0:00:02 > 0:00:03BELLS PEAL
0:00:05 > 0:00:08At the end of the 15th century, a Scottish notary
0:00:08 > 0:00:11and teacher called Robert Henryson writes a series of animal
0:00:11 > 0:00:14fables based on the old stories of Aesop.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Esop, myne authour, makis mentioun
0:00:19 > 0:00:24of twa myis and thay wer sisteris deir.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29Henryson is little known these days, but experts consider him a master.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31He's the greatest poet, I think,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34of the 15th century in English or Scots.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Fast-forward over 500 years
0:00:37 > 0:00:40and Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney catches
0:00:40 > 0:00:44a glimpse of an early manuscript of the fables and is spellbound.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47They're very good. They're very fresh. Very alive.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49There's much to recommend them.
0:00:49 > 0:00:50Over several years,
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Seamus creates a series of modern English translations infused
0:00:54 > 0:00:57with the language of his rural childhood in Northern Ireland.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01It's absolutely brilliant. It's a wonderful translation.
0:01:01 > 0:01:02And he persuades Scottish actor
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and comedy legend Billy Connolly to record them.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09This country mouse, when winter came, endured cold and hunger.
0:01:09 > 0:01:15I think he's amazing. His reputation swells before him.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Now, five of these fables have been animated for a project
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Seamus Heaney was working on at the time of his death.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Bringing a modern dimension to tales that were written
0:01:25 > 0:01:27over half a millennium ago.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30With a specially-composed score by international pianist
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and conductor, Barry Douglas.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35This is a very major thing for me.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38It's a new departure and I'm very excited.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42In a moment, the full animated story of the Fox, the Wolf and the Farmer
0:01:42 > 0:01:45with an introduction by Seamus Heaney himself
0:01:45 > 0:01:48and later, some revealing behind-the-scenes footage
0:01:48 > 0:01:51of how these morality tales made it to the screen.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56Five medieval fables are now ready for their second coming.
0:02:06 > 0:02:11Well, Henryson appears in 15th century documents
0:02:11 > 0:02:14not only as a schoolteacher, but as a notary, as they say.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17A man familiar with legal practise.
0:02:17 > 0:02:25And the fable about the Fox, the Wolf and the Farmer plays upon that.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30He uses his legal knowledge because the farmer curses his oxen
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and says, "The wolf will have you."
0:02:33 > 0:02:37The wolf overhears it, makes an argument for the oxen
0:02:37 > 0:02:44based on law and the fox appears as judge in this argument.
0:02:47 > 0:02:48And takes a bribe
0:02:48 > 0:02:53and this is an image of the judges of the time taking bribes.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55And the next thing,
0:02:55 > 0:03:00the fox leads the wolf on a merry chase after a big cheese.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06And at the very end, there is a terrific denouement
0:03:06 > 0:03:10where a pulley in a well sends one up and the other down.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14So it's a swift and, er...
0:03:14 > 0:03:18just and happy judgment in the end.
0:03:28 > 0:03:29BIRDSONG
0:03:29 > 0:03:31INSTRUMENTAL
0:03:33 > 0:03:35In olden days, as Aesop has recorded,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38there was a farmer born to speed the plough.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Early rising ever was his habit.
0:03:41 > 0:03:42And so, come ploughing time,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46he rose to go early a field to open the first furrow.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50His farmhand with him, leading out the oxen.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56He blessed himself and them and started in.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01The farmhand shouted, "Top it up! Come on! Pull straight, my pets!"
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Then flailed them hard and sore.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08The team was fresh and young and barely broken.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11So hard to rein, they wrecked the new-ploughed score.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15The farmer let a sudden angry roar, stoned them,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18threw down the pattle of the plough.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21"The wolf!" he yelled, "can have the lot of you!"
0:04:23 > 0:04:25But yet the wolf was nearer than he knew,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28for he lay with Mr Fox in a bush nearby,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31a thicket at the far end of the furrow, and heard the vow.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Fox laughed in quick reply.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39"Now there's an offer," he told Wolf, "which I consider good."
0:04:39 > 0:04:41"I promise you," Wolf answered,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45"I'll make yon royal clown stand by his word."
