A critical edition of King Hart, with introduction, notes and glossary

Abstract

King Hart is an important but neglected poem, attributed to Gavin Douglas. This edition aims at providing a good text of the poem, together with a full critical apparatus, designed to investigate the poem's many problems, and to elucidate its meaning and its place in literary history. For the sake of clarity, two transcripts of the text are given: the edited text, on the right; on the left, the diplomatic text, intended for reference at those points where it has been found necessary to make emendations or where the ambiguity of the manuscript renders several interpretations possible. The main problems for the reader are linguistic and textual. King Hart is wriitten in Middle Scots, a dialect which has received comparatively little investigation; the linguistic difficulties are increased not only by the poet's taste for obscure words, but by scribal carelessness. A solution to these difficulties is attempted in the following: section II of the introduction, which gives an account of the main characteristics of Middle Scots; a glossary of unfamiliar words, senses and forms; a translation, which supplements the glossary and clarifies the syntax; notes, which deal with the more difficult words and constructions, and the frequent textual problems. A further important problem, the pooem's authorship and relation to Douglas, is discussed in the introduction (section VI), but before final judgment a much more exhaustive investigation must be made. The poem's meaning, its relation to the traditions of erotic and homiletic allegory, its style and versification are examine in the introduction (sections III-V), and illustrated further in the notes. King Hart's debt to past literature, both courtly and popular, is unmistakable, but in the handling of materials there is originality and considerable artistry.