When the fierce sounds of terror burst,
And plunder'd herds were passing on,
I turn'd me from the sight accurst
Unto the craig Gunaoch lone;
Some of my kindred by the lands
Of Inch and Fersaid sought repose,
Some by Loch Laggan's lonely sands,
Where their lamenting cries arose!
Here follows a noble burst of poetical fervour in praise of the lonely
rock, and the scenes of the huntsman's youth. The green plains, the wild
harts, the graceful beauty of the brown deer, and the roaring stag, with
the banners, ensigns, and streamers of the race of Cona,--all share in
the poet's admiration. The following constitutes the exordium of the
poem:--
Oh rock of my heart! for ever secure,
The rock where my childhood was cherish'd in love,
The haunt of the wild birds, the stream flowing pure,
And the hinds and the stags that in liberty rove;
The rock all encircled by sounds from the grove,
Oh, how I delighted to linger by thee,
When arose the wild cry of the hounds as they drove,
The herds of wild deer from their fastnesses free!
Loud scream'd the eagles around thee, I ween,
Sweet the cuckoos and the swans in their pride,
More cheering the kid-spotted fawns that were seen,
With their bleating, that sweetly arose by thy side,
I love thee, O wild rock of refuge! of showers,
Of the leaves and the cresses, all glorious to me,
Of the high grassy heights and the beautiful bowers
Afar from the smooth shelly brink of the sea!
The termination of the Sub-Ossianic period brings us to another epoch in
the history of Gaelic poetry. The Bard was now the chieftain's retainer,
at home a crofter and pensioner,[11] abroad a follower of the camp. We
find him cheering the rowers of the galley, with his _birlinn_ chant,
and stirring on the fight with his _prosnuchadh catha_, or battle-song.
At the noted battle of Harlaw,[12] a piece was sung which has escaped
the wreck of that tremendous slaughter, and of contemporary poetry. It
is undoubtedly genuine; and the critics of Gaelic verse are unanimous in
ascribing to it every excellence which can belong either to alliterative
art, or musical excitement. Of the battle-hymn some splendid specimens
have been handed down; and these are to be regarded with an amount of
confidence, from the apparent ease with which the very long "Incitement
to Battle," in the "Garioch Battle-Storm," as Harlaw is called, was
remembered. Collections of favourite pieces began to be made in writing
about the period of the revival of letters. The researches of the
Highland Society brought to light a miscellany, embracing the poetical
labours of two contemporaries of rank, Sir Duncan Campbell[13] of
Glenurchay, and Lady Isabel Campbell. From this period the poet's art
degenerates into a sort of family chronicle. There were, however,
incidents which deserved a more affecting style of memorial; and this
appears in lays which still command the interest and draw forth the
tears of the Highlander. The story of the persecuted Clan Gregor
supplies many illustrations, such as the oft-chanted _Macgregor na
Ruara_,[14] and the mournful melodies of Janet Campbell.[15] In the
footsteps of these exciting subjects of poetry, came the inspiring
Montrose wars, which introduce to our acquaintance the more modern class
of bards; of these the most conspicuous is, Ian Lom[16] or Manntach.
This bard was a Macdonald; he hung on the skirts of armies, and at the
close of the battle sung the triumph or the wail, on the side of his
partisans.[17] To the presence of this person the clans are supposed to
have been indebted for much of the enthusiasm which led them to glory in
the wars of Montrose. His poetry only reaches mediocrity, but the
success which attended it led the chiefs to seek similar support in the
Jacobite wars; and very animated compositions were the result of their
encouragement. Mathieson, the family bard of Seaforth, Macvuirich, the
pensioner of Clanranald, and Hector the Lamiter, bard of M'Lean, were
pre-eminent in this department. The Massacre of Glencoe suggested
numerous elegies. There is one remarkable for pathos by a clansman who
had emigrated to the Isle of Muck, from which circumstance he is styled
"Am Bard Mucanach."
The knights of Duart and Sleat, the chiefs of Clanranald and Glengarry,
the Lochaber seigniory of Lochiel, and the titled chivalry of Sutherland
and Seaforth,[18] formed subjects of poetic eulogy. Sir Hector Maclean,
Ailein Muideartach, and the lamented Sir James Macdonald obtained the
same tribute. The second of these Highland favourites could not make his
manly countenance, or stalwart arm, visible in hall, barge, or
battle,[19] without exciting the enthusiastic strain of the enamoured
muse of one sex, or of the admiring minstrel of the other. In this
department of poetry, some of the best proficients were women. Of these
Mary M'Leod, the contemporary of Ian Lom, is one of the most musical and
elegant. Her chief, _The M'Leod_, was the grand theme of her
inspiration. Dora Brown[20] sung a chant on the renowned Col-Kitto, as
he went forth against the Campbells to revenge the death of his father;
a composition conceived in a strain such as Helen Macgregor might have
struck up to stimulate to some deed of daring and vindictive enterprise.
