 |
  |
|
|
Revolution and Romanticism
|
||
A facsimile reprint in the Revolution & Romanticism series chosen and introduced by Jonathan Wordsworth ISBN 1 85477 208 2 200 x 127 mm 210 pages |
JAMES MACPHERSON Ossian's Fingal 1792 James Macpherson's Works of Ossian, claiming to be a translation from a Celtic original, appeared in 1762. It was denounced as a forgery almost at once, though many continued to believe in its authenticity. Its influence was profound, fostering the notion of an ancient Celtic culture antedating and contrasting with the dominant Saxon and European traditions. For the Romantics, with their cult of spontaneity, the idea of a primitive, bardic utterance has particular relevance. This edition of Fingal is taken from an edition of the Romantic period, and includes Hugh Blair’s supportive Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, first published in 1765. £42 $75 I am not going to criticise Macpherson’s Ossian here...Make the part of what is forged, modern, tawdry, spurious, in the book, as large as you please; strip Scotland, if you like, of every feather of borrowed plumes which on the strength of Macpherson’s Ossian she may have stolen, there will still be left in the book a residue with the very soul of Celtic genius in it, and which has the proud distinction of having brought this Celtic genius into contact with the nations of modern Europe, and enriched all our poetry for it. |
|
  |
||
