Gavin Douglas

Verse

Conscience
('Quhen halie kirk first flurist in youthheid')

First published in The Poetical Works of Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, ed. John Small (Edinburgh, 1874), I, 121-2. Bawcutt, pp. 135-7.

DoG 1

Copy, untitled.

In: A folio anthology of Scottish poetry, compiled by Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586), of Lethington, in the hands of several amanuenses, including 63 poems generally attributed to Dunbar, 366 pages. c.1570-85.

Generally cited as the Maitland Folio MS. The complete text edited in Craigie.

A transcript made by John Pinkerton (1758-1826) for his edition of Ancient Scotish Poems, 2 vols (London, 1786), is preserved at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (MS Bell/White 18).

Edited from this MS in Bawcutt and in Craigie.

King Hart
('King Hart, in to his cumlie castell strang')

First published in Ancient Scotish Poems, never before in print, ed. John Pinkerton (London, 1786), I, 3-43. Bawcutt, pp. 139-70. Craigie, pp. 254-85.

DoG 2

Copy, untitled.

In: A folio anthology of Scottish poetry, compiled by Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586), of Lethington, in the hands of several amanuenses, including 63 poems generally attributed to Dunbar, 366 pages. c.1570-85.

Generally cited as the Maitland Folio MS. The complete text edited in Craigie.

A transcript made by John Pinkerton (1758-1826) for his edition of Ancient Scotish Poems, 2 vols (London, 1786), is preserved at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (MS Bell/White 18).

Edited from this MS in Bawcutt and in Craigie, with a facsimile of p. 288 facing p. 256.

Virgil's Aeneid
('Lawd, honour, praysyngis, thankis infynyte')

First published, as The xiii Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgill, London, 1553. Edited, as Virgil's Æneid Translated into Scottish Verse by Gavin Douglas, by David F.C. Coldwell, 4 vols, STS 3rd Ser. 30, 25, 27, 28 (Edinburgh & London, 1957-64).

DoG 3
Copy, in a single hand, of a complete transcript made by Douglas's secretary, Matthew Geddes, with glosses added probably in another hand, 329 folio leaves, in contemporary leather on boards, with remains of clasps. c.1515?

Inscribed Johannes Danyelston Rector a Dysert.

Edited from this MS in Coldwell, and described I, 96-7 (where it is mistakenly stated that this copy is in Geddes's hand and that the marginal commentary in the first part of the poem is in Douglas's hand). A facsimile example (the caption making the same mistake) in DLB, vol. 132, Sixteenth-Century British Non-Dramatic Writers. First Series, ed. David A. Richardson (Detroit, 1993), p. 116. Also discussed, with a facsimile of f. 4r on p. 192, in Jane Griffiths, Exhortations to the Reader: the Glossing of Douglas's Eneados in Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.3.12, EMS, 15 (2009), 185-97.

DoG 3.5
Copy of a version of lines 339-44 of The Proloug of the First Buke, here beginning O venerable Chaucer principall poet and peare, inscribed in an exemplum of the fourth printed edition of Chaucer's Workes (1550). Mid-late 16th century.

Sotheby's, 12 December 2002, lot 179, to Bauman Rare Books, New York.

DoG 4

Copy of the complete translation, in the secretary hand of John Elphynstoun (subscribed in red ink f. 367v M Joannes Elphynstoun), untitled but beginning The proloug of ye first buik of eneados.

In: A folio composite volume of Scottish verse, chiefly in three secretary hands, with rubrication, written from both ends (Part I: ff. 1-367; Part II: ff. 1-146, a title-page dated 1566), in contemporary calf on wooden boards gilt.

Inscribed (f. 2r) W. hay. 1527; (f. 1r) This buik partinis to david andersone burger of abirdene, be gift of Mr Wm hay person of turrest. 1563.; and (f. 2r) a record of the gift of the MS to Edinburgh College by John Aikman, son of William Aikman.

This MS collated in Coldwell and described I, 97-8.

DoG 5

Copy of the complete translation, in a single professional secretary hand (but for subsequent unrelated additions on ff. 1r-v and 301v), untitled but with introductory rubric beginning Here begynnys the buke of Virgile contenand in ye self xiii bukis translatat out of latyne in Inglis be ane reuerend fader in god galvane douglas bishop...of dunkeld, and subscribed Q Galvine douglas.

In: Copy of Gavin Douglas's Aeneid, ii + 301 folio leaves, in red calf gilt (rebacked). Mid-late 16th century.

Inscribed (f. 301v) Partenet Wilhelmo Dno de Ruthven: i.e. owned by William Ruthven (1543?-84), fourth Baron Ruthven and first Earl of Gowrie, magnate and politician, executed for treason. Also inscribed David Schaw and Patrik Drumond. Acquired by Edinburgh College in 1643.

This MS collated in Coldwell and described I, 98.

