No More Learning

He had
already given proof of the qualities of foresight, reflectiveness and
common sense in a work on hops, designed to improve one of the
industries of his country. The Discoverie, also, was primarily in-
tended as a humanitarian protest—'A Travell in the behalfe of the
poore, the aged and the simple. But the primitive belief in magic
and witchcraft had now become a matter for academic discussion,
and Scot's work is inevitably coloured by continual restatement of
Agrippa’s and Weier's arguments, and by counterblasts to Malleus
and Jean Bodin.
It is essentially a work of investigation and exposition. In that
1
1


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Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft
113
uncritical and pedantic age, the great sources of knowledge seemed
to confirm man's natural belief in magic and sorcery. It was
argued that Deuteronomy, the Twelve Tables, the Justinian code,
recognised the existence of witches. Among profane literature,
no lesser authorities than Manilius, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Tibullus
and Lucan had given credence to sorcery. A refutation of such
contentions hinged on the interpretation of texts. Thus, much of
the Discoverie is devoted to an academic examination of Hebrew
and Latin words. But Scot was not only a scholar. In the ad-
ministration of his inherited estates, he came into contact with the
unprogressive population of rural districts, and he also seems to
have acquired at Oxford a sound knowledge of law. He boldly
criticises the legal methods of procedure with accused witches,
and shows how melancholy and old age often cause women to
incur the suspicion of sorcery. One feature of his book is its
thoroughness. Witchcraft was involved in other forms of credulity;
to believe in one manifestation of supernatural power was to
admit all to be possible. So Scot explains the legerdemain which
beguiled the simple; he detects the frauds and impostures of friars
and priests who encouraged the belief in invisible spirits. Borrow-
ing from the keen humour and intelligence of Erasmus, he exposes
the tricks of alchemists, and discredits the practice of incantation
and devil-conjuring by merely enumerating at full length the
ludicrously elaborate charms then in use. With admirable skill
he attributes the superstitions of witch-mongers to the influence
of the Roman Catholic religion. He sums up the conclusions of
his work in these words:
Witchcraft is in truth a cousening art, wherin the name of God is abused,
propbaned and blasphemed, and his power attributed to a vile creature. In
estimation of the Vulgar people it is a supernaturall worke, contrived betweene
a Corporall old woman and a spirituall divell. The maner thereof is so secret,
mysticall and strange, that to this daie there hath never beene any credible
witnes thereof. It is incomprehensible to the wise, learned or faithfull, a
probable matter to children, fooles, melancholike persons and papists.
But Scot's Discoverie produced no permanent effect on the
beliefs of his time. The treatise is too diffuse and ill-constructed
to be read with pleasure. Furthermore, science was not suffici-
ently advanced to substitute reason for superstition. Melanchthon's
Initia Doctrinae physicae was based on a belief that the devil
bore sway over natural phenomena. Paracelsus was infected
with the same error; Reuchlin believed in witches. Cardanus
contended that certain complaints and affections must be the
result of magic and the workyng of cursed sciences,' since
8
8
E. L. III.
CH. V.


## p. 114 (#136) ############################################

114 Progress of Social Literature in Tudor Times
physic and chirurgery knew of no remedy. Scot, also, had the
limitations of his contemporaries. He still believed in a 'naturall
magicke' and he accepted many of the legends of classic lore, such
as the belief that a certain river in Thrace makes white sheep
produce black lambs, and a large number of folk-remedies, such as
the belief that the bone of a carp's head staunches blood.
We have seen how prominent a part the middle classes
played in forming the literature of the sixteenth century. While
accepting the stories, satire and learning of the Middle Ages,
they created a demand for English books that should reflect
the tendencies of the present and embody the humour and wisdom
of the past. One feature of their reading is its assimilation of
French, Italian and German thought; another, its attractive-
ness for 'clerks' and 'gentlemen' as well as for the commons. '
This popular literature was not obscured by the 'melodious bursts'
of Elizabeth's reign. On the contrary, social and fugitive tracts
continued to develop along the same lines till the Civil War.
Satires on folly and domestic discord, character studies, jest-books,
broadside ballads, beggar books, treatises on cosmography, the culti-
vation of health, universal knowledge and witchcraft continued to
flourish throughout the Jacobean period, and the great work of
exposing abuses was bequeathed to not incompetent hands. Never-
theless, a change in the temper of the people begins to be noticeable
during the last twenty years of the sixteenth century. Puritanism,
which had long made itself felt, now became prominent; national
sentiment took possession of the people; the conceits of pseudo-
classicism became an almost universal fashion; style preoccupied
readers and writers; the essay was developed; the gulf between
popular and court literature began to widen; above all, London
grew into a centre-or, rather, a hotbed-of professional writers.
These changes were felt at once in the people's literature. The
tracts of Churchyard, Gilbert, Greene, Nashe, Gifford, Lodge,
Chettle, Dekker, Thynne, Overbury, Jonson, Earle, Parrot, Wye
Saltonstall, Breton, Brathwait, Peacham, Parker and Rowlands
belong to a different era. Reginald Scot has been classed with
Tudor writers because his work is a résumé of the thoughts of
that time and his treatment has the rather clumsy earnestness of
an earlier period. But the others mark a subsequent stage in
popular English literature and are dealt with in later chapters of
the present work.
a


## p. 115 (#137) ############################################

CHAPTER VI
SIR DAVID LYNDSAY
AND THE LATER SCOTTISH MAKARIS'
ALTHOUGH Sir David Lyndsay, properly the last inheritor
in Scotland of the Chaucerian tradition, was, evidently, well
read in the great English master and his successors, and was
influenced both in his poetic form and method by Dunbar and
Douglas, his verse is informed by a spirit radically different
from that of previous 'makaris. ' Like Dunbar, he was largely
a satirist; he was a satirist of the political, social and ecclesiastical
corruptions of his age, just as Dunbar was of those of the previous
age. But, in Lyndsay's time, the sentiment against social and
ecclesiastical corruptions had become much stronger. It was
rapidly becoming national; and its more absorbing character was
ultimately to have a fatal effect on poetry. The character of
Lyndsay's verse was symptomatic of the approach of a period
of poetic decline. The artistic purpose is not so supreme in
him as in Dunbar. He is less poetical and more didactic.
While by no means so polished and trenchant, he is much more
special and precise. The gilded coarseness of gentlewomen, the
hypocrisy and worldliness of churchmen, the greedy covetousness
of courtiers, were to Dunbar, according to his mood, subjects for
bitter or humorous mirth. To his mirth, blended with humour,
or wrath or contempt, he gave expression in biting and brilliant
verse, without any very definite purpose beyond that of finding
vent for his emotions and scope for his art. To Lyndsay, on the
contrary, the definite purpose was almost everything; he was,
primarily, less a poet than a political and social reformer; and
he made use of the literary medium that would best achieve his
moral purpose. Had he lived in modern times, he might have
been either a prominent and successful statesman, or a brilliant
writer on the burning questions of the hour; and, had the period
of his literary activity fallen only a few years later than it did-
when the advantages of the invention of printing were more
842


## p. 116 (#138) ############################################

116
Sir David Lyndsay
.
utilised, and had begun to create a demand for vernacular prose-
he might have indulged in admonitions, exhortations and blasts,
somewhat after the manner of Knox: he had no mastery, like
Buchanan, of either Latin verse or prose, even had his particular
purpose not been better served by utilising different forms of
vernacular verse.
Sometimes, like Douglas, Lyndsay employed allegory, and he,
also, employed it for a moral purpose; but, unlike Douglas,
he was not content to deal with the virtues and vices in the
abstract, or merely in meditatively pictorial fashion; his primary
aim was to point out, and hold up to scorn, the definite political,
social and moral scandals of the time. In his early manhood he
may have written a variety of verse with a merely artistic purpose, ,
but the earliest of his poetical pieces which has come down
to us is The Dreme, which internal evidence seems to show was
written shortly after the escape of the young king, James V, from
the tutorship of the Douglases in 1528. From the time of the
birth of James V, in 1512, Lyndsay had been, as he records in
the introductory Epistil to the Kingis Grace, the king's personal
attendant-his sewer arranger of his table), cupbearer, carver,
treasurer, usher and cubicular. Being the king's chief companion
in his more solitary hours, he had been accustomed to entertain
him with all kinds of ancient tales; and, now that James had
come to years of discretion, and had personally to undertake the
responsibilities of government, Lyndsay proposed to show him
'a new story'-one of a different kind from any told to him before,
and more suited to the graver character of his new circumstances.
The poem was intended for the king's perusal, and thus the pill
had to be gilded in order that it might be accepted. This accounts
for the introductory display of the poet's accomplishments as a
master of terms aureate, and for his resolve to make known his
revelations in the elaborate allegorical fashion that was a poetic
convention of the time.
The Dreme of Lyndsay may have been suggested by The Dreme
of Dunbar; but it is about ten times as long, and it has nothing
in common with it beyond the name and the description of a
dream for its theme. Certain stanzas in Lyndsay's prologue are,
however, very similar in manner and substance to some of the
introductory stanzas of Dunbar's The Thrissil and the Rois, and,
like the latter poem, it is written in the rime royal of Chaucer,
all except the epilogue, which is in the nine-lined stave used
by Dunbar in The Goldyn Targe, by Chaucer in Anelida and
а


