The first printed edition of the poem was published by William Thynne in his edition of Chaucer in 1532, where he introduced it with the words: "Thus endeth the fyfth and laste booke of Troylus: and here followeth THE PYTEFUL AND DOLOROUS TESTAMENT OF FAYRE CRESSEYDE."

This is the oldest existing text, but in printing it, Thynne freely substituted anglicised terms and not always accurately.

Although it has been suggested that he atrributed the poem to Chaucer, by failing to name Henryson as the author, there is evidence that he was aware that the former was not the writer of this work. Lines such as:

"For worthie Chauceir, in the samin buik,''
"Quha wait gif all pat Chauceir wrait was trew,"

make it clear that this was the work of another poet.

The first extant separate issue of the Testament of Cresseid, and the first known Scottish impression, was printed by Henry Charteris in 1593. This was originally published as a blackletter quarto of ten leaves, and is the first to give the author's name.

The British Library copy is the only relic of what appears to have been a large edition; and it is the only available text in this form (with the exception of a sixteenth century manuscript, which was probably copied, from a printed edition of Chaucer's works) before Alexander Anderson's black letter edition of 1663.

These notes based on the Introduction to
The Poems of Robert Henryson, Vol.1
G. Gregory Smith (ed.)
William Blackwood & Sons
Edinburgh & London
1914


Study Tools Index
Testament of Cresseid: Literary Background
Robert Henryson: Biographical Details
Robert Henryson - Historical Context: The State and The Church 1480s to 1700
Testament of Cresseid in Context
Testament of Cresseid in Print
Middle Scots Language
Select Bibliography
The Trojan War
An Introduction to Printing
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