It is fitting that I should here acknowledge my indebtedness to the men who made this thesis possible. Prof. Wm. H. Carpenter, Prof. Calvin Thomas, and Prof. A. V. W. Jackson have been true and untiring guides and a never–failing source of inspiration, and I shall ever consider it a most rare privilege to have been enabled to carry on the major part of my advanced studies under their direction. My gratitude is due also to the men who contributed to make my stay abroad such a pleasant and profitable one, to the professors under whom I studied at the University of Leipzig, as well as to the several librarians who were of service to me, and whom I always found most courteous and accommodating.
Chapter I. Bibliography of German Translations, Imitations, Critical Reviews, etc. 1
Chapter II. General Survey and First Notices.
§1. General Considerations upon the Reception of the Ossianic Poems in Germany 66
Chapter III. Ossian’s Influence upon Klopstock and the Bards.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GERMAN TRANSLATIONS, IMITATIONS, CRITICAL REVIEWS, ETC.
The following bibliography makes no claim to absolute completeness. The material required was in some instances so difficult of access, that exact data could not everywhere be given, but most of the entries are based upon personal investigation. Most of the short bibliographies that have hitherto appeared go back directly or indirectly to those of Denis[1] and Gurlitt,[2] both of which are incomplete and not without errors; the former contains less than thirty titles that come into question here.
A few words as to the composition of this bibliography may not be amiss. The pivot of the whole is that collection of the so–called Poems of Ossian published by James Macpherson from 1760 to 1763, and as the titles of the different portions of this collection are frequently misquoted, I have deemed it advisable to prefix them to the German bibliography, together with the most important later editions. As to the German material, we have in the first place to consider the German translations of the whole or a part of these poems, together with the English reprints made in Germany, as well as the translations into other tongues published in Germany.[3] Several other collections, however, are so closely bound up in their influence in Germany with that of Macpherson, that I have not hesitated to include them. In the second place there are the critical essays upon the poems of Ossian, together with the historical and geographical treatises bearing upon the authenticity of the poems. Thirdly, we have an immense category of German imitations, in which department the drawing of strict lines has been most difficult; here the few epigrams and other poems in praise of Ossian may also be inserted. In the department of music I have given a number of compositions that have come directly to my notice. Several paintings and illustrations of scenes from the poems of Ossian are also mentioned, but in neither of these fields is any pretension made to completeness. In both it has been found difficult to observe the exact chronological order, for which reason the works under these headings have been arranged at the end alphabetically according to authors. Finally, we are to regard the critical reviews and notices of all the above categories in periodicals and newspapers published in Germany. The reviews and notices are not given in strict chronological order, but are in almost every case inserted directly below the work to which they refer. Advance notices when long are frequently given separately. During the years in which the influence of Ossian was at its height, everything has been given in the latter department that could be found, whereas in later years most reviews and short notices are omitted. As a rule the pages given in the reviews refer to those portions only that deal with Ossian.