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John Davidson was a Scottish poet, playwright and novelist, best known for his ballads.
He also made translations from French and German. In 1909, financial difficulties, as well as physical and mental health problems, led to his suicide.
Davidson's first published work was Bruce, a chronicle play in the Elizabethan manner, which appeared with a Glasgow imprint in 1886. Four other plays, Smith, a Tragic Farce (1888), An Unhistorical Pastoral (1889), A Romantic Farce (1889), and the brilliant pantomimic Scaramouch in Naxos (1889) followed.