The Wedderburns in the 15th/16th century (3)

Robert Wedderburn, notary and poet, 1546 - 1611

- Introduction and excerpt from the Compt Buik

- An essay by Robert B. Menzies, Hon. Sec. of the Scottish Text Society, 1932

The Wedderburns in the 15th/16th century (1)

The political climate - a brief summary

One of the 'Gude and Godlie Ballatis'

A major influence of the spread of the Reformation movement in Scotland

Early editions

The Wedderburns in the 15th/16th century (2)

1) Origins of the four main family branches

2) An archery contest 1528/9

3) Three Celebrated Dundonians

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ROBERT WEDDERBURN, NOTARY AND POET 1546-1611.

IN the latter half of the sixteenth century there flourished in Dundee one Robert Wedderbum, distinguished by his fellow townsmen from all other members of his family as ' The Notary,' but, in addition, known to his intimates as a man of letters and even as a poet, for some of the divine fire which inspired his kinsmen, the brothers Wedderbum, authors of the ' Gude and Godlie Ballates,' had been infused into the veins of the worthy man of law.

Born in 1546 into a race which for over a century had supplied Dundee with baillies, a race whose name was familiar on the roll of burgesses and whose offshoots were to be found in every profession and trade in the town, it is not surprising that from the time he became a Notary in 1574 until his death in 1611 a vast number of charters and instruments passed under the seal of Robert Wedderbum.

It is against such a busy background that we must picture the life of Robert Wedderbum, the Notary.  His father, also Robert Wedderbum, was a Dundee merchant, with a family of six�the eldest of whom, Alexander, became clerk of Dundee, an office held by the Wedderbum family for 160 years. Robert Wedderbum, the Notary, the subject of this paper, left six protocol books and twelve minute books in his handwriting, which are still preserved in the Dundee municipal archives. Into the first of his protocol books he copied his admission as a Notary.  It is dated 13th March 1574, and recites that he was then twenty-eight years old and had served Alexander Guthre, common clerk of Edinburgh, for three years, and Alexander Wedderbum [his brother], common clerk of Dundee, for seven years.  He married, about 1583, Margaret, daughter of Robert Myln, and had issue, four sons and two daughters, all of whom, it seems, died young and unmarried.  He died in October 1611.

To the above brief biography of our Notary there must be added the further illuminating designation that in addition to being a man of law he was a lover of the classical writers and somewhat of a poet. These two characteristics obtruded themselves in what nowadays we should consider unlikely places.   He brightened the somewhat uninspiring pages of his six protocol books with many classical quotations, odd scraps of verse, aenigmas and anagrams.  Ovid, Lucan and Claudian are his favourite poets.

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Not only had he acquired the classical elegancies of the humaner letters, but also he had seen men and cities in foreign lands.  Like a second Hamlet, he had gone " to school in Wittenberg," that Mecca of the New Religion whither fared the ambitious youth of Northern Europe to sit at the feet of Luther and Philip Melanchthon.  Even though all that now remained of these two giants were their tombs side by side in the famous Schlosskirche, yet Wittenberg continued to triumph over the ancient scholastic methods of instruction and to retain its newly won position as the most prosperous university in the country.

Robert Wedderburn was then almost certainly of the New Faith.  Of his six protocol books one at least-to wit, the second-came from Wittenberg. It is clothed in the stamped calf binding containing medallion portraits of Luther and Melanchthon so familiar in books issuing from Wittenberg at this time.

Besides having an ear for a classical quotation, Wedderburn was a bibliophile. We know he had a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses " in Laten with the pictouris bund in ane swynis skyn of verry braw binding," which, after his death, came into the hands of his nephew, David Wedderburn.¹  It is possible that many of the other books mentioned by David in his ' Compt Buik ' were originally his uncle's property.

The writer possesses Robert Wedderbum's copy of Aristotle's Physiology, published in 1518 by Henricus Stephanus at Paris and bearing Wedderbum's signature and the date 1569. As in the protocol books, he has used the fly-leaves for jotting down Latin quotations, original verses, tags, aenigmas and anagrams. On the title page there is written the creed of the young bibliophile, " Egregios cumulare libros est pulchra supellex," followed by his signature " Robertus Wedderbum, 1569."

At this period of his career, if any weight is to be attached to the type of verse and quotation inscribed, it would seem that he must have fallen in love.  He was only twenty-three -in the words of his own quotation from Ovid's Epistles-

" 0 nec adhuc iuvenis, nec iam puer, utilis aetas," etc.

(0 scarce a youth and yet not a tender boy, useful age.)

It is superfluous to observe that his suit was apparently unsuccessful.  Had it been otherwise there would have been no call to break into verse.  Your successful swain does not feel constrained to hymn his joy in the same degree that the rejected suitor is urged by his misery to sing his sorry plight. And so the youthful Wedderbum, his state of wretchedness not obliterating his classical education, inscribes the following effusion on the front fly-leaf of Aristotle's Physiology :-

" Pas puir epistill (without retoure againe

to me) except with ansuer one thi bak

and spair thow nocht to schaw my secreit pane

to hir, quha may my sorrowis all abstract

quhilkis gif sche knew, for wo hir hart wold brak.

Yet In hir hart I finde Insculptit weill

Ane tygars hart Inarmit oer with steill.

