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Emerson and the Bardic Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Emerson saw in the art of poetry a process veiled in mystery, and no one fully acquainted with his writings is unaware of the manifold ways in which Emerson approached that mystery in an attempt to explain it. As early as 1838, he began what he hoped would be a long poem on the poet and his art. Occasionally returning to the composition over a period of some years, in the end he left only fragments of his original plan. The essay entitled “The Poet”, published in 1844, integrated more fully many of the conclusions to which Emerson had come on the subject. But still he was apparently unsatisfied. Further early experiments in suggesting the function of the poet are revealed in four poems in the 1847 collection of verses. In “The Problem”, “Saadi”, and “Bacchus” Emerson viewed in different ways the origin of the artist's and poet's power. And in the last poem, entitled “Merlin”, he turned back, for the embodiment of the ideal poet, to the ancient bard.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1948
References
1 Emerson in Concord A Memoir (Boston, 1889), pp. 227-9. See also The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston, 1903-4), ix, 440-3; and other references noted elsewhere in this article.
2 Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston 1909-14), i, 88.
3 London, 1805, i, 80, 82. See also I, 86. Ellis prints a summary of a metrical romance, Arthur and Merlin, but from this Emerson could have derived little knowledge of Merlin as a bard.
4 Journals, i, 204 (1822); Complete Works, vii, 366-7.
5 Scott (Edinburgh, 1821), iii, 201-6.
6 Journals, iii, 574.
7 Letters (New York, 1939), i, 82,97; Complete Works, iii, 14; Journals, vii, 229 (1846).
8 Besides giving the Welsh text of numerous bardic remains, this work includes prose translations of the fragments and a “De Bardis Dissertatio.” Evans observes in his preface: “I had long been convinced, that no nation in Europe possesses greater remains of antient and genuine pieces of this kind than the Welsh; and therefore was inclined, in honour to my country, to give a specimen of them in the English language” (pp. i-ii).
9 Letters, i,179 (1827). Emerson also quotes a line from “The Progress of Poesy” in “The Over-Soul.” See Complete Works, ii, 282,431.
10 Gray, Poetry and Prose (Oxford, 1926), pp. 52-3. These notes have commonly been printed with the poem.
11 viii, 355. Ossian is casually mentioned in one of Emerson's letters written in 1823. See Letters, i, 134.
12 Letters, i, 78 (Feb. 15, 1819).
13 It is altogether probable that Emerson was also familiar with Blair's “Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, the Son of Fingal”, usually prefixed to editions of Ossian's works.
14 For critical studies of the eighteenth century bardic revival, see C. B. Tinker, Nature's Simple Plan (Princeton, 1922), chapter 3; E. D. Snyder, The Celtic Revival in English Literature, 1760-1800 (Cambridge, 1923); Lois Whitney, “English Primitivistic Theories of Epic Origins”, Modem Philology, xxi (May, 1924), 355-8.
15 Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (Philadelphia, 1854), p. 42.
16 Complete Works, ix, 441.
17 Ibid.
18 The Works of Oliver Goldsmith (London, 1854), in, 271.
19 Op. cit., p. 427.
20 Ibid., p. 443.
21 v, 227.
22 For further examples of the eighteenth century critical attitude toward the bard, see Lois Whitney, loc. cit., pp. 3SS-S8.
23 Gray, p. 48.
24 Caractacus: A Dramatic Poem (London, 1759), p. 19.
25 Snyder, op. cit., p. 135.
26 Complete Works, rx, 120.
27 In commenting on the internal rhyme of the verse, “No more I weep. They do not sleep”, Gray observed in a note unpublished in his lifetime: “The double cadence is introduced here not only to give a wild spirit and variety to the Epode; but because it bears some affinity to a peculiar measure in the Welch Prosody, called Gorchest-Beirdh, i.e., the Excellent of the Bards” (William P. Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar [Cambridge, 1937], p. 93).
28 Blair, p. 424.
29 Carlyle, Collected Works (London, 1872), xi, 232. See also ibid., vi, 252; viii, 388.1 am indebted to my friend, Professor George Kummer, for calling my attention to the possible influence of Carlyle on Emerson's bardic thinking.
