HENRYSON, ROBERT,
a poet and fabulist of the fifteenth century, is usually styled
chief schoolmaster of Dunfermline. Lord Hailes conjectures that he
officiated as preceptor to the Benedictine convent of that town. He
is described by Sir Robert Douglas, in his Baronage of Scotland, as
a notary-public. Neither the time nor the place of his birth has
been recorded. He is supposed, but on no sufficient grounds, to have
belonged to the family of Henryson or Henderson of Fordell. His
poetical tale, entitled ‘Orpheus Kyng, and how he yeid to hewin and
to hel to seik his Quene,’ was printed by Chepman and Millar in
1508. His “Testament of Faire Creseide,’ first printed at Edinburgh
by Henry Charters, in 1593, is usually appended to the common
editions of ‘Chaucer’s Troilus and Creseide,’ of which it is
professedly the sequel. His principal work is his collection of ‘Babils,’
thirteen in number, printed at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart in 1621. The
best of these Fables is considered to be ‘The Borrowstoun Mous and
the Landwart Mous,’ the story of which is borrowed from Æsop, and
has been told also by Horace, and by Cowley, and Fontaine. This
collection in manuscript is still preserved in the Harleyan Library,
which is dated in 1571. In the Bannatyne Manuscript ‘Henryson’s
Fabils’ also occupy a considerable space. Among his Fables there is
an allegorical ballad, called ‘The Bluidy Serk,’ which is intended,
in the form of a legendary tale of chivalry, to illustrate the
sublime truths of Christianity. The Fables of Henryson were
reprinted in 1832, for the Bannatyne Club, from the edition of
Andrew Hart, with an excellent Memoir prefixed by Dr. Irving, the
editor.
Henryson
wrote a number of other poems, principally of a moral and reflective
character, such as ‘The Abbay Walk,’ ‘The Praise of Age,’ ‘The
Ressoning betwixt Deth and Man,’ and ‘The Resoning betwixt Aige and
Yowth.’ His pastoral of ‘Robene and Makyne,’ which is the earliest
specimen of pastoral poetry in the Scottish language, is considered
by Dr. Irving to be “superior in many respects to the similar
attempts of Spenser and Browne.” Favourable specimens of his poetry
may be found in Irving’s Lives of the Scottish Poets, Hailes’
Ancient Scottish Poems, Ellis’ Specimens, Sibbald’s Chronicle of
Scottish Poetry, and similar collections. The period of his death is
unknown; but he appears to have lived to a good old age, and to have
written most of his poems in the decline of life. Sir Francis
Kinaston tells us “that being very old, he died of a diarrhoe or
fluxe.” His death must have taken place some time before 1508, as we
find his name among the latest of the poets, whose decease is
lamented by Dunbar in his poem on the ‘Death of the Makkaris,’
printed in that year.
HENRYSON,
EDWARD, LL.D.,
a celebrated civilian and scholar of the sixteenth century, was at
one period professor of civil law in the university of Bourges, and
at another a senator of the college of justice. Previous to 1551 he
was a student of law at the above-named university, and about this
period he was fortunate in securing the patronage of Ulric Fugger,
lord of Kirchberg and Weisselhome, a Tyrolese noble of munificent
disposition and great wealth, who had previously been the patron of
his countryman, Scrimger, and who, besides inviting Henryson to
reside at his castle, provided for him an ample supply of books and
manuscripts, and conferred on him a pension. Henryson afterwards
dedicated his works to this liberal-minded nobleman, who devoted a
great part of his fortune to the collection of ancient Greek
manuscripts and the encouragement of the learned. While residing in
Germany he is said to have translated into Latin Plutarch’s
‘Commentarium Stoicorum Contraiorum,’ but if he did, his translation
is now lost.
In 1552
Henryson returned to Scotland, where he practised for some time as
an advocate. Soon after he went back to the Continent, where he
distinguished himself by writing a pamphlet in favour of a Tractatus
on Jurisdiction, published by his former preceptor, Equinar Baro,
defending it from the attacks of the civilian govea. In 1554 he was
chosen professor of the civil law at Bourges, where he had studied,
and from which university he received the degree of doctor of laws;
and the year after he published another work, entitled ‘Commentation
in Tit. X. Libri Secundi Institutionem de Testamentis Ordinandis,’
which he dedicated to Michael D’Hospital, chancellor of France.
Having
resigned his professorship, Henryson once more made his appearance
at the bar in Scotland, and in 1557 we find him nominated counsel
for the poor, an office which had been created shortly after the
institution of the college of justice, and which was remunerated by
a yearly pension of £20 Scots, being half the sum allowed to the
king’s advocate. In 1563 he was appointed to the office of
commissary, with a salary of 300 merks. In January 1566 he was
constituted an extraordinary lord of session. In May of the same
year he was nominated one of the commissioners for revising and
correcting the laws and acts of the Scots parliament; and in the
subsequent June he received an exclusive privilege and warrant to
imprint and sell them, the license to continue for ten years. He was
the editor of the folio volume published six months thereafter,
entitled ‘The Actis and Constitutiouns of the Realme of Scotlande;
maid in Parliamentis haldin be the ryct Excellent, Hie, and Mychtie
Princeis, Kingis James the First, Secund, Third, Feird, Fyft, Sext,
and in the tyme of Marie, now Quene of Scottis, viseit, correctit,
and extractit furth of the Registers be the Lordis depute, be hir
Majestie’s special commissionn thairto.’ To this work he wrote the
preface. On 19th November 1567 Henryson was removed from
the bench, on account of being one of the king’s counsel. In 1573 he
was one of the procurators for the church. The date of his death has
not been recorded. His son, sir Thomas Henderson, also a lord of
session under the title of Lord Chesters, erected a monument to his
memory in the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh.
