CHAPTER III

SCOTT'S WORK AS STUDENT AND EDITOR IN THE FIELD OF LITERARY HISTORY

THE MEDIAEVAL PERIOD

_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_

Scott's early interest in ballads--Casual origin of the

_Minstrelsy_--Importance of the book in Scott's career--Plan of the

book--Mediaeval scholarship of Scott's time--His theory as to the

origin of ballads and their deterioration--His attitude toward the

work of previous editors--His method of forming texts--Kinds of

changes he made--His qualifications for emending old poetry--Modern

imitations of the ballad included in the _Minstrelsy_--Remarks on

the ballad style--Impossibility of a scientific treatment of

folk-poetry in Scott's time--Real importance of the _Minstrelsy_.

We think of the _Border Minstrelsy_ as the first work which resulted

from the preparation of Scott's whole youth, between the days when he

insisted on shouting the lines of _Hardyknute_ into the ears of the

irate clergyman making a parish call, and the time when he and his

equally ardent friends gathered their ballads from the lips of old women

among the hills. But we have seen that the inspiration for his first

attempts at writing poetry came only indirectly from the ballads of his

own country. We learn from the introduction to the third part of the

_Minstrelsy_ that some of the young men of Scott's circle in Edinburgh

were stimulated by what the novelist, Henry Mackenzie, told them of the

beauties of German literature, to form a class for the study of that

language. This was when Scott was twenty-one, but it was still four

years before he found himself writing those translations which mark the

sufficiently modest beginning of his literary career. His enthusiasm for

German literature was not at first tempered by any critical

discrimination, if we may judge from the opinions of one or two of his

friends who labored to point out to him the extravagance and false

sentiment which he was too ready to admire along with the real genius of

some of his models.[31] Apparently their efforts were useful, for in a

review written in 1806 we find Scott, in a remark on Bürger, referring

to "the taste for outrageous sensibility, which disgraces most German

poetry."[32] His special interest in the Germans was an early mood which

seems not to have returned. After the process of translation had

discovered to him his verse-making faculty, he naturally passed on to

the writing of original poems, and circumstances of a half accidental

sort determined that the Scottish ballads which he had always loved

should absorb his attention for the next two or three years.

The publication of a book of ballads was first suggested by Scott as an

opportunity for his friend Ballantyne to exhibit his skill as a printer

and so increase his business. "I have been for years collecting old

Border ballads," Scott remarked, "and I think I could with little

trouble put together such a selection from them as might make a neat

little volume to sell for four or five shillings."[33] From this casual

proposition resulted _The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, published

in three volumes in 1802-3 and often revised and reissued during the

editor's lifetime.

This book and the prefaces to his own novels are likely to be thought of

first when Scott is spoken of as a critic. The connection between the

_Minstrelsy_ and the novels has often been pointed out, ever since the

day of the contemporary who, on reading the ballads with their

introductions, exclaimed that in that book were the elements of a

hundred historical romances.[34] The interest of the earlier work is

undoubtedly multiplied by the associations in the light of which we read

it--associations connected with the editor's whole experience as an

author, from the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ to _Castle Dangerous_.

Important as the _Minstrelsy_ is from the point of view of literary

criticism, the material of its introductions is chiefly historical. The

introduction in the original edition gives an account of life on the

Border in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the outlines of

many of the events that stimulated ballad-making, and an analysis of the

temper of the Marchmen among whom this kind of poetry flourished; then

by special introductions and notes to the poems an attempt is made to

explain both the incidents on which they seem to have been founded, and

parallel cases that appear in tradition or record. Some enthusiastic

comment is included, of the kind that was so natural to Scott, on the

effect of ballad poetry upon a spirited and warlike people. The writer

continues: "But it is not the Editor's present intention to enter upon a

history of Border poetry; a subject of great difficulty, and which the

extent of his information does not as yet permit him to engage in." It

was, in fact, nearly thirty years later[35] that Scott wrote the

_Remarks on Popular Poetry_ which since that date have formed an

introduction to the book, as well as the essay, _On Imitations of the

Ancient Ballad_, which at present precedes the third part. The more

purely literary side of the editor's duty--leaving out of account the

modern poems written by Scott and others--was exhibited chiefly in the

construction of texts, a matter of which I shall speak later, after

considering his views of the origin and character of folk-poetry in

general.

But first we may recall the fact that Scott was following a fairly well

established vogue in giving scholarly attention to ancient popular

poetry. A revival of interest in the study of mediaeval literature had

been stimulated in England by the publication of Percy's _Reliques_ in

1765 and Warton's _History of English Poetry_ in 1774. In 1800 there

were enough well-known antiquaries to keep Scott from being in any sense

lonely. Among them Joseph Ritson[36] was the most learned, but he was

crotchety in the extreme; and while his notions as to research were in

advance of his time, his controversial style resembled that of the

seventeenth century. George Ellis,[37] on the other hand, was

distinguished by an eighteenth-century urbanity, and his combination of

learning and good taste fitted him to influence a broader public than

that of specialists. At the same time he was a delightful and

stimulating friend to other scholars. Southey was becoming known as an

authority on the history and literature of the Spanish peninsula. A

review in the _Quarterly_ a dozen years later mentions these

three,--Ellis, Scott, and Southey,--as "good men and true" to serve as

guides in the remote realms of literature.[38] Ellis's friend, John

Hookham Frere, had great abilities but was an incurable dillettante.

Scott particularly admired a Middle-English version of _The Battle of

Brunanburgh_ which Frere wrote in his school-boy days, and considered

him an authoritative critic of mediaeval English poetry. Robert

Surtees[39] and Francis Douce[40] were antiquaries of some importance,

and both, like all the others named, were friends of Scott. Mr. Herford

calls this period a day of "Specimens" and extracts: "Mediaeval romance

was studied in Ellis's _Specimens_," he says, "the Elizabethan drama in

Lamb's, literary history at large in D'Israeli's gently garrulous

compilations of its 'quarrels,' 'amenities,' 'calamities,' and

'curiosities.'"[41] But the scholarship of the time on the whole is

worthy of respect. In the case of ballads and romances notable work had

been done before Scott entered the field,[42] and he and his

contemporaries were carrying out the promise of the half century before

them--continuing the work that Percy and Warton had begun.

Among the problems connected with ballad study, that which arises first

is naturally the question of origins. Scott made no attempt to formulate

a theory different in any main element from that which was held by his

predecessors. He agreed with Percy that ballads were composed and sung

by minstrels, and based his discussion on the materials brought forward

by Percy and Ritson for use in their great controversy.[43] Ritson

himself never doubted that ballads were composed and sung by individual

authors, though he might refuse to call them minstrels. The idea of

communal authorship, which Jacob Grimm was to suggest only half a dozen

years after the first edition of the _Minstrelsy_, would doubtless have

been rejected by Scott, even if he had considered it. But we have no

evidence that he did so. Probably he did not, as he never felt the need

of a new theory.[44]

Scott's opinion in regard to the transmission of ballads followed

naturally from his theory of their origin. His aristocratic instincts

perhaps helped to determine his belief that ballads were composed by

gifted minstrels, and that they had deteriorated in the process of being

handed down by recitation. He called tradition "a sort of perverted

alchymy which converts gold into lead." "All that is abstractedly

poetical," he said, "all that is above the comprehension of the merest

peasant, is apt to escape in frequent repetition; and the _lacunae_ thus

created are filled up either by lines from other ditties or from the

mother wit of the reciter or singer. The injury, in either case, is

obvious and irreparable."[45] From this point of view Scott considered

that the ballads were only getting their rights when a skilful hand gave

them such a retouching as should enable them to appear in something of

what he called their original vigor.[46]

We may learn what qualities he considered necessary for an editor in

this field, from the latter part of his _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, in

which he discusses previous attempts to collect English and Scottish

ballads. Of Percy he speaks in the highest terms, here and elsewhere. We

have seen that he felt a strong sympathy with Percy's desire to dress up

the ballads and make them as attractive to the public as their intrinsic

charms render them to their friends. He did not of course realize the

extent to which the Bishop reworked his materials, as the publication of

the folio manuscript has since revealed it, and Ritson's captious

remarks on the subject were naturally discounted on the score of their

ill-temper. But it is not to be doubted that Ritson had an appreciable

effect on Scott's attitude, by stirring him up to some comprehension of

the things that might be said in favor even of dull accuracy. Ritson's

collections are cited in their place, with a tribute to the extreme

fidelity of their editor. It is a pity that this accurate scholar could

not have had a sufficient amount of literary taste, to say nothing of

good manners, to inspire others with a fuller trust in his method. Scott

expresses impatience with him for seeming to prefer the less effective

text in many instances, "as if a poem was not more likely to be

deteriorated than improved by passing through the mouths of many

reciters."[47] He admitted, however, that it was not in his own period

necessary to rework the ballads as much as Bishop Percy had done, since

the _Reliques_ had already created an audience for popular poetry. His

purpose evidently was to steer a middle course between such graceful but

sophisticated versions as were given in the _Reliques_, and the exact

transcript of everything to be gathered from tradition, whether

interesting or not, that was attempted by Ritson. In his later revisions

he gave way more than at first to his natural impulse in favor of the

added graces which he could supply.[48]

It is easy to see how his own contributions of word and phrase might

slip in, since his avowed method was to collate the different texts

secured from manuscripts or recitation or both, and so to give what to

his mind was the worthiest version. Believing that the ballads had been

composed by men not unlike himself, he assumed, in the manner well known

to classical text-critics, that his familiarity with the conditions of

the ancient social order gave him some license for changing here and

there a word or a line. In determining which stanzas or lines to choose,

when choice was possible, he was guided by his antiquarian knowledge and

by the general principle of selecting the most poetic rendering among

those at his command. This was his way of showing his respect for the

minstrel bards of whom he was fond of considering himself a successor.

So far it is perfectly easy to take his point of view. But it is more

difficult to reconcile his practice with his professions. We find this

declaration in the forefront of the book: "No liberties have been taken

either with the recited or written copies of these ballads, farther than

that, where they disagreed, which is by no means unusual, the editor, in

justice to the author, has uniformly preserved what seemed to him the

best or most poetical rendering of the passage.... Some arrangement was

also occasionally necessary to recover the rhyme, which was often, by

the ignorance of the reciters, transposed or thrown into the middle of

the line. With these freedoms, which were essentially necessary to

remove obvious corruptions and fit the ballads for the press, the editor

presents them to the public, under the complete assurance that they

carry with them the most indisputable marks of their authenticity."[49]

In the face of this fair announcement we are surprised, to say the

least, at the number of lines and stanzas which scholars have discovered

to be of Scott's own composition.[50]

Occasionally his notes give some slight indication of his method of

treatment, as for instance this, on _The Dowie Dens of Yarrow_: "The

editor found it easy to collect a variety of copies; but very difficult

indeed to select from them such a collated edition as might in any

degree suit the taste of 'these more light and giddy-paced times.'"

Notes on some others of the ballads say that "a few conjectural

emendations have been found necessary," but no one of these remarks

would seem really ingenuous in a modern scholar when we consider how far

the "conjectural emendations" extended. Moreover, changes were often

made without the slightest clue in introduction or note.[51]

The case was complicated for Scott by the poetical tastes of his

assistants. Leyden[52] was apparently quite capable of taking down a

ballad from recitation in such a way as to produce a more finished poem

than one would expect a traditional ballad to be. And Hogg,[53] who

supplied several ballads from the recitations of his mother and other

old people, was probably still less strict. "Sure no man," he is quoted

as having said, "will think an old song the worse of being somewhat

harmonious."[54] Yet it is easy to see that Scott's friends might have

acted differently if his own practice had favored absolute fidelity to

the texts.

