BARBOUR, John, the contemporary and in some respects the rival of Chaucer, is the author of a poem which may justly be described as a national work: it relates the exploits of a very heroic monarch, whose memory is still cherished by his countrymen, and it displays so conspicuous a union of talent and patriotism, that, after the lapse of nearly five centuries, it has not ceased to attract an uncommon degree of attention. The orthography of this poet’s name is very unsettled; it is to be found under the different forms of Barber, Barbere, Barbar, Barbare, and Barbour. It evidently belongs to that very numerous class of names originally derived from trades or occupations; but as Barbour appears to have been the ancient orthography of the word denoting this particular trade, there is sufficient propriety in adhering to the form now so generally adopted, and writing the name Barbour instead of Barber. Those authors who aver that he was born at Aberdeen, and educated in the abbey of Aberbrothick, seem to have substituted conjecture for evidence; no document which can enable us to ascertain the place of his birth or education has yet been discovered. His birth has been referred to the year 1316. When he describes the person of Randolph, says Lord Hailes, he seems to speak from personal observation; and as Randolph died in 1331 and Barbour in 1396, the poet, if we suppose him to have reached the age of eighty, would have been fifteen years old at the period of that illustrious warrior’s death.^[1. Hailes’s Annuls of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 3. ] This however is but a vague calculation, resting on no solid basis; for he neither professes to describe the person of Randolph from actual observation, [7:4:368]nor is his description so minute and graphic as to justify the inference-that he must have acquired his knowledge in this manner. It has been suggested by Dr Jamieson, that the strongest presumption of his having been born at so early a period, is to be found in the circumstance of his being a dignitary of the church in the year 1357. If we suppose him to have been born in 1316, he may have obtained this preferment about the age of forty; and the same learned writer remarks that it must have required very powerful interest to obtain it at a much earlier period. We are not however sufficiently acquainted with the details of his personal history, to be enabled to estimate the probability of his rapid promotion; but, according to the canon law, he could be regularly appointed an archdeacon at the age of twenty-five.^[2. Decretalia Gregorii IX. lib. i. tit. vi. cap. vii. §.2. ] We must therefore be content to leave conjectural dates as we found them, without attempting to decide whether he was born in 1316, 1326, or 1330; but more authentic notices of this venerable archdeacon have fortunately been preserved. On the 13th of August 1357, Edward III., on the application of the Scotish king, granted Barbour a safeconduct to visit the university of Oxford, accompanied by three students.^[3. Rymer, Faedera, tom. vi. p. 31. Rotulì Scotice, tom. i. p· 808. ] This instrument expressly mentions that they are to repair thither for the purpose of study, and of performing scholastic exercises; and it has been stated by a distinguished ornament of the university that Barbour studied there during the years 1357 and 1365.^[4. Warton’s Hist, of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 154. Price’s edit. ] But as the safeconduct describes him as archdeacon of Aberdeen, we cannot so easily admit that he comes under the common denomination of an academical student, if by this term we understand a person subjected to college discipline, and following a prescribed course of study; nor is it unreasonable to conclude that the scholastic exercises were solely to be performed by the three scholars who accompanied him. That he completed his studies in this celebrated university, is however sufficiently probable, though it must apparently have been at an earlier period of life. We may venture to infer, that on the present occasion he repaired to Oxford, as many individuals still repair to it, for the purpose of conferring with learned clerks, and of consulting books which he had no opportunity of consulting at home; and such a document may therefore be regarded as an honourable testimony of his love of learning. Nor is it the only document of this kind. There is another safeconduct, dated on the 6th of November 1364, and authorizing the archdeacon of Aberdeen to visit England with four horsemen, in order to study at Oxford or elsewhere, as he may judge expedient;^[5. Rotuli Scotiae, tom. i. p. 886. ] and a third, dated on the 30th of November 1368, authorizes him to travel through England with two servants and two horses, on his way towards France for the same purpose of study.^[6. Rotuli Scotiae, tom. i. p. 926. ] On the 13th of September 1357, the bishop of his diocese had nominated him one of the commissioners who were to meet at Edinburgh, to deliberate concerning the ransom of the captive king;^[7. Rymer, Foedera, tom. vi. p. 39. ] but as he must then have received his passportfor Oxford, it is conjectured that this nomination was only intended as a compliment, and that the actual duty was to devolve on a coadjutor, who is named in the same instrument. On the 16th of October 1365 Edward had granted him permission to travel through England, with six companions on horseback, towards St Denis and other sacred places;^[8. Rymer, tom. vi. p. 478. Rotuli Scotiae, tom. i. p. 897. ] an expression which seems to indicate that the object of his expedition was of a religious nature. After an interval of several years, his name occurs in another authentic record; namely, in the list of the auditors of exchequer, appointed on the 18th of February 1373, or, according to our present computation, 1374. Here he is described as archdeacon of Aberdeen, and “clericus probacionis domus domini nostri Regis and in the same commission we find the name of Sir Hugh Eglintoun.^[9. Accounts of the Great Chamberlains of Scotland, vol ii. p. 19. ]

