BELLENDEN

BELLENDEN, William, is a Scottish name familiarly known to those who have explored the recesses of modern literature, but with respect to the history of the individual

himself very few particulars have hitherto been discovered. Whether he belonged to any family of distinction, we are not informed; nor is the gentility of his birth attested by Dempster, who supplies the only biographical notices with which we are acquainted. According to this contemporary authority, he was a professor in the university, and an advocate in the parliament of Paris. We must apparently conclude that he relinquished the functions of a professor, and betook himself to the practice of the bar. The same writer has stated that both Queen Mary and King James employed him in some diplomatic services, and that the latter nominated him master of requests.⁷ That he bore such a title, is sufficiently ascertained from his own publications, in all of which he is described as "Magister supplicium Libellorum Augusti Regis Magnæ Britannie;" but there are obvious reasons for suspecting that his office, if not unconnected with emolument, was altogether unconnected with official duty: for he appears to have spent the greater part of his life in France. Magister Libellorum was an officer in the court of the Roman emperors,⁸ and it was his duty to receive and examine petitions addressed to the prince. A similar office was established in several modern kingdoms; and Maitre des Requêtes being an honourable title in France, Bellenden might solicit and obtain such a title from a sovereign who could not so easily bestow an ample salary. The terms employed by Dempster in describing his appointment, seem rather to indicate honour than emolument. It is supposed that he must have belonged to the Scottish establishment, for, in England, a person who bore this title was a judge of a particular court: of the court of requests, which professed to distribute justice gratuitously, the lord privy seal was chief judge, and was assisted by two judges called masters of requests, the one for the common, and the other for the civil law.⁹ In a list of the officers of state in Scotland, "William Bellenden, magist. supplic. libellor." is said to have succeeded Mark Ker as master of requests in 1608, and to have been succeeded in 1624 by Sir James Galloway, afterwards Lord Dunkeld.¹⁰ But the date of his appointment seems to have been borrowed from that of his earliest publication; and Bellenden continued to describe himself as master of requests in the year 1625.

If he practised at the bar in Paris, his early education must in all probability have been French; and if he was a regent or professor in one of the colleges, he may be supposed to have adhered to the popish religion. Since the massacre of St Bartholomew, which had proved fatal to Ramus and other men of learning, there probably had been no protestant professor in any college of Paris. His nephew, William Bellenden, was a catholic and a priest.

Bellenden's earliest publication bears the subsequent

Bellenden, title: "Ciceronis Princeps, Rationes et Consilia bene gerendi firmandique Imperii: ex iis repetita quæ ex Ciceronianis defluxere fontibus in libros xvi. de Statu Rerum Romanarum, qui nondum lucem acceperunt." Paris. 1608, 8vo. This was followed by¹ "Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Senatusque Romanus: illustratus publici observatione juris, gravissimi usus disciplina, administrandi temperata ratione; notatis inclinationibus temporum in Rep. et actis rerum in Senatū: quæ a Ciceroniana nondum edita proflixere memoria annorum dccx. congesta in libros xvi. de Statu Rerum Romanarum: unde jam manavit Ciceronis Princeps, dignus habitus summorum lectione principum. Editio prima. Ad inelutum serenissimumque Principem Henricum Principem Scotiæ et Walliæ." Paris. 1612, 8vo. This mode of noting a first edition is somewhat pleasant;² nor must we overlook the important intelligence that his former publication had been thought worthy of the attention of mighty princes. Both these works partake of the nature of a cento. In the first of them, the author has collected from the writings of Cicero the various precepts and remarks which relate to the origin and principles of regal government, and with no small labour has combined the whole in a regular and systematic form. Adopting a similar plan in the other work, he has compiled a treatise on the dignity and authority of the consuls, and on the constitution of the Roman senate. Although this may seem an effort of mere diligence, it required both learning and ability to present such materials in such a shape.

