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^be Scottisb tTeyt Society 
 
 THE POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM DUNBAR 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
"I see that the Ayrshire Bard had one giant before him." 
 
 — Crabbe to Sir Walter Scott : ' Lockhart's Life of Scott.' 
 
THE POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM DUNBAR 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 The late JOHN SMALL, LL.D. 
 
 LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 By J. G. MACKAY 
 
 ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE SCOTTISH TEXT SOCIETY 
 
 WITH PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 PrmtEti for <Societ2 63 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 MDCCCXCIII 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 By W. GREGOR, LL.D. 
 
 The late Mr Small, a short time before his death, com- 
 mitted to me the completion of the edition of the ' Poems 
 of William Dunbar' which he had undertaken for the 
 Scottish Text Society. Mr Small's name will always be 
 honourably associated with the language and literature of 
 Scotland. Between the death of Mr David Laing and 
 the formation of the Scottish Text Society Mr Small did 
 much to foster a taste for Scottish literature and to spread 
 a knowledge of it. His editions of some of the Scottish 
 poets are ample proofs of his industry, learning, and love 
 of the literature of his native country. 
 
 iEneas J. G. Mackay, Esq., undertook to write an In- 
 troduction to the poems, and this he has done with such 
 skill and learning as to throw a very full light on the life 
 and times of the poet, and to leave little to be done by any 
 future biographer. 
 
vi INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 The Notes and Glossary were undertaken by me. 
 William Dunbar seems to me to be the representative of 
 the thought, the language, and the literature of his country 
 at the time he lived. Both Court and people pass as in a 
 panorama in his poems. My object has therefore been to 
 illustrate them as fully as possible, so as to bring out the 
 life of the Scottish people at a time of no small intellectual, 
 political, and commercial activity in the nation. The 
 Scottish language is well represented in the poems. The 
 Glossary has therefore been made full. Every word and 
 form of word have been registered, and meanings have 
 been added when considered necessary. Many of the 
 words have caused much difficulty, and in not a few cases 
 I have made what must be taken only as guesses. It may 
 be that some words have escaped my notice, and so are 
 not registered. I do not think, however, there are many 
 omissions. 
 
 In carrying out this long and difficult work, many kind 
 friends have given me much willing help. To all of them 
 I return my warmest thanks. If my work possesses any 
 merits, let my generous helpers have their share of praise. 
 Whatever defects are in it fall to me. 
 
 My special thanks are due to ^neas J. G. Mackay, Esq., 
 Sheriff of Fife and Kinross James Cranstoun, Esq., M.A., 
 LL.D. ; Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt. D., LL.D. Edin., M.A. 
 Oxon., Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, 
 Cambridge ; James A. H. Murray, Esq., B.A. Lond., LL.D. 
 Edin., Editor of ' A New English Dictionary on Historical 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. vii 
 
 Principles ' ; James Moir, Esq., M. A., LL.D., Aberdeen ; 
 F. J. Amours, Esq., Glasgow ; and Alexander M. Munro, 
 Esq., Aberdeen. All these have given me ungrudgingly 
 much valuable counsel and aid. I have bestowed much 
 time and labour on the work, in order to make it as com- 
 plete as I could, and I now commit it to the members of 
 the Scottish Text Society, in the hope that it will help 
 them to enter into the spirit of the writings of one of 
 Scotland's greatest and most versatile poets. 
 
 " Faultes escaped in the printing, correcte with your 
 pennes ; omitted by my neglygence, overslippe with pa- 
 tience ; committed by ignorance, remit with favour." 
 
 January 1893. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Memoir of Dunbar — 
 
 Object of introduction — The MSS. of Dunbar's Poems, . xi 
 Birth and family of Dunbar, and of his rival Walter Ken- 
 nedy, 1460-70, ...... XV 
 
 Education of Dunbar at Haddington before 1474, . . xix 
 
 Dunbar at St Andrews University, 1474-79 — He becomes a 
 
 Franciscan novice, ..... xxii 
 
 Dunbar visits France and the Continent, 1491-1500 (?), . xxvi 
 Dunbar a priest and Court poet, 1500-12, . . . xxxi 
 Dunbar and the Embassy to London to negotiate the mar- 
 riage of James IV. and Margaret Tudor, 150 1-2, . xxxiii 
 Dunbar's illness — His notices of the Scottish poets in the 
 
 Lament for the Makaris, 1507-8, . . . xl 
 
 Dunbar's connection with Chepman the Scottish printer, 
 
 1508, ....... xlii 
 
 Dunbar celebrates Bernard Stewart, and satirises Damian, 
 
 the Abbot of Tungland, 1507-8, . . . xlv 
 
 Dunbar at Aberdeen with the Queen, 151 1, . . xlviii 
 
 Dunbar at the Court of James IV., 1500-13, . . xlix 
 
 The King and Queen, ..... li 
 
 The Town, the Court, the Trades, the Friars, and other 
 
 classes, ....... Ivi 
 
 The Scottish landscape as seen by Dunbar, . . Iviii 
 
 Effect of Flodden on Scotland and Dunbar, 1513, . . Ix 
 
 Dunbar's life after Flodden to his death, 1513-20, . . Ixiii 
 
 ' Dunbar's Sacred Poems or Hymns after 15 13 (?), . . Ixix 
 
 Dunbar's person and character, . . . . Ixxii 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 II. The Poems of Dunbar— 
 Division of the Poems into Classes — 
 
 I. Allegorical Poems, .... Ixxviii 
 
 II. Narrative Poems or Tales, . . . Ixxxiv 
 
 III. Amatory or Love Poems, . . . Ixxxix 
 
 IV. Comic or Humorous Poems, . . . xciii 
 V. Laudatory Poems or Panegyrics, . . civ 
 
 VI. Vituperative Poems or Invectives, . . cviii 
 
 VII. Precatory Poems or Petitions to the King or 
 
 Queen, ..... cxxi 
 
 VIII. Satirical Poems, ..... cxxiii 
 
 IX. Moral Poems, ..... cxxx 
 
 X. Religious Poems or Hymns, . . . . cxxxvii 
 Estimate of Dunbar's genius — Its wide range — Its defects, . cxli 
 Comparison of Dunbar with preceding Scottish poets, . cxliv 
 Influence of Chaucer on Dunbar, .... cxlvi 
 Influence of the French poets on Dunbar, . . . cxlvii 
 Comparison with Burns, ..... cxlviii 
 Dunbar's mastery of metre, ..... cxlix 
 Comparison with Horace, Villon, Heine, and Albert Durer, cl 
 
 APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. References to Dunbar in the Records, . . . cliii 
 
 II. Table of Dunbar's Poems according to probable order of 
 
 their dates, ...... clvii 
 
 III. Note on the Versification and Metres of Dunbar, by G. P. 
 
 M'Neill, Esq., LL.B., Advocate, . . . clxxii 
 
 IV. Bibliography of Dunbar — 
 
 A. Manuscripts, ..... cxciv 
 
 B. Printed Editions, ..... cxciv 
 
 C. Table of the MSS. in which is found each of the 
 
 Poems of Dunbar, .... cxcvi 
 
 D. Table of the Principal Editions of each of the 
 
 Poems of Dunbar, .... cxcix 
 
 V. Historical Notices of Persons alluded to in Dunbar's Poems, ccii 
 
 Index to Introduction and Appendices, . . . cclxxi 
 Facsimiles, ....... At end 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. 
 
 MEMOIR OF DUNBAR. 
 
 OBJECT OF INTRODUCTION — THE MSS. OF 
 DUNBAR'S POEMS. 
 
 William Dunbar is generally held in Scotland to be the 
 best Scottish poet prior to the Reformation. Sir Walter 
 Scott calls him " the excellent poet, unrivalled by any which 
 Scotland ever produced." Yet either praise may appear 
 due to patriotism, for the qualities of Dunbar require study 
 before they are fully appreciated. An American writer 
 gives a different verdict. " Dunbar's works were disin- 
 terred some thirty years ago by Mr Laing, and whoso is 
 national enough to like thistles, may browse there to his 
 heart's content. I am inclined for other pasture, having 
 long ago satisfied myself by a good deal of dogged reading 
 that every generation is sure enough of its own share of bores 
 without borrowing from the past."^ Dunbar must stand 
 or fall on his merits, not on the opinions of any critic. His 
 poems, always valued by a select circle, require, more than 
 
 ^ Lowell. 
 a 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the works of most poets, an introduction to the reader. 
 This is not because they are obscure. With few exceptions, 
 they are clear in thought and language, but the dialect in 
 which they are written is in part antiquated, and their rela- 
 tion to his own life, and the country and age in which he 
 lived, must be present if we would grasp their complete 
 meaning. 
 
 It will be the aim of this Introduction to illustrate Dun- 
 bar's poems by a sketch of his life, with an outline of the 
 history of Scotland, so far as necessary to estimate the 
 character of his genius in itself, and in comparison with 
 his predecessors and successors in the long and honourable 
 line of Scottish poetry. 
 
 It was to have been the work of Mr Small to whom the 
 Society owes this edition of his writings. No one since Mr 
 David Laing was a more diligent student of the ancient 
 Scottish poets, or was better versed in the Scottish ver- 
 nacular. His death, when a long-cherished project for 
 the publication according to the best texts of the works 
 of the authors who used it was at last begun, was a severe 
 loss to all students of our early literature. "Abeunt 
 studia in mores." Something of the shrewd humour, the 
 warm patriotism of the old Scottish poets, passed into 
 their interpreter. It is with deep regret that the present 
 writer takes up a part of Mr Small's unfinished labours. 
 It was thought that the members of the Society might 
 reasonably wish to have their copies of Dunbar com- 
 pleted by an Introduction, Glossary, and Notes; and 
 Dr Gregor having undertaken the onerous task of the 
 Glossary and Notes, the Introduction, for which Mr 
 Small had made some memoranda, kindly placed at 
 the disposal of the Society by Mr Small's representa- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xiii 
 
 tives, has been intrusted to the writer of the Introduction 
 by the Council. 
 
 The learned researches of Mr Laing, and the admira- 
 ble work of Professor Schipper of Vienna, who for the 
 first time made Dunbar known on the Continent, and sug- 
 gested an arrangement of the order of his poems which is a 
 great aid to the understanding of his character, render the 
 study of Dunbar much easier than it otherwise would have 
 been. No acknowledgment can be too strong for the help 
 received from these two writers. From other sources less 
 assistance than might have been anticipated has been 
 derived. Yet it would be ungrateful not to refer to the 
 notices of Dunbar by Warton in his History of English 
 and by Irving in that of Scottish Poetry, to the brief but 
 instructive notes of Lord Hailes, and the valuable though 
 not always accurate notes of Mr Pinkerton. 
 
 It was the singular fortune of Dunbar, after having been 
 recognised by his contemporary Gavin Douglas, and David 
 Lyndsay, his immediate successor, as the master of the 
 Scottish makers, to be almost forgotten for nearly two 
 centuries. His fame was restored by the publication of 
 some of his poems in the ' Evergreen ' by Allan Ramsay in 
 1724. 
 
 Thrice fifty and six towmonds neat, 
 
 From when it was collected. 
 Let worthy poets hope good fate, 
 
 Through time they'll be respected. 
 Fashions of words and wit may change, 
 
 And rob in part their fame, 
 And make them to dull fops look strange, — 
 
 But sense is still the same." 
 
 "During this period," says Mr Laing, "with one solitary 
 exception, no allusion, not even so much as the mention of 
 
xiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his name, can be discovered." The exception is in the 
 lines by Henry Charteris, in his Adhortation prefixed to 
 the edition of Lyndsay's poems published in 1568 : — 
 
 " Thocht Kennedy and Dunbar bure the bell, 
 For the large race of rhethorik they ran." 
 
 This long neglect of Dunbar was due to his poems, many 
 of them brief and occasional, having been written when 
 the printing-press brought into Scotland by Chepman 
 and Myllar was beginning to supersede multiplication 
 by manuscript. Had they been written earlier, they 
 might have been better preserved in manuscript, as the 
 works of Wyntown, Blind Harry, and Barbour have been. 
 Had they been written a little later, they would almost 
 certainly have been printed. As it happened, only seven 
 poems, the first seven in this edition of his works, were 
 issued by Chepman and Myllar in 1 508, and had the bene- 
 fit of his revision. Two years later Chepman printed his 
 last book, the second volume of the * Aberdeen Breviary,' ^ 
 and with a single exception no book was issued by a Scot- 
 tish press for twenty years, when Thomas Davidson began 
 to print.2 Before this date Dunbar had died. The press, 
 the herald of the Reformation, and its readers, were after- 
 wards engrossed with topics of another kind from those 
 which had been the subjects of the poets of an earlier age. 
 
 The preservation of Dunbar's poems was due to three 
 manuscript collectors, — George Bannatyne, whose MS. is 
 in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh ; 
 
 ^ The colophon bears, " Printed in the Town of Edinburgh by the com- 
 mand and at the expense of the honourable man Walter Chepman, merchant 
 in the said Town, on the furth day of June in the year of our Lord 1510." 
 
 2 The single exception was ''The Office of our Lady of Pity," printed by 
 John Story. See Dickson's ' Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland.' 
 Aberdeen : Edmond & Spark. 1885. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 Sir Richard Maitland, whose MS. is in the Pepysian col- 
 lection, Magdalene College, Cambridge ; and Mr Reidpeth, 
 whose MS. is in the University Library of the same Uni- 
 versity. All the poems in these collections were carefully 
 collated by or for Mr Small. A few additions, mostly 
 recovered by Mr Laing from the Asloan MS. in the library 
 of Auchinleck House, Ayrshire, the MSS. in the British 
 Museum, and miscellaneous sources, are also included in 
 this edition, as well as eleven poems attributed to Dunbar, 
 but of uncertain authorship. Had it not been for the pious 
 care of the collectors first named, and especially Banna- 
 tyne, the poetry of Dunbar would have been almost lost to 
 the world. As it is, ninety authentic poems have been pre- 
 served, and a few may still lurk in unexpected quarters, like 
 that which Mr Laing discovered in the Aberdeen Register 
 of Sasines, and another (otherwise preserved) the present 
 writer found copied on a fly-leaf of a MS. of the 'Regiam 
 Majestatem,' by Alexander Guthrie, which belonged to the 
 library of the Grahams of Fintry, in Forfarshire. 
 
 BIRTH AND FAMILY OF DUNBAR, AND OF HIS RIVAL 
 WALTER KENNEDY, 1460-70. 
 
 William Dunbar was probably born in 1460, the year 
 when James HI. succeeded to the crown by the death of 
 his father from the bursting of a cannon at Roxburgh, when 
 inspecting the last invention in the art of destruction. 
 There is no record of his birth, but as he graduated as 
 Bachelor of Arts at St Andrews in 1477, it can scarcely 
 have been later, and may have been a few years earlier. 
 He was a native of East Lothian, a fact of importance 
 with regard to the dialect of his poems, the North or 
 
xvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Northumbrian form of Old English, now more familiarly- 
 known as broad Scotch, although he frequently borrowed 
 from the Southern English of Chaucer. Greater sym- 
 pathy with, or, to speak more strictly, less antipathy 
 to, England and the English, distinguished many Scots of 
 Lothian in the beginning of the sixteenth century from 
 their countrymen of the immediate Border and the Western 
 and Northern districts. He appears, from a passage in the 
 " Flyting " with Walter Kennedy, his contemporary and rival 
 bard, to have been descended from the noble house of 
 March, founded by Gospatrick, first Earl of Dunbar, in the 
 reign of Malcolm Canmore, who conferred on him the 
 manor which gave the title. The traditional policy of this 
 family was, by siding sometimes with the English, some- 
 times with its own king, to make its influence felt. The 
 eighth Earl of Dunbar, Patrick, fourth Earl of March, was one 
 of the competitors for the crown who submitted to Edward 
 I. and joined his army. His wife, a better patriot than her 
 lord, gave the custody of the Castle of Dunbar to the 
 popular leaders. It capitulated to Edward I., but was re- 
 covered, perhaps by Wallace. The ninth Earl, siding with 
 England, gave Edward H. shelter after Bannockburn, after- 
 wards made terms with Bruce, but reverted to Edward after 
 the defeat of Halidon Hill in 1334, and rebuilt the castle to 
 receive an English garrison. Six years later it was again 
 valiantly defended by Black Agnes, daughter of Randolph, 
 against the Earl of Salisbury. On the death of her brother 
 Thomas at the battle of Durham she became Countess, and 
 her husband, in her right, Earl of Moray. Her son George, 
 tenth Earl of Dunbar, uniting the earldoms of March 
 and Moray, was a powerful noble, and his daughter was 
 betrothed to David, Duke of Rothesay, heir of Robert HI. 
 An intrigue between the Regent Albany and Archibald, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvii 
 
 the grim Earl of Douglas, led to her being passed over. A 
 daughter of Douglas wedded Rothesay. Earl George, in- 
 dignant at this slight, became a pensioner of Henry IV., 
 and with Hotspur defeated Douglas at Homildon in 1402. 
 His earldom was forfeited for treason, and although the 
 forfeiture was condoned by Albany, it was never legally 
 recalled. James L, whose policy was to reduce the great 
 earls, took advantage of this forfeiture, in 1434, to deprive 
 George, the eleventh Earl,^ of his estates. An allowance 
 was given him out of the rents of the earldom of Buchan, 
 but the once potent family was broken, and their influence 
 on the Borders passed to the house of Douglas. Sir Patrick, 
 fourth son of George, the tenth Earl, retained the estate 
 of Biel, in Haddington. His third son William, mentioned 
 in two deeds in 1440, has been conjectured,^ from the simi- 
 larity of Christian name and the correspondence of dates, 
 to have been either the uncle or the father of William 
 Dunbar the poet. 
 
 This conjecture agrees well with the life and character of 
 the poet, who seems to have been a cadet of an illustrious 
 but decayed family. It is supported by allusions in Ken- 
 nedy's " Flyting " to Lothian as the place, and the line of 
 Gospatrick as the race, from which Dunbar came : — 
 
 " How thy forbearis come, I haif a feill, 
 
 At Cokburnispeth, the writ makis me war, 
 Generit betuix ane sche beir and a deill ; 
 
 Sa wes he callit Dewlbeir and nocht Dumbar: 
 This Dewlbeir, generit of a meir of Mar, 
 Wes Corspatrik, Erie of Merche ; and be illusioun 
 The first that evir put Scotland to confusioun 
 Wes that fals tratour, hardely say I dar." ^ 
 
 1 Act. Pari. Scot, ii, p. 23. 
 
 2 The conjecture is due to Mr Laing, 'Memoir of Dunbar,' p. 8 ; and see 
 App., p. 65. 3 20, 11. 257-264. 
 
xviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 With a confusion of history not unparalleled in other 
 poems — as in Barbour's * Bruce' — Kennedy makes the 
 same Gospatrick the Earl who betrayed Berwick to the 
 English, and called Wallace King of Kyle. 
 
 Dunbar in his rejoinder does not deny his Lothian birth, 
 but retorts on Kennedy the Celtic dialect or pronunciation 
 for which the men of Carrick were still distinguished in the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century : — 
 
 " I tak on me ane pair of Lowthiane hippis 
 Sail fairar Inglis mak, and mair parfyte, 
 Than thow can blabbar with thy Carrik lippis ; " ^ 
 
 his Celtic dress — 
 
 " Ersch Katherane, with thy polk breik, and rilling ; 
 and his country manners — 
 
 " Thow bringis the Carrik clay to Edinburgh Corse." ^ 
 
 As the descent from Gospatrick, the Anglian Earl of 
 Dunbar, is passed over in silence, it may be held as ad- 
 mitted. No allusion to his family is to be found in Dun- 
 bar's Poems. 
 
 His rival Kennedy was Walter, third son of Gilbert, first 
 Lord Kennedy, and nephew of Kennedy, Bishop of St 
 Andrews, the sage adviser of James IIL A student of 
 that name has been traced in the register of Glasgow, from 
 his matriculation in 1475 to his degree of Master of Arts 
 in 1478.^ Bishop Kennedy's mother, the grandmother of 
 the poet, was a daughter of Robert IIL, Mary, Countess 
 of Angus, who married as her second husband. Sir James 
 Kennedy of Dunure, the head of the numerous families of 
 
 1 p. 15, 11. no, 112. 
 3 L. 211. 
 
 ' L. 145. 
 
 * Laing's Notes, pp. 440, 441. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XIX 
 
 that clan in Carrick. Hence Kennedy in the "Flyting" 
 boasts that he was " of the King's blood." 
 
 The family of Dunure acquired the earldom of Cassilis, 
 and went on increasing in importance until it became a 
 proverb, — 
 
 " 'Twixt Wigtown and the town of Ayr, 
 Portpatrick and the Cruives of Dee, 
 No man need think to bide there 
 Unless he court Saint Kennedie.''^ 
 
 The poets were thus contrasted as belonging to the East 
 and West of Scotland, to the English and the Celtic race, 
 and to a fallen and a rising family. All these points com- 
 bined to give edge to the invective against each other, 
 which, although supposed by the best judges to be not 
 altogether, yet was at least partly serious. His Lothian 
 origin also fitted Dunbar to take the place of leader of 
 the Scottish minstrelsy, and to fill, as the most repre- 
 sentative name, — though Henryson, Gavin Douglas, and 
 David Lyndsay should not be forgotten, — a gap in the 
 succession between Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and the 
 Elizabethan poets. 
 
 EDUCATION OF DUNBAR AT HADDINGTON BEFORE 1474. 
 
 As was natural in those days, the clever son of a poor 
 but good family was destined from the cradle to the service 
 of the Church : — 
 
 " I wes in 3owth on nureiss kne, 
 Dandely, bischop, dandely." 
 
 But the flattering prophecy was not fulfilled : — 
 
 1 This is Sir W. Scott's version, taken down from oral tradition. Another, 
 slightly different, will be found in * History of the Family of Kennedy,' p. 166. 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " And quhen that ege now dois me greif, 
 Ane semple vicar I can nocht be : 
 Excess of thocht dois me mischeif.''^ 
 
 Dunbar, like Swift, with whom he has more than one 
 point of resemblance, notwithstanding the different times 
 in which they lived, was a seeker after preferment, and dis- 
 appointed hopes gave a peculiar bitterness to the tone of 
 his mind. 
 
 We do not know where he received his school education. 
 The nearness of Biel to Haddington makes it probable that 
 it was at the famous school of that town, which had already- 
 educated Bower 2 the historian, and was to educate John 
 Major the scholastic philosopher, and John Knox the 
 Reformer. Dunbar makes no reference to the locality from 
 which he came, unless the vivid picture of the birds which 
 accompanied the flight and saw the fall of the Abbot of 
 Tungland was due to one familiar with the natural won- 
 der of the Bass. 
 
 The allusions to the Lollards in Kennedy's "Flyting" 
 against Dunbar may be due to the seeds of Wyclif's doc- 
 trine having already found a congenial soil in East Lothian 
 and the East Lothian poet. It was a natural topic for satire 
 by a son of a family so staunch to the old Church as the 
 Kennedys at that time were. The transplanting of 
 Wyclif's books to Scotland is usually ascribed to John 
 of Gaunt's visit, when afraid of the peasants rising in 1381 ; 
 and Gaunt, the patron of Wyclif, stayed at Haddington on 
 his way to Edinburgh. James Resby, the first martyr in 
 
 1 P. 106, xxii., 11. 61-65. 
 
 2 John Bower, Deputy Customer of Haddington, 1395-98, was the father 
 of Walter — Exchequer Rolls, vol. iv. p. 88. Walter, Abbot of Inchcolm, 
 1418 (Scotichronicon, xv. 30), wrote the continuation of the Scotichroni- 
 con of John of Fordoun between 1440 and 1447, and died 1449. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Scotland for the Reformation, who was burnt in 1406, is 
 said by Bower to have been an English priest and follower 
 of Wyclif ; and the same historian notes that in 1422, the 
 year before the burning of Crawar the Hussite at St 
 Andrews, "incipit volatilis pestilentia in burgo de Had- 
 ington." ^ 
 
 Possibly Kennedy's reference to Dunbar as " Lollard 
 laureate " ^ and as 
 
 " Pickit, wickit, conwickit, lamp Lollardorum ; 
 Defamyt, blamyt, schamyt, Primas Paganorum," 
 
 are mere random shafts ; ^ but in a more serious poem, 
 " The Praise of Age," he shows his fear of the new sect : — 
 
 " The schip of faith tempestuous wind and rain 
 Dryvis in- the see of Lollardy that blaws." 
 
 We find a little later* East Lothian families — the Crichtons 
 of Brunston, the Cockburns of Ormiston, the Douglases of 
 Longniddry, and the Heriots of Traprain — were amongst 
 the hearers of the preaching of Wishart. A hidden under- 
 current of the new doctrine may have survived the persecu- 
 tion of its disciples in that county as in Ayrshire.^ 
 
 As regards Dunbar, while there was no apparent loosen- 
 ing of the ties which bound him to Roman doctrine, there 
 is in his poetry a free handling of the services of the Church, 
 and an ironical treatment of the lives of the friars and 
 higher ecclesiastics, which made him a precursor of Lynd- 
 say, the poet who 
 
 " Branded the vices of the age, 
 And broke the keys of Rome." 
 
 1 Scotichronicon, xvi. 20. 
 
 ^ Laing's Notes, vol. ii. pp. 419, 445. 
 
 ^ Knox's History of the Reformation. 
 
 2 "Flyting," 11. 524 and 548. 
 ■* Knox, vol. ii. p. 90. 
 
xxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 DUNBAR AT ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY, 1474-79 — HE 
 BECOMES A FRANCISCAN NOVICE. 
 
 It is satisfactory to be able to date the next steps in his 
 life. His name occurs in the Register of St Andrews ^ as a 
 Determinant or Bachelor of Arts in 1477, and as a Master 
 of Arts in 1479. The degree of Bachelor required three 
 years' residence, so he must have gone to St Andrews at 
 least as early as 1474, when probably in his fourteenth year, 
 and remained at least till 1479; but a longer residence, 
 after graduation, was common in universities at a period 
 when men of mature years continued scholars. In the 
 case of Dunbar, it is probable that shortly after taking 
 his degree as Master of Arts he turned his attention 
 to theology, and became, with no great goodwill, a 
 novice in the Observantine branch of the Franciscans, 
 either in Edinburgh, where James I., or in St Andrews, 
 where Kennedy the Bishop, had founded a house of that 
 order. It was the easiest source of procuring a livelihood, 
 and Dunbar had been all along intended for the clerical 
 profession. But embracing the monastic calling without 
 zeal, with the heart of a poet and not of a monk, must have 
 been a false step. 
 
 Dunbar, during his youth and early manhood a disciple 
 of Horace rather than of St Francis, was sensible through 
 life of the irony of his situation, and regretted the choice of 
 an order whose vows of poverty stood in the way of his 
 advancement even in the Church, and whose strict rule 
 was inconsistent with the character of a courtier and 
 man of the world. There is no institution of human in- 
 
 ^ Acta Facultatis Artium, App. I. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 vention more difficult to judge impartially than monasti- 
 cism. A writer like Buchanan saw only its vices, a writer 
 like Montalembert only its virtues. Less biassed observers 
 are distracted by the coexistence of fervid piety and self- 
 sacrifice with degrading sin and self-indulgence, the highest 
 learning and the densest ignorance, humility and pride, 
 sincerity and hypocrisy. So far as the life of Dunbar is 
 concerned, one conclusion is sufficient. In Scotland, as in 
 Europe, during the period preceding the Reformation, the 
 attempt to attain to a higher standard of morals by sepa- 
 rate societies living by rule a life called religious, though 
 succeeding in individuals, broke down as a general or con- 
 tinuous system. The older orders were frequently reformed ; 
 new order followed new order, imposing with new zeal 
 stricter rules, but the old evils repeated themselves. The 
 brotherhood founded by the holy zeal of St Francis of 
 Assisi in the thirteenth century was no exception. The 
 corruption of the best produced the worst, because it was a 
 fall from so high an ideal. The description of the Francis- 
 can friars in the satire of Buchanan might be deemed the 
 exaggeration of an adversary. But it does not stand alone. 
 It was ratified by the popular verdict, not only in Scot- 
 land but throughout Europe. 
 
 No suspicion of the Protestant prejudice of Buchanan 
 can attach to Dunbar, who, although he rejected the cowl, 
 remained all his life a Roman Catholic. In a poem of a 
 later date, " The Vision of St Francis," which Buchanan 
 imitated in his poem called "Somnium," Dunbar, after 
 he had abandoned the intention of becoming a regular or 
 monk, and chosen the calling of a secular priest, describes 
 his earlier experience when a novice of the Franciscan 
 order : — 
 
xxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Gif evir my fortoun wes to be a freir, 
 The dait thairof is past full mony a 3eir; 
 For into every lusty toun and place 
 Off all Yngland, from Berwick to Kalice, 
 I haif in to thy habeit maid gud cheir. 
 
 In freiris weid full fairly haif I fleichit, 
 
 In it haif I in pulpet gon and preichit 
 
 In Derntoun kirk, and eik in Canterberry ; 
 
 In it I past at Dover our the ferry 
 
 Throw Piccardy, and thair the peple teichit. 
 
 Als lang as I did beir the freiris style, 
 In me, God wait, wes mony wrink and wyle ; 
 In me wes falset with every wicht to flatter, 
 Quhilk mycht be flemit with na haly watter ; 
 I wes ay reddy all men to begyle." ^' 
 
 Kennedy refers to the same passage in Dunbar's life in 
 the " Flyting," though he names a different locality as the 
 scene of his exploits as a begging friar : — 
 
 " Fra Etrike Forest furthward to Drumfrese 
 Thow beggit with a pardoun in all kirkis, 
 Collapis. cruddis, mele, grotis, grisis, and geis, 
 And ondir nycht quhyle stall thou staggis et stirkis." ^ 
 
 The period during which Dunbar studied at St Andrews, 
 and the years immediately following, were a time of discord 
 in Scotland, both in State and Church. James III., after 
 marrying Margaret of Denmark in 1469, emancipated him- 
 self from the Boyds, who had usurped the government 
 during his minority. He soon showed incapacity for gov- 
 ernment. He quarrelled with the Parliament of 1473, 
 which refused to allow him to join in the war of Louis XI. 
 against Charles the Bold ; with his brothers, one of whom, 
 Mar, he imprisoned, perhaps murdered — while the other, 
 
 1 P. 132, II. 31-45. 2 -Flyting," 11. 425-428. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Albany, escaping to England, became in revenge a traitor 
 to his country ; with the Archbishop of St Andrews, Pat- 
 rick Graham, whose deposition he aided in procuring from 
 Pope Sixtus IV. in 1476 ; and with the people by debas- 
 ing the coinage. He threw himself into the hands of fa- 
 vourites, who pandered to vices, or flattered tastes carried 
 to an extent fatal to the royal dignity. Of these, the chief 
 were William Schevez, a man of learning in medicine, 
 mathematics, and astronomy, but addicted to astrology, 
 who became Archbishop after supplanting Graham ; Robert 
 Cochrane, a mason skilled in architecture, created Earl or 
 given the revenue of the earldom of Mar ; Rogers, an Eng- 
 lish musician ; Andrews, another physician and astrologer ; 
 Hommil, a tailor ; Ramsay, a man of better birth, but a 
 parasite, — associates whom proud nobles could not but 
 regard as low company for a king, and even the commons 
 despised. At the Bridge of Lauder, in 1482, the nobles, 
 led by Angus Bell-the-Cat, hung Cochrane and other of 
 the favourites before the king's eyes. Hommil the tailor 
 and Ramsay escaped, and were treated with increasing 
 favour. Five years after, the barons rose in arms in 
 name of the young prince, James IV. After a boot- 
 less attempt at conciliation by the pacification of Black- 
 ness, the weak king was killed at Sauchie on nth June 
 1488, within sight of Bannockburn, — it was said by a 
 priest, or pretended priest, when in the act of confession. 
 The astrologer who invented the prophecy that the lion 
 would be devoured by his whelps, which had alienated the 
 king's superstitious mind from his brothers, might claim 
 that it was literally fulfilled. 
 
 In England the same period was one of civil war, until 
 the victory of Bosworth Field in 1485 placed the first 
 
xxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Tudor, Henry VII., on the throne he maintained by 
 prudent policy. In France, the long and successful reign 
 of Louis XL, who reduced the feudal aristocracy and com- 
 menced the centralisation of the kingdom, ended in 1483, 
 and his son, Charles VIII., from whose Italian wars the 
 French Renaissance dates, was as anxious as his father to 
 cultivate the friendship of Scotland. To France, for two 
 centuries, the Scot in search of learning, fortune, adven- 
 ture, went, as he now goes to England, America, Africa, or 
 the colonies. In French service Scottish scholars found 
 chairs, Scottish priests benefices, Scottish soldiers their 
 colours, and, if successful, the honours and the spoils of war. 
 Not a few adopted a country which received them so hos- 
 pitably, and scarcely a province was without Scottish blood 
 amongst its gentry. France hardly seemed a foreign 
 country. As the ties broke which once united the Norman 
 of England and France, a stronger bond, which did not 
 require the myth of an ancient league in the days of 
 Charlemagne, was formed between the French and the 
 Scotch against the common enemy. 
 
 George Buchanan has described the feeling of the travel- 
 ling Scot for France in beautiful lines : — 
 
 "At tu beata Gallia 
 Salve ! bonarum blanda nutrix artium, 
 Orbem receptans hospitem atque orbi tuas 
 Opes vicissim non avara impertiens 
 Sermoni comis, patria gentium omnium 
 Communis." 
 
 DUNBAR VISITS FRANCE AND THE CONTINENT, 
 1491-1500 ? 
 
 To France, Dunbar, the wandering friar, naturally passed. 
 The first certain notice of his passage is in the third year 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 of James IV., when an embassy, headed by Patrick Hep- 
 burn, Earl of Bothwell, and Robert Blackadder, Bishop of 
 Glasgow, was sent to negotiate a marriage for the young 
 king ; but there can be little doubt that a considerable 
 part of the period after he disappears from the St An- 
 drews register in 1479 till 1491, when the Katherine sailed 
 from North Berwick, was spent in foreign travel, probably 
 partly in France. His own allusion — 
 
 " In it [z'.e., the friar's garb] I past at Dover our the ferry 
 Throw Piccardy, and thair the peple teichit," ^ 
 
 is plainly biographical. Kennedy's reproach, " Thow scapis 
 in France to be a knycht of the felde," and more than one 
 reference to Mount Falcon, the famous place of execution 
 in Paris, as the destiny of Dunbar, must refer to this part 
 of his life, and not to a later, when he was in the service of 
 the king. 
 
 Kennedy's part of the " Flyting " was written when 
 Dunbar was in Paris, but whether at this or some prior or 
 subsequent time is uncertain. 
 
 " And yit Mount Falconn gallowis is our fair, 
 For to be fylde with sic a frutles face ; 
 Cum kame, and hing on our gallowis of Aire, 
 To erd the vnder it I sail purchas grace." ^ 
 
 This may account for Dunbar having addressed his reply 
 to his friend Sir John the Ross, for the purpose of circulat- 
 ing in Scotland his answer to the challenge of Kennedy. 
 
 But while doubt hangs over these earlier years of wander- 
 ing, the allusion to his voyage in the Katherine, where he 
 so misbehaved that, according to the " Flyting," 
 
 " The skippar bad ger land the at the Bas,"^ 
 
 P. 132, 11. 39, 40. 
 
 2 LI. 369-372 ; and see also 1. 387. 
 LI. 449-464. 
 
 d 
 
xxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is confirmed by the Treasurer's Accounts of a payment made 
 on i6th July 1491, "to the priest that wrayt the instru- 
 ments and otheris letteris that past with the Imbassiatouris 
 in France, 36/." Mr Laing conjectures with great probabil- 
 ity that Dunbar may have been this priest, and that he had 
 now quitted the odious friar's garb, and entered the royal 
 service as a clerk or notary, — a practice common amongst 
 the ecclesiastics of that age, whose learning fitted them for 
 posts now held by the legal or diplomatic professions. 
 
 Assuming that he then, if not earlier, visited France and 
 Paris, the importance of the visit to his poetic training 
 cannot be doubted. Although the masters he recognises 
 by name are the earlier English poets of the end of the 
 fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century — Chaucer, 
 Gower, and Lydgate the Monk of Bury — his poems show 
 that he was directly influenced by the French school, not 
 merely at second hand through imitation of English 
 authors who copied a still earlier French poetry. At this 
 period English poetry, which had so splendid a spring 
 in Chaucer, passed through successive stages of decline, 
 marked by the moral poems of Gower, the translations of 
 Lydgate and Occleve, and the doggerel rhymes of Skelton, 
 into a dormant state, in which it continued until with 
 Wyatt and Surrey the first notes were heard which 
 ushered in "the spacious times of great Elizabeth." 
 
 Scotland, whose lot it was to be generally about a century 
 behind both England and France, took, as it did a second 
 time in the end of the eighteenth century, an independent 
 lead in literature. It caught up the poetic mantle, and 
 Henryson, Gavin Douglas, Dunbar, Barclay, and Lyndsay 
 surpass their English contemporaries. 
 
 France produced no medieval poet equal to Chaucer. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxix 
 
 Its writers sacrificed the beauties of thought to the beauties 
 of style. But an uninterrupted succession of minor min- 
 strels, masters of melody, except when they allowed their 
 natural vein to be hidden in the artificial forms then in 
 vogue, flourished from the fourteenth to the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. Eustace Deschamps, who died in 141 5, published an 
 * Art of Poetry,' in which several of the metres Dunbar used 
 are described. The three writers nearest his time, and most 
 likely to have exerted influence on him, were Alain Char- 
 tier (1390- 145 8), the poet whose lips, from which so many 
 fine sayings and virtuous thoughts came, were kissed by 
 Margaret,^ daughter of James I. of Scotland, the wife of 
 Louis XI. ; Charles of Orleans (1391-1465), the fellow- 
 prisoner of James I. in England, who wrote both French 
 and English poems; and, above all, Francis Villon (143 1- 
 89), the first great French poet. Villon's works were 
 printed two years before Dunbar went with the embassy to 
 Paris, and they may have met in previous visits. With 
 some notable difl*erences, the points of contact between 
 Dunbar and Villon are closer than with any other poet. 
 Dunbar probably remained abroad after 1491, but for nine 
 years his life is hidden. Perhaps he remained in France 
 after the embassy returned, though Mr Laing's researches 
 failed to find any traces of him there. In the University 
 of Paris, about that time, William Elphinstone, Bishop of 
 Aberdeen ; Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld ; Robert 
 Cockburn, Bishop of Ross ; Boece the historian, Major the 
 theologian, and Panther the secretary of James IV., besides 
 many less famous countrymen of Dunbar, were students. 
 
 ^ Puttenham transfers this story by mistake to Anne of Brittany, ' Arte of 
 English Poesie,' Arber's Reprint, p. 35. Knox perhaps had it in view when 
 he narrates the story of Mary and Chastelard. 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Whether his travels extended beyond France is not certain. 
 Kennedy seems to imply that at the date of the " Flyting " 
 they had not done so : — 
 
 " Thou may not pas Mount Barnard for wild bestis, 
 Nor wyn throw Mount Scarpre for the snawe ; 
 Mount Nycholas, Mount Godart thare arestis, 
 
 Brigantis sik bois and blyndis thame wyth a blawe." ^ 
 
 But he claims himself in a poem, probably of later date, to 
 have served the king : — 
 
 " Nocht I say all be this cuntre, 
 France, Ingland, Ireland, Almaine, 
 Bot als be Italie and Spane ; 
 Quhilk to considder is ane pane." ^ 
 
 The curious concatenation of countries, if not merely for 
 rhyme's sake, looks like a fragment of biography. It must 
 for the present remain a fragment. There is nothing im- 
 probable in a priest like Dunbar having been sent on 
 missions to these countries, and James IV. had negotiations 
 with them all. Scotland at this epoch was like Savoy in 
 the present century — a small country which the disputes of 
 more powerful states raised to European importance. The 
 Scottish king was courted by the Pope and by England, 
 France, Germany, and Spain. An embassy to Spain, with 
 Robert Blackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow, at its head, 
 was sent to the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella in August 
 1495, when these monarchs were holding out hopes to James 
 of a Spanish bride ; and as Dunbar accompanied the same 
 prelate to France in 1491, and to England in 1 501, it is not 
 improbable he also went in his suite to Spain. James at 
 one time seriously considered a project to place himself at 
 
 1 " Flyting," p. 25, II. 433-436. 2 u Qf the Warldis Instabilitie, " p. 226. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 the head oi the armies of Venice, when that Republic was 
 threatened by the Holy League. Some Irish chiefs made 
 him an offer of the crown of Ireland. 
 
 From another allusion in the " Flyting," it may perhaps 
 be inferred that he had been shipwrecked on the coast of 
 Norway : — 
 
 "By Holland, Seland, 5etland, and Northway coist, 
 In desert quhair we wer famist aw ; 
 5 it come I hame, fals baird, to lay thy boist." ^ 
 
 Yet it is singular, if Dunbar was so great a traveller, that 
 no further notices of foreign countries have given a colour 
 to his verses. Beyond a few allusions to France, where it 
 is certain he had been, the verses on London, and those 
 written at Oxford " On the Vanity of Learning without a 
 Good Life," there would be scarcely any evidence that he 
 had crossed the Border. We are unfortunately led to sus- 
 pect the loss of important poems. 
 
 DUNBAR A PRIEST AND COURT POET, 1500-12. 
 
 The offering of the king at the first mass of a priest he 
 attended was a common usage. It was made in honour of 
 Dunbar on i6th March 1504, and proves that the abandon- 
 ment of the Franciscan order did not carry him to the 
 further point of quitting the service of the Church. Not- 
 withstanding the freedom of his satire, which is directed 
 more against the regular than the secular clergy, he con- 
 tinued to hope for a benefice. The precursor of Lyndsay 
 in the reforming tendency of his writings, he shows no trace 
 of accepting, even in a modified form, the doctrines of the 
 
 1 Ll. 94-96. 
 
xxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Reformed Church. As he advanced in age he became a 
 more pious observer of the Roman ritual. His last poems 
 are religious hymns in conformity with the Roman creed. 
 
 From the first year of the sixteenth century down to the 
 eve of the fatal year of Flodden, the Treasurer's Accounts 
 contain a series of entries which show that Dunbar was at 
 the Court of James IV. in the character of Court poet. 
 Similar payments were made to Blind Harry, John the Ross, 
 and Quintyn Schaw, as well as other bards and singers. 
 James, though not a poet, inherited from his great-grand- 
 father a taste for poetry, which he transmitted to his son 
 James V. and his granddaughter Mary Stuart. Poetry 
 was a fashion of the Court, as song was a passion 
 amongst the people of Scotland. But the payments to 
 Dunbar were made with more regularity than to the other 
 poets, and, taken in conjunction with the title of the 
 Rhymer of Scotland, which was given him when he ac- 
 companied the embassy to England in 1501, they seem to 
 justify the inference that he would have been called Poet 
 Laureate had that name been used at the Scottish Court. 
 
 On 15 th August 1500, a grant was made to Master 
 William Dunbar of a pension of £10 out of the king's 
 coffers, to be paid him all the days of his life, or until he 
 was promoted to a benefice of £40 a-year or more. This 
 pension was paid till 1507, when it was doubled, and con- 
 tinued at that rate probably till Whitsunday 15 10, but the 
 accounts between 1508-15 10 are lost. It was increased by 
 a new grant on 20th August 15 10 to £So a-year, to be paid 
 till he received a benefice of £ 100 or more. The larger 
 pension continued to be paid till 14th May 15 13. The 
 troubles after Flodden again made a gap in the Register 
 from 8th August 15 13 to June 15 15, and as no payment 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 appears in the later accounts of James V., the pension prob- 
 ably ceased. Besides his pension, Dunbar received grat- 
 uities — one on 27th January 1506, and again on 4th Janu- 
 ary 1507, because "he wanted his gown at Yule," which 
 indicates that a livery was part of his emoluments. From 
 an entry on 23d June 15 12 we learn that the livery con- 
 sisted oi6% ells Paris black cloth for a gown. Two entries 
 have special interest, — on 20th December 1501, one of 
 which was paid him after he came furth of England ; and 
 that already alluded to on i6th March 1504, when the king 
 made an offering of £4, 14s. at Master William Dunbar's 
 first mass. 
 
 DUNBAR AND THE EMBASSY TO LONDON TO NEGOTIATE 
 THE MARRIAGE OF JAMES IV. AND MARGARET TUDOR, 
 1501-2. 
 
 The former of these entries led to the conjecture that 
 Dunbar had been attached to the mission sent to London in 
 1 501 to negotiate the marriage between James and Mar- 
 garet Tudor, and this may now be deemed proved. The 
 embassy consisted of Robert Blackadder, Archbishop of 
 Glasgow; Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, High Ad- 
 miral; Andrew Foreman, Apostolical Protonotary; and Sir 
 Robert Lundy, Knight, Treasurer of Scotland, with a suite 
 of one hundred persons. Two of the Commissioners, the 
 Earl of Bothwell, and the Archbishop of Glasgow, were the 
 same as went to Paris on a similar errand ten years before. 
 An entry in Henry VH.'s Privy Purse Accounts bears that 
 on 31st December 1501, and again on 7th January 1502, 
 "The Rhymer of Scotland" received £6, 13s. 4d. from 
 the king. This rhymer, there can be no doubt, was Dun- 
 
xxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bar, and the payments were perhaps a reward for his poem 
 in praise of London: — 
 
 " London, thou art of townes A per se. 
 Soveraign of cities, semeliest in sight, 
 Of high renoun, riches and royaltie ; 
 
 Of lordis, barons, and many goodly knyght.''^ 
 
 The MS. chronicle in which it has been preserved relates : 
 " This yere in the Cristmas weke the Mair had to dyner 
 the ambassadors of Scotland, whom accompanyed my Lord 
 Chaunceler and other Lords of the realm ; where sittying 
 at dyner ane of the said Scottis givying atteiida7ice upon a 
 Bishop Ambassador y the which was reputed to be a Proto- 
 notary of Scotland and servant of the Ld. Bishops made this 
 Balader Dunbar was not, as " reputed," a protonotary, but 
 it is quite possible he was a notary or clerk, in this embassy, 
 as in the former one to France, and a member of the suite 
 of Blackadder, the Bishop of Glasgow. The calling him a 
 protonotary was probably a confusion with Foreman, who 
 held that office, but was not a poet. 
 
 Although Dunbar's name is not appended to the poem 
 in the only MS.^ in which it is found, his manner is unmis- 
 takable. It is in his ornate, or, as the phrase then was, 
 "aureate" style, in which he wrote "The Thistle and 
 the Rose " and " The Goldyn Targe," — not in the simple 
 and more natural strain of " The Lament for the Makaris " 
 or ''The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo." A Court 
 poem should be in a Court dress. 
 
 The betrothal of James IV. and Margaret Tudor at 
 Richmond on St Paul's Day, 25th January 1502, was pro- 
 claimed at St Paul's Cross on the same day, but no men- 
 tion is made of Dunbar in the full account of the ceremonies 
 
 1 P. 276. 2 vitellius, A. xvi., fol. 200, British Museum. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 by Young, the Somerset Herald. Hall states in his chron- 
 icle that after this proclamation " the ambassadors, as well 
 of Spayne as Scotlande, tooke them leave of the kynge, 
 and not without great rewardes departed into their countryes 
 and habitations." Probably Dunbar accompanied them 
 home. The two poems of ^' The Thistle and the Rose " 
 and the short Ballad beginning — 
 
 " Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre, 
 Princes most plesant and preclare, 
 The lustyest one alyve that byne, 
 Welcum of Scotland to be Ouene ! " — 
 
 were written in Scotland to welcome Margaret on her 
 arrival. The former bears the date of 9th May 1503 :— 
 
 " And thuss I wret, as 3e half hard to forrow, 
 Off lusty May vpone the nynt morrow." ^ 
 
 Margaret left Richmond on i6th June 1503, and ar- 
 rived at Dalkeith on 3d and at Edinburgh on 7th August. 
 The marriage was celebrated at Holyrood on the 8th. 
 
 The hangings of the State Chamber," says Young, " rep- 
 resented the history of Troy ; and the painted glass in the 
 windows were the arms of England and Scotland biparted, 
 to which a thistle and a rose intertwined through a crown 
 were added. After dinner the minstrels played." 
 
 The song — preserved, with the music ^ to which it was 
 set — sung on this occasion was Dunbar's, of which the 
 opening stanza has been quoted.^ 
 
 " The Thistle and the Rose " was a more elaborate ef- 
 fort — too elaborate, in the opinion of modern judges, but 
 
 1 P. 189. 
 
 2 MS. British Museum, quoted in Miss Strickland's ' Life of Margaret 
 Tudor,' p. 58. 
 
 3 P. 279. 
 
xxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quite in the style of the times, in the character of the 
 allegory and the mixture of classic names with the objects 
 of nature. While it is the work of a Court poet, Dunbar 
 avoids the flights of flattery common in epithalamia, and 
 even gives good advice to his sovereign : — 
 
 " The King of Beistis mak I the, 
 And the cheif protector in woddis and schawls ; 
 Onto thi leigis go furth, and keip the lawis." ^ 
 
 And in another place — 
 
 " And, sen thow art a king, thow be discreit ; 
 Herb without vertew thow hald nocht of sic pryce 
 As herb of vertew and of oder sueit ; 
 And lat no nettill vyle, and full of vyce, 
 Hir fallow to the gudly flour delyce ; 
 Nor latt no wyld weid, full of churlicheness, 
 Compair hir till the lilleis nobilness. 
 
 Nor hald non vdir flour in sic denty 
 
 As the fresche Ross, of cullour reid and quhyt; 
 
 For gife thow dois, hurt is thyne honesty." ^ 
 
 To a somewhat later date may be ascribed the poem 
 beginning " Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis Regioun," 
 in which Dunbar expresses the prayer of the nation : — 
 
 " Gret Gode ws graunt that we have long desirit, 
 A plaunt to spring of thi successioun, 
 
 Syne with all grace his spreit to be inspirit ;" — 
 
 and makes the favourite play on her name as the Pearl : — 
 
 " O precius Margreit, plesand, cleir, and quhit, 
 Moir blith and bricht na is the beriall schene, 
 
 Moir deir na is the diamaunt of delit, 
 Moir semely na is the sapheir one to seyne, 
 Moir gudely eik na is the emerant greyne, 
 
 Moir riche na is the ruby of renovne. 
 Fair gem of joy, Mergreit of the I meyne."^ 
 
 1 P. i86, 11. 103-105. 2 igy^ 134-143. ^ P. 275. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxvii 
 
 The increase of Dunbar's pension from ^lo to £20 in 
 1507, and again to £%q in 15 10, shows his services were 
 appreciated by the king. The value in English money of 
 the largest of these pensions was only about £2^ sterling, 
 but its purchasing power was at least equal to £Zo sterling 
 now. Hector Boece, as Principal of King's College, Aber- 
 deen, in 1505 had only 40 merks, or £'], 12s. 4d. sterling, of 
 a salary ; and, relatively to other gifts to poets and men of 
 letters in that age, Dunbar, who had perquisites besides his 
 Yule gown, was highly paid. Yet a section of his poems, 
 addressed as petitions to the King, the Queen, the Treas- 
 urer, and James Doig, the Keeper of the Queen's Ward- 
 robe, prove he was not satisfied. He seems to have deeply 
 felt the slight put upon him when benefices were bestowed 
 on unworthy recipients, while he never got his long-prom- 
 ised cure. It is not necessary to suppose that he was 
 too fond of money. Avarice was a vice which he specially 
 hated. But a benefice would have been more secure, as is 
 shown by the cessation of his pension, which depended on 
 the king's pleasure, and a vicarage would have been an 
 office of more dignity. 
 
 It is not easy to gauge exactly the position of a poet at 
 the Scottish Court of this period. On the one hand, he 
 was often well received. Learning, wit, and genius were 
 probably quite as highly valued as in our time. But, on 
 the other hand, the poet was only one of many ministers 
 or servants who had to cater to the royal pleasure. Dunbar 
 gives a vivid sketch of the motley crew : — 
 
 " Sum singis ; sum dancis ; sum tellis storeis ; 
 Sum lait at evin bringis in the morels ; 
 Sum flyrdis ; sum feyn3eis ; and sum flattiris ; 
 Sum playis the fule, and all-out clattiris." ^ 
 
 ^ P. 206, "Aganis the Solistaris in Court." 
 
xxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Accounts of the Treasurer and of the Exchequer 
 afford ample evidence how the lavish king rewarded all 
 these classes with gifts, as well as the rhymers, who were 
 in the estimation of many courtiers only another class of 
 professional people destined for their amusement. Often, 
 too, the Court is as fickle as the mob, and Dunbar com- 
 plains, in the poem " Of the Warldis Instabilitie," ^ of — 
 
 *' The leill labour lost, and leill seruice, 
 The lang availl on humill wyse, 
 And the lytill rewarde agane, 
 For to considder is ane pane. 
 
 I knaw nocht how the kirk is gydit, 
 Bot beneficis ar nocht leill devydit ; 
 Sum men hes sewin, and I nocht ane ; 
 Quhilk to considder is ane pane." 
 
 It is the same sentiment which Coleridge expressed in 
 other words : — 
 
 " It sounds like tidings from the world of spirits, 
 When any man attains that which he merits, 
 Or any merits that which he attains." 
 
 Worst of all, in this kind of life there was a sacrifice of 
 independence. The Court poet was expected to sing when 
 the occasion demanded, whether the muse was present 
 or not. 
 
 Dunbar's revenge on a patron and a society which knew 
 his value, but not his full value, was taken by free use of 
 the irony and satire of which he had a ready store. But 
 irony and satire, though they please apparently all but 
 their victims, are dangerous weapons, often wounding most 
 the hand which uses them. They leave a sting in the 
 
 1 P. 226. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxix 
 
 heart, increasing instead of diminishing its discontent. 
 Dunbar ends his long catalogue of the wrongs — 
 
 " Quhilk to considder is ane pane," 
 
 with an unexpected verse — 
 
 " The formest hoip ^it that I haue 
 In all this warld, sa God me saue, 
 Is in 3our Grace, bayth crop and grayne, 
 Quhilk is ane lessing of my pane." 
 
 This hope also was doomed to disappointment, for he never 
 got even the 
 
 *' Kirk scant coverit with hadder." 
 
 There must have been an irksome monotony in the life 
 of the Court — Dunbar's lot for thirteen years of man- 
 hood, until, having grown grey in the king's service, he 
 presented the touching " Petition of the Gray Horse," ^ 
 which, when granted, after all is only for the cost of his 
 trappings. Apparently his Christmas gown had again 
 not been forthcoming until the king issued a special 
 mandate : — 
 
 " Eftir our wrettingis, thesaurer, 
 Tak in this gray horss, Auld Dunbar, 
 Quhilk in my aucht with schervice trew 
 In lyart changeit is in hew. 
 Gar howss him now aganis this 5uill, 
 And busk him lyk ane beschopis muill, 
 For with my hand I have indost 
 To pay quhat euir his trappingis cost." 
 
 Mr Laing remarks : " Whether the words were written 
 by the king himself, or added in his name by Dunbar as 
 an ingenious mode of expressing his request, the reader 
 
 1 Pp. 215-217. 
 
xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 must be left to his own conjecture." As James IV. is not 
 known to have written another verse, most readers will 
 conjecture that this one, so completely in Dunbar's manner, 
 was written by Dunbar. 
 
 DUNBAR'S ILLNESS— HIS NOTICES OF THE SCOTTISH POETS 
 IN THE LAMENT FOR THE MAKARIS, 1507-8. 
 
 Nor was Dunbar exempt from the common ills of human- 
 ity. It is the penalty of genius that it feels them more 
 keenly than the ordinary man. One of the best known of 
 his poems is the Lament for the Makaris, written when 
 he was sick and in fear of death." As it was published 
 by Chepman in 1508, this must have been written before — 
 probably the year before. Besides its poetic value, it has 
 much interest as bearing on his character, and preserving 
 the names of the poets who preceded him or were his con- 
 temporaries. His earlier writings were of a lighter, happier, 
 and freer vein, though in none is the moral distant. Like 
 most of his countrymen, he had never learned the modern 
 dogma that art is independent of morality. But in this 
 poem the moral is always present. The refrain, "Timor 
 Mortis conturbat me," is the text of a poet's sermon. An 
 oration of Bossuet or Massillon, of Taylor or South, with its 
 splendours of pulpit eloquence, brings less near home the 
 lessons of death. The greatest preacher seldom forgets 
 himself. Dunbar is overpowered by the burden of his 
 poem, and expresses it simply by a catalogue of the poets, 
 dead or dying, as Villon in his Ballades of Dead Beauties 
 and Dead Heroes, which must have been in Dunbar's 
 knowledge, though there is no direct imitation. Both 
 writers followed and improved an earlier theme of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xli 
 
 medieval Latin poets, of which there is an example in a 
 poem, " De Mundi Vanitate." ^ 
 
 Slight as are Dunbar's notices of his brother bards, in 
 accordance with the design of the poem, we are enabled by 
 them to fill up a passage in the history of literature which 
 would be otherwise vacant, and to understand better the 
 position Dunbar occupied in the poetic succession. He 
 gives the first place to the same triumvirate of English 
 poets whom he had celebrated in " The Goldyn Targe " : — 
 
 " The noble Chaucer, of makaris flouir, 
 The Monk of Bery, and Gower, all thre ; 
 Timor Mortis conturbat me." 
 
 The others named are his compatriots. Amongst his pre- 
 decessors, Barbour, Sir Hugh of Eglintoun, Wyntown, 
 Heryot ; the two Clerks, John Clerk and Clerk of Tranent ; 
 Holland, Sir Gilbert Hay ; and his immediate precursor, 
 Robert Henryson, the Dunfermline poet. Of contempo- 
 raries, in the sense that they did not die till after his birth, 
 occur the names of Blind Harry, Sandy Traill, James 
 Affleck, Sir Mungo Lockhart of the Lee, the two Rowls of 
 Aberdeen and Corstorphine, Sir John the Ross and Sir 
 John Rede or Stobo, Patrick Johnston, Quintyn Schaw, 
 and Walter Kennedy. The two last died probably shortly 
 before the date of the composition of the poem. So con- 
 siderable a list proves that there had been a continuous 
 stream of Scottish poetry, commencing with Barbour in the 
 first half of the fourteenth century, continued by Wyntown 
 the Chronicler in the commencement and by Blind Harry 
 and Henryson from the middle to the end of the fifteenth 
 century, but bearing with it a fair number of minor poets 
 
 1 Poems of Walter Mapes, edited by T. Wright for Camden Society, 1841, 
 p. 147. 
 
xlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whose fame now rests on one or two poems almost by- 
 chance preserved. 
 
 DUNBAR'S CONNECTION WITH CHEPMAN THE 
 SCOTTISH PRINTER, 1508. 
 
 The next event in Dunbar's life brings him into contact 
 with the invention which is one of the landmarks that 
 separate the middle ages from modern times. 
 
 The printing-press, already used by Fust and Gutenberg 
 at Mayence in 1457, had reached Paris in 1470 and West- 
 minster in 1474. In Rouen, where the art was first prac- 
 tised in 1487, a Scotchman, Andrew Myllar, learned it, 
 and two books of his, printed there in 1505 and 1506, have 
 been preserved in unique copies.^ 
 
 The learned and enlightened Bishop of Aberdeen, Elph- 
 instone, had spent his youth in France, and seen the early 
 triumphs of its press. He desired to print the ' Breviary of 
 Aberdeen,' that the Scottish Church might have a service- 
 book of its own, and no longer be compelled to resort to 
 the " Salisbury use." Probably by Elphinstone's advice, 
 James IV. granted on 15th September 1507 a patent to 
 Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar, who had " taken on 
 thaim to bring hame ane prent, with all stuff belangand 
 thereto, and expert men to use the samine for imprinting 
 within our Realme of the bukis of our Lawis, Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, croniclis, massbukis, and porteous efter the use of our 
 Realme, with additionis and legendis of Scottis Sanctis, now 
 gaderit to be eikit thereto, and all otheris bukis that sail be 
 sene necessar, and to sell the samyn for competent pricis." ^ 
 
 1 Dickson, ' Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland. ' Aberdeen : 
 Edmond & Spark. 1885. 
 
 2 Appendix B. to Dickson's ' Introduction.' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xliii 
 
 Walter Chepman, a merchant and burgess of Edinburgh, 
 was also a notary employed in the office of the king's sec- 
 retary, Patrick Panther, afterwards Abbot of Cambusken- 
 neth,^ where he was the colleague of Sir John Rede or 
 Stobo, with whom he had been sent on an embassy to 
 England. So far back as 1494, Chepman was intrusted 
 with the king's Signet for sealing royal letters ; and John 
 Rede, alias Stobo, had the special charge of those pass- 
 ing the Privy Seal. Stobo, a favourite of the king,^ and 
 a friend of Dunbar,^ though of an older generation, for he 
 had been employed in the secretary's office since the reign 
 of James II., had died before 13th July 1505, shortly before 
 Dunbar wrote the Lament : — 
 
 " And he has now tane, last of aw, 
 Gud gentill Stobo et Quintyne Schaw." 
 
 He had probably helped to form the acquaintanceship 
 between Chepman and Dunbar which led to a few of his 
 poems being amongst the first-fruits of Chepman's press. 
 Instead of commencing with the Aberdeen ' Breviary,' a 
 large and difficult work, not printed till 1509, when the 
 winter part of it (Pars Hyemalis) was issued, Chepman 
 and Myllar printed a few broad, or in this case rather 
 narrow or small sheets, as specimens of their craft. A 
 unique volume, now in the Advocates' Library, found in 
 1785 in Ayrshire, and presented to the Library in 1788,* 
 
 ^ * Epistolae Regum Scotorum.' Ruddiman. Preface, p. v. 
 ^ See grant to Stobo in the Exchequer Records. 
 3 Kennedy says in the " Fly ting" — 
 
 " And syne ger Stobo for thy lyf protest."— P. 22. 
 
 ^ There is a facsimile reprint of these sheets, edited by Mr Laing, and en- 
 titled 'The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane, and other Ancient Poems.' 
 Printed at Edinburgh by W. Chepman and A. Myllar, in the year M.D.VITI. 
 Reprinted MDCCCXXVII. 
 
 C 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 has preserved these separately printed small quarto pieces, 
 of which nine certainly issued from the press which had 
 been set up in the Southgate of Edinburgh in 1508. Of 
 these " The Goldyn Targe," " The Flyting of Dunbar and 
 Kennedie," " The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart," " The 
 Lament for the Makaris," " The Testament of Mr Andro 
 Kennedy," " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," " The 
 Ballad of Kynd Kittok," are by Dunbar, and form good 
 examples, though examples only, of his style, with its varied 
 notes of panegyric, humour, pathos, and satire. Now scarcer 
 than the MSS. of his other poems, it may be doubted 
 whether many impressions were thrown off. They would 
 be eagerly sought after by the collectors of the time as the 
 first printed matter in Scotland, but their fugitive nature 
 made them, like pamphlets, difficult to preserve. 
 
 Besides Dunbar's poems, the volume contains, in whole 
 or in part, " The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane " ; 
 " The Tale of Orpheus and Euridice," by Henryson ; " Ane 
 Buke of Gud Counsale to the King how to reull his 
 Realme," addressed to James II., and contained also in the 
 MS. of the ' Book of Pluscardine ' ; " The Maying or Dis- 
 port of Chaucer," to which is subjoined a poem on " The 
 Conception of the Virgin," also in the Bannatyne MS. ; 
 " The Tale of Sir Eglamour of Artoys," to which is sub- 
 joined "A Balade by an Unhappy Lover"; "A Gest of 
 Robyn Hude," probably the earliest in print, which was 
 also printed by Wynkin de Worde ; " The Porteous of 
 Noblemen," also in the Asloan MS., and a short tract on 
 the Virtues of a Nobleman, translated from the French by 
 Master Andrew Cadiow. Such was the favourite literature, 
 chiefly, it will be noted, romantic, of Scotland in the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlv 
 
 DUNBAR CELEBRATES BERNARD STEWART, AND SATIRISES 
 DAMIAN, THE ABBOT OF TUNGLAND, 1507-8. 
 
 Of one of Dunbar's poems printed at this time, "The 
 Welcome to Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny," ^ the date 
 can be fixed with singular precision. That renowned 
 commander, ranked by Brantome amongst the illustrious 
 captains of France, grandson of Sir John Stewart of Darn- 
 ley, Marshal of France, General of the Scots forces in the 
 service of Charles VI L, and son of John Stewart, Lord of 
 Aubigny, had already come on an earlier embassy to 
 Scotland, sent by Charles VIII., in 1484, to renew the 
 ancient league. In 1485 he commanded the French 
 auxiliaries of Henry VII. at Bosworth Field, and after- 
 wards gained glory in the Italian campaign of Louis XII., 
 where he won the battle of Seminara. In 1495 he received 
 the title of Constable-General of Naples. Though defeated 
 at the same place in 1503 by Hugo, brother of Gonsalvo de 
 Cordova, the Grand Captain of Spain, he retained his fame 
 at the French Court, and was sent in 1 508 to secure the aid 
 of James IV. in the Holy League which Pope Julius II. had 
 formed with the Kings of France and Spain and the Em- 
 peror Maximilian to crush Venice. He arrived in Scot- 
 land on 9th May, and was received with honour. James 
 IV. placed him at the royal table, made him judge of the 
 tournaments, in which the king himself appeared in the 
 disguise of the Savage Knight, and the Round Table of Ar- 
 thur was counterfeited. The king, whose heart was set on 
 martial enterprise, styled Aubigny the Father of War. He 
 died on the 9th of the month following, and was buried at 
 Corstorphine Kirk,^ where a recumbent statue of a knight 
 
 1 P. 59. 2 Lesley's History, p. 76, 
 
xlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in armour was long supposed to mark his tomb, but is 
 now attributed to one of the Foresters of Corstorphine. 
 On 15th June, the king made an offering at a mass for 
 his soul, and his heart was sent to St Ninian's, at Whit- 
 horn, to which he had vowed a pilgrimage when he won 
 his battles in Italy. The "Welcome" of Dunbar must have 
 been written, therefore, between 9th May and 9th June 
 1508, — probably about the earlier, and his Elegy on Ber- 
 nard Stewart soon after the later, of these dates. Both 
 poems are in Dunbar's ornate and least interesting style, 
 and were doubtless written by him as Poet-Laureate of the 
 Scottish Court. 
 
 Dunbar found a subject for his more natural vein in 
 John Damian, the Italian impostor, who, by his skill as a 
 surgeon and apothecary, first gained the ear of James IV., 
 and then abused his confidence by pretending to multiply 
 gold, and practising the other arts of the astrologers. 
 Bishop Lesley gives a curious account of Damian, amply 
 confirmed by the Accounts of the Treasurer, which show 
 frequent payments to him, first under the name of " John, 
 the French Leich or Medicinar," and, in 1504, the gift of 
 " the Abbay of Tungland." " He causet the kyng believe 
 that he, be multiplynge and utheris his inventions, wold 
 make fine golde of uther metall, quhilk science he callit 
 the quintessence, quherupon the kyng maid great cost, but 
 all in vain. The Abbot tuik in hand to flie with wingis 
 and to be in France before the saidis Ambassiatoris, and 
 to that effect he causit mak ane pair wingis of fedderis, 
 quhilkis beand fessenit apon him he flew off the castle 
 wall of Stirling, but shortlie he fell to the ground and 
 brak his thie bane, bot the evyl thairof he ascrybit to thare 
 was some hen fedderis in the wingis, quhilk yarnit and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlvii 
 
 covet the middyn and not the skyes." ^ To be able to give 
 a clever turn to awkward failures has ever been, Professor 
 Schipper observes, one of the chief talents of the adept 
 charlatan. The embassy to France which Damian was 
 to forestall was despatched in September 1507, so Dunbar's 
 poem, "Ane Ballat of the Fengeit Freir of Tungland," 
 must have been composed towards the end of that year, 
 when his attempted flight was in fresh memory. 
 
 About the same period Dunbar wrote another satirical 
 poem, commencing " Lucina schynnyng in silence of the 
 nicht," in which the poet sees in a dream the Abbot's 
 adventures in the air : — 
 
 " Quhen I awoik, my dreme it was so nyce, 
 Ffra every wicht I hid it as a vyce ; 
 Quhill I hard tell be mony suthfast wy, 
 Ffle wald am abbot vp in to the sky^ 
 And all his fethreme maid wes at devyce" ^ 
 
 With great ingenuity the poet introduces into his vision a 
 prophecy that he would get no benefice until the Abbot 
 flew to heaven with eagles' feathers, but hints that the 
 prophecy was not to be fulfilled 
 
 " Be \i.e.^ before] than it salbe neir this warldis end." 
 
 The impostor abbot kept the favour of the king, whose 
 weak points he had seen through. He was allowed leave 
 of absence for five years in 1508, keeping the revenues of 
 his abbacy, and on his return hit upon a new device to 
 get money from the credulous king — the working of the 
 mines of Crawford Moor,^ where gold had been found in 
 small quantity, yet sufficient to give hopes of more. But 
 the poet was no nearer his benefice: flattery and cunning 
 paid better than satire and wit. 
 
 ^ P. 76. 2 j^o. 3 March 29, 15 13, £20 paid to the Abbot of Tungland. 
 
xlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 DUNBAR AT ABERDEEN WITH THE QUEEN, 15 ii. 
 
 In May 151 1, Queen Margaret, on her way to a pilgrim- 
 age to St Duthac's, of Tain, visited, for the first time, Aber- 
 deen, then the second town of Scotland in the amount of 
 its revenues, famed of old as the see of St Machar, and 
 receiving new lustre by the pious care of Bishop Elphin- 
 stone, who was laying the foundation of the University in 
 King's College, named after James IV. Dunbar, several of 
 whose poems point to his having been specially attached 
 to the queen's as well as the king's household, accompanied 
 her, and celebrated her entry in the poem — 
 
 " Blyth Aberdein, thow beriall of all tounis, 
 The lamp of bewtie, bountie, and biythnes." ^ 
 
 He describes in it " The Masques," which, by the custom 
 of that age, greeted a royal entry. The queen was met 
 by the magistrates in velvet robes. Four of them held 
 over her a pall of crimson velvet as she rode through the 
 streets. A fine procession met her at the port, and the 
 following scenes were represented by the burgesses and 
 their families, or perhaps by actors hired for the occasion : 
 From Scripture history, — the " Salutation of the Virgin ; " 
 the " Three Kings of the East offering gold, frankincense, 
 and myrrh to the infant Christ ; " and " Adam and Eve ex- 
 pelled from Paradise." These were succeeded by others 
 from Scottish story, — the Bruce as a crowned king, fol- 
 lowed by the royal Stewarts. Then twenty-four maidens, 
 singing, and with timbrels, met the queen, followed by the 
 Barons of the neighbourhood with their ladies. The foun- 
 tain at the cross flowed with wine, and a gift was presented 
 to her by the town, in the shape of a cup heaped with gold 
 coins, before she was conducted to her lodgings. 
 
 ^ P. 251. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlix 
 
 With this poem we may compare the panegyric on 
 London already noted, and contrast the satire on Edin- 
 burgh addressed to its merchants, and the dirge on Stir- 
 ling, when the king stayed too long in that town, on 
 a visit to the Franciscan monastery, while Dunbar was in 
 Edinburgh ; but these poems belong to an earlier period, 
 when James was yet unmarried. The satire on Edinburgh, 
 with its companion poem, " Tidings from the Session," point 
 by their allusions to the Daily Council which James IV. 
 instituted in 1503, in lieu of the Ambulatory Sessions of 
 James I., which sat in the four principal towns of the king- 
 dom. Although called the Daily Council, the new Court 
 retained also the name of Session, and both names passed 
 to its successor, the College of Justice, when founded by 
 James V. in 1532, whose senators or judges were commonly 
 styled the Lords of Council and Session. This group of 
 poems, whatever may be their precise dates, do not afford 
 much information as to Dunbar's life, but are good illus- 
 trations of his close observation and sharp wit, which spared 
 neither the ascetic practices of the monks of Stirling, nor 
 the abuses of the courts of law, nor the uncleanliness of 
 the streets of the capital. 
 
 DUNBAR AT THE COURT OF JAMES IV., 1500-13. 
 
 The greater part of Dunbar's writings between 1500 and 
 1513 were occasional poems written to amuse the Court, or 
 to please his own humour, by satirising its follies and vices. 
 They show his continued attendance on the king or queen's 
 person, the favour in which he was held, especially by the 
 queen, his constant petitions for salary and for a benefice, 
 and his keen sense of the uncertainty of the courtier's life, 
 
1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now in now out of favour. The picture they present of 
 the Scottish Court of this period is a strange and not a pleas- 
 ing one. James, when periodical fits of penitence did not 
 occupy him with penance, fasting, and pilgrimages, was a 
 merry monarch ; and the familiarity and coarseness of 
 some of the scenes Dunbar paints are not in accord with 
 the dignity and virtue which become those whose manners 
 should be an example to their subjects. To understand 
 the freedom of the poet, we must keep in view how close 
 was the contact between royalty and the Court circle, and 
 even the people outside of the Court circle. In the small 
 palaces, the little towns of Scotland and their narrow 
 streets, every incident of Court life became at once a topic 
 of gossip and of scandal. A large licence of speech was 
 allowed even to Churchmen by the manners of the age. 
 But while there is much that the moralist must condemn 
 in poems such as ''The Wowing of the King,"^ "Of a 
 Dance in the Quenis Chalmer," ^ and that addressed " To 
 the Queue," ^ they represent more truly than is allowed by 
 the conventional manners of modern times the human 
 nature which underlies the artificial life of society, and 
 enable us to realise better than we could otherwise the 
 characters of James, his queen, and their courtiers. Even 
 the poems which are the least edifying convey a moral, as 
 in the last mentioned :■ — 
 
 *' Thairfor, all 3oung men, I 30U pray, 
 Keip 30U fra harlattis nycht and day; " 
 
 or in "The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," whose 
 discourse is of a similar character to Chaucer's "Wife of 
 Bath," the poet concludes : — 
 
 ^ P. 136. 2 p. igg, 3 203. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 li 
 
 " 5e Auditoris, most honorable, that eris has gevin 
 Onto this vncouth aventur, quhilk airly me happinnit ; 
 Of ther thre wantoun wiffis, that I haif writtin heir, 
 Quhilk wald ^e wail to 3our vvif, gif ^e suld wed one ? " ^ 
 
 Perhaps in no other way, in such a time, were moral 
 lessons more likely to reach the ears of those who most 
 needed them. 
 
 The poems of this class are, after all, a small part of 
 Dunbar's works. It is largely due to him that the period 
 of James IV. is the commencement of a fuller knowledge 
 of the history of Scotland, during which we can represent 
 to ourselves the "form and pressure" of the men and 
 events which together make the sum of history, in a manner 
 impossible at any earlier time. The general current of our 
 history becomes, from other sources, more distinct in this 
 reign than in that of the first three Jameses. What Dunbar 
 adds are the minute touches which give life and colour to 
 the picture. 
 
 THE KING AND QUEEN. 
 
 The king is of course the central figure. Every trait in 
 his variable and inconsistent character finds its poem or 
 its line — the licentiousness of his youth, his penitence and 
 remorse, the desire of novelty and dabbling in science 
 which made him the prey of impostors and flatterers ; the 
 love of amusements of all kinds, from the tournaments of 
 knights and contests of poets to card-playing and the jests 
 of fools ; and his liberality extended even to unworthy 
 objects. Yet Dunbar never seems to have quite lost faith 
 in James, and his feeling, even when his satirical shafts fly 
 very near the royal person, is that of a dutiful subject warn- 
 
 ' P. 47. 
 
lii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ing the king against his weaknesses, and remonstrating 
 against his vices. He appears to have thought that there 
 was an under-current of virtue which, if it could get the 
 upper hand, would overpower his faults. In a notable verse, 
 evidently written towards the end of the reign, if not, as is 
 possible, after its tragic conclusion, he recalls a saying of 
 the king, and makes it the burden of one of his refrains : — 
 
 " Gude James the ferd, our nobill king, 
 Ouhen that he was of 3eiris 3ing, 
 In sentens said full subtillie, 
 * Do Weill, and sett not by demying, 
 For no man sail vndemit be.' " ^ 
 
 The queen, though frequently alluded to, is less distinctly 
 portrayed in Dunbar's poems. His praise of her youthful 
 beauty in "The Thistle and the Rose," and other poems 
 written at the time of her marriage, has been already noted. 
 It is evident that the poet stood high in her favour. In a 
 poem whose burden is regret that the king was not more 
 under her influence, he styles her — 
 
 " My aduocat, bayth fair and sweit, 
 The hale reiosing of my spreit, 
 Wald speid me in my erandis than ; 
 
 And 3e war anis Johne ^ Thomsounis man." ^ 
 
 But the dance in her chamber, and the conduct of the 
 ladies and gentlemen of her Court, glanced at in several of 
 his poems, do not give reason for the belief that her influ- 
 ence over her husband would, if greater, have been of the 
 best kind. 
 
 The Court and courtiers are described rather in general 
 terms than by panegyrics or satires of particular persons, for 
 1 P. 93. 
 
 - In the proverb, John is supposed to stand for Joan, a lady who ruled her 
 husband. 
 3 P. 218. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 liii 
 
 Dunbar had no patrons but the king and the queen, and 
 desired to make no enemies. Its bad as well as its good 
 qualities are painted in a series of poems with vivid 
 colours, the former most frequently. In his " Remonstrance 
 to the King " ^ he brings the two sides of the picture to- 
 gether. He first draws the portraits of the 
 
 " Mony servitouris, 
 And officiaris of dyuers curis ; 
 
 . all of thair craft cunning, 
 And all at anis lawboring, 
 Quhilk pleisand ar and honorable ; 
 And to 3our hienes profitable." 
 
 But next 
 
 " Ane vthir sort, more miserabill, 
 
 Fen3eouris, fleichouris, and flatteraris ; 
 Cryaris, craikaris, and clatteraris ; " 
 
 on whom he exhausts the copious vocabulary of abuse the 
 Scottish language supplied, concluding with the naive but 
 honest reflection — 
 
 " Had I rewarde amang the laif, 
 It wald me sumthing satisfie, 
 And less me of my malancolie, 
 And gar me mony fait ouerse, 
 That now is brayd befoir myn E." 
 
 It is to this "vthir sort, more miserabill," that his verses 
 constantly recur, as in the poems beginning 
 
 " Devorit with dreme, devysing in my slummer, 
 How that this realme, with nobillis owt of nummer."^ 
 
 " To dwell in court, my freind, gife that thow list, 
 For gift of fortoun invy thow no degre." ^ 
 
 ^ P. 220. 
 