## p. 117 (#139) ############################################

The Dreme
117
Arcite and by Gavin Douglas in part of The Palice of Honour.
The general form of Lyndsay's poem seems to have been sug-
gested rather by The Palice of Honour than by any poem of
Dunbar, who did not intermeddle with extended allegory. Like
The Palice of Honour, it records an adventurous journey, but of
a less purely imaginative or allegorical character, for Lyndsay is
made to visit what he regards as actual realities—the lowest
hell, purgatory, the seven planets, heaven and paradise. The
character of the journey may have been suggested to him by
Chaucer's House of Fame; but other-world scenes had, generally,
much attraction for the imagination of medieval poets. This
portion of the poem was, also, largely a conventional excrescence.
It was chiefly introductory to his main theme. He was here
intent partly on displaying his poetic paces with a view to arouse
the literary interests of the king and secure his attention, partly
on putting him in such a frame of mind as would induce him
to give serious consideration to the succeeding exposure of the
poverty, wrongs and miseries of his subjects.
As revealed to Lyndsay by Dame Remembrance, Scotland is
described as possessing within itself all that is needful for the
highest prosperity: abundant rivers and lochs for fish, many lusty
vales for corn, fruitful hills and green meadows for the pasturage
of sheep and cattle, forests swarming with deer and other animals
of the chase, various rich metals and precious stones, and, if none
of the finer fruits of the warmer climates, from which spices and
wines are made, various sorts of fruit of a thoroughly good and
wholesome kind. This description tallies with actual fact; in the
Scotland of Lyndsay's time, there was an abundant supply of food
for the limited number of its inhabitants. It possessed all the
essential resources for comfort and prosperity, and it was inhabited,
as Dame Remembrance points out, by a strong, ingenious and
courageous people. Why, then, he asks, has there come to be
such evident poverty, such great unhappiness, such a lack of
virtuous well-doing? And the answer of Dame Remembrance
is that the cause is lack of policy, lack of proper administration
of justice and lack of peace. This is further revealed in detail
by John the Commoun Weill, whose arrival as he is hastening to
leave the country, and whose ragged costume, lean looks and
dejected bearing are described with vivid picturesqueness. In
reply to Lyndsay's query as to the cause of the miserable and
poverty-stricken appearance of one whose life was exemplary,
and whose aims high and honourable, John the Commoun Weill


## p. 118 (#140) ############################################

118
Sir David Lyndsay
informs him of the banishment from the country of all his best
friends, of the unrighteous triumph of his enemies and of his evil
treatment in every part of the country where he sought refuge-
the borders rampant with theft and murder and mischief; the
highlands peopled by lazy sluggards; the islands and the western
regions a prey to unthrift, laziness, falsehood and strife; and the
more civilised portions of the lowlands, from which 'singular
profit' (selfish greed), after doing him great injury and offence,
expelled him with opprobrious epithets. He then proceeds to
describe in detail, and with much terse vigour, the corruptions
and inefficiency both of the civil and spiritual rule during the
king's minority, and intimates his determination not again to give
Scotland the comfort of his presence, until she is guided by the
wisdom of 'ane gude and prudent Kyng. '
With the departure of John the Commoun Weill, the visions
vouchsafed to the poet come to a close. He is brought again
by Dame Remembrance to the cove where he had laid him down
to sleep; and, after being awakened by the shot of a cannon from
a ship in the offing, he proceeds to his home, where, after a good
dinner, he sits himself down to record the events of his vision. To
this record he finally appends an epilogue entitled An Exhorta-
tion to the King, which takes the form of shrewd advice, and
serious and solemn warning.
The Complaynt—in the octosyllabic couplet, and of rather
later date-records, in a brisk, mocking fashion, the methods
adopted by the Douglases to enrich themselves at the king's ex-
pense, and to make him the passive instrument of their ambition ;
describes the generally scandalous condition both of church and
state under their rule; and congratulates him on his escape from
the clutches of such false friends, and on the marked improvement
in social order and general well-being throughout the kingdom,
except as regards the spiritualitie. ' On the doings of the
ecclesiastics he advises him to keep a watchful eye, and see that
they preach with ‘unfeyneit intentis,' use the sacraments as
Christ intended and leave such vain traditions as superstitious
pilgrimages and praying to images. Finally, Lyndsay-as poets
were then accustomed to do-ventures to suggest that the king,
now that his affairs were prosperous, might do worse than
bestow on him some token of his regard, either by way of loan
or gift. Should he be so good as to lend him one or two thousand
pounds, then Lyndsay jocosely undertakes, with 'seelit obligations,'
to promise repayment as soon as any of several equally unlikely
-


## p. 119 (#141) ############################################

Testament of our Soverane Lordis Papyngo 119
things should come to pass : when kirkmen cease to crave
dignities, or when wives no longer desire sovereignty over their
husbands, or as soon as a winter happens without frost, snow,
wind or rain; or he will repay him after the Day of Judgment;
or, if none of these conditions please him, then he hopes that, out
of his sovereign bounty, he will bestow on him some definite
reward.
The humorous hint of Lyndsay was successful, for, shortly
afterwards, in 1530, he was made Lyon King of Arms. His pro-
motion did not, however, tend to silence his reformatory zeal, but,
on the contrary, made him more anxious to do what he could to
promote the success of the young king's sovereignty. In The
Testament and Complaynt of our Soverane Lordis Papyngo
(parrot) he exposed more particularly the corruptions and worldli-
ness of the spirituality, and this in a more comprehensive and
scathing fashion than in his two previous pieces, while the versifi-
cation is, in parts, more elaborately polished. It opens with a
prologue-in one of the nine-lined staves, aab, aab, bcc, used by
Douglas in The Palice of Honour-in which, after a glowing
and finely expressed tribute to his poetic predecessors from
Chaucer, and various polite allusions to his poetic contemporaries,
he affirms that even if he had ‘ingyne' (genius), as he has none,
the 'polleit terms' had been already pulled, and there was no-
thing left in all the garth of eloquence' but 'barren stok and
stone. ' For lack, therefore, both of a novel poetic theme and a
novel poetic method, he had been reduced to record the complaint
of a wounded papyngo.
In this ingenious and humorous apology he partly followed
conventional models. Yet, in all likelihood, he was conscious of
his own lack of high poetic inspiration, of his unworthiness to
be named alongside of Chaucer and other English masters, or the
'aureate' Kennedy, or Dunbar, who ‘language had at large,' or
the more recent Gavin Douglas, whose death he laments, and
whose translation of Vergil he specially celebrates ; and his
apology must also be taken as a kind of intimation that, in
recording the complaint of the papyngo, he was influenced less
by poetical ambition than by the desire to render service to
the higher interests of his country.
The introductory stanzas of the poem dealing with the accident
that befel the papyngo-which, with the remainder of the poem,
are in rime royal--are modelled on the aureate methods of Chaucer
and Dunbar, blended with the more profuse classical imagery of


## p. 120 (#142) ############################################

I 20
Sir David Lyndsay
Douglas. Of the animal fable, the chief exponent was, of course,
Henryson, but, in the more modified form adopted by Lyndsay,
it is made use of both by Chaucer and Dunbar. In the case of
Dunbar, it is, ir. The Thrissil and the Rois and the Petition of the
Grey Horse, utilised more indirectly and with more subtle art.
Truth to tell, there is little or no art in Lyndsay's use of the
expedient, so far as regards the counsel of the dying bird either
to the king or to the 'brether of the courte. ' In both cases, the
voice is the voice of Lyndsay, without any attempt to disguise it.
The counsel to the king or the first epistleconsists of a series
of plain and definite advices, couched, practically, in the language
of prose, as how best to discharge his multifarious and difficult
duties; and the second epistle gives a terse and striking summary
of the great tragedies of Scottish history from the time of the
duke of Rothesay, with a view to impress on the courtiers both
the uncertainties of kingly favour, and the evil consequences
of unscrupulous personal ambition. This second part concludes
with the dying bird's touching words of farewell to the chief scenes
of her former happiness : Edinburgh, the ‘heych tryumphant
toun,' fair 'Snawdoun' (Stirling) with its touris hie' and 'Falk-
land! the fortrace of Fyfe. '
In the concluding section of the poem, the fable form is much
more strictly observed. Here, also, all is pure satire-much of it
of a very clever and trenchant character, although some of the
scenes are rather too prolonged. It relates the communing of
the wise bird with its holy executors,' who appear in the form
of a pyot (representing a canon regular), a raven (a black monk)
and a ged or hawk (a holy friar). The disposition and aims of
these ghostly counsellors are sufficiently manifest; and they act
entirely in keeping with their reputed character. The poor parrot
would have much preferred to have, at her death-bed, attendants
of a less grovelling type of character, such as the nightingale, the
jay, the mavis, the goldfinch, the lark, etc. ; but, since none of
them has come, she has to be content with the disreputable birds
who have offered her their services. After a piquant discussion
with them on the growth of ecclesiastical sensuality and greed,
she thereupon proceeds to dispose of her personality-her 'galbarte
of grene' to the owl, her eyes to the bat, her beak to the pelican,
her music to the cuckoo, her 'toung rhetoricall' to the goose
and her bones to the phoenix. Her heart she bequeaths to the
king; and she leaves merely her entrails, including her liver and
lungs, to her executors who, however, immediately on her death,
a


