Dimensions
128 x 198 x 20mm
Although dissimilar in many ways, Robert Henryson and William Dunbar are the most powerful and individual voices in the Scottish poetry of the Middle Ages. Both were active in the 15th and early 16th centuries and wrote in Lowland Scots, a distinctive northern version of the English language. Both were influenced by Chaucer and fascinated by the frailty of human life, relations between men and women, and the Christian hope of salvation. Henryson is a master of narrative verse, so this fully annotated Penguin English Poets edition includes 'The Fables' and 'The Testament of Cresseid' in full as well as extracts from 'Orpheus and Eurydice' and three shorter pieces. Dunbar's work is far more personal, vivdly evocative of Edinburgh streets and smells, and often celebrates or satirises real people and events. Over a third of his many poems appear here, ranging in style from religious devotion to bawdy, parody and courtly allegory.
