The Admirable Crichton. 119 



Failing her, he nominates his sons, Master James and Robert 

 Crichton, his executors. Another reference in the will to the 

 Admirable Crichton, after an expression of the desire that certain 

 of the testator's friends should look after his wife, says " av and 

 quhill my sone returne out of Italie, and thane ordains him to 

 honour and mentene hir, as he will answer to God and haif my 

 blessing." Master James Crichton is also nominated the "tutor 

 testamentar " of Agnes Crichton, Robert Crichton 's daughter 

 "gotten betwix me and Agnes Mowbray, my second spous." 



Some of the writers, who have left useful testimony con- 

 cerning Crichton, say that after leaving Scotland he went to 

 France, where he disputed at the College of Navarre. Thomas 

 Dempster, in his " Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum," says 

 that as Crichton was of a lively temper he entered foreign service, 

 but, soon tiring of this, he withdrew to Italy, the asylum of 

 learning and humanity. Another authority is responsible for 

 the statement that Crichton served two years in the French 

 army and rose to a command, but I find it very difficult to recon- 

 cile this statement with an estimate of the period which we can 

 reasonably believe must have intervened between his lea\ing 

 Scotland and his appearance in 1579 at Genoa, when he 

 delivered the oration I have just read to vou. 



From Genoa Crichton found his way to Venice, and of his 

 public appearances in that city of wonders there are several 

 well-authenticated records. Thus we have the handbill printed 

 in Venice in 1580 by the Brothers Domenico and Gio Battista 

 Guerra, which ranks next in importance to the statements of 

 Aldus Manutius. It is as follows: 



" The Scotsman, whose name is James Crichton, is a vouth 

 who, on the 19th of August last, completed his twentieth year. 

 He has a birth-mark beneath his right eye ; is master of ten 

 languages, Latin and Italian in perfection, and Greek, so as to 

 compose epigrams in that tongue; Hebrew, Chaldaic, Spanish, 

 French, Flemish, English, and Scots, and he also understands 

 the German. He is most skilled in philosophy, theology, 

 mathematics, and astrology, and holds all the calculations 

 hitherto made in this last to be false. He has frequently main- 

 tained philosophical and theological disputes with able men, to 

 the astonishment of all who have heard him. He possesses a 



