DUNBAR, WILLIAM. – Scottish poet, born in 1460 (?), died in 1520 (?). Of noble family, he belonged for some time to the Franciscan Order. He spent a period in Paris, divided between his studies and worldly diversions.
An epigone of Chaucer and forerunner of Burns, he is notable less for his allegorical poems (The Thrissill and the Roir; The Freiris of Berwick; The Tretis of the Two Maryit Wemen and the Wedo) than for the realism and sense of the grotesque in his satirical compositions (Tidings from the Session, Sittire on Edinburgh, The dance of Sevin Deidly
Synnis and the Ballad of Kynd Kittok). His Passion of Christ is an example of vigorous religious poetry.
BIBL.: Works: The poems of W. D., ed. W. M. Mackenzie, Edimburgo 1932. – Studies: O. Smeaton, W. D., the Poet, there 1898; C. Steinberger, Etudes sur W. D., Parigi 1908; R. A. Taylor, D., Londra 1932. Amata Martorelli