CHAPTER VII. WILLIAM DUNBAR AND GAVIN DOUGLAS. WILLIAM DUNBAR and Gavin Douglas were Scottish poets of high mark in the first years of the sixteenth century, when Scotland was rich in song. Dunbar was born about the year 1460; graduated in 1477 as Bachelor of Arts, and in 1479 as M.A. at St. Andrews, in St. Salvator's College; was, for a time, a Franciscan; afterwards was employed much in the service of James IV., King of Scotland, and received The from him, in 1500, a pension of £10 Scots. buying power of money was much greater then than now, but ten pounds in Scottish currency were not quite three pounds English. The pension was doubled in 1507, and raised from twenty to eighty pounds in 1510. Dunbar wrote, in May, 1503, an allegorical court-poem, "The Thistle and the Rose," on the marriage of King James IV. to Margaret Tudor; and before 1508, when it was first printed, with his "Lament for the Makars," another allegorical poem, on Reason as "The Golden Terge," or shield, by which man is defended against the assaults of Love, till Presence throws her blinding dust into his eyes. Dunbar, with a little body, and a large, free mind, with vigour, humour, tenderness -a range of power found only in few-was the best poet who had yet arisen since the days of Chaucer. How rich the Scottish nation was in song may be inferred from Dunbar's lines, written in 1507 or 1508, as a "Lament for the Makars," or poets, who had died in his time, and whom then, because he was dangerously ill, and in expectation of death (Timor mortis conturbat me- "The fear of death disquiets me"), he believed that he was soon to follow. 1"What can be more natural or more moving than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day?" (Addison, Spectator, No.74.) On the passage from line 225 to line 250 Addison's note is that "the English are the first who take the field, and the last who qut it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle, the Sentch two thousand. The English keep the field with fifty-three; the Scotch retire with fifty-five; all the rest on each side being slain in battle. But the most remarkable circumstance of this kind, is the diferent manner in which the Scotch and English kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great men's deaths who commanded in it" (Addison, Spectator, No. 70.) "Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally LAMENT FOR THE MAKARS. WHEN HE WAS SEIK. I that in heill was and glaidness. Am troublit now with great seikness, And feeblit with infirmitie: Timor mortis conturbat me. arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding, and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations; which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judg ment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil." (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) + Makars, poets. The Greek word months means a maker, and maker was the Old English name for poet. Thus Sir Philip Sidney wrote in his "Apologie for Poetrie:" "The Greeks called him a poet, which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages. It cometh of this word, poiein, which is, to make; wherein, I know not whether by luck or wisdom, we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him a maker; which name, how high and incomparable a title it is, I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences than by my allegation." 5 Heill (First English "hæ'lu "), health. A gathering mist o'erclouds her chearful eyes; And from her cheeks the rosie colour flies. Turnus did not die in so heroic a manner; though our poet seems to have had his eye upon Turnus's speech in the last verse 1 "Earl Piercy's lamentation over his enemy is generous, beautiful, and passionate; I must only caution the reader not to let the simplicity of the style, which one may well pardon in so old a poet, prejudice him against the greatness of the thought. That beautiful line, Taking the dead man by the hand, will put the reader in mind of Æneas's behaviour towards Lausus, whom he himself had slain as he came to the rescue of his aged father. 'At vero ut vultum vidit morientis, et ora, Ingemuit, miserans graviter, dextramque tetendit,' &c. He griev'd, he wept; then grasp'd his hand, and said, (Addison, Spectator, No. 70.) "Of all the descriptive parts of this song, there are none more beautiful than the four following stanzas, which have a great force Sir Charles Murray of Ratcliff too,- Sir David Lamb, so well esteemed, 203 And the Lord Maxwell in like case Did with Earl Douglas die; Of twenty hundred Scottish spears, Scarce fifty-five did fly; and spirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumstances. The thought in the third stanza was never touched by any other poet, and is such an one as would have shined in Homer or in Virgil." (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) 3" In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the same manner particularised very artfully, as the reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him [lines 94-100] in the beginning of the battle (though I am satisfied your little buffoon readers, who have seen that passage ridiculed in Hudibras, will not be able to take the beauty of it: for which reason I dare not so much as quote it). We meet with the same heroick sentiments in Virgil 'Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) "One may observe likewise, that in the catalogue of the slain the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long list of the dead, but by diversifying it with little characters of particular persons. The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the description: for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to shew the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil -Cadit et Ripheus justissimus unus (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) 1 CHAPTER VII. WILLIAM DUNBAR AND GAVIN DOUGLAS. WILLIAM DUNBAR and Gavin Douglas were Scottish poets of high mark in the first years of the sixteenth century, when Scotland was rich in song. Dunbar was born about the year 1460; graduated in 1477 as Bachelor of Arts, and in 1479 as M.A. at St. Andrews, in St. Salvator's College; was, for a time, a Franciscan; afterwards was employed much in the