About this period, he was engaged in the composition of the work which has transmitted his name to posterity; for it appears from his own statement that in the year 1375 his work was more than half-finished.^[10. And in the tyme of the compiling Off this buk, this Robert wes king, And off his kynrik passit was Fyve yer; and wes the yer off grace A thousand, thre hundyr, sevynty And fyve, and off his eld sixty. ( Barbour’s Bruce, p. 274, Jamieson’s edit.) ] Dr Henry has stated, but apparently without any competent authority, that it was undertaken at the request of David IL, the son and successor of the heroic monarch whose actions the author commemorates; and that a considerable pension was granted to him as an encouragement to prosecute this design.^[11. Henry’s Hist. of Great Britain, vol. iv. p. 472. ] It is to be recollected that David died in 1371, several years before Barbour had written one half of his poem. The history of his pension was involved in much obscurity, which has at length been removed by the researches of Dr Jamieson. Hume of Godscroft had affirmed that his merit as the author of this poem was rewarded by a pension from the exchequer during his life, that he transferred this pension to the hospital of Aberdeen, and that it still continued to be paid in his own lifetime.^[12. Hume’s Hist, of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, p. 31. Edinb. 1644, fol. ] The terms of this statement are evidently at variance with each other; but the fact of his having received a pension, or rather two different pensions, from the crown, rests on unquestionable authority; and this fact cannot but be regarded as creditable to the government of his country, nor must the extent of such liberality be estimated by so fallacious a standard as the present value of money. At a much later period, Hector Boyce enjoyed a revenue of forty marks, as principal of King’s College, Aberdeen. Barbour’s pensions consisted of ten pounds payable from the customs of Aberdeen, and twenty shillings payable from the rent of the lands and fisheries which that city held of the crown.^[13. Accounts of the Great Chamberlains of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 128. 153—With respect to these pensions, many subsequent entries occur. Ibid. ] The first was merely an annuity for his life, but the other was granted to him and his assignees, with an express permission to dispose of it in mortmain; and it appears from the records to have been granted by Robert II. as a reward for the composition of his historical poem.^[14. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 269. Jamieson’s Memoir of the Life of Barbour p. viii. ] This sum he did not bequeath to the hospital, but to the dean and chapter of Aberdeen, under the condition that they [7:4:369]should say a yearly mass for the repose of his soul.^[15. Accounts, vol. ii. p. 402. ] His larger pension seems likewise to have been conferred by the same king; and although this circumstance has not been traced in any record, it was probably conferred for the same reason.

Although the Pruce is the only work of Barbour that is known to be extant, it is not the only work of which he was the author. He appears to have written another book, doubtless in rhyme, comprising a genealogical history of the kings of Scotland, and deducing their origin from the Trojan colony of Brutus.^[16. With respect to the story of the Trojan origin of another nation, “Ueber die Sage von der Trojanischen Abkunft der Franken,” some curious notices may be found in W. C. Grimm’s Adtdanìsche Heldenlieder, Balladen, und Märchen, S. 431. Heidelberg, 1811, 8vo. ] We may venture to conclude that his principal materials were drawn from very dubious sources; but although the historical value of this production may not have been very conspicuous, it would undoubtedly have been regarded as a curious relique of the literature of the middle ages. The existence of such a work is fully established by various passages in Winton’s chronicle.
This Nynus had a sone alsua,
Sere Dardane lord of Frygia.
Fra quham Barbere sutely
Has made a propyr Genealogy,
Tyl Robert oure secownd kyng,
That Scotland had in governyng.^[17. Winton’s Cronykil of Scotland, vol. i. p. 26. ]
Of Bruttus lyneage quha wyll her,
He luk the tretis of Barbere,
Mad in-tyl a Genealogy
Rycht wele, and mare perfytly
Than I can on ony wys
Wytht all my wyt to yowe dewys.^[18. Ibid. vol. i. p. 54—Another early poet mentions Barbour as the author of different works. Master Barbour, quhilk was a worthi clerk, He said the Bruce amang his othir werk. ( Henry’s Wallace, p. 353.) ]

