ALBANIA;
A POEM.
addressed to
THE GENIUS OF SCOTLAND.
Be not the noblest passion past unsung,
Devotion to the public!
Thomson's Liberty, Part V.
REMARKS ON ALBANIA.
The fate of the poem Albania has been extremely unlucky. The author and the original editor are equally unknown; and of the poem itself, no copy, except that which has been used in this edition, is known to exist. It was printed at London, for T. Cooper, in 1737, fol. with the following advertisement:
"The above poem (Albania) was wrote by a Scots clergyman, some years ago, who is since dead. The fine spirit of poetry which it breathes, its classic air, but above all the noble enthusiasm he discovers for his country, cannot fail to make it agreeable to such as have a taste for that simplicity of nature, and that beautiful diversification of epithets, which constitute the principal excellencies of antiquity." From the following passage of the poem itself, the author appears to have been twenty-four years of age at the time of its composition:
Thy bounty, thy parental cares forget,
Hissing with viper's tongue? who, born of thee
Now twice twelve years, have drawn thy vital air.
The dedication of Albania to General Wade, in heroic couplets, seems to be the composition of the original editor. Aaron Hill thus addresses the editor of Albania:
Thy muse would shine, and yet conceal her rays;
Think thyself hid, and hope in vain to be
Unseen, like light, that shows us all we see.
But while thy readers are denied thy name,
They feel thy genius, and attest thy fame.
They pity too, in death, thy noteless friend,
Poor by the generous aid thy wealth would lend:
Prefaced by thee, his feeble lights expire;
Even in producing, thou obscurest his fire[1].
In these verses, the "Dedication" to General Wade is clearly attributed to the editor; a circumstance which might almost have been inferred from the encomiastic strain in which Albania is mentioned in the Dedication. In the following verses, Hill declares the editor, as well as the author of Albania, to be a Scotsman:
Albanian born, this English theme to choose:
No partial flattery need thy verse invade,
That in the ear of Scotland sounds a Wade.
From the time of Aaron Hill, Albania remained unnoticed and unknown, till it was quoted by Dr. Beattie of Aberdeen, in a note to his Essays on Poetry and Music, in which he introduces the fine passage which describes invisible hunting; a superstition of which many traces still remain in the Highlands of Scotland. "I am sure," says he, "I shall not be blamed for quoting from (Albania) a poem little known, the following very picturesque lines; which may show, that what in history or philosophy would make but an aukward figure, may sometimes have a very charming effect in poetry[2]." To the taste of the ingenious author of "The Minstrel," the preservation of Albania must be attributed. To him the present editor is indebted for the copy he has used in this edition, which seems once to have belonged to Lord Pitsligo. The energy and poetical spirit displayed in the lines quoted by Beattie, has excited the attention of some later writers. Dr. Drake observes, that "the singular, yet pleasing tradition, of the souls of the deceased pursuing the chase upon their native hills, is no where described with more spirit and effect than in some noble lines quoted by Dr. Beattie, in his Essay on Poetry and Music, from a work now neglected and unknown[3]." The poem itself has also been quoted with much approbation by Walter Scott, in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border[4].
The Dedication exhibits a manly and liberal spirit of poetry, combined with fluent and vigorous versification; equally devoid of adulation in the sentiment, and affectation in the style. Sometimes, however, from a degree of harshness in the construction, we desiderate the refinement and polish of the great masters of our poetical style. The effect of climate and soil on the spirit of patriotism; the effect of liberty on the fine arts, and on the progress of civilization, is delineated, if not with the delicate polish of Gray, yet with his poetical energy and vigour. Unfortunately for the poet, his predictions have proved more consonant with poetical fiction than reality. The operations of General Wade, by rendering the Highlands accessible to armies, facilitated the destruction of the feudal system in that country; but the consequences of that measure have been more to be regretted than applauded. Instead of improving agriculture and extending commerce, of increasing population, and introducing a taste for the elegancies of life, it has miserably depopulated the country, driven the most spirited of her sons to exile, and destroyed the energy of those that still remain like a few mulberries on the uttermost branch of the tree.
Albania is a descriptive poem of a very peculiar kind. It does not delineate the general aspect of the country, descant on its qualities capable of poetical representation, or describe the character and genius of its inhabitants: It commences with an animated address to the Genius of Scotland, expresses the most ardent sentiments of devoted patriotism, and insensibly glides into a description of some peculiar features of the country which had most forcibly impressed the mind of the author. These particular descriptions are not arranged with an attention to philosophical accuracy, nor even with that negligent and graceful ease which poetry admits: They seem rather to have been carelessly selected; and sometimes, from the order in which they occur, they exhibit too violent a contrast. The topics are such as would be naturally suggested to a young, ardent, and enthusiastic mind, by the perusal of the common histories and descriptions of Scotland; and the impropriety of their selection is rather to be attributed to unformed taste, than to the defect of poetical spirit. The personification of Albania, or the Genius of Scotland, is not accurately preserved. Sometimes she is a goddess, sometimes a country; sometimes she is a land of bow-men, a state unconquered by the fire of war; sometimes a goddess throned on the beryl flood, and beloved by the softening fur. Some of the topics of description, as salt and coal, and the minute enumeration of the different kinds of fish which frequent the coasts of Scotland, are deficient in dignity; and occasionally passages of merit are marred by the introduction of undignified and ungraceful lines. These defects, however, are compensated by the patriotic enthusiasm which glows through the poem, and confers on it a species of unity; by the vigorous masculine style of description in some passages, as in the address to Albania, the address to the land of bow-men, and the description of the invisible hunting in the wilds of Ross. Some passages, too, are not defective either in beauty of delineation, or harmony of versification, as those which describe the Scotish fair, and the lingering of the sunbeams during night on the hills of Scotland. Though the versification is often correct and harmonious, yet that roughness of numbers attributed to it by the author of the Dedication, must be admitted. In many respects, the rhythm of the verse is similar to that of Blair's Grave. The pause of the measure is not skilfully varied; the march of the verse is heavy and monotonous, and clogged with spondees, particularly in the close. The poem, however, merits the praise of "close wrought sense;" and, as was said of the poetry of Cleveland, instead of leaf gold, it exhibits massy wedges. The local allusions in Albania seem to have been chiefly derived from Martin's Descriptions of St. Kilda and the Western Isles of Scotland, and some other topographical works which were published about the commencement of last century. Some of the superstitions, however, to which he alludes, it is difficult to trace to any of these authors, and they seem to have been peculiar to the east coast of Scotland. To these remarks on Albania it may not be improper to subjoin the poem addressed by Aaron Hill to the original editor. That ingenious author, while he pronounces the numbers of the poem bold, and the ideas strong, censures the patriotism which it breathes, as too confined and partial. The genius of Hill was of no common stamp: his powers were seldom concentrated, but they were seldom unequal to the object to which he directed his attention. His versification is often harsh and careless; but his style is vigorous, and his phraseology original.