DOUGLAS, GAWYN or Gavixi.a Scottish poet, was the third son of Archibald, fifth earl of Angus, and was b. in thblyear 1474 or 1475. He was educated at St. Andrews for the church, and was earlylfippointed , to the rectory of Hawch or Prestonkirk. In 1501 he was made dean or provost of the collegiate church of St. Giles. From the marriage of his nephew, theisixtlyearl of Angus, to the widowed queen of James IV., Douglas expected rapid p:refdriient; but the jealousy of the nobility and the regent Albany was such that D.,,kwholiad through the influence of the queen obtained the bishopric of Dunkeld diredtlyifitan the pope, was tried before the Scottish peers, found guilty of conspiring againiStdh&privileges of the crown, and condemned to imprison ment. After reconciliatioteavitlethe regent, he was set at liberty in about a year, and inducted into his bishopric.;:m0wing to his nephew's ill-treatment of the queen, who thereupon joined with theiregefit against the Douglases, Gavin D. was deprived of his bishopric, on which he what; td England to obtain the aid of Henry VIII. He was, however, suddenly cut off it London by the plague in 1522, and was buried in the Savoy church. One of D.'s earliest poetic efforts was a translation of Ovid's Remedy of Love,
but it has not been preserved. In 1501, he wrote his Palace of Honor, addressed to king James IV. The leading idea of the poem, and some of the details, resemble Chaucer's Temple of Fame. _King Hart, the only other long poem of D. presents a metaphorical view of human life. But the most remarkable production of this author was a transla tion of Virgil's A7neid into Scottish verse, which he executed in the years 1512 and 1513, being the first version of a Latin classic published in Britain. It is generally allowed to be a masterly performance, though in too obsolete a language ever to be pop ular. D.'s verse is far from rhythmical to modern ears; yet the felicitous character of his allegories, and the rich beauty of his descriptions, might well tempt the lovers of genuine poetry to give him a trial. A collected edition of his works in four volumes was issued under the superintendence of John Small, M.A., in 1874.