracy to drape 
 Satan as an angel of light. Secular poetry thus came 
 under its peculiar ban, and indeed almost every 
 form of secular literature literature underived from 
 or uninterlarded with Scripture as essentially mun- 
 dane and frivolous, and therefore sinfuL Its demo- 
 cratic spirit precluded such an illogical compromise 
 with the world as more or less obtained in England. 
 The sudden, full, and immediate contact of the rude 
 intelligence of the masses with a book, every word of 
 which was supposed to have been directly dictated 
 by God, upset as it was bound to do the nation's 
 mental and moral balance. Superstition, whose grip 
 the Renaissance and other influences had begun to 
 loosen, acquired a new authority, and laid hold of the 
 nation with a still firmer because more logical clutch
 
 THE SCOTTISH VERNACULAR 11 
 
 a clutch which for the time being effectually strangled 
 the national literature. By the impulse and with 
 the guidance of this renovated superstition, an organ- 
 isation was gradually perfected which endeavoured to 
 comprehend within itself, and to utilise for its own 
 ends, all the nation's energies, and to subject not 
 merely what are usually termed the morals, but 
 everything else besides, of each individual, high or low, 
 rich or poor, cultivated and clever or illiterate and 
 foolish, to its inspection and control. Thus, notwith- 
 standing the impulse of a true poetic tradition, and 
 the fostering influence of James vi., the vocation of 
 art or literature in Scotland became gradually impos- 
 sible. All this is undeniable fact, only more patently 
 manifested by pretentious attempts to gloss it over. 
 It must be accepted in its unvarnished drab reality, 
 and either with condemnation or approval, or such 
 a blending of the two as the special circumstances 
 demand. And at least it would be churlish to with- 
 hold a certain meed of admiration from such honesty 
 of conviction, and such a sterling however in the 
 long-run impossible effort to square practice with 
 theory. The bulk of the nation then believed what 
 it professed to believe. In the Biblical idolatry of 
 Scotland there was also this compensating benefit, 
 that the Bible general familiarity with which was 
 so strenuously promoted, and even enforced con- 
 tains much admirable literature, and that at last it 
 circulated in Scotland, as in England, in the marvel- 
 lous English prose version whose charm is still as
 
 12 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fresh as it was nearly three centuries ago. Its 
 general perusal was bound in some degree to culti- 
 vate and purify the nation's literary taste, and to 
 foster a latent capacity to appreciate good secular 
 literature, as soon as circumstances removed the 
 embargo from it. 
 
 But besides practically suppressing the vernacular 
 literature, and filching from life the zest without 
 Effect of the which no healthy literature can flourish, 
 Reformation ^Q Scottish Reformation called into 
 
 on the 
 
 vernacular. operation activities which made inevitably 
 for the disintegration of the vernacular language: 
 which slowly robbed the language of its char- 
 acteristically northern features, and gradually but 
 surely transformed its most picturesque peculiarities 
 into sober and estimable English. Direct conse- 
 quences of the Reformation were the severance of 
 the old relations with France, and the resumption of 
 a perpetual alliance with the ' auld enemy,' England. 
 This led first to the union of the crowns, and finally 
 to the union of the kingdoms. After these unions 
 the vernacular could not, under any conditions, have 
 long retained its pristine purity; but had circum- 
 stances before the union of the crowns been different, 
 the process of disintegration, though inevitable, would 
 also have been different. It would have been less 
 rapid, and in the end less complete and fatal, 
 had Scotland all along been in possession of a 
 vigorous national literature. Sooner or later the 
 lesser was bound to become merged in the greater
 
 THE SCOTTISH VEENACULAK 13 
 
 literature; but it was by no means necessary that 
 the bulk of the special vocabulary and idioms of the 
 north should in the process utterly perish. From 
 them English literature might have acquired still 
 greater opulence of expression, and especially an 
 added piquancy and vigour. But alas ! the vernacular 
 had almost ceased to be wedded to a living litera- 
 ture before even the union of the crowns; and 
 the vernacular language itself had already become 
 smitten with symptoms of decay. The universal 
 circulation of the Bible in English gradually intro- 
 duced a new fashion of expression. While the broad 
 Scottish pronunciation of necessity retained its cur- 
 rency even among the educated and upper classes, 
 many of the old Scottish words and idioms began to 
 drop out of the oral speech, and after the creation of 
 a kind of amorphous dialect quaintly compounded 
 in irregular and lawless proportions of Scottish and 
 English English went on conquering and to con- 
 quer. Even the common speech of the peasant in 
 the remoter regions began to suffer from the weekly 
 deluges of Scoto-English, and the daily enforced 
 perusal of the English Scriptures; and so the ver- 
 nacular of each succeeding generation became less 
 purely Scottish than that of its predecessor. 
 
 It thus follows (1) that much of the vernacular 
 Scottish vernacular that had no place 
 
 The old and 
 
 in the only partially developed and therevivea 
 prematurely blasted literature has 
 hopelessly perished; (2) that some of the literary
 
 14 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 vernacular cannot now be certainly interpreted ; and 
 (3) that the revived vernacular from Sempill to 
 Burns is more or less Anglified Scottish: not, for 
 example, the Scottish of Dunbar and Lyndsay and 
 their contemporaries, but partly imitated from these 
 older writers, partly a dialect more or less local, and 
 partly English with a Scottish accent. Old ballads 
 entirely pagan in sentiment, and old songs of a 
 gaiety and frankness and ingenuous indecency which 
 bespeak relation with an age of primitive simplicity, 
 survived in the oral traditions of the people, the 
 anathemas of the Kirk notwithstanding ; but in the 
 process of transmission from one generation to an- 
 other, their form and cast of language though not 
 of essential utterance underwent inevitable changes. 
 Many of them, also, have come down to us only in 
 broken snatches and isolated refrains. As for the 
 literature of the revival, it was in a sense a mere 
 exotic largely an imitation of a literature that had 
 been partly moribund for some centuries. The 
 literary tradition was almost hopelessly dissevered. 
 The gap between the present and the past became 
 too wide to permit of proper re-connection. At the 
 Reformation Scottish vernacular literature had 'a 
 great fall,' and by no manner of means could be 
 ' set up again ' as an adequate national symbol. In 
 the case of Sempill and other older poets of the 
 revival many of them innominate the antique 
 flavour is strong and genuine ; in the case of Ramsay 
 and his contemporaries it is a variable quantity,
 
 THE SCOTTISH VEENACULAK 15 
 
 partly artificial, and too often streaked with mere 
 vulgarity and commonplace squalor. Several poets 
 of later date than Rarnsay have achieved a certain 
 success in isolated vernacular songs. Fergusson 
 made not inconsiderable efforts to galvanise the dead 
 corpse of vernacular literature into a semblance of 
 real vitality ; but Fergusson's career was too short to 
 enable him to master more than the rudiments of 
 his art, and it was reserved for Burns, by virtue both 
 of unique endowments and special circumstances 
 his lowly birth, his peasant experiences, his deep and 
 full humanity, his peculiarly impressionable genius, 
 his mastery of the old national poetry in its spirit 
 and essence, and his rare artistic sorcery in a 
 sense to re-create for us the old Scottish world, to 
 breathe into the dry bones of the past the breath of 
 life, and to fashion a form of vernacular poetry in 
 which old and new elements are cunningly blended 
 to the production of artistic effects unsurpassed, if 
 not unequalled, by any vernacular predecessor. 
 Burns had, and has, many imitators, but by the very 
 nature of the case he could have no successors or 
 disciples quite worthy to prolong his tradition. 
 Necessarily he influenced, and does still influence, 
 the poetic art of the nineteenth century, for no great 
 poetic artist ever lived to himself alone; but while 
 his spirit survives, his method may be said to have 
 in great part perished with him.
 
 II 
 
 MINSTRELSY AND ROMANCE 
 
 EARLY FRAGMENTS OF PATRIOTIC MINSTRELSY 'THOMAS 
 OF ERCELDOUNE ' AND ' SIR TRISTREM ' HUCHOWN 
 OF THE AWLE RYALE, AND OTHER WRITERS OF 
 ALLITERATIVE ROMANCES. 
 
 THAT minstrelsy was in high repute in the Saxonised 
 
 and latterly Normanised Picto-Celtic Scotland might 
 
 have been assumed as certain, even had 
 
 Early Cantus 
 
 preserved by there not been the many proofs there are 
 
 Wyntoun. , ,, . . ' . , 
 
 01 early proficiency in music and song; 
 for the nation was a blend of peoples among whom 
 the vocation of the bard was ever held in high 
 esteem. Yet of the earlier songs all that have 
 reached us are a few paltry fragments, and even 
 these we do not possess in quite their original 
 dialect. Wyntoun (c. 1420) has preserved a ' Cantus ' 
 of eight lines forming the whole or part of what 
 may be termed a national prayer for succour evoked 
 by the parlous state of the country through the 
 intestine troubles and devastating raids that followed 
 the death of Alexander in. : 
 
 'Quhen Alysandyr cure kyng was dede, 
 love and That Scotland led in luiie and 16, 
 
 Uw 06
 
 EAKLY FRAGMENTS OF MINSTRELSY 17 
 
 Away wes sons off ale and brede, plenty 
 
 Off wyne and wax, off gamyn and gle" : 
 Oure gold wes changyd into lede. 
 
 Cryst borne into Vyrgynyte' 
 Succoure Scotland and remede, 
 
 That stad [is in] perplexyteV flxed 
 
 The spelling and dialect is, of course, that of 
 Wyntoun; but if destitute of any special linguistic 
 value, the Cantus is metrically of interest as perhaps 
 the earliest extant example of the interwoven octave 
 formed of lines of four accents rhyming alternately. 
 
 Another fragment dating from the same troubled 
 years, is that of the 'mokkyshe ryme' h 8 e h ' e m r ^, e . 
 made by the Scots in derision of the " the siege 
 
 of Berwick, 
 
 English, after they had driven them back 1296. 
 
 and burnt some of their ships during the siege of 
 
 Berwick by Edward in 1296 : 
 
 'What wenys Kynge Edwarde with longe shankys 
 To have wonne Berwyk all our onthankys ? 
 Gaas pykes him. 
 And when he hath it 
 Gaas dykeis him.' l 
 
 It is a rude production enough ; but scornful hate is 
 
 worked into the chorus with a certain realistic emphasis. 
 
 The next of our fragments is the triumphant 
 
 dance -song of the Scottish maidens song 
 
 Scottish 
 
 after Bannockburn (1314) : a naively Maidens after 
 exultant bantering of the forlorn plight 1314."' 
 of their bereaved English sisters : 
 
 1 So in Fabyan's Chronicle; but in Chron. Monast. S. Alhani 
 (ed. Riley, 1865) there is a simpler version : ' Kyng Edward, wanne 
 thu havest Berwic pike the, wanne thu havest geteu, dike the.' 
 To dike = to fence round, to enclose so as to make escape impossible. 
 
 B
 
 18 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ' Maydens of Englonde, sore may ye morne 
 awiingi For your lemmans ye have loste at Bannockisborne ! 
 
 With heue a lowe. 
 
 UMtfneth What wenyth the Kynge of Englonde 
 
 So soone to haue wonne Scotlande ? 
 With rumbylowe.' 
 
 'This songe,' says Fabyan, 1 'was after many dayes 
 sungyn in daunces, in carolles of ye maydens and 
 mynstrellys of Scotlande, to the reproofe and dysdane 
 of Englyshmen, wt dy verse other which I ouer passe." 
 
 The phrases ' With heue a lowe ' and ' With rumby- 
 lowe' are found both in later Scottish and English 
 poetry. They here probably indicate the occurrence 
 of a dance movement emphasised by special gestures 
 or the beating of musical instruments. 
 
 Our last example is a pithy but halting quatrain 
 made by the Scots after the marriage of David II., 
 Quatrain after son f Robert the Bruce, to Jane or 
 o^David^f 6 J anna > sister of Edward in., whom, says 
 in 1328. Fabyan, 2 'they, in despite of the Eng- 
 
 lish, call "Jane Make Peace.'" The quatrain, he 
 further tells us, was but one of diverse ' truffys, 
 roundyos, and songyes' made by the Scots to the 
 Englishmen's ' more deryson ' : 
 
 ' Long berdys, hartles 
 Paynted hoodyes, witles 
 Gay cotis, graceless 
 Maketh England thryftles.' 
 
 Altogether these fragments form but a sorry 
 wreckage from devouring Time; but, such as they 
 
 1 Chronicle, ed. Ellis, p. 420. 2 Ib. p. 440.
 
 EARLY FRAGMENTS OF MINSTRELSY 19 
 
 are, they do more to bring us into contact with the 
 heart of the nation, in those wild and ingenuous ages, 
 than do the bulk of the serious political 
 
 Minstrelsy 
 
 documents of the period. In those early is of more 
 times the carols, and rounds, and rude terest than 
 rhymes were almost the only means of 
 voicing the nation's sentiments, and formed a sort 
 of presage of our present daily press. On the other 
 hand, the more elaborate poems scarcely touched the 
 present at all. In these long Romances we have 
 passing glimpses of ancient manners and customs, 
 but they make known little or nothing of the main 
 concerns of the nation ; they are mainly translations 
 or paraphrases of translations, and deal with times 
 already remote from those of the narrator, and with 
 adventures in love and war of heroes and heroines 
 belonging to a partly mythical antiquity. 
 
 The earliest name associated with Scottish poetry 
 is that of the mysterious soothsayer Thomas of 
 Erceldoune, usually called Thomas the Thomas of 
 Rhymour. A certain 'Thomas Rimour S/ndid 
 de Erceldoune' is witness to a deed of he flourish? 
 the Abbey of Melrose 1 which is undated, but, from 
 certain other signatures attached to it, may be pretty 
 certainly assigned to the latter half of the thirteenth 
 century. That the Thomas Riniour who signed that 
 deed either died or was executed or murdered, or went 
 into monastic retirement or was kidnapped whether 
 by mortals or fairies sometime before 2nd November 
 1 Liber de Mdros, p. 269.
 
 20 SCOTTISH VEKNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 1294, may further be inferred from the fact that by 
 deed of that date ' Thomas de Erceldoune, filius et 
 heres Thome Rymour de Erceldoune,' conveyed all 
 his lands held by inheritance in Erceldoune to the 
 Trinity house of Soltra. 1 Whether Rimour was 
 the family name of Thomas or his professional 
 title is matter of dispute; and the question is of 
 some importance, since if it was the family name, 
 the mere occurrence of it coupled with Thomas hi 
 the documents settles nothing as to the period when 
 ' true Thomas ' flourished. Hector Boece (1527) is the 
 first writer to call him Leirmont ; but in the absence 
 of this name from the early documents, Boece's autho- 
 rity must be regarded as worth little, though there 
 is the possibility either that Leirmont was a title, or 
 that a new family of the name of Leirmont came 
 later into the possession of Erceldoune. Erceldoune 
 was a castle and village in Berwickshire on the site 
 of the present Earlston belonging to the Earl of 
 Dunbar and March, but Thomas Rimour is supposed 
 to have inhabited a ' tower ' of his own, the so-called 
 ruins of which are still pointed out; and it is, of 
 course, certain from the deed exe rated by Thomas 
 Rirnour's son that the family held their lands in- 
 dependent of the Earl. The main evidence associat- 
 ing Thomas of the documents with Thomas of the 
 prophecies is the statement of Bower in the con- 
 tinuation (c. 1430) of Fordun that the Rhymer, on 
 the day before the death of Alexander in. (1286), pre- 
 
 1 MS. Chartulary in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.
 
 THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE 21 
 
 dieted the occurrence on the morrow of a mysterious 
 and destructive blast ; but although antiquaries have 
 accepted the anecdote as fact, and even Sir Walter 
 has gravely surmised that the death of Alexander 
 accidentally saved the reputation of Thomas as a 
 weather prophet, the mere testimony of Bower, writ- 
 ing a hundred and fifty years afterwards, cannot be 
 regarded as a sufficient authentication. Blind Harry 
 must needs of course employ the intervention of 
 Thomas in glorification of the national hero Wallace, 
 and for this purpose introduces him as an inmate 
 of the Abbey of Faile, near Ayr, at the time of 
 Wallace's captivity there in 1296, and as predicting 
 future victories for him after he was given up for 
 dead ; but it is surely folly to attach much import- 
 ance to the poetical devices of Blind Harry, unless 
 otherwise corroborated. As to Thomas's prophecy of 
 the succession of Robert the Bruce to the Scottish 
 throne, referred to by Barbour, 1 Barbour's statement 
 is too vague to warrant the conclusion that the 
 prophecy was necessarily made after the death of 
 Alexander; and Barbour affirms nothing as to the 
 period when the Rhymer flourished. A like remark 
 applies to the 'derne' saying mentioned by Wyntoun 2 
 as prophetic of the battle of Kilblane ; but if a cer- 
 tain forged prophecy, written before 1320, 3 refer to 
 the battle of Bannockburn, Thomas of Erceldoune, to 
 
 1 The Bruce, Bk. n. v. 85-87. 
 
 2 Chronicle, Bk. vin. xxxi. 114. 
 
 3 MS. Harleian, 2253, 1. 127.
 
 22 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 whom it is assigned, must have been alive as late as 
 1293. 
 
 Thus, though taken singly each item of evidence 
 as to the date of Thomas is of somewhat uncertain 
 His fame as significance, yet collectively its general 
 a prophet. dri f t ig towar( j s ^Q identification of 
 
 Thomas the Rhymer with Thomas Rimour of the 
 documents. Nor is it difficult to understand what 
 exceptional opportunity the troubled years following 
 the death of Alexander in. afforded to one reputed 
 to possess the awesome gift of speaking in ' derne.' 
 Since also Thomas rhymed on the eve of the great 
 struggle with Edward L, it was inevitable that after 
 his death his sayings should acquire a factitious 
 importance, that his fame should deepen and expand 
 with each supposed fulfilment of his prophecies, and 
 his rhymes be distorted or mutilated to fit particular 
 emergencies, and at last be gradually submerged by 
 a countless variety of forgeries. Having died, more- 
 over, before war with England had begun, he was not 
 originally regarded as specially a Scottish partisan, 
 and therefore his repute seems to have been, at first, 
 quite as great in England as it was in Scotland. But 
 being a Scot, it was inevitable that he should in the 
 end be appropriated as the one great Scottish prophet 
 with gifts outrivalling even those of the more 
 ancient but un-Scottish Merlin who had special 
 intimations of all the main events of Scottish history 
 down to a period of indefinite futurity ; and it was 
 equally inevitable that his character as 'true Thomas'
 
 THOMAS OF EECELDOUNE 23 
 
 should be assiduously preserved by apparently whole 
 hosts of forgeries composed after the occurrence of 
 the events foretold. Thus, notwithstanding the 
 Rhymer's fame, or rather perhaps because of it, no 
 rhyming prophecy exists that can be certainly auth- 
 enticated as his. Neither Barbour, nor Wyntoun, 
 nor Blind Harry has professed to quote verbatim 
 any of his prophetic rhymes; and it is vain, from 
 among the many forgeries that have passed current 
 as sayings of his, to attempt to select a single speci- 
 men that actually represents his opinions or fore- 
 casts, far less enables us to form any judgment as to 
 his literary or poetic gifts. 
 
 As for the old romance of Thomas of JSrceldoune 
 in three fyttes, 1 detailing the confabulations of 
 Thomas with the Elf Queen, it is plainly, The old 
 in great part, the work of an English- fSSmwrf 
 man, who could not have written or Erceidoune.' 
 refurbished it earlier than 1400; and even if he 
 made use of an old romance of which some Scotsman 
 was the author, that romance was indubitably derived 
 from the older one Ogier le Danois. The prophecies 
 of the third fytte Dr. Murray regards as refurbished 
 prophecies, originally of very ancient date; and of 
 course it is just possible that Thomas was himself a 
 refurbisher of ancient prophecies, which were again 
 refurbished by the author of the fytte. Nor is more 
 
 1 Published complete, so far as the several MSS. permit, by the 
 Early English Text Society, ed. Dr. J. A. H. Murray, 1875 ; and 
 by A. Brandl, Berlin, 1880.
 
 24 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 light, but rather darkness visible, to be got from the 
 consultation of the Whole Prophecie of Scotland, 
 England, etc., 1 even after comparison with certain 
 Scottish Prophecies, printed by J. R. Lumby, from 
 a manuscript of the fifteenth century. 2 
 
 We come then, last, to the traditional rhymes col- 
 lected by Scott, 3 Robert Chambers, 4 and Henderson ; 6 
 Traditional but how interesting soever these may be 
 attributed to ^ specimens of folk inventiveness and 
 Thomas. credulity, it would be vain to pretend that 
 they are in the remotest degree representative either 
 of the prophetic or poetic gifts of ' true Thomas.' Here, 
 however, is one of them. It is not known to have 
 been as yet fulfilled, but its ' derne ' gruesomeness is 
 almost enough in itself to account for the mysterious 
 awe attaching to the name of Thomas whether he 
 really uttered it or not : 
 
 ' At three-burn Grange in after day 
 There shall be a lang and bloody fray ; 
 
 wiow When a three-thumbed wight by the reins shall hald 
 
 1)01(1 Three kings' horses baith stout and bauld ; 
 
 And the three Burns three days will rin 
 Wi' the blude o' the slain that fa' therein.' 
 
 In addition to his prophecies, true Thomas is 
 The Horn credited by Sir Walter Scott with the 
 child.* authorship of two romances The Horn 
 
 Child, or the Gest of King Horn, 6 and Sir Tristrem. 
 
 1603, and in the Bannatyne Club, 1833. 
 
 Early English Text Society, 1870. 
 
 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 
 
 Popular Rhymes of Scotland. 
 
 Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire. 
 
 Published by the Early English Text Society, ed. Lumby, 1866.
 
 THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE' 25 
 
 Sir Walter thought the French romance of King 
 Horn might be a version from the English one, and 
 that the Thomas therein mentioned might be he of 
 Erceldoune; but this Anglo-Norman version is of 
 older date than the English one, being written about 
 1170 ; and besides, the English version of King Horn 
 is not the work of a northern poet. 
 
 The claims of Thomas to some sort of authorship 
 of Sir Tristrem deserve more serious consideration ; 
 and the question is besides of greater sir Tristrem - 
 literary moment. Since Sir Walter's ^ThonTa" of" 
 time the balance of learned opinion has Erceldoune? 
 
 Evidence of 
 
 turned very much against the claims of Mannyng. 
 Thomas; but Mr. G. P. M'Neill, the latest editor, 'is 
 unable to concur in regarding Sir Tristrem, as the 
 work of an unknown author other than Thomas of 
 Erceldoune.' The main authority on the subject is 
 the Chronicle of Robert Mannyng, or De Brunne ; 
 and the most probable if not the only interpreta- 
 tion of Mannyng's words is that he believed, rightly 
 or wrongly, that Tristrem was written by Erceldoune. 
 In explaining why he had written his own Chronicle 
 in the octo-syllabic couplet, and not in one of the 
 more complicated staves then so much in fashion 
 as ryme coude, or dtrangere, or enterlace Mannyng 
 goes on to remark : 
 
 ' I see in song in sedgeyng tale 
 Of Erceldoun and of Kendale, 
 Non tham says as thai tham wroght 
 And in ther saying it semes noght :
 
 26 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 That may thou here in Sir Tristrem, 
 Ouer gestes it has the esteem, 
 Ouer all that is or was, 
 If men it sa yd as made Thomas. 
 But I here it no man so say 
 That of som copple som is away. 
 So thare fayre sayng her beforne 
 Is thare travayle nere forlorne.' 
 
 These lines as they stand might be interpreted to 
 
 mean that Mannyng attributes Tristrem either to 
 
 The four Thomas of Kendale or to Thomas of 
 
 theories. Erceldoune, or to a third Thomas. But 
 
 there is even a fourth theory very much in favour 
 
 with ingenious antiquaries. Since the author of the 
 
 only copy of Tristrem known to exist 1 begins his 
 
 tale thus 
 
 4 1 was a[t Erceldoun] 
 
 With tomas spak y thare ; 
 rhyme Ther herd y rede in ronne 
 
 Who tristrem gat and bare ' 
 
 it has been argued that Mannyng meant to indicate 
 a joint authorship ; or more precisely, referred to Tris- 
 trem as a vamp by Kendale of an earlier romance by 
 Erceldoune. But is it likely that Kendale could have 
 the effrontery to attempt the refurbishing of a poem 
 by such a famous contemporary? Of course Mannyng 
 if misled by these introductory lines might have 
 made this (very foolish) supposition; but Mannyng 
 
 1 Auchinleck MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by a 
 southern fourteenth-century transcriber of some northern copy of 
 much earlier date. Published by Sir Walter Scott, 1804 ; by Kolbing 
 at Heilbronn, 1882 ; and by the Scottish Text Society, ed. G. P. 
 M'Neill, 1886.
 
 SIR TE1STKEM' 27 
 
 was himself approaching manhood before Erceldoune 
 died, and as he also professes to be thoroughly versed 
 in the history of the tale, we may assume that he 
 knew the facts at first hand. Besides, he plainly refers 
 to the romance as it was first written, not as altered 
 by a later author, however skilled : ' as made Thomas,' 
 he writes not ' as made Thomas the first and vamped 
 Thomas the second.' Further, Mannyng elsewhere 
 in his Chronicle mentions definitely the tale of 
 Kendale as a chronicle of north of England events ; 
 and we must therefore infer that unless Mannyng 
 meant to attribute the authorship of Tristrem to 
 another Thomas than either he of Kendale or he of 
 Erceldoune, he meant to attribute it to the latter. True, 
 a tale of Tristrem of which the writer of this later 
 Tristrem must undoubtedly have made use was 
 written about 1170 by an Anglo-Norman Thomas, 
 but it was written in French, and written in couplets. 1 
 We have thus no other Thomas to whom to ascribe 
 Sir Tristrem except he of Erceldoune; and whether 
 he wrote it or not, if once the claims of Thomas of 
 Kendale be excluded, no reason is left for assigning its 
 authorship to one on the English rather than on the 
 Scottish side of the Border. Nor can it be said that 
 the references in the poem to Thomas of Erceldoune 
 are inconsistent with his own authorship of it. On 
 the contrary, may not the introductory lines be in- 
 terpreted to mean that the scribe wrote the poem 
 
 1 Published in Francisque-Michel's Poetical Romance* of Tristan 
 in French, in Anglo-Norman, and in Greek ; London, 1835-39.
 
 28 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 from the dictation of Thomas ? But whether this be 
 so or not, the version that has reached us is in sub- 
 stance as well as in metre clearly that of the 
 author whom Mannyng believed to be Erceldoune. 
 
 If there be exaggeration in Mannyng's praise of 
 
 Sir Tristrem as the best of all the ' gestes ' that ' ever 
 
 is or was.' it is at least the most elaborate 
 
 Literary merit 
 
 of sir Tristrem.- an( j perfect of the early romances dealing 
 with the story of Tristan and Ysonde : a story which, 
 after passing through many prose versions in French, 
 German, Danish, Spanish, Italian, and English, has 
 in modern times furnished a theme for varied imagina- 
 tive treatment, has inspired Wagner with one of his 
 greatest achievements in music, and has mirrored the 
 several idealisms of Arnold, Tennyson, and Swinburne. 
 The Sir Tristrem of Erceldoune is hardly poetical. It 
 is only a rhymed story, told in the simple, naive, and 
 spirited style which would best impress the wonder- 
 ing and childlike audiences of the Middle Ages: it 
 relates in a manner well fitted to captivate their 
 unsophisticated hearts the marvellous adventures in 
 love and war of Tristan. The hero and the other 
 personages of the story are not undeftly drawn, but 
 their motives are elementally simple, direct, and 
 unconventional; and whenever the narrator is in 
 difficulties, the miraculous is ever at hand to supply 
 the needed solution. Yet is the narrative far from 
 being prolix; on the contrary, it is crowded with 
 incident, and abounds in graphic natural touches; 
 and when it is added that metrically the work is
 
 SIR TRISTREM* 29 
 
 one of high accomplishment, it is not difficult to 
 account for the praise bestowed on it by Mannyng, 
 nor to understand that, recited by a minstrel 
 thoroughly versed in all the methods of giving 
 emphasis and effect to the story, it must have made 
 a quite exceptional impression. The romance has 
 also a certain perennial interest for its pictures of 
 ancient observances, but regarded as literature it is 
 its stave that is chiefly worthy of note. Here is an 
 example : 
 
 ' To prison thai gun take 
 
 Erl baroun and knight. 
 For Douke Morgan sake 
 
 Mani on dyd dounright. 
 Schaftes thai gun shake 
 
 And riuen scheldes bright ; 
 Crounes thai gun crake 
 
 Mani, ich wene, aplight. outright 
 
 Saunfayl, without 
 
 Betvene the none and the night 
 Last the batayle.' 
 
 The stave of Sir Tristrem is an admirable example 
 of interwoven rhyme in short lines, combined with 
 alliteration. No earlier instance of this The stave of 
 rhymed stave is known to exist in any of ' Sir Tnstrem -' 
 the old English dialects, although it is employed by 
 Lawrence Minot in one of his songs on Edward in. 1 
 It consists of eight lines each of three accents, with 
 alternate rhymes, and to this is added a bobwheel, 2 
 
 1 Wright's Political Poems, i. 74. 
 
 a The wheel is the return of a peculiar rhythm at the end of each 
 stanza. In its simplest form it consists of two short lines rhyming 
 with each other. The bobwheel is a wheel beginning with a short 
 abrupt line or bob (i.e. small wheel), as 'Saunfayl' in the example 
 now given.
 
 30 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 consisting of a bob of one accent introducing a new 
 rhyme, and followed by two lines generally of three 
 accents but occasionally, as in the stanza quoted 
 above, of only two, the former of which lines rhymes 
 with the line preceding the bob, and the latter with 
 the bob. There are early monkish Latin examples 
 of the interwoven octave in lines of three accents, 
 and the bob itself probably derives from the Latin 
 staves. The simplest form of the bobwheel consists 
 of the bob and a single line rhyming with the bob. 
 The bob may introduce a new rhyme, or, as in the 
 case of the original Christis Kirk, the bob and the 
 line following it may rhyme with the last line of the 
 preceding octave or be unrhymed; and this bob- 
 wheel was further simplified, in the case of Ramsay 
 and later Scottish poets, by the substitution of a 
 refrain consisting of an unrhymed line of two accents. 
 The special bobwheel of Sir Tristrem was no doubt 
 derived from the French. An approximate example 
 occurs in an Anglo-Norman stave, quoted in Arch- 
 bishop Langton's Sermons, and dating probably from 
 the beginning of the thirteenth century : 
 
 ' Bele Aliz matin leva, 
 Sun core vesti e para, 
 Enz un verger s'entra 
 Gink flurettes y truva, 
 Un chapelet fet en a 
 
 De rose flurie ; 
 Pur Deu, trahez vus en k 
 
 Vus ki ne amez rule.' 
 
 More elaborate forms of the bobwheel were made by
 
 31 
 
 Huchown 
 of the Awle 
 Ryale. 
 
 doubling, or, as in The Pistill of Swete Susan (p. 36), 
 trebling the first section of the wheel. 
 
 Next to Thomas of Erceldoune in date comes the 
 poet named by Wyntoun, Huchown of 
 the Awle Ryale : 
 
 ' That cunnand wes in literature. 
 He made the gret gest off Arthure, 
 And the Awn tyre off Gawaine, 
 The Pystyll als off Swete Swsane ; 
 He wes curyws in hys style, 
 Fare of Facund, and subtile, 
 And ay to plesans and delyte 
 Mdd in metre mete his dyte : 
 Lytil or nocht nevyrtheles 
 Waverand fra the suthfastness.' 
 
 Of the three works here mentioned by Wyntoun, 
 the last, The Pistill of Susan, 1 is that alone about 
 whose identity there has been practically 
 no dispute, and it therefore supplies an 
 important basis for further conclusions 
 regarding Huchown and his other works. 
 The earliest MS. of The Pistill, that in the 
 Bodleian Library, Oxford, dates about 
 1380 ; but the many evident corruptions 
 it contains indicate that it was very 
 being a first-hand copy of the original, which 
 therefore must have been of considerably earlier 
 date. Further, notwithstanding the prevalence of 
 Midland and Southern spellings in all the five extant 
 
 1 Published in Laing's Select Remains oj the Ancient Poetry of 
 Scotland, 1822 (2nd ed. 1885) ; since which the best of several 
 editions are those of Rosier (Strassburg, 1895) and of the Scottish 
 Text Society in Scottish Alliterative Potms, ed. Amours, 1896-97. 
 
 also 
 eloquence 
 
 writing 
 nothing 
 truth 
 
 ' The Pistill 
 of Susan' 
 its value as 
 evidence 
 regarding 
 Huchown, 
 who was 
 probably Sir 
 Hew of 
 Eglinton. 
 
 far from
 
 32 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 MSS., the Northern origin of the poem can be clearly 
 established by the rhyme endings. We are thus 
 able to conclude, first, that the author flourished about 
 the middle of the fourteenth century; second, that 
 he was a northern poet; and thirdly, since he is so 
 circumstantially lauded by Wyntoun, and at the 
 same time referred to familiarly as ' Huchown of 
 the Awle Ryale/ that he was a Scot. But if he 
 was a Scot, his name could scarce have been omitted 
 from the death-roll of Dunbar's stately Lament for 
 the Makaris, and therefore he is usually identified 
 with the Sir Hew of the Lament : 
 
 ' The gude Syr Hew of Eglintoun, 
 Ettrik, Heryot, et Wyntoun 
 taken He lies tane out of this cuntre : 
 
 Timor mortis conturbat me.' 
 
 Some have identified him with Clerk, or rather the 
 Clerk, of Tranent, referred to in the lines : 
 
 lao ' Clerk of Tranent eik he has tane, 
 
 That made the anteris of Gawane ' ; 
 
 but it is unlikely that 'Huchown' could have two 
 such different designations. Moreover, a Sir Hew, 
 Lord of Eglinton married to Egidia, half-sister of 
 Robert n. died about 1375, and was therefore a 
 contemporary of Huchown, whoever Huchown may 
 have been. 
 
 But Mr. Amours, the latest editor of The Pistill, 
 surmises that there were two contem- 
 
 Were there 
 
 two sir Hews porary Sir Hews 01 Eglinton the one 
 
 a knight, and the other a priest. The 
 
 epithet ' gude ' has also been adduced in support of the
 
 HUCHOWN 33 
 
 theory that Sir Hew was a priest, although it is also 
 commonly used by the poets, not to designate priestly, 
 but knightly, qualities. Mr. Amours' special objec- 
 tion against the knighthood of Sir Hew is that ' it is 
 incredible that Wyntoun should have called a noble- 
 man of high rank by the curt and familiar name of 
 Huchown in a passage meant to be as eulogistic as 
 Wyntoun could make it.' But the objection surely 
 is as valid if Huchown were a priest ; and in any case, 
 it loses its cogency if we reflect that Sir Hew may 
 himself in the character of poet have adopted the 
 title of ' Huchown of the Awle Kyale ' ; and, on the 
 whole, it is more credible that there was only one Sir 
 Hew of Eglinton than two contemporaries of that 
 title the one a nobleman, and the other his parish 
 priest. The phrase ' Awle Ryale ' or, in one MS., 
 ' Auld Ryall ' is of uncertain signification ; but the 
 interpretation ' Royal Palace ' is as feasible as any 
 that has as yet been suggested. 
 
 The identification of the two other works of 
 Huchown mentioned by Wyntoun is rendered diffi- 
 cult by the number of existing romances other works 
 that would fit the titles. Internal fHuchown - 
 evidence, based on a comparison with The Pistill, is 
 specially deceptive in the absence of northern copies ; 
 but Dr. Trautmann 1 has adduced reasons based 
 mainly on the use made of it by Wyntoun in his 
 Chronicle, and specially on the fact that it contains 
 
 1 Der Dichter Huchown und seine Werke, in Anglia (1877) t 
 pp. 109-188. 
 

 
 34 SCOTTISH VERNACULAE LITERATURE 
 
 the very mistake of mentioning Lucius Tiberius as 
 emperor instead of procurator, to which Wyntoun 
 specially refers for identifying The Gest of Arthure 
 with the non-rhyming alliterative poem Morte 
 Arthwre* Further, notwithstanding the contrary 
 opinion of Dr. Trautmann, Mr. F. J. Amours adduces 
 strong reasons for identifying The Awntyre of 
 Gawaine with a rhyming alliterative poem, TJie 
 Awntyrs of Arthwre at the Terne Wathelyne.* 
 Other poems attributed to Huchown are the long 
 unrhymed alliterative Geste Historiall of the Destruc- 
 tion of Troy, translated from Guido delle Colonne's 
 Historia Troiana',* Sir Gawain and the Green 
 Knight ; * and Golagros and Gawaine* The first of 
 these Dr. Trautmann endeavours, from internal 
 evidence, to show could not, though the work of a 
 Scots translator, have been the work of the author of 
 
 1 In the Thornton MS. at Lincoln, ed. Halliwell, 1847 ; and also 
 published by the Early English Text Society, ed. E. Brock, 1865. 
 
 8 Published in Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, 1792, under the title 
 Sir Gawain and Sir Oalaron of Galloway ; by David Laing in 
 Select Remains, 1822 (2nd ed. 1885) ; by the Bannatyne Club, ed. Sir 
 F. Madden, 1839 ; by the Camden Society, ed. Robson, 1842 ; and 
 by the Scottish Text Society in Scottish Alliterative Poems, ed. 
 Amours, 1896-97. 
 
 3 Early English Text Society, ed. Donaldson and Pan ton, 1869-74. 
 
 4 Bannatyne Club, ed. Sir F. Madden, and Early English Text 
 Society, with three religious poems from the same MS. , and by the 
 same author, ed. Morris, 1864. Abridged ed. by Jessie L. Weston, 1898. 
 
 8 Printed with other Scottish pieces by Chepman and Myllar, 
 Edinburgh, 1508 ; facsimile reprint by David Laing, 1827 ; included 
 in Pinkerton's Scottish Poems, 1792; published also by the 
 Bannatyne Club, ed. Madden, 1839, by Dr. Trautmann, in Anglia, 
 1879, and by the Scottish Text Society in Scottish Alliterative 
 Poems, ed. Amours, 1896-97.
 
 HUCHOWN 35 
 
 The Pistill and The Morte Arthure ; as for the second, 
 notwithstanding various objections suggested by the 
 versification and vocabulary, it has some claims to be 
 regarded as a rival to The Awntyrs of Arthure for 
 identification as The Awntyre of Gawaine, and these 
 claims are strengthened by the fact that at the be- 
 ginning of the MS. is the name ' Hugo de ' ; and as to 
 the last, an adaptation from the French, though 
 there is no convincing evidence that it is, as some 
 editors hold, of later date, it differs utterly in style 
 from the two undoubted works of Huchown. There 
 is some probability that it is the Anteris of Gawaine 
 ascribed by Dunbar to Clerk of Tranent ; but nothing 
 can be inferred as to his date from Dunbar's mention 
 of him, Dunbar's chronology in the three previous 
 stanzas being quite promiscuous. 
 
 All these works whether Huchown's or not 
 appear to us now more or less bizarre. Though lin- 
 guistically of great interest, and though 
 metrically they left traces of their in- characteristics 
 fluence on later poetry, they are rather of Alliterative 
 interest to the scholar and antiquary than F 
 to the general reader ; x but both Sir Gawaine and the 
 Awntyrs of Arthure have a good deal of graphic force. 
 All the four assigned to Huchown two being his 
 without doubt, and two having rival claims to be 
 
 1 It may be that a Cymric tradition lent, in Cumbria, a certain 
 special interest to these romances ; but the Awntyre, ofOawaine has 
 been traced to a French source, and when Huchown wrote, the 
 Arthurian legend was the common property of the romancists of all 
 countries.
 
 36 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 reckoned his are in different metres. In Morte 
 Arthure the metre is unrhyrned alliteration, but in 
 The stave of the others alliteration is combined with 
 ThePistni.' rhyme< of the stave of The Pistill 
 which is merely a versified paraphrase of the story 
 of Susanna and the Elders in the Vulgate here is 
 an example : 
 
 ' Thenne the folk of Israel fel vppon knes l 
 And loued that louely lord, that hire the lyf lent ; 
 Alle the gomes that hire goode wolde gladen and glees 
 This prophete so pertly proues his entent, 
 Thei trompe bifore this traitours and traylen hem on tres 
 Thorwout the citee, be comuyn assent. 
 Ho so leeueth on that lord, thar hym not lees, 
 That thus his seruaunt saued that schuld ha be schent 
 In sete. 
 
 This ferlyes bifel 
 In the dayes of Daniel. 
 The pistel wittenes wel 
 Of that prophete.' 
 
 The stave thus consists of an interwoven octave of 
 lines rhyming alternately, followed by a complex 
 bobwheel ; the bob of one accent, introducing a new 
 rhyme, being followed by three short lines each rhym- 
 ing only with each other, after which comes a short 
 line rhyming with the bob. Various examples of the 
 
 1 ' Then the people of Israel fell upon their knees, and loved that 
 lovable lord that granted her life. All the knights that would her 
 welfare celebrate and sing (this prophet so openly proves his case), 
 they sound the trumpet before these traitors and drag them on trees 
 throughout the city by common assent. Whoso trusteth in that 
 lord, need not be lost, that this his servant saved, who should have 
 been injured in his place. These marvels happened in the days of 
 Daniel. The book of that prophet testifies to their truth.'
 
 HUCHOWN 37 
 
 same bobwheel are to be found in other poems of the 
 fourteenth century. In The Awntyrs of The stave of 
 Arthurewe have an admirable example ' TheAwntyrs- ' 
 of the most common form of rhymed alliterative 
 romance. Here is a stave : 
 
 ' Bare was hir body, and blake to the bone l 
 Alle by-claggede in claye, vn-conilyly clede ; 
 It -weryit, it waye-mettede lyke a womane, 
 That nowther one hede, ne one hare, hillynge it hade. 
 It stottyde, it stounnede, it stode als a stane. 
 It marrede, it mounede, it moyssede for made. 
 Vnto that grysely gaste Sir Gaweayne es gane : 
 He raykede to it one a rase, for he was neuer rade ; 
 For rade was he neuer, nowe who that rychte redis. 
 One the chefe of the cholle, 
 A tade pykit one hir polle ; 
 Hir eghene war holkede fulle holle, 
 Glowand als gledis.' 
 
 It begins, as does The Pistill, with an interwoven 
 octave rhyming alternately; but this is followed by 
 a ninth line, introducing a new rhyme, and to this 
 succeeds three hemistichs rhyming only with each 
 other, the stanza being concluded with a half hemi- 
 stich rhyming with the ninth line. But the most 
 notable feature of the poem is the device of iteration ; 
 the ninth line generally beginning with the repetition 
 
 1 'Bare was her body, and black to the bone, all clagged with clay 
 and uncomelyly clad. It cursed, it lamented like a woman, so that 
 it had a covering for neither head nor hair. It halted, it was 
 astonished, it stood as a stone. It was demented, it moaned, it 
 mused as if mad. Unto that grisly ghost Sir Gawayne is gone. 
 He went to it with a rush, for he was never afraid, for afraid was he 
 never, now who that reads right (believe me). On the upper part 
 of the jaw a toad pecked on her head ; her eyes were sunken full 
 hollow, glowing as burning coal.'
 
 33 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 of the last half of the eighth in a kind of inverted 
 order, while the one stanza is connected with its 
 successor by the transference to it of the last line. 
 Thus the stanza following the one quoted begins : 
 
 ' Alle glowede als gledis the gaste whore scho glydis.' 
 
 The Awntyrs furnishes the chief extant example 
 of the persistent use of this device. Gradually, how- 
 ever, the author lost patience, as he well might, and 
 in the latter portion of the poem it occurs only 
 intermittently. 
 
 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, whether by 
 Huchown or another, West Midland or Northern, 
 Metre of -sir poet, is, if a more poetical, metrically 
 Gawam.' ft j egg QI^QJ-^Q^ achievement than The 
 Awntyrs. It consists of non-rhyming alliterative 
 lines separated, as the exigencies of the situation 
 suggest, by a rhyming bobwheel, of which the wheel 
 of one accent continues the previous line, the four 
 following hemistichs rhyming alternately. Here is 
 an example of the bobwheel : 
 
 ' A hundreth of hunters ; as I haf herde telle 
 
 Of the best 
 
 To trysteis vewters zod : x 
 Couples huntes ofkest, 
 Thcr ros for blastez gode 
 Gret rurd in that forest.' 
 
 Certain romances, as Sir Gray-Steel, and Roswall 
 
 1 ' To the stations the keepers went ; the huntsmen cast off the 
 couples ; by good blasts [of the horn] a great noise rose in the 
 forest.'
 
 HUCHOWN 39 
 
 and Lillian, both in the octo-syllabic metre, which 
 were long popular in Scotland, exist only in modern- 
 ised languages, and may be of English origin. There 
 are also Scoto-English translations of Other 
 French romances, as Lancelot of the Romances - 
 Lak, 1 and part of the Romaunt of the Rose; but 
 of the translators nothing is known. 
 
 1 Maitland Club, ed. Madden, 1839, and Early English Text 
 Society, ed. Skeat, 1865. On Huchown, see especially Huchown oj 
 the Awle SycUe : the Alliterative Poet by George Neilson, Glasgow, 
 1902.
 
 Ill 
 
 HISTORICAL POETRY 
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' WYNTOUN'S ' CHRONICLE '-BLIND 
 HARRY'S 'WALLACE.' 
 
 IT is with The Bruce of Barbour that Scottish 
 vernacular literature, as a distinctive national pro- 
 duct, first begins to take shape. The old 
 
 Scottish litera- 
 ture properly national rounds and songs were, as we 
 
 Harbour's have seen, very rude and simple, and all 
 but a few fragments of them have perished. 
 Then the ancient romance poetry was a general 
 product of the early Middle Ages, created by a 
 strange commingling of different races and civilities. 
 By the conditions of its birth it represented a merely 
 temporary phase of sentiment; it was concerned 
 mainly with a remote past, and towards the close of 
 the fourteenth century it began to lose its hold on 
 human interest. But The Bruce, by its very scope 
 and intent, is linked to generations yet unborn; it 
 portrays the triumph of a splendid struggle for 
 independent nationality a struggle which, for good 
 or evil, was successful, and therefore enshrined for 
 ever in the nation's memory ; and if not entitled to 
 
 40
 
 BAKBOUR'S 'BKUCE' 41 
 
 rank as a great national epic by virtue of qualities 
 essentially poetic, it yet celebrates the daring and 
 victorious career of a national hero in a manner not 
 unworthy of the stirring theme. 
 
 Of John Barbour (1320 ?-1395), its author, scarce 
 anything is known except what is official. The 
 surname indicates that, like the Bruce, John Barbour 
 he was of Norman origin ; and the family < 1320 ^sss)- 
 may well have come to Scotland in the train of one 
 of Bruce's ancestors. But neither of his parents, nor 
 of the date or place of his birth, is there any record, 
 the first mention of his name, 13th August 1357, 
 being as Archdeacon of Aberdeen. To his very 
 special accomplishments the varied allusions in his 
 poem The Bruce bear testimony ; and the zeal with 
 which he cultivated his scholarly tastes is shown by 
 safe-conducts granted him during several succes- 
 sive years to go both to Oxford and to France for 
 purposes of study. In 1372 he became clerk of 
 audit of the king's household, and he also during 
 various years acted as auditor of the Exchequer. He 
 finished The Bruce in 1375. That he was high in 
 favour with the king is proved by a gift to him, 14th 
 March 1377-78, of ten pounds; by a grant, 29th 
 August 1378, of an annual pension of twenty shillings 
 to ' our beloved clerk,' and his heirs and assigns for 
 ever ; by a gift in 1380-81 of a ward of a minor ; and 
 by a grant, 5th December 1388, of a yearly pension of 
 ten pounds ' pro suo fideli servicio nobis inipeuso.' 
 He died 13th March 1395.
 
 42 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Besides The Bruce, Barbour, according to Wyntoun, 
 
 was the author of two poems now lost The Brut 
 
 and The Stewartis OryginaUe. Certain 
 
 Works attri- . . 
 
 butedto fragments also of a translation of The 
 
 Siege of Troy are attributed to him by 
 the fifteenth - century transcriber of the MS. in 
 Cambridge University Library; but it has been 
 argued from internal evidence that they could not 
 have been written by Barbour. He has further 
 been credited, but on insufficient evidence, with the 
 authorship of the Legends of the Saints, which have 
 been published, from the MS. in the University Library, 
 Cambridge, by Horstmann at Heilbronn, 1881-82, and 
 by the Scottish Text Society, ed. Metcalfe, 1887-1896. 
 The literary interest of these Legends is but slight, and 
 they present no features calling for special comment. 
 The Bruce l is the main Scottish authority for the 
 events it records, John of Fordun not having com- 
 pleted his Latin Chronicle further than 
 
 The Bruce, 
 
 poetic the death of David I. (1153), and Wyn- 
 
 narrative. . . 
 
 HOW far is it toun in view of Barbour s Bruce 
 
 thy? resolving to 'lightly overpass the story 
 
 of these years.' How far The Bruce is accurate history 
 
 1 Printed first at Edinburgh in 1571 ; reprinted by Hart at 
 Edinburgh in 1616, and more or less erroneously, at different 
 eucceeding dates, from Hart's edition ; edited by Pinkerton, 1790, 
 from a MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, written by John 
 Ramsay in 1489 ; by Jamieson, 1820, from the same MS. ; by Innes 
 for the Spalding Club, 1856, from the collation of this MS. with 
 another in St. John's College, Cambridge, written also by John 
 Ramsay in 1487 ; by Skeat for the English Text Society, 1870, from 
 a collation of these MSS. with. Hart's edition ; and by the same 
 editor for the Scottish Text Society, 1894.
 
 BAKBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 43 
 
 it would be rash to assert. It was written six-and- 
 forty years after the death of its hero ; and although 
 for some of the incidents Barbour had the vouchers 
 of eye-witnesses, he no doubt got many of his stories 
 from tradition or from second-hand testimony. But 
 in many details he is corroborated even by English 
 chroniclers ; and Scottish State documents, so far as 
 they are available, on the whole substantiate his 
 declaration that, to the best of his wit, his aim 
 was 
 
 1 To put in wryt a suthfast story.' true 
 
 Still, The Bruce is intended to be a poetic narrative, 
 not a mere prose narrative hi metre. Something 
 must be allowed for imaginative embellishment even 
 of what is 'suthfast/ for the artistic need to fill in 
 vague outlines with effective colouring, and to round 
 off a story with adequate impressiveness. Since, 
 moreover, the theme was essentially patriotic, facts 
 were bound to be more or less distorted by prejudice 
 or enthusiasm, especially when dealt with poetically ; 
 for even your modern war correspondent, how un- 
 poetical soe'er he be, can scarce resist the craving 
 to fight, if only in description, on his country's 
 side. But Sir Herbert Maxwell's insinuation l 
 that Barbour, contrary to his strong professions 
 of regard for ' suthfastness,' may have suppressed 
 or modified the truth from mere sordid motives, 
 can scarce be given heed to on mere conjecture. 
 Such an hypothesis seems, in fact, superfluous. 
 
 1 Robert the Brwt, p. 8.
 
 44 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Bruce was the object of the nation's wild idolatry; 
 and Barbour, sharing in that idolatry, depicted 
 him con amore from the standpoint of national 
 adoration. Neither the grant, nor the hope, of a 
 royal dole, a thousand times greater than the 
 pittance he received but as matter of fact he was 
 not in the receipt of a royal bounty while writing 
 The Bruce could have so well inspired him to 
 glorify Bruce as the ambition to do honour to a 
 national hero, and so to celebrate his deeds that they 
 should ' last aye furth in memory.' 
 
 In The Bruce, as we now have it, there is, however, 
 one glaring error. Bruce at the beginning of the 
 curious romance proper is referred to as 'The 
 
 fr'rort^The BrUC6 l S P ak f *?*'' N W tlie BrUCG 
 
 Bruce. 1 spoken of in the introduction was not 
 
 the patriot, but his grandfather; and it has there- 
 fore been assumed that Barbour had recourse 
 to the extraordinary device of confounding the de- 
 liverer of Scotland with his grandfather, in order 
 to put King Edward outrageously in the wrong, and 
 further because as Cosmo Innes expresses it in the 
 introduction to his edition of The Bruce his hero 
 was ' not to be degraded by announcing that he had 
 sworn fealty to Edward, and once done homage to 
 Baliol, or even joined any party but that of his 
 country and freedom.' No doubt this is a most 
 plausible explanation, but is it the only possible one ? 
 And unless it be the only possible one, ought Barbour 
 to be lightly credited with so glaring and deliberate,
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 45 
 
 and at the same time so foolish and vain, a falsehood ? 
 Is there not at least the faint chance that Barbour 
 may have made an accidental slip, or that the error 
 was the work of some copyist ? This last alternative 
 obtains some corroboration from the fact that in the 
 portion of The Bruce preserved by Wyntoun, instead 
 of the lines 
 
 ; This lord the Brwss, I spak of ayr, before 
 
 Saw all the Kynryk swa forfayre ' kingdom so 
 
 J J * forlorn 
 
 we have 
 
 ' Quhen all this sawe the Brwss Robert 
 That bare the crowne soone efftirwart.' 
 
 And even if Wyntoun has merely altered his copy 
 of Barbour, the fact that Wyntoun has at least not 
 accepted the accidental or intended fiction, indicates 
 that there was no general desire among the Scots to 
 bolster up either their cause or that of Bruce by such 
 a stupid artifice. Further, Barbour had no need to 
 have recourse to it, for his theme did not include the 
 years in Bruce's life when, perhaps, his patriotism was 
 stifled by his rivalry with Baliol ; and to have intro- 
 duced him simply as the grandson of him he ' spak 
 of ayr ' would equally well have suited his purpose. 
 Lastly and this seems conclusive, if Barbour did 
 wilfully falsify facts, how could he have set himself 
 to expose his own falsification by compiling the 
 genealogy of the Stewarts, ending with Robert n. of 
 Scotland ?
 
 46 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 But here we are less concerned with the historic 
 
 trustworthiness of The Bruce than with its merits as 
 
 literature. Written in the octo-syllabic 
 
 Harbour's 
 
 aim in 'The couplet, it extends to about 12,500 lines, 
 and thus in mere bulk is a considerable 
 achievement. Its aim, according to its author, is to 
 tell the story of Robert the Bruce and his companion 
 in arms, the good Sir James of Douglas : 
 
 strong ' That in thar tyme war wycht and wyss, 
 
 And led thar lyff in gret trawail, 
 tumn i t And oft in hard stour off bataill 
 
 Wan richt gret price off chewalry, 
 vold f, And war woydyt off cowardy.' 
 
 cowardice 
 
 Rightly to appraise it as a literary achievement, 
 we must take into account that it was an original 
 The Bruce- venture in literature the first poetical 
 an original effort ^ s cot i an( i to break away from 
 
 venture in > 
 
 literature. ^he wonders of the old romances. 
 Like the greater Chaucer, Barbour had no poetic 
 predecessor worthy of the name. Though Chaucer 
 was his contemporary, he was in no way Chaucer's 
 disciple; and indeed The Bruce was written before 
 the bulk of Chaucer's best work. Barbour is virtually 
 the father of Scottish literature, just as Chaucer 
 is the father of English literature; but, of course, 
 he is far from being in the same plane of greatness 
 with Chaucer, who further was regarded as their master 
 by certain later Scottish poets. 
 
 Barbour's language is that current in the lowland 
 Scotland of his time, as well as in northern England.
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 47 
 
 As for the octo-syllabic couplet afterwards a favour- 
 ite measure of Scottish poets for chronicles and tales 
 we have no evidence regarding its 
 
 . , _ Harbour's 
 
 previous use in Scotland. It was com- language and 
 mon in French verse, and was used by 
 Mannyng, and also by Chaucer. Several examples 
 also exist hi earlier English poems; but in these 
 the rhythm is looser and more uneven than that 
 of Barbour, who, for his time, is a most correct, if not 
 remarkably musical, metrist. 
 
 The poem relates the thrilling tale of Bruce and 
 his comrades as champions of Scottish freedom : their 
 distresses, jeopardies, toils, hairbreadth The story of 
 escapes, subtle stratagems, heroic com- the poem ' 
 bats, until, from being a houseless wanderer in the 
 mountains of Galloway, Bruce becomes the victor of 
 Bannockburn, and the immutable sovereign of a 
 nation emancipated by his prowess. Necessarily, the 
 interest of the story culminates with Bannockburn ; 
 but though the narrative of the Irish and other wars 
 is poetically an anti-climax, no better close is con- 
 ceivable than the final incidents in Bruce's life: his 
 resolve that since he had been unable by reason of 
 his stern struggle for his crown and for Scottish 
 freedom to fulfil an early vow to embark in the 
 Crusades, his heart should be borne on ' goddis fayis ' 
 by that one whom his lords should deem most 
 worthy. That the Douglas should be chosen; that 
 the Douglas should die in the act of performing his 
 great leader's behest ; and that the bones of Douglas
 
 48 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 and the heart of Bruce, rescued from the Infidel, 
 should be brought back to mingle with the dust of 
 the fatherland, to whom both had rendered such 
 imperishable service, is also, we discern, a consumma- 
 tion uniquely blessed. Whether or not Barbour's 
 portrait of Bruce harmonises with actual fact in all 
 its details, matters, on the whole, comparatively 
 little. One who so strove and achieved, and nobly 
 vowed and finely bequeathed, was whatever the 
 inconsistencies of his earlier years one of the elect 
 among heroes. 
 
 For a Scottish poet there could be no more 
 
 excellent theme than Barbour's; and in intent and 
 
 purpose, at least, his treatment is not 
 
 Barbour's 
 
 treatment of inadequate. His tact is subtly perfect, 
 his tone and temper beyond all praise. 
 Naturally and inevitably he exaggerates the exploits 
 of Bruce and his fellow-champions ; but the exagger- 
 ation, though in some instances gross especially as 
 regards the numeration of their foes is on the whole 
 that of the artist, not that of the empty braggart or 
 foolish fanatic. Neither does he fall into the artistic 
 blunder of reviling or belittling the enemies of 
 Bruce. On the contrary, Sir Edward Caernarvon is 
 commended as one of the ' starkest ' men to be found 
 in ' any country ' ; Sir Aymer de Valence is described 
 as ' wyss and wycht/ and by virtue of his own nobility 
 and bravery, sincerely appreciative of the feats of 
 Bruce; Sir Ingram de Umfraville was, we are told, 
 renowned for his 'high prowess'; Sir Henry de
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 49 
 
 Bohun, the champion whom Bruce vanquished and 
 slew in sight of the two armies at Bannockburn, was 
 the ' worthy ' Sir Henry 
 
 4 That was ane gud knight and hardy ' ; 
 King Edward's host at Bannockburn, its ' multitude ' 
 and ' beauty,' is exhibited to us in all its formidable 
 magnificence; and the heroic death of Sir Giles de 
 Argentine who, when he saw King Edward preparing 
 for flight, bade him ' gud day,' and turning his bridle, 
 rode single-handed on the foe is recorded with 
 sympathetic sorrow: 'Of his ded was great pittye.' 
 King Edward had, of course, in Barbour's view, a 
 bad cause ; he fought for ' might ' only, Bruce and 
 the Scots for their lives, their children and wives, 
 and the freedom of their land ; but Englishmen and 
 Scots alike met foemen worthy of their steel, and 
 both with kindred ardour devoted themselves nobly 
 to ' do chivalry.' 
 
 But The Bruce is not a mere record of adventures 
 and combats : as a political master- 
 
 The Bruce' 
 
 piece it occupies an exceptional place apolitical 
 
 masterpiece, 
 
 in literature; and much of its effect is itsiofty 
 
 j 1 .1 f 11 ,. idealism. 
 
 gamed by the vein of noble sentiment 
 
 that animates it. The keynote is struck by the 
 
 famous eulogy of freedom, beginning : 
 
 4 A! fredome is a noble thing ! 
 
 Fredome ruayss man to haiff liking ; pleasure 
 
 Fredome all solace to man giffis, 
 He levys at ess that frely levys 1 
 A noble hart may haiff nane ess, 
 
 Na ellys nocht that may him pless, Nothing else 
 
 D
 
 50 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Gyff fredome failzhe ; for fre liking 
 Is zharnyt our all othir thing. 
 Na he, that ay hass levyt fre, 
 May nocht knaw weill the propyrte, 
 nor The angyr, na the wrechyt dome, 
 
 That is cowplit to foule thryldome.' 
 
 And the same lofty idealism pervades the whole 
 poem. Here, for example, is an excellent com- 
 mendation of loyalty : 
 
 Loyalty ' Leavte to luff is gretumly ; 
 
 Throuch leavte liffis meu rycht wisly ; 
 
 With a wertu of leavte 
 
 A man may zeit sufficyand be : 
 
 without And but leawte may nane haiff price, 
 
 strong Quhethir he be wycht or he be wyss ; 
 
 For quhar it failzeys, na wertu 
 
 May be off price, na off valu, 
 
 To niak a man sa gud, that he 
 
 May symply gud man callyt be.' 
 
 Then the efficacy of love is thus persuasively set 
 forth : 
 
 great ' For luff is off so mekill mycht 
 
 That it all paynys makes lycht ; 
 
 fellows And mony tyniis maiss tendir wychtis 
 
 such Of swilk strength and swilk mychtis, 
 
 many That thai may mekill paynys endure 
 
 And forsakis nane aventure.' 
 
 And apropos of love, here is a naively excellent 
 couplet on the service of women : 
 
 much ' In wemen mekill comfort lyis 
 
 way And gret solace in mony wiss.' 
 
 Again, the value of fearless decision is thus admirably 
 presented : 
 
 * For gude begynning and hardy, 
 If And it be followit vittily,
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 51 
 
 May ger oftsiss onlikely thing make oft. 
 
 Cum to right fair and just endying.' 
 
 And, to conclude these quotations, from a glowing 
 eulogy of 'vorschip' (i.e. valour), here is a most 
 happy definition of the thing itself: 
 
 ' For hardyment with foly is wice, yice 
 
 Bot hardyment, that mellit is mingled 
 
 With vit, is vorschip ay, per de : w j t . va i our 
 
 For but vit, vorschip may not be.' without 
 
 Thus though The Bruce is primarily a patriotic 
 epic, it at the same time presents us with a living 
 picture of chivalry more vivid, through chivairic spirit 
 its generous patriotism, than that of ^a^ufthe"'' 
 Froissart. It glows with the true P recursor of 
 
 Sir Walter 
 
 chivairic spirit of romance and adven- scott. 
 ture, not summoned, as in the case of most poets, 
 from the mere imaginative past, but inspired by sym- 
 pathetic regard for actual warriors, scarce a genera- 
 tion removed from that of the writer, and by the 
 very moral atmosphere of a time identical in senti- 
 ment with theirs. Thus it is that Barbour is the 
 main poetic progenitor of Sir Walter Scott. Scott 
 'kindled at his flame'; indeed, without Barbour's 
 flame to kindle at, he might never have written his 
 poetic romances, and he would certainly not have 
 written them as we now have them. He was content 
 to model himself in a great measure after the poet 
 of The Bruce; or, in other terms, Barbour is a prim- 
 aeval, a half-articulate Scott. Barbour's vocabulary 
 is somewhat stinted and monotonous, his artistic
 
 52 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 elaboration rude and incomplete, his intellectual 
 standpoint very primitive, but in outline, in embryo, 
 he has all the qualities of an artist intrinsically akin 
 to Scott; and as regards romantic poetic narrative, 
 he is, allowance being made for his so different 
 circumstances, not so greatly inferior to his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 The great merits of The Bruce are its absolute 
 clearness, its masterly selection of facts and details, 
 Literary merits its cunning regard for the picturesque, 
 of The Bruce.' 3^ ^ s graphic compression. Notwith- 
 standing his inevitable tendency to exaggerate the 
 exploits of the Scottish heroes, Barbour particularly 
 excels in the description of adventures and combats ; 
 and here especially Sir Walter wisely placed himself 
 under his tutelage, for Barbour was theoretically a 
 master in the art of war as practised by the ancients, 
 and had listened to the recital of knightly feats by 
 the tongues of famous warriors. 
 
 Here is part of a fight in which 'the King 
 Barbour as a slew the three men that swore his 
 
 depicter of j , i > 
 
 combats. death : 
 
 ' Thai abaid till that he was 
 
 Entryt in ane narow place, 
 
 hill Betuix a louchside and a bra ; 
 
 on each side That wes sa strait, ik wnderta, 
 
 That he mycht nocht weill turn his stede. 
 to ; went Then with a will till him thai gede ; 
 
 seized And ane him by the bridill hynt : 
 
 hta^ blow But he rat 10 * 11 til1 him sic a A Y D *'> 
 
 That arme and schuldyr flaw him fra. 
 
 take With that ane othir gan him ta
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 53 
 
 Be the lege, and his hand gan schute 
 
 Betuix the sterap and his fute : 
 
 And quhen the King felt thar his hand, 
 
 In sterapys stythly gan he stand, straight up 
 
 And strak with spuris the stede in by ; 
 
 And he lansyt furth delyuerly, 
 
 Swa that the tother failzeit fete ; 
 
 And nocht-for-thi his hand was zeit nevertheless 
 
 Wndyr the sterap, magre his.' 
 
 As to the sequel, it must suffice to state that 
 though the third combatant suddenly leapt on 
 Bruce's horse from behind, Bruce was equal to the 
 occasion, turning instantly round, dragging him 
 forward and killing him, and then sending the 
 reeking sword into the ' felon foe ' at his stirrup. 
 
 Wonderfully vivid are also the descriptions of the 
 various fights and stratagems of Bruce 
 
 ... . At the ford. 
 
 while pursued in the mountains by a 
 
 ' sleuth-hund,' especially his adventures during -a 
 
 moonlight night, when, watching alone, he heard 
 
 ' A hundis quhistlyng apon fer, 
 That ay com till him ner and ner,' to 
 
 which was followed by the 'haill rowt' of his foes, 
 whom he resolved to withstand at the pass of the 
 ford, where they could meet him only one by one ; 
 and, according to Barbour, he withstood them with 
 such success that : 
 
 ' In litill space he left lyand 
 
 Sa feill, that the vpcom wes then so many 
 
 Dittit with slayn hors and men ; closed up 
 
 Swa that his fayis, for that stopping, 
 Micht nocht cum to the vp-cummynw.'
 
 54 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 But of course the classic combat is that of Bruce 
 
 on his grey palfrey, 'littil and joly,' against the 
 
 Ensrlish champion De Bohun on his war- 
 
 Barbour as the 
 
 poet of Ban- steed 'the first strak of the ficht' at 
 
 nockburn. _, .. T -i -i i -11 
 
 Bannockburn. Indeed, the whole por- 
 trayal (Books XL and xn.) of the eventful Bannock- 
 burn is, after its own fashion, a masterpiece. It could 
 only have been accomplished after the most careful 
 investigation and the most patient pondering of 
 facts ; and the knowledge which clearly forms the 
 substratum of the description is so admirably 
 animated with patriotic prejudice, with ingenuous 
 admiration of every thought and act of Bruce as 
 the one heaven-born commander, and with an unerr- 
 ing sense of the dramatically appropriate whether 
 the incidents of the drama be invented or embel- 
 lished, or merely selected, as to be almost irresistible 
 in compelling sympathetic belief. The whole pano- 
 rama of incident from the time that King Edward 
 with his mighty host their burnished arms glancing 
 in the sun, so that ' all the felde ves in ane leyme,' 
 and their 'baneris richt freschly flawmand' took 
 his way from Berwick, until 
 
 boat ' That he with sevintene in a bat 
 
 way Wes fayne for to hald hame his gat,' 
 
 is set before us with full circumstantiality of detail, 
 enlivened with apt and frequent anecdote. We 
 realise the scenes with something of the vividness 
 of actual pageantry and battle; we are made to
 
 BARBOUR'S 'BRUCE' 55 
 
 share in the uncertainties and fears, the resolves and 
 hopes, and final triumph of the Scots ; so that in 
 truth Bannockburn, as described by Barbour, has 
 done more to perpetuate the sentiment of Scottish 
 nationality than even Bannockburn as fought and 
 won by Bruce. 
 
 But properly to appreciate Bannockburn as an 
 achievement of Barbour's hero, it is necessary to 
 know the 'nobill king' his hardihood, Harbour's P or- 
 audacity, hopefulness, courtesy, supreme traits- 
 wisdom in council, and unmatched prowess in arms 
 as portrayed with such adoring skill throughout 
 the whole poem. All Barbour's heroes are, in truth, 
 admirably drawn drawn, it is evident, from the life, 
 that is, from well-verified tradition, and with an 
 appreciation at once intelligent and sincere. Gene- 
 rally we have no formal portrait ; but here, in con- 
 clusion, is one of the Black Douglas : 
 
 ' He wes in all his dedis lele ; loyal 
 
 For him dedeynzeit nocht to dele he deigned 
 
 With trechery, na with falset. falsehood 
 
 His hart on hey honour wes set ; 
 
 And hym contenyt on sic maner, he demeaned 
 
 That all him luffyt that war him ner. 
 Bot he wes nocht sa fayr, that we 
 Suld spek gretly off his beaute : 
 
 In wysage wes he sumdeill gray, something 
 
 And had blak liar, as ic hard say ; 
 Bot off lymmys he wes weill maid, 
 With banys gret and schuldrys braid. 
 His body wes weyll maid and lenye, 
 As thai that saw him said to me. 
 Quhen he wes blyth, he wes lufly, 
 And meyk and sweyt in cumpany :
 
 56 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 But quha in battaill mycht him se 
 All othir contenance had he. 
 And in spek wlispit he sum deill ; 
 Bot that sat him rycht wonder weill.' 
 
 Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynalle Chronykil of 
 Scotland 1 is, like The Bruce of Barbour, the pro- 
 duct of the exulting sense of nationality 
 
 Wyntoun's 1,1 
 
 chronicle 1 inspired by the permanent triumph of 
 Robert the Bruce. It is indited to set 
 forth the glory and honour of Scotland as an inde- 
 pendent kingdom. But while the aim of Barbour 
 is to quicken the sentiment of patriotism by a 
 recital of the illustrious achievements of Scotland's 
 deliverer, Wyntoun's main purpose like that of his 
 contemporary Latin chronicler, Fordun is to justify 
 the claims of Scotland to an independent nation- 
 ality by an appeal to the authority of antiquity, 
 by a recital of the history of the Scottish nation from 
 the earliest dawn of tradition. 
 
 Of the author scarce anything is known beyond 
 
 what may be gathered from his own Chronicle. By 
 
 baptism, he tells us, he was Andrew of 
 
 Andrew of * . . 
 
 wyntoun Wyntoun, and this seems to imply that 
 
 (fl. c. 1395-1424). ' j 4. r jr-ir^i. 
 
 he was a cadet of a good family of that 
 name, of which several are mentioned in Scottish 
 documents of the period. Further, he mentions that 
 Sir John of the Wemyss, at whose instance he com- 
 piled his Chronicle, had his 'service in his ward'; 
 but he says nothing more of his obligations to the 
 
 1 Published, ed. Macpherson, 1795; in The Historians of Scotland 
 ser., ed. Laing, 1872-79 ; and by Scot. Text Soc., ed. Amours, 1903-4.
 
 WYNTOUN'S 'CHRONICLE' 57 
 
 laird of Wemyss. Originally a canon regular of St. 
 Andrews, Wyntoun was, by the grace and favour of 
 his fellow-canons, elected, some time before 1395, 
 prior of St. Serfs Inch in Lochleven, where with 
 much the same outlook of water, wood, and hill as 
 that which, blent with the gloomy memories of a 
 prison, was to become stamped on the brain of Mary 
 Stuart he continued to pass the uneventful days 
 of a scholar and recluse until probably his death. 
 This must have taken place not long after the con- 
 clusion of his Chronicle, between 1420 and 1424; for 
 in his prologue to the last book he refers to ' sudden 
 and fierce maladies' with which he was sorely troubled, 
 and which admonished to ' see for a conclusion,' for, 
 says he, with the conviction of pious humility 
 
 ' Wai I wate, on schorte delay Well I wot 
 
 At a court I mon appeire must 
 
 Fell accusationis thare till here.' Dire ; to 
 
 Like The Bruce, Wyntoun's Chronicle is written in 
 the octo-syllabic couplet, but it is in no proper sense 
 a poem. Even as a mere metrist.Wyn- 
 
 * Characteristics 
 
 toun is inferior to Barbour; nor is his ofthe'Chron- 
 narrative except by widely isolated fits 
 and starts warmed with anything of Barbour's 
 patriotic glow. Barely, except in reporting mytho- 
 logical marvels, does he show symptoms of enthu- 
 siasm ; and on the whole he keeps very much to the 
 commonplace conventional level of contemporary 
 chroniclers. No more than they had he any just 
 and sufficient conception of history as it was later
 
 58 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 understood. His aim is neither faithfully to picture 
 nor thoroughly to expound the past, although he 
 intermittently relieves the tedium of the narrative 
 by a certain anecdotical garrulosity. His most 
 marked want is that of individuality. Thus his 
 character-sketches are often very much a mere 
 summary of conventional virtues, and smack mainly 
 of the funereal eulogy. Here is how he panegyrises 
 Alexander in. : 
 
 ' He honryd God and Haly Kirk, 
 
 charitable And medful dedys he oyswd to wyrk. 
 
 To Till all prestys he dyd reverens 
 
 And sawffyd thare statys wyth diligens. 
 
 He was stedfast in crystyn fay ; 
 
 Relygyows men he honoryde ay. 
 
 He luivyd all men that war wertuows ; 
 
 He lathyd and chastyd all vytyows.' 
 
 And the perfections of Sir Andrew Moray are cata- 
 logued thus : 
 
 ' He wes a Lord of gret Bownte 
 Of sobyr lyf and of chastyte ; 
 Wyse and wertuows of cownsale ; 
 And of his gudis liberale. 
 He wes of gret Devotyown 
 In Prayeris and in Orysown ; 
 He wes of mekil Almows-dede ; 
 Stowt and hardy of manhede.' 
 
 The standpoint of Wyntoun is in fact essentially 
 that of a Churchman and recluse. The animating 
 wyntoun-s events of the past, the glorious achieve- 
 thattfa' nt ments of great warriors, the stir and 
 churchman, struggle of battle, have not for him quite 
 the same puissant charm that they possess for
 
 WYNTOUN'S 'CHRONICLE' 59 
 
 Barbour. Though he does not disdain to mention 
 jousting tournaments everything is fish that comes 
 to his net chivalry was not for him, as for Barbour, 
 a name to conjure with. In his antipathy to the 
 English he is therefore something more virulent. 
 While Barbour expresses mild astonishment that 
 King Edward, who had so little mercy on captured 
 Scots, could 'trastly' ask mercy of God, Wyntoun 
 does not scruple to give his decisive ghostly verdict 
 against Edward's salvation : 
 
 ' The sawlys that he gert to slay down thare made 
 
 He sent quhare his sawle nevyrmare 
 Wes lyk to come, that is the blys 
 Quhare alkyn joy ay lestand is.' evef y 
 
 And he thus roundly asserts the starkly unprincipled 
 conduct of the English in regard to their most 
 solemn obligations : 
 
 ' It is of Inglis natioune 
 
 The commone kend conditioune known 
 
 Of Trewis the wertu to forget, Truces 
 
 And rekles of gud Faith to be. 
 Quhare thai can thare Avautage se 
 Thare may na Band be maid sa ferm 
 Than thai can mak thare Will thare term.' 
 
 Wyntoun entitles his Chronicle ' orygynall ' because, 
 as he himself explains, it begins at the beginning, 
 namely, with man s creation, and with a 
 
 J Subject and 
 
 history of man as an inhabitant of the sources of the 
 
 ... . -i < -. 'Chronicle.' 
 
 world in general, or so much of it as was 
 
 known to Wyntoun. In the adoption of such a 
 
 pedantic comprehensiveness, he and other chroniclers
 
 60 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 were, it may be, partly influenced by scriptural 
 example, but no doubt it was also Wyntoun's aim to 
 emphasise the dignity of the Scottish nation as 
 possessing annals which were interwoven with the 
 world's history. After a general outline of the more 
 wondrous events of the half-mythical ages, Scotland 
 is seen gradually emerging from the obscurity of the 
 past; but not till the reign of King Ewan in 724 
 commencing with the sixth book of the Chronicle 
 is its history related with much detail. For all 
 his events Wyntoun is careful, so far as possible, to 
 give the year; and while well acquainted with the 
 standard authorities on ecclesiastical and European 
 history, he had clearly access to various Scottish 
 monastic records which are now destroyed. Several 
 portions of a Latin chronicle were also utilised ; and 
 he further incorporated a Scottish chronicle, written, 
 like his own, in octo-syllabic metre, and embracing 
 the years from the birth of David n. to the death 
 of Robert n. Besides this he took the liberty of 
 borrowing some 300 lines of Barbour's Bruce, bring- 
 ing events down to the time when Bruce slew the 
 Comyn; but for the remainder of Bruce's career he 
 modestly refers the reader to Barbour, who, he 
 says, 
 
 made ' In Brws hys Bwk has gert be sene 
 
 Mare wysely tretyd into wryt 
 Than I can thynk with all my wyt.' 
 
 It is clear that Wyntoun was, according to his 
 lights, a conscientious and painstaking chronicler;
 
 WYNTOUN'S 'CHRONICLE' 61 
 
 and even the credulity which he shares with other 
 writers of his time gives a certain piquant flavour 
 to much that is otherwise tedious, and 
 
 Wyntoun's 
 
 increases rather than not the historic credulity the 
 
 , , . . ,. . . Sheepstealer. 
 
 value of his rhymes, for it at least sup- 
 plies us with interesting outlines of superstitious 
 belief. Who, for example, would wish to lose his 
 version of the wondrous story of the Sheepstealer, 
 and the striking exposure of his prevarication by the 
 dead beast itself? The thief, it would appear, had 
 already devoured it, or the most part of it, and with 
 portions of its members in the process of digestion 
 was so brazenly bold as, when summoned before 
 St. Serf, to deny the theft, whereupon 
 
 ' The schape thare bletyd in hys Wame. Belij 
 
 Swa wes he taynted schamfully 
 And at Saynt Serf askyd mercy.' 
 
 Then we have the great theological tilt between 
 St. Serf and the Devil, recorded with the delicate 
 appraisement of metaphysical niceties st. serf and 
 which stamps the scholastic connoisseur. the Devil> 
 Wyntoun had also, it is plain, a special pride in 
 recording this august encounter, from the fact 
 that it took place on the very ' Inch ' where he was 
 penning his Chronicle. So mortified, he vauntingly 
 narrates, was the arch-enemy by the superior 
 astuteness of the Saint, that in disgust he suddenly 
 vanished, 
 
 ' And nevyr wes sen thare till this day.'
 
 62 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Akin to this we have an elaborate version of Pope 
 
 Sylvester's infatuated treaty with the Devil, whose 
 
 spiritual dominion he finally eluded by 
 
 Pope Sylvester. . 
 
 delivering up to him, one by one, his 
 fleshly members. 
 
 But the most interesting of all the traditions is the 
 original version of the interview between Macbeth 
 The weird an( ^ t^e we i r d sisters, which, as embel- 
 sisters. lished by Boece, forms the basis of 
 
 Shakespeare's great tragedy : 
 
 ' A nycht he thowcht in hys dreming 
 That sittand he was besyd the King 
 At a sete in hwntyng, swa 
 In-till a leysh had grewhundys twa. 
 He thowcht quhile he was swa sittand 
 going 1 He sawe thre wemen by gangand, 
 
 those And thai wemen than thowcht he 
 
 Thre werd systrys mast lyk to be. 
 The fyrst he hard say gangand by, 
 
 Cromwrty " Lo yhondyr the Thayne off Crwombawchty " ! 
 
 The tothir woman sayd agayne, 
 " Off Morave yhondyre I se the Thayne." 
 The thryd than sayd, " I se the Kyng." 
 All this he herd in his dreniyng. 
 Sone efftyre that in his yhowthad 
 Off thyr thayndomys he Thayne was made ; 
 Syne neyst he thowcht to be Kyng 
 Fra Duncanys dayis had tane endyng.' 
 
 Historically the most valuable part of the Chronicle 
 is that from the death of Bruce ; and for these eighty 
 or ninety years it is the most important and trust- 
 worthy record we possess. 
 
 Although The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and
 
 BLIND HAKRY 63 
 
 Vallzeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, by 
 Henry the Minstrel, 1 belongs to a considerably later 
 date than Barbour's Bruce, or Wyntoun's Blind Harry , 8 
 Chronicle, its historic theme suggests the ' Walla .' 
 propriety of dealing with it in the present chapter. 
 
 According to the historian John Major, Henry the 
 Minstrel, who was blind, Major says, from his birth, 
 composed the whole book of William Blind Harry, 
 Wallace during Major's infancy, that is, MirSeT^c. 
 between 1470 and 1480. In the Lord HSO-MQ* 
 High Treasurer's Accounts there are several entries 
 of small sums paid to ' Blin Hary ' for recitations 
 given before James iv., the last entry being in 1492 ; 
 and it is almost certain that he died in that or the 
 following year, for in Dunbar's Lament for the 
 Makaris his name precedes that of Patrick John- 
 stoun, who died not long after 12th June 1494. In his 
 catalogue of the deceased 'Makaris,' Dunbar does 
 not adhere to chronology with absolute strictness in 
 every case, but he seems to profess an adherence to 
 it in the stanza in which Blind Harry and Patrick 
 Johnstoun are introduced, and apparently means to 
 affirm that the ' schot of mortal haill ' reached John- 
 stoun after it had struck Blind Harry and Sandy 
 Trail! 
 
 1 MS. in the Advocates' Library, written in 1488 by John Ramsay ; 
 printed about 1508 (but only fragments of a copy of this edition 
 exist), 1570 (copy in the British Museum), 1594, and at different 
 periods down to 1790 ; edited from the original MS. by Dr. 
 Jamieson, 1820, and by Mr. James Moir for the Scottish Text 
 Society, 1884-89.
 
 64 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Both Blind Harry and his poem are something of 
 a conundrum. Harry was professionally a minstrel, 
 Major on and his chief theme seems to have been 
 Wallace; for Major informs us that by 
 
 and Blind fa Q rec itation of his book on Wallace 
 
 Harry on him- 
 
 self. coram principis (i.e. in the halls of the 
 
 nobles or gentry) he deservedly obtained food and 
 raiment. Of himself Blind Harry says: 'It is well 
 known I am a bureP (i.e. boorish, or unlearned) ' man '; 
 he also describes his poem as ' but a rurall ' (i.e. rude 
 or unpolished) ' dytt ' ; and he further thus apostro- 
 phises it : 
 
 ' Go nobill buk, fulfillyt off gud sentens, 
 
 Suppose thow be baran off eloquens ; 
 true exploits Go worthie buk fullfillyt off suthfast dede, 
 
 But in language off help thou has gret ned.' * 
 
 This, it may be said, is but the conventional pose 
 of graceful modesty; and in a modern writer it 
 Harry as might even be accepted as symptomatic 
 
 Chaucerian. Q ^ mo( J es ty w hich j g fa Q bloSSOm 
 
 of culture. Moreover, the merits of the poem are 
 not quite those of the modern rustic bard ; and in 
 his own time Harry may be ranked next to Henry- 
 son. As a mere metrical achievement the poem is 
 a great advance on Barbour's Bruce; and although 
 Harry is not usually classed as a Chaucerian, there 
 can be no doubt that he shared, directly or indi- 
 
 1 In this envoy Blind Harry was doubtless inspired either by 
 Chaucer (Troilus and Criseyde), Lydgate (Temple of Olae), or 
 James I. (The Kingis Quair). It most closely resembles the last : 
 ' Go litill tretise, nakit of eloquence 
 Causing simplese and pouertee to wit.'
 
 BLIND HAEEY 65 
 
 rectly, in the Chaucerian influence. It is significant, 
 not merely that for the bulk of his poem he chose 
 the heroic couplet possibly the earliest extant ex- 
 ample of its use in Scotland, but that in the two 
 instances in which he varied his metre he made 
 choice of Chaucerian staves, introducing in Book n. 
 170-354 a nine-line stanza, aab, aab, abb (occasionally 
 bab), identical with that of Chaucer's Compleynte of 
 Faire Anelida wpon False Arcyte and with Dunbar's 
 Ooldyn Targe, and at the beginning of Book vi. the 
 ballat royal or French octave of three rhymes 
 ab, ab, be, be in its five accented form. Of course 
 Harry may have got these metres from another than 
 Chaucer, and indeed the ballat royal was in common 
 use in England from the fourteenth century, 1 but 
 Chaucer, we know, wrote to be publicly 'red/ or 
 ' elles songe,' and it is not improbable that he wras 
 recited, if not by Harry, at least in Harry's hearing. 
 Anyhow, Harry employs the ballat royal in such a 
 manner as to show that he had an admirable percep- 
 tion of its proper poetic function. Here, for example, 
 are two stanzas forming part of a nobly pathetic strain, 
 not unworthy of either Henryson or Dunbar: 
 
 ' Now leiff thi myrth, now leiff thi haill plesance ; whole 
 
 Now leiff thi bliss, now leiff thi childis age ; 
 Now leiff thi zouth, now folow thi hard chance ; 
 
 Now leiff thi lust, now leiff thi mariage ; 
 
 Now leiff thi luff, for thow sail loss a gage 
 Quhilk neuir in erd sail be redemyt agayne, WhicL ; erth 
 
 Folow fortoun, and all hir fers owtrage ; 
 Go leiff in wer, go leiff in eruell payne. 
 
 1 Wright's Political Poems, passim. 
 
 E
 
 66 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 frail Fy on fortoun, fy on thi frewall quheyll ; l 
 
 Fy on thi traist, for her it has no lest ; 
 Thow transfigowryt Wallace out off his weill 
 V) Quhen he traistyt for till haiff lestyt best ; 
 
 Here His plesance her till him was bot a gest 
 
 no constancy Throw thi fers cours, that has na hap to ho ; 
 
 pleasant Him thow ourthrew out off his likand rest, 
 
 into Fra gret plesance, in wer, trawaill, and wo.' 
 
 Harry's classical allusions, astronomical lore, and 
 use of French words and phrases have 
 
 The argument " 
 
 for Harry's also been adduced as proof that ' he was 
 by no means an unlearned man.' Further, 
 since he affirms that he composed his poem 
 
 ' Eftir the pruiff geyffin fra the Latin buk 
 Which Quilk master Blayr in his tym vndertuk,' 
 
 it has been supposed that he had Latin sufficient to 
 enable him to paraphrase a Latin Life of Wallace, 
 now unknown, written by a person, now equally 
 occult a certain John Blair, whom Harry declares 
 to have been Wallace's chaplain. Moreover, the 
 composition of so long, so complicated, and, after its 
 own fashion, so meritorious a poem, has been pro- 
 nounced beyond the powers of one born blind ; for in 
 the days of Harry the blind were not taught the art 
 of reading, which forms the basis of education. 
 
 But notwithstanding this accumulative array of 
 Harry most specious argument, the hypothesis that 
 biTmfand best fits the whole circumstances of the 
 unlearned. case j g t kat Harry otherwise nameless 
 except as 'Blind' was, as Major states, blind from 
 
 1 The wheel of Fortune is frequently alluded to by Chaucer, and 
 is elaborately depicted in The Kingis Quair,
 
 BLIND HAEEY 67 
 
 his birth, and, as he himself records, a 'burel' or 
 unlearned man. Of course, he neither could have 
 been blind nor unlearned if he did himself read or 
 translate Blair's Latin Life of Wallace. But so far 
 from affirming that he had either seen or read the 
 aforesaid book, Harry does not even affirm that it 
 then existed ; and if he does not actually imply that 
 it no longer existed, he refrains from stating where, 
 or from whom, he had access to it. Further, nothing 
 whatever is now known of this Latin Life ; for the 
 so-called Relationes Arnoldi Blair, even if authentic 
 and the original of the Scotichronicon account of 
 Wallace, instead of being derived from it, supply but 
 the slightest materials for an account of Wallace. 
 Nor was the existence of Blair's book known to 
 Major, who gives only partial credit to Harry's stories ; 
 nor to Wyntoun, who wrote of Wallace : 
 
 ' Off his gud dedis and manhead 
 Gret gestis I hard say are made, 
 But sa mony, I trow nocht not 
 
 As he intill his dayis wrocht ' ; during his 
 
 lifetime 
 
 nor, in fact, to any writer except Harry previous to 
 the inventions Dempster (1627), who, further, does 
 not scruple to assign to Blair an admirably selected 
 companion volume, De Tyrannide. The truth, there- 
 fore, seems to be that Harry's main sources were the 
 'gestis 1 mentioned by Wyntoun; nor is it at all 
 unlikely that the mythical Latin Life was the inven- 
 tion of one of those earlier bards. 
 
 But if Harry knew not Latin, whence, it may be
 
 68 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 asked, those classical allusions of his ? To this the 
 sufficient reply is that there are allusions and allu- 
 sions, and that those of Harry are in 
 
 Harry's edu- . * 
 
 cation as no degree identical m kind with those of 
 Barbour, or Wyntoun, or other learned 
 writers, but merely the common counters of the 
 romancists. Nor as a symptom of education is more 
 stress to be laid on his employment of French terms 
 not now in use in Scotland, for, as we have already 
 seen, the Scottish vernacular, even in its spoken form, 
 has now lost many French words and idioms which 
 at one time had been almost woven into the language ; 
 and besides, Harry, while frequenting courts and 
 castles, had many opportunities of picking up French 
 phrases. The truth is, that though uneducated, as 
 we now understand the term, Harry, as a professional 
 minstrel, must have undergone a special literary 
 training. We must disabuse our minds of precon- 
 ceptions of education as solely derivable from books ; 
 for Harry and his brother minstrels and reciters were 
 to their generation very much what the printed 
 book is to ours. Born blind, Harry, in all likelihood, 
 was dedicated to the office of minstrel from boyhood, 
 and instructed for it by accomplished minstrels. 
 Like other minstrels, he would presumably learn by 
 heart much of the traditional and current poetry 
 of his day; for originally poetry was composed 
 solely for recital, nor did the art of writing ever 
 become so complete a substitute for recital as the art 
 of printing.
 
