HANDS
BEHIND THE BOOK:
DUGALD
BUCHANAN’S VERSE AND THE McLAGAN MANUSCRIPTS
Donald
E. Meek
Dugald Buchanan (1716-68) has long been recognised as
the principal religious poet of Gaelic Scotland. His claim to such prominence has been based
on a small volume of eight ‘hymns’ which was published in Edinburgh in 1767,
the same year as the translation of the Gaelic New Testament appeared for the
first time, both books being printed by Balfour, Auld & Smellie. During the winters of 1766 and 1767, Buchanan
was ‘attending the press’ in Edinburgh while the Gaelic New Testament was being
typeset and printed, and it would seem that the opportunity was taken to
publish a selection of his own verse. We
do not know who arranged the publication, nor do we know who paid for it, or
why. It is, however, highly likely that
there was a connection between the project to translate the New Testament into
Gaelic and the publication of Buchanan’s verse.
Buchanan was closely involved in the practical aspects of the
translation, working alongside the Rev. James Stewart (1700-89), parish
minister of Killin, who is normally credited as the ‘first translator of the
New Testament into Scottish Gaelic’, as the memorial outside Killin Parish
Church has proclaimed since 1890.
Buchanan’s known contribution to the making of the Gaelic New Testament
included, in 1758, the translation of the Second Epistle of Peter to ease the
difficulties facing the SSPCK’s first intended translator of the New Testament,
namely the Rev. Alexander MacFarlane (c. 1703-63), by then minister of Arrochar;
his acting as a scribe in copying the completed text in 1764; and his
supervision of the volume as it went through the press in Edinburgh. It is, however, quite possible that Buchanan
contributed substantially more than that to the translation, as he was a
distinguished scholar of Biblical languages, and recognised as such when he
attended Divinity College in Glasgow about 1740 (LSDB: 3-4). If he was assisting James Stewart behind the
scenes, the publication of his book may have been intended as his reward from
Stewart and his associates within the ‘Killin Circle’, a network of scholarly
clerics and less prominent, but equally scholarly, schoolmasters.
Promoting
the poets
Given the lack of specific evidence relating to the
origination, funding and publication of Buchanan’s book, it is instructive to
consider a potential parallel which brings us directly to the ‘Killin Circle’
and to the drafts of several of Buchanan’s hymns in the McLagan Manuscripts. This parallel relates to the patronage of the
Rev. John Stuart, son of James Stewart and parish minister of Luss, who was
responsible for the revision of the Gaelic New Testament in 1796 and the translation
of the Old Testament into Gaelic, a task completed (in its first version) in
1801. As in the case of the New
Testament, the translation of the Old Testament was evidently what would now be
called a ‘team project’, with some members of the team (most notably the
clergy) receiving more overt public recognition than the schoolmasters and other assistants lower down
the social scale. One in the latter
category was John Walker, a farmer on the hill of Camstradden (Camus an
t-Srathain), Luss, whose poems were published in Glasgow in 1817 (Walker 1817).
According to Donald MacLeod (MacLeod
1891: 209):
The poet had an intimate
knowledge of the Gaelic language, and he assisted greatly the Rev. Dr Stuart,
minister of Luss, in translating the Bible into that tongue, much of the work
being done in the home of the poet.
Walker’s book carries a somewhat fawning Preface,
which, we are led to believe, was not written by the poet himself. The writer emphasises Walker’s ‘almost clannish respect’ for the Lairds of
Camstradden, before noting (Walker 1817: iii):
Having made this allusion
to the grateful sentiments of the Poet, it would be doing injustice to his
feelings – were we to omit the expression of the same sentiments on his part,
towards another family in his immediate neighbourhood, (universally known for
their benevolence and hospitality,) as well for their uniform kindness to him,
as for their friendly attention to his interest in the instance of the present
publication.
It is due to the modesty
of our Author, to state that it would never have occurred to himself to publish
his Poems. They were written at various
intervals during the last thirty years, and none of them with a vew to the
press. – This may in some degree account for their great diversity both in the
character and merit of the different compositions.
