Scotish Descriptive Poems/Biographical Sketch of John Wilson
In the biography of literary men, it is a common observation, that a paucity of incidents may be naturally expected in the life of a recluse scholar, whose history is generally comprehended in the account of his productions. Though my materials are scanty, I am not inclined to use this apology for writing a plain narrative instead of a romance; and am content to have saved from oblivion a few notices concerning the only loco-descriptive poet whom Scotland has produced.
John Wilson, author of "Clyde," was born in the vicinity of Lanark June 30. 1720. He was the youngest son of William Wilson, a farmer on the estate of Corehouse, in the parish of Lesmahago. William Wilson, in imitation of his father, conjoined the occupation of blacksmith with the cultivation of his farm. Before the introduction of the present system of agriculture, which has nearly extirpated the middle class of peasantry in Scotland, this practice was extremely common among the Scotish farmers, but has fallen into disuse since the abolition of small farms. His youngest son being precluded, by his feeble and delicate constitution, from those occupations which require personal vigour, was intended for a learned profession. The debility of his constitution, which prevented him from joining in the more active amusements of youth, did not repress the vivacity of his mind; and the quickness of apprehension which he early displayed, attracted the patronage of Mr. Somerville, to whom the estate of Corehouse then belonged. At a period rather later than usual he was sent to the grammar school of Lanark, then ably conducted by a Mr. Thomson, who married the sister of the author of the The Seasons. At this seminary his progress in literature was uncommonly rapid; and the marks of genius which he exhibited, were viewed with flattering approbation by the gentlemen and the clergy men of the neighbouring districts. But unfortunately his father soon afterwards died; and the circumstances of his mother did not enable her to support the expence of his education. He was, therefore, at the age of fourteen, obliged to leave the school of Lanark, and was employed in private tuition till 1746, when he was permanently settled as parochial schoolmaster of Lesmahago. The general features of character are commonly impressed by the females who tend our infancy, and with whom we associate in early life. It is probable, therefore, that Mr. Wilson derived many mental advantages from the society of his mother, to which he was longer confined than usual by his delicate constitution. She was a woman of great propriety of conduct, and had received a superior education, which, in her widowhood and decline of life, qualified her for executing the semiparental duties of an instructress of youth. She possessed a vein of that comic but innocent humour, for which her son was afterwards distinguished.
On June 14. 1751, Mr. Wilson married Miss Agnes Brown, a young woman of amiable manners, and sensibility of temper, who became the mother of nine children. His character was now developed, his mind had acquired strength, and his views had assumed a determinate direction. The situation of schoolmaster was more respectable than at present, as well as comparatively easy in circumstances. The progress of society had not then separated, by so wide an interval, the situations of the laborious teacher of youth, and the minister of religious instruction to more mature age. The school master formed the connecting link between the minister of a parish and his parishioners, and not unfrequently between the peasants and the higher classes. But the process of tracing and retracing the simplest elements of learning, has a tendency to limit the range of thought: The habit of maintaining an air of superiority among boys, tends to produce an adventitious aspect of importance among men; and this habit is stiffened into formality, by real superiority to the peasants in information, and by comparative leisure for reflection. Among this useful class of men, therefore, these peculiarities are very observable; and they are frequently combined with a caustic humour, and a shrewdness of observation, which give them a greater zest. The facility of mingling with every form of life and manners, from the most simple and rustic to the most polished and refined, afforded Mr. Wilson scope for observation. He had marked the characteristic peculiarities of individuals, unravelled their complex motives of action, and treasured up a rich fund of anecdote. Distinguished for the poignancy of his humour, his society was eagerly courted by every class of men. Having improved his taste by an accurate study of the ancient models, his poetical efforts began to assume a more perfect form, and to be come known in a wider circle[1]. His first publication was a Dramatic Essay, on the subject which he afterwards more fully developed in his tragedy of Earl Douglas. This little work was inscribed to Archibald Duke of Douglas, and was probably the occasion of his introduction to that nobleman, the circumstances of which were rather romantic. On this occasion, his Grace desired Mr. Wilson to sit down with him and drink a glass of wine. After the second glass, the Duke arose very abruptly, rushed into a