Perhaps the editor may be accused of nationality, when he says, that, taking the total merits of this work together, he prefers it to the early exert… - John Barbour

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Perhaps the editor may be accused of nationality, when he says, that, taking the total merits of this work together, he prefers it to the early exertions of even the Italian muse, to the melancholy sublimity of Dante, and the amorous quaintness of Petrarca…Here indeed the reader will find few of the graces of fine poetry, little of the attic dress of the muse; but here are life and spirit, and ease and plain sense, and pictures of real manners, and perpetual incident and entertainment. The language is remarkably good for the time, and far superior in neatness and elegance even to that of Gawin Douglass, who wrote more than a century after.

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About John Barbour

John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen (c. 1330 – March 13 or 14, 1395) was a poet and churchman, sometimes called the father of Scottish poetry. His The Brus, a verse chronicle on the life of Robert I of Scotland, is the oldest major literary work in the Scots language.

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Additional quotes by John Barbour

Storys to rede ar delatibill
Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill,
Than suld storys that suthfast wer
And thai war said on gud maner
Have doubill plesance in heryng.
The first plesance is the carpyng,
And the tother the suthfastnes
That schawys the thing rycht as it wes.

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