Byron was actually the third Scotsman in about fifty years who
awoke and found himself famous; the sudden rise from obscurity to
international fame had been experienced earlier by two fellow
countrymen, Sir Walter Scott and James Macpherson. Considering the
greatness of the reputation of the two younger writers, it may seem
strange to link their names with Macpherson's, but in the early
nineteenth century it would not have seemed so odd. In fact, as
young men both Scott and Byron would have probably have been
flattered by such an association. Scott tells us that in his youth
he "devoured rather than perused" Ossian and that he could repeat
whole duans "without remorse"; and, as I shall discuss later,
Byron paid Macpherson the high compliment of writing an imitation
of Ossian, which he published in _Hours of Idleness_.

The publication of the modest and anonymous pamphlet, _Fragments
of Ancient Poetry_ marks the beginning of Macpherson's rise to
fame, and concomitantly the start of a controversy that is unique
in literary history. For the half-century that followed, the body
of poetry that was eventually collected as _The Poems of Ossian_
provoked the comment of nearly every important man of letters.
Extravagance and partisanship were characteristic of most of the
remarks, but few literary men were indifferent.

The intensity and duration of the controversy are indicative
of how seriously Macpherson's work was taken, for it was to many
readers of the day daring, original, and passionate. Even Malcolm
Laing, whose ardor in exposing Macpherson's imposture exceeded
that of Dr. Johnson, responded to the literary quality of the poems.
In a note on the fourth and fifth "Fragments" the arch prosecutor