A remark in Scott's review of Evans's _Old Ballads_ seems a pretty

definite arraignment of his own procedure. "It may be asked by the

severer antiquary of the present day, why an editor, thinking it

necessary to introduce such alterations in order to bring forth a new,

beautiful, and interesting sense from a meagre or corrupted original,

did not in good faith to his readers acquaint them with the liberties he

had taken and make them judge whether in so doing he transgressed his

limits. We answer that unquestionably such would be the express duty of

a modern editor, but such were not the rules of the service when Dr.

Percy first opened the campaign."[55]

One wonders whether the "rules of the service" did not in Scott's

opinion occasionally permit a little wilful mystification. The case of

_Kinmont Willie_ tempts one to such an explanation. Besides the capital

instance of his anonymity as regards the novels, Scott several times

seemed to amuse himself in perplexing the public. There was the case of

the _Bridal of Triermain_, which he tried by means of various careful

devices to pass off as the work of a friend. But perhaps the best

example appears in connection with _The Fortunes of Nigel_. He first

designed the material of that book for a series of "private letters"

purporting to have been written in the reign of James I., but when he

had finally complied with the advice of his friends and used it for a

novel, he said to Lockhart, "You were all quite right: if the letters

had passed for genuine, they would have found favour only with a few

musty antiquaries."[56] This suggests comparison with the conduct of his

friend Robert Surtees, who palmed off upon him three whole ballads of

his own and got them inserted in the _Minstrelsy_ as ancient, with a

plausible tale concerning the circumstances of their recovery. Surtees,

one is interested to observe, never dared tell Scott the truth, and

Scott always accepted the ballads as genuine--a lack of discernment

rather compromising in an editor, though one may perhaps excuse him on

the ground of his confidence in his brother antiquary.[57]

In one direction Scott seems to have been more conscientious than we

might be inclined to suppose after seeing the discrepancy between the

standard of exactness that his own statements lead us to expect and the

results that actually appear. I believe that he intended to preserve the

manuscript texts just as he received them, and that he would have wished

to have them given to the public when the public was prepared to want

them. To support this theory we have first the fact that most of his own

emendations have been traced by means of the manuscripts which he

used.[58] It is significant that in speaking of a poet who had altered a

manuscript to suit a revised reading he grew indignant over that fault

far more than over the mere change in the published version. _The Raid

of the Reidswire_, he said, "first appeared in Allan Ramsay's

_Evergreen_, but some liberties have been taken by him in transcribing

it; and, what is altogether unpardonable, the manuscript, which is

itself rather inaccurate, has been interpolated to favour his readings;

of which there remain obvious marks."[59] Scott said also that the time

had come for the publication of Percy's folio manuscript; though we must

believe that he would not have wished to see the manuscript published

until the ballads had become familiar to the world in what he considered

a beautified form.

The changes Scott made were usually in style rather than in substance.

Often he merely substituted an archaic word for a modern one; but often

whole lines and longer passages offered temptations which the poet in

him could not resist, and he "improved" lavishly. For example, we have

his note on _Earl Richard_--"The best verses are here selected from both

copies, and some trivial alterations have been adopted from

tradition,"--with the comment by Mr. Henderson--"The emendations of

Scott are so many, and the majority relate so entirely to style, that no

mere tradition could have supplied them."[60] His versions are in

general characterized by a smoothness and precision of meter which to

the student of ballads is very suspicious. But he seems occasionally to

have altered or supplied incidents as well as phrases. The historical

event which furnished the purpose for the expedition of Sir Patrick

Spens seems to have been introduced into the ballad by Scott, and Mr.

Henderson thinks that "when the deeds of his ancestors were concerned it

was impossible for him to resist the temptation to employ some of his

own minstrel art on their behalf."[61]

Certainly Scott's qualifications for evolving true poetry out of the

crude fragments that sometimes served as a basis formed a very unusual

combination when they were united with his knowledge of early history

and literature. He had such confidence in his own powers in this

direction that he at one time intended to write a series of imitations

of Scottish poets of different periods, from Thomas the Rhymer down, and

thus to exhibit changes in language as well as variations in literary

style.[62] He evidently thought that the ballads as they appeared in the

_Minstrelsy_ were truer to their originals than were the copies he was

able to procure from recitation. Lockhart gives him precisely the kind

of praise he would have desired, in saying, "From among a hundred

corruptions he seized with instinctive tact the primitive diction and

imagery."[63]

It is evident that Scott's public did not wish him to be more careful

than he was in discriminating between new and old matter. One of his

moments of strict veracity seems even to have occasioned some annoyance

to the writer of the _Edinburgh_ article, who apparently preferred to

believe in the antiquity of _The Flowers of the Forest_ rather than to

learn that "the most positive evidence" proved its modern origin. The

editor's introduction to the poem seems perfectly clear; he names his

authority and quotes two verses which are ancient;[64] but the reviewer

says with a perverse irritability: "Mr. Scott would have done well to

tell us how much he deems ancient, and to give us the 'positive

evidence' that convinced him _the whole_ was not so."[65] This review

was, however, for the most part favorable.

The fact that Scott included modern imitations of the ballad in his book

is another indication that his attitude was like that of his

predecessors.[66] Doubtless these helped the _Minstrelsy_ to sell, but a

more modern taste would choose to put them in a place by themselves, not

in a collection of old ballads. An essay on _Imitations of the Ancient

Ballad_ was written, as were the _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, for the

1833 edition. It is chiefly interesting for its autobiographical matter,

though it also contains criticisms of Burns and other writers of ballad

poetry--"a species of literary labour which the author has himself

pursued with some success."[67] Scott's statement that the ballad style

was very popular at the time he began to write, and that he followed the

prevailing fashion, was one of many examples of his modesty, taken in

connection with the remark in another part of the essay to the effect

that this style "had much to recommend it, especially as it presented

considerable facilities to those who wished at as little exertion or

trouble as possible to attain for themselves a certain degree of

literary reputation." To complete the comparison, however, we need an

observation found in one of Scott's reviews, on the spurious ballad

poetry, full of false sentiment, sometimes written in the eighteenth

century. "It is the very last refuge of those who can do nothing better

in the shape of verse; and a man of genius should disdain to invade the

province of these dawdling rhymers."[68]

Scott's criticism of ballad style probably suffered from his interest in

modern imitations of ballads. Perhaps also the real quality of ancient

popular poetry was a little obscured for him by his belief that it was

written by professional or semi-professional poets. If he wrote _Kinmont

Willie_, he succeeded in catching the right tone better than anyone

since him has been able to do, but even in this poem there are turns of

phrase that remind one of the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ rather than of

the true folk-song.[69] After his first attempts at versifying he

received from William Taylor, of Norwich, who had made an earlier

translation of Bürger's _Lenore_, a letter of hearty praise intermingled

with very sensible remarks about the tendency in some parts of Scott's

_Chase_ toward too great elaboration.[70] Scott's answer was as follows:

"I do not ... think quite so severely of the Darwinian style, as to deem

it utterly inconsistent with the ballad, which, at least to judge from

the examples left us by antiquity, admits in some cases of a

considerable degree of decoration. Still, however, I do most sincerely

agree with you, that this may be very easily overdone, and I am far from

asserting that this may not be in some degree my own case; but there is

scarcely so nice a line to distinguish, as that which divides true

simplicity from flatness and _Sternholdianism_ (if I may be allowed to

coin the word), and therefore it is not surprising, that in endeavouring

to avoid the latter, so young and inexperienced a rhymer as myself

should sometimes have deviated also from the former."[71] This was

Scott's earliest stage as a man of letters, and he evidently learned

more about ballads later. But there appears in much of his criticism on

the subject a limitation which may be assigned partly to his time, and

partly, no doubt, to the fact that he was a poet and could not forget

all the sophistications of his art.

The true nature of ballad poetry could hardly be understood until

scholars had investigated the structure of primitive society in a way

that Scott's contemporaries were not at all prepared to do. Even Scott,

with all his intelligent interest in bygone institutions and modes of

expression, could hardly have foreseen the anthropological researches

which the problem of literary origins has since demanded. We do not

find, then, that Scott's work on ballads was marked by any special

originality in point of view or method. _The Minstrelsy of the Scottish

Border_ was a notable book because it did better what other men had

tried to do, and especially because of the charm and effectiveness of

its historical comment. It was more trustworthy than Percy's collection

and more graceful than Ritson's; it was richer than other books of the

kind in what people cared to have when they wanted ballads, and yet was

not, for its time, over-sophisticated. Scott's conclusions cannot now be

accepted without question, but the illustrations with which he sets them

forth and the wide reading and sincere love of folk-poetry which

evidently lie behind them produce a pleasant effect of ripe and

reasonable judgment. The admirable qualities of the book were at once

recognized by competent critics, and it will always be studied with

enthusiasm by scholars as well as by the uncritical lover of ballads.

_Studies in the Romances_

Scott's theory as to the connection between ballads and

romances--His early fondness for romances--His acquaintance with

Romance languages--His work on the _Sir Tristrem_--Value of his

edition--Special quality of Scott's interest in the Middle

Ages--General theories expressed in the body of his work on

romances--His type of scholarship.

Ballads and romances are so closely related that Scott's early and

lasting interest in the one form naturally grew out of his interest in

the other. He held the theory that "the romantic ballads of later times

are for the most part abridgments of the ancient metrical romances,

narrated in a smoother stanza and more modern language."[72] It is not

surprising, then, that a considerable body of his critical work has to

do with the subject of mediaeval romance.

Throughout his boyhood Scott read all the fairy tales, eastern stories,

and romances of knight-errantry that fell in his way. When he was about

thirteen, he and a young friend used to spend hours reading together

such authors as Spenser, Ariosto, and Boiardo.[73] He remembered the

poems so well that weeks or months afterwards he could repeat whole

pages that had particularly impressed him. Somewhat later the two boys

improvised similar stories to recite to each other, Scott being the one

who proposed the plan and the more successful in carrying it out. With

this same friend he studied Italian and began to read the Italian poets

in the original. In his autobiography he says:[74] "I had previously

renewed and extended my knowledge of the French language, from the same

principle of romantic research. Tressan's romances, the Bibliothèque

Bleue, and Bibliothèque de Romans, were already familiar to me, and I

now acquired similar intimacy with the works of Dante, Boiardo, Pulci,

and other eminent Italian authors." Writing some years later he

remarked: "I was once the most enormous devourer of the Italian romantic

poetry, which indeed is the only poetry of their country which I ever

had much patience for; for after all that has been said of Petrarch and

his school, I am always tempted to exclaim like honest Christopher Sly,

'Marvellous good matter, would it were done.' But with Charlemagne and

his paladins I could dwell forever."[75] Scott learned languages easily,

and he read Spanish with about as much facility as Italian. Don Quixote

seems often to be the guide with whom he chooses to traverse the fields

of romance.[76] In Scott's boyhood one of his teachers noticed that he

could follow and enjoy the meaning of what he read in Latin better than

many of his school-fellows who knew more about the language, and it was

the same all through his life--he got what he wanted from foreign

literatures with very little trouble.