 P. 81. 
 
 3 P. 98. 
 
liv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Quhome to sail I complene my wo, 
 And kyth my kairis on or mo ? 
 I knaw nocht, amang riche nor pure, 
 Quha is my freynd, quha is my fo." ^ 
 
 " Ffredome, honour and nobilnes, 
 Meid, manheid, mirth and gentilnes 
 Ar now in cowrt reput as vyce ; 
 And all for causs of cuvetice." ^ 
 
 " Thir ladyis fair, That makis repair, 
 And in the court ar kend, 
 Thre dayis thair, Thay will do mair, 
 Ane mater for till end, 
 Than thair gude men Will do in ten."^ 
 
 In the same strain are the poems "Aganis the SoHstaris 
 in Court,"* "Dunbar's Complaint to the King,"^ and 
 " Of the Warldis Instabilite." ^ 
 
 At times, chiefly when his pension has been paid, his 
 mood is happier. Even Court life gives occasion for 
 mirth, as in the description of " the bliss of Edinburgh " to 
 which he entreats the king to return from " Striuilling, 
 every court-manis fo""^; or he narrates with boisterous 
 humour the "Dance in the Quenis Chalmer,"^ in which 
 he took part ; or praises James Doig, the queen's ward- 
 roper,^ when he had pleased the poet by giving him some 
 reward or perquisite ; or makes merry with the black lady, 
 the latest novelty of fashionable society, like the lions of 
 that society in our day, in the verses " Of ane Blak-Moir," 
 or welcomes the Lord Treasurer, who had paid his pension ; 
 or contributes a share to one of the diversions of the Court 
 in the " Interlud of the Droichis part of the Play." 
 
 1 p. 100. 2 p 1^8. 3 i68. 4 p, 2o6. 
 
 5 P. 212. ^P. 113. ^F.igg. 
 
 9 P. 197. 1" P. 201. 11 P. 264. 12 p_ 314^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Iv 
 
 Occasionally a historical personage or person, whom 
 history has allowed to lapse into oblivion, is brought 
 before us by Dunbar, but he practises the caution which 
 he preaches, and his references are generally either lauda- 
 tory or humorous, provoking laughter and not ill-will. His 
 poems on "The Lord of Aubigny" have been already 
 noticed, and those on the Queen - Dowager and Regent 
 Albany will be presently. We have seen, too, his gen- 
 erous allusions to his brother bards who had died. The 
 " Flyting " certainly depicts Walter, and " The Testament " 
 Andrew Kennedy, in a less favourable and ludicrous light. 
 Yet the former receives, in " The Lament for the Makaris," 
 the brief but honourable epithet of " good " ; and the Testa- 
 ment of Andrew is an evident jeu d'esprit, painting to the 
 life a drunken Bohemian of the time.^ 
 
 Another poet. Mure, who had tampered with Dunbar's 
 verses, and pointed them at particular courtiers, is the sub- 
 ject of a more severe and caustic " Complaint to the King." ^ 
 
 Sir Thomas Norray, the king's fool, has a poem to him- 
 self and his order,^ which then flourished at the Scotch as 
 well as other Courts. Doig, whose name is pronounced in 
 Scotch nearly in the same way as " dog," has two poems 
 prompted as much apparently by the pleasure of punning 
 on it as on his vocation, which gave him charge of the royal 
 purse as well as wardrobe. The poems denouncing the 
 impostor Abbot of Tungland,* and Donald Owre, the West 
 Highland rebel,^ are those in which Dunbar really uses the 
 strongest but well-deserved invective against individuals. 
 
 1 P. 54. 
 'P. 139. 
 
 2 p. 210. 
 ^ P. 190. 
 
 3 P. 192. 
 
Ivi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE TOWN, THE COURT, THE TRADES, THE FRIARS, 
 AND OTHER CLASSES. 
 
 While the Court and its denizens, or the persons brought 
 into contact with it, form the most frequent subject of Dun- 
 bar's poetic description, his eye was not limited to it, but 
 saw the evils of other persons and other scenes. The Law 
 Courts are scourged in "Tidings from the Session"^; those 
 of Edinburgh, in the satire on that town ; ^ those of the 
 tailors and soutars (shoemakers), in the mock Tourna- 
 ment,^ and the comical ironical palinode which follows, 
 under the cover of its title, "The Amendis made be 
 him to the Telgouris and Sowtaris,* returning to the 
 charge ; those of the Trades generally, in the Devil's 
 inquest ; ^ those of the Friars, in the poem " How Dum- 
 bar wes desyrd to be ane Freir"^ and "The Freiris of 
 Berwik"^ (if his composition), and many side shots in 
 other poems ; those of the scholars, in " Learning vain 
 without guid Lyfe," written at Oxinfurde ; ^ those of the 
 female sex, in the "Ballate against Evil Women those 
 of all mankind, in "The Dance of the Sevin Deidly 
 Synnis."^^ And as in the last, so in the rest of these 
 trenchant satires, — while they have an application which 
 suits other times and places, there is also an unmistakable 
 colour of Dunbar's own age, affording illustrations of the 
 life of Scotland as it was when James IV. was king. 
 
 We see in this, section of Dunbar's works the character 
 of the society by which he was surrounded. Justice was 
 not yet pure but venal. The diverse motives of the crowd 
 
 1 p. 78. 2 261. 3 P. 122. 4 P. 127. 5 144^ 
 
 6 P. 131. ^ P. 285. S P. 224. ^ P. 266. 10 P. 117. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ivii 
 
 of suitors and hangers-on at the sittings of the Court are 
 laid bare. The trades satirised are those prominent in the 
 Edinburgh Hfe of that day. Few poets now would write 
 either for or against tailors or shoemakers. Nor is " The 
 Tournament " without a secondary application against the 
 knights and nobles, whose favourite pastime looks absurd 
 enough when engaged in by common craftsmen. In the 
 friars and the scholars, members of his own profession, as 
 they were in the cloisters and colleges of post-medieval 
 Europe, are branded by his poetic as they were shortly 
 after by the prose satire of Erasmus. Following the lead 
 of so many monkish writers, he satirises evil women who 
 have not only the vices commonly ascribed to their class 
 but "the desaitfuU talis" which the Scottish Parliament 
 vainly endeavoured to suppress. Even the seven deadly 
 sins wear the habits of the time. Pride has his bonnet on 
 one side, his flowing hair, and his gown in loose folds to 
 the heel, like an ostentatious young courtier of the time. 
 The priests who follow Pride have their necks bare and 
 shaved. Ire has a train "in iakkis, and stryppis and 
 bonettis of steill," with chain - armour on his legs, as if 
 he was a lawless freebooter of the Borders. Envy has 
 amongst its retinue the "rownaris of fals lesingis," or 
 slanders, whom Dunbar had met at Court. No min- 
 strels or gleemen played at the " dance in hell " save one 
 who gained his heritage by killing a man and entered by 
 brieve of right — the writ whicfi, in feudal Scotland as in 
 England, then established a claim to succession. The 
 concluding stanza, aimed at the Highlanders, whom Dun- 
 bar, as a good Lothian man, hated with all his heart, 
 describes the devil as so deafened with their clatter in 
 Ersche (Irish or Gaelic), that he covered them with smoke 
 
Iviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in the deepest pit in hell, is a touch of local humour which 
 relieves the poem of its Dantesque horror. 
 
 THE SCOTTISH LANDSCAPE AS SEEN BY DUNBAR. 
 
 It is an agreeable change from these satires to note, 
 in illustration of Dunbar's character, his appreciation of 
 landscape, the taste for which has been sometimes sup- 
 posed to be unknown to our medieval ancestors. But it is 
 the quiet and domestic, not the wild and grand aspect of 
 nature, which attracts Dunbar, like other poets of his time. 
 The ocean is " mirk and moneless " ; the Highland glens are 
 " thai deully glens." He does not hear the two voices of the 
 sea and the mountains, which have spoken to, and through, 
 our later poets. The garden scenes in ''The Goldyn Targe 
 and " The Thistle and the Rose," ^ the closing lines of " The 
 Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," ^ have been selected by 
 a recent writer, with a true eye and heart for Scottish 
 scenery and its reflection in Scottish poetry. The reader 
 can find the passages in their proper places, and will not 
 regret to compare with the poet's May morning in "The 
 Goldyn Targe " Professor Veitch's discriminating note : 
 "This description is characterised by an intense sense of 
 colour ; — delight in sun-brightness and its reflected splen- 
 dour ; in the bowers of the birds apparelled in white and 
 red and sweet blooms ; the variously enamelled field ; the 
 pearly drops shaking in silver showers ; the gleaming river, 
 and the stones by its channel-bed shining clear as stars 
 after the dew of the morning. The poet revels not less 
 in the joyous resonant notes of the morning birds ; and the 
 whole picture is suffused with the predominating emotion 
 1 P. I. 2 p. 183. 3 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lix 
 
 of fresh and exulting joy. . . . Yet it is a generalised 
 picture. There are few wholly specific features noted by 
 the poet — in such a way, at least, that we can say dis- 
 tinctively, — that is a May morning in Scotland, even taking 
 our May at its best. The garden idea also predominates 
 in the scene. There is, however, a fine powerful freedom 
 in the picture of the river; and in the reference to 'the 
 blomyt medis' with 'the grene rispis and the redis,' we 
 have a bit of direct eye-painting." ^ 
 
 The " Meditatioun in Wyntir " ^ is cited by the same 
 writer as characteristic of our older Scottish poetry, in 
 which " winter " is a more frequent and characteristic 
 colour of the landscape than glorious, or, as Dunbar calls 
 it, "lustie summer." 
 
 Another critic, himself a poet, Alexander Smith, has 
 marked the same poems and the same passages with 
 notes of admiration : " In his allegorical poems, ' The 
 Golden Targe,' 'The Merle and the Nightingale,' 'The 
 Thistle and the Rose,' Dunbar's fancy has full scope. As 
 allegories they are perhaps not worth much. . . . But 
 in Dunbar, the allegorical machinery is saved from con- 
 tempt by colour, poetry, and music. Quick surprises of 
 beauty, and a rapid succession of pictures, keep the 
 attention awake. Now it is — 
 
 ' May, of myrthfull monethis quene, 
 Betuix Aprile, and June, her sister schene, 
 Within the gardyng walking vp and doun.' ^ 
 
 Now — 
 
 ' The god of wyndis, Eolus, 
 With variand luke, rycht lyke a lord vnstable.' ^ 
 
 ^ Veitch, 'The Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry,' vol. i. p. 229. 
 2 P. 233. 3 p. 4. 4 5. 
 
 d 
 
Ix 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Now the nightingale — 
 
 * Nevir suetar noys wes hard with levand man, 
 Na maid this mirry gentill nychtingaill, 
 
 Hir sound went with the rever as it ran, 
 Outthrow the fresche and flureist lusty vaill.' ^ 
 
 And now a spring morning — 
 
 * Full angellike thir birdis sang thair houris 
 Within thair courtyns grene, in to thair bouris, 
 
 Apparalit quhite and red, wyth blomes suete ; 
 Anamalit was the felde wyth all colouris, 
 The perly droppis schake in silvir schouris.' " ^ 
 
 Dunbar is never so bright, never so happy, as when 
 listening to the voices of the birds or viewing the colours 
 of the flowers. These are the common sounds and sights 
 which have delighted the hearts of poets, and to them 
 are never commonplace. They requite the poet's love by 
 transfusing their healthy and natural sweetness into his 
 verses. It is pleasant to know they gave seasons of happi- 
 ness to one like Dunbar, whose moods were more often 
 melancholy despondency and satire. 
 
 EFFECT OF FLODDEN ON SCOTLAND AND DUNBAR, 15 13. 
 
 From satire of Court and praise of country alike, Dunbar 
 was diverted by the disaster of Flodden, the greatest blow 
 Scotland ever suffered. In an evil hour for his country and 
 fame, James IV., stung by a series of injuries, — the refusal 
 of Henry VIII. to deliver up the bastard Heron, who had 
 slain the Scottish Warden of the Marches ; the death of 
 
 1 R 175. 
 
 2 ' Dreamthorp, and other Essays,' by Alexander Smith, p. 82. Even Mr 
 Lowell finds " a few sweet and flowing verses in Dunbar's ' Merle and Nightin- 
 gale,' indeed one whole stanza that has always seemed exquisite." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixi 
 
 Andrew Barton, the bold seaman who made reprisals on 
 the pirates and merchantmen of Holland, Portugal, and 
 England after a manner that savoured itself of piracy ; the 
 withholding of the jewels left to Margaret by her father ; 
 and the invasion of France, — declared he would take part 
 in the defence of his brother and cousin, " the most Chris- 
 tian king," and, unless Henry desisted from the invasion of 
 France, would wage war against England. Doubtless he 
 thought the absence of Henry at the siege of Terrouenne a 
 good occasion for this declaration. The old league between 
 Scotland and France, of which he was reminded by Anne 
 of Brittany's present of a ring ^ and a subsidy of gold, also 
 weighed against the more recent alliance with England. 
 But the reiteration by modern writers of the charge of 
 breach of faith, which Skelton put into his verses and 
 Holinshed and Hall into their chronicles, is not justified. 
 
 There was as good cause for this as for most wars. The 
 peace between England and Scotland had been hollow — 
 never well preserved on either border, much less on the 
 coast. Henry's contemptuous treatment of a former Scot- 
 tish herald, whom he refused to receive, determined James 
 not to wait for another insult, and before the Islay herald 
 returned from France the war had begun and ended — 
 Flodden was fought and James slain. 
 
 The Nemesis which pursued the ill-fated monarch is a 
 familiar page of Scottish story. It gave a natural subject 
 to Skelton's and other English ballads, and a title, though 
 no more, to a tragedy of Robert Greene. It has left a 
 patriotic and pathetic echo in Scottish minstrelsy in the 
 burghers' songs of Selkirk and Hawick, in the " Flowers of 
 
 ^ This ring, as well as the sword and dagger James wore at Flodden, are in 
 the Heralds' College, London. 
 
Ixii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Forest," and in * Marmion.' The warning of the beggar 
 at Linlithgow Kirk to the king at prayers, told by Lyndsay 
 of Pitscottie, on the authority of Sir David Lyndsay the 
 poet ; the summons of Platcock (Pluto, or the devil) at the 
 cross of Edinburgh, before the muster on the Borough Muir ; 
 the dalliance of the king at Ford with Lady Heron ; the 
 rash descent of the Scots from the hill of Flodden to the 
 plain of Brankstone, on the banks of the Till, where the 
 battle was fought ; the doubt whether the king had fallen, 
 caused by his having dressed several men in suits of 
 armour like his own, and the sordid fate of his body so 
 long unburied, form a series of scenes worthy of a tragedy. 
 
 But Dunbar had not the dramatic faculty, nor would a 
 Scottish contemporary have used this occasion for its ex- 
 ercise. Like his countrymen, he was probably at first 
 stunned by the disaster which cut off the king and his 
 young son, the Archbishop of St Andrews, the Bishop of 
 the Isles, and two abbots, eleven earls, and fourteen lords, 
 besides many knights and gentlemen, and a host of the 
 faithful commons. The English chronicler Hall reckoned 
 the Scottish loss at 12,000, the English at under 1500, as 
 appeared " by the book of wages when the soldiers were 
 paid." The number of Scots slain may be exaggerated ; 
 but tradition, accumulated from all quarters of the realm, 
 leaves no doubt of its enormous proportions. The Doug- 
 lases, one of the bravest families of the Border, counted 
 their loss at 200. Angus Bell-the-Cat, now infirm with old 
 age, after vainly protesting against the ill-timed engage- 
 ment, left the field, but two of his sons remained and died on 
 it. Scarcely a noble house in Scotland was without the record 
 of a death at Flodden. The burghers of the towns — the 
 " Flowers of the Forest," as the brave yeomen of Ettrick 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixiii 
 
 are called in the ballad — the rough-shod Highlanders and 
 Islesmen, — all shared the common fate, for few prisoners 
 were taken. The Flodden wall, which the capital built in 
 its alarm — the masses said in so many churches throughout 
 the land — the succession of the heir to his father's lands 
 without payment of relief to the Crown, which had been 
 guaranteed by an Act passed just before the battle, — kept 
 alive the sad memory. Very possibly Dunbar had been 
 one of those who had opposed the war. His relations with 
 the queen, and the English sympathies of one who deemed 
 Chaucer his master and English in its old form his mother 
 tongue, make this more probable than a conjecture which 
 has been hazarded that he fell at Flodden. This conjec- 
 ture is, of course, incompatible with the view of most of 
 those who have studied his poems, that many of them 
 were written after its date. 
 
 DUNBAR'S LIFE AFTER FLODDEN TO HIS DEATH, 
 1513-20. 
 
 The first poem Dunbar appears to have written after 
 
 Flodden was an address to the young Queen-Dowager, 
 
 still only in her twenty-third year, to " be glaid in hairt and 
 
 expell haviness." ^ The relation of the poet to the queen, 
 
 described in the lines — 
 
 " To quhome I am, and sail ay scherwand be, 
 
 With steidfast hairt, and faythfull trew mening, 
 Vnto the deid, without depairting ; 
 For quhais saik I sail my pen address 
 Sangis to mak for thy reconforting," — 
 
 marks Dunbar as the author, although his name is not 
 appended to it. 
 
 1 p. 326. 
 
Ixiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 His counsel to 
 
 " Faid nocht with vveping thy vissage fair of hew " 
 
 was soon taken. In August 15 14, before the widow's year 
 of mourning was over, Margaret wedded the young Earl of 
 Angus, grandson of old Bell-the-Cat, to whom he suc- 
 ceeded. His father, like her husband, was one of the 
 victims of Flodden. Life continues its strange and devious 
 courses, though death gives its warnings with the strongest 
 emphasis. Between James Stuart and Margaret Tudor 
 there could have been no deep love, for he was a faithless 
 husband. The wayward girl, now a headstrong woman, was 
 conscious she might follow her own will. But if Dunbar 
 had been an ideal character, he would not have so soon for- 
 gotten his old master, and sought to encourage his mistress 
 to " baneiss all baill, and into bHss abyd." 
 
 Although Dunbar still clung for a little to the gay and 
 cheerful view of life natural to his sanguine moods, he was 
 too good a patriot to overlook the additional confusion 
 which the precipitate marriage of the queen with a subject 
 brought upon Scotland. His next poem, " Ane Orisoun — 
 quhen the Gouernour past in France," describes the con- 
 fusion of 
 
 " This pure realme, in partyis all devydit ; " 
 
 and prays — 
 
 " Lord ! hald thy hand, that strikken hes so soir ; 
 Haue of ws pietie, eftir our punytioun ; 
 And gif ws grace the [for] to greif no more, 
 And gar us mend with penance and contritioun." ^ 
 
 The Queen-Dowager's marriage had roused the jealousy 
 of the Scottish nobility — unwilling to see one of their 
 
 1 p. 236, 11. 33-36. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixv 
 
 order preferred above the rest — and alienated Henry VIII. 
 who disliked his sister giving her hand to one not of royal 
 birth. The party opposed to Angus, at the suggestion of 
 Elphinstoh, Bishop of Aberdeen, and Lord Home, the 
 Chamberlain, resolved to summon John, Duke of Albany, 
 grandson of James II., to assume the regency. In spite of 
 Henry VIII.'s endeavour to prevent his leaving France, the 
 Duke landed at Dumbarton in the middle of August 15 15, 
 held a Parliament in Edinburgh by which he was appoint- 
 ed governor of the kingdom till the king attained his 
 eighteenth year, and forced Margaret at Stirling to resign 
 the custody of the king and his brother Alexander, Duke 
 of Ross, and to fly to England. Albany attempted the 
 difficult task of governing Scotland for two years, at first 
 with apparent success. He received the submission in turn 
 of the Earl of Arran, the representative of the Hamiltons, 
 and by his mother a grandson of James II. ; of Home, 
 the Chamberlain, who had suddenly allied himself with 
 Angus, his rival on the Borders ; and of Angus himself 
 The attempt which Henry VIII. made, at his sister's 
 instigation, to obtain his removal from the regency, roused 
 the patriotism of the commons in his favour. But the 
 nobles were jealous of Albany as a foreigner. A rebellion 
 in the West, headed by Arran, Lennox, and Glencairn, 
 had barely been suppressed when Home and his brother, 
 aided by several Border barons, entered into intrigues with 
 Dacre, the English Warden ; and having imprudently come 
 to Edinburgh, they were seized, tried, and convicted for 
 treason. De la Bastie, a French knight and friend of 
 Albany, was made Warden of the East Border. At a 
 Parliament in Edinburgh, Albany was declared the second 
 person in the realm, and next heir to the crown — the 
 
Ixvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 king's young brother, the Duke of Ross, having died. 
 The new King of France, Francis I., formed a league 
 with Spain against the Emperor Maximilian, and wishing 
 to conciliate Henry VIII., refused to ratify the treaty with 
 Scotland. Albany determined to go to France to try the 
 effect of his personal influence. He had never cared for 
 Scotland, where he felt his tenure of office insecure, and 
 was glad of an excuse for leaving. It was with difficulty 
 he obtained leave of absence for four months, and sailed 
 from Dumbarton on 7th June 1517. 
 
 He was scarce gone when fresh troubles broke out in 
 Scotland. The Queen-Dowager returned, and though not 
 permitted to take part in the government or resume the 
 custody of her son, her presence was a disturbing element. 
 In September Hume of Wedderburn met and slew De la 
 Bastie at Langton. The perpetrators of this crime, though 
 forfeited, were never brought to justice, so powerless or in- 
 different was authority. There was also a serious rising in 
 the Highlands to support the claim of Macdonald of Loch- 
 alsh to the lordship of the Isles. Albany had committed 
 the regency during his absence to the Bishops of St An- 
 drews and Glasgow, and the Earls of Huntly, Argyle, Angus, 
 and Arran. The chief power in this council was disputed 
 between Angus, who had the support of England, and 
 Arran, whose quarrels at last came to such a pitch that 
 their followers fought in the High Street of Edinburgh, 
 and Arran was driven from the capital. This affray of 
 Cleanse the Causeway " took place on 30th April 1520. 
 Seventy-two of the Hamiltons were left dead on the street. 
 To add to the turmoil, the Queen-Dowager quarrelled with 
 and was eager for a divorce from Angus, and now used her 
 influence to procure the return of Albany. He seemed the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixvii 
 
 only man capable of restraining Angus, and through his kin- 
 ship with the Pope might aid her in procuring a divorce. He 
 did not, however, return till November 1521, when Angus 
 at once fled to the Border, and the queen received him so 
 kindly that Dacre reported to Henry that they were " over 
 tender." 
 
 It was when, or shortly after, Albany went to France in 
 15 17 that the poem called " Ane Orisoun" was written by 
 Dunbar; and although Professor Schipper entertains doubts, 
 and the poem is anonymous, it seems probable that the 
 verses beginning 
 
 " We Lordis hes chosin a chiftane mervellus," ^ 
 
 were also written by him. If so, their date is fixed by the 
 lines which follow : — 
 
 • " That left hes ws in grit perplexite, 
 And him absentis, with wylis cautelus 
 5eiris and dayis mo than two or thre." 
 
 More than three years after Albany left would be after 
 June 1520, just at the moment when the dissensions be- 
 tween the nobles had reached their height, and Margaret, 
 Dunbar's friend and patron, was most anxious for Albany's 
 return. Neither of these poems is in Dunbar's best style, 
 and the second especially is inferior, both in subject-matter 
 and ease of versification. But the sentiments contained in 
 such lines as the following — 
 
 " Is nane of ws ane vddir settis by, 
 Bot laubouris ay for vthiris distructioun ; 
 Quhilk is grit plessour to our auld innamy, 
 And daly caussis grit dissentioun ; " — 
 
 or, 
 
 " Couatyce ringis into the spirituall state, 
 5arnand banifice the quhilk ar now vacand ;" 
 
 ^ P. 237. 
 
Ixviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or, 
 
 " Grit wer and wandrecht hes bene ws amang, 
 Sen thy depairting, and ^it approchis mair ; 
 Thy tardatioun caussis ws to think lang ; " — 
 
 are quite natural to Dunbar. Nor does it seem a sufficient 
 reason for the contrary view that he has put them in the 
 mouth of the Lords who wished Albany's return, and does 
 not speak as usual in his own person. There are other ex- 
 amples of this in " The King's Answer to Dunbar's Peti- 
 tion," ^ — if, as is deemed almost certain, it was written by 
 Dunbar, — and in " The Droichis part of the Play," ^ an in- 
 terlude which is spoken by the Dwarf If this poem is 
 Dunbar's, it is the last to which we can assign a date, and 
 it is probable that he did not live long after 1520. 
 
 The reference to him by Lyndsay in the " Testament of 
 the Papyngo" appears, by its position in that poem, to 
 place his death before that of his contemporary, Gavin 
 Douglas, which occurred in 1522. 
 
 " Ouho can now the werkis contrefait 
 Of Kennedie, with termes aureait, 
 Or of Dunbar, quhilk language had at large, 
 As may be sene in tyll his ' Goldin Targe.' 
 
 Allace ! for one quhilk lampe wes of this land, 
 Of eloquence the flowand balmy strand, 
 And in our Inglis rethorick, the rose, 
 As of rubeis the charbunckle bene chose. 
 And, as Phebus dois Cynthia precell, 
 So Gawane Dowglas, Byschope of Dunkell, 
 Had, quhen he wes in to this land on lyve, 
 Abufe vulgare poeitis prerogatyve, 
 Boith in pratick and speculatioun." ^ 
 
 But the inference from these lines that Dunbar predeceased 
 Douglas is not quite certain, and his closing, as his early 
 years, are buried in obscurity. 
 
 1 P. 217. 2 214. ^ Lyndsay's Works, ed. Laing, vol. i. p. 62. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixix 
 
 DUNBAR'S SACRED POEMS OR HYMNS AFTER 15 13. 
 
 To the period between Flodden and his death may 
 probably be assigned most if not all the sacred or relig- 
 ious poems, which form a marked and separate section 
 of his works. For though Dunbar was capable of such 
 various moods that it would be vain to say he might not 
 have composed some of them in his youth or middle age, 
 they are more like the thoughts of a man whose years were 
 declining towards old age. 
 
 In one of these, the hymn on the Passion, he describes 
 himself in the opening lines as resident in a cloister, which 
 he is not likely to have been after he had quitted the Ob- 
 servantines, at any period of his life prior to 15 13 : — 
 
 " Amang thir freiris, within ane cloister, 
 I enterit in ane oratorie, 
 And kneling doun with ane pater noster, 
 Befoir the michti king of glorye, 
 Having his passioun in memorye." ^ 
 
 It is true that the secular poems which can be certainly 
 dated after Flodden are few, and, with a single exception, 
 are only attributed to Dunbar by internal evidence. But 
 this would be sufficiently accounted for if the poet had then 
 occupied himself with the sacred themes which form the 
 subject of his hymns. The absence of his name from the 
 pension-list, which has been founded on as a proof of his 
 death, may be explained either by the loss of the Treas- 
 urer's accounts between 15 13 and 15 15, and again from 
 15 18 to 1522, or, as appears more probable, the real reason 
 may be that such pensions depended on the pleasure of the 
 king, and were not necessarily continued in a new reign. 
 
 ' P. 239. 
 
Ixx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The religious poems of Dunbar either simply teach a 
 religious or moral lesson, or relate to certain well-known 
 periods of the Christian year, and the religious feelings 
 their recurrence evokes in the breast of the pious church- 
 man. Both are significant illustrations of his character. 
 
 To the former class belongs a poem of considerable 
 length, sometimes called Dunbar's Confession. The words 
 added in the Maitland MS., " Heir endis ane Confessioun 
 generate compylit be Maister Williame Duinbarl^ indicate 
 that he intended it for others in like moments, but its tone 
 is too personal not to have some reference to his own expe- 
 rience, as in the lines which express remorse for his life at 
 Court — 
 
 " I knaw me vicious, Lord, and richt culpable, 
 In aithis sweiring, leising, and blaspheming, 
 Off frustrat speiking in court, in kirk, and table. 
 In vvordis \'yle, in vaneteis expreming, 
 Preysing my self, and evill my nichtbouris deming." ^ 
 
 Other poems of the same kind are that Against Covet- 
 ousness," beginning — 
 
 " Man, sen thy lyfe is ay in weir," ^ 
 and ending with the refrain — 
 
 " Thyne awin gude spend quhill thow hes space; " 
 that " Of the Changes of Lyfe ; that with the burden— 
 
 " Vanitas Vanitatum, et omnia Vanitas ; " * 
 the short stanza beginning — 
 
 " Quhat is this lyfe bot ane straucht way to deid ; " ^ 
 that on Death beginning — 
 
 "Doun by ane rever as I red,"^ 
 
 1 P. 69, 11. 105-109. 
 ^ P. 244. 
 
 2 P. 152. 
 s P. 250. 
 
 3 P. 232. 
 
 6 p. 305. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxi 
 
 and the poem sometimes called " The Merle and the Night- 
 ingale," ^ in which he praises heavenly as compared with 
 earthly love, ending with the burden — 
 
 "All luve is lost hot vpone God allone." 
 
 Poems such as these cannot be fixed with certainty at any 
 period of Dunbar's life, but are more natural to his closing 
 years. They express one side of his nature, the piety 
 which became his profession, and in spite of his strong 
 bent to a merry life, was never altogether absent from 
 his thoughts. The transition from humorous to religious 
 poetry has many examples in the history of English poetry, 
 of which it is only one of the most conspicuous that the 
 author of " John Gilpin " should have been also a writer of 
 hymns. 
 
 The other class of Dunbar's religious poems belongs 
 with more certainty to his later years. They are all 
 in one manner, and without them we should have 
 scarcely anything to represent the period from Flodden 
 to his death — the last seven years of his life, during which 
 it is unlikely one with Dunbar's gift of poetry would have 
 been silent, though it was likely that he should change the 
 object of his verse. To this class belongs a poem on the 
 Nativity, commencing " Rorate Celi desuper," ^ which has 
 been sometimes erroneously attributed to Chaucer, and 
 two others on the same theme ; ^ that on the Passion ; * that 
 on Lent, or the Forty Days in the Wilderness ; ^ that on 
 the Resurrection;^ and two poems in honour of the Virgin.^ 
 
 1 P. 174. 2 72. 3 pp_ 322, 324. 4 239. 
 
 ^ P. 280. 6 p_ 7 pp_ 269, 272. 
 
Ixxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 DUNBAR'S PERSON AND CHARACTER. 
 
 Such is all which, whether from contemporary records 
 or his own poetry, we are able to glean of the life and 
 career of Dunbar. No portrait remains, or was probably 
 ever painted, of Scotland's first great maker. From some 
 allusions by Kennedy in the " Flyting " it is supposed he 
 was of short stature ; and we may conjecture, from his dis- 
 position and turn of mind, that he had quick observant 
 eyes and a mobile restless habit of body, as he sketches 
 himself in the " Dance in the Quenis Chalmer " : — 
 
 " On all the flwre thair was nane frackar." i 
 
 At a later date his health seems to have given way, 
 though, if the conjectures here adopted as to his birth and 
 death are correct, he must have lived at least to the age of 
 sixty. No chronicler thought it worth while to interrupt 
 the narrative of war and feuds to portray, alongside of 
 the king, the bishops, and nobles, the poet who began 
 the series of original Scottish authors. His predecessors, 
 whether in verse or prose, whether they wrote in Latin 
 or the vernacular, were narrators or translators merely, 
 though an occasional verse of Barbour or Wyntown, Blind 
 Harry or Henryson, suggests that in other times they 
 might have been original writers. Douglas, while selecting 
 Dunbar along with " Great Kennedie " and " Quintyn, 
 with ane huttock on his heid," for a place in the Palace of 
 Honour, conveys only the meagre information that Dun- 
 bar was "yet undeid" when that poem was written in 
 1 501 ; and Lyndsay, who as a youth must often have 
 seen him at Court, has recorded only his admiration for 
 
 1 P. 200. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxiii 
 
 the "language at large" of the author of "The Goldyn 
 Targe." 
 
 Dunbar, though these slight references show that he was 
 highly esteemed during his life, has had greater posthumous 
 than immediate fame. Lyndsay became more popular 
 amongst the people, Douglas amongst the learned. The 
 ' Wallace ' of Blind Harry and the ' Bruce ' of Barbour 
 appealed more directly to Scottish patriotism. But the 
 rarer genius of Dunbar has been disclosed by time. Un- 
 fortunately, it has been left to antiquarian research and 
 later criticism to endeavour to delineate his life and char- 
 acter. Some poets, the facts of whose lives have come 
 down to us in fragments, do not "abide our question," 
 and remain, like Shakespeare, all the greater in their 
 impersonality. Dunbar belongs to another class of poets 
 who are self-conscious, and express themselves in their 
 works. So, though his outward man must still remain 
 unknown to us, the inner man, his feelings, his thoughts, 
 his bearing towards the world in which he lived, and the 
 men with whom he came in contact, are not obscure. 
 
 It has been the endeavour of this Memoir to let Dunbar 
 as much as possible speak for himself. Like Burns, he 
 may be trusted in autobiography, which, though free from 
 the dangers of biography, has others of its own. He 
 was, like Burns, thoroughly honest, and neither conceals 
 weaknesses nor affects virtues. His character was, as 
 that of most men, the product of his nature and of the cir- 
 cumstances of time and place in which he lived. He was 
 not of the exceptional class who control circumstances, 
 shape their own course, and mould their lives by force of 
 will. His lot was, as regards his position in life, to be de- 
 pendent, poor, and fettered by vows with which conscience 
 
Ixxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 could not, though custom might, dispense. This lot fell 
 to a man with an observant eye, a reflective rather than an 
 active mind, with the imagination of a realist rather than 
 of an idealist, whose piercing glance penetrated but rarely 
 soared ; who had not the faculty of seeing and interpreting 
 splendid visions, but who could represent vividly all he 
 felt and saw. 
 
 The result was a humourist in the older meaning of that 
 word — a man of various moods, now grave, now gay ; some- 
 times anxious to please, more often prone to satirise, even 
 friends. But beneath the humourist in Dunbar there was 
 the moralist always, and at times the preacher. This was 
 less from his vocation than from his nature. It was a 
 relief in hard outward circumstances, but it was also the 
 instinct of his genius, to draw lessons from them for his 
 fellow-men and for himself. While his lively fancy was 
 ever ready to catch the passing moment, and, "shooting 
 folly as it flies," preserve its features in a line, a verse, a 
 ballad, his deeper and more permanent character impresses 
 itself on his work, and is revealed when we regard it as a 
 whole. His poems are a mirror of the times in which he 
 lived, and he is himself reflected in the lines — 
 
 " Sum man, musand with the wa, 
 Luikis as he mycht nocht do with a." ^ 
 
 A proud consciousness of his own powers, which the 
 result has justified, sustained him in his isolation : — 
 
 " And thocht that I, amang the laif, 
 Vnworthy be ane place to haue, 
 Or in thair nummer to be tald, 
 Als lang in mynd my wark sail hald ! 
 
 1 " Aganis the Solistaris in Court," p. 206. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxv 
 
 Als haill in everie circumstance, 
 In forme, in mater, and substance. 
 But wering, or consumptioun, 
 Roust, canker, or corruptioun, 
 As ony of thair werkis all, 
 Suppois that my rewarde be small ! " ^ 
 
 His countrymen no longer need repeat the line of 
 Langhorne — 
 
 " And Time still spares the Thistle and the Rose." 
 
 The fame of Dunbar has increased with the centuries, and 
 will continue to increase. His name is now securely 
 enrolled amongst the best of the early authors of Scotland, 
 and in the front ranks of the noble company of the Poets 
 of Britain. 
 
 ^ "Dunbar's Remonstrance to the King," p. 221. 
 
 e 
 
Ixxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE POEMS OF DUNBAR. 
 
 DIVISION OF THE POEMS INTO CLASSES. 
 
 The poems of Dunbar do not require any elaborate analysis 
 of their contents. With the exception of the allegorical 
 poems, of which " Beauty and the Prisoner," " The Goldyn 
 Targe," and "The Thistle and the Rose," are the best marked 
 specimens — although in others allegorical personages, the 
 Seven Deadly Sins, Heaviness, Langour, Reason, Dis- 
 cretion, and the like are introduced — their meaning, apart 
 from the use of obsolete words, explained in the Glossary, 
 is obvious. A prose version of Dunbar's verse would 
 resemble a poor sermon which dilutes the rich text. But 
 a survey of his poetry is necessary to show the com- 
 pass and limits of his genius, and will be given before an 
 attempt is made to estimate his relation to the Scottish 
 poets who preceded and followed him, and his position 
 amongst those who in other countries have secured per- 
 manent poetic fame. For he, too, is of the select few who, 
 by various routes, coming from distant countries, have 
 climbed to the summits of Parnassus. 
 
 The poetry of Dunbar, although the portion of it which 
 has been preserved is not large, naturally suggests a classi- 
 fication which proves how various were the styles and 
 subjects he essayed. As he succeeded in almost all, 
 though of some we have only one or two examples, this 
 certainly supports the hypothesis that many of his poems 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxvii 
 
 have been lost, it is to be feared now beyond recovery. 
 His poems may be divided into — 
 
 1. Allegorical Poems. 
 
 2. Narrative Poems or Tales. 
 
 3. Amatory or Love Poems. 
 
 4. Comic or Humorous Poems. 
 
 5. Laudatory Poems or Panegyrics. 
 
 6. Vituperative Poems or Invectives. 
 
 7. Precatory Poems or Petitions to the King or Queen. 
 
 8. Satirical Poems. 
 
 9. Moral Poems. 
 
 10. Religious Poems or Hymns. 
 They cover, therefore, the whole ground which Bannatyne 
 describes in the lines prefixed to his manuscript — 
 
 " The first concernis Godis glor and our salvatioun ; 
 The next are moral graces and als besyd it, 
 Ground on gude consale ; the thrid, I will not hyd it, 
 Are blyth and glad, maid for our consolatioun ; 
 The fierd, of luve and thair rycht reformatioun ; 
 The fyft are tailis and storeis weill descydit." 
 
 The above list might be reduced to eight, perhaps seven, 
 for the petitions or precatory poems are generally humor- 
 ous, and the humorous are separated by a narrow line 
 from the satirical and vituperative. Nor is it expected 
 that all will agree with the class in which particular poems 
 are here placed. Still, the petitions form so marked a 
 section that it seems better to regard them as a separate 
 class, along with the three poems on " Discretion in Ask- 
 ing," " Giving," and " Taking," in which he treats the phil- 
 osophy of the subject. The line, though narrow, is also 
 distinct, and probably corresponds to the period when they 
 were written, which separates his poems in which the 
 
Ixxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 humour is merely comic from those in which it passes 
 into all the moods of satire, from the gentlest irony to the 
 fiercest indignation or invective. 
 
 I. ALLEGORICAL POEMS. 
 
 The allegories of Dunbar are not, like "The Palace of 
 Honour" of his contemporary, Gavin Douglas, or "The 
 Faerie Queen " of Spenser, intricate or complex. Abstract 
 qualities are made to play the part of persons, and so con- 
 vey a moral lesson with more directness, but there is little 
 sustained allegory and no obscurity in the plot or scheme 
 "The of the poem. In "The Goldyn Targe," the subject is the 
 Targe ^' conflict of Beauty with the poet, or the person in whose 
 name the poet speaks. Reason protects him against the 
 first assaults of Beauty, and wards off the darts of her com- 
 panions by the golden shield. But the near presence of 
 the beloved blinds his eyes, and new allies of Beauty 
 coming to her aid — Dissimulation, Fair Calling, Cherishing, 
 and New Acquaintance — complete the capture of the poet 
 or the hero of his poem. It is characteristic of Dunbar's 
 reflective and melancholy vein that before the dream (for 
 the allegory appears in a dream) melts, the captive has 
 been visited by Danger, who consigns him to the custody 
 of Heaviness and Grief. Love was not to him the spring 
 of life and hope, but of despondency. Its victory was the 
 defeat of Reason. As if to save the poem from ending 
 with this sad note, Dunbar, like a true artist, adds a stanza 
 on the beauty of the landscape when he woke from his 
 dream — 
 
 "Throu Naturis nobil fresch anamalyng, 
 
 In mirthfull May, of ewiry moneth Quene ; " 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxix 
 
 and an encomium on his English masters, Chaucer, Gower, 
 and Lydgate. This passage marks the reverence of Chaucer 
 which he shared with all English poets — 
 
 " As in oure tong ane flour imperiall, 
 
 That raise in Britane ewir, quho redis rycht, 
 Thou beris of makaris the tryumph riall ; " 
 
 the recognition of the common language in which they 
 wrote — 
 
 " Was thou noucht of oure Inglisch all the lycht ; " 
 
 but also the less fortunate admiration for the new and 
 less natural beauties with which the "sugurit lippis and 
 tongis aureate" of Gower and Lydgate had over-gilt the 
 simpler speech of Chaucer. Dunbar modestly thought 
 his own poem free from all the " lusty roses of rhetoric " 
 which he praised. The taste of modern times will not 
 admit this, and finds many of the phrases and parts of 
 the allegory exaggerated, — for modern poetry, as a 
 rule, abstains from allegory, which its readers do not easily 
 appreciate, and prefers a simple to an ornate style of 
 language. 
 
 Another variation on the same theme, the short poem of 
 "Beauty and the Prisoner," ends more happily, for the "Beauty 
 prisoner is delivered from the dung-eon in the Castle of !f ^ 
 
 * ^ Prisoner. 
 
 Penance by " Matremony, that nobill king," who unites 
 Beauty to the prisoner. Perhaps this poem glances at the 
 deliverance of James IV. from the illegitimate connections 
 of his youth by his marriage with Margaret Tudor. If so, 
 the allusions are possibly on purpose not explicit. What- 
 ever may be its true interpretation, this is one of the few 
 compositions of Dunbar which may be deemed somewhat 
 obscure. Notwithstanding its obscurity, it appears to have 
 
Ixxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been a favourite with his contemporaries, for amongst the 
 popular songs given in the Hst in " The Complaint of Scot- 
 land " there is one — " Ladye, help your prisoner," — which 
 probably refers to it, although Mr Laing at one time con- 
 jectured it to have been a poem by Alexander Scott^ 
 
 Professor Schipper is disposed to date " The Goldyn 
 Targe " and " Beauty and the Prisoner " somewhat later in 
 Dunbar's life than the period before the marriage of the 
 king, and, though with some hesitation, to suppose they 
 may relate to the poet's personal history. Certainty on 
 this point is unattainable. The poems themselves bear no 
 internal evidence, either by contents or style, to the time 
 of their composition. But they are unlike his other poems 
 of a personal kind, and most nearly resemble " The Thistle 
 and the Rose," which was written to celebrate the royal 
 marriage. "The Goldyn Targe" was certainly composed 
 before 1 508, when it was printed by Chepman and Myllar. 
 It appears, on the whole, most probable that these allegori- 
 cal poems all belong to the same period, and were veiled 
 in allegory for the sake of the king, who might be thus in- 
 structed and warned without being too plainly made their 
 subject. 
 
 " The Thistle and the Rose " takes its leading allegory 
 from Heraldry, then in its prime. It celebrates the union 
 of the Scottish Thistle with the red and white Rose of 
 England, in whose veins flowed the blood of York and 
 Lancaster, and proclaims its superiority above the Lily of 
 France. It is not known when the thistle was first chosen 
 as the meet symbol for the wild country and poor soil 
 whose natives proved they could protect its independ- 
 
 1 "The Complaint of Scotland," Early English Text Society,— J. H. A. 
 Murray's Preface, p. Ixxxiii; Laing's edition of Scott, p. x. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi 
 
 ence. It has sometimes been supposed that its use 
 originated in this poem, which is one of the earliest notices 
 of the thistle.^ But its adoption as the badge of Scotland 
 must have been of an earlier date. Amongst the " jowellis 
 and uther stuff pertaining to umquhile oure souirane lordis 
 fadir " that came into the hands of James IV. at his father's 
 death in 1488, was " a covering of variand purper tartar 
 brozvdin with thrisselis and a unicornr ^ The ratification 
 by James of his contract of marriage with Margaret on 
 17th December 1502, has on its wide margin "a splendid 
 border of roses, thistles, and marguerites intertwined. In 
 a square compartment azure are the Scottish royal arms 
 and crown, supported by two unicorns argent, collared and 
 chained, horned and unguled or, standing on a mount vert, 
 with the Scottish thistle flowered ppr. growing on it. Fur- 
 ther down the margin are the letters I. and M. in gold, 
 entwined with a love-knot, beneath a jewelled crown." ^ 
 
 If Dunbar was, as there is reason to believe, connected 
 with the secretary's office, through which this and other 
 documents with a similar device must have passed, he 
 would be familiar with, and may have borrowed this part 
 of his allegory from it. We have seen, too, that the thistle 
 and the rose were interlaced beneath the crown on the 
 painted windows of Holyrood when the young bride was 
 received there. 
 
 ^ The portrait of James IV. in Waldegrave's edition of the Scots Acts, 1497, 
 and in Johnston's 'Icones Regum Familise Stuartorum,' Amstelodami, 1602, is 
 marked by the thistle in his hand and the iron belt round his waist'; but I have 
 not been able to discover, in spite of much kind aid, the authority for this portrait. 
 The thistle appears in the arms of Scotland in Sir D. Lyndsay's Heraldic 
 MS. in the Advocates' Library and in the frontispiece of Bellenden's Boece 
 in the reign of James V. 
 
 2 Inventory printed in Tytler's ' History of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 373. 
 
 3 'Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland,' vol. iv. p. 340. 
 
Ixxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The poet does not confine his allegory to the heraldic 
 suggestion, and proceeds to amplify and interpret. The 
 king is compared with the Lion, the king of beasts, the 
 Eagle, the king of birds, as well as with the Thistle, whose 
 bush of spears is crowned with rubies. In the two former 
 characters he is exhorted to dispense the law with equal 
 hand to the commons and the nobles, the poor and the 
 rich ; while in the third he is counselled to be faithful to 
 the Rose, and not to stray after the beauty of any other 
 flower, whether of the garden or the wild. The garland of 
 verse thus intertwines the royal and the domestic virtues. 
 
 The allegories of Dunbar are supposed by Mr Laing 
 to have been suggested by the masques or pageants so 
 much in fashion in the middle ages, which continued in 
 more and more elaborate form until they culminated in those 
 of which Ben Jonson was the poet and Inigo Jones the de- 
 signer in the reign of James I. of England. They then gave 
 way to or were absorbed in the nobler creations of the Shake- 
 spearian drama. Such masques were well known in Scot- 
 land in the time of James IV. Margaret Tudor was greeted 
 with one on her first coming to Edinburgh. Dunbar has 
 himself described another in the poem on her entry into 
 " The Aberdeen. The " Interlud of the Droichis part of the 
 parTof the ^^^y^ ' ^ usually ascribed to him, is the detached portion of 
 Play." a composition more resembling a masque than a play in 
 the modern sense. It is possible that Dunbar himself may 
 have acted as well as written the part of the Dwarf. The 
 references in the " Flyting " to his low stature favour this 
 suggestion. There would be nothing in the manners of an 
 age which permitted the poet, though an ecclesiastic, to 
 
 1 A fuller examination of the poem is made in Appendix V., in the note on 
 James IV. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxxiii 
 
 dance in the queen's chamber, which would have forbidden 
 his assuming the role of an actor. The most constant per- 
 formers in the early masques and plays were the choristers 
 of the king's chapel at Stirling or Linlithgow. Sir David 
 Lyndsay's " Satire of the Three Estates " was a series of in- 
 terludes loosely combined to make a play. But few pieces 
 have come down to our time more interesting, as showing 
 the transition from the Morality through the Interlude and 
 Masque to the Drama, than this fragmentary poem of 
 Dunbar. In Scotland the Calvinistic and Puritan character 
 of the Reformation prevented the development of the native 
 drama, which never passed beyond the stage of Lyndsay's 
 plays. 
 
 Professor Schipper ^ advances an opposite theory to that 
 of Laing. " The masques," he says, " were developed from 
 allegorical poetry, and if, in course of time, the reverse 
 might well happen, this is not to be accepted in the case of 
 a poem " (" Beauty and the Prisoner ") " whose tone is rather 
 lyrical than descriptive." Without entering on the vexed 
 question of the priority of origin of the masque and the 
 allegory, it seems at least certain that the frequency of 
 acted masques made it easier for a poet to introduce alle- 
 gorical characters which would be at once understood, 
 and not deemed, as they would be now, far-fetched and 
 artificial. 
 
 The characters, which are called by the names of abstract 
 qualities, appealed to the recollection of those who had seen 
 the same or like qualities represented by actual persons on 
 the scaffolding or the stage, in the procession or the show. 
 The goodly company which attended on "suete woman- 
 hede " in The Goldyn Targe " — 
 
 ^ Schipper, p. i86. 
 
Ixxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Nurture and Lawlynes, 
 Contenence, Pacience, Gude Fame and Stedfastnes, 
 
 Discretioun, Gentrise, and Considerance, 
 Leuefell Company, and Honest Besynes, 
 
 Benigne Luke, Mylde Chere, and Sobirnes," ^ — 
 
 required no description, scarcely even an epithet, but at 
 once appeared before the mental vision of his contem- 
 poraries. This aid to their interpretation they have now 
 lost. But, after all, every poem has a special meaning 
 to the generation for which it is written. Its vitality is 
 proved when it has a meaning also for succeeding gen- 
 erations. 
 
 II. NARRATIVE POEMS OR TALES. 
 
 The narrative poems or tales of Dunbar are limited to 
 one of certain authorship, " The Tua Mariit Wemen and 
 "The the Wedo," and another of uncertain, "The Freiris of 
 Berwik°^ Berwik." The latter was first attributed to Dunbar by 
 Pinkerton, whose view was followed by Ellis. Mr Laing, 
 though he declines to give a decided opinion, thinks the 
 poem must have been written not later than the minority 
 of James V., and observes that " Pinkerton's opinion has 
 been so far sanctioned by succeeding critics, that the poem 
 is almost uniformly quoted as the work of Dunbar." Pro- 
 fessor Schipper has, however, made no reference to it in his 
 exhaustive work, and apparently treats it as not by Dunbar.^ 
 It is anonymous in both the Bannatyne and Maitland MSS. 
 It was printed at least as early as 1603 t>y Robert Char- 
 teris, in the volume, * Sindrie other Delectabil Discoursis,' 
 but no copy is known, although 500 copies existed when 
 his will was proved ; and only one copy exists of the 
 
 1 P. 6, 11. 163-167. 2 See ' Altenglische Metrik,' p. 520. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxxv 
 
 edition printed at Aberdeen by Edward Raban for David 
 Melville in 1622.^ Allan Ramsay closely followed it in his 
 tale of " The Monk and the Miller's Wife." 
 
 There would be nothing remarkable in such a work like 
 the " Priests of Peblis," an inferior poem of about the 
 same date, being anonymous. Bold as many of Dunbar's 
 poems are in their attacks upon the clerical order, there 
 is none, if we except the " Dirge " on the Observantine 
 Franciscans of Stirling, so directly pointed at particular 
 religious houses in a named place as this is at the 
 Black or Jacobyne, and still more strongly against the 
 Grey or Franciscan " Freiris of Berwik." That the latter 
 should be the main butt of the satire is an argument in 
 favour of Dunbar's authorship. The author, whoever he 
 was, would think it prudent to conceal his name. Nor is 
 there anything in the tale, which is the common topic of 
 the time — a wife deceiving her husband and caught by her 
 own trick — that might not have been written by the author 
 of " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo." The clear- 
 ness of the description and the ease of versification, though 
 extravagantly compared to Chaucer's, certainly prove it to 
 have been the work of a good master in this style. There 
 is only one other poem by Dunbar in rhymed couplets — the 
 short poem " In Praise of Women " ; but it cannot be said 
 that this tells against his authorship, so skilful was he in 
 using and so fond of trying new metres. It must be deemed 
 also of some weight that there is no known poet of the 
 period to whom it can be ascribed with so much likelihood. 
 Dunbar had been at Berwick, and, by his own confession, 
 knew what could be done under the cloak of the Franciscan 
 garb as a novice : — 
 
 ^ Laing's Notes, p. 379. Edmond's 'Aberdeen Printers,' sub anno 1622. 
 
Ixxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Wedo." 
 
 " From Berwick to Kalice 
 I haif in to thy habeit maid gud cheir. 
 
 In freirs weid full fairly haif I fleichit. 
 
 Als lang as I did beir the freiris style, 
 
 In me, God wait, wes mony wrink and wyle." ^ 
 
 Without venturing to afifirm it, there seems no impro- 
 bability that the same bold hand which wrote " The Visita- 
 tion of St Francis " should have written " The Freiris of 
 Berwik." 2 
 
 "TheTua "The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," which is 
 Wemen certainly by Dunbar, is sufficient proof that he could, 
 and the when he chose, follow Chaucer, as Chaucer followed the 
 writers of the French Lais and the Italian Novels in the 
 art, seemingly easy yet really difficult, of telling a simple 
 story with simple words so as to maintain the attention of 
 readers. What made easier at least a style of poetry 
 which, when tried as it has been by modern poets, always 
 savours of an imitation, was that telling stories or tales in 
 prose or verse was a common custom of the times before 
 printing. " It was the usage in Normandy," says Jean le 
 Chapelain, " that one who received lodging should tell a 
 fable or sing a song to his host." So Dunbar himself 
 includes in the motley group of the hangers-on at the 
 Court of James IV. some who tell stories." But even in 
 the middle ages there were degrees of skill in the art 
 of which Boccaccio and Chaucer are the great masters. 
 There were professional as well as amateur story-tellers. 
 
 1 P. 132. 
 
 2 Mr Skelton, I am glad to observe, concurs in this view. " ' The Friars of 
 Berwick,' an admirably spirited and briUiantly dramatic poem, which I beUeve 
 could have been written by no one except Dunbar." — ' Maitland of Lethington,' 
 vol. i. p. 114. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxxvii 
 
 Dunbar has been deemed worthy of a high place amongst 
 the former by good judges, even if this poem is the single 
 specimen of his power. Its theme is matrimony ; and the 
 discourse of the free-living and coarse-thinking women who 
 tell in succession their experiences, startles and shocks a 
 modern reader by its indecency and immorality. The 
 poet, indeed, intends to convey the moral with which he 
 ends, that none of them was worthy to be a wife. But all 
 had been ; and the widow, like the Wife of Bath in 
 Chaucer's tale, after which and earlier tales this poem is 
 in part modelled, had buried more than one husband. It is 
 vain to deny that their conversation represents a corrupt 
 condition of society and a special depravity in the sex, 
 which in better times maintains the standard of purity. 
 We are tempted to ask whether the picture is not a carica- 
 ture even of the time in which it was written. Like most 
 satire, it is highly coloured ; but Dunbar lived in a Court 
 which was very far from being an example of virtue in the 
 relations of the sexes. Even the clergy, who should have 
 denounced such abuses by their lives as well as by their 
 preaching, from the Pope in the Vatican to the begging 
 friars who found too easy an entry into every home, are 
 admitted by the candid Romanist to have been often 
 grossly immoral. Those who condemn the freedom of the 
 satire should recollect that it bore its part in curing the 
 moral disease it represented in such plain and ugly colours. 
 The Reformation which so soon followed was a reform in 
 morals as well as in doctrine. 
 
 This poem was one of Dunbar's early works, as he him- 
 self indicates at its close : — 
 
 " 5^ Auditoris, most honorable, that eris has gevin 
 Onto this vncouth aventur, quhilk airly me happinnitj 
 
Ixxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Of ther thre wantoun wiffis, that I haif writtin heir, 
 Quhilk wald 3e vvaill to 3our vvif, gif suld wed one ? " 
 
 It is remarkable as his only long poem, and also his only 
 poem in which he has throughout followed the alliterative 
 sy'stem of the older poetry. Professor Schipper/ in order 
 to find a parallel to the elaborateness of its alliteration, 
 which, not content with pursuing the same letter through 
 one, (Iften continues it through a second or more verses, 
 has to go back to the " Mort Arthur," ^ a work of the last 
 half of thi fourteenth century. He notes in both poems 
 the heaping or accumulation of alliteration through many 
 verses, the occurrence of lines without alliteration but with 
 a word which carries it on from the preceding or into the 
 following line, and of lines in which the alliterative syllable 
 is not accentuated. Both poems are in the Northern Eng- 
 lish or Old Scottish form of aUiteration, which maintained 
 in its verse as in its dialect more of the archaic style 
 common to Anglo-Saxon, 01& German, and Scandinavian 
 poetry longer than the Southern English, which from the 
 time of Chaucer became the classical dialect of England. 
 That poet seldom uses alliteration. As contrasted with 
 the North Country " famed for song," the South preferred 
 rhyme, or even plain prose. Chaucer's Parson says in the 
 Prologue to his Tale : — 
 
 " But trosteth wel I am a sothern man, 
 r cannot geste rom ram ruf by my letter, 
 And God wpte rime hold I but litel bettir. 
 And therefore if you list I wil not glose — 
 
 1 wil you tel a litel tale in prose." ^ 
 
 With Dunbar's " Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo " 
 
 ^ ' Altenglische Metrik,'pp. 196, 209. 
 
 2 Early English Text Society, No. 8. 
 
 ^ 'Canterbury Tales,' Moxon's edition, p. 147. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ixxxix 
 
 the use of strict alliteration also disappeared from Scottish 
 poetry, though he employs it in combination with rhyme 
 in the " Flyting," the " Ballad of Kynd Kittok," and in 
 several other poems. Traces of it are still to be found in 
 the Prologues to Gavin Douglas's "^Eneid," Montgomery's 
 " Cherrie and the Slae," and in other poems of the sixteenth 
 century. The poets of later centuries have not resisted 
 the occasional use of " apt alliteration's artful aid " ; but 
 this is something quite distinct from its use as a system of 
 versification subject to fixed rules. 
 
 That Dunbar should have preferred rhyme, and the varied 
 forms of rhymed verse used by the French and English 
 writers of the Renaissance, marks him as a poet of a more 
 modern school than most of his predecessors. Allitera- 
 tion was even with him a recurrence to, and imitation 
 of, an older type. The masters of rhythm in all periods 
 have been fond of experiments in archaic or foreign forms. 
 Rhyme itself is perhaps a development of alliteration, 
 transferring the recurrence of similar sounds from the be- 
 ginning or middle of the verse or line to its close. In 
 Dunbar's poems, many of which have intermediate as well 
 as final rhymes, we detect this development in the process 
 of growth. Nor does it affect this observation if, as is 
 probable, he may have been indebted to the examples of 
 the use of rhyme to be found in medieval Latin poetry. 
 
 III. AMATORY OR LOVE POEMS. 
 
 The amatory poems of Dunbar form a small part of his 
 known writings. It might be thought that one who had 
 served a novitiate as a friar and became a priest was little 
 likely to write love-poems, and that one of the chief, if not 
 
xc 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the chief, source of poetry was out of his reach. Yet this 
 was not altogether the case, according to the manners of 
 the time. He had renounced the vocation of a friar, and 
 as a secular priest without a cure, although he occasionally- 
 said mass, he occupied during most of his life a position 
 similar to the French abbe of the eighteenth century, who 
 took his share in all the pursuits and amusements of the 
 Court. Still the irrevocable vows had been taken, and 
 human love could not be to him what it was to the lay- 
 man, a path of honour which led to happiness. He knew 
 well how to describe its virtue : — 
 
 " Lufe ^ is causs of honour ay, 
 Luve makis cowardis manheid to purchass, 
 Luve makis knychtis hardy at assey, 
 Luve makis wrechis full of largeness, 
 Luve makis sueir folkis full of bissiness, 
 Luve makis sluggirdis fresche and weill besene, 
 Luve changis vyce in vertewis nobilness." ^ 
 
 But his personal experience was of its bitter, not of its 
 sweet, — at first of a passion which was not and could not 
 be rightfully returned, and finally, as one which should be 
 renounced for the divine love : — 
 
 " Than said the merle, * Myn errour I confess ; 
 
 All lufe is lost bot vpone God allone.' " 
 
 The conjecture that there was any real affection on his 
 part for Mrs Musgrave, an English lady of the queen's 
 suite, rests solely on the line in the " Dance in the Quenis 
 Chalmer" — 
 
 For luff of Mwsgraeffe, men tellis me." 
 
 ^ Love is spelt in three ways by Dunbar — " lufe," "luve," and " luff," — a 
 characteristic example of the uncertainty of the art of spelling before printing. 
 'P. 177. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xci 
 
 But the comic exaggeration of that poem, as well as the 
 coarseness of some of its expressions, render it impossible 
 that it can have been the medium for declaring a true 
 passion. . It is only a courtier's homage of admiration for 
 one of the beauties of the Court circle. 
 
 The two poems ^ which really are love-poems are in a '«Toa 
 very different strain, acting on the maxim of a poem attrib- ^j^^^^f'-^^ 
 uted to him.^ They do not name the lady to whom they a Ladye 
 
 , , , quhone he 
 
 are addressed : — 2^^^. 
 
 " Gif 3e wald lufe and luvit be, feyne. 
 In mynd kelp weill thir thingis thre, 
 And sadly in thy breist imprent ; 
 Be secreit, trew, and pacient." 
 
 This is so similar in tone to one of his acknowledged 
 poems,^ as to leave little doubt as to its authorship. In the 
 latter he repeats the same counsel, with a personal note : — 
 
 " Be of 3our lufe no prechour as a freir, 
 Be secreit, trew, incressing of 3our name." 
 
 These genuine love-poems speak of a love which was not 
 requited, by a lady ^ in whose garden were fresh flowers of 
 every hue, only no " rew," — who was merciless and without 
 womanly pity, yet whom Dunbar, in spite of all, would re- 
 member till death, but from whom he takes a sorrowful 
 farewell : — 
 
 " And quhill my mynd may think, and towng may steir ; 
 And syne. Fair weill, my hartis Ladle deir ! " ^ 
 
 The former poem is somewhat artificial, but the latter is 
 in the language of the heart. They are evidently written 
 to the same person, and about the same time ; and though, 
 
 1 "To a Ladye," p. 223, and "To a Ladye quhone he list to feyne," p. 245. 
 
 2 P. 312. 3 i52. 4 223. 5 P. 246. 
 
 / 
 
xcii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 following the usual view, they have been placed in the 
 list of his poems after 1503, it is not impossible they be- 
 long to an earlier period. This incident in his life being 
 past of which we know so little that we cannot be sure that 
 what has been just said may not be too much, all Dunbar's 
 references to love are those of a moralist or a religious poet. 
 In the poem with the refrain — 
 
 " Now cumis aige quhair ^ewth hes bene, 
 And trew luve rysis fro the splene ; " ^ 
 
 he writes : — 
 
 " I half experience by my sell ; 
 In luvis court anis did I dwell, 
 Bot quhair I of a joy cowth tell, 
 I culd of truble tell fyftene. 
 
 Befoir quhair I durst nocht for schame 
 My lufe discure, nor tell hir name ; 
 Now think I wirschep wer and fame, 
 To all the warld that it war sene." 
 
 The true love is, as in " The Merle and the Nichtingale," 
 the love of God. 
 
 So in another of the poems, with good reason attributed 
 to him — 
 
 " Fane w^ald I luve, bot quhair abowt ? " 2 
 he concludes with the counsel : — 
 
 " Bot quha perfytly wald imprent, 
 Sowld fynd his luve moist permanent, 
 
 Luve God, thy prince, and freind, all thre ; 
 Treit weill thy self, and stand content, 
 And latt all vthir luvaris be." 
 
 If in "The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," and 
 the "Ballate against evil Women," ^ he had exposed the 
 1 P. 179. 2 P. 308. 3 p. 266. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xciii 
 
 weakness and wickedness to which the sex may fall, he 
 
 makes amends in the poem "In Prays of Woman," ^ in "in Prays 
 
 which he strikes a note at once human and religious : — men^" 
 
 Now of wemen this I say for me, 
 Off erthly thingis nane may bettir be ; 
 They suld half wirschep and grit honoring 
 Off men, aboif all vthir erthly thing ; " 
 
 for we are all come of women (such is his brief argument), 
 and Christ Himself was the son of Mary. 
 
 IV. COMIC OR HUMOROUS POEMS. 
 
 The merely comic or humorous poems form a large and 
 important class of Dunbar's works. It contains some poems 
 — "The Wowing of the King quhen he wes in Dunferme- "The 
 ling," "Ane Brash of Wowing," "The Twa Cummeris," the YT'"^""" 
 
 ^' ' the King," 
 
 verses "To the Queue" on her courtiers, and the "Dance "Ane 
 in the Quenis Chalmer" — which cannot be reconciled with lowing," 
 the modern sense of what is becoming. Opinions will differ ''The 
 whether such subjects as they treat with the utmost freedom meris." 
 can be treated without danger to morality. 
 
 Yet, with the exception of the first and last of these, in 
 which it would be difficult to suppose any motive other 
 than to provoke loud and coarse laughter, the verdict of 
 Professor Schipper on one of them may be accepted : 
 "Without doubt, Dunbar had the best intention in these 
 verses, and certainly does not deserve on their account the 
 reproach of immorality. The poem is no more than an 
 illustration, drawn with firm pencil-strokes, of the rude 
 manner and modes of speech of a society which, in spite 
 of the beginning of the refinement of the Renaissance, was 
 
 1 P. 170. 
 
xciv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Still, even in the highest classes, quite unpolished."^ It 
 may be doubted whether the Renaissance itself, by the 
 revived study of the Greek and Roman classics, did not 
 retard instead of furthering the progress of refinement in 
 morals, and that part of manners which relates to morals. 
 Two other poems of the humorous kind, " The Ballad of 
 Kynd Kittok " and " The Dirge," have been censured for 
 a somewhat different reason, that they deal too freely with 
 religious names and subjects, bringing them into irreverent 
 and dangerous proximity with ludicrous ideas. The same 
 criticism is applicable to "The Testament of Mr Andro 
 Kennedy," and isolated passages in other poems. Against 
 this charge it is impossible wholly to defend Dunbar, though 
 many examples of a similar kind might be cited from other 
 poets. Probably his own contemporaries would not have 
 seen anything to blame in this freedom, which was, perhaps, 
 taken more by monkish and clerical writers than by others. 
 But its use has not been confined to any one class. It is, 
 in truth, due to the near connection, in spite of or because 
 of, their contrast between the solemn and the ludicrous. 
 "The "The Ballad of Kynd Kittok"^ is amongst the pieces 
 Ballad of pointed by Chepman and Myllar in 1508, but as Dunbar's 
 
 Kynd 
 
 Kittok." name is not attached to it, we cannot be quite sure that he 
 is the author. If he is, it is certainly one of his early works, 
 and the reference to Falkland Fells points to a date when the 
 king was there, perhaps to August and September 1495.^ 
 The humour of the piece is directed against some then 
 
 ^ Schipper, p. 191. 
 
 2 * ' Kynd Kittok's adventures in heaven is an audacious conception, which no 
 later master of the grotesque — not Burns in ' Tam o' Shanter,' not Byron in 
 ' The Vision of Judgment,' not Goethe in the ' Faust ' Prologue — has contrived 
 to surpass." — Skelton, 'Maitland of Lethington, ' vol, i. p. 109. 
 
 3 ' Registrum Magni Sigilli,' Nos. 227 and 3. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xcv 
 
 well-known, now undiscoverable, person, a female taverner, 
 who is ironically reported to have "died of thirst, and made 
 a good end." She eluded St Peter, and got privily into 
 heaven, where she stayed seven years as Our Lady's hen- 
 wife " ; but in an evil hour, longing for fresh drink, as the ale 
 of heaven was sour, she went out, was refused readmittance 
 by St Peter, and returned to her own alehouse. The poet, 
 who had a liking for good ale, ends with the comic request — 
 
 " Frendis, I pray you hertfully, 
 Gif 3e be thristy or dry, 
 Drink with my Guddame, as 3e ga by, 
 Anys for my saik." 
 
 Perhaps there is a side hit here at the ale of Falkland, which 
 
 was not in good repute. Sir David Lyndsay, too, has a 
 
 jest at it : — 
 
 " Court men to cum to thee thay stand gret awe, 
 Sayand thy burgh bene, of all burrows, baill. 
 Because in thee they never gat gude aill." 
 
 The charter of erection of Falkland as a royal burgh in 
 1458 states in its preamble the resort of the lieges to the 
 Court, and the great inconvenience from the want of inn- 
 keepers. To remedy this, a series of small feus of tofts 
 and crofts were granted by the king, with a reddendo that 
 the feuars were to maintain so many horses and men — 
 *tam in esculentis potulentis et pabulis equorum quam, 
 in aliis necessariis." Like other systems of billeting, this 
 had apparently not proved successful. 
 
 "The Dirge" or "Dirige" is a parody on a part of the "The 
 funeral service of the Roman Church, in which the eighth -^^"^se. 
 verse of the Vulgate version of the fifth psalm, " Dirige, 
 dominus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam," is frequently 
 repeated. Hence is derived the English word dirge " for a 
 
xcvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 song of lamentation. Dunbar's poem is the reverse of a 
 lamentation. It is an exhortation to the king to come out 
 of purgatory, the convent of the Observantines at Stirling, 
 where he was staying too long, to the grief of his lords and 
 knights, and return to heaven, as Edinburgh, with its amuse- 
 ments and merry life, is not with the best taste called. 
 
 The poem must have been written between 1494, when 
 James founded this convent, and 1503, for it plainly belongs 
 to Dunbar's earliest period and the king's unmarried life. 
 Lord Hailes thought its style so irreverent that he did 
 not print it ; but Professor Schipper is nearer the mark of 
 historic truth when he observes : " The Franciscan monks 
 of Stirling, without doubt, received the poem with laughter 
 and loud applause, when the king communicated it to them 
 in the refectory." 
 
 It is remarkable even amongst the poems of Dunbar for 
 the subtle skill with which the poet handles a variety of 
 metres, passing from one to another as the subject varies, 
 as a musician from one chord to another of a familiar 
 instrument. 
 
 "The "The Testament of Maister Andro Kennedy" is a comic 
 
 of^Maister ^o^^P^^^^ name of a member of the family, with 
 
 Andro whom Dunbar seems to have been not on the best of terms. 
 Kennedy. ^^^^ ^-^^ Fly ting," Walter — though, by 
 
 an error, the Maitland and Reidpeth MSS. have substituted 
 his name — but Andrew, who appears in several entries in 
 the Treasurer's accounts in 1502 and 1503. From one of 
 these it appears he received on 8th September 1 503 a pay- 
 ■ ment of twenty shillings for carrying a relic of St Ninian 
 to the king at Wigtown. From some of the allusions in the 
 poem, Professor Schipper has made the ingenious conjecture 
 that Kennedy was one of the quack physicians of that day 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xcvii 
 
 who are satirised in a poem of Henryson/ and that the 
 relic was for the purpose of curing the king in some 
 illness. It is more likely, so far as the relic is concerned, 
 that it was taken for the purpose of being presented to the 
 shrine of the saint at Whithorn. The traits of character 
 disclosed in the mock will are those of a drunken scapegrace 
 of the time, who might have followed any or no profession. 
 This poem has been called " macaronic," but is not a proper 
 specimen of that style, in which vernacular words are given 
 Latin terminations, as in Drummond's " Polemo-Middinia." 
 It is written in the vernacular, but with lines or words of 
 familiar medieval Latin intermixed, as was common in 
 many poems of the middle ages. It is found in the 
 Coventry Mysteries, and even in early Anglo-Saxon verse, 
 as the conclusion of " The Phoenix." But it became still 
 more common at a time when Latin was yielding to the 
 native dialects as the spoken language of the learned, 
 many of whom now knew their Latin badly, like Master 
 John Clerk, who receives the malison of Kennedy for 
 writing " dentes sine de," — according to Lord Hailes, in a 
 prescription which Kennedy charges as being the cause of 
 his death — 
 
 " Ipse est causa mortis mee." 
 
 The gift to his cousin, William Gray, the Master of St 
 Antone, at Leith, of 
 
 " Omnia mea solatia, 
 That were but lesingis all et ane," 
 
 favours Professor Schipper's view that Andro Kennedy may 
 have been, after all, a quack doctor. 
 
 The poem was one of those Chepman and Myllar pub- 
 
 ^ Henryson's Poems, Laing's edition, p. 43, "Sum Practysis of Medcyne." 
 
xcviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lished, so must have been written before 1 508, and probably 
 is one of Dunbar's early works. 
 
 The form of a testament was common in satirical 
 poetry, owing to the brilliant use of it by Villon in his 
 " Lesser Testament" of 1456, and " Greater Testament" of 
 1 46 1. Villon, however, only improved on an earlier tradi- 
 tion.^ James VI., in his ' Treatis of Scottis Poesie,' treats 
 the testament as so usual a form as to recommend "for 
 tragicall matris, complantis, or testaments, this kynde of 
 verse following, called Troylus verse." 
 
 It gave the opportunity, under the pretence of friendly 
 legacies, of satirising the failings or vices of the legatees. 
 This seems specially to have commended it to Villon and 
 Dunbar, though it was sometimes employed without def- 
 inite satire, as in Henryson's " Testament of Cresseid," or 
 Lyndsay's " Testament of Squire Meldrum." In " Duncan 
 Laideus, alias Macgregour's Testament," preserved in the 
 blank leaves of the Breadalbane MS.^ of Sir Alexander 
 Hay's " Romance of Alexander," and written in the middle 
 of the sixteenth century, there are passages more nearly 
 resembling Dunbar's poem, and probably imitated from it. 
 
 One of the latest specimens of a poetic testament was the 
 "Last Will and Codicil of Robert Fergusson,"^ which is 
 humorous, but not satirical. 
 ''TheTwa The verses on "The Twa Cummeris," beginning 
 
 Cum- 
 
 n^eris." Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday," ^ 
 
 is a slighter sketch, but in a similar style to "The Tua 
 Mariit Wemen and the Wedo." It brings before us, like 
 
 ^ Saintsbury, * French Literature,' p. 79. 
 
 2 Innes, * Sketches of Early Scottish History,' p. 355 et seq. 
 
 ^ Fergusson's Works, p. 252. ^ P. 160. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xcix 
 
 one of the woodcuts of the Little Masters of Germany or 
 an interior by Teniers, two fat wives gossiping over the 
 fire, and drinking quarts of wine out of " ane choppyne 
 stowp," to ward off their dread of the Lenten fast. "Ane "Ane 
 Brash of Wowing " ^ is ascribed to Clerk in the Bannatyne lowing." 
 MS., but in the Maitland and Reidpeth MSS. to Dunbar, 
 and Mr Laing, though he would have wished, felt unable 
 to doubt its authorship. Professor Schipper compares it 
 to " The King's Wowing in Dumfermeling," and it doubtless 
 belongs to the same period. It is the coarsest of all his 
 works, and seems intended as a tour de force, bringing into 
 the bounds of verse and rhyme the most vulgar and un- 
 becoming words which the copious vocabulary of broad 
 Scots possessed. 
 
 The other comic or humorous pieces of Dunbar were 
 taken from actual scenes in the life of the Court, as 
 the "Dance in the Quenis Chalmer" and *'The Turna- 
 ment " or " Joustis between the Tailgour and the Sowtar," 
 or describe, in ludicrous hyperbolic style, persons like " Sir 
 Thomas Norray," the king's chief fool, or " The Black 
 Lady " with the thick lips, in whose honour a mock tourna- 
 ment was fought. The interlude of " The Droichis part 
 of the Play " was written expressly for representation. 
 
 Dunbar's description of the " Dance in the Quenis The 
 Chalmer " brings too plainly before us the sort of " high- q^^^^ 
 jinks " which diverted the upper circle of society in those Chalmer." 
 days, and leaves us astonished with the coarse humour 
 which passed for wit, and that such unseemly jokes should 
 have been thought worthy of being put into a poem. Like 
 the verses addressed to the queen, in which he chastises the 
 immorality of her courtiers, it is difficult from the subject 
 
 1 P. 247. 
 
the Sow 
 tar. 
 
 C INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and its mode of treatment to believe that it can have been 
 written until some years after her marriage. 
 "The "The Joustis of the Tailgour and the Sowtar" (or cob- 
 the TaU ^ bier) is in a somewhat similar though less coarse vein ; and 
 3ourand though represented as a vision of an encounter "in 
 presens of Mahoun," it may be a satirical account of an 
 actual occurrence, for on 24th October 1502 the Heralds 
 received " for their composition of the eschet of the barris 
 quhen Cristofer Tailyour fought, £6^ 13s. 4d." ^ This 
 poem is introduced in the Maitland MS. with the first and 
 last stanzas of " The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis," 
 but it belongs more properly to the humorous than the 
 satirical division of Dunbar's poetry. Its object was to 
 ridicule trades whose tricks were disliked by the poet, and 
 the practice of tournaments. The wits of the Renaissance 
 were in all countries engaged in a common warfare against 
 the ludicrous side of the medieval chivalry, whose ideal 
 and romantic aspects were passing away. Bishop Percy 
 indeed claims that the English had been the first to take 
 this line. " It does honour," he says, " to the good sense of 
 this nation, that while all Europe was captivated with the 
 bewitching charms of chivalry and romance, two of our 
 writers in the rudest times could see through the false glare 
 that surrounded them, and discover w^hatever was absurd 
 in them both. Chaucer wrote his ' Rhyme of Sir Topas ' 
 in ridicule of the latter; and in the ' Tournament of Tolten- 
 ham ' (a ballad written before 1456), we have a burlesque of 
 the former." ^ But if Chaucer struck the first stroke against 
 the follies of knight-errantry, the deathblow was delayed 
 
 1 Treasurer's Accounts, 24th October 1502. 
 
 2 Percy's Reliques, Bohn's ed., p. 254. See * Early Popular Poetry of Eng- 
 and, ' vol. iii. p, 82. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ci 
 
 for nearly two centuries, and Cervantes gave it in the coun- 
 try and language of the Cid. 
 
 Dunbar returned to the attack on the tailors and soutars 
 in the palinode which he entitled "The amendis made "The 
 be him to the Telgouris and Sowtaris for the Turnament ^^le 
 maid on thame."^ In this poem, under the pretence Teljouris 
 
 and Sow- 
 that an angel had revealed to him that they had been taris." 
 
 transferred to heaven for the miracles they wrought on 
 
 earth in repairing the faults of nature by their " craft 
 
 and grit agilitie," he ironically ends by declaring — 
 
 " In Hevin 3e salbe Sanctis full cleir, 
 Thocht 3e be knavis in this cuntre : 
 Tel3ouris and Sowtaris, blist be 3e." 
 