His next publication is entitled "De Statu prisci Orbis in Religione, Re politica, et Literis, liber unus. Ad serenissimum Principem Carolum Principem Scotiæ et Walliæ." Paris. 1615, 8vo. This is a work of more originality, and affords a very favourable specimen of the author's talents and erudition.³ It exhibits, in a very condensed form, a sketch of the history of philosophy and civil polity, tracing its progress among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. Of this work very few copies appear to have been separately published; for the author speedily combined all the three tracts in a volume which bears the following title: "De Statu libri tres. I. De Statu prisci Orbis in Religione, Re politica, et Literis. II. Ciceronis Princeps, sive de Statu Principis et Imperii. III. Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Senatusque Romanus, sive de Statu Reip. et Urbis imperantis Orbi. Primus, nunc primum editus: cæteri, cum tractatu de Processu et Scriptoribus Rei Politicæ, ab autore aucti et illustrati." Paris. 1615, 8vo. Notwithstanding this notice on the title-page, we suspect that the second and third treatises were not actually reprinted. Each treatise has a distinct series of pages, and it was therefore easy to combine the whole. In its separate form and in this volume, Ciceronis Consul exhibits the very same list of typographical errors. Dr Parr remarks, that in all the copies which he had seen, the date seems to have been changed from M.DC.XV. to M.DC.XVI. by the printer adding the letter i after the impression had been finished: but in a copy belonging to the Advocates Library, the additional letter is apparently printed, not with a type, but with a pen; and in a copy belonging to the writer of this notice, the original date remains unaltered. Another minute variation may likewise be men-

tioned; in the latter copy, the plate in the second treatise Bellenden is not impressed on the reverse of a printed page of the W dedication. In a paper written by Dr Bennet, the late bishop of Cloyne, we find the subsequent statement respecting the books De Statu. "The great work being now completed, Bellenden looked forward with a pretty well-grounded expectation for that applause which his labour and his ingenuity deserved. But his views were disappointed, by one of those events which no art of man could foresee or remedy. The vessel in which the whole impression was embarked was overtaken by a storm before she could reach the English coast, and foundered with all her cargo. A very few copies only, which the learned author either kept for his own use, or had sent as presents by private hands, seem to have been preserved from the destruction which awaited the others."⁴ We are not aware of any early authority for such a statement; and the learned prelate, misled by an imperfect recollection, seems to have misapplied Dr Warton's account of Bellenden's larger work, which is likewise an account that requires confirmation. There is a manifest fallacy in supposing that almost all the impression of such a book must have been destined for England. After a long interval, the fame of the author was greatly extended by Dr Parr's publication of "Guilielmi Bellendeni, Magistri supplicium Libellorum Augusti Regis Magnæ Britanniae, &c. de Statu libri tres. Editio secunda longe emendatior." Lond. 1787, 8vo. The preface, extending to seventy-six pages, is written in a style of elegant and powerful Latinity, but is too much replenished with modern politics, and, in the opinion of some readers, is not free from a considerable mixture of pedantry. It is however such a composition as no other Englishman of that period could perhaps have produced.

The last work which Bellenden himself published is of very small extent, consisting merely of two short poems: "Caroli Primi et Henricæ Mariæ, Regis et Reginæ Magnæ Britanniae, &c. Epithalamium; et in ipsas augustissimas Nuptias, celeberrimamque Legationem earum causa obitam, &c. panegyricum Carmen, et Elogia." Paris. 1625, 4to. This little work has likewise been republished by Dr Parr.

But the greatest labour of his life was a posthumous production, which made its appearance under the title of "Guilielmi Bellendeni Scoti, Magistri supplicium Libellorum Augusti Regis Magnæ Britanniae, de tribus Luninibus Romanorum libri sex-decim." Paris. 1633, fol. With respect to the date of this publication, one bibliographer frequently contradicts another, and some minute particulars require explanation. In the Advocates Library, that great repository of Scottish literature, there are two copies of the book, which exhibit considerable variations. In both of them we find the same extract of the royal privilege, dated on the third of September 1631. The one bears, "Achevé d'imprimer pour la premiere fois, le vingtseptieme jour d'Aoust 1633." Of this copy the dedication, "Henrico Borbonio, Sacro-sancti Imp. Rom. Principi, illustriss. Metens. Præsul," is subscribed by the author's nephew, "Guilielmus Bellendenus, Presbyter Scotus." It consists of nearly four pages, but is not fol-

followed by a preface. The other copy has a similar title-page, but with the date of 1634; and the note subjoined to the privilege bears, "Achevé d'imprimer pour la première fois, le vingt-troisième jour de Mars 1634." It contains a different and a shorter dedication, "Potentissimo et invictissimo Principi Carolo Magnæ Britanniae Regi, &c." subscribed by the publisher, Toussaint du Bray. This dedication is followed by a brief preface, "Lectori benevolo." In other respects the two copies present a complete resemblance; and it appears sufficiently evident that one set of copies must have been intended for the French, and another for the British market.

