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| JAMES CRICHTON |
| Prodigy - (1560-1585) |
The original "Admirable Crichton" a name
now synonymous with complete accomplishment, was the privileged
son of Scotland's second most powerful figure, the Lord Advocate,
Robert Crichton.
| The play "The Admirable Crichton,
by another Scot, J M Barrie, based very loosely on the
life of James Crichton, was an imaginative piece of fiction,
with the central theme of the young Crichton and his butler
as shipwreck survivors. |
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| Rigorous casting in this instance
kindly gave us two of the Scotland's finest actors; Rex
Harrison and James Fox (shurely shome mishtake .... editor).
Here they are in the scene before the shipwreck |
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| And here you can see the devastating
effect that shipwrecks have on unfortunate English Thesps..........
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From an early age young James was sickeningly
bright, and as his prodigious intelligence grew, so too did the
arrogant streak that would lead to his early demise.
He attended St.Andrews University at the
age of 10 and graduated at 15, the master of ten languages. He was
handsome, a superb athlete, horseman and fencer, and accomplished
in all the social graces. He was quite unique. And boy, did he know
it.
At the age of 17 he arrived in Paris, where
he challenged the city's leading academics to pose him questions
on any subject and in any of his languages.
In front of a gobsmacked audience of professors
and students alike, he acquitted himself brilliantly. Just for good
measure, he won a public joust at the Louvre the next day.
He went on to repeat his intellectual display
in Genoa and Venice.
In 1582 he was hired as a private tutor
to Vincenzo, the fiercely temperamental and wayward son of the Italian
Duke of Mantua. Vincenzo, resenting Crichton's huge intellect and
his predilection for displaying it publicly, often at the lad's
expense, hated his teacher with a vengeance. He needed bringing
down a peg or six in the teenager's eyes.
Returning home one night from his lover's
house, Crichton was ambushed and attacked by a gang. Being the athlete
he was, Crichton managed to beat off his attackers until, spotting
his young student amongst his assailants, he dropped his guard out
of sheer surprise long enough for Vincenzo himself to deliver a
fatal stab wound to the heart.
Nobody likes a smart-arse.
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