1736-1796; b. Kingussie [var. Invertromie, in Badenoch, nr. Ruthven Barracks],
ed. Aberdeen University under Thomas Blackwell and William Duncan; also
Edinburgh University; ‘The Highlander,’ heroic poem in 6 cantos
(1758); produced first Ossianic frag. ‘The Death of Oscar’,
for John Home, whom he met at Moffat in 1759; encouraged by Hugh Blair,
lecturer on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres at Edinburgh University from 1759,
he proceeded with Ossian, Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in
the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Galic or Erse Language
(1760), including Blair’s editorial profuse material claiming authorship
of originals by 3rd. c. title-personage; issued Fingal, an Ancient
Epic Poem, in Six Books (1762) on the strength of interest in the
former, and further travels in Scotland, purporting to be a faithful trans.
of Ossian, son of Finn or “Fingal”, epic, though actually derived
from Gaelic lays which he gathered in the Highlands and represented as
authentic remnants of 3rd century epic; believed to have secured Book
of the Dean of Lismore, which may have owed its preservation to him; Temora
followed with suspicious speed (1763); Goethe trans. ‘Songs of Selma’
at Herder’s instigation and quoted Ossian extensively in Sorrows
of Young Werther amid the hero’s ‘Sturm und Drang’
romance;, having composed in 1773 his essay “Ossian and the Songs
of Ancient Peoples” - though later remarking, ‘You must observe
how I made my hero quote Ossian when he was mad, but Homer when he was
in his right mind’; the poet Gray, on seeing two fragments of manuscript
poetry wrote enthusiastically to Macpherson and was disaffected by his
‘ill-wrote, ill-reasoned’ replies, leading to suspicion of counterfeit;
Dr. Johnson’s adverse remarks appeared in Journey to the Western
Islands (1775), including the assertion sparked by Macpherson’s
refusal to print the originals that ‘stubborn audacity is the last
refuge of guilt’, a remark that caused Macpherson to ask Johnson
to insert a slip of retraction in the book; 1781 William Shaw had maintained
that Adam Ferguson, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh had deliberately
deceived Percy by producing a Gaelic student who could read recite Ossian.
Ferguson categorically denied the charge; even after exposure by the committee
appointed to investigate (viz., Report of the Committee of the Highland
Society of Scotland, 1805), the poems retained their popularity, Matthew
Arnold speaking of their ‘vein of piercing regret and sadness’
and remarking ‘what an apparition of newness and power such a strain
must have been to the 18th century’; the epigraph of his poem, ‘They
went forth to war but they always fell’ [Ossian’s Cath-loda,
duan ii), quoted as an epigraph by Arnold for his ‘Lectures on Celtic
Literature’ and widely accepted as a summary of Irish belligerency
and fated revolutionary failure; Macpherson called ‘the Homer of
Scotland’ by Voltaire; a dg. of his married Sir Charles Brewster,
the optical scientist and inventor of kaleidoscopes. DNB OCEL FDA OCIL
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Contemporary Editions, Ossian: Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland and translated from the Galic or Erse Language by James Macpherson (Edinburgh: G. Hamilton & J. Balfour 1760); 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 (London: T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt 1762), and Do. [2nd edn.], as Fingal, An Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books: Ossian the Son of Fingal; Translated from the Galic Language, By James Macpherson. [epigraph:] Fortia facta patrum (Vergil). The Second Edition (London: Printed for T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt, in the Strand. M DCC LXII [1762]); Tempora: An Ancient Epic Poem, in Eight Books; together with several other Poems, composed by Ossian, the son of Fingal; translated from the Galic language by James MacPherson (London: T. Becket & P. A. De Hondt 1763).
