John Leyden

The Leyden Monument, near Denholm, Scottish Borders, UK, designed by Hector H. Orrock & sculpted by Handyside Ritchie, 1861, in memory of John Leyden (1775-1811). Photo by Walter Baxter, 2008. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Dr. John Leyden (8 September 1775 - 28 August 1811) was a Scottish poet and orientalist.

Life

Overview

Leyden, born. at Denholm, Roxburghshire, gave early evidence of superior ability, and his father, who was a shepherd, destined him for the Church. He accordingly entered the University of Edinburgh, where he had a brilliant career, showing a special aptitude for languages and natural history. In 1800 he became a licentiate of the Church, but continued his scientific and linguistic studies, and also began to write. In 1799 he published a sketch of the Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Western Africa, and he contributed to Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and to "Monk" Lewis's Tales of Wonder. His enthusiasm for Oriental learning led to application being made on his behalf to Government for some situation which would make his acquirements available for the public service, but the only opening which could be obtained was that of a ship's surgeon. By extraordinary exertions Leyden qualified himself for this in a few months, and set sail for the East, after finishing his poem, Scenes of Infancy. Soon after his arrival at Madras his health gave way, and after some time passed in Prince of Wales Island he visited the Malay Peninsula, and some of the East Indian Islands, collecting vast stores of linguistic and ethnographical information, on which was founded his great Dissertation on the Indo-Persian, Indo-Chinese, and Dekkan Languages (1807). Soon after this Leyden was appointed a professor in the Bengal College, and a little later a judge in Calcutta. In 1811 he accompanied the Governor-General, Lord Minto, to Java. His health, however, had been undermined by his almost super-human exertions, and immediately after landing he contracted a fever, of which he died in 3 days at the early age of 36. 2 Oriental works translated by him, Sejârah Malâyu (Malay Annals) and Commentaries of Baber were published respectively in 1821 and 1826.

Youth and education

Leyden, son of Isabella (Scott) (1748-1839) and John Lamb Leyden (1746-1839), was born on 8 September 1775 at Denholm, in the parish of Cavers, Roxburghshire.

He received some elementary schooling at Kirktown. Most of his early education, though, came from his grandmother, who taught him to read; by the age of 8 he had memorized most of the Bible and read John Barbour’s The Bruce and Blind Harry’s The Wallace, as well as The Arabian Nights, and the works of Homer and Milton.

From 1790 to 1797 he was a student at the University of Edinburgh, greatly distinguishing himself as a scholar and reading very widely (Life of Scott, i. 324). In the vacations he studied natural science and the Scandinavian and modern languages, besides Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. His professional pursuits included both philosophy and theology, and he gave some attention to medicine. He practised public speaking at the University Literary Society. Among his associates were Brougham, Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Horner, and Thomas Brown.

From 1796 to 1798 he was tutor to the sons of Mr. Campbell, Fairfield, Edinburgh, accompanying them in 1797-8 to St. Andrews, where he was licensed as a preacher. His pulpit appearances were not successful (Constable and his Correspondents, i. 194).

Early career

Leyden as a student had made the acquaintance of Anderson, editor of the British Poets, through whom he contributed to the Edinburgh Literary Magazine. He early welcomed the Pleasures of Hope (Beattie, Life of Campbell, iii. 253), although subsequently he and Campbell had a ridiculous quarrel with some amusing consequences (Life of Scott, vi. 326).

He married Isabella Burn (1776-1842), and the couple had 5 children.

In 1799 he came to know Richard Heber, then studying Scottish literature in Edinburgh. About the same time Leyden published A Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Western Africa at the close of the Eighteenth Century, which was enlarged to 2 volumes by Hugh Murray, 1817. To Lewis's Tales of Wonder, 1801, he contributed "The Elf King," a ballad, and on the combined recommendation of Heber and Anderson he edited for Constable the Complaynt of Scotland, with an elaborate preliminary dissertation and an excellent glossary. Although not free from error the work gave a wholesome stimulus to the study of early Scottish literature (see Dr. Murray's edition of the Complaynt, Early English Text Society).

Heber introduced him (1801) to Scott, whom he materially helped with the earlier volumes of the Border Minstrelsy (1802), contributing 5 poems to vol. i. and material for the learned disquisition on fairies to vol. ii. (ib. i. 326). About the same time he made the acquaintance of Ritson, but their mutual sympathy was limited.

While accompanying 2 Germans in 1800 to the Scottish highlands and the Hebrides, he investigated the Ossianic question, and recovered from Beattie at Aberdeen the anonymous poem "Albania," which he published along with Wilson's "Clyde" in his Scottish Descriptive Poems, 1802. The poem lacks symmetry, but has descriptive and patriotic passages of great power and beauty.

For 6 months in 1802 he edited the 3rd series of the Scots Magazine, contributing both prose and verse. In several of his miscellaneous lyrics Leyden shows his best poetic quality.

In the orient

Meanwhile, in default of a church appointment, Leyden was thinking of emulating Mungo Park's example as an African discoverer, when William Dundas secured for him the post of assistant-surgeon at Madras. His previous medical studies enabled him in 6 months to take at St. Andrews a nominal M.D. degree. For some months he zealously studied oriental languages, prepared for publication his Scenes of Infancy, and passed a pleasant time in London with Heber and George Ellis. He reached Madras on 19 August 1803.

