Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Montgomery, Alexander

MONTGOMERY, Alexander, whose life fell between 1550 and 1610, was the last of the series of Scottish poets who flourished in the 16th century under the patronage of the Jameses. With the union of the crowns, and the transference of James VI. from Edinburgh to London, court favour was withdrawn from Lowland Scotch; it practically ceased to be a literary language, and no poetry of mark was written in the dialect, if we except that of Allan Ramsay's school, till it reappeared in literature as the instrument of the Ayrshire peasant. By a curious coincidence, Montgomery seems to have been, like Burns, a native of Ayrshire. A commendatory sonnet from his pen, extravagantly flattering, as was the custom of the time, was printed with King James's Essays of a Prentice in 1584; he received a pension from the crown a few years later, fell into disgrace apparently for a time, was reinstated in favour, and accompanied his patron to England. As might be expected from the poet of a court where the king himself was a keen critic, Montgomery's miscellaneous poems show a careful attention to form; he tried many metrical experiments, and managed many complicated staves with skill. The sonnet form, at that time a leading fashion in English verse, was also cultivated at the Scottish court, and Montgomery's sonnets possess considerable merit. His most successful poem, published in 1597, and frequently reprinted in Scotland, was the allegory of The Cherry and the Slae. The poet, smitten by Cupid, conceives a longing for some cherries, beautiful fruit, but growing high up on a steep and dangerous bank, above a roaring waterfall. Shall he climb and win? Hope and courage and will urge him to try; dread and danger and despair counsel him to be content with the humbler fruit of the sloe, which grows within easy reach. Experience, reason, wit, and skill debate the question. In the end he resolves to venture for the cherry, with the active help of these last-named powers. The conflicting counsels of the poet's advisers are very pithily expressed in proverbs for and against the adventurous enterprise, and the description of the situation is strong and vivid. Montgomery was no unworthy successor to Henryson and Dunbar in executive finish, but the want of originality in his poems shows that the old impulse was nearly exhausted. There are traces of Italian influence in his sonnets and love songs, but it was much less powerful with him than with his English contemporaries.