CHAPTER VI_Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

SCOTT'S POSITION AS CRITIC

Comparison of Scott with Jeffrey and with the Romantic critics--His

criticism largely appreciative--Romantic in special cases and

Augustan in attitude--Comparison with Coleridge--Scott's respect for

the verdict of the public--His opinion that elucidation is the

function of criticism--Use of historical illustration--Hesitation

about analysing poetry--Political criticism--Verdict of his

contemporaries on his criticism--Influence as a critic--Literary

prophecies--Character of his critical work as a whole--His attitude

towards it--Lack of system--Broad fields he covered--His greatness a

reason for the importance of his criticism.

Important as Scott's poetry was in the English Romantic revival, as a

critic he can hardly be counted among the Romanticists. His attitude,

nevertheless, differed radically from that of the school represented by

Jeffrey and Gifford. We have already seen that he disliked their manner

of reviewing, and that he was conscious of complete disagreement with

Jeffrey in regard to poetic ideals. Of Jeffrey Mr. Gates has said: "[He]

rarely _appreciates_ a piece of literature.... He is always for or

against his author; he is always making points."[460] That Scott was

influenced in his early critical work by the tone of the _Edinburgh

Review_ is undeniable, but temperamentally he was inclined to give any

writer a fair chance to stir his emotions; and he did not adopt the

magisterial mood that dictated the famous remark, "This will never do."

Scott's style lacked the adroitness and pungency which helped Jeffrey

successfully to take the attitude of the censor, and which made his

satire triumphant among his contemporaries. Scott declined, moreover, to

cultivate skill in a method which he considered unfair. Compared with

Jeffrey's his criticism wanted incisiveness, but it wears better.

The period was transitional, and Jeffrey did not go so far as Scott in

breaking away from the dictation of his predecessors. But his attitude

was on the whole more modern than the reader would infer from the

following sentence in one of his earliest reviews: "Poetry has this much

at least in common with religion, that its standards were fixed long ago

by certain inspired writers, whose authority it is no longer lawful to

call in question."[461] He considered himself rather an interpreter of

public opinion than a judge defining ancient legislation, but he used

the opinion of himself and like-minded men as an unimpeachable test of

what the greater public ought to believe in regard to literature. We may

remember that the enthusiasm over the Elizabethan dramatists which seems

a special property of Lamb and Hazlitt, and which Scott shared, was

characteristic also of Jeffrey himself. It was Jeffrey's dogmatism and

his repugnance to certain fundamental ideas which were to become

dominant in the poetry of the nineteenth century that lead us to

consider him one of the last representatives of the eighteenth century

critical tradition. Scott praised the Augustan writers as warmly as

Jeffrey did, but he was more hospitable to the newer literary impulse.

"Perhaps the most damaging accusation that can be made against Jeffrey

as a critic," says Mr. Gates, "is inability to read and interpret the

age in which he lived."[462]

Scott's criticism was largely appreciative, but appreciative on a

somewhat different plane from that of the contemporary critics whom we

are accustomed to place in a more modern school: Hazlitt, Hunt, Lamb,

and Coleridge. His judgments were less delicate and subtle than the

judgments of these men were apt to be, and more "reasonable" in the

eighteenth-century sense; they were marked, however, by a regard for the

imagination that would have seemed most unreasonable to many men of the

eighteenth century.

Scott had not a fixed theory of literature which could dominate his mind

when he approached any work. He was open-minded, and in spite of his

extreme fondness for the poetry of Dr. Johnson he was apt to be on the

Romantic side in any specific critical utterance. We have seen also that

he resembled the Romanticists in his power to disengage his verdicts on

literature from ethical considerations. On the other hand he seems

always to have deferred to the standard authorities of the classical

criticism of his time when his own knowledge was not sufficient to guide

him. In discussing Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse he wrote: "It

must be remembered that the rules of criticism, now so well known as to

be even trite and hackneyed, were then almost new to the literary

world."[463]

Perhaps the main reason why one would not class Scott's critical work

with that of the Romanticists is that he had no desire to proclaim a new

era in creative literature or in criticism. Like the Romanticists he was

ready to substitute "for the absolute method of judging by reference to

an external standard of 'taste,' a method at once imaginative and

historical";[464] yet he talked less about imagination than about good

sense. The comparison with Boileau suggests itself, for Scott admired

that critic in the conventional fashion, calling him "a supereminent

authority,"[465] and Boileau also had said much about "reason and good

sense." But Scott had an appreciation of the _furor poeticus_ that made

"good sense" quite a different thing to him from what it was to Boileau.

He did not say, moreover, that the poet should be supremely

characterized by good sense, but that the critic, recognizing the facts

about human emotion, should make use of that quality.

The subjective process by which experience is transmuted into literature

engaged Scott's attention very little: in this respect also he stands

apart from the newer school of critics. The metaphysical description of

imagination or fancy interested him less than the piece of literature in

which these qualities were exhibited. His own mental activities were

more easily set in motion than analysed, and the introspective or

philosophical attitude of mind was unnatural to him. Because of his

adoption of the historical method of studying literature, and the

similarity of many of his judgments to those which were in general

characteristic of the Romantic school, we may say that Scott's criticism

looks forward; but it shows the influence of the earlier period in its

acceptance of traditional judgments based on external standards which

disregarded the nature of the creative process.

From Coleridge Scott is separated in the most definite way. Coleridge

began at the foundation, building up a set of principles such as the new

impulse in literature seemed to demand. Scott preferred the concrete,

and was stimulated by the particular book to express opinions that would

never have come to his mind as the result of pursuing a train of

unembodied ideas. Coleridge's judgments, moreover, would be unaffected

by public estimation, for he sought to found them on the spiritual and

philosophic consciousness that exists apart from the crowd.[466] Scott,

on the other hand, was ready to use popular judgment as an important

test of his opinions. Coleridge himself pointed out another interesting

contrast. He wrote: "Dear Sir Walter Scott and myself were exact, but

harmonious opposites in this;--that every old ruin, hill, river, or

tree, called up in his mind a host of historical or biographical

associations, ... whereas, for myself, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson, I

believe I should walk over the plain of Marathon without taking more

interest in it than in any other plain of similar features."[467] We

might perhaps say that Coleridge's affection was given to ideas,

Scott's, to objects; hence Coleridge was a critic of literary principles

and theories, Scott a critic of individual books and writers. It follows

that Scott was on the whole an impressionistic critic. A study of his

personality is essential to a consideration of his critical work, for he

was not so much a systematic student of literature, guided by fixed

principles, as a man of a certain temperament who read particular things

and made particular remarks about them as he felt inclined. The

inconsistencies and contradictions which would naturally result from

such a procedure are occasionally noticeable, but they are fewer than

would occur in the work of a less well-balanced man than himself.

His ideas about criticism were influenced by his feeling that the

judgment of the public would after all take its own course, and that it

was in the long run the best criterion. He used his opinion that an

author, even in his own lifetime, commonly receives fair treatment from

the public, as an argument against establishing in England any literary

body having the power of pensioning literary men.[468] On this subject

he said, "There is ... really no occasion for encouraging by a society

the competition of authors. The land is before them, and if they really

have merit they seldom fail to conquer their share of public applause

and private profit.... I cannot, in my knowledge of letters, recollect

more than two men whose merit is undeniable while, I am afraid, their

circumstances are narrow. I mean Coleridge and Maturin."

Scott's whole attitude toward criticism shows that he felt its supreme

function to be elucidation. It should also, he believed, warn the world

against books that were foolish, or pernicious, intellectually or

morally; but unless there were good reason for issuing such warnings the

bad books should be ignored and the good treated sympathetically, not

without such discrimination as should distinguish between the better and

the worse in them, but with emphasis on the better. His literary creed,

though not formulated into a system, was conscious and fairly definite;

but it consisted of general principles which never resolved themselves

into intricate subtleties requiring great space for their development.

