This
'grit king of Babylon'
dwelt in symmer in till ane bowkaill 2 stok;
And in to winter, quhen the frostis ar fell,
He dwelt for cauld in till a cokkill schell.
'grit king of Babylon'
dwelt in symmer in till ane bowkaill 2 stok;
And in to winter, quhen the frostis ar fell,
He dwelt for cauld in till a cokkill schell.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v02
3 mad, wild.
"bubbling.
' roaring, "boiling.
' slime, wet mud.
## p. 266 (#284) ############################################
266
The Scottish Chaucerians
The minor contemporaries of Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas
add nothing to our sketch of Middle Scots poetry. What in-
formation we have of these forgotten writers is derived from
Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris, Douglas's Palice of Honour
and Lyndsay's Testament of the Papyngo. Historians have
probably exaggerated the extent and importance of this subor-
dinate literaturel. It is true we know little of the authors or of
their works, but what we do know shows that to speak of 'nests of
singing birds,' or to treat Dunbar as a kind of Shakespearean
eminence overtopping a great range of song, is amiable hyperbole.
What is extant of this 'Chaucerian' material lies in the lower
levels of Lydgate's and Occleve's work. The subjects are of the
familiar fifteenth century types, and, when not concerned with the
rougher popular matter, repeat the old plaints on the ways of
courts and women and on the vanity of life. Walter Kennedy,
Dunbar's rival in The Flyting, and the most eminent of these
minors, has left five poems, The Passioun of Christ, Ane Ballat
in praise of Our Lady, Pious Counsale, The Prais of Aige and
Ane agit Manis invective against Mouth-thankless. His reputa-
tion must rest on the Flyting rather than on the other pieces,
which are conventional and dull; and there only because of the
antiquarian interest of his 'billingsgate' and his Celtic sym-
pathies. With Kennedy may be named Quintyne Schaw, who
wrote an Advyce to a Courtier.
In a general retrospect of this Chaucerian school it is not
difficult to note that the discipleship, though sincere, was by no
means blind. If the Scottish poets imitated well, and often
caught the sentiment with remarkable felicity, it was because
they were not painful devotees. In what they did they showed an
appreciation beyond the faculty of Chaucer's southern admirers ;
and, though the artistic sense implied in this appreciation was
dulled by the century's craving for a ‘moral' to every fancy, their
a
individuality saved them from the fate which befel their neigh-
bours. Good as the Testament of Cresseid is, its chief interest
to the historical student is that it was written, that Henryson
dared to find a sequel to the master's well-rounded story. Douglas's
protest in the general prologue to his Aeneid, though it fail to prove
to us that Vergil was much more to him than Chaucer was, shows
an audacity which only an intelligent intimacy with the English
poet could allow. The vitality of such appreciation, far from
undoing the Chaucerian tradition, gave it a fresh lease of life
before it yielded, inevitably, to the newer fashion.
1 For the non-Chaucerian elements see next chapter,
See Chapter iv.
## p. 267 (#285) ############################################
CHAPTER XI
THE MIDDLE SCOTS ANTHOLOGIES: ANONYMOUS
VERSE AND EARLY PROSE
STRONG as was the Chaucerian influence on the Scottish poets
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it by no means sup-
pressed or transformed what may be called the native habit of
Scottish verse. That influence came, as has been shown, from the
courtly side; it was a fashion first set by the author of The
Kingis Quair—in its treatment of the language and in its literary
mannerisms, a deliberate co-operation with the general European
effort to dignify the vernaculars. It did much, but it came late;
and, being perhaps too artificial, it yielded, in due course, to another
southern influence, more powerful and permanent. Were the
Chaucerian makars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and
their successors in the seventeenth century to be taken as the sole
representatives of northern literature, it would be hard to account
for the remarkable outburst of national verse amid the conven-
tionalities of the eighteenth. Chaucer and the Elizabethans do
not explain Ramsay' and Fergusson and Burns : and these writers
are not a sudden dialectal sport in the literary development. It
is the object of this chapter to show that the native sentiment
which has its fullest expression in these 'modern' poets was always
active, and that the evidence of its existence and of its methods is
clear, even during that period when the higher literary genius of
the country was most strongly affected by foreign models. The
vitality of this popular habit has been shown in the most courtly
and 'aureate' verse of the so-called 'golden age. ' Even in those
passages in which the poets may be suspected of burlesquing this
habit-whether by direct satire or in half-conscious repetition of
Chaucer's dislike of 'rum ram ruf'-the acknowledgment is
significant. The thesis of this chapter is, therefore, to supplement
what has been said parenthetically of this non-Chaucerian 'matter. '
It deals with those pieces which lie outside the work of the
1 See Chapter 1v, p. 95, note.
## p. 268 (#286) ############################################
268 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
*Chaucerians,' for the most part with those anonymous poems
which have been preserved in the greater anthologies of the
sixteenth century. The interest of this body of literature is
complex-in sentiment, in choice of subject, and, not least, in
verse technique.
No literature has been better served than Scottish has been by
the industry of early anthologists. The all-important Cancioneros
have not done more for Spanish ; and they lack the exclusive
and exhaustive value of the Scottish collections. For the latter
preserve not only all that is known of the work of some of the
greatest poets, but, also, a large body of minor verse, without which
we should have formed but a poor estimate of contemporary
taste, and without which we should have lost the perspective of
later literature. These anthologies are representative in the
truest sense. They were written out by men who were, first and
foremost, collectors and antiquaries, who show no critical obsession,
no desire to select and honour what may have appealed most to
their individual taste. Their books are historical documents, which
must be interpreted by historical methods! .
The importance of this fugitive 'popular' literature is made
clear in the references by the more academic' writers. Dunbar's
Lament for the Makaris derives part of its bibliographical value
from its record of poets who owed little or nothing to 'noble
Chaucer, of makaris flour. ' Though Gavin Douglas, in his Palice
of Honour, names but Kennedie, Dunbar, and Quintine (Schaw]
as the Scottish companions of the world's poets, yet in the 'lang
catbalogue of nobyll men and wemen,' he tells us-
I saw Raf Coilzear with the thrawin brow,
Craibit Johne the Reif, and auld Cowkewyis sow;
And how the wran came out of Ailssay;
And Peirs Plowman that maid his workmen fow;
Greit Gowmakmorne and Fyn Makcoul, and how
Thay suld be goddis in Ireland as they say;
Thair saw I Maitland vpon auld Beird Gray,
Robene Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand,
How Hay of Nauchtoun flew in Madin land.
The list of tales, 'sum in prose and sum in verse,' and popular
songs in the oft-quoted passage in the Complaynt of Scotlande,
is—though a mere list, and, as it were, the table of con-
tents to a more elaborate Asloan or Bannatyne MS-evidence
of the highest value. Nor is the ascription of this wide taste
in literature to a band of merrymaking shepherds—however
1 For an account of these collections, see bibliography.
## p. 269 (#287) ############################################
The Native Elements 269
'academic' these pastoralists may be—without significance.
Further interest is derived from the fact that the timbre, colour,
idiosyncrasy (whatever we may call it), which constitutes the
internal interest of this material, is represented in the works of
the 'Chaucerian' poets. The evidence of this, to which we have
already referred", is not less instructive whether the poetic inten-
tion be to burlesque courtly fashions or to escape for a time from
the ceremonies of the aureate muse.
To the reader of this miscellaneous verse there are but few
rewards of literary' pleasure. It is easy to agree with Pinkerton's
caustic note on the last lines of Rowllis Cursing-
This tragedy is callit, but dreid,
Rowlis cursing, quba will it reid-
‘he might have put a point of interrogation at the close? ' We are
here less concerned with aesthetic and individual merits than with
the historical importance of the whole body. At the same time, it
may be maintained that, but for the accident of anonymity, some
of the pieces might well take their place in the works of Dunbar
or Scott and do them no dishonour. We excuse Henryson's
Practysis of Medecyne less as a lapse of genius than as an
illustration of the dues which the best of Chaucerians had to pay
at times to rough popular taste.
It is difficult to classify this miscellaneous verse and prose—the
foundlings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—according to
the traditional scheme of types, and in dull analogy with the
groups into which contemporary southern literature may be con-
veniently divided. Not only are the 'kinds'-lyrical, satirical, alle-
gorical and the like-merged into each other in a perplexing way,
but their differentiation may tempt us to overlook that Scottish
idiosyncrasy in which the entire critical interest of the matter may
be said to rest 8. Further, when we apply the term 'popular'
to this body of literature, we must guard against using it
in the sense familiar in the controversy on the origins of the
ballads. It is to be understood, in the main, as 'native, in
opposition to the more affected style of the makars; but, at the
same time, with 'artifice' and 'literary tradition' of its own. Its
appeal to us is the appeal of Allan Ramsay and his greater succes-
sors—the protest of vernacular habit against alien literary fashion.
i See Chapter X.
· The Hunterian Club text has taken the suggestion seriously.
& There are, of course, 'non-Chaucerian' contributions to the miscellanies which
are not goottish. The Bannatyne MS, for example, contains verses by John Heywood.
## p. 270 (#288) ############################################
270 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
As in these later writers, the prevailing sentiment is that of the
farm and burgh 'wynd'-a sentiment always robust and un-
reserved, finding expression in the revel of country fairs and
city taverns, and carrying from both, to our modern sense, the
mingled odours of the field and kennel. The two best known
examples of this 'rustic' muse are Peblis to the Play and Christis
Kirk on the Grene. These are, in theme and form, companion-
pieces, and might well be, according to a persistent tradition, by
the same author. Reference has been made to the claims set up
in behalf of James I? . Some would ascribe the poems to James V
because their popular character suits better the character of the
'Gudeman of Ballengeich' than of the author of The Kingis Quair.
It has been shown that the assumption of inappropriateness in
style is invalid as an argument against authorship by James I,
and that there are certain difficulties of date which stand in the
way of the claim for his successor. That James I may have been
the author is an allowance of some importance in studying the
entwined relationship of the Chaucerian and the 'popular' verse
during the period.
The theme of these poems is the rough fun of a village festival
or 'wappinshaw, such as has been made familiar by Geikie's
pencil. The main impression is that of wild spirits : there is
plenty of movement, but no story, or coherence in the effects.
Incidentally, there are passages which, for descriptive direct-
ness, rank with the best in the 'Dutch' manner, but their success
comes from the sheer verve of composition rather than from
cunning in the treatment of detail.
To dans thir damysellis thame dicht? ,
Thir lassis licht of laitis 3;
Thair gluvis wer of the raffell 4 rycht,
Thair schone wes of the straitis 5;
Thair kirtillis wer of lynkome 6 licht,
Weill prest with mony plaitis.