 BLIND HARKY 69 
 
 But, of course, being but a minstrel, Harry has the 
 special defects of the minstrel's qualities. Compare 
 the Wallace, for example, with Barbour's Ha rr y only a 
 Bruce or Henryson's Fables, and the Minstrel - 
 general inferiority of calibre proclaims Harry to have 
 been but a ' burel ' man. An accomplished minstrel, 
 it is true though representing minstrelsy in its 
 decadence, minstrelsy divorced from chivalry, and 
 saturated with various poetic influences and tradi- 
 tions; also, it is clear, of robust personality, and 
 animated with much rough poetic ardour, but devoid 
 of true intellectual discipline as of consistent moral 
 dignity; wofully, if not wilfully, heedless of patent 
 historic facts; childishly credulous, and combining 
 with a certain rugged pathos a braggardism that is 
 frankly, and even fervently, brutal. 
 
 The Wallace of Blind Harry is, in truth, the mere 
 hero of a pantomime. Witness, for example, his 
 really burlesque encounter with Percy Harry's hero, 
 and his horsemen at the Water of Irvine, Wallace - 
 when he was engaged in fishing, and had no other 
 weapon at hand than the pole of a drag-net. On one 
 of the horsemen approaching him with drawn sword, 
 to compel him to give up his fish, 
 
 ' Willzham was wa he had na wappynis thar 80rr y 
 
 Bot the poutstaff, the quhilk iij hand he bar. netpole ; 
 
 Wallas with it fast on the cheik him tuk which 
 
 Wyth so gud will, quhill of his feit he schuk. until 
 
 The suerd flaw fra him a fur breid on the land. breadth 
 
 Wallas was glaid, and hynt it sone in hand ; took 
 And with the suerd awkwart he him gawe 
 
 Wndyr the hat, his crage in sondre drawe. neck
 
 70 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 By ; tka Be that the laytf lychty t about Wallas ; 
 
 other8 He had no helpe, only hot Goddis grace. 
 
 On athir side full fast on him thai dange ; 
 if Gret perell was giflf thai had lestyt lang. 
 
 Apone the hede in gret ire he strak ane ; 
 
 The sherand suerd glaid to the colar bane. 
 
 Ane ither on the arme he hitt so hardely 
 
 That ; both Quhill hand and suerd bathe on the feld can ly. 
 
 other The tither twa fled to thar hors agayne ; 
 
 He stekit him was last apon the playne. 
 
 Thre slew he thar, two fled with all thair mycht 
 
 Efter thar lord, bot he was out off sicht.' 
 
 And this is but a very mild sample of the hero's 
 1 acts of prowess eminent.' As Harry says of him 
 
 ' It was his lyff, and most part of his fude, 
 To se thaim sched the byrnand southrone blude.' 
 
 Or at least it was the ' lyff ' and ' maist part of the 
 fude' of Harry so to depict him; for the poem is 
 really a mirror of Harry's Scottish audience, of Scot- 
 land after the age of chivalry had gone, and now for 
 generations at bitter feud with England. 
 
 Of course, poetic justice, and even probability, 
 
 demanded that such a resistless champion should, 
 
 Wallace's whatever his final fate, taste, at least 
 
 march C on once, the crownuig triumph of bringing 
 
 London. Edward and England to their knees. 
 
 Harry, therefore, presented his hearers with the 
 
 mythical march on London a twin conception to 
 
 that which must have haunted the brain of Prince 
 
 Charlie on the eve of his famous fiasco when 'in 
 
 awful fer' Wallace and his wild host travelled 
 
 ' throuch the land ' of the Southron. The Commons
 
 BLIND HAKKY'S 'WALLACE 1 71 
 
 of England urged their mesmerised monarch to make 
 some effort against the resistless Scots, but, asseverates 
 the unblushing Harry, 
 
 ' Awfull Eduuard durst nocht Wallace abid 
 In playn battaill for all England so wid.' 
 
 The recreant English king erstwhile Malleus Scoto- 
 rwm, having thus in trembling terror retired within 
 the battlements of the Tower, Wallace, The terror of 
 shortly before reaching St. Albans, des- Edward - 
 patched a message to the effect that unless overtures 
 of peace were immediately preferred he would assail 
 him ' at Londonis zettis.' Naturally such a menace 
 greatly perturbed the ' awfull Eduuard ' : 
 
 ' With gret wness apon his feit he stud, difficulty 
 
 Wepand for wo for his der tendyr blud ' ; 
 
 and at last he did accept the advice of his council ' to 
 take pees in tyme.' 
 But a new difficulty arose : 
 
 ' Na man was thar that durst to Wallace wend,' The Queen 
 
 sent as 
 
 for the mere sight of an Englishman ambassador 
 
 . , . __,,.,, to Wallace. 
 
 ' moyis him ay to wer. But, happily, the 
 
 queen herself was already, so says Harry, a little 
 
 enamoured of the conqueror 
 
 ' For the gret woice off his hie nobilnes ' ; fc me 
 
 and having, therefore, a laudable curiosity to behold 
 the wondrous hero, she volunteered to be the 
 messenger. All the lords at once seconded her 
 proposal; and to stay the wrath of this terrible
 
 72 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Achilles, the king had nothing for it but ' with 
 awkward will ' to give his consent. 
 
 One beautiful summer morning, therefore, when 
 Wallace and two knightly attendants were sauntering 
 near St. Albans ' atour the feyldis green,' they saw 
 Wallace and coming riding soberly from the south 
 the Queen. ^^ ^^ fa&n the Queen of England 
 with a great train of ladies and old priests, who 
 when they reached Wallace's pavilion, conspicuous 
 by the effigy of the Scottish lion, 
 
 then * To ground thai lycht, and syne on kneis can faw, 
 
 Prayand for pece thai cry with petous cher.' 
 
 Wallace received the distressful queen with gracious 
 courtesy : 
 
 ' Quhen scho him saw, scho wald haiff knelyt doune ; 
 In armys sone he caucht this queyn with croun, 
 And kyssyt hyr withoutyn wordis mor ; 
 Sa dyd he neuir to na sotheron befor.' 
 
 But, of course, the incorruptible patriot was proof 
 against her promises, her prayers, her bribes, 
 
 (' Thre thousand pound, off fynest gold so red, 
 that 6 ur 0r se ^ c ^ gert te trocllt to Wallace in that sted. 
 
 " Madam," he said, " na sic tribut we craiff ; 
 Anothir mendis we wald off England haiff"') ; 
 
 and even her soft confessions of love : 
 
 reputed ' " Wallace," scho said, " yhe war clepyt my luff : 
 
 Mor baundounly I maid me for to pruff ; 
 Traistand tharfor your rancour for to slak ; 
 Methink ye suld do sum thing for my saik." ' 
 
 Though much flattered, he warily and wisely declined
 
 BLIND HAREY 73 
 
 to enter into political understandings merely with 
 ladies : he would treat only with the King : 
 
 ' All the hail pass apon himselff he sal tak 
 Off pees or wer quhat hapnyt we to mak.' 
 
 All, therefore, that was left for the queen was, on her 
 return, to advise the king and his lords 
 
 ' To purches pees, with outyn wordis mar : 
 For all Ingland may rew his raid full sayr.' 
 
 And Edward had nothing for it but to agree to the 
 terms dictated by Wallace to give up Roxburgh, 
 Berwick, and other castles, and to renounce his claims 
 to a Scottish overlordship. 
 
 For much of the preposterousness of Harry's stories 
 especially his amazing accounts of combats his 
 blindness must be held responsible. He , 
 
 Defects of the 
 
 could not recognise the sheer impossibility poem due 
 
 t *u- 1 i.' Partly to 
 
 of many of his glosses or inventions, borne Harry's blind- 
 have indeed argued, from what is termed 
 his ' feeling for nature,' that he must at one time have 
 possessed the faculty of sight. But this ' feeling ' is 
 shown merely in his references to the influences of 
 the seasons, and to the charms of a spring or summer 
 morning influences and charms to which the blind 
 are specially susceptible ; and indeed the very general 
 character of his recorded impressions of nature is 
 almost proof positive that he was born blind. His 
 descriptions of Wallace's wanderings display, for 
 example, no more detailed topographical knowledge 
 than is contained in a mere map of names. 
 
 whole bust 
 ness
 
 74 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Yet gross travesty of the truth though Wallace be, 
 it no doubt embalms a considerable modicum of fact. 
 The Wallace It even records important facts such as 
 2e H w3urf the visit of Wallace to France not to 
 fact - be found in Wyntoun or Bower. The 
 
 original ' gestis,' on which the poem is partly founded, 
 must have had their foundation in actual occur- 
 rences, however much these occurrences may have 
 been embellished, or even transformed, by successive 
 minstrels; and although to 'tickle the ears of the 
 groundlings' was ever Harry's main aim, we may 
 nevertheless be certain that the leading features of 
 so great a personality as Wallace would so far as 
 . the common crowd could understand it be pre- 
 served under all the external accumulation of fable. 
 Nor, allowance being made for national partialities 
 and prejudices, does Wallace, as portrayed by Harry, 
 differ essentially from the robber chief, the freebooter, 
 the murderer, the malicious incendiary, of the English 
 chroniclers. Clearly a hero who even when there 
 was no war with England was only too pleased to 
 take an Englishman at a disadvantage and assassinate 
 him, and who, when closely pursued by sleuth-hounds, 
 did not scruple to slay his companion, of whose fidelity 
 he was nothing more than doubtful, and did so with 
 probably, as Harry more than hints, a view of pro- 
 viding something that would prove a 'great stoppage' 
 of the hounds, clearly such a hero was not possessed 
 of a specially scrupulous sense of honour, and may 
 very well have been the ' le Wallas ' who in his youth
 
 BLIND HARRY 75 
 
 was guilty at Perth of robbing a widow of her ale. 
 It is, in fact, more probable than not that Wallace 
 was a warrior very much after the type of Rob Roy : 
 that his audacity, his skill in arms, and his other 
 great qualities as a leader were perfected in the 
 course of his experiences as a freebooter. But this 
 augments rather than diminishes the greatness and 
 glory of his actual achievements. The bare, un- 
 disputed facts of his marvellous career his rise 
 from obscurity into unrivalled eminence, even when 
 feudalism was at its strongest, as the marshaller of 
 the nation against the might of England, and the 
 stand he made in the name of the people as the 
 champion of the country's freedom, when king and 
 nobles were succumbing to Edward's diplomacy 
 sufficiently attest not merely his political insight, and 
 his ability and prowess in war, but the stupendous 
 power of his personality.
 
 IV 
 
 THE SCOTTISH FABLIAU AND THE 
 DECAY OF ROMANCE 
 
 'ANE BALLAT OF THE NINE NOBLES' ' RAUF COILZEAR* 
 
 ' COLKELBIE'S sow' 'KING BERDOK' 'THE 
 
 GYRE-CARLING ' ' LORD FERGUS'S GHOST.' 
 
 THE great crucial struggle of Scotland with the 
 Edwards, which issued in its triumph over the 
 The Nine gigantic efforts of England to effect its 
 Nobles. 1 conquest, naturally tended to lessen the 
 
 interest of the people in the half-mythical stories of 
 the old romances. For the fables of the romancists 
 Barbour sought to substitute ' suthfast ' stories about 
 Scotland's own heroes ; and ' gret gestis ' of the deeds 
 of Wallace were, as we have seen, current among the 
 people long before Blind Harry began, in that hero's 
 behalf, to make the round of the Scottish castles. A 
 curious example of the preference of the Scots for 
 their own heroes to the old traditional ones is found 
 in. Ane Ballat of the Nine Nobles. 1 The ballad, after 
 devoting a stanza to each of the nine heroes of 
 
 1 Printed in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 (second ed. 1885), from a 
 MS. copy at the conclusion of a MS. copy of Fordun's Chronicle in 
 the University Library, Edinburgh. 
 76
 
 'RAUF COILZEAR 1 77 
 
 antiquity Hector, Alexander, Csesar, Joshua, David, 
 Maccabeus, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey 
 concludes thus : 
 
 ' Robert the Brois throu hard feichtyng, 
 
 With few venkust the mychthy Kyng vanquished 
 
 Off Ingland, Edward twyse in fycht, 
 
 At occupyit his realme but rycht ; Who ; with- 
 
 At sumtyme wes set so hard 
 
 At hat nocht sax till hym toward ; 8 I* on his 
 
 Ze gude men that ther balletis redis these 
 
 Deme quha dochtyast was in dedis.' Decide 
 
 Thus although the fourteenth century saw the 
 completion of several important tales of romance, 
 for the bulk of the nation the old The Humor, 
 romance poetry was losing its charm ; ous Tale - 
 and before the influence of Chaucer had reached 
 Scotland, the mirthful or humorous tale began to 
 obtain that special place in Scottish vernacular poetry 
 which it has never ceased to hold. 
 
 That the Taill of Eauf Coilzear, how he harbreit 
 King Charles, 1 is, like the famed Sir Thopas of 
 Chaucer, intended as a direct caricature . R au fcoiizear,' 
 of minstrels or romances, is not quite alcint the 
 
 * romantic 
 
 evident; for the old legends concerning baiiad. 
 Charlemagne are not here burlesqued as they were 
 by Ariosto and other Italian poets, the marvellous 
 being merely superseded by the humorous. But the 
 
 1 Published at St. Andrews in 1572 (copy, the only one known, 
 in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) ; republished in Laing's 
 Select Remains of Ancient Popular and Romance Poetry, 1822 
 (second ed. 1885); for the English Text Society, ed. Herrtage, 1882; 
 by Tonndorf, Berlin, 1894 ; and for the Scottish Text Society, in 
 Scottish Alliterative Poems, ed. Amours, 1894-97.
 
 78 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 very introduction of such a plain personage as a 
 collier or charcoal merchant, with his panniers, is 
 inconsistent with the dignity of the old romances. 
 Properly, the poem is akin rather to the romantic 
 ballad than the romance proper ; and a similar theme 
 figures in many later English and Scottish ballads, 
 as King Alfred and the Shepherd, Edward IV. and 
 the Tanner, King James I. and the Tinker, Henry 
 VIII. and the Cobbler, etc. There is also a nearly 
 contemporary English ballad, John the Reve, 1 which 
 long enjoyed in Scotland a rival popularity with 
 Rauf. Both are bracketed together by Dunbar and 
 Douglas. Contrasting the rewards which those 
 worthies received from their respective monarchs 
 with his own neglect by James iv., Dunbar, in Schir 
 Remember, refers to 
 
 ' Gentle and semple of every clan, 
 Kin Keyne of Rauf Colzear and John the Reif.' 
 
 Douglas gives the two knights a place cheek by jowl 
 in his Police of Honour : 
 
 * I saw Rauf Colzear with his thrawin brow 
 Crabit John the Reif and auld Cowkellpis sow.' 
 
 But the growth of the romance ballad marked the 
 decline of the old metrical romances. Further, the 
 A parody of author of Rauf uses a stave specially 
 romances, and associated with the serious romances, 
 
 a Norman tale an( j fa Q mere utilisation of it for the 
 with a Scot- 
 tish setting, purposes of mirth or humour inevitably 
 
 suggests burlesque. Some have indeed surmised, 
 
 1 Percy folio MS., printed by the Ballad Society, ed. Furnivall, 
 1867-68.
 
 EAUF COILZEAK' 79 
 
 from the fact that Rauf begins after a similar fashion 
 to The Awntyrs of Arthur (p. 37), and is in the same 
 stave, that it also may have been written by Huch- 
 own, but it is unlikely that Huchown would seek to 
 parody himself. Besides slightly parodying The 
 Awntyrs, Rauf is probably derived from some old 
 Norman tale. In any case, the poet has really given 
 it a Scottish setting. Though the scene is laid in 
 France, the muir is a Scottish muir ; the snowstorm is 
 a right Scottish snowstorm ; the collier is an honest, 
 but rude, dour, unmannered Scot ; and the humour 
 of the vividly dramatic scenes is Scottish to the core. 
 One day, while journeying to Paris, Charlemagne, 
 through the oncome of a snowstorm, got The King 
 
 meets the 
 
 separated from his tram. comer. 
 
 ' The wind blew out of the Eist, stiflie and stoure, 
 The deip l durandlie draif in mony deip dell ' ; continuous 
 
 drift 
 
 he lost his way, and when almost in despair, he, ' on 
 the wild muir in blinding storm,' 
 
 cheerful fel- 
 ' Sa come thair ane cant carll chachand the gait low ; trudg- 
 
 With ane capill and twa creillis cuplit abufe.' horse ^pan- 
 
 niers 
 On the king asking the ' cant carll ' to bring him 
 
 to ' sum herbery/ the collier told him there was none 
 in the neighbourhood, but made him welcome to his 
 own dwelling ' amang the fellis hie.' As the king 
 was clad in travelling attire, the collier, taking 
 
 1 It has been supposed that ' deip ' is a misprint for some word 
 meaning drift or snow. Drift is not, however, an old Scots word, 
 and it is at least possible that ' draif ' may here mean drift that 
 which is driven.
 
 80 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 him for a common wayfarer if not a highwayman 
 treated him with the familiarity of an equal, 
 modified at first by wary suspicion. On arriving at 
 the door, after stabling their horses, the collier 
 motioned to him to enter first ; and when the king 
 ceremoniously insisted that the collier should precede 
 him, the collier, unversed in the punctilios of polite- 
 ness, and not quite easy in his mind as to the 
 stranger's purpose, took him by the cuff of the neck 
 and shoved him forward, saying 
 
 if; ready ' Gif thow at bidding suld be boun or obeysand, 
 
 knew And gif thow of courtasie couth, thow hes forzet it clene.' 
 
 The collier, in fact, claimed sovereignty in his own 
 house, and unhesitating compliance with the slightest 
 indication of his wishes : 
 
 Since else; < g en e \]^ 3 thow art vnknawin 
 
 ignorant how 
 
 To mak me Lord 01 my awm, 
 
 angry Sa mot I thriue I am thrawin, 
 
 quarrel Begin we to threip.' 
 
 But the king was insufficiently heedful of this 
 
 plain warning. When, therefore, on supper being 
 
 supper is ready, the collier invited him to take his 
 
 served. w jf e by the hand and sit down at the 
 
 board, he again politely suggested that the collier 
 
 should first take his seat. This second exhibition 
 
 of gross ill manners was too much for the choleric 
 
 collier : 
 
 without ' He let gyrd to the King, withoutin ony mair, 
 
 more ado ^ Q( j ^ ^ m un( j er the eir with his richt hand.
 
 'KAIJF COILZEAR' 81 
 
 Quhill he stakkerit thair with all, Until 
 
 Half the breid of the hall. breadth 
 He faind neuer of ane fall 
 
 QuhiU he the eird fand.' JJ*^ 
 
 On the king recovering himself, the collier called 
 on his wife to take the guest by the hand and lead 
 him to the board. The king submitted in silence, 
 whereupon his host thus admonished him : 
 
 ' " Schir, thow art vnskillfull, and that sail I warrand, 
 Thow byrd to haue nurtour aneuch, and thow hes nane ; enough 
 Thow hes walkit, I wis, in mony wyld land, guess 
 
 The mair vertew thow suld haue, to keip the fra blame 
 Thow suld be courtes of kynd, and ane cunnand courtier. 
 
 Thocht that I simpill be, Though 
 
 Do as I bid thee : 
 
 The house is mine pardie b y m y faith 
 
 And all that is heir." ' 
 
 Though never in his life ' thus-gait leird ' (taught 
 in this way), and rather amazed at the collier's notions 
 of courtesy, the king took the collier's Supper and 
 rebuke in seeming good part, which at conversation. 
 once restored the collier's good-humour. The fare 
 was of the best rabbits, venison, and game from the 
 king's own forests, with wine of quite an excellent 
 vintage and as the evening advanced they ' fure into 
 fusion.' Sitting round the blazing fire, the collier 
 entertained his guest with stories of hunting feats in 
 the king's own forest, where, he affirmed, he brought 
 down the fattest of the deer; and having at last 
 exhausted the budget of his confidences, he began to 
 show some curiosity as to the name and pursuits of his 
 guest, and inquired as to his ' maist wynning,' that is, 
 
 P
 
 82 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 his usual place of residence. The king informed him 
 that he was a groom in the Queen's Chamber, and at 
 the palace was known as Wymond of the Wardrobe. 
 On leaving in the morning, he further advised his 
 host to bring a load of coals to the palace and 
 inquire for him, when he would be certain of a ready 
 sale at a good price. This advice the masterful 
 collier much against the counsel of his wife, who 
 could not believe that the stranger had forgotten all 
 about the blow resolved to accept ; and his adven- 
 tures at the palace are told with not a little of the 
 same admirable verve and humour which characterise 
 the narrative of the great supper scene in his own 
 dwelling. 
 
 A knight, Sir Roland, whom the king had directed 
 
 to watch for the collier, told him he had orders to 
 
 bring him before the king ; but the sturdy 
 
 The collier's ,,.,,. 
 
 adventures at collier declined to be at the service of 
 any one until, in accordance with his 
 promise, he had brought his load of coals to Wymond 
 of the Wardrobe. Both were obstinate, but of neces- 
 sity the determination of the collier triumphed, who 
 further at parting challenged Sir Roland to meet him 
 on horseback for single combat at the same place 
 and at the same hour on the morrow. On the collier 
 inquiring at the palace gate for Wymond of the 
 Wardrobe, he was by the king's orders admitted ; and 
 pushing his way unceremoniously through the throng 
 of courtiers into the royal hall, he at last got a sight 
 of his guest, when he mused thus :
 
 'KAUF COILZEAR* 83 
 
 * ** I ken him weill, thocht he be cled in vther clething ^hougi 
 
 In dais of clene gold, kythand zone cleir. glittering 
 
 Effi? 
 
 In faith he is of mair stait than euer he me tald. more 
 
 Allace, that I was hidder wylit, 
 
 I dreid me sair I be begylit 1 " sorely 
 
 The King preuilie smylit, 
 Quhen he saw that bald.' bold one 
 
 Then, while the collier stood lost in perplexity and 
 wonder, the king began, greatly to his alarm, to relate 
 his adventures of the previous night, and concluded 
 by asking the company what they thought should be 
 done to one who had treated him in this fashion. 
 The 'courageous knights' suggested that he should 
 be hung, but the king took a different and more 
 human view of the collier's character and conduct : 
 
 * " God forbot," he said, " my thank war sic thing were'such 8 
 
 To him that succourit my lyfe in sa euill ane nicht ! a 
 Him semis ane stalwart man and stout in stryking, 
 
 That carll for his courtasie salbe maid knicht ; fellow 
 I hald the counsall full euill that Christin man slais, 
 
 For I had myster to haue ma, need ; more 
 
 And not to distroy tha those 
 That war worthie to ga 
 
 To fecht on Goddis fais." ' fight 
 
 Raised to his new rank, and provided with a horse 
 and a suit of rich armour, Sir Rauf, therefore, on 
 the morrow sallies out to keep his ap- ThecolHer 
 pointment with Sir Roland. As he nears as kni e ht - 
 the place of tryst he sees approaching a gigantic 
 knight riding on a camel, whom, taking him for 
 Sir Roland, he attacks at full speed. At the 
 first shock the spears of both are splintered and
 
 84 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 their steeds killed ; and when they are engaged in a 
 desperate fight on foot, Sir Roland himself appears 
 and separates them, when the opponent of Sir Rauf 
 is found to be Magog, a great Saracen knight, sent to 
 proclaim war against France. A speech of Sir Roland 
 suddenly converts the Saracen to Christianity, and 
 the three knights over their swords swear eternal 
 friendship. Magog marries the Duchess of Anjou, 
 and Sir Rauf finally becomes Marshal of France, 
 when, to mark his gratitude to the king, he causes to 
 be erected a hostel for wayfarers on that spot on the 
 muir where he first met him. 
 
 In Sir Rauf the old metrical romance forms are 
 
 utilised to exhibit one of the great heroes of romance 
 
 mainly from a humorous point of view. 
 
 'Colkelbie's * 
 
 sow-its In the rude and grotesque production 
 called Colkelbie's Sow, 1 a remarkable 
 picture of ancient rustic manners, the alliterative 
 stave of the romances is discarded; and although 
 the author also incorporates with his story a tale of 
 chivalry, he gives it merely on the authority of his 
 grandame Gurgunnald : 
 
 ' Scho knew the lyfe of mony faderis aid, 
 
 peace ; wars Notable gestis of peax and weiris in storye, 
 
 Fresche in hir mynd and recent of memorye.' 
 
 The author had also made the acquaintance of 
 Chaucer's poetry, for he refers to that chanticleer 
 ' Of quhome Chaucer treitis in to his buke.' 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. ; also published in Laing's Select Remains t 1S22 
 and 1885.
 
 'COLKELBIE'S SOW 85 
 
 Like that of the poet Skelton, the rhyme of Col- 
 kelbie is 'ragged, tattered, and gagged,' Metreofthe 
 and, according to the poet himself, P em - 
 designedly so : 
 
 1 Bot, for Godis luve and his appostill Peter, 
 Pardoun the fulich face of this mad metir. 
 
 Sen the sentence to feill is fantastike Since; know 
 
 Lat the lettir and kngage be such like.' 
 
 The rough and ready metre is the appropriate 
 vehicle of the boisterous merriment which pervades 
 most of the story, and secured it a lasting popularity 
 rivalling that of Rauf Coilzear. 
 
 The tale, which is preceded by a short Prohemium 
 in irregular heroic couplets, consists of three parts or 
 
 fyttes. The first is in similar short coup- 
 Divisions of 
 
 lets to those of Skelton's Colin Clout ; but the poem : the 
 since Colkelbie's Sow is entered as having 
 been included in the Asloan MS., and is referred to 
 both by Dunbar and Douglas as a well-known 
 Scottish classic, the poem must be older than Colin 
 Clout, and the author, of his own impulse, must have 
 adopted the device of treating the octo-syllabic 
 couplet in a somewhat more unceremonious fashion 
 than his predecessors. 
 
 Once upon a time there was a ' merry man ' called 
 Colkelbie, who had ' a simple black sow,' The subject of 
 which he sold for three pennies, and these the poem> 
 pennies he disposed of thus : 
 
 ' The first penny of the thre 
 For a girle gaif he ;
 
 86 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 The secund feU in a furde ; 
 board The third ho hid in a hurde.' 
 
 The poet then puts the query, ' Which of the pennies 
 was best bestowed?' and he proceeds to give the 
 story of the answer, beginning with the second penny, 
 m nd , p ! nny ^ : that which 'fell in a furde.' It was 
 
 the harlot and 
 
 her guests. found by some one, who bought with it 
 a little pig ; but a harlot who lived hard by, wishing 
 to give a great feast to her patrons, and having ' no 
 substance at all,' resolved that the little pig should 
 grace the board. To the feast she invited the whole 
 elite of contemporary blackguardism : 
 
 One ' On apostita freir, 
 
 . A peruerst perdonair, 
 
 experienced r 
 
 And practand palmarr, 
 
 witch J A wich and wobstare, 
 weaver ' 
 
 cheat; A milygant and a mychare 
 
 *Png A fond Me, a fariar, 
 
 carter A cairtar, a cariar, 
 
 castrater A libbar and a lyar,' etc. 
 
 When this select company had convened, they 
 The vain at- proceeded to kill the victim: but the 
 
 tempt to kill . 
 
 the pig. poet informs us that, unlike dogs, swine 
 
 are 'lovand beastis' towards each other, and that 
 
 if one ' And on of thame be ourthrawin, 
 
 That his cry may be knawin, 
 learns All the remanent that leiris 
 
 Cumis in thair best nianeiris, 
 
 To reskew as thay may : 
 
 So did thay this day.' 
 
 Then we have a picturesque roll of the names of 
 the valiant rescuers :
 
 'COLKELBIE'S SOW 87 
 
 Wrotok and Writhneb, 
 Hogy evir in the eb, 
 
 With the halkit hoglyn, hacked 
 
 Suelly Suattis Swank yn, 
 Baymell bred in the bog, 
 Hog hoppit our hog,' etc. 
 
 All this great horde came 
 
 ' With sick a din and a dirdy, confusion* 1 
 
 A garray and a hirdy girdy, 
 The fulis all afferd wer, 
 And the harlot hurt thare 
 With bair Tuskyis tuth. 
 And for to say the verry suth, 
 In that fellon affray 
 The littill pig gat away, 
 And ilk bore and ilk beest 
 Defoulit the fulis of the feest.' 
 
 But this was not the worst. The several owners of 
 the pigs hearing the uproar, and afraid Themusterof 
 that so 'curst a company' designed to theswine- 
 
 . owners ; the 
 
 steal their live-stock, raised an alarm by dance . the 
 the blowing of stock-horns, and with 
 minstrels and dancers, as knights of old were wont, 
 issued forth to the rescue : 
 
 ' Gilby on his gray meir, 
 And Fergy on his sow fair, 
 
 Hoge Hygin by the hand hint, led 
 
 And Symy that was sone brint, sun-struck 
 
 With his lad Lowry, 
 And his gossep Gloury,' 
 
 and many heroes more, in higgledy-piggledy con- 
 fusion. As they advanced with banners flowing and 
 pipers blowing, they saw approaching them a similar 
 company, whom they at first took for enemies, but
 
 88 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 found to be allies aroused by their alarm. In the 
 joy of meeting each other, the two companies forgot 
 for a time the serious matter which had called them 
 to arms, and with one accord commenced dancing : 
 
 at onee ' And all the menstralis attonis 
 
 Blew up and playit for the nonis ; 
 
 cow-hrds Schiphird, nolt hirdis, 
 
 stepped out And swyn hirdis outgirdia 
 
 For to dance merily.' 
 
 From the exhaustive list of dances of every variety 
 that were performed, we gather that the merriment 
 must have lasted an unconscionable time ; but at last 
 one of the leaders called to them, as both minstrels 
 and dancers were getting exhausted, to remember for 
 what purpose they were assembled. They therefore 
 at once hurried to the house of the harlot : 
 
 ' Fyll on the foirsaid Sottis, 
 And ourthrew all the ydiottis 
 Both of the swyne and the men.' 
 
 Little glory was, however, gained by either party ; for, 
 as the poet sagely observes, the only real victor was 
 the little pig : 
 
 great ' And all this grit brawling, 
 
 Babling and vthir thing, 
 Wes for a pig as ze hard sayn, 
 
 Tet Zit he eskapit onslane.' 
 
 The extravaganza forming the first part is the only 
 The story portion peculiarly and characteristically 
 plinyfa taie Scottisn - I Q tlie second part the poet 
 of chivalry. sounds an entirely dignified note; and, 
 on the authority of his grandame, proceeds in
 
 'COLKELBIE'S SOW 89 
 
 Chaucerian couplets to narrate a tale of chivalry, 
 changing Colkelbie, without so much as a word of 
 warning, for the nonce into a Frenchman. With the 
 first penny Colkelbie bought from a blind man a 
 girl, whom he gave in marriage to his own son 
 Flannisie. Flannisie was a skilful archer; and the 
 King of France having lodged one night at Colkelbie's 
 hostelry, was on the morrow so impressed with the 
 feats of Flannisie at a ' great shooting,' that he made 
 him his body squire. Finally he became a knight, 
 his fair lady Adria whom Colkelbie had bought 
 from the blind beggar for a penny being made one 
 of the queen's chamber ladies. Both grew more and 
 more in favour with the king and queen the lady 
 by her beauty and goodness, and the husband by his 
 deeds of valour, until the king resolved to create for 
 them an earldom, which, by a union of portions of 
 their two names, he termed Flandria (Flanders). 
 
 The story of the third penny is less romantic, but 
 also sufficiently edifying. After keeping it hoarded 
 for some time, Colkelbie bought with it story of the 
 twenty-four hen eggs, of which he made J^f t "and 
 a gift to his godson Colkalb; but the edif y jn e- 
 mother disdainfully declining this gift, this 'simple 
 thing,' Colkelbie sent them to his hen- wife, charging 
 her to ' do her care ' and ' make them fruct.' The 
 ' fruct ' was twelve male and twelve female chickens, 
 whose names and qualities the poet sets forth in 
 thorough fancier fashion; and by and by Colkelbie 
 was able, in a solemn assembly of relations, to
 
 90 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 present his godson with no less a sum than 1000, 
 saved with ' grace divine ' from the twenty-four eggs. 
 Finally 
 
 ' This Colkalb grew efter to grit richess 
 Throw this penny : he grew the michtiest man 
 In ony realme.' 
 
 A more direct burlesque of the romances is the 
 curious fragment King Berdok, 1 which relates the 
 The taie of adventures of the great king of Babylon, 
 King Berdok. Berdok, who in summer dwelt 'in till 
 ane bowkail stok ' (cabbage stock), and in winter in 
 ' a cokkil shell.' He wooed the ' golk ' (cuckoo) ' sevin 
 zeir of Maryland,' 2 and after going over sea and land 
 to visit her, saw her ' inilkand her myderis ky,' and 
 put her in ' a creil upon his back ' to carry her home 
 to his own country, but on his return found he had 
 nothing but a ' howlat's nest.' The fact was, he was 
 being circumvented by her father, ' the king of Fary,' 
 who afterwards, calling to his assistance the kings of 
 Pechtis and Portugal, of Naippilis and Navern, be- 
 sieged King Berdok in a killogie (the air-hole of a 
 lime-kiln), where he had taken refuge. There they 
 attacked him with guns ammunitioned with 'raw 
 daich' (dough) ; but the gracious god Mercury turned 
 him into a 'braikane buss ' (fern bush). 
 
 ' And quhen thay saw the buss waig to and fra, 
 a ghost ; left Thay trow'd it wes ane gaiat, and thay to ga ; 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. ; published also in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 
 and 1885. 
 
 a Merryland or Fairyland. Cf. Dunbar's In Secreit Place : 
 ' Wylcum ! my golk of Maryland.'
 
 THE GYKE-CAKLING' 91 
 
 Thir fell kingis thus Berdok wald half slane, 
 
 All this for lufe, luveris sufferis pane : 
 
 Boece said, of poyettis that wes flour, 
 
 Thocht lufe be sweit, aft syiss it is full sour.' ofttimes 
 
 This liglit and graceful skit strikingly contrasts 
 with the weirdly gross love-tale of The Gyre-Carling, 1 
 the mother- witch of Scotland, with stories , The Gyre . 
 of whom Sir David Lyndsay used to Carlin e-' 
 ' comfort ' the young king, James v. The tale is 
 written in the rhymed alliterative staves of the 
 Awntyrs of Arthur and other romances. 2 The 
 Gyre-Carling dwelt in 'awld Betokis bour' in the 
 Tinto Hills, where she lived on Christian men's flesh 
 and raw hides. Near by her there lived one Blasour, 
 who, we are told, for love of her ' lawchane ' (gaping) 
 ' lips/ ' walit and weipit,' and since he was unable to 
 soften her hard heart, resolved to make her his by 
 force : 
 
 multitude 
 
 ' He gadderit ane menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour ; undermine 
 The Carling with ane yrne club, quhen that Blasour sleipit, iron 
 
 Behind the heill scho hatt him sic ane blaw, hil1 : such * 
 
 Quhill Blasour bled ane quart That 
 
 Of milk pottage inwart.' 
 
 The Carling laughed at his discomfiture, and during 
 her merriment, in quite unconventional fashion, pro- 
 duced North Berwick Law. But her exultation was 
 short-lived, for the king of Fary, with his elfs, 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. ; published also in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 
 and 1885. 
 
 3 An alliterative romance, The Warres of tJie Jewes (Warton's 
 History of English Poetry, ed. Ritson, etc., ii. 147), begins like the 
 Gyre-Carling thus : 
 
 ' In Tyberus' tyme the true Emperour.'
 
 92 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 proceeded to besiege her, and all the dogs from 
 Dunbar to Dunblane, with all the tykes of Tervey 
 wherever that may be gathered to the fray. The 
 dogs began to gnaw ' doun with thair gomes mony 
 grit stane ' ; but when the case seemed hopeless for 
 the Carling, she changed herself into a sow, and went 
 'gruntlyng our the Greek sie' to Asia, where she became 
 ' quene of Jowis ' (Jews), and married Mahoun. But 
 her expatriation from Scotland was not unmourned : 
 
 Since then < Sensyne the cokkis of Crawmound l crew nevir a day, 
 
 sorrow For dule of that devillisch deme wes with Mahoun mareit, 
 
 since then And the hennis of Hadingtoun sensyne wald nocht lay, 
 
 who; For this wyld wilroun wich thame widlit sa and wareit.' 
 
 troubled ; 
 
 Another of these mock tales of wonder is the 
 ' gentill geist ' of Lord Fergus's Ghost* Since there 
 , Lord Fergus . s is a reference in this tale and The Gyre- 
 Ghost.- Carling to 'Betokis bower,' it has been 
 
 rashly surmised that both are by the same author. 
 But from The Gyre-Carling we gather that the story 
 of Betok, bred of an acorn, was well known in Scot- 
 land. There is a further suggestion that the author 
 of both was James Wedderburn, the author of cer- 
 tain plays against the Papists. Wedderburn, we are 
 told by the historian Calderwood, counterfeited ' the 
 conjuring of ane goust which was indeed practised 
 by Friar Lang ' ; 3 but there is nothing to show any 
 
 1 Cramond is a village five miles west of Edinburgh, but the 
 name is merely introduced for the pun's sake. 
 
 a Bannatyne MS. ; printed by Scott in his Minstrelsy of the 
 Scottish Border, and in the 1885 edition of Laing's Select Remains. 
 
 * History, vol. i. p. 142.
 
 LOKD FERGUS'S GHOST' 93 
 
 connection between Lord Fergus and the friar. After 
 various misdemeanours such as stealing God's 
 ' whittle/ a ring and other ornaments, from ' piteous 
 Abraham,' and a pair of ' awld yrn schone ' from the 
 man of the moon, besides strangling an old chaplain 
 the ghost was finally conjured by a little Spanish 
 
 fly- 
 
 ' That with her wit and ingyne, cleverness 
 
 Gart the gaist leif agane ; Made ; live 
 
 And syne mareid the gaist the fle, then 
 
 And cround him kyng of Kandelie ; 
 And they gat thame betwene 
 Orpheus king and Elpha quene.' 
 
 Of others of these old tales mention may be made of 
 the Tailis of the Fyue Bestis, 1 if only because the 
 Hart's tale has reference to the fortunes of Sir 
 William Wallace. 
 
 1 Asloan MS. Printed in Laing's Select Remains, ed. Small, 1885.
 
 V 
 THE EARLY CHAUCERIANS, ETC. 
 
 JAMES I. ROBERT HENRYSON JOHN CLERK RICHARD 
 HOLLAND PATRICK JOHNSTOUN MERS AR SIR 
 JOHN ROULL QUENTINE SCHAW. 
 
 WHILE the old romance poetry was being superseded 
 by ' gestis ' concerning Scotland's own heroes, by such 
 Chaucer patriotic epics as The Bruce and Wallace, 
 
 probably and by comic tales after the type of the 
 
 introduced to . J 
 
 Scotland by ancient fabliau, a new impulse was given 
 to Scottish poetry through contact with 
 the master influence of Chaucer. The honour of 
 introducing Chaucer to Scotland has usually been 
 assigned to James I. There is no evidence of his 
 earlier introduction; and if, as Bower states, James 
 was in the habit of giving much of his time to 
 the cultivation of literature; and if, as Major 
 corroborated by all subsequent Scottish historians, 
 including Buchanan, who professes to criticise from 
 personal knowledge affirms, he actually wrote 
 poetry, he could just as little avoid, while in England, 
 becoming a disciple of Chaucer as he could abstain 
 from making Chaucer known to those who cultivated 
 
 94
 
 JAMES I. 95 
 
 the art in Scotland. This, apart from the question 
 whether James I. was the author of the Kingis 
 Quair, 1 which has, for the first time, been seriously 
 disputed by Mr. J. T. T. Brown in The Authorship of 
 the Kingis Quair, 1896. 
 
 For crediting James i. with its authorship, the 
 original authority is the historian John Major (1518), 
 who says that James ' wrote an ingenious f The Quair ._ 
 little book about the Queen while he was argument 
 
 against the 
 
 yet in captivity, and before his marriage, authorship of 
 Nothing further was known of this 
 'little book' until in 1783 a note by Bishop Tanner 
 drew Tytler's attention to the MS. in the Bodleian, 
 where, also, the authorship of the poem is attributed 
 to James I. But Mr. Brown proposes to discredit both 
 authorities, and to adopt the only other possible theory 
 that the poem was an ingenious forgery. His main 
 arguments are in substance these: (1) Major wrote 
 his history about eighty years after the death of 
 James I., and his testimony therefore is of very little 
 value ; (2) the transcriber of the MS. is in error as to 
 the authorship of five out of ten other poems in the 
 MS., and therefore the chances are at least equal that 
 he errs in regard to the authorship of The Quair; 
 (3) James I. does not appear in Dunbar's Lament for 
 the Makaris, and it is therefore almost certain that 
 he was not known to Dunbar as a poet ; (4) in the 
 
 1 Published (ed. Tytler) 1783, from the only known MS. that 
 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford ; and frequently reprinted, the 
 best and only satisfactory edition being that edited by Professor 
 Skeat for the Scottish Text Society, 1884.
 
 96 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 poem the age of James i., when he was captured by 
 the English, is given as ten, whereas we now know 
 he was eleven, and since Wyntoun states he was 
 captured in 1405 instead of 1406, the poem must 
 have been partly forged from Wyntoun ; (5) the 
 poem is written hi an artificial dialect by some 
 Scotsman who sought to counterfeit the dialect of 
 Chaucer, and belongs to the same class of poems as 
 part of The Romaunt of the Rose, as The Court of 
 Love and Lancelot of the Lak, regarding the author- 
 ship of which no proper explanation is possible ; and 
 (6) various sentiments in The Kingis Quair are bor- 
 rowed from The Court of Love, a poem presumably 
 of later date than the time of James I. 
 
 It may be admitted that if Mr. Brown has not 
 established his case, it is simply because it cannot 
 be established; for he lacks nothing in 
 e f ingenuity, and his learning is employed 
 james i. ^ o ^g fo^ advantage possible in such a 
 
 cause. But (1) Major, though writing over eighty 
 years after the death of James I., was fifty years 
 of age when he so wrote, and was not severed 
 from the reign of James I. by more than one 
 generation; he also prided himself on his critical 
 incredulity, and he had plainly seen and read this 
 little book whose authorship he, as a matter of 
 course, assigns to James. (2) The transcriber of 
 the MS. which may have been written before 1488, 
 and must before 1513, and was long in the possession 
 of the noble family of Sinclair was a Scot, and
 
 JAMES I. 97 
 
 therefore by no means so likely to be mistaken 
 regarding the authorship of a famous Scottish poem 
 as the authorship of English ones of much earlier date. 
 (3) The testimony of Major and that of the tran- 
 scriber ought not to be disposed of separately ; they 
 agree, and their agreement incalculably strengthens 
 both. (4) The absence of James I. from Dunbar's 
 Lament is at the best merely negative evidence ; and 
 its value as such is further greatly discounted by 
 the universal testimony of Scottish historians that 
 James I., whether he wrote The Quair or not, was a 
 'makar.' Moreover, the omission may be explained 
 by the fact that distinctively he was king rather 
 than 'makar,' and by the distressing circumstances 
 of his death. (5) It is absurd to attach the smallest 
 importance to the possible mistake of one year in the 
 statement of the king's age at the time of capture. 
 What more vitally concerns the question of forgery 
 is the fact that Wyntoun, from whom the forger is 
 supposed to have got his facts, states that the capture 
 took place, not in March, as the poem affirms, but in 
 April. Further, it would appear that the inference 
 of Sir William Hardy l that the capture took place 
 in the end of February, or beginning of March, is 
 founded on an error of one month in his calcula- 
 tion. The first entry of payment for the king's 
 expenses in the Tower, on 14th August 1406, amounts 
 to 44, 7s. 10d., which, at the rate of 6s. 8d. a day, 
 implies an imprisonment there of only 133 days, 
 
 1 Bui-net's preface to The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. iii 
 G
 
 98 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 and seems to show that he was sent to the Tower 
 about the beginning of April ; and as we know 
 his father, Robert in., died on 4th April, shortly 
 after the son's capture, all the probabilities point to 
 about the middle of March as the date, and thus 
 corroborate the poem ; although, of course, a poet can 
 choose an arbitrary date. (6) The language and 
 grammar of the poem a combination of the Northern 
 speech with the Midland dialect of Chaucer exactly 
 corresponds with what might be expected if James I. 
 was its author ; for the probability is that, mingling 
 largely with companion prisoners from Scotland, he 
 retained his early knowledge of the Northern speech, 
 and never thoroughly mastered the Midland dialect. 
 (7) To say the least, it cannot be affirmed that 
 dependence on The Court of Love is proved ; some 
 of the resemblances are accidental, and others have 
 a common source. But unless the resemblances 
 absolutely demonstrate that The Court of Love was 
 written before The Quair, there is no reason for 
 doubting the authorship of James I. 1 (8) Unless 
 James was known as a poet, no one would dream 
 of passing oft' a forged poem as his ; and if he did 
 write poetry, as he is reputed to have done, he is 
 by far the most likely author of The Quair. Further, 
 no motive for the forgery is apparent ; and the emo- 
 tion of the poem this each reader can decide for 
 himself seems to be thoroughly genuine, and the 
 record of an actual experience. 
 
 1 See on this subject, especially, Professor Skeat's introduction 
 to The Court of Love, in Chaucerian and other Poems, 1897.
 
 JAMES I. 99 
 
 The poem is a classic example of the love allegory 
 developed in Italy and France, and disseminated in 
 England through Chaucer's translation of , The Quair , a 
 
 the Roman de la Rose and his Troilus classic ex- 
 ample of the 
 and Criseyde. It is written in the seven- love allegory, 
 
 ,. ,. m ., iii but represents 
 
 line stanza or Iroilus ab, abb, cc also a personal 
 known since the time of Gascoigne as exper 
 rime royal. But though the author, besides closely 
 modelling his style and method after Chaucer, 
 borrows unconsciously portions of his phrases and 
 turns of expression, the poem is not a mere servile 
 imitation of the English master: it has a special 
 individuality of its own. Through all the artificial 
 imagery and traditional love mechanism there is ever 
 present the note of a peculiar personal experience, 
 supplying an emotional warmth and tenderness 
 which are absent from Chaucer, and are not fully 
 attained either in Lydgate's Temple of Glas or in The 
 Court of Love. The poet's own case if the poet was 
 James I. furnished a quite ideal theme for chival- 
 rous allegory. Owing to his captivity love was an 
 exceptional joy and solace ; it was also the means of 
 deliverance from it ; and through love his cup of 
 bliss became so absolutely full, that he was ready 
 to praise even the place of his captivity and the day 
 when he was taken prisoner : 
 
 ' And thankit be the faire castell wall, 
 
 Quhare as I quhilome lukit furth and lent. 
 Thankit mot be the sanctis niarciall 
 That ine first causit hath this accident.'
 
 100 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 It has, however, been too rashly assumed that the 
 
 poet was actually a strict prisoner in a tower after 
 
 the fashion described in the poem ; that 
 
 Scene of meet- T - 
 
 ing merely he first saw Jane Beaufort by accident in 
 the garden of the castle usually sup- 
 posed to be Windsor while looking from his lattice. 
 As matter of fact, he was not at Windsor when 
 introduced to the lady; and we may believe that 
 they first met under different circumstances, for the 
 marriage was promoted by Henry of England from 
 reasons of state. The lattice scene must be regarded 
 as merely figurative, although embodying the essence 
 of an actual experience ; it is modelled after that of 
 Palamon and Emelye in Chaucer's Knight's Tale. 
 But it is only in the environment that 
 
 Love at first 
 
 sight-as the two scenes resemble each other. 
 
 described by . . 
 
 Chaucer and Chaucer s is a light external description 
 of love at first sight, but than the scene 
 in The Quair, notwithstanding the traces of an 
 artificial mode, no more consummate description of 
 the dawn of love exists in verse; and we must 
 almost inevitably conclude that it represents the 
 poet's own experience : 
 
 ' And there-with kest I doun myn eye ageyne, 
 Quhare as I sawe, walking vnder the'toure, 
 p lay Full secretly new cummyn hir to pleyne, 
 
 The fairest or the freschest zonge floure 
 That euer I sawe, me thoght, before that houre, 
 Instigation ; For quhich sodayn abate, anon astert 
 
 The blude of all my body to my hert.
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 101 
 
 noon after- 
 wards 
 
 person 
 said 
 
 And though I stude abaisit tho a lyte, then a little 
 
 No wonder was ; for-quhy my wittis all 
 Were so ouercom with plesance and delyte, 
 
 Onely throu latting of myn eye'n fall, 
 
 That sudaynly my hert became hir thrall, 
 For euer, of free wyll ; for of manace 
 There was no takyn In hir suete face. 
 
 And In my hede I drewe ryght hastily, 
 
 And eft-sones I lent It forth ageyne, 
 And sawe hir walk, that verray womanly, 
 
 With no wight mo, bot onely wommeii tueyna 
 
 Than gan I studye in my-self and seyne, 
 " A ! suete, ar ze a warldly creature, 
 Or hevinly thing in likenesse of nature ? 
 
 " Or ar ze god Cupidis owin princesse, 
 
 And cummyn are to louse me out of band 1 
 Or ar ze verray nature the goddesse, 
 
 That haue depaynted with zour hevinly hand 
 
 This gardyn full of flouris, as they stand ? 
 Quhat sail I think, allace ! quhat reuerence 
 Sail I minster to zour excellence ? 
 
 " Gif ze a goddesse be, and that ze like 
 
 To do me payne, I may It noght astert ; 
 Gif ze be warldly wight, that dooth me sike, 
 
 Quhy lest god mak zou so, my derrest hert, 
 
 To do a sely prisoner thus smert, 
 That lufis zow all, and wote of noght bot wo ? 
 And therefor, merci, suete ! sen It is so." ' 
 
 This fair creature is, of course, depicted as attired, 
 not in the apparel of an English gentlewoman, but 
 in the figurative bravery of a queen of 
 
 J The poet's 
 
 love. For the description, all that can description 
 
 , i , i .. -I i i i f the lady. 
 
 be said is that it is admirably done ac- 
 cording to the accepted mode, but the poet attains 
 
 avoid 
 
 maketh me 
 sigh 
 pleased 
 
 knows
 
 102 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 to more than artistic artificiality in the passion- 
 inspired lines : 
 
 know ' And, aboue all this, there was, wele I wote, 
 
 Beautee enench to mak a world to dote,' 
 
 and in the stanzas detailing the lady's gifts and 
 graces of character as shadowed in her mien, con- 
 cluding thus : 
 
 ' Throw quhich anon I knew and vnderstude 
 Wele, that snhe was a warldly creature ; 
 On quhom to rest myn eye, so mich gude 
 It did iny wofull hert, I zow assure, 
 That It was to me loye without inesure.' 
 
 The allegorical description of the means whereby 
 
 the lover attains to success in his suit his visits to 
 
 Venus, Minerva, and Fortune. though 
 
 The allegorical 
 
 visits to Venus, ornate and artistic, and informed through- 
 
 etc., and the . 
 
 close of the out by emotional earnestness, fails, 
 through its antiquated method, to secure 
 the full sympathy of the modern reader. The poem 
 ends with stanzas of thanks to the goddesses who, by 
 their 'might celestial,' had brought his suit to a 
 happy ending, to the nightingale who sang that song 
 of love in the garden where his lady walked, to the 
 flowers as emblems of her innocence and beauty, to 
 the castle wall where he ' lukit furth and lent ' when 
 the vision of her loveliness first met his gaze, to the 
 saints of the month of March who brought about the 
 captivity which led to such perfect bliss, and to the 
 'grene bewis bent,' under which his heart's remedy 
 and comfort first appeared to him.
 
 JAMES I. 103 
 
 Besides The Kingis Quair, Major ascribed to James 
 ' alium artificiosum cantilenum ejusdem ' (that other 
 song in elaborate metre) Fas Sen; and other poems 
 'jucundum artificiosumque ilium cantum' j^esi'f-^en 
 (that mirthful poem in elaborate metre) tha , t ,^ yne '/ 
 
 ' and ' Sen throu 
 
 At Beltayne. The title of the former of vertew/ 
 these is plainly incorrect ; ' Yas,' which has no mean- 
 ing, being a clerical error for some term unknown. 
 Pinkerton 1 printed an anonymous song from the 
 Maitland MS., beginning, 
 
 c Sen that eyne that workis my weilfair,' since ; eyes 
 
 as probably that referred to by Major; but the re- 
 semblance of its initial words to those quoted by 
 Major is too faint to justify the ascription of it to 
 James I. In The Oude and Godlie Ballates (see 
 post, p. 270), a poem of three stanzas in rime royal, 
 beginning, 
 
 ' Sen throu vertew ehcressis dignite,' 
 
 is assigned to James i. ; and the poem is printed in 
 the Scottish Text Society's edition of The Kingis 
 Quair. As in both the Cambridge MS. and the 
 Bannatyne MS. it appears anonymously, the editor of 
 The Oude and Godlie Ballates may have had no 
 special authority for ascribing it to James I. ; but 
 though in the Northern dialect, and though there is 
 nothing except the initial word ' Sen ' to show it is 
 the song referred to by Major, its sentiment and style 
 
 1 Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786, p. 214.
 
 104 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 is not unlike that of The Kingis Quair, and it may 
 well have been written by James I. 
 As to the third poem, the mirthful At Beltayne, 
 there is almost no doubt that Major, 
 
 At Beltayne': 
 
 Professor rightly or wrongly, meant to ascribe to 
 James i. the humorous poem Peblis to 
 the Play, 1 beginning, 
 
 each person 
 
 prepares to At Beltane quhen ilk bodie bownis.' 
 
 go 
 
 The only reason for doubting that this was Major's 
 
 intention is that he adds in reference to At Beltayne, 
 ' quern alii de Dalkeith et Gargeil mutare studierunt' 
 How, or in what way, or for what reason, some per- 
 sons of Dalkeith and of Gargeil sought to change the 
 poem, Major does not say. No such place as Gargeil 
 is now known, but a possible interpretation of the 
 words is that some persons of Dalkeith and Gargeil 
 sought to make the poem apply to these places 
 instead of to Peebles. The theory of Professor Skeat 
 is, however, that certain poets of Dalkeith and 
 Gargeil though it is difficult to believe that these 
 places contained several poets of reputation sought 
 to parody the king's poem, and that in all likelihood 
 it is one of these parodies, and not the original poem, 
 which has survived. To clinch his argument finally, 
 he also boldly proposes to make a statement in Major, 
 usually interpreted as referring to the king, refer to 
 the poem : he would shut up the mirthful poem 
 instead of the disconsolate king in the castle where 
 the lady dwelt with her mother. Why any one 
 
 1 Mai t land MS. ; printed in Pinkerton's Sekct Scotish Ballads, 1783.
 
 JAMES I. 105 
 
 whether the king or his executors should shut it up 
 in the company of the two ladies, or how, if it were so 
 shut up, the Dalkeith and Gargeil poetasters could 
 have got hold of it to parody it, or why they should 
 be seized by such a mania to parody in a mirthful 
 manner a poem that was already mirthful, he does 
 not explain. In any case, Major must have been 
 permitted to look at it; and the poetasters, both 
 of Dalkeith and Gargeil, must somehow have got 
 copies, which, however, they would no doubt destroy 
 after they had completed their parodies. But if the 
 mirthful poem were not shut up, as Professor Skeat 
 asserts, nor destroyed by the poetaster rivals of the 
 king, the chances are that the original At Beltayne, 
 reputed in Major's days to have been written by 
 James I., would' survive any parody by obscure 
 village versifiers if such parodies there were. Certain 
 Scottish poets may, of course, have clothed it in a 
 Scottish dialect ; but certain recently discovered letters 
 of" James I. are proof positive that he knew Scots, and 
 the likelihooc^ is that he would use it in depicting such 
 specially Scottish scenes. 
 
 Once, however, you admit that Pellis to the Play is 
 the At Beltayne, or even a parody of the At Beltayne 
 mentioned by Major, it becomes im- , AtBelta ne . 
 possible to relegate it, as has been done, (' Peblis to the 
 
 ' Play') and 
 
 to the sixteenth instead of the fifteenth cimstis 
 
 -H7T- U.T- J.-L. i_ f T Kirk': mutually 
 
 century. Whether the work of James I. corroborative 
 
 or another, it could not, if it came into ^^M 
 existence only in the sixteenth century, J ames L 
 have been ascribed by Major, writing in 1518, to
 
 106 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 James i., who died in 1437. More than this, Major's 
 mention of it in such a fashion is almost proof 
 positive that it belongs to the earlier half of the 
 fifteenth century, or at least that it can't be later 
 than the first quarter of the last half; for Major 
 was born in 1469, and he could not so write of 
 At Beltayne unless the tradition that it was by 
 James i. dated from his youth. Further, the mere 
 mention of At Beltayne by Major if At Beltayne 
 has any connection with Peblis to the Play makes 
 it impossible a fact totally ignored by Professor 
 Skeat and others for it to have been the work of 
 James v., for when Major wrote James v. was but 
 six years of age. This is a most important point 
 when considered in connection with the companion 
 poem Christis Kirk on the Green. 1 They are in the 
 same rollicking metre; and their style and humour 
 are so absolutely similar, that they are universally 
 ascribed to the same author. Now in the Bannatyne 
 MS. Christis Kirk is attributed to James I. 2 True, 
 a later tradition grew up that it was written by 
 James v., and it is assigned to him by Bishop 
 Gibson and by Watson; but if we trace back that 
 tradition, we find that it derives solely from the 
 
 1 Bannatyne and Maitland MSS. ; printed by Bishop Gibson, 1691 ; 
 by Watson in his Collection, 1706 ; by Tytler, along with the Kingis 
 Quair, 1763; by Pinkerton in Select Scotish Ballads, 1783; and 
 frequently in various collections. 
 
 1 Bannatyne's testimony has been scouted because he accidentally 
 represents Dunbar's Dregy as sent to James v., not to James IV. ; 
 but James iv. and James v. were, of course, successive sovereigns, 
 whereas James i. preceded James v. by about a century.
 
 JAMES I. 107 
 
 fabling Dempster (1627); and if any value at all 
 attaches to Major's statement about At Beltayne, 
 Christis Kirk, if by the same author as At Beltayne, 
 could not have been the work of James v. Further, 
 the Bannatyne MS. and Major two excellent autho- 
 rities both must be regarded as corroborative of each 
 other; for while Major affirms that the mirthful At 
 Beltayne is by James i., the Bannatyne MS. ascribes a 
 very similar poem to the same king, while there is a 
 general consensus of tradition that one or other of 
 the two kings was the author of the poems. It has, 
 indeed, been pointed out that the Justing of Barbour 
 and Watson by Sir David Lyndsay begins in a similar 
 strain to Christis Kirk : 
 
 ' In Sanct Androis on Witsoun Monanday 
 Was never sene sic lusting in no landes.' 
 
 And it is further true that these expressions in Christis 
 
 Kirk 
 
 ' His lymmis were lyk twa rokkis. . . . distaffs 
 
 Ran vpoun otheris lyk raramis. . . . 
 Bet on with barrow trammis ' shafts 
 
 are found interwoven in the same poem thus : 
 
 ' Quod lohne, " Howbeit thou thinkis ray leggis lyke rokkis . ., 
 Zit, thocht thy braunis be lyk twa barrow-trammis, calvcg 
 
 Defend the, man ! " Than ran thay to, lyk rammis.' 
 
 From this circumstance Professor Skeat draws 
 what he terms 'the obvious conclusion' that 'Christis 
 Kirk belongs to the reign of James v.'; but surely 
 the only absolutely 'obvious conclusion* is that 
 Lyndsay had read Christis Kirk; and it is further
 
 108 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 probable, if not 'obvious,' that Christis Kirk was 
 earlier than the reign of James v., for Lyndsay was 
 more likely to incorporate lines from an ancient than 
 from a contemporary writer. 
 
 All the reliable external evidence, therefore, points 
 to James I. as the author of those poems ; and this 
 External evi- being so, the internal evidence by which 
 fh e e n aut f hors u hfp mainly it has been proposed to deprive 
 of james i. fam o f their authorship requires very 
 careful scrutiny. Chiefly from deference to the auth- 
 ority that justly attaches to Professor Skeat's opinion, 
 I have hitherto disbelieved in the authorship of 
 James I., and entered on this inquiry strongly biassed 
 against his claims; but more minute consideration 
 convinces me that there is no evidence against them. 
 What is the internal evidence on the subject ? 
 
 1. There is what may be termed the moral 
 objection, thus expressed by Guest, and adopted 
 The internal by Skeat : ' One can hardly suppose 
 "humoral those critics serious who attribute this 
 objection. song (of Christis Kirk) to the moral 
 and sententious James the First.' 1 This merely 
 means that a poet cannot be a poet of strikingly 
 contrasted moods; or, in other terms, that the 
 human personality is an absolutely simple and con- 
 sistent individuality instead of a curious compound 
 of contrarieties. How, on such a theory, could we 
 even conceive of James, the refined, sentimental, 
 poetic artist, as the most energetic ruler of his time ? 
 
 1 English Rhythms, ed. Skeat, p. 624.
 
 JAMES I. 109 
 
 But let the question be confined to poetry. If, for 
 example, we accept Shakespeare as the creator of 
 the moral and sententious Hamlet, must we then 
 rob him of the sententious but inimitably immoral 
 Falstaff? Or to go to Scotland for an illustration: 
 let us take the case of Burns, like James i., both an 
 English and a Scottish poet, like him influenced by 
 two distinct poetic traditions. From Burns illus- 
 trations may be obtained in almost bewildering 
 profusion: enough that he who has given us the 
 matchless presentment of blackguard revelry in The 
 Jolly Beggars is the same who did the admirably 
 conventional sketch of peasant piety in The Cotters 
 Saturday Night. 
 
 2. There is the question of language. It is not, of 
 course, denied that James I. retained some knowledge 
 of the Northern dialect in captivity, or The i anguage 
 that he regained his knowledge of it i uestion - 
 when he returned to Scotland. 1 Indeed, Professor 
 Skeat argues that he knew this dialect, and he prints 
 along with The Kingis Quair a poem in it. All, 
 therefore, that we have to decide is whether the 
 language of these poems belongs to an earlier or 
 later date than the time of James i. But here the 
 evidence is almost wholly of a negative kind; for 
 lateness of transcription so tends to alter the phrase- 
 ology, that it is impossible to draw any certain 
 conclusion except in the case of the rhyming words. 
 
 1 Not by Professor Skeat, though it has been without evidence 
 by Mr. J. T. T. Brown. There is now proof that he knew it.
 
 110 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Nor does Professor Skeat profess to point out more 
 than one instance of 'obvious lateness.' In stanza 
 xix. of Peblis ' stokks ' is made to rhyme with ' ox,' 
 whereas with James i., we are told, the plural of 
 stok is ' stokkis.' But is this not to take too solemn 
 a view of this amusing stanza? The curious thing 
 is that the transcriber in the same stanza makes 
 'Lockkis,' not 'Locks' or 'Lockks,' to rhyme with 
 ' ox ' ; and may it not well have been the aim of the 
 poet's mirthful muse to make 'ox' for the nonce 
 rhyme with ' stokkis ' and ' lokkis ' ? But besides the 
 plural 'is* is constantly used not only in other 
 stanzas of Peblis, and of Christis Kirk, but by 
 David Lyndsay, to name no more. In truth, even 
 had James i. lived in Lyndsay's day, his natural 
 impulse would, as much as ever, have been to write 
 ' stokkis.' 
 
 3. As to the metre : Professor Skeat contents him- 
 self by affirming that ' it will be found by no means 
 easy to point out any undoubted example 
 of the use of the rollicking metre of this 
 poem anterior to the year 1450; whereas James I. 
 died in 1437.' This is a very guarded statement so 
 guarded that it is insufficient for Professor Skeat's 
 purpose. Even to admit that a specimen of this 
 metre of as early a date as 1450 has come down to 
 us, goes a far way to prove that the metre is of earlier 
 date ; for the poetry of this early period that survives 
 is but a fraction of the whole. It is also very difficult 
 to date anonymous poetry ; but amongst the anony-
 
 JAMES I. Ill 
 
 mous poetry in this metre which has not perished 
 are the old ballads of The Battle of Otterbourne and 
 The Hunting of the Cheviots, the originals of which 
 probably date from the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century, if not earlier. Here is a stanza of The Hunt- 
 ing of the Cheviots as 'carefully printed from the 
 Ashmole MS.' in Professor Skeat's own Specimens of 
 Early English : 
 
 ' The dryvers thorowe the woodes went 
 
 For to reas the dear ; 
 Bornen byckarte vppone the bent 
 
 With ther browd aros cleare ; 
 Then the wyld thorowe the woodes went 
 
 On every syde shear ; 
 Grea hondes thorowe the grevis glent 
 
 For to kyll thear dear." 
 
 As matter of fact, this rollicking metre was 
 intended to be chanted or sung: and this may 
 explain why so few early specimens of it exist ; for 
 scarce any of the songs of the minstrel were com- 
 mitted to writing ; and of the numerous songs whose 
 names have been preserved in the writings of ancient 
 Scottish authors almost none survive. 
 
 Apart from authorship, to prove the possible 
 antiquity of these poems is of some importance, for 
 metrically they seem to form a curious Them e, rea 
 blend of the old ballad and the alliterative blend ? the 
 
 ballad and 
 
 romance. The stanza may, indeed, be the metrical 
 described as a sort of ballad variation of 
 that of Sir Tristrem Sir Tristrem changed into 
 rollicking metre, and the bobwheel simplified, but
 
 112 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the alliteration which survived much longer in 
 Scotland than in the south preserved as elaborately 
 as ever. Here, as an example, is the admirable 
 second stanza of Christis Kirk : 
 
 dressed ' To dans thir damysellis thame dicht, 
 
 8y of Thir lassis licht of laitis, 
 
 docgkin Thair gluvis wes of the raflfel rycht, 
 
 Thair schone wes of the straitis 1 ; 
 Lincoln Thair kirtillis wer of lynkome licht, 
 
 Weill prest with mony plaitis. 
 
 nighed. h ' They wer so nyss quhen men thame nicht 
 
 goatg Thay squeilit lyk ony gaitis, 
 
 So lowd, 
 
 At Chrystis Kirk of the grene that day.' 
 
 The poems are further classic specimens of the 
 utilisation of the combined ballad and romantic 
 Their charac- met hods in depicting the humours of 
 teristics, and everyday life ; and their influence on the 
 
 their place 
 
 in Scottish after vernacular poetry can scarce be over- 
 poetry. . ii- / i' ' 
 
 estimated, this apart from direct imita- 
 tions of their method. Another poem in the same 
 stanza, of probably about the same date, but whether 
 earlier or later it is impossible to say, is the ecclesias- 
 tical satire of Symmie and his Bruder (p. 286), the 
 heroes of which were two palmers who used to stand 
 begging in the ' old grey cathedral city ' by the sea. A 
 later piece is the amusing Justing and Debait vp at 
 the Drum, by Alexander Scott (p. 248). Christis Kirk 
 was published by Allan Ramsay with a second part 
 added by himself, and this second part is one of the 
 
 J This is explained by some as coarse woollen cloth ; and also as 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, on the way to Morocco.
 
 JAMES I. 113 
 
 best of Ramsay's humorous pieces. Christis Kirk 
 and Peblis are also the models metrically and poeti- 
 cally of Fergusson's Leith Races and Hallow Fair and 
 of Burns's Holy Fair and Ordination. Neither as 
 poems nor as pictures of the humours of rustic life 
 are they equalled by Fergusson, nor without them 
 would we probably have had much that is best in 
 Burns. They necessarily suffer from the flight of 
 time; for besides that the customs, modes, and 
 manners which are the subject of their wit have 
 passed away, the niceties of the old language can no 
 longer be fittingly apprehended by the most learned 
 and Scottish of the Scots; but their vividness and 
 truth still penetrate even these obstacles to apprecia- 
 tion. In Peblis the humours of the old village fair 
 of four centuries ago are reproduced with a colour 
 and life not yet faded beyond recognition. It is not 
 so vigorous a production as Christis Kirk, but as a 
 study of rustic manners it is equally good, and it is 
 plainly the work of the same ' makar.' As for 
 Christis Kirk, which depicts the wild revels and 
 disorders rather than the humours of the fair, its 
 fervour and abandon are irresistible. Near the be- 
 ginning of the poem we have a most arch and 
 amusing glimpse of the distresses and whims of a 
 love-lorn damsel : 
 
 ' Off all thir madynis myld as meid mead 
 
 Wes nane so gympt as Gillie, slim 
 
 As ony ross hir rude wes reid, rose; cheeks 
 
 Hir lyre was lyk the lillie : skin 
 
 H
 
 114 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Pull 
 
 Though ; 
 death 
 
 jibed 
 derided 
 
 hang 
 beetles 
 
 diitaffs 
 
 madmen ; 
 
 unafraid 
 
 Beaten 
 
 mouths ; 
 
 unguarded 
 
 gums 
 
 Until ; 
 
 clotted 
 
 worried 
 
 youngsters 
 Bet to 
 lightning 
 terrible 
 Stout fellows 
 men 
 
 Until; 
 belched 
 
 noise 
 
 Fow yellow yellow wes hir heid, 
 
 But scho of lufe wes sillie. 
 Thocht all hir kin had sworn hir deid, 
 
 Scho wald haif bot sweit Willie 
 
 Allone, 
 At Chrystis Kirk of the grene. 
 
 Scho skornit Jok and skraipit at him, 
 
 And mvrionit him with mokkis ; 
 He wald haif luvit, scho wald nocht lat him, 
 
 For all his yallow loikkis : 
 He chereist hir, scho bad ga chat him, 
 
 Scho compt him nocht twa clokkis ; 
 So schamefully his schort goun set him, 
 
 His lymmis wes lyk twa rokkis, 
 Scho said 
 At Chrystis Kirk of the grene.' 
 
 But the fun soon begins to get fast, and after 
 passing through various phases of the absurd, finally 
 becomes furious : 
 
 ' Twa that wes heidmen of the heird, 
 
 Ran vpoun vtheris lyk rammis, 
 Than followit feymen rycht onaffeird, 
 
 Bet on with barrow trammis ; 
 But quhair thair gobbis wes vngeird, 
 
 Thay gat vpoun the gammis ; 
 Quhill bludy berkit wes thair beird 
 As they had wirreit lammis, 
 
 Maist lyk 
 At Chryst Kirk of the grene. 
 
 The wy vis kest vp ane hiddouss yell, 
 
 Quhen all thir yunkeris yokkit, 
 Als ferss as ony fyr-flaucht fell, 
 
 Freikis to the feild thay flokkit : 
 Tha cairlis with clubbis cowd vder quell, 
 
 Quhill blud at breistis out bokkit. 
 So rudly rang the commoun bell, 
 
 Quhill all the stepill rokkit 
 
 For reird, 
 At Chrystis Kirk of the grene.'
 
 EGBERT HENRYSON 115 
 
 This final scene is expressive of mere blind, rude, 
 rustic savagery ; but the verve and spirit of the piece 
 are wholly admirable. 
 
 After James I. the most notable name in Scottish 
 poetry in the fifteenth century is that of Robert 
 Henryson (1425 ?-1506 ?), second among 
 the old Scots bards only to Dunbar, who Henryson 
 belongs to both centuries. As in the case Ma 
 of most poets of this century, only the faintest outline 
 of his history survives. Of his parentage there is no 
 record, and the tradition that he was progenitor of the 
 Hendersons of Fordell seems to rest more on fanciful 
 imagination than on fact. There is no evidence that 
 he studied at the University of St. Andrews; and 
 Glasgow University, not founded until 1451, was 
 probably not in existence in his student days. He 
 was therefore, most likely, educated abroad. In any 
 case, his name is found among the incorporated 
 members of Glasgow University, 10th September 
 1462, as 'the venerable Master Robert Henryson, 
 licentiate in arts,, and bachelor in decrees/ which 
 implies that he graduated somewhere in law ; and if 
 he was not a lecturer in law in the University, he 
 must have been deemed a person so eminent in 
 learning that his enrolment was intended as an 
 honour either to the University or to him. On the 
 title-page of his Fables he is designated ' Schoolmaster 
 in Dunfermline ' ; and he is no doubt also the Mayister 
 Rdbertus Henrison, notarius publicus, whose name 
 appears as a witness to certain deeds in March 1477-78
 
 116 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 and July 1478. Whether he was in priest's orders 
 is unknown ; but he seems to have been, as a certain 
 John Henderson was in the sixteenth century, 
 ' master of the grammar-school within the Abbey of 
 Dunfermline/ 
 
 Sir Francis Kynaston, who in his Latin translation 
 
 of Troilus and Criseyde, 1635, was the first to point 
 
 out that Henryson was the author of 
 
 His death. 
 
 The Testament, states that 'being very 
 old, he dyed of a diarrhea or fluxe,' regarding which 
 he relates a 'merry, though somewhat unsavoury 
 tale.' It is about a wise woman or witch who, when 
 he was a-dying, entered his house and told him that 
 if he would be cured, he must go to a whikey tree 
 at the end of his orchard and walk round it three 
 times repeating the rime : 
 
 ' Whikey tree, whikey tree, 
 Take away this fluxe from me.' 
 
 This, Henryson affirmed, he was too weak to do, 
 and he jocularly proposed instead to repeat certain 
 words to the oaken table in his room. To adapt it to 
 this new divinity it was necessary to vary the wording 
 of the request, but it must suffice to state that he 
 proposed to make it rhyme with ' Oaken burd, Oaken 
 burd.' The proposed compromise was naturally 
 unpleasing to the wise woman, who, we are told, 
 'seeing herself derided and scorned, ran out of the 
 house in a great passion, and Mr. Henderson within 
 half a quarter of an hour departed this life.' The 
 anecdote is quite credible of the author of Sum
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 117 
 
 Practysia of Medecyne, and if true, shows that 
 Henryson retained his cheerful spirit to the last. 
 He probably died not long before 1506, when Dunbar 
 wrote thus of Death in his Lament for the Makaris: 
 
 ' In Dunfermelyne he has done rovne just whig 
 
 With gud Maister Kobert Henrisoun.' pered 
 
 In Henryson the Chaucerian influence is at its 
 strongest, and hi part supersedes the old Scottish 
 tradition. His favourite stave is either Henryson's 
 the ballot royal (or French octave) in staves, 
 three rhymes ab, ab, be, be in its four accented or 
 five accented form, with a refrain, or the seven-line 
 stanza in rime royal ; and he also introduced the 
 nine-line and ten-line interwoven stanza from 
 Chaucer's Faire Anelida and False Arcite. But 
 the rollicking metre of Eobene and Makyne, The 
 Garmond of Gud Ladyis, and The Bludy Serk was 
 no doubt derived from the ballads of the older 
 minstrels ; while in Sum Practysis of Medecyne we 
 have his one solitary example in the rhymed allitera- 
 tion of the old romances. Again, the stave of The 
 
 1 The poems of Henryson Bannatyne, Maitland, Asloan, Gray, 
 Harleian, and Makculloch MSS. were first published in a collected 
 form, ed. David Laing, in 1865 ; and a Scottish Text Society edition 
 by Prof. Gregory Smith, in 1909. Orpheus and Eurydice and The 
 Want of Wise Men were printed by Chepman and Myllar, Edin- 
 burgh, 1508 ; The Moral Fables, by Lekprevick, St. Andrews, 1570 ; 
 and The Testament of Cresseid in Chaucer's Works, London, 1532, 
 and separately by Henry Charteris, Edinburgh, 1593. Numerous 
 subsequent editions of these were published, and pretty full selec- 
 tions from his works appeared in Ramsay's Evergreen, 1724, and in 
 the collections of Lord Hailes, 1770, Sibbald, 1804, etc.
 
 118 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Salutation of the Virgin ab ab, ba ab, ba ab was 
 probably derived from the old Latin Hymns. 
 
 Robene and Makyne, while it is the most char- 
 acteristically Scottish, is also the gem of Henryson's 
 Robene and productions ; and indeed one of the most 
 Makyne.' perfect, because one of the least artificial, 
 pastorals in literature. Never has the ingenuous 
 naturalness of rustic love been suggested in verse 
 more deftly or with less intimation of caricature. 
 The theme is a slight one. We are introduced to 
 Robene ' on gud grene hill ' besieged by the love-lorn 
 Makyne. He, however, nothing knows of love ; and 
 her endeavours to instruct him in ' luvis lair ' (learn- 
 ing) proving vain, he, quite at a loss to understand 
 her pleadings, answers her 
 
 wot ' " I wait nocht quhat is lufe ; 
 
 But I half mervell incertaine 
 
 unrest Quhat makis thd this wanrufe. 
 
 happy The weddir is fair, and I am fane, 
 
 JTJjIS* My scheip gois haill aboif, 
 
 if And we wald play us in this plane 
 
 They wald us bayth reproif." ' 
 
 But too late he suddenly discovers that he in turn 
 has become the victim of the passion. When, on 
 seeing Makyne again, he follows after her and calls 
 that all his ' luve it salbe ' hers, she tells him, half 
 sadly, half scornfully 
 
 ' " Robene, that warld is all away, 
 
 to And quyt brocht till ane end ; 
 
 by my faith And nevir agane thairto, perfay, 
 
 thinketh Sail it be as thow wend." '
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 119 
 
 And the poet is too remorselessly faithful to truth 
 to gratify the sentimental reader with the usual 
 happy ending : 
 
 ' Makyne went hame blyth anewche enough 
 
 Attour the holtis hair. 
 
 Robene murnit, and Makyne lewche ; laughed 
 
 Scho sang, he sichit sair : sighed 
 
 And so left him bayth wo and wrench, wretched 
 
 In dolour and in cair, 
 
 Kepand hia hird under a huche crag 
 
 Among the holtis hair.' 
 
 It is a rustic episode, not idealised, still less carica- 
 tured, in any way, but etched in its simplicity, its 
 rude truthfulness, and its lugubrious faliance, as it 
 actually happened ' on gud grene hill.' 
 
 Most of the other minor poems are of a meditative, 
 moral, and semi-religious cast; reflecting, no doubt, 
 a very prevalent mood of the author, 
 
 y r The Gar- 
 
 especially in his old age. In The Gar- mondofGud 
 
 . Ladyes.' 
 
 mond of Gud Ladyes allegory is em- 
 ployed with quaint effect to depict the excellences 
 that are desirable in woman. It is an ingenious 
 example of the allegorical methods then in vogue, 
 and though antiquated in form, is both tasteful and 
 spirited. Here are two stanzas : 
 
 ' Hir gown suld be of gudliness, 
 Weill ribband with renowne, 
 
 Purfillit with plesour in ilk place, each 
 
 Furrit with fyne fassoun. fashion 
 
 Hir belt suld be of benignitie, 
 
 About hir niiddill meit ; 
 Hir man till of humilitie 
 
 To tholl bayth wind and weit. 1 endure ; rain
 
 120 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 And he concludes : 
 
 ' Wald scho put on this garmond gay, 
 
 I durst sweir by my seill, 
 That scho woir nevir grene nor gray 
 became That set hir half so weilL' 
 
 The Bludy Serk, on the other hand, is an adapta- 
 tion of the ballad form for the purposes of religious 
 The Biudy allegory. The story agrees very much 
 serk.- with one of the Oesta Romanorwm, and 
 
 the poem is chiefly of interest as indicating that the 
 ballad stanza, since it is here used for parody, must 
 have existed before Henryson's time. The ballad 
 begins in this romantic fashion : 
 
 ut ' This hindir yeir I hard be tald, 
 
 Thair was a worthy King ; 
 Dukis, Erlis and Barronis bald, 
 
 He had at his bidding. 
 The Lord was anceane, and aid, 
 And sexty yeiris cowth ring ; 
 
 embrace He had a Dochter, fair to fold, 
 
 A lusty lady ying.' 
 
 And this is how the Moralitas begins : 
 
 'This King is lyk the Trinitie 
 
 Baith in hevin and heir. 
 The Manis saule to the Lady : 
 
 The Gyane to Lucefeir. 
 The Knycht to Chryst, that deit on tre, 
 
 And cost our synnis deir : 
 The pit to hell, with panis fell ; 
 
 The syn to the wo weir.' 
 
 Of the unallegorical and emotionally reflective 
 there are two, The Abbay Walk and Tlie, Prais of
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 121 
 
 Age, each in its own way beautiful and touching 
 expressions of a particular mood, and both The Abbay 
 remarkably fine examples of musical ver- ^Jl'p""? ot 
 sification in the octave of three rhymes. A e e -' 
 Here, for instance, is a nobly dignified stanza from 
 The Abbay Walk : 
 
 ' Thy Kindome and thy grit empyr, 
 
 Thy ryaltie, nor riche array, 
 Sail nocht endeur at thy desyre, Shall net 
 
 Bot, as the wind, will wend away ; 
 
 Thy gold, and all thy gudis gay, 
 Quhen fortoun list, will fra thd fall : 
 
 Sen thou sic sampillis seis ilk day, Since; such; 
 
 Obey, and thank thy God of all.' 
 
 The poem specially sets forth the bliss of content- 
 ment with one's inevitable lot. But in The Prais of 
 Age another note is struck, a note of sadness and 
 despondency, inevitable in the case of a simple un- 
 worldly man living in such corrupt and calamitous 
 times. That it was only a mood is, however, shown 
 by representing The Prais of Age as sung by an 
 minstrel : 
 
 ' In tyl ane garth, under ane reid roseir, into a gar- 
 
 Ane auld man, and decrepit, hard I syng ; 
 Gay wes the noit, sweit was the voce and cleyr ; 
 
 It wes grit joy to heir of sic ane thyng. such a 
 
 " And to my doume," he said, in his dytyng, ^ fate 
 
 " For to be young I wald nocht, for my wyss, not ; because 
 
 Of all this warld to inak me lord and King : jj* know ' 
 
 The moyr of aige the nerar hevynnis bless. 
 
 " Fals is this warld, and full of varyance, ?<??" ; 
 
 Oureset with syt and uther synnys mo ; grievances 
 
 Now trewth is tynt, gyle hes the governance, l og l 
 
 And wrachitness hes turnyt al fra weill to wo :
 
 122 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 expelled Fredoume is tynt, and flemyt the Lordis fro. 
 
 And cuvattycc is all the cause of this : 
 one I am content that yowthheid is ago ; 
 
 The inoyr of aige the nerar hevynnis blis." ' 
 
 The evils of the times are also more specifically 
 other reflec- dealt with in The Want of Wyse Men, 
 tive poems. ^fa ^Q curious refrain- 
 Sine* ' Sen want of wyse men makis foulis sitt on binkis.' 1 
 
 Another poem in a similar vein is that Aganis 
 Ho '^ty Creddence of Titlaris. The Ressoning Betwixt 
 Aige and Youth and The Reasoning Betwixt Leith 
 and Man tell also much the same tale of the vanity 
 of life. The latter is almost wholly didactic, and of 
 small poetic value ; but the former gives a striking 
 series of contrasted portraits of youth and age accord- 
 ing to their respective methods of regarding the 
 same aspects of life. Here are two stanzas : 
 
 ' Quhen fair Flora, the goddess of the flowris, 
 
 enclosed Baith firth and feildis freschely had ourfret, 
 
 grounds , A , ,, , t_ i i 
 
 decked And perly droppis of the balmy schowris, 
 
 Those Thir woddis grene had with thair watter wet ; 
 
 Musand allone in mornyng myld, I met 
 kll A niirry man, that all of mirth cowth mene, 
 
 Syngand the sang that richt sweitly wes sett, 
 M yowth be glaid in to thy flowris grene 1 " 
 
 I lukit furth a litill me befoir, 
 
 And saw a catiff on a club cumand, 
 faded With cheikis leyne, and lyart lokis hoir ; 
 
 few*-' hoarse ^* s ene was nowe > hi g voce was nace hostand ; 
 
 coughing Wallowit and wan, and walk as ony wand ; 
 
 Ane bill he beure upoun his breist abone, 
 
 true without In letteris leill but les, with this legyand, 
 
 Tery " yowth thy flowris faidis ferly sone 1 " ' 
 
 1 Benches ; as judges or governors.
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 123 
 
 But the poet concludes by adopting the burdens of 
 both as true : 
 
 ' youth, be glaid into thy flowris grene ; 
 youth, thy flowris faidis ferly sone.' 
 
 In Orpheus and Eurydice, an allegorical adaptation 
 from Boethius of some 630 lines, the classical learning 
 has almost quite smothered the poetic 
 
 , , Orpheus and 
 
 inspiration ; but the Testament of Cresseid Eurydice,' 
 intended to complete Chaucer's tale of Testament 
 Troilus and Criseyde in a manner more ofCresseid -' 
 consistent with moral if not poetic justice is by 
 traditional criticism regarded as Henryson's master- 
 piece. He here claims comparison with Chaucer, and 
 some think not entirely to his disadvantage. Yet the 
 poem is merely an imperfect amalgam of Chaucer and 
 Henryson, the complete effect being rather mixed, 
 for the temperaments of the two were essentially 
 different. Still, largely imitative though it be, and 
 while imitative, not only quite at variance with the 
 tone of Chaucer's story, but by the very strenuous- 
 ness of its morality in some degree both poetically 
 and morally repulsive, it is interesting as a poetic 
 tour de force, and is also sprinkled with passages 
 of richly ornate beauty. In the portraits of the 
 seven deities who sat in judgment on Cresseid's sin 
 the poet reaches the very acme of the old allegorical 
 art. Here the piquantly vivid realism the peculiar 
 realism of the Scottish muse triumphs over the 
 artificial methods, the portraiture being both strongly
 
 124 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 graphic and delicately felicitous. In the case of 
 Saturn the Scottish method is specially victorious : 
 
 fro-ted ' His face frosnit, his lyre was lyke the leid, 
 
 rixivered His teith chatterit, and cheverit with the chin 
 
 eyes ; hollow His ene drowpit, how, sonkin in his heid, 
 
 moiiture Out of his nois the meldrop fast can rin, 
 
 blne With lippis bla, and cheikis leine and thin, 
 
 The iceschoklis that fra his hair doun hang, 
 Was wonder greit, and as ane speir als lang. 
 
 Atouir his belt his lyart lokkis lay 
 
 spangled Felterit unfair, ovirfret with froistis hoir, 
 
 withered Uis gar 0111 " 1 and I" 8 gyi 8 f uU gay of g ra 7> 
 
 dress His widderit weid fra him the wind out woir ; 
 
 8trong Ane busteous bow within his hand he boir, 
 
 sheaf of cruel TT , ,. . ,. _ , ,...11 a 
 
 arrows Under his girdill ane flasche of felloun flanis, 
 
 Feathered Fedderit with ice, and heidit with hailstanis. 1 
 
 In quite a different vein is the portrait of J upiter. 
 Here is a stanza : 
 
 aye, ' His voice was cleir, as cristall wer his ene, 
 
 As goldin wyre sa glitterand was his hair ; 
 
 His garmound and his gyis full gay of grene, 
 edges ; slash with golden listis gjj,. Qn everie gaij> . 
 
 bnrly Ane burelie brand about his middill bair, 
 
 sharpened j n jjjg r jght hand he had ane groundin speir, 
 
 Of his father the wraith fra us to weir.' 
 
 But the leprous scene at the close of the poem is 
 except perhaps the silent meeting between Troilus 
 and Cresseid scarce more than grimly forbidding : a 
 strenuous morality has extruded not merely adequate 
 emotional pathos, but even true poetic art ; and apart 
 from the repulsiveness little remains but wearisome 
 didactic prosing.
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 125 
 
 The true individuality of Henryson is to be found 
 not in such laboured and ambitious efforts as Orpheus 
 or The Testament, but in the wholly 
 
 * The true 
 
 simple and ingenuous Rdbene and individuality 
 
 11 -11 of Henryson 
 
 Makyne, and the naively humorous to be found in 
 naturalism of the Moral Fables. While in^he^Morai 
 Henryson but for 'Chaucer, glorious' Fablcs/ 
 could not have been what he was, he perhaps allowed 
 his admiration for the 'flower' of 'Makaris' to override 
 too much his own personality ; indeed, it must further 
 be confessed, that while Scottish poetry gained incal- 
 culably from the comprehensive genius of Chaucer, it 
 suffered not a little in freedom and spontaneity from 
 the stiffening artificiosity of various Chaucerian con- 
 ventionalisms. But in Robene and Makyne Henryson 
 writes as if Chaucer had never written ; and in the 
 Moral Fables (paraphrased from ^Esop) we have some 
 of the most delightful examples of allegory in litera- 
 ture. Both Robene and the Fables show that his 
 strength lay not in the old allegorical love-tale, or the 
 old allegorical morality : that just as Chaucer is truly 
 great great almost as Shakespeare in various and 
 penetrating knowledge of the world, so Henryson is 
 at his best as an interpreter of rustic character or 
 animal life or, in other terms, when his poetry is 
 inspired by the experiences of his own quiet days. 
 
 The Fables have by some been pronounced prolix, 
 but they will be found so only by those 
 
 ,. i. i V 'The Fables.' 
 
 who can discover nothing 01 their humour 
 
 (delicate but shrewdly wise), whose sympathy with the
 
 126 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fresh and artless aspects of nature is but tepid, and to 
 whom the world of animal life is a virtual blank. As 
 an animal allegorist Henryson has no superior : by no 
 fabulistis the human in the animal better realised, while 
 the special animal characteristics are admirably pre- 
 served and indicated. Incidentally, also, an old phase 
 of Scottish life, as it existed in this ancient ecclesias- 
 tical city and its rural surroundings, looms peacefully 
 out of the mists of the past with a charm all the more 
 enticing because of a certain indistinctness. 
 
 The slightest of the Fables is The Cock and the 
 The cock and Josp\ but the picture of the cock is 
 ih J e a up^ a nd?s truthful and spirited. Much fuller of 
 MOUS and incident and adventure, as well as of 
 
 the Burgess 
 
 MOUS.' allegorical significance, is the Uplandis 
 
 Mous and the Burgess Mous. 
 
 ' This rurall mous in to the wynter tyde, 
 
 Buffered Had hunger, cauld, and tholit greit distress ; 
 
 The uther mous that in the burgh can byde, 
 
 Wes gild-brother and maid ane free burgess : 
 also, without Toll fre als, but custum mair or less, 
 
 And fredome had to ga quhair ever scho list, 
 chest Among the cheis in cask, and meill in kist.' 
 
