Arthur and his court go from
Carlisle
to Tarn Wadling to
hunt.
hunt.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v02
When
Wallace, to escape his enemies, had to disguise himself as a maid
spinning, Harry says quaintly
he sat still, and span full connandly
As of his tym, for he nocht leryt lang. I, 248 f.
When their enemies were upon them,
His falow Stewyn than thocht no tyme to bide. V, 154.
When Wallace set the Englishmen's lodging on fire,
Till slepand men that walkand1 was nocht soft VII, 440,
and on another occasion
Quhar Sotheroun duelt, thai maid thair byggyngis hayt.
IX, 1692
Even to Julius Caesar he applies a quip:
Gret Julius, that tribute gat off aw,
His wynnyng was in Scotland bot full smaw. VIII, 1339 f.
In his Chaucerian passages at the beginning of several books,
and in the apostrophe to Scotland in the last book (XI, 1109 ff. ),
Harry employs those 'aureate' terms which, through the following
century, were to be a snare to Scottish literature. But the use
of them proves that Harry was not, after all, a burel man. Here
and there he makes pretensions to classical learning, and, like
Barbour, occasionally refers to the heroes of old romance, to
1 waking
• made their buildings hot.
## p. 112 (#130) ############################################
II2
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Charlemagne at Roncesvalles, to king Arthur slaying the giant at
Mont St Michel, to the Alexander story of Gawdyfer at Gaddris,
also referred to by Barbour. He assumes that all men know
Barbour's book; though, curiously enough, the name of Wallace is
not once to be found in Barbour's poem. A still more recent writer
is probably referred to in the apologue of the owl in borrowed
plumes, which Stewart applies to Wallace, when angry because
Wallace refused to let him lead the vanguard. For, only a few
years before 1460, this story had been the subject of Holland's
Howlat.
With the Buke of the Howlat, which is the proper title of this
work, we pass from historical romance to the last type of the
romance proper, with its metre founded on the old alliterative long
line, but fashioned into an elaborate lyrical stanza of nine long
verses of four beats and four short verses of two beats. The scheme
is ababababcdddc, and no better example of its treatment in the
Howlat can be found than the second stanza:
This riche Revir dovn ran, but resting or rufi
Throwe ane forest on fold, that farly was fair
All the brayis of the brym bair branchis abuf,
And birdis blythest of ble on blossomes bair;
The land lowne was and lea, with lyking and luf,
And for to lende by that laike thocht me levar,
Becauss that thir hartes in heirdis couth hof,
Pransand and prunzeand, be pair and be pair.
Thus sat I in solace, sekerly and sure,
Content of the fair firth,
Mekle mair of the mirth,
Als blyth of the birth
That the ground bare.
This is the commonest form of the metre, found also in Golagros
and Gawane and in the Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathe-
lyne, and, with a slight modification, in Rauf Coilzear; while in
the Pistill of Susan the ninth line is replaced by a 'bob' of one
beat and two syllables like 'In Feere,' 'So sone,' etc.
The Howlat is preserved in two manuscripts, the Asloan, dating
from about 1515, and the Bannatyne, written in 1568. The poem
is between sixty and seventy years older than the earlier manu-
script. It was composed, as the author tells us in the last stanza,
in the 'mirthfull month of May' at Darnaway in the midst of
Moray:
Thus for ane Dow of Dunbar drew I this dyte,
Dowit with ane Dowglass.
* pause.
3 secluded and sheltered.
i abido.
## p. 113 (#131) ############################################
Holland's Howlat
113
In other words, it was written for Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess
of Moray in her own right, whose first husband was one of the
Douglas family that perished in the struggle with James II of
Scotland, his eldest brother being that earl whom the king stabbed
with his own hand. Pinkerton saw in the poem a satire on
James II, a view which was entirely founded on a misreading of
crovne for rovme in verse 984, and, with the restoration of the
true reading, the theory falls to the ground. The poem, which
introduces an elaborate account of the Douglas arms, must have
been written before the final disaster to the Douglases at Arkin-
holm in 1455; for the unfortunate countess, no doubt with the
intention of saving her lands, married, three weeks after the loss
of her first husband, the son of the earl of Huntly, who was on the
side of the king. As the arms of pope Nicholas V are described,
the poem must be later than 1447, and, probably, before the
murder of earl William by the king in 1452, as is shown by
Amours in his edition for the Scottish Text Society. There seems
to be no recondite meaning in the piece. The subject is the thrice-
told tale of the bird in borrowed plumes, which gives itself airs
and speedily falls to its former low estate. The owl, beholding him-
self in a river that flows through a fair forest, is disgusted with his
own appearance and appeals to the pope of the birds, the peacock,
against dame Nature. A summons is issued to the members of
the council to convene. The author shows considerable ingenuity
in finding names of birds and other words to suit his alliterative
verse, and some humour in the parts which he assigns to the
different birds. If it were necessary to search for hidden mean-
ings, one might suspect that there was a spice of malice in repre-
senting the deans of colleges by ganders, and the archdeacon, 'that
ourman, ay prechand in plane, Correker of kirkmen' by the claik,
which is the barnacle goose, but also a Scots word for a gossip.
It is a pretty fancy to make the dove 'rownand ay with his feir,
always whispering with his mate, a curate to hear whole confes-
sions. The author, who was of the secular clergy, may have been
well satisfied that
Cryand Crawis and Cais, that oravis the corne,
War pure freris forthward,
That, with the leif of the lard,
Will cum to the corne zard
At ewyn and at morn. 191 ff.
When all are met, the unhappy owl is commanded by the pope
to state his case; and, when this has been done, the pope calls upon
8
E. L. II.
CH. V.
## p. 114 (#132) ############################################
I14
The Earliest Scottish Literature
his councillors to express their opinions. They proceed to do so
in a manner with which Holland was no doubt familiar:
And thai weraly awysit, full of wirtewe,
The maner, the mater, and how it remanyt;
The circumstance and the stait all couth thai argewe.
Mony allegiance leile, in leid nocht to layne it,
of Arestotill and ald men, scharplie thai schewe;
The Prelatis thar apperans? proponit generale;
Sum said to, and sum fra,
Sum nay, and sum za;
Baith pro and contra
Thus argewe thai all.
Ultimately it is decided to consult the emperor-the eagle and
the swallow is despatched as herald with letters written by the
turtle, who is the pope's secretary. The herald finds him 'in
Babilonis tower,' surrounded with kings, dukes and other nobles,
who, as is explained afterwards, are the nobler birds of prey. The
specht or wood-pecker is the emperor's pursuivant and, as is the
manner of pursuivants, wears a coat embroidered with arms.
Then comes a long description of heraldic arms, including not only
the emperor's but also those of Nicholas V, of the king of Scot-
land and, in greatest detail, of the Douglas family. More than a
quarter of the poem is taken up with this dreary stuff, which was
very interesting, no doubt, to Holland's patroness, but which
ruins the poem as a work of art. The only interest it can have
for the general reader is that in it is contained a version of the
journey undertaken by the good Sir James with the heart of
Bruce, which may be regarded as the official Douglas version, and
which differs from that contained in the last book of Barbour's
Bruce. Here, Douglas is represented as having journeyed to
Jerusalem and as being on his way back when he perished fighting
against the Moors in Spain; but there is no reason to doubt the
correctness of Barbour's story that Douglas never travelled further
than Spain. The last third of the poem is occupied with a feast
to which the pope invited the emperor and his courtiers. The
bittern was cook, and the choir of minstrels consisted of the
mavis and the merle, ousels, starlings, larks and nightingales. We
have presented to us in full the hymn they sang in honour of
the Virgin Mary, and a whole stanza is occupied with the names
of the different musical instruments, which far outstrip shawms,
sackbut and psaltery in obscurity. The visitors are entertained
by the jay, who is a wonderful juggler. He makes the audience
i in language not to conceal it.
opinion.
• It is, however, noteworthy that Boece adopts this version and not Barbour's
a
## p. 115 (#133) ############################################
Huchoun of the Awle Ryale 115
see many wonderful things which do not really exist, among
others the emperor's horses led off to the pound by the corncrake,
because they had been eating of the corne in the kirkland. '
The rook appears as a 'bard owt of Irland,' reciting much un-
intelligible Gaelic gibberish—such Gaelic bards no doubt were
familiar enough at Darnaway in the fifteenth century-but is
ignominiously routed by the jesters, the lapwing and the cuckoo,
who then engage in a tussle for the amusement of the company.
After grace has been said by the pope, it is agreed, at dame Nature's
suggestion, that her supposed ill-treatment of the owl shall be
remedied by grafting on the owl a feather from each of the birds.
The owl, however, becomes so insolent in consequence, that Nature
takes all the feathers from him again, much to his sorrow.
David Laing and Amours have diligently collected the little
that is known as to the author of this jeu d'esprit. He is
mentioned in various documents connected with the church and
family of his patron. From these we learn that, in 1450, Richard
de Holand was rector of Halkirk, in Caithness, in 1451, rector of
Abbreochy in the diocese of Moray, and, like his contemporary
Henryson, a public notary. In 1453, he was presented by the pope
to the vacant post of chanter in the church of Moray. In 1457,
after the fall of the Douglases, we find him in Orkney where, in
1467, he demits the vicarage of Ronaldshay. He seems to have
joined the exiled Douglases in England, from which he was sent
on a mission to Scotland in 1480, and, in 1482, along with 'Jamis
of Douglace' (the exiled earl) and certain other priests 'and vther
sic like tratouris that are sworne Inglismen, and remanys in
Ingland,' he is excepted from a general amnesty.
Like this poem in form, but certainly of an earlier date, is a
series of romances which cluster about the name of 'Huchoun of
the Awle Ryale,' one of the most mysterious figures in our early
literature. The earliest mention of him is to be found in Wyn-
toun's Orygynale Cronykil, written about 1420. Wyntoun, in
describing king Arthur's conquests, remarks that 'Hucheon of the
Awle Realle In til his Gest Historyalle' has treated this matter.
Wyntoun feels it necessary to apologise for differing from Huchoun
in saying that Leo and not Lucius Iberius was the Roman Emperor
who demanded tribute from Arthur. He argues that he has good
authority on his side, nor is Huchoun to be blamed:
And men of gud discretioun
Suld excuss and loif Huchoun,
That cunnand wes in litterature.
8-2
## p. 116 (#134) ############################################
116
The Earliest Scottish Literature
He maid the Gret Gest of Arthure
And the Anteris of Gawane,
The Epistill als of Suete Susane.
He wes curyouss in his stile,
Faire and facund and subtile,
And ay to plesance and delite
Maid in meit metyre his dite,
Litill or ellis nocht be gess
Wauerand fra the suthfastnes 1.
The verses which follow are vital for deciding what the nature
of the Gest Historyalle or Gret Gest of Arthure was:
Had he callit Lucyus procuratour
Quhare he callit him emperoor,
It had mare grevit the cadeng
Than had relevit the sentens.
Clearly cadens is to be distinguished from rime, for, as
Wyntoun's example shows, procuratour and emperour might rime
together. The Gest Historyalle must, therefore, have been an
alliterative poem, and all authorities are now agreed that the
conditions are satisfied by the poem called Morte Arthure which
is preserved in the Thornton MS of Lincoln Cathedral. In the
Morte Arthure, not only is ‘Sir Lucius Iberius' called 'the
Emperour of Rome,' but the knights of the Round Table are
called Duszeperez (or some variant thereof), which is evidently
the origin of Wyntoun's Dowchsperys. As for the Epistill of
Suete Susane, there can be no doubt that it is the poem pre-
served in five MSS under that title (with variations of spelling).
