Fragments Of Ancient Poetry | Page 2

and asked Macpherson to translate
one of them. The younger
man at first protested that a translation "would give a very imperfect
idea of the original," but Home "with some difficulty" persuaded him to
try. In a "day or two" Macpherson brought him the poem that was to
become "Fragment VII" in
this collection; Home was so much
pleased with it that he requested additional translations.[3]
"Jupiter" Carlyle, whose autobiography reflects the keen interest that he
took in literature, arrived at Moffat after Home had seen the
"translations." Home, he found, "had been highly delighted with them,"
and when Carlyle read them he "was perfectly
astonished at the

poetical genius" that they displayed. They agreed that "it was a
precious discovery, and that as soon as possible it should be published
to the world."[4]
When Home left Moffat he took his find to Edinburgh and showed the
translations to the men who earned the city Smollett's sobriquet, a
"hotbed of genius": Robertson, fresh from the considerable success of
his two volume History of Scotland (1759); Robert Fergusson, recently
appointed professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh;
Lord Elibank, a learned aristocrat, who had
been patron to Home and
Robertson; and Hugh Blair, famous for the sermons that he delivered as
rector of the High Church of St. Giles. Home was gratified that these
men were "no less pleased" with Macpherson's work than he had been.
David Hume and David Dalrymple (later Lord Hailes) were soon
apprised of the discovery and joined in the chorus of approbation that
emanated from the Scottish capitol.
Blair became the spokesman and the leader for the Edinburgh literati,
and for the next forty years he lavished his energy in praising and
defending Macpherson's work. The translations came to
him at the
time that he was writing his lectures on belles lettres and was thus in
the process of formulating his theories on the origins of poetry and the
nature of the sublime. Blair lost no time in communicating with
Macpherson:
"I being as much struck as Mr Home with the high spirit of poetry
which breathed in them, presently made inquiry where Mr. Macpherson
was to be found; and having sent for him to come to me, had much
conversation with him on the subject."[Footnote 5]
Macpherson told Blair that there were "greater and more considerable
poems of the same strain" still extant in the Highlands; Blair like Home
was eager for more, but Macpherson again declined to translate them.
He said that he felt himself inadequate to render "the spirit and force"
of the originals and that "they would be very ill relished by the public
as so very different from the strain of modern ideas, and of modern,
connected, and polished poetry." This whetted Blair's interest even

more, and after "repeated importunity" he persuaded Macpherson to
translate more fragments. The result was the present volume, which
Blair saw to the press and for which he wrote the Preface "in
consequence of the conversations" that he had with
Macpherson.[Footnote 6: ]
Most of Blair's Preface does seem to be based on information supplied
by Macpherson, for Blair had almost no first-hand knowledge about
Highland poetry or its traditions. It is apparent from the Preface then,
that Macpherson had not yet decided to ascribe the poems to a single
poet; Ossian is one of the principal poets in the collection but the whole
is merely ascribed "to the bards" (see pp. v-vi). It is also evident from
the Preface that Macpherson was shifting from the reluctant "translator"
of a few "fragments" to the projector of a full-length epic "if enough
encouragement were given for such an undertaking."
Since Blair became famous for his _Critical Dissertation on the Poems
of Ossian_ (London, 1763), it may seem strange that in the Preface to
the Fragments he declined to say anything of the "poetical merit" of the
collection. The frank adulation of the longer essay, which concludes
with the brave assertion that Ossian may be placed "among those
whose works are to last for ages,"[7] was partially a reflection of the
enthusiasm that greeted each of Macpherson's successive publications.
III
Part of the appeal of the Fragments was obviously based on the
presumption that they were, as Blair hastened to assure the reader,
"genuine remains of ancient Scottish poetry," and therefore provided a
remarkable insight into a remote, primitive culture; here were maidens
and warriors who lived in antiquity on the harsh, wind-swept wastes of
the Highlands, but they were capable of highly refined and sensitive
expressions of grief--they were the noblest savages of them all. For
some readers the rumors of imposture served to dampen their initial
enthusiasm, and such was
the case with Hume, Walpole, and Boswell,
but many of the admirers of the poems found them rapturous, authentic
or not.

After Gray