closet, immediately appeared with a brace of pistols, and with a stern countenance walked thrice around the astonished bard, who fortunately had sufficient presence of mind to show no external sign of fear. His Grace observing no symptom of terror in his countenance, calmly replaced the pistols, sat down at table, and assuming a pleasant countenance, drank Mr. Wilson's health, and informed him that this singular conduct had been assumed to try the firmness of his mind, and to discover whether he had imbibed the opinion of the Duke's mental derangement, which was then currently entertained in the country. In the course of conversation, his Grace regretted the neglect of his own education in the early part of his life, expressed his esteem of learning and genius, and warmly offered Mr. Wilson his interest in any way in which he could promote his views. But before any of his prospects could be realised, the death of the Duke of Douglas deprived him of this powerful patronage; and as the care of his rising family did not allow him to incur any risk in attempting to extricate himself from obscurity, his merit was left to advance itself slowly, in his useful but unambitious vocation. In this situation, however, his poetical pieces were corrected and enlarged; his dramatic essay assumed the more regular form of a Tragedy; and a descriptive sketch of the rivulet Nethan, was amplified into the poem of "Clyde." His "Earl Douglas," and "Clyde," were printed for the author, by R. Urie at Glasgow, in 1764, and inscribed to Margaret Duchess of Douglas. The same year, his reputation as a classical scholar introduced him to a more lucrative situation, as well as to a more liberal species of instruction, than teaching the children of peasants their letters and Shorter Catechism; and he was invited to Rutherglen, to superintend the education of the sons of some gentlemen who wished their children to enjoy a better education than that borough afforded.
In Rutherglen Mr. Wilson continued to apply himself ardently to the study of the classical models of composition, and prepared for the press that improved edition of his "Clyde," which is here presented to the Public. He had even circulated proposals for the publication of this poem, when he was invited to superintend the grammar school of Greenock in 1767.
I have now to relate a singular transaction, which I can scarcely believe would have taken place in any district of Scotland, but the West, so late as the year 1767. Greenock at this period was a thriving seaport, rapidly emerging into notice. In the beginning of last century, it consisted of a single row of thatched houses, stretching along a bay without any harbour. In 1707, a harbour began to be constructed; but the town increased so slowly, that in 1755 its population amounted only to about 3800 souls. About the latter period, however, it began to increase rapidly, and continued to flourish till the commencement of the American war. Still, however, its inhabitants were more remarkable for opulence and commercial spirit, than for their attention to literature and science. During the struggle between Prelacy and Presbytery in Scotland, Greenock, like most of the towns and districts of the west of Scotland, had imbibed the most intolerant spirit of presbyterianism; a spirit which at no period had been favourable to the exertions of poetical fancy, and which spent the last efforts of its virulence on the Douglas of Home. Induced by this religious spirit, and by a cool mercantile attention to prudence, the Magistrates and Minister of Greenock, before they admitted Mr. Wilson to the superintendance of the grammar school, stipulated that he should abandon "the profane and unprofitable art of poem-making." Mr. Wilson had a beloved wife and a numerous family; the situation for which he was a candidate promised them a comfortable subsistence; and the illusions of fancy vanished before the mild light of affection. To avoid the temptation of violating this promise, which he esteemed sacred, he took an early opportunity of committing to the flames the greater part of his unfinished manuscripts. After this, he never ventured to touch his forbidden lyre, though he often regarded it with that mournful solemnity, which the harshness of dependence, and the memory of its departed sounds, could not fail to inspire. Sometimes, indeed, when the conversation of former friends restored the vivacity of these recollections, he would carelessly pour out some extemporaneous rhymes; but the fit passed away, and its fleeting nature palliated the momentary transgression.
He seems during life to have considered this as the crisis of his fate, which condemned him to obscurity; and sometimes alluded to it with acrimony. In a letter to his son George, attending the University of Glasgow, dated January 21. 1779, he says, "I once thought to live by the breath of fame: But how miserably was I disappointed, when, instead of having my performance applauded in crowded theatres, and being caressed by the great—for what will not a poetaster, in the intoxicating delirium of possession, dream!—I was condemned to bawl myself to hoarseness among wayward brats, to cultivate sand, and wash Ethiopians, for all the dreary days of an obscure life, the contempt of shopkeepers and brutish skippers."