 The burgess mouse went on a visit to her sister in 
 the country, whose humble home is thus prettily 
 described : 
 
 dwelling As I hard say, it was ane sober wane, 
 
 moss and Qf fog and faim full febuie weg m&{ ^ 
 
 frail shelter Ane sillie scheill under ane steidfast stane, 
 
 not Of whilk the entres wes nocht hie nor braid ; 
 
 without And in the samyn thay went but mair abaid, 
 
 Withoutin fyre or candill birnand bricht, 
 uch pickers For commounlie sic pykeris luffis not licht*
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 127 
 
 The country mouse entertained her sister with 
 ' nuttis and peis,' but the epicurean burgess lady could 
 not 'accord' with such 'rude diet/ and pro- 
 
 .. 1111 A visit to town. 
 
 posed that her rustic sister should leave 
 ' this hole/ and come to her ' place ' in town, where was 
 to be had all the choicest gustatory dainties. They 
 therefore hied them thither, creeping now under rank 
 grass and corn, now under bushes ' privily ' until they 
 'fand the town/ when they took their 'herberie' 
 in a well-stored spence. But while sumptuously 
 dining on all 'the coursis that cuikis culd defyne/ 
 they were suddenly disturbed by a visit of the butler, 
 which caused the timorous rural mouse to swoon for 
 very dread. However, he left without discovering the 
 ' pykeris ' ; but hardly had they sat down again to the 
 banquet, when Gib-Hunter, the 'jolie cat/ looked in 
 on them. The sharp-witted burgess mouse, quick as 
 ' fyre of flint/ darted into her hole ; but alas ! her 
 rustic sister was unequal to the emergency, and 
 Bawdrons, pouncing on her, caught her by the back : 
 
 ' Fra fute to fute he kest hir to and fra, 
 
 Quhylis up, quhylis down, als cant as ony kid ; NOW; playful 
 
 Quhylis wald he lat hir run under the stra, 
 
 Quhylis wald he wink, and play with her bukhid hide-and- 
 
 Thus to the selie mous greit pane he did, Beek 
 
 Quhill at the last, throw fortune and gude hap, Unti] 
 
 Betuix ane burde and the wall scho crap.' 
 
 Happily she escaped, more frightened than hurt. 
 But the fright was enough; the choicest delicacies 
 ceased to be enjoyable when danger seemed to lurk 
 in every morsel ; and as soon as Gib-Hunter took his
 
 128 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 baffled departure she leapt down from her conceal- 
 ment, and took instant leave of her sister and of the 
 ' mangerie ' so ' myngit all with cair ' : 
 
 4 Bot I hard say, scho p&ssit to hir den, 
 AI ; wool Ab warme ab woli, suppose it wes nocht greit. 
 
 Fall benely staffit, baith bat and ben, 
 Of beinis and nattis, peis, ry, and qoheit ; 
 Quhen ever scho fist scho had aneach to eit, 
 In qayet and eis, withoatin ony dreid, 
 Bot to hir sisteris feist na mair scho geid.' 
 
 Of Sehire Chantideir and the Foaee, perhaps the 
 . . n most deliciously humorous stanzas are 
 
 Schire Chan- * 
 
 ticiir and th* those setting forth the sorrowful and 
 
 F~x; 
 
 other reflections of the three widowed 
 hens, Bertok, Sprutok, and Tappok : 
 
 4 u Allace ! " quod Pertok makand sair morning, 
 oat oTer With teiris greit attoor hir cheikis fell, 
 
 J^ s *** " Tone wes oar drowrie, and our dayis darling, 
 
 dock 0* nichtingaill, and ab our orlege beQ ; 
 
 wmkeftii Our walkryfe watche, as for to warne and tell 
 
 Quhen that Aaron, with hir curcheis gray, 
 Put rp hir held betuix the nycht and day. 
 
 44 Quba sail our lemman be 1 quha sail us leid 1 
 Quhen we are sad, quha sail onto us sing 1 
 
 With his sweit bill he wald brek us the breid 
 In all this warld wes thair ane kynder thing I * ' 
 
 But Sprutok deems such extreme sorrow quite un- 
 called for, finding in her bereavement sufficing 
 consolation in the proverb that ' as gude luve cummis 
 as gaes ' ; while Tappok, again, is neither sad nor glad, 
 but simply self-righteously content : 
 
 4 Than Tappok lyke ane curate spak full crous, 
 44 Ton wes ane verray vengeance fra the herin ;
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 129 
 
 He wes sa lous, and sa lecherous ; 
 
 He had," quod scho, " Kittokis 1 ma than serin ; more 
 
 Bot rychteous God, haldand the ballandis evin, balance 
 
 Smytis richt sair, thocht he be patient, loraly 
 
 For adultrie that will thame nocht repent." ' 
 
 The various other fables, in which the Fox or Wolf 
 (or both) figures, are all admirably droll, the wit 
 being both barbed and tempered with 
 
 ' . Other fables 
 
 the writers shrewd wisdom; while con- f the FOX or 
 temporary political or social depravations 
 are indicated and satirised with great skill and 
 subtlety. The Tod's Confession to Frevr Wolf is 
 perhaps the most caustic of any. This stanza is 
 delightful : 
 
 ' " Art thow contrite, and sorie in thy spreit 
 
 For thy trespas ? " " No, achir, I can nocht dude ; not do It 
 
 Me think that hennis are sua bonie sueit, 
 
 And lambis flesche that new are lettin bluid, 
 
 For to repent my mind can nocht concluid, 
 Bot of this thing, that I haif slane sa few." 
 " Weill," quod the Wolf, " in faith thow art ane schrew." ' ratcal 
 
 Tlie Preaching of tlie Swallow indicates perhaps 
 more than any of the others the poet's keen sym- 
 pathy with the animal creation, and his 
 
 * ' The Preach* 
 
 delight in the sights and sounds of >ngofthe 
 
 Swallow ' : 
 
 Nature. In The Testament of Cresseid a spring 
 
 he has given us a glimpse of himself 
 
 sitting down in a winter night to read Chaucer : 
 
 ' I mend the fyre, and beikit me about, wam d 
 
 Than tuik ane drink my spreitis to comfort, 
 And armit me weill fra the cauld thairout,' etc. 
 
 1 A common name for a loose woman. 
 
 I
 
 130 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 In the following stanza from The Swallow we see 
 him, as, leaving the cloisters of the old Fife city, he 
 'passit forth' one fine spring morning to ramble 
 amongst the fields and woods : 
 
 ' That samin seasoun, in to ane soft morning, 
 gone Kicht blyith that bitter blastis wer ago, 
 
 Unto the wod to se the flouris spring, 
 
 other birds And heir the maveis sing, and birdis mo, 
 
 then I passit furth, syne lukit to and fro, 
 
 To se the soyll, that was richt seisonabill, 
 Moist; fit Sappie, and to resaif all seidis abill. 
 
 this way Muving thus gait greit mirth I tuke in mynd, 
 
 Of lauboraris to se the besines, 
 
 stone fence Sum makand dyke, and sum the pleuch can wynd, 
 
 Sum sawand seidis fast, from place to place, 
 The harrowis hoppand in the saweris trace : 
 
 loved It wes greit joy to him that luifit come, 
 
 To se thame laubour, baith at evin and morne. 
 
 1 " And as l baid under ane bank fuU bene 
 
 In hart greitlie rejosit of that sicht, t 
 
 Unto ane hedge, under ane hawthorne grene, 
 wondroos Of small Birdis thair come ane ferlie flicht, 
 
 therewith And doun belyif can on the leifis licht 
 
 lil y On everilk syde about me quhair I stude, 
 
 Urge Richt mervelous ane mekill multitude.' 
 
 Here also is a companion summer picture from 
 A summer the Prologue to The Lyoun and the 
 
 morning. MOUS : 
 
 ' Sweet wes the smell of flouris quhyte and reid, 
 
 The noyis of birdis richt delitious, 
 Tk e bewis braid blomit abone my heid, 
 grasses The ground grawand with gersis gratious ; 
 
 Of all plesance that place wes plenteous 
 With sweit odouris, and birdis harmonie, 
 stronger The morning myld, my mirth wes mair firthy.
 
 ROBERT HENRYSON 131 
 
 The roisis reid arrayit on rone and ryce, bough and 
 
 mv, j ii, -i branch 
 
 The prymerois, and the purpour viola ; 
 
 To heir it wes ane poynt of Paradice, 
 
 Sic mirth the mavis and the merle couth ma. birdVmake 
 
 The blossummis blyith brak upon bank and bra, slope 
 
 The smell of herbis, and of foullis cry, 
 
 Contending quha suld haif the victorie.' 
 
 As a poet of Nature, Henryson is a kind of pioneer : 
 the traditional realism of the north enabling him, at 
 least intermittently, to escape from the AS a poet of 
 old hackneyed classical imagery, and to JJfJjJSlE 
 record his impressions in the language of compared with 
 
 Cowper and 
 
 simple sincerity. Passion he has none, Wordsworth. 
 but he can be nobly emotional; and if seldom or 
 never strongly pathetic, he frequently attains to a 
 stately seriousness which is not unimpressive. Ex- 
 cept in Robene and Makyne the theme of love has 
 scarce a place, in his poetry, for in The Testament of 
 Cresseid love becomes merely a text for a sermon. 
 Among modern poets he is most akin to Cowper and 
 Wordsworth, and more to the former than the latter ; 
 but he is more graphic, perhaps more really poetic 
 than Cowper, and although he has none of the com- 
 prehensive reflectiveness or essential greatness of 
 Wordsworth, his love of Nature is indicated with less 
 insistent obtrusiveness, while his humour, more 
 various, idiomatic, and constant, if less frolicsome 
 than that of Cowper, tends to redeem even his oc- 
 casional excesses in sermonising, and guards him 
 against the worst Wordsworthian lapses into almost 
 fatuous commonplace.
 
 132 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 As we gather from Dunbar's Lament, and from 
 references by Gavin Douglas, David Lyndsay, and 
 contem orary otners > there were several contemporaries 
 poets. of James L, Blind Harry, and Henryson 
 
 not quite without repute in their day, although in 
 some cases their works have wholly perished, and all 
 that survives of the whole of them is, taken together, 
 comparatively insignificant in quantity, although not 
 so in quality. 
 
 Of James Afflek and John Clerk, distinguished for 
 'balat making and trigide,' nothing very certain is 
 lames Afflek known. Afflek may possibly be a certain 
 (d. 1497 ?>. James Auchinleck who was ' servitor to 
 the Earl of Rosse,' and died while holding the 
 chantry of Ross, sometime in or about 1497. It 
 has further been supposed that he was the author of 
 a poem in the Selden MS., The Quair of Jealousy, 
 to which the name Auchin is attached; but neces- 
 sarily all this is little more than surmise. 
 
 John Clerk is presumably he whom Dunbar in 
 The Testament of Mr. Andro Kennedy, represents as 
 obtaining from Kennedy the bequest of 
 ' God's braid malison and mine.' In the 
 Bannatyne MS. there are five poems which are as- 
 signed to Clerk, but in the only case in which they are 
 assigned by the writer of the MS. the name is erased. 
 The five are (1) My wo full Hairt me stoundis throw 
 the vanis, a religious ballad in the French octave 
 of four accents with a refrain (assigned to Clerk by 
 another than the writer of the MS.), in which Christ
 
 JOHN CLERK 133 
 
 is represented as detailing the events of the Passion ; 
 (2) Sons hes bene ay exilit owt of sicht, in rime royal 
 (assigned to him by Kamsay), a lament on the growth 
 of pride among the lords and barons ; (3) that re- 
 markably witty but somewhat broad ballad In Secreit 
 Place, in seven-line stanzas aa, bb, cbc with a 
 refrain (assigned to him by Ramsay), but in the 
 Maitland and Reidpath MS. assigned to Dunbar; (4) 
 even that fine antique, The Wowing o/Jok and Jynny 
 (see p. 289), prototype of many songs in the same 
 vein, including the three dedicated to the fortunes 
 of Duncan Gray (in this case the name inserted by 
 the writer of the MS. is deleted) ; and (5) another song 
 in a five-line stave aa, bab of four accents, Fane 
 wold I luve, but quhair abowt (assigned to him by 
 Ramsay, but possibly by Dunbar), partly humorous 
 but wholly moral, and ending thus : 
 
 ' Bot quha perfytly wald imprent, 
 Sowld fynd his luve moist permanent : 
 
 Love God, thy prince, and freind, all thre ; 
 Treit weill thy self, and stand content, 
 
 And latt all vthir luvaris be.' 
 
 If Clerk was the author of any of the three last, he 
 was possessed of no small sprightliness and wit, while 
 all show very high metrical accomplishment. 
 
 Sir Richard Holland bracketed by Dunbar along 
 with Barbour, and a priest and a follower 
 
 Sir Richard 
 
 of the Douglases, who, for rebellion, was, Holland 
 while in England in 1482, excepted ' I48z) 
 from pardon is the author of a curious political
 
 134 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 allegory, The Howlat, 1 written for Elizabeth Dunbar, 
 Countess of Moray It is mainly interesting as a 
 curious and solitary example of the engraftment of 
 allegory on the old alliterative romance stave. At 
 the time it was composed the allusions may have 
 been pretty well understood and appreciated, but for 
 us the allegory has now wholly lost its point. It is 
 a sort of variation of the tale of the Jackdaw in 
 borrowed plumage, the borrower in this case being 
 the Owl or Howlat. Being dissatisfied with his 
 shape and appearance, he applies to the Peacock, the 
 Pope of Birds, to cry upon Christ to reshape him; 
 but this being impossible, the Peacock and Eagle (the 
 Emperor) apply to Dame Nature, who decrees that 
 'ilk fowl of the firth' should send him a feather. 
 Becoming 'flour of all foulis throw fettern so fine,' 
 he grows so insolent that it is found necessary to 
 deprive him of all his false finery, and his final plight 
 is thus described : 
 
 ' Than this Howlat, hideous of hair and of hyde, 
 
 praise Put first fro poverty to pryce, and princis awin peir ; 
 
 Then Syne degradit fra grace, for his grit pryde, 
 
 with clamour Bannyt bittirly his birth bailfully in beir. 
 
 cursed the He welterit, he wrythit, he wareit the tyd 
 
 Sf'.'i,s< (U * 
 
 mde; fear Th&i he wes wrocht in this warld in wofull weir ; 
 
 He criplit, he cryngit, he cairfully cryd 
 
 sobbed (?) ; He solpit and sorrowit, in sichingis seir ; 
 
 loathsomest He said, " Allace, I am lost, lathest of all, 
 
 monster; Bysyn in bale beft ; 
 
 woe 
 
 1 Bannatyne and Asloan MSS. , printed by Pinkerton in a Collec- 
 tion of Scottish Poems, 1792, vol. iii. ; in the Bannatyne Club, ed. 
 Laing, 1823 ; by Arthur Diebler, Chemnitz, 1893 ; and by the Scot- 
 tish Text Society in Scottish Alliterative Poems, ed. Amours, 1897.
 
 PATRICK JOHNSTOUN 135 
 
 I may be sample heir eft hereafter 
 
 That pryd yit nevir left companion 
 
 His feir but a fall." ' without 
 
 The poem contains a few vigorous stanzas, and, 
 besides other interesting references to the Douglases, 
 quotes the lines : 
 
 ' Dowglass, Dowglass, 
 Tender and trewe !' 
 
 embroidered on the coat-armour of the pursuivant. 
 But the allegory is so complicated by a great variety 
 of under plots that it loses its unity, and the whole 
 becomes a puzzle which it is impossible, even if it 
 were worth the trouble, to decipher. 
 
 Patrick Johnstoun, who was unable to escape the 
 ' shot of mortal hail ' which slew Blind Harry, is no 
 doubt the same Patrick Johnstone to 
 
 Patrick 
 
 whom there are various references in johnstoun 
 The Exchequer Rolls and The Treasurer's 
 Accounts as performing plays before the king, and 
 who died not long after 12th June 1494. He is 
 the disputed author of a poem in the French octave, 
 The Three Deid Pows, assigned to him in the 
 Bannatyne MS., but in the Maitland MS. to Henryson. 
 It is, of course, impossible to decide which of the two 
 was the author. It may well have been written by 
 Henryson although only in the leprous scene in 
 The Testament does he compass a mood of such ruth- 
 less severity. The three death's-heads are supposed to 
 address mankind in a strain of which this opening 
 stanza may suffice as a sample :
 
 136 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ' " sinfull man ! in to this mortall se 
 Which Quhilk is the vaill of mvrnyng and of cair 
 
 With gaistly sicht behold oure heidis thre, 
 hollow eyes Oure holkit ene, our peilit pollis bair 
 
 As ye ar now, in to this warld we wair 
 Als fresche, als fair, als lusty to behald : 
 
 true Quhan thow lukis on this swth examplair 
 
 unbold Off thy self, man, thow may be richt vnbald." ' 
 
 Following the reference to Johnstoun, Dunbar in 
 Mersar. the Lament pays this high encomium to 
 a dead ' makar ' : 
 
 ' He [Death] hes reft Merseir his endite 
 That did in luf so liny write, 
 So schort, so quyk of sentence hie : 
 Timor mortis conturbat m.' 
 
 Mersar is further mentioned in Lyndsay's Papyngo 
 as one of six poets who 
 
 writings' ' Thocht they be deid their libels been levand,' 
 
 but so far as the facts of his life are concerned he is 
 now to us little more than a name; and it is im- 
 possible to single him out from among several Mersars 
 mentioned in the Treasurers Accounts, or indeed 
 to tell whether he really is mentioned there. He 
 is usually referred to only as the author of one 
 authenticated poem, The Perell of Paramours, but 
 in addition to it other two are assigned him in 
 the Bannatyne MS. : (1) Off Luve qukay Lyikis to 
 haif Joy, and (2) Thir Billis are Brevit ; and all 
 three exactly tally with Dunbar's eulogy of him, 
 for they are by no means bad examples of the 
 aphoristic love-ballad. Off Luve qukay Lyikis,
 
 MERSAK 137 
 
 partly in the French octave of five accents, partly 
 in rime royal, is occupied with advice in the art of 
 love, and begins thus : 
 
 ' Off luve quhay lyikis to half joy or confbrt, 
 
 Ye man begin and leir this A. B. C. leam 
 
 Heireftir writtin ; quha will it rycht repoirt ? 
 First to be courtess, wyiss, gentill and fre, 
 Lairge, honest, gentill, bayth secreit and prove 
 
 And of him self na vantour, as I wene : deem 
 
 Be sobir, trew and every day luste, 
 
 And quhair thow luvis se thow be senedill sene.' seldom seen 
 
 Here also is a sample of its particular advice : 
 
 ' Gif mony luvaris thi lady will persew, 
 
 Swa at thow leif nocht in jolesy ; See 
 
 Scho is the bettir swa that scho be trew : s 
 
 Non wald hir luve was scho nocht womanly. not 
 
 Repair nocht till hir ay oppinly, 
 Bot in all tyme be reddy hir to pleis, 
 Howbeit thi hairt thow think sumtyme at weiss.' opposed 
 
 The Perell of Paramours, in the French octave of 
 four accents with a refrain, takes, however, a much 
 severer view of love, as may be judged from this 
 opening stanza : 
 
 ' Allace, so sobir is the micht 
 
 Of wemen for to mak debait, 
 Incontrair menis subtell slicht, skUl 
 
 Quhilk ar fulfillit with dissait. SS ftSl 
 
 With tressone so intoxicait 
 Ar mennis mowthis at all houris, 
 
 Quhome in to trest no woman wait : knows 
 
 Sic perrell lyis in paramouris.' 
 
 The last, Thir Billis, in rime royal, is intended for 
 the special behoof of ladies, and concludes : 
 
 ' Be war for weir, latt nevir your wit go wyld, tarable f 
 
 For every day ane sample may ye se ;
 
 138 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 young man 
 
 without 
 goodness ; 
 pin 
 
 loathsome ; 
 toad 
 
 ill-will 
 
 Scho that is forest fra tyme hir fame be fyld 
 Thair will no berne be blyth of hir bewte, 
 Bot ay are skornand bayth he and he. 
 Thus I conclude, suppois my wit be grene, 
 Bewty but bonty is nocht wirth a prene.' 
 
 Of the two Roulls thus lamented by Dunbar 
 
 ' He has tane Roull of Aberdene 
 And gentill Roull of Corstorphine ; 
 Twa better fallows did no man se 
 Timor mortis conturbat me ' 
 
 Sir John Roull. 
 
 nothing is known, though one or other must have been 
 the author of The Cursing of Sir Johne 
 Rowlis Upon the Stelaris of his Fowlis, 1 
 a sort of mock excommunication of those who had de- 
 frauded him of his religious dues. Written in the octo- 
 syllabic couplet, it is a curious compound of jest and 
 earnest, blasphemy, and, apparently, piety, and amid 
 much of the merest Billingsgate contains some passages 
 of real denunciatory vigour. Here is a sample : 
 
 ' Deip Acheron zour saulis invaid 
 As blak, as mich as ony taid ; 
 Snaykis, serpentis and eddeirs 
 Mott stuff zour bellyis and zour bledderis, 
 In hellis hoill quhair nevir is licht, 
 Nor nevir is day, bot evir nicht, 
 Quhair nevir is joy evin and morrow, 
 Bot endles pane, dule and sorrow ; 
 Quhair nevir is petie nor concord, 
 Nor amitie, bot discord, 
 Malice, rancour and invy, 
 With magry and malancholy ; 
 
 i Bannatyne and Maitland MSS. , printed in Lord Hailes' Collection, 
 1770 ; Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786 ; and Laing's Select 
 Remains, 1822, second ed. 1885.
 
 QUINT YNE SCHAW 139 
 
 * 
 
 Quhair thair is hunger, cald, and thirst 
 Dirknes, niirknes, rouk, and mist, exhalation 
 
 And Cair, lout consolatioun without 
 
 With eternal damnation.' 
 
 The only other poet mentioned in The Lament 
 known to be the author of any poerns that survive, 
 is Quintyne Schaw, whom Kennedy in 
 
 . . -i TX TI -i Quintyne 
 
 his Fly ting with Dunbar calls his 'cousing schaw 
 Quintine,' and who, Dunbar in his Flyting I504 
 states, composed with Kennedy a poem in their own 
 praise. He and Kennedy belonged to Ayrshire, 
 Schaw being the son of a certain John Schaw of 
 Hails, who in 1467 was an ambassador for the 
 marriage of James in. with Margaret of Denmark. 
 He died some time after 8th July 1504. Since he 
 was in receipt of a pension of 10, and occasionally 
 got other gifts, it is probable that like Dunbar he 
 frequented the court; and this obtains some corro- 
 boration by the only poem, known to be his, that has 
 come down to us. It is entitled Adveyce to a Cour- 
 tier, 1 and if not remarkable as poetry, is soundly 
 sensible in its counsel. The stave consists of 
 five lines of four accents, aa, bab. Here are two 
 stanzas : 
 
 ' Gif changes the wynd, on force ye mon if; O f neces- 
 
 Bolyn huke, haik, and scheld 2 hold on. must 7 
 
 Thairfor bewar with ane scharpe blawar : 
 
 Gif ye be wys avyce heiron ; 
 And set your sale a litle lawar. 
 
 1 Maitland MS., published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 
 1786. 
 
 3 A technical description of the handling of a vessel, not now 
 fully understood, although 'Bolyn' of course means bowline.
 
 140 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 if; too tight For gif ye hauld your sale ouir strek 
 
 blasts Thair may cum bubbis ye not suspek ; 
 
 Thair may cum contrair ye not knaw ; 
 Thair may cum stormes and caus a lek, 
 must ; wave That ye man cap by wynd and waw.' 
 
 Other poets mentioned by Dunbar Heryot, Mungo 
 Lockart, Sandy Traill, Sir John the Ros, 'Gentill 
 poets whose Stobo ' have left nothing known to be 
 now k knownto tne u* s . although some anonymous poetry 
 survive. m fa e Bannatyne or Maitland or other 
 
 MSS. may have been written by one or other of 
 them. Sir Gilbert Hay, alluded to rather curtly, is 
 only known as the ' makar ' of translations several 
 in prose, and a very long one in verse, The Buke of 
 the Conqueror, Alexander the Great. 1 It is unlikely 
 that Dunbar, though he made no mention of James I., 
 omitted other dead poets of note ; but no doubt there 
 were in this as in all other centuries a number of 
 very minor bards, as one Glassinbery, a dull set of 
 verses by whom is printed in Laing's Early Metrical 
 Tales (1826, 2nd edition 1885). Of the large bulk of 
 anonymous poetry (see post, p. 277) that survives 
 much must belong to the fifteenth century, and various 
 poets of note who wrote in the following century 
 produced much of their best work in the fifteenth. 
 Except Dunbar, none of these old Scots poets can 
 claim to rank as great; but the general level of 
 excellence especially as regards form is very high. 
 Nearly all already alluded to cultivated poetry with 
 
 1 MS. at Taymouth Castle extracts printed by the Bannatyne 
 Club, 1834.
 
 HERYOT, ETC. 141 
 
 the most strenuous endeavour after metrical ex- 
 cellence ; and while the Chaucerian influence assisted 
 to widen and elevate their aims, the strong realism 
 of the native tradition tended to prevent that 
 Chaucerian degeneration which in England was in 
 such marked contrast with the rise of the vigorous 
 Scottish school, whose great master was Dunbar.
 
 VI 
 
 DUNBAR, AND WALTER KENNEDY 
 
 WALTER KENNEDY, the antagonist of Dunbar in The 
 
 Fly ting, enjoyed in his day a poetic fame only second, 
 
 if second, to that of Dunbar. In Gavin 
 
 Walter 
 
 Kennedy Douglas's Police of Honour he is entitled 
 'Greit Kennedie' and bracketed with 
 ' Dunbar yit undeid ' ; and Sir David Lyndsay cele- 
 brates his 'terms aureate,' which no one can 'now 
 counterfeit.' Born about 1460 probably in the 
 same year as Dunbar Kennedy was of noble descent, 
 being the third son of Gilbert, first Lord Kennedy, 
 who was heritable bailie of the Carrick district of 
 Ayr. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, 
 where he matriculated in 1475, and took his Bachelor's 
 degree in 1476, and his Master's in 1478. From 
 Dunbar's allusions in The Flyting one gathers that 
 he was rather a needy younger son, and lived a rude 
 country life; but he himself asserts that he had 
 ' stores and stakkis,' and that Dunbar would be glad 
 to gnaw stinking bones under his board behind the 
 dogs' backs. Whatever may be the truth as to his 
 ' stores,' little is known of him, except that in 1481 
 he was one of the examiners in Glasgow University, 
 in 1492 was bailie-depute of Carrick, and in 1504 
 
 142
 
 DUNBAR AND WALTER KENNEDY 143 
 
 acquired the lands of Glentigh. Occasionally, to 
 quote the invective of Dunbar, he 'brought the 
 Carrick clay to Edinburgh corse'; but Dunbar 
 derides him as a mere countryman, whose 'lippis' 
 could ' blabber ' only the ' Ershry ' (the Erse language) 
 of the Strathclyde Welsh. He was tall, and not 
 improbably well enough looking, for Dunbar, con- 
 scious of his own short, and it may be rotund, figure, 
 makes special mockery of his length and leanness : 
 
 ' The larbar lukis of thy lang lene craig, lazy ; neck 
 
 Thy pure pynit thrott, pelit and owt of ply, starved; bare 
 
 Thy skolderit skin, hewd lyk ane saffirone bag shrivelled 
 
 Garris men dispyt that flesche, thow spreit of Gy : {om S ' C n " 
 
 Ffy feyndly ffront ; fly ! tykis face, ffy ! ffy ! 
 
 Ay loungand, lyk ane loikman on ane ledder ; hangman 
 
 Thy ghaistly luke fleys folkis that pas the by, scares 
 
 Lyke to ane stark theif glowrand in ane tedder.' starfif ' 
 
 Unless the illness under which he suffered when 
 Dunbar wrote his Lament resulted otherwise than 
 was apprehended, Kennedy died probably in 1507, 
 for he is the subject of this touching stanza : 
 
 ' Gud Maister Walter Kennedy 
 
 In poynt of dede lyis veraly ; death 
 
 Gret ruth it wer that so suld be : 
 Timor mortis conturbat me,' 
 
 This stanza would seem to indicate that Dunbar 
 held Kennedy in high esteem, and the next that he 
 even regarded him as his last remain- 
 
 The Flyting, ' 
 
 ing contemporary brother ; but it does was it wholly 
 not follow that The Flyting between the 
 two poets though sanctioned by ancient custom 
 was a merely playful duel in metrical skill and 
 epartee. Even at the present day the Eastern Scot 
 
 r
 
 144 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 rather contemns (no doubt unjustly) his brother of 
 the West ; and in Dunbar's time the old antagonism 
 between the Saxon of Lothian and the Welsh Celt 
 of Cambria was more than latent, although not so 
 active as between the Saxon and the uncivilised 
 Celt of the Highlands. We may therefore infer that 
 The Flyting indicates, if not direct enmity, a certain 
 racial jealousy ; but Dunbar was never one to cherish 
 mere personal animosity, and perhaps enjoyed what 
 he got almost as much as what he gave. 
 
 Kennedy's part in The Flyting cannot quite com- 
 pare with that of Dunbar in metrical ease, in masterly 
 Kennedy's alliteration, in sumptuousness of ribaldry, 
 wTt t h C thTt P of ed k variety of ridicule, or in impetuosity 
 Dunbar. o f invective ; but it is not much awanting 
 
 in any of these attributes, and in Dunbar's not un- 
 eventful career Kennedy had a richer supply of 
 satirical material. More genealogical, historical, and 
 specifically personal, he at least holds his own as re- 
 gards asserted facts, and his final salute, though by no 
 means his deadliest, and but a feeble reflex of Dunbar's 
 metrical effects, is not without perorative power : 
 Devil-born ; c D eu ibe re thy spere of were, but feir, thou yelde, 
 
 wftr i witii- ii I* 
 
 out doubt Hangit, mangit, eddir-stangit, stryndie stultorum, 
 
 offspring of To me, maist hie Kenydie, et flee the felde, 
 
 Pickit, wickit, conwickit, Lamp Lollardorum. 
 Defamyt, blamyt, schamyt, Primas Paganorum. 
 Out ! out ! I schout, apon that snowt that snevillis. 
 Tale tellare, rebellare, induellar wyth the deuillis, 
 Spynk, 1 sink with stynk ad Tertara Termagorum.' 
 
 1 Spynk = Finch, and is used of course as a term of reproach, but 
 the exact meaning is now lost.
 
 DUNBAR 145 
 
 Owing, it may be, to his Western connection, few of 
 Kennedy's other poems have been preserved, and we 
 may well believe that none of these are Other poems 
 the most characteristic, all of them being of Kennedy- 
 somewhat didactic. 1 Perhaps the best is that Againis 
 Mowth ThanJdes. It is in the French octave with 
 refrain, and shows a certain refinement of style. It 
 begins 
 
 ' Ane aigit man twyss fourty yeiris, A 
 
 Eftir the halydayis of Yule, Christmas 
 
 I hard him say, amangis the freiris 
 
 Of ordour gray, makand grit dule, lamentation 
 Eycht as he wer a fowriwss fule ; 
 
 Oft syiss he sicht and said, " Allace, qrttimes he 
 
 T, Vn sighed 
 
 Be Chryst, my cair ma nevir cule, 
 
 _,, . T , . served the 
 
 That evir I scherwit mowth thankles." ' thankless 
 
 mouth 
 
 Like Kennedy, Dunbar was probably a scion of the 
 nobility ; for Kennedy taunts him with descent from 
 Cospatrick, Earl of March, generated 
 
 William 
 
 betwixt a she-bear and a 'deill, and Dunbar 
 callit ' Dewlbeir and nocht Dumbar ' ; 
 it has also been conjectured that he was the son or 
 nephew of William, third son of Sir Patrick, who was 
 the fourth son of George, tenth Earl of Dunbar; 
 but there is no evidence on the point, beyond the 
 fact that he was a native of Lothian born about 1460. 
 Intended for the Church from his 'nurse's knee,' 
 Dunbar was educated at the University of St. 
 Andrews, where he took his Bachelor's 
 
 Lumbar as 
 
 degree in 1477 and his Master's in 1479. a novice. 
 From the fact that he dates one of his poems 'at 
 
 1 Five are printed in Laing's ed. of Dunbar. 
 K
 
 146 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 bear 
 
 God knows 
 
 falsehood 
 
 expelled 
 
 Oxinfurde,' it has been supposed that he continued 
 his studies at Oxford University; but the poem 
 indicates rather a mere casual visit to Oxford. It is 
 much more certain that he studied at Paris. At some 
 unknown date he entered the order of St. Francis, 
 and while still in his noviciate went on a preaching 
 and mendicant tour, and after making ' good cheir ' 
 in every ' lusty town and place ' 
 
 ' Off all Yngland from Berwicke to Kalice,' 
 
 and preaching ' eik in Canterbury/ he so he rehearses 
 in his poem How Dunbar wes desyred to be ane Freir 
 
 crossed from Dover and continued his wanderings 
 through Picardy, where he not only the ' peple techit,' 
 but engaged, as was indeed then almost the con- 
 ventional habit of his profession, in quite contrarient 
 practices : 
 
 1 As lang as I did beir the freiris style 
 In me, God wait, was rnony wrink and wyle, 
 In me was falset with every will to flatter, 
 Quhich mycht be flemit with na holy waiter : 
 I wes ay reddy all men to begyle.' 
 
 On his return from his wanderings, he felt unable 
 to refuse the world and accept the monastic habit 
 
 At the court ^ e ^ er ^ ^ scared him, he affirmed, 
 of james iv. g^ if h e had been frightened by a ghost, 
 
 but he became a secular priest. In 1491 he 
 accompanied the embassy sent to negotiate for the 
 marriage of James iv. with a princess of France, 
 and this failing, it would seem that he also went
 
 DUNBAK 147 
 
 with the deputations to various other countries, 
 for hi his verses on The World's Instabilitie, he 
 ventures to remind the king that he had served him 
 also in Germany, Italy, and Spain, this in addition 
 to England and Ireland. An allusion in The Flyting 
 shows that he was also on one occasion wrecked 
 on the coast of Norway. From at least as early 
 as 1500 and it may be from or before 1491 he 
 was a recognised official at court, probably a notary, 
 for it was in this capacity that hi 1501 he was in- 
 cluded in the embassy to England for arranging the 
 marriage of James iv. with the Princess Margaret. A 
 favourite with Queen Margaret from the time that he 
 celebrated the royal marriage in The Thrissil and the 
 Rois, he was also on easy terms with the accom- 
 plished, manly, chivalrous, dissolute, superstitious, 
 headstrong, and entirely human James iv. ; and the 
 society at the court of this characteristic Stewart king 
 its jovial freedom, its eager greed, its motley crowd 
 of ' solicitaris,' its amusements, revelries, and coarse 
 indecorums is mirrored in the facets of his many- 
 sided verse. 
 
 At the court he never held more than a compara- 
 tively humble post. His constant hopes of a benefice 
 were doomed to disappointment; and HisdUap- 
 though one cannot accept the satires of payments. 
 Kennedy in The Flyting with perfect seriousness, we 
 may, without doing great injustice to Dunbar, infer 
 that his reputation was not quite consistent with his 
 grave ambitions :
 
 148 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 benefice quha wald gyve sic ane beste, 
 Bot gif it war to gyngill Judas bellis, 1 
 Useless Tak tb.6 a fidill, or a fleyt et geste 2 
 
 fellow Wndought, than art ordanyt to not ellis.' 
 
 On 15th August 1500 he, however, obtained a 
 
 pension of 10 for life, and this in 1507 was increased 
 
 to 20, and in 1510 to 80. His poetic 
 
 His pension, 
 
 last years, gifts were no doubt his main passport to 
 the favour both of the king and queen, 
 and if his designation as ' the rhymer of Scotland ' in 
 the grants to him by Henry vn. in 1501 is not to be 
 taken as implying that he was formally recognised in 
 Scotland as ' poet laureate/ he probably owed his pen- 
 sion chiefly to his poetry. At the same time he based 
 his claims to a benefice, not on his poetical accom- 
 plishments, but on his personal services to the king. 3 
 How he fared after the death of James iv. at Flodden 
 in 1513 there is no record : he may have retained the 
 pension of 80 until his death ; but he never attained 
 to any position at all commensurate with his ambition 
 or his talents. Making a false step at the beginning 
 of his career, he was all his after years in conflict 
 with his circumstances ; and the nut of life conceded 
 to him no satisfying kernel : 
 
 ' I seek abowte this world onstable 
 To find a sentence convenable ; 
 
 1 To betray Christ as Judas did. 
 
 2 Take a fiddle or a flute and recite stories (as the minstrels did). 
 1 Mr. Oliphant Smeaton ( William Duribar, p. 50) suggests that 
 
 Dunbar was confidential agent of the king both in politics and love. 
 The surmise is perhaps feasible, but no sufficient evidence is adduced 
 to warrant the acceptance of the surmise as fact.
 
 DUNBAR 149 
 
 Bot I can not in all my witt 
 Sa trew a sentence find of it 
 As say it is dissavable.' 
 
 He died probably in 1520; but not even his place 
 of burial is known. 
 
 Dunbar's poetry 1 is almost as full of self-revelation 
 as that of Burns. With a candour that is entirely 
 naive he paints the picture of his novitiate Dunbar . s se i f . 
 in its unedifying completeness, and un- Delation, 
 feignedly proclaims his preference for the charms 
 of secular licence to the ' holy weid ' of the monk ; 
 if less scientifically skilled in the ' Kevins glory ' 
 of gastronomy than a Brillat-Savarin, or a Ber- 
 choux, he dilates on its blissful results with an 
 equal enthusiasm; drink and good fellowship he sings 
 
 1 Dunbar's poems are preserved in the Asloan, Bannatyne, 
 Maitland, and Reidpath MSS., and there are individual poems in 
 the Mackulloch MS. in the University of Edinburgh, in three MSS. in 
 the British Museum, and in a MS. vol. in the Town Clerk's Office, 
 Aberdeen. Seven were printed in Dunbar's lifetime by Chepman 
 and Myllar, Edinburgh, 1508. Selections were included in Ramsay's 
 Evergreen, 1724, and were also published by Lord Hailes, 1770, 
 Pinkerton, 1786, Sibbald, 1802, etc. ; but the first collected 
 edition was that by Laing, 1824, second edition with supplement, 
 1865. Of an edition by James Paterson, 1863, little can be said 
 by way of commendation. The Scottish Text Society's edition, 
 1884-1893, is elaborate as regards introductions, vocabulary, and 
 notes, but the most complete as regards text is that of Professor 
 Schipper, Vienna, 1892-93. An edition by H. Bellyse Baildon 
 appeared in 1907. Dr. Schipper has also published William 
 Dunbar sein Leben und seine Gedichte, 1834, in which he gives 
 specimens of Dunbar translated into German ; and he has 
 treated of Dunbar's metres in Englische Metrik, Bonn, 1882-1888, 
 and Orundriss der Englischen Metrik, 1895. William Dunbar by 
 Oliphant Smeaton ( ' Famous Scots ' Series), 1898, gives some new 
 particulars about Dunbar's earlier years.
 
 150 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 with much of the devil-may-care fervour of 'rantin 
 Robin ' : 
 
 ' Now all this tyme let YS be merry, 
 n * And set nocht by this world a cherry : 
 
 Now, quhile thair is gude wyne to sell, 
 worry He that does on dry breid virry 
 
 I give him to the devill of hell' ; 
 
 his own characteristic capers at The Dance in the 
 Quenis Cluilmer he parades with unaffected laughter 
 at himself; he vies with Burns in allusions to the 
 carnal; regarding his ambitions and disappoint- 
 ments he also gives us his full confidence ; and 
 in fine, he conceals none of his characteristic 
 moods : neither his profound persuasion of his 
 own deserts, nor his general contempt for human 
 nature, his sincere respect for occasional human 
 worth, his poignant melancholy, his patience and 
 blythe resolutions, his strong desires, his equally 
 strong conviction that all is vanity, his overwhelm- 
 ing sense of the might and his dread of death, ' the 
 strong unmerciful tyrand,' his more noble aspirations, 
 his orthodox piety, his conventional hopes of heaven. 
 The peculiar virtue of his verse is that it palpitates 
 with reality. It is an intensely true and living record 
 of himself, and certain aspects of the court 
 and burgess life of Scotland at the close of 
 the Middle Ages. No criticism of this strange and 
 strong poet not even Lowell's comparison of his works 
 to a mere field of thistles seems to me more hope- 
 lessly and delightfully inappropriate than the verdict
 
 DUNBAR 151 
 
 of Professor Courthope usually careful and judicious 
 who, preferring to Dunbar's vivid verse the elabor- 
 ate prolixities of Gavin Douglas, asserts that ' though 
 his works are of great importance to the antiquary, 
 he rarely touches those notes of human interest which 
 are a passport to the sympathy of the general reader.' 
 Here by one generalising sweep we have the 
 human race apportioned into the two great orders of 
 antiquaries and general readers, and we are further 
 almost given to understand that 'the sympathy of 
 the general reader ' is the one criterion of ' notes of 
 human interest.' But make of your ' general reader ' 
 what you will, Dunbar who in life was quite other 
 than dry-as-dust is less than most of the old poets 
 a fit companion for the mere antiquary. As for his 
 'notes of human interest,' he touches them if any- 
 thing too often and too variously rather than too 
 seldom. They are not all, it may be, a passport to 
 modern sympathy; but if even the 'general reader' 
 can find no congenial 'note of human interest' in, 
 say, The Lament for the Makaris, The Petitioun of 
 the Gray Horse, or Meditatioun in Wyntir, to name 
 but three poems out of many similar ones, then 
 the blame is not in Dunbar but in 'the general 
 reader,' and 'the general reader' is also a much 
 duller person than his worst enemies suppose. 
 
 In considering more specifically the characteristics 
 of Dunbar, one is at once arrested by the ease and 
 artistic finish of nearly all his productions. As a 
 mere master either of metre or language, he is not
 
 152 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 surpassed even by Chaucer, as he is not approached 
 
 by any of his predecessors except in a degree by 
 
 James i. or Henryson. The immense 
 
 A master of 
 
 metre and variety of his staves, and his almost 
 
 language . 
 
 uniform success in each, stamp him as 
 quite an exceptional expert in the artistic use of words. 
 For purposes of rhythm or rhyme language is in his 
 hands an absolutely ductile material Trace of effort 
 in his verse there is little or none, and very rarely 
 any faintest glimpse of the sacrifice of thought to 
 form or form to thought. Most likely half or more of 
 his poems have perished, for few were printed in his 
 lifetime, and none known to be in his handwriting sur- 
 vive. But in the some ninety pieces that may fairly 
 be ascribed to him, he attempted a greater variety 
 of metrical form than any predecessor. Besides 
 excelling in Chaucer's special metres, he profited 
 somewhat by Lydgate, but he seems also to have 
 studied nearly every form of the old English stave ; 
 and while, moreover, he did not disdain to use the 
 unrhymed alliteration as well as the rhymed stave 
 of the old northern romances, he also utilised his 
 familiarity with the French poetic methods to in- 
 troduce new metrical effects, especially in the case 
 of refrains. 
 
 His one surviving poem in unrhymed alliteration 
 
 is the more than Swiftian The Two, Merrit Wemen 
 
 unrhymed and the Wedo. Here is an example, in the 
 
 alliteration. beautiful lines describing the dawn of 
 
 the summer morning which gladdens you, while the
 
 DUNBAR 153 
 
 'gay wyffis/ having just concluded the baring of 
 their hearts to one another, are ' cooling their mouths 
 with comfortable drinks ' : 
 
 ' The morow myld wes et meik, the mavis did sing 
 And all remuffit the myst, et the meid smellit ; meadow 
 
 Siluer schouris doune schuke, as the schene cristall, bright 
 
 And berdis schoutit in schaw, with thair schill notis ; the woods 
 
 The goldin glitterand gleme, so gladit ther hertis, 
 Thai maid a glorius gle amang the grene bewis. 
 The soft souch of the swyr, et soone of the stremys, the wind in 
 
 The sweit sawour of the sward, and singing of foulis ; hollows 
 
 Myght confort ony creatur of the kyn of Adam ; 
 And kindill agane his curage thocht it wer cald sloknyt. quenched 
 Than rais thir ryall wivis, in ther riche wedis 
 And rakit hame to ther rest, through the rise blwmys.' underwood 
 
 While in this short specimen the alliterative con- 
 ventions of the older poets are broken though 
 broken rather by way of richness than of poverty 
 of alliteration not merely the perfect rhythmical 
 flow, but the musical melody and suggestiveness of 
 the lines indicate an admirable sense of the poetry 
 of words. 
 
 In much of his rhymed verse, also, Dunbar makes 
 skilful use of alliteration, and by lavish recourse to it 
 in the more denunciatory passages of Theold 
 The Flytinq immensely enriches their rhymed am - 
 
 J terative stave. 
 
 ludicrous effect; but the only surviving 
 example of his it is most probably his in the 
 rhymed alliterative stave of the old romances, with 
 the bobwheel, is the ballad detailing in such daring 
 terms the quenchless thirst of Kynd Kittok. Its 
 stave differs somewhat from any of the examples of
 
 154 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 rhymed alliterative verse previously quoted (see 
 pp. 36-38) in the formation of the bobwheel, the bob, 
 which introduces a new rhyme, being a full hemi- 
 stich. Here is an example : 
 
 1 And for to brew and baik : 
 
 heartily Friendis I pray you hertfully, 
 
 If Gif ze be thirsty or dry, 
 
 Drink with my gud dame as ze ga by 
 Once Anys for my sake.' 
 
 On one solitary occasion in that rapid rush of 
 The romance denunciation The Epi+aph for Donald 
 
 bobwheel as j. / 
 
 a stave. Owre (the Highland rebel, Donald Dubh) 
 
 he appropriates the old romance bobwheel to form 
 a complete stave, as thus : 
 
 ' In vice most vicious he excellis 
 
 meddles That with the vice of tresone mellis ; 
 
 Though Thocht he remissioun, 
 
 Have Half for prodissioun, 
 
 Schame and suspissioun, 
 Ay with him dwellis.' 
 
 Unless we regard the Freiris of Berwick as indu- 
 bitably Dunbar's, only once in the wholesome 
 contrast to The Twa Merrit Wemen and 
 
 The couplet : 
 
 heroic, and the Wedo, the lines in Prays of Women 
 
 octo-syllabic. .. , n _.., ., . 
 
 does he adopt Chaucer s heroic couplet ; 
 but he writes the octo-syllabic couplet of Barbour and 
 Chaucer with ease and spirit, as well as with orna- 
 mental touches which lend to it additional point and 
 vivacity. He employs it in nearly all the several 
 ritualistic divisions of The Dregy, in his picturesque 
 catalogue of The Solisitaris in Court, and both in
 
 DUNBAR 155 
 
 his Complaint and his Remonstrance to the King. 
 In The Dregy he, however, introduces variations in 
 the responses, adopting from the French what was 
 then known as the common rondeau, hi imitation of 
 a peal of bells inviting to the services of the church : 
 
 ' Tak consolatioun 
 
 in zour pane ; 
 In tribulatioun 
 
 tak consolatioun ; 
 Out of vexatioun 
 
 cum name again : 
 Tak consolatioun 
 
 in zour pane.' l 
 
 Of the French octave ab, ab, be, be both in its 
 four accented and five accented form, Dunbar makes 
 large use. Unlike Chaucer, he occasion- 
 
 The French 
 
 ally enriched it as in several stanzas of octave, with 
 The Flyting by the device of internal 
 rhymes, and, unlike Chaucer, he never made use of 
 it in the complete French ballade form, where the 
 identical rhymes of the whole first stanza are repeated 
 throughout the poem, but except in the solitary 
 instance of The Flyting he introduced the refrain. 
 
 1 Response No. 2 has two final lines in couplets, and Professor 
 Schipper (Altenglische Metrik, p. 382) therefore regards it as a form 
 of rime coude ab, aa, bb with internal rhyme. Mr. G. P. 
 M'Neill (Scottish Text Society's edition of Dunbar, in. clxxxix) 
 justly observes that the final couplet ' is not an integral part of the 
 strophe ' ; but it has further no right to a place in the response, 
 the title lube Domine benedicere having been omitted. Two 
 other examples of this rondeau in old Scots poetry are Pohvart, zee 
 peip, etc., in Montgomerie's Flyting (p. 257), and an anonymous 
 piece, Thus I propone (p. 298), in the Baimatyne and Maitland 
 MSS., printed in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, p. 211.
 
 156 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 This device was not, however, as editors have stated, 
 a free adaptation by Dunbar of the French ballade ; 
 for (1) the octave without refrain, as written by the 
 Scots ' makaris,' is as common in French poetry as 
 the ballade ; (2) the French ballade has the refrain, 
 and it is found in Chaucer's English ballades ; and 
 (3) the octave with refrain as written by Dunbar 
 was not only used by French poets as by Villon in 
 his double ballade, 1 but besides being frequently 
 found in Early English poetry, 2 was used by Henryson 
 and the Scots poets of the fifteenth century. Never- 
 theless, Dunbar utilised it with special ingenuity 
 and with great variety of effect : in elegies, as in that 
 on Lord Bernard Stewart, where the changes are 
 impressively rung on the 'flower of chivalrie'; in 
 the celebrations of ' the blyth and blissful burgh of 
 Aberdein/ and of London, ' the flower of cities all ' ; 
 in the enforcement of special moral maxims, as that 
 'without gladness availis no tresour'; in personal 
 eulogies, as that on Lord Bernard Stewart on his 
 return to England ' With gloire and honour, lawd and 
 reverence,' and on Queen Margaret 'Gladeth thou 
 Quenye of Scottis regioun'; in religious pieces, the 
 refrain being usually a Latin quotation, as in Done is 
 a Battell ' Surrexit Dominus de sepulchre ' ; and in 
 the enforcement of petitions, as in Sen that I am 
 a Prisoneir, where only the last word ' prisoneir ' is 
 common to all the refrains throughout the poem. 
 
 1 (Euvres, ed. Prompsault, Paris, 1835, pp. 150-153. 
 a See Wright's Political Poems, passim.
 
 DUNBAR 157 
 
 But in the bulk of Dunbar's other poems the 
 refrain is also a prevailing form. For the French 
 kyrielle aa, bb he shows a special 
 
 . ,. . . . , . , The Kyrielle. 
 
 partiality, using it in the stately Lament 
 for the Makaris, with its melancholy burden ' Timor 
 mortis conturbat me'; in the remonstrance Of James 
 Dog, with the humorous recapitulated warning, 
 1 Madam, ye heff a dangerous Dog ' ; in the whimsical 
 Amendis to the Tailzours and Sowtaris, with the 
 ludicrous iteration, ' Tailzours and Sowtaris blest be 
 ze ' ; and in some other dozen pieces with an equally 
 admirable discernment of its relation to particular 
 effects. 
 
 He also adapted the refrain to the five-line stave, 
 of four or five accents, derived from the French 
 rondeau. This stave, either aa, bb, a, 
 
 The five-line 
 
 without the refrain, or aa, bab with the stave, with 
 refrain, 1 is responsible for more than a 
 third of Dunbar's pieces. Here is the stave as 
 exainpled in part of a rondeau of Villon : 
 
 ' Sire, clarte perpetuelle, 
 Oui vaillant, plat n'y escuelle 
 
 N'eut oncques, n'ung brin de percil. 
 II fut rez, chef, barbe, sourcil 
 Comnie ung navet qu'on racle et pelle.' 
 
 Here is a stanza of unref rained D unbar, from 
 My Heid did Zak : 
 
 1 For an example of a stave thus arranged, but without refrain, 
 see Adveyce to a Courtier, by Quiiityne Schaw, ante, p. 139.
 
 158 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 * Full oft at morrow I wprise 
 Quhen that my curage sleipeing lyis, 
 
 For mirth, for menstrallie and play, 
 
 sport For din, nor dancing, nor deray 
 
 not awake It will nocht walkin me no wise.' l 
 
 And here are two stanzas from Of Ane Blak-Moir 
 as modified by Dunbar's special device of the 
 refrain : 
 
 ' Quhen scho is claid in reche apperrall 
 
 gnjjleg Scho blinkis als brycht as ane tar barrell ; 
 
 suffered Quhen scho was born, the sone tholit clippis 
 
 e j a ^y 6 The nycht he fain faucht in hir querrell : 
 
 bl _ My ladye with the mekle lippis. 
 
 w Quhai for hir saik, with speir and scheld, 
 
 mogt Preiffis maist mychtelye in the feld, 
 
 Sail kiss, and withe hir go in grippis 
 y, ence And fra thyne furth hir luff sail weld ; 
 
 My ladye with the mekle lippis. 1 
 
 We have also two examples The Petitioun of the 
 Gray Horse, and Now Culit is Dame 
 
 Six-line stave 
 
 with double Venus Brand of a stave of six four- 
 accented lines aaa, bbb the last two 
 forming a double refrain, thus : 
 
 in condition ' ^ l W3S ZOUn g and ^ P 1 ?' 
 
 And wald cast gammaldis to the sky, 
 
 I had beine bocht in realmes by, 
 adjoining Had I consentit to be sauld. 
 
 Schir, lett it nevir in toun be tald, 
 Christmas That I sould be ane zuillis zald.' 2 
 
 1 This is the In Memoriam stave of Tennyson, plus an additional 
 line at the beginning. 
 
 J Zald, yald, or yaud = an old, worn-out horse, not worth being 
 cared for.
 
 DUNBAR 159 
 
 Another instance of a double refrain is found in 
 The Satire of Edinburgh, which is properly a de- 
 velopment of the five-line stanza with The d0 ubie 
 refrain, an additional line being added to ^^ the 
 the beginning, and an additional line of bobwheei. 
 refrain being introduced in the form of a bob, the 
 refrain thus taking the form of a bobwheei, and the 
 stanza being composed of seven lines aaa, bbab 
 six of four accents, and one of two, thus : 
 
 ' At your hie Croce, quhair gold and silk high Cross 
 
 Sould be, thair is bot crudis and milk ; curds 
 
 And at zour Trone x bot cokill and wilk, whelk 
 Panches, pudingis of Jok and Jame : 
 
 Think ze nocht schame, not 
 
 Sen as the world sayis that ilk Since ; that 
 In hurt and sclander of zour name ! ' 
 
 It should be noted, however, that the word ' name,' 
 alone, is common to the last lines of refrain through- 
 out the poem. 
 
 In the seven-line stave of Chaucer ab, abb, cc 
 named by Gascoigne rime royal, Dunbar wrote 
 The Thrissil and the Rois, and other The seven-line 
 serious pieces, but he never fitted it as a*nd wTtii hout 
 some early English poets do (e.g. Lament refrain - 
 of the Duchess of Gloucester in Wright's Political 
 Poems, i. 205, and Lydgate in that rollicking variety 
 of the stave, the London Lyekpenny) with a refrain, 
 using instead a stave thus arranged aa, bb, cbc a 
 development of the five-line stave (see ante, p. 157). 
 
 1 The Trone was the public weighing-beam, which occupied the 
 site of the present Tron Church.
 
 160 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 All his verse in this stave is of a more or less humor- 
 ous, often coarsely humorous, kind. Here is an 
 example in two stanzas from Of a Dance in the 
 Quenis Clialmer, the broad buffoonery of the one 
 stanza piquantly contrasting with the devoted senti- 
 ment of the other : 
 
 Poet ' Than cam in Dunbar the Mackar, 
 
 nimbler On all the floore thair was nane frackar, 
 
 dance Mly And thair he dannsefc the dirrye dantoun ; 
 
 He hoppet lyke a pillie wantoun, 
 
 For luff of Mwsgraeffe, 1 men tellia me ; 
 u . ntu He trippet, quhill he tint his pantoun : 
 
 A mirrear Dance mycht na man se. 
 Than cam in Maestriss Mwsgraeffe ; 
 
 thf n 5 * he Scho mycht hef lernit all the laeffe ; 
 
 Quhen I saw hir sa trimly e dance, 
 Hir guid convoy and countenance, 
 Than, for hir saek, I wissit to be 
 The grytast erle, or duik in France : 
 A mirrear Dance mycht na man se.' 
 
 Dunbar's solitary example of a nine-line stave 
 aab, aab, bab is The Goldyn Targe. This stave was 
 The nine-une used by Blind Harry and Robert Henry - 
 tave. SOI1) an( j a ] so by Chaucer in Faire Anelida 
 
 and False Arcyte. 
 
 There is also a solitary example of the very old 
 
 octave stave in lines of four accents rhyming 
 
 alternately ab, ab, cd, cd (occasionally 
 
 Imperfect J . J 
 
 macaronic ab, ab, ab, ab, and ab, ab, ac, ac) in The 
 
 Testament of Mr. Andro Kennedy, a 
 
 Latin line alternating with the English one, thus 
 
 1 The wife of Sir John Musgrave, who accompanied Queen 
 Margaret to Scotland. Dunbar's jocular reference has been taken 
 very seriously by some critics.
 
 DUNBAR 161 
 
 forming an imperfect variety of macaronic verse. 
 Here is a stanza : 
 
 ' Nunc condo testamentum meum 
 
 I leiff my saull for euermair, leave 
 
 Per omnipotentem Deum 
 
 In to my lordis wyne cellare ; 
 Semper ibi ad remanendum, 
 
 Quhill domisday, without disseuer, t Until ; ce * 9 
 
 Bonum vinum ad bibendum 
 With sueit Cuthbert that luffit me never.' 
 
 This blended Latin and vernacular poetry is of very 
 early date. A long example in lines of three accents 
 is a Song on the Times, 1388. 1 
 
 In that superb piece of word music and rhymal 
 ingenuity, Ane Ballat of Our Lady, Dunbar makes 
 use of an octave of alternating rhyming 
 
 J Octaves with 
 
 lines of four and three accents respec- bobwheei 
 tively, but enriches it in the four accented 
 lines by two internal rhymes, and fits it with a 
 Latin refrain introducing a bobwheei of three lines. 
 Here is an example : 
 
 ' Haile sterne superne ! Haile in eterne, 
 
 In Godis sicht to schyne ! 
 Lucerne in derne, for to discerne darknen 
 
 Be glory and grace devyne ! By 
 
 Hodiern, modern, sempitern, 
 
 Angelica!! regyne ! 
 
 Our terne infern for to dispern fierceness 
 
 Helpe rudest rosyne. 
 
 Aue Maria, gratia plena ! 
 Haile, fresche flour femynyne ! 
 
 Zerne ws, guberne, wirgin matern J 68 " 1 , 
 
 toward 
 Of reuth baith rute and ryne. pity . gtem 
 
 1 Wright's Political Poems, i. 270. 
 L
 
 162 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Imperiall wall, place palestrall 
 
 Of peirless pulcritud ; 
 Trywmphall hall, hie tour royall 
 
 Of Godis celsitud ; 
 Hospi tall riall, the lord of all 
 
 Thy closet did include ; 
 
 TOM Bricht ball cristall, ross virginall, 
 
 Fulfillit of angell fude. 
 
 Aue Maria, gratia plena! 
 Thy birth has with his blude, 
 Fra fall mortall, originall, 
 cro Ws ranusound on the rude.' 
 
 For rime coude Dunbar shows no great partiality, 
 but what varieties of it he has recourse to he uses with 
 Rimecouee- his accustomed mastery. An example 
 six-line stave. o f j^ m a modification of its simplest 
 form, is his Sir Thomas Norray, plainly suggested 
 by Chaucer's Sir Thopas ; but instead of the 
 Chaucerian six-line stave built on two rhymes aab, 
 aab he uses a six-line stave built on three rhymes 
 aab, ccb the head lines having four accents and 
 the tail lines three : 
 
 listen ' Now lythis of ane gentill knycht, 
 
 trong Schir Thomas Norray wyse and wicht 
 
 And full of chivalrie : 
 Quhais father was ane grande Keyne, 
 His mother was ane Faire Queen 
 
 begotten G ttin be SOS8el T-' 
 
 The stave is derived from the Latin, but the min- 
 strels whom Chaucer burlesqued got it from the 
 Anglo-Norman. 1 
 
 By the device of repeating the rhyme of the tail 
 line, two six-line staves are linked together to form 
 
 1 For Anglo-Norman example, see Wright's Lyric Poetry, p. 55.
 
 DUNBAR 163 
 
 the twelve-line stave of The Dance of the Sevin 
 Deidly Synnis and The Turnament, aab, ccb, ddb, eeb. 
 Numerous examples of this stave are to 
 
 L _ Rimecouee 
 
 be found in Early English, and there is a tweive-une 
 curious variation on it in Latin Against 
 the Lollards, 1381, 1 made by interchanging the rhyme 
 of the head and tail lines, thus; aab, aab, bba, bba. 
 In The Turnament it admirably conveys the regular 
 succession of incidents, and in The Dance the regular 
 movements completing the dance of the several sins, 
 a stanza being allotted to each sin, thus : 
 
 ' Than Yre come in with sturt and strife ; Then ire 
 His hand wes ay vpoun his knyfe, 
 
 He brandeist lyk a beir : tear 
 
 Bostaris, braggaris, and barganeris, wranglers 
 Eftir him passit in to pairis, 
 
 All bodin in feir of weir ; <^* arb 
 In iakkis, and stryppis and bonettis of steill, 
 
 Thair leggis wer chenzeit to the heill, S8SS25 
 
 Ffrawart wes thair affeir : Frowart; 
 
 Sum vpoun vdir with brandis beft, | ait 
 
 Sum jaggit vthiris to the heft, handle 
 
 With knyvis that scherp cowd scheir.' cut 
 
 Dunbar supplies only one example of the common 
 eight-line stave divided into two equal sections, 
 Ouha will behold of Luve the Chance. 
 
 Rime cou6e 
 
 which is built on two rhymes only, eight-iine 
 aaab, aaab, the head lines being of four 
 accents, and the tail lines of two only ; but we have 
 two instances of a sixteen-line stave, The Fenzeit 
 Freir, and if it be Dunbar's Ane Littill Interlud 
 
 ' Wright's Political Poems, i. 231.
 
 164 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 built on four rhymes, aaab, cccb, dddb, eeeb. In 
 Tlie Fenzeit Freir the tail lines have three accents, 
 and the first and concluding staves are of twenty- 
 four lines. In Ane Littill Interlud the tail lines 
 have two accents only. 
 
 The only remaining example of rime coue'e is Thir 
 Ladyis Fair, of twelve lines built on four rhymes, 
 Rimecouee- aaD > aa b, c d, CC( 1, the head lines 
 tweive-hne having only two accents and the tail lines 
 
 stave of short * 
 
 lines. three. It is formed by doubling a six- 
 
 line stave fashioned on the imperfect Iambic tetra- 
 meter, 1 of which there are examples in Early Norman, 
 and which became very common in England in the 
 sixteenth century. The six-line stave is used by 
 Alexander Scott (see post, p. 244) both singly and as 
 part of a compound stave. 
 
 But apart from his mere achievements in rhyme 
 
 and rhythm, Dunbar is a special master of the art 
 
 bar ag a of expression, and if not a greater, a more 
 
 master of curious master than Chaucer. In such 
 
 1 terms aureate ' . 
 
 The Thrissii excessively allegorical poems as The 
 Goldyn Targe and The Tkrissil and the 
 Rois where the influence of the English ' makaris ' 
 is at its strongest he exhibits wonderful expertness 
 in the floridly ornamental style which was deemed 
 the fitting convention for such themes. It is all 
 elaborately artificial for even the 'intense sense 
 of colour/ which some critics praise, is a mere 
 mechanical intensity assumed for the nonce and 
 1 See Guest, English Rhythms, p. 587.
 
 DUNBAR 165 
 
 resulting in the production of a landscape which, 
 instead of glorifying, gives the lie to Nature but 
 the effect, if really cold, is at least nobly melodious. 
 Here is an example from The Goldyn Targe : 
 
 ' Full angellike thir birdis sung thair houris those 
 
 Within thair courtyns grene, in to thair bouris, 
 
 Apparlit quhite and red, with blumys suete ; 
 Anamalit was the felde \vyth all colouris, 
 The perly droppis schuke in silvir schouris, 
 
 Quhill all in balme did branch and levis flete ; float 
 
 To part fra Phebus, did Aurora grete, 
 Hir cristall teris I saw hyng on the flouris, 
 
 Quhilk he for lufe all drank vp with his hete.' Which 
 
 In deference, it may be, to the English convention, 
 Dunbar thought fit to celebrate the praise of London in 
 the same highly decorative fashion. But, 
 all the same, the poem indicates a special 
 mastery in the art of eulogy, and if occasionally the 
 imagery be too formal and traditional, yet to what 
 stately music has he set his numbers ! 
 
 ' Aboue all ryuers thy Eyuer hath renowne, 
 
 Whose beryall stremys, pleasaunt and preclare, 
 Under thy lusty wallys renneth down, 
 
 Where many a swanne doth symme with wyngis fare ; 
 
 Where many a barge doth saile, and row with are, 
 Where many a ship doth rest with toppe-royall, 
 
 ! towne of townes, patrone and not compare : 
 London, thou art the floure of Cities all.' 
 
 Yet excellent, in their own way, though these 
 samples of Dunbar's ' terms aureate ' be, they are 
 mainly an echo of other 'makaris,' and moreover 
 the echo of an affectation: they represent Dunbar 
 as the disciple, the imitator, the masquerader, not
 
 166 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Dunbar as himself, as a new poetic force, as the 
 assirnilator of many poetic influences English, 
 Dunbar Scottish, French to his own growth in 
 
 K"aV en individual skill and grace. Never, of 
 terms aureate. 'course, is his individuality entirely hid 
 amongst the profusion of his ' terms aureate ' : even 
 in The Goldyn Targe, besides the rhythmical music 
 and the polished diction, we have occasional ex- 
 amples of the condensed vividness of phrase and 
 epithet in which he excels all his predecessors (e.g. 
 ' The skyis rang for schouting of the larkis,' ' Ane 
 saill as quhite as blossom vpon spray,' 'The schour 
 of arrowis rappit on as rayn/ ' For reird it seinyt that 
 the raynbow brak'); but these are mere isolated 
 violations of his ' terms aureate,' violations that prove 
 the rule. It is only when he departs from the 
 allegorical and mannered method of his predeces- 
 sors, and trusts to his own artistic instincts to his 
 personal observations of nature and man, and to the 
 racy verni'ular of which he had such limitless 
 command that he does suitable justice to his gifts. 
 Happily his lapses into the allegorical and artificial 
 were only occasional. Indeed it is one of his chief 
 merits that he was not content to be merely imitative 
 even in manner, that he bent his energies to the 
 discovery of the mediums best fitted for the direct 
 and apt expression of each particular theme. 
 
 In no preceding poet does the verse, even in its 
 rhythmical form, more exactly mirror the sentiment 
 or thought. In the specially poetic quality of terse-
 
 DUNBAR 167 
 
 ness he outvies all his contemporaries or predecessors. 
 Even Chaucer is chargeable with the prolixity which is 
 the prevailing sin of all the early English 
 poets from Chaucer to Lydgate ; but in the 
 case of all Dunbar's more characteristic pieces, not 
 a stanza, not a line, not even a word is superfluous. 
 In this matter we may assume the influence of his 
 French predecessors and contemporaries, which is 
 further manifest in the polished perfection of his 
 stanzas, and he also owed not a little to the racy 
 vigour of the Scots vernacular ; but only by his own 
 sincerity and strength could he have achieved his 
 own individual triumphs. Yet the triumphs were 
 achieved at a certain cost. He is perhaps too 
 succinct, too unexpansive. His genius was, it may 
 be, ' cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd ' by his metres, by his 
 mere love of form, as it was by the peculiarities of 
 his career and circumstances ; but at least within his 
 own sphere he is, by virtue of his strong originality 
 and the perfection of his art, fully entitled to a place 
 among the worthiest. 
 
 The main theme of Dunbar is human nature, as 
 found in himself and the world around him, and 
 especially human nature represented from the 
 humorous or satirical point of view. His view is 
 comprehensive, and his method absolutely thorough 
 and sincere. Whatever, for example, may be thought 
 of his choice of such a subject as The Twa Merrit 
 Wemen and the Wedo however strange its coarse 
 Rabelaisism may appear to modern eyes there can
 
 168 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 scarce be two opinions as to its remarkable qualities 
 as literature. The great poetic beauty of several 
 passages, the cunningly executed contrasts between 
 appearances and reality, the vivid vigour of the nar- 
 rative, the entire matter-of-fact air that pervades 
 the indelicate gossip of the ladies all contribute to 
 the deadliness of the satire. Analysis of the poem is 
 almost impossible, and quotation difficult; but the 
 following lines from the introduction, though rather 
 in Dunbar's ornate manner, will show how skilfully he 
 indicates the painting of the outside of the cup and 
 platter : 
 
 ' I saw thre gay ladeis sit in ane grene arbeir, 
 decked with All grathit in to garlandis of fresche gudelie flouris ; 
 
 So glitterit as the gold wer thair glorius gilt tressis, 
 gr* ses Quhill all the gressis did gleme of the glaid hewis ; 
 
 Combed Kemmit was thair cleir hair, and curiouslie sched 
 
 Out over Attour thair schulderis doun schyre, schyning full bricht ; 
 
 kerchiefs ; With curches, cassin thame abone, of kirsp cleir and thin ; 
 beautiful ' Their mantillis grein war as the gress that grew in May sessoun, 
 Fastened Fetrit with thair quhyt fingaris about thair fair sydis : 
 
 marvellous Off ferliful fyne favour war thair faceis meik, 
 
 All full of flurist fairheid, as flouris in June ; 
 
 Quhyt, seimlie, and soft, as the sweit lillies ; 
 opened New vpspred vpon spray, as new spynist rose ; 
 
 verdure Arrayit ryallie about with mony rich wardour, 
 
 That nature, full nobillie, annamalit fine with flouris 
 every ; man Of alkin hewis under hewin, that ony heynd knew : 
 
 Fragrant, all full of fresche odour fynest of smell, 
 thost Ane marbre tabile coverit was before thai thre ladeis, 
 
 cups With ryale cowpis apon rawys full of ryche wynys.' 
 
 Two of the fair ladies were married to lords and 
 the third was a widow, 'wantoun of laitis.' The 
 more they 'wauchtit at the wicht wyne,' the more
 
 DUNBAR 169 
 
 unvarnished became their confidences to each other, 
 until they ' sparit no materis,' the matters they did 
 not spare being especially those of love and matrimony. 
 The two noble ladies' opinions of their husbands are 
 too expressive for quotation, and the experiences, 
 'wayis,' and 'wonderful gydingis' of the widow are 
 expounded with still greater liveliness. As for the 
 poet, his attitude is entirely neutral : he merely 
 reports 'thair pastance most mery,' and contents 
 himself with the ironical query : 
 
 ' Ze Auditoris, most honorable, that eris has gevin 
 Onto this vncouth aventur, quhilk airly me happinit ; 
 Of ther thre wantoun wiffis, that I haif writtin heir, those 
 
 Quhilk wald ze waill to zour wif, gif ze suld wed one 1 ' choose ' if 
 
 In somewhat piquant contrast to this gorgeous 
 picture of candid voluptuousness is the 
 
 ' Rycht airlie 
 
 daguerreotype of the two mutually dis- on Ask 
 
 IT -i i i . /v> , i Weddinsday.' 
 
 sembling old women, who, in affected 
 
 dread of Lentern 'leanness,' are seen early on Ash 
 
 Wednesday in earnest methodical bibulation : 
 
 ' Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday, 
 
 Drynkand the wyne satt cumeris tway ; gossips two 
 
 The tane cowth to the tother complene, could 
 
 Graneand and suppand cowd scho say, Groaning 
 
 " This lang Lentern makis me lene." lean 
 
 On cowch besyd the fyre scho satt, 
 
 God wait gif scho wes grit and fatt ! God knows 
 
 Zit to be feble scho did hir fene ; 
 And ay scho said, " Latt preif of that : Let me taste 
 
 This lang Lentern makis me lene." ' 
 
 Both are equally concerned about the debilitating 
 effects of Lentern, and each with ready deference to
 
 170 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the other's judgment recognises the virtue that lies in 
 wine as a sovereign antidote, and so : 
 
 ' Off wyne owt of ane choppyne stowp, 
 
 U P Thai drank twa quartis sowp and sowp, 
 
 Such Sic drowthe and thirst was thame betwene, 
 
 Bot than to mend thai had gud howp : 
 That Lanterne sould not mak them lene.' 
 
 Another still more impressive instance of female 
 
 thirst is that recorded in Kynd Kittok usually 
 
 assigned to Dunbar, detailing the ex- 
 
 Kynd Kittok.' 
 
 penences of the alewife of Falkland Fells 
 in the other world. Though she died of ' thirst,' 
 she set out to heaven without misgiving, and, after 
 wandering a little, met a newt riding on a snail, 
 who permitted her to sit behind him until they 
 reached the inn at heaven's gate. Here she had 
 an opportunity of quenching her thirst, and on the 
 following morning eluded St. Peter and got into 
 heaven privily. 'God,' we are told, 'lukit and saw 
 her lattin in, and lewch his hert sair ' ; but for seven 
 years she lived quite soberly as Our Lady's hen- wife, 
 
 ' And held Sanct Petir in stryfe, 
 Ay quhile scho wes in Hevin.' 
 
 But happening one day ' in an evil hour ' to look out, 
 the sight of the alehouse revived the old thirst : 
 
 highway ; go ' And out of Hevin the hie gait cowth the wyfe gang 
 
 For to get ane fresche drink, ze aill of Hevin was sour.' 
 
 Nothing doubting, she again returned and rang the 
 bell for re-entrance, but St. Peter was this time on
 
 DUNBAR 171 
 
 the look-out, and drove her away with his club, so 
 that she had nothing for it but to go back to her old 
 occupation the ' pitcheris to pour,' to ' brew and to 
 baik ' in this other- world alehouse, where the Poet 
 recommends his friends to call, on their way heaven- 
 wards, and 
 
 ' Drink with my gud dame as ze ga by 
 
 Anys for my sake.' Once 
 
 All these three sketches of female frailty are 
 qualified by a certain humorous mirth. In that 
 grim imagery of the recreations of Satan, 
 
 J ' The Dance 
 
 The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis, the of the sevin 
 
 . - Deidly Synnis.' 
 
 mood is wholly saturnine. Suggested by 
 the pageant of the Dance of Death, and by traditional 
 conceptions of the seven deadly sins such as those 
 of Langland and Chaucer the poem is yet a great 
 individual achievement. It has been compared, to 
 its disadvantage, with Langland's portrayal of the 
 sins, but Langland is not so strictly poetical as 
 expository, whereas Dunbar presents us with rapid 
 kaleidoscopic scenes of startling vividness. The 
 stanza on Ire has been already quoted (p. 163), 
 and here is a compendious spectacle of 'sweirness' 
 or sloth : 
 
 ' Syne Sweirnes, at the secound bidding Then Sloth 
 Come lyke a sow out of & midding, 
 
 Full slepy wes his grunzie : snout 
 
 Mony sweir bumbard belly huddroun sloven ' 
 
 Mony slute daw and slepy duddroun, sluttish sing 
 
 Him serwit ay with sounzie : * 8rd . : . drab 
 
 hesitation
 
 172 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 He drew thame furth in till a chenzie, 
 And Belliall, with a brydill renzie, 
 
 loin* Evir lascht thame on the lunzie : 
 
 In dance they war so slaw of feit, 
 They gaif thame in the fyre a heit 
 
 motion And maid thame quicker of counzie.' 
 
 The grimness of the horrid pageant is slightly re- 
 lieved by the ludicrous episode of Piper Macfadyane 
 and the Highlandmen ; but the noise of the outlandish 
 crew proved too much for the nerves even of Satan, 
 and with the gruesome stoppage of it the poem 
 concludes : 
 
 ' Thae tarmegantis, with tag and tatter 
 
 Gaelic began Ffull lowd in Ersche begowth to clatter, 
 
 croak And rowp lyk revin and ruke : 
 
 deafened The Devill sa devit wes with thair zell 
 
 That in the depest pot of hell 
 smothered He smorit thame with smvke.' 
 
 Other general satires are the Ballat against Evil 
 Women ; The Dream, directed against corruptions in 
 other general Church and State ; and those indictments 
 atires. o contemporary society, Devorit with 
 
 Dreme, and Quhome to sail I complene my Wo, the 
 latter filled with scathing stanzas like the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 every single ' Fra everilk mowth fair wirdis proceidis, 
 
 In every hairt disceptioun breidis ; 
 Fra everylk E gos luke demure, 
 Bot fra the handis gois few gud deidis : 
 
 ln Into this world may none assure.' 
 
 And ending with solemn reminders of a judgment 
 other than that of man :
 
 DUNBAE 173 
 
 1 ! quha sail weild the wrang possessioun, who 
 
 Or the gold gatherit with oppressioun, 
 
 Quhen the angell blawis his bugill stoure, strong 
 
 Quhilk vnrestorit helpis no confessioun ? Which 
 
 Into this warld may none assure.' 
 
 Satires of more specific application are Tidings 
 from the Sessioun and the Ladyis Solisitaris at Court, 
 both dealing and the latter somewhat 
 
 . , . Satires of 
 
 suggestively with the corruptions of specific 
 the law-courts ; The Satire on the Trades, app lc 
 or the Devil's Inquest, directed against the assevera- 
 tions of tradesmen as to the quality of their goods ; 
 Solisitaris at Court, a succinct summary of the 
 expedients employed to win the royal favour; the 
 Satire on Edinburgh, a graphic but unflattering 
 picture of the street scenes of old Edinburgh, of its 
 smells and squalor, its craftsmen, minstrels, street 
 sellers, and shouting crowds of sturdy beggars ; and 
 How Dunbar was desyrit to be ane Friar, which is 
 mainly biographical, and concludes with the revela- 
 tion that his tempter was not St. Francis but the 
 Devil : 
 
 ' He vaneist away with stynk and fyrie smowk 
 With him me thocht all the househend he towk 
 
 And I awoik as wy that wes in weir.' one; trouble 
 
 Some satirical pieces have particular persons for 
 their theme, as The Flyting (ante, p. 142) ; the pictur- 
 esque Testament of Andro Kennedy satires on 
 (ante, p. 160), suggested, it may be, but individ "ais. 
 nothing more, by the testaments of Villon; that 
 amazing parody of ancient combats, The Turnament,
 
 174 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 a mock heroic account the Devil being patron and 
 referee of an actual set-to betwixt a certain tailor 
 and a certain shoemaker ; the stinging Epitaph ' on 
 the fell strong traitour,' Donald Owre (ante, p. 154) ; 
 the ballad on the peculiar knightly adventures of Sir 
 Thomas Norray (ante, p. 162) ; We Lordis hes chosin 
 a chiftane vnervellouB, which 'chiftane mervellous' 
 was the Regent Albany; The Wowing of tJw King 
 QuJwn in Dunfermline, in which the ' ferly case ' of 
 his Majesty in the character of a tod (fox) is set 
 forth in caustic but unedifying detail; and TJce 
 Fenzeit Freir of Tungland, inspired by the doings 
 of a scientific quack, the Lombardian John Damian 
 promoted by the king to be Abbot of Tungland, and 
 especially by his futile attempt by artificial wings to 
 rise into the air at Stirling. 
 
 Some of the stanzas of this exuberant and brilliant 
 
 production are a sort of anticipation of Burns's Death 
 
 and Dr. Hornbook ; but its main feature 
 
 The Fenzeit . . 
 
 Freir of is the realistic picture of the attack on 
 
 this new and strange bird by the different 
 fowls of the air, the flight, movements, and cries of 
 the birds being suggested with great skill. Here is 
 one round of the combat : 
 
 cloud ' Thik was the clud of kayis and crawls, 
 
 Of marlezonis, mittanis and of mawis, 
 
 mewi ' That bikkirt at his berd with blawis 
 
 In battell him about ; 
 They nybbillit him with noyis and cry, 
 The rerd of thame raiss to the sky ; 
 And erir he cryit on Fortoun " Fy ! " 
 
 His lyfe was in to dowt.'
 
 DUNBAR 175 
 
 Finally he only escaped death by slipping out of 
 the 'feddreme' (feathering) into a bog up to the 
 eyes. His assailants thereupon 'dang' at the 'fed- 
 dreme,' sending all the feathers into the air, while he 
 lay scarce daring to breathe : 
 
 ' And he lay at the plunge evirmair 
 So lang as any ravin did rair ; 
 The crawis him socht with cryis of cair 
 
 In every schaw besyde. bosh 
 
 Had he reveiled bene to the rwikis, 
 Thay had him revin all with thair clwikia ; 
 Thre dayis in dub amang the dukis mire ; ducks 
 
 He did with dirt him hyde. 
 
 The air was dirkit with the fowlis darkened 
 
 That came with zawmeris and with /owl is ^owls" 1188 ' 
 
 With skryking, skrymming and with scowlis, screeching ; 
 
 To tak him in the tyde. screaming ' 
 
 I walknit with the noyis and schowte, awoke 
 
 So hiddorwis beir was me abowte ; uproar 
 
 Sensyne I cures that cankerit rowte since then ; 
 
 r\ i. T j i Irritated 
 
 Quhair evir I go or ryde. 
 
 As to the satiric tale The Freiris of Berwick, with 
 its curious glimpse of the ancient hostelry, and its 
 deftly humorous sketches of friar human , The Freir , 8 
 nature, there is no evidence that it was of Berwick.- 
 written by Dunbar ; and though quite worthy of his 
 powers, it seems to lack the special savour of his salt. 
 It is therefore dealt with under ANONYMOUS POETRY 
 (see p. 277). 
 
 Although so specially addicted to satiric humour, 
 Dunbar was, as eulogist, at least the Eu , OKi8t i c 
 equal of most poets laureate. The classic 
 stanzas on London have been already alluded to
 
 176 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 (p. 165); and Blyth Aberdein, commemorative of the 
 queen's visit to that city in 1511, is a delightfully 
 cheerful sketch of ancient burghal pageantry. Again, 
 the ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart, if a little too 
 ornate and high-flown, is skilfully attuned to the 
 pomp and circumstance of war ; and while the several 
 pieces in honour of the queen are seemingly written 
 con amore, the warmth of their loyalty is so tempered 
 with discretion as never to verge on fulsomeness, 
 although a certain poem, To the Queen, written on 
 Eastern's Eve, startlingly reveals that the discretion 
 of those days was different from that of our own. 
 
 Most of Dunbar's poems addressed to the king 
 A New Year's ta ^ e ^ ne form of requests; but there is one 
 Gift/ exception, A New Year's Gift, a faultlessly 
 
 graceful expression of good wishes. It begins : 
 
 give thee ' My prince in God gif th6 guid grace, 
 
 Joy, glaidness, confort, and solace, 
 Play, pleasance, mirth, and mirrie cheir 
 In hansell 1 of this guid new zeir.' 
 
 Specially interesting are those pieces in which 
 
 Dunbar directly or indirectly deals with himself: his 
 
 personal circumstances or his particular 
 
 TheDregy.' J; . 
 
 moods. Some are strongly Epicurean. 
 Thus, in that strange parody of the Romish funeral 
 service, The Dregy to the King bydand too lang 
 in Stirling, he humorously invokes the whole 
 spiritual hierarchy that the king may be delivered 
 from his penitential sorrows to the jovial bliss of 
 
 1 Hansell = the first gift, the gift on New Year's Day.
 
 DUNBAR 177 
 
 'meriness' with Dunbar and the court at Edin- 
 burgh : 
 
 ' Patriarchis, profeitis, and appostillis deir, 
 Confessouris, virginis, and marteris cleir 
 And all the saitt celestiall, tribunal 
 
 Devotely we vpoun thame call, 
 
 That sone out of zour painis fell, dire 
 
 Ze may in hevin heir with ws dwell, 
 To eit swan, cran. pertrik, and plever crane ; 
 
 ' f . \ partridge 
 
 And every fische that swymmis in rever ; 
 
 To drynk with ws the new fresche wyne, 
 That grew upoun the rever of Kyne, 
 Ffresche fragrant clairettis out of France 
 Of Angerss and of Orliance, 
 With mony ane course of grit dyntie ; 
 Say ze amen for cheritie.' 
 
 We cannot suppose that this admirable if rather 
 scandalous parody was actually sent to the king at 
 Stirling, for James was serious enough when the fit 
 was on him, but we may well believe that by the 
 iovial 'company of lordis and knychtis/ in whose 
 name Dunbar writes, its recital would be received 
 with much merry approbation. 
 
 There is every reason to suppose that Dunbar him- 
 self devoutly practised the doctrines which he thus 
 enticingly expounded. In his naive , Sanct 
 complaint as to the ' painfulness ' of his saiuatour.' 
 purse, Sanct Saiuatour: Send Siluer Sorrow, he 
 thus laments : 
 
 ' Quhen men that hes pursiss in tone, tune (well 
 
 Passis to drynk or to disione, dejeuner 
 
 Than mon I keip ane grauetie, must ; a 
 
 And say, that I will fast quhill none : un *il noon 
 
 My panefull purss so pricliss me. 
 
 1C
 
 178 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 such My purss is maid of sic ane skyn, 
 
 coin sty Thair will na corss byd it within ; 
 
 Fra it as fra the Feynd thay fle, 
 lose Quha evir tyne, quha evir win ; 
 
 My panefull purss so pricliss me.' 
 
 It is indeed only too probable that his many 
 
 importunate addresses to the king, for promotion to 
 
 a benefice, were prompted by constantly 
 
 The Petition . ... 
 
 of the Gray recurring pecuniary difficulties due in 
 part to his jovial habits. They are curi- 
 ously outspoken, and abound in shrewd aphorisms, 
 partly bitter, partly humorous, and expressed with 
 much cleverly varied felicity. In The Petitioun of 
 the Gray Horse humour is subtly mingled with 
 pathos : 
 
 ' I am ane auld horss, as ze knaw 
 
 pn ll That evir in duill dois drug and draw ; 
 
 stall Great court horss puttis me fra the staw 
 
 catch To fang the fog be firthe and fald ; 
 
 Schir, latt it nevir in toun be tald 
 Christmas That I sould be ane zuillis zald.' 1 
 
 It is mainly when he touches on human life its 
 follies and delights, its mischances, griefs, uncer- 
 tainties and vanity that he kindles into 
 
 Love-poems. . i < 
 
 true poetic warmth. In none of his few 
 love-poems does he attain to passionate emotion ; he 
 does on one occasion refer to 'a deadlie passioun 
 dolorous,' and in another makes use of the Language 
 of Flowers to illustrate to a lady that she has every 
 virtue except pity ; but we probably possess none of 
 
 1 A worn-out horse, not worth being cared for.
 
 DUNBAR 179 
 
 his youthful verses on the passion, none written 
 before he had acquired such convictions as the 
 following : 
 
 'Discretion and considerance 
 Ar both out of hir gouirnance ; 
 Quhairfoir of it the short plesance 
 
 May nocht indure ; not 
 
 Scho is so new of acquentance, 
 The auld gais fra remembrance : 
 Thus I gife our the obseruanss give over 
 
 Of luvis cure.' 
 
 But apart from passion his outlook on life is 
 strongly emotional. Such pieces as His outlook 
 Meditatioun in Wyntir and The Changes emotional' 3 
 of Life indicate a special susceptibility m fe. 
 to the influences of the weather and the seasons : 
 
 ' Quhen that the nycht dois lenthin houris, 
 With wind, with haill and havy schouris, spirit 1 -** 1 
 
 My dule spreit dois lurk for schoir, cower'foi 
 
 My hairt for languor dois forloir wearies 
 
 For laik of symmer with his flouris. 
 
 Zit, quhone the nycht begynnis to schort, 
 It dois my spreit sum part confort, 
 
 Off thocht oppressit with the schouris. 
 
 Cum, lustie symnier ! with thy flouris 
 That I may leif in sum disport.' live 
 
 Sometimes his mood is recklessly jovial, as in He 
 that His Gold, ending ' Now all this time let us be 
 merry/ etc. (see ante, p. 150), and in Man 
 
 11 Jovial mood. 
 
 sen thy Lyfe ^s ay ^n We^r, with the re- 
 frain, ' Thyne awin gud spend quhill thou has space.' 
 Yet he never attains to the light-hearted levity of
 
 180 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 not 
 
 foretime 
 
 remem- 
 brance 
 complete 
 
 Without 
 
 wearing 
 
 Villon, and indeed he most commonly advocates a 
 merely cheerful stoicism : 
 
 ' Be mirry man ! and tak nocht far in mynd 
 
 The wavering of this wrechit warld of sorrow 
 To God be hvniill, and to thy freynd be kynd, 
 
 And with thy nychtbouris glaidly len and borrow ; 
 
 His chance to-nycht it may be thyne to-morrow. 
 Be blyth in hairt for ony aventure, 
 
 For oft with wysmen it hes beene said aforrow 
 Without glaidness awailis no tressour.' 
 
 But occasionally from illness or special disap- 
 pointments his mood is much more sombre. In 
 The Lament for the Makaris the poign- 
 
 1 The Lament . . . , 
 
 for the ancy of the pathos is intensified, and 
 
 the melancholy deepened, rather than 
 relieved, by the very nobleness and sincerity of the 
 eulogy, and by his proud reverence for the vocation 
 in which he, like those he lamented, had ' played his 
 pageant.' His respect for the Muse was kin to that 
 of Burns, and equally with him he was convinced 
 that he had earned a lasting title to his country's 
 remembrance. No contemporary worker no archi- 
 tect, builder, goldsmith, lapidary, or other artificer at 
 the court had, he declares in his Remonstrance to 
 the King, accomplished anything which would outlast 
 what he had done : 
 
 ' Als lang in mynd my wark sail hald ! 
 Als haill in every circumstance, 
 In form and matter and substance, 
 But wering, or consuinptioun, 
 Roust, canker, or corruptioun, 
 As ony of thair workers all, 
 Suppois that my rewarde be small ! '
 
 DUNBAR 181 
 
 The Lament was no doubt more than suggested by 
 Villon's ballads on the 'dames' and 'seigneurs' of 
 olden time ; but while Dunbar's thoughts concentrate 
 on his poetic predecessors, Villon contrasts himself 
 with those of whom he sings, and his mood is lightly 
 defiant rather than melancholy. 1 
 
 Sometimes Dunbar's own hard lot made him, as 
 we have seen, specially bitter against the unright- 
 eously prosperous, and it begot an oc- Dunbar - s 
 casional melancholy which revealed itself melancholy, 
 in such refrains as 'All erdly joy returns in pane.' 
 
