The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes

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• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
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Title: The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer
With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes
Author: Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]
Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8695]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF BEATTIE, BLAIR, AND FALCONER ***
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The Poetical Works
of Beattie, Blair and Falconer
With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes,
by the Rev. George GilfillanTable of Contents
Beattie's Poetical Works
The Life and Poetry of James Beattie
The Minstrel; or, the Progress of Genius
Book I
Book II
Miscellaneous Poems
Ode to Hope
Ode to Peace
Ode on Lord Hay's Birthday
The Judgment of Paris
The Triumph of Melancholy
Elegy
Elegy, written in the year 1758
Retirement
The Hermit
On the Report of a Monument to be erected in Westminster Abbey,
to the Memory of a late Author (Churchill)
The Battle of the Pigmies and Cranes
The Hares. A Fable
The Wolf and Shepherds. A Fable
Song, in imitation of Shakspeare's "Blow, blow, thou winter wind" .
To Lady Charlotte Gordon, dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with
Plumes, &c
Epitaph: being part of an Inscription designed for a Monument
erected by a Gentleman to the Memory of his Lady
Epitaph on Two Young Men of the name of Leitch, who were
drowned in crossing the River Southesk
Epitaph, intended for Himself
Blair's Poetical Works
The Life of Robert Blair
The Grave
A Poem, dedicated to the Memory of the late learned and eminent
Mr William Law, Professor of Philosophy in the University of
Edinburgh
Falconer's Poetical Works
The Life of William Falconer
The Shipwreck
The Shipwreck: Introduction
The Shipwreck: Canto I
The Shipwreck: Canto II
The Shipwreck: Canto III
Occasional Elegy, in which the preceding narrative is
concluded
Miscellaneous Poems
The Demagogue
A Poem, sacred to the Memory of His Royal Highness
Frederick Prince of Wales
Ode on the Duke of York's second departure from England as
Rear-Admiral
The Fond Lover. A Ballad
On the Uncommon Scarcity of Poetry in the Gentleman's
Magazine for December last, 1755, by I. W., a sailor
Description of a Ninety-Gun Ship
Beattie's Poetical Works
The Life and Poetry of James Beattie
James Beattie, the author of the Minstrel was born at Laurencekirk, in the
county of Kincardineshire—a village situated in that beautiful trough of land
called the Howe of the Mearns, and surmounted by the ridge of the Garvock
Hills, which divide it from the German Ocean—on the 25th day of October 1735.His father, who was a small farmer and shopkeeper, and who is said to have
possessed a turn for literature and versifying, died when James was only seven
years old; but his brother David, the eldest of a family of six, undertook the
superintendence of his education till he was fit to go to the parish school. That
school which had been raised to celebrity by Thomas Ruddiman, the
grammarian, was now taught by one Milne, whom his pupil describes as also a
good grammarian and an excellent Latin scholar, but destitute of taste, and of
all the other qualifications of a teacher. Milne preferred Ovid to Virgil; but
Beattie's taste, already giving promise of its future classical bent, was attracted
by the less meretricious beantics of Virgil; and this author, in Dryden's
translation, as well as Milton's Paradise Lost, and Thomson's Seasons, were
devoured with eagerness, and copied with emulation, by him in the intervals of
his school hours. He was assisted in his studies by Mr Thomson, minister of the
parish. In 1749, when he reached the age of fourteen, he entered Marischal
College, Aberdeen, and such was his proficiency that he took by competition
the first of those bursaries or exhibitions which are given to those students who
are unable to support the expenses of their own education. Aberdeen has been
always distinguished by its eminent professors. Blackwell, Gerard, Reid,
Campbell, the subject of this sketch, Brown, Blackie, &c. are only a few of the
celebrated names the roll of its two colleges contains. The two first-mentioned
were flourishing at the time when young Beattie entered the University.
Blackwell was a learned but pedantic Grecian, who wrote with considerable
power and great pomp on Mythology, Homer, and the Court of Augustus.
Alexander Gerard was the author of some books of some merit, although now
nearly forgotten, on the Genius of Christianity, on Taste and Genius, &c. Under
both these Beattie profited very much. He gained a high prize in Blackwell's
class, for an analysis of the fourth book of the Odyssey. He did not neglect
general reading, nor the art of poetry. He spent much of his leisure in studying
and practising music, which he always loved with a passion. We can conceive
him, too, the "lone enthusiast," repairing often to the resounding shore of the
ocean, or leaning where a greater than he was by and by to lean, over the Brig
of Balgounie, which bends above the deep, dark Don, or walking out pensively
to the Bridge of Dee, and watching the calm, translucent, yet strong, victorious
river running through its rich green banks and clustering corn-fields to wed the
sea. No university in wide Britain can be named with Aberdeen, in point of the
wild romantic grandeur of its environs, if we include in these the upper courses
of the two rivers which meet beside it and Byron Hall. Macintosh, as well as
Beattie, have owned the inspiration which the scenery, still more than the
scholastic training of the Northern Metropolis, breathed into their opening
minds.
In 1753, having cultivated assiduously every branch of study taught at college
except mathematics, for which he had neither taste nor aptitude, Beattie took
the degree of A.M. He had hitherto been supported by the kindness of his
brother David, but now he was to look out for a profession for himself. The
situation of parish schoolmaster at Fordoun falling vacant, he determined to
apply for it; and on the 11th of August 1753 he was elected to the office.
Fordoun is situated a few miles to the north-east of Laurencekirk, and is
surrounded by similar scenery. A series of gentlemen's seats extend, at brief
intervals, from Brechin to Stonehaven, along a ridge of bare and bold
mountains, and overlooking a fair and rich plain, so that thus the
neighbourhood of Fordoun includes a combination of the soft, the beautiful, the
luxuriant, and the nakedly-sublime, which must have fed to satiety the eye and
heart of this true poet. Otherwise, the situation could not be called eligible. The
salary was small, the society at that time indifferent, and the sphere limited.
There were, however, some counter-balancing advantages. Near the village
resided Lord Gardenstown, who met Beattie in a romantic glen near his house,
with pencil and paper in his hand—entered into conversation with him—found
out that he was a poet—and gave him the "Invocation to Venus" in the opening
of Lucretius, to translate, which he did on the spot, and thus removed some
doubts Lord Gardenstown had entertained as to whether his poetry was
actually his own; and, besides, Lord Monboddo, a remarkable man, alike in
talent and eccentricity; and both vied with each other in their patronage of the
poetical _dominie_ when he had undisturbed leisure for study and solitary
communion with nature. On the whole, perhaps, the future "Minstrel" was
happier as a parish schoolmaster than in any part of his after life; and perhaps
often, in more brilliant but less easy days, would revert with a sigh to the simple
school and the stream which murmurs past the small kirkyard of Fordoun.
While there, he wrote a few poetical pieces, which he sent with his initials, and
the name of his place of abode, to the _Scots Magazine_. We can fancy him,
like the immortal Peter Pattieson, on the day the Magazine was due, walking as
far as the little height of Auchcairnie, to watch and weary for the long-expecte