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Ossian
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Ossian (pseud.) : [poetry]
'there was always poetry. Campbell, just then at the top of his short-lived vogue; Ossian, the unreadable of to-day; Milton - and with the New Year of 1812 a Captain Boothby (met during the London season) as a visitor with whom to read the last, but not the other two. For he did not admire Campbell or Ossian; and indeed seems to have been a person of delicate discriminations, though not advanced in thought. They were reading "Paradise Lost"...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke Print: Book
Ossian : [poems]
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'At present I am engaged in an argument with my dear Miss Bowdlen concerning Ossian. I support him against all other poets. You may easily guess who will say all I can for Ossian, for I really love [italics] his poems beyond all others. Milton must stand alone; but surely Ossian is in some respects [italics] superior to Homer.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
Ossian : hymns
To Miss Hunt, July 7, 1792 'Can you find anything equal to his [Ossian's] descriptions of nature; his address to the Sun in Carthos, that to the Moon in Darthula, and the last hymn? Surely in the joy of grief and in night scenes there is nothing equal to him. I would rather read the description of one of his ghosts than of all Homer's gods. One of my greatest reasons for admiring him is that his heroes are so good [italics].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'Ossian') : 'Carthon'
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 5 January 1843: 'It is many years since I looked at Ossian; & I never did much delight in him as that fact proves. Since your letter came I have taken him up again -- & have just finished 'Carthon' -- There are beautiful passages in it [...] But [...] nothing is articulate -- nothing [italics]individual[end italics], nothing various.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'Ossian') : Ossian poems
Hugh Stuart Boyd to Elizabeth Barrett, 10 January 1843: 'I have read only a small part of Ossian [...] I have been reading a good deal of Dr Blair's Dissertation upon Ossian. The Miss Smiths can bear witness, that before I read it, I made several of the remarks which I afterwards found in Blair.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hugh Stuart Boyd Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'translator' of Ossian) : Poems of Darthula
Hugh Stuart Boyd to Elizabeth Barrett, in hand of an amanuensis, letter postmarked 19 January 1843: 'Since I last wrote to you, the Poems of Darthula has been read to me again. It appears to me, a thing very extraordannary [sic], that a mind like yours, should not take grate [sic] delight in such Poetry as that of Ossian.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hugh Stuart Boyd Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'translator' of Ossian) : The Death of Cuchullin
Hugh Stuart Boyd to Elizabeth Barrett, in hand of amanuensis, letter postmarked 3 March 1843: 'Since I last wrote to you expressly on the Poems of Ossian; I have read another, called, The death of Cuthullin [sic]. I found, that it contained the idea you admired so much, about the darkened half of the moon, behind its growing light [...] Harriet Holmes who read it to me, thought it finer than the other [?Carric-thura]. I myself am doubtfull [sic] about it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Holmes Print: Book
James Macpherson (as 'translator' of Ossian) : The Death of Cuchullin
Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd, 31 March 1843: 'I feel guilty before you, since your last letter has remained too long unanswered [...] I thought it necessary to read "Cuthullin" steadily through as a preliminary to replying to your remarks upon it. This has been achieved at last [...] I admit the great beauty of certain things in the poem [...] although I preserve my opinion upon the general monotony & defective individuality'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Ossian [James Macpherson] : Poems
Robert Southey to John May, 26 June, 1797: '...the French never can have a good epic poem till they have republicanized their language; it appears to me a thing impossible in their metres; & for the prose of Fenelon Florian & Bitaubè — I find it peculiarly unpleasant. I have sometimes read the works of Florian aloud; his stories are very interesting & well conducted, but in reading them I have been felt obliged to simplify as I read & omit most of the similes & apostrophes. they disgusted me & I felt ashamed to pronounce them. Ossian is the only book bearable in this stile, there is a melancholy obscurity in the history of Ossian & of almost
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Ossian :
'The character of the people that Ossian describes, their manners, their habits, but above all, their superstitions, are essentially poetic.'
