Douglas, Gavin (or Gawin) (c. 1475-1522)

Scottish poet. He translated into Scots Virgil's Aeneid (1513), including the thirteenth book added by Maffeo Vegio. He wrote the allegorical The Palace of Honour (c. 1501).

His language is more archaic than that of some of his predecessors, but Douglas had fire and a power of vivid description and his allegories are ingenious.

He was born at Tantallon Castle, North Berwick, the son of the 5th Earl of Angus, and educated at St Andrews University for the church. Promotion came early; in 1501 he was made provost of St Giles, Edinburgh, and in 1514 abbot of Aberbrothock and archbishop of St Andrews. But owing to the troubled times (under Thomas Wolsey, resentment against the excesses of the church led to anticlericalism), he had hardly received these preferments when he was deprived of them. He was, however, named bishop of Dunkeld in 1515 and, after a year's imprisonment, was confirmed in the see. In 1520 he was again expelled, and two years later died of the plague in London.