George Bannatyne

George Bannatyne Poems

George Bannatyne Biography

George Bannatyne (1545–1608), collector of Scottish poems that were very dramatic and emotional, was a native of Newtyle, Angus. He became an Edinburgh merchant and was admitted a burgess in 1587. Some years earlier, in 1568, when the "pest" raged in the capital, he retired to his native county and amused himself by writing out copies of poems by 15th and early 16th century Scot poets. His work extended to eight hundred folio pages, divided into five parts. The manuscript descended to his only daughter Janet, and later to her husband's family, the Foulises of Woodhall and Ravelston, near Edinburgh. From them it passed to the Advocates' library, where it is still preserved. This manuscript, known as the Bannatyne Manuscript, constitutes with the Asloan and Maitland Folio manuscripts the chief repository of Middle Scots poetry, especially for the texts of the greater poets Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, David Lyndsay and Alexander Scott. Portions of it were reprinted (with modifications) by Allan Ramsay in his Ever Green (1724), and later, and more correctly, by Lord Hailes in his Ancient Scottish Poems (1770). The entire text was issued by the Hunterian Club (1873–1902) in a handsome and generally accurate form. The name of Bannatyne was honoured in 1823 by the foundation in Edinburgh of the Bannatyne Club, devoted to the publication of historical and literary material from Scottish sources. The thirty-third issue of the club (1829) was Memorials of George Bannatyne (1545–1608), with a memoir by Sir Walter Scott and an account of the manuscript by David Laing.)

The Best Poem Of George Bannatyne

In Praise Of His Mistress

As Phebus bricht in speir merediane,
E of the warld, and lamp Etheriall,
Passis the licht that cleipit is Dyane,
Quhen scho is lucent, round as ony ball;
And Lucifair all vther sternis small;
My lady so in bewty dois abound
Aboif all vthir ladeis on the ground.

Hir hair displayit as the goldin wyre,
Aboif hir heid with bemys radient,
Is lyk ane bus that birnys in the fyre
With flammys reid but fumys elevant;
War nocht scho is sum thing to variant,
I mycht of ressone say, that dame Nature
Formit nevirb in erd so fair a creature.

My hairt, that nevir wes thirlit vnto wicht,
In deidly dwalmys sowpit is for evir,
For luvc of hir that is my lady bricht,
Quhois plesant hals is quhytter tha the Evir,
Or snaw but spot that fallis in the revir;
The fragrant balme of odour confortatyve
May nocht for sweitness with hir lippis stryve.

Thow drery gost, that dwynnis in dispair,
Pass with this bill vnto my lady sueit,
And, in to presens of hir visage fair,
Vpone thy kneis thow fall befoir hir feit,
Askand hir mercy with thy cheikis weit,
To comfort me of my woundis smert
Quhome dart of luve hest persit throw the hert.

Sen Athropos my fatell threid hes worne,
In plenyng soir, and rewthfull womenting,
And that asperans is non vnto the morne,
Of my pure hairt dyand in lang vysing
Thow bury my corps but ony tareing;
For Acteon wes slanit at the well,
Be wreth of Dyane with his awin houndis fell.

O thunderane boir, in thy most awfull rege,
Quhy will thow nocht me with thy tuskis ryve ?
Sen no thing may my grevous paine assuage
Bot scho, quhilk is the revar of my lyve;
With sichis soir and cairis pungetyve,
Quhairthrow my blude resoluit is in teiris,
And yit no rewth in to hir hairt appeiris.

God gife it wer my fatell aventure
To fecht aganis hir fay is to the deid,
With speir and scheild, and all that I micht furc,
To pruve hir flour and well of womanheid !
Howbeit it wer noclit to my lyfe remeid;
It wald me suffyis, sen that scho hes no maik,
Till end my lyfe in battell for hir saik !

Yit I beseik hir for the grit delyte
That semyt in hir bewty naturall,
With rewthfull presens of hir visage quhyt,
Scho wald decoir my feistis funerall!
That luvaris mycht espy in generall
Gife that hir ene for weping mycht indure
To luk vpoun my rewthfull sepulture.

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