Scott could not think in that way, and he felt convinced that such

thinking was useless and worse than useless. A magazine-writer of his

own period who said of him,--"The author of _Waverley_, we apprehend,

has neither the patience nor the disposition requisite for writing

philosophically upon any subject,"[469] was mistaken, for much of

Scott's criticism, without making any pretensions, is really

philosophical. But any fine-drawn analysis seemed to him to serve the

vanity of the critic rather than the need of the public; and he despised

that arrogance in the critic which leads him to assume to direct

literary taste.

Historical illustration was that kind of editorial work which he found

most congenial, and which harmonized best with his critical principles;

for when he could bring definite facts to the service of elucidation he

felt that he was doing something worth while. Among all the

introductions and annotations that we have from his hand, including

those of the _Dryden_ and the _Swift_, this kind of explanation greatly

predominates over the more strictly literary comment; in his reviews,

also, it is evident that he seized every opportunity for turning from

literary to historical discussion. He was in the habit of "embroidering

the subject, whatever it might be, with lively anecdotic

illustration,"[470] as one of his biographers says. We are not to

conclude that in writing on specifically literary subjects he felt ill

at ease. He felt, on the contrary, that the objection lay in the too

great ease with which the critic might become dictatorial. He was fond

enough of details when they were concrete and vital. The facts of

literary history were in this category to him, as distinguished from the

notions of literary theory; and we find that his critical principles are

apt to appear incidentally among remarks on what seemed to him the more

tangible and important facts of literary and social history. The books

he chose to review were chiefly those which gave him a chance to use his

historical information and imagination. His ideas were concrete, as

those of a great novelist must inevitably be. Indeed the dividing line

between creative work and criticism seems often to be obliterated in

Scott's literary discussions, since he was inclined to amplify and

illustrate instead of dissecting the book under consideration. As a

critic he was distinguished by the qualities which appear in his novels,

and which may be described in Hazlitt's words, as "the most amazing

retentiveness of memory, and vividness of conception of what would

happen, be seen, and felt by everybody in given circumstances."[471]

Scott felt that there was especial danger of futile theorizing in the

criticism of poetry. In writing about _Alexander's Feast_ he discussed

for a moment the possibility of detecting points at which the author had

paused in his work, but almost immediately he stopped himself with the

characteristic remark--"There may be something fanciful ... in this

reasoning, which I therefore abandon to the reader's mercy; only begging

him to observe, that we have no mode of estimating the exertions of a

quality so capricious as a poetic imagination."[472] Early in his career

he gave this rather over-amiable explanation of the fact that he had

never undertaken to review poetry: "I am sensible there is a greater

difference of tastes in that department than in any other, and that

there is much excellent poetry which I am not nowadays able to read

without falling asleep, and which would nevertheless have given me great

pleasure at an earlier period of my life. Now I think there is something

hard in blaming the poor cook for the fault of our own palate or

deficiency of appetite."[473] We have seen that he did review poetry

afterwards, but that he was inclined to do it with the least possible

emphasis on the specifically aesthetic elements. On the subject of

novel-writing he developed a somewhat fuller critical theory, but here

also his discussions concerned themselves rather with the kind of ideas

set forth than with the manner of presentation.

It does indeed seem as if Scott's feelings were more easily aroused to

the point of formulating "laws" in the field of political criticism than

in that which appears to us his more legitimate sphere. He has his

fling, to be sure, at Madame de Staël, because she "lived and died in

the belief that revolutions were to be effected, and countries governed,

by a proper succession of clever pamphlets."[474] But in proposing the

establishment of the _Quarterly Review_ he made no secret of the fact

that his motives were political. The literary aspect of the periodical

was thought of as a subordinate, though a necessary and not unimportant

phase of the undertaking. The _Letters of Malachi Malagrowther_ contain

some very definite maxims on the subject of political economy, and just

as decided are the remarks made in the last of _Paul's Letters_, as well

as in the _Life of Napoleon_ and elsewhere, as to how Louis XVIII. ought

to set about the task of calming his distracted kingdom of France. But

however emphatic Scott may be in the comments on government which appear

throughout his writings, he was as strongly averse in this matter as in

literary affairs to any separation of philosophy from fact: his maxims

are always derived from experience. The following statement of opinion

is typical: "In legislating for an ancient people, the question is not,

what is the best possible system of law, but what is the best they can

bear. Their habitudes and prejudices must always be respected; and,

whenever it is practicable, those prejudices, instead of being

destroyed, ought to be taken as the basis of the new regulations."[475]

It was Scott's political creed that roused the ire of such men as

Hazlitt and Hunt, though they may also have been exasperated at the

unprecedented success of poetry which seemed so facile and so

superficial to them as Scott's. Leigh Hunt calls him "a poet of a purely

conventional order," "a bitter and not very large-minded politician," "a

critic more agreeable than subtle."[476] But Scott's politics may be

looked at in another way. "In his patriotism," says Mr. Courthope, "his

passionate love of the past, and his reverence for established

authority, literary or political, Scott is the best representative among

English men of letters of Conservatism in its most generous form."[477]

Though it seems to have been a common opinion among the literary men of

his own time that Scott's criticism was superficial, his knowledge of

mediaeval literature was, as we have seen, recognized and respected.

Favorable comments by his contemporaries on other parts of his critical

work are not difficult to find. For example, Gifford wrote to Murray in

regard to the article on _Lady Suffolk's Correspondence_: "Scott's paper

is a clever, sensible thing--the work of a man who knows what he is

about."[478] Isaac D'Israeli made the following observation on another

of Scott's papers: "The article on Pepys, after so many have been

written, is the only one which, in the most charming manner possible,

shows the real value of these works, which I can assure you many good

scholars have no idea of."[479] A more recent verdict may be set beside

those just quoted, and it is in perfect agreement with them. "His

critical faculty," says Professor Saintsbury, "if not extraordinarily

subtle, was always as sound and shrewd as it was good-natured."[480]

Scott's influence as a critic was not very great, but his creative work

exerted a strong influence on criticism as well as on the whole

intellectual life of his age. His own novels demanded of the critic that

kind of appreciation of the large qualities and negligence of the small

which he had insisted on considering the function of criticism; and they

became a fact in literature which determined to some degree the attitude

taken toward ephemeral ideas. Newman notes the popularity of Scott's

novels as one of the influences which prepared the ground for the

Tractarian movement, for Scott enriched the visions of men by his

pictures of the past, gave them noble ideas, and created a desire for a

greater richness of spiritual life.[481] Much of his criticism also was

inspired by the wish to construct an adequate picture of the past; so

far it worked in the same direction with the novels. Its most important

offices aside from this were perhaps to present large and kindly views

of literature and literary characters, especially through biographical

essays; and to ameliorate somewhat the prevailing asperity of periodical

criticism.

A man of Scott's temperament was little likely to set himself up for a

prophet, and probably no literary prophecies of his were in the least

influential. Though he sometimes boasted that he understood the varying

currents of popular taste, his experience in the publishing business

taught him the fallibility of his impressions when the work of writers

other than himself was concerned. He once wrote,--"The friends who know

me best, and to whose judgment I am myself in the constant habit of

trusting, reckon me a very capricious and uncertain judge of poetry; and

I have had repeated occasion to observe that I have often failed in

anticipating the reception of poetry from the public."[482] But it is

beyond the strength of flesh and blood to resist saying things about the

future sometimes, and Scott occasionally yielded to the temptation,

helped, no doubt, by his amiability. Southey's _Madoc_, however, has not

yet assumed that place at the feet of Milton which, as we have seen, he

ventured to predict for it. Yet, if we may trust the memory of one of

his friends, Scott foresaw the literary success of two of his greatest

contemporaries. R.P. Gillies said in his _Recollections_: "I remember

well how correct Scott's impressions were of such beginners in the

literary world as had not then acquired any fixed character. Of Lord

Byron he had from the first a favourable impression.... Of Wordsworth he

always spoke favourably, insisting that he was a true poet, but

predicting that it would be long ere his works obtained the praise which

they merited from the public."[483] Scott explicitly prided himself on

two of his prophecies: that Washington Irving would make a name for

himself, and that Sir Arthur Wellesley would become known as an

extraordinary man.

