_Lady Suffolk's Correspondence_, Scott's review of, 142, 164
_Laird's Jock, The_, 167
Laing, Malcolm, 40, 176
Lamb, Charles, 20, 51, 99, 100, 135
_Landor_, Forster's _Life of_, 85, 91, 98-9, 175
_Landscape Gardening_, see _Planter's Guide_
Lane-Poole, Stanley, 67, 177
Lang, Andrew,
_Border Edition of the Waverley Novels_, 51, 89, 108, 158, 176
_Life of Lockhart_, 52, 84, 99, 100, 158, 168
_Life of Scott_, 87, 100, 126, 127, 176
_Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies_, 153
Langhorne, John, 98
_Lay of the Last Minstrel, The_, 4, 18, 31, 87, 110, 148
_Lays of the Lindsays_, 157
Lee, Sidney, 150
Lee, William, 77
Legaré, H.S., 94, 176
_Legend of Montrose, A_, 51, 155
Lennox, Charlotte, 151
_Lenore_, 31, 147
Le Sage, 73, 74
_Letter from Dr. Tripe to Nestor Ironside_, 67
_Letters of Malachi Malagrowther on the Currency_, 59, 69, 116, 140, 157
_Letters of Sir Walter Scott_, 168-173, see also _Familiar Letters_,
Hutchinson, Polwhele, and Stuart, Lady Louisa
_Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, 45, 104, 160, 178
_Letters to Richard Heber, etc._, 10, 15-16, 49, 65, 85, 88, 97, 114,
129, 131, 132, 174
_Letting of Humour's Blood in the Head Vaine, The_, 153
_Levett, Robert, Verses on the Death of_, 80
Lewis, Matthew, 30, 97-8, 147
Leyden, John, 25, 30, 166
_Liberal Movement in English Literature, The_, 141, 175
_Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, The_, 7, 12, 78, 102, 124-5, 127, 140,
158, 170
_Life on the Mississippi_, 142, 174
_Life of Sir Walter Scott, The_, see Cunningham, Gilfillan, Hudson,
Hutton, Lang, Lockhart, Mackenzie, and Saintsbury
_Littérature Française au Moyen Age, La_, 38, 177
_Little French Lawyer, The_, 50
_Lives of the Novelists_, 6, 7, 15, 72-9, 128, 131, 156, 178
_Lives of the Poets_, 74
_Living Poets of Great Britain_, Article on, 118, 165
_Livre de Mon Ami, Le_, 127, 175
Lockhart, John Gibson, 6, 22, 25, 27, 29, 52, 83, 84, 85, 98, 99, 112,
117, 158, 160, 168, 169
_Lockhart's Life of Scott_, 1, 11, 12, 13, 96, 98, 101, 102-3, 112, 148,
149, 152, 153, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 172, 173,
174, 178 (see the footnotes for the many references not here indexed)
Lodge, Edmund, 132, 172
_London_, 79
_Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries_, 99-100, 176
_Lord of the Isles, The_, 120, 153
Lounsbury, Prof. T.R., 14, 102, 176
_Love_, 87
Lyly, John, 61
Macaulay, T.B., 144
_Macduff's Cross_, 156
Mackenzie, Colin, 30
Mackenzie, Henry, 17, 73, 75, 100,
see also Home, John
Mackenzie, R. Shelton, 1, 52, 123, 139, 171
_Macmillan's Magazine_, 51, 142, 178
McNeill, G.P., 35
Macpherson, James, 40, 41, 176
_Madoc_, 91
_Magnalia_, 104
Maigron, Louis, 105, 176
_Malachi Malagrowther, Letters of_, 59, 69, 116, 140, 157
Malone, Edmund, 60, 61
Malory, 37
_Manfred_, 50, 51
Mark Twain, 142, 174
Marlowe, Christopher, 55
_Marmion_, 5, 6, 31, 90, 93, 97, 110, 113, 115, 145, 148
Marston, John, 50
_Masque of Owls, The_, 51
Massinger, Philip, 56
Masson, David, 3, 145, 176
Mather, Cotton, 104
Matthews, Prof. Brander, 76, 176
Maturin, C.R., 138, 163, 164
_Mediaeval Stage, The_, 21, 174
_Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_, 14, 171
_Memoirs of Captain Carleton_, 68, 144, 148-9, 178
_Memoirs of Captain Hodgson_, 148, 149
_Memoirs of Robert Carey_, 149, 151
_Memoirs of the Court of Charles II._, 5, 152
_Memoirs of the Insurrection in 1715_, 159
_Memoirs of the Duke of Sully_, 151
_Memoirs of the Marchioness de la Rochejaquelin_, 159
_Memoirs of the Reign of King Charles I._, 5, 152
_Memorials of Coleorton_, 169
_Memorials of George Bannatyne_, 44, 160
_Memorials of His Time_, Cockburn's, 15, 175
_Memorials of James Hogg_, 171
_Memorials of the Haliburtons_, 155
_Memorie of the Somervilles_, 154
_Merry Devil of Edmonton, The_, 50
Meteyard, Eliza, 87, 176
_Mezeray's History of France_, 80
Mickle, W.J., 98
Middleton, Thomas, 50, 56
_Mid-Eighteenth Century, The_, 74, 176
Millar, J.H., 74, 176
_Military Bridges_, Scott's review of, 163
_Military Memoirs of the Great Civil War_, 5, 157
Milton, 40, 62, 65, 88, 91, 92, 95, 104, 143
Minot, Laurence, 43
_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, 3, 4, 7, 17-32, 33, 36, 45, 80,
147-8, 160, 178
_Mirror for Magistrates, The_, 55
_Miscellaneous Prose Works_, Scott's, 7, 26, 73, 149, 151, 154, 156,
159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 166, 167
_Miseries of Human Life_, Scott's review of, 162
_Modern British Drama, The_, 52, 152
_Modern Painters_, 10, 129, 177
Molière, 53, 57, 58, 133, 164
_Monastery, The_, 88, 105, 116, 155
_Monk, The_, 98
Moore, Thomas, 96, 97, 166, 176
_Murray, John, Memoir and Correspondence of_, 83, 84, 93, 105, 141, 142,
163, 168, 169
_My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_, 131, 167
Myers, F.W.H., 130, 176
_Mysterious Mother, The_, 50
_Napoleon_, Scott's _Life of_, 7, 12, 78, 102, 124-5, 127, 140, 158, 170
Nash, Thomas, 59
Naunton, Sir Robert, 149
_Neidpath Castle_, Wordsworth's sonnet on, 87
_New History of the English Stage_, 49, 175
Newman, J.H., 142, 176
_New Practice of Cookery, The_, Scott's review of, 162
_New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty, A_, 71
Nichol, John, 95, 176
Nichols, John, 65
_Nineteenth Century, The_, 77, 172, 178
_Norman Conquest of England, The_, 126, 127, 175
_Northern Antiquities_, 42, 152
_Northern Memoirs_, 155
_Notices concerning the Scottish Gypsies_, 167
_Novelists' Library, The_, 6, 7, 72-79, 156
_Ode on Scottish Music_, 30
_Oedipe_, 53
_Old Mortality_, 36, 62, 77, 89, 109, 128, 154
Oliphant, Mrs., 169
_Omen, The_, Scott's review of, 164
_Opus Magnum, The_, 7, 108, 160
_Original Memoirs Written during the Great Civil War_, 4, 148
Ossian, 40-41, 162, 176
Otway, Thomas, 50, 57, 58
_Paradise Lost_, 95
_Palamon and Arcite_, 64
Palgrave, Francis, 13, 40, 177
_Papers relative to the Regalia of Scotland_, 160
Paris, Gaston, 38, 177
Parnell, Col., the Hon. Arthur, 68, 144, 148, 178
Parnell, Thomas, 80
_Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk_, 6, 88, 125, 140, 154
Peele, George, 55
_Penni Worth of Wit, A_, 148
Pepys, Samuel, 65, 142, 164
Percy, Thomas, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 32, 34, 37, 38, 177
_Periodical Criticism_, Article on, 165
Petrarch, 33
_Peveril of the Peak_, 44, 105, 157
Pierce, E.L., 177
_Pilot, The_, 101
_Pioneers, The_, 14
_Pinner of Wakefield, The_, 59
_Pirate, The_, 3, 117, 125-6, 155
_Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials_, Scott's review of, 46, 143, 165
_Planter's Guide, The_, Scott's review of, 164
_Planting Waste Lands_, Scott's review of, 164
_Plays on the Passions_, 50
Poe, Edgar Allan, 109, 110
_Poems, with Prefaces by the Author_, 160
Polwhele, R., Letters of Scott to, 132, 148, 170
_Poor Richard's Almanac_, 104
Pope, Alexander, 79, 81, 93, 97, 106, 113
_Popular Poetry, Remarks on_, 19, 22, 30, 34, 160
_Portraits of Illustrious Personages_, 132, 172
_Prairie, The_, 101
Prior, Matthew, 80
_Proceedings in the Court-martial, etc._, 159
_Provincial Antiquities_, 6, 56, 59, 155
Pulci, 33
_Quarterly Review_, 2, 5-6, 20, 22, 26, 45, 46, 55, 73, 77, 78, 82, 83,
84, 94, 96, 99, 100, 109, 112, 113, 114, 124, 129, 140, 143, 163,
164, 165, 168, 178
_Queenhoo Hall_, 5, 128, 149
_Quentin Durward_, 88, 104, 122, 127, 157
Radcliffe, Mrs. Anne, 73, 75, 76, 131
_Rambler, The_, 80, 156
Ramsay, Allan, 28, 86
_Recollections of Sir Walter Scott_, R.P. Gillies', 106, 130, 143, 146,
175
_Redgauntlet_, 3, 89, 157
_Red Rover, The_, 101
Reeve, Clara, 73, 76, 78
_Religio Laici_, 64
_Religious Discourses by a Layman_, 159
_Reliquiae Trottosienses_, 161
_Reliques of Burns_, Scott's review of, 22, 86, 163
_Remarks on Gen. Gourgaud's Narrative_, 164
_Remarks on Popular Poetry_, 19, 22, 30, 34, 160
_Remarks on the Death of Lord Byron_, 93, 95
_Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott_, John Gibson's, 170
_Revolutions of Naples_, Article on, 164
Richardson, Samuel, 73, 74-5, 77, 78
Ritson, Joseph, 19, 20, 21, 23, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 45, 162, 164
Robert of Brunne, 34
Robertson, William, 15
Robinson, Crabbe, 87
_Rob Roy_, 3, 76, 154
Rogers, Samuel, 151
_Rokeby_, 108, 111, 115, 116, 152
_Romance_, Essay on, 34, 37, 38-9, 42, 46, 146, 154
_Roman Historique à l'Époque Romantique, Le_, 105, 176
Roscommon, Earl of, 136
Rose, W.S., 37, 92, 162
Rowlands, Samuel, 153
Rowley, 43, 50
Ruskin, John, 10, 129, 172, 177
Sackville, Thomas, 54-5
_Sadler, Sir Ralph, State Papers and Letters of_, 149
_Saint Ronan's Well_, 51, 64, 88, 100, 108, 157
Saintsbury, Prof. George, 2, 51, 53, 57, 60, 61, 63, 142, 146, 177, 178
_Sale-Room, The_, 166, 167
_Salmonia_, Scott's review of, 164
Schlegel, 53
_School of Abuse, The_, 71
Scott, Temple, 67, 177
Scudéri, 53, 76
_Secret Commonwealth, The_, 45, 153
_Secret History of One Year, The_, 71
_Secret History of the Court of James I._, 5, 55, 152
Severn, Joseph, 100
Seward, Anne, 30, 85, 89, 91, 151
Shadwell, Thomas, 51, 57
Shakspere, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55-6, 57, 58, 59, 62, 65, 86, 95, 97, 157-8
Sharpe, C.K., 27, 28, 30, 31, 66, 81, 97, 114, 118, 148, 163, 169
Shelley, Mrs. Mary, 78, 163
Shelley, P.B., 11, 89, 91, 106, 175
Sheridan, Thomas, 65
Shirley, James, 50, 56
_Short Account of Successful Exertions, etc._, 173
_Sibbald's Chronicle_, Scott's review of, 46, 162
_Sir Eustace Grey_, 97
_Sir John Oldcastle_, 59
_Sir Tristrem_, 4, 34-6, 39, 42, 43, 56, 148, 178
_Sketch Book, The_, 104
_Sketch of Lord Kinneder_, 157
_Slingsby, Sir H., Life of_, 148
Smith, Adam, 15
Smith, Charlotte, 73
Smollett, Tobias, 73, 74, 156
_Somers Tracts, The_, 4, 6, 60, 63, 70-72, 126, 150
Somerville, Lord, 154
Southerne, Thomas, 50
Southey, Robert, 4, 20, 37, 46, 49, 82, 87, 89, 90, 91-2, 93, 96, 98,
99, 106, 110, 111, 118, 124, 143, 151, 162, 163, 165, 169, 170, 177
_Spae-Wife, The_, 129
_Specimens of Early English Romances_, Scott's review of, 125, 162
_Specimens of English Dramatic Poets_, 20, 51, 99
_Specimens of the Early English Poets_, Scott's review of, 43, 44, 162
Spenser, 33, 62, 64
Staël, Mme. de, 140
Stanhope, Philip, Earl, 144
Steele, Sir Richard, 67, 120
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 65, 68, 97, 177
Sterne, Laurence, 73, 75, 103, 156
_Story of Rimini, The_, 99
Strutt, Joseph, 5, 126, 149
_Stuart, Lady Louisa, Letters of_, 10, 83, 127, 128, 169
_Studies in the Evolution of English Criticism_, 137, 177
Suckling, Sir John, 51, 59
_Sumner, Charles, Memoirs and Letters of_, 102, 177
_Supernatural in Fictitious Composition, The_, 164
_Surgeon's Daughter, The_, 159
Surtees, Robert, 20, 27, 30, 161
Swift, Deane, 65
Swift, Jonathan, 65-70, 103, 148-9, 177
_Swift's Works_, edited by Scott, 6, 7, 65-70, 73, 79, 126, 139, 153, 178
Taine, H.A., 125, 177
_Tales of a Grandfather_, 7, 123, 127, 141, 159, 160
_Tales of My Landlord_, 77, 109, 111-12, 128, 132, 154, 155, 161, 163,
167
_Tales of the Crusaders_, 98, 124, 157
_Talisman, The_, 157
_Tapestried Chamber, The_, 85, 167
Taylor, William, 31, 170
_Tender Husband, The_, 120
Terry, Daniel, 46, 49
Thackeray, W.M., 80, 123
_Thalaba_, 91, 135
Thomas the Rhymer, 29, 30, 34-6, 148
Thorkelin, 42
_Thornton's Sporting Tour_, Scott's review of, 162
_Three Studies in Literature_, 134, 135, 175
Ticknor, George, 15, 56, 103, 144, 153, 177
Tieck, 10
Tierry, 127
_Todd's Spenser_, Scott's review of, 61, 62, 84
