A literary history of Scotland

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Preface

The general scope of the following pages does not, it is conceived, require any elaborate explanation. The work is an effort to fulfil the promise of its title-page, and it is for the reader to judge how far that effort has been successful. Down to the date of the Union of the Parliaments, the author's task was a perfectly plain-sailing one, in so far as regards the choice of writers to be dealt with. Thenceforward, however, he was from time to time confronted with the question, whether a particular writer of undoubted Scottish nationality should or should not be included in what professes to be a record of Scottish literature. That question was sometimes by no means a simple one to answer, and it was not without misgivings that the resolution was ultimately adopted, to abstain from attempting anything like adequate criticism of men like James Thomson, James Boswell, and Thomas Carlyle, and to rest satisfied with little more than the bare mention of their names. The reasons which determined this course are in each case sufficiently indicated in the text. If it be thought, on the other hand, that, whatever may be said of such omissions, the last two chapters err on the side of overcrowding, there can only be urged in extenuation a desire to make the work complete in the treatment of a period as to which information is not yet so readily accessible, or at least so conveniently digested, as it will some day come to be.

viii PREFACE

No true Scot, probably, can avoid the taint of partiality in handling some of the topics which necessarily come under review in a history of his country's literature. The present writer does not venture to claim immunity from a weakness to which so many of his betters have proved themselves liable ; nor can he flatter himself that he runs any serious risk of being taken for an enthusiastic partisan of the " Highflying " interest. He would fain, however, hope that no constitutional prejudice or bias has led him to the unconscious and unintentional misrepresentation of the views of men with whose temperament and habits of thought he may chance to find himself in imperfect sympathy. Conscious and deliberate misrepresentation he trusts it is needless to disclaim. For the rest, he has sought in his literary judgments to arrive at independent results, and to state them, such as they are, with firmness and candour, yet without over-emphasis or exaggeration.

Among the indispensable works of reference which have been consulted, the writer desires to single out for especial recognition the convenient and accurate Biographical Dictionary,, in one volume, published by Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, and the same firm's Cyclopaedia of English Literature — an old friend of his youth, and now appearing in a more valuable and attractive edition than ever. A full acknowledgment of heavy indebtedness to the Dictionary of National Biography is superfluous, and ought to be taken as written in the preface to every work of this character. Among books other than those of reference, substantial aid has been derived from David Irving's Scotish Writers and Scotish Poetry, and from Mr. T. F. Henderson's Scottish Vernacular Literature.

It remains for the author to express his hearty thanks to various friends who have assisted and encouraged him in the preparation of this volume : to Mr. Charles Whibley, who is, in a sense, its " only begetter " ; to Mr. G. Gregory Smith and to Mr. George Saintsbury, Professor of Rhetoric and

PREFACE ix

English Literature in the University of Edinburgh, who have most kindly read the proofs, and favoured him with many valuable suggestions ; and to Dr. Sprott, minister of North Berwick, who has read the chapters dealing with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and has communicated the benefit of his extensive reading and his intimate acquaintance with Scottish ecclesiastical history. It need scarcely, however,, be said that for the opinions hereinafter expressed these gentlemen are as little responsible as they are for any blunders in fact or any slips of the press which may be detected in the course of perusal. As regards the latter class of error, the clemency of the reader may be moved, while his vigilance is stimulated, by the recollection of Archbishop Hamilton's sagacious dictum {infra, p. 1 32), that " thair is na buke sa perfitly prentit hot sum faultis dois eschaip in the prenting thairof." To sundry other friends who have contributed information and advice, due acknowledgment has been made in the appropriate places, and to the list of their names there fall to be added those of Mr. William Blackwood and Mr. A. E. Henderson. The staff of the Advocates' Library have, as is their custom, shown themselves remarkably attentive and officious (in the good sense of the word). Finally, it would be ungrateful and ungracious of the author not to testify to the courtesy of Mr. Unwin in granting him a very ample extension of time for the completion of a work which has occupied a much longer period than was originally bargained for.

Edinburgh,

April zi), 1903-

Contents

Preface

Chapter I. Page

vii

The English-speaking Scots — Antagonism between Saxon and Celtic type of civilisation — Thomas of Erceldoune — Huchown — Poems attributed to him — John Barbour — The Brus — ^Andrew of Wyntoun — James I. — The Kingis Quail- — Christis Kirk — Robert Henryson — His Fables — Harry the Minstrel— J/zc Bukc of the Howlai—Rauf Coihear — Other old Poems.