MAJOR WORKS AND THEMES

The Fables is Henryson’s largest and most distinctive work. “The Prologue” identifies “This Nobill Clerk, Esope,” universally read in schools, as the main source and explains that Henryson is translating from Latin (Gualterus Anglicus), “In hamlie language and in termes rude.” He shows great skill in telling Æsopian and Reynardian tales (available in Lydgate and Caxton) and in making moral points. The play between“ernest and game,” a feature of Scottish sensibility and language, is one delight of the thirteen tales, which vary from fourteen to fifty stanzas, includingmoralitasof from three to ten stanzas. All (except two moralitas)are in rhyme royal.

The Preiching of the Swallow is overtly homiletic, a warning against the subtle snares of the devil and a reminder of mutability. It begins with praise of the wisdom and marvelous work of God and a celebration of the seasons and agricultural work. Then the poet hears a swallow warn the other birds that a sower of flax who tempts them with a possibility of ease will soon destroy them in nets made from the flax unless they destroy the seeds.Henryson enlivens this message through acute observations of the ordinary; flax suggests Dumferline’s weaving.The Preiching is a good introduction to his learning, artistry, and morality.

Henryson begins The Fables with the perennial Western anxiety about the relation between truth and fiction, whether in Plato, Chaucer, or Sidney’s Apologie for Poetry . The sixth fable, The Taill of the Sone and Air of the foresaid Foxe, callit Father wer: Alswa the Parliament of fourfuttit Beistis, haldin be the Lyoun , notes that

Sad sentence man may seik, and efter syne,
As daylie dois the Doctouris of Devyne,
That to our leving full weill can apply
And paynt thair mater furth be Poetry. (1099–1103)

The Fox’s bastard son hopes to exceed his father’s evil but is caught out and tried before a parliament of animals, found guilty, and hanged. In the Moralitas each animal’s allegorical quality underlines the theme, to avoid worldly entrapment. Bolder objection to the failures of Justice, a crucial dimension of contemporary life, comes in the next fable, The Scheip and the Dog . Like Boethius, the sheep, identified as the commons, is falsely accused and undefended; and the poet asks, “Quhilk dampnit hes the selie Innocent,/And Justifyit the wrangous Judgement?” A long Moralitas explores the religious question of why God allows such things to happen. The only explanation of suffering seems to be that God seeks to make people change. Since few amend their lives, the poet finishes with a brief prayer that “gude rest” may come in heaven; he relies on vertical faith, not a worldly community. But life is lived horizontally, and Henryson observes this more positively in most of The Fables .

The Lyôn & the Mous is the only fable told directly by the author. In a dream vision the poet meets Æsop, “Poet Lawriate” and “maister venerabill,” writer of fables “full of prudence and moralitie.” The Roman, schooled in civil law, hesitates to tell another tale; there are “richt few or nane/To Goddis word that has devotioun.” The tale of forgiveness allays these anxieties. Mice run over the Lion, a sleeping king, until he wakes and angrily seizes one. The mouse admits negligence but argues her poverty against the King’s Magnificence and asks for mercy. This eloquence wins over the prideful ruler, whose reason and mercy make him grant Remission. Later hunters capture and bind the Lion. The Mouse recognizes the Lion that “did hir grace” and requites his action by enlisting others to help gnaw the ropes to release him, showing that the mighty need the help of the lowly. Æsop’s Moralitas details the allegory: the mice represent the commons, the Lion any ruler; the action shows a relation between justice and rebellion and that “Pietie”—mitigating cruelty with mercy and remitting sentence for even great offenses—is the essential virtue for prudent lords.

The Uplondis Mous and the Burges Mous , a witty enactment of the beatitude “Blessed be the poor,” documents Scottish life, contrasting rural and urban living, riches and simplicity, and concludes that the dangers of luxury and attendant anxiety make indulgence a poor choice. All earthly joy is mingled with adversity, and the mice are two sisters who choose alternate ways, the elder basking in feasting and unmindful of the threats of city life, while the younger lives in the country making do with nuts, candle, and dried peas. The Burges mouse feels contempt for such poor fare—“My gude friday is better nor your pace”—and leads her younger sister to the town and a larder full of cheese, butter, meat and fish, sacks of meal and malt. They feast without washing or prayer. The Upland mouse soon asks how long such richness will last; she is disconcerted and frightened after “Gib hunter, our Jolie Cat” had seized her and played with her until she managed to escape. The sisters meet no more, their ways being incompatible; and the Moralitas praises “Blyithnes in hart, with small possessioun.” Wyatt’s* The Mean and Sure Estate shows the poem’s influence, and Robert Burns uses a mouse, originally, perhaps, Horatian, to echo Scottish sentiments of warning against vainglory.

Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale is the source for Schir Chantecleir and the Foxe , part of the Roman de Reynart tradition. The poor widow, a beguiling Lawrence (Scots Reynard), a Cok, his wife Pertok, and the dogs are the principals. In thirty-one rhyme royal stanzas Henryson cannot rival Chaucer’s long and richly textured tale; he simplifies and highlights the moral argument. When the fox takes Chantecleir, Pertok laments the loss of watchman, singer, and lover. Sprutok consoles that he is not worth such grief and promises change; “was never wedow sa gay!” should be Pertok’s song. Toppok judges Chantecleir’s capture a “verray vengeance from the hevin” for his lechery, adultery, and pride. But the widow rises from her swoon and sends the dogs to rescue her noble cock, who, “with sum gude Spirit inspyrit,” tempts the fox to speak so that he can fly away. The Moralitas urges that under “typis figurall,” “worthie folk” can “find ane sentence richt agreabill,/Under thir fenyeit termis textuall.”

A competition between fox and wolf is the center of another tale especially evocative of Scottish country life. How this forsaid Tod maid his Confessioun to Freir Wolf Waitskaith explores specific religious practice. After considering astronomy, which foretells his destiny, the fox confesses; but he lacks contrition and a wish to amend his life, agreeing only to a penance of not eating flesh until Easter. The wily fox, having killed a kid, baptizes it—“Ga doun, Schir Kid, cum up Schir Salmond agane!”—and gorges himself. Lying with full belly, he thinks of an arrow in it; the keeper shoots him so that “ane word in play” becomes “ernist.” The Moralitas affirms repentance because a sudden shot can catch man unready, and thus he forfeits “blis withouttin end.” Humor makes the ordinary memorable, as does a highlighting of Scotland’s natural resources and the poverty that encouraged poaching. The Fables are comparable to The Canterbury Tales for including all levels of Scotch life.

Henryson’s best-known poem is The Testament of Cresseid , seventy-nine rhyme royal stanzas to provide an alternate ending to Troilus and Criseyde . Many have contrasted Chaucer’s compassion and ambiguity with Henryson’s making Cresseid a leper, unrecognized by Troilus, who gives her alms. Calchus, a good father who accepts the prodigal, is priest in a Temple, which for Cresseid is a “kirk.” Ashamed because Diomeid abandoned her, she blasphemes by blaming Venus and Cupid for her plight. Swooning, Cresseid dreams that the planets/gods debate her situation. Later she acknowledges, “My blaspheming now have I bocht full deir” and laments the day that brought her to Saturn’s sentence that the ugliness of leprosy replace her beauty. The issue is less false love than dishonoring God, Henryson’s constant theme of spiritual waste. Cresseid, unlike the fox in The Fables , fulfilled the three points of Confession: admission of guilt, contrition, and satisfaction or penance. The last stanza, asking worthy women in Charity that their love not be deceitful, expands to the community. Henryson’s literary critique renders pagan antiquity as medieval Christian. Its implied moralitas heavily influenced Shakespeare.*

Orpheus and Eurydice contains similar themes. The Moralitas, a third of the total and in couplets, while the story is rhyme royal, cites Boethius and Trivet’s commentary on the Consolation of Philosophy , not the happy ending of Sir Orfeo . Henryson uses a thin narrative to explore man’s arrogance in seeking God’s role in knowing. Orpheus has an aristocratic heritage and a noble spirit; he learns much when he seeks help and journeys to hell. As intellectual understanding, Orpheus plays his harp and wins through by subduing sensual appetites and reaching toward the ideal of a contemplative life so that he is reunited with affection. His fatal glance is a return to sensuality with immediate results— “Quhat will ye moir? In short conclusion,/he blent bakwart, And pluto come annone,/And on to hell with hir agane is gone.” In an encyclopedic pastiche of medieval commonplaces this poignant moment evokes the power of human love and a recognition that man cannot easily harmonize intellect and affections.

A lighter treatment of human misguided action is Robene and Makyne , in form like a French pastourelle , part of the tradition that leads to Spenser’s* The Shepheardes Calendar . When the maid offers her love, the young shepherd displays blunt indifference to all but his sheep; later he must accept rejection with the pointed proverbial comment: “In gestis and storeis auld,/The man that will nocht quhen he may/sall haif nocht quhen he wald.” There is no moral explanation, but stylistic devices and wit heighten brusqueness.

Several shorter poems present the same moral themes. The Bludy Serk tells of a princess saved from a giant, but the champion knight dies after asking her to remain loyal to his memory; the Moralitas identifies Christ as the lover/knight and urges constant love of God and prayer. The Abbay Walk offers consolation in adversity and recalls Job. Several lyrics are memento mori , and others emphasize that worldliness is not trustworthy. Ane Prayer for the Pest is a reminder of the breadth of catastrophe and of human dependence upon God’s mercy. Henryson’s admission of guilt, his view of plague as punishment for trespass, and urging of repentance are alien themes at the end of the twentieth century, as are his piety and exaltation in the soaring lyricism of The Annunciation , which proclaims the faith and joy that explain why sinning causes guilt and distress. These contrasting lyrics illustrate the two poles of religious argument; Henryson’s storytelling characteristically balances them.