BIB_ID
403341
Accession number
MA 8917.27
Creator
Boyd, Hugh Stuart, 1781-1848.
Display Date
[1843 January 19].
Credit line
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 22.6 x 18.5 cm
Notes
Date of writing estimated from the postmark. No place of writing is given but Boyd was known to be living in London at that time and there is a Camden Town postmark on the letter. See the published editions of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
A separate sheet of paper served as the envelope. The letter is addressed to: "Miss Barrett,/ 50. Wimpole Street,/ Cavendish Square."
Boyd was blind; this letter is in the hands of two amanuenses.
A separate sheet of paper served as the envelope. The letter is addressed to: "Miss Barrett,/ 50. Wimpole Street,/ Cavendish Square."
Boyd was blind; this letter is in the hands of two amanuenses.
Provenance
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Summary
Continuing the discussion of Ossian begun in the previous letter (see MA 8917.26); telling her that Poems of Darthula has been read out to him again over the past few days; enumerating Ossian's superior poetic qualities (the purity of his taste, the music of his language); summarizing and praising other poems in James Macpherson's translations; concluding "[w]hen speaking of the taste of Ossian, I should have mentioned another thing. How very plain, short, and simple are the words; and yet, out of such scanty materials, what a beautiful structure is reared."
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