THE BRUCE;
AND
WALLACE;

PUBLISHED
FROM TWO ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS,
PRESERVED IN THE LIBRARY OF THE FACULTYOF ADVOCATES.

WITH
NOTES, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,
AND A GLOSSARY.

A NEW EDITION.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

GLASGOW:
MAURICE OGLE & CO.
1869.

WALLACE;

OR,
THE LIFE AND ACTS
OF
SIR WILLIAM WALLACE,
OF ELLERSLIE.

BY HENRY THE MINSTREL.

PUBLISHED FROM A MANUSCRIPT DATED M.CCCC.LXXXVIII.
WITH
NOTES, AND PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

By JOHN JAMIESON, D.D.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH,
OF THE SOCIETY OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, AND
THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

A NEW EDITION.

GLASGOW:
MAURICE OGLE & CO.
1869.

[Pg i]

So little is known, with respect to Henry the Minstrel, that Ican scarcely pretend to add any thing to the meagre accountwhich has been given of him by former writers. As we cannotcertainly fix the time, we can form no conjecture even as to theplace, of his birth. Almost all that can be viewed as an historicalrecord concerning him, is that with which we are suppliedby Major. Integrum librum, he says, Guillelmi Vallacei Henricus,a natiuitate luminibus captus, meae infantiae temporecudit; et quæ vulgo dicebantur, carmine vulgari, in quo perituserat, conscripsit; (ego autem talibus scriptis solum in partefidem impertior); qui historiarum recitatione coram principibusvictum et vestitum quo dignus erat nactus est. Hist. Lib. IV.c. 15. “Henry, who was blind from his birth, in the time ofmy infancy composed the whole Book of William Wallace;and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he waswell skilled, the things that were commonly related of him.For my own part, I give only partial credit to writings of thisdescription. By the recitation of these, however, in the presence[Pg ii]of men of the highest rank, he procured, as he indeeddeserved, food and raiment.”

This account, as it merely respects the recitation of hispoem, is not inconsistent with what Henry himself says, whenhe asserts his independence in the composition of it, anddeclares that the motive by which he was chiefly actuated, wasa patriotic desire to preserve the memory of the illustriousdeeds of Wallace from oblivion.