1138. Hugh Stuart Boyd to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 306–308.
| [In the hands of two amanuenses] [1] | [London] |
[Postmark: 27 January 1843]
Fair Star [2] of London! The joy of its pride! Bright is thy beam in the West. Thou comest forth, in all the loveliness of thy genius. The Sons of Song retire before thee. Tenison kicks down the harp of his Sisters. Lucus frets and fumes on Helvellyn. [3] He rushes down from the mountain, in a shower of bread and milk. His garments are the swadling clothes of a Baby. His face is all yellow with jaundice. One eye is green as a goose gag, while the other is like that of a Codfish. Terrible his grin of despair. His moan is that of a cowl on a chimney; his speech bubble and squeak [4] in a frying-pan. Farewell, sweet beau of Genius, and Virtue. I perceive thou lovest not his bubbling and squeaking. Thou departest in thy clouds which delight to enrap thee. Thou sittest in the chamber of Arabel and of Flush!
My very dear Friend, since I wrote last to you, I have read some account of Ossian, and his Poems, in the Penny Cyclopedia. [5] It is not to be despised. It seems quite as learned and as well written, as other Cyclopedias. Perhaps, the account is taken from some other. The Rascal who wrote it, depreceates the Poems about as much as you do. A greate deal of what he says, is much the same as what you say but then, he adds something of a different kind. He says, that the chief charm of Ossian’s Poems is the language. A rich stream of harmony flows through them all. Macpherson has worked it up with greate care, and adjusted the pauses with greate art; having iambics frequaintly recurring; intermixed with other measures, so that a very pleasing effect is produced. It is a cairfull, rhythmical elaboration of refined English. As a specimen of rhythmical prose, there is nothing equal to it in the English Language. Why did you not say all this, or at least some of it. You ought to have seen and felt all this, as well as the Writer. I think however, that in the sweetness of its music, Ossian’s Poetry is not quite equal to Solomon’s Song and that in rich and grand music, it is much inferior to some passages in Isaiah, and in other parts of the Bible. I was sorry to find you speaking in such a manner, of Blair. [6] It always appered to me, that Blair was an excelant Writer, and a sound, judicious Critic. But supposing that he was the worst Critic in Europe, that [h]as nothing to do with the subject. I told you, that he had given some passages from Homer, and some from Ossian. We had nothing to do with the opinions of Blair. We had only to judge four ourselves. If you were setting by my side, you would be obliged to give up the point. You would be ashamed to contrydict me. The superiority of Ossian over Homer in some places, is so decided, that you would be obliged to allow it. But it runs in my head, that I have said this already, in a former letter. There is an idea in Ossian, which always appered to me, to be one of the finest ideas, that ever entered into the head of a Poet, you would no dout think the same, if it was in Homer, or in Eschylus, or in Shakespear. There are some places in the Bible, which appear to me, to be exquisite specimens of rhythmical prose. I should like to know your opinion. Did our Translations try to Translate in this smooth and flowing manner; or did it happen so, without their intending it. The most melodious passage in the Bible, as it appears to me, is from the begening of the eighth verse of the fourth chapter of Solomon’s Song, to the end of the Second verse of the next chapter. You will see, that all most all measures here are anapestic. I think the discription of a virtius Wife, in the fifth chapter of Proverbs, flows very sweetly. You will see, that the measures there, are chiefly iambic. See verse 15, to the end of verse 19. Tell me which pleases your ear most, and if you know of any parts, which you think more melodious than these.
Kind love [to] Arabel.
Ever yours Affectionately
H.S. Boyd.
Address, on cover sheet: Miss Barrett, / 50– Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. The numerous misspellings in this letter may be attributed to the unidentified amanuenses. We leave the errors unmarked by the intrusive [sic].
2. Milton, Paradise Lost, III, 727.
3. Boyd’s description suggests that he may have had in mind James Lucas (1813–74), a celebrated hermit who abjured washing and clothed himself in a blanket. The reference to Helvellyn suggests a contemptuous comparison between Lucas and Wordsworth, whom Boyd did not greatly admire.
4. Left-over potatoes and cabbage fried together.
5. The article, reviewing the historical evidence and summarizing the arguments for and against the poems’ authenticity, appeared in The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1833–46, XVII, 50–53). Although praising the beauty of the language, the writer thought comparison to Homer absurd and sided with those who believed the poems to be the invention of Macpherson.
6. Hugh Blair was one of the staunchest believers in the authenticity of the poems (see letter 1122, note 2), but the article in The Penny Cyclopædia dismissed his Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian as “an elaborate composition of nearly pure nonsense.”
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