Sir Richard Maitland, Lord Lethington biography
Sir Richard Maitland, Lord Lethington, (born 1496—died March 20, 1586), Scottish poet, lawyer, statesman, and compiler of one of many earliest and most necessary collections of Scottish poetry.
Manly Maitland,” as he was known as in an epitaph, was the son of Sir William Maitland of Lethington. He studied regulation on the University of St. Andrews and in Paris, served James V, and was keeper of the Great Seal (1562–67) below Mary, Queen of Scots. Although he turned blind about 1561, he remained lively as a choose till 1584 and busied himself with writing and accumulating Scottish poetry.
Maitland’s poems mirror the troubled situation of Scotland within the sixteenth century. Usually coping with social and political themes, they're both satirical or written with the meditative seriousness of an previous and blind man who loves his nation and who distrusts his extra fanatical and illiberal contemporaries. They incessantly have a laconic power and a rhythmic expressiveness paying homage to his English modern Sir Thomas Wyatt. Maitland included his personal poems in his helpful assortment of Scottish poetry referred to as the Maitland Folio MS. (begun about 1570), and his daughter added others whereas she compiled the smaller anthology known as the Maitland Quarto MS. (1586). The 183 leaves of the folio and the 138 leaves of the quarto additionally include a collection of works by Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, and different necessary poets of the interval. Maitland’s service to Scottish historical past and literature was commemorated by the inspiration of the Maitland Club in 1828 to proceed such research.