MEDIEVAL BARDS.
“Gach fili ’s bard, gach léigh, aosdan is draoi,
Gach seanachaidh fòs, gach eoladhain shaor is saoi;
Na diadhairean môr bu chliú, ’s bu ghloir do’n Chléir
B’ ann leath’ gu tarbhach labhair iad briathra Dhé.”—MACLEAN.
The unwise utterance of Dr Samuel Johnson that no Scottish Gaelic
manuscript of an older date than last century existed is amply
refuted by the catalogues of British, Irish, and Continental
Libraries. Private individuals also are in possession of Gaelic
manuscripts, some of which come to light now and then. In 1873
Admiral Macdonald sent to Mr J. F. Campbell of Islay the famous
_Leabhar Dearg_, or Red Book of Clan-Ranald, which he had recovered.
This was one of the manuscripts which Macpherson was supposed to
have used and destroyed; but after having read it in company with Mr
Standish O’Grady, Mr Campbell declares that this paper manuscript
“does not contain one line of Macpherson’s Ossian.” It is highly
probable that many others may have ancient manuscripts among their
family archives like this one of Admiral Macdonald, the supposed
destruction of which by Macpherson caused so much literary waste in
connection with the Ossianic controversy.
There have been in Scotland many influences—changes dynastic,
political, and ecclesiastical—unfavourable to the preservation of our
manuscripts. In the midst of these turbulent changes and the ravages
of wars, the vandal hands of foes that demolished churches and burned
houses would not spare the native literary remains they might come
across. We have lost much by the ravages of the Norse in Iona, of the
English at Scone, and of the Reformers. But fresh access of national
life came in each case.
It is not the intention of these chapters to describe at length
the MSS. that we have left us, but a few of the older ones may be
mentioned. The earliest, as already remarked, are to be found in
Continental Libraries—those on which Zeuss founded his “Grammatica
Celtica.” Some of them are no doubt Irish, but some of them must
have been also written by the missionaries who went forth at that
time from the College of Iona. The language and MSS. of that period
in Ireland and Scotland were of the same character and were common
property, and continued to be so to a great extent till the period of
the Reformation, which, as above remarked, along with more violent
political changes in Scotland before then, helped to destroy relics
of preceding ages. The oldest Gaelic MS. extant in this country is a
folio beautifully written on parchment or vellum from the collection
of the late Major MacLauchlan of Kilbride. It is in the possession of
the Highland Society, and is marked Vo. A., No. I. It is supposed to
belong to the eighth century. The following remark is found on the
margin of the fourth leaf: —“Oidche bealtne ann a coimhtech mo Pupu
Muirciusa agus as olc lium nach marunn diol in linesi dem bub Misi
Fithil acc furnuidhe na scoile.” It has been thus rendered by the
late Dr Donald Smith:—“The night of the first of May, in Coenobium of
my Pope Marchus, and I regret that there is not left of my ink enough
to fill up this line. Jane Fithil, an attendant on the school.” The
MS. “consists of a poem, moral or religious, some short historical
anecdotes, a critical exposition of the _Tain_, an Irish tale.”
One of the next oldest is named “Emanuel,” and is ascribed to the
ninth century. Thirty-five lines are quoted in the appendix of the
Highland Society’s report.
There is a parchment book that is attributed to the tenth or eleventh
century. It contains Biblical legends, a life of St. Columba, &c.
It admits of no doubt that many Gaelic productions perished in the
eighth century, when Iona was sacked by the Norse. And it is only a
wonder that so many relics should have survived the ruthless changes
of those days.
Bishop Moore, of Norwich, afterwards of Ely, presented his library,
more than a century ago, to the University of Cambridge. Among his
large collection of books was a vellum MS. of 86 folios, about six
inches long by three broad. It is said that this MS. is as old as
the ninth century. The principal part of it is written in Latin,
and contains John’s Gospel and portions of the other three Gospels,
the Apostles’ Creed, and part of an Office for the visitation of
the sick. It belonged to an establishment of the Culdee Church, and
is an interesting relic of the Celtic learning and culture of the
time, particularly of the ecclesiastics of that Church, who, while
cultivating their native Gaelic, could also read and write Latin.
To the Gaelic scholar the chief interest lies in the Celtic portion
of the MS.—the Gaelic entries made on the margin and on other spaces
in the volume. The MS. was published some years ago by the Spalding
Club, under the excellent editorship of the late Dr John Stuart,
who has given us the Gaelic entries as well as the original in a
scholarly and careful fashion. A Gaelic paragraph on the founding of
the old monastery of Deer has attracted much attention, on account
of its reference to Columba, and because it shows the intimate
connection that existed between the parent establishment at Iona and
branch establishments in distant parts of Scotland.
The _Legend of Deer_ is as follows:—
Columcille acus drostán mac cósgreg adálta tangator áhí marroalseg
día doíb gonic abbordobóir acus béde cruthnec robomormáer buchan
aragínn acus essé rothídnaig dóib ingathráig sáin insaere gobraíth
ómormaer acus óthóséc. tangator asááthle sen incathraig ele
acus doráten ricolumcille sí iarfallán dórath dé acus dorodloeg
arinmormáer .i. bédé gondas tabrád dó acus níthárat acus rogab mac
dó galár iarnéré na gleréc acus robomaréb act mádbec iarsén dochuíd
inmormáer dattác na glerec góndendaes ernacde les inmac gondisád
slánte dó acus dórat inedbairt doíb nácloic intiprat goníce chlóic
pette mic garnáit doronsat innernacde acus tanic slante dó; Iarsén
dorat collumcille dódrostán inchadráig sén acus rosbenact acus
foracaib imbrether gebe tisad ris nabab blienec buadacc tangatar
deara drostán arscartháin fri collumcille rolaboir collumcille
bedeár áním óhúnn ímácc.
