James Macpherson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 27 October 1736 |
| 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 orSeumas Mac a' Phearsain; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was aScottish writer, poet, literary collector, and politician. He is known for theOssian cycle of epic poems, which he claimed to have discovered and translated from Gaelic.
Macpherson was born atRuthven in the parish ofKingussie inBadenoch,Inverness-shire. This was aScottish Gaelic-speaking area but near theRuthven Barracks of theBritish Army, established in 1719 to enforceWhig rule fromLondon after theJacobite uprising of 1715. Macpherson's uncle,Ewen Macpherson joined the Jacobite army in the1745 march south, when Macpherson was nine years old and after theBattle of Culloden, had had to remain in hiding for nine years.[1] In the 1752-3 session, Macpherson was sent toKing's College, Aberdeen, moving two years later toMarischal College (the two institutions later became theUniversity of Aberdeen), reading Caesar'sCommentaries on the relationships between the 'primitive' Germanic tribes and the 'enlightened' Roman imperial army;[1] it is also believed that he attended classes at theUniversity of Edinburgh as a divinity student in 1755–56. During his years as a student, he ostensibly wrote over 4,000 lines of verse, some of which was later published, notablyThe Highlander (1758), a six-canto epic poem,[2] which he attempted to suppress sometime after its publication.
On leaving college, he returned to Ruthven to teach in the school there, and then became a private tutor.[1] AtMoffat he metJohn Home, the author ofDouglas, for whom he recited some Gaelic verses from memory. He also showed him manuscripts of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have been picked up in theScottish Highlands and theWestern Isles;[3] one was calledThe Death of Oscar.[1]
In 1760, Macpherson visitedNorth Uist and met withJohn MacCodrum, the officialBard to theChief ofClan MacDonald of Sleat. As a result of their encounter, MacCodrum made, according toJohn Lorne Campbell, "a brief appearance in theOssianic controversy which is not without its humorous side." When Macpherson met MacCodrum, he asked,"A bheil dad agaibh air an Fheinne?" Macpherson believed himself to have asked, "Do you know anything of theFianna?" He had actually said, however, "Do the Fianna owe you anything?"[4]
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,translated from theScottish Gaelic, despite his limitations in that tongue, which he was induced to publish atEdinburgh in 1760, including theDeath of Oscar, in a pamphlet:Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland.[3] Extracts were then published inThe Scots Magazine andThe Gentleman's Magazine which were popular and the notion of these fragments as glimpses of an unrecorded Gaelic epic began.[1]
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 ofSkye,North Uist,South Uist andBenbecula. Allegedly, Macpherson obtained manuscripts which he translated with the assistance of a Captain Morrison and the Rev. Gallie. Later he made an expedition to theIsle of Mull, where he claimed to obtain other manuscripts.[3]
In 1761, Macpherson announced the discovery of an epic on the subject ofFingal supposedly written byOssian, which he published in December. Like the 1760Fragments of Ancient Poetry, it was written in musical measuredprose. The full title of the work wasFingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several Other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language.[3] The narrative was related to theIrish mythological characterFionn mac Cumhaill/Finn McCool. The figure of Ossian was based on Fionn's sonOisín. Fingal takes his name fromFionnghall, meaning "white stranger".[6][7] Another related poem,Temora, followed in 1763, and a collected edition,The Works of Ossian, in 1765.[3]
The authenticity of these translations from the works of a 3rd-centurybard was immediately challenged by Irish historians, especiallyCharles 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 bySamuel Johnson, who asserted (inA 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]
In 1764 Macpherson was made secretary to the colonial governorGeorge Johnstone atPensacola, Florida. He returned to Great Britain two years later, and, despite a quarrel with Johnstone, was allowed to retain his salary as a pension.[3]
Macpherson went on to write several historical works, the most important of which wasOriginal Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, to which are prefixedExtracts from the Life of James II, as written by himself (1775). He enjoyed a salary for defending the policy ofLord North's government, and held the lucrative post of London agent to theNawab of Arcot. He enteredparliament in 1780, as Member of Parliament forCamelford and continued to sit for the remainder of his life.[3]
Importantly, too, Macpherson penned an outspoken response, in defense ofKing George III, to theAmerican Declaration of Independence entitledThe Rights of Great Britain (1776), dismissingThomas Jefferson's famous work as containing "nothing but empty declamation" and "merit[ing] little notice."[10]
Despite hisJacobite 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 forCamelford. 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 SirNathaniel Wraxall,[11] and was noted since this time for being very wealthy, probably from his secret parliamentary pensions he was receiving.
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][12] Macpherson's remains were carried from Scotland and interred inWestminster Abbey.[13] TheCrofters Party MP and antiquarianCharles Fraser-Mackintosh commented on the success of James Macpherson in his second series ofAntiquarian Notes (Inverness 1897, pp 369 et seq, public domain), accusing the famous poet of being a perpetrator of theHighland 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]
After Macpherson's death,Malcolm Laing, in an appendix to hisHistory of Scotland (1800), concluded that the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether modern in origin, and that Macpherson's authorities were practically non-existent.[14][15]
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 theromantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature. It was quickly translated into many European languages, andHerder andGoethe (in his earlier period) were among its profound admirers.[16] Goethe incorporated his translation of a part of the work into his novelThe Sorrows of Young Werther.Melchiore Cesarotti's Italian translation was reputedly a favourite ofNapoleon.[17]
Macpherson's legacy indirectly includes the naming ofFingal's Cave on the island ofStaffa. The original Gaelic name is "An Uamh Bhin" ("the melodious cave"), but it was renamed bySir Joseph Banks in 1772 at the height of Macpherson's popularity.[18][19]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Macpherson, James".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–268.
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