attempted. In the older Edda we have a collection of poems orally recited by the Icelandic Skalds, which were committed to writing and fused, or, it may be, partly composed by Sigfusson in the eleventh century. From these and other materials Snorro-Sturleson, a hundred and fifty years later, produced an Edda in prose, which has not yet been denounced as spurious. The work that was done on the Scandinavian ballads by these two Icelanders is substantially the work that was done by Macpherson on the Gaelic poetry of the Highlands. And it is further to be observed, that just as the matter which he collected and his own additions were turned again into verse by various hands, so Oehlenschläger drew on the prose Edda for his Gods of the North.
In respect of some of their external features, and of the controversy which they have aroused, the parallel between the Ossianic poems, as Macpherson left them, and the Nibelungenlied in the form in which it has come to us from the close of the twelfth century, is curiously exact. The matter of both is a mixture of myth and of history, and both are based on songs and ballads
of uncertain date and origin. In the one and
in the other a fresh and alien element is superinduced; in the Nibelungenlied the ideas of the age of chivalry refine the gods and heroes of an early mythology: in the Ossianic poems, a literary elegance obscures what was rough and harsh in the old Celtic legends. In either it cannot be determined how much was drawn from ancient lore and how much was added by the collector; but there seems to be as good a case for the authenticity of the Ossianic poems, as for that of the Edda or the Nibelungenlied; and with the old writers who gave those works to the world, Macpherson is fairly entitled to rank.
Becket, 162, 197, 249.
Benfield, Paul, 275.
Blacklock, Dr., 50, 308.
Blair, Dr. Hugh, 73, 74, 78,
82, 90, 93, 96, 149, 151,
187, 206-9, 220, 235, 238,
241, 252, 295-6.
Blake, Wm., 22.
Boswell, 25, 161 note, 172,
173 note, 201, 251-3, 257,
297, 316 note.
Brewster, Sir David, 297, 316.
Brooke, Miss, her collection
of Gaelic poems, 313.
Browning, Ê. B., 24.
Bürger, 18.
Burke, 172, 205, 264, 275, 288.
Burt's Letters, 13, 58.
Bute, the Earl of, 157, 162,
185.
Byron, 17, 23.
Campbell, J. F., 97, 318.
Carlyle, Dr. Alex., 70, 237.
Carruthers, 234 note, 284.
Carsewell, 105.
Carte, Thomas, 226.
Cesarotti, the Abbé, 18, 21,
198, 314.
Churchill, 186.
Clanranald, 125 et seq.
Clerk, Archibald, 319.
Coleridge, 23.
Dalrymple, Sir John, 224..
Dean of Lismore's Book, The,
104, 108, 110, 114, 128, 133,
144-5, 313.
Duane, Matthew, 226.
Edinburgh Literati, the, 72.
Farquharson, 316.
Ferguson, Adain, 64, 113, 140,
151, 297 and note.
Fox, 274, 285.
Fragments, the, 69, 80.
Gaelic poetry, ch. V., passim.
Gallie, Andrew, 131 et seq.
Gibbon, 219, 238 and note.
Goethe, 19, 165.
Goldsmith, 16, 244.
Graham's Essay, 309.
Grant, Mrs. Ann, of Laggan,
283, 297, 300.
Gray, 17, 87-9, 96, 150, 174.
Herder, 18.
Highlanders, the, 3, 4, 13.
History of Great Britain,
Macpherson's, 254.
Home, John, 65, 117, 149,
Mackintosh of Borlum, 281.
Maclagan, James, letters to,
146, 152, 154.
Macleod, Prof., 135.
Macleod, Dr. Donald, 121.
Macmhuirichs, the, 126 et seq.
Macnicol's Remarks on Dr.
Johnson's Tour, 255-6.
Macpherson, Alex., Glimpses
of Church and Social Life
in the Highlands, 32 note,
237 note.
Macpherson, Ewen, 124, 129.
Macpherson, James, his par-
entage, 32; birth, 33; edu-
cation, 36; goes to Aber-
deen, 39, and to Edinburgh,
42; returns to Ruthven as
schoolmaster, 43; his early
poetry, 45, 61; The Hunter
and The Highlander, 46-7;
contributes to the Scots
Magazine, 48; collects Gae-
lic poetry, 59; becomes a
tutor, 63; meets John
Home at Moffat, 66; trans-
lates a Gaelic fragment,
68; goes to Edinburgh and
meets Blair, 74; who urges
him to further translation,
77; publishes the Frag-
ments, 78; undertakes a
mission to the Highlands,
94; his first journey, 117;
his second, 147; returns to
Edinburgh, 149; is assisted
by Blair, 149; proposes to
publish the originals, 154;
goes to London, 158; pub-
lishes Fingal, 161; and
Temora, 189; behaves fool-
ishly, 200; goes to Florida,
213; returns to write for
the press, 213; writes his
Introduction to the History
of Great Britain and Ire-
land, 217; translates the
Iliad, 220; which fails,
223; continues Hume's
History, 225; visits Paris,
227; publishes a fourth
edition of the poems, 239;
is attacked by Johnson,
244; writes to Strahan,
245; replies to Johnson,
and threatens him, 248;
publishes the Original
Papers, 228; and his His-
tory of Great Britain, 231;
supervises the Court news-
papers, 233; writes against
the American claims, 259;
and with Sir John Mac-
pherson attacks the East
India Company, 262; be-
comes agent to the nabob
of Arcot, 270; enters the
House of Commons, 273;
receives money from Indian
admirers wherewith to print
his originals of Ossian, 279 ;
fate of the money, 314;
builds a house in Badenoch,
281; joins the Whigs, 284;
prepares to publish the
originals, 289; his chil-
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