The feelings of a mind glowing with poetical enthusiasm on such an occasion, are so beautifully expressed by a poet who unites with singular felicity picturesque imagery and pathetic sentiment, that I cannot resist the desire of transcribing the passage:
Which won my heart, or when the gay career
Of life begun, or when at times a tear
Sat sad on Memory's cheek—though loftier themes
Await the awakened mind, to the high prize
Of wisdom hardly earned with toil and pain,
Aspiring patient, yet on life's wide plain
Left fatherless, where many a wanderer sighs
Hourly, and oft our road is lone and long,
'Twere not a crime, should we a while delay
Amid the sunny field; and happier they,
Who, as they journey, woo the charm of song,
To cheer their way, till they forget to weep,
And the tired sense is hushed and sinks to sleep[2].
When I first became acquainted with this transaction, my curiosity was excited concerning the names of the principal agents. I wished to know to what species of fame they aspired; and to learn whether they had caused their names to be inscribed on any species of monument or public work. But, on reflection, it seemed better to leave them in that oblivion which they seem to have so sedulously courted. In justice to the present inhabitants of Greenock, it is proper to state, that since the period to which I allude, an important change has occurred in their manners and taste. The present Magistrates are distinguished by their public spirit and attention to literature; and to one of them, a favourite pupil of Mr. Wilson, the editor of this edition of "Clyde," is indebted for some of the materials employed in the Biographical Sketch of the Author. From the period of Mr. Wilson's appointment as master of the grammar school of Greenock, he devoted himself solely to the duties of his function; and the evening of his life was calmly passed in the social intercourse of his friends, who were numerous and respectable, and in the enjoyment of domestic tranquillity. The classical department of the school was under his immediate direction, and the mathematical was conducted by a Mr. Nichols. As a public teacher, his character was highly respectable: He always preferred lenient to coercive measures; and from the gentleness of his disposition, and his assiduity in teaching, his memory is still cherished by his pupils with fondness and veneration. In school, he had more the appearance of a father instructing his children, than of a master presiding among his scholars; and for the last years during which he taught, the increasing infirmities of age induced him to trust solely to the affection of his pupils, for maintaining order and subordination. Nor did he find his confidence misplaced; for at no time did they obey him more implicitly, or apply more assiduously to their studies. Two years before his death, which happened on June 2. 1789, the increasing debility of his constitution induced him to retire from the duties of his office on the united salaries of school-master and session-clerk; but the respectful attention of his pupils was continued to the close of his life.
In his domestic character, Mr. Wilson was gentle and affectionate. He cultivated the minds of his children with assiduous care, and early instilled into them the precepts of sublime morality, and those feelings of devotion with which he himself was deeply impressed. He was accustomed to lose no opportunity for their instruction. Astronomy was one of his favourite pursuits; and as some of them, while young, slept on a little bed in the same chamber with their parents, in a clear and quiet night he frequently renewed the conversations which he had previously held, concerning the course and motions of the stars that passed the uncurtained window of his apartment. On Sunday evenings he was wont to make his daughter read the English Scriptures aloud to the family, while he amused himself with comparing the original with the translation. In domestic worship, it was customary for him to read an extemporaneous version of the Septuagint, or New Testament, instead of using the English translation. In religion, he adhered to the tenets of the moderate party in the church of Scotland. His eldest son James, a young man of more than ordinary abilities, displayed a fine taste for both poetry and drawing, and, like his father, possessed an uncommon share of humour. He went to sea; and after distinguishing himself in several naval engagements, was killed, October 11. 1776, in an action on Lake Champlaine; in which his conduct received such approbation from his commanding officer, that a small pension was granted by Government to his father. George, who died at the age of 21 years, was distinguished for his taste and classical erudition, as well as his poetical talents. John, who lately died in the West Indies, was a young man of great activity in his profession, and possessed of much mercantile knowledge. His only surviving child is his daughter Violet, the wife of Mr. Robert Wilson, shipmaster, Greenock; a lady to whose intelligence and candour I am indebted for the greater part of the materials of this Memoir.
