LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ft 
 
 N 
 
JOHN BARBOUR: 
 
 POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEOEGE KEILSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "TRIAL BY COMBAT," ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 KEOAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LIMITED. 
 
 1900. 
 
HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
TO 
 
 PROFESSOR W. P. KER, LL.D 
 
 FRIEN D 
 CRITIC 
 
 AND STUDENT OF ROMANCE. 
 
THIS essay is by permission reprinted from the " Transactions 
 of the Philological Society," in an edition of 250 copies, whereof 
 200 are for sale. 
 
 G. K 
 
 34, GRANBY TERRACE, GLASGOW. 
 August, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS AND SUMMARY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. BARBOUR'S Bruce 1 
 
 True date 1376. Allusions to literature. 
 
 II. THE TROY FRAGMENTS / 2 
 
 Manuscript ascription : " Her endis Barbour." Presumptions 
 favouring its truth. 
 
 III. THE LEGENDS OP THE SAINTS 2 
 
 BradshaVs opinion that they are Barbour's. Opposite 
 verdicts. A critical note. 
 
 IV. POET AND TRANSLATOR 3 
 
 Canons to test disputed authorship. Importance of 
 examining " intrusions " in translations. Proof that Bruce 
 quotes Troy fragments. Double theme of Bruce. Personal 
 intimations from the Legends. 
 
 V. THE BUIK OP ALEXANDER 6 
 
 A translation of two French romances. Its colophon 
 dated 1438. Le Fuerre de Oadres. Vceux du Paon. The 
 conjunction of the translation. 
 
 VI. THE MONTH OF MAY 9 
 
 Abnormal bursts of sustained alliteration in two descrip- 
 tions of May found in Alexander and in Bruce. Their 
 correspondences with each other. Their direct indebtedness 
 to Huchown's Destruction of Troy. 
 
 VII. PROBLEM OP THE DATE OP THE Alexander 13 
 
 Correspondences of Bruce and Alexander making necessary 
 
 election between three hypotheses. Conclusion that date 
 1438 for Alexander impossible, and that Barbour wrote 
 Alexander. 
 
 VIII. BANNOCKBURN IN THE Bruce AND THE Alexander ... 15 
 Parallel verses to Barbour's account of Bannockburn. 
 
 Preparations for battle. Arms and banners described. 
 Morning. The English approach. Spurs. De Bohun 
 episode. Heart discomfiture. Jeopardy. Bruce's address 
 at Bannockburn and Alexander's at Effesoun. Morning. 
 Fortune of war. Noise of battle. The stalwart stour. 
 The pursuit. 
 
Till CONTENTS AND SUMMARY. 
 
 PAGti 
 
 IX. THE LESSON OP THE PARALLELS ... 4i 26 
 
 Keiterations of not particularly striking lines. Evidence 
 that author is borrowing from himself. Proof of same process 
 in Alexander, Troy fragments, and Legends. Influence of 
 French romance on Bruce chiefly seen in manner of telling. 
 
 X. SOME SPECIAL COINCIDENCES 28 
 
 To-ga : remarkable series of intrusive instances of this 
 rare word. Micht, slicht : the poet's fondness for this intrusive 
 antithesis. The number Ten : its peculiar intrusion. French 
 words : rebours, vail'&e, liege pouste. Swearing By ffeaven's 
 King. Play on leech and medicine. Hardy of heart. Adam. 
 Anger and joy : opposite sentiments expressed in same 
 formula. 
 
 XL A SECOND CHAPTER OF PARALLELS ... 35 
 
 The Forray of Gadderis opens. Head - cleaving. The 
 King's mense. Incidents and personal descriptions. Nocht 
 ane denner ! The battle of Effesoun. The Nine Worthies. 
 War and peace. 
 
 XII. THE Alexander EPILOGUE WITH' THE ERRONEOUS DATE 
 
 1438 42 
 
 Text of the Epilogue. The erroneous date discussed. 
 Absolute evidence for date of Bruce 1376. Alexander colophon 
 date 1438 resting solely on unique print circa 1580. Other 
 scribal errors in Barbour's dates. Date 1438 a scribal 
 alteration or press error, probably for 1378. Parallels with 
 Bruce from the Epilogue. 
 
 XIII. KIMES 49 
 
 Earlier negative standards adjusted and reapplied. Open 
 and close e rime-test applied to Alexander and Bruce, with 
 closely corresponding results. Positive rime-standard in yng 
 rimes. Comparative list of these. 
 
 XIV. THE PLACE OF THE Alexander 55 
 
 Sequence of Barbour's works. Influence of Guido de 
 
 Columpna. Influence of the Roman d'Alexandre. Discussion 
 of relation and mutual influence of Bruce and the Alexander 
 translation. 
 
OF THE 
 
 UN1VERSP 
 
 JOHN BAEBOUE: POET AND TEANSLATOE. 
 
 I. BARBOUE'S Bruce. 
 Date. Literary Allusions. 
 
 I COME from. Scotland to plead against eminent Germans, English- 
 men, and Scotsmen for a Scottish poet, and to maintain his claim 
 to translations some of which were directly part of the educative 
 processes fitting him to produce his great original historical chanson 
 de geste, A national heirloom was added to the treasury of 
 Scotland when John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, completed 
 under Eobert II, the first of the Stewart kings, his poem of The 
 Bruce}- Editors and others have somehow failed to notice that the 
 author's note about the " tyme of the compyling of this buk," 
 giving four different methods of computation of the date and 
 expressly naming 1375 (Br., xiii, 694), is distinct in assigning 
 a time after February 22, 1375-6, when five years of Robert IPs 
 reign had passed, and before March 24, 1375-6, when the year 
 1375 as then counted came to a close. 
 
 The story of Bruce is told with not a few citations of secular 
 literary sources in prose and verse, including ( 1 ) Guido de Columpna's 
 Destruction of Troy (Br., i, 395, 521), referred to under the 
 familiar names of Dares and Dictys ; (2) the romance of Alexander 
 (Br., i, 533; iii, 73; x, 706); (3) the Brut (Br., i, 549); (4) the 
 story of Thebes (Br., ii, 528; vi, 183); and (5) the romance of 
 Eerumbras (Br., iii, 436). Question is possible in each, of these 
 cases regarding the precise shape in which the sources were drawn 
 upon. The relation to the Alexander legend and the tale of Troy, 
 two themes found so inspiring by the Middle Ages, will be 
 discussed, beginning with the latter, while the former stands over 
 till intermediate topics pass. 
 
 1 All citations are made from Professor Skeat's edition for the Scottish Text 
 Society, 1894. 
 
6 JOHN BARBOTJR \ POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 II. THE TROY FBAGMENTS. 
 The MS. Ascription : " Her endis Barbour" 
 
 Some time in the fifteenth century, after 1420, the compiler of 
 a verse translation of Guido possibly finding some incompleteness in 
 the manuscripts at his disposal, pieced together two renderings. 
 One was that of John Lydgate, the monk of Bury. The other was 
 a Scottish version, and the compiler began with it. Near the 
 termination of the second book, at the end of his description of the 
 necromantic powers of Medea, he either found material lacking, 
 or purposely deserted the Scottish version for the English : " Her 
 endis Barbour and begynnis the monk" he wrote to distinguish. 
 Thereafter he followed Lydgate till he reached the conspiracy of 
 Antenor and Aeneas, and Priam's distress over their treasonable 
 designs, when he resumed the Scottish version with the words "Her 
 endis the monk and begynnis Barbour." (See the Troy fragments 
 in Barbour's Legendensammlung, edited by Professor C. Horstmann, 
 Heilbronn, 1881, vol. ii, pp. 227, 229. The two pages of the 
 manuscript which bear the ascription are facsimiled in National 
 MSS. of Scotland, part ii, No. Ixxiv. For the date 1420 see the 
 conclusion of the fragment in Horstmann, ii, 304. Future citations 
 of the Troy fragments are made to " Troy fr.," parts i or ii, and the 
 number of the line.) 
 
 With an ascription so plain, so near the period with which it 
 deals, so nicely discriminative between the two component parts 
 of the compilation, so absolutely true as regards " the monk," 
 scepticism might have learned to suspect itself before daring to 
 reject the other half, Barbour's half, of the intimation. Instead, 
 the grammar and the rime-lore of the critics have blinded them to 
 the presence of the poet's idiosyncrasies in the translator's work ; 
 they have devised laws for rime all too rigorous for Barbour, who 
 was no purist; they have not sufficiently remembered that different 
 themes involve great changes in vocabulary and treatment ; while, 
 significant of philological rather than historical preferences, it escapes 
 notice that in the old inventory of the library of the Cathedral 
 where Barbour served, there was a Hystoria Trojana as well as 
 another volume, De Bellis Trojanorum (Registrum Episcopatus 
 Aberdonensis, ii, 156). 
 
 III. THE LEGENDS OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 This series of translations, mainly from the Golden Legend, first 
 had a Scottish origin assigned to it from internal evidence by the 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 6 
 
 late Henry Bradshaw, whose conclusion that it was " the verse of 
 Barbour and in his language " was warmly seconded by Cosmo 
 Innes (Nat. MSS. Scotland, part ii, No. Ixxv, preface, p. xvii). 
 The entire text has been twice edited, first by Horstmann 
 in Barbour's Legendensammlung in 1881, and afterwards by 
 Dr. W. M. Metcalfe -for the Scottish Text Society in 1888-96. 
 Between these dates the same scepticism as challenged the 
 express ascription of the Troy fragments to Barbour disturbed the 
 quiet possession of Bradshaw's opinion about the Legends. The 
 Scottish Text Society's edition, the completion of which followed 
 Professor Skeat's edition of the Bruce for the same Society in 1894, 
 gives the Legends as not Barbour's. Both as regards the Troy 
 fragments and the Legends, the grounds are the same that the 
 vocabulary of the two (for it is admitted that the Troy fragments 
 and the Legends are from a single hand) differs from that of the 
 Bruce, that rimes not adopted by the latter occur in the other two, 
 and that in style the poems are far apart. Again the conclusions 
 have been too hasty. The vocabulary of battle-pieces cannot be 
 very similar to that of miraculous saint-legends, and style may 
 well suffer when the poet complains of old age and its infirmities. 
 Themes of romance and chivalry vary greatly from those of the 
 Legenda A.urea and other Legenda Sanctorum which naturally 
 found place in the Cathedral Library (Reg. Epis. Aberd., ii, 
 156, 135), yet the resulting differences should not have been 
 allowed to obscure the many topographical allusions tending to 
 locate the translator in the North Country, or to explain away the 
 pointed allusion to his desire to narrate, before all others, the tale 
 of St. Machar, the saint of John Barbour's own cathedral and see. 
 Nor would it have been amiss for the critics to search a little closer 
 than they did for possible touches of resemblance which might be 
 reckoned individual traits. 
 
 IV. POET AND TBANSLATOB. 
 
 In spite of numerous experiments in criticism, the canons for 
 determining disputed authorship are somewhat empiric. Tests 
 of rime and language are apt to be partial. Where the comparison 
 is between an original work and a translation, the tests are the 
 more difficult, since the translator sinks himself in a measure in 
 the author he is rendering. He writes, too, in shackles, so that 
 his little trespasses beyond the limits of severe adherence to his 
 original are often invaluable as revelations of individuality and 
 
JOHN B ARBOUR: POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 guides to identification. A recurrent phrase characteristic of an 
 original poem showing general affinities with a translation may, 
 if found not only to occur in the translation but to be there 
 intrusive, prove first-class evidence. An example will make this 
 proposition concrete. 
 
 When the editor of the Bruce very properly commented on the 
 value of book i, lines 521-526, as demonstrative of the author's 
 acquaintance with Guido (Br., pref. p. xlvi), it is a pity he did not 
 notice also the additional importance of the next two lines, 527-528 : 
 
 Br., i, 521. Wes nocht all Troy with tresoune tane 
 Quhen ten jeris of the wer wes gane ? 
 Then slane wes mone thowsand 
 Off thaim withowt throw strenth of hand 
 As Dares in his buk he wrate 
 And Dytis that knew all thare state. 
 i, 527. Thai mycht nocht haiffbeyn tayne throw mycht 
 Sot tresoun tuk thaim throw hyr slycht. 
 
 It is true that the first six lines prove that Barbour knew his 
 Guido ; but the last two prove that he knew something very 
 intimately of Guide's translator, the author of the Troy fragments. 
 The original passage from which these two lines come is not 
 in Dares or in Dictys, but is in Guido, occurring in the course 
 of the argument between Ajax Telamon and Ulysses over the 
 allotment of the Palladium to the share of Ulysses in the division 
 of the spoils of war. Ajax twitted his antagonist by declaring 
 it matter of public gossip that, whereas the Greeks ought to have 
 conquered by force, they had done so only by falsehood and fraud : 
 ut TrojanoSj quos debuimus in potencia nostra devincere, vincerimus 
 per machinacionis fallaciam et per dolum. The passage is thus 
 rendered in the Scots translation (Troy frag., ii, 1267) : 
 
 That the Troyiens, which with mycht 
 "We ought to have ourcommyne with fycht, 
 We ourcome with fraude and gyle, 
 And machinacions and wyle. 
 
 Something in the rime, something in the contrast, pleased the 
 poet, and elsewhere he used them both. 
 
 Troy frag., i, 405. In the science scho had sic slytht 
 
 That throw the science and the myght 
 Of hyre exorjigaciouns .... 
 
 [Latin : qui per vires et modos exor^isacionum nigromanticos.] 
 Troy frag., i, 515. Notht thane throw the strenth and the mycht 
 
 Of hyre enchauntement and hyr slytht. 
 [Latin : pro sue incantacionis viribus.] 
 
JOHN BARBOUR: POET AND TRANSLATOR. o 
 
 In both these instances the contrast is the poet's. The original 
 has nothing of " slycht," so that the antithesis is intrusive, an 
 idiosyncrasy of the translator, going so far on the way of proof 
 that the lines in the Bruce came from Guido by way of the Scots 
 translator. Such a phrase may, for critical purposes in determining 
 authorship, even rank as a distinguishing feature and a test. 
 
 Personal Touches. 
 
 Reserving this contrast for a later stage as one of a number of 
 typical media for purposes of identification, we may note indications 
 in the Bruce of the poet's fairness of mind (Br., ii, 40), of his use of 
 romance and song as sources of information (Br., ii, 46; iii, 178), 
 and of his acquaintance with the prophecies of the mysterious 
 Thomas of Ercildoun (ii, 86), and with the story of Fin gal 
 (Br., iii, 68), while a spirit of self-depreciation (Br., x, 348) 
 shows an engaging modesty. Yet more valuable is the author's 
 declaration of the time when the Bruce was written, and what 
 was its purpose. The date has already been touched upon. For 
 the subject of the poem, even critical eyes have been prone to 
 overlook the express fact that it had a double theme. Just after 
 the first mention of " King Robert off Scotland " and " gud Schyr 
 James off Douglas " the poet declares his aim : 
 
 Off THAIM I thynk this buk to ma. (Br., i, 33.) 
 
 That the work was for the honour of Douglas scarcely less than of 
 Bruce the proposition thus announced, that it was a poem with 
 two heroes, as its whole structure shows was very explicitly 
 recognized by more than one of the fifteenth - century writers 
 (Wyntoun, viii, 3121 ; Bower, Scotichronicon, ii, 301 ; The Howlat, 
 11. 395, 507, in Scottish Alliterative Poems, ed. Amours, Scot. Text 
 Soc.). In Barbour's time the house of Douglas had a powerful 
 and patriotic representative in Archibald the Grim, named in the 
 poem as Schir Archibald (Br., xx, 587). 
 
 Familiar, but not the less notable as a personal trait, is Barbour's. 
 aspiration after grace that he may say nothing false in his poem : 
 That I say nocht bot suthfast thing. (Br., i, 35.) 
 
 The intimations of the Legends of the Saints bearing on the 
 personality of the translator or author consist of (1) a few topo- 
 graphical allusions (xl, 13601406; xxvii, beginning); (2) many 
 references to books, the first being The Romance of the Rose (Leg. 
 prologue, line 5) ; and (3) direct allusions to his calling, health, or 
 experiences. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET ANI) TRANSLATOR. 
 
 I ma noclit wirk 
 As mynistere of haly kirke 
 Fore gret eld and febilnes. (Leg. prol., 33.) 
 
 Elsewhere he mourns his " fait of sycht" (Leg. prol., 98), and 
 repeatedly refers to other infirmities of age (Leg., iv, 390 ; vii, 12; 
 x, 585 ; xxix, 20 ; xxxvi, 1220). He is guarded about doubtful 
 facts (Leg., vii, 347). His self-disparagement appears, too : 
 
 I haf translat 
 
 The story, thocht it be nocht cunnandly 
 In all for royde mane am I 
 In Ynglis townge that lawit mene 
 In thare langage ma it kene. (Leg., xviii, 1469.) 
 
 He alludes to his travels when a " gunge mane" (Leg., xxv, 1), and 
 his literary tasks suggested to him a curious intrusive reference 
 (Leg., xxxiii, 449) to a martyr stretched on the rack : 
 As men dois with parchymene. 
 
 He refers to a book he made about the birth of Christ (Leg., 
 xxxvi, 991). "Befor uthyre " he was fain to write of St. Machor 
 of Aberdeen (Leg., xxvii, 7). These meagre disclosures practically 
 exhaust the positive autobiography. 
 
 Happily there are other things than positive biography to be 
 found. To internal evidences as plain and as trustworthy we shall 
 turn after our glance at the works to be examined shall have 
 surveyed The Buik of the most nolle and vail^eand Conquerour. 
 
 V. THE BUIK OF ALEXANDER, a translation of two French 
 Romances. 
 
 Almost unheard of, and certainly not computed in the criticism 
 of Scottish poetry, this swinging romance-poem is known only in 
 the unique print dating about 1580, when it issued from the press 
 of Alexander Arbuthnet, a printer in Edinburgh, who died in 1585 
 (Bannatyne Miscellany, ii, 207). The work thus printed bears 
 a sort of colophon with 1438 as the date of origin, a date, however, 
 regarding which there is a good deal to say. It was reprinted in 
 1831 by the Bannatyne Club in a very limited edition, and the 
 reprint is now rare. 
 
