page_title: Castalian Band
section_title: "Brethren" of the Castalian Band
hierarchical_section_title: Castalian Band / "Brethren" of the Castalian Band
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of James VI of Scotland, later James I of Engliand (1566-1625), 1585.
context_page_description: The Castalian Band is a modern name given to a grouping of Scottish Jacobean poets, or makars, which is said to have flourished between the 1580s and early 1590s in the court of James VI and consciously modelled on the French example of the Pléiade. Its name is derived from the classical term Castalian Spring, a symbol for poetic inspiration. The name has often been claimed as that which the King used to refer to the group, as in lines from one of his own poems, an epitaph on his friend Alexander Montgomerie:
  Quhat drowsie sleepe doth syle your eyes allace
  Ye sacred brethren of Castalian band
  — James VI
  The notion of the 'Castalian band' in 20th-century scholarship derives in the main from a 1969 book by Helena Mennie Shire. It was H. Mennie Shire and her collaborator Kenneth Elliot – who had produced The Music of Scotland – who drew particular attention to the verse lines by James, remarking that "It has been well suggested that King James' name for his poets at court, or their name for themselves, was 'the brethren of Castalian band.'" However, apart from this verse, no scholar has produced any clear evidence for any such self-aware grouping.
context_section_description: The circle of poets with known connections to the Scottish court include:
  King James VI
  Alexander Montgomerie (c. 1544–1598?)
  Patrick Hume of Polwarth (c. 1550-1609)
  Alexander Hume (c. 1557–1609) the younger brother of Patrick Hume
  William Fowler (1560–1612)
  John Stewart of Baldynneis (c. 1567–1605)
  Thomas Hudson (d. 1605)
  Robert Hudson, brother of Thomas
  Membership was supposedly fluid and some figures, such as Montgomerie, were already established poets. French influences were particularly important for the King. James himself made translations of work by the Gascon soldier-poet du Bartas, and du Bartas in return translated James's own Lepanto. Du Bartas himself visited the Scottish Court on a diplomatic mission in 1587 during which time James unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to stay.
  Other 'Castalian' makars produced translation as well as original works. William Fowler, whose original poetry includes the sonnet sequence The Tarantula of Love, made translations from Petrarch, while John Stewart produced an abridged translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Many Scots translations predated first translations of the same works in England.
  Chief among the circle was arguably the soldier, courtier and makar Alexander Montgomerie.  He had achieved celebrity after victory over Patrick Hume in The Flyting Betwixt Montgomerie and Polwart (c.1583). His many works include public poems such as The Navigatioun, a long allegory called The Cherry and the Slae, some devotional poems, and a large number of personal court lyrics sometimes modelled on poets such as Ronsard. Sonnets on various themes include an autobiographical sequence that deftly charts frustration with "the law's delay". Even when Montgomerie came to be politically excluded from the court sometime in the mid-1590s as a result of his Catholic sympathies, he appears to have retained the affection of the King.
  The court also attracted figures from furth of Scotland. The brothers Thomas and Robert Hudson from the North of England, were appointed as by James not only as poets but as court musicians helping to lead the musical "revival" he regarded as going hand-in-hand with his literary programme. Thomas produced translations as well as original work. Under James' patronage he was another translator of du Bartas.
  Names on the fringes of court literary circles include:
  William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (1567–1640)
  Robert Aytoun (1569–1638)
  Alexander and Ayton later represented a more anglicised stream of Scottish writing. They came to prominence more properly after the Union of the Crowns. Ayton was one of the first Scottish poets to have written explicitly in English, while Alexander wrote rhymed tragedies in a genre sometimes referred to as closet drama and assisted the King in his metrical translations of the Psalms of David.
caption: James VI in 1585, aged 19. The "Danish portrait".
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