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."

"A! Fredome is a noble thing! Fredome mays man to haiff liking. Fredome all solace to man giffis, He levys at es that frely levys!"

"Na he that ay has levyt fre May nocht knaw weill the propyrte The angyr na the wrechyt dome That is couplyt to foule thyrldome, Bot gyff he had assayit it. Than all perquer he suld it wyt, And suld think fredome mar to prys Than all the gold in warld that is."

"Luff is off sa mekill mycht, That it all paynys makis lych."

"Thai eyt it with full gud will That soucht na nother sals thar-till Bot appetyt."

"Na thar may na man fyr sa covyr Than low or rek sall it discovyr."

"He maid thaim na gud fest perfay And nocht-forthi yneuch had thai."

"Men suld mak mirrie quhill thay mocht."

"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."

"Scottish literature begins effectively with Archdeacon Barbour's Bruce some sixty years after Bannockburn, and to the Bruce and Blind Harry's Wallace (so staunch is the Scot, and such an antiquary in grain) must be attributed much of the colouring and subsequent tone of Scottish sentiment. The Bruce is the better poem, simple, truthful, noble, stirring, a proper start for the literature of a fighting people."

"The Bruce, with which the Scottish contribution to English literature begins, long held its place as the national epic of Scotland."