What was the poem called the Adventure or Adventures of
Gawain, the other work of Huchoun mentioned by Wyntoun ?
For this place there are several pretenders, the most plausible
claim being, it seems, advanced for a poem surviving in three
curiously different versions, The Awntyrs off [of] Arthure at the
Terne Wathelyne, that is at Tarn Wadling, a small lake near
Hesket in Cumberland, on the road between Carlisle and Penrith.
As the story is mostly concerned with Gawain, his name might have
appeared in the title no less justifiably than Arthur's.
Of none of these poems in their extant forms can it be said that
the language is Scottish. Who, then, was Huchoun? Pinkerton,
in the end of the eighteenth century, was the first to suggest that
Huchoun was to be identified with the 'gude Sir Hew of Eglintoun,'
enumerated amongst other poets in Dunbar's Lament for the
1 Thus in the Wemyss MS (S. T. 8. 1906), v, 4329 ft. The Cottonian MS, also printed
in the 8. T. S. edition, besides other variants gives the poet's name as Hucheon and reads
a for the in 4332, Awntyr for Anteris in 4333, and in 4334 The Pistil als of Suet Susane.
## p. 117 (#135) ############################################
Huchoun of the Awle Ryale 117
Makaris. To this it has been objected that Huchoun is a familiar
diminutive, and that, if the poet was the well known Sir Hew of
Eglintoun, a statesman in the reigns of David II and Robert II,
who was made a knight in 1342, and, later in life, was married to
Egidia, step-sister of Robert II, Wyntoun was not at all likely
to talk of him as 'little Hugh' But George Neilson has shown
that the name Huchoun was employed in solemn documents even
of barons, and, therefore, might without disrespect be applied to a
knight who was a king's brother-in-law. The name Hucheon has
commonly survived in some districts as a surname, and must have
been much commoner earlier, as is shown by the names Hutchinson
and M‘Cutcheon, which are merely the Lowland and the Highland
forms of the same name. So far there is no difficulty. The ex-
planation of the phrase 'of the Awle Realle’ is more difficult, but
Neilson's argument for the old view that it is simply the Aula
Regis, an appropriate enough description for a knight who served
for a period as justiciar, seems much preferable to any other that
has been advanced. The more southern colouring of the dialect in
his works is not sufficient proof of his English origin, for, where
there are several manuscripts, the dialectal forms vary very con-
siderably. Moreover, it would be strange that so fertile a writer
should have no honour in the country of his birth, and should be
talked of with respect and reverence in a country which was
bitterly hostile. It is impossible here to enter fully into the
elaborate and ingenious argument by which Neilson, in his
Huchown of the Awle Ryale, not only supports the claim made
by Wyntoun, but attempts to annex a whole cycle of other poems,
which are ordinarily regarded as of English though anonymous
origin, and which are discussed elsewhere? For the present
purpose, it is sufficient to say that there seems good evidence for
the existence of a Scottish poet called Huchoun in the middle of
the fourteenth century, and that, in all probability, he is to be
identified with the statesman Sir Hew of Eglintoun, who was a
contemporary, perhaps a somewhat older contemporary, of Barbour,
who must have been at least twenty-one in 1342 when he was
knighted, and who died about the end of 1376 or the beginning of
1377. It is noticeable that, on a great many occasions, Sir Hew
of Eglintoun receives permission to travel to London under safe-
conduct-a fact on which Neilson founds a plausible argument that
he was a persona grata at the court of Edward III. This argu-
ment, if correct, would account for a more favourable attitude
· See volume 1, pp. 320 ft.
## p. 118 (#136) ############################################
118
The Earliest Scottish Literature
towards England in his works than appears in Barbour's In an
alliterative poem scribes might change dialectal forms at their will,
so long as they did not affect the alliteration or the number of
syllables. In the rimed poems here attributed to Huchoun it is
certain that the rimes are northern, though, in the fourteenth
century, there was no distinction well enough marked to form a
criterion of origin from north or south of the Border.
Panton and Donaldson, the editors for the Early English Text
Society of the interminable Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction
of Troy (it contains over 14,000 lines), were the first to point out
that this unrimed alliterative translation of Guido delle Colonne's
Hystoria Troiana must, from identity in style and phraseology, be
attributed to the same author as Morte Arthure, though it had
been copied from a Scottish original by a west midland scribe.
Their opinion has been developed and confirmed by Neilson's work
on Huchoun. As Morte Arthure is admittedly superior in execution
to the Gest Hystoriale and as, unless it had some source still un-
discovered or now lost, it is a very independent rendering of the
story of Arthur as related in Books ix and x of Geoffrey of
Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, it may be used to
illustrate the style of Huchoun. Morte Arthure begins with a
rude demand from Lucius Iberius, emperor of Rome, for tribute
from king Arthur. Arthur, after considering the matter with his
council, comes to the conclusion that he has more right to the
empire than Lucius has to tribute from him ; he will, therefore,
anticipate Lucius's threats of invasion by taking the field against
him. Accordingly, he appoints Mordred to rule in his absence and
charges him especially with the care of Waynour (Guinevere).
Arthur himself crosses the Channel with his host, and, after an
unpleasant dream, fights a great battle with a giant from Genoa
'engendered of fiends,' who lives on human flesh, has ravaged the
Cotentin and, last of all, has carried off and slain the Duchess of
Britanny. The author, who is excessively fond of alliteration, excels
himself, in his description of the giant, by carrying on alliteration
on the same letter through four consecutive verses; so that the
first twelve lines (1074–85) make three stanzas of this sort, of
which the last, as the least repulsive, may be taken as a specimen :
Huke-nebbyde as a hawke, and a hore berde 1
And herede to the hole eyghna with hyngande browes;
Harske as a hunde-fisch3, hardly who so luke3,
So was the hyde of that hulke hally4 al ouer.
hoary beard.
9 hairy to the hollow eyes.
rough as a dog-fish.
• wholly.
## p. 119 (#137) ############################################
Morte Arthure
119
Hardly has Arthur had time to thank Heaven for his success in
the combat, ere urgent messengers arrive from the marshal of
France to say that he must have help at once against the emperor,
who has entered the country and is carrying destruction far and
wide. Sir Boice, Sir Gawain, Sir Bedivere and some others are
bastily despatched to delay the emperor, who has brought with him
all the powers of eastern heathenesse; and these knights, with the
help of an ambuscade, win a victory. In the great battle which
follows many noble deeds are done; these are described with great
vigour. Arthur himself with Collbrande (Excalibur) has a short
way with his foemen :
He clekys owttel Collbrande, full clenlyche burneschte,
Graythes hym 2 to Golapas, that greuyde moste,
Kuttes hym even by the knees clenly in sondyre.
'Come down' quod the kynge, and karpe to thy ferys3!
Thowe arte to hye by the halfe, I hete the in trouthe!
Thou sall be handsomere in hye, with the helpe of my Lorde! ' 2123 ff.
The emperor himself perishes at the hands of Arthur, and his
knights, having slaughtered the paynim till they are tired, fall
upon the spoil, and help themselves, not only to 'hakkenays and
horses of armes,' but to all kinds of wonderful animals, 'kamells
and sekadrisses (whatever they may be), dromondaries,'
Moyllez5 mylke whitte, and mernayllous bestez
Elfaydes, and arrabys, and olyfauntez noble. 2287 f.
And thus
The roy ryall renownde, with his rownde table,
One the coste of Costantyne by the clere strandez
Has the Romaynes ryche rebuykede for euer. 2372 ff.
As a historical novel, which, in truth, it is, Morte Arthure passes
rapidly from one scene to another of a different kind. On the
battle follows the siege of Metz; on the siege, a single combat
between Gawain and Sir Priamus, whose genealogy is remarkable
his father
es of Alexandire blode, ouerlynge of kynges,
The vncle of his ayeles, sir Ector of Troye.
No sooner is Metz won with gallant chivalry than we are carried
over the Alps with Arthur, who advances into Tuscany and halts
in the Vertennon vale, the vines imangez. ' There the 'cunning-
est cardinal' invites him to Rome to help the pope and to be
crowned. But already fortune's wheel, which Arthur sees in a
1 lugs out.
y advances in fighting trim.
& talk to thy mates.
• presently.
mules.
grandfather.
6
6
## p. 120 (#138) ############################################
I 20
The Earliest Scottish Literature
dreadful dream, is on the turn. The king has passed the topmost
point of his glory, for Sir Cradok comes to tell that Mordred has
rebelled and has 'weddede Waynore. ' Forthwith the camp is
broken up, and they hurry homewards. Mordred's allies, the
Danes, meet them at sea and a great naval battle is admirably
described. The Danes are defeated, and, after landing, Gawain
meets Mordred in single combat and is slain. It is the wicked
Mordred himself who in admiration declares,
This was sir Gawayne the gude, the gladdeste of othire,
And the graciouseste gomel that vndire God lyffede,
Mane hardyeste of hande, happyeste in armes,
And the hendeste 2 in hawle vndire heuen riche. 3876 ff.
Arthur vows that he will never rest till Gawain's slayer be slain.
So the last battle is joined. Mordred keeps well behind his men
and changes his arms, but Arthur spies him and, after a great fight,
in which Arthur himself receives his death-wound, Mordred perishes
by Excalibur, a better death, says Arthur, than he deserved.
Arthur makes himself be carried in haste to the Isle of Avalon,
and, seeing there is no way but death, bequeaths the crown to
Constantine his cousin, orders Mordred's children to be slain and
makes a good end.
I foregyffe all greffe, for Cristez luf of heuen,
Zife Waynor bafe wele wroghte, wele hir betydde. 4324 f.
Like other poets, the author has drawn his battle scenes from
his own time. Neilson has shown that the battle in France is
arranged like Crecy, and argues ingeniously that the sea-fight is
a poetical version of that fought off Winchelsea in 1350, while
other indications, more or less uncertain, lead him to fix the date
of the poem as 1365.
The Pistill of Susan is only a versified form of The Story of
Susanna in the Apocrypha, a story which both literature and art
show to have been very popular at the end of the Middle Ages.
The author is able to tell the tale in twenty-eight stanzas of
thirteen lines. Like the later Holland, he discourages the reader
by the extraordinary amount of detail with which he feels it
necessary to describe the garden. The advantage of mentioning
every tree and every vegetable of which he had ever heard is that
he is thus able to exercise more ingenuity in alliteration. The
modern reader, however, hardly finds the same charm in
The persile, the pasnepe, porettiss to preve. . .
With rewe and rewbarbe, raylid on right. 107 f.
2 most courteous.
3 leeks.
1
man.
## p. 121 (#139) ############################################
The Epistill of Suete Susane
I 21
Stanza xx, which describes the meeting of Susanna and her
husband after she has been condemned, illustrates the versi-
fication and, if its form in the earliest (the Vernon) MS, of about
1380, be compared with that in the latest (the Ingilby), first
published in Amours's edition for the Scottish Text Society and
dating from about the middle of the fifteenth century, it will at
once be clear how much change in a literary work may take place
in a comparatively short time after the date of its composition.
The Ingilby manuscript, though later than the Vernon and more
corrupt, has, if Huchoun was a Scot, preserved the dialect better.
VERNON.
