WILLIAM ALEXANDER, Earl of STIRLING. IT T is agreed by the antiquaries of Scotland, where this nobleman was born, that his family was originally a branch of the Macdonalds. Alexander Macdonald, their ancestor, obtained from the family of Argyle a grant of the lands of Menftry, in Clackmananfhire, where they fixed. their refidence, and took their firnames from the Christian name of their predeceffor *. Our author was born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and during the minority of James VI. of Scotland, but on what year cannot be afcertained; he gave early discoveries of a rifing genius, and much im- · proved the fine parts he had from nature, by a very polite and extenfive education. He firft travelled abroad as tutor to the earl of Argyle, and was a confiderable time with that nobleman, while they vifited foreign countries. After his return, being happy in fo great a patron as the earl of Argyle, and finifhed in all the courtly accomplishments, he was careffed by perfons of the firft fashion, while he yet moved in the sphere of a private gentleman. Mr. Alexander having a ftrong propensity to poetry, he declined entering upon any public employment for fome years, and dedicated all his time to the reading of the ancient poets, upon which he formed his tafte, and whofe various graces he feems to have understood. King James * Crawford's Peerage of Scotland, VOL. 1. N° 5. of of Scotland, who with but few regal qualities, yet certainly had a propenfion to literature, and was an encourager of learned men, took Mr. Alexander early into his favour. He accepted the poems our author presented him, with the moft condefcending marks of esteem, and was fo warm in his intereft, that in the year 1614, he created him a knight, and by a kind of compulfion, obliged him to accept the place of Mafter of the Requeffs §; but the King's bounty did not stop here: Our author having fettled a colony in Nova Scotia in America, at his own expence, James made him a grant of it, by his Royal Deed, on the 21ft of September, 1621, and intended to have erected the order of Baronet, for encouraging and advancing fo good a work; but the three last years of that prince's reign being rendered troublesome to him, by reafon of the jealoufies and commotions which then fubfifted in England, he thought fit to fufpend the further profecution of that affair, 'till a more favourable crifis, which he lived not to fee. As foon as King Charles I. afcended the throne, who inherited from his father the warmest affection for his native country, he endeavoured to promote that defign, which was likely to produce fo great a benefit to the nation, and therefore created Sir William Alexander Lord Lieutenant of New Scotland, and inftituted the order of Knight Baronet, for the encouraging, and advancing that colony, and gave him the power of coining fmall copper money, a privilege which fome difcontented British fubjects complained of with great bitterness; but his Majefty, who had the higheft opinion of the integrity and abilities of Sir William, did not on that account withdraw his favour from him, but rather encreased it; for in the year 1626 he made him Secretary of State for Scotch affairs, in place of the earl of Haddington, and a Peer, by the title of Viscount Stirling, and foon after raifed him to the dignity of an Earl, by Letters Patent, dated June 14, 1633, upon the folemnity of his Majefty's Coronation at the Palace of Holy-rood-house in Edinburgh. His lordship enjoyed the place of fecretary with the most unblemished reputation, for the space of fifteen years, even to his death, which happened on the 12th of February, 1640. Our author married the daughter of Sir William Erskine, Baronet, coufin german to the earl of Marr, then Regent of Scotland; by her he had one fon, who died his Majesty's Refident in Nova Scotia in the life time of his father, and left behind him a fon who fucceeded his grandfather in the title of earl of Stirling. His lordship is author of four plays, which he ftiles Monarchic Tragedies, viz. The Alexandræan Tragedy, Cræfus, Darius, and Julius Cæfar, all which in the opinion of the ingenious Mr. Coxeter (whofe indefatigable industry in collecting materials for this work, which he lived not to publish, has furnished the prefent Biographers with many circumftances they could not otherwife have known) were written in his lordship's youth, and before he undertook any ftate employment. Thefe plays are written upon the model of the ancients, as appears by his introducing the Charus between the Acts; they are grave and fententious throughout, like the Tragedies of Seneca, and yet the fofter and tender paffions are fometimes very delicately touched. The author has been very unhappy in the choice of his verfe, which is alternate, like the quatrains of the French poet Pibrach, or Sir William Davenant's heroic poem called Gondibert, which kind of verfe is certainly unnatural for Tragedy, as it is fo much removed from profe, and cannot have that beautiful fimplicity, P 2 that that tender pathos, which is indifpenfible to the language of tragedy; Mr. Rymer has criticised ..with great judgment on this error of our author, and fhewn the extreme abfurdity of writing plays in rhime, notwithstanding the great authority of Dryden can be urged in its defence. Writing plays upon the model of the ancients, by introducing choruffes, can be defended with as little force. It is the nature of a tragedy to warm the heart, rouze the paflions, and fire the imagination, which can never be done, while the ftory goes languidly on. The foul cannot be agitated unless the bufinefs of the play rifes gradually, the fcene be kept bufy, and leading characters active: we cannot better illuftrate this obfervation, than by an example. One of the best poets of the prefent age, the ingenious Mr. Mafon of Cambridge, has not long ago publifhed a Tragedy upon the model of the ancients, called Elfrida; the merit of this piece, as a poem has been confeffed by the general reading it has obtained; it is full of beauties; the language is perfectly poetical, the fentiments chaste, and the moral excellent; there is nothing in our tongue can much exceed it in the flowry enchantments of poetry, or the delicate flow of numbers, but while we admire the poet, we pay no regard to the character; no paffion is excited, the heart is never moved, nor is the reader's curiofity ever raised to know the event. Want of paffion and regard to character, is the error of our prefent dramatic poets, and it is a true obfervation made by a gent'eman in an occafional prologue, fpeaking of the wits from Charles II. to our own times, he fays, From bard, to bard, the frigid caution crept, But ! But to return to our author's plays; The Alexandræan Tragedy is built upon the differences about the fucceflion, that rofe between Alexander's captains after his deccale; he has borrowed many thoughts, and tranflated whole fpeeches from Seneca, Virgil, &c. In this play his lordship feems to mistake the very effence of the drama, which confifts in action, for there is fcarce one action performed in view of the audience, but feveral perfons are introduced upon the ftage, who relate atchievements done by themselves and others the two first acts are entirely foreign to the bufinefs of the play. Upon the whole it must be allowed that his lordship was a very good hiftorian," for the reader may learn from it a great deal of the affairs of Greece and Rome; for the plot fee Quintus Curtius, the thirteenth Book of Juftin, Diodorus Siculus, Jofephus, Raleigh's Hiftory, &c. The Scene is in Babylon. Cræfus, a Tragedy; the Scene of this Play is laid in Sardis, and is reckoned the most moving of the four; it is chiefly borrowed from Herodotus, Clio, Juftin, Plutarch's Life of Solon, Salian, Torniel. In the fifth Act there is an Epifode of A. bradates and Panthea, which the author has taken from Xenophons Cyropædeia, or The Life and Education of Cyrus, lib. vii. The ingenious Scudery has likewife built upon this foundation, in his diverting Romance called the Grand Cyrus. Darius, a Tragedy; this was his lordship's first dramatic performance; it was printed at Edinburgh in 4to. in the year 1603; it was firft compofed of a mixture of English and Scotch dialect, and even then was commended by feveral copies of verses. The Scene of this Play is laid in Babylon. The author afterwards not only polished his native language, but altered the Play itself; as to the plot confult Q. Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Juftin, Plutarch's Life of Alexander, &c. P 3 Julius |