William Dunbar

He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work in Scots distinguished by its great variation in themes and literary styles. He was probably a native of East Lothian, as assumed from a satirical reference in The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie. His surname is also spelt Dumbar.

William Dunbar studied at University of St Andrews. The recorded working language is Middle Scots. Employment is recorded with University of St Andrews. Works named in the authority record are The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie, Tretis of the tua mariit wemen and the wedo, In Honour of the City of London, The testament of Mr Andro Kennedy, Lament for the makars and The golden targe.

Dunbar first appears in the historical record in 1474 as a new student or determinant of the Faculty of Arts at the University of St Andrews. Since the customary age for entering a Scottish university at this time was fourteen, a birth-date of 1459 or 1460 has been assumed. At St Andrews, he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1477 and a master's degree in 1479. Details from his later life suggest that he was ordained as a priest at some point, but the date is unknown. In 1491 and 1492, Dunbar accompanied an embassy to Denmark and France in an unknown capacity. In 1501 and 1502, he participated in an embassy to England in the staff of Andrew Forman, Bishop of Moray. From 1500 the poet was employed at the court of King James in a role for which he received an annual pension. His duties are not recorded; he is referred to only as a servitour or servant; but it is to this period that the bulk of his poetry can be dated. Several of Dunbar's poems were included in the Chepman and Myllar prints of 1508, the first books to be printed in Scotland. In 1510, his pension was set at the substantial annual sum of eighty pounds Scots. In comparison, Dunbar's contemporary Hector Boece received an annual salary of £26 13s for his role as Principal of King's College, Aberdeen. The last reliable reference to Dunbar is in the Treasurer's Accounts for May 1513, where he is recorded receiving payment of his pension. James died at Flodden in September of the same year. In the dislocation that followed, the Treasurer's accounts cease for a period and, when resumed in 1515, Dunbar is no longer recorded as being employed by the crown. A poem, Quhen the Governour Past in France, describing the departure of the Regent Albany for France in 1517, is attributed to Dunbar in the Maitland Manuscripts, suggesting that he was still active at the time. But in Sir David Lyndsay's work The Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo of 1530, Dunbar is referred to as being deceased. The exact date of his death remains unknown.

William Dunbar's poetry contained a wide variety of subjects, moods and metres. He wrote many devout religious works and noble courtly pieces but he also produced comic pieces which often made use of scurrilous elements and uninhibited language.

Some of Dunbar's poems were clearly commissioned to mark public events. His allegory The Thrissil and the Rois commemorated the marriage of Margaret of England to King James in 1503 while the Eulogy to Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny welcomed the arrival of a distinguished Franco-Scottish soldier as the French ambassador in 1508. Local events were also marked such as the visit of Queen Margaret to the 'blyth and blissful burgh of Aberdein' in 1511. The poem "In Honour of the City of London", of the medieval urban description genre, was made into a cantata of the same name by William Walton in 1937.

Dunbar was an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and several of his works have religious subject matter. Rorate Celi Desuper, Of the Passioun of Christ and Done is a Battell on the Dragon Blak deal with the Nativity, Passion and Resurrection respectively. Ane Ballat of Our Lady is a hymn in praise of the Blessed Virgin. The Table of Confession discusses sin and confession. Poems with a secular moral theme also occur in his work such as Of Deming and the trilogy of short pieces Of Discretioun in Asking, Of Discretioun in Geving and Of Discretioun in Taking. Dunbar's poems The Tabill Of Confessioun, Rorate Celi Desuper and Done Is A Battell On The Dragon Blak were included in the "Ballatis of Theologie" section of the Bannatyne Manuscript.

Many of the poet's pieces appear to provide entertainment for the King, the Queen and his fellow courtiers with comic elements as a recurring theme. The well known Ane Dance in the Quenis Chalmer is a comic satire of court life. The notorious flyting with Kennedy was an exchange of outrageous poetic insults with his fellow makar Walter Kennedy while The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins is a series of comic scenes set in Hell. Poems in the tradition of courtly love are represented in Dunbar's work including a short lyric Sweit Rois of Vertew and the extended allegory The Goldyn Targe. Other court entertainments were more personal. Of James Dog and its sequel He Is Na Dog, He Is a Lam describe the poet's dealings with the keeper of the Queen's wardrobe.

A recurring theme in Dunbar's work is satire. He satirised colleagues of whom he disapproved such as in The Fenyeit Freir of Tungland and he urged the burgesses of Edinburgh to show greater civic pride in To the Merchantis of Edinburgh. Tydings Fra The Sessioun criticised corruption in the Court of Session. In The Treatise of Mr. Andro Kennedy, he directs satire at a member of the court of James IV. Some of Dunbar's satirical poems are preserved in the Bannatyne Manuscript, including The Dregy of Dunbar, The Twa Cummeris, and The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie to name a few.

William Dunbar was willing to reveal his personal affairs in his poetry and a number of his works are petitioned to the King asking for personal advancement. He often requested to be appointed to an office in the church, which he refers to as a benefice. A typical example is Quone Mony Benefices Vakit. On other occasions, his requests were more modest. In The Petition of The Gray Horse, Auld Dunbar the poet asked the King for a new suit of clothes to mark Christmas. The poem Schir, Ye Have Mony Servitouris makes clear his comparative value to the king and country. Elsewhere, Dunbar seemed to reveal other aspects of his private life. His famous Memento mori poem Lament for the Makaris eulogised his fellow Scottish poets who had died. Meditatioun In Wyntir considers ageing and the poet's frustrated ambitions while On His Heid-Ake is apparently an attempt to excuse a lack of productivity by recounting a migraine.

For the Scottish Literary Renaissance in the mid-twentieth century, Dunbar was a touchstone. Many tried to imitate his style, and "high-brow" subject matter, such as Hugh MacDiarmid and Sydney Goodsir Smith. As MacDiarmid himself said, they had to go "back to Dunbar". To make Dunbar more accessible to the modern reader Selected Poems of William Dunbar: An Interlinear Translation was published by Lawrence Siegler in 2010. Dunbar is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.

• Ane Dance in the Quenis Chalmer • The Dregy Of Dunbar • The Fenyeit Freir of Tungland • The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie • The Twa Cummeris • The Goldyn Targe • He Is Na Dog, He Is a Lam • On His Heid-Ake • Of Ane Blak-Moir • Of James Dog • Lament for the Makaris (Timor mortis conturbat me) • Meditatioun In Wyntir • The Petition of The Gray Horse, Auld Dunbar • Remonstrance to the King (Schir, ye have mony servitouris) • The Thrissil and the Rois • The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo