George Gilfillan



George Gilfillan (30 January 1813 – 13 August 1878) was a Scottish poet, one of the Spasmodic poets, and an editor and commentator of earlier British poetry.

He was born at Comrie, Perthshire, where his father, the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan, the author of some theological works, was for many years minister of a Secession congregation. After an education at the University of Glasgow, in March 1836 he was ordained pastor of a Secession congregation in Dundee. He published a volume of his discourses in 1839, and shortly afterwards another sermon on Hades, which brought him under the scrutiny of his co-presbyters, and was ultimately withdrawn from circulation.

Gilfillan next contributed a series of sketches of celebrated contemporary authors to the Dumfries Herald, then edited by Thomas Aird; these, with several new ones, formed his first Gallery of Literary Portraits, which appeared in 1846 and had a wide circulation. It was quickly followed by a Second and a Third Gallery.

In 1851 his most successful work, the Bards of the Bible, appeared. His aim was that it should be a poem on the Bible and it was far more rhapsodical than critical. His Martyrs and Heroes of the Scottish Covenant appeared in 1832, and in 1856 he produced a partly autobiographical, partly fabulous, History of a Man. From 1853 to 1860 he was occupied with editing Cassell's 48-volume Library Edition of the British Poets.

In 1858 he published a 3-volume edition of Thomas Percy's Reliques of ancient English poetry, consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces from our earlier poets, authoring a prefatory 'Memoir and Critical Dissertation' entitled 'Life of Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore; with Remarks on Ballad Poetry.' Although Gilfillan and Charles Cowden Clarke published the Reliques for Cassell in 1877, Gilfillan's 1858 edition was simultaneously published by James Nichol in Edinburgh, in London by James Nisbet, and in Dublin by W. Robertson, appealing to ready markets in Scotland and Ireland.

For thirty years he was engaged upon a long poem, on Night, which was published in 1867, but its theme was too vast, vague and unmanageable, and the result was a failure. As a lecturer and as a preacher he drew large crowds, but his literary reputation has not proved permanent. He died, aged 65, having just finished a new life of Burns designed to accompany a new edition of the works of that poet.

Recognition
He is the subject of An Address to the Rev. George Gilfillan, the first of William McGonagall's poetic productions.