Of the modern poetry of the Gael, Macpherson has expressed himself
unfavourably; he regarded the modern Highlanders as being incapable of
estimating poetry otherwise than in the returning harmony of similar
sounds. They were seduced, he remarks, by the charms of rhyme; and
admired the strains of Ossian, not for the sublimity of the poetry, but
on account of the antiquity of the compositions, and the detail of facts
which they contained. On this subject a different opinion has been
expressed by Sir Walter Scott. "I cannot dismiss this story," he writes,
in his last introduction to his tale of the "Two Drovers," "without
resting attention for a moment on the light which has been thrown on the
character of the Highland Drover, since the time of its first
appearance, by the account of a drover poet, by name Robert Mackay, or,
as he was commonly called, Rob Donn, _i.e._, Brown Robert; and certain
specimens of his talents, published in the ninetieth number of the
_Quarterly Review_. The picture which that paper gives of the habits
and feelings of a class of persons with which the general reader would
be apt to associate no ideas but those of wild superstition and rude
manners, is in the highest degree interesting; and I cannot resist the
temptation of quoting two of the songs of this hitherto unheard-of poet
of humble life.... Rude and bald as these things appear in a verbal
translation, and rough as they might possibly appear, even were the
originals intelligible, we confess we are disposed to think they would
of themselves justify Dr Mackay (editor of Mackay's Poems) in placing
this herdsman-lover among the true sons of song."
Of that department of the Gaelic Minstrelsy admired by Scott and
condemned by Macpherson, the English reader is presented in the present
work with specimens, to enable him to form his own judgment. These
specimens, it must however be remembered, not only labour under the
ordinary disadvantages of translations, but have been rendered from a
language which, in its poetry, is one of the least transfusible in the
world. Yet the effort which has been made to retain the spirit, and
preserve the rhythm and manner of the originals, may be sufficient to
establish that the honour of the Scottish Muse has not unworthily been
supported among the mountains of the Gael. Some of the compositions are
Jacobite, and are in the usual warlike strain of such productions, but
the majority sing of the rivalries of clans, the emulation of bards, the
jealousies of lovers, and the honour of the chiefs. They likewise abound
in pictures of pastoral imagery; are redolent of the heath and the
wildflower, and depict the beauties of the deer forest.
The various kinds of Highland minstrelsy admit of simple classification.
The _Duan Mor_ is the epic song; its subdivisions are termed _duana_ or
_duanaga_. Strings of verse and incidents ([Greek: Rhapsodia]) were
intended to form an epic history, and were combined by successive bards
for that purpose. The battle-song (_Prosnuchadh-catha_) was the next in
importance. The model of this variety is not to be found in any of the
Alcaic or Tyrtaean remains. It was a dithyrambic of the wildest and most
passionate enthusiasm, inciting to carnage and fury. Chanted in the
hearing of assembled armies, and sometimes sung before the van, it was
intended as an incitement to battle, and even calculated to stimulate
the courage of the general. The war-song of the Harlaw has been already
noticed; it is a rugged tissue of alliteration, every letter having a
separate division in the remarkable string of adjectives which are
connected to introduce a short exordium and grand finale. The _Jorram_,
or boat-song, some specimens of which attracted the attention of Dr
Johnson,[21] was a variety of the same class. In this, every measure was
used which could be made to time with an oar, or to mimic a wave, either
in motion or sound. Dr Johnson discovered in it the proceleusmatic song
of the ancients; it certainly corresponds in real usage with the poet's
description:--
"Stat margine puppis,
Qui voce alternos nautarum temperet ictus,
Et remis dictet sonitum pariterque relatis,
Ad numerum plaudet resonantia caerula tonsis."
Alexander Macdonald excels in this description of verse. In a piece
called Clanranald's _Birlinn_, he has summoned his utmost efforts in
timing the circumstances of a voyage with suitable metres and
descriptions. A happy imitation of the boat-song has been rendered
familiar to the English reader by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Roderigh
Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! ieroe," of the "Lady of the Lake." The _Luineag_,
or favourite carol of the Highland milkmaid, is a class of songs
entirely lyrical, and which seldom fails to please the taste of the
Lowlander. Burns[22] and other song-writers have adopted the strain of
the _Luineag_ to adorn their verses. The _Cumha_, or lament, is the
vehicle of the most pathetic and meritorious effusions of Gaelic poetry;
it is abundantly interspersed with the poetry of Ossian.
