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ARGUMENT.

MALVINA, the daughter of Toscar, is overheard by Ossian lamenting the death of Oscar her lover. Ossian, to divert her grief, relates his own actions in an expedition which he undertook, at Fingal's command, to aid Crothar, the petty king of Croma, a country in Ireland, against Rothmar, who invaded his dominions. The story is delivered down thus in tradition. Crothar, king of Croma, being blind with age, and his son too young for the field, Rothmar, the chief of Tromlo, resolved to avail himself of the opportunity offered of annexing the dominions of Crothar to his own. He accordingly marched into the country subject to Crothar, but which he held of Arth, or Artho, who was, at the time, supreme king of Ireland.

Crothar being, on account of his age and blindness, unfit for ac

tion, sent for aid to Fingal, king of Scotland; who ordered his son Ossian to the relief of Crothar. But before his arrival, Fovargormo, the son of Crothar, attacking Rothmar, was slain himself, and his forces totally defeated. Ossian renewed the war; came to battle, killed Rothmar, and routed his army. Croma being thus delivered of its enemies, Ossian returned to Scotland. MACPHERSON.

CROMA :

A POEM.

"It was the voice of my love'! seldom art thou in the dreams of Malvina! Open your

It was the voice of my love.] It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open unto me my love, my dove, undefiled. Song of Solomon, v. 2.

2 Seldom art thou in the dreams of Malvina.] In the first editions, "Few are his visits to the dreams of Malvina." From THOMSON.

Should then the weary eye of grief,

Beside some sympathetic stream,

In slumber find a short relief,

Oh visit thou my soothing dream.

The alteration, "Seldom art thou in the dreams of Malvina,"

airy halls, O fathers of Toscar of shields! Unfold the gates of your clouds 3: the steps of Mal

which is faithfully preserved in the Earse version, was introduced, perhaps, because in that language there was no correspondent expression for a visit. The Earse version was first printed in SHAW's Galic Analysis or Grammar, from a copy communicated to a lord of Session, (Lord Kaims, I suppose,) by Macpherson himself. It is literally from the English, with the alteration of a few passages, for which no equivalent phrases could be found in Earse. But, by a mutual adaptation, the improved edition of 1773, and the Earse version, exactly coincide.

3 Open your airy halls---Unfold the gates of your clouds.] Iliad, viii. 393.

Αὐτόμαται δὲ ΠΥΛΑΙ ΜΥΚΟΝ οὐρανοῦ, ἃς ἔχον Ὧραι,
Τῆς ἐπιτέτραπται μέγας οὐρανὸς, Οὔλυμπός τε

Ημὲν ΑΝΑΚΛΙΝΑΙ ΠΥΚΙΝΟΝ ΝΕΦΟΣ, ἠδ ̓ ἐπιθεῖναι.
to the powers,

Heaven's gates spontaneous open

Heaven's golden gates, kept by the winged hours;
Commission'd in alternate watch they stand,
The sun's bright portals and the skies command;
Close, or unfold, th' eternal gates of day,

Bar heaven with clouds, or roll those clouds away.
The sounding hinges ring, the clouds divide.

POPE.

"The gates of heaven harsh-grating aloft, open wide of their own accord. The gates which the Seasons keep: To whom broad Olympus is delivered in charge: To open the gathered cloud." MACPHERSON's Homer, i. 237. The airy halls of Fingal, with their gates of clouds, are thus, though apparently original, a literal transcript of the residence of the gods upon mount Olympus, whose eternal gates are barricaded with clouds.

vina are near*. I have heard a voice in my dream. I feel the fluttering of my soul. Why didst thou come, O blast, from the dark-rolling face of the lake? Thy rustling wing was in the tree; the dream of Malvina fled. But she beheld her love, when his robe of mist flew on the wind. A sun-beam was on his skirts, they glittered like the gold of the stranger. It was

4 The steps of Malvina are near.] In the first editions, "The steps of Malvina's departure are near," from, "The time of my departure is at hand." 2 Tim. iv. 6. Departure was probably omitted, in the improved edition, to adapt it to the Earse," Tha ceuma Mhalmhine gu dian;” as in that language there is no such metaphorical expression as departure, for death. 5 Thy rustling wing was on the tree.] Par. Lost, i. 768. Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings;

of which the Earse version, "Bha do sgiath fhuaimneach," is a literal translation.

6 A sun-beam was on his skirts; they glittered like the gold of the stranger.] Par. Lost, v. 277.

Six wings he wore, to shade

His lineaments divine; the pair that clad

Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast

With regal ornament; the middle pair

Girt like a starry zone his waste, and round

Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold.

And the Earse version of the preceding sentence, "His robe of mist flew on the wind," "Sa ceo earradh ag taomadh ma cliabh," his misty array (regal ornament) poured (mantling) o'er his

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