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Finally, the oxen settled down.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Then, later on, the two men unyoked them.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55The farmer, with his team, set off for home.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57The wolf straightway limped out
0:04:57 > 0:05:02and came loping into their path to work his stratagem.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06The farmer saw him, couldn't but take fright
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and thought to turn the beasts and make retreat.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13"Where are you going with this stolen stock?" the wolf laid claim.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15"For none of them are yours."
0:05:15 > 0:05:18The man, although now thrown into panic,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21faces the wolf and deliberately answers,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25"Sir, by my soul, all of these oxen-steers are mine.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28"I'm puzzled that you stopped me.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31"For never once did I offend you. Truly."
0:05:31 > 0:05:36The wolf said, "Fellow, did you not just now donate them to me
0:05:36 > 0:05:38"as you ploughed yon bank?
0:05:38 > 0:05:42"And is there any finer deed, I ask you, than a free deed of gift?
0:05:44 > 0:05:46"You forfeit thanks by stalling.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49"Better liberal with your halfpence than forced in the end
0:05:49 > 0:05:50"to part with fatted stock.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54"Generosity not from the heart is mock."
0:05:54 > 0:05:58"Sir," said the farmer, "a man may speak in fury
0:05:58 > 0:06:02"and then gainsay himself once he's considered.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05"If I say I'll steal, does it make a thief of me?
0:06:05 > 0:06:08"Do promises like that have to be honoured?
0:06:08 > 0:06:11"Did I sign documents, or give my word?
0:06:11 > 0:06:14"What writ or witness do you have to show?
0:06:14 > 0:06:18"Do not, sir, seek to rob me. Go to law."
0:06:18 > 0:06:21"Clown!" said the wolf.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25"A lord, if he is honest and lives in fear of shame and of reproof,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28"his word alone will be his seal of trust.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31"Fie on the man we can't believe or have respect for.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33"You're contriving to deceive.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36"And without honesty, the proverbs say,
0:06:36 > 0:06:39"other virtues are flimsy as a fly."
0:06:41 > 0:06:45"Sir," said the farmer, "remember this one thing.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48"An honest man's not tricked by a half-truth.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51"I may say and gainsay, I am no king,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55"but where's the witness you can put on oath?"
0:06:55 > 0:06:59"Then," said the wolf, "let you take him on good faith.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03"Lawrence?" he calls, "come here out of that covert
0:07:03 > 0:07:06"and say exactly what you saw and heard."
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Lawrence came lurking. He never loved the light.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14And soon appeared before them in that place.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18The man saw nothing in the sight to laugh at.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22"Lawrence," said Wolf, "you must decide this case.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24"The truth of which we'll demonstrate with ease.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31"I call for honest witness.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35"In his wrath, what gift did this man promise I would have?"
0:07:37 > 0:07:39"Sir," said the fox,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43"a final verdict now would be premature and unduly hasty,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47"but if you would submit, the pair of you, to what I rule in perpetuity,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51"I'll do my best to judge the case as fairly as can be done."
0:07:52 > 0:07:55"Well," said the wolf, "agreed."
0:07:57 > 0:07:59And the man said, "Yes, again agreed."
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Both then made their allegations frankly.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Both sets of pleas set forth by them complete.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14"Though I act as judge in friendship, you must be bound," said Lawrence,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16"to accept my verdict
0:08:16 > 0:08:19"however it may strike you, sour or sweet."
0:08:21 > 0:08:25The wolf stretched out his foot, the man his hand,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and swore on the fox's tail their pact would stand.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32The fox then took the man off to one side and,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36"Friend," he said, "you're landed in a mess.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39"This wolf won't let you off a single oxhide.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42"And while I myself would wish to lend assistance,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46"I am very loath to act against my conscience.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49"You'll spoil your case if you make your own defence.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54"This can't be won without some real expense."
0:08:56 > 0:08:59You see how bribes work best to get men through
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and how, for gifts, the crooked path will straighten?
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Sometimes a hen will save a man a cow.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09All are not holy who hoist their hands to heaven.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14"Sir," said the man, "you shall have six or seven
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"of the very fattest hens out of my flock.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19"There'll be enough left if you leave the cock."
