SCOTTISH LITERATURE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 91, 18 April 1931, Page 21

SCOTTISH LITERATURE

Professor H. J. C. Grierson, who occupies the Chair of Ehetorie and English Literature at the Edinburgh University, speaking recently with reference to a proposal to establish a Chair of Scottish Literature, said that there was a tendency among Scotsmen to prefer Scotland even to the truth. Scotsmen could not separate tho study of literature in Scotland from that in England any more than they could separate the study of English literature from French or Italian literature. Even when feeling was most antagonistic between Scotland and England intellectual intercourse was progressive. An enormously important event in tho history of Scottish literature was when Knox adapted for Scottish use the.English Bible. English because, whether they liked it or not, the language of culture. The Scottish language was left as a spoken language, and in it was a great wealth of poetry, songs, and wonderful Scottish ballads. A great deal of the inspiration: of Scottish poems came from England. Ramsay wrote English poems. So did Fergusou. So did Burns. It had been suggested that Scots should try to establish a generally accepted "King's Scots." Could they do that artificially? Could they fight against the fact that for serious cultural purposes their langage had become English spoken with a Scots tone?