TRANSLATION:
(Columcille and Drostán of Gosgrach his pupil came from I as God
had shown to them unto Abbordoboir and Bede the Pict was mormaer
of Buchan before them, and it was he that gave them that town in
freedom for ever from mormaer and tosech. They came after that to
the other town, and it was pleasing to Calumcille, because it was
full of God’s grace, and he asked of the mormaer to wit Bede that
he should give it to him; and he did not give it; and a son of his
took an illness after [or in consequence of] refusing the clerics,
and he was nearly dead [lit. he was dead but if it were a little.]
After this the mormaer went to entreat the clerics that they should
pray for the son that health should come to him, and he gave in
offering to them from Cloch in tiprat to Cloch pette mic Garnait.
They made the prayer, and health came to him. After that Calumcille
gave to Drostán that town and blessed it and left as (his) word,
“Whosoever should come against it, let him not be prosperous.”
Drostán’s tears (deara) came on parting with Calumcille. Said
Calumcille, “Let Dear be its name henceforward.”)
According to this legend it seems that King Brude’s court at
Inverness was not the only distant place visited by the Iona Apostle,
but that he also went as far east as the district of Buchan. The
other chief Gaelic entries are records of grants of land made by
the Monastery. The majority of the names entered, though mere
patronymics then, became some time after clan names as understood
at the present day. It was then or very soon after that the ancient
inhabitants of Celtic Albin began to form themselves into clans in
the state in which they were found two centuries ago. The systems of
feudalism and clanship began to blend and develop. Towards the end of
the MS. the following interesting Gaelic entry is found:—“Forchubus
caichduini imbia arrath in lebran colli aratardda bendacht foranmain
in truagan rodscribai.” This has been translated by the distinguished
Celtic scholar Dr Whitley Stokes thus—“Be it on the conscience of
every one in whom shall be for grace the booklet with splendour; that
he give a blessing on the soul of the wretchock who wrote it.” The
same eminent authority says—“In point of language this is identical
with the oldest Irish glosses in Zeuss’s _Grammatica Celtica_.” This
precisely proves what has been elsewhere already stated, that the
Gaelic of Scotland and Ireland at that time was exactly the same, and
that it was at a later period that dialectic differences appeared. It
also suggests that many of old existing MSS. might have been written
by Scotchmen as well as by Irishmen.
The most ancient and authentic record of the Scottish Kings is to be
found in a poem called “The Albannic Duan,” which was recited by the
Gaelic bard-laureate of the day at the coronation of Malcolm III. It
was found originally in the MacFirbis Manuscript in the Royal Irish
Academy. The name of the author is not known. The Duan consists
of one hundred and eight lines, and is composed in the ballad
measure. Being mostly a catalogue of names, it does not bear a verse
translation very well. The first four stanzas run thus:—
Ye learned men of Albin all,
Ye yellow-haired and gentle band,
Who first invaded, do you know,
The ancient shore of Albin land?
Albanus came with active men,
That son of Isacon of fame,
Brother of blameless Briutus he;
From him did Albin get its name.
Briutus sent his brother bold
Across the stormy sea of Icht,
The sea-swept point of Fotudan
In Albin fair he took with might.
Long after Briutus, brave and good,
The Nevi-clans the land enjoyed;
And Erglan, who came from his ship
When he had Conning tower destroyed.
It was probably in this reign that the ancient language of Albin
ceased to be used in the Royal Court of Scotland. It continued,
however, to be the fashionable speech of the provincial princes of
the Isles until the lordship of the Isles terminated, towards the
end of the sixteenth century, with Angus MacDonald of Duneevaig,
Islay, and the Glens in Antrim. Sir James Macdonald of Antrim, who
had no English, came with a magnificent retinue to visit James IV. of
Scotland at Holyrood previous to his ascending the throne of England,
and stopped for some time at Court. Could the King, with whom Sir
James was a great favourite, and to whom he was closely related,
converse with him in the Gaelic language?
There is a parchment manuscript in quarto that belonged to the
Kilbride collection. It is prettily written, and contains a metrical
account or list of holidays, festivals, and saints’ days throughout
the year; an almanack; and a treatise on anatomy, abridged from
Galen, &c.; the Schola Salernitana in Leonine verse, drawn up about
1100 A.D., for the use of Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of
William the Conqueror, by the well-known medical school of Salerno.
The Latin text is accompanied by a faithful Gaelic explanation. A
specimen follows:—
“Sivis incolumem, sivis te reddere sanum;
Curas tolle graves, irasci crede prophanum.”
_Gaelic_—
“Madh ail bhidh fallann agus madh aill bhidh slan;
Cuirna himsnimha tromadhit, agus creid gurub diomhain duit fearg
de dhenumh.”
Having the words _Leabhar Giollacholaim Meigleathadh_ on the last
page of the MS., it is supposed that it belonged to Malcolm Bethune,
a member of a family distinguished for their learning and medical
skill, that supplied for many ages with physicians the Western Isles
of Scotland. It was one of them, Fergus Mac Beth or Beaton, that
signed the holograph, of the famous Islay Charter of 1408 for Donald,
Lord of the Isles. A MS. dated 1238 on the cover is supposed to have
been written at Glenmason, in Cowal. It contains tales in prose and
verse—one about _Deardri_, _Dearduil_, or _Darthula_.
Another valuable and interesting MS., dated 1512-26, belonging to
Sir James Macgregor, Dean of Lismore—“Jacobus M’Gregor decanus
Lismorensis”—has been mostly published. The editors who have done
their work admirably, have been Dr Thomas MacLauchlan and Dr W. F.
Skene. The work of the former was very difficult and laborious—first
to change the orthography of the Dean, which was phonetic, into
modern Gaelic, and then give a literal English translation.
Among other known manuscripts of the period is that of Dunstaffnage,
October 12, 1603, by Ewen Macphaill. It contains prose tales
concerning Lochlin and Finnic heroes.
A paper manuscript 1654-5, by Edmond MacLauchlan, contains sonnets,
odes, epistles, and an ogham alphabet at the end.
A quarto paper manuscript of 1690-91 contains ancient and modern
tales and poems. It was written at Ardchonnail, on Lochawe side, by
Ewen Maclean for Colin Campbell—“_Caillain Caimpbel leis an leis an
leabharan_.” This Gaelic inscription appears on the seventy-ninth
leaf of the manuscript.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we have arrived at a period
in which Gaelic is very generally written. To the latter century
belong the most of the manuscript materials extant. The subjects of
these manuscripts are of the most various descriptions. We have among
them compendiums of theology, fables and anecdotes about saints, &c.
