Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Complaint of the Black Knight

'...it is to be recorded with some interest, that the earliest surviving specimen of the Scottish press, is a Miscellany of Millar and Chapman, which preserves a considerable fund of Scottish popular poetry, and among other things, no bad specimen of the gests of Robin Hood, "the English ballad-maker's joy," and whose renown seems to have been as freshly preserved in the north as on the southern shores of the Tweed. There were probably several collections of Scottish ballads and metrical pieces during the seventeenth century. A very fine one, belonging to Lord Montagu, perished in the fire which consumed Ditton House, about twenty years ago...'

Some "Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry" by Walter Scott, who recognized the value of Chepman and Myllar's ancient publishing work.  The oldest surviving book published in Scotland is John Lydgate's "The Complaint of the Black Knight", produced by Chepman and Myllar on April 4, 1508.

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