BIB_ID
403350
Accession number
MA 8917.28
Creator
Boyd, Hugh Stuart, 1781-1848.
Display Date
[1843 January 27].
Credit line
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Description
1 item (5 pages, with address) ; 22.7 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 Hampstead postmark on the letter. See the published editions of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Addressed to: "Miss Barrett,/ 50- Wimpole Street,/ London."
Boyd was blind; this letter is in the hands of two amanuenses.
Addressed to: "Miss Barrett,/ 50- Wimpole Street,/ London."
Boyd was blind; this letter is in the hands of two amanuenses.
Provenance
Acquired from the University of Illinois, 1961.
Summary
Beginning with an apostrophe to EBB, "Fair Star of London!"; telling her that he has read an account of Ossian and his poetry in the Penny Cyclopedia, an account which is skeptical about the existence of Ossian but praises the language of the poems; commenting that Ossian's poetry is not equal to certain passages of the Bible, like the Song of Solomon; criticizing the way EBB has written about Hugh Blair and arguing that they should judge for themselves whether Homer or Ossian is a greater poet; discussing poetic meter in Ossian's work and in the Bible: "There are some places in the Bible, which appear to me, to be exquisite specimens of rhythmical prose. I should like to know your opinion. Did our Translations try to translate in this smooth and flowing manner; or did it happen so, without their intending it."
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