Gavin Douglas: The Palyce of Honour PDF
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Gavin Douglas The Palyce of Honour MIDDLE ENGLISH TEXTS SERIES GENERAL EDITOR Russell A. Peck University of Rochester ASSOCIATE EDITOR Alan Lupack University of Rochester ASSISTANT EDITOR Pamela M. Yee University of Rochester ADVISORY BOARD Theresa Coletti Michael Livingston University of Maryland The Citadel Rita Copeland Eve Salisbury University of Pennsylvania Western Michigan University Susanna Fein R. A. Shoaf Kent State University University of Florida Thomas G. Hahn Lynn Staley University of Rochester Colgate University David A. Lawton Bonnie Wheeler Washington University in St. Louis Southern Methodist University The Middle English Texts Series are scholarly texts designed for research and classroom use. Its goal is to make available to teachers, scholars, and students texts that occupy an important place in the literary and cultural canon but have not been readily available in print and online editions. The series does not include those authors, such as Chaucer, Langland, or Malory, whose English works are normally in print. The focus is, instead, upon Middle English literature adjacent to those authors that is needed for doing research or teaching. The editions maintain the linguistic integrity of the original work but within the parameters of modern reading conventions. The texts are printed in the modern alphabet and follow the practices of modern capitalization, word formation, and punctuation. Manu- script abbreviations are silently expanded, and u/v and j/i spellings are regularized according to modern orthography. Yogh (õ) is transcribed as g, gh, y, or s, according to the sound in Modern English spelling to which the medieval pronunciation corresponds; thorn (þ) and eth (ð) are transcribed as th. Distinction between the second person pronoun and the definite article is made by spelling the one thee and the other the, and final -e that receives full syllabic value is accented (e.g., charité). Hard words, difficult phrases, and unusual idioms are glossed either in the right margin or at the foot of the page. Explanatory and textual notes appear at the end of the text, often along with a glossary. The editions include short introductions on the history of the work, its merits and points of topical interest, and brief working bibliographies. Gavin Douglas The Palyce of Honour Edited by David Parkinson SECOND EDITION r Published for TEAMS (Teaching Association for Medieval Studies) in Association with the University of Rochester by MEDIEVAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS Kalamazoo, Michigan 2018 Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University Manufactured in the United States of America The Library of Congress has already cataloged the paperback and hardcover as follows: Names: Douglas, Gawin, 1474?-1522, author. | Parkinson, David John, 1956- editor. Title: The palyce of honour / Gavin Douglas ; edited by David Parkinson. Other titles: Palis of honoure Description: Second edition. | Kalamazoo, Michigan : Published for TEAMS (Teaching Association for Medieval Studies) in association with the University of Rochester by Medieval Institute Publications, 2018. | Series: Middle English texts series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018061512| ISBN 9781580443739 (hardback : alk. paper) |ISBN 9781580443722 (paperback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Scottish poetry--To 1700. | Poetry, Medieval. Classification: LCC PR2252 .P3 2018 | DDC 821/.2--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018061512 ISBN: 9781580443722 (paperback) ISBN: 9781580443739 (hardback) eISBN: 9781580444095 (PDF) r CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii INTRODUCTION 1 THE PALYCE OF HONOUR 57 EXPLANATORY NOTES 111 TEXTUAL NOTES 169 GLOSSARY 183 INDEX 203 BIBLIOGRAPHY 211 r PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Since the first Middle English Texts Series edition of The Palis of Honoure (1992), research into the literary culture and history of late fifteenth-century Scotland has produced much new knowledge relevant to Gavin Douglas and his poem. As discussed below, recent work on the text of the poem has strengthened the case for basing a new edition on the London print (William Copland, c.1553). The case has also been gaining momentum for rebuilding the 1992 edition into a more strongly-established Palyce with wider prospects. As will be apparent at various points throughout what follows, the distinctiveness of this new edition is based on some contentions that have gained clarity and substance. With its largely superficial flaws, Copland’s text of The Palis reflects linguistic and stylistic expectations and practices in late fifteenth-century Scotland. Through the lens of this text, the reader glimpses Douglas at work: his abiding interest in thoroughgoing, meaningful syncretism; his parallel refinement of form through the interweaving of disparate sources; a constant interplay of entertainment, prophecy, admonition, encomium, and downright foolery. Thus perceived through Copland’s Palis, The Palyce of Honour emerges afresh as both rootedly Scottish and largely accessible to readers south of the border. Part of its Scottishness is the ambition with which it is pitched to celebrate wider international developments in scholarship, even while its extraordinary range of implication assures its continued relevance at home. In these ways, it is very much a Douglas poem. Revisiting The Palis of Honoure in this spirit and rediscovering The Palyce has made possible a fresh look at fundamental aspects of text and interpretation. Throughout, the goal has been to consider what can be known of that “Palyce of Honour” (“Direction,” line 122) to which Douglas alluded at the end of his magnum opus, his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. To an unusual degree in The Palyce, Douglas produced an introduction to late- medieval learning, statecraft, poetics, and manners, as they prevailed in Scotland. Written at the very end of the fifteenth century, the poem looks back into established practices of education, literature, pastime, and good counsel, but also announces the beginnings of new models of textual analysis as a means of ethical development. Thus The Palyce is extraordinarily well placed to afford its readers a number of perspectives at a crystallizing moment