John Bellenden or Ballantyne (1533-1587 fl.) was a Scottish poet and translator.
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Title page of John Bellenden, Croniklis, 1540. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Life[]
Overview[]
Bellenden was born towards the close of the 15th century, and educated at St. Andrews and Paris. At the request of James V he translated the Historia Gentis Scotorum of Boece. This translation, Chroniklis of Scotland, is very free, with a good deal of matter not in the original, so that it may be almost considered as a new work. It was published in 1536, and is the earliest existing specimen of Scottish literary prose. He also translated the first 5 books of Livy. He enjoyed royal favor, and was Archdeacon of Moray. He latterly, however, became involved in controversy which led to his going to Rome, where he died, according to one account, about 1550. Another authority, however, states that he was living in 1587.[1]
Youth and education[]
Bellenden was born about the end of the 15th century, in the south-east of Scotland, perhaps in East Lothian.[2]
He appears to have been educated at the University of St. Andrews, and then at that of Paris, where he took the degree of doctor.[2]
Career[]
From his own statement in a poem, we learn that he had been in the service of James V from the king’s earliest years, and that the post he held was clerk of accounts.[2]
At the request of James he undertook translations of Boece’s Historia Scotorum, which had appeared at Paris in 1527, and the 1st 5 books of Livy. As a reward for his versions, which he finished in 1533, he was appointed archdeacon of Moray and a canon of Ross.[2]
He was a strenuous opponent of the Reformation and was compelled to go into exile. He is said by some authorities to have died at Rome in 1550; by others to have been still living in 1587.[2]
Writing[]
Bellenden's translation of Boece, entitled The History and Chronicles of Scotland, is a remarkable specimen of Scottish prose, distinguished by its freedom and vigour of expression. It was published in 1536; and was reprinted in 2 volumes, edited by Maitland, in 1821.[2]
His translation of Livy was not printed till 1822 (also in 2 volumes). 2 MSS. of the latter are extant, the older in the Advocates’ library, Edinburgh (which was the basis of the normalized text of 1822); the other (circa 1550) in the possession of Ogilvie Forbes of Boyndlie. An edition of the work was edited for the Scottish Text Society by W.A. Craigie (2 vols. 1901, 1903). The 2nd volume of this edition contains also a complete reprint of the portions of the holograph 1st draft which were discovered in the British Museum in 1902.[2]
2 poems by Bellenden — the "Proheme to the Cosmographe" and the "Proheme of the History" — appeared in the 1536 edition of the History of Scotland. Others, bearing his name in the well-known Bannatyne MS. collection, made by his namesake George Bannatyne, may or may not be his.[2]
Sir David Lindsay, in his prologue to the Papyngo, speaks vaguely of:
“Ane cunnyng Clark quhilk wrythith craftelie
Ane plant of poetis callit Ballendyne,
Quhose ornat workis my wit can nocht defyne.”<ref name=jbellendeneb>
See also[]
References[]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Bellenden, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 698. Wikisource, Web, Dec. 13, 2017.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Books
- John Bellenden at Amazon.com
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.. Original article is at Bellenden, John
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