Lot 137
McGonagall, William Topaz (1825-1902)
Bonnie Montrose. The Castle o' the Mains
Auction: Other Properties | Wed 25 February from 10am | Lots 63 to 255
Description
Dundee: [for the author], 1886. Printed broadside (28.3 x 21.4cm), decorative border and royal coat of arms to head, text printed in two columns browned, old folds, repairs verso
Footnote
Early and very rare broadside poem by the infamous Scottish poetaster, published while he was still resident in his native Dundee, before he fled first to Perth and then Edinburgh to escape 'relentless persecution by local audiences' (ODNB). No other copy traced in libraries or auction records. In 1902, the year of his death, McGonagall ventured to reprint 'Bonnie Montrose' on a broadside together with his ‘Ode to the King’, proclaiming it to be ‘a new poem’. The lot sold with five related pamphlets: The Book of the Lamentations of the Poet Macgonagall, An Autobiography, undated, wrappers separated; Poet McGonagall's Masterpieces, Dundee: John Fellow, undated; Poetic Gems selected from the Works of William McGonagall, 1936; Lowden Macartney, Wm McGonagall, Poet, a Choice Selection of his Best Pieces, Glasgow: J. & D. R. Burnside, undated, 2 copies.