William Dunbar, The Complete Works

By (author) William Dunbar Edited by John Conlee

Book cover: William Dunbar, The Complete Works

Extent: 488 pages

Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications

Subjects: Literary Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: TEAMS Middle English Texts Series

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(December 2004)

ISBN: 9781580440868

7.01 x 10 inches

Price: $39.95

In stock

PDF (Published)

(December 2004)

ISBN: 9781580443968

Price: $31.99

Scottish poet William Dunbar is usually considered one of the most important figures of fifteenth-century British literature, and may lay claim to being the finest lyric poet writing in English in the century and half between the death of Chaucer in 1400 and the appearance of Tottel’s Miscellany in 1557. Dunbar’s poems offer vivid depictions of late medieval Scottish society and serve up a striking pageant of colorful figures at the court of James IV (r. 1488-1513), with which he was associated for much of his adult life. The poems are remarkable both for their diversity and variability and for their multiplicity of voices, styles, and tones. The great variety of poems within Dunbar’s canon includes religious hymns of exaltation, moral poems on a wide range of serious themes, comic and parodic poems of extreme salaciousness and scatological coarseness, general satires against the times, and satires with much more specific targets, often a single individual. This edition of eighty-four poems attributed to Dunbar includes extensive background material and explanatory notes that are sure to be of interest to students and Dunbar enthusiasts alike. The edition is rounded out with textual notes, an index of first lines, and a glossary.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Select Bibliography

Poems Devotional and Moral
On the Nativity of Christ [Et nobis puer est]
Of the Passion of Christ
On the Resurrection of Christ [Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro]
A Ballad of Our Lady [Ave Maria, gracia plena]
In Praise of Women
The Manner of Going to Confession
The Table of Confession
All Earthly Joy Returns to Pain
Of Man's Mortality [Quoad tu in cinerem revertis]
An Orison
Of the World's Vanity [Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas]
Of Life
Of the Changes of Life
The Lament for the Makars [Timor mortis conturbat me]
A Meditation in Winter
None May Assure in This World
Best to Be Blithe
Of Content
Without Gladness No Treasure Avails
His Own Enemy
Spend Thine Own Goods [Thyne awin gude spend quhill thow hes space]
Of Covetise [And all for caus of cuvetice]
Of Deeming
How Should I Conduct Myself [Lord God, how sould I governe me]
Rule of Oneself [He rewllis weill that weill himself can gyd]
Discretion in Asking [In asking sowld discretioun be]
Discretion in Giving [In geving sowld discretioun be]
Discretion in Taking [In taking sowld discretioun be]
Dunbar at Oxford [Ane peralous seiknes is vane prosperite]

Poems Public and Private
The Thistle and the Rose
To Princess Margaret [Welcum of Scotlond to be quene]
To Princess Margaret [Gladethe, thoue queyne of Scottis regioun]
To Aberdeen [Be blyth and blisfull, burgh of Aberdein]
To the Queen [Devoyd languor and leif in lustines]
Eulogy to Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny [Withe glorie and honour]
Elegy for Bernard Stewart, Lord of Aubigny [Sen he is gon, the flour of chevalrie
To the King [In hansill of this guid New Yeir]
To the King [God gif ye war Johne Thomsounis man]
To the King [My panefull purs so priclis me]
To the King [Schir, at this feist of benefice]
To the King [Of benefice, sir, at everie feist]
A Dream
The Headache
To the King [For to considder is ane pane]
Against the Solicitors at Court
To the King [Schir, ye have mony servitouris]
To the King [Complane I wald]
To the King [Exces of thocht dois me mischeif]
To the King [That I suld be ane Yowllis yald]
Of People Hard to Please
The Antichrist
To the Lord Treasurer [Welcome, my awin lord thesaurair]
To the Lords of Chalker
A Ballad of the Friar of Tungland
Sir Thomas Norny
A Dance in the Queen's Chamber [A merrear daunce mycht na man see]
Of James Dog [Madame, ye heff a dangerous dog]
Of the Aforesaid James Dog [He is na dog, he is a lam]
Epitaph for Donald Oure
A Complaint against Mure

Poems in the Courtly Tradition
Sweet Rose of Virtue
Beauty and the Prisoner
To a Lady
Good Counsel for Lovers [Be secreit, trewe, incressing of your name]
The Golden Targe
The Merle and the Nightingale
Love's Inconstancy
True Love [And trew luve rysis fro the splene]

Poems Comic, Satiric, and Parodic
A Wooing in Dunfermline [And that me thocht ane ferly cace]
To the Queen [Madam, your men said]
Of a Black Moor [My ladye with the mekle lippis]
In a Secret Place [Ye brek my hart, my bony ane]
These Fair Ladies That Repair to Court
Tidings from the Session
To the Merchants of Edinburgh
How Dunbar Was Desired to Be a Friar
The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins
Of the Tailors and the Shoemakers [Telyouris and sowtaris, blist be ye]
The Devil's Inquest [Renunce thy God and cum to me]
Master Andro Kennedy's Testament
Dunbar's Dirge
The Twa Cummars [This lang Lentrin it makis me lene]
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy
The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo

Explanatory Notes
Textual Notes
Index of First Lines
Glossary
  • By (author) William Dunbar
  • Edited by John Conlee