William Drummond
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [1]
Of Hawthornden, a Scottish poet, named the "Petrarch of Scotland," born in Hawthornden; studied civil law at Bourges, but poetry had more attractions for him than law, and on the death of his father he returned to his paternal estate, and devoted himself to the study of it and the indulgence of his poetic tastes. "His work was done," as Stopford Brooke remarks, "in the reign of James I., but is the result of the Elizabethan influence extending to Scotland. Drummond's sonnets and madrigals have some of the grace of Sidney, and he rose at intervals into grave and noble verse, as in his sonnet on John the Baptist." He was a devoted Royalist; his first poem was "Tears" on the death of James I.'s eldest son Henry, and the fate of Charles I. is said to have cut short his days; the visit of Ben Jonson to him at Hawthornden is well known (1585-1649).
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
the first Scottish poet who wrote well in English, was born at Hawthornden, December 13, 1585. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1605, studied law at Bruges, in France, settled upon nhis native estate in 1609, spent several years (1625-30) abroad, but was so affected by the execution of Charles I that he died, December 4, 1649. Besides some political productions, he published numerous poems (a few religious), which have been issued collectively (1711, 1832, 1833, 1857). See Life, by Masson (Lond. 1873).
