A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots: A Critical Edition and Translation of George Buchanan's De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (review)

With this publication of George Buchanan's Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots, a key work in Early Modern political thought has been made available as a parallel Latin text and English translation, the latter freshly prepared by the classicist Martin Smith. The text is preceded by a 57 page Introduction by Roger Mason (who also completed the project after the death of Smith), a 'Note on the Text and Translation', and illustrations of the title-pages of the two earliest editions, the Edinburgh text, printed by John Ross for Henry Charteris in 1579 and the London text, said to be a translation in English by 'Philalethes', printed by Edward Aggas for Richard Baldwin in 1689. Following the parallel text are 50 pages of Notes and Commentary, a Bibliography, and an Index.

In his opening paragraphs Mason draws attention to the early and ongoing debate that, as a call to popular rebellion, De Iure has attracted. He proceeds to detailed commentary on the 'career and intellectual formation' (p. xvi) of De Iure's author – considered by his contemporaries the greatest Latin poet of his age – then analyses De Iure itself. Neither section could be called a simple reassemblage of available information, although at all times helpful references to earlier studies are provided and at several points, such as that noting the discovery that Buchanan entered the priesthood (p. xxi), the latest research is fully absorbed. The discussion frequently offers interpretative comment, astutely connecting the political matters of the day to Buchanan's possible motives, actions or choice of subject. Thus, for instance, noting that Buchanan shared his interest in educational reform with Mary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, who became regent of Scotland in 1567, Mason discusses the possible relevance of this to the writing of the anti-Marian De Iure in the same year (pp. xxvi-xxvii).

If Mason equips his reader to understand the complex political context from Scottish, English, and continental perspectives, he also interweaves some helpful commentary on the literary milieu in the countries where Buchanan had contacts or had lived and taught, mentioning perceptively the roles of Theodore Beza, members of the 'Sidney circle', and Andrew Melville. The choice as interlocutor for his dialogue of the historical figure, Thomas Maitland, the younger brother of the courtier and diplomat, Sir William Maitland of Lethington, is briefly considered (p. xxix) as is the inappropriateness of the choice by the time De Iure was published. There is no mention, however, of Thomas's own writing, of which are known two Latin poems later published in Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet's Delitiae poetarum Scotorum, and, according to his contemporaries, a pasquinade satirising the Regent Moray and his advisers, written c. 1570. In the second part of the essay, the dialogue form of De Iure is also too briefly discussed (p. xlix), but in many other ways this section is full of insights into Buchanan's thinking, usefully underlining, for example, the central place of the Stoic moral code in this work.

All of this is illuminated by a lucid, accurate translation of very high quality, despite the sometimes-convoluted sentence structure of Buchanan's Ciceronian Latin. Punctuation differs between Latin text and English translation, but this is necessary; English is rarely equipped to handle the long and complex sentence structures of Latin. The translation could have been further modernized to assist the reader to get a better understanding of the dialogue, a form less common in later writing.

Yet there are excellent renderings of figures of speech (for example, 'arbiters of good taste' is an apt English equivalent of elegentiae censores, pp. 6...