Nixt in the Dance followit Invy
Fild full of feid and fellony
(Dunbar)
The sin of envy . . . as a soure-leavened vessel, turneth all things put into it unto sournesse;
(David Dickson A Brief Explication of the Psalms, 3 vols., a1652)
Envy, or in Older Scots invy, is defined in A Dictionary the Older Scottish Tongue as ‘rancour or mortification at another’s advantages; malice, animosity, or hostility arising from this or other causes’. It seems to have a claim to being the root of all evil (although this distinction is usually claimed by Avarice) because, as John Gau points out in The Richt Vay to the Kingdom of Heuine (1533), it was the besetting sin of The Dewil throw quhais inwi deid com in the wardil [The Devil through whose envy death came into the world]. A further early example of envy is described in a poem from 1570 in the Scottish Text Society’s collection of Satirical Poems of the Time of the Reformation: This mortall feid [feud], this haitrent and inuie, Did first begin . . . Betuix twa brether, Cain and Abell.
A former source of much political tension throughout the history of Scotland has been the relationship between the Scots and the English, whom the Scots sometimes refer to as the Auld Enemy. John Leslie in The Historie of Scotland, translated in 1596 by James Dalrymple, writes about the late fourteenth century: Efter this was lang peace betuein Scotl. and Ingland, an ald invie nochttheles, was ay seine betuein thame; and then he goes on to describe a brawl between a Scots gentleman and an Englishman on London Bridge. The Scot won. Those still harbouring envious and antagonistic thoughts are summed up in one of R. Wilson’s poems (1822): They frine an’ fret at ithers’ guid; Curs’d envy rots their vera bluid.
Under those circumstances, one does not know whether to pity or condemn Aunt Kate: My aunty Kate sits at her wheel, And sair she lightlies me; But weel ken I it’s a’ envy, For ne’er a jo [sweetheart] has she (The Lark, A Select Collection of the Most celebrated and Newest Songs 1765).
There’s very little envy in Scottish hearts, of course, but here are a few examples:
Closely related to the sin of envy is the sin of avarice or greed. As may often be observed, the one begets the other.