 1 Dunbar's final stanza, ' Sene for the deid remeid is none,' may 
 be held to express only the conventional view of the priest ; but 
 let us take these two : 
 
 ' Onto the ded gois all Estatis, 
 Princis, Prelotis, and Potestatis 
 Baith riche and pur of all degre ; poor 
 
 Timor mortis conturbat me. 
 
 Sen he has all my brether tane Since ; taken 
 
 He will nocht lat me lif alane ; not 
 
 On forse I man his nyxt pray be : Of necessity; 
 
 , . , . i 
 
 Timor mortis conturbat me, 
 
 The first of the stanzas reads like a mere echo of the first four 
 lines of Villon's Huitain, xlii. ; but the whole tone of the poem, as 
 is more especially seen in the second stanza now quoted, is in 
 absolute contrast with that of Villon as evidenced in the latter 
 part of the Huitain : 
 
 1 Puys que Papes, Roys, filz de Roys 
 Et conceux en ventre de Roynes, 
 Sont enseveliz mortz et froidz ; 
 
 En aultruy mains passent les Reynes ; 
 Moy, pauvre mercerot de Renes 
 Mourray Je pas ? Ouy se Dieu plaist ; 
 
 Mais que J'aye faict mes estrenes : 
 Honneste mort ne me desplaist.' 
 Compare also Dunbar's much inferior Momenta, Homo, Quodcinis es !
 
 182 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Necessarily also with advancing years years spent, 
 it may be, in penury and neglect, and, at any rate, 
 saddened with the defeat of many hopes melancholy 
 tended more and more to prevail, and it occasionally 
 assumed a hortatory form, as in Vanitas Vanitatum: 
 
 ' Walk furth pilgrame, quhill thow hes dayis lycht, 
 Forth from Dress fro desert, draw to thy dwelling-place ; 
 
 Speid home, for-quhy anone cummis the niclit 
 
 constant Quhilk dois the' follow with ane ythand chaise ! 
 
 Bend up thy saill, and win thy port of grace ; 
 
 For and the deith ourtak the in trespas 
 those Then may thou say thir wourdis with allace ! 
 
 Vanitas Vanitatum, et omnia Vanitas.' 
 
 Such pieces are usually classed as moral or religious, 
 but they represent rather the sapience of old age. 
 
 Religious Widely human as a moralist, Dunbar was 
 
 pieces. no ardent religionist. Thus his hymns 
 and other strictly religious pieces, apart from impres- 
 sive references to the shortness and uncertainty of 
 life, are sonorous and stately, but little more. He 
 remained nominally true to a great time-honoured 
 faith which, though it impressed his imagination, had 
 not much hold of his intellect, but for whose impos- 
 ing machinery he seems to have entertained a strong 
 traditional respect, and whose mysteries and observ- 
 ances he celebrated in nobly musical stanzas, em- 
 bodying sentiments and beliefs which were mainly 
 mechanical. 
 
 A place among poets of the first rank has been 
 claimed for Dunbar by Sir Walter Scott, who asserts 
 that ' in brilliancy of fancy, in force of description, in
 
 DUNBAR 183 
 
 the power of conveying moral precepts with terse- 
 ness, and marking lessons of life with conciseness 
 and energy, in quickness of satire and in His place 
 poignancy of humour,' he may 'boldly * d "f t p f e s r ~ 
 aspire to rival' Chaucer. 1 This strong waiter scott. 
 verdict even if allowance be made for patriotic pre- 
 judice should at least have assured to Dunbar 
 more careful, if not respectful, consideration than 
 some modern critics have bestowed on him. 
 
 By the late J. Russell Lowell 2 the very notion that 
 Dunbar was a poet at all was received with mere 
 derision. In his ' serious verses ' he could The late 
 
 J. Russell 
 
 find nothing that was not 'tedious and Loweii. 
 pedantic,' and his melodious and polished stanzas 
 he could only liken, for all the world, to ' unwieldy 
 hay-stacks of verse.' His humour was to Lowell only 
 the ' dullest vulgarity ' ; his satire, he conceded, ' would 
 be Billingsgate if it could,' but, failing, becomes 'a 
 mere offence in the nostrils.' Professing to regard 
 Dunbar with the same horror as he would a haggis, 
 he ' puts his handkerchief to his nose, wonders, and 
 gets out of the way as soon as he civilly can.' The 
 only excuse for such uncivil, if amusing, language 
 language which would apply equally to much of the 
 poetry, not merely of the old classical writers, but of 
 Chaucer, and even Shakespeare, which confounds 
 poetry with convention, takes no account of the fact 
 that Dunbar merely wrote as it was then customary 
 
 1 Memorials ofOeorge Bannatyne (Bannatyne Club, 1829), p. 14. 
 3 The English Poets, in the Camelot Series, London, 1888, pp. 13-17.
 
 184 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 to talk, and belittles or ignores all his admirable verse 
 that might be read without offence in the precisest 
 of drawing-rooms : the only excuse for such sportive 
 mockery of a great writer is that, Dunbar being some- 
 what difficult reading, Lowell allowed himself to be 
 scared from a systematic perusal by abnormal moral 
 delicacy. 
 
 But once a process of detraction is begun it is 
 bound more or less to run its course, and echoes of 
 
 Professor Lowell's criticism may be found rever- 
 
 courthope. k era k m g no isily or faintly in almost every 
 recent allusion to the old Scottish 'makar.' Thus 
 Professor Courthope 1 proposes, as we have seen, to 
 confine Dunbar mainly to the care of the antiquary. 
 Taking what he regards as a ' cooler estimate of his 
 genius ' than earlier critics, including Sir Walter, and 
 led astray by the initial mistake that Dunbar's 
 ' talents were always employed in satisfying the 
 momentary taste of his patrons,' he confines his 
 reader's attention to The Goldyn Targe, The Thrissil 
 and the Rois, Bewty and the Prisoneir, and The 
 Sevin Deidly Synnis ; the first three being introduced 
 as special instances of allegory, and the last in order 
 to point out that in the one instance in which, it 
 would seem, ' original genius ' is claimed for him, he 
 is ' hardly entitled to it.' 
 
 No recent critic has more fully recognised the 
 merits of Dunbar as a metrist than Mr. Gosse, 2 who 
 
 1 History of English Poetry, i. 370-74. 
 8 Modern English Literature, pp. 48-51.
 
 DUNBAR 18B 
 
 also does justice to other qualities, but withholds the 
 4 first rank to his gorgeous talent,' and this solely on 
 the ground that ' he never escapes from 
 
 , .,,.,., , , . Mr. Gosse. 
 
 the artificial m language, that he is 
 'defective in taste rhetorical, over-ornate.' But Mr. 
 Gosse has failed to recognise that Dunbar has two 
 styles the artificially ornate, and the rich and racy 
 vernacular Scots. One of his chief claims to great- 
 ness is, in fact, his subtle and comprehensive mastery 
 of expression : while such pieces as TJie Ooldyn Targe 
 show that, as Lyndsay expresses it, he ' language had 
 at large/ the bulk of his best poetry really consists of 
 1 escapes from the artificial in language.' 
 
 Dunbar was the disciple of Chaucer his greatest 
 disciple, but he was something more. So far as he 
 was a mere Chaucerian, or only the Dunbar more 
 ingenious contriver of varieties of tra- ^sclphTof 
 ditional allegory, he has not much claim c . h f u " r -, "'* 
 
 <* ' claim to ' first 
 
 to ' first rank,' notwithstanding his ' gor- r ank -' 
 geous talent.' Such claim must be based mainly on the 
 belief that he got from Chaucer, from nearly contem- 
 porary French poets, and from the Scottish tradition 
 a peculiar and varied artistic training, which tended 
 only the more perfectly to develop his own poetic 
 idiosyncrasy. He could be truly great neither as 
 Chaucerian nor as Scoto-Frenchinan, but as essentially 
 a Scottish poet. How far he is great is another 
 matter; but uniting to his mastery of expression a 
 rare command of metrical effects, almost as rich and 
 brilliant a humorist as Burns, and an equally caustic
 
 186 SCOTTISH VERNACULAK LITERATURE 
 
 and more various satirist, strongly emotional and 
 illumined by a vivid and daring imagination, if he 
 cannot be ranked with the greatest of English poets 
 it is less for lack in himself than in his circumstances. 
 Certainly these were far from propitious. His very 
 priestly profession was a great handicap ; and though 
 he succeeded as poet partly because he was an 
 unsuccessful, an abortive priest the result was that 
 his life remained ' bound in shallows,' if not in 
 ' miseries.' Then he was the poet of ' times that were 
 out of joint'; he lived on the borderland of change; 
 medisevalism was passing away, and the new era had 
 not quite arrived, nor was it fully to arrive in 
 Scotland for many generations. But as fully and 
 truly as Chaucer, he is the poet of his own time and 
 country, such as they were ; more various, if more 
 fragmentary, in his methods, he is as effective in 
 depicting whatever comes within the range of his 
 experience ; equally sincere and penetrating, he is, if 
 less genial and comprehensive, more succinct and 
 intense. His genius was never perhaps so fully 
 kindled, but that he has failed to obtain similar, if 
 not equal, appreciation is mainly part of the same 
 bad luck which dogged him while alive. The 
 poetic school of which he was the great master be- 
 came presently smitten as with sudden palsy; the 
 veil of Biblical obscurantism descended on his 
 countrymen; for generations he was as extinct to 
 them as the Dodo; and now his vocabulary is to 
 many almost as effective a veil as the ancient insen-
 
 DUNBAR 187 
 
 sibility. Isolated very soon as regards Scotland, 
 he remained totally unknown in England, and had 
 no connection with the creation of the new poetic era 
 that was to dawn in England some half- century after 
 he went to his forgotten grave ; but this again was 
 rather his misfortune than his fault. His brilliant 
 genius became buried for a time in complete oblivion, 
 but that very oblivion of him, and of the poetic school 
 of which he was the chief, was to be the means of 
 only the more signally attesting its vitality ; for this 
 forgotten school of old Scots ' makaris ' was, more than 
 two centuries and a half after the death of Dunbar, 
 to culminate in Burns.
 
 VII 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS AND SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 
 
 IN marked contrast with the fortunes of Dunbar were 
 those of his contemporary though some fifteen years 
 Gavin Douglas younger Gavin Douglas. Like Dunbar 
 (i475?-i5*). the cadet of a noble house, he was the 
 third son of Archibald, fifth Earl of Angus, known by 
 the expressive sobriquet of ' Bell-the-Cat,' and also 
 as the ' Great Earl ' the great earl of a race that had 
 long posed as rivals of even the royal line, and 
 became, by virtue of his abilities and his training as 
 ecclesiastic, the political counsellor of his illustrious 
 family in all its ambitious intrigues. He was born 
 about 1475, and being designed for the Church, 
 studied, like Dunbar, at the University of St. Andrews, 
 where he matriculated in 1489, and graduated M.A. 
 in 1494. An allusion of Major shows that he continued 
 his studies at Paris ; and it is more than likely that 
 he somewhere completed a course of civil law. But 
 as early as 1496 he had taken priest's orders, and was 
 presented to Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, after which 
 he became parson of Linton and rector of Hauch, 
 or Prestonhauch (now Prestonkirk), near Dunbar. 
 
 188
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 189 
 
 Here in 1501 he wrote The Police of Honour, in 
 which he makes mention of 'Dunbar zit undeid'; 
 and if the two poets up till then had never met, they 
 doubtless did meet shortly afterwards when Douglas 
 was preferred to the important dignity of Provost of 
 the Collegiate Church of St. Giles, Edinburgh. 
 
 For twelve years or more the two poets walked the 
 same streets, worshipped before the same altar, and 
 mingled in the same modish society, but 
 
 Douglas and 
 
 the one as a great ecclesiastical dignitary, Dunbar in 
 
 , v , i -i r 1.1. Edinburgh. 
 
 the other as a penurious hanger-on of the 
 court, soliciting in vain for 'ane kirk scant coverit 
 with heather.' On 20th September 1513, Douglas 
 his translation of Virgil having been completed in the 
 previous July was ' without charge ' also made a free 
 burgess of the city whether for political or literary 
 reasons is uncertain ; but, anyhow, the older and 
 greater poet, whose genius, like that of Burns, was 
 perhaps in his own day as much dreaded as admired, 
 and whose Satire of Edinburgh was scarce fitted to 
 commend him to the powers that were, is not known 
 to have lured from them any souvenir of literary 
 approval. 
 
 Flodden, 9th September 1513, which put an end 
 to all Dunbar's hopes of further favours from at least 
 James iv., only opened up to Douglas 
 
 , .,. . Douglas as 
 
 new possibilities of preferment. Greatness candidate for 
 was virtually thrust on him. Appointed 
 one of the new Lords of Council to give special guid- 
 ance to the widowed queen, faithfulness to his house
 
 190 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 demanded that he should make all possible use of 
 this rare opportunity of advancing its interests. He 
 it was, mainly, who effected the match between the 
 queen and his nephew and chief, the sixth Earl of 
 Angus; and after the marriage, 6th August 1514, his 
 ecclesiastical promotion became a matter of prime 
 consequence to his patrons. When asking from the 
 Pope confirmation of his appointment, the queen com- 
 mended him, no doubt justly, as worthy ' of the very 
 highest ecclesiastical authority, even the Primacy.' 
 It so happened, also, that before the matter of the 
 abbacy was settled, the archbishopric of St. Andrews 
 actually fell vacant, 25th October 1514, and immedi- 
 ately both the queen and her brother, Henry vin., 
 sent earnest entreaties to the Pope on Douglas's 
 behalf. They were, however, ineffectual; and he 
 even lost the abbacy of Arbroath, which was con- 
 ferred on Archbishop Beaton of Glasgow, the chief 
 opponent of Angus and the Douglases. In the 
 spring of 1515 he obtained the see of Dunkeld, but 
 the return of Albany from France in May entirely 
 checkmated the ambitious schemes of Angus, and 
 Douglas shared in his fall. He was thrown into 
 prison on the ground that the Papal confirmation of 
 his appointment had been procured by the illegal 
 interference of Henry vin., and was not set at liberty 
 until a year afterwards, when Angus, for reasons of 
 his own, came to terms with Albany. 
 
 On obtaining his liberty, Douglas, by various humi- 
 liating apologies to his old ecclesiastical opponents,
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 191 
 
 obtained consecration and access to his see. For 
 some time he enjoyed in his beautiful Highland re- 
 treat the lettered ease which he probably Political 
 preferred to either ecclesiastical state exuefand' 
 or political intrigue, but he could not death - 
 escape the destiny appointed for him by his family 
 connection. While Albany was still in Scotland he 
 was sent in 1517 to complete a treaty at Rouen 
 between France and Scotland against England; but 
 no sooner had Albany, in the same year, returned 
 to France than Douglas became engaged in new 
 intrigues for his nephew's return to power. For a 
 time Angus and the Douglases triumphed, but their 
 triumph wasn't final. Douglas did his utmost to 
 warn Wolsey and Henry vm. to take precautions 
 against Albany's return in 1521, but in vain; and 
 when he did arrive in November, Douglas and Angus 
 had no resource but immediate flight to England. 
 There, though Douglas retained the respect both of 
 Wolsey and the king, and the special friendship of 
 Lord Dacre, he found himself latterly deserted by the 
 ' unworthy Earl of Angus.' Deprived of his bishopric, 
 and disdaining to return to Scotland so long as Albany 
 remained there, he continued to reside in London, 
 making acquaintanceship, among other learned men, 
 with Polydore Vergil, to whom he supplied some 
 traditional information on the early history of Scot- 
 land opposed to certain critical statements of Major 
 which Vergil embodied in his History of England. 
 He never saw Scotland again, but died of the plague
 
 192 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 in September 1522, and was buried in the Hospital 
 Church of the Savoy. 
 
 Notwithstanding various conjectures and assertions, 
 Douglas is not known as the author of other poetry 
 The works of tnan The Police of Honour, King Hart, 
 Douglas. t which is attached some stanzas on 
 Conscience, and The XIII. Bukes of Eneados of the 
 Famous Poete Virgile Translated out of Latyn Verses 
 into Scottis Metir. The Police was written while he 
 was still at Linton, the Translation was completed 
 some months before Flodden, and King Hart is 
 supposed to be of intermediate date : so that his nine 
 years of political prominence were barren of any 
 literary fruit. 1 
 
 Douglas represents almost solely an extreme de- 
 velopment of the allegorical method intro- 
 
 As allegorist. . - , _ -1-11 
 
 duced by James I., practised variously by 
 Henryson, cultivated most likely by 'Greit Kennedie' 
 
 1 An edition of The Police of Honour appeared at London some 
 time before 1579, when an edition appeared at Edinburgh, in which 
 there is also references to copies of the work ' set furth of auld 
 amang ourselfis.' The Edinburgh edition was reproduced in 
 Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786, republished at Perth 1787, 
 and reprinted in 1829 by the Bannatyne Club with variations from 
 the London edition. King Hart, preserved in the Maitland MS. at 
 Cambridge, was also published by Pinker ton in 1786. The Virgil 
 was printed at London by William Copland in 1553, and reissued 
 1710, ed. Ruddiman, with corrections from the Ruthven MS. in the 
 Edinburgh University Library ; and an edition based on the MS. in 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, was printed for the Bannatyne Club 
 in 1839. Other MSS. are the Elphinstone in Edinburgh University 
 Library, that in the Lambeth Library, and that belonging to the 
 Marquis of Bath. Douglas's Works, ed. Small, were published at 
 Edinburgh 1874, in four volumes.
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 193 
 
 whose ' terms aureate ' are specially lauded by Sir 
 David Lyndsay and exampled in several highly 
 ornate productions of Dunbar. As allegorist, Douglas 
 may have been the pupil of Kennedy, and he was 
 partly the pupil of Dunbar; but his two poems 
 are more laboured and extensive examples of pure 
 .allegory than any that survive in Scottish verse. 
 
 As for his language, though he is the first to regard 
 himself as a ' Scottis ' not an ' Inglis ' makar, and 
 though in the first prologue of his jEneid 
 
 . ... His language. 
 
 he professes to have taken special pains 
 to be vernacular to ' mak it braid and plane/ and to 
 keep 'na Sudroun but our own language,' he had 
 yet to confess that 'Scottis' was sometimes in- 
 sufficient for his needs : 
 
 ' Nor /it so clene all Sudroun I refuse Southern 
 
 Bot some word I pronounce as neychtbour doise, do 
 
 Lyk as in Latyne bene Grew terms sum, some" 6 ' 
 
 So me behovit quhilum. or than be dum, behoved 
 
 . J 1 , ' . _ ,. . sometimes 
 
 Some bastard Latyne, French, or Inglis oiss uge 
 
 Quhair scant war Scottis I had na wther choiss.' 
 The racy and rough vernacular was in fact unsuited 
 for artificial verse; and King Hart excepted not 
 only does Douglas have more frequent recourse than 
 Dunbar to the southern speech, but he quite outvies 
 him in the multiplicity and variety of his coinages 
 from French and Latin, his language being often 
 as incongruous as much of his allegorical imagery. 
 
 The distinctive note of The Police of Honour is 
 the intermixture of Sacred History and the Christian 
 Faith with Heathen Mythology. It represents the 
 
 N
 
 194 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Catholic theology and morality humanised, only in 
 part and unconsciously, by Greek and Roman poetry, 
 . The p a ii ce of and clothed in an imagery incongruously 
 distinctive 1 ** compounded of Christianity and ancient 
 note. Paganism. Even if it had been essentially 
 
 poetic, its fantastic framework was bound to be fatal 
 to its permanent popularity; but not only does it 
 represent a merely artificial phase of sentiment, a 
 temporary conjunction of streams of tendency bound 
 in opposite directions : it is loaded with such a super- 
 fluity of learned allusion as could not but be fatal to 
 poetic inspiration. 
 
 Written partly in the nine-line stave of The 
 
 Goldyn Targe aab, aab, bab, partly in a variation of 
 
 it aab, aab, bcc, The Paiice of Honour 
 
 Its subject. . -11 i / 
 
 is an allegorical representation of the 
 difficulties and dangers attending the journey to 
 true glory and honour, and in several ways antici- 
 pates Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, whether Bunyan 
 borrowed from it or not. According to the approved 
 fashion, the poet having in a garden fallen into a 
 swoon finds himself in a 'desert terrible' near by 
 a horrible river, roaring in flood and swarming with 
 yelling monsters. All around is only the waste 
 wilderness, and he is beat upon by wild tempests of 
 rain. Suddenly he hears the stamping and cry of a 
 herd of beasts, and hides him in a clump of bushes, 
 whence looking forth he sees pass successively before 
 him the courts of Minerva, Diana, and Venus, the 
 latter goddess attended by Mars and Cupid, and
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 195 
 
 having in her train all the famous lovers men and 
 women of sacred and classic story: some in hope, 
 some in ' greit thirlage ' (bondage), some in despair, 
 some in perfect happiness and joy. Greatly corn- 
 moved, he begins to sing a ballad on the ' inconstancy 
 of love,' in which he curses the 'world's felicity, fortune, 
 and all his pleasures,' which so enrages the goddess 
 that he is seized and brought before her for judg- 
 ment; but as sentence of condign punishment is 
 about to be passed, the Court of the Nine Muses, 
 attended by the great poets of ancient and modern 
 times, arrives on the scene. Calliope interposes, and 
 at her suggestion he composes and recites ' a ballad 
 for Venus' plasour,' which mollifies Venus, ' and in- 
 stant scho and her court was hence.' Under Calliope's 
 protection, and on a splendid courser, the poet, with 
 his fellow-followers of the Muses, then, swift as 
 thought, traverses all the most famous countries of 
 the world to the Castalian Fount, where, at a great 
 feast, Ovid recites the deeds of ancient heroes, Virgil 
 ' plays the sportes of Daphnis and Corydone,' Terence 
 the comedy of Parmeno, etc. Then on their swift 
 horses the company set forth on their journey to the 
 Palace of Honour. Dismounting at the foot of the 
 hill, the poet proceeds to climb it guided by an 
 attendant nymph. Near the summit they are faced 
 by a terrible abyss, from which rise the smoke of 
 brimstone, pitch, and burning lead, and the wailing 
 cries of unworthy pretenders who had vainly at- 
 tempted to cross it. While he stands before it almost
 
 196 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 paralysed, his guide seizes him by the hair of the 
 head, and brings him to the top of the hill Here he 
 sees below him the storm-tossed sea of the world, on 
 which rides the carvel (ship) of the State of Grace ; 
 and looking above he beholds the Palace of Honour, 
 standing in ' a plane of peerless pulchritude.' Enter- 
 ing the outer gate of its enclosure, he stands for a 
 time rapt in admiration of its beauty, and is then 
 conducted to Venus' Mirror, where he views the 
 great events of Eternity and Time, and the 'deeds 
 and fate of every earthly wight.' Next he is brought 
 to the ' crystal palace white,' on the walls of which 
 are engraven the wondrous sights of the universe, 
 after which his guide discourses with appalling prosi- 
 ness on ' Virtue as the only way to Honour, and not 
 riches or hie blud.' Then bethinking her that after 
 such an ordeal of wonders the poet would be bene- 
 fited by ' taking the air,' she proceeds to conduct him 
 to the garden, when in crossing the narrow bridge 
 he falls into the moat and awakes. The poem then 
 concludes with a ballad in commendation of Honour 
 and Virtue, introducing inner rhymes in the manner 
 of Dunbar. Here is the last stanza : 
 
 to ' Haill rois, maist chois, till clois thy fois greit micht, 
 
 which Haill stone quhilk scheme vpon the throne of licht, 
 
 Vertew, quhais trew sweit dew ouirthrew al vice, 
 each ; made Was ay ilk day, gar say the way of licht ; 
 
 Amend, offend, and send our end ay richt. 
 
 Thow stand, ordant as sanct, of grant maist wise, 
 To ; degree Till be supplie, and the hie gre of price, 
 
 soon; shame; Delite th6 tite me quite of site to dicht, 
 
 clewse For j appl y. schortlie to thy deuise.'
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 197 
 
 Less ambitious and grandiose than The Police of 
 Honour, King Hart is not so digressive and inco- 
 herent. Its theme is more strictly moral . King Hart . 
 and its method more direct, the cumbrous It8 theme- 
 mythological imagery being altogether dispensed 
 with. It opens with this description of King Heart 
 (the heart of man) : 
 
 ' King Hart, into his cumlie castell strang 
 
 Closit about with craft and mekill vre, toil 
 
 So semlie wes he set his folk amang, 
 
 That he no doubt had of misaventure : 
 
 So proudly wes he polist, plane and pure, 
 With zouthheid and his lustie levis grene ; leaves 
 
 So fair, so fresche, so likelie to endure, 
 And als so blyth as bird in symmer schene. lso 
 
 For wes he never zit with schouris schot, 
 
 Nor zit ourrun with rouk, or ony rayne ; mist 
 
 In all his lusty lecam nocht ane spot, body ; no 
 
 Na never had experience into payne, Nor 
 
 Bot alway into lyking, nocht to layne, to tell the 
 
 Onlie to love, and verrie gentilnes truth 
 He wes inclynit cleinlie to remane, 
 
 And wonn vnder the wyng of wantownness.' dwell 
 
 In this castle he is waited on by a troop of attend- 
 ants Strength, Rage, Wantonness, Green Lust, 
 Disport, and many more who, while they appear to 
 minister to his wants, really have him under their 
 control. He has also five servitors the five senses 
 to guard him from enemies without and within, 
 but they occasionally betray him. They show special 
 hostility to the entrance of Honour, who, however, 
 manages to enter by scaling the wall, and proceeds to 
 the great tower which he adorns with ' mony florist
 
 198 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 floure.' But near by the castle is the palace of Dame 
 Pleasaunce, and on her passing by the castle, the 
 king sends out Youthheid and Fresh Delight to 
 reconnoitre, who are immediately taken captive, as 
 are also various other succeeding scouts. Thereupon 
 King Hart resolves to give battle to the Dame, but is 
 defeated, wounded, and taken prisoner. Being at- 
 tended also by Dame Beauty, he of course gets worse, 
 but by the treachery of Dame Pity he is set at liberty, 
 and then makes Dame Pleasaunce a prisoner in her 
 own palace. At last, however, Old Age gets admis- 
 sion, and his youthful attendants thereupon deserting 
 him, Conscience and Sadness intrude, and so vex 
 Dame Pleasaunce that she leaves her own palace. 
 Left alone in this 'empty pleasure house,' he is 
 advised by Wisdom and Reason to return to his own 
 castle, but has scarce reached it before Decrepitude 
 with attendant ailments gets entrance, and inflicts on 
 him a mortal wound only sufficient strength being 
 left him to make his will, by which he bequeath es to 
 Dame Pleasaunce his palfrey Unsteadiness, to Fresh 
 Beauty, Green Appetite, and so on. 
 
 The theme is a representation of human life from 
 the traditionally Catholic point of view, and the trite- 
 its char- ness f fc ke tneme i s not redeemed by 
 acteristics. exceptional vigour or brilliancy of treat- 
 ment. The language is, however, simpler and purer 
 than that either of The Police of Honour or The 
 jiEneid, the narrative clear and comparatively concise, 
 and the versification in the French octave flowing
 
 GAVIN DOUGLAS 199 
 
 and melodious. What is mainly wanting is poetic 
 afflatus. Eloquent and rhetorical Douglas often is; 
 but though also a thorough proficient in poetical 
 technique, he remains only a highly accomplished 
 versifier. 
 
 The main performance of Douglas is his translation 
 of The jEneid into heroic couplets, a remarkable 
 achievement for his ' barbarous age/ and Translation , 
 a not inconsiderable one in itself; for "The/Eneid. 1 
 though his language is an incongruous blend of the 
 familiar and the ornate, though his, on the whole 
 accurate, renderings are achieved with excessive effort, 
 and though he does not scruple for the sake of being 
 better understood to clothe occasionally the old ideas 
 in modern garb representing Virgil, for example, as 
 a baron, and the Sibyl as a nun he is thoroughly 
 interpenetrated with the Virgilian atmosphere, and 
 succeeds in communicating this to the reader. 
 
 His prologues to the several books have also been 
 much admired, especially the seventh, twelfth, and 
 thirteenth, describing respectively Winter, May, and 
 June. Douglas here shows that he had almost 
 kindled at the flame of Virgil, the Virgil of the 
 Georgics. They indicate at least great accuracy of 
 observation : he records what he knows, and records 
 it with a certain vigour and picturesqueness, but the 
 redundancy of detail is fatally inconsistent with true 
 poetical effect. Here is a short passage one of his 
 best which may have suggested Burns's description 
 of the flooded Ayr, but which needs only to be com-
 
 200 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 pared with that vivid picture that its lack of poetic 
 inspiration may be felt : 
 
 ' Keveris ran reid all thair bankis downe, 1 
 And landbrist rumbland rudely with sic bier, 
 So loud ne rummist wyld lioun or beir. 
 Fludis monstreis, sic as meirswyne or quhailis 
 For the tempest law in the deip devallyis. 
 
 Soure bittir bubbis, and the schowris sne.ll, 
 
 Semyt on the sward ane similitude of hell, 
 
 Eeducyng to our mynd, in every steid, 
 
 Goustly schaddois of eild and grisly deid, 
 
 Thik drumly scuggis dirknit so the hevyne. 
 
 Dym skyis oft furth warpit feirfull levyne, 
 
 Flaggis of fyir, and mony felloun flawe, 
 
 Scharp soppis of sleit, and of the snypand snawe. 
 
 The dowy dichis war all donk and wait, 
 
 The law vaille flodderit all with spait. 
 
 The plane stretis and every hie way 
 
 Full of fluschis, doubbis, myre, and clay. 
 
 Laggerit leys wallowit farnys schewe 
 
 Broune muris kithit thair wysnit mossy hewe, 
 
 Bank, bra, and boddum blanschit wolx and bair ; 
 
 For gurll weddir growyt bestis haire ; 
 
 The wynd maid wayfe the reid weyd on the dyk 
 
 Bedovin in donkis deyp was every syk.' 
 
 1 Rivers ran red down all their banks, the breakers rumbling 
 rudely with a noise louder than the bellowing of wild lion or bear. 
 Sea monsters, such as porpoises and whales, remained on account of 
 the tempest low in the deep. . . . Sour bitter blasts seemed on the 
 sward a similitude of hell, creating to our imagination, in every place, 
 ghostly shadows of eld and grisly death thick gloomy shadows 
 darkened so the heavens. Dim skies frequently sent forth fearful 
 lightning, flashes of fire and many a dreadful blast, sharp blasts of 
 sleet and of the biting snow. The dreary ditches were all dark and 
 wet, the low valley flooded with overflow. The plain streets and 
 every highway full of overflowing water, pools, mire and clay. 
 Mud-covered pastures showed decayed ferns, brown muirs showed 
 their wizened mossy hues. Bank, incline, and level became white
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 201 
 
 Read as prose the passage is not without consider- 
 able merit. It is full of a kind of picturesque 
 gloom. The whole description is, however, a mere 
 catalogue of facts accurately and minutely observed, 
 but not grouped so as either to indicate their 
 relative significance, or to lead to any proper poetic 
 climax. 
 
 Several of the prologues are written in stanzas : 
 the second in rime royal, the third in the less fre- 
 quent variety of the nine-line stave, the Metres of the 
 fourth in rime royal, the fifth in the Prol g ues - 
 nine-line stave of the third, the sixth in the French 
 octave, the eighth in the alliterative romance stave 
 with the bobwheel, the tenth in the five-line stave 
 of Dunbar aa, bb, a, and the eleventh in the 
 French octave. 
 
 Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lyon King-at- 
 Arms, the only one of the older Scots 'makaris' 
 whose popularity remained unbroken Sir David 
 by the Reformation, and survived to Lyndsay 
 
 J (M9-1555)- His 
 
 modern times, was the son of David eariyiife. 
 Lyndsay, who possessed two estates The Mount in 
 Fife, and Garinylton, near Haddington. On account 
 of this duality, the son's birthplace, as well as place 
 of education Haddington or Cupar Grammar-School 
 is a matter of doubt. That he attended St. 
 Andrews University is inferred from the name ' Da. 
 
 and bare. On account of the stormy weather the cold beasts 
 shivered. The wind made the weed wave on the stone fence. 
 Filled with deep water was every rill.
 
 202 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Lindesay' in the roll of incorporated students of 
 St Salvator's College, 1508-9 immediately above 
 that of ' Da. Bethune ' (afterwards Cardinal) ; but the 
 student at St. Andrews could scarce have been the 
 Lyndesay who, as equerry of the young prince, re- 
 ceived in 1508 a certain sum for 'his fee and his 
 horse's keep.' In any case, the poet had in 1511-12 
 a pension of 40 a year as a member of the Royal 
 Household, though a blank in the Treasurer's Ac- 
 counts from 1508 renders it impossible to state when 
 the pension began. 1 Since, also, a sum of 3, 4s. was 
 on 12th October 1513 paid for a play coat to him, 
 for a play performed at Holyrood, he was probably at 
 first employed chiefly as an actor or musician ; and 
 confirmation of this seems to be supplied by his own 
 statements. On the birth of James v., 10th April 
 1512, he was ' appointed the Keeper of the Kingis 
 Grace's person ' not his tutor, but his attendant and 
 companion ; and in his Epistle to the Kingis Grace 
 he mentions that he was accustomed, ' lute in hand,' 
 to sing the young prince to sleep ; and that he amused 
 him sometimes with dancing, sometimes ' with play- 
 and farces on the floor.' 
 
 * And sumtyme, lyk ane feind transfigurate, 
 
 And sumtyme lyk the greislie gaist of Gye, 
 In divers formis oft tymes disfigurate ; 
 And sumtyme dissagysit full plesandlye.' 
 
 1 It should also be noted that in The Dialog (11. 597-8), Lyndsay 
 regrets that he hadn't ' the tongues,' and seems even to imply that 
 he was ignorant of Latin. His lack of a University education would 
 also account for the fact that he was merely the attendant not the 
 tutor of the young prince.
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 203 
 
 These accomplishments partly explain Lyndsay's 
 appointment in 1529 to be Lyon King-at-Arms, for 
 this implied official charge of what Knox As Ly0 n 
 terms the ' farcings, maskings, and other King- 
 prodigalities/ then such an essential feature of 
 royal fetes. A pretty accurate notion of the page- 
 antry on these occasions may be gathered from 
 Lyndsay's own sorrowful lament, in the Deplora- 
 tioun of the Death of Queen Magdalene, over the pre- 
 parations for her coronation, thus rendered abortive. 
 Of the arrangements for the reception of Mary of 
 Guise at St. Andrews in May 1538 he had also special 
 charge. She was received, Lyndsay of Pitscottie tells 
 us, with ' greit joy and mirriness, of fearssis and plays 
 maid and prepared for hir ' ; and first at the New 
 Abbey Gate there was erected a triumphal arch ' be 
 Sir David Lyndsay of the Mont, Knight, alias Lion 
 King of Armes, who caused ane great cloud to cum 
 doun out of the heavines abone the yett : out of the 
 quhilk cloud came doun ane fair ladie, most like ane 
 angell, having the keyis of Scotland in hir hand, and 
 delyvered them to the queines Grace in signe and 
 tokin, that all the heartis of Scotland war oppin for 
 ressaving of hir Grace.' 
 
 As Lyon King Lyndsay compiled a Register of 
 Scottish Arms (published in 1820). He Hi8later 
 was also often sent on embassies to years, was 
 foreign courts ; and while at Brussels in testant 
 
 , .. ., - Reformer'? 
 
 Io31 was witness of a great tournament, 
 
 of which he wrote for the king a description, 'in
 
 204 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 articles,' which is now. lost. In May 1546 he was 
 intrusted by Parliament where he sat as Com- 
 missioner for Cupar with the official duty of 
 summoning the murderers of Cardinal Beaton to 
 surrender the Castle of St. Andrews, which in 
 December he did, but without result. Perhaps 
 about the same time he was privately engaged 
 in penning his Tragedy of the Cardinal, printed 
 in London, 1546-7; and, according to Knox, he 
 was in close communication with the Reformers, 
 and advised that Knox should take upon him 
 the office of preaching. But he can scarce be held 
 responsible for what Knox did actually preach, 
 and there is no evidence that he ever formally 
 joined the Reformers, or even once attended the 
 preaching of Knox. The fact that he remained 
 formally a Catholic, and that he ceased to satirise 
 between the death of James v. in 1542 and the 
 murder of Cardinal Beaton in 1546, largely accounts 
 for his escape from prosecution, and his retention of 
 office till his death, 18th April 1555. 
 
 Lyndsay was married in 1522 to Jonet Douglas, 
 
 who was probably a female attendant on the young 
 
 prince, and at anyrate, even after her 
 
 His wife. r . 
 
 marriage, received various sums for sew- 
 ing the ' kingis sarkis.' They had no children ; but 
 that their married life was unhappy is a mere infer- 
 ence from the ' terms in which he commonly talks 
 of the sex.'
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 205 
 
 Lyndsay's l poetical relations to his time are in a 
 measure paralleled by those of Dunbar to the immedi- 
 ately preceding period ; but the contrasts Ly ndsay com- 
 are greater than the similarities. Dun- ?f re !! with . 
 
 Uunbar. His 
 
 bar's satires were prompted partly by his coarseness, 
 chronic dissatisfaction with his lot; but only once, 
 and just before he became Lyon King, does Lyndsay 
 Complaynt to the King express special discon- 
 tent at lack of reward for his services. Unlike that 
 of Dunbar, his verse is less the utterance of acci- 
 dental moods than of permanent convictions. Versi- 
 fier rather than poet, and influenced by a definite 
 practical purpose, he is both narrower and more 
 superficial in his judgments his point of view being 
 that of the average man, his art that specially fitted 
 to tickle the crowd. Yet moralist though he pro- 
 fesses to be, he quite outvies Dunbar, if not in the 
 candour, in the coarseness of his allusions, and this, 
 in part, because not otherwise could he amuse and 
 gratify the gross multitude he sought to convince. 
 
 1 Lyndsay's Complaynt of the Papyngo appeared at London in 
 1538 ; The Tragedy of the Cardinal at London c. 1546-47 ; Ane 
 Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour at Copenhagen (? St. 
 Andrews), probably in 1554 ; editions of his Poems at Paris, 1558, 
 Copenhagen (? St. Andrews), 1559, and London, 1566 ; The Plea- 
 sant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis was first published at Edinburgh in 
 1602 ; the interludes, more fully than in the 1602 edition, are 
 preserved in the Bannatyne MS. It was included in subsequent 
 editions of his Poems, many of which appeared in the seventeenth 
 as in the sixteenth century, but fewer in the eighteenth. The 
 modern editions are those of Chalmers, 3 vols., London, 1806; the 
 English Text Society, 1865-71 ; and David Laing, 3 vols., Edinburgn, 
 1879. Laing gives a pretty full bibliography of previous editions.
 
 206 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 To select ribald buffoonery as the special medium for 
 the promulgation of a strict conventional morality, 
 may strike a modern reader as the very acme of the 
 preposterous; but lacking ribaldry all the satiric 
 verse of this period in Scotland would have been 
 almost wholly ineffective. Still, Lyndsay and his 
 fellow-satirists themselves partly shared in that special 
 penchant for ribaldry, which is the efflorescence of a 
 disordered social system ; and that being so, the free 
 course permitted, for generations, to the poetry of 
 Lyndsay amongst a community too Puritan to peruse 
 the best secular poetry of England, is an impressive 
 example of the, at least occasional, irrationalities 
 of ecclesiastical opinion. Lyndsay's method, effective 
 for the time being, was bound in the long-run rather 
 to defeat than further that portion of his purpose 
 which concerned specially the laity ; and it may be 
 that his sustained popularity among the mass of the 
 people has some connection with the specially fescen- 
 nine character of much of the Scottish folk poetry. 
 
 As satirist a superficial pupil of Dunbar, Lyndsay 
 also largely utilised the allegorical machinery which 
 His practical Dunbar and Douglas had done so much 
 aim - to elaborate. Like Douglas and unlike 
 
 Dunbar he was a poet with a purpose, and, as in 
 Douglas, the strenuous moral aim is more manifest 
 than the poetic inspiration. Douglas, the poet of the 
 old Catholic morality, curiously blended with chivalry 
 and classicism, was primarily meditative and abstract. 
 Lyndsay, the precursor of Puritanism, depicts the
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 207 
 
 Catholic morality in its decay, and is above all things 
 practical. For Douglas he had a special esteem as 
 the ' lamp ' of ' this land,' and ' in our Inglis rethorick 
 the rose/ and no doubt obtained from him valuable 
 hints in the construction of his peculiar variations 
 of the traditional allegory ; but though The Dialog 
 is as comprehensively pedantic as Tiie Police of 
 Honour, even it is by no means so exemplary ; while 
 nothing could be in stronger contrast with Douglas's 
 irreproachable allegories than some of Lyndsay's 
 plain, practical, and ribaldly moral medleys. 
 
 It may be that in his earlier years Lyndsay 
 practised various forms of poetry for the amuse- 
 ment of the young prince ; and it seems His relation to 
 to have been largely his special interest the Cler ey- 
 in the young king's welfare that moved him, as late 
 as 1528, to make his formal appearance as a serious 
 poet. If he specially satirised the clergy, it was 
 because he regarded them as largely responsible for 
 the political and social mischiefs of the time. Taking 
 an essentially common-sense view of human con- 
 duct, he had no difficulty in exposing the glaring 
 contrast between the ecclesiastical ideal and the 
 ecclesiastical reality. He represented in part the 
 resentment of the nobles and gentry at the grasping 
 ambition of the Church, in part the derision of the 
 people at the Church's open violation of its own 
 moral code; but he was further specially incensed 
 at the injurious influence exercised by the clergy 
 over the king.
 
 208 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Lyndsay's productions have sometimes a curious 
 
 biblical or theological framework, and even when 
 
 the biblical influence is not, as it is in 
 
 As Satirist. . 
 
 The Dialog, paramount, they frequently 
 teem with theological allusions ; but except as satirist 
 he is dull and commonplace, and much of his effect 
 as satirist is due to the fact that the subject lent 
 itself so easily to satire. Merely to state the truth, 
 and nothing but the truth, was almost satire suffi- 
 cient. Still, to state it as he has stated it implied 
 at least an ardent and strong, if not quite poetic, 
 personality ; and though his wit too often sinks into 
 mere buffoonery, the buffoonery is not without 
 cleverness, and the wit was no doubt thoroughly 
 enjoyed by the rude community to whom it was 
 addressed. 
 
 The earliest of Lyndsay's pieces, The Dreme (1528), 
 is comparatively exemplary and only partially satiri- 
 cal. Written in rime royal, it is a kind 
 
 4 The Dreme. ' n i -n ,.. 
 
 of allegorical medley, bringing within 
 the compass of its survey Hell, Purgatory, the Starry 
 Firmament, Heaven, the Earth, Paradise, and Scot- 
 land, and all this to impress on the king his obligations 
 as ruler of the nation. It opens with an Epistle to the 
 King, full of personal reminiscences, such as those 
 already quoted (p. 202), after which, in his prologue, 
 he details how one bleak day of January he wandered 
 to the seashore, and falling after the accustomed 
 manner asleep in a cave, dreamed the 'marvellous 
 vision ' he sets himself to record.
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 209 
 
 The poem contains the story of his adventures 
 with Dame Remembrance, who, to cure him of his 
 melancholy, proceeded to conduct him Itsstory _ 
 on a tour through the Universe, beginning visit to Hel1 - 
 with the Lowest Hell. Here his attention was first 
 engrossed by the shoals of ecclesiastics, from popes 
 and cardinals down to ' cunning clerkis ' and ' priestis 
 secularis,' who for ' covatyce, lust and ambition ' 
 were doomed 
 
 ' eternallie [to] dwell 
 Into this painefull poysonit pytt of Hell.' 
 
 But heretics innumerable were also to be seen, 
 ' with carefull cryis girning and greityng,' as well as 
 ' princes, lordis temporal, and caitive kings,' all well 
 represented, and even many noble ladies, 
 
 ' Lyk wod lyonis, were carefullie cry and mad 
 
 In flame of fyre richt furiouslie fryand.' 
 
 Nor was the 'pain that is perpetuall' reserved 
 alone for the learned and powerful, for 
 
 ' mony ane thousand 
 
 Common pepill lay, flichterand in the fyre, 
 Of everilk stait there was ane bailfull band.' every 
 
 After this ' dolorous dungeon,' Purgatory failed to 
 greatly impress him, but he viewed with some interest 
 the Place of Perdition tenderly ' reserved ' 
 for ' unbaptised infants ' ! and also that 
 mild dungeon of our 'forefathers,' termed the 
 Lyinpe.
 
 210 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Emerging through the bowels of the earth from 
 ' these places perrelous,' they ascended beyond Earth, 
 Water, Air, and Fire, and made the 
 planets and round of the Seven Planets (learnedly 
 described after the lore of the ' cunnyng 
 astrologis' of the time). Beyond their melodious 
 harmony, they then mounted up through the ' Chris- 
 tallyne' Heaven, until they entered Heaven itself, 
 peopled according to the accepted theological arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 On his way down through the 'spheres of the 
 Heavens ' he was then granted a view of the Earth, 
 ' all at one sight,' after which he was per- 
 mitted to behold the original Paradise^ 
 which, in lines faintly anticipatory of those of Milton, 
 is thus described : 
 
 ' The countre closit is aboute, full rycht 
 
 With wallis hie, of hote and birnyng fyre, 
 And straitly kepit be ane Angell brycht, 
 
 Since Sen the departyng of Adam, our grandschyre ; 
 
 Who Quhilk, throw his cryme, incurrit Goddis yre, 
 
 lost And of that place tynte the possessioun 
 
 Baith from hymself and his succession.' 
 
 From Paradise he proceeds to Scotland, whose 
 
 advantages and ' great commodoties ' its lochs and 
 
 rivers teeming with fish, its fruitful 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 mountain pastures, its lusty vales for 
 corn, its forests of deer, its metals and precious 
 stones, its wholesome fruits, and its fair and in- 
 genuous people prompt the query as to its strange 
 poverty. To this the reply is want 'of justice, policy,
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 211 
 
 and peace/ due to the negligence of the ' infatuate 
 heidis insolent,' that is, the bishops and those of the 
 nobles who were usurping the functions of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But while the poet and his guide were thus 'talking 
 to and fro/ they 
 
 ' Saw a bousteous berne cuin ouir the bent vigorous 
 
 isllow * 
 
 But hors, on fute, als fast as he mycht go, moorland 
 
 Quhose rayment wes all raggit, revin and rent ; Without 
 
 With visage leyne, as he had fastit Lent : 
 And fordwart fast his wayis he did advance, 
 With ane rycht melancolious countynance.' a 
 
 This was John the Commoun Weill, who, having 
 been maltreated in every district of the country, was 
 ' with scrip on hip, and pyik staff in his John the Com . 
 hand/ hastening to leave it. Asked when moun WeUI - 
 he would return, he answered not until the court 
 was guided by the wisdom of ' ane gude auld prudent 
 king':- 
 
 ' Als yit to thee I say ane xtther thyng : 
 
 I see rycht weill, that proverbe is full trew : 
 " Wo to the realme that hes ouer young ane king " too ; a 
 With that he turnit his bak and said " Adew." ' 
 
 The Complaynt to the King in the octo-syllabic 
 couplet written in celebration of the king's escape 
 from the Douglases in 1529, is, while . The C om P iaynt 
 reminiscent, congratulatory, denunciatory tothe King> ' 
 (of the king's advisers), and admonitory (of the king 
 himself), in substance a plea on the poet's part for 
 some recognition of his past services. The manner 
 of that recognition he leaves to the king himself,
 
 212 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 but is rather inclined to suggest the loan of one or 
 two thousand pounds, which he undertakes to pay on 
 conditions having plainly a satirical reference to the 
 all too ready oaths of indigent borrowers : 
 
 ' Quhen the Basse and the Yle of Maye 
 
 Beis sett vpon the Mont Senaye ; 
 
 Quhen the Lowmond, besyde Falkland, 
 
 Beis lyftit to Northumberland ; 
 
 Quhen kirktnen yairnis no dignitie, 
 
 Nor wyffis no soveranitie ; 
 without Wynter but frost, snaw, wynd, or rane ; 
 
 Than sail I geve thy gold agane ; 
 
 Or, I sail mak the payment 
 
 Efter the Daye of Jugement, 
 
 Within ane moneth at the leist, 
 m Quhen Sanct Peter sail mak ane feist 
 
 To all the fycharis of Aberladye, 
 
 &o Swa thow have myne acquittance reddye ; 
 
 by Failyand thareof, be Sanct Phillane, 
 
 Thy grace gettis never ane grote agane.' 
 
 The following year Lyndsay wrote the much more 
 pungent Testament and Complaynt of our Soverane 
 1 Testament Lordis Papyngo (parrot). It opens with 
 and compiaynt a prologue in the nine-line stave, aab, 
 
 ofthePapyn- f . ' 
 
 go. 1 The Pro- aab, bcc in which, after a warm eulogy 
 of several famous ' rnakaris/ from Chaucer 
 to his own day, he humorously declares that 
 
 garden ' in all the garth of eloquence 
 
 Is no thyng left, bot barrane stok and stone 
 rery single Th poleit tennes are pullit everilk one, 
 
 By those Be thir fornamit Poetis of prudence ' ; 
 
 and that since he could find 'none uther new 
 sentence/ he had resolved to record the ' compiaynt
 
 SIK DAVID LYNDSAY 213 
 
 of ane woundit PapyDgo.' He then utilises the im- 
 palement of the king's parrot on a stake by a fall from 
 a lofty tree for the exposition, in the parrot's name, 
 of his own views on Church and State. After lament- 
 ing in rime royal her rashness in climbing to 
 such a giddy height, the dying bird proceeds also 
 in rime royal to 'breve' her counsel (1) to the 
 king, and (2) to her ' Brether of courte ' ; and this is 
 followed by (3) the ' commonyng betuix the Papyngo 
 and hir holy executouris.' 
 
 The first epistle is a shrewd and outspoken address 
 on kingcraft, in which his Majesty is The first 
 reminded that of his fivescore and five e P' stle - 
 predecessors on the Scottish throne, no less than 
 five-and-fifty had been slain, 
 
 ' And moist parte, in thair awin mysgoverance.' 
 
 The second epistle illustrates by interesting ex- 
 amples from Scottish history such as the cases of 
 the Duke of Rothesay, Murdoch, Duke of * The second 
 Albany, Cochrane, the favourite of James e P lstle - 
 in., the dowager Queen Margaret herself, Archbishop 
 Beaton, and the Earl of Angus the ' over-leaping ' of 
 that 'ambition' which seeks either to usurp the 
 sovereignty or to make the sovereign its bondman. 
 
 But it is in the ' commonyng ' of the wise bird with 
 her ' holye executouris ' the pyot (a canon regular), 
 the raven (a black monk), and the gled (a , The Com . 
 holy friar), that the satire is most biting. m n y n e-' 
 Though their professional visit to the dying bird was
 
 214 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 avowedly dictated by concern for its ghostly interests, 
 their solicitude was all centred on its 'goods and 
 chattels.' The pyot recommended itself as executor, 
 because it was ' ane holye creature ' ; but the imme- 
 diate arrival of the raven and the gled changed the 
 situation. The three worthies combined in the 
 general interests of the Church and of one another, 
 and the gled in their name vowed that if the dying 
 bird made a ' memorial of its gear,' they would make 
 its funeral feast, burying its bones with ' great bliss,' 
 and afterwards twenty masses all at once : 
 
 ' And we sail syng about your sepulture 
 
 iarg Sanct Mongols matynis and the mekle creid : 
 
 then And syne devotely saye, I yow assure, 
 
 The auld Placebo bakwart and the beid ; 
 
 clothes And we sail weir, for yow, the murnyng weid : 
 
 though And, thocht your spreit with Pluto war profest, 
 
 Devotely sail your Diregie be addrest.' 
 
 To this the Papyngo replied with many acute 
 
 remarks on ecclesiastical worldliness; and though, 
 
 having no other option, she accepted 
 
 The Will. 
 
 them as executors, she bequeathed her 
 personality thus: her 'gay galbarte of grene,' her 
 ' brycht depurit ene,' her ' burneist beik,' her ' music ' 
 and ' voce angcllycall,' her ' toung rhetoricall,' and 
 her 'bones,' respectively to the owl, the bat, the 
 pelican, the cuckoo, the goose, and the phoenix, and 
 her heart to the king, leaving to the executors only 
 her ' trypes,' with her ' luffer and lowng to part 
 equale ' among them. But instead of giving faithful 
 effect to her wishes, hardly had she said In Manus
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 215 
 
 Tuas when all three began incontinently to devour her 
 body, and when nothing was left but the heart, away 
 flew the gled with it hotly pursued by the other two. 
 To some of Lyndsay's counsel the king made 
 reply in pretty scurrilous verse ; for in The Answer to 
 the Kingis Flyting in rime royal short pieces 
 
 i j. v i ' L -\ Lt i written during 
 
 he retaliates with some rather abusive the lifetime of 
 admonition, the more piquant portions J amesV - 
 of which are, however, too graphic for quotation. 
 Other short pieces, written in the lifetime of 
 James v., are Ane Publict Confessioun of the 
 Kingis auld Hound callit Bagsche in the French 
 octave, a satire on the intrigues and quarrels of the 
 courtiers; Tlie Deploratioun of the Death of Queen 
 Magdalene, in rime royal; The Justing betuix 
 James Watsoun and Jhone Barbour in the heroic 
 couplet, an account, mildly modelled after Dunbar's 
 Turnament, of a mock encounter between two 
 ' medicinaris ' of the court ; Kitteis Confessioun in 
 couplets, a more than witty exposure of the misuses 
 of auricular confession ; Ane Supplicatioun againis 
 Syde Taillis, one of the coarsest, yet one of the most 
 diverting of his skits, and a most lively sketch of 
 contemporary female fashions. Here are a few 
 decorous lines : 
 
 ' Bot, I lauch best to se ane Nun a 
 
 Gar beir hir taill abone hir bun, Make Dear 
 
 For nothing ellis, as I suppois, 
 Bot for to schaw hir lillie quhyte hois ; 
 In all thair Rewlis, they will nocht find not 
 
 Quha suld beir up thair taillis behind.
 
 216 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 drmggled- 
 Uil wenches 
 Who 
 
 Kittle; 
 
 Us t night 
 
 To-morruw 
 
 ewes 
 
 houghs 
 
 cow-Louse ; 
 
 stay 
 
 Unless 
 
 burghs 
 
 longest 
 
 relation 
 
 Bot I have maiste into despyte 
 Pure claggokis cled in roiploch * quhyte, 
 Quhilk hes skant twa markis for thair feia, 
 Will have twa ellis beneath thair kneia : 
 Kittok, that clekkit wes yestrene, 
 The morne, wyll counterfute the Quene : 
 Ane mureland Meg, that milkit the yowia 
 Claggit with clay abone the howis, 
 In barn, nor byir, scho wyll nocht byde 
 Without her kyrtyll taill be syde. 
 In burrowis, wantoun burges wyiffis, 
 Quha may have sydest taillis stryiffis, 
 Weill bordourit with velvoit fyne : 
 Bot following thame it is ane pyne, 
 In somer quhen the streittis dryis, 
 Thay rais the dust abone the skyis ; 
 None may ga neir thame at thair eis, 
 Without thay cover mouth and neis, 
 Frome the powder to keip thair ene : 
 Considder gif thair cloiffia be clene ! ' 
 
 But the most characteristic and the cleverest of 
 Lyndsay's productions is Ane Pleasant Satyre of the 
 leasant Thrie Estaitis in Commendatioun of 
 Vvrlew and Vituperatioun of Vyce. An 
 adaptation to current political and social 
 questions of the old morality play, it is a nearer 
 approximation to the regular drama than any con- 
 temporary English production. The idea was not of 
 course original, for in England John Heywood's merry 
 interludes against the Papists preceded some of 
 them, at least Lyndsay's Pleasant Satyre, and John 
 Bale, who utilised the morality play for the same pur- 
 pose, was his contemporary. Further, a Scottish friai 
 
 The 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 Coarse undyed woollen cloth.
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 217 
 
 named Kyllour ' set forth,' in 1535, a play ' against 
 the Papists' 1 at Stirling. But the interludes of 
 Heywood were mere single acts ; and while the plays 
 of Bale differ little from the old moralities, Kyllour's 
 play, which has not been preserved, was a mere adapta- 
 tion of The History of Christ's Passion. It may be, 
 however, that apart from Lyndsay, Scotland was at 
 this time slightly in advance of England in drama, 
 as she also was in poetry. That strange fragment, 
 the Interlude of the Droichis Part of the Play 
 preserved in the Asloan and Bannatyne MSS., dating 
 from at least the earlier years of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and supposed by some to have been the work of 
 Dunbar, seems to indicate the existence, even in the 
 reign of James iv., of some better examples of drama 
 than possibly even Lyndsay's Pleasant Satyre. We 
 are also told by the historian Calderwood 2 that James 
 Wedderburn, about 1540, 'made divers comedies and 
 tragedies,' wherein ' he nipped the abuses and super- 
 stitions of the time,' among them ' The History of 
 Dionysius the Tyrant, in form of a comedy which was 
 acted in the playfields ' of Dundee. Robert Birrel also 
 mentions that, on 17th June 1568, a play by Robert 
 Sempill was performed before the Lord Regent, 3 but 
 we know nothing of its character. Playgoing seems, 
 however, to have been common for some time after 
 the Reformation, for James Melville records that John 
 Davidson, one of the Regents of St. Andrews Univer- 
 
 1 Knox, Works, i. 62. 2 History, i. 142-3. 
 
 3 Diary in Dalyell's Fragments, p. 14.
 
 218 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 sity, made a play at the marriage of John Colvin, 
 which was played in Knox's presence, 'wherein, 
 according to Knox's doctrine, the castell of Edinburgh 
 was besieged, taken, and the Captain, with an or twa 
 with him, hangit in effigie.' In Melville's time it was 
 also customary to have declamations, banquetings, and 
 plays at graduation time. 1 
 
 In 1575 the Kirk, while it prohibited altogether 
 the performance of clerk plays upon the ' canonical 
 parts of Scripture,' advised that such as 'confer 
 upon the policy ' should make provision ' that 
 comedies, tragedies, and other profane plays, which 
 are not made upon authentic parts of Scripture,' 
 might be considered before they were acted publicly. 
 More consistent, perhaps, in its rigour than any cen- 
 sorship that now exists, this method was, we may 
 infer, so effective that secular equally with sacred 
 plays were gradually suppressed; and in any case 
 Lyndsay's Pleasant Satyre is the only example of the 
 older Scottish drama which now survives. 2 
 
 1 Diary (Bannatyne Club edition), p. 22. 
 
 * In 1599 a company of English comedians visited Edinburgh, 
 and after playing before the king, obtained a precept to the bailies 
 of Edinburgh to obtain for them a house for performances. One 
 was got in Blackfriars Wynd. But the clergy, says Calderwood, 
 ' fearing the profanitie that was to ensue,' convened the four sessions 
 of the Kirk, who passed an Act that 'none resort to these profane 
 comedies, for eschewing offence of God ' (History, v. 765). Called 
 before the king, the clergy sought refuge in an Act passed against 
 ' slanderous and undecent comedies.' The king, however, remaining 
 firm, they were compelled to rescind their Act ; and a proclamation 
 was issued by the Privy Council ' in favour of the English comedians 
 now playing in Edinburgh,' in which the inhabitants were informed
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 219 
 
 From certain references to the Rex Htimanitas 
 of the play as unmarried, it has been inferred that 
 The Pleasant Satyre was written and Performances 
 produced before the marriage of James v., p^J^,. 
 and probably in 1535; and from the satyre.- 
 references in certain interludes it has also been argued 
 that this first performance took place at Cupar Fife ; 
 but the earliest authenticated performance is that 
 before the king at Linlithgow on the Feast of 
 Epiphany, 6th January 1540. 1 It was also acted on 
 the Castle Hill at Cupar at some unknown date, and 
 at Greenside adjoining Edinburgh in 1554, before the 
 Queen Regent. 
 
 A notable feature of the Pleasant Satyre is the 
 
 that they were at liberty to attend the performances without 
 incurring ' ony pane, skaith, censuring, reproche, or sclander,' or 
 being found fault with by the ' ministeris, magistratis, or sessionia 
 of the said burgh' (Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vi. 
 39-43). After the accession of James to the English throne several 
 English companies visited Scotland ; and in 1603 was published at 
 Edinburgh a comedy written in the vernacular and in stanzas 
 Ane verie excellent and delactibill Treatise entitled Philotus : qvhairin 
 wee may persave the greit inconveniences that fallis out in the 
 Marriage betwene Age and Youth.' (Reprinted in Pinkerton's 
 Scotish Poems, 1792, vol. iii.) It has been suggested that this was 
 Robert Sempill's play, but the theory is unsupported by evidence, 
 external or internal. 
 
 1 Of the effect produced by its performance in 1540 a record has 
 been preserved in a letter of Sir William Eure to Cromwell, 26th 
 January 1540. ' The king,' he states, ' did call upon the Bishop of 
 Glasgow, being chancellor, and other bishops, exhorting them to 
 reform their fashions and manners of living, saying that unless 
 they so did, he would send six of the proudest of them unto his 
 uncle in England, and, as they were ordered, so he would order all 
 the rest that would not amend.'
 
 220 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 variety of its metres. 1 The poem begins with a 
 stanza (spoken by Diligence, the master 
 of the ceremonies) in the rhymed allitera- 
 tive measure of the old romances with the bobwheel ; 
 and in the same speech we have stanzas of sixteen 
 lines ab, abb, cbc, ded, cc, fef of which there are 
 both early Latin and French examples, and also 
 stanzas of eight lines in rime coute aaab, cccb of 
 which there are very early examples in English, and 
 which is found in Towneley Mystery Plays, some- 
 times with a bobwheel. The bulk of the dialogue of 
 the Pleasant Satyre is either in this measure, or in 
 the octo-syllabic couplet ; but he introduces also the 
 heroic couplet, as well as other forms of rime couee : 
 the six-line stave aab, aab and several occasional 
 variations including the six-line stave used in Burns's 
 Address to the Deil 2 aaa, bab, which is not to be 
 found in any earlier Scottish poetry that is not 
 anonymous. The kyrielle and the French octave are 
 also represented. 
 
 No production of any old Scottish ' makar ' gives 
 
 such a detailed picture as does the Pleasant Satyre, 
 
 A picture ot no ^ merely f the customs and manners, 
 
 the period. fout Q f fae mner J ife ftnd Bought of the 
 
 period. We are transported back to the years when 
 the old religious system was tottering to its fall ; the 
 
 1 Professor Schipper (Altenglische Metrik, vol. i. pp. 522-31) has 
 devoted much serious attention to Lyndsay's rhythm ; but most of 
 Lyndsay's peculiarities were mere imperfections, Lyndsay being a 
 very careless metrist. 
 
 2 See post, p. 244.
 
 SIfl DAVID LYNDSAY 221 
 
 crisis of the struggle is pictured in the play, and 
 those concerned hi the crisis are personified, so far at 
 least as to enable us to know the main types. The 
 excessive frankness not to say coarseness of much 
 of the dialogue, and especially the rude buffoonery of 
 the interludes, enhances the value of the play as a 
 representation of the old social life. We obtain a 
 deeper insight into the character of the times than 
 we could otherwise compass. In modern plays the 
 realities of human nature are greatly veiled by con- 
 ventions, but Lyndsay's play deals with society at a 
 time when the old conventions had broken down, 
 and human nature disported itself very much accord- 
 ing to the moods of its lawless instincts. 
 
 The play is constructed with considerable skill, 
 even judged by modern standards: it is evidently 
 not the work of a novice ; and we must i ts construe- 
 infer from it that Lyndsay had at least tlon ' 
 much previous experience in the construction of 
 farces, masks, and other pieces. Dramatically, the 
 interludes are much the better portions ; but if in the 
 play proper the serious characters are mere wax 
 figures, the less reputable personages are very distinctly 
 realised. 
 
 Part I., divided into two Acts, represents the Temp- 
 tation of Rex Humanitas by Sensualitie, who is intro- 
 duced and recommended to the King by 
 Wantonness, Placebo, and Solace, the 
 eloquence of the last in praise of her charms being 
 coloured by the liquor he has consumed. Sensualitie,
 
 222 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 attended by her two maidens Homeliness and Danger, 
 then enters, and to her insinuating address the King 
 replies : 
 
 ' Welcum to ine peirles in pulchritude ; 
 
 than Welcum to me thow greiter nor the lamber, 1 
 
 TOK, Quhilk hes maid me of all dolour denude. 
 
 Solace, convoy this Ladie to my chamber.' 
 
 When the stage is cleared of the disreputables, 
 
 Gude Counsall appears, but is immediately followed 
 
 by the three Vices, Flatterie, Falset, and 
 
 Act I. of Part I. * ... . . 
 
 Dissait, m the guise respectively of Devo- 
 tioun, Sapience, and Discretioun. On the entrance of 
 the King the three step forward and salute him ; and 
 after they have flattered and beguiled and cozened 
 according to their several methods, he gives them 
 cordial welcome as ' three men of gude.' Meanwhile 
 Gude Counsall is standing modestly near the door, 
 and the King, espying the stranger, sends his three 
 newly discovered friends to bring him forward ; but 
 instead of doing so they 'hurl' him out with the 
 direst threats, and on returning to the King tell him 
 that the fellow is a detestable housebreaker whom 
 they have ordered to be sent to the thief's hole. 
 Sensualitie and her ladies now begin to sing a song, 
 and the King sits down among them ; but hardly has 
 he done so ere Veritie enters, who, however, at the 
 instance of Spiritualitie, the Abbot, and the Parson, 
 is immediately put in the stocks. Chastitie then 
 makes her appearance, but the Lady Prioress, Spiritu- 
 
 1 Amber used for the making of images.
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 223 
 
 alitie, the Abbot, and the Parson all in turn disown 
 her acquaintance with marked rudeness, and the 
 curtain falls whilst even Temporalitie is advising her 
 that she had best be gone. 
 
 After Act I. followed the first Interlude. It repre- 
 sents a coarse and uproarious scene between the 
 Sowtar and Tailor and their two Wives, The first 
 who surprise the two worthies soberly interlude, 
 entertaining Chastitie in an alehouse. Chastitie 
 they chase away with foul abuse, and then, as the 
 stage direction expressively puts it, the two terma- 
 gants ' speik to their gudemen and ding them ' ; and 
 the Interlude ends with the Sowtar's Wife ' lifting up 
 hir clais (clothes) abone hir waist,' and entering ' the 
 water ' on her way to the town for wine to celebrate 
 the victory. 
 
 Act II. opens with the introduction of Chastitie 
 by Diligence, the master of the ceremonies to the 
 King, but Sensualitie plainly tells the ActII . of 
 King that he can't have both of them. Parti. 
 Thereupon Chastitie is put into the stocks by the 
 three guardian Vices; but on the sudden arrival of 
 Correctioun's Varlet they immediately recognise that 
 the game is up. Flatterie hastily bids farewell 
 to his two friends ; but Dissait and Falset are deter- 
 mined not to leave empty-handed, and while the 
 King is sleeping resolve to steal his box. This Falset 
 does, but claiming on that account the larger share 
 of the money, is attacked by Dissait, who finally runs 
 away with the box through the ' water.' Immediately
 
 224 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 thereupon Divine Correctioun enters, by whom Gude 
 Counsall and Veritie are set free from the stocks, 
 and Sensualitie is dismissed. She affirms that she 
 does not care ' twa strais ' for the King, and will fare 
 much better among bishops and cardinals: as she 
 does, being welcomed by Spiritualitie as their ' dayis 
 darling.' The King then receives into his service 
 Gude Counsall, Veritie, and Chastitie, and embraces 
 with 'a humble countenance' Correctioun, who also 
 graciously pardons Wantonness, Placebo, and Solace, 
 provided they ' do no other crime ' : 
 
 ' For quhy ? as I suppois, 
 Princes may sumtyme seik solace 
 With mirth, and lawful mirriness 
 Thair spirits to rejoyis.' 
 
 The first part being over, the audience are dismissed 
 by Diligence to make ' collatioun,' with a variety of 
 pleasant advice, as : 
 
 ' Tarie nocht lang, it is lait in the day ; 
 Let sum drink ayle and sum drink claret wine. 
 
 Be gret Doctors of Physick, I heare say, 
 spirit That michtie drink comforts the dull ingine.' 
 
 Part I. was followed by the Interlude of the Poor 
 Man and the Pardoner, in which pathos, drollery, and 
 The second other qualities are blended with no little 
 interlude. skill. Entering the empty apartment 
 tired and footsore, the Pauper, who is on his way to 
 St. Andrews for legal redress against his ecclesiastical 
 oppressors, climbs up to the King's chair to rest him, 
 but is driven away by Diligence, who, however, is so
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 
 
 225 
 
 struck by his exclamation that ' thair is richt lytill 
 play at my hungrie hart/ that in real concern he asks 
 him to tell the story of his ' unhappy chances.' The 
 ' blak veritie ' he recounts is the utter ruin both of 
 his father and him by the funeral dues demanded by 
 the Church. Then while the Pauper lies down to 
 rest him, a Pardoner enters, and proceeds to vaunt 
 the merits of his wares : 
 
 My patent Pardouns, ye may se, 
 Cum fra the Cane of Tartarie, 
 
 Weill seald with oster-schellis. 
 
 Thocht ye have na contritioun, Thougli 
 
 Ye sail have full remissioun, 
 
 With help of buiks and bellis. 
 
 Heir is ane relict, lang and braid, a ; broad 
 
 Of Fine Macoull 1 the richt chaft blaid, true jawbone 
 
 With teith, and al togidder : 
 Of Ceiling's cow, heir is ane home, 
 For eating of Makconnal's corne, 
 
 Was slaine into Buquhidder. Balqnhidder 
 
 Heir is ane coird, baith great and lang, 
 Quhilk hangit Johne the Armistrang : * Which 
 
 Of gude hemp soft and sound : 
 Gude, halie peopill, I stand for'd 
 Quha ever beis hangit with this cord, 
 
 Neids never to be dround ! 
 
 The culum of Sanct Bryd's kow, tall 
 
 The gruntill of Sanct Antonis sow, gnoub 
 
 Quhilk buir his haly bell : Which ^ 
 
 Quha ever he be heiris this bell clinck, 
 Gif me ane ducat for till drink, a . ^ 
 
 He sail never gang to hell, go 
 
 1 One of Ossian's heroes. 
 
 8 The freebooter hanged in 1529. ' lohnne ermistrangis dance ' is 
 mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland, and Eamsay published a 
 traditional ballad on him.
 
 226 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Without he be of Baliell borne : 
 Maisters trow ye, that this be scorne ! 
 
 Cum win this Pardoun, cum. 
 
 no* Quha luifis thair wyfis nocht, with thair hart, 
 
 to I have power thanie for till part : 
 
 Methink yow deif and dum ! 
 Hes naine of yow curst wickit wyfis, 
 into ; vi- That halds v iw intill sturt and stryfis ? 
 
 Cum tak my dispeusatioun ; 
 
 g OM ip Of that cummer, I sail mak yow quyte, 
 
 to iflajne Howbeit your selfis be in the wyte, 
 
 And mak ane fals narratioun. 
 Cum win the Pardoun, now let se, 
 For meill, for malt, or for monie, 
 young pig For cok, hen, guse, or gryse. 
 
 Of relicts, heir I haif ane hunder ; 
 Quhy cum ye nocht 1 this is ane wonder ! 
 I trow ye be nocht wyse ! ' 
 
 Then follows a lively scene between the Sowtar, the 
 Sowtar's Wyfe, and the Pardoner, who, after grant- 
 ing them divorce on certain unspeakable conditions, 
 addresses them thus : 
 
 ' Dame, pas ye to the east end of the toun ; 
 
 a And pas ye west, evin lyke ane cuckald loon ; 
 
 broad Go hence ye baith, with Baliel's braid blissing ! 
 
 Schirs, saw ye ever mair sorrowles pairting ? ' 
 
 The interview between the Pardoner and the Pauper 
 is not so satisfactory. The Pauper having received 
 for his groat nothing except a promise of 'ane 
 thousand years of pardouns' demands it back 
 again : 
 
 ' Quhat say ye, Maisters 1 call ye this gude resoun, 
 That he suld promeis me ane gay pardoun, 
 
 And he resave my mony, in his stead ; 
 Then Syne mak me na payment till I be dead ?'
 
 SIE DAVID LYNDSAY 227 
 
 The Pardoner refusing, Pauper attacks and routs 
 him : ' Heir,' says the stage-direction, ' sail they fecht 
 with silence; and Pauper sail cast doun the buird, 
 and cast the relicts hi the water.' 
 
 Part II. is more complicated if not confused in 
 plot than Part I. ; but if the modern reader Avill find it 
 tedious, this is solely because he cannot 
 
 i. , T T Part II. 
 
 realise the situations as Lyndsay s audience 
 did. This part, dealing less with abstractions than 
 Part I., and indeed wholly with ' burning questions,' 
 bristles with points which must have kept the audi- 
 ence in a constant simmer of excitement. Absolutely 
 candid in exposing the abuses in Church and State, 
 Lyndsay employs all the resources of his art to incite 
 the nation to drastic remedies. The three Estates of 
 Parliament Spiritualitie, Temporalitie, and Merchand 
 make their entrance on the stage walking backwards, 
 'led by the Vices': Spiritualitie by 'Covetice and 
 careless Seusualitie/ Temporalitie by Publick Oppres- 
 sioun, and Merchand by Falset and Dissait. At the 
 instance of Correctioun the Vices are put in the stocks, 
 greatly to the sorrowful indignation of Spiritualitie, 
 who bids Sensualitie and Covetyce farewell with much 
 show of feeling, and hopes they will do their utmost 
 to return soon : 
 
 ' Want I yow twa, I may nocht lang endure.' two ; not 
 
 Temporalitie and Merchand manifest, however, no 
 such regrets, and, on the advice of John the Comrnoun 
 Weill, send instead for Gude Counsall, on whose
 
 228 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 arrival John proceeds to detail to the Estates the 
 evils that demand urgent attention; his complaint 
 dealing chiefly with all sorts of idlers, specially 
 
 ' great fat Freiris, 
 
 Augustenes, Carmleits, and Cordeleirs ; 
 are And all uthers, that in cowls bene cled, 
 
 Who ; not Quhilk labours nocht, and bene well fed,' etc. 
 
 Temporalitie and Merchand are much impressed by 
 the address, and promise amendment; but since 
 Spiritualitie declines to come to terms with Corn- 
 moun Weill, the various representatives of the Church 
 are finally summoned before Correctioun to give an 
 account of their stewardship. Spiritualitie boasts : 
 
 ' I gat gude payment of my Temporall lands, 
 offeringa My buttock-maill, 1 my coattis, 2 and my offrands, 
 
 With all that dois perteine my benefice, 
 it Consider now, my Lord, gif I be wyse. 
 
 dare not I dar nocht marie, contrair the common law, 
 
 Ane thing thair is, my Lord, that ye may knaw. 
 Howbeit, I dar nocht plainlie spouse ane wyfe, 
 
 Yit concabeins I have had four or fyfe. 
 
 And to my sons I have givin rich rewairds, 
 landowners And all my dochters maryit upon lairds,' etc. 
 
 The Abbot extols himself in a speech of which this is 
 the kernel : 
 
 ' Thare is na monke, from Carrick to Carraill 3 
 wholesome That fairs better, and drinks mair helsum aill.' 
 
 BN 
 
 The Parson, while admitting that he does not 
 trouble to preach, affirms that he is more zealous in 
 
 1 Fine for fornication. 
 
 2 Testament dues. 
 
 8 Carrick in Ayrshire, on the west coast, to Crail in Fifeshire, on 
 the east coast
 
 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY 229 
 
 the discharge of other, perhaps more important, 
 duties of his office : 
 
 ' Thocht I preich not, I can play at the caiche ; hand-ball 
 
 I wait thair is nocht ane amang yow all, wot 
 
 Mair ferilie can play at the fut-ball ; cleverly 
 
 And for the carts, the tabils, and the dyse, cards 
 
 Above all persouns, I may beir the pryse.' parsons 
 
 And the Lady Prioress, asked why she would not 
 give ' harberie ' to Lady Chastitie, calmly replies that 
 her ' complexion would not assent.' 
 
 Correctioun then directs that Doctour should preach 
 a sermon 'in Inglish tongue land folk to edifie,' 
 much to the disgust of the Abbot and the Parson ; 
 and it being observed that a certain Friar is about to 
 leave to set ' the toun on stir ' against the preacher, 
 he is stripped of his habit, and found to be none else 
 than our old friend Flatterie. The Prioress is also 
 stripped of her habit, when lo ! she is seen to have 
 been wearing beneath it a kirtle of silk. The three 
 Prelates who are also stripped of their habits, which 
 are put on three young licentiates go to confer with 
 Sensualitie and Covetyce, but being now renounced 
 by them with scorn, set out to discover a means of 
 earning an honest living. John Commoun Weill is 
 then clothed ' gorgeously ' and given a seat in Parlia- 
 ment ; and finally Flatterie is pardoned on condition 
 that he consent to act as executioner of his two old 
 friends, Falset and Dissait, with whose execution and 
 that of Commoun Thift a Border reiver who had un- 
 warily come into the meeting to obtain information
 
 230 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 about the Earl of Rothes's 'best hacknay,' and is 
 betrayed by his old master Oppressioun and their 
 dying speeches, Part II. is brought to an edifying 
 close 
 
 Part II. is followed by an after-piece Interlude 
 
 III. containing the 'Sermon of Follie,' a buffoon 
 
 who, after a ludicrous account of his ad- 
 
 Interlude III. 
 
 ventures on the way to the playhouse, 
 proceeds to preach a sermon on a saying of Solomon 
 Stultorum numerus infinitus est, and after a 
 definition of various kinds of folly, goes on to indicate 
 these supremely foolish persons whom he deems to 
 have worthily earned one of his 'Follie Hattis or 
 Hudes.' 
 
 Of the other productions of Lyndsay little need be 
 said. The satirical Tragedy of the Cardinal, 1547 
 other works suggested as to form by Boccaccio's De 
 >f Lyndsay. Cosibus Virorum Illustrium, which he 
 professes to be reading when the wounded ghost 
 of the cardinal appears to him and recounts the 
 cardinal's own history is one of the dullest of his 
 short pieces. Pedder Coffeis gives an amusing sketch 
 of seven varieties of contemporary cheats. The His- 
 torie of Squire Meldrum narrates, after the fashion 
 of the old romances, and with no small sprightliness, 
 the amorous and heroic adventures of that famous 
 Fife laird. As for The Dialog, it is a sort of porten- 
 tous application of biblical history to contemporary 
 events, concluding with dissertations on Death, Anti- 
 christ, and the General Judgment.
 
 SIE DAVID LYNDSAY 231 
 
 On the whole, Lyndsay was greater as man than 
 poet. Had opportunity and scope been granted 
 him, he had the makings of a great Morea 
 statesman ; and as it is, his influence on dramatist 
 
 i i . ,. <--, than a poet. 
 
 the immediate future of Scotland was 
 only second, if second, to that of Knox. His poetic 
 gift was hampered rather than benefited by his 
 absorption in ecclesiastical and social questions ; but 
 he was at least a clever, and more than clever, play- 
 wright, and, indeed, at a later period his dramatic 
 ability must have won him high distinction. 1 
 
 1 Lindsay had at least one poetic disciple in William Lander 
 ( 1 520 ?-1573), minister of Forgandenny, etc. , whose Compendious and 
 Breve Tractate, ed. Hall, was published by the Early English Text 
 Society in 1864, and his Minor Poems, ed. Furnivall, by the same 
 Society in 1870 ; but though displaying much of Lindsay's zeal for 
 political and social reform, they are wellnigh destitute of any 
 qualities entitling them to rank as literature.
 
 VIII 
 
 MINOR AND LATER POETS OF THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BELLENDEN INGLIS KYD STEWARTE STEWART OF 
 LORNE HENRY STEWART KING HENRY STEWART 
 BALNAVES FETHY FLEMING SIR JOHN 
 MOFFAT STEIL, ETC. ALEXANDER SCOTT ALEX- 
 ANDER MONTGOMERIE SIR RICHARD MAITLAND 
 JAMES VI., ETC. THE WEDDERBURNS AND 'THE 
 GUDE AND GODLIE BALLATES' ROBERT SEMPILL 
 AND THE REFORMATION SATIRISTS. 
 
 AMONG contemporary poets of Douglas and Lyndsay 
 there are none of peculiarly distinctive merit. 
 
 John Bellenden, Archdeacon of Moray, whose 
 translations of Boece and Livy (see post, p. 304) are 
 john Beiienden am ong the most characteristic examples 
 (a. 1533-1587). of old Scots prose, is, though designated 
 by Lyndsay ' ane plant of poetis,' 
 
 not ' Quhose ornat workis my wyitt can nocht defyne,' 
 
 known poetically merely as an exemplary disciple of 
 Gavin Douglas. To his prose translations he wrote 
 ' prohemiums,' mainly devoted to the exposition and
 
 INGLIS KYD 233 
 
 enforcement of excellent moral maxims by means of 
 learned classical allusions; and none other of his 
 verses survive except ' a godly and lernit work callit 
 The Banner of Pietie,' 1 and descriptive of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 It may be that Sir James Inglis on whom Mac- 
 kenzie in his Writers of Scotland fathers, without 
 evidence, that curious prose work The Sir j ames 
 Complaynt of Scotland deserves all the ingiis (d. 1531). 
 commendation given him by Lyndsay for his ' ballates, 
 farses, and plesand playes,' but none of these have sur- 
 vived the General Satyre, with which he is credited 
 in the Maitland MS., being in the Bannatyne MS. much 
 more credibly assigned to Dunbar. The pieces re- 
 ferred to by Lyndsay were written while he was a 
 hanger-on at the court, where, the Treasurer's Accounts 
 indicate, he was employed in connection with the 
 theatrical and other entertainments; but Lyndsay 
 laments that his promotion to the abbacy of Culross 
 had made impotent his pen. 
 
 Of Kyd, described by Lyndsay as ' in cunnyng and 
 practick, rycht prudent,' nothing is known beyond 
 the fact that in the Bannatyne MS. his 
 
 Kyd. 
 
 name is attached to The Richt Fontane 
 of hailfull Sapience, written in the French octave, 
 and intended seemingly for the edification of the 
 young king. Exactly coinciding with Lyndsay's allu- 
 sion, it is excellent rather as advice than as poetry. 
 Here is a specimen : 
 
 1 Banuatyne MS.
 
 234 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 communing ' Thy pastyme suld oft be in commonyng 
 
 With profound clerkis of science and prudens ; 
 
 are fitting For cunnying termes aft'eris in a king, 
 
 who Quhilk said be polyt and of eloquence. 
 
 In hering wysmen men gettis sapience, 
 
 which Without the quhilk is no stabilitie ; 
 
 Thairfoir in tyme thow get intelligence 
 Or elles thy wisdome sail in seeking be.' 
 
 Of Stewarte, whose personal history is also an 
 absolute blank, except that he is mentioned in 
 stewarte Holland's Seven Sages as a court poet, 
 First Lerges.' k u t who, Lyndsay tells us, ' desyreth 
 ane stately style ' and 
 
 ' Full ornate workis daylie does compyle,' 
 
 we have more various examples than of any other 
 minor bard of the period, some dozen of his pro- 
 ductions having been preserved in the Bannatyne MS. 
 He was plainly a disciple of Dunbar rather than 
 Douglas; and a curious ballad on the New Year's 
 ' Lerges ' (bounty) indicates that, like Dunbar, he was 
 a not extremely successful ' solisitar.' It begins : 
 
 bounty First lerges the king my cheife, 
 
 Who Quhilk come als quiet as a theif, 
 
 And in my hand sled shillingis twa, 
 To put his lergnes to preif 
 
 For lerges of this New Yeirday.' 
 
 From most of his other possible patrons the 
 Bishop of Galloway, the Abbot of Holyrood, the 
 secretary, the treasurer he also got little but fair 
 words, so that he was moved to exclaim :
 
 STEWARTE 235 
 
 ' Fowll fall this frost that is so fell, Foul befall 
 
 It hes the wyt, the trewth to tell, blame 
 
 Baith handes and purs it bindis sway so 
 
 Thay may gife ne thing, by thame sell, of their 
 
 For lerges of this New Yeirday.' 
 
 There was but one exception to the general stingi- 
 ness, ' My Lord of Both well,' who gave him 
 
 ' ane cursour gray, 
 
 Worth all this sort that I with mell, meddle 
 
 For lerges of this New Yeirday.' 
 
 The tailor and shoemaker those favourite butts 
 of the old ' makaris ' supplied Stewarte with a 
 theme for several pieces, on the whole His F1 tin , 
 more ribald than witty. His Flyting ^* on tailors. 
 betuix the Soutar and the Tailyour is an average 
 specimen of the orthodox Billingsgate of the period ; 
 and he also wrote several mots on tailors, of which 
 this one may serve as a characteristic sample of that 
 age's wit : 
 
 ' Betuix twa foxis a era wing cok, 
 
 Betuix twa freiris a maid in hir smok, 
 
 Betuix twa cattis a mowis, 
 
 Betuix twa telyeouris a lowiss : 
 
 Schaw me, gud schir, nocht as a stranger, not 
 
 Quhilk of thais four is grittest in danger ? ' Which 
 
 Stewarte is further one of the few amatory poets 
 among the old Scots ' makaris,' but ho possesses little 
 of the grace and ease of the later school As amatory 
 of which Scott is the chief. For to declare P***- 
 the he (high) Magnificence of Ladies in the French
 
 236 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 octave, with refrain is an ardent outburst, ending in 
 this effusive fashion : 
 
 earth * War all the erd papir and perchmyne, 
 
 And pennis wer all treis, herbis and flouris, 
 
 tars ; sky And all the sternis in the lift dois schyne, 
 
 War in this erd moist ornat oratouris, 
 
 ta The se were ynk, with fresche fludis and schouris 
 
 a, All wer to small ane buk to edify, 
 
 For to contene of ladeis the honouris, 
 And factis that thair fame dois fortefie.' 
 
 In the Bannatyne MS. are three other of Stewarte's 
 amatory pieces. 
 
 Lyndsay also makes mention of Stewart of Lome, 
 who 'wyll carp rycht curiously.' This was most 
 
 other likely W. Stewart, who, in the Maitland 
 
 Stewarts. MS } j s credited with This hinder Nycht 
 neir by the Hour of Nine also hi the Bannatyne MS. 
 giving the revelation of Dame Virtue as to when 
 Scotland, 'sin Flowdoun field/ shall again enjoy 
 'peace and rest and plenty.' Another Stewart 
 (Henry) appears in the Bannatyne MS. as author of 
 Be Gouernour baith Quid and Gratious ; and there 
 is further King Henry Stewart (Lord Darnley) to 
 whom the Bannatyne MS. assigns a love-song in 
 the French octave, somewhat in the manner of Scott. 
 It is scarcely necessary to add that, although 
 James v. enjoyed some repute in his day as a 
 poet, no verses with his colophon survive, and that 
 his title to the authorship of The Gaberlunzie 
 Man and TJie Jolly Beggar is based on mere un- 
 yerified tradition.
 
 BALNAVES, ETC. 237 
 
 Certain other poets, not mentioned by Dunbar or 
 Lyndsay, who figure in the Bannatyne MS., clearly 
 belong to the later school of Scott and 
 
 r T-I T IT Balnaves. 
 
 Montgomene. Balnaves presumably not 
 Henry Balnaves of Halhill (d. 1579), the Scottish 
 Reformer, and author of a Comfortable Treatise on 
 Justification is credited with Gallandis all I 
 cry and call, containing some rather piquant advice 
 to gallants, written in Scott's favourite six-line stave 
 in rime couee l : 
 
 ' Huntarres adew, 
 
 Gif ye persew 
 To hunt at every beist, 
 
 Ye will it rew, 
 
 Thair is anew : enough 
 
 Thairto haif ye no haist.' 
 
 A certain Fethy 2 appears as the author of two love- 
 songs My Trewth is Plicht, in rime 
 
 . . . Fethy. 
 
 royal, and Pansing in Hairt, in the 
 
 French octave of three accents with a curious double 
 
 refrain : 
 
 ' Cauld, cauld, culis the lufe 
 That kendillis our het.' too hot 
 
 To Fleming we are indebted for Be mirry Bretherne, 
 
 1 See ante, p. 164. 
 
 2 In all likelihood Sir John Futhy, a priest who, according to 
 the manuscript of Thomas Wode, or Wood, in Dublin University 
 Library, composed a song beginning '0 God abufe,' with words and 
 music, and was ' the first organist that ever brought in Scotland 
 the curious new fingering and playing on organs.' See David 
 Laing's Introduction to Stenhouse's Notes to Johnson's Musical 
 Museum, p. xxxi.
 
 238 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 a clever and amusing, indeed quite modern, exposition 
 of the plague of evil wives, which is also of some in- 
 terest for its stave, the first section being 
 
 Fleming. . ... 
 
 sometimes in the rime coude of Scott, but 
 occasionally dropping the internal rhymes, so as to 
 form a quatrain in the old ballad measure ; and the 
 last section being a kind of bobwheel, the inner lines 
 of which are occasionally in tumbling metre. Here is 
 an example : 
 
 Then would ' Than wad scho say, " Allace this day 
 
 mon ey For him that wan this geir, 
 
 Quhen I him had, I skairsly said, 
 
 ' My hart ains inak gud cheir.' 
 
 once . 3 
 
 Befor6 Or I had lettin him spend a plak, 
 
 known I lever haif wittin him brokin his bak, 
 
 neck Or ellis his craig had gottin a crak, 
 
 Our the heicht of the stair." ' 
 
 Sir John Moffat, who is credited by anothei 
 
 than Bannatyne with the classic tale, The Wyft 
 
 of Auchtirmwchty, is also credited by 
 
 Sir John J 
 
 Moffat, and Bannatyne with a rather sprightly piece, 
 Brother, Bewar I rede you Now, in the 
 five-line stave aab, ab with refrain; and Steil, 
 known otherwise as the author of a political poem, 
 The Ryng of the Roy Robert, 1 has his name attached 
 to two love-poems, Lanterne of Lufe and Absent, 
 neither of much account, and both rather ' aureate ' 
 of language. 
 
