Fingal. Gladness rose in the face of youth. He gave the spear of Temora. Nor did he give it to the feeble: neither to the weak in soul. The darkness of thy face is no storm to me; nor are thine eyes the flame of death. Do I fear thy clanging shield? Tremble I at Olla's song ? No: Cairbar, frighten the feeble: Oscar is a rock!" "Wilt thou not yield the spear?" replied the rising pride of Cairbar; "Are thy words so mighty, because Fingal is near? Fingal with aged locks, from Morven's hundred groves! He has fought with little men. But he must vanish before Cairbar, like a thin pillar of mist before the winds of Atha!" "Were he who fought with little men, near Atha's haughty chief : Atha's chief would yield green Erin to avoid his rage! Speak not of the mighty, O Cairbar! Turn thy sword on me. Our strength is equal: but Fingal is renowned! the first of mortal men !" Their people saw the darkening chiefs. Their crowding steps are heard around. Their eyes roll in fire. A thousand swords are half-unsheathed. Red-haired Olla raised the song of battle. The trembling joy of Oscar's soul arose": the wonted joy of his soul, when Fingal's horn was heard. Dark as the swelling wave of ocean before the rising winds, when it bends its head near the coast", came on the host of Cairbar! Daughter of Toscar! why that tear? He is not fallen yet. Many were the deaths of his arm before my hero fell! Behold they fall before my son, like groves in the desert; when an angry ghost rushes through "The trembling joy of Oscar's soul.] Gray's trembling hope, and fearful joy, are here united. In the Elegy; There they alike in trembling hope repose. In the Ode on Eton College; They hear a voice in every wind, And snatch a fearful joy. "The wonted joy of his soul, when Fingal's horn was heard." But Gray's fearful joy is from MILTON. Par. Lost, i. 788. At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 12 Dark as the swelling wave of ocean before the rising winds, when it bends its head near the coast, &c.] Iliad, iv. 423. Ὡς δ ̓ ὅτ ̓ ἐν αἰγιαλῷ πολυηχές ΚΥΜΑ ΘΑΛΑΣΣΗΣ ΚΥΡΤΟΝ ἐὰν ΚΟΡΥΦΟΥΤΑΙ. As when the winds, ascending by degrees, POPE. night, and takes their green heads in his hand 13! Morlath falls. Maronnan dies. Conachar trembles in his blood! Cairbar shrinks before Os car's sword! stone. He creeps in darkness behind a He lifts the spear in secret; he pierces my Oscar's side! He falls forward on his shield: his knee sustains the chief. But still his But still his spear is in his hand. See, gloomy Cairbar 1 falls! The 13 Like groves in the desert, when an angry ghost rushes through night, and takes their green heads in his hand.] Berrathon, 10. Both from the Highlander, iii. 1. As when beneath the night's tempestuous cloud, Embattled winds assail the leafy wood, Tear on their sable way, with awful sound, And bring the groaning forest to the ground. 14 The Irish historians place the death of Cairbar in the latter end of the third century; they say he was killed in the battle against Oscar, the son of Ossian; but deny that he fell by his hand. It is, however, certain, that the Irish bards disguise, in some measure, this part of their history. An Irish poem on this subject, which, undoubtedly, was the source of their information concerning the battle of Gabhra, where Cairbar fell, is just now in my hands. As a translation of the poem (which, though evidently no very ancient composition, does not want poetical merit) would extend this note to too great a length, I shall only give the story of it in brief, with some extracts from the ori ginal Irish. Oscar, says the Irish bard, was invited to a feast, at Temora, by Cairbar, king of Ireland. A dispute arose between the two steel pierced his forehead, and divided his redhair behind. He lay, like a shattered rock, which heroes, concerning the exchange of spears, which was usually made, between the guests and their host, upon such occasions. In the course of their altercation, Cairbar said, in a boastful manner, that he would hunt on the hills of Albion, and carry the spoils of it into Ireland, in spite of all the efforts of its inhabitants. The original words are: Briathar buan sin; Briathar buan A bheireedh an Cairbre rua', Gu tuga' se sealg, agus creach A h'ALBIN an la'r na mhaireach. Oscar replied, that the next day he himself would carry into Albion the spoils of the five provinces of Ireland, in spite of the opposition of Cairbar. Briathar eile an aghai' sin A bheirca' an t'Oscar, og, calma Gu'n tugadh se sealg agus creach Do dh'ALBIN an la'r na mhaireach, &c. Oscar, in consequence of his threats, began to lay waste Ireland; but as he returned with the spoil into Ulster, through the narrow pass of Gabhra (Caoiel ghlen Ghbhra) he was met by Cairbar, and a battle ensued, in which both the heroes fell by mutual wounds. The bard gives a very curious list of the followers of Oscar, as they marched to battle. They appear to have been five hundred in number, commanded, as the poet expresses it, by five heroes of the blood of kings. This poem mentions Fingal, as arriving from Scotland, before Oscar died of his wounds. MACPHERSON. The Irish ballad on the Death of Oscar, which Macpherson has described and quoted, is the sole foundation for the epic poem of Temora, and the only poem upon the subject that has Cromla shakes from its shaggy side ', when the green-vallied Erin shakes its mountains, from sea to sea! Pope, ever been discovered in the Highlands of Scotland. the minister of Reay in Caithness, and Jerom Stone, a schoolmaster at Dunkeld, who had both collected Gaelic poetry many years before Macpherson published, discovered nothing but the Irish ballad, to which the attestations procured by Dr Blair, respecting the authenticity of the Temora, are expressly confined; and from the recent collections by Gillies, Hill, Young, and the Highland Society, it appears that no other poem has yet been found. But the first book of Temora exhausts the ballad, from which the invitation to the feast at Tara, and the proposed exchange of spears, are adopted; and Cairbar threatens to hunt and carry the spoils next day from Almhuin, Oscar to hunt and carry the spoils next day to Almhuin; not to Albion, as misquoted by Macpherson, but the hill of Allen in Leinster, the residence of Fingal, within a few miles of Tara, and of the pass of Gabhra where the battle was fought. Os car made a prodigious slaughter in the battle, which was fought next day; and when pierced through the body with a poisoned, or seven barbed spear, thrown by Cairbar, he fell upon his knee, as in the Temora, pierced Cairbar's forehead with a nine barbed spear, and with another which he hurled, slew young Artho, Cairbar's son. Fingal arrives in his ships, not, as Macpherson asserts, from Scotland, but from a voyage to Rome: Oscar, while still alive, is carried, on the shields of his attendants, to his grandfather's house; evidently to Almhuin, not to Albion; and the Irish ballad, from which these circumstances are taken, was undoubtedly the only original that ever came to the translator's hands. 15 Like a shattered rock, which Cromla shakes from its shaggy sides.] Par. Lost. i. 230. |