Heo fel doun flat in the flore, hir feere when heo fond,
Carped to him kyndeli, as heo ful wel couthe:
'I wis I wraththed the neuere, at my witand,
Neither in word ne in werk, in elde ne in southe. '
Heo keuered up on hir kneos, and cussed his hand :
* For I am dampned, I ne dar disparage thi mouth. '
Was neuer more serroful segge bi se nor bi sande,
Ne neuer a soriore siht bi north ne bi south;
Tho thare
Thei toke the feteres of hire feete,
And enere he cussed that swete:
'In other world schul we mete. '
Seid he no mare.
INGILBY.
Sche fell flat to the flore whan sche hire (fere] fande,
And carped to him kyndely, as sche wele cowde:
*Sire, I wrethed 300 neuer, at my witand,
Neythir in worde no in werke, in elde no in 3owde. '
Sche couerde on hire knes, and kissid his hande:
For I am dampned I ne dare disparage your mowthe. '
Was neuer a sorowfuler syht be see no be sande,
Nor a dolefuler partyng be north ne be sow the
Als thore.
He toke the fetteres fro hir fete,
And ofte kyssyd he that swete:
'In other werld sal we mete. '
Sayde he no more.
Lastly, we come to the question of what Wyntoun meant by the
Anteris of Gawane. Among the numerous Gawain poems the
choice seems to be limited to either The Awntyrs of Arthure or
Golagros and Gawane. There is, at this point, a further difficulty,
for Dunbar tells us that, among the 'makaris,' death has carried
away another writer on this subject:
Clerk of Tranent eik he has tane
That maid the anteris of Gawane.
>
## p. 122 (#140) ############################################
I 22
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Of Clerk (or, it may be, the clerk) of Tranent we know nothing
but what Dunbar tells us, so that we are not aware whether it was
one of the existing poems or a lost poem of which he was the
author. It is equally possible to contend that the poem referred
to by Wyntoun is lost. There is no certain criterion; but, on the
whole, the probability is greater that the Awntyrs of Arthure is
the older of the two works and may, therefore, be more reasonably
assigned to the poet who was, presumably, the elder.
Arthur and his court go from Carlisle to Tarn Wadling to
hunt. Queen Gaynour (Guinevere) is entrusted to Gawain ; and,
while they are in shelter from a storm, a ghost appears to them.
Gawain goes forth with drawn sword to meet the phantom, which de-
sires to speak with the queen, and, being permitted, tells her to take
warning, for this is the lost soul of her own mother, who in life had
broken a vow known only to herself and Guinevere. If masses are
said for her soul she may yet be saved. In reply to Gawain, the spirit
forecasts that, after a victory over the Romans, his doom will fall
upon Arthur—the story of Morte Arthure. The figure disappears,
the storm is over and all return and are told of the portent. They
go to Randolf's Hall to supper, and there, during supper, a lady
richly arrayed brings in a knight riding on horseback. It is
Galeron of Galloway, who claims to fight for his lands, which have
been given to Gawain. Arthur says they have no weapons now;
but, on the morrow, Galeron shall have his claim to fight allowed.
There is a long combat, in which both are wounded; but, ultimately,
Galeron is defeated. The king interferes, Galeron receives back
his lands and Gawain receives lands in Wales instead. When they
have gone back to Carlisle and the combatants have been cured of
their wounds, Galeron is made a knight of the Round Table and
marries the lady who brought him into the Hall. Obviously,
the adventures much more properly belong to Gawain than to
Arthur. The story is in two scenes, which are connected in order
of time, but not otherwise. It is told in fifty-five stanzas of thirteen
lines each, constructed on a complicated system of rime, as the
following example will show, and retaining the old alliterative
form.
There are three manuscripts which differ very widely in their
forms. The best is the Thornton MS at Lincoln. The Ireland
MS, preserved at Hale in Lancashire, is in a very uncouth dialect,
probably that of northern Lancashire. The Douce MS in the
Bodleian Library is, clearly, the work of an Englishman of the
Midlands copying northern forms. Neilson, the champion of
## p. 123 (#141) ############################################
Golagros and Gawane
123
Huchoun, has not been slow to observe that the lands of Galeron
(418 ff. ) are situated where Sir Hew of Eglintoun had his estates.
The story of the Morte Arthure is summed up in the following
stanza (XXIII):
A knyghte salle kenly closene the crowne,
And at Carelyone be crownede for kynge;
That sege salle be sesedel at a sesone,
That mekille bak and barete tille Ynglande sall brynge.
Ther salle in Tuskayne be tallde of that tresone,
Ane3 torne home d-3ayne for that tydynge;
And ther salle the Rownde Tabille losse the renowne,
Be-syde Ramessaye fulle ryghte at a rydynge;
And at Dorsett salle dy the doghetyeste of alle.
Gette the, sir Gawayne,
The baldeste of Bretayne;
For in a slake* thou salle be slayne,
Swylke ferly5 salle fallo 6.
The history of Golagros and Gawane is more obscure, for it is
known only from a pamphlet printed in 1508 by Chepman and
Myllar, the pioneers of printing in Scotland. Like the Awntyrs of
Arthure, there are two parts or scenes in the story. Arthur, once
upon a time, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land accompanied by
all the knights of the Round Table. After a long march through
desolate hills and marshes, where their food gives out, they spy a
city in the distance. Kay is sent to ask permission to enter and
buy provisions ; but, finding the gate open, enters a mansion and
seizes some birds which a dwarf is roasting on a spit. At the
outcry of the dwarf a knight enters, who, finding reproaches met
with temper, knocks Kay down. Kay, returning to the king,
advises him to go elsewhere. Gawain, however, suggests that
a better-tempered messenger might be more successful, and is
himself sent and kindly received. After feasting there four days,
they go on their way, and—though the poet forgets to mention the
fact-apparently their late host was Sir Spinagros, who now acts
as guide. By and by, they see a castle built by the side of the
Rhone; and king Arthur is surprised to hear from Spinagros that
the knight of the castle pays homage to no man. Arthur vows to
change all that on his return from Palestine. When he returns, he
proceeds to besiege the castle. On four successive days champions
are chosen, who fight with little success to either side. On the
fifth day, Golagros, the knight of the castle, takes the field himself,
And.
1 seat shall be seized.
9 strife.
hollow place.
8 Such marvel
6 Text according to Thornton MS, S. T. 8. ed.
## p. 124 (#142) ############################################
124
The Earliest Scottish Literature
but is defeated by Arthur's champion Gawain. As Golagros de-
clines to own defeat, preferring death to shame, Gawain is about
to kill him, when Golagros asks Gawain to come into the castle as
if he had been defeated; he will take care that Gawain's honour is
not scathed by his action. Golagros asks his knights whether they
would prefer that their chief, if vanquished, should still rule over
them, or whether they would allow him to perish. As they say that
they wish him to be chief in either case, he tells them what Gawain
has done, and they set out to Arthur's camp, where Spinagros explains
the situation. Golagros becomes liege man to Arthur; but, after nine
days' feasting, Arthur releases him from homage before he departs.
The origin of the story is known. It is a free paraphrase of the
French prose romance Perceval le Gallois by Chrétien de Troyes,
or, rather, of a continuation of it.
The writer is best in his fighting scenes, of which the combat of
Gaudifer and Galiot, the first champions of Arthur and Golagros, is
a fair specimen (stanza XLIV).
Gaudifeir and Galiot, in glemand steil wedis,
As glauis glowand on gleid, grymly thai ride;
Wondir sternly thai steir on thair stent stedis
Athir berne fra his blonk 2 borne wes that tide.
Thai ruschit up rudly, quha sa right redis;
Out with suerdis thai swang fra thair schalk 3 side;
Thair-with wraithly 4 thai wirk, thai wourthy in vedis,
Hewit on the hard steill, and hurt thame in the hide.
Sa wondir freschly thai frekis fruschit5 in feir,
Throw all the harnes thai hade,
Baith birny6 and breist-plade,
Thairin wappynis couth wade,
Wit ye but weir7.
The poem is nearly twice as long as the Awntyrs of Arthure,
containing a hundred and five stanzas. Of its date, nothing can be
said definitely; for, without several manuscripts, we can know
nothing of the tradition of the text. Its forms are more archaic
than those of Wallace; but there is so large a proportion of
traditional tags (necessitated by the alliteration) in the romances
that this argument is not very conclusive; nor is there satisfactory
proof that the Awntyrs of Arthure and Golagros and Gawane,
though their vocabulary is often similar, are by the same hand.
One Scottish romance on the rival story survives. The Charle-
magne cycle is represented by the quaint and amusing tale of
I swords glowing on coals.
• angrily.
7 without doubt.
9 horse.
men crashed together.
8 schalk is probably corrupt.
6 coat of mail.
5
## p. 125 (#143) ############################################
Rauf Coilzear
125
Rauf Coitzear. The plot turns upon Charles finding a night's
lodging incognito in the house of Ralph, the charcoal-burner. The
king has lost his way and his suite in a storm. The scene is laid in
the neighbourhood of Paris; but the whole story savours far more of
Scotland than of France. The 'wickit wedderis amang thay myrk
Montanis' ill agree with the surroundings of Paris. Rauf is a
plain-spoken man and has his own views on many things, including
good manners. He finds the king in the snow and gives him a
hearty invitation to spend the night, but tells him that thanks
are as yet unnecessary (stanza VII):
Na, thank me not ouir airlie, for dreid that we threip1,
For I hade seruit the zit of lytill thing to rusea;
For nouther hes thow had of me fyre, drink, nor meit,
Nor nane vther eismentis for trauellouris behuse 3;
Bot, micht we bring this barberie this nicht weill to heip
That we micht with ressoun baith thus excuse;
To-morne on the morning, quhen thow sall on leip,
Pryse at the parting, how that thow dois;
For first to lofe and syne to lak, Peter! it is schame. '
The king said: 'In gude fay,
Schir, it is suith that 3e say. '
Into sio talk fell thay
Quhill thay war neir hame.
When they arrive at the hut, Rauf would have his guest enter
before him. The guest wishes to give Rauf precedence, but Rauf
said: "Thow art vncourtes, that sall I warrand. '
He tyt the King be the nek, twa part in tenet;
"Gif thow at bidding suld be boun or obeysand,
And gif thow of Courtasie couth, thow hes forzet it clene. ' 122 ff.
Rauf asks the king to take his wife Gyliane in to supper, and
the king would again yield him precedence, but Rauf regards his
ill manners as requiring stronger measures and hits him a blow
under the ear that brings him to the ground. With true politeness,
Rauf waits till his guest has finished his meal before he asks who
he is. 'One of the queen's attendants, Wymond of the wardrobe,'
says Charles, and offers to help to dispose of Rauf's charcoal at
court. Rauf does not know where the court lies and does not
like going where he is unknown, but is told that the king and
queen are keeping Yule at Paris and Rauf need only ask for
Wymond. The king spends a comfortable night, and, next day,
offers to pay for his good cheer, but is told that even were he
of Charlis cumpany, Chief king of Cheualry' payment would
be refused. The following day, Rauf, taking Wymond at his
.
6
1 quarrel.
* Plural of behoot' for sake of rime.
anger.
• praise.
