John Barbour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | c. 1320 |
| Died | 13 March 1395 (agedc. 75) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation(s) | churchman and poet |
| Notable work | The Brus |
John Barbour (c.1320 – 13 March 1395) was aScottish poet and the first major named literary figure to write inScots. His principal surviving work is the historical verse romance,The Brus (TheBruce), and his reputation from this poem is such that other long works in Scots which survive from the period are sometimes thought to be by him. He is known to have written a number of other works, but other titles definitely ascribed to his authorship, such asThe Stewartis Oryginalle (Genealogy of theStewarts) andThe Brut (Brutus), are now lost.
Barbour was latterly Archdeacon of theDiocese of Aberdeen in Scotland. He also studied inOxford andParis. Although he was a man of the church, his surviving writing is stronglysecular in both tone and themes. His principal patron wasRobert II and evidence of his promotion and movements before Robert Stewart came to power as king tend to suggest that Barbour acted politically on the future king's behalf.[1]
He died in 1395, probably inAberdeen.
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John Barbour may have been born around 1320 if the record of his age in 1375 as 55 is correct. His birthplace is not known, thoughAberdeenshire andGalloway have made rival claims.
Barbour's first appearance in the historical record comes in 1356 with promotion to thearchdeaconry of Aberdeen from a post he had held for less than a year inDunkeld Cathedral. It is inferred from this that he was also present inAvignon in 1355.[1] In 1357, whenDavid II returned to Scotland from exile and was restored to active kingship, Barbour received a letter of safe-conduct to travel through England to theUniversity of Oxford. He subsequently appears to have left the country in other years coincidental with periods when David II was active king.
After the death of David II in 1371, Barbour served in the royal court of Robert II in a number of capacities. It was during this time that he composed,The Brus, receiving for this in 1377 the gift of tenpounds Scots, and in 1378 a life-pension of twenty shillings. He held various posts in the king's household. In 1372 he was one of the auditors ofexchequer and in 1373 a clerk of audit.
The only biographical evidence for his closing years is his signature as a witness to sundry deeds in the "Register of Aberdeen" in 1392. According to the obit-book ofSt Machar's Cathedral,Aberdeen he died on 13 March 1395 and state records show that his life-pension was not paid after that date. Barbour made provision for amass to be sung for himself and his parents, an instruction that was observed in theCathedral of St Machar until theReformation.
The Brus, Barbour's major surviving work, is a longnarrative poem written while he was a member of the king's household in the 1370s. Its subject is the ultimate success of the prosecution of theFirst War of Scottish Independence. Its principal focus isRobert the Bruce andSir James Douglas, but the second half of the poem also features actions of Robert II'sStewart forebears in the conflict.
Barbour's purpose in the poem was partly historical and partly patriotic. He celebrates The Bruce (Robert I) and Douglas throughout as the flowers of Scottishchivalry. The poem opens with a description of the state ofScotland at the death ofAlexander III (1286) and concludes (more or less) with the death of Douglas and the burial of the Bruce'sheart (1332). Its central episode is theBattle of Bannockburn.
Patriotic as the sentiment is, this is expressed in more general terms than is found in laterScottish literature. In the poem, Robert I's character is a hero of the chivalric type common in contemporary romance,Freedom is a "noble thing" to be sought and won at all costs, and the opponents of such freedom are shown in the dark colours which history and poetic propriety require, but there is none of the complacency of the merely provincial habit of mind.
Barbour's style in the poem is vigorous, his line generally fluid and quick, and there are passages of high merit. The most quoted part is Book 1, lines 225-228:
A! fredome is a noble thing!
Fredome mayss man to haiff liking;
Fredome all solace to man giffis:
He levys at ess that frely levys!
One of Barbour's known lost works isThe Stewartis Oryginalle which is described as having traced thegenealogy of the Stewarts. The Stewart name replaced that of Bruce in the Scottish royal line when Robert II acceded to the throne after the death ofDavid II, his uncle.
Robert II was Barbour's royalpatron. It is not known how the work came to be lost.
Attempts have been made to name Barbour as the author of theBuik of Alexander, a Scots translation of theRoman d'Alexandre and other associated pieces. This translation borrows much fromThe Brus. It survives and is known to us from the unique edition printed inEdinburgh, c. 1580, byAlexander Arbuthnot.
Another possible work was added to Barbour's canon with the discovery in the library of theUniversity of Cambridge, byHenry Bradshaw, of a long Scots poem of over 33,000 lines, dealing withLegends of the Saints, as told in theLegenda Aurea and otherlegendaries. The general likeness of this poem to Barbour's accepted work in verse-length,dialect and style, and the facts that the lives ofEnglish saints are excluded and those ofSt. Machar (the patron saint ofAberdeen) andSt. Ninian are inserted, make this ascription plausible. Later criticism, though divided, has tended in the contrary direction, and has based its strongest negative judgement on the consideration of rhymes, assonance and vocabulary.
As "father" of Scots poetry, Barbour holds a place in the Scotland's literary tradition similar to the position often given toChaucer, his contemporary,vis à vis the vernacular tradition inEngland. If he truly was the author of the five or six long works in Scots which different witnesses ascribe to him, then he would have been one of the most voluminous writers ofEarly Scots, if not the most voluminous of all Scots poets. But his authorship ofThe Brus alone, both for its original employment of the chivalric genre, and as a tale of a struggle against tyranny,[2] secures his place as an important and innovative literary voice who broke new linguistic ground.
Works by or aboutJohn Barbour atWikisource| Religious titles | ||
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| Preceded by | Archdeacon of Aberdeen x 1357–1395 | Succeeded by |
