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BOSWELL, ALEXANDER and
JAMES, sons of the preceding. It has been remarked, as creditable
to the memory of James VI., that he educated two sons, who were both, in
point of personal and intellectual character, much above the standard of
ordinary men. The same remark will apply to the biographer of Johnson,
who, what ever may be thought of his own character, reared two sons who
stood forth afterwards as a credit to his parental care. A wish to educate
his children in the best manner, was one of the ruling passions of this
extraordinary litterateur in his latter years. He placed both his
sons at Westminster school, and afterwards in the university of Oxford, at
an expense which appears to have been not altogether justified by his own
circumstances.
Alexander Boswell, who was
born, October 9, 1775, succeeded his father in the possession of the
family estate. He was distinguished as a spirited and amiable country
gentleman, and also as a literary antiquary of no inconsiderable
erudition. Perhaps his taste, in the latter capacity, was greatly fostered
by the possession of an excellent collection of old manuscripts and books,
which was gathered together by his ancestors, and has acquired the
well-known title of the "AUCHINLECK LIBRARY." From the stores of
this collection, in 1804, Sir Walter Scott published the romance of
"Sir Tristram," which is judged by its learned editor to be the
earliest specimen of poetry by a Scottish writer now in existence. Besides
this invaluable present to the literary world, the Auchinleck Library
furnished, in 1812, the black letter original of a disputation held
between John Knox and Quentin Kennedy at Maybole in 1592, which was
printed at the time by Knox himself, but had latterly become so scarce,
that hardly another copy, besides that in the Auchinleck Library, was
known to exist. Mr Boswell was at the expense of printing a fac-simile
edition of this curiosity, which was accepted by the learned, as a very
valuable contribution to our stock of historical literature.
The taste of Alexander
Boswell was of a much manlier and more sterling character than that of his
father; and instead of being alternately the active and passive cause of
amusement to his friends, he shone exclusively in the former capacity. He
possessed, indeed, a great fund of volatile talent, and, in particular, a
most pungent vein of satire, which, while it occasionally inspired fear
and dislike in those who were liable to become its objects, produced no
admiration which was not also accompanied by respect. At an early period
of his life, some of his poetical jeux d’esprit occasionally made
a slight turmoil in that circle of Scottish society in which he moved. He
sometimes also exercised his pen in that kind of familiar vernacular
poetry which Burns again brought into fashion; and in the department of
song-writing he certainly met with considerable success. A small volume,
entitled, "Songs chiefly in the Scottish Dialect," was published
by him, anonymously, in 1803, with the motto, "Nulla venenato litera
mixta joco," a motto which it would have been well for him if he had
never forgot. In a brief note on the second folio of this little work, he
mentioned that he was induced to lay these trivial compositions in an
authentic shape before the public, because corrupted copies had previously
made their appearance. The truth is, some of his songs had already
acquired a wide acceptation in the public, and were almost as familiar as
those of Burns. [We may instance, "Auld Gudeman, ye’re a Drucken
Carle," "Jenny’s Bawbee," and "Jenny Dang the
Weaver."] The volume also contains some English compositions, which
still retain a popularity—such as "Taste Life’s Glad
Moments," which, he tells us, he translated at Leipsig, in 1795, from
the German song, "Freu’t euch des Libens." Mr Boswell also
appears, from various compositions in this little volume, to have had a
turn for writing popular Irish songs. One or two of his attempts in that
style, are replete with the grotesque character of the nation. [It is
hardly worth while to say more of a few fugitive lyrics; but yet we cannot
help pointing out a remarkably beautiful antithesis, in one styled,
"The Old Chieftain to his Sons:-
"The auld will speak,
the young maun hear,
Be canty, but be gude and leal;
Your ain ills aye hae heart to bear,
Anither’s aye hae heart to
feel."
In another he thus
ludicrously adverts, in a fictitious character, to the changes which
modern manners, rather than time, have produced upon the external and
internal economy of the Scottish capital:-
Hech! what a change hae we
now in this town!
A’ now-are braw lads, the lasses a’ glanein’;
Folk maun be dizzy gaun aye in this roun’,
For deil a hae’t ’s done now but feastin’ and dancin’.
Gowd’s no that scanty in ilk siller
pock,
Whan ilka bit laddie maun hae his bit
staigie;
But I kent the day when there was na a Jock,
But trotted about upon honest shanks-naigie.
Little was stown then, and less gaed to waste,
Barely a mullin for mice or for rattens;
The thrifty gudewife to the flesh-market paced,
Her equipage a’—just a gude pair o’ pattens.
Folk were as gude then, and friends were as leal;
Though coaches were scant, wi’ their cattle a’ cantrin’;
Right airs we were tell’t by the housemaid or chiel,
‘Sir, an ye please, here’s yer lass
and a lantern.’
The town may be cloutit and pieced till it meets,
A’ neebors benorth and besouth without haltin’
Brigs may be biggit ower lums and ower streets,
The Nor-Loch itsel’ heap’d as heigh as the Calton.
But whar is true friendship, and whar will you see
A’ that is gude, honest, modest, and thrifty? -
Tak gray hairs and wrinkles, and hirple wi’ me,
And think on the seventeen-hundred and fifty.]
