Dunbar, William
Dunbar, William (c.1460–c.1520). Widely regarded as the greatest of the late medieval Scottish makars (poets), Dunbar may have been a Franciscan novice and student at St Andrews early in life; but apart from the evidence of his poetry, little is known of the man outside the period 1500–13, when he received an annual pension from James IV, increasing from £10 in 1500 to a generous £80 by 1510.
Dunbar's work covers a vast range—formal court poetry like ‘The Thrissell and the Rois’ (1503), celebrating the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor; satire, as in his ‘Remonstrance to the King’ or the lampoons of Damian, alchemist and would-be aviator; and personal meditative poems, above all the grim ‘Lament for the Makaris’ (1508). Taken as a whole, Dunbar's poetry, embracing heady confidence, complaints about corruption, and bleak despondency, reflects the changing national mood in James IV's Scotland.
Dunbar's work covers a vast range—formal court poetry like ‘The Thrissell and the Rois’ (1503), celebrating the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor; satire, as in his ‘Remonstrance to the King’ or the lampoons of Damian, alchemist and would-be aviator; and personal meditative poems, above all the grim ‘Lament for the Makaris’ (1508). Taken as a whole, Dunbar's poetry, embracing heady confidence, complaints about corruption, and bleak despondency, reflects the changing national mood in James IV's Scotland.
Norman Macdougall
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Dunbar, William