33-589: The Kingis Quair ("The King's Book") is a fifteenth-century Early Scots poem attributed to James I of Scotland . It is semi-autobiographical in nature, describing the King's capture by the English in 1406 on his way to France and his subsequent imprisonment by Henry IV of England and his successors, Henry V and Henry VI . The poem begins with the narrator who, alone and unable to sleep, begins to read Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy . At first, he reads in
66-462: A message, signalling the beneficent quality of his vision. The narrator claims that Fortune kept her promise to him by increasing his wisdom, so that he is now in a state of happiness with his beloved. The poem closes with the narrator offering thanks to all who, at the end of the poem, brought about his good fortune, and a dedication to the 'poetis laureate' Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower . The poem's penultimate verse repeats its first line, 'heigh in
99-683: A name first used to describe the language later in the Middle Scots period. Northumbrian Old English had been established in south-eastern Scotland as far as the River Forth in the 7th century and largely remained there until the 13th century, which is why in the late 12th century Adam of Dryburgh described his locality as "in the land of the English in the Kingdom of the Scots " and why
132-418: A radical social shift occurred whereby many Gaelic speakers became assimilated into the new social system and its language. The increasing economic influence of the burghs attracted further English, Fleming and Scandinavian immigration. As the economic power of the burghs grew, Gaelic-speakers from the hinterland found it advantageous to acquire a working knowledge of English. The institutional language of
165-522: Is a major river in central Scotland, 47 km (29 mi) long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland 's Central Belt . The Gaelic name for the upper reach of the river, above Stirling , is Abhainn Dubh , meaning "black river". The name for the river below the tidal reach (just past where it is crossed by
198-534: Is joined by the River Devon ), closely followed by Alloa . Upon reaching Airth (on the river's south shore) and Kincardine (on its north shore), the river begins to widen and becomes the Firth of Forth . The banks have many settlements along them, including Aberfoyle , Gargunnock , Stirling , Fallin , Cambus , Throsk , Alloa , South Alloa , Dunmore , Airth , and Kincardine . Beyond these settlements,
231-703: Is the Allan Water , just east of the M9. From there the Forth meanders into the ancient port of Stirling. At Stirling the river widens and becomes tidal . This is the location of the last (seasonal) ford of the river. From Stirling, the Forth flows east, accepting the Bannock Burn from the south before passing the town of Fallin . It then passes two towns in Clackmannanshire : firstly Cambus (where it
264-551: The Alloa Swing Bridge , previously connected Alloa on the northern shore with Throsk on the southern shore. It opened in 1885 and was closed and mostly demolished in 1970: Only the metal piers remain. Much further downstream, joining North Queensferry and South Queensferry , is another railway bridge, the famous Forth Bridge , which opened in 1890, and the Forth Road Bridge , which opened in 1964. To
297-574: The House of Dunkeld led to the throne being passed to three families of Anglo-French origin, the Balliols , Bruces and Stewarts . After the death of King Robert I , the kings of Scotland (with the exception of King Robert II ) increasingly identified themselves with the English-speaking part of the kingdom. As a result, by the reign of King James I of Scotland , the political heartland of
330-884: The low countries . From Scandinavian (often via Scandinavian influenced Middle English ) came at (that/who), byg (build), bak (bat), bla ( blae ), bra ( brae ), ferlie (marvel), flyt (remove), fra (from), gar (compel), gowk (cuckoo), harnis (brains), ithand (industrious), low (flame), lug (an appendage, ear), man (must), neve (fist), sark (shirt), spe (prophesy), þa (those), til (to), tinsell (loss), wycht (valiant), and wyll (lost, confused). The Flemings introduced bonspell (sporting contest), bowcht ( sheep pen ), cavie ( hen coop ), crame (a booth), furisine ( flint striker), grotkyn (a gross ), howff (courtyard), kesart (cheese vat), lunt (match), much (a cap), muchkin (a liquid measure), skaff (scrounge), wapinschaw (muster of militia), wyssill (change of money), and
363-467: The 'flour jonettis' which the beloved lady wears in her hair (stanza 47). When the lady departs, the narrator becomes desperately sad, and eventually falls into a trance. In a dream, he visits three goddesses, who address his love-problem. The first, Venus , admits that she has no authority in this case, and directs him to Minerva , who probes the nature of his love. Once satisfied that his desires are pure, rather than being simple lust, she advises him on
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#1732772541344396-592: The M9 motorway) is Uisge For . Forth derives from Proto-Celtic *Vo-rit-ia (slow running), yielding Foirthe in Old Gaelic. The Forth rises in the Trossachs , a mountainous area 30 km (19 mi) west of Stirling . Ben Lomond 's eastern slopes drain into the Duchray Water , which meets with Avondhu River coming from Loch Ard . The confluence of these two streams is the nominal start of
