William Tennant (poet)

William Tennant (May 18, 1784 - February 14, 1848), Scottish scholar and poet, was born at Anstruther, Fife.

He was lame from childhood. His father sent him to the university of St Andrews, where he remained for two years, and on his return he became clerk to one of his brothers, a corn factor. In his leisure time he mastered Hebrew as well as German and Italian.

His study of Italian verse bore fruit in the mock-heroic poem of Anster Fair (1812), which gave an amusing account of the marriage of "Maggie Lauder," the heroine of the popular Scottish ballad. It was written in the ottava rima adopted a few years later by "the ingenious brothers Whistlecraft" (John Hookham Frere), and turned to such brilliant account by Byron in Don Juan. The poem, unhackneyed in form, full of fantastic classical allusions applied to the simple story, and brimming over with humour, had an immediate success.

Tennant's brother, meanwhile, had failed in business, and the poet became in 1812 schoolmaster of the parish of Dunino, near St Andrews. From this he was promoted (1816) to the school of Lasswade, near Edinburgh; from that (1819) to a mastership in Dollar academy; from that (1834), by Lord Jeffrey, to the professorship of oriental languages in St Andrews. The Thane of Fife (1822), shows the same humorous imagination as Anster Fair, but the subject was more remote from general interest, and the poem fell flat.

He also wrote a poem in the Scottish dialect, Papistry Stormed (1827); two historical dramas, Cardinal Beaton (1823) and John Baliol (1825); and a series of Hebrew Dramas (1845), founded on incidents in Bible history. He died at Devon Grove, on the 14th of February 1848.

A Memoir of Tennant by MF Connolly was published in 1861.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.