## p. 121 (#143) ############################################

Minor Poems
I 21
proceed to devour her whole body, after which the ged flies away
with her heart, pursued by the two other birds of prey.
The king, who practised verse, though no piece definitely
known to be his has been preserved, had, it would appear, replied
in a rather mocking and scurrilous fashion to certain of Lyndsay's
hints as to his amatory inclinations; and to this Lyndsay wrote
an Answer in rime royal, after the coarsely plain-spoken fashion
of his time, which casts, directly and indirectly, a vivid light on
the gross character of contemporary morals and manners. Another
piece, meant as a satire on the king's courtiers, is Ane Publict
Confessioun of the Kingis auld Hound callit Bagsche, written
in the French octave, and describing, in light, amusing fashion, the
evil doings, and the consequent narrow escapes from condign
punishment, of an inveterately wicked old hound, as related
by the hound itself to the present pet dogs of the king, with
the view of warning them to live a quieter, more exemplary
and less spiteful life than had the old hound. Another satire,
Kitteis Confessioun, written in' couplets, records with bitter
irony the unedifying particulars of a lady's interview with a
priest on the occasion of her auricular confession. Here he
deprecates the custom of minute and systematic confession as
injurious rather than beneficial to the morals and the self-control
of the supposed penitent. Confession, he thinks, should be made
to a preacher only when the person is in dire distress or de-
speration and in need of special advice. A second satire, but
much less serious in tone, on female folly, is Ane Supplicatioun
againis Syde Taillis—in the octosyllabic couplet-a witty and
amazingly coarse description of the various evils resulting from
the inconvenient fashion of wearing long trains, which had infected
not merely the ladies of the court, but women of all ranks and
classes, including even nuns and female farm servants. Ane
Description of Pedder Coffeis—in the octave of three rimes—
deals with quite another phase of contemporary manners; it is
a satirical account of the wiles of seven varieties of the peddling
merchant, of which one is a lewd parish priest, and another an
avaricious cathedral dignitary. Another satirical piece is The
Justing betwis James Watson and Johne Barbour-in the heroic
couplet-written for the entertainment of the king on the occasion
of his marriage, in 1538, to Mary of Lorraine. Modelled on
Dunbar's Joustis of the Tailzeour and the Sowtar, it is quite
good-natured and not so grotesquely extravagant as Dunbar's
piece, although, at the conclusion, he borrows some of Dunbar's
grossness.
.


## p. 122 (#144) ############################################

I 22
Sir David Lyndsay
But by far the most searching and scorching of Lyndsay's
satires is, of course, the long and elaborate drama entitled Ane
Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis in commendatioun of
Vertew and Vituperatioun of Vyce. Our information on the
early history of the drama in Scotland is very scanty; but the lack
of information does not imply a lack of plays. The absence of
reference to morality and mystery plays in the High Treasurer's
accounts may be explained by the fact that they were, primarily,
popular amusements. On the other hand, such information as
we possess regarding morality plays in Scotland in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries seems to suggest that, while their
character was analogous rather to the morality play of France
than to that of England, they were a very common diversion.
Adjoining the principal towns were playfields with elevations
forming a kind of amphitheatre. The earliest play of which we
have mention is one entitled The Halyblude, which was acted on
the Windmill hill at Aberdeen, in 1445 ; and there is also
mention of two others having been acted there in later years.
More definite is the reference by Knox to 'a play againis the
Papists' by friar Kyllour, performed before James V at Stirling,
on Good Friday morning, 1535. 'Diverse comedies and tragedies,'
by John Wedderburn, wherein ‘he nipped the abuses and super-
stitions of the time,' were, also, played at Dundee, in 1540, among
them The History of Dionysius the Tyrant, in the form of a
comedy which was acted in the playfields. Neither Knox nor
Calderwood conveys the slightest impression that performances
of extended plays were uncommon; but they had no reason for
alluding to other plays than those used for satirising the eccle-
siastics. Later, in 1568, there is mention of a play by Robert
Sempill, performed before the Lord Regent, and, a few years
afterwards, Knox was present at the performance of a play, by
John Davidson, one of the regents of St Andrews university, in
which was represented the capture of Edinburgh Castle—then
held for queen Mary-and the execution in effigy of its defenders.
Further, an act of the kirk in 1575, for the censorship of
* comedies, tragedies and other profane plays,' is a sufficient
indication of the popularity of the diversion. Nevertheless,
Lyndsay's Pleasant Satyre is the only surviving example of a
sixteenth century Scottish play, though an anonymous play
entitled Philotus was published in 1603, and there is an early
graphic fragment—probably by Dunbar in the Bannatyne MS,
entitled The Interlude of the Droichis Part of the Play!
>
1 See vol. 11 of the present work, pp. 253,
255.


## p. 123 (#145) ############################################

Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 123
In his official capacity of Lyon King of Arms, Lyndsay, doubt-
less, acquired considerable dramatic experience, for he had the
general superintendence of the pageantry and diversions on the
occasion of royal fêtes, and, probably, devised the farces, masques
and mummeries. Indeed, there is evidence that, at an earlier period
of his life, he was accustomed to act in such entertainments or in
more elaborate plays. Ane Pleasant Satyre is not the work of
a dramatic novice. It is specially notable for its dramatic
quality: it manifests a fine instinct for telling dramatic situations
and dramatic contrasts and a complete comprehension of the
method both of impressing and tickling a popular audience. In
construction, in variety of dramatic interest, in vividness of
presentation, in keenness of satire, in liveliness of wit—though the
liveliness is apt to degenerate into grossness—and in what is
termed stage 'business,' it is immensely superior to any contem-
porary English play. The nearest approach to it in dramatic
development is Bale's King John, which is of later date-probably
about 1548. Lyndsay's play was performed before James V at
Linlithgow in 1540, and it may have been performed elsewhere
at an earlier date. It was performed, at some unknown date, at
Cupar-Fife, and, in 1554, at Greenside (at the foot of the Calton
hill), Edinburgh. Not improbably, it was written at the instance
of the king, who, about the same time, was encouraging Buchanan
to satirise the Franciscans. Henry Charteris, the first publisher
of Lyndsay's Works, could attribute Lyndsay's escape from per-
secution only to the special intervention and mercy of heaven;
but it is to be remembered that Lyndsay did not, like Buchanan,
direct his attacks against any special religious order, that he
enjoyed the intimate friendship of the king and, it may be, of
Mary of Lorraine as well, and that he was not a preacher, nor
even a full-blown reformer. He was neither Calvinist nor
puritan, and was less interested in disputes about doctrines and
forms of church polity than in the social and political well-being
of the people.
Ane Pleasant Satyre is a morality play, but it is also some-
thing more. It is a blend of secular and sacred drama, and
embodies something of the French morality farce. It introduces
real, as well as allegorical, personages, and it lightens the action
of the play by comic devices borrowed from French models. In
parts, it manifests the special characteristics of modern comedy.
It inevitably does so by reason of the very specific character of
its satirical representation of contemporary manners. Though
>


