The New International Encyclopædia/Montgomerie, Alexander

MONTGOMERIE, mŏnt-gŭm′e-rĭ, Alexander (c.1556-c.1610). A Scottish poet. He evidently received a scholarly training and for a time held an official position at the Court of James VI. Some years were spent in foreign travel. The Cherrie and the Slae (1597), still popular among the Scotch, gives him a conspicuous place in a period of the literature of his country which was without poetic genius. The poem lacks design, but contains many passages of homely beauty. He is also author of some sonnets and a scurrilous poem, entitled The Flyting Between Montgomery and Polwart (1621). A collection of his works was published by Laing in 1821, and another, edited by Cranstoun for the Scottish Text Society, appeared in 1887.