For those who really understand the situation there is no harm in
accepting the distinction between "Scottish" and "English," as
explained above. Hence it is that the name of "Middle Scots" has been
suggested for "the literary language of Scotland written between the
latter half of the fifteenth century and the early decades of the
seventeenth." Most of this literature is highly interesting, at any
rate much more so than the "English" literature of the same period, as
has been repeatedly remarked. Indeed, this is so well known that
special examples are needless; I content myself with referring to the
_Specimens of Middle Scots_, by G. Gregory Smith, Edinburgh and London,
1902. These specimens include extracts from such famous authors as
Henryson, Dunbar, Gawain (or Gavin) Douglas, Sir David Lyndesay, John
Knox, and George Buchanan. Perhaps it is well to add that "Scottis"
or "Scots" is the Northern form of "Scottish" or "Scotch"; just as
"Inglis" is the Northern form of "English."

"Middle Scots" implies both "Old Scots" and "Modern Scots." "Old
Scots" is, of course, the same thing as Northumbrian or Northern
English of the Middle English Period, which may be roughly dated as
extant from 1300 to 1400 or 1450. "Modern Scots" is the dialect (when
they employ dialect) illustrated by Allan Ramsay, Alexander Ross,
Robert Tannahill, John Galt, James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd),
Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and very many others.

I conclude this chapter with a characteristic example of Middle Scots.
The following well-known passage is from the conclusion to Dunbar's
_Golden Targe_.

And as I did awake of my sweving{1},
The ioyfull birdis merily did syng