Scottish Text Society publications > New series > Kingis quair; together with A ballad of good counsel

xlvi
INTRODUCTION.
author. Thus, in st. 44, the phrase that dootk vie sike means
“ that causes me to sigh ” ; but Tytler’s note is, “ The word
site, or syte, in our old language, signifies grief or sorrow,”
which has nothing to do with the question. Again, in st.
53, Tytler rightly prints the last word as plyte, i.e. plight;
but in his note he alters it to pleyte, remarking that “pleyt
(sic), according to Chaucer, is a wreath or collar.” In st.
56, he supposes deuil, i.e. devil, to be “the French deuil,
sorrow ” ; and gives a false interpretation of the line ac¬
cordingly. In st. no, the transcriber wrote tavartis for
tabardis, but Tytler guessed what was meant. He was not
so fortunate in st. 116, where the transcriber -wrote, yvete for
ybete, but explains yvete as “y-wet with my tears.” It is
also necessary to observe that the description of the Lady
Joan cannot have been borrowed, as he supposes, from
“ Chaucer’s Court of Love,” for the reason that the poem
so called is not Chaucer’s, and is written in English of the
sixteenth century. The borrowing is, of course, the other
way. It is much more to the point to observe, as Dr
Schick has shown, that both the Kingis Quair and the
Court of Love are indebted to a poem by Lydgate, entitled
The Temple of Glass, which was edited by Schick for the
Early English Text Society in 1891.
B. “The works of James L, King of Scotland, containing
the King’s Quhair, Christis Kirk of the Grene, and Peblis to
the Play. Perth, 1786.” This is an anonymous edition ;
the editor’s name was Robert Morison. It is practically a
mere reprint of Tytler. The notes are “ extracted (by per¬
mission)” from Tytler’s. They are much abbreviated, and
occupy only six pages. The volume also contains “Two
ancient Scotish poems, commonly ascribed to King James
V.” These are (1) The Gaberlunzie Man, and (2) A Ballad