18th Century Scottish Literature

Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

by Frank Dougan

My visit to the Holy Sepulchre Basilica, Jerusalem, Israel; February 2012

Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

All pictures presented and directed by; Frank... more Jesus+Golgotha+Medici Alter+Mary Queen of Scots..

All pictures presented and directed by; Frank Dougan...


Jerusalem

He sat on a donkey on palm strewn paths

Cries of delight arose from the mouths

The First born Son of God Christ Jesus.

To the temple he was led

There the money changers the people were bled

He cast them out of the House of His Father

The Sanhedrin were in a rage

Who is this Man to whom multitudes did gather?

He taught a new ideology of the age.

Secret plans they did form to bring Him down

To rob Him of His holy crown

Pilate and the Roman lords were sought

A price of 30 silver coins His friend was bought

At the Garden of Gethsemane from a kiss He was put in chains

Plans to kill Him for their ill-gotten gains

Pilate washed his hands of the affair he could find no crime

The high priest Caiaphas mind was distorted with grime

On His 6th day in Jerusalem they hung Him on a cross

He called to heaven that none of His sheep were lost

His promise to Peter He would return

The start of a new beginning had begun

Jesus is the Messiah the Chosen One.

He cried out loud before He went away

“Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani”?

His dead corps was taken down and in a crypt buried

On the 3rd day from His death His word delivered

The Son of Man rose from the dead at the hand of Rome

In Jerusalem the spark of light was born Jesus was in His holy home.

By Frank J Dougan


Inside the Basilica of The Holy Sepulchre....is Golgotha (Calvery) where Jesus Christ was executed.....

The Holy Sepulchre Basilica also contains the tomb where Jesus lay...and rose from the dead!

At the foot of where The Cross stood stands the Medici Alter...

Mary Queen of Scots name is inside the Medici Alter!

The Medici Alter was commissioned a few months after Mary was martyrd!

The Alter is on the exact spot where Jesus lay after He was taken down from the cross and Held in His Mother Mary's arms!

Catherine de Medici was the mother Francis II of France....Mary was married to him!

The 11th Station - the Latin (Catholic) chapel.

The chapel's striking altar marks the 11th Station, the site at which Jesus was nailed to the Cross. A fine example of Renaissance art, the altar was made in Florence in 1588 and given to the church by Cardinal Medici a few decades later.

Look for the Medici name. Six panels of hammered silver (four in font and one on each side) depict scenes from the Passion.

— in Jerusalem, Israel.

‘My Name is Norval?’: The Revision of Character Names in John Home's Douglas

by Kevin J. McGinley

Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 35:1 (2012), 67-83

CFP "Freedom, come all ye..." SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE D’ETUDES ECOSSAISES and the ASSOCIATION FOR SCOTTISH LITERARY STUDIES.

by Ruben Jarazo-Alvarez

Call for Papers

Twentieth-Century Burns Scholar: J. DeLancey Ferguson.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Burns Chronicle (Winter 2011): 9-12.

This essay presents a critical appreciation of the work of J. DeLancey Ferguson, a noted Burns critic of the twentieth... more This essay presents a critical appreciation of the work of J. DeLancey Ferguson, a noted Burns critic of the twentieth century.

Paradox and Improvement: Literary Nationalism and Eighteenth-Century Scottish Club Poetry

by Corey E. Andrews

Ph.D. Dissertation. Ohio University, 2000.

Review of Burnsiana: A Bibliography of the William R. Smith Collection in the Library of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J, by Larissa Watkins. Review of The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, by Robert Crawford. Review of Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs, by Thomas Crawford. Review of Robert Burns, by David Daiches. Review of Fickle Man: Robert Burns in the 21st Century, edited by Johnny Rodgers and Gerard Carruthers.

by Corey E. Andrews

Eighteenth-Century Scotland 23 (2009): 14-16.

Men of Feeling: Harley, Sindall, Zeluco, and Robert Burns.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Eighteenth-Century Novel 8 (2011): 187-226.