0:09:22 > 0:09:25"Now I am a judge," said the fox, and laughed.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"Bribes should not divert me from doing right.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32"Yet hens and capons I may well bear off
0:09:32 > 0:09:36"for God has gone to sleep, at least this night.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39"Such carry-on is petty in his sight.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43"These hens," he said, "will make your case secure.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45"No man draws hawk to hand without a lure."
0:09:48 > 0:09:51With these things settled, Lawrence took his leave,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53then went immediately to see the wolf
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and there in private, plucked him by the sleeve.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01"Are you in earnest," he asks, "as a plaintiff?
0:10:01 > 0:10:05"No, by my soul, you can't be. It's a laugh."
0:10:06 > 0:10:10"What, Lawrence, do you mean?" the wolf replied.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13"You heard yourself the promise that he made."
0:10:13 > 0:10:17"The promise, is it, the man made at the plough?
0:10:17 > 0:10:20"Is that what you would base your case upon?"
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Half-mocking like this, Lawrence gave a laugh.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24LAUGHTER
0:10:24 > 0:10:29"Sir, by the rood," says he, "your head is gone.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31"Devil and oxtail are you going to win.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34"And tricking a poor man who has no defence?
0:10:34 > 0:10:38"How could I bear to have that on my conscience?
0:10:40 > 0:10:42"But I've consulted with the soul," said he,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44"and we agreed upon this covenant.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48"You cancel all your claims and set him free
0:10:48 > 0:10:51"and you'll be given whole into your hand,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55"a cheese unparalleled in all the land.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58"He says it weighs a stone and maybe more.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02"It's summer cheese. Fresh. Nothing lovelier."
0:11:04 > 0:11:07"So you're advising this is what I do.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10"Accept the cheese so that clown can go free?"
0:11:12 > 0:11:14"Yes, by my soul, and were I counsel for you,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17"it's what I would advise professionally.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20"For even pushed to its extremity,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23"your case won't win a turnip in return.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25"Nor do I, sir, intend my soul to burn."
0:11:28 > 0:11:32"Well," said the wolf, "it goes against the grain that for a cheese, this fellow's off the hook."
0:11:34 > 0:11:37"Sir, said the fox, "you ought not to complain
0:11:37 > 0:11:40"for, by my soul, you are the one at fault."
0:11:41 > 0:11:45"Then," said the wolf, "I'm finished with the plot.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48"But I'd like to see this cheese you boast about."
0:11:52 > 0:11:55"Sir," said the fox, "he told me where it's kept."
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Then, hand in hand, they go on to a hill.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05The farmer to his farmhouse takes his way,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08glad to have eluded their ill will,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11and stands guard by his door till break of day.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15So let us turn to the others now
0:12:15 > 0:12:19as they proceed through lonely woods, two footsore prowlers,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22from bush to bush well into the small hours.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30All through the long night, Lawrence wracks his wits
0:12:30 > 0:12:32how he might pacify the wolf by guile.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37His promise of the cheese, he now regrets,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39but in the end, he hits upon a wile
0:12:39 > 0:12:42so satisfactory, he has to smile.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49"This is blind man's buff," Wolf says, "my friend.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52"We hunt all night, but not a thing we find!"
0:12:54 > 0:12:57"Sir," said the fox, "we are all but there.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00"Stop worrying and you shall see it soon."
0:13:02 > 0:13:04They hurried on until they reached a manor.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Like a new penny, shone the full round moon.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Then to a draw-well, these two gents are come,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14where a bucket hung at each end of the rope.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17As the one went down, the other was cranked up.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22The moon's reflection shone deep in the well.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25"Sir," said the fox, "for once you'll find me true.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28"Now don't you see the cheese there, visible,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31"white as a turnip, round as a seal?
0:13:31 > 0:13:34"Although he hung it deep to keep it hid from view."
0:13:36 > 0:13:38"For this cheese, sir, believe me,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41"is a thing would make a gift for any lord or king."
0:13:44 > 0:13:46"Ah!" said the wolf,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50"if I could have yon cheese out high and dry in its entirety,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53"I'd let yon clown off everything he owes.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56"What good's a dumb ox team? I set him free.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01"Yon cheese is more the fare for men like me.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04"Lawrence," he cried, "into that bucket, quick,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07"and I will hold on here, then wind you back."
