SIR ROBERT AYTOUN. 1570-1638. SIR ROBERT AYTOUN is reckoned the first Scotchman who, after the divergence of English and Scotch into different dialects, wrote correct English in the style to which the language attained through the powerful transforming genius of the writers of the Elizabethan period. are The Aytouns of Scotland descended from Gilbert De Vescy, who received the lands of Aytoun, in Berwickshire, from King Robert Bruce, and thence they derive their surname. Sir Robert was the second son of Andrew Aytoun, of Kinaldie in Fifeshire, and was born there in 1570. He entered St Andrews University in 1584, where he studied for four years, and took his degree of M.A. He afterwards proceeded to Paris, as is supposed, to study law, and distinguished himself as a Greek and Latin scholar. Returning to Britain in 1603, he wrote a Latin address on the accession of James VI. to the English throne, which attracted the King's notice, and led to the poet's appointment as a gentleman of the bed-chamber, private secretary to the Queen, and a privy councillor. James, in 1609, employed him as his ambassador to present copies of his " Apology for the Oath of Allegiance" to the courts of Germany; and in connection with this mission, it is supposed, he received the honour of knighthood. After James' death, he became private secretary to the queen of Charles I. His eminence as a scholar, and his elegance as a poet, brought him into contact with most of the literary men of his time; while with Ben Jonson, and Hobbes of Malmsbury, he was on terms of intimate friendship. In his conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden, he was almost the only one of his acquaintances of whom Ben spoke in an affectionate manner, for he says, "Aytoun loved him dearly!" No further particulars are known of his life, but his monument in Westminster Abbey, erected by his nephew, Sir John Aytoun, knight of the Black Rod, records his having died unmarried, in the palace of Whitehall, in March 1638, in his 68th year. Aytoun's poems are not numerous, nor of sustained effort, but they show much perfection in the art of poetry, and a Horation elegance of style and turn of thought becoming their semilyrical character. He himself possibly placed more value upon his Latin Poems, which appeared in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum, than on his English Poems, for they appeared in all sorts of ways, scattered here and there, and were only first collected in 1844, on the occasion of a manuscript copy having come into the hands of Dr Charles Rogers, who had them printed for private circulation. In Aubrey's IX. Since thou hast robbed me of my heart, By those resistless powers To those fair eyes of yours, To hold a slave in pyne; X. 'Tis not my freedom I do cave, By deprecating pains; Sure, liberty he would not have Who glories in his chains: To pity, if thou canst not love, AGAINST EXTREMES IN LOVE. There is no worldly pleasure here below Which by experience doth not folly prove, But among all the follies that I know, The sweetest folly in the world is love; But not that passion which with fools' con sent Above the reason bears imperious sway, Making their lifetime a perpetual lent, As if a man were born to fast and pray. No, that is not the humour I approve, As either yielding pleasure or promotion : I like a mild and lukewarm zeal in love, Although I do not like it in devotion; For it has no coherence with my creed, tend; If all that say they die, had died indeed, Sure long e're now the world had had an end. Besides, we need not love but if we please; No destiny can force men's disposition; And how can any die of that disease, Whereof himself may be his own physician? But some seem so distracted of their wits, That I would think it but a venial sin, To take some of those innocents that sit In Bedlam out, and put some lovers in. Yet some men, rather than incur the slander Of true apostates, will false martyrs prove : But I am neither Iphis nor Leander, I'll neither drown nor hang myself for love. Methinks a wise man's actions should be such As always yield to reason's best advice: Now for to love too little or too much Are both extremes, and all extremes are vice. Yet have I been a lover by report, Yea, I have died for love as others do, But, praised be God, it was in such a sort, That I revived within an hour or two. Thus have I lived, thus have I loved till now, And find no reason to repent me yet; And whosoever otherways will do, His courage is as little as his wit. THE EARL OF STIRLING. ALTHOUGH the most voluminous ofour ancient poetical remains, and presenting no linguistic difficulties to the modern reader, the poems of Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, contain fewer pieces of popular interest than those of any of his predecessors, and this notwithstanding that their author was the subject of much admiration on the part of his contemporaries. His family is traced to Somerled, Thane of Argyle, and Lord of the Isles, who, in 1164, fell fighting against Malcolm IV., in a battle at Renfrew. His successor, John, Lord of the Isles, of the time of Robert II., married Mary, the daughter of that monarch, and their third son, Alexander, is the common progenitor, of two families who adopted his patronymic as their sur name; the one, the Macalisters of Loup, taking the Gaelic rendering of the name, and the other, the Alexanders of Menstrie, the English. The Earls of Argyle, whose favourite residence of Castle Campbell is in the neighbourhood, bestowed the lands of Menstrie upon Alexander, the son of this grandson of Robert II. William Alexander, the poet, was the son of Alexander Alexander, the fifth laird of Menstrie, and was born in 1580, at the family mansion-house, which still stands on the march between Alloa and Logie, about five miles from Stirling. He is said to have been educated at Glasgow University, and, being a young man of promising parts, was selected as the travelling companion of Gillesbuig Gruamach (Archibald the Sullen), seventh Earl of Argyle. They visited France, Italy, and Spain, of which countries Alexander learned the languages. After his return home, he, in 1603, published the tragedy of Darius, at Edinburgh. Shortly after this, he repaired to London, where, in 1604, he published his sonnets and songs, under the title of Aurora. They were his first production, and appear to refer to a veritable love affair; if so, he was an unsuccessful suitor, but soon got over his disappointment by marrying Janet, the daughter and heiress of Sir William Erskine, titular Archbishop of Glasgow. His excluding them from the collected edition of his works in 1637, lends colour to the supposition that their subject was a real, not an ideal mistress. They are dedicated to the Countess of Argyle, and may be regarded his most poetical compositions. The "Parænesis to Prince Henry," which is after the manner of Bellenden's Address to James V., also appeared this year, and if the cause of his appointment as a gentleman of the Prince's privy chamber, which immediately followed, his promotion is creditable to both the King and the poet. It is reckoned his most unexceptionable poem. In 1607, he published his tragedies, now increased to four, viz., "Darius," "Croesus,""The Alexandrian Tragedy," |