Thay wer so nys? quhen men thame nichts,
Thay squeilit lyk ony gaittis,
So lowd,
At Chrystis kirk of the grene that day.
In exact parallel with this are the opening stanzas of Peblis to
the Play, describing the morning fuss among the country wenches;
but with this additional touch-
'Evir, allace! ' than said scho,
‘Am I nocht cleirlie tyntº?
i See Chapter 2.
2 made ready.
3 manner, behaviour.
4 roe-skin.
5 ? coarse cloth (woollen).
6 Lincoln.
7 nico. '
• lost, undone.
1
8
came near.
## p. 271 (#289) ############################################
Peblis to the Play; ChristisKirk on the Grene 271
I dar nocht cum zon mercat to,
I am so evvil sone brint.
Amang zon merchandis Maj-drest so? !
Mariel I sall anis mynt2_
Stand of far, and keik þaim tos,
As I at hame wes wont,'
Quod scho,
Of peblis to the play.
The likeness is preserved throughout, in the rough love-making,
the coarse farce of the upset cadger, the wild dancing and
quarrelling (told at great length in Christis Kirk), and in the intro-
duction of certain popular types, such as the miller and the piper.
Everybody is at fever-heat: the louder the women's voices and
the harder the blows, the better the fun.
The wyvis kest vp ane hiddouss yell,
Quhen all thir yunkeris yokkit";
Als ferss as ony fyrflaucht fell,
Freikis 5 to the feild thay flokkit;
The cairliss with clubbis cowd vder quello,
Quhill blad at breistis out bokkit? :
So rudly rang the commoun bell,
Qubill all the stepill rokkit,
For reird,
At Chrystis kirk of the grene.
en the 'rush' of the verse slackens, it sometimes gains in
literary felicity, as in this excellent stanza
Than thai come to the townis end
Withouttin moir delay,
He befoir, and scho befoir,
To see quha wes maist gay.
All þat luikit þame upon
Leuche fast at þair array:
Sum said þat þai wer merkat folk,
Sam said the quene of may
Wes cumit
Of peblis to the play.
Here, too, there is movement, but the pace is comfortable. This
is partly effected by the happy redoubling of phrase. Even in the
noisier Christis Kirk the gentler song-note comes in, as in these
lines
Off all thir madynis myld as meid
Wes nane so gympt9 as Gillie;
As ony ross hir rude 10 wes reid,
Hir lyre 10 wes lyk the lillie-
9
3
6
1 (Sibbald's emendation).
try, venture.
peep at them.
* engaged in condiot).
& attacked each other.
7 burst, spurted.
men.
8 clamour.
‘jimp,' graceful, noat.
10 ruddy parts of the complexion, cheeks and lips; contrasted with lyre,' the
white skin,
7
## p. 272 (#290) ############################################
272 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
a striking anticipation of the opening verse of Henry Carey's
immortal ballad? Occasional literary merit of this kind, or
wealth of illustration to the antiquary of social manners, are
less important than the evidence which these poems yield of the
abiding rusticity of the northern muse, and of its metrical habit.
It is, as has been said, not hard to find hints of this homely quality
in the greater makars, even in their most artificial moments: here
we have in all their fulness, the setting, the actuality, the humour,
the coarseness so familiar in later northern literature. Not less
important—and for retrospective reasons too—is the complicated
verse-form. The exact manipulation of the intricate stanza, with
its lines of varying length, its richness in rime and alliteration,
may well impress the reader who comes fresh to the subject as
the work of some master-craftsman; but the frequency with which
it occurs at this time, as well as earlier and later, shows that it was
no tour de force. It supplies one of the most important links in
the "formal' transition from the older northern romance to the
later northern ballad. We appear to trace the earlier stages of the
process in the riming alliterative romances, from the long irregular
stanza of such a poem as Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight,
through the thirteen-lined stanza of The Buke of the Howlat or
The Pistill of Susan, and the eleven-lined stanza as shown in
Sir Tristrem. There is no chronological intention in this state-
ment of descent: we may find here, as we find in the history of
the early dramatic forms of English literature, as much parallelism
and analogy as derivation. But the point is that the habit of these
'popular' fifteenth and sixteenth century poems—the alliteration,
rime and, above all, the breaking away in the bob'-is an effect of
antiquity. This stanzaic form represents the permanent native
element which is lost, or almost lost, for a time during the
'Chaucerian' ascendancy. Recognition of this fact gives a new
meaning to the stray examples in the verse of the makars, and
almost compels the critic to look upon the accredited manner
of the 'golden age' as an exception and 'accident. ' History
confirms this; for when aureation and other fashions had
passed, the reviving vernacular broke forth anew in the old
forms. Further, in this stanza we are not merely in close
association with the older romance forms ; in it we have both the
1 Of all the girls that are so smart,
There's none like pretty Sally:
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.
Sally in our Alley.
6
6
## p. 273 (#291) ############################################
Sym and his Brudir and other Poems 273
timbre and measure of the ballad. This is not the place for the
discussion of the vexed question of the relationship of romance
and ballad. Whatever conclusions be reached, or whatever general
principles be assumed, the data here supplied towards the prosodic
history of the popular' ballad are significant. The actual form of
the Christis Kirk stanza, however it may stand to that of the
ballad and other forms, lived on, and again and again, in the
vernacular revival, was the medium for the retelling of rustic
frolic
Another example of this type is Sym and his Brudir. It
is, in intention, a good humoured satire on church abuse, in a tale
of two palmers in St Andrews; but the adventures of these arrant
beggars are on the same lines as those of the yokels in the pieces
already discussed, and the appeal to the reader is identical. Here
too, when the people come to the brother’s' wedding-for
quhair that Symy levit in synnyng
His bruder wald haif ane bryd-
there is the like rough ‘justing,' wild chasing on horseback, dashing
down in the dirt, and general noise. Even the literary setting at
the end of the poem is deliberately restless, for the poet, after
describing how the brother’s ‘mowth was schent' in the scrimmage,
adds
He endis the story with harme forlorne;
The nolt begowth2 till skatter,
The ky ran startling to the corne.
The rustic habit is shown more happily in The Wyf of Auchtir-
muchty and The Wowing of Jok and Jynny, both in stanzas of
eight lines with four accents, riming respectively ababcded and
ababbcbc. In the former, a husbandman tired after a wet day's
work at the plough, and out of humour at finding his wife
baith dry and clene,
And sittand at ane fyre, beikand bawld 3,
With ane fat sowp, as I hard say,
arranges that he shall change places with her. Disaster upon
disaster falls upon the amateur ‘housewife,' until he declares
Quhen I forsuk my plwche,
I trow I bot forsuk my seill5;
And I will to my plwch agane,
For I and this howss will nevir do weill.
i Occasionally with minor modifications, which do not affect the type, or dis-
guise its ancestry.
2 began.
9 lit. 'warming herself boldly, or bravely. '
• plough.
happiness, 'good. '
E. L. II. CH. XI.
18
0
## p. 274 (#292) ############################################
274 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
6
The theme is obviously old, but the treatment by the unknown
makar (for the ascription in a later hand in the Bannatyne MS to
Moffat has no warranty) is fresh and lively. The kernel of the
tale is the enumeration of the misguided man's misfortunes,
which fulfils the same purpose of cumulative farce as the rush-
ing and sprawling in Peblis to the Play and Christis Kirk on
the Grene. In the matter of prosodic relationship to the rimed
alliterative poems on the one hand and to the ballads on the other,
the text supplies interesting evidence of the echo' or 'iteration'
between, and within, the stanzas. We take, for example, the
concluding lines of the seventh stanza and the opening lines of
the eighth
Bot than or he come in agane,
The calfis brak lowss and sowkit the ky.
The calvis and ky being met in the lone, etc.
Or, in the eleventh and twelfth-
The first that he gat in his armis
Wes all bedirtin to the ene.
The first that he gat in his armis
It was all dirt vp to the eine.
Or, very fully, throughout the ninth stanza-
Than to the kyrn that he did stoure,
And jwmlit1 at it quhill2 he swatt:
Quhen he had jwmlit1 a full lang houre,
The sorow crap3 of butter he gatt.
Albeit na butter he cowld gett
3it he wes cummerit with the kyrne,
And syne he het the milk our hett,
And sorrow spark 3 of it wald zyrnes.
In these passages we have the true ballad timbre and the familiar
devices.
The Wowing' of Jok and Jynny' is an early treatment of
the theme which Burns has refashioned in Duncan Gray. There
is a strong family likeness between the opening of the 'second
setting' by Burns and that of the Wowing-
Robeyns Jok come to wow our Jynny,
On our feist evin quhen we were fou.
Much of the intended humour of the piece lies in the list of
Jynny's 'tocher-gud’or dowry and in the complementary inventory
!
till.
• wooing.
istirred, churned.
sorry a bit. '
4 thicken.
6 Bann. MS. No. CL. An unwarranted ascription to John Clerk has been marked
out in the MS.
## p. 275 (#293) ############################################
Gyre Carling
275
which John gives to prove that he is a worthy suitor-a 'fouth o'
auld nick-nackets,' after the heart of Captain Grose. Here again,
the fun comes from the 'rush' of detail and the strange medley of
worthless treasures.
I haif ane helter and eik ane hek,
Ane cord, ane creill, and als ane cradill,
Fyve fidder1 of raggis to stuff ane jak,
Ane auld pannell of ane laid sadill,
Ano pepper-polk maid of a padill,
Ane spounge, ane spindill wantand ane nok,
Twa lusty lippis to lik ane laiddill;
To gang to gidder Jynny and Jok.
It will be observed that the use of alliteration is frequent.
In all these pieces, dealing in some way with rustic wooing
and matrimony, there is a burlesque element, but this must be
distinguished from the subtler, more imaginative, and more
literary type of burlesque which constitutes the second permanent
characteristic of Middle and Modern Scots poetry. Examples have
been noted in the preceding chapter on the work of the greater
makars, and especially in the Ballad of Kynd Kittok and the
Interlude of the Droichis Part of the Play. What Gavin Douglas
wrote of Vergil's sixth book,
All is bot gaistis and elriche fantasies,
Of browneis and of bogillis full this buke,
might well be said of this strange set of Middle Scots poems.