 In the verses "Of Sir Thomas Norray," we have a full- "Of Sir 
 length portrait of a court fool, drawn with a pen as sharp Norray." 
 as the pencil of Velasquez. Sir Thomas was the chief 
 amongst the many fools who amused James IV. and his 
 courtiers, and Dunbar takes up his defence against the 
 attack of a poet Quintyn ; but whether this is 
 *' Quintyne with ane huttock on his heid," ^ 
 who appears in the court of the minstrels in Douglas's 
 " Palace of Honour," or a Quintin Schaw mentioned in 
 several entries in the Treasurer's Accounts between 6th 
 April 1489 and 8th July 1504, or whether both may not be 
 the same person, is not certain.^ There seems little doubt 
 he is the same as 
 
 " My cousing Quintene and my commissar," 
 
 who was the second of Kennedy in his " Flyting " against 
 Dunbar. Quintyn had scoffed at Norray as only fit to be 
 
 ^ P. 127. 2 Laing's ' Memoir of Dunbar,' vol. i. p. 19. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 423, 424. 
 
Cll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the knave of Currie, a fool of a lower grade ; and Dunbar, 
 after describing his adventures, declares — 
 
 " I cry him Lord of everie fuill, 
 
 That in this regioun dwellis ; 
 And, verralie, that war gryt rycht : 
 For, of ane hy renowned knycht, 
 He wantis no thing bot bellis." 
 
 The fools of the middle ages were just beginning to dis- 
 appear with the state of society to which they belonged, 
 when they were immortalised by the genius of Shakespeare. 
 They had a somewhat prolonged existence in the remoter 
 parts of Europe, and in Wales and Scotland. The last 
 famous court fools in England were Archie Armstrong, 
 whom James I. brought with him from Scotland, and his 
 successor, Muckle John, in the time of Charles I. After 
 the Restoration the professional fool ceased to exist at the 
 English Court, and though a very few specimens lingered 
 in the private houses of nobles down to last, and one per- 
 haps on to the present century, the race was practically 
 extinct except in its survival, the clown of the pantomime 
 and the circus. 
 
 The blackamore lady seems to have been one of the 
 African girls captured in a Portuguese ship by one of the 
 Bartons, and presented to the king, who had them baptised, 
 under the names of Elen and Margaret, the king himself 
 putting nine shillings into the candle.^ A tournament was 
 held in June 1507 in honour of Elen More, or Black Elen, 
 and a Scottish champion, styling himself the Savage 
 Knight. The king himself sent a cartel or challenge in her 
 
 ^ Treasurer's Accounts, June 1507. This curious custom of putting coins into 
 the candle — "candela nummata" — offered at a christening, is explained in 
 Dickson's Preface to Treasurer's Accounts, p. cclxxvi. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ciii 
 
 honour to the Court of France.^ Sir Anthony d'Arcy de la 
 Bastie came in answer to this challenge, and was hospitably 
 entertained at the Scottish Court. The black lady, dressed 
 in damask silk, powdered with gold spangles, attended 
 by two damsels in green Flemish taffeta, was drawn in 
 a chariot through the mimic scene, and received by a 
 troop of wild men in goatskins, and with hart's horns.^ It 
 has been doubted whether Dunbar's verses refer to the 
 same sable beauty, because of the opening lines — 
 
 " Lang heff I maid of ladyes quhytt, 
 Now of ane blak I will indytt, 
 That landet furth of the last schippis " — 
 
 but this is probably no more than a poetic licence as to time. 
 It is very unlikely — though no doubt there were others of 
 her colour at the Scottish Court, as the Black Maiden who 
 waited on the queen in 1512^ — that there was any who 
 made such a sensation as Black Elen, nor would a tourna- 
 ment whose attraction lay in its novelty have been repeated. 
 Indeed the lines — 
 
 " Quhen scho is claid in reche apperrall, 
 Scho blinkis als brycht as ane tar barrel! ; 
 
 Ouhen scho was born, the sone tholit clippis, 
 The nycht he fain faucht in hir querrell : 
 My ladye with the mekle lippis " — 
 
 with those which follow, plainly allude to this mock tour- 
 nament, and we may detect a pun in " the [kjnycht " who 
 fought for her. Dunbar seized again an opportunity for 
 bringing tournaments into ridicule. 
 
 ^ This cartel is printed in Michel, ' Les Ecossais en France — Les Fran^ais en 
 Ecosse,' vol. i. p. 384, from 'La Science Heroique,' chap, xliii., p. 453-457. 
 See also *Le Vray Theatre d'Honneur,' chap. xx. 
 
 - Tytler's 'Scottish Worthies,' vol. iii. p. 331. 
 
 ^ Treasurer's Accounts, 2d December 15 12. 
 
civ 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 V. LAUDATORY POEMS OR PANEGYRICS. 
 
 The panegyric or laudatory style, which specially be- 
 fitted Dunbar's office of Court poet, was the least congenial 
 to a temperament whose tendency was towards comedy 
 and satire. But several examples of this style have been 
 In Praise preserved. The poem, " In Praise of London," was written 
 to be recited at the Christmas entertainment the Lord 
 Mayor, Sir John Shaw, gave to the Scottish ambassadors 
 who went to the English capital in 1501 to negotiate the 
 marriage between James IV. and Margaret Tudor. 
 
 The description, like the refrain — 
 
 " London, thou art the flour of Cities all," — 
 
 runs into generalities and superlatives expressed in the 
 artificial, manner of the age, as in the lines — 
 
 " Gemme of all joy, jasper of jocunditie, 
 
 Most myghty carbuncle of vertue and valour ; 
 Strong Troy in vigour and in strenuytie ; 
 Of royall cities rose and geraflour," — 
 
 where the attempt at alliteration not consistently main- 
 tained mars the verse, and introduces far-fetched metaphors. 
 We wish there had been more local colour, as in the 
 " Satire on Edinburgh," to preserve for us Old London of 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century, and less of mythical 
 history. Still there are some touches worth recalling. The 
 reference to Troy — 
 
 " Gladdith anon thou lusty Troynovaunt, 
 
 Citie that some tyme cleped v^as New Troy," — 
 
 is an allusion to the fable of Geoffrey of Monmouth to which 
 Stowe refers in his Survey: " As the Roman writers, to glorify 
 the city of Rome, derive the original thereof from gods and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CV 
 
 demigods by the Trojan progeny, so Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth, the Welsh historian, deduceth the foundation of 
 this famous city of London, for the greater glory thereof, 
 and exaltation of Rome, from the very same original. For 
 he reporteth that Brutus, descended from the demigod 
 iEneas, the son of Venus, daughter of Jupiter, about the 
 year of the world 2855 and 11 08 before the nativity of 
 Christ, built this city near the river now called Thames, 
 and named it Troynovaunt." 
 
 The great river was then, as now, its chief glory, but 
 very different then from now : — 
 
 " Under thy lusty wallys renneth down, 
 
 Where many a swanne doth swymme with wyngis fare ; 
 Where many a barge doth saile, and rowe with are." 
 
 John Major, the Scottish historian, who visited London a 
 little later than Dunbar, was also struck with the swans of 
 the Thames. "There are three or four thousand tame 
 swans on it," he says, adding with characteristic caution : 
 " But although I have seen many swans there, I did not 
 count them. I report what I heard." The shipping he 
 describes almost in Dunbar's words : " There you will see 
 ships in abundance which they call barges, going up to 
 London and down to the sea-port, not drawn by horses as 
 on the Seine, but either by the wind or by the flow and 
 ebb of the tide." ^ London Bridge excited the admiration 
 both of the poet and the historian. "The town," Major 
 notes, " is honoured by a most beautiful bridge, on which 
 there are most ornamental houses and a church ; " and 
 Dunbar — 
 
 " Upon thy lusty Brigge of pylers white 
 
 Been merchauntis full royall to behold." 
 
 ^ Major, 'Historia Majoris Britannise,' p. i6. 
 
cvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Stowe gives many details as to this bridge, which re- 
 placed an older wooden fabric. "The work, to wit, the 
 arches, chapel, and stone bridge, having been thirty-three 
 years in building, was in the year 1209 finished by the 
 worthy merchants of London, Serle Mercer, William 
 Almaine, and Benedict Botewrite. After the finishing of 
 the bridge, which was the first building upon these arches, 
 sundry houses at times were erected ; " and he concludes : 
 " I affirm that it is a work very rare, having, with the draw- 
 bridge, twenty arches made of squared stone, of height 60 
 feet and in breadth 30 feet, distant from one another 20 
 feet ; upon both sides were houses built, so that it seemeth 
 rather a continued street than a bridge." ^ 
 
 The Tower, alleged to be founded by Julius Csesar, the 
 strong walls, the churches with well-sounding bells, the 
 rich merchants, their comely wives and fair daughters, and 
 above all — 
 
 " Thy famous Maire, by pryncely governaunce, 
 With swerd of justice, the rulith prudently. 
 No Lord of Parys, Venyce, or Floraunce 
 In dignytie or honoure goeth to hym nye," — 
 
 complete Dunbar's picture of London. 
 
 The choice of Venice and Florence as well as Paris for 
 this comparison supports the conjecture that he had visited 
 Italy, and seen its marvels of art and architecture. It is 
 characteristic of what is both a strength and weakness in 
 Dunbar's poetry, that he does not hesitate to apply the 
 same epithet " lusty," in the sense of beautiful, not strong, 
 to London itself, its ladies, its walls, and its bridge. A 
 wealth of nouns and a poverty of adjectives, at least of the 
 laudatory kind, is a mark of his vigorous style. 
 
 1 Stowe's Survey, pp. lo, ii. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cvii 
 
 The laudatory and complimentary poems in honour of Poems 
 the queen lead us through the different stages of the first 
 part of her checkered life. Queen. 
 " Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre," ^ 
 
 was written to welcome her to Scotland, and probably sung 
 at the banquet given at Holyrood on the wedding-day, 8th 
 August 1503. 
 
 The one commencing — 
 
 " Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis regioun," 
 from the allusion in the lines — 
 
 " Gret Code ws graunt that we have long desirit, 
 A plaunt to spring of thi successioun," — 
 
 seems to have been written some years after — probably, but 
 not certainly, before 21st February 1506, when her first 
 child was born.^ This boy died when little more than a 
 year old, at Stirling, on 17th February 1507; her next 
 child, a girl, died soon after her christening in 1508; and a 
 third, Arthur, born at Holyrood in the autumn of 1509, 
 died in July 15 11. So it is possible that it was written 
 after the latter date, and before the birth of James V. on 
 nth April 15 12. 
 
 Dunbar still remained, after the disaster of Flodden, faith- 
 ful to one whom he describes as his "advocate baith fair 
 and sweet," and wrote for her recomforting the poem — 
 
 " O lusty flour of zowth, benyng and bricht," — 
 encouraging her to 
 
 " Faid nocht with weping thy vissage fair of hew," — 
 
 to " cast out all cair," and to " dewoyd langour." 
 1 P. 279. 
 
 Lesly, History, Bannatyne Club, p. 75. Treasurer's Accounts, 21st Feb. 
 1506. 
 
cviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This advice was too easily and too soon taken by one 
 whose youthful grace and courtesy had deceived the poet 
 as to her nature and true character. After her unfortunate 
 marriage to the young Earl of Angus he addressed no 
 more poems to her. In the " Orisoun " he prays to Christ 
 to 
 
 *' Help this pure realme, in partyis all devydit," — 
 
 a catastrophe to which her second marriage had so much 
 contributed. 
 
 Ballad and The only other poems in the laudatory vein, and the 
 Elegy on i^^^^ wrote, were that in praise of Aberdeen and the 
 
 Bernard ^ 
 
 Stewart, ballad on Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny.^ The first 
 gives a lively and pleasant picture of the northern city 
 on a day of fele. In the ballad he had the grateful duty 
 of welcoming in 1507 to Scotland one of her distinguished 
 sons who had gained honour in foreign war — 
 
 '* That neuer saw Scot yit indigent nor sory, 
 
 Bot thou did hym suport, with thi gud deid," — 
 
 too soon to be followed by the elegy on his death. This 
 was one of the striking vicissitudes of fate so well fitted 
 to confirm Dunbar in the lesson of the uncertainty of life 
 and the vanity of earthly things, which became the burden 
 of his latest poetry. 
 
 VI. VITUPERATIVE POEMS OR INVECTIVES. 
 
 The class of Dunbar's poems which may be called 
 vituperative or invective, because they exceed the usual 
 bounds even of satire, and attack particular persons or 
 classes with the strongest terms of abuse the language 
 
 1 For a fuller account of Aubigny, see Appendix V. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cix 
 
 afforded, form a counterpart of his panegyrics. It is a 
 peculiarity of his manner to deal in extremes of praise and 
 blame, and to alternate the one with the other, sometimes 
 in lines or stanzas, sometimes in complete poems, as in the 
 two poems on James Doig, "The Tournament against 
 the Telgouris and Sowtaris " and " The Amendis " he after- 
 wards made to them, the "Ballate against evil Women" 
 and the lines " In Prays of Woman." His mind passed 
 rapidly from one mood to its opposite, — a tendency of 
 which he was himself conscious. 
 
 The group of vituperative poems consists of the singular 
 "Flyting" with Kennedy, where the abuse was probably 
 chiefly mock, a sort of poetical tournament or contest of 
 wit, and a few where the censure was certainly real; the 
 poem on Donald Owre, the two ballads against the 
 Abbot of Tungland, the "Ballate against evil Women," 
 and the poem which has been called "A General Satire," 
 beginning — 
 
 " Devorit with dreme, devysing in my slummer." 
 The " Flyting " belongs to a form of poetry of which the The 
 
 " Fh 
 
 literature of almost every nation has examples. The 
 " Ibis," in which Ovid, or some other Roman poet, abused 
 an unknown rival, was copied from the poem of the same 
 name and purpose by Callimachus against his former pupil 
 Apollonius Rhodius. So Poggio wrote invectives against 
 Philelfo, in which, after the reproach of his mean birth, 
 he accuses him of " fraud, ingratitude, theft, adultery, and 
 yet more scandalous crimes." Luigi Pulci, a noble of 
 Florence and friend of Lorenzo de Medici, maintained a 
 poetical war in a series of sonnets with Matteo Franco, 
 a canon of that city, which perhaps is the nearest parallel 
 
cx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the work of Dunbar. "It is to be regretted," writes 
 Roscoe, in a passage almost every word of which is appli- 
 cable to " The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie," " that 
 these authors so far exceeded at times the bounds of ci- 
 vility and decorum that it is scarcely possible to suggest 
 an expression of reproach and resentment which is not to 
 be found in their writings. The family name of Pulci 
 (Pulex) affords an ample subject for the satirical poems 
 of Franco. His person is a theme equally fertile. Famine, 
 says his antagonist, was as rationally depicted in his coun- 
 tenance as if it had been the work of Giotto. He had 
 made an eight days' truce with death, which was on the 
 point of expiring, when he would be swept away to Guidecca 
 (the lowest pit of Dante's hell), where his brother Luca 
 was gone to prepare him a place. Luigi supports this op- 
 probrious contest by telling his adversary that he was 
 marked at his birth with the sign of the halter instead of 
 that of the cross, and by a thousand other imputations of 
 which decency forbids a repetition." ^ The " Loki Sennar " 
 — Flyting of Loki — with the gods, and other Icelandic 
 poems, are Scandinavian examples. The Celtic bards 
 were specially fond of this form of satire,^ and their 
 verses were said " to blister the face." The same type is 
 common in Arabic poetry. A leading example is the " Na- 
 raid," or Flyting of Jerir and Al-Farazdar. Jeux Partis and 
 Serventois in French literature, which Professor Schipper 
 cites, are less apt parallels. Nearer home, Skelton, Dun- 
 bar's contemporary, wrote in a similar abusive vein against 
 Garnesche. This practice of a duel of railing words may be 
 traced back from the artificial works of the poets to one 
 
 ^ Roscoe, 'Life of Lorenzo de Medici,' p. 176 : Bohn's edition. 
 2 The poems of Ian Lorn, or John Macdonald, the poet of Lochaber, and 
 Donald Donn, are a good example of one of the Gaelic "Fly tings." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxi 
 
 of the natural amusements of the people. Such were the 
 Fescennine songs of the Italian husbandmen at vintage or 
 harvest when — 
 
 " Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fundit." ^ 
 
 Such are supposed to have been the waggon-songs of the 
 peasants, from which the Greek drama sprang. We might 
 pardon the rude stock if it produced in time such rich 
 fruit. Dunbar has himself left a specimen of a " Flyting" 
 between a tailor and a shoemaker, which reminds the 
 present writer of a similar contest he saw and heard carried 
 on in the kitchen of a village inn of the Dolomite Tyrol 
 between the representatives of these trades, who, so far as 
 he could follow them, began with verse and certainly ended 
 with blows, both in jest and not in earnest. 
 
 In the " Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy," and the later 
 imitations by James V. and Lyndsay, Montgomery and 
 Hume of Polwart, these Court poets preserved all the 
 licence and vulgarity of the original " flyting " or scolding 
 match. This was partly because the Court and commons 
 were much nearer each other in neighbourhood and man- 
 ners than in modern times, but chiefly because the poets of 
 the age deemed it a triumph of ingenuity to outstrip their 
 rustic rivals in their own style. The testimony of con- 
 temporaries of the Italian poet Pulci is, that the abuse 
 poets flung at each other did not necessarily disturb their 
 good-fellowship. It was mere affected anger and invented 
 invective, as to-day in Parliament or at the Bar sharp words 
 are exchanged and forgotten. The preface to Montgomery's 
 " Flyting " expressly states this : — 
 
 " No cankering envy, malice, nor despite. 
 Stirred up these men so eagerly to flyte, 
 
 ^ Horace, Epist., II. i. 146. 
 
cxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 But generous emulation : so in plays 
 Best actors flyte and raile." ^ 
 
 So common had this style become, that James VI., in 
 his " ReuHs and Cautelis of Scottis Poesie," ^ prescribes 
 for it a particular kind of verse called " Rouncefallis or 
 Tumbling verse," and selects as his example one of the 
 stanzas of Montgomery's " Flyting." ^ Puttenham, writing 
 in 1589, describes "a certaine auncient forme of poesie by 
 which men did use to reproche their enemies," but discoun- 
 tenances it. "We Christianes are," he says, "forbidden 
 to use such uncharitable fashions, and willed to refer all 
 our revenges to God alone." Modern poets have taken to 
 lauding instead of abusing each other. Byron was perhaps 
 the last of the " flyters." 
 
 We know too little of Kennedy to be sure how he bore 
 Dunbar's attack ; but the lines in the " Lament for the 
 Makaris"— 
 
 " Gud Maister Walter Kennedy, 
 In poynt of dede lyis veraly, 
 Gret reuth it wer that so suld be," — 
 
 show that Dunbar felt no lasting enmity to one who was, 
 besides his part in the " Flyting," his chief contemporary 
 rival as a poet. It would be difficult to decide the question 
 humorously put, " which got the war " — i.e., worst. Indeed 
 so similar is the style of Dunbar and Kennedy's abuse 
 of each other, that the whole composition might be almost 
 supposed the work of a single author. 
 
 The "Flyting" is one of the most difficult to date of 
 Dunbar's poems. Its style points to his earliest manner ; 
 but that manner, although chiefly noticeable in poems 
 before 1503, had not ceased after that date, as the "Dance 
 
 ^ Montgomery's Poems, p. $8. ^ Arber, p. 68. ^ 174-184. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxiii 
 
 in the Quenis Chalmer " shows. The internal evidence has 
 been read as indicating two different dates. Laing argues 
 from the reference to the Katherine, the ship in which 
 Dunbar sailed to France in 149 1, and the absence of any 
 allusion to Dunbar being in France at a later period of his 
 life than probably the year 1497, that it was written between 
 1492 and 1497.^ But that reference does not appear to be 
 to a recent event, even although we take the " twenty years " 
 of line 452 as an exaggeration. 
 
 On the other hand, Professor Schipper maintains, from 
 the allusion to Kennedy in line 154, as possessing the 
 "laithly luge that wes the lippir mennis," in a glen, that 
 the date must be after 8th December 1 504, when Kennedy 
 acquired the house callled Glentigh in Carrick, which had 
 been a leper hospital ; while the reference to Sir John Reid 
 of Stobo, who died in the first half of 1505, as still living, 
 would give that year as the latest possible date. On the 
 whole, the latter view is the more probable ; and though we 
 have no recorded evidence in support of it, there is nothing 
 improbable in the supposition that Dunbar, in one of the 
 many voyages he refers to as made in the service of the 
 king, again visited France after 1497. There is, unfortun- 
 ately, no distinct information as to the date of Kennedy's 
 death ; but the lines in the " Lament for the Makaris " — 
 
 " Gud Maister Walter Kennedy, 
 In poynt of dede lyis veraly," — 
 
 make it probable that he survived till 1507, possibly to 
 1508, the year when that poem was published. 
 
 This " Flyting " will always be one of the curiosities of 
 literature. It contributes more than any other poem to the 
 
 ^ Laing, p. 490. 
 
cxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 biography of Dunbar. It has, too, the dubious honour of 
 being the best representative of a bad style of poem which 
 no one can wish to see revived. 
 "Epitaph The Epitaph of Donald Owre is probably the first in 
 Owre?"^ date of Dunbar's vituperative poems, where there is no 
 doubt the attack is real. This and the other poems here 
 classed as vituperative might by some be deemed only a 
 form of satire, but in satire proper there is usually mingled 
 some sarcastic or ironical praise. Satire, too, has gener- 
 ally a ludicrous element in its description. These points 
 distinguish it from the vituperative poem. The epigram 
 differs not only on account of its brevity, but also 
 because, though generally, it is not always satirical. Our 
 language has no common word to contrast with the pane- 
 gyric or laudatory poem, like the German " Riigegedicht," 
 for a composition which is simply damnatory or condemna- 
 tory, although some English satirists, notably Churchill, 
 have used what is no doubt a special variety of satire. 
 The name " Invective " which James I. employs in his 
 'Essay on Poetry' would answer well enough, but has 
 never become familiar, and is now associated with oratory 
 rather than poetry. 
 
 In Donald Owre, the illegitimate son of Angus of the 
 Isles, Dunbar saw not merely the rebel the poet of the 
 Court was bound to denounce, but a representative of the 
 Celtic race, which, as a Saxon born, he hated. It is difficult 
 to realise the feeling of the Scottish Lowlander with regard to 
 the Scottish Highlander of this period, but Dunbar's poems 
 help us to do so. The independence of Scotland once 
 established, and any probable union with England being 
 by a royal marriage and on equal terms, the Lowlander 
 regarded the Celtic population of the north and west, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxv 
 
 nominally subjects of the same king, with contempt, modi- 
 fied by fear. The Gael, or, as they were still called, the 
 Ersch or Irish, spoke a different and unintelligible language ; 
 had distinct dress, manners, and customs ; did not recognise 
 the same laws; and belonged — so, at least, thought those 
 whose crops they harried and whose cattle they lifted — 
 to a lower civilisation. Few of Dunbar's taunts against 
 Kennedy are so severe as those in which he glances at 
 his Celtic descent. Although Kennedy, a native of Ayr- 
 shire, belonged to a district firmly annexed to the Scot- 
 tish Crown, and wrote in the same language as Dun- 
 bar himself, the Lothian bard pours ridicule upon his 
 Gaelic pronunciation, his Gaelic dress, the kilt, his rough 
 Carrick manners, even the propensity to theft which dis- 
 tinguished his Gaelic kinsmen. An English satirist between 
 the reigns of James I. and George III. could not be more 
 abusive. We are reminded of Churchill's ' Prophecy of 
 Famine.' 
 
 In the " Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis " the devil is 
 represented as " sa devit " with the yell of the Highland 
 " tarmegantis, with tag and tatter," who — 
 
 " Ffull lowd in Ersche begowth to clatter, 
 
 That in the depest pot of hell 
 He smorit thame with smvke ; " 
 
 and with a grim sarcastic touch, " Makfadgane's coronach " 
 gathered so great a crowd of his countrymen, that — 
 
 " In Hell grit rowme thay tuke." 
 
 In the Remonstrance to the King against the miserable set 
 of scoundrels who thronged the Court, the poet does not 
 fail to notice — 
 
cxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Innopportoun askaris of Yrland kynd ; 
 And meit revaris, lyk out of mynd." 
 
 The most honourable part of the reign of James IV. was 
 between 1493 1504, when he was enforcing order 
 
 amongst the wild caterans of the Highlands and the Isles. 
 Donald Dubh, called the bastard, but possibly by Celtic 
 customary law the legitimate son of Angus, Lord of the 
 Isles, had when an infant been carried off about 1480 from 
 Isla by the Earl of Athole, and delivered to his hereditary 
 foe, the Earl of Argyle, whose enmity would not be lessened 
 if, as the Islesmen believed, his mother was Argyle's daugh- 
 ter.^ By Argyle he was long kept prisoner in the Castle 
 of Inchconnell. In 1494 he had been released, and for 
 several years was a royal pensioner. In 1501 he placed 
 himself at the head of a rebellion by the Island and 
 western clans, who wasted Badenoch by fire and sword in 
 1503. He was forfeited as a traitor, and the whole forces 
 of the kingdom north of the Forth and Clyde under Huntly 
 had to be called out in 1 504. The king himself, with the 
 southern vassels, joined Huntly in 1505, and succeeded in 
 crushing the rebellion ; Donald Dubh was taken prisoner 
 and committed to the Castle of Edinburgh, where he re- 
 mained until he escaped a second time nearly forty years 
 after, under the regency of Arran.^ Such is the account 
 of Mr Gregory, the historian of the Western Highlands ; 
 and although Tytler supposes Donald Dubh to have died, 
 and Donald of the Isles, who again raised a rebellion in 
 1545, to have been a different person, it is probable he 
 was the same.^ In his romantic history, rebellion and 
 captivity alternated. He is described in the proclamation 
 
 ^ Gregory, p. 53. ^ ibid,, p. 103. See further, App. V., " Donald Dubh." 
 3 Gregory, p. 169. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxvii 
 
 by Arran and the Privy Council in 1 545 as " Donald 
 alleging himself of the Isles ; " ^ and after entering into a 
 treasonable league with Henry VIII., he passed over to 
 Ireland, and died at Drogheda, where he received a splen- 
 did funeral. 
 
 It was probably shortly after 1506 that Dunbar's poem 
 was written, and if Mr Gregory's narrative is correct,^ Dun- 
 bar was an acute political prophet, for the burden of his 
 Epitaph is to show no mercy to treason : — 
 
 " The murtherer ay mvrthour mais, 
 And evir quhill he be slane he slais ; 
 Wyvis thuss makis mokkis 
 Spynnand on rokkis ; 
 Ay rynnis the fox 
 Quhill he fute hais." 
 
 Apparently Dunbar thought that James IV. had exercised 
 an ill-judged leniency in not punishing Donald Owre with 
 the axe : — 
 
 " Thocht he remissioun 
 Haif for prodissioun, 
 Schame and susspissioun 
 Ay with him dwellis." 
 
 This poem is remarkable for the vigour of the expression 
 and the masterly use of a dif^ficult metre, in which the slight 
 alliteration of the first two lines is skilfully combined with 
 rhymes of the first, second, and sixth, and of the three 
 intervening lines — representing, perhaps, by the light-footed 
 agility of the verse, the movement of the fox, to which 
 Donald Owre is compared. 
 
 In John Damian, the French " leich," who rose, by pander- » Ballat 
 ing to the king's taste for astrology, necromancy, and other ^Jj^^^p^^y'^' 
 
 1 ^Register of Privy Council,' 1545-69, vol. i. p. 4. 
 ^ Gregory, p. 176. 
 
cxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Tung- forms of the black art practised in these times, to be Abbot 
 land. Tungland, Dunbar found another subject for his vitu- 
 
 perative style. This impostor was an example of a com- 
 mon phenomenon — the promotion of the undeserving to 
 high office, while the deserving, the poet himself included, 
 were neglected. It is with evident zest that Dunbar has 
 put this charlatan of the sixteenth century into the pillory, 
 and pelted him with satire. He was a foreigner too, 
 which, while it attracted the Court, ever eager for novelty, 
 had the contrary effect upon the patriotic Scotchman. The 
 principal invective against Damian is " Ane Ballat of 
 the Fen^eit Freir of Tungland ; " but Dunbar returns to 
 the subject in the vision or dream beginning " Lucina 
 schynnyng in silence of the nicht." Bishop Lesly, whose 
 account in his History of the failure of Damian's attempt 
 to fly from Stirling to France corroborates Dunbar's 
 poem, supposes Damian to have been an Italian. Dun- 
 bar, whether with any ground of fact or not we cannot 
 be sure, describes him as a Turk of Tartary. It is pos- 
 sible that he may have been an Eastern adventurer, 
 who, like a medium of the 19th century, found his trade 
 throve best by slipping from one country to another, 
 and keeping as far from home as possible. He came, 
 according to Dunbar, to Lombardy, where, to avoid bap- 
 tism, he slew " a religious man." The dress of the mur- 
 dered man, with his knowledge of reading and writing, 
 enabled him to pass for a friar. Such impostor clergy- 
 men have, been known even in recent times. Probably 
 Dunbar's charge of murder is merely satirical. When 
 found out in Italy he went to France, where he pretended 
 to be a " leich," or physician ; and it is as " the French 
 Leich" that he appears in the Accounts of the Scotch 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxix 
 
 Treasurer. His practice resulting in the death of his 
 patients, he fled from France to Scotland, where he con- 
 tinued his disastrous trade : — 
 
 " His practikis nevir war put to preif, 
 But suddane deid, or grit mischeif." 
 
 He then took part in the blacksmith craft, to gratify, by- 
 sharing in, one of the king's favourite diversions of " batter- 
 ing at the study" or smithy, and pretending, but failing, 
 to make the quintessence. To keep the royal favour, he 
 next proposed to fly by the aid of feathers to Turkey, 
 according to Dunbar, but really it appears to France. His 
 misadventures amongst the birds he met in his flight, who 
 plucked out his false feathers so that he fell into the mire, 
 conclude the poem. In " The Vision," Dunbar imagines "The 
 him to meet, in the course of his flight, a she-dragon, who 
 gave birth to Antichrist. He thought it was a dream, 
 he ironically adds, until he was told by many ''suthfast 
 men " that an abbot would fly into the sky, and he then 
 took comfort : — 
 
 " ' Adew,' quod I, ' my drery dayis ar done ; 
 Ffull Weill I wist to me wald nevir cum thrift, 
 Quhill that twa monis wer sene vp in the lift, 
 Or quhill ane abbot flew aboif the mone.' " 
 
 This poem, which is not so strictly of the vituperative 
 class, may have been written first ; but both belong to 
 about the same date, when Damian's attempted flight, in 
 October 1507, was in fresh memory. Its failure led to his 
 leaving Scotland for five years. Like a bird of ill omen, he 
 returned before the year of Flodden, and again gained the 
 favour of the credulous king by finding gold at Crawford , 
 mine. 
 
 The poem ''Against evil Women" was doubted by "Against 
 
cxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 evil Wo- Laing, and has not Dunbar's name attached in the Reid- 
 peth MS. ; but its style, in spite of Laing's doubt, which 
 seems to have been caused by an unwillingness to believe 
 the poet should have composed so fierce an invective 
 against the sex, is in favour of the opinion of Mr Small 
 that Dunbar was really the author. Satire on women was 
 a favourite topic of the middle ages and the monkish 
 writers ; and Dunbar was no exception, as the poems of 
 " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo " and " The Twa 
 Cummeris " prove. It is only against evil women that he 
 writes ; and the panegyrical poem " In prays of Woman " 
 shows that he was capable of appreciating the virtues of 
 the sex. That poem may be considered as a palinode for 
 this. 
 
 The remaining poem of Dunbar here classed as vituper- 
 "AGen- ative, and called by Laing "A General Satire," is very 
 Sadre " similar in some of its lines to one of Skelton's,^ but was 
 the first written ; so if there is any direct imitation, 
 and not merely similarity of thought producing similarity 
 of expression, the English poet must be deemed the 
 copyist. This satire, like so many of his others couched 
 in the form of a dream, is a bitter invective, in which he 
 concentrates his attack against the evils of the time. The 
 Maitland MS. attributes it to Sir John Inglis, but the 
 Bannatyne MS., which is probably correct, to Dunbar ; for 
 Inglis had not, so far as is known, begun to write in 1 504, 
 its probable date from the reference to "judges now 
 made of late" to the Daily Council instituted in that 
 year. The flow of the rhythm and many of the abuses 
 denounced being those Dunbar has described elsewhere, 
 confirm the opinion that he was the author. Every 
 
 ^ '^Speke Parrot," Skelton's Poems, vol. ii. p. 22. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxi 
 
 line stamps its object with the poet's scorn. It deserves 
 remark that it is chiefly directed against the nobles, 
 the clergy, and the female sex. 
 
 The oppression of the poor is a common topic with 
 Dunbar, as with Henryson and Lyndsay ; but it was never 
 more powerfully assailed than here, in such lines as the 
 following : — 
 
 " Sa mony jugeis and lordis now maid of lait, 
 Sa small refugeis the peur man to debait, 
 Sa mony estait, for commoun weill sa quhene ; 
 Guir all the gait sa mony thevis sa tait 
 Within this land was nevir hard nor sene." 
 
 There is no mincing matters in the condemnation of the 
 
 clergy of all ranks — the proud immoral idle prelates ; the 
 
 rich abbots, strangers to their abbeys ; the priests, dressed 
 
 like laymen, who never read the Psalms or Testament ; 
 
 and the clerks, who had taken the degree of Master of Arts, 
 
 but were after all only fools or " gowks." The extravagant 
 
 dress and morals of the women complete a dark picture 
 
 which concludes — 
 
 " Off Sathanis senile syne sic ane vnsall men3ie 
 Within this land was nevir hard nor sene." 
 
 The accomplishments of the king and the gallantry and 
 splendour of his Court deceived contemporaries, as they 
 have deceived historians; but Dunbar's piercing eye saw 
 the corruptions which were to lead to the catastrophe of 
 Flodden. 
 
 VII. PRECATORY POEMS OR PETITIONS TO THE 
 KING OR QUEEN. 
 
 The precatory poems, chiefly petitions to James IV. 
 or the queen, though one or two are addressed to other 
 
cxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Petitions, persons — as James Doig, the Keeper of the Wardrobe, 
 plants Lord Treasurer, and the Lords of Exchequer — form 
 
 Remon- a considerable section of Dunbar's works. It was common 
 strances. bards of this and earher times to address patrons 
 
 with requests for favours or reward. The "Ballade" had 
 indeed, in its original form, a regular envoi addressed to 
 the Prince, which was retained in the strict French style 
 after its original purpose was almost lost sight of But 
 Dunbar's petitions have the characteristic turn that they 
 are in general satirical instead of panegyrical. They seek 
 to obtain their object by making the person addressed 
 repent of his illiberality or fear the wit of the poet. 
 
 There is no sycophancy in their tone, which is that of 
 a man of genius conscious of his own worth. They are 
 indeed styled as often Complaints or Remonstrances as 
 Petitions. We follow in this series step by step the poet's 
 career at the Court — his first requests merely for the usual 
 gratuities of money or livery given at Yule, or some French 
 crowns to fill the purse which pricked him by its empti- 
 ness ; his thanks to the queen who befriended him, and 
 whose influence on her husband he wished greater than it 
 was ; his petition for a benefice, and his indignation when 
 those in the royal gift were bestowed on flatterers and 
 charlatans ; his complaint against Mure, who had made 
 some of his satirical poems the means of turning persons of 
 influence at the Court against him ; his frequent reminders 
 when he grew older of the services he had rendered ; and 
 his gratitude to the Lord Treasurer when he received the 
 increased pension allowed him in 1510. 
 OnDiscre- If the reader finds a painful repetition in this class of 
 Asking poem, in spite of the humorous variety in form, he may 
 Giving, be sure the poet felt this not less. It required all Dunbar's 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxiii 
 
 independence of character to preserve his self-respect in the and 
 character of a petitioner. In the triplet of poems on Dis- 
 cretion in Asking, Giving, and Taking, he embodies his 
 mature thoughts on the delicate subject of gifts : — 
 
 " To ask but seruice hurtis gude fame ; 
 To ask for seruice is not to blame ; 
 To serve and leif in beggartie 
 To man and maistir is baith schame : 
 In asking sowld discretion be." 
 
 " Sum gevis for thank, sum [for] chereitie ; 
 Sum gevis money, and sum gevis meit ; 
 Sum gevis wordis fair and sle ; 
 Giftis fra sum ma na man treit : 
 In giving sowld discretioun be." 
 
 In the poem " On Discretioun in Taking," he recurs 
 again to the hard treatment of the poor labourers of the 
 ground : — 
 
 " Barronis takis fra the tennentis peure 
 All fruct that growis on the feure, 
 In mailis and gersomes rasit ouir hie, 
 And garris thame beg fra dur to dure. 
 
 Sum takis vthir menis takkis. 
 
 And on the peure oppressioun makkis. 
 
 And nevir remembris that he mon die. 
 
 In taking sov^^ld discretioun be." 
 
 VIII. SATIRICAL POEMS. 
 
 The satirical poems of Dunbar include some of his 
 best-known works. The list might be greatly enlarged 
 by including those already described as vituperative and 
 several here treated as merely humorous or precatory. 
 The truth is, except in strictly religious poems, and the few 
 
 h 
 
cxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which have been classed as laudatory, Dunbar's pen was 
 seldom used without some strokes of satire. The claim 
 might be made for him that he is the first great satirist in 
 our language, for he wrote a century before Donne, and 
 more than a century and a half before Dryden.^ 
 
 Confining the term satirical to poems in which pure 
 satire predominates throughout, the following belong to 
 this class : The three poems relating to Edinburgh, which 
 satirise in turn the Law Courts, the Trades and Merchants, 
 and the Citizens ; " The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis," 
 which might be classed with his invectives but for the 
 ludicrous turn given to the concluding verses ; the two 
 poems against the Solistaris at Court ; the two Dreams or 
 Visions — one the Visitation of St Francis, and the other 
 in which an allegory is mingled with his old complaints 
 against the bestowal of preferments in the Church ; and 
 perhaps less strictly the verses on Albany the Governor's 
 prolonged absence in France. 
 ''Tidings The " Tidings from the Session " is directed against the 
 Session^" Court which sat at Edinburgh, possibly that called the 
 Session, though its sittings there were only once a quarter — 
 more probably the Daily Council instituted in March 1504. 
 This was the first successful attempt to establish a central 
 Supreme Court in Scotland, which was succeeded by the 
 present Court of Session— a reform of James V. in 1532. 
 The name of Session merely means sittings, and was prob- 
 ably never dropped, but the eyes of the lieges and of the 
 satirist were specially turned to the Court at the time when 
 it was first fixed in the capital. A novelty or an inno- 
 
 1 "The satire proper, the following of the great Roman examples in ge- 
 nial lashing of vice and folly, can hardly trace itself further back in England 
 than George Gascoigne" (1536-77). — Saintsbury, 'Elizabethan Literature,' 
 p. 144. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxv 
 
 vation is always a favourite subject for satire. Neither 
 then nor for long after has the Supreme Court been in 
 favour with the people generally. Scottish lawyers, 
 justly proud of the eminent jurists and judges the Court 
 has bred, are apt to forget this, until they are rudely 
 reminded of it by their critics and satirists. This un- 
 popularity has been partly due to the natural unpleasant- 
 ness of lawsuits, their delays, cost, and uncertainty ; but in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was another 
 cause of complaint, now removed, the partiality and venality 
 of the Bench. The attempt to establish a permanent Court, 
 independent of, and superior to, the Courts of the Barons 
 and the Bishops, was in the right direction, but it could 
 not at first shake itself free from similar abuses. Bribery is 
 fortunately one of the crimes which disappears with and 
 proves the progress of morals. But it was not extin- 
 guished either in England or Scotland till the close of 
 the seventeenth century. Dunbar recognises that many 
 of the suitors who attended the Session were knaves who 
 
 " Wald luke full heich war not the Sessioun." 
 
 Indeed his satire is mainly aimed at the litigants, lay and 
 clerical, who haunted the Court for other objects than jus- 
 tice ; but he denounces also the bribery and favouritism : — 
 
 " Sum speidis, for he in court hes menis ; 
 Sum of parcialitie complenis, 
 How feid and favour flemis discretioun." 
 
 The poem is, as Professor S chipper remarks, probably 
 incomplete, or there would have been more of the com- 
 plaints against the "new made jugis," whom in another 
 piece he severely satirises. 
 
cxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "Satire "The Satire on the Trades; or, the Devil's Inquest," is 
 TVades ; directed against the inveterate practice of swearing — each 
 or, the trade having its favourite oath, taken most freely to sup- 
 quest." port his praise of his goods or handicraft when least 
 honest. 
 
 While the trades are chiefly censured, Dunbar does not 
 omit the blasphemous priest who swore by the God whom 
 he received at the altar, and the proud courtiers who swore 
 by Christ's wounds. The very oaths Dunbar refers to 
 were, Lord Hailes points out, forbidden by an Act of the 
 Scottish Parliament of 1551.^ Swearing is an eradicable 
 vice, depending for its existence on fashion and custom ; 
 but in spite of satire and statute, several of the oaths will 
 be recognised as surviving in vulgar speech, often in a cor- 
 rupt form, down to the present day. 
 " Satire on " The Satire on Edinburgh" chiefly turns on the want of 
 Edin- cleanliness of its streets, but also on the extortion of its 
 
 burgh." 
 
 merchants and innkeepers, and the neglect of the poor 
 which filled it with beggars : — 
 
 " 5our profFeit daylie dois incres, 
 5our godlie workis less and les ; 
 Through streittis nane may mak progres, 
 For cry of cruikit, blind, and lame : 
 
 Think 3e nocht schame, 
 That 3e sic substance dois posses, 
 And will nocht win ane bettir name ! " 
 
 In reading it, we must recall the Old Town as it was at 
 this time, with only two streets, the High Street and Cow- 
 gate, ribbed and crossed by narrow wynds and closes ; its 
 markets in the open causeway between the Cross near St 
 Giles and the Tron ; and its high houses darkened by out- 
 
 ^ Act. Pari, vol. xi. p. 485. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxvii 
 
 side stairs, their small windows often made smaller by 
 crossed wooden bars instead of glass, from which, as poets 
 and travellers of a more recent date than Dunbar tell us, 
 the refuse of the household was poured, to the danger of 
 the passers-by.i 
 
 Political causes contributed to keep Edinburgh long 
 " within its steepy limits pent," and Dunbar's reproach was 
 not removed until towards the end of last century and 
 during this it burst beyond its barriers, and spread over the 
 sloping grounds towards the Firth of Forth on the north 
 and the Meadows and Boroughmuir to the south. A poet 
 of our time can now celebrate Princes Street, with 
 
 " Its long low lane of stars," 
 
 and look on Old Edinburgh chiefly as a picturesque relic. 
 Yet it is the old town which contains the Heart of Mid- 
 Lothian, the history and the poetry of Scotland. The 
 new town, after a hundred years, has as its chief memory 
 the poet who was born in and celebrated the old. 
 
 "The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis" is a masque "Dance 
 seen in a vision, in which each sin appears in succession in g^^^^ 
 all its ghastly horror, made real by traits taken from the Deidly 
 men of Dunbar's own time.^ It has been, not very aptly, 
 compared to Callot's etchings, and the description in Col- 
 lins's " Ode to the Passions," — more fitly, to the " Persones 
 
 ^ In the 'Proceedings of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries,' 14th June 
 1886, vol. viii., N. S., p. 368, there is an interesting sketch of the north side 
 of the Tolbooth and the Luckenbooths, from a pen-and-ink drawing of the Rev. 
 J. Syme, which shows the position of the Stinking Style, and the character of 
 the outside or fore stairs, as they were in Dunbar's time. 
 
 2 Yet Mr Lowell is too fine a critic and writer to see in this poem anything 
 more than coarseness. " It would be well for us if the sins themselves were 
 such wretched bugaboos as he has painted. . . . The uninitiated foreigner puts 
 his handkerchief to his nose, wonders, and gets out of the way as soon as he 
 civilly can." 
 
cxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "The 
 Lady is 
 Solistaris 
 at Court. 
 
 "Solis- 
 taris at 
 Court." 
 
 Tale " of Chaucer, which describes in plain prose the same 
 sins, their causes and their remedies, and to the allegory 
 of Spenser. But Dunbar's portraiture is, though less 
 splendid, more vivid than Spenser's, whose verse is too 
 smooth for such a subject. We see Pride, Anger, and 
 the rest, not as abstractions, but incarnate ; and it is a relief 
 when the scene closes with the Highland pageant sum- 
 moned by Macfadyen's coronach, at which, though the 
 humour is still grim, some human laughter, and not merely 
 the laughter of the devils at the proud priests with which 
 the poem opens, is permissible. In the satire on "The 
 Ladyis Solistaris at Court," ^ Dunbar takes up again a 
 part of the subject which he touched on in the closing 
 verses of "The Tidings from the Session." That female 
 influence could do more than that of the opposite sex in 
 gaining suits was one of the scandals of the time, all the 
 greater as the judges were then chiefly of the clerical pro- 
 fession.2 The other satire of " Solistaris at Court," ^ which 
 from the similarity of title may be grouped with this, is 
 really one of Dunbar's petitions to the king, and describes 
 the various arts by which Court favour was obtained. It is 
 probably of earlier date, written at a time when Dunbar 
 was hopeful his merits would not be neglected : — 
 
 " My sympilnes, amang the laif, 
 Wait of na way, sa God me saiff ! 
 
 1 P. i68. 
 
 ^ The Oracle in " Ginecocratia, " an English comedy quoted by Puttenham, 
 may be compared with Dunbar's " Ladyis Solistaris" : — 
 
 " Your best way to worke, and marke my words well, 
 Not money ; nor many ! 
 Nor any ; but any ! 
 Not we men, but women, beare the bele." 
 
 — ' Arte of English Poesy,' p. 147. 
 
 3 P. 206. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxix 
 
 Bot, with ane humill cheir and face, 
 Referris me to the Kyngis grace : 
 Me think his gracious countenence 
 In riches is my sufficence." 
 
 " The Satire on the Franciscans " ^ is another of the poems The 
 
 couched in the form of a dream, in which a vision of St u g^^^j.^ 
 
 Francis appears to the poet, and tries to persuade him to the Fran- 
 ciscans." 
 
 take the cowl. One of its most biting touches is imitated 
 by Buchanan in his poem entitled " Somnium." 
 
 " In haly legendis haif I hard allevin, 
 Ma Sanctis of bischoppis, nor freiris, be sic sevin ; 
 Off full few freiris that hes bene Sanctis I reid ; 
 Quhairfoir ga bring to me ane bischopis weid, 
 Gife evir thow wald my saule gaid vnto Hevin." 
 
 With great boldness Dunbar, after describing the wiles he 
 had practised when a Franciscan novice, concludes his poem 
 by declaring that the person who appeared and pressed 
 him to postpone no longer taking the full vows of the 
 order was not St Francis but a fiend. 
 
 The poem on the absence of Albany in France,^ be- On the ab- 
 
 «-i*ti*i;«^«. sence of 
 
 ginnins^ — . „ 
 
 ^ ^ Albany in 
 
 " We Lordis hes chosin a chiftane mervellus, 
 That left hes ws in grit perplexite, 
 And him absentis, with wylis cautelus 
 3eiris and dayis mo than two or thre, 
 And nocht intendis the land nor peple se, 
 Faltis to correct, nor vicis for to chace ; " — 
 
 has been doubted by Professor Schipper, because it is not 
 in Dunbar's usual manner to speak in the person of others. 
 But, as has been pointed out, this is not absolutely correct. 
 Nor indeed would a new variety of style be a conclusive 
 1 P. 131. 2 p, 237. 
 
cxxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 argument against the authorship of so versatile a poet. 
 The points of the satire — the dissensions of the nobles, the 
 covetousness of the spiritual estate yearning for benefices, 
 the lack of justice by which the realm was being ruined — 
 are natural topics for Dunbar to have selected. It is cer- 
 tainly not one of his most powerful poems, but if written 
 by him was written in his old age, and on the whole it 
 seems probable he was the author. The point is not with- 
 out importance as corroborating the argument that he lived 
 after 15 13. Its date must be some time after June 15 17, 
 when Albany left Scotland, probably in 1520, and it forms 
 "The a sequel to "The Orisoun,"^ written at that date, and un- 
 Orisoun." ^oubtedly by Dunbar. It might be thought a reason 
 against his having written it, that Dunbar's sympathies were 
 in early life with England, and not with France ; but there 
 had been a great change in the situation when Henry VIII. 
 succeeded his father on the English throne, and the death 
 of James IV., as well as the imprudent second marriage of 
 Margaret Tudor, had made many patriotic Scotchmen look 
 to the rule of Albany as the best chance of a settled gov- 
 ernment during the minority of the young king. This 
 hope was disappointed by Albany's predilection for a life 
 in France, where his avarice, a quality censured in the 
 poem — 
 
 " Absentand the for ony warldly geir " — 
 was gratified by gifts of pension and office. 
 
 IX. MORAL POEMS. 
 
 The next class of Dunbar's poems, in which the moral 
 purpose predominates, is the largest and most important 
 
 ' P. 235. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxxi 
 
 of his works. Perusing them, we feel certain that he 
 was not the mere discontented satirist attacking abuses 
 because his own ambition was not satisfied, but a genuine 
 reformer, sparing neither his own failings and vices nor 
 those of any class of his countrymen. 
 
 These also are the plainest of all his poems, and require 
 little comment or historical illustration. Their dates do not 
 admit of being precisely fixed, but they must have been 
 written chiefly during the later period of his life, most of 
 them probably between 1508 and 15 13, a few possibly after 
 that date. 
 
 The deaths of so many of his brother bards, the mortal "The 
 illness of his rival Kennedy, and his own sickness, perhaps 
 first brought home to him the lesson of mortality, and led aris." 
 him to take a more serious view of life. " The Lament for 
 the Makaris," one of his best poems, written shortly before, 
 if not in, the year 1508, enforces this lesson. There is un- 
 doubtedly much external likeness to the celebrated Bal- 
 lades of Villon, but there is independence, indeed contrast, 
 in the treatment by the two poets of the same theme. 
 Both show their genius by treating so common a theme in 
 simple yet telling words. But Villon chooses as his ex- 
 ample the beauties and the heroes of the past, who were 
 furthest removed from his own condition. Dunbar com- 
 mences with his own sickness, and, after a wider survey of 
 all classes and conditions of men, returns to his own class 
 in the lines which recite the names of the dead and dying 
 poets of Scotland. His refrain, also, is more personal — 
 
 " Timor Mortis conturbat me " — 
 
 than Villon's beautiful but general simile — 
 " Ou sont des neiges d'antan ?" 
 
cxxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The moral which Dunbar draws: — 
 
 " Sen for the deid remeid is non, 
 Best is that we for dede dispone. 
 Eftir our deid that lif may we ; " — 
 
 is absent, — not merely suppressed, but absent from the 
 feeling of the French poet. His conclusion is to enjoy the 
 present, not to prepare for the future. 
 
 " Mourray-je pas ? Crey, si Dieu plaist ; 
 Mais que j'aye faist mes estrennes, 
 Honneste mort ne me desplaist." 
 
 " Shall I not die ? Ay, if God will ; 
 So that of life I have my share, 
 An honest death I take not ill." ^ 
 
 It would be difficult to decide which of these celebrated 
 
 poems deserves the palm. But a few lines may be cited 
 
 for comparison, as Dunbar's : — 
 
 " That Strang vnmercifull tyrand 
 Tak[is] on the moderis breist sowkand 
 The bab, full of benignite ; 
 
 He takis the campion in the stour, 
 The capitane closit in the tour, 
 The lady in bour full of bewte ; " 
 
 and Villon's — 
 
 " Ce monde n'est perpetuel, 
 Quoy que pense riche pillart ; 
 Tons sommes souz le coup mortel, 
 Ci comfort prent pauvre viellart." 
 
 " This world is not perpetual, 
 Dream the rich robber what he may ; 
 To death subjected are we all. 
 Old men to heart this comfort lay." 
 
 — Payne's Translation. 
 
 ^ "Ballad of Old Time Lords," No. 2 : Payne's Translation, p. 37. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxxiii 
 
 It must be remembered in fairness that Villon wrote at 
 the age of thirty, while Dunbar was nearly fifty when the 
 Lament was written ; and that Villon had drunk more 
 freely of the cup of misery than Dunbar had ever done. 
 
 In the two poems "On Deeming and "How sowld I "On 
 rewill me, or quhat wyiss,"^ Dunbar treats the subject of ?^^" 
 the judgment of the world, which finds cause for censure 
 however a man may conduct himself, and leaves none 
 without blame. He enforces the wholesome moral : — 
 
 *' Now juge thay me baith guid and ill, 
 And I may no man's tung hald still ; 
 To do the best my mynd salbe, 
 Latt every man say quhat he will. 
 The gratious God motgoverne me." 
 
 The reference to the saying of James IV. in the former 
 poem — 
 
 " Do Weill, and sett not by demying, 
 For no man sail vndemit be," — 
 
 indicates that both of them were written after the king 
 had reached mature age, and probably in the latter part 
 of his reign, if not after its conclusion. Although couched 
 in general terms, and following his favourite method of 
 contrasts, we may suspect a personal allusion in the lines — 
 
 "Bel bot littill of stature, 
 They call me catyve createure ; " 
 
 though he proceeds — 
 
 ** And be I grit of quantetie, 
 Thay call me monstrowis of nature." 
 
 In the lines — 
 
 " And be I ornat in my speiche, 
 Than Towsy sayis, I am sa streiche, 
 I speik not lyk thair houss men^ie," — 
 
 1 P. 92. 
 
 ' P. 95. 
 
cxxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he evidently replies to an attack made by some of the 
 Scotch poets of the old fashion on his ornate phraseology. 
 
 In another poem that also preaches the duty of self- 
 controlji with the refrain — 
 
 " He rewlis weill, that weill him self can gyd," — 
 
 he applies his philosophy to a courtier's life in a series 
 
 of apothegms which Professor Schipper^ has compared 
 
 with those of Shakespeare's Polonius. The resemblance is 
 
 certainly curious, and both poets may have borrowed from 
 
 some older writer, possibly Lydgate's " Rules for preserving 
 
 Health," or the more ancient wisdom of the Proverbs of 
 
 Solomon ; but the proverbs of all nations spring from the 
 
 common ground of human nature, and it is unnecessary to 
 
 presume imitations. 
 
 Thus Dunbar says — 
 
 " Behold and heir, and lat thy tung tak rest. 
 In mekle speic[h]e is part of vanitie ; " 
 
 and Polonius — 
 
 " Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice." 
 
 Dunbar — 
 
 " Put not thyne honour into aventeure ; 
 Ane freind may be thy fo as fortoun steiris : 
 In cumpany cheiss honorable feiris, 
 And fra vyle folkis draw the far on syd." 
 
 Polonius — 
 
 " Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 
 Of entrance into a quarrel." 
 
 But Dunbar's counsel is more frank, less tinged with 
 courtier's craft, than the worldly wisdom of Polonius. He 
 concludes with some fine lines : s — 
 
 1 p. 98. 2 Schipper, p. 308. ^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxxv 
 
 " And sen thow seyis mony thingis variand, 
 With all thy hart treit bissines and cure ; 
 Hald God thy freind, evir stabill be him stand, 
 He will the confort in all misaventeur ; 
 , And be no wayis dispytfull to the peure, 
 
 Nor to no man to wrang at ony tyd : 
 Quho so dois this, sicker I zow asseure, 
 He rewlis weill, that weill himself can gyd." 
 
 Similar thoughts occur in the "Ballade on Gude Coun- "OnGude 
 
 sell:"l— Counsell." 
 "Be 3e ane luvar, think 3e nocht 3e suld 
 Be weill adwysit in 3our gouerning ? " 
 
 As in the lines — 
 
 " Be now and ay the maistir of Jour will, 
 Be nevir he that lesing sail proclame ; 
 Be nocht of langage quhair 3e suld be still, 
 Be secreit, trew, incressing of Jour name." 
 
 In another series of these moral poems Dunbar ap- 
 proaches more nearly to the tone of Villon, and seeks to 
 find comfort for the changes of fortune in a merry heart 
 and cheerful temper. The poems with the refrains — 
 
 " Without glaidnes availis no tresour ; " ^ 
 
 " For to be blyth me think it best ; " 3— "Best to 
 
 be blyth." 
 
 are examples. But this is a less natural mood for Dunbar, 
 from which he rises in the last stanza of the latter poem : — 
 
 " How evir this warld do change and vary 
 Lat ws in hairt nevir moir be sary, 
 Bot evir be reddy and addrest 
 To pass out of this frawdfull fary ; 
 For to be blyth me think it best." 
 
 So in the former he expresses his contempt for the 
 miser : — 
 
 1 P. 162. 
 
 2 p. 108. 
 
 3 P. no. 
 
cxxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Thow seis thir wrechis sett with sorrow and cair, 
 To gaddir gudis in all thair lyvis space, 
 And quhen thair baggis ar full thair selfis ar bair, 
 And of thair richess bot the keping hess." 
 
 Covetousness and avarice are vices he specially abhors, 
 and he directs against them one of his best short pieces, 
 " Of Gov- " Of Covettyce," ^ which he concludes with lines showing 
 ettyce. ^j^^^ ^j^^ merry heart he praised was also a serious and not 
 a light one, like that of the French poet : — 
 
 " Man, pleiss thy makar and be mirry. 
 And sett not by this warld a chirry ; 
 Wirk for the place of paradyce, 
 For thairin ringis na covettyce." 
 
 In the same strain is the poem ^ — 
 
 " Man, sen thy lyfe is ay in weir, 
 And deid is evir drawand neir, 
 The tyme vnsicker and the place ; 
 Thyne awin gude spend quhill thow hes space." 
 
 The instability of earthly things, the rapid turns of 
 Fortune's wheel, and the certainty of the end of life, are 
 never out of Dunbar's thoughts in his latter life. Not 
 only his own fate but that of his country taught the 
 lesson which he draws in such poems as that " Of the 
 "Of the Changes of Lyfe " ^ or that " Of the Warldis Instabilitie," * 
 Changes ^^iq " scason's difference " affords him another text for 
 
 of Lyfe." 
 
 "Of the same moral in his " Meditatioun in Wyntir."^ There 
 Warldis jg beyond doubt a certain monotony in the tone of thought 
 
 Instabil- 
 
 itie." which inspires all this class of his poetry that might easily 
 become, and perhaps by some will be thought, tedious. But 
 it is saved from being really so by the skill of his verse, 
 1 P. 158. 2 P. 152. 3 p_ 232. 4 226. 5 P. 233. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxxvii 
 
 which is always pleasant to the ear, and by the fresh turn 
 he gives even to such trite topics. 
 
 In a less usual vein is the poem " Of Content,"^ which *'Of Con- 
 contains, the advice more often given than taken : — 
 
 " And 3e and I, my bredir all, 
 That in this lyfe hes lordschip small, 
 
 Lat languour not in ws imprent ; 
 Gif we not clym we tak no fall : 
 
 He hes anewch that is content." 
 
 Dunbar himself, it is evident, during the greater part of 
 his life, was unable to attain to this content. These poems 
 are the expressions of the struggles of a mind seeking for, 
 but which has not won, that prize ; and they were prob- 
 ably intended quite as much for himself as for any of his 
 brethren. Like the great German poet, he eased his pain 
 by verse. 
 
 Towards the end of his life perhaps he reached the calm 
 of old age. This seems the most probable explanation of 
 the comparative silence of his last years, when he had 
 retired from the Court and the world, and occupied his 
 thoughts with religious meditations. 
 
 This brings us to the last class of Dunbar's poetry. 
 
 X. RELIGIOUS POEMS OR HYMNS. 
 
 The transition from the moral to the religious or sacred "The 
 poetry of Dunbar is marked by " The Merle and the Nycht- f^^^^^^ 
 ingall," 2 where the contest and contrast of " earthly and Nychtir 
 divine love " is the theme, couched, by a favourite device 
 of medieval poets, in a dialogue between the two birds, and 
 1 P. 230. 2 174^ 
 
cxxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in several other poems, in which the same air is treated 
 with variations, as in the poem with the refrain — 
 
 " All erdly joy returnis in pane ; " ^ 
 
 and 
 
 " Now cumis aige quhair 3ewth hes bene, 
 And trew lufe rysis fro the splene [heart]." ^ 
 
 "The To the same period probably belongs "The Confession," 
 „ with the refrain — 
 
 fession. 
 
 " I cry The mercy, and lasar to repent," — 
 
 in which the poet makes an exhaustive declaration of his 
 sins, both of commission and omission, and of his belief in 
 the Articles of the Creed. 
 
 But most of them were written on occasion of the ser- 
 vices of the Church, and form a Christian year of a devout 
 Catholic of the sixteenth century. 
 Hymns on Thus there are four for Christmas Day,^ one for Ash- 
 ^oHhT''''' Wednesday (Dies Cineris),* and another for Lent ; ' a 
 Christian " Ballat on the Passioun," ^ two on the Resurrection, and 
 two to the Virgin, perhaps for Lady-Day.'^ 
 The series concludes with two, " On Life " — 
 
 " Quhat is this lyfe bot ane straucht way to deid ? " ^ 
 
 and " On the Warldis Vanity," ^ beginning — 
 
 " O wreche, be war ! this warld will wend the fro," 
 
 with the refrain— 
 
 " Vanitas Vanitatum, et omnia Vanitas," — 
 
 which Professor Schipper is probably right in supposing 
 were amongst Dunbar's last writings. 
 
 1 P. 76. 2 lyg^ 3 72, 322, 324, and 328. ^ p. 74. 
 
 5 p. 280. ^ p. 239. 7 Pp. 154, 156, 269, 272. 8 p. 250. ^ p. 244. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxxxix 
 
 None of these religious poems, though we may feel cer- 
 tain they were written towards the close of his life, can 
 be dated with certainty in any one year. They may have 
 been written at any moment when pious feeling was pre- 
 dominant and demanded the expression which Dunbar, 
 more truly religious than if he had assumed the cowl, 
 was well able to give. They have been generally thought 
 inferior as poetry to his earlier works ; but they are dis- 
 tinguished from poems of the same kind by other writers, 
 of which there are many specimens in the Bannatyne and 
 other MSS., by a directness of expression. There is also 
 in several a recurrence to thoughts to be found in Dun- 
 bar's other works which convince us they were his, though 
 some of them have been doubted. 
 
 Thus in the Christmas Hymn, " The Sterne is rissin of Christmas 
 our Redemptioun," ^ the supremacy of the reign of Christ ^y"^"^- 
 above all earthly kings is powerfully described in the 
 stanza — 
 
 " All empriouris, kingis, princis, and preleittis, 
 Heir nakit borne, and nvreist vp with noy, 
 Leif all 3our wofull truble and debaittis, 
 Cum, luke on the eternall King of joy ; 
 Ly all on grufe, befoir that hich grand Roy, 
 That only King of euery regioun. 
 
 Off Perce, of Ynd, of Egipt, Grece, and Troy." 
 
 In another on the same subject, the lines, "Jerusalem 
 
 reioss for Joy," ^ — 
 
 " The regeand tirrant that in the rang, 
 Herod, is exilit," — 
 
 reminds us of the description of Death as 
 
 " The Strang vnmerciful tyrand," 
 in the " Lament for the Makaris." 
 
 ^ P. 328. " p. 322. 
 
 i 
 
cxl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "Bailat In the Ballat of Our Lady,"^ certainly by Dunbar, in 
 Lady " which he uses one of the most complex metres, which 
 somewhat obscures the sense, the lines — 
 
 ** Halle, gentill nychttingale ! 
 Way stricht, cler dlcht, to wilsome wlcht, 
 That Irke bene in travale," — 
 
 bring before us in a vivid image the beautiful bird whose 
 clear song and rapid flight guide in the straight way to 
 heaven the traveller weary and worn by his earthly journey. 
 
 In the other hymn to the Virgin, to which Dunbar's 
 name is not attached, the lines — 
 
 " The blyssit sydis balr the camploun, 
 
 The quhilk, with mony bludy woundis, in stour, 
 Victoriusly dlscomfelt the dragoun 
 
 That reddy wes his peplll to devour," ^ — 
 
 Easter directly recall the hymn " On the Resurrection " — 
 
 Hymn. 
 
 " Done Is a battell on the dragon blak, 
 Our camploun Chryst confoundlt hes his force." ^ 
 
 The most impressive of all these religious poems is that 
 " On the Passioun," * in which he describes its details as one 
 who had often gazed on the pictures and images in the 
 churches, and witnessed plays representing the Passion, 
 common in his time in the churches of Scotland, as in 
 other countries, and narrates their effect on him, exciting 
 first Compassion, next Contrition and Penance for his sins. 
 Then once more he is cast down to the ground by the 
 thought of Christ's agony on the cross, till Grace comforts 
 him with the hope of the Resurrection : — 
 
 " The Lord within thlr dayls three 
 Sail low under thy lyntell bow, 
 And In thy hous sail herbrlt be 
 Thy bllsslt Salvatour Jesu." 
 
 1 P. 269. 2 p_ 273. 3 1^5, 4 239. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxli 
 
 Contrition after Confession again fills his heart. Con- 
 science accuses him of sin, but Repentance and Penance 
 prepare the house (an allegory for the soul) for Grace 
 divine to keep it 
 
 " In sicker stait, 
 Ay reddy till our Salvatour 
 
 Quhill that he come, air or lait." 
 
 He awakes (for this too is a vision), and wrote without 
 delay — 
 
 " Quhat me befell, on Gud Friday, 
 Befoir the Croce of sweit Jesu." ^ 
 
 We seem to see the penitent prostrate at the foot of the 
 cross, raised by divine power revealing to his soul the 
 mystery of the death of Christ. 
 
 ESTIMATE OF DUNBAR'S GENIUS— ITS WIDE RANGE 
 —ITS DEFECTS. 
 
 This brief sketch of the more important poems of Dun- 
 bar, for the most part in their own words, may serve, it 
 is hoped, to indicate the wide range of his subjects and his 
 mode of treating them ; to rouse, but not to satisfy the 
 reader's interest. Dunbar deals with the lowest earthly pas- 
 sions and the highest mysteries of faith ; with the meanest 
 incident of the passing hour, which, but for his verse, would 
 be forgotten ; and with the eternal verities of love, of life, 
 of death, which will be sung as long as there are poets. 
 He reflects the history of his age, but also the common 
 elements of human nature, which make the universal history 
 of man. He represents at different periods of his life 
 almost as completely, though in a mode so different from 
 
 1 P. 243. 
 
cxlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Shakespeare, not in drama, but in ballad or other short 
 poems, life as a whole, not from one but from all sides. 
 He represents, too, almost as completely, though in general 
 in a manner so different from Chaucer, not by elaborately 
 finished portraits, but by sketches of a few lines or words, 
 the characters and classes of the time, — princes, nobles, gen- 
 tlemen, and burghers, bishops, priests, and friars, physicians 
 and patients, judges, lawyers, and suitors, merchants and 
 tradesmen, wise men, impostors, and fools, evil and good 
 women. 
 
 He can tell a story, or paint a scene, or point a satire, or 
 chant a hymn, with equal ease, and his versification and 
 metre are as varied as his subjects. His moods are so 
 changeable that he can recall Horace by his proverbial 
 philosophy, Chaucer by his quiet, Rabelais by his boister- 
 ous humour, Villon and Heine by his tragic pathos, Spenser 
 by his allegory, and Dante by the poignancy of his satire. 
 Yet it would be to do him the worst injustice of criticism 
 — overpraise — to claim for him so high a place as any of 
 these except Villon. He has some well-marked deficiencies. 
 It has been justly noted that, with all his skill in rhythm, he 
 has not the pure lyric note. He plays with consummate skill 
 on the instrument of language, but his music is not vocal, like 
 that of the birds, — like that of Burns or of Shelley. He is 
 one of the poets of reflection, not one of the poets of pas- 
 sion. This deficiency may be partially accounted for by his 
 education, his vocation, his constant tendency to moralise ; 
 but the want was in his whole nature, and must be acknow- 
 ledged. Again, in spite of his familiarity with masques, 
 and power of writing dialogue, he is not a dramatic poet. 
 His attempt in this line, " The Droichis part of the Play," 
 is not one of his most successful efforts, and it is significant 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxliii 
 
 that he wrote only a single scene in a play, even a ruder 
 form of play than those of his successor Lyndsay. There 
 is a barrier between the poet who has the dramatic gift and 
 the poet who is destitute of it, almost as great as between 
 the poet and the prose writer, as two of the great poets of 
 our own time have proved by their failures. Excess of 
 thought, which Dunbar himself complains of, is fatal to the 
 dramatic author. Reflection must with him be subordinate 
 to action. The persons of the drama must be, not charac- 
 ters, but men and women acting and reacting upon each 
 other, as in life. The drama itself must not be merely one 
 or many scenes, but a series of actions with a plan or plot. 
 The dramatist must also know the theatre and have con- 
 stantly in view an audience, and the stage, and have as con- 
 stantly in view the actors. He is the architect in poetry, 
 who has to depend on a number of other workmen besides 
 himself, and the art of the painter and sculptor, however 
 great, falls short of this, or at least is different. We here 
 touch on another limitation of Dunbar, although it is closely 
 allied with his chief merit. He was not capable of a long- 
 sustained effort. " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," 
 his longest poem, is after all only a single scene and a 
 dialogue, with three characters, whose parts are too similar 
 for contrast. He is at his best when he is brief, when a 
 line or a word sets in motion in a moment a train of 
 thought. It is true, the best dramatists have passages or 
 lines which do this. They may be read in the study, as 
 Shakespeare has been by Coleridge, or as the other drama- 
 tists have been by Lamb. But the dramatist must not, at 
 the peril of success in the representation of his plays, dis- 
 tract his audience from following the progress of the drama. 
 Because of this, Goethe has failed as a dramatist in his 
 
cxliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 greatest work. The acted " Faust " is very different from 
 the written poem. 
 
 Mr Matthew Arnold has praised Wordsworth for the 
 amount of good verse he has written, which, while admit- 
 ting that he has written much that is not good, he claims to 
 exceed that of the other poets of his time. For Dunbar 
 an opposite claim may be put forward. The total amount of 
 his verses is not great, but in them there is scarcely a weak 
 line. Varied as is his style, and although there are, of 
 course, degrees of merit in his poetry, he is always direct, 
 clear, and vigorous. Another, and it is the last and most 
 important limitation of Dunbar, is that he is primarily a 
 local, though not a temporary poet. This was due to the 
 place and the language in which he wrote. Scotland was 
 and is a small country, and he wrote chiefly, not even for 
 all Scotland, but for that part of it which knew the Court 
 of James IV., in a dialect now seldom used for literature. 
 Hence he requires unfortunately to be commented on and 
 to be interpreted. He does not appeal directly to the 
 people, and he requires an educated audience. 
 
 COMPARISON OF DUNBAR WITH PRECEDING 
 SCOTTISH POETS. 
 
 When Dunbar is compared with the Scottish poets who 
 preceded him, his superiority shows itself in his original- 
 ity, his versatility, and the melody of his verse. The three 
 most famous of these were chroniclers in verse rather than 
 poets. They can scarcely claim the name of makers. The 
 ' Chronicle ' of Andrew of Wyntown, of great value as an 
 early contribution to the history of Scotland, which it often 
 treats more faithfully than the prose ' Chronicle ' of John of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxlv 
 
 Fordoun, has little poetical merit. The 'Bruce ' of John Bar- 
 bour is a biography in rhyme of its hero, partly founded on 
 history and partly on tradition ; but, with the exception of 
 a few fine passages, as the apostrophe to Freedom, it has 
 only one poetical quality — the easy flow of its simple 
 rhyming lines. The 'Wallace' of Blind Harry, a less 
 trustworthy record, is inferior in its versification. It has 
 some passages of pith and rugged force, due to the great- 
 ness of its subject, but cannot be deemed a great poem. 
 
 All these writers merely put into verse, for facility of 
 recollection, what had been handed down by learned or 
 popular tradition. Dunbar did not seek his subjects in 
 tradition or history. 
 
 The earliest poetry of Scotland, as of other countries, 
 was alliterative, and is represented by such works as 
 Thomas the Rhymer's prophecies, the Romances from 
 the Arthurian Legend, the "Auntyrs of Arthur," of 
 Sir Gawain and Sir Tristram, and a few satirical poems, 
 as "Cockelbie's Sow" and the "Houlat" of Holland. 
 This alliterative species of poetry had been continued 
 by some of the other poets Dunbar mentions in his 
 " Lament," as Sir Gilbert Hay in the romance of " Alex- 
 ander the Great." Dunbar himself, as we have seen, did 
 not entirely drop its use, though generally using it in com- 
 bination with rhyme. He did not, however, follow the 
 older poets in making the common romance of the middle 
 ages, or the popular ballads of his own country, the sub- 
 ject of his verse. Arthur and Gawain, like Robin Hood 
 and Adam Bell, are merely glanced at and passed by. He 
 chose his subjects from the present, not from the past. 
 
 This is the more noteworthy, as his patron, James IV., 
 did all he could to revive the glories of Arthur. He had 
 
cxlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his round table at Stirling, and his mimic tournaments of 
 its knights. He named one of his sons Arthur, and per- 
 haps instituted an order of knighthood in Arthur's honour. 
 But Dunbar was not a man to allow himself to be drawn 
 away from his natural bent. When he wrote, as he some- 
 times had to do, verses to order, it was against the grain. 
 He complains more than once that the inspiration would 
 not come at the royal command. Although the alliterative 
 romantic poets preceded him in time, they were not, any 
 more than the metrical chroniclers, his poetic ancestors. 
 He belonged to the line which began with Chaucer, was 
 continued by Gower and Lydgate, and had already, in the 
 " Kingis Quair " of James L, and the poems of Henryson, 
 the Dunfermline schoolmaster, representatives in Scotland. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHAUCER ON DUNBAR. 
 
 These writers, although original poets, are more di- 
 rectly imitators and continuators of Chaucer's style than 
 Dunbar. Dunbar, while he gratefully acknowledges the 
 father of English poetry as his master, takes from him 
 chiefly his language, which often finds parallels ; but as 
 regards the substance of his poems, only the tale of " The 
 Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," and the verses on his 
 Empty Purse, show traces of imitation. The characters 
 of the two men, which are stamped on their poetry, were too 
 distinct to allow of direct imitation. The cheerful, gentle, 
 genial Englishman stands in marked contrast to the satir- 
 ical, severe, and sad Scot. Both are full of humour ; but 
 how different is the smile which ripples over the smooth 
 verses of Chaucer from the grim and grotesque laughter of 
 Dunbar ! To James I. Dunbar makes no allusion. In one 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxlvii 
 
 point — the poetry of love — he is Dunbar's superior. But he 
 is the author of only one poem. Henryson, in the sweet- 
 ness of his verse, and uniform purity of his moral tone, ex- 
 cels Dunbar, but has not the same faculty of invention 
 or so. great a variety either of metres or of subjects. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH POETS ON DUNBAR. 
 
 It is, if anywhere, from the French poetry that Dunbar 
 may seem to have borrowed some of the substance of his 
 thoughts, as he certainly did some of the forms of his 
 poems. The absence of any allusion to the famous 
 masters of the Ballades and the Rondeaux — to Villon 
 and Charles of Orleans — is singular. We have again to 
 remember that some of his poems are probably lost, — 
 amongst them, those he wrote in France, unless his muse 
 was silent at the period of life when it usually is most 
 ready to sing. But there is another reason for his passing 
 over the French poets. He had no real sympathy with 
 them, although he could not remain unaffected by their 
 melody and metre, and by the sweet melancholy which 
 seems wedded to their artistic forms of verse, and is ex- 
 pressed in their burdens and monotonous but telling re- 
 frains. But here, too, he was original. He was never the 
 slave of any form of metre or of poem, but was able to 
 bring all into his service. As he is freer when he is 
 alliterative than the old alliterative poets, so he is less 
 strict in his use of the ballade, which does not conform to 
 the French rules. If a French critic would probably deny 
 him the praise of good taste as well as correctness, and 
 blame him for protruding the moral, an English critic may 
 claim for him a more manly style and a healthier view of life 
 
cxlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The result is that Dunbar used the three kinds of poetry 
 which preceded him — the Alliterative of northern England 
 and southern Scotland, the Chaucerian of southern England, 
 and the French of Villon and the poets of the Renaissance 
 — but did not allow his originality and independence to be 
 overpowered. He is a representative of his country, which 
 enriched its thought from the stores of other lands — 
 England, France, and Germany — but remained true to 
 itself. 
 
 COMPARISON WITH BURNS. 
 
 The versatility of Dunbar is even more remarkable than 
 his originality. In this he has outstripped not merely his 
 predecessors but his successors, — Montgomery, Allan Ram- 
 say, Fergusson, and Scott. They chiefly cultivated one 
 kind of poetry. Burns alone can boast of the same variety 
 — now comic, now tragic, now satirical, now moral, now 
 religious. Burns, indeed, is his chief competitor — his 
 superior in the poetry of love, in the poetry of pathos, in 
 natural imagery, in lyric fire, in sympathetic charm ; his 
 equal at least in satire and in sarcasm, perhaps in moral 
 and religious poetry. But Burns has not a firmer hand, 
 and does not so readily pass from one mood to another. 
 Both of them, and indeed all their countrymen, were denied 
 the dramatic gift. Scotland ceased to be an independent 
 country before the theatre came to its full birth, and after 
 its birth Calvinism long forbade a fit audience, even if there 
 had been a poet who could write tragedy or comedy. If 
 the future should produce a Scottish dramatist, the past of 
 his country has furnished him with ample material for the 
 drama. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cxlix 
 
 DUNBAR'S MASTERY OF METRE. 
 
 The mastery of metre, which is the third point of Dun- 
 bar's excellence, has often been remarked. 
 
 It has been carefully studied by Professor Schipper in 
 his work/ by far the best which has been written on that 
 subject. Probably it was the quality which first drew the 
 attention of this German author to Dunbar. The present 
 introduction is indebted to Mr M'Neill for a valuable 
 note, which deals with the intricacies and niceties of 
 this difficult topic. Here only one or two points can be 
 touched. Dunbar well stands the test in which many 
 poets who have been great masters in metre fail. With 
 him sound never prevails over sense. His metres are used 
 to attract, and do not distract the reader from the subject. 
 How well he uses his command of metre to help to express 
 the subject may be seen in the erratic form he selected for 
 the extravagant burlesque of Kind Kyttok," the tripping 
 measure of the " Satire on Donald Owre," the jingling 
 peal of the verses on St Giles in the " Dirge," the solemn 
 refrain of the " Lament for the Makaris," like the tolling of 
 a funeral bell, and in many other of his poems. The best 
 English poets since Wordsworth, it might almost be said 
 since Shakespeare, have generally preferred simpler and less 
 artificial forms of verse, especially the stately blank verse 
 which the genius of Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and 
 Browning has adapted to so many varieties, or the rhyming 
 couplets of the verse called heroic, which the vigour of 
 Dryden and the grace of Pope made for a time the classic 
 style of English poetry. The sonnet almost alone remains 
 in frequent use of the forms which English poetry borrowed 
 
 1 ' Altenglische Metrik.' 
 
cl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from France and Italy. The English and Scottish ballads 
 are only in name the same as the French ballades, and 
 their beauty and variety is due to nature, and not to art. 
 
