David Lindsay

Sir David Lindsay (or Lyndsay) of the Mount (?1490 - 1555?) was a Scottish poet and a Lord Lyon of the court.

Sir David Lyndsay (?1490-1555?). 1634 image. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Overview

Lindsay, son of David Lindsay of Garmylton, near Haddington, was born either there or at The Mount in Fife, and educated at St. Andrews. Early in life he was at the Court of James IV, and on the King's death was appointed to attend on the infant James V., whose friend and counselor he remained, though his advice was, unhappily for his country, not always given heed to. In 1529 he was knighted and made Lyon King at Arms. He was employed on various missions to the Emperor Charles V., and to Denmark, France, and England. He was always in sympathy with the people as against the nobles and the clergy, and was their poet, with his words in their mouths. He favored the Reformers, and was one of those who urged Knox to become a preacher. He did not, however, adhere to the reformed congregation, and died at least nominally in the Roman Church. Yet he lashed the vices of the clergy as they had never been lashed before, and only escaped their vengeance by the protection of the King, who also condoned the severities directed against himself. His latter days were spent at The Mount, where he died. His chief writings are The Dreme, written 1528, The Complaynt to the King (1529), The Testament and Complaynt of our Soverane Lord's Papyngo (Parrot) (1530), Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Three Estaitis: A dialogue betwixt experience and a courtier (1552), The Monarchy (1554), and The History of Squyer Meldrum. Lindsay was a true poet, gifted with fancy, humor, and a powerful satiric touch and a love of truth and justice. He had a strong influence in turning the minds of the common people in favor of the Reformation.

Youth and education

Lindsay was the son of David Lyndsay of the Mount, near Cupar-Fife, and of Garmylton, near Haddington. His place of birth and his school are undetermined. It is probable that his college life was spent at St Andrews university, on the books of which appears an entry “ Da Lindesay " for the session 1508–1509.

Courtier

He was engaged at court, first as an equerry, then as an “usher” to the young Prince James, afterwards James V. In 1522 he married Janet Douglas, a court seamstress, and 7 years later was appointed Lyon King of Arms, and knighted.

He was several times engaged in diplomatic business (twice on embassies abroad-to the Netherlands and France), and he was, in virtue of his heraldic office, a general master of ceremonies.

Most of Lyndsay's literary work, by which he secured great reputation in his own day and by which he still lives, was written during the period of prosperity at court. In this respect he is unlike his predecessor Gavin Douglas, who forsook literature when he became a politician. The explanation of the difference is partly to be found in the fact that Lyndsay's muse was more occasional and satirical, and that the time was suitable to the exercise of his special gifts. It is more difficult to explain how he enjoyed a freedom of speech which is without parallel even in more secure times.

He chastised all classes, from his royal master to the most simple. There is no evidence that he abjured Catholicism; yet his leading purpose was the exposure of its errors and abuses. His aid was readily accepted by the reforming party, and by their use of his work he shared with their leaders throughout many generations a reputation which is almost exclusively political and ecclesiastical.

After the death of James V, in 1542, he continued to sit in parliament as commissioner for Cupar-Fife; and in 1548 he was member of a mission to Denmark which obtained certain privileges for Scottish merchants. There is reason to believe that he died in or about 1555.

Writing

In Lyndsay we have the 1st literary expression in Scotland of the Renaissance. His interest lies on the theological side of the revival; he is in no sense a humanist, and he is indifferent to the artistic claims of the movement. Still he appeals to the principle which is fundamental to all.

He demands 1st-hand impression. He feels that men must get their lesson direct, not from intermediaries who understand the originals no more "than they do the ravyng of the rukis." Hence his persistent plea for the vernacular, nowhere more directly put than in the Dialog, in the "Exclamatioun to the Redar, toucheyng the wrytting of the vulgare and maternally language." Though he is concerned only in the theological and ecclesiastical application of this, he undoubtedly stimulated the use of the vernacular in a Scotland which in all literary matters (beyond the concern of the irresponsible poet) still used the lingua franca of Europe.