We must not seek, with the sententious bishop, for any allegory
or moral purpose in these whimsicalities. Some of these are,
perhaps, mere burlesques of romance-tradition, most are but
'dremis and dotage in the monis cruik. '
The short tale of Gyre Carling (in three stanzas of the riming-
alliterative type, with the bob) relates how this mother-witch, who
dwelt in 'Betokis bour' and fed on Christian men's flesh, was loved
by Blasour, her neighbour'on the west syd. '
For love of hir lawchane 2 lippis, he walit and he weipit;
and he gathered a crowd of moles to warp down her tower. But
the unresponsive lady cudgelled him well (as St Peter served
Kynd Kittok) until he bled 'a quart off milk pottage inwart. '
She laughed, and, after the manner of Gog Magog's spouse in the
Interlude of the Droichis Part, ejaculated North Berwick Law in
her mirth. Then the king of Faery, with his elves and all the dogs
from Dunbar to Dunblane and all the tykes of Tervey (which
3
1 fother.
laughing
18-2
## p. 276 (#294) ############################################
276 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
6
might well be Topsy Turvy land! ), laid siege to the fair ; but she
transformed herself into a sow and went gruntling our the Greik
Sie. ' There, in spite, she married Mahomet or Mahoun, and be-
came queen of the Jews. She was sadly missed in Scotland; the
cocks of Cramond ceased to crow, and the hens of Haddington
would not lay.
All this langour for lufe befoirtymes fell,
Lang or Betok wes born,
Scho bred of ane acorne;
The laifl of the story to morne
To 30w I sall tell.
This piece might well be by Dunbar.
Another love-tale of fairyland is told in King Berdok.
This
'grit king of Babylon'
dwelt in symmer in till ane bowkaill 2 stok;
And in to winter, quhen the frostis ar fell,
He dwelt for cauld in till a cokkill schell.
A stalwart man of hairt and hand,' he wooed for seven years
Mayiola, or Mayok, the 'golks of Maryland'; and yet 'scho wes
bot zeiris thre. ' This 'bony bird'had but one eye, and her 'foir-
fute wes langar than hir heill. Berdok set out to ravish the 'golk,'
and, finding her milking her mother's kine, cast her in a creel
on his back. On his return, his load proved to be but a “howlat
nest, full of skait birdis. '
And than this Berdok grett
And ran agane Meyok for to gett.
But the king of Faery was now in pursuit, and the lover took
refuge in a ‘killogy With the assistance of the kings of the
Picts and Portugal, Naples and Navern (Strathnaver), the lord
of Faery laid siege. The attackers mounted guns and fired at
Berdok with bullets of raw dough. Jupiter prayed Saturn to save
the lover by turning him into a toad; but Mercury transformed
him into a bracken bush.
And quhen thay saw the buss waig to and fra,
Thay trowd it wes ane gaist, and thay to ga;
Thir fell kingis thus Berdok wald haif slane;
All this for lufe, luveris sufferis pane;
Boece said, of poyettis that wes flour,
Thocht lufe be sweit, oft syiss it is full sour.
It is not necessary to hold with Laing that this piece was intended
3 cabbage.
3 cuckoo.
• Dungbirds,' a name applied to the Arctic gull.
5 The entrance or recess of a kiln, to help the draaght.
1 rest.
## p. 277 (#295) ############################################
Burlesque Poems
277
as a burlesque of some popular 'gest' or romance : the comic elfin
intention may be accepted on its own merits.
There is more of direct parody in the interlude of the Laying
of Lord Fergus's Gaist, beginning
Listis lordis, I sall 30w tell
Off ane verry grit mervell,
Off Lord Ferguss gaist,
How mekle Schir Andro it chesti
Vnto Beittokis bour.
It indulges, amid its satire of the ritual of exorcism, in the quaintest
fancy.
Suppois the gaist wes littill
Zit it stall Godis quhittilla;
It stall fra peteouss Abrahame
Ane quhorle3 and ano quhum quhame 4;
It stall fra the carle of the mone
Ane pair of auld yrn schone;
It ran to Pencaitlane
And wirreit ane auld chaplane.
Its allusions to Colkelbeis Feist' and 'St Bettokis Bour' would
establish its kinship, even if its manner did not make this
evident.
Lichtounis Dreme helps us a little to the secret of this
skimble-skamble' verse. The rimer asks 'Quha douttis dremis
ar bot phantasye? ' and proceeds :
My spreit was reft, and had in extasye,
My heid lay laich into this dreme but dout;
At my foirtop my fyve wittis flew out,
I murnit, and I maid a felloun mane 5:
Me thocht the King of Farye had me tane,
And band me in ane presoun, fute and hand,
Withoutin reuth, in ane lang raip of sand :
To pers the presoun wall it was nocht eith,
For it wes mingit and maid with mussill teith,
And in the middis of it ane myir of flynt;
I sank thairin, quhill I wes neir hand tynt;
And quhen I saw thair wes none uthir remeid,
I flychterit? vp with ane feddrem of leid.
He rambles on, telling of his escape to 'mony divers place,' and at
last to Peebles and Portjafe. Then he sailed in a barge of draff
to Paradise.
6
Be we approchit into that port in hye,
We ware weill ware of Enoch and Elye,
Sittand, on Yule evin, in ane fresch grene schaw,
Rostand straberreis at ane fyre of snaw.
1 chased.
6 moan.
9 knife.
easy.
3 whorl.
i Auttered.
nick-nack. '
## p. 278 (#296) ############################################
278 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
Like Gog Magog's kin in Dunbar's interlude, he makes free with
the interlunar spaces. Later in the poem, when telling how he
desired to leave the moon, he says:
Bot than I take the sone beme in my neifi
And wald haif clumin, bot it was in ane clipss;
Schortlie I slaid, and fell upoan my hips,
Doun in ane midow, besyde ane busk of mynt;
I socht my self, and I was sevin yeir tynt,
Yit in ane mist I fand me on the morne.
We need not follow his adventure with the Pundler and the three
white whales which appeared at the blast of the "elriche horne. '
The conclusion is suggestive. When Lichtoun monicus' awakes,
he asks:
Quhair, trow ye, that I was ?
Doun in ane henslaik 6, and gat ane felloun fall,
And lay betuix ane picher and the wall.
And he adds :
As wyffis commandis, this dreme I will conclude;
God and the rude mot turn it all to gud!
Gar fill the cop, for thir auld carlingis7 clames
That gentill aill is oft the causs of dremes.
Another wife, in later verse, warned her Tam how by 'bousing at
the nappy' he would be catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk. '
In the bacchanalian quality shown in different ways in these
rustic sketches and elfin dream-poems we have a third tradition
of Scottish verse. It would, of course, be vain to seek a complete
explanation of the eighteenth century convivial muse in the
historical evidences of a literary habit—as vain as to estimate
the general effect of Burns's work as an editorial modification of
old material; but the testimony of historical continuity, in theme,
in attitude and in technique, is too strong to be overlooked in
a survey of Scottish literature. The more thorough and connected
the survey is, the clearer will it appear that the rusticity, the wild
humour and the conviviality are not more the idiosyncrasies of
Burns and his fellow poets than the persistent, irrepressible
habits of the literature itself. Criticism has been too willing
to treat pieces like Burns’s Scotch Drink as mere personal
enthusiasm.
The best of all the Middle Scots convivial verse is Dunbar's
Testament of Mr Andro Kennedys, but some of the anonymous
pieces in the collections deserve mention. Quhy sould nocht
į fist, hand.
2 climbed.
3 eclipse.
• So signed in the MS.
6 In a poultry-yard : say, 'in the mire. '
women.
8 See Chapter .
1
>
4 lost.
7
## p. 279 (#297) ############################################
Convivial Verse
279
Allane honorit be? is a sprightly “ballat' on ‘Allan-a-Maut,' alias
John Barleycorn. By a misreading of the subscription in the MS
-'Quod Allane Matsonis suddartis? '-the poem has been given
to one Watson. It tells the history of 'Allan' from his youth, when
he was 'cled in grene,' to his powerful manhood.
The grittest cowart in this land,
Fra he with Allane entir in band,
Thocht he may nowdir gang nor stand,
zit fowrty sall nocht gar him flie:
Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be?
'Allane' too
is bening, courtass, and gude,
And servis ws of our daly fvde,
And that with liberalitie;
Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be?
The theme is familiar in Burns's John Barleycorn, itself based
on an older popular text. Another in the Bannatyne MS, in
eleven-lined stanzas, and signed 'Allanis subdert,' anathematises
the bad brewer and praises the good.
Quba hes gud malt, and makis ill drynk,
Wa mot be hir werd!
I pray to God scho rott and stynk
Sevin şeir abone the eird.
And another piece 'I mak it kend, he that will spend,' in the same
collection, is, appropriately, given to ‘John Blyth,' a fellow-reveller
with Allan's jolly-boys.
Now lat we sing with Chrystis blissing,
Be glaid and mak gude sound:
With an 0, and ane I, now or we forder found 3,
Drink thow to me, and I to the,
And lat the cop go round.
In the foregoing groups we find the representative and historical
qualities of the national verse, the timbre of Scotticism: in the
large residue of anonymous pieces in the collections we encounter
the familiar fifteenth and sixteenth century southern types.
Fabliaux, in the manner of the Freiris of Berwik", are not
numerous. The Thrie Priestis of Peblis is a long didactic tale,
or set of tales, with a politico-social purpose, kin in spirit with
Lyndsay's verse, or the prose Complaynt of Scotlande, or the
fragmentary recension of the Talis of the Fyve Bestis in the
Asloan MS. The truer note of the fabliau is struck in the tale
1 'subjects. '
3. before we farther go. '
º join company.
• See Chapter z.
## p. 280 (#298) ############################################
280 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
of The Dumb Wyf, in which a dumb woman is, by her husband's
desire--and to his own undoing-made to speak.
The leist deuill that is in hell
Can gif ane wyff hir toung;
The grittest, I 3ow tell,
Cannot do mak bir dum.
6
There is, throughout the collections, no lack of cynical fun at the
expense of woman, according to the lively tradition of The Romance
of the Rose, and not a little of that severer satire and audacious
double meaning which we find in Dunbar? ; occasionally, as in Sic
Perrell in Paramouris lyis, and invariably with sober warning
rather than satirical purpose, the verse-makers discuss 'menis
subtell slicht. ' There is church satire, too, in Sir John Rowllis
CE a tedious invocation of 'Godis braid malisoun' upon
those who stole Sir John's five fat geese and other fowls. The
anathema is so paralysing in its fulness that it is well the writer
becomes merciful at the close and prays
Latt nevir this sentence fall thame vpone,
Bot grant thame grace ay till forbeir
Resset or stowth? of vthir menis geir;
And als agane the geir restoir
Till Rowle, as I hafe said befoir.