Scott constantly refers to the work of Percy, Warton, Tressan,[77]

Ritson, and Ellis, in the study of ancient romances, but in editing _Sir

Tristrem_ he made one part of the field his own, and became the

authority whom he felt obliged to quote in the Essay on Romance.

Thomas the Rhymer of Erceldoune was at first an object of interest to

Scott because of the ballad of _True Thomas_ and the traditions

concerning him that floated about the countryside. The "Rhymer's Glen"

was afterwards a cherished possession of Scott's own on the Abbotsford

estate. In the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, of which Scott was in

1795 appointed a curator, was an important manuscript that contained

among other metrical romances one professing to be a copy of that

written by Thomas of Erceldoune on Sir Tristrem. From a careful piecing

together of evidence furnished by this poem and by Robert of Brunne,

with the assistance of certain legal documents which supplied dates,

Scott built up about the old poet a theory that he elaborated in his

edition of _Sir Tristrem_, published in 1804, and that continued to

interest him vividly as long as he lived. It reappears in many of his

critical writings[78] and also in the novels. In the _Bride of

Lammermoor_ Ravenswood goes to his death in compliance with the prophecy

of Thomas quoted by the superstitious Caleb Balderstone. And in _Castle

Dangerous_ Bertram, who is unconvincing perhaps because he is endowed

with the literary and antiquarian tastes of a Walter Scott himself, is

actuated by an irrepressible desire to discover works of the Rhymer.

Scott's edition of _Sir Tristrem_ gives--besides the text, introduction,

and notes--a short conclusion written by himself in imitation of the

original poet's style. Much of his theory has fallen. He considered this

_Sir Tristrem_ to be the first of the written versions of that story, a

supposition that was not long tenable. The poem is now known to be based

upon a French original, and many scholars think the name Erceldoune was

arbitrarily inserted by the English translator; though Mr. McNeill, the

latest editor, thinks there is a "reasonable probability" in favor of

Scott's opinion that the author was the historic Thomas, who flourished

in the thirteenth century. It is important, however, that Scott's

scholarship in the matter passed muster at that time with such men as

Ellis, who wrote the review in the _Edinburgh_, in which he said, "Upon

the whole we are much disposed to adopt the general inferences drawn by

Mr. Scott from his authorities, and have great pleasure in bearing

testimony to the very uncommon diligence which he has evinced in

collecting curious materials, and to the taste and sagacity with which

he has employed them.... With regard to the notes, they contain an

almost infinite variety of curious information, which had been hitherto

unknown or unnoticed."[79] John Hookham Frere said, as quoted in a

letter by Ellis, "I consider _Sir Tristrem_ as by far the most

interesting work that has as yet been published on the subject of our

earliest poets."[80] Scott's opinions were in 1824 thought to be of

sufficient importance, either from their own merits or on account of his

later fame, to call forth a dissertation appended to the edition of

Warton's _History of English Poetry_ published in that year.

The first edition of the text swarms with errors, according to

Kölbing,[81] a recent editor of the romance, and later editions are

still very inaccurate.[82] It could hardly be expected that a man with

Scott's habits of mind would edit a text accurately. But no one of that

period was competent to construct a text that would seem satisfactory

now. The study of English philology was not sufficiently developed in

that direction, nor did scholars appreciate either the difficulties or

the requirements of text-criticism. It is not to be wondered at that

Scott failed, in this instance as well as afterwards in the case of the

text of Dryden, to give a version that would stand the minute scrutiny

of later scholarship.

His sympathies were rather with the scholar who opens the store of old

poetry to the public, than with him who uses his erudition simply for

the benefit of erudite people. The diction of the Middle Ages was

interesting to him only as it reflected the customs and emotions of its

period. He used the romances as authorities on ancient manners. The

_Chronicles_ of Froissart, because they give "a knowledge of

mankind,"[83] were almost as much a hobby with him as Thomas the Rhymer,

and in this case also he endows characters in his novels with his own

fondness for the ancient writer.[84] The fruit of Scott's acquaintance

with Froissart appears prominently in his essay on _Chivalry_ and in

various introductions to ballads in the _Minstrelsy_, as well as in the

novels of chivalry. Scott at one time proposed to publish an edition of

Malory, but abandoned the project on learning that Southey had the same

thing in mind.[85]

The first periodical review Scott ever published was on the subject of

the _Amadis de Gaul_, as translated by Southey and by Rose. The article

is long and very carefully constructed, and expresses many ideas on the

subject of the mediaeval romance in general that reappear again and

again, particularly in the essay on _Romance_ written in 1823 for the

_Encyclopædia Britannica_. Among these general ideas that found frequent

expression in his critical writings, one which in the light of his

creative work becomes particularly interesting to us is his judgment on

the distinctions between metrical and prose romances. He always

preferred the poems, though he was so interested in the prose stories

that he talked about them with much enthusiasm, and it sometimes seems

as if he liked best the kind he happened to be analyzing at the moment.

Other matters that necessarily presented themselves when he was treating

the subject of romance were the problem of the sources of narrative

material, especially the perplexed question concerning the development

of the Arthurian cycle, and the problem, already discussed in connection

with ballads, concerning the character of minstrels. The minstrels

reappear throughout Scott's studies in mediaeval literature, and were

perhaps more interesting to him than any other part of the subject.

Though, as we have seen, he formulated a compromise between the opposing

opinions of Percy and Ritson, no one who reads the description of the

Last Minstrel can doubt what was the picture that he preferred to carry

in his mind.

His ideas on the subject of the origin and diffusion of narrative

material were those of the sensible man trying to look at the matter in

a reasonable way. Here again he adopted an attitude of compromise, in

that he admitted the partial truth of various theories which he

considered erroneous only in so far as any one of them was stretched

beyond its proper compass. "Romance," he said, "was like a compound

metal, derived from various mines, and in the different specimens of

which one metal or other was alternately predominant."[86]

On the subject of the Arthurian cycle, the origin of which has never

ceased to be matter for debate, he held essentially the opinions that

the highest French authority has adopted that Celtic traditions were the

foundation, and that the metrical romances preceded those in prose.[87]

The important offices of French poets in giving form to the story he

underestimated. When he said, "It is now completely proved, that the

earliest and best French romances were composed for the meridian of the

English court,"[88] he fell into the error that has not always been

avoided by scholars who have since written on the subject, of feeling

certitude about a proposition in which there is no certainty.

Scott's work on romances, though it does not always rise above

commonplaceness, escapes the perfunctory quality of hack writing by

virtue of his keen interest in the subject. He continued to like this

prosaic kind of literary task even while he was writing novels with the

most wonderful facility. We may judge not only by the fact that he

continued to write reviews at intervals throughout his life, but by an

explicit reference in his _Journal_: "I toiled manfully at the review

till two o'clock, commencing at seven. I fear it will be uninteresting,

but I like the muddling work of antiquities, and besides wish to record

my sentiments with regard to the Gothic question."[89]

It is evident that Scott did not himself find the "muddling work of

antiquities" dull, because he realized, emotionally as well as

intellectually, the life of past times. This led him to form broader

views than the ordinary student constructs out of his knowledge of

special facts. An admirable illustration of this characteristic occurs

in the essay on Romance, at the point where Scott is discussing the

social position of the minstrels, in the light of what Percy and Ritson

had said on the subject. He goes on: "In fact, neither of these

excellent antiquaries has cast a general or philosophic glance on the

necessary condition of a set of men, who were by profession the

instruments of the pleasure of others during a period of society such as

was presented in the Middle Ages." There follows a detailed and very

interesting account of what the writer's own "philosophic glance" leads

him to believe. The method is useful but dangerous; in the same essay

occurs an amusing example of what philosophy may do when it is given

free rein. Within two pages appear these conflicting statements: "The

Metrical Romances, though in some instances sent to the press, were not

very fit to be published in this form. The dull amplifications, which

passed well enough in the course of a half-heard recitation, became

intolerable when subjected to the eye." "The Metrical Romances in some

instances indeed ran to great length, but were much exceeded in that

particular by the folios which were written on the same or similar

topics by their prose successors. Probably the latter judiciously

reflected that a book which addresses itself only to the eyes may be

laid aside when it becomes tiresome to the reader; whereas it may not

always have been so easy to stop the minstrel in the full career of his

metrical declamation." Flaws like this may be picked in the details of

Scott's method, just as we may sometimes find fault with the lapses in

his mediaeval scholarship. We do him no injustice when we say that aside

from certain aspects of his work on the ballads and _Sir Tristrem_, his

achievement was that of a popularizer of learning.

But if he lacked some of the authority of erudition, he escaped also the

induration of pedantry. In writing of remote and dimly known periods,

critics are perhaps most apt to show their defects of temper, and Scott

often commented on the acerbity of spirit which such studies seem to

induce. "Antiquaries," he said, "are apt to be both positive and

polemical upon the very points which are least susceptible of proof, and

which are least valuable if the truth could be ascertained; and which

therefore we would gladly have seen handled with more diffidence and

better temper in proportion to their uncertainty."[90] Of Ritson he says

many times in one form or another that his "severe accuracy was

connected with an unhappy eagerness and irritability of temper." Scott

rode his own hobbies with an expansive cheerfulness that did not at all

hinder them from being essentially serious.

_Other Studies in Mediaeval Literature_

Scott's attitude on the Ossianic controversy--His slight

acquaintance with other northern literatures--Anglo-Saxon

scholarship of the time--Character of his familiarity with

Middle-English poetry--His opinions in regard to Chaucer--General

importance of Scott's work on mediaeval literature.

Part of Scott's critical work on mediaeval literature falls outside the

limits of the two divisions we have been considering--those of ballad

and romance. He knew comparatively little about the early poetry of the

northern nations, but at some points his knowledge of Scottish

literature made the transition fairly easy to the literature of other

Teutonic peoples. But he was especially bound to be interested in the

Gaelic, for a Scotsman of his day could hardly avoid forming an opinion

in regard to the Ossianic controversy then raging with what Scott

thought must be its final violence. He did not understand the Gaelic

language,[91] but he had a vivid interest in the Highlanders. The

picturesque quality of their customs made it natural enough for him to

use them in his novels, and by the "sheer force of genius," says Mr.

Palgrave, who considers this Scott's greatest achievement, "he united

the sympathies of two hostile races."[92]

As early as 1792 Scott had written for the Speculative Society an essay

on the authenticity of Ossian's poems, and one of his articles for the

_Edinburgh Review_ in 1805 was on the same subject, occasioned by a

couple of important documents which supported opposite sides, and which,

he said, set the question finally at issue. This article represents

Scott the critic in a typical attitude. The material was almost

altogether furnished in the works which he was surveying.[93] His task

was to distinguish the essential points of the problem, to state them

plainly, and to weigh the evidence on each side. In this he shows

notable clearness of thought, and also, throughout the rather long

treatment of a complicated subject, great lucidity in arrangement and

statement. He was led by this study to change the opinion which he had

held in common with most of his countrymen, and to adopt the belief that

the poems were essentially creations of Macpherson, with only the names

and some parts of the story adopted from the Gaelic.[94] Other

references to Ossian occur in Scott's writings, and it is evident in

this case, as in many others, that an investigation of the matter in his

early career, whether from original or from secondary sources, gave him

material for allusion and comment throughout his life. For, as we have

constant occasion to remark in studying Scott, with a very definite

grasp of concrete fact he combined a vigorous generalizing power, and

all the parts of his knowledge were actively related. He seems to have

made little preparation for some of his most interesting reviews, but to

have utilized in them the store gathered in his mind for other purposes.

