lucrantaov, JAMML 



MACKEADY, WILLIAM CHART.ES. 



36 



T and Hkthstod traditions Fingal and Oosian are 

 of as Huhland heroes, but in others they are 

 j'aa Iris*. On the contrary, the Irish annalists snd the Irish 

 i an uniform and onmlstinl and distinct in their notices of them. 

 o the Irish aonali>te. Fingal, son-in-law of Cormac, king of 

 was coanander of the Fianna Kirinn. or Kians, a military 

 rac. who existed at tab time in Ireland. Fingal's palace was at Aim- 

 buin. or Allen, in Leinst. r. and he died in the year 273. In the reign 

 roar, the son and soemssor of Cormac, this military class, or 

 as they have barn called, were put down by force in conso- 

 i of their denser oas presumption and the dissensions among 

 r. "They ware attacked." says Moore. (' Hi.tory of 

 Inland.' vol. i.), " by the united force of almost all the royal troops 

 of the kiatdom (the King of Munster alone taking part with the 

 BOS nans), aad a battle, memorable for its extent of carnage, 

 in which Oegar, the son of Own, or Oioian. was slain by the 

 b's own hand." This was the battle of Oabhra, whioh forms 

 the groundwork of the poem of 'Temora.' 



At tine time, and for some centuries afterwards, the name of Scotia 

 was exclusively applied to Ireland, and the name of Scoti, or Soots, to 

 the inbabtteota. They were a warlike race, who bad conquered the 

 greater part of Inland, aad gradually imposed their name on the 

 Wand aad He inhabitant*. One of this race, Cairbar Riada, in the 

 year t&S, led ever a colony of the Scoti from Ireland, and established 

 th-m in ArgyUsbire. Kiada had a territory in Ireland named DaJriada, 

 and the districtobtained by hi* colony was called Dalriada als<\ They 

 had gnat difficulty however in maintaining their station against the 

 power of their opponents the 1'icU, and it is uncertain whether they 

 ware oat driven back to Inland. But in the year 503 a larger colony 

 was led owr by Fergus Mae Erth, who established the kingdom of 

 DaJriada, which afterwards obtained possession of the whole of the 

 northern part of Britain, and imposed ti.e name of Scoti on the 

 {habitant*, and of Scotland on the country, as bad previously been 

 done hi Inland. Thus the Highlanders became connected with the 

 Scot- of Ireland, and through them derived their traditions of Fingal 

 aedOesian. 



It if not worth while to enter into evidences of forgery afforded by 

 ring I* circumstances snd minor details in the various poems. Such 

 evidences are in fact diffused through the whole of them, and meet us 

 at every step, either in sentiments inconsistent with the rude state of 

 sodrty at the time, in the omission of every allusion to the dwellings, 

 the dreaase, the means of subsistence, and the superstitions of the 

 inhabitants, as well as all mention, even incidentally, of animals wbioh 

 an known to have been in the country at the time. Such omissions 

 could hardly have bran made by a poet who was familiar with the 

 snnsis and objects of that age, and was himself a party in the 

 vsata whieb be describes. 



To show the modern materials and workmanship of the poems, 

 Lsung has pointed out, in numerous passages, imitations of the Bible, 

 aad of Hotter, Virgil, Milton, and others. Many of those imitations 

 are obvious enough, but others are mere oasual resemblances of phrases 

 and words, which a genuine translator might hare easily fallen into in 

 leadering a real original, 

 The substance of Dr. Blair's ' Critical Dissertation on the Poems of 



i ' was originally drlivered, soon after the first publication of 

 'Kiagal* in the course of bis lectures ss professor of rhetoric aod 

 b.11*. l.ttrrs In the University of Edinburgh. This ' Critical Disser- 

 w)tina,' an elaberste composition of nearly pure nooesense, which 



-j r 



saaflJsauii in the genuineness of the poems, and 

 bestows the most extravagant encomiums upon them as equal and in 

 aaeaa respects superior to Homer, added to the natural astonishment 

 that aaoh poems should have been produced by a Gaelic brd in the 

 rd ssataj. srtaoded their fame not only throughout Great Britain, 

 but over the whole continent of Europe ; sad France, Germany , ami 

 Italy vied with each other in enthusiastic admiration of them. This 

 fcverhMhiagraatmoairesobaided,batOssianbustillhisadmirera, 

 nod the 'Dbawtalloa' no doubt lie readers. To us it appears that 

 abacs* ewryti log whioh gives intrude value to other poems is wanting 

 in these. We read Uwm with almost uninterrupted incredulity. The 

 characters represent a rase of man whioh it is an absurdity to suppose 

 I be evrnte and Incidents, so far as they are 

 is anything approaching to detail, are such as we 

 even isaaf iae to have occurred at any time or under any tir- 

 osa. All good pastry is distinguished by the truth and 

 of Ms npreMi Ulious | aad it has always been remarked 



ftaagiasaiet poets that they must have looked upon external nature 

 aod watshod UM worktop of the human mind with the gn alert dill- 

 grace; aad this appearance of truth is preserved not only in such 

 poetry as rsfreaeuU the aetoal aponraiasiof natare and the ordinary 

 Mate of human Ufa, but even in that more elevated poetry whioh 

 pasers beyood the bounds of nality. In Hooier, ith whom Ossian 

 hsa boa* so absurdly oompartd. the seen** are perfectly panoramic; 

 we oeier imagine that we arc looking at a picture; the objects them 

 sive aie btfote our eyts ; we are prmul at the event* ; the persons 

 are known to as, with ail their prouUarUira, and we can trace their 

 motive. ..f action ; whoa they amprsas tbeoatlve. in such or such a 

 v , v we can Ull wt. at pss>io<, it was that moved them, or what specific 

 obj-< ibejr had in view. There is nothing of this kind in Ossfaux 



Everything U vague and indistinct ; the scenes are all confused ; and 

 the images, undefined as they are, seem to recur continually. Hence 

 nothing is impressed upon the mind; nothing fixes it-elf upon the 

 memory. There is no discrimination of character. We are informed 

 indeed that some are old and some are young, some sre generous and 

 some cruel, but even these broad personal distinctions we should hardly 

 have discovered from any peculiarity in their thoughts or manner of 

 speaking. Kvery one expresses himself in nearly the same way, and a 

 eariome repetition of affected sentimentality pervades the whole. 



