Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T17:35:21.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fit for a King: The Manuscript Psalms of King James VI/I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Christopher Cobb
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
M. Thomas Hester
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
Get access

Summary

IT is rarely noted that King James–the sixth of Scotland, the first of England—translated thirty of King David's Psalms into original Scots verse. But there they are, in his own hand, in the undated British Library manuscript Royal 18.B.xvi. James Craigie first published them in 1958 in volume 2 of The Poems of James VI of Scotland. William McMillan and James Doelman have both written insightfully about the afterlife of James's Psalms: how they were completely re-rendered by William Alexander, how competing efforts such as George Wither's were discouraged, and how Charles I passed off Alexander's Psalms as the Psalms of his father. This pseudo-James Psalter was published in Oxford in 1631 and was placed at the back of Laud's prayer book, which was to cause a riot in Edinburgh in 1637. Any text that inspires someone to throw furniture at someone else—as Jenny Geddes did with her stool in Edinburgh—rightfully captures our attention. But a reading of the Psalms James actually wrote in his manuscript is necessary because, as far as I know, no critic has published a reading of them. A reading of James's manuscript Psalms will also give us insight to his character, his desire to pattern himself after King David, and more broadly, help us understand how monarchy was constructed in the Stuart era. I will use the sixth Psalm, Domine ne in furore, as a test case.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×