Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, Knight Part 7

Wench wholly martial, to whose inspiration The Colophonian Poet ow'd his skill: Let my verse merit no Lesse estimation, Then [than] if the point of a Pegasid quill, Dip'd in the sacred fontain Caballine, Character'd the Impression of each Line."

The "Colophonian Poet" is--"not to put too fine a point upon it"--Homer, who, according to some, was born at Colophos, in Asia Minor. The phrase "Pegasid quill" in this pa.s.sage strengthens our opinion that this second portrait of Sir Thomas, which we give here, was intended to be a frontispiece to a second volume of poems. The similarity of diction between this "Invocation" and the speeches of Ancient Pistol is very great.

CHAPTER IV

EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL, AND THE TRISSOTETRAS

In 1641, Sir Thomas Urquhart published his first work--a volume of poems, ent.i.tled "EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL,"[151] and dedicated to the Marquis of Hamilton. The poems are divided into three books, two of which contain forty-five epigrams, while the third contains forty-four.

Most of them are in iambic pentameters, and are for the greater part s.e.xtets in form; but though the versification is occasionally smooth, these compositions do little credit to the Muse who inspired them. They are, without an exception, pointless; and an epigram without a point is about as useless and exasperating as a needle without one.[152] It is somewhat remarkable that in his prose compositions the imagination of Sir Thomas seems quite unfettered, while in his poems it is under some such restraining influence as a strait-waistcoat is said to exercise upon a certain cla.s.s of patients.

A wild legend, the origin of which is unknown, but which is utterly baseless, a.s.serts that Urquhart "was laureated poet at Paris before he was three and twenty years of age."[153] We could hardly conceive of any responsible authorities being so far "left to themselves" as to do a deed like this. The story may be either the misapplication to Urquhart of some vague tradition of one of the feats of his hero, the Admirable Crichton, or of what he himself has actually recorded of the poet, Arthur Johnston.[154]

A modern critic, who has given Urquhart a full measure of praise, finds himself unable to say a word in favour of his poems. "This slender volume," he remarks, "gives not the slightest promise of talent. Its stanzas are indistinguished and indistinguishable. There is no reason why anyone should have written them, but, on the other hand, there is no reason why anyone should not. They express the usual commonplaces: the inevitableness of death, and the worth of endeavour. A mildly Horatian sentiment is dressed up in the tattered rags of Shakespearianism, and the surprise is that the author, whose prose is restrained by no consideration of sound or sense, should have deemed it worth while to print so tame a collection of exercises."[155]

A favourable specimen of the _Epigrams_ is the following from the first book:--

"HOW DIFFICULT A THING IT IS TO TREAD IN THE PATHES OF VERTUE.

"The way to vertue's hard, uneasie, bends Aloft, being full of steep and rugged alleys; For never one to a higher place ascends, That always keeps the plaine, and pleasant valleyes: And reason in each human breast ordaines That precious things be purchased with paines."

Or take this from the opposite page:--

"WHEN A TRUE FRIEND MAY BE BEST KNOWNE.

"As the glow-worme shines brightest in the darke And frankincense smells sweetest in the fire; So crosse adventures make us best remarke A sincere friend from a dissembled lyer; For some, being friends to our prosperity, And not to us, when it failes, they decay."

The fault of obscurity, of which the poet Browning has been accused, could not be laid to the charge of Sir Thomas Urquhart. Nor can it be said of him that he neglects truths that are obvious, and occupies himself in discovering and bringing forward those that are recondite.

The sentiments to which he gives utterance seem those which spontaneously occur to the average mind; on reading the subject of the poem, as given in the t.i.tle, and then the poem itself, we think

"A said whot a owt to 'a said,"

and we come away without any feverish mental agitation or accelerated movement of pulse.[156]

The sentiments which, from his own account, had, on more occasions than one, filled his mind, are expressed in the piece ent.i.tled "THE GENEROUS SPEECH OF A n.o.bLE CAVALLIER AFTER HE HAD DISARMED HIS ADVERSARY AT THE SINGLE COMBAT." They are as follows:--

"Though with my raper, for the guerdon Your fault deserveth, I may pierce ye, Your penitence in craving pardon, Transpa.s.sions my revenge in mercy; And wills me both to end this present strife, And give you leave in peace t' enjoy your life."