The short intervals of vacation which Mr. Wilson enjoyed, were generally occupied in visiting his literary friends in the country. No man had a higher relish for social intercourse, and few persons were qualified for supporting a more conspicuous part in it. His disposition was gay and good -humoured; his manner was animated and jocular; and his conversation had a peculiar zest from its originality. He possessed an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes and stories characteristic of life and manners; these he introduced as they originated spontaneously from the subject of conversation, and related with a high degree of humour and comic effect. The Scotish nation is generally reckoned deficient in comic humour by their southern neighbours; but this is a part of national character, concerning which a stranger is seldom qualified to form a correct judgment. The quality of humour can scarcely be defined; but it evidently depends so much on the nice discrimination of minute and local peculiarities of manners, and the individual forms of expression adapted to these, that its most exquisite efforts must be lost on those who are not familiar with the various shades of dialect. In the sixteenth century, while Scotland had yet a capital, and while its language had not yet dwindled into a vulgar dialect, the Scotish poets excelled particularly in humour. Has this quality, therefore, vanished with the dignity of our popular dialect, or has its source been exhausted by our predecessors? What Scotsman, familiar with the popular language and manners of his country, will for a moment admit the supposition; will not immediately perceive that it is contradicted by numerous instances in his own experience? In the last century, the poets Ramsay, Ross, Ferguson, and Burns, all excelled in this versatile and almost indescribable quality. In novel writing, Smollett possessed it in an eminent degree. But it is true, that in polite companies a Scotsman is prohibited, by the imputation of vulgarity, from using the common language of the country, in which he expresses himself with most ease and vivacity, and, clothed in which, his earliest and most distinct impressions always arise to his own mind. He uses a species of translation, which checks the versatility of fancy, and restrains the genuine and spontaneous flow of his conceptions. Mr. Wilson's humour, as well as his dialect, was native Scotish; and hence it might sometimes be little relished by an Englishman, when it afforded the most exquisite pleasure to his Scotish friends. He was a Scotsman of that genuine old class, which seems now to be nearly extinct; who blended with their characteristic plainness of speech and manners, the taste of the scholar, and the information of the man of the world; a combination rendered only more interesting by the veil of apparent rusticity by which it was concealed. "He was," says Professor Richardson of Glasgow, "a worthy character, of unaffected plainness, but not vulgarity of manners."
Mr. Wilson must be regarded as a man of self-instructed genius. He did not receive a regular education, but he became an excellent classical scholar, in spite of the impediments of fortune, and the disadvantages of situation. He was familiarly acquainted with the Greek, Latin, and French authors; he read German and Italian with facility, and was not unacquainted with Hebrew. The death of almost all his intimate friends has destroyed the sources from which a particular account of his studies and literary habits might have been derived; while the only survivor of his nine children was precluded, by her sex and youth, from acquiring a correct notion of her father's literary pursuits in the more austere departments of learning or science. The poetical writers of antiquity, especially the Grecian, attracted his chief admiration. Of Dryden's Virgil he was quite enamoured; and he was accustomed to read select passages of it to his favourite pupils. Perhaps the influence of this partiality may be perceived in his versification. At one period he appears to have been greatly addicted to metaphysical speculations; for in an elegiac fragment, composed on the death of a valued friend, he enumerates some of the topics of their common studies, and relates that, in the recesses of the green hills of Braid, they had often
If self engross, or social passions share;
If free self-motion actuate the will,
Or ruling force of good determine still;
If only pleasure is by virtue fought,
Or moral beauty fires the enraptured thought.
The American war, which commenced soon after Mr. Wilson's settlement in Greenock, met with great disapprobation in the trading towns of the west of Scotland; and he seems to have imbibed the prevailing sentiment; for the letter to his son George, which I have already quoted, inclosed the following poetical sketch, which has the appearance of being a rapid extemporaneous effusion:
Fair Virtue's flame no more her bosom warm'd,
Immers'd in softness, pleasure still she craves,
And makes her ally-islanders her slaves;
Till heaven's red bolt from an avenging hand,
Launched by Lysander, scathed the oppressive land:
So we, renowned to the most distant climes,
For rapine, tyranny, and glaring crimes;
Who boast of freedom, yet enthral the free,
Are never selfish, yet engross the sea;
Void of religion, though afraid of shame,
Whose barren faith is but an empty name;
By God forsaken, whom each lordling braves,
Are mocked and baffled by our outcast slaves.
