The most brilliant Scottish writer of the later sixteenth century, Alexander Montgomerie was an extremely productive poet whose poems range widely in tone and style. Besides the longer poems for which he is perhaps best known--The Cherrie and the Slae (1597) and The Flyting betwixt Montgomerie and Polwart (1621)--Montgomerie is the author of many sonnets and lyrics, as well as courtly entertainments and psalm translations. Of all the poets associated with the court of King James VI of Scotland, Montgomerie was the one with the most dazzling, catastrophic career.

In his poems, Montgomerie refers to particular circumstances of his life; for instance, he alludes to his birthday "on Easter Day at morn," in "The Poet's Complaint of His Nativity" (1589-1593); his imprisonment, in "The Poet's Complaint against the Unkindness of His Companions When He Was in Prison" (1589"); and his frustration at the king's failure to guarantee payment of...