James Crichton, commonly called 'The Admirable,' son of Robert Crichton,
of Eliock, who was Lord Advocate to King James VI., was born in
Scotland, in the year 1561. The precise place of his birth is not
mentioned, but he received the best part of his education at St.
Andrews, at that time the most celebrated seminary in Scotland, where
the illustrious Buchanan was one of his masters. At the early age of
fourteen, he took his degree of Master of Arts, and was considered a
prodigy, not only in abilities, but in actual attainments.
It was the custom of the time for Scotchmen of birth to finish their
education abroad, and serve in some foreign army, previously to entering
that of their own country. When he was only sixteen or seventeen years
old, Crichton's father sent him to the Continent. He had scarcely
arrived in Paris, which was then a gay and splendid city, famous for
jousting, fencing, and dancing, when he publicly challenged all scholars
and philosophers to a disputation at the College of Navarre. He proposed
that it should be carried on in any one of twelve specified languages,
and have relation to any science or art, whether practical or
theoretical. The challenge was accepted; and, as if to show in how
little need he stood of preparation, or how lightly he held his
adversaries, he spent the six weeks that elapsed between the challenge
and the contest, in a continual round of tilting, hunting, and dancing.
On the appointed day, however, and in the contest, he is said to have
encountered all the gravest philosophers and divines, and to have
acquitted himself to the astonishment of all who heard him. He received
the public praises of the president and four of the most eminent
professors. The very next day he appeared at a tilting match in the
Louvre, and carried off the ring from all his accomplished and
experienced competitors.
Enthusiasm was now at its height, particularly among the ladies of the
court, and from the versatility of his talents, his youth, the
gracefulness of his manners, and the beauty of his person, he was named
_L'Admirable_. After serving two years in the army of Henry III., who
was engaged in a civil war with his Huguenot subjects, Crichton repaired
to Italy, and repeated at Rome, in the presence of the Pope and
cardinals, the literary challenge and triumph that had gained him so
much honor at Paris.
From Rome he went to Venice, at which gay city he arrived in a depressed
state of spirits. None of his Scottish biographers are very willing to
acknowledge the fact, but it appears quite certain, that, spite of his
noble birth and connexions, he was miserably poor, and became for some
time dependent on the bounty of a Venetian printer--the celebrated Aldus
Manutius. After a residence of four months at Venice, where his
learning, engaging manners, and various accomplishments, excited
universal wonder, as is made evident by several Italian writers who were
living at the time, and whose lives were published, Crichton went to the
neighboring city of Padua, in the learned university of which he reaped
fresh honors by Latin poetry, scholastic disputation, an exposition of
the errors of Aristotle and his commentators, and as a playful wind-up
of the day's labors, a declamation upon the happiness of ignorance.
Another day was fixed for a public disputation in the palace of the
bishop of Padua; but this being prevented from taking place, gave some
incredulous or envious men the opportunity of asserting that Crichton
was a literary impostor, whose acquirements were totally superficial.
His reply was a public challenge. The contest, which included the
Aristotelian and platonic philosophies, and the mathematics of the time,
was prolonged during three days, before an innumerable concourse of
people. His friend, Aldus Manutius, who was present at what he calls
"this miraculous encounter," says he proved completely victorious, and
that he was honored by such a rapture of applause as was never before
heard.
Crichton's journeying from university to university to stick up
challenges on church doors, and college pillars, though it is said to
have been in accordance with customs not then obsolete, certainly
attracted some ridicule among the Italians; for Boccalini, after copying
one of his placards, in which he announces his arrival, and his
readiness to dispute extemporaneously on all subjects, says that a wit
wrote under it, "and whosoever wishes to see him, let him go to the
Falcon Inn, where he will be shown,"--which is the formula used by
showmen for the exhibition of a wild beast, or any other monster.