 That this Alexander book should so long have escaped searching 
 scrutiny on present lines is surprising, when its astonishing relation 
 to Barbour's Bruce is taken into account. Not that it is without 
 other importance, for it has a value all its own in contemporary 
 literature as a Scottish translation of two French poems in the 
 cycle of the Alexander legend : a vigorous piece of work, in many 
 
JOHN B ARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 7 
 
 respects very original in treatment, and reflecting with no small 
 measure of success the entire spirit of the Roman d" Alexandre, or 
 more particularly the Fuerre de Gadres and the Vceux du Paon 
 from which it was taken. The battle-pieces especially are 
 rendered con amore: there the translator was manifestly at home, 
 and excelled his original. 
 
 Apart from the actual separate existence of the French poems, 
 which the translator himself refers to more than once (Alex., 107, 
 441), there are in the structure evidences of dual source. The 
 Scottish poem, which is in rime and in the metre of the Bruce, 
 is divided into three parts, the first " callit The Forray of 
 Gadderis" the second " callit The Avowis of Alexander" the 
 third " The Great Battell of Ejfesoun." The first part opens 
 abruptly, and the translation is made on principles somewhat 
 different from those distinguishing the treatment of the second 
 part, which follows the French with much greater closeness l than 
 the first part. The Roman d'Alexandre of Lambert li Tors, written 
 in the twelfth century, had, apparently before that century closed, 
 already had incorporated with it Le Fuerre de Gadres, an important 
 contribution by Alexander of Paris or Bernay (Li Romans 
 D'Alixandre, ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1846, p. 249; Alexandre 
 le Grand dans la Litterature Franqaise, par Paul Meyer, 1886, ii, 
 154-161, 227 ; La Lc.ggenda di Alessandro Magno, del Professor 
 Dario Carraroli, Mondovi, 1892, pp. 213-215). This episode of the 
 siege of Tyre had no real connection with the true history of 
 Alexander; scarcely the rudiments of it emerge in the early 
 versions of the Egyptian legend, which so long held captive 
 the beliefs both of East and West regarding the Macedonian 
 conqueror. Later versions of the Historia de Preliis seem to have 
 contained the story in some detail ; there was a good deal about it 
 in the French of Thomas or Eustace of Kent (Meyer, op. cit., i, 
 179), and in the alliterative Wars of Alexander (ed. Professor 
 Skeat, E.E.T.S., 11. 1200-1335) ; the Hunterian MS. T. 4, 1, from 
 which the latter alliterative poem was probably translated, has 
 lost the folios containing that part of the narrative. That in 
 origin this French story of the Forray was a separate work seems 
 clear (Meyer's Alexandre, ii, 154, Carraroli, 213). Very much as in 
 Michelant's edition of the Roman it appears in the MS. of 
 
 1 It was a pleasure to hear M. Charles Bonnier, who is now busy at an edition 
 of the Vceux du Paon, state that he had compared the French with the Scottish 
 texts, and regarded the latter as generally a very faithful rendering. 
 
8 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Venice (Meyer, i, 281-286), and the variations seem hardly to 
 be radical. Michelant's text leaves much to be desired for critical 
 purposes, and M. Paul Meyer has laboured nobly to supply the 
 deficiencies, but the defects are not such as seriously to affect the 
 questions of the Scottish poem, for line by line of the latter can be 
 followed with some inversions, but with completeness, save for 
 the translator's own intrusive phrases or expansions in the text 
 of Michelant. The French version of the Forray section of the 
 Alexander Romance is represented by only an abbreviated rendering 
 into Scottish. Many passages are abridged ; not a few are omitted ; 
 the sense is sometimes expanded ; sometimes the expansions of the 
 French are curtailed ; but through and through the Frenchman, 
 line for line, can claim his due from the Scot. In brief, the story 
 is that at the siege of Tyre the knights of Alexander, under the 
 command of the Duke Emenydus the whole atmosphere of the 
 poem is chivalric, and, as M. Paul Meyer has shown, coloured by 
 reminiscence of the Crusades make a raid from Tyre to the Valley 
 of "Josaphas," and drive off a great prey of cattle in spite of 
 attacks made by the keepers, "the hirdis with the swordis of 
 steill." During the return, however, they are set upon by "thame 
 of Gadderis " Duke .Betys and his followers, chief of whom is 
 Gadifer, so that the 700 Greeks are assailed by 30,000 
 "Gaderanis" and put in sore straits. Emenydus asks successive 
 knights to ride to Tyre for help ; they refuse, after the manner of 
 romance, to desert the field of danger even for that purpose ; but 
 at last a wounded man .goes. Alexander hurries to the relief of the 
 detachment, and finally the Gaderanis are driven off after a fine 
 display of valour, in course of which Emenydus is badly injured, 
 and Gadifer is killed in fearless defence of the retreating rear. 
 
 The Faerre as embedded in the romance is scarcely a self- 
 dependent work capable of simple detachment ; it needs ex- 
 planations which only its combination with the rest of the 
 romance can adequately afford. Accordingly when, as in the 
 Scots translation, it is ushered into the reader's ken without 
 preliminaries, and is closed without a sequel really belonging to 
 it, the junction, like the introduction, is felt to be far from 
 artistic. Indeed, it is no junction at all, for we part with 
 Alexander busy with the siege of Tyre ; and in the second part 
 find ourselves suddenly in the merry month of May marching 
 towards Tars in the expedition which conducts its dramatis personae 
 through the Avowes to the Great Battell. The vows made by 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 various knights on the peacock shot by Porrus, and their valiant 
 accomplishment in the Great Battell of Alexander at ' EfTesoun ' 
 against King Clarus of India, make a fine chivalric theme, to which 
 the gay spirit of " Cassamus the aid" and the episodes of the court- 
 ladies add a variety of charm unusual in poems of the class. 
 
 The passage about the month of May prefixed to the Avowes, 
 and thus forming the introduction to the second part of the 
 Scottish poem, is not to be found in the original French. It is by 
 no means out of the question that the Avowes and Battell were 
 the primary task an independent translation of the Vceux du Paon 
 and that the Forray was a separate performance, conjoined by 
 an afterthought. At any rate the components of the Alexander 
 book are (1) the Forray, completely accounted for by the existing 
 French text of the Roman d'Alezandre, edited by Michelant ; (2) 
 the introduction about the merry month of May, and the circum- 
 stances of the translation, inserted at the beginning of the Avowes 
 (3) the Avowes and the Battell , representing with considerable 
 faithfulness the Vceux du Paon, a poem written by Jacques de 
 Longuyon in the early years of the first decade * of the fourteenth 
 century ; and (4) a short series of lines at the close apologizing 
 for the insufficiency of the translation, and containing the date 
 1438, on the value of which grave issues turn. The merry mouth, 
 too, is a factor not admitting of neglect. 
 
 VI. THE MONTH OF MAY. 
 
 Observe this description of May standing in the middle of the 
 Scottish poem translated from two combined French romances. 
 Observe how the poet, who throughout writes in the same rime- 
 couplet, with the same octosyllabic metre, the same turns of 
 expression, the same repetitions,, the same rimes, and the same 
 tendency to occasional but never systematic alliteration as John 
 Barbour, here, in honour of the merry month, bursts into alliteration 
 a unique series of twelve lines, all alliterative but one. Only 
 
 1 Occasional citations made by me from the Vceux du Paon (which has never 
 been printed) are from two British Museum Harleian MSS., Add. 16,956 and 
 16,888. I have also cited once or twice the important and beautiful Bodleian 
 MS. 264. Apology is due and is heartily tendered for the inadequacy of collation, 
 hut a professional man's leisure is scant. M. Charles Bonnier obligingly com- 
 municated to me the fact that the date 1310 or 1312 hitherto received (Ward's 
 Catalogue, i, 146) is incorrect by a few years, as the Tybaut qui de bar fu nays 
 referred to at the close of Add. MS. 16,956, fol. 163, was not the Duke of 
 Lorraine, but the Bishop of Liege. 
 
10 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 one other instance occurs in the poem of anything like this 
 passage in sustained alliterativeness. That also concerns the 
 merry month. May was a favourite with the medieval muse ; 
 its praises wax mechanical in the old romances ; and it had 
 found its way into prose as well as verse. Partly from Gruido, 
 directly and indirectly, it passed into the introduction of the 
 Avowes ; partly it came from the Vceux du Paon. 
 
 Guido, Hunterian MS., T. 4, 1, fol. 115 b . 
 
 Temp us erat quo jam sol tauri signum intraverat tune cum prata virent 
 vernant flores in arboribus redolentes rubent rose in viridibus rubris earum, et in 
 dulcibus pbilomene cantibus dulci modulamine citharigant. Tune cum esset 
 mensis ille Maius .... 
 
 Alliterative Destruction of Troy, ed. E.E.T.S. 
 Lines 12,969-74. 
 
 HlT WAS THE MONETH OF MAY WHEN MIRTHES begyn ; 
 
 The Sun turnit into tauro taried there under : 
 MEDOS and mountains mynget with FLOURES ; 
 GREVES WEX GRENE & the ground swete, 
 
 NlCHTGALIS WITH NOTES NEWIT there SONGE, 
 
 And shene BRIDDES in shawes shriked- full lowde. 
 Lines 2734-8. 
 
 IN THE MONETH OF MAY QUHEN MEDOES bene grCUC 
 AND ALL FLORISSHET WITH FLOURES J?E FILDES aboute 
 
 BURJONS of bowes BRETHIT full swete 
 fflorisshet full faire ; frutes were kuyt 
 GREVYS were GRENE & the ground HILDE. 
 
 Lines 1056-64. 
 WYNTER AWAY watris were calme, 
 Stormes were still, the sternes full clere, 
 Zeforus soft wyndis soberly blew ; 
 Bowes in BRIGHT holtes BURJONT full faire ; 
 GREVYS WEX GRENE and the ground swete 
 Swoghing of swete ayre swalyng of BRIDDES 
 MEDOWES and mounteyns myngit with FFLOURES 
 COLORD by course AS thair KYND askit : 
 At MID Aprille the MONE quhen MYRTHES begyn. 
 
 Vceux de Paon. 
 (Add. MS. 16,956, fol. 72 b .) 
 Ce fu el moys de May qu'yvers va a declin 
 Q,ue cil oyseillon gay chantent en lour Latin 
 Bois et pres ruverdissent contre le douz temps prin 
 Et nature envoisie par son soutil engin 
 Les revest et polist de mains divers flourin 
 Blanc et vert et vermel Ynde jaune et sanguin 
 A ycel temps .... 
 

 JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 11 
 
 The translator's second lyrical outburst on the merry month 
 contains eleven lines, of which eight are clearly alliterative. The 
 French original has been very freely rendered. 
 
 To these two May passages in the Alexander, two May passages 
 in Bruce correspond in all respects. 
 
 [FIBST DESCRIPTION or MAY.] 
 Alexander, p. 107, lines 1-12. Bruce, v, 1-13. 
 
 In mery May quhen medis springis, 
 And foullis in the forestis singis, 
 And NICHTINGALIS thare NOTIS NEUIS, 
 And flouris spredis on seirkin hewes, 
 Blew and burnat blak and bla 
 Quhite and Callow rede alsua, 
 Purpit bloncat pale and pers 
 As KYND thame COLOURIS gevis divers : 
 And BURGEONS of thare brancheis BREDIS, 
 And woddis winnis thare winful wedis, 
 And ever ilk Yy hes welth at waill : 
 Then ga I bundin all in baill. 
 
 This WES IN were quhen WYNTIR tyde 
 With his blastis hydwiss to byde 
 Wes ourdriffin, and BIRDIS smale 
 As thristill and the nichtingale 
 Begouth rycht meraly to syng, 
 And for to mak in thair synging 
 Syndry NOTIS and soundys sere 
 And melody plesande to here, 
 And the treis begouth to ma 
 BTIRGEONYS and BRYCHT blomys alsna 
 To vyn the HELING of thair x hevede 
 That wikkit wintir had thame revede 
 And all grevis begouth to spryng. 
 Into that tyrne .... 
 
 [SECOND DESCRIPTION or MAY.] 
 Alexander, p. 248, lines 16-26. Bruce; xvi, 63-71. 
 
 This WAS IN MIDDES THE MONETH OF MAY 
 
 Quhen WINTER wedes ar AWAY 
 
 And foulis singis of soundis seir 
 
 And makes thame MIRTH on thare manere 
 
 And GRAVES that gay war WAXIS GRENB 
 
 As nature throw his craftis kene 
 
 Sehrowdis thame self with thare floures 
 
 Wele savorand of sere colouris, 
 
 Blak blew blude rede alsua 
 
 And Inde with uther hewis ma 
 
 That tyme fell in the middes of May. 
 
 This WES IN THE MONETH OF MAY 
 
 Quhen BYRDIS syngis on the spray 
 Melland thair NOTYS with syndry sowne 
 For softenes of that sweit sesoune 
 And lewis on the branchis spredis 
 And blomys BRIGHT besyd thame BREDIS 
 AND FELDIS FLORIST ar WITH FLOWRIS 
 Weill savourit of seir colowris 
 And all thing worthis blith and gay. 
 
 1 Troy frag., i, 440 : 
 
 That spoilyt had ine wyntir bene 
 
 Throw wickede blastes and felloue schoures 
 
 Baith of the lewes and of the floures. 
 
 Answering to Guido's " Hyemali eciam impugnacione froudibus arbores spoliatas." 
 Cf. also Troy frag., ii, 1651. 
 
12 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The first of these two Bruce passages has seven alliterative 
 lines out of thirteen ; the second has six out of nine. Their 
 relationship to other citations is phenomenal, and demands 
 examination. There are in the Alexander only two descriptions 
 of May, both, as shown, remarkable as departing from the normal 
 metre of the poem and systematically to the extent of seventeen 
 lines out of twenty-three combining rime and alliteration. Why ? 
 The Bruce also has only two descriptions of May (that of Yer is 
 truly of May), remarkable as departing from the normal metre, 
 and to the extent of thirteen lines out of twenty -two combining 
 alliteration and rime. Why ? 
 
 Were the answer not so clear, it might be deemed too 
 adventurous to offer for a century so remote an absolute pro- 
 nouncement, but facts compel the hazard, if hazard it be called. 
 The reason was because the author of the Alexander and the author 
 of the Bruce alike knew the alliterative Destruction of Troy, 
 probably the work of Huchown of the Awle Ryale, whom there 
 is good reason to regard as Sir Hugh of Eglintoun, an Auditor 
 of Exchequer along with Barbour from 1372 until his death in 
 1376. Else how comes it that identical alliterations shown below 
 from the descriptions of the month of May in the Destruction, 
 reappear in both Alexander and Bruce ? 
 
 Moneth of May quhen medoes. Cf. supra, A. 107 (1), 248 (16) ; 
 
 Br., v, 1; xvi, 63. 
 
 Greves wex grene. Cf. A. 248 (20). 
 Nichtgalis with notis newit. Cf. A. 107 (3). 
 Florisshet with floures )>e fildes. Cf. Br., xvi, 69. 
 Burjons of bowis brethit. Cf. A. 107 (9). 
 "Wynter away. Cf. A. 248 (17). 
 Colord as kind. Cf. A. 107 (8), 248 (21). 
 
 The fifth is curious. " Burgeons of boughs breathed" ( = smelt) 
 in the Destruction is "burgeons of branches bredis " in the 
 Alexander, 107 (9), while " burgeons and blooms" are paired 
 in Bruce, v, 10, and on the branches " blooms bredis" in Bruce, 
 xvi, 68. In the Destruction there are eleven lines specifically 
 descriptive of May: five or more of them lend alliterations for 
 the brief descriptions of May in the Alexander and the Bruce. 
 
 1 Note also Huchown' s archaic words " We" a man appearing as " Vy " in 
 A. 107 (11), supra; Drychtin, A. 431 (7), used alliteratively ; raising dragon, 
 Br., ii, 205; (alliterative) Morte Arthure, 1252, 2026, 2057. Cf. Scottish 
 Antiquary, xii, 147. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 13 
 
 The interconnection of the Alexander passages with those of the 
 Bruce includes verbal relationships, well enough shown above by 
 the italicizing of the phrases common to both and the capitals 
 given to the alliterations suggested by the Destruction of Troy. 
 Amongst the former appear the lines 
 
 Wele savorand of sere colouris. A. 248 (23), add A. 159 (23). 
 "Weill savourit of seir colouris. Br., xvi, 70. 
 
 Besides, there is the final touch that tijme a French bequest. 
 What a minute imitator of Barbour this translator of Anno 
 Domini 1438 must have been, to be sure ! Not content with 
 drawing upon the Bruce for his savour of sundry colours he must 
 have observed the alliterative turn of Barbour' s descriptions of 
 May; determined to follow Barbour, and make his corresponding 
 descriptions alliterative, and rather improve on his model, he must 
 have gone, as Barbour did, to Huchown himself to Huchown, for 
 whose own intimate knowledge of the Fuerre and the Poeux du 
 Paon a powerful case stands ready to state. An astonishing 
 insight of criticism, a miraculous success of appropriate imitation 
 indeed, if John Barbour died in 1396 and the Alexander was 
 really written in 1438! 
 
 VII. PROBLEM OF THE I) ATE OF THE Alexander. 
 
 Perhaps no two poems in the world's literature more inextricably 
 blend with each other than do the Alexander and the Bruce. 
 The outstanding characteristics of both are the same. There is 
 a tremendous array of identical lines and phrases. The problem 
 of date is far from being the plain matter of fact which the 
 statement of 1375-6 in the Bruce and the colophon of 1438 in the 
 Alexander might suggest. Three suggestions are open of varying 
 admissibility : 
 
 First : That the dates 1375-6 for Bruce and 1438 for Alexander 
 are both right, and that the resemblances between the poems are 
 due to the translator of 1438 having, in rendering the French, 
 used the language of Barbour concerning King Eobert to illustrate 
 the romantic career of the Macedonian. 
 
 Second: That the date 1375-6, though found both in manuscripts 
 and in early printed editions, as well as corroborated powerfully 
 otherwise, is wrong, and that these resemblances are due to the 
 
14 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Bruce having been rewritten and reconstituted by a scribe late 
 in the fifteenth century, so as to embody in course of his so editing 
 the poem these manifold passages from the Alexander. 
 
