Commonplace Blog

A collection of random tidbits relevant to the Age of Revolutions in Great Britain (1775-1848).

[smchase90]

"he is profoundly ignorant of history" Sir Walter Scott in a letter to Lord Montagu on March 4, 1819 (The Life and Letters of James Hogg page 167) That moment you realize the day before a paper is due that your author might be an idiot.

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Reading microform scans is so fun!! (Not.)

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I am currently looking at the music (specifically violin) scene outside of official orchestra concerts and other theatre performances.  This image from 1791 caught my eye because it was exactly what I imagined when I started looking through these images (I rarely find what I expect to so this was an exciting moment for me).  I think this might be a useful exhibit piece in order to show other forms of entertainment than just theatre.

http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr07224

[smchase90]

Today marks the day in the semester when I begin to carry two backpacks: one to carry my regular course work and one to carry all of the library books I check out to complete my end of the semester work.  I have been doing most of my research online thus far but I think it is time for the inevitable.  This is one example of something I found that I think will be useful to me.  What better way to learn about Hogg's motivations and thoughts then to read his personal letters?  (Sidenote: I do find this a bit creepy as I wouldn't want someone reading through my emails or something to find out more about me.  All's fair in love, war, and...scholarship I guess.)  I also think the letters (if I can find any originals or images of originals) would make a good section of my exhibit if I find anything that enlightens my main text, Jacobite Relics.

[smchase90]

The Tea Party Jacobins

A new strain of populism is metastasizing before our eyes, nourished by the same libertarian impulses that have unsettled American society for half a century now. It appeals to petulant individuals convinced that they can do everything themselves if they are only left alone, and that others are conspiring to keep them from doing just that. This is the one threat that will bring Americans into the streets. Welcome to the politics of the libertarian mob.

Well, well, well, it looks as though the word Jacobin is still in use today.  But by the Tea Party in America!  Interesting.  So, you want to see the Stuarts back on the throne do you?  I knew you were old-fashioned but, woah.

I kid of course, they are using "Jacobin" to mean they are for radical change in government and extreme supporters of democracy.  I bring it up because it clarifies something important that I am now realizing.

JACOBITE≠JACOBIN

I don't know if I am unobservant but I just assumed these words were just different forms of each other.  What I have discovered is that a Jacobite was a movement of support for the House of Stuart, specifically King James II of England, to regain the throne of England.  Whereas a Jacobin was someone who supported the revolution during the French revolution.  In Jacobite Relics, then, I will obviously be using the first definition.  The Jacobite Uprising had a lot of weight behind it in Scotland and this is the struggle my book speaks about.  NOT Jacobins.

Just wanted to clarify for my own sake before continuing with my project.  I hope I am not the only person who has made this mistake.  Woops!

[smchase90]

This tidbit comes from Introduction page vii of Jacobite Relics by James Hogg.  I pulled it out because I felt as though it was part of Hogg's argument for the importance of this work.  While there was no doubt history written about the Scottish revolution of the 1700s, this is an instance where the people who were a part of this conflict could speak for themselves through the songs, even if they were dead.  He calls the songs a "rude epitome of the history of our country" with epitome meaning "a brief statement of the chief points in a literary work; an abstract" according to the OED.  If Hogg truly harvested these works from the minds of Scottish people, the argument that these songs reveal a lot about history seems valid.  However, I still have doubts that the songs are 100% purely found.  More research will hopefully enlighten this.

[smchase90]

Search the Auburn University Libraries' online catalog, AUBIECat, and other resources available to students, faculty, and staff of Auburn University.

Currie, Janette, and Kirsteen McCue. "Editing The Text And Music Of James Hogg's Songs By The Ettrick Shepherd (1831)." Scottish Studies Review 8.2 (2007): 54-68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

[bookdaily]

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg

Publisher: Penguin Books

A nightmarish tale of religious fanaticism and darkness, this chilling classic of the macabre tells the tale of Robert Wringhim, drawn in his moral confusion into committing the most monstrous acts by an evil doppelgänger.

James Hogg’s masterpiece is as troublingly duplicitous as Wringhim himself, and was ignored and bowdlerised before becoming a hugely influential work of Scottish literature.

[smchase90]

After discussing the gothic novel so much in class, I thought it was interesting to note that James Hogg wrote a famous gothic novel.  I might have to check this book out after the semester is over to get a better idea of what makes a gothic novel.

[oldwinenewbottles]

A kind of love song from the Soundcloud feed of Sedayne:

"I was actually slated to sing this on the Woodbine & Ivy Band album but it never got further than a couple of rough demos, but it remained in my heart, well chosen by the Folk Police super, and it’s a fine a fiddle song as any and as braw a song of love as you might wish. This comes from the singing of the great Willie Scott, though for the sake of cultural yearning I’ve taken it back to James Hogg’s original poem, albeit retaining a few of Scott’s vernacularisms. As Arcadian pastoral idylls go, it has a long lineage, however so well travelled, but the tradition of such things remains vivid enough, despite the stern sermonising of Holmant Hunt, whose Hireling Shepherd of 1851 we oft visit in the Manchester Gallery and take at face value, pretty much…" * WHEN THE KYE COMES HAME James Hogg (1770–1835) Come all ye jolly shepherds, That whistle through the glen, I’ll tell ye of a secret That courtiers dinna ken: What is the greatest bliss That the tongue o’ man can name? ‘Tis to woo a bonny lassie When the kye comes hame. CHORUS: When the kye comes hame, When the kye comes hame, ‘Tween the gloaming an’ the mirk When the kye comes hame. ‘Tis not beneath the coronet, Nor canopy of state, ‘Tis not on couch of velvet, Nor arbour of the great— ‘Tis beneath the spreading birk, In the glen without the name, Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie, When the kye comes hame. There the blackbird bigs his nest For the mate he loes to see, And on the topmost bough, O, a happy bird is he; Where he pours his melting ditty, And love is a’ the theme, And he’ll woo his bonny lassie When the kye comes hame. When the blewart bears a pearl, And the daisy turns a pea, And the bonny lucken gowan Has fauldit up her e’e, Then the laverock frae the blue lift Drops down, an’ thinks nae shame To woo his bonny lassie When the kye comes hame. See yonder pawkie shepherd, That lingers on the hill, His ewes are in the fauld, An’ his lambs are lying still; Yet he downa gang to bed, For his heart is in a flame, To meet his bonny lassie When the kye comes hame. When the little wee bit heart Rises high in the breast, An’ the little wee bit starn Rises red in the east, O there’s a joy sae dear, That the heart can hardly frame, Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie, When the kye comes hame! Then since all nature joins In this love without alloy, O, wha wad prove a traitor To Nature’s dearest joy? Or wha wad choose a crown, Wi’ its perils and its fame, And miss his bonny lassie When the kye comes hame?

