Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/139

 s. x. AUG. 16, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

131

of thought Our firm conviction is tha

both are the composition of Michael Bruce (par. 87). Mr. Stephen endorses this opinion and adds :

" The coincidences are, as Dr. Small points out

very striking, and would have strongly sup

ported his argument had Logan not destroye<

the quarto volume which might enable him

consciously or unconsciously, to repeat and ever transmute into what seemed his own characteristic phrases the poetic vocabulary of Michael Bruce."

This is equivalent to saying that Logan was possessed of a most retentive memory. He published Bruce's ' Poems ' in 1770. How long 'Runnamede' took to compose we have nc means of knowing. But it waa not publishec until 1783, and in it are to be round severa most important parallelisms with lines in 'A Tale.' Even in sermons and other poems expressions corresponding to those in 'A Tale' are to be found; so that this piece, long though it is, must have made a lasting impression on Logan's memory. It contains ninety-four verses, thirty-two of which reflect more or less distinctly Logan's language. A few extracts taken from compositions which . are indubitably Logan's are here given for comparison with those from 'A Tale.' Some of these, it will be seen, occur in more than one production. Logan's ' Poems ' appeared in 1781 two years before 'Runnamede.' A Tale,. Runnamede.

Long did he look in Long did he look with

silence sad. aspect wild.

What these sad eyes What these sad eyes

have seen. have seen.

The lover of her youth. The gallant lover of her

youth. Now sainted in the sky A saint in heaven [the

[the mother]. mother].

The angel of his age. My daughter, thou wast

an angel once. She rose in beauty by You rose in beauty,

my side. smiling by my side.

The halcyon main. The halcyon hour.

That peerless maid. That peerless maid.

A Tale. Logan's Sermons.

Apple of his eye. Apple of his eye.

Vale of tears. Vale of tears.

Shifts the scene. Shift the scene.

The shower of night did The shower of summer

'all. descends.

Wept a lover's woe. Weep for the woes of

others.

A Tale. The Lovers.

A lover s woe. A hapless lover's woe.

[This idea of " weeping

for the woes" of others Ode, in Autumn.

occurs in the ' Sermons ' Weep for imaged woes, and in these three pieces : ' A Tale,' ' The Lovers,' and 'Ode, written in Autumn.']

Here is a notable parallelism. At the end of 'Sermon XIX.' Logan says :

"Thus the vale of tears is the theatre of Jmman glory ; that dark cloud presents the scene for all the beauties in the bow of virtue to appear."

The same mind can be recognized in this verse from 'A Tale ':

The stream that carries us along

Flows through the rale of tears ; Yet, on the darhican of our day,

The bow of Heaven appears. "Vale of tears " occurs several times in the 'Sermons,' and twice in 'A Tale.' The idea contained in these lines of another verse of ' A Tale,'

a hand unseen Upon the curtain ever rests, And sudden shifts the scene

is found in the ' Sermons,' in ' Runnamede,' and in 'The Lovers.' In the last it is "an unforeseen and fatal hand "; in 'Runnamede,' "No hand invisible to write his doom ; no

demon to draw his curtain" (Act IV.);

in ' Sermon V.,' vol. i., "How often doth

a hand unseen shift the scene ! " In the same sermon reference is made to "an invisible, hand" that "interposes and overturns." In 'Sermon XVI.,' vol. ii., occurs "drawing

thee with a hand unseen."

From many more that might be brought forward to support the claim made on behalf of Logan the following striking parallelisms are chosen :

For now the lover of her youth To Indian climes had roved.

'A Tale.' My lord to Indian climates went.

' Monimia.'

And, if I find her not, I fly To Indian climes again. ' A Tale.'

The hero in ' Runnamede,' having returned
 * rom the Holy Land, and fancying that his

Elvina has proved false, exclaims :

let us depart, I spread my banners for the Holy Land.

She came in every dream. ' A Tale.'

You came an angel to my constant dream. ' Runnamede.'

A better country blooms to view,

Beneath a brighter sky. ' A Tale.'

And brighter days in better skies.

' Ode written in Spring.'

Dr. Mackelvie's parallelism brings us to

Levina,' the consideration of which must be

leld over for the present. Enough has been

ubmitted in connexion with 'A Tale' to

enable readers of 'N. & Q.' to judge whether

)r. Mackelvie was justified in concluding,

r rom one resemblance, or rather identical

expression, occurring both in ' A Tale ' and in

part of Bruce's ' Lochleven,' that the former

)iece was also by Bruce.

A. M.