4
## p. 126 (#144) ############################################
126
The Earliest Scottish Literature
word, carries his charcoal in panniers to the court. The king
had remembered his promise and had sent Roland out to fetch to
the king whoever came that way. Roland orders Rauf to 'cast
the creillis fra the Capill, and gang to the king'; but Rauf is not to
break his promise to bring charcoal and offers to fight the knight
in all his panoply, though he has but ‘ane auld buklair and ane
roustie brand,' and, as they are both busy to-day, challenges him to
combat on the morrow. The king asks Roland whether he has
done his command, and, finding that he has not brought Rauf, is
annoyed. Rauf leaves his horse with the porter and passes into
the court to look for Wymond, and, when he sees the king,
recognises him as Wymond, though his clothes are different. Rauf
is much disconcerted to think how he had treated the king; but
Charles dubs him a knight, and appoints him Marshal of France.
The sole authority for the tale is a unique copy, printed by
Lekpreuik at St Andrews in 1572 and now in the Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh. But, as Gavin Douglas and Dunbar both refer to the
story, it must have been well known by the end of the fifteenth
century. Amours points out that its vocabulary is closely similar
to that of Golagros and Gawane. It is almost a parody on the
old romances; but the tale has plenty of movement and, what is
lacking in the other romances, plenty of humour.
Along with it, Gavin Douglas mentions two other popular tales :
I saw Raf Coilzear with his thrawin brow,
Craibit Jobne the Reif and auld Cowkeywis sow.
Palice of Honour, p. 65 (Small).
John the Reeve, who is also mentioned by Dunbar, is printed in
Laing's Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland,
but is clearly an English work. The tale of Colkelbie's sow, also
printed in the same work, is as clearly Scottish. The authority for
it is the Bannatyne manuscript which was written in 1568.
Colkelbie is in Stewarton in Ayrshire. Colkelbie (in Scotland the
farmer or laird is, usually, called by the name of his estate)
sells a sow for three pence. The first penny fell into a lake but
was found by a woman who bought a pig wherewith to make a
feast. But the pig escaped, and became a mighty boar. Near
Paris, Colkelbie meets an old blind man who is being led by a
beautiful damsel called Adria, finds a substitute, and carries off the
damsel after giving the blind man the second penny. Adria grows
up under the care of Colkelbie's wife and is ultimately married to
his son Flannislie. This son is made a squire of the body-guard by
the king of France and receives a grant of land which is called
a
## p. 127 (#145) ############################################
Lives of the Saints and the Chronicles 127
Flandria (Flanders), from the names of Flannislie and Adria. With
the third penny, Colkelbie, in Scotland apparently, buys twenty-
four eggs to give at the baptism of the son of his neighbour
Blerblowan. The mother of the child rejects the eggs, and
Colkelbie gives them to one of his domestics, who raises from them
such a stock of poultry that, in fifteen years, he is able to give a
thousand pounds to his godson, who, ultimately, becomes immensely
rich
The story is divided into three parts, the metre of the first
differing from that of the two others. From the numerous
references to it, the story was obviously very popular, but it makes
a sorry end to the old romances.
Of the other literature of this period, the Lives of the Saints
and the Chronicles, there is not much to be said. The Lives of the
Saints, which are contained in a single MS in the Cambridge
University Library, extend to over 33,500 lines of the short
couplet used by Barbour, to whom they have, no doubt incorrectly,
been attributed. The MS is not the original and it would be
difficult to locate their origin definitely by the language alone.
But it is, I think, clear that they were intended for an Aberdeen
I
andience. The lives, as a whole, are derived from the Golden
Legend or the Lives of the Fathers, though, occasionally, other
sources were employed; but two local saints Machar (Mauricius)
and Ninian are included. Ninian, whose shrine was at Whithorn
in Galloway, was a well known saint, but St Machar's reputation
was purely local. His life was obviously compiled from local
tradition and was inserted where it stands in the MS for local
reasons. St Nicholas, a saint whose cult is very widely spread, is
the patron saint of the great church of New Aberdeen, the city on
the Dee; and it would only have occurred to a person with local
knowledge to insert after the life of Nicholas the life of Machar,
the patron saint of Old Aberdeen on the Don.
Bot befor vthyr I wald fayne
& I had cunnyng set my mayne
sume thing to say of Sanct Moryse,
that in his tym was ware and wis
& in the erd of sio renown
& als in hewine sa hye patron,
of Aberden in the cite
thru haly life was wont to be. 7 ff.
It is not clear whether all the lives are by the same author,
though most authorities regard them as being so. The writer
professes to be an old man, no longer equal to the duties of the
.
## p. 128 (#146) ############################################
128
The Earliest Scottish Literature
church. The date for the life of Ninian, at any rate, is clearly fixed
by a tale of how St Ninian saved a knight who had been betrayed
to the English, 'a ferly that in my tyme befel' (816); while, later,
he says (941):
This wes done but lessinge
Quhene Sir Davi Bruys ves kinge.
Besides the Aberdeen saints, knowledge of the north is postulated
by the story of John Balormy, born ‘in Elgyn of Murrefe,' who,
having the worm in his shank' and knee, travelled on horseback
all the way to Whithorn, 'twa hundre mylis of Milavay,' and was
cured by St Ninian.
But the Scots of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries did not
spend all their leisure in hearing and reading romances or the
lives of saints. They had an equal, or, if we may judge from the
number of extant manuscripts, a greater, interest in the chroniclers
of the past. With the earliest of these and, in some respects, the
most important of them we have but little to do, for they do
not write in the Scottish tongue. Scalacronica was compiled in
Norman-French by Sir Thomas Gray, of Heton in Northumberland,
while a prisoner in the hands of the Scots at Edinburgh, in 1355.
The valiant knight, ancestor of families still distinguished on the
Border, finding time hang heavy on his hands, put together from
the best sources at his disposal a chronicle from the beginning of
the world to his own time. For the period of the wars of inde-
pendence it is a first-hand authority and, as the work of a man of
affairs, whose 'hands had often kept his head, it has a value
distinct from that of the monkish chronicles. The next in order
of these records is Scotichronicon, the joint work of John of
Fordun and his continuator Walter Bower or Bowmaker, abbot of
Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth. Except for occasional quotations,
the work in fourteen books) is entirely in Latin. The first five
books and some part of the sixth were completed by John of
Fordun, between 1384 and 1387, for he mentions that he had lately
received a genealogy from bishop Wardlaw, cardinal and legate,
and we know that bishop Wardlaw held those titles only during
those years. Fordun is generally said to have died in 1385, the
year in which his continuator tells us he himself was born. Of
Fordun, we know nothing save what is told us in various manu-
scripts of his works. He probably was born at Fordoun, in Kincar-
dineshire, whence he derives his name; and the statement in the
Black Book of Paisley, now in the British Museum, that he was
capellanus ecclesiae Aberdonensis, which is generally interpreted
a
>
## p. 129 (#147) ############################################
Andrew of Wyntoun 129
'a chantry priest in the cathedral of Aberdeen,' is probable enough.
If so, he was not only a contemporary but also a fellow citizen of
Barbour. Fordun, undoubtedly, took great pains in collecting his
materials by visiting monasteries in England and even in Ireland
where chronicles were to be found. Unfortunately, he was able to
complete his work only as far as the death of David I in 1153.
The material with which his continuator worked was largely
collected by Fordun. But Bower was a much less competent
person than his predecessor. He was engaged upon the chronicle
between 1441 and 1449, and brought down the history to the
death of James I in 1437. He is garrulous, irrelevant and in-
accurate. He interpolates passages into the part completed by
Fordun, and he makes every important occurrence an excuse for
a long winded moral discourse. When he has occasion to relate
the unfortunate matrimonial experiences of David II, he feels it
necessary to discuss the proper method of choosing a wife and to
illustrate the problem with at least six passages from the Bible,
and several more from Aristotle and the Christian fathers. He is
able to fill the next chapter with rules for the proper management
of a wife, illustrated by quotations from Solomon, St Paul, Varro
and Valerius Maximus. Nearly two folio pages are required to
state the unpleasant things to which a wicked woman is compared.
Among these is the serpent, and this leads to an excursus on the
serpent and two more chapters on the wicked woman:
Till horsis fote thou never traist,
Till hondis tooth, no womans faith. XIV. 32 f.
A single shorter chapter exhausts the good qualities of the
female sex, and Bower is then able to return to Margaret Logie
and the death of king David II. Even that patient age found the
taediosa prolixitas of the abbot of Inchcolm more than it could
endure, and he and others spent their time in making shorter
manuals out of this vast and undigested mass.
Andrew of Wyntoun, who wrote his chronicle in Barbour's
couplet and in the Scottish tongue, was an older contemporary of
Walter Bower. He died an old man soon after 1420. Of him, as
of the other contemporary chroniclers, we know little except that
he was the head of St Serf's priory in Lochleven, and a canon
regular of St Andrews, which, in 1413, became the site of the
first university founded in Scotland. The name of his work,
The Orygynale Cronykil, only means that he went back to
the beginning of things, as do the others. Wyntoun surpasses
them only in beginning with a book on the history of angels.
9
D. L. II.
CH. V.
## p. 130 (#148) ############################################
130
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Naturally, the early part is derived mostly from the Bible,
and The Cronykil has no historical value except for Scotland,
and for Scotland only from Malcolm Canmore onwards, its value
increasing as the author approaches his own time. For Robert
the Bruce, he not only refers to Barbour but quotes nearly three
hundred lines of The Bruce verbatim-thus being the earliest,
and a very valuable, authority for Barbour's text. In the last
two books, he also incorporates a long chronicle, the author of
which he says he did not know. From the historical point of
view, these chroniclers altogether perverted the early chronology
of Scottish affairs. The iron of Edward I had sunk deep into
the Scottish soul, and it was necessary, at all costs, to show that
Scotland had a list of kings extending backwards far beyond any-
thing that England could boast. This it was easy to achieve by
making the Scottish and Pictish dynasties successive instead of
contemporary, and patching awkward flaws by creating a few
more kings when necessary. That the Scots might not be charged
with being usurpers, it was necessary to allege that they were in
Scotland before the Picts. History was thus turned upside down.
Apart from the national interests which were involved, the con-
troversy was exactly like that which raged between Oxford and
Cambridge in the sixteenth century as to the date of their
foundations, and it led to the same tampering with evidence.
Wyntoun has no claims to the name of poet. He is a chronicler,
and would himself have been surprised to be found in the company
of the 'makaris. '
It was at the instance of 'Schir Iohne of Wemys' that he com-
piled his chronicle. The original scheme was for seven books, but
the work was, later, extended to nine.
Wyntoun would not have been the child of his age and train-
ing did not the early part of his history contain many marvels.
We hear how Gedell-Glaiss, the son of Sir Newill, came out of
Scythia and married Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Being, naturally,
unpopular with the Egyptian nobility, he then emigrated to Spain
and founded the race which, in later days, appeared in Ireland
and Scotland. It is interesting to learn that Wyntoun identified
Gaelic and Basque, part of the Scottish stock remaining behind in
Spain,
And Scottis thai spek hallely,
And ar callyt Nawarry. II, 853 f.
And Simon Brek it was that first brought the Coronation Stone
from Spain to Ireland. The exact date before the Christian era is
given for all these important events.
## p. 131 (#149) ############################################
Andrew of Wyntoun 131
a
When Wyntoun arrives at the Christian dispensation and the
era of the saints, it is only natural that he should dwell with
satisfaction on the achievements of St Serf, to whom his own
priory was dedicated. St Serf was the ‘kyngis sone off Kanaan,'
who, leaving the kingdom to his younger brother, passed through
Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome.
