Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/118

146 ton. Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies, &c." The most singular of all, to the modern reader, is what follows regarding Shakespeare, who is introduced with fully as little respect as is shown to any of the others mentioned;—He said. "Shakespeare wanted art and sometimes sense; for in one of his plays, he brought a number of men, saying they had suffered shipwreck in Bohemia, where is no sea, near by one hundred miles." Shakespeare, it may be remarked, though two years dead at the time of this conversation, was then but little known out of London, the sphere of his original attraction. The first, and well known folio edition of his plays, which may be said to have first shown forth our great dramatist to the world, did not appear till 1623, several years after. Drummond merely refers to him as the author of "Venus and Adonis," and the "Rape of Lucrece," pieces as little popularly known now, as his plays were then.

It is to Ben Jonson's honour, that, when he spared so little the absent poets of his country, he did not altogether pass over the poet of Hawthornden to his face. Our author's verses he allowed, "were all good, especially his epitaph on prince Henry; save that they smelled too much of the schools, and were not after the fancy of the times: for a child, said he, may write after the fashion of the Greek and Latin verses, in running;—yet, that he wished for pleasing the king, that piece of Forth Feasting had been his own."

So little did any intercourse exist two hundred years ago between the then newly united kingdoms of England and Scotland, and in particular, so unknown did the latter kingdom then and long after remain to the sister islanders, that a friendly or curious tour into Scotland, now become a matter of everyday and fashionable occurrence, was by them looked upon as pregnant with every species of novelty and adventure. Necessity or business could alone be considered as an inducement to the prosecution of such a journey, attended with so many supposed risks, and some real inconveniences ; and we can well believe in the wonder and delight which a devoted and adventurous English angler is said to have experienced, when he began to reflect how, almost unconsciously, the beauty and excellence of its fine rivers had seduced him far into the heart of a peaceful and romantic land till then thought savage and barbarous. Infected we may suppose with similar feelings, Ben Jonson contemplated the design of writing "a Fisher or pastoral play," the scene of which was to be the "Lomond lake ;" and he likewise formed the intention of turning to poetical account his foot pilgrimage, under the form and title of a "Discovery of Edinburgh"

A letter to our author, upon his return to London, and the answer to it, almost entirely refer to these two schemes.

We are informed, in the first of these, that the laureate of his day returned safely from his long journey, and met "with a most catholic welcome;" that his reports were not unacceptable to his majesty;"—who," says he, "professed (I thank God) some joy to see me, and is pleased to hear of the purpose of my book." The letter concludes thus:—"Salute the beloved Fentons, the Nisbets, especially Mr James Writh, his wife, your sister, &c.