"Christis Kirk on the Green" is an anonymous Middle Scots poem in 22 stanzas, now believed to have been written around the year 1500, giving a comic account of a brawl at a country fair. It was for many years mistakenly attributed either to James I of Scotland or to James V of Scotland. It gave rise to a whole tradition of humorous poems on similar subjects by Scottish poets down the centuries, including Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, and is still one of the most frequently published works in Middle Scots.[1] "Christis Kirk on the Green" has been called one of the finest performances in 15th-century British poetry.[2]
- ^ Jones, George Fenwick (December 1953). ""Christis Kirk", "Peblis to the Play", and the German Peasant-Brawl". Publications of the Modern Language Association. 68 (5): 1101–1125. doi:10.2307/460006. JSTOR 460006.
- ^ Maclaine 1964, p. 14.