A
makar is a term from
Scottish literatureScottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. It includes literature written in English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Brythonic, French, Latin and any other language in which a piece of literature was ever written within the boundaries of modern Scotland.-Earliest...
for a
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
or
bardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, paid by a monarch to praise the sovereign's activities....
, often thought of as
royal courtThe court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
poet, although the term can be more generally applied. The word functions in a manner similar to the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
term
(poiētēs) which means both
maker and
poet. It especially highlights the role of the poet as someone skilled in the crafting or
making of controlled, formal poetry with intricate or involved
dictionDiction, in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression. A secondary, common meaning of "diction" is more precisely expressed with the word enunciation — the art of speaking clearly so that each word is clearly heard...
and effects. The term is normally applied to poets writing in
ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
although it need not be exclusive to Scottish writers.
William DunbarWilliam Dunbar , Scottish poet, was probably a native of East Lothian. This is assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....
for instance referred to the English poets Chaucer,
LydgateJohn Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England.- Early life and education :He was admitted to the Benedictine monastery of Bury St...
and
GowerJohn Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
as makars.
In literary history, the term
The Makars is specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and sixteenth century
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, in particular
Robert HenrysonRobert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities...
,
William DunbarWilliam Dunbar , Scottish poet, was probably a native of East Lothian. This is assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....
and
Gavin DouglasGavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered...
, who wrote a diverse
genreA literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children's. They also must not be confused...
of works in
Middle ScotsMiddle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...
in the period of the
northern renaissanceThe Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe...
, a time of transition between medieval and renaissance sensibilities in the kingdom. Qualities in verse especially prized by many of these writers included the combination of skilful artifice with natural diction, concision and "quickness" of expression. One word that expresses these qualites in combination is the Scots term glegness. Some of the Makars, such as Dunbar, also featured an increasing incorporation of Latinate terms into Scots prosody, or
aureationAureation is a device in arts of rhetoric that involves the "heightening" of diction by the introduction of Latinate or polysyllabic terms. The term is derived from Latin aureus, meaning golden or gilded. It can be seen as analogous to gothic schools of ornamentation in carving, painting or...
, heightening the creative tensions between the ornate and the natural in
poetic dictionPoetic diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry. In the Western tradition, all these elements were thought of as properly different in poetry and prose up to the time of the Romantic revolution, when William...
.
The Middle Scots plural is
makaris.
The Makars
The work of the Makars of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was in part marked out by an adoption in
vernacularVernacular is the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to lingua francas, official standards or global languages. It is sometimes applied to nonstandard dialects of a global language...
languages of the new and greater variety in metrics and prosody current across Europe after the influence of such figures as
DanteDANTE is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various National Research and Education Networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
and
PetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
and similar to the route which Chaucer followed in England. Their work is usually distinguished from the work of earlier Scottish writers such as
BarbourYou might also have meant BarberBarbour is a surname of Scottish origin and may refer to the following people:*Anna Maynard Barbour , an American author*Ashley Rae Barbour, An American Soldier*Erwin Hinckly Barbour, an American geologist...
and Wyntoun who wrote
romanceAs a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about the marvelous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight errant,...
and
chronicleGenerally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler...
verse in octosyllabic couplets and it also perhaps marked something of a departure from the medieval alliterative or troubador traditions; but one characteristic of poetry by the Makars is that features from all of these various traditions, such as strong alliteration and swift narration, continued to be a distinctive influence.
The first of the Makars proper in this sense, although perhaps the least Scots due to his education predominantly in captivity at the English court in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, is generally taken to be
James IJames I was nominal King of Scots from 4 April 1406 until his death, although his effective reign only began in May 1424.He spent the earlier part of his reign as a prisoner in England...
(1394-1437) the likely author of the Kingis Quair. Apart from other principal figures already named, writing by makars such as
Richard HollandRichard Holland or Richard de Holande , Scottish writer, author of the Buke of the Howlat, was secretary or chaplain to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray and rector of Halkirk, near Thurso....
, Blind Hary and
Walter KennedyWalter Kennedy was a Scottish makar associated with the renaissance court of James IV. He is perhaps best known as the defendant against William Dunbar in The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie, but his surviving works clearly show him to have been an accomplished "master" in many genres...
also survives along with evidence that suggests the existence of a substantial body of lost work. The quality of extant work generally, both minor and major, demonstrates a thriving poetic tradition in Scotland throughout the period. Henryson, who is generally seen today as one of the foremost makars, is not known to have been a court poet, but the Royal Palace of
DunfermlineDunfermline is a city in Fife, Scotland. It is located on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth on the route of major road and rail crossings across the firth to Edinburgh and the south. Dunfermline has a population of 45,462, making this the second-largest settlement in Fife...
, the city in which he was based, was one of the residences of the
StewartThe House of Stuart, also known as the House of Stewart, is an important European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century. Their direct ancestors had held the title High Steward of Scotland since the...
court.
A high point in cultural patronage was the Renaissance Court of
James IVJames IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stuart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from Great Britain to be killed in...
(1488-1513) now principally associated in literary terms with
William DunbarWilliam Dunbar , Scottish poet, was probably a native of East Lothian. This is assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....
. The pinnacle in writing from this time was in fact Douglas's
EneadosThe Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil's Aeneid, completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. It is the first complete translation of any major work of classical antiquity into an Anglic language...
