SOURCE: Jack, Ronald D. S. “Drummond of Hawthornden: The Major Scottish Sources.” Studies in Scottish Literature 6, no. 1 (July 1968): 36-46.

In the following essay, Jack discusses Drummond's literary debt to such Scottish poets as William Fowler and William Alexander.

L. E. Kastner in his valuable edition of Drummond's poetry commits himself to the view, that “a full third of Drummond's compositions are translations, and betray in no uncertain manner the imitative temper of his Muse.”¹ With an impeccable knowledge of French, Italian and Spanish to back him up, Kastner then produces an impressive number of models in these languages and adds to them various English sources employed by Drummond. Later scholars have made their minor contributions but the European emphasis, begun by Kastner has throughout remained dominant. Drummond of course was a master of those imitative techniques advocated by contemporary critics and his knowledge of foreign literatures was undeniably...