The circumstances which gave rise to his principal works, and the eras of their composition, are unknown. The fragments found among his remaining papers, seem chiefly to have been rapid effusions on temporary subjects, or juvenile paraphrases of passages of Scripture with which he had been struck. Among the latter may be enumerated, Translations of Buchanan's 104th Psalm, of the Song of Moses, Exodus XV., the Song of Habbakuk, Habbakuk III., and a Poetical Version of the Apologue of the Prodigal Son, the versification of which is executed in a correct and accurate manner. The reputation of his poetical versions of Scripture, induced a member of the committee appointed by the General Assembly in 1775, for preparing a collection of Scriptural Paraphrases for the psalmody of the Scotish church, to request his assistance "to metre some piece of Scripture, in the plainest and most simple manner, observing as much as possible the language, but particularly the sentiments of the portion," in order that he might "contribute to public worship for many succeeding ages." To this proposal Mr. Wilson seems not to have acceded, being probably deterred by his engagement with the Magistrates of Greenock. The collection of Paraphrases, though very unequal in merit, has been completed with some credit to the committee. The most poetical versions are the composition of the late Mr. Logan of Leith; but in his poems, where psalmody is not the immediate object, some of them appear in a more perfect form. A satirical poem intitled, "A Panegyric on the Town of Paisley," was likewise attributed to the pen of Wilson; but it is uncertain if he ever fully acknowledged it.
The destruction of his manuscripts, and his total dereliction of poetry, are much to be regretted, as his mind seems to have been of that improving kind, which, gradually retracing its own steps with multiplied, and reiterated efforts, corrects, polishes, and refines; adds where the texture of the composition is abrupt, compresses where it is redundant, removes what offends taste, and thus evolves a beauty in its due form and proportion. His "Earl Douglas," as we have mentioned, was only an evolution of his Dramatic Essay; his "Clyde" was only an expansion of his descriptive poem, the Nethan. The Dramatic Essay is evidently the work of an author unpractised in composition: The measure of the verse is languid and prosaic, the style flat and unpoetical, and the conduct of the drama unskilful and inartificial. In the advertisement prefixed, the author observes, that he is less unwilling to incur the censure of critics, than to strain historical facts. He is apprehensive that the moral reflections may be thought too numerous; but declares, that he considers it as a more pardonable error to exceed, than to be deficient in a decent regard to morality and religion. This regard for morality and religion has induced him to subjoin an after-scene to the catastrophe, for the express purpose of suggesting moral reflections; an amiable purpose, for the sake of which many authors have injured their compositions, without improving their readers. The proper moral of a drama is to excite vivid virtuous emotions in the heart, not to exhibit a demonstration of some abstract principle of morality. In the Dramatic Essay, the characters are neither sufficiently various nor sufficiently marked. Livingston and Crichton are similar in character and similar in conduct, unprincipled courtiers, twin-brothers in political intrigue. The extreme youth of Earl Douglas, Sir David his brother, and James their sovereign, does not admit of the developement of their several characters.
Many of these defects are corrected in "Earl Douglas, a Tragedy." The style possesses more dignity and energy, the characters are more strongly marked, the subordinate incidents more skilfully arranged, and the conduct of the whole drama rendered more interesting. The after-scene is judiciously retrenched; but the moral reflections interspersed are still sufficiently numerous. The description of passion is frequently substituted for the expression of genuine feeling. This fault was to be expected in a young writer, practised in descriptive poetry; in which species of composition, the habits of mind which fit a person for excellence, are extremely different from those which enable him to exhibit dramatic characters successfully. Earl Douglas, the principal character, displays a lofty spirit of patriotism, blended with ambition and the pride of ancestry; but the part he acts is not sufficiently conspicuous to rouse powerful sympathy; and when he falls, it is rather the sense of injustice, than particular interest in the hero, which excites our indignation against the authors of his fate. Some interesting situations, however, occur, as when the rescue is attempted, and "the march of Douglas" heard at a distance; and in the following passages, the spirit of a young feudal chief is ably pourtrayed:
This ponderous blade bears deep undoubted signs
Of long hard service to your valiant fires.
