BARBOUR'S LOST WORKS. 59 this poet's personality be granted, Barbour must have been personally acquainted with him, for Hugh of Eglinton was one of the "auditors of exchequer" at the same time as Barbour. A sort of supplement to Huchown's workalthough not exactly a "Brut "-was furnished by Barbour in an historical account, which seems to have been essentially genealogical in character and dealt with the race of Brutus, as well as the descent of the Stuarts, their origin being traced back to Dardanus, King of Phrygia and son of Ninus. The later years of the poet's life proved him more distinctly the ecclesiastic. Having withdrawn himself from political interests, the Archdeacon of Aberdeen devoted himself exclusively to the duties of his calling, and when the infirmities of old age began to prevent him attending to his official work, he endeavoured all the more eagerly to clothe the pious sentiments that filled his mind in a poetic form. Barbour, therefore, applied himself to writing religious epics. He, in the first place, took up the subject of the Virgin Mary and her Divine Son, by filling in the actual Gospels from well-known apocryphal accounts, and -somewhat after the manner of the author of the "Cursor Mundi" (in the corresponding chapter of his work)carried the narrative in chronological order from the Virgin's Conception down to her Ascension to Heaven. The whole of this work, with the sixty-six Miracles of the Virgin attached to it, has been lost. On the other hand, all the substance of the Book of Legends of the Saints, which Barbour wrote as an appendix to it, has been preserved. It consists of different parts which were produced from time to time. The aged poet-he was granted a long life -clearly did not wish to cease working as long as he could hold his pen. Hence, like a busy bee, he added one group of cells after the other. Taking the heavenly hierarchy in order of rank, he commences with the Apostles, St. Peter at their head, then the Evangelists-who do not belong to the series-and they are followed by Barnabas, Magdalen (whom he calls the "co-apostol "), and "Sister" Martha. The "Maria Egyptiaca" was then-as it seems-to open a series of other repentant sinners, male and female, who have, however, not found their place there. Then come four martyrs, the "seven dormientes or sleperis," six confessors (in four legends), and these make way for a large and somewhat mixed group of persons. The collection, containing altogether fifty pieces, closes with the legends of ten female saints. One main source from which Barbour drew the materials for this work was the "Golden Legend;" however, he also, in part, made use of earlier complete records, and other collections as well, such as the "Vita Patrum" and Vincent de Beauvais' "Mirror of History," were not left unconsulted. The nature of the material, as well as the poet's age, would not allow us to expect these "Legends" to show as vigorous an expression of originality, as brilliant a display of talent, as his poem of "The Bruce; one would need, in fact, to be an unwearied investigator of legends like the editor to whom we owe the publication of the "Book of Legends of the Saints," before we could venture upon the conclusion that the work "might readily be regarded as the most perfect of all Barbour's productions." The " Legends of the Saints" demand concessions from us much more frequently than "The Bruce," and, indeed, concessions of various kinds-to the spirit of the age in which the poem originated, to the power of tradition which even the most gifted poet cannot ignore, and to the various influences and conditions which compel him to accept all manner of things not adapted to poetry, even things that are insipid. It is saying a good deal that we are able to recognize in these religious epics the patriotic singer of the war of independence. It is not the inevitable defects attached to the poetry, but its great merits, that should excite our astonishment. Barbour, as a very old man, thus created a work which far surpassed almost everything of its kind that English literature had to show, and, indeed, he was not surpassed in this domain even at a later date. Huchown in his "Susannah" exhibits greater brilliancy of diction, Chaucer's "Cecilia" more completely captivates our ear by the pleasant sound of its strophes; but, as a whole, it will be found that Barbour's simple as well as vivid form of representation corresponds best with the character of the genus, and SCOTTISH COLLECTION OF LEGENDS. 61 that it is the only form which can be carried out successfully, especially in poems of longer effort or in compilations. Barbour's attitude towards the sources from which he drew his material shows much greater independence than is exhibited by the majority of poets who have handled legends, for he sometimes abbreviates and then again dilates, and not unfrequently alters them, supplementing them by numerous additions. And while treating the details in this manner, he acts towards the plan and construction of the whole as a man accustomed to go his own way. The reflections aroused in him by the events he relates, the maxims he scatters about his narratives, are scarcely ever unimportant; and whether more or less new or commonplace, they are naïve, spontaneous expressions of the poet, whose character even here bears the impress of sterling and genuinely human qualities, sound piety, clearness of mind, and of a wisdom based upon a full experience of life. And amid this collection of "Legends" we do not lose sight of the Scotchman-nay, of the Aberdeen man; for the legend of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Aberdeen, whose story was also related by Jacobus à Voragine, is followed by that of St. Macharius (Machar), the patron saint of a church in the town; and, again, in another part he gives us the life of St. Ninian, the Apostle of Galloway, by adding to Alfred de Rievaux's account a number of stories obtained from oral tradition. In working out his details Barbour exhibits poetic invention in more than one passage; and, in particular, manages successfully to develop the romantic element in some of the legendary material, by replacing the bare suggestions of his copy with a psychological picture of vivid action, finely conceived, and worked out with clearness. The "Book of Legends of the Saints" was probably Barbour's last work. The poet died at an advanced age in the year 1396. English literature-and, indeed, Scottish literature-can show no more brilliant figure or richer nature than his. |