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Quickly, dexterously, the fox leaps in.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15The other stays to keep hold of the handle.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19"It's so immense," says Fox, "it has me beaten.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22"My toes won't grip, I've torn off every nail.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26"You'll have to help me up. It's such a huge haul!
0:14:26 > 0:14:28"Get into that other bucket and descend this minute
0:14:28 > 0:14:30"to me here and lend a hand."
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Nimbly then, the idiot leapt in,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38which made, of course, the other bucket rise.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The fox was hoisted up, the wolf wound down.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45And as they pass, Wolf furiously cries,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47"Why is my bucket falling while yours flies?"
0:14:47 > 0:14:52"Sir," said the fox, "it's thus with Fortune ever.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56"If she lets one soar, she's like to sink another."
0:14:56 > 0:14:58LAUGHTER
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Down to the bottom then, the wolf shot past
0:15:01 > 0:15:03while Lawrence lands on top.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06A happy fox, leaving the wolf in water to the waist.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12To tell who rescued him, I'm at a loss. The text ends here.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16There is no further gloss.
0:15:16 > 0:15:24Except that men may find morality in this narration, fable though it be.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26EVIL CACKLE
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Everything Henryson has written, as far as I'm concerned,
0:15:38 > 0:15:43is a major and interesting, compelling piece of poetry.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48In Henryson, you're going to find the depths of despair
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and the heights of hilarity.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55So that reading itself becomes a moral activity.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Well, he's not as famous as his near contemporary,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01the southern poet, Chaucer, and that's a pity really because
0:16:01 > 0:16:06he's an extraordinary poet of great range and maturity, I think.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08But also the language, he writes
0:16:08 > 0:16:12this extraordinary eloquent, ringing Scots.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16I mean, you're clearly reading a Scottish writer at every point.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21In elderis dayis, as Esope can declair,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26thair wes ane husband quhilk had ane plewch to steir.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37My understanding is that Seamus first discovered
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Henryson's fables at university and then he came back to them later,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45which wouldn't surprise me because I went to the same university.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Indeed, he taught me at Queen's University Belfast at one point.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52And the syllabus, I suspect, was very much the same.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55One of the standard essays you learnt from the previous years
0:16:55 > 0:17:03was to compare Henryson's poem about Troilus and Criseyde with Chaucer's.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07So that's where I encountered Henryson first.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Most of Heaney's papers connected with medieval poetry
0:17:11 > 0:17:14he left at Queen's University Belfast in their library
0:17:14 > 0:17:18because that's where he learnt his medieval poetry from.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21So I went there shortly after he deposited them there in the mid noughties
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and read through all of his undergraduate notes.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27The first time he seems to have been aware of Henryson,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29he actually writes his name down as Henderson.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34He writes down, "Henderson and Dunbar, Scottish Chaucerian poets."
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Subsequently, relatively recently, indeed, I was reminded of them
0:17:39 > 0:17:45when I saw a manuscript in an exhibition in the British Library.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49And it had a little rooster on the top right-hand
0:17:49 > 0:17:51corner of the manuscript.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53But the rooster was crowing.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Something so jaunty about it.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58Heaney often talked
0:17:58 > 0:18:02about his education here at Queen's Belfast
0:18:02 > 0:18:04and he often talked about the formative influence
0:18:04 > 0:18:07that medieval poetry had on his writing.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13I think for Heaney, the medieval tradition is a lost tradition.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16And part of his task is to recuperate that.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24We know certain key things about Henryson.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27We know he was dead by about 1505
0:18:27 > 0:18:30because that is celebrated in a poem
0:18:30 > 0:18:32by another well-known Scot, William Dunbar,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35who says that, "death hes done roune,"
0:18:35 > 0:18:38had to do with, in a rather brutal way,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40"with Maister Robert Henrysoun."
0:18:40 > 0:18:44And that, "Maister," tells us that Henryson had a master's degree
0:18:44 > 0:18:47and we think that he is the Robert Henryson
0:18:47 > 0:18:54who is recorded in the annals of the University of Glasgow in 1462.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Then we know that he was a schoolmaster in Dunfermline.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06We're pretty certain he was based in Dunfermline,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09connected to the abbey for a period of time.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13There are multiple records that say a man called Robert Henryson
0:19:13 > 0:19:17was actually working in the area as a schoolteacher
0:19:17 > 0:19:19and also possibly as a sort of notary figure.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22That's the kind of thing that rural schoolteachers did
0:19:22 > 0:19:24until quite recently.
