JOHNSTON

JOHNSTON, ARTHUR, a very eminent Latin poet, was the fifth son of George Johnston of Caskieben, by Christian the daughter of Lord Forbes.¹ The father, who was possessed of extensive estates, had a numerous family, six sons and seven daughters having reached the age of maturity. Arthur was born at Caskieben in the county of Aberdeen in the year 1587, but the day of his birth is not mentioned. The first elements of classical learning he acquired at the neighbouring town of Kintore, and he afterwards became a student in Marischal College, Aberdeen. Caskieben, Kintore, Inverury, and Aberdeen are all commemorated in his poems. Whether he resided in the university long enough to take a degree in arts, we are not informed; but it is probable that he proceeded to the continent at a very early age, for he took the degree of M. D. at Padua on the 11th of June 1610. This university was long celebrated as a school of physic as well as law; and Benson supposes that it may have afforded him a favourable opportunity for the cultivation of his talents for Latin poetry.

In an elegy addressed to Wedderburn, he has supplied us with some information respecting his personal history.

Quas ego non terras, que non vagus sequora pressi,
Hæc licet ingenio sint minus apta meo?
Bis mihi tractæe vicinæ nubibus Alpes;
Tybris et Eridani pota bis unda mihi est.
Præbuit hospitium bis binis Gallia lustris;
Conjugis hæc titulum terra patrisque dedit.
Me Geta, me Batavus, me vidit Cimber et Anglus,
Et quæ Teutonico terra sub axe riget.
Non tot Dulichius pater est erroribus actus,
Dum peteret patris per vada sæva lares.
Quinta Caledoniam me rursus Olympias ore
Reddidit effatum, dissimilemque mei.
Numina jam decies et ter fecere parentem;
Pignora sex superant, cætera turba fuit.
Bis mihi quæsi, nec ab una gente, maritam:
Bis conjunx, bis jam me reor esse senem.

From these verses we learn that he had twice crossed the

Johnston. Alps, and had twice visited Rome; that he had travelled in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and England; that he had resided twenty years in France, and had there become a husband and a father; and that two wives, who were of different nations, had born him thirteen children. The fifth Olympiad restored him to his native country. The term Olympias more properly denotes a period of four years, but here, as in other instances, it is evidently employed to denote a period of five: for it appears that he had spent twenty years in France, and he mentions his peregrinations in other countries. He must therefore have returned to Scotland before the completion of the twenty-fifth year. Sir Thomas Urquhart has stated that "before he was full three and twenty years of age, he was laureated poet at Paris, and that most deservedly."¹ He spent a considerable time in the university of Sedan,² where his very learned countryman Andrew Melville became a professor of divinity in the year 1611. With him and the other divinity professor, Daniel Tilenus, he appears to have lived on intimate terms; and the names of both are familiar to the readers of his poems. As he resided so long in France, it has been supposed that he there followed the profession of a physician. The names of his two wives are not mentioned; but one of them is described as a woman of honourable birth. The one he married in France, and the other belonged to the vicinity of Mechlin, a city in Brabant. In an elegy addressed "Ad Senatum Mechliniensem, adversus Hamptæum militem Bulloniensem," he speaks of her in the subsequent terms:

Quid memorem lachrymas quas nunc, absente marito,
Fundit in ignota flebilis uxor humo?
Per patriam rogat illa suam, patrisque penates,
Quos dirimit vestra quartus ab urbe lapis.

He appears to have left her in Britain, and to have repaired to Mechlin for the purpose of prosecuting against this rude soldier some claim which probably accrued to him by marriage. After many delays and much anxiety, he obtained a decision in his favour; and his feelings during the progress of this litigation are elegantly recorded in various poems.

Before his return to Britain, he had acquired considerable reputation by the exercise of his poetical talents. Dr Eglisham, another Scottish physician, had endeavoured to detract from the reputation of Buchanan, by publishing an acrimonious criticism upon his version of the hundred and fourth psalm; but in one respect he was a very fair critic, for he at the same time exhibited in contrast a version of his own.³ Instead of attempting a serious refutation of his animadversions, Johnston wrote a very bitter, though a very elegant satire, in which he treated his case as one of decided insanity. This poem was speedily published under the title of "Consilium Collegii Medici Parisiensis de Mania G. Eglishemii, quam prodidit scripto, cui titulus Duellum Poeticum," &c. Edinburgh, excudebat Andreas Hart, 1619, 8vo. A Paris edition of the same date is likewise mentioned. This publication is anonymous; and when he inserted the poem in the collection of his Parerga, he suppressed the name of Eglisham, and substituted that of Hypermorus Medicaster. Not satisfied with inflicting so signal a castigation, he assailed the unfortunate rival of Buchanan in another poem, entitled Onopordus Furens. Paris, 1620, 8vo. During the same year, Dr Barclay,

another learned physician, refuted the captious criticisms John of Eglisham, and exposed the puerility of the version to which the author's vanity had assigned so conspicuous a place.

