Verse
The Abbay Walk (‘Allone as I went up and doun’)
Wood, pp. 195-6. Ritchie, I, 50-2. Fox, pp. 156-8.
HnR 1
Copy, untitled.
In: A formal anthology of Scottish poetry, including 51 poems presently attributed to William Dunbar, largely in a single secretary hand, with a few later additions in other hands, in two tall folio volumes, with differing series of pagination and foliation, vol. I comprising 192 leaves (paginated 1-385), vol. II comprising 205 leaves (paginated 387-795), all leaves now mounted separately in window mounts, each volume in 19th-century green morocco elaborately gilt. Compiled by George Bannatyne (b.1545), student of St Andrews and merchant burgess of Edinburgh. Subscribed on the last page ‘finis. / 1568’ but probably written over a period of some years. c.1568.
Descending to Bannatyne's son-in-law George Foulis. Later (c.1712) inscribed (p. 60) ‘This book is gifted to Mr William Carmichael Be me James Foulis’. Some annotations by Allan Ramsay (1684-1758), poet and editor, and by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor. Presented in 1772 by John Carmichael, fourth Earl of Hyndford.
Generally cited as the Bannatyne MS. Complete facsimile, introduced by Denton Fox and William A. Ringler, published by the Scolar Press, 1980. Complete text edited in Murdoch and in Ritchie. Discussed in Priscilla Bawcutt, ‘The Contents of the Bannatyne Manuscript: New Sources and Analogues’, Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 3 (2008), 95-133. A facsimile page in The National Library of Scotland Advocates' Library Notable Accessions up to 1925 (Edinburgh, 1965), Plate 43.
Edited from this MS in Ritchie and in Fox. Collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, pp. 30-2.
HnR 2
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p mr rot Henrysone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch, II, 125-7, and in Ritchie, II. 116-17.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 46v-7r (pp. 152-3).
HnR 3
Copy, untitled.
In: A folio anthology of Scottish poetry, compiled by Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586), of Lethington, in the hands of several amanuenses, including 63 poems generally attributed to Dunbar, 366 pages. c.1570-85.
Generally cited as the Maitland Folio MS. The complete text edited in Craigie.
A transcript made by John Pinkerton (1758-1826) for his edition of Ancient Scotish Poems, 2 vols (London, 1786), is preserved at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (MS Bell/White 18).
Edited from this MS in Craigie, I, 351-2. Collated in Wood.
Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library, MS 2553, pp. 296-7.
HnR 4
Copy, headed ‘Ane Sonnet’ and subscribed, ‘Finis, quod Riddell’, written in a small MS volume by one Alexander Riddell at Bowland in 1636. 1636.
In 1865 ‘in the library of Mr [George] Chalmers of Aldbar’.
Recorded in The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh, 1865), pp. 240-1.
Aganis Haisty Credence of Titlaris (‘Ffals titlaris now growis up full rank’)
Wood, pp. 215-16. Murdoch, II, 182-4. Ritchie, II, 165-7. Fox, pp. 163-5.
HnR 5
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p mr Robert Hendersone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood, in Murdoch, in Ritchie, and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, ff. Vol. I, 67v-8r (pp. 196-7).
HnR 6
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under HnR 3. c.1570-85.
Edited from this MS in Craigie, I, 348-50. Collated in Wood and in Fox.
Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library, MS 2553, pp. 309-10.
The Annunciation (‘Forcy as deith Is likand lufe’)
Wood, pp. 199-201. Stevenson, pp. 43-5. Fox, pp. 154-6.
HnR 7
Copy, untitled.
In: A small composite miscellany (c.12 x 9 cm), in minute secretary hands, 83 leaves, partly on vellum, in modern red morocco (rebacked). Compiled by James Gray, priest of the diocese of Dunblane and secretary to William Schevez (d.1497) and James Stewart (d.1504), successive Archbishops of St Andrews. End 15th-early 16th century.
Gift of John Ker, 1740.
Edited from this MS in Wood, in Stevenson, and in Fox.
The Bludy Serk (‘This hindir yeir I hard be tald’)
Wood, pp. 173-6. Murdoch, IV, 942-6. Ritchie, IV, 202-5. Fox, pp. 158-62.
