DRUMMOND, William, was born at Hawthornden on the 13th of December 1585. His father was Sir John Drummond, descended from the family of Carnock, a branch of the more illustrious family of Stobhall, from which the king derives his remote lineage through Ana-bella Drummond, the mother of James the First. The poet’s mother was Anne the daughter of William Fowler;^[1. He is commonly described as Sir William Fowler, secretary to the queen, but this account of his quality is evidently erroneous. The secretary was his son, who bore the same name with himself; nor does it appear that either of them received the honour of knighthood. The son followed the queen to England; and a list of the officers of her council, dated in October 1603, describes him as “Secretarie, and Master of the Requests.” (Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, vol. iii. p. 209.) In 1587, we find him denominated parson of Hawick; and the records of the presbytery, 2 Sept. 1612, mention him as then dead. It is however more than probable that he continued a layman, and, at a period when such irregular proceedings were not uncommon, enjoyed the temporalities of that living without residence and without qualification. His poems are not unknown to those who are acquainted with the literary history of that age. Of some of his manuscripts, as well as those of his nephew, Mr Laing has given an account in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv. ] and she is described as it a woman of excellent breeding, and of a good and virtuous life.” William was the eldest of four sons, and there were three daughters by the same marriage. The earlier part of his education he received at the High School of Edinburgh, where he began to distinguish himself by the superiority of his talents; and being afterwards removed to the university, which was then a very recent institution, he took the degree of A. Μ. in the year 1605. We are particularly informed that he did not confine his attention to the metaphysical learning commonly taught in the schools, but likewise applied himself to the study of mathematics and of ancient authors. During the following year, his father sent him to complete his education in France; and in the university of Bourges he is said to have devoted himself with great assiduity and success to the study of the civil law; a study necessary to a lawyer, and useful to a scholar. After an absence of four years, he returned to his native country in 1610; and his friends now expected that he would devote himself to the practice of a lucrative profession, for which he seemed eminently qualified by his talents and learning.^[2. President Lockhart is said to have averred, that if he had followed the legal profession, he might have made the best figure of any lawyer in his time. But the accuracy of this tradition, says Mr Maitland, “may reasonably be doubted. Drummond has left a record of the books read by him between 1606 and 1614, from which it is apparent that literature occupied a much larger portion of his attention than law. In the detail of his studies, which were in a great measure confined to the most popular poetry and romances of the time, he mentions no other work on law than the Institutes of Justinian.” (Introduction to Drummond’s Poems. Edinb. 1832, 4to.) ] The bar must however have presented very few attractions to a youth of his elegant taste and delicate sensibility: the municipal law was then but a dreary path, beset with thorns which never blossomed; and, what was particularly discouraging, there was not a single elementary book, there were no institutions of our law, from which a young student could derive a comprehensive knowledge of those principles which were afterwards to direct his practice. His systematic doctrines were indeed to a great extent borrowed from the ancient civilians, and the study of the civil law was generally prosecuted in some foreign university; but, besides an indispensable attendance in the courts, his final preparation for the practice of his profession consisted in reading the statute law, and such collections of maxims and reports as were then circulated in manuscript. Nor was Drummond compelled by any domestic considerations to overcome his repugnance: he was beyond the reach of that original impulse which has directed many a lawyer to reputation and emolument; for, about the period of his return from the continent, the death of his father left him in possession of an estate sufficient to maintain him in the liberal style of a gentleman.
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He now retired to his family resldence at Hawthornden, six miles from Edinburgh, and resumed the study of the Greek and Latin classics. The immediate vicinity presents an air of such romantic beauty, that a poet could scarcely have found a more suitable habitation: his house is erected on the edge of a woody cliff which overhangs the river Esk; and at one extremity of the variegated and sequestered glen stand the ruins of the baronial castle and the collegiate church of Roslin. The ancient caves of Hawthornden, and the adjacent moor of Roslin, where Comyn and Fraser gained a signal victory over the English, have likewise their peculiar effect in impressing the imagination. Near the poet’s house is a seat hewn in the solid rock, and still described by the name of the Cypress-grove; a name which it obtained from the circumstance of his having frequented this spot when engaged in the composition of a work which bears that title.

Here Damon ς sat’ whose songs did sometime grace

The murmuring Esk; may roses shade the place.

