SCOTLAND
623
SCOTLAND
came Abbot of lona in 657. This was enlarged, in
690, into the celebrated "Vita Sancti Columba;", by
Adamnan, himself Abbot of lona from 679 until his
death in 704. Adamnan also wrote "De Situ Terrae
Sanctse". Other early Latin writers to whom the
Scottish Borders may perhaps lay claim are Michael
Scott (c. 1194-c. 1250), who was in his own day, and
since, even more celebrated as an astrologer and ma-
gician than as a philosopher and expounder of Aristotle,
and John Duns Scotus (1265?-1308), the Doctor Sub-
lilis of the Franciscans. The early Gaelic Literature
of Scotland, as represented by the Ossianic Ballads
and the other legends and poems contained in "The
Book of the Dean of Lismore", which was compiled
about 1512-26, can scarcely be called distinctly na-
tional, and falls more conveniently under the general
heading of Celtic Literature. Under that heading,
too, are appropriately grouped the collections in
"The Book of Fernaig" (1688-93) and in the
" Beauties of GaeUc Poetry", as well as the various
works written in Scottish Gaelic during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries.
The present article is mainly concerned with that which is generally regarded as Scottish Literature proper, namely, the body of writing produced by na- tives of the Scottish Lowlands who wTote in a dis- tinctive English called, in the earUest times, Anghan, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and early sixteenth cen- turies, Inglis, and from that time onward, Scottis, or Scottish. This language, which had once held power- ful sway as the vehicle of literary expression used by poets, preachers, and chroniclers in great part of Northern iMigland and in that portion of modern Scotliind wiiicli had of old belonged to the Kingdom of Northunihria, sank, about the fourteenth century, to the level of a dialect in the region south of the Tweed and the Cheviots, but continued for some two hundred and fifty years to flourish north of those boundaries as the official speech of the Scottish Court and kingdom, and as the spoken and wTitten tongue of the great majority of the Scottish people. From the fifteenth century it spread to west and north, and was modified by contact with Highland Gaelic, on the one hand, and French and Latin, on the other, until it acquired characteristics and peculiarities which differ- entiated it not only from standard English, but also from its own cognate diale(;ts in use in Northern Eng- land. It has been divided into three periods, namely: Early Scottish, extending down to 1475; Middle Scot- tish, the national period, from 1475 to 1650; and Mod- ern Scottish, the dialectal period, from 1650 down to the present.
The earliest Anglian writing extant in Scotland is a runic in.scription on the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfries- shire, which, long erroneously interpreted as Scandi- navian, has been definitely deciphered as portion of a Caedmonian poem, on the Rood of Christ, in the Northumbrian, that is the Anglian, dialect. This in- scription may belong anywhere from the end of the seventh to the middle of the tenth century. A "Can- tus" or lament, in eight very passable lines, composed soon after the death of King Alexander III of Scot- land, which took place in 1286, is preserved by An- drew of Wyntoun in his Chronicle. We have also, from other chronicles, evidence to show that patri- otic and satirical songs were composed in Scotland against the English, when King Edward I was en- gaged in his war of conquest at the end of the thir- teenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, and again when, at Bannockburn (1314), Bruce secured the independence of his country by his crushing defeat of the army of King Edward II. We may also infer from a statement of Barbour's that Border ballads were probably composed at an early period.
The first writer of the literary language of Scotland to be named by name used to be Thomas Rymour (fl. 1280) of Ercildoune (or Earlston, in Berwickshire),
because of his supposed authorship of the romance of
"Sir Tristrem " ; but more recent investigations tend to
show that "Sir Tristrem" was the work of an EngUsh-
man earher in date than the Scottish claimant. On
the other hand, modern research seems destined to
award a conspicuous niche in the Scottish literary
temple of fame to Huchown of the Awle Reale. He is
mentioned with much praise in Andrew of Wyntoun's
Chronicle as having made the "gret Gest off Ar-
thure", "the Awntyre [Adventure] of Gawane", and
the "Pystyll [Epistle] of Suete Susane". Eighty or
ninety years later Dunbar laments "the gude Syr Hew
of Eglyntoun". It has been generally held that
Huchown and Sir Hugh of Eghnton, a nobleman of
Ayrshire who played a conspicuous part in Scottish
history for about twenty-five years, from 1350 to 1375,
are one and the same. The "gret Gest" has been
identified with the "Morte Arthure", a non-rhyming
alliterative poem, and the "Awntyre of Gawane",
with a poem of similar metric scheme, entitled "Sir
Gawane and the Grene Knight". Besides these
works and the "Pystyll", there have also been at-
tributed to Huchown the "Destruction of Troy"
(from Guido delle Colonne's " Destructio Troja) ") ; the
"Wars of Alexander" (from the "De Preliis Alex-
andri"); the "Parlement of the Thre Ages" (partly
from the French poems "Fuerre de Gadres" and " Voeux
du Paon"); the "Awntyrs of Arthure"; and, with
other alliterative poems, "Cleanness", "Patience",
and "Pearl". This output would be so remarkable
alike for quantity and quality that, should Huchown's
claim be finally substantiated, he will be entitled to
rank among the very greatest of the Scottish poets.
Other poems on the same metrical plan as the "Awn-
tyrs of Arthure", that is, in rhyming stanzas with con-
stant alliteration, are "The Knightly Tale of Golagros
and Gawane", which, derived from the "Perceval" of
Chrestien de Troyes, is possibly by Clerk of Tranent,
who died about the end of the fifteenth century; the
"Buke of the Howlat [Owl]", an allegory against
pride, suggested probably by Chaucer's "Parlement of
Foules", and written about 1452 by Richard Holland,
a priest of Halkirk in Caithness; and the anonymous
" Taill of Rauf Coilzear ", written about 1470, and deal-
ing with the story of Charlemagne and the charcoal
burner.
The War of Independence, making as it did for an intense national sentiment, reacted correspondingly on the Uterature of the country, and for a time poets turned from the mythical paladins of romance to cele- brate in verse the brave exploits of the sons of Scot- land. Foremost among the writers of this national epos stands the venerable figure of John Barbour (c. 1316-1396), Archdeacon of Aberdeen. His poem of "Brus" or "The Bruce", in about 7000 octosyllabic couplets, tells the life-story of Bruce, and ends with the burial of the hero's heart at Melrose. This monu- mental poem is, with the exception of one or two lapses, in the main historically accurate: this, too, al- though it shows many traces of the influence of the French romances. "The Bruce" is a dignified com- position, abounding in description, and all aglow with patriotic fire. To Barbour are also assigned a trans- lation of part of a medieval romance on the "Trojan War" and the metrical "Legends of the Saints". More doubtfully — on account of confusion of dates^ he has been credited with the translation from the French of "The Bulk of the most noble andvailzeand Conquerour Alexander the Great", which, in style, metre, and phrase, closely resembles "The Bruce". What Barbour did for Bruce, Blind Harry, or Harry the Minstrel (d. 1492), sought to do for the other great national hero, William Wallace. Blind Harry's "Wallace" is in 11,858 lines of heroic verse. It is not so faithful to the facts of history as "The Bruce", but it is intensely patriotic, and has been, in its original form and also in an early eighteenth-century modern-