HnR 8
Copy, subscribed ‘ffinis p Mr R Henrici’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. II, ff. 325r-6v (pp. 699-702).
The Garment of Gud Ladeis (‘Wald my gud lady lufe me best’)
Wood, pp. 169-70. Murdoch, III, 611-12. Ritchie, III, 252-4. Fox, pp. 162-5.
HnR 9
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis of ye garmet of gud ladeis p Mr rot Herysown’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. II, f. 215r-v.
The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian (‘Thocht feinyeit fabils of ald poetre’)
First published in Edinburgh, 1570. Wood, pp. Murdoch, IV, 855-66, 898-922, 946-88. Ritchie, IV, 116-28, 158-82, 206-451-102. Fox, pp. 3-110.
HnR 10
A formal copy, in a professional secretary hand, with a title-page (f. 1v) framed by coloured decorative borders, The morall fabilis of Esope compylit be Maister Robert Heusoun Scholmaister of Dufermling: 1571, engrossed, coloured and decorated initial letters (on ff. 2r, 3v, 12v, 18r, 23r, 31v, 36r, 43r, 51v, 58r, 63v, 67r, and 71r) and coloured vignettes (on ff. 3v, 43v, and 75r), 75 folio leaves, in modern morocco gilt. 1571.
This MS collated in Wood and in Fox. Facsimiles of various pages in Wood, facing pp. xiv, 5; in Gregory Smith, II, facing pp. x, 7, 121; and in Chris Fletcher et al., 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (British Library, 2003), pp. 42-3.
A transcript of the MS made by John Dougald (1821) is in the National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 19. 3. 5.
HnR 11
Copy of ten fables.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Murdoch; in Fox; and in Ritchie, with a facsimile of f. 301v facing p. 123. Collated in Wood.
—— The Prolog and The Taill of the Cok, and the Jasp
Fox, pp. 3-9. Stevenson, pp. 3-8.
HnR 12
Copy, in double columns, untitled, on the fly-leaves of the volume. Late 15th-early 16th century.
In: A folio volume of lecture notes on logic written in Louvain in 1477 by Magnus Makculloch, clerk to Archbishop William Schevez (d.1497), iii + 202 leaves, imperfect at the end, in modern brown calf gilt. Chiefly in one professional secretary hand, with some engrossed lettering, in double columns, another hand, one ‘Johannes’, possibly John Purde, on pages including ff. iiv-iiir, 86r-7r, 181v, 183v, and 200r-2r.
Owned by David Laing in 1854.
Edited from this MS in Stevenson. Collated in Wood.
—— The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous, and the Burges Mous
Fox, pp. 9-19.
HnR 13
Copy in: A quarto formal miscellany of mainly Scottish verse and prose, almost entirely in a single secretary hand, with rubrication, another hand on ff. 137-50 inscribed ‘per M G Myll’, with contemporary and later lists of contents, imperfect, lacking a number of pages with poems recorded in the lists of contents, v + 304 leaves, each window mounted in a 19th-century folio guardbook in brown calf gilt. Compiled by the Edinburgh notary John Asloan (fl. c.1494-c.1532). c.1515-30.
Inscriptions include (ff. 40v, 166v) names of William Muray and William Leslie of Balquhaina; (flyleaf) ‘Alexander Boswel March 1730’ [later Lord Auchinleck], ‘R.W. Talbot [later fifth Lord Talbot de Malahide] from J. I Boswell June 29th 1882’, and ‘Talbot de Malahide [sixth Lord Talbot de Malahide] James Boswell March 1921’. Sold and recovered several times by the Boswell family before passing to the Talbot family. Purchased in 1966.
Commonly cited as the Asloan MS. Complete text edited in Craigie, Asloan MS. Discussed, with a table of contents, in Catherine van Buren, ‘John Asloan and his Manuscript: An Edinburgh Notary and Scribe in the Days of James III, IV and V (c.470-c.1530)’, in Stewart Style 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V, ed. Janet Hadley Williams (East Linton, 1996), 15-51.
Edited from this MS in Craigie, Asloan MS, II, 141-9 (with a facsimile of f. 236r). Collated in Wood.