## p. 124 (#146) ############################################

I 24
Sir David Lyndsay
hampered as a comedy by its morality conventions, it is a morality
play of a very advanced type: a morality play aided in its
dramatic action and relieved in its dramatic seriousness by a
strong infusion of comedy, and by the intermixture of interludes
of a strikingly realistic character. The strictly morality portions
are superior to the morality plays of Bale; and the interludes are
much more elaborate and finished specimens of comedy than the
interludes of Heywood. Lyndsay's knowledge of the ways of
the world and of the temper and characteristics of the crowd,
and the minute character of his zeal as a reformer, were impor-
tant elements contributing to his dramatic success. Neither in
this nor in other satires was he content with generalities. His
desire was to scourge the definite social evils of his time, and
he had therefore to represent them in living form, as manifested
in the speech, manner and bearing of individual persons
For this reason, the play is of unique interest as a mirror of the
Scotland of Lyndsay's time—when Catholicism was tottering to its
fall. It is an excessively long play, its representation occupying a
whole day, from nine in the morning until six in the evening; but
its length enables the playwright to present a pretty comprehensive
epitome of contemporary abuses and of contemporary manners and
morals. The flagrant frailties of the ecclesiastics are portrayed
with sufficient vividness in the speeches of representative types
and in the amusing exposition of their relations with allegorical
personages, good and bad; but it is in the tone of Lyndsay's wit, in
the character of the horseplay by which he seeks to tickle his
audience, in his method of pandering to their grosser tastes, in the
farcical proceedings of such persons as the soutar, the tailor and
their two wives, in the interviews between Pauper and Pardoner,
in the dealings of Pardoner with the soutar and the soutar's wife
and in the doings and speeches of Folly, that the peculiar social
atmosphere of the time is most graphically revealed.
The play is divided into two parts, and part I, which represents
the temptation of Rex Humanitas by Sensualitie, is divided into
two acts, with an interlude between them. Sensualitie is intro-
duced to the king by Wantonness, Placebo and Solace, in whose
company he then passes to a private apartment, after which Gude
Counsell makes his appearance. Gude Counsell declares his inten-
tion to ‘repois sometime in this place, but is immediately followed
by Flatterie and Falset, who, shortly after they have congratulated
each other on their happy meeting, are joined by their indispensable
companion Dissait; whereupon, the three resolve to introduce them-


## p. 125 (#147) ############################################

Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 125
selves to the king under the guise respectively of Devotion, Sapience
and Discretion. Shortly afterwards, the king returns to the stage
and calls for Wantonness, who introduces him to the three vices;
and, after a conversation with him in their feigned characters, in
the course of which their proficiency in their several methods of
guile is admirably indicated, he gives them welcome as 'three men
of gude. Here the king, observing Gude Counsell standing
dejectedly at a distance, sends his new friends to bring him to
his presence; but, when they discover who he is, they hustle him
out of the place, threatening him with death should he dare to
return. They then inform the king that the person he saw was a
house-breaker whom they had ordered to be sent to the thieves'
hole. Gude Counsell having been expelled, the king is now entirely
in the hands of his evil companions, and sits down amongst the
ladies, who sing to him a song, led by Sensualitie. Here Veritie
makes her appearance carrying a New Testament, but is speedily
followed by the Spiritualitie—including the abbot and the parson
-who, at the instance of Flatterie, put Veritie in the stocks, after
she had offered up an impressive prayer, beginning:
Get up, thou sleepis all too long, O Lord !
And mak sam ressonibill reformatioun.
Veritie being disposed of, Chastitie makes her appearance,
whom, on her asking for ‘harberie, Diligence recommends to go
to a 'prioress of renown,' sitting amongst the rest of the Spiri-
tualitie. The prioress, however, asks her to keep her distance, the
Spiritualitie tell her to pass on, for they know her 'not, and even
Temporalitie informs her that, if his wives knew she were here, they
would 'mak all this town on steir. ' With the sorrowful departure
of Chastitie from the company, act I ends. It is admirably con
ceived and written, the terseness and point of the satire being
accentuated by the very skilful management of the dramatic
situations.
Act 1 is followed by an interlude, relating the adventures of
Chastitie after her expulsion from high society. On introducing
herself to a tailor and soutar, she is cordially welcomed by these
worthies; but, while they are entertaining her, their wives enter,
and, after a boisterous scene, during which the wives set on their
husbands in savage fashion both with tongue and hand, Chastitie
is driven away; whereupon, after further dinging' of their
'gudemen,' the wives resolve to have a feast in celebration of
their victory, the tailor's wife sitting down to make 'ane paist,'
6


## p. 126 (#148) ############################################

126
Sir David Lyndsay
and the soutar's wife kilting up her clothes above her waist, that
she may cross the river on her way to the town to fetch a quart
of wine.
Diligence (the master of the ceremonies), who had found
Chastitie wandering houseless, late at night, at the beginning of
act II introduces her to the king; but, Sensualitie objecting to her
presence, she is put in the stocks by the three disguised vices.
She is, however, comforted by Veritie with the news that Divyne
Correctioun is 'new landit, and might be expected very soon.
Hereupon, Correctioun's varlet (or messenger) enters, on hearing
whose message Flatterie resolves to take refuge with the
Spiritualitie or hide himself in some cloister. He therefore bids
adieu to his two friends, who, before leaving, resolve to steal the
king's box, but quarrel over the division of the spoil and Dissait
runs away with the box through the water, just as Divyne
Correctioun enters. At the instance of Correctioun, Gude Counsell
and Veritie are set free from the stocks, and, accompanied by
Veritie, Gude Counsell and Chastitie pass to the king. On the
advice of Correctioun, the king then consents to the expulsion of
Sensualitie, who, on seeking the protection of the Spiritualitie, is
warmly welcomed by them as their dayis darling. By further
'
'
advice of Correctioun, the king then receives into his society Gude
Counsell, Veritie and Chastitie; and, on their confessing their faults
and promising to have no further dealings with Sensualitie,
Correctioun also pardons Wantonness, Placebo and Solace. Then,
after a speech by Gude Counsell, Diligence, by order of the king,
warns all members of parliament, both the Spiritualitie and the
Temporalitie, to appear speedilyat court. He then intimates that the
first part of the play is ended, and that there will be a short interval
—which he recommends them to employ in refreshing themselves
and in other ways not now mentioned in ordinary company.
Between the first part and the second there is an interlude, while
the ‘king, bishops and principal players are out of their places. '
It introduces us to a pauper, who is really a small farmer reduced
to poverty by ecclesiastical oppression, and on his way to
St Andrews to seek redress.
When Diligence endeavours to
drive him away as ane vilde begger carle,' he climbs up to the
king's chair and seeks to seat himself in it. With some difficulty
Diligence succeeds in making him vacate it, but, struck by his sad
and respectable demeanour, asks him where he comes from and what
is his errand. Pauper then recites to him in moving terms the
story of his wrongs at the hands of the ecclesiastics, who have
6


## p. 127 (#149) ############################################

6
Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 127
brought him to utter poverty by their greedy extortions on the
death of his father, his mother and his wife, which had successively
occasioned him the loss of his mare and his three cows; while even
the clothes of the deceased persons have been seized as perquisites
by the vicar's clerk. After telling his pitiable story, Pauper, with
the consent of Diligence, lays him down to rest; and there enters
Pardoner, who, unchallenged by Diligence, proceeds to make a
speech in which he rails at the 'wicket New Testament,' which
has greatly injured his trade, and exposed the craft which he had
been taught by a friar called Hypocrisy; bans Martin Luther,
Black Bullinger and Melanchthon; and expresses the wish that
Paul had never been born, or his books never read except by
friars. Then, placing his wares on a board, he proceeds to dilate
on their several merits, the picturesque recital being, on Lyndsay's
part, a masterpiece of mocking irony, full of grotesque allusions
admirably adapted to provoke the amused mirth of the rude crowd.
The soutar, who, meanwhile, has entered and listened to the recital,
now resolves to take advantage of Pardoner's arrival to obtain
a dispensation for separation from his wife. While he is in con-
ference with the holy man for this purpose, his wife appears, just in
time to hear his very plain-spoken description of her character and
doings; but, although furiously angry with him for libelling her as
he has done, she, in answer to Pardoner's query, affirms that she is
content with all her heart to be separated from him; and,
thereupon, Pardoner, on condition that they perform a mutual
ceremony too coarse for description, sends them away uncoupled,
'with Belial's best blessing. ' Then, after an interview between
Pardoner and his boy-servant Willikin, during which we obtain the
information that village middens are the chief hunting grounds for
Pardoner's holy relics, Pauper awakes from sleep. On Pauper
handing to the holy man his solitary groat, Pardoner guarantees
him in return a thousand years of pardons; but, since Pauper
cannot see the pardons and has no evidence that he has obtained
anything, he comes to the conclusion that he is merely being
robbed; and the interlude ends with a grotesque encounter
between the two, during which Pauper pitches both board and
relics into the water.
Part II deals more specifically with the evils of the time than
part 1 The three estates, in response to the previous summons,
now appear before the king; but they are shown us walking back-
wards, led by their vices—Spiritualitie by Covetousness and
Sensualitie, Temporalitie (the Lords) by Publick Oppression and