Though Scott's critical work is comparatively little known, and though

it presents no solidly organized front by which the public may be

impressed, the opinions of so notable a writer have always had a certain

weight. Mr. Churton Collins thinks Scott's judgment on Dunbar has led

modern editors to indulge in very exaggerated statements concerning the

merit of that poet.[484] A heavier charge has been laid at Scott's door

on the score of his edition of the _Memoirs of Captain Carleton_. He

concluded on very insufficient evidence, says Colonel Parnell, that

these memoirs were genuinely historical, published them as such, and by

the weight of his opinion falsified "the whole stream of

nineteenth-century history bearing on the reign of Queen Anne."[485]

Stanhope, Macaulay, and other historians were ready to accept Scott's

judgment without further investigation, it seems; and if the accusation

be true we may conclude that his influence as a critic has reached

farther than might at first sight appear. Yet we may be content to

follow his lead in general, except in those bits of enthusiasm over his

friends which bear witness to a generously optimistic nature rather than

to a rigid critical attitude such as we should hardly demand in any case

from a man of letters commenting on his contemporaries and friends.

George Ticknor was greatly impressed by the "right-mindedness" of the

young Sophia Scott,[486] and we may fairly adopt the word to describe

the father whom she so much resembled. There was in him, as Carlyle

said, "such a sunny current of true humour and humanity, a free joyful

sympathy with so many things; what of fire he had all lying so

beautifully latent, as radical latent heat, as fruitful internal warmth

of life;--a most robust, healthy man!"[487]

Writers upon Scott have made much, perhaps too much, of his feeling that

his position as a landed gentleman was more enviable than his prominence

as a writer. The point would be of greater consequence if it performed

so important a function in explaining his work as has commonly been

assigned to it. We are told that he wrote much and hastily because he

wanted money to establish and support an estate; but the truth is that

if he wrote at all he had to write in this way. He justly believed that

he could do his best work so. Yet it was a natural result of his

facility that he should look upon the literature he produced as of

comparatively little moment. Some of his remarks about his critical

work, however, show that he really regarded creative writing as the

business of his life, and that in contrast with it he considered his

criticism a relief from more arduous labor. After the publication of

_Marmion_ he wrote: "I have done with poetry for some time--it is a

scourging crop, and ought not to be hastily repeated. Editing,

therefore, may be considered as a green crop of turnips or peas,

extremely useful for those whose circumstances do not admit of giving

their farm a summer fallow."[488] After years of novel-writing he said

of writing a review, "No one that has not laboured as I have done on

imaginary topics can judge of the comfort afforded by walking on

all-fours, and being grave and dull."[489]

From what Scott said about Dryden as a critic we may conclude that the

unsystematic character of his own scholarly work may have been a matter

of principle as well as inclination. "Dryden," he wrote, "forebore, from

prudence, indolence, or a regard for the freedom of Parnassus, to erect

himself into a legislator."[490] The words remind us of comments made

upon Scott's own work, as for example by Professor Masson, who spoke of

"the shrewdness and sagacity of some of his critical prefaces to his

novels, where he discusses principles of literature without seeming to

call them such."[491] Scott was quick to notice "cant and slang"[492] in

the professional language of men in all arts; and he valued most highly

the remarks of those whose intelligence had not been overlaid by a

conventional pedantry.

Knowing that criticism was not the main business of his life, we are

inclined to be surprised at the broad fields which he seemed to have no

hesitation in entering upon. His remarkable memory doubtless had

something to do with this, but he lived in a period when generalization

was more possible and more permissible than it is in this era of special

monographs. The large tendencies and characteristics that he traced in

his essay on Romance, for instance, are undoubtedly to be qualified at

numberless points, but writing when he did, Scott was comparatively

untroubled by these limitations. Moreover, he had the gift of seeing

things broadly, so that in essentials his survey remains true. But the

amount of his work is almost as astonishing as its scope and variety. He

could accomplish so much only by disregarding details of form; and that

he did so we know from our study of his principles of composition,

confirmed by the evidence of the passages from him that have here been

quoted. It is clear, also, that he was not limited by that "horror of

the obvious," which, as Mr. Saintsbury says, "bad taste at all times has

taken for a virtue."[493] Beyond this we have to fall back for

explanation on the unusual qualities of his mind. An observing friend

said of him that, "With a degree of patience and quietude which are

seldom combined with much energy, he could get through an incredible

extent of literary labour."[494]

Every quality which made Scott a great man contributes to the interest

and importance of his criticism. Such a body of criticism, formulated by

a large creative genius, would be of special consequence if it served

merely as the basis for a study of his other work, a commentary on the

principles which underlay his whole literary achievement. But it would

be strange if a man of Scott's intellectual personality could write

criticism which was not important in itself, and we can only account for

the general neglect of this part of his work by considering how large a

place his poems and novels give him in the history of our literature. If

he deserves a still larger place, we may remember with satisfaction that

as a man he was great enough to support honorably any distinction won by

his mind.

APPENDIX I.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The bibliography of Scott's writings is given in three parts, as

follows:

1. Books which Scott wrote or edited, or to which he was an important

contributor. The list is chronological.

2. Contributions to periodicals.

3. Books which contain letters written by Scott. These titles are

arranged approximately in the order of their importance from the

point of view of a study of Scott.

1. _Books which Scott wrote or edited, or to which he was an important

contributor_.

(In the following list the first editions of the poems and novels

are noted without bibliographical details. In the case of other

works the main facts in regard to publication are given; and an

attempt is made to indicate the nature of the books named, unless

they have been discussed in the text.)

1796

The Chase and William and Helen. (Translated from Bürger.)

1799

Goetz of Berlichingen. (Translated from Goethe.)

Apology for Tales of Terror.

Twelve copies were privately printed, to exhibit the work of the

Ballantyne press at Kelso. The title was occasioned by the delay

in the publication of Matthew Lewis's Tales of Terror, and the

little book contains poems which Scott had contributed to that

work. (The contents are named in the Catalogue of the Centenary

Exhibition.)

1800

The Eve of St. John, a Border ballad.

1802-3

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; consisting of historical and

romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland; with

a few of modern date founded upon local tradition.

3 vols. Vols. I and 2, Kelso, 1802; vol. 3, Edinburgh, 1803.

Second edition, 1803. The book was republished frequently before

1830, when it was included in the collected edition of Scott's

poems. It has also been reprinted independently since then several

times. The latest and most complete edition is that published in

1902, edited by T.F. Henderson. Other books in which part of

Scott's ballad material was used in such a way as to give his name

a place on the title-page are named below:

Kinmont Willie: a Border ballad, with an historical introduction,

by Sir Walter Scott. (Carlisle Tracts No. 6) Carlisle, 1841.

A Ballad Book by C.K. Sharpe. MDCCCXXIII. Reprinted with notes and

ballads from the unpublished manuscripts of C.K. Sharpe and Sir

Walter Scott ... edited by ... D. Laing. Edinburgh, 1880.

