SOURCE: "John Pinkerton," in The Gentle Shepherd: A Pastoral Comedy, William Gowans, 1852, pp. lxiv-lxvi.

Pinkerton was a noted late-eighteenth century editor of poetry in the Scots language. In the following excerpt, originally published in his collection Ancient Scotish Poems in 1786, he belittles Ramsay's poetic accomplishments and knowledge of Scots.

Allan Ramsay

The convivial buffoonery of this writer has acquired him a sort of reputation, which his poetry by no means warrants; being far beneath the middling, and showing no spark of genius. Even his buffoonery is not that of a tavern, but that of an ale-house.

The Gentle Shepherd all now allow the sole foundation of his fame. Let us put it in the furnace a little; for, if it be gold, it will come out the purer. Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on Laughter and Ludicrous Composition, observes, that the effect of the Gentle Shepherd is ludicrous...