Wallace, to escape his enemies, had to disguise himself as a maid
spinning, Harry says quaintly
he sat still, and span full connandly
As of his tym, for he nocht leryt lang. I, 248 f.
When their enemies were upon them,
His falow Stewyn than thocht no tyme to bide. V, 154.
When Wallace set the Englishmen's lodging on fire,
Till slepand men that walkand1 was nocht soft VII, 440,
and on another occasion
Quhar Sotheroun duelt, thai maid thair byggyngis hayt.
IX, 1692
Even to Julius Caesar he applies a quip:
Gret Julius, that tribute gat off aw,
His wynnyng was in Scotland bot full smaw. VIII, 1339 f.
In his Chaucerian passages at the beginning of several books,
and in the apostrophe to Scotland in the last book (XI, 1109 ff. ),
Harry employs those 'aureate' terms which, through the following
century, were to be a snare to Scottish literature. But the use
of them proves that Harry was not, after all, a burel man. Here
and there he makes pretensions to classical learning, and, like
Barbour, occasionally refers to the heroes of old romance, to
1 waking
• made their buildings hot.
## p. 112 (#130) ############################################
II2
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Charlemagne at Roncesvalles, to king Arthur slaying the giant at
Mont St Michel, to the Alexander story of Gawdyfer at Gaddris,
also referred to by Barbour. He assumes that all men know
Barbour's book; though, curiously enough, the name of Wallace is
not once to be found in Barbour's poem. A still more recent writer
is probably referred to in the apologue of the owl in borrowed
plumes, which Stewart applies to Wallace, when angry because
Wallace refused to let him lead the vanguard. For, only a few
years before 1460, this story had been the subject of Holland's
Howlat.
With the Buke of the Howlat, which is the proper title of this
work, we pass from historical romance to the last type of the
romance proper, with its metre founded on the old alliterative long
line, but fashioned into an elaborate lyrical stanza of nine long
verses of four beats and four short verses of two beats. The scheme
is ababababcdddc, and no better example of its treatment in the
Howlat can be found than the second stanza:
This riche Revir dovn ran, but resting or rufi
Throwe ane forest on fold, that farly was fair
All the brayis of the brym bair branchis abuf,
And birdis blythest of ble on blossomes bair;
The land lowne was and lea, with lyking and luf,
And for to lende by that laike thocht me levar,
Becauss that thir hartes in heirdis couth hof,
Pransand and prunzeand, be pair and be pair.
Thus sat I in solace, sekerly and sure,
Content of the fair firth,
Mekle mair of the mirth,
Als blyth of the birth
That the ground bare.
This is the commonest form of the metre, found also in Golagros
and Gawane and in the Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathe-
lyne, and, with a slight modification, in Rauf Coilzear; while in
the Pistill of Susan the ninth line is replaced by a 'bob' of one
beat and two syllables like 'In Feere,' 'So sone,' etc.
The Howlat is preserved in two manuscripts, the Asloan, dating
from about 1515, and the Bannatyne, written in 1568. The poem
is between sixty and seventy years older than the earlier manu-
script. It was composed, as the author tells us in the last stanza,
in the 'mirthfull month of May' at Darnaway in the midst of
Moray:
Thus for ane Dow of Dunbar drew I this dyte,
Dowit with ane Dowglass.
* pause.
3 secluded and sheltered.
i abido.
## p. 113 (#131) ############################################
Holland's Howlat
113
In other words, it was written for Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess
of Moray in her own right, whose first husband was one of the
Douglas family that perished in the struggle with James II of
Scotland, his eldest brother being that earl whom the king stabbed
with his own hand. Pinkerton saw in the poem a satire on
James II, a view which was entirely founded on a misreading of
crovne for rovme in verse 984, and, with the restoration of the
true reading, the theory falls to the ground. The poem, which
introduces an elaborate account of the Douglas arms, must have
been written before the final disaster to the Douglases at Arkin-
holm in 1455; for the unfortunate countess, no doubt with the
intention of saving her lands, married, three weeks after the loss
of her first husband, the son of the earl of Huntly, who was on the
side of the king. As the arms of pope Nicholas V are described,
the poem must be later than 1447, and, probably, before the
murder of earl William by the king in 1452, as is shown by
Amours in his edition for the Scottish Text Society. There seems
to be no recondite meaning in the piece. The subject is the thrice-
told tale of the bird in borrowed plumes, which gives itself airs
and speedily falls to its former low estate. The owl, beholding him-
self in a river that flows through a fair forest, is disgusted with his
own appearance and appeals to the pope of the birds, the peacock,
against dame Nature. A summons is issued to the members of
the council to convene. The author shows considerable ingenuity
in finding names of birds and other words to suit his alliterative
verse, and some humour in the parts which he assigns to the
different birds. If it were necessary to search for hidden mean-
ings, one might suspect that there was a spice of malice in repre-
senting the deans of colleges by ganders, and the archdeacon, 'that
ourman, ay prechand in plane, Correker of kirkmen' by the claik,
which is the barnacle goose, but also a Scots word for a gossip.
It is a pretty fancy to make the dove 'rownand ay with his feir,
always whispering with his mate, a curate to hear whole confes-
sions. The author, who was of the secular clergy, may have been
well satisfied that
Cryand Crawis and Cais, that oravis the corne,
War pure freris forthward,
That, with the leif of the lard,
Will cum to the corne zard
At ewyn and at morn. 191 ff.
When all are met, the unhappy owl is commanded by the pope
to state his case; and, when this has been done, the pope calls upon
8
E. L. II.
CH. V.
## p. 114 (#132) ############################################
I14
The Earliest Scottish Literature
his councillors to express their opinions. They proceed to do so
in a manner with which Holland was no doubt familiar:
And thai weraly awysit, full of wirtewe,
The maner, the mater, and how it remanyt;
The circumstance and the stait all couth thai argewe.
Mony allegiance leile, in leid nocht to layne it,
of Arestotill and ald men, scharplie thai schewe;
The Prelatis thar apperans? proponit generale;
Sum said to, and sum fra,
Sum nay, and sum za;
Baith pro and contra
Thus argewe thai all.
Ultimately it is decided to consult the emperor-the eagle and
the swallow is despatched as herald with letters written by the
turtle, who is the pope's secretary. The herald finds him 'in
Babilonis tower,' surrounded with kings, dukes and other nobles,
who, as is explained afterwards, are the nobler birds of prey. The
specht or wood-pecker is the emperor's pursuivant and, as is the
manner of pursuivants, wears a coat embroidered with arms.
Then comes a long description of heraldic arms, including not only
the emperor's but also those of Nicholas V, of the king of Scot-
land and, in greatest detail, of the Douglas family. More than a
quarter of the poem is taken up with this dreary stuff, which was
very interesting, no doubt, to Holland's patroness, but which
ruins the poem as a work of art. The only interest it can have
for the general reader is that in it is contained a version of the
journey undertaken by the good Sir James with the heart of
Bruce, which may be regarded as the official Douglas version, and
which differs from that contained in the last book of Barbour's
Bruce. Here, Douglas is represented as having journeyed to
Jerusalem and as being on his way back when he perished fighting
against the Moors in Spain; but there is no reason to doubt the
correctness of Barbour's story that Douglas never travelled further
than Spain. The last third of the poem is occupied with a feast
to which the pope invited the emperor and his courtiers. The
bittern was cook, and the choir of minstrels consisted of the
mavis and the merle, ousels, starlings, larks and nightingales. We
have presented to us in full the hymn they sang in honour of
the Virgin Mary, and a whole stanza is occupied with the names
of the different musical instruments, which far outstrip shawms,
sackbut and psaltery in obscurity. The visitors are entertained
by the jay, who is a wonderful juggler. He makes the audience
i in language not to conceal it.
opinion.
• It is, however, noteworthy that Boece adopts this version and not Barbour's
a
## p. 115 (#133) ############################################
Huchoun of the Awle Ryale 115
see many wonderful things which do not really exist, among
others the emperor's horses led off to the pound by the corncrake,
because they had been eating of the corne in the kirkland. '
The rook appears as a 'bard owt of Irland,' reciting much un-
intelligible Gaelic gibberish—such Gaelic bards no doubt were
familiar enough at Darnaway in the fifteenth century-but is
ignominiously routed by the jesters, the lapwing and the cuckoo,
who then engage in a tussle for the amusement of the company.
After grace has been said by the pope, it is agreed, at dame Nature's
suggestion, that her supposed ill-treatment of the owl shall be
remedied by grafting on the owl a feather from each of the birds.
The owl, however, becomes so insolent in consequence, that Nature
takes all the feathers from him again, much to his sorrow.
David Laing and Amours have diligently collected the little
that is known as to the author of this jeu d'esprit. He is
mentioned in various documents connected with the church and
family of his patron. From these we learn that, in 1450, Richard
de Holand was rector of Halkirk, in Caithness, in 1451, rector of
Abbreochy in the diocese of Moray, and, like his contemporary
Henryson, a public notary. In 1453, he was presented by the pope
to the vacant post of chanter in the church of Moray. In 1457,
after the fall of the Douglases, we find him in Orkney where, in
1467, he demits the vicarage of Ronaldshay. He seems to have
joined the exiled Douglases in England, from which he was sent
on a mission to Scotland in 1480, and, in 1482, along with 'Jamis
of Douglace' (the exiled earl) and certain other priests 'and vther
sic like tratouris that are sworne Inglismen, and remanys in
Ingland,' he is excepted from a general amnesty.
Like this poem in form, but certainly of an earlier date, is a
series of romances which cluster about the name of 'Huchoun of
the Awle Ryale,' one of the most mysterious figures in our early
literature. The earliest mention of him is to be found in Wyn-
toun's Orygynale Cronykil, written about 1420. Wyntoun, in
describing king Arthur's conquests, remarks that 'Hucheon of the
Awle Realle In til his Gest Historyalle' has treated this matter.
Wyntoun feels it necessary to apologise for differing from Huchoun
in saying that Leo and not Lucius Iberius was the Roman Emperor
who demanded tribute from Arthur. He argues that he has good
authority on his side, nor is Huchoun to be blamed:
And men of gud discretioun
Suld excuss and loif Huchoun,
That cunnand wes in litterature.
8-2
## p. 116 (#134) ############################################
116
The Earliest Scottish Literature
He maid the Gret Gest of Arthure
And the Anteris of Gawane,
The Epistill als of Suete Susane.
He wes curyouss in his stile,
Faire and facund and subtile,
And ay to plesance and delite
Maid in meit metyre his dite,
Litill or ellis nocht be gess
Wauerand fra the suthfastnes 1.
The verses which follow are vital for deciding what the nature
of the Gest Historyalle or Gret Gest of Arthure was:
Had he callit Lucyus procuratour
Quhare he callit him emperoor,
It had mare grevit the cadeng
Than had relevit the sentens.
Clearly cadens is to be distinguished from rime, for, as
Wyntoun's example shows, procuratour and emperour might rime
together. The Gest Historyalle must, therefore, have been an
alliterative poem, and all authorities are now agreed that the
conditions are satisfied by the poem called Morte Arthure which
is preserved in the Thornton MS of Lincoln Cathedral. In the
Morte Arthure, not only is ‘Sir Lucius Iberius' called 'the
Emperour of Rome,' but the knights of the Round Table are
called Duszeperez (or some variant thereof), which is evidently
the origin of Wyntoun's Dowchsperys. As for the Epistill of
Suete Susane, there can be no doubt that it is the poem pre-
served in five MSS under that title (with variations of spelling).