1804

Sir Tristrem: a metrical romance of the thirteenth century, by Thomas

of Ercildoune, called the Rhymer. Edited from the Auchinleck

manuscript by Walter Scott. Edinburgh.

Only 12 copies of Sir Tristrem were printed in the form in which

Scott had intended to publish it, without the expurgation which

his friends insisted upon. (_Letters to R. Polwhele_, etc., p. 18;

_Lockhart_, I. 361). The following book contains a part of the

same material:

A Penni worth of Witte, Florice and Blancheflour, and other pieces

of ancient English poetry, selected from the Auchinleck

manuscript. (With an account of the Auchinleck manuscript by Sir

Walter Scott) Edinburgh, 1857. Printed for the Abbotsford Club.

1805

The Lay of the Last Minstrel.

1806

Original Memoirs written during the great civil war; being the life of

Sir H. Slingsby, and memoirs of Capt. Hodgson. With notes, etc.

Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott anonymously.]

Ballads and Lyrical Pieces. [Poems which had already appeared in

various collections.]

1808

Marmion.

Memoirs of Captain Carleton, ... including anecdotes of the war in

Spain under the Earl of Peterborough, ... written by himself.

Edinburgh. (8vo, but 25 copies were printed on large paper.) [Edited

by Scott anonymously.]

Scott was probably mistaken in considering this to be a genuine

autobiography. (See Col. Parnell's argument in _The English

Historical Review_, vi:97.) It has been attributed to Defoe, and

Col. Parnell attributes it to Swift, but the question of its

authorship is still unsolved. The book was first published in

1728, but Scott used the edition of 1743, which he was so

inaccurate as to take for the original edition; and as at that

date Defoe had long been dead and Swift had lost his mind, the

possibility of attributing it to either of them naturally would

not occur to him. Scott wrote scarcely any notes, but his short

introduction contains some interesting general reflections which

are quoted by Lockhart.

The Works of John Dryden, now first collected; illustrated with notes,

historical, critical and explanatory, and a life of the author, by

Walter Scott, Esq. 18 vols. London.

Second edition, 18 vols., Edinburgh, 1821.

Another edition, revised and corrected by George Saintsbury,

Edinburgh, 1882-1893.

The Life of John Dryden (4to, only 50 copies printed).

Memoirs of John Dryden, Paris, 1826.

Memoirs of Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth, written by himself, and

Fragmenta Regalia, being a history of Queen Elizabeth's favourites, by

Sir Robert Naunton. With explanatory annotations. Edinburgh. [Edited

by Scott anonymously.]

Scott contributed no introductions, but his notes are copious,

especially with regard to the history of the Border. This is one

of the books of which Scott is reported to have said to his

publisher, Mr. Constable, "Did I not do Hodgson, Carey, Carleton,

etc., to serve you; and did I ever ask or receive any

remuneration?" (_Ballantyne's Refutation_, etc., p. 76.)

Queenhoo-Hall, a romance; and Ancient Times, a drama. By the late

Joseph Strutt, author of Rural Sports and Pastimes of the People of

England. [Edited by Scott, who wrote a conclusion for Queenhoo-Hall.

This conclusion is given in an appendix to the introduction of

Waverley.] Edinburgh.

1809

The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler ... edited by Arthur

Clifford ... to which is added a memoir of the life of Sir Ralph

Sadler, with historical notes, by Walter Scott, Esq. 2 vols.

Edinburgh. (Also the same work in 3 vols., with same date.)

The biography is included in all the editions of Scott's Prose

Works.

The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, written by himself. With

a prefatory memoir. Edinburgh; printed by James Ballantyne & Co. for

John Ballantyne & Co. and John Murray. (A reprint of Walpole's

edition, with the prefatory memoir added.)

It is a question whether Scott edited this book, but it has been

ascribed to him, and is given under his name without hesitation in

the British Museum catalogue. The prefatory memoir is short and

largely made up of quotations, but it sounds as if Scott might

have written it. The book is one to which he often refers. Mr.

Sidney Lee, in his edition of the Autobiography, says merely,

"Walpole's edition was reprinted in 1770, 1809, and in 1826."

Reprinted in the Universal Library: Biography, vol. I, London,

1853.

1809-15

A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on the most interesting and

entertaining subjects: but chiefly such as relate to the history and

constitution of these kingdoms. Selected from an infinite number in

print and manuscript, in the Royal, Cotton, Sion, and other public, as

well as private, libraries; particularly that of the late Lord Somers.

The second edition, revised, augmented, and arranged by Walter Scott,

Esq. 13 vols. London.

There are some additions. Scott says in the Advertisement: "The

Memoirs of the Wars in the Low Countries by the gallant Williams,

and the very singular account of Ireland by Derrick, are the most

curious of those now published for the first time.... The

introductory remarks and notes have been added by the present

Editor, at the expense of some time and labour. It is needless to

observe, that both have been expended upon a humble and

unambitious, though not, it is hoped, an useless task. The object

of the introductions was to present such a short and summary view

of the circumstances under which the Historical and Controversial

Tracts were respectively written, as to prevent the necessity of

referring to other works. Such therefore, as refer to events of

universal notoriety are but slightly and generally mentioned; such

as concern less remarkable points of history are more fully

explained. The Notes are in general illustrative of obscure

passages, or brief notices of authorities, whether corroborative

or contradictory of the text." The following book contains a part

of the same material:

The Image of Irelande with a Discoverie of Woodkarne. By John

Derricke, 1581. With Notes by Sir Walter Scott. Edited by John

Small. Edinburgh, 1883. (See _Somers' Tracts_, Vol. I.)

1810

English Minstrelsy. Being a selection of fugitive poetry from the best

English authors, with some original pieces hitherto unpublished. 2

vols. Edinburgh.

The Centenary Catalogue says that Scott and his friend William

Erskine edited this book together. In the Advertisement the

publishers (John Ballantyne & Co.) say: "To one eminent

individual, whose name they do not venture to particularize, they

are indebted for most valuable assistance in selection,

arrangement, and contribution; and to that individual they take

this opportunity to present the humble tribute of their thanks,

for a series of kindnesses, of which that now acknowledged is

among the least." There is no critical apparatus. The book

contains original poems by Scott, Southey, Rogers, Joanna Baillie,

and others not so well known.

The Lady of the Lake.

Memoirs of the Duke of Sully. Translated from the French [by Charlotte

Lennox] ... a new edition ... corrected, with additional notes, some

letters of Henry the Great, and a brief historical introduction

embellished with portraits. 5 vols. London.

Another edition, 4 vols. London 1858, has these words on the

title-page: "A new edition, revised and corrected; with additional

notes, and an historical introduction, attributed to Sir Walter

Scott." I have found no external evidence that Scott was the

editor. The introduction sounds as if Scott wrote it, but that so

much work could have been done by him without occasioning any

record seems unlikely. There is a historical introduction of 35

pp., and copious notes. The book is one with which Scott was

familiar. See Memoirs of Robert Carey, pp. 34 and 41.

The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, with extracts from her literary

correspondence. Edited by Walter Scott, Esq. 3 vols. Edinburgh.

The biographical preface is given in the Miscellaneous Prose

Works. The notes are by Miss Seward.

Ancient British Drama, in three volumes. London. (Printed for William

Miller, by James Ballantyne & Co., Edinburgh.)

I find no evidence that Scott was the editor of this book, but it

is sometimes ascribed to him in library catalogues. It contains

merely a two-page introduction and brief notes, and a collection

of plays. (See above, p. 52, note.)

1811

The Modern British Drama, in five volumes. London. (Printed for

William Miller, by James Ballantyne & Co., Edinburgh.)

Vols. I and II, Tragedies, with introduction in vol. I.

Vols. III and IV, Comedies, with introduction in vol. III.

Vol. V, Operas and Farces, with introduction.