that is also a moment of profound change. Turning as it does from Chaucerian (and Gowerian) to directly Ovidian and Virgilian models, for example, The Palyce shows Scottish literature gaining new freedom of scope and movement. Douglas prepares for this new age by looking to humanist learning for models that engage with Classical and Biblical traditions. He does so with an urgency that deserves closer attention than it has received. In this poem, he is taking seriously the challenge to the poet to draw upon the conduit of ancient learning in order to improve the present world — to teach princes and not merely please them and to reawaken and reinvigorate religious knowledge. At the same time, and most remarkably, Douglas is creating a richly textured work in which farce, vision, vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS encyclopedic learning, debate, encomium, and polemic come rapidly to the fore. It offers a remarkable realm of discourse that promotes a continuing appeal for many readers. It has been what Douglas would call a “joyous discipline” to re-enter that realm, one that has involved help at every stage. Two initial steps prepared the way for work on this new edition: participation in a workshop at the Free University of Berlin, organized by Regina Scheibe and Andrew James Johnston, along with a research fellowship at Edinburgh University’s Institute for Advanced Studies, under the direction of Jo Shaw. In Edinburgh, Philip Bennett, Sarah Carpenter, Sarah Dunnigan, Lucy Hinnie, Margaret Mackay, and Greg Walker showed me various ways to reconsider Douglas’ achievement in The Palyce of Honour. In Durham, Elizabeth Archibald, who previously had encouraged me to develop my thinking about Douglas, suggested that I might yet have something to contribute. Had it not been for the opportunity to participate in a conference in May 2016 at the University of Rochester on Older Scots Literature and Culture, organized by Rhiannon Purdie and Thomas Hahn, the present edition would not have been imagined, let alone attempted. On that conference’s closing day, Russell Peck, general editor of the Middle English Texts Series, encouraged me to revisit work done long ago on Douglas and make it new. More recently, Elizabeth Ewan gave me the opportunity to discuss The Palyce in a panel at the fifteenth International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Scottish Language and Literature, and the comments from many at and after that session helped me to refine and develop various aspects of what follows; here I want especially to thank Margaret Connolly, Priscilla Bawcutt, and Kate McClune. What follows is a result of these various forms of encouragement. It is again a special pleasure to acknowledge Russell Peck’s enlivening influence and guiding hand from start to finish of this project, and hope that the outcome, at least in some measure, repays his confidence. I am glad to have the opportunity to thank the librarians and archivists who helped me locate and study the materials fundamental to this edition, and especially the copies of the sixteenth-century prints of the poem. This edition could not have proceeded without the gracious co-operation of the staff of the following libraries: the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library; Cambridge University Library; Edinburgh University Library; the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.; the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California; the John Newberry Library, Chicago; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the National Library of Scotland; the National Records of Scotland; and Queen’s College Library, Oxford. Those librarians and archivists who have gone out of their way to assist me are numerous, but it is a special pleasure to thank Anne Anderton (Heritage Imaging Assistant, the John Rylands Library), Paul Fleming (Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library), Emily Goetsch (Special Collections Assistant, National Library of Scotland), Melanie Leung (Image Request Coordinator, Folger Shakespeare Library), Jennifer Ozers (Search Room Archivist, National Records of Scotland), Domniki Papadimitriou (Picture Library Co-ordinator, Cambridge University Library), and Lisa Schoblasky (Special Collections Services Librarian, Newberry Library). Other help gave me the confidence to embark on and persist in this edition. As so often, Alasdair MacDonald gave my flagging efforts a gentle buoying-up at a key moment. Anne Kelly provided valuable and timely assistance, not least with study of copies at Oxford of the London print of the poem. Rhiannon Purdie gave considerable support and encouragement toward the completion of this project; she also advised me to invite Caitlin Flynn to review and comment on the edition in draft form. Caitlin’s attention to the literary and other contexts for the points raised therein resulted in a great many corrections and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix improvements. Beth Richert also commented incisively on the introduction and explanatory notes, and especially on the classical allusions. Krupa Shah identified ways to strengthen the argument of the Introduction. Heather Giles caught persistent errors of style and argument throughout, and urged me to overcome my reluctance to improve my style and develop my conclusions. The METS staff have my enduring gratitude for the care and learning they have bestowed on the preparation of this volume. While drawing particular attention to Russell Peck’s key role in this regard, I also want to recognize here the Associate Editor of the Series, Alan Lupack, and its indefatigable Assistant Editor, Pamela Yee. I am very grateful to staff editors Alison Harper, Kyle Huskin, and Ashley Conklin for the care and skill with which they carried out their work. On virtually every page, Peck, Lupack, Yee, and their colleagues showed me ways to fashion a more illuminating window into The Palyce of Honour. May this book merit a better fate than the one meted out in the poem itself, to dastardly intruders at such windows. Without these people’s care, vigilance, and learning, this edition would have been much the poorer. Last but not least, I thank the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan; without the backing of my academic home, this Palyce would have remained only a dream.
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