What was the poem called the Adventure or Adventures of
Gawain, the other work of Huchoun mentioned by Wyntoun ?
For this place there are several pretenders, the most plausible
claim being, it seems, advanced for a poem surviving in three
curiously different versions, The Awntyrs off [of] Arthure at the
Terne Wathelyne, that is at Tarn Wadling, a small lake near
Hesket in Cumberland, on the road between Carlisle and Penrith.
As the story is mostly concerned with Gawain, his name might have
appeared in the title no less justifiably than Arthur's.
Of none of these poems in their extant forms can it be said that
the language is Scottish. Who, then, was Huchoun? Pinkerton,
in the end of the eighteenth century, was the first to suggest that
Huchoun was to be identified with the 'gude Sir Hew of Eglintoun,'
enumerated amongst other poets in Dunbar's Lament for the
1 Thus in the Wemyss MS (S. T. 8. 1906), v, 4329 ft. The Cottonian MS, also printed
in the 8. T. S. edition, besides other variants gives the poet's name as Hucheon and reads
a for the in 4332, Awntyr for Anteris in 4333, and in 4334 The Pistil als of Suet Susane.
## p. 117 (#135) ############################################
Huchoun of the Awle Ryale 117
Makaris. To this it has been objected that Huchoun is a familiar
diminutive, and that, if the poet was the well known Sir Hew of
Eglintoun, a statesman in the reigns of David II and Robert II,
who was made a knight in 1342, and, later in life, was married to
Egidia, step-sister of Robert II, Wyntoun was not at all likely
to talk of him as 'little Hugh' But George Neilson has shown
that the name Huchoun was employed in solemn documents even
of barons, and, therefore, might without disrespect be applied to a
knight who was a king's brother-in-law. The name Hucheon has
commonly survived in some districts as a surname, and must have
been much commoner earlier, as is shown by the names Hutchinson
and M‘Cutcheon, which are merely the Lowland and the Highland
forms of the same name. So far there is no difficulty. The ex-
planation of the phrase 'of the Awle Realle’ is more difficult, but
Neilson's argument for the old view that it is simply the Aula
Regis, an appropriate enough description for a knight who served
for a period as justiciar, seems much preferable to any other that
has been advanced. The more southern colouring of the dialect in
his works is not sufficient proof of his English origin, for, where
there are several manuscripts, the dialectal forms vary very con-
siderably. Moreover, it would be strange that so fertile a writer
should have no honour in the country of his birth, and should be
talked of with respect and reverence in a country which was
bitterly hostile. It is impossible here to enter fully into the
elaborate and ingenious argument by which Neilson, in his
Huchown of the Awle Ryale, not only supports the claim made
by Wyntoun, but attempts to annex a whole cycle of other poems,
which are ordinarily regarded as of English though anonymous
origin, and which are discussed elsewhere? For the present
purpose, it is sufficient to say that there seems good evidence for
the existence of a Scottish poet called Huchoun in the middle of
the fourteenth century, and that, in all probability, he is to be
identified with the statesman Sir Hew of Eglintoun, who was a
contemporary, perhaps a somewhat older contemporary, of Barbour,
who must have been at least twenty-one in 1342 when he was
knighted, and who died about the end of 1376 or the beginning of
1377. It is noticeable that, on a great many occasions, Sir Hew
of Eglintoun receives permission to travel to London under safe-
conduct-a fact on which Neilson founds a plausible argument that
he was a persona grata at the court of Edward III. This argu-
ment, if correct, would account for a more favourable attitude
· See volume 1, pp. 320 ft.
## p. 118 (#136) ############################################
118
The Earliest Scottish Literature
towards England in his works than appears in Barbour's In an
alliterative poem scribes might change dialectal forms at their will,
so long as they did not affect the alliteration or the number of
syllables. In the rimed poems here attributed to Huchoun it is
certain that the rimes are northern, though, in the fourteenth
century, there was no distinction well enough marked to form a
criterion of origin from north or south of the Border.
Panton and Donaldson, the editors for the Early English Text
Society of the interminable Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction
of Troy (it contains over 14,000 lines), were the first to point out
that this unrimed alliterative translation of Guido delle Colonne's
Hystoria Troiana must, from identity in style and phraseology, be
attributed to the same author as Morte Arthure, though it had
been copied from a Scottish original by a west midland scribe.
Their opinion has been developed and confirmed by Neilson's work
on Huchoun. As Morte Arthure is admittedly superior in execution
to the Gest Hystoriale and as, unless it had some source still un-
discovered or now lost, it is a very independent rendering of the
story of Arthur as related in Books ix and x of Geoffrey of
Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, it may be used to
illustrate the style of Huchoun. Morte Arthure begins with a
rude demand from Lucius Iberius, emperor of Rome, for tribute
from king Arthur. Arthur, after considering the matter with his
council, comes to the conclusion that he has more right to the
empire than Lucius has to tribute from him ; he will, therefore,
anticipate Lucius's threats of invasion by taking the field against
him. Accordingly, he appoints Mordred to rule in his absence and
charges him especially with the care of Waynour (Guinevere).
Arthur himself crosses the Channel with his host, and, after an
unpleasant dream, fights a great battle with a giant from Genoa
'engendered of fiends,' who lives on human flesh, has ravaged the
Cotentin and, last of all, has carried off and slain the Duchess of
Britanny. The author, who is excessively fond of alliteration, excels
himself, in his description of the giant, by carrying on alliteration
on the same letter through four consecutive verses; so that the
first twelve lines (1074–85) make three stanzas of this sort, of
which the last, as the least repulsive, may be taken as a specimen :
Huke-nebbyde as a hawke, and a hore berde 1
And herede to the hole eyghna with hyngande browes;
Harske as a hunde-fisch3, hardly who so luke3,
So was the hyde of that hulke hally4 al ouer.
hoary beard.
9 hairy to the hollow eyes.
rough as a dog-fish.
• wholly.
## p. 119 (#137) ############################################
Morte Arthure
119
Hardly has Arthur had time to thank Heaven for his success in
the combat, ere urgent messengers arrive from the marshal of
France to say that he must have help at once against the emperor,
who has entered the country and is carrying destruction far and
wide. Sir Boice, Sir Gawain, Sir Bedivere and some others are
bastily despatched to delay the emperor, who has brought with him
all the powers of eastern heathenesse; and these knights, with the
help of an ambuscade, win a victory. In the great battle which
follows many noble deeds are done; these are described with great
vigour. Arthur himself with Collbrande (Excalibur) has a short
way with his foemen :
He clekys owttel Collbrande, full clenlyche burneschte,
Graythes hym 2 to Golapas, that greuyde moste,
Kuttes hym even by the knees clenly in sondyre.
'Come down' quod the kynge, and karpe to thy ferys3!
Thowe arte to hye by the halfe, I hete the in trouthe!
Thou sall be handsomere in hye, with the helpe of my Lorde! ' 2123 ff.
The emperor himself perishes at the hands of Arthur, and his
knights, having slaughtered the paynim till they are tired, fall
upon the spoil, and help themselves, not only to 'hakkenays and
horses of armes,' but to all kinds of wonderful animals, 'kamells
and sekadrisses (whatever they may be), dromondaries,'
Moyllez5 mylke whitte, and mernayllous bestez
Elfaydes, and arrabys, and olyfauntez noble. 2287 f.
And thus
The roy ryall renownde, with his rownde table,
One the coste of Costantyne by the clere strandez
Has the Romaynes ryche rebuykede for euer. 2372 ff.
As a historical novel, which, in truth, it is, Morte Arthure passes
rapidly from one scene to another of a different kind. On the
battle follows the siege of Metz; on the siege, a single combat
between Gawain and Sir Priamus, whose genealogy is remarkable
his father
es of Alexandire blode, ouerlynge of kynges,
The vncle of his ayeles, sir Ector of Troye.
No sooner is Metz won with gallant chivalry than we are carried
over the Alps with Arthur, who advances into Tuscany and halts
in the Vertennon vale, the vines imangez. ' There the 'cunning-
est cardinal' invites him to Rome to help the pope and to be
crowned. But already fortune's wheel, which Arthur sees in a
1 lugs out.
y advances in fighting trim.
& talk to thy mates.
• presently.
mules.
grandfather.
6
6
## p. 120 (#138) ############################################
I 20
The Earliest Scottish Literature
dreadful dream, is on the turn. The king has passed the topmost
point of his glory, for Sir Cradok comes to tell that Mordred has
rebelled and has 'weddede Waynore. ' Forthwith the camp is
broken up, and they hurry homewards. Mordred's allies, the
Danes, meet them at sea and a great naval battle is admirably
described. The Danes are defeated, and, after landing, Gawain
meets Mordred in single combat and is slain. It is the wicked
Mordred himself who in admiration declares,
This was sir Gawayne the gude, the gladdeste of othire,
And the graciouseste gomel that vndire God lyffede,
Mane hardyeste of hande, happyeste in armes,
And the hendeste 2 in hawle vndire heuen riche. 3876 ff.
Arthur vows that he will never rest till Gawain's slayer be slain.
So the last battle is joined. Mordred keeps well behind his men
and changes his arms, but Arthur spies him and, after a great fight,
in which Arthur himself receives his death-wound, Mordred perishes
by Excalibur, a better death, says Arthur, than he deserved.
Arthur makes himself be carried in haste to the Isle of Avalon,
and, seeing there is no way but death, bequeaths the crown to
Constantine his cousin, orders Mordred's children to be slain and
makes a good end.
I foregyffe all greffe, for Cristez luf of heuen,
Zife Waynor bafe wele wroghte, wele hir betydde. 4324 f.
Like other poets, the author has drawn his battle scenes from
his own time. Neilson has shown that the battle in France is
arranged like Crecy, and argues ingeniously that the sea-fight is
a poetical version of that fought off Winchelsea in 1350, while
other indications, more or less uncertain, lead him to fix the date
of the poem as 1365.
The Pistill of Susan is only a versified form of The Story of
Susanna in the Apocrypha, a story which both literature and art
show to have been very popular at the end of the Middle Ages.
The author is able to tell the tale in twenty-eight stanzas of
thirteen lines. Like the later Holland, he discourages the reader
by the extraordinary amount of detail with which he feels it
necessary to describe the garden. The advantage of mentioning
every tree and every vegetable of which he had ever heard is that
he is thus able to exercise more ingenuity in alliteration. The
modern reader, however, hardly finds the same charm in
The persile, the pasnepe, porettiss to preve. . .
With rewe and rewbarbe, raylid on right. 107 f.
2 most courteous.
3 leeks.
1
man.
## p. 121 (#139) ############################################
The Epistill of Suete Susane
I 21
Stanza xx, which describes the meeting of Susanna and her
husband after she has been condemned, illustrates the versi-
fication and, if its form in the earliest (the Vernon) MS, of about
1380, be compared with that in the latest (the Ingilby), first
published in Amours's edition for the Scottish Text Society and
dating from about the middle of the fifteenth century, it will at
once be clear how much change in a literary work may take place
in a comparatively short time after the date of its composition.
The Ingilby manuscript, though later than the Vernon and more
corrupt, has, if Huchoun was a Scot, preserved the dialect better.
VERNON.
