Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/293

Rh prize of his victory upon the widows of the brave gentlemen whose deaths he had thus avenged.

In consequence, it is said, of this achievement, and the wonderful proficiency of the young Scotsman, the duke of Mantua made choice of him as tutor to his son, Vincentio di Gonzaga, a young man of dissolute conduct and unsettled principles. The appointment seems to have been gratifying to all parties; and, as Sir Thomas Urquhart informs us, Crichton composed a comedy on the occasion, which he exhibited before the court. This, we must by no means enlarge upon; for though that author's account of the matter is complete and curious, it is of great length, and may with more pleasure and advantage be read at large in the original. The piece, we may only remark, belonged to a class of the drama known by the name of the Comedia a soggetto; in which one actor performs all the characters, however numerous; and must appear in the various dresses appropriate to each. The admirable Crichton had his usual success. The composition was regarded as one of the most ingenious satires that ever was made upon mankind. It was the last display, too, of those wonderful talents and endowments which their possessor was destined to make on the stage of this world; and if, in any part of our narrative, we may have betrayed symptoms of incredulity, we lay all such feelings aside, in coming to the concluding circumstance, the tragic nature of which must always excite deep sympathy and regret.

On a night of the carnival, as Crichton was returning from some serenading party, and amusing himself as he went solitarily along, by playing upon his guitar, he was suddenly set upon by five or six armed persons in masks. These with great vigour and bravery, he either put to flight, wounded, or kept at a distance. The one who seemed to be the leader he contrived to disarm and this person proved to be the prince, his pupil, Vincentio di Gonzaga; for, pulling off his mask and discovering himself, he begged his life. Crichton, on this, fell upon his knees, and expressed the concern he felt for his mistake, alleging that what he had done, he had been prompted to by self-defence; that if his prince had any design upon his life he might always be master of it. Saying this, and taking his sword by the point, he presented it to Gonzaga, who immediately received it; and, the evil passions by which he had been actuated, being inflamed rather than subdued by his shameful discomfiture, he is said instantly to have run his defenceless victor through the heart.

It ought, however, in justice to be said, that the above, though the popular statement of Crichton's death, has been qualified, by more than one of his biographers, in its circumstances of atrocity; and indeed, though such actions assume a different character in Italy from what, happily, we are acquainted with in this country, he ought to have the advantage of every extenuation which impartiality can allow of. It is uncertain whether the meeting occurred by accident or design. Sir Thomas Urquhart, with his usual romance, has told a most extravagant, and it must be allowed, absurd, love story; thus implicating jealousy in the transaction; but the most probable version seems to be, that Crichton was stabbed in a drunken frolic; that the high rank of the one party, and great merit of the other; the relation in which they stood to each other; and the concealment of the real circumstances, came, at length, from the natural love all people, and especially the Italians, have for amplification and exaggeration, to invest the whole in the tragic garb which it now wears.

Great and general, according to the old author we have so often quoted, was the grief and lamentation which this sad event caused in Mantua. The whole court went into mourning for nine months. The epitaphs and elegies written to his memory, and stuck upon his hearse, would exceed, if collected, the bulk