There is not much to choose between a 'cursing' and a 'flyting. '
Of historical and patriotic verse there is little. The fragment
of the Rings of the Roy Robert* (ascribed to Dean David Steill
in the Maitland folio) recalls Bruce in metre and Wallace
in sentiment. In the Talis of the Fyve Bestis, the second or
‘Hartis Tale' is devoted to praīse of Wallace for his defence of
Scotland 'fra subiectioun of Saxonis blud'; and, in the Scots
recension of the Nine Nobles", the last in the list of great men
is Robert the Bruce, who 'venkust the mychty Kyng | Off England,
Edward, twyse in fycht. ' There is, too, in the Maitland folio,
a short defence of the Scots, which is an extract from Wyntoun's
Chronicle. The plea for the peasant, familiar in the fabliau. x
of Rauf Coilsear and John the Reeve, in Lyndsay's John the
Commonweill, and in the prose Complaynt of Scotlande is repre-
sented here and there, as in John Uponlandis Complaint and
Few may fend for falsett 8.
1 Cf. Sempill's Ballat on Margret Fleming, callit the Fleming Bark in Edinburcht,
his Defence of Crissell Sandelandis, and another on three women being slicht wemen
of lyfe and conversatioun. ' This type of poem is by no means rare in Scots.
theft.
4 Robert III.
• In the Edinburgh University copy of Fordun. 6 In the Bannatyne MS.
.
3 reign.
## p. 281 (#299) ############################################
Love Poetry
281
In all these pieces the literary interest yields to the historical
and antiquarian: but in the love poems and lyrics it is of more
account. Some of these are hardly inferior to the known work
of Alexander Scott and others represented in these collections;
and they may, indeed, prove to be theirs. The love lay Tayis Bank,
in the common ballad measure, arranged in eight-lined stanzas,
is curiously deliberate in its mixture of the alliterative and aureate
styles. The ‘mansuet Mergrit, this perle polist most quhyt,' who
is the object of the poet's admiration, has been identified with
Margaret Drummond, the mistress of James IV before his marriage
with Margaret Tudor. The nature-setting, though happy, is con-
ventional; and the poet's praise of the lady is always ceremonious
and distant
This myld, meik, mansuet Mergrit,
This perle polist most quhyt,
Dame Natouris deir dochter discreit,
The dyamant of delyt,
Neuir formit wes to found on feit
Ane figour moir perfyte,
Nor non on mold that did hir meit
Mycht mend hir wirth a myte.
When she departs, the poet is not sorrowful as the author of the
Kingis Quair was. He appears to take comfort from the artistic
propriety of her going into a wane 'most hevinly to behold. ' He
tells us that he admired the beauty of that place 'as parradyce
but peir,' and adds
And I to heir thir birdis gay
Did in a bonk abyd.
Here, certainly, is the reserve of the professional makar. The
Murning Maiden is on a higher level, in respect of directness
and technical accomplishment; and, though it is not without traces
of alliterative and allegorical convention, it is never artificial. It
is no exaggeration to say that, in all our Middle English literature,
there is no poem more plainly human and simple. A forlorn maiden,
wandering in a wood in 'waithman weir',' encounters a man (the
writer of the lyric) who, after listening to her soliloquy of sorrow,
asks her why she trespasses with bow and arrows. She answers:
Thocht I walk in this forest fre,
Withe bow, and eik with fedderit flane,
It is weill mair than dayis thre
And meit or drink zit saw I nane.
Thocht I had never sio neid
My selffe to wyn my breid,
Zour deir may walk, schir, thair alane:
Zit wes never na beistis bane;
I may not se thame bleid.
i huntsman's dress.
arrow.
## p. 282 (#300) ############################################
282 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
1
Sen that I never did 30w ill,
It wer no skill ze did me skaith.
3our deir may walk quhair euir thai will:
I wyn my meit be na sio waithel.
I do bot litill wrang,
Bot gif I flowris fang.
Giff that 3e trow not in my aythes,
Tak heir my bow and arrowis bayth,
And lat my awin selffe gang.
She refuses the frank terms which he offers, and insists on
remaining in the forest, a 'woful weycht, with her bed
full cauld,
With beistis bryme* and bauld.
The forester, touched by her sorrow, vows he will not consent to
her wild plan.
In to my armes swythe
Embrasit I that blythes,
Sayand, 'sweit hairt, of harmes ho 6!
Found? sall I never this forrest fro,
Quhill 3e me confort kyth. '
Than knelit I befoir that cleir5,
And meiklie could hir meroye craiff,
That semlie than, with sobir cheir,
Me of hir gudlynes forgaif.
It wes no neid, I wys,
To bid us vther kys;
Thair mycht no hairtis mair joy resaif,
Nor ather could of uther haif;
This 8 brocht wer we to blis.
Of other pieces of this genre mention may be made of The
Luvaris Lament (ascribed by Bannatyne to Fethe or Fethy), with
the burden
Canld cauld culis the lufe
That kendillis our het,
and In May in a Morning, reminiscent, in its form, of the
riming alliterative poems. Though Welcum to Mayº continues the
traditional courtly' manner and the aureate diction of the makars
(e. g. 'saufir firmament,' 'annammellit orient,' 'beriall droppis,'
and the like), it shows a change in the point of view. It may
be extravagant to discover more than a renascence appre-
ciation of nature in the poem, yet these lines are not merely
conventional :
Go walk vpoun snm rever fair,
Go tak the fresch and holsum air,
Go luk vpoun the flurist fell,
Go feill the herbis plesand smell.
i hunting.
2 oath.
3 wight.
4 fierce.
5 fair one,' maid.
pause.
go.
• Beginning, 'Be glad al ze that luvaris bene. '
(
7
8 thus.
## p. 283 (#301) ############################################
Early Scottish Prose 283
Another lyric, beginning Quhen Flora had ourfret the firth, works
up the commonplaces about the merle and mavis, and does not
shrink from aureation.
Scho is sa brycht of hyd and hew,
I lufe bot hir allone I wene;
Is non hir lufe that may eschew
That blenkis of that dulce amene.
So, too, O Lusty May, with Flora quene proclaims its kinship in
such a phrase as 'preluciand bemis. The Song of Absence, which
Pinkerton wrongly attributed to James I', is more lively in its
Its irregular lines recall the movement of the 'rustic
stanza ; but these are steadied by the ballast of such phrases as
the ‘hait canicular day' or the 'sweet mow redolent' of the
beloved. Evidence of this 'aureate' habit is so persistent in the
minor love poems in the collections that they must be grouped
with the courtly poetry of the period.
Finally, there is the didactic and religious verse of the collec-
tions. Little of this is, however, anonymous; and rarely, if ever,
may it be described as 'popular. ' Engrained as the ethical habit
appears to be in Scottish literature—so deeply, indeed, as often to
convey the impression of unrelieved seriousness-it is not in any
strict sense an idiosyncrasy of pre-reformation verse. In her
reflections on life's pains and aspirations, Scotland but conformed
to the taste of her neighbours. If she appear, after the sixteenth
century, to ponder more upon these things-or, let us say, less
upon others—she does so under stress of a combination of special
circumstances, rather than in indulgence of an old habit or
incurable liking.
An additional interest, philological rather than literary,
attaches to the Asloan collection from the fact that it contains
a number of prose passages, which are among the earliest remains
of Scots prose, other than legal and official documents. That
there should be any vernacular prose, whether official or quasi-
literary, at the beginning of the fifteenth century is almost
surprising, when we consider the place held by Latin in the
intellectual life, even in the commercial relationships of renascence
Scotland? The plea for a native medium is hardly urged before
the middle of the sixteenth century; and then it is only occasional,
and, as in Lyndsay's Exclamatioun to the Redar, apologetic,
1 Ancient Scotish Poems (1786), II, 425. See Chapter x of this volume.
. See Chapter 1v.
## p. 284 (#302) ############################################
284
Early Scottish Prose
6
a
because of the stress of reformation conflict. It was probably but
rarely that a Scot excused his ‘Ynglis' on the grounds stated by
the earl of March in his letter to Henry IV of England! We
know that Scots was used in public documents in the late four-
teenth century. In the Bute MS of Laws six of the twenty-five
pieces are in the vernacular; so too are the parliamentary records
from the reign of the first James. But neither in these nor in the
texts represented in the Asloan MS can we discover any half-
conscious effort of style, such as marks the beginnings of fifteenth
century prose in England.
The earliest examples of vernacular prose are the translations
of Sir Gilbert Hay, or of the Haye,' dated 1456, and preserved in
a single volume now in the collection at Abbotsford. They are
(1) The Buke of the Law of Armys, or Buke of Bataillis, based
on the French of Honoré Bonet, (2) The Buke of the Order of
Knichthood, following L'Ordre de Chevalerie and (3) a version of
the pseudo-Aristotelian Government of Princes. To which of these
the entry in the Asloan MS ("The Document of Schir Gilbert Hay')
refers is not known, for the portion of the MS which contained
the text has been lost. Of more originality, but with small claim
as literature, is the long treatise on political wisdom and rule of
life for a prince, by John of Ireland, rector of Yarrow and quondam
confessor to James III and Louis XI of France. The text, labelled
Johannis de Irlandia Opera Theologica, is preserved in the
Advocates' Library. A long extract from John's writings stands
first in the Asloan MS (“On the Passioun,' etc. ); and we have
clues to his authorship of other vernacular treatises of a semi-
theological character which are not extant. The place of his prose
in the history of the language has been discussed in another
chapter3. The contents of the Portuus of Noblines in the Asloan
MS, and (in part) in the Chepman and Myllar prints, are explained
by the fuller title, 'The wertuis of nobilnes and portratours thairof
&c. callit the Portuus and matynnis of the samin. ' This piece is a
dull discussion, in a series of homilies, on Faith, Loyalty, Honour
and the other virtues. It purports to be a translation by Andrew
Cadiou from the French. The Spectakle of Luf or Delectatioun
It ‘ys mare cleir to myne understandyng than latyne or Fraunche' (1400). Cf.
Chapter iv.
? Perhaps we should say the earliest important examples; for the short fifteenth
century tracts, Craft of Deyng, The Wisdom of Solomon and The Vertewis of the Mess,
preserved in the Cambridge University MS, Kk. 1. 5, may be earlier. Their interest is,
however, entirely philological. See the edition by J. Rawson Lumby, E. E. T. S. 1870.
3 See Chapter 1v.
## p. 285 (#303) ############################################
Early Scottish Prose 285
of Wemen, translated from the Latin, is an exhortation, in the
conventional dialogue-form, 'to abstene fra sic fleschly delecta-
tiounis quhilk thow callis luf. ' The reader is informed in the
conclusion that the translation was finished at St Andrews on
10 July 1492, by G. Myll, ‘ane clerk, quhilk had bene in to
Venus court mair than the space of xx zeiris, quhill (he adds)
I mycht nocht mak the seruice that I had bene accustomyd to
do; quharfor I was put out of hir bill of hushald.
