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 SCOTLAND

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SCOTLAND

of which are direct translations from the French poet of the Pleiadc, Pierre de Ronsard. Mar>' Stuart's son, James VI of Scotland (1566-1625), who as James I of England was the first monarch to reign over both countries, had received a learned education from George Buchanan, and practised composition both in verse and prose, and, as befitted a sovereign of the dual kingdom, he wrote not only in Scottish but also in English. Some of his poetical works are "Essayes of a Prcntise in the Divine Art of Poesic", "Anc Schort Poeme of Tyme", and "The Phoeni.x". In prose he wrote " Doemonology " (1597); "Basilicon Doron" (1599); and "A Counterblast against To- bacco" (1604).

Alexander Hume (1560?-1609), Puritan minister and son of Baron Polwarth, published, in 1599, a volume of "Hymnes or Sacred Songes, wherein the Right Use 'of Poesie may be espied". "The Triumph of the Lord" is the title he gives to his poem on the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Robert Sempill (1595?-1659), a kinsman of the author of "The Sempill Ballates", was a humorous and satirical wTiter. He continued his father's. Sir James Sempill's, satire against the Catholic Church, "The Packman's Paternoster", and ^\Tote many other i)ieces. He is best remembered for "The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, Piper of Kilbarchan". The stanza of six Une^, which he employed in this vivid and humorous account of old Scottish pastimes, became tjTjical of later poems, especially of a facetious tj-pe, in the Scottish vernacular. It is known as the "Habbie Simson stanza", and is frequently used by Burns. The Scotch tradition for good Latlnity was carried on by John Barclay (1582-1621) and Arthur Johnston (c. 1587-1614). Johnston's Latin works include elegies and epigrams, a paraphrase of the Canticle of Canticles, and a complete version of the Psalms. He was editor of the "Delicia; Poetarum Scotorum", a collection of Latin poems by various authors. Barclay wTote " Euphormionis Satyricon" (1605); "Apologia" (1611); and "Icon Animorum" (1614). His most celebrated book is the "Argenis" (1621), a romance which, translated into nearly every European language, proved a really seminal work, and profoundly influenced European literature for many years. After an eventful career, Barclay died as a Catholic at Rome.

Towards the end of the sixteenth, and throughout the seventeenth, century Scotti.sh literature is, espe- cially by contrast with what was then being produced in England, scanty and poor. There is scarcely an outstanding name, if we except William Drummond of Hawthomden, and even he wrote in English. An era of acrid political or religious controversy, it ha« been noted, often causes the impoverishment of the stream of pure literature. Of such (ontrovcrsy there was enough and to spare in Scotland during the jH-riod indicated, and the usual result now suj)ervened. With regard to the language, the Reformation had begun a process of Anglicization. The religious and devotional books in use — the Bible, the Psalm-book, the Hymn-bwk, the Confession, the Catechism — were wTitten in English, and mostly came from Elngland. Following these, the language of pulpit and Parliament, of HchfxA, bar, and society came to be normally English. Books ceased to be printed in Scottish, and no one was taught to spell or write Scottish.

In addition, the union of the two Crowns under one sfjvc-reign, in 1603, and the consequent removal of the C<jurt from Edinburgh to lyondon natu- rally tended t^) focus men's minds on lOngland and things English, m that the Anglicization started by the Reformation wuh comjileted by the turn given to iKjlilical events, and the old national Scottish vernacular, being now considered in the light of a provincial dialect, gradually ceased almost entirely

to be a vehicle of literary expression. Hence it is that poets like William Drummond (1585-1649), Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638), Sir Wilham Alexander of Menstrie, afterwards Earl of Stirling (15677-1640), and Robert Ker, Earl of Ancrum (1578-1654), and prose WTiters like John Spottiswoode (1565-1639), David Calderwood (1575-1650), Wilham Lithgow (1582- 1645), and Archbishop Robert Leighton (1611-84), who all wrote in English, take their places in an accoimt not of Scottish, but of English, literature just as ajipropriately as do the Scottish-born poets, phi- losophers, biographers, historians, and novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who used English as their ordinary mode of expression.

But although, at the time of the union of the two Parliaments in the reign of Queen Anne (1707), the "Scottis" language had for well-nigh a hvmdred years disappeared from serious literature, it still lingered on the lips of men and was freely spoken even by those who read and wTote English; nay more, it was occa- sionally employed in the composition of facetious and satirical verse. Such being the case, a revival on a grand scale of the an(ient Scottish vernacular for poetical use was attempted early in the eighteenth century. With this revival the name of Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and his dramatic pastoral, "The Gentle Shepherd" (1725), are most intimately associated, although he himself was stirred to emulation by William Hamilton of Gilbcrtfield's "Last Dying Words of Bonnie Heck" (1706). The impetus given by Ramsay in "The Gentle Shepherd" and in his earlier poems caused many writers to express them- selves in this Scottish way. The movement soon pro- duced such a masterpiece as the ballad of "The Braes of Yarrow", by William Hamilton of Bangour (1704- 54); but it did not reach its climax until later in the century^ with Robert Fergusson (1750-74) and Robert Burns (1759-96).

Among others who cultivated this style during the eighteenth century may be named the two Alexander Pennecuiks, Lady Grizel Baillie, Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw, Alexander Ross, John Skinner, Jean Elliot of Minto, Mrs. Cockburn, Alexander Geddes, Hector Macneill, Lady Anne Barnard, and John Mayne. In the nineteenth century the tradition was continued by Robert Tannahill; Wil- liam Nicholson (" the Galloway Poet ") ; Sir Alexander Boswell; Lady Nairne; James Hogg ("the Ettrick Shepherd") ; William Laidlaw; Allan Cunningham ; and William Motherwell. In recent years a mild attempt has been made by the writers of what is irreverently termed the Kail Yard School to revive Scottish vernacular in prose; but while the Scottish tales and sketches of James Matthew Barrie ("Auld Licht Idylls", 1888, and "A Window in Thrums", 1889) and John Watson, better known as Ian Maclaren ("Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush", 1894, and "The Days of Auld Lang Syne", 1895), who may be taken as the princii)al representatives of the school, are full of humour and ])allK)s, their example in the writing of Scottish dialogue has not been widely imitated.

In this article no account has been given of writers on mathematics, natural philosophy, juri.sprudence, or medicine, not because Scotland has not many eminent authors in these departments to show, for indeed she is rich in such, but because, on general principles, their productions are not considered to come properly uiid<r the lu-ading of literature.

For the texts of curlier aiitljors h(c tlic various pul)!iciition8 of the Bannatync Club; tlio .Scottisli Text Society; ttic Maitland Club; the Iloxburghc Club; the Scottish History Society; the Hunterian Club; the Camden Society; the Spalding Club; the Woflrow Society; the Early English Text Society.

Vnr the liinKuuKC see .Sinclair, Ohservnlions on the ScoUith Duilirl (r/)nilon, 1782); .Iamiebon, Srottish Dictionary (Edin- burgh, IHOH 1K24; new ed. 1879-1SS7); Mmrray, The Dialect of the Souther II ('ountien of Scotland (IS7.'J); Idem, Scottish Language in Chamhem'H Encyclopa-ilia, IX (Philadelphia. 1!»05), 247-249; MoRRAy(ed.), The New Englinh Dictionary (Oxford. 1888-1910); Whioht (ed.), English Dialed Dictionary (London. 1898-1905);