Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY in
to rub salt into the raw wounds of his mortified feelings
such despicable effusions—written in more than one case
by * ministers of the Gospel '—as ' The Flight of Religious
Piety from Scotland, upon account of Ramsay's lewd
books and the Hell-bred comedians, who debauch all
the Faculties of the Soul of our Rising Generation,' * A
Looking-Glass for Allan Ramsay,' ' The Dying Words
of Allan Ramsay,' etc. As Chalmers remarks :
* The
lampooners left intimations of what must have been of
considerable consolation to our adventurous dramatist;
that " he had acquired wealth " ; that " he possessed a
fine house " ; that " he had raised his kin to high degree."
Such topics of censure did more honour than hurt to
Ramsay. To their ribald raillery the poet replied only
by a contemptuous silence, infinitely more galling than if
he had turned on the wasps and crushed them, thus be-
speaking for them a prominence in no measure merited.
Their spleen he forgot amid the engrossments of a closer
attention to business, and the charms of friendship's
intercourse.
It may be added, however, that the whirligig of time
brought in for Ramsay his revenges upon his enemies.
The theatre which in 1746 was erected in Playhouse
Close in the Canongate, though only by a quibbling
evasion of the statute, so Draconic were its provisions,
was largely due to his energy and exertions. Thus, says
a biographer, Ramsay, at the age of sixty, had the
satisfaction to see dramatical entertainments enjoyed
by the citizens, whose theatrical tastes he had kindled
and fostered.
; '