 Third: That the date 1438, resting solely upon the unique 
 sixteenth-century print of the book, is an error ; and that the 
 resemblances between the Alexander and the Bruce are incompatible 
 with separate authorship. 
 
 Suggestion the first fails through sheer grotesqueness. To 
 suppose that the writer of a translation of a French poem in any 
 year of any century did his work by utilizing Barbour's Bruce 
 as his commonplace book, and weaving into his text, at every 
 turn, locutions copied from the Scottish poem, is beyond the limit 
 of reasonable hypothesis. The theory of copying would necessitate 
 a miraculous power of absorption into the translator's mind 1 of the 
 most inward poetic concepts of the poet of 1375-6 his peculiar 
 technique, his modes of narrative, and his versification, including 
 his distinguishing vices of rime. Besides, it would involve 
 a preference on the part of the translator for the very lines and 
 expressions for which the poet showed his fondness by reiteration. 
 
 Suggestion the second would require, I believe, for its due 
 enunciation a round dozen of revolutionary postulates, no two of 
 which can I, for the life of me, hope ever to bring myself to 
 entertain, all persuasions of an old and good friend of mine to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. "With a sigh over this inability, I pass 
 to suggestion the third. 
 
 My own unhesitating conclusion is, that as the theory of the 
 Alexander being copied from the Bruce is impossible on account 
 of the extent and integral nature of the common material, so 
 equally is the converse theory. To tear the Alexander passages 
 from the Bruce, or the Bruce passages from the Alexander, would 
 equally destroy the fabric of either poem. The resemblances and 
 the extent of them reduce the possibilities to one viz., that the 
 date 1438 got into the colophon of the single existing print of 
 the Alexander through a mere scribal or press error, and that 
 the Alexander like the Bruce was John Barbour's work. 
 
 1 Dr. Albert Herrmann, in his erudite Untersitchtingen uber das schottische 
 Alexanderbuch (Berlin, 1893), who cites many of the parallels given in the 
 ensuing pages, and others besides, supposes the translator to have had the Bruce 
 by heart. It is right to say that this work was not used by me in my own 
 studies, although, through Mr. J. T. T. Brown, with whom, after many 
 days' work, I exchanged lists of parallels, I received no small benefit from 
 Dr. Herrmann's prior diligence in tracking identical passages. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 15 
 
 VIII. BANNOCKBTTRN IN THE Bruce AND THE Alexander : 
 A chapter of parallels. 
 
 No more convincing method of exhibiting the relations of the 
 two poems can he devised than that of presenting a series of lines 
 from books xi, xii, and xiii of the Bruce, side by side with identical 
 or corresponding lines in the Alexander. This list is very far 
 from exhausting the resemblances to be found between the three 
 books of the Bruce descriptive of the battle of Bannockburn * on 
 the one hand, and the Alexander with its battle of Effesoun on 
 the other ; but it is formidable enough to establish the eminence 
 of the author of one of the poems if they were by two authors 
 as the arch-plagiarist of ancient or modern times, even when the 
 looseness of the mediaeval canon of plagiarism is considered. 
 
 In the undernoted selection, occasional illustrative passages are 
 added from the Legends of the Saints and from the Troy fragments, 
 with a view of now and then furnishing to the disbelievers in the 
 unity of authorship additional material for the admiration they 
 must naturally feel for the deftness in imitation of language, 
 matter, and style attained by the phenomenal literary workman 
 or workmen who achieved the Alexander, and told or retold the 
 tales of Troy and of the Saints. When these instances of minute 
 coincidence between the Bruce and the Alexander have been 
 digested, the reader, whether he can still hold on to a belief in 
 a duality or trinity of authorship or no, may anticipate the 
 presentment of an equally formidable array of further coincidences 
 between the Alexander and the Bruce. Meanwhile here follows the 
 chapter of Bannockburn, which first revealed itself to me through 
 the earnest, if sceptical studies of my friend Mr. J". T. T. Brown, 
 to whom in this, as in many other matters literary, I owe much. 
 His first mention to me of these marvellous parallels found me 
 incredulous till I read the Alexander for myself. 
 
 [PREPARATIONS.] 
 
 The Bruce. The Alexander. 
 
 He prysit hym in his hert gretly. He praisit him in his hart greatly. 
 
 (xi, 58.) 93 (20). 
 
 That we of purpose ger thame faill. That we of purpose gar him faill. 
 (xi, 68.) 71 (13). 
 
 1 A curious reminiscence is preserved in the inventory of clerical vestments 
 in Aberdeen Cathedral, an item being a hood of cloth of gold, part of the spoil 
 of Bannockburn " una capella vetus ex auro textili dicta Cherbulink ex spolio 
 conflictus de Bannokburne " (Reg. Episcop. Aberdon., ii, 189). 
 
16 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Bruce. 
 Armyt clenly at fut and hand, (xi, 96.) 
 
 Armyt on hors bath hede and hand, 
 (xi, 105.) 
 
 (Cf. xix, 412, Armit on hors bath 
 
 fut and hand, xix, 412.) 
 
 Men mycht se than that had beyn by. 
 
 (xi, 126.) (Cf. xii, 544, below.) 
 
 Mony ane worthy man and vycht. (xi, 
 
 127.) 
 Quhy suld I mak to lang my tale. 
 
 (xi, 135.) 
 
 Devisit into battalis sere 
 His awne battale ordanit he 
 And quha suld at his bridill be. 
 
 (xi, 171.) 
 
 Schir Gylys de Argente he set 
 Vponanehalf his renge to get. (xi, 174.) 
 And quhen the kyng apon this vise 
 Had ordanit as I heir devise 
 His battalis and his stering. (xi, 180.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Armit weill baith fute and hand. 
 
 298 (21). 
 Armit weill baith fute and hand. 
 
 312 (23). 
 Armit on hors baith fute and hand. 
 
 53 (19). 
 Thare mycht men se that had bene by. 
 
 98 (18). 
 Than micht thay se that had bene by. 
 
 56 (12). 
 Mony ane worthy man and wicht. 
 
 389 (26). 
 Quhy suld I mak to lang my tale. 
 
 277 (4). 
 Quhy suld I tell to lang my taill. 
 
 440 (12). 
 Quhairto sould I mak lang my taill. 
 
 417 (4). 
 
 Now has the King his battellis all 
 Devysit and ordainit all that sail 
 Be at the brydill of themelle. 349 (14). 
 
 Devyse at laser quha sail be 
 "With me into my awin battale. 
 
 345 (last line), 346 (first line). 
 At my brydill with hald the. 
 
 346 (seventh line). 
 My brydill rein^es heir I the geif. 
 
 348 (10). 
 
 Now hes the king his battellis all 
 Devysit and ordainit. 349(15). 
 
 The sonne wes brycht and schynand 
 
 cler 
 
 And armys that new burnyst wer 
 So blenknyt with the sonnys beyme 
 That all the feld ves in ane leyme 
 Yith baneris richt freschly flawmand. 
 
 (xi, 188.) 
 (Cf. The sone wes rysyn schynand 
 
 bricht. vii, 216. 
 Quhen sone wes rysyn schynand 
 
 clere. xiv, 177. 
 And sone wes ryssyn schynand 
 brycht. iv, 166.) 
 
 [ARMS AND BANNERS.] 
 
 The sone shyne cleir on armouris 
 
 bricht 
 Quhill all the land lemit on licht. 
 
 52 (16). 
 
 The sone was rysing and schynit 
 bricht. 219 (4). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 17 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 And pensalis to the vynd vaffand. (xi, 
 193.) (Cf. xi, 512, below.) 
 
 and poverale 
 That jamyt harnass and wittale. 
 
 (xi, 238.) 
 
 And saw thame wilfull to fulfill 
 His liking with gud hert and will. 
 
 (xi, 266.) 
 
 And said thame Lordingis now je se. 
 (xi, 271.) 
 
 (Cf . And said Lordingis now may 
 
 36 se, ii, 322.) 
 
 He gaf the vaward in leding. (xi, 306. ) 
 (Cf. The vaward for to leid and 
 steir. xx, 401.) 
 
 The tothir battale wes gevin to lede. 
 
 (xi, 314.) 
 
 His battale stalward was and stout. 
 (xi, 339.) 
 
 (Cf. And he that stalward wes 
 and stout, vi, 146.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 The pensale to the wynd waiffand. 
 
 3 (20). 
 
 [French has Les langes de 1'ensegne 
 fait a 1'vent balliier.-*- 
 Michelant, 115 (21).] 
 
 the pittall 
 Kepit the wyne and the vittall. 
 
 378 (30). 
 wilfull to fulfill 
 His avow with gude hart and will. 
 
 354 (29). 
 wilfull to fulfill 
 His vow with gude hart and will. 
 
 372 (12). 
 Lordingis he said now may je se. 
 
 71 (7). 
 And said Lordingis now may ge see. 
 
 76(14). . 
 And the first (i.e. the vanguard) gif 
 
 I in leding. 311 (25). 
 The ferd battell to keip and steir. 
 
 314 (10). 
 That Marciane had to leid and steir. 
 
 142 (9). 
 The tother battelle in leding I gif. 
 
 342 (12). 
 
 Bot he that staluart was and stout. 
 58 (7). 
 
 And on the morn on Sattirday. (xi, Tomorrow all hale and (sic) Monunday. 
 352.) 337 (25). 
 
 Vpone the morne on Mononday. 
 
 338 (21). 
 Apone the morne it wes Sounday. 
 
 (Leg., xvii, 199.) 
 Vpone Tysday in the mornyng. 308 
 
 (17). 
 
 (xi, 374.) To morne airly in the morning 
 
 (Cf. v, 18. A litill forrow the Ane lytleforow the sone rysing. 180(7). 
 evyngane.) Ane lytill before the sone rysing. 
 
 347 (29). 
 (Cf. Troy, i, 136. To -morne in the 
 
 mornynge. 
 
 Troy, ii, 722. A litill foroweth 
 the evynnyng.) 
 
 On Sonday than in the mornyng 
 "Weill soyn efter the sonne rising. 
 
18 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 [THE ENGLISH APPROACH.] 
 
 The Brttce. , 
 
 To wyn all or de with honour, (xi, 4 00 .) 
 For to manteyme that stalward stour. 
 (Cf. For to maynteym weill his 
 
 honour, xi, 262.) 
 And tak the vre that god wald send. 
 
 (xi, 405.) 
 That nane for dout of dede suld fale. 
 
 (xi, 408.) (Cf. xii, 204, below.) 
 Quhill discumfit war the battale. (xi, 
 
 409.) 
 
 Quhilk of thame had of help mister. 
 (xi, 452.) 
 
 And basnetis weill burnyst bricht, 
 That gaf agane the sonne gret licht. 
 
 (xi, 462.) 
 
 Thai saw so fele browdyn baneris. 
 (xi, 464.) 
 
 That the mast host and the stoutest 
 Of Crystyndome and ek the best 
 Suld be abasit for till se. (xi, 470.) 
 
 Gaf all his men reconforting. (xi, 499.) 
 Com with thair battalis approchand 
 The banneris to the vynd vaffand. 
 
 (xi, 512.) 
 Cf . "With baneris to the vynd vafand. 
 
 (ix, 245.) 
 
 With baneris to the vynd dis- 
 playit. (xix, 436.) 
 
 Cum on forouten dreid or aw. 
 555.) 
 
 (xi, 
 
 The Alexander. 
 For to mantene ane stalwart stour. 
 
 45 (7). 
 
 For to manteine ane stalwart stour. 
 
 46 (19). 
 
 Now cum quhat euer God will send. 
 
 319 (22). Cf. A. 150 (18), 256 (30). 
 For dout of dede will nane the fale. 
 
 315 (6). 
 To disconfit the great battale. 417 (31), 
 
 Na helpis his freindis yat had mister. 
 
 45 (9). 
 Hes thou of help great mister jit. 
 
 205 (6). 
 
 And helmis als and other armin 
 That cleirly agane the sone shein. 
 
 26 (28). 
 
 He sawe so feill broudin baneris. 26 
 (26). 
 
 [French has only tant gonfanon ; 
 
 Michelant, 109 (13).] 
 The greatest hoist and the stoutest 
 Of ony cuntre and the best 
 Suld of that sicht abasit be. 27 (2). 
 
 (Cf. Troy fr., ii, 503 : the grettest 
 Of all the oost and the myghtyest. 
 
 Similarly ii, 1413.) 
 
 Gevis to us all recomforting. 34 (30). 
 He saw the battellis approchand 
 "With baneris to the wynd waiffand. 
 
 8 (16). 
 [The banners not in Michelant, 98 (7), 
 
 but see p. 16, above.] 
 The banare waiffand to the wynd. 
 
 310 (29). 
 
 Sa come thai on but dreid or aw. 
 10 (29). 
 
 [SPUES.] 
 
 And strak with spuris the stedis stith, 
 
 That bare thame evyn hard and swith. 
 
 (xi, 558.) 
 
 He hint ane spere that was sa styth, 
 And straik his steid with spurrus 
 suyth. 141 (24). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 19 
 
 The Bruce, 
 Cf. With spurys he strak the steid 
 
 of priss. (viii, 79.) 
 And strak with spuris the stede 
 
 in hy 
 
 And he lansyt furth delyverly. 
 (iii, 121.) 
 
 "With that with spurris spedely 
 Thai strak the horss and in 
 
 grethy. (xx, 457.) 
 Than vith the spuris he strak 
 
 his steide. (vi, 226.) 
 Thai war in gret perplexite. (xi, 619.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 "With spurris he straik the steid of 
 
 pryde. 83 (9). 
 And strengeit with spurns the steid 
 
 of pryde. 229(11). 
 "With spurris he straik him sturdely 
 And he lansit deliverly. 46 (6). 
 
 Cf. And strak the sted with spuris 
 
 sa. (Leg. Saints, xxv, 747.) 
 
 "With spurris he strak his hors smertly. 
 
 376 (2). 
 Be stad in gret perplexite. 30 (19). 
 
 BOHTTN EPISODE.] 
 
 Armyt in armys gude and fyne. (xii, 
 
 .32.) 
 
 And toward him he went in hy. (xii, 
 39.) 
 
 Cf . Then went thai to the King in hy, 
 And hym salusit full curtasly. 
 
 (iv, 508.) 
 
 Till him he raid in full gret hy. (xii, 
 45.) 
 
 Cf . And raid till him in full gret 
 hy. (vi, 135.) 
 
 ane dint 
 
 That nouthir hat no helme mycht stint. 
 (xii, 53.) 
 
 The hevy dusche that he him gaf, 
 That he the hed till harnyse claf 
 The hand-ax-schaft ruschit in twa. 
 
 (xii, 55.) 
 Bot menythis hand -ax -shaft, (xii, 97.) 
 
 Armit in armouris gude and fyne. 46 
 
 (27). 
 And towart him he come in hy. 102 
 
 (21). 
 
 The king to him is went in hy 
 And salust him full courtesly. 109 (15). 
 
 And towart him raid in full great hy. 
 40 (1). 
 
 sic ane dynt 
 Bot the helme the straik can stynt. 
 
 413 (31). 
 
 And with the grete dynt yat he gaif 
 The sword brak in the hiltis in tua. 
 
 50 (9). 
 The hed unto the shoulderis claif. 58 
 
 (11). 
 Quhill that the hand ax schaft held hale. 
 
 Bot sone it brak than was he wa. 
 
 232 (14, 16). 
 [French of this last passage is : 
 
 Tant com hache li dure en va sur 
 
 aus le pis 
 Mais le fust est rompu et le fer 
 
 est croisis 
 Si qu' a terre li vole enmi les preis 
 
 fleuris. 
 (Harl. MS. Add. 16,956, fol. 65 h .)] 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 Thai fled and durst nocht byde no mar. 
 (xii, 135.) 
 
 Cf. That thai durst nane abyde 
 
 no mare, (xiv, 299.) 
 Thai war all helitin-to swat, (xii, 146.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 
 Cf. Thai fled fast and durst nocht 
 byd. (Leg. Saints, xl, 907.) 
 
 Be haillit in blude and sueat alsa. 
 
 28 (10). 
 Thameselfe halit in blude and sueit. 
 
 422 (4). 
 
 [HEART DISCOMFITURE : JEOPARDY.] 
 
 And fra the hart be discumfite, 
 The body is nocht vorth a myt. 
 
 (xii, 187.) 
 
 Cf . And fra the hart be discumfyt. 
 The body is nocht worth 
 
 a myt. (iii, 197.) 
 [Thar hartis undiscumfyt hald. (iii, 
 
 274.)] 
 Ger it [i.e. the hert] all ont discumfit 
 
 be 
 
 Quhill body liffand is all fre. (vii, 358.) 
 
 For dout of dede we sail nocht fale. 
 
 (xii, 204.) (Cf. xi, 408, above.) 
 
 To set stoutnes agane felony, (xii, 261 .) 
 Cf. Agane stoutnes it is aye stout, 
 (vii, 356.) 
 
 And mak swagat ane juperdy. (xii, 
 262.) 
 
 Quharfor I gow requeir and pray, 
 (xii, 263.) 
 
 quhair hartis fail^eis 
 The laif of lymmes lytle vailjeis. 
 
 135 (8). 
 
 Sic thing as this hes discumfit 
 Thare hartis all hale. 178(25). . 
 
 nocht worth ane myte. 56 (29). 
 helpit him nocht ane myte. 72 (9). 
 
 And suore that nane suld vther faill 
 For dout of dede in that battaill. 
 
 31 (11). 
 They will nocht faill for dout of dede. 
 
 342 (17). 
 That suld nocht fle for dout of dede. 
 
 360 (16). 
 Stoutnes and strenth encounterit pryde. 
 
 80 (15). 
 
 Pryde prekand aganis stoutnes. 287 (8). 
 
 [Not personified in the French, 
 
 which has orgeilleus contre fier. 
 
 Harl. MS. Add. 16,888, fol. 79.] 
 
 And gif ve foly agane foly. 281 (10). 
 
 [French has Musant contre musant 
 
 or musart contre musart. Add. 
 
