SCOTLAND (LITERATURE) 



249 



Perthshire); North-eastern Scotch (Angus, Aber- 

 deen and Moray, Caithness). In the Orkney and 

 Shetland Isles dialects of the Norse survived till 

 a century ago, many traces of which still charac- 

 terise this fourth or Insular Scotch group (see the 

 article DIALECT, by Dr A. J. Ellis ). 



It was long? a favourite notion that the Scottish 

 speech contains a much larger Norse element than 

 English ; some writers even went to tlie length of 

 claiming that it was of Scandinavian rather than 

 of Anglo-Saxon origin. This is ati entire mistake. 

 There is no record of any Norwegian or Danish 

 conquests and settlements in the east of Scotland, 

 as in the east of England. In England the northern 

 limit of Danish influence is about Durham ; the 

 county of Northumberland and the whole Scottish 

 Lowlands, except a small district near the Solway, 

 are entirely void of Danish characteristics. The 

 differences relied upon as evidences of Scandi- 

 navian influence in Scotland, are really the differ- 

 ences between a pure Anglian dialect such as that 

 of Scotland, and the largely Saxon dialect which 

 lies at the basis of literary English. Scandinavian 

 words and forms prevail extensively in certain 

 English dialects, as in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, 

 but fewer of them have passed into Scotch than 

 into literary English. 



The greatest work dealing with the Scottish language 

 is Dr 3nmieson' Dictionary ( published 1804; with supple- 

 ment, 1825; new ed. 1879-87). The author aimed to in- 

 clude both the literary words of the earlier periods and 

 the modern words from all the dialects. For the former 

 he was necessarily hampered by the deficiency of avail- 

 able printed material. For the latter he was dependent 

 on the co-operation of triends in different districts. It 

 is to be wondered that in these circumstances he produced 

 so estimable a work. Its most seriout defect was due to 

 his utter ignorance of the subject historically, and his 

 erroneous fancy that Scotch was more intimately related 

 t > the tongues of Scandinavia, even to Suio-Gothic, as 

 he called old Swedish, than to i.orthern English This 

 coloured his whole work, even his definitions. The A'rw 

 Engluh Dictionary (voL i. 1888) of the Phili.louical 

 Society includes all literary Scottish words, either in 

 separate articles or as variants of corresponding English 

 ones. It would still be desirable to make a systematic 

 collection of all living Scottish words, of all the dialects. 

 The EnyUth Dialect Dictionary (vol. i. 1895-98), edited 

 by Prof. Jos. Wright, ipartly covers the ground, See also 

 Gregor's Gloiiary of B,inffhire ( 1866 ) and Edmonston's 

 .Shetland Glouary ( 1806 ), both published by the Philo- 

 logical Society. 



SCOTTISH LITERATURE. A special difficulty pre- 

 sents itself in connection with the literary history of 

 Scotland. Are we to regard as Scottish literature 

 only what is written in the Scottish vernacular in 

 its various developments from Barbour to Burns ? 

 Thus regarded, Scottish literature would mani- 

 festly be the inadequate expression of the Scottish 

 character and genius. On the other hand, the liter- 

 ature produced by Scotsmen in standard English is 

 for many reasons best treated under the general 

 Iwad of English literature. Nevertheless, a national 

 literature being the expression of the national con- 

 sciousness only when considered as an organic 

 whole, the survey here attempted will take account 

 of the total contribution made by Scotsmen to the 

 literature of the world. 



The literature of Scotland definitely begins with 

 Jolm Barbour (died 1395). A few scraps of verse 

 of questionable authenticity and doubtful author- 

 ship hardly justify ns in saying that he had any 

 predecessor. Harbour's Brim marks an epoch at 

 once in the literature and the political history of 

 the country. As has been said of him, he is the 

 first poet and, at the same time, the first historian 

 of Scotland. In his sober and yet imaginative pre- 

 sentment of his theme the deeds of the national 

 hero and the establishment of the national inde- 

 pendence Barbour struck that note in Scottish 



literature so conspicuously manifest in the intense 

 national feeling of Burns and Scott. As the ex- 

 ponent of the same tradition with all the exagger- 

 ations of popular feeling, Blind Harry, though he 

 came a century later, may be naturally grouped 

 with Barbour. Of little value as poetry, and 

 grotesque in its perversion of the story he professed 

 to tell, Blind Harry's Wallace has its distinct place 

 in the national life of Scotland. ' Next to the 

 Bible,' says its latest editor, 'it was probably the 



book most frequently found in Scottish house- 



i_ u > 



holds. 



Chaucer may with even greater truth be called 

 the father of Scottish than of English poetry. In 

 England he had predecessors who cannot be alto- 

 gether disregarded: in Scotland, with the exception 

 of Barbour, who was not great enough to DC a 

 source of inspiration, he hadnone. Moreover, the 

 Scottish poets who looked to him as their master 

 made a far more distinguished succession than his 

 imitators in England. Inspired by the form and 

 the themes of Chaucer, his followers in Scotland in 

 individual effects often surpassed their model, and 

 even suggest the question whether they would not 

 have done better to trust more to their own natural 

 impulse. To the close of the 16th century, how- 

 ever, it was on Chaucer that the poets of Scotland 

 had ever their eyes fixed, and it was by their 

 approximation to his models that they measured 

 their success in their art. 



The Scottish line of Chaucerians begins with 

 James I. ( died 1437 ). By his own natural affinities, 

 and by the accident of his personal history, James 

 is the most deeply imbued of them all with the spirit 

 of the English poet. While he was thus so dis- 

 tinctly the vehicle of another's inspiration, every 

 reader of the King's Qwiir feels that in its delicacy 

 of feeling, its sense for the music and subtler shades 

 of language, it is the expression of a mind essenti- 

 ally poetic in its deepest construction of nature and 

 human life. It is in itself a fact of curious interest 

 that the Scotland of James II. and James III. 

 should have produced a poet of the tvpe and of the 

 iiniiortance of Robert Hcnryson. That Henryson 

 achieved the work he did is, in truth, conclusive 

 proof that there was a higher consciousness in the 

 nation than the external history of the time would 

 lead us to infer. The work of Henryson is marked 

 by qualities which have not been conspicuous in 

 poets of his country even greater than himself 

 pervading artistic feeling and justness of thought 

 and sentiment. In bis Fables, the Abbey Walk, 

 Kobene and Makyne ( ' the first English pastoral ' ), 

 and the Garmond of Fair Ladies he exhibits such 

 a range of poetic gifts, and of such an order, as 

 must always ensure to him his own niche among 

 the imaginative writers of British literature. Of a 

 very different type and of far greater natural force 

 is Henryson's younger contemporary William 

 Dunbar. A Chaucerian also, Dnnbar is gener- 

 ally acknowledged to have surpassed his master in 

 imaginative intensity and in the blended effects of 

 ghastly humour and daring conception. ' In bril- 

 liancy of fancy,' says Scott, ' in force of description, 

 in the power of conveying moral precepts with 

 terseness, and marking lessons of life with concise- 

 ness and energy, in quickness of satire, and in 

 poignancy of humour, the Northern Maker may 

 boldly aspire to rival the Bard of Woodstock.' 

 Where Dunbar falls short of the highest order of 

 poets is in that largeness of humanity, in that just 

 and genial survey of life which gives its breadth 

 and serenity to the work of Chaucer, and has 

 assured his supreme place in English literature. 

 From the number of Dunbar's poems it is sufficient 

 to specify The Thrissil and the Rois, The Golden 

 Targe, The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis ( one of 

 the memorable efforts of poetic genius), The Justit 