It is apparently the same book which the prior of Lochleven repeatedly quotes under the title of the Brute; and we agree with Dr Jamieson in thinking it highly probable that this book is quoted by Barbour himself in the subsequent passage.
Als Arthur, that throw chevalry
Maid Bretane maistres and lady
Off twelf kinrykis that he wan;
And alsua, as a noble man,
He wan throw bataill Fraunce all fre,
And Lucius Yber wencusyt he,
That then of Rome was emperour;
Bot yeit, for all his gret valour,
Mordreyt his systir son him slew,
And gud men als ma than inew,
Throw tresoune and throw wikkitnes;
The Broite beris thairoff wytnes.^[19. Barbour’s Bruce, p. 20. ]

The archdeacon, as has already been hinted, died in 1396;^[20. Chartulary of Aberacen, f. 115. ] and as he had enjoyed his preferment for at least thirty-nine years, he must evidently have reached an advanced period of life. His character, if we may be allowed to form a conjecture from the general strain of his work, was of an amiable kind; and his name has long been respected by his countrymen. The earliest edition of the Bruce which has hitherto been traced was published at Edinburgh in 1616; but, as Patrick Gordon, whose poem was licensed in 1613, describes it as “the old printed book,”^[21. Gordon’s Famous Historie of the renounea and valiant Prince Robert, surnamed the Bruse, King of Scotland. Dort, 1615, 4to. ] there is reason to believe that the first impression is of a much earlier date. Several other editions appeared in the course of the seventeenth century; “and there are many later editions of no value, published by different booksellers, to answer the demand of the common people for this book; which, to the credit of their good sense, is very great.”^[22. Pinkerton’s List of the Scotish Poets, p. lxxxiii. ] χV more elaborate edition was at length published by Mr Pinkerton, from a manuscript in the Advocates Library; but as the transcript was neither executed by himself, nor under his immediate inspection, many gross inaccuracies were suffered to escape.^[23. The Bruce; or, the History of Robert I. King of Scotland: written in Scottish verse by John Barbour. The first genuine edition, published from a manuscript dated 1489; with notes and a glossary by J. Pinkerton. Lond. 1790, 3 vols. 8vo. ] After an interval of thirty years, another edition, the best that has yet appeared, was published by Dr Jamieson from a more careful collation of the same manuscript.^[24. The Bruce and Wallace; published from two ancient manuscripts preserved in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates: with notes, graphical sketches, and a glossary. Edinb. 1820, 2 vols. 4to. ] This appears from the colophon to have been transcribed in 1489, by John Ramsay, who is supposed to be the same person that was afterwards prior of the Carthusian monastery at Perth. The transcript was executed at the request of Simon Lochmalony, vicar of Moonsic; and thus every individual more immediately concerned, the poet, the copyist, and his employer, belonged to the church.

When we endeavour to appreciate the literary merit of Barbour, we must at the same time endeavour to transport ourselves to the remote and unrefined age in which he lived; we must recollect the general barbarism of many preceding centuries, the difficulty of acquiring liberal knowledge, the rude and grotesque taste of almost all his contemporaries. When all these circumstances are duly considered, his poem will be found entitled to an ample share of our approbation. Fortunate in the choice of a subject, he has unfolded a series of remarkable events, and has diffused over a very long narrative that lively interest which an ordinary writer is incapable of exciting. Here we are not to expect the blandishments of modern poetry: the author stands conspicuous amid the ruins of time, and, like an undecayed Gothic tower, presents an aspect of majestic simplicity. The lively strain of his narrative, the air of sincerity which he always exhibits, his earnest participation in the success or sufferings of his favourite characters, as well as the splendid attributes of the characters themselves, cannot fail of arresting the attention of every reader familiarly acquainted with the language in which he writes. The age of the great King Robert was the age of Scotish chivalry, and the monarch himself presented the most perfect model of a valiant knight. Whatever inconsistencies may have appeared in his early conduct, the best portion of his life was undoubtedly spent in the exercise of heroic valour or of political wisdom. Such a hero and such a crisis were a most fortunate selection; and although the intrinsic merit of the poet is very conspicuous, yet the attraction of the poem is partly to be ascribed to his judicious choice of a subject.