 16,888, fol. 77; 16,956, fol.84 b .] 
 
 And sa gait mak we ane iepardy. 
 
 281 (11). 
 
 [Not in the French. Add. 16,888, 
 
 fol. 77.] 
 
 Quharefore I requyre gow and pray. 
 125 (14). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR: POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 21 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 To meit thame that first sail assemmyll 
 
 So stoutly that the henmast trymmyll. 
 
 (xii, 267.) 
 
 Cf. For gif the formast egirly 
 Be met jhe sail se suddanly 
 The henmast sail abasit be. 
 
 (viii, 243.) 
 
 Hap to vencus the gret battale 
 Intill your handis forouten faill. 
 
 (xii, 273.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Seik we the first sa sturdely 
 That the hindmaist abasit be. 20 (27) . 
 Thair first battell thusgait can semble 
 Quhair hardy can gar the couartis 
 
 trimble. 357 (20). 
 Tfyat formest cumis je sail se 
 The hindrnest sail abased be. 318(3). 
 
 foroutten faill 
 That suld vincus the great battaill. 
 
 260 (12), 
 
 [BRUCE'S ADDRESS.] 
 
 [Bruce* s Address. ,] 
 And I pray ghow als specially 
 Both mor and less all comonly 
 That nane of jow for gredynes 
 Haf e til tak of thair richess 
 Na presoners geit for till ta 
 Qubill ghe se thame cumrayit swa 
 That the feld planly ouris be 
 And than at jour liking may je 
 Tak all the richess that thar is. 
 
 (xii, 303.) 
 
 [Alexander's Addre&s.~[ 
 Forthy I pray ilk man that he 
 Nocht covetous na jarnand be 
 To tak na riches that they wald 
 Bot wyn of deidly fais the fald 
 Fra thay be winnin all wit je weill 
 The gudis ar ouris ever ilk deill 
 And I quyteclame gow vterly 
 Baith gold and sylver halely 
 And all the riches that thairis is. 
 
 318 (17). 
 
 French has : 
 Et pour Deu biau seigneurs ne soit 
 
 nus entendis 
 A nul gaaing qui soit ne du leur 
 
 convoitis. 
 Ains conquerons le champ contre nos 
 
 ennemis 
 Quant il sera vaincus li avoirs iert 
 
 conquis 
 Et je le vous quit tout et en fais et 
 
 en dis 
 L'onnour en voel avoir le remanant vous 
 
 quis. (Add. 16,956, fol. 99.) 
 [Compare another reading.] 
 Pour dieu biau dous seigneur ne soiez 
 
 convoitis 
 
 Dehauir (?) legaaingne dupeine ententis. 
 Mais conquerons le champ aus morteus 
 
 anemis 
 Quant le champs iert vaincus li auoirs 
 
 iert conquis 
 
22 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 \_Bmce' 's Address.'] 
 
 [Alexander's Address.] 
 Et je le vouz quit tout et en fais et 
 
 en dis 
 Or et argent et paillez senserez bien 
 
 partis 
 Et j'en aurai lonnour cest quant que je 
 
 devis. (Add. 16,888, fol. 91.) 
 
 [MOBNING.] 
 The Bruce. 
 Till on the morn that it wes day. 
 
 (xii, 334.) 
 [And on the morn quhen it wes day. 
 
 (xix, 503.) 
 Quhill on the morne that it wes day. 
 
 (xix, 404.) 
 Quhill on the morn that day was lichL 
 
 (xix, 716.) 
 Till on the morn that day was lycht. 
 
 (iv, 158.) 
 And on the morn quhen day ves licht. 
 
 (ix, 207.) 
 Till on the morn that day wes lycht. 
 
 (v, 114.) 
 Till on the morn that day wes lycht. 
 
 (x, 467.) 
 And on the morn quhen day ves licht. 
 
 (xiv, 172.) (Cf. xiii, 514.) 
 And on the morn quhen it wes day. 
 
 (xix, 752.)] 
 
 Cf . Bot on the morne in the mornyng. 
 
 (xiv, 165.) 
 
 Cf . in the dawyng 
 
 Eycht as the day begouth to spryng. 
 
 (vii, 318.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Apone the morne quhen it was day. 
 
 S17 (15). 
 Quhill on the morne that it was day. 
 
 351 (13). 
 Vpon the morne quhen it was day. 
 
 430 (21). 
 Quhil on the morne that day was licht. 
 
 118 (15). 
 Quhill on the morne that day was lycht. 
 
 338 (20). 
 
 Cf . And one the morne quhene sowne 
 was brycht. (Leg. , xxviii, 524.) 
 
 Cf. also : 
 
 Quhill on the morne that it was 
 
 day. (Troy fr., ii, 1758.) 
 Thane on the morne quhene it 
 wes day. (Leg. Saints, xiii, 168.) 
 And one the morne quhene it was 
 day. (Leg. Saints, xxv, 738 ; 
 alsoxxvi, 469, andxxvii, 1373.) 
 Thane one the morne quhene it 
 was day. (Leg. Saints, xxvii, 
 1599.) 
 And one the morne quhene it ves 
 
 day. (Leg. Saints, xlvii, 48.) 
 Quhill on the morn in the morning 
 Richt as the day begouth to spring. 
 
 3 (15). 
 
 And quhene the day beguth to daw. 
 (Leg., xviii, 879.) 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 [FORTUNE OP WAR.] 
 Sruce. 
 
 For in punjeis is oft hapnyne 
 Quhill for to vyne and quhill to tyne. 
 (xii, 373.) 
 
 Alexander. 
 
 That wer fulfillit of gret bounte. (xii, 
 
 423.) (Of. xiii, 112, below.) 
 Sic a frusching of speris wair 
 Tbat fer avay men mycbt it her. 
 
 (xii, 504.) 
 
 Thai dang on othir with wapnys ser. 
 
 (xii, 511.) 
 
 With speris that war scharp to scher 
 And axis that weill grundin wer. 
 
 (xii, 519.) 
 
 Cf. Ane hachit that war scharp to 
 scher. (x, 174.) 
 
 Throw fors wes felHt in that ficht. 
 
 (xii, 524.) 
 Set in-till herd proplexite. (xii, 530.) 
 
 (Cf. above, xi, 619.) 
 
 It fallis in weir quhilis to tyne 
 And for to wyn ane uthir syne. 
 
 244 (10). 
 
 [French has Une fois gaaigne Ven 
 et Vautrefois per[f\-on. (Add. 
 16,888, fol. 63 b .)] 
 That was fulfillit of all bounte. 297 
 
 (3). 
 Sic strakes they gave that men micht 
 
 here 
 
 Full far away the noyes and bere 
 The speiris all to-frushit thare. 
 
 286 (10). 
 
 Dang on vthir with wapnis seir. 415 
 (9). 
 
 spere 
 
 Or hand ax that was scharp to scheir. 
 
 353 (10). 
 
 Or hand ax that was sharpe to shere. 
 
 382 (27). 
 
 His spere was schairp and weill scherand. 
 42 (12). 
 
 Cf. That sail be scharp and rycht 
 weill grondine. (Leg. Saints, 
 1. 855.) 
 Throw fors was fellit in the fecht. 
 
 227 (6). 
 
 Be stad in gret perplexite. 30 (19). 
 (Cf. xi, 126, above.) 
 
 [THE NOISE OP BATTLE.] 
 
 Quhill men mycht her that had beyn by 
 
 A gret frueche of the speres that brast. 
 
 (xii, 544.) 
 
 Cf. Quhar men mycht her sic a 
 
 brekyng 
 Of speris that to fruschyt war. 
 
 (viii, 302.) 
 Men mycht haiff sene quha had 
 
 bene thar. (iii, 346.) 
 Men mycht haf seyn quha had 
 beyn thair. (viii, 378.) 
 
 men micht here 
 
 Full far away the noyes and bere 
 The sperris all to frushit thare. 
 
 286 (10). 
 men micht here 
 
 Great noyes and din quha had been neir. 
 
 117 (32), 118 (1). 
 
 That mycht bene hard quha had bene 
 
 by. (Leg. Saints, 1. 38.) 
 Quha had bene thare micht have sene 
 neir. 65 (11). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 And mony gud man fellit under feit 
 That had no power to riss geit. 
 
 (xii, 554.) (Cf. xii, 525.) 
 And mony a riall rymmyll ryde. (xii, 
 557.) 
 
 Quhill throu the byrneiss brist the 
 
 blud 
 That till the erd doune stremand jud. 
 
 (xii, 559.) 
 
 Jn myd the visage met thame thar. 
 (xii, 576.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 
 That had na power to rise jit. 56 (19). 
 
 Cf. 410 (23). 
 
 Quhare mony ane rummill rude was 
 set. 226 (9). 
 
 rymbill ryde. 225 (18). 
 rimmill ryde. 362 (2). 
 ruid rummill. 57 (2). 
 in blude 
 That stremand fra his woundis gude. 
 
 67 (5). 
 wox red 
 That stremand fra thare wondis jed. 
 
 385 (21). 
 the blude 
 That streymand to yare sadillis jeid. 
 
 95 (1). 
 
 Cf. Troy frag., ii, 823 : hys bloode 
 That streymande out hys body 
 
 yhoode. 
 [Cf. rime of jud, blud. (Leg. xx, 
 
 193.)] 
 In niiddes the visage met thame thare. 
 
 410 (17). 
 
 In middes the visage met thame weill. 
 4 (28). 
 
 [THE STALWAET STOTJE.] 
 
 Thar men mycht se ane stalwart stour. Thair men micht sie ane stalwart stour. 
 
 (xii, 577.) 34 (5). 
 
 The gyrss wox with the blude all red. The grene gras vox of blude all rede. 
 
 (xii, 582.) 382 (17). 
 
 Baith erd and gers of blude vox red. 
 
 385 (20). 
 
 That thai suld do thair devour wele. And sicker to do his devore weill. 
 
 (xii, 587.) 321 (23). 
 
 For with wapnys staluart of steill Bot with wapons staluart of steill 
 
 Thai dang on thame with all thar Thay dang on vther with all thair 
 
 mycht. micht. 80 (18). 
 
 (xiii, 14.) (Cf. xiii, 274, below.) 
 
 And vapnys apon armour stynt. (xiii, Of wapnis that on helmis styntis^ 
 
 27.) 366 (5). 
 As vapnys apon armor styntis. (xiii, 
 
 154.) 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 7% Bruce. 
 
 Defoulit roydly vnder feit. (xiii, 31.) 
 Of. Wndyr horss feyt defoulyt thar. 
 (ii, 359.) 
 
 That men na noyis na cry mycht her. 
 
 (xiii, 34.) 
 That slew fire as men dois on flyntis. 
 
 (xiii, 36.) 
 
 Quhen that he saw the battalis swa 
 Assemyll and togiddir ga. (xiii, 63.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Wndir feit defoulit in the battale. 
 
 366 (1). 
 
 Defoulit with feit. 144 (29). 
 Vnder hors feit defoulit ware. 401 (29) . 
 Wnder hors fute defoullit sa. 86 (6). 
 Thar men micht heir sic noyes and cry. 
 
 385 (22). Cf. 46 (2). 
 That kest fyre as man dois flyntis. 
 
 236 (25). 
 
 [Not in the French. Add. 16,888, 
 fol. 60>.] 
 
 Cf. Togidder thay straik as fyre of 
 flint. 243 (32). 
 
 [French has comme guarqon.~\ 
 Quhan he the rinkis saw shudder sua. 
 
 45 (32). 
 And the battellis togidder ga. 46 (1). 
 
 [THE PURSUIT.] 
 
 And slew all that thai mycht ourta. 
 (xiii, 93.) 
 
 sla 
 The men that thai mycht ourta. 
 
 (xvii, 100.) 
 Cf. And slew all that thai mycht 
 
 ourtak. (iv, 415.) 
 And slew all that thai mycht 
 
 ourtak. (v, 95.) 
 And slew all thaim thai mycht 
 
 ourta. (xviii, 325.) 
 And slew all at thai mycht ourta. 
 
 (x, 78.) 
 That he slew all he might ourtak. 
 
 (xvi, 197*.) 
 
 And agane armyt men to ficht 
 May nakit men haff litill mycht. 
 
 (xiii, 97.) 
 
 And ding on them sa doughtely. 
 (xiii, 132*.) 
 Cf . And dang on thame so douchtely. 
 
 (x, 727.) 
 
 And dang on thame so hardely. 
 (xvi, 204.) 
 
 He slew all that he micht ouerta. 
 
 379 (21). 
 That he ourtuke all doun he drave. 
 
 410 (6). 
 
 Al that it ourtuk wald sla. (Leg., 
 xxxiii, 71.) 
 
 naked, 
 They sail nouther hardemeut have nor 
 
 mycht 
 
 Aganis armit men to ficht. 362 (20). 
 And dang on vther sa egerly. 412 (4). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 And cryit ensenzeis on everilk syd, 
 Gifand and takand woundis wyd. 
 
 (xiii, 159.) 
 
 Cf. Giffand and takand voundis 
 
 vyde. (xv, 54.) 
 Gyffand and takand voundis vyde. 
 
 (vi, 288.) 
 
 And magre thairis left the plass. 
 (xiii, 170.) 
 
 Than men mycht heir ensenzeis cry. 
 (xiii, 203.) 
 
 Cf. His ensen^he mycht heir him 
 cry. (v, 323.) 
 
 with thame faucht 
 
 And swa gret rowtis to thame raucht. 
 (xiii, 211.) 
 
 ghemen swanys and poveraill 
 That in the pare to jheyme vittale. 
 
 (xiii, 229.) 
 Dang on thame sua with all thar mycht. 
 
 (xiii, 274.) 
 That thai scalit in tropellis ser. 
 
 (xiii, 275.) 
 
 For twa contraris jhe may wit wele 
 Set agane othir on a quhele. 
 
 (xiii, 651.) 
 
 And the laif syne that ded war thar 
 In-to gret pittes erdit war. (xiii, 665.) 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Thay cryit thair ensenzies on ilk syde. 
 
 412 (28). 
 Gevand and takand woundis wyde. 
 
 222 (8). 
 Gevand and takand routis ryde. 362 (7). 
 
 That maugre yairis yai left the place. 
 
 36 (12). 
 That maugre thairis thay left the pray. 
 
 423 (14). 
 In maugre of thairis reskewit the pray. 
 
 4 (7). 
 And his ensigne that thai hard cry. 
 
 52 (20). 
 
 faucht 
 
 And with his sword sic routis raucht. 
 154 (28). 
 (Cf. xi, 238, above.) 
 
 (Cf. xiii, 14, above.) 
 
 And scallit in troppellis heir and thair. 
 227 (14). 
 
 Cf. And thir quelis seit sail be swa 
 That of thame twa aganis twa 
 Sal alwayis turne in contrare 
 cours. (Leg. Saints, 1. 857.) 
 The laif in pittis eardit thay. 427 (17). 
 
 IX. THE LESSON OF THE PARALLELS. 
 
 In this long list of parallels, what are the passages thus held 
 in common by two poems so far removed from each other in theme ? 
 On what principle are they selected ? Are they French, originally 
 in the Alexander romance and transferred to the Scottish poem ? 
 Or are they Scottish pebbles strewn through both poems, and not 
 due to direct translation or imitation? If there was imitation, 
 which is the imitation, the Alexander or the Bruce ? In short, 
 do means exist for determining with assurance that the poet of the 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 27 
 
 Bruce used the translation of the Alexander, or that the translator 
 used the Bruce ? Once more, what are the passages ? 
 
 They are, in very singular proportion, passages which occur 
 more than once in the Bruce and more than once in the Alexander. 
 This pregnant fact seen, is not the riddle read already ? Thieves 
 are not wont to steal the same thing twice. No plagiarist would 
 be so inartistic as to repeat his plagiarism of the same passages 
 three, four, or five times over. On the other hand, the man who 
 is both poet and translator may well, when his themes in both 
 capacities are cognate, repeat himself, whether he is at work upon 
 his translation or upon an effort entirely his own. 
 
 Let us consider the oft repeated descriptions of morning (pp. 17, 22, 
 above). It might be urged that these variants are mere common 
 form. The rejoinder is that, even granting something of common 
 form, such recurrences of identical lines cannot be accidental ; 
 and commonplaceness sometimes amounting to triviality stamps 
 as ridiculous the conception of such verbal exactitude being due 
 to deliberate copying. Such things come not through one author 
 being influenced by the phrases of another ; they come through 
 one man using his own stock-in-trade and borrowing from himself. 
 
 But if this repetition of things comparatively commonplace is 
 characteristic of The Bruce displaying again and again the same 
 turns of expression, if it is at the same time the mark of the 
 Legends and of the Alexander, if some examples are common to all 
 three and to the Troy fragments, such repetition is no less telling 
 when it implies the reappearance of peculiar and even anomalous 
 or uncouth locutions. Ample enough is the- list of examples. Was 
 John Barbour, or was the translator of the Alexander, so much the 
 slave of his copy that when he asked, " Quhy suld I mak to lang 
 my tale ? " he made the query word for word as in the Alexander ? 
 When the translator made Emenydus begin an address to his 
 fellows, " Lordingis, now may ge sie," did he copy from the opening 
 of one of Bruce's addresses in these precise terms ? How comes 
 it that at Bannockburn we hear of the overthrown "That had na 
 power to rise git," while in the Alexander their plight is described 
 in perfectly identical terms ? Surely it is fatuity to ascribe such 
 a line to imitation. A bard must indeed have been in sore straits 
 if he copied that ! 
 
 The lessons and surprises of Bannockburn are many. The 
 banners to the wind waving in Barbour' s fine description of the 
 English march waved only less gaily in the romance of Alexander* 
 
28 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 In the De Bohun episode the breaking of Brace's battle-axe has 
 a somewhat uncomfortable parallel in the Alexander. It is an 
 unquestionable certainty that the address which Barbour puts into 
 the mouth of Robert Bruce 1 on the great day of national crisis 
 is borrowed from a speech imputed in the French romance to 
 Alexander the Great. 
 