These volumes apparently belong to the same collection as the

Ancient British Drama, noted above, and the external evidence for

Scott's authorship is the same. But the introductions are fuller,

and they sound very much like Scott. (See above, p. 52, note.)

The Vision of Don Roderick.

Memoirs of the Court of Charles II, by Count Grammont. With numerous

additions and illustrations. London. [Edited by Scott.]

Reprinted in 1846, 1853, 1864. This last edition, in the Bohn

Library, has about 100 pp. of historical notes.

Secret History of the Court of James the First. With notes and

introductory remarks. 2 vols. Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott

anonymously.]

The book contains 1. Osborne's Traditional Memoirs; 2. Sir Anthony

Welldon's Court and Character of King James; 3. Aulicus

Coquinariae; 4. Sir Edward Peyton's Divine Catastrophe of the

House of Stuarts.

1813

Rokeby.

Memoirs of the Reign of King Charles I., by Sir Philip Warwick.

Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott anonymously.]

The Bridal of Triermain.

1814

Illustrations of Northern Antiquities from the earlier Teutonic and

Scandinavian romances, by Robert Jamieson ... with an abstract of the

Eyrbyggja-Saga; being the early annals of that district of Iceland

lying around the promontory called Sudefells, by Walter Scott.

Edinburgh.

See also Northern Antiquities by P.H. Mallet, London, 1847; and

the edition in Bohn's Library, 1890.

Lockhart says: "Any one who examines the share of the work which

goes under Weber's name will see that Scott had a considerable

hand in that also. The rhymed versions from the _Nibelungen Lied_

came, I can have no doubt, from his pen." (_Lockhart_, II, 320.)

The Works of Jonathan Swift, containing additional letters, tracts,

and poems, not hitherto published; with notes and a life of the

author, by Walter Scott. 19 vols. Edinburgh.

Second edition, revised, Edinburgh, 1824.

Memoirs of Jonathan Swift, Paris, 1826.

The Letting of Humour's Blood in the Head Vaine, etc. By Samuel

Rowlands. Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott. His name is not given, but the

Advertisement is dated at Abbotsford.]

This is an exact reproduction of the 1611 edition, except for the

addition of a few pages containing the Advertisement and the

notes. Another edition was printed in 1815.

Waverley.

1814-17

The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland; comprising specimens

of architecture and sculpture, and other vestiges of former ages,

accompanied by descriptions. Together with illustrations of remarkable

incidents in Border history and tradition, and original poetry. By

Walter Scott, Esq. 2 vols. 4to. London.

Another edition, in 2 vols. folio, London, 1889.

Lockhart says the introduction to this work was written in 1817,

but this is a mistake, for it is in the first volume, which was

published in 1814.

1815

The Lord of the Isles.

Guy Mannering.

The Field of Waterloo.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies, by Robert Kirk.

The attribution of this to Scott rests on a letter by George

Ticknor, in Allibone's Dictionary (vol. II, p. 1967) in which he

says: "Kirk's Secret Commonwealth, a curious tract, of about a

hundred quarto pages, on Fairy Superstitions and second sight,

originally published in 1691, and of which, in 1815, Mr. Scott had

caused a hundred copies to be privately printed by the

Ballantynes, with additions, a circumstance, I think, not noted by

Lockhart." Mr. Lang thinks the book was never printed until 1815.

(See his edition, London, 1893). This 1815 edition of 100 copies

was made, he says, from a manuscript copy preserved in the

Advocates' Library, for Longman & Co. He quotes one of Scott's

references to the book, but does not intimate that Scott was the

editor.

Memorie of the Somervilles; being a history of the baronial house of

Somerville, by James, eleventh Lord Somerville. 2 vols. Edinburgh.

[Edited by Scott anonymously.]

The additions by the editor consist of a short preface and

abundant notes.

1816

Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. Edinburgh.

These letters were anonymous, but Scott was always recognized as

the author of them. They are contained in the Miscellaneous Prose

Works.

The Antiquary.

Tales of my Landlord. First series:

The Black Dwarf.

Old Mortality.

1817

Harold the Dauntless.

Rob Roy.

1818

Tales of my Landlord. Second series:

The Heart of Midlothian.

Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland ... the fifth edition, with

a large appendix, containing various important historical documents,

hitherto unpublished; with an introduction and notes, by the editor,

R. Jamieson ... and the history of Donald the Hammerer, from an

authentic account of the family of Invernahyle (by Scott: see a note

accompanying the text). 2 vols. London.

Scott's contribution is short. See also Appendix IV, which is

taken "from a manuscript in the possession of the Gartmore Family,

communicated by Walter Scott Esq." Scott's name had become so

valuable that the publishers tried to put it on the title-page of

this book, to his great indignation. (See _Constable_, III, III,

119-20.)

1818-24

The Encyclopædia Britannica: Supplement. [For this work Scott wrote

the following essays:] Chivalry, published in 1818; The Drama,

published in 1819; Romance, published in 1824. (These are given in the

Miscellaneous Prose Works.)

1819

Tales of my Landlord. Third series:

The Bride of Lammermoor.

A Legend of Montrose.

The Visionary, by Somnambulus. (A political satire in three letters,

republished from the Edinburgh Weekly Journal.) Edinburgh.

Description of the Regalia of Scotland. Edinburgh.

This has been reprinted many times. It was included also in

Provincial Antiquities.

Ivanhoe.

1819-26

The Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland, with

descriptive illustrations by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. [First published

in ten parts between 1819 and 1826.] 2 vols. London, 1826. 4to.

1820

The Monastery.

The Abbot.

Memorials of the Haliburtons. Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott

anonymously.]

30 copies were printed in 1820, and 30 more in 1824.

Reprinted, London, 1877, for the Royal Historical Society, in

Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., of

Abbotsford, by the Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D.

Trivial Poems and Triolets. Written in obedience to Mrs. Tomkin's

commands. By Patrick Carey. London. [Edited by Scott. His name is not

given, but the introduction is dated at Abbotsford.]

A thin 4to, with a short introduction and a few notes. A part of

the material had been used in the Edinburgh Annual Register for

1810.

1821

Northern Memoirs, calculated for the meridian of Scotland. To which is

added the contemplative and practical angler. Writ in the year 1658.

By Richard Franck. A new edition, with preface and notes. Edinburgh.

[Edited by Scott.]

Kenilworth.

The Pirate.

1821-4

The Novelists' Library. Edited, with prefatory memoirs, by Sir Walter

Scott. 10 vols. London.

Also Lives of the Novelists, 2 vols., Paris, 1825. A recent

edition is that published, with an introduction by Austin Dobson,

by the Oxford University Press (No. 94 in The World's Classics).

When these Lives were issued among the Miscellaneous Prose Works

some of the biographical prefaces were put with them, and also

biographical notices, reprinted from the Edinburgh Weekly Journal,

of Charles Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, John Lord

Somerville, King George III, Lord Byron, and The Duke of York. I

give below the names of certain books in which Scott's biographies

were utilized, but the list is probably far from complete:

An Account of the death and funeral procession of Frederick Duke

of York, etc. To which is subjoined Sir Walter Scott's Character

of His Royal Highness. By John Sykes. Newcastle, 1827.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman. By Laurence

Sterne, A.M., with a life of the author, by Sir Walter Scott.

Paris, 1832. (Baudry's Foreign Library.)

Beauties of Sterne, with some account of his writings by Sir

Walter Scott. Amsterdam, 1836.

Select Works of Smollett. Memoir by Sir W. Scott. Philadelphia,

1849.

The Novels and Miscellaneous Works of Daniel De Foe. With a

biographical memoir of the author, literary prefaces to the

various pieces, illustrative notes, etc., including all contained

in the edition attributed to the late Sir Walter Scott, with

considerable additions. 20 vols., London, 1840.

