William Drummond

William Drummond 1585-1649, Scottish poet. He was educated at Edinburgh and in France, retiring in 1610 to Hawthornden, where he spent his life as a gentleman of letters. His first volume of verse, Teares on the Death of Moeliades (1613), was followed by Poems (1616), Forth Feasting (1617), and Flowres of Sion (1623). The poems in these volumes show a strong Italian, especially Petrarchan, influence. His prose works include A Cypresse Grove (1623, an essay on death) and a history of Scotland (1655). The visit of Ben Jonson to Hawthornden (1618-19) resulted in Drummond's notes of Jonson's conversations.

Bibliography: See his poetical works ed. by L. E. Kastner (1913, repr. 1969); biography by D. Masson (1873, repr. 1969).

Drummond of Hawthornden, William (1585–1649), was a correspondent of Drayton, and in 1618/19 was visited by Jonson, an event recorded in his Conversations; Jonson found Drummond's own poetry ‘smelled too much of the schools’, but some of his shorter pieces show originality and power. Drummond's poems were edited by E. Phillips in 1656. His works include pamphlets and verses in the Royalist cause, laments for the early death of his betrothed, satires and hymns, and a history of Scotland 1423–1524 (1655). His best-known prose work was A Cypresse Grove (1623), a meditation on death.