The Poems of Alexander Scott

Excerpt from The Poems of Alexander Scott: Edited From the Bannatyne Manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and the Maitland Manuscript in the Library of Magdalen College, Cambridge

The monks at a certain monastery were accustomed to listen at meal-times to a discourse on the life of one of the deceased members Of their order. One day the reader gave out a name unfamiliar to them all, and he alarmed the hungry brethren by announcing that he would group his remarks under three headings. Firstly, What do we know Of our deceased brother? Secondly, is his history authentic? Thirdly, can further light be expected? The alarm that dinner would grow cold was dispelled, as the reader proceeded to say that under the first head he had but one observation - That we know very little about the deceased brother; and as to the second, he stated that the little we did know was very doubtful; and under the third, his only remark was that it was extremely unlikely we shall ever know more. It is an unpleasant fact that this discourse might be made concerning several Scottish writers, and on none more appropriately than Alexander Scott.

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