Douglas.
Thrice twenty times with this, the good Sir James
Returned triumphant from the glorious field.
At Annand, Halidon, and Otterburn,
And many a field in Britain and in France,
It strewed the plains with heaps of Scotia's foes.
From fires so brave descended, now from me,
It loudly claims the like illustrious deeds.
When urged to save his life, by giving his sister in marriage to the Chancellor's son, he replies in the same style,
The valiant Sholto, and the good Sir James;
William the hardy; William flower of chivalry.
Undaunted Tineman, my unyielding fire;
The daring Douglas, slain at Otterburn,
Whose name, when dead, brought victory from the skies———
In such a list to be design'd, the soft
Faint-hearted William, whom soft female tears
Melted to bow before his treacherous foe,
And prostitute his sister———
The daftard Douglas, who surviv'd his honour,
The first of all his race who fear'd to die———
After the reign of Bruce, no Scotish clan ever attained such power as the Douglasses, or acquired such popularity on the marches. They united, in an eminent degree, feudal pomp with martial bravery, and in England and France their fame was as great as in Scotland. A popular proverbial verse, preserved by Hume of Godscroft, runs thus:
Of one sirname were ne'er in Scotland seen.
The lofty and daring spirit of the race is well delineated by our author:
Can only join with heroes of its kind,
Who, to the dance, prefer the painful march;
Deep midnight studies, to the late amour;
And honours torn from foes, to ladies favours;
Whose manly face becomes the crested helm;
Whose agile limbs in massy armour move,
And fearless as the bold war-horse he rides,
Dares thunder through the iron ranks of war.
The court of Douglas might long have vied in magnificence with that of the kings of Scotland; and the chief enumerated among his vassals many clans that afterwards rose to eminence and power, on the ruins of the family. The passage which delineates the plenitude of this power, exhibits a curious feudal picture:
Chancellor.
The grandeur of that lofty house you know;
His strong allies; the chieftains of the name;
His strengths, and wide domains; his daring leagues
With kings abroad, and king-like lords at home;—
His court I viewed; I mingled with his train,
Which swells in thousands for his daily state;
Squires, knights and lords, crowding from every wind,
Conducted him to town. Here splendid rode
The ever-famous Keiths; there mighty Humes;
The graceful Hepburns, and the noble Hays;
The valiant Seton, and the worthy Ker;
The bold Dunbar, with generous Ramsay came,
The potent Scot, and Graham of high descent.
Livingston.
Heavens! what a list of peers—to attend a traitor?
Chancellor.
Well, I shall pass the flower of Annandale,
By Johnston led, and those that drink the Nith,
With Maxwell bold, Montgomery, Cunningham,
And Boyd, with westland lords; young Kennedy,
The cousin of our king; the Somerville,
And Hamilton, with Clydesdale's gallant chiefs.
The brave Carmichael bore the spear he broke
Unhorsing Clarence, on his crest displayed,
When conquering England first stood checked in France.
Livinsgton.
Say in a word, the whole of Scotish peers
Attend a rebel boy.
Chancellor.
Let me but mark
The mightiest of the name; the sage Dalkeith,
Great Angus, Abercorn, and princely Nithsdale,
Livingston.
Hell! I can hear no more———Douglas is king,
And rebels all our lords, who prop his pride.
Chancellor.
Had you but seen their grandeur, as they march'd
On neighing steeds, which trod the earth with scorn;
And marked what dignity their brows adorned!
O'er all the rest, a daring lofty air
The Douglasses distinguished!-valiant name———
The clan is numerous, daring, true, and steady,
Their chief, young, vigorous, liberal, brave, and popular.
This presents no unfaithful picture of the power and magnificence of Douglas, and characterises happily the spirit of the clan. The fall of Douglas was lamented in rude but energetic strains by his followers. The first verse of one of these, which relates to the subject of this drama, is preserved by Hume of Godscroft in his history of Douglas:
God grant thou sink for sin;
And that even for the black dinner
Earl Douglas got therein[3].