Of the northern Teutonic languages Scott had slight knowledge, though he

was always interested in the northern literatures. In a review of the

_Poems of William Herbert_, of which the part most interesting to the

reviewer consisted of translations from the Icelandic, Scott says: "We

do not pretend any great knowledge of Norse; but we have so far traced

the 'Runic rhyme' as to be sensible how much more easy it is to give a

just translation of that poetry into English than into Latin." In the

same review we find him saying, after a slight discussion of the style

of Scaldic poetry, "The other translations are generally less

interesting than those from the Icelandic. There is, however, one poem

from the Danish, which I transcribe as an instance how very clearly the

ancient popular ballad of that country corresponds with our own." So we

see him drawing from all sources fuel for his favorite fire--the study

of ballads. Very characteristically also Scott suggests that the author

should extend his researches to the popular poetry of Scandinavia,

"which we cannot help thinking is the real source of many of the tales

of our minstrels."[95] It seems probable that Scott's acquaintance with

northern literatures came partly through his ill-fated amanuensis, Henry

Weber.[96] His acknowledgement in the introduction to _Sir Tristrem_

would indicate this, taken together with other references by Scott to

Weber's attainments.

Scott could hardly be called a student of Anglo-Saxon, though he was

perhaps able to read the language. His remarks on the subject may,

however, mean simply that he was familiar with early Middle English.[97]

In his essay on Romance he referred to Sharon Turner's account of the

story of Beowulf, but called the poem Caedmon, and made no correction

when he added the later footnote in regard to Conybeare's fuller and

more interesting analysis published in 1826.[98] The researches of these

men indicate the state of Anglo-Saxon scholarship in England. Sharon

Turner's very inaccurate description of _Beowulf_ was published in 1805.

Danish scholars made the first translations of the poem, but no one

could give a really scholarly text or translation until the year after

Scott died, when the first edition by J.M. Kemble appeared. There were

students of the language, however, who were doing good work in feeling

their way toward a comprehension of its special qualities. One of these

was George Ellis. In his _Specimens_ he published examples of

Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English poetry, and his information was helpful

in enlarging Scott's outlook. Scott's own knowledge of Anglo-Saxon

literature did not amount to enough to be of importance by itself, but

it served perhaps to fortify the basis of his generalizations about all

early poetry.

A review of the _Life and Works of Chatterton_ gave Scott an opportunity

to discuss the characteristics of Middle-English poetry, but his general

thesis, that the Rowley poems exhibit graces and refinements which are

in marked contrast to the tenuity of idea and tautology of expression

found in genuine works of the period, is supported by an argument which

seems to be based on a characterization of the romances rather than on a

close acquaintance with other Middle-English poetry. We notice a similar

quality in what Scott says elsewhere concerning Frere's translation into

Chaucerian English of the _Battle of Brunanburgh_: "This appears to us

an exquisite imitation of the antiquated English poetry, not depending

on an accumulation of hard words like the language of Rowley, which in

everything else is refined and harmonious poetry, nor upon an

agglomeration of consonants in the orthography, the resource of later

and more contemptible forgers, but upon the style itself, upon its

alternate strength and weakness, now nervous and concise, now diffuse

and eked out by the feeble aid of expletives."[99] Of Middle-English

poets other than Chaucer and the author or translator of _Sir Tristrem_,

Laurence Minot was the one to whom Scott alluded most frequently,

doubtless because in Ritson's edition of Minot that poet had become more

accessible than most of his contemporaries. Whatever detailed work Scott

did on the poetry of this period was chiefly in connection with _Sir

Tristrem_, which has naturally been considered in relation with his

other studies in romances.

Scott's familiarity with Chaucer appears in his numerous quotations from

that poet, but usually the passages are cited to illustrate mediaeval

manners rather than for any specifically literary purpose. Yet there are

Chaucer enthusiasts among the characters of _Woodstock_ and _Peveril of

the Peak_.[100] Chaucer's fame was well enough established so that Scott

seems on the whole to have taken his merit for granted, and not to have

said much about it except in casual references.[101] Among general

readers he must have been comparatively little known, however,

notwithstanding the respect paid him by scholars. In 1805 we find Scott

writing to Ellis that his scheme for editing a collection of the British

Poets had fallen through, for, he said, "My plan was greatly too liberal

to stand the least chance of being adopted by the trade at large, as I

wished them to begin with Chaucer. The fact is, I never expected they

would agree to it."[102]

Scott's review of Godwin's _Life of Chaucer_, one of the best known of

his periodical essays, is altogether concerned with the manner in which

Godwin did his work, and so exhibits Scott's ideas on the subject of

biography and his methods of reviewing rather than his attitude towards

Chaucer's poetry. His most definite remarks concerning Chaucer are to be

found in his comments upon Dryden's _Fables_, as for example: "The

Knight's Tale, whether we consider Chaucer's original poem, or the

spirited and animated version of Dryden, is one of the best pieces of

composition in our language";[103] "Of all Chaucer's multifarious

powers, none is more wonderful than the humour with which he touched

upon natural frailty, and the truth with which he describes the inward

feelings of the human heart."[104] Yet he once called _Troilus and

Criseyde_ "a somewhat dull poem."[105] _The Cock and the Fox_, on the

other hand, he speaks of as "a poem which, in grave ironical narrative,

liveliness of illustration, and happiness of humorous description,

yields to none that ever was written."[106]

In estimating the importance of Scott's studies on any one period we

have to think of them as part of a greater whole. The wide range of his

investigations would evidently make it impossible to expect a complete

treatment of all the subjects he might choose to discuss, and we have

found, in fact, that his criticism of mediaeval literature led to

systematic results in no other lines than those of the ballad and the

romance. But these were large and important matters. Moreover, to all

that he wrote in connection with the Middle Ages there attaches a

special interest; for with that work he made his real start in

literature; and it reflected the peculiarly delightful vein in his own

nature which was constant from youth to age, and which gave to his poems

and novels some of their most brilliant qualities.[107]

THE DRAMA

Scott's fondness for the drama and his acquaintance with actors--His

ideas about plot structure--His own dramatic experiments--His

opinion of the theaters of his day--His knowledge of English

dramatic literature--Familiarity with Elizabethan plays shown in his

novels--His Essay on the Drama--Ancient drama--French

drama--Dramatic unities--German drama--Elizabethan

drama--Shakspere--Ben Jonson--Dryden and other Restoration

dramatists--Morality of theater-going--Character of Scott's interest

in the drama.

Like most of his characteristics, Scott's taste for the theater was

exhibited in his childhood. We find him reverting, in a review written

in 1826,[108] to his rapturous emotions on the occasion of seeing his

first play; and in the private theatricals which he and his brothers and

sister performed in the family dining-room he was always the manager. In

1810 he was active in helping to bring out in Edinburgh the _Family

Legend_ of his friend Joanna Baillie.[109] One of the actors on that

occasion was Daniel Terry,[110] who became an intimate friend of

Scott's. For Terry Scott wrote _The Doom of Devorgoil_, but the piece

was not found suitable for presentation. Several of the novels were more

successfully dramatized by the same friend, so that we find the "Author"

humorously complaining in the "Introductory Epistle" to _The Fortunes of

Nigel_, "I believe my muse would be _Terry_fied into treading the stage

even if I should write a sermon." Among Scott's friends were several

other actors, particularly Mrs. Siddons and her brother John Kemble, and

the comedian Charles Mathews. In Scott's review of _Kelly's

Reminiscences and the Life of Kemble_ we find recorded many of the

discriminations he was fond of making in regard to the talents of

particular actors.

In his childhood Scott felt well qualified to take the part of Richard

III., for he considered that his limp "would do well enough to represent

the hump."[111] After a similar fashion we find him commenting on the

improbabilities of the tragedy of _Douglas_: "But the spectator should,

and indeed must, make considerable allowances if he expects to receive

pleasure from the drama. He must get his mind, according to Tony

Lumpkin's phrase, into 'a concatenation accordingly,'[112] since he

cannot reasonably expect that scenes of deep and complicated interest

shall be placed before him, in close succession, without some force

being put upon ordinary probability; and the question is not, how far

you have sacrificed your judgment in order to accommodate the fiction,

but rather, what is the degree of delight you have received in

return."[113]

Scott disclaimed any special knowledge of stage-craft. "I know as little

about the division of a drama as the spinster about the division of a

battle, to use Iago's simile,"[114] he once wrote to a friend. Yet as a

critic he had of course some general ideas about the making of plays,

without having worked out any subtle theories on the subject. In

criticising a play by Allan Cunningham, who had asked for his judgment

on it, he remarked first that the plot was ill-combined. "If the mind

can be kept upon one unbroken course of interest, the effect even in

perusal is more gratifying. I have always considered this as the great

secret in dramatic poetry, and conceive it one of the most difficult

exercises of the invention possible, to conduct a story through five

acts, developing it gradually in every scene, so as to keep up the

attention, yet never till the very conclusion permitting the nature of

the catastrophe to become visible,--and all the while to accompany this

by the necessary delineation of character and beauty of language."[115]

And again he said to the same person, "I hope you will make another

dramatic attempt; and in that case I would strongly recommend that you

should previously make a model or skeleton of your incidents, dividing

them regularly into scenes and acts, so as to insure the dependence of

one circumstance upon another, and the simplicity and union of your

whole story."[116] Here we find Scott giving advice which by his own

admission he was not himself able to follow in the composition of

fiction. "I never could lay down a plan, or having laid it down I never

could adhere to it," he wrote in his journal[117]. And the "Author" in

the introductory epistle to _Nigel_ remarks, "It may pass for one good

reason for not writing a play, that I cannot form a plot."

The few experiments that he made he did not seem to regard seriously at

any time, though he was rather favorably impressed on rereading the

_Doom of Devorgoil_ after it had lain unused for several years.[118] Of

_Halidon Hill_ he said, "It is designed to illustrate military

antiquities and the manners of chivalry. The drama (if it can be called

one) is in no particular either designed or calculated for the

stage."[119] He seems to have been "often urged" to write plays, if one

may trust Captain Clutterbuck's authority, and the effectiveness of the

many poetical mottoes improvised by the Author of Waverley for the

chapters of his novels, and subscribed "Old Play,"[120] was naturally

used as an argument.[121] Scott's own judgment in the matter was

expressed thus: "Nothing so easy when you are full of an author, as to

write a few lines in his taste and style; the difficulty is to keep it

up. Besides, the greatest success would be but a spiritless imitation,

or, at best, what the Italians call a _centone_ [_sic_] from

Shakspeare."[122] When Elliston became manager of Drury Lane in 1819 he

applied to Scott for plays, but without effect.[123] Scott seems never

to have felt any concern over the fact that the dramatized versions of

his novels were often very poor, but Hazlitt wished that he would "not

leave it to others to mar what he has sketched so admirably as a

ground-work," for he saw no good reason why the author of Waverley could

not write "a first-rate tragedy as well, as so many first-rate

novels."[124]

Scott felt that to write for the stage in his day was a thankless and

almost degrading occupation. "Avowedly I will never write for the stage;

if I do, 'call me horse.'" he said in a letter to Terry.[125] Again in

a letter to Southey: "I do not think the character of the audience in

London is such that one could have the least pleasure in pleasing

them.... On the whole, I would far rather write verses for mine honest

friend Punch and his audience";[126] and to a would-be tragedian he

said: "In the present day there is only one reason which seems to me

adequate for the encountering the plague of trying to please a set of

conceited performers and a very motley audience,--I mean the want of

money."[127] This degraded condition of the London stage Scott thought

to be a consequence of limiting the number of theaters. We can hardly

suppose, however, that he was pessimistic in regard to the written drama

of his day, when he could say of Byron, "There is one who, to judge from

the dramatic sketch he has given us in Manfred, must be considered as a

match for Aeschylus, even in his sublimest moods of horror";[128] or

when he could place Joanna Baillie in the same class with

Shakspere[129].