Of this elaborate work, which consists of no fewer than 824 pages, printed on a small type, the subject is very faintly indicated by the title. It is the author's object to combine, in an historical form, all the statements and reflections of Cicero which relate to the civil and religious affairs of Rome; and his plan is executed in such a manner as to display the essence of the Roman history, from the foundation of the city to the extinction of the republic.¹ In the text he adheres to his former method of expressing himself in no other words than those of Cicero; but he has interspersed occasional observations, drawn from various sources of information. The latter part of the work, relating to the times of his great prototype, is very ample and satisfactory; and here it is evident that the materials must be chiefly derived from the epistles. The reader cannot fail to perceive that this is precisely such a digest as would be necessary for an historian of the life and times of Cicero; it is such a digest as Dr Middleton professes to have formed by his own unaided industry. "My first business therefore," as he is pleased to state, "after I had undertaken this task, was, to read over Cicero's works, with no other view than to extract from them all the passages that seemed to have any relation to my design; where the tediousness of collecting an infinite number of testimonies scattered through many different volumes; of sorting them into their classes, and ranging them in proper order; the necessity of overlooking many in the first search, and the trouble of retrieving them in a second or third; and the final omission of several through forgetfulness or inadvertency; have helped to abate that wonder which had often occurred to me, why no man had ever attempted the same work before me, or at least in this enlarged and comprehensive form, in which it is now offered to the public."² If previously acquainted with the work of Bellenden, he must have been fully aware that this labour of collecting and digesting was altogether superfluous; nor is it probable that such a book was unknown to Dr Middleton, a man of extensive learning, and the keeper of a great public library, that of the university of Cambridge. He has therefore been repeatedly accused of plagiarism; and it must be confessed that the accusation does not appear to be destitute of foundation. "It may be worth observing," says Dr Warton, "that he is much indebted, without acknowledging it, to a curious book little known, entitled G. Bellendeni Scoti

de tribus Luminibus Romanorum, &c. It comprehends a history of Rome, from the foundation of the city to the time of Augustus, drawn up in the very words of Cicero, without any alteration of any expression. In this book Middleton found every part of Cicero's own history, in his own words, and his works arranged in chronological order, without further trouble. The impression of this work being shipped for England, was lost in the vessel, which was cast away, and only a few copies remained that had been left in France.³ The same opinion respecting the biographer's plagiarism is adopted, and strongly expressed by Dr Parr.⁴

M. Morabin, the French biographer of Cicero, who soon followed Dr Middleton, has, in the dedication of his work, acknowledged his acquaintance with Bellenden, but has not mentioned him in the most appropriate terms. "Si Bellenden, dans son traité De tribus Luminibus Romanorum, a évité cet écueil, en rassemblant tout ce qu'il y a d'historique dans Cicéron, et en n'employant que les expressions de cet orateur, il a donné dans un autre; et sa compilation, de quelque utilité qu'elle puisse être à un auteur qui embrasserait une histoire générale, ne sauroit guère servir dans la composition d'une histoire particulière, qu'à fournir la matière d'un gros livre qui ne seroit lu."⁵ But certainly an ample collection of materials was in either case desirable; and for a person who undertook to write the history of Cicero in two volumes quarto, it might have been thought necessary to inspect all the materials which Cicero had himself furnished.

Bellenden has bestowed upon his book a title which to many readers must require explanation. It appears to have been his original intention to compose, on a similar plan, three different works illustrative of the civil and literary history of Rome. The first of his three luminaries is Cicero, who has supplied him with the materials of civil history. According to Lenglet du Fresnoy, the other two whom he had in his contemplation were Seneca and the elder Pliny;⁶ and we may conclude that, by means of the same laborious arrangement and digest of their respective writings, he intended to exhibit a comprehensive view of the moral and physical science of the Romans. (x.)