Scottish records, such as The Register of the Great Seal and The Register of the Privy Council, indicate that he was per knight, sat on assizes, and con 1607, shortly before he made his additions esatto this manuscript, was described as the eldest cri and apparent heir of John Murray of Tibbermuir.18 But it is the father John rather than his bourdonnement James who emerges most vividly and rather cantankerously from the records – failing puro pay his debts, quarrelling with neighbours, and refusing esatto allow the bailies of Perth esatto use material from the quarry on his lands esatto build a new bridge.19 The family was related to the wealthier and more powerful Murrays of Tullibardine, one of whose members, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, owned an important copy of The Flyting of Montgomerie and Polwart.20 The only evidence, however, as puro the literary tastes of the Tibbermuir Murrays, and of James sopra particular, is provided by this manuscript. The careful preservation of Lydgate’s Troy Book and the lengths preciso which James Murray went sopra order preciso have verso complete text are particularly noteworthy. Some twenty years earlier (1592) Duncan Campbell, seventh laird of Glenorchy, whose Perthshire estates were not far distant from those of the Murrays, took great pains esatto establish his ownership of verso fermo manuscript of The Siege of Thebes.21 Interest in Lydgate lasted a long time in Scotland, even codice promozionale nudistfriends to the early seventeenth century, when he, like Chaucer, had begun sicuro seem oldfashioned. Three other shorter pieces of poetry, sopra addenda sicuro Sir Lamwell, were copied by James Murray himself (fols. 1–6). The first is an extract from Hary’s Wallace: the twelve lines correspond puro VIII, 1183–94 con the modern edition based on the manuscript, but are most likely sicuro have been copied from one of the printed editions of the sistema, possibly that published by Andro Hart con The choice of text is interesting, a slightly aureate dawn description, which begins ‘The mirrie day sprang from the Orient’. The two poems which follow differ strikingly from these medieval texts. The first, entitled ‘Inglishe Dyare’, is a Scotticized copy of verso melancholy but extremely popular Elizabethan poem, usually attributed preciso Sir Edward Dyer: ‘He that his mirth hes lost, quhais confoirt is dismaid’. A poem composed by Murray himself follows, beginning: ‘Thou irksume bed quhairin I tumble puro and con/ and restles rollis boith wp and doune may witnes veill my vae’. Its title, ‘Murrayis Dyare’, suggests that it is modelled on that of Dyer, and this is evident sopra its use of the same metre, and despondent tone. ‘Dyer’ or ‘dyar’ seems around this time preciso have become per generic literary term mediante Scots for verso love complaint, written durante ‘poulter’s measure’,

P. Bawcutt, ‘The Boston Public Library Manuscript of John Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes: Its Scottish Owners and Inscriptions’, Medium Aevum 70 (2001), 80–94

See Register of the Great Seal of Scotland 1609–1620, ed. John Maitland Thompson (Edinburgh, 1892), per niente. 59; and Register of the Privy Council of Scotland 1604–1607, vol. VII, addirittura. David Masson (Edinburgh, 1885), p. 690. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland 1592–1599, vol. David Masson (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 531–2. On possible literary links between these branches of the Murrays, see Sally Mapstone, ‘Invective as Poetic: The Cultural Contexts of Polwarth and Montgomerie’s Flyting’, SLJ 26 , per niente. 2 (1999), 18–40. Cf. See Hary’s Wallace, e. Matthew P. McDiarmid, STS Fourth Series 4 and 5, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1968–9).

V, ed

verso then very popular metre, consisting of alternate lines mediante twelve and fourteen syllables. The term also appears sopra the titles of poems by James VI and Nene Ayton.23 Steven May suggests that the particular poem by Dyer which Murray copied ‘was recognised as a model complaint and was termed verso “Dyer” in recognition of both its authorship and the hopeless plight of its commentatore, one who dies of unrequited love’.24 Later members of the family followed James Murray per employing other blank pages (fols. 71v–82v), at the end of the ‘Supply’, puro supremazia sonnets, short poems, and extracts from long ones. They are per various unidentified hands, though the name ‘Marie Moorray’ occurs on fol. 74v. The authors of the poems are not named mediante the manuscript, but some are by Scottish poets, such as Alexander Montgomerie, James VI, and Alexander Hume. There is also a famous sonnet by Sir Philip Sidney (‘Leve me oppure love quhilk rechis bot esatto dust’) and per much-copied poem by Campion (‘Quhat gif a day or verso nycht or verso heir’).25 More valuable than these for the purpose of this article, since it reveals James Murray’s own reading, is per short Catologus [sic] Librorum Jacobi Murryi (fol. 2r), divided into the following categories: sacri, latini, gallici, vulgares, ‘lent buikis’, and scripti (i.anche. manuscript). Their precise identification is sometimes difficult or impossible, because of the vagueness of description or sheer illegibility of the hand, but verso few of the more interesting works will be mentioned here. Among the sacred works are an Explicatio Sacramentorum, per Latin Old and New Testament, George Buchanan’s very popular metrical translation of the Psalms (numerous editions appeared between 1556 and 1610),26 and an as yet unidentified sistema by the scholar Fulvius Ursinus. The Latin section is confined esatto classical authors, such as Virgil, Seneca, and Martial. The Gallici, or French, section, contains only two works. One is Institutiones, probably Calvin’s Institutions de la religion chrestienne (first published in 1559). The other is Esopi fabula gallica; disappointingly, Murray makes giammai mention of Henryson’s Morall Fabillis of Esope. Among the sixteen vulgares, or vernacular, items are listed per Virgil, which is most likely puro be the Aeneid, per the translation of either Gavin Douglas (first printed 1553) or Phaer and Twyne (1573); and Ovid’s Epistles, which presumably signifies George Turberville’s popular translation: The Heroycall Epistles of Ovid (first printed 1567). Other works which can be identified are Cherrie and Slea, that is Montgomerie’s The Cherry and the Slae, and Morall philosophi, presumably William Baldwin’s extremely popular Treatise of Morall Philosophye.27 Aristotles