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The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson

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The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson i*r-:LU',. u'"tfi*-*^rr tf - ;JS - . tun , - Qass. THE POEMS ROBERT HENRYSON IN GENTLE HENRTSON S UNLABODR D STRAIN SWEET ARETHUSa's SHEPHERD BREATH'd AGAIN. LAKGHORNE, 1763. THE POEMS AND FABLES OF ROBERT HENRYSON, NOW FIRST COLLECTED. WITH NOTES, AND A MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE. BY DAVID LAING. EDINBURGH: MDCCCLXV. WILLIAM PATERSON, PRINCES STREET. 054S, 02. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY JOHN HUGHES, THISTLE STREET. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page Advertisement, VII Memoir of Robert Henryson, IX Appendix, No. I. List of Persons of the name of Henryson, from the middle of the Four- teenth to the end of the Fifteenth Century, xxxvii No. II. The Lands and Barony of Fordell, . xl No. III. The Hendersons of Fordell, . xlvi No. IV. Notices of the chief Persons of the name of Henryson or Henderson during the Six- teenth Century, ... l Miscellaneous Poems. Robene and Makyne, 3 The Garmond of Gude Ladeis, 8 The Bludy Serk, .... 10 The Abbay Walk, . 15 Aganis Haisty Creddance of Titlaris, 18 The Prais of Aige, .... 21 The Ressoning betwixt Aige and Yowth, 23 The Ressoning betwixt Deth and Man, 27 The Three Deid Powis, . 30 The Salutation of the Virgin, . 33 The Want of Wyse Men, . 36 Ane Prayer for the Pest, 39 Sum Practysis of Medecyne, 43 b TABLE OP CONTENTS. Pagb OftPHEUS AND EURYDICE, .... 49 The Testament of Cresseid, . .75 The Complaint of Cresseid, ... 89 The Moral Fables of -^sop in Scottish Metre. The Prologue, ..... 101 The Taill of the Cock and the Jasp, . 104 The Taill of the Uplandis Mous and the Burges Mous, ..... 108 The Tain of Schir Chantecleir and the Foxe, . 118 The Taill how this foirsaid Tod made his Confes- sioun to Freir Wolf Wait-skaith, . 127 The Taill of the Sone and Air of the foirsaid Foxe, callit Father Ware : alswa the Parlia- mentof Fourfuttit Beastis haldin be the Lyoun, 134 The Taill of the Dog, the Scheip, and the Wolf, 148 The Prologue, .... 155 The Taill of the Lyoun and the Mous, . 159 The Preiching of the Swallow, . 168 The Taill of the Wolf that gat the Nek-Herring throw the Wrinkis of the Foxe that begylit the Cadgear, .... 181 The Taill of the Foxe that begylit the Wolf in the Schadow of the Mone, . .193 The Taill of the Wolf and the Wedder, . 203 ^ The Taill of the Wolf and the Lamb, . 210 The Taill of the Paddok and the Mous, . 217 Notes. Notes and Various Readings, . 227 Additional Notes, .... 301 The Glossartt, ..... 309 ^^3/ / 6 33y ADVERTISEMENT. HEN the collected edition of Dunbar's Poems was published in 1834, I announced the present volume as in preparation. The materials were to some extent collected, but want of ^-^ leisure and other circumstances kept me at the time ^ from sending it to press. A few years ago, having resumed a scheme which I had merely postponed, the chief portion of tlie text was actually printed, but an interruption took place, and the volume was laid aside, to be completed at the first convenient season. Every Manuscript known to contain any poems attri- buted to Henryson has been carefully consulted ; and the early printed editions, all of them of the utmost degree of rarity, have not been overlooked. It is unnecessary to specify these in this place, as they are particularly described in the Notes. In regard to the Author's personal history, scanty as the notices may be, fortunately he is not like many of our Old Makars, whose writings have perished, and who stand before ; [ viii ] US in a dim shadowy obscurity, affording some tran- sient glimpse, or with the mere sound of a name while of others the few unimportant reliques that have reached our times, serve only to indicate that such persons had ever existed. DAVID LAINa. Edinburgh, February 1865. Il — MEMOIR ROBERT HENRYSON. ENRYSON, author of the Moral Fables of iEsop, and of Robene and Makyne, the ear- liest specimen of pas- toral poetry in our language, flourished in the reign of King James the Third (1460-1488). Ac- cording to the prevailing tradition of the last century, he was the representative of the family of Henryson or Henderson of Fordell, in the county of Fife. In the account of the family given in Douglas's Baronage of Scotland,! ^y^ gn j ^he following statement : " The sirname of Henderson or Henryson, which are the same, is of considerable antiquity in Scotland ; and Edinb., 17! 