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DRUMMOND, WILLIAM (1585-1649)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 601 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DRUMMOND, See also:WILLIAM (1585-1649) , called " of See also:Hawthorn-den;" Scottish poet, was See also:born at Hawthornden, near See also:Edinburgh, on the 13th of See also:December 1585. His See also:father, See also:John Drummond, was the first See also:laird of Hawthornden; and his See also:mother was Susannah See also:Fowler, See also:sister of William Fowler (q.v.)., poet and courtier. Drummond received his See also:early See also:education at the high school of Edinburgh, and graduated in See also:July 16o5 as M.A. of the recently founded university of Edinburgh. His father was a See also:gentleman See also:usher at the See also:English See also:court (as he had been at the Scottish court from 1590) and William, in a visit to See also:London in 1606, describes the festivities in connexion with the visit of the See also:king of See also:Denmark. Drummond spent two years at See also:Bourges and See also:Paris in the study of See also:law; and, in 16o9, he was again in See also:Scotland, where, by the See also:death of his father in the following See also:year, he became laird of Hawthornden at the early See also:age of twenty-four. The See also:list of books he read up to, this See also:time is preserved in his own See also:handwriting. It indicates a strong preference for imaginative literature, and shows that he was keenly interested in contemporary See also:verse. His collection (now in the library of the university of Edinburgh) contains many first See also:editions of the most famous productions of the age. On finding himself his own See also:master, Drummond naturally abandoned law for the See also:muses; " for," says his biographer in 1711, " the delicacy of his wit always run on the pleasantness and usefulness of See also:history, and on the fame and softness of See also:poetry." Ii 1612 began his See also:correspondence with See also:Sir William See also:Alexander of Menstrie, afterwards See also:earl of See also:Stirling (q.v.), which ripened into a See also:life-See also:long friendship after Drummond's visit to Menstrie in 1614: Drummond's first publication appeared in 1613, an See also:elegy on the death of See also:Henry, See also:prince of See also:Wales, called Teares on the Death of Meliades (Moeliades, 3rd edit. 1614). The poem shows the See also:influence of See also:Spenser's and See also:Sidney's pastoralism. In the same year he published an See also:anthology of the elegies of See also:Chapman, See also:Wither and others, entitled See also:Mausoleum, or The Choisest Flowres of the Epitaphs.

In 1616, the year of See also:

Shakespeare's death, appeared Poems: Amorous, Funerall, Divine,' Pastorali: in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals, being substantially the See also:story of his love for See also:Mary See also:Cunningham of Barns, who was about to become his wife when she died in 1615. The poems See also:bear marks of a See also:close study of Sidney, and of the See also:Italian poets. He sometimes translates See also:direct from the Italian, especially from See also:Marini. Forth Feasting: A Panegyricke to the King's Most Excellent Majestie (1617), a poem written in heroic couplets of remarkable facility, celebrates See also:James's visit to Scotland in that year. In 1618 Drummond began a correspondence with See also:Michael See also:Drayton. The two poets continued to write at intervals for thirteen years, the last See also:letter being dated in the year of Drayton's death. The latter had almost been persuaded by his " dear Drummond" to See also:print the later books of Poly-Olbian at See also:Hart's Edinburgh See also:press. In the See also:winter of 1618-1619, Drummond had included See also:Ben See also:Jonson in his circle of See also:literary See also:friends, and at See also:Christmas 1618 was honoured with a visit of a fortnight or more from the dramatist. The See also:account of their conversations, long supposed to be lost, was discovered in the See also:Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by See also:David See also:Laing, and was edited for the Shakespeare Society in 1842 and printed by See also:Gifford & Cunningham. The conversations are full of literary See also:gossip, and embody Ben's See also:opinion of himself and of his See also:host, whom he frankly told that " his verses were too much of the schooles, and were not after the fancie of the time," and again that he " was too See also:good and See also:simple, and that oft a See also:man's modestie made a See also:fool of his witt." But the publication of what was obviously intended merely for a private See also:journal has given Jonson an undeserved reputation for harsh judgments, a.nd has See also:cast blame on Drummond for blackening his See also:guest's memory. In 1623 appeared the poet's See also:fourth publication, entitled See also:Flowers of See also:Sion: By William Drummond of Hawthornedenne: to which is adjoyned his Cypresse See also:Grove. From 1625 till 1630 Drummond was probably for the most See also:part engaged in travelling on the See also:Continent.

