Richard Holland, The Buke of the Howlat. Birlinn, 2017. Courtesy Amazon.com
Sir Richard Holland or Richard de Holande (1450 fl.)was a Scottish poet.
Life[]
Holland lived in the reign of James II, and was a partisan of the Douglases.[1] He was rector of Halkirk, near Thurso; afterwards rector of Abbreochy, Loch Ness; and later held a chantry in the cathedral of Norway. An ardent partisan of the Douglases, on their over-throw he retired to Orkney and later to Shetland.[2]
He wrote the poem for which he is known, The Buke of the Howlat for "Ane Dow [i.e. Dove] of Dunbar, dowit with ane Douglas" (a description which identifies the lady with Elizabeth, daughter of James Dunbar, earl of Moray, who married Archibald, son of James, 7th earl of Douglas). The marriage took place about 1442, and the fall of the Douglas family in 1452 fixes the date of the poem between 1442 and 1452; it was evidently written during the ascendency of the Douglases, whose virtues from the days of Good Sir James it celebrates. It is from this poem, probably, that the famous epithet of the Douglases, "Tender and true," originated.[1]
Holland was employed by Edward IV in his attempt to rouse the Western Isles through Douglas agency.[2] After the defeat of Arkinholm in 1455, in which Archibald, earl of Moray, was slain, James, earl of Douglas, and his followers fled to England; and in an act of the Scottish parliament in 1482 a pardon offered to those who should return to their allegiance specially excepts ‘Schir Richard Holland.’ This has been reasonably conjectured to be the poet, and Irving adds, "nor is it improbable that he had been the Earl of Moray's chaplain."[1]
Writing[]
The Buke of the Howlat, written about 1450, shows Holland's devotion to the house of Douglas: "On ilk beugh till embrace Writtin in a bill was O Dowglass, O Dowglass Tender and trewe!" (ii. 400-403). and is dedicated to the wife of a Douglas. But all theories of its being a political allegory in favor of that house may be discarded. Sir Walter Scott's judgment that the Buke is "a poetical apologue ... without any view whatever to local or natural politics" is certainly the most reasonable.[2]
The poem, which extends to 1,001 lines written in the irregular alliterative rhymed stanza, is a bird-allegory, of the type familiar in the Parlement of Foules.[2] It has the incidental interest of showing (especially in stanzas 62 and 63) the antipathy of the "Inglis-speaking Scot" to the "Scots-speaking Gael" of the west, as is also shown in Dunbar's Flyting with Kennedy.[2]
The poem, like most of the alliterative class, is tedious to modern readers.[1] However, it contains some curious antiquarian matter. The allegory of the owl dressed in the feathers of other birds was supposed by Pinkerton to refer to James II, but this view, which partly rested on the false reading of a word, ‘crowne’ for ‘rowme,’ has been proved groundless by Sir Walter Scott and David Laing. It certainly seems to have no application to the king, but it is impossible not to suspect some personal allusion besides the general satire on pride. More interesting than the allegory itself, which is explained at full length by Irving (Hist. of Scottish Poetry, 166), and in Laing's preface, are the incidental passages, which give notices of early heraldic blazons, of the musical instruments then in use, and of the highland bards, already a subject for jest to the poets of the lowlands.[3]
The singular prophecy,
Our soveraine of Scotland his armes to knowe,
Quilk sall be lord and ledar
Our [or over] braid Brettane all quhar,
As Sanct Mergaretis air,
there seems no reason to suppose interpolated.[3]
The text of the poem is preserved in the Asloan (c. 1515) and Bannatyne (1568) manuscripts, though the poem is thought to be 50–70 years older than the earlier manuscript.[2] A few quarto pages of a printed edition of ‘The Howlat’ were found by D. Laing in the old covers of a Protocol Book written before 1530, but no other portions of this edition are known. ‘The Buke of the Howlat’ was edited for the Bannatyne Club from the Bannatyne MS. in 1823 by Mr. Laing. A reprint appeared at Paisley, 1882.[3]
Critical reputation[]
Holland was esteemed by subsequent Scottish poets. His poem is referred to by Blind Harry, or Henry the Minstrel. William Dunbar names him in his Lament for the Makaris, and Lyndsay as among the poets "who, though they be dead, their libelles [i.e. books] are yet living."[3]
See also[]
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References[]
Mackay, Aeneas James George (1891) "Holland, Richard (fl.1450)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 27 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 154-155 . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 31, 2022.- Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Holland, Richard". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 587.. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 31, 2022.
- British Authors Before 1800: A biographical dictionary (edited by Stanley J. Kunitz & Howard Haycraft, New York: H.W. Wilson, 1952.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Books
- The Buke of the Howlat at Amazon.com
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Holland, Richard (fl.1450)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.. Original article is at Holland, Richard
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