Accounts of Robert Burns's reading are well-documented in his correspondence, where he frequently attests to his... more Accounts of Robert Burns's reading are well-documented in his correspondence, where he frequently attests to his enjoyment of three books in particular: John Moore's Zeluco and Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling and The Man of the World. These three Scottish novels recount the lives of vividly-imagined men whose actions affect those around them in dramatic fashion. Zeluco lies, deceives, and ultimately murders his lovers and family; the “Man of the World” Sindall behaves similarly, threatening the well-being of an innocent, virtuous family. At the other end of the spectrum, Harley (the lead of The Man of Feeling) weeps and emotes in vignette-like encounters with various scenes of suffering. Each of these characters holds clues to the exceedingly popular model of masculinity represented by the writing and reputation of Robert Burns. This essay examines the templates of masculinity embodied by Zeluco, Sindall, and Harley, in order to determine how and why they commanded such an influence on Burns's imagination. The characters' relation to late eighteenth-century ideals of politeness is also examined, in addition to the novels’ engagement with sentimental discourse. The essay offers an analysis of the combined influences of these three "men of feeling" on Burns, his writing, and his posthumous reputation.

"Burnsiana": The Collections of John Dawson Ross

by Corey E. Andrews

The Burns Chronicle (Summer 2011): 15-19.

This essay provides a brief account of the Burnsiana collections of John Dawson Ross, with particular attention to the... more This essay provides a brief account of the Burnsiana collections of John Dawson Ross, with particular attention to the popular cultural reception of Burns throughout the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.

"Work" Poems: Assessing the Georgic Mode of Eighteenth-Century Working-Class Poetry.

by Corey E. Andrews

In Experiments in Genre in Eighteenth-Century Literature, edited by Sandro Jung (Ghent, Belgium: Academia Scientific, 2011), 105-133.

Eighteenth-century Britain saw the emergence of a new poetic genre, the “work” poem which took various forms of labor... more Eighteenth-century Britain saw the emergence of a new poetic genre, the “work” poem which took various forms of labor as its subject and was often written by laborers themselves. Several of these working class poets found their lives transformed due to the success of their verse (Stephen Duck most famously), but most faded into literary obscurity. However, a substantial body of “work” poems was produced by a diverse group of poets throughout the century, each manifesting divergent concerns and attitudes about the experience of work. This chapter assesses the formal connections uniting this poetic genre, particularly the frequent use of such literary devices as ironic distancing, litotes, and mock-georgic description. Instead of solely classifying “work” poems on the basis of their subject matter, this chapter demonstrates that such poetry (indeed the genre itself) lends itself to sophisticated literary techniques often associated with other poetic genres. In this fashion the full measure of eighteenth-century working class poetry can be evaluated more fairly, particularly by analyzing the formation of a new genre designed expressly by the poets themselves. The chapter ultimately seeks to demonstrate the connectedness, rather than the alienation, of working class poetry to the eighteenth-century British poetic tradition.

The Literary Club as Imagined National Community: Allan Ramsay and the Easy Club (1712-1715).

by Corey E. Andrews

Eighteenth-Century Scotland 16 (2002): 8-12.

The dilemma of Scottish national identity in the eighteenth century can be productively explored by looking at the... more The dilemma of Scottish national identity in the eighteenth century can be productively explored by looking at the imagined national community created in the wake of Scotland’s Union with England in 1707; specifically, this article analyzes the function of the Scottish literary club as a site of national community. Focusing on the club activity of Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758), it discusses his involvement from 1712 to 1715 with a literary and social club named the Easy Club; the poetry he produced for this club served to unify the group by representing its members as part of an imagined Scottish national community. The struggle over national representation occurring in the Easy Club and mirrored in its contemporary culture lay between Scottish imitation of present English culture or of its own national past. Ramsay resolved this conflict in his club verse by unifying club members through the construction of an imagined national community that extended from past Scottish heroes and authors into the lives of their present-day imitators in the club.

The Clubbable Bard: Sentimental Scottish Nationalism and Robert Burns.

by Corey E. Andrews

Lumen: Selected Proceedings from the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies 31 (2002): 105-30.