In this delightful seclusion he devoted himself to the general improvement of his mind, and to the occasional exercise of his fine talents; and many of his poems appear to have been composed about this period of his life.^[3. The first edition of his poems has the following title: “Poems, amorous, funerali, diuine, pastorali, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals. By W. D. the author of the Teares on the Death of Aloeliades.” Edinbvrgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1616, 4to. Another edition, or the same edition with a new title, bears “Poems, by William Drvmmond of Hawthorne-denne. The second impression.” Edinbvrgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1616, 4to. ] He chiefly cultivated the familiarity of the university men, and other individuals of genius and learning: among his own countrymen, he enjoyed the particular friendship of the earl of Stirling, the earl of Ancram, Arthur Johnston, and John Adamson; and among the English poets, his greatest intimacy and correspondence was with Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. The grandfather of Jonson was originally from Annandale, where Johnstone is still a very prevalent name. In the year 1619, when this celebrated poet had attained the age of forty-five, he travelled from London on foot, for the express purpose of paying Drummond a visit; and at Hawthornden he spent three or four weeks with every appearance of satisfaction.^[4. To this visit another poet of exquisite talents makes the following allusion: Then will I dress once more the faded bower, Where Jonson sat in Drummond’s classic shade· Collins’s Ode to John Home. ] The heads of some of Jonson’s conversations on subjects of literature, together with his own impressions of Jonson’s character, he committed to writing, with the manifest intention of occasionally referring to this as a private record: many years after his death, this paper was communicated to the public, apparently in a somewhat mutilated form; and as it does not represent his distinguished guest as altogether faultless, the amiable and esteemed writer has incurred the virulent and unmeasured censure of Mr Gifford, the late editor of Jonson’s works.^[5. Gifford’s Memoirs of Jonson, p. cxxx.—This charge has been sufficiently repelled by Sir Walter Scott in his Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, vol. ii∙ p. 133. See likewise Dr Drake’s Mornings in Spring, vol. i. p. 286. ] If Drummond had resembled some more recent authors, who have violated all the decencies of private life by ministering to the gross appetite of the public with ridiculous or disparaging tales of their friends and acquaintance, the justice of this strong condemnation could not safely have been disputed; but what person of ordinary candour will thus censure an act which, to all human appearance, was entirely unconnected with malevolent or ungenerous motives?

The poet’s tranquillity was exposed to a severe interruption from the unfortunate issue of his first love. He became deeply enamoured of a beautiful young lady, the daughter of Cunningham of Barns; he met with a suitable return, and a day was fixed for their nuptials, but before that day arrived, her life was terminated by a rapid fever. Such an event as this, which would have affected a lover of the most ordinary sensibility, could not but sink deeply into the heart of one who had assiduously cherished the softer feelings, and whose habits of seclusion were so directly calculated to preserve a lasting impression of melancholy. He was so overwhelmed with grief that he found it necessary to try the effect of a change of objects; and he accordingly retired to the continent, where he spent about eight years. His longest residence was at Paris and Rome; but he travelled through France, Germany, and Italy, visited the most celebrated universities, and conversed with men of learning. In the course of his peregrinations, he is said to have formed an excellent collection, not only of the ancient classics, but likewise of the best writers in the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. He presented to the university of Edinburgh a collection of books and manuscripts, of which he printed a catalogue in the year 1627, prefixing to it an appropriate preface written in Latin. Of this well-known collection, the value, that is, the extrinsic or pecuniary value, which was far from being inconsiderable at first, has been immensely encreased by the lapse of two centuries. It contains many Scotish and English publications of singular rarity. When Drummond returned to Scotland, he found his countrymen divided by fears and animosities. He now spent some time at the residence of his brother-in-law Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, a learned man, and an encourager of learning. Having continued in a state of celibacy till the age of forty-seven, he in 1632 married Elizabeth Logan; a lady in whom he traced a strong resemblance to his first mistress. She is commonly represented as the grand-daughter of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig; but, according to Hay, her father, who was altogether unconnected with that family, was minister of Edleston in the county of Peebles, and her mother was the daughter of a shepherd.^[6. Hay’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 105. MS. Adv. Lib. ] Of this marriage there were five sons and four daughters. John, the eldest son, died in his youth; William was knighted by Charles the Second, and lived to an advanced age;^[7. Sir William Drummond is more celebrated for his jovialty than for his literature. See Dr Pennecuik’s Poems, p. 49. 52. An honourable instance of his humanity is recorded in the Memoirs of George Brysson, p. 285. ] Robert was married, but died about the age of forty without children; the two youngest, Richard and James, died in their infancy. The eldest daughter Elizabeth was married to Dr Henryson, an eminent physician in Edinburgh;^[8. This was probably Henry Henryson, Μ. D. of Elvingston, whose Latin version of the hundred and fourth psalm occurs in the Octupla. Edinb. 1696, 8vo. He is more commonly called Henderson, which is a corruption of the other name. Elizabeth, the heiress of her father Dr Henry Henderson of Elvington, was married to John Clerk of Pennecuik. (Inquisitionum Abbreviatio, vol. i. Haddington, 341.) ] but the other three, Margaret, Anabella, and Jane, died very young.^[9. Douglas’s Baronage of Scotland, p. 573, compared with Sage’s Life of Drummond, p. vi. ] The father was a decided [7:8:212]cavalier, and wielded his pen, though not hissword, in the king’s service; and being reputed a malignant, he was exposed to some of the usual molestations of those unhappy times. The tragical fate of his sovereign is said to have hastened his own dissolution: we are informed by Bishop Sage that Drummond, being weakened by hard study and disease, was so overwhelmed with extreme grief and anguish that he died on the 4th of December 1649.^[10. Sir Thomas Urquhart is said to have expired in a paroxysm of laughter, on hearing of the restoration of Charles the Second; a statement which is rendered sufficiently probable by the record of similar cases, and by the eccentric character of the individual. Aretaeus, an ancient physician, specifies unextinguisliable laughter as one of the causes of death: <ysaωs a,trβιιrτt>S ∕⅛ιχζi Qatar on. (De Causis et Signis Morborum, lib. i. p. 35. edit. Boerhaave. Lugd. Bat. 1735, fol.) And other ancient writers have mentioned the names of different persons who died of excessive joy. (Valerius Maximus, lib. ix. cap. xii. Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cap. liii-) According to the common account, Sophocles was of this number. ] But as the king was executed on the 30th of January, an interval of more than ten months must have occurred between his death and that of his faithful subject; an interval 'so long as to render the biographer’s inference somewhat questionable. He had nearly completed the sixty-fourth year of his age. His remains were interred in the church of Lasswade, which stands at the distance of about a mile from Hawthornden. He appears through life to have maintained a character of uniform respectability; uniting with his other qualities that of consistent piety, and blending morality with his devotion. His death was affectionately lamented by his friend Colonel Lauder of Hatton, who has left several other specimens of his poetical talents, and who was not the only Scotish soldier of this period that evinced his love of the Muses.

