He expresses a wish that English writers would follow the Italian example. Addressing Spenser, Bryskett entreats the poet to turn his great knowledge of philosophy to such account, and as a beginning to give them a philosophical lecture on the spot. Spenser declines to comply with the request on the ground that he had already undertaken the ‘Faerie Queene,’ ‘a work tending to the same effect;’ and finally the poet invites Bryskett to read to the company his own translation of Giraldo, which Bryskett willingly consents to do. Bryskett includes in the published work a few remarks made by Spenser in the course of the reading on various philosophical problems discussed in the book.
Soon after Sidney’s death, in 1586, Spenser collected a series of elegies under the title of ‘Astrophel.’ To this collection, which was published with ‘Colin Clout come home again’ in 1595, Bryskett contributed two elegies. One of his poems is entitled ‘A Pastorall Æclogue,’ and is signed with his initials; the other is called ‘The Mourning Muse of Thestylis.’ These two pieces were entered in the Stationers’ Register as ‘The Mourning Muses of Lod. Bryskett vpon the deathe of the most noble sir Philip Sydney, knight,’ and licensed to the printer, John Wolfe, on 22 Aug. 1587. But they do not appear to have been published separately.
In Spenser’s collected sonnets, ‘Amoretti and Epithalamion’ (1595), the one numbered 33 is addressed to Bryskett. Spenser here apologises to his friend for his delay in completing the ‘Faerie Queene.’
[Sir Robert Cecil’s Letters (Camd. Soc.), 160 and note; Fox Bourne's Life of Sir Philip Sidney; Todd’s Spenser; Ritson's English Poets: Spencer's Works (ed. Grosart), 1882; Cole MS. Athenæ Cantab.; Cal. Irish State Papers.]
BRYSON, ALEXANDER, M.D. (1802–1869), medical writer, began his professional studies at Edinburgh and continued them at Glasgow, where he took his doctor's degree and was admitted a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. He also became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London. He entered the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1827, and was promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1836, deputy inspector-general in 1854, and inspector-general in 1855. In January 1864, on the retirement of Sir John Liddell, he was appointed director-general of the medical department of the navy, from which post he retired on 15 April 1869. He was appointed honorary physician to the queen in 1859, and subsequently hs was made a companion of the order of the Bath. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society. His death took place at Barnes, Surrey, on 12 Dec. 1869. He was the author of a treatise on ‘The Climate and Diseases of the African Station,’ and of ‘An Account of the Origin, Spread, and Decline of the Epidemic levers of Sierra Leone,' London, 1849, 8vo. For a long time he was the head of the department of naval medical statistics, and he compiled the ‘Statistical Reports on the Health of the Navy.’ He also contributed a valuable article ‘On Medicine and Medical Statistics’ to the ‘Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry.'
[Lancet, 18 Dec. 1869, p. 860; British Medical Journal, 18 Dec, 1869, p. 670; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Times, 15 Dec. 1869.]
BRYSON, JAMES (1730?–1796), Irish presbyterian minister, son of John Bryson, who died at Holywood, co. Down, on 23 Nov. 1788, aged (according to his tombstone) 103 years, is said to have belonged to a. family originally connected with co. Donegal. His first sermon was preached at Newtownards, co. Down, 26 April 1760. He was licensed by the Armagh presbytery at Clare, co. Armagh, 1 June 1762. After preaching for over a year at Banbridge in 1763-4 he was ordained minister of Lisburn by Bangor presbytery on 7 June 1764, subscribinfg a cautious formulary, in general approval of the Westminster Confession. He soon acquired the repute of an able reacher. A new meeting-house, built for him, was opened 18 May 1766. While it was buildin the use of the cathedral church was ranted to his congregation between church hours. In 1773 he accepted a call to the second congregation of Belfast, stipulating that the congregation should retain its connection with the general synod, a tie which then demanded no express dogmatic bond. In 1778 he was elected moderator of the general synod which met at Lurgan. Bryson was a. freemason, and frequently preached before lodges, both in his own and other meeting-houses, and in churches of the establishment. His printed sermon of 24 June 1782 was preache before ‘the Orange Lodge of Belfast, No. 257.’ The existing Orange Society, an offshoot of masonry, first appears as a distinct institution in 1795. Some scandal arose respecting Bryson’s private life. It does not appear that the matter came before the church courts, but Bryson retired from the second congreation, taking with him a following. His friends set about building a small meeting-house for him in Donegal Street, and
