William Dunbar

William Dunbar (c. 1460 – c. 1520) was a makar or Scottish Chaucerian poet. He was taken as a model by those writers of the Scottish Renaissance who followed Hugh MacDiarmid's slogan "Dunbar – not Burns!"

Quotes

Title page of Dunbar's The Goldyn Targe in the Chepman and Myllar Prints of 1508. (National Library of Scotland).

• Man, pleis thy makar and be mirry, And sett not by this warld a chirry;

(Man please thy maker and be merry, And set not by this world a cherry). from "Of Covetyce".

• I that in heill wes and gladness,
  Am trublit now with gret seiknes,
  And feblit with infermité;
  Timor mortis conturbat me.
  
  Our plesance heir is all vane glory,
  This fals warld is bot transitory,
  The flesche is brukle, the Fend is sle;
  Timor mortis conturbat me.
  • "The Lament for the Makars", line 1.

• My deathe chasis my lyfe so besalie
  That wery is my goist to fle so fast.
  • "To a Lady", line 15.

Misattributed

• Strong be thy wallis that about the standis;
  Wise be the people that within the dwellis;
  Fresh is thy ryver with his lusty strandis;
  Blith be thy chirches, wele sownyng be thy bellis;
  Riche be thy merchauntis in substance that excellis
  Fair be thy wives, right lovesom, white and small;
  Clere be thy virgyns, lusty under kellis:
  London, thou art the flour of Cities all.
  • "London, thou art of townes A per se", line 41.
  • John Stow's ascription of this poem to Dunbar, though unchallenged for centuries, is no longer accepted.

External links

• The Complete Works