Correspondence

1122.  Hugh Stuart Boyd to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 281–283.

[Postmark: 10 January 1843]

My very dear Friend

I hope and trust, that we shall never get angry with each other, when writing upon literary subjects, or indeed upon any subject. Be asshured [sic], you have seldom, if ever, been more astonished at me, than I have been astonished on finding, that you believe the stupid story about Macpherson forging the Poems of Ossian. [1] How can you swallow such nonsense. I thought the notion had been long exploded. I little expected to hear it broached by you. I had hoped to have a rational discussion with you about the merits of Ossian. I had wished that you would take two or three, or half a dozen of the subblimest [sic] passages in Homer, and translate them not into verse, but into good prose. A comparison between Homer and Ossian, would then have been fair, but not otherwise.

I would then have pointed out to you, two or three, or half a dozen passages in Ossian. I would have done this; but I find, that Dr Blair has done it much better than I could do it. [2] I say, much better; for as yet I have read only a small part of Ossian, but he no doubt perused the whole.

In most of the instances of the sublime, Ossian is decidedly superior. In some cases, his superiority is very great and striking. In the instances of the pathetic, Ossian is certainly superior. In specimens of the beautiful, they are perhaps equal. In sublimity, the superiority of Ossian is so great; that if you were sitting by my side, I feel confident you would not attempt to deny it. This is what I had intended to say to you; but Alas! after reading your last letter; after reading what you say of Carthon, [3] I think it will be quite useless to appeal either to your judgment, your task, or your feelings. If Ossian be cold, words can have no precise meaning. Coldness may signify warmth, and obduracy may mean tenderness. I forgot to mention in the proper place, that I have been reading a good deal of Dr Blair’s Dissertation upon Ossian. The Miss Smiths can bear witness, that before I read it, I made several of the remarks which I afterwards found in Blair. It is now Monday evening. Mrs Smith came and dined here to day. I asked her, if she remembered what was her Father’s opinion about the genuineness of the Poem’s of Ossian. She said she did. It was Dr Clark[’s] decided opinion that they were genuine. It would be most unjust, to be angry with you, or with any person who might differ from me, respecting the merits of an author. But I am certainly vexed on finding, that you can credit that stupid humbug by which our Grandfathers, and Grandmothers, or at least some of them were deluded. I am also vexed on the score—of Christian Charity. I am sorry that you should be one on the side of those, who thought so illiberally of Macpherson. I believe that he was a Man of honour, a Man of a proud and lofty spirit. He was prematurely and unjustly attacked, and he chose rather to bear the imputation of being an Impostor, than to condescend to refute his Calumniators. What did Dr Johnson know about the matter? It lay quite out of the beaten track of his studies.

Ever Yours affectionately

H.S. Boyd–

P.S. I want to get, but I cannot get in London, one of the earlier Editions of Ossian, [4] that I may compare some places in the modern Editions with them. If your Copy is as old as 1774, or older, I shall be obliged if you will lend it to me for a few days. Give my kind love to Arabel.

Address, on integral page: Miss Barrett / 50 Wimpole Street / London.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.

1. See letter 1114. Despite Boyd’s conviction of the genuineness of the poems, the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, Appointed to Inquire into the Nature and Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian (1805) found that Macpherson had liberally edited Gaelic poems and inserted passages of his own in his purported translations.

2. Hugh Blair (1718–1800), Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University, had encouraged Macpherson. In 1763, he published A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian; this contained a lengthy and detailed comparison of Homer and Ossian.

3. See letter 1114 for EBB’s comments on the poem.

4. Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands was first published in 1760, Fingal in 1761.

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