_Tom Jones_, 75
_Traditions and Recollections, etc._, 170
Tressan, 33, 34
_Trial of Duncan Terig, The_, 161,
_Tristram Shandy_, 75, 156
_Trivial Poems and Triolets_, 155
_Troilus and Criseyde_, 45
_True-born Englishman, The_, 71
_Trustworthiness of Border Ballads, The_, 25, 178
Turner, Sharon, 42, 126
_Two Bannatyne Garlands_, 161
_Two Drovers, The_, 159
_Tytler's History of Scotland_, Scott's review of, 45, 124, 164
_Varied Types_, 11, 174
_Vanity of Human Wishes, The_, 79
_Venis and Adonis_, 58
_Vicar of Wakefield, The_, 75
_Virgin Queen, The_, 51
_Visionary, The_, 155
_Vision of Don Roderick, The_, 152, 165
Voltaire, 78, 105
Waldron, Francis, 51
_Wallenstein_, 51, 88
Waller, Edmund, 64
Walpole, Horace, 71, 72, 73, 76, 150, 163
Walpole, Robert, 71
Walton, Isaac, 64-5
_War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons_, 30
Warton, Joseph, 60
Warton, Thomas, 19, 21, 34, 35
Warter, J.W., 124, 177
Warwick, Sir Philip, 152
_Waverley_, 3, 6, 36, 85, 100, 120, 122, 123, 125, 149, 153, 163
Weber, Henry, 42, 52, 152
Webster, John, 50, 55, 56
White, Hon. Andrew, D., 127, 177
_William and Helen_, 147
Wilson, John, 50, 83
_Women_, Scott's review of, 164
_Women Pleased_, 50
_Woodstock_, 44, 51, 141, 157, 170
Wordsworth, William, 85, 87, 89-91, 92, 93, 97, 98, 106, 130, 143, 169,
172, 176
Wylie, L.J., 137, 177
_Yarrow Revisited_, 90
[Footnote 1: Mr. Hutton's _Life of Scott_, in the English Men of
Letters series, contains no chapter nor any extended passage on
Scott's critical and scholarly work, though there is a chapter on
"Scott's Morality and Religion," and one on "Scott as a Politician."
This, like the other short biographies of Scott, is professedly a
compilation, so far as its facts are concerned, from Lockhart's book.
The Lives of Scott by Gilfillan and by Mackenzie, published about the
time of the Scott centenary in 1871, are longer than Hutton's, but
contain no more extended references to the critical writings.
Mackenzie's book out of nearly five hundred pages gives only one to a
discussion of the edition of Dryden, and half a page to an account of
the establishment of the _Quarterly Review_. Gilfillan characterizes
the critical work in almost as short a space, but with a good deal of
judgment. The German biography of Scott contemporary with these, by
Dr. Felix Eberty, is concerned with the man rather than his works. Of
later Lives of Scott, Prof. Saintsbury's gives, in proportion to its
length, more space than any other to Scott's critical work, but the
book has only a hundred and fifty-five pages in all. Another recent
biographer, Mr. W.H. Hudson, says of Scott's editorial and critical
work, "these exertions, though they call for passing record, occupy a
minor place in his story"; and he gives them only "passing record."
Mr. Andrew Lang's still more recent and briefer _Sir Walter Scott_
devotes only a few lines here and there to comment on Scott as a
critic, and contains hardly even a reference to the little-known
volumes that he edited.]
[Footnote 2: Ten of Scott's twenty-seven novels (counting the first
series of _Chronicles of the Canongate_ as one) have scenes laid in
the eighteenth century. They are as follows, arranged approximately in
the order of their periods: _The Bride of Lammermoor_, _The Pirate_,
_The Black Dwarf_, _Rob Roy_, _The Heart of Midlothian_, _Waverley_,
_Guy Mannering_, _Redgauntlet_, _Chronicles of the Canongate (First
series)_, _The Antiquary_. The long poems all found their setting in
earlier periods.]
[Footnote 3: _British Novelists and their Styles_, pp. 167-8.]
[Footnote 4: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 9.]
[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 194.]
[Footnote 6: See particularly _Paul's Letters; Provincial
Antiquities_; and the Histories of the years 1814 and 1815, each a
respectable volume, written for the _Edinburgh Annual Register_.]
[Footnote 7: Ruskin's remark that "The excellence of Scott's work is
precisely in proportion to the degree in which it is sketched from
present nature," should not necessarily lead on to the condemnation
which follows: "He does not see how anything is to be got out of the
past but confusion, old iron on drawing-room chairs, and serious
inconvenience to Dr. Heavysterne." (_Modern Painters_, Part IV, ch.
16, § 32.)]
[Footnote 8: _Letters to Richard Heber_, etc. (by J.L. Adolphus), pp.
136-137.]
[Footnote 9: Mr. Herford distinguishes two lines of romantic
sentiment--"the one pursuing the image of the past as a refuge from
reality, the other as a portion of it: the mediaevalism of Tieck and
the mediaevalism of Scott." _The Age of Wordsworth_, Introduction, p.
xxiv, note.]
[Footnote 10: _Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart_, p. 249.]
[Footnote 11: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 333; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 81.
The edition of Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ to which reference is made
throughout this study is that in five volumes, published by Macmillan
& Co. in the "Library of English Classics."]
[Footnote 12: Chesterton, _Varied Types_, pp. 161-2.]
[Footnote 13: The fact that Scott was a Clerk of the Court of Sessions
is remembered less frequently than the fact that he had business
complications. But this employment of his, which could be undertaken
only by a lawyer, occupied a large proportion of his time during
twenty-four years. He once wrote, "I cannot work well after I have had
four or five hours of the court, for though the business is trifling,
yet it requires constant attention, which is at length exhausting."
(_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 195.) Again he wrote, "I
saw it reported that Joseph Hume said I composed novels at the clerk's
table; but Joseph Hume said what neither was nor could be correct, as
any one who either knew what belonged to composing novels, or acting
as clerk to a court of justice, would easily have discovered."
(_Memoirs of Sir William Knighton_, p. 252.)]
[Footnote 14: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 60; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 390.]
[Footnote 15: See the Memoir prefixed to the Globe Edition of Scott's
poems.]
[Footnote 16: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 217.]
[Footnote 17: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 447.]
[Footnote 18: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 122.]
[Footnote 19: Cooper measured his own success by the same test. At the
conclusion of the Letter to the Publisher with which _The Pioneers_
originally opened he said he should look to his publisher for "the
only true account of the reception of his book." (Lounsbury's _Life of
Cooper_, pp. 43-4.)]
[Footnote 20: _Napoleon_, Vol. I, ch. 2.]
[Footnote 21: "He fixed his attention on his employments without the
slightest consideration for his own feelings of whatever kind, either
in regard to state of health or domestic sorrows." (_Memoirs of a
Literary Veteran_, by R.P. Gillies, Vol. III, p. 141.)]
[Footnote 22: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 365.]
[Footnote 23: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 112.]
[Footnote 24: _Journal_, Vol. 1, p. 303; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 68.]
[Footnote 25: _Letters to Heber_, p. 69.]
[Footnote 26: Irving's _Abbotsford_.]
[Footnote 27: _Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor_, Vol. I,
p. 282. See also Scott's review of the _Life of Home_; and _Lockhart_,
Vol. III, p. 304.]
[Footnote 28: _Cockburn's Memorials_, p. 181.]
[Footnote 29: _Ticknor_, Vol. I, p. 280.]
[Footnote 30: _Letters to Heber_, p. 63; _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p.
496.]
[Footnote 31: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 177.]
[Footnote 32: Review of _Poems of William Herbert_, _Edinburgh
Review_, October, 1806.]
[Footnote 33: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 275-6.]
[Footnote 34: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 333.]
[Footnote 35: In 1830.]
[Footnote 36: Ritson's principal works were as follows: _Select
Collection of English Songs_ (1783); _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry
from Authentic Manuscripts and Old Printed Copies_ (1791); _Ancient
Songs from the Time of Henry III. to the Revolution_ (1792); _Scottish
Songs with the Genuine Music_ (1794); _Poems by Laurence Minot_
(1795); _Robin Hood Poems_ (1795); _Ancient English Metrical Romances_
(1802).]
[Footnote 37: Ellis published his _Specimens of the Early English
Poets_ in 1790, and it was reissued with the addition of the
Introduction in 1801 and 1803. He edited also Way's translations of
the Fabliaux (1796), and _Specimens of Early English Romances in
Metre_ (1805).]
[Footnote 38: Review of Dunlop's _History of Fiction_, July, 1815.]
[Footnote 39: The _Magnum Opus_ of Robert Surtees was his _History of
Durham_, published 1816-1840.]
[Footnote 40: Douce published _Illustrations of Shakespeare_ in 1807.
Later he edited _Arnold's Chronicle; Judicium, a Pageant_; and a
metrical _Life of St. Robert_. The two latter, which appeared in 1822
and 1824, were done for the Roxburghe Club. In 1824 he also wrote some
notes for Warton's _History of English Poetry_.]
[Footnote 41: _Age of Wordsworth_, p. 39.]
[Footnote 42: A number of volumes containing old ballads together with
modern imitations had been published both before and after the
appearance of Percy's _Reliques_, but Ritson's collections were the
first, except Percy's, to treat the material in a scholarly way.]
[Footnote 43: The discussion centered upon the social and literary
position of minstrels. The first edition of the _Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry_, published in 1765, contained an essay on the History
of Minstrelsy, and one on the Origin of the Metrical Romances, which,
taken together, says Mr. Courthope, "may be said to furnish the first
generalized theory of the nature of mediaeval poetry." (_History of
English Poetry_, Vol. I, p. 426.) Percy considered the minstrels as
the authors of the compositions which they sang to the harp, and as
holding a dignified social position similar to that of the Anglo-Saxon
scôp or the old Norse scald. This theory was vigorously attacked by
Joseph Ritson in the preface of his _Select Collection of English
Songs_ in 1783, and again in his _Ancient English Metrical Romances_
in 1802, and in his essay On the Ancient English Minstrels in Ancient
Songs and Ballads (1792). Ritson contended that minstrels were musical
performers of a low class, or even acrobats, and that they were not
literary composers. Scott used his knowledge of ballads and romances
and the customs depicted in them to reinforce his own decision that
the truth lay somewhere between the two extremes. He pointed out that
the word may have covered a wide variety of professional entertainers.
A modern comment (by E.K. Chambers, in _The Mediaeval Stage_, Vol. I,
p. 66) seems like an echo of Scott: "This general antithesis between
the higher and lower minstrelsy may now, perhaps, be regarded as
established. It was the neglect of it, surely, that led to that
curious and barren logomachy between Percy and Ritson, in which
neither of the disputants can be said to have had hold of more than a
bare half of the truth."]
