The Muses Threnodie

This edition of a seventeenth-century Scottish poem gives modern audiences insight into the ways previous generations perceived and engaged with local nature and architecture. Henry Adamson's "The Muses Threnodie" (1638) offers insights into the lives, amusements and anxieties of of the residents of the town of Perth. In it, two of Perth's citizens venture out on foot and by boat into the vicinity of their cramped, closely overseen town. In whimsically funny conversations, they observe local natural phenomena and landmarks while discussing the buried, ruined evidence of the region's architectural history. Their perceptions of waterways and landforms highlight their sometimes conflicted understanding of historical change at Perth on the eve of the Scottish National Covenant. The beguilingly inglorious verse in which Henry Adamson clothes his characters' sentiments serves as the outermost layer of several stylistic misdirections, as if to distract official attention from any dangerous contemporary criticism within.