Dr Johnston's next publication bears the title of "Elegia in Obitum Jacobi Pacifici, Magnæ Britanniae, Franciae, et Hiberniae Regis, Fideique Defensoris." Lond. 1625, 4to. Lauder has stated that he returned to his native country in 1632, and continued for some years to reside at Aberdeen; but Dempster,⁴ who died in 1625, mentions, though with some degree of hesitation, that he had already returned at the period when he himself wrote. Benson conjectures that he was appointed physician to the king in the year 1633, but this conjecture is refuted by the title-page of one of his publications. "Elegiae duae; una ad Episcopum Aberdonensem, de Fratribus Obitu; altera de Pace rupta inter Scotos et Gallos; autore Arturo Jonstono, Medico Regio." Aberdoniae, 1628, 4to. After an interval of a few years, he published "Parerga Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii." Aberd. 1632, 8vo. And at the same time appeared "Epigrammata Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii." Aberd. 1632, 8vo. The first of these collections he dedicated in verse to Sir John Scot, and the second to the Earl of Lauderdale. He soon afterwards published "Cantici Salomonis Paraphrasis poetica." Lond. 1633, 8vo. This paraphrase, which he dedicated to the king, is accompanied with a specimen of his version of the psalms. The specimen includes the seven penitential, and the seven consolatory psalms; the former being dedicated to Laud bishop of London, and the latter to Lesley bishop of Raphoe. Dempster mentions his having translated the psalms into very elegant elegiac verse; and it is therefore to be presumed that Johnston long delayed the publication in order to give his version all the advantage of a deliberate revision. He next produced a collection of short poems, entitled "Musæ Aulicæ." Lond. 1635, 8vo. They are accompanied with an English translation by Sir Francis Kinaston. This little work was followed by his complete version of the psalms. "Paraphrasis poetica Psalmorum Davidis, auctore Arturo Jonstono Scoto. Accesserunt ejusdem Cantica Evangelica, Symbolum Apostolicum, Oratio Dominica, Decalogus." Aberd. 1637, 8vo. It is dedicated in elegant and panegyric verse to the Countess Marischal. Benson supposes the work to have been printed in London during the same year; but as it was printed there in 1657, the one edition may have been confounded with the other. About the same time he lent his aid to the publication of the "Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum hujus ævi illustrium." Amst. 1637, 2 tom. 12mo. These volumes were neatly printed by Bleau, at the expense of Sir John Scot, who himself appears in the list of contributors, and who doubtless retained the power of admitting or rejecting. Johnston has frequently been considered as the editor, from the circumstance of his having written the dedication to Scot, and prefixed the "Musarum Elogia," addressed to the same individual. His contributions are more extensive than those of any other writer. The entire collection forms a conspicuous monument of the scholarship, ingenuity, and taste of our countrymen; and the poems of Johnston may safely be brought into competition with those of any other writer whose name is to be found in the catalogue of contributors.

Johnston. On the 24th of June 1637, Johnston was elected rector of King's College, Aberdeen. The appointment is annual, and is considered as honourable. Dr Johnston, who describes him as principal of Marischal College,¹ must apparently have been misled by his imperfect recollection of this academic office; nor is this the only mistake into which he has fallen with respect to the same university. Thus, for example, he makes the extraordinary statement that "whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately become a doctor." In this city Johnston appears to have had many learned and distinguished friends, of whom we find various memorials in his works. Among these was the worthy bishop of the diocese, Patrick Forbes, who, like himself, was descended from the noble family of that name; the bishop's son, John Forbes, professor of divinity in King's College; William Forbes, principal of Marischal College, and afterwards bishop of Edinburgh; Robert Baron, professor of divinity in the same college, and afterwards bishop elect of Orkney; and David Wedderburn, professor of humanity in King's, and rector of the grammar school of Aberdeen.² This was indeed a brilliant era in the history of the university. Dr Baron, a great adept in scholastic philosophy and theology, seems to have enjoyed a large share of his esteem, and is highly extolled in his verses. Wedderburn was the companion of his early youth, and, cultivating the same elegant studies, continued to be the friend of his maturest years. Johnston addressed to him a long elegy, in which he recounted some of the events of his life, and Wedderburn replied in another elegy, expressive of the same unaltered regard.