The reference to the ‘[other] family in his immediate
neighbourhood’ is, of course, to the Stuarts of Luss. They are not identified directly, presumably
because they were the principal patrons of the volume, and their own debt to
Walker is not mentioned. The relationship appears to have been warm,
nevertheless, to the extent of permitting Walker to offer Stuart, the eminent
parish minister, some rather blunt, fatherly advice when he married Susan
MacIntyre, who was much younger than himself, in 1792 (Newton 1999: 118). The List of Subscribers to the volume includes
Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, the Rev. Dr McIntyre, Glenorchy (Rev. John Stuart’s
father-in-law), the Rev. Dr McFarlane (sic), Drymen, the Rev. Mr Proudfoot,
Arrochar, the Rev. Dr Stuart, Luss, Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh, Captain
Smollett, Bonhill, and Mr David Wilkie, Glasgow. This in itself bears witness to the network
of influential men of arts and letters within which the Rev. John Stuart of
Luss operated.
The publication of Dugald Buchanan’s volume of Laoidhe Spioradail in 1767 could have
been facilitated by similar arrangements on the Stewarts’ part, but without
subscribers, and without any explanatory preface or elaboration of any kind,
possibly because there were no ‘big backers’ beyond the ‘Killin Circle’. It is hard to believe that Buchanan’s
hard-won salary, extracted in the 1760s by means of regular formal petitions to
his grasping superiors, could have extended to the printing of a book. It is obvious from the orthography that it
required some finessing for the press, and that its pages were scrutinised by
well-informed eyes after publication. There is evidence that the Stewarts of Killin
had a copy of his book, as the copy in Edinburgh University Library bears the
signature of ‘Miss Eliza Ste(u)art’, daughter of James Stewart (LSDB: 73), and
sister of John Stuart. The crosses and
caret marks on the margins of certain pages of the book suggest that they may
have compared the texts as published with manuscript copies available to them,
as they appear to have noted certain verses in the manuscripts which are not
attested in print.
There are similarities between the possible
‘airbrushing out’ of Buchanan as an assistant translator of the Gaelic New
Testament, and John Stuart’s failure to give any overt credit to Walker as his
assistant. In both instances a
publication by each author, containing their respective compositions, may have
been a generous and appropriate form of payment for their back-room roles in
biblical translation. Whatever the
answer, it is certainly clear that the Rev. John Stuart was prepared to act as
a patron of Gaelic poets. In this, as in other matters, he may have been
following in his father’s footsteps, though he appears to have been much more
significant in that respect than ‘the worthy translator’ (MacKenzie 1992). John Stuart certainly knew the ropes of
printing and publishing from an early age.
In 1768, when a student at the University of Edinburgh, he edited and
supervised the printing of the songs of Duncan Bàn MacIntyre, then going
through the press, no more than a year after Buchanan’s book. It is highly likely that, in publishing the
poetic output of Buchanan, the ‘Killin Circle’ was the all-important
facilitator, supportive if not ‘pro-active’.
At the very least, Walker’s book underlines the power of John Stuart’s
patronage and his significance as a man of letters, which is also more than
evident in the McLagan Manuscripts.
Rev. John Stuart and the ‘Buchanan papers’
Contrary to the conclusion reached by
Professor D. S. Thomson in what appears to have been a surprisingly cursory
survey of the relevant McLagan material in the early 1990s, namely, that ‘For Dùghall Bochanan there is only one
item (‘An Claigeann’ in MS 20)’ (TGSI, LVIII, 1992-94, p. 416), the collection
contains manuscript drafts of no less than five of Buchanan’s published
‘hymns’. None of these carries an
authorial ascription, as that would not have been required by McLagan and his
contemporaries, who would have known their authorship. Today we can identify the composer by means
of the 1767 book. More interestingly,
however, it seems highly likely that these drafts represent Buchanan’s own
hand, as argued in DBCL. The same five
‘hymns’ are also found in the body of manuscripts compiled and collected by the
Rev. Donald McNicol (1735-1802), James McLagan’s very near contemporary and
parish minister of Lismore, and an obvious member of the ‘Killin Circle’. There are some slight differences in
presentation, and the occasional variant reading, but the orthographies of the
texts in both the McNicol and McLagan versions correspond so minutely that
McNicol may have copied his material directly from the same Buchanan papers, or
from other closely-related sources.
McNicol himself was evidently the scribe.
