742 



BUCHANAN. 



fully realized. Govca, however, died in less than a 

 twelvemonth, and, deprived of his protection, B. soon 

 iound himself cx}>osed to tlie jealousy of the natives 

 oil account of being a foreigner, and to the bigotry of 

 the priests. The inquisition took him under iis cog- 

 nizance, and sentenced him to be confined in a mon- 

 astery, th;it he nii-ii:. by the inmates, be instructed 

 in the principles and practice of religion. Fortu- 

 nately the monks, to whose care B. was thus consigned, 

 were not without humanity ; and he consoled himself 

 by planning and in part executing, his unrivalled 

 paraphrase of the Psalms of David, which placed him 

 immeasurably above all modern Latin poets. That 

 this was a task imposed upon him by his ghostly 

 guardians, is an idle tale, devoid of foundation. The 

 probability is, that the poor monks were incapable of 

 appreciating his labours, but lie seems to have gained 

 their good-will, for he was restored to his liberty, and 

 obtained the king's permission to return to France. 

 Immediately on his arrival in Paris, he was appointed 

 to a regency in the college of Boncourt. In this 

 station he remained till 1555, when he was engaged 

 by the celebrated Comte de Brissac, to act as domestic 

 tutor to his son, Timoleon de Cosse. To this noble- 

 man he had addressed a poetical tribute after the 

 capture of Vercelli, an event which occurred in Sep- 

 tember, 1553 ; and to him also he dedicated his tra- 

 gedy of Jepthes in the summer of 1554. The Comte, 

 who seems not to have been insensible to this species 

 of flattery, next year called the poet into Italy, where 

 he himself presided over the French dominions, and 

 diarged him with the education of his son. When 

 committed to the tuition of B., Timoleon de Cosse was 

 only twelve years of age, and he parted with him at 

 the age of seventeen. He was afterwards distinguished 

 for his bravery, for his acquaintance with military 

 science, and his literary attainments were such as re- 

 flected honour on a young nobleman destined for the 

 profession of arms. His short but brilliant career 

 terminated at the siege of Mucidan, where he fell by 

 a musket ball, aged only twenty-six years. During 

 the five years or his connexion with this illustrious 

 family, B.'s residence was alternately in France and 

 Italy ; and as his pupil was destined to the profession 

 of arms, and had different masters to attend him, he 

 found leisure for prosecuting his poetical studies, and 

 formed the design, and composed part of his philoso- 

 phical poem De Sphera, which he addressed to his 

 pupil. His future avocations prevented him from 

 completing this poem. He likewise published the 

 first specimen of his version of the Psalms, and his 

 translation of the Alcestes of Euripides. His ode on 

 the surrender of Calais was also composed while in 

 Brissac's family. But much of his spare time was 

 employed in examining the grounds of his religious 

 belief, and settling to his own satisfaction the great 

 question between the Romish and the reformed 

 churches. That he had all along inclined to the side 

 of the reformed, is indisputable ; but he had never 

 relinquished his connexion with the ancient church, 

 which he had probably thought still right in the main, 

 though disfigured, and disgraced by the figments and 

 the follies of an ignorant and corrupt priesthood. 

 The result of this examination, however, was a per- 

 fect conviction that many of the Romish doctrines 

 were erroneous, and the discipline depraved and per- 

 verted ; and, consequently, that the necessity of se- 

 paration from this church was imperative upon all 

 who had any regard to the word of God ; and no 

 sooner did he arrive in Scotland than he acted ac- 

 cordingly. 



As B.'s connexion with the marshal de Brissac ter- 

 minated in 1560, when the civil wars in France had 

 already begun, he probably returned immediately to 

 Scotland, though the exact period has not beea as- 



certained, lie had courted, while he resided In 

 France, the notice of Mary, future queen of Scots, by 

 an Epithalamiuiu on her marriage with the dauphin ; 

 and in January, 1561-2, we find Randolph, the Eng- 

 lish ambassador, writing thus from Edinburgh to his 

 employers : " Ther is with the quene [Mary] one 

 called George Bowhanan, a Scottishe man very well 

 learned, that was Schollemaster unto Mons'- de liris- 

 sack's son, very Godlye and honest." And in a sub- 

 sequent letter, dated from St Andrews, he says, " the 

 quene readetli daylie after her dinner, instructed by a 

 learned man, Mr George Bowhanan, somewhat of 

 Livy." Mary was at tin's time in the full bloom of 

 youth and beauty, and to have such a pnpil must have 

 been highly gratifying to B., who, with all the leaders 

 of the reformation in Scotland, was at first much at- 

 tached to her. This attachment he took occasion to 

 express in a highly finished copy of Latin verses, 

 prefixed to his translation of the Psalms, which he 

 had just finished, and sent to the press of his friend 

 Henry Stephens. Mary, in return for this compli- 

 ment, and as a reward for his services, bestowed upon 

 her preceptor and poet, in 1564, the temporalities of 

 the abbey of Crossraguell. These temporalities were 

 valued at five hundred pounds Scots a-year, and the 

 poet seems to have held them till the day of his 

 death. Mary's love of power, and her attachment to 

 popery, soon, however, alienated the affections of her 

 friends; and, aware that he held her favour by a 

 precarious tenure, B. sedulously cultivated the friend- 

 ship of the leaders of the reformation, which was now 

 become the first object of his solicitude. In the same 

 year in which he was promoted to the temporalities 

 of Crossraguell, he prepared for the press a collection 

 of satires, " Fratres Fraterrimi," in which the fooleries 

 and impurities of the popish church were treated with 

 the keenest irony, and assailed with the most vehe- 

 ment invective. He also now put the finishing hand 

 to his Franciscanus, which he published, with a dedi- 

 cation to his friend and patron, the earl of Murray. 

 Through the interest of this nobleman, B. was nomi- 

 nated to be principal of St Leonard's college, St An- 

 drews, in 1566. 



The marriage of Mary and Darnley, the murders 

 of Rizzio and Darnley, the union between the queen 

 arid Bothwell, the flight of the latter, Mary's surren- 

 der to the confederated lords, her imprisonment in 

 Lochleven castle, and her escape from it, the defeat 

 of her army at Langside, and her escape into England, 

 are the events best known of any in Scottish history, 

 and it is needless here to enlarge upon them. When 

 Elizabeth thought fit to appoint commissioners, and 

 call witnesses from Scotland for the purpose of sub- 

 stantiating the charges upon which Mary had been 

 expelled from the throne, the main burden of the. 

 proof was devolved upon B. He accompanied the 

 regent Murray into England upon that occasion, hav- 

 ing composed in Latin a Detection of Mary's actions, 

 which was laid before the commissioners at Westmin- 

 ster, and was afterwards most industriously circulated 

 by the English court. The assassination of the regent 

 Murray, soon after his return from England, threw 

 the nation into a ferment, and B., strongly suspicious 

 of the selfish policy of the Hamiltons, whicii he re- 

 garded as the principal source of the calamities thaf 

 now afflicted the nation, addressed " Ane admonition 

 direct to the true lordis maintainirs of the kingis 

 graces authorite," in which he earnestly adjured them 

 to protect the young king and the children of the late 

 regent from the perils that seemed to impend over 

 them. The same year he composed a satirical deline- 

 ation of the character of the secretary Lethington, 

 entitled, Chameleon, which, through the vigilance of 

 the secretary, was prevented from being published at 

 the time. A copy, however, was preserved among 



