William Drummond (1585-1649)

 

From  The Lives of the British Poets. By Samuel Johnson. Completed by William Hazlitt. 4 vols. in 2. London: Nathaniel Cooke, 1854. I.273-75.

 

WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1585-1649)

William Drummond, a descendant of the ancient family of Drummond of Carnock, and the son of Sir John Drummond, was born at Hawthorndean, in Scotland, 13th December, 1585. He received his education at the University of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.A. At the age of twenty-one he went to France, and attended lectures on the civil law, a subject on which he left sufficient documents to prove that his jugment and proficiency were uncommon.

After a residence abroad of nearly four years, he returned to Scotland in 1610, in which year his father died. Instead, however, of prosecuting the study of the law, as was expected, he thought himself sufficiently rich in the possession of his paternal estate, and devoted his time to the ancient classics, and the cultivation of his poetical genius. Whether he had composed or communicated any pieces to his friends before this period, is uncertain. It was after a recovery from a dangerous illness that he wrote a prose rhapsody, entitled Cypress Grove; and about the same time his Flowers of Zion, or Spiritual Poems; which, with the Cypress Grove, were printed in Edinburgh in 1623. A part of his sonnets, it is said, were published as early as 1616.

During his residence at Hawthornden, hecourted a young lady of the name of Cunningham,to whom he was about to be united, when she was snatched from him by a violent fever. To dissipate his grief, which every object and every thought of his retirement contributed to revive, he travelled on the continent for about eight years, visiting Germany, France, and Italy. During this time he invigorated his memory and imagination by studying the varous models of original poetry, and collected a valuable set of Latin and Greek authors, with some of which he enriched the college library of Edinburgh, and others wre deposited at Hawthorndean. The books and manuscrips which he gave to Edinburgh were arranged in a catalogue printed 1627, and introduced by a Latin preface from his pen, on the advantage and honour of libraries.

On his return to Scotland, he found the nation distracted by political and religious disputes, which combined with the same causes in England to bring on a civil war. He retired to the seat of his brother-in-law, Sir John Scot, of Scotstarvet, a man of letters and probably of congenial sentiments on public affairs. During his stay with this gentleman, he wrote his History of the Five James's, Kings of Scotland; a work so inconsistent with liberal notions of civil policy as to have added very little to his reputation, although when first published, a few years after his death, and when political opinions ran in extremes, it wa probably not without its admirers.

It is uncertain at what time he was enabled to enjoy his retirement at Hawthorndean; but it appears he was there in his forty-fifth year, when he married Elizabeth Logan (granddaughter of Sir Robert Logan, of the house of Restelrig), in whom he fancied a resemblance to his first mistress.

During the civil war, his attachment to the king and church induced him to write many pieces in support of the establishment, which involved him with the revolutionary party, who not only called him to a severe account, but compelled him to furnish his quota of men and arms to fight against the cause which he espoused. His grief for the death of his royal master is said to heve been so great as to shorten his days. He died on the 4th of December, 1649, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and was interred in the church of Lasswade. Unambitious of riches or honours, he appears to have projected the life of a retired scholar, from which he was diverted only by the commotions that robbed his country of its tranquillity. He was highly accomplished in ancient and modern literature, and in the amusements which became a man of his rank. Among his intimate friends and learned contemporaries, he seems to have been connected with the Earl of Stirling, Drayton, and Ben Jonson. The latter, as already noted in his life, paid him a visit at Hawthorndean, and communicated to him without reserve many pariculars of his life and opinions, which Drummond committed to writing, with a sketch of Jonson's character.

As a poet he ranks among the first reformers of versification, and in elegance, harmony, and delicacy of feeling is far superior to his contemporaries. One poem lately added to his other works, entitled Polemo-Middinia, or the Battle of the Dunghill, is a good example of burlesque.

 

 

 

 

 

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