English was already spoken in Southern Scotland in Old English times, since part of it was under Anglo-Saxon rule until circa 975. The Scottish War of Independence, from 1286 to 1342, had given rise to a strong "national consciousness", and united the Scots in a hatred of England, a feeling which the English certainly reciprocated [as a good number of Laurence Minot¹s political songs prove]. North of the actual border between Scotland and England, and up to the Moray Firth, English continued gaining ground; so that, by the end of the 16th century, it was the normal language in the Lowlands; while in the Highlands people still spoke Scottish Gælic.
    It was precisely in the LOWLANDS that Scottish literature developed and flourished. Scotland surely had heroes of her recent history to celebrate, especially those who had been the leaders of the national consciousness and ardent patriotism at the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century). Their half-historical, half-legendary exploits originated works of literature such as Bruce, for example -- the supreme Scottish national poem (written by John Barbour between 1375 and 1378) --, or Wallace, written about 1461 by a minstrel called Blind Harry. The whole of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century were certainly the most glorious of all Scottish ancient poetry. Chaucer¹s influence was certainly dominant; but the artistic sense, the rhythm and the vitality of the Scottish poets were by and large much
greater than the English ones.
    Chronologically, the first of these Scottish poets was King James I (1394-1436), who commemorates, in his The Kingis Qwair, a romantic incident of his own life. But the greatest of them all is certainly William Dunbar (1460-1520), the poet laureate of Scotland (in some sort). In his The Thrissil and the Rois ('The thistle and the Rose') Dunbar exhibits a flamboyant style, a great wealth of coloured words, a rapid succession of allegories, etc. I do prefer, however, the two poems in which Dunbar proves to be a master of poetic form, of skilful rhyme and rhythm, of ingenious choice of themes: the Dance of the sevin Deidly Synnis and the Lament for the Makaris. In the former he displays also a good deal of satire, of jovial and mocking invective, of "fliting" (or scolding); and in the latter he reaches a higher lyricism, though with a note of melancholy when he mentions the glorious poets of his country and of England whom death has ravished.
    For our purpose here and now, and in order to illustrate some of the relevant features of 16th century Scottish English, I have chosen the last one. In the lecture, some of the most relevant spelling, phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic characteristics of the text will be selected and commented upon.