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Home / Publications / Books / Scotnotes Study Guides / Scotnote 26

Scotnote 26

Sir David Lyndsay’s 
A SATIRE OF THE THREE ESTATES

John Corbett

Published in: Paperback. 
By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2009 
Price: £5.95 
ISBN 978-0-948877-95-7

Order from our bookshop


Sir David Lyndsay’s A Satire of the Three Estates is the earliest complete Scottish play on record, dating from the middle of the sixteenth century. By turns funny and formal, obscene and ceremonial, and filled with sharp social commentary, it is a confident expression of dramatic prowess.

John Corbett’s Scotnote examines the historical background, explores the play’s language and style, and gives a concise introduction to this key work in the Scottish theatrical tradition. These notes are suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

CONTENTS

  • Introduction
  • Sir David Lyndsay: his life and work
  • The history of the text
  • Dramatis Personae
  • A summary of the play
  • Historical and political background
  • Literary influences on the play
  • Staging the play in the 16th century
  • Language and style
  • Two key scenes
  • Modern versions and productions
  • The influence of Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis
  • Conclusion
  • Further reading
  • Timeline

Primary Sidebar

Retrieving and Renewing: a poem for ASL

   Forget your literature? – forget your soul.
   If you want to see your country hale and whole
   Turn back the pages of fourteen hundred years.
   Surely not? Oh yes, did you expect woad and spears?
   In Altus Prosator the bristly blustery land
   Bursts in buzz and fouth within a grand
   Music of metrical thought. Breathes there the man
   With soul so dead—? Probably! But a scan
   Would show his fault was ignorance:
   Don’t follow him. Cosmic circumstance
   Hides in nearest, most ordinary things.
   Find Scotland – find inalienable springs.
  Edwin Morgan, 2004

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