## p. 128 (#150) ############################################

128
Sir David Lyndsay
Merchant (the representatives of the burghs) by Falset and Dissait.
On Diligence, however, summoning all who are oppressed to come
and make their complaint to the king, John the Commoun Weill
makes his appearance, and, after a piquant conversation with the
king, denounces the vices of the three estates in no measured
terms, and requires that such scandalous persons should be put in
the stocks, which, at the instance of Correctioun, is immediately
done, Spiritualitie bidding Covetousness and Sensualitie a farewell,
the sadness of which is mitigated by the hope of soon meeting
them again. Then, at the instance of John the Commoun Weill,
who delivers an impressive address on the abuses of the adminis-
tration, the Temporal Estates repent of their conduct, promise
amendment and embrace John the CommounWeill. The Spiritualitie,
however, not only remain impenitent, but impudently seek to repre-
sent their doings as in the highest degree exemplary; the abbot,
the parson and the lady prioress, each in characteristic fashion,
seeking to show that their violation of their vows, so far from
being dishonourable, is rather to their credit than not, and that
their sins of omission are really condoned by the character of what
are usually deemed their sins of commission. This leads to a long
debate, during which Pauper, and also the soutar, the tailor,
a scribe and Common Thift, all add liveliness and point to the dis-
cussion. Then Common Thift—who had no other resource but to
steal—is induced by Oppressioun to go into the stocks in Oppres-
sioun's stead, on condition that Oppressioun will come again soon
and relieve him; but Oppressioun slinks away from the scene,
leaving Common Thift unsuccoured. Doctor, then, at the instance
of Correctioun, mounts the pulpit, and delivers a sermon amid
ill-mannered interruptions from the abbot and the parson. During
its delivery, Diligence spies a friar whispering with the abbot, and,
suspecting that he intends to 'set the town on steir' against the
preacher, has him apprehended; and, on his being brought in by
the sergeant and stripped of his habit, he is seen to be no other
than Flatterie. The lady prioress is then spoiled of her habit, and,
on being discovered to have been wearing under it a kirtle of silk,
gives her malison to her parents for compelling her to be a nun,
and not permitting her to marry. Flatterie is then put in the
stocks, and the three prelates are stripped of their habits, which
are put upon three sapient, cunning clerks. The prelates seek to
find comfort from Covetousness and Sensualitie; but these former
friends now renounce them, and they depart to earn an honest
living in secular occupations. Thereafter, John the Commoun
-


## p. 129 (#151) ############################################

Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis 129
Weill, clothed in gorgeous apparel, takes his place in the parlia-
ment, and, after acts have been passed for the reform of clamant
abuses, the malefactors in the stocks are led to the gallows.
Flatterie saves himself by undertaking the office of executioner;
and with their characteristic last speeches and Flatterie's cynical
self-congratulation, the drama proper is brought to a close.
This latter portion, which is a good deal longer and more com-
plicated in its action than part I, is, at the same time, more
diversely and elaborately clever. It is enlivened by a great
variety of picturesque incidents, and the satire is so pointed and
so topical, and the various dénouements are led up to with such
admirable wit, that the audience must have been kept throughout
in a high state of amused excitement, mingled with righteous
expectation, and must, at the close, have been not less seriously
impressed with the lessons of the play, than enthusiastic over
its dramatic merits.
The play proper is followed, for the diversion of the multitude,
by a farcical interlude, after the manner of the French mono-
logues, a comic sermon being delivered by a buffoon dressed up
as Follie, in which shrewd advice is mingled with an extremely
coarse display of low wit.
If the glamour of poetry be absent from The Pleasant Satyre,
its sententiousness and wit are occasionally varied by strains of
lofty eloquence; and, if its moralising seems to us a little tedious
and commonplace, it would have a different aspect to Lyndsay's
contemporaries. Moreover, the more serious portions of the play
are relieved by an unfailing flow of witty satire, which is all
the more irresistible in that the special idiosyncrasy of each
wicked or foolish character is revealed with admirable consistency,
and that each is unconsciously made the exponent of his own
wickedness or folly. Viewed as literature, the merit of the play
is of a high order: the style is always clear, terse and pointed,
even when neither witty nor eloquent. Though rather rough and
careless in his rhythm, Lyndsay shows an easy command of rime
as well as some skill in varying his metres to suit his subject.
The dialogues are, for the most part, in an eight-lined stave in the
rime couée used in early English plays, or in the octosyllabic couplet;
but, for various recitals in character, he has recourse to a rimed
alliterative stave used in several old romances, to the heroic
couplet, to the French octave and the kyrielle; and to various
forms of the six-lined stave in rime couée, including that which
was a favourite of Burns.
E. L. III.
9
OH. VI.


## p. 130 (#152) ############################################

130
Sir David Lyndsay
The satirical Tragedie of the Cardinal, written shortly after the
death of cardinal Beaton, and printed, probably, in 1547, a kind of
parody of the lives in Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum Ilustrium,
offers a detailed account of the cardinal's errors in conduct and
policy, which his ghostly personality is supposed to relate as a
warning to prelates and princes; but the dejection of the dis-
embodied individuality seems to affect the poem, which is one of
the least sprightly of Lyndsay's poetic efforts. Even so, however, it
compares favourably with the long Dialog betuix Experience and
Ane Courteour, which seems to have been suggested by Lyndsay's
epitome. Opening with a discussion of the moral reasons for
human suffering and misery, it includes an argument for the
circulation of the Bible in the vernacular, an account of the
creation of Adam and Eve, a prelection on man's first sin, an
explanation and description of the Flood, an account of the rise
and fall of the four great monarchies—which, according to the
author, were the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian and the Roman
-a reference to the first spiritual or papal monarchy with a
description of the court of Rome and a dissertation on death,
Anti-Christ and the general Judgment.
Only two other of Lyndsay's pieces remain to be mentioned,
and they are of an entirely non-didactic nature: The Deplora-
tioun of the Death of Queen Magdalene and The Historie of the
Squyer Meldrum. The former, in rime royal, is modelled on the
aureate method adopted by Dunbar in his more ceremonial pieces,
but lacks the imposing musical melody of Dunbar's verse, and jolts
along in a rather rough and uneven fashion. In couplets, Lyndsay
was more at his ease, and in this medium he has related the varied
and surprising adventures of a Fife neighbour, Squire William
Meldrum, umwhile laird of Cleish and Binns, with unfailing spirit
and with a point and graphic particularity that, to the modern
reader, is sometimes a little disconcerting. Modelled after the
Squire's Tale of Chaucer, Lyndsay's narrative, though in substance
reļating the actual experiences and achievements of Meldrum,
reproduces them with a gloss which makes the poem assume the
form of a kind of burlesque of the old romances. Apart from its
special merits, it is of interest as revealing Lyndsay's enjoyment
of mere merriment devoid of satire.
Of James V, Lyndsay's royal patron, no verses that can be
authenticated survive; for he can as little be credited with the
authorship of Peblis and Christis Kirk, as of The Gaberlunzie Man


## p. 131 (#153) ############################################

Minor Poets
131
and The Jolly Beggars. For an account of Lyndsay's other poetic
contemporaries and a summary of their individual merits we are
indebted to Lyndsay's prologue to The Complaynt of the Papyngo.
Of the poetry of Sir James Inglis, whom he commends as
without a superior 'in ballatis, farces and in plesant playis,' and
who is credited by some with the authorship of The Complaynt
of Scotland, no examples remain that are definitely known to
be his. John Bellenden, the translator of Boethius and Livy,
prefixed to his translations moral ‘prohemiums' ornamented
with classical allusions, and is also the author of 'a godly and
lernit work callit The Banner of Pietie,' contained in the Banna-
tyne MS; but these specimens of his art far from justify Lyndsay's
eulogy of him as ‘ane plant of poetis. ' To Kyd, the Bannatyne MS
ascribes The Richt Fontane of hailfull Sapience, which may well
enough have been the production of one who Lyndsay affirms was
'in cunnyng and practick rycht prudent,' for it is admirable rather
as advice than as poetry. Stewarte, who, while Lyndsay wrote, was
daily compiling 'full ornate werkis,' and who, in Rolland's Seven
Sages, is referred to as a court poet, is represented in the Banna-
tyne MS by several pieces very much in the style of Dunbar,
including a ribald Flyting betwix the Sowtar and the Tailyour,
and an aureate love poem—in the French octave with refrain-
For to declare the hie Magnificence of Ladies—which he does with
more ardour than inspiration. Stewarte of Lorne, also reterred to
by Lyndsay, may possibly be the W. Stewarte whose name is
attached in the Bannatyne MS to a short allegorical piece entitled
This Hinder Nycht neir by the Hour of Nine. John Rolland, a
Dalkeith notary who, about 1560, wrote The Sevin Sages, was also
the author of a long and dull allegorical piece, entitled The Court
of Venus. Among poetry of later date than 1530, in the Banna-
tyne MS, is Gife Langour makis men licht, attributed to lord
Darnley, but, we must suppose, written by some unknown poet as
an imaginary representation of Darnley's sentiments ; a humorous
love-song ( Gallandis AU I cry and call, signed ‘Balnaves'; two
love-songs, signed 'Fethy,' and, probably, the production of Sir
John Futhy, a priest and organist, who is also credited, by the MS
of Thomas Wode in Dublin university, with the authorship of a
sacred song O God abufe set to music by himself, but of which
no copy is known to survive; a song Be Merry Brethren, signed
'Fleming,' and consisting of a series of advices to husbands as to
how to deal with unruly wives; a short humorous piece, Brother
Beware, I red you now, attributed to Sir John Moffat, to whom
>
9_2