Originally Leyden had charge of the Madras general hospital. In January 1804, as surgeon and naturalist, he accompanied the commissioners over the Mysore provinces taken from Tippoo Sultaun, and prepared a report on the geology, the diseases, the crops, and the languages of the districts traversed. The great strain produced a fever in November, and he stayed at Seringapatam, where he was befriended by Sir John Malcolm. When convalescent he studied Sanscrit, and translated from Persian and Hindustani.

From May to September 1805 he travelled for his health through Malabar on to Cochin and Quilon, whence he sailed for Penang. While being chased on the voyage by a French privateer, Leyden characteristically composed a vigorous ode to his Malay krees, or dagger. In Penang he wrote a "Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations," afterwards printed in Asiatic Researches’ vol. x.

Returning to India in 1806, Leyden settled at Calcutta. His elaborate essay submitted to the government in 1807 on the Indo-Persian, Indo-Chinese, and Dekkan languages led to his election as a member of the Asiatic Society and as professor of Hindustani in the Calcutta college. But he soon accepted Lord Minto's offer of the post of judge of the 24 pargunnahs of Calcutta, and at the beginning of 1809 was appointed commissioner of the court of requests in Calcutta. While holding that office he undertook grammars of the Malay and Pracrit tongues, besides many translations.

Towards the end of 1810 Lord Minto appointed Leyden assay-master of the mint at Calcutta, and in 1811 he accompanied Minto to Java, "to assist," as he wrote to his father on the voyage, "in settling the country when conquered, and as interpreter for the Malay language" (White, Supplement to Sir Walter Scott's Memoir, p. 103). When the expedition halted for some days at Malacca, Leyden journeyed inland, scrutinising "original Malays" and visiting sulphurous hot wells. Java was reached on 4 August, and as there was no opposition at Batavia a leisurely possession was effected. Leyden's literary zeal took him into an unventilated native library; fever supervened, and he died at Cornelis, after 3 days' illness, 28 August 1811.

Writing

Rev. James Morton edited Leyden's Poetical Remains, with memoir, in 1819; Poems and Ballads of John Leyden, with Scott's "Memoir" supplemented by Robert White, appeared in 1858; and a centenary volume of the Scenes of Infancy, with biography by Rev. W.W. Tulloch, was published in 1875.

Of his translations into English his Malay Annals, with introduction by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, appeared in 1821, and his Commentaries of Baber, completed by William Erskine, in 1826.

He contributed to the Scots Magazine of February 1802 an amusing notice of the "Edinburgh Booksellers," reprinted in Literary Gems, 1826.

Recognition

Before the Literary Society of Bombay, William Erskine read a eulogium, in which he claimed for Leyden that in 8 years he had done almost as much for Asia as the combined scholarship of centuries had done for Europe — he had "nearly effected a classification of its various languages and their kindred dialects" (ib. p. 111). Sir John Malcolm, besides a high estimate delivered at a visitation of the college at Fort William, sent to the Bombay Courier a poetical tribute to his friend's memory (Leyden, Poetical Remains, xci). Scott, in addition to frequent references, embalmed his "bright and brief career" in the Lord of the Isles, iv. xi. Scott also contributed his "Memoir of Leyden" to the Edinburgh Annual Register of 1811.

Lord Cockburn, after referring to his unconscious egotism and his uncouth aspect and uncompromising demeanor — characteristics also noted by Scott and Lockhart — declares there was "no walk in life, depending on ability, where Leyden could not have shone" (Memorials of his Time, 179). The Ettrick Shepherd bewailed the loss of the poet's "glowing measure," and Lockhart fully recognised his extraordinary abilities and attainments as a scholar (Life of Scott, i. 324, &c.) Constable, for whom he edited the Complaynt of Scotland, had a high appreciation of him (Constable and his Correspondents, i. 190).

A monument to his memory was erected by public subscription at Denholm in 1861, and there also in 1875 the centenary of his birth was celebrated under the presidency of Lord Neaves.

Publications

Poetry

• Scenes of Infancy: Descriptive of Teviotdale. Edinburgh: James Ballantyne, for Manners and Miller / A. Constable / T.N. Longman & O. Rees, London, 1803, 1811; Kelso, UK: J. & J.H. Rutherfurd, 1875.
• "The Elf King", in Tales of Wonder (edited by M.G. Lewis). Dublin: P. Wogan, 1805.
• Poems and Ballads. Kelso, UK: 1858.
• Poetical Works. Edinburgh: W.P. Nimmo, 1875
• Poetical Remains (edited by James Morton). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1819. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV

Non-fiction

• A Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Western Africa: At the close of the eighteenth century. Edinburgh: J. Moir, for T. Brown / J. Symington,/ Vernor & Hood, London, 1799; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Translated

• Memoirs of Zehir-Ed-Din Muhammed Babur, emperor of Hindustan. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1826; London & New York: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1921
  • abridged as Memoirs of Babur, Emperor of India. London: 1909.
• Malay Annals. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821.

Edited

• Scottish Descriptive Poems; with some illustrations of Scottish literary antiquities. Edinburgh: 1803.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Bayne, Thomas Wilson (1893) "Leyden, John" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 33 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 215-216 . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 5, 2018.

External links

Poems

• "Dirge of the Departed Year"
• John Leyden at AllPoetry (2 poems)
• John Leyden at Poetry Atlas (15 poems)

Books

• John Leyden at Amazon.com

About

• Dr John Leyden: A forgotten man of influence at The Scotsman

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Leyden, John