30 A Week (Boston, 1868), pp. 364 ff. See also Ernest Leisy, “Thoreau and Ossian”, New England Quarterly, xviii (March, 1945), 96-8; F. I. Carpenter, “The Vogue of Ossian in America”, American Literature, ii (Jan., 1931), 411.
31 See Letters, iii, 338.
32 Ibid., in, 341.
33 Thoreau, p. 367.
34 Ibid., p. 388.
35 vi, 190-1.
36 v, 220.
37 Complete Works, iii, 32.
38 Ibid., ix, 121-2.
39 Journals, vin, 435 (1853).
40 ?. W. Cameron, Ralph Waldo Emerson's Reading (Raleigh, N. C, 1941), pp. 27, 67. Book withdrawn from the Boston Athenaeum in 1852. See also Journals, viii, 435.
41 Cameron, pp. 36, 88. Book withdrawn from the Boston Athenaeum in 1864.
42 Complete Works, viii, 371; Journals, x, 176 (1866).
43 Cameron, pp. 39, 54. Book withdrawn from the Boston Athenaeum in 1867. See also Journals, x, 216 (1867).
44 Cameron, pp. 40, 42, 43, 105. Book withdrawn from the Boston Athenaeum in 1868 and in 1872. See also Journals, x, 275.
45 Complete Works, ix, 218. See Edward Emerson's comments on the poem, ibid., vi, 401-2.
46 Warton (London, 1781), iii, 151.
47 Several times Emerson quotes from the Welsh Triads. See Journals, viii, 367 (1853); Complete Works, vi, 21; viii, 58 (cf. Davies, Mythology and Rites of the British Druids [London, 1809], p. 79); Complete Works, vii, 63 (cf. Davies, op. cit., p. 82).
48 Davies, p. 80.
49 Complete Works, ix, 218. In the Centenary Edition of the poems, “Merlin's Song” and the series of aphoristic couplets ascribed to Merlin were printed as parts i and ii of “Merlin's Song”, although, as Edward Emerson points out, the two “never appear together in the verse-books” (ibid., ix, 476). Neither poem was reprinted in Selected Poems (1876) or in the Riverside Edition of the poems. The verses beginning “Gold and iron are good”, which preface the essay “Politics” (1844), again introduce “Merlin wise” (along with Napoleon!) as the sponsor of the poet's orphie observations. Edward Emerson suggests that this poem was “influenced by the Bardic fragments” (iii, 334), but Emerson's reading lists seem rather to point to a somewhat later date for the poet's acquaintance with Welsh and Celtic literature. I believe that Edward Emerson, in general, places this acquaintance too early. See Emerson in Concord, pp. 228-9.
50 Davies, p. 42.
51 Complete Works, ix, 475.
52 Ibid., viii, 59.
53 ix, 31-2 (1856).
54 Numerous fragments ascribed to Taliessin by Nash begin, “I know…”, suggesting the omniscient and miraculous power of the bard. See D. W. Nash, Taliessin; or, the Bards and Druids of Britain (London, 1858), pp. 287, 288, 290.
55 See “Maiden Speech of the Aeolian Harp” in Selected Poems (1876), p. 176; and Journals, ix, 334 (1861).
56 A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century (New York [1932]), p. 165.
57 ix, 334 (1861). This passage, slightly altered, was incorporated in the essay “Inspiration” in Letters and Social Aims, along with a quotation from one of Gray's letters alluding to the Aeolian Harp. See Complete Works, viii, 287-8.
58 Complete Works, ix, 237-9. Emerson wrote in his journal in 1861 : “What a joy I found, and still can find, in the Aeolian harp.”
59 Morte Darthur (London, 1883), p. 78.
60 Complete Works, viii, 60-63.
61 Merlin, or the Early History of King Arthur: a Prose Romance, Part i (1865); part ii (1866); part in (1869).
62 A slip, which is inserted in the third part and which expresses regret at the delay in publication, is dated “April, 1869.”