 1 Maitland MS. , reprinted in Watson's Choice Collection, part iii. , 
 and in Laing's Fugitive Scottish Poetry, 1823-25, and Early Metrical 
 Tales, 1826.
 
 MINOR NAMES 239 
 
 To the same xate school belongs the Clapperton 
 who, in the Maitland MS., appears as ciappenon. 
 the author of Wa Worth Maryage,'- beginning : 
 
 In Bowdoun, on blak Monunday Monday 
 
 Quhen all was gadderit to the Play, 
 
 Bayth men and women semblit thair, 
 I hard ane sweit ane sich, and say sigh 
 
 " Wa worth maryage for evermair." ' Woe befall 
 
 Other still more minor names in the Banna- 
 tyne MS. are Lichtoun Monicus, Robert 
 Norval, and Henry Scogan. 2 John Blyth, Minornamei - 
 Allan, and Allan Matson are clearly pseudonyms. 3 
 
 In Lyndsay we have seen the beginning of that 
 theological absorption which was to infect, 
 
 The later 
 
 and for a time destroy, the nation s poetic Scottish 
 
 sentiment ; but at first the infection was 
 
 only partial, and it was slightly counteracted either by 
 
 1 Published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, p. 135. 
 
 a Henry Scogan, an Englishman, was tutor to the sons of Henry rv. 
 A poem by him is published in Skeat's Chaucerian and other 
 Poems, 1897. 
 
 3 George Bannatyne (1545-1608), the transcriber of the Bannatyne 
 MS., was the son of James Bannatyne of Kirktown of Newtyle, 
 Forfarshire. He became a merchant in Edinburgh, and during an 
 outbreak of the plague there in 1568 took refuge in his native place, 
 where he amused his enforced leisure by compiling, mostly, he 
 states, from 'copies awld, markit and vitillat,' that treasury of old 
 Scots poetry, the Bannatyne MS., which, with the Maitland MS., was 
 the chief means of preserving the bulk of the work of the old Scots 
 'makaris' from oblivion. From the Bannatyne MS. Allan Kamsay got 
 the material for his Evergreen, 1724, and it was drawn upon by late 
 editors both for general Collections and for editions of individual poets ; 
 but the whole MS. was first printed verbatim et literatim through 
 the enterprise of the Hunterian Club, 1873-1896. Bannatyne prefixed 
 certain poetical introductions to the MS., and also contributed to it 
 a few other pieces of his own, but they are of no poetic merit.
 
 240 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 direct contact with the poetic revival in England 
 represented by Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, or by con- 
 tact with influences similar to those which produced 
 that revival Of this later Scottish school, which 
 tended to become more and more assimilated to that 
 of England, the two chief names are Alexander Scott 
 and Alexander Montgomerie. 
 
 Of Alexander Scott his parentage and personal 
 
 history we know no more than of the obscurest 
 
 of the old Scots 'makaris.' Lains: con- 
 
 Alexander 
 
 Scott (fl. 1547- jectured that he may have been the 
 second of two sons of Alexander Scott 
 of the Chapel Royal, Stirling, who were legitimated 
 on 21st September 1549; but the Scotts are so 
 numerous a clan that the conjecture can scarce 
 rank as even a faint probability. It is as likely 
 that he was the Alexander Scott, burgess of Edin- 
 burgh, who in 1581 was joint cautioner with Mungo 
 Scott for George Scott of Synton, and Robert Scott 
 of Hanying, then in ward in Edinburgh Castle, 
 and who hi 1584 became caution for the loyalty of 
 James Thomsoun. 1 It is worth noting that this 
 Alexander Scott is designated a burgess merely, not 
 merchant or any kind of tradesman. It is almost 
 certain that Scott was an Edinburgh resident, the 
 whole tone of his poetry, apart from poetical references 
 to Edinburgh and its neighbourhood, being that of a 
 town gallant ; and we know from an allusion to him 
 
 1 Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 396 ; ib. 
 Tol. iii. p. 696.
 
 ALEXANDEK SCOTT 241 
 
 in a sonnet of Montgomerie to Hudson that he was 
 alive in 1584: 
 
 ' Yourself and I, old Scott and Eobert Sempill, 
 Quhen we are deid that all our dayis but daffis, larks 
 
 Let Christian Lyndsay write our epitaphs.' 
 
 This quotation also, if it does not imply that Scott 
 had no stated employment, is rather inconsistent 
 with the supposition from his use of two law-terms, 
 ' blanche-ferme ' and 'quyt-cleme' that he was a 
 lawyer, at least in constant practice. 
 
 Scott's New Zeir Gift to the Quene Mary expresses 
 the current anti-Catholic feeling of Edinburgh in 
 ;562 ; but notwithstanding this piece, and 
 
 Unchanged 
 
 his two translations from the Psalms, he by the 
 
 I ,. .. i . , Reformation. 
 
 represents a mode of sentiment which it 
 need hardly be said is alien to that of the Kirk. 
 Most likely, indeed, the bulk of his verse that now 
 survives was written before the ' Evangel ' was 
 established in Scotland. We possess none of later 
 date than 1568, and it is inferred that Departe, 
 written ' of the Master of Erskine,' lover of the Queen- 
 Dowager, slain at Pinkie in 1547, dates from shortly 
 after the Master's death; while that characteristic 
 piece Of May celebrates, among other old customs, 
 the representation of Robin Hood and Little John 
 prohibited by Act of Parliament in 1555. But the 
 reference of Montgomerie further shows that the 
 Reformation effected no radical change in Scott's 
 habits; and the fact that none of his verses are 
 known to survive, except what Bannatyne tran- 
 
 Q
 
 242 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 scribed, betokens rather that he continued to write 
 in the old vein, than that he either ceased to write 
 or devoted himself specially to serious verse. 
 
 The whole of Scott's productions that survive, 
 
 under his signature, number only thirty-six, 1 and with 
 
 the exception of the New Zeir's Gift, The 
 
 A love poet. . 
 
 Justing and Deoait, and the translations 
 of the first and fiftieth Psalms, they are wholly 
 devoted to love a subject which seems to have had as 
 much practical interest for him as it had for Burns : 
 
 smiling ; eye * The blenkyne of ane e 
 
 tooftumy A y art tw e oif and * lake ' ; 
 
 and foolishly 
 
 but while his verses plainly represent his own ex- 
 perience, and are the effluence of a strong lyric im- 
 pulse, their sentiment and manner has much in 
 common with the English lyrical school represented 
 chiefly by Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey. 
 
 Doubtless Scott knew Skelton's poetry, and made 
 acquaintance with the later school of Wyatt and 
 Anaccom- Surrey in Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, if 
 
 pushed met- t k e f ore fo[ s [ n MS . but if influenced 
 
 rist. Compared 
 
 with surrey, by SO me of the English school in his pre- 
 ference for short-lined staves, he had little to gain 
 from it as regards rhythmical excellence. We have 
 only to compare his finished and musical versification 
 
 1 They are all contained in the Bannatyne MS. A few were 
 published by Ramsay, 1724 very incorrectly Lord Hailes, 1770, 
 and Sibbald, 1802 ; but the first complete edition is the somewhat 
 Bowdlerised one by David Laing, 1821. An edition was printed for 
 private circulation at Glasgow, 1882 ; one for the Scottish Text 
 Society, ed. Cranstoun, 1896 ; and a fourth for the English Text 
 Society, ed. A. K. Donald, 1902.
 
 ALEXANDER SCOTT 243 
 
 with the jolting doggerel of even Wyatt, to recognise 
 how far the Scots ' makaris ' were in advance of the 
 English, until Surrey ; and as regards correctness of 
 accent, management of the pause, and purity and 
 exactness of rhyme, he is hardly to be regarded as 
 Surrey's inferior. 
 
 Though addicted to short-lined staves, Scott also 
 used many of Dunbar's, but did not in A disciple of 
 these confine himself to iambics. He D ,"? ba Us ? 
 
 oi the r rencn 
 
 was partial to the French octave, which ctave. 
 
 he wrote not only in its five- and four-, but in its 
 
 three-accented form, as in Oppressit Hairt : 
 
 ' Oppressit hairt, indure 
 In dolor and distress, 
 
 Wappit without recure Wrapped 
 
 T .j.-i round; cur 
 
 In wo remidiless ; 
 
 Sen scho is merciless, Since 
 
 And caussis all thy smert, 
 
 Quilk suld thy dolor dress, Who; redress 
 
 Indure, oppressit hairt.' 
 
 For that ecstatic celebration of love, Vp, Helsum 
 Hairt, he uses a ten-line stave formed 
 
 . _ , , Ten-line stave. 
 
 by the addition of a couplet to the 
 French octave : 
 
 ' Vp, helsum hairt ! thy rutis rais, and lowp ; 
 
 Exalt and clym within my breist in staige ; 
 Art thow not wantoun, haill, and in gud howp, hale 
 
 Ffermit in grace and free of all thirlaige confirmed ; 
 
 . " bondage 
 
 Bathing in bliss and sett in hie curaige < 
 
 Braisit in joy, no fait may th<$ affray, Enveloped 
 
 Having thy ladies hart as heretaige 
 
 In blench e ferme ffor ane sallat every May tenure 
 
 So neid thow nocht now sussy, sytt, nor sorrow not ; fret ; 
 
 Sen thow art sure of sollace evin and morrow.' |[ n e C e e
 
 244 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 He has also several examples of rime royal, in- 
 cluding that curious fantasia on the heart 
 
 Rime royal. . 
 
 beginning : 
 
 ' Half hairt in hairt, ze hairt of hairtes haill ; 
 
 Trewly, sweit hairt, zour hairt my hairt sal haif,' etc. 
 
 Of the three examples of the five-line stave of 
 Five line equal lines, two, Of May and The Answer 
 stave. t o Jfairts, are arranged in the refrain 
 
 form of the stave, and the third, To Luve Vnluvit, 
 has the refrain : 
 
 ' To luve vnluvit it is ane pane : 
 For scho that is my soverane, 
 Sum wantoun man so he hes set hir, 
 
 That I can get no luf agane, 
 nothlDg Bot brek my hairt, and nocht the bettir.' 
 
 Only once, in the witty Of Womenkynd, does he 
 use a six-line stave with double refrain ; 
 
 Six-line stave ^ 
 
 with double but instead of the Dunbar form built on 
 two rhymes, he borrows from the English 
 lyrists that built on three rhymes, and known as the 
 ' ballade ' (see post, p. 258) : 
 
 ' I muse and mervellis in my mynd, 
 
 Quhat way to wryt, or put in verss, 
 The quent consaitis of wemenkynd, 
 
 behaviour Or half thair havingis to reherss : 
 
 whole I fynd thair haill affectioun 
 
 So contrair thair complexioun.' 
 
 More partial than Dunbar to rime couee, he supplies 
 Rimecouee two examples A Complaint againis 
 ihe^a'dresVto Cupeid and On Paciens in Life of that 
 the Deii. 1 six-line form of it which, the troubadours 
 having adapted to it their love-songs, and the monks
 
 ALEXANDER SCOTT 245 
 
 their exemplary Latin rhymes, became common, 
 through the early English minstrels, all over England, 
 whence it later found favour with the Scots, but only 
 partially, until, having been revived by Sir Robert 
 Sempill in 'Standard Habbie,' it finally obtained a 
 lease of immortality through Robert Burns. 1 Here is 
 a stave of Scott more after the manner of Burns than 
 most of the pinchbeck imitations of the latter bard : 
 
 ' Quhat is thy manrent bot mischeif : homage 
 
 Sturt, angir, grunching, yre, and greif, vexation ; 
 
 Evill lyfe, and langour but releif without 
 
 Off wounde wan, 
 
 Displesour, pane, and he repreif high 
 
 Off God and man ? ' 
 
 In On Paciens the stave is adapted to a single 
 refrain, ' Bot paciens,' or ' With paciens,' and in that 
 candid exposition of the poet's own love- code, It 
 cumis zow Luvaris to be Laill, he introduces with 
 much effect a double refrain of one accent, thus : 
 
 4 It cumis zow luvaris to be laill, becomes ; 
 
 lovsl 
 Off body, hairt, and mind alhaill ; entirely 
 
 And thocht ze with zour ladyis daill though 
 
 Ressoun ; 
 Bot and zour faith and lawty fail loyalty 
 
 Tressoun. 3 
 
 Scott has also examples A Luvaris Complaint 
 and Leif, Luve, and Lat me leif Allone 
 
 J Seven-line 
 
 of a seven-line stave in rime couee, of two stave in rime 
 
 rhymes, formed from this six-line stave 
 
 by the addition of a head-line to the last section; 
 
 1 For a complete history of this stave, see The Centenary Burns, 
 vol. i. pp. 336-42.
 
 246 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 but in both cases the last line takes the form of a 
 refrain, and in the latter the tail-lines are of three 
 accents : 
 
 ' Leif, Luve, and lat me leif allone 
 At libertie, subject to none, 
 Ffor it may weill be sene vpone 
 
 complexion My bludless blaikn'tt ble : 
 
 The tormenting in tym bygon, 
 That skerss hes left bot skin and bon 
 
 perversencss Throw fremitness of the".' 
 
 But the special stave of Scott in rime coude is that 
 
 fashioned on the imperfect Iambic tetrameter. 1 In his 
 
 Translation of the First Psalm, and in 
 
 Rime couee 
 
 fashioned on Ladeis Fair, he uses it in its common 
 
 the imperfect . 11 rt t r * j. 
 
 iambic six-line form ; while in Quha is Perfyte, 
 
 In June the Jem, and Quha lykis to 
 Luve, he adds a bobwheel : 
 
 ' Quha lykis to luve, 
 
 Or that law pruve, 
 Lat him beleif this lyfe to leid : 
 
 His mynd sail moif, 
 
 JIJ 10 "*' But rest or ruve 
 
 to death With diuerss dolonris to the deid : 
 
 !* He sail tyne appetite 
 
 And meit and sleip gife quyte 
 
 And want the way perfyte 
 remedy To find remeid.' 
 
 Of this six-line stave in rime couee he uses in 
 Favour is Fair a modification formed by rhyming 
 the first half of the third line with the second, and 
 the first half of the sixth with the fifth, so as to form 
 an eight-line stave : 
 
 1 See ante, p. 164.
 
 ALEXANDER SCOTT 247 
 
 ' Favour is fair 
 
 In luvis lair, learning 
 
 Zit Friendship mair more 
 
 Bene to commend ; is to be 
 
 Bot quhair despair commended 
 
 Bene adversare, 
 Nothing is thair 
 
 Bot wofull end.' 
 
 Of this stave there are examples in the Coventry 
 Mysteries. Scott lias also two examples of rime couee 
 in eight-line staves Departe, the head- 
 
 V f t,- l. f ^ i Eight-line 
 
 lines of which are 01 three accents and stave in 
 the tail-lines of two, and / will be Plane, rime c u "' 
 the head-lines of which are of two accents, the tail- 
 lines of one three-syllabled accent, assuming the 
 form of a double refrain : 
 
 ' I will be plane, 
 
 And lufe affane sincerely 
 
 Ffor as I mene mean 
 
 So take me ; 
 
 Gif I refrane If 
 
 For wo or pane, 
 Zour lufe certane ; 
 
 Forsaik me.' 
 
 The other staves of Scott are (1) the old bobwheel 
 stave of Christis Kirk in The Justing ; (2) in Langour 
 to Leive, a four-line stave of alternate 
 
 Other staves. 
 
 rhymes, the rhymes ot the second and 
 fourth lines being repeated throughout its thirteen 
 stanzas, with the burden of ' again ' ; and (3) a variety 
 of the roundel, Lo ! qhat it is to Luve (p. 249).
 
 248 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Tlie New Zeir Gfift, of small merit poetically, is of 
 some interest as representing the views of a shrewd 
 The New man ^ tne world, on the political pro- 
 zeiroift/ blems of Scotland in 1562. But though 
 filled with grave political advice, it begins with a 
 stanza of elaborate compliments after the approved 
 'aureate' fashion, and the Envoy and Lectori are 
 utilised for a display of those crowning accomplish- 
 ments of the old ' makar,' internal rhyme and allitera- 
 tion. Here is the quaint close : 
 
 not* ' Noblest natour, nurice to nurtour, not 
 
 writing This dull indyte, dulce, double dasy deir, 
 
 Sent by Send be thy sempill servand Sanderris Scott, 
 
 Greting gret God to grant thy Grace gude zeir.' 
 
 The Justing and Debait vp at the Drum betuix 
 Wa. Adamsone and Johne Sym is modelled as 
 The justing ^ f rm after Peblis and Christis Kirk, 
 and Debait.- an( j as ^ o subject-matter after Dunbar's 
 Turnament and Lyndsay's Justing. With the former 
 two pieces it cannot compare in realistic vivacity, nor 
 with Dunbar's in breadth apart from the question 
 of grossness of humour, but the fun is not so strained 
 as Dunbar's, nor is there any suggestion of burlesque. 
 The incidents are described with quite a naive sim- 
 plicity : the ludicrous cowardice of Will, who 
 
 j5? ger ; ' wichter was of corss 
 
 knit Nor Sym and better knittin,' 
 
 in its contrast with the dapper coolness of the pigmy 
 but 'better sittin' Sym, affording opportunity for 
 much slily effective wit.
 
 ALEXANDER SCOTT 249 
 
 But the special praise of Scott is that he is the chief 
 lyrist of the old Scots 'makaris' more essentially 
 a lyrist than Dunbar or Montgornerie, 
 
 The chief old 
 
 and among English contemporaries the scots lyrist 
 
 f n en TT r-, T i butthedis- 
 
 lellow or Surrey. Yet Scott is peculiarly cipie of 
 the disciple of Dunbar, and the influence 
 of that master is seen not merely in the artistic finish, 
 but in the succinctness, the aphoristic vigour of his 
 verse. A notable example is the Roundel of Love, 
 which is a condensed and much improved version of 
 Wyatt's Abused Lover : 'The Roundel 
 
 of Love.' 
 
 ' Lo ! quhat it is to lufe 
 Lerne ze, that list to prufe, 
 Be me, I say, that no wayis may By 
 
 The grund of greif remvfe, 
 Bot still decay, both nycht and day - 
 Lo ! quhat it is to lufe. 
 
 Lufe is ane fervent fyre, 
 
 Kendillit without desyio : 
 Schort plesour, lang displesour, 
 
 Kepentance is the hyre ; 
 Ane pure tressour without inesour P or 
 
 Lufe is ane fervent fyre. 
 
 To lufe and to be wyiss, 
 
 To rege with gud ad wyiss, ra s e * 
 
 Now thus, now than, so gois the game, 
 
 Incertane is the dyiss : 
 Thair is no man, I say, that can 
 
 Both lufe and to be wyiss. 
 
 Fie al wayis from the snair, 
 
 Lerne at me to be ware : 
 It is ane pane and dowbill trane *nare 
 
 Of endles wo and cair ; 
 For to refrane that danger plane 
 
 Fie alwayis froine the snair.'
 
 250 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Elsewhere he also manifests some of the coarser 
 
 aspects of the old Scottish realism, curiously mingled 
 
 with the graceful amorous frivolity of 
 
 His asserted 
 
 lack of the school of Surrey. As to his asserted 
 
 earnestness.' . , - ,, . 
 
 lack of earnestness, fervour, passion, surely 
 Vp, Helsom Hairt, and its companion piece, My 
 Hairt is High Above, the latter unsigned but engraven 
 all over with his subscription, are fervent and pas- 
 sionate enough, though erotic rather than sentimental; 
 and is not this exquisitely simple stanza as imagined 
 coming from the lips of the dying Master of Erskine 
 as expressive a symbol of passionate regret as the 
 loudest of protestations ? 
 
 own ' Adew my awin sueit thing, 
 
 My joy and conforting, 
 My mirth and sollesing 
 
 earthly glory Of erdly gloir ; 
 
 Ffair weill, my lady bricht 
 And my remembrance rycht, 
 Ffair weill and half gud nycht : 
 I say no moir !' 
 
 At the same time Scott is not a poet of the 
 domestic affections, but the poet chiefly of gallantry. 
 The oet of ^ e bulk of his verse that has been pre- 
 gaiiantry. served is of the light, gay, and even 
 frivolous, rather than serious, order. A wit more 
 than humorist or satirist, his wit plays over all the 
 superficial aspects of love with a certain sparkling, if 
 not dazzling, brilliancy. His maxims and experiences 
 are those of the gallants of his time ; but such as they 
 are, they are detailed with much artful cleverness
 
 251 
 
 and vivacity, as also with an ease and elegance un- 
 equalled by any of the old Scots 'makaris,' and by 
 none of the earlier English lyrists except Surrey. 
 
 Alexander Montgoinerie, properly the last of the 
 Scots 'makaris,' was, like Dunbar and Douglas, 
 closely connected with one of the great Alexander 
 Scottish families, being the younger son JJ^J^" ie 
 of Hugh Montgoinerie of Hazelhead, Ayr- His earf y life - 
 shire, descended from a younger branch of the 
 Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton. By intermarriage 
 the family was also variously related to the poetic 
 Sempills. He himself states that he was born on 
 'Easter day at morne,' but the year is unknown, 
 though it was probably about 1540. Nor, though 
 he was highly accomplished, do we possess any in- 
 formation about his education ; the story of Hume 
 of Polwart in The Flyting as to his being sent to 
 Argyle to learn ' leir ' being so plainly meant in mere 
 scorn that nothing can be inferred from it. Most 
 likely he visited Argyle in some military capacity, for 
 Dempster states that he was vulgarly called 'the 
 Highland trooper.' That he had some special inter- 
 course with Highlanders, and possessed at least a 
 sprinkling of Gaelic, is clear from his Answer to 
 ane Helandmanis Invective ; and if he also wrote 
 How the Helandman was made l which, however, is 
 more like the work of an earlier poet most likely he 
 had reasons for a special grudge against the Argyle 
 Highlanders. 
 
 1 Baimatyne MS.
 
 252 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 A sonnet by Barclay of Ladyland is addressed to 
 Montgomerie as ' Captain,' but he is not to be con- 
 xt the court of founded with Captain Robert Mont- 
 jamesvi. gonierie, who was one of the king's 
 bodyguards. Though in some special sense he served 
 the Regent Morton and King James vi., the exact 
 nature of his office is unknown. But, for some years, 
 he was a persona grata at the curious court of the 
 young prince, an intimate of some of the more 
 powerful nobles, a friend of many fair dames, an 
 avowed gallant after the manner of his time, and for 
 some time the favourite poet, and it may be the 
 poetic instructor, of his pedantic patron, whose bound- 
 less literary vanity he did not scruple to feed with the 
 gross flattery which alone would have satisfied it : 
 
 * So quintessence of Kings, when thou compyle, 
 Thou stainis my verses with thy stately style.' 
 
 In 1583 Montgomerie obtained a pension of 500 
 merks a year, chargeable on the rents of the Arch- 
 
 His retirement bishop of GlaSgOW, but SOmO difficulty 
 
 from court as ^ o f^g p avm ent led to legal proceed- 
 ings, which apparently terminated in his favour, 
 the grant of the pension being confirmed in 1588. 
 Meanwhile, during a foreign tour, for which he 
 obtained leave of absence hi 1586, he is stated to have 
 been sent into a foreign prison ; but where, or why 
 he was imprisoned, or even how or when he was set 
 at liberty, is unknown. 1 Be that as it may, he latterly 
 
 1 Irving, in his Life of Montgomerie in Laing's edition, states 
 that ' an authentic document informs us that he was detained in a
 
 ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE 253 
 
 so completely lost the favour of the king that he 
 had to retire from the court, and there is no evidence 
 that he was ever again permitted to return. No 
 light on the cause of his disgrace is to be obtained 
 from his poetry, except that he regarded himself as 
 very ill used, but it is sufficiently explained if he be 
 the Alexander Montgomerie, brother of the laird of 
 Hazelhead, who, a neglected entry in the Register of 
 the Privy Council 1 informs us, 'having failed to 
 appear to answer for being art and part with the 
 late Hew Barclay of Ladyland in the treasonable 
 enterprise for the taking of Ilisha for the use of the 
 Spanish, is' 14th July 1597 'to be denounced 
 rebel.' This Hew Barclay, who, on being surprised at 
 Ailsa, rushed into the sea and drowned himself, was a 
 poetic acquaintance of Montgomerie's, 2 and, moreover, 
 the old laird of Hazelhead, the supposed brother of 
 Montgomerie, was still alive, so that the Alexander 
 Montgomerie accused of having been art and part hi 
 this foolish enterprise seems to have been none other 
 than the poet. Nothing is known as to his later years. 
 The tradition that he settled at Compstone Castle, 
 Kirkcudbrightshire, near which, at the junction of 
 the Dee and the Taffe, is supposed to be the scene 
 of The Gherrie and the Slae, is quite unverified ; and 
 
 foreign prison,' but he quotes no reference. The poems of Mont- 
 gomerie usually affirmed by editors to refer to his foreign imprison- 
 ment could, from the context, only refer to his imprisonment in 
 this country. 
 
 1 Vol. v. p. 402. 
 
 2 A sonnet of Ladyland to Montgomerie, Montgomerie's answer, 
 nd Ladyland's reply, are included in Montgomerie's Poem*.
 
 254 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 not only was Tlie Ckerrie and the Sloe written before 
 he lost the king's favour, but there is no reason to 
 suppose that he ever acquired means sufficient to 
 enable him to occupy such a residence. Though his 
 sonnets and poems represent a varied love acquaint- 
 anceship, he was apparently more a languishing than 
 a successful suitor. It has been taken for granted 
 that the c maistres ' of most of his sonnets and poems 
 was Lady Margaret Montgomerie, to whom, we are 
 told, he 'plied his suit with equal poetic skill and 
 courtier-like grace ' ; but Lady Margaret, who became 
 the wife of the Master of Seton, afterwards Earl of 
 Winton, must have been over twenty years his junior, 
 and his verses to her are more fatherly than amatory 
 in tone. There is no evidence that he ever married. 
 He was alive in 1605, and died some time before 1615. 
 A disciple of Scott, Montgomerie was, however, 
 more inventive in his metres and also more akin to 
 The sonnet of tne English school in language as well as 
 Montgomerie. method. 1 His susceptibility to the new 
 influences is especially seen in his preference for the 
 sonnet, of which he has left no fewer than seventy 
 
 1 Montgomerie's Cherrle and the Slae, first printed in 1597, and 
 an edition ' newly altered, perfyted,' etc., by Montgomerie before his 
 death, was published by Andro Hart, 1615. This edition was 
 known to and partly used by Ramsay for his Evergreen, but no copy 
 is now known to exist. Various other separate editions have been 
 published. The Fly ting first appeared in 1621, and The Mindes 
 Melodie in 1605. The collected editions of his Poems are those of 
 Laing, 1821, and the Scottish Text Society, ed. Cranstoun, 1887. 
 The MSS. are the Bannatyne, the Maitland, and the Drummond 
 (University Library, Edinburgh).
 
 ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE 255 
 
 examples. To this form of verse lie may have been 
 introduced through Tottel's Miscellany, 1557, but it 
 is further clear that he was greatly influenced by 
 Ronsard, several of his sonnets being merely transla- 
 tions of those of the French poet. 1 Although (1) he 
 uses the occasional Wyatt (and common Sidney) form 
 abba, abba, cd, cd (in one instance dd), ee and 
 (2) the more common Wyatt form abba, abba, odd, 
 cee he never uses the Surrey and Shakespeare form 
 of three alternately rhyming quatrains, but by linking 
 the third quatrain to the second as the second is 
 linked to the first, he introduces (3) a variation ab, 
 ab, be, be, cd, cd, ee 2 and (4) he avoids in one or 
 two instances the final couplet by adopting, from 
 Ronsard, the arrangement abba, abba (in one instance 
 abab), ccd, eed, the nearest approach to the Petrarchian 
 before Sidney and Milton. The following example 
 will also show that he understood something of the 
 special poetic use of the sonnet, the change in the 
 tenor of the thought at the ninth line being very 
 clearly marked, while its whole direction is towards 
 the final conclusion : 
 
 ' Bright amorous ee vhare Love in ambush lyes, eye 
 
 Cleir cristal tear distilde at our depairt, departure 
 
 Sueet secreit sigh more peircing nor a dairt, than 
 Inchanting voice, beuiicher of the wyse, 
 
 1 This fact was first pointed out by Dr. Hoffmann in Studien zu 
 Alexander Montgomerie; Altenburg, 1894. 
 
 2 Dr. Hoffmann points out that Spenser, who is the first English 
 poet to use this form, must have got it from the Essayes of a Prentise, 
 by James vi., 1584, Montgomerie being the inventor of the form.
 
 256 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 which Quhyt ivory hand, vhilk thrust my fingers pryse 
 
 I challenge zou, the causers of my smarte, 
 As homiceids, and murtherers of my harte, 
 In Resones Court to suffer ane assyse. 
 
 know Bot oh ! I fear, zea rather wot I weill, 
 
 To be repledgt ze plainly will appeill 
 To Lore, whom Resone never culd command : 
 Bot since I can not better myn estate, 
 
 while Zit vhill I live, at leist I sail regrate 
 
 ye Ane ee, a teir, a sigh, a voce, a hand.' 
 
 But the metrical form with which Montgomerie's 
 name is chiefly associated is the quatorzain of The 
 The Bankis of Helicon, in which he also wrote 
 
 ???" BMkSf that ver y PP ular P iece Th* Cherry and 
 of Helicon.- the Slae, as well as the emotional farewell, 
 Adieu, Daisy of Delight. That The Bankis of 
 Helicon, preserved in the Maitland MS., is the earliest of 
 the productions in that measure, is proved by the fact 
 that Sir Richard Maitland's Ballat of the Creatioun of 
 the World, in the Bannatyne MS., is said to be ' maid 
 to the tone of The Bankis of Helicon.' It is also in 
 the Bannatyne MS. that mention is first made of 
 this tune, and Montgomerie's authorship of the words 
 is as clearly proved as, from mere internal evidence, 
 it can be. 
 
 Montgomerie's metrical invention consisted in add- 
 ing to a ten-line stave, very common in England from 
 the beginning of the fourteenth century, a peculiar 
 wheel borrowed from a stave of the old Latin hymns. 
 It may be that the song was written to fit some old 
 sacred tune, or the tune may have been written by 
 some court musician. Its popularity gave the stave
 
 ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE 257 
 
 a considerable vogue, other examples besides Mont- 
 gomerie's and Maitland's being A ne Ballat of ye 
 Captain of ye Castle, Burel's Passage of a Pilgrim,, 
 and The Dumb Wyff none of them, however, of the 
 slightest poetic merit. Revived by Ramsay, the 
 stave became a favourite one of Burns, whose most 
 effective use of it is in the recitatives of The Jolly 
 Beggars. 
 
 With the exception of the French octave named 
 by James vi. the ballot royal, and recommended by 
 him for 'heich and grave subjects/ espe- Hisuseofthe 
 cially drawn out of ' learnit autors ' and old staves - 
 the rime royal, Montgomerie shows little partiality 
 for the favourite staves of the old ' makaris.' In The 
 Fly ting he, however, introduces the old rhymed 
 alliterative stave of the romances, which he also 
 makes use of in Ane Answer to ane Helandmanis 
 Invective', and in the introductory verses of The 
 Flyting he applies the common rondeau (in triple 
 measure) to Polwart with some effectiveness : 
 
 ' Polwart zee peip 
 Like a mouse amongst thornes, 
 
 Na cunning zee keepe. 
 
 Polwart zee peip, 
 
 Ze look like a sheipe 
 And zee had twa homes. 
 
 Polwart ze peip 
 Like a mouse amongst thornes. 1 
 
 Further, in Ane Example for His Lady, he uses the 
 sixteen-line stave in rime couee, aaab, aaab, aaab, aaab ; 
 in Address to the Sun, the common six-line stave in 
 
 R
 
 rime couee, aab, ccb ; in Remember Rightly, the six- 
 line stave, aab, aab, with an additional couplet ; and in 
 Regrate of his Unhappy Luve, a variation of the six- 
 line stave of The Address to the Deil (see ante, p. 244), 
 the first head-lines being of five accents, and the 
 second, third, and fourth of four only, while the two 
 tail lines are of only one, the last, ' Bot I ' forming 
 a refrain : 
 
 tedious ; 
 
 learning ' Irkit I am with langsum luvis lair 
 
 Overcome ; Oursett with inwart siching sair ; 
 
 8 hm S n At . f j- 
 
 For in the presone of dispair 
 
 I> 
 
 every fellow Seeing ilk wicht gettis sum weilfair 
 
 Bot I.' 
 
 In Sen Fortun we have an example of the bobwheel 
 
 attached to a six-line stave rhyming alternately 
 
 ab, ab, ab, the bob of one accent being 
 
 Other staves ' . . & 
 
 with bob- followed by a line rhyming with the sixth 
 line, the final line which rhymes with the 
 bob, constituting a refrain. In To his Maistres he 
 uses a five-line stave with internal rhyme, followed 
 by the old bobwheel of the alliterative romances. 
 
 Montgomerie had also recourse to old English 
 
 measures, of which no examples are to be found in 
 
 the Scottish ' makaris,' and he clearly got 
 
 English stave. . 
 
 some 01 his staves from the new lyric 
 school of England, as the six-line stave ab, ab, cc, 
 named by Gascoigne the ' ballade,' and used by 
 Wyatt, as well as afterwards by Spenser and Shake- 
 speare. This stave Montgomerie also, like Scott (see 
 ante, p. 244), used with a refrain.
 
 ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE 259 
 
 Of the various forms of ' cuttit and broken verse ' 
 which Montgomerie affected, it is impossible here to 
 give a minute analysis. In his more . Cuttitand 
 elaborate staves he combined interlacing broken verse. 1 
 rhyme with couplets, with rime couee, and with 
 various forms of the bobwheel. Some were written 
 to music, as that long complex stave into which, in 
 The Mindes Melodic, he translated ' certayne Psalmes 
 of the Kinglie Prophete Dauid, applyed to a new 
 pleasant tune, verie comfortable to everie one that is 
 rightlie acquainted therewith.' 
 
 But the ingenuity and skill of Montgomerie as a 
 metrist sometimes proved more a snare to him than 
 an advantage. The mere length and com- Metrist rather 
 plexity of several of his more elaborate that poet, 
 staves tended to dissipate metrical as well as poetic 
 unity, and some of them cannot be regarded as any- 
 thing more than ingenious metrical exercises. 
 
 Montgomerie's poetic fame rests traditionally on 
 The Cherrie and the Slae, which, containing some 
 spirited description, especially in the ThcCherrie 
 introductory stanzas, as well as much and the sue/ 
 shrewd proverbial philosophy, fails of effectiveness 
 not only from the unsuitability of the stave for 
 consecutive narrative, but from the obscurity of the 
 poet's intention. Perhaps its merits in description 
 and philosophy are nowhere better represented than 
 in the two following stanzas : 
 
 1 The dew as diamondis did hing, hang 
 
 Vpon the tender twistis and zing, boughs 
 
 Ouir-twinkling all the treis ;
 
 260 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 And ay quhair flowris flourischit faire 
 Thair suddainly I saw repaire 
 
 In swarmes the sounding beis. 
 Sum sweitly hes the hony socht, 
 Until Quhil they war cloggit soir ; 
 
 Sum willingly the waxe hes wrocht, 
 To heip it vp in stoir ; 
 So helping, with keiping, 
 
 Into thair hyuis they hyde it, 
 Precyselie and wyselie 
 
 For winter they prouyde it. 
 
 To pen the pleasures of that park, 
 How euery blossome, branche, and bark 
 
 Agaynst the sun did schyne, 
 I leif to poetis to compyle 
 In stately verse and lofty style : 
 abiiitj It passes my ingyne. 
 
 Bot as I muisit myne allane 
 
 I saw ane river rin 
 
 Out ouir ane craggie rok of stane, 
 
 JPU* Syne lichtit in ane lin 
 
 With tumbling and rumbling 
 
 Amang the rochis round, 
 Bewailing and falling 
 Into that pit profound.' 
 
 But on the whole the Bankis of Helicon is the 
 better poem, for even its aureate language and its 
 The Night is classical allusions add to the quaint 
 NeirGone. 1 effect of the stave, and to the old-world 
 courtesy of the ceremonial love-song. At the same 
 tune, much of it is mere prose, as indeed is the bulk 
 of Montgomerie's verse. Yet in The Night is Neir 
 Gone we have one of the classics of the sixteenth 
 century. What it may owe to the old song to which 
 the tune was first set it is impossible to tell, but the
 
 ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE 261 
 
 whole picture of the approach of day is a true poetic 
 conception presented with much vivid fidelity. Here 
 are the three first stanzas : 
 
 ' Hay ! nou the day danis ; dawns 
 
 The jolie Cok crauis ; 
 Nou shroudis the shauis woods 
 
 Throu Natur anone. 
 The thissell-cok cryis 
 On louers vha lyis. 
 Nou skaillis the skyis : elMra 
 
 The night is neir gone. 
 
 The feildis ouerflouis 
 
 With gouans that grouis, daisies 
 
 Quhair lilies lyk louis, aauies 
 
 Als rid as the rone. rowanberry 
 
 The turtill that treu is, 
 With nots that reneuis, 
 Her pairtie perseuis : nute 
 
 The night is neir gone. 
 
 Nou Hairtis with Hyndis, 
 Conforme to thair kyndis, 
 Hie tussis thair tyndis, antlers 
 
 On grand vhair they grone. 
 
 Nou Hurchonis, with Hairis, hedgehogs; 
 
 Aye passis in pairis ; 
 Quhilk deuly declaris Which 
 
 The night is neir gone.' 
 
 Occasional stanzas of some poetic merit may also 
 be found embedded amongst much that is chiefly 
 trivial or commonplace. But trivial or 
 
 His defects. 
 
 commonplace very much of his poetry 
 is, and it also suffers from his too frequent peevish- 
 ness. The Flyting l is occasionally clever, but its fun 
 
 1 Montgomerie's opponent in The Flyling was Sir Patrick Hume 
 of Polwarth, one of the gentlemen of the Bedchamber.
 
 262 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 is for the most part mere grossness, the grossness in 
 which James vi. delighted to revel. Montgomerie 
 possessed little of the aphoristic wit, or the light 
 and easy gaiety, of Scott, and, notwithstanding his 
 ingenious cleverness, he very rarely attains to Scott's 
 delicate grace. As for his devotional pieces, they are 
 merely rhyming expressions of Reformation theology, 
 written, most of them for special tunes, and some of 
 them to tunes associated with secular songs. 
 
 After Scott and Montgomerie, the only ' makar ' of 
 
 this later period who deserves particular mention is 
 
 the old Scots iudge, Sir Richard Mait- 
 
 Sir Richard J . 
 
 Maitiand (1496- land, Lord Lethmgton, who, born as early 
 Baton fnd * as 1496, survived to 1586 politically, 
 Judge. religiously, and poetically very much a 
 
 relic of the first half of the century. Descended from 
 an old Anglo-Norman family who had possessed the 
 old keep of Thirlestane from the time that Sir Richard 
 de Mateland held it (if he did hold it) ' heil and feir ' 
 against the army of Edward I., the 'auld laird of 
 Lethington ' was essentially feudal in all his opinions, 
 political, social, and religious. Patriot rather than 
 partisan, he regarded political and religious questions 
 mainly from the standpoint of an administrator of 
 the law. Throughout the political and religious 
 commotions of his time, and notwithstanding the 
 political entanglements of his brilliant son, William 
 the Secretary, he kept so aloof from party disputes 
 that he continued in his office of judge whichever 
 party was in power ; and having, in the words of
 
 SIK EICHARD MAITLAND 263 
 
 James vi., served the king's 'grandsire, goodsire, 
 goodame, mother, and himself,' was permitted, when 
 he resigned his judgeship in July 1584, to enjoy, by 
 special favour, its emoluments during the remainder 
 of his life. 
 
 When overtaken by blindness sometime before the 
 arrival of Queen Mary from France in 1561, Maitland 
 resolved to devote his leisure to study in 
 
 J Historical 
 
 order, as he stated, to ' occupy himself as interest of his 
 
 , poetry. 
 
 m time past, and because he thought it 
 ' dangerous to " mell " hi matters of great import- 
 ance ' dividing his attention between genealogy and 
 poetry. 1 Though not strictly poetical, his pieces are, 
 several of them, terse, pointed, and witty, and all, 
 while displaying that shrewd practical wisdom and 
 lofty patriotism by which he guided his own conduct, 
 are of more or less historic interest from their refer- 
 ences to the customs and events of the time. His 
 imprecatory poem On the New Zeir, written in 
 the lifetime of the Queen-Regent, gives a sort of 
 bird's-eye view of his ideal of a well-governed and 
 
 1 Maitland wrote A Chronicle and Historie of the House and Sur- 
 name of Seaton, which was printed by the Maitland Club in 1829 
 from a MS. in the Advocates' Library ; and the same work, under a 
 slightly different title and from a different MS. , was published in 
 Edinburgh, 1830. But his chief service to literature was the col- 
 lection of old MSS., including his own poetry. This collection, only 
 second in importance to the Bannatyne MS. , is now in the Pepysian 
 Library, Magdalen College, Cambridge. It has never been fully 
 printed the largest selection from it being that in Pinkerton's 
 Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786. Maitland's own Poems are, most of 
 them, in the Collections of Pinkerton, 1786, and Sibbald, 1807- 
 They were published separately by the Maitland Club, 1830.
 
 264 SCOTTISH VERNACULAE LITERATURE 
 
 prosperous community. On the Quenis Maryage, 
 1558, shows strong French leanings, as does also 
 Of the Wynning of Calice, 1558 : 
 
 * Thairfoir ye all that ar of Scottis blude, 
 
 Be blyth, rejois for the recovering 
 Of that strang toun : and of the fortoun gude 
 Of your maist tendir freynd that nobil king.' 
 
 In Of the Assemblie of the Congregatioun, 1559, 
 and On the New Zeir, 1560, he indicates, however, 
 that his chief concern is for the reconciliation of the 
 parties whose disputes had plunged the nation in the 
 horrors of civil war : 
 
 ' I cannot sing for the vexatioun 
 Of Frenchmen, and the Congregatioun, 
 That hes maid troubil in the natioun, 
 qalldlng And monye bair bigging.' 
 
 In his Satire on the Age he discourses with much 
 point on the pride and selfishness of the old ecclesi- 
 satire on the ast i cs > on tne decay of 'mirrieness' through 
 Age/ the poverty of the people, on the oppres- 
 
 sion of tenants by spendthrift landlords, and on the 
 feeble influence of law and justice. The amusing 
 Satire on the Toun Ladyes touches on a lighter theme, 
 and supplies us with a picturesque and minute sketch 
 of the vagaries of female fashion in the Edinburgh of 
 the ' Evangel ' : 
 
 coats must ' Thair wylecots man weill be hewit, 
 
 atripe* of Broudirit richt braid, with pasmentis sewit : 
 inquire into I trow, quha wald the matter speir, 
 
 husbands That thair guidmen had caus to rew it 
 such raiment That evir thair wyfis weir sic geir.
 
 SIR EICHAED MAITLAND 
 
 265 
 
 striped 
 above ; 
 
 tassels 
 
 make 
 
 newfashion- 
 
 edness 
 
 hanging 
 
 necklaces ; 
 throat beads 
 high 
 young swell 
 
 embroidered 
 slippers 
 
 Thair wovin hois of silk ar schawin, 
 Barrit abone with tasteis drawin } 
 
 With garteris of ane new maneir, 
 To gar thair courtlines be knawin ; 
 
 And all for newfangilnes of geir. 
 
 Sumtyme they will beir up thair gown 
 To schaw thair wylecot hingeand down, 
 
 And sumtyme bayth thai will upbeir 
 To schaw thair hois of blak or broun, 
 
 And all for newfangilnes of geir. 
 
 Thair collars, carcats, and hals beidis t 
 With velvet hats heicht on thair heidia, 
 
 Coirdit with gold lyik ane younkeir, 
 Broudit about with goldin threidis ; 
 
 And all for newfangilnes of geir. 
 
 Thair schone of velvet and thair inuillia ! 
 In kirk thai ar not content of stuillis, 
 
 The sermon quhen thai sit to heir, 
 But caryis cuschingis, lyik vaine fuillis, 
 
 And all for newfangilnes of geir/ 
 
 He is equally effective when he takes up his par- 
 able against The Folye of ane Auld Manis Mary and 
 ane Young Woman, or illustrates that 
 there is now ^a Kyndes [recognition of 
 kinship] Without Siller [money], or tells us of his 
 Solace in Age, 
 
 ' Quhan young men cumis fra the grene 
 (Playand at the fute-ball had bene), 
 
 With brokin spald ; collar-bone 
 
 I thank my God I want my ene, eyes 
 
 And am sa aid,' 
 
 or declaims in the bob wheel stanza of Dunbar's 
 Donald Owre, Aganis the Theivis of Liddisdaill : 
 
 Other Satires.
 
 266 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ' They leif not spendill, spone, nor speit, 
 
 Bed, boster, blanket, sark, nor scheit : 
 
 " Johne of the Parke," 
 
 R yP is kist and ark ' 
 such work For all sic wark 
 
 He is richt meit. 
 
 known He is weill kend, " John of the Syide," 
 
 A gretar theif did never ryide : 
 
 He never tyris 
 
 cowhouset For to brek byris ; 
 
 mosses Our muir and myris 
 
 Too ; a Our gude ane gyide. 
 
 Thair is ane, callit " Clement's Hob," 
 thTweb teal * Fra ilk puir wyfe reiffis the wob, 
 
 everything And all the laif 
 
 Quhatever thay haif : 
 The deuil resave 
 mouth Thairfoir his gob ! ' 
 
 Two sons of Maitland, John of Thirlestane, ancestor 
 of the Dukes of Lauderdale, and Thomas, wrote poetry, 
 but the verses of neither are of much account. 
 
 Towards the close of the century vernacular poetry 
 
 of a secular kind was cultivated only by James vi. 
 
 and those under his immediate influence. 1 
 
 Besides his Essay es of a Prentise, 1584, 
 
 containing pieces written before he had passed his 
 
 eighteenth year, James published in 1591 Poetical 
 
 Exercises at Vacant Hours, also, he states, the work 
 
 of his ' verie young and tender years.' For so young 
 
 a man his verses display considerable technical 
 
 1 Holland's Court of Venus, imprinted at Edinburgh by John 
 Ros, 1577, and republished by the Scottish Text Society, 1884, 
 is of no interest except philologically. The same author's Seven 
 Sages, published in 1578, was reprinted by the Bannatyne Club 
 (vol. lix.).
 
 JAMES VI., ETC. 267 
 
 accomplishment, but are deformed, the most of them, 
 by the same absurd mixture of familiarity and pomp- 
 osity which characterised his own address. Yet he does 
 occasionally attain to a certain semblance of dignity 
 and grace, as in this sonnet prefixed to The Lepanto : 
 
 ' The azurtt vaulte, the crystall circles bright, 
 
 The gleaming fyrie torches powdred there, 
 The changing round, the shyning beamie light, 
 
 The sad and bearded fyres, the monsters faire, 
 
 The prodiges appearing in the aire, 
 The rearding thunders and the blustering winds, 
 
 The foules, in hew, in shape, in nature raire 
 The prettie notes that wing"d musiciens finds ; 
 In earth the sau'rie floures, the metall'd minds, 
 
 The wholesome hearbes, the hautie pleasant trees, 
 The syluer streames, the beasts of sundrie kinds, 
 
 The bounded roares, and fishes of the seas : 
 All these for teaching man the Lord did frame, 
 To do his will whose glorie shines in thame.' 
 
 But the close is mean and tame; nor has the 
 poem anything of the character of a sonnet. It will 
 also be observed that it is practically in The Court 
 English. Two Englishmen also, Robert Poets - 
 and Thomas Hudson, violers to the king, wrote 
 English poetry spelt after a somewhat Scottish 
 fashion. As for William Fowler, who translated The 
 Triumphs of Petrarch, 1 and Stewart of Baldiness, who 
 presented to the king Ane Abbregement of Roland 
 Fvrious translatit ovt of Aroist? such specimens of 
 their verse as have been printed do not tend to beget 
 any curiosity as to the bulk of it still only in MS. ; and 
 
 1 MS. in the Edinburgh University Library. 
 
 2 MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.
 
 268 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 like 
 
 a.ssaili 
 if; meddle 
 
 jeer at 
 which 
 though 
 
 Latin poetry. 
 
 the only other name that need be mentioned is John 
 Burel most probably the John Burel who was master 
 of the king's mint, who in 1590 wrote The Descrip- 
 tioun of the Quenis Maiestis maist honorable Entry 
 into the Toon of Edinburgh, only of antiquarian 
 interest, and The Passage of the Pilgrim, a dull alle- 
 gorical piece in the stave of The Cherrie and the Slae. 1 
 During the sixteenth century Lathi poetry was cul- 
 tivated by a number of Scotsmen, and the influence of 
 George Buchanan in this regard was felt 
 down to a much later period. With this 
 artificial phase of literature we have here no concern ; 
 but the idea may be hazarded that its cultivation was 
 aided by the current notion of the frivolity of the 
 merely vernacular Muse. Except for devotion or 
 religious or politico-religious controversy, vernacular 
 verse was unauthorised by the Kirk. Alexander 
 Arbuthnot, 2 the Presbyterian Principal of Aberdeen 
 University, who did in secret venture to cultivate the 
 vernacular Muse merely for pleasure or solace, did so 
 in fear and trembling : 
 
 ' In poetrie I preis to pas the tyme 
 
 When cairfull thochts with sorrow sailyes me ; 
 Bot gif I mell with meter or with ryme, 
 With rascal rymours I sail raknit be ; 
 They sal me bourdin als with mony lie, 
 In charging me with that quhilk never I ment : 
 Quhat marvel is thocht I murne and lament.' 
 
 1 Both poems are printed in Watson's Collection, Part ir., 1710, 
 and the ' Description ' is included in Sibbald's Collection, 1807. 
 
 2 Three poems of Arbuthnot are included in Pinkerton's Ancient 
 Scotish Poems, 1786.
 
 THE WEDDERBUENS 269 
 
 In addition to the verses of Dunbar, Henryson, and 
 other ' makaris' already mentioned, the Bannatyne MS. 
 contains several innominate specimens of , 
 
 The Wedder- 
 
 Catholic religious poetry, which, if lack- bums. 
 ing in emotional fervour and simplicity, are at 
 least melodious, eloquent, and imposing. Scott and 
 Montgomerie also, Catholics by early training, wrote 
 in accordance with the spirit of Protestant theology 
 several religious pieces, mainly of interest as metrical 
 exercises ; but the chief representatives of the early 
 religious Muse of the Reformation were the brothers 
 Wedderburn and their coadjutors, whose translation 
 of Lutheran hymns and the Psalms of David, but 
 especially parodies of old secular songs, were perhaps 
 more effective in spreading the Reformation furore 
 than even the preaching of Knox. At what time 
 these religious pieces were collected into a volume is 
 uncertain. The earliest dated copy is one of 1578, 
 but there is an undated earlier one, and in all likeli- 
 hood copies were printed and circulated in secret 
 before the ' Evangel ' was established. The full title 
 of the book is ' Ane Compendious Buik of Godlie 
 Psalms and Spirituall Sangs, collectit furthe of 
 sundrie partis of the Scripture, with vtheris Ballates 
 changeit out of prophane Sangis in Godlie sangis, for 
 avoyding of sin and harlotrie.' l The book, which was 
 frequently reprinted, was long known as The Dundee 
 
 1 A reprint of the 1578 edition was published at Edinburgh by 
 David Laing in 1868 ; and an edition based on the earlier text by 
 the Scottish Text Society, ed. Professor Mitchell, 1897.
 
 270 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Psalms. Its authorship is assigned by Calderwood to 
 Robert Wedderburn the youngest of three poetic 
 brothers, sons of James Wedderburn, merchant in 
 Dundee who, Calderwood states, ' turned the tunes 
 and tenor of many profane ballads into Godlie songs 
 and hymnes which wer called the Psalmes of Dundie.' x 
 Of John, the second brother, Calderwood also says: 'He 
 translated many of Luther's dytements into Scottish 
 meeter and the Psalmes of David. He turned manie 
 bawdie songs and rymes in Godlie rymes.' 2 The 
 eldest brother James was, as we have already seen 
 (p. 217), the author of some plays against the Papists. 
 All three brothers were educated at St. Andrews 
 University. James became a merchant, and John and 
 Robert were priests. James finally took refuge in 
 Dieppe. John, who had taken refuge in Germany, 
 returned to Scotland after the death of James v. in 
 1542, but had finally to flee to England, where he 
 died in 1556. Robert was vicar of Dundee as late as 
 13th January 1552-3, when letters of legitimation 
 passed under the Great Seal in favour of his two 
 bastard sons. In the Bannatyne MS. are four poems 
 one a long historical Ballat of the Prayis of 
 Women by one of the Wedderburns, but which of 
 them there is nothing to show. 
 
 The Gude and Godlie Ballates were probably, 
 
 many of them, used at the earlier services of the 
 
 Reformers ; and it cannot well have been with other 
 
 than selections from them that Queen Mary was 
 
 1 History, v'iii. 147. 2 Ibid., i. 143.
 
 THE GUDE AND GODLIE BALLATES' 271 
 
 serenaded on her first night at Holyrood Palace 
 ' tant mal chantez,' says Brantome, ' et si mal accordez 
 que rien plus.' They possess the actuality . The Gude 
 and earnestness which belong to this t n n G odl . ie A 
 
 rsailates and 
 
 period of stern religious conflict, but theol <* songs, 
 the main literary interest of the book now lies in 
 its parodies of the old songs, some of them of 
 English origin. If these parodies are merely ridicu- 
 lous caricatures both of the supposed religious 
 truths they profess to set forth, and of the 
 original sentiments they seek to appropriate for a 
 sacred purpose, they contain at least faint echoes of 
 the old popular lyrics, many of which have wholly 
 perished perished because of these Gude and 
 Godlie Ballates, Richt soirly musing in my 
 rnynde, in the rime couee of Burns's Address to the 
 Deil, is mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland as 
 a song sung by the shepherds. Allace that same sweet 
 Face, also mentioned in The Complaynt, is found in The 
 Buik; but the 'sweit face/ 'onlie.to be our remedie,' 
 is that which ' deit vpon ane tree.' ' To die therefore ' 
 is the refrain of a song beginning, ' Of mercy zit he 
 passis all.' For lufe of One I mak my mone begins a 
 spiritual lament. Quho is at my Windo ? a song of 
 which the air is in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, 
 and echoes of which are found in many lyrics down 
 to the time of Burns, is represented by its chorus : 
 
 ' Quho is at my windo ? quho, quho ? 
 Go from my windo, go, go ! 
 Quho callis thair, sa lyke a strangair ? 
 Go from my windo, go 1 '
 
 272 SCOTTISH VEKNACULAE LITERATURE 
 
 but the occupant of the apartment is no less a 
 person than God Almighty. ' In till ane mirthfull 
 Maij morning/ the poet ' is thinkand ' not on his 
 mistress but on ' Christ so free/ 
 
 who ' Quhilk meiklie for mankynde 
 
 suffered ; Tholit to be pynde 
 
 On croce cruellie. La, La.' 
 
 He soliloquises 
 
 ' My Lufe murnis for me, for me ; 
 My Lufe that murnis for me ; 
 
 not I am vnkynde, hes nocht in mynde, 
 
 My Lufe that murnis for me' ; 
 
 but Who is ' his ' Lufe bot God abufe ? ' With the 
 shepherds in The Complaynt he sings, ' All my hart, 
 ay this is my sang/ but it is Christ who has his 
 ' hart ay/ If again with the shepherds he weep alone 
 ' in great distress/ it is because he is exiled from, not 
 his mistress, but God's word. In Grievous is my 
 sorrow, he appropriates The Dying Maiden's Com- 
 plaint an old English song for a wholly spiritual 
 purpose. He supplies the beginning of a very old 
 amatory invitation : 
 
 ' Johne, cum kis me now, 
 
 Johne, cum kis me now, 
 Johne, cum kis me by and by 
 And male no moir adow ' ; 
 
 but adds 
 
 ' The Lord thy God I am 
 
 That John dois the call ; 
 John represented man, 
 By Be grace celestial!'
 
 'THE GUDE AND GODLIE BALLATES' 273 
 
 The refrain ' Downe sail cum, downe ay, downe ay,' 
 he attaches to a lugubrious ditty on human frailty. 
 In With Huntis Vp a song known to Robert 
 Henryson long before the English song written in 
 honour of Henry VIIL ' The Pope is the fox/ ' Rome 
 is the rox,' the hunter is ' Jesu our King,' and ' the 
 hundis are Peter and Paull.' The Wind blawis cauld 
 is represented by the chorus : 
 
 ' The wind blawis cauld, furious and bauld, 
 
 This lang and mony day ; 
 
 But Christis mercy we man all die Without ; 
 
 Or keip the cauld wind away.' 
 
 That very old song, Ha now the Day dawis, which 
 the minstrels sang before Dunbar was born, is not 
 forgotten, but its spirit as well as form is no doubt 
 immeasurably better preserved in Montgomerie's 
 masterpiece (p. 261). The ' gude-inan ' of a traditional 
 song appears in the old chorus : 
 
 ' Till our gude-man, till our gude-man Xo 
 
 Keep faith and lufe till our gude-man ' ; 
 
 but ' our gude-man ' of the ballad ' in hevin dois ring ' 
 (reign). The chorus, 
 
 ' Hay trix, tryme go trix 
 Vnder the grene wod-tree,' 
 
 is attached to a ditty beginning 
 
 ' The Paip, that pagane full of pryde, Pope 
 
 He hes vs blindit lang,' 
 
 and celebrating the destruction of the monasteries in 
 1559, after a fashion which retains much of the free 
 
 s
 
 274 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 allusion of the original song. Finally, we have more 
 than the outline of a popular song in the ballad 
 beginning 
 
 ' All my Lufe, leif me not, 
 Leif me not, leif me not, 
 All my Lufe, leif me not 
 
 Thus myne alone : 
 With ane burding on my bak, 
 I may not beir it I am sa waik : 
 Lufe, this burden from me tak 
 Or ellis I am gone.' 
 
 The Gude and Godlie Ballates are the chief poetic 
 monument of the Scottish Reformation. In Scotland 
 Alexander ^he Reformation essentially logical and 
 Hume. Calvinistic in its teaching inspired no 
 
 original religious poetry corresponding to the 
 Lutheran hymns. Alexander Hume, second son of 
 Patrick, fifth Lord Hume, and minister of Logie, 
 Stirlingshire, published in 1599 ' Hymnes or Sacred 
 Songs, 1 wherein the right vse of Poesie may be spied,' 
 but it can scarce be affirmed that he attains to ' poesie ' 
 of any sort, although The Day Estivall, if absurdly 
 prosaic, is occasionally picturesque. 
 
 Lady Colville of Culross a daughter of Sir James 
 Melville of Halhill to whom Hume dedicated his 
 Lady coiviiie Hymnes, wrote, shortly before the end 
 of cuiross. O f khe century, A ne Godly Dream? which 
 may perhaps be best defined as a sort of emotional 
 representation of the extreme Calvinism of the Kirk. 
 
 1 Reprinted by the Bannatyne Club, 1832. Hume's Poems, ed. 
 La WHOM, were published by the Scottish Text Society, 1901-2. 
 
 3 First published in 1603, and frequently in the seventeenth 
 century. Included in Laing's Metrical Tales, 1826.
 
 THE EEFORMATION SATIRISTS 275 
 
 But the Protestant verse-writers devoted them- 
 selves chiefly to political or ecclesiastical The Reforma . 
 diatribes, such as those reprobated by Sir tion Satirists. 
 Richard Maitland in On the Malice of Poets : 
 
 ' Sum of the poyets, and makars, that are now, 
 
 Of grit despyte, and malice, ar sa fow fun 
 
 That all lesingis, that can be inventit, lies 
 
 Thay put in writ, and garris thame be prentit.' makes 
 
 They were issued chiefly as broadsides from the press 
 of Lekprevick, and nearly all the surviving examples 
 have been published by the Scottish Text Society. 1 
 The chief laureate of this broadside school was 
 Robert Sempill, 2 who is mentioned in a sonnet by 
 Montgomerie as still alive in 1584. Nothing is 
 known of his parentage or personal history, the 
 attempts to identify him with members of the noble 
 family of Sempill in the legitimate line being quite 
 unsuccessful. Before he turned political or religious 
 satirist he was known as the author of three ballads, 
 entirely secular, and witty after the coarse fashion 
 of that age : on Margret Fleming, on Grissel Sande- 
 landis, and on Jonet Reid, Ane Violet and Ane 
 Quhyt, being slicht Wemen ofLyfand Conversatioun 
 and Taverneris. Sempill was a skilful metrist, and 
 his command of virulent abuse was remarkable even 
 for his time, his masterpiece in that line being The 
 Legend and Discourse of the Life of the Tulchene 
 Bischope of Sanctandrois. The other poets whose 
 
 1 Satiric Poems of the Time of the Reformation, 1889-93. 
 
 2 The Sempill Ballalea have been published separately, ed. 
 Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1872.
 
 276 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 productions are included in the Scottish Text Society's 
 volume are Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange, the 
 supposed author of Ane BaUat of ye Captane of the 
 Castell, in the stanza of The Cherrie and the Sloe', 
 Sir John Maitland, Lord Thirlestane, whose political 
 verses can scarce be termed partisan ; John Davidson, 
 Presbyterian minister, whose uncompromising and 
 bitter opposition to the King's ecclesiastical policy 
 got him into serious trouble ; and Nicol Burne, who 
 at one time was Professor of Philosophy at St. 
 Andrews, but becoming ' be ane special grace of God 
 ane member of the halie Catholic Church/ published 
 at Paris in 1581 The Disputation concerning the 
 Controversit Headdis of Religion, to a few copies 
 of which was appended Ane Admonition to the Anti- 
 christian Ministers of the Reformed Kirk of Scot- 
 land, only remarkable for its weak extravagance. A 
 satirical piece not included in the Scottish Text 
 Society's volume, the Earl of Glencairn's Ane Epistle 
 direct fra the Holye Armit of Allarit to his Brethe- 
 ren the Gray Freiris, 1 has some ironical vigour ; but 
 the main interest in this controversial poetry is 
 historical the style, the wit, the thought and argu- 
 ment being, almost without exception, hopelessly 
 mediocre. 
 
 1 Knox's Works, ed. Laing, vol. i. p. 72.
 
 IX 
 
 ANONYMOUS POETRY OF THE FIFTEENTH 
 AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES 
 
 ' THE FREIRIS OF BERWICK ' ' THE THRIE PRIESTIS OF 
 PEBLIS ' ' SYMMIE AND HIS BRUDER ' ' THE WYFE 
 OF AUCHTIRMWCHTY ' ' THE WOWING OF JOK AND 
 JYNNY' 'IN SOMER' 'QUHY SOWLD NOCHT ALLANE 
 HONORIT BE ? ' ' THE MURNING MAIDEN ' ' TAYIS 
 BANK' 'IN MAY IN A MORNING' 'o LUSTY MAY' 
 
 ' WELCUM TO MAY ' ' MY HART IS QUHYT ' ' ANE 
 WELCUM TO EILD' 'THUS I PROPONE IN MY 
 CARPING.' 
 
 THE present chapter deals with such anonymous 
 poetry of authenticated early date as has not been 
 already noticed in Chapter IV. Two of . The Freiris of 
 the best- known poems of a seini-ecclesi- ^ written by^* 
 astical sort are The Freiris of Berwick 1 Dunbar ? 
 and The Thrie Priestis of Peblis. From a certain 
 similarity in subject and treatment some are disposed 
 
 1 Bannatyne and Maitland MSS. At the end of an edition of The 
 Thrie Prieatis, 1603, it was advertised as printed by Robert Charteris, 
 but no copy of this edition is known to exist. A copy of an edition 
 by Rabau, Aberdeen, has, however, been preserved. The piece was 
 included from the Maitland MS. in Pinkerton'a Ancient Scotish 
 Poems, 1786; and a collated text is in Sibbald's Collection, 1802, 
 and in Laing's and the Scottish Text Society's editions of the Worka 
 of Dunbar. 
 
 277
 
 278 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 to ascribe them to the same author, and The Freiris 
 of Berwick has usually been ascribed to Dunbar. 
 The similarity is, however, very partial ; and whether 
 or not Dunbar be the author of The Freiris of Ber- 
 wick, he could scarce have been the author of the 
 more didactic Priestis of Peblis. Moreover, excellent 
 though in some respects The Freiris of Berwick is, 
 it does not seem to be stamped with the impress of 
 Dunbar's peculiar genius. It is too purely and lightly 
 comic, too genial, and even too merely superficial, 
 to be his. The irony possesses little of his subtlety, 
 corrosiveness, or depth. The style, easy, simple, and 
 apt though it be, lacks his peculiar strength and 
 incisiveness. Yet from start to finish the tale is 
 admirably told; the scenes are full of vivacity and 
 movement ; the characters of the small comedy the 
 frail and passive friar Allan, the vigorous, alert, and 
 sportive friar Robert, the luxurious Abbot (friar 
 John), the 'dink' and 'dangerous' gudewife, the 
 open and jolly landlord are set before us to the 
 life; the situations are cleverly developed, without 
 exaggeration, yet with much humorous discernment ; 
 and the denouement mere piece of horseplay though 
 it is is narrated with a gusto that is quite contagious. 
 The story a landlady's intrigue with an abbot, 
 and its amusing discovery, to the private confusion of 
 both parties, while the husband is none 
 
 Its theme. . 
 
 the wiser is no doubt partly borrowed, 
 as most of the old tales were. A similar theme forms 
 the subject of a French fabliau of the twelfth or
 
 THE FREIRIS OF BERWICK' 279 
 
 thirteenth century, 1 and even the pretended conjura- 
 tion of the supper has its counterpart in the French 
 story of the Soldat Magicien, 2 of uncertain date. 
 There is in truth nothing remarkable about the plot ; 
 the literary value of the poem derives from the art of 
 the narrator, and to recognise its excellence we have 
 but to turn to Ramsay's vulgarisation of the tale in 
 The Monk and the Miller's Wife. 
 
 The poem opens with a description of the noble 
 town of Berwick-on-Tweed, with its walls 
 
 The silly friars 
 
 and ditches, its embattled castle with andtheiand- 
 ' stately tower and turrets high/ its hos- 
 pital, and its convents, the whole 
 
 ' Moist fair, most gudly, most plesand to be sene ; 
 The tovne, the wall, the castell and the land.' 
 
 Towards this fair town two friars, who had spent the 
 day among the country people, are returning in the 
 evening : 
 
 ' Freir Allane, and Freir Robert the vder, 
 
 Thir silly Freiris with wyffis weill cowld gluder ; talk scan- 
 
 Eycht wondir weill plesit thai all wyffis, 
 And tawld thame tailis of haly sanctis lyffis.' 
 
 They were hastening to get home before the convent 
 gates were shut; but Friar Allan could walk but 
 slowly, and though Friar Robert 
 
 ' bure both clothes and hude 
 
 And all thair geir, for he was strong and wicht, baggage ; 
 
 Be that it drew neir towart the nicht, 
 As thai wer cutnand towart the tovne full neir.' 
 
 1 Le Grand, Fabliaux ou Contes du XII e et du XIII* Sitcle, 1781, 
 vol. li. part i. 
 2 . Quoted by Le Grand.
 
 280 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Being tired and thirsty, they entered 'ane wonder 
 good hostellar ' without the town, where, having sat 
 down to their ale, they, as friars were wont, called for 
 more ; but just as they began to be ' blythe ' 
 
 ' thai hard the prayer bell 
 Off thair aw in abbay, and than thai wer agast 
 Becauss thai knew the zettis wer closit fast." 
 
 On their asking ' herbery ' at the inn, the gudewife 
 gave answer ' with grit hicht ' : 
 
 ' Quhat wald Symon say, Ha, Benedicite ! 
 if Bot in his absence I abusit his place ? 
 
 such Our deir Lady Mary keip fra sic cace, 
 
 And keip me owt of perrell and of schame. 1 
 
 But at last she consented to give them lodging, 
 provided they were content with a loft at the end of 
 the hall, ' made for corne and hay.' 
 
 Her extreme scrupulosity was due to her expecta- 
 tion of an important visitor, none other than Friar 
 
 Enter the Jhn, Abbot of the Black Friars ; and no 
 
 Abbot sooner had she got the two ' silly freiris ' 
 safe in the loft than she hastened to prepare for his 
 reception. Thrusting fat fowls 'to the speit,' and 
 rabbits to the fire, she gives orders to her maid 
 
 1 To flawme and turne and rost thame tenderly ' ; 
 
 and going to her chamber 
 
 ' Scho cleithis hir in a kirtill of fyne reid, 
 
 kerchief Ane fair quhyt curch scho puttis vpoun hir heid ; 
 
 Her kirtill wes of silk and silwer fyne 
 Hir vthir garmentis as the reid gold did schyne.' 
 
 And just as she had covered the board with ' clath of
 
 'THE FREIRIS OF BERWICK' 281 
 
 costly greyne,' the abbot, who brings with him wine, 
 white bread, and a pair of partridges, knocks, and is 
 admitted with warm welcome. 
 
 Meanwhile, the inquisitive Friar Robert, discerning 
 symptoms of wakefulness and bustle in the hostelry, 
 becomes suspicious, and cuts a small hole in the 
 board with his knife, whereby he both hears and sees 
 all that is going on between the gudewife and her 
 guest : 
 
 ' Quhen scho wes prowd, richt woundir fresche and gay, 
 Scho callit him baith hert, lemmane and luve ; 
 Lord God, gif than his curage wes aboif, if then ; up 
 
 So prelat lyk sat he in to the chyre ! 
 
 Scho rownis th.in ane pistill in his eir ; story 
 
 Thus sportand thame and makand melody : 
 And quhen scho saw the supper wes reddy, 
 Scho gois belyfe and cuveris the burde annon, presently 
 
 And syne the pair of bossis hes scho tone, * he ? 5 
 
 And sett thame doun vpoun the burde hir by. taken 
 
 And evin with that thai hard the gudman cry, 
 And knokand at the zett he cryit fast : 
 Quhen thai him hard then wer thai both agast.' 
 
 But the gudewife is equal to the occasion. The 
 abbot is hid in the meal-chest, the dainties disappear 
 into the cupboard, the fire is put out, the The landlord 
 house is swept clean, and mistress and comes home, 
 maid go to bed, allowing the gudeman to knock and 
 shout in vain. At last, however, she pretends to awake 
 from sleep, and having with difficulty been persuaded 
 that it is her husband who calls, she lets him in. 
 Also, she sets before him for supper none of the 
 hidden dainties, but cold meat, cow-heel and
 
 282 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 sheep's-head. To this he sits down well content, 
 swearing, 
 
 by ' be All hallow, 
 
 If ; I fair richt weill, and I had ane gud fallow.' 
 
 Now, Friar Robert, who had witnessed the whole 
 comedy from the loft, had no mind to let slip an 
 The magic opportunity for a jovial night, and there- 
 supper. f ore intimated his presence by a cough. 
 Apprised that the friars were in the loft, the landlord 
 sent them an invitation to join him, which they 
 readily accepted. He politely expressed regret that 
 he had no better fare to set before them ; but Friar 
 Robert made known that when in Paris he had been 
 instructed hi certain magical arts, which, if he would 
 keep his counsel, he was willing to practise for the 
 good of the company : 
 
 if ' I tak on hand, and ze will counsale keip, 
 
 make That I sail gar zow se, or ever I sleip, 
 
 Of the best ineit that is in this cuntre ; 
 if Off Gascone wyne, gif ony in it be ; 
 
 Or, be thair ony within ane hundreth myle, 
 little It salbe heir within a bony quhyle.' 
 
 The landlord was more than willing to take him at 
 his word ; and Friar Robert, after diverse mysterious 
 antics, directed the gudewife to go to the cupboard, 
 where, without doubt, she found all that she had put 
 there : 
 
 started ' Scho stert abak, as scho wer in a fray 
 
 herself And sanyt hir, and smyland cowd scho say, 
 
 before ; " Ha, Banedicitie, quhat may this bene ? 
 
 s . uch ; .. Quha ever afoir hes sic a fairly sene ? 
 
 strange thing 
 
 Sa grit a inervell as now hes apmt heir 
 Quhat sail I say ? He is ane haly Freir." '
 
 'THE FREIRIS OF BERWICK' 283 
 
 All spent a merry night except the mislared 
 gudewife : 
 
 ' And than annone thai drank evin round abowt 
 Of Gascone wyne ; the Freiris playit cop owt. C "P 
 
 Thai sportit thame, and makis mirry cheir 
 With sangis lowd, baith Symone and the Freir ; 
 And on thir wyiss the lang nicht thai ourdraif l ; tllt8 
 
 No thing thai want that thai desyrd to half.' 
 
 The gudewife's feelings may further be imagined 
 when the jocular Friar Robert proceeded to conjure 
 his familiar, who had supplied the dainties, Exit the 
 to rise from the meal-chest in the form Abbot - 
 of a Black Friar. He was mercifully told to pull his 
 cowl over his face and begone to his abode, but he 
 did not escape quite scot free. Simon, the gude- 
 man who knew nothing of all this by-play, was 
 directed to put himself behind the door with a stick, 
 and as the abbot passed him Friar Robert called out, 
 ' Strike, strike hardily.' This Simon did to such pur- 
 pose that he himself fell and cut his head on the 
 mortar-stone, while the abbot in his panic fell over 
 the stair into the mire-hole below, whence, however, 
 he got over the wall ; and the tale concludes : 
 
 ' Thus Symonis heid vpoun the stane wes brokin, 
 And our the Freir in myre hes loppin, 
 
 And tap our taill he fyld wes woundir ill ; dirtied 6 ' ' 
 
 And Alesone on na wayiss gat hir will ; 
 This is the story that hapnit of that Freir, 
 No moir thair is, bot Chryst ws help most deir.' 
 
 1 Compare Burns's Tarn o' Shanler : 
 
 ' The night drave on wi' san.R's and clatter.'
 
 284 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 The thrie Tailes of the thrie Priestis of Peblis l is a 
 more serious performance than TheFreiris. There is no 
 The hr-< reason whatever for assigning the work, as 
 Priestis of seems to be done by Pinkerton, to Dean 
 Steil, and the supposition of Sibbald that 
 it was written by John Holland, equally unauthorised 
 by evidence, is disposed of by the fact that it was in- 
 cluded in the Asloan MS. Although it to some extent 
 anticipates the political zeal of Sir David Lyndsay, 
 it is, like The Freiris, the production of a period undis- 
 turbed by the faintest foreshadowing of Protestantism. 
 The sketch of the three priests breathes nothing of 
 Puritanic censoriousness. Their joviality, their ap- 
 preciation of ' good cheir,' their aloofness from ' com- 
 pany,' their love of each other's society and talk, 
 
 ' Umquhyle sadlie ; umquhyle jangle and jak,' 
 are described with a truly Chaucerian breadth of 
 appreciation. But these priests who thus sat 
 
 ' full easily and soft, 
 With monie lowd lauchter upon loft,' 
 
 were serious and thoughtful withal, and the tales 
 they recite to each other over their wine deal 
 Friar John's w ^k high matters of Church and 
 
 tale. The State, 
 
 answer of the 
 
 burgess. The The first tale, that of the travelled 
 
 diligent trader lit. *.!_ 
 
 and his spend- Friar John, relates how a certain king 
 
 put three questions to the wisest men 
 
 of his three estates the burgesses, the nobles, and 
 
 1 Published by Robert Charteris, 1603 ; and reprinted in 
 Pinkerton's Scotish Poems from Scarce Editions, 1792, and Laing's 
 Early Metrical Tales, 1826.
 
 'THE FREIRIS OF BERWICK' 285 
 
 the clergy and how it was answered by each. That 
 put to the burgesses was 
 
 ' Quhy Burges bairns thry ves not to the third air 1 ' heir 
 
 and the answer gives occasion for describing the 
 progress of a successful Scottish merchant of the 
 fifteenth century from the time that ho began 
 
 ' With hap, and halfpenny, and a lamb's skin ; chance 
 
 And purelie ran fra toun to toun on feit poorly 
 
 And than richt oft wetshod, werie, and weit,' 
 
 until he had a ship of his own 
 
 ' He sailit our the sey sa oft and oft 
 
 Quhil at the last ane semelie ship he coft, bougii't 
 
 And waxe sa ful of warldis welth and win ; 
 His hands he wish in ane silver basin. 
 
 Foroutin gold or silver into hurde, hotrd" 
 
 Wirth thrie thousand pund was his copburde. 
 Riche wes his gounis with uther garmentis gay : 
 For Sonday silk, for ilk day grene and gray. every 
 
 His wyfe was cumlie cled in scarlet reid, 
 Scho had no doubt of derth of ail nor breid.' fear 
 
 But the son who ' entered in the wealth ' his father 
 had won, had nothing of his father's severe apprentice- 
 ship, and was expert only in spending. The story 
 of his ruin is simply that of the modern 'pigeon.' 
 Pampered from infancy by his mother, who ' tholit ' 
 not ' the reik (smoke) on him to blaw ' ; taught, quite 
 after the modern manner, to despise the trade to 
 which he owed his wealth, and refusing to hear, 
 
 ' for very shame and sin, 
 That ever his father sold ane sheipis skin, 1
 
 286 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 he spent his time wholly at the court in the company 
 of the young lords, 
 
 Until ' Quhil drink and dyce have pourifc him to the pin.' 
 
 The answer of the wise lords as to the decay of 
 
 hardiness among their order reveals the fact that, 
 
 then as now, many of the nobility from 
 
 the wise lords considerations of lucre intermarried with 
 
 and the clergy. ^ children Q f fch()se ^ apart fr()m 
 
 their wealth, were mere churls ; and that of the wise 
 clergy as to the cessation of miracles is that bishops 
 were frequently chosen who had no real vocation for 
 the office. 
 
 Following Friar John, Friar Archibald relates in 
 
 most humorous fashion how a king, who loved too 
 
 well the counsel of his young nobles, and 
 
 Archibald and despised that of wise and experienced 
 
 Friar William. i L i i 
 
 statesmen, was very wisely instructed by 
 a learned clerk, who for this purpose assumed the 
 guise of a fool; and the allegorical tale of Friar 
 William is meant to show that neither wealth, nor 
 wife and children, nor 'other frendis all,' but only alms- 
 deeds and charity, can avail us at the Judgment. 
 
 Another semi-ecclesiastical story probably of at 
 
 least as early date as The Freiris or The Thrie 
 
 Priestis, and written in the stanza of 
 
 1 Symmie and 
 
 hisBruder.- Christis Kirk is that of Symmie and 
 his Bruder, 1 two St. Andrews worthies, who assumed 
 the character of begging friars : 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. Published in Laing'a Select Remains, 1822 and 
 1885.
 
 'SYMMIE AND HIS BKUDER* 287 
 
 ' Peipand peurly with piteous granis 
 Like fenzeit Symmie and his bruder,' 
 
 says the author of Peder Goffeis. Piteous they might 
 be in their professional capacity, but in private they 
 lived merrily enough : 
 
 ' I schrew thame that ay leiss Beshrew 
 
 T. , , i, lives 
 
 But lauchter, 
 
 f\ i o L u- V j > Without 
 
 Quod Sym to his bruder. 
 
 Finding also that his income could afford it, the 
 nameless brother laudably resolved to marry : 
 
 ' Quhen thai wer welthful in thair wynning, 
 
 Thai puft thame vp in pryd, 
 Bot quhair that Symy levit in synning, 
 
 His bruder wald haif ane bryd. 
 
 Hir wedoheid fra the begynning 
 
 Wes neir ane moneth tyd ; month old 
 
 Gif scho was spedy ay in spynning, If 
 
 Tak witness of thame besyd 
 
 Ilk ane, Every 
 
 Baith Sym and his bruder.' 
 
 And the remainder of the piece which ends with 
 an abruptness suggesting that a great portion is 
 awanting is occupied with the narrative of some 
 rude proceedings on the marriage-day, which are 
 rather beyond modern comprehension. 
 
 Two tales more in ballad form The Wyfe of 
 Auchtirmwchty , l and The Wowing ofJok and Jynny 
 are of special value for their realistic presentments 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS., and the Skene MS. in the Advocates' Library. 
 Published, with many alterations, by Allan Ramsay in The Ever- 
 green, 1724, and correctly with various readings in Laing's Select 
 Remain*. 1822 and 1885.
 
 288 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 of rustic life in the olden time. In the Bannatyne MS. 
 Tlie Wyfe is attributed to Sir John Moffat, but not 
 by Bannatyne; and without further corroboration 
 The wyfe of * fc must ^ e regarded as anonymous. 
 Auchtirmwchty.- Ritson pointed out that a similar story 
 is found in the Silva Sermonum jucundissimorum 
 (Basil, 1568), and the passage is printed by Laing in 
 the Appendix to his Select Remains. But while the 
 theme is one which might occur to any one, the stories 
 differ greatly in detail; and even were The Wyfe 
 suggested by the Latin story, it is to all intents and 
 purposes an original composition. It relates the 
 mishaps which befell a lazy and effeminate farmer, 
 who, envying the supposed comfortable ease of his 
 wife at home, while he in cold and wet trudged all 
 day behind the plough, proposed an exchange of 
 occupations. Here is a glimpse of the gudeman as 
 housewife : 
 
 ehurn ; stir * Than to the kyrn that he did stoure, 
 
 until And jwmlit at it quhill he swatt ; 
 
 Quhen he had jwmlit a full lang houre 
 The sorrow crap of butter he gatt. 
 
 Albeit na butter he cowld gett, 
 
 vexed Zit he wes cummerit with the kyrne, 
 
 ftrt** 1 : to And syne he het the milk our hett, 
 
 curdle And sorrow spark of it wald zyrne. 
 
 Than ben thair come ane gredy sow, 
 could I trow he cund her littill thank, 
 
 big mouth And in scho schot hir mekle mow, 
 
 And ay scho winkit and scho drank. 
 caught He cleikit vp ane crukit club 
 
 aheaT/blow And thocht to hitt the sow ane rowt, 
 
 The twa gaislingis the gled had left 
 
 That straik dang baith thair harnis owt.'
 
 THE WOWING OF JOK AND JYNNY' 289 
 
 The piece is only farce, but of its kind the farce is 
 first-rate inevitably true to nature, graphically con- 
 cise, and unfailingly witty, even if the wit be obvious 
 and uproarious, rather than delicate or subtle. The 
 story is emasculated in Allan Cunningham's John 
 Grumlie. 
 
 The Wowing of Jok and Jynny l is a somewhat 
 unique relic of ancient rustic marriage diplomacy. 
 The original of many Anglo-Scottish songs 
 
 _ T J . & . 8 'The Wowing 
 
 on Jock and Jenny in the black-letter ofjokand 
 broadsides, it also supplied the opening Jynny ' 
 stanza of the old improper song on Duncan Gray 
 which Burns modified. The ballad, in the French 
 octave, begins in this quaintly simple style : 
 
 ' Robeyns Jpk 2 come to wow our Jynny, 
 
 On our feist evin quhen we wer fow ; drunk 
 
 Scho brankit fast and maid hit bony, hurried 
 
 And said, " Jok, come ze for to wow ? " 
 
 Scho birneist her, baith breist and brow, burnished 
 
 And maid hir cleir as ony clok ; beetle 
 
 Than spak her deme, and said, " I trow mother 
 
 Ze come to wow our Jynny, Jok." 
 
 Jok said, " Forsuth I zern full fane fondly 
 
 To luk my heid, 3 and sit doun by zow." 
 
 Then spak hir modir and said agane, 
 
 "My bairne hes tocher gud anuwch to ge zow." enough; give 
 
 " Te he," quod Jynny, " keik, keik, I se zow j loot 
 
 Muder, zone man makis zow a mok." 
 " I schrow the\ lyar, full leis me zow, toSftilon 
 
 I come to wow your Jynny," quod Jok.' you heartily 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. Published in Ramsay's Evergreen, 1724, and most 
 subsequent Collections, but generally with more or less incorrectness. 
 
 9 Jok, the son of Robert. In old village communities the surname 
 was frequently dropped. 
 
 8 Probably to enter the house by bending his head, though some 
 interpret it as looking his head to see that it is clear of vermin. 
 
 T
 
 290 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 The * tocher-gude ' (dowry) was, in Jok's view, the 
 most momentous part of the question ; and after the 
 mother's honest, if alluring, recital of her daughter's 
 belongings, 
 
 by ' Jok tuk Jynny be the hand 
 
 a And cryd ane feist, and slew ane cok, 
 
 U P in . the And maid a brydell vp alland : 
 
 country * r 
 
 " Now half I gottin your Jynny," quod Jok.' 
 
 But though conscious that he had had a good 
 bargain, Jok was also honestly convinced that his 
 bride had been as lucky as himself: 
 
 know ' I lat zow wit schois not miskareit, 
 
 known : It is weill kend I haif anuwch ' : 
 
 enough 
 
 and he proceeds to give a recital of his personalty, of 
 which this sample may suffice : 
 
 batter; ' I haif ane helter, and eik ane hek, 
 
 basket Ane cord, ane creill, and als ane cradill, 
 
 doublet Fyve fidder of raggis to stuff ane jak, 
 
 pommel ; Ane auld pannell of ane laid sud ill. 
 
 load saddle 
 
 bag; pedlar's Ane pepper polk maid of a padill, 
 
 Jp'tanin-. Ane spounge, ane spindill wantand ane nok, 
 
 wheel ; notch Twa lusty lippis to lik ane laiddill.' 
 
 Some humorous tales have already been referred to 
 
 under Chapter in. ; others, such as The Dumb Wyff, 1 
 
 other and The Nyne Ordour of Knavis, 2 are 
 
 uJs r0 'Tn merely vulgar or commonplace; while 
 
 somer. 1 large portions of several are too frank 
 
 for quotation. Here, however, from In Somer quhen 
 
 1 Maitland MS. Published in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 and 
 1885. 
 
 2 Bannatyne MS. Published in Jamieson's Popular Ballads, 1806, 
 and Laing's Select Remains.
 
 'QUHY SOWLD NOCHT ALLANE' 291 
 
 Flouris will smell, 1 is an interesting sketch of the 
 dress of a rustic maid : 
 
 ' Scho had ane hatt vpoun hir held 
 
 Off claver cleir bayth quhyt and reid beautiful 
 
 With catclukis strynklit in that steid trefoil; place 
 
 And synkill grene ; hemlock 
 
 Wit ze, weill to weir that weid know 
 
 Wald weill hir seme. beseem 
 
 Ane pair of beedis abowt hir thrott, 
 
 Ane Agnus Day with nobill nott Agnus Dei 
 
 Jyngland weill with mony joitt, shake 
 
 War singand doun ; 
 It was full ill to fynd ane moit difficult ; 
 
 Vpoun hir goun.' 
 
 The ballad Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be? 1 
 in a five-line stanza, aaa, bb, with refrain a modifica- 
 tion of the kyrielle (see ante, p. 157) de- Drinking 
 serves mention, not merely as the earliest ballad - 
 authenticated, but much the best, of the ballads on 
 Allan-a-Maut, alias John Barleycorn. It is initialled 
 'Quod Allane Matsonis Suddartis,' and under the 
 same signature is a curious invective against dishonest 
 or incompetent ale-wives, Quha hes Gud Malt and 
 makes ill Drink. 1 The author of both may well have 
 been Dunbar. In the following stanzas of Allane 
 we seem to hear the voice of the author of Sanct 
 
 (p. 177) : severely 
 
 ' My Maister Allane I may sair cures : 
 He levis no mony in my purss, mnst 
 
 At his command I mon debursa salary 
 
 Moir nor the twa pairt of my fe : 
 Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be ? 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS.
 
 292 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 And last of Allane to conclude ; 
 
 He is bening, courtuss, and gude, 
 
 And ser vis ws of our duly fude, 
 And that with liberalitie : 
 Quhy sowld nocht Allane honor! t be? 1 
 
 Similar jovial sentiments are expressed in a clever 
 ballad, / mak it kend he that will spend, signed 
 ' John Blyth,' which somewhat resembles Back and 
 Side go Bare in Gammer Gurtiris Needle ; but 
 ' women ' rather than ' wine ' was the chief theme of 
 the old Scots balladists or lyrists. 
 
 Among the oldest of the love-ballads that have 
 been preserved is The Murning Maiden, 1 mentioned 
 TheMurnine i 11 The Complaynt of Scotland. Written 
 Maiden.- m a n i ne _i me stave ab, ab, cc, bbc, the 
 last five lines forming a bobwheel, and plainly, like 
 Henryson's Robene and Makyn, the work of an 
 accomplished 'makar,' it has much of the naive 
 simplicity of the old minstrel ballad. A slight 
 allegorical suggestiveness may be suspected in the 
 lady's possession of bows and arrows, but the aureate 
 terms and the imagery of the conventional love 
 allegory are wholly absent. The sentiment also, 
 so far from being affected or overstrained, is really 
 primitive and pagan, though in no proper sense 
 indelicate: nonconventional not unbecoming. It 
 merely records how a forlorn damsel, forsaken by her 
 lover, and living in a forest in hunting dress with bow 
 
 1 Maitland MS. Published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 
 1786, and in various subsequent Collections.
 
 'QUHEN TAYIS BANK' 293 
 
 and arrows, was persuaded by the owner of the forest 
 to accept his addresses : 
 
 * Than knelit I befoir that cleir ; maid 
 
 And meikle could hir mercie craif much 
 
 That semelie than, with sobir cheir, then ; mien 
 
 Me of hir gudlines forgaif : 
 
 It wes no neidj I wys guess 
 
 To bid us uther kys ; 
 Thair mycht no hairts mair joy resaif 
 Nor uther culd of uther haif : 
 
 Thus brocht wer we to blys.' 
 
 The ballad Quhen Tayis Bank l which may have 
 some connection with the old tune, Twysbank, 
 mentioned in Colkelbie's Sow is more 
 
 r> i t rm -*r n * 'TayisBank.' 
 
 artificial than The Murning Maiden 
 alike in language, imagery, and sentiment. It is in 
 the rollicking metre of the old ballads, and the device 
 of alliteration is also employed to excess. There is 
 further a profusion of aureate terms and all the 
 conventional adjuncts of allegorical love poetry : the 
 precious stones, the flowers and foliage of the 
 brightest colours, and the lark, the merle, the 
 nightingale and mavis all in full song. Also the 
 fair damsel is beheld under a tree, and although 
 the poet might have accosted her had she stayed, 
 he was hi no wise grieved, because 
 
 ' Sone within a wane scho went dwelling 
 
 Most hevinly to behold.' 
 
