William Drummond

Drummond, William, 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.

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

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