We do not know how these ‘Buchanan papers’ came to be
part of the McLagan holding, but it is highly likely that John Stuart was an
intermediary. The role of the Stewarts,
and especially that of John, in contributing to the McLagan collection as a
whole is suggested strongly by MS General 1042 / 143, ‘Ginealach nan Stiubhartach’
(‘The Genealogy of the Stewarts’), said in the GU catalogue to be ‘attested by
Donald McNicol, James McLagan, James MacIntyre of Glencoe, and John
Stuart’. Nodding in the same direction
is MS General 1042 / 210, a collection of four poems, said in the GU catalogue
to have been ‘transcribed by James McLagan and either James
Stewart of Killin or John Stewart of Luss’.
John Stuart (1743-1821) was, of course, a younger contemporary of James
McLagan (1728-1805), and his sister Catherine was married to McLagan.
After his father’s death in 1789, it would have been
natural for John Stuart to become the custodian of his papers, including any
surviving Buchanan material. A possible
indicator of Stewart ownership is found in the margin of p. 5 of GU MS General
1042 20 (a), containing a version of Buchanan’s ‘An Claigeann’, where a
‘signature’ or ‘signatures’ possibly representing ‘John’ and ‘James’ are
attested – these being the names of father and son within the Stewart
family. These signatures are not,
however, a formal signing; their light, perfunctory, and even ‘childish’, style
suggests that they were little more than a casual pen-test on the part of the
writer, perhaps trying out a nib on leaves of paper conveniently to hand. If that is the case, it is amusing to note that
the manuscript material which we today regard as invaluable seens to have been
much less ‘precious’ to John Stuart, who, as a young man, would surely have
known at first hand both Buchanan himself and his poetic output, perhaps to the
extent of feeling at liberty to ‘scribble’ on such pages. What is infinitely more remarkable than the
‘scribbles’, however, is that these drafts of Buchanan’s hymns were retained
for so long after the publication of the 1767 edition, and that they have
survived until now. The availability of
the printed book did not cause them to be consigned to oblivion, and for that
we must be profoundly grateful.
The
1767 printed texts and the manuscript versions
The drafts of Buchanan’s ‘hymns’ in the McLagan
collection, contained in MS General 1042 / 20 (a), MS General 1042 / 20 (b),
and MS General 1042 / 4, are of immense value to our understanding of the
processes whereby Buchanan composed his hymns and also compiled his 1767 book. The
wider context for his compositions, as discussed fully in LSDB, is provided by
his intimate knowledge of the works of poets composing in English, most notably
Isaac Watts (HL), Edward Young, Robert Blair, and, to a lesser extent, James
Thomson. It is apparent that the
manuscript drafts predate the book, and by laying the drafts alongside the
printed texts, we can gain some understanding of the dynamics of the poet’s
interaction with his compositions in matters of word substitution and wider
refashioning, including the addition and subtraction of verses, before the
poems reached print. The variations can
be summarised as follows, with poems numbered in the order in which they appear
in the 1767 book:
1. ‘Mòrachd Dhè’ (‘The Majesty of God’),
entitled ‘An Cruthadoir & na Creatuiribh’ (‘The Creator and the Creatures’)
in McLagan MS General 1042/4. This poem is deeply indebted
to two meditative hymns in Horae Lyricae (1706) by Isaac Watts, ‘God
Supreme and Self-Sufficient’ and ‘The Creator and the Creatures’. It combines close translation of some of
Watts’ verses with paraphrases of others, and some original quatrains. Where
the manuscript and the printed version differ, the manuscript readings are usually closer to Watts, as is
the title of the poem in the manuscript.
4.
‘Bruadar’ (‘Dream’),
entitled ‘Bruadar mu Shonnas’ (‘A Dream about Happiness’) in McLagan MS General
1042/4. There is no known direct source which Buchanan
may have used as a basis for this poem.
He employs Gaelic proverbs to delineate the futility of humankind’s
never-ending search for happiness. The manuscript texts have three quatrains not
found in the 1767 printed book, and lack one verse found in the book.
5.
‘An Gaisgeach’ (‘The
Hero’), entitled ‘Am fior Ghaisgeach’ (‘The True Hero’) in McLagan MS General
1042/4. The real
hero is the theme of this poem – namely, the person who can subdue his/her
passions, rather than give them free rein to slaughter others. The poem is almost entirely a recasting of
Watts’ ‘True Monarchy, 1701’, with some original verses at the outset. The manuscript copies lack the three concluding verses found in printed book, which are
derived directly from Watts. The manuscript
readings are, however, closer to Watts
than those in the printed book.
6.
