No. X. Once more the faded bower, Where Jonson sat in Drummond's classic shade. COLLINS. AMONG the intimate friends and correspondents of Drummond, Michael Drayton appears, and very deservedly, both from his virtues and his talents, to have held a high place. It would seem, indeed, that the year 1618, to which I have alluded, was the period in which their friendship commenced; for in the letter to which this date is annexed in the folio edition, the poet of Hawthornden thus addresses his brother bard. "If my letters were so welcome to you, what may you think yours were to me, which must be so much more welcome, in that the conquest I make is more than that of yours. They who by some strange means have had conference with some of the old heroes can only judge that delight I had in reading them; for they were to me as if they had come from Virgil, Ovid, or the father of our sonnets, Petrarch. I must love this year of my life more dearly than any that forewent it, because in it I was so happy to be acquainted with such worth. How would I be overjoyed to see our North once honoured with your works as before it was with Sidney's; though it be barren of excellency in itself, it can both love and admire the excellency of others *.” From this period, though it is not known that they ever personally met, an affectionate regard was maintained between these two amiable men by frequent letters, and by their great and mutual attachment to their common friend Alexander of Menstrie, earl of Stirling, author of "Recreations with the Muses." Drayton has tenderly commemorated his love and admiration of these his poetical contemporaries in the following pleasing lines: Scotland sent us hither, for our own, That man, whose name I ever would have known I want extremely; yet in speaking thus, And not his numbers, which were brave, and high; And my dear DRUMMOND, to whom much I owe His poesy; for which two worthy men, I Menstrie still shall love, and Hawthornden †. * Works, folio edition, Edinburgh, 1711, p. 234. Nor was Drummond, in return, backward in acknowledging his high estimation of the poetical merits of his friend; for, independent of the passage which I have just given from one of his epistles, he tells him in another letter, "Your truly heroical epistles did ravish me, and lately your most happy Albion put me into a new trance; works, most excellent portraits of a rarely indued mind, which, if one may conjecture of what is to come, shall be read, in spite of envy, so long as men shall read books * ;" and in a manuscript which, with several others, was given by Mr. Abernethy Drummond, the poet's heir, to lord Buchan, were found, in a bundle of Drayton's letters to Drummond, the annexed verses in the handwriting of the latter, and supposed to have been addressed by Drummond to the English bard on receiving from him a copy of his poems. Dum tua melliflui specto pigmenta libelli At sensum expendens tumque altæ pondera mentis, Sed mage dædaleo miror te pectore qui sic * Works, folio edition, p. 233. It has been asserted that Ben Jonson travelled into Scotland solely with the view of visiting Drummond; but this is a mistake, for Jonson, whose grandfather was a native of Annandale in Scotland, had many friends in that country; and of the period which he passed there, only a small portion was devoted to the bard of Hawthornden. That he was received by Drummond with hospitality and kindness, and that Jonson ever spoke of his excursion into the land of his forefathers with delight, there is every reason, from combining what testimony remains, to conclude. No two men, however, could be more opposed, both in their dispositions and literary tastes, than were Drummond and Ben Jonson; for, whilst the latter, rough and dictatorial in his manners, a lover of conviviality and the busy hum of men, and a master of wit and sarcasm, bluntly and pointedly enforced his opinions, the former, gentle, pensive, and retired, a votary of solitude and contemplation, shrank trembling and disgusted from the contest. Yet, notwithstanding this disparity of habits and inclinations, Drummond has given us unequivocal proof, by noting down the heads of the conversation which passed between him and his friend during this visit *, * First published in the folio edition of 1711, pp. 224-5-6. that he attached much importance to his character and sentiments. The picture is, it is true, with regard to the personal failings of Jonson, what might be apprehended from their contrariety of tempers and tastes, somewhat dark and exaggerated; but it should be recollected, in opposition to those who charge the Scottish poet with deliberate perfidy and malevolence, that it was evidently intended merely for private use, that in all probability it escaped the fire solely from its author's forgetfulness, and that it did not appear before the public until more than half a century after his death. I heartily wish, however, it had never seen the light; for though I firmly believe that Drummond was well aware of the strength and originality of Jonson's powers, and had an affection, if not for the failings, yet for the better parts of his friend's character, still must it be pronounced, after every alleviating consideration, a representation in no slight degree fastidious and splenetic. There is, however, much reason to suppose that Drummond cherished the remembrance of this visit from the English poet with no little pride and pleasure; for he had taken care that a seat which Jonson had selected as his favourite spot in the se |