The most valuable, perhaps, are the genealogical manuscripts. The
historian of Scottish annals is not sufficiently equipped without
knowledge of these. Some of them no doubt, being family records
very frequently, are very partial; but when collated the one will
correct the other. Other subjects treated of in these manuscripts are
medicine and astrology. The substance of these is translated from
Greek and Moorish works, Galen, Averroes, and Avicenna being the
general sources. The largest number of the medical manuscripts were
written by or passed through the hands of the Beatons, the well-known
physicians of the western isles. Astrology appears to have been
studied by the aid of Arabian writers; so many of the superstitions
or popular ideas in the Highlands regarding the stars had probably
an Arabic, and not a Druidic origin, as the present Highlanders
generally believe. The surprising thing is that this science of the
period should be known and cultivated in such inaccessible places as
the Highlands and Islands. Dr MacLauchlan very pertinently and truly
remarks as follows:—“The metaphysical discussions [of the MSS.], if
they may be so called, are very curious, being characterised by the
features which distinguished the science of metaphysics at the time.
The most remarkable thing is there are Gaelic terms to express the
most abstract ideas in metaphysics—terms which are now obsolete, and
would not be understood by any ordinary Gaelic speaker. A perusal of
these ancient writings shows how much the language has declined,
and to what an extent it was cultivated at an early period. So
with astrology, its terms are translated and the science is fully
set forth. Tables are furnished of the position of the stars, by
means of which to foretell the character of future events. Whatever
literature existed in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries extended
its influence to the Scottish Highlands. The nation was by no means
in such a state of barbarism as some writers would lead us to expect.
They had legal forms, for we have a formal legal charter of lands
written in Gaelic; they had medical men of skill and acquirement;
they had writers on law and theology, and they had men skilled in
architecture and sculpture.” But then these manuscripts, these
evidences of light and culture among the Gaels of the Middle Ages,
were buried in private and public libraries till some years ago; and
historians and others not suspecting their existence did not look for
them; and so wrote what their fancy dictated concerning the barbaric
Gael.
In examining the older MSS. and assigning them a nationality, the
student of Celtic literature must bear in mind that the language
spoken in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland in early times
was exactly the same, and that the dialectic differences existing
just now have mostly developed since the period of the Reformation.
The literature that the two Gaelic peoples possessed till then was
also to a great extent common property. As to their writing, what
is called “Irish hand,” or vulgarly _Erse_, or “Irish character,”
is nothing more than what was once common throughout the whole of
Europe. It was in it Gaelic writers once wrote in Scotland; and thus
is how some of our early MSS. have been assigned an Irish origin.
With the reign of Malcolm III., or _Ceann-Mor_, in the eleventh
century, and his marriage with an English Princess, Scottish
institutions and habits began to be radically affected. The
Anglicising and Romanising processes at work were in their final
stages in the Lowlands about the time of the last invasion of the
Norse in the thirteenth century. Soon after the laws and customs of
Scotland were found quite transformed. Feudalism was introduced,
and began to extend even among the Highland chiefs and clans. The
system of clanship, although having apparent points of resemblance
to feudalism, was in principle essentially different. “In the former
case the people followed their chief as the head of their race,
and the representative of the common ancestor of the clan; in the
latter they obeyed their leader as feudal proprietor of the lands
to which they were attached, and to whom they owed military service
for their respective portions of these lands. The Highland chief
was the hereditary lord of all who belonged to his clan wherever
they dwelt, or whatever lands they occupied; the feudal baron was
entitled to the military service of all who held lands under him, to
whatever race they might individually belong. The one dignity was
personal, the other was territorial; the rights of the chief were
inherent, those of the baron were accessory; the one might lose or
forfeit his possessions, but could not thereby be divested of his
hereditary character and privileges; the other when divested of his
fee ceased to have any title or claim to the service of those who
occupied the lands. Yet these two systems, so different in principle,
were in effect nearly identical. Both exhibited the spectacle of a
subject possessed of unlimited power within his own territories, and
exacting unqualified obedience from a numerous train of followers, to
whom he stood in the several relations of landlord, military leader,
and judge, with all the powers and prerogatives belonging to each
of those characters.” The system of clanship was for a time better
adapted for the Highlands; but the tendency of both clanship and
feudalism was to obstruct the administration of justice and impede
the progress of improvement.
Let us now glance at the general culture of this period. From the
poetry of Finlay MacNab, in _The Book of the Dean of Lismore_, we
learn that the ancient bards were in the habit of writing their
compositions. Indeed there was far more literary culture among the
Gaels for many centuries before the Reformation than existed for some
time subsequent to that period. As in earlier ages there was close
intercourse in literary matters carried on during the period of the
Kingdom of the Isles between the Highlands and Ireland. There are
many names, Irish and Scotch, well known in literary annals, to be
found in the Highlands at this time. The Beatons, originally O’Neils
or MacNeills, were a family of learned physicians in Islay and Mull.
Manuscripts, either written by them or in their possession, are still
in existence. The MacVurichs, descendants of Muireadhach Albannach,
who were hereditary senachies or bards to Clanranald, preserved the
literary torch lighted for generations in the Western Isles. Some of
them are said “to have received their education in Irish Colleges
of poetry and writing.” On the other hand it seems to have been a
general practice for Irish scholars to come to the Highlands, where
they and their writings were well received and well known. Irish
annals inform us of Irish scholars who were regarded as masters in
the Highlands. These are the names of four of them:—
In 1185 died Maclosa O’Daly, ollave or scholar, a poet of Erin and
Albin. He was famed for his poetry, hospitality and nobility.
In 1328 died blind O’Carril, chief minstrel of Erin and Albin in his
day.
In 1448 died Tadgog, son of Tadg, son of Giollacoluim O’Higgin, chief
preceptor of the poets of Erin and Albin.