Collected Editions, The Works of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, in Two Volumes’ translated from the Galic language by James McPherson, to which is subjoined A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian by Hugh Blair, DD (London 1765); also The Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal, Translated by James Macpherson (Edinburgh: J. Robertson 1792) [first Scottish edn. of ‘Works’]; The Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, carefully corrected and greatly improved (Philadelphia: Thomas Lang 1790) [based on London edition of same year]; The Poems of Ossian […] with notes […] by Malcolm Laing, Vol. I [of 2] (Edinburgh: James Ballantyne 1805).
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Posthumous Editions, Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic, Vol. I [of 3 vols] (London: W. Bulmer & Co. 1807); Critical Dissertations on the Antient Caledonians (q.d.) [published posthumously by his son John MacPherson].
Modern Editions, William Sharp, intro. Poems of Ossian (Edinburgh: John Grant 1926) [with notes]; Howard Gaskell, ed., The Poems of Ossian and Related Works, intoduced by Fiona Stafford (Edinburgh UP 1996); [q. ed.], Ossian’s Fingal (London: Cassell 1996), 457pp.
Bibliographical details
Howard Gaskell, ed., The Poems of Ossian and Related Works, intro. by Fiona Stafford (Edinburgh UP 1996); based on 2nd issue of Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), and The Works of Ossian (1765); includes major variant readings along with Macpherson’s notes and those of the present editor, as well as Macpherson’s Prefaces, Advertisements, and Dissertations; also Hugh Blair’s Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal, which threw the weight of the Scottish enlightenment behind Macpherson’s fraud.
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Derek S. Thomson, The Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's Ossian (London: Oliver and Boyd 1952).
Herbert V. Fackler, ‘Nineteenth-Century Sources for the Deirdre Legend', Éire-Ireland, 4, 4 (Winter 1969), pp.56-63, 60ff.
Norman Vance, ‘Celts, Carthaginians, and Constitutions, Anglo-Irish Literary Relations 1780-1820’, Irish Historical Studies, 22, 87 (1981), esp. 220ff.
Clare O’Halloran, ‘Irish Re-Creations of the Gaelic Past, The Challenge of Macpherson’s Ossian’, Past and Present, 124 (August 1989), pp.69-95.
Clare O’Halloran, ‘Golden Ages and Barbarous Nations’ (PhD Thesis; Cambridge 1991).
Roy Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch: Connections in Irish and English History (London: Allen Lane 1993), bibl. p.307.
also Nick Groom, The Forger’s Shadow: How Forgery Changed the Course of Literature (Picador 2002), 351pp.
Terence Brown, ed., Celticism (Amsterdam/Atlanta GA: Rodopi 1996), x, 200pp.
Pádraig Ó Maidín, ‘Pages from an Irishman's Diary: This Period Then', Éire-Ireland, 6, 4 (Winter 1971), pp.23-28, p.23-24; for a discussion of The Book of Lismore.
Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP [1943] 1959), p.97: ‘The feeling towards Macpherson in Ireland was mostly one of irritation, for it was felt that he had dressed Cuchulin and Finn in the kilt and plaid besides winding the strands of the two great sagas into a Gordian knot [... &c.]’
Frank O’Connor, The Backward Look (London: Macmillan 1967), p.130.
Celtica (National Library of Scotland 1967), contains an account of the Macphersonite Controversy, Catalogue of Gaelic material in National Library of Scotland, with pref. by Kenneth Jackson; note to item 57, p.16.)
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol 1 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980).
Hugh Kenner, A Colder Eye: The Modern Irish Writers (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1983).
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986).
E. G. Quin in Myles Dillon, ed., Irish Sagas (Mercier 1968), p.64.
Carl Dawson & John Pfordrester, eds., Matthew Arnold, The Prose Writings, The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1979.
Christopher Corr, ‘English Literary Culture and Irish Literary Revival’, PhD Thesis, UUC 1995, p.61].
Michael Mac Craith, ‘The Saga of James MacPherson’s Ossian’, in Linen Hall Review (Sept 1991), pp.5-9.