Scott probably did much reading in the drama in his early life. We know

that by 1804 he had "long since" annotated his copy of Beaumont and

Fletcher sufficiently so that he wished to offer it to Gifford, who,

Scott erroneously understood, was about to edit their dramas.[130] The

edition of Dryden, published in 1808, shows familiarity with Elizabethan

as well as Restoration dramatists. He seems to have had first-hand

knowledge of such men as Ford, Webster, Marston, Brome, Shirley,

Chapman, and Dekker, whom he mentions as being "little known to the

general readers of the present day, even by name."[131] But 1808 was

the very year in which appeared Lamb's _Specimens of English Dramatic

Poets_ and Coleridge's first course of lectures on Shakspere. The old

dramatists were beginning to come to their own, through the sympathetic

appreciation of the Romantic critics. Scott never refers, however, to

the work of Lamb, Coleridge, or Hazlitt[132] in this field and we

conclude that his researches in dramatic literature were the recreation

of a man who realized that his business lay in another direction. But in

preparing the _Dryden_, he doubtless read more widely in Restoration

drama than he would otherwise have done. Throughout his life he

continued to read plays at intervals, as we know from occasional

references in the _Journal_; but after the _Dryden_ appeared we can

point to no time in his career when such reading was his especial

occupation. His familiarity with Elizabethan drama he showed even more

emphatically than by serious critical writings on the subject, in his

fragments from mythical "Old Plays,"[133] in his frequent references to

single plays, and in the substance of some of the novels, particularly

_The Fortunes of Nigel_ and _Woodstock_, which make use of settings,

situations, and characterizations suggested by the drama.[134] Mr. Lang

says of _The Fortunes of Nigel_, "The scenes in Alsatia are a distinct

gain to literature, a pearl rescued from the unread mass of

Shadwell."[135]

His serious critical writings on the subject comprise little else than

his _Essay on the Drama_, which appeared in the supplement to the

_Encyclopædia Britannica_, published in 1819, and the discussions given

in connection with Dryden's plays.[136] Although the Essay was written

ten years later than the _Dryden_, we have no reason to think that Scott

changed his views or added greatly to his knowledge in the interval, and

using these two sources we may discuss his account of the drama in

general without regard to the particular date at which his opinions were

expressed.

His exposition in the _Essay on the Drama_ rested on the basis furnished

by a historical study of the stage. He did not, of course, pretend to

have formed his own conclusions on all points, and we find him quoting

from various authorities, sometimes naming them and sometimes only

indicating, perhaps, that he was "abridging from the best antiquaries."

This, however, was chiefly in connection with the ancient drama. As I

have already remarked, we do not find him referring to recent studies on

the English drama. And though Scott had forgotten all his Greek we

observe that he is bold enough to disagree with "the ingenious Schlegel"

in regard to the comparative value of the Greek New Comedy. In his

treatment of the ancient drama the main point for note is the success

with which he gives a broad and connected view of the subject. His

account of the drama in France needs correction in certain

respects,[137] but it seems to indicate some first-hand knowledge and

very definite opinions. He quotes Molière frequently throughout his

writings, and always speaks of him with admiration; but with no other

French dramatist does he seem to have been familiar to such a degree.

Judging French tragic poets too much from the Shaksperian point of view,

he was not prepared to do them justice.[138] On the dramatic unities, of

which he remarked, "Aristotle says so little and his commentators and

followers talk so much," Scott wrote, here and elsewhere, with decision

and vivacity. The unities of time and place he calls "fopperies," though

time and place, he admits, are not to be lightly changed.[139] He

connects the whole discussion with the study of theatrical conditions,

and never bows down to authority as such. He says, "Surely it is of less

consequence merely to ascertain what was the practice of the ancients,

than to consider how far such practice is founded upon truth, good

taste, and general effect"; and again, "Aristotle would probably have

formulated different rules if he had written in our time." And though he

adopted and applied to the drama the Horatian dictum that the end of

poetry is to instruct and delight, it was not because Horace and a long

line of critics had said it, but because he thought it was true.

Doubtless his phrase would have been different if he had not taken what

was lying nearest, but his habit was never carefully to avoid the common

phrase. His general opinion of French drama was decidedly unfavorable,

and he thought it was doubtful whether their plays would ever be any

nearer to nature. "That nation," he observes calmly, "is so unfortunate

as to have no poetical language."

His remarks on German drama are general in character, though we know

that in his early days he was much interested in translating

contemporary German plays. His version of Goethe's _Goetz von

Berlichingen_ was the most important of these translations. A letter of

Scott's contains the following reference to this play:[140] "The

publication of Goetz was a great era ... in German literature, and

served completely to free them from the French follies of unities and

decencies of the scene, and gave an impulse to their dramas which was

unique of its kind. Since that, they have been often stark mad but

never, I think, stupid. They either divert you by taking the most

brilliant leaps through the hoop, or else by tumbling into the custard,

as the newspapers averred the Champion did at the Lord Mayor's dinner."

When he is on English ground we can best trace Scott's individual

opinions, yet even here he reflects some of the limitations of the less

enlightened scholarship of his time, especially in connection with early

Elizabethan writers. He passes from _Ferrex and Porrex_[141] and _Gammer

Gurton's Needle_ directly to Shakspere, and quite omits Marlowe and the

other immediate predecessors. He was not ignorant of their existence,

for against a statement of Dryden's that Shakspere was the first to use

blank verse we find in Scott's edition the note,--"This is a mistake.

Marlowe and several other dramatic authors used blank verse before the

days of Shakespeare";[142] and one of his youthful notebooks contains

this comment on _Faustus_: "A very remarkable thing. Grand subject--end

grand."[143] In 1831 Scott intended to write an article for the

_Quarterly Review_ on Peele, Greene, and Webster, and in asking

Alexander Dyce to have Webster's works sent to him he said, "Marlowe and

others I have,--and some acquaintance with the subject, though not

much."[144] Webster he considered "one of the best of our ancient

dramatists." The proposed article was never written, because of Scott's

final illness.

In spite of his statement that "the English stage might be considered

equally without rule and without model when Shakspeare arose," Scott did

not seem inclined to leave the great man altogether unaccounted for, as

some critics have preferred to do, for he says, "The effect of the

genius of an individual upon the taste of a nation is mighty; but that

genius in its turn is formed according to the opinions prevalent at the

period when it comes into existence." These opinions, however, Scott

assigns very vaguely to the influence of "a nameless crowd of obscure

writers," and thinks it fortunate that Shakspere was unacquainted with

classical rules. The critic had evidently made no attempt to define the

influence of particular writers upon Shakspere. His criticism is at some

points purely conventional, as for instance when he calls the poet "that

powerful magician, whose art could fascinate us even by means of

deformity itself "; but on the whole Scott seems to write about

Shakspere in a very reasonable and discriminating way.

He has a good deal to say of Ben Jonson, in other places as well as in

this Essay on the Drama.[145] He was evidently well acquainted with that

poet, and admired him without liking him. Somewhere he calls him "the

dry and dogged Jonson,"[146] and again he speaks of his genius in very

high terms. The contrast between Shakspere and Jonson moved him even to

epigram:[147] "In reading Shakespeare we often meet passages so

congenial to our nature and feelings that, beautiful as they are, we can

hardly help wondering they did not occur to ourselves; in studying

Jonson, we have often to marvel how his conceptions could have occurred

to any human being." It was characteristic of Scott to note the fact

that Shakspere wrote rapidly, Jonson slowly, for he was fond of getting

support for his theory that rapid writing is the better.

As early as 1804 Scott referred to _The Changeling_ as "an old play

which contains some passages horribly striking,"[148] and in so doing

voiced, as Mr. Swinburne says, "the first word of modern tribute to the

tragic genius of Thomas Middleton."[149] Scott also praised Massinger

highly, especially for his strength in characterization, and once called

him "the most gentleman-like of all the old English dramatists."[150] He

discussed Beaumont and Fletcher sympathetically, for he knew them well

and frequently quoted from them. He named Shirley, Ford, Webster, and

Dekker in a group, and spoke of the singular profusion of talents

devoted in this period to the writing of plays, an observation which is

made more explicitly later in the _Journal_, when he has just been

reading an old play which, he says, "worthless in the extreme, is, like

many of the plays in the beginning of the seventeenth century, written

to a good tune. The dramatic poets of that time seem to have possessed

as joint-stock a highly poetical and abstract tone of language, so that

the worst of them often remind you of the very best."[151] This

circumstance he accounts for by a reference to the audiences, and this

in turn he seems to ascribe partly to the great number of theaters then

open in London. He dwells so much on the evils of limiting the number of

play-houses to two or three, that we may fairly consider it one of his

hobbies, and it is possible that he had some slight influence toward

increasing that public opposition to the theatrical monopoly which

finally, in 1843, resulted in the nullification of the patents.

Scott's discussion of Restoration drama is admirably vigorous and clear.

He probably simplified the matter too much at some points, indeed, as

for example in over-estimating the influence exerted upon the stage by

Charles II. and his French tastes, and in tracing the origin of the

French drama to romances. But in general his facts are right and his

deductions fair. Mr. Saintsbury has accused him of depreciating Dryden's

plays, especially the comedies, out of disgust at their indecency; yet

in judging the period as a whole he seems to discriminate sufficiently

between indelicacy and dulness. "The talents of Otway," he says, "in his

scenes of passionate affection rival, at least, and sometimes excel

those of Shakspeare." Again: "The comedies of Congreve contain probably

more wit than was ever before embodied upon the stage; each word was a

jest, and yet so characteristic that the repartee of the servant is

distinguished from that of the master; the jest of the cox-comb from

that of the humorist or fine gentleman of the piece." Lesser writers of

the time are also sympathetically characterized,--Shadwell, for

instance, whom he thought to be commonly underestimated.[152] The heroic

play Scott discussed vivaciously in more than one connection, for, as we

should expect, his sense of humor found its absurdities tempting.[153]

On the rant in the _Conquest of Granada_ he remarked, "Dryden's apology

for these extravagances seems to be that Almanzor is in a passion. But

although talking nonsense is a common effect of passion, it seems hardly

one of those consequences adapted to show forth the character of a hero

in theatrical representation."[154] Scott's opinion of the form of these

plays appears in the following comment: "We doubt if, with his utmost

efforts, [Molière] could have been absolutely dull, without the

assistance of a pastoral subject and heroic measure."[155] Concerning

the indecency of the literature of the period Scott wrote emphatically.

