The Brus

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"The Bruce" redirects here. For other uses, see Bruce (disambiguation).

Image of the Bruce, the main focus of the poem
A, fredome is a noble thing, part of the most-cited passage from Barbour's Brus.

The Brus, also known as The Bruce, is a long narrative poem, in

Treaty of 1328 and the death of Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray
in 1332.

Background

The poem's centre-piece (literally) is an extensive account of the Battle of Bannockburn of 1314. Barbour's poetic account of these events is a keystone in Scotland's national story. The description of the battle is Barbour’s masterpiece.[1]

The poem was written about 1375,[2] "...to throw behind the new king, Robert II (who gave Barbour a pension) the weight of his grandfather's (Bruce's) achievements and reputation."[3] Barbour's work is a romance based upon a lost life of Douglas and a chronicle or chronicles which told of King Robert and his times. At the beginning of the poem, he conflates three Bruces into the single person of the hero, probably by design. Archie Duncan notes Barbour's fondness for exaggerated numbers for the size of any army.[3] Here and there the order of events is transposed. Despite this, it has been regarded from his own time as, in all details, a trustworthy source for the history of the period.[1]

Throughout the piece, Bruce overshadows all his associates. In book nine, in recounting Edward Bruce's victories in Galloway, Barbour does not relate the whole story, but sums up his worthiness by remarking that "he might have rivaled any of his contemporaries excepting only his brother".

freedom
is a "noble thing" to be sought and won at all costs; the opponents of such freedom are shown in the dark colours which history and poetic propriety require; but there is none of the complacency of the merely provincial habit of mind. Many lines are full of vigour; and there are passages of high merit, notably the oft-quoted section beginning "A! fredome is a noble thing".

Despite a number of errors of fact, the account has a greater degree of historical veracity than is usually associated with the verse-chronicle genre (for instance,

Advocates Library, Edinburgh, and the other in the library of St John's College, Cambridge
.

Influence

Barbour's influence on later Scottish writers can be seen in Robert Burns' Scots Wha Hae, and Walter Scott's The Lord of the Isles and Castle Dangerous.[4]

Text

Text from The Brus
by Barbour (1375 Transcribed by Ramsay in 1489)
(a) THE POET’S PROEM.

Storyß to rede ar delitabill,
suppoß þat þai be nocht bot fabill,
þan suld storyß þat suthfast wer,
And þai war said on gud maner,
Hawe doubill plesance in heryng.
þe fyrst plesance is þe carpyng,
And þe toþir þe suthfastnes,
þat schawys þe thing rycht as it wes;
And suth thyngis þat ar likand
Tyll mannys heryng ar plesand.
þarfor I wald fayne set my will,
Giff my wyt mycht suffice þartill,
To put in wryt a suthfast story,
þat it lest ay furth in memory,
Swa þat na length of tyme it let,
na ger it haly be forȝet.
For auld storys þat men redys,
Representis to þaim þe dedys
Of stalwart folk þat lywyt ar,
Rycht as þai þan in presence war.
And, certis, þai suld weill hawe pryß
þat in þar tyme war wycht and wyß,
And led thar lyff in gret trawaill,
And oft in hard stour off bataill
Wan [richt] gret price off chewalry,
And war woydit off cowardy.
As wes king Robert off Scotland,
þat hardy wes off hart and hand;
And gud Schyr Iames off Douglas,
þat in his tyme sa worthy was,
þat off hys price & hys bounte
In fer landis renoenyt wes he.
Off þaim I thynk þis buk to ma;
Now god gyff grace þat I may swa
Tret it, and bryng it till endyng,
þat I say nocht bot suthfast thing!

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "John Barbour:The Bruce, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, 1907
  2. ^ Barbour, John (1856). The Brus; from a collation of the Cambridge and Edinburgh manuscripts. New York Public Library. Aberdeen, Spalding club.
  3. ^ a b Duncan, A., "Fredome is a noble thing", Barbour, John. The Brus
  4. ^ a b MacMillan, Michael. The Bruce of Bannockburn, Eneas Mackay, Stirling, 1914

External links

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