In 1627, however, he seems to have been See also:

home for a See also:short time, as, in that year, he appears in the entirely new See also:character of the holder of a patent for the construction of military See also:machines, entitled "Litera Magistri Gulielmi Drummond de Fabrica Machinarum Militarium, See also:Anno 1627." The same year, 1627, is the date of Drummond's munificent See also:gift (referred to above) of about 50o volumes to the library of the university of Edinburgh. In 163o Drummond again began to reside permanently at Hawthornden, and in 1632 he married See also:Elizabeth See also:Logan, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. In 1633 See also:Charles made his See also:coronation-visit to Scotland; and Drummond's See also:pen was employed in See also:writing congratulatory speeches and verses. As Drummond preferred See also:Episcopacy to See also:Presbytery, and was an extremely loyal subject, he supported Charles's See also:general policy, though he protested against the methods employed to enforce it. When See also:Lord See also:Balmerino was put on his trial on the See also:capital See also:charge of retaining in his See also:possession a See also:petition regarded as a See also:libel on the king's See also:government, Drummond in an energetic " Letter " (1635) urged the injustice and folly of the proceedings. About this time a claim by the earl of See also:Menteith to the earldom of Strathearn, which was based on the assertion that See also:Robert III., See also:husband of Annabella Drummond, was illegitimate, roused the poet's See also:pride of See also:blood and prompted him to prepare an See also:historical See also:defence of his See also:house. Partly to please his kinsman the earl of See also:Perth, and partly to satisfy his own curiosity, the poet made researches in the See also:genealogy of the See also:family. This investigation was the real See also:secret of Drummond's See also:interest in Scottish history; and so we find that he now began his History of Scotland during the Reigns of the Five Jameses, a See also:work which did not appear till 1655, and is remarkable only for its good literary See also:style. His next work was called forth by the king's enforced submission to the opposition of his Scottish subjects. It is entitled See also:Irene: or a Remonstrance for See also:Concord, Amity, and Love amongst His See also:Majesty's Subjects (1638), and embodies Drummond's See also:political creed of submission to authority as the only logical See also:refuge from See also:democracy, which he hated. In 1639 Drummond had to sign the See also:Covenant in self-See also:protection, but was uneasy under the See also:burden, as several political squibs by him testify. In 1643 he published latagaxia: or a Defence of a Petition tendered to• the Lords of the See also:Council of Scotland by certain Noblemen and Gentlemen, a political pamphlet in support of those royalists in Scotland who wished to espouse the king's cause against the English See also:parliament.

Its burden is an invective on the intolerance of the then dominant Presbyterian See also:

clergy. His later See also:works may be described briefly as royalist See also:pamphlets, written with more or less caution, as the times required. Drummond took the part of See also:Montrose; and a letter from the Royalist See also:leader in 1646 acknowledged his services. He also wrote a pamphlet, " A Vindication of the Hamiltons," supporting the claims of the See also:duke of See also:Hamilton to See also:lead the Scottish See also:army which was to See also:release Charles I. It is said that Drummond's See also:health received a severe See also:shock when See also:news was brought of the king's See also:execution. He died on the 4th of December 1649. He was buried in his See also:parish See also:church of Lasswade. Drummond's most important works are the Cypresse Grove and the poems. The Cypresse Grove exhibits See also:great See also:wealth of See also:illustration, and an extraordinary command of musical English. It is an See also:essay on the folly of the fear of death. " This globe of the See also:earth," says he, " which seemeth huge to us, in respect of the universe, and compared with that wide See also:pavilion of See also:heaven; is less than little, of no sensible quantity, and but as a point." This is one of Drummond's favourite moods; and he uses constantly in his poems such phrases as " the All," " this great All." Even in such of his poems as may be called more distinctively See also:Christian, this philosophic conception is at work. A noteworthy feature in Drummond's poetry, as in that of his courtier contemporaries Ayton (q.v.), Lord Stirling and others, is that it manifests no characteristic Scottish See also:element, but owes its See also:birth and See also:inspiration rather to the English and Italian masters.

Drummond was essentially a follower of Spenser, but, amid all his sensuousness, and even in those lines most conspicuously beautiful, there is a dash of See also:

melancholy thoughtfulness—a tendency deepened by the death of his first love, Mary Cunningham. Drummond was called " the Scottish See also:Petrarch "; and his sonnets, which are the expression of a genuine See also:passion, stand far above most of the confemporary Petrarcan imitations. A remarkable See also:burlesque poem Polemo-Middinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam (printed anonymously in 1684) has been persistently, and with good See also:reason, ascribed to him. It is a See also:mock-heroic See also:tale, in See also:dog-Latin, of a See also:country See also:feud on the Fifeshire lands of his old friends the Cunninghams. Drummond's Poems, with Cypresse Grove, the History, and a few of the See also:minor tracts, were collected in 1656 and edited by See also:Edward See also:Phillips, See also:Milton's See also:nephew. The Works of William Drummond, of Hawthornden (1711), edited by See also:Bishop See also:Sage and See also:Thomas See also:Ruddiman, contains a life by the former, and some of the poet's letters. A handsome edition of the Poems was printed by the See also:Maitland See also:Club in 1832. Later editions are by See also:Peter Cunningham (1833), by William R. Turnbull in The Library of Old Authors " (1856), and by W. C. See also:Ward (1894) for " The Muses' Library." The See also:standard See also:biography of Drummond is by David See also:Masson (1873). Extracts from the Hawthornden See also:MSS. preserved in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland were printed by David Laing in A rchaeologia Scotica, vol. iv.

End of Article: DRUMMOND, WILLIAM (1585-1649)

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