118. X MEMOIR OF the progenitors of this family have been settled in the western parts of Fife above 300 years ago. Their immediate ancestor, Mr Robert Henderson, appears to have been a man of distinction in the reign of King James the Third, and is witness in a charter to Patrick Baron of the lands of Spittlefield, together with John Lundine of that ilk, John Beaton of Balfour, &;c., anno 1478. He was father of Mr Jajies Henderson of Fordell, who made a great figure in the reign of King- James the Fourth. He was a man of extraordinary parts, and, being bred to the law, was appointed King's Advocate anno 1494, and afterwards Lord Justice- Clerk. He having redeemed some part of the lands of Fordell, which had been wadset by his predecessors to Alexander Drummond of Ardmore, upon his resigna- tion got a charter under the Great Seal, &c. 8th March 1510." In this statement there are two very important points for which no authority is adduced : The first, that the Justice-Clerk was the son of the Poet ; the second, that the Hendersons were possessors of the lands of Fordell prior to the years 1510 and 1511, when, having been acquired by purchase, they were erected into a barony in favour of Mr James Henryson and his wife, Helen Batye. The charter of 1478, to be afterwards men- tioned, has no reference whatever to Fordell or to Hen- ryson individually. Of the paientage and early history of Robert Hen- ryson, the poet, no certain information can be dis- covered : it would therefore be idle to hazard anv con- — ; ROBERT HENRYSON. XI jectiires as to the place of his birth. The surname was not uncommon in different parts of Scotland during the Fifteenth Century. In proof of this some notices will be given in the Appendix, No. I. But we cannot greatly err in supposing him to have been born not later than the year 1425. That he received a liberal education, and proceeded " in the schools " through the usual course till he had taken the degree of Master of Arts, might be inferred from the circumstance that he is uniformly styled Master Robert Henryson, a title given in those days exclusively to persons who had received this academical distinction. At that period there existed only two Universities in Scotland—that of St Andrews, founded in the year 1411, and of Glas- gow in the year 1451 ; but his name does not occur in the existing registers of either ; and we may conclude that he pursued, or at least completed, his studies at Louvain, Paris, or some other foreign university, where prelections in Canon and Civil Law were given. His own words,^ in reference to iEsop, might therefore in some measure be applicable to himself, when, in reply to the questions as to his birth, faculty, name, and place of residence, he said, I am of gentill blude, My native land is Rome withouttin nay And in that iownejirst to the Sculis I yxide^^ In Civile Law studyitfidl mony arte day, And now my winning ^ is in Hevin for ay. ^ Page 157. ^ Yude, went. ^ Winning, habitation. Xll MEMOIR OF Fortunately, we are not left to mere conjecture respecting his academical studies and qualifications, as we find that, on the 10th of September 1462, the Venerable Master Egbert Henrysone, Licentiate in Arts and Bachelor in Decrees,^ was incorporated or admitted a member of the newly founded University of Glasgow. This fact, hitherto unnoticed in his biography, is of considerable importance, as it supplies us not only with a precise date in his life, but exhibits him as hold- ing a rank in society superior to that of a parochial Schoolmaster, even of such a place as Dunfermline. His poems likewise furnish occasional proofs of his attainments in science as well as learning. From the designation of "venerable" we may infer that he was somewhat advanced in life ; and although no such record is preserved, it is by no means improbable that he be- came a Fellow for the purpose of reading lectures in law. In one of his poems he speaks of himself as " ane ^ man of age." How it happened that Henryson took up his resi- dence in Dunfermline, we cannot say,—unless he may originally have belonged to that district; but that he or his predecessors ever possessed a single acre of the ^ " Anno Domini etc. [M.cccc.]lxij<' die decimo meusis Sep- tembi'is Incorporatus fuit venerabilis vir ]\Iagister Robertus Henrtsone in Artibus Licentiatus et in Decretis Bachalarius" — (Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, vol. ii., p. 69). ^ See p. 76. In another place he speaks of himself as having some experience or practice in medicine ; but obviously no stress can be laid upon such expressions. — ROBERT HENRYSON. Xlll lands of Fordell, is a gratuitous assumption. Dunferm- line was a town of considerable importance, having been constituted a Royal Borough in the reign of David the First. It afterwards became a royal residence, and was also celebrated for the noble Benedictine Monas- tery which was founded by King Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093), and changed by David the First to an Abbey in 1124,—the church and monastery being dedi- cated to the Holy Trinity and St Margaret Queen of Scotland.
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