The popularity of the family was not destroyed by this proscription; but their misfortunes seem rather to have endeared their memory to the common people. In their flourishing state, the superiority of their power repressed the feuds of the inferior clans, and presented a formidable front to the incursions of England; and they were recollected only as the preservers of social order, and the defenders of their country. The composition of this drama is one of the latest tributes of popular opinion to the name of Douglas; for the choice of the subject was suggested by the traditions of Clydesdale.
The poem "Clyde" seems to have been the favourite production of our author, and the composition, in the correction of which he bestowed the greatest labour. "Nethan," the original sketch which he expanded into "Clyde," consists of 626 verses. The versification is generally feeble, the rhymes often incorrect, and the disposition of the topics injudicious: It has all the stiffness, as well as the incorrectness of a first production.
The numbers rough, and unchastised the wit.
"Clyde," the second form which it assumed, in the edition of 1764, extends to above 1000 lines, and in this edition to nearly double that number. Even in its present form, it never received the finishing hand of the author, whose engagement with the Magistrates of Greenock prevented him from completing it. The manuscript which has been chiefly used in this edition, contains many large blanks, many cancelled passages, and many rude sketches too incorrect for publication. Many passages, too, have been so enfeebled by expansion, that they have lost the air of originality which they possessed in the early copies. Welsted observes, that "works of originality differ from imitations, as fruits brought to maturity by artificial fires differ from those that are ripened by the natural heat of the sun, and the indulgence of a kindly climate[4]." The same difference is frequently found between the spontaneous effusions of an author's genius, and those laborious revisals which lose in ease and spirit what they gain in correctness. In Wilson's last manuscript, the expansion of the original is often equally injurious to the correctness of the language, and the curacy of the description. In preparing this edition for the press, the enlarged but incorrect manuscript has been carefully collated with the edition of 1764, and with the manuscript sketch of Nethan; and those various readings have been uniformly selected, which appeared to be most poetical and congruous with the context. This account of the edition offers the best apology for the imperfect or Scotish rhymes which sometimes occur in the poem, the indistinct delineation of several scenes, and the harsh unmusical lines which sometimes mar the most vigorous passages; and to use the expression of Welsted,
Mix the Scotch thistle with the English bays.
The versification, however, is generally correct, and flows with much of the case of Dryden; though the asperity of the proper names, which the author has often found it impossible to mould to harmony, sometimes approximates it to the harshness of Blackmore. The want of dignity in many of these names, has sometimes rendered it difficult to avoid the burlesque. This is a circumstance which renders loco-descriptive poetry peculiarly difficult, and suggests one of the probable causes why it has been so little attempted in Scotland. Many proper names in Scotland are significant in the Scotish dialect, and have a ludicrous effect when introduced into an English composition. Wilson's Clyde is the first Scotish loco-descriptive poem of any merit, and it is still the only national one of the species. In the early part of last century was published "Don," a loco-descriptive poem, equally devoid of merit in sentiment and in versification. The author has attempted to adorn it with some flowers of antiquity; but they withered in his rude unskilful grasp. In 1797, a garbled edition of this poem was published at Aberdeen, by a schoolmaster named Charles Dawson, who, because he had added some superficial notes, has, by a skilful species of plagiarism, claimed the whole poem. During the last century, some loco-descriptive sketches were published in the Scotish Magazines, but without acquiring even a temporary reputation. In England, however, since Denham's Cooper's Hill, various models have been produced, in this species of composition; which are enumerated by Dr. J. Warton in his edition of Pope's Works.