429-639: The River Forth. From there it flows roughly eastward through Aberfoyle , joining with the Kelty Water about 5 km further downstream. It then flows into the flat expanse of the Carse of Stirling, including Flanders Moss . Just west of the M9, it is joined by the River Teith (which itself drains Loch Venachar , Loch Lubnaig , Loch Achray , Loch Katrine , and Loch Voil ). The next tributary
462-535: The Scottish king moved from the area around Scone and Perth to the traditionally English area around Edinburgh south of the Forth. By the 14th and 15th centuries, the variety of English ( Inglis ) that resulted from the above influences had replaced Gaelic ( Scottis ) in much of the lowlands and Norman French had ceased to be used as the language of the elite. By this time differentiation into Southern, Central and Northern dialects had perhaps occurred. Scots
495-519: The Teith and Allan, the river becomes wide enough that a substantial bridge is required. At Stirling, there has been a bridge over the river since at least the 13th century, and it was the easternmost road crossing until 1936, when another road crossing was opened at Kincardine . The Clackmannanshire Bridge , just upstream of the Kincardine Bridge, opened on 19 November 2008. A railway bridge,
528-525: The burghs consisted of vocabulary that was Germanic in origin, such English terms as toft (homestead and land), croft ( smallholding ), ruid (land let by a burgh), guild (a trade association), bow (an arched gateway), wynd (lane) and raw (row of houses). Multilingualism and cultural diversity became increasingly the norm after David I. People in one part of the realm could be addressed as "Franci, Angli, Scoti et Gallovidiani " (French, English, Scots and Galloway -men). The end of
561-410: The coins plak , stek and doyt . A number of Gaelic words such as breive (judge), cane (a tribute), couthal (court of justice), davach (a measure of land), duniwassal (nobleman), kenkynolle (head of the kindred), mare (tax collector), and toschachdor (leader, cf. Irish taoiseach , Welsh tywysog ) occurred in early legal documents but most became obsolete early in
594-545: The early 13th century author of de Situ Albanie wrote that the Firth of Forth "divides the kingdoms of the Scots and of the English". Political developments in the 12th century facilitated the spread of the English language. Institutions such as the burghs first established by David I , mostly in the south and east of Scotland, brought new communities into the areas in which they were established. Incoming burghers were mainly English (notably from regions like Yorkshire and Huntingdonshire ), Dutch and French . Although
627-431: The few agricultural merchants who were based at Stirling. Today, Stirling's harbour has fallen into disuse, but there are plans to redevelop it. Upstream from Stirling, the river is rather narrow and can be crossed in numerous places. (Crossing used to be more difficult before the installation of modern drainage works, because the ground was often treacherously marshy near the riverbank.) However, after its confluence with
660-659: The hevynnis figure circulere', so that its structure echoes that of the celestial spheres that it evokes. The Kingis Quair uses the Chaucerian rhyme scheme rhyme royal : ABABBCC. The form was once thought to have been named for James I's usage, but scholars have since argued that it was named for its reference to the French chant royal . The poem is the subject of "A Royal Poet," in The Sketchbook by Washington Irving (1820). Early Scots Early Scots
693-469: The hope that it will help him get back to sleep, but he quickly becomes interested in the text and its treatment of Boethius' own experience of misfortune. At last, he begins to think about his own youthful experience, and how he came to a life of misery. On hearing the Matins bell, he rises and begins to write a poem describing his fate. He begins with a sea voyage taken when he was twelve years of age, when he
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#1732772541344726-445: The language along with other French vocabulary such as cummer (godmother), disjone (breakfast), dour (stern, grim), fasch (annoy), grosar (gooseberry), ladron (rascal), moyen (means), plenissing (furniture) and vevaris (provisions). The vocabulary of Scots was augmented by the speech of Scandinavians, Flemings, Dutch and Middle Low German speakers through trade with, and immigration from,
759-531: The language an uncannily modern appearance when compared to the writing of English contemporaries such as Geoffrey Chaucer . Some orthographic features distinguishing Northern Middle English and Early Scots from other regional variants of written Middle English are: By the end of the period when Middle Scots began to emerge, orthography and phonology had diverged significantly from that of Northern Middle English . The Early Scots vowel system (c 1375) The major differences to contemporary southern English are