Drummond was evidently a man of superior talents and accomplishments. We are informed that he was familiarly acquainted with the best Greek and Latin authors: his long residence on the continent afforded him an excellent opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of the living languages; and he is said to have spoken French, Italian, and Spanish, as fluently as his native tongue. To his graver qualifications he added no mean proficiency in music; and he occasionally sought a relaxation from his studies by playing on the lute, “which he did to admiration.” He seems to have devoted a considerable portion of his time to the invention or improvement of various instruments and machines, applicable to various purposes of peace or war. They are curiously enumerated, to the extent of sixteen, in a patent which he obtained in the year 1627, and which secured to him the sole right and property within the kingdom of Scotland for the space of twenty-one years.^[11. Drummond’s Works, p. 235. .Edinb. 1711, fol. ]

His literary productions exhibit considerable variety. His compositions in prose chiefly consist of the Cypress Grove, some political tracts, and the History of the five Jameses; a work which embraces the history of Scotland from 1423 to 1542.^[12. Of his History of Scotland, the first edition is that of London, 1655, fol. The introduction was written by Mr Hall of Gray’s Inn. There are other three editions. ] “The best of Drummond’s prose works,” says Mr Headley, “is his Cypress Grove, which, though quaint in its style, is worth reading for its vein of dignified morality.” His history, which has alternately been the object of extravagant commendation and unsparing censure, cannot now be regarded as a work of much value or interest: the author’s materials are not generally drawn from recondite sources, and his manner is too rhetorical. For tþe reputation which he still retains, Drummond is chiefly indebted, not to his historical, but to his poetical excellence; and, in the opinion of competent judges, he is entitled to a distinguished place among the English poets of that age. As few of his poems extend to a considerable length, his genius cannot be estimated by the success of any great and continued effort; but notwithstanding the shortness of his flights, he gene-, rally soars on bright and steady wings. He is conspicuous for his delicate sensibility and warmth of fancy; and with these qualities, so essential in an amatory poet, he unites uncommon skill in versification. His taste seems in a great measure to have been formed upon the Italian model, nor are his compositions entirely free from Italian conceits; but he commonly maintains a degree of elegant simplicity to which few English poets of that age have attained.

The reputation which Drummond enjoyed during his life, appears to have suffered some diminution after his death. He was a gentleman, says Edward Phillips, “who imitating the Italian manner of versifying, vented his amours in sonnets, canzonets, and madrigals, and, to my thinking, in a style sufficiently smooth and delightful; and therefore why so utterly disregarded and layd aside at present, I leave to the more curious palats in poetry.”^[13. Phillips’s Theatrum Poetarum, or compleat Collection of the Poets, part ii. p. 192. Lond. 1675, 12mo- ] After an interval of more than a century, the same complaint of unmerited neglect was repeated by Mr Headley. “Without ostentatious praise (which is always to be suspected), it is but truth to observe that many of his sonnets, those more especially which are divested of Italian conceits, resemble the best Greek epigrams in their best taste, in that exquisite delicacy of sentiment, and simplicity of expression, for which our language has no single term, but which is known to all classical readers by the word άφιλίΐα. It is in vain we lament the fate of many of our poets, who have undeservedly fallen victims to a premature oblivion, when the finished productions of this man are little known and still less read.”^[14. Headley’s Biographical Sketches (p. xlv.) prefixed to Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry. Lond. 1787, 2 vols. 8vo. ]

Drummond’s sonnets form a very considerable proportion of his poetical works. The following four maybe selected as a specimen of the entire collection; and they are here exhibited in modern orthography.