[Footnote 44: Scott's theory as to the authorship of ballads is even
now held by Mr. Courthope. At the end of his chapter on Minstrelsy, in
_The History of English Poetry_, he thus sums up the matter: "All the
evidence cited in this chapter shows that, so far from the ballad
being a spontaneous product of popular imagination, it was a type of
poem adapted by the professors of the declining art of minstrelsy,
from the romances once in favour with the educated classes. Everything
in the ballad--matter, form, composition--is the work of the minstrel;
all that the people do is to remember and repeat what the minstrel has
put together." This statement represents a position which is actively
assailed by the adherents of the communal origin theory. Another
critical idea which originated in Germany, and in which Scott had no
interest, though he knew something about it, was the Wolffian
hypothesis in regard to the Homeric poems. He once heard Coleridge
expound the subject, but failed to join in the discussion. (_Journal_,
Vol. II, p. 164; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 193.) He said the theory could
never be held by any _poet_. See a note by Lockhart on the essay on
_Popular Poetry_. Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. 3.]
[Footnote 45: Review of Cromek's _Reliques of Burns_. _Quarterly
Review_, February, 1809.]
[Footnote 46: "No one but Burns ever succeeded in patching up old
Scottish songs with any good effect," Scott wrote in his _Journal_
(Vol. II, p. 25). And in his review of Cromek's _Reliques of Burns_ he
said on the same subject of Scottish songs: "Few, whether serious or
humorous, past through his hands without receiving some of those magic
touches which, without greatly altering the song, restored its
original spirit, or gave it more than it had ever possessed."
(_Quarterly_, February, 1809.)]
[Footnote 47: _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, Henderson's edition of
_Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. 46.]
[Footnote 48: Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. xix.]
[Footnote 49: Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, pp. 167-8.]
[Footnote 50: The matter may be traced in Child's collection of
ballads, or more easily in the latest edition of the _Minstrelsy_,
edited by T.F. Henderson and published in four volumes in 1902. Mr.
Henderson's views of ballad origins are quite in accord with Scott's
own, but he notes the points at which Scott failed to follow any
originals. There seems to be some reason to believe, however, though
Mr. Henderson does not say so, that Scott wrote _Kinmont Willie_
without any originals at all, except the very similar situations in
three or four other ballads. See the introduction by Professor
Kittredge to the abridged edition of Child's ballads, edited by
himself and Helen Child Sargent.
It is unnecessary to give here any detailed account of Scott's
procedure, as the matter has been thoroughly worked out by students of
ballads. A few examples may be given as illustrations, however. In
_The Dowie Dens of Yarrow_ (Henderson's edition, Vol. III, p. 173) 28
lines out of the 68 are noted by Mr. Henderson as either changed or
added by Scott. Scott writes (beginning of fifth stanza), "As he gaed
up the Tennies bank" for "As he gaed up yon high, high hill," and we
find from a note of Lockhart's that _The Tennies_ is the name of a
farm belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch. In the sixth stanza Scott
changes the lines,
"O ir ye come to drink the wine
As we hae done before, O?" to
"O come ye here to part your land,
The bonnie forest thorough?"
In the seventeenth stanza he changes,
"A better rose will never spring
Than him I've lost on Yarrow?" to
"A fairer rose did never bloom
Than now lies cropp'd on Yarrow."
In _Jellon Grame_ (Vol. III, p. 203), Mr. Henderson notes changes in
15 different lines, and points out 2 whole stanzas, out of the 21,
that are interpolated. In the _Gay Goss-hawk_ (Vol. III, p. 187) 6
stanzas out of 39 are noted as probably wholly or mainly by Scott, and
30 stanzas were changed by him. Sometimes his alterations occurred in
every line of a stanza. It is probable that Scott changed _Jamie
Telfer_ enough to make the Scotts take the place of prominence that
had been held by the Elliotts in the original form of the story. See
_The Trustworthiness of Border Ballads as Exemplified by 'Jamie Telfer
i' the Fair Dodhead' and other Ballads_; by Lieut.-Col. the Hon.
Fitzwilliam Elliott. Reviewed in _Edinburgh Review_, No. 418, p. 306
(October, 1906).]
[Footnote 51: See the examples given in the preceding note. Most of
the changes there spoken of were made without annotation.]
[Footnote 52: This extraordinary young man was poet and scholar on his
own account by 1800, though he was four years younger than Scott. His
erudition in many fields was remarkable, and he was as enthusiastic as
Scott himself about Scotch poetry, and was the chief assistant in
gathering ballads for the _Minstrelsy_. He also collected the material
for the essay on Fairies in the second volume, which was especially
praised by the reviewer in the _Edinburgh Review_ (January, 1803).
Leyden's chief fame was derived from his wonderfully varied activities
in India, from 1803 to his early death in 1811. Any reader of
Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ or of Scott's delightful little memoir,
published first in the _Edinburgh Annual Register_ for 1811, and
included in the _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, must feel that the
uncouth young genius is a familiar acquaintance.]
[Footnote 53: The Ettrick Shepherd, who, after reading the first two
volumes of the _Minstrelsy_, sought an acquaintance with Scott, and
offered assistance which was gladly made use of in the preparation of
the third volume. Scott in his turn provided much of the material for
Hogg's _Jacobite Relics_, published in 1819. The following note on one
of the songs in that work adds to the reader's doubts concerning the
accuracy of Scott's texts: "I have not altered a word from the
manuscript, which is in the handwriting of an amanuensis of Mr.
Scott's, the most incorrect transcriber, perhaps, that ever tried the
business." (_Jacobite Relics_, Vol. I, p. 282. Note on song lxiii.)]
[Footnote 54: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p.
284.]
[Footnote 55: _Quarterly_, May, 1810.]
[Footnote 56: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 514.]
[Footnote 57: Still more striking evidence that Scott lacked an
infallible sense of the difference between genuine and spurious ballad
material is afforded by his comments on Peter Buchan's collection,
which is now considered particularly untrustworthy. He thought that
with two or three exceptions the pieces in the book were genuine, and
said: "I scarce know anything so easily discovered as the piecing and
patching of an old ballad; the darns in a silk stocking are not more
manifest." (_Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. II, p. 424.)]
[Footnote 58: Scott's manuscript collections of ballads dropped
partially out of sight after his death, and it was only about 1890
that their magnitude and importance became known. Professor Child and
later editors have found them of very great service. (On Child's use
of the Abbotsford materials, see the Advertisement to Part VIII of his
collection, contained in Volume IV.) In 1880 appeared a reprint of the
_Ballad Book_ of C.K. Sharpe, "with notes and ballads from the
unpublished manuscripts of C.K. Sharpe and Sir Walter Scott," but the
contributions from Scott's papers did not amount to much. Scott's
materials were at the service of his friend for use in the original
edition of the _Ballad Book_, published in 1823. See _Sharpe's
Correspondence_, Vol. II, pp. 264, 271 and 325, for letters from Scott
on this subject.]
[Footnote 59: Note on _The Raid of the Reidswire_, in the
_Minstrelsy_.]
[Footnote 60: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. III, p.
232.]
[Footnote 61: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. II, p.
57.]
[Footnote 62: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 360.]
[Footnote 63: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 332.]
[Footnote 64: First edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. II, pp. 156-7.]
[Footnote 65: _Edinburgh Review_, January, 1803.]
[Footnote 66: The _Minstrelsy_ is arranged in three parts: I.,
Historical Ballads; II., Romantic Ballads; III., Imitations of the
Ballad. The first part is preceded by the Introductory Remarks on
Popular Poetry, and by the historical introduction. The second part is
preceded by the essay on The Fairies of Popular Superstition; and the
third by the essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad. The poems by
Scott given in this third part are as follows: _Thomas the Rhymer_
(parts 2 and 3), _Glenfinlas_, _The Eve of St. John_, _Cadyow Castle_,
_The Gray Brother_, _War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons_.
Besides these there are three poems by John Leyden (and he has also an
_Ode on Scottish Music_ preceding the Romantic ballads), two by C.K.
Sharpe, three by John Marriott, who was tutor to the children of the
Duke of Buccleuch, and one each by Matthew Lewis, Anna Seward, Dr.
Jamieson, Colin Mackenzie, J.B.S. Morritt, and an unnamed author. In
the other parts of the book there are a few imitations, notably the
three by Surtees--_Lord Ewine_, the _Death of Featherstonhaugh_, and
_Barthram's Dirge_, which Scott supposed were old; and one or two like
the _Flowers of the Forest_, which he noted as largely modern, or
which he had found, after arranging his material, to be wholly modern.
Nearly forty old ballads were published in the _Minstrelsy_ for the
first time.]
[Footnote 67: _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, conclusion.]
[Footnote 68: Review of the Poems of William Herbert. _Edinburgh
Review_, October, 1806.]
[Footnote 69: Stanzas 10-12, and 31, are noted by Child as
particularly suspicious. "Basnet," which occurs in stanza 10, is not a
very common word in ballads. It is used in _The Lay_, Canto I., stanza
25, and in _Marmion_, Canto VI, st. 21.]
[Footnote 70: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 221.]
[Footnote 71: _Memoir of William Taylor_, Vol. I, pp. 98-99, and see
_Sharpe's Correspondence_, Vol. I, pp. 146-7, for a letter to Sharpe
on a similar point.]
[Footnote 72: _Minstrelsy_, Introduction to _Lord Thomas and Fair
Annie_.]
[Footnote 73: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 101.]
[Footnote 74: _Ibid._, Vol. I, pp. 35-6.]
[Footnote 75: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 244. See also _Lockhart_,
Vol. V, p. 408.]
[Footnote 76: Sometime before 1821 (probably a good while before, but
the date cannot be fixed), Scott began a translation of _Don Quixote_,
and afterwards gave the work over to Lockhart, who completed it. See
_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 161.]
[Footnote 77: Louis-Elizabeth de la Vergne, Comte de Tressan, was born
in 1705 and died in 1783. In early life he was sent to Rome on
diplomatic business, and it is said that in the Vatican library he
acquired his taste for the literature of chivalry. His chief works
were _Amadis de Gaules_ (1779); _Roland furieux_ (translated from the
Italian, 1780); _Corps d'extraits romans de chevalerie_ (1782). His
translations were partly adaptations, and were far from being rendered
with precision.]
[Footnote 78: See particularly his article on Ellis's and Ritson's
_Metrical Romances_ (_Edinburgh Review_, January, 1806), the essay on
_Romance_, and _Remarks on Popular Poetry_ in the _Minstrelsy_.]
[Footnote 79: _Edinburgh Review_, July, 1804. Ellis and Scott had had
much correspondence on _Sir Tristrem_, and it was Ellis's queries that
first led Scott into the detailed investigation which resulted in the
separate publication of the work. He had intended to print it in the
_Minstrelsy_ (_Lockhart_, Vol. I. p. 289). The letters are given in
_Lockhart_, Vol. I.]
[Footnote 80: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 381.]
[Footnote 81: _Die nordische und die englische Version der
Tristan-sage_--II. _Sir Tristrem_. Heilbronn, 1882. Mr. George P.
McNeill's edition of _Sir Tristrem_ was printed for the Scottish Text
Society, Edinburgh, 1886.]
[Footnote 82: Kölbing thinks Scott probably hired a transcriber who
knew nothing of Middle English--a usual method of procedure in the
beginning of the nineteenth century. In later editions more errors
were introduced by the carelessness of printers, until, after 1830,
when the book was included in the complete editions of Scott's poems,
the text was collated with the manuscript. But it was still far from
correct. Kölbing enumerates about a hundred and thirty mistakes (see
his Introduction, p. xvii). Of these I took twenty-one at random, and
found that eight of them did not occur in the 1806 edition--in other
words, the person who collated the text nearly thirty years after
Scott or his hired transcriber had done it was far from infallible. A
few illustrations may be given of mistakes that occur in both the 1806
and the 1833 editions: l. 117, _send_ is given for _sent_; l. 846,
_telle_ for _tel_; l. 863, _How_ for _Hou_; l. 912, _mak_ for _make_;
l. 1212, _leuedi_ for _leuedy_; l. 1580, _wende sche weren_ for
_whende sche were_; l. 1334. _have_ for _han_; l. 1514, _as_ for
_als_.]
[Footnote 83: Review of Johnes's Translation of Froissart, _Edinburgh
Review_, January, 1805.]
[Footnote 84: Waverley, and Claverhouse in _Old Mortality_.]
[Footnote 85: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 480 and 482. _Familiar Letters_,
Vol. I, p. 147.]
[Footnote 86: _Essay on Romance_.]
[Footnote 87: See Gaston Paris, _La Littérature Française au Moyen
Age_, 1ère partie, ch. IV.]
[Footnote 88: Review of _Metrical Romances_, _Edinburgh Review_,
January, 1806.]
