SCOTT'S PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE BALLANTYNES.
Before I make mention of Scott's greatest works, his novels, I must
say a few words of his relation to the Ballantyne Brothers, who
involved him, and were involved by him, in so many troubles, and with
whose name the story of his broken fortunes is inextricably bound up.
James Ballantyne, the elder brother, was a schoolfellow of Scott's at
Kelso, and was the editor and manager of the _Kelso Mail_, an
anti-democratic journal, which had a fair circulation. Ballantyne was
something of an artist as regarded "type," and Scott got him therefore
to print his _Minstrelsy of the Border_, the excellent workmanship of
which attracted much attention in London. In 1802, on Scott's
suggestion, Ballantyne moved to Edinburgh; and to help him to move,
Scott, who was already meditating some investment of his little
capital in business other than literary, lent him 500l. Between this
and 1805, when Scott first became a partner of Ballantyne's in the
printing business, he used every exertion to get legal and literary
printing offered to James Ballantyne, and, according to Mr. Lockhart,
the concern "grew and prospered." At Whitsuntide, 1805, when _The Lay_
had been published, but before Scott had the least idea of the
prospects of gain which mere literature would open to him, he
formally, though secretly, joined Ballantyne as a partner in the
printing business. He explains his motives for this step, so far at
least as he then recalled them, in a letter written after his
misfortunes, in 1826. "It is easy," he said, "no doubt for any friend
to blame me for entering into connexion with commercial matters at
all. But I wish to know what I could have done better--excluded from
the bar, and then from all profits for six years, by my colleague's
prolonged life. Literature was not in those days what poor Constable
has made it; and with my little capital I was too glad to make
commercially the means of supporting my family. I got but 600_l._ for
_The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, and--it was a price that made men's
hair stand on end--1000_l._ for _Marmion_. I have been far from
suffering by James Ballantyne. I owe it to him to say, that his
difficulties, as well as his advantages, are owing to me."
This, though a true, was probably a very imperfect account of Scott's
motives. He ceased practising at the bar, I do not doubt, in great
degree from a kind of hurt pride at his ill-success, at a time when he
felt during every month more and more confidence in his own powers. He
believed, with some justice, that he understood some of the secrets of
popularity in literature, but he had always, till towards the end of
his life, the greatest horror of resting on literature alone as his
main resource; and he was not a man, nor was Lady Scott a woman, to
pinch and live narrowly. Were it only for his lavish generosity, that
kind of life would have been intolerable to him. Hence, he reflected,
that if he could but use his literary instinct to feed some commercial
undertaking, managed by a man he could trust, he might gain a
considerable percentage on his little capital, without so embarking in
commerce as to oblige him either to give up his status as a sheriff,
or his official duties as a clerk of session, or his literary
undertakings. In his old schoolfellow, James Ballantyne, he believed
he had found just such an agent as he wanted, the requisite link
between literary genius like his own, and the world which reads and
buys books; and he thought that, by feeling his way a little, he might
secure, through this partnership, besides the then very bare rewards
of authorship, at least a share in those more liberal rewards which
commercial men managed to squeeze for themselves out of successful
authors. And, further, he felt--and this was probably the greatest
unconscious attraction for him in this scheme--that with James
Ballantyne for his partner he should be the real leader and chief, and
rather in the position of a patron and benefactor of his colleague,
than of one in any degree dependent on the generosity or approval of
others. "If I have a very strong passion in the world," he once wrote
of himself--and the whole story of his life seems to confirm it--"it
is pride."[30] In James Ballantyne he had a faithful, but almost humble
friend, with whom he could deal much as he chose, and fear no wound to
his pride. He had himself helped Ballantyne to a higher line of
business than any hitherto aspired to by him. It was his own book
which first got the Ballantyne press its public credit. And if he
could but create a great commercial success upon this foundation, he
felt that he should be fairly entitled to share in the gains, which
not merely his loan of capital, but his foresight and courage had
opened to Ballantyne.
And it is quite possible that Scott might have succeeded--or at all
events not seriously failed--if he had been content to stick to the
printing firm of James Ballantyne and Co., and had not launched also
into the bookselling and publishing firm of John Ballantyne and Co.,
or had never begun the wild and dangerous practice of forestalling his
gains, and spending wealth which he had not earned. But when by way of
feeding the printing press of James Ballantyne and Co., he started in
1809 the bookselling and publishing firm of John Ballantyne and Co.,
using as his agent a man as inferior in sterling worth to James, as
James was inferior in general ability to himself, he carefully dug a
mine under his own feet, of which we can only say, that nothing except
his genius could have prevented it from exploding long before it did.