ĩ know that all beneath the moon decays,

And what by mortals in this world is brought, In Time’s great periods shall return to nought;

That fairest states have fatal nights and days:

I know how all the Muse’s heavenly lays,

With toil of spright which are so dearly bought,

As idle sounds, of few or none are sought,

And that nought lighter is than airy praise:

I know frail beauty like the purple flower,

To which one morn oft birth and death affords;

That love a jarring is of minds’ accords,

When sense and will invassal reason’s power.

Know what I list, this all cannot me move But that, O me! I both must write and love.

With flaming horns the Bull now brings the year,

Melt do the horrid mountains’ helms of snow,

The silver floods in pearly channels flow,

The late-bare woods green anadems do wear;

The nightingale, forgetting winter’s woe,

Calls up the lazy morn her notes to hear;

Those flowers are spread which names of princes bear,

Some red, some azure, white, and golden grow.

Here lows a heifer, there bewailing strays

A harmless lamb, not far a stag rebounds;

The shepherds sing to grazing flocks sweet lays,

And all about the echoing air resounds.
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Hills, dales, woods, floods, and every thing doth change,

But she in rigour, I in love am strange.

Trust not, sweet soul, those curled waves of gold,

With gentle tides which on your temples flow,

Nor temples spread with flakes of virgin snow,

Nor snow of cheeks with Tyrian grain enroll’d;

Trust not those shining lights which wrought my woe, When first I did their burning rays behold,

Nor voice, whose sounds more strange effects do show Than of the Thracian harper have been told. Look to this dying lily, fading rose,

Dark hyacinth, of late whose blushing beams

Made all the neighbouring herbs and grass rejoice,

And think how little is ’twixt life’s extremes.

The cruel tyrant that did kill those flowers,

Shall once, aye me! not spare that spring of yours.

What doth it serve to see sun’s burning face,

And skies enamelEd with both the Indies’ gold, Or moon at night in jetty chariot rolled,

And all the glory of that starry place?

What doth it serve earth’s beauties to behold,

The mountains’ pride, the meadows’ flowing grace,

The stately comeliness of forests old,

The sport of floods, which would themselves embrace?

What doth it serve to hear the Sylvans’ songs,

The wanton merle, the nightingale’s sad strains,

Which in dark shades seem to deplore my wrongs?

For what doth serve all that this world contains,

Sith she, for whom those once to me were dear,

No part of them can have now with me here?

To some of his compositions, which he has described as songs, this title is by no means applicable; it is neither applicable to the vein of poetry, nor to the measure of the verse. One striking poem, which he entitles a song, is written in heroic couplets, and contains such passages as this:

And tell me, thou who dost so much admire

This little vapour, smoke, this spark or fire,

Which life is call’d, what doth it thee bequeath

But some few years which birth draws out to death?

Which if thou paragon with lustres run,

And them whose career is but now begun,

In day’s great vast they shall far less appear, Than with the sea when matched is a tear.

But why would’st thou here longer wish to be?

One year doth serve all nature’s pomp to see, Nay, even one day and night: this moon, that sun, Those lesser fires about this round which run, Be but the same which, under Saturn’s reign, Did the serpenting seasons interchain.

How oft doth life grow less by living long,

And what excelleth but what dieth young?^[15. 'ov e! φΛoι>ιrw à¶öåvnirxíi vit,;. Menandri Fragmenta, p. 48. edit. Meineke. ]

His collection of sacred verses, which he entitles Flowres of Sion,^[16. Flowres of Sion. By William Drvmmond of Hawthorne-denne. To which is adjoyned his Cypresse Groue. 1623, 4to. Eden-bovrgh, printed by lohn Hart, 1630, 4to. ] contain much poetical imagery and expression. Some of the topics cannot be very safely approached by a poet, who must place his chief reliance on the exercise of his fancy; and the subsequent lines of this writer may sometimes occur to the recollection of his reader:

Who would this Eden force with wit or sense,

A cherubim shall find to bar him thence.

One of the longest poems in this collection, entitled a Hymne on the fairest Faire, contains the following among many other striking passages:

Ah! as a pilgrim who the Alps doth pass, Or Atlas’ temples crown’d with winter’s glass, The airy Caucasus, the Apennine, Tyrenes cliffs where sun doth never shine, When he some heaps of hills hath over-went, Begins to think on rest, his journey spent, Till, mounting some tall mountain, he doth find More heights before him than he left behind: With halting pace so while I would me raise To the unbounded circuits of thy praise, Some part of way I thought to have o’er-run, But now I see how scarce I have begun, With wonders new my spirits range possest, And wan d’ring way less in a maze them rest.

It has been suggested by Mr Headley that one would be induced to suppose Pope must have remembered these lines when he wrote a well-known passage in his Essay on Criticism. The subsequent couplet, which occurs in the same hymn, is remarkable for its energetic simplicity:

Uncomprehensible by reachless height, And unperceived by excessive light.

