that while the journey ends, in both cases, at a place full of celestial glories, there is, in both cases, a limbo, or hell, by the ay side, a little before the ultimate object is reached.
In all probability, these poems were written at his residence in the town of Hawick, where he was surrounded with scenery in the highest degree calculated to nurse a poetical fancy. In 1509, he was nominated to be provost of the collegiate church of St Giles, at Edinburgh, and it is likely that he then changed his residence to the capital. Some years before, he had contemplated a translation of the Æneid into Scottish verse, as appears from his Palace of Honour, where Venus presents him with a copy of that poem, in the original, and, in virtue of her relation to the hero, requests the poet to give a version of it in his vernacular tongue. In his preface to the work, he thus explains the real earthly reason of his engaging in such a labour:
And that ye knaw at quhais instance I tuke
For to translate this maist excellent buke;
I mene Virgillis volum, maist excellent,
Set this my werk full febill be of rent,
At the request of ane lorde of renowne,
Of ancestry maist nobill, and illustir baroun,
Fadir of bukis, protector to science and lair,
My special glide lord Henry lord Sindare.
Quhilk with great instance, diverse tymes, sere
Prayit me translate Virgil or Homere,
Quhais plesure soithlie, as I undirstudu,
As near conjoint to his lordship in blude;[1]
So that methocht his request ane command,
Half desparit this werk I tuke on hand,
Not fully grantand, nor anys sayand ye,
Bot only to assay how it micht be.
Quhay micht gainsay a lorde sa gentil and kind,
That ever had ony courtesy in thair mynd?
Quhilk beside his innative policy,
Humantte, courage, freedom, and cheveln,
Rukis to recollect, to reid, and see,
Hes great delyte as ever had Ptolome.
At the urgent request of this literary nobleman, which seems to have been necessary to get over the diffidence of the poet himself, Douglas commenced his labours in January, 1511-12, and although he prefaced each book with an original poem, and included the poem written by Mapheus Vigius[2] as a thirteenth book, the whole was completed in eighteen months, two of which, he tells us, were spent exclusively in other business. The work was completed on the 22nd of July, 1513. The "Æneid" of Gavin Douglas is a work creditable in the highest degree to Scottish literature, not only from the specific merit of the translation, but because it was the first translation of a Roman classic executed in the English language.[3] To adopt the criticism of Dr Irving "Without pronouncing it the best version of this poem that ever was, or ever will be executed, we may at least venture to affirm, that it is the production of a bold and energetic writer, whose knowledge of the language of his original,
- ↑ Henry, first lord Sinclair, was grandson to lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas. He fell at Flodden.
- ↑ A learned Italian of the fifteenth century.
- ↑ The near affinity of the languages of England and Scotland at this time, renders any circumlocutory mode of expressing this idea unnecessary.