## p. 132 (#154) ############################################

132
Later Scottish Poetry
another than Bannatyne attributes that humorous rural tale The
Wyf of Auchtirmuchty; two love poems The Lanterne of Lufe
and Absent, attributed to Steill, who is also the author of a
romance in the Maitland MS, entitled The Ring of the Roy
Robert. In quite a different vein is the lament of one Clapperton,
in the Maitland MS, In Bowdin on blak Monanday. In the
Bannatyne MS are three grossly witty ballads on notorious
courtesans of the time, written by Robert Sempill, the author of
powerfully satirical reformation broadsides, including The Legend
and Discourse of the life of the Tulchene Bischope of St An-
drews. Most of the verses of these and other decidedly more
minor poets in the Bannatyne and Maitland MSS manifest con-
siderable technical skill; but both in subject and manner they
are largely imitative, and, though their wit is occasionally clever,
they generally lack the distinctive qualities of poetry. Most of
the anonymous verse in the Bannatyne and Maitland MSS, belongs,
evidently, to an earlier period than that of Lyndsay and has been
discussed in an earlier chapter of the present work; indeed,
there is definite proof of early date in regard to many pieces, in-
cluding some of the finest songs; but there are a few, such as My
Hart is quhyt, which are probably of the time of Alexander Scott,
if not even by Scott himself.
A satirical piece of about Lyndsay's time, and preserved by
Knox in his Historie of the reformatioun, is the earl of Glencairn's
Epistle direct from the Holy hermit of Allarit to his Brethren the
Gray Freiris; and a later versifier, who manifests something
of Lyndsay's spirit and method, though little of his vigour or
skill, is William Lauder, afterwards minister of Forgandenny,
who wrote in octosyllabic couplets Ane Compendious and breve
Tractate concernyng the office and dewtie of Kyngis, Spirituall
Pastoris, and Temporall Jugis (1556) and is the author of several
minor poems of somewhat similar intent.
A social satirist of a much milder type than Lyndsay was
Sir Richard Maitland, who was not very much Lyndsay's senior
in years, though most of his verse was written after Lyndsay's
death. A descendant of the Richard de Matelant who defended
the family keep of Thirlestane against Edward I, and whose
deeds were celebrated in ancient song and story, Maitland
belonged to that class of Scottish gentry from which govern-
ment and court officials were chiefly drawn, and held the office
of judge from the time of James V until 1584. Having, about
his sixtieth year, lost his sight, he, partly to divert his mind from


## p. 133 (#155) ############################################

Sir Richard Maitland
133
the troubles of the time, partly to occupy the now duller hours
of his leisure, devoted them, with the aid of his daughter, to
literature; and, besides compiling A Chronicle and Historie of
the House and Surname of Seatone, and composing a good many
poetical pieces, he set himself to gather the collection of Scottish
MS poetry, which, copied out by his daughter, is now preserved
in the Pepysian library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In his
poetry, as well as otherwise, he is a survival of the ante-reformation
period. As regards both the form and spirit of his verse, he is
a disciple of Dunbar, though his satire lacks Dunbar's boisterous
humour and keenness of wit, and his reflective pieces Dunbar's
emotional pungency. He has nothing in common with Lyndsay:
though quite alive to the evils of the old régime, he did not, while
it existed, make them the object of his satire ; nor, when the new
régime was established, was he by any means persuaded of that
régime's perfection. In Quhair is the Blytheness that has been he
laments the decay of the old merry customs, and in his Miseries of
the Tyme he bewails the lack of any real amendment either in
church or state. Like his famous son, William the secretary, he was
more an enlightened patriot and a shrewd man of the world than
either an ecclesiastical or political partisan. The evils of internal
dissension and strife are set forth by him in the poems Of the Assem-
blie of the Congregation, 1559, and on the New Yeir, 1560; and, at
a later period, he advocated a reconciliation of the two parties in
a
Againis the Division of the Lordis, On Union among the Lordis,
Againis Discord among the Lordis and Lament for the Disorders
of the Cuntrie. He brought to the consideration of social, political
and religious questions much of the impartiality and practical
worldly wisdom of the judge ; and his satire is severest when he
deals with social disorders or violations of the law, as in The Satire
of the Aige and Againis the Theivis of Liddisdaill, the latter of
which has something of the denunciatory rush of Dunbar's Donald
Owre, on which it is modelled. In The Satire of the Toun Ladeis,
an amusing recital of the extravagant caprices of contemporary
female fashions, his tone is mainly that of half cynical, half good-
humoured mockery, while his verses on the Folye of Ane auld
man maryand ane Young Woman, are shrewdly sententious
and mildly witty in the suggestive fashion characteristic of
the time. The Ballat of the Greatness of the World, prompted,
it may be, like Lyndsay's Dialog, by a perusal of the translation
of the Scriptures, and written in the stave of The Cherrie and the
Slae, indicates his acceptance of the conventional beliefs of his


## p. 134 (#156) ############################################

134
Later Scottish Poetry
a
time; but the poem is a very uninspired performance; and much
more of his real self appears in the half humorous, half melancholy
musings of such pieces as Na Kyndes without Siller, Gude Coun-
seillis, Advyce to lesum Merynes and Solace of Aige. Maitland
was hardly a poet, nor is he of much account as a satirist ; but
his verse is of considerable interest as a record of the ingenuous
sentiments of a highly accomplished and upright man, who, at this
troubled and critical period of Scottish history, kept, in a manner,
aloof from both parties.
Alexander Scott, almost the only lyrist, except such as are
anonymous, of importance amongst the old Scottish poets, stands
still more aloof in spirit than Maitland from the emotional and
fervent zeal of the reformers. His poetry is entirely secular
in theme and manner, with the exception of a translation of
two psalms, the first and the fiftieth, which, though cleverly rimed,
are both of them rather frigid and mechanical. Seeing Mont-
gomerie refers to him, in 1584, as 'old Scott,' he was probably
born not later than towards the close of the first quarter of
the sixteenth century. If, again, his supposed Lament of the
Master of Erskine be properly named, he most likely began to
write not later than 1547, for the master, who is reported to have
been the lover of the queen dowager, was slain at Pinkie in that
year, and the poem is credited with embodying his imaginary
farewell to her. Of May must, also, have been written before the
act of parliament passed in 1555 against the old May celebrations;
and, although the only other poem of his that can be dated is his
New Yeir Gift to Queen Mary, 1562, none of his verses that has
been preserved is of later date than 1568.
Of the thirty-six pieces of which Scott is known to be the
author, thirty are of an amatory character, and the majority of
them seem to have been greatly influenced in style and spirit by
the love lyrics in Tottels Miscellany, 1557, whether Scott had
an acquaintance with such pieces before they were published or
not. To Scott's verse there thus attaches a certain special interest,
as suggesting the possibility of a new school of Scottish poetry,
which, while retaining certain northern characteristics, would
gradually become more and more assimilated to the English
school; but this possibility had already been made futile by the
triumph of a puritanic reformation. Scott was a creation of the
ante-reformation period; and, although his themes and his method
of treatment are partly suggested by the lyrical school of England,
he may still be regarded as, primarily, the pupil of Dunbar. The


## p. 135 (#157) ############################################

Alexander Scott
135
influence of the English school is modified by characteristics that
are distinctly Scottish. While the Miscellany seems to have
suggested to him the appropriateness of short staves for certain
forms of the love lyric, he was not content to confine himself to
the staves that were there represented ; as a metrist he belongs
properly to the school of the old Scottish 'makaris. ' Besides
utilising several of Dunbar's staves he had recourse to a variety of
earlier staves in rime couée ; and in the use of these medieval forms
he shows a consummate mastery. His distinct poetic gift is shown
in the facility, the grace and the musical melody of his verse, and his
power of mirroring sentiment and emotion in sound and rhythm;
and there are also qualities in the tone and spirit of his verse that
individualise it and distinguish it from the lyrical school of England.
It is not so much imitative, as representative of his own charac-
teristic personality. He is terser, more pungent, more aphoristic
than the English lyrists. In most of his lyrics, the emotional note
vibrates more strongly-in the utterance of joy, as in Up Helsum
Hairt; in the expression of sorrowful resignation, as in The Lament
of the Master of Erskine, and Oppressit Hairt Indure; or in the
record of his amatory experiences, as in Lo Quhat it is to Lufe;
and it may further be added that when, as in the Ballad maid
to the Derisioun and Scorne of Wantoun Wemen, he is inde-
corous, he evinces a grossness that his English contemporaries
cannot rival.
Apart from his lyrics and his translation of
two psalms, the only other pieces of Scott are The New Yeir
Gift, and The Justing and Debait. In the former, after com-
plimenting the queen in the aureate fashion of Dunbar, he
devotes himself to a recital of the social evils of the time, more
after the manner of Maitland than of Lyndsay; and he concludes
with an envoy in which he gives an elaborate display of his
accomplishments in alliteration and internal rime. The Justing
and Debait, written in the Christis Kirk stave, is a mock
tournament piece after the fashion of Dunbar's Turnament and
Lyndsay's Justing, but less an uproarious burlesque than a lightly
witty narrative.
Alexander Montgomerie, the last of the Scottish 'makaris,'
probably held some office at the court of James VI, and, most
likely, was the king's chief instructor in the art of verse. He
has a good deal in common with Scott, of whom he may be
reckoned a kind of disciple. His temperament was, however, less
poetical; he lacked Scott's geniality as well as artistic grace;
he was more varied and voluminous; he was a still greater, if


