William Edmondstoune Aytoun

William Edmonstoune Aytoun (* 1813 in Edinburgh; † August 4, 1865 ) was a Scottish novelist and poet.

Aytoun studied in his hometown of jurisprudence and settled there in 1840 as a lawyer down. However, he devoted himself more literary works and wrote especially for the ultra-liberal Tait 's Magazine and numerous witty article.

Soon he turned to the Toryism and was co-worker, editor of the conservative Blackwood Magazine; name he turned his pen against the railway dizziness and the materialistic tendencies of the Manchester school.

A historical work, life and times of Richard, king of England ( London 1840), did not find special union applause, the greater his satirical and polemical Bon Gaultier Ballads, which were published in Punch in 1844 and later combined in one volume.

In the year 1845, Ayton professor of rhetoric and Arts and Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, received under the Ministry Derby 1852 volunteering a sheriff and Admirals of the Orkney and Shetland Islands and died on August 4, 1865 at his country estate Blackills in the Scottish Highlands.

His critical lessons he represented poetically by Fi milian, or the student of Badajoz [? ]; a spasmodic tragedy (1854 ), which satirized the hyper- poetic style fashion certain poets in over driving imitation. His real fame as a poet but is based on the Lays of the Scottish cavaliers, a rich real poetry glorification of Stuartkämpfer, which first appeared in 1849 in London and Edinburgh and has experienced numerous editions.

The Ballads of Scotland ( 4th edition 1859, 2 vols ), a meritorious, critically sifted and provided with scholarly annotations collection altschottischer folk songs, and his Theodore Martin jointly developed transmission of Goethe's seals ( Poems and ballads of Goethe, 1859 u. often) found general approval.