‘An Claigeann’ (‘The
Skull’), entitled ‘Dan mu thiomchi<o>l Cloigionn Duine Mhair<bh>’
(‘A Poem about the Skull of a Dead Man’) in McLagan MS General 1042 / 20 a. Based on Robert Blair’s ‘The Grave’, this poem imagines who might have
beeen the owners of a skull found in a graveyard. A rogues’ gallery, derived from Blair but
skilfully recast in strophic verses, is delineated with passion and
good-natured black humour. The manuscript versions have a significantly
different, and much more direct, ending.
When compared with the manuscript texts, the printed version appears to
have been ‘toned down’, and is much less direct.
7.
‘An Geamhradh’ (‘Winter’),
entitled ‘An Geamhradh is an Tsean Aois air an Samhlachadh re Cheile’ (‘Winter
and Old Age Compared with One Another’) in McLagan MS General 1042 /20 b. This
poem takes its starting-point from the last section of James Thomson’s seasonal
poem on ‘Winter’ in its 1746 reworking.
The seasons reflect the stages of life in Buchanan’s poem, and winter –
the principal theme – represents death.
This is a ‘Memento mori’ poem, with due exhortation to change one’s way of
life. No direct reference is made to God
at all, but the message is unequivocal. The manuscript texts have an alternative
version of the opening description of a winter snowfall and its effect. The ‘tightened’ description in the printed
version is sharper in style and image.
Comparison of the manucript evidence with that
of the 1767 book suggests that, in contexts in which he derived his inspiration
from Watts, Buchanan was sometimes aware that he was ‘just too close’ in his
translation of some words and phrases in Watts, and that he had to be less
literal. The texts in 1767 book are
less close to Watts than are the manuscripts in terms of ‘incriminating’ line
readings, but they tend to be closer to Watts in terms of actual verses, based
on ideas rather than words (as in ‘An Gaisgeach’). See further the transcriptions and discussion
of the manuscript texts in DBCL.
The 1767 book contains three poems which are
not found in either the McLagan or the McNicol collections. This strengthens the probability that the
Buchanan papers, as lodged in the McLagan corpus, predate the publication of
the book. These three poems (numbered in
the order in which they appear in the book) are:
2.
‘Fulangas Chrìosd’
(‘The Suffering of Christ’). This has no known
direct source. An account of Christ’s
life until the Crucifixion, it dwells on the passion (suffering) of Christ in a
manner reminiscent of hymns of the period, including those of Watts. It has remained very popular in Gaelic oral
tradition to the present.
3.
‘Là a’ Bhreitheanais’ (‘The Day of Judgement’). This
is Buchanan’s ‘epic’, with 508 lines.
Influenced by Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, and specifically
Young’s ‘The Last Day’ and ‘The Consolation’, it contains little direct
translation, but generally takes ideas from Young. These are recast, and reconfigured into
concise quatrains, rather than Young’s sprawling blank verse. Young, like Blair, represented the ‘Graveyard
School’ of minor English poets.
Buchanan, however, offers a Highland apocalypse, rooted in the natural
environment of mountains and moorburns.
Aware that he is going into print, he addresses the reader. Parts of the poem were sung in Mull until the
mid-twentieth century.
8.
‘Ùrnaigh’ (‘A Prayer’). This is a
penitent’s prayer, based on a pastiche of Watts’ meditative poems in Horae
Lyricae. Direct sources for some
individual verses can be traced in Watts.
Items 2 and 3 are the most popular of
Buchanan’s published hymns in an oral context. Their absence, and that of item
8, from the surviving manuscripts may indicate that they are later than the
others in terms of Buchanan’s output.
‘Là a’ Bhreitheanais’ was possibly still in composition as Buchanan was
contemplating the book, and it may have been too recent to have had a
significant (prior) life in manuscript.
A close comparative study of letter forms,
based on Buchanan’s known hand, puts it beyond reasonable doubt that Buchanan
not only wrote the drafts of his published hymns preserved in the McLagan
collection, but that he also wrote the draft of ‘Ma thiomchail Morthachd Dhe’ (see
DBCL).
Five further poems are contained in MS General
1042 /19, three of which are fairly direct translations of moralistic verse by
Isaac Watts, taken from the concluding section of Horae Lyricae. These
translations display some of the main hallmarks of Buchanan’s verse as defined in
LSDB. However, as discussed in DBCL,
they are more obviously translations, rougher in metrical form, and much closer
to their originals, than any of the ‘hymns’ in Buchanan’s 1767 edition. These
are as follows:
(2) ‘An Seangan’, a translation of Watts’ poem,
‘The Ant, or Emmet’.
