INTRODUCTION. EW materials exist for a Life of WILLIAM DRUMMOND; and with the little that is known the public has long been familiar, both by the biography prefixed to the folio edition of his works by Bishop Sage, and the more recent, yet scarcely more novel sketches that have from time to time appeared in the various compilations devoted to the memories of our more distinguished countrymen. What little else can be derived from his autograph Adversaria, preserved in the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, has been carefully culled by the minute accuracy of Mr. Laing, illustrative of his extracts from them in the Transactions of that body, subsequently referred to. From the like source the same gentleman has, with equal felicity, prepared for the Shakespeare Society that very interesting volume of the series of its publications which records the Conversations of our poet with his friend and admirer-Benjamin Jonson. |