[Footnote 89: _Journal_, Vol. II, pp. 258-259.]
[Footnote 90: _Essay on Romance_.]
[Footnote 91: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 46.]
[Footnote 92: Memoir in the Globe edition of Scott's poems.]
[Footnote 93: Scott adopted the conclusions of Malcolm Laing, who
edited Macpherson's poems and adduced parallel passages from "a mass
of poetry, enough to serve any six gentle readers for their lifetime,"
as the reviewer says. The most of these parallels were found in
"Homer, Virgil, and their two translators; Milton, Thomson, Young,
Gray, Mason, Home, and the English Bible." Although he was convinced
by the argument, Scott saw that the editor was in some cases misled by
his own ingenuity.]
[Footnote 94: Later, however (in the essay on Imitations of the
Ancient Ballad, 1830), he said: "In their spirit and diction they
nearly resemble fragments of poetry extant in Gaelic." By this time he
was probably reverting to the earlier opinion which had made the more
vivid impression.]
[Footnote 95: For the _Northern Antiquities_, edited by Robert
Jamieson and published in 1814, Scott wrote an abstract of the
_Eyrbyggja Saga_, using, as one would conclude from his introductory
words, the Latin version made by Thorkelin, who published the saga in
1787. The purpose of the publication required the historical and
antiquarian rather than the literary point of view, and accordingly we
find Scott's notes occupied with historical comment.]
[Footnote 96: In 1804 Weber came to Edinburgh in a deplorable
condition of poverty, and was employed and assisted in literary work
by Scott during the following nine years. In 1813 he was seized with
insanity, and challenged Scott, across the study table, to an
immediate duel with pistols. Scott supported Weber during the
remaining five years of his life in an insane hospital. He was much
liked by the Scott family. Scott rated his learning very highly, and
gave him valuable assistance in various literary projects. Weber's
chief publications were: _Metrical Romances of the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries_, with Introduction, Notes and
Glossary (1810); _Dramatic Works of John Ford_, with Introduction and
Explanatory Notes (1811); _Works of Beaumont and Fletcher_, with
Introduction and Explanatory Notes (1812): to this Scott's notes were
the most valuable contribution; _Illustrations of Northern
Antiquities_ (1814), with Jamieson and Scott.]
[Footnote 97: See his essay on _Imitations of the Ancient Ballad_.]
[Footnote 98: _Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, translated by the
Vicar of Batheaston_. Conybeare had died two years before the
publication of the book.]
[Footnote 99: Review of Ellis's _Specimens_, _Edinburgh Review_,
April, 1804.]
[Footnote 100: Bletson and Richard Ganlesse.]
[Footnote 101: But see the dictum quoted by Scott in a somewhat
over-emphatic way from Ellis's _Specimens of the Early English Poets_,
to the effect that Chaucer's "peculiar ornaments of style, consisting
in an affectation of splendour, and especially of latinity," were
perhaps his special contribution to the improvement of English poetry.
(_Edinburgh Review_, April, 1804.) Scott said of Dunbar, "This darling
of the Scottish muses has been justly raised to a level with Chaucer
by every judge of poetry to whom his obsolete language has not
rendered him unintelligible." (_Memoir of Bannatyne_, p. 14.) After
naming the various qualities in which Dunbar was Chaucer's rival, he
pronounces the Scottish poet inferior in the use of pathos. The
relative position here assigned to the two poets seems to be rather an
exaltation of Dunbar than a degradation of Chaucer.]
[Footnote 102: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 408.]
[Footnote 103: _Dryden_, Vol. XI, p. 245.]
[Footnote 104: _Dryden_, Vol. XI, p. 396.]
[Footnote 105: _Ibid._, Vol. VI, p. 243.]
[Footnote 106: _Ibid._, Vol. XI, p. 338.]
[Footnote 107: The discussion of popular superstitions given in the
introduction to the _Minstrelsy_ and in the Essay on Fairies, which is
prefixed to the ballad of _Young Tamlane_, suggests comparison with
the _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_ which Scott wrote in the
year before he died. He collected a remarkable library in regard to
superstition, and thought at various times of making a book on the
subject, but the project was pushed aside for other matters until
1831. The _Letters_ which he wrote then are full of pleasant anecdote
and judicious comment, and though they lack the vigor of his earlier
work they have remained fairly popular. An edition of Kirk's _Secret
Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies_, published in 1815, has been
attributed to Scott. (See below, the Bibliography of books edited by
Scott.) Reviews of his which have not been mentioned in this chapter,
but which naturally connect themselves with the subjects here
discussed, are the following: _The Culloden Papers_--an account of the
Highland clans, largely narrative (_Quarterly_, January, 1816);
Ritson's _Annals of the Caledonians, Picts and Scots_--an article of
more than forty pages, discussing the early history of Scotland and
the historians who have written upon it (_Quarterly_, July, 1829);
Tytler's _History of Scotland_--an article similar to that on Ritson's
book (_Quarterly_, November, 1829); Pitcairn's _Ancient Criminal
Trials_--a long article, which begins with an extended digression on
booksellers and collectors and on the Roxburghe and Bannatyne clubs
(_Quarterly_, February, 1831); Sibbald's _Chronicle of Scottish
Poetry_--merely a series of notes on special points (_Edinburgh
Review_, October, 1803); Southey's _Chronicle of the Cid_
(_Quarterly_, February, 1809). For the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ Scott
wrote an essay on Chivalry, as well as the one on Romance to which
reference has been made.]
[Footnote 108: Review of _Kelly's Reminiscences and the Life of
Kemble_, _Quarterly Review_, June, 1826.]
[Footnote 109: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 97.]
[Footnote 110: Terry had been educated as an architect, and his
knowledge and taste were of assistance to Scott in connection with the
building and furnishing of Abbotsford. After 1812 he played chiefly in
London. In 1816 his version of _Guy Mannering_, the first of his
adaptations from Scott, was presented. Before this he had taken the
part of Roderick Dhu in two dramatic versions of _The Lady of the
Lake_. In 1819 he was the first David Deans in his adaptation of _The
Heart of Midlothian_. Six years later he became manager of the Adelphi
theater, in association with F.H. Yates. At this time Scott became
Terry's security for £1280, a sum which he was afterward obliged to
pay with the addition of £500 for which the credit of James Ballantyne
was pledged. When financial embarrassment caused Terry to retire from
the management his mental and physical powers gave way, and he died of
paralysis in 1829. Terry admired Scott so much that he learned to
imitate his facial expression, his speech and his handwriting.]
[Footnote 111: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 94.]
[Footnote 112: The phrase, which was a favorite one of Scott's, is
spoken not by Tony Lumpkin, but by one of his tavern companions.
Scott's use of it is an indication of the way in which he was familiar
with the drama. Very likely he never reread the play after his youth,
but his strong memory doubtless retained a pretty definite impression
of it.]
[Footnote 113: _Review of the Life and Works of John Home_,
_Quarterly_, June, 1827.]
[Footnote 114: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 143.]
[Footnote 115: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 427. It may be noted that this
criticism does not show much dramatic insight.]
[Footnote 116: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, pp. 445-6.]
[Footnote 117: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 117; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p.
447.]
[Footnote 118: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 94; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 419.]
[Footnote 119: Advertisement to _Halidon Hill_. When the publisher
Cadell closed a bargain with Scott in five minutes for _Halidon Hill_,
giving him £1000, he wrote as follows to his partner: "My views were
these: here is a commencement of a series of dramatic writings--let us
begin by buying them out." (_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p.
217.)]
[Footnote 120: "That well-written, but very didactic 'Old Play'," as
Adolphus calls it. (_Letters to Heber_, p. 55.)]
[Footnote 121: Introductory epistle to _Nigel_.]
[Footnote 122: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 414.]
[Footnote 123: Fitzgerald's _New History of the English Stage_, Vol.
II, p. 404.]
[Footnote 124: _Dramatic Essays_, Hazlitt's _Works_, Vol. VIII, p.
422.]
[Footnote 125: _Lockhart_, Vol. III. p. 176.]
[Footnote 126: _Ibid._, Vol. III. p. 265.]
[Footnote 127: _Ibid._, Vol. III. p. 332.]
[Footnote 128: _Essay on the Drama_.]
[Footnote 129: In 1808 he wrote to a friend: "We have Miss Baillie
here at present, who is certainly the best dramatic writer whom
Britain has produced since the days of Shakspeare and Massinger."
(_Fam. Let._, Vol. I. p. 99.) But Wilson also put Joanna Baillie next
to Shakspere, and quite seriously. The article in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_, on Joanna Baillie says that when the first volume
of _Plays on the Passions_ was published anonymously in 1798, Walter
Scott was at first suspected of being the author. But as Scott had
done nothing to give him a literary reputation in 1798, the assertion
is incredible. It seems to be based on the following very inexact
statement in _Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent
Scotsmen._ (Vol. V, Art. _Joanna Baillie_.) "Rich though the period
was in poetry, this work made a great impression, and a new edition of
it was soon required. The writer was sought for among the most gifted
personages of the day, and the illustrious Scott, with others then
equally appreciated, was suspected as the author."]
[Footnote 130: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 380.]
[Footnote 131: _Life of Dryden_, ch. I. In _Guy Mannering_ and _The
Antiquary_, the first two novels in which Scott habitually used
mottoes to head his chapters, most of the selections are from plays.
Eighteen plays of Shakspere are represented by twenty-nine quotations.
Other mottoes are from _The Merry Devil of Edmonton_, from Jonson,
from Fletcher (_The Little French Lawyer_, _Women Pleased_, _The Fair
Maid of the Inn_, _The Beggar's Bush_), from Brome, Dekker, Middleton
and Rowley, Cartwright, Otway, Southerne, _The Beggar's Opera_,
Walpole's _Mysterious Mother_, _The Critic_, _Chrononhotonthologos_,
Joanna Baillie. For the latter part of _The Antiquary_ many of the
mottoes were composed by Scott himself. _Kenilworth_ presents a
similar list, with some variations: Jonson's _Masque of Owls_ was
used, more than one play by Beaumont and Fletcher, Waldron's _Virgin
Queen_, _Wallenstein_, and _Douglas_. In _St. Ronan's Well_ there is a
larger proportion of non-dramatic mottoes, as in most of the later
novels, but we find represented nine of Shakspere's plays and one of
Beaumont and Fletcher's. _The Legend of Montrose_ (chapter XIV) has a
motto from Suckling's _Brennoralt_. In _Anne of Geierstein_ ten of
Shakspere's plays were drawn upon, and _Manfred_ was twice used. Scott
made his chapters much longer in these later novels, and used fewer
mottoes, but the evidence of the selections would seem to indicate
that he had lost something of his early familiarity with dramatic
literature.]
[Footnote 132: Hazlitt's _Characters of Shakespeare's Plays_ appeared
in 1817; his _Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Queen
Elizabeth_ in 1821.]
[Footnote 133: Scott first began to fabricate occasional mottoes for
his chapters during the composition of _The Antiquary_ in 1816.]
[Footnote 134: Saintsbury in _Macmillan's Magazine_, lxx: 323. Scott's
style in many sages is strongly colored by the influence of
Shakspere.]
[Footnote 135: Introduction by Lang to _The Fortunes of Nigel_.]
[Footnote 136: It is possible that among the various jobs of editing
undertaken by Scott with a view to keeping the Ballantyne types busy,
were certain collections of dramas. _Ancient British Drama_, in three
volumes, and _Modern British Drama_, in five volumes, published in
1810 and 1811, are sometimes attributed to Scott in library
catalogues, but on what authority it seems impossible to discover.
There is almost no commentary in the _Ancient British Drama_, but the
_Modern British Drama_ contains three brief introductions which I
believe were written by Scott. They show a striking likeness to some
parts of the _Essay on the Drama_ written several years later, and it
is not probable that Scott took his criticism ready-made from another
author. In the preface to the _Ancient British Drama_ we find this
statement: "The present publication is intended to form, with _The
British Drama_ and _Shakspeare_, a complete and uniform collection in
ten volumes of the best English plays." The Shakspeare here referred
to is doubtless that of which Constable the publisher afterwards spoke
in his correspondence with Scott as "Ballantyne's Shakespeare," and
Scott had no hand in the editorship. (_Constable's Correspondence_,
Vol. III, p. 244.)