(3) ‘Lamh Slaodadh
Rium’, a translation of Watts’ poem, ‘The Thief’.
(4) ‘Riaghailt Òra an t-Slànaighir’, a
translation of Watts’ poem, ‘Our Saviour’s Golden Rule’.
(5) This sequence is rounded off with a
versified doxology, ‘Cliu-radh’, quite possibly inspired by Watts’ doxological
verses, but rooted in the Epistle of Jude, verses 24-25.
Translations of secular songs in the McLagan Manuscripts
Given what we already know of Buchanan, it
seems improbable that he, as a religious poet, was the translator of these secular poems. The contrast between Buchanan’s ‘concealed
originals’ and the transparency of the translator’s approach in these secular
examples, with both English and Gaelic verses on display, is also striking. But is this in itself sufficient to rule out
Buchanan’s possible role as translator?
What, besides hymns, could he have composed or translated ‘under the
desk’? Could he have translated these
verses as an exercise in the translator’s craft, or in response to a request
for a ‘Gaelic version’, with later recopying? Could McNicol have been the translator? Or was this the work of yet another
translator, or of several translators, hitherto unknown? It is fascinating to note that a version of
‘Mal Ro’, with alternating English and Gaelic verses as in the McLagan text,
but not identical with the McLagan rendering, had reached print by 1798
(Campbell 1798: 133-136).
Whatever the solution, these translations
certainly provide a broader context in which to consider the craft of verse
translation from English to Gaelic in the eighteenth century – a craft in which
Buchanan was clearly highly proficient, but one which has received little significant
scholarly attention to date.
Conclusion
It would be hard to overestimate the value of
the McLagan Manuscripts, and particularly their gathering of ‘Buchanan papers’,
in allowing us to go ‘behind the book’ in the case of Dugald Buchanan’s volume
of 1767, and to identify a creative ‘circle’ of clerical scholars (and their
associated scribes) who may have facilitated or encouraged the printing of his verse. Following the publication of his book, the
same scholars may have had the foresight to preserve not only earlier drafts of
his published ‘hymns’, but also that of an unpublished hymn. The collection contains several important and
more literal Gaelic translations of Watts’ poems which remained in manuscript
until the appearance of DBCL.
Two further poems in the McLagan collection indicate
that the translating of verse, this time of a secular nature, from English to
Gaelic was of interest to composers in the wider context of magazines and books
which formed a central part of contemporary popular English literature. The scribe again appears to be McNicol. But who was the translator? Ongoing study of the McLagan Manuscripts may
help to answer such questions, and to shed additional light on this fascinating
field.
APPENDIX A
G.U.
MS General 1042 / 23
[1. Fair Ladies are Delicate Things]
[1.]
Fair Ladies are Delicate Things
The Pleasure and Joy of Man’s Life
Companions for Nobles & Kings
And who would not have a Good Wife
Companions &c / two last lines repeated /
Ha Baintiernean boiich ro Sheamh
Culi air agus Solas gach Soigh,
Glaci Ri ’s Daoine mòr iad air laimh
Agus cò nach biig Posta ri Mnaoi
Glaci &c / two last lines repeated /
[2.]
Sir Richard well what do you mean
Are they not the fair Authors of Strife
What impudent Jad[e]s have I seen
And who would be plaug’d with a Wife
Shir Richard well ’s gavi do Sheòl
Nach iad bun gach Constri a chaoi
’S iom Cail aodin darrich ha meol
Agus cò bhiig ga leona le Mnaoi
[ 3.]
When we are incumbered with Care
They help to support a man’s life
The half of the Burden they Share
And who could not have a Good Wife
Dar bh’ios shin lan trioblaid Sprochd
Togi iadsa gu Sòlas an Cri
Lea na Heallich gu ngabh iad gu ncoir
Agus cò nach biig Posta ri Mnaoi.
[4.]
They plunder our Silver & Gold
And trifle about to the life
And often are given to Scold
And who would be Plaugd wt a Wife
’S iad robbis uain airgid is òr
’S biis iad Shuisanich roical is tir
’S tri nteanga gar Gearra le ngloir
Agus co bhiig ga leona le Mnaoi.