Long poems

Lyndsay's longer poems are The Dreine (1134 lines), The Testament and Complaynt of the Papynago (1190 lines), The Testament of Squyer Meldrurn (1859 lines), Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour of the Miserabyll Estait of the World (6333 lines), and Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (over 4000 lines). These represent, with reasonable completeness, the range of Lyndsay's literary talent.

No single poem can give him a chief place, though here and there, especially in the last, he gives hints of the highest competence. Yet the corporate effect of these pieces is to secure for him the allowance of more than mere intellectual vigour and common sense. There is in his craftsmanship, in his readiness to apply the traditional methods to contemporary requirements, something of that accomplishment which makes even the 2nd-rate man of letters interesting.

Lyndsay, the last of the Makars, is not behind his fellow-poets in acknowledgment to Chaucer. As piously as they, he reproduces the master's forms; but in him the sentiment and outlook have suffered change. His nearest approach to Chaucer is in The Testament of Squyer Meldrum, which recalls the sketch of the "young squire"; but the reminiscence is verbal rather than spiritual. Elsewhere his memory serves him less happily, as when he describes the array of the lamented Queen Magdalene in the words which Chaucer had applied to the eyes of his wanton Friar. So too, in the Dreme, the allegorical tradition survives only in the form.

Remembrance conducts the poet over the old-world itinerary, but only to lead him to speculation on Scotland's woes and to an "Exhortatioun to the Kingis Grace" to bring relief. The tenor is well expressed in the motto from the Vulgate - "Prophetias nolite spernere. Ornnia autern probate: quad bonurn est tenete." This didactic habit is freely exercised in the long Dialog (sometimes called the Monarche), a universal history of the medieval type, in which the falls of princes by corruption supply an object lesson to the unreformed church of his day.

The Satyre is more direct in its attack on ecclesiastical abuse; and its dramatic form permits more lively treatment. This piece is of great historical interest, being the only extant example of a complete Scottish morality. It is in respect of literary quality Lyndsay's best work, and in dramatic construction and delineation of character it holds a high place in this genre. The farcical interludes (in places too coarse for modern taste) supply many touches of genuine comedy; and throughout the play there are passages, as in the speeches of Veritie in the First Part and of Dame Chastitie in the "Interlude of the Sowtar and the Taylor," in which word and line are happily conceived. The Testament of the Papyngo (popinjay), drawn in the familiar medieval manner, is another tract for the time, full of admonition to court and clergy.

Short poems

Of his shorter pieces, "The Complaynt and Publict Confessions of the Kingis Auld Hound, callit Bagsche, directit to Bawtie, the Kingis best belovit Dog, and his companyezmis," and the "Answer to the Kingis Flyting" have a like pulpit resonance. The former is interesting as a forerunner of Burns's device in the “ Twa Dogs.” The "Deploratioun of the Deith of Queen Magdalene" is "in the extravagant style of commemoration illustrated in Dunbar's "Elegy on the Lord Aubigny."

The "Justing betwix James Watsoun and Johne Barbour" is a contribution to the popular taste for boisterous fun, in spirit, if not in form, akin to the Christis Kirk on the Grene series; and indirectly, with Dunbar's "Turnarnent" and "Of ane Blak-Moir," a burlesque of the courtly tourney. Lyndsay approaches Dunbar in his satire The Supplicatioun in conternptioun of syde taillis ("wide" trains of the ladies), which recalls the older poet's realistic lines on the filthy condition of the city streets.

In Lyndsay's "Descriptioun of Pedder Cojeis" (pedlars) we have an early example of the studies in vulgar life which are so plentiful in later Scottish literature In "Kitteis Confessioun" he returns, but in more sprightly mood, to his attack on the church.

Miscellaneous

A complete edition of Lyndsay's poetical works was published by David Laing in 3 volumes in 1879. This was anticipated during the process of preparation by a cheaper edition (slightly expurgated) by the same editor in 1871, in 2 volumes.

A professional work prepared by Lyndsay in the Lyon Office, entitled the Register of Scottish Arms (now preserved in MS. in the Advocates' Library), was printed in 1821 and reprinted in 1878. It remains the most authoritative document on Scottish heraldry.