## p. 136 (#158) ############################################

136
Later Scottish Poetry
a less successful, experimenter in curious metres, and, as might
be supposed from his later date, he was, in some respects, still
more influenced by the English school. Still, like Scott, as a
metrist, he belongs to the Scottish school, the metres which he
invents being merely modified reconstructions and combinations
of the old ones, while what staves, as the ballade,' he borrows
from the English lyric school, have a certain similarity to the old
staves, the only difference in the 'ballade' stave being the modern
lilt of the double refrain. Even in the sonnet, of which he left
no fewer than seventy examples, he has a certain non-English
individuality; for while, in some instances, he adopted the sonnet
forms of Tottels Miscellany, he also translated several of
Ronsard's sonnets in the Ronsard form, and wrote a Ronsard
variation. Further, his connection with the old Scottish school
is seen in his use of the old rimed alliterative stave of the
romances in Ane Answer to ane Helandmanis Invective and in
the Flyting between him and Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth.
The most popular of Montgomerie's pieces was, apparently,
The Cherrie and the Slae ; but its popularity had only an indirect
connection with its poetic merits. These are not remarkable and
are not superior to those of The Bankis of Helicon, which is in
the same measure. But, in The Cherrie and the Slae, Montgomerie
does not, as in The Bankis of Helicon, have recourse to aureate
terms or classical imagery. Though somewhat dull and archaic
as an allegory, the piece as regards its language is perfectly simple
and unaffected; in the descriptions of nature there are no attempts
at meretricious ornaments; they represent the fresh and quite
unsophisticated pleasure and admiration of the average person;
while the general drift of the poem is obscure, it is pervaded by
the maxims of that homely and commonplace philosophy, of the
repetition of which the average uneducated person never tires; and,
finally, the quatorzain in which the piece is written, was, with the
peculiar jingle of its wheels, well adapted to catch the popular ear,
although the full capabilities of the stave were only revealed by
Burns in the recitativos of The Jolly Beggars. As a very varied
metrist in what James VI termed 'cuttit and broken verse,'
Montgomerie showed both remarkable ingenuity and a good
musical ear; but he was not a poetic melodist-partly from his
despondent views of life and deficiency in animal spirits, his verses
are, for the most part, lacking in poetic flow. His reflective pieces
are too lowspirited to be effective; his amatory verse is not
animated by much lyrical fervour; and his religious pieces and
6


## p. 137 (#159) ############################################

The last of the “Makaris'
137
versions of psalms, sometimes written to special tunes, while
characterised by apt phrasing and considerable metrical felicity,
do not manifest much fervour or depth of conviction. Yet The
Night is near Gone has the true accent of poetry, and, in several
other pieces, he has poetic moments.
With Montgomerie, the school of the old ‘makaris' properly
ends.
While James VI, who, in 1585, published Essayes of a
Prentise, and, in 1591, Poeticall Exercises, remained in Scotland,
poetry was practised by a few poets under his immediate patronage.
William Fowler translated The Triumphs of Petrarch, and Stewart
of Baldines presented the king with Ane Abbregement of Roland
Furious translated out of Aroist; but both works are preserved
only in manuscript, the one in the Edinburgh university library
and the other in the Advocates' library. In 1590, John Burel wrote a
Descriptioun of the queen’s entry into Edinburgh, and an allegorical
piece The Passage of the Pilgrim, but neither has much merit.
Poetry, except of a religious kind, now came under taboo, and the
religious verse was of a very mediocre character. Alexander
Arbuthnot, principal of Aberdeen university, amused his leisure
hours by cultivating the secular muse, but, as he relates, in secret,
and with fear and trembling, lest ‘with rascal rymours I sall raknit
be. ' On the other hand, Alexander Hume, minister of Logie
and younger brother of the Hume of Montgomerie's Flyting,
sought to substitute 'for prophane sonnets and vain ballads of
love' a series of Hymns and Sacred Songs, in which are dis-
cernible an assimilation in form of Scottish to English verse, and,
equally so, the fatal decay in Scotland of poetic inspiration. In
the succeeding century, the writing of verse, mostly in the English
language and form, was practised by certain of the Scottish
gentry; but, as regards the bulk of the people, secular poetry
remained for nearly two centuries under an ecclesiastical ban.


## p. 138 (#160) ############################################

CHAPTER VII
REFORMATION AND RENASCENCE IN SCOTLAND
In the year 1528, three events occurred in Scotland, which, as
the near future was to prove, were fraught with pregnant conse-
quences alike for the state and for the national religion and
national literature. In that year, James V, after a long tutelage,
became master of his kingdom; Patrick Hamilton, the "proto-
martyr” of the Scottish reformation, was burnt; and Sir David
Lyndsay published his first work, The Dreme. Taken together,
these three events point to the fact that Scotland was entering on
a new phase of her national life, and at the same time indicate the
character of the coming revolution. From the transformation
thus to be wrought in the national aims and ideals the chief
Scottish literature of the period received its distinctive stamp,
and we have but to recall its representative productions—those of
the anonymous authors of The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, of John
Knox and of George Buchanan-to realise the gulf that separates
it from the period immediately preceding.
From James I to Gavin Douglas, Scottish literature had been
mainly imitative, borrowing its spirit, its models and its themes
from Chaucer and other sources. The characteristic aim of this
literature bad, on the whole, been pleasure and amusement; and,
if it touched on evils in the state, in the church or in society, it
had no direct and conscious purpose of assailing the institutions
under which the nation had lived since the beginning of the
Middle Ages. Totally different were the character and aim of the
representative literature of the period which may be dated from
the publication of Lyndsay's Dreme in 1528 to the union of the
crowns in 1603. The literature of this period was in the closest
touch with the national life, and was the direct expression of the
convictions and passions of that section of the nation which was
eventually to control its destinies and to inform the national spirit.
Not pleasure or amusement but strenuous purpose directed to
practical results was the motive and note of this later period; its


## p. 139 (#161) ############################################

The Reformation
in Scotland
139
aim was to reach the heart of the people, and the forms which
it assumed were exclusively determined by the consideration of
this end
Between the years 1520 and 1530, there were already indications
that a crisis was approaching in the national history which would
involve a fundamental change in traditional modes of thought
on all the great questions concerning human life. The problem
which the nation had to face was whether it would abide by its
ancient religion or adopt the teaching of Luther, the writings of
whose followers were finding their way into the country at every
convenient port. But this question involved another of almost
equally far-reaching importance--was France or England to be
Scotland's future ally? Should the old alliance with France be
maintained, the country must hold fast to existing institutions ;
there would be no change of religion and no essential change in
hereditary habits of thought and sentiment. Throughout the
period now opening, these were the great issues that preoccupied
the nation, and it was from the conflict between them that the most
important literary productions of the age received their impulse,
their tone and their characteristic forms.
The literature produced under these conditions was essentially
a reformation literature, and its relation to the movement of
the reformation is its predominating characteristic. Neverthe-
less, though Scotland received her most powerful impulse from the
reformation, the renascence did not leave her wholly untouched,
though conditions peculiar to herself prevented her from deriving
the full benefit of that movement. Her scanty population and
her limited resources were in themselves impediments to the
expansion of the spirit which was the main result of the revival
of learning. The total population of Scotland in the sixteenth
century cannot have been much over 500,000, of whom only
about half used a Teutonic form of speech. Out of such a total
there could be but a small proportion who, by natural aptitude
and by fortunate circumstances, were in a position to profit by the
new current that was quickening the other nations of western
Europe. The poverty of the country, due to the nature of the
soil rather than to any lack of strenuousness on the part of its
people, equally hindered the development of a rich and various
national life. Scotland now possessed three universities ; but to
equip these in accordance with the new ideals of the time was
beyond her resources, and the same difficulty stood in the way of
maintaining great schools such as the renascence had originated


