Gavin Douglas
Gavin Douglas (* 1474 to 1476 in Tantallon Castle , East Lothian , † September 1522 in London ) was a Scottish Bishop of Dunkeld and poet of the 15th century and was counted among the Makars .
Life
Douglas was the son of Archibald , the 5th Earl of Angus and came from the Scottish noble house Douglas . According to church documents in the Vatican, the year of his birth can be narrowed down to 1474 to 1476. He studied at St Andrews and then began his church career. Around 1501 he was Provost of St. Giles in Edinburgh . He had good connections and was in correspondence with well-known personalities (such as the Italian humanist Polydore Virgil , with whom he was friends in the last years of his life, John Major , Cardinal Thomas Wolsey ), so that a lot is known about him. After the death of Jacob IV in the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, he, like the rest of his family (in addition to his father, especially his nephew Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus , who married the king's widow Margaret ), became politically active at the time when Jacob V was still a minor. They were seen as representatives of the English party in contrast to the representatives of the closer ties to France. In the power struggles of that time he tried in vain to become Archbishop of St Andrews, but in 1516 he became Bishop of Dunkeld. He was an advisor to the Queen and one of the envoys in negotiations with Francis I of France in 1517 (Treaty of Rouen) and died of the plague in 1522 during an exile in London forced by the power struggles in Scotland.
His literary work dates from before his political activity, which began in 1513 after the king's death. He is best known for his translation of the Aeneid from Virgil into Middle Scottish (with prologues written by him). It was finished in 1513 and is the first complete translation of one of the main works of ancient poetry into a Germanic language. Otherwise three other poems are known, The Palice of Honor (an allegorical dream poem about where real honor lies, his earliest work), Conscience and the sometimes uncertainly attributed to him King Hart (also a longer allegorical poem about the life of man) as King Heart in his palace, surrounded by the five senses that serve him).
Work editions
- John Small (Ed.): The poetical works of Gavin Douglas, 4 volumes, Edinburgh: Paterson 1874, Volume 1, Archives , Volume 2, Archives , Volume 3, Archives , Volume 4, Archives
- Gordon Kendal (Ed.): Gavin Douglas's Translation of the Aeneid, 2 volumes, London, MHRA, 2011
- David FC Coldwell: Virgil's Aeneid translated into Scottish Verse by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, 4 volumes, Edinburgh, Blackwood for The Scottish Text Society, 1957–1964
- Sydney Goodsir Smith (Ed.): Gavin Douglas: A selection from his Poetry, Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd for The Saltire Society, 1959
- David FC Coldwell (Ed.): Selections from Gavin Douglas, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964
- Priscilla J. Bawcutt (Ed.): The Shorter Poems of Gavin Douglas, Edinburgh, Blackwood for The Scottish Text Society, 1967, reprinted in 2003
- The palis of honor [by] Gawyne Dowglas, Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; New York, Da Capo Press, 1969
- JA Tasioulas (Ed.): The Makars: the poems of Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas, Edinburgh, Canongate Books, 1999
literature
- Priscilla Bawcutt: Gavin Douglas, A Critical Study. Edinburgh University Press, 1976.
- Priscilla Bawcutt: New Light on Gavin Douglas, in: Renaissance in Scotland, Brill 1994, pp. 95-106
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ Makar is a Scottish bard or poet, in the narrower sense from the time of the Renaissance, next to Douglas Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Jacob I.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Douglas, Gavin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1474 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tantallon Castle |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 1522 |
| Place of death | London |