Critical introduction

by John Nichol

Lindsay’s verse, on which his reputation as a writer depends, is all connected with the contemporary state of his country. To the lightest as well as the gravest — ranging from tedious allegory to lively ridicule — he has attached political and social applications. More than half his works are allegories. In the earliest, and as regards imaginative decoration the richest, The Dreme, he is led through a series of dissolving views of the past ages of the world, a journey to Hades, and a flight beyond the stars to an interview with ‘Sir Commonweal,’ who joins with him in lamentation over a realm misgoverned by an "ouir young king" and dissolute priests. In the same strain he harps in his Complaynt, in the direct attack on ecclesiastical corruption put into the mouth of a dying parrot, under the title of The Testament of the Papyngo, and in The Tragedy of the Cardinal, the last of which passes on the moral of the Fall of Princes from Lydgate to Sackville. In all of these, and elsewhere, he preaches, with less consistency, the old sermon of Wyclyffe against the corruptions of wealth, and upholds, for the admiration of his readers, the poverty of the Apostolic age.

In Kitteis Confession (c. 1541) he crosses the line drawn by Dunbar, and commits himself to a direct attack on one of the still established institutions of the Church, glancing incidentally at her foreign ceremonial —

‘And mekle Latin he did mummil,

I hard na thing but hummil bummil’—

and referring, as professed reformers in most ages have been wont to do, to the better practice of the ‘gude kirk primitive.’ In the Complaynt of Bagsche, an old dog who has to give place to a new favourite, we have a reflection on the fickleness of court favour; in The Jousting of Watson and Barbour a satire on the medical profession; in the attack on Syde Taillis a rough exposure of the affected fashions of the day. In his Squire Meldrum, the most pleasing and lively of his narrative pieces, he appears as a late metrical romancer, taking as the basis of his story the career and exploits of a contemporary Scotch laird. The Satyre of the Thrie Estates, a well-sustained invective against the follies and vices of the time, the first approach to a regular dramatic composition in Scotland, and the most considerable of our Moralities, abounds in exhibitions of the author’s unrestrained Rabelaisian humour. It is impossible to read three pages without laughing, but there are many pages which it would be impossible to read at all to any modern audience.

In his last work, the Dialog concerning the Monarchie (c. 1553) Lindsay reverts to the allegorical manner of his Dreme, and represents himself in converse with an old man, Experience, on ‘the miserable estate of the world.’ After a polemical defence of the use of his native tongue (v. inf.), the poem glides into a somewhat tiresome metrical history of the ancient kingdoms of the earth; it ends with an attack on that of the Pope as Antichrist, and a prophecy of the millennium, which he anticipates in the year 2000 A.D. In the Prologue to this — his most elaborate composition — the author speaks modestly of his own artistic skill. He has never slept on Parnassus, nor kept company with the Muses, nor drunk of Helicon: his inspiration is drawn from Calvary; and he prays that the miracle of Cana may be renewed in converting the water of his instruction into wine.

This candid self-criticism is on the whole correct. Lindsay was rather a man of action bent on popularising his keen convictions than a professional writer. The bias of his mind and the temper of his time were alike unfavourable to finished works of art. His superabundant energy and ready humor made him a power, but he had no inclination to philosophise in solitude or to refine at leisure. His life was spent amid stormy politics, and we need not wonder that a pressure of affairs similar to that which for a space held even the genius of Milton in abeyance, should have marred the literary productions of a man who had more talent than genius, and who wrote "currente calamo" on such various themes with an almost fatal fluency. His greatest admirers have confessed that "he has written so many verses that they cannot always be expected to reach a very high standard." Passages in The Dreme, Squire Meldrum, and The Monarchie, may for grace of description be set beside any corresponding to them in the works of his predecessors; but his writings are in the main more distinguished for trenchant sense, vivacity, courage, and observing power than by high imagination.