Heo fel doun flat in the flore, hir feere when heo fond,
Carped to him kyndeli, as heo ful wel couthe:
'I wis I wraththed the neuere, at my witand,
Neither in word ne in werk, in elde ne in southe. '
Heo keuered up on hir kneos, and cussed his hand :
* For I am dampned, I ne dar disparage thi mouth. '
Was neuer more serroful segge bi se nor bi sande,
Ne neuer a soriore siht bi north ne bi south;
Tho thare
Thei toke the feteres of hire feete,
And enere he cussed that swete:
'In other world schul we mete. '
Seid he no mare.
INGILBY.
Sche fell flat to the flore whan sche hire (fere] fande,
And carped to him kyndely, as sche wele cowde:
*Sire, I wrethed 300 neuer, at my witand,
Neythir in worde no in werke, in elde no in 3owde. '
Sche couerde on hire knes, and kissid his hande:
For I am dampned I ne dare disparage your mowthe. '
Was neuer a sorowfuler syht be see no be sande,
Nor a dolefuler partyng be north ne be sow the
Als thore.
He toke the fetteres fro hir fete,
And ofte kyssyd he that swete:
'In other werld sal we mete. '
Sayde he no more.
Lastly, we come to the question of what Wyntoun meant by the
Anteris of Gawane. Among the numerous Gawain poems the
choice seems to be limited to either The Awntyrs of Arthure or
Golagros and Gawane. There is, at this point, a further difficulty,
for Dunbar tells us that, among the 'makaris,' death has carried
away another writer on this subject:
Clerk of Tranent eik he has tane
That maid the anteris of Gawane.
>
## p. 122 (#140) ############################################
I 22
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Of Clerk (or, it may be, the clerk) of Tranent we know nothing
but what Dunbar tells us, so that we are not aware whether it was
one of the existing poems or a lost poem of which he was the
author. It is equally possible to contend that the poem referred
to by Wyntoun is lost. There is no certain criterion; but, on the
whole, the probability is greater that the Awntyrs of Arthure is
the older of the two works and may, therefore, be more reasonably
assigned to the poet who was, presumably, the elder.
Arthur and his court go from Carlisle to Tarn Wadling to
hunt. Queen Gaynour (Guinevere) is entrusted to Gawain ; and,
while they are in shelter from a storm, a ghost appears to them.
Gawain goes forth with drawn sword to meet the phantom, which de-
sires to speak with the queen, and, being permitted, tells her to take
warning, for this is the lost soul of her own mother, who in life had
broken a vow known only to herself and Guinevere. If masses are
said for her soul she may yet be saved. In reply to Gawain, the spirit
forecasts that, after a victory over the Romans, his doom will fall
upon Arthur—the story of Morte Arthure. The figure disappears,
the storm is over and all return and are told of the portent. They
go to Randolf's Hall to supper, and there, during supper, a lady
richly arrayed brings in a knight riding on horseback. It is
Galeron of Galloway, who claims to fight for his lands, which have
been given to Gawain. Arthur says they have no weapons now;
but, on the morrow, Galeron shall have his claim to fight allowed.
There is a long combat, in which both are wounded; but, ultimately,
Galeron is defeated. The king interferes, Galeron receives back
his lands and Gawain receives lands in Wales instead. When they
have gone back to Carlisle and the combatants have been cured of
their wounds, Galeron is made a knight of the Round Table and
marries the lady who brought him into the Hall. Obviously,
the adventures much more properly belong to Gawain than to
Arthur. The story is in two scenes, which are connected in order
of time, but not otherwise. It is told in fifty-five stanzas of thirteen
lines each, constructed on a complicated system of rime, as the
following example will show, and retaining the old alliterative
form.
There are three manuscripts which differ very widely in their
forms. The best is the Thornton MS at Lincoln. The Ireland
MS, preserved at Hale in Lancashire, is in a very uncouth dialect,
probably that of northern Lancashire. The Douce MS in the
Bodleian Library is, clearly, the work of an Englishman of the
Midlands copying northern forms. Neilson, the champion of
## p. 123 (#141) ############################################
Golagros and Gawane
123
Huchoun, has not been slow to observe that the lands of Galeron
(418 ff. ) are situated where Sir Hew of Eglintoun had his estates.
The story of the Morte Arthure is summed up in the following
stanza (XXIII):
A knyghte salle kenly closene the crowne,
And at Carelyone be crownede for kynge;
That sege salle be sesedel at a sesone,
That mekille bak and barete tille Ynglande sall brynge.
Ther salle in Tuskayne be tallde of that tresone,
Ane3 torne home d-3ayne for that tydynge;
And ther salle the Rownde Tabille losse the renowne,
Be-syde Ramessaye fulle ryghte at a rydynge;
And at Dorsett salle dy the doghetyeste of alle.
Gette the, sir Gawayne,
The baldeste of Bretayne;
For in a slake* thou salle be slayne,
Swylke ferly5 salle fallo 6.
The history of Golagros and Gawane is more obscure, for it is
known only from a pamphlet printed in 1508 by Chepman and
Myllar, the pioneers of printing in Scotland. Like the Awntyrs of
Arthure, there are two parts or scenes in the story. Arthur, once
upon a time, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land accompanied by
all the knights of the Round Table. After a long march through
desolate hills and marshes, where their food gives out, they spy a
city in the distance. Kay is sent to ask permission to enter and
buy provisions ; but, finding the gate open, enters a mansion and
seizes some birds which a dwarf is roasting on a spit. At the
outcry of the dwarf a knight enters, who, finding reproaches met
with temper, knocks Kay down. Kay, returning to the king,
advises him to go elsewhere. Gawain, however, suggests that
a better-tempered messenger might be more successful, and is
himself sent and kindly received. After feasting there four days,
they go on their way, and—though the poet forgets to mention the
fact-apparently their late host was Sir Spinagros, who now acts
as guide. By and by, they see a castle built by the side of the
Rhone; and king Arthur is surprised to hear from Spinagros that
the knight of the castle pays homage to no man. Arthur vows to
change all that on his return from Palestine. When he returns, he
proceeds to besiege the castle. On four successive days champions
are chosen, who fight with little success to either side. On the
fifth day, Golagros, the knight of the castle, takes the field himself,
And.
1 seat shall be seized.
9 strife.
hollow place.
8 Such marvel
6 Text according to Thornton MS, S. T. 8. ed.
## p. 124 (#142) ############################################
124
The Earliest Scottish Literature
but is defeated by Arthur's champion Gawain. As Golagros de-
clines to own defeat, preferring death to shame, Gawain is about
to kill him, when Golagros asks Gawain to come into the castle as
if he had been defeated; he will take care that Gawain's honour is
not scathed by his action. Golagros asks his knights whether they
would prefer that their chief, if vanquished, should still rule over
them, or whether they would allow him to perish. As they say that
they wish him to be chief in either case, he tells them what Gawain
has done, and they set out to Arthur's camp, where Spinagros explains
the situation. Golagros becomes liege man to Arthur; but, after nine
days' feasting, Arthur releases him from homage before he departs.
The origin of the story is known. It is a free paraphrase of the
French prose romance Perceval le Gallois by Chrétien de Troyes,
or, rather, of a continuation of it.
The writer is best in his fighting scenes, of which the combat of
Gaudifer and Galiot, the first champions of Arthur and Golagros, is
a fair specimen (stanza XLIV).
Gaudifeir and Galiot, in glemand steil wedis,
As glauis glowand on gleid, grymly thai ride;
Wondir sternly thai steir on thair stent stedis
Athir berne fra his blonk 2 borne wes that tide.
Thai ruschit up rudly, quha sa right redis;
Out with suerdis thai swang fra thair schalk 3 side;
Thair-with wraithly 4 thai wirk, thai wourthy in vedis,
Hewit on the hard steill, and hurt thame in the hide.
Sa wondir freschly thai frekis fruschit5 in feir,
Throw all the harnes thai hade,
Baith birny6 and breist-plade,
Thairin wappynis couth wade,
Wit ye but weir7.
The poem is nearly twice as long as the Awntyrs of Arthure,
containing a hundred and five stanzas. Of its date, nothing can be
said definitely; for, without several manuscripts, we can know
nothing of the tradition of the text. Its forms are more archaic
than those of Wallace; but there is so large a proportion of
traditional tags (necessitated by the alliteration) in the romances
that this argument is not very conclusive; nor is there satisfactory
proof that the Awntyrs of Arthure and Golagros and Gawane,
though their vocabulary is often similar, are by the same hand.
One Scottish romance on the rival story survives. The Charle-
magne cycle is represented by the quaint and amusing tale of
I swords glowing on coals.
• angrily.
7 without doubt.
9 horse.
men crashed together.
8 schalk is probably corrupt.
6 coat of mail.
5
## p. 125 (#143) ############################################
Rauf Coilzear
125
Rauf Coitzear. The plot turns upon Charles finding a night's
lodging incognito in the house of Ralph, the charcoal-burner. The
king has lost his way and his suite in a storm. The scene is laid in
the neighbourhood of Paris; but the whole story savours far more of
Scotland than of France. The 'wickit wedderis amang thay myrk
Montanis' ill agree with the surroundings of Paris. Rauf is a
plain-spoken man and has his own views on many things, including
good manners. He finds the king in the snow and gives him a
hearty invitation to spend the night, but tells him that thanks
are as yet unnecessary (stanza VII):
Na, thank me not ouir airlie, for dreid that we threip1,
For I hade seruit the zit of lytill thing to rusea;
For nouther hes thow had of me fyre, drink, nor meit,
Nor nane vther eismentis for trauellouris behuse 3;
Bot, micht we bring this barberie this nicht weill to heip
That we micht with ressoun baith thus excuse;
To-morne on the morning, quhen thow sall on leip,
Pryse at the parting, how that thow dois;
For first to lofe and syne to lak, Peter! it is schame. '
The king said: 'In gude fay,
Schir, it is suith that 3e say. '
Into sio talk fell thay
Quhill thay war neir hame.
When they arrive at the hut, Rauf would have his guest enter
before him. The guest wishes to give Rauf precedence, but Rauf
said: "Thow art vncourtes, that sall I warrand. '
He tyt the King be the nek, twa part in tenet;
"Gif thow at bidding suld be boun or obeysand,
And gif thow of Courtasie couth, thow hes forzet it clene. ' 122 ff.
Rauf asks the king to take his wife Gyliane in to supper, and
the king would again yield him precedence, but Rauf regards his
ill manners as requiring stronger measures and hits him a blow
under the ear that brings him to the ground. With true politeness,
Rauf waits till his guest has finished his meal before he asks who
he is. 'One of the queen's attendants, Wymond of the wardrobe,'
says Charles, and offers to help to dispose of Rauf's charcoal at
court. Rauf does not know where the court lies and does not
like going where he is unknown, but is told that the king and
queen are keeping Yule at Paris and Rauf need only ask for
Wymond. The king spends a comfortable night, and, next day,
offers to pay for his good cheer, but is told that even were he
of Charlis cumpany, Chief king of Cheualry' payment would
be refused. The following day, Rauf, taking Wymond at his
.
6
1 quarrel.
* Plural of behoot' for sake of rime.
anger.
• praise.