As universally known as the life of Robert Burns appears to be, the story of his involvement in numerous clubs and... more As universally known as the life of Robert Burns appears to be, the story of his involvement in numerous clubs and societies has remained surprisingly perfunctory and limited. However, any casual reader of Burns can attest to his genial sociability, an element of his character that he constantly satisfied during his life through joining or forming clubs of his own making. He was, to borrow a phrase, an eminently “clubbable” poet. Burns maintained his popular appeal in his club poetry and activity by adapting and transforming his persona from that of the “heaven-taught ploughman” to the bard, a poet who would speak for the nation through himself. More strongly than club poets before him, Burns tapped into the structures of feeling that shaped his culture and attempted to make sense of that culture by using and adapting the sentiment behind those structures. Despite its obscurity in his poetic oeuvre, Burns’s club poetry acted as a significant part of this nationalist project by representing the poet’s own bardic character as a source for national unification. In his club verse, Burns demonstrated a striking awareness of his role as a national bard; through self-representation, he offered his own popular character as a bard to members and citizens alike as an index for their shared national memory.

Ae Fond Kiss.

by Corey E. Andrews

in The Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism, ed. Andrew Maunder (New York: Facts on File, 2010), 3-5.

This short essay provides contextual background on Robert Burns's lyric, "Ae Fond Kiss," as well as critical... more This short essay provides contextual background on Robert Burns's lyric, "Ae Fond Kiss," as well as critical analysis of the song.

Burns the Critic.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Edinburgh Companion to Robert Burns, edited by Gerard Carruthers (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 110-124.

This chapter focuses on the largely ignored issue of Burns’s critical practice. In his prose and letters, one can find... more This chapter focuses on the largely ignored issue of Burns’s critical practice. In his prose and letters, one can find wide-ranging discussions of poetry and song, along with detailed analyses of literary forms and modes. Burns’s critical writings belie the deliberate oppositions of critic and poet and reveal a writer deeply invested in his craft, using critical axioms and sentimental topoi to refine his work. The tone and posture of much of Burns’s criticism is both brash and apprehensive; he critically values what he can creatively put into practice. For Burns, criticism was less about displaying correct learning or taste than on discovering sources for emulation. Successful emulation resulted from critical analysis and creative transposition, studying primary texts for sources, ideas, and strategies for future writing. Such a vigorous and surprisingly cohesive attitude about the craft of writing forms the heart of Burns’s criticism, an uncollected commentary randomly dispersed throughout his prose. This body of work also pointedly refutes his supposed ‘want of Learning’ and reveals a predominantly practical reader intrigued with the process of poetic creation.

"Almost the Same, but Not Quite": English Poetry by Eighteenth-Century Scots.

by Corey E. Andrews

The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 47.1 (Spring 2006): 59-79.

Eighteenth-century Scottish poetry has often been regarded as the product of only three men, each greater than the... more Eighteenth-century Scottish poetry has often been regarded as the product of only three men, each greater than the last. This Scots triad—Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, and Robert Burns—has served as the de facto nationalist vanguard of eighteenth-century Scottish poetry, defiantly opposing the forces of English assimilation provoked by the Union of 1707. In this scenario (and given the altogether slender opus of Scots poems in the eighteenth century), the abundance of English verse by the Scots triad may continue to provoke the nagging suspicion that perhaps eighteenth-century Scots really did have a cultural "inferiority complex." Critics contending with eighteenth-century Scottish poetry face an apparent impasse: either continue studying a relatively limited sampling of Scots or hybrid Scots poems or argue for the value of English verse by Scottish poets. The former task not only invites critical burnout, but also relies on dubious assumptions about the function of Scots in eighteenth-century Scotland. For many critics, forces of cultural imperialism bent on eradicating literary Scots and its practitioners are the sole culprit for the loss of a cohesive Scottish national identity after the Union. However, in a nation with a diverse linguistic inheritance in Gaelic, Scots, and English, poets such as Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns explored the possibilities of English in the same manner they did Scots: through self-conscious imitation of existing literary models. Plainly put, Scottish poets wrote in English for specific reasons that are as reflective of their culture as their motives for writing in Scots.

