ABSTRACT
William Dunbar (ca. 1460–ca. 1521) was born in Scotland, apparently attended St. Andrews University (in Fife), served in the brilliant Scottish court of King James IV, and, evidently late in life, entered the priesthood. In his use of traditional poetic genres, particularly the religious lyric and the satire, he may be said to be one of the last great medieval poets. In his eclectic imitations both of the old alliterative measure and of the intricately rhymed new stanzas of Chaucer, in his experiments with aureate diction, and in his aggressive individualism he is a pioneer of the Renaissance.
