ALLAN RAMSAY (1684-1758), SCOTTISH POET, PLAYWRIGHT, IMPRESA...

Hammer

£3,000

ALLAN RAMSAY (1684-1758), SCOTTISH POET, PLAYWRIGHT, IMPRESARIO AND ANTIQUARY - A PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS TO THE TOWN-COUNCIL OF EDINBURGH
In the form of a letter, addressed to "the Right Honourable William Neilson Esquire, Lord Provost; Robert Craig, Thomas Dundas, Archd. Wallace, Andrew Purdie, Baillies; James Clelland, Dean of Guild; George Drummond, Treasurer; John Lauder, Convener; And the Remnant of the Honourable Council of the Citie of Edinburgh"; inscribed verso in a different hand "Allan Ramsay to the Good Town of Edin. 1719, Allan Ramsay's own Hand writing", with an old catalogue description tipped to lower portion, inventory number 6695, priced at $50; the page measuring approx. 31cm x 18.2cm; together with an etched portrait in profile, used as the frontispiece for the 1788 edition of Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd (2)

Note: the manuscript runs to only the fourteenth line of the poem - "In Rags wi' bluther'd Face". We assume therefore that this is the first of numerous pages, with the remainder lost.

Allan Ramsay transformed the role of the Scots language in Scottish Literature, introduced the term ‘Doric’, founded or co-founded the first subscription library in the British Isles, the first art school in Scotland and one of the country’s first theatres, and was one of the first Romantic song collectors, as well as a key player in the Enlightenment. Ramsay’s complex relationship with the music of his time transforms our understanding of ‘traditional’ song. Without Ramsay, it is hard to imagine that Burns, Hogg or Fergusson could ever have written as they did, and much in the poet’s work remains challenging and inspiring to readers today.

- The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Works of Allan Ramsay, series editor Murray Pittock

  In 1719, Ramsay presented his Address to the Town-Council of Edinburgh, complaining that his works were being pirated. In response, the Council decreed that vendors of “Papers or Poems of his Compusure” were to retain only one third of their sale price, with the remainder payable to Ramsay. Were this to be flouted, the vendor was liable to be fined twenty pounds, have their stock confiscated and their licence for future trade revoked.

  Ramsay’s characteristic use of a breve over the letter U is in evidence throughout the first half of the manuscript here offered. Serving no communicative purpose, it has been suggested that Ramsay employed this stylistic flourish merely to lend his script an antiquarian flavour. Similarly, in the seventh line, we can see Ramsay’s creative process still at work. His original intention having been, “They Spoil’d my Face and Staw my Cash”, he scores through the second word, replacing it with “Sense”, written above. It is in this amended form that the line was ultimately published.

  The first ever comprehensive scholarly edition of Ramsay’s works, the six-volume Edinburgh Edition, published 2022-24, states that there is no manuscript copy of the Address known to exist. This therefore represents a significant Scottish literary historical discovery, providing fresh evidence of Ramsay’s compositional process.

We are indebted to Ramsay Scholar Dr Craig Lamont, co-editor of the Edinburgh Edition, for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.