printed for the Society by W. Blackwood and Sons & illustrated by three fold-out facsimiles of the original manuscripts, a fold-out geneaology of Alexander Montgomerie & a 65-page introduction & contents list to the front & a large section of appendices including biographical matter & notes to the poems to the rear. Alexander Montgomerie (c. 1550–1598) was a Scottish Jacobean courtier and poet, or makar, born in Ayrshire. He was one of the principal members of the Castalian Band, a circle of poets in the court of James VI in the 1580s which included the king himself. Montgomerie was for a time in favour as one of the king's "favourites". He was a Catholic in a largely Protestant court and his involvement in political controversy led to his expulsion as an outlaw in the mid-1590s. Montgomerie's poetry, much of which examines themes of love, includes autobiographical sonnets and foreshadows the later metaphysical poets in England. He is sometimes, by tradition, given the epithet "Captain".