Another poem of considerable length he entitles the Shadow of the Judgment. It is left in an unfinished state, and is not included in the collection published under the direction of Sir John Scot;^[17. Foems by that most famous wit Mr William Drummond of Hawthorn den. Lond. 1656, 8vo. The editor was Edward Phillips, the nephew of Milton. The same edition was exhibited under a new and fantastic title, with the date of 1659. A more extensive collection of his poems is to be found in the Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden. Edinb. 1711, fol. Bishop Sage’s life of the author is prefixed to this publication. But the most complete, as well as the most elegant edition was printed under the superintendence of Mr Maitland: “The Poems of William Drummond of Hawthornden.” Edinb. 1832, 4to. The book however is not published: it was the splendid contribution of William Macdowall, Esq. of Garthland to the Maitland Club. ] but it nevertheless contains many passages worthy of the author’s reputation. An elegant critic has remarked that the following verses, describing God moved to wrath, are in Milton’s manner:

So seeing earth, of angels once the inn, Mansion of saints, defloured all by sin, And quite confus’d by wretches here beneath, The world’s great sovereign moved was to wrath. Thrice did he rouse himself, thrice from his face Flames sparkle did throughout the heavenly place: The stars, though fixed, in their rounds did quake, The earth, and earth-embracing sea did shake: Carmel and Haemus felt it, Athos’ tops Affrighted shrunk, and near the Ethiops Atlas, the Pyrenees, the Apennine,

And lofty Grampius, which with snow doth shine. Then to the synod of the sprights he swore, Man’s care should end, and time should be no more.

Drummond’s poem in commemoration of Prince Henry^[18. Teares on the Death of Moeliades. F.dinbvrgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1613, 4to. His two sonnets and epitaph, which appear in this publication, are likewise inserted in the “Mavsolevm, or choisest. Flowres of the Epitaphs, written on the Death of the neuer-too-much lamented Prince Ilenrie.” Edinb. 1613, 4to. A third edition of the “Teares on the Death of Moeliades” soon followed. Edinb. 1614, 4to. The second we have not seen. ] commences in a strain somewhat bombastic, but it contains some elegant and striking passages. The subsequent lines exhibit a very favourable specimen of his versification; and it is proper to recollect that the poem was printed so early as the year 1613. He describes the lamented youth as rejoicing to look down to the azure bars of heaven,

And in their turning temples to behold, In silver robe the moon, the sun in gold, Like young eye-speaking lovers in a dance, With majesty by turns retire, advance. Thou wonderest earth to see hang like a ball, Clos’d in the ghastly cloister of this all; [7:8:214]And that poor men should prove so madly fond To toss themselves for a small foot of ground; Nay, that they even dare brave the powers above, From this base stage of chance that cannot move. All worldly pomp and pride thou seest arise Like smoke, that scattreth in the empty skies. Other hills and forests, other sumptuous tow’rs, Amaz’d thou fìnd’st excelling our poor bow’rs; Courts void of flattery, of malice minds, Pleasure which lasts, not such as reason blinds.

Forth Feasting, a poem written in the year 1617 on the king’s visit to his native country,^[19. Forth Feasting. A Panegyricke to the Kings most excellent Majestie. Edinbvrgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1617, 4to This poem occurs in the Muses Welcome, p. 25. ] maybe considered as his best performance; it abounds with poetical imagery, and the versification possesses uncommon terseness and harmony. In all poems of the same age and denomination, the reader must necessarily expect a certain sprinkling of mythology; this is a prevailing vice, an endemic disease, among the poets of that period; but Forth Feasting is enlivened by an elegant vein of fancy, and contains various passages of distinguished felicity. In the following nervous lines, he pays a warm and not unmerited compliment to the monarch’s love of peace:

Now, where the wounded knight his life did bleed,

The wanton swain sits piping on a reed,

And where the cannon did Jove’s thunder scorn,

The gaudy huntsman winds his shrill-tun’d horn;

Her green locks Ceres without fear doth dye,

The pilgrim safely in the shade doth lie, Both Pan and Pales careless keep their flocks, Seas have no dangers save the winds and rocks: Thou art this isle’s Palladium, neither can, While thou art kept, it be o’erthrown by man. Let others boast of blood and spoils of foes, Fierce rapines, murders, Iliads of woes, Of hated pomp, and trophies reared fair, Gore-spangled ensigns streaming in the air, Count how they make the Scythian them adore, The Gaditan, the soldier of Aurore;

Unhappy vauntry! to enlarge their bounds,

Which charge themselves with cares, their friends with wounds, Which have no law to their ambitious will,

But, man plagues, born are human blood to spill: Thou a true victor art, sent from above, What others strain by force to gain by love;

Wörld-wand’ring Fame this praise to thee imparts, To be the only monarch of all hearts.

