A critical study of the works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty

Craik, Roger James (1984) A critical study of the works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

The primary aim of this thesis is to provide the first detailed critical study of the works of Sir Thomas Urquhart. The first of the four chapters acts both as a review of Urquhart's life and as a close investigation of his early work, such as his two volumes of epigrams, his geometrical Trissotetras, and his pedigree, the Pan tochrono canon. By discussing each book in terms of its literary merit, its contemporary significance, and its place in Urquhart's work as a whole, this chapter postulates that these minor writings are most usefully understood in terms of each other. The second chapter, on Urquhart's universal language, adopts the same approach, making also a careful comparison of Urquhart's linguistic views with those of Mersenne and other seventeenth century language planners to prove the seriousness and originality of Urquhart'sundertaking. In the third chapter, a scrupulous analysis of Urquhart's prose in Ekskubalauron, his idiosyncratic survey of seventeenth century Scotland, is carried out in order to determine the relationship between Urquhart's prose style and that of contemporary writers. Next, the conclusions from all three previous chapters are, in the final section, used as evidence that Urquhart's wide-ranging traits and interests find their ideal application in his translation of Rabelais. As well as exploring Rabelais's influence on English literature before Urquhart, this concluding chapter identifies the remarkable re-emergence of many of Urquhart's former enthusiasms, scrutinises his processes of translation, and argues that only in this translation does he succeed in combining zest, digression, and a unique manner of writing to form his single masterpiece.

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