Another Epigram, which one critic regards as Urquhart's _chef d'uvre_ in this kind of composition, is the following:--

"Take _man_ from _woman_, all that she can show Of her own proper, is nought else but _wo_."[157]

In a letter of commendation prefixed to his next work, _The Trissotetras_, Sir Thomas Urquhart says of himself: "This Mathematicall tractate doth no lesse bespeak him a good Poet and Orator, then [than]

by his elaboured poems he hath showne himselfe already a good Philosopher and Mathematician." This self-criticism is all that could be desired. A work on mathematics that proves an author's possession of poetical and rhetorical gifts, and a volume of poetry which leads one to think that the singer is an accomplished mathematician, are gifts with which the world is but seldom favoured, and as it is likely that their merits will not instantly be observed, the zeal of the author in calling our attention to them is by no means unnecessary. But when he goes on to say, still speaking of himself in the third person, "The Muses never yet inspired sublimer conceptions in a more refined stile then [than] is to be found in the accurate strain of his most ingenious Epigrams," we feel that he is less felicitous. His first shot has. .h.i.t the blank, but the second is wide of the target altogether.

In his dedication of the volume to "the Marquis of Hamilton, Earle of Arren and Cambridge, etc.," he describes its contents as "but flashes of wit." A modern reader will probably, however, be inclined to think that this modest opinion of them is far too flattering. At times there is a faint suggestion of a possible gleam of brightness, but this is instantly followed by Egyptian darkness, and one is reminded of a revolving light that has somehow gone wrong.

The volume closes with the somewhat liturgical formula, "Here end the first three Bookes of Sir Thomas Vrchard's Epigrams," and with a doxology, the latter being almost the only trace of matter in it to justify the use of "Divine" in the t.i.tle. The author was evidently prepared to go on with more "bookes" of the kind, if he got any encouragement from publishers or public, but, probably, both thought it about time for him to stop. The fact that, in five years after this volume of poems had appeared, a second edition should apparently have been brought out, would seem at first to indicate that there must have been some little run upon the _Epigrams_. But the truth of the matter is, that one "William Leake" had evidently got the "remainder," and issued them in 1646 with a new t.i.tle-page.

In the Introductory Notice to Sir Theodore Martin's edition of Rabelais, some information is given concerning a folio volume of unpublished Epigrams by Urquhart, which is still in existence.[158] It consists of ten books, called after Apollo and the Muses, each containing 110 Epigrams, except the last, which has 113. The MS. is dedicated to the Marquis of Hamilton; but, in addition to this, each book has a separate dedication to some one of the author's political a.s.sociates or friends.

The persons thus honoured are the Marquis of Huntly, the Earl of Arundel, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Holland, the Earl of Newcastle, the Earl of Stafford, Lord Craven, and Lord Gaurin (Gowran). According to the custom of that time, the reader finds his progress barred by several prefaces, respectively named, in this instance, as the "Isagoge," or "Introduction," the "Premonition," and the "Prolog," and cannot get away without a "Corollarie," an "Animadversion," several extra leaves of verses, "A Table for the more easie finding out of such Epigrams as treat of one subject," an "Index," and a "List of proper names." For one of these latter he has reason to be grateful to Sir Thomas, for the "Index" is a glossary of "the harshest and most difficult words contained in the preceding Epigrams."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fac-simile of Sir Thomas Urquhart's handwriting considerably reduced.]

The general character of the unpublished Epigrams does not seem to be higher than that of those which have seen the light of day, and consequently there is little likelihood of any anxiety being expressed by the general public for a sight of them. Some of them also are of a sportive turn, and are more in accordance with the standard of taste and manners which prevailed in the middle of the seventeenth century than with that, of our own day. From the "Animadversion" it seems that Urquhart "contryved, blocked, and digested these eleven hundred epigrams in a thirteen weeks tyme." This surely breaks the record in the matter of speed in producing epigrams. Had the results been better, one would have had more pleasure in supporting Sir Thomas against all-comers.

The second literary venture made by Sir Thomas Urquhart was the publication of a scientific work, ent.i.tled "THE TRISSOTETRAS"[159]--a treatise which professed to simplify trigonometry. Yet, notwithstanding the statement on the t.i.tle-page that the new method of working problems in that department of mathematical science would be found invaluable by soldiers, sailors, architects, astronomers, and others, the volume seems to have dropped at once into the depths of oblivion, without even having produced a ripple upon the surface of the waters. No one is known to have read it or to have been able to read it. Lord Bacon, indeed, says that things solid and weighty are drowned in the river of time, while things that are light and blown-up are carried down by its current.[160]

A very comfortable theory would this be for those of us who write books that are found unreadable and drop at once out of notice, if only some trustworthy person could be found who would certify to the truth of Lord Bacon's a.s.sertion.