 Sufficient for him to know that so fair a creature 
 lived on Tayside : 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. Published in The British Bibliographer, vol. iv., 
 aud in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 and 1835,
 
 294 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ' The reuer throw the ryce cowth rowt 
 
 And roseris raissis on raw ; 
 
 beautiful The schene birdis full schill cowth schowt 
 
 wood Into that semly schaw : 
 
 Joy wes within and joy without, 
 fairest bank Vnder that vlonkest waw, 
 
 Quhair Tay ran down with stremis stout 
 straight Full strecht vndir Stobschaw.' 
 
 There is every reason to suppose that the poem 
 celebrates Margaret Drummond, daughter of John, 
 The heroine of nrs t Lord Drummond, and the favourite 
 the poem. mistress of James iv., who, with her two 
 sisters, died suddenly of poison in 1501. The lady of 
 the poem is described as the ' myld, meik, mansuete 
 Mergrit/ and though ' Mergrit ' means pearl, the poet 
 may have intended a play on the lady's name ; besides 
 which, Stobschaw cannot well refer to aught else than 
 the woods of Stobhall, the seat of the Drummonds. 
 
 In the Bannatyne MS. are a number of other 
 anonymous love-ballads, showing considerable ex- 
 in May in a pertness after the old artificial manner. 
 Morning. 1 j^ j a y { n a Morning deserves mention, 
 if only for its peculiar bobwheel, and the use of the 
 device of iteration as exampled in The Awntyrs of 
 Arthur (p. 36) : 
 
 on ' In May in a morning, I movit me one, 
 
 with^oves Throw a grene garding, with gravis begone, 
 
 lead As leid without lyking, but langour allone, 
 
 misery For misheiss and mourning, makand my mone, 
 
 more Bot U10. 
 
 heart With hairt als heavy as a stone, 
 
 Of covir confoirt had I none, 
 
 ^* "*? tnat w * st * na wone > 
 
 Bot wandreth in wo.'
 
 'QUHEN FLORA HAD OURFRET' 295 
 
 The last line of the stanza is repeated in the first line 
 of the next, thus : 
 
 ' For wo and wandreth I walk, I weip and I wring.' keep awake 
 
 A few anonymous lyrics of great excellence also 
 survive. Quhen Flora had ourfret the Firth, 1 in 
 the French ballade form, except that 
 
 . . , 'Quhen Flora 
 
 the Envoy is awantmg, and the con- had ourfret 
 
 , , the Firth.' 
 
 sonance throughout the three stanzas of 
 
 the first rhymes if too deliberate and artificial, is, 
 
 at least, a highly polished production : 
 
 ' Strang ar the panis I daylie prufe, 
 
 Bot yit with pacience I sustene, 
 I am so fetterit with the lufe 
 
 Onlie of my lady schene, bright 
 
 Quhilk for hir bewty mycht be quene, Who 
 
 Natour sa craftely alwey 
 
 Hes done depaint that sweit serene : 
 Quhome I luf I dar nocht assay.' prove 
 
 Yet in no wise can it compare with the old song, 
 Lusty May. with Flora Quene, 2 every 
 
 y . . . . J 'O Lusty May.' 
 
 line of which is vocal with the joy of 
 the merry month : 
 
 ' Lusty May, with Flora quene, 
 The balmy dropis frome Phebus schene, bright 
 
 Preluciand bemes befoir the day, 
 
 Be that Diana growis grene By which 
 
 Throwch glaidness of this lusty May.' 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. Published in Ramsay's Evergreen, and in Mr. 
 W. E. Henley's English Lyrics. 
 
 2 Bannatyne MS. Printed by Chepman and Myllar, 1508, and 
 modernised in Forbes's Aberdeen Cantus. Wrongly included by 
 David Laing in Alexander Scott'a Poems.
 
 296 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Another excellent, though also artificial, lyric is 
 Welcum to May, 1 beginning : 
 
 ' Be glaid all ze that luvaris bene, 
 For now hes May depaynt with grene 
 The hillis, valis and the medis ; 
 And flouris lustely vpspreidis.' 
 
 One or two other amorous pieces, as Quhen I think 
 on my Lady Deir? Mistress Myn, z Baiih Gud and 
 other amorous Fair and Womanlie? Mistress myld, 
 pieces - haif mind on Me, 2 display some indivi- 
 
 duality in sentiment or method; and a Song of 
 Absence* which Pinkerton attributes to James L, but 
 which is plainly of much later date, is an elaborate 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. Published in Laing's Select Remains, 1822 and 
 1885. 
 
 3 Bannatyne MS. 
 
 ' Maitland MS. and Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786. 
 The dove, from the time of the Romans, at least, has been re- 
 garded by poets as the representative of constancy. Nevertheless, 
 a similarity in the use of the simile in a stanza of this poem and in 
 Letter iv. of the Gasket Letters is worth noting. Thus writes Mary 
 Stuart or another : ' Car J'enseray en pein et faites bon guet si 
 1'oseau sortira de sa cage ou sens son per comme la tourtre 
 demeurera suelle a se lamenter de 1'absence pour court quelle 
 soit. Ce que Je ne puis faire ma lettre de bon coenr si ce nestoit 
 que je ay peur que soyes endormy.' And here is the stanza : 
 
 ' Evin as men may the turtil trew persaif , 
 >tc Once having lost hir feir, 
 
 On the dry brainche, ay faithful to the graif, 
 Bewayling perseveir ; 
 So my desyre, 
 Kindlit in fyre, 
 Dois soir lament 
 My luif absent. 
 God, gif amour be ane pane to beir ! ' 
 
 Thin stanza also resembles the last one in Montgomerie's Adi'cu 
 to His Maistres.
 
 'ANE WELCUM TO EILD' 297 
 
 and skilful production; but the great bulk of the 
 anonymous love lyrics are monotonously doleful 
 
 Although most of the humorous love-songs have 
 perished except so far as some of them survive 
 in the parodies of the Gude and Oodlie Humorous 
 Satiates & few are preserved in the love - son * s - 
 Bannatyne or Maitland MSS., as Thair is nocht ane 
 Winche that I se, 1 Sang Againis the Ladeis? Sang 
 upon a Maist Melancolie Aventure? God gif I wer 
 Wedo now, 2 and My Hart is quhyt, 1 which last is very 
 much in the manner of Scott, and begins : 
 
 ' My hart is quhyt, and no delyte I half of ladeis fair, blame ; 
 
 I wyte, I flyte, all in dispyte, that evir I leird that lair, 
 Yit but respyte, I clene the" quyte, for now and evirmair, without 
 
 Thairfoir I dyte this writt perfyte. Fairweill, now feildis fair ; indite 
 The suth is so, be God, my jo, I will fenye na mair ; truth 
 
 Thocht vmquhile grit wes appetite, thair is wan tyme of wair.' ^J^' 
 
 Among the more seriously humorous is Ane 
 Welcwm, to Eild, 2 which is graphic and <AneWe i cum 
 picturesque. Here is the last stanza : to Eild '' 
 
 'My curland hair, my cristel ene, eyes 
 
 AT beld and bleird, as all may se ; bald ; dim 
 
 My bak, that sumtyme brent has bene, straight 
 
 Now cruikis lyk ane camok tre. 
 
 Be me your sampill ye may se ; By 
 
 For so said wourthy Salomon 
 
 Elding is end of ertMie glie : 
 Welcum eild, for youth is gone I ' 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS. 
 
 2 Maitland MS. Published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotiah 
 Poems, 1786.
 
 298 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 In a similar vein is Thus I propone in my Carping? 
 in the stave of the common rondeau 
 
 ' Thus I propone.' 
 
 (see ante, p. 155) : 
 
 ' Eis or diseis 
 
 WhioheTw Quhilk God sail send, 
 
 Allyk sail plois, 
 
 Eiss or diseiss ; 
 
 Aye till obeyiss 
 
 Till life mak end, 
 
 Eis or diseis 
 Quilk God will send.' 
 
 This chapter concludes our survey of what now re- 
 mains of the poetry of the old Scots ' makaris ' except 
 
 that imperfectly preserved by tradition, 
 decline of Its development was irregular, chequered 
 vernacular and complex. The old northern romance 
 
 school left, at least metrical, traces on 
 nearly all the subsequent poetry, modifying in a 
 great variety of ways the Anglo - Norman staves. 
 But it perished otherwise as an important literary 
 influence with the rise of the sun of the new Scot- 
 tish nationality. For a time patriotic poetry was in 
 the ascendant; and though the original patriotic 
 minstrelsy is now silent and forgotten, much of the 
 patriotic afflatus is still preserved in Barbour's Bruce 
 and Blind Harry's Wallace. Then, with probably 
 the return of James I. to Scotland, came the great 
 wave of Chaucerianism, which almost promised (or 
 should it be threatened ?) to anticipate Flodden in 
 
 1 Bannatyne MS., and less complete in Maitland MS., from which 
 it was published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems.
 
 THE OLD TRADITION 299 
 
 revenging Bannockburn by subjecting the national 
 intellect to the dominance of the great English 
 'makar.' But salutary and stimulating though 
 Chaucerianism was, the traditional influences in 
 many ways asserted their supremacy asserted it by 
 absorbing and assimilating Chaucerianism. Then 
 towards the close of the fifteenth century there arose 
 in Scotland a poetic school which not only eclipsed 
 the degenerate Chaucerian school of England, but 
 which, distinguished in itself, was more than remark- 
 able as the product of a country so rude and 
 insignificant, and is only to be explained as the 
 result of the engrafting of Chaucerian and French 
 influences on a vigorous native stem. Of this old 
 original poetry which has all but perished echoes 
 are to be found in Henryson and the older humorous 
 tales, and it specially triumphs in Christis Kirk and 
 Peblis. It is only so far as it again became dominant 
 dominant in a higher, stronger, and more artistic 
 form that Scotland again attained to an individual 
 national literature. It is specially dominant in 
 Dunbar, admiring disciple of Chaucer though he 
 was; in Douglas, it only manifests its influence 
 brokenly in the Prologues ; it inspires all that is 
 worth reading in Sir David Lyndsay ; it reasserts 
 itself decidedly in Scott, and even in Montgomerie, 
 notwithstanding that its life-blood was then being 
 sucked by Puritanic Calvinism which had already 
 superseded its popular lyrics by The Gude and 
 Godlie Ballates, and that it was presently to be
 
 300 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 reduced to such a state of inanition that its 
 existence became suspended on the fiat of James vi., 
 with whose succession to the English throne it 
 passed out of existence and for a time out of 
 memory.
 
 VERNACULAR PROSE 
 
 BELLENDEN ' THE COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND ' ROBERT 
 LYNDSAY OF PITSCOTTIE GEORGE BUCHANAN 
 JOHN KNOX BISHOP LESLIE CALDERWOOD 
 SPOTTISWOODE JAMES MELVILLE SIR JAMES 
 MELVILLE JAMES VI. 
 
 THE Scottish literature in vernacular prose is of a 
 character so fragmental, intermittent, and merely 
 casual, that it is impossible to trace in it General and 
 any law of development. The close con- 
 nection of Scottish scholars with the 
 Continent from the time of the astrologer literature. 
 Michael Scott their almost constant practice to 
 complete their studies abroad, where many of them 
 remained as lecturers or professors led both to a 
 more general and prolonged use of Latin prose 
 literature by Scots than by English writers. Verna- 
 cular prose received a certain impulse in Scotland 
 from the movement that produced the Reformation, 
 but the impulse was partial and fitful, and became 
 even reactive. Though the mere introduction of 
 printing tended to the substitution of prose for verse, 
 old habit for some time preserved the supremacy of 
 
 801
 
 302 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 verse for popular purposes ; and as for the more 
 learned or intellectual Scot, he continued long after 
 the Reformation to eschew the vernacular and practise 
 mainly Latin. 
 
 In his Exclamatioun to the Redar, twycheyng the 
 Wrytting of Vulgare and Matemall Language, 
 sir David prefixed to The Dialog, Sir David Lyndsay 
 Lyndsay's deemed it advisable to explain why he 
 
 preference for * 
 
 the vernacular, ventured to write on ' so heych mater ' in 
 ' vulgair toung ' : 
 
 ' Quhowbeit that divers derote cunnyng clerkis 
 In Latyne toung hes wryttin syndrie bukis, 
 Our unlernit knawis lytill of thare werkis, 
 More than thay do the ravyng of the rukis. 
 Quharefore to colyearis, cairtaris, and to cukis, 
 To Jok and Thome, my rhyme shall be directit, 
 With cunnyng men quhowbeit it wylbe lackit.' 
 
 It was not that he deprecated the study of Latin, 
 Greek, and ' Auld Hebrew.' So far from doing so, he 
 greatly 'rewed' his own ignorance of the ancient 
 languages. But he was specially desirous of the spread 
 of intelligence among the people, and he further recog- 
 nised that a truly national literature was impossible 
 in a foreign tongue. None of the great writers of the 
 olden time, he pertinently points out, used any other 
 than their native language. Still, he had no wish 
 to interfere with the preferences and tastes of the 
 learned those preferences and tastes which con 
 cerned only themselves, and he puts his case thus : 
 
 ' Lat Doctores wrytt thare curious questionis 
 And argumentis sawin full of sophistrye,
 
 PREVALENCE OF LATIN 303 
 
 Thare Logick, and thare heych opinionis. high 
 
 Thare dirk jugementis of Astronomye, dark 
 
 Thare Medecyne and thare Philosophye : 
 Latt Poetis schaw thare glorious ingyne, genius 
 
 As ever thay pleis, in Greik or in Latyne ; 
 Bot lat us half the Bukis necessare 
 
 To Common weill and our Salvatioun 
 Justlye translatit in our toung Vulgare.' 
 
 But Lyndsay himself wrote only in verse, and 
 verse as of old remained for a considerable time the 
 main literature of the people. The dis- 
 semination of the Scriptures in prose, and o/theTe" "" d 
 the spread of education by means of the ThVverna-* 1 "' 
 parish schools, tended to beget a love of culs rals 
 
 gradually 
 
 prose literature among the people; but superseded 
 
 . , , , . , by English. 
 
 (1) that literature was mainly theological, 
 and (2) it became more and more assimilated to 
 English. Nor if the learned Scot had particularly 
 desired to have recourse to the vernacular could he 
 have found in Scotland a fit or sufficient audience. 
 George Buchanan, though an adherent of the Pro- 
 testant and popular party, disdained, as scholar, 
 historian, or man of culture, to cast his pearls before 
 the mere vernacular Scot. Even his controversial 
 and political writings were mostly addressed rather to 
 Europe than to Scotland ; for Scottish politics when 
 he wrote had, through the meteoric career of Mary 
 Stuart, become of European consequence. For a 
 similar reason, his great controversial opponent 
 Bishop Leslie had recourse mainly to Latin; and 
 though he composed a history of Scotland in the 
 Scots vernacular for Mary Stuart's perusal, wrote
 
 304 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 little else in Scots, and in some cases got his tractates 
 Englished for circulation south of the Tweed. The 
 renewed intercourse between Scotland and England 
 after the Reformation tended also more and more to 
 enforce the desirability of a common language, which 
 common language was bound to be English. John 
 Knox, for example, wrote for England as much as for 
 Scotland. Though as good a Latinist as the older 
 Scottish historians, he did not, like Buchanan, cul- 
 tivate Latin for its own sake, and was probably 
 conscious that its use would check rather than 
 promote the flow of his eloquence and invective, and 
 dull rather than brighten the scintillations of his wit. 
 Above all, he was, like Lyndsay, specially devoted 
 to the interests of 'Jok and Thome.' Even his 
 History of the Reformation was therefore written in 
 the vernacular, but the vernacular he chose was a 
 sort of compromise between Scots and English. 
 
 For the reasons now summarised, the bulk of 
 
 Scottish vernacular prose can scarce be termed 
 
 literature. Much of it is merely con- 
 
 Bellenden's . ' 
 
 translation troversial or merely theological; and a 
 still larger portion consists of Diaries or 
 Memoirs, not even written for publication, but jotted 
 down for the writer's own private edification or 
 pleasure. The earliest vernacular prose work of any 
 importance is John Bellenden's (see ante, p. 232) trans- 
 lation of Hector Boece's Latin History of Scotland. 1 
 
 1 Editions were published at Edinburgh, printed by 'Thomas 
 Dauidson, printer to the Kyngis noble grace' in 1536, 1541, and in
 
 'THE COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND' 305 
 
 It was done at the request of James v. for the more 
 immediate delectation of the nobles, and presented to 
 the king in 1533. Boece's lively and interesting, if 
 somewhat imaginative, narrative was modelled, as was 
 his Latin style, on Livy, which probably was the 
 reason why Bellenden was commanded by the king 
 to follow his translation of Boece with a translation 
 of the Roman historian. 1 Bellenden's version of 
 Boece is accurate, but rather free. The language is 
 less artificial than that of The Complaynt of Scotland, 
 and the style, of remarkable excellence for the period, 
 is clear, flowing, and vigorous. 
 
 But Scottish vernacular prose literature may be 
 said to begin with that curious political manifesto, 
 ' The Complaynt of Scotlande 2 vyth ane , Th 
 Exortatione to the Thre Estaits to be of Scotland.' 
 
 ..-, . , -FT. re f i -n i f Its author. 
 
 vigilante in the Denens of their Public claims of sir 
 veil.' Its authorship, so far as we can now 
 judge, is mainly a matter of speculation. Dr. George 
 Mackenzie, in his Lives of Scottish Writers, attributed 
 it to Sir James Inglis (see ante, p. 233), Abbot of 
 Culross, but it is impossible to tell whether he had 
 any reason for doing so other than vague rumour or 
 his own opinion. Anyhow the Abbot, who Mackenzie 
 
 another unknown year. It was also reprinted at Edinburgh in 
 1821, edited by Thomas Maitland, Lord Dundrennan. 
 
 1 First published in 1822 at Edinburgh, edited by Thomas Mait- 
 land, Lord Dundrennan. 
 
 2 Four of the original copies of The Complaynt are known to 
 exist, but all want the title-page. Two are in the Library of the 
 British Museum, and one in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 
 It was elaborately edited by Dr. Leyden in 1821, and for the 
 English Text Society by Dr. J. A. H. Murray, 1872. 
 
 U
 
 306 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 states died in 1554, was assassinated as early as 
 1st March 1531, whereas The Complaynt was at least 
 not completed till 1549. It so happens, however, 
 that another Sir James Inglis was chaplain to the 
 Abbot of Cambuskenneth from 1508 until 1550, and 
 Mackenzie may have merely confounded the two; 
 but while the Culross Inglis was of literary repute, 
 nothing is known of the other except that he was 
 officially in the habit of singing masses for the souls 
 of James in. and Queen Margaret, who were buried at 
 Cambuskenneth. 
 
 In the Harleian Catalogue in the British Museum 
 
 the work is ascribed to Wedderburn, but this again 
 
 may have been merely the opinion of 
 
 Claims of * * J 
 
 Robert James Anderson, author of Diplomatica 
 
 et Numismata Scotice, who sold his 
 library to Harley, Earl of Oxford. The Wedderburn 
 to whom David Laing was disposed to ascribe it was 
 Robert, vicar of Dundee ; but he did so on the sup- 
 position that the work was printed at St. Andrews, 
 whereas it was undoubtedly, as Dr. J. A. H. Murray 
 has shown, printed at Paris. For the Wedderburn 
 authorship much stress has been laid on the author's 
 comprehensive knowledge of old ballads and songs; 
 but while the Wedderburns parodied the old songs for 
 godly purposes, the author of The Complaynt displays 
 a wholly unregenerate interest in them as well as in 
 music and dancing. 
 
 For Sir David Lyndsay's claims a strong super- 
 ficial case was made out by Leyden from similarities
 
 'THE COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND' 307 
 
 of method, style, and subject-matter. There is no 
 distinct evidence as to Lyndsay's attitude towards 
 the English invasion, and if in this 
 
 . . , . ,. Claims of 
 
 crisis he indicated strong sympathy with sir David 
 the Queen-Regent in her efforts on be- ym 
 half of the country's independence, this would go 
 far to explain his freedom from persecution for his 
 pungent attacks on the abuses of the Church. But 
 the work is far too indirect and desultory to have 
 been written by Lyndsay, and not quite incisive 
 enough in its exposure of ecclesiastical abuses. 
 
 Dr. J. A. H. Murray argued from the dialect that 
 the writer must have been a native of southern 
 Scotland, which would, of course, dispose T 
 
 Partly founded 
 
 of the claims of both Wedderburn and n LC 
 
 T t /-\ i tit Quadrilogue 
 
 Lyndsay. On the whole, the most pro- invectif' of 
 
 i -i -i . .-i , ,1 ,-i Alain Chartier. 
 
 bable supposition is that the author was 
 some one more strongly attached to the French 
 interest than either Lyndsay or the Wedderburns; 
 and this theory finds additional support from the 
 fact unknown to Laing or to Dr. J. A. H. Murray 
 that the later and allegorical portion of the work was 
 merely an adaptation to the Scottish crisis of Alain 
 Chartier's Le Quadrilogue Invectif of more than a 
 century earlier date. 
 
 The work was probably begun while Scotland, 
 before the arrival of French help in The aim of 
 July 1548, was very much at the mercy S^jStwy 
 of Protector Somerset, and when many cha P ters - 
 of the nation from their Protestant leanings, from
 
 308 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 interested motives, or from sheer despair were 
 disposed substantially to agree to the English matri- 
 monial alliance on very much the old conditions 
 proposed by Henry vm. ; and it is mainly against 
 this policy of surrender that the writer takes up his 
 pen. The work opens with a high-flown ' Epistle to 
 the Qvenis Grace ' (the Queen-Regent), in which the 
 patriotic deeds of her illustrious ancestors are cele- 
 brated, and she is declared to have inherited more 
 than their virtues, and in her noble defence of the 
 country against the ' cruel woffis of ingland,' to have 
 even surpassed the achievements of all the ancient 
 heroines commemorated by Plutarch or Boccaccio. 
 This is followed by a 'Prolog to the Reader' con- 
 sisting of a philosophical disquisition on work and 
 idleness, illustrated by various classical anecdotes 
 all this to show that, in taking up his pen in behalf 
 of his country, the author was not acting the part of 
 a mere idler, but using his own special talent with 
 exemplary diligence. Succeeding these preliminaries, 
 we have still a few more introductory chapters dealing 
 with the misfortunes of Scotland in their relation to 
 the judgments of God, and winding up with the 
 exposition and adoption of the views of John Caron 
 as to the near approach of the end of the world. 
 
 Having by these 'solist and attentive labouris' 
 The Monoiog caused his body to become ' imbecille 
 Jd'httnthe A an( ^ verve ' (weary) and his spirit to be 
 country. sopit ' (steeped) ' in sadness,' the author, 
 before proceeding further with his task, deemed
 
 THE COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND* 309 
 
 it advisable to recruit him in the country, and 
 was thus led to pen a ' Monolog Recreative,' 
 which to us is the most interesting feature of 
 his strange medley. So great was his delight in 
 rural life and scenes, after his close immersion 
 in study, that on the first day of his arrival he 
 remained out of doors, walking in the woods until 
 the dawn. At this point he of course introduces 
 the conventional classical imagery, and for the de- 
 scription of the approach of day and of the different 
 birds and animals with their cries, he has recourse 
 also to alliteration and consonance, essaying a sort of 
 poetic prose, of which this short specimen may serve 
 as a sufficient illustration : 
 
 ' The grene feildis, for grite drought, drank vp the drops of the 
 fresche dew, quilk 1 of before hed maid dikis 2 & dailis verray done. 3 
 There eftir i herd the rumour of rammasche* foulis and of beystis 
 that maid grite beir, 5 quhilk past besyde burnis 6 and boggis 7 on 
 grene bankis to seik ther sustentatione. Their brutal sound did 
 redound to the hie skyis, quhil 8 the depe hou 9 cauernis of cleuchis 10 
 and rotche 11 craggis ansuerit vith ane hie not, of that samyn sound 
 as the beystis had blauen.' 
 
 Thereafter he hies him to the sea-shore, where he 
 beholds a galasse accoutred for war and preparing 
 for action. Then follows a minute relation A se a.fight. 
 of the handling of a ship, and of the ^d^Lr. 
 various rhymes and cries of the sailors, tanment. 
 and a realistic picture of the two ships in action is 
 also attempted. But so little is he interested in the 
 
 1 which. 3 damp. 8 noise. 7 mosses. 9 hollow. n rocky. 
 a ditches. 4 in flocks. 8 streams. 8 until. 10 dells.
 
 310 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fight that he stays not to witness the result; and 
 returns to the green fields just as the shepherds, 
 having taken out their flocks for pasturage, are 
 sitting down to breakfast. After a meal of all kinds of 
 milk and curds, whey, butter, cream, and cheese, with 
 rye cakes and scones, there follows recreation. The 
 entertainment opens with an oration of the principal 
 shepherd on the 'hie stait and dignitie' of the 
 pastoral life, with of course citation of all the more 
 illustrious men of antiquity who had elected to follow 
 the calling, which is further extolled for its beneficial 
 effects, morally and physically, and the opportunity 
 it affords for the study of natural science; the 
 oration concluding with an exhaustive disquisition 
 on astronomy and physical geography. This most 
 erudite address his spouse, concerned mainly for the 
 amusement of the younger portion of the company, 
 pronounces to be a ' tideous, melancolie oration,' and 
 proposes that they should now recreate themselves 
 with 'joyous comonyng.' The list of the old traditional 
 tales they then told, of the songs and glees they 
 sung, and the tunes to which they danced, though 
 declared by the author to be only a selection, would 
 imply that the entertainment not only lasted, as he 
 states, until evening, but was prolonged for a month 
 or more. But it may be that he here only followed 
 a conventional custom of the old writers, of which 
 we have an example in Colkelbie's Sow ; and for the 
 list we owe him at least more thanks than blame, for 
 it is invaluable as a record of old literature and
 
 THE COMPLAYNT OF SCOTLAND' 311 
 
 music, regarding which there is in many cases no 
 earlier evidence. 
 
 After the rejoicings were over, the author entered 
 a meadow full of all sorts of flowers, grasses, and 
 herbs, of which he gives a list, with a 
 
 . , . . , The Vision. 
 
 curious account of their special medicinal 
 virtues. Contented, as he well might be, with his 
 period of recreation, he proposed to set off for town 
 that he might proceed with his book, but was 
 immediately overtaken, as he also well might be, 
 by 'Morpheus, that slepy gode'; and reclining on 
 the 'cald eard' with 'ane cod (pillow) of ane gray 
 stane,' he was in the accustomed manner favoured 
 with a vision, which virtually supplied him with all 
 that was required to complete his volume. 
 
 As matter of fact, however, the source from which 
 he got the design and much of the method and 
 thought of this latter portion of the DameScoti* 
 book, The Complaynt proper, was Le l^ns. "com" 
 Quadrilogue Invectif of Alain Chartier. 1 ^* 
 For Dame France, the Scottish writer io g ue invectif. 
 substitutes Dame Scotia, and for her 'enfants' Le 
 Peuple, Le Chevalier, and Clergie we are presented 
 with Scotia's three sons Labour, the Nobles, and 
 Spiritualitie. Many passages are merely taken from 
 the French work, but the clergy play a less prominent 
 and dominant part in the conference, and Dame 
 
 1 See Les Oevvres de Maister Alain Chartier, ed. Tovrangeav, 
 Paris, 1617, pp. 402-455 ; and for an extended summary, Alain 
 Chartier, par Gabriel Joret-Desclosieres, Paris, 1897, pp. 30-55.
 
 312 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Scotia indulges in rather more plain-speaking. It is 
 occupied with (1) Dame Scotia's ' Exhortatione to the 
 thrie Estaitis,' mainly in denunciation of England; 
 (2) the 'Complaynt of Labour,' or the Commons, 
 against the nobles and the clergy his French brother 
 does not venture a word against the Church who he 
 declares are more cruel to him than even the English, 
 and by their lack of courage and patriotism leave him 
 no choice but meanwhile to feign allegiance with 
 England ; (3) Dame Scotia's reply to this, her younger 
 son, in which the faults of the people their gullibility, 
 fickleness, intemperance, lust, unruliness are dilated 
 on hi very plain terms, and after a citation of The 
 Thrie Priestis of Peblis to show that their elevation 
 only develops their faults, she denies the possibility 
 of any one being truly virtuous who has never had 
 ' educatione, eruditione, nor civilitie ' ; (4) the address 
 of Dame Scotia to the 'nobles and gentlemen,' 
 which discusses the question of the origin and uses 
 of an aristocracy in a fashion that displays the 
 ecclesiastical jealousy of the period against that 
 order, and concludes with a denunciation of their 
 extravagance, in which it is asserted that the horses 
 and dogs of the nobles are virtually as much engaged 
 in eating the ' pure pepill,' as if they were devouring 
 their bodies; (5) Dame Scotia's address to the 
 Spiritualitie, who are rather more mildly dealt with, 
 and while told that schism will be healed only by 
 reform, not by persecution, are reminded that they 
 have nothing to hope for from England, and such of
 
 EGBERT LYNDSAY OF PITSCOTTIE 313 
 
 them as are able-bodied are therefore exhorted to 
 exchange their cowls and frocks for ' steil jakkis ' and 
 'coites of mailze,' and take the field against the in- 
 veterate enemies of their country; and (6) the exhorta- 
 tion of Dame Scotia to her three sons to cease their 
 intestine strife and combine against the common 
 enemy. 
 
 The Chronicle of Scotland* by Robert Lyndsay of 
 Pitscottie, is avowedly a continuation of Boece's 
 Latin history, which John Bellenden 
 
 * Lyndsay s 
 
 translated. The author was related to 'Chronicle.' 
 
 1 11/--1 ( T T 1 ^ S 8C P e - 
 
 the noble family of Lyndsay, but nothing 
 certain is known of his parentage and practically 
 nothing of his life. The only editions of Lyndsay's 
 portion of the Chronicle yet published do not reach 
 later than 1565, but it was continued by another than 
 Lyndsay until August 1604. Lyndsay's own portion 
 must also have been modernised and partly as- 
 similated to English, either by the continuator, or by 
 later copyists, for we cannot believe that as we now 
 have it, it represents the vernacular of Lyndsay's time. 
 Lyndsay's work is properly neither chronicle nor 
 history. His chronology is vague and frequently 
 erroneous. Many important events are 
 
 J A master of 
 
 either passed over or treated with the picturesque 
 
 utmost conciseness, and his grasp of his 
 
 subject is slight and superficial; but he excels as a 
 
 1 Published 1728, 1749, 1778, and 1814, the last edition in two 
 volumes edited by John Graham Dalyell ; and a carefully edited 
 text by &. J. G. Mackay for the Scottish Text Society, 1899.
 
 314 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 story-teller, and may perhaps be best described as 
 a sort of prose ininstrel. A master of picturesque 
 detail, he has a keen eye for the exceptional, the 
 striking, the marvellous, and for all kinds of interest- 
 ing minutiae. He notes, for example, that James n., 
 ' more curious than became a king,' stood too close to 
 his artillery at Roxburgh Castle, and not merely tells 
 you that he was mortally injured, but that by ' ane 
 piece of ane misframed gune, his thigh bone was dung 
 in two'; he is careful to inform you of Cochrane's 
 attempt to foster James in.'s suspicions against his 
 brother by aid of the pretended revelations of a witch ; 
 the state kept by Cochrane, his gorgeous apparel and 
 proud bearing, his rude knocking at the kirk door 
 (accompanied by armed attendants in white livery) 
 where the nobles were assembled, his sudden seizure, 
 his contumelious treatment and unceremonious exe- 
 cution by suspension over the bridge at Lauder, are 
 related with graphic particularity; the account 
 of Albany's escape from Edinburgh Castle the 
 intoxicating of the captain, the sudden attack on 
 him and the guard, the escape over the wall of the 
 Duke and his ' chamber- child ' by a ' tow ' which was 
 too short for the servant, who fell and broke his thigh 
 bone, and had to be lengthened for the Duke by 
 tearing the ' scheittis aff his bed ' is a masterpiece 
 of minutely vivid narrative; and the hard case of 
 Johnie Armstrang before James v. is a finely dramatic 
 episode, of which the climax is the reiver's speech : ' I 
 am bot ane foole to seik grace at ane graceless face,
 
 ROBERT LYNDSAY OF P1TSCOTTIE 315 
 
 but had I known,' etc. ; the curious hunting palace 
 built by the Earl of Atholl for the entertainment of 
 James v. is described with a mastery of detail which 
 suggests the modern journalist, who also might well 
 have compiled the record of the items of the banquet, 
 and the results of the day's sport ; and in the account 
 of Pinkie Cleugh we have the especially characteristic 
 information that the dust generated by the character 
 of the soil, mostly ' red earth,' so ' great that nevir ane 
 of them might see ane other,' completed the panic 
 among the Highlanders which was aroused by the 
 novel sound of the artillery. These are not ex- 
 ceptional instances, but merely average specimens of 
 his usual method. Curiously enough, his Chronicle 
 becomes less detailed and interesting when it deals 
 with the later occurrences of his own time, from 
 which we may infer that, though a Protestant, and 
 writing on behalf of Protestantism, the events of the 
 past were of more interest to him than the politics 
 of the present. 
 
 Quite after the modern manner, Lyndsay gives a 
 list of those to whom he was indebted for information. 
 They are Patrick, Lord Lindsay of the Hisauthori- 
 Byres the brother-in-law of Moray, who ties> 
 acquired an unenviable reputation for his stern treat- 
 ment of Mary Stuart in Lochleven ; Sir William Scott 
 of Balwearie; Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, Knight, 
 grandson of Admiral Wood; John Major, whose 
 History of Greater Britain was published in 1521, 
 but who survived till 1550, and, being resident at
 
 316 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 St. Andrews, must have frequently been in Lyndsay's 
 company; Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, his 
 relative and near neighbour ; Andrew Wood of Largo, 
 son of Admiral Wood, and 'principall and familiar 
 servant ' to King James v. ; Andrew Fernie of that 
 ilk, ' ane noble man of recent memory ' ; and Sir 
 William Bruce of Earlshall, Knight, who was one of 
 his Fife neighbours, and who, he says, ' hath written 
 very justly all the deeds since Floudon Field.' 
 
 This list is valuable as showing that for many of 
 his quaint and picturesque details he must have had 
 For many of authentic information ; and the inference 
 hadlTuthentic usua lly drawn from his inaccuracy as to 
 information, dates and his loose treatment of some 
 important events, that he is untrustworthy in his 
 more interesting portions, seems to require qualifica- 
 tion. We cannot doubt, for example, that the 
 presentation by David Lord Lindsay to James HI. 
 of the 'gray courser/ on which he made his escape 
 from Sauchie, would be vouched for by Lord 
 Lindsay's descendants, and the details of the king's 
 death the shying of the horse at the woman's water- 
 can, and the heavy fall of the king when the horse 
 leapt the burn, etc. bear on the face of them the 
 stamp of truth. Nor can we go far wrong in assuming 
 that for the particulars of the capture of Stephen 
 Bull's ship by Admiral Wood in the Firth of Forth 
 he was indebted either to the admiral's son or 
 grandson. Similarly, for his capital version of the 
 Linlithgow ghost story he had the voucher of Sir
 
 GEOKGE BUCHANAN 317 
 
 David Lyndsay, and for his account of the death of 
 James v. at Falkland his melancholy reception of 
 the tidings of the birth of his daughter, ' It came with 
 ane lass, and it will go with ane lass,' with the story 
 of the manner of the subscription of the will at the 
 instance of Cardinal Beaton he must have been 
 indebted to Andrew Wood, ' the familiar servant ' to 
 the king, and one of the few gentlemen present at his 
 deathbed. Again, he had clearly special facilities for 
 obtaining information in regard to all the events 
 which happened at St. Andrews ; and the nameless 
 outrage of ' ane callit Guthrie ' on the dead cardinal 
 must have been a notorious fact. These instances may 
 even suggest that the anecdotical and picturesque 
 portions of Lyndsay's Chronicle may be on the whole 
 the most correct; and if they be, his blunders in 
 mere dates may well be forgiven him. In gauging 
 his general trustworthiness it must also be borne in 
 mind that, Protestant though he was, his partisanship 
 was not so bitter as that of either Buchanan or 
 Knox. 
 
 The bulk of Buchanan's works, including his 
 History in Latin, do not come within the scope of 
 our consideration; and of his History George 
 it may suffice to state that its Latin f^.^ 
 style secured for it a reputation beyond His career, 
 its historical deserts. Since also his writings in the 
 vernacular were limited to two political tracts, his 
 career calls here for but the briefest notice. Born in 
 February 1506, the son of a small laird in the parish
 
 318 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 of Killearn, Stirlingshire, he was educated at the 
 Universities of Paris and St. Andrews, and became 
 the most brilliant Latinist of his time. After hold- 
 ing (1529-61) various scholastic appointments in 
 France, Portugal, and Italy, he returned to Scotland, 
 when he became linguistic tutor to Mary Stuart, and 
 was also employed as translator to the Queen and 
 Council; and in 1566 he obtained the principalship 
 of St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews. The following 
 year he accompanied Moray to the York conference 
 regarding Mary Stuart, where he was employed 
 in putting into writing the charges against her 
 which were afterwards embodied in the Latin Detectio 
 published in 1572. In 1570 he was named tutor to 
 the young prince James vi., an appointment he held 
 until his death in Edinburgh, 24th September 1582. 
 
 The only tractates in Scots known to be Buchanan's 
 
 are 'Ane Admonitioun direct to the True Lordis main- 
 
 tenaris of Justice, and obedience to the 
 
 His works in * 
 
 the vernacu- Kingis Grace. Imprentit at Striviling be 
 Robert Lekprevik, 1571 '; and the Chamce- 
 leon, completed probably early in 1571, but not pub- 
 lished in Buchanan's lifetime, owing to interference 
 with Lekprevik's printing-office while it was passing 
 through the press. Besides this, two of his letters x 
 in the vernacular, and his Opinion anent the Refor- 
 matioun of the Universitie of St. Andrews, 1 also 
 
 1 These with the two tractates are included in The Vernacular 
 Writings of George Buchanan, edited for the Scottish Text 
 Society by P. Hume Brown, 1892.
 
 GEORGE BUCHANAN 319 
 
 survive ; but internal evidence shows that the Scots 
 version of the Detectio, 1572, sometimes attributed 
 to him, was done by another. 
 
 The Admonitioun is in substance both a general and 
 specific denunciation of the Hamiltons. Being by 
 descent a feudal dependant of Lennox, The Admoni- 
 Buchanan shared in the hereditary tioun -' 
 enmity between that house and the rival claimants 
 to the next heirship of the Scottish throne. By 
 Mary Stuart's marriage to Darnley, the heirship to 
 the throne had been assured to the Stewarts of 
 Lennox ; and it was the queen's alliance with 
 Bothwell against Darnley that aroused against her 
 Buchanan's quenchless antipathy. With the murder 
 of Darnley the Hamiltons were closely associated; 
 they also instigated the plot for the murder of the 
 Regent Moray the assassin, a Hamilton, being pro- 
 bably the mere tool of the forfeited John, Marquis of 
 Hamilton; and Buchanan was convinced that they 
 would not rest until they had removed the young 
 king, now the only obstacle to the realisation of 
 their highest ambition: 'not content wt ane king's 
 blude, they gaip for his sonnis murthour.' Buchanan 
 has been dubbed ' the pen of Moray,' but there is no 
 evidence that he turned against the queen from 
 motives of self-interest. If he adopted wrong or 
 extreme opinions, they seem to have been the 
 opinions of an honest feudal partisan. The too 
 merely denunciatory tone of the Admonitioun 
 detracts, however, from its literary merit, though
 
 320 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 much of it is cogent, and much of what is not cogent 
 is undoubtedly forcible and clever. Here, for example, 
 is an amusing hit both at the Hamiltons and his old 
 pupil : 
 
 ' Thay wer in hoip yat scho sould mary Johnne Hamiltoun ye 
 Dukis sone quhome wt mery lukis and gentill contenance (as scho 
 could weill do) scho enterit in ye gayme of ye glaiks, 1 and causit 
 ye rest of ye Hamiltonis to fon for faynnes.' * 
 
 The Chamceleon, a satire on the Secretary, William 
 Maitland of Lethington, may be regarded as expres- 
 Thechamse- s ^ ve e( l ua lly of Buchanan's own private 
 icon. 1 antipathies and of the dead Regent 
 
 Moray's inner sentiments towards his old political 
 associate. No one knew better than Buchanan how 
 the policy of Moray had been baffled by the intrigues 
 of Maitland during the York and Westminster con- 
 ferences, or the depth of Moray's chagrin at the 
 insubordination of his former lieutenant. It is a 
 more elaborate and effective production than the 
 Admonitioun; but it is effective mainly because 
 Maitland's conduct was quite beyond the compre- 
 hension of a mere partisan like Buchanan, as it was 
 beyond the comprehension of an age in which mere 
 partisanship was so rampant. Buchanan's satire, 
 merciless though it be, is in no sense feigned. A 
 sincere indignation and hatred, blended with a sort 
 of contemptuous amazement, animates his pen as he 
 proceeds to 'set furth schortlie ye descriptioun of 
 
 11 Coquetry. a Play the fool for eagerness.
 
 JOHN KNOX 321 
 
 sic ane l monsture not lang ago engendrit in Scotland 
 in ye cuntre of Lowthiane not far from Hadingtoun, 
 to yat effect yat ye forme knawin, the moist pestiferus 
 nature of ye said monsture may be moir easelie 
 evitit.' 2 
 
 As to Buchanan's vernacular style, it is something 
 too artificial and rhetorical, both the structure of the 
 sentences and the general manner being 
 affected by his constant addiction to 
 Latin, but withal it is clear and precise, and fre- 
 quently full of force and fire. Here is an example 
 in the effective conclusion of The Chamceleon : 
 
 'Now I pray zow espy out quhat proffeit ye quene, our 
 kingis moder, sail gadder of him yat hes bene (as scho knawis) sa 
 oftentymes traitour to hir moder, to hir selfe, to hir sone, to hir 
 brother, and to hir cuntre. Scho will be exemplis 3 considder yat 
 how mony colouris yat euir yis Chamseleon change, yat it can neuir 
 aganis ye nature of it, turne perfytelie quhyte.' 
 
 As partisan Knox has much in common with 
 Buchanan, both in the virulence of his partisanship 
 and its special direction, but it was of 
 different origin and of much wider scope. 
 Not feudal, nor even political, but life - 
 wholly religious and rooted in his deepest convic- 
 tions, it coloured his whole life and became inter- 
 woven with the future history of his country. Born 
 in 1505, in Haddington or its near neighbourhood, of 
 peasant parents who were feudal dependants of the 
 Earl of Bothwell, he was educated at Haddington 
 
 1 such a. 2 evaded. * by examples. 
 
 X
 
 322 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Grammar School and Glasgow (and probably St. 
 Andrews) University, but owing, it may be, to poverty 
 did not, as was then very customary, continue his 
 studies abroad. About his earlier life, after he left the 
 University, we have little information. Though at 
 some unknown date he took priest's orders, he never 
 held a cure, and supported himself partly as notary, 
 partly as tutor. While acting as tutor to the sons of 
 Douglas of Longniddry, and Cockburn of Ormistone, 
 he came in contact with the Protestant evangelist 
 George Wishart, whom he accompanied in his 
 preaching tour in Lothian, characteristically acting 
 as his guard with the two-handed sword which it was 
 customary to carry beside him. His public life from 
 the time that in 1547 he made ' his first publict 
 sermon ' to the assassinators of Cardinal Beaton and 
 their friends in the parish church of St. Andrews, 
 until, worn out with the labours which established 
 the Reformed Kirk in Scotland, he, with the words 
 'Now it is come,' quietly breathed his last in his 
 own house in the Netherbow, Edinburgh, 24th 
 November 1572, was, whether at home or in exile, 
 one continuous conflict against a religious system 
 which in his view was not so much erroneous and 
 corrupt, as antichristian and devilish. 
 
 His History of the Reformation l is the record of 
 
 1 The only complete edition of the Works of Knox is that of the 
 Wodrow Society, edited by David Laing, six vols. 1846-64. 
 The History occupies vols. i. and ii. A shortened edition of the 
 ffistory, edited by C. J. Guthrie, appeared in 1898.
 
 JOHN KNOX 323 
 
 that conflict, a record so sincere, thorough, and 
 complete, that it is one of the most interesting 
 human documents in literature. Knox His character . 
 was not an accomplished scholar like istics - 
 Buchanan, nor a ' fell ' theologian like Calvin, nor, if 
 a more eloquent and a cleverer, a more satisfactory 
 religious controversialist than the Tyries, the Winzets, 
 the Kennedys of that age, none of whose tractates are 
 now of any interest except to the philologist or the 
 religious antiquary. He had much of the intellec- 
 tual narrowness and rough simplicity of the peasant ; 
 he shared in some, though not in all, of the super- 
 stitions of the mediaeval ecclesiastic, and if he had 
 escaped from the mere formal professionalism of the 
 clerics of his time, he substituted for this an intense 
 conviction of his own personal infallibility as a divinely 
 illuminated prophet of the Most High. Like all the 
 Reformers, he was steeped in the supernaturalism of 
 the Scriptures, particularly of the Old Testament, 
 and, endowed with strong emotional susceptibility, 
 great moral sincerity, an overmastering will, and a 
 lofty ideality (in no degree impaired by his practical 
 common-sense), he bent his energies towards the 
 establishment in Scotland of a sort of Christianised 
 Jewish theocracy. The Church, as reorganised by 
 him, was, as of old, only more so, to be palpably and 
 directly the supreme power in the state and in 
 society. His ideal, no doubt, differed somewhat from 
 the reality which was so soon to become an in- 
 tolerable tyranny ; but even his ideal was but a one-
 
 324 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 sided solution of the great problem of human life 
 and conduct, for, man of genius though he was, he 
 was by intellectual training the mere product of 
 medievalism. He was successful mainly as icono- 
 clast ; his courage, enthusiasm, eloquence, wit, satire, 
 and dynamic energy were irresistible, not so much 
 in reforming abuses and removing corruptions as in 
 annihilating root and branch the imposing ceremonial 
 and the potent organisation of the Scottish Catholic 
 Church. From many directions, and from a variety 
 of causes, a tempest of wrath had been gathering 
 against its ambition, greed, tyranny, and corruption, 
 but it was Knox who rode ' on the whirlwind direct- 
 ing the storm,' and it was because of his conduct of 
 it that the storm proved so destructive. 
 
 In The History of the Reformation Knox details 
 the events of this stirring period mainly in their 
 relation to his own personality, and to 
 
 of the Re- the work to which he had devoted his 
 
 formation.' . 
 
 His partisan- life. His laudation or condemnation of his 
 contemporaries is determined very much 
 by their attitude towards his own aims. He hardly 
 even pretends to impartiality, but says as much evil 
 and as little good of his opponents as he possibly can, 
 while he overlooks many patent faults, and even 
 wickednesses, in those who, from whatever motive, 
 have the saving grace to co-operate with him in his 
 great crusade. This, of course, means that he was a 
 bitter partisan; but, in excuse, it must be remem- 
 bered that in that age the lines of antagonism were
 
 JOHN KNOX 325 
 
 much more sharply drawn than in this age of com- 
 promise. Knox was absolutely convinced that his 
 cause was wholly the cause of God, and that his 
 opponents were merely the allies of the Devil. His 
 instinct for character was also so remarkably keen, 
 and his intentions so sincere, that, if due allowance 
 be made for his standpoint, it is comparatively easy 
 for one, otherwise acquainted with the persons and 
 events of the period, to read between the lines of 
 his approval or disapproval. But, agree or dis- 
 agree with him as we may, he rarely fails to 
 interest. The narrative part of the book is alive 
 from beginning to end. The stir and movement 
 and excitement of the times, as mirrored in his 
 own strong personality, are transferred to his pages ; 
 and his literary art, if less elaborately rhetorical 
 than that of Buchanan, is more direct, graphic, and 
 irresistible. 
 
 The work includes an account of the early Scottish 
 Reformers their labours, persecutions, and martyr- 
 doms, from the death of Paul Craw in scope of the 
 1431, and a narrative of the events of strong and 
 his own time down to September 1564, w "* p !? ts ' 
 
 ' and its literary 
 
 the remainder of the History, down to excellence. 
 1567, being hi all likelihood partly derived from his 
 papers. The narrative, abounding in ' merrie bourds ' 
 and graphic anecdotes, is coloured by a strain of 
 bitter and contemptuous vituperation against the 
 opponents of the Reformation. Much of the vitu- 
 peration is mere gross, though picturesque and
 
 326 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 effective, abuse; 1 but it is redolent of a hatred 
 that, at least, proved contagious. His effectiveness 
 both as reformer and historian is, in truth, largely 
 due to his personalities. In discussing the abstrac- 
 tions and subtleties of theology he is a mere school- 
 man : he displays his genius only when he deals with 
 events and facts and concrete human nature. Like 
 the much less ardent Lyndsay of Pitscottie, he has a 
 keen eye for graphic details, and he is often vividly 
 dramatic. The incidents, conversations, anecdotes, 
 and personal allusions of which his History is brim- 
 ful, lend to it a never-failing animation, and in some 
 of his stories and narratives the wit, the humour, 
 or the satire is elaborated with much careful art, 
 among his masterpieces being in addition, of course, 
 to the immortal interviews with Queen Mary the 
 Cardinal's assassination, the struggle for precedency 
 between the followers of the two rival archbishops at 
 the door of Glasgow Cathedral, and the destruction of 
 the image of St. Gile by the Edinburgh mob. 
 
 When the mob seized and threw down the image 
 of St. Gile, 'the Preastis and Freiris/ he tells us, 
 'fled faster than thei did at Pynckey Clewcht'; 2 
 the ridiculous figure cut by the retreating fathers 
 
 1 The monastery of the Grey Friars is, for example, described as 
 the ' den of those murtharis the Grey Friaris ' ; and the same Grey 
 Friars, we are told, ' routed as thai had been ravens, yea rather 
 they yelled and rored, as devills in hell, "Heresy, heresy," ' etc. 
 
 3 The battle of Pinkie, 10th September 1547, at which a regiment 
 of priests and monks fought or rather fled for Scotland and the 
 Church, under a sacred white banner.
 
 JOHN KNOX 327 
 
 is also exactly realised to us ' the Gray Freiris 
 gapped, the JBlak Frearis blew, the Preastis panted 
 and fled'; and the finishing touch to the ihedestruc. 
 picture of this comical street scene is JjJ f * J te 
 given by the introduction of ' a meary Gile - 
 Englissman,' who 'by chance lay upoun a stare,' 
 and 'seing the discomfiture to be without blood, 
 thought he wold add some mearynes to the mater, 
 and so cryed he ower a stayr, and said, " Fy upoun 
 yow, hoorsones, why have ye brockin ordour ! Doun 
 the streat ye passed in array and with great myrth. 
 Why flie ye, vilanes, now, without ordour? Turne 
 and stryk everie one a strok for the honour of his 
 god. Fy, cowardes, fy, ye shall never be judged 
 worthy of your wages agane." ' As a raconteur Knox 
 must have been unsurpassed among his contem- 
 poraries; and various allusions also show that his 
 literary art owed something to his acquaintanceship 
 with the works of the old 'makaris.' 
 
 Of the numerous tractates of Knox in the various 
 forms of Admonitions, Answers, Apologies, Blasts, 
 
 Declarations, Epistles, Exhortations, Ex- 
 Tractates, etc., 
 
 positions, Letters, Narratives, Sermons, of Knox. -The 
 
 , TT . ,. , First Blast.' 
 
 Summaries, and Vindications the most 
 noted, and the only one that need here be referred to, 
 is The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Mon- 
 strvovs Regiment [Sovereignty] of Women, published 
 anonymously in 1558, and (being intended for 
 England) written virtually in English, or, perhaps, 
 rather Englished by Knox's colleague at Geneva,
 
 328 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Goodman, who also himself blew a similar blast in How 
 Supreme Powers ovght to be obey'd by their Subjects, 
 Geneva, 1558. In 1557 Knox had asked Calvin his 
 opinion about the ' Regiment ' of women, who gravely 
 replied : ' That as it was a deviation from the original 
 and proper order of nature, it was to be ranked, no 
 less than slavery, among the punishments consequent 
 upon the fall of man ' ; but admitted that occasion- 
 ally good female sovereigns 'were raised up by 
 Divine authority.' Now, Knox was, of course, con- 
 vinced that neither Mary of England, nor Mary of 
 Guise, the Queen- Regent of Scotland, belonged to the 
 latter class of sovereigns, and recognising that there 
 was no hope for the Reformation so long as they 
 remained in power, he resolved, as was his custom, to 
 'strike at the root.' It is customary to regard the 
 pamphlet as violent and imprudent, but it became 
 only imprudent when Elizabeth ascended the throne 
 and resolved to support Protestantism. Had she 
 not supported Protestantism, Knox would have been 
 at liberty to proceed with further blasts against 
 female sovereignty, whose effectiveness against the 
 Queen-Dowager of Scotland and Mary Stuart might 
 have greatly added to, instead of detracting from, his 
 reputation as a practical politician. The pamphlet is 
 a characteristic example of the scholastic methods of 
 the period ; and the solemn citations of classical and 
 scriptural authorities in support of Knox's strong and 
 graphic verdicts render it from the peculiarly un- 
 scholastic nature of the theme very piquant reading.
 
 BISHOP JOHN LESLIE 329 
 
 Bishop John Leslie, the chief Catholic historian of 
 Scotland, was the illegitimate son of Gavin Leslie, 
 rector of Kinsrussie. Inverness-shire. After 
 
 Bishop Leslie 
 
 completing his education at King's Col- (1527-1596). 
 
 i i-ii i T-i-'-ii His career. 
 
 lege, Aberdeen, he studied civil law on 
 the Continent; and he was regarded as the most 
 able and learned of the Scottish Catholic ecclesi- 
 astics of his time. His residence in the Catholic 
 regions of the North, as pastor of Oyne, Aberdeen- 
 shire, also led to his becoming the chief political 
 adviser of the Catholic nobles. In 1562 he was 
 made Professor of Canon Law in Aberdeen, and, 
 after the Darnley marriage, he was appointed in 
 1566 to the bishopric of Ross. Continuing devoted 
 to the Queen of Scots throughout all her difficulties 
 and disasters, he became her legal adviser and re- 
 presentative at the York and Westminster confer- 
 ences, and from October 1569 until November 1573 
 was detained a prisoner in England for his connec- 
 tion with the Norfolk intrigues. On obtaining his 
 liberty he went to the Continent, where he devoted 
 himself, as before, to the cause of the imprisoned 
 queen, being her chief political confidant and agent, 
 and the inspirer of most of the plots on her 
 behalf. About 1580 he was appointed suffragan 
 and vicar-general of the diocese of Rouen, and 
 in 1591 he obtained the bishopric of Coutances in 
 Normandy, but was unable, on account of the 
 distracted state of the country, to take up his resi- 
 dence hi his diocese. He died in the Augustinian
 
 330 SCOTTISH VEENACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 monastery of Geertruidenberg, near Brussels, 30th 
 May 1596. 
 
 Leslie wrote his latest History of Scotland in Latin, 1 
 
 and the most interesting portion of this History 
 
 the description of the counties and 
 
 As historian. . , , . . . . . . , 
 
 islands, containing much varied informa- 
 tion on the social condition of Scotland not to be 
 found elsewhere is not included in the vernacular 
 History, written in 1 568-70 2 for the perusal of Mary 
 Stuart while in prison. This History includes the 
 period from the death of James i. to 1561. A very 
 careful and judicious historian, Leslie is minute in 
 his chronology, and must have been well supplied 
 with original material ; but his record is little more 
 than a mere chronicle, and is wholly lacking in the 
 vivid picturesqueness of Lyndsay's or Knox's narra- 
 tives, its manner being very much that of a formal 
 state document. 
 
 Such registers as The Diurnal of Occurrents? the 
 
 Diary of Robert Birrel, 3 and even The Historic of 
 
 . , James Sext, z can scarce be ranked as 
 
 Other historical 
 
 works in the literature ; and the one other prominent 
 
 Vernacular. . 
 
 historical work that need here be men- 
 tioned is The History of the Kirk of Scotland (1514- 
 1625)* by the Scottish clergyman, David Calderwood 
 
 1 An old Scots translation of the Latin History, by Father James 
 Dalrymple, has been published by the Scottish Text Society, ed. 
 Cody, 1884-1889. 
 
 2 Printed by the Bannatyne Club, 1830. 
 
 3 Printed by the Bannatyne Club. 
 
 4 Published by the Wodrow Society, 8 vols., 1842-49.
 
 JAMES MELVILLE 331 
 
 (1575-1650), which, though mainly a mere compilation 
 from Knox's History, the Diary of James Melville, 
 The Historic of James Sext, and other works, and 
 rather a collection of rough materials for history than 
 a properly condensed and continuous narrative, is of 
 interest as an example of the later Anglo-Scots on 
 the eve of the complete extrusion of the vernacular 
 from the prose literature of Scottish authors. John 
 Spottiswoode (1566-1639), Archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 the contemporary of Calderwood, wrote in English his 
 History of the Church and State in Scotland, under- 
 taken at the instance of James vi. to represent the 
 Episcopal standpoint ; and although a mild form of 
 the vernacular lingered long in private diaries and 
 letters, the educated classes, including the clergy, 
 from the time of the Union of the Crowns aspired in 
 formal compositions to express themselves in English. 
 Among the many Diaries, Journals, Memoirs, and 
 Memorials which have been printed by Scottish clubs 
 and other learned societies, only two are 
 
 J ' Diary ' of 
 
 of such literary merit as to demand a james Meiviiie 
 passing reference The Autobiography I55 
 and Diary of Mr. James Melville, minister of 
 Kilrenny; and The Memoirs of His Own Life, by 
 Sir James Melville of Halhill. The Diary of the 
 Kilrenny minister, nephew of the better-known 
 ecclesiastic Andrew Melville, is a valuable example 
 of the earlier Anglo-Scots not Scots intentionally 
 Anglified, as was Knox's History, but a curious inarti- 
 ficial mixture of Scots and English. Its main literary
 
 332 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 merit is its graphic garrulosity. The author is a sort 
 of old Presbyterian Pepys, or rather, perhaps, Boswell, 
 the facts of his own life and the events of his own 
 time being his Johnson; and his phrases and com- 
 parisons have frequently much naive vividness and 
 force. His portrait of Knox hi the pulpit about the 
 time when Knox, as Knox himself expressed it, had 
 ' one foot in the grave,' is almost startingly graphic : 
 'Bot or he had done with his sermont, he was sae 
 active and vigorous that he was lyk to ding that 
 pulpit in blads and fly out of it.' Companion pictures 
 are those of the young King James vi. in 1574, when 
 only eight years of age, ' walking up and down in the 
 auld Lady Marr's hand,' and 'discoursing of know- 
 ledge and ignorance ' ; and that of George Buchanan, 
 after sending his History to press, ' sitting in his chair 
 and teatching his young man that servit him in his 
 chalmer to spell a-b, ab, e-b, eb,' etc. ; but indeed it 
 is difficult to open a page of the narrative portion of 
 the Diary without chancing on some anecdote, or 
 reminiscence, or description that illuminates the past 
 as with a flash of sunlight. 
 
 The Memoirs of Sir James Melville, the great 
 
 Scottish diplomat of Mary Stuart, are by no means 
 
 , so minute and confidential as the Diary 
 
 ' Memoirs of Sir 
 
 james Meiviiie of his inimitable namesake, the reserve 
 and propriety of the courtier having be- 
 come engrained in his nature, and affecting, we may 
 well believe, even his private thoughts ; but he had seen 
 
 ' cities of men, 
 And manners, climates, councils, governments,'
 
 JAMES VI. 333 
 
 and few had been more behind the scenes of his event- 
 ful times. His interviews with Queen Elizabeth are 
 as diverting as they are instructive; and his com- 
 ments on the characters and motives of his contem- 
 poraries, and on the incidents and events of this 
 complicated period of Scottish history, are, though 
 qualified by much diplomatic caution, shrewd and 
 honest, and frequently racy and picturesque. 
 
 Apart from History and Memoirs, etc., Scottish 
 vernacular prose literature, during the short half- 
 century or so that filled up its allotted Theolo ica i 
 span, is mainly confined to controversial literature, 
 theology, but nothing of any literary value is to be 
 gained by embarking on this troubled and tempest- 
 uous ocean. 
 
 Scottish vernacular prose, as well as poetry, virtually 
 terminates with James vi. That versatile and all- 
 wise monarch also intermeddled with j amesV i. 
 theology, publishing in Scots Ane Frvit- (^-icas)- 
 ful Meditatiovn (founded on some verses of the 
 20th chapter of the Revelation), at Edinburgh, 1588 ; 
 and another Meditatiovn (founded on certain verses 
 of the 15th chapter of 1st Chronicles), at Edinburgh 
 in 1589. But his main works in prose before he 
 ascended the English throne are his Ane Schort 
 Treatise conteining some Revlis and Cautelis to be 
 obseruit and eschewit in Scottis Poesie, 1 1584, and 
 Demonologie, 1587. The former is very much the 
 work of a mere schoolboy, and though of some 
 interest from its subject, is remarkably trite in its 
 
 1 Included in the Arber Reprints.
 
 334 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 treatment of it. Here, for example, is his Majesty's 
 recipe for originality : 
 
 'Ze man 1 also bewarre with composing onything in the same 
 manner as hes been ower oft vsit of before. As in speciall, gif 2 ze 
 speik of loue, be warre ze descryue your Loues makdome 3 or her 
 fairness. And siclyke 4 that ze descryue not the morning, and 
 rysing of the Sunne in the Preface of zour verse ; for thir thingis 
 are sa oft, and dyuerslie writtin vpoun be Poetis already, that gif 
 ze do the lyke, it will appeare, ze bot imitate, and that it cummis 
 not of zour awin Inventioun, quhilk is ane of the chief properteia 
 of ane Poete. Thairfore gif zour subject be to prayse zour Loue, 
 ze sail rather praise hir vther qualiteis nor her fairnes, or her 
 shaip ; or ellis ze sail speik some lytill thing of it and syne 5 say, 
 that zour wittis are sa smal, and zour vtterance sa barren, that ze 
 can not discryue any part of hir worthelie : remitting alwayis to 
 the Reider, to judge of hir in respect sho matches, or rather excellis 
 Venus, or any woman, quhome to it sail please zow to compaire 
 hir. Bot gif zour subject be sic, as ze man 6 speik something of 
 the morning or sunne rysing, tak heid, that quhat name ze giue 
 to the sunne, the mone, or vther starris, the ane tyme, gif ze 
 happin to wryte thairof another tyme, to change thair names. As 
 gife ze calle the sunne Titan, at a tyme, to call him Phoebus or 
 Apollo the vther tyme, and siclyke the mone, and vther Planettis.' 
 
 A good idea of the change effected on the monarch's 
 language, after his accession to the English throne, 
 may be got by comparing the above passage with a 
 short extract from The Counterblast to Tobacco, 
 1604 : 
 
 ' That the manifold abuses of this vile custome of Tobacco taking 
 may the better be espied it is fit that first you enter into considera- 
 tion both of the first original thereof, and likewise of the reasons of 
 the first entry thereof into this countrey.' 
 
 1 must. 2 if . 3 shape. 
 
 4 such like, 5 then. * must.
 
 XI 
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 
 
 THE subject of Scottish traditional ballads and songs 
 is so comprehensive and complicated, and in some 
 respects so shadowy, that it is possible complexity of 
 here to touch on only its more general L^bourl"!*' 
 features; and since also the various ha P pe11 '. 
 
 Dr. Furmvall, 
 
 details of the subject have, up to the Mr. Ebswonh, 
 
 J . m and Professor 
 
 present, been dealt with in a compara- child, 
 tively fragmentary and tentative fashion, one is 
 inclined to indulge rather in queries than in positive 
 assertions. It is hardly necessary to premise that 
 this traditional poetry is not an isolated literature, 
 that it has intimate relations with other forms of 
 literature, some of which have now perished, and 
 that the older popular poetry of Scotland has also 
 a very close connection with that of England. The 
 labours, for example, of the late Mr. Chappell, and 
 of Dr. Furnivall, and Mr. Ebs worth, mainly directed 
 to the critical examination of the old English ballads 
 and songs, have incidentally shed a good deal of light, 
 or have supplied the means of shedding light, on 
 the ballads and songs of Scotland; and in the vast 
 accumulation of MS. poetry and of old song-book, 
 
 835
 
 336 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 broadside, and chapbook literature, most of which is 
 now of comparatively easy access, there is the possi- 
 bility of greater illumination than has yet been made 
 manifest, It would also be merely superfluous to 
 insist on the invaluable character of the work per- 
 formed by the late Professor Child, whose English 
 and Scottish Popular Ballads^ is a sort of library 
 of the different versions good, indifferent, bad, and 
 worse than bad of English and Scottish traditional 
 poetry of, or allied to, the ballad form, with very full 
 references to similarities, whether accidental or not, 
 in the older literature of the Continental nations. 
 But this critical attitude towards the traditional 
 ballads and songs is of comparatively recent origin, 
 and thus falsehood, fallacy, and delusion have had 
 an exceptionally long start. Professor Child's great 
 work supplies in an accessible form much raw 
 material for a critical history of popular poetry, but 
 a good deal of the material it supplies is inevitably, 
 and from no fault of the editor, in a sense worse 
 than useless. The chaff is out of all proportion to 
 the wheat ; and, alas ! chaff and wheat have in 
 many instances become almost inseparably welded 
 together. 
 
 The attitude of the earlier collectors and editors 
 of traditional poetry was frequently merely credulous, 
 and when it was not absolutely so, it hardly occurred 
 to them that not merely an exact statement of 
 sources, but a careful inquiry into their trustworthi- 
 
 1 Five volumes, Boston, 1882-1898.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 337 
 
 ness, was their first and not their last obligation. 
 Allan Ramsay's faults of omission and commission 
 excusable because he knew no better, credulity and 
 but none the less, many of them, ir- ewwiMsnesm 
 
 of the earlier 
 
 remediable are too notorious to require editors. 
 
 11- tt Ti Ramsay and 
 
 more than this mere allusion. But what Bishop Percy 
 seem now sadly careless things have been spens*and 
 done also in the green tree as well as <Edward -' 
 in the dry. The modern inquirer can, for example, 
 regard with only amazement the passive content with 
 which Bishop Percy accepted from Lord Hailes most 
 of the Scottish ballads included in his Ancient 
 Reliques? as well as ' the many curious and elegant 
 remarks with which they are illustrated/ when, 
 seemingly, not one of these remarks conveyed the 
 smallest tittle of real information regarding Lord 
 Hailes' sources. Among the ballads which thus first 
 saw the light were, to name only two of the most 
 notable, Sir Patrick Spens and Edward. Editors 
 from the tune of Scott have been accustomed to 
 regard Sir Patrick Spens (see post, p. 350) as the 
 oldest specimen of the historical ballad now existing ; 
 but the Bishop tells you nothing more of his autho- 
 rity for it than that it is given from two MS. copies 
 'transmitted from Scotland.' Sir Walter Scott was 
 also content to remark that he got his version from 
 ' two MSS. collated with several verses recited by the 
 
 1 This remark does not, of course, touch the unquestioned authen- 
 ticity of the Percy folio MS. of the seventeenth century, which has 
 been published by the Ballad Society. 
 
 Y
 
 338 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 editor's friend, Robert Hamilton, Esq.' recited long 
 years after the ballad had been published by Percy. 
 As for Edward, which Professor Child affirms is ' not 
 only unimpeachable, but has ever been regarded as 
 one of the noblest and most sterling specimens of 
 the popular ballad,' we are left utterly in the dark 
 as to how Lord Hailes came to be possessed of it, 
 and virtually it is unknown apart from Lord Hailes. 
 True, Motherwell, who recognised that the 'unim- 
 peachable ' ballad had, at least to some extent, been 
 doctored, came forward with another version got 
 ' from the recitation of an old woman,' and on this 
 old woman's solitary authority calmly asserted that 
 it might be looked upon as the ' genuine traditionary 
 version,' as if there could be a one and only ' genuine 
 traditionary version ' ! But this supposed ' genuine 
 traditionary version ' may, for anything we know to 
 the contrary, simply derive from the version in the 
 Reliques, which, though shainly archaic in spelling, 
 may not have been vouched for as a Scottish tradi- 
 tional ballad, and may even have been derived 
 directly from foreign sources. 
 
 One of the most trustworthy of the old collectors 
 
 was David Herd, and this because (1) he was himself 
 
 almost incapable not merely of writing: 
 
 David Herd. , - , . -,. 
 
 but of altering or amending verse ; (2) he 
 loved collecting for its own, not for vanity's, sake; 
 and (3) a large number of his versions were got 
 before they could have been suggested by published 
 copies. His Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 339 
 
 appeared anonymously in 1769, and an enlarged 
 edition, with his name attached, in two volumes, 
 1776. His MS. collections in the British Museum were 
 printed in 1904, with an interesting introduction and 
 admirable notes by Dr. Hans Hecht. While Herd 
 stated that many of his ballads had ' been recovered 
 from tradition, or old MSS., and never before printed,' 
 he, like Bishop Percy, neglected to give a circum- 
 stantial account of how he obtained them. 
 
 Other collections published towards the close of 
 the eighteenth century are Pinkerton's Select Scotish 
 Ballads, 1783, which deserves a passing 
 
 /. i r i Pinkerton, 
 
 reference, mainly from the attempt of Johnson, 
 the editor to palm off as old certain 
 productions of his own 1 ; Johnson's Scots Musical 
 Museum, 1787-1803, which was in great part edited 
 by Burns, and contains, with a few versions obtained 
 by Burns, a miscellaneous assortment of songs, many 
 of which preserve ancient fragments more or less 
 metamorphosed; and Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1790. 
 and Scottish Songs, 1794, edited with a scrupulous 
 conscientiousness and learning, which, had they been 
 more generally in evidence amongst his predecessors 
 and successors, would have done much to prevent 
 the accumulation of dubiety with which the subject 
 is now enveloped. 
 
 It would be hard to exaggerate the services 
 
 1 Pinkerton is sometimes credited with being the first to publish 
 the ballad of Sir John the Ross, but it first appeared in Herd's 
 Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, 1776.
 
 340 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 rendered to Scottish ballad literature by Sir Walter 
 Scott, whose Border Minstrelsy, which appeared first 
 sir waiter m 1802, and was afterwards enlarged, 
 Scott. aroused a more general interest in 
 
 the subject than any previous publication; but Sir 
 Walter's attitude towards the older minstrelsy was 
 a good deal that of enthusiastic and unsuspecting 
 admiration; and since also in many instances (see 
 post, pp. 362, 366) his own published copies were 
 cooked from different recited versions, they occa- 
 sionally owe more than a little of their vividness 
 and magic to the great magician himself. 
 
 Next in importance to Sir Walter's Minstrelsy 
 must be placed Popular Ballads and Songs from 
 Robert Tradition, 'with Translations of similar 
 
 jamieson. Pieces from the ancient Danish Language 
 and a few originals by the editor, Robert Jamieson, 
 A.M. and F.A.S.' (1806), which seemed to mark an 
 epoch in the study of the subject, because, to use the 
 words of Sir Walter, 'Mr. Jamieson's extensive ac- 
 quaintance with Scandinavian literature enabled him 
 to detect not only a general similarity betwixt these 
 and the Danish ballads preserved in the "Kiempe 
 Viser," an early collection of heroic ballads in that 
 language, but to demonstrate that, in many cases, the 
 stories and songs were distinctly the same, a circum- 
 stance which no antiquary had hitherto so much as 
 suspected.' Jamieson's discovery was further em- 
 phasised by the publication in 1814 of Illustrations 
 of Northern Antiquities, under the joint-editorship
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 341 
 
 of Jamieson, Henry Weber, and Sir Walter Scott; 
 but while the discovery was no doubt important, its 
 importance was not of the peculiar and supreme 
 character which many vaguely suppose. In view 
 also of the peculiar importance that has been attached 
 to it, it is to be regretted that every Scottish version 
 of a ballad supplied by Jamieson himself, which 
 manifested this connection, should not have been 
 authenticated beyond the possibility of suspicion. 
 Yet, so far from taking this precaution, it was Jamie- 
 son's habit to construct versions of his own from 
 those got from recitation; and while, for example, 
 his version of Clerk Saunders is the only one which 
 connects it with a Scandinavian ballad, he withheld 
 the originals on which his version is founded. 'We 
 may suppose,' says Professor Child, 'that all the 
 three versions combined contain the passage which 
 formed the link; but it would be much more satis- 
 factory if Jamieson had given us all three as he 
 received them'; and to this verdict one can only 
 add an unavailing Amen. 
 
 Among other partly original ballad collections it 
 may suffice to mention Finlay's Scottish Historical 
 and Romantic Ballads, chiefly Ancient, other baiiad 
 1808; Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale collections - 
 and Galloway Song, 1810 (mainly the manufacture 
 of Allan Cunningham) ; C. K. Sharpe's Ballad Book, 
 1824 (containing various interesting scraps); Allan 
 Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, Ancient and 
 Modern, 4 vols., 1825 (hopelessly unreliable) ; Robert
 
 342 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 1826; 
 Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827 
 (prefaced by an interesting, and, in some respects, 
 valuable introduction) ; Kinloch's Ancient Scottish 
 Ballads, 1827 ; Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and 
 Songs of the North of Scotland, 1828 (much of it 
 a mere farrago of unauthentic doggerel 1 ); Robert 
 Chambers's Scottish Ballads and Songs, 1829 (con- 
 taining several songs some old, some partly fabri- 
 cated published for the first time from sources 
 which Chambers, for publisher's reasons, failed even to 
 indicate in such a fashion as to guarantee sufficiently 
 either their genuine antiquity or the purity of his 
 text) ; and Maidment's Scottish Ballads and Songs, 
 1859, and Scottish Pasquils, 1868. In all these later 
 collections the ballads and songs obtained from 
 tradition necessarily suffer more from corruption 
 than those in the earlier collections, and some of 
 the new versions are mere corruptions of versions 
 previously published. 2 
 
 1 Many of the numbers were supplied by James Rankine, a blind 
 beggar, whom Buchan in his MS. states he kept, ' at great expense,' 
 travelling in Scotland collecting ballads for him. Professor Child 
 remarks that many of Buchan's ballads bear this minstrel's ' mint 
 mark,' and places 'no confidence' in any of his readings. But as 
 little confidence can be placed in Buchan, who, it is evident, was 
 quite inclined to become the dupe of any ballad impostor. In the 
 ' extreme simplicity ' of Buchan's ballads, Scott found ' the most 
 distinct assurance that he has delivered the latter to the public in 
 the shape in which he found them.' But Scott was ignorant that 
 the ' extreme simplicity ' was conferred on them by this ' wight of 
 Homer's craft.' 
 
 2 A very full bibliography of ballad literature will be found in 
 Child's Ballads, vol. v., 1898. That work is the only standard
 
 TEADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 343 
 
 One result of Jamieson's discovery of certain 
 similarities between British and Danish ballads was 
 to deepen the impression (1) that many 
 
 r * Influence of 
 
 ballads were of immemorial antiquity, 
 
 and (2) that this form of literature was theory of Mr. 
 in some peculiar sense the special AndrewLan &- 
 literature of the people. This twofold impression 
 more or less influenced if only in a vague fashion 
 the methods of subsequent collectors and editors, 
 and it appeared to gain confirmation and solidity 
 from the isolated results results in many other 
 ways very valuable and interesting of the study 
 of folklore. Such supremacy, such decisiveness, was 
 claimed by Mr. Andrew Lang for these results in 
 determining the character and origin of ballad 
 literature, that, in the article 'Ballad' contributed 
 to the ninth edition of The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
 he categorically denied, from the very nature of the 
 case, that ballad and more particularly Scottish 
 ballad literature could be the product of a special 
 literary class, and more particularly of a class of 
 professional minstrels. ' These minstrels/ he wrote, 
 ' are a stumbling-block in the way of the growth of 
 ballads. The domestic annals of Scotland show that 
 her kings used to keep court bards, and also that 
 strollers, jongleurs as they were called, went about 
 
 Collection of British ballads. Ay ton's Ballads of Scotland, 2 vols., 
 1858 (and frequently republished), gives a sort of eclectic text of 
 the best standard ballads ; and in Mr. Eyre-Todd's Scottish Ballad 
 Poetry, 1893 (in the Abbotsford Series), will be found a selection of 
 original versions of some sixty Scottish ballads.
 
 344 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 singing at the doors of farm-houses and the streets of 
 towns. Here were two sets of minstrels, who had 
 apparently left no poetry ; and on the other side, 
 there were a number of ballads that claimed no 
 author. It was the easiest and most satisfactory 
 inference that the courtly minstrels made the verses, 
 which the wandering crowders imitated or corrupted.' 
 This account of the old minstrels must have been 
 meant as jocular rather than precise ; for, being 
 antecedently convinced that, like Topsy, ballads 
 merely 'growed,' it was needless for Mr. Lang to 
 devote particular attention to a perfectly super- 
 fluous fraternity. Without entering greatly into 
 details, he deemed it sufficient to affirm that the 
 minstrel theory or any theory of individual author- 
 ship 'failed to account for the universal sameness 
 of tone, of incident, of legend, of primitive poetical 
 formulae, which the Scottish ballad possesses in 
 common with the ballads of Greece, of France, of 
 Provence, of Portugal, of Denmark, and of Italy.' 
 ' Ballads,' he finally declared, ' spring from the very 
 heart of the people, and flit from age to age, from 
 life to life, of shepherds, peasants, nurses, of all the 
 class that continues nearest to the natural state of 
 man ' ; and they ' make music with the flash of the 
 fisherman's oar, with the hum of the spinning-wheel, 
 and keep time with the step of the ploughman as he 
 drives his team,' etc. It is not with Mr. Lang, be it 
 observed, a mere question of transmission, but of 
 authorship, and on this point he does his utmost to 

 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 345 
 
 be clear and decided. No hint is given of any possible 
 modification of his theory in particular cases, nor 
 does he indicate that he so much as dreams of any 
 possible exception to the general rule. Moreover, all 
 classes of ballads, historical as well as romantic, are 
 included in his dictum ; and as for the Border ballads, 
 he finds their parallel in those of Greece : the ballads 
 of 'Klephtic exploits in Greece match,' he affirms, ' the 
 exploits of Dick of the Law and Kinmont Willie' all 
 alike ' springing,' not from the heart of any particular 
 individual, but from ' the heart of the people.' 
 
 Within the last twenty years Mr. Lang's views 
 may have undergone some modification, but hardly 
 any essential change, for in a paper on 
 
 * 'The Quarterly 
 
 'The Mystery of the Queen's Marie,' pub- Review- 
 
 ,. , , ' ^ ion* it. r- (July 1898). 
 
 lished as recently as 1895, 1 he mentions professor 
 that he would 'fain break a lance with 
 Mr. Courthope on his general doctrine of the popular 
 ballad and its indebtedness to literary poetry and 
 romance.' 2 A writer in The Quarterly Review for 
 July 1898 also finds support in the authority of Mr. 
 Lang as well as Professor Gummere, 3 for inclining 
 
 1 Blackwood's Magazine, vol. clviii. pp. 381-90. 
 
 1 Must not the lance be broken first with Sir Walter? In The 
 Minstrelsy (Introduction to Lord Thomas and Fair Annie) he 
 wrote : ' The tale is much the same with the Breton romance called 
 Lay le Frain (sic), or The Song of the Ash. Indeed, the Editor is 
 convinced that the further our researches are extended, the more 
 we shall see ground to believe that the romantic ballads of later 
 times are, for the most part, abridgments of the ancient metrical 
 romances, narrated in a smoother stanza and a more modern 
 language.' 
 
 * Old English Ballads, Boston, 1894.
 
 346 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 strongly to the conclusion that ' the ballad belonged 
 to the people, and was the exclusive property of the 
 minstrel as little in the making as in the singing.' 
 He ascribes them to 'an age when poetry was a 
 common possession,' and he explains that probably 
 ' solitary composition would have been as difficult for 
 primitive man to understand as communal authorship 
 is hard for us ' ; or, in other terms, the ballad the 
 ballad as it has actually descended to us is the 
 communal literature of primitive man, or, as Mr. 
 Lang expresses it, of 'the classes nearest to the 
 natural state of man.' 
 
 Besides this extreme theory of Mr. Lang, Professor 
 Gummere, and (tentatively) of the Quarterly Re- 
 viewer, we have, of course, only the choice 
 
 The Minstrel ' . 
 
 theory. of some form of the minstrel theory or 
 
 Motherwell .. . _ . ... 
 
 and Professor some modification of it. And, as regards 
 the minstrel theory, pure and simple, we 
 have the choice of two forms : (1) that of Motherwell, 
 and (vaguely) of most editors from the time of 
 Jamieson, that many at least of the ballads which 
 now survive derive from a period anterior to the 
 romance of chivalry; and (2) that of Professor 
 Courthope, 1 and (incidentally) of Sir Walter Scott, 
 that they are solely the production of minstrels who 
 were the degenerate successors of the ancient bards, 
 and who, when they did not select a traditionary 
 feat of arms, or an historic legend, for their theme, 
 adapted it from some older form of literature 
 
 1 History of English Poetry, vol. i. pp. 445-468.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 347 
 
 'the romance, lay, or fabliau/ While, for example, 
 Motherwell, and (vaguely) most editors would assume 
 that Fair Annie and the Danish Skicen Anna were 
 originally the work of the same old bard, Professor 
 Courthope would hold that they were fabricated 
 at some later period by two separate degenerate 
 minstrels, who made use of the same or a similar 
 original some romance or story. 
 
 If the theory of a communal authorship is in itself, 
 as the Quarterly Reviewer admits, hard to under- 
 stand, it must be specially difficult of 
 
 . . L The theory of 
 
 comprehension m the case ot such ex- communal 
 cellent specimens of literature as are expounded by 
 many of the ballads ; but the explana- J* r - Andr f w 
 
 Lang and 
 
 tion of Mr. Lang and the Quarterly Re- the Quarterly 
 
 , , , . , Reviewer. 
 
 viewer is that it was done during the 
 excitement of saltation. Ballads, in the Quarterly 
 Reviewer's opinion, were probably the production of 
 a ' chorus at a village festival,' each, or a number, of 
 the singers and dancers adding his or her contribu- 
 tion ; and after ' the ballads ' had been ' evolved rather 
 than composed ' by the combined genius of the village 
 communities, the minstrel calmly appropriated them 
 as his own, and chanted them to the great delight 
 and edification of the same community who were their 
 real authors. Mr. Lang, on the other hand, ignores 
 the minstrel altogether as a 'mere stumbling-block 
 in the way of the student of the growth of ballads ' ; 
 but apart from this his position is identical with that 
 of the Quarterly Reviewer, for he holds that they are
 
 348 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 all 'popular and primitive in the same sense as 
 rnarchen,' and that they 'all spring from the same 
 primitive custom of dance, accompanied by impro- 
 vised song, which still exists in Greece and Russia, and 
 even the valley of the Pyrenees.' Again, it is necessary 
 to emphasise the fact that Mr. Lang does not allude 
 as Ten Brink and others do to the evolution of poetry 
 in remote or prehistoric times, but to the authorship 
 of actually existing ballads, Scots or English Chevy 
 Chace, Sir Patrick Spens, Child Waters, Kinmont 
 Willie, or, in short, any other standard ballad you 
 like to name. The only historical evidence adduced 
 for this sweeping conclusion is (1) that in a few 
 instances there are four in all, viz. Robene hude, 
 Thorn of lyn, Leuis grene (The Murning Maiden), 
 and Ihonne ermistrangis dance the names of the 
 dances in The Complaynt of Scotland are identical 
 with the names of certain surviving ballads, and (2) 
 that the song after the victory of Bannockburn was 
 'sungyn in dances, in carolles of ye maidens and 
 mynstrellys of Scotland.' But (1) in the same Com- 
 playnt of Scotland the names of many more ballads 
 occur as merely tales and songs ; (2) there is no 
 evidence that these dances even if they were ballad 
 dances, dances accompanied by song were improvised 
 by the dancers ; (3) even the dance song of Bannock- 
 burn may have been, and probably was, the work 
 of professional dancers and minstrels (for whom 
 Mr. Lang can find no use), and the work of the 
 chief minstrel, but in any case it is very rude and 

 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 349 
 
 simple ; and (4) it is beyond belief that any of those 
 four ballads whose names occur in The Complaynt as 
 dances could have been essentially created either by 
 such artistes as those who celebrated Bannockburn, 
 or even by the most primitive of village communities. 
 Further, whatever connection the ballad may, in 
 primitive times, have had with the dance, something 
 called ' balat-making ' was, as we learn from Dunbar's 
 Lament to name merely this solitary evidence 
 accomplished before Dunbar's day by individual 
 'makaris.' Thus the theory of absolute communal 
 authorship whatever it may have to commend it as 
 an explanation of the origin of poetry is, as regards 
 the ballad poetry we actually possess, founded rather 
 on general a priori considerations than on minute 
 inquiry into facts ; and the more one seeks to have 
 recourse to it for an explanation of individual ex- 
 amples of the literature for which it professes to 
 account, the more unmistakably does it approve itself 
 a mere ' broken reed.' 
 
 We come, then, to the minstrel theory of Mother- 
 well and others, derived from the notion that some 
 of the ballads transmitted to us are of Are there any 
 immemorial antiquity, and that we still ^m^o/iai 
 have historical ballads closely related to antiquity? 
 very remote historical events. The theory of the 
 very great age of certain historical ballads has been 
 accepted unquestioningly by certain editors owing to 
 the notion that other non-historical ballads are of 
 immemorial antiquity; while the supposition that
 
 350 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 we possess certain ballads relating to very remote 
 historical events tends, of course, to foster the belief 
 in the immemorial antiquity of the other classes of 
 ballads. 
 
 The few simple and rude rhymes relating to the 
 
 death of Alexander in. (1285), the siege of Berwick 
 
 (1296), the battle of Bannockburn (1314), 
 
 baiiads. sir and the character of the English (1328), 
 
 are ^ e earliest extant specimens of 
 in its great Scottish popular historic poetry, the 
 
 antiquity. <f ' 
 
 views of sir authenticity of which may be said to be 
 
 Walter Scott. , -,. 
 
 fairly well established ; but an antiquity 
 as remote as the earliest of these has been claimed 
 for what Coleridge has termed the ' grand old ballad 
 of Sir Patrick Spens.' In publishing it for the first 
 time, Bishop Percy remarked that he had not been 
 able to ascertain when the ' fatal expedition happened 
 which proved so destructive ' ; but Sir Walter Scott, 
 while observing that 'the introduction of the king 
 into the ballad seems a deviation from history/ 
 affirmed that the cause of Sir Patrick Spens's voyage, 
 which ' is pointed out distinctly,' shows that ' the song 
 has claims to high antiquity, as referring to a very 
 remote period in Scottish history,' and broached the 
 theory that it referred to an unrecorded and dis- 
 astrous expedition of Sir Patrick Spens to bring 
 Margaret, the Maid of Norway, to Scotland after the 
 death of her grandfather Alexander in. 
 
 It so happened, however, that as Fordun records 
 the ambassadors who in 1281 conveyed Margaret,
 
 TEADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 351 
 
 the daughter of Alexander, to be married to Eric of 
 Norway were wrecked on their return, and although 
 none of the names of the ambassadors Theory of 
 resembled in the remotest degree that J^ 11 ' 
 of Sir Patrick Spens, Motherwell, after corroborate, 
 fortifying himself by calculating that the 12th 
 of August, 1 on which, according to Wyntoun, the 
 ambassadors set sail for Norway, fell in 1281 on, 
 as stated in the ballad, a Monday, proposed, in 
 contradiction to this same ballad (which was so 
 accurate in regard to the day of the week, but so 
 inaccurate as to the ' time of the year '), to make the 
 ballad refer to this later event the sending away, 
 not the bringing home, of a king's daughter. Hardly 
 had he promulgated his theory when, of course, Peter 
 Buchan, with the aid of his ' wight of Homer's craft,' 
 discovered the following doggerel stanza which editor 
 after editor has been accustomed gravely to appeal 
 to in corroboration of the Motherwell conclusion : 
 
 ' But I man sail the seas the morn, must 
 
 And likewise sae man you, so 
 
 To Norroway wi' our King's daughter, 
 A chosen Queen she 's now.' 
 
 And since the Buchan corroboration, the Mother- 
 well theory has practically held the field. Robert 
 Chambers ventured to include Sir Patrick Spens in 
 the list of ballads which he attributed to the fabrica- 
 tion of Lady Wardlaw, but outwardly did not per- 
 
 i It was really in summer, not in winter, be it observed, that, 
 according to Wyntoun, the ship set sail for Norway.
 
 352 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 severe in maintaining his theory against the adverse 
 criticism to which it was subjected; and the final 
 stage in the corroboration of the Motherwell-Buchan 
 theory was the discovery by Maidment in Papa, 
 Orkney, of a tumulus reputed by the natives in- 
 structed it may be by Buchan, or some Buchan 
 enthusiast to be the grave of Sir Patrick Spens. 
 True, the ballad states that Sir Patrick and his 
 followers lie ' fifty fathom deep ' in the ocean, but, as 
 has been pointed out, Papa is about ' half way ' be- 
 tween Norway and Aberdour not, be it observed, the 
 merely Fife Aberdour on the Firth of Forth, but the 
 vastly more probable Aberdour on the Aberdeenshire 
 coast ! 
 
