Scottish Text Society publications > Third series > Works of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 1490-1555 > Volume 4, 1936

XXIV
INTRODUCTION.
Lorraine, eldest daughter of the Duke of Guise and
widow of the Duke of Longueville. She landed at Crail
on June 10, 1538, and proceeded to St Andrews, where
she was welcomed by a short masque composed by
Lindsay. The text has not come down, but Pitscottie
gives a summary.1 This is Lindsay’s first known attempt
at dramatic composition. The form of the masque for
an entry into a town, and perhaps much of the wording,
certainly its tenour, was prescribed by custom. A cloud
erected above the New Abbey gate parted in the middle,
disclosing an angel who delivered to the Queen the keys
of Scotland, as a symbol of welcome, and made a
speech or speeches exhorting her to serve God, obey her
husband, and keep her body clean, according to God’s
will and commandment. The speech was probably in
French, and Pitscottie certifies that it was written by
Lindsay.
Of the Queen’s entry into Edinburgh in July 1538 we
have fuller details, and it seems to me that the “ dauid
Lindsay” to whom reference for details of “all ordour and
furnessing” for the entry was to be made, and who assisted
Henry Lauder, the Advocate Royal, Sir Adam Otter-
burne, and Sir James Foulis, in the composition of the
address of welcome, was the poet himself, though the
identification has not been previously made.2
Tournaments at St Andrews, probably in 1539,3 pro¬
vided material for the satiric lusting betuix lames Watsoun
and Ihone Barbour, who, respectively barber and groom
at Court, are made to attempt to joust. The poem,
written in five-foot couplets, belongs to a species of satire
on the humbler or non-chivalric classes, and of mock-
tournament poems there are several examples.4 The
heroes are not gentlemen by birth, and hence cannot
1 App. I., ns ; Vol. II., p. x.
3 Vol. III., p. 140.
2 App. I., 116.
4 Vol. III., p. 141.