He was much troubled by the problem of whether to publish Dryden's works

without any cutting, and came near taking Ellis's advice to omit some

portions, but he finally adhered to his original determination: "In

making an edition of a man of genius's works for libraries and

collections ... I must give my author as I find him, and will not tear

out the page, even to get rid of the blot, little as I like it."[156]

The question of the morality of theater-going was one Scott felt obliged

to discuss when he was writing upon the drama. He found its vindication,

characteristically, in a universal human trait,--the impulse toward

mimicry and impersonation,--and in the good results that may be supposed

to attend it. In naming these he lays what seems like undue stress on

the teaching of history by the drama, in language that might quite as

well be applied to historical novels. His argument on the literary side

also is stated in a somewhat too sweeping way:--"Had there been no

drama, Shakespeare would, in all likelihood, have been but the author of

_Venus and Adonis_ and of a few sonnets forgotten among the numerous

works of the Elizabethan age, and Otway had been only the compiler of

fantastic odes."[157] A final plea, in favor of the stage as a

democratic agency--though this of course is not Scott's phrasing--seems

slightly unusual for him, although not essentially out of character.

"The entertainment," he says, "which is the subject of general

enjoyment, is of a nature which tends to soften, if not to level, the

distinction of ranks."[158] In another mood he admitted the greater

likelihood that immoral plays would injure the public character than

that moral plays would elevate it.[159]

It is sufficiently apparent to any student of Scott's work that he was

personally very fond of the drama. Many of the literary references and

allusions which appear in great abundance throughout his writings are

from plays, and show, as we have seen, a wide acquaintance with English

dramatic writers, from Shakspere to such comparatively little-known

playwrights as Suckling and Cowley. In the _Letters of Malachi

Malagrowther on the Currency_, for example, Scott's unusual range of

reading reveals itself even in connection with a subject remote from his

ordinary field, and here as elsewhere he shows himself prone to quote

from the drama.[160] But Scott was interested in plays for what he found

in them of characters and manners, of witty and sententious speech, of

situations and incidents, and only secondarily in the technical aspects

of the drama. Reading his novels we could guess that he would care more

for the concrete elements of a play than for the orderly march of events

through the various stages of a formally proper construction. In this

respect he differs from Coleridge; but indeed the two men may be

contrasted at almost every point. In summing up this part of Scott's

criticism we must remember also that it was chiefly incidental. Perhaps

whatever qualities it exhibits are on this account particularly

characteristic: at any rate his opinions on the drama were the reaction

of an unusually capable mind upon a department of literature in which

his reading was all the more fruitful because it followed the lines of a

natural inclination.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

_Dryden_

Scott's preparations for his edition of Dryden--Wide Scope of the

work--Scott's estimation of Dryden--Grounds for putting Dryden above

Chaucer and Spenser--Admirable style of the biography--Comments by

Scott on other seventeenth century writers.

The edition of _Dryden's Complete Works_ deserves further notice,

especially since only eight of the eighteen volumes are occupied with

the plays, and these have less commentary than other parts of the works.

In 1805 Scott wrote to his friend George Ellis, "My critical notes will

not be very numerous but I hope to illustrate the political poems, as

_Absalom and Achitophel_, the _Hind and Panther_, etc., with some

curious annotations. I have already made a complete search among some

hundred pamphlets of that pamphlet-writing age, and with considerable

success, as I have found several which throw light on my author."[161]

He added that another edition of Dryden was proposed, and Ellis wrote in

answer, "With regard to your competitors, I feel perfectly at my ease,

because I am convinced that though you should generously furnish them

with all the materials, they would not know how to use them; _non cuivis

hominum contingit_ to write critical notes that anyone will read."[162]

When Scott's Dryden was reëdited and reissued in 1882-93 by Professor

Saintsbury, the new editor said: "It certainly deserves the credit of

being one of the best-edited books on a great scale in English, save in

one particular,--the revision of the text."[163] The elaborate

historical notes are left untouched, as being "in general thoroughly

trustworthy,"[164] though the editor considers them somewhat excessive,

especially as sometimes containing illustrative material from perfectly

worthless contemporaries. On the other hand, the "explanation of word

and phrase is a little defective."[165]

The most notable quality of the _Life of Dryden_ which composes the

first of the eighteen volumes is its breadth of scope. Scott's aim may

best be given in his own words in the Advertisement: "The general

critical view of Dryden's works being sketched by Johnson with

unequalled felicity, and the incidents of his life accurately discussed

and ascertained by Malone, something seemed to remain for him who should

consider these literary productions in their succession, as actuated by,

and operating upon, the taste of an age where they had so predominant

influence; and who might, at the same time, connect the life of Dryden

with the history of his publications, without losing sight of the fate

and character of the individual."[166]

Errors of judgment appear in places; sometimes they are due to the

imperfect scholarship of the time; sometimes they arise from prejudices

of Scott's own. In the very first chapter we find him condemning Lyly

and all writers of "conceited" language--particularly of course the

Metaphysicals--with a thoroughness that a truly catholic critic ought

probably to avoid. Scott had a constitutional dislike for a labored

style, and at the same time a fondness for the direct and

straightforward way of looking at things. So, though he was open to the

emotional appeal of a poem like _Christabel_, he took no pleasure in the

devious processes by which the cold intellect has sometimes tried to

give fresh interest to familiar words and ideas. They quite prevented

him from seeing the passion in the work of Donne, for example, and he

considered all metaphysical poets, in so far as they showed the traits

of their class, to be without poetical feeling.

Scott placed Dryden after Shakspere and Milton as third in the list of

English writers. I think he would even have been willing to say that

Dryden was the third as a poet. For greatly as he admired Chaucer, Scott

did not feel Chaucer's full power, and indeed it was only beginning to

be possible to read Chaucer with any appreciation of his metrical

excellence. Spenser, of whom he once wrote: "No author, perhaps, ever

possessed and combined in so brilliant a degree the requisite qualities

of a poet,"[167] was more of a favorite with Scott than Chaucer. But at

another time he spoke of Drayton as possessing perhaps equal powers of

poetry,[168] and he seems to have felt that Spenser becomes tedious

through the continued use of his difficult stanza and even more because

of the "languor of a continued allegory."[169] In comparing his

judgments on Spenser and Dryden we may conclude that the critic found

more in the later poet of that solid intellectual basis which he

emphasizes in characterizing him. "This power of ratiocination," says

Scott, "of investigating, discovering, and appreciating that which is

really excellent, if accompanied with the necessary command of fanciful

illustration and elegant expression, is the most interesting quality

which can be possessed by a poet."[170] Again he lays emphasis on

Dryden's versatility,--greater, he says, than that of Shakspere and

Milton. In _Old Mortality_ Dryden is referred to as "the great

High-priest of all the Nine." Scott would have called this another point

of his superiority over Spenser, if he had made the comparison.

Yet he saw Dryden's deficiencies. "It was a consequence of his mental

acuteness that his dramatic personages often philosophized and reasoned

when they ought only to have felt,"[171] Scott remarks and he frequently

deplores Dryden's failure "in expressing the milder and more tender

passions."[172] Of Dryden's great gift of style, Scott speaks in the

highest terms. "With this power," he says, "Dryden's poetry was gifted

in a degree surpassing in modulated harmony that of all who had preceded

him and inferior to none that has since written English verse [_sic_].

He first showed"--and here we see Scott's eighteenth-century

affinities--"that the English language was capable of uniting smoothness

and strength."[173]

Such criticism as Scott gives on specific parts of Dryden's work is

clear-cut, fair for the most part, and has the sanity and reasonableness

which are the most noticeable qualities of his criticism in general. It

would be easier to find illustrations of shrewdness than of subtlety

among his notes, but his discriminations are often effective and

satisfying. His discussion, for example, of prologues and epilogues

considered in relation to the theatrical conditions which determined

their character is admirable.[174] A note on "the cant of supposing that

the _Iliad_ contained an obvious and intentional moral"[175] is also

full of sense and vigor, but these qualities are so thoroughly diffused

through the work that there is no need of particularizing. His praise of

_Alexander's Feast_ may be referred to, however, as showing his

characteristic delight in objective poetry.[176] As a lyric poet, he

says, Dryden "must be allowed to have no equal."[177]

The peculiarly congenial qualities of the subject may have had something

to do with the fact that the style in which the _Life of Dryden_ is

written is noticeably better than that of Scott's ordinary work. It is

marked with a care and accuracy that were not, unfortunately, habitual

to him. Perhaps it was an advantage that when he wrote the book he had

not yet become altogether familiar with his own facility; certainly the

substance and the manner of treatment unite in making this the most

important of his critical biographies.

Various references indicate that Scott was acquainted in at least a

general way with English writers throughout the whole of Dryden's

century. He speaks of the poems of Phineas Fletcher as containing "many

passages fully equal to Spenser"[178]; he says that Cowley "is now ...

undeservedly forgotten"[179]; he calls _Hudibras_ "the most witty poem

that ever was written,"[180] but says, "the perpetual scintillation of

Butler's wit is too dazzling to be delightful"[181]; he talks of Waller

and quotes from him[182]; he refers to the charming quality of Isaac

Walton's work;[183] and he adopts Samuel Pepys as a familiar

acquaintance.[184] These references occur mostly in the _Dryden_ or in

the novels, and we may conclude that the work for the _Dryden_ gathered

up and strengthened all Scott's acquaintance with the literature of the

seventeenth century, from Shakspere and Milton down to writers of

altogether minor importance; and gave him material for many of the

allusions that appear in his later work. It is probably true that there

are more quotations from Dryden in Scott's books than from any other one

author,[185] though lines from Shakspere occurred more often in his

conversation and familiar letters.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

_Swift_

The preparation of _Swift's Complete Works_--Comparison of the

_Dryden_ and the _Swift_--The bibliographical problem presented by

Swift's works--Inaccuracies in the biography--Scott's success in

portraying a perplexing temperament--Judicious quality of his

literary criticism.

As soon as the _Dryden_ was completed Scott was offered twice as much

money as he had received for that work, for a similar edition of

Swift.[186] He readily undertook the task, and in the midst of many

other editorial engagements set to work upon it. The preparation of the

book extended over the six years during which Scott ran the greater part

of his poetical career. On its appearance one of his friends expressed

the feeling which every student of Scott must have had in regard to the

large editorial labors that he undertook, in saying, "I am delighted and

surprised; for how a person of your turn could wade through, and so

accurately analyze what you have done (namely, all the dull things

calculated to illustrate your author), seems almost impossible, and a

prodigy in the history of the human mind."[187] The work was first

published in 1814. Ten years later it was revised and reissued; and

Scott's _Swift_ has, like his _Dryden_, been the standard edition of

that author ever since.

In each case Scott had to deal with an important and varied body of

literature in the two fields of poetry and prose, though the proportions

were different; and in each case he had occasion for illustrative

historical annotations of the kind that he wrote with unrivalled

facility. He was master of the political intrigues of Queen Anne's reign

no less completely than of the circumstances which gave rise to _Absalom

and Achitophel_, and the fact that his notes are less voluminous in the

_Swift_ is probably to be accounted for by the comparative absence of

quaintness in the literary and social fashions of the eighteenth

century.