## p. 266 (#284) ############################################
266
The Scottish Chaucerians
The minor contemporaries of Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas
add nothing to our sketch of Middle Scots poetry. What in-
formation we have of these forgotten writers is derived from
Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris, Douglas's Palice of Honour
and Lyndsay's Testament of the Papyngo. Historians have
probably exaggerated the extent and importance of this subor-
dinate literaturel. It is true we know little of the authors or of
their works, but what we do know shows that to speak of 'nests of
singing birds,' or to treat Dunbar as a kind of Shakespearean
eminence overtopping a great range of song, is amiable hyperbole.
What is extant of this 'Chaucerian' material lies in the lower
levels of Lydgate's and Occleve's work. The subjects are of the
familiar fifteenth century types, and, when not concerned with the
rougher popular matter, repeat the old plaints on the ways of
courts and women and on the vanity of life. Walter Kennedy,
Dunbar's rival in The Flyting, and the most eminent of these
minors, has left five poems, The Passioun of Christ, Ane Ballat
in praise of Our Lady, Pious Counsale, The Prais of Aige and
Ane agit Manis invective against Mouth-thankless. His reputa-
tion must rest on the Flyting rather than on the other pieces,
which are conventional and dull; and there only because of the
antiquarian interest of his 'billingsgate' and his Celtic sym-
pathies. With Kennedy may be named Quintyne Schaw, who
wrote an Advyce to a Courtier.
In a general retrospect of this Chaucerian school it is not
difficult to note that the discipleship, though sincere, was by no
means blind. If the Scottish poets imitated well, and often
caught the sentiment with remarkable felicity, it was because
they were not painful devotees. In what they did they showed an
appreciation beyond the faculty of Chaucer's southern admirers ;
and, though the artistic sense implied in this appreciation was
dulled by the century's craving for a ‘moral' to every fancy, their
a
individuality saved them from the fate which befel their neigh-
bours. Good as the Testament of Cresseid is, its chief interest
to the historical student is that it was written, that Henryson
dared to find a sequel to the master's well-rounded story. Douglas's
protest in the general prologue to his Aeneid, though it fail to prove
to us that Vergil was much more to him than Chaucer was, shows
an audacity which only an intelligent intimacy with the English
poet could allow. The vitality of such appreciation, far from
undoing the Chaucerian tradition, gave it a fresh lease of life
before it yielded, inevitably, to the newer fashion.
1 For the non-Chaucerian elements see next chapter,
See Chapter iv.
## p. 267 (#285) ############################################
CHAPTER XI
THE MIDDLE SCOTS ANTHOLOGIES: ANONYMOUS
VERSE AND EARLY PROSE
STRONG as was the Chaucerian influence on the Scottish poets
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it by no means sup-
pressed or transformed what may be called the native habit of
Scottish verse. That influence came, as has been shown, from the
courtly side; it was a fashion first set by the author of The
Kingis Quair—in its treatment of the language and in its literary
mannerisms, a deliberate co-operation with the general European
effort to dignify the vernaculars. It did much, but it came late;
and, being perhaps too artificial, it yielded, in due course, to another
southern influence, more powerful and permanent. Were the
Chaucerian makars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and
their successors in the seventeenth century to be taken as the sole
representatives of northern literature, it would be hard to account
for the remarkable outburst of national verse amid the conven-
tionalities of the eighteenth. Chaucer and the Elizabethans do
not explain Ramsay' and Fergusson and Burns : and these writers
are not a sudden dialectal sport in the literary development. It
is the object of this chapter to show that the native sentiment
which has its fullest expression in these 'modern' poets was always
active, and that the evidence of its existence and of its methods is
clear, even during that period when the higher literary genius of
the country was most strongly affected by foreign models. The
vitality of this popular habit has been shown in the most courtly
and 'aureate' verse of the so-called 'golden age. ' Even in those
passages in which the poets may be suspected of burlesquing this
habit-whether by direct satire or in half-conscious repetition of
Chaucer's dislike of 'rum ram ruf'-the acknowledgment is
significant. The thesis of this chapter is, therefore, to supplement
what has been said parenthetically of this non-Chaucerian 'matter. '
It deals with those pieces which lie outside the work of the
1 See Chapter 1v, p. 95, note.
## p. 268 (#286) ############################################
268 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
*Chaucerians,' for the most part with those anonymous poems
which have been preserved in the greater anthologies of the
sixteenth century. The interest of this body of literature is
complex-in sentiment, in choice of subject, and, not least, in
verse technique.
No literature has been better served than Scottish has been by
the industry of early anthologists. The all-important Cancioneros
have not done more for Spanish ; and they lack the exclusive
and exhaustive value of the Scottish collections. For the latter
preserve not only all that is known of the work of some of the
greatest poets, but, also, a large body of minor verse, without which
we should have formed but a poor estimate of contemporary
taste, and without which we should have lost the perspective of
later literature. These anthologies are representative in the
truest sense. They were written out by men who were, first and
foremost, collectors and antiquaries, who show no critical obsession,
no desire to select and honour what may have appealed most to
their individual taste. Their books are historical documents, which
must be interpreted by historical methods! .
The importance of this fugitive 'popular' literature is made
clear in the references by the more academic' writers. Dunbar's
Lament for the Makaris derives part of its bibliographical value
from its record of poets who owed little or nothing to 'noble
Chaucer, of makaris flour. ' Though Gavin Douglas, in his Palice
of Honour, names but Kennedie, Dunbar, and Quintine (Schaw]
as the Scottish companions of the world's poets, yet in the 'lang
catbalogue of nobyll men and wemen,' he tells us-
I saw Raf Coilzear with the thrawin brow,
Craibit Johne the Reif, and auld Cowkewyis sow;
And how the wran came out of Ailssay;
And Peirs Plowman that maid his workmen fow;
Greit Gowmakmorne and Fyn Makcoul, and how
Thay suld be goddis in Ireland as they say;
Thair saw I Maitland vpon auld Beird Gray,
Robene Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand,
How Hay of Nauchtoun flew in Madin land.
The list of tales, 'sum in prose and sum in verse,' and popular
songs in the oft-quoted passage in the Complaynt of Scotlande,
is—though a mere list, and, as it were, the table of con-
tents to a more elaborate Asloan or Bannatyne MS-evidence
of the highest value. Nor is the ascription of this wide taste
in literature to a band of merrymaking shepherds—however
1 For an account of these collections, see bibliography.
## p. 269 (#287) ############################################
The Native Elements 269
'academic' these pastoralists may be—without significance.
Further interest is derived from the fact that the timbre, colour,
idiosyncrasy (whatever we may call it), which constitutes the
internal interest of this material, is represented in the works of
the 'Chaucerian' poets. The evidence of this, to which we have
already referred", is not less instructive whether the poetic inten-
tion be to burlesque courtly fashions or to escape for a time from
the ceremonies of the aureate muse.
To the reader of this miscellaneous verse there are but few
rewards of literary' pleasure. It is easy to agree with Pinkerton's
caustic note on the last lines of Rowllis Cursing-
This tragedy is callit, but dreid,
Rowlis cursing, quba will it reid-
‘he might have put a point of interrogation at the close? ' We are
here less concerned with aesthetic and individual merits than with
the historical importance of the whole body. At the same time, it
may be maintained that, but for the accident of anonymity, some
of the pieces might well take their place in the works of Dunbar
or Scott and do them no dishonour. We excuse Henryson's
Practysis of Medecyne less as a lapse of genius than as an
illustration of the dues which the best of Chaucerians had to pay
at times to rough popular taste.
It is difficult to classify this miscellaneous verse and prose—the
foundlings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—according to
the traditional scheme of types, and in dull analogy with the
groups into which contemporary southern literature may be con-
veniently divided. Not only are the 'kinds'-lyrical, satirical, alle-
gorical and the like-merged into each other in a perplexing way,
but their differentiation may tempt us to overlook that Scottish
idiosyncrasy in which the entire critical interest of the matter may
be said to rest 8. Further, when we apply the term 'popular'
to this body of literature, we must guard against using it
in the sense familiar in the controversy on the origins of the
ballads. It is to be understood, in the main, as 'native, in
opposition to the more affected style of the makars; but, at the
same time, with 'artifice' and 'literary tradition' of its own. Its
appeal to us is the appeal of Allan Ramsay and his greater succes-
sors—the protest of vernacular habit against alien literary fashion.
i See Chapter X.
· The Hunterian Club text has taken the suggestion seriously.
& There are, of course, 'non-Chaucerian' contributions to the miscellanies which
are not goottish. The Bannatyne MS, for example, contains verses by John Heywood.
## p. 270 (#288) ############################################
270 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
As in these later writers, the prevailing sentiment is that of the
farm and burgh 'wynd'-a sentiment always robust and un-
reserved, finding expression in the revel of country fairs and
city taverns, and carrying from both, to our modern sense, the
mingled odours of the field and kennel. The two best known
examples of this 'rustic' muse are Peblis to the Play and Christis
Kirk on the Grene. These are, in theme and form, companion-
pieces, and might well be, according to a persistent tradition, by
the same author. Reference has been made to the claims set up
in behalf of James I? . Some would ascribe the poems to James V
because their popular character suits better the character of the
'Gudeman of Ballengeich' than of the author of The Kingis Quair.
It has been shown that the assumption of inappropriateness in
style is invalid as an argument against authorship by James I,
and that there are certain difficulties of date which stand in the
way of the claim for his successor. That James I may have been
the author is an allowance of some importance in studying the
entwined relationship of the Chaucerian and the 'popular' verse
during the period.
The theme of these poems is the rough fun of a village festival
or 'wappinshaw, such as has been made familiar by Geikie's
pencil. The main impression is that of wild spirits : there is
plenty of movement, but no story, or coherence in the effects.
Incidentally, there are passages which, for descriptive direct-
ness, rank with the best in the 'Dutch' manner, but their success
comes from the sheer verve of composition rather than from
cunning in the treatment of detail.
To dans thir damysellis thame dicht? ,
Thir lassis licht of laitis 3;
Thair gluvis wer of the raffell 4 rycht,
Thair schone wes of the straitis 5;
Thair kirtillis wer of lynkome 6 licht,
Weill prest with mony plaitis.
Thay wer so nys? quhen men thame nichts,
Thay squeilit lyk ony gaittis,
So lowd,
At Chrystis kirk of the grene that day.