4
## p. 126 (#144) ############################################
126
The Earliest Scottish Literature
word, carries his charcoal in panniers to the court. The king
had remembered his promise and had sent Roland out to fetch to
the king whoever came that way. Roland orders Rauf to 'cast
the creillis fra the Capill, and gang to the king'; but Rauf is not to
break his promise to bring charcoal and offers to fight the knight
in all his panoply, though he has but ‘ane auld buklair and ane
roustie brand,' and, as they are both busy to-day, challenges him to
combat on the morrow. The king asks Roland whether he has
done his command, and, finding that he has not brought Rauf, is
annoyed. Rauf leaves his horse with the porter and passes into
the court to look for Wymond, and, when he sees the king,
recognises him as Wymond, though his clothes are different. Rauf
is much disconcerted to think how he had treated the king; but
Charles dubs him a knight, and appoints him Marshal of France.
The sole authority for the tale is a unique copy, printed by
Lekpreuik at St Andrews in 1572 and now in the Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh. But, as Gavin Douglas and Dunbar both refer to the
story, it must have been well known by the end of the fifteenth
century. Amours points out that its vocabulary is closely similar
to that of Golagros and Gawane. It is almost a parody on the
old romances; but the tale has plenty of movement and, what is
lacking in the other romances, plenty of humour.
Along with it, Gavin Douglas mentions two other popular tales :
I saw Raf Coilzear with his thrawin brow,
Craibit Jobne the Reif and auld Cowkeywis sow.
Palice of Honour, p. 65 (Small).
John the Reeve, who is also mentioned by Dunbar, is printed in
Laing's Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland,
but is clearly an English work. The tale of Colkelbie's sow, also
printed in the same work, is as clearly Scottish. The authority for
it is the Bannatyne manuscript which was written in 1568.
Colkelbie is in Stewarton in Ayrshire. Colkelbie (in Scotland the
farmer or laird is, usually, called by the name of his estate)
sells a sow for three pence. The first penny fell into a lake but
was found by a woman who bought a pig wherewith to make a
feast. But the pig escaped, and became a mighty boar. Near
Paris, Colkelbie meets an old blind man who is being led by a
beautiful damsel called Adria, finds a substitute, and carries off the
damsel after giving the blind man the second penny. Adria grows
up under the care of Colkelbie's wife and is ultimately married to
his son Flannislie. This son is made a squire of the body-guard by
the king of France and receives a grant of land which is called
a
## p. 127 (#145) ############################################
Lives of the Saints and the Chronicles 127
Flandria (Flanders), from the names of Flannislie and Adria. With
the third penny, Colkelbie, in Scotland apparently, buys twenty-
four eggs to give at the baptism of the son of his neighbour
Blerblowan. The mother of the child rejects the eggs, and
Colkelbie gives them to one of his domestics, who raises from them
such a stock of poultry that, in fifteen years, he is able to give a
thousand pounds to his godson, who, ultimately, becomes immensely
rich
The story is divided into three parts, the metre of the first
differing from that of the two others. From the numerous
references to it, the story was obviously very popular, but it makes
a sorry end to the old romances.
Of the other literature of this period, the Lives of the Saints
and the Chronicles, there is not much to be said. The Lives of the
Saints, which are contained in a single MS in the Cambridge
University Library, extend to over 33,500 lines of the short
couplet used by Barbour, to whom they have, no doubt incorrectly,
been attributed. The MS is not the original and it would be
difficult to locate their origin definitely by the language alone.
But it is, I think, clear that they were intended for an Aberdeen
I
andience. The lives, as a whole, are derived from the Golden
Legend or the Lives of the Fathers, though, occasionally, other
sources were employed; but two local saints Machar (Mauricius)
and Ninian are included. Ninian, whose shrine was at Whithorn
in Galloway, was a well known saint, but St Machar's reputation
was purely local. His life was obviously compiled from local
tradition and was inserted where it stands in the MS for local
reasons. St Nicholas, a saint whose cult is very widely spread, is
the patron saint of the great church of New Aberdeen, the city on
the Dee; and it would only have occurred to a person with local
knowledge to insert after the life of Nicholas the life of Machar,
the patron saint of Old Aberdeen on the Don.
Bot befor vthyr I wald fayne
& I had cunnyng set my mayne
sume thing to say of Sanct Moryse,
that in his tym was ware and wis
& in the erd of sio renown
& als in hewine sa hye patron,
of Aberden in the cite
thru haly life was wont to be. 7 ff.
It is not clear whether all the lives are by the same author,
though most authorities regard them as being so. The writer
professes to be an old man, no longer equal to the duties of the
.
## p. 128 (#146) ############################################
128
The Earliest Scottish Literature
church. The date for the life of Ninian, at any rate, is clearly fixed
by a tale of how St Ninian saved a knight who had been betrayed
to the English, 'a ferly that in my tyme befel' (816); while, later,
he says (941):
This wes done but lessinge
Quhene Sir Davi Bruys ves kinge.
Besides the Aberdeen saints, knowledge of the north is postulated
by the story of John Balormy, born ‘in Elgyn of Murrefe,' who,
having the worm in his shank' and knee, travelled on horseback
all the way to Whithorn, 'twa hundre mylis of Milavay,' and was
cured by St Ninian.
But the Scots of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries did not
spend all their leisure in hearing and reading romances or the
lives of saints. They had an equal, or, if we may judge from the
number of extant manuscripts, a greater, interest in the chroniclers
of the past. With the earliest of these and, in some respects, the
most important of them we have but little to do, for they do
not write in the Scottish tongue. Scalacronica was compiled in
Norman-French by Sir Thomas Gray, of Heton in Northumberland,
while a prisoner in the hands of the Scots at Edinburgh, in 1355.
The valiant knight, ancestor of families still distinguished on the
Border, finding time hang heavy on his hands, put together from
the best sources at his disposal a chronicle from the beginning of
the world to his own time. For the period of the wars of inde-
pendence it is a first-hand authority and, as the work of a man of
affairs, whose 'hands had often kept his head, it has a value
distinct from that of the monkish chronicles. The next in order
of these records is Scotichronicon, the joint work of John of
Fordun and his continuator Walter Bower or Bowmaker, abbot of
Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth. Except for occasional quotations,
the work in fourteen books) is entirely in Latin. The first five
books and some part of the sixth were completed by John of
Fordun, between 1384 and 1387, for he mentions that he had lately
received a genealogy from bishop Wardlaw, cardinal and legate,
and we know that bishop Wardlaw held those titles only during
those years. Fordun is generally said to have died in 1385, the
year in which his continuator tells us he himself was born. Of
Fordun, we know nothing save what is told us in various manu-
scripts of his works. He probably was born at Fordoun, in Kincar-
dineshire, whence he derives his name; and the statement in the
Black Book of Paisley, now in the British Museum, that he was
capellanus ecclesiae Aberdonensis, which is generally interpreted
a
>
## p. 129 (#147) ############################################
Andrew of Wyntoun 129
'a chantry priest in the cathedral of Aberdeen,' is probable enough.
If so, he was not only a contemporary but also a fellow citizen of
Barbour. Fordun, undoubtedly, took great pains in collecting his
materials by visiting monasteries in England and even in Ireland
where chronicles were to be found. Unfortunately, he was able to
complete his work only as far as the death of David I in 1153.
The material with which his continuator worked was largely
collected by Fordun. But Bower was a much less competent
person than his predecessor. He was engaged upon the chronicle
between 1441 and 1449, and brought down the history to the
death of James I in 1437. He is garrulous, irrelevant and in-
accurate. He interpolates passages into the part completed by
Fordun, and he makes every important occurrence an excuse for
a long winded moral discourse. When he has occasion to relate
the unfortunate matrimonial experiences of David II, he feels it
necessary to discuss the proper method of choosing a wife and to
illustrate the problem with at least six passages from the Bible,
and several more from Aristotle and the Christian fathers. He is
able to fill the next chapter with rules for the proper management
of a wife, illustrated by quotations from Solomon, St Paul, Varro
and Valerius Maximus. Nearly two folio pages are required to
state the unpleasant things to which a wicked woman is compared.
Among these is the serpent, and this leads to an excursus on the
serpent and two more chapters on the wicked woman:
Till horsis fote thou never traist,
Till hondis tooth, no womans faith. XIV. 32 f.
A single shorter chapter exhausts the good qualities of the
female sex, and Bower is then able to return to Margaret Logie
and the death of king David II. Even that patient age found the
taediosa prolixitas of the abbot of Inchcolm more than it could
endure, and he and others spent their time in making shorter
manuals out of this vast and undigested mass.
Andrew of Wyntoun, who wrote his chronicle in Barbour's
couplet and in the Scottish tongue, was an older contemporary of
Walter Bower. He died an old man soon after 1420. Of him, as
of the other contemporary chroniclers, we know little except that
he was the head of St Serf's priory in Lochleven, and a canon
regular of St Andrews, which, in 1413, became the site of the
first university founded in Scotland. The name of his work,
The Orygynale Cronykil, only means that he went back to
the beginning of things, as do the others. Wyntoun surpasses
them only in beginning with a book on the history of angels.
9
D. L. II.
CH. V.
## p. 130 (#148) ############################################
130
The Earliest Scottish Literature
Naturally, the early part is derived mostly from the Bible,
and The Cronykil has no historical value except for Scotland,
and for Scotland only from Malcolm Canmore onwards, its value
increasing as the author approaches his own time. For Robert
the Bruce, he not only refers to Barbour but quotes nearly three
hundred lines of The Bruce verbatim-thus being the earliest,
and a very valuable, authority for Barbour's text. In the last
two books, he also incorporates a long chronicle, the author of
which he says he did not know. From the historical point of
view, these chroniclers altogether perverted the early chronology
of Scottish affairs. The iron of Edward I had sunk deep into
the Scottish soul, and it was necessary, at all costs, to show that
Scotland had a list of kings extending backwards far beyond any-
thing that England could boast. This it was easy to achieve by
making the Scottish and Pictish dynasties successive instead of
contemporary, and patching awkward flaws by creating a few
more kings when necessary. That the Scots might not be charged
with being usurpers, it was necessary to allege that they were in
Scotland before the Picts. History was thus turned upside down.
Apart from the national interests which were involved, the con-
troversy was exactly like that which raged between Oxford and
Cambridge in the sixteenth century as to the date of their
foundations, and it led to the same tampering with evidence.
Wyntoun has no claims to the name of poet. He is a chronicler,
and would himself have been surprised to be found in the company
of the 'makaris. '
It was at the instance of 'Schir Iohne of Wemys' that he com-
piled his chronicle. The original scheme was for seven books, but
the work was, later, extended to nine.
Wyntoun would not have been the child of his age and train-
ing did not the early part of his history contain many marvels.
We hear how Gedell-Glaiss, the son of Sir Newill, came out of
Scythia and married Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Being, naturally,
unpopular with the Egyptian nobility, he then emigrated to Spain
and founded the race which, in later days, appeared in Ireland
and Scotland. It is interesting to learn that Wyntoun identified
Gaelic and Basque, part of the Scottish stock remaining behind in
Spain,
And Scottis thai spek hallely,
And ar callyt Nawarry. II, 853 f.
And Simon Brek it was that first brought the Coronation Stone
from Spain to Ireland. The exact date before the Christian era is
given for all these important events.
## p. 131 (#149) ############################################
Andrew of Wyntoun 131
a
When Wyntoun arrives at the Christian dispensation and the
era of the saints, it is only natural that he should dwell with
satisfaction on the achievements of St Serf, to whom his own
priory was dedicated. St Serf was the ‘kyngis sone off Kanaan,'
who, leaving the kingdom to his younger brother, passed through
Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome.
