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KINGSHIP and LOVE in SCOTTISH POETRY, 1424–1540 This Book Is Dedicated to the Memory of Gillian Sands Kingship and Love in Scottish Poetry, 1424–1540

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KINGSHIP and LOVE in SCOTTISH POETRY, 1424–1540 This Book Is Dedicated to the Memory of Gillian Sands Kingship and Love in Scottish Poetry, 1424–1540 KINGSHIP AND LOVE IN SCOTTISH POETRY, 1424–1540 This book is dedicated to the memory of Gillian Sands Kingship and Love in Scottish Poetry, 1424–1540 JOANNA MARTIN University of Nottingham, UK First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Joanna Martin 2008 Joanna Martin has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Martin, Joanna, 1976– Kingship and love in Scottish poetry, 1424–1540 1. English poetry – Scottish authors – History and criticism 2. English poetry – Middle English, 1100–1500 – History and criticism 3. English poetry – Early modern, 1500–1700 – History and criticism 4. Kings and rulers in literature 5. Love in literature I. Title 821.2’09352621 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Martin, Joanna, 1976– Kingship and love in Scottish poetry, 1424–1540 / by Joanna Martin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6273-0 (alk. paper) 1. English poetry–Scottish authors–History and criticism. 2. English poetry–Middle English, 1100–1500–History and criticism. 3. English poetry–Early modern, 1500–1700– History and criticism. 4. Romances, English–History and criticism. 5. Kings and rulers in literature. 6. Love in literature. I. Title. PR8540.M37 2007 821’.2093543–dc22 2007013627 ISBN: 978-0-7546-6273-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-3155-9110-0 (ebk) Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction The Wooing of the King 1 1 The Kingis Quair and The Quare of Jelusy 19 2 Lancelot of the Laik 41 3 The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour 61 4 Robert Henryson’s ‘traitie of Orpheus kyng’ 79 5 The Thre Prestis of Peblis 103 6 King Hart 131 Epilogue Poetry and the Minority of James V 155 Select Bibliography 179 Index 195 This page intentionally left blank Preface It is often observed that little love poetry survives from fifteenth- and early sixteenth- century Scotland, and that the literature composed north of the Border in the late medieval period privileges moral and instructional themes and subject matter above the amatory. However, this study reveals and re-establishes the centrality of amorousness to the projects of Older Scots poets, suggesting that the discussion of love and the use of discourses connected with the amatory are fundamental to the advisory, ethical and political nature of much of the verse writing of this period. In this light, the study provides a reappraisal of poetry written by the major literary figures of late medieval Scotland, James I, Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, and Sir David Lyndsay. However, it also examines a number of less well-known and anonymous works which furnish a rich background to these canonical texts and are essential for our full understanding of Scottish literary culture between 1424 and 1540. The critical approaches that govern the book are historicist and cultural, and the amatory content of each work is related to the intellectual and political context in which it was composed, or to the interpretive context(s) provided by the manuscripts or prints in which it survives. In particular this study identifies a recurrent concern in these texts with the youth and consequent vulnerability of the monarch to personal misgovernance, and this is related to Scotland’s experience of repeated royal minorities from the succession of James I to that of James VI. The period of Stewart monarchy from which the poetry addressed here emanates, and to which it responds, is represented in the cover image of the ‘The Roiail Progenei of our Most Sacred King James’, reproduced by permission of the National Portrait Gallery. Joanna M. Martin This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements The debts of gratitude I have accrued in writing this book are many. I am very grateful to Lincoln College Oxford where, during my time as a Darby Fellow in English, I was able to complete the volume. The Fellows’ Research Fund and the Zilkha Fund at Lincoln College have enabled me to attend conferences and to travel to various research libraries in the preparation of the book. Thanks are also due to the staff of the National Library of Scotland and National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, the British Library in London, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, for assisting me with my research on many occasions. I am grateful to the National Portrait Gallery in London, for allowing me to reproduce the ‘The Roiail Progenei of our Most Sacred King James’ (1619) by Benjamin Wright, on the book jacket. Many