Barbour was evidently skilled in such branches of knowledge as were then cultivated, and his learning was so well regulated as to conduce to the real improvement of his mind: the liberality of his views, and the humanity of his [7:4:370] sentiments, appear occasionally to have been unconfined by· the narrow boundaries of his own age. He has drawn various illustrations from ancient history and from the stories of romance, but has rarely displayed his erudition by decking his verses with the names of ancient authors: the distichs of Cato,^[25. And Catone sayis ws in his wryt, That to fenyhe íbly quhile is wyt. ( Barbour’s Bruce, p. 13.) This passage evidently refers to the collection of distichs which bears the name of Dionysius Cato, whom Chaucer likewise calls Caton or Cathon; a circumstance which, as Mr Warton remarks, shews that he was more familiarly known from the French translation than from the Latin original. Insipiens esto quum tempus postulat aut res: Stultitiam simulare loco, prudentia summa est. (Catonis Disticha, lib. ii. 18.) This work of Cato was held in the highest estimation during the middle ages, and it has been translated into Greek, Anglo-Saxon. German, French, and English. It comprehends a series of moral lessons, which are often conveyed with a considerable degree of terseness and compression. ' The author possesses so much purity of diction, that Joseph Scaliger supposes he cannot have flourished subsequently to the reign of Commodus or Severus; and Hen. Cannegieter, who was alike conversant with philology and the civil law, has employed several arguments, drawn from the history of the Roman jurisprudence, to prove that this poet must at least have preceded the reign of Constantine. (Rescripta Boxhornìi de Catone, cap. xviii.) Cato, for example, speaks of divorcing a wife, if she should become troublesome, “si coeperit esse molesta.” (Lib. iii. 13.) But after the law of divorce had been modified by that emperor, it was not competent for a husband to dismiss his. wife, merely because he did not find her agreeable. {Codex Theodosianus, lib. iii. tit· x . vι, ) The most complete edition of Dionysii Catonis Disticha de Moribus ad Filium, is the second published by Otto Arntzenius. Amst. 1754, 8vo. It contains the notes of many learned commentators, the Greek versions of Planudes and Scaliger, with the dissertation of Boxhornius, and the very copious reply of Cannegieter. ] and the spurious productions of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis are the only profane books to which he formally refers. He has borrowed more than one illustration from Statius, who was the favourite classic of those times, and who likewise appears to have been the favourite of Barbour; the more chaste and elegant style of Virgil and Horace was not so well adapted to the prevalent taste, as the strained thoughts and gorgeous diction of Statius and Claudian. The manner in which he has incidentally discussed the subject of astrology and necromancy, may be specified as not a little creditable to his good sense. It is well known that these branches of divination were assiduously cultivated during the ages of intellectual darkness. The absurdity of astrology and necromancy he has not openly attempted to expose; for as the opinions of the many, however unfounded in reason, must not be too rashly stigmatized, this might have been too bold and decided a step. Of the possibility of predicting events he speaks with the caution of a philosopher; but the following passage may be considered as a sufficient indication of his deliberate sentiments:
And sen thai ar in sic wenyng,
For owtyue certante off witting,
Me think quha sayis he knawis thingis
To cum, he makys gret gabingis.^[26. Barbour, p. 88. ]