In 1554 died Tagd, son of Aodh O’Coffey, chief teacher of poetry in
Erin and Albin.
From this we learn that literature existed, and that it was
sedulously cultivated both in the Highlands and in Ireland at this
time; and we also learn how much influence the one country exercised
on the language and literature of the other.
During this period Gaelic scholars and culture were encouraged and
fostered by the Princes, afterwards the Lords of the Isles. These
Princes were also very liberal in their benefactions to the Church;
it was one of them, the great Somerled, that endowed the Abbey
of Paisley. Iona and other places over which their sway extended
had always their constant help. And thus in their patronage of
churchmen they afforded shelter and protection to literature. The
MacVurichs and the Beatons, already mentioned, were at one time their
secretaries and senachies or clan-historians. Having in course of
time extensive possessions in Ireland as well as in Scotland, much
intercourse was maintained between the two countries, bards and
scholars of both countries going and coming in their train. The most
distinguished of them after Somerled were Donald, from whom the clan,
Donald Bulloch, with his brother John Mor, and James Macdonald the
last of the Isles who thus signs his name in a missive to the Irish
Privy Council, on January 24, 1546:—“James M’Connail of Dunnewaik and
ye Glinnis, and aperand aeyr of ye Yllis.” The Macdonalds, at one
time or another, as Princes or Lords of the Isles, ruled for upwards
of five centuries of the historical period over nearly the half of
Scotland and part of the north of Ireland. They occupy a prominent
place in Norse, Irish, and Scottish history. The Macdonalds finally
lost all their lands in the West, the most of which passed into the
hands of their powerful rivals the Campbells:—
The Halls of Finlaggan no longer sound
To joyous feasts and dances as of yore:
The bard is dumb, the harper plays no more
Where the proud princes of the Isles were crowned:—
Their palace waste! while sadness sits around;
And weeds and nettles flourish on the floor;
Stark silence hovers round the islet’s shore
Where tread of warriors oft had shook the ground.
The chiefs and chieftains of the isles and west
Are seen no more at great Macdonald’s court;
Their galleys traverse not the island seas:
They with their furious feuds are now at rest:
Razed is each castle, ruined is each fort,
Within thy bounds, Queen of the Hebrides!
The name that stands first on the roll of the bards of the Middle
and Modern Ages is that of MUIREADACH ALBANNACH. He is the author of
several poems which have been preserved in _The Book of the Dean of
Lismore_. Religious subjects are the theme of all his compositions.
None of the old bards exhibits so much earnestness and intensity of
feeling. There is also more subjectivity in his poems than in other
productions of the period. His name signifies Murdoch of Albin, or
Scotland, given probably to distinguish him from another Irish bard
of the same name. Muireadhach became the ancestor of a family of
senachies and bards who have been very distinguished in the literary
annals of Gaelic Scotland. They were hereditary bards and senachies
to the Clanranald family. One of them, Lachlan Mòr MacMhuireadhach
or Vurich, accompanied Donald Balloch of the Isles in 1411 at the
battle of Harlaw, reciting his grand war-incitement poem. The last
of them, Lachlan MacVurich, gives evidence in the report of the
Highland Society on Ossian, and traces his genealogy through eighteen
generations to Muireadhach Albannach. Muireadhach appears to have
lived between A.D. 1180 and 1220. I give here a metrical version of
a short religious poem of his in the Dean of Lismore’s book. He is
supposed to have been an ecclesiastic, as many of those who wrote in
early times were.
I praise Thee, Christ, that on Thy breast
A guilty one like me may rest;
And that Thy favour I can share;
And on my lips Thy cross may bear.
O Jesus, sanctify my heart,
My hands and feet and every part;
Me sanctify in Thy good grace,—
Blood, flesh and bones, and all my ways.
I never cease committing sin;
For still its love resides within:
May God His holy fragrance shed
Upon my heart and on my head.
Great glorious One vouchsafe relief
From all the ills that bring me grief;
Ere I am laid beneath the sod:
Before me smooth my way to God.
Another poem of Muireadhach is a curious dialogue between himself and
Cathal Cròdhearg, King of Connaught, who lived towards the end of the
12th century. Both of them were then entering on a monastic life.
It has been inferred from the dialogue that Murdoch was a man of
high birth. Another poem of his in the Dean of Lismore’s book I have
translated as follows:—
’Tis time to leave for Paradise
Since it is hard this pain to bear,—
To win unsoiled, the heavenly prize
Which others cannot with us share.
Now to thy priest thyself confess,
And all thy sins recall to mind,
Seek not His court with guilt-stained dress,
For in that state none entrance find.
None of thy many sins conceal,
Though sore it be their ill to tell:
Thy secret thoughts and deeds reveal,
Lest thou incur His wrath in hell.
And with the clergy make thy peace,
Unworthy, helpless though thou be;
Repent aright, and sinning cease,
Lest heavy guilt be found on thee.
He who forsakes the Lord Most High
For love of sin, sinks deep in woes;
The evils wrought in secresy
Full well the Eye all-searching knows.
Let these be thoughts for Adam’s race;
To me they do not seem untrue;
Men for a time may know their place,
But death at last they can’t eschew.
Muireadhach Albannach occupies the same relation to a number of
succeeding generations of bards in Scotland that the famous Dafydd ap
Gwilym (born, 1293) does towards succeeding Welsh bards.
We have a specimen of the written Gaelic of this period in the famous
Macdonald charter, the earliest Gaelic one extant. In 1408 Donald,
Lord of the Isles, granted lands in Islay to Brian Vicar Mackay of
Rhinns, in that Island. The Mackays were an old family in Islay; from
them came the Magees of Ireland, and I believe the present Bishop
of Peterborough. The lands were Baile-Vicar, Cornobus, Cracobus,
Tocamol, &c., in the parish of Kildalton. The charter conveying these
lands, still in existence, is written in Gaelic. It was published
some time ago by the Record Commission. It is an interesting
document, and is here given in a literal translation. It was written
by one of the Beatons, already referred to, who signs himself “Fergus
M’Beth.” He was probably at the time physician to the Lord of the
Isles. As Dr M’Lauchlan, who deciphered it, says—“The style of the
charter is that of the usual feudal charters written in Latin, but
the remarkable thing is to find a document of the kind written in
Gaelic, at a time when such a thing was almost unknown in the Saxon
dialects of either England or Scotland.”
