IIENRYSON, ROBERT, 1425-1506; an early Scottish poet and author of the first specimen of the pastoral poetry of his country; according to tradition the ancestor of the family of Henryson or Henderson of Fordell, in the county of Fife, one of whom, James Henderson, wits king's advocate and justice-clerk in 1494. From various cir cumstances known about him he must have been born about the year 1425. lie seems to have been educated abroad, as his name does not appear in the registers of the university of St. Andrews, the only one then existing in Scotland; and from an allusion in one of his poems, his attention was probably given to the study of law. In 1462 his name appears in the list of members of the newly founded university of Glasgow as "Magister Robertns llenrysone in artibus licentiatus et in decretis Bachal arius." Henryson seems, in addition to teaching, to have practiced at Dunfermline, as a notary public. His decease in or shortly before 1506 is alluded to by Dunbar.' Of the writings of Henryson that have come down to the present time his Testament of Creseidc may he considered the chief. It. was composed as a continuation or supplement to
Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide which was one of the most popular poems iu the Eng lish language. Henryson resumes the story where Chaucer leaves off, and completes it by inflicting a suitable punishment on the falseCreseide. This continuation displays so much skill that it has been included in all the early editions of Chaucer, as if it had been the work of that poet himself. Another poem, Robene and Nakyne, though short, is remarkable as the first known specimen of pastoral poetry in the Scottish language, while his Bluely Serk, is amongst the oldest examples of ballad poetry. His metrical version of 13 of the Fables of Ailsop, is perhaps the best known of his works. To each fable is appended an application or moral. In these he alludes to the oppressions of the people and the unsettled state of the country during the feeble reign of James III.