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A short commentary about the song.
This ballad derives its humour from Lowland perceptions of Scottish Highlanders.
Highland pronounciation of English is rendered here with comic embellishment. The stereotypes of Highlanders are given as
being warlike and brave, but also dedicated cattle drovers, that combine to humorous effect when the Macpherson men desert
him to go on a cattle drive, leaving him to be killed by a very old, and over the hill, Mactavish clansman denoted as
Mic-Mac-Methuselah . The Highlander's alleged predisposition for Scotch whisky is also mocked (as potentially spoiling Noah's
Biblical Flood by drinking it, if it had been mixed with Glenlivet whisky). While authors like Walter Scott and James MacPherson
romanticised the Highlands, satire like this was also common, even in the work of famous poets like Robert Fergusson.
The broadside was priced at one penny and published by the Poet's Box in
Glasgow. At the foot of the sheet is a 'List of Newest Songs and Recitations' that were available during that time.
It was published in book form called "The Bon Gaultier
Ballads", or "The Book of Ballads".
One of the authors:
AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE (1813-1865)
Scottish poet, humorist and miscellaneous writer, was born in Edinburgh on the 21st of JUNE June 1813.
Theodore Martin was an early contributor to Fraser’s Magazine and Tait's Magazine, under the signature of " Bon Gaultier," and in 1856, in conjunction with Aytoun, he published the BOOK of BALLADS under the same, pseudonym.
It included, in the phrase of George
Kitchin, "a mannequin's parade of Victorian modes": parodies of national ballads, of the Eastern tale, of the philosophical
poem, of the reflective poem, of the "poetical puff," of the epigram, of thieves' literature, of young ladies' literature,
and of the leading stylists of the day. Superior to his coauthor Martin as a parodist, Aytoun took special delight in deflating
the romantic sensibility of much contemporary poetry. Today, Bon Gaultier's humor seems rather broad, but it is difficult
to overrate the historical importance of the book. Saintsbury characterized it as "that admirable book of light verse, the
equal of anything earlier and certainly not surpassed since." The Book of Ballads ran through thirteen editions from
1845 to 1877 in England alone; the number of pirated editions in America was at least as large. Blackwood sold over 32,000
copies from 1857 to 1909. The number of ballads increased from thirty-nine in the first edition to fifty-six in the sixteenth.
Because of its enormous scope, it served as a textbook for later parodists, showing what subjects could be legitimately exposed
to laughter. Its success also encouraged Aytoun to write Firmilian.
Title: The massacre of the Macpherson : humorous highland song / by Bon Gaultier [and Aytoun] ; sung by Arthur
Lloyd.
Author Martin, Theodore, Sir, 1816-1909.
Other Names Aytoun, William Edmondstoune, 1813-1865.
Lloyd, Arthur, 1840-1904.
Publisher London : Brewer & Co., [ca. 1864?]
First line: Fairshon swore a feud against the clan MacTavish.
First line of chorus: Tol de rol de rol.
Pictorial t.p. (col.).
"This
song is from the eighth editon of "Bon Gaultiers book of ballads" (by W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin Esqrs.) Blackwood &
Sons"--t.p.
Subject: Popular music -- To
1901.
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About the other author of the ballads.
MARTIN, SIR THEODORE (1816-1909). —Poet, biographer,
and translator, s. of James M., solicitor in Edin., where he was b. and ed. at the High School
and Univ. He practised as a solicitor in Edin. 1840-45, after which he went to London and became head of the firm of Martin
and Leslie, parliamentary agents. His first contribution to literature was The
Bon Gaultier Ballads, written along with W.E. Aytoun (q.v.), full of wit and humour, which still retain
their popularity; originally contributed to a magazine, they appeared in book form in 1855. His translations include Dante's
Vila Nuova, Œhlenschläger's Correggio and Aladdin, Heine's Poems
and Ballads , Schiller's Song of the Bell, and Hertz's King René's
Daughter. He also pub. a complete translation of Horace with a Life, and one of Catullus. He is, however,
perhaps best known for his Life of the Prince Consort (1874-80), the writing of which was committed
to him by Queen Victoria, a work which he executed with such ability and tact as to win for him her lifelong friendship. He
also wrote Lives of Prof. Aytoun and Lord Lyndhurst. He m. in 1851 Miss Helen Faucit (d. 1898), the well-known
actress, and authoress of studies on Shakespeare's Female Characters, whose Life he pub. in
1901. M. kept up his intellectual activity into old age, pub. in 1905 a translation of Leopardi's poems,
and Monographs (1906). He was Lord Rector of St. Andrews 1881, LL.D. of Edin. 1875,
and K.C.B. 1880.
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