The editor of the Maitland Club edition of Sir Thomas Urquhart's Works has some qualms of conscience about reprinting this treatise. With a touch of humour, which only true Philistines will fully appreciate, he says that some apology may appear necessary, _even to an Antiquarian Club_,[161] for reprinting a work apparently so unintelligible and useless; and accordingly he shelters himself behind the opinion of Mr Wallace, the Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh at that time (1834). "I have," says Mr Wallace, who had been asked to examine the work, "looked at Sir Thomas Urquhart's _Trissotetras_, but I hardly know what to think of it. The book is not absolute nonsense, but is written in a most unintelligible way,[162] and so as never book was written before nor since. On this account it is truly a literary curiosity. There appears to have been a perverted ingenuity exercised in writing it, and I imagine that, with some patience, the author's plan might be understood, but I doubt if any man would take the trouble; for, after he had overcome the difficulty, there is nothing to reward his labour. I presume the object of the author was to fix the rules of Trigonometry in the memory, but no writer since his time has adopted his invention. Indeed, I do not observe the least mention of his book in the history of mathematical science. Yet, for his time, he seems not to have been a bad mathematician. Urquhart speaks in terms of great praise of Napier, yet not greater than he deserved. I infer from this that he was well acquainted with the subject as then known. The book in question is certainly a _curious_, if not a valuable relic of Scottish genius in the olden time, and it is a good specimen of the pedantry and fantastic taste of the Author. If, therefore, by reprinting his works, it be intended to give a true portraiture of him, _The Trissotetras_ should on that account, and I see no better reason, again pa.s.s through the press."[163]

The volume is dedicated "To the right honourable and most n.o.ble lady, my dear and loving mother, the Lady Dowager of Cromartie." The "Epistle Dedicatory" is couched in the high-flown language which others would have had difficulty in concocting, but which seems to flow with ease from the lips of Sir Thomas. "Thus, Madam," he says, "unto you doe I totally belong; but so as that those exteriour parts of mine, which by birth are from your Ladiship derived, cannot be more fortunate in this their subjection, notwithstanding the egregious advantages of bloud and consanguinity thereby to them accruing, then [than] my selfe am happy, as from my heart I doe acknowledge it, in the just right your Ladiship hath to the eternall possession of the never-dying powers of my soule."

The following pa.s.sage from the same "Epistle" reminds one of the adulatory terms in which Sir Walter Raleigh and Spenser addressed Queen Elizabeth: "By vertue of your beloved society, your neighbouring Countesses, and other great dames of your kindred and acquaintance, become more ill.u.s.trious in your imitation [_i.e._ in imitation of you]; amidst whom, as Cynthia amongst the obscurer planets, your Ladiship shines, and darteth the angelick rayes of your matchlesse example on the spirits of those who by their good Genius have been brought into your favourable presence to be enlightened by them." The concluding pa.s.sage in his Dedication is still more remarkable: "I will here," he says, "in all submission, most humbly take my leave of your Ladiship, and beseech Almighty G.o.d that it may please his Divine Majesty so to blesse your Ladiship with continuance of dayes, that the sonnes or those whom I have not as yet begot, may attaine to the happinesse of presenting unto your Ladiship a braine-babe of more sufficiencie and consequence."[164]

The ordinary reader who looks into the volume cannot fail to be appalled by the new and mysterious terms with which its pages are crowded. Words like "proturgetick," "quadrobiquadraequation," "sindiforall,"

"eathetobasall," "loxogonosphericall," and "zetetick," are freely used, and many others equally hard and th.o.r.n.y. Even the author himself finds it necessary to append to the work a glossary, containing an explanation of a number of the words of which he had made use. "Being certainly perswaded," he says, "that a great many good spirits [_i.e._ worthy souls] ply Trigonometry that are not versed in the learned tongues, I thought fit for their encouragement to subjoyne here the explication of the most important of those Greek and Latin termes, which for the more efficacy of expression I have made use of in this Treatise."[165]

In some cases, however, the "explication," instead of dispelling the darkness, only renders it more visible, as when, _e.g._, we are told that "_cathetobasall_ is said of the concordances of loxogonosphericall moods, in the datas of the perpendicular and the base, for finding out of the maine quaesitum." "_Inversionall_," we are told, "is said of the concordances of those moods which agree in the manner of their inversion; that is, in placing the second and fourth termes of the a.n.a.logy, together with their indowments, in the roomes of the first and third, and contrariwise." Probably only those who are able to follow the statement that "_oppoverticall_ is said of those moods which have a catheteuretick concordance in their datas of the same cathetopposites and verticall angles," will be qualified to give an intelligent a.s.sent to the statement that "_sindiforall_ is said of those moods the fourth terme of whose a.n.a.logie is onely illat.i.tious to the maine quaesitum."[166]

