HAY

hay, gilbert, or "sir gilbert the haye" (fl. 1450), scottish poet and translator, was perhaps a kinsman of the house of errol. if he be the student named in the registers of the university of st andrews in 1418-1419, his birth may be fixed about 1403. he was in france in 1432, perhaps some years earlier, for a "gilbert de la haye" is mentioned as present at reims, in july 1430, at the coronation of charles vii. he has left it on record, in the prologue to his _buke of the law of armys_, that he was "chaumerlayn umquhyle to the maist worthy king charles of france." in 1456 he was back in scotland, in the service of the chancellor, william, earl of orkney and caithness, "in his castell of rosselyn," south of edinburgh. the date of his death is unknown. hay is named by dunbar (q.v.) in his _lament for the makaris_, and by sir david lyndsay (q.v.) in his _testament and complaynt of the papyngo_. his only political work is _the buik of alexander the conquerour_, of which a portion, in copy, remains at taymouth castle. he has left three translations, extant in one volume (in old binding) in the collection of abbotsford: (_a_) _the buke of the law of armys_ or _the buke of bataillis_, a translation of honore bonet's _arbre des batailles_; (_b_) _the buke of the order of knichthood_ from the _livre de l'ordre de chevalerie_; and (_c_) _the buke of the governaunce of princes_, from a french version of the pseudo-aristotelian _secreta secretorum_. the second of these precedes caxton's independent translation by at least ten years. for the _buik of alexander_ see albert herrmann's _the taymouth castle ms. of sir gilbert hay's buik, &c._ (berlin, 1898). the complete abbotsford ms. has been reprinted by the scottish text society (ed. j. h. stevenson). the first volume, containing _the buke of the law of armys_, appeared in 1901. _the order of knichthood_ was printed by david laing for the abbotsford club (1847). see also s.t.s. edition (u.s.) "introduction" and gregory smith's _specimens of middle scots_, in which annotated extracts are given from the abbotsford ms., the oldest known example of literary scots prose.