versity of Edinburgh, and afterward in France. In 1606 he commenced the study of the civil law, with the intention of following the legal profession; but in 1611, on the death of his father, he succeeded to an independent estate, and immediately took up his residence at Hawthornden. 'If beautiful and romantic scenery,' remarks a writer of that period, 'could create or nurse the genius of a poet, Drummond was peculiarly blessed with the means of inspiration. In all Scotland, there is no spot more finely varied— more rich, graceful, or luxuriant-than the cliffs, caves, and wooded banks of the river Esk, and the classic shades of Hawthornden. In the immediate neighbourhood is Roslin Castle, one of the most interesting of Gothic ruins; and the whole course of the stream and the narrow glen is like the groundwork of some fairy dream.' Drummond had been in the habit of relieving the oppressive weight of his legal studies in France by occasionally courting the muse; but it was not until after he was established at Hawthornden that he assumed a distinct position as an author. His first publication was a volume of miscellaneous poems; to which soon after succeeded a moral treatise in prose, entitled, the Cypress Grove, and another poetical work termed the Flowers of Zion. The death, which occurred about this time, of the young lady to whom he was betrothed, affected him so deeply that he sought relief in change of scene and the excitement of foreign travel. He first visited Paris, and thence passed to Rome, spending, between those two cities, and the intermediate countries, Germany and Switzerland, nearly eight years. He embraced the opportunity also, thus afforded, of making a large collection of the choicest works to be obtained in the Greek, the Latin, the French, and the Italian languages; and enriched with the literary lore of both the ancient and the modern world, he returned to Scotland, and resumed his abode at Hawthornden. On his way thither, he met, by accident, a young lady named Logan, who bore so strong a resemblance to the former object of his affections, that he solicited and obtained her hand in marriage. From this period Drummond passed many years in his delightful retreat at Hawthornden, relieving the sameness of a retired abode by occasional visits to his brother bards of England, and receiving visits in return from Ben Jonson, Drayton, and others, at his hospitable home. Drummond inherited from his father, the deepest reverence for royalty, and the trial and execution of Charles the First, is said to have so deeply affected him as to hasten his own death, which occurred in the latter part of the same year 1649, and in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The poetry of Drummond has singular sweetness and harmony of versification. His Tears on the Death of Mocliades, or Prince Henry, was written in 1612; his Wandering Muses, or The River of Forth Feasting, a congratulatory poem to King James The First on his revisiting Scotland, appeared in 1617, and placed him among the greatest poets of the age. His sonnets are of a still higher cast, have fewer conceits, and more natural feeling, elevation of sentiment, and grace of expression. The general purity of his language, the harmony of his verse, and the play of fancy in all his principal productions, are his distinguishing characteristics. With more energy and force of mind he would have been a greater favorite both with his contemporaries and with posterity. We shall close our notice of this eminent Scottish poet with a few of his Sonnets, and an extract from the River of Forth Feasting. EPITATH ON PRINCE HENRY. Stay, passenger, see where inclosed lies At least that part the earth of him could claim You saw where Earth's perfections were confin'd. TO HIS LUTE. My lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow Is reft from earth to tune the spheres above, What art thou but a harbinger of woe? Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more, But orphan wailings to the fainting ear, Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear; Or if that any hand to touch thee deign, THE PRAISE OF A SOLITARY LIFE. Thrice happy he who by some shady grove, But doth converse with that eternal love. O how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan, Milton has copied this image in his Lycidas: 'Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 2 Warbling: from ramage, French. Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne, TO A NIGHTINGALE. Sweet bird! that sing'st away the early hours THE RIVER OF FORTH FEASTING. What blustering noise now interrupts my sleeps? Which in unusual pomp on tiptoes stand, And, full of wonder, overlook the land? Whence come these glittering throngs, these meteors bright, This golden people glancing in my sight? Whence doth this praise, applause, and love arise; What load-star draweth us all eyes? Am I awake, or have some dreams conspir'd To mock my sense with what I most desir'd? View I that living face, see I those looks, Which with delight were wont t' amaze my brooks? Do I behold that worth, that man divine, This age's glory, by these banks of mine? Then find I true what long I wish'd in vain; My much-beloved prince is come again. So unto them whose zenith is the pole, When six black months are past, the sun does roll: So after tempest to sea-tossed wights, Fair Helen's brothers show their cheering lights: So comes Arabia's wonder from her woods, And far, far off is seen by Memphis' floods : The feather'd sylvans, cloud-like by her fly, In which Apollo's bird came to their clime. Let mother earth now deck'd with flowers be seen, Or with that golden storm the fields adorn Which Jove rain'd when his blue-eyed maid was born. Which see the rising or the setting sun, Which drink stern Grampus' mists, or Ochil's snows: Ness, smoking sulphur, Leve, with mountains crown'd, The snaky Doon, the Orr with rushy hair, The crystal-streaming Nith, loud-bellowing Clyde, To mariners fair winds amidst the main; Cool shades to pilgrims, which hot glances burn, That day, dear Prince. ARTHUR JOHNSTON, the last of the poets of this period, was so celebrated as a writer of Latin verse, that he received the name of the Scottish Ovid, and even contested the supremacy in Latinity with Buchanan himself. a was born at Caskieben, near Aberdeen, in 1587; and having first pursued collegiate studies in the university of Aberdeen, he afterward went to Rome, and thence to Padua, where he studied medicine, and took his doctor's degree in 1610. Being at this time only in the twenty-fourth year of his age, he resolved to acquire, before he entered upon his profession, those accomplishments which he well knew nothing but foreign travel could impart. With this view he made the tour of Italy, Germany, Denmark, Holland, and England, and finally settled in Paris, where he continued to practice his profession with uninterrupted success for nearly twenty years. In 1632, Doctor Johnston returned to Scotland, and being introduced to Archbishop Laud, who was at that time in the north with Charles the First, he became, through the influence of that prelate, physician to the king. In this important relation to his majesty, he remained until 1641, when, being on a visit to a married daughter residing at Oxford, he was there seized with a serious illness of which he soon after died, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Doctor Johnston was an extensive writer of Latin verse, and produced in that language a number of elegies, epigrams, a paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, a collection of short poems entitled Musa Aulicæ, and a complete Version of the Psalms of David, the last of which is his great performance. He also edited and contributed largely to the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum --a collection of congratulatory poems by various authors, which reflected great honor on the taste and scholarship of Scotland at that time. The celebrity of Dr. Johnston's name throughout the learned world, requires this brief notice of his life; but we shall neither make any extracts, nor attempt any translations from his poems. The following beautiful verses will afford an appropriate close to our present remarks. They are supposed to have been written by SIR ROGER L'EsTRANGE, while he was confined in prison on account of his adherence to his unfortunate monarch, Charles the First. LOYALTY CONFINED. Beat on, proud billows; Boreas, blow; Your incivility doth show That innocence is tempest-proof; Though surely Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; That which the world miscalls a jail, A private closet is to me: While a good conscience is my bail, Locks, bars, and solitude, together met, I, while I wish'd to be retired, Into this private room was turn'd; |