Crichton, [note] the admirable. Among the accomplishments, ascribed to this extraordinary character, poetry held a foremost place. His celebrated challenge to the learned of Paris bore that he would dispute, either in prose or verse, at the discretion of his antagonist. When at Venice he wrote several poems in commendation of that city, and its institutions. Going afterwards to Padua, there was a meeting of all the learned men of the place, at the house of one Cornelius, when Crichton opened the assembly with an extemporary poem. When detraction began to be busy with his fame, and it was necessary to confound for ever the invidious impugners of his talents, he offered, among other things, to dispute in any one of a hundred sorts

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of verses! The Duke of Mantua, having made choice of him to be preceptor to his son, Vincentio de Gonzaga, Crichton, to testify his gratitude and contribute to the entertainment of the court of Mantua, composed a comedy, which we are assured was one of the most ingenious satires ever written upon mankind, and sustained himself no less than fifteen characters in the representation of the play. “In short,” says Joannes Imperialis, [note] “he was the wonder of the age, a prodigy of nature, and beyond all past or present example, the glory and ornament of Parnassus!” How much, or how little of all this, to believe, it would be vain to attempt to determine. The whole of Crichton's history rests on such questionable authority, and is so surcharged with exaggeration and falsehood, that truth knows not where to point her finger. To all who reflect dispassionately on the subject, it will probably seem less hard to believe, that it is in human power to do all that has been ascribed to Crichton, than to suppose it possible that such marvellous achievements could actually have been performed, and the eyes of all the world be so fixed upon them, and yet no memorial remain to convince posterity of their reality.

Some Latin pieces by Crichton are preserved in the Del. Poet. Scot. [note] but they are not even among the best in the Collection.