PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Of William Fowler, a writer of amatory verses, and one of the poets who frequented the court of James VI. before his accession to the throne of England, scarcely any facts are known. In 1627, two MS. volumes of his poems were presented by Drummond of Hawthornden to the Library of Edinburgh College, where they are still preserved. One of these, in quarto, intitled, "The Tarantula of Love," consists of sonnets in the manner of Petrarch: the other, in folio, is a translation of the Triumphs of Petrarch. In the title to this volume, Fowler is designated, "P. of Hawicke," by which, I imagine, Parson is intended. As Fowler, however, has always been an uncommon name in Teviotdale, it is not certain that he was a native of that district. The dedication of his "Triumphs of Petrarke," to Jean Fleming, Lady Thirlstaine, the wife of Chancellor Maitland, is dated from Edinburgh, December 17. 1587. From the panegyrical sonnet prefixed to the volume by Robert Hudson, Fowler appears then to have been a young man:
With poets als, bedecked with scarlet gowns;
Before, with sacred troop Mercurius brought
A youth, upon whose face was yet but downs';