The truth was evidently that James Ballantyne's respectful homage, and
John's humorous appreciation, all but blinded Scott's eyes to the
utter inadequacy of either of these men, especially the latter, to
supply the deficiencies of his own character for conducting business
of this kind with proper discretion. James Ballantyne, who was pompous
and indolent, though thoroughly honest, and not without some
intellectual insight, Scott used to call Aldiborontiphoscophornio.
John, who was clever but frivolous, dissipated, and tricksy, he termed
Rigdumfunnidos, or his "little Picaroon." It is clear from Mr.
Lockhart's account of the latter that Scott not only did not respect,
but despised him, though he cordially liked him, and that he passed
over, in judging him, vices which in a brother or son of his own he
would severely have rebuked. I believe myself that his liking for
co-operation with both, was greatly founded on his feeling that they
were simply creatures of his, to whom he could pretty well dictate
what he wanted,--colleagues whose inferiority to himself unconsciously
flattered his pride. He was evidently inclined to resent bitterly the
patronage of publishers. He sent word to Blackwood once with great
hauteur, after some suggestion from that house had been made to him
which appeared to him to interfere with his independence as an author,
that he was one of "the Black Hussars" of literature, who would not
endure that sort of treatment. Constable, who was really very liberal,
hurt his sensitive pride through the _Edinburgh Review_, of which
Jeffrey was editor. Thus the Ballantynes' great deficiency--that
neither of them had any independent capacity for the publishing
business, which would in any way hamper his discretion--though this is
just what commercial partners ought to have had, or they were not
worth their salt,--was, I believe, precisely what induced this Black
Hussar of literature, in spite of his otherwise considerable sagacity
and knowledge of human nature, to select them for partners.
And yet it is strange that he not only chose them, but chose the
inferior and lighter-headed of the two for far the most important and
difficult of the two businesses. In the printing concern there was at
least this to be said, that of part of the business--the selection of
type and the superintendence of the executive part,--James Ballantyne
was a good judge. He was never apparently a good man of business, for
he kept no strong hand over the expenditure and accounts, which is the
core of success in every concern. But he understood types; and his
customers were publishers, a wealthy and judicious class, who were not
likely all to fail together. But to select a "Rigdumfunnidos,"--a
dissipated comic-song singer and horse-fancier,--for the head of a
publishing concern, was indeed a kind of insanity. It is told of John
Ballantyne, that after the successful negotiation with Constable for
_Rob Roy_, and while "hopping up and down in his glee," he exclaimed,
"'Is Rob's gun here, Mr. Scott? Would you object to my trying the old
barrel with a _few de joy_?' 'Nay, Mr. Puff,' said Scott, 'it would
burst and blow you to the devil before your time.' 'Johnny, my man,'
said Constable, 'what the mischief puts drawing at sight into _your_
head?' Scott laughed heartily at this innuendo; and then observing
that the little man felt somewhat sore, called attention to the notes
of a bird in the adjoining shrubbery. 'And by-the-bye,' said he, as
they continued listening, ''tis a long time, Johnny, since we have had
"The Cobbler of Kelso."' Mr. Puff forthwith jumped up on a mass of
stone, and seating himself in the proper attitude of one working with
an awl, began a favourite interlude, mimicking a certain son of
Crispin, at whose stall Scott and he had often lingered when they were
schoolboys, and a blackbird, the only companion of his cell, that used
to sing to him while he talked and whistled to it all day long. With
this performance Scott was always delighted. Nothing could be richer
than the contrast of the bird's wild, sweet notes, some of which he
imitated with wonderful skill, and the accompaniment of the cobbler's
hoarse, cracked voice, uttering all manner of endearing epithets,
which Johnny multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the old women
in Rabelais at the birth of Pantagruel."[31] That passage gives
precisely the kind of estimation in which John Ballantyne was held
both by Scott and Constable. And yet it was to him that Scott
entrusted the dangerous and difficult duty of setting up a new
publishing house as a rival to the best publishers of the day. No
doubt Scott really relied on his own judgment for working the
publishing house. But except where his own books were concerned, no
judgment could have been worse. In the first place he was always
wanting to do literary jobs for a friend, and so advised the
publishing of all sorts of unsaleable books, because his friends
desired to write them. In the next place, he was a genuine historian,
and one of the antiquarian kind himself; he was himself really
interested in all sorts of historical and antiquarian issues,--and
very mistakenly gave the public credit for wishing to know what he
himself wished to know. I should add that Scott's good nature and
kindness of heart not only led him to help on many books which he knew
in himself could never answer, and some which, as he well knew, would
be altogether worthless, but that it greatly biassed his own
intellectual judgment. Nothing can be plainer than that he really held
his intimate friend, Joanna Baillie, a very great dramatic poet, a
much greater poet than himself, for instance; one fit to be even
mentioned as following--at a distance--in the track of Shakespeare. He
supposes Erskine to exhort him thus:--
"Or, if to touch such chord be thine,
Restore the ancient tragic line,
And emulate the notes that rung
From the wild harp which silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er,--
When she, the bold enchantress, came
With fearless hand and heart on flame,
From the pale willow snatch'd the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspired strain,
Deem'd their own Shakespeare lived again."
