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Meanwhile Dunbar, reckoned by some the chief poet of Scotland before Burns, was already denouncing the luxury and vice of the clergy, though his own life set them a bad example. But with Dunbar, Henryson, and others, Scotland had a school of poets much superior to any that England had reared since the death of Chaucer.
From the King's Quair and the poems of Henryson, Dunbar, and Gawain Douglas, select passages that show first-hand intimacy with nature. Compare these with lines from any poet whose knowledge of nature seems to you to be acquired from books. Ballads. Ward. I., passim, contains among others three excellent ballads, Sir Patrick Spens, The Twa Corbies, Robin Hood Rescuing the Widow's Three Sons.
The Cambridge History of English Literature, Vol. Snell's The Age of Transition, 1400-1580. Morley's English Literature, Vols. VI. and VII. Minto's Characteristics of English Poets, pp. 69-130. Saintsbury's Short History of English Literature, pp. 157-218. Dictionary of National Biography, articles on Malory, Caxton, Henryson, Gawain Douglas, Dunbar, Tyndale, Wyatt, and Surrey.
We saw, in the first place, that the idea of a literature dealing with the humours and romance of farm and sheepcot was not wholly alien to national English literature; but, on the contrary, that the shepherd plays of the religions cycles, the popular ballads, and a few of the Scots poets of the time of Henryson, all alike furnish verse which may be regarded as the index of the readiness of the popular mind to receive the introduction of a formal pastoral tradition.
It is, however, so important as illustrating the freer and more spontaneous vein traceable in many English pastoralists from Henryson onwards, that it is worth while to place it for comparison side by side with the more orthodox tradition as exemplified, in spite of his originality, in the work of Spenser. The Muses Elizium is in truth the culmination of a long sequence of pastoral work.
The Northern poet had his eye fixed on the scenery and the sky of Scotland. About the middle of the century, Robert Henryson, a teacher in Dunfermline, wrote. "The northin wind had purifyit the air And sched the misty cloudis fra the sky." This may lack the magic of Shelley's rhythm, but the feeling for nature is as genuine as in the later poet's lines:
The close of the fifteenth century saw a passion develop for Scotch poetry, which speedily became the fashion. Henry the Minstrel, or Blind Harry, wrote his "Wallace," which is full of picturesque incident and passionate fervor. Robert Henryson wrote his Robin and Makyne, a charming pastoral, which has come down to us in Percy's Reliques.
If you wish to amuse yourself with reading the lives I wrote in the last number of the Biography, they are Archbishop Hamilton, Sir William Hamilton, Dr Robert Henry, Edward Henryson, J. Bonaventura Hepburn, Roger Hog, John Holybush, and Henry Home of Kames.... The gooseberries appear to dwindle as they ripen.
On the 1st of January 1801, a promotion of flag-officers took place, in order, it was said, to include the name of Sir James Saumarez; and this flattering compliment was immediately followed by a further honour, in his being ordered forthwith to hoist his flag on board his old ship, the Cæsar; while Lieutenant Henryson, who was senior in that ship, was promoted to the rank of commander.
The impulse is still, however, found in all its freshness and genuineness in such a poem as the following fifteenth-century nativity carol, which, in its blending of piety and humorous rusticity, is strongly reminiscent of the dramatic productions we have just been reviewing: So, again, in the delightful poem that has won for Robert Henryson the title of the first English pastoralist the warm blood of natural feeling yet runs full.
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