It is interesting to find that the Gaelic of the charter, written
470 years ago, is the same as that spoken in Islay at the present
day. One word _brach_, “ever” is spelt phonetically, just as it is
pronounced now in the dialect of the island. The only word which
seems to have changed its signification is _bheatha_, or unaspirated
_beatha_, which was then used for “world.” _Beatha_ in modern Gaelic
means life, but an older form was _bith_, which now means being or
existence, but in ancient Gaelic was used for “world.” See _Zeuss’s
Grammar_.
In the name of God. Amen.
I, Mac Donald, am granting and giving eleven marks and a-half of
land from myself and from my heirs, to Brian Vicar Mackay and to
his heirs, after him for ever and ever, for his services ... to
myself and to my father before me; and this on covenant and on
condition that he himself and they shall give to me and to my heirs
after me yearly, four cows fit for killing for my house. And in
case that these cows shall not be found, the above Brian and his
heirs shall give to me and to my heirs after me, two marks and
forty for the same above cows. And for the same cause I am binding
myself and binding my heirs after me, to the end of the world,
these lands, together with their fruit of sea and land, to defend
and maintain to the above Brian Vicar Mackay, and to his heirs for
ever after him in like manner. And these are the lands I have given
to him and to his heirs for ever—namely, Baile-Vicar, Machaire,
Leargariabhoighe, Ciontragha, Graftol, Tocamol, Ugasgog, the two
Gleannastol, Cracobus, Cornubus, and Baile-Neaghtoin. And in order
that there may be meaning, force, and effect in this grant I give
from me, I again bind myself and my heirs for ever under covenant
this to uphold and fulfil to the aforesaid Brian and his heirs
after him to the end of the world, by putting my hand and my seal
down here, in presence of these witnesses here below, and the
sixth day of the month of the Beltane, and this year of the birth
of Christ, one thousand four hundred and eight.
MCDONALD.
John Mac Donald.
Pat: Mac aBrian.
Fergus Mac Beth.
Hugh McCei.
It is a suggestive commentary on the uncertainty of sublunary things
that these lands which Donald was to “uphold” “to the end of the
world” to Brian and his heirs have passed through the hands of more
than one family since—they being now the property of John Ramsay, of
Kildalton. Neither a Mackay nor a Macdonald owns any land in Islay
now.
LACHLAN MOR MACVURICH.—This senachie and bard to the Clanranald is
the author of one of the most extraordinary poems in Gaelic or in any
language. He was of the family of the famous Muireadhach Albannach.
He accompanied Donald, Lord of the Isles, at the battle of Harlaw, in
1411, and rehearsed his poem to animate the followers of the Islay
chief. This war-song or battle-incitement (Stewart’s Collection)
consists of three hundred and thirty-eight lines. The theme of the
production is “O, children of Conn of the Hundred Fights! remember
hardihood in the time of battle.” Round this subject Lachlan Mòr
has gathered some six hundred and fifty adverbial adjectives,
arranged alphabetically, and every one of them bearing specially and
martially on the great theme of the song. There is nothing in the
poem but these adjectives, which certainly in themselves are not very
poetical; but rehearsed unhesitatingly from a good memory “in all
their astonishing alliterative array by a ready speaker gifted with
a strong and sensitive voice, they could not but have offered a rare
opportunity for impetuous, vehement, and effective declamation.”
It may be remarked here, _en passant_, that there is no decisive
evidence for the assertions of historians that Donald of Islay lost
that battle. He claimed the victory; but even although it were more
decided it would be equally barren of important results. It is also
a misconception of the character of the forces engaged when it is
said that one side was Celtic and the other Saxon, and that it was
a struggle for race supremacy. There were many Gaels on the other
side also, just as there were in the last battle fought on British
ground—that of Culloden.
THE FOUR WISE MEN.—One of the most interesting poems in the _Book
of the Dean of Lismore_ is a dialogue between four men who are
supposed to stand at the grave of Alexander the Great. It appears
to be somewhat older than the fifteenth or sixteenth century. It
illustrates the strong masculine character of those earlier ballads,
where sense is not buried under a heap of verbiage. Whoever the
author was, he was evidently a man of sound judgment and cultured
common sense. Being of more than average merit in the original, the
poem bears translation better than other inferior productions in
the Dean’s Book. It has been excellently done by the late Mr Thomas
Pattison, and I avail myself of his version. It is very interesting
to read the moralisings of Highlanders some five hundred years ago.
Four wise men met beside the grave
Where the Prince of Greece was laid—
The mightiest Alexander;
And these true words they said:—
“But yesterday, to serve his need,
The world’s great host would rise;
And there, alas!” the first man said,
“To-day he lonely lies.”
“Proudly rode he on the earth
Not many days bygone;
And now the earth,” the second cried,
“It rests on his breast bone.”
Then did the third wise speaker say,—
“Not many days ere this
He own’d the whole round world; and now
Not seven short feet are his!”
“Alexander treasured gold
To serve his every whim;
And now,” the fourth man sagely said,
“’Tis gold that treasures him.
“Like gold was Philip’s son—the gold
That binds the jewels bright;
Like the palm among the trees; the moon
Amid the stars of night;
“Like the great whale among small fish;
The lion ’mid the slain;
The eagle when she drives the birds
From the rock of her lone reign.
“Like Zion hill amid the hills—
The hill that holiest seems;
Like the great sea unto the floods;
Like Jordan ’mid the streams.
“He was a man above all men,
Save the High King of Heaven;
To him were armies, towns, and lands,
And herds and forests given.”
Thus o’er the great man’s tomb they spoke!
Wise do I count their lore;
Unlike to women’s idle prate
Were the sayings of these four.
