The castle of Dunbar, mentioned as early as 856, from the strength of its position became of great importance as a bulwark against English invasion, and a town grew up under its protection, which was created a royal burgh by Dâvid II. It was captured by Edward I., who defeated the forces of Baliol in the neighbourhood of the town in 1296; it afforded shelter to Edward II. on his flight from Bannockburn; and it was besieged in 1337 by the English under Montague earl of Salisbury, but was successfully defended by Black Agnes of Dunbar, countess of March and a member of the Douglas family. In the 15th century it was chosen as her usual residence by Joanna Beaufort, the widow of James I. of Scotland; and in the 16th it served on several occasions as a retreat for the unfortunate Queen Mary. An Act of Parliament had been passed in 1488 ordering the demolition of the castle, but it was reserved for the Regent Murray to effect its destruction in 1567. A battle popularly known as the “race of Dunbar” was fought in 1658 between Cromwell and Leslie, and resulted in the total rout of the Scotch.

DUNBAR, William, one of the most distinguished of .the early poets of Scotland, is supposed to have been born about 1460. Comparatively little is known about his personal history, but, from an allusion in one of his poems, he seems to have been a native of Lothian. In his fifteenth or sixteenth year he was sent to the university of St Andrews, where he received the degree of B.A. in 1477, and that of M.A. in 1479.

Of the events of his life for nearly twenty years after this we possess little information. He mentions, however, in his poems that he had been employed as a preaching friar of the order of St Francis, and as such had made good cheer in every nourishing town in England had ascended the pulpit at Dernton and Canterbury, and had crossed th sea at Dover, and instructed the inhabitants of Picardy. He also mentions that this mode of life compelled him to have recourse to many a pious fraud, from whose guilt no holy water could clear him. After this he appears to have entered the service of James IV., by whom he was sent on numerous embassies to foreign princes. In 1491 he was residing at Paris, most likely in connection with the Scottish embassy there. The knowledge of the Continent he thus obtained must have had considerable influence in imparting greater strength and energy to his poetical conceptions.

In the year 1500 Dunbar obtained from the king a yearly pension of £10, until he should be promoted to one of greater value. In 1501 he went to England with the ambassadors sent to conclude the negotiations for the marriage of the young King James with the Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. During the festivities on this occasion Dunbar was styled “the Rhymer of Scotland,” and received from Henry a present of £6, 13s. 4d. in December, and a similar sum in January of the subsequent year. On his return to Edinburgh a sum of £5 was paid to him in addition to his salary. In honour of this marriage Dunbar composed his well known poem, The Thrissil and the Pois, another in honour of the city of London, and several others in which he described the personal attractions of the young queen. After this he lived much at court writing poems, although at the same time he hoped to obtain preferment in the church.

In 1504 he first performed mass before the king, whose offering on that occasion was £4, 18s., a larger sum than that usually paid on the occasion of a priest’s first mass. In 1507 his pension was augmented to £20, and three years afterwards it was raised to £80, to be paid during his life, or until he should be promoted to a benefice of £100 or more. In 1511 he seems to have been in the train of Queen Margaret when she visited the northern part of Scotland, as one of his poems, descriptive of her reception at Aberdeen, is evidently written by an eye-witness.

After the disaster of Flodden, in 1513, Dunbar’s fortunes seem to have changed, and no further mention of him occurs as receiving pension. That he may have obtained church preferment is quite possible, but the probability is that the early death of the king, and the unpopularity of the queen and the little influence she had after her marriage with the earl of Angus, may have led to neglect of Dunbar in his old age. His poems contain many allusions to the unequal division of the world’s goods. He was alive in 1517, as in that year he wrote a poem on the occasion of the Regent Albany passing into France, in which he laments the distracted state of public affaire in Scotland. He is supposed to have died about the year 1520, when he had attained his sixtieth year.

The poems of Dunbar, “the darling of the Scottish muse,” are about a hundred in number, for the most part of no great length. The Thrissil and the Pois, written, as before remarked, on the occasion of the marriage of James IV., is an allegory in which he describes the amity between England and Scotland in consequence of that event. The Golden Targe is a moral poem of great power of imagery, in which the ascendency of love over reason is shown to be general—the golden shield of reason being insufficient to ward off the shafts of Cupid. The Twa Maryit Wemen and the Wedo, a tale in which the poet overhears three females relating their experiences of married life, is an imitation of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. The Freiris of Berwik, a tale, is also in the Chaucerian style. The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy is perhaps the most obscure of his poems, though it seems to have been very popular, and frequently imitated in the 16th century. Several of his smaller poems show a quick appreciation of peculiarities of character, but some of them—such as the tournament, or Justis betuix the Tailyeour and Sowtar— though ludicrous, are very coarse. In one called Of a Dance in the Qτιeenis Chalmer, he describes himself as one of the performers

Thain cam in Dunbar the makkar, On all the flure thair was nane frakkar, And thair he dansit the dirrye dantoun, He hoppet like a pillie wantoun For luiff of Musgraiffe, men tellis me, He trippet quhile he tint his pantoun; A mirrear dance mycht na man see.

Another Dance, that of the Sevin DeidUe Synnis—in which Mahoun, prince of devils, is described as holding a carnival with Pride, Ire, Envy, Covetousness, Idleness, Treachery, Gluttony, each with a train of followers, while a company of fiends stand by enjoying the sport, encouraging the performers with various hot applications—is as extravagant a piece as can well be conceived. In contrast, however, he wrote several poems of a religious character, e.g., Off the Nativitie of Christ; Off the Passioun of Christ; Off the licsurreciioη of Christ; and The Maner of Passyng to Confessioun i <L'c.

More fortunate than Douglas and some of the earlier Scottish poets, Dunbar had the satisfaction of seeing his principal works in print. The Thrissil and the Rois, The Golden Targe, The Flyting with Kennedy, and the ballad of Lord Barnard Stewart were printed by Chepman and Myllar in 1508, and are the first specimens of typography that issued from the Scottish press. Several of his poems were preservedin the Asloane MS., written in 1575, the Bannatyne MS. 1568 i preserved in the Advocates’ Libraιy, the Maitland MS. in the Pepysιan Library, and the Reidpeth MS. in the University Library, Cambridge. Of these detached poems some appeared in collections edited by Allan Ramsay, John Pinkerton, ana Lord Hailes, in the course of the last century, but at length the works of Dunbar were collected and published in 1834 by Dr Dâvid Laing (2 vols. 8vo, with a supplement, 1875), having a biography and valuable illustrative notes. In 1873 a minute analysis of the language of Dunbar was published at Bonn by Dr Johannes Kaufmann of Elberfeld.