63 See J. E. Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston, 1887), ii, 801; Emerson, Complete Works, viii, 358; Letters, vi, 282.
64 This seems, for the moment, the best hypothesis. The fact, however, that the 1869 printing of the vulgate obviously does not account for the 1867 reference in “The Harp” to Merlin's aerial imprisonment suggests an earlier source of Emerson's knowledge of the story. An OF version of the vulgate Merlin edited by H. Oskar Sommer from MSS in the British Museum and published in 1908, contains, near the close, the same Merlin-Gawain episode. Curiously enough, Emerson's English version occasionally seems more akin in phrasing to this OF text than to the English vulgate, edited by Wheatley. Sommer mentions editions of the OF vulgate, Lestoire de Merlin, published in 1498, 1516, and 1528, which, it is safe to assert, Emerson had never seen. Nor have I been able to discover any later edition until that of Sommer. The reference to Merlin made in 1867 is so lacking in concrete detail that Emerson might well have picked it up in the course of his general reading, or possibly have derived it from a friend. I am much indebted to my colleague, Professor Margaret Schlauch, for aid in attempting to solve this difficult problem of Emerson's source.
65 Thoreau, p. 368.
66 viii, 361.
67 Journals, x, 275-6 (1869). As part of a series of lectures to be called “Chivalry” Emerson planned to include “the wonderful mythology and poetry of Wales” (ibid., x, 329 [1870]).
68 Complete Works, viii, 57-9.
69 For Emerson's readings in Norse literature, see Journals, viii, 81 (1849); viii, 266 (1851); viii, 435-6 (1853); ix, 139 (1857); Complete Works, vi, 390; v, 57 ff., 344,352; also Cameron, op. cit., pp. 32, 36, 105.
70 Professor Henry Beers (p. 196) comments on the eighteenth century habit of confusing the Norse and Celtic: “Indeed, Mallet himself had a very confused notion of the relation of the Celtic to the Teutonic race. He speaks constantly of the old Scandinavians as Celts.” It is interesting to note that Emerson was acquainted with Paul H. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, which had been translated into English by Bishop Percy. See Journals, vm, 436 (1853); Cameron, pp. 48, 89. Gray himself introduced at least one Norse element into “The Bard.”
71 Journals, x, 176 (1866).
72 Ibid., x, 348 (1871). See Skene, i, 544.
73 Emerson withdrew two volumes of this edition from the Harvard Library in 1855, and one or more volumes from the Boston Athenaeum in 1858,1860,1861,1863,1872. See Cameron, pp. 31-2, 35, 42, 49, 88.
74 ix, 208 (1859).
75 x, 147. On the possible influence of Taliessin on Whitman, see R. R. Hubach, “Walt Whitman and Taliessin”, American Literature, xviii (Jan., 1947), 329-31. In the Appendix to the Riverside Edition of Emerson's Poems (1883) appear two fragments headed “The Exile (After Taliessin).” The first has been slightly altered from lines in Davies, pp. 137, 406, 515. See also Journals, viii, 354, 355; Complete Works, viii. 59. For the second fragment I have been unable to find a source.
76 Complete Works, v, 337.
77 viii, 355, 361; rx, 208, 288, 334; x, 19.
78 vii, 361.
79 Complete Works, vii, 196.
80 J. E. Cabot, ii, 777. See also Journals, x, 277 (1869).
81 The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott (London, 1926), pp. 704-5. Emerson introduced a line from this poem in his essay on “Beauty” (Conduct of Life). See Complete Works, vi, 303.
82 Journals, ix, 346 (1861). See also x, 283.
83 Journals, x, 241 (1868). In the Journals, ix, 208 (1859) Emerson wrote: “The Perfect Poet again is described in Taliessin's Songs, in the Mabinogion. Tennyson has drawn Merlin.'!
84 Ibid., ix, 208 (1859).
85 ix, 472. Houghton Mifflin and Company have kindly permitted me to quote from Emerson's Complete Works and Journals, Cabot's Memoir, and Thoreau's A Week.
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