In the Dean’s Book we have poems by two ladies—the first Gaelic
poetesses of whom we have any record. The name of one of them is
EFRIC MACCORQUDALE or MACNEILL. This poetess, whose name is written
“Effric neyn corgitill,” is the authoress of a very spirited poem.
She appears to have been the wife of the last MacNeill of Castle
Sween, an ancient strong-hold at the mouth of Loch Sween in Knapdale,
Argyllshire. The last constable of this clan was Hector MacTorquil
MacNeill, whose name is found on a Macdonald charter in 1472. He was
of the Gigha MacNeills, who sprung from Torquil MacNeill, designated
“filius Nigelli” in his charter of the lands of Gigha and Taynish
with the constabulary of Castle Sween. “MacTorquil,” half Gaelic,
half Norse, reminds us of the mixture of Teutonic and Celtic blood in
the veins of this clan. When the last MacNeill died, leaving no heir
in the direct line, the office and lands connected with Castle Sween
were given, in 1431, to the Earl of Argyll. Efric, his wife, here
laments the fact.
Rosary, thou kindlest sorrow;
Thou art ever my delight;
Telling of the noble bosom
Where I lay until to-night.
Death has filled me with its sadness;
Where’s the arm I clung to long?
Ah! I saw it not departing;—
His the valiant and the strong.
Joyful voice of softest music;
Known it everywhere remains;
Lion of Mull of the white towers,
Hawk of Islay of smooth plains.
* * * * *
There’s no joy among our women;
At the sport men are not seen;
Like the skies when winds are silent,
So with music is Dun Sween.
On Clan-Neill they’ve taken vengeance;
See the palace of the brave!
Cause to us of sad lamenting
Till they lay us in the grave.
The other poetess is—
ISABEL, COUNTESS OF ARGYLL. In the Dean’s Book this lady is described
as “Isabella Ni vic Cailein;” elsewhere she is called “Contissa
Ergadien.” She was Isabel Stewart, eldest daughter of John, Lord of
Lorn. She was married to Lord Colin Campbell, who was created Earl
of Argyll in 1457, and died in 1493. The poems of these two ladies
are interesting as showing that Gaelic literature was cultivated
in fashionable quarters at that period. I have attempted a literal
rendering in verse of the Countess’s poem:—
Pity one that bears love’s anguish,
Yet the cause that must conceal;
Sore it be to lose a dear one,
And a wretched state to feel.
And the love I gave in secret
I must ever keep unknown;
But unless relief comes quickly
All my freshness will be gone.
Ah! the name of my beloved
Ne’er to other can be told;
He put me in lasting fetters;—
Pity me a hundredfold.
In surveying the arena of history we observe places geographically
small sending forth the most prevailing of the forces that have
fashioned the course of civilisation. A glance at one or two
countries will readily illustrate the significance of the great
factors at work in the making of the world’s annals. We discern in
Judea, a small strip of land, the country whence the all-conquering
religion and civilisation of the whole earth have come; we find in
Greece—a small concatenation of tribes and provinces—a philosophic
and æsthetic power which has supplied the minds of men with profound
wisdom for centuries; for our laws and many of our customs and
institutions we are indebted to Rome, Pagan and Christian—a city in
a comparatively petty peninsula; in our own isles of the Gentiles,
not excluding Man, Ireland, and St. Kilda, there has been developed
the greatest moral force of the present, and it may be said of
any millennium hitherto. Our British islands look small indeed on
the chart of the world; and it is possible that our geographical
insignificance may tempt everweening, inimical powers, and some of
our own subject nationalities, to touch unkindly some day the mane
of the British lion; but very vainly indeed as long as Christian
manliness resides in the hearts of never-enslaved Britons.
Along the coasts of Britain lie several islets where were nursed and
whence have emanated national elements of moral power which have
to some extent influenced our all-prevailing Anglo-Celtic empire.
Lindisfarne, Inchcolm, and Iona we generally know. Iona in Loch
Erizort, Lewis, the interesting islets that stud the west coast of
the latter island, the far north tiny little Rona, were in early
days centres of light and religion, if not of culture. To-day the
tourist finds few or none to welcome him in many of those once
heaven-favoured island-homes that repose in their attractive poetic
solitude and antiquarian suggestiveness on the majestic bosom of the
Atlantic Ocean. But in the far-west St Kilda there still resides
as monarch, priest, and judge, that zealous Free Church ordained
missionary, Mr Mackay, who, according to artist Sands’s admission,
bravely wrestles with all the elements, moral and physical, that
conflict with the interests of man. But leaving St. Kilda in its
loneliness and sailing in among the inner Hebridean Isles, we find
in the fertile Island of Lismore—the _great garden_—a man in the
fifteenth century, often now referred to in Gaelic literature, the
Rev. Sir James Macgregor. A native of Perthshire, belonging to a
royal clan that was afterwards “nameless by day,” with a heart filled
with the enthusiasm and perfervid spirit of his countrymen, he and
his brother got up a collection of the songs and ballads of their
native land, which was among the first of the literary efforts of
the kind. In Lismore also resided in later days another literary
ecclesiastic, the sturdy MacNicol, who produced an able volume of
obstinate Scottish prejudice, a pretty hearty, intelligent growl over
the great lexicographer’s “Journey to the Hebrides.”
To Macgregor’s book we are indebted for some specimens of the poetry
of his own and previous periods. Some of the votaries of the muse to
whom he assigned niches of honour in his collection have been already
referred to; the names of a few more, with a few specimen verses of
their compositions, are here given.
SIR DUNCAN CAMPBELL is described as “Duncan MacCailein, the good
knight.” He was Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, son of Sir
Colin, who died in 1478. He must have been a knight of some courtly
and literary importance in his day, for he not only wrote poetry
in Gaelic, but he obtained from the powers that were charters to
extensive lands in Perthshire, and became one of the Earls of
Breadalbane. He is the author of several pieces of poetry which have
been characterised as remarkable for caustic humour, indulged in
sometimes at the expense of the female sex. A published poem of his
is a satirical elegy on a miser, a species of beggar humanity that
the world has not yet succeeded in extinguishing. I give a literal
metrical translation of some of the verses:—
Who is now the chief of beggars
Since the best of them is gone?