individuals have contributed far more than they may realize to the writing of this book. I am particularly grateful for the help I have received from Dr Sally Mapstone, Dr Nicola Royan, Professor Priscilla Bawcutt, and Thomas Rutledge, all of whom have been generous with their wise advice, and have done so much to nurture and sustain my enthusiasm for Scottish literature. I owe special thanks to Dr Katherine McClune for friendship, encouragement, and so many invaluable comments and suggestions. However, my greatest and incalculable debt is to my parents and my sister Danielle without whose optimism and love this book could not have been completed. This page intentionally left blank Abbreviations ALHTS Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, ed., T. Dickson and J.B. Paul, 11 vols (Edinburgh, 1877–1916) APS Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ed., T. Thomson and C. Innes, 12 vols (Edinburgh, 1814–75) BL British Library, London CR Chaucer Review DNB The Dictionary of National Biography, ed., L. Stephen and S. Lee (Oxford, 1908) DOST A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue from the Twelfth Century to the End of the Seventeenth, ed., W. Craigie et al. (Chicago, Aberdeen and Oxford, 1937–2002) EETS Early English Text Society; ES Extra Series; OS Original Series ELR English Literary Review ES English Studies IMEV The Index of Middle English Verse, ed., C. Brown and R.H. Robbins (New York, 1943), Supplement, ed., R.H. Robbins and J.L. Cutler (Lexington, Ky., 1965) IR Innes Review MÆ Medium Ævum MED The Middle English Dictionary, ed., H. Kurath and S.M. Kuhn et al. (Michigan and Oxford, 1956–) MLQ Modern Language Quarterly NAS National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh NLS National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh NM Neuphilologische Mitteilungen OED The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition prepared by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, 20 vols (Oxford, 1989) PQ Philological Quarterly RES Review of English Studies SHR Scottish Historical Review SLJ Scottish Literary Journal SP Studies in Philology SS Scottish Studies SSL Studies in Scottish Literature SSR Scottish Studies Review STC A Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad, ed., A.W. Pollard et al., 2nd edn, 3 vols (1976–91), The Bibliographical Society STS Scottish Text Society TEAMS The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages This page intentionally left blank Introduction The Wooing of the King This introduction takes its title from the sixteenth-century rubric which accompanied William Dunbar’s beast fable, ‘This hinder nycht in Dunfermeling’, in the Bannatyne Manuscript (c.1568): ‘Follows the wowing of the king quhen he wes in Dunfermeling’. Although the characterization of the poem as an account of the ‘wooing’ of a king, in this case, of James IV of Scotland, is now believed to be a misreading of Dunbar’s disturbing allegory, in which a fox seduces a lamb, and creeps into her skin for his own safety, Bannatyne’s creative entitling nevertheless provides a telling insight into the literary concerns of one of the earliest audiences for late medieval Scottish poetry. Indeed, even if Bannatyne’s rubric has no historical or interpretive authority for the decoding of Dunbar’s allegory, it nevertheless draws our attention to a strongly discernable body of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Scots poetry concerned with the wooing of kings. This study provides the first full-length investigation of this synthesis of amatory and political themes and discourses in Older Scottish poetry, and where recoverable, of contemporary responses to this literary concern. The texts examined in the following six chapters and epilogue were composed between c.1424 and 1537 and include canonical writings by major literary figures from this period such as James I, Robert Henryson, Dunbar, Sir David Lyndsay and John Bellenden, as well as less well-known anonymous compositions which may not have had a wide circulation in their own day. Between them, these writings represent a diverse range of poetic forms and genres from dream vision, to romance, fable, tale collection and allegory, attesting the richness of Older Scots literary culture. They all share a concern with the impact of sexual desire on the king’s governance of his realm and therefore establish a connection between the moral order of the self and good political rule. All focus their concerns in the complex figure of the king, mostly fictional but sometimes historical, as a lover. It has frequently been observed that little love poetry survives from late medieval Scotland,1 and that the literature composed north of the Border in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century privileges moral and instructional themes and subject matter above the amatory.
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