HENRYSON, Robert (c. 1425-c. 1506), oue of the early Scottish poets, and the author of the first specimen of the pastoral poetry of his country, is usually designated schoolmaster of Dunfermline; and according to tradition he was the ancestor of the family of Henryson or Henderson of Fordell, in the county of Fife, one of whom, James Henryson, was king’s advocate and justice-clerk in 1494. Of the poet’s parentage and early history, however, no certain information cau be discovered. From various circumstances known about him he must have been born about the year 1425. He seems to have been educated abroad, as his name does not appear in the registers of the university of St Andrews, the only one then existing in Scotland; and from an allusion in one of his poems, his attention was probably given to the study of law. In 1462 his name appears in the list of members of the newly-founded university of Glasgow as “Magister Robertus Henrysone in artibus licentiatus et in decretis Bachalarius.” Henryson seems, in addition to teaching, to have practised at Dunfermline as a notary public. His decease in or shortly before 1506 is alluded to by Dunbar, who, in his lament for the “makaris” or poets, says of Death—
“In Dunfermline he lies done roun Gud Mais ter Robert Henrisoun.”...
Of the writings of Henryson that have come down to the present time, his Testament of Cresseid may be considered the chief. It was composed as a continuation or supplement to Chaucer’s Troilus and Creseide, which was one of the most popular poems in the English language. Henryson resumes the story where Chaucer leaves off, and completes it by inflicting a suitable punishment on the false Creseide. This continuation displays so much skill that it has been included in all the early editions of Chaucer, as if it had been the work of that poet himself. Another poem, Robcne and Makyne, though short, is remarkable as the first known specimen of pastoral poetry in the Scottish language, while his Bludy Serk is amongst the oldest examples of ballad poetry. His metrical version of thirteen of the Fables of Aesop is perhaps the best known of his works. To each fable is appended an application or moral. I n these he alludes to the oppressions of the people and the unsettled state of the country during the feeble re⅛u of James III. His classical Tale of Orpheus, though a languid performance, exhibits his familiarity with the scholastic learning of his time. Several of the poems of Henryson have been preserved in the Asloan MS. in the Auchinleck Library, the Bannatyne MS. in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, the Maitland MS. in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge, and the Harleian MSS., British Museum. His Orpheus and Eurydice was printed at Edinburgh by Chepman & Myllar in 1508. The Testament of Cresseid was printed at Edinburgh by Henry Char teris in 1593. The poem of Robene and Makyne and the Testament of Cresseid were reprinted for the Bannatyne Club in 1824. The Moral Fables were printed at Edinburgh by Lekprevikin 1570, at London by R. Smith in 1577, and again at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart in 1621. This last edition was reprinted for the Maitland Club in 1832. A collected edition of the works of Henryson, leaving nothing to be desired, was printed at Edinburgh in 1865, under the editorial care of Dr David Laing.
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