Roud 12919

[smchase90]

I'm just going to put this here for my own reference.  It caught my interest.  I need to learn to play the violin like this, it's so much more emotional than the standard music I play in orchestra.

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The Journey Begins

Rather than just flipping through at random, I decided to actually begin reading this text from the beginning.  I discovered that a copy of the book was available for free via Google Books and downloaded it to read on my Kindle so I don't have to journey to the archives every time I want a look at Jacobite Relics.  The blurriness is more from bad lighting than the quality of the text.

Titles during this period were often long and I decided to see what this one was all about. First, though I am familiar with the term Jacobite, I looked it up on OED to get a better idea.  Turns out, a Jacobite was a supporter of the House of Stuart so this book being a recording of "The Songs, Airs, and Legends, of the Adherents of the House of Stuart" makes sense.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the use of the word "relics" here implies something that has passed and is no longer active. So my questions moving forward are, were the Jacobites really dead at this time period or were there people who still considered themselves Jacobites?  I know the term Jacobite also applied to people in sympathy with the French revolution so was there a difference between a French jacobite and a Scottish jacobite or did people who favored revolutions all exist under the general title of just plain jacobite?

Next entry, I will tackle the dedication.  I read through it once already and it seems full of possible topics to write about.  Stay tuned!

[smchase90]

Meet the author of Jacobite Relics, Mr. James Hogg!  This dapper gentleman hails from Selkirkshire, Scotland at Ettrick Hall.  According to the article about him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, this area of Scotland was famous for being a part of the ancient royal Scottish hunting grounds as well as having a rich oral tradition of songs and stories.  

What stood out to me was that at the age of 14, he bought a violin and began to practice Scottish tunes daily.  Hogg and I must be kindred spirits on an astral plane because I also play the violin, but I began when I was 9.  

Also, as I now know Hogg's was Scottish and lived in Scotland his whole life as well as being a musician, I trust what he has created in Jacobite Relics a little more.

Mack, Douglas S.. “Hogg, James (bap. 1770, d.1835).” Douglas S. MackOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . 13 Sept. 2013 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13470>.

[smchase90]

In my initial research on Jacobite Relics I discovered that in the 20th century some of these songs experienced a revival and became popular again.  I checked it out on youtube and found this one which was particularly catchy (the lyrics have been modernized).  The original lyrics appear on pages 53-4 in Jacobite Relics (E-book version available here) are: 

"Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear; Ye Jacobites by name, Your fautes I will proclaim, Your doctrines I maun blame, You shall hear.

What is right, and what is wrang, by the law, by the law?  What is right, and what is wrang, by the law?  What is right, and what is wrang?  A short sword and a lang, A weak arm and a strang, For to draw.

What makes heroic strife, fam'd afar, fam'd afar?  What makes heroic strife, fam'd afar?  What makes heroic strife?  To whet th' assasin's knife, Or hunt a parent's life Wi' bloody war.

Then let your schemes alone in the state, in the state; Then let your schemes alone in the state: Then let your schemes alone, Adore the rising sun, And leave a man undone To his fate."

I know nothing about the Scottish language and need to do further research here but, I think it is strange that most of this song appears to be in standard English but a few words are spelled different or are unfamiliar (such as "maun" in the first stanza).  What stronger way to tell the Scottish they have been defeated than to adapt their aural tradition of war songs into written English.

Note: Pay no attention to the details in the "About" section of the video because they are inaccurate as far as the research I have been doing.

Edit: I tried playing the printed music for "Ye Jacobites by Name" and discovered that either this youtube video is an extremely loose interpretation or that this artist chose to only use the lyrics because what I was playing sounded nothing like the recording.

[smchase90]

At the library yesterday, this book caught my eye because it has music printed in it.  As we are studying the idea of "sensation," I thought that playing this music would help recreate lost sounds of the time period.  I am also curious if there are any songs contained within this volume that are still popular today and if there are, how they have changed in the past 200 or so years.  The music looks very similar to modern printed music with slight stylistic differences so reading it should not be a problem.

In addition to the music in the book, I hope to gain a stronger insight into the history of the Scottish rebellion and the effect it had on the time period we are studying in class.

I find the title of this book interesting as well.  The use of the word "relic" seems to be a conscious choice.  I looked up relic on the OED and every definition seemed to imply that a relic is something that memorializes someone or something that is dead.  My question is, were the Jacobins really dead by the time this book was published?  I hope that further research will reveal more about this.

Note: I am new to Tumblr and have very little experience or expertise with social media in general.  Hashtags are a mystery to me so please bear with me as I get used to this format.