The Novels and Miscellaneous Works of Daniel de Foe. With prefaces

and notes, including those attributed to Sir Walter Scott. 6

vols., London, 1854-6. (Bonn's British Classics.)

The Rambler, by Samuel Johnson LL.D., with a sketch of the

author's life by Sir Walter Scott. 2 vols., London, 187?

1822

Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs, from 1680 till 1701; being

chiefly taken from the diary of Lord Fountainhall. Edinburgh. [Edited

by Scott.]

See Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs, selected from the

manuscripts of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall, bart. 2 vols.

Edinburgh, 1848, printed for the Bannatyne club. Here Scott's

edition is referred to, and his introduction is reprinted. The

book was re-edited because Scott did not use the original

manuscript, but an interpolated transcript, and he had no means

for accurately determining the original text.

Halidon Hill, a dramatic sketch.

Macduff's Cross (in Joanna Baillie's Poetical Miscellanies).

Military Memoirs of the Great Civil War. Being the military memoirs of

John Gwynne; and an account of the Earl of Glencairn's expedition, as

general of His Majesty's forces, in the highlands of Scotland, in the

years 1653 and 1654, by a person who was eye and ear witness to every

transaction.... Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott. His name is not given,

but the introduction is dated at Abbotsford.]

There are some notes, and a short historical introduction.

Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Lord Kinneder. [Edited by

Scott. A postscript says: "This notice was chiefly drawn up by the

late Mr. Hay Donaldson."] Edinburgh.

Only a few copies were printed, for private distribution.

The Fortunes of Nigel.

1823

Peveril of the Peak.

Quentin Durward.

St. Ronan's Well.

1824

Lays of the Lindsays, being poems by the ladies of the House of

Balcarras. Edinburgh. [Edited by Scott, and designed as a contribution

to the Bannatyne Club, but suppressed after being printed.]

Redgauntlet.

1825

Auld Robin Gray; a ballad. By the Rt. Honourable Lady Anne Barnard,

born Lady Anne Lindsay, of Balcarras. [Edited by Scott for the

Bannatyne Club.]

Tales of the Crusaders:

The Betrothed.

The Talisman.

1826

Letters of Malachi Malagrowther on the Currency. (To the editor of the

Edinburgh Weekly Journal.) 3 parts. Edinburgh.

Woodstock.

1826?

Shakspeare [edited by Scott and Lockhart?], volumes II, III, and IV,

without title page and date. Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.

Scott and Lockhart began in 1823 or 1824 to prepare an edition of

Shakspere. In Jan., 1825, Constable wrote to a London bookseller:

"It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the first sheet of

Sir Walter Scott's Shakspeare is now in type ... This I expect

will be a first-rate property." (_Constable's Correspondence_, II,

344.) At the time of Constable's bankruptcy in 1826 there was a

disagreement in regard to the ownership of the property. Scott

wrote to Lockhart, May 30, 1826, "What do you about Shakspeare?

Constable's creditors seem desirous to carry it on. Certainly

their bankruptcy breaks the contract. For me _c'est égal_: I have

nothing to do with the emoluments, and I can with very little

difficulty discharge my part of the matter, which is the

Prolegomena, and Life and Times." (Lang's _Lockhart_, I, 409.) In

1827 the question of carrying on the work was still undecided, and

it was also mentioned in a letter in 1830. (Lang's _Lockhart_ II,

13 and 59). The project was ultimately abandoned, and the fate of

that part of the work which was actually in print is unknown. In

the Barton Collection in the Boston Public Library is preserved

what is perhaps a unique copy of three volumes of the set of ten

that Scott and Lockhart undertook to prepare. But as the books are

bound up without title-pages, and as the commentary contains

nothing that would determine its authorship, the attribution is

probable rather than certain. These volumes include twelve of the

comedies. On the fly-leaf of one of them is a note written by Mr.

Rodd, a London bookseller. He says: "I purchased these three

volumes from a sale at Edinburgh. They were entered in the

catalogue as 'Shakespeare's Works, edited by Sir Walter Scott and

Lockhart, vols. ii, in, iv, all published, _unique_'." It was not

positively known that such a work had been planned until the

publication of Constable's _Correspondence_ in 1874. At that time

Justin Winsor wrote a letter to the _Boston Advertiser_ (March 21,

1874) in which he said: "The account of the Barton collection,

which was printed fifteen years ago, contained the earliest public

mention, I believe, of the supposition that Scott ever engaged in

such a work, which this life of Constable now renders certain.

These later corroborative statements give a peculiar interest to

the volumes which are now in this library and which are perhaps

the only ones of the edition now in existence." The introductions

to the plays are each only a page or two long, and are mainly,

like the notes, compilations. The book corresponds fairly well

with the description given in _Constable_. (See Vol. III, pp. 183,

193, 237-8, 241, 242, 244, 246, 305, 321, 442. See also Lang's

_Lockhart_, I, 308-9, 395-6, and Lang's Introduction to _Peveril

of the Peak_.)

1827

The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French. With a

preliminary view of the French Revolution. By the author of Waverley.

9 vols. Edinburgh.

Chronicles of the Canongate. First series:

The Highland Widow.

The Two Drovers.

The Surgeon's Daughter

Memoirs of the Marchioness de la Rochejaquelin. Translated from the

French. Edinburgh. (Constable's Miscellany, Vol. V. Introduction and

notes by Scott.)

The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott.

6 vols. Edinburgh, 1827, and Boston, 1829.

9 vols. Paris, 1827-34.

30 vols. London, 1834-46. (Containing many of the reviews

contributed by Scott to periodicals.)

Same, first 28 vols. (Omitting the Letters on Demonology and

Witchcraft.) Edinburgh, 1842-6, 1851, and 1861.

7 vols. Paris, 1837-8.

8 vols. Paris, 1840?

3 vols. Edinburgh, 1841-2, 1846, and 1854.

1827-55

The Bannatyne Miscellany; containing original papers and tracts

relating to the history and literature of Scotland. (Edited by Sir

Walter Scott, D. Laing, and T. Thomson.) 3 vols.

1828

Tales of a Grandfather. First series. 3 vols. Edinburgh. Religious

Discourses. By a layman. London.

Two sermons written by Sir Walter for George Huntly Gordon, then a

Probationer. Afterwards published by Gordon, with the author's

permission, to raise money.

Chronicles of the Canongate. Second series:

The Fair Maid of Perth.

Proceedings in the Court-martial held upon John, Master of Sinclair,

captain-lieutenant in Preston's regiment, for the murder of Ensign

Schaw of the same regiment, and Captain Schaw, of the Royals, 17

October, 1708; with correspondence respecting that transaction.

Edinburgh.

Edited by Sir Walter Scott and presented by him to the Roxburghe

club. Some of the same material seems to have been used in the

book named below:

Memoirs of the Insurrection in 1715, by John, Master of Sinclair.

With notes by Sir Walter Scott. Edinburgh, 1858, printed for the

Abbotsford Club.

1829

Papers relative to the Regalia of Scotland. Edinburgh. Edited by Sir

Walter Scott and presented to the members of the Bannatyne Club by

William Bell, Esq.

Memorials of George Bannatyne, 1545-1608. Edited by Sir Walter Scott

for the Bannatyne Club. Edinburgh.

Scott wrote the memoir of George Bannatyne which occupies the

first 25 pages of the book. This memoir is also to be found in the

publications of the Hunterian Club, part 8, published in 1886.

Anne of Geierstein.

Tales of a Grandfather. Second series.

1829-32

Novels, Tales, and Romances, with introductions and notes by the

author. (The "Opus Magnum.")

