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Introduction to the sample material from The Maitland Quarto: An Edition (forthcoming, Boydell and
Brewer and Scottish Text Society, 2013).
These texts are a small sample of some of the fascinating unattributed and unique verse found in the
Maitland Quarto a paper manuscript held in the collections of the Pepys Library, Magdalene College,
Cambridge where it is MS 1408. The manuscript was copied in about 1586 in the circle of the
Maitlands of Lethington, a family of lairds who became very influential in Scottish administration in
the sixteenth century. The manuscript contains ninety-five poems, mainly of Scottish origin. Amongst
these are over forty poems (mainly of an advisory or moral nature, and some which are more topical
in theme) attributed to the head of the household, Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, who died in
1586. There are also poems attributed to his son John, who became vice-chancellor to James VI in
1586, and poems which address his daughter Maire Maitland, who married in 1586. Marie’s name is
inscribed on the fly-leaf of the manuscript.
There is one poem in the collection attributed to James VI and a small number of poems ascribed to
poets associated with the court, Alexander Montgomerie and Thomas and Robert Hudson. Other
poems address matters of family significance, such as their home, Lethington, which was confiscated
from the family between 1571 and 1584, the marriage of a relation, or the deaths of Richard Maitland
and his wife Marian Cranstoun. There are 38 unattributed poems in the collection, most of which are
grouped towards the end of the anthology. These poems deal with a variety of themes including love,
friendship, kinship, and faith. Poems 47 and 77, which you can read here, are both concerned with
personal piety and give a fascinating insight into the political and cultural pre-occupations of the
family.
©JMM, July 2013.
Poem 47
Vp hairt! thow art the pairt
Of man most souuerane;
Let seruile memberis smart,
And bound alaine remaine;
For gif thow doe not staine
5
Thy treuth and honestie,
How can thow be in paine?
No, suirlie thow art frie.
The boundage of the hairt,
With schame is for to serue,
10
And from his honest pairt,
And vertew for to suerue.
Gif thow doe not deserue,
That blot of infamie,
Thocht captive flesche do sterue,
15
3it suirlie thow art frie.
Thocht fortoun, fraud, or force,
Detein the in suspence,
Gif thow haue no remorce
In mynde, nor conscience,
And hes done none offence,
Thocht in captiuitie
Thow suffer violence,
3it suirlie thow art frie.
20
Bot gif thow micht be taxit,
25
Or falset with the found,
The corps micht be relaxit,
Bot schame sould the confound;
And gif the suche a wound
Sould lest perpetuallie,
30
And mak the sclaue so bound
That thow couldest neuer be frie.
Bot sen it is no so,
Reioyis and tak the rest;
Thocht fortoun be thy fo,
35
Hir frowning sall not lest,
Bot cummis for the best,
Thy treuth to testifie;
So thocht thow be opprest
3it suirlie thow art frie.
40
Then, hairt, heild not ane hair,
Nor in thy prisoun ply;
Thy vertew now declair,
And fortounis feid defy;
For tyme thy treuth sall try,
And gif the victorie
Of fortoun and invy,
And thow for euer be frie.
45
Finis
Textual Notes:
MQ fols 73-4 collated with MF pp. 349-50, R 49v-50.
10. serue] serue MF R altered to suarue; 13. doe] om. R; 17. suspence] dispence MF R
Attribution] finis Huius MF R
Poem 47. Vp hairt! thow art the pairt
Like MQ 37 this poem is an address to the personified heart, advising it to dedicate itself to
reason and sobriety. It explores the notion that true liberty is gained through the pursuit of
virtue, which even the captivity of the body cannot threaten, ideas which may be ultimately
traced back to Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, and which are explored in earlier
Scottish texts such The Kingis Quair (Summers 2004, pp. 60-89) and contemporary prison
writing (Strauss 1995). The poem’s themes of freedom and imprisonment may also relate to,
or have been seen by the compiler to relate to, the political misfortunes of Maitland’s
surviving son, John (see MQ 46 and headnote), between 1573 and 1578. William Maitland
had also been imprisoned on charges related to the murder of Darnley in 1570. The poem’s
references to the captivity of the flesh (l. 15, compare l. 42), but the freedom of the heart
nonetheless, suggests such a context. In MF the poem is preceded by a short Latin poem on
the same theme, ‘Ille idem in carcere Carmen’ (p. 348). MF gives it the witty but unhelpful
attribution ‘Finis Huius’.
Like MQ 37, the poem comforts the reader with the thought that misfortune passes,
and like MQ 43 (l. 6) promises that truth always reveals itself. The poem has similarities of
phrasing to works by Alexander Scott and Montgomerie. See notes to ll. 15 and 45. Its
opening may be compared to Scott’s ‘Vp helsum hairt Thy rutis rais and lowp’ (Bannatyne
MS, fols 242v-243). The poem is copied in italic.
