Quick Summary
William Dunbar was a preeminent Scottish Makar of the late 15th/early 16th century, renowned for his technical virtuosity and range—from aureate court allegories like The Golden Targe to savage satires. As a court poet to James IV, his work captures the pageantry and tensions of the era, while his Lament for the Makaris remains a poignant meditation on mortality. He is a key figure in the Scottish literary Renaissance and the Chaucerian tradition.