Older Scots Version A: Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
The anonymous Older Scots narrative The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis is preserved in the Asloan manuscript (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates 16500), which was composed ca. 1515. The manuscript's name comes from its scribe, John Asloan, a copyist and notary public living in and around Edinburgh.
Like the contemporaneous Middle English manuscripts, the Scottish narrative is also part of the Version A branch of the tradition, and also likely had a French Version A text as its primary source, judging by the stories and their order. Also like the English texts, the Buke is in octosyllabic tail-rhymed verse. However, the Buke also diverges from the Version A/English narratives' pattern in a few key ways that suggest narrative proximity to the Historia tradition as well. Catherine van Buuren notes that there are several points when the Buke uses language identical to that found in some of the Latin Version H texts, with narrative details further exemplifying the influence of the Historia tradition (Van Buuren (1982), pp. 136-81). Critically, this includes the revelation and gender-reveal of the empress's lover at the end of the frame story, something that is not found in the Version A narrative pattern. Van Buuren notes that while this could suggest a lost, early A/H source that blends the two traditions, it is perhaps more likely that the author of the Buke was familiar with both the Version A and Version H narratives.
Another anomalous element in the Scots text is found in the rendition of the story of the parrot who reports a wife's adultery, Avis. The redactor of the Asloan text has added in two additional bed-trick motifs/embedded stories into the frame of this tale, something that is not found in any other version of the narrative; these stories, Gladius and Linteum, are known in some of the Book of Sindbad narratives, but are not part of any other European Seven Sages texts. This variation introduces the wife's mother as a character, and the primary actor plotting these repeated deceptions. The story goes as follows:
Avis: usual opening
A man has a pet magpie that reports everything that goes on in his house to him, whenever he returns home. One day, the husband leaves the house, and his wife meets with her lover, a knight, and the bird sees them. The magpie tells the lover not to dishonour the lady nor to befoul the lord's bed, but the lady tells the lover not to worry, and the two enjoy each other's company.
Addition: Gladius
The husband comes home unexpectedly early. The wife panics, but her mother tells the lover to stand by the door with his naked sword in hand, and to say not a word. When the husband enters, the mother explains that this poor man had been pursued by three armed men, determined to kill him. They had sheltered him in their home, she claims, and his silent demeanor and naked blade were due to fear that the husband was one of those would-be-murderers. The husband believes they have behaved charitably, and makes the knight welcome.
Once the knight has left, the magpie reports on what had really happened. The husband is furious, but his wife denies everything, and he believes her. Soon, he leaves again, and once again the wife summons her lover, and the two delight in feasting and debauchery.
Addition: Linteum
Once again, the husband returns home unexpectedly. The lover is concealed in the bedchamber, but the husband wishes to rest after his journey. The wife is terrified, but her mother steps in again. She tells her daughter to help strip the bed, to lay fresh sheets for her husband. While two women hold up the bedsheet, the knight escapes, unseen.
Avis, again
That night, the wife decides to prevent her husband from trusting the magpie again. She climbs to the roof, creates a hole above the bird's cage, and simulates rain and storms all night by dropping water down on the bird, and mimicking the sound of thunder. The next morning, when the husband speaks to the magpie, she reports that she had been tormented by the weather - and also that his wife had again been unfaithful. Given the clear skies, the husband believes that the bird's aim is to cause trouble between him and his wife, and he kills the magpie in a rage. Only then does he look up and see the hole in the roof above the empty cage, and realise his mistake. Racked with remorse, he sends his wife away, calling her the 'all-thar-werst woman of all'. He then breaks his spear, and goes on pilgrimage to the holy land.
The additional elements, Gladius and Linteum, have been listed below as additional stories, though they appear as part of Avis in The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis. Their structure as individual narratives, as seen in the summaries drawn from the Mishle Sendebar and the Seven Viziers, is adapted in this Scots rendition, but there is sufficient similar to indicate their clear relationships.
It is worth noting that the narrative in its current form contains only thirteen stories. There is a lacuna between Sapientes (the 11th story, told by the Empress) and Inclusa; according to Catherine van Buuren (1982), this likely included the sixth sage's tale, and the Empress's reponse to it. There are also some anomalies with the sage's names throughout the text, with some discrepancies between their original introductions, and their introductions prior to telling their tales. For example, the opening frame names the second sage Amipullus, while the introduction to second sage's story names the teller Maxillas - then later refers to him as Ancillas. The sage originally introduced as Malcome is introduced as the fifth sage, but then is the fourth to tell a story, and is referred to as Maucundas. The fourth sage, called Cato or Catone, is distinct from the seventh sage, called Cratone, while the sixth sage, named Ampustinus, does not tell a story.
| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Language within Version | Older Scots |
| Narrative / Scholarly Group | |
| Parent Versions | A (Seven Sages) |
| Child Versions | |
| Author | |
| Title | |
| Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages | Older Scots Version A: Buke of the Sevyne Sagis |
| Version Number | |
| Branch of the tradition | Seven Sages of Rome |
| Language & Composition | |
|---|---|
| Original language of version | Older Scots |
| Translated into (languages) | |
| Place of composition | Scotland |
| Date of composition | 1513 - 1542 |
| Source for date of composition | https://digital.nls.uk/235163104 |
| Literature & Editions | |
|---|---|
| Modern research literature | Van Buuren (1982), Cragie (1923), Van Buuren (1978), Campbell (1907) |
| Modern Editions | Craigie, Buke of the Sevyne Sagis (1923, 1925), Van Buuren, The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis (1982) |
| Connected prints |
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No connected prints |
| Adaptations | |
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| Adapted from (version) | French Version A, H (Historia Septem Sapientum) |
| Adapted into (version) | |
| Source for composition and adaptation information | Van Buuren (1982) |
| Languages in Use | |
|---|---|
| Language of text | Scots |
| Regional or specific language of version | Middle Scots |
| Notes | |
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| Note | |
| Notes on motifs | |
| Notes on the frame | |
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