The peculiar conditions under which Swift's writings had appeared, and

his remarkable indifference to literary fame, gave the editor

opportunity to look for material which had not before been included in

his works. The diligent search of Scott and his various correspondents

enabled him to add about thirty poems, between sixty and seventy letters

from Swift, and about sixteen other small pieces. The most noteworthy

item among these additions was the correspondence between Swift and Miss

Vanhomrigh, of which only a very small part had previously been made

public.[188]

Scott's notes seem to indicate that most of the necessary searching

through newspapers and obscure pamphlets for forgotten work of Swift was

performed by "obliging correspondents," and that the editor himself had

only to pass judgment on what was brought to his attention. This

impression may arise largely from his cordiality in expressing

indebtedness to his helpers, but it is certain that his position as a

popular poet gave Scott the assistance of many people who would not have

been enlisted in the work by an ordinary editor. But Scott had the

difficult task of deciding whether the unauthenticated pieces were to be

assigned to Swift. The bibliography of Swift is still so uncertain that

it is impossible to say how many of the small pamphlets in verse and

prose added in this edition are really his work.[189] Scott had good

reason for his additions in most cases, though sometimes, as he was

aware, the Dean had merely revised the work of other people. The editor

was occasionally over-credulous in attributing pieces to Swift, but he

was perhaps oftener too generous in giving room to things which he knew

had very little claim to be considered Swift's work. When he was in

doubt he chose to err on the safe side, according to the principles set

forth in the following note on the _Letter from Dr. Tripe to Nestor

Ironside_: "The piece contains a satirical description of Steele's

person, and should the editor be mistaken in conjecturing that Swift

contributed to compose it, may nevertheless, at this distance of time,

merit preservation as a literary curiosity."[190] The ample space

afforded by the nineteen volumes of the book gives room to Arbuthnot's

_History of John Bull_--because it was "usually published in Swift's

works,"--to the verses addressed to the Dean and those written in memory

of him, as well as to the prose and verse miscellanies of Pope and

Swift, and the miscellanies and _jeux d'esprit_ of Swift and Sheridan.

Swift's correspondence fills the last four and a half volumes.

The biography, which occupies the first volume, is admirable in tone,

but the facts Scott gives are less to be relied upon than the inferences

and conclusions he derives from them. He corresponded with persons who

were in a position to know about Swift from his friends and

acquaintances, and probably he trusted too much to these "original

sources." We find, as perhaps the most noteworthy instance, that the

marriage to Stella is stated as an ascertained fact, on authority that

is not now considered convincing. Later biographers of Swift,--Sir Henry

Craik, Leslie Stephen, Mr. Churton Collins,--have borne witness to the

human interest of Scott's biography, and its preeminence, in spite of

inaccuracies, among all the Lives of Swift that have been written. But

Mr. Churton Collins thinks Scott did not present a really clear view of

Swift's mysterious character, and Craik says he took only the

conventional attitude towards Swift's politics, misanthropy, and

religion. The charge indicates Scott's weakness, and perhaps also much

of his strength, as a biographer and critic, for he had no prejudice

against the conventional as such, and was never anxious to exhibit

special "insight" of any kind. Yet I think his portrayal of Swift has

seemed to most readers a clear presentation of a real and comprehensible

character.[191]

Scott's remark when he undertook the work, that Swift was of his early

favorites,[192] seems surprising when one remembers how his genial

nature recoiled from misanthropy and cynicism; but his treatment of the

Dean was so sympathetic that Jeffrey thought him decidedly too lenient,

and was moved to express righteous indignation in the pages of the

_Edinburgh Review_.[193] The rebuke was unnecessary, for Scott did not

omit to record Swift's failings and to express wholesomely vigorous

opinions concerning them, though he felt that they ought to be looked

upon as evidences of disease rather than of guilt. He felt also, with

perhaps some excess of charity but surely not such as could be in the

least harmful, that "if the Dean's principles were misanthropical, his

practice was benevolent. Few have written so much with so little view

either to fame or to profit, or to aught but benefit to the

public."[194] Jeffrey's condemnation of Scott's point of view was

mingled with just praise. He said of the biography: "It is quite fair

and moderate in politics; and perhaps rather too indulgent and tender

towards individuals of all descriptions,--more full, at least, of

kindness and veneration for genius and social virtue, than of

indignation at baseness and profligacy. Altogether it is not much like

the production of a mere man of letters, or a fastidious speculator in

sentiment and morality; but exhibits throughout, and in a very pleasing

form, the good sense and large toleration of a man of the world."

The very practical motives that inspired most of Swift's pamphlets would

naturally attract Scott. Probably it was the remembrance of the

_Drapier's Letters_ that suggested to him a similar form of protest

against proposed changes in the Scottish currency; certainly the

_Letters of Malachi Malagrowther_ had an effect comparable to that of

Swift's more consummately ingenious appeal. Another quality in Swift's

work that would naturally arouse Scott's admiration was the remarkable

directness and lucidity of the style. Scott appreciated the originality

force of Swift, even when it was used in the service of satire.

Sometimes, he says, "the intensity of his satire gives to his poetry a

character of emphatic violence which borders upon grandeur."[195] The

editor's discussion of _Gulliver's Travels_ an acute and illuminating

little essay, contains one comment that gives an amusing revelation of

his point of view. He says in regard to the fourth part of the story:

"It is some consolation to remark that the fiction on which this libel

on human nature rests is in every respect gross and improbable, and, far

from being entitled to the praise due to the management of the first two

parts, is inferior in plan even to the third."[196] This is a sound

verdict, even if it does contain an extra-literary element. Scott

surpassed most of his contemporaries, except the younger Romantic

writers, in his ability to eliminate irrelevant considerations in

estimating any literary work; and if occasionally his strong moral

feeling appears in his criticism, it serves to remind us how much less

often this happens than a knowledge of his temperament would lead us to

expect. In spite of the qualities in his subject that might naturally

bias Scott's judgment, his criticism throughout this edition of Swift

seems on the whole very judicious. It defines the literary importance

and brings out plainly the power of a man whose work presents unusual

perplexities to the critic.

_The Somers Tracts_

Character of the collection and of Scott's work on it--Occasional

carelessness--Purpose of the notes--Scott's attitude towards these

studies.

While Scott was working on his _Dryden_ and before he began the _Swift_

he undertook to edit the great collection which had been published fifty

years before as _Somers' Tracts_. His task was to arrange, revise, and

annotate pamphlets which represented every reign from Elizabeth to

George I. He grouped them chronologically by reigns, and separated them

further into sections under the headings,--Ecclesiastical, Historical,

Civil, Military, Miscellaneous; he also added eighty-one pamphlets, all

written before the time of James II. The largest number of additions in

any one section was historical and had reference to Stafford. Among the

miscellaneous tracts that he incorporated were Derrick's _Image of

Ireland_ from a copy in the Advocates' Library, and Gosson's _School of

Abuse_. Scott's statement in the Advertisement as to why he did not omit

any of the original collection shows his unpedantic attitude toward the

kind of studies which he was encouraging by the republication of this

series. He says: "When the variety of literary pursuits, and the

fluctuation of fashionable study is considered, it may seem rash to pass

a hasty sentence of exclusion, even upon the dullest and most despised

of the essays which this ample collection offers to the public. There

may be among the learned, even now, individuals to whom the rabbinical

lore of Hugh Broughton presents more charms than the verses of Homer;

and a future day may arise when tracts on chronology will bear as high a

value among antiquaries as 'Greene's Groats' Worth of Wit,' or 'George

Peele's Jests,' the present respectable objects of research and

reverence."

In editing this collection Scott made little attempt to decide disputed

problems of authorship when the explanation did not lie upon the

surface. Indeed the following note regarding the tract called _A New

Test of the Church of England's Loyalty_ shows that he sometimes

neglected very obvious sources of information, for the piece is given in

one of Defoe's own collections of his works: "This defence of whiggish

loyalty," says Scott, "seems to have been written by the celebrated

Daniel De Foe, a conjecture which is strengthened by the frequent

reference to his poem of the True-born Englishman."[197] He was not

often so careless, but the rapidity and range of his work during these

years undoubtedly gave occasion for more than one lapse of accuracy,

while at the same time it perhaps increased the effectiveness of his

comment.

His notes and introductions vary in length according to the requirements

of the case, for he aimed to provide such material as would prevent the

necessity of reference to other works. Matters that were obscure he

explained, and he wrote little comment on those that were generally

understood. When he left himself so free a hand he could indulge his

personal tastes somewhat also, and we are not surprised to find an

especial abundance of notes on an account of the Gowrie Conspiracy which

presented a perplexing problem in Scottish history.

The connection of _Somers' Tracts_ with other things that Scott did has

already been remarked upon.[198] That he found some sort of stimulation

in all his scholarly employments is sufficiently evident to anyone who

studies his work as a whole, and this fact might well serve as a motive

for such study. Yet it is only fair to remember that Scott was not a

novelist during these years when he was performing his most laborious

editorial tasks. We are accustomed to think of the brilliant use he was

afterwards to make of the knowledge he was gaining, but the motives

which influenced him were those of the man whose interest in literature

and history makes scholarly work seem the most natural way of earning

money. "These are studies, indeed, proverbially dull," he once wrote,

speaking of Horace Walpole's antiquarian researches, "but it is only

when they are pursued by those whose fancies nothing can enliven."[199]

_The Lives of the Novelists, and Comments on Other Eighteenth Century

Writers_

The _Novelists' Library_--Writers discussed--Value of the

_Lives_--General tone of competence in these essays--Scott's

catholic taste--Points of special interest in the

discussion--Relations of the novel and the drama--Supernatural

machinery in novels--Mistakes in the criticism of

Defoe--Realism--Motive in the novel--Aim of the prefaces--Scott's

familiarity with eighteenth century literature.

It has already been said that a large part of Scott's critical work

concerned itself with the eighteenth century. Of his greater editorial

labors two may be considered as belonging to that period, for

Ballantyne's _Novelists' Library_, though an enterprise which was

commercially a failure and which consequently remained incomplete, may

from the point of view of Scott's contributions fitly be compared with

the _Dryden_ and the _Swift_. Such parts as were published appeared in

1821. The bulk of the volumes and the small type in which they were

printed were considered to be the cause of their failure, and it was not

until the critical biographies were extracted and published separately,

by Galignani the Parisian bookseller, in 1825, that they seem to have

attracted notice.

Scott wrote these _Lives of the Novelists_ at a time when his hands were

full of literary projects, altogether for John Ballantyne's benefit. The

author afterwards spoke of them as "rather flimsily written,"[200] but

we may surmise that to the fact that they were not the result of special

study is due something of their ripeness of reflection and breadth of

generalization. "They contain a large assemblage of manly and sagacious

remarks on human life and manners,"[201] wrote the _Quarterly_ reviewer.

The writers considered were all British, with the exception of LeSage.

The choice, or at least the arrangement, seems more or less haphazard.

Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett naturally began the group, and Sterne

followed after an interval. Johnson and Goldsmith were treated briefly,

for the prefaces were to be proportioned to the amount of work by each

author included in the text. Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve, and Mrs.

Radcliffe represented the Gothic romance. Charles Johnstone, Robert

Bage, and Richard Cumberland were among the inferior writers included.