Without something however of the substance of poetry, so hirh a 

 reputation as these poems once had could hardly have been obtained. 

 Macphenon wss a Highlander, and bad lived among mountain scenery 

 from his infancy ; and though many of his pictures, even of that 



nrry, are fake, still there an sketches interspersed throughout all 

 the poems which are true and beautiful Sir Walter Scott, in a letter 

 to Anna Seward, says, "Host Highlanders, after they have become 

 complete masters of English, continue to think in their own UIIL- 

 and it is to me demonstrable that Hocpherson thought uhno-t every 

 word of Union in Gaelic, although he wrote it down in English. This 

 gave a great advantage to him in forming the style of Ossian, which, 

 though exalted and modified according to Macpherson's own ideas of 

 modern taste, U in great part cut upon the model of the teles of the 

 nenna. hies and bards." But the great charm of Ossian 'a poema in in 

 the language : a rich stream of harmony Hows through all of them , 

 which many are sensible of who are quite incapable of judgiug of the 

 truth of the representations or the propriety of the thoughts 



MACHEADY, WILLIAM CHARLES, was born March 3,1793, 

 in the pariah of St. Panoras, London. His father, the lessee and 

 manager of several provincial theatres, was desirous of educating his 

 son for the church or the bar, and young Macready was plac. . i at 

 Rugby School at ten years of age. At the age of seventeen he found 

 bis prospects changed by his father's embarrassments. Though feeling 

 a distaste for the profession of an actor, he sacrificed his own predilec- 

 tions to a high sense of duty ; and in order to relieve his father's 

 immediate necessities, and retrieve if possible his father's fortunes, 

 he appeared for the first time as an actor on the boards of the Bir- 

 mingham Theatre in June 1810. He was decidedly successful. Till 

 Christmas 1814 he continued with his father's company, performing 

 with great success at the theatres of Birmingham, Sheffield, Chester, and 

 Newcastle ; and subsequently performed at the Bath, Dublin, and Glas- 

 gow theutres with like results. On Sept. 16, 1816, he made his first 

 appearance before a London audience at Covent Garden Theatre as 

 ' Orestes ' in the ' Distressed Mother.' His success was undoubted, but 

 he had many difficulties to overcome. Koinble, Young, and Kean had 

 taken a sort of exclusive possession of the characters of Shakxpere, 

 in which, at a later period, Macready displayed such excellence. 

 With a resolute industry however, a deep and subtle insuht into the 

 shades and peculiarities of character, and a style at once origin 

 simple, he mode a certain range his own. As ' Rob Roy ' and ' Gambia' 

 he won applause, but in the 'Virginitis' of Sheridan Kuowles his 

 true position was first fully demonstrated. From this time he con- 

 tinued to establish himself in the public favour. In 1820 he visited 

 America, where he was equally appreciated, and in 1828 he was 

 enthusiastically applauded in 1'aris. In London ho increased his fame 

 by his performances in the higher comedy. In October 1 S37 he 1 

 lessee and manager of Covent Garden Theatre. His first efforts were 

 directed to make the entire representation of a play, as bin acting of 

 individual characters bad been, the working out of one harmonious 

 idea. His labour was immense. He did not overlay the drama by 

 too gorgeous scenery or too minute attention to the costume, as if 

 they were to be the principal attractions, but by making them appro- 

 priate to the situation and feeling of the scene. He also avoided all 

 puffery, and endeavoured so to regulate his theatre as to biniah, as far 

 as possible, those exhibitions of profligacy which, in some degree, had 

 justified the denunciations of the scrupulous. From various causes 

 Mr. Macready s undertaking was not prolitable. At the end of tlm 

 second season he resigned the management, when a public entertainment 

 was given to him at Freemasons' Hall, and a subscription for a 

 some memorial was entered into. After performing at the llaymarket 

 and other theatres in 1842, be undertook the management of Drury 

 Lane. His second management in spirit resembled the first, but was 

 distinguished from it by his introduction of musical dramas, set forth 

 in the highest style of scenic illustration. 'Acis and Galatea' and 

 Comus ' were presented with a feeling of high art which has never 

 been exceeded, lie was also liberal iu introducing new dramas to the 

 public, amongst which were the best pieces of Sheridan Kuowles, 

 Talfourd, in *, r Lytton. At the end of the second searon 



Mr. Macready again resigned ; and in his parting address pointed out 

 the injurious operation of thu theatric.il monopoly. This he followed 

 up by a petition to the legislature against it, and it was almost imme- 

 diately rrmoved. On a subsequent vi.it to America in 1849, a .. 

 raised by Mr. Forrest, an American actor, gave lire to a riot i 

 Aator Opera Hnusu at New York on May 10, while Mr. Ala' 

 was performing, iu which bis life was endangered, an<i the liot was 

 not suppressed until the military were called in, shuts fired, and 

 several persons killed and wounded. Towards the end of that year 

 Mr. Macready entered on his concluding engagement at the Haymarket 

 Theatre, but ill-health compelled him to desist. In 1*6" and 1851 he 



