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William Tennant (May 18, 1784 - February 14, 1848), Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 scholar and poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, was born at Anstruther
Anstruther

Anstruther is a small town in Fife, Scotland. The two Anstruthers are divided by a small stream called Dreel Burn. Anstruther lies 9 miles south-southeast of St Andrews....
, Fife
Fife

Fife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire....
.

He was lame from childhood. His father sent him to the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between 1410 and 1413....
, where he remained for two years, and on his return he became clerk to one of his brothers, a corn factor. In his leisure time he mastered Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 as well as German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 and Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
.

His study of Italian verse bore fruit in the mock-heroic poem of Anster Fair (1812), which gave an amusing account of the marriage of "Maggie Lauder," the heroine of the popular Scottish ballad
Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative story and set to music. Ballads were characteristic of particularly British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the nineteenth century and used extensively across Europe and later north America, Australia and north Africa....
.






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William Tennant (May 18, 1784 - February 14, 1848), Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 scholar and poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, was born at Anstruther
Anstruther

Anstruther is a small town in Fife, Scotland. The two Anstruthers are divided by a small stream called Dreel Burn. Anstruther lies 9 miles south-southeast of St Andrews....
, Fife
Fife

Fife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire....
.

He was lame from childhood. His father sent him to the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between 1410 and 1413....
, where he remained for two years, and on his return he became clerk to one of his brothers, a corn factor. In his leisure time he mastered Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 as well as German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 and Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
.

His study of Italian verse bore fruit in the mock-heroic poem of Anster Fair (1812), which gave an amusing account of the marriage of "Maggie Lauder," the heroine of the popular Scottish ballad
Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative story and set to music. Ballads were characteristic of particularly British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the nineteenth century and used extensively across Europe and later north America, Australia and north Africa....
. It was written in the ottava rima
Ottava rima

Ottava rima is a rhyme stanza form of Italy origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it also came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works....
 adopted a few years later by "the ingenious brothers Whistlecraft" (John Hookham Frere
John Hookham Frere

John Hookham Frere , was an England diplomat and author.He was born in London. His father, John Frere, a gentleman of a good Suffolk family, had been educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and would have been senior wrangler in 1763 but for the redoubtable competition of William Paley; his mother, daughter of John Hookham, a rich London mer...
), and turned to such brilliant account by Byron in Don Juan
Don Juan

Don Juan or Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, by Tirso de Molina, is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630....
. The poem, unhackneyed in form, full of fantastic classical allusions applied to the simple story, and brimming over with humour, had an immediate success.

Tennant's brother, meanwhile, had failed in business, and the poet became in 1812 schoolmaster of the parish of Dunino
Dunino

Dunino is a village in the East Neuk of Fife. It is 10 km from the nearest town, St Andrews and 17 km from the fishing village of Anstruther. It is a small village with no local shops or services....
, near St Andrews
St Andrews

St Andrews is a town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife, Scotland. According to the recent population estimate , the town has a population of 16,596, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
. From this he was promoted (1816) to the school of Lasswade
Lasswade

Lasswade is a parish and village in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk, Lothian, nine miles south of Edinburgh city centre, between Dalkeith and Loanhead....
, near Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
; from that (1819) to a mastership in Dollar Academy
Dollar Academy

Dollar Academy is Scotland's oldest Independent School , with a campus set in the shadow of the Ochils in the village of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, Clackmannanshire....
; from that (1834), by Lord Jeffrey
Francis Jeffrey

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey was a Scotland judge and literary critic.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of a clerk in the Court of Session. After attending the Royal High School for six years, he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1787 to May 1789, and at The Queen's College, Oxford, from September 1791 to June 1792....
, to the professorship of oriental languages at the University of St Andrews. The Thane of Fife (1822), shows the same humorous imagination as Anster Fair, but the subject was more remote from general interest, and the poem fell flat.

He also wrote a poem in Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
, Papistry Stormed (1827); two historical dramas, Cardinal Beaton (1823) and John Baliol (1825); and a series of Hebrew Dramas (1845), founded on incidents in Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 history. He died at Devon Grove, on the 14th of February 1848.

A Memoir of Tennant by MF Connolly was published in 1861.