To form such an estimate, required a mind capable of resisting a strong torrent of prejudice; nor is it superfluous to remark, that in an age of much higher refinement, Dryden suffered himself to be deluded by the prognostications of judicial astrology.^[27. Johnson’s Lives of English Poets, vol. ii. p. 109. ] It was not however to be expected that Barbour should on every occasion evince a decided superiority to the general spirit of the age to which lie belonged. His terrible imprecation on the person who betrayed Sir Christopher Seton, “In hell condampnyt mot he be !” ought not to have been uttered by a Christian priest. His detestation of the treacherous and cruel King Edward induced him to lend a credulous ear to the report of his consulting an infernal spirit. The misfortunes which attended Bruce at almost every step of his early progress, he attributes to his sacrilegious act of slaying Comyn at the high altar. He supposes that the women and children who assisted in supplying the brave defenders of Berwick with arrows and stones, were protected from injury by a miraculous interposition. Such instances of superstition or uncharitable zeal are not to be viewed as marking the individual: gross superstition, with its usual concomitants, was the general spirit of the time; and the deviations from the ordinary track are to be traced in examples of liberal feeling or enlightened judgment.

His encomium on political freedom is distinguished by a manly and dignified strain of sentiment:
A! fredome is a noble thing!
Fredome mayss a man to haiff liking
Fredome all solace to man giffis:
He levys at ess that frely levys.
A noble hart may haiff’ nane ess,
Na ellys nocht that may him pless,
Gyff fredome failyhe; for fre liking
Is yharnyt our all othir thing.
Na he that ay hass levyt fre,
May nocht knaw weill the propyrte,
The angyr, na the wrechyt dome
That is cowplyt to foule thyrldome.
Bot gyff he had assayit it,
Than all perquer he suld it wyt,
And suld think fredome mar to pryss
Than all the gold in warld that is.^[28. Barbour, p. 10. ]

From the satisfaction with which the poet seems to contemplate any example of the gentler virtues, we may venture to draw a favourable inference respecting the native benevolence of his disposition. The subsequent passage cannot be passed without particular notice: the annals of heroes furnish but few instances of so pleasing a nature, whether it be that heroes seldom stoop to actions of mere benevolence,^[29. Ch yα l o Kaκavt ∖τoιμc∣ μaλλo'; ń ivtζγtτt∣v∙ ( Menandri Fragmenta, p. 158. edit. Meineke .) ] or that their historians do not think it of much importance to transmit such actions to posterity.
The king has hard a woman cry;
He askyt quhat that wės in hy.
“It is the layndar, Schyr,” said ane,
“That her child-ill rycht now has tane,
" And mon leve now behind ws her;
" Tharfor scho makys yoιιe iwill cher.”
The king said, “Certis it war pite
“That scho in that poynt left suld be;
“For certis I trow tharis na man
“That be ne will rew a woman than.”
Hiss ost all thar arestyt he,
And gert a tent sone stentit be,
And gert hyr gang in hastily,
And othyr wemen to be hyr by,
Quhill scho wes deliuer, he bad,
And syne furth on his wayis raid:
And how scho furth suld caryit be,
Or euir he furth fur, ordanyt he.
[7:4:371]
This wes a full gret curtasy,
That swilk a king, and sa mighty,
Gert his men duell on this maner
Bot for a pouir lauender.^[30. Barbour, p. 320. ] l

Barbour seems to have been acquainted with those nicer springs of human action which elude vulgar observation; he catches the shades of character with a delicate eye, and sometimes presents us with instances of nice discrimination. His work is not a mere narrative of events; it contains specimens of that minute and distinct delineation which marks the hand of a skilful artist. An illustration of this remark may perhaps be found in the following incident. When Bruce has with his single arm defended a narrow pass against a party of two hundred Gallovidians, his soldiers are represented as flocking around him with the same eager curiosity as if they had never had another opportunity of seeing him.
Syk wordis spak thai of the king,
And for his hey wndertaking
Farlyit, and yarnyt hym to se,
That with hym ay wes wont to be.^[31. Barbour, p. 118. ]