DoG 6
Copy of the complete translation, in accomplished secretary hands, with rubrication, with an explicit Heir endit ye buke of Virgill Writtin be the hand of Johanne mudy wt Maist thomas bellenden...Clerke and endit ye 2o febry Anno xlvo, 426 folio leaves, in old calf (rebacked).

Inscribed (f. 1v) Edmund Ashefeyld 1596.

This MS collated in Coldwell and described I, 98-9.

DoG 7
Copy of the complete translation, made by Henry Aytoun with the help of Thomas Bellenden, completed 1545 2° february. 1546.

This MS collated in Coldwell and described I, 99-100.

DoG 8

Fragment of a copy, in a formal secretary hand, with rubrication, comprising three unbound quarto leaves containing Book I, Chapter II, lines 13-68 (here beginning With cesptoure in hand...); Chapter III, lines 1-19, 76-100; Chapter IV, lines 1-35; and Chapter VIII, lines 7-70.

c.1530.

This MS recorded in Coldwell, I, 100-1.

DoG 9

Copy of the Prologue of Book IV, the Prologue of Book IX (lines 1-18), and the Prologue of Book X, transcribed from the edition of 1553 and corrected from another source.

In: A formal anthology of Scottish poetry, including 51 poems presently attributed to William Dunbar, largely in a single secretary hand, with a few later additions in other hands, in two tall folio volumes, with differing series of pagination and foliation, vol. I comprising 192 leaves (paginated 1-385), vol. II comprising 205 leaves (paginated 387-795), all leaves now mounted separately in window mounts, each volume in 19th-century green morocco elaborately gilt.

Compiled by George Bannatyne (b.1545), student of St Andrews and merchant burgess of Edinburgh. Subscribed on the last page finis. / 1568 but probably written over a period of some years.

c.1568.

Descending to Bannatyne's son-in-law George Foulis. Later (c.1712) inscribed (p. 60) This book is gifted to Mr William Carmichael Be me James Foulis. Some annotations by Allan Ramsay (1684-1758), poet and editor, and by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor. Presented in 1772 by John Carmichael, fourth Earl of Hyndford.

Generally cited as the Bannatyne MS. Complete facsimile, introduced by Denton Fox and William A. Ringler, published by the Scolar Press, 1980. Complete text edited in Murdoch and in Ritchie. Discussed in Priscilla Bawcutt, The Contents of the Bannatyne Manuscript: New Sources and Analogues, Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 3 (2008), 95-133. A facsimile page in The National Library of Scotland Advocates' Library Notable Accessions up to 1925 (Edinburgh, 1965), Plate 43.

Edited from this MS in the Bannatyne Manuscript ed. J. Barclay Murdoch, Hunterian Club (Glasgow, 1896), IV, 844-53; II, 122-3, 21-7; and in The Bannatyne Manuscript, ed. W. Tod Ritchie, STS 3rd Ser. 5, 22, 23, 26 (1928-33), IV, 108-16; II, 113, 20-6; recorded in Coldwell, I, 101.

Letters

Letter(s)
*DoG 10

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Adam Williamson, from Perth, 18 January 1514/15.

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.385 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, xxxvi-xxxix, and in Fraser, IV, 68-70.

*DoG 11

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Adam Williamson, 21 January 1514/15, enclosing Douglas's letter of 18 January (DoG 10).

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.385 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, xxxix-xli, and in Fraser, IV, 70-1.

*DoG 12

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Lord Dacre, from Perth, 21 January 1515.

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.350 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, xli-xlii, and in Fraser, IV, 72.

*DoG 13

A joint letter by Douglas and Robert Cockburn, Bishop of Ross, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by the two bishops, from Abbeville, France, 27 June 1517.

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.520 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, lxxxiv, and in Fraser, IV, 75 (dated 1518).

*DoG 14
Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Cardinal Wolsey, from Waltham Cross, 24 December 1521. 1521.

Edited in Small, I, xcviii, and in Fraser, IV, 82. Facsimile in Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Scotland, ed. J. Robertson et al., part 3 (Southampton, 1867-71), No. xiv.

*DoG 15
Letter, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis, signed by Douglas, from London, 31 December 1521. 1521.

Edited in Small, I, xcviii, and in Fraser, IV, 82-3.

*DoG 16

Letter, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by Douglas, from London, 1 January 1522.

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.520 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, xcix-c, and in Fraser, IV, 83-4.

*DoG 17

Autograph letter signed by Douglas, to Cardinal Wolsey, from London, 6 January 1522.

In: A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.520 leaves.

Edited in Small, I, ci, and in Fraser, IV, 84-5. Facsimile in IELM, I.ii (1980), Facsimile XI (p. 4).

*DoG 18
Letter, to Cardinal Wolsey, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by Douglas, from London, 31 January 1522. 1522.

Edited in Small, I, ciii-vi; in Fraser, IV, 85-7; and in Priscilla Bawcutt, The Correspondence of Gavin Douglas, in Stewart Style 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V, ed. Janet Hadley Williams (East Linton, 1996), pp. 52-61 (pp. 57-9).