When the successor of this king visited his northern dominions in the year 1633, Drummond contributed the verses for the pageants which welcomed his arrival in Edinburgh.^[20. Drummond’s verses appeared in a publication entitled “The Entertainment of the high and mighty Monarch Charles, King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, into his auncient and royall Citie of Edinbvrgh, the fifteenth of lune 1633.” Printed at Edinbvrgh by lohn Wreittoun, 1633, 4to. The last work which he himself is known to have published bears the following title: “To the Exequies of the Honovrable S r Antonye Alexander, Knight, &c. A pastorali Elegie.” Edinbvrgh, printed in King James his College, by George Anderson, 1638, 4to. Mr Maitland has reprinted the Ρolemo-Middinia from the earliest edition that has been traced. Edinb. 1684, 4to. ] These verses, although they do not exhibit passages equal to those which we have lately examined, are not destitute of merit. Of the frequent compression and harmony of his couplets, every reader must be sufficiently aware; and the excellence of his versification has been highly extolled by an English critic. Waller and Denham are often regarded as the great improvers of a mode of versification which was carried to greater perfection by Dryden; but the Tears on the Death of Moeliades, and Forth Feasting, were composed several years before either of those poets had reached the age of manhood.^[21. Neve’s Cursory Remarks on some of the Ancient English Poets, particularly Milton, p. 49. Lond. 1789, 8vo∙-With respect to the supposed merit of Waller and Denham as improvers of English versification, the reader may consult Mr Crowe’s Treatise on English Versification, p. 166. Lond. 1827, 8vo. ] (x.)

Drummond, Sir William, of Logie-Almond, a distinguished scholar, acute philosopher, and accomplished writer, died at Rome, of a lingering and painful disease, on the 29th of March 1828. The date of his birth we have not been able to ascertain, and consequently cannot pretend to determine his age at the time of his decease.

He seems to have been early ambitious of literary distinction, and in 1794 he published A Review of die Government of Sparta and Athens, large 8vo; a work which, though not destitute of merit, and exhibiting considerable traces of a vigorous mind, yet gave no promise of that bold spirit of speculation for which its author was afterwards so much distinguished. At the close of the year 1795, he was returned to parliament for the borough of St Mawes, in the representation of which a vacancy had occurred; and in the two following parliaments, which met respectively in 1796 and 1801, he sat for the town of Lostwithiel. At the time of his second election he had been appointed envoy-extraordinary to the court of Naples.

In the year 1798, he published The Satires of Persius Translated, 8vo, which happened to appear about the same time with the rival translation of the Roman satirist by Mr Gifford, author of the Baviad and Maeviad, and afterwards editor of the Quarterly Review. This translation alone would have been sufficient to fix his reputation as an accomplished classical scholar; and, in point of fact, it has been much admired by all who are competent to appreciate the difficulty of the task which he so successfully performed. It would not be easy, indeed, to overrate the skill with which the niceties of Persius have been discriminated, or the felicity with which the idiomatic peculiarities of that difficult author have been converted into equivalent forms of expression. Drummond’s versification is easy, graceful, and precise; and though it wants the piquancy of allusion, the congenial bitterness of spirit, and the occasional point and concentration, which impart so strong a zest to the translation of Mr Gifford, it is yet distinguished for greater freedom and equal fidelity, two things which Drummond has shown that it is not impossible to reconcile.

In the year 1801, Mr Drummond being then ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, was honoured with the order of the Crescent, which was confirmed by license, in the London Gazette, dated the 8th of September 1803.

In 1805 Sir William published his Academical Questions, in 4to, and thereby greatly extended his fame as an author. Hitherto he had appeared only in the character of an elegant and accomplished scholar; but in this work he boldly entered the domain of philosophy, and in a free and fearless spirit attacked every species of dogmatism, whether consecrated by time, or sustained by authority, exposing the weakness of the human understanding, and mortifying the pride of pretended wisdom, by a collection of what appear to be insoluble cases and indeterminate problems. In this work, however, it is only the task of demolition which he proposes to accomplish; and it must be owned that he has spread abroad the rubbish and scattered the dust of philosophical systems in a somewhat appalling[7:8:215] manner. “The author of Academical Questions," says the able critic of the work in the Edinburgh Review, “is indubitably a person of great reading, and much natural acuteness; but he has taken too wide a range, and indulged somewhat too much in a vein of controversial declamation. He often seems to think more of demolishing his antagonist than of enlightening his reader; and sometimes appears to enlarge upon a topic as much for the display of his eloquence as for the support of his reasoning. By frequent reference to the Greek writers, and continual allusions to the usages of antiquity, he expected perhaps to seduce the scholars of the South into metaphysical investigations, and to engage the attention of polite readers by a certain vivacity and polish in the turn of his expression. If this was his view, however, he certainly ought not to have plunged at first into the great gulf of substance and entity.” ŲEdinburgh Review, vol. vii. p. 185.) To these observations, however, it is proper to add, that the author avowedly reserved the full exposition of his own theory for a subsequent volume, though in point of fact it never appeared; and that in this preliminary publication he conceived himself to be only clearing out the foundation on which it was his intention afterwards to build.