[5.]
/2
You’re turned a quarrelsome Elf
So full of Contention & Strife
You have come from a Woman yourself
And why Should you hate a good Wife
Ghàs u Carraich Carranich Crion
Lan trioblaid is firish gan bhri
Bhon’s Bean chuair anail an d’Chliabh
Corson ghabh u mi thlachc ri Mnaoi
[6.]
I hate not a Woman he Cry’d
But oh! the Sad name of a Wife
I cannot endure to be ty’d
A Slave all the Days of my life
Cha nuaich leom Borrinich coir
Ach na luai leom bhi Posta ri Mnaoi
Ba chruai leom bhi m’ thràil ri mo bheo
Ann Buarich na Dòrin fui chaoi
End
[2. A Whimsical pain has just caught me]
[1.]
A Whimsical pain has just caught me
Much Worse than the Gout in the toe
No Damsel on earth could have taught me
To Love but the Inchanting MalRo. With a fall &c.
Rinn Seors d’ Ghreim gorach mo ghlac
’Smo Chrea<s>t na Niugh ansna Meoir
O Calin air Talamh cha Naisig
Mo Ghaolsa air aish uai Mal Ro, Le fal &c.
[2.]
Tho formerly I was a Sloven
Now for her Ile turn a great Beau
I’le buy a green coat to make Cloathing
And Dress like my Charming Mal Ro. With a fal &c.
Ged bha mi ntus ndroch ordu
Bith mi nios ghi Sporsail na <Hc>or
Ceanna mise Coat uain ga mo Chodich
’S ga ma chuir nan seol ri Mal Ro Le fal &c.
[3.] /3
xx
In the Dance of the Couple she Souples
[Inserted at the end of the sequence, with ‘xx’
marking earlier
position
So Graceful & high doth She go
No Englishman eveer lov’d Pudding
As I do my Charming MalRo With a fal &c.
Ann ndamhs’ na ncuipil Shi Subuil
Shi ’s maisich shiubhlais air bròig
Cha dug Sasghanach Spèis riabh a’ Phudin
Co mòr ’s thug mi Ghnuis mo Mhal Ro Le fal &c.
[4.]
Your Shafts I have Stood Mr Cupid
And oft cry’d a fig for your Bow
But the man that escapes must be Stupid
From the Charms of my Lovely MalRo With fal &c. [‘With’ written over ‘Le’?
Cha dugin doit air do Shordu a Chubid
’S tric ghiar mi gu ghulan do Bhodh’, [‘-dh’’ written
over ‘w’?
Ach mfear nach bi glacht ’S fior ùmi
Leis mhais ha ’nurl’ Mal Ro, Le fal &c.
[5.]
Come fill up in Bumpers your Glasses
And let the Brim Bowls overflow
Here’s a Health to the Brightest of Lasses
The Queen of our Club is Mal Ro. With a fal &c.
Sud lioni na glainichin straichtd
’S biig na Boulichin lan hair mbeoil
Deoch Slaint na Calin is ailt
Shi Bairne na ha nsho Mal Ro Le fal &c. [Possible displaced grave accent over
‘Bairne’
NOTES
The first of these poems, in its English form, has not
yet been traced to a published source.
The reference to ‘Sir Richard’ in q. 2 a is probably to Sir Richard
Steele (1672-1729), co-founder, with Joseph Addison, of The Spectator, and a playwright and author whose themes included
women and ethics, and who visited Scotland in 1717.
The second, however, is known in various versions and
sources, including The London Magazine,
Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, Vol. 4, September 1735, pp. 507-8; The Muse’s Vagaries or The Merry Mortal’s
Companion, Part II (London, 1745); and
Notes and Queries, No 274, Jan. 27
1855, pp. 58-59, which gives the text of a letter from John Buncle (written in
July 1773 at Newton Hall, Yorkshire, and submitted by ‘C de D’). The heroine
appears to have been known originally as ‘Moll(y) Row(e)’, and may have have
been of Irish provenance. Buncle claims that the song was ‘written one night
extempore by a club of gentlemen in the county of Tipperary in Ireland. It was agreed that each member should,
off-hand, write four lines, and they produced the following verses.’ The alleged composers are named below each
verse. The versions in The London Magazine and Notes and Queries include all of the
verses in the McLagan text, as well as a number of others not attested in
McLagan.