In exact parallel with this are the opening stanzas of Peblis to
the Play, describing the morning fuss among the country wenches;
but with this additional touch-
'Evir, allace! ' than said scho,
‘Am I nocht cleirlie tyntº?
i See Chapter 2.
2 made ready.
3 manner, behaviour.
4 roe-skin.
5 ? coarse cloth (woollen).
6 Lincoln.
7 nico. '
• lost, undone.
1
8
came near.
## p. 271 (#289) ############################################
Peblis to the Play; ChristisKirk on the Grene 271
I dar nocht cum zon mercat to,
I am so evvil sone brint.
Amang zon merchandis Maj-drest so? !
Mariel I sall anis mynt2_
Stand of far, and keik þaim tos,
As I at hame wes wont,'
Quod scho,
Of peblis to the play.
The likeness is preserved throughout, in the rough love-making,
the coarse farce of the upset cadger, the wild dancing and
quarrelling (told at great length in Christis Kirk), and in the intro-
duction of certain popular types, such as the miller and the piper.
Everybody is at fever-heat: the louder the women's voices and
the harder the blows, the better the fun.
The wyvis kest vp ane hiddouss yell,
Quhen all thir yunkeris yokkit";
Als ferss as ony fyrflaucht fell,
Freikis 5 to the feild thay flokkit;
The cairliss with clubbis cowd vder quello,
Quhill blad at breistis out bokkit? :
So rudly rang the commoun bell,
Qubill all the stepill rokkit,
For reird,
At Chrystis kirk of the grene.
en the 'rush' of the verse slackens, it sometimes gains in
literary felicity, as in this excellent stanza
Than thai come to the townis end
Withouttin moir delay,
He befoir, and scho befoir,
To see quha wes maist gay.
All þat luikit þame upon
Leuche fast at þair array:
Sum said þat þai wer merkat folk,
Sam said the quene of may
Wes cumit
Of peblis to the play.
Here, too, there is movement, but the pace is comfortable. This
is partly effected by the happy redoubling of phrase. Even in the
noisier Christis Kirk the gentler song-note comes in, as in these
lines
Off all thir madynis myld as meid
Wes nane so gympt9 as Gillie;
As ony ross hir rude 10 wes reid,
Hir lyre 10 wes lyk the lillie-
9
3
6
1 (Sibbald's emendation).
try, venture.
peep at them.
* engaged in condiot).
& attacked each other.
7 burst, spurted.
men.
8 clamour.
‘jimp,' graceful, noat.
10 ruddy parts of the complexion, cheeks and lips; contrasted with lyre,' the
white skin,
7
## p. 272 (#290) ############################################
272 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
a striking anticipation of the opening verse of Henry Carey's
immortal ballad? Occasional literary merit of this kind, or
wealth of illustration to the antiquary of social manners, are
less important than the evidence which these poems yield of the
abiding rusticity of the northern muse, and of its metrical habit.
It is, as has been said, not hard to find hints of this homely quality
in the greater makars, even in their most artificial moments: here
we have in all their fulness, the setting, the actuality, the humour,
the coarseness so familiar in later northern literature. Not less
important—and for retrospective reasons too—is the complicated
verse-form. The exact manipulation of the intricate stanza, with
its lines of varying length, its richness in rime and alliteration,
may well impress the reader who comes fresh to the subject as
the work of some master-craftsman; but the frequency with which
it occurs at this time, as well as earlier and later, shows that it was
no tour de force. It supplies one of the most important links in
the "formal' transition from the older northern romance to the
later northern ballad. We appear to trace the earlier stages of the
process in the riming alliterative romances, from the long irregular
stanza of such a poem as Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight,
through the thirteen-lined stanza of The Buke of the Howlat or
The Pistill of Susan, and the eleven-lined stanza as shown in
Sir Tristrem. There is no chronological intention in this state-
ment of descent: we may find here, as we find in the history of
the early dramatic forms of English literature, as much parallelism
and analogy as derivation. But the point is that the habit of these
'popular' fifteenth and sixteenth century poems—the alliteration,
rime and, above all, the breaking away in the bob'-is an effect of
antiquity. This stanzaic form represents the permanent native
element which is lost, or almost lost, for a time during the
'Chaucerian' ascendancy. Recognition of this fact gives a new
meaning to the stray examples in the verse of the makars, and
almost compels the critic to look upon the accredited manner
of the 'golden age' as an exception and 'accident. ' History
confirms this; for when aureation and other fashions had
passed, the reviving vernacular broke forth anew in the old
forms. Further, in this stanza we are not merely in close
association with the older romance forms ; in it we have both the
1 Of all the girls that are so smart,
There's none like pretty Sally:
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.
Sally in our Alley.
6
6
## p. 273 (#291) ############################################
Sym and his Brudir and other Poems 273
timbre and measure of the ballad. This is not the place for the
discussion of the vexed question of the relationship of romance
and ballad. Whatever conclusions be reached, or whatever general
principles be assumed, the data here supplied towards the prosodic
history of the popular' ballad are significant. The actual form of
the Christis Kirk stanza, however it may stand to that of the
ballad and other forms, lived on, and again and again, in the
vernacular revival, was the medium for the retelling of rustic
frolic
Another example of this type is Sym and his Brudir. It
is, in intention, a good humoured satire on church abuse, in a tale
of two palmers in St Andrews; but the adventures of these arrant
beggars are on the same lines as those of the yokels in the pieces
already discussed, and the appeal to the reader is identical. Here
too, when the people come to the brother’s' wedding-for
quhair that Symy levit in synnyng
His bruder wald haif ane bryd-
there is the like rough ‘justing,' wild chasing on horseback, dashing
down in the dirt, and general noise. Even the literary setting at
the end of the poem is deliberately restless, for the poet, after
describing how the brother’s ‘mowth was schent' in the scrimmage,
adds
He endis the story with harme forlorne;
The nolt begowth2 till skatter,
The ky ran startling to the corne.
The rustic habit is shown more happily in The Wyf of Auchtir-
muchty and The Wowing of Jok and Jynny, both in stanzas of
eight lines with four accents, riming respectively ababcded and
ababbcbc. In the former, a husbandman tired after a wet day's
work at the plough, and out of humour at finding his wife
baith dry and clene,
And sittand at ane fyre, beikand bawld 3,
With ane fat sowp, as I hard say,
arranges that he shall change places with her. Disaster upon
disaster falls upon the amateur ‘housewife,' until he declares
Quhen I forsuk my plwche,
I trow I bot forsuk my seill5;
And I will to my plwch agane,
For I and this howss will nevir do weill.
i Occasionally with minor modifications, which do not affect the type, or dis-
guise its ancestry.
2 began.
9 lit. 'warming herself boldly, or bravely. '
• plough.
happiness, 'good. '
E. L. II. CH. XI.
18
0
## p. 274 (#292) ############################################
274 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
6
The theme is obviously old, but the treatment by the unknown
makar (for the ascription in a later hand in the Bannatyne MS to
Moffat has no warranty) is fresh and lively. The kernel of the
tale is the enumeration of the misguided man's misfortunes,
which fulfils the same purpose of cumulative farce as the rush-
ing and sprawling in Peblis to the Play and Christis Kirk on
the Grene. In the matter of prosodic relationship to the rimed
alliterative poems on the one hand and to the ballads on the other,
the text supplies interesting evidence of the echo' or 'iteration'
between, and within, the stanzas. We take, for example, the
concluding lines of the seventh stanza and the opening lines of
the eighth
Bot than or he come in agane,
The calfis brak lowss and sowkit the ky.
The calvis and ky being met in the lone, etc.
Or, in the eleventh and twelfth-
The first that he gat in his armis
Wes all bedirtin to the ene.
The first that he gat in his armis
It was all dirt vp to the eine.
Or, very fully, throughout the ninth stanza-
Than to the kyrn that he did stoure,
And jwmlit1 at it quhill2 he swatt:
Quhen he had jwmlit1 a full lang houre,
The sorow crap3 of butter he gatt.
Albeit na butter he cowld gett
3it he wes cummerit with the kyrne,
And syne he het the milk our hett,
And sorrow spark 3 of it wald zyrnes.
In these passages we have the true ballad timbre and the familiar
devices.
The Wowing' of Jok and Jynny' is an early treatment of
the theme which Burns has refashioned in Duncan Gray. There
is a strong family likeness between the opening of the 'second
setting' by Burns and that of the Wowing-
Robeyns Jok come to wow our Jynny,
On our feist evin quhen we were fou.
Much of the intended humour of the piece lies in the list of
Jynny's 'tocher-gud’or dowry and in the complementary inventory
!
till.
• wooing.
istirred, churned.
sorry a bit. '
4 thicken.
6 Bann. MS. No. CL. An unwarranted ascription to John Clerk has been marked
out in the MS.
## p. 275 (#293) ############################################
Gyre Carling
275
which John gives to prove that he is a worthy suitor-a 'fouth o'
auld nick-nackets,' after the heart of Captain Grose. Here again,
the fun comes from the 'rush' of detail and the strange medley of
worthless treasures.
I haif ane helter and eik ane hek,
Ane cord, ane creill, and als ane cradill,
Fyve fidder1 of raggis to stuff ane jak,
Ane auld pannell of ane laid sadill,
Ano pepper-polk maid of a padill,
Ane spounge, ane spindill wantand ane nok,
Twa lusty lippis to lik ane laiddill;
To gang to gidder Jynny and Jok.
It will be observed that the use of alliteration is frequent.
In all these pieces, dealing in some way with rustic wooing
and matrimony, there is a burlesque element, but this must be
distinguished from the subtler, more imaginative, and more
literary type of burlesque which constitutes the second permanent
characteristic of Middle and Modern Scots poetry. Examples have
been noted in the preceding chapter on the work of the greater
makars, and especially in the Ballad of Kynd Kittok and the
Interlude of the Droichis Part of the Play. What Gavin Douglas
wrote of Vergil's sixth book,
All is bot gaistis and elriche fantasies,
Of browneis and of bogillis full this buke,
might well be said of this strange set of Middle Scots poems.
