Lament for the Makaris

Breughel, The Triumph of Death (detail).

I 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. Every fourth line remorselessly repeats the Latin refrain timor mortis conturbat me (fear of death disturbs me) a litanic phrase from the Office of the Dead.

The poem is important for the roll call of makars it contains, some of whom we know of only from their citation in this work. It thus stands in part as a poetic testimony to the general phenomenon of loss in literature. But more than simply of interest as a historical record, the poem is an effective and moving work of personal meditation with a highly compressed emotionally stark expression.

The makars listed are chiefly, but not exclusively, Scottish and cited as having died by the time of composition with the two exceptions of possibly Patrick Johnston and certainly Walter Kennedy. Most of the names can be traced to either the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. From internal evidence the lament is thought to have been composed c.1505.

List of names in the Lament

In order and form of citation, the makars (poets) that Dunbar mourns in The Lament are:

• Chaucer
• The monk of Bery (=Lydgate)
• Gower
• Syr Hew of Eglintoun (d.1377, brother-in-law of Robert II; association with the poet Huchown far from certain)
• Heryot (unidentified)
• Wyntoun
• Maister Johne Clerk (unidentified; maister signifies university education; the name John Clerk occurs in Bannatyne MS)
• James Afflek (or James Auchinleck?; not certain; no works known)
• Holland
• Barbour
• Schir Mungo Lokert of the Le (?knycht d.1489; no known works)
• Clerk of Tranent (described by Dunbar as author of the anteris of Gawane; work not traced)
• Schir Gilbert Hay. A copy of his Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour is dated 1499.
• Blind Hary
• Sandy Traill (unidentified; see also Trail family)
• Patrik Johnestoun (produced plays for the royal court; no surviving works; citation suggests he was still alive)
• Merseir (not identified; some love poems attributed to a Mersar in Bannatyne MS)
• Roull of Aberdene (unidentified)
• Roull of Corstorphin (unidentified; only one poem accredited to a man by the name of Roull extant)
• Maister Robert Henrisoun
• Schir Johne the Ros (Dunbar's commissar in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy; nothing else known)
• Stobo (John Reid; priest in Kirkcudbright; served as clerk and notary in royal courts of James II, III and IV; no surviving works)
• Quintyne Schaw (one brief satire extant; Kennedy's commissar in the Flyting; see also Clan Shaw of Tordarroch)
• Gud maister Walter Kennedy

Extract

On to the ded gois all estatis,
Princis, prelotis, and potestatis,
Baith riche and pur of al degre;
Timor mortis conturbat me.

He takis the knychtis in to feild,
Anarmit under helme and scheild;
Victour he is at all mellie;
Timor mortis conturbat me.

(Lament for the Makaris, Lines 17-24)

See also

• Text of the Lament for the Makaris