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Barbour’S Black Douglas, David Parkinson

Studies in Scottish Literature

A detailed discussion of the representation and characterization of Sir James Douglas ("Black Douglas") in John Barbour's poem The Bruce, examining the ways in which Barbour's Douglas is shown not only as the flower of chivalry, but also as a Robin Hood-like denizen of the woods, and arguing that "in the most highly colored Douglas episodes, Barbour feints toward the outrageous and transgressive," while also experimenting with his poem's literary structure to incorporate disruption or incursions from a disorderly non-courtly world.