 But the cadence and melody of the forms it is scarcely 
 just to call artificial, but which are subject to more strict 
 and complex rules, cannot be denied. A reaction has 
 recently set in amongst our younger poets whose admirers 
 will do full justice to Dunbar's skill as a metrist. It was 
 no slight feat to bring the forcible but rough dialect which 
 was his mother tongue to speak in the same measures as 
 French and Italian verse. Yet in a few of his poems he 
 has not escaped the danger of over-subtlety in metres ; and 
 his use of so many of the French varieties gives his poetry 
 a sort of foreign complexion to the modern English reader, 
 who, if he does not consider this a charm, will deem it an 
 imperfection. 
 
 COMPARISON WITH HORACE, VILLON, HEINE, AND 
 ALBERT DURER. 
 
 If we pass beyond the narrow bounds of Scotland, the 
 three European poets with whom Dunbar may best be 
 compared and contrasted are Horace amongst the ancient, 
 Villon amongst the later medieval or Renaissance, and Heine 
 amongst the modern classics. Like Horace, Dunbar was a 
 poet of the Court, yet a moralist and a satirist of its vices. 
 Like Horace, he seized happy occasions for putting com- 
 mon thoughts into perfect poetic expression. Like Horace, 
 he was a master of words and metres. But the Scottish 
 poet has not the incomparable grace and felicity of the 
 Roman. The Court of James IV. was a different school 
 and audience from the Court of Augustus. The broad 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cli 
 
 Scottish dialect, though one of the strongest of all dialects, 
 never became, like Latin, one of the classical languages of 
 the world. To Villon, Dunbar stands nearer in point of 
 time and manner ; but the similarity is apparent and on 
 the surface, rather than real and deep. Both poets preached 
 from the same texts the vanity of human wishes, the vicissi- 
 tudes of life, and the inevitable end. But they had learned 
 these texts in different schools, and their sermons have differ- 
 ent, indeed opposite conclusions. Villon contemplated, with- 
 out flinching, the scaffold as the end of life, and did not care 
 to look beyond, content with enjoying the present as best 
 he could. Dunbar was discontented with life as it was; and 
 though he occasionally was blithe and merry, and could 
 take part in the amusements which turned the mind from 
 despondent thoughts, he always had in view the life to 
 come. The one was, it must be said, fundamentally an 
 irreligious, the other a religious poet. Heine has the same, 
 perhaps a more daring freedom, in the subjects he treats — 
 the same sense of the vanity of life, the same keen satiric 
 edge. Both waged war, as most satirists have done, with 
 the conventions and cant of their age. Like Dunbar, 
 Heine is at his best in short poems, in apt words and 
 memorable lines. But though not so destitute of religious 
 feeling as Villon, Heine is at heart a mocking-bird — the 
 saddest of all poets. He is the superior of Dunbar in 
 pathos, and in the melody of song ; his inferior, although 
 gifted with more talent, by the lack of reverence and of 
 hope. Another less obvious comparison is tempting. The 
 artistic qualities of Dunbar have more than once led to the 
 use of language in this sketch borrowed from the sister 
 arts. Perhaps his nearest parallel is to be found in another 
 German, his contemporary, the etcher of the " Melancolia," 
 
clii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the " Knight and the Devil," and the " Prodigal Son." If 
 the parallel with Albert Durer is admitted, it is a striking 
 proof of the deep current of common thought running 
 through Europe at the period which immediately preceded 
 the Reformation, and swaying the master-minds of different 
 countries. Such comparisons, imperfect as they must be, 
 may perhaps aid a little in bringing home to the readers of 
 poetry in the present day the character and position of this 
 not forgotten but not yet adequately known poet of Scot- 
 land, who wrote when the medieval was giving way to the 
 modern spirit. 
 
 It requires, it must be confessed, not merely careful 
 study but a mental effort to appreciate Dunbar as he 
 deserves. The language in which he wrote, once so famil- 
 iar, now requires to be interpreted even to his own coun- 
 trymen. The manners of his time are even more remote 
 from ours. The modes, not merely of expression but of 
 thought, are different. But when these difficulties are 
 overcome, the reader finds that he has listened to a true 
 poet, who has illustrated the history and language of his 
 country, and has also spoken words seasonable for his 
 own and other times. 
 
APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION 
 
APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Note. — The Society is indebted to Mr W. Maitland Anderson, M.A., Librarian of 
 the University of St Andrews, for an exact transcript of the entries in its 
 Records. The excerpts from the Public Records of Scotland have been taken 
 from Mr Laing's edition. The Historical Curator of the Records of Scotland, 
 Mr Dickson, a member of the Council of the Society, has been good enough 
 to search the Records subsequent to 1513, and corroborates Mr Laing's 
 statement that there is no reference to Dunbar to be found in them. 
 
 I.— REFERENCES TO DUNBAR IN THE RECORDS. 
 
 I. Excerpts from Acta Facultatis Artium, St Andrews. 
 [1477] Nomina Determinancium Anni septua^^ septimi. 
 actp 
 
 49 actp 
 
 geor. 
 
 brekley 
 
 solut. 
 
 An. 
 
 Dundas 
 
 solut. 
 
 Ro. 
 
 Prestone ' 
 
 solut- 
 
 la. 
 
 biirne 
 
 paup. 
 
 An. 
 
 butour 
 
 paup. 
 
 Ri. 
 
 patonson 
 
 paup. 
 
 Wil. 
 
 Du{y:C)bar 
 
 solui- 
 
 geor. 
 
 Jhonstoiln 
 
 solut. 
 
 Donal. 
 
 gray 
 
 paup. 
 
 lo. 
 
 haburne 
 
 solut. 
 
 Ro. 
 
 betone 
 
 solut. 
 
 Wil. 
 
 peblys 
 
 ml. solut. 
 
 Wil. 
 
 stabil 
 
 paup. 
 
 he. 
 
 carmychel 
 
 solut. 
 
 geor. 
 
 crychtone 
 
 solut. 
 
 Vp 
 
 ramsay 
 
 solut. 
 
 Wal. 
 
 guthre 
 
 paup. 
 
 lo. 
 
 logy 
 
 paup. 
 
 2pactp Wil. Du{x\)bar solui- [DQbar] 
 
 3p actj 
 
cliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 [1479] Nomina licenciatorum Anni septua"^^ noni. 
 
 prior ecSlie 
 politane 
 andree.^ 
 
 m. 
 
 Johannes 
 
 hepburn 
 
 m. 
 
 Georgep 
 
 breclay 
 
 m. 
 
 Robertp 
 
 beton 
 
 m. 
 
 Wilelnip 
 
 Dubar 
 
 m. 
 
 Georp 
 
 Jonston 
 
 m. 
 
 Hericp 
 
 carmichael 
 
 m. 
 
 Georp 
 
 crechton 
 
 m. 
 
 Robertus 
 
 Pston 
 
 
 Alexf 
 
 lewynton 
 
 m. 
 
 Dop Jacobp 
 
 burn. 
 
 metro- 
 sancti 
 
 2. Excerpts from the Public Records relative to 
 William Dunbar. 
 
 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer oj Scotland. 
 
 1491. Item to my Lord Boythwhell quilk the king gart him git 
 July 16. to the schipmen of the Katryn besyd North berwic quhen 
 the Imbassatouris past in Franss, xl demyss, 
 
 xxvj ti XV. s. iiij. d. 
 
 Item til a Priest that wrayt the instrumentis and otheris 
 letteris that past with the Imbassatouris in France, 
 
 xxxvj s. 
 
 Privy Seal Register, Vol, ii.fol. 9. 
 
 1500. A Lettre maid to Maifler Williame Dunbar of the gift of 
 Aug. 15. ten ii. of penfioune to be pait to him of our Souerane 
 
 gratis. Lordis cofiferis, be the Thefaurare, for al the dais of his 
 life, or quhil he be promovit be oure Souerane Lord to a 
 benefice of xl ti or abone, &c. de data, xvto Auguflj, et 
 regni Regis xiij, [1500.] Per Signaturam. 
 
 Henry VH.'s Privy Purse Expenses, printed in Bent ley's ' Historic a,^ 
 1831, ^. 126, from Transcript in British Museum, addl. MSS. 7099. 
 
 31 Dec. 1 501. To the Rhymer of Scotland in rewarde, £f>^ 13s. 4d. 
 7 Jan. 1502. £fi, 13s. 4d. to a Rhymer of Scotland. 
 
 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer. 
 
 1501. Item, to Maifler William Dunbar in his penfioun of Mer- 
 May 23. tymes bipafl, be command of ane precept, . . v ii. 
 July 20. Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of the 
 
 Witfonday terme bipafi;, be command of ane precept, v H 
 Dec. 20. Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, quhilk was payit to him 
 efter he com furth of Ingland v ti. 
 
 1 This designation has been added to the entry of the name at a later time. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clv 
 
 1502. 
 July 9. 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 1503. 
 June 14. 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 1503-4. 
 
 March 17, 
 
 1504. 
 May 28. 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 1505. 
 May 4. 
 Aug. II. 
 
 Nov. II. 
 
 1505- 6. 
 Jan. 27. 
 
 1506. 
 June 2. 
 Aug. II. 
 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 1506- 7. 
 Jan. 4. 
 
 1507. 
 May 23. 
 Nov. 12. 
 
 1507-8. 
 March 15. 
 
 1508. 
 June 15. 
 26. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, fic like, [his penfioun of 
 Witfonday terme bipafl,] v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of the faid 
 terme of Mertymes, v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his half ^eris penfioun 
 of the faid terme [of Witfonday laft], . . . v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of Mer- 
 tymes fik lyke, v ti. 
 
 Item, the xvij day of March, to the Kingis offerand at 
 Maifler William Dunbar's firfl mes, vij fr. cr. 
 
 Sm. iiij. ti. xviijs. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun fic like, 
 [of the terme of Witfonday bipafl,] . . . v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler Dunbar, his penfioun ficlike, [of the terme 
 oif Mertymes bipafl,] v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun ficlike, [of 
 the terme of Witfonday,] v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, be the Kingis com- 
 mand, xlijs. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of Mer- 
 tymes, V ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, be the Kingis command, 
 for caus he v^antit his goun at ^ule, . . . v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of terme 
 forefaid, [of Witfonday,] v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, be the Kingis com- 
 mand, V ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of the faid 
 terme [of Mertymes], v ti 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, in recompenfation for 
 his goun, V ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his half ^eris penfioun 
 of the faid terme [of Witfonday], . . . v ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of the faid 
 
 terme [of Mertymes], x ti. 
 
 & new ekit. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, be the Kingis com- 
 mand, V ti. 
 
 Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, his penfioun of the faid 
 terme [of Witfonday], x ti. 
 
 Item, the xxij day of Junij, to Maifler William Dunbar, be 
 the Kingis command, iij ti. x s. 
 
 The Treasurer's Accounts from August 1508 to August 151 1 have not been 
 preserved. 
 
 k 
 
clvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Privy Seal Register, Vol. iv.foL 80. 
 
 1 5 10. A Lettre maid to Maifler William Dunbar, of the gift of 
 Aug. 26. ane 3eirly penfioun of iiij^x [four-score] ti. to be pait to 
 gratis. him at Mertymes and Witfonday of the Kingis cofferis 
 be the Thefaurar that now is, and beis for the tyme, or 
 quhill he be promouit to [ane] benefice of jc [one hun- 
 dred] ti. or abone, &c. ; with command to the faid The- 
 faurar to pay the famyn, and to the Auditouris of chekker 
 to allow, &c. At Edinburgh the xxvj day of Auguft the 
 3ere forfaid [anno regni Regis xxiij, 15 10.] 
 
 Per Signaturam. 
 
 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer. 
 
 15 1 1, Nov. ) Item, to Maifler William Dunbar takand termlie fourtj ti. 
 
 15 12, May, ) of Martimes and Witfonday lafl, . . Sm. Ixxx. ti. 
 1511-12. Item, to Maifler William Dunbar, for his 3ule leveray, vj 
 Jan. 23. elnis ane quartar Parife blak to be hyme ane gowne, 
 
 price eln xl s Sm. xij ti. x. s. 
 
 Item, allowit to the faid Maifler William, attour his 
 leveray was tane at 3ule in anno V^xj. [15 11], v. quar- 
 taris scarlete, price .... iij ti. ij s. vj. d. 
 
 1 5 12. Item, the xxiiij day of December, to Maifler William 
 Dec. 24. Dunbar his Mertymes fee, be the Kingis command, xl ti. 
 
 15 13. Item, the first day of Aprile, to Maifler William Dun- 
 April I. bar, xlij s. 
 
 14. Item, the xiiij day of Aprile, gevin to Maifler William 
 
 Dunbar, xlij s. 
 
 May 14. Item, the xiiij day of Maij, to Maifler William Dunbar in 
 his penfioun, Ivj 5. 
 
 The Treasurer's Accounts from Aug. 8, 1513, to June 1515, have not been pre- 
 served. In those of a subsequent date, Dunbar's name does not appear. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 civil 
 
 II.— TABLE OF DUNBAR'S POEMS ACCORDING TO 
 PROBABLE ORDER OF THEIR DATES. 
 
 To arrange Dunbar's poems in order of date is admittedly difficult— 
 so difficult, that none of his editors have attempted it except Professor 
 Schipper ; and the most recent of his biographers, Mr Thomas Bayne, 
 in the ' Dictionary of National Biography/ says that only one of the 
 poems, "The Thistle and the Rose," can be accurately dated. Yet 
 the attempt is worth making, for the light it throws on his life and 
 the progress of his thought. Thanks to the facts discovered in 
 the Records, chiefly by the research of Mr George Chalmers and 
 Mr David Laing, and to the use made of them by Professor Schipper, 
 some points are now certain. The main divisions followed in this 
 Table of — I. Poems written before 1503; IL Poems written in relation 
 to the Queen's marriage, 1 501-1503 ; IIL Poems written between 1503 
 and 1513; IV. Poems written after 1513, — are well established. The 
 dates of a few poems in these divisions are also ascertained, as that in 
 Praise of London, written for Christmas 1501 ; "The Thistle and the 
 Rose," written on 9th May 1503 ; the Song of Welcome to Margaret, 
 written for her Wedding, 8th August 1503 ; the Epitaph on Donald 
 Owre, written in 1506; the Satires on the Abbot of Tungland, 
 written in 1507; the Ballad on Bernard Stewart, written between 9th 
 May and 9th June 1508 ; his Elegy, written shortly after the latter date ; 
 the " Lament for the Makaris," written in 1507 or 1508 ; the Panegyric 
 on Aberdeen, written in 151 1 ; the " Orisoun, quhen the Gouernour 
 passed in France," written in June 1517; and its sequel, on his 
 Absence in France, written probably in 1520. For the rest, only 
 conjectures can be made, and it appears impossible to give the 
 precise years of the poems, with the exceptions above noted. It will be 
 found that the present writer, while he has exercised an independent 
 judgment and explained its grounds, has generally come to the same 
 conclusions as Professor Schipper. Where he has differed from that 
 writer, it has always been with hesitation. There is an internal har- 
 mony in the tone of Dunbar's writings, although that tone varied with 
 different periods of his life, which gives the best clue to the time 
 when individual poems were composed ; and when this is found to 
 agree with the indications, often slight, afforded by allusions to par- 
 ticular persons or writers, the opinion that the correct date has been 
 found is confirmed. A subsidiary reason for making the Table has 
 been to give the readers of this edition an easy mode of referring, as 
 it is hoped many of them will do, to Professor Schipper's very in- 
 structive work, " Das Leben und Gedichte von William Dunbar : " 
 Berlin, 1884. 
 
clviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. Poems probably written before the Marriage of 
 James IV. and Margaret Tudor, 1503. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 1. A New Year's Gift to the King. 
 
 This appears to have been wTitten before Dun- 
 bar desired a benefice, and looked only for a gift 
 out of " Fraunce crownes," — line 18. 
 
 2. The Tod and the Lamb; or, The Wowing of 
 
 the King quhen he wes in Dumfermeli?ig. 
 
 Evidently written before the king's marriage. 
 The king was at Dunfermline on 15th Jan. 1489- 
 90, and again on 24th Jan. 1490-91. (Treasurer's 
 Accounts.) 
 
 3. Ane Brash of Wowing. 
 
 " In secreit place this hyndir nycht." 
 
 The style and subject indicate this was an 
 early poem of Dunbar. The expression, "this 
 hyndir nycht, " occurs both in this and the preced- 
 ing poem, and also in that " On Deeming." 
 
 4. The Dregy inaid to the Kyng, bydand our 
 
 lam 
 
 in Striuilli?tg. 
 
 Written after 1494, when the king founded the 
 Monastery of the Observantines at Stirling, but 
 before his marriage. There is no reference to 
 the queen, but only a ' ' cumpany of lordis and 
 knychtis," at Edinburgh, — line 15. 
 
 Aganis the Solistaris in Court. 
 
 Dunbar's "humill cheir and face," and his 
 confidence in "the kingis grace" as sufficient — 
 so different from the later more querulous peti- 
 tions — indicate this was an early poem. 
 
 Page 
 256 
 
 136 
 
 247 
 
 112 
 
 206 
 
 6. The Tiia Mariit Wenien and the Wedo. 
 
 Certainly written before 1508, when it was 
 printed, and probably several years before, from 
 its subject, and the complete alliteration of its 
 verses. 
 
 30 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clix 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Page 
 146 
 
 The Twa Cummeris. 
 
 "Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday." 
 
 This is in the same vein as No. 6, and probably 
 written about the same time. 
 
 8. The Freiris of Berwik. 
 
 If by Dunbar, the style and subject point to its 
 being an early poem, written perhaps after a visit 
 to Berwick on one of his early journeys. The 
 appearance of the pretended page, a familiar 
 spirit ' ' in Hknes of a freir, " and ' ' in habeit 
 blak," that of the Franciscans, is quite in Dun- 
 bar's manner of ' ' The Visitation of St Francis," 
 p. 131. 
 
 9. The Ballad of Kynd Kittok. 
 
 This, though not ascribed to Dunbar by name, 
 is so much in his style as to be almost certainly 
 by him. It was printed in 1508, and written 
 probably several years before, when the king was 
 more in use to visit Falkland than after his 
 marriage. The alliteration also favours the view 
 that it was one of Dunbar's early works. 
 
 2. Poems written about the time of the Betrothal and 
 Marriage of James IV. and Margaret Tudor, i 501 -1503. 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 10. Learning vain without guid Lyfe. 
 
 224 
 
 
 Written at Oxinfurde. 
 
 
 
 Of uncertain date, but Dunbar's visit to Eng- 
 
 
 
 land in 1501 with the Scottish ambassadors is the 
 
 
 
 most probable time for his having been at Ox- 
 
 
 
 ford, where it is said to have been written. 
 
 
clx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 Page 
 164 
 
 176 
 
 184 
 
 166 
 
 165 
 
 207 
 
 II. In Praise of London. 
 
 Christmas 1501, when it was recited at the 
 feast given by the Lord Mayor to the Scottish 
 ambassadors. 
 
 12. The Goldyn Targe. 
 
 Written in May 1503. 
 
 13. Beauty and the Prisoner. 
 
 "Sen that I am a presoneir." 
 
 Probably written about the same time as the 
 preceding. The reference to "Matremony, that 
 nobill king," as putting Sklandir to flight, points 
 to this. The slander perhaps related to the king's 
 connection with Lady Margaret Drummond, or 
 to her sudden death along with her sister in 1502, 
 which gave rise to a suspicion of poisoning. 
 
 14. The Thistle and the Rose. 
 
 Written on the occasion of the royal mar- 
 riage, and dated 9th May (1503), — line 189. 
 
 15. Welcome of Margaret as Queen of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 " Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre." 
 
 Written to welcome Margaret on her arrival 
 in Scotland, and sung at the banquet after her 
 wedding, 8th August 1503. 
 
 16. Ane Littil Interlud of the Droichis part of 
 the Play. 
 
 This may have been one of the masques or plays 
 got up to entertain the queen on her coming to 
 Scotland. Its allusions point to its having been 
 acted at Edinburgh. 
 
 Page 
 276 
 
 164 
 
 183 
 
 279 
 
3. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Poems probably written between 1503 and 15 
 
 clxi 
 
 13- 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Page 
 
 17. To the Queen. 
 
 " Gladethe thoue Qiieyne of Scottis re- 
 gioun." 
 
 From the reference to the hopes of the birth of 
 an heir, probably written before 1506. 
 
 224 1 8. Against Treason. 
 
 Epitaph on Donald Owre. 
 
 " In vice most vicius he excellis." 
 
 Donald Owre or Dubh (the Black), son of 
 Angus, Lord of the Isles, raised his clansmen 
 and adherents at Christmas 1503, and was taken 
 prisoner and committed to Edinburgh Castle in 
 1506. This poem must have been written shortly 
 after. 
 
 151 19. Tidings from the Session. 
 
 The ambulatory Sessions of James I. were 
 succeeded by the Daily Council, fixed at Edin- 
 burgh by James IV. in 1503. This poem has 
 been supposed to refer to the former Court, but 
 its contents are more applicable to the latter, 
 and the name of Session or Sitting was probably 
 still retained for the Daily Council. 
 
 130 20. Lady Solistaris at Court. 
 
 " Thir ladyis fair, That makis repair." 
 
 This, like the preceding poem, refers to the 
 fixed Court at Edinburgh, and was probably 
 written after 1503. 
 
 147 
 
 21. Aganis the Solistaris in Court. 
 
 This seems to apply to the Court of the king 
 rather than the Courts of Law, but, from the 
 similarity of title, may be about the same date 
 as the preceding. 
 
clxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 22. Satire on Edinburgh. 
 
 The reference in lines 57 and 58 to the "repair 
 of this regioun " to Edinburgh for the Court and 
 the Session, indicates this also to have been 
 composed after 1503. 
 
 23. Against Swearing ; or^ The DeviVs Inquest. 
 
 " This nycht in my sleip I wes agast." 
 
 This satire on the oaths of the different crafts 
 and classes of the capital seems to belong to the 
 same time as the Satire on Edinburgh. 
 
 24. To the Quene. 
 
 This poem, written on Pastern's Eve (Shrove 
 Tuesday), must have been composed after 1503, 
 and from its subject, probably some years after. 
 
 25. Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer. 
 
 This poem also was probably written some 
 years after the queen's marriage, and from the 
 reference to the Master Almoner, Dr Babington, 
 who was made Dean of Aberdeen in 1507, prob- 
 ably before that date. 
 
 26. Ane Ballat of the Fenyit Freir of Tung- 
 
 land. 
 
 The date of the pretended flight, with vdngs, 
 of John Damian, the impostor Abbot of Tung- 
 land, fixes this poem as written about October 
 1507. 
 
 27. The Birth of Antichrist. 
 
 "Lucina schynning in silence of the nicht." 
 
 This also has a reference to the Abbot's flight, 
 lines 44 and 45. 
 
 28. The Dream ; or, A General Satire. 
 
 " Devorit with drem, devysing in my 
 slummer." 
 
 The stanza beginning line 46 points to 1507 or 
 1508 as its probable date. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxiii 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Page 
 
 72&254 
 
 206 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 29. How Dumbar wes desyrd to be ane Freir ; 
 
 or, The Visitation of St Francis. 
 
 Lines 31 and 32 point at least to this having 
 been written many years after the period of Dun- 
 bar's novitiate as a friar, v^^hich period was prob- 
 ably between 1479-gi. 
 
 30. The Fly ting of Dunbar and Kennedie. 
 
 This was written before 1508, when it was 
 printed by Chepman and Myllar. Its date is not 
 certain, but the allusion in it to Kennedy's 
 " laithly luge that wes the lippir mennis " 
 appears to refer to Glentigh, acquired by Ken- 
 nedy on 8th December 1504 ; while the allusion 
 to Stobo, who died in the first half of 1505, as 
 still living, places it between these two dates. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 Page 
 
 II 
 
 290 31. Lament for the Makar is. 48 
 
 This also was printed in 1508, and probably 
 written shortly before that date. 
 
 86 & 250 32. My heid did 'lak ysternicht. 254 
 
 Uncertain date, but perhaps written during 
 the same illness as the Lament. 
 
 195 33" The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis. ny 
 
 Written on the 1 5th February, the day before 
 Fastern's Eve, i6th February 1507. The reference 
 to the Abbot of Tungland in hne 12 points to 
 this year as its probable date. 
 
 201 34. The Turnament of the Tel "^our and Sowtaris. 
 
 Written at the same time as the preceding, of 
 which it is a continuation. 
 
 204 35. The A mendis to the Tel '^ouris and Sowtaris. 
 
 Written soon after the preceding poem. 
 
 127 
 
 225 36. The Testament of Mr A ndro Kennedy. 
 
 Printed by Chepman and Myllar in 1508, and 
 so written before that year. 
 
 54 
 
clxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 Page 
 222 
 
 37- 
 
 Ofane Blak-Moir. 
 
 Probably written on occasion of the Tourna- 
 ment in honour of the Black Lady in June 1507. 
 
 Page 
 201 
 
 290 
 
 38. 
 
 The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart. 
 
 Written between gth May 1508, when Stewart 
 arrived in Scotland, and his death, on 9th June 
 1508. 
 
 59 
 
 292 
 
 39- 
 
 Elegy on the Death of Bernard Stewart. 
 
 Written shortly after his death, 9th June 1508. 
 
 63 
 
 186 
 
 40. 
 
 To a Ladye. 
 
 This and the next poems may have been 
 written before, but more probably after, 1503. 
 
 223 
 
 306 
 
 41. 
 
 Be y ane Luvar, think y nocht y suld. 
 
 Of uncertain date, but probably about the same 
 time as the preceding. 
 
 162 
 
 ... 
 
 42. 
 
 Fane ivald I Luve, bat qiihair ahowt ? 
 
 The conclusion of this poem is in the same 
 strain as the preceding, and it is probably about 
 the same date. 
 
 308 
 
 ... 
 
 43- 
 
 Gif y 7i)ald Lufe and Luvit he. 
 
 Similar in tone to, and probably about the 
 same date as the preceding. 
 
 312 
 
 187 
 
 44. 
 
 To a Ladye. Quhone he list to feyne. 
 
 In this poem Dunbar finally abandons love, 
 and his hopes turn to the desire for a post or a 
 pension. 
 
 245 
 
 188 
 
 45- 
 
 Quha will behald of Luve the chance. 
 
 Written also after he had given up thoughts of 
 love. 
 
 172 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxv 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Page 
 
 46. Of James Doig^ Kepar of the Quenis War- 
 
 This must have been written after the queen's 
 marriage ; and as Doig entered her service in 
 1503, and continued in it till 1523, it may have 
 been written any time between these dates, but 
 most probably about 1507-8. 
 
 218 
 
 47. Of the same James ^ quht 
 him. 
 
 he had plesett 
 
 220 
 
 245 
 
 294 
 
 This, from its terms, must have been written a 
 httle later than the preceding. 
 
 48. Of Sir Thomas Nor ray. 
 
 If, as is probable, the Quhentyne referred to in 
 line 37 was Quintyn Schaw, who died shortly 
 before 1508, — ' ' Lament for the Makaris," line 86, 
 — and as Currie, line 43, died in 1506, this poem 
 may be dated between 1503, when Norray first 
 appears, and 1508. 
 
 49. Complaint against Mure. 
 
 Mure is unknown, but ' ' Cuddy Rig the Drum- 
 fress fuill," line 24, appears between 1504 and 
 1512 in the Treasurer's Accounts, which gives an 
 approximate date for this poem. 
 
 50. Faine wald /, with all diligence. 
 
 This seems to refer to attacks upon his Satire, 
 perhaps by the persons referred to in the preced- 
 ing poem. 
 
 51. To the King, on his Empty Purse. 
 
 '* Sanct Saluatour ! send siluer sorrow." 
 
 This, and the nine following poems, were pro- 
 bably written between 1503 and 1510, when Dun- 
 bar's pension being increased to the large sum of 
 ;^8o, probably his complaints ceased. This 
 seems one of the earliest, — either soon after, or 
 possibly before, 1503. 
 
clxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 52. To the King, that he war Johne Thomo- 
 
 sunis Man. 
 
 This must have been written, and probably 
 some years, after the king's marriage. 
 
 53. To the King, quhen mony Bejtefices vakit. 
 
 Probably written between 1503 and 1510. 
 
 54. To the King, after the Benefices were filled 
 
 lip. 
 
 Written soon after the preceding. 
 
 55. To the King, recalling his Services. 
 
 " Schir, 3it remembir as of befoir." 
 
 This appears to be one of the later petitions to 
 the king, but probably written before 1510. 
 
 56. To the King, Of the Warldis Instabilitie. 
 
 The refrain and the renewed references to Dun- 
 bar's services point to this as about the same 
 date as the preceding. 
 
 57. To the King, Dunbar's Complaint. 
 
 Of uncertain date, but evidently pointed at 
 some unworthy person promoted in the Church 
 to vacant benefices ; probably written before 
 1510. 
 
 58. To the King, Dunbar's Remonstrance. 
 
 From the reference to " pryntaris," line 16, this 
 must have been written after 1507, when the first 
 printers came to Scotland. 
 
 59. To the King, The Petition of the Gray 
 Horse, Auld Dunbar. 
 
 This is the last of the petitions, written pro- 
 bably before 1510, when his pension was raised 
 to ;^8o. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxvii 
 
 Title of Poem, 
 
 60. Of Discretioun in Asking. 
 
 This and the two following were evidently 
 written about the same time, and from the refer- 
 ence to the Abbot of Tungland, p. 88, Hne 36, 
 after October 1507. They sum up Dunbar's 
 philosophy on the subject of petitions. 
 
 61. Of Discretioun in Geving. 
 
 62. Of Discretioun in Taking. 
 
 63. Welcome to the Lord Treasurer. 
 
 This may very probably have been written on 
 the receipt of his first term's pension, at the rate 
 of ^80, on Nov. II, 1511. 
 
 64. To the Lords of Exchequer. 
 
 This may have been written in 1512-13, when 
 his pension seems to have been irregularly paid, 
 and in part forestalled by payments of smaller 
 sums before the time when it was due. 
 
 65. Every one his own Enemy. 
 
 " He that hes gold and grit richess." 
 The lines 21, 22 — 
 
 " Now all this tyme lat ws be mirry, 
 And sett nocht by this warld a chirry," 
 connect this with the following. 
 
 66. Euli oft I mvss and hes in thocht. 
 
 With the refrain — 
 
 " For to be blyth me think it best." 
 
 Of uncertain date, but probably written after 
 15 10, when Dunbar was taking a more tranquil 
 view of Hfe, but still recalled the world's un- 
 kindness, line 31. This and the following poem 
 seem connected by their tone, but whether written 
 at the same time is uncertain. 
 
 67. Hermes the Philosopher. 
 
 " Be mirry and glaid, honest and vertewous, 
 Ffor that sufifisis to anger the invyous." 
 
clxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 68. In Praise of Aberdeen. 
 
 "Blyth Aberdein, thow beriall of all 
 tounis." 
 
 This was written on the queen's visit to Aber- 
 deen in August 151 1. 
 
 69. How SOW Id I rewill me, or quhat wyiss. 
 
 This is in a similar vein to the next poem, and 
 probably written towards the close of James IV. 's 
 reign. 
 
 70. Of Deming, 
 
 " Musing allone this hinder nicht." 
 
 This was evidently written, from the reference 
 in Une 46, in the latter part of the reign of James 
 IV. 
 
 71. Of Covetis. 
 
 " Ffredome, Honour and Nobilnes." 
 
 Written while Dunbar was still at the Court, 
 and from its tone one of his later poems, but of 
 uncertain date. 
 
 72. Of Content. 
 
 Of uncertain date, but in a similar moral tone 
 to the preceding. 
 
 73. Man, sen thy Lyfe is ay in Weir. 
 
 The refrain — 
 
 " Thyne awin gud spend quhill thow hes space," 
 
 is Dunbar's advice against covetousness, but is 
 scarcely in his latest manner. 
 
 74. Rule of One's Self 
 
 "To dwell in court, my freind, gife that 
 thow list." 
 
 In a similar strain to No. 69. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxix 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Scottish 
 
 Text 
 Society. 
 
 Page 
 310 
 
 75- 
 
 Meditatioun in Wyntir. 
 
 Might have been written in any winter, but 
 from the reference to age (Une 31), probably not 
 earlier than 1510. 
 
 Page 
 
 289 
 
 76. 
 
 Of the Changes of Lyfe, 
 
 Might have been written on any sudden change 
 of weather, but probably, from its tone, after 
 151 0 and before 1513. 
 
 232 
 
 
 77- 
 
 Ballate against Evil Women. 
 
 Of uncertain date, but probably between 1508 
 and 15 13. 
 
 266 
 
 140 
 
 78. 
 
 In Prays of Woman. 
 
 The palinode for the preceding, and probably 
 written shortly after it. 
 
 170 
 
 4. Poems probably written after 15 13. 
 
 SCHIPPER. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 
 79- 
 
 Doun by ane Rever as I red. 
 
 
 
 Of uncertain date ; but the reference to the 
 
 
 
 deaths of kingis and lordis (line 5) perhaps points 
 
 
 
 to a date soon after Flodden. 
 
 322 
 
 80. 
 
 To the Quene-Dowager. 
 
 
 
 "0 lusty flour of 3owth, benyng and 
 
 
 
 bricht." 
 
 
 
 The reference to the king's death (line 35) 
 
 
 
 points to this having been written after Flodden. 
 
clxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 )i. Ane Orisoun, quhe?i the Gouernour past in 
 France. 
 
 Written in June 1517, when Albany, after a 
 second attempt to govern Scotland, returned to 
 France, leaving De la Bastie as his representa- 
 tive. 
 
 )2. Quhome to sail I co7nple?ie my wo. 
 
 Of uncertain date, but from the tone and (line 
 29) 
 
 "In princis is thair no pety," 
 probably after 15 13. 
 
 83- 
 
 Against the Governour. 
 
 "We Lordis 
 vellus." 
 
 hes chosin a chiftane mer- 
 
 Written some time after Albany's departure in 
 June 15 17, urging his return, probably in 1520. 
 He did not come back to Scotland till November 
 19, 152 1, when Dunbar was probably dead. 
 
 84. The Merle and the Nychtingale. 
 
 " In May as that Aurora did vpspring." 
 
 This and the following poems mark the transi- 
 tion to Dunbar's latest period, in which it is pro- 
 bable his hymns were written. He has aban- 
 doned finally earthly love, and his thoughts 
 centre on religion and the love of God. 
 
 85. Of Lufe Erdly and Divi7ie. 
 
 " Now cumis aige quhair 3ewth hes bene." 
 
 86. All Erdly Joy retiirnis in Pane. 
 
 A Lenten meditation, probably written after 
 1513- 
 
 87. The Taible of Confessioun. 
 
 " I cry The mercy, and lasar to repent." 
 
 This confession of a priest familiar with the 
 Roman doctrine of Confession probably belongs 
 to the close of Dunbar's life. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxi 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 88. A Prayer. 
 
 This and the following religious poems or 
 hymns on the Christian year were probably 
 written after 1513, but may have been written for 
 the services to which they refer in earlier years. 
 
 89. Hymn for Christmas^ or the Festival of 
 
 Nativity. 
 
 . " Rorate celi desuper ! " 
 
 90. Another Christmas Hyinn. 
 
 "Jerusalem reioss for joy." 
 
 91. Another Christmas Hymn. 
 
 " Now glaidith euery liffis creature." 
 
 92. Another Christmas Hymn. 
 
 "The Sterne is rissin of our redemptioun." 
 
 93. Hymn for Lent. 
 
 " O synfull man, thir ar the fourty dayis. 
 
 94. The Passiotm of Christ — Hymn for Good- 
 
 Friday. 
 
 At the date when this was written, Dunbar, 
 from the opening lines, appears to have been 
 resident in a monastery, so it clearly belongs 
 to the period of his life after 1513. 
 
 95. The Resurrection of Christ — Hymn for 
 
 Easter. 
 
 " Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro." 
 
 96. Another Hymn for Easter. 
 
 " Done is a battell on the dragon blak." 
 
 97. Ane Ballat of our Lady. Hymn to the 
 
 Virgin. 
 
 " Haile, sterne superne ! Haile, in eterne." 
 / 
 
clxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Title of Poem. 
 
 98. Another Hymn to the Virgin. 
 
 " Roiss Mary most of vertew virginal!." 
 
 99. Of Man's Mortalitie. Hymn for Ash 
 
 Wednesday. 
 " Memento, homo, quod cinis es ! " 
 
 This and the two following poems, whether 
 written at the end of his life or not, were evi- 
 dently written at a time when he contemplated 
 it as near. 
 
 100. Of Lyfe. 
 
 " Quhat is this lyfe bot ane straucht way 
 to deid." 
 
 Might have been written at any serious moment 
 of life, but probably towards its close. 
 
 10 1. Of the Warldis Vanity. 
 
 " O wreche, be war ! this warld will wend 
 the fro." 
 
 The same remark applies as in the preceding 
 note. 
 
 III.— NOTE ON THE VERSIFICATION AND METRES 
 OF DUNBAR. 
 
 By G. P. M'Neill, Esq., LL.B., Advocate. 
 
 Dunbar's poems, regarded exclusively in their formal aspect, may 
 be divided into three general classes : (i) that in which alliteration is 
 the basis of the structure of the verse ; (2) that in which the verse is 
 made up of rhymed couplets ; and (3) the more elaborate poems, 
 in which the verse is formed into strophes of greater or less 
 intricacy. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxiii 
 
 I.— Alliterative Verse. 
 
 Dunbar's poems afford only one example of this style of verse, — 
 only one piece, that is to say, in which alliteration is the means 
 whereby the language is measured out into regular divisions, for 
 alliteration is frequently employed by Dunbar in his rhymed verse as 
 an ornament. But in " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo " (p. 
 30) the alliteration is the basis of the verse. This poem is the longest 
 of those known to be by Dunbar, and, with the exception of " The 
 Freiris of Berwik," the longest of those attributed to him. It extends 
 to 530 lines. The form is best exhibited by an example. In the 
 following extract, which includes the first ten lines, the skeleton of 
 the verse is brought into prominence by typographical devices, the 
 caesura being marked by a bar and the letters forming the alliteration 
 being printed in italics : — 
 
 ' ' Apon the il/idsumer ewin, | ^^eirriest of nichtis, 
 I muvit furth allane, | neir as ;;2idnicht wes past, 
 Besyd ane ^udlie ^ene^arth, | full of^ay flouris, 
 Hegeit, of an huge Mcht \ with Hawthorne treis ; 
 5 Quhairon ane dird, on ane <5ransche, | so <5irst out hir notis 
 That neuer ane <51ythfullar dird \ was on the ^euche harde : 
 Quhat throw the jugarat ^ound j of hir ^ang glaid, 
 And throw the jauar janatiue | of the sneit flouris, 
 I drew in derne to the dyk \ to i;?irkin eftir myrthis ; 
 10 The dew t^onkit the daiW, \ and ^/ynarit the foulis." 
 
 If these lines are read with a natural emphasis, it will be seen that 
 the verses fall each into two hemistichs, containing each two accented 
 syllables and an irregular number of unaccented syllables. Thus in 
 line I, the division or caesura is marked at the word ewin; the ac- 
 cented syllables in the first hemistich being the first oi Midsumer and 
 the first of ewin, while those of the second half-line are the first of 
 mirriest and the first of nichtis. The same accentual structure will be 
 observed in the remaining lines. The metre, then, depends, in the 
 first place, on the regular recurrence of four accents in each verse. 
 It is like the measure of "common time" in music, which is marked 
 by four beats in every bar. In the second place, the verse is measured 
 out by alliteration according to ascertainable rules, the chief and 
 simplest of which is that in every line the first three of the accented 
 syllables shall begin with the same consonant. This is the most 
 generally observed rule of alliterative poetry, although it is not very 
 strictly followed by Dunbar. Lines 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the above-quoted 
 passage give good examples of its application. But the rule is fol- 
 lowed with constancy only in the earlier specimens of this verse, 
 which, as is well known, was the original form assumed by the poetry 
 of all nations of a Teutonic origin. The verse was treated with much 
 more freedom in later times ; and as this poem of Dunbar is one of 
 
clxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the latest instances of its use in Scotland, it is to be expected that the 
 rules of the older systems of alliteration should be exhibited here only 
 in a relaxed form. When compared with the productions of earlier 
 times, Dunbar's poem exhibits in a marked degree two special 
 characteristics, both of which depend upon what may be called a 
 too great indulgence in alliteration. In the first place, most of his 
 lines contain more alliterating syllables than are necessary to the 
 proper structure of the verse. Lines 3, 4, 9, and 10 of the quoted pas- 
 sage may be taken as instances of this prodigality. Secondly, the 
 alliteration is in many instances continued beyond the limits of a 
 single line — the accented syllables of two or more consecutive lines 
 begin with the same letter. Lines 9 and 10 of the extract given above 
 exhibit this peculiarity. This fertility of alliteration reveals Dunbar's 
 unusual command over the technical resources of his art. This was 
 the measure employed most widely in the early popular poetry of his 
 country. He handles it with as much ease and skill as he does the 
 more complex forms which originated in a desire for artistic refine- 
 ment. But the fact that it is adopted in only one of those poems of 
 his which have descended to a later age, points to the conclusion 
 (warranted also on other grounds) that this form was not so congenial 
 to his talent as the more straitly confined verses in which the greater 
 part of his poetry is composed. 
 
 Those who wish to study more intimately the structure of the 
 alliterative verse may be referred to the Rev. Walter W. Skeat's 
 edition of " Piers the Plowman " (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press : 
 1886), which contains, vol. ii. p. Iviii, a brief and concise statement 
 of its rules; to Professor Schipper's " Altenglische Metrik " (Bonn, 
 Emil Strauss : 1881), which gives, at p. 209, an account of the metrical 
 peculiarities of the poem now under consideration ; and to Mr Cov- 
 entry Patmore's " Essay on English Metrical Law," appended to the 
 second collective edition of his poems (London, George Bell & Son : 
 1886), which examines (vol. ii. p. 251) the effects and devices of this 
 form of poetry with a keen appreciation of their aesthetic value. 
 
 The naturall course of most English verses," says Webbe's 'Dis- 
 course of English Poetrie' (1586), "seemeth to run vppon the olde 
 lambicke stroake;" and the statement is specially applicable to the 
 poems of Dunbar, inasmuch as all of them, except the piece just con- 
 sidered and one small lyric (" Kynd Kittok "), are written in iambic 
 verse — i.e., verse in which the accent rises from the first to fall upon 
 the second of the two syllables making up the foot. Trochees and 
 anapaests are substituted often for the normal iambi ; but the measure 
 itself is iambic in all the remaining poems of Dunbar. 
 
 II. — Rhymed Couplets. 
 
 Dunbar's poems afford comparatively few examples of pieces written 
 continuously in the simple form of rhymed couplets — although, as will 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxv 
 
 be seen, the rhymed couplet is exhibited in many aspects in the more 
 complete strophes which he most affected. The poems in this measure 
 may be divided according to the length of their lines into (a) long or 
 five-foot couplets, and (d) short or four-foot couplets. 
 
 (a) Long- Couplets. 
 
 There is only one piece of this kind, the lines " In Prays of Woman " 
 (p. 170), among the poems known to be by Dunbar ; but the long nar- 
 rative poem, "The Freiris of Berwik" (p. 285), which is attributed 
 to him, is an excellent example of its adaptation to popular poetry. 
 The versification of these two poems exhibits the same general 
 characteristics, and the first seventeen lines of the longer poem may 
 be taken to display its structure. The signs used are as follows : 
 The mark | divides the line into feet ; the double bar || notes the posi- 
 tion of the caesura ; the mark ^ represents an unaccented syllable, 
 and ~ one which bears the metrical accent. 
 
 " As it I befell, || and happ|Innit in-[t6 deid, 
 
 Vpoun I a. rever, || th6 quhilk | Is calljit Tweid ; 
 
 At Tweid|Is mowth 1| thair standls | a n6b|ill toun, 
 
 Quhair mon|y lordls || hes bene 1 of grit | renovne, 
 5 Quhair mon|y a lady || bene | fair | of face. 
 
 And mony | a.ne fresche 1| lust|y galljand wass. 
 
 in-to I tMs toun, || the quhilk | Is callit | Berwik, 
 
 Vpoun I the sey || thalr standjls nane | It lyk, 
 
 For it I is walllt || weill | abowt | with stane, 
 10 And d6w|bell stankis || cast|In m6n|y ane ; 
 
 And syne | the castell || is | so Strang | and wicht, 
 
 With strait | towrls || and tur|attls he | on hicht ; 
 
 The walljls wrocht || craft|ely 1 withall ; 
 
 The portjcules || most siab| telly | to fall, 
 IS Quhen that | thame list || to draw | thame vploiin hicht ; 
 
 That it I micht be || 6f na | maner ] of micht 
 
 To win I that houss || be craft | 6r sub|teltie." 
 
 It will be seen that the simplest and normal unit of this verse con- 
 sists of two lines, consisting each of ten syllables, alternately unac- 
 cented and accented, having each a pause or break after the second 
 accented syllable, and bound together by the rhyming syllable at the 
 end of each. 
 
 This is the form of verse known as the heroic couplet. The oldest 
 specimens of its use are found in early French or Anglo-Norman 
 poets, from whom it was probably adopted into this country. It be- 
 came by far the most frequently employed verse in English poetry 
 from the fourteenth century downwards. It is the predominating 
 metre of the " Canterbury Tales " ; and, as the influence of Chaucer is 
 everywhere visible in the poems of Dunbar, it may be assumed with- 
 out going wide of the mark that Dunbar, if he be the author of the 
 
clxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Freiris of Berwik," wrote it on the model of the " Canterbury Tales." 
 The metre was in older times called "riding rhyme," — a name which 
 Dr Guest suggests may have been derived from the mounUd pilgrims 
 of the "Canterbury Tales." Whether that be so or no, it became 
 recognised as the appropriate measure for such stories as the " Freiris 
 of Berwik." Gascoigne, in his ' Instruction concerning the making of 
 Verse' (1575, ed. Haslewood, p. 12), lays it down that "this riding 
 rime serueth most aptly to wryte a merie tale." It has remained to 
 this day an exceptionally favoured form for narrative poems, especially 
 with that school of poets who in recent times have sought to revive 
 the interest in medieval subjects and artistic methods, and of whom 
 Mr Swinburne and Mr William Morris may be taken as representa- 
 tives. The variations from the normal standard to which it is sub- 
 jected in Dunbar's hands are much the same as those exhibited in 
 Chaucer. They may be shown by a detailed examination of the lines 
 quoted. Thus : — 
 
 Line i contains eleven syllables instead of the normal ten, the last 
 syllable of " happinit " not being necessary except to give variety to the 
 verse. The same peculiarity marks the second foot of line 2, giving 
 it what is called a feminine caesura — z.e., a strong pause or break after 
 an unaccented syllable, and not, as in the more ordinary case, after one 
 which is accented. The third foot of line 3 has a similar variation, if 
 " standis " is pronounced as a dissyllable. Line 4 is like line 2. Line 
 5, on the other hand, wants a syllable to complete the fourth foot. 
 Probably the line is corrupt as printed. It may have been written 
 regularly — 
 
 " Quhair mony a lady bene and fair efface." 
 
 If the reading of the Maitland MS. given by Mr Small in his footnotes 
 be adopted, the line reads regularly, thus — 
 
 " Quhair mony wourthy ladeis fair of face." 
 
 It may be noted here that an examination of the metre of this poem 
 reveals the fact that the text of the Maitland MS. is far purer (from 
 this point of view) than that of the Bannatyne MS., from which Mr 
 Small has printed his copy. The line at present under consideration 
 is only one of many that go to show this purity. Other examples are 
 present in the passage above quoted. Thus, line 12 in the Bannatyne 
 MS. reads as above — 
 
 "With strait towris and turratis he on hicht," 
 
 wanting a syllable to complete the second foot. The Maitland MS. 
 has it rhythmically and poetically better — 
 
 "With staitelie towris and turratis he on hicht." 
 Similarly, line 13 in the Bannatyne MS. reads — 
 
 " The wallis wrocht craftely withall," 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxvii 
 
 wanting a syllable in the third foot. The Maitland MS. gives — 
 " With kirnals closit most craftelie of all." 
 
 This diversity of readings occurs over and over again in favour of the 
 Maitland MS. throughout the poem, with so great a frequency as to 
 make it matter of regret that this manuscript was not made the basis 
 of the printed text. Compare lines 60, 65, 68, 88, 90, 115, 146, 150, 
 &c. Indeed the instances are few in which the Maitland MS. does 
 not give a better reading, metrically considered, than the Bannatyne, 
 while it may be noted that this refinement can be traced also in the 
 omission from the Maitland of some of the obscene passages contained 
 in the other MS. 
 
 The passage cited gives no example of a variation seen elsewhere 
 in the poem and often in Chaucer, the omission of the unaccented 
 syllable from the first foot of the line. This occurs in the first line of 
 the shorter poem, " In Prays of Woman " — 
 
 " Now I of we|men this | I say | for me ; " 
 and in line 33 of the " Freiris of Berwik " — 
 
 " Freir \ AUane, | and Freir [ Robert | the uder." 
 
 For a full history and examination of this verse, see Schipper (work 
 cited), p. 434 seq., and compare Guest's 'History of English 
 Rhythms' (ed. 1882), Book III., chap. vii. A good general view of the 
 change which has been brought about in the treatment of the heroic 
 couplet in modern times is given by Mr Sidney Colvin in a critical 
 examination of "Endymion" in his monograph on Keats. 
 
 (b) Short Couplets. 
 
 The heroic couplet was not so favoured a form with Dunbar as the 
 short couplet of lines of four accents. The poems in this measure 
 are more numerous, and they are wrought out metrically with more 
 elaboration of their formal effects. These are — (i) Dunbar's Dregy to 
 the King (p. 112), with the exception of the responses; (2) the satiri- 
 cal piece against the Solicitors in Court (p. 206) ; (3) Dunbar's Com- 
 plaint to the King (p. 212); (4) Dunbar's Remonstrance to the King 
 (p. 220). To these must be added, to make the list complete, the 
 eight lines (at p. 217) in which the King gives his responsio to the 
 Petition of the Gray Horse, Auld Dunbar. 
 
 The metre in which these pieces are composed was widely popular 
 in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. It was employed 
 more especially for religious poems, such as homilies, legends of the 
 saints. Scriptural paraphrases, and the like. It would be familiar to 
 Dunbar in the works of Barbour and Wyntown, who have a place in 
 his " Lament for the Makaris." Dunbar uses the verse, however, not as 
 these writers did, for long poems of sustained narrative, but for brief 
 epistolary pieces of a satirical or moralising purport. In his hands, 
 
clxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 too, its capabilities as a means of musical expression have been largely 
 developed. 
 
 The unit of this verse is a pair of lines of four iambic feet, the lines 
 being undivided in themselves by any caesura (as the longer metrical 
 pause falls naturally at the end of each), and joined together by a 
 rhyme. For example, take lines 21 and 22 of the Remonstrance to the 
 King, a poem which exhibits Dunbar's treatment of this verse in its 
 most varied form — 
 
 " And richt | c6nven|ient for ] to be |1 
 With 3our I high re|gale ma|jestie." || 
 
 This couplet shows the metre in its simple, normal form. The devices 
 by which it is varied and moulded — as the admission of unaccented 
 syllables superfluous to the strict metre, the omission of unaccented 
 syllables necessary thereto, the shifting of the accent from its normal 
 place in the foot, the occasional employment of a caesura or break with- 
 in the line, and the change of the rhyme from one to two syllables — are 
 lavishly exemplified in Dunbar, in whose verse the normal couplet 
 never predominates. An analysis of the first twenty lines of the poem 
 mentioned will make this clear : — 
 
 " Schir, 36 I haue molny ser|vitouris, 
 
 And of|flciaris | 5f dyu|6rs curls ; 
 
 Kirkmen, | courtmen, | and craftis[men fyne ; 
 
 Doctouris | in jure, | and med|Icyne ; 
 5 DMn|ouris, rethoris | and pMlos|6phouris, 
 
 Astr61|6gis, artistis, | Snd or|atouris ; 
 
 Men I of armes, | a,nd vail|3eand knychtis, 
 
 And monly vth|er gud|lie wichtis ; 
 
 Musici|anis, menstralis, | Snd mIr|rJe slngaris : 
 10 Cheval|oiiris, cal|iandaris, | Snd fllngaris ; 
 
 Cun^ouris, | carvouris, | and car|pentaris,| 
 
 Beildaris | of barkis, | and bal|Hngaris ; 
 
 Masoiinis, | lyind | vpon | the land, 
 
 And schip-jwrlchtls hewSnd | vpone | the strand ; 
 15 Glasing | wrichtis, goldsmythis, | and lap|idarls, 
 
 Pryntoiirls, | payntouris, | and pot|ingarls ; 
 
 And all | of thair | craft | canning, 
 
 And all j at an|Is law|b6ring, 
 
 Quhllk pleis|and ar | and hon|6rable ; 
 20 And to I ^oGr hle|nes pr5|fltable." 
 
 The great flexibility of the verse is seen in the different ways in which 
 each line varies from the normal standard of four iambi. Thus, line 
 I has the accent on the first syllable of the first foot instead of the 
 second. The same variation is seen in line 4. In lines 3, 11, 13, and 
 16, this transposition of the accent extends over the first two feet. 
 Line 5 is conspicuous for the number of extra unaccented syllables it 
 contains. This amplification of the line is seen, though not to so great 
 an extent, in lines 6, 9, 14, and 15. The converse variation, a defect 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxix 
 
 from the ordinary number of syllables, is seen in lines 7 and 17. And 
 in many of the lines the effect of a c^sural pause, which was not 
 often sought for in the earlier examples of this metre, is gained. It 
 comes generally at the end of the second foot. To use so great a 
 licence of departure from the normal verse without impairing its 
 rhythm — and Dunbar's verse is always musical — demands the highest 
 skill in the versifier. 
 
 For earlier examples of this metre and its history, see Schipper 
 (work cited), p. 258. 
 
 III. — Pieces in Strophic Form. 
 
 Nearly the whole body of Dunbar's poetry is written in a strophic 
 form ; and as the strophe was the most highly artificial development 
 to which English versification had attained in his time, the fact is 
 evidence of the specially formal excellence which characterises 
 Dunbar's poems as a whole as well as individually. And the 
 strophes in which he writes are not the simple strophes of popular 
 poetry, but the more elaborate forms seen in courtly and scholarly 
 verse. 
 
 The strophe, as it occurs in Dunbar, may be defined as a series of 
 lines bound together into a distinct unity by means of rhyme, and 
 (although this is only generally true) by the content of the logical 
 period to which the lines give expression. The lines which make up 
 the strophe are subject to internal variations of accent, syllabification, 
 and caesura, similar to those noted in considering the couplet ; and 
 the points specially to be kept in view in examining the strophe are 
 the number and length of the lines, the number and arrangement of 
 the rhymes, and the presence or absence of a refrain — i.e., a line which 
 recurs in the same or similar terms at the end of every strophe. 
 
 The simplest division of Dunbar's pieces in strophic form separates 
 {A) strophes made up of lines of equal length from {E) strophes of 
 unequal lines. The former class may be subdivided into (i) strophes 
 without refrain, and (2) strophes with refrain. 
 
 A (i.) — Strophes of Equal Lines without Refrain. 
 
 First, there is the strophe of five lines with two rhymes, arranged 
 thus — aay bb, a. As an example, take the first strophe of the lines " To 
 a Lady " (p. 223) : — 
 
 5 ' ' Sweet roiss of vertew and of gentil^^i, a 
 
 5 Delytsum lyllie of everie lusty;?^^, a 
 
 5 Richest in bontie, and in bewtie cleir, b 
 
 5 And everie vertew that is held most deir, b 
 
 5 Except onhe that ^e ar vciexcyless." a 
 
 This is in lines of five feet. The other pieces in the same long line 
 
clxxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 are — " How Dumbar wes desyrd to be ane Freir " (p. 131), (although 
 the first line of this piece wants a foot) ; " Lucina schynnyng in silence 
 of the nicht" (p. 149), and " The Dream " (p. 257). The same strophe 
 in lines of four iambi is used in the following : " To the King, quhen 
 mony benefices vakit" (p. 205) ; "Of the changes of Lyfe " (p. 232) ; 
 ^' Meditatioun in Wyntir" (p. 233); " My heid did 3ak 3esternicht " 
 (P- 254) ; and " My Lordis of Chacker " (p. 255). As an example of 
 the four-foot line, the first strophe of the piece last mentioned may 
 serve : — 
 
 4 " My Lor|dis of Chack|er, pleis 1 36W to heir a 
 4 My coumpt, I sail it male 30W cleir, a 
 4+ But ony circumstance or SON31E ; b 
 4+ For left is nether corce nor CUN31E b 
 4 Off all that I tuik in the 3^zy." a 
 
 Guest gives this strophe the name of roundle-stave, because it 
 appears twice in the old French rondel. Schipper treats it as a 
 development by the omission of a line from the strophe of six lines, 
 exemplified in Dunbar's "Petition of the Gray Horse" (p. 215), to be 
 afterwards examined. See Guest, p. 644 et seq.j Schipper, p. 377. 
 
 Second, there is the strophe of seven five-foot lines with three 
 rhymes, arranged according to the scheme ab, ab^ bcc. This is a 
 form very largely exemplified in English poetry from Dunbar's time 
 downwards ; and though his own poems give only five instances of 
 its use, the importance and technical superiority of the pieces show 
 the measure to have been a favourite one with Dunbar. These five 
 pieces are— (i) "The Thistle and the Rose" (p. 183); (2) "To a 
 Ladye" (p. 245); the single stanza, " Quhat is this Lyfe" (p. 250); 
 the " Ballate against Evil Women " (p. 266), the last strophe of which, 
 the envoy, has, it may be noted, an additional line ; and the piece 
 beginning " O synfull man, thir ar the fourty dayis " (p. 280). The 
 first strophe of "The Thistle and the Rose" may be taken as an 
 example of this form : — 
 
 5 " Quhen Merche wes with variand windis /tzj/ a 
 
 5 And Appryll had, with hir siluer SCHOURIS, b 
 
 5 Tane leif at nature with ane orient blast ; a 
 
 5 And lusty May, that mvddir is of FLOURIS, b 
 
 5 Had maid the birdis to begyn thair houris b 
 
 5 Amang the tendir odouris reid and quhyt, c 
 
 5 Quhois armony to heir it wes delyt." c 
 
 This is the measure known as rhyme-royal since James I. wrote the 
 " Kingis Quair." The earliest known instance of its use in English 
 poetry is in Chaucer's " Complaint of the Dethe of Pite." It was 
 largely employed by Chaucer (it is the metre of four of the " Canterbury 
 Tales"), Gower, and Lydgate, from whom in all probability Dunbar 
 adopted it. It remained after Dunbar's time one of the most im- 
 portant forms. Spenser and Shakespeare used it, and in Scotland Sir 
 David Lyndsay exemplifies it often. Gascoigne, in his ' Notes of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxxi 
 
 Instruction ' (ed. Arber, p. 38), thus describes the measure : " Rythme 
 royall is a verse of tenne sillables, and seuen such verses make a 
 staffe, whereof the first and third lines do aunswer (acrosse) in like 
 terminations and rime ; the second, fourth, and fifth do likewise 
 answere eche other in terminations, and the two last do combine and 
 shut up the sentence : this hath bene called rithme royall, and surely 
 it is a royall kinde of verse, seruing best for graue discourses." To a 
 similar effect regarding the merits of this metre speaks Mr Coventry 
 Patmore (work cited, p. 260) : " Perhaps the stateliest and most 
 truly heroic measure in any language, dead or living, is the ' rhythm 
 royal,' a stanza of seven ten-syllable lines, with three sets of rhymes 
 so distributed that the emphasis derived from rhyme, in one part, is 
 exactly neutralised by a similar concentration upon another." See 
 further Guest, pp. 638, 639 ; Schipper, p. 426. Schipper lays it down 
 as probable that this strophe was developed by the omission of a line 
 from the eight-lined form next to be considered. 
 
 Third, the strophe of eight five-foot lines with three rhymes thus 
 arranged — ab, ab, be, be. Dunbar is fondest of this strophe, with the 
 added ornament of a refrain. Of the simple form, without refrain, he 
 gives only one example, "The Flyting between Dunbar and Kennedy" 
 (p. 11); although the fragmentary verses beginning "In all oure 
 gardyn" (p. 321), and attributed to Dunbar, are in this strophe. 
 A sample strophe may be taken from " The Flyting " : — 
 
 5 " Forworthin fule, of all the warld x&^use, a 
 
 5 Quhat ferly is thocht thow reioys to flyte ? b 
 
 5 Sic eloquence as thay in Erschry vse, a 
 
 5 In sic is sett thy thraward appeXYTE ; b 
 
 5 Thow hes full littill feill of fair inoYTE : b 
 
 5 I tak on me ane pair of Lowthiane hippis c 
 
 5 Sail fairar Inglis mak, and mair parFYTE, b 
 
 5 Than thow can blabbar with thy Carrik Uppish c 
 
 This strophe is chosen from the second of the parts of the poem by 
 Dunbar in order to exhibit the arrangement of rhymes as Dunbar 
 usually employed it — ab, ab, be, be. This order is kept up in the poem 
 by Dunbar throughout, except in the three opening stanzas, where 
 the arrangement is one of close rhyme in the second half of the 
 strophe, thus : ab, ab, be, eb, — an order which Kennedy maintains 
 throughout his sections of the poem : e.g., the second quartet of the 
 first strophe by Kennedy runs — 
 
 5 " Mandrag, mymmerkin, maid maister hot in MOWis, b 
 
 5 Thryse scheild trumpir, with ane threid bair goun, c 
 
 5 Say Deo mercy, or I can cry the doun, c 
 
 And leif thy ryming, rebald, and thy ROWIS." b ■ 
 
 The " Flyting " is especially worthy of notice in a study of the formal 
 aspects of Dunbar's poems, inasmuch as the respective combatants 
 who strive to outdo each other in invective, strive also each to exhibit 
 
clxxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a superiority over the other in the technical skill of his craft. Dun- 
 bar opens the contest with three strophes of excellent structure, but 
 revealing no particular effort on the part of the poet to give them ex- 
 ceptional formal polish or adornment. Kennedy answers with three 
 strophes similar in every respect, save that there is to be traced in his 
 lines a more obvious striving after ornamental effects of alliteration 
 than was manifested by Dunbar. It may easily be assumed that this 
 peculiarity put Dunbar on his mettle, for in the following strophes 
 from his hand alliteration is introduced into the already complex and 
 difficult rhyming verse with a profusion and ease which show the 
 hand of a master. The second strophe on p. 17 is as good: an instance 
 of this ostentatious display of alliteration as can be found in the 
 poem. 
 
 " A^yse nsLgns ^zipcaik, with thy schulderis narrow, 
 
 Thow /ukis /owsy, /oun of /ownis aw ; 
 Hard >^urcheoun, ^irpland, -^ippit as ane Harrow, 
 
 Thy ngbane ^-attillis, and thy ribbis on raw, 
 Thy ^anchis ^irklis, with >?jukebanis karth and ksLW, 
 Thy /aithly /ymis ar /ene as ony treis ; 
 
 O^ey, theif ^aird, or I sail ^rek thy gaw, 
 Ffowl carrybald, cry mercy on thy -^neis." 
 
 Even this free and copious use of alliteration in a strophe already 
 complete without that device did not exhaust the technical resources 
 of the poet. In the two concluding strophes he introduced no less 
 than three internal rhymes in each line of the strophe. The allitera- 
 tion is, of course, dropped ; but the diversity given to the form of the 
 stanza by this device is a unique and masterly effect. It is best ex- 
 hibited by breaking up the strophe into as many lines as there are 
 rhymes, thus (to take the last strophe by Dunbar) : — 
 
 " Mauch muttoun, 
 Vyle buttoun 
 Peilit gluttoun 
 
 Air to Hilhouse ; a 
 Rank beggar, 
 Ostir dregar, 
 Foule fleggar, 
 
 In the FLET ; b 
 ChittirlilHng, 
 Ruch rilling, 
 Lik schilling 
 
 In the milhouse ; a 
 Baird rehator, 
 Theif of natour, 
 Fals tratour, 
 
 Feyndis GETT ; b 
 Fining of tauch, 
 Rak sauch. 
 Cry crauch, 
 
 Thow art our sett ; b 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxxiii 
 
 Muttoun dryver, 
 Girnall ryver, 
 3adswyvar, 
 
 Yo^W fell the. c 
 Herretyk, 
 Lunatyk, 
 Purspyk, 
 
 Carlingis pet, b 
 , Rottin crok, 
 
 Dirtin dok, 
 Cry cok, 
 
 Or I sail quell they c 
 
 The skill of the virtuoso could hardly make more than this of the 
 strophe of eight lines from which Dunbar started. Kennedy en- 
 deavours to follow him, but seems to find it too hard. His alliteration 
 is neither so profuse nor so regular as Dunbar's ; and when he intro- 
 duces internal rhymes in the lines, it is timidly and tentatively {cf. 
 lines 481 sq., 493 sq.) only to drop the device till the concluding strophe ; 
 in which, indeed, he succeeds in inserting his three rhymes after 
 Dunbar's model, but without Dunbar's force and effect. He may 
 have felt the weakness himself, for he introduces a further device to 
 give brilliancy to his verse, the use of Latin. It may be that the Latin 
 was resorted to in order to find feminine rhymes — a difficult thing to 
 do in addition to so many other technical difficulties ; but Dunbar 
 had succeeded in finding them in his own less inflected tongue. If 
 the colophon to the poem, " luge 3e now heir quha gat the war," is to 
 be answered by a consideration of the formal merits of the several 
 poets, there need be no hesitation in assigning the palm to Dunbar. 
 For early examples of this measure, see Guest, p. 635 sq. ; Schipper, 
 p. 428. 
 
 Fourth, the strophe of nine five-foot lines with two rhymes, used 
 only once by Dunbar in the " Goldyn Targe" (p. i). The rhyme 
 scheme \saab, aab^bab^2.s seen in the first strophe : — 
 
 5 " Ryght as the stern of day begouth to schyne, a 
 
 5 Quhen gone to bed war Vesper and l^ncyne a 
 
 5 I raise, and by a rosere did me REST ; b 
 
 5 Wp sprang the goldyn candill raaXntyne a 
 
 5 With clere depurit bemes cristallyw^, a 
 
 5 Glading the mery foulis in thair nest ; b 
 
 5 Or Phebus was in purpur cape revEST b 
 
 5 Wp raise the lark, the hevyns menstrale fyne a 
 
 5 In May, in till a morow myrthfullEST." b 
 
 Chaucer uses this strophe in " Queen Anelida and False Arcyte," and 
 it was probably from Chaucer that Dunbar adopted it. 
 
 It should be noted that the last strophe of the " Goldyn Targe " is 
 an envoy or postscript appended to the main body of the poem, after 
 
clxxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a fashion popular among French poets, and followed occasionally by- 
 Chaucer. See Schipper, p. 334 sq. 
 
 To complete the list of strophes in equal lines and without refrain 
 employed by Dunbar, there is the strophe of eight four-foot lines 
 with four rhymes, which occurs in only one piece, "The Testament of 
 Mr Andro Kennedy" (p. 54). The rhyme scheme is ab, ab, cd, cd, as 
 in this strophe : — 
 
 4 + " Ipse est dulcis ad amandum, a 
 4 He wald oft ban me in his breith, b 
 4+ Det michi modo ad potandum, a 
 4 And I forgif him laith et wraith : b 
 4+ Quia in cellario cum cervisia, c 
 4 I had lever lye baith air and lait, d 
 4+ Nudus solus in camesia, c 
 4 Na in my Lordis bed of stait ; " — d 
 
 though occasionally the rhymes are restricted to two — abab, abab — 
 as in strophes i and 11, or to three — ab, ab, ac, ac — as in strophe 9. 
 
 A (2.) — Strophes of Equal Lines with Refrain. 
 
 The strophic form, it has been said, was especially favoured by 
 Dunbar, nearly all his poetry being written in that shape. The still 
 more complex form of the strophe with a constantly recurring refrain, 
 which involves a greater versatility in the handling of the same rhyme 
 than the simple strophe demands, was his favourite style of strophe, 
 for nearly two-thirds of his strophic pieces have a refrain. The law 
 of the refrain followed by Dunbar may be stated simply as enjoining 
 that the closing verse of every strophe shall be the same. This, of 
 course, makes it necessary that all those verses which rhyme with the 
 closing verse in the strophe should rhyme with each other throughout 
 the whole poem. Accordingly, as one of the technical triumphs of a 
 poet is to find a wealth of rhymes, the number of strophes in each of 
 the pieces in this form should be noted in addition to the length of 
 the line and the number of rhymes in the strophe ; for, by using a re- 
 frain, the poet overcomes an ever-increasing formal difficulty with 
 each stanza he adds to his poem. The refrain was an early ornament 
 of popular poetry, in which it seems first to have arisen, and to have 
 come into artistically wrought verse through ecclesiastical chants. 
 Dunbar uses it in six different strophes of equal lines. 
 
 I. The strophe of two couplets in four-foot lines. — Dunbar has a good 
 number of examples of this form. The best known is the " Lament 
 for the Makaris" (p. 48), which exhibits its simple and effective struc- 
 ture well. Take the fifth and sixth strophes as an example — 
 
 4 " Onto the ded gois all Est<3/z^, ^'a'^^-^ 
 
 4 Princis, Prelotis, and Potesta/w, 
 
 4 Baith riche et pur of all deGRE ; b * %y: 
 
 R. 4 Timor Mortis conturbatUK. &' \-- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxxv 
 
 4 He takis the knychtis in to ieild, a 
 
 4 Anarmit vnder helme et scheild ; a 
 
 4 Wictour he is at all melk / b 
 
 R. 4 Timor Mortis conturbat ME. " b 
 
 This is the Old French verse-form, the Kyrielle. The rules of its 
 structure are laid down at once by precept and example in Theodore 
 de Bauville's lines : — 
 
 " Qui voudra sjavoir la pratique 
 
 De cette rime juridique, 
 
 Je dis que bien mise en effet 
 
 La Kyrielle ainsi se fait. 
 
 De plante de sillabes huit 
 
 Usez en done si bien vous duit ; 
 
 Four faire le couplet parfait 
 
 La Kyrielle ainsi se fait." 
 
 The pieces for which it is chosen by Dunbar may be enumerated in 
 the order of their extent, the longer ones coming first. The list begins 
 with two of equal length — " The Lament for the Makaris " (p. 48), and 
 the Complaint to the King " Of the Warldis Instabilitie " (p. 226), each 
 of which extends to twenty-five strophes. The piece beginning " Ffre- 
 dome, honour and nobilnes" (p. 158) has eleven strophes. Three 
 pieces are written in ten stanzas each — "All Erdly Joy returnis in 
 Pane" (p. 76), "The Amendis to the Tel3ouris and Sowtaris" (p. 127), 
 and the piece beginning "Man, sen thy lyfe is ay in weir" (p. 152). 
 Two are in eight strophes each — " To the King, that he war Johne 
 Thomsounis Man " (p. 218), and the " Welcome to the Lord Treasurer " 
 (p. 264). The two addresses to the Queen, "Of James Dog" (p. 195), 
 and " Of the same James " (p. 197), and the piece attributed to Dunbar 
 — " Gif 3e wald lufe and luvit be " (p. 312) — have each six stanzas. One 
 piece in five strophes, "A New Year's Gift to the King" (p. 256), and 
 one in four (with, however, the last line repeated at the end of the 
 poem), the piece beginning " Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre " (p. 279), 
 complete the list. 
 
 2. The strophe of five lines and two rhymes. — There are eighteen 
 pieces using this form with the four-foot line, which plainly suited it 
 best in Dunbar's fancy. These two stanzas may be taken* as a 
 sample : — 
 
 4 Off every asking folio wis nocht a 
 4 Rewaird, bot gif sum caus war wrocht ; a 
 4 And quhair causs is, men weill ma SIE, b 
 4 And quhair nane is, it wilbe thocht a 
 R. 4 In asking sowld discretioun be. b 
 
 4 Ane fule, thocht he haif causs or nane, a 
 
 4 Cryis ay, Gif me, in to a drene ; a 
 
 4 And he that dronis ay as ane bee b 
 
 4 Sowld haif ane heirar dull as stane : a 
 
 R. 4 In asking sowld discretioun BE." b 
 
clxxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The scheme of rhymes here, it will be seen, is bab; and this, 
 taken in conjunction with the fact of the presence of the refrain, ex- 
 plains the origin of the strophe. It is clearly an adaptation of that 
 five-lined strophe called by Guest the roundle-stave (and already ex- 
 amined), whose rhyme scheme is aa, bba. The change of the b rhyme 
 from the close one to an interwoven one made it possible to keep up a 
 refrain on the b rhyme, which occurs only twice in the strophe ; while 
 the a rhyme, which concludes the form of the strophe which has no 
 refrain, occurs three times. The pieces written in this form are, again 
 in order of length — 
 
 " This nycht in my sleip I wes agast" (p. 144). 
 
 Twenty-one strophes. 
 
 " Quhome to sail I complene my wo " (p, 100). 
 
 Seventeen 
 
 M 
 
 " Schir, 3it remembir as of befoir " (p. 104). 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 Of Discretioun in Geving (p. 87). 
 
 Twelve 
 
 II 
 
 Musing allone this hinder nicht " (p. 92). 
 
 Eleven 
 
 It 
 
 " How sowld I rewill me, or quhat wyiss " (p. 95). 
 
 Ten 
 
 II 
 
 Of Discretioun in Taking (p. 90). 
 
 Nine 
 
 It 
 
 " In Asking sowld Discretioun be " (p. 84). 
 
 It 
 
 II 
 
 " Full oft I mvss and hes in thocht " (p. 110). 
 
 Eight 
 
 II 
 
 " Sanct Saluatour ! send siluer sorrow " (p. 129). 
 
 Seven 
 
 
 To the Queue (p. 203). 
 
 II 
 
 
 Of Content (p. 230). 
 
 
 It 
 
 " Fane wald I luve, bot quhair abowt " (attributed, p. 308). ,t 
 
 It 
 
 " Faine wald I, with all diligence " (attributed, p. 310). 
 
 II 
 
 It 
 
 " Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday" (p. 160). 
 
 Six 
 
 
 To the King (p. 208). 
 
 
 
 ' ' He that hes gold and grit richess/' (p. 134). 
 
 Five 
 
 
 Of ane Blak-Moir (p. 201). 
 
 
 It 
 
 The piece beginning "Devorit with dreme" (p. 81) exhibits the 
 outward form of this strophe in five-foot lines, as it is printed in Mr 
 Small's text. But by a free use of internal rhymes, Dunbar has con- 
 siderably complicated the structure of the strophe. This intricacy is 
 best exhibited by printing a stanza — take the first on p. 82 as an ex- 
 ample — with the rhymes displayed at the ends of the lines : — 
 
 2 " So. mony lordis, a 
 
 3 So mony naturall fulis, b 
 
 2 That better accordis a 
 
 3 To play thame at the trulis, b 
 
 2 Nor seiss the dulis b 
 
 3 That commonis dois sustene ; c 
 
 2 New tane fra sculis, b 
 
 3 Sa mony anis and mvlis b 
 
 R. 5 Within this land was nevir hard nor sene." c 
 
 3. The strophe of seven lines and three rhymes. — This occurs in 
 Dunbar only in four- foot lines, and with the scheme of the rhymes 
 arranged aa, bb, cbc. Thus : — 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxxvii 
 
 4 ' ' Ane mvrlandis man of vplandis mak a 
 
 4 At hame thus to his nychtbour spak, a 
 
 4 ' Quhat tydingis gossep, peax or weir ? ' b 
 
 4 The tother rownit in his eir, b 
 
 4+ 'I tell 30W this vndir confessioun, c 
 
 4 Bot laitly lichtit of my meir, b 
 
 4+ I come of Edinburch fra the Sessioun.' " c 
 
 Dunbar employs this strophe in the five following pieces : " The 
 Wowing of the King quhen he wes in Dumfermeling," ten strophes 
 (p. 136); "Tidings from the Session," eight strophes (p. 78); "In 
 secreit place this hyndir nycht," nine strophes (p. 247) ; " Of a Dance 
 in the Quenis Chalmer," seven strophes (p. 199) ; and the " Complaint 
 to the King aganis Mure," four strophes (p. 210). 
 
 Guest (p. 650) treats this stave as an elaboration of that form which 
 he calls the roundle-stave (and which has already been examined) 
 by the prefixing of a couplet. But examples of a seven-lined strophe 
 in this metre occur (though not in Dunbar) with the rhymes arranged 
 ab, aby cbc, which points to the conclusion that the strophe had an 
 independent formation. See Schipper, p. 416. 
 
 4. The strophe of eight lines with three rhymes, abab, bcbc- — This 
 is Dunbar's most favoured form for short pieces of a heroic or festal 
 character. It is the form by far most frequently exemplified in the 
 body of his poetry that has been preserved. Dunbar has this form 
 both in four-foot and five-foot lines, though the pieces in the latter 
 measure are much the more numerous. Those in the four-foot line 
 are the long poem of fifteen strophes beginning " Sen that I am a 
 presoneir" (p. 164), the first strophe of which, however, has only two 
 rhymes, thus — abab, abab; the " Ballat of the Passioun of Christ" 
 (p. 239), a piece in eighteen strophes, but made up, so far as its form 
 is concerned, of two separate pieces with independent refrains, one 
 constant to eleven and the other to six strophes, and of a strophe with- 
 out a refrain introductory to the whole piece ; the poem " Doun by ane 
 rever as I red " (p. 305) attributed to Dunbar, and extending to ten 
 strophes; and three pieces which have this special pecuHarity, that 
 their refrains are in Latin, borrowed probably from the mass, " Rorate 
 celi desuper" (p. 72), seven strophes; "Memento, homo, quod cinis 
 es " (p. 74), six strophes ; and the attributed piece, " Jerusalem reioss 
 for joy" (p. 322), extending to five strophes. 
 
 There are twenty pieces in the same form in a five-foot line. Ballads 
 of five strophes occur oftenest among these. Such are — 
 
 " Hermes the Philosopher " (p. 108). 
 
