The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-28
GEORGE BUCHANAN.

Birth of Scotch Poet and Historian.
No great number of men who have
lived In this wosld have made so en-
during an impression that their memo
ry has survived the shocks of time for
four centuries. Still less is the number
Of those whose claim to fame has SO
long period rests upon literary
works. Harking back four hundred
years brings us to the sixteenth centu~
diaevall traditions of the learning Of
the middle ages.
AT that time there arose in Scotland
scholar who lived long. enough to Sc
cure name and fame as both poet and
historian, whose reputation would have
been worldwide had not all his learn
ing been embalmed in dead language,
the use of which soon ceased even
among scholars.
This man, whom competent literary
authority has declared to be "one of thf
most famous scholars who ever lived"
was George Buchanan, humanist, histo-
ran and poet. Born in 1906, his native
land and Scotchrnen everywhere are
preparing to celebrate tn equarto-cen-
tenary of his birth. He divides with
John Knox, the leader of Professionalism
among his countrymen, the reputation
of being the greatest man of the Land
o. Cakes in the sixteenth century. His
career covered three-quarters Of that
period and was passed in his native
land and in England, France and Por-
tugal The esteem in which Buchanan
is held in Edingurgh is shown by the
fact that "Blackwood's Magazine" the
leading literary publication in Scotland
has borne his features on its cover ever
since it was founded, eighty-nlne years
toWhead is transformed into an island.
crop of willows springs up, and the
ny, the Elizabethian age in literature,
when the STRINGS of new life were felt
in the dry. bones Of monkish and me-
ago.
George Buchanan was one of eight
children who were left fatherless at
Killain, Sterling county, in the early
part of the sixteenth century But his
mothers brother, James Herlot, sent
him to the University of Paris, where
for two years he displayed much dill
gence in acquiring an education. The
death of his uncle then called him back
to Scatland, and threw him on his own
resources, and he entered the army
serving under the Duke of Albany, who
commanded the French forces at that
time in Scotland. But his heart was in
his books, and he soon began to attend
the lectures Of John Major at the Uni
versity of st. Andrews, and by Majors
influence was enabled to go once more
to France, where in the College Of st.
Barbe, he took his degree when twen-
ty-one years old. His first use Of his
education was tutoring the Earl of Cas-
sila, and when this pupil died he be-
came the instructor of the natural son
of King James ", who was afterward
Abbot Of Kelso.
Young Buchanan had already dis
played talent as versiffer, and at the
instance Of the king, he attacked the
Franciscan monks, whom the king sus-
pected of disloyalty, charging them
with licentious living in two satires, en-
titled "Somniuin" and "Franciscanus,
both Of which were written in Latin
and were published under pseudonymes.
This did not prevent the arrest of the
author on a charge of heresy but he
escaped to England Meeting with no
encouragement from the Defender of
the Faith" King Henry VIII, he re-
turned for a number of years as a col
lege professor in Bordeaux and Paris.
The next event of Importance in his
checkered career was in 1547, when he
went to Portugal with the former head
of the Bordeaux college, with whom he
had been associated. After the death
of this man, Buchanan was arrested as
a hereto, and kept in prison for year
and a half, and then sent to a monaste-
ry to be educated in the faith of Rome.
While there he made what proved to be
his most important work in poetry, the
translation of the Psalms Of David into
Latin, which has commanded the adj
miration of scholars as equal to CLASH
cal Latin poetry.
When Buchanan returned to Scotland
he was for time tutor to Mary Queen
of Scots, and then the Earl of Moray
becama his patron, and he was made
head of St. Leonard's college, in the
University of st. Andrews. He was a
stanch supporter of Moray when he
was councillor for his half sister, the
queen. but when the latter married
Darnley. and Moray and his party re-
volted, Buchanan sided with his pa
tron, and after the explosion which
ended the life of the queens husband,