In the year 1810, Sir William Drummond, in conjunction with Robert Walpole, Esq. published Herculanensia, in 4to, containing archaeological and philological dissertations, and a copy of a manuscript found amongst the ruins of Herculaneum; and in 1811 appeared an Essay on a Punic Inscription found in the Isle of Malta, royal 8vo; both works of great merit and erudition. Sir William was also an occasional, if nota frequent, contributor to the Classical Journal ; in which his papers on subjects of antiquity, particularly the zodiac of Denderah, which occupied without exhausting his ingenuity, attracted the general admiration of the learned, if not always on account of their soundness, at least by reason of the acuteness and originality they display, and the resources of learning which the author had always at command for the illustration of his peculiar views. About this time, Sir William Drummond, whose residence at Constantinople had turned his attention to oriental literature, sacred as well as profane, consigned the fruits of his researches and investigations into the historical books of the Old Testament, in his Oedipus Jzidaicus. This singular work was never published, having been printed solely for distribution amongst the author’s friends and acquaintance; but as he had caused a considerable impression to be struck off, copies of it soon found their way into the hands of persons connected with the periodical press, and those of others; and, as might have been expected, it was most fiercely attacked. The first onset was made by a churchman of the name of D’Oyly, in Letters to the Right lion. Sir William Drummond, in Defence of particular Passages of the Old Testament against his late work entitled “ Oedipus Judaicus and the attack was renewed in the Quarterly Review, with equal vigour and ability. Whether it was altogether fair thus openly to stigmatize a book which had never been published, we shall not stop to inquire; more especially as the principal cause of regret is, not that it was severely criticised, but that it was ever written, far less printed. In the controversy which thus arose, however, Sir William was overmatched, both in science and in Hebrew, with which D’Oyly and the Reviewer evinced a most intimate acquaintance; and although his reply displayed much ingenuity, no skill could evade, far less destroy, the force of some of the criticisms. The truth is, the allegorical theory which he undertook to establish was taken at secondhand from the work of Dupuis; and although the author, notwithstanding all the errors charged against him, brought great stores of learning and erudition to bear upon it, yet the absurdities to which it leads are so glaring, and the consequences which follow from it are so pernicious, that it is surprising Sir William Drummond should not have foreseen the one, or been prudent enough not to hazard the other. The preface, too, though beautifully written, contains observations which nothing can excuse, and irreverences so gross as even to shock persons the least scrupulous about subjects of religion. The profane joke about veal cutlets is worthy only of Mr Thomas Paine, and fit to appear in no work where the ordinary humanities of taste and reason are duly observed.

In 1818 Sir William Drummond published, experimentally we believe, the first part of a poem entitled Odin, 4to, the object of which was to embody in verse some of the more striking features of the Scandinavian mythology. The poem, however, did not succeed in attracting public attention, which was then almost exclusively fixed on some of the great masters of song, whose deep voice of inspiration filled the land; and although it contained passages of very considerable power and beauty, it fell into almost immediate oblivion.

But the work on which the reputation of Sir William Drummond as a scholar and antiquary must chiefly rest, is his Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities, in 3 vols. 8vo. The first volume, embracing the origin of the Babylonian, the Assyrian, and the Iranian empires, appeared in 1824; the second, which is wholly devoted to the subject of Egypt, including the modern discoveries in hieroglyphics, came out in 1825; and the third, which treats of the Phoenicians and Arabia, was published in 1826. It would be exceedingly difficult, by a general statement, or by critical observations apart from details, to convey an accurate idea of the real character and merits of this work; which, with much that is strained, exaggerated, or defective, to say nothing of errors into which the author iŝ sometimes betrayed by the excessive refinements of an ever active ingenuity, is in several respects one of the most remarkable productions of modern times. A principal feature of the Origines, though certainly the least obtrusive, is, that here the author labours quietly to build up and fortify the authority of the historical books of the Old Testament, which, in the Oedipus Judaicus, he had (probably without intending it) contributed to impair, if not to pull down: whilst by concentrating, as it were, into one focus the various scattered lights of tradition, history, philosophy, science, etymology, and archaeology, he has contrived to illuminate many of the darkest passages in the records of the ancient world; to dispel no inconsiderable portion of the obscurity which overshadowed the origin and annals of the great empires of antiquity; and, even in the merest archaeological discussions, to interweave incidental illustrations, alike curious in themselves, and valuable to the scholar, the theologian, and the antiquary. Upon this work, therefore, as on a fixed and enduring pedestal, the fame of Drummond as a scholar must in a great measure rest. Besides its other great and singular merits, it has that which indeed is peculiar to almost all Drummond’s works, of being written in a pure, chaste, classical style, full of vivacity and vigour, and sometimes even rising into a rich and lofty strain of eloquence. The dialogue between Neomathes and Philo-thoth, in the second volume, where the one impugns and the other defends the astronomical and mathematical skill of the ancient Egyptians, may be instanced as a specimen of the grace, elegance, and force of Drummond’s style, when it flows in a continuous stream, unbroken by the projecting corners and edges of a hard and rugged erudition.

