[15] Clerk.

[16] “The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic, with a Literal Translation into Latin by the late Robert Macfarland, etc., Published under the Sanction of the Highland Society of London,” 3 vols., London, 1807.  The work included dissertations on the authenticity of the poems by Sir Jno.  Sinclair, and the Abbe Cesarotti (translated).  Four hundred and twenty-three lines of Gaelic, being the alleged original of the seventh book of “Temora,” had been published with that epic in 1763.

[17] “Popular Tales of the West Highlands,” J. F. Campbell, Edinburgh, 1862.  Vol.  IV.  P. 156.

[18] He suggests Lachlan MacPherson of Strathmashie, one of MacPherson’s helpers.  “Popular Tales of the West Highlands.”

[19] “Fragments,” etc.

[20] Seventh book of “Temora.”  See ante, p. 321.

[21] “Leabhar Na Feinne,” p. xii.

[22] See ante, p. 313, note.

[23] “Encyclopaedia Britannica”:  “Celtic Literature.”

[24] For a further account of the state of the “authenticity” question, see Archibald McNeil’s “Notes on the Authenticity of Ossian’s Poems,” 1868; and an article on “Ossian” in Macmillan’s Magazine, XXIV. 113-25.

[25] “The sweet voice of Cona never sounds so sweetly as when it speaks of itself.”

[26] “The Complaint of Ninathoma.”

[27] For some MS. Notes of Byron in a copy of “Ossian,” see Phelps’ “English Romantic Movement,” pp. 153-54.

[28] “Sorrows of Werther,” Letter lxviii.

[29] “Caledonia, or Ancient Scotland,” book ii. chapter vii. part iv.

[30] “Childe Harold,” canto iii.

[31] The same is true of Burns, though references to Cuthullin’s dog Luath, in “The Twa Dogs”; to “Caric-thura” in “The Whistle”; and to “Cath-Loda” in the notes on “The Vision,” show that Burns knew his Ossian.

[32] From Goethe’s “Goetz von Berlichingen.”

[33] See “Poems by Saml.  Egerton Brydges,” 4th ed., London, 1807. pp. 87-96.

[34] See ante, p. 117.

[35] There were French translations by Letourneur in 1777 and 1810:  by Lacaussade in 1842; and an imitation by Baour-Lormian in 1801.

[36] See Perry’s “Eighteenth Century Literature,” p. 417.

[37] One suspects this translator to have been of Irish descent.  He was born at Schaerding, Bavaria, in 1729.

CHAPTER X.

Thomas Chatterton.

The history of English romanticism has its tragedy:  the life and death of Thomas Chatterton—­

                “The marvelous boy,
    The sleepless soul that perished in his pride."[1]

The story has been often told, but it may be told again here; for, aside from its dramatic interest, and leaving out of question the absolute value of the Rowley poems, it is most instructive as to the conditions which brought about the romantic revival.  It shows by what process antiquarianism became poetry.