Although he probably continued to pay occasional visits to Aberdeenshire, he must have chiefly resided in England after the date of his appointment as physician to the king; for it is evident from some of his verses that this appointment was not merely honorary, but required his attendance at court. In his native county he appears to have acquired some real property: under the great seal, 12 June 1629, there is a charter of confirmation, in his favour, of the lands of New Leslie in the parish of Alford. Soon after his return from the continent, he was engaged in a lawsuit before the court of session; and of advocates and attorneys his experience seems to have led him to form no very favourable opinion. But his career, which was sufficiently brilliant, was not destined to be long: at the age of fifty-four, he died at Oxford in the year 1641, while on a visit to one of his daughters, who was married to a clergyman of the established church. His death was affectionately bewailed by his learned friend Wedderburn, whose Suspiria were printed at Aberdeen during the same year.

Johnston possessed a masterly command of Latin diction; and to this attainment he added great skill in the art of versification. He was likewise distinguished by no mean portion of poetical feeling and fancy, united with an elegant and classical taste. Although it cannot be affirmed that he never employs a word or phrase which does not belong to the best age of Latinity, his diction generally displays a great degree of purity;³ and his ear had at-

tained to exquisite nicety in the harmony of Roman numbers, particularly those of hexameter and pentameter verse. Such was his predilection for this combined metre, that he introduced it into almost all his compositions; and even his satires are written in the elegiac measure. His poems are very numerous, and are sufficiently miscellaneous. Some of them are obscure, not from the nature of the composition, but from their abounding in allusions to persons and circumstances not easily traced or recognized. Many of his epigrams are well turned; and his satirical powers are conspicuously displayed in his poems against Eglisham, and in several others. His version of the psalms has often received, and is evidently entitled to very high commendation. After the brilliant success of Buchanan, such an attempt might justly be considered as not a little hazardous; but it cannot be asserted that Johnston had made a delusive estimate of his own powers, for if he does not surpass or equal so great a master, he at least makes a near approach to his poetic excellence. In this version, he has adhered almost uniformly to his favourite elegiac verse: it is only in the hundred and nineteenth psalm that his metre is varied, and there every part is exhibited in a new species of verse. Buchanan's plan of varying the measure according to the characteristics of the poem, was evidently more eligible in a writer who possessed such versatility of talent. The Latin paraphrases of the psalms amount to a very large number; nor do we incur much hazard in averring that the two Scottish poets have excelled all their competitors.

Dr Beattie, who has passed a general condemnation on poetical paraphrases of the psalms, is by no means disposed to exempt those of Buchanan and Johnston from this sentence. "If we look into Buchanan, what can we say, but that the learned author, with great command of Latin expression, has no true relish for the emphatic conciseness, and unadorned simplicity, of the inspired poets? Arthur Johnston is not so verbose, and has of course more vigour: but his choice of a couplet, which keeps the reader always in mind of the puerile epistles of Ovid, was singularly injudicious. As psalms may, in prose, as easily as in verse, be adapted to music, why should we seek to force those divine strains into the measures of Roman or of modern song? He who transformed Livy into iambics, and Virgil into monkish rhyme, did not in my opinion act more absurdly. In fact, sentiments of devotion are rather depressed than elevated by the arts of the European versifier."⁴ These opinions of an elegant and tasteful writer appear to be somewhat hypercritical, nor do we feel entirely disposed to acquiesce in any of the dogmas which he has thus delivered. The charge of verbosity seems to be very unadvisedly brought against Buchanan; for, to adopt the words of Ruddiman, we know of no modern poet who has "better preserved that masculine and elegant simplicity, which we so much admire in the ancient writers, and whose stile is farther removed from all gaudiness and affectation."

The reputation of Johnston did not die with himself.

