William Tennant

William Tennant (May 15, 1784 - October 14, 1848) was a Scottish poet, linguist, and academic.

The Comic Poems of William Tennant (1784-1848), 1989. Courtesy Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

Life

Overview

Tennant, crippled from his birth, was born at Anstruther (commonly called Anster) in Fife. As a youth he was clerk to his brother, a corn-merchant, but devoted his leisure to the study of languages, and the literature of various countries. In 1813 he became parish schoolmaster of Lasswade, near Edinburgh, thereafter classical master at Dollar Academy, and in 1835 Prof. of Oriental Languages at St. Andrews. In 1812 he published Anster Fair, a mock-heroic poem, in ottava rima, full of fancy and humour, which at once brought him reputation. In later life he produced 2 tragedies, Cardinal Beaton and John Baliol, and 2 poems, The Thane of Fife and Papistry Stormed. He also issued a Syriac and Chaldee Grammar.

Youth and education

Tennant was born in Anstruther Easter, Fifeshire, son of Alexander Tennant, merchant and farmer, and his wife, Ann (Watson).

He lost the power of both feet in childhood, and used crutches through life.

His father's house had all along been a center of literary activity — visitors of the better class in town had met there on occasional evenings for mutual improvement and recreation — and Tennant's literary aspirations had been early stirred.

After receiving his elementary education in Anstruther burgh school, he studied at University of St. Andrews for 2 years (1799-1801). On settling at home in 1801 Tennant steadily pursued his literary studies.

Career

For a time he acted as clerk to his brother, a corn factor, in Glasgow and then at Anstruther. Owing to a crisis in business the brother disappeared, and Tennant suffered a short period of vicarious incarceration at the instance of the creditors. He began the study of Hebrew about this time, while continuing to increase his classical attainments.

In 1813 he formed, along with Captain Charles Gray and others, the Anstruther Musomanik Society, the members of which, according to their code of admission, assembled to enjoy "the corruscations [sic] of their own festive minds." Their main business was to spin rhymes, and some of them spun merrily and well. Honorary members of proved poetic worth were admitted, Sir Walter Scott assuring the members, on receipt of his diploma in 1815, of his gratification at the incident, and his best wishes for their healthy indulgence in "weel-timed daffing" (Conolly, Life and Writings of William Tennant, 213).

Also in 1813, Tennant was appointed parish schoolmaster of Dunino, 5 miles from St. Andrews. Here he not only matured his Hebrew scholarship, but gained a knowledge of Arabic, Syriac, and Persian.

In 1816, through the influence of Burns's friend George Thomson and others, Tennant became schoolmaster at Lasswade, Midlothian, where his literary note gained for him the intimate acquaintance of Lord Woodhouselee and Francis Jeffrey.

In 1819 he was elected teacher of classical and oriental languages in Dollar academy, Clackmannanshire, and held the post with distinction till 1834. He edited in 1819 the Poems of Allan Ramsay, with prefatory biography.

About 1830 Tennant became a contributor to the Edinburgh Literary Journal, furnishing prose translations from Greek and German, and discussing with Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, the propriety of issuing a new metrical version of the Psalms. This correspondence was subsequently issued in a heterogeneous bookseller's collection, entitled Pamphlets, 1830.

In 1834 Jeffrey, then lord-advocate for Scotland, appointed Tennant professor of Hebrew and oriental languages in St. Mary's College, St. Andrews. He retired, owing to ill-health, in 1848.

He died, unmarried, at Devon Grove, and was buried at Anstruther.

Writing

While at the university Tennant made some respectable verse translations; and a Scottish ballad, "The Anster Concert," 1811, is an early proof of uncommon observation and descriptive vigour.

In Anster Fair, published anonymously in 1812, Tennant instantly achieved greatness. Based on the diverting ballad of "Maggie Lauder" (doubtfully assigned to Francis Sempill), it is an exceedingly clever delineation of provincial merry-making. It is written in the octave stanza of Fairfax's Tasso, "shut," as the author explains in his short preface, "with the alexandrine of Spenser, that its close may be more full and sounding.’ For this stanza, without Tennant's device of the alexandrine, Byron gained a name in his Beppo, and he gave it permanent distinction in Don Juan.

A reissue in 1814 won from Jeffrey, in November of that year, an encomium in the Edinburgh Review. 6 editions of the poem appeared in the author's lifetime, and a "people's edition" was issued in 1849.

