Modern Gaelic Literature.
It will be seen that a large proportion of the existing Gaelic literature of the early period is poetical. Not that it is so altogether, by any means; and if any large amount of it had come down to us, there is no reason for believing that so large a share of it would be poetical. But the prose MS. writings of the ancient Gael have, with the few exceptions already referred to, perished; and have left us with such poetical compositions as adhered to the national memory.
As we enter upon the era of printing, we are disposed to look for a more extensive literature, and no doubt we find it. But with the era of printing came the use of another language, and the Gaelic ceased to be the vehicle for carrying abroad the thoughts of the learned. Religion still continued to make use of its services, but it ceased to be the handmaid of science and philosophy.
The first printed Gaelic book which we find is Bishop Carsewell’s Gaelic translation of the Liturgy of John Knox. It is well known that Knox compiled a prayer-book for the use of the Scottish Reformed Church, and that it was thought desirable that this prayer-book should be translated into the Gaelic language for the use of the Highlanders. The translation was undertaken by Mr John Carsewell, who was appointed superintendent of the ancient diocese of Argyle, which office he filled for many years. The book was printed at Edinburgh, in 1567. The language is what is in modern times called Irish, but might in Carsewell’s time be called Scotch, for none other was written in Scotland in so far as Gaelic was written at all. There are but three copies of this book known to exist—an entire copy in the library of the Duke of Argyle, and two imperfect copies, one in the library of the University of Edinburgh, and one in the British Museum. This book was printed before one line of Irish Gaelic was printed. Extracts from the volume will be found in the Highland Society’s Report upon Ossian, and in M’Lauchlan’s Celtic Gleanings. The former extract is made to show that the names of Fingal and the Fingalians were well known in the Highlands at the period of the Reformation. In 1631 a translation of Calvin’s Catechism appeared, probably executed by Carsewell.
In 1659 appeared the first fifty of the Psalms of David in metre by the Synod of Argyle. It is called “An ceud chaogad do Shalmaibh Dhaibhidh a meadrachd Gaoidhilg,” the first Fifty of the Psalms of David in Gaelic Metre. The language of the original here is what is called Irish, although it is, as is the Gaelic of Carsewell, the ordinary written Gaelic of the period. This translation forms the groundwork of all the editions of the Psalms that have been used since in the Scottish Church. The rest of the Psalms followed the first fifty in 1694, and the Psalter of the Argyle Synod became then complete. The introduction to the little volume of 1659 details the difficulties which the authors met in converting the Psalms into Gaelic metre, one of which, they say, was the necessity of adapting them to the structure of the English Psalm tunes. How Gaelic congregational singing was conducted in the Highlands previous to this little book appearing, it is hard to say. The introduction concludes with the words, “Anois, a Legthora, dense dithcheall ann sann obair bhigse bhuiliughadh gu maith, agus guidh ar an Tighearna é feín do bheannughadh an tshoisgeil ann sna tirthaibh gaoidhlachsa, agus lasair shoilleir lán teasa do dheanamh don tsraid bhig do lasadh cheana ionta. Grasa maille roit.”
English Translation.
“And now, reader, strive to use this little work, and pray the Lord that He himself would bless the gospel in these Gaelic lands, and that He would make a bright flame full of heat of this little spark which has been now lighted in it.”
This little volume is now scarce, but full of interest to the Gaelic student.
Alongside of the Synod of Argyle, another indefatigable labourer in the same field was at work. This was Mr Robert Kirk, minister at Balquhidder. There seems to have been no Rob Roy in the district at the time, and Mr Kirk appears to have had a quiet life in his Highland parish; more so, indeed, than other Scottish ministers of the time, for he seems to have been engaged in his translation during the heat of the persecution of the Covenanters, and it was published in 1684, four years before the Revolution. Kirk is said to have been so anxious to have precedence of the Synod of Argyle, that he invented a machine for awakening him in the morning by means of water made to fall upon his face at a certain hour. His Psalter preceded that of the Synod by a period of ten years.
Mr Kirk dedicates his volume, which is published with the sanction of the Privy Council, and with the approbation of “the Lords of the Clergy, and some reverend ministers who best understand the Irish language,” to the Marquis of Athole, &c., of whom he says that his “Lordship has been of undoubted courage and loyalty for the king, and still alongst inflexible to the persuasions or threats of frozen neutralists or flaming incendiaries in Church or State.” Kirk further states that the work was “done by such as attained not the tongue (which he calls Scottish-Irish) without indefatigable industry,” manifestly pointing to himself as one who had so acquired it.