0:19:24 > 0:19:30They were not only schoolteachers, but they did law documents
0:19:30 > 0:19:35and JP work, Justice of the Peace work.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37So he had the teaching role,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39which I think comes out in his poetry,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43and he had the legal role, which also comes out in his poetry,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46which he is very interested in matters not just of law,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50but also of justice, which really matters to Henryson.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Do not, sir, seek to rob me. Go to law.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58'In the Fox, the Wolf and the Farmer,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02'there's a terrific bit of legal tangling which would suggest'
0:20:02 > 0:20:08that the source that gives him as a notary is to be relied upon.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10These are not drawing room fables
0:20:10 > 0:20:13for the polite education of children.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17These are really serious, analytical explorations of things
0:20:17 > 0:20:21that were going on in the Scotland in which Robert Henryson lived.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24You see how bribes work best to get men through
0:20:24 > 0:20:28and how for gifts the crooked path will straighten.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Sometimes a hen and will save a man a cow.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35All are not holy who hoist their hands to heaven.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38The 15th century was a time of great corruption
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and Henryson's readers would have known what he was talking about.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45He was talking about the way in which people, generally,
0:20:45 > 0:20:47the commons of Scotland,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51could not depend on getting justice in the courts
0:20:51 > 0:20:55because of the way that justice could be bent.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58And one of the really interesting things about Henryson is
0:20:58 > 0:21:01that he's almost always on the side of the little guy.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04He raises the question in the fables
0:21:04 > 0:21:07how justice might be tempered with mercy.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Whether it is mice or men.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12Your honour has been injured, I admit,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15and I deserve this sentence you decree
0:21:15 > 0:21:19unless you relent, my Lord and pardon me.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23The fables of Aesop were a popular grammar school text.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It would have been his daily bread
0:21:26 > 0:21:30to teach these texts to kids every year.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33He must have known these texts inside out.
0:21:33 > 0:21:34You would have thought
0:21:34 > 0:21:37he might have got really weary of hearing them again and again.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40I just find it amazing that the fables of Aesop
0:21:40 > 0:21:44are so fresh and re-freshed in the version which we have.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47To kill and then devour 1,000 mice.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50What is manly about that in a great lion?
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Henryson is a very serious poet,
0:21:53 > 0:21:58but he is also a very funny poet.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00He sees the grave things in life
0:22:00 > 0:22:05but he also sees what makes life delightful and ridiculous
0:22:05 > 0:22:07and silly and fun.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12And he puts all that together in poems that are very accessible
0:22:12 > 0:22:14and also brilliant in terms of story telling.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18We thought, by my soul, that you were dead indeed.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Why else would we have danced upon your heid?
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Of course, if you are telling stories about small animals,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27there is an immediate sense of the ridiculous.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Even relatively touching stories like the town and country mouse,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34at the back of your mind, there is always a sense of the absurdity.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39When the Burgess mouse heads out for home with her staff in hand,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43you just laugh because the idea of a mouse with staff in hand
0:22:43 > 0:22:45is just intrinsically funny.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49So barefoot and alone and alone with staff in hand,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52like a poor pilgrim she set out from the town to seek her sister.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57There are many of these crossover moments where he plays with the fact that he is using animals,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01but you can't visualise them just as animals because the action will seize up if you do.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05You can tell from Henryson's poetry that he had a great sense
0:23:05 > 0:23:07both of the miserable things in life,
0:23:07 > 0:23:12and of the incredibly funny and comic things in life.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I think people in the Middle Ages, in those hard times,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18also had a lot of good times.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22It was also believed that if you were a cheerful kind of person,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25this would stop you from getting ill.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30It's one of the rather bizarre aspects of medieval culture
0:23:30 > 0:23:35that they believed that melancholy was the root of many ills
0:23:35 > 0:23:39and so, if you maintained a cheerful disposition,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42you could ward off those strange humours,
0:23:42 > 0:23:46those poisonous humours which could ruin your health.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50So, you see, really, a good story, a good yarn, is good for your health
0:23:50 > 0:23:53is part of the rationale behind that.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56I cannot eat, I'm so sore aghast
0:23:56 > 0:23:59I'd rather do Lent's 40 days of fast on cabbage water
0:23:59 > 0:24:01Gnawing peas and beans
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Than feast with you here in such dread conditions.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08The humour is very familiar to anybody from the northern climes,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Scotland or Northern Ireland
0:24:11 > 0:24:16because, quite often, it's po-faced, it's ironical.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20And as opposed to humour, jokes and funniness as such,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23there's a kind of merriment in his descriptions,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26just of the two little mice.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30There's a kind of pastoral symphony working behind all that.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32A kind of joyfulness.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Hearing Henryson read, I think,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40really transforms one's experience of understanding Henryson.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45Once you hear the voice of Henryson, you are beguiled I think.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49Throw mony wilsum wayis can scho walk
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Throw mosse and mure
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Throw bankis, busk, and breir
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Fra fur to fur
0:24:55 > 0:24:57cryand fra balk to balk
0:24:57 > 0:25:04Cum furth to me, my awin sister deir Cry peip anis!
