Editing John Barbour (poet) (section)

===''The Brus''===
{{main|The Brus}}
[[File:Barbour's The Bruce.JPG|thumb|An 18thC edition of [[The Brus]] in the National Museum of Scotland]]
[[File:John Barbour.JPG|right|210px|thumb|The sentiment underlying the poem.]]
''[[The Brus]]'', Barbour's major surviving work, is a long [[narrative poem]] written while he was a member of the king's household in the 1370s. Its subject is the ultimate success of the prosecution of the [[First War of Scottish Independence]]. Its principal focus is [[Robert I of Scotland|Robert the Bruce]] and [[James Douglas, Lord of Douglas|Sir James Douglas]], but the second half of the poem also features actions of Robert II's [[House of Stuart|Stewart]] forebears in the conflict.

Barbour's purpose in the poem was partly historical and partly patriotic. He celebrates The Bruce (Robert I) and Douglas throughout as the flowers of Scottish [[chivalry]]. The poem opens with a description of the state of [[Scotland]] at the death of [[Alexander III of Scotland|Alexander III]] (1286) and concludes (more or less) with the death of Douglas and the burial of the Bruce's [[Human heart|heart]] (1332). Its central episode is the [[Battle of Bannockburn]].

[[Patriotic]] as the sentiment is, this is expressed in more general terms than is found in later [[Scottish literature]]. In the poem, Robert I's character is a hero of the chivalric type common in contemporary romance, [[Free will|Freedom]] is a "noble thing" to be sought and won at all costs, and the opponents of such freedom are shown in the dark colours which history and poetic propriety require, but there is none of the complacency of the merely provincial habit of mind.

Barbour's style in the poem is vigorous, his line generally fluid and quick, and there are passages of high merit. The most quoted part is Book 1, lines 225-228:

{{Poem quote|A! fredome is a noble thing! 
Fredome mayss man to haiff liking; 
Fredome all solace to man giffis: 
He levys at ess that frely levys!}}