Short notes on The Scottish Chaucerians

Short notes on The Scottish Chaucerians,King James I, Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas, Lydgate, Hoccleve and Hawes,The Testament of Cresseid,

Short notes on The Scottish Chaucerians

Chaucer's literary influence in his age was not confined to England only. It extended to Scotland and proved instrumental to the emergence of the golden age of Scottish poetry in the fifteenth century. As a matter of fact, the Scottish poets, inspired by Chaucer, are found to imitate and follow their master with the greatest success than their English counterparts. King James I, Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas appear much truer abler descendants of Chaucer than Lydgate, Hoccleve and even Hawes.

The first of the Scottish poet to show the Chaucerian inspiration is a king, James I. Of course, there are doubts about the authenticity of his literary acquirement, yet he is generally accepted as the author of The King's Quair or The King's Book. Its inspiration mainly lies in Chaucer's Knightes Tale. Bearing the reminiscences of Chaucer's The Knightes Tale, The King's Quair is a delightful romance in verse.

A more original Scottish Chaucerian is Robert Henryson, a schoolmaster. His poetry is, however, found prompted by Chaucer's influence. His most noted work – The Testament of Cresseid - is a sequel to Chaucer's celebrated Troilus and Criseyde. Henryson is also found influenced by Aesop in his longest and, in some way, most popular work, Morall Fabillis of Esope. In this respect, his gift of story-telling is revealed particularly in his entertaining poem - The Town Mouse and The Field Mouse.

William Dunbar is generally given the highest position among the Scottish Chaucerians. Dunbar's works include The Goldyn Targe, The Thrissil and the Rois, The Freiries of Berwick, Tidings from the Session, The Dance of Sevin Deidlie Synnis, Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie, The Lament for the Makaris, and so on. These are mainly allegorical, although some of them have some occasional episodes as the motif.

A prominent literary figure among the Scottish Chaucerians is Gavin (Gawain) Douglas, who was a churchman - a bishop. Of the works, written by Douglas, The Palice of Honour, supposed to be his earliest work, is long (about 2166 lines), successful and popular. This is modelled after Chaucer's Hous of Fame, and shows him as an intimate follower of Chaucer. Douglas's next important work King Hart is also an allegorical work, although it is considered much better than his previous work, The Palice of Honour.

Among the Scottish Chaucerians, an early Scottish poet, Henry, better known as Blind Harry (blind from his birth) is to be mentioned. He has a chronicle romance Wallace to his credit. This is almost a parallel to Barbour's The Bruce. Harry's 'hero, however, is no historical personality like Robert Bruce. He is a semi-legendary and semi-historical figure and seems to possess something of English Robin Hood in his activities and objectives.

The Scottish Chaucerians are not found simply imitative. Their literary fidelity to Chaucer is sincere, but their literary production is no blind imitation, without any mark of originality. They are found to have grasped Chaucer well, catching often his sentiments with remarkable felicity. Their literary discipleship to Chaucer is, indeed, found well balanced, showing both devotion and inspiration and better appreciation of the great master.