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SIR DAVID LYNDSAY (c. 1490-c. 1555)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 171 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:DAVID See also:LYNDSAY (c. 1490-c. 1555)  , Scottish poet, was the son of See also:David See also:Lyndsay of the See also:Mount, near See also:Cupar-See also:Fife, and of Garmylton, near See also:Haddington . His See also:place of See also:birth and his school are undetermined . It is probable that his See also:college See also:life was spent at St See also:Andrews university, on the books of which appears an entry " Da See also:Lindesay " for the session 1508–1509 . He was engaged at See also:court, first as an See also:equerry, then as an " See also:usher " to the See also:young See also:Prince See also:James, afterwards James V . In 1522 he married See also:Janet See also:Douglas, a court seamstress, and seven years later was appointed See also:Lyon See also:King of Arms, and knighted . He was several times engaged in See also:diplomatic business (twice on embassies abroad—to the See also:Netherlands and See also:France), and he was, in virtue of his heraldic See also:office, a See also:general See also:master of ceremonies . After the See also:death of James V., in 1542, he continued to sit in See also:parliament as See also:commissioner for Cupar-Fife; and in 1548 he was member of a See also:mission to See also:Denmark which obtained certain privileges for Scottish merchants . There is See also:reason to believe that he died in or about 1555 . Most of Lyndsay's See also:literary See also:work, by which he secured See also:great reputation in his own See also:day and by which he still lives, was written during the See also:period of prosperity at court . In this respect he is unlike his predecessor Gavin Douglas (q.v.), who forsook literature when he became a politician . The explanation of the difference is partly to be found in the fact that Lyndsay's muse was more occasional and satirical, and that the See also:time was suitable to the exercise of his See also:special gifts . It is more difficult to explain how he enjoyed a freedom of speech which is without parallel even in more secure times .

He chastised all classes, from his royal master to the most See also:

simple . There is no See also:evidence that he abjured Catholicism; yet his leading purpose was the exposure of its errors and abuses . His aid was readily accepted by the reforming party, and by their use of his work he shared with their leaders throughout many generations a reputation which is almost exclusively See also:political and ecclesiastical . Lyndsay's longer poems are The Dreme (1134 lines), The Testament and Complaynt of the Papynago (1190 lines), The Testament of Squyer Meldrum (1859 lines), Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour of the Miserabyll Estait of the See also:World (6333 lines), and Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (over 4000 lines) . These represent, with reasonable completeness, the range of Lyndsay's literary See also:talent . No single poem can give him a See also:chief place, though here and there, especially in the last, he gives hints of the highest competence . Yet the corporate effect of these pieces is to secure for him the See also:allowance of more than See also:mere intellectual vigour and See also:common sense . There is in his craftsmanship, in his readiness to apply the traditional methods to contemporary requirements, something of that accomplishment which makes even the second-See also:rate See also:man of letters interesting . Lyndsay, the last of the Makars, is not behind his See also:fellow-poets in See also:acknowledgment to See also:Chaucer . As piously as they, he reproduces the master's forms; but in him the sentiment and outlook have suffered See also:change . His nearest approach to Chaucer is in The Testament of Squyer Meldrum, which recalls the See also:sketch of the " young See also:squire "; but the See also:reminiscence is verbal rather than spiritual . Elsewhere his memory serves him less happily, as when he describes the See also:array of the lamented See also:Queen Magdalene in the words which Chaucer had applied to the eyes of his wanton See also:Friar .

So too, in the Dreme, the allegorical tradition survives only in the See also:

form . " Remembrance " conducts the poet over the old-world itinerary, but only to See also:lead him to See also:speculation on See also:Scotland's woes and to an " Exhortatioun to the Kingis See also:Grace " to bring See also:relief . The See also:tenor is well expressed in the See also:motto from the See also:Vulgate— " Prophetias nolite spernere. amnia autem See also:probate: quod bonum est tenete." This didactic See also:habit is freely exercised in the See also:long Dialog (sometimes called the Monarche), a universal See also:history of the See also:medieval type, in which the falls of princes by corruption See also:supply an See also:object See also:lesson to the unreformed See also:church of his day . The Satyre is more See also:direct in its attack on ecclesiastical abuse; and its dramatic form permits more lively treatment . This piece is of great See also:historical See also:interest, being the only extant example of a See also:complete Scottish morality . It is in respect of literary quality Lyndsay's best work, and in dramatic construction and delineation of See also:character it holds a high place in this genre . The farcical interludes (in places too coarse for See also:modern See also:taste) supply many touches of genuine See also:comedy; and throughout the See also:play there are passages, as in the speeches of Veritie in the First See also:Part and of See also:Dame Chastitie in the " Interlude of the Sowtar and the See also:Taylor," in which word and See also:line are happily conceived . The Testament of the Papyngo (See also:popinjay), See also:drawn in the See also:familiar medieval manner, is another See also:tract for the time, full of admonition to court and See also:clergy . Of his shorter pieces, The Complaynt and Publict Confessions of the Kingis Auld See also:Hound, callit Bagsche, directit to Bawtie, the Kingis best belovit See also:Dog, and his companyeonis, and the See also:Answer to the Kingis Flyting have a like See also:pulpit resonance . The former is interesting as a forerunner tf See also:Burns's See also:device in the " Twa See also:Dogs." The Deploratioun of the Deith of Queen Magdalene is in the extravagant See also:style of See also:commemoration illustrated in See also:Dunbar's See also:Elegy on the See also:Lord Aubigny . The Justing betwix James Watsoun and Jhone See also:Barbour is a contribution to the popular taste for boisterous fun, in spirit, if not in form, akin to the Christis See also:Kirk on the Grene See also:series; and indirectly, with Dunbar's Turnament and Of ane Blak-See also:Moir, a See also:burlesque of the courtly tourney . Lyndsay approaches Dunbar in his See also:satire The Supplicatioun in contemptioun of syde taillis (" wide " trains of the ladies), which recalls the older poet's realistic lines on the filthy See also:condition of the See also:city streets .

Phoenix-squares

In Lyndsay's Descriptioun of Pedder Coffeis (pedlars) we have an See also:

early example of the studies in vulgar life which are so plentiful in later Scottish literature . In Kitteis Confessioun he returns, but in more sprightly See also:mood, to his attack on the church . In Lyndsay we have the first literary expression in Scotland of the See also:Renaissance . His interest lies on the theological See also:side of the revival; he is in no sense a humanist, and he is indifferent to the See also:artistic claims of the See also:movement . Still he appeals to the principle which is fundamental to all . He demands first-See also:hand impression . He feels that men must get their lesson direct, not from intermediaries who understand the originals no more " than they do the ravyng of the rukis." Hence his persistent plea for the See also:vernacular, nowhere more directly put than in the Dialog, in the " Exclamatioun to the Redar, toucheyng the wrytting of the vulgare and maternall See also:language." Though he is concerned only in the theological and ecclesiastical application of this, he undoubtedly stimulated the use of the vernacular in a Scotland which in all literary matters beyond the concern of the irresponsible poet still used the lingua franca of See also:Europe . A complete edition of Lyndsay's poetical See also:works was published by David See also:Laing in 3 vols. in 1879 . This was anticipated during the See also:process of preparation by a cheaper edition (slightly expurgated) by the same editor in 1871 (2 vols.) . The E.E.T.S. issued the first part of a complete edition in 1865 (ed . F . See also:Hall) .

Five parts have appeared, four edited by F . Hall, the fifth by J . A . H . See also:

Murray . For the bibliography see Laing's 3 vol. edition, u.s. iii. pp . 222 et seq., and the E.E.T.S. edition passim . See also the See also:editions by See also:Pinkerton (1792), See also:Sibbald (1803), and See also:Chalmers (1806); and the See also:critical ac-See also:counts in See also:Henderson's Scottish Vernacular Literature (1898), See also:Gregory See also:Smith's Transition Period (1900), and J . H . See also:Millar's Literary History of Scotland (1903) . A professional work prepared by Lyndsay in the Lyon Office, entitled the See also:Register of Scottish Arms (now preserved in MS. in the See also:Advocates' Library), was printed in 1821 and reprinted in 1878 . It remains the most authoritative document on Scottish See also:heraldry .

(G . G .

End of Article: SIR DAVID LYNDSAY (c. 1490-c. 1555)
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