Johnston. Soon after his death, a collection of his poems was published under the superintendence of William Spang, minister of the Scottish church at Campvere, whose name is well known to the readers of Baillie's Letters. "Arturi Jonstoni Scoti, Medici Regii, Poemata omnia." Middelb. Zeland. 1642, 16to. This collection, which is printed in a very diminutive form, includes his version of the psalms, and the various works which have already been enumerated, together with some shorter poems published for the first time. It was followed by "Arturi Jonstoni Scoti Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasis poetica, nunc demum castigatus edita." Amst. 1706, 12mo. The editor was David Hoogstraten, well-known for his edition of Phaedrus; and the volume is inscribed to Janus Broukhusius, an eminent scholar, at whose suggestion the edition was undertaken. After a short interval, Ruddiman published "Cantici Solomonis Paraphrasis poetica, Arthuro Jonstono Scoto, Medico Regio, auctore: editio nova, summo studio recognita, ac notis illustrata." Edinb. 1709, 4to. Edinb. 1717, 8vo. Johnston found a more zealous admirer in William Lauder, who inserted his sacred poems in a collection entitled "Poetarum Scotorum Musæ Sacræ: sive quatuor Sacri Codicis Scriptorum, Davidis et Solomonis, Jobi et Jeremiæ, Poetici Libri, per totidem Scotos, Arct. Jonstonum et Jo. Kerrum, P. Adamsonum et G. Hogæum, Latino carmine redditi: quibus, ob argumenti similitudinem, adnectuntur alia, Scotorum itidem, Opuscula Sacra." Edinb. 1739, 2 tom. 8vo. The first volume contains a life of Johnston, together with the testimonies of various learned writers.¹ His paraphrase was also published separately; and the editor obtained from the general assembly a recommendation that it should be taught in the lower forms of grammar schools, as a precursor to that of Buchanan. An elegant edition of the latter, "cum notis variorum," had been published in 1737 by Robert Hunter and John Love, the one professor of Greek at Edinburgh, and the other master of Dalkeith school. Love now thought it incumbent upon him to extol Buchanan, and to censure Johnston; Lauder was far from being satisfied with his criticisms, and an acrimonious controversy ensued between them. Johnston's cause was espoused with great warmth by Mr Benson, who began his operations by publishing "A Prefatory Discourse to a new Edition of the Psalms of David, translated into Latin verse by Dr Arthur Johnston, Physician to King Charles the First: to which is added, a Supplement, containing a Comparison betwixt Johnston and Buchanan." Lond. 1741, 8vo. This precursor was speedily followed by "Arturi Jonstoni Psalmi Davidici, interpretatione, argumentis, notisque illustrati, in usum Serenissimi Principis." Lond. 1741, 4to. & 8vo. Each of these editions is elegantly printed, and contains a portrait of Johnston, engraved by G. Vertue. The life of the poet, we are informed, was translated into Latin by Dr Ward, professor of rhetoric in Gresham College;² and it may be conjectured that he also lent his aid in the preparation of the notes and interpretation, which are modelled on those of the editions for the use of the Dauphin.

Not satisfied with the honour thus paid to a favourite Johnstone poet, he soon afterwards published "Arturi Jonstoni Psalmi Davidici, cum Metaphrasi Græca Jacobi Duporti, Græcæ Linguae apud Cantabrigienses Exprofessoris Regii." Lond. 1742, 8vo.³ This volume is without preface or annotations; nor is the name of Benson appended to any of these publications. The learned Ruddiman, who was roused to some degree of indignation by his disparaging animadversions on Buchanan, prepared an elaborate volume, consisting of nearly four hundred pages, and bearing the following copious title: "A Vindication of Mr George Buchanan's Paraphrase of the Book of Psalms, from the Objections rais'd against it by William Benson, Esq. Auditor in Exchequer, in the Supplement and Conclusion he has annex'd to his Prefatory Discourse to his new Edition of Dr Arthur Johnston's Version of that sacred book: in which also, upon a comparison of the performances of those two poets, the superiority is demonstrated to belong to Buchanan: wherein likewise several passages of the original are occasionally illustrated: together with some useful observations concerning the Latin Poetry and Arts of Versification: in a Letter to that learned Gentleman." Edinb. 1745, 8vo. This volume, which displays a masterly knowledge of the Latin language and literature, may still be read for the valuable information which it contains. Although he gives a decided preference to Buchanan, he is far from being insensible to the eminent merit of Johnston, on whom he here bestows no mean commendation. "I have as high an opinion of Dr Johnston's extraordinary genius as most men have, at least as I think it ought to have; and am satisfied that, for the elegance and purity of his diction, the sweetness and smoothness of his verse, in short all the other ingredients that are required to the composition of a great and masterly poet, he was inferior to none, and superior to most of the age he lived in. Nay, I will allow farther that, in my judgment, he deserves the preference to the far greater part of those that have lived since or before him." And in the last work which he gave to the public, he speaks of him in terms of warm and discriminating praise. "The other I shall name is Dr Arthur Johnston, physician to King Charles I., whom I will not be so foolish as, with Mr Auditor Benson, to exalt above the poets of the Augustan age, or even to prefer him to Buchanan, but this I can and will say, that those few of them may have more of pomp and grandeur, of force and energy in their poetry, yet for the sweetness and smoothness, the delicacy and harmoniousness of his numbers, he is not to be equalled in any nation since Ovid's time."⁴