 Tempting as it is to linger over Bannockburn, and needful as 
 it is to examine the bearing of the Alexander romance on the 
 authenticity of the biography of the Scottish monarch, the theme 
 must be left with a single remark to record the opinion that 
 whilst Barbour was in his description of the battle profoundly 
 influenced by the romance whether the translation or the French, 
 is a problem not to be disposed of in a parenthesis his borrowings 
 were not directly of matter (except speeches), but of style, pictorial 
 narrative, and descriptive phrases. The French influence is mainly 
 to be traced not in the tale but in the manner of telling. 
 
 X. SOME SPECIAL COINCIDENCES. 
 
 A second long list of parallels may stand over, giving place 
 meantime to a discussion of a few special words or lines which 
 no one will characterize as commonplaces and which bear peculiarly 
 on the evidence of authorship. 
 
 To-ga. 
 
 This word, regarded by Professor Skeat as representing the past 
 tense of the Anglo-Saxon verb togan, to go, is commented upon by 
 him as an anomalous form. It occurs, however, as to-go in Gower's 
 Confissio Amantis (ed. Morley, p. 423), but being anomalous and 
 exceedingly rare its appearance in the following cases must count 
 accordingly as very special indeed. In the Troy fragments there 
 is a phrase translating into the very opposite meaning the words 
 effugere non valerent in Guido. In every sense it is intrusive and 
 not real translation in respect that while the inversion of meaning 
 is doubtless an accident, the idiom is not Latin and does not bring 
 to-go or to-ga at all into the connection naturally. 
 
 Thai tornede thare bakis and to-go. (Troy fr., ii, 2231.) 2 
 
 1 For an older and quite different version see that of Abbat Bernard of 
 Arhroath, Bower, ii, 249 ; Scottish Antiquary (1899), xiv, 29. 
 
 2 The riming line is "And he gan many of them slo," showing sufficiently 
 that the words may be read to-ga and sla with equal propriety, such variations 
 being commonly scribal. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR: POET AND TRANSLATOR. 29 
 
 The Alexander similarly, in a phrase which is not a translation 
 of the French corresponding line, has : 
 
 Turnit thair brydillis and to-ga. A. 87 (18). 
 The French in Michelant has a quite different proposition : 
 
 Au plus tos que il porent tornent vers lors regne. Michelant, 171 (4). 
 Again, the Alexander has : 
 
 He turnit his brydill and he to-ga. A. 218 (4). 
 
 In this case the translation answers fairly enough to the French 
 (Add. 16,888, fol. 51): 
 
 A tant tire son frain c'est arriere tome, 
 
 although the to-ga is still exegetical. Now it is true that there 
 is a verbal difference between the form of the line in the Troy 
 and in the Alexander. The one says bridle, the other says lack. 
 We turn to Bruce for both. 
 
 Thai gaf the bak all and to-ga. (Br., xvii, 575.) 
 Thai turnit thar bak all and to-ga. (Br., ix, 263.) 
 He turnit his bridill and to-ga. (Br., viii, 351.) 
 
 The hand which thrust in this phrase in two shapes into three 
 separate translations of one Latin and two French works, combined 
 them when engaged upon an independent task. 
 
 MicTit, slicht. 
 
 At an earlier stage use was made of this rime and phrase to 
 show that Barbour in the Bruce was citing the Troy fragments, 
 and that the phrase in the fragment was more than once intrusive. 
 Now falls to be illustrated the extent to which the contrast of 
 ' might ' and ' slight ' couched in this particular rime is woven into 
 the texture of Barbour. Though not so marked in the Alexander 
 as in the Troy, the Bruce, and the Legends, there is at least one 
 parallel of a very complete sort in the Alexander interconnecting 
 with the many parallels from the other books. 
 
 Throw slycbt that he ne mycht throw And ourcumyne for all his mycht 
 maistri. (Br., i, 112.) Forthi with wilis did he and slycht. 
 
 [A verse quoted by Wyntoun, bk. (Leg., xxxiii, 589.) 
 
 viii, ch. 2, line 200.] [Latin has blanditiis quern minis 
 
 superare non poterat.~\ 
 
 Schapis thaira to do with slycht That thai mycht nocht do be mycht 
 
 That at thai drede to do with mycht. Thai schupe thame for to do be slycht. 
 (Br., ii, 324.) (Leg., xl, 829.) 
 
 [As to this further see Scottish 
 Antiqtiary , xi, 105-7.] 
 
30 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR .* POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Suld set thar etlyng evirmar 
 To stand agayne thar fayis mycht 
 Umquhile with strenth and quhile with 
 slycht. (Br., iii, 260.) 
 
 And sen we may nocht deill wyth mycht 
 Help vs that we may vyth slycht. 
 
 (Br., vii, 13.) 
 
 Throu sumkyn slicht for he vist weill 
 That no strenth mycht it planly get. 
 
 (Bj., x, 519.) 
 
 And how the toun was hard to ta 
 With oppyn assale be strinth or mycht 
 Tharfor he thoucht to virk with slicht. 
 (Br., ix, 350.) 
 
 But umhethoucht him of a slicht. (Br., 
 xvi, 84.) 
 
 Compare also mycht-slycht rimes: 
 Br., iv, 755; v, 269; viii, 505; 
 ix, 654 ; x, 334. 
 
 Bot set in intent baith strenth and mycht 
 With all his thocht and all his slycht. 
 
 A. 408 (15). 
 French has : 
 
 Ains met entente et force et pooir 
 Cuer pensee et savoir et engin. 
 
 (MS. 264, Bodley, 159.) 
 And sene he mycht nocht be mycht 
 Ourecome Cristofore thane be slycht. 
 (Leg., xix, 441.) [An intrusion.] 
 
 For thu has suorne of my oste be the 
 
 mycht 
 
 That thu sal nothirefor strinth na slicht. 
 (Leg.,xxxii, 569.) 
 [Chiefly intrusion per virtutes mei 
 exercitus both mycht and slycht 
 are evolved from virtutes."\ 
 And umbethought hyme how he myght 
 By ony coloure or by slyght. 
 
 (Troy, ii, 1467.) 
 
 Leg., iv, 41 ; xxxiv, 77 ; 1. 221, 511 : 
 all clear intrusions. Also x, 207 ; 
 xviii, 1273 ; xxvii, 663, 1199 ; xxx, 
 5, 701 ; xxxi, 589 ; xxxii, 461 ; xli, 
 207 ; 1. 397, 425. 
 
 The Number Ten. 
 
 Odd indeed is the history of this number in the various works 
 now undergoing comparison. Apart from numerous instances in 
 which the translation is true, there are in the Troy, Alexander, and 
 Legends alike, passages where the number is intruded, sometimes 
 rather ludicrously, as where quatuor paria multiply into ten. 
 
 Thay of Gaderis war ten tymes ma. 
 
 A., 65 (16). 
 Thair sould nocht ten have gane away. 
 
 A., 71 (30). 
 That ay aganes ane war ten. A., 
 
 140 (5). 
 
 [Intrusion French has only la grant 
 gent Dairon. 264, Bodley, 117.] 
 
 Ten. 
 
 Intrusion Gil de Gadres les outrent. 
 
 Michelant, 150 (3). 
 Intrusion n'en fust gaires estors. 
 
 Michelant, 154 (6). 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 31 
 
 And heirin als is nyne or ten. A., 
 273 (13). 
 
 [Intrusion French has vii ou viii 
 des plus preus. 264, Bodley, 
 fol. 138.] 
 And ma than ten or he wald rest. 
 
 A., 361 (25). 
 
 That weill x thousand war and mair. 
 A., 369 (23). 
 [Not in the French. Add. 16,888, 
 
 fol. 112.] 
 
 Micht he ay ane aganes ten. A., 
 405 (4). 
 [In the French " Un homme centre 
 
 x."] 
 And with thame als nyne or ten. A., 
 
 422 (8). 
 
 For of twenty ten ar slane. A., 
 380 (20). 
 [In the French " Qui de nous xx 
 
 aves ja les x deraembres."] 
 That quha sa micht in ten partis 
 Deal the worship that in ow is 
 Men micht mak ten worthy and wicht. 
 A., 258 (26). 
 Thane tuk thai tene oxine wicht. 
 
 (Leg., xxxiii, 307.) 
 And fell doune tene steppis hut frist. 
 (Troy frag., ii, 2491.) 
 
 Compare same reference to Judas 
 Maccabeus in Br., xiv, 316 : 
 Quhill he hade ane aganis ten. 
 Also Br., xii, 565 : Ay ten for 
 ane or may perfay. 
 
 Intrusion Quatuor paria bourn. 
 
 Intrusion de gradibus ipsis per quo9 
 descendebatur. 
 
 Tenth part. 
 
 Bot nocht the tend part hia travaling. 
 (Br.,ix, 495.) 
 
 na mane 
 The teynd of it tel cane. 
 
 (Leg., xxvi, 1162.) 
 
 The teynd part mene suld nocht treu. 
 
 (Leg., xl, 788.) 
 For I can nocht the teynd part tell. 
 
 (Leg., xxvii, 1249.) 
 Palace tend parte so fare to see. 
 
 [Intrusion.] (Leg., vi, 274.) 
 Can nane the teynd tel of disces. 
 
 (Leg., xviii, 1167.) 
 That mene lest notht the teynde to here. 
 
 [Intrusion.] (Troy frag., i, 475.) 
 
 Down to earth. 
 
 That to the erth he maid him go. (Troy fr., ii, 2972.) 
 That to the ground he gart him go. A., 74 (8). 
 And to the erd he gart him ga. A., 390 (25). 
 And he doun to the erd can ga. A., 411 (6). 
 And he doun to the erd can ga. (Br., vii, 585.) 
 
32 JOHN HARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Some French words. 
 
 Rebours. 
 
 All is at rebours. A., 124 (19). Held all at rebours. (Br., xiii, 486.) 
 
 [Sole instance.] [Sole instance.] 
 
 Vailyt. 
 Vail^e quod vailje. A., 140 (24); Avalje que valje. (Br., ix, 147.) 
 
 218 (30) ; 267 (28). 
 < Vail^e que vailge. A., 308 (21). 
 
 Liege pouste. 
 
 There is scarcely a tincture of law in the entire series of the 
 books now dealt with. The more interest attaches to liege pouste, 
 a phrase which, found in the English law of Bracton's time, 
 ultimately came to he particularly associated with the Scots law 
 of deathbed, being equated with the capacity of going to kirk and 
 market after the last will was made. 
 
 For gif I leif in liege pouste Bot and I lif in lege pouste 
 
 Thow sail of him weill vengit be. Thair ded sail rychtw eill vengit be. 
 
 A., 190 (13). (Br., v, 165.) 
 
 [Not in tbe French.] 
 Gif I leif lang in liege pouste. A., 
 189 (2). 
 
 Repeated, A., 361 (11). 
 [French has : " Mais se je vich vij 
 jors en vive poeste." 264, Bodley, 
 fol. 125.] 
 
 By Heaven's King. 
 
 This manner of swearing by the Deity is one of the many ways 
 in which the translator went beyond what he found in his French. 
 One example deserves enshrinement among the curiosities of oaths, 
 making Porrus, addressing the Almighty, take his name in vain 
 at the same time. In this the Bruce runs it hard. 
 
 "Deir God," said he, "be hevinnis Dear God that is of hevyn king, 
 king." A., 355 (25). (Br., ii, 144.) 
 
 [The French has simply " Diex ! " 
 
 Add. 16,888, fol. 106.] 
 For be him that is hevennis king. 
 A., 18 (31). 
 [French has no expletive at all. 
 
 Michelant, 104 (30). Cf. also 
 
 A., 18 (16, 31). Both cases of 
 
 this oath not in Michelant, 104.] 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 33 
 
 These rather fine examples of congested oaths force the 
 conclusion that Barbour and the translator swore poetically in 
 the same terms, an inference to which the frequency of this 
 epithet, "king of heaven," in the Legends adds all natural 
 confirmation. 
 
 Other references besides prove community of characteristics. 
 
 God help us that is mast of mycht. 
 
 (Br., xii, 324.) 
 Quhar our Lord for his mekill mycht. 
 
 (Br., xx, 475.) 
 The grace of God that all thing steres. 
 
 (Br., xi, 27 ) 
 
 And lovit God fast of his grace. 
 
 (Br., xiv, 311.) 
 
 A ! Deir God ! Quha had beyn by 
 And seyn how he sa hardely. 
 
 (Br., vi, 171.) 
 
 Now help God for his mekyll mycht. 
 A., 340 (26). 
 
 A ! God that al has for to steir. 
 
 (Leg., xxi, 279.) 
 His ferme hope in hym setand 
 That has to stere bath se and land. 
 
 (Leg., xxvii, 481.) 
 Of Jesu Criste that al can stere. 
 
 (Leg., xi, 151.) 
 
 Granttit wele that thar was ane 
 That all thinge steryt ellis nane. 
 
 (Leg., 1. 435.) 
 Lowyt fast God of his bounte. (Leg., 
 
 xxv, 471.) 
 Der God ! how Alexander sa douchtely. 
 
 A., 387 (22). 
 A ! Deir God ! how he was douchty. 
 
 A., 43 (11). 
 
 Leech and medicine. 
 
 There is a medical expression which, taken from the French in 
 one case, is intruded or expanded in others, and becomes a metaphor. 
 
 That sail neid as 
 (Br., xiii, 46.) 
 
 I trow lechyng. 
 
 Thair bost has maid me haill and fer 
 For suld no medicine so soyne 
 Haff couerit me as thai haf done. 
 
 (Br.,ix, 231.) 
 
 Thai sail neid I wisleching. A., 42 (15). 
 [French has not this. Michelant, 
 
 132 (25).] 
 Thare nedit na leche on thame to luke. 
 
 A., 366 (12). 
 
 He hes na mister of medecyne. A., 
 393 (3). 
 [French has this na mestier de 
 
 mire. Add. 16,888, fol. 123.] 
 He that heir cummis I underta 
 With ane sweit medicyne sail now 
 Mak quyk of that that grevis jow. 
 
 A., 43 (27). 
 
 [French has only cilvus gari de mort. 
 Michelant, 133 (12).] 
 
 3 
 
34 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 It will be noted that the last example from the Bruce is at 
 a point which touches history, being a record of words said to have 
 been spoken by Robert the Bruce. We know, however, that the 
 speeches of mediaeval kings are usually creations of the historians. 
 
 Hardy of heart and hand. . 
 
 Professor Skeat cited the absence of this ' mannerism ' from 
 the Troy fragments (Bruce, i, pref., p. 1) as a ground for disputing 
 their authorship by Barbour. We may be entirely content to 
 have it in the Alexander and the Legends. 
 
 That hardy wes off hart and hand. And hardy als of hart and hand. 
 
 (Br., i, 28.) A., 175 (28). 
 
 A knycht hardy of hert and hand. And hardy vas of hart and hand. 
 
 (Br., 3d, 571.) (Leg., xl, 819.) 
 That hardy est was of hert and hand. 
 
 (Br., xvi, 234.) 
 
 Adam. 
 
 A reference to Adam is (a) translated from the French, (V) thrust 
 into the translation from the French, and (c) thrust into a trans- 
 lation from the Latin. 
 
 Sen first that God Adame wrocht. Sene first he made Adarae of clay. 
 A., 395 (23). (Leg., xxxii, 534.) 
 
 [Apparently not in the French.] ^ the ^^ 
 
 For sen that God first Adam wrocht. 
 A., 402 (14). 
 
 [French has Ca puisque Liex ot fait 
 Adam a son plaisir .~\ 
 
 Anger and joy. 
 
 Sentiments so opposite do not naturally utter themselves in the 
 same formula. Throughout the four works all now claimed as 
 Barbour' s one formula serves. 
 
 Richt angry in his hert he was. (Br., Full odyous in hys hert he was. 
 
 iii, 64.) (Troy fr., ii, 1460.) 
 
 That in his hert gret angyr hes. (Br., And in his hart gret anger hes. A., 
 
 viii, 16.) 24 (15). [Intrusion.] 
 
 Into hir hart great anger hes. A., 
 
 431 (19). 
 Intill his hert had gret liking. (Br., And in his hart great lyking hes. 
 
 xiv, 17.) A., 338 (14). 
 
 And in his hart gret joy he maid. In his hart wonder glaid was he. 
 
 (Leg., xxvii, 468.) A., 245 (20). 
 
JOHN HARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 35 
 
 Great glaidship in hart lie hes. A., 
 
 345 (30). 
 Sic sorow ine his hart has tane. (Leg., Sic anger was at his hart I wis. A., 
 
 xxxiii, 760.) 386 (3). 
 
 Sic yre in his harte he had. (Leg., 
 
 vii, 622.) 
 
 In harte thai had sike wgrines. (Leg., 
 vii, 716.) 
 
 So the same form of words was made to attain perfectly contrary 
 purposes. Such a thing is no freak of chance. It merely shows 
 the flexibility of a phrase in one man's hand. 
 
 XL A SECOND CHAPTER OF PARALLELS. 
 
 It is now time to insert without comments another batch of 
 parallels, in this case putting the Alexander lines in the first 
 column. 
 
 [THE FORRAY OPEXS.] 
 
 The Alexander. The Bruce. 
 
 Now rydis the furreouris thair way Now gais the nobill kyng his way 
 
 Richt stoutly and in gude array. Richt stoutly and in gude array. 
 
 2 (25). (viii, 272.) 
 
 Tursit thair harnes halely. 3(11). Thai tursit thair harnass halely. (ix, 
 
 360.) 
 
 His men to him he can rely. 4 (4). His men till him he gan rely, (iii, 34.) 
 
 His men till him he can rely, (iv, 
 
 426.) 
 
 All in ane sop assemblit ar. 4 (16). Syne in a sop assemblit ar. (vii, 567.) 
 Ferrand he straik with spurris in hy. See pp. 18, 19. 
 
 4 (22). 
 
 That nouther noyis nor crying maid. That thai maid nouthir noyis no cry. 
 3 (14). (xiii, 38.) 
 
 The noyis begouth soyne and the cry. 
 
 (v, 577.) 
 
 Cf. Thare begouth the noyes and The noyis begouth than and the cry. 
 cry. 395 (20). (viii, 308.) 
 
 And straik the first so rigorusly. 4 And smat the first so rigorusly. (vii, 
 (25). 449.) 
 
