Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

542
SCOTLAND
Banna- Bannatyne is inseparably connected with the history of
tyue- Scottish poetry, as in 1568 he too formed an extensive
collection of Scottish poetry which is certainly the most
valuable now extant. It was written by him at Edin¬
burgh in the time of the plague, when the dread of in¬
fection confined him closely at home. The Bannatyne
MS. now preserved in the Advocates’ Library extends to
800 pages folio, and includes several of Bannatyne’s own
poems, of which the two most considerable are of an
amatory character. The works of Alexander Scott, con¬
sisting principally of love poems, embrace also a spirited
account of a Jousting betwix Adamson and Sym at the
Drum, a place a little to the south of Edinburgh. The
author, who was one of the most elegant poets of this
period, has sometimes been called the “Scottish Anacreon.”
Two poems of some merit—the Praises of Wemen and
the Miseries of a Puir Scalar—were written by Alexander
Arbuthnot, principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, about
1570. A poem of considerable length, called the Sege of
the Castell of Edinburgh, published in 1573, was by Bobert
Semple, who also wrote an attack on Archbishop Adamson,
called the Legend of the Bishop of Sand Androis Lyfe.
Rolland. To this period belong two poems of considerable length—
the Court of Venus (1575), an imitation of the Police of
Honour of Gawyn Douglas, and the romance of the Seaven
Seages (1578), a Scottish version of one of the most re¬
markable mediaeval collections of stories belonging to the
same class as the Arabian Nights, in which one single
story is employed as a means of stringing together a multi¬
tude of subsidiary tales. These poems were written by
John Rolland, notary in Dalkeith. One of the best Latin
Buchanan, scholars that modern Europe has produced was George
Buchanan (g.v.), who flourished in the middle of the
16th century. He wrote several Latin tragedies and an
unrivalled translation of the Psalms. His De jure regni
apud Scotos was composed to instruct James VI., to whom
he had been tutor, in the duties belonging to his kingly
office. His last and most important labour was his History
of Scotland, originally printed in 1582, of which seventeen
Lyndsay editions have appeared. An excellent specimen of the
scottie ancient vernacular language is the Chronicle of Scotland
0 ie* by Robert Lyndsay of Pitscottie. It includes the period
from 1436 to the marriage of Mary to Darnley in 1565.
Although its author was a simple-minded and credulous
man, he describes events of which he was an eye-witness
with circumstantiality and great prolixity of detail. An¬
other historical work of greater importance was the De
Lesley. origins, moribus, et rebus gestis Scotorum (1578) by John
Lesley, bishop of Ross. A translation of this work made
by Father James Dalrymple, a religious in the Scottish
cloister of Ratisbon, 1596, is in course of publication by
the Rev. Father E. B. Cody for the Scottish Text Society.
Lesley also wrote in Scottish a History of Scotland from
the death of James I. in 1436 to the year 1561. This
work, intended for the perusal of Mary while in captivity
in England, is written in an elegant style. The bishop
was the champion of that unfortunate queen, and in 1569
wrote a Defence of the Honour of Alarie Queue of Scotland
and Doivager of France, with a declaration of her right,
title, and interest to the succession of the crown of England.
The Reformation exerted a considerable influence on
Scottish literature. Amongst the earliest Protestant writers
of the country may be mentioned Alexander Ales or Alesius,
a native of Edinburgh, who published several controversial
works and commentaries on various parts of the Bible.
Knox. But the most eminent promoter of the reform was John
Knox (q.y.), who wrote several controversial pamphlets and
some religious treatises; his great work was the History
of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland, first printed in
1586. One of the principal opponents of Knox was Nmian
Winzet, a priest of considerable ability and one familiar Winzet
with the scholastic learning of the age. He began life as
master of Linlithgow school and subsequently became
abbot of St James’s at Ratisbon. He wrote se'veral tracts
in which he strenuously recommended the observance of
certain popish festivals. In 1562 he published his Buke
of Four Scoir Thrie Questions inching Doctrine, Ordour, and
Maneris proponit to the Prechouris of the Protestantis in
Scotland and deliverit to Jhone Knox the 20th day of
February 1562. The writings of James VI., who was a James
man of scholarly attainments, embrace several works both VI.
in poetry and prose. His earliest production, published
in 1584, when he was only eighteen, was the Essayes of
a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie. This was followed
by his poetical Exercises at Vacant Houres (1591). He
also wrote a great many sonnets and a translation of
the Psalms. ^ His prose works are Dsemonologie (1597),
Bao-tAtKov Awpov (1599), Counterblast to Tobacco, Para¬
phrase on Revelation, Law of Free Monarchies, Ac. Among
the Scottish poets who frequented his court were William
Fowler, the elegant translator of the Triumphs of Petrarch,
and Stewart of Baldinnies (Perth), a translator of Ariosto.
Both these poets wrote other works which exist in MS.,
but are still unpublished. The zeal of Sir David Lyndsay Reli-
and others for the reformation of the church initiated a gious
religious revival, and in 1597 was published the collection Poets*
known as Ane Compendious Boole of Godly and Spiritual
Sangs for avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie. This very
curious work is attributed to John and Robert Wedder-
burn, the latter of whom was vicar of Dundee. A number
of religious poems were written about the end of the 16th
century by James Melville, minister of Anstruther, after¬
wards of Kilrenny, both in Fife. His Morning Vision,
printed in 1598, consists of paraphrases of the Lord’s
Prayer, the Shorter Catechism, and the Ten Command¬
ments. He also wrote the Black Bastel, a lamentation over
the Church of Scotland, which is dated 1611. Another
religious poet was James Cockburn, a native of Lanark¬
shire, who wrote Gabriel’s Salutation to Marie (1605), and
some other poems not destitute of merit. An eminent
theological writer of this era, Robert Rollock, first principal
of the university of Edinburgh, wrote many commentaries
on the Scriptures which show extensive learning. Most
are in Latin •, but one or two are in the Scottish language.
A very popular poem, the Cherrie and the Slae, first printed Mont-
by Waldegrave at Edinburgh in 1597, afterwards went gomcriB.
through many editions. Its author was Alexander Mont¬
gomerie, who also wrote some translations of the Psalms
and the Flyting betwixt Montgomerie and Polwarth, in
imitation of Dunbar’s Flyting xvith Kennedie. In 1599
was published an interesting volume of poems written by
Alexander Hume, entitled Hymnes or Sacred Songs, ivherein
the Right Use^ of Poesie may be espied. One is on the defeat
of the Spanish Armada. To the beginning of the 17th
century belongs a comedy in rhyming stanza, the authorship
of which is unknown,—Ane verie Excellent and Delectabill
Treatise intitulit Philotus, quhairin ive may perceive the Greit
Lnconveniences thatfallis out in the Marriage betuix Aige and
Youth (1603). Its versification is easy and pleasant, and
its plan a nearer approximation to the modern drama than
the satire of Lyndsay. In the same year appeared the
poems of Sir William Alexander (q.v.), earl of Stirling. Sir
One, called Doomsday, or the Great Day of the Lord’s Judg- William
ment, consists of 11,000 verses. His Monarchicke Traqedies,
lour in number, were not intended for representation on
the, stage. His exhortation or Parsenesis to Prince Henry
(1604) is his best poem. He also wrote Recreations with
the Muses (1637), which is of a somewhat philosophical
character. One of the most distinguished writers of this
era was William Drummond {q.v.) of Hawthornden, who