The Poet and his Art: Andrew Melville and Latin Literature

This chapter examines a snapshot of the poet's work, which then hopefully generates further debate, and perhaps encourages other scholars to develop a deeper appreciation of the poet behind the message. The discussion so far has given an idea of the compositional forces that informed Andrew Melville's poetic instincts, and it has revealed something of the literary landscape of which he was part. Melville's instinctive and conscious literary correspondence with Buchanan's Psalm 1 extends beyond form. However, Melville does exhibit a complex and nuanced relationship with classical poetry, which is not immediately apparent from the evidence of Psalm 1. Thomas M'Crie's views reflect the largely indifferent attitude towards neo-Latin poetry prevalent during the 19th and early 20th century. The Latin version of the Old and New Testaments that was written for a Calvinist audience by Immanuel Tremellius did not finally appear in full until 1580.