Book Description

Excerpt from Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 2 Beattie's fame, however, at the present day depends almost entirely on his poem The Minstrel. The first part of the poem, which is also the best, was mostly written in 1768. It appeared in 1770, and the two cantos which comprise the entire work were published together in 1777. The design of The Minstrel, according to its author's preface, was to trace the progress of a poetical genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a Minstrel. A parallel has been drawn between Beattie's Minstrel and Byron's Childe Harold, both in purpose and style, and there can hardly be any doubt that Byron derived his idea from the elder poet. The Minstrel, in its difficult Spenserian stanza, remains without doubt its author's most individualistic work, and establishes him as the apostle of classical elegance among Scots poets of his day. Some of his odes, especially that on Retirement, possess also much beauty and charm, but they are hardly to be distinguished from similar compositions of Gray and Collins. The last years of the poet, sad to say, were clouded by the darkest of sorrows. His wife, Mary, a daughter of Dr. James Dun, head-master of Aberdeen grammar-school, whom he had married in 1767, became insane. This was an affliction heavy enough in itself, but Beattie was also haunted by apprehensions of a similar fate for his two sons. These, happily, were uno realized, but the elder of the two, a youth of such brilliant promise that he was appointed professor to assist his father at the early age of nineteen, was cut off on the very threshold of his career by another malady, and the younger died not long afterwards. Under his threefold sorrow Beattie gave way to despair; the last three years of his life were passed in hopeless solitude, and under an attack of paralysis he finally succumbed. In 1806 Beattie's life was written by Sir William Forbes, and in 1810 his complete poems were printed by Chalmers in his colossal edition of the poets. The best modern edition is probably that in the Aldine Series. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.