Gavin Douglas

"Fyrst I protest, beaw schirris, by зour leif Beis weill avisit my wark or зhe reprief; Consider it warly, reid oftar than anys, Weill at a blenk sle poetry nocht tayn is."

"Bot a sentens to follow may suffice me: Sum tyme I follow the text als neir I may, Sum tyme I am constrenyt ane other way."

"The battellis and the man I will discriue, Fra Troyis boundis first that fugitiue By fate to Italie come and coist lauyne, Ouer land and se cachit with meikill pyne By force of goddis aboue fra euery stede Of cruel luno throw auld remembrit feid: Grete payne in batelles sufferit he also, Or he his goddis brocht in Latio And belt the ciete, fra quham of nobil fame The latyne peopill taken has thare name, And eke the faderis, princis of Alba, Come, and the walleris of grete Rome alsua."

"It is richt facil and eith gait, I the tell, Forto discend and pas on down to hell: The blak gettis of Pluto, and that dirk way, Standis evir oppin and patent nycht and day; Bot tharfra to return agane on hyght, And heir abufe recovir this aris licht, That is difficil wark, thar lawbour lyis."

"Ryveris ran reid on spait with watir broune, And burnys hurlys all thar bankis doune."

"Woddis, forrestis, with nakyt bewis blowt, Stude strippyt of thar weid in every howt. So bustuusly Boreas his bugill blew, The deyr full dern doun in the dalis drew; Smale byrdis, flokkand throu thik ronys thrang, In chyrmyng and with cheping changit thar sang, Sekand hidlis and hyrnys thame to hyde Fra feirfull thuddis of the tempestuus tyde."

"Dame naturis menstralis."

"And al smail fowlys syngis on the spray: Welcum the lord of lycht, and lamp of day."

"As to the text accordyng never a deill, Mair than langis to the cart the fift quheill."

"Gavin Douglas, set on a particular labour, with his mind full of Latin quantitative metre, attains a robuster versification than you are likely to find in Chaucer…the texture of Gavin's verse is stronger, the resilience greater."

"About Douglas as a translator there may be two opinions; about his Aeneid (Prologues and all) as an English book there can be only one. Here a great story is greatly told and set off with original embellishments which are all good – all either delightful or interesting – in their diverse ways."

"Arguably the best version of Virgil in English poetry."