 He smat the first sa rygorusly. (vi, 
 
 136.) 
 And with his sword that scharply That with his swerd that scharply 
 
 share. 5 (20). schare. (vi, 643.) 
 
 The sword he swappit out in hy. 5 in hy 
 
 (29). Swappyt owt swerdys sturdely. 
 
 (ii, 362.) 
 
36 
 
 JOHN BARBOTJR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 [HEAD-CLEAYING. ] 
 
 The Alexander. 
 
 The Ernce. 
 
 And Lyonell with all his maucht. 
 "Wpon the hede ane rout him raucht 
 That to the schoulderis he him clave 
 And dede doun to the erd him draif. 
 
 6(3). 
 Cf. Firms him smot with all his 
 
 maucht 
 And sa rude ane rout hes him 
 
 raucht. 46 (30). 
 Manlyke as men of mekill maucht. 
 
 287 (19). 
 
 Porrus that had his sword on hicht 
 Him raucht a rout with in randoun 
 
 richt 
 That of the helm the cirkill he clave. 
 
 400 (22). 
 
 Cf. also, 361 (4), 154 (28). 
 Than to his menje can he say. 7 (8) . 
 
 Aganis men samekill of micht. 8 (19). 
 
 And thay that wourthy ar and wicht. 
 9 (31). 
 
 with thair baneris 
 And ensigneis on seir maneris. 10 (26). 
 
 Lat God wirk syne quhat ever he will. 
 11 (25). 
 Cf. To leif or die quhidder God 
 
 will send. 21(2). 
 Outher leif or dee quhether God 
 
 will send. 256 (30). 
 Now cum quhat euer God will 
 
 send. 319 (23). 
 I war mar tratour than Judas. 12 (8). 
 
 And to Philip sic rout he rancht 
 That thoucht he wes of mekill maucht. 
 (ii, 420.) 
 
 And swa gret rowtis till him raucht 
 That had nocht beyn his mekill maucht. 
 (xix, 587.) 
 
 Bot he that had his suerd on hicht 
 Eaucht him sic rout in randoun richt 
 Eicht he the hede to harniss clafe 
 And him doun ded to the erd drafe. 
 
 (v, 631.) 
 
 Ze ar sa full of grete bounte. 12 (31). 
 That is fulfillit of all bounte. 166 (24). 
 That is fulfillit of all bounte. 344 (6). 
 
 And till his menjhe can he say. (xv, 
 
 471.) 
 Agane folk of sa mekill mycht. 
 
 (xviii, 62.) 
 And thai that worthy war and wicht. 
 
 (xix, 786.) 
 
 bricht baneris 
 And hors hewit in seir maneris. 
 
 (viii, 229.) 
 And tak the vre that God wald send. 
 
 (i, 312.) 
 Syne fall quhat evir that God vill send. 
 
 (ix, 32.) 
 
 to tak the vre 
 That God will send, (ix, 68.) 
 
 Cf. p. 18. 
 
 Throw a discipill off Judas 
 Maknab a fals tratour that ay 
 Wes of his duelling nicht and day. 
 
 (iv, 18.) 
 Cf. Ine stad of the tratour Judas. 
 
 (Leg., xii, 4.) 
 
 For that wekit tratore Judas 
 Familiare to Jhesu wes. (Leg., 
 
 vii, 29.) 
 He wes fulfillit of all bunte. (x, 294.) 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 [THE KING'S MENSE.] 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Mantene the kingis mense that day. 
 
 18 (8). 
 That we hald of all our halding. 19 
 
 (19). 
 Of his great worship and bountie. 20 
 
 (7). 
 
 Cf. For the great worship and 
 
 bountie. 240 (2). 
 His worship and his great 
 
 bountie. 102 (32). 
 For multitude in fecht oft failjeis. 
 
 20 (25). 
 Quha for his lord dois (deis ?) he sail 
 
 be 
 
 Harbreid with Angellis gle. 21(16). 
 Cf. And syne in he wine herbryt be. 
 (Leg., xxv, 780.) 
 
 The Kingis freindis sail today 
 Be knawen in this hard assay 
 Quha lufis his honour he sail be 
 Eenoumed in this great mellie. 
 
 21 (14), 
 
 The Bruce. 
 Quha lufis the kyngis mensk to-day. 
 
 (xvi, 61.) 
 That he held of all his halding. (xix, 
 
 66.) 
 Of thair worschip and gret bounte. 
 
 (xvi, 530.) 
 Of gret worschip and of bounte. (xii, 
 
 380.) 
 
 For multitude mais na victory, (ii, 
 
 330.) 
 That he that deis (dois alternative 
 
 version} for his cuntre 
 Sail herbryit intill hewyn be. (ii, 340.) 
 For hewynnis bliss suld be thair meid 
 Gif that thai deit in Goddis serviss. 
 
 (xx, 414.) 
 
 In joy solase and angell gle. (xx, 
 252.) 
 Cf. In gret joy and angel gle. 
 
 (Leg., xxxv, 254.) 
 Hee brocht in hewyne with 
 angel gle. (Leg., xvii, 151.) 
 Now dois weill for men sail se 
 Quha lufis the kyngis mensk to-day ! 
 (xvi, 621.) 
 
 [INCIDENTS AND PERSONAL DESCRIPTIONS.] 
 
 And syne lap on deliverly. 60(13). And lap on hym delyverly. (ii, 142.) 
 
 Cf. Thai lap on hors delyverly. 238 
 (11). 
 
 Cf. p. 41. 
 And quhen he saw his point that tyde. For quhen that he his poynt mycht se. 
 
 75 (15). (vii, 388.) 
 
 Cf . And quhen that he his point culd 
 
 sie. 45 (14). 
 
 And he lansit delyverly. 79(26). And he lansytfurth delyverly. (iii, 122.) 
 
 With that in hy to him turnit he. 89 With that in hy to him callyt he. (iii,. 
 
 (15). 331.) 
 
38 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Quhill in his arsoun dintit he. 99 (18). 
 
 To him I mak na man compair. 110(9). 
 He was baith stith stark and strang, 
 "Weill maid with lymmes fare and 
 lang. 117 (18). 
 Cf . Of all schaip was he richt wele 
 
 maid 
 With armys large and schoulderis 
 
 braid. 42 (2). 
 
 Thair sail nane that is borne of wyfe. 
 138 (9). 
 
 better than he 
 Micht never of woman borne be. 
 
 423 (19). 
 
 Saw never jit na wyfis sone. 435 (8). 
 And with ane spere that sharpely share 
 Mony doun to the erd he bare. 
 
 144 (26). 
 
 Ane renk about him hes he made. 
 145 (8). 
 
 Repeated 231 (20). 
 
 Thame worthis assale and thame 
 
 defend. 150 (17). 
 Thare worthit us defend or assale. 
 
 186(31). 
 Outhir to assaill or to defend. 244 
 
 (23). 
 Quha ever defend quha euer assail. 
 
 259 (19). 
 
 He hit quhill he lay top our tale. 
 285 (25). 
 
 Cf. That top our taill he gart him 
 _ ly. 72(8). 
 [Intrusion in translation.] 
 At the jet quhare the barrens hewin. 
 
 180 (25). 
 "With fare visage and sume dele rede. 
 
 191 (17). 
 
 Quhill he umbethoeht him at the last 
 And in his hart cleiiiy can cast. 
 
 193 (29). 
 
 The Bruce. 
 That he dynnyt on his arsoune. (xvi, 
 
 131.) 
 
 Till Ector dar 1 nane comper. (i, 403.) 
 Bot of lymmys he wes weill maid 
 "With banys gret and schuldrys braid. 
 (i, 385.) 
 
 Cf. Fore Johne of wemane best 
 barnewes. (Leg.,ixxvi,182.) 
 
 With his spere that richt sharply schare 
 Till he doun to the erd him bare. 
 
 (vi, 137.) 
 And rowme about thame haf thai maid. 
 
 (xx, 460.) 
 That ay about hym rowme he maid. 
 
 (xvi, 196.) 
 Gif thai assalje we mon defend, (ix, 
 
 30.) 
 And sum defend and sum assale. (xii, 
 
 556.) 
 Oft till defende and oft assale. (vi, 
 
 330.) 
 For to defend or till assale. (viii, 
 
 283.) 
 
 [Repeated xvii, 242.] 
 Till defend gif men vald assaill. (xvii, 
 
 260.) 
 Till top our taill he gert him ly. (vii, 
 
 455.) 
 
 At Mary -jet to hewyn had the barras. 
 
 (xvii, 755.) 
 In wysage wes he sumdeill gray, (i, 
 
 383.) 
 
 Till he umbethocht him at the last 
 And in his hert can umbecast. (v, 551 .) 
 
 Cf. And in his thocht kest mony 
 way. (Troy, ii, 1989.) 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 39 
 
 The Alexander. 
 
 That forsy was in field to fecht. 
 196 (18). 
 
 Cf. Large and forssy for to ficht. 
 258 (29). 
 
 And syne went to the wod away. 
 
 215 (32). 
 
 Had ge nocht all the better bene 
 Thay had gow slane that men had sene. 
 240 (14). 
 
 Had he nocht all the better bene 
 He had bene deid forouttin wene. 
 
 380 (2). 
 He lap on and went furth in hy. 
 
 296 (12). 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 Hardy and forcy for the debt, (xi, 215.) 
 And how forsy he wes in fycht. 
 
 (xv, 410.) 
 Be stedede forcye for all fyghtes. 
 
 (Troy frag., ii, 510.) 
 And syne vend to the vod avay. 
 
 (v, 561.) 
 
 That had he noeht the bettir beyn 
 He had beyn ded forouten veyn. 
 
 (vi, 161.) 
 
 Cf . He had beyn ded foroutyn weyr. 
 (vii, 219.) 
 
 Lap on and went with thaim in hy. 
 (v, 214.) 
 
 [Nox A DINNER!] 
 
 And thay ar anely till dynare 
 To ane great hoste that we have here. 
 308 (32). 
 
 [French has: Car il sont poi de 
 gent pour sa gent desjunner. 
 (Add. MS. 16,956, fol. 95.)} 
 Cf. With sa quhene that may nocht 
 
 be 
 
 Ane denner to my great menze. 
 336 (15). 
 
 [French has : Ce n'est pas une sausse 
 pour destremper la moie (Add. 
 16,956, fol. 107), but Add. 16,888, 
 fol. 98#, reads : Ce n'est mie une 
 soupe.] 
 
 Bot thai ar nocht withouten wer 
 Half deill ane dyner till us here. 
 
 (xiv, 188. 
 
 [THE BATTLE OF EFFESOUN.] 
 
 And ma into thair first cumming 
 "War laid at card but recovering 
 The remanent thair gait ar gane. 
 
 382 (26). 
 Cf. Amang thame at thare first 
 
 meting 
 "Was slane but ony uther 
 
 recovering. 29 (14). 
 [Intrusion in translation.] 
 
 And weill ost at thar fryst metyng 
 "War layd at erd but recoveryng. 
 
 (iii, 15.) 
 
 The remanand thar gat ar gane. (viii, 
 354.) 
 
40 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 The Alexander. 
 That speiris all to frushit are. 363 
 
 (26). 
 
 Cf . The speiris all to frushit thare. 
 
 286 (12). 
 Durst nane abyde to mak debait. 379 
 
 (16). 
 And thay that doutand war to de. 
 
 385 (26). 
 His neiffis for dule togidder he dang. 
 
 393 (12). 
 
 That the assemble all to schoke 
 
 And the renkis all to quoke. 396 (26). 
 
 Rede blude ran out of woundis raith. 
 
 401 (30). 
 
 He said he had in alkin thing 
 Our lytill land to his leving. 403 (15). 
 [Alexander sighing for more worlds^ 
 
 [THE NINE 
 Judas Machabeus I hecht 
 Was of sic verteu and sic micht 
 That thoch thay all that lyfe micht lede 
 Come shorand him as for the dede 
 Armit all for cruell battale 
 Quhill he with him of alkin men 
 Micht be ay ane aganes ten. 404 (29). 
 
 Arthur that held Britane the grant 
 Slew Rostrik that stark gyant 
 That was sa stark and stout in deid 
 That of Kingisbeirdis he maid ane weid 
 The quhilk Kingis 1 alluterly 
 War obeysant to his will all halely 
 He wald have had Arthouris beird 
 And failgeit/or he it richt weill weird l 
 On mount Michael slew he ane 
 That sik ane freik was never nane 
 
 The Bruce. 
 
 That speris all to-fruschit war. (ii, 
 350.) 
 
 Thai durst nocht byde na mak debait. 
 
 (x, 692.) 
 For thai that dredand war to de. (iv, 
 
 417.) 
 And thair nevis oft sammyn driff. 
 
 (xx, 257.) 
 
 [This in grief for Bruce's death.] 
 That all the renk about them quouk. 
 
 (ii, 365.) 
 Till red blude ran of voundis rath. 
 
 (viii, 322.) 
 
 Thocht that Scotland to litill wes 
 Till his brothir and him alsua. (xiv, 4.) 
 
 WORTHIES.] 
 
 This gud knycht that so vorthy was 
 Till Judas Machabens that hicht 
 Micht liknyt weill be in that ficht 
 Na multitud he forsuk of men 
 Quhill he hade ane aganis ten. 
 
 (xiv, 312.) 
 
 Judas Macabeus restoit de tel talant 
 Que tint cil du monde Ii fussent au 
 
 devant 
 Arme et pour bataille felonnese et 
 
 nuisant 
 
 Ja tant com il eust o soi de remanant 
 Un homme centre x nel veist on fuiant. 
 
 (Add. MS., Harl. 16,956, fol. 140 b .) 
 Artus qui de Bretaingne va le Bruit 
 
 tesmoigniant 
 Que il mata Ruston i jaiant en plain 
 
 champ 
 Qui tant par estoit fort fier et outre - 
 
 cuidant 
 Qui de barbes a roys fist faire i veste- 
 
 ment 
 
 Liquel roy Ii estoient par force obeissant 
 Si vot avoir Artus mais il i f u faillant 
 
 This sarcasm (not in the French) is in Morte Arthure, 1034. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 41 
 
 The Alexander. 
 Bot gif the story gabbing ma. 405 (11). 
 
 [WAR AND 
 
 It was neirhand none of the day. 407 (9). 
 
 And routisroyd about him dang. 407 ( ). 
 
 And he lap on delyverly. 410 (10). 
 Cf. And on him lap delyverly. 398(2). 
 
 Cf. p. 37. 
 
 Quhill shulder and arme flew him fra 
 And he doun to the erd can ga. 411 (5). 
 [French has : 
 
 Souz la seiiestre epaule que toute li 
 
 coupa 
 
 Et cil chiet du cheval qui tres grant 
 dolour a. 
 
 (Add. 16, 888, fol. 132.)] 
 Cf . That arme and shulder he dang 
 
 him fra. 5 (22). , 
 Thare men inicht felloun fechting se. 
 
 412 (25). 
 
 Thair was ane felloun fechting thair. 
 77 (31). 
 
 He rushit doun of blude all rede 
 Quhen Porrus sawe thatxhe was dede. 
 
 413 (13). 
 
 Toward thame we raid sa fast 
 That we ouertuke thame at the last. 
 
 423 (10). 
 Thus mak thay peax quhair weir was 
 
 air. 429 (20). 
 [French has : 
 
 Ainsi fu 1' accordance et la guerre 
 apaisie. (Add. 16,956, fol. 152 b .)] 
 Thay maid thame mekill feste and fare. 
 433 (20). 
 
 The Bruce. 
 Sur le mont Saint Michiel enrocist i si 
 
 grant 
 Que tout cil du pays en furent mer- 
 
 veillant 
 
 En plusours autres lieus si I'estorie ne 
 ment. 
 
 (Add. 16,956, fo. 140 b , corrected by 
 Add. 16,888, fo. 129 b .) 
 
 PEACE.] 
 
 Quhill it wes neir noyne of the day. 
 
 (xvii, 659.) 
 And rowtis ruyd about thaim dang. 
 
 (ii, 356.) 
 And lap on hym delyverly. (ii, 142.) 
 
 That arme and schuldyr flaw him fra. 
 (iii, 115.) 
 
 Thair mycht men se men felly ficht. 
 
 (xviii, 460.) 
 Thar mycht men felloune fechting se. 
 
 (xx, 418.) 
 Ane felloun fechting wes [than] thair. 
 
 (xiv, 294.) 
 
 He ruschit doune of blude all rede 
 And quhen the king saw thai war ded. 
 (v, 645.) 
 
 Bot the chassaris sped thame so fast 
 That thai ourtuk sum at the last. 
 
 (vi, 439.) 
 Thus maid wes pess quhar wer wes air. 
 
 (xx, 63.) 
 
 He maid thame mekill fest and far. 
 (xvi, 46.) 
 
42 JOHN BARBOUR .' POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 XII. THE EPILOGUE WITH THE EREONEOTJS DATE 1438. 
 
 When regard is had to the accumulation of evidence now 
 adduced it is no longer possible to doubt that Barbour's Bruce 
 and the Alexander are from one pen. No imaginable theory of 
 copying, no conceivable saturation of one poet's mind with the 
 conceptions, the technique, the style, the vocabulary, and the 
 mannerisms of another, would offer reasonable explanation of 
 resemblances so intimate and so perfectly sustained. Either 
 Barbour'a Bruce was not written by Barbour, who died in 1396, 
 but by the other author whose corresponding work bears date 
 1438, or that date in the epilogue of the Alexander, containing 
 its two final tirades, is impossible. 
 
 The actual translation of the Vceux du Paon ends on p. 441 of 
 the Alexander with the words referring to the death of Alexander 
 at Babylon 
 
 He deit thare throw poysoning 
 It was great harm of sic ane thing 
 For never mare sic ane lord as he 
 Sail in this warld recoverit he. 
 
 In the same way closes the French poem in the Harleian MS. Add. 
 16,888, fo. 141 (Ward's Catalogue of Romances, i, pp. 146-152) 
 
 Vers la grant Bahiloine on en lanprisona 
 Las dalant quel domage quant il ci tot fina 
 Car puis que li vrais diex le siecle commensa 
 Tel prince ne naqui ne james ne naitra. 
 Explicit des vouz du paon. 
 