Orpheus and Eurydice (‘The nobilnes and grit magnificens’)
First published in the Chepman and Myllar Prints (Edinburgh, 1508). Wood, pp. 129-48. Murdoch, IV, 922-42. Ritchie, IV, 182-201. Fox, pp. 132-53.
HnR 14
Copy of a 633-line version, subscribed ‘Finis p mr R H’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. II, ff. 317v-25r (pp. 684-99).
HnR 15
Copy of a 578-line version.
In: the MS described under HnR 13. c.1515-30.
Edited from this MS in Craigie, Asloan MS, II, 155-74. Collated in Wood.
The Prais of Aige (‘Wythin a garth, under a rede rosere’)
First published in the Chepman and Myllar Prints (Edinburgh, 1508). Wood, pp. 185-6. Ritchie, I, 73-4. Fox, pp. 165-7.
HnR 16
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Ritchie and in Fox. Collated in Wood.
HnR 17
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p Hendersone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Murdoch, II, 155-6; Ritchie, II, 141-2; collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, f. 57r-v (pp. 173-4).
HnR 18
Copy, untitled. Late 15th-early 16th century.
In: the MS described under HnR 12.
Edited from this MS in Stevenson, pp. 15-16. Collated in Wood.
Ane Prayer for the Rest (‘O eterne god, of power infinyt’)
Wood, pp. 163-5. Ritchie, I. 33-6. Murdoch, II, 61-4. Fox, pp. 167-9.
HnR 19
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Ritchie and in Fox. Collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, pp. 20-2.
HnR 20
Copy, subscribed ‘ffinis [p Henrysone in a different hand]’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 24r-5v (pp. 107-10).
The Ressoning betuix Aige and Yowth (‘Quhen fair flora, the godes of the flowris’)
Wood, pp. 179-80. Ritchie, I, 68-71. Murdoch, II, 149-52. Craigie, I, 200-2. Stevenson, pp. 22-3. Fox, pp. 170-3.
HnR 21
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p Mr robert Henrysone.’
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Ritchie and in Fox. Collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, pp. 42-3.
HnR 22
Copy, subscribed ‘ffinis p mr Robert Hendsone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie, II, 137-9; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 55r-6r (pp. 169-71).
HnR 23
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under HnR 3. c.1570-85.
Edited from this MS in Craigie. Collated in Wood and in Fox.
Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library, MS 2553, pp. 176-8.
HnR 24
Copy, untitled. 15th-early 16th century.
In: the MS described under HnR 12.
Edited from this MS in Stevenson. Collated in Wood and in Fox.
The Ressoning betuix Deth and Man (‘O mortall man, behold, tak tent to me’)
Wood, pp. 211-12. Ritchie, I, 71-3. Murdoch, II, 153-5. Fox, pp. 173-5.
HnR 25
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p Mr R Herisone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Ritchie and in Fox. Collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, pp. 43-4.
HnR 26
Copy in: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie, II, 139-41; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 56r-7r (pp. 171-3).
Robene and Makyne (‘Robene sat on gud grene hill’)
Wood, pp. 151-4. Murdoch, IV, 1050-4. Ritchie, IV, 308-12. Fox, pp. 175-9.
HnR 27
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘p mr robert Henrysone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie, III, 28-31; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. II, ff. 365r-6v (pp. 779-82).
Sum Practysis of Medecyne (‘Guk, guk, gud day, ser, gaip quhill ye get it’)
Wood, pp. 157-60. Murdoch, III, 401-4. Ritchie, III, 28-31. Fox, pp. 179-82.
HnR 28
Copy, subscribed ‘p Mr Rot Henrysone’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 141v-2v (pp. 342-4).
The Testament of Cresseid (‘Ane doolie sessoun to ane cairfull dyte’)
Possibly first published c.1508. First known publication in Workes of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. William Thynne (London, 1532). Wood, pp. 105-26. Fox, pp. 111-31.
HnR 29
Copy, in an early 17th-century hand, transcribed from the printed edition of 1602, bound (on ff. 121v-8v) with an early 15th-century copy of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseide, 129 folio-size leaves of vellum in all. Early 17th century.
This MS collated in Wood. Recorded in Fox.