Besides the Epistle of Dedication to the author's mother, there are two Epistles and some Latin verses addressed to the reader. The former of these last-mentioned Epistles is signed by Sir Thomas, and consists of a glowing tribute of respect to Napier, the inventor of logarithms. "To write of Trigonometry," he says, "and not make mention of the ill.u.s.trious Lord Neper[167] of Marchiston, the inventer of Logarithms, were to be unmindfull of him that is our daily benefactor; these artificiall numbers by him first excogitated and perfected, being of such incomparable use,[168] that by them we may operate more in one day, and with lesse danger of errour, then [than] can be done without them in the s.p.a.ce of a whole week; a secret which would have beene so precious to antiquity that Pythagoras, all the seven wise men of Greece, Archimedes, Socrates, Plato, Euclid, and Aristotle, had, if coaevals, joyntly adored him, and unanimously concurred to the deifying of the revealer of so great a mystery." He concludes with the splendid sentence that Napier's "immortall fame, in spite of time, will out-last all ages, and look eternity in the face."[169]

The second Epistle to the reader is of a very startling kind. It professes to be by some one whose initials are J. A., and it is written in commendation of the book and its author, but there can be no doubt that it is the production of Sir Thomas himself. He could no more disguise his style of writing than Sir Piercie Shafton could lay aside his Euphuistic English. After reading the laudatory sentences bestowed upon the inventor of logarithms, it is very amusing to find J. A.

remarking of Sir Thomas Urquhart, that "the praise he hath beene pleased to confer on the learned and honourable Neper, doth, without any diminution, in every jot as duly belong unto himselfe."[170] As all our author's eulogies are constructed on a vast scale, it is not surprising to read that the new method of measuring triangles, as compared with the old, is like the sea-journey between the Pillars of Hercules ("commonly called the Straits of Gibraltar"), as compared with the land-journey from the one to the other. In the one case, we have a short voyage of not more than six hours' sail; in the other case, a walk of some seven thousand long miles. The two concluding paragraphs of the Epistle are so extraordinary and so characteristic of our author, that we must be allowed to quote them at length.

"The secret unfolded in the following book," says J. A., "is so precious, that [the author's] countrey and kindred would not have been more honoured by him had he purchased [procured] millions of gold, and severall rich territories of a great and vast extent, then [than] for this subtile and divine invention, which will out-last the continuance of any inheritance, and remaine fresh in the understandings of men of profound literature, when houses and possessions will change their owners, the wealthy become poor, and the children of the needy enjoy the treasures of those whose heires are impoverished. Therefore, seeing for the many-fold uses thereof in divers arts and sciences, in speculation and practice, peace and war, sport and earnest, with the admirable furtherances we reape by it in the knowledge of sea and land, and heaven and earth, it cannot be otherwise then [than] permanent, together with the Author's fame, so long as any of those endure; I will, G.o.d willing, in the ruines of all these, and when time it selfe is expired, in testimony of my thankfulnesse in particular for so great a benefit, if after the resurrection there be any complementall [complimentary]

affability, expresse myselfe then as I doe now, The Author's most affectionate, and most humbly devoted servant, J.A."[171]

Why our author should have resorted to this device for recommending himself and his book, we cannot tell. Perhaps he felt that some strong affirmations were needed in the case. Probably he agreed with the old saying that, if you wish work to be thoroughly done, you had better do it yourself. The moral aspect of the matter we leave in the hands of our readers for discussion.

In five Latin elegiac couplets of a very neat and polished kind, Alexander Ross[172] recommends _The Trissotetras_ to the reader, and a.s.sures the author that Scotia, whom by his writings he was exalting to the stars, looked down upon him with a benignant smile. Ross himself is now only known to most of us from the mention made of him in _Hudibras_, in the well-known pa.s.sage--

"There was an ancient sage philosopher Who had read Alexander Ross over."

It is to be feared that Alexander Ross had not performed the same feat with regard to Sir Thomas Urquhart's treatise; for his verses[173] would have been equally appropriate if the subject of them had been a flying-machine or a water-tricycle invented by his friend.

At the end of the glossary in which the hardest words in _The Trissotetras_ are explained, the author addresses a word in season to the persons into whose hands his book may fall. He expects that "learned and judicious mathematicians" will welcome it, and he promises them more of the same kind. His dignified att.i.tude towards carping critics is very impressive. "But as for such," he says, "who, either understanding it not, or vain-gloriously being accustomed to criticise on the works of others, will presume to carp therein at what they cannot amend, I pray G.o.d to illuminate their judgments and rectifie their wits, that they may know more and censure lesse; for so by forbearing detraction, the venom whereof must needs reflect upon themselves, they will come to approve better of the endeavours of those that wish them no harme."[174]

FOOTNOTES:

[151] "EPIGRAMS: DIVINE AND MORAL. _By Sir Thomas Urchard, Knight._ London: Printed by Barnard Alsop and Thomas Fawcet, in the Yeare 1641."

[152] It is only fair, however, to Urquhart to remember that his idea of an Epigram was probably different from ours. In modern times point or "bite" is regarded as essential to such kind of compositions. The original idea of them was that they should contain a single distinct thought, and be brief enough to serve as inscriptions.

[153] Granger's _Biographical History_, iii, 160.

[154] _Works_, p. 263.