 Down, therefore, to the publication of Professor 
 
 Child's second volume (1886), the Motherwell theory 
 
 was that generally accepted : and it is 
 
 Mr. Lang and 
 
 Professor so still, 1 though it was not accepted by 
 Professor Child. Mr. Lang, who in the 
 Blackwood paper refers to the ballad as perhaps 
 the 'most antique ballad of all,' states that the 
 'historical event which may have suggested it 
 is "plausibly" fixed, says Mr. Child, in 1281'; but 
 though Professor Child did politely refer to the 
 ' plausibility ' of the Motherwell theory, and, with his 
 usual anxiety to tell all that was to be known, even 
 informed his readers that Mr. MacMath of Edinburgh 
 
 1 Thus Professor Walker, in Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, 
 1893, vol. i. p. 167, writes : ' It seems as fully established as it 
 could well be on any but ancient documentary evidence, that Sir 
 Patrick Spens carries us back to the year 1281.'
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 353 
 
 had found the name Spens in 'five charters of 
 David ii. between 1329 and 1370,' his own exact 
 position was that ' this ballad may be historical or it 
 may not,' and he even speculated that Sir Patrick 
 might be 'only a shipmaster of purely local fame 
 who was lost off Aberdeen a couple of hundred 
 years ago.' This, it may be said, is a very im- 
 probable hypothesis, but so much the more does 
 it indicate the puzzlement of Professor Child as 
 to the origin of the ballad, and how slight was his 
 faith in the theory of its unique antiquity. Nor 
 is such lack of faith surprising. For, apart from 
 insuperable difficulties of metre and even language, 
 there is the important obstacle not only that no 
 name resembling that of Sir Patrick Spens is 
 known to have been associated with the early em- 
 bassies to Norway, but that neither the disastrous 
 occurrence to which the ballad professes to refer, 
 nor the remarkable ballad itself, is mentioned by 
 any of the old writers, and that the earliest known 
 publication of the ballad was that in Percy's Reliques, 
 1765. 
 
 But for the fact, however, of a preconceived notion 
 of the ballad's great antiquity, a solution of the pro- 
 blem would probably have been looked < S i r Patrick 
 for in connection with the voyage of |f r e *t r **,f i 
 
 James vi. in 1589 to bring home his Vans - 
 bride from Denmark. The bride, expected in Scot- 
 land in September, had not arrived on the day fixed 
 for the marriage, and all sorts of rumour of disaster I 
 
 z
 
 354 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 were in circulation, until a message arrived that 
 having twice been driven back by contrary winds, she 
 had taken refuge on the coasts of Norway, and that 
 the Scots and Danes were in disagreement as to 
 whether she should be brought over at once, or the 
 voyage be deferred till the spring. Then it Avas that 
 the king resolved, as narrated in the ballad, to send 
 out a ship to fetch her ' at this time of the year,' ' be 
 it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet ' ; and among 
 the ' new commissioners directed to the Queen ' was, 
 not indeed Sir Patrick Spens, but Sir Patrick Vans 
 of Barnbarroch, a name which might easily, in the 
 popular mind, get changed into the more Scottish 
 name Spens. Further, the same Sir Patrick Vans 
 was also the original ambassador chosen to negotiate 
 the marriage in 1587; and when the king, after 
 appointing the ' new commission ' in October 1589, 
 finally resolved secretly to embark himself, Sir 
 Patrick Vans was chosen to accompany him, and 
 remained in Denmark until the marriage, when he 
 returned in December to Scotland to report the 
 king's safe arrival and the conclusion of the cere- 
 mony. The resolve of the king to fetch the queen 
 ' at this time of the year ' greatly perturbed the nation, 
 the more especially that the weather continued very 
 tempestuous. A great storm delayed the ships from 
 sailing, and when they at last ventured on their 
 voyage, and got beyond the Forth and out of sight of 
 land, they were driven back twenty or thirty miles 
 by a renewal of the blast, and rode for a time opposite
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 355 
 
 St. Monans. 1 May not the ballad, therefore, have 
 been suggested by a rumour of disaster to this ad- 
 venturous expedition? And is it not as likely, at 
 least, that Sir Patrick Vans was its hero, as a quite 
 unknown Sir Patrick Spens of the thirteenth 
 century, or an equally unknown skipper of some 
 two hundred years ago? That is, supposing the 
 ballad is not a mere forgery, which is less likely 
 than the supposition that, as we now have it, it 
 is an improvement by some one Lady Wardlaw or 
 another of a minstrel ballad of the late sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Next to Sir Patrick Spens, the historical ballad 
 which claims the greatest antiquity is a long recita- 
 tion, Auld Maitland, first published by -AuidMait- 
 Scott in 1802, who got it from Hogg as land/ 
 recited by his mother, and the date of which 
 Scott placed 'about the reign of David n. or his 
 successor.' But though Sir Richard and his ' auld 
 
 1 ' His Majestic with the rest sould maid saille vpone Sonday at 
 efternoune, the xix day of October instant, at quhilk tyme theare 
 come on sick a deadlie storme, that the schipis lyand all in Leith 
 read were schakin loose, and driven all vp to St. Margarets houpe, 
 and sua the jorney stayed for that nicht. Vpone the xxij day of 
 October, about tuelff houris at evin, his Majestic maid saile to 
 Norroway with fyve schippis in company : his Majestie wes driven 
 back xx or xxx myles with great storme, and read foranent St. 
 Monanis' (Moysie's Memoirs, p. 80). Two women burned for 
 sorcery at Edinburgh in 1590-91 asserted that Bothwell had bribed 
 them to make storms during the king's voyage. See also, in con- 
 nection with the Bass, a reference in R. L. Stevenson's Catriona. 
 It is worth noting that the earliest version of the ballad represent* 
 the disaster as occurring on the outward voyage.
 
 356 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 grey beard' are referred to in Gavin Douglas's 
 Police of Honour, and we also learn from a poem 
 in the Maitland MS. that his exploits had been 
 the subject of song and story, it is impossible 
 to resist the conclusion of Ayton and Maidment 
 that the ballad is a modern composition; and 
 it has not been included hi Professor Child's 
 volumes. 1 
 
 If, then, we reject Sir Patrick Spens and Auld 
 Maitland as thirteenth or fourteenth century pro- 
 The Lord of ductions, the most ancient Scottish inci- 
 Ljddesdaie. 1 (J en t known to have been commemorated 
 in a ballad, of which any fragment remains, is 
 the murder of the Lord of Liddesdale by the Earl 
 of Douglas in the forest of Ettrick, in 1353, as 
 narrated by Hume of Godscroft (1560-1630), who 
 gives the beginning of the old song : 
 
 ' The Countesse of Douglass, out of her bower she came 
 
 And loudly there that she did call, 
 " It is for the Lord of Liddesdale 
 That I let all these tears doune fall." ' 
 
 But the ballad itself has not been preserved. 
 
 The murder of the Lord of Liddesdale took place 
 thirty-five years before the battle of Otterburn, 
 celebrated in the ballad of which the earliest Scottish 
 
 1 On the line, c And fired the Merse and Teviotdale,' the late 
 Professor Veitch commented : ' That vforA. fired, not burned, speaks 
 of the glow of the flame as present to the very eye of the 
 minstrel' (Poetry of the Scottish Border, 1893, vol. ii. p. 130). But 
 this use of ' fire ' is not peculiar to the minstrel, nor uniquely 
 Scottish, nor in any sense exceptional, but quite common and 
 modern, and it may even have been an emendation of Scott.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 357 
 
 version is that preserved by Herd (1776). It con- 
 tains the line, 'The Percy and Montgomerie met/ 
 quoted in The Complaynt of Scotland chev y chace, 
 as the name of a song, but it is impossible *" otteV 3 *"'" 
 to tell whether or not the stanza has be.' 
 been interpolated at a later date, especially as it is 
 but a repetition with the substitution of Montgomerie 
 for Douglas of a stanza common to both the Scots 
 and English versions of the ballad. The oldest 
 extant version is the English one (c. 1550) in the 
 Cottonian MSS., but this, of course, is no proof that the 
 Scottish version was borrowed from the English one ; 
 and something may even be said for Professor 
 Veitch's theory, that both versions, as well as the 
 ballad of Chevy Chace, which so much moved the 
 heart of Sir Philip Sidney when he heard it sung by 
 'some blind crowder/ and which is also mentioned 
 in The Complaynt, may derive from some ' original 
 ballad of Otterbourne which we have lost.' 
 
 After Otterburn, the next earliest event com- 
 memorated in a ballad, which has been claimed as 
 ancient, is that of Harlaw, 1411. The The 'Battle of 
 battel of harylaw is the title of one of Harlaw/ 
 the songs in The Complaynt ; and a copy of a ballad 
 of that name, dated 1688, was at one time in the 
 library of Kobert Milne. No doubt it was from some 
 such broadside that Allan Ramsay got the Evergreen 
 version of the ballad; and though we can scarce 
 believe that he refrained from altering it, it may be 
 substantially the song referred to in The Complaynt.
 
 358 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Since, however, it is written in the French octave, it 
 was most likely composed long after the battle, for 
 there is no evidence that the Chaucerian influence 
 reached Scotland until the reign of James i. 
 
 None of the surviving examples of the historical 
 ballad thus date earlier than about the beginning of 
 Thomas of ^e fifteenth century, and in view of the 
 Erceidoune. f ac t fa^ near iy all even of the rudest 
 examples of minstrelsy referring to earlier events 
 have perished, is it possible to accept the theory that, 
 in the case of the other ballads, we actually possess 
 examples of the older minstrelsy anterior to the 
 romance of chivalry ? As matter of fact, the oldest 
 authenticated specimen of the romantic ballad we 
 possess is that forming part of the romance detailing 
 the confabulations of Thomas of Erceidoune with 
 the Elf Queen, but, as has been already stated (ante, 
 p. 23), that romance itself is founded on the older 
 one of Ogier le Danois. Thus a conclusion of Pro- 
 fessor Walker, 1 that ' the earliest assignable date 
 for the ballads of superstition does lead us into a 
 remoter past than the historical ballads,' wholly loses 
 the significance he attaches to it. 2 
 
 1 Three Centuries of Scottish Literature, vol. i. p. 171. 
 
 * A traditional copy of this ballad was obtained by Jamieson 
 from Mrs. Brown of Falkland. Its close resemblance to the old 
 MS. copy has been cited as a proof of the remarkable fidelity with 
 which old ballads may be preserved by tradition from even the 
 time of the Rhymer. But is it not, as Dr. J. A. H. Murray 
 opined, rather an indication that the traditional copy has a com- 
 paratively recent connection with the MS. ? Similarly can we now 
 believe, with Sir Walter Scott, that any special virtue attaches to 
 a copy ' obtained from a lady residing not far from Erceidoune ' ?
 
 TKADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 359 
 
 Antecedent probability, therefore, favours some 
 form of the theory of Professor Courthope: that 
 the traditional ballad is the work of Profe880r 
 later minstrels than the ancient bard, c urtho P e ' 8 
 
 ' theory 
 
 and that those ballads which do not favoured by 
 
 f -I -i antecedent 
 
 iorm a later variety of the chanson de probability. 
 geste are adapted from older forms of shcmidTtbe 
 literature the romance, the lay, or the modified? 
 fabliau. Moreover, the theory as even a cursory 
 examination of Professor Child's volume might at 
 least suggest, and a detailed study cannot but con- 
 firm is very strongly countenanced by apparent 
 facts; and any modification of it can be justified, 
 it would seem, only (1) by the discovery of a few 
 apparent exceptions in the case of individual ballads ; 
 or (2) by proof that later minstrels were not, as Pro- 
 fessor Courthope predicates, ' degenerate ' ; l or (3) by 
 the consideration that some of the Scots traditional 
 ballads were originally the work of poets other than 
 minstrels. 
 
 Professor Courthope's general theory that the 
 ballads were the work of later minstrels does not, 
 of course, depend on the justness of his verdict that 
 the later minstrels were universally an inferior class 
 of poets to the ancient bards ; 2 but is not the question 
 
 1 This question is closely associated with that of how far 
 individual ballads are either corrupted or cooked. 
 
 a Mr. Lang had no difficulty (Elackwood, vol. clviii. pp. 381-90) 
 in exposing the mistaken character of Professor Courthope's theory 
 of degeneracy as applied to the ballad of Mary Hamilton, but that 
 exposure left the question as to whether ballads are the work of 
 minstrels exactly where it was.
 
 360 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 as to their inferiority a more comprehensive and com- 
 plex one especially as regards the Scottish ballads 
 complexity tnan ne seems to realise ? He compares 
 uestion Otterboume and The Hunting of the 
 
 Deteriorating Cheviot with the Anglo-Saxon Death of 
 
 influence of ' " . 
 
 tradition. Byrhtnoth, much to their disadvantage as 
 and C< otter. ace regards especially circumstantiality and 
 bourne.- truthfulness; but the fact that The Hunt- 
 
 ing of the Cheviot was in great part fiction had 
 been noticed by Hume of Godscroft, who makes 
 mention of a Scots song made of Otterbourne, which 
 ' telleth the time, about Lammas ; and also the 
 occasion to take frays out of England; also the 
 dividing armies betwixt the Earls of Fife and 
 Douglas, and their several journeys almost as in 
 authentic history.' 1 But even this ballad, as known 
 to Hume, probably differed greatly from the original 
 one. We must make allowance for the deterioration 
 effected by possibly some centuries of mangling 
 by reciters ; for tradition, contact with the natural 
 man, contagion from the 'heart of the people' 
 which heart, however sincere and strong in its 
 emotions, is now, and probably ever was, wholly un- 
 trained in the art of poetic expression does not 
 tend as some, not including Professor Courthope, 
 assume, towards the elaboration of the consummate 
 qualities of the ballad, but rather, as hundreds of 
 instances could be adduced to prove, towards their 
 
 1 House of Douglas, vol. i. p. 195.
 
 TEADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 361 
 
 obscuration, defilement, and final effacement. 1 Many 
 of the traditional ballads are strangely unequal, and 
 at a later period they tended to become a kind of 
 patchwork in which stanzas of startling poetic beauty 
 are occasionally to be found side by side with mere 
 tawdry vulgarity or hopeless bathos; but we may 
 surely believe that the qualities of Chevy Chace, which 
 stirred the heart of Sir Philip Sidney as with 'the 
 sound of a trumpet,' were echoes from the heart of a 
 true minstrel, who, like the author of the Death of 
 Byrhtnoth, must have felt the reality of the conflict 
 of which he sang. Much of the original beauty and 
 accuracy of the alliteration and rhythm of Chevy 
 Chace has plainly been lost, and it may therefore be 
 inferred that both in it and in the English and 
 
 1 Assonance, for example, is frequently assumed to be a distinc- 
 tive and original characteristic of the ballad. Mr. Lang lays much 
 stress on ' the use of assonance in place of rhyme,' as an indication 
 of the ballad's absolute folkness ; and the Quarterly Reviewer, though 
 he states that ' rhyme is the basis of the whole musical scheme of 
 the ballad,' affirms that ' alliteration and assonance have their place 
 in it. ' But though assonance that is, mere vowel rhyme had its 
 place in the poetry of the Romance and other dialects, where it 
 was governed by strict laws, it is not a general characteristic of 
 old poetry. It has no proper place in English verse, and its furtive 
 and haphazard presence in the ballad is evidence only of a dulled 
 and defective ear, or an imperfect command of the resources of 
 common rhyme. Again, while ballads deteriorate by tradition, 
 they also deteriorate still more vilely by being passed through the 
 crucible of the hack, balladist, whence they are issued as broadsides, 
 or in chap-books ; but by all in town or country, nearest to ' the 
 natural state of man,' these mere abortions of the old ballad were 
 and are received with acclamation. So much for the ' natural 
 man ' as the vein in which is to be found the pure deposit of the 
 primaeval ballad !
 
 362 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Scottish versions of Otterbourne alteration and inter- 
 polation have wrought sad havoc on the unity and 
 force of the original recital. 1 
 
 1 Could we accept Scott's version of Otterbourne in The Minstrelsy 
 as bearing throughout anything like a close resemblance to the 
 original ballad, it would be impossible to regard it as the work of 
 a minstrel in any sense degenerate ; but the original material at 
 Abbotsford shows that the ballad owes much of its special excellence 
 to Scott himself. Indeed, the most vivid and touching stanzas in 
 the whole ballad those describing the death of Douglas stanzas 
 ' which,' in the opinion of Professor Veitch, ' for power and simple 
 pathos are unsurpassed in ballad literature,' are little more than 
 Scott's improvement of what was very much the mere concoction 
 of Hogg. Here are the four, it is to be feared, guilty stanzas : 
 
 ' "My nephew good," the Douglas said, 
 matters " What recks the death of ane ? 
 
 Last night I dream'd a dreary dream, 
 know And I ken the day 's thy ain. 
 
 My wound is deep ; I fain would sleep ; 
 Take thou the vanguard of the three, 
 ftrn And hide me by the braken bush, 
 
 That grows on yonder lilye lea. 
 
 bury me by the braken bush, 
 
 Beneath the blooming brier, 
 Let never living mortal ken 
 
 That ere a kindly Scot lies here." 
 
 He lifted up that noble lord, 
 
 Wi' the saut tear in his e'e, 
 He hid him in the braken bush, 
 
 That his merrie men might not see.' 
 
 New here is all that we have in Herd for the above stanzas : 
 * The boy 's taen out his little penknife, 
 
 That hanget low down by his gare, 
 
 gtvt And he gae Earl Douglas a deadly wound, 
 
 Alack ! a deep wound and a sare. 
 
 Earl Douglas said to Sir Hugh Montgomery, 
 "Tak* thou the vanguard o' the three, 
 
 And bury me at yon braken bush 
 That stands upon yon lilly lee."'
 
 TEADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 363 
 
 Again, Professor Courthope observes, justly enough 
 as regards England, that towards the close of the 
 
 The stanzas in the Sharpe MS. , though they agree with the Herd 
 MS. in attributing the death of Douglas to the boy, more nearly 
 resemble the stanzas in The Minstrelsy, but it is merely as moon- 
 light resembles sunlight : 
 
 "'Sir Hugh Montgomery, my sister's son, 
 
 I give you the vanguard over all ; 
 Let it ne'er be said unto Old England, 
 That so little made a true Scot fall. 
 
 lay me dowen by yon brecken bush 
 
 That grows upon yon lilly lea ; 
 Let it ne'er be said unto Old England 
 
 That so little made a true Scot die." ' 
 
 Now here is what Hogg sent to Scott : 
 
 ' "My wound is deep, I fain would sleep, 
 
 Nae mair I '11 fighting see. 
 
 Gae lay me in the bracken bush Oo 
 
 That grows on yonder lee. 
 
 But tell na ane of my brave men not on* 
 
 That I lye bleeding wan, 
 But let the name of Douglas still 
 
 Be shouted in the van. 
 
 And bury me here on this lee, 
 
 Beneath the blooming brier, 
 And never let a mortal ken know 
 
 A kindly Scot lyes here." 
 
 He liftet up that noble lord, 
 
 Wi" the saut tear in his e'e, 
 And hid him in the bracken bush 
 
 On yonder lily lee.' 
 
 But where did Hogg get this version, which is, besides, much in- 
 ferior to the Scott? The whole of the ballad, he told Scott, he 
 got from ' a crazy old man, and a woman deranged in her mind ' ; 
 but he candidly admitted that for this, the ' most interesting ' 
 portion of it, they had both failed him, and he had been obliged 
 to ' take much of it in plain prose.' This ' plain prose ' Hogg put 
 into verse, and Scott improving on it, created the ' unsurpassed ' 
 stanzas 1
 
 364 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fourteenth century the attention of the better classes 
 was 'occupied either with prose romances, or with 
 DO*. Professor allegorical and other purely literary 
 courthope's forms of poetry, while the lower classes, 
 
 statement of * 
 
 the causes who chiefly cared for minstrelsy, had 
 apply to long been accustomed to the forms ot 
 
 Scotland? settled government'; but this by no 
 means holds true of Border England or of Scotland 
 generally, as regards either (1) its absorption in 
 other forms of literature, or (2) its accustomedness 
 to settled forms of government. 
 
 As for Scotland's absorption in prose romances or 
 in allegory, there was, so far as is known, no such 
 Scotland not absorption. The Chaucerian influence 
 absorbed in probably did not reach Scotland until 
 
 prose romances * 
 
 or allegory. the return of James I. ; and before this 
 
 The traditional , ., . . 
 
 Scottish there was, as the whole after-develop- 
 
 ment of Scots poetry bears witness, a 
 vigorous poetic school of native growth. 1 Henryson's 
 Robene and Makyne owes nothing to Chaucer, and 
 Henryson's use of the common ballad measure in 
 other pieces is clear evidence of the cultivation of 
 the ballad, not merely by inferior minstrels, but by 
 a class of poets worthy to be designated ' makaris.' 
 Similarly, Christis Kirk or Peblis did not inaugurate 
 a vernacular poetry called into sudden existence by 
 
 1 No doubt there was a decay in minstrelsy before the time of 
 Blind Harry. He himself refers to a time 
 
 reigned ' Quhcn gud makaris rang weill in to Scotland,' 
 
 but that was subsequent to Wallace.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 365 
 
 the poetic sceptre of a merely Chaucerian James i., 
 but bear upon even their structure and metre the 
 impress of connection with a poetry having an un- 
 broken national tradition. In The Muming Maiden 
 (see ante, p. 292) we have also an example of the 
 primitive pagan simplicity of sentiment characteristic 
 of the old ballads, expressed with a poetic art which 
 is far, indeed, from being ' degenerate ' ; and it is 
 further scarcely necessary to mention that the use, 
 even by the later Scottish ' makaris,' of the rhymed 
 alliterative measures, and the general predominance 
 of the bobwheel in Scottish verse, are a clear proof 
 of the survival of the old traditional influences down 
 to the very last. 
 
 It is not improbable, therefore, that a good deal of 
 the best traditional poetry in the special ballad form, 
 which now survives, was originally the some of the 
 work of ' makaris ' other than the wan- ^^"Lwy 
 derinsf minstrels who may have appro- by other 
 
 'makaris' than 
 
 priated it to their own use. Moreover, wandering 
 many numbers included in Professor othe 
 Child's and other collections, as The i 
 Gaberlunzie Man, Hame cam our Gude form - 
 Man, Lizie Baillie, etc., are not in the ballad form, 
 and have little or no connection with minstrels or 
 old romance. Nor can we believe that such remark- 
 able sets of verses as The Twa Corbies, or Waly, 
 Waly, 1 derive either from degenerate minstrels or 
 
 1 There can scarce be any doubt that O Waly, Waly is related 
 to Willow, Willow, Willow, the song which is introduced into
 
 366 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the ' natural man,' though the former and its English 
 analogue, The Two Ravens, may be founded on an 
 incident in some forgotten romance. 
 
 Then, as to accustomedness to settled forms of 
 government, was not Scotland in a state of chronic 
 The Border anarchy until even after the manhood 
 
 th a ey1e S ;u, A ne e f Jam6S VL ? And > mOr Specially, did 
 
 transcripts? there not exist in southern Scotland, 
 until the first half of the sixteenth century, a con- 
 dition of society which fostered a variety of the 
 chanson de geste quite as circumstantial and faith- 
 ful to fact as the Anglo-Saxon Death of Byrhtnoth ? 
 The very spirit of the reiver breathes in the rudest 
 version of these old ballads, and how much more 
 might be said in their praise could we be certain that 
 such ballads in The Minstrelsy as Kinmont Willie or 
 Jamie Telfer were nearly genuine transcripts of the 
 versions obtained by Scott ! ' Rude and raploch ' in 
 measure though they be, their swiftness and fire, and 
 passion and imaginative truth create for us again the 
 whole moral atmosphere of those feats of wild 
 adventure ; but, alas ! as in Otterbourne (see ante, 
 p. 362), the magic touch, it is to be feared, is mainly 
 that of Scott, or Scott and Hogg. 
 
 Shakespeare's Othello, Act iv. Sc. 3, which is also included in 
 Percy's Reliques, and of which there are black-letter copies in the 
 Pepys and Roxburghe collections. Stenhouse (Notes to Johnson's 
 Museum, p. 147) gives a parody of Waly from a humorous Yule 
 medley in ' Mr. Blackwood's MSS. , which were transcribed by 
 Thomas Wode in 1566 ' ; but David Laing states that the medley 
 was inserted in the volume by a later possessor, 'evidently not 
 earlier than 1620,'
 
 TEADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 367 
 
 Here, for example, is the wonderful 'Jamie Teifer.' 
 picture of the fight in Jamie Teifer : sion. 
 
 4 " Set on them, lads ! " quo Willie than ; then 
 
 " Fye, lads, set on them cruellie ! 
 For ere they win to the Ritterford 
 Mony a toom saddle there sail be." mpty 
 
 Then til't they gaed, wi' heart and hand, to it they 
 
 The blows fell thick as bickering hail ; 
 And mony a horse ran masterless, 
 
 And mony a comely cheek was pale. 
 
 But Willie was stricken ower the head, 
 And thro' the knapscap the sword has gan<J ; 
 
 And Harden grat for very rage, 
 Whan Willie on the grund lay slain. 
 
 But he 's ta'en aff his gude steel cap 
 
 And thrice he 's waved it in the air. 
 The Dinlay snaw was ne'er mair white 
 
 Nor the lyart locks of Harden's hair. (M>J 
 
 "Revenge ! revenge ! " auld Wat gan cry; 
 
 " Fye, lads, lay on them cruellie ! 
 We '11 ne'er see Teviotside again, 
 
 Or Willie's death revenged sail be." ' 
 
 Scott, who is the only authority for this version, 
 mentions that there is another ballad under the 
 same title, ' in which nearly the same The sharpe 
 incidents are narrated with little differ- version - 
 ence, except that the honour of rescuing the cattle 
 is attributed to the Liddesdale Elliots, headed by a 
 chief, there called Martin Elliot of the Preakin 
 Tower, whose son, Simon, is said to have fallen in
 
 368 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the action.' But here is how the fight reads in the 
 latter version : l 
 
 Fu ' " Fa' on them, lads ! " can Simmy say, 
 
 " Fy, fa' on them cruelly 1 
 For or they win to the Ritterford 
 empty Mony toom saddle there shall be." 
 
 But Simmy was stricken o'er the head, 
 And thro' the napskape it is gane. 
 
 And Moscrop made a dolefull rage 
 When Simmy on the ground lay slain. 
 
 " Fy, lay on them ! " co Martin Elliot 
 
 " Fy, lay on them cruelly ! 
 For ere they win to the Kerthop ford 
 
 Mony toom saddle there shall be." ' 
 
 And yet Scott never gives the slightest hint that 
 this version is in any way inferior to that in The 
 Minstrelsy \ 
 
 But those examples from The Minstrelsy, since they 
 indicate that many old Border ballads have been 
 HOW far are partly transformed, necessarily give addi- 
 cooked? b ^Edom tional P oint to the doubts that were cast 
 o- Gordon. by Chambers on the genuine antiquity 
 of many ballads which he attributed to Lady 
 Wardlaw. That Lady Wardlaw, as Chambers sur- 
 mised, was the sole fabricator of those ballads, is 
 hardly possible; but she or another may have im- 
 proved the old versions, just as Scott improved the 
 Border ballads. And if she did even this, she must 
 
 1 Recovered from the Sharpe papers by Mr. Mac Math, Edin- 
 burgh, and printed for the first time in Child's Ballads, 1898, 
 vol. v. pp. 249-251,
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 369 
 
 have possessed poetic gifts of rare delicacy. The 
 version of Edom o' Gordon, for instance, published in 
 1755 from a copy furnished by Lord Hailes, is no 
 whit inferior (to say the least) to either Kinmont 
 Willie or Jamie Telfer. The scene of the maiden's 
 death, whoever man or woman conceived or 
 realised it, is a primitive and pagan masterpiece. 
 She is beheld as these savage clansmen beheld her : 
 the pitiless simplicity and truthfulness and reserve 
 of the balladist are, after their own fashion, match- 
 less : 
 
 ' They row'd her in a pair of sheets wrapped 
 
 And tow'd her owre the wa', wall 
 
 But on the point of Edom's spear 
 She gat a deadly fa'. 
 
 0, bonnie, bonnie was her mouth, 
 
 And cherry were her cheeks ! 
 And clear, clear was her yellow hair, 
 
 Whereon the red bluid dreeps ! 
 
 Then wi' his spear he turned her ower. 
 
 0, gin her face was wan ! 
 He said, " You are the first that e'er 
 
 I wished alive again." 
 
 He turned her ower and ower again, 
 
 0, gin her skin was white ! 
 He said, " I might hae spared thy life 
 
 To hae been some man's delight. 
 
 Busk and boun, my merrymen all 1 
 
 For ill dooms I do guess : bad luck 
 
 I canna look on that bonnie face 
 
 As it lies on the grass." ' 
 2A
 
 370 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 This, certainly, was not altogether the work of a 
 ' degenerate minstrel.' And as we now have them, 
 The old an d however acquired, many of those 
 
 Jwetattons of ballads possess a fascination which is not 
 the past. O k e found in more elaborate verse. 
 Though solemnly serious and devoid of wit and 
 humour, they are utterly true, so far as they go, to 
 human nature, and quite stripped of false sentiment 
 and affectation. In many ways which there is no 
 space here further to illustrate they bring us into 
 immediate contact with the antique, pagan, savage, 
 superstitious, elemental characteristics of our race. 
 They have to some extent embalmed for us the 
 essence of old forgotten romances, and the essence 
 of what the old romances embalmed the sentiments, 
 passions, beliefs, forms of thought, and imaginative 
 wonder and dread of our pagan ancestors. Now little 
 more than a merely imperfect echo of perished liter- 
 atures, of extinct superstitions, of generations whose 
 codes of honour and conduct were perhaps both 
 better and worse than our own, or of feats and 
 adventures which were, many of them, of merely 
 tribal or local interest; mangled also in form, and 
 distorted as to fact though they often are the voice 
 of the past speaks in them more authentically than 
 it often does in the most elaborate of histories. 
 
 The late Mr. Chappell, in his Popular Music of the 
 Olden Time, has successfully enough demonstrated 
 the close connection between English and Scottish 
 popular music from the fifteenth century, but the
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 371 
 
 inference that the connection was mainly of a one- 
 sided character is not such an absolute certainty 
 as he very much takes for granted; for 
 it rests mainly on negative evidence, on co'nnec'uon of 
 the scarcity, namely, of early music pre- f<ftiandas d 
 served in old Scottish MSS. and attached re e ards m sic 
 
 and song. 
 
 to Scottish words; and this negative 
 evidence is vitiated by the fact that such MSS. must 
 at one time have existed. There is abundant proof 
 of the cultivation of music, both secular and sacred, 
 in Scotland down until towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century. Moreover, a large number of the 
 tunes mentioned in Colkelbie's Sow, in The Complaynt 
 of Scotland, and in various poems of the old Scottish 
 'makaris,' as well as of the songs parodied in The 
 Gude and Godlie Ballates, are not, as matter of fact, 
 known to be of English origin ; and there is in reality 
 no proof that in early times the influence of the two 
 countries, as regards music and song, was not entirely 
 reciprocal. 
 
 The Huntis Up, for example, is mentioned in The 
 Complaynt of Scotland; and on this fact Dr. Furnivall 1 
 comments: 'This is a lively English tune , 
 
 J ' The Huntis 
 
 well fitted for dancers, printed in Mr. U P .' is it scots 
 
 or English ? 
 
 Chappell's Popular Mus^c, i. 60, and he 
 further states that the first mention of the time is in 
 1537. Chappell also, on the authority of Puttenham 
 (1587) who mentioned that one Gray made such a 
 
 1 Notes to the Complaynt of Scotland (Early English Text Society's 
 ed.), p. Ixxxvii, and in Captain Cox (Ballad Society), p. clxiii.
 
 372 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ballad in the time of Henry vin. supposes that Gray 
 is the original author of the song parodied by John 
 Thorne, and in The Gude and Oodlie Satiates ; but 
 the mere statement of Puttenham is in itself very 
 flimsy evidence, especially when the much earlier 
 existence of the song in Scotland is clearly proved by 
 a line in Robert Henryson's fable of The Wolf, the 
 Foxe, and the Cadzear : 
 
 ' The Cadzear sang Hunts up, up on hie.' 
 
 These Fables were probably all written before 1480, 
 by which date, therefore, The Huntis Up was already 
 in Scotland what would now be called a folk-song ! 
 Since, moreover, it was known as a dance tune among 
 the country people of Scotland before 1549, and is 
 parodied in The Gude and Godlie Ballates, which 
 were, many of them, of as early a date as this, is it 
 not as likely to have been of Scottish as of English 
 origin, and all the more that, as we learn from 
 Habbie Simson, Hunts Up was a favourite tune of 
 the Scottish pipers? The truth is, that of the 
 popular songs and music of the earlier centuries our 
 knowledge is so fragmentary that definite and decided 
 conclusions as to origin are very apt to be delusive. 
 
 Dealing with a later period, Chappell also (very 
 justly) regretted the confusion between English and 
 Scottish popular tunes and songs, caused by the 
 methods of Ramsay in The Tea Table Miscellany, 
 1724, etc., of Thomson in Orpheus Caledonius, 1725, 
 and Oswald hi Scots Airs, 1740, and other musical
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 373 
 
 publications a confusion which was further aggra- 
 vated by the comments and assertions of many 
 subsequent editors, including especially 
 Stenhouse, 1 whose many sins of omission scotuslf' " 
 and commission were only partly rectified origfn ' " 8 
 by David Laing ; 2 but did English broad- chappeirs 
 side and chapbook literature owe practi- 
 cally nothing, as Chappell asserted, to old Scottish 
 tunes and songs ? Chappell scouted the very notion 
 that any Anglo-Scottish ballad or song could derive in 
 any way from a Scots original. He referred to them 
 as ' that numerous class of songs and ballads which 
 before the Union of the Crowns had been called 
 "Northern" a polite substitute for "rustic" and 
 which under Scottish kings were gradually denomi- 
 nated "Scotch."' 'The change,' he further added, 
 'may be said to have commenced after Charles n. 
 had been crowned King of Scots.' 3 Of course it 
 was only by such a theory that he could eliminate 
 Scottish songs and tunes from Anglo-Scottish broad- 
 sides. Still, though dictated by antecedent conviction 
 rather than derived from an exhaustive preliminary 
 study of the facts, the explanation may be partly 
 . true ; but (1) a tune may be termed ' Northern ' from 
 mere carelessness; (2) tunes are generally termed 
 'Northern' when the subject of the ballad is not 
 merely 'rustic,' but 'Northern'; (3) 'Northern 'is the 
 
 1 Notes to Johnson's Musical Museum, 1853. 
 
 * Supplementary Notes. 
 
 9 Roxburghe Ballads, Hi. 433.
 
 374 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 proper designation of tunes common to the North of 
 England and the Lowlands of Scotland ; J (4) there is no 
 evidence of any change in the method of naming the 
 tunes of individual ballads ; and (5) broadsides printed 
 at a much earlier date than the Restoration were 
 written to 'pleasant Scotch tunes,' as The Northern 
 Lasse, of which a copy in the Euing Collection was 
 printed before 1629. 
 
 This very ballad set to a pleasant Scotch tune called 
 
 The Broom of Cowden Knowes, was, with strange 
 
 maladroitness. selected by Chappell 2 
 
 The Broom * 
 
 of cowden to illustrate his theory that so-called 
 
 Knowes.' _ , .__... 
 
 'Scotch tunes are merely English 
 rustic tunes. ' The evidence that the tune is 
 " Scotch " rests/ he said, on this ballad, ' for in other 
 ballads to the same air it is not so described; and 
 Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes " O 
 the broom, the bony, bony broom" as a country 
 tune ' [as no doubt it was, whether Scotch or English]. 
 And Chappell further adds : ' The Broom of Cowden 
 Knowes is in the metre of, and evidently suggested 
 by, the older ballad of New Broom on Hill* A copy 
 of the original Broom on Hill may even yet be 
 discovered, or at least an earlier copy of the tune, 
 
 1 Chappell, in Popular Music (p. 613), objected to the possibility 
 of Brome on Hill being Scots for the reason that it is ' not on the 
 incomplete scale which is commonly called Scotch ' ; but only a 
 small percentage of Scots tunes are on this scale, and indeed tunes 
 common to the North of England and Scotland have no peculiarities 
 to distinguish them from Southern tunes. 
 
 2 Popular Music, p. 613. 
 
 3 Black-letter in the Pepys Collection.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 375 
 
 and thus set the question at rest.' But (1) though 
 Broom, broom on hill, is mentioned by Laneham 1 
 (1575) as an ancient song in the possession of 
 Captain Cox, it is also mentioned in The Complaynt 
 of Scotland (1549) as a well-known Scottish dance ; 
 and it is therefore by no means evident that the dis- 
 covery of an ancient copy of the tune which may 
 have been long common to both countries would 
 set the question at rest; (2) even were the tune 
 originally English, it plainly was well known long 
 before 1549 in Scotland, and most likely had been 
 set to Scots words, which, though not known to 
 Ramsay 2 who allowed a vamp of The Northern 
 Lasse to appear in The Tea Table Miscellany, may 
 have been brought to England shortly after the Union 
 of the Crowns ; (3) the title ' Northern Lasse,' cannot 
 mean merely 'Rustic Lasse,' any more than the phrase 
 ' north countrie ' can mean ' rustic countrie ' ; (4) not 
 only is the ballad set 'to a pleasant Scotch tune 
 called The Broome of Cowden Knowes,' but it intro- 
 duces 'Cowden Knowes,' of the 'North Countrie,' 
 into the chorus : 
 
 'With 0, the broome, the bony broome, 
 
 The broome of Cowden Knowes, 
 Fain would I be in the North Countrie, 
 To milk my dady's ewes ' ; 
 
 1 See Captain Cox, ed. Furnivall (Ballad Society), pp. cxxviii-ix. 
 
 2 There is a traditional ballad The Broom o' the Cowden Knowes, 
 but its origin is involved in dubiety, the earliest printed fragments 
 Bonny May, in Herd's Collection, 1769 making no reference to 
 Cowden Knowes,
 
 37G SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 and (5) the ballad actually begins, 
 
 ' Through Liddersdale as lately I went.' 
 
 Yet Chappell who apparently had never heard of 
 the Homes 'who dwelt on "Leader side,"' nor of 
 ' Leader haughs and Yarrow,' nor of Golden Knowes, 
 the old keep of the Homes on the broom-covered 
 braes (or ' knowes,' that is, knolls) of the Leader 
 had little difficulty in concluding that both Lidders- 
 dale and Cowden Knowes about the meaning of 
 which he showed no curiosity were somehow the 
 invention solely of the balladist, and that the ballad 
 tune, chorus, first line and everything was wholly 
 English ! 
 
 Similarly, it is a mere assumption that the black- 
 letter Jockey s Escape from Bony Dundee, 1 is wholly 
 
 1 The tune Adew Dundee is in the Skene MS., which does not 
 of course prove it to be Scottish, though the Scottish title is all in 
 favour of this conclusion. As to the lateness of the Skene MS. , 
 Chappell failed to prove that the fifth and sixth parts of the Skene 
 MS. are later than D'Urfey. That the tune Adew Dundee did 
 not appear in The Dancing Master until 1688 proves nothing, and 
 that The Three Sheep-Sltins, ' an English Country Dance,' did not 
 appear in the same work until 1697 proves as little, for it might 
 take some time to be known if of Northern origin. But Chappell 
 brought forward, in addition, an objection which he regarded as 
 absolutely fatal : that the Skene MS. contained Peggy is over the 
 Sea with the Soldier, which 'derives its name,' he said, 'from a 
 common Aldermary Churchyard ballad, to which no earlier date than 
 1710 can reasonably be assigned.' Certainly this would have been 
 fatal only it was not true, and this Chappell himself proved, 
 though he failed to note its bearing on the antiquity of the Skene 
 MS. by discovering the unique and much earlier black-letter Con- 
 stant, Faire, and Fine Betty, ' to the tune of Peggy went over Sea 
 with a Soldiour ' (Roxburghe Ballads, i. 207), and a little later he 
 edited the ballad of ' The Soldiour and Peggy to a new Northern
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 377 
 
 the creation of D'Urfey, who never elsewhere did 
 anything like the chorus ' Come fill up my cup,' etc., 
 which Scott borrowed. Nor though the other Angio- 
 only known Scottish version of 'Twas banSf 
 within a mile o' Edinburgh Toon 1 is f und . e ^ on 
 
 Scottish 
 
 modern, can we believe that D'Urfey had tavern ditties. 
 no original Scots model for 'Twas within a Furlong 
 of Edinburgh Town, any more than we can believe 
 that the tune of The Liggan Waters, to which the 
 black-letter ballad of The Sonny Scottish (not 'Scotch'!) 
 Lad and the Yielding Lass is set, has somehow, as 
 Chappell 2 deemed it necessary for his theory's sake 
 to suggest, reference to the Irish not to the Scottish 
 Logan Water; or that D'Urfey's Scotch Wedding 
 is the original of The Blythesome Bridal; or that 
 
 tune,' which ballad, he said, ' may be dated as within the first half 
 of the seventeenth century' (Roxburghe Ballads, ii. 475). Further, 
 he mentioned in his introduction to this last ballad that ' the only 
 known copy of the tune is in the form of an arrangement for 
 the lute ; it is included among the Skene manuscripts.' So that 
 the only copy of this English tune is that preserved in a Scots MS. ! 
 
 1 Chappell, to prove that the ' Scotch tunes,' that ' were popular 
 in England, were mostly spurious,' and the words 'invariably so,' 
 quotes from A Second Tale of a Tub : ' Each party call for par- 
 ticular tunes . . . the blue bonnets ' [i.e. Scotch], ' had very good 
 voices, but, being at the further end of the room, were not distinctly 
 heard. Yet they split their throats in hollowing out Sonny 
 Dundee, Valiant Jockey, Sawny was a dawdy Lad, and 'Twos 
 within a furlong of Edinburgh town ' ; but can we believe that the 
 Scots would 'hollow out' the Anglo-Scots rubbish of the broad- 
 sidists in ridicule of themselves ? And does the quotation not rather 
 prove that the Scots tunes and songs became known in London by 
 the custom of the Scots to ' hollow ' them out in taverns and else- 
 where? 
 
 2 Roxburghe Ballads, iii. 475.
 
 378 SCOTTISH VERNACULAE LITERATURE 
 
 the various versions of the Jock and Jenny broad- 
 sides have no connection with the old Scots song in 
 the Bannatyne MS. 1 The truth, on the contrary, is 
 that the broadsidists, being by no means inventive in 
 their themes, were glad to borrow whenever they had 
 opportunity; while it is also very plain that they 
 were much amused, not merely by certain specimens 
 of the Scot they met in taverns, but by the peculiar 
 ditties which those 'bluecaps' were accustomed to 
 ' hollow out.' 
 
 Of the transformation of a Scottish song into an 
 Anglo-Scottish one, Mr. Ebsworth has unwittingly 
 
 Mr.Ebsworth-s su PP lied a very striking example an 
 inadvertent example which sheds a flood of light on 
 
 example of an . 
 
 Anglicised the subject. In The Roxbwrghe Ballads 2 
 he printed from Monmouth's Manu- 
 script Note Book 3 what he termed ' A Scotch Song, 
 1679,' remarking that it was ' probably a distinct 
 Scotch song, learned orally in 1679 and written down 
 then or afterwards ; not yet found elsewhere, or in 
 print.' 4 But in the course of editing the Koxburghe 
 
 1 See ante, p. 289. 2 Vol. iv. p. 544. 
 
 8 Now No. 1527 of the Egerton MS. in the British Museum. 
 4 Part of it was, however, in print, the last stanza forming the 
 first of a version of Wallifoufa' the Cat, in Herd's Songs, ii. 139 : 
 
 ' There was a bonnie wi' laddie 
 
 Was keeping a bonny whine sheep ; 
 
 There was a bonnie wee lassie 
 
 Was wading the water sae deep. 
 Was wading the water sae deep, 
 
 And a little above her knee ; 
 The laddie cries unto the lassie, 
 Come down Tweedside to me.'
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 379 
 
 ballads, Mr. Ebsworth discovered the Anglo-Scots 
 transmogrification of the ditty in A New Song of 
 Moggies Jealousie or Jackie's Vindication* and in 
 the introduction to it he remarked: 'We have 
 shown that the Duke of Monmouth had been im- 
 pressed with this song either in 1679, when he was 
 in Scotland, or at least early in 1685, when he was in 
 Holland, thus he jotted down several of the stanzas 
 from memory. Compare the true text now given with 
 the memoranda of vol. iv. p. 544.' Now(l) the black- 
 letter song Moggie was only registered 1st June 
 1684, so that Monmouth could certainly not have 
 jotted it down in 1679, nor, probably, even in Holland 
 in 1685; (2) the song jotted down by Monmouth 
 three stanzas only in all contains two stanzas not to be 
 found in Moggie, and Mr. Ebsworth's second thoughts, 2 
 when first confronted with the Anglo - Scottish 
 Moggie, that the Monmouth piece is ' three verses of 
 two Scottish songs intermixed/ cannot be regarded 
 as ' happy,' not only because all three stanzas are in 
 the same measure, but because the first stanza 
 which, with the second stanza, he now regards as 
 belonging to a different song from the third, and 
 having nothing whatever to do with Moggie begins 
 ' Wilt thou be wilful still ? ' which is actually the 
 alternative designation of the tune appended to 
 Moggie \ (3) the third stanza, which he finally re- 
 gards as an ' imperfect copy ' from Moggie, could not 
 
 1 Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 170. 
 
 2 Ibid., v. 393.
 
 380 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 have been copied from that Anglo-Scottish version, 
 for the very sufficient reason that Moggie contains no 
 reference to the Tweed as in the Monmouth stanza ; 
 a fact which further shows that the Herd version 
 could not have been got from Moggie, but that, on the 
 contrary, the Herd and Monmouth stanzas derive 
 from a common Scottish original; (4) notwith- 
 standing imperfections in spelling, and mistakes in 
 regard to words, the Monmouth song is clearly not 
 an Anglo-Scottish, but a purely Scottish version; 
 and (5) it is impossible to believe that the ballad 
 hack could have written Moggie, such as it is, without 
 the aid of some Scots original. 
 
 It would therefore seem that their startling dis- 
 coveries of the methods of Ramsay and his successors, 
 Great caution an( ^ ^ t ^ ie unfounded nature of many of 
 necessary in Stenhouse's statements, tended to produce 
 
 accepting 
 
 conclusions i n the minds of Chappell, Mr. Ebsworth, 
 
 against the . 
 
 Scottish origin and Dr. Furmvall, a reaction towards the 
 
 other extreme. They have thus corn- 
 evidence. mitted themselves to opinions which are 
 confuted by their own subsequent researches ; and Mr. 
 Ebsworth's inadvertent illustration of the fallacious 
 character of their general inferences renders great 
 caution necessary in accepting conclusions against 
 the Scottish origin of songs and tunes, even when 
 such evidence as we possess may seem to render their 
 spuriousness almost certain. It is, for example, more 
 than likely, on the evidence, that My Jo Janet in 
 The Orpheus Caledonius and The Tea Table Mia-
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 381 
 
 cellany was vamped from the black-letter broadside 
 Jenny, Jenny? but even if it was, the black-letter 
 was in all likelihood itself vamped from a Scots 
 original, for not only has the chorus a very Scottish 
 jingle, but the tune to which it is set in The Orpheus 
 is found in the Straloch MS. (1627-29). Moreover, the 
 Scots word ' Keek ' ' Keek in the well ' is actually 
 printed 'Kit,' which raises the suspicion that the 
 broadside hack himself, the author of the ballad, did 
 not understand the meaning of the word. 2 
 
 The significance of these illustrations which might 
 easily be multiplied from the black-letter broadsides 
 is that they indicate (1) the existence in 
 
 ^ -i ,1 ,1 Anglo-Scottish 
 
 Scotland, in the seventeenth century or baiiads in the 
 earlier, of a great variety of now forgotten e^dencVof 
 native lyrics, most of them coloured with the existence 
 
 at one time 
 
 the ingenuous indelicacy which, more or of many 
 
 , ,, IT i Scottish lyrics 
 
 less, tinges all our early literature, and now forgotten, 
 some of them very much akin to the s^ottish'song 
 
 ditties collected by Burns, and partly f reatly ' n .~ 
 
 <f J nuenced by 
 
 preserved in the volume known as The broadside 
 
 literature. 
 
 Merry Muses] and (2) that while Ramsay, 
 Thomson, Oswald, and others borrowed much from 
 English sources, it is (a) by no means certain that 
 they always borrow when they seem to borrow, and 
 
 1 Printed in The fioxburghe Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, vol. vii. 
 p. 350. 
 
 2 Similarly, in Moggie we have 'a win sheep,' for 'a wheen [i.e. 
 a number of] sheep,' showing that the balladist did not understand 
 the meaning of the words he borrowed borrowed, undoubtedly, 
 from a Scottish ditty.
 
 382 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 (6) it is perfectly certain that they often merely 
 borrowed what had previously been pilfered. That 
 they did borrow a great deal is, however, beyond 
 doubt ; and, indeed, from the time of Ramsay down 
 to and including Burns, the stream of Scottish 
 popular song whether as regards words or music 
 ceased to be of purely Scottish origin, and in many 
 ways ways that are as yet but imperfectly and con- 
 fusedly disclosed is intermingled with the stream 
 of broadside and chapbook literature which reached 
 its highest water-mark in the eighteenth century. 
 
 This is especially true of the Jacobite songs even 
 
 of those of Burns, Hogg, and others, whose interest 
 
 in Jacobitism was distant and mainly 
 
 Jacobite . J 
 
 songs chiefly sentimental. As tor the contemporary 
 Jacobite songs, they owe the most of 
 what excellence they possess and poetically it is 
 very little to other lyrics. Of that marvellous patch- 
 work, Hogg's Jacobite Relics, Chappell remarked that 
 half of the songs in the first volume were derived 
 from ' English printed collections,' l and that ' if the 
 modern were taken away, and only the old suffered 
 to remain, the proportion would be much greater.' 
 Many Jacobite songs, also, which Hogg got from MSS. 
 and greatly improved, as well as many Jacobite songs 
 still in MS., were originally, of course, of English 
 origin. But whether the product of -Englishman or 
 Scot, the bulk of contemporary Jacobite minstrelsy is 
 merely parody parody sometimes of older political or 
 
 1 Popular Music, p. 611.
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 383 
 
 cavalier songs which themselves were parodies, parody 
 even of older Jacobite songs, and parody of very old im- 
 proper lyrics, Scottish or English ; x and in their turn 
 these Jacobite parodies, only a few of them in the 
 Scots vernacular, have had no inconsiderable influence 
 on the non- Jacobite vernacular songs of Scotland. 
 
 Of the older lyrics of Scotland only a few survive 
 in their entirety. Several have been referred to 
 under ANONYMOUS POETRY (see ante, Theolder 
 pp. 289-98), and in connection with The lyrics - 
 Gude and Godlie Ballates (see ante, pp. 270-74). 
 Others are included in The Tea Table Miscellany and 
 Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, very much, per- 
 haps, as they existed before the days of Ramsay 
 and Thomson. Regarding the date of the older 
 lyrics in those publications it would be rash to 
 hazard an opinion, though the humorous Cock 
 Laird which Ramsay slightly altered, the still 
 more amusing Maggies Tocher, the picturesque 
 Muirland Willie, My Jocky Blyth, The Fumbler's 
 Rant, What Jocky said to Jenny, John Ochiltree, 
 Andro and his Gutty Gun, The Auld Goodman, 
 The Auld Wife beyond the Fire, Auld Rob Morris, 
 and that inimitable lay of the sodden tippler, Toddlin 
 But and Toddlin Ben to name the more notable 
 only, were probably written long before the days of 
 
 1 Such, for example, was undoubtedly O'er the Water to Charlie, 
 an old blackguard London song being probably its ultimate source. 
 Jacobite versions of it, and other interesting examples of unimproved 
 Jacobite songs, will be found in Loyal Songt, 1750, and The True 
 Loyalist (rare), 1779.
 
 384 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Ramsay. Again, the delightful On Eitrick Banks, 
 since it assumes some amount of prosperity at the ports 
 of Leith and the ' Broomielaw,' was probably written 
 after the Union ; while that most animated of lyrics, 
 Maggie Lauder, can scarce be earlier than the first half 
 of the eighteenth century. As for The Gaberlunzie 
 Man and The Jolly Beggar, the former from its rhythm 
 cannot be so old as the days of James v., while the 
 latter, first printed in Herd's Songs (1769), seems to 
 have been unknown as a Scottish song to Ramsay, 
 and has some connection with an English broadside 
 in the Pepys Collection : l 
 
 ' There was a jovial beggar man, 
 
 A-begging he was bound, 
 And he did seek his living 
 
 In country and in town,' etc. 
 
 Several of the older Scottish lyrics were also amended, 
 and in various ways utilised, by Ramsay (see under 
 RAMSAY, post, p. 405), but many, very many, of the 
 older lyrics have either wholly perished, or survive 
 only as catchwords, or first lines, or isolated stanzas, 
 or choruses, or refrains. 2 
 
 Yet notwithstanding this seeming break in the tra- 
 dition of the older songs, they, rather than either the 
 national lyrics of England or the broadside literature 
 of the English taverns, have been the formative in- 
 
 1 This fact was first pointed out by Mr. Ebsworth in Bayford 
 Ballads, i. 216. 
 
 a See especially 'Fragments of Comic and Humorous Songs, 'in 
 Herd's Songs, vol. ii. pp. 200-239 ; and also Songs from David Herd's 
 Manuscripts, ed. Hecht, 1904.
 
 ng 
 
 TRADITIONAL BALLADS AND SONGS 385 
 
 fluence of not all, but decidedly all that is best, in 
 later Scottish song. Compared with the many waters 
 of English lyrism, Scottish vernacular The excellency 
 song is the mere tinkling of a mountain of Scottish 
 
 ' popular so.., 
 
 rivulet ; but as popular song it is in ~ its caus - 
 a manner unrivalled unrivalled partly, it is true, 
 because of Burns, but by no means on this account 
 alone, for Burns himself stole 
 
 'fire 
 
 From the fountains of the past 
 To glorify the present.' 
 
 The old 'makaris' of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries, and bards and minstrels whose very names 
 have perished : these were its original creators and 
 fashioners, and it was dowered with much of its rare 
 excellency by inheritance from a poetry which was 
 not popular in the merely vulgar sense, but the work 
 of artists of special training and accomplishment. 
 For many generations the influence of the old 
 poetic school seemed to be dormant, but its very 
 suppression, and the denial by the Kirk of the liberty 
 of new poetic utterance, tended to preserve the old 
 poetic tradition as it was when the voices of those 
 old 'makaris' became silent. Thus Scottish ver- 
 nacular song is more closely linked to the past than 
 the popular ' minstrelsie ' of England; and while it 
 represents more fully the national sentiments, associa- 
 tions, and memories, it includes many numbers which, 
 homely, simple, and popular though they be, bear the 
 hall-mark of an ancient and noble descent. 
 
 2B
 
 XII 
 
 BEFORE RAMSAY 
 
 ' POLEMO - MIDDINI A ' THE SEMPILLS ' TWEEDSIDE ' 
 LADY GRIZEL BAILLIE LADY WARDLAW WILLIAM 
 HAMILTON OF GILBERTFIELD WATSON'S 'CHOICE 
 COLLECTION.' 
 
 DURING the seventeenth century the fortunes of 
 
 Scottish vernacular literature had reached their 
 
 lowest ebb. It was primarily an age of 
 
 Vernacular > 
 
 literature religious conflict, the old contest between 
 
 of the seven- 
 
 teenth century. Kirk and King tor supremacy cul- 
 influences'of urinating, after the Cromwellian episode 
 and the Stuart restoration, in the 
 Covenanting persecution, which was again followed, 
 after the Revolution, by what, though ostensibly a 
 victory for the Kirk, was in reality a compromise a 
 compromise which inflicted a mortal wound on the 
 Kirk's pretensions, and inaugurated an era marked 
 by its gradually decaying authority in the sphere of 
 general politics, and its diminishing interference with 
 the intellectual and moral independence of the in- 
 dividual. Up to and even beyond the Revolution, 
 the Kirk whether struggling desperately to make 
 
 386
 
 BEFORE RAMSAY 387 
 
 the Scottish Solomon its mere tool, or triumphant at 
 last over Charles i., or subdued and then patronised 
 by Cromwell, or harried and afflicted by Charles n. 
 and James n., or nominally restored to power at the 
 Revolution remained the supreme social and in- 
 tellectual guide of almost the whole community, and 
 its influence was inimical to every form of secular 
 literature. As regards the vernacular literature, its 
 repressive tendencies were also accidentally aided by 
 the accession of James vi. to the English throne in 
 1603. In the later years of the sixteenth century 
 vernacular poetry owed its production mainly ,to 
 the fostering care of the king; but even before his 
 departure for England James had himself almost 
 escaped from his Scottish chrysalis. The old Scottish 
 vernacular poetry was not eclipsed by the Elizabethan 
 poetry of England simply because (1) in Scotland 
 the succession of vernacular poets and interest in 
 vernacular poetry had all but ceased, and (2) English 
 poetry was not generally read in Scotland. 
 
 The chief Scottish poets of the early seventeenth 
 century were Sir Robert Ay ton, Sir William Alexander, 
 Earl of Stirling, Sir David Murray of The chief scot- 
 Gorthie, Sir Robert Kerr, Earl of Ancrum, S^JSy* 
 and William Drummond of Hawthornden. e * te 
 They all wrote in English ; and since, in English. 
 
 i Polemo- 
 
 with the exception of Drummond, they Middinia.' 
 had all gone south with James I., their aim, like that 
 of their royal master, was to be as English as possible. 
 Of them only Ay ton and Drummond rise above a
 
 388 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 very verbose mediocrity ; but Ayton certainly does, if 
 he wrote / do confess thou 'rt smooth and fair, and 
 Drummond (1585-1649) was one of the most ac- 
 complished, if not one of the most inspired, poets 
 of his time. He is, however, outside our present 
 consideration, except as the possible author l of the 
 macaronic poem, Polemo-Middinia [Midden-Fight] 
 inter Vitarvam [Scot of Scotstarvet and his followers] 
 et Nibernam 2 [Cunningham of Newbarns]. It de- 
 scribes how the Scotstarvet people, who claimed a 
 right-of-way past the mansion-house of Newbarns, 
 endeavoured to assert it by setting out with a 
 procession of dung- carts, headed by a piper and 
 banners, and how they were dispersed and routed 
 by the valiancy of the Newbarns women. The 
 rustic battle is described in a dog-Latin the dog 
 being cross-bred, that is, half Scots and half English 
 which partly obscures the occasionally very plain 
 language of the piece. The defiance of Niberna (the 
 
 1 It might only he is not known to have had connection with 
 Fife have been written by Sir William Scott of Thirlestane 
 (16707-1725), who specially practised macaronic verse. Some of 
 those pieces are still in MS., but one is included in his Selecta 
 Poemata, published with some Latin poems by Dr. Archibald 
 Pitcairne in 1727. It is entitled Ad EM EM Equitem, M.D., 
 Villadelphimts Frater, and begins 
 
 ' Qualis in terris fabulatur Orpheus 
 Natus Irlandis, ubi nulla wivat 
 Spidera telam, neque foeda spouttat 
 
 Toedda venenum.' 
 
 Scott has also been credited with the authorship both of Maggie 
 Lauder and The Blythesome Bridal. 
 
 2 Printed at Edinburgh, 1684, and reprinted along with Ckristia 
 Kirk, ed. Gibson, 1691. Usually included in Drummond's Works.
 
 BEFOEE RAMSAY 389 
 
 mistress of Newbarns) is, however, though pithy, 
 quite quotable : 
 
 ' Ite ait, uglaei felloes ; si quis modo post hac 
 Muckifer has nostras tentet crossare fenestras, 
 Juro ego quod ejus longum extrahabo thropellum, 
 Et totum rivabo faciem luggasque gulaeo hoc, 
 Ex capite cuttabo, ferox, totumque videbo 
 Heartbloodum fluere in terram.' 
 
 From the mere fact that the Scottish vernacular 
 is now the language of the common people, a vague 
 impression prevails that the vernacular . 
 
 Vernacular 
 
 poetry has some special connection with poetry not 
 
 specially con- 
 
 the mere peasantry ; but though latterly nected with 
 
 this was partly the case, the old poetry, untul' 
 on which the later vernacular poetry is Ramsa y- 
 almost entirely modelled, was rather the creation of 
 the aristocracy and the clergy. Barbour was arch- 
 deacon of Aberdeen ; Henryson, a learned educationist, 
 was probably in holy orders ; Dunbar was a secular 
 priest, and Douglas a bishop, and both they and 
 Kennedy were of noble descent ; Sir David Lyndsay 
 was a Fife laird ; Montgomerie was a cadet of the 
 Eglinton family; and Scott, whose descent is un- 
 known, was a town gallant and courtier. Most or 
 all of these poets were specially patronised by 
 royalty, and they wrote for the delectation of the 
 better classes. So must have done the innominate 
 authors of many of the older songs. Most of those 
 preserved in The Tea, Table Miscellany, such as 
 Maggie's Tocher ', The Cock Laird, Jocky said to Jenny, 
 Toddlin But and Toddlin Ben, and TJie Blythesortie
 
 390 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Bridal, depict the humours of rustic life from the 
 standpoint of the upper and educated classes, not of 
 the peasant. The simplicity and realism of the old 
 vernacular poetry belonged to the olden time; it is 
 in no sense a vulgarised literature, but merely a 
 literature which, by its antique sincerity and lack 
 of convention, can be appreciated even by the peasants 
 of later generations. 
 
 But the old race of poet - ecclesiastics having 
 become extinct at the Reformation, it was mainly 
 The poetry of among the aristocracy and gentry that 
 Sr e eR V a msay b , e " th e traditions of the old vernacular 
 existence to P oetrv could linger; and although, as 
 the gentry. we have seen, with the accession of 
 James vi. to the English throne there was a tendency 
 among the Scottish courtier poets to cultivate ex- 
 clusively English poetry, many of the gentry retained 
 an acquaintanceship with the poetry of the older 
 'makaris.' They were not so much as the other 
 classes under the domination of Puritanism; and 
 thus the poetry of the vernacular revival, up to the 
 time of Ramsay, owes its existence mainly to them. 
 
 Whether, during the first half of the seventeenth 
 century, the vernacular muse was wholly silent or 
 Robert not, there is no authentic record of its 
 
 voice until we hear it in The Life and 
 
 *Habbie f Death f Ha bbie Simson, the Piper of 
 simson.' Kilbarchan. The poet who thus broke 
 the long silence was Robert Sempill, son of Sir James 
 Sempill of Beltrees, author of The Packman's Pater-
 
 BEFORE RAMSAY 391 
 
 noster (not in the vernacular, and therefore outside 
 our consideration), and grandson of 'John Sempill 
 [son of the great Lord Sempill] the dancer' of 
 Knox's History, who married Marie Livingstone, 
 one of the Queen's Maries, and, according to Knox, 
 'surnamed the Lusty.' Born about 1595, he was 
 educated at the University of Glasgow, where he 
 matriculated in 1613. As Habbie might suggest, he 
 sided with Charles I. against the Kirk, serving as 
 a cavalier officer, and he was afterwards active in 
 promoting the Restoration. Habbie is supposed to 
 date about 1640, and its author died between 1660 
 and 1669. 
 
 That Sempill was well read in the old vernacular 
 poetry of which he must have possessed specimens 
 in MS. is very evident from the stanza Habbie 
 he selected for Habbie, a stanza of which fj^nce <,"' 
 so few examples in the older vernacular later verse - 
 are now preserved (see ante, p. 244), that, not 
 perhaps Ramsay (who knew the Bannatyne MS.), 
 though he named the poem ' Standard Habbie,' but 
 most other editors, until quite recently, have been in 
 the habit of crediting Sempill with its invention. 
 The poem, as poetry, is in no way remarkable, but 
 it affords us a curious glimpse of old village amuse- 
 ments and customs; and the description of Habbie 
 and his doings is in a way quite admirable, genial 
 appreciation being finely tempered with pawky 
 humour. Here in three stanzas are three separate 
 glimpses of the piper in his pride :
 
 392 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 ' At fairs he play'd before the spear-men, 
 cl * d All gaily graithed in their gear man : 
 
 ments Steel bonnets, jacks, and swords so clear then 
 
 Like ony bead : 
 
 wr- Now wha will play before such weir-men, 
 
 too* Sen Habbie 's dead. 
 
 At clark-plays when he wont to come, 
 His pipe played trimly to the drum ; 
 made Like bikes of bees he gart it hum, 
 
 And tun'd his reed : 
 Now all our pipers may sing dumb, 
 
 Sen Habbie 's dead. 
 
 And at Horse Races many a day, 
 Before the black, the brown, the gray, 
 He gart his pipe, when he did play, 
 
 Baith skirl and skreed : 
 Now all such pastime 's quite away, 
 
 Sen Habbie 's dead.' 
 
 The Epitaph on Sanny Briggs, who was Habbie's 
 nephew, and butler to the Sempills, is usually attri- 
 buted to the same author, and was, no doubt, either 
 his or his son's. Habbie became the model for 
 humorous elegy in the vernacular : being widely 
 circulated in broadsides towards the close of the 
 century, it was imitated by many poetasters, as well 
 as by Hamilton of Bangour, Ramsay, Fergusson, and 
 Burns ; and since, in addition, it reintroduced the 
 most characteristic stanza of later vernacular poetry, 
 the stanza which was the vehicle for much of the 
 best verse of the three latter poets, it has some 
 claims to rank as one of the ' epoch-making ' produc- 
 tions of poetic literature.
 
 BEFOEE EAMSAY 393 
 
 The poetic tradition of the Sempills was continued 
 by Sir Robert's son Francis, whose longest poem is 
 The Banishment of Povertie, narrating 
 
 J . Francis 
 
 his hard shifts as debtor until relieved by sempm 
 the Duke of Albany shortly after he had (d< l68s)> 
 taken refuge in the debtors' retreat at Holyrood. 
 Written in the French octave, it is correct in rhythm 
 and rhyme, but its wit is not very sprightly; and 
 one can scarce credit that the same author wrote 
 either The Blythesome Bridal (which may, however, 
 have been written by the father), or the very much 
 cleverer Maggie Lander. His claims to the author- 
 ship of She rose and let Tne in, published by D'Urfey, 
 will not bear examination ; and if he has any connec- 
 tion with the oldest known version of Auld Lang 
 Syne, it was probably merely as the refurbisher of 
 an older song, for the original broadside bears the 
 title 'An excellent proper ballad, entitled Old 
 Long Syne. Newly corrected and amended, with 
 a large and new addition of several excellent love 
 lines.' x 
 
 Before Ramsay we have various other indications 
 either of a revived interest in vernacular poetry, or 
 that it had all along been cultivated and 
 
 'Tweedside.' 
 
 appreciated by many in private, but the 
 
 principal names associated with it previous to him 
 
 are Lady Grizel Baillie, Lady Wardlaw, and William 
 
 i This broadside, published anonymously, contains what was, no 
 doubt, the burden of the old song ; and this burden, together with 
 the first line of the broadside, is the main germ of Burns's song.
 
 394 SCOTTISH VERNACULAE LITERATURE 
 
 Hamilton of Gilbertfield. The song Tweedside, 
 Burns mentions, is 'said to have been written by 
 Lord Yester;' and Robert Chambers 1 affirms that 
 this must have ' been John, eventually second Mar- 
 quis of Tweeddale' (1615-1713), because Scott of 
 Satchells, in his History of the House of Scott, com- 
 pliments the Marquis on ' his poetical abilities ' ; but 
 Herd, who first published the song, and is the only 
 authority for the text, knew apparently nothing of 
 its author, and merely termed it The Original 
 Tweedside. But whoever wrote it seems almost 
 to smirk while expressing doleful despair, and, where 
 he is not inapt, he is wofully commonplace. 
 
 This certainly cannot be said of Werena my Heart 
 
 Licht I wad Dee 2 by Lady Grizel Baillie. Lady 
 
 Grizel, born hi 1665, was the eldest 
 
 Ladie Grizel 
 
 Baiilie ( daughter of Patrick Hume, afterwards 
 
 Earl of Marchmont; and when her 
 father had, in 1684, to go into hiding under the 
 family vault in Polwarth Church on account of 
 his suspected connection with the Rye-House Plot, 
 she secretly supplied him with food. From 1686 
 until the Revolution the family were in exile in 
 Holland. After her return she married, in 1692, 
 George Baillie of Jerviswood, son of Robert Baillie, 
 who, being suspected like her father of conspiring 
 against the Government, was, in 1684, caught and 
 executed. Lady Grizel died in 1746. Lady Murray 
 
 1 Scottish Songs, iii. 311. 
 
 First published in The Tea Table Miscellany.
 
 BEFOEE EAMSAY 395 
 
 of Stanhope, Lady Grizel's daughter, in her Memoirs l 
 stated that she possessed a MS. volume of her 
 mother's containing various of her songs and poetic 
 fragments; but the volume has not been recovered, 
 and she is known only as the authoress of Werena 
 rfiy Heart Licht, and a fragment, The Ewe-Buchtin 's 
 Bonnie? The mournful romance and inimitable 
 simplicity of the former song indicate the inspira- 
 tion and art of true genius ; and The Ewe-Buchtin ' 
 Bonnie is very much in the same manner, and pos- 
 sesses the same delicate charm : 
 
 ' The Ewe-buchtin 's bonnie, baith e'enin' and morn, 
 When our blithe shepherds play on the bag-reed and horn ; 
 While we 're milking, they 're lilting, baith pleasant and clear, 
 But my heart 's like to break when I think on my dear.' 
 
 Lady Elizabeth Halkett, daughter of Sir Charles 
 Halkett of Pitferran, and married, in 1696, to Henry 
 Wardlaw of Pitreavie, is now regarded as 
 
 Lady 
 
 the author of the ballad Hardyknute. wardiaw 
 First published by James Watson, in 1719, (l677 " 737) ' 
 as a genuine old ballad, it was included in Percy's 
 Reliques, 1767. The story circulated by her brother- 
 in-law, Sir John Hope Bruce of Kinross, was that it 
 had been got from an old manuscript in a vault in 
 Dunfermline ; but its antiquity being questioned 
 after its appearance in the Reliques, Lord Hailes 
 
 1 Published in 1822. 
 
 2 First published on a broadsheet by C. K. Sharpe. The original 
 consists of only two stanzas, the others being additions by another 
 author
 
 396 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 informed Percy that Lady Wardlaw had confessed 
 to being the authoress of it. The ballad is certainly 
 a very clever imitation of the older minstrelsy. It 
 is plain that Lady Wardlaw had a wide acquaint- 
 ance with the old ballads, and it is thus not im- 
 probable that she improved a good many of them. 
 That ffardyknute is not by any means equal to 
 many of those with which she may have tampered 
 may be explained by the fact that it was wholly 
 invention, and also by the probability that she en- 
 deavoured, in this case, to imitate the old simplicity, 
 while in other cases her main endeavour may have 
 been to improve the poetical defects of the versions 
 she got from recitation. Here, for example, is a 
 quatrain from Hardyknute : 
 
 ' On Norway's coast the widowed dame 
 
 May wash the rocks with tears 
 May lang look o'er the shipless seas 
 Before her mate appears.' 
 
 It cannot compare with the following stanza from 
 Sir Patrick Spens : 
 
 1 lang, lang may the ladies stand 
 
 Wi' their gold kerns in their hair, 
 Waiting for their ain deir lords, 
 For they'll se thame na mair 5 ; 
 
 but then we cannot tell what original suggestion 
 Lady Wardlaw if she improved Sir Patrick Spens 
 may have had for the stanza. 
 
 But the main link in the succession between the 
 Sempills and Ramsay is William Hamilton of Gil-
 
 BEFORE KAMSAY 397 
 
 bertfield, whose Last Dying Words of Bonnie Heck 
 (a famous Fife greyhound) first appeared in Watson's 
 Choice Collection, 1706. This piece (whose Wi i liam 
 chief merit is its sportsmanly sympathy "^b^rtfieid 
 with the greyhound), a variation on ( I66 s ?-i75i>- 
 Sempill's Hdbbie, became, in turn, the special model 
 of Burns's Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie, 
 as before Burns it had been of Ramsay's Last Speech 
 of a Dying Miser and Luclde Spence's Last Advice. 
 Hamilton, a retired lieutenant in the army, after- 
 wards made the acquaintance of Ramsay, with whom 
 he corresponded in that series of rather clever 
 rhyming epistles (included in Ramsay's Works') in the 
 same stanza which Burns, in his ' emulating ' fashion, 
 also adopted for his poetic epistles, even parodying, 
 occasionally, Hamilton's phrases and sentiments. 1 
 In his first epistle Hamilton signed himself' Wanton 
 
 1 Compare the first stanza of Hamilton's Epistle II. : 
 
 ' When I received thy kind epistle 
 It made me dance, and sing, and whistle ; 
 O sic a fike and sic a fistle 
 
 I had about it ! 
 That e'er was knight of the Scots thistle 
 
 Sae fain I doubted ' 
 
 compare the above with the last stanza of Burns's First Epistle to 
 Lapraik : 
 
 ' And to conclude my lang epistle, 
 As my auld pen 's worn to the grissle, 
 Twa lines frae you wad gar me fissle, 
 
 Who am most fervent, 
 
 While I can either sing or whistle, 
 
 Your humble servant. ' 
 
 And many similar comparisons might be made.
 
 398 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Willy/ and under the signature ' W. W.' he contributed 
 
 to The Tea Table Miscellany the song Willy was a 
 wanton Wanton Wag, suggested and more by the 
 winy.- English Willy was so blythe a Lad (in 
 
 Playford's Choice Ayres, 1650), but full of humorous 
 
 abandon, as for instance : 
 
 gold ' And was not Willy well worth gowd ? 
 
 He wan the love of great and sma' ; 
 For after he the bride had kiss'd 
 
 whole He kiss'd the lasses hale-sale a', 
 
 roiled Sae merrily round the ring they roVd, 
 
 by When be the hand he led them a', 
 
 And smack on smack on them bestow'd 
 By virtue of a standing law.' 
 
 But the greatest, if not the best, achievement of 
 Hamilton was his abridgment and paraphrase or 
 Abridgment Blind Harry's Wallace, which, however 
 of Wallace. 1 lacking in poetic qualities, commended 
 itself by its subject to the patriotic Scot, and achieved 
 an instant and lasting popularity. It was in it that 
 Burns read the ' story of Wallace ' which poured the 
 'tide of Scottish prejudice' into his veins; and it is 
 largely responsible for Burns's Scots Wha Hae, and 
 for many much less admirable manifestations of 
 patriotic fervour. 
 
 Hamilton's paraphrase of Wallace appeared in 
 1722, but a good many years before this, 
 
 Watson's , . 
 
 choice symptoms of awakening interest in 
 
 Scottish vernacular verse had begun to 
 
 manifest themselves the most remarkable and 
 
 decided being the publication of Watson's Choice 
 
 Collection of Scottish Poems, 1706-1711. The mere
 
 BEFORE RAMSAY 399 
 
 issue of such a work in Scotland was a certain 
 sign that narrow Biblicalism was no longer the 
 power in the land it had been, and that the icy 
 winter, which so long had frozen the springs of 
 natural human feeling, was gradually breaking up. 
 Watson's Collection is rather miscellaneous: old 
 and new pieces, and of the new some in the ver- 
 nacular, others ' quite English/ jostle one another in 
 admired disorder. Some of those in the modern 
 vernacular had already appeared in broadsides, 
 and the broadside was really the chief means of 
 reawakening the love of vernacular poetry and 
 song among the people. The modern vernacular 
 pieces include The Blythesome Bridal, The Banish- 
 ment of Povertie, The Speech of a Fife Laird, Habbie 
 Simson, a clever piece, The Mare of Collingtoun, in 
 rime couee aaab, cccb, Bonnie Heck, and an epitaph 
 in the Habbie form on William Lithgow. Among 
 the English specimens are Drummond's Forth Feast- 
 ing, Linton's Address to the Prince of Orange, 
 by Alexander Pennecuick, Coelia's Country House 
 and Closet, by Sir George Mackenzie, Poems on the 
 King and Queen of Fairy, by Archibald Pitcairne, and 
 In Praise of Women, by Montrose. Lastly, the old 
 vernacular pieces include Christis Kirk, The Cherry 
 and the Slae, Burel's Passage of a Pilgrim, and 
 Montgoinerie's Flyting. A rather various, and not 
 particularly happy or representative selection, but 
 sufficiently noteworthy as the first important symp- 
 toms of the dawn of a great vernacular revival.
 
 XIII 
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 
 
 RAMSAY ALEXANDER BANNATYNE ALEXANDER ROSS 
 THE SONG-WRITERS FERGUSSON. 
 
 THE main agent in the vernacular revival was Allan 
 
 Ramsay. Descended from the Ramsays of Cockpen, 
 
 a younger branch of the Ramsays of 
 
 Allan Ramsay J 
 
 (1686-1758), Dalhousie, he was the son of Robert 
 Ramsay, superintendent of Lord Hope- 
 toun's lead-mines at Leadhills, Lanarkshire, by Alice 
 Bower, a native of Derbyshire. He was born in the 
 village of Leadhills, 15th October 1686, and received 
 all his education at the parish school. Having had 
 the misfortune, while still in infancy, to lose his 
 father, he was, after the death in 1700 of his 
 mother, who had married a small neighbouring pro- 
 prietor, sent to Edinburgh to be apprenticed to a 
 wigmaker. In 1707 he opened a wigmaker's shop 
 of his own hi the Grassmarket, which he conducted 
 successfully until 1719, when his special tastes and 
 his literary success induced him to adopt the business 
 of bookseller opposite Niddry's Wind. 
 
 400
 
 KAMSAY TO BURNS 401 
 
 Though keenly intent on his business, Ramsay 
 found time for both conviviality and study. From 
 an early period he developed a strong Poe tand 
 love of poetry, and besides perusing the Publisher, 
 older English classics, including Chaucer, Spenser, 
 Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, the Fletchers, Drummond, 
 Milton, Cowley, and Dry den, he was well read in the 
 verse of the day from Pope down to his friend Tom 
 D'Urfey, with the latter of whom he had much in 
 common. In the clubs and taverns he also got to know 
 many of the old racy vernacular ditties ; but few of the 
 older vernacular classics, with the exception of the 
 works of Sir David Lyndsay, being in circulation, he 
 had already himself acquired some fame as a verse- 
 writer before he accidentally got access to them in 
 the Bannatyne MS. A Jacobite in politics, and of genial 
 and epicurean habit, he represents the commence- 
 ment of the literary reaction among the middle and 
 lower classes against the repressive tendencies of the 
 Kirk. He was especially the poet of the jovial 
 burgher, and of the taverns and clubs which were the 
 centre of this reaction ; and much of his verse reeks 
 of their peculiar atmosphere. Among his earlier 
 pieces was his Elegy on Maggy Johnstone, the ale- 
 wife of Bruntsfield Links, who died in 1711, modelled 
 on ' Standard Habbie.' Its success when issued as 
 a penny broadside induced him to venture similar 
 essays in verse, including elegies on Lucky Wood, 
 John Cowper, and Pat Birnie, Lucky Simsoris 
 Last Advice, and various others, some of them 
 
 2c
 
 402 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 now lost, in a still grosser comic vein. For some 
 years he was the recognised laureate of the streets, 
 his satires on street incidents, as The Flytin' of 
 Lucky Duff and Lucky Brown, or mock elegies, 
 or sketches of well-known city characters, or rhymes 
 on passing events, being, it is said, the favourite 
 reading of the common gossips over their teacups. 
 His admission to the Easy Club also stimulated him 
 to the production of English verse, which, mediocre 
 and wholly artificial though it was, secured him much 
 approbation from the members, some of whom such 
 as Hepburn of Keith, Dr. Pitcairne, Dr. Patrick Aber- 
 crombie, and Dr. Thomas Ruddiman were amongst 
 the most intellectually emancipated of the Edinburgh 
 citizens. His reputation was still further enhanced 
 by the publication in 1716 of Christis Kirk, with an 
 additional canto of his own composition ; and in 1718 
 appeared a second edition of the poem with an addi- 
 tional canto. The same year he brought out an edition 
 of Scots Songs ; and in 1721 he published by subscrip- 
 tion a volume of his own poems. Then followed 
 in 1724 the first volume of ' The Tea Table Miscel- 
 lany, a collection of choice songs Scots and English,' 
 a good many of them partly or wholly his own; 
 and in the same year, The Evergreen, a selection of 
 old Scots poetry obtained chiefly from the Bannatyne 
 MS. A second volume of The Tea Table Miscellany 
 appeared in 1725, a third in 1727, and a fourth in 
 1732. In 1725 he also published the most popular 
 of all his pieces, The Gentle Shepherd, part of it in the
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 403 
 
 form of an eclogue, under the title Patie and Roger, 
 having appeared in 1721, with a sequel in 1723, 
 entitled Jynny and Maggie. Prosperous in business 
 and famed as a poet, he in 1726 removed to the 
 Luckenbooths, where he adopted as his sign the 
 heads of Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthorn- 
 den. From his new shop he issued in 1728 a new 
 edition of his poems, and in 1730 Thirty Fables in 
 verse. In 1731 he was honoured by the publication 
 of an edition of his poems in London, Dublin follow- 
 ing suit in 1733. In 1736 he brought out a volume 
 of Scots Proverbs ; but from this time he wholly 
 ceased to intermeddle with literature, except as 
 bookseller, the only remaining incident in his life 
 that calls for notice being a spirited though vain 
 contest with the bigotry of the period, in an attempt 
 to establish a theatre in Edinburgh, which at the 
 instance of the clergy was closed by order of the 
 Magistrates. He died, 7th January 1758, in the 
 picturesque mansion which he had erected for him- 
 self on the Castle Hill, Edinburgh, and was buried in 
 Greyfriars Churchyard. 1 
 
 If not the victim of the contradictory poetic 
 models, English and Scots, which he sought com- 
 binedly to imitate, Ramsay, except in Hisp0 p U . 
 the case of The Gentle Shepherd, was larit y- 
 nothing advantaged, either as Scots or English versi- 
 
 1 The best edition of Ramsay's Works is that eel. Chalmers, 
 with essay by Lord Woodhouselee (frequently reprinted), but a 
 critical edition is still a desideratum.
 
 404 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fier, by any compensating result of the twofold 
 influence. His familiarity with the vernacular song 
 and some of the verse of the old Scots ' makaris,' in 
 no wise tended to modify the pompous commonplace 
 of his more ambitious essays in English verse, while 
 his acquaintance with the English classics exercised 
 little truly educative influence on his vernacular 
 method. But this twofold acquaintanceship assisted 
 him to construct a species of Scoto-English song 
 which was rampantly popular both in Scotland and 
 England. While his vernacular pieces won him uni- 
 versal fame among the lower classes of his native land, 
 and his English verse was read with something re- 
 sembling admiration by the more enlightened classes 
 of both countries, his songs as is abundantly 
 testified by the song-books and sheet music of the 
 period were warbled, to rapturous applause, by the 
 favourite vocalists at the London ' gardens/ and other 
 places of popular resort. Familiar with the old 
 popular songs of both countries, he utilised them for 
 his own purposes with much superficial cleverness. 
 His manner was exactly that which the masses could 
 thoroughly appreciate, and the Scottish flavour, com- 
 paratively mild as it was, conferred on them a 
 piquancy which in England greatly aided their 
 popularity. 
 
 Some of them as Nany, 0, Sony Jean, I 'II never 
 character of ^ve Thee, Clout the Caldron, and Through 
 his songs. tfe Wood, Laddie were reminiscent of 
 old English broadsides. A great many more, usually
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 405 
 
 published as his own, are founded on older Scottish 
 songs, some of them poetically much superior, and 
 all of them at least equal to Ramsay's versions. 
 They include Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, Auld Lang 
 Syne, The Bob of Dunblane, The Collier's Bonnie 
 Lassie, For the Sake of Somebody, The Highland 
 Laddie, My Daddy Forbad, Mither Dear I Gin to 
 Fear, Jenny Nettles, Steer her Up and Haud her 
 Gaun, and This is no my Ain House, in addition to 
 many old songs which he merely amended. Indeed, 
 Ramsay can claim comparatively few songs as wholly 
 his own. Among his best are The Lass of Patie's 
 Mill which some assert is not wholly his and 
 Lochdber No More, and both are marred by solecisms. 
 Yet he has written one admirable lyric, perfectly 
 faultless in its simplicity, My Peggy is a Young Thing. 
 His worst defect is his penchant for the grovelling, 
 and when not grovelling, he is too apt to be stalely 
 commonplace. 
 
 The Soger Laddie, for example, which used to 
 create a furore at Mary'bone Gardens, and other 
 popular London resorts of the eighteenth . The sodger 
 century, but expresses the unadorned Laddie/ 
 sentiments of Mary Jane, in language even more 
 prosaic and banal than many a Mary Jane would 
 employ : 
 
 1 My soger laddie is over the sea 
 And he will bring gold and money to me ; 
 And when he comes hame, he '11 make me a lady ; 
 My blessing gang with my soger laddie.
 
 406 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 My doughty laddie is handsome and brave, 
 And can as a soger and lover behave ; 
 True to his country, to love he is steady, 
 There 's few to compare with my soger laddie. 
 
 Shield him, ye angels, frae death in alarms, 
 
 longing Return him with laurels to my langing arms ; 
 
 Then Syne frae all my care he'll pleasantly free me, 
 
 When back to my wishes my soger ye gie me. 
 
 O soon may his honours bloom fair on his brow, 
 As quickly they must, if he get his due : 
 For in noble actions his courage is ready, 
 Which makes me delight in my soger laddie. 1 
 
 Nor even in the best of his convivial songs does he 
 
 embody the true rapture of good fellowship. Up in 
 
 the Air begins fairly well, and stanza ii 
 
 Convivial f J ^ 
 
 songs, -up in contains a rather picturesque allusion 
 
 the Air.' . , , ' , . . in 
 
 to a snowy night; but the piece is wholly 
 lacking in poetic glamour, while the last stanza is 
 but stiffly wooden : 
 
 8nnt ' Steek the doors, keep out the frost ; 
 
 give U8 Come, Willy, gie 's about ye'r toast, 
 
 Fill it lads, and lilt it out, 
 
 have And let us hae a blithsome bout. 
 
 wit h it Up wi 't there, there, 
 
 Do not Dinna cheat, but drink fair ; 
 
 Huza, huza, and huza, lads, yet, 
 Up wi 't there.' 
 
 But as the comic satirist of low life Ramsay 
 
 evidenced the possession of a strong vein of clever 
 
 AS comic clownish humour. The Elegy on John 
 
 satirist. Cowper and Lucky Spence's Last Advice, 
 
 are caustic and graphic enough after their own 
 
 rancid fashion ; and the elegies on Maggy Johnstone
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 
 
 407 
 
 and Lucky Wood supply us with a curious pnoto- 
 graphic picture of the tavern life of Old Edinburgh. 
 The portrait of Lucky Wood, the pattern ale-wife of 
 the Canongate, is indeed quite admirable : 
 
 ' She ne'er gae in a lawin fause, 
 Nor stoups a' froath aboon the hause, 
 Nor kept dow'd tip within her waws 
 
 But reaming swats ; 
 She ne'er ran sour jute, because 
 
 It gees the batts. 
 
 She had the gate sae well to please, 
 With gratis beef, dry fish, or cheese, 
 Which kept our purses ay at ease, 
 
 And health in tift ; 
 And lent her fresh nine gallon trees 
 
 A hearty lift. 
 
 She gae us oft hail legs o' lamb, 
 And did nae hain her mutton-ham ; 
 Then aye at Yule whene'er we cam, 
 
 A braw goose-pye ; 
 And was na that good belly -baum ? 
 
 Nane dare deny. 
 
 The writer-lads fow well may mind her ; 
 Fruthy was she, her luck design'd her 
 Their common mither ; sure nane kinder 
 
 Ever brake bread ! 
 She has na left her mak behind her, 
 
 But now she 's dead.'' 
 
 But the most elaborate effort of Ramsay's in ex- 
 pounding the humours of common life is his two 
 additional cantos to Christis Kirk, which, 
 while lacking the vivid conciseness of the 
 earlier piece, and indeed little better than a mere 
 vulgar parody of its method, depict realistically 
 
 gave; 
 
 reckoning 
 
 neck 
 
 stale tipple; 
 
 walls 
 
 new ale 
 
 gives ; colic 
 
 method 
 
 order 
 
 whole 
 spare 
 
 fine 
 
 full 
 Pleasant 
 
 peer 
 
 ' Christis 
 Kirk.'
 
 408 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 By; 
 
 daylight 
 fall; pack 
 
 higgledy- 
 piggledy 
 clothes 
 
 Each 
 
 ram- 
 
 big-mouthed 
 broth 
 fetched 
 
 if; 
 
 husband 
 
 Threatening; 
 
 drunk 
 
 Those 
 
 head 
 
 then ; boast 
 
 fine 
 grandchild 
 
 mumping 
 wrinkled 
 frightened 
 the young 
 women 
 went; was a 
 witch 
 drunk ; 
 brandy 
 many more 
 
 enough the more sordid aspects of Scottish mirth. 
 The first canto of Ramsay describes a wedding- feast, 
 ending with the bedding ceremony; and in the second 
 the rejoicings are renewed on the morrow until all 
 the men reach the becoming condition of brutal in- 
 toxication. It is all true to nature and all most 
 grotesquely comic, but not all quite quotable. Here, 
 however, are some quaint stanzas depicting the arrival 
 of the gossips on the morning after the marriage : 
 
 ' Be that time it was fair foor days, 
 As fou 's the house could pang, 
 To see the young fouk ere they raise, 
 
 Gossips came in ding-dang. 
 And wi a sos aboon the claiths 
 
 Ilk ane their gifts down flang : 
 Twa toop-horn-spoons down Maggy lays, 
 Baith muckle-mow'd and lang 
 For kale or whey. 
 
 Her aunt a pair of tangs fush in, 
 
 Right bauld she spake and spruce : 
 " Gin your goodman shall make a din, 
 
 And gabble like a goose, 
 Shorin whan fou to skelp ye're skin, 
 
 Thir tangs may be of use ; 
 Lay them enlang his pow or shin, 
 Wha wins syn may make roose 
 Between you twa." 
 
 Auld Bessie, in her red coat braw, 
 
 Came wi her ain oe Nanny, 
 An odd-like wife, they said, that saw 
 
 A moupin' runckled granny ; 
 She fley'd the kimmers ane and a', 
 
 Word gae'd she was na kanny ; 
 Nor wad they let Lucky awa, 
 
 'Till she was fou wi' branny, 
 Like mony mae.'
 