The same material is used in the following books:

Introductions and notes and illustrations to the novels, tales,

and romances of the author of Waverley. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1833.

Autobiography of Sir Walter Scott. Philadelphia, 1831. Anderson,

in his bibliography of Scott, gives this as a supposititious work,

but with the exception of the title it is genuine, for it is

simply the piecing together of Scott's introductions to his

novels.

1830

Tales of a Grandfather. Third series.

The Doom of Devorgoil, and Auchindrane or The Ayrshire Tragedy.

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, addressed to J.G. Lockhart,

Esq. London. (The Family Library.)

Other editions: New York, 1845; London, 1868 and 1876,

(illustrated by Cruikshank); London 1884, with an introduction by

Henry Morley. Included in the 30 vol. edition of the Miscellaneous

Prose works, but not in the 28 vol. edition.

Poems, with prefaces by the author. 11 vols. Introductory Remarks on

Popular Poetry (prefixed to Minstrelsy, Vol. I) and Essay on Imitations

of the Ancient Ballad (prefixed to Minstrelsy, Vol. III).

These essays were printed in 1830 and attached to the edition of

the poems then on sale. They were first regularly included in the

edition of 1833.

The History of Scotland. (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia.) 2 vols.

London. [Not in the Miscellaneous Prose Works.]

1831

Tales of a Grandfather. Fourth series. History of France.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., including a Journal of his Tour to

the Hebrides, by James Boswell, Esq. New edition with numerous

anecdotes and notes by The Right Hon. John Wilson Croker, M.P.... 10

vols. London. [Scott wrote and signed the notes for the Tour to the

Hebrides.]

Trial of Duncan Terig, alias Clerk, and Alexander Bane Macdonald, for

the murder of Arthur Davis, Sergeant in General Guise's regiment of

foot. June, A.D. 1754. Edinburgh.

"To the members of the Bannatyne Club, this copy of a trial,

involving a curious point of evidence, is presented, by Walter

Scott." There is an introduction of 11 pages, giving the story of

the crime, and bringing together instances from literature and

history of the evidence of ghosts being cited in trials. That is

the "curious point of evidence" referred to. The proceedings of

the court are then reprinted without annotation.

1832

Tales of my Landlord. Fourth series:

Count Robert of Paris.

Castle Dangerous.

1848

Two Bannatyne Garlands from Abbotsford.

This little book was prepared for members of the Bannatyne club by

the secretary, D. Laing. It contains two ballads--of which one is

ancient and one a modern imitation written by Robert

Surtees--annotated by Scott.

1889

Reliquiae Trottosienses, or Catalogue of the Gabions of the late

Jonathan Oldbuck. (Partially published in _Harper's Magazine_ for

April, 1889: Vol. lxxviii, pp. 778-788. This fragment describing the

main apartments at Abbotsford is the only part of the Reliquiae

Trottosienses that has been printed. There is a short introduction by

Mary Monica Maxwell Scott.)

The same material was included in the following book: Abbotsford,

the personal relics and antiquarian treasures of Sir Walter Scott,

described by the Hon. Mary Monica Maxwell Scott. London, 1893.

1890

The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, from the original manuscript at

Abbotsford. (Edited by David Douglas.) 2 vols. Edinburgh.

Second edition, 1891. Large extracts from this Journal had

previously been published in Lockhart's Life of Scott.

2. _Contributions to Periodicals_.

(a) Reviews

(Most of these essays are reprinted in the 28 and 30 volume editions of

Scott's Miscellaneous Prose Works. Articles not included in that

collection are marked by a note indicating the evidence on which they

are attributed to Scott.)

1803

Amadis de Gaul, translated by Southey and by Rose. (_Edinburgh

Review_, October. Vol. III.)

Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry. (_Edinburgh_, October. Vol.

III. Not in M.P.W. See Lockhart, Vol. I, p. 335.)

1804

Godwin's Life of Chaucer. (_Edinburgh_, January. Vol. III.)

Ellis's Specimens of the Early English Poets. (_Edinburgh_, April.

Vol. IV.)

The Life and Works of Chatterton. (_Edinburgh_, April. Vol. IV.)

1805

Johnes's Translation of Froissart. (_Edinburgh_, January. Vol. V.)

Colonel Thornton's Sporting Tour. (_Edinburgh_, January. Vol. V.)

Fleetwood, a novel by William Godwin. (_Edinburgh_, April. Vol. VI.)

The New Practice of Cookery. (_Edinburgh_, July. Vol. VI.)

The Ossianic Poems. (_Edinburgh_, July. Vol. VI. Not in M.P.W. See

Lockhart, Vol. I, p. 409.)

Todd's Edition of Spenser. (_Edinburgh_, October. Vol. VII.)

1806

Ellis's Specimens of English Romance, and Ritson's Ancient English

Metrical Romances. (_Edinburgh_, January. Vol. VII.)

The Miseries of Human Life. [By Rev. James Beresford.] (_Edinburgh_,

October. Vol. IX.)

Miscellaneous Poetry by the Hon. William Herbert. (_Edinburgh_,

October. Vol. IX.)

1809

Reliques of Burns, collected by R.H. Cromek. (_Quarterly Review_,

February. Vol. I.)

Southey's Translation of The Cid. (_Quarterly_, February. Vol. I.)

Sir John Carr's Caledonian Sketches. (_Quarterly_, February. Vol. I.)

Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming and other poems. (_Quarterly_, May.

Vol. I.)

John de Lancaster, a novel by Richard Cumberland. (_Quarterly_, May.

Vol. I.)

The Battles of Talavera, a poem [by John Wilson Croker]. (_Quarterly_,

November. Vol. II.)

1810

The Fatal Revenge or The Family of Montorio, a romance [by C.R.

Maturin]. (_Quarterly_, May. Vol. III.)

Collections of Ballads and Songs by R.H. Evans and John Aiken.

(_Quarterly_, May. Vol. III.)

1811

Southey's Curse of Kehama. (_Quarterly_, February. Vol. V.)

1815

Emma and other novels by Jane Austen. (_Quarterly_, October. Vol. XIV.

Not in M.P.W. See Lockhart, Vol. IV, p. 3.)

1816

The Culloden Papers. (_Quarterly_, January. Vol. XIV.)

Childe Harold, Canto III, and other poems by Lord Byron. (_Quarterly_,

October. Vol. XVI.)

1817

Tales of My Landlord. [Probably written with the help of William

Erskine. See Lockhart, Vol. III, p. 81. See also the Introduction to

Waverley, written in 1830.] (_Quarterly_, January. Vol. XVI.)

1818

Douglas on Military Bridges. (_Quarterly_, May. Vol. XVIII. Not in

M.P.W. See Lockhart, Vol. III, p. 173.)

Kirkton's History of the Church of Scotland, edited by C.K. Sharpe.

(_Quarterly_, May. Vol. XVIII.)

Letters from Horace Walpole to George Montague. (_Quarterly_, April.

Vol. XIX. Not in M.P.W. See Memoir of John Murray, Vol. II, p. 12.)

Childe Harold, Canto IV. (_Quarterly_, April. Vol. XIX.)

Women or Pour et Contre, a tale [by C.R. Maturin]. (_Edinburgh_, June.

Vol. XXX.)

Frankenstein, a novel [by Mrs. Shelley]. (_Blackwood_, March. Vol.

II.)

Remarks on General Gourgaud's Narrative. (_Blackwood_, November. Vol.

IV. Not in M.P.W. See Lockhart, Vol. III, p. 238.)

1824

The Correspondence of Lady Suffolk. (_Quarterly_, January. Vol. XXX.)

1826

Pepys' Diary. (_Quarterly_, March. Vol. XXXIII.) Boaden's Life of

Kemble, and Kelly's Reminiscences. (_Quarterly_, June. Vol. XXXIV.)