service of James IV., King of Scotland, and received from him, in 1500, a pension of £10 Scots. The buying power of money was much greater then than now, but ten pounds in Scottish currency were not quite three pounds English. The pension was doubled in 1507, and raised from twenty to eighty pounds in 1510. Dunbar wrote, in May, 1503, an allegorical court-poem, "The Thistle and the Rose," on the marriage of King James IV. to Margaret Tudor; and before 1508, when it was first printed, with his "Lament for the Makars," another allegorical poem, on Reason as "The Golden Terge," or shield, by which man is defended against the assaults of Love, till Presence throws her blinding dust into his eyes. Dunbar, with a little body, and a large, free mind, with vigour, humour, tenderness -a range of power found only in few-was the best poet who had yet arisen since the days of Chaucer. How rich the Scottish nation was in song may be inferred from Dunbar's lines, written in 1507 or 1508, as a "Lament for the Makars," or poets, who had died in his time, and whom then, because he was dangerously ill, and in expectation of death (Timor mortis conturbat me- "The fear of death disquiets me"), he believed that he was soon to follow. 1 "What can be more natural or more moving than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day?" (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) 2 On the passage from line 225 to line 250 Addison's note is that "the English are the first who take the field, and the last who quit it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle, the Scotch two thousand. The English keep the field with fifty-three; the Scotch retire with fifty-five; all the rest on each side being slain in battle. But the most remarkable circumstance of this kind, is the different manner in which the Scotch and English kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great men's deaths who commanded in it." (Addison, Spectator, No. 70.) "Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding, and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations; which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judg. ment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil." (Addison, Spectator, No. 74.) + Makars, poets. The Greek word onths means a maker, and maker was the Old English name for poet. Thus Sir Philip Sidney wrote in his "Apologie for Poetrie:" "The Greeks called him a poet, which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages. It cometh of this word, poiein, which is, to make; wherein, I know not whether by luck or wisdom, we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him a maker; which name, how high and incomparable a title it is, I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences than by my allegation." 5 Heill (First English "hæ'lu "), health. GRADIENTES IN SUPERBIA. (From Holbein's "Dance of Death.") Unto the Deid goes all estates, Princes, Prelates, and Potestates, Baith rich and puir of all degree: Timor mortis conturbat me. 1 Bruckle (First English "brecan," to break), brittle. 2 Slee, sly, crafty. Icelandic " 'slægr." 3 Sary (First English "sárig "), from "sár," a sore, wound, sorrow. Erd, earth. First English "eard." 5 Wicker (Danish "vigre," from "viger," to be pliant), a twig. 6 Potestates, potentates. Latin "potestas," power; plural, " potestates," powers, and also persons in power. The seven stanzas beginning "Unto the Deid" (Death) "gois all Estaitis" were evidently suggested by the emblematic religious spectacle known as the "Dance of Macaber," or the "Dance of Death," once probably set forth by living actors in churches of France, and in the fifteenth century a common subject of religious painting and sculpture. It usually appeared with appropriate texts or descriptive verses, illustrating each representation of death as the leader of the dance of life with men of every degree. In a Latin poem of the twelfth century, ascribed to Walter Map, there is a series of lines in which men of different estates, beginning with the Pope and ending with the pauper, pass before the mind's eye in procession, each declaring that he is on his way to death. It is called a "Lament for Death, and Counsel as to the Living God." The name "Macabre" probably arose from the association of this subject with a painting that illustrated a thirteenth century legend of the lesson given by certain hideous spectres of Death to three noble youths when hunting in a forest. They afterwards arrived at the cell of St. Macarius, an Egyptian anchorite, who was shown in a painting by Andrew Orgagna presenting them with one hand a label of admonition on the vain glory of life, and with the other hand pointing to three open coffins. In one coffin is a skeleton, in one a king. A painting of a Dance of Death at Minden, in Westphalia, had for a traditional date 1383. Another, in the churchyard of the Innocents, at Paris, was certainly painted in 1434. One of the most famous was the Dance SUBITO MORIENTUR. of Death at Basle, said to have been painted by order of the prelates who were at the Grand Council of Basle, between the years 1431 and 1443, and also wrongly ascribed to Hans Holbein. It went its own way to death; its destruction was completed in 1805; and it is now known only by such copies as were made. There were such paintings in England also; one was in the cloister of Old St. Paul's, pulled down in 1549, of which Sir Thomas More wrote, "If we not only hear this word Death, but also let it sink into our hearts, the very fantasy and deep imagination thereof, we shall perceive thereby that we were never so greatly moved by the beholding of the Dance of Death pictured in St. Paul's as we shall feel ourselves stirred and altered by the feeling of that imagination in our hearts." Although the evidence is not beyond all question, there is very little doubt that the Dance of Death shown in a series of woodcuts illustrating a volume published at Lyons in 1538 as "Les Simulachres et Historiées Faces de la Mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes que artificiellement imaginées," was from designs by Holbein. From this book, there fore, I have taken illustrations to the stanzas of Dunbar. 7 Into, in. 8 Anarmit, armed. 9 Melee (French "mélée "), conflict. |