 RAMSAY TO BUENS 409 
 
 Ramsay's Tales and Fables call for little comment. 
 A good many are in English or in Scoto-English, and 
 the majority in the octo-syllabic couplet. -Tales and 
 Some, he states, were ' taken from Mes- Fables -' 
 sieurs la Fontaine and la Motte,' and those which are 
 his ' own invention with respect to the plot as well 
 as the numbers ' he leaves the reader ' to find out,' or 
 if any one thought ' it worth his while to ask ' him, 
 he professed his willingness to tell him. Ramsay is 
 now beyond interrogation; but one may venture to 
 affirm that The Monk and the Miller's Wife, which 
 was long credited to him, was neither his own inven- 
 tion nor 'taken from Messieurs la Fontaine and la 
 Motte,' but is merely a modernised and vulgarised 
 reading of The Freiris of Berwick', and that his 
 most elaborate tale, The Three Bonnets, a long-winded, 
 complicated, and occasionally gross satire on the 
 Union, is most probably all his own. 
 
 Ramsay's satires entitle him to rank as at least a 
 cleverly comic vernacular Zola, but for the author 
 of The Gentle Shepherd something more , The Gentle 
 than this may be claimed. If not quite She P herd -' 
 poetry, it is at least admirable 'kailyaird.' A most 
 pleasing because a quite unaffectedly homely and 
 simple sketch of rustic courtship somewhat ideal- 
 ised it almost by mere accident reveals a literary 
 talent which had been partly smothered by his im- 
 perfect training and untoward circumstances. Here 
 his twofold course of poetic study stood him in much 
 better stead than usual. The English pastorals,
 
 410 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 which he so far made his model, exercised a certain 
 restraining influence on his rather too realistic Scottish 
 method, while by electing to write in the vernacular 
 he avoided the worst pitfalls of artificiality. It has 
 given him a certain acknowledged position in litera- 
 ture, and not undeservedly; but though also as a 
 vernacular satirist his strenuity and wit often too 
 much tinged with squalidity are undeniable, and 
 though he contrived one excellent and one or two 
 passably good lyrics, it is rather as editor than author 
 that he occupies his peculiar place in the 
 vernacular revival. The results of his 
 editorial enterprise were twofold : (1) The Tea Table 
 Miscellany dedicated gallantly (and pawkily) 
 
 ' To ilka lovely British lass, 
 
 Frae Ladies Charlotte, Anne, and Jean, 
 Down to ilk bony singing Bess, 
 
 Wha dances barefoot on the green ' 
 
 in conjunction with Thomson's Orpheus aroused 
 curious patchwork of old and new, of Scots, English, 
 Scoto-English, and Anglo-Scots, though it be in a 
 new fashion the old interest in popular song among 
 the bulk of the Scottish people; and (2) by The 
 Evergreen which he described as 'a Collection of 
 Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before 1600,' 
 and which included, besides a few ballads such as 
 Hardyknute, Johnie Armstrang, and The Battle of 
 Harlaw, and The Vision (which may be wholly or 
 partly his own), and one or two of The Gude and 
 Godlie Ballates, a large number of the best produc- 
 tions (often very freely altered) of the old ' makaris '
 
 EAMSAY TO BURNS 411 
 
 preserved in the Bannatyne MS. he was the first to 
 rescue from oblivion the old vernacular poetry of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which, thus resur- 
 gent after a trance of some century and a half, was 
 found to have lost comparatively little of its ancient 
 vitality, and by its vivifying effects partly rekindled 
 in the eighteenth century the old vernacular poetic 
 flame. 
 
 A sort of double of Ramsay was Alexander Penne- 
 cuick (d. 1730), an obscure Edinburgh citizen of 
 whom scarce anything is known except 
 
 Alexander 
 
 that, having died in extreme destitution, Pennecuick 
 he was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, ' I73 
 30th November 1730, but who is sometimes con- 
 founded with Dr. Alexander Pennecuick (1652-1722), 
 author of a Description of Tweeddale, which, with 
 various poems in English, appeared at Leith in 1815. 
 Some of his poems had previously appeared in a 
 Collection of Curious Scots Poems, Edinburgh, 1762. 
 They include Truth's Travels, a long, semi-vernacular 
 piece written in the French octave. The more ver- 
 nacular Pennecuick published Streams from Helicon, 
 1720, and Flowers from Parnassus, 1726 ; but many 
 of his effusions were also issued as penny broadsides, 
 and in 1756 there appeared at Edinburgh 'A Collection 
 of Scots Poems on Several Occasions, by the late 
 Alexander Pennecuick and others,' the others in- 
 cluding Ramsay. He was very partial to Ramsay's 
 themes. Like Ramsay he commemorated the 
 dowager Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, in an ode; 
 while Ramsay wrote a masque on the marriage of
 
 412 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the fifth duke to Lady Anne Cochrane in 1723, 
 Pennecuick celebrated the same event in a pastoral ; 
 he also constituted himself a sort of laureate of the 
 Royal Archers, and he disputed the laurels of Ramsay 
 as the bard of the streets, as he certainly rivalled him 
 in the indelicacy of his squalid humour: his Elegy 
 on Robert Forbes, Kirk Treasurer's man, and also his 
 Presbyterian Pope in which he presents us with a 
 dialogue between the Kirk Treasurer's man and one 
 of his female informants being quite as unvarnished 
 in their allusions as the Elegy on John Cowper. He 
 is also credited with The Elegy on William Lithgow, 
 published in Watson's Choice Collection, 1706, but 
 his longest piece, if not his chef d'ceuvre interesting 
 as an accurate presentment of the sentiments, ideas, 
 and vernacular of the lower-class women of that peroid 
 is The Mery Wives of Musleburgh, at their meeting 
 together to welcome Meg Dickson after her Loup from 
 the Ladder, 1724, of which there is an anonymous 
 broadside in the British Museum, and which is in- 
 cluded in Pennecuick's Collection, 1756. Meg was a 
 fishwife who by an accident escaped death by hanging; 
 and in the poem she details her experiences to the 
 assembled gossips. It begins : 
 
 ' That day, when Meg fair taste got 
 Wi' Hangie's beeds about her throat, 
 gossips Three clavering carlings o'er the pot, 
 
 All ; drunk A' spewing foil, 
 
 Wept Whinge'd when they thought on Maggie's trot 
 
 Doon the West-bow.' 1 
 
 From the prison to the place of execution.
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 413 
 
 Among contemporaries and friends of Ramsay 
 were in addition to William Hamilton of Gilbert- 
 field Sir John Clerk of Penicuik 
 
 , Ramsay's con- 
 
 (1684-1755), the accomplished lawyer temporaries 
 and antiquary, who erected at his 
 country seat an obelisk to Ramsay's memory, and is 
 the reputed author of 'merry may the Maid be 
 that Marries the Miller, published in The Charmer, 
 1751, and founded on an old improper song, 1 partly 
 preserved in the first stanza; Robert Crawford 
 (d. 1730), son of the laird of Drumsoy, Renfrew- 
 shire, whose pleasant, if slightly artificial, lyrics 
 Tweedside, Leader Haughs and Yarrow, The Bush 
 Aboon Traquair, etc., mostly contributed to The 
 Tea Table Miscellany, are almost wholly English in 
 manner, and only faintly Scots in language ; William 
 Hamilton of Bangour (1704-1754), an accomplished 
 versifier in English, and the author of the archaic 
 and finely symphonious ballad, The Braes of Yarrow ; 
 and David Mallet or Malloch (1700?-! 765), who, 
 though he indicated his desire for Anglification to 
 the extent of changing his surname, and, in the 
 words of Samuel Johnson, ' cleared his tongue from 
 his native pronunciation so as to be no longer dis- 
 tinguishable as a Scot,' perhaps deserves mention 
 here for his somewhat frigidly tragic ballad of 
 William and Margaret. Mallet has also rival claims 
 
 1 Maids and millers were a favourite theme of the old ver- 
 nacular bards, and they also figure prominently in the black-letter 
 broadsides.
 
 414 SCOTTISH VERNACULAK LITERATURE 
 
 with James Thomson to the authorship of Rule 
 Britannia, which appeared in 1740 in their joint 
 masque of Alfred. 
 
 The most prominent of Ramsay's early disciples 
 was Alexander Ross, who, the son of an Aberdeen- 
 shire farmer, after graduating M.A. at 
 ROSS (1699- Marischal College, Aberdeen, became a 
 teacher, and finally settled as parish 
 schoolmaster at Lochlea, Forfarshire. In 1768 Ross, 
 who was then in his seventieth year, published a pas- 
 toral entitled Helonore the Fortunate Shepherdess. 
 Written in the quaint and pithy Aberdeenshire 
 dialect, it achieved some popularity in the north of 
 Scotland, but notwithstanding some happy descrip- 
 tions of natural scenery, and the help of a raid of 
 Highland caterans, it is on the whole a rather dull, 
 and even dreary, performance. This, however, cannot 
 be said of his songs, their witty expositions of the 
 humours of domestic life being, indeed, almost over- 
 whelmingly vivacious. Among the best known are 
 The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow, Wooed and 
 Married and A', and The Bridal O't. Here is the 
 first stanza of The Rock : 
 
 very little ' There was an auld wife had a wee pickle tow, 
 
 go And she wad gae try the spinning o't ; 
 
 bnt ; She Touted her down, and her rock took a low, 
 
 caucift'fire -^- n( ^ *kat was a k & d Beginning o't. 
 
 wept; She sat and she grat, and she flet and she flang, 
 
 And she flew and she blew, and she wriggled and wrang, 
 become And she choked and boaked and cried like to mang, 
 
 Alas for the dreary spinning o 't.'
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 415 
 
 With the exception of Fergusson, most of the 
 vernacular bards before Burns are each mainly 
 associated with only one or two songs. j ohn skinner 
 The Tullochgorum of John Skinner, Cr"-**?). 
 Episcopal minister of Longside, Aberdeenshire, 
 written to the old tune of that name, and in a form 
 of rime couee twelve lines divided into three equal 
 sections, three head lines and one tail line each, with 
 a curious iterative refrain in the middle section, was 
 pronounced by Burns, in his enthusiastic way, to ' be 
 the best Scots song Scotland ever saw,' and is at least 
 a most jovial, genial, and inspiriting production. 
 Somewhat similar in style but less individual in 
 character is Tune your Fiddles, while The Ewie wi' 
 the Crookit Horn possesses much of the quaintly 
 pathetic humour of Burns's own Poor Mailie. But 
 Skinner's Christmas Ba'ing, in the stanza of Christis 
 Kirk, must be classed with the less successful imita- 
 tions of that original. 
 
 Alexander Geddes, an accomplished and learned 
 Catholic priest, and the author of a great variety of 
 works in prose and verse including two 
 
 Alexander 
 
 clever macaronic pieces, is credited with Geddes (1737- 
 the capital Jacobite song, Send Lewie 
 Gordon Hame, and also with The Wee Wifukie, 
 which, however, has also been claimed for Alexander 
 Watson, Lord Byron's Aberdeen tailor (who is said 
 also to be the author of the much inferior Kail Brose 
 o' Scotland), and may have been written by neither. 
 Written by Geddes or Watson or another, it is a
 
 416 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 masterpiece of its kind : the bewildered case of the 
 ' wifukie ' (who, having got ' a wee bit drapukie,' had, 
 while taking a nap on the roadside ' coming frae the 
 fair,' been by a packman not merely robbed of her 
 money and purse, but shorn of her golden locks), 
 being set forth with a droll verisimilitude that could 
 scarce be outdone : 
 
 not ' " This is nae me," quo' she, " this is nae me, 
 
 killing Somebody has been felling me, and this is nae me." ' 
 
 To three ladies Mrs. Cockburn, a relative of Sir 
 Walter Scott's, and one of the sprightliest and most 
 Mrs. cockbum charming of Edinburgh hostesses ; Jane 
 " Elliot, third daughter of Sir Gilbert 
 
 1805), and Lady Elliot, Baronet, of Minto, and sister of Sir 
 
 Anne Barnard 
 
 (1750-1825). Gilbert, the author of the pastoral song 
 Amynta ; and Lady Anne Barnard, of the Balcarres 
 Lindsays we are indebted for three lyrics, each after 
 its own fashion mournfully beautiful, and all sug- 
 gested by older originals. If Mrs. Cockburn's and 
 Miss Elliot's versions of the Flowers of the Forest 
 were written independently of each other, they must 
 have been founded on the same original, for both 
 have the refrain ' The flowers of the forest are a' wede 
 away.' Mrs. Cockburn's version appeared in The 
 Lark, 1765 ; and Stenhouse avers that Miss Elliot's 
 ballad was published anonymously about 1755, but 
 he states not where. It was known to Herd, who 
 included it in what he termed 'a version made 
 up from various copies of the old ballad collated'; 
 but Scott got for The Minstrelsy an authorised copy
 
 EAMSAY TO BURNS 417 
 
 from Dr. Somerville, who told him that the first and 
 last lines of the first stanza were 
 
 ' I 've heard them lilting at the ewes milking,' 
 and 
 
 ' The flowers of the forest are a' wede away.' 
 
 It is to be regretted that Scott either displayed no 
 further curiosity about the old ballad, or was unable 
 to obtain further information about it. As for Lady 
 Anne Barnard's song, Auld Robin Gray, she told 
 Scott that it was suggested by an older Scottish 
 melody, The Bridegroom, Greets when the Sun gae's 
 doon, sung at Balcarres by an old lady ' who lived 
 before your day ' who ' did not object to its having 
 improper words,' though Lady Anne a did. 
 
 Other bards whose vernacular fame rests mainly on 
 a single song are William Julius Mickle (1734-1788), 
 a miscellaneous verse- writer of some note, Other song . 
 who translated Camoen's Lusiad, was the writers - 
 author of the rather stately Cumnor Hall, and may 
 possibly have written (as Jean Adams, the piously 
 metaphysical Greenock poetess, certainly did not) 
 There 's nae Luck dboot the Hoose, which as matter of 
 fact was claimed by neither, and which Burns (who, 
 less flatteringly than usual, declared it to be ' one of 
 the most beautiful songs in the Scots or any other 
 language') states 'came first on the streets as a 
 ballad,' about 1771 or 1772 ; 2 Dougal Graham (1724- 
 
 * See Lockhart's Life of Scott, and also Lady Anne Barnard's 
 revised version of the ballad, with continuation, edited by Sir 
 Walter Scott for the Bannatyne Club, 1824. 
 
 2 The song may be a relic of Jacobitism. 
 
 2P
 
 418 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 1779), the Glasgow bellman, whose Metrical History 
 of the Rebellion and numerous penny vernacular 
 chap-books, which he both wrote and printed, are now 
 forgotten except by collectors, but whose Turnim- 
 spike (Turnpike) is a most realistically witty sketch 
 of the language and thoughts of the unsophisticated 
 Gael, when he first beheld the roads of General 
 Wade, and was actually asked to pay toll in the 
 neighbourhood of his native heath : 
 
 'But I'll awa' to the Hielan' hills, 
 Where te'il a ane dare turn her, 
 And no come near to your Turnimspike 
 Unless it pe to purn her ' ; 
 
 John Ewen (1741-1821), an Aberdeen merchant, to 
 whom Burns attributed weel may the Boatie Row, 
 which is no doubt founded on an older song; 
 George Halket (d. 1756), on whom Peter Buchan 
 fathered Logie o' Buchan, and Whirry Whigs awa', 
 the former of which he could not have written if 
 the evidence of his own published Poems is to be 
 credited, and the latter of which is a traditionary 
 Jacobite ballad whose current version is an amalgam 
 by Hogg; the Rev. Murdoch M'Lennan (1701-1783), 
 minister of Crathie, Aberdeenshire, who celebrated 
 the battle of Sheriftmuir in the rather clever Race 
 of Sheriffmuir, with the refrain : 
 
 ' And we ran and they ran, 
 And they ran and we ran, 
 And we ran and they ran awa', man ' ; 
 
 Rev. John Barclay (1734-1798), Berean minister of
 
 EAMSAY TO BUENS 419 
 
 Edinburgh, who wrote the picturesque Dialogue 
 betwixt William Lickladle and Thomas Gleancogue, 
 modelled after the older ballad of Killycrankie 
 (1689), and altered by Burns for Johnson's Musical 
 Museum', and Adam Skirving (1719-1803), a gentle- 
 man farmer of Haddington, to whom is attributed 
 the ballad of 2 J ranent Muir (Prestonpans), made on 
 the same models, and also the much wittier Johnie 
 Cope. 
 
 Thus for some half -century after Ramsay the 
 vernacular revival was evidenced mainly in the pro- 
 duction of occasional songs, many of Ro bert 
 them suggested by, and others mere JJJ*J". n H is 
 adaptations of, older ditties. Apart from student days- 
 songs, the main link between Ramsay and Burns is 
 Robert Fergusson. The second son of William Fer- 
 gusson, who came from Aberdeen to be accountant 
 in the British Linen Company's Bank, Edinburgh, 
 and of Elizabeth Forbes, also of Aberdeenshire 
 descent, he was born, 5th September 1750, in the 
 Cap-and-Feather Close, a lane the site of which is now 
 partly occupied by the present North Bridge Street. 
 By the aid of a Fergusson bursary he was able 
 to prosecute his studies at the University of St. 
 Andrews, where he matriculated in February 1765 
 with the view according to the parental ambition of 
 studying for the Kirk. At the University he mani- 
 fested a certain scientific bent, but distinguished 
 himself chiefly by his frolics and his poetry. Among 
 the few pieces of his University days which survive
 
 420 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 is his rather irreverent elegy modelled inevitably 
 after ' Standard Habbie ' on Professor David Gregory, 
 who died 13th August 1765 : 
 
 long ago ' He could, by Euclid, prove lang syne 
 
 moving A ganging point composed a line ; 
 
 By numbers, too, he could divine, 
 
 Whan he did read, 
 
 That three times three just made up nine, 
 But now he 's dead ! ' 
 
 Reminiscent of these years is also his Elegy on John 
 Hogg, late Porter to the University of St. Andrews : 
 
 ' Ah, Johnie ! Often did I grumble 
 comfortable ; frae cozie bed, fu' ear* to tumble, 
 
 When art and part I 'd been in some ill 
 loth Troth I was sweer : 
 
 penetrated ; His word then brodit like a wumel 
 
 gimlet , 
 
 Frae ear to ear. 
 
 The truth was that his mercurial and frolicsome 
 temper and extreme sociability were a surer passport 
 to popularity with his fellows than to professorial 
 approval, although Professor Wilkie of the absurd 
 Epigoniad seems to have recognised his mental 
 attractiveness, and to have treated him very much 
 as a personal friend. 
 
 The death of Fergusson's father in 1767 deprived 
 
 him nothing to his regret of the wherewithal to 
 
 in Auia persevere in his studies for the Kirk, and 
 
 Reekie. 1 after an unsuccessful attempt by the aid 
 
 of his maternal uncle to secure a better start in life, 
 
 he was fain to content himself with the situation of 
 
 copying clerk in the office of the commissary clerk 
 
 of Edinburgh. For one of his temperament and
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 421 
 
 talents the occupation was one of mere drudgery. 
 From the beginning it exercised a depressing in- 
 fluence, from which he vainly sought relief in the 
 convivial clubs which were then a social feature of 
 'Auld Reekie.' 1 Some fleeting glimpses of satisfac- 
 tion he no doubt gained through his increasing local 
 fame as versifier, but his poetic repute also widened 
 the circle of his convivial companions, and intro- 
 duced him more fully to the alluring attractions of 
 pleasure. His contributions to Ruddiman's Weekly 
 Magazine began, in February 1771, with pastorals 
 and various other stilted pieces in English; and in 
 the following year he commenced, with The Daft 
 Days, the series of contributions to vernacular verse 
 which, to use the words of R. L. Stevenson, were to 
 be ' the models of great things to come ' 2 to ' come,' 
 however, by Burns, not by Fergusson. A small 
 volume of verse which appeared in 1773 added to 
 his fame, and supplied him with some much-needed 
 ready money ; but it did little to remove the cloud 
 of depression that had begun to settle on him. With 
 his high-strung nervous system and lack of physical 
 stamina, he could not, living as he did, long escape 
 the inevitable tragedy. By the close of the year his 
 health had become palpably wrecked, and he began 
 to exhibit symptoms of mental instability the 
 
 1 'Auld Reekie' (i.e. Old Smoky) was Fergusson's pet name for 
 ' Edina, Scotia's darling seat.' 
 
 2 Letter in Dr. A. B. Grosart's Robert Fergusson (Famous Scots 
 Series).
 
 422 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 malady, by virtue of what R. L. Stevenson has 
 termed his 'damnatory creed,' assuming the form 
 of religious mania. The shock of a fall down a stair, 
 when returning from a convivial party, completed 
 the catastrophe, and he died in the city madhouse, 
 16th October 1774 
 
 In comparing the poetic achievement of Fergusson l 
 with that of Ramsay or Burns, it is but fair to 
 His work consider that he died, as Stevenson puts 
 
 tTv a e n and tenU " ifc m m ' s ' acute Panful youth 'before 
 experimental. }Q fo &( [ < outlived his green sickness,' and 
 when he had merely begun to 'imp his wing' for 
 greater flights. At the age when Fergusson had 
 ceased to write verse, Ramsay was known only as 
 a rising wigmaker, and Burns had done nothing of 
 merit except Poor Mailie, and one or two songs. 
 Fergusson's English verses do not here concern us, 
 but they may be left out of account even in a 
 general estimation of his position as poet, for the 
 reason that, though equal in bulk to his vernacular 
 pieces, they display little or no indication of eman- 
 cipation from the stilted methods of the time. That 
 emancipation might have come to him through his 
 vernacular verse, but he did not live to realise it; 
 and even in the vernacular his work was scarce more 
 than tentative and experimental. 
 
 As to form, Fergusson's favourite staves were those 
 
 1 The earlier editions of Fergusson's Poems were superseded by 
 that edited by A. B. G., 1851, and frequently republished. A 
 shilling edition of his Poems appeared in 1898.
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 423 
 
 of Habbie Simson (' Standard Habbie ') and Christie 
 Kirk, although he made frequent and 
 clever use both of the octo-syllabic and 
 heroic couplets. In The Farmer's Ingle, also, he 
 adopted the nine-line stave formed by adding a line 
 to the old alternately rhyming octave the arrange- 
 ment being ab, ab, cd, cdd ; while Hallow Fair (not 
 The Hallow Fair), modelled on The Blythesome 
 Bridal, is in the old ballad stave. In the ' Standard 
 Habbie' stave we have, of course, various Elegies, 
 as well as Epistles, modelled after those of Ramsay 
 and Hamilton of Gilbertfield ; but Fergusson showed 
 also a much more comprehensive partiality for the 
 stave than Ramsay a partiality which was to infect 
 Burns, and demonstrated something of its capabi- 
 lities for picturesque narrative and description, for 
 which it had certain aptitudes that were awanting in 
 the less flexible and more mannered stave of Christis 
 Kirk. 
 
 Though the verse of Fergusson is apt to manifest 
 imperfect fusion of thought and emotion, as well as a 
 lack of 'body' and fulness, its quality 
 is much finer than that of Ramsay, and 
 it is plainly the product of a much more highly 
 disciplined intelligence. He rarely or never lapses 
 into the utterly vulgar or squalid, nor does he dis- 
 play any of Ramsay's partiality for time-hallowed 
 commonplace. His humour is seldom broad or 
 boisterous, but like that of Stevenson who recog- 
 nised a mental kinship with him quiet, dry, and
 
 424 SCOTTISH VERNACULAK LITERATURE 
 
 insinuative, and part and parcel of himself. More- 
 over, like Stevenson, he had a cunning sense of style, 1 
 and here his influence is very manifest on Burns, 
 who time and again echoes not merely his sentiments 
 but his phraseology. A characteristic example of his 
 insinuative humour, and his terse and picturesque 
 vernacular, is the following extract from the ' Bill of 
 Fare/ which, had he been master of the ceremonies, 
 he would have prepared for the regalement of Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson when banqueted by the St. Andrews 
 professors : 
 
 ' Imprimis, then, a haggis fat, 
 
 boiled Weel tottled in a seything pat, 
 
 on . io " 8 ' Wi' spice and ingans weel ca'd thro' 
 
 tast ; man's Had help'd to gust the sti rrah's mow, 
 
 And plac'd itsel in truncher clean 
 
 8Uring 8 eycs Before the g U Py' s S lowrin een - 
 
 Secundo, then, a gude sheep's head 
 
 flayed* ' Whase hide was singit, never flead, 
 
 And four black trotters cled wi' girsle, 
 
 with Bedown his throat had learn'd to hirsle. 
 
 difflcult y What think ye, neist, o' gude fat brose 
 
 To clag his ribs ? a dainty dose ! 
 
 In abundance And white and bloody pudding routh 
 
 |? t ut for To gar the Doctor skirl o' drouth ; 
 
 Whan he cou'd never houp to merit 
 
 A cordial glass o' reaming claret, 
 
 gripe ; pant But thraw his nose, and brize and pegh 
 
 cup O'er the contents o' sma' ale quegh : 
 
 Then let his wisdom girn and snarl 
 oatcake O'er a weel-tostit girdle farl, 
 
 An' learn, that, maugre o' his wame, 
 
 111 bairns are aye best heard at hame.' 
 
 1 Fergusson had a subtler knowledge of vernacular Scots than 
 Burns or rather his Scots was the Scots not of the rustic but of 
 the educated classes, who made daily use of it in Edinburgh at even 
 a later date.
 
 RAMSAY TO BURNS 425 
 
 But Fergusson was more than a clever wit or 
 humourist. None but a true poet Morethan 
 could have written the first stanzas * clever . 
 
 humourist. 
 
 of Daft Days 
 
 ' Now mirk December's dowie face drooping 
 
 Glowrs owre the rigs wi' sour grimace, over the 
 
 While, thro' his minimum of space, 
 
 The bleer-ey'd sun, 
 Wi' blinkin' light and stealing pace, glimmering 
 
 His race doth run,' etc. ; 
 
 or the eerie Old Greyfriars Kirkyard scene in The 
 Ghaists, or The Lea Rig, or the opening stanzas of 
 The Farmers Ingle, or the opening stanzas of Leith 
 Races. 
 
 And granted that his work is fuller of promise 
 than performance, the promise for one of his years is 
 remarkably full, and the actual achieve- The bard of 
 inent is so considerable as at least to ' Auld Reekte>> 
 render his individuality recognisable, and to furnish 
 a living record of himself and his Edinburgh environ- 
 ment. The 
 
 * Auld Reekie ! wale o' ilka town to'wnf * U 
 That Scotland kens beneath the moon ; 
 
 Whare cotithy chiels at e'ening meet fellows 
 
 Their bizzing craigs and mou's to weet : buzzing 
 
 A J 1,1 4.1 i i j n \. throats 
 
 And blythly gar auld Care gae bye make ; go 
 
 Wi' blinkin' and wi' bleering eye,' SffiSg 
 
 or Auld Reekie in the oyster-shops of Musselburgh 
 or Newhaven, or assembling or assembled at Leith 
 
 Races, or 
 
 ' At Hallowfair, where browsters rare 
 Keep gude ale on the gantries,' barrel stands 
 
 or deafened in the person of the poet by the
 
 426 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 jangling Tron Kirk Bell, or expounded in the mid- 
 night dialogue of Planestanes and Causey ' in their 
 mither tongue,' or simmering in the bustle and 
 revelry of an Election, all this very human, if not 
 highly proper, aspect of the old btirghal life is 
 delineated with a sprightly wit and discernment 
 which perhaps have never met with due recognition, 
 especially from the generations of Fergusson's own 
 fellow-citizens.
 
 XIV 
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 
 
 ROBERT BURNS JOHN MAYNE JAMES TYTLER 
 HECTOR MACNEILL SUSANNA BLAMIRE ELIZA- 
 BETH HAMILTON MRS. GRANT OF CARRON MRS. 
 GRANT OF LAGGAN JOANNA BAILLIE BARONESS 
 NAIRNE JAMES HOGG SIR WALTER SCOTT SIR 
 ALEXANDER BOSWELL ROBERT TANNAHILL 
 ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM. 
 
 ROBERT BURNS has, especially in Scotland, been the 
 theme of such universal and perpetual allusion, and 
 his qualities, real or imaginary, both as 
 
 J> . ... Robert Burns 
 
 man and poet, have been expounded m (1759-1796) 
 such a variety of methods, from the blind 
 encomium by the village enthusiast, up to the critical 
 and splendid eulogy by Mr. Henley, 1 that even in an 
 account of Scottish Vernacular Literature there is 
 scarce occasion for more than a mere indication of 
 his unique place in the succession of Scottish bards. 
 
 His birth on the windy morning of 25th January 
 1759, in the ' auld clay biggin' ' at Alloway, Ayrshire ; 
 
 i Burns Life, Genius, and Achievement, by W. E. Henley, re- 
 printed from The Centenary Burns, Edinburgh, 1898. 
 
 427
 
 428 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the noble and intelligent efforts of his struggling 
 
 peasant father to procure him a good education ; his 
 
 own high enthusiasm for learning, and 
 
 Burns's career. - .. . 1 .. ... 
 
 for such limited literature as was within 
 his reach ; the not wholly scatheless triumph of his 
 ardent genius and splendid physique over circum- 
 stances that would have overwhelmed or suppressed 
 all but the strongest; his early initiation into the 
 ' sublime notions and high mysteries ' of love and 
 poetry ; the turbulent years of his early manhood ; his 
 adventurous quests and chequered fortunes as an 
 amorist ; his complex encounters with desperate cir- 
 cumstances and Calvinistic Puritanism, and the Kirk 
 and himself; the sudden gleam of success and hope 
 that followed the appearance of the Kilrnarnock 
 volume in 1786 ; the animating episode of Edinburgh, 
 intermingled with its varied experiences and the 
 Clarinda sensibilities and raptures ; his practical fare- 
 well to brilliant hopes, and new half-formed ambitions, 
 and the great world to the spell of whose influence he 
 was by no means insensitive, and his return, impelled 
 less by free choice than by what he deemed stern 
 necessity, to his own people and his old mode of life ; 
 the final absorption of his great gifts mainly in the 
 routine duties of exciseman, which duties, it has been 
 triumphantly demonstrated, he performed 'pretty 
 well ' ; the half-unconscious but utter revolt of his 
 nature against his lot ; the insufficient, or rather fatally 
 perilous, character of his safety-valves, and the solu- 
 tion of a problem which was ever becoming other-
 
 BUENS AND AFTERWARDS 429 
 
 wise more difficult of explication by his premature 
 death, 21st July 1796; all this, it may be taken for 
 granted, the reader is already pretty well acquainted 
 with. 
 
 In his career his endeavour, achievement, and 
 tragedy the attribute which seems to have been 
 determinative both for good and evil was His exuberant 
 his exuberant vitality. Physically he vitalit y- 
 was gifted, as only the elect favourites of Nature are, 
 with strength and beauty, and his physical endow- 
 ments were but the reflex of a rarely dowered intelli- 
 gence. As to the dominance of his personal charrn, 
 testimony is unanimous. Thus the Duchess of 
 Gordon confesses that he was the only man who 
 ' carried her off her feet ' ; his friend Syme compares 
 his eyes to ' coals of living fire ' ; Maria Riddell ex- 
 presses the conviction that Poetry was ' actually not 
 his forte/ that none ever outshone him ' in the 
 charms the sorcery I might almost call it of 
 fascinating conversation,' and ' that no man was 
 ever gifted with a larger portion of the vivida vis 
 animi ' ; and such was his magnetism over even the 
 average stolid Scot, that 'if he entered an inn at 
 midnight, after all the inmates were in bed, the news 
 of his arrival circulated from cellar to garret, and ere 
 ten minutes had elapsed the landlord and all his 
 guests had assembled.' But this noble faculty, this 
 exuberant physical and mental vitality, was to spend 
 itself very largely in beating against the walls of its 
 prison-house. At the outset it was to be all but
 
 430 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 fatally injured by the iron drudgery of Mount 
 Oliphant a drudgery which, as he said, combined 
 the ' cheerless glooin of a hermit with the ceaseless 
 toil of a galley slave ' ; and which left behind debi- 
 lities and tendencies that were bound to evince 
 themselves in some form, and do much to explain 
 his restless craving for excitement, and for those 
 ' violent delights ' which 
 
 ' have violent ends, 
 And in their triumph die.' 
 
 Nor, apart from its undue straining in his earlier 
 years, was he ever in circumstances where it did not 
 suffer, more or less, from the tedium and harm of 
 repression ; and thus it acted too much as a mere fever 
 in the blood, and never became the fully beneficent 
 influence either to himself or the world that it 
 might have been amid more congenial surround- 
 ings, and with free scope for its employment and 
 full expansion. 
 
 But our concern, here and now, is less with what 
 
 Burns might have been than with what he was, and 
 
 less with that aspect of his life which 
 
 Burns and _ . * 
 
 caivinistic was mistaken, ineffective, and calamitous, 
 than with that which, after all, was its 
 right aspect the aspect which was fortunate and 
 successful as it is given to few lives to be ; for in his 
 case, more than that of most, the maxim of Mark 
 Antony has been reversed the good that he has 
 done has lived after him, and the evil has been 
 interred with his bones. One beneficent result that
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 431 
 
 has accrued specially to many of Burns's own country- 
 men from Burns's exuberant vitality was deliverance 
 from the nightmare of Calvinistic Puritanism, that 
 bastard form of scholastic monasticism under whose 
 spell the bulk of the Scottish community had been 
 tossing in ' unquiet slumbers ' from the time of the 
 Reformation. With Burns came the glimmerings 
 of dawn and the dispersal of many clouds and 
 shadows. No one ever asserted more convincingly 
 man's inherent right to the fulness of his humanity, 
 or more vehemently denied the innate accursedness 
 of present happiness and joy. Not only did he war 
 directly with the results of Calvinistic Puritanism in 
 numerous incidental skirmishes and in such satirical 
 attacks as The Unco Guid, The Holy Fair, Tlie 
 Epistle to MacMath, and the matchless Holy Willie's 
 Prayer, but by the consummate utterance of natural 
 human feeling throughout the whole gamut of 
 emotion love, passion, desire, sympathy, humour, 
 joy, sorrow, and regret he charmed from the nation 
 as David by his playing did from Saul the ' evil 
 spirit ' that so long had ' vexed ' it, and it was ' re- 
 freshed and was well.' 
 
 For his exuberant vitality Burns found one of his 
 main outlets in poetry. As Maria Riddell conjectured, 
 poetry may actually not have been his Becomes a 
 forte. He was perhaps more especially poet ' 
 gifted for practical ascendancy over his fellows. 
 With his strong and broad human sympathy, his 
 piercing intelligence, his eloquent speech, his magnetic
 
 432 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 personality, he possessed most of the qualities which 
 go to fashion a great statesman, a statesman who is 
 able so to identify his personality with the personality 
 of a nation that he dominates, or seems to dominate, 
 its will, and at least interprets, if he does not in a 
 measure shape, its destiny. But poetry it was destined 
 to be ; and this, for one thing, because whether by 
 natural endowment, or as the result of repression or 
 of overstrain, he felt within him the workings of a 
 strong artistic impulse, the need of fit expression for 
 emotion ; and for another, because it was difficult, if 
 not impossible for him, situated as he was, to find 
 otherwise an outlet for his mental vitality ; and lastly, 
 and perhaps chiefly, because he discovered in the 
 poetry with which in his youth he was mainly 
 charmed the vernacular poetry of Ramsay and 
 Fergusson, and the song-books which he pored over 
 driving his cart or going to labour, and of such of 
 the old ' makaris ' as he knew the needed antithesis 
 to, and counteractive of, Calvinistic Puritanism : what 
 represented in the language of his daily life (1) the 
 old primitive non-conventional aspect of things which 
 appealed directly to the peasant, and (2) the repressed 
 poetry and the repressed life of himself and of the 
 nation the poetry which the Kirk had forbidden, and 
 which the nation in its blindness had departed from, 
 and the life of unrestrained intelligence and natural 
 human joy, and art and music and the beautiful, 
 which was, as yet, all but denied to Scotland, but for 
 whith he felt ' immortal longings.'
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 433 
 
 The early poetic models of Burns were thus 
 primarily the old 'makaris' and the modern ver- 
 nacular bards, represented by Sempill, H iseari y 
 Ramsay, and Fergusson. The old ' mak- ThVo'id nodcls ' 
 aris ' he knew mainly as they were to be ' makaris,' etc. 
 studied in The Evergreen, and possibly in Lord Hailes' 
 Ancient Scottish Poems, 1770. No doubt he was also 
 well read in 'Davie Lyndsay,' and he knew Blind 
 Harry's Wallace, as represented in the version of 
 Hamilton of Gilbertfield. Before he wrote Tarn o' 
 Shanter, he must, at least, have glanced at Gavin 
 Douglas ; and he further got to be acquainted with 
 Barbour's Bruce, as he no doubt did with Pinkerton's 
 Ancient Scotish Poems, 1786, and with various later 
 collections edited by Pinkerton and others. Of still 
 more importance was the fact that he had conceived 
 a very special affection for the old songs, and that, 
 besides minutely conning over those in the collections 
 verse by verse, and ' carefully noting the tender and 
 sublime from affectation and fustian,' he latterly came 
 to possess through opportunities afforded him dur- 
 ing his wanderings as exciseman, as well as by means 
 of correspondence a very varied knowledge of the 
 old traditional songs, and indeed a quite unique as- 
 sortment of the old vernacular lyrics which, except 
 surreptitiously, have never appeared in print. 
 
 At school he had read Gray's Elegy, and various 
 scraps from other English poets, especially those of 
 the eighteenth century, and by and by he began 
 to study more systematically, and to admire and 
 
 2E
 
 434 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 intermittently to copy and imitate, Gray and 
 Thomson, and that ' celebrated poet ' Shenstone, 
 His English w h se ' divine Elegies do honour to our 
 models. language, our nation, and our species.' 
 At a very early period he had also chanced on the 
 Works of Pope, from whom his style may have gained 
 something in point and polish ; but towards Milton his 
 attitude was if anything equivocal, and while he was 
 also accustomed to peruse the plays of Shakespeare, 
 he was, like all the strange English generation of his 
 time indeed, the English generations from the time 
 of Shakespeare's dethronement by the Puritan re- 
 action, for even after the Restoration Shakespeare 
 lay partly perdu as a literary influence until the 
 nineteenth century almost insensate to the spell of 
 Shakespeare's enchantment, and, it may be, did not 
 rate him quite so highly as 'the celebrated poet' 
 above mentioned. His English models were thus 
 mainly the later eighteenth - century poets; and 
 partly from the unaffected modesty which was one of 
 his most engaging traits, partly from the conscious- 
 ness of his own hap-hazard and unsystematic mental 
 training, he was disposed to adopt towards them too 
 much the attitude of mere admiration. Neither with 
 Thomson, nor Gray, nor the ' celebrated ' Shenstone, 
 had he almost anything in common, and so far as 
 he attempted to tutor himself to the assumption of 
 their particular modes of 'sensibility' to indulge 
 in the contemplative raptures of Thomson, or the 
 cloistered enthusiasm of Gray or the refined
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 435 
 
 sentimentalism of Shenstone he was merely forg- 
 ing chains to curb and fetter his own strong 
 vitality. No doubt they were his masters in the 
 technique of English verse, but only for the reason 
 that in the higher and more elaborate forms of 
 English verse he never advanced beyond the stage 
 of pupilage. 
 
 Carlyle has asserted that had Burns been ' a regular, 
 well-trained, intellectual workman,' he might ' have 
 changed the whole course of British Hispoetic 
 literature ' ; but this of course Burns was possibilities, 
 very far from being. Time, opportunity, and environ- 
 ment were alike wanting for it ; his poetry was the 
 product of moments of leisure snatched from hours 
 of grinding toil amid the companionship of simple 
 rustics. Moreover, at a very early period he had got 
 mentally habituated to the old Scots vernacular 
 staves, especially those which had been revived by 
 Ramsay and Fergusson ; and this early bias was not 
 helpful, but the opposite, to success in English verse. 
 These metrical forms had become effete in England 
 effete because of changes in the idiosyncracy of the 
 language, and advancement in the art of poetical 
 expression since the days of the old vernacular 
 'makaris.' For Scottish vernacular they were still 
 the most suitable, if not the only possible, forms ; but 
 the constant practice of them tended, if anything, to 
 dull the ear for the appreciation of the fuller and 
 richer and more subtle and varied melody of modern 
 English verse, or at least introduced a disturbing
 
 436 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 influence which embarrassed endeavours after accom- 
 plishment in its special achievements. 
 
 Moreover it may be deemed rank blasphemy and 
 worse, indeed has already been so deemed, to put 
 the question, but was Burns specially gifted to 
 excel in the higher and purer forms of poetic expres- 
 sion ? Carlyle who, however, was not partial to 
 poetry for its own sake plainly doubted if he was, at 
 least he expresses the opinion that the bulk of Burns's 
 verse was merely rhymed eloquence rather than 
 poetry, and under the shadow of this great Scottish 
 rock one feels a certain security against the charge 
 of presumption for daring to have at least an open 
 mind on the question. But at any rate, circumstanced 
 as he was toiling as an Ayrshire peasant-farmer, or 
 perambulating as a Dumfries exciseman it would 
 have been the miracle of miracles, which it isn't, had 
 he become the equal of Shakespeare, or Milton, or 
 Shelley, or Tennyson, as a master of English verse. 
 
 We are thus left a good deal in the dark as to the 
 actual possibilities of Burns as a poet the only out- 
 Bums and standing fact being that they were never 
 Byron. fully manifested. Clearly he had much 
 in common with Byron, both being endowed with the 
 same exuberant vitality, the vitality which made 
 Byron the great European personality of his time, 
 while Burns, if less passionate and petulant in his 
 sincerity, had the same uncompromising regard for 
 reality which underlay all Byron's masquerading, and 
 while naturally the finer artist of the two, had a much
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 437 
 
 greater capacity for taking pains. But then the stage 
 of Byron was primarily Europe, and the stage of 
 Burns was primarily only Mauchline and Dumfries ; 
 and the great things that were possible for Burns on 
 the wider stage are, after all, a matter of conjecture. 
 
 Some of these great things were perhaps possible 
 for him even so late as Edinburgh possible had he 
 not been fatally entangled with the past, 
 
 J ' His partial re- 
 
 both by circumstances and habit; but nouncement of 
 knowing himself his needs, obligations, 
 and capacities better than we can know them, he 
 decided to renounce the rose-coloured future that 
 may for a brief period have pictured itself on the 
 horizon of his hopes, and to return to his old, narrow, 
 rustic environment as peasant-farmer. Had he even 
 succeeded as farmer, some of the poetic ambitions 
 which he still continued to cherish might have been 
 realised; but misfortunes and monotonous toil and 
 care, and latterly the exacting duties of exciseman, 
 more and more lowered ' the pitch of his resolution." 
 He made various desultory efforts to perfect his 
 poetic training by wider reading in French as well as 
 English, and momentarily entertained strong hopes 
 of inaugurating a new form of Scottish drama ; but 
 even so much as an attempt to realise them was 
 meanwhile an impossibility, and the very burden of 
 his poetic impossibility drove him more and more to 
 seek his chief consolation in conviviality. Thus, apart 
 from songs his addiction to which in his later years 
 meant that if he had not been ' made weak by time
 
 438 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 and fate,' he had meanwhile ceased either to ' seek ' or 
 'find' a fullerpoetic utterance his career as poet, which 
 had really extended over little more than a short two 
 years, virtually terminated with the publication of the 
 first Edinburgh Edition in 1787, the only great poem 
 of the last nine years of his life being Tarn o' Shanter, 
 which he was led to undertake very much by accident. 
 The vernacular staves of Burns were mainly those 
 which had already been revived by his predecessors 
 The staves of f tne eighteenth century Sempill, 
 Burns. Hamilton of Gilbertfield, Ramsay, and 
 
 ' Standard J ' 
 
 Habbie.' Fergusson. The ' Standard Habbie ' 
 stave of Sempill (see ante, p. 391) suggested the Elegies 
 on Poor Mailie, Tarn Samson, and Captain Matthew 
 Henderson, but besides adopting it, after Hamilton 
 of Gilbertfield, Ramsay, and Fergusson, for his episto- 
 lary verse, he made it the vehicle for such a variety 
 of sentiments and emotions that it virtually became 
 part and parcel of his poetic individuality. 
 
 Its only rival is the Christis Kirk stave, which in 
 The Dream and The Ordination he wrote in the 
 stave of exact Ramsay form, building the octave 
 
 Christis Kirk.- _d er i v ed from the original ballad stave 
 
 Its modifica- 
 tion on two rhymes, as in the original 
 
 Christis Kirk and in Ramsay's cantos, and, like 
 Ramsay, contracting the old bobwheel of two lines 
 into a refrain of one line ending with 'day.' In 
 Tlie Holy Fair and Halloween and The Maucldine 
 Wedding? he, however, adopted the modification of 
 
 1 Published for the first time in The Centenary Burns, ii. 42-44.
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 439 
 
 the ballad octave used by Fergusson in Leith Races 
 and The Hallow Fair, building it usually on four 
 and occasionally on three rhymes. In Halloween 
 he also, of course, substituted 'night' for 'day' in 
 the refrain. Further, occasionally, and especially in 
 Halloween, he introduced internal rhymes, thus 
 virtually transforming either the first quatrain of the 
 stave into the six-line stave in rime couee, fashioned 
 on the imperfect iambic tetrameter (see ante, p. 164), 
 or the whole into one of twelve lines : 
 
 ' Upon that night, 
 
 When fairies light 
 On Cassilis Downans dance ; 
 
 Or o'er the lays, 
 
 In splendid blaze, 
 On sprightly coursers prance,' etc. 
 
 This ballad stave, in its four-rhyme form, he also 
 employed without the refrain in the Address to 
 the Unco Quid and Epistle to a Younq 
 
 , . , Ballad Stave. 
 
 Friend, but modified it throughout by 
 
 the use of double rhymes in the second, fourth, sixth, 
 
 and eighth lines : 
 
 ' ye, wha are sae guid yoursel, 
 
 Sae pious and sae holy, 
 Ye 've nought to do but mark and tell 
 
 Your neebours' fauts and folly. 
 Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill, well-going 
 
 Supplied wi' store o' water ; 
 
 The heapet happer 's ebbing still, hopper 
 
 An' still the clap plays clatter.' clapper 
 
 Further, in Guildford Good he adopted the modified 
 form of the ballad stave which, on account of the 
 use of internal rhymes throughout, virtually assumes
 
 440 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the rime coude form derived from the old ballad 
 Killychrankie, the last word of the double rhyme, 
 ' man,' forming practically a kind of refrain. 
 
 The next most characteristic stave of Burns is that 
 
 of The Cherry and the Slae. This piece as well as The 
 
 Vision usually attributed to Ramsay 
 
 Stave of . J J 
 
 The cherry himself, who, at any rate, made use of 
 
 and the Slae.' , ... _,, _. . . 
 
 the stave in other pieces, as The Petition 
 to the Whinbush Club and The Address to the Town 
 Council Burns had read in The Evergreen, and he 
 also got to know The Bankis of Helicon, which was 
 published in Pinkerton's Ancient Scotish Poems, 
 1786. In The Epistle to Davie. and one or two 
 other pieces, the stave is employed in a somewhat 
 mechanical fashion, without any realisation even of 
 the picturesque effects attained by Montgomerie ; but 
 this cannot be said of the recitatives in The Jolly 
 Beggars, where its capabilities are first fully mad 
 manifest : 
 
 next ' First, niest the fire, in auld red rags, 
 
 Ane sat, weel brac'd wi' mealy bags, 
 
 And knapsack a' in order ; 
 His doxy lay within his arm, 
 
 whisky Wi' usquebae an' blankets warm, 
 
 leered She blinket on her sodger. 
 
 flushed with . , , . , . ~, , 
 
 driuk An aye he gies the tozie drab 
 
 Ending The tither skelpin kiss, 
 
 mouth While she held up her greedy gab 
 
 alms Just like an aumous dish : 
 
 each Ilk smack still, did crack still, 
 
 hawker's Like onie cadger's whup ; 
 
 Then swaggering and staggering, 
 He roar"d this ditty up.'
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWAKDS 441 
 
 Other poetic forms of the old 'makaris' used by 
 Burns, under sanction of Ramsay and Fergusson, 
 were the octo-syllabic and heroic couplets, The oc to- 
 and, like them, he used those forms s ^ c ic&nd 
 chiefly for tales or narratives ; but those cou P lets - 
 simplest of rhyme-forms had, of course, also sur- 
 vived in English verse. 
 
 But a stave which neither Ramsay nor Fergusson 
 had ventured to attempt, and which Burns got from 
 The Evergreen, was the French octave. The French 
 Obtaining it directly from the old octave - 
 'makaris,' he wrote it with much more punctilious 
 correctness, as regards both rhythm and rhyme, 
 than was his custom, and while using it with dis- 
 cretion for such 'heich and grave subjects' as The 
 Lament and The Address to Edinburgh, he applied 
 it to a subject that was neither 'heich' nor 'grave' 
 in one of the recitatives of The Jolly Beggars, where its 
 ancient gravity is at least admirably burlesqued : 
 
 ' Poor Merry- Andrew in the neuk corner 
 
 Sat guzzling wi' a tinkler-hizzie ; tinker- 
 
 wench 
 They mind't na wha the chorus teuk, cared not 
 
 Between themselves they were sae busy. 
 
 At length, wi' drink an' courting dizzy, 
 He stoiter'd up an' made a face ; struggled 
 
 Then turn'd an' laid a smack on Grizzle, 
 Syne tun'd his pipes wi' grave grimace.' then 
 
 The only other stave in rime cowee, in addition to 
 Standard Habbie' used by Burns is in . sirThopas . 
 Epistle to Lord Daer and Fintry My staves - 
 Stay the six-line stave divided into two equal
 
 442 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 sections, of which the simplest form is that of 
 Chaucer's Sir Thopas (see ante, p. 162), which is built 
 on two rhymes. There are no examples in The Ever- 
 green, though it is common in later English verse, and 
 Burns, who employs the form built on three rhymes, 
 probably got it from Ramsay's Address of Thanks. 
 
 Examples of various other staves of the old 
 'makaris' Burns, of course, saw in The Evergreen, 
 
 Limited range ^Ut ^ 6 ma> & G n attempt to Utilise them, 
 
 ofBums's an d ^ ma y k e wisely, so far at least as 
 
 accomplish- 
 ment in the his popularity with the masses was 
 
 old vernacular n , . , , 
 
 staves, and in concerned, for the eighteenth -century 
 
 English verse. ^^ ^ already become thoroughly 
 
 enamoured of the two main verse -forms which 
 Burns elected to make his own. Nor must we 
 forget that The Evergreen did not bring home to 
 him the poetic individualities of Henryson, or Dunbar, 
 or Scott, or even Montgomerie, as it is now possible 
 to recognise them. 1 But whatever variety of reasons 
 may account for it, the fact remains that, compared 
 with the old ' makaris,' the range of his accomplish- 
 ment in the old vernacular metres was extremely 
 limited ; nor within his limited range is he the equal 
 of any of those four ' makaris ' hi faultlessness of art, 
 much of his work, especially as regards rhyme, being 
 lawless and irregular. It is in the very simple stave 
 of 'Standard Habbie' (a stave which almost writes 
 
 1 Burns never seems to have recognised the strong individuality 
 of Dunbar, which is the more remarkable that he had so much in 
 common with him ; but then to him, as to Ramsay, Dunbar was 
 a mere name.
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 443 
 
 itself), that he is most effective ; and when he attempts 
 the more complex, or more nobly and variedly musical, 
 forms of English verse, he is merely a blind Samson 
 ' grinding in fetters,' with his ' heaven-gifted strength.' 
 As a vernacular lyrist he is often altogether magical 
 and irresistible, but the strain of his enchantment is 
 simple in the extreme, none of the more exquisite 
 rhymal and rhythmical effects of English lyrism being 
 so much as attempted. " 
 
 We thus reach the inevitable conclusion that 
 Burns triumphs neither by virtue nor by aid of 
 supreme technical accomplishment, but 
 
 His successes 
 
 in spite of an almost merely elementary achieved by 
 
 i IT / i T i simple means. 
 
 knowledge oi the metrical art. It is the The joiiy 
 marvellous success achieved by simple eggars - 
 means that renders him, within his own sphere, the 
 rare and peerless poetic artist that he is. Take for 
 example The Jolly Beggars. Metrically it is a mere 
 disordered and incongruous medley of scraps from the 
 old vernacular ' makaris ' and the innominate rhymers 
 of tradition, and the broadsides and the penny chap- 
 books. It is resonant of the echoes and refrains and 
 sentiments of a miscellaneous crowd of preceding 
 bards, celebrated and obscure. It is wholly lacking 
 not merely in artistic originality, but almost in in- 
 dividuality of metrical achievement, and never was 
 a literary victory so renowned gained by methods so 
 wholly unauthorised by the higher conventions, and 
 in fact so unpretentious almost to contemptibility. 
 But the victory is none the less complete and none
 
 444 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the less intrinsically great. Out of what seems poetic 
 chaos he creates a nobly harmonious poetic unity, 
 and in the realisation of his purpose he is so brilliantly, 
 even radiantly, successful that this blackguard 
 carousal in the squalid Ayrshire dosshouse becomes 
 instinct with a human interest so genuine and 
 alluring that only the very dullest or morosest can 
 resist its spell. 
 
 But what, then, is the outstanding quality of this 
 singularly anomalous classic ? Is it not 
 
 Exuberant * 
 
 vitality in the its exuberant vitality? the verve, the 
 
 form of . . . 
 
 humorous elan, the abounding and 'unremitting 
 
 sympathy. , i i 
 
 energy, which 
 
 ' pervades, 
 Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole'? 
 
 The vitality is as all-pervading as it is ardent, being 
 rooted in his own deep and full humanity, and 
 expressing itself in the only form in which it could, 
 in the circumstances, be adequately effective the 
 form of humorous sympathy. Had he been merely 
 witty he would have ceased to be in any sense 
 sympathetic : the humanism of the scene would have 
 vanished, or become merely secondary, and we should 
 have been treated to a merely cleverer repetition of 
 the Zolaesque squalidity of Ramsay's Christis Kirk. 
 Nor, except in the form chiefly of humour, could 
 he have denoted his sympathy without revolting the 
 finer susceptibilities without, that is, degrading him- 
 self entirely to the level of his company, and thus 
 practically ceasing to be poetical.
 
 BUKNS AND AFTEKWAKDS 445 
 
 It is the abundance and depth of his humorous 
 sympathy which is Burns's most idiomatic charac- 
 teristic, as it is certainly the secret of H isres P on. 
 his unique hold over the affections of siveness - 
 the great mass of his countrymen, who are necessarily 
 as blind to his inevitable limitations as they are to 
 the higher beauties and refinements of his art. Few 
 poets, even, have ever been so immediately and fully 
 responsive to external impressions. Thus Gilbert 
 says that in his youth ' he was constantly the victim 
 of some fair enslaver,' and that in this condition ' the 
 agitation of his mind and body exceeded anything 
 I know in real life.' This same exceptional re- 
 sponsiveness may be discovered even in his cor- 
 respondence, so that merely from his letters it would 
 be rash to assert anything very decisive as to his 
 individual opinions on many important matters of 
 life and conduct. He was ' Hail, fellow ! well met ! ' 
 with almost every son or daughter of Adam or 
 Eve who manifested any smallest tincture of genial 
 humanity, from ' that part of mankind commonly 
 known by the ordinary phrase of " blackguards," ' up 
 to professors of Moral Philosophy like Professor 
 Dugald Stewart, or staid and worthy matrons like 
 Mrs. Dunlop. In any company where he found 
 himself, whether that of the revellers in some village 
 tavern, or that of the wits and beauties of elegant 
 Edinburgh salons, he was 'the soul of all the rest,' 
 and this by virtue of the subtle responsiveness by 
 which he adapted himself to its atmosphere, and
 
 446 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 reflected in a glorified form its special mood. To 
 use his own phrase, he was like the '^Eolian harp 
 passive,' and gave forth music as the chords of his 
 nature were moved by the varying influences of the 
 moment. 
 
 With this abundance and depth of humorous 
 sympathy, Burns could scarce have been aught else 
 His eloquence, than eloquent, and perhaps, as Carlyle 
 giamour^and opined, he is rather eloquent than strictly 
 his art. poetical; but after all, poetry is only a 
 
 higher form of eloquence, and it is difficult to define 
 where the one merges in the other. If Burns was 
 in no degree a poet in the almost disembodied sense 
 that Shelley sometimes was, he was at least a 
 sufficiently poetic realist ; and if he never attained to 
 a thorough mastery of the more elaborate technique 
 of poetry, he did succeed in enveloping himself and 
 all that concerned him in a glamour which has been 
 poetical enough to bewitch the mass of his fellow- 
 countrymen, and to fascinate a very large proportion 
 of the educated outside world. His art is at least 
 wholly admirable of its kind and within its own 
 range. If lacking in rhythmical variety and subtlety 
 and in the more refined forms of poetic beauty, 1 no 
 poetry was ever more genuinely and inevitably true 
 to nature, or more exactly and delicately expressive 
 of the poet's intention. ' All my poetry,' he told Mrs. 
 Dunlop, 'is the result of easy composition but of 
 
 i See especially on this subject a note in Mr. Henley's Essay in 
 the Centenary Burns, vol. iv. p. 275.
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 447 
 
 laborious correction,' which is simply to say that it 
 combined genuine inspiration, as all true poetry 
 must, with painstaking art; and by virtue of the 
 results of his laborious correction that is, as he also 
 expresses it, of his ' finishing polish ' Burns ranks 
 with the greater poetic artists. 
 
 Burns has been measured and equalled in all sorts 
 of ways with the great English poets ; by one critic 
 or another he has been endowed with Cannot 
 what the particular critic deemed the P r periybe 
 
 measured with 
 
 most admirable qualities of Chaucer, or English poets. 
 Shakespeare, or Milton, or Thomson, or fashioned by 
 Wordsworth, or Shelley, while some na e c uiartra- 
 scarce scruple to affirm that he con- dltlon - 
 centrates in himself the most shining excellences of 
 the whole galaxy. If in such predicainental cir- 
 cumstances one might venture a comparison at all, 
 it would be in the direction of suggesting that he 
 is a sort of rustic Shakespeare; though there are 
 of course whole regions of thought and emotion and 
 poetic accomplishment in Shakespeare that Burns 
 leaves untouched untouched because they were out- 
 side his purview, and so wholly outside of it that 
 he scarce even dreamed of their existence. But in 
 the case of Burns comparison with Shakespeare or 
 any other English poet is almost wholly futile, for 
 the reason that among modern British poets he is, 
 at his best, entirely sui generis. What connection 
 he had with the modern English school was com- 
 paratively superficial. He obtained from it neither
 
 448 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 the inspiration nor discipline correspondent to his 
 finer issues. His true poetic ancestors were the old 
 Scots 'makaris,' and in a measure that is, so far 
 as they were the interpreters of tho old ' makaris '- 
 Ramsay and Fergusson, and the ' glorious old Bards ' 
 of the 'Ancient Fragments,' glorious old bards, 
 whose 'very names are buried amongst the wreck 
 of things that were.' 
 
 More especially was Burns beholden to the ' Ancient 
 
 Fragments.' As we have seen, before the coming of 
 
 Burns, and through the offices of Ramsay 
 
 His indebted- . * 
 
 ness to the and others, a modern lyric school had 
 
 'Ancient Frag- . o , , ,, . 
 
 arisen in ocotiand oi somewhat mis- 
 
 on> cellaneous nationality, but so far as it 
 got its inspiration from the old vernacular tradition 
 representing an art which had its beginnings in the 
 far past, and bore unmistakable impress of the 
 varied skill of a considerable succession of poetic 
 artists. Several successors of Ramsay were more 
 faithful to the old vernacular tradition than Ramsay, 
 and manifested in isolated songs a much truer in- 
 spiration. Burns, on the whole, was also faithful to 
 the old tradition, and unmistakably faithful to it 
 in vernacular song. He did write a variety of 
 Scoto-English song, but it was not the amorphous 
 variety of Ramsay; and he also wrote mainly at 
 the instance of Thomson of the Scottish Airs, and 
 out of the abundance of his own good nature a 
 number of songs in English after the inflatedly 
 sentimental fashion of his time. Even in these
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 449 
 
 stray gleams of genius may be discerned, and they 
 nearly all display something of his ' finishing polish,' 
 but he probably set little store by the most of them. 
 And whether or not, it is only so far as he has been 
 faithful to the old vernacular tradition as he has 
 caught its tone, and adopted, while glorifying, its 
 methods that he has earned for himself a place 
 amongst the greatest of British lyrists. Indeed, it 
 may even be affirmed that he triumphs more 
 especially when the strain of his song is very much 
 the echo of an 'ancient fragment,' an echo which 
 he merely enriches and prolongs; and that if we 
 subtract from his lyrical achievement the songs not 
 so derived, we rob him of a good deal more than half 
 his claim to be regarded as the supreme lyrist of his 
 country. 1 
 
 Burns, then, owes his peculiar place apart among 
 great poets very much to an exceptional con- 
 juncture of circumstances reaching back 
 
 , t i i > i i i f ci Advantages of 
 
 to the period when the old school ot Scots his peasant- 
 ' makaris ' became not merely extinct, but ' 
 
 whelmed in temporary oblivion. He thus, poet - and ex- 
 
 J ' ceptionally the 
 
 in a sort of vicarious sense, represents the national poet 
 
 , ' ,-,-, of Scotland. 
 
 nation s poetic past, and he was enabled to 
 do so very much by virtue of his peasanthood. Had 
 he been the fully equipped intellectual workman of 
 which Carlyle dreamed, and which some suppose him 
 
 1 For Burna's relation to the 'Ancient Fragments,' see The 
 Centenary Burns, vol. iii., and Mr. Henley's Essay, vol. iv. 
 pp. 321-334. 
 
 2F
 
 450 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 to have been, his poetic achievement would doubcless 
 have been even greater than it is, but it could not have 
 been so peculiarly Scottish. A great vernacular poet 
 on the old lines as a fully equipped intellectual work- 
 man, and representing the blossom of the nation's con- 
 temporary culture was no longer possible in Scotland. 
 He could represent little more than its past, and could 
 sway it mainly by reviving its old forgotten memories ; 
 and so to represent and sway it, it was necessary that 
 he should, in a measure, be detached from artificial 
 modern influences, so that nothing should intervene 
 between him and the ancient tradition. Thus his 
 peasant upbringing and surroundings were almost an 
 essential part of Burns's training ; and yet he is much 
 more than a mere peasant poet, and this because he 
 had, by virtue of the enforced silence of the Scottish 
 muse for several generations, fallen heir to the old 
 poetic tradition a far higher poetic tradition than 
 could derive from even an ideal peasantry, and a 
 much nobler poetic heritage than any other peasantry 
 ever possessed. Though he came in the guise of a 
 peasant, and as the glorifier of common things, he 
 came therefore as the Scottish national poet in a 
 sense unexampled and unique. By virtue of his 
 instant and universal responsiveness he was able 
 almost to identify his personality with the person- 
 ality of the nation, and especially to create a form of 
 lyric which, while exactly expressive of his own rare 
 individualism, is diversified and enriched, and, so 
 to say, nationalised, by the combined experience,
 
 BUKNS AND AFTEEWAKDS 451 
 
 emotion, and lyric art of many generations of poetic 
 predecessors. 1 
 
 The fame and personality of Burns naturally tend 
 to dwarf those of contemporaries and successors ; and 
 while they helped to prolong the old ver- 
 
 In Burns the 
 
 nacular tradition, with him that tradition revived vema 
 
 ill i- /. . . n cular poetry 
 
 necessarily reached the climax of its innu- attains its 
 ence. By the very nature of the case a 
 repetition of his achievements as vernacular poet 
 was impossible, and we need not here follow this 
 decaying tradition beyond the more prominent of 
 his immediate successors. 
 
 Among his contemporaries was John Mayne, who, 
 though born in the same year as Burns, won quicker 
 fame as a verse writer. As early as 1775 John May ne 
 he had published a portion of his lively tos* l *&)- 
 and picturesque, if not quite poetic, Siller Gun, and to 
 his Halloween, which first appeared in Ruddiman's 
 Magazine in 1780, Burns was indebted for something 
 more than the mere name of his poem on the same 
 subject ; while Mayne's Logan Braes founded on an 
 older ditty is an admirably simple expression of true 
 love sentiment, and indeed superior to Burns's semi- 
 political and wholly artificial Logan Water. 
 
 A collaborateur with Burns on Johnson's Museum 
 
 1 Much of the sentiment and emotion expressed in Burns's lyrics 
 lies outside his own personal experience. Nor could any single 
 poetic individuality have invented such varied forms of lyrical 
 expression. Their charm derives largely from their relation to 
 generations long anterior to ours ; and it is Burns's chief praise to 
 have embalmed this ancient charm in a modern lyric.
 
 452 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 was James Tytler, a gentleman of good education 
 james Tytier an< * varied accomplishments, and who, 
 (1747-1805). besides editing and in great part writing 
 the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
 engaged in numerous literary ventures, but so un- 
 successfully that Burns describes him as dangling 
 ' about Edinburgh as a common printer, with leaky 
 shoes, a sky-lighted hat, and knee-buckles, as unlike 
 George-by-the-Grace-of-God, as Solomon the Son of 
 David.' Tytler, like Burns, had clearly access to the 
 Herd MS., and mainly devoted himself to the adapta- 
 tion of old songs. Burns specially praises his Bonnie 
 Brucket Lassie for its original ending. 
 
 Though older in years than Burns, Hector MacNeill 
 
 achieved his earliest success as a vernacular poet with 
 
 Scotland's Skaith, 1795, and The Woes o' 
 
 Hector 
 
 MacNeiii War, 1796, intended to illustrate the 
 insidious evils of the drinking customs of 
 the time, which they do with some pathetic power ; 
 but he is now mainly remembered for his lyrics, which 
 are at least perfectly sincere and natural, while their 
 somewhat commonplace emotion is frequently ex- 
 pressed with much humorous vivacity. Among the 
 best are Mary of Castlecary, My Boy Tammie, 1 1 Lo'ed 
 ne'er a Laddie but Ane, and Come under my Plaidie. 
 
 1 My Boy Tammie preserves echoes of an older song, as the 
 following fragment from the Herd MS. witnesses : 
 ' I am to court a wife, 
 And I '11 love her a' my life ; 
 But she is a young thing, 
 And new come frae her mamie,' eto,
 
 BUENS AND AFTERWAKDS 453 
 
 Several ladies, contemporaries of Burns, have been 
 more or less successful in vernacular lyrics. Susanna 
 Blamire (1747-1794), the ' Muse of Cum- 
 
 ' Ladycontem- 
 
 berland,' achieved in The Nabob a not un- poraries of 
 successful variation on Auld Lang Syne, 
 and in And ye shall Walk in Silk Attire, and What 
 Ails this Heart of Mine? found graceful expression for 
 somewhat hackneyed sentimentalism. A vein of true 
 poetry is, however, revealed in Elizabeth Hamilton's 
 (1758-1816) My Ain Fireside, which must ever re- 
 main the classic utterance on the subject; while 
 Mrs. Grant of Carron (1745-1814) in Roy's Wife ex- 
 presses with humorous felicity the light-hearted 
 regrets of a jilted swain, and Mrs. Grant of Laggan 
 (1755-1838), in Where, tell me Where, is, after the 
 Jacobite manner, though not on a Jacobite theme, 
 sentimentally martial. 
 
 The reputation of Joanna Baillie is assured apart 
 from her Scottish lyrics, some of which are very 
 much in the English manner; but Saw j oan naBamie 
 Ye Johnie Comiri? is so radically verna- ('Tea-issi). 
 cular that Burns who affirmed that 'for genuine 
 humour in the verses and lively originality in the 
 air ' it was ' unparalleled ' took it ' to be very old.' 
 Among other successes of Miss Baillie is a version of 
 Woo'd and Married and A' ; and she was also not 
 unsuccessful in humorous narrative, as in Tarn d the 
 Lin and It was on a Morning. 
 
 But the laureate among Scottish poetesses is Caro- 
 lina Oliphant, Baroness Nairne, on whom some have
 
 454 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 almost ventured to affirm the lyric mantle of Burns 
 has descended, though she is, of course, wholly lack- 
 caroiina, i Q g m Burns's depth and passion. With 
 Baroness ^er an( j fa^ h ouse Jacobitism was almost 
 
 Nairne 
 
 (1766-1845). a religion, and her Jacobite lyrics are on 
 the whole her best. Nowhere is the pure romantic 
 devotion of Jacobitism more finely and ardently 
 expressed than in Will ye no Come back again ? or in 
 He's Ower the Hills that I Lo'e Weel; and in The 
 Hundred Pipers its martial sentiment is conveyed 
 with an admirable blending of humour, pathos, and 
 defiance. Her love lyrics, as Huntingtower and 
 The Lass o' Gowrie, are in sentiment a little hackneyed 
 and superficial ; but pathos, homely yet tender and 
 strong, is manifested in The Rowan Tree, The Auld 
 Hoose, The Land o' the Leal, and even in Caller 
 Herrin' ; and the old-world episode of The Laird o' 
 Cockpen is narrated with delightfully graceful naivete 
 and humour. 
 
 The only rival of the Baroness Nairne among the 
 lyric successors of Burns is Jaines Hogg, the Ettrick 
 james Hogg Shepherd, whose Jacobite Eelics generally 
 (1770-1835). owe mos j; o f their finest poetic qualities 
 to Hogg himself, and whose own original Jacobite 
 lyrics, as Rise, rise, Cam' ye by Atliol, and Maclean's 
 Welcome, have at least a fine rhythmical ease and 
 swing, and display a truly martial verve. But Hogg 
 has little or no connection with the wider Scottish 
 vernacular tradition. The bulk of his verse, and 
 even of his lyrics, is in English, and some only
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 455 
 
 partially in English might as well have been wholly 
 so. He did cherish the ambition to become Burns's 
 successor; and perhaps he possessed a more purely 
 poetic temperament, but he was essentially a Border 
 reiver. His tradition was that of the old Border 
 minstrels ; and his poetry represents especially the 
 old Border spirit of adventure and romance, blended 
 with a superstitious mysticism closely allied to that 
 of the Highland Celt. His worst and damning fault 
 is his diffuseness, and, notwithstanding many fine 
 poetic touches, his long-drawn sweetness tends to 
 pall upon the reader. Still, the mystic charm of 
 Kil/meny is undeniable, and not less the weird 
 diablerie of The Witch of Fife ; while in The Moun- 
 tain Bard the wild, adventurous, lawless, superstitious 
 reiver lives again. Hogg's facility in versification 
 was apt to prove a snare to him, but he is always 
 graceful and musical ; and nowhere has the charm of 
 the peaceful aspects of Nature the charm peculiar 
 to the haughs and valleys of southern Scotland 
 been more delightfully and delicately set forth than in 
 such lyrics as The Skylark and The Kye comes Hame. 
 Hogg as a poet was very much a rustic Sir Walter 
 Scott, 1 who was, besides, the founder of a vernacular 
 school of his own, that of the vernacular Sir Walter 
 novel a subject too vast for our present scott (1771-1832). 
 consideration, but who very seldom in his poetry 
 drops into the vernacular and makes very chary 
 
 1 For Scott's relation to the Traditional Ballad, see 
 pp. 362-3, 366-8.
 
 456 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 use of it even in his lyrics, the only almost pure ex- 
 amples being the spirited Jock o' Hazeldean founded 
 on an old ballad, the witty character sketch of Donald 
 Caird, and his new version of Carle, now the King 'a 
 Come; but March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale 
 derived from the old General Leslie's March contains 
 at least one vernacular exclamation ; and the vernacu- 
 lar slightly tinges his re-reading of D'Urfey's Bonnie 
 Dundee. Moreover, if neither the wild Macgregor's 
 Gathering, nor the stirring Pibroch of Donald Dhu, 
 nor the wailing Machrimmon's Lament can be strictly 
 termed Scots, neither are they quite English. 
 
 A contemporary of Hogg and Scott was Sir 
 
 Alexander Boswell, the eldest son of Johnson's 
 
 ' Bozzie.' An Ayrshire squire, he was an 
 
 Sir Alexander . ' 
 
 Bosweii ardent admirer of Robert Burns, and 
 
 the originator of the movement for the 
 erection of a monument to him at the Tarn o' 
 Shanter bridge over the Doon. He wrote occasional 
 verse, both in English and the vernacular, for recital 
 at county banquets and other functions. His humor- 
 ous lyrics, Jenny's Bawbee and Jenny Dang the 
 Weaver, are, however, much above the 'occasional' 
 level ; and his East Neuk o' Fife is a drolly realistic 
 sketch of a matrimonial duel, which, on the wife's 
 part, begins in this promising fashion : 
 
 old fellow ' Auld gudenian, ye 're a drucken carle, drucken carle ; 
 yawning A' the lang day ye 're winkin', drinkin', gapin', gauntin' ; 
 
 varlets 0' sottish loons, ye 're the pink and pearl, pink and pearl, 
 
 ugly, stupid Ill-far'd, doited ne'er-do-weel.' 
 
 But the battle in the end remains drawn.
 
 BURNS AND AFTERWARDS 457 
 
 Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), chief of the many 
 Paisley poets, is little more than sweetly sentimental ; 
 but his Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane, 
 
 Robert 
 
 The Braes of Balquhither, The Bonnie Tannahiii 
 
 Wood o' Graigie-Lea, and many more, 
 
 all in the same gently amorous, or gently musing 
 
 vein, have found a permanent place in Scottish 
 
 song-books. 
 
 Among somewhat later bards, Allan Cunningham 
 has the most assured position. He had a knowledge 
 of old traditional song similar to that of 
 
 Allan 
 
 Burns, and though Cromek's Remains of Cunningham 
 Niihsdale and Galloway Song, 1810, was 
 largely his concoction, it embodies some ' remains ' of 
 older lyrics. Bonie Lady Ann is a clever amalgam 
 of the homely, the ornamental, and the romantic ; and 
 Hame, Hame, Hame is prettily, if merely artificially, 
 Jacobite; and if John Grumlie echoes only very 
 faintly the admirable humour of The Wyfe of 
 Auchtirmwchty , My Nanie, is quite equal to 
 Burns's song of that title, and The Wee, Wee German 
 Lairdie is at least boisterously funny ; but his best 
 song, A Wet Sheet, is wholly English. 
 
 With Allan Cunningham our record of Scottish 
 Vernacular Literature must close. Various later 
 song- writers have achieved isolated sue- 
 
 The deepening 
 
 cesses, as William Laidlaw (1780-1845) in twilight and 
 Lucy's Flittin'; William Thorn (1789- 
 1848) in The Mitherless Bairn; William Watt 
 (1793-1859) in The Tinkler's Waddiri, and the
 
 458 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 comic masterpiece Kate Dalrymple ; Robert Gilfillan 
 (1798-1850) in 0, Why Left I my Hame ? and William 
 Nicholson (d. 1849) in the eerie ballad of Aiken 
 Drum. The antecedence of Burns may also be dis- 
 cerned in the work of all the more characteristically 
 Scottish writers from Sir Walter Scott to R. L. 
 Stevenson and Mr. J. M. Barrie; but as regards 
 vernacular poetry, his death was really the setting 
 of the sun; the twilight deepened very quickly; 
 and such twinkling lights as from time to time 
 appear only serve to disclose the darkness of the 
 all-encompassing night.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ADAMS, Jean, 417. 
 
 Adew Dundee, 376. 
 
 Afflek, James, 132. 
 
 Alban, 5. 
 
 Alliteration (unrhymed), 36, 152. 
 
 Alliterative romance stave, 34-8, 
 
 78, 91, 117, 134, 153, 201, 220, 
 
 257. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, 6. 
 Anglo-Scottish ballads, 373-8. 
 Anteris of Gatvaine, 35. 
 Arbuthnot, Alexander, 268. 
 Assonance, 361. 
 Auchtirmwchty, The Wife of, 238, 
 
 287-9. 
 
 Auld Maitland, 355. 
 Awntyre of Gawaine, The, 34-37. 
 Awntyrs of Arthur, The, 34-37, 79. 
 
 BAILLIE, Joanna, 453. 
 
 Baillie, Lady Grizel, 394. 
 
 Ballad stave, 111, 117, 293, 439. 
 
 Ballade stave, 244, 258. 
 
 Ballads, 335-370. 
 
 Ballat Royal. See FRENCH OCTAVE. 
 
 Bannatyne, George, 239. 
 
 Bannockburn, Song after, 17. 
 
 Barbour, John, 41-56. 
 
 Barclay, Rev. John, 418. 
 
 Barnard, Lady Anne, 416-7. 
 
 Bellenden, John, 232, 304-5. 
 
 Berwick, Siege of, Rhyme on, 17. 
 
 Birrel, Eobert, 330. 
 
 Blamire, Susanna, 453. 
 
 Bobwheel, 29. 
 
 Bobwheel refrain, 159, 161, 294. 
 
 Bobwheel stave, 154, 265. 
 
 Border ballads, 366-7. 
 
 Boswell, Sir Alexander, 456. 
 Broom of Cowden Knowes, The, 
 
 374-6. 
 
 Bruce, The, 41-56. 
 Brut, The, 42. 
 Buchan, Peter, 342, G51. 
 Buchanan, George, 268, 303, 317-22. 
 Burel, John, 257, 268. 
 Burne, Nicol, 276. 
 Burns, Robert, 15, 109, 113, 251, 385, 
 
 427-51. 
 
 Byrhtnoth, The Death of, 360. 
 Byron, 436. 
 
 CALDBRWOOD, David, 331. 
 Gantus, Early, 16. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, on Burns, 435-6. 
 Catholic religious poetry, 269. 
 Chambers, Robert, 342, 351. 
 Chappell, W., on Scottish song, 335, 
 
 371, 372, 373. 
 Chartier, Alain, 307, 311. 
 Chaucer, 65, 77, 84, 94, 99, 100, 117, 
 
 125, 155, 156, 160, 162, 171, 185, 
 
 186, 299. 
 
 Chevy Ghace, 357-61. 
 Child, Professor, on ballads, 336, 
 
 352. 
 
 Christis Kirk, 105-12. 
 ' Christis Kirk' stave, 111, 247, 423, 
 
 438. 
 Chronicle of Scotland, Wyntoun's, 
 
 56. 
 
 Clerk, John, 132-3. 
 Cockburn, Mrs., 416. 
 Oolkelbie's Sow, 84-90. 
 Complaynt of Scotland, The, 305-13. 
 
 Court of Low, The, 96, 98. 
 459
 
 460 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Courtbope, Professor, on Dunbar, 151, 
 
 184 ; on ballads, 34C, 359-64. 
 Cromek, R, H., 341. 
 Cumbria, 1, 2. 
 
 Cunningham, Allan, 341, 457. 
 ' Cuttit and broken verse,' 259. 
 Cymri, 1, 2. 
 
 DANISH IMHIGBATI s, 2. 
 
 David n., Quatrain, after marriage 
 
 of. 18. 
 
 Davidson, John, 217, 276. 
 Diurnal of Occurrents, 330. 
 Douglas, Gavin, 78, 189-201. 
 Drama, 217-9. 
 Drummond, Margaret, 294. 
 Drummond, William, 387-9. 
 Dumb Wy/, The, 290. 
 Dunbar. William, 145-88, 189-90. 
 
 EARLY CANTOS, 16. 
 
 Early English, 6. 
 
 Ebsworth, Mr., on ballads,335,378-80. 
 
 Edom o' Gordon, 368-9. 
 
 Edward, 337-8. 
 
 Elliot, Jane, 416. 
 
 Erceldoune, Thomas of, 19-31, 358. 
 
 Evergreen, The, 410-11. 
 
 Ewen, John, 418. 
 
 FEBGUSSON, Robert, 15, 113, 419-26. 
 
 Fethy, 237. 
 
 Finlay's Scottish Ballads, 341. 
 
 Five-line stave, 133, 139, 157, 
 201, 234, 238, 239, 244, 258. 
 
 Fleming, 237. 
 
 Four-line stave, 247. 
 
 Fowler, William, 267. 
 
 Freiris of Benoick, 175, 277-83. 
 
 French ballade, 156, 295. 
 
 French octave, 65, 117, 121, 132, 135, 
 137, 145, 155, 197, 201, 215, 220, 
 233, 236, 237, 243, 257, 289, 441. 
 
 Furnivall, Dr., on ballads, 335, 371. 
 
 Futhy, Sir John, 237. 
 
 Fyue Bestis, Tailis of the, 93. 
 
 Gaberlunzie Man, The, 236. 
 
 Gawain, Sir, and the Green Knight, 
 
 34-8. 
 
 Geddes, Alexander, 415. 
 Geste, HistoricaU, 34. 
 Gilfillan, Robert, 458. 
 Glassinbery, 140. 
 Glencairn, Earl of, 276. 
 Golagros and Gawaine, 34. 
 Gosse, Mr. Edmund, on Dunbar, 185. 
 Graham, Dougal, 417-8. 
 Grant, Mrs., of Carron, 453. 
 Grant, Mrs., of Laggan, 453. 
 Gray-Steel, Sir, 38. 
 Gude and Godlie Battates, TJie, 103, 
 
 270-3, 274. 
 Gummere, Professor, on ballads, 
 
 345-6. 
 Gyre-Carling, The, 91-2. 
 
 Habbie Simson, 391. 
 Hailes, Lord, 337, 338. 
 Halkett, George, 418. 
 Hamilton, Elizabeth, 453. 
 Hamilton, William, of Baugour, 413. 
 Hamilton, William, of Gilbertfield, 
 
 397-8. 
 
 Harry, Blind, 62-75. 
 Hay, Sir Gilbert, 140. 
 Henley, Mr. W. E., on Burns, 427, 
 
 446. 
 
 Henry the Minstrel, 62-75. 
 Henryson, Robert, 64, 115-31, 135. 
 Herd, David, 338. 
 Heroic couplet, 65, 85, 89, 154, 215, 
 
 423, 441. 
 Heryot, 140. 
 
 Hew, Sir, of Eglinton, 32. 
 Heywood, John, 216. 
 Hoffmann, Dr., on Montgomerie, 255. 
 Hogg, James, 382, 454-5. 
 Holland, Sir Richard, 133. 
 Horn Child, The, 24. 
 Huchown, 31-9, 79. 
 Hudson, Robert, 267. 
 Hudson, Thomas, 267. 
 Hume, Alexander, 274. 
 Huntis Up, The, 371-2.
 
 INDEX 
 
 461 
 
 INOLIS, Sir James, 233, 305. 
 
 In May in a Morning, 294. 
 
 In Somer, 291. 
 
 Interlude of the Droichis Part, 217. 
 
 Iteration, 36, 294. 
 
 JAMES i., 94-115. 
 
 James iv., 294. 
 
 James vi., 266-7, 333-4. 
 
 James Sext, History of, 330. 
 
 Jamieson, Robert, 340. 
 
 Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, 
 
 339. 
 
 Johnstoun, Patrick, 63, 135-6. 
 Jok and Jynny, The Wowing of, 289- 
 
 290. 
 
 KENNEDY, Walter, 142-6. 
 
 King Berdok, 90. 
 
 King Horn, 24. 
 
 Kingis Quair, 95-103. 
 
 Kinloch, 342. 
 
 Kirkcaldy, Sir William, 276. 
 
 Knox, John, 304, 321-8, 332. 
 
 Kyd, 233. 
 
 Kyllour, 217. 
 
 Kyrielle, 157, 220, 291. 
 
 LAIDLAW, William, 457. 
 
 Lancelot of the Lak, 39, 96. 
 
 Lang, Mr. Andrew, on ballads, 343- 
 
 349. 
 
 Langland, 177. 
 Latin prose, 301-3. 
 Lander, William, 231. 
 Legends of the Saints, The, 42. 
 Leslie, Bishop John, 303, 329-30. 
 Lichtoun Monicus, 239. 
 Liddesdale, The Lord of, 356. 
 Lockart, Mungo, 140. 
 Lord Fergus's Ghost, 92. 
 Lowell, J. Russell, on Dunbar, 183. 
 Lydgate, 99, 159. 
 Lyndsay, Sir David, 91, 107, 203-31, 
 
 302, 307. 
 Lyndsay, Robert, 313-6. 
 
 MACARONIC VERSE, 386. 
 
 Macaronic Verse (imperfect), 160. 
 
 Macbeth, 3. 
 
 M'Lellan, Rev. Murdoch, 418. 
 
 MaeNeill, Hector, 452. 
 
 Maidment, 342. 
 
 Maitland, Sir John, 276. 
 
 Maitland, Sir Richard, 256, 257, 262-6. 
 
 Maitland, William, 320. 
 
 Mayne, John, 451. 
 
 Melville, James, 331. 
 
 Melville, Sir James, 332. 
 
 Merry Muses, The, 380. 
 
 Mersar, 136-7. 
 
 Mickle, William Julius, 417. 
 
 Moffat, Sir John, 238, 289. 
 
 Moggie's Jealousie, 378-80. 
 
 Montgomerie, Alexander, 251-62. 
 
 Morte Arthure, 34. 
 
 Motherwell, Alexander, 342, 346, 350. 
 
 Murning Maiden, The, 292, 361. 
 
 My Hairt is quhyt, 297. 
 
 My Jo Janet, 380-1. 
 
 NAERNE, Baroness, 454. 
 
 Nicholson, William, 458. 
 
 Nine-line stave, 65, 117, 160, 194, 
 
 201, 212, 292, 423. 
 Nine Nobles, Ane Ballad of the, 76. 
 Norman influence, 4-5. 
 Northumbria, 1-3. 
 Norval, Robert, 239. 
 Nyne Ordour of Knavis, The, 290. 
 
 OCTAVE with bobwheel refrain, 161. 
 Octo-syllabic couplet, 47, 57, 85, 138, 
 
 154, 211, 215, 220, 423, 441. 
 Old octave, 160. 
 Oliphant, Carolina, 454. 
 O Lusty May, 295. 
 Orygynalle Chronykil of Scotland, 50. 
 Otterbourne, 357, 360-3. 
 
 Peblis, The Thrie Priests of, 284-6. 
 Peblis to the Play, 104-12. 
 Pennecnick, Alexander, 411-12. 
 Pennecuick, Dr. Alexander, 411. 
 Percy, Bishop, 337. 
 Philotus, 219.
 
 462 SCOTTISH VERNACULAR LITERATURE 
 
 Pinkerton, John, 339. 
 PistUl of Susan, The, 31-8. 
 Polemo-Middinia, 386. 
 
 Quarterly Review, The, on ballads, 
 
 345-9. 
 
 Quatorzain of Montgomerie, 256, 440. 
 Quhen Flora, 295. 
 Quhy sowld nocht Allane, 291. 
 
 RAMSAY, AUan, 15, 112, 257, 279, 
 
 337, 400-11. 
 Rauf Coilzear, 77-84. 
 Reformation, The, 10-14. 
 Reformation satirists, 275. 
 Rhymer, Thomas, 19-31. 
 Rime coute, 162-4, 220, 237-8, 244-6, 
 
 257, 271, 415, 439, 441. 
 Rime royal, 99, 103, 117, 137, 159, 
 
 201, 208, 213, 215, 237, 244. 
 Ritson, 339. 
 Rolland, John, 284. 
 Rollicking metre, 106, 117, 293. 
 Romaunt of the Rose, 39, 96, 99. 
 Rondeau (common), 155, 257, 298. 
 Ronsard, 255. 
 Ros, Sir John the, 140. 
 Ross, Alexander, 414-5. 
 Roswall and Lillian, 39. 
 Roull, Sir John, 138. 
 Roundel, The, 249. 
 Russell Lowell, J. , on Dunbar, 183. 
 
 SATIRISTS, The Reformation, 275. 
 
 Saxons, The, 1. 
 
 Schaw, Quintyne, 139. 
 
 Scogan, Henry, 239. 
 
 Scots tunes, 374. 
 
 Scott, Alexander, 112, 240-50. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 51, 182, 337, 340, 
 
 350, 455-6. 
 
 Scott, Sir William, 388. 
 Scottish prophecies, 24. 
 Scottish Vernacular, 1-15. 
 Sempill, Francis, 393. 
 Sempill, Robert, 217, 275. 
 Sempill, Sir Robert, 390. 
 Seven-line stave, 133, 159, 245. 
 Sharpe, C. K., 341. 
 
 Siege of Troy, The, 42, 162. 
 
 Sir Thopas, 77, 162, 442. 
 
 Sir Tristrem, 25. 
 
 Six-line stave, 158, 220, 244, 258. 
 
 Skelton, 85. 
 
 Skene MS., 376. 
 
 Skinner, John, 415. 
 
 Skirving, Adam, 419. 
 
 Song of Absence, 296. 
 
 Songs, Traditional, 374-85. 
 
 Spens, Sir Patrick, 337-8, 350 6. 
 
 Spottiswoode, John, 331. 
 
 Steil, 238, 284. 
 
 Stevenson, R. L., on Fergusson, 421 
 
 Stewart of Baldiness, 267. 
 
 Stewart, King Henry, 236. 
 
 Stewart, W., 236. 
 
 Stewarte, 234-6. 
 
 Steivartis Oryginatt, The, 42. 
 
 Symmie and his Bruder, 112, 286-7. 
 
 Tannahill, Robert, 457. 
 
 Tayis Bank, 293. 
 
 Tea Table Miscellany, The, 410. 
 
 Telfer, Jamie, 367-8. 
 
 Ten-line stave, 117, 243. 
 
 Theological literature, 333. 
 
 Thorn, William, 457. 
 
 Thomas of Erceldoune, 19-31. 
 
 Thus I propone, 298. 
 
 Tottel' s Miscellany, 240, 242, 255. 
 
 Traill, Sandy, 140. 
 
 Tristrem, Sir, 26-31. 
 
 Tweedside, 393. 
 
 Tytler, James, 452. 
 
 VANS, Sir Patrick, 353. 
 Villon, 157, 181. 
 
 Wallace, Blind Harry's, 62-75. 
 
 Waly, Waly, 0, 365 
 
 Wardlaw, Lady, 368, 395-6. 
 
 Watson's Choice Collection, 399. 
 
 Watt, William, 457. 
 
 Welcum to Mid, 297. 
 
 Welcum to May, 296. 
 
 Whole Prophecie of Scotland, 24. 
 
 Wowing of Jok and Jynny, The, 133. 
 
 Wyntoun, Andrew of, 56-68.
 
 13084 
 
 I NOV 
 RtCO NOV 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 PRINTEDINU.S.A.
 
 A 000816032