BARBOUR, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, is ;supposed to have been born about the year 1316.
When he describes the person of Randolph," says Lord Hailes, " he seems to speak from personal obser vation : and as Randolph died in 1331, and Barbour in 1396, the poet, if we suppose him to have lived to the are of eighty, would be in his fifteenth year at the death of that illustrious warrior." (Annals of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 3.) Barbour was educated for the clerical pro fession ; and in 1357 we find him styled archdeacon of Aberdeen. During that year the bishop of his diocese nominated him one of the commissioners who were to meet at Edinburgh, in order to deliberate concerning the ransom oftheir captive monarch, David II. tom. vi. p. 39.) Of the same date there is extant a passport from Edward III., which authorises him to visit the university of Oxford in company with three students. (Ibid. tom. vi. p. 31.) It has been suppo sed by Mr \Varton, that lie himself studied in this se minary during the years 1357 and 1365 ; (Hist. eif English Poetry, vol. i. p. 318.) but for this supposi tion there is no just foundation. As he was then a dignitary of the church, lie had certainly completed his academical studies. It would appear that, in 1365, he visited St Denis, near Paris, in company with six knights. The object of their expedition seems to have been of a religious kind ; for the king of Eng land grants them permission to pass through his do minions, on their way towards St Denis and other sacred places. (Rymer, tom. vi. p. 478.) About ten
years afterwards lie was engaged in composing the celebrated work which has perpetuated his fame, an Historical Poem on the Actions of the great King Ro, bert. As a reward of his poetical merit, lie is said to have received from the exchequer a pension which he enjoyed during his own lifetime, and which at his de, cease was transferred to the hospital of Aberdeen. ( Hume's Hist. ofthe House of Douglas, p. 30. ) From some passages in Winton's chronicle, it would appear, that he also composed a genealogical history of the kings of Scotland ; but of this work no manuscript is known to be extant. Barbour, as has already been hinted, died in the year 1396. Abcrdon. f. 115. MS.) Of his Bruce there are many editions ; but the most valuable is that of Mr Pinkerton, published at London in 1790, in three volumes octavo. This cu, rious production is one of the oldest reliques of Scotiah poetry ; and in a historical point of view, it is like wise of very considerable importance. It clearly evinces, that the author was a man of no ordinary learning or genius. The humanity of bis.sentiments, and the liberality of his views, seem of a far_ more modern date than the fourteenth century ; and he has diffused over his narrative that lively interest which an ordinary writer is incapable of exciting. See Ir ving's Lives y the Scotish Poets, vol. i. p. 253. (e).