We must not seek, with the sententious bishop, for any allegory
or moral purpose in these whimsicalities. Some of these are,
perhaps, mere burlesques of romance-tradition, most are but
'dremis and dotage in the monis cruik. '
The short tale of Gyre Carling (in three stanzas of the riming-
alliterative type, with the bob) relates how this mother-witch, who
dwelt in 'Betokis bour' and fed on Christian men's flesh, was loved
by Blasour, her neighbour'on the west syd. '
For love of hir lawchane 2 lippis, he walit and he weipit;
and he gathered a crowd of moles to warp down her tower. But
the unresponsive lady cudgelled him well (as St Peter served
Kynd Kittok) until he bled 'a quart off milk pottage inwart. '
She laughed, and, after the manner of Gog Magog's spouse in the
Interlude of the Droichis Part, ejaculated North Berwick Law in
her mirth. Then the king of Faery, with his elves and all the dogs
from Dunbar to Dunblane and all the tykes of Tervey (which
3
1 fother.
laughing
18-2
## p. 276 (#294) ############################################
276 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
6
might well be Topsy Turvy land! ), laid siege to the fair ; but she
transformed herself into a sow and went gruntling our the Greik
Sie. ' There, in spite, she married Mahomet or Mahoun, and be-
came queen of the Jews. She was sadly missed in Scotland; the
cocks of Cramond ceased to crow, and the hens of Haddington
would not lay.
All this langour for lufe befoirtymes fell,
Lang or Betok wes born,
Scho bred of ane acorne;
The laifl of the story to morne
To 30w I sall tell.
This piece might well be by Dunbar.
Another love-tale of fairyland is told in King Berdok.
This
'grit king of Babylon'
dwelt in symmer in till ane bowkaill 2 stok;
And in to winter, quhen the frostis ar fell,
He dwelt for cauld in till a cokkill schell.
A stalwart man of hairt and hand,' he wooed for seven years
Mayiola, or Mayok, the 'golks of Maryland'; and yet 'scho wes
bot zeiris thre. ' This 'bony bird'had but one eye, and her 'foir-
fute wes langar than hir heill. Berdok set out to ravish the 'golk,'
and, finding her milking her mother's kine, cast her in a creel
on his back. On his return, his load proved to be but a “howlat
nest, full of skait birdis. '
And than this Berdok grett
And ran agane Meyok for to gett.
But the king of Faery was now in pursuit, and the lover took
refuge in a ‘killogy With the assistance of the kings of the
Picts and Portugal, Naples and Navern (Strathnaver), the lord
of Faery laid siege. The attackers mounted guns and fired at
Berdok with bullets of raw dough. Jupiter prayed Saturn to save
the lover by turning him into a toad; but Mercury transformed
him into a bracken bush.
And quhen thay saw the buss waig to and fra,
Thay trowd it wes ane gaist, and thay to ga;
Thir fell kingis thus Berdok wald haif slane;
All this for lufe, luveris sufferis pane;
Boece said, of poyettis that wes flour,
Thocht lufe be sweit, oft syiss it is full sour.
It is not necessary to hold with Laing that this piece was intended
3 cabbage.
3 cuckoo.
• Dungbirds,' a name applied to the Arctic gull.
5 The entrance or recess of a kiln, to help the draaght.
1 rest.
## p. 277 (#295) ############################################
Burlesque Poems
277
as a burlesque of some popular 'gest' or romance : the comic elfin
intention may be accepted on its own merits.
There is more of direct parody in the interlude of the Laying
of Lord Fergus's Gaist, beginning
Listis lordis, I sall 30w tell
Off ane verry grit mervell,
Off Lord Ferguss gaist,
How mekle Schir Andro it chesti
Vnto Beittokis bour.
It indulges, amid its satire of the ritual of exorcism, in the quaintest
fancy.
Suppois the gaist wes littill
Zit it stall Godis quhittilla;
It stall fra peteouss Abrahame
Ane quhorle3 and ano quhum quhame 4;
It stall fra the carle of the mone
Ane pair of auld yrn schone;
It ran to Pencaitlane
And wirreit ane auld chaplane.
Its allusions to Colkelbeis Feist' and 'St Bettokis Bour' would
establish its kinship, even if its manner did not make this
evident.
Lichtounis Dreme helps us a little to the secret of this
skimble-skamble' verse. The rimer asks 'Quha douttis dremis
ar bot phantasye? ' and proceeds :
My spreit was reft, and had in extasye,
My heid lay laich into this dreme but dout;
At my foirtop my fyve wittis flew out,
I murnit, and I maid a felloun mane 5:
Me thocht the King of Farye had me tane,
And band me in ane presoun, fute and hand,
Withoutin reuth, in ane lang raip of sand :
To pers the presoun wall it was nocht eith,
For it wes mingit and maid with mussill teith,
And in the middis of it ane myir of flynt;
I sank thairin, quhill I wes neir hand tynt;
And quhen I saw thair wes none uthir remeid,
I flychterit? vp with ane feddrem of leid.
He rambles on, telling of his escape to 'mony divers place,' and at
last to Peebles and Portjafe. Then he sailed in a barge of draff
to Paradise.
6
Be we approchit into that port in hye,
We ware weill ware of Enoch and Elye,
Sittand, on Yule evin, in ane fresch grene schaw,
Rostand straberreis at ane fyre of snaw.
1 chased.
6 moan.
9 knife.
easy.
3 whorl.
i Auttered.
nick-nack. '
## p. 278 (#296) ############################################
278 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
Like Gog Magog's kin in Dunbar's interlude, he makes free with
the interlunar spaces. Later in the poem, when telling how he
desired to leave the moon, he says:
Bot than I take the sone beme in my neifi
And wald haif clumin, bot it was in ane clipss;
Schortlie I slaid, and fell upoan my hips,
Doun in ane midow, besyde ane busk of mynt;
I socht my self, and I was sevin yeir tynt,
Yit in ane mist I fand me on the morne.
We need not follow his adventure with the Pundler and the three
white whales which appeared at the blast of the "elriche horne. '
The conclusion is suggestive. When Lichtoun monicus' awakes,
he asks:
Quhair, trow ye, that I was ?
Doun in ane henslaik 6, and gat ane felloun fall,
And lay betuix ane picher and the wall.
And he adds :
As wyffis commandis, this dreme I will conclude;
God and the rude mot turn it all to gud!
Gar fill the cop, for thir auld carlingis7 clames
That gentill aill is oft the causs of dremes.
Another wife, in later verse, warned her Tam how by 'bousing at
the nappy' he would be catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk. '
In the bacchanalian quality shown in different ways in these
rustic sketches and elfin dream-poems we have a third tradition
of Scottish verse. It would, of course, be vain to seek a complete
explanation of the eighteenth century convivial muse in the
historical evidences of a literary habit—as vain as to estimate
the general effect of Burns's work as an editorial modification of
old material; but the testimony of historical continuity, in theme,
in attitude and in technique, is too strong to be overlooked in
a survey of Scottish literature. The more thorough and connected
the survey is, the clearer will it appear that the rusticity, the wild
humour and the conviviality are not more the idiosyncrasies of
Burns and his fellow poets than the persistent, irrepressible
habits of the literature itself. Criticism has been too willing
to treat pieces like Burns’s Scotch Drink as mere personal
enthusiasm.
The best of all the Middle Scots convivial verse is Dunbar's
Testament of Mr Andro Kennedys, but some of the anonymous
pieces in the collections deserve mention. Quhy sould nocht
į fist, hand.
2 climbed.
3 eclipse.
• So signed in the MS.
6 In a poultry-yard : say, 'in the mire. '
women.
8 See Chapter .
1
>
4 lost.
7
## p. 279 (#297) ############################################
Convivial Verse
279
Allane honorit be? is a sprightly “ballat' on ‘Allan-a-Maut,' alias
John Barleycorn. By a misreading of the subscription in the MS
-'Quod Allane Matsonis suddartis? '-the poem has been given
to one Watson. It tells the history of 'Allan' from his youth, when
he was 'cled in grene,' to his powerful manhood.
The grittest cowart in this land,
Fra he with Allane entir in band,
Thocht he may nowdir gang nor stand,
zit fowrty sall nocht gar him flie:
Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be?
'Allane' too
is bening, courtass, and gude,
And servis ws of our daly fvde,
And that with liberalitie;
Quhy sowld nocht Allane honorit be?
The theme is familiar in Burns's John Barleycorn, itself based
on an older popular text. Another in the Bannatyne MS, in
eleven-lined stanzas, and signed 'Allanis subdert,' anathematises
the bad brewer and praises the good.
Quba hes gud malt, and makis ill drynk,
Wa mot be hir werd!
I pray to God scho rott and stynk
Sevin şeir abone the eird.
And another piece 'I mak it kend, he that will spend,' in the same
collection, is, appropriately, given to ‘John Blyth,' a fellow-reveller
with Allan's jolly-boys.
Now lat we sing with Chrystis blissing,
Be glaid and mak gude sound:
With an 0, and ane I, now or we forder found 3,
Drink thow to me, and I to the,
And lat the cop go round.
In the foregoing groups we find the representative and historical
qualities of the national verse, the timbre of Scotticism: in the
large residue of anonymous pieces in the collections we encounter
the familiar fifteenth and sixteenth century southern types.
Fabliaux, in the manner of the Freiris of Berwik", are not
numerous. The Thrie Priestis of Peblis is a long didactic tale,
or set of tales, with a politico-social purpose, kin in spirit with
Lyndsay's verse, or the prose Complaynt of Scotlande, or the
fragmentary recension of the Talis of the Fyve Bestis in the
Asloan MS. The truer note of the fabliau is struck in the tale
1 'subjects. '
3. before we farther go. '
º join company.
• See Chapter z.
## p. 280 (#298) ############################################
280 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
of The Dumb Wyf, in which a dumb woman is, by her husband's
desire--and to his own undoing-made to speak.
The leist deuill that is in hell
Can gif ane wyff hir toung;
The grittest, I 3ow tell,
Cannot do mak bir dum.
6
There is, throughout the collections, no lack of cynical fun at the
expense of woman, according to the lively tradition of The Romance
of the Rose, and not a little of that severer satire and audacious
double meaning which we find in Dunbar? ; occasionally, as in Sic
Perrell in Paramouris lyis, and invariably with sober warning
rather than satirical purpose, the verse-makers discuss 'menis
subtell slicht. ' There is church satire, too, in Sir John Rowllis
CE a tedious invocation of 'Godis braid malisoun' upon
those who stole Sir John's five fat geese and other fowls. The
anathema is so paralysing in its fulness that it is well the writer
becomes merciful at the close and prays
Latt nevir this sentence fall thame vpone,
Bot grant thame grace ay till forbeir
Resset or stowth? of vthir menis geir;
And als agane the geir restoir
Till Rowle, as I hafe said befoir.