 " Surrexit Dominus de Sepulchro " (p. 154). 
 
 " Done is a Battell on the Dragon Blak " (p. 156). 
 
 " Ane Orisoun" (p. 235). 
 
 " We Lordis hes chosin a chiftane mervellus" (p. 237). 
 ' ' Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis regioun " (p. 274). 
 
 m 
 
clxxxvlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' ' Now glaidith euery liffis creature " (p. 324). 
 
 " O lusty flour of Jowth " (p. 326). 
 
 *' The Sterne is rissin of our Redemptioun " (p. 328). 
 
 The remaining pieces in this form are — 
 
 " I cry The mercy, and lasar to repent " (p. 65), Twenty-one strophes. 
 " In May as that Aurora did vpspring " (p. 174).! 
 "The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart, Lord of 
 
 Aubigny " (p. 59). Twelve n 
 
 " Blyth Aberdein" (p. 251). Nine n 
 
 " London, thou art of townes A per se " (p. 276). Seven n 
 
 "To dwell in Court, my freind" (p. 98). Six n 
 
 " Roiss Mary most of vertew virginall " (p. 272). Six u 
 
 " Elegy on the Death of Bernard Stewart " (p. 63). Four n 
 
 " Be 3e ane Luvar, think 3e nocht ^e suld" (p. 162). Three n 
 
 " Learning vain without guid Lyfe " (p. 224). Three n 
 
 " O wreche, be war" (p. 244). Three n 
 
 This form is no doubt a free adaptation of the French ballade^ in 
 which was cast most of the poetry of that trio of French singers who 
 were representative of their craft in Dunbar's own time — Charles of 
 Orleans, Rene Duke of Anjou, and Frangois Villon. Dunbar's "bal- 
 lades " (to give them that name) are not so strict in form as the French 
 poems, which consisted of three strophes each and a half strophe or 
 envoy, the rhyme scheme being the same as Dunbar's but the rhymes 
 of the first strophe being repeated throughout the whole of the poem. 
 Dunbar changes a series of rhymes in each strophe, and never uses 
 the " envoy " with this form. 
 
 King James, in his ' Reulis and Cautelis of Scottis Poesie' (ed. 
 Haslewood, p. 114), calls this form the Ballat Royal, and recom- 
 mends it " for any heich and graue subjectis, specially drawin out of 
 learnit authouris." 
 
 5. The strophe of six four-foot lines with two rhymes , aaa, bbb, ex- 
 emplified in only two pieces by Dunbar — the " Petition of the Gray 
 Horse" (p. 215), containing eleven strophes, and the piece beginning. 
 
 Now culit is dame Venus brand " (p. 179), extending to fifteen. The 
 refrain here is a couplet, which forms an appendage to the strophe, 
 like the " tail " of the verse in the " rime coue'e, to be afterwards 
 explained. 
 
 4 " Now culit is dame Venus brand ; a 
 4 Trew luvis fyre is ay 'k.m.diUand, a 
 4 And I begyn to -vndvcstand, a 
 4 In feynit luve quhat foly bene : b 
 4 Now cumis aige quhair 3ewth hes bene, b 
 4 And trew luve rysis fro the spLENE." b 
 
 — See Schipper, p. 377. 
 
 1 A piece of fifteen strophes in all, but with alternate, and not, as in the usual 
 case, constant refrains, dividing the piece into sections of six and eight strophes 
 respectively. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 clxxxix 
 
 6. To complete the list of strophes of equal lines, with refrain, 
 used by Dunbar, account must be taken of the "responses " in " The 
 Dregy " (pp. 1 13, 1 14). Schipper treats the second of these (p. 382) as a 
 six-line strophe, consisting of a "head " and a "tail," like the pieces 
 in tail-rhyme to be afterwards examined. But neither of the other 
 responses has the final couplet, which is not an integral part of the 
 strophe in which these are written. It is a well-known French eight- 
 line strophe, and should be printed so : — 
 
 2 ' ' God and Sanct Jeill, a 
 
 2 Heir 30W convoY b 
 
 2 Baith sone and weill, a 
 
 2 God and Sanct Jeill. a 
 
 2 To sonce and seill, a 
 
 2 Solace and jOY, b 
 
 2 God and Sanct Geill a 
 
 2 Heir Jow convOY." b 
 
 This strophe answers the description of the "Triolet" of modern 
 French verse-writers, given by Mr Austin Dobson (in the Essay 
 appended to 'Latter-Day Lyrics,' London, 1878): "The modern 
 Triolet consists of eight lines with two rhymes. The first pair of 
 lines are repeated as the seventh and eighth, while the first is repeated 
 as the fourth. The order of rhymes is thus as follows — ab, aaa, bab^ 
 Mr Dobson gives an instance of its use from Menage's " King of 
 Triolets," Jacques Ranchin, which is in four-foot iambic lines, an 
 easier form than the two-foot of Dunbar's examples. 
 
 Guest, whose notice this form, as exemplified in English verse, seems 
 to have escaped, quotes (p. 647) from ' Le Jardin de Plaisance,' a 
 French *Ars Poetica' of the fifteenth century, this example of the 
 strophe, which then was known as a " common rondeau" : — 
 
 " Ainsi se font communs rondeaulx, 
 Ne plus ne moins que cestuy ci, 
 Tant de vont que de vont deaux, 
 Ainsi se font communs rondeaulx. 
 Plusieurs gentils et mains bourdeaux 
 Faillent silz ne font par tel cy, 
 Ainsi se font communs rondeaulx, 
 Ne plus ne moins que cestuy ci." 
 
 B. — Strophes in Lines of Unequal Length. 
 
 (i.) Strophes in Tail-rhyme. 
 
 Tail-rhyme, versus caudaius, rime-couie, is a name given to a form 
 of verse which seems to have originated in the Latin lyrical poetry of 
 the Church, to have passed thence through Latin popular poetry into 
 the vernacular verse of England and France, in both of which 
 countries it became a much favoured form for popular poetry. (See 
 
cxc 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Schipper, p. 353, for an interesting account of its historical origin.) 
 In its simplest form the strophe in tail-rhyme consists of six lines, 
 divisible into two sections of three lines each, the first two lines of 
 each section forming the " head," and rhyming together ; the third 
 line in each forming the " tail," and rhyming with the tail of the other 
 section, and the scheme of rhymes thus being aab, ccb. The line of 
 the tail is in the earliest forms shorter by one foot than the lines of 
 the head. For example, take this strophe from Dunbar's poem "Of 
 Sir Thomas Norray" (p. 192) : — 
 
 4 "Now lythis of ane gentill Knycht, ^ ) tt j 
 
 _ . . .... > HRan. 
 
 4 Schir Thomas Norray, wyse and wickt, a ) 
 
 3 And full of chivalRiE ; b Tail. 
 
 4 Quhais father was ane Grand Keyne, ^ I h d 
 4 His mother was ane Farie Queyne, c ) 
 
 3 Gotten be sossery." d Tail. 
 
 Here there are four feet in the head-lines and three in the tails, the 
 common form. It is to be noted, however, that Dunbar uses the 
 simple strophe only in the one poem just cited. His pieces in tail- 
 rhyme are for the most part in the more elaborate and later developed 
 forms of the strophe. 
 
 I. In two poems, " The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis " 
 (p. 117) and "The Turnament" (p. 122), he uses the strophe of 
 twelve lines made up of two of the simpler strophes just exemplified, 
 the bond of connection being the rhyme of the four tail-lines, which 
 rhyme together, so that the scheme is aab, ccb, ddb, eeb. Thus — 
 
 4 " Off Februar the fyiftene a 
 
 4 Full lang befoir the dayis lychf, a 
 
 3 I lay in till a TRANCE ; b 
 
 4 And then I saw baith hevin and hell : c 
 4 Me thocht, amangis the feyndis fell, c 
 
 3 Mahoun gart cry ane dance. b 
 
 4 Off schrewis that wer nevir schrevin, d 
 4 Aganiss the feist of Fasternis evin d 
 
 3 To mak thair observANCE ; b 
 
 4 He bad gallandis ga graith a gyiss, e 
 4 And least vp gamountis in the skyiss e 
 3 That last came out of France." b 
 
 This is the first strophe of the " Dance." Although printed in Mr 
 Small's text mainly in sections of six lines, an examination of the verse 
 will show that the strophe is really one of twelve lines, both the 
 rhyme and the logical structure of the periods involving a strophic 
 structure of twelve lines. There are, however, two supplementary (it 
 may be, interpolated) strophes of six lines each at lines 25 and 103 
 respectively ; but the longer form is constant through the rest of the 
 poem. 
 
 2. The simple strophe of six lines was developed into one of eight 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cxci 
 
 by adding another line to the " head," rhyming with the others, so 
 that the scheme of rhymes was aaab, cccb; and by doubling this into 
 a strophe of sixteen lines, rhyming aaab, cccb, dddb^ eeeb, Dunbar 
 gets the form used in the two pieces, the Fen^eit Freir of Tung- 
 land" (p. 139) and the " Droichis part of the Play" (p. 314). In the 
 former piece, the first and last strophe is extended to twenty-four lines 
 by keeping up the same rhyme in the tail-lines through another half- 
 strophe. In the latter piece, the examination of the verse shows that 
 in Mr Small's text one of the strophes has got broken up and its parts 
 set out of place. Lines 1 13-120 should be transferred to the place now 
 occupied bylines 129-136. 
 
 3. In the foregoing examples of this form, the head-lines are of four 
 and the tail-lines of three feet. Another development was attained by 
 changing this normal relation in the length of the lines. Dunbar has 
 single instances of two separate developments of this kind. In the 
 first, the piece beginning " Quha will behald of luve the chance " (p* 
 172), written in a strophe of eight lines, the tail-line is shortened into 
 two feet, thus : — 
 
 4 ' ' Quha will behald of luve the o^xance, a 
 
 4 With sweit dissauyng coxml^nance, a 
 
 4 In quhais fair dS.s'iwsw lance a 
 
 2 May none assuRE ; b 
 
 4 Quhilk is begun with inconstance, a 
 
 4 And endis nocht but vAriance, a 
 
 4 Scho haldis with zor^Sxiwance a 
 
 2 No scheruiTURE." b 
 
 This piece, it should be remarked, continues the same rhymes 
 throughout its three strophes, so that its form is something more than 
 mere tail-rhyme — approaching nearly to that of the old French 
 Virelay. 
 
 In the other piece, " Thir Ladyis fair" (p. 168), Dunbar gives an 
 instance of tail-rhyme in a strophe of twelve lines rhymed aab, aab, 
 ccd, ccd, in which the lines of the " head " are shortened to two feet, 
 and those of the "tail" extended to four. Dr Small has printed this 
 piece in sections of eight equal lines, but it is properly a strophe of 
 twelve unequal lines, thus : — 
 
 2 
 
 ' ' Thir ladyis fair 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 That makis repair. 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 And in the court ar kend, 
 
 b 
 
 2 
 
 Thre day is thair, 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 Thay will do mair. 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 Ane mater for till end, 
 
 b 
 
 2 
 
 Than thair gud men, 
 
 c 
 
 2 
 
 Will do in ten, 
 
 c 
 
 4 
 
 For ony craft thay CAN, 
 
 d 
 
 2 
 
 So Weill thay ken, 
 
 c 
 
 2 
 
 Quhat tyme and quheii, 
 
 c 
 
 4 
 
 Thair menes thay sowld mak than." 
 
 d 
 
cxcii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (2.) Strophes with a Wheel. 
 
 The "wheel" is the name used by Dr Guest (p. 572 et seq.) con- 
 veniently to describe a metrical device whereby the strophe was 
 developed into a more complex form than a mere combination of 
 equal lines joined together by rhyme. He explains the term as de- 
 noting the return at the close of each strophe of some marked and 
 peculiar rhythm. To illustrate it by an example from Dunbar, who 
 only seldom uses it, take the first strophe of " The Ballad of Kynd 
 Kittok" (p. 52) :— 
 
 " My Gudame wes a^ay wif, bot scho wes rycht ^end, a 
 
 Scho duelt /urth /er in to France, apon /Falkland /ellis ; b 
 
 Thay callit her Aynd Alttok, quhasa hir weill -^end : a 
 
 Scho wes like a caldrone rruke der vnder -^ellis ; b 
 
 Thay thregiX. that scho deit of tkrist, et maid a gud end. a 
 
 Efter hir dede, scho dredii nought in hevin for to dneW ; b 
 
 And sa to ^evin the Aieway dreidless scho wend, a 
 
 yi scho wanderit, and ^eid by to ane elriche well. b 
 
 3 Scho met thar, as I wene c 
 
 3 Ane ask rydand on a snaill, d 
 
 3 Et cryit, ' Ourtane fallow, haill ! ' d 
 
 3 And raid ane inche behind the taill, d 
 
 3 Till it wes neir evin.^ c 
 
 The last four lines make up the wheel — the line which introduces 
 them and rhymes with the last line of the wheel being called the 
 " bob " or " bob-line," and the combination of all five lines the " bob- 
 wheel" (see Guest, p. 620 sq.) This bob-wheel, then, consists of five 
 iambic lines of three accents, each rhymed cdddc. The strophe to 
 which it is appended combines eight of the alliterative lines of the 
 older poetry by rhymes interwoven thus, abab, abab. This combina- 
 tion of alliteration, rhyme, and wheel was early introduced in Scottish 
 poetry. The " Pystyll of Susan" (about 1350) is in this form (the 
 only difference being that the bob-line has but one accent) ; and in 
 " Sir Gawayn and the Grene Knight " — probably an earlier piece — a 
 similar bob-wheel is used to divide into strophes of irregular length a 
 poem in unrhymed alliterative verse. To this kind of verse King 
 James (work cited, p. 115) applies the name Roimcefallis^ or Tumbling 
 verse, and recommends it for " Flyting or Invectives." 
 
 In only one other poem by Dunbar is this device exemplified in its 
 oldest form of a wheel of three rhyming lines with a tail-line. This 
 is the piece beginning "In vice most vicius he excellis" (p. 190). 
 The strophe is made up of a couplet of iambic lines with four accents 
 and a wheel, the tail of which rhymes with the couplet, according to 
 the scheme aa, bbb, a. Thus — 
 
 1 Pronounced e'en. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cxciii 
 
 4 "In vice most vicius he excellis, a 
 
 4 That with the vice of tressone mellis ; a 
 
 2+ Thocht he reMissiouN, 3 
 
 2+ Haif for proDissiouN, d 
 
 2+ Schame and susspissioun d 
 
 2 Ay with him dwellis" a 
 
 To complete the list of the strophic forms used by Dunbar, account 
 must be taken of two others which combine in a curious way the 
 effects of the refrain and the wheel. The first is the " Satire on 
 Edinburgh" (p. 261), written in a strophe of seven lines, six of which 
 are four-foot iambics, and one, the fifth, a two-foot with trochaic 
 substitution in the first foot, its brevity giving it the effect of a bob-line 
 
 The rhyme scheme is aaab, bab. Thus — 
 
 4 "Quhy will ^e, merchantis of xenoun, a 
 
 4 Lat Edinburgh, ^our nobill totin, a 
 
 4 For laik of reioxmsitioun a 
 
 4 The commone proffeitt tyine and fame ? b 
 
 R. 2 Think 3e nocht schame, b 
 
 4 That onie vther xegioun a 
 
 R. 4 Sail with dishonour hurt ^our NAME ! " b 
 
 The fifth and seventh lines are constant (with only unimportant 
 variations) as a refrain through the eleven strophes of the poem. 
 The sixth line varies in each, so that the last three lines form a tail 
 combining the characteristics both of the wheel and the refrain. 
 
 The other poem which exhibits a similar structure is " Ane Ballat 
 of Our Lady " (p. 269). This is in a twelve-line strophe made up of 
 two parts, the first containing eight iambic lines alternately four and 
 three foot ; and the second consisting of a refrain in Latin (which, 
 however, does not rhyme with any other line in the strophe) intro- 
 ducing a wheel of three lines in the measure of the first part. The 
 rhymes of the strophe are peculiar. The general scheme is abab, abab 
 in the first part, and bab in the second. This is the order of the end 
 rhymes ; but the lines of the a series have each two internal a rhymes, 
 after the fashion already exemplified in the " Flyting," so as to make 
 the strophe one of highly artificial structure. The first strophe may 
 be taken to show this : — 
 
 4 " Haile, st^r;2g sup^r;?^ ! Haile, ixi eterne, aaa 
 
 3 In Godis sicht to schyne ! b 
 
 4 "Lucerne in derne, for to discerne aaa 
 
 3 Be glory and grace devYNE ; b 
 
 4 Hodiern, xnodern, sexnipitern, aaa 
 
 3 Angelicall regYNE ! b 
 
 4 Our tern ixifern for to dispern, aaa 
 
 3 Helpe rialest rosYNE. b 
 
 4 Aue Maria, gratia plena ! — 
 
 3 Haile, fresche flour femynYNE ! b 
 
 4 ^erne ws gnberne, wirgin matern, aaa 
 3 Of reuth baith rute and ryne." b 
 
cxciv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IV.— BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DUNBAR. 
 
 A. — Manuscripts. 
 
 1. The Bannatyne MS., written by George Bannatyne, 1568, Advo- 
 cates' Library, Edinburgh, from which Nos. ix. to xlix.. No. lxxi., 
 and Nos. i. to vi. and viii. to xi. of the poems attributed to Dunbar in 
 this edition are printed. 
 
 2. The Maitland MS., collected by Sir Richard Maitland ot Leth- 
 ington shortly after 1586, Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cam- 
 bridge, from which Nos. l. to lxx. and lxxii. to lxxvi. of this edition 
 are printed. 
 
 3. The Reidpeth MS., University Library, Cambridge, MS. Moore, 
 LI. 5. 10, written by Mr John Reidpeth between 7th Dec. 1622 and 1623, 
 and to a considerable extent copied from the Maitland MS., from 
 which Nos. VIII. and Lxxvii. to lxxxiv. of this edition are printed. 
 
 4. The Asloan MS., Auchinleck, Ayrshire, written in 15 15, but 
 nearly one half of the original volume, probably containing other 
 poems of Dunbar, has been lost or destroyed, from which Nos. lxxxv. 
 and Lxxxvi. of this edition are printed. 
 
 5. The Makulloch MS., University of Edinburgh, has another copy 
 
 of LXXXVI. 
 
 6. An MS. volume of the Register of Sasines, Town Clerk's Office, 
 Aberdeen, from which No. lxxxvii. of this edition is printed. 
 
 7. The British Museum MS., Cotton. Vitellius, A. xvi., folio 200, 
 from which No. lxxxviii. is printed. 
 
 8. The British Museum Appendix to Royal MSS., No. 58, folio 
 15 b, from which No. lxxxix. is printed. 
 
 9. The British Museum Arundel MS., No. 285, folio 161, from which 
 No. xc. is printed. 
 
 10. The poems i.-vii. and No. vii. of the poems attributed to Dun- 
 bar are printed from the unique copy of Chepman and Myllar's first 
 printed works in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 The Society is indebted to Professor Skeat of Cambridge, Dr 
 Richard Garnett of the British Museum, and the Rev. Dr Gregor, 
 Pitsligo, for collations at Cambridge, London, and Aberdeen re- 
 spectively, which have been of the greatest service. 
 
 ^.—Printed Editions. 
 
 Dunbar's poems have been very frequently printed in part, either by 
 themselves or in collections of Scottish poetry, but only once before 
 the present edition as a whole, by Mr David Laing. It would not 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cxcv 
 
 be easy or useful to notice all the partial editions, but the most im- 
 portant are — 
 
 1. The Seven Poems (the first printed in the present edition), issued 
 by Chepman and Myllar in 1508. 
 
 2. The 'Evergreen' of Allan Ramsay. Edinburgh: Ruddiman, 
 1724. Contains twenty-four poems by Dunbar. 
 
 3. Ancient Scottish Poems, published from the MS. of George Ban- 
 natyne, by Lord Hailes. Edinburgh : Printed by A. Murray and 
 J. Cochrane for J. Balfour, 12°, 1770. Reprinted at Leeds, 1817, 8°. 
 Contains thirty-two poems by Dunbar. 
 
 4. Ancient Scotch Poems, never before in print, but now published 
 from the MS. Collections of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, 
 Knight, by John Pinkerton. London and Edinburgh : 1786. Con- 
 tains twenty-three poems by Dunbar, including "The Freiris of 
 Berwik." 
 
 5. Select Poems of Will. Dunbar, from the MS. of George Banna- 
 tyne. Part First. Perth: R. Morison & Co., 1788, 12°. No Second 
 Part was printed. 
 
 6. Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, from the Thirteenth Century to the 
 Union of the Crowns, by J. Sibbald. Edinburgh : 1802. Contains 
 forty-five poems by Dunbar, including the " Freiris of Berwik." 
 
 7. The Poetical Works of William Dunbar, with a Memoir and 
 Notes by David Laing. Edinburgh : 1824. 2 vols., with a Supplement, 
 published in 1865. The Memoir and Notes of this edition contain 
 almost all that has been discovered in the Scottish Records relating 
 to Dunbar. 
 
 8. Reprint of Dunbar's Seven Poems, issued by Chepman and 
 Myllar, in No. 19 of the English Scholars' Library, by Mr Edward 
 Arber. Announced, but not yet published. 
 
 g. Early English Poetry, selected and edited by H. Macaulay Fitz- 
 gibbon. London : Walter Scott, Canterbury Poets, 1887. This is 
 valuable from the successful translation of the poems of Dunbar into 
 modern English, and also as showing how completely he is recognised 
 as an early English poet. 
 
 10. The works of William Dunbar, including his life, 1465-1536. 
 With Notes and Glossarial Explanations. By James Paterson, author 
 of * The History of Ayrshire and Ayrshire Families,' &c. Edinburgh : 
 Stillie, 1863. 
 
 11. The Bannatyne MS. has been published in full by the Hunterian 
 Club of Glasgow, 1874-81. 
 
 12. The present edition contains ninety poems by Dunbar, and 
 eleven others attributed to him but of uncertain authorship. 
 
 The following works published on the Continent also deserve notice: — 
 I. William Dunbar sein Leben und seine Gedichte von Dr J. 
 Schipper, Professor der englischen Philologie an der K.K. Univer- 
 
cxcvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sitat in Wien. Berlin : Oppenheim, 1884. This is the best book which 
 has been written on Dunbar, and the German translations of his 
 poems are executed with a skill and fidelity which Dunbar would 
 himself have admired. 
 
 2. Traitd de la Langue du Poete Ecossais William Dunbar. In- 
 augural Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doctorwiirde bei den philo- 
 sophischen Facultat zu Bonn. Von Johannes Kaufmann aus Elber- 
 feld, 1873. The contents of this Dissertation are chiefly taken from 
 Professor Schipper's then unpublished work. 
 
 3. Englische Studien von Dr Eugen Kolbing, Professor der Eng- 
 lischen Philologie an der Universitat Breslau. X Band. Contains 
 a review of the text of the present edition. 
 
 4. Altenglische Metrik von Dr J. Schipper. Bonn: 1882-1888. 
 Contains references to Dunbar, pp. 335, 345, 359, 360, 366, 373, 376, 
 377, 382, 396, 417, 420, 425, 428, 429, 431, 509-512, and 514. This 
 work should be studied by all persons interested in Dunbar's metres. 
 
 C— Table of the MSS. in which is found each of the 
 Poems of Dunbar. 
 
 B. corresponds to No. i, Section A. 
 
 M. II II 2, II 
 
 R. I, I. 3, II 
 
 A. If II 4, ti 
 
 Mak. II II 5, II 
 
 RS.A. II .1 6, 11 
 
 BM.V. II II 7, II 
 
 BM.R. 11 II 3, It 
 
 BM.A. II II 9, II 
 
 * = The Poem in full. t=Part of the Poem. 
 
 
 B. 
 
 M. 
 
 R. 
 
 A. 
 
 Mak. 
 
 RS.A. 
 
 BM.V. 
 
 BM.R. 
 
 BM.A. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 4- 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 II. 
 12. 
 
 1.3. 
 14. 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Goldyn Targe. 
 
 The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie. 
 
 The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo. 
 
 Lament for the Makaris, quhen he wes seik. 
 
 The Ballad of Kynd Kittok. 
 
 The Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy. 
 
 The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart, Lord 
 
 of Aubigny. 
 Elegy on the Death of Bernard Stewart, 
 
 Lord of Aubigny. 
 I cry the Mercy, and Lasar to repent. 
 Rorate CeH desuper. 
 Memento, Homo, quod cinis es. 
 All Erdly Joy returnis in pane. 
 Tidings from the Session. 
 Devorit with Dreme, devysing in my Slum- 
 
 mer. 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cxcvii 
 
 B. 
 
 M. 
 
 R. 
 
 IS- 
 i6. 
 
 17- 
 i8. 
 19. 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23- 
 24. 
 
 25- 
 
 26. 
 27. 
 28. 
 
 29. 
 30- 
 
 31- 
 32. 
 
 33- 
 
 34- 
 35. 
 36. 
 37- 
 38. 
 39- 
 40. 
 41. 
 42. 
 
 43- 
 44. 
 
 45- 
 46. 
 
 47- 
 
 48. 
 49. 
 50. 
 51- 
 
 52. 
 
 S3- 
 54- 
 55- 
 56. 
 57- 
 58. 
 59. 
 60. 
 61. 
 
 62. 
 63. 
 
 In asking sowld Discretioun be. 
 
 Of Discretioun in Geving. 
 
 Of Discretioun in Taking. 
 
 Musing allone this hinder nicht. 
 
 How sowld I rewill me, or quhat wyiss. 
 
 To dwell in Court, my freind. 
 
 Quhome to sail I complene my wo. 
 
 Schir, 3it remembir as of befoir. 
 
 Hermes the Philosopher. 
 
 Full oft I mvss and hes in thocht. 
 
 We that are heir in Hevins Glory. 
 
 The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis. 
 
 The Turnament. 
 
 Ffollowis the amendis made be him to the 
 
 Tel^ouris and Sowtaris. 
 Sanct Saluatour ! send siluer sorrow. 
 Ffollowis how Dumbar was desyrd to be ane 
 
 Freir. 
 
 He that hes gold and grit richess. 
 
 The Wowing of the King quhen he wes in 
 Dumfermehng. 
 
 Ane Ballat of the Fen^eit Freir of Tung- 
 land. 
 
 This nycht in my sleip I wes agast. 
 
 Lucina schynnyng in silence of the nicht. 
 
 Man, sen thy lyfe is ay in weir. 
 
 Surrexit Dominus de Sepulchro. 
 
 Done is a Battell on the Dragon Blak. 
 
 Ffredome, Honour and Nobilnes. 
 
 Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday. 
 
 Be 3e ane Luvar, think 3e nocht 3e suld. 
 
 Sen that I am a Presoneir. 
 
 Thir Ladyis fair, that makis repair. 
 
 In prays of Woman. 
 
 Quha will behald of Luve the chance. 
 
 In May as that Aurora did vpspring. 
 
 Now cumis Aige quhair 3ewth hes bene, 
 
 and trew Luve rysis fro the splene. 
 The Thistle and the Rose. 
 In Vice most vicius he excellis. 
 Of Sir Thomas Norray. 
 Of James Dog, Kepar of the Quenis Ward- 
 
 rop. To the Queue. 
 Of the same James, quhen he had plesett 
 
 him. 
 
 Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer. 
 Of ane Blak-Moir. 
 To the Quene. 
 
 To the King, quhen mony Benefices vakit. 
 Aganis the Solistaris in Court. 
 To the King. 
 
 Complaint to the King aganis Mure. 
 Dunbar's Complaint to the King, 
 The Petition of the Gray Horse, Auld 
 Dunbar. 
 
 To the King, that he war Johne Thom- 
 
 sounis Man. 
 Dunbar's Remonstrance to the King. 
 
cxcviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 B. 
 
 To a Ladye. 
 
 Learning vain without guid Lyfe. Written 
 
 at Oxinfurde. 
 Of the Warldis Instabihtie. To the King. 
 Of Content. 
 
 Of the changes of Lyfe, 
 Meditatioun in Wyntir. 
 Ane Orisoun. Quhen the Gouernour past 
 in France. 
 
 We Lordis hes chosin a Chiftane mervellus. 
 
 Ane Ballat of the Passioun of Christ. 
 
 O Wreche, be war ! 
 
 To a Ladye. Quhone he Ust to feyne. 
 
 In secreit place this hyndir nycht. 
 
 Quhat is this Lyfe bot ane straucht way to 
 
 Deid. 
 Blyth Aberdein. 
 My heid did Jak Jesternicht. 
 My Lordis of Chacker, pleis 30W to heir. 
 A New Year's Gift to the King. 
 The Dream. 
 Satire on Edinburgh. 
 Welcome to the Lord Treasurer. 
 Ballate against evil Women. 
 Ane Ballat of our Lady. 
 Roiss Mary most of vertew virginall. 
 Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis Regioun. 
 London, thou art of townes A per se. 
 Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre. 
 O synfuU man, thir ar the fourty dayis. 
 
 Poems attributed to Dunbar. 
 
 The Freiris of Berwik. 
 Doun by ane Rever as I red. 
 Fane wald I luve, but quhair abowt? 
 Faine wald I, with all diligence. 
 Gif 3e wald lufe and luvit be. 
 Ane Httill Interlud of the Droichis part of 
 the Play. 
 
 In all oure gardyn growis thare na flouris. 
 
 Jerusalem reioss for joy. 
 
 Now glaidith euery liffis creature. 
 
 O lusty flour of ^owth, benyng and bricht. 
 
 The Sterne is rissin of our Redemptioun. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cxcix 
 
 D. — Table of the Principal Editions of each of the 
 Poems of Dunbar. 
 
 C. corresponds to No. i, Section B. 
 
 E. II II 2, w 
 
 H. u M 3, 
 
 Pn. It ti 4, M 
 
 Ph. ti II 5, 
 
 Sb. II i» 6, If 
 
 L. II II 7, II 
 
 Pr. II II lo, II 
 
 F. II II 9» " 
 
 Sc. n Professor Schipper's 'William Dunbar.' 
 
 *=The Poem in full. t = Part of the Poem. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 
 4- 
 
 5- 
 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 
 10. 
 
 
 
 C. 
 
 E. 
 
 H. 
 
 Pn. 
 
 Ph. 
 
 Sb, 
 
 L. 
 
 Pr. 
 
 F. 
 
 Sc. 
 
 
 I- 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 t 
 
 + 
 
 The Goldyn Targe. 
 
 2. 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie. 
 
 3- 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 -x- 
 
 * 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo. 
 
 4- 
 
 
 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 
 Lament for the Makaris, quhen he wes 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 seik. 
 
 5- 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Ballad of Kynd Kittok. 
 
 6. 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 The Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy. 
 
 7- 
 
 •Si- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lord of Aubi^ny. 
 
 8. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 Elegy on the Death of Bernard Stewart, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lord of Aubigny. 
 
 9- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 + 
 
 I cry the Mercy, and Lasar to repent. 
 
 lO. 
 
 
 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 Rorate Cell desuper. 
 
 II. 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 
 Memento, Homo, quod cinis es. 
 
 12. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 * 
 
 All Erdly Joy returnis in pane. 
 
 13- 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 •X- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 t 
 
 Tidings from the Session. 
 
 14. 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 X- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 t 
 
 Devorit with Dreme, devysing in my 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Slummer. 
 
 15- 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■it 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 
 + 
 
 In asking sowld Discretioun be. 
 
 16. 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 t 
 
 Of Discretioun in Geving. 
 
 17- 
 
 
 
 
 
 -X- 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 t 
 
 Of Discretioun in Taking. 
 
 18. 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 -X- 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 Musing allone this hinder nicht. 
 
 19. 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 How sowld I rewill me, or quhat wyiss. 
 
 20. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 
 
 To dwell in Court, my freind. 
 
 21. 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 Quhome to sail I complene my wo. 
 
 22. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Schir, 3it remembir as of befoir. 
 
 23- 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 Hermes the Philosopher. 
 
 24. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Full oft I mvss and hes in thocht. 
 
 25- 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 We that ar heir in Hevins Glory. 
 
 26. 
 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 * 
 
 + 
 
 + 
 
 t 
 
 The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis. 
 
 27. 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 + 
 
 The Turnament. 
 
 28. 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 t 
 
 ■X- 
 
 FfoUowis the amendis made be him to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 the Tel:}ouris and Sowtaris. 
 
 29. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 + 
 
 Sanct Saluatour ! send siluer sorrow. 
 
 30. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 ■X- 
 
 Ffollowis how Dumbar was desyrd to be 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ane Freir. 
 
 31- 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 ■3f 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 4f 
 
 
 + 
 
 He that hes gold and grit richess. 
 
cc INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 4. 
 
 5- 
 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 
 8. 
 
 J. 10. 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 E. I 
 
 I. Pn. 
 
 Ph. 
 
 Sb. 
 
 L. 
 
 Pr. ] 
 
 F. Sc. 
 
 
 32. 
 
 33- 
 
 34. 
 35. 
 
 36. 
 37- 
 38. 
 39. 
 40. 
 41. 
 
 42. 
 
 43. 
 44. 
 
 45- 
 46. 
 
 47. 
 
 48. 
 49- 
 SO. 
 51. 
 
 52. 
 
 53- 
 54- 
 55. 
 56. 
 
 57- 
 58. 
 59- 
 60. 
 61. 
 
 62. 
 
 63. 
 64. 
 
 65. 
 66. 
 
 67. 
 68. 
 69. 
 70. 
 
 71- 
 
 72. 
 73- 
 74- 
 75- 
 
 
 *::: : :::: : ::: : ::::: :::: : ::** ::): 
 
 If. 
 
 If. 
 
 * 
 
 f- 
 e- 
 
 J. 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
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 * 
 
 * 
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 :::: : :::: : ::: : ::::: :::: • **:::: :::*:* *-J-* • j 
 
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 •X- 
 
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 * 
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 * 
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 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 4f- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 Mr 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 •X- 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
 
 * 
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 •X- 
 
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 ■X- 
 
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 ■X- 
 
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 ■X- 
 
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 •X- 
 
 * 1 
 
 * 
 
 ■X- 
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 * 
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 * ^ 
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 X- * 
 
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 * 
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 •. t 
 
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 ■X- 
 
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 ■X- 
 
 '. t 
 . t 
 
 The Wowing of the King quhen he wes 
 in Dumfermeling. 
 
 Ane Ballat of the Fen^eit Freir of Tung- 
 land. 
 
 This nycht in my sleip I wes agast. 
 Lucina schynnyng in silence of the 
 nicht. 
 
 Man, sen thy lyfe is ay in weir. 
 Surrexit Dominus de Sepulchro. 
 Done is a Battell on the Dragon Blak. 
 Ffredome, Honour and Nobilnes. 
 Rycht airlie on Ask Weddinsday. 
 Be ^e ane Luvar, think Je nocht Je 
 suld. 
 
 Sen that I am a Presoneir. 
 
 Thir Lady is fair, that makis repair. 
 
 In prays of Woman. 
 
 Quha will behald of Luve the chance. 
 
 In May as that Aurora did vpspring. 
 
 Now cumis Aige quhair 3ewth hes bene, 
 
 and trew Luve rysis fro the splene. 
 The Thistle and the Rose. 
 In Vice most vicius he excellis. 
 Of Sir Thomas Norray. 
 Of James Dog, Kepar of the Quenis 
 
 Wardrop. To the Quene. 
 Of the same James, quhen he had 
 
 plesett him. 
 Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer. 
 Of ane Blak-Moir. 
 To the Quene. 
 
 To the King, quhen mony Benefices 
 vakit. 
 
 Aganis the Solistaris in Court. 
 To the King. 
 
 Complaint to the King aganis Mure. 
 Dunbar's Complaint to the King. 
 The Petition of the Gray Horse, Auld 
 Dunbar. 
 
 To the King, that he war Johne Thom- 
 
 sounis Man. 
 Dunbar's Remonstrance to the King. 
 To a Ladye. 
 
 Learning vain without guid Lyfe. Writ- 
 ten at Oxinfurde. 
 
 Of the Warldis Instabilitie. To the 
 King. 
 
 Of Content. 
 
 Of the changes of Lyfe. 
 Meditatioun in Wyntir. 
 Ane Orisoun. Quhen the Gouemour 
 
 past in France. 
 We Lordis hes chosin a Chiftane mer- 
 
 vellus. 
 
 Ane Ballat of the Passioun of Christ. 
 0 Wreche, be war ! 
 To a Ladye. Quhone he list to feyne. 
 In secreit place this hyndir nycht. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cci 
 
 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 
 4- 
 
 s. 
 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 
 10. 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 E. 
 
 H. 
 
 Pn. 
 
 Ph. 
 
 Sb. 
 
 L. 
 
 Pr. 
 
 F. 
 
 Sc. 
 
 
 76. 
 
 77. 
 78. 
 
 79- 
 80. 
 81. 
 82. 
 
 83. 
 84. 
 
 85. 
 86. 
 87. 
 
 88. 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 t 
 
 Quhat is this Lyfe bot ane straucht way 
 
 to Deid. 
 Blyth Aberdein. 
 My heid did ^ak ^esternicht. 
 My Lordis of Chacker, pleis ^ow to heir. 
 A New Year's Gift to the King. 
 The Dream. 
 Satire on Edinburgh. 
 Welcome to the Lord Treasurer. 
 Ballate against evil Women. 
 Ane Ballat of our Lady. 
 Roiss Mary most of vertew virginall. 
 Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis 
 
 Regioun. 
 
 London, thou art of townes A per se. 
 
 Now fayre, fayrest off every fayre. 
 
 0 synfuU man, thir ar the fourty dayis. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 t 
 t 
 t 
 
 89. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 90. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 7 
 
 24 
 
 31 
 
 22 
 
 29 
 
 44 
 
 87 
 
 77 
 
 15 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Poems attributed to Dunbar. 
 
 I. 
 2. 
 3- 
 4- 
 
 S- 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 
 8, 
 9- 
 
 lO. 
 
 II. 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 The Freiris of Berwik. 
 
 Doun by ane Rever as I red. 
 
 Fane wald I luve, but quhair abowt ? 
 
 Faine wald I, with all diligence. 
 
 Gif ^e wald lufe and luvit be. 
 
 Ane littill Interlud of the Droichis part 
 
 of the Play. 
 In all oure gardyn growis thare na 
 
 fiouris. 
 Jerusalem reioss for joy. 
 Now glaidith euery liffis creature. 
 0 lusty flour of ^owth, benyng and 
 
 bricht. 
 
 The Sterne is rissin of our Redemptioun. 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
ccii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 v.— HISTORICAL NOTICES OF PERSONS ALLUDED 
 TO IN DUNBAR'S POEMS.^ 
 
 Abiram. Flyfing, 1. 250. — See Numbers xvi. i. 
 
 Absalome. Fly ting, 1. 12. — The son of David. 
 
 Achilles. Of Man's Mortalities 1. 10. — The Greek champion in 
 the siege of Troy. 
 
 Afflek, James. Lament, 1. 58. — Laing identifies Afflek with 
 James Auchinleck, these names having been pronounced the same 
 way. Master James Auchinleck, shortened to Achlik, styled "servi- 
 tour to the Earl of Rosse," witnesses an indenture of marriage be- 
 tween Alexander, son of John of Rosse, and Margaret, daughter of 
 Hector (M'Gillevin) MacLean of Lochbuie, at Dingwall, 6th Feb. 
 1474, recorded in the Acta Dominorum Concilii, 30th June 1494. In 
 the Privy Council Records for 1497, the Chantory of Caithness was 
 given by James IV., on the decease of " Master James Auchinleck," to 
 James Beaton, afterwards Archbishop of St Andrews. This is pre- 
 sumed to be the same person, and if so, he is proved to have been 
 in holy orders. A poem, " The Quair of Jealousy," in the Selden MS., 
 Auch. B. 24, which ends "Explicit quod Auchin," is conjectured by 
 Laing to be by this poet. No other poem of his is known. 
 
 The dates of the life of James Auchinleck, who must have been 
 alive in 1474 and dead in 1497, agree sufficiently well with his place 
 in The Lament for the Makaris." 
 
 Albany, Duke of. See Stewart, John. 
 
 Alexander. Of Man's Mortalitie, 1. 11. — Alexander the Great, 
 whose story was a familiar subject of legend. 
 
 Allane. Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy, 1. 12. — Who blind 
 Allan was has not been discovered. Probably the line — 
 
 " Na blind Allane wait of the mone," — 
 was a proverb now lost. It is alluded to by Lyndsay — 
 
 1 These Notices have been under such frequent obligations to Mr Laing's 
 Memoir and Notes to his edition of Dunbar, that a general acknowledgment of the 
 compiler's share in the debt of all who attempt to write after Mr Laing may, how- 
 ever inadequate, owing to considerations of space, be allowed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cciii 
 
 " I understand no science spiritual, 
 No more than dyd blind Alane of the mone." 
 
 — ' The Tragedy of the Cardinal,' 11. 395, 396. 
 
 Andrew of Wyntoun. Lament, 1. 54. — Prior of the Convent of 
 St Serfs Inch, in Lochleven, author of the 'Cronykall Oryginale,' 
 written between 1395 and 1424. It was called "Oryginale" because 
 it traced the history of the world, but chiefly of Scotland, from 
 its origin. It is the earliest history in the vernacular, as well as the 
 earliest long poem with the exception of Barbour's " Bruce." It is 
 composed in rhyming couplets and lines of eight syllables, with some 
 deviations into ten and six. Wyntoun and Barbour adhere more 
 strictly to this metre which was borrowed from France than their 
 English contemporaries (Schipper, 'Altenglische Metrik,' vol. i. p. 
 264). It was first printed by Macpherson, 1795, but the best edition is 
 by Laing, ' Scottish Historians,' Paterson, 1872, which embodies Mac- 
 pherson's Notes. 
 
 Ann (An), St. To the King, that he war Johne Thomosunis Man, 
 1. 31. — The mother of the Virgin. The development of the worship 
 of the Virgin led to her relations being included in the Calendar as 
 Saints, with altars dedicated to them. St Ann had such altars in 
 many Scottish churches, as in the chapel at Holyrood and the great 
 Church of St Michael at Linlithgow, where a chaplain was kept to 
 minister at it. — ' Register of Special Evidents of Linlithgow.' 
 
 The Collegiate Church at Glasgow was founded by James Houston, 
 Sub-Dean of the Cathedral and Rector of the University, in 1528, in 
 honour of our Lady the Blessed Virgin and St Ann. — ' Liber Collegii 
 Nostrse Dominae B.V. Maris et S. Annae,' Maitland Club. 
 
 The Franciscans specially favoured the worship of the Virgin. The 
 Immaculate Conception was an article of their belief long before it 
 was made a dogma of the Church. Sixtus IV., Pope (1471-84), and 
 general of their Order, issued in 1477 a special office for the festival 
 of her conception, and dedicated the churches of S. Maria del Popolo 
 and S. Maria della Pace at Rome to her. But by a decree in 1483 he 
 recognised the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as open, though 
 he had himself written a book in its support. — Crichton's * History of 
 the Papacy,' vol. iii. p. 113. 
 
 "A rich and copious legend," says Milman ('Latin Christianity,' 
 vol. vi., p. 241), "revealed the whole history of her [the Virgin Mary's] 
 birth and life, of which the sacred Scriptures were altogether silent, 
 but of which the spurious Gospels furnished many incidents. The 
 latest question raised about the Virgin, her absolute immunity from 
 the sin of Adam, is the best illustration of the strength and vitality 
 of the belief. ... It divided the Franciscans and the Dominicans 
 into hostile camps ; " and he adds in a note : " When the stranger in 
 
 n 
 
cciv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Spain arrived at midnight at a convent gate and uttered his * Santis- 
 sima Virgin,' he knew by the answer, ' Sen pecado concebida,' or by 
 the silence with which the gate was opened, whether it was a Fran- 
 ciscan or a Dominican." 
 
 That Dunbar should pray to "God and sweet Saint An" was a re- 
 miniscence of his Franciscan training, which is also seen in his poems 
 to the Virgin, pp. 269 and 273. He alludes, perhaps, to the immacu- 
 late conception in the line " Haile, moder and maid but makle ! "— 
 " Ane Ballat of our Lady," p. 269, 1. 22 — and does not hesitate to call 
 the Virgin, "to God gret suffragane," 1. 68, and "moder of God" — 
 " Roiss Mary most of Vertew Virginall," 1. 44. 
 
 Antane, Sanct. Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy, 1. 60. — St 
 Antony, a Coptic monk (b. 251, d. 356), the contemporary and friend of 
 Athanasius, by whom his life was written. In 1095 the first hospital 
 of St Antony was founded by Gaston, a gentleman of Dauphine, for the 
 Benedictine monks of Grammont, near Vienne (where his body was 
 said to be), for the cure of the sick, especially those afflicted by the 
 disease called St Antony's fire (erysipelas). In 1297 the community of 
 St Antony withdrew from the Benedictines, and became a separate 
 congregation, following the rule of St Augustine, under a bull of 
 Boniface VIII. Their only house in Scotland was at Leith, which 
 was endowed by Logan of Restalrig in 1435. Their houses were called 
 hospitals, and their governors preceptors. William Gray, mentioned 
 in this poem, was the preceptor of the hospital at Leith, which had 
 attached to it the Chapel of St Antony on Arthur's Seat, near which 
 is the well still called St Antony's Well. — See 'Acta Sanctorum,' Jan. 
 17 ; Keith's "Religious Houses," appended to his ' Catalogue of Scot- 
 tish Bishops,' p. 241 ; ' Historical Notices of St Antony's, Leith,' 
 Grampian Club, 1877. 
 
 Antenor. Fly ting, 1. 529. — A Trojan, who, when sent to Agamem- 
 non as an envoy, betrayed Troy to, and was spared by, the Greeks. As 
 a traitor, Dunbar is called his kinsman by Kennedy. — See Chaucer, 
 "Troylus and Cryseyde," vol. v. p. 187 (Bell's edition); 'The Boke of 
 the Duchesse,' vol. vi. p. 171. See also Gower's 'Confessio Amantis,' 
 vol. i. p. 79 (Pauli's edition). 
 
 Aristotle. Ballate against Evil Women, p. 267, 1. 31. 
 
 Arthur. The Ballad of Lord Bernard Stewart, 1. 59. — The hero of 
 British romance, in Scotland as in England. It is still a matter of dis- 
 pute whether Arthur was a mythical or historical hero ; and if histor- 
 ical, whether the scene of his exploits was South Wales and the south- 
 west of England — the neighbourhood of Bath and Glastonbury — or the 
 south-west of Scotland and north-west of England and Wales, where, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CCV 
 
 especially in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, his name is preserved in 
 many places. The English theory is maintained by Dr Guest and Mr 
 Pearson (note, p. 133, of Mr Stewart Glennie's 'Arthurian Localities'), 
 and the Scottish by Mr Skene (' Four Books of Ancient Wales,' vol. i. p. 
 51) and by Mr Glennie. A fair statement of the grounds on v^^hich the 
 opposite theories are based is given by Mr Keary in the life of Arthur 
 in the * Dictionary of National Biography.' This writer declines to pre- 
 judge the question whether Arthur belongs to history at all. What is 
 certain is, that he was aCymric as distinguished from a Gaelic hero ; and 
 that, while the 'Vita Sancti Gildae,' and the early medieval chroni- 
 clers generally, favour the view of his kingdom and battles having 
 been in the southern district, the Cymric poems (in Skene's ' Ancient 
 Books of Wales ') and the early English or Scottish alliterative poem 
 of the "Awntyrs of Arthur at the Tarnwathlan" (Tarn Wadling), and 
 others, written early in the fourteenth century, support the view that 
 he belonged to the northern branch of the Cymric race, and fought 
 in modern Scotland and the north-west district of England. The 
 most important account of him and his twelve battles, because the 
 earliest in date, is given by Nennius in his ' Historia Britonum,' p. 56. 
 The situations of the places of these battles have been identified by 
 the supporters of the two views, according to their respective theories, 
 but cannot be said to be ascertained. Modern Scotland and Cum- 
 berland are distinctly richer in Arthurian place-names than southern 
 England, and there is much force in the argument that the nucleus of 
 the romantic legends which surround his name, the favourite material 
 of so many poets of recent as well as earlier times, travelled from 
 north to south rather than the reverse. It became incrusted with a 
 later tradition invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1130), and elabor- 
 ated by Sir Thomas Malory, whose collection of the Arthurian Legends 
 was published by Caxton in 1485, and who brought it back from the 
 French Brittany to Britain at a time when a Welsh or southern Eng- 
 lish site for the legend was more popular than one on Scottish ground. 
 The romance of Arthur was familiar in Scotland in the reign of James 
 IV., owing to the attempt of the king to re-enact his character, as well 
 as from the tradition of the alliterative poetry describing his adven- 
 tures and those of his principal knights. — See Gawaine. 
 
 Augustine, Sanct, of Canterbury. Flyting^ 1. 125. — The line — 
 
 "And he that dang Sanct Augustine with ane rumple," — 
 
 is explained by the following curious passage in Bellenden's transla- 
 tion of Boece : " Finalie quhen this haly man, Sanct Austin, was 
 precheand to the Saxons in Miglintoun, they wer nocht onlie rebelland 
 to his precheing, bot in his contemptioune thay sewit fische talis on his 
 abylement. Otheris allegis thay dang him with skait rumpellis" — 
 Book ix., ch. 18. See also Rowles's " Cursing," 1. 207. 
 
ccvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Baal. Flyting, 11. 533 and 541. — Wyntoun, in describing the origin 
 of idolatry, writes : " Sum Bell thai called and sum Baal, sum Beel- 
 zebub and sum Belial." — Vol. i. p. 64. 
 
 Babington, Doctor. Of a Dance in the Querns Chahner, 1. 15. — The 
 Queen's Almoner, or Almaser, came with Margaret Tudor to Scot- 
 land on her marriage, and was appointed in 1 506-1 507 Dean of Aber- 
 deen, when " £2,() great Flemish money " was paid for expediting the 
 bull of the Deanery (Treasurer's Accounts, 6th August 1506 to 6th 
 August 1507). His half-year's fee as Almoner (";!^io Inglis, quilk in 
 Scottis money is ;!^35 ") was paid from 13th December 1503 to 8th 
 February 1506 — ib. After he was appointed Dean he seems to have 
 given up the office of Almoner. Amongst the minor events which ran 
 in favour of the Union, and in the end overcame the prejudice of the 
 Scottish people against it, must be reckoned the introduction of 
 English settlers like Babington belonging to the suite of Margaret 
 Tudor. 
 
 Babington may have been a member of the family originally of 
 Northumberland, but afterwards settled in Nottinghamshire, one of 
 whom. Sir William, was Chief Justice of the Common Bench, and 
 died in 1455. The Chief Justice, who was a benefactor of the Church, 
 left two sons. — See Foss, 'Judges of England,' vol. iv. p. 285. 
 
 Balioll, John. Flyting, 1. 265. 
 
 Barbour, John. Lament, 1. 61. Archdeacon of Aberdeen, b. 
 1316, d. 1395. Author of 'The Bruce,' the earliest in date of the 
 Scottish poets, often called the father of Scottish poetry. Besides 
 the poem on which his fame rests, he is now generally believed 
 to have written the version of the ' Legends of the Saints,' of which 
 the only MS. is in the Cambridge University Library, where it was 
 discovered by the late Mr Bradshaw, its librarian. It was pub- 
 lished by Horstmann, in his collection of ' Altenglische Legenden,* 
 and is now, under the editorship of the Rev. Mr Metcalfe, in course 
 of publication for the Scottish Text Society. More recently doubts 
 have been cast on Barbour's authorship of these legends (see Koppel, 
 'Englische Studien,' 1887, vol. x. p. 373). And Professor Skeat in- 
 clines to think these doubts well founded. But they rest chiefly, if 
 not solely, on an argument from the dialect used in ' The Lives of the 
 Saints.' Writers who approach the subject from another point of 
 view, still think the internal evidence is in favour of Barbour's author- 
 ship, and that any linguistic differences between them and 'The 
 Bruce' is sufficiently accounted for by the poet's frequent visits to 
 England. He also wrote a poem on the ' Legend of Troy,' of which 
 fragments are appended to two MSS. of Lydgate's 'Troy Book,' printed 
 by the Early English Text Society, and by Horstmann, Barbour's 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccvii 
 
 'Legenden Sammlung,' vol. ii. p. 218. Andrew of Wyntoun, his suc- 
 cessor in the list of Scottish poets, appears to ascribe to Barbour the 
 composition of another poem on the genealogy of the Stuarts : — 
 
 " The Stuarts oryginale 
 The Archdeykne has tretet hale 
 In metyr fayre," 
 
 — Wyntoun's 'Cronykal,' VII. vii. 143. 
 
 Dunbar has no poetical affinity to Barbour. The mention of his 
 name, as well as that of Wyntoun, attests his catholic taste in poetry. 
 For the life of Barbour, the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. 
 iii., may be referred to. 'The Bruce' has been often published. The 
 best editions are those of the Spalding Club, edited by Mr Cosmo Innes, 
 and of the Early English Text Society, edited by Professor Skeat. 
 
 Bartilmo. Fly ting, 1. 126. — St Bartholomew, according to the 
 legend of his martyrdom, was flayed with a knife in Armenia. The 
 'Roman Breviary,' vol. ii. pp. 1237, 1238, gives this account: — 
 
 "The apostle Bartholomew was a Galilsean. In the division of the 
 world among the apostles, it fell to his lot to preach the Gospel in 
 hither India. He went thither and preached to those nations the 
 coming of the Lord Jesus according to the Gospel of St Matthew. 
 When he had turned many in that province to Jesus Christ, and had 
 endured many toils and woes, he came into the greater Armenia. 
 There he brought to the Christian faith Polymius the king and his 
 wife, and likewise the inhabitants of twelve cities. This stirred up 
 a great hatred against him among the priests of that nation. They 
 so inflamed against the apostle Astyages, the brother of King Polym- 
 itis, that he savagely ordered Bartholomew to be flayed alive and 
 beheaded, under which martyrdom he gave up his soul to God." 
 
 In 'The Legends of the Saints' the story runs thus : — 
 
 ' ' & rycht as |)ai sik spek gane mak, 
 Mene tald, ])e kingis god, Baldak, 
 Wes fallyne downe & brokyne smal. 
 J>e kinge fore Ire |)ane raf his pal 
 Of purpur, ])at he Ine wes clede, 
 & gerte I>e apostil in |)at stede 
 With gret stawis be dongyng sare 
 & |)e skyne of hyme be flayne ])are." 
 
 — ix., 11. 283-290, Horstmann, p. 86. 
 
 At the Abbey of Croyland, down to the middle of the 15th century, 
 knives were presented to all who visited on the Saint's day, 24th 
 August, in memory of this. — Dugdale, ' Monast. Anglic.,' vol. ii. p. 
 104. 
 
 Beelzebub. Flyting^ 1. 533. — See Milton, 'Par. Lost,' Book I., 
 11. 78-81 ; Book II., 11. 299-309. 
 
ccviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Bell, Allan. Of Sir Thomas Norray, 1. 28. — A misnomer for 
 Adam Bell, celebrated in the early English ballad, " Adam Bell, Clym 
 of the Cleugh, and William of Cloudisle." This ballad is printed by 
 Percy, 'Reliques,' vol. i. p. 106 ; and also in the Collections of Ancient 
 Popular Poetry by Mr Ritson and by Mr W. C. Hazlitt. An early 
 edition was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, or his apprentice, Robert 
 Copland, perhaps as early as 1520, and another by William Copland, 
 and there are repeated reprints of this popular ballad (see Hazlitt, 
 vol. ii. p. 131). "Its heroes," says Percy, "were three noted outlaws, 
 whose skill in archery rendered them as famous in the north of 
 England as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the Midland. Their 
 place of residence was in the forest of Inglewood, not far from Car- 
 lisle. Henry IV., on 14th April, in the seventh year of his reign, 
 granted a pension of ^4, los. to Adam Bell out of the fee-farm of 
 Clipston, in the forest of Sherwood ; and this Adam Bell violated his 
 allegiance by adhering to the Scots, whereupon his pension was 
 resumed." ^ Probably Adam Bell was by origin a Scotsman or Bor- 
 derer. Bishop Percy states, "The Bells were noted rogues in the north 
 so late as the time of Queen Elizabeth ; see in Rymer's ' Foedera* a 
 letter from Lord W. Howard, wherein he mentions them." The com- 
 piler of the second and later part of the ballad added in 1605, and 
 some other ballad-writers, make Bell the contemporary of Robin Hood. 
 The popularity of this class of ballads was due to the love of a free 
 life common to all free races, but also to the odium of the cruel forest 
 laws of the Norman kings. They seem never to have been so severe 
 or so rigidly enforced by the Scottish as by the English kings. But 
 in this, as in other matters, the Scottish Lowlanders shared the tradi- 
 tionary feelings of their English neighbours. The scenery and inci- 
 dents of these ballads, though laid in Sherwood and Inglewood, would 
 be eagerly followed by the natives of Jedburgh and Selkirk. 
 
 Bevis. Of Sir Thomas Norray, 1. 35. — Sir Bevis of South Hamp- 
 ton. Of the poem on this hero of romance Professor Ten Brink 
 (* Early English Literature,' p. 246, Kennedy's Translation) says : 
 " Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton are both names unknown 
 to English history. They are also unknown to Saga, until they 
 emerge as heroes of Anglo-Norman poems of the twelfth century. 
 Each offers a motley mixture of knightly adventure such as delighted 
 the imagination of the age of the Crusades. . . . He who possesses 
 the fancy of the true student of folk-lore will discern a rejuvenation 
 of Beowulf, the victor over Grendal and Grendal's mother, in Bevis, 
 who kills the dreaded boar of King Grendal's forest, and who, hurried 
 weaponless into King Grendal's dungeon, by means of a cudgel acci- 
 dentally found overcomes two dragons ; while the other dragon-fight 
 of Bevis in the vicinity of Cologne will recall Siegfrid and the 
 1 Hunter's ' New Illustrations of Shakespeare,' vol. i. p. 245. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccix 
 
 Drachenfels." Bevis is still depicted as a giant on the bar-gate of 
 Southampton. 
 
 The metrical tale of Sir Bevis, although its scene is laid in 
 England, and he is represented as a Christian champion against the 
 heathen Danes in the reign of Edgar I., became famous in the 
 hands of French romance-writers during or after the Crusades (War- 
 ton's 'History of English Poetry,' vol. i. p. 122). It may have had 
 an Anglo-Saxon original, now lost. It was brought back to England 
 by translations or copies of the French tale before the time of Chaucer. 
 Of these there are two MSS. at Cambridge University Library, No. 
 690, § 31, and Caius College, Class A-9. 5 ; and there is another, 
 Advocates' Library, Auchinleck MS., W. iv.. No. xxii. Chaucer's 
 reference in the "Rhyme of Sir Thopas" is well known : — 
 
 " Men speken of romaunces of pris, 
 Of Horne Child and of Ipotis, 
 Of Bevis and Sir Guy." 
 
 It was first printed by Richard Pynson, without date, 4to, and next 
 by Wynkyn de Worde, and very frequently since (see Lowndes's ' Bib- 
 liographical Dictionary '). It was closely copied by the author of " The 
 Seven Champions of Christendom," Richard Johnson, who wrote in 
 the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. (Percy's ' Reliques,' Bell & Sons' 
 ed., vol. ii. p. 258), and it was burlesqued in the ballad of "The 
 Dragon of Wantley " (Warton's ' History of English Poetry,' and the 
 Essay on the Ancient Metrical Romances by Percy, ' Reliques,' vol. ii. 
 p. 80). Dunbar must have known this romance from Chaucer's allu- 
 sions, and probably may have read or heard parts of it recited. It is 
 one of the tales mentioned in the " Complaynt of Scotland," which, 
 the author says, were told by the shepherds — 
 
 " Sum war in prose and some in verse ; 
 Sum war storeis and sum war flet taylis." 
 
 — P. 63, Murray's edition. 
 
 Blak Belly and Bawsy Brown. Dance of the Sevin Deidly 
 Synnis, 1. 30. — These were probably the Scotch names for spirits or 
 brownies (see Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' Introduc- 
 tion, p. iv.) " Belly Bassy with his bagges " is mentioned in Rowles's 
 "Cursing," line 2251. There is also in " Cockelbie's Sow" the lines 
 (11. 286, 287)— 
 
 " Ballybrass and Belly 
 Dansit," — 
 
 which suggests that these names were altered at will by the comic 
 poets. — See Warton's ' History of English Poetry,' vol. iii. p. 215. 
 
 Bruce. Flyting, 1. 265 ; Blyth Aberdem, 1. 33.— Robert the Bruce, 
 
ccx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whose history was a household word to Dunbar, as to all his country- 
 men, through Barbour's poems and the Chronicle of Wyntoun. It is 
 interesting to know that he was represented in the masque or pageant 
 in honour of the queen in Aberdeen, in 151 1, as he might be to-day 
 by the erection of a statue. 
 
 The description of him by Dunbar as "richt awfuU Strang and 
 large of portratour," is that of a poet who does not disdain to use 
 common epithets. 
 
 Bute, John. Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer, 1. 19. — One of the 
 king's fools. He is first mentioned in the Treasurer's Accounts in 
 November 1506, and continued to receive allowances during the rest 
 of James IV.'s reign. In December 1506 he was granted "a gown of 
 chamelot, lined with grey and purflett with skins," a hood, a fustian 
 doublet, hose, and a grey bonnet. His servant John Spark got at the 
 same time a russet gown, a fustian doublet, and hose of carsay (the 
 stuff called kersey, from a village in Suffolk where the woollen trade 
 was carried on). His brother also got a grant which is mentioned in 
 the same accounts on 20th September 15 12. The fools of this time 
 well knew how to obtain favours for their friends and relations. That 
 both Bute and Curry, who were only of the second rank and inferior 
 to Sir Thomas Norray, should have had servants to attend them, 
 shows the consideration in which they were held. — See also Curry ; 
 Norray, Sir Thomas; Rig, Cuddy. 
 
 Caym. Fly ting, 1. 513. — " Cankrit Caym " seems to be Ham, the 
 son of Noah. — See ' Pseudomonarchia Dsemonum,' J. Weiri Opera, 
 1660, p. 659. Cf. Wyntoun, vol. i. p. 24 — 
 
 " The Cairn that was the middle brother." 
 
 Cayphas. Fly ting, 1. 534. — Caiphas, the high priest who charged 
 Jesus with blasphemy, is called the " sectour" of Dunbar. A "sector" 
 was one who made accusations in order to get a share of the confis- 
 cated goods of the accused when sold by auction. " Sectores vocan- 
 tur qui publica bona mercantur." — Gaius, Dig., vol. iv. p. 146. " Cum 
 de bonis et de csede agatur testimonium dicturus est is qui et sector est 
 et sicarius ; hoc est qui et illorum ipsorum bonorum de quibus agitur 
 emptor atque possessor est." — Cicero, Rose. Am., 36, 103. The defini- 
 tion in Ducange is "Abscissor cultor usurpator." Skeat gives " sec- 
 tour "= executor. — Cf. Dalzell's 'Poems of the i6th Century,' p. 29. 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey. Lainent, 1. 50 ; The Goldyn Targe, 1. 253. — 
 Dunbar in both poems recognises Chaucer as the source of Scottish 
 as well as English poetry. Chaucer was born about 1340 and died 
 about 1400, so that he was at least a generation older than Dunbar. 
 But the ideas of the Renaissance had reached England, by contact 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxi 
 
 with Italy, much earlier than Scotland, which received them chiefly 
 from France, and Chaucer is in some respects more modern in his 
 style and language than Dunbar. His poems were first printed as a 
 whole in 1532, by Thomas Godfray, and Dunbar's knowledge of them 
 must have been derived either from MSS. or from Caxton's editions of 
 the " Canterbury Tales," printed in 1475 and 1495, or Pynson's, printed 
 in 1491. The second edition by Pynson was not printed till 1526, and 
 was the first in which other poems of Chaucer's were added to the 
 " Canterbury Tales." The terms in which Dunbar speaks of Chaucer, 
 in "The Goldyn Targe," and especially his allusion to the " fresch an- 
 amalit termes celicall," apply more naturally to his other poems than 
 to the Tales, so that it appears probable that Dunbar was acquainted 
 with MSS. of the English poet. Such MSS. had undoubtedly 
 reached Scotland before he wrote. 
 
 The influence of Chaucer on Dunbar is seen rather in his language 
 than in direct imitation of particular poems. Such imitation may, 
 however, be traced in " The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," 
 which, both in subject and mode of treatment, recalls the " Wife of 
 Bath's Tale"; and in the verses to the king beginning — 
 
 ' ' Sanct Saluatour ! send siluer sorrow ; 
 It grevis me both evin and morrow," — 
 
 with the refrain — 
 
 *' My panefuU purss so pricliss me," — 
 
 there is perhaps a reminiscence of Chaucer's lines " To his Empty 
 Purse" (Moxon's ed., p. 431). In the " Assembly of Foulis " (Moxon's 
 ed., p. 340) there are several passages which prove that Dunbar must 
 have been a careful reader of that poem. The garden with a river 
 running through it, and birds singing on every bough, and the as- 
 sembly of heathen gods, is imitated in "The Goldyn Targe." Beauty 
 in Chaucer's poem has similar allegorical persons in her train as in 
 Dunbar's " Beauty and the Prisoner." St Valentine's Day is cele- 
 brated as the time when every bird may choose " his mate," to which 
 there is an allusion in "The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo"; and 
 the eagle is described as — 
 
 " The foule royall above you all in degree," 
 
 as in " The Thistle and the Rose." 
 
 Clerk, Iohne. Lament, 1. 58 ; Testament of Mr Andro Keitnedy, 
 1. 81. — The legacy to John Clerk, in the poem called "Andro Ken- 
 nedy's Testament," of " Goddis malisone and myne," is put into the 
 mouth of Kennedy. Lord Hailes supposed Clerk to have been an 
 ignorant practitioner in medicine, from the reference to him in the 
 Testament as " scribendo dentes sine de." Laing regards this as an 
 unsatisfactory explanation, but is unable to suggest another. There 
 
ccxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 seems little doubt that it is the same person who is referred to in the 
 poem, as he has the same Christian name, and is distinguished by the 
 title of Master in both, which proves he had taken a degree — of course 
 in arts, for medicine was not yet taught at the universities. But no 
 poem attributed to John Clerk is known. The profession of medicine 
 had scarcely yet come into existence in Scotland, and its practitioners 
 were often in clerical orders. It was^ however, fashionable to practise 
 it, as is shown by the instances of James IV. himself (but Buchanan 
 attributes this to old Scotch custom), Scheve3, the Archbishop of St 
 Andrews, and John Damian, the French leech. The absence of any 
 professional training or qualification gave opportunities for im.posture 
 and quackery which are satirised in the well-known description of the 
 Doctor of Physick in Chaucer, — 
 
 " For he was grounded in Astronomye, 
 He kept his patient wonderly wel 
 In houris by his magik naturel ; " — 
 
 in Henryson's Poem, " Some Practyses of Medecyne," and Dunbar's 
 allusion to the French leech Damian's murderous art. — See Damian, 
 and Schaw, Robert. 
 
 Clerk, , of Tranent. Lament^ 1. 65. — Nothing is known of 
 this poet except the statement of Dunbar in this passage, that he 
 " maid the Anteris [adventures] of Gawane." 
 
 This poem was, no doubt, one of the circle of poems belonging to 
 the Arthurian legend, and affords proof of its currency in Scotland. 
 Ten Brink notices, in his 'Early English Literature,' that "the verse 
 combining alliteration and rhyme seems to have been more fully de- 
 veloped and adapted to a wider range of subjects in the north-western 
 counties, and chiefly in Lancashire. It occurs earliest in romances 
 having to do with Gawayne : this was a favourite theme of poetry in 
 the north, as was the Arthurian saga in general. Cumberland, West- 
 moreland, the districts between the Tyne and Tweed, and all the 
 south of the Scotland of to-day, are rich in names of places that point 
 to a localising and a more or less independent growth of the Arthurian 
 traditions in that region. This phenomenon is accounted for by the 
 long duration of British rule in Strathclyde, and the intercourse kept 
 up by these Britons with their own race, on the one side, in Wales, 
 and with the Gaels of Caledonia on the other." 
 
 There are at least two early alliterative poems in which Gawayne is 
 hero, of which manuscripts have been preserved: (i) "The Awnteris 
 of Arthur at the Tarnewathelan" (Adventures of Arthur at Tarn 
 Wadling), first printed under the name of " Sir Gawayne and Sir Gal- 
 oran of Galloway" (Pinkerton, * Scottish Poems,' 1792), and afterwards 
 in Laing's 'Select Remains of Early Scottish Poetry'; and (2) "Sir 
 Gawayne and Gologras," printed by Chepman and Myllar, 1508. 
 Wyntoun attributes a poem which he calls the " Awntyre of Gawayne," 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CCXlll 
 
 as well as "The gret Gest of Arthure" and other poems, to Hutchown 
 (Hugh) of the Awle Ryale (Royal Hall). 
 
 Sibbald, in his 'Chronicle of Scottish Poetry,' vol. i. p. xvi, 
 hazarded an alternative conjecture that Hutchoun in Dunbar's poem 
 might be the Christian name of Clerk of Tranent, or might be the 
 same as Sir Hugh of Eglinton, mentioned in the same "Lament." 
 The latter appears the more probable hypothesis, and has been main- 
 tained in an able article in the 'Scottish Review' for March 1888 by 
 Mr McNeil. All that can be said with certainty as to Clerk of 
 Tranent is that he chose the subject of his poem from the same cycle 
 of romance. — See Hew, Sir, of Eglinton. 
 
 C01L3EAR, Rauf. To the King, 1. 33.— See Rauf Col^ard. 
 
 CoRSPATRiCK, Earl of March. Flyting, 1. 262. — Cors- or Gos- 
 patrick was created Earl of Dunbar and March by Malcolm Can- 
 more. He was the Saxon Earl of Northumberland who was deprived 
 of that earldom by William the Conqueror, and as an exile received 
 by the Scottish king — (Simeon of Durham, sub anno 1072, p. 92). 
 Assuming Dunbar to be descended from this line, he was a Saxon by 
 origin. So Kennedy flytes Dunbar : — 
 
 " Happyn thow to be hangit in Northumbir, 
 Than all thy kyn ar wel quyte of thy cumbir " — (11. 478, 479), 
 
 Dunbar, or rather Kennedy — for he is the author of this part of the 
 " Flyting " — states, of course erroneously, that he fought against Wal- 
 lace, whom he called " King in Kyle" (1. 284). This is a confusion of 
 Corspatrick the first with Corspatrick the fourth Earl of March, who 
 submitted to Edward I. as one of the competitors for the Scottish 
 crown after the death of the Maid of Norvv^ay. His contest with 
 Wallace, whom he called King of Kyle, and who in turn denounced 
 him as a traitor at a council at St Johnstone (Perth), is described by 
 Blind Harry in his Eighth Book.— See Hary, Blind. 
 
 Curry. Cf. Sir Thomas Norray, 11. 43, 48.— Curry, one of the 
 king's fools, is mentioned in the Treasurer's Accounts first in May 
 1496, when payment of three shillings was made " to the lad that 
 kepit Curry." A similar payment occurred of two shillings and two- 
 pence on the loth June "to the chield that kepis Curry." On 27th 
 April 1497 there is a payment " to Curryis man to pay for his bedding 
 al the tyme the king was in Strivelin, xxviijd.," and another of seven 
 shillings "to Curry and his man to remain in Strivelin quhil the 
 kingis agane cummyng." On the 17th May Curry again receives 
 three shillings and sixpence for his bed in Stirling, and to bear him 
 to Edinburgh ; and on the 20th of the same month, eightpence "for 
 drink be the gait," apparently of Linlithgow. On the 12th June 1497 
 Curry receives sixteen pence "to pay for his bed." On the 13th 
 
ccxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 December 1497 he has two shillings "to red him furth of Strivelin 
 and to haf him at Falkland ; " and on the 17th of the same month he 
 receives a larger payment of three pounds six shillings and eightpence 
 " for horse to ride over the mounth agane " (that is, before Yule). 
 
 He must have gone with or before the king to Aberdeen, in 1497, 
 for a payment is made on 5th January " to Curryis man to bide with 
 Curry in Aberdeen until the king's incuming agane ; " and on the 2d 
 March six shillings and eightpence was paid to Curry " for his stabil 
 hire in Abirdene and his owne costis, and two shillings more to haf 
 him to Bervie," — no doubt in the king's company on his return south. 
 There are further entries in the same Accounts down to the 2d of June 
 1506, when a payment " of 46s. 8d. was made for the tyrment [inter- 
 ment] and expenses maid on the furth bringing of Curry ; " and also of 
 41S. "to John Knox wif for keeping walking and expenses of Curry 
 Hand seik," and of i8s. on the 13th of the same month "be the king's 
 command to the wif quhair Curry lay seik." From these entries 
 Laing conjectures that Curry must have died about the end of May 
 1506. There are also references to Curry's "knave," or servant lad; 
 to " Curry's moder ; " " Daft Anne, Curry's wif ; " and " Peter Curry, 
 Curry's broder." — See Dickson, Preface to ' Treasurer's Accounts,' 
 vol. i. p. cxcix. 
 
 CuTHBERT, . Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy, \. 2 — Probably 
 St Cuthbert, but why he should be selected as the saint who had no 
 love for Andrew Kennedy the drunkard, is not clear. He is called 
 " Sweet," the same epithet which Dunbar applies to St Anne. 
 
 Damian, John. The Fen'^eit Freir of Tungland, 1. 23 ; Lucina 
 schynnyng in silence of the nicht, 1. 23. — This impostor first appears 
 under the name of the " French leich," " Maister John, the French 
 leich," " Maister John, the French medicinar," and " French Maister 
 John," in the Treasurer's Accounts in 1501. On 3d March 1501-2, 
 there were sent to him four nobles " to multiply to Stirling," and on 
 the 4th of the same month nine pounds five shillings were disbursed 
 to the king and the " French leich " to "play at the cartis." On 29th 
 May 1502, £2)1, 4s. was paid to Robert Bertoun, one of the king's 
 mariners, " for droggis brocht home by him to the French leich ; " and 
 on 30th May 300 French crowns, equivalent to ;i^2io Scots, was 
 allowed the " French leich," who was then, probably, going on a visit 
 to the Continent. He must have returned in 1504, for on 5th January 
 1504 there is an entry " to Maister John to buy bells for the morris- 
 dance, 28s.," and various other payments for the dresses of the 
 dancers, which is called " French Maister John's Dance," and seems 
 to have been the novelty of the New Year amusements of the year. 
 From entries on the nth and 12th March of the same year, he appears 
 to have been newly made Abbot of Tungland, a monastery of the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CCXV 
 
 Premonstratensians in Galloway. On the former of these days, 
 Gareoch, pursuivant, got 14s. to pass to Tungland for the abbacy 
 for the " French Maister John," which probably means to take pos- 
 session of it for him ; and next day £2^ was paid to Bardus Altovite, 
 a Lombard banker, for " Maister John, the French medicinar, new 
 made Abbot of Tungland, quhilk he aucht to the said Bardus." 
 Bardus was probably the banker who paid the fees for the confir- 
 mation of the gift of the abbacy at Rome. On the 17th of the same 
 month Maister John himself got £^ from the treasurer. On 27th July 
 
 1507 the entry occurs, " Lent be kingis command to the Abbot of Tung- 
 land, and can nocht be gottin frae him, ^33, 6s. S^d." He cannot 
 have been in the good graces of the treasurer's clerk who made this 
 entry. It was shortly after this that the incident of Dunbar's satire 
 occurred. On 27th September 1507 an embassy was sent from Scot- 
 land to France, and the Abbot of Tungland boasted that he would fly 
 there before the ambassadors arrived. His failure is recorded in 
 Leslie's History, Bannatyne Club ed., 1830, p. 76, as well as in this 
 ballad. Dunbar contributes a few additional circumstances. He 
 alleges Damian to have been of Eastern origin, calling him a "Turk 
 of Barbary," and not an Italian or a Frenchman, and gives currency 
 to rumours evidently then repeated, whether true or not, that he had 
 slain a friar in Lombardy and passed himself off in his habit in 
 France ; that he had next adopted the little understood profession of 
 physician or surgeon, in which he had killed more patients than he 
 cured, and secured for himself fees and perquisites. In Scotland he 
 first essayed to make the quintessence or gold of the medieval alche- 
 mist, and having failed, as a new trick made the attempt to fly with 
 wings, which is the subject of the poem. In this also he came to 
 grief, but, by some means unknown to us, did not lose the support 
 of King James. On 13th October 1507, £6 was paid by the treasurer 
 for " a puncheon of wine to the Abbot of Tungland to mak quinta 
 essentia " (Treasurer's Accounts). Between October 1507 and August 
 
 1508 there are frequent notices of his playing dice and cards with 
 the king; and on 8th September 1508, Damian, Abbot of Tungland, 
 had a licence " to pass out of the realm, and remain in what place he 
 pleases at the study or any other lawful occupation, without any pre- 
 judice, hurt, or skaith to his right to the abbey." He appears to have 
 returned shortly before the expiry of the five years ; for on 29th March 
 1513, £20 was paid "to the Abbot of Tungland to pas to the myne 
 of Crawfurd Muir," where James IV., shortly before Flodden, was 
 still occupied with the search for the precious metals. This is the 
 last appearance in history of this Cagliostro of the sixteenth century, 
 who played the parts of a feigned friar and quack doctor, and 
 also of alchemist, boon companion, stage-manager, aeronaut, and 
 mining engineer. No wonder Dunbar's wrath was moved when such 
 a charlatan became an abbot. It was a favourable age, and the 
 
ccxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Scottish Court was a favourable place, for impostors. The most suc- 
 cessful was Perkin Warbeck, to whom it is singular there is no allu- 
 sion in Dunbar's poems. There is a curious reference to Damian in 
 the dedication to James VI., by Dr Thomas Morison, of his * Liber 
 novus de metallorum causis et transubstantioni,' Franco., 1593 — 
 " Taceo avum tuum felicioris memoriae Jacobum Quintum cum sua 
 creatura Abbate Tunlandiae qui dum in multiplicationis verba assen- 
 titur Rex eum circumducit ingentibus pecuniis." James V. is, of 
 course, an error for James IV. 
 
 Dathan. Flyting, 1. 249. — See Numbers xvi. i. 
 