0:25:04 > 0:25:07With that the mous couth heir
0:25:07 > 0:25:11And knew hir voce as kinnismen will do
0:25:11 > 0:25:16Be verray kynd and furth scho come hir to.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19It's great reading out Henryson because, after all,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21he was meant to be read
0:25:21 > 0:25:23and meant to be heard.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26He gives the performing voice a lot of challenges.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31One of the things that is most difficult for a modern person
0:25:31 > 0:25:36is to try to approximate in some way Henryson's Scots.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40To me, it is extraordinarily difficult
0:25:40 > 0:25:43because the experts themselves are not necessarily agreed
0:25:43 > 0:25:46on what the pronunciation might have been.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Bot I hard say
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Scho passit to hir den
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Als warme as woll suppose it wes not greit
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Full beinly stuffit baith but and ben
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Of beinis and nuttis, peis, ry, and quheit
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Quhenever scho list
0:26:07 > 0:26:10Scho had aneuch to eit
0:26:10 > 0:26:15In quyet and eis withoutin ony dreid
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Bot to hir sisteris feist na mair scho yeid.
0:26:21 > 0:26:27There is a wonderful anecdote of the death of Henryson which says...
0:26:27 > 0:26:28"Mr Robert Henryson,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32"he was questionless a learned and a witty man,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35"and it is pity we have no more of his works.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39"He died of a diarrhoea of the flux
0:26:39 > 0:26:45"of whom there goes this merry though somewhat unsavoury tale
0:26:45 > 0:26:48"that all physicians having given him over
0:26:48 > 0:26:52"and he lying drawing his last breath,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56"there came an old woman unto him who was held a witch,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00"and asked him whether he would be cured,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04"to whom he said, very willingly.
0:27:04 > 0:27:05"Then, quo'd she,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09"there is a whikey tree in the lower end of your orchard.
0:27:09 > 0:27:14"If you will go and walk but thrice aboot it
0:27:14 > 0:27:16"and thrice repeat these words,
0:27:16 > 0:27:22"whikey tree, whikey tree, whikey tree, tak away this flux from me,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25"you shall be presently cured.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29"He told her that beside he was extreme faint,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33"it was extreme frost and snow
0:27:33 > 0:27:36"and it was impossible for him to go.
0:27:36 > 0:27:42"She told him that unless he did so, it was impossible he should recover.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47"Mr Henryson then lifting up himself
0:27:47 > 0:27:50"and pointing to an oaken table
0:27:50 > 0:27:55"asked her, I pray you tell me
0:27:55 > 0:28:01"if it would not do as well if I repeated thrice these words,
0:28:01 > 0:28:09"oaken bord, oaken bord, oaken bord, garre me shit a hard turde?
0:28:09 > 0:28:12"The woman, seeing herself derided and scorned
0:28:12 > 0:28:16"ran out of the horse in a great passion
0:28:16 > 0:28:20"and Mr Henryson, within half a quarter of an hour,
0:28:20 > 0:28:22"departed this life."
0:28:24 > 0:28:29So that was the end of Henryson. He died rhyming. What a star!