THE POETS AND POETRY OF SCOTLAND. PERIOD 1219 TO 1776. THOMAS THE RHYMER. BORN 1219-DIED 1299. 10 little is known with certainty concerning | did bear that name. the name His territorial appella doune may have grown into Laird of Ersilmount, and have gradually become converted into Larsilmount or Learmont.1 Scottish poetry, that even his name has long been a subject of controversy. No other bard of ancient or modern times is more rich in designations. Commonly called Thomas the But whatever may have been his name, he Rhymer, he is also known as Thomas Rymer, was undoubtedly a gentleman of condition, and Sir Thomas Learmont or Lermont, Thomas of his wife is believed to have been a daughter of Ercildoune, and Thomas Rymer of Erceldon, the knight of Thirlstane, an ancestor of the given to him by his son, and one Earls of Lauderdale. The same uncertainty that existed in the poet's native county of concerning his proper designation also exists Berwickshire during the thirteenth century. in respect to the exact time of his birth. Sir In the year 1296 one John Rimour, a Berwick-Walter Scott, who styles him the earliest Scotshire freeholder, did homage, in company with tish poet, conjectures that he was born between others, to Edward I. King of England. The 1226 and 1229, while later authorities assign fact that persons named Learmoth still claim 1219 as the year of his birth. the right of sepulchre in the churchyard at Earlston as representing Thomas the Rhymer, is a fact in favour of the supposition that he The family to which Thomas belonged seems to have taken its territorial title from Ercil have the wings of the bird, that he might fly "to the west, to the west, where shine the fields of my ancestors," and where in the deserted tower among the misty hills rests their forgotten dust." Above the sword and shield hanging on the ancient walls he would fly, he The biographers of Russia's greatest poet, with the single exception of Alexander Pushkin, claim for Michael Lermontof (1811-41)-whose Scottish ancestors settled in Poland in the seventeenth century, and from thence passed into the dominions and service of cries, and with his wing flick off the gathered dust of the first Tsar of the Romanoff dynasty-kinship with the father of Scottish poetry. Lermontof often refers in his poems to the home of his forefathers. In one he Bays: "Beneath the curtain of mist, A second time to draw its life." And in another poem called "The Wish," he longs to ages. "And the chords of the harp of Scotland would I touch, And its sounds would fly along the vaults, By me alone awakened, by me alone listened to; No sooner resounding thau dying away." But vain are his fancies, he adds, his fruitless prayers to be delivered from the harsh laws of fate "Between me and the hills of my fatherland The last scion of a race of hardy warriors doune, or according to modern corruption Earlston, a small village situated on the Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed. He himself resided in a Border keep at the south-western extremity of this hamlet, the ruins of which, called "Rhymer's Tower," are, after the lapse of six centuries, still to be seen; and on a stone in the front wall of the church of Earlston is the inscription: "Auld Rhymer's race Lies in this place." Tradition says that this stone with its modernized spelling was transferred from the old church, which stood at a distance of a few yards from the existing building; also that it was substituted for a very ancient stone destroyed in 1782. The poet probably lived to be more than threescore and ten. He is known to have died before, or early in, the year 1299, as that is the date of a charter granted by his son and heir to the Trinity House at Soltra, in which he calls himself filius et hæres Thomæ Rymour de Erceldon. Henry the Minstrel represents the poet to have been a companionin-arms of Sir William Wallace in 1296; so if this authority is to be credited the poet died between that period and the date of his son's document. Among his countrymen Thomas is celebrated as a prophet no less than a poet. The prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer were first published in Latin and English, early in the seventeenth century. Barbour, Wyntoun, and Blind | Harry each refer to his prophetic character. The Bishop of St. Andrews is introduced by Barbour as saying, after Bruce had slain the Red Cumin "I hop Thomas' prophecy Off Hersildoune, were fyd be Wyntoun's words are these: "Of this sycht quhilum spak Thomas Thare suld meet stalwarty, stark, and sterne. But how he wist, it was ferly." Blind Harry represents Rhymer as saying, on being falsely informed that Sir William Wallace was dead- "For such, or he decess, Mony thousand on feild shal mak thar end. And Scotland thriss he sall bring to the pess; So gud of hand agayne sall nevir be kend." "The popular tale of the neighbourhood relates," says Sir Walter in a note to his Border Minstrelsy, that "Thomas was carried off at an early age to Fairy Land, where he acquired all the knowledge which afterwards made him famous. After seven years' residence he was permitted to return to the earth to enlighten and astonish