William Edmondstoune Aytoun

William Edmondstoune Aytoun
File:Willian Aytoun Bust 2.jpg Engraving by J.C. Armytage from the bust of Aytoun by Scottish sculptor Patric Park
Born	(1813-06-21)21 June 1813 21 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh
Died	Blackhills, by Lhanbryde, Moray
Resting place	Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh
Occupation	Writer to the Signet (1835) Advocate (1840) Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Edinburgh University (1845-65) Sheriff, Orkney & Shetland (1852-65)
Nationality	Scottish
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Education	Edinburgh Academy (1824-8)
Alma mater	Edinburgh University
Notable works	Lays of The Scottish Cavaliers (1848)
Spouse	1st Jane Emily Wilson (d. 1859) 2nd Fearnie Jemima Kinnear (m. 1863) (d. 1904)
Children	No issue
Relatives	Father-in-law: Professor John Wilson Brother-in-law: John Thomson Gordon

File:21 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh.jpg

21 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh, birthplace of William Edmondstoune Aytoun

William Edmondstoune Aytoun FRSE (21 June 1813 – 4 August 1865) was a Scottish lawyer and poet.

Life

Born at 21 Abercromby Place in Edinburgh, he was the only son of Joan Keith (d. 1861) and Roger Aytoun (d. 1843), a writer to the signet, and was related to Sir Robert Aytoun. To his mother, a woman of culture, he owed his early fondness for literature (including ballad poetry), his political sympathies, and his admiration for the House of Stuart. At the age of eleven years he was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, and from there to the University of Edinburgh.

File:William Aytoun.jpg

File:William Edmondstoune Aytoun's grave, Dean Cemetery.JPG

William Edmondstoune Aytoun's grave, Dean Cemetery

During 1833 he spent a few months in London studying law, but in September of that year he went to study German at Aschaffenburg, where he remained until April 1834. He then resumed his legal studies in his father's chambers, was admitted a writer to the signet in 1835, and five years later was certified a Scottish lawyer. By his own confession, though he followed the law, he never could overtake it. His first publication, a volume entitled Poland, Homer, and other Poems, in which he expressed his eager interest in the state of Poland, had been published in 1832.

While in Germany he made a translation in blank verse of the first part of Faust; but, forestalled by other translations, it was never published. In 1836 he made his earliest contributions to Blackwood's Magazine, translations from Uhland, and from 1839 until his death he remained on the staff of Blackwood's. In it appeared most of his humorous prose stories, such as The Glenmutchkin Railway, How I Became a Yeoman, and How I Stood for the Dreepdaily Burghs. In the same magazine his main poetical work was published, the Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and a novel, partly autobiographical, Norman Sinclair. About 1841 he became acquainted with Theodore Martin, and in association with him wrote a series of humorous articles on the fashions and follies of the time, in which were interspersed the verses which afterwards became popular as the Bon Gaultier Ballads (1855).

His reputation as a poet is based mainly on Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1848). In 1845 he was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. His lectures attracted large numbers of students, raising the attendance from 30 to 150. His services in support of the Tory party, especially during the Anti-Corn-Law struggle, received official recognition with his appointment (1852) as Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, a role he served for 13 years.

Another work was Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, or The Student of Badajoz (1854) under the nom-de-plume of T. Percy Jones, a mock-tragedy in which he parodied the poems of the Spasmodic poets. It was intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including Gilfillan, Dobell, Bailey, and Alexander Smith and it played a decisive role in ending the vogue for such works.

He was married to Jane Emily Wilson, the daughter of Professor Wilson (Christopher North). She died in 1859 and he then remarried, his second wife being Fearnie Jemima Kinnear, who died in 1904. He had no children by either wife.

He is buried close to Professor Wilson in the south section of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

References

•  
• Cousin, John William (1910). " Aytoun, William Edmonstone". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 
• Rosaline Masson, Pollock and Aytoun. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1898, ("Famous Scots Series")

External links

•  
• Works by William Edmondstoune Aytoun at Project Gutenberg
• Works by William Edmondstoune Aytoun at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• William Edmonstoune Aytoun at University of Toronto Libraries