"Blissed Be Sempill Lyfe Withovtin Dreid"

I came upon these words by the 15thC Scottish poet and story-teller Robert Henryson, etched into a flagstone in Makar's Court, Edinburgh. Henryson lived between the medieval and emerging Renaissance worlds. Some 5,000 lines of his work have survived: often first-person narratives that, I read, mix humour and serious purpose, realism and scepticism, criticism of the ruling powers and a humanist compassion. Little is known about his life. He appears to have been familiar with law and the humanities, to have been a teacher and writer, and be associated at various times with an east coast abbey and court household. 

These mere six words - again so resonant with meaning in our own time, make me want to read more of Henryson's writing. 

Interesting too how the Scots language, through the word 'makar', identifies Henryson the poet with all those who construct, produce or prepare ... a usage so at odds with the modern habit of differentiating, even opposing, the sphere of production and work and the sphere of creativity, inquiry, insight and beauty.