James Macpherson's translations of ancient Scottish verse made him rich and famous. But were they translations, or original compositions?
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There's a problem here with the word "translations." Scottish verse was NOT written; there were no manuscripts to translate. What MacPherson did was collect oral poetry, traditional poetry. There are plenty of contemporary accounts of people hearing these poems from others besides MacPherson. Samuel Johnson simply was off base in asking for manuscripts.
Posted by Mara Grey in Washington State, USA on Mon Jul 10, 2006 at 07:55 PM
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Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 1 pages
There's a problem here with the word "translations." Scottish verse was NOT written; there were no manuscripts to translate. What MacPherson did was collect oral poetry, traditional poetry. There are plenty of contemporary accounts of people hearing these poems from others besides MacPherson. Samuel Johnson simply was off base in asking for manuscripts.
Posted by Mara Grey in Washington State, USA on Mon Jul 10, 2006 at 07:55 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