We next hear of Crichton at Mantua, and as the hero of a combat more
tragical than those carried on by the tongue or the pen. A certain
Italian gentleman, "of a mighty, able, nimble, and vigorous body, but by
nature fierce, cruel, warlike, and audacious, and superlatively expert
and dexterous in the use of his weapon," was in the habit of going from
one city to another, to challenge men to fight with cold steel, just as
Crichton did to challenge them to scholastic combats. This itinerant
gladiator, who had marked his way through Italy with blood, had just
arrived in Mantua, and killed three young men, the best swordsmen of
that city. By universal consent, the Italians were the ablest masters of
fence in Europe; a reputation to which they seem still entitled. To
encounter a victor among such masters, was a stretch of courage; but
Crichton, who had studied the sword from his youth, and who had probably
improved himself in the use of the rapier in Italy, did not hesitate to
challenge the redoubtable bravo.
Though the duke was unwilling to expose so accomplished a gentleman to
so great a hazard, yet, relying upon the report he had heard of his
warlike qualifications, he agreed to the proposal; and the time and
place being appointed, the whole court attended to behold the
performance. At the beginning of the combat, Crichton stood only upon
his defence, while the Italian made his attack with such eagerness and
fury, that, having exhausted himself, he began to grow weary. The young
Scotsman now seized the opportunity of attacking his antagonist in
return; which he did with so much dexterity and vigor, that he ran him
through the body in three different places, of which wounds he
immediately died.
The acclamations of the spectators were loud and long-continued upon
this occasion; and it was acknowledged by all, that they had never seen
nature second the precepts of art in so lively and graceful a manner as
they had beheld it on that day. To crown the glory of the action,
Crichton bestowed the rich prize awarded for his victory, upon the
widows of the three persons who had lost their lives in fighting with
the gladiator.
In consequence of this and his other wonderful performances, the duke of
Mantua made choice of him for preceptor to his son, Vicentio de Gonzago,
who is represented as being of a riotous temper, and dissolute life. The
appointment was highly pleasing to the court. Crichton, to testify his
gratitude to his friends and benefactors, and to contribute to their
diversion, framed a comedy, wherein he exposed and ridiculed the
weaknesses and failures of the several occupations and pursuits in which
men are engaged. This composition was regarded as one of the most
ingenious satires that ever was made upon mankind. But the most
astonishing part of the story, is, that Crichton sustained fifteen
characters in the representation of his own play. Among the rest, he
acted the divine, the philosopher, the lawyer, the mathematician, the
physician, and the soldier, with such inimitable skill, that every time
he appeared upon the theatre, he seemed to be a different person.
From being the principal actor in a comedy, Crichton soon became the
subject of a dreadful tragedy. One night, during the time of Carnival,
as he was walking along the streets of Mantua, and playing upon his
guitar, he was attacked by half a dozen people in masks. The assailants
found that they had no ordinary person to deal with, for they were not
able to maintain their ground against him. At last the leader of the
company, being disarmed, pulled off his mask, and begged his life,
telling Crichton that he was the prince, his pupil. Crichton immediately
fell upon his knees, and expressed his concern for his mistake; alleging
that what he had done was only in his own defence, and that if Gonzago
had any design upon his life, he might always be master of it. Then,
taking his own sword by the point, he presented it to the prince, who
immediately received it, and was so irritated by the affront which he
thought he had sustained, in being foiled with all his attendants, that
he instantly ran Crichton through the heart.
His tragical end excited very great and general lamentation. The whole
court of Mantua went three-quarters of a year into mourning for him; and
numerous epitaphs and elegies were composed upon his death.
To account in some manner for the extent of Crichton's attainments, it
must be recollected that the first scholars of the age were his
instructors: for, besides having Rutherford as a tutor, it is stated by
Aldus Manutius, that he was also taught by Buchanan, Hessburn, and
Robertson; and hence his extraordinary proficiency in the languages, as
well as in the sciences, as then taught in the schools of Europe. It
must also be recollected that no expense would be spared in his
education, as his father was Lord Advocate in Queen Mary's reign, from
1561 to 1573, and his mother, the daughter of Sir James Stuart, was
allied to the royal family. It is evident, however, that these
advantages were seconded by powers of body and mind rarely united in any
human being.
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