The fundamental subject of the local poem, as Dr. Johnson properly observes, is some particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection or incidental meditation[5]. The subject which Wilson proposed to himself, has the merit of unity; a merit in which the greater part of descriptive poems are extremely defective. He describes the course of the Clyde, delineates the various scenes which it presents, and diversifies his narrative by historical allusions, suggested by the particular scenes which he describes. The course of the river Clyde pointed out a natural and perspicuous arrangement of the different scenes; a quality in which the local poem is generally defective, as it is difficult to discover, in many landscapes, a point from which the description commences better than from another. The episodes are frequently interesting, and arise naturally from the description; but they sometimes attract our attention too much from the principal subject. The influence of the central fire, to use the expression of Laharpe[6], which ought to pervade the poem, to combine its different episodes in one general design, and to predominate in all its parts, is not always perceptible in the various digressions. The historical allusions refer to the Scotish history, as detailed by Fordun, Boethius, Major, and Buchanan. In this edition of Clyde, the topics of general description are more skilfully connected with particular scenery than in that of 1764, and blend more easily with the localities of the poem. His descriptions of rural scenes and occupations are always true to nature, and often diversified by striking and picturesque touches. He never appears as a servile imitator, though several of his topics had been anticipated by Somerville and Thomson; as fox-hunting, stag-hunting, hay-making, reaping, the music of birds, and the production of insects. In various other topics he may be advantageously compared with later descriptive poets. Thus, his characteristic description of forest trees, may be compared with that of Gisborne in his Walks in a Forest:
With tender olive and pale brown, protrudes.—
Even yet with ruddy spoils, from autumn won,
Loaded, the beech its lengthened buds untwines.
Its knotted bloom secured, the ash puts forth
Its winged leaf; the hawthorn wraps its boughs
In snowy mantle; from the vivid greens
That shine around, the holly, winter's pride,
Recedes abashed; the willow, in yon vale,
Its silver lining to the breeze upturns;
And rustling aspens shiver by the brook.
Gisborne
The plane's thick head mid burning day suspends
Impenetrable shade; bees humming pour
O'er the broad balmy leaves, and suck the flower.
Green shoots the fir his spiry point on high;
And fluttering leaves on trembling aspens sigh.
With haughtier air behold the oak ascend,
Too proud before an angry heaven to bend;
His leaves unshaken, winter's force defy;
He shades a field, and heaves a wood on high;
Glories in stubborn strength when tempests roar,
And scorns to yield, save to the thunder's power.
Wilson.
In the localities of description, where the subject admits of vivid contrast or picturesque delineation, Wilson frequently exhibits both energy and discrimination. The dark majesty of Tinto, the towering grandeur of Ailsa, the falls of the Clyde, which in an uncommon degree, unite sublimity and picturesque beauty, were subjects calculated to excite the enthusiasm of poetical fancy; but many of the names which occur in "Clyde," would have found a more appropriate place in topography than in poetry. The style of description which he employs, consists rather in the accurate enumeration of particular objects, than in the expression of the mental feelings which they are fitted to inspire. Instead of describing the effect of a scene on the mind of the observer, he delineates, piece by piece, the different parts of which it is composed. For this reason, his enumerations of objects sometimes present an obscure or a confused picture; his groupes are silent and dead; and from his delineations of natural objects, we feel not the emotions with which the view of nature affects us. Sometimes, however, his verses present not the mere delineation of a scene, but the description of a person observing a scene, whose mind reflects, like a mirror, the objects with which he is surrounded, and receives the character and colouring with which they are invested. Whether we regard his versification, or facility of delineating natural objects, Wilson ranks high as a loco-descriptive poet. He cannot, indeed, aspire to the highest degree of excellence; but the present age, more just to deceased poets than that in which they lived, delights in reviving the fame which had been obscured by the blaze of superior reputation. It is to writers of this class that we owe the formation of a great part of poetical phraseology, and the introduction of many new images into poetry. They provide the rough materials, which are moulded into form by a superior genius, as the most magnificent cities have risen from the ruins of towns less splendid.
- ↑ I am informed by the Rev. Mr. Hall of Lesmahago, that a brother of Mr. Wilson, by occupation a blacksmith, possessed likewise a poetical turn, and published some Elegies, which I have never seen. The son of this person, and nephew of our author, is no contemptible poet.
- ↑ Bowles' Poems, Vol. II. p. 66.
- ↑ Hume of Godscroft's History of Douglas, Vol. I. p. 288.
- ↑ Welsted's Works, 1787, p. 141.
- ↑ Johnson's Life of Denham, ap. Lives of the English Poets.
- ↑ Laharpe's Lycée, Vol. VIII. p. 317.