The Omen [by John Galt]. (_Blackwood_, July. Vol. XX.)

1827

Mackenzie's Life and Works of John Home. (_Quarterly_, June. Vol.

XXXVI.)

The Forester's Guide, by Robert Monteath. On Planting Waste Lands.

(_Quarterly_, October. Vol. XXXVI.)

On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition, and particularly on the

Works of Hoffman. (_Foreign Quarterly Review_, July. Vol. I.)

See also Contes Fantastiques de E.T.A. Hoffmann, traduits de

l'Allemand par M. Loève-Veimars, et précédés d'une notice

historique sur Hoffmann par Walter Scott. Paris, 1830. 16 vols.

1828

The Planter's Guide, by Sir Henry Steuart. On Landscape Gardening.

(_Quarterly_, March. Vol. XXXVII.)

Sir Humphrey Davy's Salmonia or Days of Fly-fishing. (_Quarterly_,

October. Vol. XXXVIII.)

Molière. (_Foreign Quarterly Review_, February. Vol. II.)

1829

Hajji Baba in England; and The Kuzzilbash, a tale of Khorasan.

(_Quarterly_, January. Vol. XXXIX.)

Ritson's Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots, etc.

(_Quarterly_, July. Vol. XLI.)

Tytler's History of Scotland. (_Quarterly_, November. Vol. XLI.)

Revolutions of Naples in 1647 and 1648. (_Foreign Quarterly Review_,

August. Vol. IV. Not in M.P.W. See Journal, Vol. I, p. 145, and Vol.

II, p. 278.)

1830

Southey's Life of John Bunyan. (_Quarterly_, October. Vol. XLIII.)

1831

Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials. (_Quarterly_, February. Vol.

XLIV.)

(b) Contributions to the Edinburgh Annual Register

(The dates given are those on the volumes. In most cases the book was

issued about a year and a half after the nominal date. Most of Scott's

contributions are unsigned. Those which were afterwards included in the

collected edition of his poems are in this list marked "Poems"; in other

cases (unless the article is signed) a note is made of the reason for

attributing it to Scott).

1808 Vol. I, part 2.

The Bard's Incantation. Poems.

To a Lady, with Flowers from a Roman Wall. Poems.

The Violet. Poems.

Hunting Song. Poems.

The Resolve. Poems.

View of the changes proposed and adopted in the administration of

justice in Scotland. (See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 154.)

Living Poets of Great Britain. (From internal evidence I think this

article may have been written by Scott, and am sure that he dictated

many of the opinions it expresses, if he is not responsible for the

whole.)

1809 Vol. II, part 2.

The Vision of Don Roderick. (Reprinted from the first edition.) Poems.

Epitaph designed for a Monument to be erected in Lichfield Cathedral

to the Rev. Thomas Seward. Poems.

Cursory remarks upon the French order of battle, particularly in the

campaigns of Buonaparte. (See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 161.)

Periodical Criticism. (From internal evidence I am sure that this was

written by Scott. The style is decidedly more interesting than that of

the article on the poets, in the volume for the preceding year.)

The Inferno of Altisidora. (This immediately follows the article on

Periodical Criticism, and is a burlesque sketch on the same subject.

It serves to introduce the following imitations, respectively, of

Crabbe, Moore, and Scott himself.)

The Poacher.

"Oh say not, my love, with that mortified air."

The Vision of Triermain.

1810 Vol. III, part 2.

Account of the poems of Patrick Carey, a poet of the seventeenth

century. (Afterwards prefixed to the volume of Carey's poems published

in 1820. See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 245-8.)

1811 Vol. IV, part 2.

Biographical memoir of John Leyden, M.D. (In the Miscellaneous Prose

Works.)

1812 Vol. V, part 2.

Extracts from a journal kept during a coasting voyage through the

Scottish Islands. (Published in complete form in _Lockhart_, Vol. II.)

1813 Vol. VI.

The Dance of Death. Poems.

Romance of Dunois, from the French. Poems.

Song for the anniversary meeting of the Pitt Club of Scotland. Poems.

Song on the lifting of the banner of the House of Buccleuch, at a

great football match on Carterhaugh. Poems.

1814 Vol. VII.

Historical Review of the Year. (See _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 76.)

1815 Vol. VIII.

Historical Review of the Year. (See _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 124.)

The Search after Happiness, or the Quest of Sultaun Solimaun.

(Reprinted from the _Sale-Room_. See _Lockhart_, Vol. III, pp. 89-90.)

1816 Vol. IX.

The Noble Moringer. Translated from the German. Poems. (See also the

introduction to _The Betrothed_.)

1817 Vol. X.

Farewell Address, spoken by Mr. Kemble to the Edinburgh Theatre, on

the 29th March, 1817. (Reprinted from the _Sale-Room_. ) Poems.

1824 Vol. XVII.

To Mons. Alexandre.

Scott contributed frequently to _The Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, edited

and published by James Ballantyne. Some of the articles are reprinted in

the Miscellaneous Prose Works. Lockhart reprints in the Life Scott's

account of the coronation of George IV., and his Reply to General

Gourgaud.

Scott also contributed to _The Sale-Room_, a weekly paper edited and

published by John Ballantyne from January 4 to July 12, 1817 (28

numbers). (See _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 89.)

To _The Keepsake_, an annual, Scott contributed in 1828 The Tapestried

Chamber, My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, and The Laird's Jock, and in 1830

The House of Aspen.

In _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, Vol. I, appeared three articles

entitled "Notices concerning the Scottish Gypsies," for which Scott

furnished a large part of the material. (Numbers for April, May, and

September, 1817.) Lockhart says that Scott dictated to Thomas Pringle "a

collection of anecdotes concerning Scottish gypsies, which attracted a

good deal of notice." The first article refers to "Mr. Walter Scott, a

gentleman to whose distinguished assistance and advice we have been on

the present occasion very peculiarly indebted, and who has not only

furnished us with many interesting particulars himself, but has also

obligingly directed us to other sources of curious information." Scott

quotes from the first of the three articles in his review of _Tales of

My Landlord_, and he afterwards used the same anecdotes in the

introduction to _Guy Mannering_.

3. _Books which contain letters written by Scott_.

(As there is no complete collection of Scott's letters it has been

thought wise to name the various sources, so far as the letters have

appeared at all in print, from which such a collection might be made.

The list includes only those books or articles in which letters were

published for the first time; yet it is probably far from exhaustive.

Notes are given in regard to the number or kind of the letters from

Scott to be found in some of the less-known books.)

Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott, by J.G. Lockhart.

Edinburgh, 7 vols. 1837-8. 10 vols. 1839. Abridged edition 1848. The

edition referred to throughout this study is that published by

Macmillan and Company in 5 volumes, 1900.

Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott [edited by D. Douglas].

2 vols. Edinburgh, 1894.

Letters and Recollections of Sir Walter Scott, by Mrs. Hughes (of

Uffington), edited by Horace G. Hutchinson.

London, 1904. (First published in _The Century_, xliv: 424 and 566;

July and August, 1903.)

The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart, by Andrew Lang, from

Abbotsford and Milton Lockhart mss. and other original sources.

2 vols. London, 1897.

These volumes contain many letters from Scott to Lockhart.

Memoir and Correspondence of the late John Murray, with an account of

the origin and progress of the House, 1768-1843, by Samuel Smiles.

2 vols. London, 1891.

This book contains many letters from Scott to Murray, who published

some of Scott's works and was the proprietor of the _Quarterly

Review_.

Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents. A Memorial by his

son Thomas Constable.

3 vols. Edinburgh, 1873.

The third volume is wholly taken up with an account of Scott's

relations with Constable, his publisher, and many letters are given.