James Macpherson (Scottish Gaelic: Seumas MacMhuirich or Seumas Mac a' Phearsain) (27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.
Macpherson was born in Ruthven in the parish of Kingussie, Badenoch, Inverness-shire.
In 1753, he was sent to King's College, Aberdeen, moving two years later to Marischal College (the two institutions later became the University of Aberdeen).
He then went to Edinburgh for just over a year, but it is unknown whether he studied at the university.
He is said to have written over 4,000 lines of verse while a student.
Some of this was later published, notably The Highlander (1758), which he is said to have tried to suppress afterwards.
On leaving college, he returned to Ruthven to teach in the school there.
At Moffat he met John Home, the author of the tragedy "Douglas", for whom he recited some Gaelic verses from memory.
He also showed him manuscripts of Gaelic poetry, supposed to have been picked up in the Scottish Highlands and the Western Isles.
Encouraged by Home and others, he produced a number of pieces translated from the Scottish Gaelic, which he reportedly spoke, which he was induced to publish at Edinburgh in 1760 as
"Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland".
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 he set out to visit western Inverness-shire, the islands of Skye, North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula.
He obtained manuscripts which he translated with the assistance of a Captain Morrison and the Rev. Gallie.
Later he made an expedition to the Isle of Mull, where he obtained other manuscripts.
In 1761 he announced the discovery of an epic on the subject of Fingal (related to the Irish mythological character Fionn mac Cumhaill/"Finn McCool") written by Ossian (based on Fionn's son "Oisín"), and in December he published
"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,"
written in the musical measured prose of which he had made use in his earlier volume.
The poem "Temora" followed in 1763, and a collected edition, The Works of Ossian, in 1765.
The name Fingal or Fionnghall means "white stranger", and it is suggested that the name was rendered as Fingal through a derivation of the name which in old Gaelic would appear as Finn.
The authenticity of these so-called translations from the works of a 3rd-century bard was immediately challenged by Irish historians, especially Charles 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 refute.
More forceful denunciations were later made by Samuel Johnson, who asserted (in A 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 never produced the originals that he claimed existed.
In 1764 he was made secretary to the colonial governor George Johnstone at Pensacola, Florida.
He returned to Great Britain two years later, and, despite a quarrel with Johnstone, was allowed to retain his salary as a pension.
He went on to write several historical works, the most important of which was Original Papers, containing the Secret History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, to which are prefixed Extracts from the Life of James II, as written by himself (1775). He enjoyed a salary for defending the policy of Lord North's government, and held the lucrative post of London agent to the Nawab of Arcot.
He entered parliament in 1780, as Member of Parliament for Camelford and continued to sit for the remainder of his life.
In his later years he bought an estate, to which he gave the name of Belville, in his native Invernessshire, where he died at the age of 59.
Macpherson's remains were carried from Scotland and interred in the Abbey Church of Westminster.
The Highland MP and antiquarian, Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, comments on late eighteenth century evictions in the area of Kingussie, in his second series of "Antiquarian Notes" (Inverness 1897, pp 369 et seq, public domain) as follows:
"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 also asserts that MacPherson bought the right to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
After Macpherson's death, Malcolm Laing, in an appendix to his History of Scotland (1800), concludes that the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether modern in origin, and that Macpherson's authorities were practically non-existent.
Despite the above, some critics claim that
Macpherson nonetheless produces 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 the romantic movement
in European literature.
Ossian's poetry was speedily translated into many European languages, and Herder and Goethe (in his earlier period) were among its profound admirers.
Goethe incorporated his translation of a part of the work into his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Melchiore Cesarotti's Italian translation was reputedly a favourite of Napoleon -- who spelt the name "Ocean" (cf. Ugo F.).
Macpherson's legacy indirectly includes the naming of Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa.
The original gaelic name is "An Uamh Bhin" ("the melodious cave"), but it was renamed by Sir Joseph Banks in 1772 at the height of Macpherson's popularity.
Macpherson is frequently mentioned along with Thomas Chatterton, another forger of the era, in the 1780 novel Love and Madness by Herbert Croft.
References[edit]
Mike Campbell (2008). "Name: Fingal". Behindthename.com. Retrieved 16 Nov 2008.
Mary Ann Dobratz (2000). "The Works of "Fiona MacLeod" Notes to First Edition". SundownShores.
A "somewhat merciless exposure"; "Laing, Malcolm". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. Check date values in: |date= (help)
Zamoyski, Adam (2001). Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 45. ISBN 1-84212-145-6.
Jump up ^ Elizabeth A. Bray (1999). Discovery of the Hebrides. Birlinn Publishers. p. 268. ISBN 1-874744-59-9.
Jump up ^ Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004). The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate. p. 544. ISBN 978-1-84195-454-7.
Further reading[edit]
Gaskill, Howard; Macpherson, James (1996). The poems of Ossian and Related Works. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 573. ISBN 0-7486-0707-2.
Gaskill, Howard (2002).
The Reception of Ossian in Europe. Continuum International Publishing Group - Athlone. p. 400. ISBN 0-485-80504-9.
Stafford, Fiona J. (1988).
The Sublime Savage: A Study of James Macpherson and The poems of Ossian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-85224-609-9.
Gaskill, Howard (1991). Ossian Revisited. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 256. ISBN 0-7486-0247-X.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: James Macpherson
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Macpherson, James.
Digitised version of Fingal, an ancient epic poem. : In six books: together with several other poems, composed by Ossian the son of Fingal. / Translated from the Galic language, by James Macpherson.., 1762 edition at National Library of Scotland
Literary Encyclopedia: Ossian
Significant Scots
Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J. F. Campbell Volume IV (1890)
The Poetical Works of Ossian at the Ex-Classics Web Site
Works by James Macpherson at Project Gutenberg
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press
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Authority controlWorldCat
VIAF: 100201047
LCCN: n50042738
ISNI: 0000 0000 8078 3068
GND: 118781154
BNF: cb11913832m (data)
NKC: mzk2003202484
Persondata
NameMacpherson, James
Alternative names
Short descriptionBritish writer and politician
Date of birth27 October 1736
Place of birthRuthven, Badenoch, Scotland, UK
Date of death17 February 1796
Place of deathInvernessshire, Scotland, UK
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Macpherson&oldid=593352887"
Categories:
1736 births
1796 deaths
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Epic poetry collectors
Literary hoaxes
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Romantic poets
Scottish poets
Scottish politicians
People from Aberdeen
People from Inverness
People from Badenoch and Strathspey
People of the Scottish Enlightenment
18th-century Scottish writers
18th-century poets
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