Henry Mackenzie, who was still living and was a personal friend of

Scott, completes the list so far as it went before the series was

terminated by the publisher's death. When Scott's _Miscellaneous Prose

Works_ were collected he added the lives of Charlotte Smith and Defoe,

but in each of these cases the biographical portion was by another hand,

the criticism being his own.[202]

The study of the novel as a _genre_ was naturally undeveloped at that

time. Dunlop's _History of Prose Fiction_ had appeared in 1814,

evidently a much more ambitious attempt than Scott's; but Scott could

treat the British novelists with comparative freedom from the trammels

of any established precedent. Of course his position as one who had

struck out a wonderful new path in the writing of novels gave to his

reflections on other novelists a very special interest. The _Lives of

the Novelists_ are not to be neglected even now, and this is the more to

be insisted on because the criticism of novels has been practiced with

increasing zeal since Scott himself has become a classic and since his

successors have made this field of literature more varied and popular,

if not greater, than the first masters made it. A recent writer on

eighteenth century literature says: "By far the best criticism of the

eighteenth century novelists will be found in the prefatory notices

contributed by Scott to Ballantyne's _Novelists' Library_."[203] But the

same writer adds: "Sir Walter Scott, indeed, considered _Fathom_

superior to _Jonathan Wild_, an opinion which must always remain one of

the mysteries of criticism."[204]

This comment indicates that there was no lack of assuredness in Scott's

treatment, and we do indeed find a very pleasant tone of competence

which, though liable to error as in the exaggerated praise bestowed upon

Smollett, gives much of their effectiveness to the criticisms. The

quality appears elsewhere in Scott's critical work, but it is perhaps

especially noticeable here. For example, we find this dictum: "There is

no book in existence, in which so much of the human character, under all

its various shades and phases, is described in so few words, as in the

_Diable Boiteux_."[205] The illustration is perhaps a trifle extreme,

for Scott is not often really dogmatic. From this point of view as from

others we naturally make the comparison with Johnson's _Lives of the

Poets_, and we find that without being so sententious, so admirably

compact in style, Scott is also not so dictatorial.

We cannot accuse Scott of liking any one kind of novel to the exclusion

of others. He ranks _Clarissa Harlowe_ very high;[206] he says _Tom

Jones_ is "truth and human nature itself."[207] _The Vicar of Wakefield_

he calls "one of the most delicious morsels of fictitious composition on

which the human mind was ever employed." "We return to it again and

again," he says, "and bless the memory of an author who contrives so

well to reconcile us to human nature."[208] He praises _Tristram

Shandy_, calling Uncle Toby and his faithful Squire, "the most

delightful characters in the work, or perhaps in any other."[209] The

quiet fictions of Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen, the exciting tales of

Mrs. Radcliffe, the sentiment of Sterne, even the satires of Bage,--all

pleased him in one way or another. Scott's autobiography contains the

following comment on his boyish tastes in the matter of novels: "The

whole Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy tribe I abhorred, and it required the art

of Burney, or the feeling of Mackenzie, to fix my attention upon a

domestic tale. But all that was adventurous and romantic I devoured

without much discrimination."[210] In later life he learned to exercise

his judgment in regard to stories of adventure not less than those of

the "domestic" sort, and perhaps the liking for quiet tales grew upon

him; at any rate his taste seems remarkably catholic.

The most interesting portions of the _Lives of the Novelists_ are those

which show us, by the frequent recurrence of the same subjects, what

parts of the theory of novel-writing had particularly engaged Scott's

attention. For example we find him discussing, most fully in the _Life

of Fielding_, the reasons why a successful novelist is likely not to be

a successful playwright. The way in which he looks at the matter

suggests that he was thinking quite as much of the probability of

failure in his own case should he begin to write plays, as of the

subject of the memoir; for Fielding wrote his plays before his novels,

but the argument assumes a man who writes good novels first and bad

plays afterwards. One of his statements seems rather curious and hard to

explain,--"Though a good acting play may be made by selecting a plot and

characters from a novel, yet scarce any effort of genius could render a

play into a narrative romance." Perhaps he expected the "Terryfied"

versions of _Guy Mannering_ and _Rob Roy_ to hold the stage longer than

fate has permitted them to do. From another point of view also he was

interested in the connection of the novel and the drama. He felt that

the direction of the drama in the modern period had been largely

determined by the influence of successful novels; and he probably

overestimated the effect of the "romances of Calprenède and Scudéri" on

heroic tragedy.[211]

A subject which recurs even oftener than that of the distinction between

drama and novel is the question of supernatural machinery in novels.

Horace Walpole is commended for giving us ghosts without furnishing

explanations. Indeed the _Castle of Otranto_ is highly praised;[212] but

so also is Mrs. Radcliffe's work, except on the one point of the attempt

to rationalize mysteries. The kind of romance which she

"introduced"[213] is compared with the melodrama, and its particular

mode of appeal is analyzed in very interesting fashion. In the _Life of

Clara Reeve_ the proper treatment of ghosts is discussed at length, for

that author had contended that ghosts should be very mild and of "sober

demeanour." Scott justifies her practice, but not her theory, on the

following grounds: "What are the limits to be placed to the reader's

credulity, when those of common-sense and ordinary nature are at once

exceeded? The question admits only one answer, namely, that the author

himself, being in fact the magician, shall evoke no spirits whom he is

not capable of endowing with manners and language corresponding to their

supernatural character."

Scott writes with much enthusiasm about Defoe's famous little

ghost-story, _The Apparition of Mrs. Veal_, praising Defoe's wonderful

skill in making the unreal seem credible. In connection with this tale

Scott developed a very interesting anecdote to explain the fact that

Drelincourt's _Defence against the Fear of Death_ is recommended by the

apparition. "Drelincourt's book," he says, "being neglected, lay a dead

stock on the hands of the publisher. In this emergency he applied to De

Foe to assist him (by dint of such means as were then, as well as now,

pretty well understood in the literary world) in rescuing the

unfortunate book from the literary death to which general neglect seemed

about to consign it." Scott goes on to assert that the story was simply

a consummately clever advertising device. He may have found the germ of

his hypothesis in a bookseller's tradition, but he states it as an

assured fact, and doubtless believed it firmly because it seemed so

beautifully reasonable. His explanation became the basis of later

statements on the subject, and now obliges everyone who discusses Defoe

to supply a contradiction; for the truth is that Drelincourt's book was

so highly popular as to have gone through several editions before the

ghost of Mrs. Veal mentioned it. Moreover, if Scott's little tale was

fictitious, Defoe's, on the other hand, was really a reporter's version

of an experience actually related by the person to whom he assigns it,

and his skill in achieving verisimilitude was perhaps in this case less

wonderful than his critics have generally supposed.[214]

On the subject of realism, Scott was not in general very rigid. In his

_Life of Richardson_ he says: "It is unfair to tax an author too

severely upon improbabilities, without conceding which his story could

have no existence; and we have the less title to do so, because, in the

history of real life, that which is actually true bears often very

little resemblance to that which is probable."[215] But this is perhaps

only a plea for one kind of realism. He also refers to the question of

historical "keening," and concludes that it is possible to have so much

accuracy that the public will refuse to be interested, as _Lear_ would

hardly be popular on the stage if the hero were represented in the

bearskin and paint which a Briton of his time doubtless wore.[216]

The motive of the novel is a subject which naturally engages the

attention of the novelist-critic. Romantic fiction, he thinks may have

sufficient justification if it acts as an opiate for tired spirits. A

significant antithesis between his point of view in this matter and the

more common attitude taken by critics in his time is illustrated by two

reviews of Mrs. Shelley's _Frankenstein_, to which we may refer, though

the book was later than those included in the _Novelists' Library_.

Scott wrote in _Blackwood's_: "We ... congratulate our readers upon a

novel which excites new reflections and untried sources of

emotion."[217] The _Quarterly_ reviewer took the opposite and more

conservative attitude and expressed himself thus: "Our taste and our

judgment alike revolt at this kind of writing, and the greater the

ability with which it may be executed the worse it is--it inculcates no

lesson of conduct, manners, or morality; it cannot mend, and will not

even amuse its readers, unless their taste has been deplorably

vitiated--it fatigues the feelings without interesting the

understanding; it gratuitously harasses the heart, and wantonly adds to

the store, already too great, of painful sensations."[218] In general

Scott minimizes the effect of any moral that may be expressed in the

novel, but occasionally he seems inconsistent, when he is talking of

sentiments that are peculiarly distasteful to him.[219] But his thesis

is that "the direct and obvious moral to be deduced from a fictitious

narrative is of much less consequence to the public than the mode in

which the story is treated in the course of its details."[220] In the

_Life of Fielding_ he says of novels: "The best which can be hoped is

that they may sometimes instruct the youthful mind by real pictures of

life, and sometimes awaken their better feelings and sympathies by

strains of generous sentiment, and tales of fictitious woe. Beyond this

point they are a mere elegance, a luxury contrived for the amusement of

polished life."

He conceived that his prefaces might be useful to warn readers against

any ill effects that might otherwise result from the reading of the

accompanying texts; and our comments on the _Lives of the Novelists_ may

fitly close with a quotation which shows the writer's attitude toward

the novels and his own criticisms upon them. The passage is taken from

the _Life of Bage_. "We did not think it proper to reject the works of

so eminent an author from this collection, merely on account of

speculative errors.[221] We have done our best to place a mark on these;

and as we are far from being of opinion that the youngest and most

thoughtless derive their serious opinions from productions of this

nature, we leave them for our reader's amusement, trusting that he will

remember that a good jest is no argument; that the novelist, like the

master of a puppet-show, has his drama under his absolute authority, and

shapes the events to favour his own opinions; and that whether the Devil

flies away with Punch, or Punch strangles the Devil, forms no real

argument as to the comparative power of either one or other, but only

indicates the special pleasure of the master of the motion."

Scott was deeply in sympathy with the literature of the century within

which he was born. To the evidence of his _Swift_ and of the _Lives of

the Novelists_ it may be added that he contemplated making a complete

edition of Pope, and that he professed to like _London_ and _The Vanity

of Human Wishes_ the best of all poems. James Ballantyne said, rather

ambiguously, "I think I never saw his countenance more indicative of

high admiration than while reciting aloud from those productions."[222]

In one of his letters Scott spoke of the "beautiful and feeling verses

by Dr. Johnson to the memory of his humble friend Levett, ... which with

me, though a tolerably ardent Scotchman, atone for a thousand of his

prejudices."[223] Not only did he admire the great biography, but he

called Boswell "such a biographer as no man but [Johnson] ever had, or

ever deserved to have."[224] But he once said that many of the

_Ramblers_ were "little better than a sort of pageant, where trite and

obvious maxims are made to swagger in lofty and mystic language, and get

some credit only because they are not understood."[225]

Among other eighteenth century writers, Addison is distinguished by high

praise in a few casual references,[226] but Scott once admitted that he

did not like Addison so much as he felt to be proper.[227] A collection

of Prior's poems Scott calls "an English classic of the first

order."[228] He speaks of Parnell as "an admirable man and elegant

poet,"[229] and mentions "the ponderous, persevering, and laborious

dullness of Sir Richard Blackmore."[230] But these observations are of

little importance except as they indicate that Scott had read the

authors of the eighteenth century and acquiesced in the conventional

judgments upon them. It is seldom in his brief and casual comments that

Scott is particularly interesting as a critic, except when he is

speaking of living writers, for he lacked the gift of conciseness. When

he has a large canvas he is at his best, and this he has in the

principal works described in this chapter:--_The Minstrelsy of the

Scottish Border_, the _Works of Dryden_, the _Works of Swift_, and the

_Lives of the Novelists_.