It is true, however, as R.S. Mackenzie says in his _Life of Scott_,
that Scott "had not only meditated, but partly executed an edition of
Shakespeare." The work was suggested by Constable in 1822, was begun
in 1823 or 1824, and three volumes of the proposed ten were printed by
the time of Constable's financial crash in the beginning of 1826. The
project was sometime afterwards abandoned, and the printed sheets,
which apparently were not bound up, disappeared from view. The first
volume was to be a life of Shakspere by Scott, and this was probably
not begun at all. Of the commentary in the other volumes, Scott was to
have the oversight but Lockhart was to do most of the work. It was not
designed that the critical apparatus should to any great degree
represent original ideas furnished by Lockhart or Scott, but the book
was to be "a sensible Shakespeare, in which the useful and readable
notes should be condensed and separated from the trash." (See the
discussion of the matter in letters between Scott and his publisher
given in the third volume of _Constables Correspondence_. See also
Lang's _Life of Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 409, and Vol. II, p. 13, and
Mackenzie's _Life of Scott_, pp. 475-6.) The Boston Public Library
contains three volumes which are thought to be a unique copy of so
much of the Scott-Lockhart Shakspere as was printed. (See below, the
Bibliography of books edited by Scott.)
Scott's notes on Beaumont and Fletcher, which he had wished in 1804 to
offer to Gifford, were actually used by Weber in his _Beaumont and
Fletcher_, published about 1810, an edition which was characterized by
Scott as "too carelessly done to be reputable." (_Lockhart_, Vol. IV,
p. 472.)]
[Footnote 137: He seems to have connected heroic plays too closely
with "the romances of Calprenède and Scudéri." See his introduction to
_The Indian Emperor_, Dryden, Vol. II, pp. 317-20; also Vol. I, p. 56,
and Vol. VI, p. 125. On his opinion in regard to the relation between
novels and plays see below, pp. 75-6.]
[Footnote 138: See his comment on Corneille's _Oedipe_, _Dryden_, Vol.
VI, p. 125 and Mr. Saintsbury's note.]
[Footnote 139: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 446.]
[Footnote 140: Hutchinson's _Letters of Scott_, p. 224.]
[Footnote 141: That Scott admired Sackville greatly is evident from
more than one comment. Of _Ferrex and Porrex_ he says, "In Sackville's
part of the play, which comprehends the two last acts, there is some
poetry worthy of the author of the sublime Induction to the Mirror of
Magistrates." (_Dryden_, Vol. II, p. 135.) Elsewhere Scott calls
Sackville "a beautiful poet." (_Fragmenta Regalia_, p. 277. _Secret
History of the Court of James I._, Vol. I, p. 278, note.)]
[Footnote 142: _Dryden_, Vol. II, p. 136.]
[Footnote 143: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 229. See also Vol. III, p. 223.]
[Footnote 144: _Ibid._, Vol. V, p. 322.]
[Footnote 145: See, for example, _Hawthornden_, in _Provincial
Antiquities_.]
[Footnote 146: _Dryden_, Vol. XV, p. 337.]
[Footnote 147: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 10.]
[Footnote 148: Note on _Sir Tristrem_, Fytte II., stanza 56.]
[Footnote 149: See Middleton's Plays in the Mermaid edition:
Introduction, Vol. I, pp. viii-ix.]
[Footnote 150: Ticknor, in Allibone's _Dictionary_, Vol. II, p. 1968.]
[Footnote 151: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 234; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 23.]
[Footnote 152: See Scott's article on Molière, _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, February, 1828.]
[Footnote 153: _Essay on Drama_; _Dryden_, Vol. I, p. 101 ff., Vol.
II, pp. 317-20, Vol. IV, p. 4.]
[Footnote 154: _Dryden_, Vol. IV, p. 4.]
[Footnote 155: Article on Molière, _Foreign Quarterly Review_,
February, 1828.]
[Footnote 156: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 431.]
[Footnote 157: Review of _Kelly's Reminiscences and the Life of
Kemble_, _Quarterly Review_, June, 1826.]
[Footnote 158: _Ibid._]
[Footnote 159: _Dryden_, Vol. VI, p. 128.]
[Footnote 160: _In Provincial Antiquities_ (Borthwick Castle). Scott
cites parallels from _Sir John Oldcastle, The Pinner of Wakefield_,
and one of Nash's pamphlets, for a curious incident in Scottish
history.]
[Footnote 161: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 431. This search among
seventeenth century pamphlets may have suggested to Scott the need of
a new edition of _Somers' Tracts_. Apparently he arranged with the
publishers in 1807 to undertake this task, but the first volume did
not appear till 1809. (_Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 10, and see below, pp.
89-90, for an account of Scott's edition of the _Tracts_.) Some of his
materials for the _Dryden_ were taken from this collection, but more
from the Luttrell collection, to which he refers in the
Advertisement.]
[Footnote 162: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 433. Scott's _Dryden_ appeared
in 1808, and with some slight changes in 1821; as reëdited by Mr.
Saintsbury it was published in 1882-1893. It was the first complete
and uniform edition of Dryden's works, and it remains the only one.
The dramatic works had appeared in folio in 1701. They were edited by
Congreve in 1717, and Scott used Congreve's text. The non-dramatic
poems were also published in 1701 in folio. They appeared in more
convenient forms in 1741, 1743, and 1760, but of these editions only
the last was reasonably complete. In 1800 the Critical and
Miscellaneous Prose Works were edited by Malone, who added a Life of
Dryden which has furnished a large part of the material used by
biographers since his time. This biography was badly written, but with
Johnson's brilliant essay it was the only Life of Dryden before
Scott's that was worth considering. An edition of Dryden's poems, with
notes by Joseph Warton and others, appeared in 1811, but seems to have
been prepared before Scott's edition was published. The text of this
is very incorrect. Since then the non-dramatic poems have been
published several times. Mr. Christie said in his preface to the Globe
edition: "Sir Walter Scott's is the last important edition of Dryden,
as it is indeed still the only general collection of his works; and it
is to be regretted that that distinguished man did not give as much
pains to the purification of Dryden's text as he did to his excellent
biography and to the notes which enrich the edition."]
[Footnote 163: Editor's Preface.]
[Footnote 164: _Dryden_, Vol. IX, p. 226.]
[Footnote 165: _Ibid._, Vol. IX, p. 2.]
[Footnote 166: In this connection Scott's review of Todd's edition of
Spenser is interesting. He takes exception to the lack of an
appearance of continuity in the biography, caused by the long
quotations included in the body of the narrative; and censures the
editor for not having used the history of Italian poetry in
elucidating Spenser's work. (_Edinburgh Review_, October, 1805.)]
[Footnote 167: Review of Todd's _Spenser_.]
[Footnote 168: _Dryden_, Vol. I, p. 6.]
[Footnote 169: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 229; and _Dryden_, Vol.
I, p. 6.]
[Footnote 170: _Dryden_, Vol. I, pp. 402-3.]
[Footnote 171: _Dryden_, Vol. I, p. 403.]
[Footnote 172: _Ibid._, p. 404. Mr. Saintsbury thinks that Scott's
prefatory introductions to the plays are often "both meagre and
depreciatory"; also that Scott's judgment on Dryden's letters is
rather harsh, for him, and that after he had begun to write novels he
would not have been so impatient of remarks on "turkeys,
marrow-puddings, and bacon."]
[Footnote 173: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 405.]
[Footnote 174: _Ibid._, Vol. X, p. 307 ff.]
[Footnote 175: _Ibid._, Vol. XIV, pp. 136 and 146.]
[Footnote 176: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 405.]
[Footnote 177: In order to give a more specific view of Scott's
methods, two or three of the introductions to well-known poems may be
briefly analysed. The introduction to _Absalom and Achitophel_
occupies 111/2 pages, of which about 21/2 are given to quotation from a
tract which Scott thought furnished the argument to Dryden, and which
was unnoticed by any former commentator. Scott's remarks follow this
outline: Position of the poem in literature, and history of its
composition; origin of the particular allegory as applied to modern
politics; a parallel use of the allegory (with a quotation from
_Somers' Tracts_ in illustrations); aptness of the allegory; merits of
the satire--treatment of Monmouth and other main characters; changes
in the second edition to mitigate the satire; characterization of the
poem as having few flights of imagination but much correctness of
taste as well as fire and spirit; other objections by Johnson refuted;
success of the poem; history of the first publication and of the
replies and congratulatory poems; editions, and Latin versions. The
notes on this poem are historical and very full, but the introduction
contains as much literary as historical comment. _Religio Laici_ is
prefaced by 8 pages of introduction, in which are discussed the motive
of the writing, the argument, the title, the purpose of the poem, and
its reputation. Dryden's style in didactic poetry is compared with
Cowper's, to the disadvantage of the later poet. The introduction to
_The Hind and the Panther_ is 20 pages long, and discusses the history
of the period as well as the argument of the poem, its style, the
subject of fables in general, and the effects the poem produced. The
notes on this poem are copious. As he discussed the _Fables_ in the
_Life of Dryden_, Scott gave them no general introduction, and for
each poem he wrote only a slight preface, telling something of the
source and pointing out special beauties. His notes vary greatly in
abundance. Those on _Palamon and Arcite_, _e.g._, are brief,
explaining terms of chivalry and heraldry, but not giving literary or
linguistic comment.]
[Footnote 178: _Dryden_, Vol. XIII, p. 324.]
[Footnote 179: _Ibid._, Vol. XII, p. 20.]
[Footnote 180: _Ibid._, Vol. X, p. 213.]
[Footnote 181: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 411.]
[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 98. See also _St. Ronan's Well_,
Vol. I, p. 105, and various mottoes in the novels. The edition of the
novels used for reference is that published in Edinburgh (1867) in 48
volumes.]
[Footnote 183: _Dryden_, Vol. X, p. 26.]
[Footnote 184: For example see _Anne of Geierstein_, Vol. II, p. 307.]
[Footnote 185: _Letters to Heber_, p. 292.]
[Footnote 186: The price offered for the _Swift_ was £1500. This must
have been a rather rash speculation on the publisher's part, as there
had been several editions of Swift's works published. The first
appeared in twelve volumes in 1755, edited by Hawkesworth. Deane
Swift, Hawkesworth, and others, added thirteen more volumes in the
course of the next twenty-five years, and when the whole was completed
it was reissued in three different sizes. In 1785 an edition in
seventeen volumes was published, edited by Thomas Sheridan. In 1801
the edition by Nichols was published, and it reappeared in 1804 and in
1808. Hawkesworth and Thomas Sheridan supplied biographies which
Leslie Stephen characterized by saying that Hawkesworth's gave no new
material and that Sheridan's was "pompous and dull." (Preface to
Leslie Stephen's _Life of Swift_.)]
[Footnote 187: _Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. II, p. 178.]
[Footnote 188: This correspondence consisted of 28 letters from Swift,
and 16 "Vanessa."]
[Footnote 189: A comparison of the index with the bibliography in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_ and with Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole's
_Notes for a Bibliography of Swift_ (_Bibliographer_, vi: 160-71)
shows that Scott was usually right in his judgment on the main
articles. But since Mr. Lane-Poole ends his list thus: "And numerous
short poems, trifles, characters and short pieces," it is evident that
one cannot carry the investigation far without undertaking to make a
complete bibliography of Swift. Mr. Temple Scott says, in the
Advertisement of his edition of Swift's Prose Works, begun in 1897,
that since Sir Walter's edition of 1824 "there has been no serious
attempt to grapple with the difficulties which then prevented and
which still beset the attainment of a trustworthy and substantially
complete text."]
[Footnote 190: _Swift_, Vol. IV, p. 280. Two more of Scott's comments
may be given, further to illustrate his method. "This piece [William
Crowe's Address to her Majesty, _Swift_, Vol. XII, p. 265] and those
which follow, were first extracted by the learned Dr. Barrett, of
Trinity College, Dublin, from the Lanesborough and other manuscripts.
I have retained them from internal evidence, as I have discarded some
articles upon the same score." "The following poems [poems given as
"ascribed to Swift," Vol. X, p. 434] are extracted from the manuscript
of Lord Lanesborough, called the Whimsical Medley. They are here
inserted in deference to the opinion of a most obliging correspondent,
who thinks they are juvenile attempts of Swift. I own I cannot
discover much internal evidence in support of the supposition."]
[Footnote 191: Colonel Parnell, writing in the _English Historical
Review_ on "Dean Swift and the Memoirs of Captain Carleton," has
spoken of the biography as "this most partial, verbose, and inaccurate
account of the dean's life and writings." He says also that in editing
_Carleton's Memoirs_ Scott adopted, without investigation and in the
face of evidence, Johnson's opinion that the memoirs were genuine;
that Scott was mistaken about the date of the first edition and
misquoted the title page; and that his "glowing account" of Lord
Peterborough, in the introduction, was amplified (without
acknowledgment) from a panegyric by Dr. Birch in "Houbraken's Heads."
(_English Historical Review_, January, 1891; vi: 97. For a further
reference to the article see below, p. 144.)]
[Footnote 192: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 20.]
[Footnote 193: September, 1816.]
[Footnote 194: _Swift_ Vol. XVII, p. 4, note.]
[Footnote 195: _Life of Swift_, conclusion.]
[Footnote 196: _Swift_, Vol. XI, p. 12.]