Robert Crawford, ‘The computer and the painted Pict’, Times Literary Supplement (15 Aug. 1997), pp.4-5.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1949 Edn.) comments on the questionable morality of his ‘translations’ but calls him a great writer none the less.
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Celtica (1967) [National Library of Scotland], lists under Ossian [Ossianic materials]: Bruidhean Chaortuinn, ‘The Rowan Mansion’, Gaelic MS XXXIV, late 16th c., containing two wellknown prose tales of Finn and his son Ossian; Pope’s Collection of Ossianic Poetry, Gaelic MS CXVIII, made by Rev. Alexander Pope, minister of Reay, c.1739; Fletcher’s Collection of Ossianic Poetry, Gaelic MS CXIX, made by Archibald Fletcher of Achalader, c.1750; Donald MacNicol’s MSS collection, as Ms. Acc. 2152, c.1755; The Highlander (Edinburgrh: Wal. Ruddiman Jun. & Co. 1758), anon. First publication of James Macpherson; The Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1760, containing Two Fragments of Antient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland; [sundry actual works of Macpherson]; William Herbert, Ossiani Darthula, Graece reddita (London: S. Hamilton 1801), by Dean of Manchester [regarding Ossian as inferior only to Homer]; Phingaleis, sive Hibernia Liberata. Epicum Ossianis Poema … E celtica sermone conversum … ab Alexandro Macdonald (Edinburgh: John Moir 1820) [answers attacks of Shaw and Laing but ignores Johnson, likened to ‘a mountain boar with gnashing teeth charging against the Scots and all things Scottish’]. Further works, under ‘Influence of Ossian Abroad, incl. Poesie di Ossian, Figlio di Fingal, trans. Abbé Melchior Cesarotti [2 vols.] (Padua: Guiseppe Comino 1763); Ossian, fils de Fingal, trad. M. Le Tourneur [2 vols.] (Paris: Musier fils. 1777) [1st French trans.; preface concluding that the poems were an amalgam of original sources and Macpherson’s arrangement and expansion]; Ossians Digte, trans. by S. S. Blicher [2 vols’ (Copenhagen: Andreas Seidelin 1807); Finn Magnusen, Forsög til Forklaring over nogle steder af Ossians Digte (Copenhagen: Andreas Seidelin 1814); Paulo Priolo, Illustrations from Ossian’s Poems; the arguyemtns colalted by John Murdoch (Inverness: Highland Publ. Compnay 1873) [by ed. of The Highlander newspaper, ill. by artist best known for etchings of Pilgrim’s Progress]; Voltaire, Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, in Oeuvres Complètes, Vol. 21 [of 30 vols’ (Geneva 1768-77) [unimpressed by Ossia]; Francois-Rene de Cateaubriand, Génie du christianisme, ou Beautés de la religion chrétienne [5 vols.] (Lyon: Ballance père et fils 1809) [qutoes and translates famous passage from macpherson’s Death of Cuchulain, ‘The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul’]; Alphonse de Lamartine, Memoirs of my Youth (London: Simms & McIntyre 1849) [trans. of Confidences, 1848; gives account of first moving impression]; Die Gedichte Ossians: Aus dem Enlischen übersetzt von M. Denis [3 vols.] (Vienna: Johann Thomas Edle v. Trattnern 1768) [first German trans. in full]; Poems of Ossian lately discover’d by Edmund, Baron de Harold (Düsseldorf: John Cretien Daenzer 1787) [how the search conducted not revealed]; Geothe, Die Leiden des jungen Werther (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1954 [sic]); Václav hanka, Kradodworsky Rukopic … Königinhofer Handschrift (Prague: J. G. Calve 1829) [spurious czech poetry]; vincenzo Monti, Rpose e Poesie (Florence: Felice le Monier 1847) [rewarded by Napoleon with chair of Poetry at Pavia]; Byron, Hours of Idleness (Newark: S & J. Ridge 1807) [19 year old poet employs touches of Ossianic sentiment]; William Stukeley, A Letter from Dr Stukeley to Mr Macpherson (London: Richard Hett 1763) [‘the world is highly oblig’d to you for preserving so noble, so interesting, a monument of high antiquity, belonging to Britain’]; Charles O’Conor, A dissertation on the First Migrations and Final Settlement of the Scots of North-Britain. With occasional observations on the Poems of Fingal and Temore (Dublin: George Faulkner 1766); Edward