His youngest brother, William Johnston, M. D. is mentioned by Urquhart as "a good poet in Latine, and a good mathematician." He was educated in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and afterwards visited several foreign universities. He successively taught humanity and philosophy in the university of Sedan, where he is said to have acquired much reputation.⁵ In the year 1626 he

Johnston, was appointed professor of mathematics in Marischal College, and here he continued till the time of his death, which took place on the 15th of June 1640.¹ With his academical labours he probably combined the practice of physic; and his circumstances were so prosperous that he purchased the estate of Beidelstone in the parish of Dyce and county of Aberdeen. By his wife, who was the youngest daughter of Abraham Forbes of Blackstoun, he left a son and two daughters.

Another Latin poet, John Johnston, was likewise connected with this family. He was the son of Johnston of Crimond in Aberdeenshire; and after completing the usual course in King's College, he prosecuted his studies on the continent, where he continued to reside for the space of eight years. He successively studied in the universities of Helmstadt, Rostock, and Geneva. After having visited England, he at length returned to his native country, and in 1593 was appointed professor of divinity in the university of St Andrews, where he was associated with Andrew Melville. He married Catharine Melville, of the family of Carnbee, and lived to lament her loss, and that of two children. He died on the 20th of October 1611.² Among other works, he published the two following. "Inscriptiones Historicae Regum Scotorum, continua annorum serie a Fer- guso primo regni conditore ad nostra tempora; Joh. Jonstono Abredonense Scoto autore. Praefixus est Gathelus, sive de Gentis Origine Fragmentum An. Melvini." Amst. 1602, 4to. "Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi, auctore Joh. Jonstono Abredonense Scoto." Lugd. Bat. 1603, 4to. Both works consist of short inscriptions, written in elegiac verse, and exhibiting a vein of ancient simplicity. Besides a prose work, entitled Consolatio Christiana, he is likewise the author of some sacred poems, printed at Saumur in 1611.³

John Johnston, M. D. must not be confounded with the professor of divinity. He was born at Sampter in Poland, on the 3d of September 1603, but was descended of Scottish ancestors; who, according to his continental biographers, were of "the illustrious family of Johnston of Crogborn,"⁴ meaning perhaps Craigsburn. His native country was formerly replenished with Scottish emigrants; and during the seventeenth century, as we are assured by Lithgow, it contained no fewer than thirty thousand Scottish families.⁵ Part of his education he received at St Andrews, and he afterwards prosecuted his studies in several other universities. On returning to Poland in 1632, he was engaged to accompany two young gentlemen on their travels; and, during a period of four years and a half, they visited France, Italy, and various other countries. He took his doctor's degree at Leyden, and was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge. The unsettled state of his own country induced him to seek another place of abode; and he withdrew to the duchy of Lignitz in lower Silesia, where he purchased the estate of Ziebandorf, and united the practice of physic with a variety of learned pursuits. By his writings he acquired so much reputation, that he was successively offered a medical chair in

the university of Frankfort and in that of Leyden; but Johnston, preferring a more retired mode of life, he continued to reside at his own seat till the period of his death, which took place on the 8th of June 1675. His remains were interred at Lessno in Poland on the 30th of September. Johnston was twice married, and by his second wife had several children. The most elaborate of his works bears the title of Historia Naturalis, and is divided into five volumes folio. His other publications, which amount to a very considerable number, chiefly relate to natural history and medicine. He published a short compendium of civil history, entitled Polyhistor, and a treatise "De Festis Hebraeorum et Graecorum." (x.)