JOHNSTON, ARTHUR, an eminent Latin poet and scholar, was the fifth son of George Johnston of Caskieben, by Christian, the daughter of Lord Forbes, and was born in 1587 at his father's estate of Caskieben in Aberdeenshire. He received the rudiments of his education at
Kintore, whence he proceeded to Marischal College, Aberdeen. It is not certain whether he remained long enough at that university to take his degree. Probably he did not, as he is known to have gone to the Continent while a mere youth, and to have graduated as M.D. at Padua in 1610. In a beautiful Latin elegy, addressed to a friend, he supplies some of the details of his personal history. From it we learn that he twice crossed the Alps, and twice visited Rome; that he had travelled in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and England; that he resided twenty years in France; and that two wives who were of different nations had borne him thirteen children. In all these wanderings he seems to have assiduously cultivated the practice of Latin verse composition; and, according to Sir Thomas Urquhart, "before he was full three and twenty years of age, he was laureated poet at Paris, and that most deservedly." His fame as a Latin poet even reached his own country, and lost nothing when he entered the lists as the champion of his contemporary Buchanan. A small witling of the day, George Eglisham by name, had bitterly attacked Buchanan's version of the 104th psalm, and produced in contrast a version of his own. Instead of seriously refuting Eglisham's criticisms, Johnston merely ridiculed them in a satire, as elegant as it was bitter, published in 1619, under the title of Consilium Collegii Medici Parisiensis de Mania G. Eglishami [afterwards Hypermorii Medicastri], quam prodidit scripto, cui titulus Duellum Poeticum, &c. The whole story forms a curious prototype of the celebrated Frenzy of John Dennis.
Johnston seems to have returned to Scotland about the year 1625, and shortly afterwards—probably about the year 1628—to have been appointed physician to Charles I. Aberdeen became his first head-quarters, and there, in 1632, he published his Parerga, Epigrammata, and some minor poetical pieces. In 1637 he was made rector of King's College, but after his appointment as royal physician, most of his time was spent at the English court, and he was only able to visit Aberdeen at occasional intervals. His attachment to his native county, however, remained undiminished; and as soon as his means enabled him to do so, he purchased an estate there. Though he published several of his works in London, such as his Cantici Salomonis Paraphrasis Poetica, 1633, and his Musa Aulice, 1635, he reserved to Aberdeen the honour of publishing the greatest and best known of all his writings, which appeared there in 1637 under the title of Paraphrasis Poetica Psalmorum Davidis. This, as it was the greatest, seems also to have been the last of his works, if we except his contributions to the Delicie Poetarum Scotorum, brought out at Amsterdam about the same date. It had been written many years before, and parts of it had been shown in MS. to the most eminent scholars of Great Britain and the Continent. Like all its author's works it displays a masterly command of Latin diction, and an almost unequalled skill in versifying. Buchanan's version of the Psalms, produced some years before, had preoccupied that field; and Johnston's appearing when it did, had the air of being designed to vie with that of his great contemporary. Comparisons were of course instituted between the rival works, and though the critics awarded the palm to Buchanan they were unanimous in placing Johnston's next to his, and both very far above every other attempt of the kind that had appeared up to that day. Posterity has confirmed this verdict. In his original pieces Johnston exhibits much fancy and poetical feeling, and a refined taste. He paid great attention to the harmony of rhythm, for which he had an exquisite ear. He preferred the elegiac distich to every other form of verse; and, besides his minor pieces, all his psalms are written in that metre except the 119th. Each part of that psalm is rendered in a different measure, adapted to the varieties of movement and idea. Johnston's diction is for
the most part singularly pure, though he sometimes employs a word or phrase not to be found in Horace or Virgil. There have been several editions of Johnstone's entire works; and numerous editions of his version of the Psalms.