The Genius of Scotland: Robert Burns and His Critics, 1796-1828.

by Corey E. Andrews

International Journal of Scottish Literature 6 (Spring/Summer 2010): 1-16.

This article focuses on the critical reception of Robert Burns from 1796 to 1828. It explores how the concept of... more This article focuses on the critical reception of Robert Burns from 1796 to 1828. It explores how the concept of genius influenced the perception of Burns as it was represented by critics and editors throughout the time period. Testimony of Burns’s ‘genius’ in the early nineteenth century was entirely in line with critical responses to the poet’s works beginning in 1786. This essay provides a survey of these responses, revealing a consistent pattern of critical reception of Burns and his body of work. The primary critical approach to Burns’s work involved the application of ‘genius’ theory; the continuum of critical responses demonstrates the fluid nature of this concept throughout the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth centuries. However, attention to the poet’s reception history also shows that while the concept underwent significant moderation as an aesthetic category, its association with moral failings was almost uniformly expressed by Burns’s critics. The ties between genius and biography, particularly in Burns’s case, became increasingly knotted as later commentators attempted to understand the poet’s life and works. This essay demonstrates that the process of myth-building and moralizing surrounding Burns continued unabated through the nineteenth century, particularly as critics assayed the poet’s nationalist iconicity while attempting to diminish the relevance of moral failings wrought by his ‘genius’. Burns’s fame still highlights this tension between his undeniable poetic gifts and his messy personal life, between his poetic aspirations and his complicated desires.

Venders, Purchasers, Admirers: Burnsian "Men of Action" from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century.

by Corey E. Andrews

Scottish Literary Review 2.1 (Spring/Summer 2010): 97-115.

The article discusses the promotion of poet Robert Burns as a national icon for Scotland after his death in 1796. It... more The article discusses the promotion of poet Robert Burns as a national icon for Scotland after his death in 1796. It cites Burns' popular appeal to Scots of all classes, with special attention to his cultural value in nineteenth-century Scotland. As the nineteenth-century glorification of Burns waned, interest in his political views (and potential value) grew among many Scottish groups. In particular, the significance of politics assumed a primary role in critical and popular cultural analyses of the poet. Particularly in the new climate of devolution following the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Burns represented different, often competing iconic meanings as various groups have sought to harness the power of his reputation to promote their interests. Nowhere has this process been more evident than in Burns’s relationship to politics; his endorsement or denunciation of radical politics in particular has continued to be a major bone of contention in discussions of his reputation. The article indicates the claim of ownership of Burns by the Scottish people continues to be a major feature of Scotland's relationship to Burns. It suggests that Burns' place in the literary field will be better understood and appreciated by recognizing the process by which he became a national icon.

"Ev'ry Heart Can Feel": Scottish Poetic Responses to Slavery in the West Indies, from Blair to Burns.

by Corey E. Andrews

International Journal of Scottish Literature (Issue 4, Spring/Summer 2008).

This article examines the wide-ranging Scottish poetic response to eighteenth-century slavery, particularly the use of... more This article examines the wide-ranging Scottish poetic response to eighteenth-century slavery, particularly the use of sentiment as a literary strategy designed to provoke empathetic reactions from readers. The article covers the entirety of the eighteenth-century Scottish response, ending with Robert Burns's ambiguous poetic treatments of slavery. Because Scots were intimately involved at home and abroad in the discourse and practice of the slave trade, they were well-positioned to respond to its effects. Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, derived from the works of Smith, Francis Hutcheson, and Dugald Stewart, had laid the groundwork for literary works that stressed the importance of feelings in the individual’s response to the world. Observable phenomena became not just the source of sensory impressions but served to structure and relate experiences by means of empathetic sentimental responses. These responses could guide future actions by acting to promote the relief of suffering and dissipate the stimulus to the observer’s own pain. Based on the central premise of this model—‘ev’ry heart can feel’—much Scottish poetry from the eighteenth century sought to redress the sufferings of slaves by appealing to core emotions in its audience, producing as a result a body of political writing that powerfully imagined the painful experience of slavery.