The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson

Abstract

XXIV MEMOIR OF these and similar descriptions occur, not only been pronounced prolix and tedious,l but even to be scarcely worth preserving! The tale of Orpheus and Eurtdice is probably an early production of Henryson, and is founded upon the well-known fable in heathen mythology. The old classical writers, Yirgil, Ovid, and Boethius, who relate the fable, vary considerably in minute particulars ; and in the Middle Ages the story was converted into the faery tale of Orfeo and Heurodis, and said to be one of the Breton Lais. Henryson adopts the classical story of Orpheus, son of Apollo and Calliope, one of the Nine Muses, and, being nourished by his mother the Goddess of Harmony, poetry and music were to him a natural inheritance. Eurydice, his wife, was Queen of Thrace, and, when carried off by Proserpine, Orpheus, in his desire to regain her, hangs his harp about his neck, and passes to the heavens to implore the aid of his father Apollo, and other deities of Olympus. Having searched the sun and the planets without success, in his downward journey he hears the heavenly melody and sound, according to the old poetic fable, of "The Music of the Spheres." 1 Lord Hailes,see infra, pp. xxx., 289.-Pinkerton ; who makes an exception in favour of " The Twa Llyce." Besides Dr Irving and ]Mr Fraser Tytler, who formed a better appreciation of these Fables, I may refer to an article on Henryson, which originally appeared in a local newspaper, the " Fifeshire Journal," and was reprinted by the author in his excellent little volume entitled "Lives of Eminent Men of Fife.