[Footnote 197: Vol. IX, p. 569. The tract had already been correctly
assigned. A similar note on another tract indicates more careful
research on the part of the editor. The paper is _A Secret History of
One Year_, which had commonly been attributed to Robert Walpole. Scott
says: "This tract in not to found in Mr. Coxe's list of Sir Robert
Walpole's publications, nor in that given by his son, the Earl of
Oxford, in the Royal and Noble Authors.... It does not seem at all
probable that Walpole should at this crisis have thought it proper to
advocate these principles." (Vol. XIII, p. 873.) The piece is now
attributed to Defoe.]
[Footnote 198: See above, p. 4.]
[Footnote 199: _Horace Walpole_, in _Lives of the Novelists_.]
[Footnote 200: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 512.]
[Footnote 201: _Quarterly_, September, 1826.]
[Footnote 202: See his explanation, in the articles themselves.]
[Footnote 203: _The Mid-Eighteenth Century_, by J.H. Millar, p. 143,
note.]
[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, p. 159. Scott compares Fielding and Smollett
at some length in the _Life of Smollett_.]
[Footnote 205: _Life of Le Sage_.]
[Footnote 206: _Life of Richardson_.]
[Footnote 207: _Life of Fielding_.]
[Footnote 208: _Life of Goldsmith_. As we might expect, Scott speaks
rather too favorably of Goldsmith's hack work in history and science.]
[Footnote 209: _Life of Sterne_.]
[Footnote 210: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 35.]
[Footnote 211: See above, p. 53, note.]
[Footnote 212: See also the Introductory epistle to _Ivanhoe_; and the
Review of _Walpole's Letters_. "In attaining his contemporary
triumph," says Mr. Brander Matthews, "Scott owed more to Horace
Walpole than to Maria Edgeworth." _The Historical Novel_, p. 10.]
[Footnote 213: Scott uses the word.]
[Footnote 214: Mr. G.A. Aitken has given convincing evidence that the
story was not invented by Defoe. Mr. Aitken also shows the falsity of
Scott's statement that Drelincourt's book was in need of advertising,
as William Lee, in his _Life of Defoe_, had previously done. (See _The
Nineteenth Century_, xxxvii: 95. January, 1895; and also Aitken's
edition of Defoe's _Romances and Narratives_, Vol. XV, Introduction.)
A passage from Defoe's _History of the Church of Scotland_ is quoted
in the review of _Tales of My Landlord_, by Scott, who says that it
probably suggested one of the scenes in _Old Mortality_. Scott there
speaks of Defoe's "liveliness of imagination," and says he "excelled
all others in dramatizing a story, and presenting it as if in actual
speech and action before the reader." (_Quarterly Review_, January,
1817.)]
[Footnote 215: See also _The Fortunes of Nigel_, Vol. II, pp. 88-9.]
[Footnote 216: _Life of Clara Reeve_.]
[Footnote 217: Blackwood, March, 1818.]
[Footnote 218: _Quarterly_, May, 1818.]
[Footnote 219: See a reference to Voltaire and other French authors;
_Napoleon_, Vol. I, ch. 2.]
[Footnote 220: _Life of Richardson_.]
[Footnote 221: We gather from Scott's article that he considered the
following to be the chief "speculative errors" of Bage: he was an
infidel; he misrepresented different classes of society, thinking the
high tyrannical and the low virtuous and generous; his system of
ethics was founded on philosophy instead of religion; he was inclined
to minimize the importance of purity in women; he considered
tax-gatherers extortioners, and soldiers, licensed murderers.]
[Footnote 222: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 132.]
[Footnote 223: Familiar Letters, Vol. I, p. 192. In his _George the
Third_, Thackeray said: "Do you remember the verses--the sacred
verses--which Johnson wrote on the death of his humble friend Levett?"
(Biographical edition of Thackeray, Vol. VII, p. 671.)]
[Footnote 224: _Life of Johnson_.]
[Footnote 225: Introduction to _Chronicles of the Canongate_.]
[Footnote 226: _Dryden_, Vol. XI, p. 81, note; Review of the _Life and
Works of John Home_, _Quarterly_, June, 1827.]
[Footnote 227: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 44.]
[Footnote 228: _Swift_, Vol. XVI, p. 275, note. On one of the last sad
days before Sir Walter left Scotland for his Italian journey he quoted
in full Prior's poem on Mezeray's History of France. (_Lockhart_, Vol.
V, pp. 339-40.)]
[Footnote 229: _Swift_, Vol. III, p. 36.]
[Footnote 230: _Ibid._, Vol. XIII, p. 24.]
[Footnote 231: _Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. II, p. 194.]
[Footnote 232: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 67; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 401.]
[Footnote 233: Allan Cunningham's _Life of Scott_, p. 96.]
[Footnote 234: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 483.]
[Footnote 235: See the satirical paragraph in his review of _Gertrude
of Wyoming_, on the habits of reviewers in general. "We are perfectly
aware," he says, "that, according to the modern canons of criticism,
the Reviewer is expected to show his immense superiority to the author
reviewed, and at the same time to relieve the tediousness of
narration, by turning the epic, dramatic, moral story before him into
quaint and lively burlesque." (_Quarterly_, May, 1809.) In his review
of the _Life and Works of John Home_ he speaks of "the hackneyed rules
of criticism, which, having crushed a hundred poets, will never, it
may be prophesied, create, or assist in creating, a single one."
(_Quarterly_, June, 1827.)]
[Footnote 236: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 363.]
[Footnote 237: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 501. For a further comparison of
Scott and Jeffrey as critics see below, pp. 134-5.]
[Footnote 238: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 204.]
[Footnote 239: _Ibid._, Vol. V, p. 97.]
[Footnote 240: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 262]
[Footnote 241: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 173]
[Footnote 242: In general Scott admired Lockhart. "I have known the
most able men of my time," he once wrote, "and I never met any one who
had such ready command of his own mind, and possessed in a greater
degree the power of making his talents available upon the shortest
notice, and upon any subject." (_Life of Murray_, Vol. II, p. 222.)
But in Lockhart's earlier days Scott said, "I am sometimes angry with
him for an exuberant love of fun in his light writings, which he has
caught, I think, from Wilson, a man of greater genius than himself
perhaps, but who disputes with low adversaries, which I think a
terrible error, and indulges in a sort of humour which exceeds the
bounds of playing at ladies and gentlemen, a game to which I have been
partial all my life." (_Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart_, p. 225.)]
[Footnote 243: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 400.]
[Footnote 244: Lang's _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 406.]
[Footnote 245: _Life of Murray_, Vol. I, pp. 146-7.]
[Footnote 246: _Quarterly_, February, 1809.]
[Footnote 247: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 327.]
[Footnote 248: Scott wrote a poetical epitaph for the burial place of
Miss Seward and her father. See _Edinburgh Annual Register_, Vol. II,
pt. 2. In the introduction to _The Tapestried Chamber_, Scott said,
"It was told to me many years ago by the late Miss Anna Seward, who,
among other accomplishments that rendered her an amusing inmate in a
country house, had that of recounting narratives of this sort with
very considerable effect; much greater, indeed, than anyone would be
apt to guess from the style of her written performances." It must be
remembered that Miss Seward was one of the first persons of any
literary note, outside of Edinburgh, to show an interest in Scott's
work, and he committed himself to admiration of her poetry when he was
still in a rather uncritical stage. In regard to his later feeling
about her see _Recollections_, by R.P. Gillies, _Fraser's_, xiii: 692,
January, 1836.]
[Footnote 249: J.L. Adolphus, in an interesting passage in his
_Letters to Heber on the Authorship of Waverley_, noted many of the
references to contemporary poets. See pp. 53-4. See also Hazlitt's
_Spirit of the Age_, art. _Sir Walter Scott_]
[Footnote 250: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 341. See also a similar
anecdote in Forster's _Life of Landor_, Vol. II, p. 244.]
[Footnote 251: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 116-17.]
[Footnote 252: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 132.]
[Footnote 253: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 321.]
[Footnote 254: Review of _Cromek's Reliques of Burns_, _Quarterly_,
February, 1809.]
[Footnote 255: _Ibid._]
[Footnote 256: _Ibid._]
[Footnote 257: Crabbe Robinson, in his diary (quoted by Knight in his
edition of Wordsworth, Vol. X, p. 189), says that Coleridge and his
friends "consider Scott as having stolen the verse" of _Christabel_.
On this point see also a letter by Coleridge, given in Meteyard's
_Group of Englishmen_, pp. 327-8. In 1807 Coleridge wrote to Southey:
"I did not over-hugely admire the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' but saw
no likeness whatever to the 'Christabel,' much less any improper
resemblance." (_Letters of Coleridge_, ed. by E.H. Coleridge, Vol. II,
p. 523.) Yet Mr. Lang seems to think that in this matter Scott "showed
something of the deficient sense of _meum_ and _tuum_ which marked his
freebooting ancestors." (_Sir Walter Scott_, p. 36.) Apparently Scott
never dreamed that the matter could be looked at in this way. In
Lockhart's _Scott_ (Vol. II, pp. 77-8) we find described an occasion
on which the two men once met in London, when they were asked, with
other poets who were present, to recite from their unpublished
writings. Coleridge complied with the request, but Scott said he had
nothing of his own and would repeat some stanzas he had seen in a
newspaper. The poem was criticised adversely in spite of Scott's
protests, till Coleridge lost patience and exclaimed, "Let Mr. Scott
alone; I wrote the poem." Coleridge's lines:
"The Knight's bones are dust
And his good sword rust,
His soul is with the saints, I trust,"
are probably much better known as they appear in _Ivanhoe_,
incorrectly quoted, than in their proper form. Scott also added a note
on Coleridge in this connection. (_Ivanhoe_, Chapter VIII.)]
[Footnote 258: But apparently not in any earlier than _The Black
Dwarf_, which was written in 1816, the year in which the poem was
published. It was about 1803 that Scott heard _Christabel_ recited.
See _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 221.]
[Footnote 259: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 356.]
[Footnote 260: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 315.]
[Footnote 261: See _Letters to Heber_, p. 293; _On Imitations of the
Ancient Ballad_; _Lockhart_, Vol. III, pp. 56 and 264; _Quentin
Durward_, Vol. II, p. 394.]
[Footnote 262: Note in _The Abbot_.]
[Footnote 263: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 223.]
[Footnote 264: Note in _St. Ronan's Well_. See also the comment on
_Wallenstein_ in _Paul's Letters_, Letter XV.]
[Footnote 265: Review of _Childe Harold_, _Canto III_, _Quarterly_,
October, 1816.]
[Footnote 266: In 1818 Scott wrote a review of _Frankenstein_ in which
it appears that he thought Shelley was the author. Shelley had sent
the book with a note in which he said that it was the work of a friend
and he had merely seen it through the press; and Scott took this for
the conventional evasion so often resorted to by authors. (See Mr.
Lang's note in his Introduction to the Waverley Novels, p. lxxxvi.)
Scott praises the substance and style of the book, and advises the
author to cultivate his poetical powers, in words which make it
evident that he did not know Shelley as a poet, though _Alastor_ had
appeared in 1816. Scott also praises _Frankenstein_ in his article on
Hoffmann. In reading Scott's novels I have noted two reminiscences of
the line, "One word is too often profaned." They are to be found in
_Old Mortality_, Vol. II, p. 93, and in _Redgauntlet_, Vol. I, p.
224.]
[Footnote 267: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 179.]
[Footnote 268: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 40.]
[Footnote 269: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 97.]
[Footnote 270: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 333]
[Footnote 271: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 190.]
[Footnote 272: I quote from the letter as given in Knight's
_Wordsworth_, Vol. II, p. 105. Prof. Knight says that Lockhart quotes
the letter less exactly (Vol. I, p. 489.)]
[Footnote 273: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 428.]
[Footnote 274: Even Byron admired Southey. He once wrote, "His prose
is perfect. Of his poetry there are various opinions: there is,
perhaps, too much of it for the present generation; posterity will
probably select. He has _passages_ equal to anything." (Byron's
_Letters and Journals_, ed. Prothero, Vol. II, p. 331.) Shelley also
had a high opinion of Southey's work. (Dowden's _Life of Shelley_,
Vol. I, p. 158, and pp. 471-2.) Landor liked _Madoc_ and _Thalaba_ so
much that, when he found Southey hesitating to write more poems of a
similar kind because they did not pay, he offered to bear the expense
of the publication. Southey refused the assistance, but was stimulated
by the kindness and considered Landor's encouragement responsible for
his later work in poetry. (Forster's _Life of Landor_, Vol. I, pp.
209-214.)]
[Footnote 275: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 307.]
[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 415.]
[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 477; see also _Edinburgh Annual
Register_ for 1809, part 2, p. 588.]
[Footnote 278: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 197.]
[Footnote 279: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 127.]
[Footnote 280: In his youth Scott read Dante with other Italian
authors, but he did not become well acquainted with him, and later
even expressed dislike for his work. (See _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 408.)
