Life

Born about 1575 in Dublin, he travelled abroad and became a cultivated writer in English, French, Italian, and Latin. He was apparently studying at Edinburgh University, when, in 1595, he was presented to James VI, who was charmed with his manner. He further recommended himself to the king's favour by giving him some poetic anagrams

Anagrams

Anagrams, Pirate Scrabble, Anagram, Snatch, or Grabscrab is a board-free word game that involves rearranging letter tiles to form words....

 of his own composition on James's name in Latin, Italian, English, and French, together with a poetical composition in French. The good impression which Quin made was confirmed by his presenting the king, on New Year's Day 1596, with an oration about his title to the English throne. The Edinburgh printer, Robert Waldegrave, refused, however, to print a book on the subject which Quin prepared in February 1598. He was at the time reported to be "answering Spenser's book, whereat the king is offended".

Meanwhile Quin had been taken into the service of James VI as tutor to his sons, and he gave proof of his loyalty by publishing, in 1600, Sertum Poeticum in honorem Jacobi Sexti serenissimi ac potentissimi Scotorum Regis. A Gualtero Quinno Dubliniensi contextum, Edinburgh (by Robert Waldegrave), 1600. A copy was sent to Sir Robert Cecil

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC was an English administrator and politician.-Life:He was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke...

 by one of his agents in December 1600. The volume consists of some of Quin's early anagrams on the king's names, of Latin odes and epigrams, and English sonnets, addressed either to members of the royal family or to frequenters of the court who interested themselves in literature. An extravagant sonnet

Sonnet

A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

 on Sir William Alexander

William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling

William Alexander, Earl of Stirling was a Scotsman who was an early developer of Scottish colonisation of Port Royal, Nova Scotia and Long Island, New York...

 (afterwards Earl of Stirling) reappeared in the first edition of the latter's Tragedie of Darius (1603). Some extracts were given in Laing

David Laing (Scottish antiquary)

David Laing was a Scottish antiquary.The son of William Laing, a bookseller in Edinburgh, where he was born, he was educated at the Canongate Grammar School. At fourteen he was apprenticed to his father. Shortly after the death of the latter in 1837, Laing was elected to the librarianship of the...

's Fugitive Scottish Poetry (1825). In 1604 Quin celebrated the marriage of his friend Sir William Alexander in a poem.

Quin migrated with the Scottish king to England in 1603 on his accession to the English throne, and was employed in the household of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...

. He lamented the prince's death in 1612 in two sonnets, respectively in English and Italian, in Latin verse, and in some stanzas in French; these elegies were printed in Joshua Sylvester

Joshua Sylvester

Joshua Sylvester was an English poet.-Biography:Sylvester was the son of a Kentish clothier. In his tenth year he was sent to school at King Edward VI School, Southampton, where he gained a knowledge of French...

's Lachrymæ Lachrymarum (1612), and the two in English and Latin were reissued in Mausoleum (Edinburgh, by Andro Hart, 1613). In 1611 he contributed Italian verses "in lode del autore" to Thomas Coryat

Thomas Coryat

Thomas Coryat was an English traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age. He is principally remembered for two volumes of writings he left regarding his travels, often on foot, through Europe and parts of Asia...

's Odcombian Banquet.

Quin became, after Prince Henry's death, preceptor to his brother Charles

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

. For Charles's use he compiled Corona Virtutum principe dignarum ex varijs Philosophorum, Historicorum, Oratorum, et Poetarum floribus contexta et concinnata, with accounts of the lives and virtues of Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...

 and Marcus Aurelius. Eulogistic mention was made of Quin in John Dunbar

John Dunbar

John Dunbar is a British artist, collector and former gallerist best known for his connections to the 1960s art and music scene.-Personal life and career:...

's ‘Epigrammata’ (1616). A more ambitious literary venture followed. In the preface, Quin states that he had collected materials in French for a prose life of his hero, Sir Bernard Stuart, but they proved inadequate for his purpose. A Short Collection of the most Notable Places of Histories in prose is appended, together with a series of poems, entitled Wishes, and addressed to Prince Charles.

On Charles I's marriage in 1625 Quin published a congratulatory poem in four languages, Latin, English, French, and Italian. Ten Latin lines signed "Walt. O—Quin Armig." are prefixed to Sir Thomas Herbert's Travels in 1634. Quin doubtless died soon afterwards.

Family

An undated petition, assigned to 1635, from Quin's son John describes both Quin and his wife as ancient servants of the royal family, and prays that the pension granted to Quin may be continued during life to the petitioner.

Another son, James Quin (1621–1659), born in Middlesex, obtained a scholarship at Westminster, and was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1639. He graduated B.A. in 1642, and M.A. in 1646, and was elected a senior student. As an avowed royalist he was ejected from his studentship by the parliamentary visitors in 1648. Anthony à Wood, who was acquainted with him, often heard him "sing with great admiration." His voice was a bass, "the best in England, and he had great command of it … but he wanted skill, and could scarce sing in consort." He contrived to obtain an introduction to Cromwell, who was so delighted with his musical talent that, "after liquoring him with sack," he restored him to his place at Christ Church. But in 1651 he was reported to be non compos. He died in October 1659, in a crazed condition, in his bedmaker's house in Penny Farthing Street, and was buried in the cathedral of Christ Church. He contributed to the Oxford University collections of Latin verse issued on the return of the king from Scotland in 1641, and on the peace with Holland in 1654.