Scotish Descriptive Poems/Preliminary Observations on William Fowler and his Poems

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

Of William Fowler, a writer of amatory verses, and one of the poets who frequented the court of James VI. before his accession to the throne of England, scarcely any facts are known. In 1627, two MS. volumes of his poems were presented by Drummond of Hawthornden to the Library of Edinburgh College, where they are still preserved. One of these, in quarto, intitled, "The Tarantula of Love," consists of sonnets in the manner of Petrarch: the other, in folio, is a translation of the Triumphs of Petrarch. In the title to this volume, Fowler is designated, "P. of Hawicke," by which, I imagine, Parson is intended. As Fowler, however, has always been an uncommon name in Teviotdale, it is not certain that he was a native of that district. The dedication of his "Triumphs of Petrarke," to Jean Fleming, Lady Thirlstaine, the wife of Chancellor Maitland, is dated from Edinburgh, December 17. 1587. From the panegyrical sonnet prefixed to the volume by Robert Hudson, Fowler appears then to have been a young man:

I saw, once, all the Muses, in my thought, With poets als, bedecked with scarlet gowns; Before, with sacred troop Mercurius brought  A youth, upon whose face was yet but downs';  There saw I them present him laurel crowns,And with the rest the Tuscan Petrarch came; Who said—"My son receive these right renowns,As he who duly doth deserve the fame.But more triumphant halt thou made thy name Upon the throne of memory to stand,To chuse for patron such a worthy dame, Who only is the Laura of this land."Then Fowler's laud so loud I heard them sound,That through the world his praise shall ay rebound.

 

At this period, Fowler appears to have been a great favourite at court. He prefixed a panegyrical sonnet to The Furies, a composition of James VI. who has performed a similar office for Fowler's Triumphs of Petrarch, in a strain of versification, which for vigour and fluency is vastly superior to his common style, as the reader will perceive:

 

We find by proof, that into every age, In Phœbus' art, some glistering star did shine,Who worthy scholars to the Muses sage, Full-filled their countries with their works divine:So Homer was a sounding trumpet fine, Amongst the Greeks into his learned days;So Virgil was among the Romans fyne, A sprite sublimed, a pillar of their praise;So lofty Petrarch his renown did blaze, In tongue Italic, in a sugared style;And to the circled skies his name did raise: For he by poems that he did compile,Led in triumph Love, Chasteness, Death, and Fame;But thou triumphs o'er Petrarch's proper name.

Besides James himself, several of the poets who frequented the Scotish court at that period, as Th. Hudson, R. Cockburn, and A. Colville, prefixed to this work, sonnets in praise of the translator, in which he is not only preferred to the ancients, but to the French Ronsard and Du Bartas, and the English Surry. I imagine, The Triumphs of Petrarch are alluded to with disapprobation, by Hume of Logie in his Sonnet on Amatory Poetry, p. 199.; for all the names of heroes and heroines, whose passion he ridicules, occur following verses of the Triumph of Love:

He that is next is Hercules,  That martial man so bauld; By Dianire, and Iöle,  And Omphale made thrall'd.—

Here standeth likewise Demophon,  With him does Phillis move, Who for his stay, and long abode,  Did hang herself for love.

This Jason is, with him his dame  Medea, Ætes' child, That followed him and Love also  Through towns and defarts wild.———

See Pyramus and Thisbe both  To stand the shadow by; With Hero at the window, and  In seas Leander lie.

The style of Fowler is often quaint, affected, and full of antithesis; while it exhibits much of the tinsel of Italian amatory poetry. In his Tarantula of Love, which consists of sonnets, he is a studious imitator of Petrarch, even in his most unnatural conceits. Sometimes, however, he aspires to the praise of simple elegance; and he possesses a facility of versification, and a harmony of numbers, which the best poets of that period were not always able to attain. The Scotish court of James VI. in the midst of pedantry, scholastic jargon, and polemic theology, produced several poets by no means devoid of genius. Some possessed quaintness of wit, some easy versification, and some the power of affecting the emotions of the heart; but the various talents of the poet, were seldom concentrated in the same person. The rays of poetical light were refracted and divided among several poets. In Drummond alone were they united, and displayed the solar radiance of fancy. In the following specimens of Fowler's poetry, the orthography has been reduced to the modern standard, as his style exhibits little of the Scotish idiom. They have been chiefly selected for the purpose of illustrating his powers of description.

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