The Play, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, is celebrated as the greatest Scottish medieval play. This feature shares the content first published by Three Estates Cupar, a charity set up in 2019 to raise awareness of Sir David Lindsay and his satire. To many, Sir David is as important to the Scots language and literature as Shakespeare is to England’s.

First performed in 1552, on the Castle Hill of the Royal Burgh of Cupar, Lindsay’s satire was one of the country’s great cultural moments.

A bawdy romp written in old Scots, it satirised the country’s corrupt and venal institutions, the three estates: the clergy, the nobility and laity (burgh merchants).

The full play was rarely performed. It could last many hours and the words. written as they were spoken at the time, can be difficult to read.

A shorter, modernised adaptation by writer Robert Kemp was staged by director Tyrone Guthrie at the Edinburgh Festival in 1948, and put on again at the Festival in subsequent years. There have been other revivals since and the play made a triumphant return to the Castlehill in Cupar for the Millennium celebrations in 2000. Local charity, Three Estates Cupar, commissioned a new two-hour-long version. in 2020 from Cupar-born actor and writer, John Bett.

“The Playing Place’ : Castle Hill

Cupar Castle overlooked the originally boggy confluence of the Lady Burn and River Eden from high ground known as the Castle Hill. It belonged to Macduff, the Thane of Fife’ and adversary of Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play.

It was often besieged and fought over in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, before forces loyal to King David II captured it about 1339 and apparently destroyed to prevent it being retaken. After that, Castlehill became a playground for local people, the natural place for actors to perform and a crowd to gather and indulge in rowdy, drink-fuelled audience participation – not unlike the reception that greeted Shakespeare’s plays in London. Later, schools were sited on the hill for the more sober pursuit of education.

Proclamation

The original performance in 1552 was promoted with a mini-play, like a modern-day trailer.

It started with a proclamation by NUNTIUS (the messenger). Fortunately, we were lucky enough to persuade Guthrie Hutton, Chair of the Trustees at Cupar’s Museum & Heritage Centre, to read the proclamation – almost 500 years to the day – when hundreds of people gathered for the celebrations that marked the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen in June 2022. Guthrie is pictured below on the town’s bandstand.

PROCLAMATIOUN
maid in Cowpar of Fuffe

Richt famous pepill, ye sall understand
How that ane prince richt wyiss and vigilent Is schortly for to cum in to this land, And purpossis to hald ane parliament.
His Thre Estaitis thiarto hes done consent
In Cowpar toun into their best array, With support of the Lord omnipotent, And thairto hes affixt ane certain day.
With help of Him that rewlis all abone, That day salbe within ane litill space.
Our purpos is, on the sevint day of June, Gif weddir serve, and we haif rest and pece, We sall be sene in till our playing place, In gude array abowt the hour of sevin.
Of thriftiness that day I pray yow ceiss, Bot ordane us gude drink aganis allevin.
Fail nocht to be upon the Castell Hill
Besyd the place quhair we purpoiss to play:
With gude stark wyne your flacconis see ye fill, And hald your self the myrieast that ye may.
Be not displeisit quhatevir we sing or say, Amang sad mater howbeid we sumtyme relyie.
We sall begin at sevin houris of the day, So ye keep tryist; forswth we sall nocht felyie!

(These Old Scots words may look daunting, but if read in a strong Scots accent, they do start to make sense – have a go, you may surprise yourself.)

Listen up …

For those who would like to hear Guthrie’s proclamation, we recorded the same shortly after the Jubilee at the town’s museum and it features as a short episode on CuparNow’s podcast: to listen, simply click on the image below …

 

Sir David Lindsay (c.1485-1555)

Regarded as Scotland’s first and perhaps greatest dramatist, Sir David hailed from the Mount, an estate just outside Cupar. He was tutor to the infant King James V, a royal courtier and Lord Lyon King of Arms. As well as writing the satire, he was a poet, or makar, whose popularity equalled that later enjoyed by Robert Burns.

His work was highly regarded in his time, and long after was still being read and recited in Scotland and beyond. Sir Walter Scott referred to it in many novels and the Scott monument in Edinburgh incorporates a stone-carved head representing Sir David.

Another notable Victorian era depiction is a statue on the façade of the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Earlier images also exist, but no contemporary likeness is known. All these and many literary works are testament to his continuing importance to Scottish cultural history.

Challenging a Dissolute Church

Of the three estates satirised by Sir David, the one that came in for the most visceral criticism was the Church. At the time it was Roman Catholic, but reformist ideas had been circulating in Europe for some time, highlighting the degeneracy and greed of the Scottish church.

A fierce critic, Sir David campaigned for change, paving the way for the Reformation in 1560 led by John Knox. Some 150 years later, the poet Allan Ramsay, wrote:

Sir David’s satires helped our nation
To carry out the Reformation, And gave the Scarlet Dame a box
Mair snell than all the pelts of Knox

Ironically, the church reformers of the 16th century cracked down so hard on the fun and frivolity of the performing arts, they stifled the development of Scottish drama for some time. It’s perhaps just as well Sir David didn’t live to see it.

Left to right …

• An edition published in 1602 used as the cover illustration for the programme at the Edinburgh Festival.
• A 16th century representation of Sir David breaking the crossed keus heraldic symbol of the Vatican (public domain).
• Poster used to promote the production staged in Cupar to mark the Millennium.
• Players in a ‘pop-up performance staged in Cupar in 2014.

Need more?

The information in this feature was first published in a leaflet by Three Estates Cupar, a charity set up in 2019 to raise awareness of Sir David Lindsay and ANE SATYRE of the THRIE ESTAITIS. The Trustees also seek to champion this great work as ‘Cupar’s Play’ and to promote the old Scots language in which it is written.

The New Script and Future Prospects Commissioned by Three Estates Cupar, the new script was adapted for performance by John Bett, supported by Sarah Collier and Gerda Stevenson. It was funded by generous support from Fife Council and local charity, the Cookie Matheson Trust, with guidance from John Cairns.

Plans for its intended performance in Cupar in 2022 were thwarted by the Covid 19 pandemic and subsequent funding pressures halted an early revival. The aspiration now is to hold readings from the new script and, in time, stage full performances.

Acknowledgements

• The design of the plaque (on the front of the original leaflet and used in our feature image) is by Margaret Robertson a trustee of Three Estates Cupar.
• Poster for Millennium production reproduced courtesy of One Giant Leap Design Consultants.
• Other illustrations: courtesy of Cupar Museum and Heritage Centre.
• Three Estates Cupar is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO): Scottish Charity Number SC048967.

 

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