Davies, The claims of Ossian Examined an Appreciated (London: Longmans & co. 1825) [remarks Macpherson’s contemptuous treatment of the Welsh bardic tradition]; Hugh Blair, A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal (London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt 1763) [believed without reserve that the poem was a genuine national epic of the 3rd century]; William Shaw, An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems Ascribed to Ossian (London: J. Murray 1781) [incl. Johnson’s letter in reply to Macpherson’s demand for satisfaction]; Letter from Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore to Dr. Robert Anderson of Edinburgh. MSS 599 [responding to Shaw’s charge that Ferguson had gulled him with a Gaelic student who could recite Ossian]; Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland (London: Constable & Co. 1805); Walter Scott, review of Report of the Highland Society of Scotland and Laing’s edition of Ossian, in Edinburgh Review (July 1805) [suggests that a new collection be made on the plan of Charlotte Brooke’s Reliques]; Oithóna, a dramatic poem taken from the porse translation of the celebrated Ossian, as performed at the Theatre Royal in the Hay Market; set to Musick by Mr. [François Hyppolyte] Barthélomon (London: T. Becket and P. and A. [sic] De Hondt 1768); Oscar and Malvina, or the Hall of Fingal. As performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden (London: W. Woodfall for T. Cadell 1791); [William Ross] A Description of the Paintings in the Hall of Ossian at Penicuik near Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Kincaid and W. Creech 1773) [pamphlet recording details of work of Runciman, now lost].
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Robert Ward & Catherine Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (1988), give the bio-dates 1736-65, contrary to Dictionary of National Biography and Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English Literature (OUP 1986), while also ascribing Critical Dissertations on the Antient Caledonians (1769) to Macpherson as a posthumous publication of his son John. Note that there are extensive comments on MacPherson in the correspondence of Charles O;’Conor [Rx], noticed also by Joseph th. Leerssen (op. cit., 1986).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, supplies notes at 962, 978; FDA2 do., at 957n.; FDA3 244, 564, 606n.
University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic with a literal translation and a dissertation on the authenticity of the poems by Archibald ?Clerk, together with English trans. by MacPherson, 2 vol. (Blackwood 1870); also The Poems of Ossian, translated by James McPherson, to which are prefixed dissertations on the aera [sic] and poems of Ossian, 2 vols. (1807).
Thomas Percy [Bishop of Dromore]: An account of a letter from Thomas Percy to Dr. Robert Anderson of Edinburgh (MSS 599) is given in Celtica (1967), a catalogue of Gaelic materials in Scottish National Library. See remarks therein on William Shaw’s Enquiry (1781) and Percy’s letter: ‘Laing in his attack Macpherson [in his edition of 1805] laid great emphasis on the fact that the latter was said to have told his intimates friends that all the poems published by him as translations Ossian were entirely his own composition. Bishop Percy agreed, although he took the charitable view that at first Macpherson had intended no deception and that only 'the urgent importunities' of friends had led hinn to clainn a major literary discovery.’ (Celtica, p.22.)
Ossianic authors incl. Archibald Clark, The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic, with a literal translation into English ... Together wth the English Translations of Macpherson, 2 vols. (1870), xlvi, 503pp., 579pp.
James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939): ‘And the three shouters of glory. Yelling halfviewed their harps. Surly Tuhal smiled upon drear Darhoola: and Roscranna’s boglaboyo begirlified the daughter of Cormac. (FW 329.15ff.)
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)