Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

XLWILLIAM DUNBAR,A.D. 1503.William Dunbar \vas born about 1465, and educated at theUniversity of St. Andrews. He entered the Franciscan order ofGrey Friars, and travelled in the garb of the order in Scotland,England, and France. In 1500 he received a pension from theking, James IV. of Scotland. He is known to have survived theyear 15 17, and must have died about 1520, or later. His chiefpoems are The Golden Terge' (Targe, or ' Shield), ' The Thistleand the Rose,' and the 'Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins,' the lastof which may be found in Chambers' ' Encyclopaedia of EnglishLiterature,' vol. i. p. 51. All three of these poems are analysedby Warton, who remarks that ' The Thistle and the Rose wasoccasioned by the marriage of James the Fourth, king of Scotland,with Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry the Seventh,king of England; an event in which the whole future politicalstate of both nations was vitally interested, and which ultimatelyproduced the union of the two crownis and kingdoms. It wasfinished on theninth day of May in the year 1503 \ nearly threemonths before the arrival of the queen in Scotland.' The onlycomplete edition of Dunbar's works is that entitled, ' The Poemsof William Dunbar, now first collected, w^ith Notes, and a INIemoirof his Life, by David Laing ;' 2 vols. 8vo., Edinburgh, 1834. The'Thistle and the Rose' is found in the Bannatyne MS. in the Advocate'sLibrary at Edinburgh, from which it is here printed. Isubjoin also, from Mr. Laing's edition, a short poem, which con-'veys nearly all the information we possess regarding the earlierperiod' of Dunbar's life.* See the last line of the Poem.