- William Tennant
William Tennant (
May 18 ,1784 -February 14 ,1848 ), Scottish scholar andpoet , was born atAnstruther ,Fife .He was lame from childhood. His father sent him to the
University of St Andrews , where he remained for two years, and on his return he became clerk to one of his brothers, a corn factor. In his leisure time he mastered Hebrew as well as German and Italian.His study of Italian verse bore fruit in the mock-heroic poem of "Anster Fair" (1812), which gave an amusing account of the marriage of "Maggie Lauder," the heroine of the popular Scottish
ballad . It was written in the "ottava rima " adopted a few years later by "the ingenious brothers Whistlecraft" (John Hookham Frere ), and turned to such brilliant account by Byron in "Don Juan ". The poem, unhackneyed in form, full of fantastic classical allusions applied to the simple story, and brimming over with humour, had an immediate success.Tennant's brother, meanwhile, had failed in business, and the poet became in 1812 schoolmaster of the parish of
Dunino , nearSt Andrews . From this he was promoted (1816) to the school ofLasswade , nearEdinburgh ; from that (1819) to a mastership inDollar Academy ; from that (1834), by Lord Jeffrey, to the professorship of oriental languages at the University of St Andrews. "The Thane of Fife" (1822), shows the same humorous imagination as "Anster Fair", but the subject was more remote from general interest, and the poem fell flat.He also wrote a poem in Scots, "Papistry Stormed" (1827); two historical dramas, "Cardinal Beaton" (1823) and "John Baliol" (1825); and a series of "Hebrew Dramas" (1845), founded on incidents in
Bible history. He died atDevon Grove , on the 14th of February 1848.A "Memoir" of Tennant by MF Connolly was published in 1861.
References
*1911
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