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LITERARY IMPOSTURES.

AKIN to the subject of "Plagiarism" is that of Literary Impostures, some of which indeed are plagiarisms upon a large scale. Among the most remarkable of these, within the last hundred years, are Chatterton's "Rowley Poems,” Macpherson's "Poems of Ossian," the Marquis de Surville's "Poems of Madame de Surville," Henri Beyle's "Letters on Haydn," Count de Courchamps' "Memoirs of the Marquise de Créquy," and the "Memoirs of Cagliostro," by the same writer.

The controversy respecting the authenticity of the poems which Chatterton has given to the world as those of Thomas Rowley, a priest of the fifteenth century, has ceased to have any interest for the literary inquirer. It is now generally admitted that those poems have nothing in them of the fifteenth century but the antiquated spelling, in which Chatterton's acquaintance with the literature of that period

enabled him to dress them up. The sentiments and even the imagery are, for the most part, of a modern cast; while the borrowed thoughts which they contain (borrowed from poets of a date posterior to that of their pretended origin) leave no room to doubt that the "marvellous boy" was himself the author of those singular productions. Thomas Rowley, as a poet, is now no better than a myth.

Macpherson's "Ossian" is in the same predicament. It is possible indeed that a bard, such as Ossian is represented to have been, lived in the third century, and wrote poetical rhapsodies of a somewhat similar character to those published by Macpherson; but the original compositions, of which his "Poems of Ossian" profess to be translations, are nowhere to be found. A few fragmentary ballads, preserved by oral tradition among the Scottish peasantry, are all that has come down to us; and upon these Macpherson has stereotyped his "Poems of Ossian;" but whether those fragments are the production of a poet of that name and age, or of some bard of more modern date, will ever remain among the mysteries of literature.

A noticeable circumstance in connexion with the "Poems of Ossian" is the influence which they exercised on the literary mind of France immediately before the breaking out of the great Revolution and during the first quarter of the

nineteenth century. I well remember, while at college in Paris from 1823 to 1827, the enthusiasm with which the students used to descant upon "Les Poésies d'Ossian." He is the only English poet some of them had ever read, even in a translation; while others, whose acquaintance with English literature was sufficiently extensive, asserted that we had no poet like him. Compared with Ossian, Shakspeare, they said, was a savage, and Milton a madman.

The partiality of the French for the "Poems of Ossian" is a singular fact in the history of taste. Napoleon is said to have made them his constant study and delight; and the knowledge of that circumstance may have contributed, in some degree, to direct public attention to them. But what shall we say of Madame de Staël, whose judgment and taste are not inferior to those of any writer of her time; yet who carries her faith in Ossian so far as to believe that he was the founder of our northern literature? She even institutes a comparison between him and Homer, which is not always favourable to the "Father of Epic Poetry."

The eighteenth century was fertile in literary frauds; and the partially successful attempts of Chatterton and Macpherson soon led to similar impositions in France. The most remarkable of these was the publication, in 1803, of the "Poësies de Marguerite-Eléonore-Clotilde de

Valon-Chalys, depuis Madame de Surville, poëte Français du XVe Siècle." This publication went forth under the auspices of M. Charles Vanderbourg, as the inedited poems of Madame de Surville, recently brought to light; and the fraud, as in the case of Chatterton, was promoted by means of the spelling and phraseology peculiar to the fifteenth century. For a time, the public, including many writers of distinction, were in raptures at the discovery of this supposed literary treasure; but by degrees the imposition was seen through, and the publication denounced as a forgery. The real author was the Marquis Joseph-Etienne de Surville, who from having commenced his career as a literary impostor, ended it by robbing the diligences," and was shot in the Velay in 1798. He was a man of remarkable talent, as shown even by these Surville poems, the authenticity of which he maintained to the last.

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Another French imposition was the publication by Henri Beyle, in 1815, of "Lettres écrites de Vienne en Autriche, sur le célèbre Compositeur Haydn." Although these letters appeared under the pseudonym of Louis Alexandre César Bombet, they were accredited in the world of letters as the production of Beyle; and Lord Byron, in his correspondence, pays him a high compliment for the ability and taste displayed in the work. It turned out, however, that the "Letters" were but a translation from the Italian of a work by

Joseph Carpani, entitled "Le Haydine:" nor was it until the latter publicly complained of the appropriation and produced the original, that Beyle admitted his claim. He then urged, in explanation of his having concealed the existence of Carpani's work, that, if he had published the "Letters " as "translated from the Italian," no one would have read them. Beyle's translation, together with his own remarks on French and Italian Art, was published in English in 1817, under the title of "Haydn, Mozart, and Metastasio."

But of all the literary frauds with which we are acquainted, that which has been practised within the last few years by the Count de Courchamps, under the title of "Mémoires inédits de Cagliostro," is at once the most impudent and the most unjustifiable. The facts are as follows (see Querard's "Supercheries Littéraires,” vol. i., sub voce Cagliostro)

In 1813 and 1814, John Potocki, a Polish count, published two novels, under the respective titles of "Vie d'Avadoro," and "Dix Journées de la Vie d'Alphonse Van Worden." The number of copies was very limited, and although the novels possessed considerable interest, they were soon lost sight of by the reading public. About the year 1835, Count de Courchamps, already well known as the author (not editor, as he pretended) of the "Souvenirs de la Marquise de

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