Gavin Douglas was one of several distinguished poets who flourished at the court of James IV of Scotland (1488-1513). He is most famous for The Eneados (1553), his excellent translation of Virgil's Aeneid, which long predates those by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Richard Stanyhurst. The prologues to each book of this work not only give a valuable insight into the critical ideas and principles of translation of the first great Renaissance translator but also contain fine and original poetry. Douglas's other works include The Palice of Honour (circa 1535), an impressive dream vision, which forms an important link in the tradition of courtly allegorical poetry that stretches from Geoffrey Chaucer to Edmund Spenser.

Douglas was a younger son of Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus, and Elizabeth Boyd Douglas. Little is known of his childhood, except that he was born in East Lothian, possibly at Tantallon Castle. He...