## p. 140 (#162) ############################################

140 Reformation and Renascence in Scotland
in other countries. Finally, the renascence was checked in
Scotland, more than in any other country, by the special condi-
tions under which the reformation was here accomplished. From
the beginning to the end of the struggle, the Scottish reformers
had to contend against the consistent opposition of the crown,
and it was only as the result of civil war that the victory of their
cause was at length assured. Thus, at the period when the
renascence was in full tide, Scotland was spending her energies in
a contest which absorbed the best minds of the country; and a
variety of causes debarred her from an adequate participation
in that humanism which, in other countries, was widening the scope
of thought and action, and enriching literature with new forms and
new ideas. Nevertheless, though the renascence failed in any
marked degree to affect the general national life, it found, both
in literature and in action, distinguished representatives who had
fully imbibed its spirit.
It is from the preaching of Patrick Hamilton in 1527,
followed by his execution in 1528, that Knox dates the beginning
of the reformation in Scotland; and it is a production of
Hamilton, Patrikes Places, that he adduces as the first specimen
of its literature. “Literature,' however, this document can hardly
be called, as it is merely a brief and bald statement of the
Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, originally written
in Latin, and translated into Scoto-English by John Frith.
Associated with Hamilton in the beginnings of the Scottish
reformation is a more voluminous writer, Alexander Alane (for
this and not Aless was his real name, as appears from the registers
of the university of St Andrews), but better known by his Latin
designation, Alesius. Born in Edinburgh in 1500, Alesius was
trained for the church in the university of St Andrews. In an
attempt to convince Hamilton of the error of his ways, he was
shaken in his own faith, and suspicions soon arose regarding his
own orthodoxy. A Latin oration delivered against the vices of
the clergy left no room for doubt regarding his religious sym-
pathies, and he was thrown into prison, whence, with the aid of
friends, he escaped to the continent (1532). Alesius never re-
turned to Scotland, but, both in England and Germany, he played
an important part in forwarding the cause of the reformation.
He is the author of at least twenty-eight works, all written
in Latin, partly consisting of commentaries on Scripture, but
mainly of tracts and treatises on the theological controversies
of the time. Of his controversial writings, three have special


## p. 141 (#163) ############################################

Plnus.
The Gude and Godlie Ballatis 141
reference to religious opinion in Scotland - Epistola contra Decre-
tum quoddam Episcoporum in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Novi
Testamenti Libros lingua vernacula (1533); Responsio ad Cochlaei
Calumnias (1533); and Cohortatio ad Concordiam (1544). The
question discussed in all these productions is the liberty of reading
the Scriptures in the original-a liberty which was first granted by
the Scottish parliament in 1543, and to which Alesius may have
materially contributed. To Alesius, also, we owe the earliest
known description of his native city of Edinburgh, which he
contributed to the Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster (1550).
More interesting for the literary history of the period is Knox's
mention of Kyllour's play, The History of Christ's Passion, to
which reference has already been made? Of Kyllour and his play
we know nothing beyond the casual reference of Knox. It is
matter for greater regret that two plays, mentioned by the church
historian, Calderwood, have not come down to us. The subjects of
the two plays point to the preoccupations of the age—the one being
a tragedy on John the Baptist, a favourite handle for satirical
attacks on the evils of church and state, and the other a comedy on
Dionysius the Tyrant. Scanty as these references are, they lead to
the conclusion that dramatic representations furnished the means
by wbich the champions of the new religion first sought to communi-
cate their teaching to the people. But scenic displays were not the
most effectual vehicles for spreading their tenets throughout the
nation; only a comparatively small public could be reached by them,
and the state had it always in its power to prohibit them, when they
overstepped the limits prescribed by the law. Another form of
literature, therefore, was required, at once less overt and of wider
appeal, if the new teaching was to reach the masses of the people;
and such a vehicle was now to be found.
It was about the year 1546 that there appeared a little volume
which, after the Bible itself, did more for the spread of reforma-
tion doctrines than any other book published in Scotland. As no
copy of this edition has been preserved, we can only conjecture
its contents from the first edition of which we possess a specimen-
that of 1567, apparently an enlarged edition of the original. The
book generally known in Scotland as The Gude and Godlie
Ballatis is, next to Knox's Historie of the reformatioun, the most
memorable literary monument of the period in vernacular Scots.
The chief share in the production of this volume, also known as
The Dundee Book, may, almost with certainty, be assigned to three
brothers, James, John and Robert Wedderburn, sons of a rich
· Ste anie, p. 122.


## p. 142 (#164) ############################################

142 Reformation and Renascence in Scotland
1
Dundee merchant, all of whom had studied at the university of
St Andrews, and were for a time exiled for their attachment to the
reformed doctrines. Besides a metrical translation of the Psalms,
the book contained a number of Spirituall Sangis and Plesand
Ballatis, the object of which was to convey instruction in points
of faith, to stimulate devotion and to stigmatise the iniquities and
errors of the Roman church. Of both songs and ballads, fully one
half are more or less close translations from the popular German
productions which had their origin in the Lutheran movement.
But the most remarkable pieces in the book are those which adapt
current secular songs and ballads to spiritual uses, appropriating
the airs, measures, initial lines or choruses of the originals. This
consecration of profane effusions was not unknown in the medieval
church, and for the immediate object in view a more effective
literary form could not have been devised. At a time when books
were dear and were, in general, little read, these Godly Ballads,
set to popular tunes, served at once the purpose of a pamphlet
and a sermon, conveying instruction, while, at the same time,
they roused to battle. What amazes the reader of the present
day in these compositions is the grotesque blending of religion
with all the coarseness and scurrility of the age. Yet this
incongruity is only a proof of the intense conviction of their
authors: in the message they had to proclaim they believed
there was an effectual safeguard against all evil consequences,
and that in the contrast between the flesh and the spirit
the truth would only be made more manifest. Moreover,
there is an accent and a strain in the Ballads which is not to be
found in Lyndsay even in his highest mood. Even when he is
most in earnest, Lyndsay never passes beyond the zeal of the
social reformer. In the Ballads, on the other hand, there is often
present a yearning pathos as of soul speaking to soul, which
transmutes and purifies their coarsest elements, and transfuses
the whole with a spiritual rapture. And the influence that the
Ballads exercised-mainly on the inhabitants of the towns,
which almost universally declared for the reformation-proves
that the writers had not misjudged their readers. For fully half
a century, though unsanctioned by ecclesiastical authority, the
Ballads held their place as the spiritual songs of the reformation
church.
To the year 1548 belongs the first production of John Knox
who was to be at once the chief leader of the Scottish
reformation and its chief literary exponent. The work is
entitled An Epistle to the Congregation of the Castle of St


## p. 143 (#165) ############################################

John Knox. Epistle on Justification 143
Andrews: with a Brief Summary of Balnaves on Justification
by Faith, and, as its author informs us, was written in Rouen,
while he was 'lying in irons and sore troubled by corporall in-
firmitie, in a galley named Nostre Dame. ' Like all the other
works of Knox, it was prompted by an immediate occasion and
was directed to an immediate practical purpose. So closely linked,
indeed, are the six volumes of his writings to his public career,
that they are virtually its running commentary. From first to last
his one concern was to secure the triumph of reformation doctrine,
as he conceived it, and it would be difficult to find a sentence in
his writings which does not bear more or less directly on this
object. To all secular interests, except so far as they touched
religion, he displays the indifference of an apostle; though, like the
reformers of every type, he had a profound conviction, as his
action was notably to prove, that education was the true band-
maid of piety. His eulogy on his countryman, the humanist
George Buchanan, shows that a pictas literata was no less his
ideal than it was that of Melanchthon. "That notable man
Mr George Buchanan,' he writes, 'remains to this day, the year
of
God, 1566 years, to the glory of God, to the great honour of the
nation and to the comfort of them that delight in letters and
virtue. ' A religion based on the Bible, as he understood it, and a
national system of education which should provide for every grade
of study and utilise every special gift for the general well-being-
such were the aims of Knox's public action and the burden of his
testimony in literature,
With one great exception, no productions of Knox possess
more than a historical interest as the expression of his own mind
and temper and of the type of religion of which he was the un-
flinching exponent. Mainly controversial in character, neither by
their literary quality nor by their substance were they found of
permanent value even by those to whom they made special appeal.
The long list of his writings, which had begun with The Epistle on
Justification, was continued in England, where, for five years, we
find him acting as an officially commissioned preacher of the
reformation as it was sanctioned by the government of Edward VI.
The titles of the pieces which he threw off during this period
sufficiently indicate their nature and scope: A Vindication of
the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry (1550),
A Summary according to the Holy Scriptures of the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper (1550), A Declaration of the True Nature
and Object of Prayer (1553) and The Exposition upon the Sixth
a


## p.