Sir William Drummond’s appreciation of the modern discoveries in hieroglyphics (a subject to which three consecutive chapters of the second volume are devoted) [7:8:216] is, in general, sound and discriminating; and he foresaw sooner than almost any one else, that the powers of the phonetic alphabet, as an instrument of discovery, would be found to have been greatly over-rated. In a letter, dated Naples, 27th ∕lpril 1827, and addressed to the author of this imperfect notice, he very distinctly shows how fully he had estimated the difficulty which Μ. Champollion had overlooked, and which now appears to be nearly, if not altogether insuperable. “That Μ. Champoilion’s system is accurate to a certain extent,” says he, “I admit; and his discoveries do him great honour. Whether he be right in all the details of his system is another question. He establishes the existence of a very great number (I forget the precise number) of phonetic hieroglyphs;^[22. About α hundred and forty ; whilst, even by the lowest estimate, the total number of hieroglyphs on the monuments exceeds eight hundred. ] and to these, he says, are to be traced all the characters of the running hand, which he reads with so much ease. Now I cannot help observing, that where there are so many signs to represent each alphabetical letter, and where consequently there must have been various contractions for each of these signs in the running hand, the task of learning all these contractions without the aid of a master, and of accurately referring them to their prototypes, must be immense. In Sanscrit there are fifty-two letters, and yet there are above eight hundred contractions. To refer these Sanscrit contractions to their original letters is not always very easy; but the difficulty in Egyptian must have been much greater, in which language the phonetic characters, and consequently the contractions, arc far more numerous.” Here we have the germ of those principles which, developed and applied by Klaproth to the values of characters as set down by M. Champollion, have made terrible havoc of his discoveries, and left him at last little more than what he took without acknowledgment from Dr Young.

Of Sir William Drummond in his public capacity we are not prepared to speak with any degree of confidence, having little knowledge of his services as a diplomatist, or of his capabilities for acting in that character. The habit of his mind was a cautious or rather tentative boldness, accompanied with perseverance, yet tempered with a conciliating blandness of disposition, and an amenity of manners, native to his character; and it is to be presumed that this prevailing tendency showed itself in the conduct of affairs, as well as in abstract or speculative pursuits. In 1808, we find him, whilst resident at the court of Palermo, ostensibly embarked in a scheme for securing the regency of Spain, which had then just risen in arms to throw off the yoke of France, to Prince Leopold of Sicily. As might have been expected, the project misgave at the very commencement, and Sir William Drummond has not escaped censure for the part he had in it. “Sir William Drummond, the British envoy at Palermo, Mr Viale, and the Duke of Orleans,” says Colonel Napier,” were the ostensible contrivers of this notable scheme, by which, if it had succeeded, a small party in a local junta (that of Seville) would have appointed a regency for Spain, paved the way for altering the laws of succession in that country, established their own sway over the other juntas, and created interminable jealousy between England, Portugal, and Spain; but with whom the plan originated does not very clearly appear. Sir William Drummond’s representations induced Sir Alexander Ball to provide the ship of war, nominally for the conveyance of the Duke of Orleans [now king of the French, who had made no secret of his intention to negociate for the regency of Spain], but in reality for Prince Leopold, with whose intended voyage Sir Alexander does not appear to have been made acquainted. That the prince should have, desired to be regent of Spain was natural; but that he should have been conveyed to Gibraltar in a British ship of the line, when the English government disapproved of his pretensions, was really curious. Sir William Drummond could scarcely have proceeded such lengths in an affair of so great consequence, without secret instructions from some member of his own government; yet Lord Castlereagh expressed unqualified approbation of Sir Hew Dalrymple’s decisive conduct upon the occasion.” (Napier’s History of the Peninsular War, vol. i. p. 177.) In politics Sir William Drummond appears to have known his ground well, and to have given entire satisfaction to the governments which employed him, at periods of no ordinary difficulty, in transacting affairs of the greatest importance.

Such is an imperfect outline of the literary and political character of this distinguished person. In private life he was a man of modest, retiring, unobtrusive manners, perfectly unconscious that he differed from or had any claims to distinction superior to the most ordinary and commonplace person who fell in his way. Throughout his whole life he was a close and assiduous student, often preferring the company of his books to the promiscuous and frivolous intercourse of company; and hence he was sometimes considered as eccentric, if not cold, distant, and haughty, by those who neither knew nor could sympathise with the habits which are gradually formed by a studious and contemplative life; habits which continue unconsciously to grow upon men whose days and nights are devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. But he was, nevertheless, one of the kindest, mildest, and most generous and humane men that ever existed. To his tenants and dependents he was indulgent even to the injury of his own private fortune; to his friends he was most stedfastly and fervently devoted. In him rising merit was always sure to find a ready and active patron; and not a few individuals have owed their establishment and success in life to the circumstance of having attracted his notice, or of being pointed out to him as deserving of support or encouragement. Latterly, owing to the precarious state of his health, which made it necessary for him to resort to a warmer climate, he resided almost constantly abroad; chiefly, we believe, at Naples, where he continued to indulge in those learned pursuits which formed the main solace and delight of his life, (a.)