Introduction

Biography

Dunbar was a Scot­tish po­et, or ma­kar, ac­tive in the late 15th and early 16th Cen­tu­ries.

He was prob­ab­ly a na­tive of East Lo­thi­an, as as­sumed from a sa­ti­ri­cal ref­er­ence in the Flyt­ing of Dun­bar and Ken­ne­die, where it is al­so hint­ed that he was a mem­ber of the no­ble house of Dun­bar.

Dunbar first ap­pears in the his­to­ri­cal re­cord in 1474 as a new stu­dent, or de­ter­mi­nant, of the Fa­cul­ty of Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. An­drews. Since the cus­to­ma­ry age for en­ter­ing a Scot­tish uni­ver­si­ty at that time was 14, a birth date of 1459 or 1460 has been as­sumed.

At Saint An­drews, he earned a ba­che­lor’s de­gree in 1477 and a ma­ster’s de­gree in 1479. De­tails from his lat­er life sug­gest he was or­dained as a priest at some point, but the date is un­known.

In 1491 and 1492, Dun­bar ac­com­pa­nied an em­bas­sy to Den­mark-Nor­way and France in an un­known ca­pa­ci­ty. In 1501 and 1502 he par­ti­ci­pat­ed in an em­bas­sy to Eng­land on the staff of Bi­shop An­drew For­man of Mo­ray.

From 1500, Dun­bar served as Court Po­et to James IV of Scot­land, and pro­duced a large bo­dy of work in Scots. It is in this pe­ri­od that the bulk of his po­et­ry is dat­ed.

Several piec­es were in hon­or of great ev­ents of state. For ex­am­ple, his short work To the Prin­cess Mar­ga­ret marked the ar­ri­val of Mar­ga­ret of Eng­land in­to Scot­land and the ex­tend­ed al­le­go­ry The Thriss­il and the Rois com­me­mo­rates her mar­riage to King James.

His po­et­ry was not lim­it­ed to com­me­mo­ra­tive works. It ranged from de­vout re­li­gious piec­es such as The Ta­bill of Con­fess­ion through me­di­ta­tions such as the La­ment for the Ma­kars to en­ter­tain­ments ty­pi­fied by the no­to­rio­us Flyt­ing with Ken­ne­dy and sa­tires in­clud­ing The Feny­eit Freir of Tung­land.

A num­ber of his works of the time are per­son­al pe­ti­tions to the king, ask­ing for fa­vors, oft­en re­quest­ing that he be ap­point­ed to an of­fice in the church, re­ferred to by Dun­bar as a be­ne­fice. Se­ver­al po­ems en­ti­tled To the King are ty­pi­cal.

Several of Dun­bar’s po­ems were in­clud­ed in the Chep­man and Myl­lar prints of 1508, the first books to be print­ed in Scot­land.

In 1510, his an­nu­al pen­sion was set at £80 Scots. In com­pa­ri­son, Dun­bar’s con­tem­po­ra­ry, Hec­tor Boece, re­ceived an an­nu­al salary of £26,13s Scots for his role as Prin­ci­pal of King’s Col­lege, Ab­er­deen.

The last re­li­able ref­er­ence to Dun­bar is in the Trea­sur­er’s Ac­counts for May 1513, where he is re­cord­ed re­ceiv­ing a pay­ment of his pen­sion. James IV died at Flod­den in Sep­tem­ber of the same year.

In the dis­lo­ca­tion that fol­lowed, the Trea­sur­er’s ac­counts cease for a pe­ri­od and, when re­sumed in 1515, Dun­bar is no long­er re­cord­ed as be­ing em­ployed by the crown.

A po­em, Qu­hen the Gov­er­nour Past in France, des­crib­ing the de­part­ure of the Re­gent Al­ba­ny for France in 1517, is at­trib­ut­ed to Dun­bar in the Mait­land Ma­nu­scripts, sug­gest­ing he was still ac­tive at that time. But in Da­vid Lynd­say’s 1530 The Tes­ta­ment and Com­playnt of the Pa­pyn­go, Dun­bar is re­ferred to as be­ing de­ceased. The ex­act date of his death re­mains un­known.