Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
William Drummond of Hawthornden is as much a translator as an original poet. This Mr. Kastner has shown in detail in the copious notes to his edition of the poet and in several special articles. He translated and adapted from a large number of Italian and French poets, as well as some Spanish and some neo-Latin writers. Yet his work, read as a whole, has a very individual note and charm of personality that unify it and give it distinction. This was not due to similarity in his sources. The poets whom he translated were widely varied in tempers and styles—so much so that some of them have made their idiosyncrasies felt in the work of other English poets and have started particular streams of influence. It is of interest to draw together all the translations and adaptations from each of the French and Italian poets, Drummond's principal sources, and make a detailed comparison of style, to see what particular contribution each made to Drummond's style, and how far we find in him Petrarchism, Marinism, and so forth. By this series of contrasts we shall be able first to define these influences more exactly. And this definition is of interest, incidentally, not only for Drummond, but for other poets such as Donne and Crashaw. Second, we shall see the particular style of Drummond emerging from among the various source poets and taking on its integral character.
1 The Poetical Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden With A Cypresse Grove. Edited by L. E. Kastner (Edinburgh and London, 1913). L. E. Kastner, “The Scottish Sonneteers and the French Poets,” MLR, iii (1907–08), 1–15. Idem, “The Elizabethan Sonneteers and the French Poets,” MLR, iii (1907–08), 268–277. Idem, “Drummond of Hawthornden and the French Poets of the Sixteenth Century,” MLR, v (1910), 40–53. Idem, “Drummond of Hawthornden's Indebtedness to Sir Philip Sidney,” MLR, vi (1911), 157–164. Idem, “On the Italian and French Sources of Drummond of Hawthornden,” MLR, vi (1911), 462–470.
2 William Drummond of Hawthornden, op. cit., i, 5.
3 Francesco Petrarca, Rime. con l'interpretazione di Giacomo Leopardi e con note inedite di Eugenio Camerini, (Milano, n. d.), p. 175.
4 Drummond, op. cit., The First Part, i, 7.
5 Petrarch, op. cit., p. 166.
6 Drummond, op. cit., The First Part, i, 48.
7 Petrarch, op. cit., p. 154.
8 Drummond, op. cit., The Second Part, i, 61.
9 Petrarch, op. cit., p. 212.
10 Jean Passerat, Poésies Françaises (Paris, 1880), i, 94.
11 Petrarch, op. cit., p. 221.
12 Drummond, op. cit., i, 18.
13 Torquato Tasso, Le Rime, a cura di Angelo Solerti, ii (Bologna, 1898), 439.
14 Drummond, op. cit., The Second Part, i, 63.
15 Tasso, Stielte delle Rime, 1582, p. 26. cited in Drummond, Ed. Kastner, i, 192.
16 Drummond, op. cit., The First Part, i, 30.
17 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 113.
18 Tasso, Le Rime, a cura di Solerti, ii, 366.
19 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 112.
20 Tasso, Le Rime, a cura di Angelo Solerti, iv (Bologna, 1902), 237.
21 Drummond, op. cit., Sonnet xix, The First Part, i, 23.
22 Giambattista Marino, Poesie Varie, a cura di Benedetto Croce (Bari, 1913), p. 102.
23 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 129.
24 Marino, Rime, (Venetia, 1602), Part i, p. 202; cited in Drummond, ed. Kastner, i, 239.
25 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigali i, The First Part, i, 17.
26 Marino, Rime (1602), Part i, p. 146; cited in Drummond, i, 207.
27 Marino, a cura di Croce, p. 104.
28 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 128.
29 Marino, Rime (1602), Part i, p. 88, cited in Drummond, i, 238.
30 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 128.
31 Ibid., The Second Part, Vrania, i, 88. Cf. Marino “Vscite vscite a rimirar pietose,” Rime (1602), Part i, p. 195, cited in Drummond, i, 222.
32 Marino, La Lira: Rime del Cavalier Marino (In Venetia, M.D.C. liii), Parte Seconda, p. 371.
33 Drummond, op. cit., ii, 215.
34 Drummond, op. cit., Part One, i, 7.
35 Marino, Rime, (1602), Part One, p. 146; cited in Drummond, i, 207.
36 Drummond, op. cit., Part Two, i, 51.
37 Ibid., Part Two, i, 90.
38 Marino, Rime, (1602), Part One, p. 188; cited in Drummond, i, 224.
39 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 110.
40 Marino, Rime, a cura di Croce, p. 70.
41 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 106.
42 See p. 1098.
43 Giovan Battista Guarini, Rime (1598), p. 112b; cited in Drummond, i, 233, Drummond, op. cit., Madrigal xliii, i, 117.
44 Jacopo Sannazaro, Opere (Padova, 1723), p. 405; cited in Drammond, ii, 334.
45 Drummond, op. cit., Flowres of Sion, ii, 15.
46 Kastner, “Drummond of Hawthornden and the French Poets of the XVI century,” MLR v (1910), 40–53.
47 Philippe Desportes, Œuvres, ed. Michiels (Paris, 1858), “Sonnets Spirituels,” iii, 505.
48 Drummond, op. cit., ii, 8.
49 Desportes, op. cit., iii, 507.
50 Drummond, op. cit., Part One, i, 30.
51 Jean Passerat, Poésies Françaises, ed. Blanchemain (Paris, m. dccc. lxxx), ii, 48.
52 Drummond, op. cit., Madrigals, i, 114.
53 Drummond, op. cit., Flowres of Sion, ii, 46.
54 Ibid., i, 45.
55 Ibid., i, pp. 8, 28.