Sorely down our tears are streaming
Since his begging face has flown.
Piteous is the orphan’s case;
Death to begging ill has brought;
In each homestead there is sorrow,
As the begging can’t be taught.
Ever since our God created
Man at first, I have not heard
Of a mendicant like Lachlan,
Whose decease our grief has stirred.
Without father, without mother,
Beggary grows weak and poor;
For none e’er could beg like Lachlan:
How can I my loss endure!
DUNCAN MACPHERSON is thought to have been an ecclesiastic, a class,
notwithstanding Professor Blackie’s genial sneer about the “solemn
sepulchral piety of certain North-Western Gospellers,” who have been
the authors and _media_ of the most of what the literary Highlander
can refer to with national pride. The “sombre nationality” of the old
Ossianic bards is discernible in the following lines:—
Alastair, art still in sorrow?
Or canst cast it to the ground?
The old year is swiftly passing,
And yet godless art thou found?
Now while thou art grey and aged,
Hast thou not the grace of heaven?
If there be aught good in sorrow,
God to thee rich gifts has given.
JOHN MACVURICH.—This writer was likely a member of the famous family
who were so long hereditary bards to Clanranald. Their ancestor was
the famous Muireadhach Albannach of the thirteenth century. I give a
metrical rendering of some verses:—
O, sorry is the fate
I find mine own to-day!
Have pity kindly heav’n;
Save from this pain, I pray.
The misery I feel
Is threefold here alone;
And my misfortune black
Comes weighted with a stone.
My rage and wrath are great
For how she’s grieving me.
I see her sweet soft skin
Like white foam on the sea.
So rosy is her hand;
Her lips like berries red;
My soul she holds while sleep
At night flies from my bed.
I fancied she was nigh,
And that she smiled on me;
But since my grief began
The maid I can not see.
Her raven curly locks
Are prettily arrayed;
Five lovers there are knit
To th’ name of the fair maid.
O that she were my own:
Then I should be so blest;
My love for evermore
To press her to my breast!
Many of the authors whose compositions appear in the Dean’s Book were
evidently professional men, either clerical or medical. It was among
these two classes that the lamp of literature was kept burning. Many
of the names are indeed suggestive of professional connections, such
as Mac-an-Olave, MacNab, Macpherson, Maol Domhnuich, &c.
It has been held that the Romish system of the celibacy of the clergy
was not introduced or acted upon till a century or two before the
Reformation. Whether or not this is true we have at all events
quite a crop of clans whose progenitors must have been the sons of
ecclesiastical persons. We have Mac-an-Aba, MacNab, from the son of
the Abbot; MacVicar, from the son of the Vicar: MacPherson, from
the son of the Parson, or Persona; MacTaggart, from the son of the
Priest; MacMaster, from the son of the Maighstir or Minister. Other
names come to us through those who devoted themselves to be the
_servants_ or _gillies_ of God or of some saints. Mac-gille-Chriost
is Gilchrist, or the son of Gilchrist, or the servant of Christ.
Mac-gill’-Iosa, is Gillies, or the son of the servant of Jesus;
Mac-gill’-Iain, or MacLean, is the son of the servant of Seathain,
or John; Mac-gill’-Aindreais is the son of the servant of Andrew;
Mac-gill’-Eóra (Gill’-an-Leabhair) is the son of the servant of
the Book, Macindeor; Mac-gill’-Mhoire is Morrison, the servant of
Mary, &c. The clerical element appears to have been a powerful
interest at one time in the Highlands and Islands. Indeed, this
may be said of Scotland as a whole, a characteristic which has not
yet become invisible. The Dean’s book shows us the Highlands under
the old order of things. A vast change was impending. The Catholic
ecclesiastical dispensation was drawing to a close. The Church of
Rome never gained a powerful hold of the people; so in general they
contemplated its downfall with indifference. The intelligent of them
who were interested in religion had more sympathy with the old native
Church—the Celtic—which Rome supplanted or were ready to embrace the
new faith of awakening Christendom.
GILLICALUM MAC-AN-OLAVE.—This bard is the author of several pieces
of fair merit in the Dean’s Book. He appears to have been one of the
famous Beatons, _Clann-an-Leigh_, of Islay, Mull, and Skye. Of him
and of several others in the Dean’s MS. we know little more than
their names, some of which I now give:—John of Knoydart, who poetises
on the murder of the young Lord of the Isles by the Irish harper,
Dermid O’Cairbre, at Inverness in 1490; Duncan Mor, from Lennox;
Gilchrist Taylor, Andrew Macintosh, the Bard Macintyre, John MacEwen
MacEachern, Duncan MacCabe, Dougall MacGille Glas, Maol Domhnuich
(Servus Domini), Baron Ewen MacOmie, MacEachag, and Duncan, brother
of the Dean, Sir James Macgregor, who transcribed the most of the
manuscript so famous under his brother’s name.
There are a good few verses of a satiric character to be found in
the Dean’s collection. The reader is rather surprised to find the
religious Dean admitting such an estimate as the following of monks
and monasteries into his collection:—
I, Robert, went yesterday
A monastery for to see;
But to my wishing they said nay,
Because my wife was not with me!
Among the Irish pieces there are several satirical productions by an
Irish Earl Gerald, the fourth Earl of Desmond, directed against the
fair sex.
The ruthless and vindictive spirit which at this time prevailed
in Scotland may be gathered from the following verses of a
battle-incitement on the eve of the invasion of the English, which
ended on the fatal field of Flodden:—
Burn their women, lean and ugly!
Burn their children, great and small!
In the hut and in the palace,
Prince and peasant, burn them all!
Plunge them in the swelling rivers,
With their gear, and with their goods;
Spare, while breath remains, no Saxon;
Drown them in the roaring floods!
These lines have been translated by Professor Blackie, as well as the
next piece of banter.
Black John Macgregor of Glenstrae, who was buried at Dysart, in
Glenorchy, May 26, 1519, was a kind patron to the red-haired bard
Finlay MacNab, who begins his praises as follows:—
I’ve been a stranger long
To pleasant-flowing matter;
I’m tired of lashing fools
With unproductive satire.