In 1825 he wrote to W.S. Rose, "I will subscribe for Dante with all
pleasure, on condition you do not insist on my reading him." (_Fam.
Let._, Vol. II, p. 356.)]
[Footnote 281: It may be interesting to have Southey's comment on the
same article. (See _Southey's Letters_, Vol. II, p. 307.) He says,
"Bedford has seen the review which Scott has written of it, and which,
from his account, though a very friendly one, is, like that of the
'Cid,' very superficial. He sees nothing but the naked story; the
moral feeling which pervades it has escaped him. I do not know whether
Bedford will be able to get a paragraph interpolated touching upon
this, and showing that there is some difference between a work of high
imagination and a story of mere amusement." Either Bedford was
mistaken in saying that Scott had ignored the moral aspect of the
poem, or else he succeeded in getting a passage interpolated, for the
review is sufficiently definite on that point.]
[Footnote 282: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 481.]
[Footnote 283: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 296.]
[Footnote 284: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 413.]
[Footnote 285: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 112; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p.
429.]
[Footnote 286: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 391.]
[Footnote 287: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 211.]
[Footnote 288: Introduction to _Marmion_; _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 82.]
[Footnote 289: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 508.]
[Footnote 290: Byron did not altogether approve of Scott's poetry, but
he felt its effectiveness. In his "Reply to Blackwood's Edinburgh
Magazine," Byron wrote: "What have we got instead [of following Pope]?
A deluge of flimsy and unintelligible romances, imitated from Scott
and myself, who have both made the best of our bad materials and
erroneous system."]
[Footnote 291: Review of _Childe Harold_, _Canto III_, _Quarterly_,
October, 1816.]
[Footnote 292: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 182.]
[Footnote 293: It should be remembered also that Scott's first review
of _Childe Harold_ appeared at a time when all England was condemning
Byron for his treatment of Lady Byron, and that the article was
thought by many to be altogether too lenient. Byron wrote to Murray
expressing his pleasure in the review before he knew who was
responsible for it, and some years later he wrote to Scott as follows:
"To have been recorded by you in such a manner would have been a proud
memorial at any time, but at such a time ... was something still
higher to my self-esteem.... Had it been a common criticism, however
eloquent or panegyrical, I should have felt pleased, undoubtedly, and
grateful, but not to the extent which the extraordinary
good-heartedness of the whole proceeding must induce in any mind
capable of such sensations." (_Byron's Letters and Journals_, Vol. VI,
p. 2.) See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 510, for quotations from Byron
showing his admiration for Scott. An interesting contrast between the
characters of the two poets is drawn by H.S. Legaré. (See his
_Collected Writings_, Vol. II, p. 258.)]
[Footnote 294: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 221]
[Footnote 295: _Remarks on the Death of Lord Byron_.]
[Footnote 296: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 525]
[Footnote 297: See Nichol's _Byron_ (English Men of Letters), p. 205;
and Arnold's essay on Byron.]
[Footnote 298: _Quarterly Review_, May, 1809.]
[Footnote 299: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 341.]
[Footnote 300: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 9.]
[Footnote 301: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 70.]
[Footnote 302: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 306.]
[Footnote 303: Byron said, "Crabbe's the man, but he has got a coarse
and impracticable subject." (Moore's _Life and Letters of Byron_, Vol.
IV, pp. 63-4.) Leslie Stephen remarks that Crabbe "was admired by
Byron in his rather wayward mood of Pope-worship, as the last
representative of the legitimate school." (_English Literature and
Society in the 18th Century_, p. 207.)]
[Footnote 304: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 197.]
[Footnote 305: The reader will at once recall the ingenuous remark of
Sophia Scott when she was asked, shortly after its appearance, how she
liked _The Lady of the Lake_. She said, "Oh, I have not read it; Papa
says there's nothing so bad for young people as reading bad poetry."
(_Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 130. See also the _Life of Irving_, Vol. I,
p. 444.)]
[Footnote 306: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 94.]
[Footnote 307: _Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. I, p. 353.]
[Footnote 308: See _Marmion_, introduction to Canto III, and other
passages noted by Adolphus in the _Letters to Heber_, p. 295. See also
_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 198, and the passage in _Lockhart_
(Vol. II, p. 132), in which James Ballantyne reports Scott as saying
to him, "If you wish to speak of a real poet, Joanna Baillie is now
the highest genius of our country."]
[Footnote 309: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 306.]
[Footnote 310: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 359; also Vol. I, p. 255; and
_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 300.]
[Footnote 311: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 117.]
[Footnote 312: _Ibid._, Vol. V, p. 448.]
[Footnote 313: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 14.]
[Footnote 314: _Forster_, Vol. I, p. 84, note.]
[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 95.]
[Footnote 316: _Haydon's Correspondence_, Vol. I, p. 356.]
[Footnote 317: Hunt says Scott was interested in reading _The Story of
Rimini_. See Hunt's _Autobiography_, Vol. I, p. 260.]
[Footnote 318: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 22. Scott wrote as follows to
Lockhart after the appearance of _Lord Byron and Some of his
Contemporaries_: "Hunt has behaved like a hyena to Byron, whom he has
dug up to girn and howl over him in the same breath." Mr. Lang makes
this comment: "Leigh Hunt ... had gone out of his way to insult Sir
Walter and to make the most baseless insinuations against him. Scott
probably never mentioned Leigh Hunt's name publicly in his life, and
he refers to the insults neither in his correspondence nor in his
_Journal_." (Lang's _Life of Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 22 and 24.) Hunt
evidently thought that Scott was partly responsible for the articles
in _Blackwood_ on the Cockney School. He says, "Unfortunately some of
the knaves were not destitute of talent: the younger were tools of
older ones who kept out of sight." (Hunt's _Lord Byron_, etc., Vol. I,
p. 423.) In his _Autobiography_, Hunt says, "Sir Walter Scott
confessed to Mr. Severn at Rome that the truth respecting Keats had
prevailed." (Vol. II, p. 44.) Mr. Lang points out that though Colvin
said of Scott (in his _Life of Keats_) "that he was in some measure
privy to the Cockney School outrages seems certain," he afterwards
recanted the statement. (In his edition of _Keats's Letters_, p. 60,
note. See Lang's _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 196-8.) Scott invited Lamb to
Abbotsford when Lamb was looked upon as a leader of the Cockney
School. (Lang's _Scott_, p. 52.)]
[Footnote 319: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 155; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 476,
and Vol. V, p. 380.]
[Footnote 320: _Quarterly_, October, 1815.]
[Footnote 321: Postscript to _Waverley_, and General Introduction.]
[Footnote 322: For references to the group of women novelists who were
so successful in depicting manners, see the _Life of Charlotte Smith_;
the Postscript to _Waverley_; the Introduction to _St. Ronan's Well_;
_Journal_, Vol. I, p. 164.]
[Footnote 323: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. III.]
[Footnote 324: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 116.]
[Footnote 325: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, 164.]
[Footnote 326: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 299; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 65.]
[Footnote 327: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 295; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 62.]
[Footnote 328: The reference as given by Lockhart is as follows: "This
man, who has shown so much genius, has a good deal of the manners, or
want of manners, peculiar to his countrymen." (_Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
62.) Cooper observes in regard to this point: "The manners of most
Europeans strike us as exaggerated, while we appear cold to them. Sir
Walter Scott was certainly so obliging as to say many flattering
things to me, which I, as certainly, did not repay in kind. As Johnson
said of his interview with George the Third, it was not for me to
bandy compliments with my sovereign. At that time the diary was a
sealed book to the world, and I did not know the importance he
attached to such civilities." It is a pity that the transcriber of the
passage in the _Journal_ changed "manner," which was the word Scott
wrote, to the more objectionable "manners." (_Journal_, Vol. I, p.
295.)]
[Footnote 329: Scott's letter was substantially as follows: "I have
considered in all its bearings the matter which your kindness has
suggested. Upon many former occasions I have been urged by my friends
in America to turn to some advantage the sale of my writings in your
country, and render that of pecuniary avail as an individual which I
feel as the highest compliment as an author. I declined all these
proposals, because the sale of this country produced me as much profit
as I desired, and more--far more--than I deserved. But my late heavy
losses have made my situation somewhat different, and have rendered it
a point of necessity and even duty to neglect no means of making the
sale of my works effectual to the extrication of my affairs, which can
be honorably and honestly resorted to. If therefore Mr. Carey, or any
other publishing gentleman of credit and character, should think it
worth while to accept such an offer, I am willing to convey to him the
exclusive right of publishing the _Life of Napoleon_, and my future
works in America, making it always a condition, which indeed will be
dictated by the publisher's own interest, that this monopoly shall not
be used for the purpose of raising the price of the work to my
American readers, but only for that of supplying the public at the
usual terms....
"At any rate, if what I propose should not be found of force to
prevent piracy, I cannot but think from the generosity and justice of
American feeling, that a considerable preference would be given in the
market to the editions emanating directly from the publisher selected
by the author, and in the sale of which the author had some interest.
"If the scheme shall altogether fail, it at least infers no loss, and
therefore is, I think, worth the experiment. It is a fair and open
appeal to the liberality, perhaps in some sort to the justice, of a
great people; and I think I ought not in the circumstances to decline
venturing upon it. I have done so manfully and openly, though not
perhaps without some painful feelings, which however are more than
compensated by the interest you have taken in this unimportant matter,
of which I will not soon lose the recollection." (_Knickerbocker
Magazine_, Vol. XI, p. 380 ff., April, 1838.)]
[Footnote 330: _Knickerbocker_, Vol. XII, p. 349 ff., October, 1838.]
[Footnote 331: In a letter written in January, 1839, Sumner said,
speaking of Cooper's article, "I think a proper castigation is applied
to the vulgar minds of Scott and Lockhart." (See _Memoir and Letters
of Charles Sumner_, by Edward L. Pierce, Vol. II, p. 38; and
Lounsbury's _Cooper_, p. 160.)]
[Footnote 332: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 163-4.]
[Footnote 333: _Ibid._, Vol. III, p. 262.]
[Footnote 334: _Ibid._, Vol. III, p. 131, note; _Fam. Let._, Vol. I,
p. 440. "Walter Scott was the first transatlantic author to bear
witness to the merit of Knickerbocker," wrote P.M. Irving in his _Life
of Washington Irving_. Henry Brevoort presented Scott with a copy of
the second edition in 1813, and received this reply: "I beg you to
accept my best thanks for the uncommon degree of entertainment which I
have received from the most excellently jocose history of New York. I
am sensible that as a stranger to American parties and politics I must
lose much of the concealed satire of the piece, but I must own that
looking at the simple and obvious meaning only, I have never read
anything so closely resembling the style of Dean Swift, as the annals
of Diedrich Knickerbocker.... I think too there are passages which
indicate that the author possesses powers of a different kind, and has
some touches which remind me much of Sterne." (_Life of Irving_, Vol.
I, p. 240.) When, in 1819, Irving needed money, he wrote to Scott for
advice about publishing the _Sketch Book_ in England. "Scott was the
only literary man," he says, "to whom I felt that I could talk about
myself and my petty concerns with the confidence and freedom that I
would to an old friend--nor was I deceived. From the first moment that
I mentioned my work to him in a letter, he took a decided and
effective interest in it, and has been to me an invaluable friend."
(Vol. I, p. 456.) At this time Scott asked Irving to accept the
editorship of a political newspaper in Edinburgh, an offer which
Irving of course refused. (_Fam. Let._, Vol. II, p. 60; _Life of
Irving_, Vol. I, pp. 441-2, and Vol. III, pp. 272-3.) Scott called the
_Sketch Book_ "positively beautiful." He was by some people supposed
to be the author. In this connection it was said of him that his "very
numerous disguises," and his "well-known fondness for literary
masquerading, seem to have gained him the advantage of being suspected
as the author of every distinguished work that is published." (Letter
by Lady Lyttleton, in _Life of Irving_, Vol. II, p. 21.)]
[Footnote 335: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 131; _Life of Irving_, Vol. I,
p. 240.]
[Footnote 336: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 161.]
[Footnote 337: _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, Letter II.]
[Footnote 338: _Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 199.]
[Footnote 339: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, pp. 100-104.]
[Footnote 340: Vol. I, p. 371.]
[Footnote 341: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 359; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 100.
See also _Journal_, Vol. II, pp. 483-4.]
[Footnote 342: Review of Hoffmann's novels, _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, July, 1827.]
[Footnote 343: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 19.]
[Footnote 344: M. Maigron says, speaking of the vogue of Scott in
France: "On peut affirmer mème que, de 1820 à 1830, aucun nom français
ne fut en France aussi connu et aussi glorieux." (_Le Roman Historique
à l'Époque Romantique_, p. 99. See also pp. 100-133.)]
