Mickle, WILLIAM JULIUS

Mickle, WILLIAM JULIUS, translator of the Lusiad, was born in Langholm manse, Dumfries-shire, in 1734. He was educated at Edinburgh High School, failed in business as a brewer, and next went to London to make a living by writing. In 1765 he published his would-be Spenserian poem, The Concubine (in its next edition entitled Syr Martyn), and so prepared the way for his version rather than translation of the Lusiad of Camoens (1771-75), which he completed during four years' seclusion in a farmhouse. In 1779 he went to Lisbon as secretary to Commodore Johnstone, but his last years were spent in London, where he died in 1788. Of his other works none are now of importance. His ballad of Cumnor Hall, which suggested to Scott the romance of Kenilworth, is poor stuff, but the delightful song, 'There's nae luck about the house,' is long since safely assured of its immortality. An attempt has been made to ascribe this song to the ill-fated Greenock poetess, Jean Adam (1710-65), but her claim will not bear serious examination. See Athenæum for January 27, 1877. The best edition of Mickle's poems is that edited, with a Life, by the Rev. John Sim (1806).