I’ve dwarfed my Muse for nought,
But now she shall grow bigger
By chant of lofty theme—
The praise of the Macgregor.
A prince indeed is he,
Who knows the craft of ruling;
Well taught in each degree
Of proper princely schooling.
Men make boast of noble blood:
Though money has its praises,
I’d much liefer be well-born
Than count the wealth of Crœsus.
Hear me gentles and commons all,
Cease your blame and banter;
When I my pedigree rehearse,
You’ll find I am no vaunter.
From great Clan Dougall I descend;
No better blood is flowing,
But richer made in me from founts
That I will soon be showing.
From the MacCailein a good part
Of my life’s blood I borrow,
MacCailein bountiful to bards,
Then how should I find sorrow?
In Earla I was born and bred,
I tell you true the story,
A very noble place it is,
’Twixt Aros and Tobermory,
Macdonald lies off to the west:
I dwell with good Clan Gillean,
Brave men who stood in battle’s breast,
A hundred ’gainst a million.
MacNeill of Barra, too, most sure,
Gives gentle blood to me, sir;
And Colonsay doth make her boast,
I’m kin to the MacFie, sir.
The mighty masterful MacSween,
Clan Ranald and Macleod, sir.
The stoutest chiefs e’er tramped on green,
Give substance to my blood, sir.
The Cattanachs and the Macintoshes
Both make a goodly figure
In my proud line; and linked with them,
Clan Cameron and Macgregor:
And Stewart’s seed, though sown on earth
More wide than any other,
The tale is true that one of them
Was my grandsire’s grandmother;
And if you will to do me harm
I rede you will consider
That I have cousins stout of arm
In Breadalbane and Balquhidder;
Clan Lauchlan and Clan Lamond, too,
All numbered with my kin, sir;
I really see no end in view
When once that I begin, sir;
For in my veins of noble blood
Dame nature was so lavish,
She added some drops from the flood
Of thy pure fount Clan Tavish,
Lads that plenish our green hills
With virtue and with vigour,
Tight little men, but with more pith
Than many who are bigger.
I visit MacDougall of Craignish,
And from the good MacIvor
I get my dinner full and free,
And never pay a stiver.
And now my race and lineage rare,
When you have bravely mastered,
You’ll find the best of all your blood
Flows in my veins—the bastard!
The following poem is by a Phelim Macdougall. The power of his muse
cannot be said to be of so high an order as his moral suggestions.
But poetry and severe ethics do not always go together. So we can
afford some literary and religious sympathies to poor Phelim in his
fifteenth century gropings after light:—
’Tis not good to travel on Sunday,
Whoever the Sabbath would keep;
Not good to be of ill-famed race;
Not good is a dirty woman;
Not good to write without learning;
Not good are grapes when sour;
Not good is an Earl without English;
Not good is a sailor, if old;
Not good is a bishop without warrant;
Not good is a blemish on an elder;
Not good a priest with but one eye;
Not good a parson if a beggar;
Not good is a palace without pay;
Not good is a handmaid if she’s slow;
Not good is a lord without a dwelling, &c.
The author of the following verses was neither the first nor the last
that fathered their petty productions on poor Ossian.
THE AUTHOR OF THIS IS OSSIAN, THE SON OF FINN.
Long are the clouds this night above me;
The last was a long night to me.
This day that drags its weary way
Came from a wearier yesterday.
Each day that comes is long to me:
Such was not my wont to be.
Now there is no fine delight
In battle-field, and fence of fight;
No training now to feats of arms,
Nor song, nor harp, nor maiden’s charms,
Nor blazing hearth, nor well-heaped board,
Nor banquet spread by liberal lord,
Nor stag pursuing, nor gentle wooing,
The dearest of dear trades to me.
Alas! that I should live to see
Days without mirth in hut or hall
Without the hunter’s wakeful call,
Or bay of hounds, or hounds at all,
Without light jest, or sportive whim
Or lads with mounting breast to swim
Across the long arms of the sea—
Long are the clouds this night above me.
In the big world there lives no wight
More sad than I this night.
A poor old man with no pith in my bones,
Fit for nothing but gathering stones.
The last of the Finn, the noble race,
Ossian, the son of Finn am I,
Standing beneath the cold grey sky,
Listening to the sound of bells.
Long are the clouds this night above me!
One of the chief characteristics of the poetry of this period is the
clearness or distinctness of the ideas. The authors seize at once
their subject and straightway sing what they have to utter. They also
appear to have a definite object in view when they invoke the muse,
and they carry it out in a clear, direct, and unhesitating fashion.
The vagueness and mistiness of Macpherson’s Ossianic poems have been
much commented upon, and sometimes with good reason. Nothing like
mistiness can be affirmed of the Ossianic poems which were composed
or transcribed and were popular at this period. The ideas of the
authors stand out in brilliant distinctness, like stars looking forth
beneath the brows of a frosty night.
The Lismore collection of songs and poems is not the only manuscript
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that received but scant
attention from our forefathers. Many ancient Gaelic manuscripts
carried by Christian missionaries to the Continent have never
returned. More than two hundred, once in the possession of Gaelic
scribes, may still be met with in the various European libraries.
Drs Laing and Skene, especially the latter, have done good service
to Scotland in this field. The admirable collection of Gaelic MSS.
in Edinburgh, some of which, it is hoped will yet be published,
is the result of the energetic efforts of Dr Skene. The Fernaig
manuscript which he has put in the hands of Professor Mackinnon,
contains according to the latter, some 4000 lines of Gaelic poetry
of the seventeenth century. It is hoped that Mr Mackinnon will
lend his ability and scholarship to the early publication of this
work. Judging by a published article of the Professor of Celtic
in Edinburgh, at the present date (November, 1889), he seems to
be unaware that the “Red Book” of Clanranald is not lost. He will
be glad to know that it is in the possession of Admiral Reginald
Macdonald. Mr Campbell of Islay, informed the writer once that he and
Mr O’Grady had read the “Red Book.”
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