William Stewart (?1481-1550?) was a Scottish poet and chronicler.
William Stewart, The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland; or, A Metrical Version of the History of Hector Boece (1858). Cambridge University Press, 2012. Courtesy Amazon.com.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Stewart was a great-grandson of an illegitimate son of Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, and was thus descended from Robert II, king of Scotland.[1]
He was educated like his namesake, William Stewart (1479–1545) (afterwards bishop of Aberdeen), at the University of St. Andrews, where apparently he was a determinant in 1499, and 1st of the licentiates in 1501.[1]
He was destined for the church, and possibly some of the minor preferments assigned to the future bishop were really held by the chronicler.[1]
Career[]
Before 1526 Stewart became a frequenter of the court, and the treasurer's accounts in that and the succeeding years contain entries of various payments and presents to him from James V; in 1527 he held a pension of £20, which was doubled before 1530.[1]
Sir David Lindsay, writing in 1530, mentions Stewart among the poets of James V's court, and John Rolland, in his prologue to the Seven Sages (1560), classes him with John Bellenden and Bishop Andrew Durie (died 1558) among his "masters."[1]
The last entry referring to Stewart occurs in 1541, and he was dead before 1560.[1]
Writing[]
The collections of George Bannatyne (1545–1608?) and Sir Richard Maitland, lord Lethington, contain several poems ascribed to Stewart, but only a single poem, beginning ‘This hinder nicht, neir by the hour of nyne,’ is inscribed with his name. But he had probably written much verse, which has been lost.[1]
In 1528 he was commissioned by James V to prepare a metrical version of the history of Hector Boece. This work had been published in Latin at Paris in 1527, and James requested Bellenden to translate it into Scots prose and Stewart into Scots verse. Bellenden's version appeared in 1536, but Stewart's, which was begun in 1531, remained in manuscript until 1858, when it was published in 3 volumes in the Rolls Series. It was edited by William Barclay Turnbull from a unique manuscript which, after being in the possession of Hew Craufurd of Cloverhill, Bishop Moore, and George I, was presented by the last-named to Cambridge University library (Kk. ii. 16).[1]
Stewart's style is rugged and ungrammatical, but his translation contains some graphic descriptions. He shows an acquaintance with the works of John Mair or Major, Froissart, and Fordun, and he made some notable additions to Boece's original — for example in the account of the siege of Perth by the Danes in 1041, in which he introduces Macbeth and Banquo (Turnbull, pref. pp. xvi–xxiii). Stewart's account is fuller than that of Boece. Holinshed, who is usually supposed to have been Shakespeare's authority, is far more meagre than either of his predecessors (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xi. 321–2).[1]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- The Buik of the Chroniclis of Scotland (edited by William B. Turnbull). (3 volumes), London, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts (Rolls Series), 1858;[2] Cambridge University Press, 2012.[3]
See also[]
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References[]
- MacDonald, A.A., 'William Stewart and Court Poetry', in Hadley Williams, Janet, ed., Stewart Style 1513-1542, Tuckwell (1996), 179-200
Pollard, Albert Frederick (1898) "Stewart, William (1481?-1550?)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 54 London: Smith, Elder, p. 361 . Wikisource, Web, Jun. 29, 2022.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Pollard, 361.
- ↑ The Buik of the Chroniclis of Scotland, Internet Archive. Web, Jun. 29, 2022.
- ↑ The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland; or, A Metrical Version of the History of Hector Boece 3 Volume Set (Cambridge Library Collection - Rolls) Illustrated Edition, Amazon.com. Web, Jun. 29, 2022.
External links[]
- Books
- William Stewart 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: Stewart, William (1481?-1550?)
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