792-461: The military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, these small urban communities appear to have been using English as something more than a lingua franca by the end of the 13th century, although this may not be surprising as the area south of the Forth in eastern lowland Scotland was already English speaking and had been since Anglo-Saxon times. Although the population of the largest burghs would have been counted in hundreds rather than thousands,
825-400: The nature of free will, telling him that he must cultivate wisdom if he is to avoid being prey to changing fortunes. Finally, he descends to the earthly paradise, where he sees Fortune and her wheel, which fill him with fear. Fortune sets him to climb on her wheel, and, as she pinches his ear, he awakes. Consumed by doubt, the narrator is reassured by the appearance of a turtle dove carrying
858-435: The new focus, and so a lot of trade activity shifted from Stirling in the east to the port of Glasgow in the west. During World Wars I and II, Stirling harbour began thriving again: It became a gateway for importing supplies of tea into Scotland. After the wars, other trade activities slowly returned, but growth was slow because the harbour's owners levied heavy shore duties on shipping, making it less economically attractive to
891-625: The outcome of Anglo-Saxon /oː/ as /øː/ , the distribution of the unchanged Anglo-Saxon /aː/ and /oː/ from Anglo-Saxon /o/ . The Scandinavian-influenced /k/ in words such as birk (birch), brekis ( breeches ), brig (bridge), kirk (church), kist (chest), mekil (much) and rig (ridge), and the retention of Germanic /ou/ in words such as lowp (leap), cowp (cf. cheap, to trade) and nowt (cattle). Renunciation by Alexander Lindsay, knight, Lord of Glenesk, of certain lands, in favour of Margaret Countess of Marr and her sister Elizabeth. 12 March 1379. River Forth The River Forth
924-554: The period. Gaelic words for topographical features have endured, such as bogg (bog), carn (pile of stones), corrie (hollow in a hill), crag (rock), inch (small island), knok (hill), loch (lake or fjord), and strath (river valley). The language first appeared in written form in the mid-14th century, when its written form differed little from that of northern English dialects, and so Scots shared many Northumbrian borrowings from Old Norse and Anglo-Norman French. The reduced set of verb agreement endings in particular give
957-644: The water turns brackish, and is usually considered part of the Firth of Forth. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Stirling harbour was a busy port, with goods coming into Scotland and being exported to Europe. As a result, Stirling had very close ties with the Hansa towns, with Bruges in Belgium , and with Veere (known at the time as Campvere) in the Netherlands . After 1707, trade with America became
990-830: Was also beginning to replace Latin as a language for records and literature. In Caithness , it came into contact with both Norn and Gaelic . The core vocabulary is of Anglo-Saxon origin although many of the differences in the phonology, morphology and lexicon in the northern and southern dialects of Middle English have been traced to the linguistic influence in the North of the eighth- and ninth-century Viking invaders who first plundered, then conquered and settled in, large territories in Northumbria, Lincolnshire and East Anglia. Scots also retained many words which became obsolete farther south. The pattern of foreign borrowings, such as Romance via ecclesiastical and legal Latin and French,
1023-549: Was captured and imprisoned for eighteen years. Whilst in prison, he feels isolated, believing himself to be the most miserable man living. The sight of birds singing outside his prison window draws him back into the outside world. Looking out, he sees a beautiful woman, and falls in love. This woman is ultimately to be the means of his liberation, and this sequence of events closely parallels the biography of James I of Scotland. James's imprisonment came to an end with his marriage to Joan Beaufort whose name may be punningly referenced in
The Kingis Quair - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-857: Was much the same as that of contemporary English but was often different in detail because of the continuing influence of the Auld Alliance and the imaginative use of Latinisms in literature. During this period a number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, such as anerly (alone), berynes (grave), clenge (cleanse), halfindall (a half part), scathful (harmful), sturting (contention), thyrllage (bondage), and umbeset (surround), were now almost or completely unique to Scots. French-derived warfare terms such as arsoun (saddle-bow), bassynet (helmet), eschell (battalion), hawbrek (coat of mail), qwyrbolle (hardened leather), troppell (troop), vaward (vanguard), and vyre (crossbow bolt) became part of
1089-554: Was the emerging literary language of the Early Middle English -speaking parts of Scotland in the period before 1450. The northern forms of Middle English descended from Northumbrian Old English . During this period, speakers referred to the language as "English" ( Inglis , Ynglis , and variants). Early examples such as Barbour ’s The Brus and Wyntoun ’s Chronicle are better explained as part of Northern Middle English than as isolated forerunners of later Scots,
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