PartVI:
Supplement![]()
1 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 ![]()
| 118LIVES OF EMINENT SCOTSMEN. | |
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. 2 Some Latin pieces by Crichton are
preserved in the Del. Poet. Scot. [note] but they are not even among the best in the Collection.