 DoiG, James. Of James Doig, Kepar of the Quenis Wardrop; Of 
 the same James, qithen he had plesett hhn ; Of a Dance in the 
 Quenis Chalmer, 1. 199. — Doig, the pronunciation of whose name in 
 Scotch in the same way as dog gave play to the wit of Dunbar (who 
 had a liking for a pun — a form of humour more English than Scotch), 
 was originally one of the servitors of James IV., having the charge 
 of the king's wardrobe, and there are constant references to him 
 in the Treasurer's Accounts from 1489 onwards. In that year he 
 received three bonnets for the king at Linlithgow, when he was to 
 meet the Spanish ambassador ; and there are similar entries of articles 
 of clothing received for the king in 1494, 1495, 1497, and also of 
 clothing given from the king's wardrobe to Perkin Warbeck, called 
 the Duke of York. On 30th October 1490, 20 " louys " were sent to 
 the king at Biggar by his hands ; and on the 3d June 1491 he carried 
 20 unicorns to the king at the Water of Leith. In 1494 he received 
 a payment of 20s. to hang the arras and to furnish the king's cham- 
 ber for the reception of the Chancellor of Denmark. There are also 
 sundry entries of livery given to him for his own use, and of pay- 
 ments to him for the expenses of furnishing the king's lodgings 
 (grathing of the king's chambers, and bent-silver for the grass with 
 which the floors were strewn). Strewing the floors with grass 
 or rushes was a common custom before the days of carpets. 
 There is a survival of it in the annual ceremony of the rush-bear- 
 ing day, still celebrated in some English villages. The position 
 of keeper of the wardrobe in Scotland, as in England, through 
 the practice of giving rewards by liveries instead of money, which 
 was scarce at the Scottish Court, became that of a sort of petty 
 treasurer, who had much influence with the king, and whose favour 
 was sought by the retainers of the Court. Doig had acquired suffi- 
 cient means to buy the estate of Duntober, in Perthshire, on 12th 
 May 1500 (' Privy Seal Register,' vol. ii. p. i). After the king's mar- 
 riage he became wardrober to Queen Margaret, and continued in her 
 service at least down to 1523, when Surrey writes on 24th October to 
 Wolsey from Newcastle that James Doig, the Queen of Scots' servant, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxvii 
 
 had come to him (Cotton MS., Calig., b. xvi. f. 311). His name last 
 appears in December 1526. His son, James Doig", younger, had been 
 appointed on 17th September 1524 yeoman of the king's wardrobe, 
 with livery and duties, used and wont (' Privy Seal Register,' vol. vii.) 
 Doig had a grant of the ward and relief of Johnston of Drongey, and 
 the marriage of his heir on 4th August 1523 ('Privy Seal Register,' 
 vol. V. f. 152). 
 
 The references to him in the poems of Dunbar well bring out his 
 character as an old and trusty servant, zealous in discharging his 
 duties to his mistress, and somewhat crusty to others. He was 
 of the same stuff, in an earlier age, as Andrew Fairservice, and the 
 old Scotch servants " who were master and mair " in the anecdotes of 
 Dean Ramsay. 
 
 Donald Owre. Against Treason : An Epitaph on Donald Owre. — 
 Donald "Owre" — more commonly called " Dubh," the Black — was a 
 son of Angus, Lord of the Isles, by a daughter, according to tradition, 
 of the Earl of Argyle. This Angus was a natural son of John, Earl 
 of Ross, forfeited for treason by James III. in the Parliament of 1475. 
 He surrendered to the royal army, and his earldom was annexed to 
 the Crown, and conferred on the second son of the king, Alexander, 
 Earl of Ross and Archbishop of St Andrews. The rest of his estates, 
 except Kintyre and Knapdale, were regranted to him, with remainder 
 to his natural sons, Angus and John, and he was created a peer of 
 Parliament under the title of Lord of the Isles. Angus, Lord of the 
 Isles, was killed by an Irish harper at Inverness in 1490. His son, 
 Donald Dubh, was always treated by the Scottish Court as illegitimate. 
 When an infant, about the year 1480, he was captured by the Earl of 
 Athole, who delivered him to the Earl of Argyle, by whom he was kept 
 in custody in the Castle of Inch Connell. Before 1494 he had escaped, 
 and received for several years the king's pay (Exchequer Records). 
 But in 1 501 we find him at the head of the Islanders and western 
 clans as Lord of the Isles. In 1 503 he wasted Badenoch, and the royal 
 forces under Huntly had to be called out. James in person, with his 
 southern levy, crushed the rebellion in 1 505-1 506, when Donald Owre 
 was taken prisoner and committed to the Castle of Edinburgh. Dun- 
 bar's poem was probably written after this date, as Donald Owre, 
 though forfeited as a traitor, was not executed. About forty years later 
 he made his escape during the regency of Arran, and is described in 
 a proclamation by the Privy Council as " Donald alleging himself 
 of the Isles." He again attempted to establish his title by raising the 
 clans of the west, and entered into a treaty with Henry VIII. But 
 failing in this attempt, he fled to Ireland, and died at Drogheda. 
 
 The following extracts from the ' Black Book of Clanranald ' give 
 the history, unfortunately without dates, of Donald Dubh, as it was 
 related by the Macvurichs, the hereditary sennachies of the clan : — 
 
ccxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "Angus Og, son of Eoin [John], who was called the heir of Eoin, 
 married the daughter of MacCaillin [Earl of Argyle], and a disagree- 
 ment arose between him and his father about the division of his 
 territory, in consequence of which a war broke out between the chiefs 
 of Innisgall and the tribe of Macdonald — the tribe having joined 
 Angus and the chiefs Eoin. Eoin went to MacCaillin and gave him 
 all that lay between the river Add and the lands of Knapdale for going 
 with him before the king to complain of his son. Shortly after Angus 
 Og had a large entertainment with the men of the north side at 
 Inverness, when he was murdered by Maclcairbhre, his harper. His 
 father lived a year after him, and all the territories submitted to him, 
 but he restored many of them to the king. The daughter of Mac- 
 Caillin, the wife of Angus, was pregnant when he was killed, and she 
 was kept in custody until she was confined, and she bore a son, and 
 Donald was given as a name to him, and he was kept in custody until 
 he arrived at the age of thirty, when the men of Glencoe brought him 
 out by a Fenian exploit. He came to Innisgall, and the nobles of 
 Innisgall rallied round him. . . . And he and the Earl of Lennox 
 made an agreement to raise a large army for the purpose of his getting 
 into possession of his own property, and a ship came from England 
 to Sound of Mull with money to help them in the war. The money 
 was given to Maclean of Duart to divide among the leaders : they 
 did not get as much as they desired, and therefore the army broke up. 
 When the Earl of Lennox heard that, he dispersed his own army and 
 made an agreement with the king. Macdonald [i.e., Donald Dubh ?] 
 then proceeded to him to request a force to carry on the war, and on 
 his way to Dublin he died at Drogheda of a fever of four nights' ex- 
 tent, leaving a son and a daughter." — Skene's * Celtic Scotland,' vol. 
 iii. pp. 404-406. 
 
 This account identifies the Donald claiming to be Lord of the Isles, 
 who headed the rising in 1545, and acted in concert with Matthew, 
 Earl of Lennox, and Henry VIII., with the grandson of John, Earl of 
 Ross, who was kept in custody by the Earl of Argyle from infancy to 
 manhood; but it omits, probably by design, his earlier escape, his 
 rising against James IV., and his reception when he was committed to 
 the Castle of Edinburgh in 1505 or 1506. The view of Mr Tytler, that 
 there were two Donalds, Lords of the Isles, in the sixteenth century, 
 does not appear well founded. The credit of unravelling this tangled 
 skein of Highland history is due to Mr Gregory, whom Mr Skene 
 has followed. Mr Burton has not touched the subject, which is 
 one of difficulty, and may yet receive further elucidation. — See 
 Gregory's ' History of the Western Highlands,' entries in index under 
 *' Lord of the Isles, Donald Dubh," p. 437 ; Skene's ' Celtic Scotland,* 
 vol. iii. p. 299. 
 
 DouNTEBOUR, Dame. 0/ a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer, 1. 36. — 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxix 
 
 Supposed to be a cant name for a woman of light character. This is 
 scarcely in accordance with the plan of the poem, which names in all 
 other cases real persons ; but who is meant has not been discovered. 
 
 Dunbar, Archibald. Flyting^ 1. 299. — This Archibald Dunbar in 
 the year 1446 took the castle of Hailes, in Haddingtonshire, but 
 immediately afterwards surrendered it to James, Master of Douglas. 
 This is the betrayal referred to here. The ' Short Chronicle' of James 
 II. 's reign relates the incident briefly : "The samyn yer Archebald of 
 Dunbar tuke the Castell of Halis on Sanctandrowis day the Apostle 
 and syn cowardlie gaf it owr to the Master of Douglas sodanlie ; " and 
 Pitscottie says : " Archibald Dunbar seiged the castle of Hales in 
 Lothian, and at the first assault he won the same and slew them all 
 that he found therein ; but shortly thereafter he was seiged by James 
 Douglas, in whose will he put himself and castle without any further 
 debate." Hailes, a castle in Prestonkirk parish, belonged to the Hep- 
 burns. Adam Hepburn of Hailes had taken part in the seizure of Dun- 
 bar some years before, in the reign of James I., when George, eleventh 
 Earl of Dunbar and March, had been forfeited and deprived of his 
 estates. It appears from the Exchequer Accounts that he had the 
 custody of Dunbar between 1440 and 1444; but soon after 15th July 
 1445, when the Queen-Dowager died at Dunbar, Adam Hepburn gave 
 it over by treaty to the king Short Chronicle,' p. 37). Patrick, his son, 
 had again treasonably seized the castle before 28th April 1446, as appears 
 from a letter of James II. of that date in the Coldingham Chartulary. 
 The attack upon the house of Hailes was no doubt a retaliation for 
 the part the Hepburns had taken in the seizure of Dunbar, — 
 " Because the young lord had Dunbar to keep." 
 
 Dunbar of Westfield. Flyting, 1. 388. — Sir Alexander Dunbar, son 
 of James, Earl of Murray, by Isabel, daughter of Sir William Innes, 
 was the founder of the family of Westfield in Moray, which held the 
 hereditary sheriffdom of that district. One of his descendants. Sir 
 Alexander, married the daughter of Dunbar of Cumnock in 1474, and 
 died in 1 505. It is to him, probably, that the reference in the poem 
 is intended ; or it may be no more than an allusion to the loyalty of 
 the Westfield family, in contrast to the disaffection of the Dunbars of 
 the south, who were attainted in the person of George, the tenth Earl 
 of Dunbar and March, by James I. in January 1434. 
 
 Edwart Langschankis. Fly ting, 1. 270. — The Scottish nickname 
 for Edward I. It was perhaps first given him in the old Scotch poem 
 of which a fragment remains — 
 
 ' ' What brings Kinge Edwarde, with his lang shankys, 
 To hae wonnen Berwik al our unthankys ? 
 Gaes pyke hym, 
 And after gaes dyke hym." 
 
ccxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is somewhat corrupted, but "presents," says Mr Murray, "charac- 
 teristically northern inflections." 
 
 Egeas. Fly ting, 1. 537. — ^gaeon, son of Uranus by Gaia, is prob- 
 ably intended. He and his brothers, Gyges and Cottus, called the 
 Uranids in Greek mythology, were represented as monsters with a 
 hundred arms and fifty heads. Homer says : " Men called him 
 ^gaeon, but the gods Briareus" (Iliad, i. 403). The Uranids sided 
 with Zeus in his contest with, and victory over, the Titans (Hesiod, 
 Theog., 11. 147-153)- 
 
 Egipya. Flyftng, 1. 530. — Egypt is represented as the mother, as 
 Pharo is the father, of Dunbar. 
 
 Eneas. Flytmg, 1. 539. — ^neas, the grandson of Tros, and son of 
 Anchises by Aphrodite. It does not appear clear why Dunbar is 
 called his kinsman in the " Flyting," but perhaps it was because 
 ^neas forsook Dido. — See Chaucer, ' House of Fame,' vi. p. 203. 
 
 EuSTASE. Flyting, 1. 321. — As Kennedy called Dunbar "Strait 
 Gibbonis air" (1. 209), so Kennedy retorts here that Dunbar was "fals 
 Eustase air," for the skill of the Flyterwas shown by such quips; but 
 who false Eustase was has not been discovered. 
 
 Eyobulus. Flyting, 1. 541. — It is not known who this is intended 
 for. 
 
 Francis, St. The Visitation of St Francis, 1. 2. — The founder 
 and patron of the Franciscan Order, which had many houses in Scot- 
 land. They were called Fratres Minores, or Minorites — a name given 
 to them by St Francis himself as a token of humility, in distinction to 
 the older Orders, the Canons Regular of St Augustine and the Bene- 
 dictines — and sometimes Grey Friars, from the colour of their dress, 
 which distinguished them from the Black Friars or Dominicans, and 
 the Carmelites or White Friars. The Franciscans were divided into 
 Conventuals — the original Order, established by St Francis of Assisi 
 in 1206, and confirmed by Innocent III. in 1209; and Observantines, 
 a reform by Bernardine of Siena, in the year 1419, who took their 
 name from a claim to observe more strictly the rule of St Francis. 
 The Conventuals, who came to Scotland in 12 19, had convents at 
 Berwick, Roxburgh, Dumfries, Dundee, Haddington, Lanark, Kirk- 
 cudbright, and Inverkeithing. The Observantines were first brought 
 to Scotland by James I., who founded a convent of their Order in 
 Edinburgh. Bishop Kennedy commenced, and Archbishop Graham, 
 his successor, completed, a convent for them at St Andrews about 
 1478. Bishop Laing of Glasgow founded one in 1476 in that city. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxi 
 
 The town of Aberdeen founded one in 1450, the town of Ayr another 
 in 1472, Lord Oliphant one in Perth in 1460, James IV. one in Stir- 
 ling in 1494 (' Epistolae Regum Scotorum,' vol. i. p. 23), and they had 
 also establishments at Elgin and Jedburgh. 
 
 In 1 5 16 Patrick Panther, the secretary of James IV. and of the 
 Regent Albany, obtained an Act of Parliament sanctioning the conver- 
 sion of the House of the Virgin Mary at Montrose into an Observantine 
 convent. Henry VII. also favoured the Observantines, for whom he 
 founded convents at Newark, Greenwich, and Richmond, and from 
 whom, as his son-in-law James IV., he chose his confessor. The 
 two kings resembled each other in their strict compliance with the 
 rules of the Church as to attendance on divine service, doubtless an 
 injunction of their confessors. There are traces that Observantine 
 friars passing from England to Scotland played a part in political 
 business. One of them was employed by Henry VIII. to remonstrate 
 with Margaret for her conduct after her husband's death. The reform 
 and new foundations of the Franciscans towards the close of the 
 fifteenth century were probably due to the initiation of Sixtus IV., 
 who had been a general of their Order. He confirmed and enlarged 
 the privileges of both the Mendicant Orders, and specially favoured the 
 tenets of the Franciscans, who were winning their way in popular 
 theology. Two bulls in 1474 and 1479 mark the highest advance of 
 the Mendicants : " Their exemption from the jurisdiction of the ordi- 
 naries, the privileges of their churches, their power of hearing confes- 
 sions and administering the sacraments against the will of parish 
 priests, were acknowledged in ample terms. Moreover, Sixtus IV. 
 strongly adhered to the favourite belief of the Franciscans in the 
 immaculate conception of the Virgin." — Crichton, ' History of the 
 Papacy,' vol. iii. p. 112. 
 
 Dunbar the poet in all probability had become a novice in the 
 house of the Observantines at St Andrews, founded the year before he 
 took his degree of M.A. at that University. The religious revival, for 
 so it may be called, which led to the Observantine reform of the 
 Franciscans, reached Scotland at this period, but if Dunbar is to 
 be relied on, the reformed Franciscans were not more strict than 
 the original Order. He was again brought into contact with these 
 friars by the frequent resort of his patron James IV. to their house 
 at Stirling for the purpose of penance, which the poet ridicules in his 
 poem of the "Dirge to the King at Stirling." St Francis himself 
 had been called to found his Order by a vision, and it seemed ap- 
 propriate that his followers should also be converted by a vision of a 
 saint. Such miracles were commonly believed in, and often made the 
 subject of representation in art. Dunbar astonishes us by the boldness 
 with which he makes the vision which appeared to him not St Francis, 
 but a fiend who counterfeited the saint, in his poem, " The Visitation of 
 St Francis." The order is again satirised in "The Freiris of Berwik." 
 
ccxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Gawane, Gawan, or Gavin. Ane Littill Inter lud of the DroicMs 
 part of the Play, 1. 93. — Sir Gavin, one of the knights of the Arthurian 
 legend, well known to Dunbar and the Scotch poets by the metrical tales 
 of " Gawane and Gologras" and " Sir Gawan and Sir Galoran of Gallo- 
 way, or the Awntyrs of Arthur." It was no obstacle to these romances 
 forming part of the common stock of Scottish traditional poetry, that 
 they had sprung from the British portion of the modern Scottish race, 
 and that their scenes were usually in the western part of the island, 
 and most frequently south of the modern Scottish border. In this poem 
 Dunbar speaks in the mouth of the dwarf, who was descended from 
 Fyn M'Coul, quite naturally of the "bairns of Britain," along with 
 King Arthur and Gavin, as dead before the dwarf could wield a spear. 
 Gavin had become a common Christian name in Scotland, and had in 
 Dunbar's time two eminent representatives — Gavin Douglas, the poet 
 Bishop of Dunkeld, and Gavin Dunbar, Bishop of Aberdeen. 
 
 GiRNEGA, St. The Tournament, 1. 44. — The patron saint of shoe- 
 makers. Cf. " Sym Skynnar and Schir Garnega" in Rowles's 
 " Cursing," 1. 99. Girnegae was a name for a peevish person (Jame- 
 son's Dictionary). 
 
 Gog and Magog. Flyting, 1. 528. — Wyntoun describes the hill 
 near the Caspian, I. x., 1. 384 — 
 
 " Thar Gog and Magog at felown wes, 
 Closyt ar in gret stray tness." 
 
 He also tells the story of Gog and Magog's wrestling-match with 
 Coryn, King of Cornwall (I. vii., 1. 352 et seq.) See Fairholt's 'Gog 
 and Magog' (London : Hotten, 1859), a small book of much learning 
 about giants. These are first named in the Old Testament — Genesis, 
 ch. X., and i Chronicles v. 4. Their adoption in the mythical history 
 of England was due to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who makes one Gog- 
 Magog out of the two, and represents him as opposing Brutus on his 
 invasion of Albion, and as killed in a wrestling-match with Corineus. 
 The two giants in Guildhall are supposed to represent Gog-Magog 
 and Corineus. 
 
 GoLYAS. Fly ting, 1. 529. — Cf. Wyntoun : — 
 
 In Egypt some men said alswa 
 
 Geanties grewe, and of that kind 
 
 Came Enathym, and off his strynd 
 
 Came Golyath that Davy yhing 
 
 Slew with the stane cast of a sling." — Vol. i. p. 21. 
 
 See I Sam. xvii. 
 
 GowER, John. Lament^ 1. 51. — Gower (1320-1402), a poet who lives 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxiii 
 
 chiefly in the history of English literature, and whose poems are now 
 read only by the students of that literature, and not by the lovers of 
 poetry in itself. His chief work, 'Chronica Tripartita,' was to consist 
 of three parts — 'Speculum Meditantis,' 'Vox Clamantis,' and 'Confessio 
 Amantis.' The first does not exist, and perhaps was never written. 
 The 'Vox Clamantis,' which refers to the rising of Wat Tyler, was first 
 printed by the Roxburghe Club. The ' Confessio Amantis' was most 
 widely known from having been printed by Caxton in 1483, and fre- 
 quently since, and on it the fame of Gower rests. It consists of a 
 dialogue between a lover and his confessor, and is modelled upon the 
 ' Romance of the Rose,' by John de Meung. Except in the allegorical 
 representation of such abstract ideas as Idleness, Avarice, &c., it is 
 not in the style of Dunbar ; and his reference to Gower, with whose 
 work he was no doubt acquainted, must be taken rather as a con- 
 forming to the fashion of the times, which held Gower the next poet 
 to Chaucer, than as an acknowledgment that Dunbar had really bor- 
 rowed from him. Occleve, in his ' De Regimine Principum,' in like 
 manner to Dunbar laments the death of Chaucer "flower of elo- 
 quence " and " my master Gower." It is somewhat curious that the 
 manuscript of some of Gower's minor poems in Latin, French, and 
 English was acquired by Lord Fairfax, Cromwell's general, when in 
 Scotland, from " that learned gentleman Charles Gedde, Esq., of St 
 Andrews, in Scotland." This MS. is stated in the Roxburghe Club 
 edition to be in the library of the Marquis of Stafford at Trentham ; 
 E. Stengel — who has recently reprinted them in his ' Ausgaben aus 
 dem Gebiete der Romanischen Philologie,' Marburg, 1886 — appears 
 to have been informed that it now belongs to the Earl of Ellesmere, 
 but he failed to get access to it. It may be hoped so interesting a 
 MS. is not lost. Who was Charles Gedde, the learned gentleman of 
 St Andrews.? Sibbald, in his 'History of Fife,' p. 45, gives a Latin 
 couplet by him on the light of the Isle of May, for which a tower was 
 erected in 1635. 
 
 Henry VII., while Earl of Richmond, had been a former owner of 
 this MS. ; but it may have found its way to Scotland, and been seen 
 by Dunbar. The poems in it are those printed for the Roxburghe 
 Club in 181 8, and contain fifty ballades in French, which are more in 
 the style, as regards metre, of Dunbar, than Gower's English work ; 
 but they treat love, which is their topic, in a different spirit. — See 
 Warton's ' History of English Poetry,' Hazlitt's edition, 1871, vol. iii. 
 pp. 15-37. 
 
 Gower was a friend of Chaucer, who refers to him in the close of 
 " Troilus and Creseide " — 
 
 " O, moral Gower ! this Boke I directe 
 To the, and to the philosophical! Strode ; 
 To vouchsafe, where nede is, for to correcte, 
 Of your benignitie and zeles gode." 
 
ccxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Gower repays the compliment in the ' Confessio Amantis,' written in 
 1392-93, where Venus says — 
 
 " And grete well Chaucer when ye mete 
 As my disciple and my poet." 
 
 When Chaucer was sent on a mission to Lombardy in 1378, John 
 Gower was one of two attorneys he nominated by a writ to act for him 
 for one year. — See Sir Harris Nicholas's Life of Chaucer in Aldine 
 Poets, p. 99. 
 
 Gray, Walter. Testament of Mr Andro Kennedy, 1. 61. — Gray is 
 described in this satirical poem as Master of St Antony — i.e.^ the Hospi- 
 tal of St Antony at Leith. He was master of it at the period when 
 Dunbar wrote, but nothing more is known of him to justify the char- 
 acter of mendacity given to him in these verses. — See Antane, Sanct. 
 
 Guy (Gy). Of Sir Thomas Norray, 1. 28. — Sir Guy of Gysburne, 
 a market-town in the West Riding of York, on the borders of Lanca- 
 shire, was a daring knight who went out to slay Robin Hood, but 
 met his own fate, as is described in the ballad, " Robin Hood and Guy 
 of Gisborne" (Ritson's 'Ballads of Robin Hood,' vol. iv. p. 83; 
 Percy's ' Reliques,' vol. i. p. 56). He is not to be confounded with 
 Guy of Warwick, the hero of an early metrical romance. — See Bevis. 
 
 Hary, Blind ; or, Harry the Minstrel. Lament, 1. 69. — 
 The author of "Wallace," one of the many minstrels of Scotland 
 during the reigns of the first Stuarts. Major the historian, who 
 lived to old age, and probably died in 1549 or 1550, states that dur- 
 ing his infancy " Henry, a man blind from birth, composed from 
 the traditions and wrote in the language of the common people, in 
 which he was skilled, a complete book on William Wallace." He 
 adds : " I give credit to such writings only in part. The author, by 
 reciting his history before nobles, gained food and clothing, of which 
 he was worthy." — Major's History, ed. 1740, p. 169. Blind Harry 
 recited his poems at the Court of James IV., and received rewards for 
 doing so. — See 'Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer,' pp. 133, 174, 
 176, 181, and 184. The first of these references is on 26th April 
 1490, when he received i8s. at Stirling, and the last on 2d Jan- 
 uary 1492, when a payment of 9s. was made to him at Linlithgow. 
 It is not improbable that he died soon after the latter of these 
 dates. The date of the unique contemporary MS. of his poem on 
 Wallace in the Advocates' Library is 1488. It is bound with a MS. 
 of Barbour's " Bruce," and both were transcribed by John Ramsay of 
 Lochmalonie, in Fife, but " The Bruce," though bound first, was tran- 
 scribed in the following year, 1489. 
 
 Mr Laing, in the preface to " Gologras and Gawain," refers to frag- 
 ments of an edition of Blind Harry's " Wallace " which he had seen, 
 and considered to have been printed about 1508. But the first com- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxv 
 
 plete edition, of which there is a unique copy in the British Museum, 
 was printed by Robert Lekprevik, at the expenses of Henry Charteris, 
 1570, 4to. It has been repeatedly printed since. No poem was more 
 popular in Scotland, and copies were to be found in many Scottish 
 cottages, of which, with Barbour's " Bruce," it formed almost the only 
 secular literature. The best edition till recently was that of Dr 
 Jamieson ; but it has now been edited with a revised text and learned 
 introduction by Mr Moir, of Aberdeen, for the Scottish Text Society. 
 These poems supplied the Scottish people with themes which sup- 
 planted the romantic adventures and gests of Arthur and of Robin 
 Hood— 
 
 "Wallace offhand, sen Arthur had na mak." 
 
 Dunbar and Kennedy must both have been familiar with Blind 
 Harry's poem. Dunbar showed a better appreciation of his genius 
 than Major, when he gave him a place amongst the Scottish " mak- 
 aris." Whatever maybe thought of the value of his work in history — a 
 problem on which the last word has not yet been said — Blind Harry 
 was a true poet. In his work and that of Barbour, Scotland 
 already possessed two epic, or, as they might more properly be called, 
 heroic poems. 
 
 Hay, Sir Gilbert. Lament, 1. 67. — Sir Gilbert Hay, one of the many 
 Scotchmen who took service in the Court of France, was Chamberlain 
 to Charles VI. Mackenzie, ' Lives of Scots Writers,' vol. iii. p. i, gives 
 a meagre biography of Hay and a brief analysis of his works, of which 
 he appears (p. 8) to have possessed a MS., perhaps that now in the 
 Abbotsford Library. He was probably the son of Sir William Hay 
 of Locharret, born about the end of the fourteenth or beginning of 
 the fifteenth century. He studied at St Andrews, where he became a 
 Determinant or Bachelor, 141 8, and Licentiate or Master of Arts, 141 9. 
 He went to France soon after, perhaps in the capacity of an archer 
 in the Scottish Guard, whose origin may be traced to the reign of 
 Charles VI., and he remained in France for twenty-four years. The 
 alliance between the two countries had been strengthened by the 
 marriage of Margaret, eldest daughter of James I., to the Dauphin, 
 afterwards Louis XI. On his return to Scotland Hay lived at Roslin with 
 William Sinclair, third Earl of Orkney, the founder of Roslin Chapel, 
 with whom he was perhaps connected by the marriage of a sister of 
 Orkney to Hay of Errol. By desire of the Earl, Hay translated in 1456 
 three French works : (i) * L'Arbre de Batailles,' an early treatise on in- 
 ternational law, by Honore Bonnet, Prior of Salon, in France. The 
 version in the Scottish vernacular in the Abbotsford Library is not 
 yet printed, although it deserves to be so, both from its contents and 
 as a specimen of Scottish prose prior to the fifteenth century, (2) ' Le 
 Livre de I'Ordre de Chevelerie,' an anonymous work on knighthood 
 which was translated by Caxton, and forms one of the rarest issues 
 
ccxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of his press. It was reprinted by Mr Beriah Botfeld for the Abbots- 
 ford Club. (3) 'Le Gouvernement des Princes,' a translation of a 
 popular work of the middle ages, * Secretum Secretorum,' falsely at- 
 tributed to Aristotle. Hay also translated a French metrical romance 
 on Alexander the Great, at the request of Thomas, first Lord Erskine 
 and second Earl of Mar of the name of Erskine, who died in 1494. 
 It would appear from a note on the MS. of this translation that Hay 
 had died some years previously. It has been reprinted by the Ban- 
 natyne Club, 1831, from a MS. of Lord Breadalbane at Taymouth. 
 Dunbar's reference suggests that Hay had written original poems, 
 but if so, none have yet been discovered, and perhaps the transla- 
 tion of the romance or story of Alexander the Great sufficiently ac- 
 counts for his being included in Dunbar's list of poets, along with 
 the author of the " Adventures of Arthur." Few stories were more 
 commonly treated by the romance-writers of the middle ages than 
 that of Alexander the Great, which gives its name to a special var- 
 iety of verse, the Alexandrine (see Warton's ' History of English 
 Poetry,' vol. ii. p. 140). The translation by Hay does not show poeti- 
 cal ability, but is of importance as a link in the connection between 
 the poetry of France and Scotland at the time when Scottish poetry 
 was still in its infancy. 
 
 Hector. Ballate against Evil Women, p. 267, 1. 32. 
 
 Henryson, Robert. Lament, 1. 82. — This poet, the most import- 
 ant of the precursors of Dunbar, flourished in the reigns of James 
 in. and IV., and was probably born not later than 1425. He does 
 not appear to have been educated at St Andrews or Glasgow, but was 
 incorporated or admitted " ad eundem " in the latter university on loth 
 September 1462. He is described in its register as "venerabilis vir 
 Magister Robertus Henryson in Artibus Licentiatus et in Decretis 
 Bachelarius" — degrees which he had probably taken in Paris or Lou- 
 vaine. He afterwards became master of the school at Dunfermline 
 attached to the convent of Benedictines. He was also a notary public. 
 He has generally been supposed to have belonged to the family of 
 Henryson of Fordel ; but Laing has pointed out, in the memoir pre- 
 fixed to his edition of Henryson's poems, Edinburgh, 1865, that there 
 is no sufficient proof of this. The name was common, and two other 
 persons who bore it in the sixteenth century were celebrated lawyers, 
 and may have been relations of the poet, — James Henryson, the 
 founder of the Fordel family. King's Advocate of James IV., and Lord 
 Justice-Clerk in 1507 ; and Dr Edward Henryson, the author of several 
 works on the civil law, who studied and taught the civil law at 
 Bourges, and, passing as advocate in 1557, became one of the Com- 
 missaries of Edinburgh in 1564, and died in 1585. There was also, 
 by a curious and scarcely fortuitous coincidence, a John Henryson, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxvii 
 
 "master of the grammar school within the Abbey of Dunfermline" 
 in 1573. Further details of the family will be found in the memoir 
 prefixed to Laing's edition of Henryson's poems. 
 
 Herod. Flyting, 1. 537. — Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, who killed 
 John the Baptist, is made by Kennedy, in this satirical fictitious 
 genealogy of Dunbar, his "othir eme" — i.e.^ apparently uncle on the 
 mother's side, as Vespasian was his uncle on the father's. — See Jamie- 
 son's Diet., Supplement, sub voce "Eme." 
 
 Heryot. La7nent, 1. 54. — This poet is not known by any other 
 mention of his name or by any extant poems. 
 
 Hew, Sir, of Eglinton. Lainent, 1. 53. — A person of this name 
 and family distinguished himself in the reigns of David II. and 
 Robert II., and probably lived 1320-1376. He was knighted by 
 David II. (according to a conjecture of Dr Irving) in 1342, for his 
 services in the English wars, but was afterwards taken prisoner by 
 Robert Ogle (Wyntoun's 'Chronicle/ Book viii. 1. 6007 ; vol. ii. p. 468 
 of Laing's ed.) In 1361 he was Justiciary of Lothian, and in 1367 a 
 commissioner for negotiating a treaty with England. He married 
 Egidia, half-sister of Robert IL, and widow of Sir James Lindsay of 
 Crawford (Irving's ' History of Scottish Poetry,' p. 82). This was 
 probably the poet. His name frequently occurs in accounts of the 
 Great Chamberlain from 1348 to 1375 ; and in the ' Rotuli Scotorum,' 
 vol. i. p. 822, and other places, mention is made of safe-conducts 
 granted to him for journeys to England. He died in 1381, and his 
 widow married Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith. His daughter Eliza- 
 beth was the ancestress of the Earls of Eglinton, who received that 
 title in 1507. 
 
 No poems with the name of Sir Hew of Eglinton are known. On 
 the other hand, there lived in the fourteenth century a Scottish poet, 
 commonly called Huchown of the Awle Royale (Royal Hall or Aula 
 Regia), and it is a question which affords much room for ingenious 
 criticism whether he is the same person as Hew of Eglinton. Wyn- 
 toun, who wrote soon after Huchown's death, says — 
 "He made the gret Gest off Arthure, 
 
 And the Awntyre off Gawane, 
 
 The Pystyll also off swete Susane. 
 
 He was curyws in hys style, 
 
 Fayre off facund and subtille, 
 
 And ay to plesans and delyte 
 
 Made in metyre mete his dyte, 
 
 Lytill or nowcht nevyrtheles 
 
 Waverand fra the suthfastness." 
 
 — Vol. xii. 1. 4324 ; Laing's ed., vol, ii. p. 12, 
 
 Three poems have been preserved, which, although this point 
 
ccxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 has been disputed by Mr Morris on linguistic grounds, answer so 
 exactly to those named by Wyntoun that it would be singular if 
 the same three subjects had been treated about the same date by a 
 second author. The first of them is published by Mr Morris in ' Early 
 English Alliterative Poems,' Early English Text Society, from a MS. 
 written by Robert of Thornton, Archdeacon of Bedford, 1439, in the 
 Lincoln Cathedral Library. This poem fairly answers to " The gret 
 Gest of Arthure " or " Gest Historicale" of the above passage of Wyn- 
 toun ; and Mr McNeill has shown, in a learned paper in the ' Scottish 
 Review,' March 1888, that the defence of Huchown by Wyntoun for 
 the supposed error of calling Lucius, the contemporary of Arthur, Em- 
 peror instead of Procurator, against some critic of his time, actually 
 applies to this poem. Such a coincidence is more conclusive than 
 the dialect which led Mr Morris (but Professor Schipper differs as to 
 this) to ascribe it to a writer south of the Scottish border. 
 
 The second poem, according to Mr McNeill, is the romance of " Sir 
 Gawane and the Grene Knight," printed for the Bannatyne Club, under 
 the editorship of Sir F. Madden, and by the Early English Text 
 Society in 1864, from a MS. (Cotton. Nero A x) in the British Museum, 
 of which a full analysis is given by Mr McNeill and also by Ten 
 Brink (' Early English Literature,' p. 337). It is very similar in 
 nature and style to the first poem ; and though Morris, followed by 
 Ten Brink and some German scholars, assigns its dialect to Lancashire, 
 Morris admits that it is not improbable it may have been copied from 
 a Scottish poem. It must not be overlooked, however, that there are 
 several other poems in which Gawane figures that may contend for 
 the honour of being by Huchown, as that of " Sir Gawane and Golo- 
 gras " (printed by Pinkerton, 1792, and Bannatyne Club), and "Sir 
 Gawane and Galoran of Galloway," now commonly called " The 
 Awntyrs of Arthur at the Tern Wathelan " (printed by Pinkerton, 
 Madden, and Laing), of which there are three MSS. — See Laing, 
 ' Select Remains,' 2d. ed., p. 84. The third poem is the " Pystil of 
 swete Susan," printed by Laing, 'Select Remains' (p. 167), from the 
 Vernon MS. in the Bodleian. Whether "The Pearl," "Cleanness or 
 Purity," and " Patience," three poems of a moral or religious caste, 
 also in the same MS. collections as " Sir Gawane and the Grene 
 Knight," are by Huchown, as Mr McNeill contends, is more doubtful ; 
 but even without these, " Huchown of the Aule Royale" must have 
 been a poet of considerable mark in the age before Barbour. 
 
 The identification of him with Sir Hew of Eglinton is not absolutely 
 proved, but is highly probable. Huchown is an old Scottish diminutive 
 for Hugh. The public offices and royal connection of Sir Hew of 
 Eglinton make it not unlikely that he should be called " of the Royal 
 Hall." The alliterative style of the three poems corresponds with the 
 poetic diction in use during Sir Hew's life. Dunbar is not likely to 
 have omitted in his list so important a name as Huchown of the Awle 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxix 
 
 Royale. Chalmers, followed by Laing, are great authorities in sup- 
 port of the identification. On the other hand, no poem bears the 
 name of Hew or of Eglinton, and Hew of Eglinton held no office 
 specially attached to the royal person. Mr Morris and the German 
 scholars generally are against the identification, on the ground that 
 these poems are not in the Scottish but rather in Midland English 
 dialect. On the whole, the writer of this note is inclined to accept 
 the conclusion of Mr McNeill, in whose paper will be found addi- 
 tional arguments in its support. The subject will no doubt be further 
 elucidated by the editor of the forthcoming volume of Scottish Allit- 
 erative Poems for the Scottish Text Society. 
 
 HiLLHOUSE, Laird of. Flyting, 1. 515. — Probably Sir John Sandi- 
 lands of Hillhouse in Linlithgowshire, frequently referred to in the 
 Records between 12th July 1480 ('Acta Dominorum Concilii ') and 8th 
 December 1501 (' Treasurer's Accounts'). He appears to have been 
 employed in the Artillery service, from the entries in these accounts 
 of nth September 1496 and 31st July 1497 ; and he received on 8th 
 December 1501, 28s., when "he cam furth of Ingland from the 
 Lordis, be the Kingis command." This was the embassy on which 
 Dunbar also served, so he probably was a friend of the Laird, as 
 Kennedy describes him as " air to Hillhouse." 
 
 Holland. Lament, 1. 61. — Sir Richard Holland, the author of the 
 " Howlatt," a poem written in the reign of James IL, about 1453, in the 
 alliterative style. Holland was a follower of the Douglases, and his 
 poem is perhaps a satire on James IL, though this has been doubted. 
 It is preserved in the Bannatyne and Asloan MSS., and has been printed 
 by Pinkerton, 'Collection of Scottish Poems,' 1792, vol. iii.; and for the 
 Bannatyne Club, 1823, by Laing, and more recently by Mr Donaldson 
 (Gardiner, Paisley). The "Howlatt" is alluded to by Blind Harry in 
 his description of the battle of Falkirk, and Holland is mentioned by 
 Lyndsay in the Prologue to the " Complaint of the Papingo." 
 
 Homer. The Goldyn Targe, 1. 67. — The first edition of a Greek 
 Homer was printed at Florence, by Demetrius Chalcondylas, in 1488. 
 But Homer was probably known to Dunbar only at third hand from 
 Lydgate's ' Troy Book,' which was copied from Guido de Colonna's 
 ' Historia Trojana,' written in the 13th century, and itself taken from 
 Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis. George Dundas, Master of 
 the Knights of St John of Jeruselem, a younger contemporary of 
 Dunbar, is described in 1522 by Boece, in his 'Lives of the Bishops of 
 Dunkeld,' as learned in Greek as well as Latin, and probably was one 
 of the first Scotchmen who knew Greek well. There is no reason to 
 suppose that Dunbar had any knowledge of it. 
 
 James IV. Poems to the King^ passim ; The Thistle and the Rose, 
 
ccxxx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 p. 113 ; Of Denting, p. 92 ; and other poems. — James IV. was king 
 during Dunbar's manhood and prime. At his Court the poet lived, and 
 to or for him, in the first instance, his chief poems were written. 
 Although it is not the intention of these notes to draw historical 
 characters at full length, it is necessary to give an outline of the 
 reign of James in its bearing on the life and poetry of Dunbar. 
 The eldest son of James and Margaret of Denmark, James IV. 
 was born on 17th March 1472, so was about twelve years Dunbar's 
 junior. He succeeded to the crown by the death of his father at 
 Sauchie on nth June 1488. Three years after, Dunbar probably 
 entered the royal service. In that year, 1491, the first of a series 
 of embassies, which seriously aimed at securing the king's mar- 
 riage, for it had been talked of since the commencement of his reign, 
 was sent to France. Besides renewing the ancient league, it was 
 directed to search for a wife to the king, who was to be a " noble 
 princess, born and descended from some worshipful house of ancient 
 honour and dignity." The embassy was to consist of a bishop, an 
 earl, a lord of Parliament, and a clerk. The bishop chosen was Black- 
 adder of Glasgow ; the earl was Hepburn, Lord Bothwell ; the lord of 
 Parliament was Lord Monypenny. There is reason to suppose that 
 Dunbar may have been the clerk, for they sailed in the Catherine from 
 North Berwick, the vessel in which Dunbar is said in the " Flyting" to 
 have gone to France. His entry into the royal service was thus 
 intimately connected with the marriage of the king, which must have 
 been for many years a subject constantly in his thoughts. James him- 
 self was not anxious to be fettered by matrimony. Besides other less 
 honourable connections — one of which is described in " The Kinges 
 Wowing quhen he wes in Dumfermeling" — he had formed an attach- 
 ment for Margaret, the daughter of Lord Drummond. It was even 
 reported that he obtained a dispensation from the Pope allowing 
 him to marry her. This would have been required, not on account of 
 her inferior rank, but of her relationship ; for a member of her family, 
 Annabella, had married Robert III., and another had been the second 
 wife of David II. A royal marriage might seem not beyond the am- 
 bition of the Drummonds. Some such hope probably tempted the 
 daughters of other nobles, both before and after Margaret Drummond, 
 to accept the position of mistress of the king. None of them seem to 
 have had the same place in his affections as Margaret Drummond. The 
 poem, set to a popular air, " On Tayis Bankis," describes her when 
 resident at her father's house of Stobhall perhaps in the language of 
 her lover. She was treated with great state, and bore him a daughter 
 in 1497. Though the Spanish ambassador Ayala states that he 
 then sent her to her father and married her to a nobleman, there 
 is no other proof of this. The connection between them probably 
 continued until the marriage negotiations with Henry VII. in 1501. 
 Margaret Drummond and two sisters died at one time in 1502, and it 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxxi 
 
 is not wonderful that this gave rise to rumours of poisoning, which 
 were not dispelled during the whole of James's reign. Suspicion 
 pointed, some said, to the Kennedys, a family which also produced 
 a royal mistress ; but according to a letter of Queen Margaret to 
 Dacre in 1523, to Lord Fleming, the husband of one of Margaret 
 Drummond's own sisters. Her death again awakened the often 
 sensitive but often slumbering conscience of James, who had felt 
 deeply the death of his father on the field of Stirhng. Masses were 
 sung till the close of his reign for Margaret Drummond at Dunblane, 
 where she was buried, as they were for his father and mother at 
 Cambuskenneth, at Tain, and in the Blackfriars' Church in Edinburgh 
 (see Dickson, Preface, ' Treasurer's Accounts,' ccxxx.) The pilgrimages 
 of James to St Duthac's at Tain and to St Ninian's at Whithorn, his 
 retreat at Easter to the Convent of the Observants at Stirling, which 
 he had founded and from whom he received a confessor, and the 
 iron belt he wore, were acts of expiation which reveal in part the 
 secrets of the confessional. But James was unstable and incontinent. 
 Historians have remarked a curious proximity between the places of 
 his pilgrimage and the residences of his mistresses. Dunbar's poem 
 of " Beauty and the Prisoner " probably refers to the abandonment 
 for a time of illicit connections when " Matremony, that nobill king," 
 banished " Sklander to the west se cost." James was too energetic 
 to devote his whole time either to love or to religion. He had been 
 plunged when a youth of sixteen into the duties of manhood. The 
 example of his father warned him against leaving the government in 
 any hands but his own. He began his reign by suppressing the re- 
 bellion of Lord Lennox and Lord Lyle, and he easily crushed the 
 conspiracy of Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, for delivering him into the 
 hands of the English. In 1494, and again in the following year, he 
 visited the Western Isles. The first important episode in his reign 
 was the support he gave to the adventurer Perkin Warbeck, who 
 came to Scotland in 1495. James recognised him as Duke of York, 
 gave him his kinswoman Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of Lord 
 Huntly, in marriage, and twice supported him in raids on the north of 
 England. Whether James was really deceived, or, like the Duchess 
 of Burgundy, allowed himself to be deceived, as to the real origin of 
 Perkin, is uncertain. He refused to give him up to Henry VII., and 
 when Perkin sailed for Ireland in July 1497, it was in a ship fitted out 
 at the royal cost. The king and Perkin parted with compliments, as 
 became a host and his guest. But the negotiations with Henry VII., 
 promoted by the diplomatic skill of Fox, Bishop of Durham, and the 
 goodwill of the Spanish ambassador, who thus escaped from a promise 
 to find him a Spanish princess as a bride, were already on foot. A 
 truce was signed at Ayton on 30th September 1497, to last for seven 
 years. James had reached what the Scotch law called the perfect age 
 of twenty-five years in 1498. The truce with England, converted into 
 
ccxxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a peace by the marriage treaty of 1502, enabled him to apply himself 
 to the affairs of his own kingdom, and he proved himself a vigorous 
 monarch. With the counsel of Sir Andrew Wood, he developed the 
 Scottish navy. He never tired of expeditions to the most remote 
 parts of his kingdom — the Highlands or the Isles, Ross or Galloway — 
 for the purpose of suppressing rebellion and of administering justice. 
 He reformed the courts by the institution of new sheriffdoms in the 
 Highlands, and of the Daily Council at Edinburgh, to which there are 
 many allusions by Dunbar, as well as the special poem "Tidings from the 
 Session," which shows that the reform was not so thorough as might 
 have been desired. Inheriting his father's taste for building, he con- 
 tinued the improvements at the royal palaces of Holyrood, Linlithgow, 
 Stirling, and Falkland. The interests of agriculture were promoted by 
 statutes favouring the tenure of feu-farm and protecting the imple- 
 ments of poor husbandmen from distress ; those of trade by putting 
 down piracy, as well as by treaties and correspondence with foreign 
 powers. He appears to have been really kindly to the poor, not merely 
 a distributor of official charity. He furthered education by the statute 
 requiring all barons to send their sons to school to learn Latin at the 
 age of nine, and after school to the Schools of Art and Jure (Law), as 
 the Universities are called in the Act, to fit themselves for judicial 
 duties ; and he aided the wise efforts of Bishop Elphinston to create 
 a northern University, which received the name of the King's College, 
 at Aberdeen, in 1500. At the instance of the same prelate he intro- 
 duced a few years later, in 1 507, the art of printing into Scotland, to 
 which there is reference in one of Dunbar's poems, as was natural in 
 the first Scotch poet who saw his own poems in print. The education 
 of James, according to the Spanish ambassador, embraced six foreign 
 languages — Latin, French, German, Flemish, Italian, and Spanish — 
 as well as the Scotch and Gaelic of his own subjects. He was well 
 read in history, both Latin and French, and familiar with the Bible 
 and books of devotion. The same observer, whose narrative is 
 evidently highly coloured, praises the king, as befitted the repre- 
 sentative of Ferdinand the Catholic, for his observance of the 
 offices of the Church ; his favour for priests, especially the Friars 
 Observant ; his justice, liberality, truthfulness, courage, and good 
 judgment. Erasmus, who was also something of a courtier, and to 
 whom James intrusted the education of his favourite natural son, 
 Alexander, afterwards Archbishop and Chancellor, joins in this pane- 
 gyric : " His personal appearance was such, that from a distance 
 you would recognise the king. He had a wonderful force of intellect, 
 an incredible knowledge of all things, an invincible magnanimity, the 
 sublimity of a truly royal heart, the largest charity, and the most 
 profuse liberality. There was no virtue which became a great prince 
 in which he did not so excel as to gain the praise even of his 
 enemies." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxxiii 
 
 But while the credit of these varied talents and of activity and fore- 
 sight in government cannot be denied, there were points of weakness 
 in his character, almost unwittingly revealed even by his panegyrists, 
 which become palpable the more we search the records of his reign, 
 and which, overpowering all his virtues, produced its lamentable 
 close. His liberality was pushed to extravagance, and Buchanan 
 remarks that he so impoverished the Exchequer that he had to resort 
 to odious measures to replenish it. His courage became rashness. 
 His general good judgment was perverted into neglect of the judgment 
 of others, even on subjects they knew better. His zeal for knowledge 
 of all kinds led him to dabble in unworthy and dangerous subjects, — 
 not merely the rude beginnings of scientific experiments, but alchemy 
 and astrology, which made him the prey of impostors. His outward 
 piety, which was constant, was the expression of a religious feeling 
 which was intermittent, and led to startling inconsistencies. Worst of 
 all, his licentiousness corrupted not merely his own morals, but those of 
 his Court, and was neither restrained by marriage, nor, if we credit the 
 story of Lady Ford, by the duties or the dangers of war. 
 
 The periods from 1501 to 1503, and again from 1507 to 1508, were 
 the most brilliant of his reign, and it is for these that Dunbar's poetry 
 affords the most important light. In the former period his marriage 
 with Margaret Tudor was at last consummated. In the embassy of 
 Lord Bothwell and Archbishop Blackadder to England in 1501, 
 Dunbar went probably as a notary, or clerk, who could if required 
 play the poet at the Court of Henry, which appreciated rather than 
 possessed poetical talent. His poems confirm the remark of Bacon 
 as to the popularity of the marriage in London, whose inhabitants did 
 not share the hatred of the English Borderers for their Scotch neigh- 
 bours. They express also the sympathy of a Lowland Scot inclined to 
 England with an event it was hoped would end the enmity between 
 the two nations, and perhaps unite their crowns. Bacon, writing after 
 the Union, even hints that the popular instinct foresaw it. Certainly 
 it was discussed as a possibility by the kings and their ministers, for 
 only a single life then intervened between Margaret and the English 
 succession. The saying of Henry VII. is well known, that if the 
 marriage led to a Union, the larger would attract the smaller country. 
 James, a monarch given to magnificence, was determined the pomp of 
 his nuptials should be worthy of the occasion. Masques and plays, 
 hunts and tournaments, were followed by banquets, dances, and 
 songs. Dunbar, now again in Scotland, was employed as the Court 
 poet. It has been conjectured in the introduction that his allegories of 
 the " Goldyn Targe " and " Beauty and the Prisoner " were composed 
 in contemplation of the marriage. " The Thistle and the Rose " was 
 certainly written for it. " The Ballad to the Queen " was probably 
 sung after the banquet at Holyrood on the evening of the marriage, 
 8th August 1503. Amongst the amusements of the time it seems 
 
ccxxxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 almost certain that the " Interlud of the Droichis part of the Play" 
 was represented, possibly by John Inglis and his company, who had 
 come with the Queen from England, more probably by some rival 
 Scotch players. In this singular poem the Dwarf or Droich, who is 
 descended, strangely enough, from Highland ancestors, partly in jest, 
 partly it may be to represent the distant origin of the Scottish 
 monarchy, narrates in a boisterous style of jollity that he has come 
 to dwell in Edinburgh. No guest would have been less welcome to 
 the Edinburgh citizens of that age than a full-bred Highlander. Then, 
 by one of those surprises in which Dunbar delighted, the Dwarf turns 
 out to be a Giant, Wealth, who had determined to take up his abode in 
 the Scottish capital in preference to Turkey, the realm of the Soudan, or 
 Lombardy, in which the French armies had created dearth. The 
 lawless condition of the Scandinavian kingdoms, and even of the 
 States of the Low Countries, made them undesirable. Ireland was 
 still worse. Dunbar's lines on it may seem sadly prophetic, but are 
 not, it may be hoped, final : — 
 
 " Yrland for evir I haif reffusit, 
 All wyismen will hald me excusit, 
 For nevir in land quhair Eriehe was vsit, 
 To dwell had I dellyte." 
 
 The preference of Wealth for Edinburgh, a poor capital, was sure to 
 delight the auditors ; nor could any occasion be more suitable for the 
 suggestion than the king's marriage. Money was then flowing freely 
 into the town, and the English alliance gave hopes of profitable trade. 
 Such, at least, seems the secret meaning of this poem, which can only 
 be read by the use of an historical key. 
 
 In the year 1507, and the first half of 1508, the bright aspect of 
 James's reign was still in the ascendant. The king was courted 
 by foreign powers. His administration of home affairs had been in 
 the main successful. The Court was more brilliant than it had ever 
 been in Scotland. A small and poor country had attained a European 
 position it had never before possessed. But there was no longer the 
 high excitement of the time of the marriage festivities. Even the few 
 years which had passed had disappointed some hopes. Dunbar's 
 poems faithfully reflect this change. The queen, too early married, 
 had not borne an heir who survived infancy, and a " plant was still 
 desired of her succession." The king had shown, indeed, great 
 energy in suppressing the rising of Black Donald of the Isles ; but 
 in the opinion of others besides Dunbar there had been undue 
 leniency in extirpating treason, as the poet indicated in his " Epi- 
 taph on Donald Owre," whose life had been spared. It was a testi- 
 mony to the soundness of this judgment that the Highland fox, 
 many years after, again broke loose, and had to be hunted out of 
 the country. These amusements of the Court, serviceable enough as 
 an occasional diversion from the strain of serious work, had become its 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CCXXXV 
 
 chief business, as is described in the poem of " SoUstaris in Court." 
 They had exceeded the permissible bounds of folly when a fool like 
 Sir Thomas Norray was knighted, and a tournament held in honour 
 of a Blackamoor woman, and an abbacy conferred on a charlatan 
 like Damian. The poet's own circumstances, no doubt, heightened 
 his satire, but his empty purse was a symptom of the poverty to which 
 the exchequer had been reduced. There was no measure in the 
 demands or in the success of the hangers-on of the Court, as he 
 points out in his poems on Discretion in Asking, Giving, and Taking. 
 The vacant benefices were recklessly given away. The courts of 
 justice were beset with suitors and others who had no desire for 
 justice, and were even themselves corrupt, as is portrayed in " Tidings 
 from the Session," and the poem of " Lady Solistaris." 
 
 In the latter half of 1508 the handwriting could be seen on the wall, 
 and the Scotch poet was quick, like the Hebrew prophet, to read and 
 declare its meaning. He detected what escaped the common eye, the 
 rottenness which underlay the apparent bloom. Sickness and Death 
 were the teachers of a careless and dissolute generation. Dunbar had 
 already, at an earlier period, spoken a warning word, as in the poem 
 to the queen on the profligacy of her courtiers ; but now he was himself, 
 perhaps for the first time, really alarmed. In his own sickness, his 
 thoughts turned to the dead and dying poets, one of them his chief 
 rival, Kennedy, and he wrote " The Lament for the Makaris." The 
 death of the brave D'Aubigny imposed on Dunbar the task of writing 
 an elegy only a short month after he had written a panegyric. No 
 sermon could have been half so scathing a censure of the vices of the 
 Court as "The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis." In 1509 occurred 
 the death of Henry VII., soon followed by that of the grandmother of 
 the queen, the wise and virtuous Countess of Richmond. The acces- 
 sion of Henry VIII. produced altered and strained relations between 
 the two Courts, so closely connected that there was no room for any 
 mean between love and jealousy. Instead of a loving father and 
 pacific king, James and Margaret had now to reckon with a grasping 
 brother and a king who would tolerate no will but his own. A series 
 of comparatively trifling disputes during the next four years led to a 
 complete rupture between Scotland and England. The precipitancy 
 of James led to the brief war in which he himself perished, and his 
 kingdom was all but ruined. Henry VIII., on his accession, refused 
 to deliver the jewels left by his father to his sister, the Scottish queen. 
 In 1 5 10, Andrew Barton, after Wood the most distinguished naval 
 commander of Scotland, was killed, and his ships taken by Howard, 
 the English High Admiral. When James demanded redress, he got 
 for answer that the fate of pirates should not be a question between 
 princes. Andrew Ker, about the same time, avenged the death of his 
 father, Sir Robert, by killing Starhead, an English subject, in cold 
 blood, and fixing his head on the Edinburgh Tolbooth. In 151 1 
 
ccxxxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Henry formed a league with Ferdinand of Spain, the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian, the Pope Julius II., and the Venetians, against France. 
 
 In 15 12 James renewed the ancient alliance of his country with 
 France, and received a ring from Anne of Brittany, its queen, as a 
 sign that he was to be her champion. Both kings now occupied them- 
 selves with preparations for war ; but Henry, before proceeding in 
 person to France, sent two embassies under Dr West to his brother- 
 in-law to attempt to detach him from the French alliance. West was 
 received with courtesy, but civilly dismissed. It was plain to all that 
 war was inevitable. In the beginning of April 15 13, a new league 
 was formed on the accession of the new Pope, Leo X., between the 
 same great European Powers against France, and on 30th June 
 Henry crossed the Channel and opened hostilities by the siege of 
 Terouenne. While in his camp before that town, the Ross Herald 
 arrived with a declaration of war. On the day of his departure, Arran 
 was sent with the Scotch fleet — to prepare which had been a darling 
 object of James — to aid France, but, in treasonable disobedience of 
 orders, sailed to Ireland. Before his return, James had crossed the 
 Border, imprudently accepted the challenge of Surrey to fight, on 
 Friday, the 9th of September, at Flodden, where he fell, surrounded 
 with the flower of his prelates, nobles, and commons. It was the same 
 Surrey who, only twelve years before, had brought Margaret Tudor 
 as a bride to Edinburgh, and of whose influence with James she had 
 felt a girlish jealousy. His body, found with difficulty — for he had 
 put several men into the same dress he wore — but identified by 
 several persons, amongst others Sir John Forman, the brother of 
 the bishop, and Lord Dacre, — was carried to Berwick. According 
 to the view of Leo X., an ally of Henry, James had broken the 
 treaty with Henry VII., which he had made under pain of excom- 
 munication for its breach ; and on the recital that James, when 
 dying, had shown some signs of penitence such as could be shown 
 at such an hour, the Pope, on 29th November 15 13, went through 
 the solemn mockery, at Henry's request, of issuing a bull allowing 
 Henry to bury his dead enemy in St Paul's. It is doubtful whether 
 this licence was used. According to Stow, the corpse lay at the Con- 
 vent of Shene till its dissolution, where he saw it in the reign of 
 Edward VI. ; after which " the workmen for their foolish pleasure 
 cut off the head," and the body only reached its last resting-place 
 in some obscure churchyard in London, at the hands of Lancelot 
 Young, Master Glazier of Queen Ehzabeth. 
 
 It was hinted in Scotland that James had not been killed, for 
 no body was found on the field with the iron belt. Busy rumour 
 told various tales — that he had secretly gone to Jerusalem to fulfil 
 a vow, or that he had been slain, not in battle but in flight. But there 
 seems no doubt that he fell fighting. Courage was the one quaUty 
 of a general he possessed ; in all others he was lacking. By declaring 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxxxvii 
 
 war against the advice of his Council and the wish of many of his 
 subjects ; by dallying at Ford to enjoy the company of its lady, ac- 
 cording to a constant tradition of early date on both sides of the 
 Border; by fighting on the ground chosen by Surrey, against the 
 remonstrance of Lindsay of the Byres and Angus Bell-the-Cat ; by 
 recklessly exposing his own person, he maintained to the last the 
 unwise obstinacy which was one of his characteristics. 
 
 Dunbar was silent after Flodden. Apart from his religious poems, 
 there are only the single poem to the Queen-Dowager and the two 
 relating to the Regent Albany which can be ascribed to a later date. 
 The troubles of Scotland which followed during the minority of James 
 V. may be a sufficient reason for this silence. Had he spoken, what 
 would have been his judgment on a reign he had watched so keenly and 
 a king he had so long served and counselled? He was not given 
 to the pathetic feeling which moved the hearts of so many Scottish 
 poets, both at the time and later, to weep for their countrymen who 
 fell at Flodden. If he wrote, it must have been either an invective on 
 the cause of the deaths which put every town and family into mourn- 
 ing, or a lament on the uncertainty of life and the vanity of earthly 
 things. It was, in fact, in the latter vein that he composed the poems 
 of his later period, if the date of his religious poems has been correctly 
 assigned. 
 
 John, Sanct. Fly ting, 1. 124. — St John the Baptist, or a hermit of 
 the same name, but what the special allusion is to hiding his eyes 
 with a wimple has not been discovered. 
 
 JOHNNE THE Reif. ScMr, ^it remembir as of befoir, 1. 33. — The 
 hero of an old English poem of the end of the fourteenth century. 
 Douglas refers to the same poem in the " Palice of Honour " : — 
 
 " I saw Raf Col^ear with his thrawn brow, 
 Crukit Johne the Reif, and auld Cockelbie's Sow," — 
 
 and by Sir D. Lyndsay, who refers to Archbishop Beatoun as "bot 
 disgyset like John the Reif, he said," in the " Testament of the 
 Papingo." It is in Bishop Percy's Folio MS., and relates to an ad- 
 venture between Edward I. and one of his reeves or bailiffs. It has 
 been printed in Laing's 'Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland,' 2d 
 edition, p. 46. 
 
 Johnston, Patrick. Lament, 1. 71. — A person of this name is 
 mentioned in the Exchequer Rolls and Treasurer's Accounts in the reign 
 of James III. as performing plays before the king at Christmas and 
 Shrovetide 1476 (vol. viii. p. 33 ; and 1477 and Christmas 1478, p. 512). 
 He seems to have been a man of substance, and to have had grants of 
 lands or rents from the king (vol. ix. pp. 16, 106, 172, 243, 400, 466, 
 
ccxxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 641). From the entry, 8th November i486, he appears to have had 
 the liferent of the lands called Kingsfield, near Linlithgow, no doubt 
 as a payment for his services. He appears on 5th August 1488 
 as apparently the chief of the players at Linlithgow who played 
 before the king, and he is again mentioned in the same character in 
 the following year, where the entry is to " Patrick Johnson and his 
 fallowis that playt a play to the king at Lythgow." Payments were 
 made to him at Epiphany 1489 and 1490, which is the last mention 
 of his name. His association with other persons who received pay- 
 ments at the same time appears to indicate that he may have been 
 one of the clerks at the king's chapel. The choristers, both clerks 
 and boys, frequently took part in the early masques and plays. James 
 III. is said to have doubled the number of these at the Chapel Royal, 
 so that half of them might be free to contribute to his amusement in 
 this way, while the other half sang in its services (Accounts of the 
 Lord High Treasurer, Preface, Ixxvii., xcii., ccxxxix., and ccxliv., and 
 pp. 91, 118, 128, 174). In the accounts rendered for the period from 
 1 2th June 1494 to 14th August 1495, Johnston is referred to as dead 
 (Exch. Rolls, vol. X. pp. 33, 177, 276, 330, 408, 495). As he was liv- 
 ing at a period of the former account, he must have died soon after 
 I2th June 1494. 
 
 JOK THE FuLE. Testament of Andro Kennedy^ 1. 73. — Laing sup- 
 poses this was "John Walass " the fool, sometimes called "Daft Jok 
 the Fule," who was with the king at St Andrews, October 1504, and 
 for whose "tyrment" or burial i6s. was paid on 19th June 1508. But 
 Kennedy seems to refer to some richer fool, as he says of him : — 
 
 " Of come and cattail, gold and fe, 
 Ipse habet valde multum, 
 And ^it he bleris my lordis E 
 Fingendo eum fore stultum." 
 
 — See Bute, Curry, Norray. 
 
 JONET THE Weido. Lucina schynnyng in silence of the nicht, 1. 34. — 
 One of the witches of Scotch tradition. The besoms or brooms of the 
 witches are referred to in a trial for witchcraft (Pitcairn's ' Criminal 
 Trials,' vol. iii. p. 608). 
 
 Judas Iscariot. Flyting^ 1. 524. — The juxtaposition of his name 
 with " Jow, Juglour, Lollard laureate," is characteristic of Kennedy, who 
 wrote against the Lollards in another poem, and affords proof that this 
 part of " The Flyting " was really written by Kennedy. 
 
 Kennedy, Andrew. Testament of Andro Kennedy. — A person of 
 this name appears in the Treasurer's Accounts, 21st August 1502 : 
 " Item, For ane hors boucht to Jock Balye, and syne was geffin to 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CCXXXIX 
 
 Andrew Kennedy be the Kingis command, 50s." He had received a 
 gift of 28s. two days before, and on 8th September 1503 there occurs 
 another entry of 14s. given to Andrew Kennedy, " in maij bypast to pas 
 to Wigton to the King with ane rehque of Sanct Niniane." He is also 
 the recipient of a grant referred to in the Privy Seal Register on 13th 
 May 1 501. This is no doubt the Kennedy of the poem, from which 
 we glean a few other particulars about him. He was probably a phy- 
 sician, and so is made, as a rival, to abuse Clerk for his ignorance — 
 
 " Scribendo dentes sine de." 
 His own superior knowledge of Latin is shown by the tags of dog- 
 Latin he mixes with his English rhymes, a kind of composition the 
 student of the time practised, as may be seen in a curious ballad 
 by an English student in Paris to his sweetheart (Ten Brink, * Early 
 English Literature,' p. 303). Andrew Kennedy was, according to the 
 poem, a drunken and dissolute Bohemian of Dunbar's day, but able, 
 as such characters sometimes are, to see through the hypocrisy of false 
 professors. Dunbar perhaps uses him to express his own freethinking 
 mood, and to say things he did not like to say in his own person. 
 Thus Kennedy is made to denounce the fraud and guile of Gray, the 
 Master of St Antony's Hospital, and the pretences of the false friars 
 who sang masses for the sake of lucre. He scoffs at absurd claims 
 to good family — a weakness of his countrymen — by treating the head 
 of the Kennedys as his chief, though he did not know who he was, 
 and at the same time by a double-edged thrust at the Celtic custom 
 of caupe^ — an instrument of extortion by which " the best aucht," or 
 piece of movable property of a deceased clansman, was the right of 
 the chief. He strikes one of Dunbar's favourite blows at the worldly 
 wisdom of the fools who became wealthy, and the folly of those who 
 entertained and kept them. The residue of his goods — in his case, as 
 in some testaments, less than nothing — he leaves to his bastards. The 
 general ceremonies of the time are travestied by the use of emblems 
 of his drunken habits. With reckless audacity and profanity, he does 
 not hesitate to declare on his deathbed that he had no belief, that he 
 will have no priests to sing at his burial, and that he leaves, in the 
 name of God, his soul till doomsday to the wine-cellar, and his body to 
 a dunghill in the town of Ayr. It is a terrible picture of the dregs of 
 fallen human nature. That neither Dunbar nor the society in which 
 he lived thought such a subject outside the pale of poetry is shown 
 by the fact that this poem was one of those the poet himself printed, 
 or allowed to be printed, at the press of Chepman and Myllar in 
 1508. 
 
 Kennedy, Walter. Flyting; Lament.— This poet, who seems 
 to have been the chief rival of Dunbar, was born in Ayrshire, prob- 
 ably before 1460 ; he was third son of Gilbert, first Lord Kennedy, 
 and was educated at Glasgow College. He matriculated there in 
 
ccxl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1475, and is described in the College Register as a nobleman who 
 had for his tutor James Black, probably a student like himself in 
 the Faculty of Arts. He took the decree of Bachelor of Arts in 
 
 1476, and that of Licentiate, or Master, in 1478. In November 148 1 
 he was one of the examiners. He appears to have acted as Bailie- 
 Depute of Carrick under David, third Lord Kennedy, in 1491-92. 
 Mr Laing conjectures that he may have been the son of Gilbert, 
 first Lord Kennedy, who was appointed Provost of the Collegiate 
 Church of Maybole in 1494. He is described by Dunbar as lying 
 at the point of death when " The Lament for the Makaris " was 
 written, so he probably died in 1507 or 1508. Besides his part in the 
 " Flyting," a few of his poems have been preserved, and are printed by 
 Laing in the second volume of his edition of Dunbar, (i.) "The 
 Praise of Age (2.) " Ane agit Manis invective against Mouth Thank- 
 less ; " (3.) " Ane Ballat in praise of our Lady ; " (4.) " Pious Counsale ; " 
 (5.) " The Passioun of Christ." He is referred to by Gavin Douglas 
 in the "Palice of Honour" as " Greit Kennedie" (line 14), and by Sir 
 David Lindsay in the Hnes — 
 
 ' ' Or quha can now contrefait 
 Off Kennedie the terms aureait." 
 
 The clan of Kennedy was one of the Celtic clans of Carrick, and 
 Gilbert, the father of Walter Kennedy, had a charter dated 13th 
 February 1451, declaring him head of his tribe, and heritable bailie of 
 Carrick. This is alluded to by Dunbar in the " Testament of Andro 
 Kennedy," who is made to leave his "best aucht" to the head of 
 his clan as the customary due, called in old Gaelic cmipe. Gilbert 
 Kennedy was the son of Sir James Kennedy of Dunure, and Mary, the 
 second daughter of Robert III., and sister of James I., and this con- 
 nection made Walter Kennedy claim the "Flyting" to be of king's 
 kin. His uncle was Bishop Kennedy of St Andrews, the faithful coun- 
 cillor of James III. The poet was a more staunch adherent of the 
 Church of Rome than Dunbar, as is shown by the denunciation of the 
 Lollards in several of his poems. The name Kennedy has been derived 
 from Kenneth by the historian of the family of the seventeenth century, 
 but by the editor of his work, Mr Pitcairn, is supposed to mean the head 
 of the house or family, — a distinction which had been granted to their 
 ancestors as far back as 1256, and confirmed by Alexander III. on 20th 
 January 1276. — * Historical Account of the Families of Kennedy from 
 Original MS.' (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 75. 
 
 KiTTOK. Ballad of Kynd Kittok.—Kiiidk^ or Kitty, the female 
 taverner, whose ale-house was at some place now unknown, called 
 France, on the Falkland fells, perhaps from its having been the 
 residence of French servants of the Court. 
 
 Lawrance, Sanct. Flyti7ig^ 1. 123. — St Lawrence was martyred 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxli 
 
 by roasting on a gridiron by Decius, or his successor Valerian. The 
 legend is told by Barbour, or whoever may be the writer of the Northern 
 or Scottish Legends (Horstmann, ' Altenglischen Legenden/ Barbour's 
 * Legenden Sammlung,' vol. i. p. 191). St Lawrence was appointed an 
 Archdeacon of the Roman Church by Pope Sixtus IL on his accession 
 to the Papacy, A.D. 257. Before his own martyrdom Sixtus charged 
 Lawrence to distribute the property of the Roman Church among the 
 poor. Lawrence, according to the legend, wished to share the fate of 
 Sixtus, and said to him, " Whither art thou going, O my father, without 
 thy son ? " to whom Sixtus answered, " I do not forsake thee, O my 
 son • there are yet greater conflicts behind, which thou hast to undergo 
 for the faith of Christ : within three days thou, as a dutiful deacon, 
 shalt follow me, thy bishop." He was arrested and grilled alive on a 
 gridiron on the night between the 9th and loth of August. 
 
 " |>ane Decius al fore wrak 
 A gryt fyre sone gert mak 
 Vndir ])e rost-yrne, J>at brint fast, 
 & salt & oyle ]jare-one gert cast ; 
 & lourdanis mad ])ame al bowne 
 With scharpe forkis & hald hyme done. 
 
 |>ane sad Laurens with gud chere : 
 ' Lord Jhesu, I lowe 'pe here ! ' 
 & with ])at wpe Ipe ene he brad, 
 And to Decius he sayd : 
 ' fJe rostit syd turne vpe & ete, 
 & it at raw is turne & het ! ' 
 & J)is sayand thankis he 3ald 
 To god, erand 3onge and auld : 
 ' Lord Jhesu, ay lowyt mot be, 
 Fore I ame worthy to haf entre 
 Within ])e 3atis of pi blyse,' 
 & 3auld Ipe spryt, sayand pus." 
 
 — Legends of the Saints, xxii, 11, 465-470, 485-496. 
 
 This martyr is celebrated in several hymns. — See * Daniel,' vol. i. 
 p. 103 ; vol. ii. pp. 20, 163. 
 
 LODOVICK. Elegy on Bernard Stew arty 1. i. — Louis XIL, King of 
 France, by whom Bernard Stewart was sent on the embassy to Scot- 
 land in 1 508. 
 
 LOKERT or LOCKHART OF THE Le, Sir MUNGO. Lament, 1. 63. — 
 A person of this name is mentioned in a suit recorded in " Acta Domi- 
 norum Concilii," 27th February 1487, when he was dead, his wife being 
 referred to as " Agnes Lindsay, spouse of umquhile Sir Mungo Lock- 
 hart, knycht." No poem of his is known, but the date makes it not 
 improbable he is the Lockhart referred to by Dunbar. The family of 
 Lockhart of the Lee, in Lanarkshire, is descended from Sir Simon 
 
ccxlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lockhart, who accompanied Douglas in his expedition against the 
 Saracens (1330), when he carried the heart of Bruce. It has produced 
 several distinguished members — James Lockhart, Lord Lee, a Scottish 
 judge ; William Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador ; and Sir George 
 Lockhart, the Lord President of the Court of Session — but the name of 
 Mungo does not appear in the family genealogies. 
 
 Lydgate. Goldyn Targe, 1. 262 ; Lament, 1. 50. — This poet, a 
 monk of Bury (see " Lament," 1. 50), who lived 1375 to 1460, was the 
 immediate follower of Chaucer, but, like Gower, far inferior to his 
 master. An account of his principal poems is given by Warton 
 
 History of English Poetry,' p. 68 et seg.) These were " The Fall of 
 Princes," " The Siege of Thebes," and " The Destruction of Troy." 
 His Minor Poems have been edited by Mr J. O. HalKwell for the Percy 
 Society, in which the following lines may be cited as parallels to 
 passages in Dunbar's poems : — 
 
 " Be glad, O London, be glad and make gret joy, 
 City of cities, of nobleness precellyng, 
 In the beginning called New Troy ; " — 
 
 this may have suggested the reference to Troynovaunt in Dunbar's 
 poem in praise of London. The moral to be drawn from the death of 
 the great men of the past, which is the theme of Dunbar's " Lament 
 for the Makaris," had also attracted Lydgate, who writes — 
 
 " Where now is David, the most worthy king? " 
 
 — Lydgate's Minor Poems, p. 24. 
 
 It had been taken by both poets either from the medieval Latin hymns 
 referred to in the Introduction, or from Villon's " Ballade on Dead 
 Heroes." In one of the poems attributed, perhaps wrongly, to 
 Lydgate, entitled " London Lackpenny," there is much satire directed 
 against the lawyers and the courts in a style similar to Dunbar's 
 "Tidings from the Session" and "Lady Solistaris." Dunbar styles 
 Lydgate " laureate," but it is not probable that he was Poet-laureate 
 of the Court. The history of that title, originally given by the university 
 to graduates, then apparently confined to distinguished scholars, and 
 first perhaps apphed to the Latin poet Andrew Bernard of Toulouse, 
 who held the office under Henry VII. and Henry VIII., is given by War- 
 ton (' History of English Poetry,' vol. iii. p. 125 et seg.) ; yet Chaucer, 
 who certainly did not hold any such office, and Skelton, are occasionally 
 called " laureate," possibly only as a eulogistic epithet. Skelton ap- 
 plies the term to the learned men of all nations in his allegory, " The 
 Garland of Laurel." The list closes with Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, 
 who first adorned the English tongue. The same three poets are men- 
 tioned in the prologue to "The Terens in English," printed by J. 
 Nastall about 15 10 (Warton, vol. iii. p. 282). Skelton himself was a 
 contemporary of Dunbar, for he flourished from 1490, the date of his 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxliii 
 
 laureation at Oxford, to 1529, when he died. His furious attacks on 
 the Scotch, and the doggerel character of most of his poetry, account for 
 his never being mentioned by Dunbar, on whom he did not exercise 
 any influence. To prefer Skelton to Dunbar, as Mr Lowell does, is a 
 singular instance of a false verdict by a usually good critic. 
 
 Machomete. Fly ting ^ 1. 537. — Also Mahoun. Lticina schynning 
 in silence of the nicht, 1. 32. — See Wyntoun, vol. ii. p. 53 ; and "The 
 Gyre Carling," Laing's ' Select Remains,' p. 275, where Mahomet is 
 called Mahoun. See Montgomerie's 'Flyting,' 1. 429, and note, p. 317. 
 
 Mackcowll, Fyn. Ane Littill Inter lud of the Droichis part of the 
 Play, 1. 33. — Fingal, the hero of Ossian and of many Irish and High- 
 land tales, is represented as the great-grandfather of the Dwarf in 
 Dunbar's poem, and the father of Gow Makmorne. They are associ- 
 ated also by Douglas in " The Palice of Honour" — 
 
 " Great Gow Mackmorne and Fyn MakcowU, and how 
 They should be goddis in Ireland, as they say." 
 
 The Ossianic legend was probably known to the Court of James IV. by 
 the recitations and songs of Gaelic bards and harpers. " The Book of 
 the Dean of Lismore," one of the earliest collections of Ossianic poems 
 made in Scotland, was compiled between 15 12 and 1542 by Sir James 
 Macgregor. Sir James was a notary public at least as early as 151 1, 
 and Dean in 15 14. The frequent visits of James IV. to the Highlands, 
 and the suppression of the rising of Donald Owre, made the knowledge 
 of Gaelic a useful accomplishment ; and Ayala, the Spanish ambas- 
 sador, records that James could himself speak it. The dialect spoken 
 was still called " Ersch," or Irish, and until the extinction of the Lord- 
 ship of the Isles in 1545, "the Irish sennachies and bards were heads of a 
 school which included the West Highlands, and the Highland sennachies 
 were either of Irish descent, or, if of native origin, resorted to bardic 
 schools in Ireland for instruction in the language and accomplishments 
 of their art. Perhaps the last of them was Taedg, son of Aodh O'Coffry, 
 who is designed chief teacher of poetry in Erin and Alban, in the 
 record of his death, in 1554, in 'The Annals of Ulster.'"— Preface to 
 ' Book of Dean of Lismore.' 
 
 Makfadyane. Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis, 1. no. — Lord 
 Hailes's conjecture, that Makfadyane was used as one of the harshest 
 of Highland names, does not appear a sufficient explanation. The 
 reference is to the opponent of Wallace described by Blind Harry : — 
 
 ' ' This Makfadyane till Inglismen was suorn ; 
 Eduuard gaiff him bath Argill and Lorn ; " 
 
 — vii. 627, 628. 
 
 and the following line, that he was — 
 
 " Fetched far northwart in a nuke," 
 
ccxliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is explained by the lines of Blind Harry : — 
 
 • ' Makfad3ane fled, for all his felloun stryff, 
 On till a cave within a clyff of stayne, 
 Under Cragmor, with xv is he gayne ; " 
 
 where he was surprised and killed by Duncan of Lorn. His head was 
 brought to Wallace and Neil Campbell of Lochow : — 
 
 ' ' The lord Cambell syne hynt it by the har ; 
 Heich in Cragmor he maid it for to stand, 
 Steild on a stayne for honour off Irland." 
 
 — vii. 866-868. 
 