the world by his prophetic powers; still, however, being bound to return to his royal mistress (the Queen of the Fairies) whenever she should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, Thomas was making merry with his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, when a person came running in with fear and astonishment, and told that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were composedly and slowly parading the street of the village. The poet arose instantly and followed the animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief he still drees his weird' (undergoes his doom) in Fairy Land, and is expected, at some future day, to revisit the earth." Robert de Brunne, an English writer who was contemporary with Thomas of Erceldoune, commemorates him as the author of a metrical romance entitled "Sir Tristrem," which was supposed to be lost, till a copy of it was discovered among the Auchinleck manuscripts in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and published in 1804, with an introduction and notes by Sir Walter Scott. It was for a long time to Robert de Brunne alone that we owed the preservation of Thomas the Rhymer's fame as a poet. In the "Prolog" to his Annals, written about 1338, he thus records his admiration of Sir Tristrem : heroes of Wales, and if we can trust ancient authorities acted a distinguished part in the history of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Gottfried of Strasburg, a German minstrel of the thirteenth century, says "that many of his profession told the tale of Sir Tristrem imperfectly and incorrectly, but that he derived his authority from Thomas of Britannia,' master of the art of romance, who had read the history in British books, and knew the lives of all the lords of the land, and made them known to us." The poem is written in what Robert de Brunne calls "so quainte Inglis That many one wate not what it is;" and Sir Walter Scott has drawn from this circumstance, combined with the originality of the romance, a conclusion of so much importance to the literary fame of Scotland, that we are induced to give it in his own words. "It will follow," says Sir Walter, "that the first classical English romance was written in part of what is now Scotland; and the attentive reader will find some reason to believe that our language received the first rudiments of improvement in the very corner where it now exists in its most debased state. In England it is now generally admitted that after the Norman conquest, while the Saxon language was abandoned to the lowest of the people, and while the conquerors only deigned to employ their native French, the mixed language now called English only existed as a kind of lingua franca to conduct the necessary intercourse between the victors and the vanquished. It was not till the reign of Henry III. that this dialect had assumed a shape fit for the purposes of the poet; and even then the indolence or taste of the minstrels of that period induced them to prefer translating the Anglo-Norman and French romances which had stood the test of years, to the more precarious and laborious task of original composition. It is the united opinion of Wharton, Tyrwhitt, and Ritson, that there exists no English romance1 prior to the days of Chaucer which is not a translation of some earlier French one." While the kings and knights of England were entertained with chivalric tales, told in the French language— by the lais of Marie, the romances of Chretien de Foyes, or the fableaux of the trouveurs—the legends of Scotland, which could boast of never having owned a victor's sway, were written in that Anglo-Saxon-Pictish mixture known by the name of Inglis or English. Thomas the Rhymer, and other Scottish poets whose works have now perished, had been famed throughout Europe for romances written in their native language-the language of Chaucer, a hundred years before “the day-starre of English poetry" was born. And foren till Inglond, Markes King thai fond, His auentours as it wes: A turnament they chess, The turnament did crie, To win the maistrie; Forthi chosen was he. To maiden Blaunche Flour. JOHN BARBOUR, an eminent historical poet, a prisoner in England. In 1365 he appears pany with six knights, his attendants, it is supposed, for a religious purpose, as the king of England granted them a safe-conduct through his dominions. whose name is also written Barber, Barbere, to have visited St. Denis, near Paris, in comand Barbare, was born at Aberdeen, according | to Lord Hailes in 1316; other authorities have variously assigned 1320, 1326, and 1330 as the dates of his birth. He studied for the church, and in 1356 was by King David appointed to the archdeaconry of Aberdeen. In August, 1357, there was a safe-conduct granted by Edward III. of England, at the request of the Scottish king, to "John Barber, archdeacon of Aberdeen, with three scholars in his company, coming into England for the purpose of studying at the University of Oxford; et ibidem actus scolasticos exercendo,”" &c. In September of the same year he was appointed by the Bishop of Aberdeen one of his commissioners to treat at Edinburgh concerning