In 1810, Mr Boswell
published a small volume under the title, "Edinburgh, or the Ancient
Royalty, a Sketch of former Manners, by Simon Gray." It is a kind of
city eclogue, in which a farmer, who knew the town in a past age, is
supposed to converse regarding its modern changes, with a city friend. It
contains some highly curious memorials of the simple manners which
obtained in Edinburgh, before the change described in the song just
quoted. At a subsequent period, Mr Boswell established a private
printing-press at Auchinleck, from which he issued various trifles in
prose and verse, some of which are characterised by much humour. In 1816,
appeared a poetical tale, somewhat like Burns’s "Tam o’ Shanter,"
entitled, "Skeldon Haughs, or the Sow is Flitted!" being founded
on a traditionary story regarding an Ayrshire feud of the fifteenth
century. [Kennedy of Bargeny tethered a sow on the lands of his
feudal enemy Crawford of Kerse, and resolved that the latter gentleman,
with all his vassals, should not be permitted to remove or
"flit" the animal. To defeat this bravado at the very first, the
adherents of Crawford assembled in great force, and entered into active
fight with the Kennedies, who, with their sow, were at length driven back
with great slaughter though not till the son of the laird of Kerse,
who had led his father’s forces, was slain. The point of the poem lies
in the dialogue which passed between the old laird and a messenger who
came to apprise him of the event:—
"‘Is the sow flittit?
tell me, loon!
Is auld Kyle up and Carsick down?’
Mingled wi’ sobs, his broken tale
The youth began; Ak, Kerse, bewail
This luckless day!—Your blythe son, John,
Ah, waes my heart, lies on the loan—
And he could sing like only merle!
‘Is the sow flitted?’ cried the
carle;
‘Gie me my answer—short and plain,—
Is the sow flitted, yammerin wean!’
‘The sow (deil tak her) ‘s ower the water—
And at their backs the Crawfords batter—
The Carrick couts are cowed and bitted!’
‘My thumb for Jock! THE SOW IS FLITTED.’"]
In 1821, Mr Boswell was
honoured with, what had been the chief object of his ambition for many
years, a baronetcy of Great Britain. About this period, politics ran very
high in the country, and Sir Alexander, who had inherited all the Tory
spirit of his father, sided warmly with the ministry. In the beginning of
the year 1821, a few gentlemen of similar prepossessions, conceived it to
be not only justifiable, but necessary, that the fervour of the radical
press, as it was called, should be met by a corresponding fervour on the
other side, so that the enemies of the government might be combated with
their own weapons. Hence arose a newspaper in Edinburgh styled the Beacon,
to which Sir Alexander Boswell contributed a few jeux d’esprit, aimed
at the leading men on the other side, and alleged to have far exceeded the
proper line of political sarcasm. These being continued in a subsequent
paper, which was published at Glasgow, under the name of the Sentinel, at
lengths were traced to their author by James Stuart, Esq. younger of
Dunearn, who had been the object of some of the rudest attacks, and
repeatedly accused of cowardice. The consequence of this discovery was a
challenge from Mr Stuart to Sir Alexander, and the hostile parties having
met near Auchtertool in Fife, March 26, 1822, the latter received a shot
in the bottom of the neck, which terminated his existence next day. Mr
Stuart was tried for this offence, by the High Court of Justiciary, but
most honourably acquitted. Sir Alexander left a widow and several
children.
BOSWELL, JAMES, the second
son of the biographer of Johnson, was, as already mentioned, educated at
Westminster School. He was afterwards entered of Brazen-nose College,
Oxford, and there had the honour to be elected fellow upon the Vinerian
foundation. Mr Boswell possessed talents of a superior order, sound
classical scholarship, and a most extensive and intimate knowledge of our
early literature. In the investigation of every subject he pursued, his
industry, judgment, and discrimination, were equally remarkable; his
memory was unusually tenacious and accurate; and he was always as ready,
as he was competent, to communicate his stores of information for the
benefit of others. Mr Malone was influenced by these qualifications, added
to the friendship which he entertained for Mr Boswell, to select him as
his literary executor; and to his care this eminent commentator intrusted
the publication of an enlarged and amended edition of Shakspeare, which he
had long-been meditating. As Mr Malone’s papers were left in a state
scarcely intelligible, it is believed that no man but one of kindred
genius like Mr Boswell, could have rendered them at all available. This,
however, Mr Boswell did in the most efficient manner; farther enriching
the work with many excellent notes of his own, besides collating the text
with all the earlier editions. This work, indeed, which extends to
twenty-one volumes, 8vo, must be considered as not only the most elaborate
edition of Shakspeare, but perhaps the greatest edition of any work
in the English language. In the first volume, Mr Boswell has stepped
forward to defend the literary reputation of Mr Malone against the severe
attacks made by a writer of distinguished eminence, upon many of his
critical opinions and statements; a task of great delicacy, and which Mr
Boswell performed in so spirited and gentlemanly a manner, that his
preface may be fairly quoted as a model of controversial writing. In the
same volume are inserted "Memoirs of Mr Malone," originally
printed by Mr Boswell for private circulation; and a valuable essay on the
metre and phraseology of Shakspeare, the materials for which were partly
collected by Mr Malone, but which was entirely indebted to Mr Boswell for
arrangement and completion.
Mr Boswell inherited from
his father a keen relish of the society of the metropolis, and accordingly
he spent his life almost exclusively in the Middle Temple. Few men were
better fitted to appreciate and contribute to the pleasures of social
intercourse; his conversational powers, and the unfailing cheerfulness of
his disposition, rendered him everywhere an acceptable guest; but it was
the goodness of his heart, that warmth of friendship which knew no bounds
when a call was made upon his services, which formed the sterling
excellence, and the brightest feature of Mr Boswell’s character. This
amiable man and excellent scholar died, February 24, 1822, in the
forty-third year of his age, and was buried in the Temple Church, by a
numerous train of sorrowing friends. It is a melancholy circumstance, that
his brother, Sir Alexander, had just returned from performing the last
offices to a beloved brother, when he himself was summoned from existence
in the manner above related.
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