Stanza: ababbcbc3.
Text: MQ fols 73-4, MF pp. 349-50, R 49v-50.
Authorship: unattributed.
Date: uncertain, but c. 1573-78?
Commentary
1. Vp hairt! For the address to the heart, see MQ 37, and headnote. Compare Scott’s amatory
poem ‘Vp, helsum Hairt’.
2. souuerane. For the allegory of the heart as a ruler of man’s inner kingdom see, The Buik of
King Alexander the Conquerour (ll. 9659-822) and King Hart. Discussed in Martin 2008, pp.
70-1, 137-38.
15. Thocht captive flesche do sterue. Compare Scott, ‘Hence, hairt, with hir that most
departe’, l. 17-19:
Thocht this belappit body heir
Be bound to sheruitude and thrall,
My fathfull hairt is fre inteir.
45. for tyme thy treuth sall try. Compare Montgomerie, ‘Evin dead, behold I breath’, l. 37:
‘3it tyme sall try my Treuth’; and his ‘If faithfulnes suld friendship find’, l. 9: ‘Sen tym hes
tryde my treuth’. Also see MQ 72, l. 18.
77. In Prais of ane Gilt Bybill
Who takis in hand by pen
To prais a wark with fame,
Advysedlie sould luik, then loup,
For hazard of his name.
This buik all prais deseruis,
5
My prais it wer but vain;
3it, gentle reader, mark, I say,
And thyne salbe the gain.
A cot bedect with gold
and syluer streamis it weiris,
10
As iust rewaird the maistres gave,
For love to it scho beiris.
But opin vp the same,
And luik with single ei,
Bayth glistering gemmis, and pearlis of pryce
Thair schyning sall thou sie.
Finis
Textual Notes:
MQ fol. 120v
15
77. In Praise of ane Gilt Bybill
This poem, in hymnal stanza, describes an elaborate book cover given as gift to a copy of the
Bible by its loving ‘mistress’ (l. 11). The poem’s piety and emphasis on the mistress’s
affection for her Bible perhaps suggests that the poem may have been written for the virtuous
dedicatee of MQ 69, Marie Maitland, whose name is also inscribed on fol. 1 of MQ. The
poem’s enthusiasm for the reading of the Bible recalls MQ 24, ll. 5-30.
The praise of a fine book binding, and comparison of its opulence and artistry to the
even greater spiritual value of the text within, is a conceit found elsewhere, and as early as
the Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book. Within MQ the poem may be compared to MQ
84, which is also a poem in praise of a book.
The book binding described in MQ 77 has its basis in material reality as well as in
literary tradition. Decorative book bindings made for copies of the Bible and for Psalters
were prestige items. Examples of fine Scottish work from the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries survive in the collections of NLS. Some examples of embroidered soft-cover
bindings survive from the early seventeenth century (See Book Bindings, Historical and
Decorative, 1927). It is not clear whether the binding described here as a ‘cot’ (coat) was
embroidered, or a leather binding on boards, intricately tooled (gold or silver was often used
in the process), inlaid or onlaid. On Scottish book bindings of the sixteenth-century, see
Mitchell 1955, pp. 27-70, and plates 17-27.
Stanza: ab3c4 b3 (not set out in stanzas in the MS).
Text: MQ fol. 120v.
Authorship: uncertain.
Date: uncertain.
Commentary
3. luik, then loup. Proverbial, ‘Luke or 3e loup’. Pause before you take the risk of
endangering your reputation (by not being able to adequately describe the book). See DOST,
Lowp, v, sense 2b.
9. A cot. A coat, a metaphor for the book binding of the Bible. Compare the idea of the
clothed book in poems such as the ‘Greneacres Stanza’ (‘Blak be thy bandis and thy wede
also’) found in manuscripts of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes and after Chaucer’s Troilus and
Criseyde in Bodleian Library Arch. Selden B. 24 (fol. 118v) and elsewhere. See IMEV 524.
10. syluer streamis. Lines or fine streaks of silver. For a silver tooled bible binding see NLS
Bdg.s.60.
11. As iust rewaird the maistres gave. The owner’s relationship to the book is described in
courtly terms suggesting a lady granting a reward to her suitor. The term ‘maistres’ suggests a
woman of some status or authority.
14. with single ei. Perhaps with a ‘sincere eye’, or ‘with concentration’ (with one eye, as if
taking aim on a target). See DOST, Singil, adj.
15. pearlis of pryce. An echo of Matthew 13:46 ‘a perle of great price’ (Geneva Bible, 1560).