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ALLAN RAMSAY (1686-1758)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 878 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALLAN See also:RAMSAY (1686-1758)  , Scottish poet, was See also:born at See also:Leadhills, See also:Lanarkshire, on the 15th of See also:October 1686 . He was educated at the See also:parish school of See also:Crawford, and in 1701 was apprenticed to a See also:wig-maker in See also:Edinburgh . He married See also:Christian See also:Ross in 1712; a few years after he had established himself as a wig-maker (not as a See also:barber, as has been often said) in the High See also:Street, and soon found himself in comfortable circumstances . His first efforts in See also:verse-making were inspired by the meetings of the Easy See also:Club (founded in 1712), of. which he was an See also:original member; and in 1715 he became the Club See also:Laureate . In the society of the members he assumed the name of " See also:Isaac Bickerstaff," and later of " Gawin See also:Douglas," the latter partly in memory of his maternal grandfather Douglas of Muthill (See also:Perthshire), and partly to give point to his boast that he was a " poet sprung from a Douglas See also:loin." The choice of the two names has some significance, when we consider his later See also:literary See also:life as the See also:associate of the See also:Queen See also:Anne poets and as a See also:collector of old Scots See also:poetry . By 1718 he had made some reputation as a writer of occasional verse, which he published in broadsheets, and then (or a See also:year earlier) he turned See also:book-seller in the premises where he had hitherto plied his See also:craft of wig-making . In 1716 he had published a rough transcript of See also:Christ's See also:Kirk on the See also:Green from the See also: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 See also:volume was issued by subscription, and brought in the sum of four See also:hundred guineas . Four years later he removed to another See also:shop, in the neighbouring Luckenbooths, where he opened a circulating library (the first in See also: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 See also:

Tea-Table See also:Miscellany and The Ever Green (both 1724-1727) . The Tea-Table Miscellany is " A Collection of Choice Songs Scots and See also:English," containing some of See also:Ramsay's own, some by his See also:friends, several well-known See also:ballads and songs, and some See also:Caroline verse . Its See also:title was suggested by the See also:pro-gramme of the Spectator : and the compiler claimed the See also:place for his songs " e'en while the tea's fill'd reeking See also:round," which See also:Addison sought for his speculations at the See also:hour set apart " for tea and See also:bread and See also:butter." In The Ever Green, being a Collection of Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before zmoo, Ramsay had another purpose, to reawaken an See also:interest in the older See also: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 See also:Vision . While engaged on these two See also:series, he produced, in 1725, his dramatic See also:pastoral The See also:Gentle Shepherd . In the volume of poems published in 1722 Ramsay had shown his See also:bent to this genre, especially in " Patie and See also:Roger," which supplies two of the dramatis personae to his greater See also:work . The success of the See also:drama was remarkable . It passed through several See also:editions, and was performed at the See also: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 See also:complete edition of his Poems appeared in See also:London in 1731 and in See also:Dublin in 1733 . With a See also:touch of vanity he expressed the fear lest " the coolness of See also:fancy that attends advanced years should make me See also:risk the reputation I had acquired." He was already on terms of intimacy with the leading men of letters in Scotland and See also:England .

He corresponded with See also:

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

He is the connecting-See also:

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

G .

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