In the opinion of an exquisite critic, Barbour has adorned the English language by a strain of versification, expression, and poetical imagery, far superior to the age.^[32. Warton’s History of English Poetry, vol. ii. p. 154. ] And Dr Nott remarks that he “had given his countrymen a fine example of the simple energetic style, which resembled Chaucer’s best manner, and wanted little to make it the genuine language of poetry.”^[33. Nott's Dissertation on the State of English Poetry before the sixteenth Century (p. exc.), prefixed to the Works of Surrey and Wyatt. Lond. 1815, 2 vols. 4to. ] The best method of estimating the merit of his versification, will be to compare it with that of some English poet who flourished about the same period; and, if placed in competition with the versification of Chaucer, Gower, or Lydgate, the most celebrated English poets of that era, it must certainly be admitted to appear with sufficient advantage. Although a general conclusion cannot safely be drawn from a particular instance, it may yet be worth while to compare the following quotations from Chaucer and Barbour:
The byrdes that han lefft her songe,
Whyle they han suffred colde full stronge
In wethers grylle, and derke to syght,
Ben in May, for the sunne bryght,
So glad that they shewe in syngyng
That in her herte is suche lyking,
That they mote syngen and ben lyght:
Than doth the nyghtyngale her myght
To maken noyse and syngen blythe;
Than is blysfull many a sythe
The chelaundre and the popyngay;
Than yonge folke entenden aye
For to ben gay and amarous,
The tyme is than so sauorious.^[34. Chaucer’s Romaunte of the Rose: Workes, f. cxxviii. edit. Lond. 1542, fol. ]
This wes in ver, quhen wynter tid,
With his blastis hidwyss to bid,
Was our drywyn, and byrdis smale,
As turturis and the nychtyngale,
Begouth rycht sariely to synge,
And for to mak in thair singyng
Swete notis, and sownys ser,
And melodys piesand to her;
And the treis begouth to ma
Burgeans, and brycht blomys alsua,
To wyn the helyng off their hewid,
That wykkyt wyntir had thaim rewid.^[35. Barbour, p. 89. ]

Here the versification of Barbour is certainly not inferior o that of Chaucer; but we have no intention to aver that the general merit of the two poets is equal. Chaucer has attempted a great variety of subjects, and, for the most part, with eminent success. His measures are also varied; , and, if we compare his versification with that of preceding poets, or indeed with that of his immediate successors, it will be found entitled to high commendation. He reformed the taste and improved the language of his native country. The merit of Barbour, though more circumscribed, is yet so eminent as to entitle him to a very honourable place in the history of British poetry.

The style of this poet is distinguished by its terseness, and he often exhibits a happy brevity of expression. His work contains a greater proportion of French idioms than we discover in the writings of the preceding Scotish poets, though their positive number is far from being considerable. Fiction is not inseparably connected with verse. The historical merit of Barbour’s poem has been admitted by very competent judges; and, among others, Lord Hailes has repeatedly acknowledged the general fidelity of his narrative. King Robert died in 1329; and, as Barbour was employed in writing his poem within forty-six years from that period, he must have enjoyed many opportunities of collecting information. He might himself have conversed with warriors who fought at Bannockburn; and on one occasion he quotes the authority of a valiant knight, Sir Allan Catheart, who was personally engaged in a particular exploit which he is about to relate.
A knycht, that then wes in his rowt,
Worthi and wycht, stalwart and stout,
Curtaiss and fayr, and off gud fame,
Schyr Alane off Catkert by name,
Tauld me this taile, as I sail tell.^[36. Barbour, p. 183. ]

Of the general merit of Barbour’s work, so favourable an estimate has been formed by Mr Pinkerton, that it may not be improper here to produce his testimony. “Perhaps the editor may be accused of nationality, when he says, that, taking the total merits of this work together, he prefers it to the early exertions of even the Italian muse, to the melancholy sublimity of Dante, and the amorous quaintness of Petrarca, as much as M. Le Grand does a fabliau to a Provencal ditty. Here indeed the reader will find few of the graces of fine poetry, little of the Attic dress of the muse; but here are life, and spirit, and ease, and plain sense, and pictures of real manners, and perpetual incident, and entertainment. The language is remarkably good for the time, and far superior in neatness and elegance even to that of Gawin Douglas, who wrote more than a century after. But when we consider that our author is not only the first poet, but the earliest historian of Scotland, who has entered into any detail, and from whom any view of the real state and manners of the country can be had; and that the hero whose life he paints so minutely, was a monarch equal to the greatest of modern times; let the historical and poetical merits of his work be weighed together, and then opposed to those of any other early poet of the present nations in Europe.”^[37. Pinkerton’s Preface to Barbour, p. x. ] (x.)