He himself speaks of his "raggit rural verse," and he willingly passes from more delicate fancies to discourse on the grave matters with the rehearsal of which he desires rather to edify than to delight his readers. His style is generally incisive, and though frequently disfigured by ‘aureate’ terms, leaves us little room to doubt of the author’s meaning. Unlike Dunbar, Lyndesay may almost be said to have been born a Protestant; but he never ventured beyond the range of the leading Reformers of his age. He is a Calvinist, more tolerant of sins of blood than errors of brain, rejoicing like Tertullian over the agonies of the damned. His mission was to amuse and arouse the people of his time, to affront them with a reflection of their vices, and to set to rough music the thunder and the whirlwind of sixteenth-century iconoclasm.

Recognition

David Lindsay on the Scott Monument, Edinburgh, 2015. Photo by Stephen C. Dickson. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Lindsay is depicted amongst the 16 Scottish writers and poets on the lower section of the Scott Monument on Princes Street in Edinburgh. He is shown on the left side of the southern face.

Critical literature

A complete edition of Lyndsay's poetical works was published by David Laing in 3 volumes in 1879. The E.E.T.S. issued the part I of a complete edition in 1865 (ed. F. Hall): 5 parts have appeared, 4 edited by F. Hall, the 5th by J.A.H. Murray. For the bibliography see Laing's 3 vol. edition, u.s. iii. pp. 222 et seq., and the E.E.T.S. edition passim. The Association for Scottish Literary Studies issued Janet Hadley Williams, David Lyndsay: Selected poems, (2000) freshly establishing texts with detailed notes. See also the editions by Pinkerton (1792), Sibbald (1803), and George Chalmers (1806); and the critical accounts in Thomas Finlayson Henderson's Scottish Vernacular Literature (1898), Gregory Smith's Transition Period (1900), and J.H. Millar's Literary History of Scotland (1903).

In popular culture

Lindsay appears as a character in Sir Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion.

Lindsay's description of the Tower of Babel in his Dialog ("The shadow of that hyddeous strength [the Tower of Babel] sax myle and more it is of length") is used as the motto of the novel That Hideous Strength by C S. Lewis, and the book's name is also derived from it.

Lindsay appears as the sympathetic major character in Nigel Tranter's well-researched James V trilogy, The Riven Realm (1984), James V, By the Grace of God (1985), and Rough Wooing (1987).

Lindsay is a major character in John Arden's play Armstrong's Last Goodnight set in 16th Century Scotland.

Publications

Poetry

• The Monarch, and other poems of Sir David Lyndesay (edited by John Small). (2 volumes), London: Early English Text Society / N. Trübner, 1883.
• Poems by Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (edited by J. Maurice Lindsay). Edinburgh: Saltire Society / Oliver & Boyd, 1948.
• Ane Satyre of the Three Estaits (edited by Sir James Kinsley). London: Cassell, 1954.
• Selected Poems (edited by Janet Hadley Williams). Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2000.
• The 3 Estaites: The millennium version (edited by Alan Spence). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002.

Collected editions

• The Works of the Famous and Worthy Knight Sir David Lindsay of the Mount : alias Lyon, King of Arms. Glasgow: Robert Sanders, 1712; Edinburgh: The Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printers to His Majesty, 1720.
• The Works of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 1490-1555. Edinburgh: William Blackwood / Scottish Text Society, 1931.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Longer poems

• The Dreme (1134 lines)
• The Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo (1190 lines)
• The Historie and Testament of Squyer Meldrum (1848 lines)
• Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour of the Miserabyll Estait of the World (6333 lines)
• Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis (over 4000 lines).

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Smith, George Gregory (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170-171. 

External links

Poems

• David Lindsay at PoemHunter ("Satire On The Syde Taillis")
• Lindsay in The English Poets: An anthology: From the Prologue to The Dreme, Extracts from The Testament and Complaynt of the Papingo, Extracts from Ane Satyre of the Threi Estaitis, Extracts from The Monarchie, "The Hope of Immortality"

Books

• Sir David Lindsay at Amazon.com

About

• Sir David Lyndsay in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Sir David Lindsay in the Lives of Scottish Poets
• Lindsay, David (1490-1555) in the Dictionary of National Biography
• The Poetry of Sir David Lyndsay at the Association for Scottish Literary Studies

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at "Lyndsay, Sir David"