Gavin Douglas: The Palyce of Honour

239 Pages·2018·1.706 MB·English

by  David John Parkinson

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
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Langland, or Malory, whose English works are normally in print. The focus is, instead, upon
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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
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brief working bibliographies.
Gavin Douglas
The Palyce of Honour
Edited by
David Parkinson
SECOND EDITION
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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)
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CONTENTS
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION 1
THE PALYCE OF HONOUR 57
EXPLANATORY NOTES 111
TEXTUAL NOTES 169
GLOSSARY 183
INDEX 203
BIBLIOGRAPHY 211

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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.