Abstract
Educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities, Macpherson had published his own poetry before the Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760) allegedly collected in the Scottish Highlands and translated from Gaelic. In an age whose increasing value on primitive literature saw Bishop Percy’s ballad collections, and his and Gray’s interest in Norse poetry, it excited the imagination and flattered the Scottish cultural sense that Macpherson should ‘find’ and translate two Scottish historical epic poems by ‘Ossian’: Fingal (1762) and Temora (1763) were admired at home (David Hume and Adam Smith) and abroad (Schiller, Goethe, Napoleon), where they had an extraordinary influence. The hostile camp was led by Johnson, whose Scottish journey confirmed his view (which appears to be near the truth) that the Ossianic poems were a lash-up of Macpherson’s inventions and some traditional scraps. The reception of Ossian is a remarkable episode in the history of taste. (See also Johnson’s defiant letter to Macpherson on p. 347.)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1989 Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McGowan, I. (1989). James Macpherson. In: McGowan, I. (eds) The Restoration and Eighteenth Century. Macmillan Anthologies of English Literature. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20143-3_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20143-3_32
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-46478-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20143-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)