Crichton
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JAMES (krī'ton), surnamed THE ADMIRABLE; born in Scotland, in 1560. His father was a lord of session, and through his mother he was of royal descent. He was educated at the university of St. Andrew's, and graduated M. A. in 1575. He was one of the young men selected to be fellow-students of the young king, James VI., under the direction of George Buchanan. He then went to France, where he continued his studies, and also, as he adhered to the Roman Church, took part in the war carried on by Henry III. against the Huguenots. The beauty of his person, the strength and agility he displayed, joined to his multifarious accomplishments and surprising capacity of eloquent talk, made him the admiration of all. About 1580 he went to Italy, visiting probably Genoa and Rome, and then Venice, where he was warmly received by the great printer Aldus. He was introduced to the Doge and Senate, created astonishment at Venice and Padua, by his brilliant offhand discourses on philosophy, theology, and other high themes, and his challenge to disputation in any of several languages, and on either side of any contro- Íversy. He next went to Mantua, and was appointed tutor to the son of a duke. Attacked in the streets one night by a party of men armed and masked, he overcame them by his superior skill, and recognized his pupil, to whom he at once presented his sword. The young prince immediately ran him through with it, July 3, 1582.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline Collier's gave in 1921 is still the one you find in reference books: a Scots prodigy, an M.A. from St Andrews at about fifteen, open challenges to disputation at Venice and Padua, and a violent death at Mantua in his early twenties. What has shifted is how much of it historians will vouch for. Much of the marvellous detail — the mastery of a dozen languages, the flawless offhand discourses, the street fight and the pupil's sword — reaches us through Sir Thomas Urquhart's wildly extravagant 'Jewel' of 1652, and modern scholars treat it as legend built on a real and genuinely gifted young man rather than as reportage; the claim that he was schooled alongside James VI under George Buchanan is also doubted. Meanwhile the phrase itself has drifted away from him: since J. M. Barrie's play 'The Admirable Crichton' (1902), filmed repeatedly through the twentieth century, most people who use the name mean a resourceful butler.
Written for this edition, 2026.