 Following the actual completion of the Scots translation comes the 
 epilogue 
 
 J_ short thame that na Eomanes can 
 
 this huke to translait I hegan 
 
 And as I can I maid ending, 
 
 Bot thocht I failzeit of ryming 
 
 Or meter or sentence for the rude, 
 
 Forgif me for my will was gude 
 
 to follow that in franche I fand writtin ; 
 
 Bot thocht that I seuin jeir had sittin 
 
 to mak it on sa gude manere 
 
 Sa oppin sentence and sa clere 
 
 As is the frenche I micht haue failjeit ; 
 
 For thy my wit was nocht traualit 
 
JOHN B ARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 43 
 
 to raak it sa for I na couth 
 Bot said forth as me come to mouth 
 And as I said richt sa I wrait ; 
 thairfoir richt wonder weill I wait 
 And it hes faltis mony fald. 
 Quhairfoir I pray baith joung and aid 
 that jarnis this romanis for to reid 
 For to amend quhair I mysjeid. 
 
 ZE 
 
 that haue hard this romanis heir 
 May sumdeill by exampill len- 
 to lufe vertew attour all thing 
 And preis jow ay for to win louing, 
 that jour name may for jour bounte 
 Amang men of gude menit be ; 
 For quhen je lawe ar laid in lame 
 than leuis thar nathing hot ane name 
 As je deserued gud or ill ; 
 And je may alsweill gif je will 
 Do the gude and haue louing 
 As quhylum did this nobill King, 
 that jit is prysed for his bounte 
 the quhether thre hundreth jeir was he 
 Before the tyme that God was borne 
 to saue our saullis that was forlorne. 
 Sensyne is past ane thousand jeir 
 Four hundreth and threttie thair to neir 
 And aucht and sumdele mare I wis. 
 God bring us to his mekill blis 
 that ringis ane in trinitie. 
 Amen amen for cheritie. 
 
 The Erroneous Date. 
 
 To conclude 1438 an error is, as will be conceded from what has 
 gone before, no begging of the question. Following closely upon 
 the completion of the Bruce in the spring of 1376, Barbour had 
 received a royal gift of 10 in 1377, and an hereditary pension 
 or annuity to himself and to his assignees was granted in 1378. 
 (Exch. Rolls, ii, 566, 597; Eegistrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, 
 i, 129.) This pension was officially, though at a later period, 
 declared to have been given for writing the Bruce "pro com- 
 pilacione libri de gestis quondam Regis Roberti de Eras " (Exch. 
 Eolls, iv, 457, 520). His public success is evinced in many other 
 ways. Prior to 1424 Androw of Wyntoun had engrossed into his 
 Cronykil long extracts which agree almost perfectly with the text 
 
44 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR, 
 
 as we have it now. That Wyntoun's own style was greatly 
 influenced by Barbour is unquestionable, and many and admiring 
 references to Bruce* s Book are gracious examples of early criticism. 
 Wyntoun's quotation from Barbour relative to the contest for 
 the Crown in 1292-95 is acknowledged to be quotation (Wyntoun, 
 bk. viii, line 177) in the words 
 
 Forthi sayd Mayster Jhon Barbere 
 That mekyll tretyd off that matere. 
 
 It thus need not surprise when in the narrative we find an 
 occasional couple of lines not absolutely necessary to the sense 
 omitted. (Bruce, app. to Prof. Skeat's pref., xciii-cvi.) In another 
 place "Wyntoun (bk. viii, line 976) refers readers desiring fuller 
 particulars to the Bruce 
 
 To that Buke I thaim remyt 
 
 Quhare Mayster Jhon Barbere off Abbyrdene 
 
 Archeden as mony has sene 
 
 Hys dedis dytyd mare wertusly 
 
 Than I can thynk in all study, 
 
 Haldand in all lele suthfastnes, 
 
 Set all he wrat noucht his [i.e. Bruce's] prowes. 
 
 To this admiration of Wyntoun for Barbour, indeed, is due the 
 absence from his Crony kil of any record of King Robert's reign. 
 That Wyntoun knew Barbour's poem as distinctly a Douglas 
 document * as well as a eulogy of Bruce appears from the reference 
 to the king's death and burial, Wyntoun thus ending Bruce's 
 reign as he began it by remitting his readers to Bruce's Book. 
 
 And gud Jamys off Dowglas 
 Hys hart Ink as fyrst ordanyd was 
 For to bere in the Haly Land. 
 How that that wes tane on hand 
 Well proportys Brwsis Buk 
 Quhay will tharoff the matere luke. 
 
 (Wyntoun, viii, 3121 a part of the section borrowed by 
 Wyntouu from an anonymous source, viii, 2945-64.) 
 
 Thus credentialled beyond the attack of rational scepticism, the 
 Bruce stands as a fact of 1376 which cannot be moved. But its 
 
 1 Between 1390 and 1392 Sir James Douglas, of Dalkeith, by his will 
 bequeathed "et omnes libros meos tarn civiles et statuta Regni Scotie quam 
 Eomancie" (Bannatyne Miscellany, ii, pp. 112-114; National MSS. Scotland, 
 part iii, No. iv). It is pleasant to find both Stewarts and Douglases patrons of 
 literature in Barbour's time. 
 
JOHN B ARBOUR .* POET AND TRANSLATOR. 45 
 
 relations with the Alexander are impossible for an Alexander not 
 written till 1438, unless, indeed, John Barbour rose from his grave 
 to write it ! 
 
 Treating 1438 as a scribal or printer's error, one has no difficulty 
 whatever. This date is the solitary circumstance which stands 
 between ; that rectified, Barbour infallibly obtains his own by 
 a judgment as assured as any literary verdict ever given. The 
 rectification, formidable as at first it looks, is of a truth the 
 removal of a mere bubble obstacle. Assuming first that the error 
 might be scribal, one can point to Barbour's own experiences to 
 prove how easily such slips occur. There are in the Legends of tJie 
 Saints not fewer than a dozen dates which differ from the standard 
 printed text of the Legenda Aurea, some of them perhaps due to 
 copyists' negligence, some undoubtedly due to a curious fault 
 possibly inherent in Barbour's own pen whereby "score" is 
 wrongly inserted. Here follows a list of dates in the Legends at 
 variance with the Latin print : 
 
 i/ea auu iiuniuers 
 Legenda Aurea. 
 
 In the Legends. 
 
 Reference to Legends. 
 
 9,000 
 
 11,000 
 
 vi, 435. 
 
 
 60,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 xi, 388. 
 
 
 A.D. 283 
 
 A.D. 388 
 
 xx, 368. 
 
 
 372 
 
 377 
 
 xxiii, 178. 
 
 
 398 
 
 328 
 
 xxiv, 560. 
 
 
 1088 
 
 1087 
 
 xxvi, 607. 
 
 
 470 
 
 478 
 
 xxx, 739. 
 
 
 280 
 
 360 
 
 xxxii, 807. 
 
 
 287 
 
 288 
 
 xxxvii, 343. 
 
 
 253 
 
 353 
 
 xlii, 274. 
 
 
 223 
 
 233 
 
 xliii, 625. 
 
 
 cccx 
 
 Thre hundre tene gere and ane 
 
 xlv, 352. 
 
 
 237 
 
 287 
 
 xlv, 307. 
 
 
 280 
 
 360 
 
 xlvii, 213. 
 
 
 The unfortunate tendency of Barbour's dates to get wrong is 
 quaintly illustrated in the Troy fragments (ii, 3060), where the 
 Latin gives 93 as the years of Ulysses, which Barbour expands 
 to the ultra-patriarchal age by an additional score, making 
 
 A hundreth ^ere hole and threttene. 
 
 The tendency pursued the worthy man after death, for in the 
 very calendar of Aberdeen Cathedral the obit of John Barbour, 
 its most renowned archdeacon, is entered as of date 1290 [1390?] 
 (Registrum Epis. Aberdon., ii, 7), although there is abundant 
 proof that he was still living in 1395, but dead in 1396 (Exch. 
 Bolls, iii, 368, 395). 
 
46 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 While in the nature of things the biographies of saints are 
 hardly to be looked to as first-class sources of chronology, and 
 while allowance must be made for variations of manuscripts, yet 
 as the dates in the Legends are by no means numerous the twelve 
 instances above enumerated constitute a formidable percentage of 
 error, being not less than one-third of all the dates in the work. 
 That some are due to imperfections of the poet's own penmanship 
 is likely enough : it would never do to impute to him the impiety 
 of deliberately causing minor divergences with the base end of 
 mere rime. But in cases reasonable conjecture on the cause of 
 error is possible. These are those of A.D. 398-328, 280-360, 
 253-353, 237-387, and 280-360. 
 
 Legenda Aurea. Legends. 
 
 (1) cccxcviii. Thre hundir gere twenty & aucht. (xxiv, 560.) 
 
 (2) cclxxx. IIC VIII" of jeris ewyne. (xxxii, 807.) 
 
 (3) ccliii. Thre hundre L ^eris & thre. (xlii, 274.) 
 
 (4) ccxxxvii. Twa hundre Ixxxvii jere. (xlv, 307.) 
 
 (5) cclxxx. Twa hundre & aucht score of jere. (xlvii, 213.) 
 
 Instances three and four may be due to an extra c and I respectively 
 in some manuscript transition. But observe a confusion in the 
 second and fifth, which may explain much. If a printer with all 
 the wisdom of the Clarendon Press were asked to transliterate 
 IIC VIII XX , what could he make of it but 360 ? And in the last 
 example eight score plus two hundred surely the sum he would 
 render would be just eighty more than the figure in the Golden 
 Legend. 
 
 Applied to 1438, what might this peculiar error whereby any 
 given numeral becomes multiplied by 20 instead of by 10 reveal 
 as the genesis of a blunder ? Let us suppose that the printer in 
 or about 1580 (not by any means over-accurate, as many misprints 
 show, and given to printing numbers by using lower-case Eoman 
 numerals) found his copy quite distinct thus : ccccxxx thairto neir, 
 and aucht [etc.], the close analogy of the errors above indicated 
 might warrant putative evolutions : 
 
 (A) original ccclxxx. 
 changed to ccccxxx. 
 
 or (B) original ccciii"x. (A very common form in fifteenth-century Scotland.) 
 changed to cccvi"x. 
 
 The last form of change only involves the dropping of two dots, 
 making Hi into ui, and altering 300 + 60 + 10 into 300 + 120 + 10. 
 It would yield as the corrected date of the Alexander the 
 year 1378. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 47 
 
 That, however, is merely a suggestion. The style, diction, and 
 rime of the Alexander place it close beside the JBruce, later than 
 the Troy, and decidedly earlier than the Legends. Barbour's mind 
 was full of the Alexander when he wrote the Bruce. He refers 
 distinctly and repeatedly to it, he cites passages which occur in 
 the translation, he refers to incidents and translates passages which 
 are in the French and are not translated, he was saturated with 
 the spirit of the chanson, and there is not a single valid ground, 
 except the blundered date in the epilogue, for objecting to the 
 conclusion that the translation, which probably began with the 
 Avowes, was directly or indirectly a study for the Bruce, though 
 not published, if it ever did receive a public form, until after the 
 Bruce had given its author his renown. 
 
 Besides, it must not be forgotten that the date 1438 may not be 
 a copyist's mistake; it may be a scribe's deliberate act. It was 
 a well-known scribal practice to change such dates found in the 
 manuscript in course of being copied by substituting the date of 
 the scribe's own task. For instance, both the Glasgow University 
 MS. (F 6, 14) and the Advocates' Library MS. (35, 5, 2) of the 
 Liber Pluscardensis give the date of the work as 1461, while 
 the scribe of the Fairfax MS. (Bodleian, Fairfax 8) silently 
 changed the date in this passage to 1489, the year in which he 
 made his copy. (Fordun ed., Skene, i, pref. xx, xxi; Liber 
 Pluscard., i, pref. x-xii.) 
 
 Thus, on received canons of textual criticism the puzzling 1438 
 proves to be no Gordian knot. It is hopelessly at variance with 
 the work to which it is attached. Whether the error arose from 
 a misread numeral or whether a scribe copying in 1438 altered 
 his original as he might do with perfectly good faith, without 
 falsehood or plagiarism too, as the context shows to suit his own 
 time, this date must, for the great purposes of Scottish literary 
 history, henceforth cease to be reckoned the date of origin of our 
 poem. In the epilogue in those lines which immediately precede 
 and follow the date and close a work fit in every sense to stand 
 alongside the Bruce the quiet voice of Barbour is unmistakably 
 audible. We hear it in these final parallels from the last eight lines : 
 
 Before the tyme that God was borne That God and Man of the wes borne 
 To save our saullis that was forlorne. To saufe synful that was forlorne. 
 
 A. 442 (23). (Leg., xviii, 659.) 
 
 And Jhesu in his tyme wes borne 
 That sawit us al that ware forlorne. 
 
 (Leg., xxxvi, 923.) 
 
48 
 
 JOHN B ARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Three last lines of Alexander. 
 God bring us to his mekill bliss 
 That ringis ane in trinitie 
 Amen amen for cheritie. A. 442(28). 
 
 Cf . also : 
 
 Bot takes me till hevinnis kinge 
 That tiU his gret bliss sail me 
 
 bringe. (Leg., 1. 603.) 
 And for to bruk that mykill blis. 
 (Leg., 1. 681.) 
 
 Amen amen for cheritie. 
 
 Three last lines of Bruce. 
 The afald God in trinite 
 Bryng us hye up till hevynnis bliss 
 Quhar all - wayis lestand liking is. 
 Amen, (xx, 618.) 
 Cf . also five lines earlier : 
 
 Vp till his mekill bliss thame 
 
 bryng. (Br. xx, 613.) 
 Also: 
 
 Quhare he that is of hevyn the 
 
 king 
 Bring thame hye up till hevynnis 
 
 bliss 
 Quhar alway lestand liking is. 
 
 (Br., xvi, 532.) 
 Amen amen parcheryte. (Leg., xxv, 
 
 779, end of legend of St. Julian.) 
 Sa we amen par cheryte. (Leg., xviii, 
 1490, end of legend of St. Mary of 
 Egypt.) 
 
 Amen amen amen p[ar] c[herite]. 
 (Leg., xlix, 334, end of legend of 
 Thekla.) 
 
 It were a counsel of despair to attempt to account on any 
 footing of chance or of copying for resemblances which, followed 
 all through the poem, still crowd in upon its final * words. That 
 a heroic poem on Eobert the Bruce and a romance of Alexander 
 the Great should alike at the close in three lines invoke (1) God 
 as "afald" or ane, (2) as "in trinite," inaprayerto (3) "bring us" 
 to the (4) "bliss" of heaven, is not less satisfactory than that the 
 seventh line from the last of the Bruce should complete the 
 similarity by its adoption also of the prayer for (5) " mekill 
 bliss " in full. And even (6) the Amen amen for cherite is 
 found in the Legends. There is in all this a good deal for three 
 lines to carry. 2 
 
 1 A curious and interesting further parallel comes from the last page of the 
 Alexander : 
 
 For quhen ye lawe are laid in lame [=loam]. A., 442 (15). 
 The king was ded and laid in lame. (Br., xix, 256, ed. Hart.) 
 
 2 I am well aware of the prevalence of such endings. But this, when 
 attendant features are remembered, does not take away the piquancy of so many 
 points common to the close of Bruce and Alexander. Even as commonplaces 
 they would show that the same commonplaces were selected by the poet and the 
 translator. 
 
JOHN B ARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 49 
 
 XIII. RIMES. 
 
 Earlier Negative Standards adjusted and reapplied. 
 
 With a case so complete on the substance the necessity to 
 consider arguments touching rimes and diction rather tries the 
 patience, but as it was through the rimes that the attack was made 
 on Barbour' s authorship of the Troy fragments and the Legends, the 
 lines of defence from that quarter must be looked to. Happily 
 defence from our German friends is secure enough, notwithstanding 
 the unfortunate and quite unnecessary capitulation of Prof. Skeat 
 and Dr. Metcalfe in 1894 and 1888-96. The rimes themselves 
 have already developed the offensive with success (Athenaum, 
 27 Feb., 1897, pp. 279-280), and it may be trusted they will be no 
 less efficient now, when for the first time Alexander enters the field 
 as their ally. 
 
 Briefly, the case on diction is -that Barbour could not have 
 written the Troy fragments or the Legends because in phrases and 
 in vocabulary there were so many marked differences (Bruce, i, 
 pref., pp. 1-lii). The critics who discovered these differences, 
 which to other eyes are not so very marked, did not notice that 
 there were many resemblances both prominent and subtle : they 
 forgot that a translation infers the adoption of a vocabulary quite 
 away from that which an original composition would have induced : 
 they failed to give adequate value to the influence of time in 
 works produced at different dates in a poet's career, and they laid 
 ;oo little stress on the difference of theme, the inspiring or 
 uninspiring conditions of the work, and the physical state of the 
 author. And last, but not least, they did not suspect the Alexander, 
 which, doubling the area of observation for deducing laws of rime 
 and diction, reacts with such effect on the entire argument, driving 
 itself like a wedge between the Bruce on the one hand and the 
 Troy and the Legends on the other. 
 