 This story is told by Blind Harry only, and not by any of the 
 Chroniclers. There was nothing improbable in Edward receiving aid 
 from a Scoto-Irish chief, as he did from the Earl of Ulster at the 
 battle of Stirling in 1296, and Blind Harry's story receives confir- 
 mation from the fact that a hill near the Pass of Brander is still called 
 Macfadyane's promontory. — Carrick's ' Life of Wallace/ p. 96. 
 
 Marcion. Flyting^ 1. 538.— A Roman Emperor of the East, 450-7. 
 
 Margaret Tudor. The Thistle and the Rose; To the Queen; Of 
 a Dance in the Quenis Chahnerj To the Queen-Dowager j and other 
 poems. — The life of this queen has been well written by Miss 
 Strickland. All that it is intended to notice here are the points in 
 her life and character which bear on the life and poems of Dunbar. 
 The eldest daughter of Henry VII., the Welsh Tudor who claimed 
 to represent the House of Lancaster, and Elizabeth of York, she 
 was born at Westminster, 29th November 1489, so was seventeen 
 years younger than James IV., and twenty-nine years younger than 
 Dunbar. While an infant, projects were already set on foot to 
 betroth her to James IV., but he was then occupied with other love- 
 affairs. She was brought up along with her brothers Arthur and 
 Henry, but had no taste for letters. The death of Arthur, Prince of 
 Wales, in 1501, made her a more eligible match, and the death 
 of Margaret Drummond in 1502 removed the last obstacle to it. 
 
 Negotiations, begun some years before by Fox, Bishop of Durham, 
 and the Earl of Bothwell, were brought to a point in 1501, when 
 Blackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow, and Bothwell were sent to 
 London to arrange the terms of the marriage treaty ; and the espousals 
 were celebrated at Richmond on 24th June 1502. Dunbar's poem in 
 praise of London, recited at the banquet given by the Mayor to the 
 Ambassadors on Christmas Day 1502, makes no personal allusion to 
 Margaret. 
 
 Anticipating the time fixed by the treaty, Margaret, attended by 
 Lord and Lady Surrey and a large suite, and, contrary to his usual 
 parsimony, munificently furnished by her father with the trousseau of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxlv 
 
 a bride, and with the parting gift of a Book of Hours commending 
 "her loving father to her prayers," left Richmond on i6th June 1503. 
 She reached the Border before the end of July. On August 3d she 
 was met at Dalkeith by James, who showed the ardour of a young, and 
 the ceremonious courtesy of an older, lover. The marriage was cele- 
 brated at Holyrood on the 8th of August, and was succeeded, as it had 
 been preceded, by amusements of all kinds — hunting and jousting, 
 dancing, singing, and plays. " The Thistle and the Rose " was written 
 by Dunbar to celebrate the joyful event. Despite his attentions, 
 Margaret did not take kindly to James. Young, the Somerset Herald, 
 in his minute official account of the ceremonies, says she was " merry." 
 But a letter to her father, sent by one of her ladies who returned to Eng- 
 land, and who was to give him more of her thoughts, tells a different 
 tale. She complains petulantly of Surrey's influence with the king 
 that no attention is paid to her chamberlain, "who would speak 
 better for her part ; " and adds a postscript in her own hand, " with 
 a wish I were with your Grace now and many times more." Her 
 principal request was to show favour to her footman Thomas, who 
 had been a servant of her mother. She probably shared the opin- 
 ion of her attendants, who admired the manhood or courage more 
 than the manners of the Scotch. The wayward character of the girl 
 of scarcely fourteen called on to be a wife and queen is strikingly 
 brought out in this letter. Her too early marriage had the unfortunate 
 result of the death of her children soon after birth. It was not till 
 1 5 12 that she bore the heir who succeeded to the crown. Her own 
 life was often in jeopardy. But if we may accept the evidence of 
 Dunbar's poems, as she grew older she took part with relish in the 
 amusements, sometimes not of a refined character, of the Court, and 
 showed her appreciation of the poet's part in them by pleading for him 
 with the king. He calls her " his advocate both fair and sweet," and 
 expresses a wish that the king listened more to her counsels. James 
 did not prove a faithful husband. Lady Jane Kennedy, daughter of 
 the Earl of Cassilis, succeeded Margaret Drummond as his chief 
 mistress. In a letter from Margaret to Henry VI 1 1., just before his 
 fatal expedition which ended at Flodden, she says : " And we lak 
 nathing ; oure husband is ever the langir the bettir to us, as knawis 
 GodP This perhaps expressed her feelings at that time, but her object 
 in writing was to make her brother feel somewhat ashamed of with- 
 holding the jewels left her by her father. Still, it is possible that the 
 birth of the future James V., and the knowledge that she was to be his 
 guardian should anything befall her husband, improved the relations 
 between James IV. and Margaret. Her first child, a girl, was born on 
 loth February 1506, and died on 17th February 1507. It was between 
 these dates that James made a pilgrimage to St Ninians, to pray for 
 her recovery ; and after it she herself went to the same shrine to offer 
 thanks. But the king had used his pilgrimage to visit Lady Jane 
 
ccxlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Kennedy. The kind of diversions going on at Court is indicated by 
 entries in the Treasurer's Accounts : — 
 
 " Feb. i6. Item to Wantonness, that sang to the king, . xiiijs 
 Item to Wantonness, that the king fechit and 
 
 gert her sing in the Queen's chalmer, . . xiiijs." 
 
 If the conjecture founded on the date of Fastern's Eve, which fell 
 this year on i6th February, be correct, and Dunbar then wrote his 
 " Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis," we can understand why he chose 
 such a subject for his muse, and appreciate the boldness of the Court 
 poet. Probably the last persons to suppose that any reflection on 
 their conduct was intended, were James and his courtiers. 
 
 The round of amusements still went merrily on. In June 1507, the 
 king gave the tournament in honour of Black Elen, the Moor. This 
 was probably thought a piece of great fun by the young courtiers and 
 the royal parasites. But in truth it made tournaments ridiculous, and 
 degraded the king and those who took part in it, as Dunbar hints 
 in his poem. 
 
 The year 1508 ran a similar course. At Easter, James made his 
 usual visit to St Ninians, and to Lady Jane Kennedy. In June 
 there was jousting before the queen in Edinburgh, when the wild 
 knight who won the prize turned out to be James in disguise. An 
 embassy from England, of which Dr West was the chief, came to 
 remove complaints which James had made as to the conduct of his 
 father-in-law ; and another from France, of which D'Aubigny was the 
 head, came to consult with James on behalf of Louis XII. The object 
 of the former was to prevent, that of the latter to obtain, the renewal 
 of the league with France. The queen's name appears at one point of 
 these diplomatic intrigues. The English ambassador found the de- 
 tention of the Earl of Arran in England an obstacle to his persuading 
 James to break with France. Sir Patrick Hamilton, Arran's brother, 
 according to West, had reported to the queen that Arran was well 
 treated by Henry, but had told the opposite to the king. The Scotch, 
 both nobles and commons. West reports, were inclined to favour 
 France. Only the king himself, the queen, and Forman, the Bishop 
 of Moray, were on the English side. But the astute diplomatist was 
 deceived in his estimate, and we cannot entirely rely on what he states. 
 James, as the event proved, really leant towards France. The Bishop 
 of Moray was his chief adviser in hurrying on, four years later, the 
 English war. Whether Margaret really supported her brother, we 
 cannot be quite sure. Probably she did ; but if so, her influence 
 with her husband was overruled. In this year the series of Dun- 
 bar's poems were printed which included the Ballad on Aubigny, 
 who came to Scotland in May and died in the following year, and the 
 " Lament for the Makaris " who were dead or dying. Death was 
 busy. On the 22d April of the next year, 1509, her father, Henry VII., 
 died, and soon after her grandmother, the Countess of Richmond. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxlvii 
 
 In autumn she bore a prince, named Arthur, in memory of her brother ; 
 but the sickly child died in July 15 ii, and its mother was also "sore 
 vexit with sickness." In August she went on a pilgrimage to St 
 Duthac's at Tain, and took the opportunity of visiting Aberdeen. 
 Dunbar was in her suite, and celebrated her reception by the poem, 
 " Blyth Aberdein, thow beriall of all tounis." On nth April 1512, she 
 gave birth at Linlithgow to her child, who lived to be the future 
 king. 
 
 The accession of Henry VIII. changed the relations between the 
 two countries. England now had a young king ambitious of the 
 honours of war. James was not disposed to refuse him the oppor- 
 tunity. A series of petty quarrels of the kind Henry VII. had 
 succeeded in laying were fostered by both monarchs into an open 
 rupture. Although an embassy under Lord Dacre and Dr West 
 was sent to try if possible to detach James from the French league, 
 they soon found it was a vain effort. One of these quarrels was 
 about the jewels Henry VII. had left his daughter. At a meeting 
 with the queen on 4th May she asked, as soon as the ambassadors 
 were introduced, " If her legacy had been sent ? " West replied, " Yes ; 
 if the king would promise to keep the treaty of peace." " And not 
 else ? " she rejoined. " No," replied West ; " and if the King of Scotland 
 persists in war, the King of England will not only keep it, but take the 
 best towns in Scotland." Margaret's answer to this speech was never 
 spoken, fo;r the king came into her room, and the conversation was 
 interrupted. Both countries were actively preparing for war. James 
 had been busy with making gunpowder for some time ; and Henry, 
 who had succeeded in gaining the Pope as well as the Emperor as 
 allies, was collecting his troops for the French war. He sailed on ist 
 June, and Catharine of Aragon, and Lord Surrey who was left behind 
 to defend the Borders, were zealous in mustering and equipping the 
 necessary forces. West was again, in spring 15 13, in Edinburgh, when 
 he saw or heard of little else than the victualling of ships and the mount- 
 ing of guns. He could get no definite answer from James to any of his 
 requests except for leave to go home. Before he went, he paid a visit 
 to Margaret at Linlithgow, on Sunday the loth of June. She showed, as 
 might be expected, a more favourable disposition than her husband, 
 said nothing about the jewels, and remarked that she was right sorry 
 James would not promise to keep the peace with England, " for now 
 her brother was in the right, and her husband in the wrong." So at 
 least West reported to Henry. The precise feelings of Margaret at 
 this juncture are not quite certain. In a letter written two days before 
 her interview with West, she had taunted her brother about the jewels, 
 expressing her regret that so much fuss had been made about them, 
 and her confidence that her husband would recompense her for their 
 loss. But the belief in Scotland was that she was against the war. 
 Pitscottie says she warned James of its danger. It was even rumoured 
 
ccxlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that the strange apparition at Linlithgow Kirk was of her contrivance, 
 to deter him by playing on his superstitious feelings. James, in 
 spite of all warnings and the advice of his most prudent counsellors, 
 left Linlithgow about the end of July, mustered his troops at the 
 Boroughmuir of Edinburgh, and marching south met Surrey, and 
 fell at Flodden on 9th September. According to tradition, Margaret 
 watched his departure from one of the towers of Linlithgow, which still 
 bears her name. Before leaving he made a will by which she was 
 named tutor of their infant so long as she remained a widow, and gave 
 her an order for a large sum, the last subsidy of the French Court. 
 She gave birth to a posthumous son, the Duke of Ross, on 20th April 
 1514 ; but before her year of mourning was over, she privately married 
 at the Chapel of Kinnoul, on 6th August 15 14, the young Earl of Angus. 
 Dunbar was probably one of the Scotchmen who had been averse to 
 the war, and the queen had been more his friend than the king. She 
 was still only twenty-three years old, and a second marriage was not 
 unnatural, perhaps politic. Still, we cannot but regret that Dunbar 
 should have written the poem beginning 
 
 " O lusty flour of 3owth, benyng and bricht," 
 in which he describes her as 
 
 " 3ung brekand blosum, 3it on the stalkis grene," 
 and exhorts her 
 
 Faid nocht with weping thy visage fair of hew ; 
 
 O lufsum lusty lady, wyse and trew. 
 Cast out all cair, and comfort do incress, 
 
 Exyll all sichand, on thy scherwand raw ! 
 Dewoyd langour, and leif in lustiness." 
 
 His name is not attached to it in the Bannatyne MS., but the style is 
 his, and it is difficult to differ from Mr Small, who attributes it to him. 
 It was evidently written not long after Flodden, and before the 
 marriage with Angus was declared. The consequences of her rash- 
 ness speedily followed. She was deprived of all share in the govern- 
 ment by the nobles, who disliked the preference shown for the young 
 and ambitious Angus, and summoned the Duke of Albany from 
 France to assume the regency. He forced her to give up the custody 
 of her children, and to fly to England, where she gave birth at Har- 
 bottle, on 7th October 15 15, to Margaret Douglas, afterwards Lady 
 Lennox, mother of Darnley, the ill-starred youth in whom flowed the 
 dregs of the Tudor blood. She was well received by her brother, 
 but soon quarrelled with her husband, and, returning to Scotland in 
 1 5 17, entered into relations with the Duke of Albany, which caused 
 scandal, for his wife was still living, but seem to have been really due 
 to the fact that he was more favourable to the divorce on which she had 
 set her heart than her brother, who reserved for himself that remedy 
 for an unhappy marriage. Her persistency, and the influence of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccxlix 
 
 Albany, at last gained her end, but not till 1528. She soon found a 
 third husband in Henry Stewart, created Lord Methven — a match not 
 more fortunate than those which preceded it ; and she again wished a 
 divorce. She died of palsy at Methven on 25th November 1541. Her 
 dying request to her son James V. was, that he should rely on her 
 divorced husband Angus. But this latter period of her life lies outside 
 that of Dunbar, who does not once allude to her after 15 14. His hopes 
 in her had been disappointed, as much as in her husband. The poet's 
 judgment of character, usually so acute, seems to have been blinded by 
 the presence of royalty. He knew well and expressed boldly the 
 corruption of the Court, but even he had not foreseen the pitiable end, — 
 the king's death at Flodden when still in the prime of life, and the 
 premature old age of the fair girl he had welcomed as queen. The 
 tragedies of Scotland have not been written for the stage, but acted in 
 history. 
 
 Mary Magdalene. Of the Resurrection^ 1. 5. 
 
 Mary Salame or Salome. Of the Resurrection^ 1. 7. — Daughter of 
 Joseph, the husband of the Virgin. 
 
 Mary, The Virgin. Hymns in her honour^ pp. 269 and 272. — See 
 Ann, St. 
 
 Maxentius. Fly ting f 1. 538. — The son of Maximian, and one of 
 the rivals of Constantine, who defeated him at Saxa Rubra, near 
 Rome, in 312, when he was drowned in the Tiber at the Milvian 
 Bridge. He is represented by Roman writers as a monster of 
 rapacity, cruelty, and lust. Wyntoun describes him : — 
 
 " In Rome that tyme a tyrand 
 Cruell and austere was regnand 
 That had to name Maxentius. 
 
 He put to death Saynct Katarine, 
 That glorious and that pious virgin." 
 
 — i. p. 391. 
 
 Mercurius. Flyting^ 1. 490. — Mercury, the messenger from the 
 gods to men, and the god of merchants and of thieves, to whom magic 
 powers were attributed by the Roman popular belief. But what is 
 " the great eclipse " referred to in 1. 489 1 
 
 Merser. Lament^ 1. 73. — Several persons of this name are men- 
 tioned in the Treasurer's Accounts, with the Christian names of James, 
 Peter, and William, who received grants of dress or money from the 
 king between 1494 and 1503. There is also an Andrew Merser, one 
 of the grooms of the chamber from 1503 to 1508. But whether any of 
 
ccl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 these is the poet referred to by Dunbar is uncertain. Sir David Lind- 
 say also mentions the poet Merser in the lines — 
 
 ' ' Quintyn, Merser, Rowl, Henryson, Hay, and Holland, 
 Thocht thay be deid their libels bene levand, 
 Quhilks to rehearse maketh readeris to rejose." 
 
 — Lindsay's Works, vol. i. p. 285. 
 
 Only one of Merser's poems has survived, entitled " Perrell in Para- 
 mours," printed in Hailes's 'Ancient Scottish Poems,' p. 156, and in 
 Irving's ' History of Scottish Poetry,' p. 203. 
 
 Mure. Coittplaint against Mure. — It has not been discovered who 
 this poet was who had dared to tamper with Dunbar's verses. But as 
 Dunbar, in the concluding stanza, consigns him to the company of 
 Cuddy Rig, the Dumfries Fool, he was probably a worthless and envious 
 bard who used this means to get Dunbar into trouble with the Lords 
 he represented him as satirising. 
 
 Murray, Earl of Dunbar. Flyting^ 1. 386.— Dunbar, the Earl 
 of Murray of the second creation. Agnes, the daughter of Randolph, 
 Earl of Murray of the first creation, married Patrick, ninth Earl of 
 Dunbar and March, and on the death of her brother at Homildon in 
 1347 became Countess, and her husband in her right Earl, of Murray. 
 Her eldest son George was tenth Earl of Dunbar and March, and her 
 second son John became Earl of Murray, who married Marjory, 
 daughter of Robert \\. Sir Alexander Dunbar of Westfield, Sheriff 
 of Moray or Elgin, was descended from this Earl. His eldest son, 
 Sir James Dunbar I. of Westfield, succeeded to the sheriffdom, 
 which became hereditary in his family. He died in 1505, and left a 
 son. Sir James Dunbar H., who died in 1539. One of these was the 
 Dunbar of Westfield, knight. Could we be sure which, it would help 
 to fix the date of " The Flyting." Probably the first is intended. 
 
 MUSGRAEFFE, Mrs. Of a Dance in the Quenis Chahner, 1. 26. — 
 This was one, probably the principal, of the ladies in Queen Margaret's 
 suite who accompanied her from England, and remained in Scotland. 
 She was the wife of Sir John Musgrave, and is usually styled in the 
 accounts " The Lady Maistress," either because she was wife of a 
 knight, or perhaps because she held the office of Mistress of the 
 Queen's Wardrobe. She received a fee of ;^i3, 6s. 8d. English = ^46, 
 13s. 4d. Scots, half-yearly, besides many special payments. On 21st 
 February 1 507, for bringing the news of the birth of a prince to the king, 
 she was given 100 unicorns = £()o Scots, and a cup of silver. She 
 appears last in the Accounts in 15 13. The suggestion which has been 
 based on this line in the poem, that Dunbar was really in love with her, 
 is thought not to be well founded, for reasons stated in the Introduc- 
 tion. May her husband have been a relation of Giles Musgrave, 
 handed down to infamy in the poem of "Flodden Field," who 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cell 
 
 deceived James as to the movements of the English, in order to induce 
 him to come down the hill and fight on the plain ? — 
 
 " Giles Musgrave was a guileful Greek, 
 And friend familiar with the king, 
 Who said, Sir King, if you do seek 
 To know the Englishmen's meaning, 
 
 Your marches they mean for to sack, 
 
 And borders fair to harry and burn, 
 Wherefore it's best that we go back, 
 
 From such intent them for to turn. 
 This Musgrave was a man of skill, 
 
 And spake thus for a policy. 
 To cause the king come down the hill, 
 
 That so the battle tried might be." 
 
 — " Flodden Field," Weber's edition, 1. 1869 et seq. 
 
 NORRAY, Sir Thomas. Of Sir Thotnas Norray. — Thomas Norrie 
 or Norray, one of the king's fools, frequently mentioned in the 
 Treasurer's Accounts. In August 1503 he received a doublet of brige 
 satin and a pair of yellow carsey (kersey) hose. In April 1504, a coat 
 of yellow and black camelot, a doublet of brige satin, and a pair of red 
 and yellow carsey hose, also a coat of the same materials and colours, 
 and a doublet of grey Milan fustian. In May 1505 there is a payment 
 of ^3, los. " to the wife quhair Norrie lay sick," and on 23d July " for 
 ane horss to Norrie, ;^3." In August of the same year he went with 
 the king to Whithorn, and when the king went north, los. was paid to 
 him. It was probably after this northern expedition of the king to 
 Ross and Moray, in which Norray had accompanied him, that this 
 poem in his honour was written. On 24th March 15 12 he received 56s. 
 " at his passage to Sanct James in Elsinore ; and on 5th August " ane 
 pair schone, price i6d." In several of these entries he is styled Sir 
 Thomas Norrie," and it may be doubted whether this was in derision, 
 for which the Treasurer's Accounts do not seem an appropriate place. 
 More probably the king in some festive moment had actually knighted 
 him, just as he held a tournament in honour of the Blackamore lady. 
 Or it is just possible that Norray had performed some trifling exploit 
 on the field (which here Dunbar laughs at by exaggerating), that jus- 
 tified the king in knighting him. This would give more point to 
 Dunbar's poem, in which he " crowns him lord of every fule," and 
 would also explain the satire on chivalry which was implied in making 
 a fool a knight. The unexpected line, "that of a high renowned 
 knicht he wants nothing but bells," is as if to say a knight-errant as 
 well as a fool should carry bells. The number of these fools at the 
 Scottish Court at this period whose names Laing has collected from 
 the Accounts is extraordinary, and seems to show they were more 
 appreciated in Scotland even than in other countries. The following 
 list is not exhaustive, for there were " gestours " besides : John Bute, 
 
 <1 
 
cclii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and John Bute's man ; Curry, and Law, Curry's man ; Spark ; John 
 Wallace ; Joly John, the English Fool ; Hamilton ; John Rouch ; Jok, 
 the Dundee Fool ; another Jok, the Aberdeen Fool ; Cuddy Rig, the 
 Dumfries Fool ; Sir William Murray's Fool ; Quhissil Gibbon in 
 Falkland ; and Bille Hoes, — all in the reign of James IV. Some of 
 them were no doubt naturals — the village fool of later times, living 
 on alms ; but others were shrewd fellows passing off their wisdom as 
 folly, such as Jok the " fule " referred to in " The Testament of Mr 
 Andro Kennedy," who acquired corn and cattle, gold and land, and 
 " bleris my lordis E " by feigning to be foolish. 
 
 Olibrius. Flyting, 1. 540.— Olibrius is Olybrius, the President of 
 the East, who caused St Margaret, the Christian daughter of a heathen 
 priest at Antioch in Syria, to be beheaded in the year 275, because 
 she refused to renounce Christianity. According to one form of the 
 legend, Olybrius called in the aid of Satan, who, in the shape of a 
 dragon, swallowed Margaret alive ; but she by a miracle extricated 
 herself. The legend is contained in Barbour — ' Legenden Sammlung,' 
 Horstmann, vol. ii. p. i. St Margaret was held in special reverence as 
 the type of the virgin martyr, and her murderer accordingly in special 
 detestation. 
 
 Pharo. FlyttJig, 1. 530. — Kennedy represents Pharaoh, King of 
 Egypt, as Dunbar's father. The mythical descent of the Scotch kings 
 from Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh, made the poet familiar with his 
 name. 
 
 Pluto. Flyting^ 1. 535. — The god of the infernal regions is made 
 by Kennedy the head of the kin or name of Dunbar, following out the 
 fanciful etymology of Dunbar as derived from " Deulbere." 
 
 POLLEXEN. Gladethe thoue Queyne of Scottis regioim, 1. 11. — 
 Polyxena, daughter of Priam, whose beauty, according to the later ver- 
 sions of the story of Troy, led to the death of Achilles. As Dunbar 
 here praises Queen Margaret as " of port surmounting Pollexen of 
 Troy," so Lydgate, in his " Life of Our Lady," from which this compari- 
 son may be taken, had praised the Virgin as surpassing Polyxena in 
 beauty. The story of Polyxena is told in the fragment of Barbour's 
 Troy Booke (MS. Camb. KK., and Douce, 148), and Horstmann, 
 ' Legenden Sammlung,' vol. ii. p. 256 et seq. The common sources of 
 poetic comparison were not so numerous in that age as in ours, and 
 the " Tale of Troy," the " Romance of Alexander the Great," and the 
 Arthurian cycle of poems, will be found to furnish most of those of 
 Dunbar, whose knowledge of classical literature seems to have been 
 limited. Aristotle, Homer, and Cicero (Tullius) are the only classical 
 authors he names. — See Homer. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ccliii 
 
 PUTTIDEW. Flyting^ 1. 541. — What form of the Devil's name is 
 meant by this is not known. 
 
 Pylat. Flyting^ 1. 524.— Pontius Pilate. 
 
 QUHENTYNE, or QuiNTYNE, or QuiNTiNG SCHAW. — This now rare 
 but formerly common name of Quintyn occurs in several places in 
 Dunbar's poems. In the " Flyting," 11. 34 and 131, there is a reference 
 by Kennedy to 
 
 " My cousing Quintene and my commissar," 
 
 who compiled, along with Kennedy, a poem in their own praise (see 
 1. 3), which led Dunbar to send his part of the "Flyting" to his 
 friend Sir John the Ross. In the poem " Of Sir Thomas Norray," 
 1. 36, Dunbar rebukes Quhentyne for disparaging Norray. In " The 
 Lament for the Makaris," 1. 86, Quintyne Schaw is mentioned : — 
 
 ' ' And he has now tane, last of aw, 
 Gud gentill Stobo et Quintyne Schaw." 
 
 Probably these are the same person. Shaw is an Ayrshire family, and 
 Quhentyne Schaw seems to have been the son of John Schaw of Haily, 
 in that county, who received a charter to that estate on 20th June 1489 
 as his father's heir. John Schaw had been one of the ambassadors 
 who negotiated the marriage of James III. with Margaret of Denmark 
 in 1467, and a relationship between the Shaws and the Kennedys, also 
 an Ayrshire family, is highly probable. Quhentyne Schaw is referred to 
 in a suit before the Lords Auditors on 5th June 1479, when he appeared 
 as procurator for his brother William ('Acta Auditorum,' p. 61) ; and 
 on 19th March 1479, decree was given against him for at the suit 
 of Margaret Lamb, widow of Alexander Halyburton {ibid.,'^. 81). He 
 is frequently mentioned in the Treasurer's Accounts between 14th 
 April 1489 and 8th July 1504 as a pensioner in receipt of ^10 a-year, 
 and also as getting a gown and other articles of dress. Although 
 he is not stated to have held any office, these are just the same 
 kind of rewards as were given to Dunbar himself and other poets of 
 the Court. The only poem which has come down with his name 
 is one entitled " Advyce to the Courtiers," in the Maitland MS., and 
 printed by Pinkerton in his ' Early Scottish Poems.' Gavin Douglas, 
 in the Palice of Honour," refers to 
 
 " Quintyn with ane huttock on his heid," 
 
 along with Kennedy and Dunbar ; and Sir David Lyndsay also names 
 him amongst the Scottish poets. 
 
 QUHETTANE Clan. Of Sir Thomas Norray, 1. 16.— Clan Chattan 
 or Quhele. This was the clan which fought the Clan Kay in the 
 famous combat on the North Inch of Perth, as described by Wyntoun 
 
ccliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and other chroniclers, and by Scott in the ' Fair Maid of Perth.' They 
 are supposed now to be represented by the Macphersons or the 
 Mackintoshes, but the identity with either is not proved. 
 
 Rauf Colzard. Schir, ^it remernbir as of befoir, 1. 33. — " Ralph 
 the Collier," an old Scottish poem, referred to also by Gavin Douglas 
 in the " Palice of Honour " — 
 
 ' ' I saw Raf Collzear with his thrawin brow " — 
 
 and in the " Complaint of Scotland," Murray's edition, p. 63. It was 
 printed at St Andrews by Lekprevik in 1572, and there is a reprint 
 from the unique copy of this edition in the Advocates' Library in 
 Laing's * Select Remains,' p. 9. It relates an adventure of Charle- 
 magne with a collier. Irving gives an outline of the story (' History 
 of Scottish Poetry,' pp. 88-92). 
 
 Reid, Sir John. See Stobo. 
 
 Rig, Cuddy. Complaint against Mure, 1. 24. — He is here styled 
 the "Dumfries fule"; and in the Treasurer's Accounts for nth Sep- 
 tember 1504, when the king was at Dumfries, with, amongst others, 
 four Italian minstrels in his suite, Cuddy Rig appears to have taken 
 " the tabroun " of a tabroner who accompanied the king, and who was 
 given 28s. in recompense for the instrument by the king's command. 
 He is referred to in the same accounts on 17th September 1504, 13th 
 June 1508, 2d January 15 12, and 28th February 15 12, as receiving 
 small payments. The "yellow and red" in the poem was the custom- 
 ary livery of the fool. Dunbar ironically describes Mure as worthy to 
 receive this livery at Yule, along with a bauble to play with. Cuddy 
 Rig seems to have been one of the lowest of the fraternity of fools. 
 
 Robin under Bewche. Of Sir Tho?nas Norray, 1. 25.— Robin 
 Hood. See Robyn Hude. 
 
 ROBYN Hude. Ane Littil Inter lud of the DroicMs part of the 
 Play,\. 142. — "Robin under the boughs," the "greenwood tree" of 
 the English ballads, is Robin Hood. The followers of the Droich 
 who plays the part of Wealth in the Interlude, and proclaims himself 
 a giant, are humorously told to put on the green livery of Robin 
 Hood. Robyn Hude, first noticed in "Piers Plowman," 1377, is 
 referred to (about 1420) by Wyntoun, and (1450) by Bower in his 
 addition to Fordoun {sub anno 1266), who mentions the popularity of 
 his songs and of the festival in his honour. Major, writing in 1505, 
 says all Britain sang the songs of his exploits. " A Littel Gest of Robin 
 Hude" was one of the prints of the press of Chepman and Myllar 
 in 1508, at the same time as Dunbar's seven poems, so must have 
 been well known to Dunbar. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclv 
 
 Mr Ritson, in his notes and illustrations to 'The Robin Hood 
 Ballads,' remarks that English historians pass over Robin Hood 
 because of his enmity to the ecclesiastics, but he has collected the 
 following references to him by Scottish historians. Bower, in his 
 addition to John of Fordoun's Chronicle, speaking of Robin Hood, 
 Little John, and their accomplices, says : " Of whom the foolish vulgar 
 in comedies and tragedies make lewd entertainment, and are delighted 
 to hear the jesters and minstrels sing them above all other ballads." 
 He calls Robin " ille famosissimus siccarius" {sub anito 1266). John 
 Major writes : " Circa hsec tempora {i.e.^ Richardi primi) ut auguror, 
 Robertus Hudus Anglus et parvus Joannes, latrones famatissimi, in 
 nemoribus latuerunt, solum opulentorum hominum bona diripientes. 
 Nullum nisi eis invadentem vel resistentem pro suarum rerum tuitione 
 ceciderunt. c sagittarios ad pugnam aptissimos Robertus latrociniis 
 aluit, quos CCCC viri fortissimi invadere non audebant. Rebus hujus 
 Roberti gestis tota Britannia in cantibus utitur. Fceminam nullam 
 opprimi permisit, nec pauperum bona surripuit, verum eos ex abbatum 
 bonis ablatis opipare pavit. Viri rapinam improbo, sed latronum 
 omnium humanissimus et princeps erat." — ' De Gestis Scotorum,' 
 iv. 56. 
 
 " The ' Lytill Gest,' " Ritson further notes, " is probably the oldest 
 thing upon the subject we now possess ; but a legend apparently of 
 the same species was once extant of perhaps a still earlier date," — 
 of which he gives a fragment from a volume of old printed ballads 
 in the British Museum (Ritson, 'Robin Hood,' 2d ed., 1823, p. Ivi). 
 Hector Boece gives a tradition, according to which " the lance of lytle 
 Johne remains in great admiration of the pepill in the kirke of Pette in 
 Murray land ; " and he also refers to " that waithman Robin Hude, 
 with his fallow, litile Johne, of quhom ar mony fabillis and mony 
 sportes sung among the vulgar pepill." 
 
 But the most curious, and perhaps the earliest, notice of Robin 
 Hood's name is in a rhyming Latin poem in the British Museum, 
 with the title, " Prioris Alnwicensis de bello Scotico apud Dumbarr, 
 tempore regis Edwardi I. dictamen sive rithmus Latinus, in quo de 
 Willelmo Wallasse, Scotico illo Robin Whood, plura sed invidiose 
 canit " (Ritson, p. xxxiv). The game of Robin Hood continued to 
 be a favourite diversion amongst the common people of Scotland even 
 after the Reformation. It was celebrated in the month of May, and it 
 was found necessary to repress it by statute. In 1561 a mob had to 
 be put down by arms by the magistrates of Edinburgh for attempting 
 to "make a Robin Hood"; and as late as 1592 the General Assembly 
 complained of the profanation of the Sabbath by the making of Robin 
 Hood plays (Arnot's ' History of Edinburgh,' p. 27). Scott in ' The 
 Abbot ' gives a lively description of the Robin Hood plays in Scotland, 
 and, Note iii. p. 194, quotes from Bishop Latimer's sixth sermon before 
 King Edward, " a very naive account of the manner in which, bishop 
 
cclvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as he was, he found himself compelled to give place to Robin Hood 
 and his followers." 
 
 Robin Hood was the hero of the popular, as Arthur was of the 
 chivalric, romance of the middle ages in Scotland, as well as in 
 England. The favourable view taken by Major of his character and 
 exploits deserves special notice. 
 
 Roger of Clekkinsklewch. Of Sir Tho7nas Norray^ 1. 26. — 
 Possibly " Clym of the Cleuch," the associate of " WiUiam of 
 Cloudesle" in the ballad, who rescued Allan Bell, their comrade, 
 when about to be executed at Carlisle (see Hazlitt, 'Ancient 
 Popular Poetry,' p. 131). If so,' Clym would be his by- or to- name, and 
 Roger his Christian name. Or Roger may have been one of Robin 
 Hood's good men, whose name has not been preserved in any of the 
 ballads which have come down to our time. — See Bell. 
 
 ^J Ross, Sir John the. Lament^ 1. 83 ; Flyting, 11. i and 39.— This 
 poet and friend of Dunbar was chosen by him as the correspondent to 
 whom he addressed the " Flyting." The designation is so peculiar, 
 that there appears little doubt that he is " John the Ross " to whom 
 20 unicorns were paid in February 1490, and who also received 
 another payment, of which the amount cannot be read in the 
 Treasurer's Accounts, on 21st April 1498. He may have been a 
 priest, and so received the courtesy title of " Sir," as was common in 
 the case of " the Pope's knights " at that time — and this is the conjec- 
 ture of Lord Hailes ; or a layman who had not in 1498 been yet 
 i knighted. If the latter is the correct surmise, it gives the date of the 
 " Flyting " as subsequent to 1498. There seems no ground for Mr 
 Chalmers's conjecture that he was the well-known Sir John Ross of 
 Montgrennan, the king's advocate of James III., who was forfeited for 
 siding with that king at Sauchie against James IV. Nor can he have 
 been Sir John Ross of Hawkhead, Sheriff of Linlithgowshire, 1479-83. 
 It is more probable that he was designed "the Ross" to distinguish 
 him from Ross of Montgrennan and Ross of Hawkhead. Perhaps he 
 had some connection with the shire of Ross, as the last entry in 1498 
 in the Treasurer's Accounts bears that the payment then made to him 
 was " to mak his expensis in Ros . . 
 
 ROWL of Aberdeen. La7nenf, 1. 77. — " It has been conjectured that 
 the Rowl of Aberdeen belonged to the same family as Thomas Rowl, 
 chief magistrate of Aberdeen 1416" — 'Bards of Bon Accord,' by 
 William Walker (Aberdeen : Edmond & Spark, 1887), P- I7- 
 
 Rowl of Corstorphine. Lament^ 1. 79. — There is a poem called 
 " Sir John Rowlis Cursing " in the Bannatyne MS. with the lines pre- 
 fixed — 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclvii 
 
 ' ' This tragedy is callit but dreid 
 Rowlis Cursing quha will it reid." 
 
 It is printed in Laing's 'Select Remains of the Ancient Poetry of 
 Scotland,' 2d ed., p, 211. But which, if either, of the two poets named 
 by Dunbar wrote it is not known, nor has any other poem or notice of 
 either Rowl been preserved. Perhaps the Rowl of Corstorphine is 
 called "Gentill Rowl of Corstorphine" to distinguish him from the 
 author of the " Cursing," to whom that epithet would not be appro- 
 priate. The " Cursing " refers to Alexander VI. as Pope, so must have 
 been written between 1492 and 1503. 
 
 Salamon = Solomon. Ballate against Evil Women, 1. 30. 
 
 Sampson. Ballate agai7tst Evil Women, p. 267, 1. 31. 
 
 SCHAw, QuiNTYNE. Lament^ 1. 86. — See Quhentyne. 
 
 SCHAW, Robert. Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer, 1. 8. — Robert 
 Schaw receives various sums in the Treasurer's Accounts between 1502 
 and 1508, and also gifts of dress, one of which was a gown of scarlet 
 lined with " birge satin." He appears to have been a Court physician 
 — perhaps the fashionable lady's doctor of the time — from the following 
 entries: "28th May 1504 — Item, to Master Robert Schaw be the 
 kingis command quhen he passit to Bothwell to the ladye lyand sick, 
 £7." "9th February 1504-5 — Item, to the said William (Fowler, 
 pottinger) for ane blude stane and three unce uther stuf for the Quene 
 for bleding of the neis [nose], after ane receipt of Master Robert Schaw, 
 22s." Like Damian, the Abbot of Tungland, he became a priest, and the 
 king gave at his first mass 10 French crowns = ;^7, on 14th May 1508. 
 There are three other doctors or physicians amongst Dunbar's portraits 
 — Damian, the quack doctor ; Andrew Kennedy, the drunken doctor ; 
 John Clerk, the illiterate doctor. Dunbar can have had no liking for 
 those who practised that calling in his day. — See Kennedy, Andrew. 
 
 SiMONES SONNES of Ouhynfell. Of Sir Thomas Norray^ 1. 29. 
 — The same family of freebooters is mentioned as the name of an old 
 song in "Cockelbie's Sow" (Laing's 'Select Remains of Ancient Scottish 
 Poetry,' p. 249, 1. 314), and were doubtless associates of Adam Bell, the 
 Robin Hood of northern England. Quhynfell is doubtless Whinfell, 
 part of Inglewood Forest, now a bare hilly tract four miles south 
 of Penrith, whose last remnants, " The Harts Horn Inn," — where 
 
 " Hercules killed Hart a Grise.i 
 And Hart a Grise killed Hercules," — 
 
 and " The Three Brothers," the giant survivors of its old oaks, have 
 
 1 /.^,, grais, or fat. 
 
cclviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now disappeared. It was in this forest that Adam Bell, Clym of the 
 Cleuch, and William of Cloudesle, pursued their venery. 
 
 " Then went they down into a land, 
 Thir noble archers three ; 
 Each of them slew a hart of grise, 
 The best that they could see." 
 
 — Percy's 'ReHques.' 
 
 — See Bell, and Robyn Hude. 
 
 Sinclair, Sir John. Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer^l. i. — 
 Sir John Sinclair of Dryden, one of the royal suite, seems to have been 
 specially attached to the queen's person, as he is called " the Quenis 
 knycht" in the poem. This might be supposed to refer to his being 
 one of those knighted at her marriage, but the entry in the Treasurer's 
 Accounts shows he was a knight before its date. He is mentioned in 
 the Treasurer's Accounts between 1490 and 1506. On 20th June 1501, 
 there was " giffin to the king himself that he playit at the rowbowlis 
 with the Prothonotar (Andrew Forman) and Schir John Sinclair, 56s." 
 In July 1503, he received a gift of clothes for the king's marriage. On 
 27th September 1504, the entry occurs — " That samyn nicht to the king 
 to play at the cartes with Sir John Sinclair, 10 French crowns and 
 tynt ^7." On 3d November 1506, " To Sir John Sinclair be the king's 
 command, ^28." This is the last mention of his name in the Records, 
 but his wife received gifts of ^10 on the New Year of 15 12 and 15 13. 
 He must, however, have been alive in April 15 13, for Dr West, the 
 ambassador of Henry VIII., mentions in a letter to the king on 13th 
 April : " On Sunday afternone I rode to Linlithgow, and came thider 
 by iiij of clok at afternone, and as sone as I was cumon her grace 
 (Queen Margaret) sent for me by Sir John Sincler, which brought me 
 to her grace." — Ellis, ' Original Letters,' first series, vol. i. p. 73. 
 
 Stewart, Bernard, Lord of Aubigny. The Ballad of Lord 
 Bernard Stewart, P- 59 ; Elegy on the Death of Bernard Stewart, p. 
 63. — Bernard or Berault Stewart, third Lord of Aubigny, was grand- 
 son of John Stewart of Dernely or Darnley, in Renfrewshire — the 
 branch of the Stewarts which received the title of Earl of Lennox in 
 1488. John Stewart of Darnley entered the service of France, and 
 became a captain of the Scots who fought for Charles VII., and formed 
 the nucleus of the Scots Guard. In return for his services he received 
 the fief of Aubigny in Berry, and was killed at the siege of Orleans in 
 1429. His third son John Stewart, second Lord of Aubigny, Captain 
 of the Scots Guard, and Chevalier of the Order of St Michael, died in 
 1482, and left, by his wife Beatrice d'Apeche, an only son, Bernard, 
 who succeeded to his father in 1483. He appears to have added the 
 Comte de Beaumont le Roger, in Normandy, to the estates of his 
 family by grant from Louis XI. (Normandie Illustrd). In 1484 Bernard 
 was sent by Charles VIII. as ambassador to Scotland, to renew the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclix 
 
 ancient league between France and Scotland, and succeeded in obtain- 
 ing its confirmation by Jame3 III. on 22d March 1484. 
 
 In 1485 he led the French auxiliaries who fought for Henry VII. at 
 Bosworth Field. His share in the victory is celebrated by Sir John 
 Beaumont in his poem on that battle : — 
 
 " Besides these soldiers born within this isle, 
 We must not of the part their French beguile, 
 Whom Charles for Harry's success did provide, — 
 A lord of Scotland, Bernard, was their guide ; 
 A blossom of the Stewart's happy line. 
 Which is on Britain's throne ordained to shine. 
 The sun, whose rays the heavens with beauty crown, 
 From his ascending to his going down 
 Saw not a braver leader in that age, 
 And Bosworth field must be the glorious stage 
 In which this northern eagle learns to fly, 
 And tries those wings which after bare him high, 
 When he beyond the snowy Alps renowned 
 Shall plant French lilies on Italian ground. 
 And cause the craggy Apennines to know 
 What fruits on Caledonian mountains grow." 
 
 In December 1493 he became Captain of the Scots Guard. In 
 1494 he was sent to Rome and other Italian states to support the 
 claims of Charles VIII., as heir of the house of Aragon, to the 
 kingdom of Naples. On his return, at Milan he received from 
 Charles, who now knew he must make good his claim by arms, a 
 command in the army ; and on the king's return in the following year, 
 he was left behind as lieutenant-general of the French forces. In that 
 year he won the great battle of Seminara over Ferdinand of Spain and 
 the great captain, Gonsalvo de Cordova. This victory gave possession 
 for a short time t-o the French of the kingdom of Naples ; so Dunbar 
 calls him, in the title of the ballad, " Conqueror of Naples." The ill- 
 health of D'Aubigny, from a fever contracted in the campaign, pre- 
 vented him from pushing his victory, and Gonsalvo de Cordova, along 
 with several Spanish commanders, escaped before the surrender of the 
 town of Seminara. This illness, and the chief rule of the conquered 
 kingdom being left in the hands of the young Monseigneur de Mont- 
 pensier, led to the decline of the French power, although Calabria, 
 in which D'Aubigny himself commanded with the title of Grand 
 Constable, was for a time retained. Philip de Comines contrasts the 
 two commanders in a few words : " Pur Chef y demeura (a Naples) 
 Mr. de Montpensier de la Maison de Bourbon, don chevalier et hardy 
 mais peu sage. II ne se levoit pas quHl ne fut fnidi : en Calabre 
 laissa Mr. d'Aubigny de la nation d'Ecosse, bon chevalier et sage, bon 
 et honorable, que fut Grand Connetable du royaumej et lui donna le 
 Roi le Comte d'Arci et le Marquisat de Spilazzo." No reference has 
 been found to a place called " Bonaffre " amongst D'Aubigny's titles. 
 
cclx 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The despatches of D'Aubigny were published under the title, * Lettres 
 escriptes par Monsieur d'Aubigny au roy nostre sire du camp de S. Leon 
 du xxi. jour de juing.' In 1496 Gonsalvo, having already gained some 
 places in Calabria, and D'Aubigny being still in feeble health, was allowed 
 to return by land to France, and the brief conquest of the kingdom of 
 Naples by the French was at an end. D'Aubigny continued in favour, 
 and received the Order of St Michael for his services. In the reign of 
 Louis XII. he was again sent as commander of the French forces to 
 Calabria, where he gained a second memorable victory over the 
 Spaniards, led by Hugo de Gonsalvo, at Terra Nuova in 1503. Paulus 
 Jovius, the historian of Gonsalvo de Cordova, attributes this victory to 
 the skill of D'Aubigny and the prowess of the Scottish men-at-arms, 
 who broke the ranks of the Spanish cavalry. D'Aubigny himself 
 showed great courage at the risk of his life. He was thrown from his 
 horse, and his helmet pulled off by some Spanish horsemen, who were 
 about to cut his throat when he was rescued by the troops of the 
 Prince of Salerno (P. Jovii ' Historia de Vita et Actis Gonsalvi de Cor- 
 dova,' vol. ii. p. 217). But soon after, on 21st April in the same year, 
 Hugo de Cordova, having recruited his army, defeated D'Aubigny near 
 Seminara, — " on the very same ground," says Guicciardini (' Historia 
 d'ltaha,' Book V.), "where, but a few years before, he had, with so 
 much glory, overcome Ferdinand and Gonsalvo ; so inconstant is 
 Fortune in dispensing her favours, and of so short a duration is a 
 course of prosperity." D'Aubigny retired to the fortress of Angertola, 
 but the Due de Nemours, the chief of the French army, having been 
 defeated and slain at Cerignola, he was compelled to surrender. 
 Jovius praises his magnanimity in making it one of the terms of the 
 surrender that all his company except himself should be set at liberty. 
 He adds : " D'Aubigny sharply reproved two young lords, his kinsmen, 
 for that more faintly than was fit for men — namely^ for their being 
 Scots7nen and of the blood-royal — they did bewail the unfortunate 
 success of the war ; not remembering that valiant men should never 
 be disheartened, but seek by a fresh endeavour of valour, revived and 
 grown invincible, to recover Fortune's favour." D'Aubigny was himself 
 soon released, and in 1507 went with the French king on his expedi- 
 tion against Geneva, and was present at Savona in June 1 507, where 
 Louis and Ferdinand of Spain vied with each other in chivalric 
 courtesy to his former foes. Gonsalvo de Cordova was the hero of 
 the day, but it is noted that the King of Spain visited D'Aubigny in 
 his own lodgings, where he was kept a prisoner by the gout. In the 
 next year D'Aubigny was a second time sent on an embassy to Scot- 
 land, where he arrived on 9th May 1508. The statement that he came 
 to Scotland on a similar mission in 1 504 is due to the inaccuracy of 
 Lindsay of Pitscottie as to dates, who places his embassy in 1504 and 
 not in 1 508. The Treasurer's Accounts show that in the former year 
 one of his servants had been sent to the Scottish Court, and that 
 James gave him a white horse as a present to his master in France. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclxi 
 
 When D'Aubigny, in person, came in 1508, he was received, as was 
 natural, with great respect by the king, who coveted the honours of 
 war, and with enthusiasm by the nation as their most renowned hero. 
 James made him sit at the royal table, styled him the Father of War, 
 and named him judge in the tournaments, which were the favourite 
 sport of the Scottish as of the French Court. But D'Aubigny was 
 again to prove the uncertainty of fortune. He seems never to have 
 shaken off the effects of the Calabrian fever, and suffered also from 
 gout. He died at Edinburgh before 8th June 1508, and was buried at 
 the kirk of Corstorphine. His will, and an inventory of his effects, have 
 been preserved (Stewart's ' Genealogy of the Stewarts,' p. 207). His 
 portrait was seen by Andrew Stewart at the Chateau D'Aubigny when 
 he visited it in 1788, and it may be hoped is still in the possession of 
 the Duke of Richmond, the representative of the house of Lennox. 
 He had married Anne de Maumont, by whom he left an only daughter, 
 Anne Stewart, who became the wife of her cousin, Robert Stewart, 
 second son of John, first Lord Darnley and Earl of Lennox. Bernard 
 Stewart had taken a vow when fighting in Italy to make a pilgrimage 
 to St Ninians, in Galloway, and James sent his heart there. Dunbar 
 had intended to write a longer poem to celebrate the exploits of 
 D'Aubigny {see 1. 84 of " The Ballad ") ; but this intention was frustrated 
 by his untimely death, and the eulogy was turned into an elegy, in 
 which the Scottish nation 
 
 " Intill his lyff quhom most he did affy," 
 
 are exhorted 
 
 " To pray for him, the flour of chavelrie." 
 
 What would Scotland not have given for the counsels of such a com- 
 mander on the field of Flodden? Brantome, than whom no writer 
 expresses better the military spirit of the age, includes amongst the 
 great captains whom Louis XII. trained "in his beautiful wars," "D'Au- 
 bigne, a Scot and great Lord, who did honour to his nation in such a 
 manner that some of our French annalists have styled him 'grand 
 Chevalier sans reproche; ' " but the gallant Bayard, his companion-in- 
 arms, has more commonly received that title. No contemporary of 
 Dunbar could better represent the Scot abroad than D'Aubigny, who 
 sustained the military fame of his countrymen in so many fields from 
 Bosworth to Seminara, and who formed a link in the chain of affec- 
 tion which attached the Scots to the French. He stands in marked 
 contrast to his cousin Albany. The latter represents the class of Scot- 
 tish emigrants who abandon, the former the class who never forget, the 
 soil from which they sprang. 
 
 Stewart, John, Duke of Albany. Ane Orisoun : quhen the 
 Governour past in France^ p. 235 ; We Lordis hes chosin a Chiftane 
 mervellus, p. 237. — John Stewart was the son of Alexander, second 
 son of James II., and third Duke of Albany. His father, forfeited for 
 
cclxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 intriguing with England against James III., took refuge in France, 
 where he married, as his second wife, Anne de la Tour, daughter of 
 Bertrand, Count of Auvergne. John, their only son, was born in 148 1, 
 and in 1485 succeeded his father, who was killed by the splinter of a 
 lance in a tournament. In 1505 he married his cousin Anne de la 
 Tour, Countess of Auvergne, and heiress of its large fiefs. On the 
 death of James IV. in 15 13, the Queen-Dowager became regent ; but 
 a convention of estates at Perth, at the instance of Elphinston, Bishop 
 of Aberdeen, and Lord Hume, the chamberlain, determined that 
 Albany should be summoned to govern the kingdom during the 
 minority. Henry VIII., jealous of the influence Albany was likely to 
 exercise, sent the Earl of Suffolk to France to prevent his return, but 
 Francis I. refused to detain him. Albany was slow in responding to 
 the invitation of the Scotch Estates ; but at last, on i8th May 1515, he 
 sailed from St Malo, and before the 22d landed in Scotland. He was 
 installed as regent in July, and declared protector of the kingdom till 
 the king reached his eighteenth year. He at once used his power to 
 curb the influence of the Douglases, depriving their adherents of 
 office, and putting several in ward. A threat to besiege Stirling 
 forced the queen to give up her children, the young king and his 
 brother the Duke of Ross. Margaret then fled to England, where she 
 was followed by her husband and Lord Hume. After the birth of Lady 
 Margaret Douglas at Harbottle on 7th October, she wrote to Albany 
 demanding the custody of her other children. The Scottish Council 
 replied that she had by her second marriage forfeited her rights, and 
 that the Estates had chosen Albany as regent. Angus, Hume, and 
 Arran thereupon entered into a league by which they pledged them- 
 selves to deliver the young princes, and to make no terms with Albany. 
 Dacre, the English warden, did all he could to assist them, by 
 fomenting Border raids and the quarrels of the nobles. " The Humes," 
 he wrote to Henry VIII., "are resolved to annoy the Duke, who is 
 well weary of the continued spoiling, burning, and slaughter in Scot- 
 land." Wolsey described Albany as " a coward, and a grievous 
 and wilful fool." But although his character was passionate and 
 impulsive, and he showed pusillanimity, if not cowardice, in war, the 
 English had underestimated him. At this time, as on other occa- 
 sions of his fife, he showed both prudence and vigour. He used con- 
 ciliatory language, though without effect, to induce Margaret and her 
 husband to return to Scotland. He seized Arran's castles, but promised 
 him a free pardon if he would submit, and so succeeded in detaching 
 him from the league. The death of the young Duke of Ross, towards 
 the close of the year, gave an opportunity for Margaret again to pour 
 forth her wrath against Albany, whom she accused of causing his death. 
 In the beginning of 15 16, Albany made a tour into England, to which 
 he sent an embassy. Angus and Hume now returned to Scotland, and 
 were allowed to reside on their estates, and on nth June the truce 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclxiii 
 
 with England was converted into a peace to endure till 15 17. Henry, 
 notwithstanding, addressed a letter to the Scottish Estates, requiring 
 them to dismiss Albany, which met with a decided refusal ; and 
 although Albany entered into a secret correspondence with Wolsey, 
 and offered to visit Henry VIII., this offer, probably only made to gain 
 time, and distrusted by Wolsey, was not accepted, and nothing came 
 of it. In the Parliament of September, Hume was condemned for 
 treason, and along with his brother beheaded in October — their heads 
 being fixed on the Tolbooth. In November, when the Parliament 
 again met, Albany obtained an Act bastardising his elder brother, a 
 son of his father's first marriage, and declaring himself next heir to the 
 kingdom. Almost immediately after this great concession to his vanity 
 or ambition, he astonished the Parliament by suddenly requesting leave 
 to return to France. He was at heart a Frenchman, and had been 
 requested by Francis I., whom he called his master, and with whom he 
 was on intimate terms, to return as soon as he could. This leave was 
 at first refused. His popularity in Scotland was waning, but it was 
 felt that his absence would leave the country without a head, and pro- 
 duce anarchy. He at last succeeded in procuring a reluctant assent 
 to his going for four months, by pleading the necessity of visiting his 
 wife and his French estates, and he sailed from Dumbarton on 7th 
 June 1 5 17. A council of regency was appointed, consisting of the two 
 archbishops, Foreman and Beaton, and four earls, Huntly, Argyle, 
 Angus, and Arran. Sir Antony d'Arcy de la Bastie, a French knight, 
 well known in Scotland from his prowess in the tournaments of James 
 IV., was appointed Warden of the East Marches, in succession to Hume, 
 and the fortresses of Dunbar, Dumbarton, and Inchgarvie were placed 
 in the hands of French garrisons. This attempt to divide the power 
 between the leading Scottish nobles and the French representative of 
 Albany did not, as might have been anticipated, succeed. The return 
 of Margaret to Scotland on 15th June added to the dissensions of the 
 unhappy country. Her husband, Angus, met her, but was coldly 
 received. They had quarrelled before, and soon again parted company. 
 She was not allowed to take any part in the government, or even to 
 visit her son. Towards the end of July, or beginning of August, De la 
 Bastie was murdered by Home of Wedderburn at Langton, in revenge 
 for the death of his chief and the appointment of the Frenchman to his 
 office. Home gloried in the deed, and carried the head of his victim 
 at his saddle-bow to his own house ; but the treachery of the deed, and 
 the chivalrous character of this victim to the feuds of Scotland, excited 
 general indignation. Arran was then appointed Warden, an important 
 office which Angus coveted. In spite of the protests of Francis I., no 
 effective steps were taken to punish the murderers; for although Home 
 and his brother were condemned, and Arran seized their fortresses, 
 they were soon afterwards pardoned. There was a practical surcease 
 both of the Courts and of Parliament, and a handful of nobles and 
 
cclxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 prelates governed, or rather misgoverned. They could not agree 
 amongst themselves. The nobles were jealous of each other. The 
 churchmen, to use Dunbar's words, "yearned for benefices." The 
 next few years were occupied with a contest for power between Angus 
 and Arran, into which the various feuds gradually merged. It was 
 during this period, probably in 15 17, that Dunbar wrote his poem, 
 " Ane Orisoun : quhen the Governour past in France." It is somewhat 
 general in phraseology, and there is no direct allusion to the murder of 
 De la Bastie. But its purport is to pray God to be the Protector of the 
 realm, left forlorn by the departure of Albany, and " in partyis all 
 devydit." Possibly the lines, 
 
 " Rew on our syn, befoir ^our sicht decydit ; 
 Spair our trespas, quhilk may nocht be expremit," 
 
 may be a guarded reference to the murden Albany had received full 
 powers, though out of Scotland, to conduct its foreign affairs ; and on 
 26th August 1 5 17 he concluded the important treaty of Rouen with the 
 Duke d'Alencon, by which France and Scotland made an offensive 
 and defensive alliance against England. He had great influence at the 
 Vatican, being connected by marriage with Leo X., and he used it 
 to obtain from the Pope the confirmation of the privileges of the Scotch 
 kingdom. A letter in name of the Scotch Estates, but really dictated 
 by Albany, was sent to the Pope in January 15 19, begging him to use 
 his influence with Francis I. to procure Albany's return to Scotland. 
 In June of the following year he went to Rome, and while there, 
 Margaret, whose quarrel with Angus had now become acute, procured 
 from him the aid her brother refused in prosecuting her suit for a 
 divorce. After he went back to Paris, his agent continued to defray 
 the expenses of the suit. In return, she deserted for a time the 
 English interest, and did what she could to favour his recall to Scot- 
 land. The Scotch people generally had become every year more 
 desirous that Albany should resume the office of regent. The dis- 
 sensions between the parties of the Hamiltons, with Arran at their 
 head, and the Douglases, of whom Angus was the chief, had increased 
 to the dimensions of a petty but exasperating civil war, which dis- 
 tracted the nation. In 15 18 Arran, whose power chiefly lay in the 
 west, had tried to force an entrance into Edinburgh, to secure the office 
 of provost, but had been repulsed with bloodshed. In April 1520 he 
 made another attempt, which ended in the street fight of Cleanse-the- 
 Causeway. The partisans of Angus were again successful ; those of 
 Arran were killed or driven out of the town. One of the slain was 
 Sir Patrick Hamilton, the brother of Arran. Angus remained master 
 of the capital, but he failed in the following August to surprise his 
 rival at Stirling, and the Hamiltons still maintained their predomi- 
 nance in the western shires. It was shortly after this, probably, 
 that Dunbar wrote his last poem to which we can attach a date. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclxv 
 
 lines refer to the absence of Albany for more than three 
 
 " We Lordis hes chosin a chiftane mervellus, 
 That left hes ws in grit perplexitie, 
 And him absentis, with wylis cautelus, 
 3eiris and dayis mo than two or thre." 
 
 Though nominally addressed to Albany, it is not likely to have been 
 sent him, for it does not disguise his faults. It was written to be read in 
 Edinburgh, and expresses the feeling of its citizens. It refers to the 
 " wylis " of Albany, who, although he had pretended to wish to return, 
 had really delayed his voyage. He might well hesitate to attempt a 
 second time so difficult a task as the government of Scotland. Dunbar's 
 hint that his continued absence was due to love of money — 
 
 ' ' Thy prudent wit we think thow hes abusit, 
 Absentand the for ony warldly geir," — 
 
 is borne out by the avarice which was one of the traits of his character. 
 But his presence was at least better than anarchy. That the kingdom 
 was going to ruin for want of justice, or, as Dunbar expresses it — 
 " In lak of iustice this realme is schent allace," — 
 
 receives signal confirmation from the despatches of Dacre, the un- 
 scrupulous Warden of the English Marches, who desired nothing more 
 than disorders in Scotland as an opportunity for English intervention. 
 They are thus epitomised by Mr Brewis : " If Henry and Wolsey 
 prospered in their purpose to prevent Albany's return, Scotland, as 
 Dacre expressed his conviction, would go to ruin for lack of justice ; 
 the Scotch lords would never consent to be ruled by one of their peers, 
 and their ancient feuds would be renewed with greater animosity than 
 ever." — Brewis, 'Henry VIII.,' vol. i. p. 541. 
 
 At last, in spite of all the endeavours of the English king and 
 his minister to prevent it, by alternately cajoling and threatening 
 Francis I., and at one time actually succeeding in getting Albany put 
 for a short period in ward, he sailed from France, and landed in Scot- 
 land on 2ist November 1521. His subsequent career lies beyond the 
 period of Dunbar's life ; for although a recent biographer, Mr Bayne, 
 has with some hesitation adopted the view that the poet survived till 
 1530, this is contrary to the opinion of those who have previously 
 written his life or studied his poems, none of which contain any 
 reference to events subsequent to 1520. A few leading facts may be 
 briefly noted. Albany succeeded in obtaining complete possession of 
 the government, and became on such intimate terms with Margaret, the 
 Queen- Dowager, that scandal suggested, and Henry VIII., with whom 
 she had now quarrelled, readily adopted the idea, that she wished 
 to marry him, and advanced to the English border. But, alarmed by 
 the force Dacre collected to oppose him, and inadequately supported 
 by France, he made at Solam an abstinence or truce for one month 
 
 The first 
 years : — 
 
cclxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on loth September. He at once disbanded his army, and on 27th 
 October returned to France, deputing the regency to certain bishops 
 and lords, and promising to return before 15th August 1523. He 
 in fact returned on 25th September in that year, and again invaded 
 England with a large force of foreign troops, with which, and the 
 Scotch levies, he undertook the siege of Wark. Here he a second 
 time proved his incompetency as a general. Though Wark was 
 defended only by a small garrison, it succeeded in repulsing a first 
 assault ; and Surrey, the Lord High Admiral, advancing to its relief, 
 Albany, in spite of the remonstrance of his Scotch troops, who were 
 eager for battle, abandoned the siege. A ballad of Skelton taunted 
 him with his flight : — 
 
 " Your chief chieftain 
 Void of all brain 
 Duke of Albany 
 Than shamefully 
 He reculed back 
 To his great lack 
 When he heard tell 
 That my Lord Amrell 
 Was coming down 
 To make him frown." 
 
 What remained of his prestige in Scotland was now wholly lost, and 
 he went back to France in May 1524 unregretted, and never to return. 
 Having failed to keep his promise to return to Scotland on ist Sep- 
 tember, he was dismissed from the regency by the Scottish Parliament 
 in November. He lived in France, his native country, till his death 
 on 2d June 1536, taking a certain interest in the foreign affairs of 
 Scotland, aiding Margaret in procuring in 1528 her long-desired divorce, 
 and James V. in his negotiations with the Pope for the establishment 
 of the Court of Session, but he never desired to see Scotland again. 
 He is reported to have said that " he wished he had lost his legs before 
 he ever set foot in it." 
 
 A picture belonging to Lord Bute represents him, along with Queen 
 Margaret, and a third figure of a man in Court livery pointing to him 
 with his finger. It has been engraved by Pinkerton in his *Icono- 
 graphia Scotica,' and in Mr Small's life of Gavin Douglas. The 
 conjecture that it has some reference to the scandal that he and the 
 Queen-Dowager, both of whom had spouses living, were too intimate, 
 is not borne out by the character of the picture. Margaret is de- 
 picted as handing Albany, without looking at him, a letter or a small 
 box ; and Albany with a rose in his hand, which he appears to have 
 no intention of giving to her. The purpose of the picture is enig- 
 matical, but the faces are well drawn. Margaret is comely and stout, 
 with good eyes and features, but a sensuous mouth. Her beauty had 
 not yet been destroyed by the smallpox. Albany is also of large 
 make, with a broad face, straight nose, somewhat doubtful-looking 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclxvii 
 
 eyes, a thick short beard, and no hair on the upper lip. Neither the 
 vanity nor the hot temper with which he was credited by contem- 
 poraries appears in the representation of him. His real character may 
 be judged by his acts and his correspondence. He cared little for 
 Scotland ; and if ambitious projects had floated through his mind with 
 regard to Margaret Tudor, and the conversion of his regency into a 
 monarchy, he either did not sufficiently care or he had not sufficient 
 determination to effect them. He regarded France as his home, and 
 its king as his master. He had the ingratiating manners of the 
 Stewarts, and, notwithstanding his neglect, was popular with the 
 Scotch till he showed his incapacity. His passionate nature, of 
 which many anecdotes were told, as that he threw his cap into the 
 fire if anything displeased him, was probably of the quick, not of the 
 sullen kind, and such fits soon passed off. He had no genius for 
 war, in which he missed great opportunities ; but he was a skilful 
 negotiator or agent, and generally succeeded in matters of business to 
 which he applied himself. His diplomacy, which in that age required 
 cunning and allowed deceit as one of its methods, succeeded more 
 than once in baffling the great minister and zealous agents of Henry 
 Vni., who counted themselves, and really were, masters of the art. 
 
 Stobo. Fly ting, 1. 331; Lament, 1. 86. — John Reid or Rede, alias 
 Stobo, appears in the Records as early as 1473, when he received a 
 half-yearly pension of This was increased to £20 a-year for life 
 by James HI., who granted him a charter under the Great Seal, which 
 recites as its cause — "pro gratuitis serviciis per eundem quondam pro- 
 genitori nostro et nobis impensis in scripturam literarum nostrorum 
 secretorum et patri nostro Pape et diversis Regibus Principibus et 
 Magnatis ultra regnum nostrum missarum et in expensis suis in per- 
 gameno papiro cera alba et rubra et sustentis et pro toto tempore 
 vitse suae faciendis et sustenandis et in sui supportacionem ad expensas 
 antedictas." He is also designed Sir John Reid, public notar, in 
 'Acta Auditorum,' 19th October 1470. The position he occupied was 
 that of head of one of the branches of the Secretary's office, receiving, 
 as in some offices at the present day, an allowance for the expenses as 
 well as services of the office. From the charter quoted, he appears to 
 have entered the royal service as far back as the reign of James H., 
 so before 1460. The Secretary of James HI. was Whitelaw, who was - 
 succeeded by Patrick Panther, and the employment given under theni 
 seems to have been a favourite career for young men of talent. Chep- 
 man, the first printer, served in this office, and so probably did 
 Dunbar, though he seems to have been employed in external missions 
 rather than at home in writing despatches. That Stobo befriended 
 him is shown by the line in the " Flyting" — 
 
 " And syne ger Stobo for thy lyfe protest." 
 
 The familiar byname of Stobo, whether taken from the place of 
 
 r 
 
cclxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his birth or some Church preferment he may have held, as well 
 as Dunbar's epithets, "gud gentill Stobo," in the "Lament for the 
 Makaris," proves him to have been a general favourite. In charters of 
 the Great Seal, loth December 1488 and 9th and loth May 1491, he is 
 designed " Rector de Kirkcristo," but which Christ's Kirk is intended 
 is not known, but the name Stobo is probably from Stobo on Tweed- 
 side. 
 
 The last entries referring to him in the Treasurer's Accounts are on 
 6th May 1585 : " Item, be the kingis command to Stobo liand sicke, 
 £$ ; " and 27th May, " Item, to Stobo liand sicke, be the kingis com- 
 mand, 5 French crounis, los." "The Lament for the Makaris" 
 having been written in 1507 or 1508, he must have died before the 
 latter, probably in the former, year. No poem has survived with his 
 name attached to it. Dunbar, perhaps, owed to him his introduction 
 to the royal service. The brief references to the various persons with 
 whom the poet came in contact indicate, as might be expected, his 
 discrimination of character. The gentle Stobo will be remembered by 
 his verse, as will be the surly Doig, the envious Mure, the impostor 
 Damian, Norray the chief of fools, the beauty Musgrave, the black 
 Lady with the thick lips, and the Lady without rew (" La belle Dame 
 sans merci "), whose name he conceals. This is the more remarkable, 
 as Dunbar is by no means prodigal in epithets, and does not hesitate 
 to repeat common ones, as " guid," " gentle," " sweet," and " lusty." 
 
 Strait Gibbon. Flyting^ 1. 209. — Dunbar calls, Kennedy Strait 
 Gibbonis air^ and there is an entry in the Treasurer's Accounts, 6th 
 July 1503 : " Item, to Strait Gibbon, be the kingis command." Prob- 
 ably he was one of the fools or jesters of the Court. Possibly he is 
 the same person as " Ouhissil Gibbone in Falkland," to whom 5s. was 
 paid "at the kings command" on 12th December 1497. — Treasurer's 
 Accounts. 
 
 Thomson, John or Joan. To the King ^ p. 218. — A Scottish pro- 
 verbial expression for a husband under his wife's government. " He 
 is John Thomsoun's man, crouching carle." — Ferguson's Proverbs, ed. 
 1641. "John Thomson's bairns" is another Scotch proverbial expres- 
 sion. 
 
 Throp. Flytijtg, 1. 540. — "Throp thy neere nece." Some error 
 may be suspected in the printing of this unintelligible name in Chep- 
 man's print of the " Flyting." 
 
 Traill, Sandy or Alexander. Lauient^ 1. 69.— No trace has yet 
 been found of this poet or any of his poems. The familiar " Sandy " 
 looks as if Dunbar had known him, or if not, that he had been a popu- 
 lar favourite, like " Davy Lyndsay." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 cclxix 
 
 TuLLius. The Goldyn Targe, 1. 69— Marcus Tullius Cicero, the 
 orator' whose works were as much read in the middle ages by 
 poets as by scholars and philosophers, so that rhetoric became the 
 name for the art of poetry. Dunbar in this passage couples Cicero 
 with Homer, and he calls his master Chaucer, " rose of rethoris all." 
 The vision or dream, a favourite form of medieval poetry, of which 
 Dunbar has left several specimens, is supposed to have taken its rise 
 from Cicero's " Somnium Scipionis." This part of the * De Republica ' 
 was preserved, with a commentary by Macrobius, " and attracted the 
 attention of readers who were fond of the marvellous, and with whom 
 Macrobius was a more admired classic than TuUy. It was printed 
 at Venice, subjoined to Tully's Offices, in 1470." It is frequently quoted 
 by Chaucer, as in the introduction to the " Assembly of Fowles." — 
 Warton's ' History of English Poetry.' 
 
 Wallace. Flyting, 1. 272. — Cospatrick, Earl of March, sided with 
 the English against Wallace, whom he called " King of Kyle " (" Blind 
 Harry," viii. 1. 21), in one of the engagements which was fought on the 
 Lammermuirs (perhaps near Spot, so here called Spottismuir), and is 
 described by Blind Harry in his Eighth Book. 
 
 Waspasius. Fly ting, 1. 532. — Vespasian, the Roman Emperor. 
 
 Wyntoun. See Andrew of Wyntoun. 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO 
 
 INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. 
 
 Abbot of Tungland. See Damian. 
 Aberdeen. 
 
 Breviary of, printed by Chepman 
 
 and Myllar, xiv. 
 William Elphinstone, Bishop of, 
 xxix. 
 
 Poem on Queen Margaret's visit 
 to, xlviii. 
 
 Abiram referred to in " Fly ting," 
 ccii. 
 
 Absalome referred to in " Man's Mor- 
 talitie," ccii. 
 
 Achilles referred to in "Man's Mor- 
 talitie," ccii. 
 
 Adam. Adam and Eve represented on 
 Queen Margaret's entry to Aber- 
 deen, xlviii. 
 
 Advocates' Library. 
 
 Copy of Chepman 's first prints in, 
 xiv. 
 
 Bannatyne Manuscript in, xiv. 
 Afflek, James, identified with James 
 
 Auchenleck, ccii. 
 Albany, Duke of. See Stewart, John. 
 Al-Fara3dar, Arabic poem, a speci- 
 men of "Flyting," ex. 
 Allan, Blind, proverb on, ccii. 
 Allegory. 
 
 Dunbar's use of allegory, Ixxviii. 
 Dunbar's allegory less complex 
 
 than Spenser's, Ixxviii. 
 Of the Goldyn Targe explained, 
 Ixxviii. 
 
 Of Beauty and the Prisoner ex- 
 plained, Ixxix. 
 
 Of the Thistle and the Rose ex- 
 plained, Ixxx. 
 
 Of the Droichis part of the Play 
 explained, Ixxxii. 
 
 Relation between the Allegory 
 and the Masque, Ixxxii. 
 Alhteration. 
 
 Dunbar's use of, Ixxxviii. 
 
 Practised longer in South than 
 in North, Ixxxviii. 
 
 Specimens of, in Scotch poetry, 
 Ixxxix. 
 
 Analysis of Dunbar's, clxxiii. 
 Professor Skeat's account of, in 
 
 preface to " Piers Plowman," 
 
 clxxiv. 
 
 Professor S chipper 's account of, 
 in 'Altenglische Metrik,' clxxiv. 
 Mr Patmore's account of, in 
 'Essay on English Metrical 
 Law,' clxxiv. 
 Almaine, William, London merchant, 
 cvi. 
 
 ' Altenglische Legenden,' by Horst- 
 
 mann, referred to, ccvi. 
 ' Altenglische Metrik,' by Schipper, 
 
 clxxiv. 
 Andrew of Wyntoun. 
 
 The character of his Chronicle, 
 
 cxliv. 
 Notice of, cciii. 
 
cclxxii 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 Andrews, St. 
 
 Dunbar a graduate of, xxii. 
 Extracts from Register of, relative 
 
 to Dunbar, cliii. 
 Walter Kennedy, Bishop of, xxii. 
 Patrick Graham, Archbishop of, 
 
 XXV. 
 
 William Schevez, Archbishop of, 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Alexander Stewart, Archbishop 
 of, Ixii. 
 
 Angus, Earl of, marries Margaret 
 
 Tudor, Ixiv. 
 Angus, Lord of the Isles, cxvi. 
 Ann, St. 
 
 Notice of, cciii. 
 Dedication of altars to, cciii. 
 Anne of Brittany sends ring to Tames 
 IV., Ixi. 
 
 Antenor referred to in *' Flyting," cciv. 
 Antony, St. 
 
 His Order, cciv. 
 His hospital at Leith, cciv. 
 Argyle, Earl of, captured Donald 
 
 Owre, cxvi. 
 Aristotle referred to in satire on 
 
 " Evil Women," cciv. 
 Armstrong, Archie, fool of James I., 
 
 cii. 
 
 Arran, Earl of, detained in England 
 
 by Henry VIII,, ccxlvi. 
 Arthur. 
 
 Notice of, cciv. 
 
 History and locality of poems 
 
 relating to, cciv. 
 James IV. imitates the Round 
 
 Table of, xlv. 
 Alliterative poem of 14th. century 
 
 on his death, Ixxxviii. 
 Poems of his cycle referred to, 
 
 ccxxii. 
 
 Sir Hew of Eglinton's ''Gret 
 Gest " of, ccxxviii. 
 See also Gawane. 
 Ash Wednesday, Dunbar's poem on, 
 
 cxxxviii. 
 Astrology. 
 
 Prediction of James III.'s death 
 by, XXV. 
 
 William Schevez addicted to, xxv. 
 John Damian, an astrologer, cxvii, 
 Aubigny, the Lord of. See Stewart, 
 
 Bernard. 
 Auchinleck or Asloan MS., xv. 
 Augustine, St, of Canterbury, Legend 
 of, referred to in " Flyting," ccv. 
 
 Baal, reference to, by Wyntoun, and 
 in "Flyting," ccvi. 
 
 Babington, Dr, Queen's Almoner, 
 
 notice of, ccvi. 
 Bachelor of Arts. 
 
 Required three years' residence at 
 
 Scottish university, xxii. 
 Dunbar graduated as, 1477, xxii. 
 Walter Kennedy graduated as, 
 1476, xviii. 
 Baliol, John, referred to in " Flyting," 
 
 ccvi. 
 Ballade. 
 
 French form with " Envoi," 
 
 clxxxviii. 
 Metre of, clxxxvii. 
 Ballat Royal, clxxxviii. 
 Ballads. 
 
 In welcome of Aubigny, xlv. 
 "Of the Fen3eit Freir of Tung- 
 land," xlvii. 
 "Of Our Lady," cxl. 
 Bannatyne, George. 
 
 MS. of Scottish poems, xiv. 
 Description of its contents, Ixxvii. 
 Barbour, John. 
 
 Biographer in rhyme rather than 
 
 poet, cxlv. 
 * Lives of the Saints ' referred to, 
 
 ccvi. 
 Notice of, ccvi. 
 Bards or Minstrels. 
 
 Position of, at the Scotch Court, 
 
 xxxvii. 
 Pensions to, xxxvii. 
 Bartilmo or Bartholomew, notice of 
 
 his legend, ccvii. 
 Bastie, De la. Sir Anthony d'Arcy. 
 Comes to Scotland for tourna- 
 ment, ciii. 
 Left by Albany as his representa- 
 tive, cclxiii. 
 Murdered by Home of Wedder- 
 burn, cclxiii. 
 Beaumont, Sir John, poem on Bos- 
 worth Field, cclix. 
 "Beauty and the Prisoner," Dunbar's 
 
 poem, explained, Ixxix. 
 Beelzebub referred to in "Flyting," 
 
 ccvii. 
 Bell, Allan. 
 
 Misnomer for Adam Bell, ccviii. 
 Notice of English ballad, ccviii. 
 Adam Bell, Clym of the Cleugh, 
 and William of Cloudisle, ccviii. 
 Berwick. See Friars of. 
 Bevis of Southampton, notice of, 
 ccviii. 
 
 Bibliography of Dunbar. 
 MSS., cxciv. 
 Printed editions, cxcv. ■ 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxiii 
 
 Biel, estate of, in Haddington, retained 
 
 by Dunbar family, xvii. 
 Birds, dialogue of, a favourite form of 
 
 poetry, cxxxvii. 
 Blackadder, Robert, Archbishop of 
 Glasgow. 
 
 Embassy to France, xxvii. 
 Embassy to Spain, xxx. 
 Embassy to England, xxxiii. 
 Blak Belly, a Scottish brownie, 
 ccix. 
 
 'Black Book of Clan Ranald,' account 
 
 of Lords of the Isles, ccxviii. 
 Black Elen. 
 
 Tournament in honour of, cii. 
 Dunbar's poem on, ciii. 
 Blank verse, later English poets 
 
 favour, cxlix. 
 Boece, Hector. 
 
 At University of Paris, xxix. 
 Pension of, as Principal of King's 
 College, Aberdeen, xxxvii. 
 Bothwell, Earl of, Patrick Hepburn, 
 one of the ambassadors to France 
 and to England as to King's mar- 
 riage, xxxiii. 
 Bower, John, Customer of Hadding- 
 ton, XX. 
 
 Bower, Walter, Abbot of Inchcolm, 
 
 XX. 
 
 Bradshaw, Mr Henry, discovers ' Lives 
 of the Saints' in Cambridge Uni- 
 versity Library, ccvi. 
 Bruce, Robert. 
 
 Represented at Queen's entry to 
 
 Aberdeen, xlviii. 
 Referred to in "Flyting," ccix. 
 Buchanan, George. 
 
 Encomium by him on France, 
 xxvi. 
 
 Imitates Dunbar in "Somnium," 
 cxxix. 
 
