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We are embarking on a journey to an obscure past. Here’s a poem written in fifteenth century Scotland (where historical records are sketchy) by a chap whose dates of birth and death are unknown.
In ‘The Lament for the Makaris’ (The Makaris are the makers of an evolving literature) , William Dunbar provides
an important source for the literary tradition of the Scottish Middle Ages. After Gutenberg's work on the printing press ,
Dunbar's poetry featured in the earliest printed books to appear in Scotland. Each verse ends with the ‘the fear of death perturbs me’, written in Latin , as Dunbar anxiously records the deaths
of his poetic ancestors. He concludes that ‘Sen he has all my brether tane , He will naught lat me lif alane ; Of forse I man his nex prey be’.
Our plesance here is all vain glory ,
This fals world is but transitory ,
The flesh is bruckle , the Feynd is slee :
Timor mortis conturbat me.
The state of man does change and vary ,
Now sound , now sick , now blyth , now sary ,
Now dansand mirry , now like to die :
Timor mortis conturbat me.
We clearly need to make an effort to get into the swing of both unfamiliar spelling and Scottish pronunciation. Each verse ends with the ‘the fear of death perturbs me’, written in Latin. Die is still
pronounced as dee north of the border. Its not that much harder than reading the modern Scots novelist James Kelman - read
his first short story collection ,“not not while the giro.” We might also observe that in addition to printed books , the fifteenth century also saw the first appearance of Scotch whisky.
He has done petuously devour
The noble Chaucer , of makaris flour ,
The monk of Bury , and Gower , all three :
Timor mortis conturbat me.
The good Sir Hew Of Eglintoun ,
Ettrick , Heriot and Wintoun ,
He has tane out of this countrie :
Timor mortis conturbat me.
Who are these people ? We're familiar with Chaucer but the rest of them are just place names to us (like Dunbar himself) and their works
are now lost to posteritie.
He has tane Rowll of Aberdene ,
And gentill Rowll of Corstorphine ;
Two better fallowis did no man see :
Timor mortis conturbat me.
With Dunbar , what we have are his works alone , the life that produced them an impenetrable mysterie. What a refreshing contrast to the overload of biographical tittel-tattel which now surrounds authorship.
Unhappy such modern poets as Larkin , whose biographie laid seige to the works he produced. The self-appointed critical commissars of our own
doleful day post-judged the poetry as negligible on account of personal attitudes deemed to be unacceptable.
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Archive
Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic Pessimism, 13th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's Friend, 10th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of Two Dylans, 12th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam, 14th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake, 25th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet, 19th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy, 20th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's Sonnets, 21st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas, 20th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's Anthology, 19th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William Plomer, 21st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts , 20th August 2013
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