 On rimes the question comes to closer quarters. The chief 
 contention was that the rime system of the Bruce was too 
 materially different from that of the Troy and the Legends to admit 
 the possibility of a common author. It was said that Barbour never 
 allowed such a word as he ' high ' or e l eye ' to rime with words 
 like be ' be ' or he ' he,' because of the final guttural or after sound 
 (heh or hey, egh or ey] proper to these words correctly pronounced 
 at that time in accordance with phonetic tradition. Now it is to 
 
 4 
 
50 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 be remembered that this canon begs the whole question of the text 
 of Bruce. This process is simple : first you find your canon ; then 
 you edit out of your text all that is disconform. However, if the 
 text which Professor Skeat prints is correct, then Harbour did at 
 least once in the Bruce rime de ' die ' with be ' be ' (Br., xx, 428*). l 
 In fact, the error is in making an absolute law of what is merely 
 a fairly sound generalization. It is true that most usually in the 
 Bruce these guttural e words are rimed with others of the same 
 order. Most usually and therefore the criterion is valuable to 
 apply to the Alexander. In that poem the proposition holds 
 absolutely as regards five words de 'die' (except once), dre 
 'dree,' e 'eye,' he 'high,' and flay 'frighten,' which always rime 
 with e guttural. To that extent, therefore, the Alexander has 
 nothing to fear from the old rime attack. These crucial rimes 
 bring it into very close touch with the Bruce. On the other hand, 
 fie 'flee,' le 'lie,' and unsle 'not sly' rime both ways, thus 
 bringing the Alexander into line with the Troy and the Legends. 
 Here is a table of all the guttural e rimes in the Alexander : 
 
 Rime and reference to page of 
 
 Rimes in Alexander, words in e not 
 
 Bruce. Word. guttural being put in italics. Remark. 
 
 fle, he De (die) fle, 51, 222, 228, 294, 363, As in Bruce, Troy 
 
 365, 380 ; he (high), 48, fr. t and Legends. 
 379, 380, 385 
 
 be bounte, 417 
 
 he, de Dre le (lie), 169 ; he (high), 150, As in Bruce. 
 
 413 ; unsle, 240 
 
 fle E fle, 131 As in Bruce. 
 
 de, he, e Fle de (see above) ; he (high), 141 ; As in Troy fr. 
 
 e, 131 ; (fleis deis, 138) 
 men)ie, 364 ; be, 91-2 
 
 Flay he (high), 319 Correct, 
 
 de, fle He (high) de (die), 348, 379, 385 ; fle, As in Bruce. 
 
 141 ; flay, 319 ; dre, 413 
 [melte?] Le (lie) dre, 169 As in Troy fr. and 
 
 trewlye, 160 ; be, 105 Legends. 
 
 Unsle dre, 240 As in Legends, 
 
 fincarny, 1434 
 
 1 The lines in question, after being printed in the text and annotated as 
 "no doubt genuine," were condemned, " for Barbour never rimes be with de." 
 (Br., notes, p. 295, pref,, Ixxvii). So the text is made to give way to the 
 rime-canon. The lines do not occur in manuscript, but are found in Hart's 
 edition, which yields twenty-seven other lines not in the manuscripts, but 
 accepted as " almost certainly genuine " by Professor Skeat. Presumably Hart's 
 edition followed the text of an earlier version of 1571. (Br., pref., Ixxvi.) 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 51 
 
 Thus, while in the Bruce it is true that de (except once), dre, 
 e, and he, all in e guttural, never rime with e pure, the same thing 
 is literally and exactly true in the Alexander. 
 
 Positive Rime Standards. 
 
 The total list of quite erroneous rimes in the Alexander (apart 
 from many, as in the Bruce, in which the vowel concordance is 
 strained) makes but a short collection and compares closely with 
 that of the Bruce. There are some assonances in the Bruce, for 
 instance, the undisputed Bretane, hame (xviii, 473) and the 
 questioned name, Cowbane (xviii, 410, 431), as well as the curious 
 Carnavarane, lame (xix, 256, ed. Hart). In the Alexander there 
 are six of the same species shame, gane (15), grotne, sone (122), 
 belyfe, swith (151), blyth, lyfe (355), bargane, lame (396), shupe, 
 tuke (399). 1 
 
 Of the misrimes in the Alexander not gerundial, great, baitJi (439) 
 may be compared with laid, grathit of Bruce (v, 387). Persand(im 
 Persian, properly Persan), prikand (145) and Fleand, grant (A. 162) 
 will stand alongside panch, dance (Br., ix, 398). Slane, drawyne 
 (A. 97) has, it is true, no parallel in the Bruce, but in the Troy 
 fragments (ii, 813) it has mayne, drawyne. Ydeas, tears (A. 327) is 
 certainly dreadful to contemplate as a fourteenth-century foretaste 
 of nineteenth-century degeneracy, but sone, fyne (A. 435) is probably 
 due to some error of the press. To match some of these may be 
 mentioned Bruce rimes: Robert, sperit (v, 13) and ruschit, refusit 
 (iv, 145). Thus far the balance of rectitude in rime is to a trifling 
 degree against the Alexander and in favour of the Bruce. 
 
 Accordingly, it must be with some curiosity that one watches 
 the comparison when there are thrown into it those gerundial 
 misrimes which in 1897 were appealed to as a decisive criterion, 
 not negative, but positive, for authorship. That an author does 
 not use certain e rimes employed commonly enough by others, and 
 not incorrect, is valuable up to a point, if it be absolutely sure he 
 does not use them : that he uses, on the other hand, incorrect 
 rimes, for example in yng, scarcely to be found elsewhere in his 
 period, is obviously a fact of much more pregnant note. In 1897 
 there was no word of the Alexander: the proposition had regard 
 only ta the Bruce, the Troy, and the Legends, and the point 
 established was that there existed such a peculiarity in Barbour's 
 
 1 The Legends are full of assonances of the same sort. Barbour in his old age 
 was not so careful over his saints as he was earlier over his kings. 
 
52 JOHN BARBOTJR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 yng rimes as made them a real test. His rime specialty was shown 
 to be the liberty he took of now and again riming with yne a gerund 
 or verbal noun properly spelt and pronounced yng. Such a mis- 
 rime as this found in fourteenth-century Scotland might well be 
 reckoned loose to the point of eccentricity. It was first adverted 
 to by Professor Skeat, who was struck (Br., ii, pp. 315-16) by 
 his list of the examples. "Here take notice," he said, "of 
 a remarkable class of words in which the ending -yn or -yne 
 (with silent -e) represents the modern -ing at the end of a VEBBAL 
 NOTTN" which is always kept quite distinct from the present 
 participle ending (in Barbour) in -and.'' 1 Then follows his list 
 of the examples, included in that given below. It is necessary 
 to say that the true bearing of this peculiar class of rimes is 
 obscured by the brevity of Professor Skeat's note. The verbal 
 noun normally in Barbour ends in yng and rimes with yng : the 
 examples of yng, yne rime are numerically in a very small minority, 
 and almost every repeated word in Professor Skeat's list is far 
 oftener found with the true yng rime than the false yne one. To 
 illustrate this by the first on the list, armyng rimes properly with 
 letting (iii, 614), with evynning (iv, 398), and with thyng (xx, 341). 
 Such spellings as yrmyne and such rimes as that with syne (xvii, 
 263) are thus quite exceptional, even as regards the Bruce itself. 
 They are exceptions, but there are fourteen of them, 
 
 In 1897 the present writer said: "In the earlier poetry of 
 Scotland this gerundial rime is, as Professor Skeat said, indeed 
 remarkable. A faithful search enables me to confirm that opinion. 
 I can find no such usage as Barbour' s in any other poet. Sporadic 
 examples exist, but even these are rare, so rare that in over 70,000 
 lines not by Barbour of Scottish fourteenth and fifteenth century 
 verse I can (leaving out of account four proper name instances) 
 find only four cases (Wyntoun, viii, 5417; Holland's Howlat, 
 52, 712; Rauf Coil^ear, 60). It is a usage, therefore, more than 
 remarkable : it is unique, an integral organic flaw in the rime 
 system." (Athenceum, 27 Feb., 1897, p. 280.) l 
 
 Even had this feature a less outstanding importance than that of 
 representing an exceptional license, taken systematically by no 
 
 1 Since these words were written I have seen nothing to qualify them except 
 that Mr. J. T. T. Brown has referred me to the Sowdone of Babylon, an English 
 poem which has been attributed to the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the 
 fifteenth century. Its rimes are amazingly loose, and comprise very many 
 assonances and equations of yng with yne. 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 53 
 
 early poet in Scotland save Barbour himself, its unquestionable 
 distincti veness of the Bruce would invest the following table of 
 comparisons with the utmost critical value. 
 
 Lists of YNG, YNE Rimes. 
 
 This gerundial misrime is, in a word, characteristic of all 
 Barbour's work in all it is an exception. It was the test 
 which first satisfied me that the author of the Alexander was no 
 longer unknown. In the following lists, 1 for the sake of facilitating 
 examination, the yng words have been put first. Thus, commandyne, 
 syne, and the others will be read as if written " commandyne 
 (correctly commandyng] rimed erroneously with syne." Instances 
 of words not gerunds have been inserted where, as in ring and 
 fling, it is not possible to dispute that the yng or ing termination 
 is wronged by its rime. 
 
 Bruce. Troy frag. 
 
 Alexander. Legends. 
 
 comraandyne, stekinges, 
 
 *helpyne, *thrynde (thrynge), 
 
 syne, (i, 255.) engynes. (517.) 
 
 tyne. 20 (4). bynde. (i, 86.) 
 
 *fechtyn, distribuyne, 
 
 *armin, cumlyne, 
 
 syne, (iii, 241.) syne. (922.) 
 
 shein. 26 (28). syne, (i, 649.) 
 
 *fichtyne, refetyne, 
 
 *lyking, baptysing, 
 
 syne, (iv, 243.) syne. (1445.) 
 
 syne. 192 (19). sene. (iii, 73.) 
 
 hontyne, 
 
 *armyne, *bidding, 
 
 syne, (iv, 512.) 
 
 fyne. 206 (15). done, (v, 373.) 
 
 mellyne, 
 
 lesing, *admonestine, 
 
 vyne. (v, 405.) 
 
 alphing. 208 (20). fyne. (xvi, 533.) 
 
 *cummyng. 
 
 (alphyne,the correct ourcummyne, 
 
 covyng (correctly 
 
 form, occurs, 211.) wethyrwyne. 
 
 covyne). (ix, 13.) 
 
 festnine, (xviii, 381.) 
 
 bapnyne, 
 
 syne. 249 (9). *;$arnmge, 
 
 tyne. (xii, 373.) 
 
 chapin, wyne. (xviii, 923.) 
 
 dowtyne, 
 
 win. 259 (28). *clethinge, 
 
 vyne. (xiv, 229.) 
 
 justyne, senesyne. 
 
 *helyne, 
 
 syne. 265 (13). (xviii, 991.) 
 
 syne, (xv, 83.) 
 
 *carpine, mornyng, 
 
 *armyne, 
 
 thyne. 412 (1). fynd. (xix, 266.) 
 
 syne, (xvii, 263.) 
 
 *curumyn, *kinge, 
 
 *tranontyne, 
 
 syne. 427 (27). bynd. (xix, 384.) 
 
 tyne. (xix, 693.) 
 
 amyng (for amang),*lowynge, 
 
 welcummyne, 
 
 garayn. 251 (28). fynd. (xix, 685.) 
 
 syne, (xix, 793.) 
 
 Cf. Legends, xli, *carpyng, 
 
 governyne, 
 
 327 : pyne. (xxiii, 223.) 
 
 medicyne. 
 
 schenand, *blyssine, 
 
 (xx, 531.) 
 
 ymange.] fyne. (xxvi, 379.) 
 
 1 Proper names are purposely omitted, as so many of them are ambiguous, far 
 example Dunfermlin. 
 
54 
 
 JOHN BARBOUR : POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 Bruce. 
 
 *murnyng, 
 syne, (xx, 569.) 
 
 Troy frag. 
 
 Alexander. 
 
 Words asterisked 
 rime also in 
 yng, in the same 
 work, many of 
 them repeatedly. 
 
 Proper names not computed, 
 
 leding, 
 
 conselyne, 
 
 Brechyne. (ix, 120.) Appolyue. (497.) 
 
 restyne, 
 
 Lyne. (ix, 682.) 
 
 The totals are : 
 
 Legends. 
 
 *persawing, 
 
 schyne. (xx vii , 3 7 5 . ) 
 *teching, 
 
 discypline. 
 
 (xxvii, 817.) 
 *endynge, 
 
 fynde. (xxxi, 805.) 
 *schewynge, 
 
 ourcumyne (here a 
 past participle). 
 
 (xxxii, 35.) 
 
 thingis, 
 
 wynis. (xxxiv, 83.) 
 *reknynge, 
 
 thine. (xxxv, 79.) 
 *dinge, 
 
 behynde. 
 
 (xxxvii, 193.) 
 *lykine, 
 
 virgine. (xli, 315.) 
 *rynge, 
 
 tharein. (xli, 379.) 
 *duellinge, 
 
 fyne. (xliii, 491.) 
 *flynge, 
 
 bynd. (xlv, 173.) 
 
 entermetynge, 
 Agrippyne. (i, 311.) 
 lowing, 
 Martyne. 
 
 (xxvii, 27.) 
 
 yng, yne 
 rimes. 
 
 Troy frag., 3,000 lines ... 
 Bruce, 13,000 lines 
 Alexander, 14,000 lines ... 
 Legends, 33,000 lines 
 
 3 
 14 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 
 Most noticeable is the recurrence of syne sixteen times, while 
 armyne also is common to the Alexander and the Bruce, and tyne, 
 thine, shine, fyne, wyne, carpine, cummyne, and lykine, all do duty 
 more than once in different lists. Thus, whether negative or 
 positive be the arguments from rime, the Alexander emerges from 
 
JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 55 
 
 them all with triumphant consistency as Barbour's, essentially 
 harmonizing with the Bruce, and yet again and again revealing 
 the affinity of both to the Troy fragments and the Legends. 
 
 XIV. THE PLACE OF THE Alexander. 
 
 Concurrent lines of demonstration, so many and so strong, make 
 further argument make even recapitulation superfluous. The 
 place of the Alexander, however, is hard to determine, especially 
 the question Did it precede or did it follow the Bruce ? Indications 
 appear to me quite distinct that the carefully rimed Troy fragments 
 were written first of all, followed by Alexander and Bruce or Bruce 
 and Alexander, and that the Legends end the chapter. The influence 
 of Guido de Columpna on Barbour has been most notable. Barbour 
 practised and acquired his trade by translating Guido. Perhaps 
 no finer effort did Barbour ever make than in his description of the 
 voyage of Bruce to Rachrin, a description as surely inspired by 
 Guido * as the descriptions of May common to the Alexander and 
 the Bruce. The influence of the French Alexander is conspicuous 
 in the Bruce also, for, besides the innumerable passages shared with 
 the translation, the Scottish poem mentions the Forray and extols 
 the valour of Gadifer in lines which embrace a summary of the 
 action not found in the original French : 
 
 For to reskew all the fleieris 
 
 And for to stonay the chasseris. (Br., iii, 81.) 
 
 The Alexander translation describing Gadifer's splendid courage 
 against the forayers tells also how he set himself 
 
 For to defend all the flearis 
 
 And for to stony the chaissaris. A., 88 (20). 
 
 These words are not in the French (Michelant, 172), but are an 
 intrusion of the translator's admirably summing up the situation. 
 Contrasts of fleavis and chasaris are common to both Alexander, 
 137 (30), 395 (26), and Bruce (vi, 436) ; besides, Barbour used 
 
 1 Of. Troy fragments, ii, 1717-1720, with the expanded narrative in Bruce, 
 iii, 690-720, especially noting that the Troy line 1720 repeated in the Bruc& 
 lines 719-20 is not in the Latin. 
 
56 JOHN BARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 
 
 this very collocation of words in an earlier passage than that 
 concerning Gadifer: 
 
 That be reskewit all the fleari9 
 
 And styntit swagat the chassaris. (Br., iii, 51.) 
 
 A second direct and scarcely less explicit reference is made to the 
 French poem in the Bruce (x, 703), the passage revealing the same 
 free principles of translation as those in the rendering of the Forray. 
 (Cf. Michelant, 217-18.) 
 
 But indirect references are yet more fully charged with proofs of 
 how much the Bruce owes to the romance. The telling of the 
 story of Bannockburn has been shaped by the romance description 
 of the Great Battell of Effesoun. Barbour' s mind and memory had 
 been steeped in the Alexander when he wrote the Bruce, but the 
 puzzle is, in some cases, to determine whether Barbour as poet 
 influenced Barbour as translator, or vice versa. In one instance 
 there can be little doubt. The Alexander, describing the terrible 
 slaughter made by Porrus, says : 
 
 Of handis and heidis haith braune and blude 
 
 He maid ane lardnare quhare he stude. A. 233 (5). 
 
 There is nothing corresponding in the French. 1 One remembers 
 how deeply the cruel episode of the capture and sacking of Douglas 
 Castle was impressed on the historical memory : 
 
 Tharfor the men of that cuntre 
 For sic thingis thar mellit were 
 Callit it the Douglas lardenere. (Br., v, 408.) 
 
 Accordingly the translator of the French poem took a lurid and 
 telling phrase from a fact of Scottish history and thrust it, a loan 
 from the Scots, into his translation. 
 
 The place of the Alexander is in the forefront of the influences 
 which shaped the Bruce. As regards style and narrative, and even 
 to some extent in plan, the impress of the French romance is vital. 
 Historically, perhaps in a good many details, we shall have 
 to reconsider ourselves, although the essential ' soothfastness ' 
 emphatically remains. Whether the poet made the translation 
 
 1 Cf. A. 232 (32) -233 (8) with Add. 16.,956, fol. 66: 
 
 Du poing a tout lespee ot fait son champion 
 Le champ leur fait widier ou il voellent ou noji 
 Pour retorner tantost au mur a garison 
 Et les femmes escrient a la mort au larron. 
 
JOHN HARBOUR I POET AND TRANSLATOR. 57 
 
 first and then wrote the Bruce with direct reminiscences of the 
 task dogging him at every turn, or whether he used the technique 
 of the Bruce for the subsequent translation of a romance with 
 which he was already intimately familiar, is after all only secondary. 
 The broad certainty is that both are direct expressions of a very 
 thorough appreciation of the French romance, applied in the one 
 case to genuine translation and in the other to the poetic shaping 
 of a noble chapter of Scottish annals, a new, admirable, and in 
 the deepest sense historic chanson de geste, and that both works 
 are approximately of the same date. Beyond this simple conclusion 
 a nobler field invites. New gateways are opening into the 
 history of literary Scotland in the second half of the fourteenth 
 century, when men served as translators their apprenticeship to 
 original song served it now as alliterative craftsmen, now with 
 octosyllabic rime, perhaps even as they sat side by side at the 
 Exchequer table of the Stewart kings and left behind, however 
 dim their personal memories, a series of splendid achievements in 
 the nascent literature of the North. 
 
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