Avon's swans must have been Avon's geese, I think, if they had deemed
anything of the kind. Joanna Baillie's dramas are "nice," and rather
dull; now and then she can write a song with the ease and sweetness
that suggest Shakespearian echoes. But Scott's judgment was obviously
blinded by his just and warm regard for Joanna Baillie herself.
Of course with such interfering causes to bring unsaleable books to
the house--of course I do not mean that John Ballantyne and Co.
published for Joanna Baillie, or that they would have lost by it if
they had--the new firm published all sorts of books which did not sell
at all; while John Ballantyne himself indulged in a great many
expenses and dissipations, for which John Ballantyne and Co. had to
pay. Nor was it very easy for a partner who himself drew bills on the
future--even though he were the well-spring of all the paying business
the company had--to be very severe on a fellow-partner who supplied
his pecuniary needs in the same way. At all events, there is no
question that all through 1813 and 1814 Scott was kept in constant
suspense and fear of bankruptcy, by the ill-success of John Ballantyne
and Co., and the utter want of straightforwardness in John Ballantyne
himself as to the bills out, and which had to be provided against. It
was the publication of _Waverley_, and the consequent opening up of
the richest vein not only in Scott's own genius, but in his popularity
with the public, which alone ended these alarms; and the many
unsaleable works of John Ballantyne and Co. were then gradually
disposed of to Constable and others, to their own great loss, as part
of the conditions on which they received a share in the copyright of
the wonderful novels which sold like wildfire. But though in this way
the publishing business of John Ballantyne and Co. was saved, and its
affairs pretty decently wound up, the printing firm remained saddled
with some of their obligations; while Constable's business, on which
Scott depended for the means with which he was buying his estate,
building his castle, and settling money on his daughter-in-law, was
seriously injured by the purchase of all this unsaleable stock.
I do not think that any one who looks into the complicated controversy
between the representatives of the Ballantynes and Mr. Lockhart,
concerning these matters, can be content with Mr. Lockhart's--no doubt
perfectly sincere--judgment on the case. It is obvious that amidst
these intricate accounts, he fell into one or two serious
blunders--blunders very unjust to James Ballantyne. And without
pretending to have myself formed any minute judgment on the details, I
think the following points clear:--(1.) That James Ballantyne was very
severely judged by Mr. Lockhart, on grounds which were never alleged
by Scott against him at all,--indeed on grounds on which he was
expressly exempted from all blame by Sir Walter. (2.) That Sir Walter
Scott was very severely judged by the representatives of the
Ballantynes, on grounds on which James Ballantyne himself never
brought any charge against him; on the contrary, he declared that he
had no charge to bring. (3.) That both Scott and his partners invited
ruin by freely spending gains which they only expected to earn, and
that in this Scott certainly set an example which he could hardly
expect feebler men not to follow. On the whole, I think the troubles
with the Ballantyne brothers brought to light not only that eager
gambling spirit in him, which his grandfather indulged with better
success and more moderation when he bought the hunter with money
destined for a flock of sheep, and then gave up gambling for ever, but
a tendency still more dangerous, and in some respects involving an
even greater moral defect,--I mean a tendency, chiefly due, I think,
to a very deep-seated pride,--to prefer inferior men as working
colleagues in business. And yet it is clear that if Scott were to
dabble in publishing at all, he really needed the check of men of
larger experience, and less literary turn of mind. The great majority
of consumers of popular literature are not, and indeed will hardly
ever be, literary men; and that is precisely why a publisher who is
not, in the main, literary,--who looks on authors' MSS. for the most
part with distrust and suspicion, much as a rich man looks at a
begging-letter, or a sober and judicious fish at an angler's fly,--is
so much less likely to run aground than such a man as Scott. The
untried author should be regarded by a wise publisher as a natural
enemy,--an enemy indeed of a class, rare specimens whereof will always
be his best friends, and who, therefore, should not be needlessly
affronted--but also as one of a class of whom nineteen out of every
twenty will dangle before the publisher's eyes wiles and hopes and
expectations of the most dangerous and illusory character,--which
constitute indeed the very perils that it is his true function in life
skilfully to evade. The Ballantynes were quite unfit for this
function; first, they had not the experience requisite for it; next,
they were altogether too much under Scott's influence. No wonder that
the partnership came to no good, and left behind it the germs of
calamity even more serious still.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 30: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, viii. 221.]
[Footnote 31: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, v. 218.]