The poem has been anthologised in a Gaelic collection,
namely Duncan Campbell (Kilmun)’s Nuadh
orain Ghailach (Campbell 1798), pp. 133-136, where it is entitled ‘A New
Song’, and presented as in the McLagan
text, with alternate English and Gaelic verses.
The Campbell text is not identical with that in McLagan, as it includes
the verse beginning, ‘When sitting or chatting or drinking’, in addition to
those attested in McLagan, and there are interesting differences in wording
between McLagan and Campbell. The rubric
to the Campbell text tries to turn Moll(y) Row(e) into a more obviously
Highland heroine: ‘Composed in favour of
a young Man, who fell deeply in Love with an amiable young Girl, of the name of
MARY MUNRO.’ In the ensuing verses,
however, she is named as either MOLL RO (the majority) or ROE, and in one
instance only (q. 3) she becomes MOLLY MUNRO.
Mark Wringe notes (in a post to the present writer):
‘Campbell’s volume is a fascinating curiosity, once you decipher the spelling,
apparently produced for a captive market of under-employed Highland soldiers
eager to relieve the boredom of a posting to a corner of Ireland with little
rebellious activity to attend to in the momentous year of 1798. A loyal song in English sits alongside some
suggestive paens to the likes of Moll Ro, while Campbell references the first
secular Gaelic book by starting with Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair’s ‘Moladh an
Ughdair’.’
Campbell, Duncan, Nuadh
orain Ghailach (Cork, 1798).
DBCL: Dugald
Buchanan (1716-68): The Poet, the Translator and the Manuscript Evidence.
The Canna Lecture 2016 (Scottish Gaelic
Texts Society, Glasgow, 2019).
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Tabhairt o Dhaoin Uaisle, araid an Gaeltachd Alba, don Fhear fhoillseachadh
Eoin Gillies. Peairt.
HL: Horae Lyricae, in Isaac Watts, The Poetical
Works of Isaac Watts (London, 1812).
The
London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer,
Vol. 4, September 1735.
LS: Laoidhe Spioradail
le Dùghall Bochanan (Edinburgh, 1767).
LSDB: Laoidhean
Spioradail Dhùghaill Bhochanain, deas. Dòmhnall Eachann Meek, SGTS
(Glaschu, 2015).
MacKenzie, Donald W., The Worthy Translator: How the Scottish Gaels got the Scriptures in
their own tongue (The Society of Friends of Killin and Ardeonaig Parish
Church, 1992), and also TGSI, LVII (1990-92), pp. 168-202.
MacLeod, Donald, Historic
Families: Notable People and Memorabilia of the Lennox (Dumbarton, 1891).
MacLeod 1993:
Roderick MacLeod, ‘Mo Shùil ad
dhèidh: the story of an eighteenth-century romance’, TGSI, TGSI, LVII
(1990-92), pp. 116-34.
The
Muse’s Vagaries or The Merry Mortal’s Companion,
Part II (London, 1745).
Newton, Michael (ed.), Bho Chluaidh gu Calasraid; from the Clyde to Callendar: Gaelic Songs,
Poetry, Tale and Traditions of the Lennox and Menteith in Gaelic with English
translations (Stornoway, 1999).
Notes
and Queries, No 274, Jan. 27 1855.
Thomson, Derick S., 1994: ‘The McLagan MSS in Glasgow
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article builds on my recent work on Dugald
Buchanan, but it is intended principally as a summary of the status questionis, or questionum, in this case. In the course of writing it, I have incurred
a number of debts beyond what I already owe to the support and foresight of Dr
Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart in obtaining photocopies of most of the McLagan and McNicol
manuscripts discussed above. My more
recent helpers include Mrs Carol Ann Hemfrey, Drymen, who furnished me with
excellent material relating to John Walker, Luss, and his somewhat ‘obscured’
role in helping the Rev. John Stuart with his translations of relevant portions
of the Gaelic Bible; James Beaton, Glasgow; Linda Gowans, Sunderland; and Dr
Valentina Bold, University of Edinburgh, who located published texts of ‘A Whimsical pain has now caught me’, and
directed me to digital editions of the relevant anthologies and periodicals;
and Mark Wringe, Sabhal Mòr Òstaig, Skye, who drew my attention to the version
of the poem in Duncan Campbell’s 1798 anthology, and provided a link to the
digitised book, as well as very useful comments on the book itself. I am most grateful to them all.
