Scottish Literature

I

Introduction

Scottish Literature, literature in any of the languages of Scotland: Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots, or Standard English. This article deals with poetry and prose in Scots and in English, written in Scotland or by Scottish-born authors living abroad but dealing primarily with Scottish themes and settings. For information on the Scottish Gaelic literary tradition, see Gaelic Literature. See also English Literature.

II

Early Works

The earliest literature in the northern dialect of English known as Scottish or Lowland Scots is a fragment of an anonymous 13th-century poem on the condition of Scotland after the death of King Alexander III. One of the first major Scottish poets was John Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen, who wrote The Bruce (1375); its 14,000 lines tell the story of the heroic Scottish king Robert Bruce. Harry the Minstrel also wrote in the tradition of military epic and wrote the 12,000-line poem Sir William Wallace in the late 15th century.

III

The Makars

Some of the most notable Scottish poetry was the work of the medieval makars (literally makers), professional poets generally attached to the court. The tradition is considered to have begun with King James I, the probable author of The Kingis Quair (The King's Book, 1423?), a dream allegory in the courtly love tradition of Le Roman de la Rose, a medieval French poem written in the 13th century that explores the nature of love. Because of their supposed imitations of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, the makars have often been referred to as Scottish Chaucerians. However, this term is inaccurate; the similarity stems from their use of the same French models that inspired Chaucer.

The next great makar was Robert Henryson, a 15th-century cleric of Dunfermline, whose masterpiece was The Testament of Cresseid. Henryson's version forms a sequel to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and tells of Cressida's punishment for violating the courtly love code. William Dunbar, a Franciscan prelate attached to the court of King James IV, is Henryson's rival to the title of greatest of these 15th-century poets. Dunbar was essentially a lyric poet, however, notable for his versatility and craftsmanship. His most famous poem is the Lament for the Makaris. Apart from its value as a roster of names of Scottish poets, his predecessors and contemporaries, the Lament is a poignant expression of his own fear of death. In contrast are The Twa Maryit Wemen and the Wedo, a rollicking satirical debate on various forms of love, and his stately hymn on the resurrection of Christ.

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The fourth of the makars, Gawin Douglas, member of a noble family and bishop of Dunkeld, made the first translation in Britain of Virgil's Aeneid. His version, not superseded until the translations of the English poets John Dryden and Alexander Pope, is valuable also for its role in developing the Scots vocabulary. Each book of Douglas's Aeneid is prefaced by an original prologue; the seventh prologue is particularly notable for its realistic description of a Scottish winter scene.

IV

The Reformation

Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (1535?) by Sir David Lindsay is a long allegorical poem in the tradition of the medieval morality plays. It constitutes an attack on the church and the monarchy and a formal defense of the Reformation. As such, it remained the most popular work in Scotland until the time of Robert Burns.

With the Reformation, the tradition of the makars died; they were succeeded by a number of minor lyric poets. With the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603, the court poetry tradition disappeared, and the vernacular was relegated mainly to the body of popular lyrics and ballads, generally of anonymous authorship. The most widely read prose work of this period was the English Bible; because of its enormous influence, the Scottish language ceased to be used for formal prose, and until the end of the 19th century it was reserved, in fiction, only for dialogue, to give a genre effect. Drama, negligible in Scotland before the Reformation, has never had a strong native tradition.

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