 Burns, Robert, comparison of Dunbar 
 
 with, cxlviii. 
 Bute, John, King's fool, notice of, ccx. 
 
 Callimachus, flyting of, with Apollonius 
 
 Rhodius, cix. 
 Callot, French painter, etchings of 
 
 " Sevin Deidly Synnis," cxxvii. 
 Calvinism, effect of, on Scottish drama, 
 
 Ixxxiii. 
 
 Canterbury, Dunbar preaches at, xxiv. 
 
 Cassilis, Earl of Kennedy, importance 
 of this family, xix. 
 
 Caym or Ham referred to in "Flyt- 
 ing," ccx. 
 
 Cayphas referred to in "Flyting," 
 ccx. 
 
 Charles VII., Scots Guard in service 
 
 of, xlv. 
 Charles VIII. 
 
 French Renaissance dates from, 
 xxvi. 
 
 Aubigny sent on embassy to Scot- 
 land by, xlv. 
 Charles of Orleans, his poems not re- 
 ferred to by Dunbar, xxix. 
 Charteris, Henry, adhortation by, xiv. 
 Chartier, Alain, French poet referred 
 
 to, xxix. 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey. 
 
 English poetry springs from, xxviii, 
 "The Maying or Disport of," 
 printed by Chepman, 1508, 
 xliv. 
 
 " Wife of Bath's " tale imitated by 
 
 Dunbar, Ixxxvi. 
 Description of "Sevin Deidly 
 
 Synnis" in "Persones Tale," 
 
 cxxviii. 
 
 Comparison of Dunbar with, cxlii. 
 Influence of, on Dunbar, cxlvi. 
 Chepman, Walter. 
 
 Patent to, as first Scotch printer, 
 xlii. 
 
 Dunbar's connection with, xlii. 
 Publishes " Lament for the Mak- 
 aris," xliv. 
 Chivalry. 
 
 Romances of, referred to, c. 
 Satire by Dunbar on, c, cii. 
 Christmas, Dunbar's poems on, cxxxviii. 
 Clergy, satire on, Ixxxv. 
 Clerk, John, notice of, ccxi. 
 Clerk of Tranent, notice of, ccxii. 
 Cochrane, Robert, Earl of Mar, 
 
 favourite of James III., xxv. 
 Cockelbie's Sow, early Scotch poem 
 
 on, cxlv. 
 Coil^ear, Rauf. See Rauf. 
 Colhns, William, English poet, his 
 
 " Ode on the Passions," cxxvii. 
 " Confession General," the, Ixx. 
 Corineus, one of the Guildhall giants, 
 ccxxii. 
 
 Corspatrick, Earl of March, notice of, 
 xvii. 
 
 Court of James IV,, Dunbar's descrip- 
 tion of, xlix. 
 Courtiers, description of, by Dunbar, lii. 
 Courts of Law. 
 
 Sessions of James I., xlix. 
 Daily Council of James IV., xlix. 
 College of Justice of James V., 
 xlix. 
 
 Dunbar's satire on, cxxii. 
 Covetousness satirised by Dunbar, Ixx. 
 
cclxxiv 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 Crawford Moor, gold found at, xlvii. 
 Curry, notice of, ccxiii. 
 Cuthbert, St, ccxiv. 
 
 Damian, John, Abbot of Tungland. 
 Special subject of Dunbar's satire, 
 xlvi. 
 
 Notice of his life, cxviii, ccxiv. 
 How he became a priest, ccxv. 
 His practice as a quack doctor, 
 ccxv. 
 
 Pretends to make quintessence, 
 ccxv. 
 
 Batters at the study or smithy, 
 cxix. 
 
 Refuses to repay loan, ccxv. 
 Attempts to fly at Stirling, ccxv. 
 Made Abbot of Tungland, ccxv. 
 Goes abroad, ccxv. 
 Returns before Flodden, ccxv. 
 Finds gold at Crawford Moor, 
 ccxv. 
 
 " Dance in the Quenis Chalmer," the, 
 xcix. 
 
 "Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis," 
 
 cxv, cxxvii. 
 Dares Phrygius, his version of the 
 
 story of Troy, ccxxix. 
 Dates, Table of, probable order of 
 
 Dunbar's poems, clvii. 
 Dathan referred to in " Flyting,"ccxvi. 
 Davidson, Thomas, early Scottish 
 
 printer, xiv. 
 "Deeming," on, poem of Dunbar, 
 
 cxxxiii. 
 
 Derntoun, preacher at, xxiv. 
 Deschamps, Eustace, French poet, 
 
 his 'Art of Poetry,' xxix. 
 Dialect. 
 
 East Lothian, xviii. 
 Carrick, of Kennedy, xviii. 
 Dictys Cretensis, his version of the 
 
 story of Troy, ccxxix. 
 "Dirge," "Dirige," or ''Dregy." 
 Origin of word, xcv. 
 Dunbar's poems so called, xcv. 
 Discretion in Asking, Giving, Taking, 
 
 Dunbar's poems on, cxxiii. 
 Doig, James, keeper of the King's 
 Wardrobe. 
 
 Poems by Dunbar on, Iv. 
 Notice of, ccxvi. 
 Donald Owre, Lord of the Isles. 
 A Highland rebel, cxiv. 
 Dunbar's epitaph on, cxiv. 
 Notice of, ccxvii. 
 Mr Gregory's account of, ccxviii. 
 Account of in 'Black Book of 
 Clanronald, ccxviii. 
 
 Douglas, Gavin, Bishop of Dunkeld. 
 Recognises Dunbar as master of 
 
 Scottish poets, xiii. 
 His allegory more complex than 
 
 Dunbar's, Ixxviii. 
 His alliteration in Prologues to 
 
 "^neid," Ixxxix. 
 Description of poets in " The 
 Palace of Honour," Ixxii. 
 Dountebour, Dame, a cant or a real 
 
 name, ccxviii. 
 Dover, Dunbar crosses to France at 
 
 ferry of, xxiv. 
 Drama. 
 
 Dunbar not a dramatist, cxlii. 
 Why Scotland has no drama, 
 Ixxxiii. 
 
 Knowledge necessary for drama- 
 tist, cxliii. 
 Dreams, poems in form of, or visions, 
 
 xlvii, cxxviii. 
 Drummond, William, of Hawthornden, 
 
 his " Polemo-Middinia," xcvii. 
 Dunbar, Agnes of, xvi. 
 Dunbar, Archibald, notice of, ccxix. 
 Dunbar of Westfield, sheriff of Elgin, 
 
 notice of, ccxix. 
 Dunbar, Earls of. 
 
 Their policy, xvi. 
 
 Gospatrick or Corspatrick, first 
 
 Earl, xvi. 
 Patrick, eighth Earl, xvi. 
 George, tenth Earl, xvi. 
 George, eleventh Earl, xvii. 
 Deposed by James I., xvii. 
 Dunbar, Sir Patrick, of Biel. 
 
 Fourth son of George, tenth Earl, 
 xvii. 
 
 Dunbar, the poet, relation to, 
 xvii. 
 
 Dunbar, William, the poet. 
 
 Probably born 1460, xv. 
 
 At school at Haddington about 
 1474, xix. 
 
 Graduated at St Andrews as 
 B.A. in 1477, xxii. 
 
 Enters an Observantine House as 
 Novice after 1479, xxii. 
 
 Travels in France and the Con- 
 tinent between 1491 and 1500, 
 xxvi. 
 
 With embassy to France in the 
 Katherine, xxvii. 
 
 Course of his life uncertain, 1491- 
 1500, xxix. 
 
 Possibly went to Spain on em- 
 bassy, 1495, XXX. 
 
 Possibly travelled to Norway dur- 
 ing I495» xxxi. 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxv 
 
 At Court of James IV., 1500- 
 12, xxxi. 
 
 A priest, i6th March 1504, xxxi. 
 
 Received pensions as Court poet, 
 1500-12, xxxii. 
 
 On embassy to London as to 
 marriage of James and Mar- 
 garet Tudor, xxxiii. 
 
 Received payment from Henry 
 VII. as "Rhymer of Scot- 
 land, " xxxiii. 
 
 Made ballad in honour of Lon- 
 don, xxxiv. 
 
 Returns to Scotland, 1502, xxxv. 
 
 Composes ' ' The Thistle and the 
 Rose," 1503, xxxiv. 
 
 Composes ballad in honour of the 
 royal marriage, xxxiv. 
 
 Writes "Lament for the Makaris," 
 1508, xl. 
 
 Relations to Chepman the printer, 
 xlii. 
 
 Celebrates Aubigny, and satirises 
 
 Damian, 1508, xlv. 
 Visits Aberdeen with the Queen, 
 
 151 1, xlviii. 
 Effect of Flodden on Dunbar, Ix. 
 His life after 15 13 obscure, Ixiii. 
 Poem to the Queen-Dowager in 
 
 1 5 13, Ixiii. 
 Poem when Albany went to 
 
 France in 15 1 7, Ixvii. 
 Probable date of death, 1520, 
 
 Ixviii. 
 
 His religious poems or hymns 
 probably written after 15 13, 
 Ixix. 
 
 Description of person and char- 
 acter, Ixxii. 
 
 Division of poems into classes, 
 Ixxvi. 
 
 Allegories, Ixxviii. 
 
 Narrative poems or tales, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Amatory or love poems, Ixxxix. 
 
 Comic or humorous, xciii. 
 
 Laudatory or panegyrical poems, 
 civ. 
 
 Vituperative poems or invectives, 
 cviii. 
 
 Precatory poems or petitions to 
 the King or Queen, cxxi. 
 
 Satirical poems, cxxiii. 
 
 Moral poems, cxxx. 
 
 Religious poems, cxxxvii. 
 
 Estimate of his genius, cxli. 
 
 Comparison with the earher Scot- 
 tish poets, cxliv. 
 
 Chaucer's influence on, cxlvi. 
 
 Comparison with Burns, cxlviii. 
 
 Comparison with Horace, cl. 
 Comparison with Villon, cli. 
 Comparison with Heine, cli. 
 Comparison with Albert Durer, 
 cli. 
 
 References to, in the records, 
 
 cliii-clvi. 
 Table of poems according to 
 
 dates, clvii-clxxii. 
 Note on his versification and 
 
 metres, clxxii-cxciii. 
 Notices of persons referred to in 
 
 his poems, cii. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Satire on, by Dunbar, xlix. 
 Description of, cxxvi. 
 Ed wart Langshankis (Edward I.), 
 
 early Scottish wars against, ccxix. 
 Egeas or ^gseon referred to in 
 
 ' * Flyting, " ccxx. 
 Egipya or Egypt referred to in " Flyt- 
 ing," ccxx. 
 Eglinton. 
 
 Sir Hugh of, xli. 
 Notice of See Hugh, Sir. 
 Elphinstone, William, Bishop of Aber- 
 deen. 
 
 Introduced printing in Scotland, 
 xlii. 
 
 Aberdeen Breviary, xlii. 
 Eneas referred to in " Flyting, " ccxx 
 English. 
 
 Dunbar calls his language Eng- 
 lish, xviii, Ixxix. 
 
 Poets referred to in "Lament," 
 xli. 
 
 Ersch or Irish, the names for Gaelic 
 
 in Dunbar's satire, cxv. 
 Eustase referred to in "Flyting," 
 
 ccxx. 
 
 * Evergreen ' of Allan Ramsay revives 
 knowledge of Dunbar, xiii. 
 
 Eyobulus referred to in "Flyting," 
 ccxx. 
 
 Falcon, Mount, the place of execution 
 
 at Paris, xxvii. 
 Falkland. 
 
 The ale of, xcv. 
 The burgh charter of, xcv. 
 Fergusson, Robert, last writer of a 
 
 poetic testament, xcviii. 
 Flodden. 
 
 Causes of campaign of, Ixi. 
 Echoes of, in the Scottish poetry, 
 Ixi. 
 
 Effect of, on Dunbar and Scot- 
 land, Ixiii. 
 
cclxxvi 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 "Flyting." 
 
 Examples of, in Greek, Latin, 
 Celtic, Scandinavian, Italian, 
 and Arabic poetry, cix. 
 Skelton's, with Garnesche, ex. 
 Lyndsay's, with James V., cxi. 
 Montgomery's, with Hume of 
 
 Polwart, cxi. 
 Montgomery's defence of, cxi. 
 Called *' rouncefallis or tumbling 
 
 verse " by James VI., cxii. 
 Puttenham condemns, as unchris- 
 tian, cxii. 
 " Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy." 
 Question as to its date, cxii. 
 Metre of, clxxxi. 
 Fools, number of, at the Court of 
 James IV. See Armstrong, Curry, 
 Cuddy Rig, Norray. 
 Fortune, its changes a favourite sub- 
 ject with Dunbar, cxxxv. 
 France. 
 
 Intercourse between France and 
 
 Scotland, xxvi. 
 Praise of, by Buchanan, xxvi. 
 Dunbar on an embassy sent to, 
 
 xxvii. 
 
 Influence of, on Dunbar's poetry, 
 xxix. 
 Francis, St. 
 
 Vision of St Francis, cxxix. 
 
 Dunbar's poems copied by Buch- 
 anan, xxiii. 
 
 Notice of, ccxx. 
 Franciscan order called Minorites or 
 Grey Friars. 
 
 Divided into Conventuals and 
 Observantines, ccxx. 
 
 Favoured by Henry VII. and 
 James IV., ccxxi. 
 
 Dunbar probably an Observantine 
 novice, xxii. 
 
 Dunbar's satires on the, xxiii, 
 Ixxxv. 
 
 " Freiris of Berwik," whether this 
 
 poem by Dunbar, Ixxxiv. 
 French poetry. 
 
 Its character in 15th and i6th 
 
 century, xxix. 
 Its influence on Dunbar's poetry, 
 xxix. 
 
 See Deschamps, Charles of Or- 
 leans, Chartier, Villon. 
 
 Gaelic called Ersch or Irish by Dunbar, 
 cxv. 
 
 Gascoigne, George, first English satir- 
 ist, instruction concerning the mak- 
 ing of verse, cxxiv. 
 
 Gawane, Gawan, or Gavin, notice of, 
 ccxxii. 
 
 Gedde, Charles, a learned gentleman 
 
 of St Andrews, ccxxiii. 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth. 
 
 His fable of foundation of Lon- 
 don by the Trojans, cv. 
 Adaptation of Arthurian legend, 
 ccv. 
 
 Girnega, St, notice of, ccxxii. 
 
 Glennie, Mr Stuart, his 'Arthurian 
 Localities,' ccv. 
 
 Gog and Magog, story of, ccxxii. 
 
 "Golden Targe," its allegory ex- 
 plained, Ixxviii. 
 
 Golyas or Goliath referred to in 
 "Flyting," ccxxii. 
 
 Gower, John, English poet, notice of, 
 ccxxii. 
 
 Graham, Patrick, Archbishop of St 
 Andrews, deposed by Sextus IV., 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Gray, Walter, Master of St Anthony's, 
 
 notice of, ccxxiv. 
 Greek, Dunbar knew no, ccxxix. 
 Greene, Robert, tragedy of James IV. 
 
 by, Ixi. 
 
 Gregory, Mr Donald, history of Don- 
 ald Owre explained by, cxvi. 
 
 Guest, Dr, his theory as to Arthur, 
 ccv. 
 
 Guido de Colonna, ' Historia Trojana ' 
 
 by, ccxxix. 
 Guy of Gysburne, ballad on, ccxxiv. 
 
 Haddington, school of 
 
 Dunbar probably educated at, xix. 
 Bower, Major, Knox, educated 
 at, XX. 
 
 Hailes, Lord, notes on Dunbar's 
 
 poems referred to, xiii, 
 Harry, Blind, or Harry the Minstrel. 
 Payments to, by the King, 
 xxxii. 
 
 Poem on Wallace, cxlv. 
 Notice of, ccxxiv. 
 Hay, Sir Gilbert, Scottish poet, notice 
 of, ccxxv. 
 
 Heine, comparison of Dunbar with, 
 cli. 
 
 Henry VII. gives rewards to "The 
 
 Rhymer of Scotland," xxxiii. 
 Henry VIII., his conduct provoked 
 
 war of Flodden, Ixi. 
 Henryson, Edward, Advocate, taught 
 
 civil law at Bourges, ccxxvi. 
 Henryson, James, King's Advocate 
 
 of James IV., and Justice-Clerk, 
 
 ccxxvi. 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxvii 
 
 Henryson, John, master of grammar 
 
 school of Dunfermline, ccxxvi. 
 Henryson, Robert, Scottish poet. 
 His satire on physicians, xcvii. 
 Superior to Dunbar in sweet- 
 ness, but inferior in invention, 
 cxlvii. 
 
 "Testament of Cresseid," xcviii. 
 Notice of, ccxxvi. 
 Heraldry, allegory of Thistle and 
 
 Rose taken from, Ixxx. 
 Herod referred to in "Flyting," 
 ccxxvii. 
 
 Heryot, unknown Scotch poet, re- 
 ferred to in the " Lament," xli. 
 
 Highlanders, satire on, Ivii, cxiv. 
 
 Hillhouse, Laird of, Sir John Sandi- 
 lands, ccxxix. 
 
 Holland, Sir Richard, Scottish poet, 
 notice of, ccxxix. 
 
 Homer, Dunbar's knowledge of, at 
 third hand, ccxxix. 
 
 Horace, comparison of Dunbar with, cl. 
 
 ' ' How Dunbar was desyrd to be ane 
 Freir," xxiv, cxxix. 
 
 Hugh, or Hew, Sir, of Eglinton. 
 Notice of, ccxxvii. 
 Mr McNeill's paper on, ccxxviii. 
 
 Hume of Pol wart, "Fly ting" with 
 Montgomery, cxi. 
 
 Hymns or sacred poems by Dunbar 
 written after 15 13, cxxxvii. 
 
 Iambic metre. 
 
 The natural form of English verse, 
 
 clxxv. 
 Of Dunbar, clxxv. 
 Icelandic Flyting in the "Loki Sen- 
 nar," ex. 
 
 Inglis, Sir John, Scottish poet, " A 
 General Satire " by Dunbar wrongly 
 attributed to, cxx. 
 Interlude of " The Droichis part of the 
 
 Play" explained, Ixxxii. 
 Invectives by Dunbar. 
 "The Flyting," cix. 
 "Epitaph on Donald Owre," 
 cxvii. 
 
 "Against John Damian," cxvii. 
 " Against Evil Women," cxix. 
 "A General Satire," cxx. 
 Ireland, Wealth declines to live in, 
 
 ccxxxiv. 
 Isles. Lord of the Isles. 
 
 John, first Lord", forfeited by 
 
 James HI., ccxvii. 
 Angus, second Lord, killed at 
 Inverness, ccxvii. See also 
 Donald Owre. 
 
 Italian. 
 
 Specimens of "Flyting" in Ital- 
 ian poetry, ex. 
 
 Origin of drama in songs of Ital- 
 ian husbandmen, cxi. 
 
 James I. 
 
 Forfeited the Earl of Dunbar, 
 xvii. 
 
 " Kingis Quair" not alluded to 
 
 by Dunbar, cxlvi. 
 Founds House of Observantines'at 
 St Andrews, xxii. 
 James II. killed by gun bursting at 
 
 Roxburgh, xv. 
 James III. 
 
 His favourites, and incapacity for 
 
 government, xxiv. 
 Killed at Sauchie, 1488, xxv. 
 James IV. 
 
 Dunbar's view of his character, 
 li. 
 
 Saying "on Deeming," cxxxiii. 
 Born 17th March 1472, ccxxx. 
 Succeeds to crown, iith June 
 
 1488, ccxxx. 
 Embassy to France to find a wife 
 
 for, 1 49 1, ccxxx. 
 His attachment to Margaret 
 
 Drummond, ccxxx. 
 Death of Margaret Drummond, 
 
 1502, ccxxx. 
 His unstable character, ccxxxi. 
 His activity in government, 
 
 ccxxxi. 
 
 Reception of Perkin Warbeck, 
 ccxxxi. 
 
 Abandonment of Perkin War- 
 beck, ccxxxi. 
 
 Expedition to Highlands, ccxxxii. 
 
 Reforms the courts, ccxxxii. 
 
 Protects agriculture, ccxxxii. 
 
 Promotes education, ccxxxii. 
 
 His own talents, ccxxxii. 
 
 His character by Ayala and Eras- 
 mus, ccxxxii. 
 
 Weak side of his character, 
 ccxxxiii. 
 
 Illustrations of his reign, at time 
 of his marriage, in Dunbar's 
 poems, ccxxxiv. 
 
 Brilliance of his Court, ccxxxiv. 
 
 Inward decay, ccxxxv. 
 
 Death of Henry VII., 1509, 
 ccxxxv. 
 
 Causes which led to Flodden, 
 
 Ixii, ccxxxv. 
 French alliance, ccxxxvi. 
 Flodden and death, ccxxxvi. 
 
cclxxviii 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 James V. 
 
 His taste for poetry, xxxii. 
 His "Fly ting" with Lyndsay, cxi. 
 James VI. 
 
 His treatise on "Scottis Poesie" 
 
 referred to, xcviii. 
 Rules for the testament as a form 
 
 of verse, xcviii. 
 Calls "Fly tings" tumbling verse, 
 
 cxii. 
 
 Use of " Invective " as name for 
 a species of poetry, cxiv. 
 
 Commends the "Ballad Royal," 
 clxxxviii. 
 
 John of Gaunt, introduction of Wy- 
 
 clifs books into Scotland by, xx. 
 John, St, referred to in "Flyting," 
 
 ccxxxvii. 
 Johnne the Reif. 
 
 Old English poem of fourteenth 
 
 century, ccxxxvii. 
 Notice of, ccxxxvii. 
 Johnston, Patrick, poet and player, 
 
 notice of, ccxxxvii. 
 Jok the Fule, one of the King's fools, 
 ccxxxviii. 
 
 Jonet the Weido, notice of, ccxxxviii. 
 " Joustis of the Tail3our and the Sow- 
 tar," c. 
 
 Judas Iscariot referred to in "Flyt- 
 ing," ccxxxviii. 
 
 Katherine, the, Dunbar sails to France 
 
 in, xxvii. 
 Kennedy, Andrew. 
 
 Dunbar's Testament of, xcvi. 
 
 Notice of, ccxxxviii. 
 Kennedy, Gilbert, first Lord, xviii. 
 
 James Dunure, xviii. 
 
 Janet, Lady, xviii. 
 
 Bishop of St Andrews, xviii. 
 Kennedy, Walter, xviii. 
 
 His praise of age, xxi. 
 
 Notice of, ccxxxix. 
 Kittok, Kynd. 
 
 Dunbar's poem on, xciv. 
 
 Notice of, ccxl. 
 
 Metre of, cxcii. 
 
 Lady, to a. 
 
 Dunbar's poem, xci. 
 Its metre, clxxix. 
 Laing, David, references to his edi- 
 tion of Dunbar, xiii, xvii-xxi, ccii. 
 Landscape, Dunbar's view of Scottish, 
 Iviii. 
 
 Langhorne, John, Scottish poet, refer- 
 ence to Dunbar's "Thistle and the 
 Rose," Ixxv. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 Use of Latin words in vernacular 
 
 poetry, xcvii. 
 Rhyme sometimes used in medi- 
 eval Latin, Ixxxix. 
 Laureat, Poet. 
 
 Dunbar called " Lollard laureate " 
 
 by Kennedy, xxi. 
 History of title of, ccxlii. 
 Dunbar in fact Laureate of the 
 Court of James IV., xxxii. 
 Lawrence, St, notice of his legend 
 
 ccxl. 
 League. 
 
 Ancient, between France and 
 
 Scotland, xlv. 
 Holy, by Julius II. against Venice, 
 
 xlv. 
 
 ' Legends of the Saints ' referred to, 
 
 ccvi, ccvii. 
 Lent, Dunbar's poem on, cxxxviii. 
 Leslie, Bishop of Ross, account of 
 
 John Damian, xlvi. 
 Lodovick, Louis XIL, King of France, 
 
 ccxli. 
 
 Lokert or Lockhart of the Lee, Sir 
 Mungo, Scotch poet, notice of, 
 ccxli. 
 Lollards. 
 
 Of Kyle and East Lothian, xxi. 
 Dunbar called " Lollard laureate," 
 xxi. 
 London. 
 
 Description of, by Dunbar, cv. 
 By Major, cv. 
 
 Called Troynovaunt by Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth, cv. 
 
 Description of, l3y Stowe, civ. 
 Lothian, Dunbar a poet of, xix. 
 Louis XI. centralises France, xxvi. 
 Love. 
 
 Dunbar's treatment of, l^pcxix. 
 Spelling of the word in Scotch, 
 xc. 
 
 Lowell, Mr J. R., on Dunbar, xi, 
 cxxvii. 
 
 Lydgate, John, English poet. 
 
 'Rules for Preserving Health,' 
 cxxxiv. 
 
 Notice of, ccxlii. 
 Lyndsay, Sir David. 
 
 Recognises Dunbar as chief of 
 Scottish poets, Ixxii. 
 
 Refers to Dunbar in " Testament 
 of the Papyngo," Ixviii. 
 
 "Satire of the Three Estates" 
 referred to, Ixviii. 
 
 "Flyting" with James V. re- 
 ferred to, cxi. 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxix 
 
 Macaronic verse, Dunbar's variety 
 of, xcvi. 
 
 Machomete referred to in "Flyting," 
 ccxlii. 
 
 Mackcowll, Fyn, notice of, ccxliii. 
 
 Maitland, Sir R., of Lethington, MS. 
 of Scottish poems, xv. 
 
 Major, John, Scotch historian, his de- 
 scription of London, cv. 
 
 Makaris or Poets, Dunbar's Lament 
 for the, xl. 
 
 Makfadyane referred to by Blind 
 Harry and by Dunbar, ccxliii. 
 
 Malory, Sir Thomas, ' ' Arthurian Le- 
 gends " published by Caxton, ccv. 
 
 Mapes, Walter, poem " De Mundi 
 Vanitate " referred to, xli. 
 
 Marcion referred to in "Fly ting," 
 ccxliv. 
 
 Margaret Tudor. 
 
 Born 29th Nov. 1489, ccxliv. 
 Dunbar's view of her character, 
 Hi. 
 
 Dunbar's poems to her, cvii. 
 
 Early projects for her marriage 
 with James IV., ccxliv. 
 
 Renewed, 1501, ccxliv. 
 
 Espousals at Richmond, 24th 
 June 1502, ccxliv. 
 
 Marriage at Holyrood, 8th Au- 
 gust 1503, ccxlv. 
 
 Poem of "The Thistle and the 
 Rose," ccxlv. 
 
 Unfaithfulness of James, ccxlv. 
 
 Death of her father, 22d April 
 1509, ccxlvi. 
 
 Birth of her son Arthur, 15 10, 
 ccxlvii. 
 
 Her pilgrimage to Tain and visit 
 to Aberdeen, 15 11, ccxlvii. 
 
 Quarrel with Henry VIII. about 
 her jewels, ccxlvii. 
 
 Birth of her posthumous child, 
 ccxlviii. 
 
 Dunbar's poem to her as Queen- 
 Dowager, ccxlviii. 
 
 Marriage to Angus, ccxlviii. 
 
 Birth of Margaret Douglas, 1515, 
 ccxlviii. 
 
 Goes to England, ccxlviii. 
 
 Quarrels with Angus, ccxlviii. 
 
 Returns to Scotland, 15 17, 
 ccxlviii. 
 
 Relations to Albany, ccxlviii. 
 
 Divorce from Angus, 1528, 
 ccxlix. 
 
 Marries Henry Stewart, ccxlix. 
 Dies at Methven, ccxlix. 
 Marriage, Dunbar's satire on, Ixxxv. 
 
 Martyrs, Scottish, referred to, xx. 
 Mary, the Virgin, Dunbar's poems 
 
 to, ccxlix. 
 Mary Magdalene referred to, ccxlix. 
 Mary Salame or Salome referred to, 
 
 ccxlix. 
 Masque. 
 
 On Queen's entry to Aberdeen, 
 xlviii. 
 
 On Queen's entry to Edinburgh, 
 Ixxxii. 
 
 Whether masque was prior to 
 drama, Ixxxiii. 
 Maxentius referred to in "Fly ting," 
 
 ccxlix. 
 Medicine. 
 
 Early references to study of, by 
 
 Henryson, xcvii. 
 The clergy frequently practise, 
 ccxii. 
 
 "Meditation in Winter," Dunbar's 
 
 poem, lix. 
 Mercurius referred to in "Flyting," 
 
 ccxlix. 
 
 "Merle and the Nichtingale," the, 
 
 Dunbar's poem, xcii^ <i'/x'xvri. 
 Merser, Scottish poet, referred to in 
 " Lament for the Makaris," ccxlix. 
 Metre. 
 
 Dunbar's mastery of, cxlix. 
 
 Note on, by Mr McNeill, clxxii. 
 Minstrels, their position at the Scot- 
 tish Court, xxxvii. 
 Monasticism. 
 
 Different views of its value, xxiii. 
 
 Its character in Scotland in Dun- 
 bar's time, xxiii. 
 
 Dunbar's satire against, xxiii. 
 Montgomery, Scottish poet. 
 
 Use of alliteration by, Ixxxix. 
 
 "Flyting" against Hume, cxi. 
 
 Defence of "Flyting," cxi. 
 MSS. _ 
 
 List of MSS. of Dunbar's poems, 
 
 xiv, cxciv. 
 Of Regiam Majestatem, xv. 
 Of Chronicle of London, xxxiv. 
 Of Book of Pluscardine, xliv. 
 Asloan, xliv. 
 Mure, poem against, by Dunbar, 
 cel. 
 
 Murray, Earl of Dunbar, notice of, 
 cel. 
 
 Music, Dunbar's poem set to, xxxv. 
 Musgraeffe, Mrs. 
 
 English lady of the Queen, xc. 
 Notice of, cel. 
 Myllar, partner of Cliepman, Scottish 
 printer, xlii. 
 
cclxxx 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 Nennius's ' Historia Britonum ' as 
 
 to Arthur's battles, ccv. 
 Ninian, St. 
 
 Relic of, referred to, xcvi. 
 Pilgrimages of James IV. to his 
 
 shrine, ccxxxi. 
 Heart of Aubigny sent to his 
 shrine, cclxi. 
 Norray, Sir Thomas. 
 
 Chief fool of James IV., ccli. 
 Dunbar's poem on, ci. 
 North or Northumbrian dialect, xvi. 
 
 Oaths, Dunbar's satire on, cxxvi. 
 Occleve, English poet, referred to, 
 xxviii. 
 
 Olibrius referred to in the " Fly ting," 
 cclii. 
 
 Orleans, Charles of, French poet, his 
 influence on Dunbar, xxix. 
 
 Oxford or Oxinfurde, Dunbar's poem 
 "On the Vanity of Learning" 
 written at, xxxi, Ivi. 
 
 "Palace of Honour," Gavin Douglas's 
 
 poem on, referred to, ci. 
 Panegyrics. 
 
 Dunbar's poems in form of, civ. 
 
 On London, civ. 
 
 On the Queen, cvii. 
 
 On Women, xciii. 
 
 On Aberdeen, cviii. 
 
 On Aubigny, cviii. 
 Panther, Patrick, secretary to James 
 
 IV., xliii. 
 Passion, the. 
 
 Dunbar's poems on, cxl. 
 
 Dunbar familiar with plays on, 
 cxl. 
 
 Patmore, Mr Coventry, Essay on 
 English Metrical Law, clxxiv. 
 
 Pensions by James IV. to poets, 
 xxxii. 
 
 Percy, Bishop, claims that England 
 first ridiculed knight-errantry, c. 
 
 Pharo referred to in " Fly ting," 
 cclii. 
 
 Physicians. See Medicine. 
 Picardy, Dunbar preaches in, xxvii. 
 Pilate referred to in "Flyting," 
 ccliii. 
 
 Pinkerton, Mr John, his notes on 
 Dunbar's poems attribute "Freiris 
 of Berwik" to Dunbar, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Plays. See Drama. 
 
 Pluto referred to in '* Flyting," 
 cclii. 
 
 Poggio, Italian poet, his flyting with 
 Philelfo, cix. 
 
 PoUexen or Polyxena, notice of, cclii. 
 Poor, Dunbar condemns oppression 
 of, cxxi. 
 
 Printing, notice of introduction of, in 
 
 Europe and Scotland, xlii. 
 Prose, Southern England prefers, to 
 
 verse, Ixxxviii. 
 Proton otary, Andrew Foreman, an 
 
 Apostolic, confused with Dunbar, 
 
 xxxiv. 
 Proverbs. 
 
 Imitation not to be presumed in, 
 cxxxiv. 
 
 Of John Thomson's man, lii. 
 
 Of Blind Allan waiting on the 
 moon, ccii. 
 
 On the Fox, cxvii. 
 Puns, or play on words, specimens of, 
 in Dunbar. 
 
 On Margaret, xxxvi. 
 
 On Knight, ciii. 
 
 On Doig, ccxvi. 
 Puttenham. 
 
 His 'Art of English Poesie ' 
 referred to, xxix. 
 
 Denounces "Flyting" as un- 
 christian, cxii. 
 
 Quotes poem " Ginecocratia, " 
 cxxviii. 
 
 Quhentyne or Quintyne, notices of 
 
 poets of that name, ccliii. 
 Quhettane clan referred to, ccliii. 
 Quintessence, Damian pretends to 
 
 make, cxix. 
 
 Ramsay, Allan. 
 
 Revives knowledge of Dunbar, 
 xiii. 
 
 "The Monk and the Miller's 
 Wife " referred to, Ixxxv. 
 " Rauf Colzard," old Scottish poem, 
 
 referred to, ccliv. 
 Records, references to Dunbar in the 
 
 Scottish, cliii. 
 Reformation. 
 
 Lyndsay's influence on, xxi. 
 Dunbar's attitude towards the 
 
 doctrines of, xxi, xxxi, Ixxxiv. 
 Prevented the development of 
 drama in Scotland, Ixxxiii. 
 Reid, Sir John. See Stobo. 
 Reidpeth, Mr John, MS. referred to, 
 
 XV. 
 
 Renaissance, its influence on morals, 
 
 xciv. 
 Rhyme. 
 
 Dunbar preferred rhyme to alliter- 
 ation, Ixxxix. 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxxi 
 
 Rhyme perhaps developed from 
 
 alliteration, Ixxxix. 
 Analysis of Dunbar's long couplets 
 
 in heroic verse, clxxv. 
 Analysis of Dunbar's short or 
 
 four-foot couplets, clxxvii. 
 Rhyme-Royal. 
 
 First used by Chaucer, clxxx. 
 By James I. in "Kingis Quair," 
 
 clxxx. 
 
 Gascoigne's description of, clxxxi. 
 Mr Coventry Patmore's praise of, 
 clxxxi. 
 
 Dunbar uses a peculiar form with 
 refrain, clxxxi. 
 Rhymer, Thomas the, his verses allit- 
 erative, cxlv. 
 Rig, Cuddy, notice of, ccliv. 
 Robyn Hude, notice of, ccliv. 
 Roger of Clekkinsklewch, notice of, 
 
 cclvi. 
 Roman doctrine. 
 
 Dunbar handled freely, but ad- 
 hered to, xxi. 
 Dunbar's religious poems in con- 
 formity with, cxxxvii. 
 Confession, cxxxviii. 
 Worship of the Virgin, cxl. 
 Romances of the Arthurian cycle, cciv, 
 ccxxii. 
 
 Roscoe, W., description of Italian 
 
 " Flyting," ex. 
 Rose, the, of England, described by 
 
 Dunbar, xxxvi. 
 Ross, Earldom of, annexed to Crown 
 
 on forfeiture of John, Lord of the 
 
 Isles, ccxvii. 
 Ross, Sir John the, Scottish poet, 
 
 notice of, cclvi. 
 Rowl of Aberdeen, notice of, cclvi. 
 Rowl of Corstorphine, notice of, cclvi. 
 
 Saint Ann, cciii. 
 Cuthbert, ccxiv. 
 
 Duthac at Tain, Queen Margaret's 
 
 pilgrimage to, xlviii. 
 Francis. See Francis. 
 Giles', in Edinburgh, bells of, 
 
 imitated, cxlix. 
 Girnega. See Girnega. 
 Ninian at Whithorn. 
 
 Aubigny vowed a pilgrimage 
 to, and his heart sent there, 
 xlvi. 
 
 Pilgrimages of James IV. to, 
 ccxxxi. 
 
 Paul's, in London, betrothal of 
 James IV. and Margaret Tudor 
 proclaimed at cross of, xxxiv. 
 
 Saintsbury, G., his 'French Litera- 
 ture ' referred to, xcviii. 
 Satire. 
 
 Dunbar's satire attacks all classes, 
 Ivi. 
 
 Dunbar one of the earliest satirists, 
 cxxii. 
 
 Scenery, Dunbar's description of 
 
 Scottish, Iviii. 
 Schaw, Quintyne. See Quhentyne. 
 Schaw, Robert, notice of, cclvii. 
 Schipper, Professor, of Vienna. 
 
 His * Leben und Gedichte ' of 
 Dunbar referred to, xiii, 
 Ixxxviii, cxiii. 
 His ' Altenglische Metrik ' re- 
 ferred to, Ixxxiv, Ixxxviii, clxxiv, 
 clxxx. 
 Scotland. 
 
 Generally a century behind Eng- 
 land and France, xxviii. 
 A small country courted by great 
 
 Powers, xxx. 
 The Scot abroad, xxvi, cviii. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, his opinion of Dun- 
 bar, xi. 
 Scottish language. 
 
 Its vocabulary of abuse, liii. 
 Never becomes classic, cli. 
 Session. 
 
 " Tidings from the Session," cxxiv. 
 Courts, why so called, cxxiv. 
 Shakespeare, sayings of Polonius com- 
 pared with poems of Dunbar, 
 cxxxiv. 
 
 Simones Sonnes of Quhynfell, notice 
 
 of, cclvii. 
 Sinclair, Sir John, notice of, cclviii. 
 Skeat, Professor. 
 
 On rules of alliteration, clxxiv. 
 On authorship of 'Lives of the 
 Saints,' ccvi. 
 Skelton, English poet, xxviii. 
 Skelton, Mr John, attributes the 
 " Freiris of Berwik " to Dunbar, 
 Ixxxvi. 
 
 Skene, Mr W. Forbes, theory of 
 
 Arthurian localities, ccv. 
 Smith, Alexander, Scottish poet, 
 
 criticism of Dunbar's poetry, lix. 
 Soutars satirised by Dunbar, c. 
 Spain. 
 
 Embassy to, under Archbishop 
 
 Blackadder, xxx. 
 Ayala, the Spanish ambassador 
 to James IV., ccxxx, ccxxxii. 
 Spenser, Edmund, Enghsh poet, com- 
 parison of his allegory with Dun- 
 bar's, Ixxviii. 
 
cclxxxii 
 
 INDEX TO 
 
 Stewart, Bernard, Lord of Aubigny. 
 Dunbar's poems on, xlv. 
 Notice of, cclviii. 
 Grandson of John of Darnley, 
 cclviii. 
 
 Succeeds his father, John, Lord of 
 Aubigny, 1483, cclviii. 
 
 Sent on embassy by Charles VIII. 
 to Scotland, 1484, cclviii. 
 
 Led French auxiliaries of Henry 
 
 VII. at Bosworth Field, 1485, 
 cclix. 
 
 Captain of Scots Guard, 1493, 
 cclix. 
 
 Ambassador to Rome, cclix. 
 Lieutenant - General of French 
 
 forces and conqueror of Naples, 
 
 cclix. 
 
 Philip de Comines, character of, 
 cclix. 
 
 Returns to France, 1496, cclx. 
 Commands French in Calabria 
 
 under Louis XII., cclx. 
 Defeats Spaniards at Terra Nuova, 
 
 1503, cclx. 
 Defeated by Hugo de Cordova at 
 
 Seminara, cclx. 
 Surrenders at Cerignola, cclx. 
 Accompanies Louis XII. in 
 
 expedition against Geneva, 
 
 cclx. 
 
 Visited by Ferdinand, cclx. 
 Sent on embassy to Scotland, 
 
 1508, cclx. 
 Received vi^ith honour by James 
 
 IV., cclxi. 
 Died at Edinburgh, 8th June 
 
 1 508, cclxi. 
 His heart sent to St Ninian's, 
 
 cclxi. 
 
 His will and portrait, cclxi. 
 Stewart, John, Duke of Albany. 
 
 Poem on his absence in France, 
 cclxi. 
 
 Son of Alexander, second son of 
 
 James II., cclxi. 
 Summoned by Convention of 
 
 Estates to the Regency, 15 13, 
 
 cclxii. 
 
 Lands in Scotland, 22d May 15 15, 
 cclxii. 
 
 Relations with Queen Margaret, 
 cclxii. 
 
 Wolsey's character of, cclxii. 
 Relations with Wolsey and Henry 
 
 VIII. , cclxiii. 
 
 Quits Scotland, 7th June 1517, 
 cclxiii. 
 
 Dunbar's ballad on, cclxiv. 
 
 Concludes treaty of Rouen, 26th 
 
 Aug. 1517, cclxiv. 
 Assists the Queen to obtain divorce 
 
 from Angus, cclxiv. 
 Dunbar's poem on his absence, 
 
 cclxv. 
 
 Returns to Scotland, 21st Nov. 
 
 1 521, cclxv. 
 
 Goes back to France, 27th Oct. 
 
 1522, cclxvi. 
 
 Returns to Scotland, 25th Sept. 
 
 1523, cclxvi. 
 
 Fails in siege of Wark, cclxvi. 
 Finally quits Scotland, May 1524, 
 cclxvi. 
 
 Dies in France, 2d June 1536, 
 cclxvi. 
 
 Portrait of him and the Queen, 
 
 cclxvi. 
 His character, cclxvii. 
 Stewart, Sir John, of Darnley, General 
 of the Scots in the service of Charles 
 VII., cclviii. 
 Stobo, Scottish poet, notice of, cclxvii. 
 Story, Scottish printer, "The Office 
 
 of our Lady of Pity, " xiv. 
 Strait Gibbon, notice of, cclxviii. 
 Strophic form of verse. 
 
 Analysis of Dunbar's poems in 
 strophes without refrain, clxxix. 
 Strophes with refrain, clxxxiv. 
 Strophes in tail rhyme, 
 
 clxxxix. 
 Strophes with a wheel, cxcii. 
 Swearing. 
 
 Oaths satirised in "The Devil's 
 
 Inquest," ccxxvi. 
 Scottish propensity to restrain, by 
 Act of Parliament, ccxxvi. 
 
 Tailors satirised by Dunbar, c. 
 
 Tales or stories, custom of telling, by 
 
 guests, Ixxxvi. 
 " Targe, the Goldyn." 
 
 Explanation of Dunbar's poem, 
 Iviii. 
 
 Metre of, clxxxiii. 
 Testament. 
 
 Of Andrew Kennedy, xcvi. 
 
 Poem so called, xcvii. 
 
 Of Cresseid, xcviii. 
 
 Of Squire Meldrum, xcviii. 
 
 Of Duncan Laideus, xcviii. 
 
 Of Robert Fergusson, xcviii. 
 Thames, the. 
 
 The glory of London, civ. 
 
 Its swans, cv. 
 
 Its bridge, cv. 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APPENDICES. cclxxxiii 
 
 Thistle, the emblem of Scotland. 
 
 Dunbar's poem on "The Thistle 
 
 and the Rose, " xxxv. 
 On the hangings at Holyrood, 
 Ixxxi. 
 
 On ratification of marriage treaty 
 
 of James IV. , Ixxxi. 
 On purple tartan of James III., 
 
 Ixxxi, 
 
 On portrait of James IV., Ixxxi. 
 Thomson^ John or Joan, proverb of 
 
 John Thomson's man, cclxviii. 
 Throp, an imexplained name in 
 
 ' ' Flyting," cclxviii. 
 Tournaments. 
 
 Ridiculed by Dunbar, c. 
 Of Toltenham referred to, c. 
 Traill, Sandy or Alexander, an un- 
 known Scottish poet, referred to by 
 Dunbar, cclxviii. 
 Triolet. 
 
 Example of, by Dunbar, clxxxix. 
 Called in fifteenth century " com- 
 mon rondeau," clxxxix. 
 
 Troy. 
 
 London called Troynovaunt or 
 
 New Troy, civ. 
 Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cre- 
 
 tensis on story of, ccxxix. 
 Guido de Colonna's ' Historia 
 
 Trojana,' ccxxix. 
 Lydgate's 'Troy Book,' ccxxix. 
 " Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo," 
 
 1, Ixxxvi. 
 ' ' Tua Cummeris, " the, xciii. 
 
 University. 
 
 Of St Andrews, xxii. 
 Of Paris, xxix. 
 
 Vanity. 
 
 Latin poem on, xli. 
 
 Dunbar's poem on, cxxxviii. 
 Veitch, Professor, criticism on Dun- 
 bar's description of scenery, Iviii. 
 
 Venice. 
 
 James IV. invited to lead army of, 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Dunbar's reference to, cvi. 
 Villon, French poet. 
 
 Influence on Dunbar, xxix. 
 
 Use of testament as form of 
 satire, xcviii. 
 
 Comparison of Dunbar's " La- 
 ment " with Villon's ballad, xl. 
 
 A few poems of Dunbar in tone 
 of Villon, cxxxi. 
 
 Wallace, William. 
 
 Referred to in "Flyting" as 
 
 King of Kyle, xviii. 
 Blind Harry's ' Wallace ' referred 
 to, cclxix. 
 Warton, reference to Dunbar in 
 * History of English Poetry,' xiii. 
 Waspasius or Vespasian referred to 
 
 in "Flyting," cclxix. 
 Webbe, his discourse of ' English 
 
 Poetrie ' referred to, clxxiv. 
 Wishart, John, preaches in East 
 
 Lothian, xxi. 
 Women. 
 
 Dunbar's satire against, Ivi. 
 Dunbar's poem in praise of, Ixxxv. 
 Satire on "Evil Women," cxx. 
 Satire on " Ladyis Solistaris," 
 cxxviii. 
 
 Poem on " Ginecocratia " referred 
 to, cxxviii. 
 Wordsworth, contrast of Dunbar with, 
 
 cxliv. 
 Wowing. 
 
 "The Wowing of the King,' 
 
 Dunbar's poem, xciii. 
 "Ane Brash of Wowing," Dun- 
 bar's poem so called, xciii, xcix. 
 Wyntoun. See Andrew of Wyntoun. 
 
 Year, Christian, Dunbar's poems on 
 
 the, cxxxviii. 
 Young, Somerset Herald, account of 
 
 marriage of Margaret Tudor, xxxv. 
 
NOTE AS TO FACSIMILES. 
 
 The photographic facsimiles represent — 
 
 1. Dunbar's poem of " Welcum to Margaret Tudor as Queen of 
 
 Scotland," from the MS. in the British Museum, with the 
 Music, forming 15 verso 16 recto of Appendix to Royal 
 MSS., No. 58. Photographed by Mr Charles Praetorius. 
 
 2. The opening lines of "The Goldyn Targe," from the MS. of 
 
 George Bannatyne, in the Advocates' Library. Photographed 
 by Messrs Wood & Son, Edinburgh. 
 
 3. The same lines from the edition of Chepman & Millar in 1508, 
 
 from the unique copy in the Advocates' Library. Photographed 
 also by Messrs Wood & Son, Edinburgh. 
 
 These early traces of Scottish Music and the Scottish press have 
 a historical interest besides their connection with the works of 
 Dunbar. 
 
I.— FACSIMILE OF VERSES OF POEM QiF "WELCUM TO MARGARET TUDOR AS Ql EEN OF SCOTLAND." 
 From Ithe MS. in the British Museum. 
 
"^^^^^T ^««vv^y?7^^"^ ^^^^'^/^ ^ 
 
 ^^^->y^rfti-^ 8i-f»^^*^f-^♦?^^ a^f^?u£^*n»>^ . 
 
 II.-FACSIMILE OF THE OPENING LINES OF "THE GOLDYN TARGE." 
 From the MS. of George Bannatyne. 
 
III.— FACSIMILE OF THE OPENING LINES OF "THE GOLDYN TA; 
 
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 From the Edition of Chepman and Millar in 1508. 
 
^be Scottish ^eyt Society. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll, K.T., K.G. 
 The Marquis of Lothian, K.T. | The Marquis of Bute, K.T. 
 The Earl of Aberdeen. | The Earl of Rosebery, K.G. 
 
 The Marquis of Lothian, K.T. 
 
 J. R. FiNDLAY, Esq. of Aberlour. 
 
 Professor Minto, Aberdeen University. 
 
 Sir Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B., M.D., LL.D. 
 
 Professor Masson, LL.D., Edinburgh University. 
 
 ^NEAS J. G. Mackay, Esq., LL.D., Advocate. 
 
 Council. 
 
 Rev. J. King Hewison, The Manse, Rothesay. 
 
 Peter Ronaldson, Esq., C.A. 
 
 J. Taylor Brown, Esq. 
 
 Rev. T. E. S. Clarke, The Manse, SaUon. 
 
 John Skelton, Esq., C.B., LL.D., Advocate. 
 
 J. C. Ogilvie-Forbes, Esq. of Boyndlie, 
 
 Thomas G. Law, Esq., Librarian, Signet Library. 
 
 F. J. Amours, Esq., Glasgow. 
 Archibald Constable, Esq. 
 James Arnot, Esq., M.A. 
 William Tough, Esq., M.A. 
 
 Sir James D. Marwick, LL.D., Glasgow. 
 
 Charles B. Logan, Esq., Deputy-Keeper of the Signet. 
 
 James Moir, Esq., M.A., LL.D., Aberdeen. 
 
 G. P. M'Neill, Esq., Advocate. 
 
 Rev. Walter Gregor, M.A., LL.D., Pitsligo, Fraserburgh, 
 Aberdeenshire, N.B. 
 
 William Traquair Dickson, Esq., W.S., ii Hill Street, Edinburgh. 
 James Gordon, C.A., Edinburgh. 
 
 1892. 
 
^be Scottish Zcvt Society. 
 
 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
 HE Annual Meeting of the Society was held in 
 
 Dowell's Rooms on the 17th November — ^Eneas J. 
 G. Mackay, Esq., LL.D., in the Chair. The Annual Report, 
 as follows, was submitted by the Secretary : — 
 
 " The Society has suffered great loss during the past 
 year by the deaths of Lieutenant-Colonel Fergusson, one of 
 the Vice-Presidents, and A. Forbes Irvine, Esq. of Drum, 
 a member of Council. Both were much interested in Scot- 
 tish literature, and took an active share in the work of the 
 Society. Their kindly and courteous manner, good taste, ac- 
 curate knowledge, and sound judgment, will be much missed. 
 
 "As usual, three Parts have been issued to subscribers 
 during the past year — viz., * Legends of the Saints,' Part IV., 
 concluding the text ; ' Buchanan's Works in Scots,' by P. 
 Hume Brown, Esq.; and 'Scottish Alliterative Poems in 
 Riming Stanzas,' by F. J. Amours, Esq. These works form 
 an important addition to early Scottish literature. The 
 number of pages issued amounts to about 569 — texts form- 
 ing 510 pages, and Introductions and Notes about 59. 
 
 " The Parts for the coming year, it is expected, will be 
 * Notes to the Satirical Poems of the Time of the Reforma- 
 tion'; the last Part of the 'Works of Dunbar,' containing 
 the remainder of the Notes, an Appendix by ^Eneas J. G. 
 
4 
 
 Mackay, Esq., LL.D., with a full Glossary ; and the first 
 Part of * The Bruce,' by Professor Skeat. 
 
 " Mr W. Murison, Spiers School, Beith, Ayrshire, has under- 
 taken to complete the editing of Bishop Lesley's ' Historie 
 of Scotland,' translated into Scottish from the original Latin 
 by Father James Dalrymple, which was left incomplete by 
 Father E. G. Cody at his death. The MS. of the work was 
 kindly sent from the Abbey at Fort- Augustus to the Ad- 
 vocates' Library, and the portion remaining to be transcribed 
 was transcribed under the superintendence of Mr Clark, 
 keeper of the Library. 
 
 " Other works formerly announced are in course of prepara- 
 tion. Two of the Parts for the coming year are nearly ready 
 for issue, and it is hoped that they will be in the hands of 
 subscribers at an early date. 
 
 " Through the kindness of the Honourable Mrs Maxwell 
 Scott, the Abbotsford MS. was placed in the Advocates' 
 Library for the use of the Society. Mr Clark has kindly 
 superintended its transcription. It contains ' L'Arbre des 
 Batailles,' translated by Gilbert Hay from the French of 
 Prior Bonnet. Another part of the same MS., ' The Buke of 
 the Order of Knychthede,' was edited by Mr David Laing, 
 and published by the Abbotsford Club at the cost of Mr 
 Beriah Botfield. The Council recommends that the remain- 
 ing or third part of the MS., 'The Buke of the Governance 
 of Princes,' should be transcribed with a view to its being 
 edited, if a suitable editor comes forward. 
 
 "There have been transcribed from the Asloan MS. a. re- 
 ligious Treatise in prose, consisting of eleven chapters, the 
 first piece in the MS., and a metrical version of 'The Buke of 
 Ye Chess.' 
 
 "A heraldic MS. in Scots, believed to be by Adam 
 Loutfut, is in Queen's College, Oxford, No. i6i. It is 
 Hkely that others of the same kind will be found in the 
 
5 
 
 British Museum. These may perhaps be deemed suitable 
 for publication by the Society. 
 
 "The Society has yet much to accomplish for Scottish 
 literature. There is no lack of material. The great want 
 is subscribers. This applies particularly to Libraries, Dur- 
 ing last year a short prospectus of the Society, with a list of 
 its publications, was prepared and sent to many University, 
 Free, and other Public Libraries, chiefly in the United States 
 of America. The result was the addition of a few subscribers. 
 We need, however, many more subscribers to enable the 
 Society to carry out the work proposed." 
 
 The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the Report, 
 said it showed the admirable work that had been done 
 during the past year. Each of the Parts issued was a char- 
 acteristic and important work. Perhaps the first place should 
 be given to ' Scottish AUiterative Poems,' for editing which 
 they were indebted to Mr Amours, Glasgow, a gentleman 
 who had always shown an interest in the literature and 
 history of Scotland. That work was one of the most im- 
 portant texts that had been issued in recent years, not merely 
 for Scottish but for early English literature. ' Buchanan's 
 Works in Scots,' which had been well edited by Mr Hume 
 Brown — a gentleman who was every year adding to his 
 services to Scottish literature — would be a standard edition, 
 and they were all glad to learn what Buchanan did in the 
 vernacular. He supposed many of them wished that 
 Buchanan had done more in the vernacular than in Latin. 
 The ' Legends of the Saints ' were now nearly completed. 
 Doubts had been thrown by high authorities on the attri- 
 bution of that work to Barbour, the author of ' Bruce.' He 
 still retained the belief that this was an open question ; but 
 whether it was by Barbour or not, he felt certain it was the 
 work of some one who wrote in the northern dialect, and 
 
6 
 
 had an intimate acquaintance with the Aberdeenshire dis- 
 trict. Referring to the works to be issued next year, he 
 said Dr Cranstoun's Notes on the 'Satirical Poems of the Time 
 of the Reformation ' showed that those persons had been very 
 greatly in error who supposed that the work of that Society 
 would not advance the knowledge of the history as well as 
 the literature of Scotland. They were all looking forward 
 to the Glossary on Dunbar, edited by their Secretary, Dr 
 Gregor, who was desirous that the work should be thoroughly 
 done and done once for all. Professor Skeat, Cambridge, 
 had in the most generous way offered to edit for the Society 
 * The Bruce,' and he was a man, above all others, competent 
 to edit it. He could not but contrast the generosity and 
 liberality of those learned gentlemen who had given their 
 time gratuitously to editing works with the somewhat sus- 
 picious and doubtful feeling that proprietors of MSS. had 
 towards that and other societies. He could understand and 
 appreciate the desire that no MS. should run any risk of 
 destruction, but if that was assured the MS. became truly 
 more valuable by being transcribed and edited. If some 
 looked forward to turning their MSS. into money, he did not 
 think publication would lower their pecuniary value. Forty- 
 two libraries had subscribed for the works published by the 
 Society, and he thought their example should be followed 
 much more largely than it had been by those gentlemen who 
 aspired to have private libraries of distinction. Sir Arthur 
 Mitchell seconded the adoption of the Report, which was 
 agreed to. J. R. Findlay, Esq. of Aberlour, and Professor 
 Minto, Aberdeen University, were elected Vice-Presidents ; and 
 the Rev. J. King Hewison, Rothesay, Mr J. Taylor Brown, Mr 
 P. Ronaldson, C.A., and the Rev. T. E. S. Clarke, Salton, were 
 appointed Members of Council. Mr W. Traquair Dickson, 
 W.S., was reappointed Treasurer ; Mr James Gordon, C.A., 
 was elected Auditor ; and Dr Gregor was re-elected Secretary. 
 
7 
 
 ABSTRACT OF THE TREASURER'S ACCOUNTS 
 For Year to 31st October 1892. 
 
 OHAHGE. 
 
 I. Balance brought from last Year, viz.— 
 
 1. Arrears of Contributions ...... £108 3 0 
 
 2. Cash in National Bank, less Balance due Treasurer . £54 15 1 
 
 Less Subscriptions paid in advance . . . 4 4 0 
 
 II. Members' Annual Contributions- 
 SCO Members for 1891-92, per List, at £1, Is., and 3 
 
 at £2, 2s., £321 6 0 
 
 Copies of previous issues sold to Members . . 31 8 6 
 
 III. Interest on Bank Account . . . . £1 12 6 
 On Deposit Keceipts . . . . . 2 11 2 
 
 50 11 1 
 
 £158 14 1 
 
 Less Arrears written off . . . . . 53 11 0 
 
 £105 3 1 
 
 352 14 6 
 
 Sum of the Charge . £462 1 3 
 
 Equalling the Discharge, as on page 8. 
 
 DISOHAKG-E. 
 
 I. Cost of Society's Publications- 
 Messrs Blackwood & Sons for Vol. XXVI., Vernacular Writings of 
 George Buchanan, 114 pp., 370 Copies, and Photo-Lithographed 
 Title, with Cov«r, Paper, Printing, and Doing up . , . £40 5 0 
 
 Do., for Vol. XXVII., Alliterative Poems, 196 pp., 375 Copies, with 
 
 Cover, Paper, Printing, and Doing up . . . . 64 9 3 
 
 Do., for Vol. XXVIII., Satirical Poems of the Time of the Reforma- 
 tion, Part III., Notes, 190 pp., 370 Copies, with Cover, Paper, 
 Printing, and Doing up . . . . . . 77 7 0 
 
 Executor of late Father Cody, Honorarium for Editing Lesley's History 15 15 0 
 Rev. Walter MacLeod, for Transcript of MS. Translation of do. . . 9 15 0 
 
 Mr Augustus Hughes, British Museum, for Transcript of "Pistillof Swete 
 
 Susan" . . . . . . . . 0 17 6 
 
 Carry forward 
 
 £208 8 9 
 
8 
 
 Brought forward 
 Mr Augustus Hughes, for Transcript from Lord Talbot's MS. 
 G. Parker, per Mr F. J. Amours, fee for Collation of Arthur with the 
 Douce MS, ........ 
 
 Miss Parker's fee for Collating Proof of " Pistill of Swete Susan " 
 
 II. Books bought for Editors .... 
 
 III. General Expenses, viz. — 
 
 Rev. Walter Gregor, LL.D., Secretary, Salary for year . 
 Do., Expenses attending Meetings of Council 
 Do., Postages and Stationery disbursed by him . 
 Messrs Blackwood, Addressing and Posting Vols. 26, 27, 
 
 and 28, and Delivering same .... 
 Do,, for Printing Report and Abstract of Accounts 
 
 (Year 1890-91), and List of Subscribers, 350 copies, 
 
 8 PP 
 
 Do., Printing Circulars, Subscriptions in arrears 
 Do., Printing Receipt-Book, 1891-92 
 Do., Printing 400 Circulars, Subscriptions, 1891-92, due 
 Do., Printing 500 do., acknowledging receipt 
 Do., Advertising in 'Scotsman' and 'Glasgow Herald 
 Do,, Printing 1000 Prospectus, 8 pp., with List of Pub 
 
 lications ..... 
 Do., 1 Publication No. 1 bought for Detroit Public 
 
 Library ..... 
 Do., 1 do. . 
 
 Do., Printing 100 Circulars, arrears of Subscription 
 Do., Miscellaneous Postages, and Carriages 
 
 Mr Dowell, for use of Room for Annual Meeting . 
 
 Commission to Booksellers introducing Members . 
 
 Clerical Work ..... 
 
 Charges on Cheques and Cheque-Book 
 
 Treasurer, Outlay for Stationery and Postages, &c., during 
 the year ....... 
 
 IV. Balance to next Account — 
 
 1. Arrears of Contributions, viz, — 
 
 5 Members for 1890-91 . . . . . 
 31 „ for 1891-92 
 
 Cash in National Bank — 
 On Deposit Receipt 
 
 Deduct Balance due on Account 
 Current .... 
 
 £150 
 12 
 
 0 0 
 4 9 
 
 £137 15 
 
 Less Subscriptions paid in advance 2 2 
 
 £25 0 0 
 
 4 4 0 
 
 1 16 8 
 
 16 6 7^ 
 
 5 18 6 
 
 0 4 6 
 
 0 10 6 
 
 0 8 6 
 
 0 9 3 
 
 0 8 6 
 
 3 15 11 
 
 0 10 
 0 10 
 
 0 
 0 
 6 
 
 3 
 0 
 11 
 
 2 2 8 
 
 £5 5 0 
 32 11 0 
 
 £37 16 0 
 
 135 13 3 
 
 Sum of the Discharge 
 Equalling the Charge, as on page 7. 
 
 £208 
 
 0 0 
 
 £217 0 
 2 11 
 
 0 6 
 
 173 9 
 
 £462 1 3 
 
 Edinburgh, \Uh November 1892. — I have examined the A ccounts of the Treasurer of the 
 Scottish Text Society for the year to 31st October 1892, and having compared them with 
 the vouchers, I find them to be correct, closing with a balance in Bank of One hundred and 
 thirty-seven pounds fifteen shillings and threepence sterling. The subscriptions paid in 
 advance amount to Two guineas. 
 
 PETER RONALDSON, C.A., Auditor, 
 
1893. 
 
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 1891. Oct. 21. 
 
 On hand 
 
 Printed 1891-92 . 
 Returned by- 
 Mr J. Sinton 
 
 Presented — 
 
 P. H. Brown, Esq. 
 
 Mons, Amours . 
 Delivered to 
 
 Subscribers 
 
 1892. Oct. 
 
 On hand 
 
Zbc Scottisb ^eyt Society. 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 No._ ot 
 
 Copies. 
 
 I Abercromby, J., 62 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh. 
 I Aberdeen University Library, Aberdeen. 
 I Aberdeen Free Public Library, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Aberdeen, The Right Hon. the Earl of, Haddo House, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Adams, Wm., 28 Ashton Terrace, Dowanhill, Glasgow. 
 
 I Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Agnew, A., Procurator-Fiscal, Dundee. 
 
 I Aiken, James, 1 1 Jamaica Street, Peterhead. 
 
 I Aitken, James H., Gartcows, Falkirk. 
 
 I Alexander, Wm., 3 Belvedere Street, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Allan, Hugh, 32 Moray Place, Strathbungo, Glasgow. 
 
 I Allardyce, Alex., 45 George Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Allsopp, The Hon. A. Percy, Battenhall Mount, Worcester. 
 
 I Amours, F., 2 Clifton Place, Glasgow. 
 
 I Anderson, John R., 52 Palmerston Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Anderson, Wm., 174 Ingram Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Anderson, A., M.D., C.B., Sunnybrae, Pitlochry, Perthshire. 
 
 I Anderson, Rev. John, 20 Lutton Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Antiquarian Society, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Argyll, His Grace the Duke of, K.T., K.G., Inveraray, Argyleshire. 
 I Arnot, James, 57 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 I Baillies' Institution Free Library, 48 Miller Street, Glasgow. 
 I Bannerman, Rev. D. Douglas, D.D., Free St Leonard's Manse, 
 Perth. 
 
 I Bell, Rev. James, Richmond House, Boulevard, Anlaby Road, 
 Hull. 
 
 I Black, Thos. F., 52 Queen Victoria Street, London. 
 I Black, Rev. John S., 6 Oxford Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 I Blackwood, Wm., of Gogar Mount, Ratho Station. 
 
12 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 No. of 
 Copies. 
 
 I Blair, John, W.S., 9 Ettrick Road, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Bodleian Library, Oxford. 
 
 I Boston Public Library, Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 I Boyd, Wm., F.S.A. Scot., Peterhead. 
 
 I Breslau University Library, Breslau. 
 
 I Brown, Wm., 26 Princes Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Brown, T. Craig, Woodburn, Selkirk. 
 
 I Brown, J. Taylor, Gibraltar House, St Leonard's Hill, Edin. 
 I Brown, Professor Alex. Crum, 8 Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh. 
 I Bruce, Alex., Clyne House, Southland Avenue, Pollokshields, 
 Glasgow. 
 
 I Bryn Maur College, Philadelphia. 
 
 I Buccleuch, His Grace the Duke of, K.T., Dalkeith. 
 
 I Buchan, Alex., 72 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Buchanan, T. R., M.P., 10 Moray Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Bulbring, Dr K. D., Gross-Herzogliche Universitats-Bibliothek, 
 
 Heidelberg, Germany. 
 I Burnett, Alex., M.A., Public School, Haddington. 
 
 1 Burnside, W., Woodlands, Hether Green Lane, Lewisham. 
 
 2 Bute, The Most Hon. the Marquess of, K.T., 83 Eccleston 
 
 Square, London, S.W. 
 I Cadenhead, Wm., Merchant, Aberdeen. 
 I Caldwell, James, Craigielea Place, Paisley. 
 I Cameron, Dr James A., Nairn. 
 I Campbell, J. A., M.P., of Stracathro. 
 I Carmichael W., Postmaster, Wishaw. 
 I Carruthers, David, Solicitor, Kilmarnock. 
 I Charles, John B., High School, Dundee. 
 I Chicago Public Library, Chicago, U.S.A. 
 I Cincinnati Public Library, Cincinnati, U.S.A. 
 I Clark, J. T., Keeper, Advocates' Library. 
 I Clark, Rev. A., Lincoln College, Oxford. 
 I Clark, John, M.A., Rose Cottage, Culross. 
 I Clarke, Robert, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. 
 I Clarke, Rev. T. E. S., Salton Manse, Pencaitland. 
 I Clouston, T. S., M.D., Tipperlinn House, Morningside Place, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 I Constable, Messrs T. & A., 11 Thistle Street, Edinburgh. 
 I Cowan, James, 23 St Vincent Place, Glasgow. 
 I Craigie, W. A., Oriel College, Oxford. 
 I Cranston, R., Granby Road, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Cranstoun, James, LL.D., Roxburgh House, Stroud, Gloucester- 
 shire, 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 13 
 
 No. of 
 Copies. 
 
 I Gumming, A. W., i Bank Street, Dundee. 
 
 I Dalgety, Rev. J. B., Whitehaugh House, Paisley. 
 
 I Detroit Public Library, Michigan, U.S.A. 
 
 I Dickson, Thos., LL.D., Register House, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Dickson, Wm. Traquair, W.S., 11 Hill Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Dodds, Rev. James, D.D., Corstorphine. 
 
 I Dollar Institution, Dollar. 
 
 I Donaldson, Principal, St Andrev^s. 
 
 I Donaldson, James, Sunnyside, Formby, near Liverpool. 
 
 I Douglas, Miss, Muckhart, Dollar. 
 
 I Duke, Rev. W., M.A., D.D., St Vigeans, Arbroath. 
 
 I Duncan, J. Dalrymple, F.S.A. Lond., Meiklewood, Stirling. 
 
 I Dundas, Ralph, W.S., 28 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Edinburgh Public Library, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Edinburgh University Library. 
 
 I English Seminary, University of Gottingen. 
 
 I Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, U.S.A. 
 
 I Ferguson, J., Writer, Duns. 
 
 I Ferguson, Rev. J., Aberdalgie. 
 
 I Fergusson, Robt. M., Solicitor, Dundee. 
 
 I Fergusson, Mrs, 18 Lennox Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Findlay, J. R., of Aberlour, 3 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Flint, The Rev. Prof., D.D., Johnstone Lodge, Craigmillar Park. 
 
 I Forrester, John, 29 Windsor Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Forsyth, D., A.M., Leeds Central Higher Grade School, Leeds. 
 
 I Fowlie, Alex., Schoolhouse, Inverurie. 
 
 I Eraser, John, 10 Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool. 
 
 I Galbraith, Thos. L., 24 Park Terrace, Stirling. 
 
 I Gallaway, Alex., Dirgarve, Aberfeldy. 
 
 I Galletly, E. G., 7 St Ninian's Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Gaudie, James, Post Office, Montrose. 
 
 I Geddes, Principal, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Gemmell, Wm., Writer, 1 50 Hope Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Gerold & Co., Vienna. 
 
 I Gibb, E. J. W., 15 Clepstow Villas, Bayswater, London, W. 
 
 I Gilbert, D. M. Crerar, of Yorkhill, Glasgov^. 
 
 I Giles, P., Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 
 
 I Gill, John, 35 Frederick Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College, Glasgow. 
 
 I Glasgow University Library. 
 
 I Gordon, Rev. Robt, 11 Mayfield Gardens, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Gordon, John, of Aikenhead, Cathcart. 
 
 I Gordon, Chas. T., of Cairness, Lonmay, Aberdeenshire. 
 
14 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 No. of 
 Copies. 
 
 I Gottingen University Library, Gottingen. 
 
 I Goudie, Robt., Commissary Clerk of Ayrshire, 1 1 Alloway Place, 
 Ayr. 
 
 I Green, Mrs, i Garden Terrace, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Gregor, Rev. Walter, LL.D., Pitsligo, Fraserburgh. 
 
 I Guildhall Library, London. 
 
 I Gunn, N. B., i6 Morningside Park, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Hales, Professor Jn. W., i Oppidans Rd., Primrose Hill, London. 
 
 I Hamilton of Dalziel, The Right Hon. Lord, Dalziel, Motherwell. 
 
 I Hamilton, J. Crawford, 65 West Regent Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Harper, Wm. Cluny, Aberdeenshire. 
 
 I Harrison, Robt., London Library, St james Sq., London, S.W. 
 
 I Harvard College Library, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
 I Hatchards, Messrs, 187 Piccadilly, London, W. 
 
 I Heath, Edwin, 3 Cedar Villas, Broughty Ferry. 
 
 I Heddle, J. G. Moodie, of Melsetter, Orkney. 
 
 I Hewison, Rev. James K., The Manse, Rothesay. 
 
 I Hutchison, Alex., Architect, Herschel House, Broughty Ferry. 
 
 , I Hutchison, A. F., M.A., 13 Windsor Place, Stirling. 
 
 I Inglis, Dr D. W., Hebburn, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 
 I Innes, Chas., Solicitor, Inverness. 
 
 I Ireland, National Library of, Dublin. 
 
 I Jameson, J. H., 3 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Jamieson, Patrick, Surgeon, Peterhead. 
 
 I Jamieson, Geo. Auldjo, C.A., 37 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edin. 
 
 I Jenkins, Sir James, M.D., K.C.B., Nevinston, Mannamead, 
 Plymouth. 
 
 I Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A. 
 
 I Johnston, G. P., Bookseller, 33 George Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Ker, W. P., 95 Gower Street, London, W.C. 
 
 I King's Inn Library, Dublin. 
 
 I Kissner, Professor, English Seminary, Konigsberg, Prussia. 
 
 I Koebner, Wilhelm, Buchhandlung, Schmiedebriicke, 56, Breslau. 
 
 I Kolbing, Professor Eugen, Moltkestr, 11, Breslau. 
 
 I Konigsberg University Library, Konigsberg. 
 
 I Laing, Alex., S.S.C., Glenord, Spylaw Road, Merchiston. 
 
 I Law, T. G., Signet Library, Parliament Square, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Leadbetter, Thos., 26 Coates Gardens. 
 
 I Leask, Rev. James, M.A., 8 Home Terrace, Broughty Ferry. 
 
 I Lindsay, The Rev. Professor, D.D., Glasgow. 
 
 I Linton, Fred. T. C, C.E., 4 Assembly Street, Leith. 
 
 I Lippe, Rev. R., Chaplain, Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Logan, Chas. B., D.K.S., 23 Queen Street, Edinburgh. 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 15 
 
 No. of 
 Copies. 
 
 1 Lorimer, Geo., 2 Abbotsford Crescent, Edinburgh. 
 
 2 Lothian, The Most Hon. the Marquess of, K.T., Newbattle 
 
 Abbey, Dalkeith. 
 
 I Lowson, Geo., M.A., High School, Stirling. 
 
 I Lumsden, Miss, Glenbogie, Rhynie, Aberdeenshire. 
 
 I MacBrayne, David, Lilybank House, Hillhead, Glasgow. 
 
 I M'Donald, A. M., Advocate, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Macdonald, W. K., Town-Clerk, Arbroath. 
 
 I Macfadyen, Dr Allan, 91 Gower Street, London, W.C. 
 
 I MacGregor, Rev. James, D.D., Cumin Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I MacHardy, John A., M.A., Bridgefield, Old Machar, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Macintyre, Peter M., Advocate, 12 India Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Mackay, Rev. G. S., Free Church Manse, Doune. 
 
 I Mackay, Wm., Solicitor, Inverness. 
 
 I Mackay, Thos. A., 14 Henderson Row, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Mackay, ^neas J. G., LL.D., Advocate, 7 Albyn Place, Edin. 
 
 I Mackay, Prof., University College, Liverpool. 
 
 1 Mackay, Thos., 14 Wetherby Place, London, S.W. 
 
 I Mackennal, Rev. Alex., D.D., Beechwood, Bowdon, Cheshire.' . 
 
 I Mackenzie, A., St Catherine's, Paisley. 
 
 I Mackie, Alex., 4 Carden Place, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Mackintosh, Chas. Fraser, of Drummond, Lochardill, Inverness. 
 
 I Maclachlan, J., of Maclachlan, W.S., 12 Abercromby Place, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 I M'Lean, N., 5 Eildon Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Maclehose & Sons, Glasgow. 
 
 I M'Lennan, John F., Advocate, 20 Heriot Row, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Macleod, J., H.M. Inspector of Schools, Elgin. 
 
 I M'Neill, Geo. P., Advocate, 10 Forres Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Macquarrie, Rev. A. J., Ferintosh Manse, Cononbridge. 
 
 I Malcolm, George, Factor, Craigard, Invergarry. 
 
 I Marwick, Sir J. D., LL.D., Town-Clerk, Glasgow. 
 
 I Masson, Professor, 58 Great King Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Masterton, G., The Schoolhouse, Cross Roads, Methil, Fife. 
 
 I Menzies, Alex., Webster's Seminary, Kirriemuir. 
 
 I Metcalfe, Rev. Wm., D.D., Paisley. 
 
 I Miller, P., 8 Bellevue Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Milne, Geo., The Trees, Church Road, Upper Norwood, Surrey. 
 
 I Milne, Rev. John, M.A., Newlands Manse, Noblehouse. 
 
 I Milne, A. & R., 199 Union Street, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Milne, W., C.A., 147 Union Street, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Milne, Rev. A., LL.D., Manse of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire. 
 
 I Milne, Rev. Robert, D.D., Perth. 
 
i6 
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 No. of 
 Copies. 
 
 I Milne, Wm., Advocate, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Minto, Professor, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Mitchell, Sir Arthur, K.C.B., 34 Drummond Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Mitchell, Rev. J. R. Mitford, D.D., 6 Queen's Terrace, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Mitchell, Rev. James, D.D., The Manse, South Leith. 
 
 I Mitchell Library, 23 Miller Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Mitchell, The Rev. Professor A. F., D.D., 56 South Street, St 
 Andrews. 
 
 I Moir, Dr Forbes Maitland, 143 Union Street, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Moir, James, LL.D., The Ash, Hamilton Place, Aberdeen. 
 
 I MoUyson, Chas. A., Secretary, North of Scotland Bank, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Morgan, John, Rubislaw House, Queen's Road, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Morice, Arthur D., Eastbank, Fonthill Road, Aberdeen. 
 
 I Morison, John, 1 1 Burnbank Gardens, Glasgow. 
 
 I Moulten, Rev. W. F., D.D., Cambridge. 
 
 I Muir, James, 27 Huntly Gardens, Glasgow. 
 
 I Munro, J. W., Scottish Education Department. 
 
 I Murdoch, J. B., Capelrig, Newton-Mearns, Glasgow. 
 
 I Murison, W., Spiers School, Beith, Ayrshire. 
 
 I Murray, David, LL.D., 169 West George Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Murray, Alfred A., LL.B., &c., Westfield House, Cramond. 
 
 I Murray, Dr, Pres. Philol. Society, Sunnyside, Banbury Road, 
 Oxford. 
 
 I Murray, John, 9 Comely Bank, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Murray, A., 5 Meadow Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Nairn, W., 29 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Neil, R. A., Pembroke College, Cambridge. 
 
 I Newbury Library, Chicago, U.S.A. 
 
 I New College Library, Mound, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Nicolson, Rev. W., M.A,, 4 New Isaac St., St Petersburg, Russia. 
 
 I Nottingham Free Public Library, University_ College. 
 
 I Ogilvie-Forbes, J. C. A., of Boyndlie, Fraserburgh. 
 I Baton, Sir Noel, LL.D., 33 George Square, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Patrick, Rev. John, B.D., 18 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh. 
 I Patrick, R. W. Cochran, LL.D., F.S.A., of Woodside, Beith. 
 
 I Patrick, David, 339 High Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Paul, Rev. David, The Manse, Roxburgh. 
 I Peabody Institute, Baltimore, U.S.A. 
 I Philip, David, S.S.C., 41 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. 
 I Procurators, Faculty of, Glasgow. 
 I Public Library, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 
 I Rainy, Rev. R,, D.D,, Principal of New College, 23 Douglas 
 Crescent, Edinburgh. 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 n 
 
 No. of 
 
 Copies. 
 
 I Raleigh, Prof. W. A., University College, Liverpool. 
 
 I Ramsay, Robert, 27 Greendyke Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Rankine, Professor, LL.D., 23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Reid, A. G., Writer, Auchterarder. 
 
 I Richard, J. Miller, 20 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Ritchie, G. Mure, Writer, 123 St Vincent Street, Glasgow. 
 
 I Robertson, Robt, Solicitor, Peterhead. 
 
 I Robertson, J. Stewart, of Edradynate, Ballinluig. 
 
 I Ronaldson, Peter, C.A., 3A North St David Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 I Rosebery, The Right Hon. the Earl of, K.T., Dalmeny Park. 
 
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