(1570-1638)
This Scottish poet was born in his father's castle of Kinaldie, near St.
Andrews, Fifeshire, in 1570. He was descended from the Norman family of
De Vescy, a younger son of which settled in Scotland and received from
Robert Bruce the lands of Aytoun in Berwickshire. Kincardie came into
the family about 1539. Robert Aytoun was educated at St. Andrews, taking
his degree in 1588, traveled on the Continent like other wealthy
Scottish gentlemen, and studied law at the University of Paris.
Returning in 1603, he delighted James I. by a Latin poem congratulating
him on his accession to the English throne. Thereupon the poet received
an invitation to court as Groom of the Privy Chamber. He rose rapidly,
was knighted in 1612, and made Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King James
and private secretary to Queen Anne. When Charles I. ascended the
throne, Aytoun was retained, and held many important posts. According to
Aubrey, "he was acquainted with all the witts of his time in England."
Sir Robert was essentially a court poet, and belonged to the cultivated
circle of Scottish favorites that James gathered around him; yet there
is no mention of him in the gossipy diaries of the period, and almost
none in the State papers. He seems, however, to have been popular: Ben
Jonson boasts that Aytoun "loved me dearly." It is not surprising that
his mild verses should have faded in the glorious light of the
contemporary poets.
[Illustration: ROBERT AYTOUN]
He wrote in Greek and French, and many of his Latin poems were published
under the title 'Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum' (Amsterdam, 1637). His
English poems on such themes as a 'Love Dirge,' 'The Poet Forsaken,'
'The Lover's Remonstrance,' 'Address to an Inconstant Mistress,' etc.,
do not show depth of emotion. He says of himself:--
"Yet have I been a lover by report,
Yea, I have died for love as others do;
But praised be God, it was in such a sort
That I revived within an hour or two."
The lines beginning "I do confess thou'rt smooth and fair," quoted
below with their adaptation by Burns, do not appear in his MSS.,
collected by his heir Sir John Aytoun, nor in the edition of his works
with a memoir prepared by Dr. Charles Rogers, published in Edinburgh in
1844 and reprinted privately in 1871. Dean Stanley, in his 'Memorials of
Westminster Abbey,' accords to him the original of 'Auld Lang Syne,'
which Rogers includes in his edition. Burns's song follows the version
attributed to Francis Temple.
Aytoun passed his entire life in luxury, died in Whitehall Palace in
1638, and was the first Scottish poet buried in Westminster Abbey. His
memorial bust was taken from a portrait by Vandyke.