FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385  
386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   >>  
n traced in his own work, his obligations to Boccaccio become immense. Yet he never mentions his name, and it has been contended that he was himself unaware of the authorship of the poems and treatises to which he was so greatly indebted." _Dryden_. His translations from Boccaccio are "Sigismonda and Guiscardo," "Theodore and Honoria," "Cymon and Iphigenia." P. 269. _married to immortal verse_. "L'Allegro." _John Bunyan_ (1628-1688), author of "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678). _Daniel Defoe_ (c. 1659-1731), journalist and novelist. His masterpiece, "Robinson Crusoe," appeared in 1719. _dipped in dews_. Cf. T. Heywood's "Ben Jonson, though his learned pen Was dipt in Castaly, is still but Ben." _Philoctetes_. The story of the Greek hero who, on the voyage to the siege of Troy, was abandoned on an uninhabited island, is the subject of a play by Sophocles. _As I walked about_. "Robinson Crusoe," Part I, p. 125 (ed. G. A. Aitken). P. 270. _give an echo_. "Twelfth Night," ii, 4, 21. P. 271. _Our poesy_. "Timon of Athens," i, 1, 21. P. 272. _all plumed_. Cf. 1 "Henry IV," iv, 1, 98: "All plumed like estridges that with the wind Baited like eagles having lately bathed; Glittering in golden coats, like images; As full of spirits as the month of May, And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls." _If we fly_. Psalms, cxxxix, 9. P. 275. _Pope Anastatius_. "Inferno," xi, 8. _Count Ugolino_. Ibid., xxxiii. _Ossian_. James Macpherson (1736-1796) published between 1760 and 1765 what he alleged to be a translation of the ancient Gaelic hero-bard, Oisin or Ossian. The poems fed the romantic appetite of the generation and were translated into practically every European language. In Germany especially the influence of "Ossian" wrought powerfully through the enthusiasm it aroused in the young Goethe and in Schiller. In England, the poems, immediately upon their appearance, gave rise to a long controversy as to their authenticity, Dr. Johnson being among the first to attack the belief in their antiquity. The truth seems to be that, though there really is a legendary hero answering to Ossian, no such poems as Macpherson attributed to him were ever transmitted. The whole work is to all intents the original creation of Macpherson himself. The supposed Gaelic originals, which were published by the Highland Society of London in 1807, have been proved by philologists
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   369   370   371   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385  
386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   >>  



Top keywords:
Ossian
 

Macpherson

 
plumed
 

Crusoe

 

published

 

Robinson

 
Boccaccio
 

Gaelic

 
romantic
 
appetite

generation

 

ancient

 

translation

 

alleged

 

Wanton

 
midsummer
 

youthful

 

obligations

 

gorgeous

 

Inferno


Ugolino

 

xxxiii

 
Anastatius
 

Psalms

 
cxxxix
 

language

 
answering
 

legendary

 

attributed

 
attack

belief
 

antiquity

 

transmitted

 

London

 

Society

 

philologists

 

proved

 

Highland

 

originals

 

intents


original

 

creation

 

supposed

 
influence
 
wrought
 

powerfully

 

enthusiasm

 

Germany

 

spirits

 
translated