| The Complaynt Of Scotland |
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| scottish non-fiction literature | |
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The book is a continuation of the war of words between Scotland and England in the 16th Century . Books in England were asserting the idea of uniting the two countries, with England dominant, and this was an answer to these works. The so called " Rough Wooing " of Mary I Of Scotland by Henry VIII Of England and a wife for his son Edward had only antagonised relations. The author of the work is anonymous, probably due to its controversial political content, and is variously ascribed to Robert Wedderburn or Vedderburn, James Inglis and David Lyndsay . It was once thought to have been among the first books printed in Scotland but it is now believed to have been published in Paris . The contention of a Paris printing is supported by the discovery that the book owes much of its structure, and some of its content, to the '' Quadrilogue-invectif '', a similar political work in part attacking England, by Alain Chartier . The close ties between Scotland and France at that time, the Auld Alliance , are attested by the fact that the Complaynt is dedicated to Mary Of Guise , the effective queen of Scotland of the time. The book itself, subtitled "wyth ane exortatione to the thre estaits to be vigilante in the deffens of their public veil", is rather a miscellany of stories, Ballad s and Allegorical tales emphasising Scotland's separateness. The English works it was aimed against tended to use the Pagan prophecies of Merlin to back-up their claim of a united Britain , whilst the Complaynt stuck to Christian ideals. It is an important source for information on Border Ballad s and contain some of the first references to important ballads such as '' Tam Lin '', '' Froggy Would A-wooing Go '' and '' The Ballad Of Chevy Chase ''. The book is also a significant example of Middle Scots , not too dissimilar to Early Modern English , and the Oxford English Dictionary cites ''The Complaynt of Scotland'' as the earliest source for numerous words, including: ''axis'', ''barbarian'', ''buffoon'', ''cabinet'', ''crackling'', ''decadence'', ''excrement'', ''heroic'', ''humid'', ''imbecile'', ''moo'', ''parallel'', ''robust'', ''suffocation'', ''superb'', ''timid'' and ''water-lily''. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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