Quhais hardnit hart na tract of tyme can mowe

Nor fluscheing teairs can nocht enforss ye same

To piete ²  me, nor yit my bandonit Lowe

quhilk ye wyngit boy and als ³ ye amorus dame

hes fyrit so with Inextingibill flame,

yit nachtyeles evin as I wish or valde

that ardent flame Is turnit to cynderis calde."

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He plights his troth - with a ring which he sends to his lady with the following lines :-

" Sen thow my ring of rycht

May pas quhair I may nocht

Schair soner sail ye sone vant lycht

Or I remowe my thocht.

The gold that heir Is sent

esteme of small valeu

bot esteme me quhilk dois present

my masteris hart to you

quod wedderburn."

This is immediately followed by a little moral reflection :-

" Plesure procuris pane

and pane procuris piete

and piete plesure cravis agane

quhilk aucht In lufe to be.

quod R.W."

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On the end fly-leaf there appears the following dialogue between the poet and Death.  It is signed R. Wedderburn, and has, I submit, considerable merit although no great originality in ideas, the conversation developing on the lines customary in these grisly meetings. The poet opens with a question and Death answers, and so in alternate lines throughout.  The punctuation is mine.

Quhat ane art thow, sa terribill to vew ?

Evin deid, that kend in erd is weill anew.

Quhy sa deformit, with hollow eis in heid ?

To schaw men how and quharofthai ar maid.

Thir clattering banis, quhat do thai signife?

Mirrores to men, to schaw that thai man de.

This fedderit flane, ⁴ thow beris in thi left fist ?

Schawis that na staitt my power can resist.

This round ball quhat, that is in thi rycht hande ?

Schawis that the warld Is all at my commande

Onder thi feitt quhat representis this grene ?

As ye ar now, It schawis sa half I bene

Thairfoir recompt youre race ye that heir be

And mende youre miss, ⁵ for nain sail eschaip me.

quod R. Wedderburn 

There is an undoubted similarity between the above lines and Henryson's well-known poem entitled " The Ressoning betwin Deth and Man." Also the third last line is reminiscent of an anonymous poem entitled " Welcum Eild " in Maitland Folio MS., Vol. 1. p. 207, S.T.S., which runs :-

" 0 fresche youthheid of yeiris grene

0 tendyr plant of hie curage

Now as thow art so have I bene."

But it must be remembered that there was a convention in these matters.  The dialogue between Death and Man was common throughout the Middle Ages, and persisted well into and even after the sixteenth century. The subject-matter of the conversation was always the same.

Finally, the poet discovers he is mistaken in the object of his passion and upbraids her in a farewell poem of considerable length:-

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" Gif wecht wer In your wourdes

I had na causs to plane

And gif ye will esteme bot bourdes ⁶

The sorrowis I sustene

Gif that ye wey thame vile and vane

now quhat of that

perhaps I play ye contrapane ⁷

quhat meinis that.

Sen nocht bot fickilnes I finde

0 tiger tyit In ye

Thow trowis my daintit ⁸ eis to blinde

Bot contrare sail thow se

Sen sempile ye seme and sutell be

now quhat of that

quhilk caussis me youre falset ⁹ fie

quhat meinis that.

Sen daines ¹⁰ hes done thow enforss

for till forge fraud to me

Youre conscience yit ye may remorss ¹¹

and set your captyve fre

bot be ye slycht ¹² I sail be sle ¹³

now quhat of that

how evir ye are sa sail I be

quhat meinis that.

Gifye be wyle, I will wink ¹⁴

gif that ye sleip, thane sail I walk ¹⁵

gif that ye eitt, but dout lse drink

gif ye be dum, thane sail I talk

gif that ye hounde, thane sail I halk ¹⁶

now quhat of that

gif that ye cullore ¹⁷ I sail calk

quhat meinis that.

[Verse illegible here, omitted.]

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Ye can nocht hyd you re wylis and wrinkis ¹⁸

nor yit youre trikkis I trow

And als youre fenzeit amorus blinkis

I nott thame weill anew

quhilk eft ¹⁹ I sail brief ²⁰ on youre brow

now quhat of that

I know nocht quhome, quhen, quhair and quhow

quhat meinis that.

Sen fenzeit I find you and fals

In that traide ye assay

I will nocht hald yow mair In the hals ²¹

Use thow the best ye may

I will na godlie purpoise stay

now quhat of that

Skarse waiter the spott can wesche away

quhat roeinis that.

For nevir sen my hart ye hede

preft ²² I to be ontrew

for soner sail I suffer deid

or ²³ brak ane worcle I promist yow

and sen I find yow dowbill, adew

now quhat of that

to change the aide and tak the new

quhat meinis that.

The secrett signes I maid and spak

The sychis ²⁴ and sorrowis sair

The taillis I talde in tanting tak

and cwir ²⁵ nocht of my cair

quhairfoir the lufe I to yow bair

now quhat of that

Heir I renunce for evir mair

quhat meinis that.

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Thus may ye lanss ²⁶ and leip at large

Sen I my leif haif tane

and grantit yow ane cleir discharge

of all thingis is bygane

for ressoune biddis me latt allane

now quhat of that

quhilk I sail do god say amen

quhat meinis that.

(qd R. Wedderburn.)"

The last signature is almost worn away, being at the foot of the page.

These verses are typical of the poet's age and century. They are, however, so far as I have been able to discover, entirely original.  Readers acquainted with Middle Scots will recognise the sentiments, phraseology and vocabulary as that of the sixteenth century.  I have modernised only to the extent of expanding contractions.

WALTER B. MENZIES.

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