HnR 30
Copy of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid (transcribed, with emendations, on pp. 475-509, from the edition of 1598), headed ‘The Sixt & last booke...written by Mr Robert Henderson and called by him The Testament of Criseide’, following Chaucer's Troilus and Creseyde, both accompanied stanza for stanza by a Latin verse translation by Sir Francis Kinaston (1587-1642), in a professional hand, xiv + 536 folio leaves in all. 1639-40.
Later owned by Henry Aldrich (d.1710), Dean of Christ Church, Oxford; by John Haddon Hindley (his sale 9 March 1793, lot 1215); by Francis Godolphin Waldron (1743-1818), actor and playwright; by S.W. Singer (his sale 3 August 1858, lot 134); and by James Crossley (1800-83), author and book collector (his sale 20 June 1886, lot 2951). Quaritch's sale catalogue No. 369, item 35797. Acquired 10 September 1886.
Edited from this MS in Gregory Smith, I, xcvii-clxii. Collated in Wood. Recorded in Fox.
HnR 31
Copy of the first three stanzas, in a non-professional secretary hand.
In: Copy of Gavin Douglas's Aeneid, ii + 301 folio leaves, in red calf gilt (rebacked). Mid-late 16th century.
Inscribed (f. 301v) ‘Partenet Wilhelmo Dno de Ruthven’: i.e. owned by William Ruthven (1543?-84), fourth Baron Ruthven and first Earl of Gowrie, magnate and politician, executed for treason. Also inscribed ‘David Schaw’ and ‘Patrik Drumond’. Acquired by Edinburgh College in 1643.
This MS recorded in Virgil's Aeneid translated into Scottish Verse by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, ed. David F. C. Coldwell, 4 vols, STS (Edinburgh & London, 1951-6), I, 98.
HnR 31.5
Copy of one stanza (lines 561-7), headed ‘In bocas þt wes full gwd’, on an octavo leaf (p. 92b) in a volume of Gaelic poetry comprising 159 quarto leaves (plus vellum fragments). The volume compiled by Sir James MacGregor, vicar of Fortingall and titular Dean of Lismore. c.1512-42.
Formerly Gaelic MS XXXVII.
This MS recorded in Fox, pp. xcvi-xcvii.
The Thre Deid Pollis (‘O sinfull man, in to this mortall se’)
Wood, pp. 205-7. Murdoch, II, 157-9. Ritchie, II, 142-4. Craigie, I, 394-5. Fox, pp. 182-4.
HnR 32
Copy, untitled, subscribed ‘ffinis p patk Johnstoun’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Wood; in Murdoch; in Ritchie; and in Fox.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, ff. 57v-8v (pp. 174-8).
HnR 33
Copy, untitled.
In: the MS described under HnR 3. c.1570-85.
Edited from this MS in Craigie. Collated in Wood and in Fox.
Magdalene College, Cambridge, Pepys Library, MS 2553, pp. 327-8.
HnR 34
Copy of the incipit only, here ‘O mortill man’, in a musical setting, untitled.
In: An oblong quarto musical part book, for the Treble voice, the song incipits chiefly in a rounded italic hand, with (ff. 2v-4r) an index, 53 leaves, in 19th-century black calf. Inscribed (f. 1r), in a secretary hand, ‘Sr William Maur’: i.e. Sir William Mure, Bt (d.1639), of Rawallan, Ayrshire, or else his son of that name (1594-1657), writer and politician; (f. 1r) ‘Robert Muire ist my hand’; and (f. 2r), in later red ink, ‘Thomas Lyle Surgeon’. c.1600s-20.
This MS recorded in Wood, p. xxx.
The Want of Wyse Men (‘Me ferlyis of this grete confusioun’)
First published in the Chepman and Myllar Prints (Edinburgh, 1508). Wood, pp. 189-91. Murdoch, II, 213-15. Ritchie, II, 195-7.
HnR 35
Copy, untitled, here beginning ‘Me mervellis of this grit Confusioun’.
In: the MS described under HnR 1. c.1568.
Edited from this MS in Murdoch and in Ritchie. Collated in Wood.
National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 1.1.6, Vol. I, f. 78r-v (pp. 217-18).