(1513), the first full and faithful translation of an important work of classical antiquity into any Anglic language. Douglas is one of the first authors to explicitly identify his language as
ScottisMiddle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...
. This was also the period when use of Scots in poetry was at its most richly and successfully
aureateAureation is a device in arts of rhetoric that involves the "heightening" of diction by the introduction of Latinate or polysyllabic terms. The term is derived from Latin aureus, meaning golden or gilded. It can be seen as analogous to gothic schools of ornamentation in carving, painting or...
. Dunbar's
Lament for the MakarisI that in Heill wes and Gladnes, also known as The Lament for the Makaris, is a poem in the form of a danse macabre by the Scottish poet William Dunbar...
(c.1505) contains a leet of makars, not exclusively Scottish, some of whom are now only known through his mention, further indicative of the wider extent to the tradition.
The new plane of achievement set by Douglas in
epicAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
and
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
was not followed up in the subsequent century, but later makars, such as
David LyndsaySir David Lyndsay of the Mount, was a Scottish officer of arms and poet of the 16th century, whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance.-Biography:...
, still drew strongly on the work of fifteenth and early sixteenth century exponents. This influence can be traced right through to Alexander Scott and the various members of the
Castalian BandThe Castalian Band was a group of poets, or makars, in the Scottish court of James VI. It was consciously modelled on the French example of the Pléiade and flourished in the decades before the 1603 Union of Crowns. Music played an important part and many members of the circle were musicians...
in the Scottish court of
James VIJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
(1567-1603) which included
Alexander MontgomerieAlexander Montgomerie was a Scottish poet.-Life and works:The outstanding poet of the later sixteenth century in Scotland, Montgomerie was a younger son of the Ayrshire laird Hugh Montgomerie of Hessilheid , and related both to the Earl of Eglinton and to King James VI...
and, once again, the king himself. The king composed a treatise, the Reulis and Cautelis (1584), which proposed a formalisation of Scottish prosody and consciously strove to identify what was distinctive in the Scots tradition. The removal of the Court to London under James after 1603 is usually regarded as marking the eclipse of the distinctively Scottish tradition of poetry initiated by the Makars, but figures such as
William DrummondWilliam Drummond , called "of Hawthornden" was a Scottish poet.-Life:Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian. His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler, poet and courtier...
might loosely be seen as forming a continuation into the seventeenth century.
The Makars have often been referred to by literary critics as
Scots Chaucerians although the term is not helpful. Chaucer was certainly an important influence, but the makars drew strongly on a native tradition predating Chaucer, exemplified by
BarbourYou might also have meant BarberBarbour is a surname of Scottish origin and may refer to the following people:*Anna Maynard Barbour , an American author*Ashley Rae Barbour, An American Soldier*Erwin Hinckly Barbour, an American geologist...
, as well as the courtly literature of France.
In the more general application of the term which is current today the word can be applied to poets of the Scots revival in the eighteenth century, such as
Allan RamsayAllan Ramsay was the Scottish poet , playwright, publisher, librarian and wig-maker, born in Edinburgh.-Life and career:...
and
Robert FergussonRobert Fergusson was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson followed an essentially bohemian life course in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and cultural ferment as part of the Scottish enlightenment...
.
Modern usage
In 2002 the City of
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
, Scotland's capital, instituted a post of makar, known as the Edinburgh Makar. Each term lasts for three years and the first two incumbents were
Stewart ConnStewart Conn is a Scottish poet and playwright. Born in Glasgow and raised in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire he has lived in Edinburgh since 1977, and was the city's first poet laureate, under the title the Edinburgh Makar...
(2002) and Valerie Gillies (2005). The current incumbent (starting June 2008) is Ron Butlin.
Other cities to create Makar posts include
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
(
Liz LochheadLiz Lochhead is a Scottish poet and dramatist, originally from Newarthill in North Lanarkshire.After attending Glasgow School of Art, she lectured in fine art for eight years before becoming a professional writer...
),
StirlingStirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and mediæval old-town beside the River Forth...
(Magi Gibson) and
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
(Sheena Blackhall).
A position of national
laureateA Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events....
, entitled
The Scots Makar, was established in 2004 by the
Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood" , is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
. The first appointment was made directly by the Parliament in that year when Edwin Morgan received the honour to become Scotland's first ever official national poet.
In recent times, other examples of poets that have seemed to particularly exemplify the traditions of the makars have included
Robert GariochRobert Garioch Sutherland, , was a Scottish poet and translator. His poetry was written almost exclusively in the Scots language, he was a key member in the literary revival of the language in the mid-20th century...
,
Sydney Goodsir SmithSydney Goodsir Smith was a New Zealand-Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots often referred to as Lallans, and was a major figure of the Scottish Renaissance....
,
George Campbell HayGeorge Campbell Hay was a Scottish poet and translator, who wrote in Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots and English. He used the patronymic Deòrsa Mac Iain Deòrsa. He also wrote poetry in French, Italian and Norwegian, and translated poetry from many languages into Gaelic.-Life:He was born in...
and
Norman MacCaigNorman MacCaig was a Scottish poet. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity. -Life:...
among many others.
Other uses
- Makar is the name of a fictional character in the video game "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker", see The Wind Waker characters.
External links