James Macpherson
James Macpherson | |
---|---|
Born | 27 October 1736 Ruthven, Inverness-shire, Scotland |
Died | 17 February 1796 (aged 59) Belville, Inverness-shire, Scotland |
Occupation | Poet, translator |
Alma mater | Marischal College, Aberdeen University of Edinburgh |
Literary movement | Romanticism |
James Macpherson (Gaelic: Seumas MacMhuirich or Seumas Mac a' Phearsain; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector, and politician. He is known for the Ossian cycle of epic poems, which he claimed to have discovered and translated from Gaelic.
Early life and education
Macpherson was born at
Collecting Scottish Gaelic poetry
On leaving college, he returned to Ruthven to teach in the school there, and then became a private tutor.
In 1760, Macpherson visited
In reply, MacCodrum quipped, "Cha n-eil agus ge do bhiodh cha ruiginn a leas iarraidh a nis", or in English, "No, and if they did it would be useless to ask for it now." According to Campbell, this, "dialogue... illustrates at once Macpherson's imperfect Gaelic and MacCodrum's quickness of reply."[5]
Encouraged by Home and others, Macpherson produced 15 pieces, all laments for fallen warriors,
Hugh Blair, who was a firm believer in the authenticity of the poems, raised a subscription to allow Macpherson to pursue his Gaelic researches. In the autumn,1760, Macpherson set out to visit western Inverness-shire, the islands of Skye, North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula. Allegedly, Macpherson obtained manuscripts which he translated with the assistance of a Captain Morrison and the Rev. Gallie. Later he made an expedition to the Isle of Mull, where he claimed to obtain other manuscripts.[3]
Ossian
In 1761, Macpherson announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of Fingal supposedly written by
The authenticity of these translations from the works of a 3rd-century bard was immediately challenged by Irish historians, especially Charles O'Conor, who noted technical errors in chronology and in the forming of Gaelic names, and commented on the implausibility of many of Macpherson's claims, none of which Macpherson was able to substantiate. More forceful denunciations were later made by Samuel Johnson, who asserted (in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775) that Macpherson had found fragments of poems and stories, and then woven them into a romance of his own composition. Further challenges and defences were made well into the nineteenth century, but the issue was moot by then. Macpherson's manuscript Gaelic "originals" were published posthumously in 1807;[8] Ludwig Christian Stern was sure they were in fact back-translations from his English version.[9]
Later works
In 1764 Macpherson was made secretary to the colonial governor
Macpherson went on to write several historical works, the most important of which was Original Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, to which are prefixed Extracts from the Life of James II, as written by himself (1775). He enjoyed a salary for defending the policy of
Time in Parliament
Despite his Jacobite roots, and in line with his Hanovarian sympathies, for a time Macpherson had desired a seat in Parliament and he finally received it in the 1780 general election. On 11 September 1780, he became junior member for Camelford. Later he became the senior member in the results of the April 1784 election. He stayed in this position until his death. Although there is not a lot recorded about his time in parliament, his name is in a list of confidential parliamentary pensions which suggest that his undocumented work was more of an under-the-table government scheme. This suggestion is more or less backed by letters corresponding with other suggested government scammers of the time such as Paul Benfield. In 1783 he also held a position as an agent working with Sir Nathaniel Wraxall,[10] and was noted since this time for being very wealthy, probably from his secret parliamentary pensions he was receiving.
Death
In his later years he bought an estate, to which he gave the name Belville or Balavil, in his native Inverness-shire, where he died at the age of 59.[3][11] Macpherson's remains were carried from Scotland and interred in Westminster Abbey.[12] The Crofters Party MP and antiquarian Charles Fraser-Mackintosh commented on the success of James Macpherson in his second series of Antiquarian Notes (Inverness 1897, pp 369 et seq, public domain), accusing the famous poet of being a perpetrator of the Highland Clearances:
Mr James Macpherson of Ossianic fame, who acquired Phoiness, Etterish, and Invernahaven, began this wretched business and did it so thoroughly that not much remained for his successors ... Every place James Macpherson acquired was cleared, and he also had a craze for changing and obliterating the old names ... [including] ... Raitts into Belville. Upon this point it may be noticed that Mac Ossian, in making an entail and calling four of his numerous bastards in the first instance to the succession, declares an irritancy if any of the heirs uses any other designation than that of Macpherson of Belville.
Fraser-Mackintosh then asserts that Macpherson bought the right to be buried in Westminster Abbey. A recent commentator suggests Macpherson has become known as "a descendant of a Jacobite clan who became a sycophantic Hanovarian [sic] toady, a man for the main chance".[1]
Legacy
After Macpherson's death, Malcolm Laing, in an appendix to his History of Scotland (1800), concluded that the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether modern in origin, and that Macpherson's authorities were practically non-existent.[13][14]
Despite the above, some critics claim that Macpherson nonetheless produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the
Macpherson's legacy indirectly includes the naming of
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Riach, Alan (8 May 2020). "Living Legends of a Lost World (print copy); This is why James Macpherson's tales of Ossian are so controversial (online)". The National. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ISBN 9781444390087. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 267.
- ^ Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, page 246.
- ^ Campbell (1971), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, pages 247-247.
- ^ Mike Campbell (2008). "Name: Fingal". Behindthename.com. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- ^ Mary Ann Dobratz (2000). "The Works of "Fiona MacLeod" Notes to First Edition". SundownShores. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013.
- ^ Macpherson, James; M'Arthur, John; Ross, Thomas; Cesarotti, Melchiorre; Macfarlan, Robert (1807). The poems of Ossian in the original Gaelic. London: Printed by W. Bulmer. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ISBN 9781908980199.
- ^ Bailey, Saunders (1894). "The Life and Letters of James Macpherson". WebArchive. S. Sonnenschein & co .; Macmillan & co. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-436-30420-0.
- ^ "James Macpherson". www.westminster-abbey.org. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 267–268.
- ^ A "somewhat merciless exposure"; Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 268.
- ISBN 1-84212-145-6.
- ISBN 1-874744-59-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
Sources
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Macpherson, James". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–268. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Gaskill, Howard; Macpherson, James (1996). The poems of Ossian and Related Works. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 573. ISBN 0-7486-0707-2.
- Gaskill, Howard (2002). The Reception of Ossian in Europe. Continuum International Publishing Group – Athlone. p. 400. ISBN 0-485-80504-9.
- Stafford, Fiona J. (1988). The Sublime Savage: A Study of James Macpherson and The poems of Ossian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-85224-609-9.
- Gaskill, Howard (1991). Ossian Revisited. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 256. ISBN 0-7486-0247-X.
- Saunders, Thomas Bailey (1895). The Life And Letters of James Macpherson: Containing a particular account of his famous quarrel with Dr. Johnson, and a sketch of the origin and the influence of the Ossianic poems. London: Swan Sonnernschein & Co. pp. 327. ISBN 978-1103168255.
External links
- Works by or about James Macpherson at Wikisource
- Quotations related to James Macpherson at Wikiquote
- Media related to James Macpherson at Wikimedia Commons
- James Macpherson at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
- Digitised version of Fingal, an ancient epic poem. : In six books: together with several other poems, composed by Ossian the son of Fingal. / Translated from the Galic language, by James Macpherson.., 1762 edition at National Library of Scotland
- Literary Encyclopedia: Ossian
- Significant Scots
- Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J. F. Campbell Volume IV (1890)
- The Poetical Works of Ossian at the Ex-Classics Web Site
- Works by James Macpherson at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about James Macpherson at Internet Archive
- Works by James Macpherson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)