scotianostra:

Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet, Latin Scholar and soldier of fortune died on April 10th 1601

He was born in Ayrshire, and was educated under the care of his uncle, the Archbishop of Glasgow.

Boyd left Scotland for France as a young man. There he studied civil law. He took part in the religious wars of the League, fighting on the Catholic side during the civil war.

He had two collections of Latin poems published, in 1590 and 1592, at a time when he was in south-west France. He returned to Scotland only at the end of his life.

According to what I can find he only wrote one poem in Scots, a sonnet which was attributed to him in 1900. It’s a wee cracker of a poem though.

Sonet of Venus and Cupid by Mark Alexander Boyd.

Fra banc to banc, fra wod to wod, I rin
Ourhailit with my feble fantasie,
Lyk til a leif that fallis from a trie
Or til a reid ourblawin with the wind.
Twa gods gyds me: the ane of tham is blind,
Ye, and a bairn brocht up in vanitie;
The nixt a wyf ingenrit of the se,
And lichter nor a dauphin with hir fin.

Unhappie is the man for evirmair
That teils the sand and sawis in the aire;
Bot twyse unhappier is he, I lairn,
That feidis in his hairt a mad desyre,
And follows on a woman throw the fyre,
Led be a blind and teichit be a bairn.