WILLIAM

See also:

• JULIUS

JULIUS

See also:

• WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE (1735-1788)

MICKLE (1735-1788)  , Scottish poet, son of the minister of Langholm, Dumfries-shire, was born on the 28th of September 1735 . He was educated at the Edinburgh ii.gh school, and in his fifteenth year entered business as abrewer . His father purchased the business, and on his death William Mickle became the owner; but he neglected his affairs, devoting his time to literature, and before long became bankrupt . In 1763 he went to London, where in 1765 he published " a poem in the manner of Spenser " called the Concubine (after-wards Syr Marlyn); was appointed corrector to the Clarendon Press, and translated the Lusiad of Camoens into heroic couplets (specimen published 1771, whole work, 1775) . So great was the repute of this translation that when Mickle—appointed secretary to Commodore Johnstone—visited Lisbon in 1779, the king of Portugal gave him a public reception . On his return to London he was appointed one of the agents responsible for the distribution of prize-money, and this employment, in addition to the sums brought him by his translation of the Lusiad, placed him in comfortable circumstances . It has been suggested that the Scottish poem " There's nae luck aboot the hoose " was Mickle's . It is more likely, however, that Jean Adams was the author . Scott read and admired Mickle's poems in his youth, and founded Kenilworth on his ballad of Cumnor Hall, which appeared in Thomas Evans's Old Ballads . . . with some of Modern Date (1784) .