Jamieson, Marianne Powell, and Donald MacDonald, along with a number of earlier scholars, we are now able to identify Henryson's possible use of the Latin Romulus of Gualterus Anglicus, The Fabules of John Lydgate, Caxton's Reynard and Aesop, Petrus Alfonsi's Disciplina clericalis, the Roman de Renart, Chaucer, Gualterus Anglicus's Isopet, and the Fabulae of Odo of Cheriton, among others. It is important to bring to the discussion of this issue a background in the history of the beast fable and knowledge of the politics of Henryson's day, especially the reign of James III.Īnother issue that has received considerable interest is Henryson's sources. Critical debate continues, but those interested in the subject should compare Henryson's perspectives with those of other contemporaneous sources. Most notably, Lyall and Greentree have argued that many of the political and social elements in Henryson's Fabillis derive from the tradition of the beast fable and therefore cannot be used for biographical readings or even inferences about Henryson's attitude toward the issues of the day. These approaches suggest that we can draw few biographical inferences from the allusions in his poetry and that apparent references to contemporaneous events, such as the reign of James III, cannot be substantiated. Recently, however, they have been challenged by critics who apply New Critical approaches to Henryson's verse. How do these matters reveal the personality and background of the poet? Biographical arguments have been advanced by a number of critics since Laing. Other poems in The Morall Fabillis seem to illustrate his knowledge of the court and the rhetoric of preaching. This knowledge of Scottish law has been used to support the argument that Henryson himself was at least a notary and perhaps even a solicitor.
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Does this suggest that somehow he was directly involved with this trade during his lifetime? In similar fashion, "The Trial of the Fox" and "The Sheep and the Dog" show a pronounced knowledge of the Scottish legal system. In "The Preaching of the Swallow," for instance, Henryson shows familiarity with the flax industry.
One of the earliest to emerge involves Henryson's biography. The fables have engendered a number of critical debates. As Dryden said of Chaucer, here as well is "God's plenty." A collection of thirteen fables and a general prologue, the tales provide a broad perspective on fifteenth-century literary and social matters. For several hundred years Henryson was best known to audiences through The Testament of Cresseid, but in recent years The Morall Fabillis has drawn increasing critical attention.