ALLAN

See also:

• ALLAN RAMSAY (1686-1758)
• RAMSAY, ALLAN (1713-1784)
• RAMSAY, ANDREW MICHAEL (1686-1743)
• RAMSAY, DAVID (1749—1815)
• RAMSAY, SIR WILLIAM (1852– )
• RAMSAY, SIR WILLIAM MITCHELL (185r– )

RAMSAY (1686-1758)  , Scottish poet, was born at Leadhills, Lanarkshire, on the 15th of October 1686 . He was educated at the parish school of Crawford, and in 1701 was apprenticed to a wig-maker in Edinburgh . He married Christian Ross in 1712; a few years after he had established himself as a wig-maker (not as a barber, as has been often said) in the High Street, and soon found himself in comfortable circumstances . His first efforts in verse-making were inspired by the meetings of the Easy Club (founded in 1712), of. which he was an original member; and in 1715 he became the Club Laureate . In the society of the members he assumed the name of " Isaac Bickerstaff," and later of " Gawin Douglas," the latter partly in memory of his maternal grandfather Douglas of Muthill (Perthshire), and partly to give point to his boast that he was a " poet sprung from a Douglas loin." The choice of the two names has some significance, when we consider his later literary life as the associate of the Queen Anne poets and as a collector of old Scots poetry . By 1718 he had made some reputation as a writer of occasional verse, which he published in broadsheets, and then (or a year earlier) he turned book-seller in the premises where he had hitherto plied his craft of wig-making . In 1716 he had published a rough transcript of Christ's Kirk on the Green from the Bannatyne MS., with some additions of his own . In 1718 he republished the piece with more supplementary verses . In the following year he printed a collection of Scots Songs . The success of these ventures prompted him to collect his poems in 1722 . The volume was issued by subscription, and brought in the sum of four hundred guineas . Four years later he removed to another shop, in the neighbouring Luckenbooths, where he opened a circulating library (the first in Scotland) and extended his business as a bookseller .

Between the publication of the collected edition of his poems and his settling down in the Luckenbooths, he had published a few shorter poems and had issued the first instalments of The

Tea-Table Miscellany and The Ever Green (both 1724-1727) . The Tea-Table Miscellany is " A Collection of Choice Songs Scots and English," containing some of Ramsay's own, some by his friends, several well-known ballads and songs, and some Caroline verse . Its title was suggested by the pro-gramme of the Spectator : and the compiler claimed the place for his songs " e'en while the tea's fill'd reeking round," which Addison sought for his speculations at the hour set apart " for tea and bread and butter." In The Ever Green, being a Collection of Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before zmoo, Ramsay had another purpose, to reawaken an interest in the older national literature . Nearly all the pieces were taken from the Bannatyne MS., though they are by no means verbatim copies . They included his version of Christ's Kirk (u.s.) and a remarkable pastiche by the editor entitled the Vision . While engaged on these two series, he produced, in 1725, his dramatic pastoral The Gentle Shepherd . In the volume of poems published in 1722 Ramsay had shown his bent to this genre, especially in " Patie and Roger," which supplies two of the dramatis personae to his greater work . The success of the drama was remarkable . It passed through several editions, and was performed at the theatre in Edinburgh; its title is still known in every corner of Scotland, even if it be no longer read . Ramsay wrote little afterwards, though he published a few shorter poems, and new editions of his earlierwork . A complete edition of his Poems appeared in London in 1731 and in Dublin in 1733 . With a touch of vanity he expressed the fear lest " the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me risk the reputation I had acquired." He was already on terms of intimacy with the leading men of letters in Scotland and England .

He corresponded with

Hamilton of Bangour (q.v.), Somerville (q.v.), Gay (q.v.) and Pope . Gay visited him in Edinburgh, and Pope praised his pastoral—compliments which were undoubtedly responsible for some of Ramsay's unhappy poetic ventures beyond his Scots vernacular . The poet had for many years been a warm supporter of the stage . Some of his prologues and epilogues were written for the London theatres . In 1736 he set about the erection of a new theatre, " at vast expense," in Carrubber's Close, Edinburgh; but the opposition was too strong, and the i ew house was closed in 1737 . In 1755 he retired from his shop to the house on the slope of the Castle Rock, still known as Ramsay Lodge . In this house, called by his friends " the goose-pie," because of its octagonal shape, the poet died on the 7th of January 1758 . Ramsay's importance in literary history is twofold . As a pastoral writer (" in some respects the best in the world," according to Leigh Hunt) he contributed, at an early stage, to the naturalistic reaction of the 18th century . His Gentle Shepherd, by its directness of impression and its appreciation of country life, anticipates the attitude of the school which broke with neo-classical tradition . It has the " mixed " faults which make the greater poem of his Scots successor, Thomson, a " transitional " document, but these give it an historical, if not an individual, interest . His chief place is, however, as an editor .

He is the connecting-

link between the greater " Makars " of the 15th and 16th centuries, and Fergusson (q.v.) and Burns . He revived the interest in vernacular literature, and directly inspired the genius of his greater successors . The preface to his Ever Green is a protest against " imported trimming " and " foreign embroidery in our writings," and a plea for a return to simple Scottish tradition . He had no scholarly interest in the past, and he never hesitated to trans-form the texts when he could give contemporary " point " to a poem; but his instinct was good, and he did much to stimulate an ignorant public to fresh enjoyment . In this respect, too, he anticipates the reaction in England which followed securely on the publication of Percy's Reliques . The Tea-Table Miscellany was reprinted in 1871 (2 vols., Glasgow; John Crum) ; The Ever Green in 1875 (2 vols., Glasgow; Robert Forrester); The Poems of Allan Ramsay in 1897 (2 vols., Paisley; Alex . Gardner) . These volumes are uniform in size and binding, though issued by different publishers, u.s . A selection of the Poems appeared in 1887 (1 vol . 16mo, London; Walter Scott) . There are many popular reprints of The Gentle Shepherd . (G .

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