There is not much to choose between a 'cursing' and a 'flyting. '
Of historical and patriotic verse there is little. The fragment
of the Rings of the Roy Robert* (ascribed to Dean David Steill
in the Maitland folio) recalls Bruce in metre and Wallace
in sentiment. In the Talis of the Fyve Bestis, the second or
‘Hartis Tale' is devoted to praīse of Wallace for his defence of
Scotland 'fra subiectioun of Saxonis blud'; and, in the Scots
recension of the Nine Nobles", the last in the list of great men
is Robert the Bruce, who 'venkust the mychty Kyng | Off England,
Edward, twyse in fycht. ' There is, too, in the Maitland folio,
a short defence of the Scots, which is an extract from Wyntoun's
Chronicle. The plea for the peasant, familiar in the fabliau. x
of Rauf Coilsear and John the Reeve, in Lyndsay's John the
Commonweill, and in the prose Complaynt of Scotlande is repre-
sented here and there, as in John Uponlandis Complaint and
Few may fend for falsett 8.
1 Cf. Sempill's Ballat on Margret Fleming, callit the Fleming Bark in Edinburcht,
his Defence of Crissell Sandelandis, and another on three women being slicht wemen
of lyfe and conversatioun. ' This type of poem is by no means rare in Scots.
theft.
4 Robert III.
• In the Edinburgh University copy of Fordun. 6 In the Bannatyne MS.
.
3 reign.
## p. 281 (#299) ############################################
Love Poetry
281
In all these pieces the literary interest yields to the historical
and antiquarian: but in the love poems and lyrics it is of more
account. Some of these are hardly inferior to the known work
of Alexander Scott and others represented in these collections;
and they may, indeed, prove to be theirs. The love lay Tayis Bank,
in the common ballad measure, arranged in eight-lined stanzas,
is curiously deliberate in its mixture of the alliterative and aureate
styles. The ‘mansuet Mergrit, this perle polist most quhyt,' who
is the object of the poet's admiration, has been identified with
Margaret Drummond, the mistress of James IV before his marriage
with Margaret Tudor. The nature-setting, though happy, is con-
ventional; and the poet's praise of the lady is always ceremonious
and distant
This myld, meik, mansuet Mergrit,
This perle polist most quhyt,
Dame Natouris deir dochter discreit,
The dyamant of delyt,
Neuir formit wes to found on feit
Ane figour moir perfyte,
Nor non on mold that did hir meit
Mycht mend hir wirth a myte.
When she departs, the poet is not sorrowful as the author of the
Kingis Quair was. He appears to take comfort from the artistic
propriety of her going into a wane 'most hevinly to behold. ' He
tells us that he admired the beauty of that place 'as parradyce
but peir,' and adds
And I to heir thir birdis gay
Did in a bonk abyd.
Here, certainly, is the reserve of the professional makar. The
Murning Maiden is on a higher level, in respect of directness
and technical accomplishment; and, though it is not without traces
of alliterative and allegorical convention, it is never artificial. It
is no exaggeration to say that, in all our Middle English literature,
there is no poem more plainly human and simple. A forlorn maiden,
wandering in a wood in 'waithman weir',' encounters a man (the
writer of the lyric) who, after listening to her soliloquy of sorrow,
asks her why she trespasses with bow and arrows. She answers:
Thocht I walk in this forest fre,
Withe bow, and eik with fedderit flane,
It is weill mair than dayis thre
And meit or drink zit saw I nane.
Thocht I had never sio neid
My selffe to wyn my breid,
Zour deir may walk, schir, thair alane:
Zit wes never na beistis bane;
I may not se thame bleid.
i huntsman's dress.
arrow.
## p. 282 (#300) ############################################
282 Anonymous and Popular Scottish Verse
1
Sen that I never did 30w ill,
It wer no skill ze did me skaith.
3our deir may walk quhair euir thai will:
I wyn my meit be na sio waithel.
I do bot litill wrang,
Bot gif I flowris fang.
Giff that 3e trow not in my aythes,
Tak heir my bow and arrowis bayth,
And lat my awin selffe gang.
She refuses the frank terms which he offers, and insists on
remaining in the forest, a 'woful weycht, with her bed
full cauld,
With beistis bryme* and bauld.
The forester, touched by her sorrow, vows he will not consent to
her wild plan.
In to my armes swythe
Embrasit I that blythes,
Sayand, 'sweit hairt, of harmes ho 6!
Found? sall I never this forrest fro,
Quhill 3e me confort kyth. '
Than knelit I befoir that cleir5,
And meiklie could hir meroye craiff,
That semlie than, with sobir cheir,
Me of hir gudlynes forgaif.
It wes no neid, I wys,
To bid us vther kys;
Thair mycht no hairtis mair joy resaif,
Nor ather could of uther haif;
This 8 brocht wer we to blis.
Of other pieces of this genre mention may be made of The
Luvaris Lament (ascribed by Bannatyne to Fethe or Fethy), with
the burden
Canld cauld culis the lufe
That kendillis our het,
and In May in a Morning, reminiscent, in its form, of the
riming alliterative poems. Though Welcum to Mayº continues the
traditional courtly' manner and the aureate diction of the makars
(e. g. 'saufir firmament,' 'annammellit orient,' 'beriall droppis,'
and the like), it shows a change in the point of view. It may
be extravagant to discover more than a renascence appre-
ciation of nature in the poem, yet these lines are not merely
conventional :
Go walk vpoun snm rever fair,
Go tak the fresch and holsum air,
Go luk vpoun the flurist fell,
Go feill the herbis plesand smell.
i hunting.
2 oath.
3 wight.
4 fierce.
5 fair one,' maid.
pause.
go.
• Beginning, 'Be glad al ze that luvaris bene. '
(
7
8 thus.
## p. 283 (#301) ############################################
Early Scottish Prose 283
Another lyric, beginning Quhen Flora had ourfret the firth, works
up the commonplaces about the merle and mavis, and does not
shrink from aureation.
Scho is sa brycht of hyd and hew,
I lufe bot hir allone I wene;
Is non hir lufe that may eschew
That blenkis of that dulce amene.
So, too, O Lusty May, with Flora quene proclaims its kinship in
such a phrase as 'preluciand bemis. The Song of Absence, which
Pinkerton wrongly attributed to James I', is more lively in its
Its irregular lines recall the movement of the 'rustic
stanza ; but these are steadied by the ballast of such phrases as
the ‘hait canicular day' or the 'sweet mow redolent' of the
beloved. Evidence of this 'aureate' habit is so persistent in the
minor love poems in the collections that they must be grouped
with the courtly poetry of the period.
Finally, there is the didactic and religious verse of the collec-
tions. Little of this is, however, anonymous; and rarely, if ever,
may it be described as 'popular. ' Engrained as the ethical habit
appears to be in Scottish literature—so deeply, indeed, as often to
convey the impression of unrelieved seriousness-it is not in any
strict sense an idiosyncrasy of pre-reformation verse. In her
reflections on life's pains and aspirations, Scotland but conformed
to the taste of her neighbours. If she appear, after the sixteenth
century, to ponder more upon these things-or, let us say, less
upon others—she does so under stress of a combination of special
circumstances, rather than in indulgence of an old habit or
incurable liking.
An additional interest, philological rather than literary,
attaches to the Asloan collection from the fact that it contains
a number of prose passages, which are among the earliest remains
of Scots prose, other than legal and official documents. That
there should be any vernacular prose, whether official or quasi-
literary, at the beginning of the fifteenth century is almost
surprising, when we consider the place held by Latin in the
intellectual life, even in the commercial relationships of renascence
Scotland? The plea for a native medium is hardly urged before
the middle of the sixteenth century; and then it is only occasional,
and, as in Lyndsay's Exclamatioun to the Redar, apologetic,
1 Ancient Scotish Poems (1786), II, 425. See Chapter x of this volume.
. See Chapter 1v.
## p. 284 (#302) ############################################
284
Early Scottish Prose
6
a
because of the stress of reformation conflict. It was probably but
rarely that a Scot excused his ‘Ynglis' on the grounds stated by
the earl of March in his letter to Henry IV of England! We
know that Scots was used in public documents in the late four-
teenth century. In the Bute MS of Laws six of the twenty-five
pieces are in the vernacular; so too are the parliamentary records
from the reign of the first James. But neither in these nor in the
texts represented in the Asloan MS can we discover any half-
conscious effort of style, such as marks the beginnings of fifteenth
century prose in England.
The earliest examples of vernacular prose are the translations
of Sir Gilbert Hay, or of the Haye,' dated 1456, and preserved in
a single volume now in the collection at Abbotsford. They are
(1) The Buke of the Law of Armys, or Buke of Bataillis, based
on the French of Honoré Bonet, (2) The Buke of the Order of
Knichthood, following L'Ordre de Chevalerie and (3) a version of
the pseudo-Aristotelian Government of Princes. To which of these
the entry in the Asloan MS ("The Document of Schir Gilbert Hay')
refers is not known, for the portion of the MS which contained
the text has been lost. Of more originality, but with small claim
as literature, is the long treatise on political wisdom and rule of
life for a prince, by John of Ireland, rector of Yarrow and quondam
confessor to James III and Louis XI of France. The text, labelled
Johannis de Irlandia Opera Theologica, is preserved in the
Advocates' Library. A long extract from John's writings stands
first in the Asloan MS (“On the Passioun,' etc. ); and we have
clues to his authorship of other vernacular treatises of a semi-
theological character which are not extant. The place of his prose
in the history of the language has been discussed in another
chapter3. The contents of the Portuus of Noblines in the Asloan
MS, and (in part) in the Chepman and Myllar prints, are explained
by the fuller title, 'The wertuis of nobilnes and portratours thairof
&c. callit the Portuus and matynnis of the samin. ' This piece is a
dull discussion, in a series of homilies, on Faith, Loyalty, Honour
and the other virtues. It purports to be a translation by Andrew
Cadiou from the French. The Spectakle of Luf or Delectatioun
It ‘ys mare cleir to myne understandyng than latyne or Fraunche' (1400). Cf.
Chapter iv.
? Perhaps we should say the earliest important examples; for the short fifteenth
century tracts, Craft of Deyng, The Wisdom of Solomon and The Vertewis of the Mess,
preserved in the Cambridge University MS, Kk. 1. 5, may be earlier. Their interest is,
however, entirely philological. See the edition by J. Rawson Lumby, E. E. T. S. 1870.
3 See Chapter 1v.
## p. 285 (#303) ############################################
Early Scottish Prose 285
of Wemen, translated from the Latin, is an exhortation, in the
conventional dialogue-form, 'to abstene fra sic fleschly delecta-
tiounis quhilk thow callis luf. ' The reader is informed in the
conclusion that the translation was finished at St Andrews on
10 July 1492, by G. Myll, ‘ane clerk, quhilk had bene in to
Venus court mair than the space of xx zeiris, quhill (he adds)
I mycht nocht mak the seruice that I had bene accustomyd to
do; quharfor I was put out of hir bill of hushald.
