HENRYSON, ROBERT (c. 1425-c. 1500), Scottish poet, was born about 1425. It has been surmised that he was connected with the family of Henderson of Fordell, but of this there is no evidence. He is described, on the title-page of the 1570 edition of his _Fables_, as "scholemaister of Dunfermeling," probably of the grammar-school of the Benedictine Abbey there. There is no record of his having studied at St Andrews, the only Scottish university at this time; but in 1462 a "Master Robert Henryson" is named among those incorporated in the recently founded university of Glasgow. It is therefore likely that his first studies were completed abroad, at Paris or Louvain. He would appear to have been in lower orders, if, in addition to being master of the grammar-school, he is the notary Robert Henryson who subscribes certain deeds in 1478. As Dunbar (q.v.) refers to him as deceased in his _Lament for the Makaris_, his death may be dated about 1500.
Efforts have been made to draw up a chronology of his poems; but every scheme of this kind, is, in a stronger sense than in the case of Dunbar, mere guess-work. There are no biographical or bibliographical facts to guide us, and the "internal evidence" is inconclusive.
Henryson's longest, and in many respects his most original and effective work, is his _Morall Fabillis of Esope_, a collection of thirteen fables, chiefly based on the versions of Anonymus, Lydgate and Caxton. The outstanding merit of the work is its freshness of treatment. The old themes are retold with such vivacity, such fresh lights on human character, and with so much local "atmosphere," that they deserve the credit of original productions. They are certainly unrivalled in English fabulistic literature. The earliest available texts are the Charteris text printed by Lekpreuik in Edinburgh in 1570 and the Harleian MS. No. 3865 in the British Museum.
In the _Testament of Cresseid_ Henryson supplements Chaucer's tale of Troilus with the story of the tragedy of Cresseid. Here again his literary craftsmanship saves him from the disaster which must have overcome another poet in undertaking to continue the part of the story which Chaucer had intentionally left untold. The description of Cresseid's leprosy, of her meeting with Troilus, of his sorrow and charity, and of her death, give the poem a high place in writings of this _genre_.