Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/272

Macpherson John Mackenzie of the Inner Temple, along with 1,000l. sent Macpherson in 1783 by Sir J. Murray Macgregor and other highlanders in the East India Company's service, to pay for their publication. Neither the papers presented to the Highland Society by Mackenzie, nor Dr. Ross's transcript of them, formerly in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, are now known to be extant. The manuscript Gaelic originals which Macpherson is said to have collected in the highlands also disappeared without any explanation of their fate, although it was reported that those of some of the smaller poems were lost on the journey to Florida.

Subsequent argument has tended to confirm the conclusion at which the committee arrived, and in some points to establish a view more favourable to Macpherson. In 1841 P. Macgregor published in London his ‘Ossian's Entire Remains, illustrated,’ with an introduction in which the evidence then accessible is set out at some length. Twenty years later, fresh material for settling the question was afforded by the publication of the ‘Dean of Lismore's Book’ (ed. T. MacLauchlan, London, 1862, with a valuable introduction by W. F. Skene), which contains some eleven thousand verses of Gaelic poetry written at various times, and collected between 1512 and 1526 by James MacGregor [q. v.], dean of Lismore (see also Notes and Queries, 6th ser. ix. 137, 272, 2nd ser. iii. 217). The best general defence of Macpherson appeared in 1870, in a prefatory essay to a fine edition of the ‘Poems of Ossian,’ by Archibald Clerk.

It is therefore clear that the general charge of forgery, in the form in which it was made by Johnson, was unjustifiable. It is unlikely, from the character of Macpherson's other writings, that he could be the sole author of the poems, or that he could have written so much original poetry in so short a time. On the other hand, it is highly improbable that Macpherson found any such epic as he claimed to have discovered. He undoubtedly ‘arranged’ what he found (see Highland Soc. Rep. pp. 31, 44). In the process he occasionally combined legends of two different epochs (see Encycl. Britann. s.v. ‘Celtic Literature’). Further, there is no proof that the poems emanated, as was alleged, from the third century, nor is it now possible to fix their date. They are stated to be pre-Christian; but reference to Christianity may have been omitted with the object of increasing their apparent antiquity (see, i. xxxv et seq.)

Macpherson's ‘Ossian’ exerted much influence on the romantic movement in Europe. Goethe acknowledged its sway in his ‘Sturm und Drang’ period, and introduced from ‘Fingal’ the song of Selma into his Werther's ‘Leiden.’ Schiller admired Ossian's ‘great nature.’ Macpherson's Ossianic poems, in the Abbé Cesarotti's Italian translation, were the favourite reading of Napoleon I. They were published in French translations—by Letourneur in 1777 and 1810, and by A. Lacaussade in 1842—and they were imitated in French verse by Baour-Lormian in 1801. Coleridge wrote in 1793 two poems in imitation of Ossian. In Byron's ‘Hours of Idleness,’ 1807, appears ‘The Death of Calmar and Orla,’ an imitation of Macpherson's ‘Ossian.’ Byron appended a note, in which, while admitting the discovery of ‘the imposture,’ he declared ‘the merit of the work’ to remain undisputed, despite its ‘turgid and bombastic diction.’ Byron offered his ‘humble imitation’ to Macpherson's admirers as proof of his ‘attachment to their favourite author.’

Macpherson published the following: 1. ‘The Highlander,’ an heroic poem in six cantos, Edinburgh, 1758. 2. ‘Fragments of Ancient Poetry, collected in the Highlands, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse Languages,’ Edinburgh, 1760. 3. ‘Fingal, an ancient Epic Poem in six books, together with several other Poems composed by Ossian, the son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language,’ London, 1762. 4. ‘Temora, an ancient Epic Poem in eight books, together with several other Poems, composed by Ossian, the son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language,’ London, 1763. 5. ‘Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland, or an Inquiry into the Origin, Religion, Manners, Government, Courts of Justice, etc., of the Ancient Britons,’ London, 1771. 6. ‘The Iliad of Homer, translated into Prose,’ London, 1773. 7. ‘A History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hannover,’ London, 1775. 8. ‘Original Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain, from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hannover; to which are prefixed Extracts from the Life of James II, as written by himself,’ London, 1775. 9. ‘The Rights of Great Britain asserted against the Claims of America, being an Answer to the Declaration of the General Congress,’ London, 1776. 10. ‘Letters from Mohammed Ali Chan, Nabob of Arcot, to the Court of Directors, to which is annexed a Statement of Facts relative to Tanjore, with an Appendix of Original Papers,’ London, 1777. 11. ‘A Short History of the Opposition during the last Session,’ London, 1779. 12. ‘The History and Management of the East India