Among the Gael, blank verse is unknown, and for rhyme they entertain a
passion.[23] They rhyme to the same set of sounds or accents for a space
of which the recitation is altogether tedious. Not satisfied with the
final rhyme, their favourite measures are those in which the middle
syllable corresponds with the last, and the same syllable in the second
line with both; and occasionally the final sound of the second line is
expected to return in every alternate verse through the whole poem. The
Gael appear to have been early in possession of these coincidences of
termination which were unknown to the classical poets, or were regarded
by them as defects.[24] All writers on Celtic versification, including
the Irish, Welsh, Manx, and Cornish varieties, are united in their
testimony as to the early use of rhyme by the Celtic poets, and agree in
assigning the primary model to the incantations of the Druids.[25] The
lyrical measures of the Gael are various, but the scansion is regular,
and there is no description of verse familiar to English usage, from the
Iambic of four syllables, to the slow-paced Anapaestic, or the prolonged
Alexandrine, which is not exactly measured by these sons and daughters
of song.[26] Every poetical composition in the language, however
lengthy, is intended to be sung or chanted. Gaelic music is regulated by
no positive rules; it varies from the wild chant of the battle-song to
the simple melody of the milkmaid. In Johnson's "Musical Museum,"
Campbell's "Albyn's Anthology," Thomson's "Collection," and Macdonald's
"Airs," the music of the mountains has long been familiar to the curious
in song, and lover of the national minstrelsy.[27]
[1] We are indebted for these observations on the Highland Muse to the
learned friend who has supplied the greater number of the translations
from the Gaelic poets, which appear in the present work.
[2] Highland Society's Report on Ossian, pp. 16-20.
[3] Genealogists or Antiquaries.
[4] Letter from Sir James Macdonald to Dr Blair.
[5] M'Callum's "Collection," p. 207. See also Smith's "Sean Dana, or
Gaelic Antiquities;" Gillies' "Collection" and Clark's "Caledonian
Bards."
[6] Highland Society's Report on Ossian, pp. 99, 105, 112.
[7] Boswell's "Life of Johnson," p. 320, Croker's edition, 1847.
[8] "Poems by Mrs Grant of Laggan," p. 395, Edinburgh, 1803, 8vo. The
original is to be found in the Gaelic collections.
[9] Mrs Grant's Poems, p. 371; Mackenzie's "Gaelic Poets," p. 1.
[10] See Mrs Grant's "Highland Superstitions," vol. ii. p. 249. The
original is contained in Mackenzie's "Gaelic Poets."
[11] See Johnson's "Journey to the Western Islands."
[12] Stewart's Collection, p. 1.
[13] Report on Ossian, p. 92. Sir Duncan Campbell fell at the battle of
Flodden, Lady Campbell afterwards married Gilbert, Earl of Cassillis.
[14] Mrs Grant's "Highland Superstitions," vol. ii. p. 196.
[15] Mrs Ogilvie's "Highland Minstrelsy." For the original see Turner's
Collection, p. 186.
[16] Reid's "Bibliotheca Scotica Celtica." Mackenzie's "Gaelic Poets,"
p. 36.
[17] Napier's "Memoirs of Montrose." In this work will be found a very
spirited translation of Ian Lom's poem on the battle of Innerlochy.
[18] Mackenzie's "Gaelic Poets," pp. 24, 59, 77, 77, 151; Turner's
"Gaelic Collection," _passim._
[19] See the beautiful verses translated by the Marchioness of
Northampton from "Ha tighinn fodham," in "Albyn's Anthology," or
Croker's "Boswell."
[20] Mackenzie's "Gaelic Poets," p. 56.
[21] Johnson's Works, vol. xii. p. 291.
[22] Poems, Chambers' People's Edition, p. 134.
[23] Armstrong's "Gaelic Dictionary," p. 63.
[24] _Edinburgh Review_ on Mitford's "Harmony of Language," vol. vi. p.
383.
[25] Brown's "History of the Highlands," vol. i. p. 89.
[26] Armstrong's "Gaelic Dictionary," p. 64.
[27] See also Logan's "Scottish Gael," vol. ii. p. 252.