In 1822 Tennant published the Thane of Fife, based on the Danish invasion of the 9th century. In 1823 appeared Cardinal Beaton, a tragedy in 5 acts, and in 1825 John Baliol, an historical drama. Nowise dramatic, these works, except in occasional passages, have but little poetic distinction.

In 1827, in his Papistry Storm'd; or, The dingin' doon o' the Cathedral (i.e. the destruction of St. Andrews Cathedral at the time of the Reformation), Tennant affected, with fair success but too persistently, the method and style of Sir David Lyndsay.

To the Scottish Christian Herald of 1836-1837 he contributed five Hebrew Idylls. In 1840 he published a Syriac and Chaldee Grammar, a trustworthy and popular text-book. His Hebrew Dramas, founded on incidents in Bible history Jephthah's daughter, Esther, destruction of Sodom appeared in 1840. Not without a degree of freshness and vigour, these are somewhat lacking in sustained interest.

Critical introduction

by William Minto

The author of Anster Fair is an extraordinary instance of a single-poem poet. When Byron translated the opening Canto of Pulci’s Morgante Maggiore, he spoke of the Italian poet as ‘the founder of a new style of poetry lately sprung up in England,’ explaining that he ‘alluded to that of the ingenious Whistlecraft.’ Tennant, however, anticipated the ingenious Whistlecraft in the introduction of this new style into the English poetry of the 19th century. He was the first to use with masterly effect the style which Byron associated for all time with Don Juan. After taking rank at an early age among the masters of mock-heroic, he abandoned this field, essayed the true-heroic, and failed, but never returned to his 1st love.

Whether Tennant’s poetic vein was exhausted, or crushed beneath his weight of learning, or simply abandoned as out of keeping with his grave and reverend professorial character, we have no means of knowing. The abundance and freshness of the vein almost negatives the hypothesis of exhaustion. Even when read after Don Juan, Anster Fair must excite admiration by the flexibility and rapid freedom of its verse. There is no trace of poverty in the ornaments embroidered on the fantastically cut garment; the artist runs riot in the wealth of his fantastic imagination, spending prodigally as if from an inexhaustible purse.

Tennant has told us himself that it was in laughing over Peebles to the Play, the humorous extravaganza ascribed to James I of Scotland, that the thought of Anster Fair occurred to him, and his diction shows that he was a delighted student of Spenser and Shakespeare. It was probably from these native sources and not from the Italian masters that he drew his inspiration. His discipleship to Spenser is proclaimed in the Alexandrine with which he closes his eight-rhyme stanza. But he was no mere imitator and copyist; home-grown popular legends and popular sports supplied him with his materials, and he handled them boldly in his own fashion, transporting them into a many-coloured atmosphere of humorous imagination.

Recognition

At Anstruther an obelisk monument with Latin inscription was raised to Tennant's memory.

Publications

Poetry

• Anster Fair: A poem in six cantos. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, for William Cockburn, 1812.
• Anster Fair: A poem in six cantos; with other poems. Edinburgh: Andrew Balfour, for George Goldie / London: Henry Colburn / Dublin : John Cumming, 1814.
• The Dominie's Disaster. Cupar, UK: R. Tullis, 1816.
• The Thane of Fife: A poem in six cantos. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable/ Anstruther, UK: William Cockburn / London: Hurst, Robinson, 1822.
• Papistry Storm'd; or, The dingin' doon o' the Cathedral. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1827.
• Comic Poems (edited by Maurice Lindsay & Alexander Scott). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1989.

Plays

• Cardinal Beaton: A drama, in five acts. Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for A. Constable / London: Hurst, Robinson, 1823.
• John Baliol: An historical drama, in five acts. Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, for A. Constable / London: Hurst, Robinson, 1825.
• Hebrew Dramas. Edinburgh: J. Menzies / London: D. Bogue, 1845.

Non-fiction

• Critical remarks on the Psalms of David, and their various English and Latin versions. Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1830.
• Synopsis of Chaldaic and Syriac Grammar. London: Smith, Elder, 1840.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Bayne, Thomas Wilson (1898) "Tennant, William" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 56 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 64-65  . Wikisource, Web, Dec. 16, 2016.

External links

Poems

• Rab the Ranter's Bag-pipe playing (from Anster Fair)
• William Tennant at PoemHunter ("Ode to Peace")
• William Tennant at Poetry Nook ("Ode to Peace")
• Anster Fair: Canto I, Canto II, Canto III, Canto IV, Canto V, Canto VI

Books

• William Tennant at Amazon.com

About

• William Tennant at Electric Scotland
• William Tennant at English Poetry, 1579-1830

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