The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
§ 5. Patrick Hannay; Sheretine and Mariana
The remaining heroic romances of this period are inferior to the four just described in poetical merit; but there are several of them, they are mostly very rare in original editions and they contribute to the importance and interest of the class in the history, both of English poetry and of the English novel. The oldest, the Sheretine and Mariana of Patrick Hannay, is not strictly Caroline, as it was published a year or two before Charles came to the throne; but it is essentially of the group. This poem, a tragic legend of love and inconstancy, is based on, or connected with, Hungarian history after the battle of Mohacz (1526), and is recounted by the heroine’s ghost in two books and more than two hundred six-lined stanzas of decasyllables. Hannay (of whom next to nothing is known, but who was certainly of the Galloway Hannays, and may, later, have been a master of chancery in Ireland) also wrote a long version of the story of Philomela, in curious lyrical form, which he seems to have thought might be sung throughout (he gives the tune), though it extends to nearly 1700 lines; a poem called The Happy Husband (1619); elegies on Anne of Denmark and some smaller pieces. He is no great poet, but has minor historical interests of varied kinds, including that of writing in literary English strongly tinged with Scoticisms.