the ransom of the Scottish king, then | At the desire, it is said, of King David he composed his historical poem of "The Actes and Life of that most Victorious Conqueror, Robert Bruce, King of Scotland; wherein are contained the Martiall Deeds of those Valient Princes, Edward Bruce, Syr James Douglas, Erle Thomas Randal, Walter Stewart, and sundrie others," which he finished, as he himself informs us, in 1375. This celebrated poem, though only second in antiquity to the "Sir Tristrem" of Thomas the Rhymer, is one of the finest in the old English language. In clearness and simplicity it must rank before Colonna's Destruction of Troy. But for some cause the volume does not explain, the translation is not entirely that of Lydgate, and twice the transcriber inserts the following note: "Here endis the monk and beginnis Barbour," with a like note at the end of each interpolated passage. These two portions consist of 1560 and 600 lines respectively, and of them Professor Cosmo Innes says that the language, and the Romance octo-syllabic couplets, would satisfy those well acquainted with The Brus" that they are unquestionably Barbour's work. The other manuscript contains the lives of about fifty saints in 32,000 lines of octo-syllabic verse, translated from the Latin, which, from internal evidence, is believed to be also the production of Archdeacon Barbour. About 1378 the sum of ten pounds was paid to Barbour by the king's command, as the first reward, it would seem, for the composition of his poem of "The Bruce." This gift was followed at the interval of a few months by a grant of a perpetual annuity of twenty shillings; and the Rotuli Scaccarii, after Barbour's death, state expressly that this annuity was granted" for compiling the Book of the Acts of the most illustrious prince, King Robert Bruce." either Gower or Chaucer; and in elevation of sentiment Pinkerton does not hesitate to prefer it to both Dante and Petrarch. Warton, than whom there was no better judge of the comparative merits of the early British poets, says, that "Barbour adorned the English language by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical images far superior to the age." Dr. Irving, another eminent critic, pronounces his opinion in the following words:-" Barbour seems to have been acquainted with those finer springs of the human heart which elude vulgar observation; he catches the shades of character with a delicate eye, and sometimes presents us with instances of nice discrimination. His work is not a mere narrative of events; it contains specimens of that minute and skilful delineation which marks the hand of a poet." Had the style of the poem been much inferior to what it is, the subject is of a nature which could not fail to excite a deep interest in the breast of the Scottish people, recounting as it does the gallant deeds of some of the most renowned characters in their history: of a Bruce who rescued Scotland from the dominion of England; and of a Douglas, a Randolph, and other brave spirits, who assisted in that glorious enterprise. To this day "The Bruce"-the first epic in the English The reward which Barbour received for his language-is a favourite work among the second poem, now lost, was a pension for life people of Scotland, through the of ten pounds a year. The grant is dated medium of a modern version. The poem is December 5, 1388. The pension was payable in octo-syllabic lines forming rhymed couplets, in two moieties-the one at Whitsunday, the of which there are seven thousand. It was first other at Martinmas. The last payment which published at Edinburgh in 1616, although he received was at Martinmas, 1394, so that some authorities state that an earlier edition the celebrated poet must have died between existed. Since that period upwards of twenty that date and Whitsunday, 1395. The precise different editions have appeared, the best of day of his death was probably March 13th, on which are Pinkerton's and Dr. Jamieson's, the which day Barbour's anniversary continued to latter published in 1826. From some passages be celebrated in the cathedral church of St. in Wyntoun's "Chronicle," it has been sup- Machar, at Aberdeen, until the Reformation— posed that Barbour wrote another poem giving the expense of the service being defrayed from a genealogical history of the kings of Scotland. the perpetual annuity granted to Barbour by In 1870 Henry Bradshaw, the learned libra- the first of the Stewart kings in 1378, "pro rian of Cambridge University Library, dis- compilacione Libri de Gestis illustrissimi princicovered MSS. which we can hardly err in pis quondam Domini Regis Roberti de brus." believing to be early copies of poems hitherto Such are all the memorials which the deunknown, by Barbour. The first is a volume which was described at the Duke of Lauderdale's sale in 1692 as a "History of the Grecian and Trojan wars," and is a metrical translation by Lydgate, a monk of Bury, of common structive hand of time has left us of one of the earliest and greatest of Scottish poets, the Froissart of his native land. He was justly celebrated in his own times for his learning and genius; but the humanity of his senti |