[Footnote 345: The phrase is quoted from Scott's article on the _Life
and Works of John Home_, in which it is applied to Home's critical
work. The same idea occurs frequently in Scott's books, as indicating
one of the finest graces of life. It was one which Sir Walter was
foremost in practicing in all his social relations.]
[Footnote 346: He was talking about Pope. See the _Recollections_, by
R.P. Gillies, _Fraser's_, xii: 253 (Sept., 1835).]
[Footnote 347: Review of _The Battles of Talavera_, _Quarterly_,
November, 1809.]
[Footnote 348: Editor's Introduction to _Montrose_, Border edition of
the Waverley Novels.]
[Footnote 349: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 125.]
[Footnote 350: _Quarterly_, January, 1817. Scott evidently wrote this
article chiefly for the purpose of defending the historical accuracy
of _Old Mortality_. He also wished to show that _The Black Dwarf_ was
founded on fact; and he devoted some space, as will appear in the
passage quoted below (pp. 111-112), to a discussion of the artistic
aspects of these and the earlier Waverly novels.]
[Footnote 351: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 269.]
[Footnote 352: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 276.]
[Footnote 353: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 96.]
[Footnote 354: Introductory epistle to _Nigel_; _Fam. Let._, Vol. I,
p. 28.]
[Footnote 355: Introduction to the _Monastery_.]
[Footnote 356: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 258.]
[Footnote 357: _Rokeby_, Canto VI, stanza 26; _Waverley_, Vol. II, pp.
399-400; _Journal_, Vol. 1, p. 117; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 447-8.]
[Footnote 358: Review of the _Life and Works of John Home_,
_Quarterly_, June, 1827.]
[Footnote 359: Review of Southery's _Life of Bunyan_, _Quarterly_,
October, 1830.]
[Footnote 360: _Quarterly_, January, 1817.]
[Footnote 361: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 7-8.]
[Footnote 362: _Quarterly_, November, 1809.]
[Footnote 363: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 128.]
[Footnote 364: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 129.]
[Footnote 365: Epistle prefixed to Canto V.]
[Footnote 366: Epistle prefixed to Canto III.]
[Footnote 367: Hazlitt's _Spirit of the Age_, art. _Sir Walter Scott_;
see _Letters to Heber_, p. 75 ff.]
[Footnote 368: It is hard to say just how much he accomplished by the
proof-reading, which, to judge by his Journal, he habitually
performed. He wrote to Kirkpatrick Sharpe in 1809, after seeing a new
number of the _Quarterly_: "I am a little disconcerted with the
appearance of one or two of my own articles, which I have had no
opportunity to revise in proof." (_Sharpe's Correspondence_, Vol. I,
p. 370.) Lockhart gives an interesting sample of a sheet of Scott's
poetry tentatively revised by Ballantyne and reworked by the author.
(_Lockhart_, Vol. III, pp. 32-5.) It is certain that Ballantyne made
many suggestions, some of which Scott accepted and some of which he
summarily rejected. In Hogg's _Domestic Manners of Scott_ we find the
following account of what the printer said when Hogg reported that Sir
Walter was to correct some proofs for him: "He correct them for you!
Lord help you and him both! I assure you if he had nobody to correct
after him, there would be a bonny song through the country. He is the
most careless and incorrect writer that ever was born, for a
voluminous and popular writer, and as for sending a proof sheet to
him, we may as well keep it in the office. He never heeds it.... He
will never look at either your proofs or his own, unless it be for a
few minutes amusement" (pp. 242-3). When he wrote to Miss Baillie that
he had read the proofs of a play of hers which was being published in
Edinburgh, he added, "but this will not ensure their being altogether
correct, for in despite of great practice, Ballantyne insists I have a
bad eye." (_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 173.)]
[Footnote 369: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 79; also 234 and 239;
_Lockhart_, Vol. V, pp. 116 and 240.]
[Footnote 370: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 117; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p.
448.]
[Footnote 371: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 2 and 391.]
[Footnote 372: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 72.]
[Footnote 373: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 101.]
[Footnote 374: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 113.]
[Footnote 375: Essay on _Imitations of the Ancient Ballad_.]
[Footnote 376: A friend of Scott's once wrote to him, "You are the
only author I ever yet knew to whom one might speak plain about the
faults found with his works." (_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 282.) He
took great pains, contrary to his usual custom, in revising and
correcting the _Malachi Malagrowther_ papers, but these were
argumentative and in an altogether different class from his poems and
novels; and besides he felt a special responsibility in writing upon a
public matter "far more important than anything referring to [his]
fame or fortune alone." (_Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 460.)]
[Footnote 377: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 379.]
[Footnote 378: Introduction to the _Pirate_.]
[Footnote 379: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 250.]
[Footnote 380: This was, of course, an effect of overwork and disease.
Irving quotes Scott as saying: "It is all nonsense to tell a man that
his mind is not affected, when his body is in this state." (_Irving's
Life_, Vol. II, p. 459.)]
[Footnote 381: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 181.]
[Footnote 382: See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 265-6.]
[Footnote 383: _Journal_, Vol. I, pp. 212-13; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
13.]
[Footnote 384: See _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 309; _Lockhart_,
Vol. I, p. 216; Vol. IV, pp. 128 and 498; Vol. V, pp. 128, 412, 448.]
[Footnote 385: _Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. I, p. 352.]
[Footnote 386: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 276. In the _Edinburgh Annual
Register_ for 1808 (published 1810) is an article on the _Living Poets
of Great Britain_, which if not written by Scott was evidently
influenced by him. Speaking of Southey, Campbell and Scott, the writer
says: "Were we set to classify their respective admirers we should be
apt to say that those who feel poetry most enthusiastically prefer
Southey; those who try it by the most severe rules admire Campbell;
while the general mass of readers prefer to either the Border Poet. In
this arrangement we should do Mr. Scott no injustice, because we
assign to him in the number of suffrages what we deny him in their
value." He once wrote to Miss Baillie, "No one can both eat his cake
and have his cake, and I have enjoyed too extensive popularity in this
generation to be entitled to draw long-dated bills upon the applause
of the next." (_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 173.) But in the
Introductory Epistle to _Nigel_ he said, "It has often happened that
those who have been best received in their own time have also
continued to be acceptable to posterity. I do not think so ill of the
present generation as to suppose that its present favour necessarily
infers future condemnation."]
[Footnote 387: Introduction to the _Lady of the Lake_; _Lockhart_,
Vol. II, p. 130.]
[Footnote 388: Introduction to _Chronicles of the Canongate_.]
[Footnote 389: _Journal_, Vol. II, p 473.]
[Footnote 390: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 355.]
[Footnote 391: _Ibid._, Vol. V, p. 164.]
[Footnote 392: See speech of Humphry Gubbin, in _The Tender Husband_,
Act I, Sc. 2.]
[Footnote 393: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p 297; see also _Familiar
Letters_, Vol. I, p. 55.]
[Footnote 394: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 104 and 124.]
[Footnote 395: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 222; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 18.]
[Footnote 396: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 350.]
[Footnote 397: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 508.]
[Footnote 398: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 229.]
[Footnote 399: When Constable was proposing to publish the poetry of
the novels separately, Scott wrote to him that it was beyond his own
power to distinguish what was original from what was borrowed, and
suggested the following Advertisement for the book:
"We believe by far the greater part of the poetry interspersed through
these novels to be original compositions by the author. At the same
time the reader will find passages which are quoted from other
authors, and may probably debit more of these than our more limited
reading has enabled us to ascertain. Indeed, it is our opinion that
some of the following poetry is neither entirely original nor
altogether borrowed, but consists in some instances of passages from
other authors, which the author has not hesitated to alter
considerably, either to supply defects of his own memory, or to adapt
the quotation more explicitly and aptly to the matter in hand."
(_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, pp. 222-3.)]
[Footnote 400: "I have taught nearly a hundred gentlemen to fence very
nearly, if not altogether, as well as myself," he said. (_Journal_,
Vol. I, p. 167. See also pp. 273-5.)]
[Footnote 401: _Journal_, Vol. I, pp. 275-6; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
45.]
[Footnote 402: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 322 and 492; Vol. V, p. 186.]
[Footnote 403: _Ibid._, Vol. IV, p. 110.]
[Footnote 404: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 106, and _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
162.]
[Footnote 405: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 33-4.]
[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, Vol. III, p. 259.]
[Footnote 407: _Waverley_, Vol. I, pp. 112-3. See also Mackenzie's
_Life of Scott_, p. 364.]
[Footnote 408: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 29.]
[Footnote 409: _Journal_, Vol. I, pp. 274-5; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
44. See also his review of Godwin's _Life of Chaucer_.]
[Footnote 410: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 103.]
[Footnote 411: _Ibid._, Vol. IV, p. 260.]
[Footnote 412: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 96.]
[Footnote 413: Review of Tytler's _History of Scotland_, _Quarterly_,
November, 1829.]
[Footnote 414: _Southey's Letters_, Vol. IV, p. 62.]
[Footnote 415: Herford's _Age of Wordsworth_, pp. 39-40.]
[Footnote 416: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 60.]
[Footnote 417: _Paul's Letters_, Letter XVI.]
[Footnote 418: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 320.]
[Footnote 419: On Goethe's favorable opinion of the _Napoleon_, see a
letter given in the appendix to Scott's _Journal_ (Vol. II, pp. 485-6
and note).]
[Footnote 420: Carlyle's _Essay on Scott_. See also Taine's _History
of English Literature_, Introduction, I.]
[Footnote 421: Review of _Metrical Romances_, _Edinburgh Review_,
January, 1806.]
[Footnote 422: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 333.]
[Footnote 423: _The Pirate_, Vol. II, p. 138.]
[Footnote 424: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_. Freeman, in his
_Norman Conquest_, vigorously attacks _Ivanhoe_ for its unwarranted
picture of the relations between Saxons and Normans in the thirteenth
century. (Vol. V, pp. 551-561.)]
[Footnote 425: Mr. Lang points out that he made many written notes of
his reading, as we should hardly expect a man of his unrivalled memory
to do. (_Life of Scott_, p. 27.)]
[Footnote 426: _Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 161.]
[Footnote 427: _Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, pp. 93-4.]
[Footnote 428: _Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart_, p. 247.]
[Footnote 429: Mr. Lang's theory that Scott was responsible for a
decline in serious reading cannot be either proved or refuted
completely, but more than one man has given personal testimony
concerning the stimulating effect of the Waverley novels. Thierry's
_Norman Conquest_ was directly inspired by _Ivanhoe_, and with
_Ivanhoe_ is condemned by Freeman for its mistaken views. Mr. Andrew
D. White says in his _Autobiography_ that _Quentin Durward_ and _Anne
of Geierstein_ led him to see the first that he had ever clearly
discerned of the great principles that "lie hidden beneath the surface
of events"--"the secret of the centralization of power in Europe, and
of the triumph of monarchy over feudalism." (Vol. I, pp. 15-16.)]
[Footnote 430: Scott had theories as to what children's books ought to
be. They should stir the imagination, he said, instead of simply
imparting knowledge as certain scientific books attempted to do.
(_Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 27.) But he seriously objected to any attempt
to write down to the understanding of children. Of the _Tales of a
Grandfather_ he said: "I will make, if possible, a book that a child
shall understand, yet a man will feel some temptation to peruse,
should he chance to take it up." (_Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 112. See also
_ib._, Vol. I, p. 19.) Anatole France has expressed ideas about
children's books which are practically the same as those of Scott.
(See _Le Livre de Mon Ami_, 3me partie: "A Madame D * * *.")]
[Footnote 431: Introduction to _The Fortunes of Nigel_.]
[Footnote 432: See the Introduction to _Waverley_.]
[Footnote 433: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_.]
[Footnote 434: _Ibid._ In _Old Mortality_, Claverhouse was made to use
the phrase "sentimental speeches," but when Lady Louisa Stuart pointed
out to Scott that the word "sentimental" was modern, he struck it out
of the second edition.]
[Footnote 435: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_. For other references
to the use of a moderately antique diction see the essays on Walpole
and Clara Reeve in _Lives of the Novelists_, and the review of
Southey's _Amadis de Gaul_, _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1803.]
[Footnote 436: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 226.]
[Footnote 437: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 319.]
[Footnote 438: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 216.]
[Footnote 439: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 323.]
[Footnote 440: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 40.]
[Footnote 441: Introduction to _Chronicles of the Canongate_. See also
_Letters to Heber_, pp. 128-32, and 154; and Ruskin's analysis of
Scott's descriptions: _Modern Painters_, Part IV, ch. 16, § 23 ff.]
[Footnote 442: See particularly his reviews of _Childe Harold_, _Canto
III_, _Quarterly_, October, 1816; and of Southey's translation of the
_Amadis de Gaul_, _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1803.]
[Footnote 443: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 232-3.]
[Footnote 444: Quoted in _Wordsworth_ (English Men of Letters) by
F.W.H. Myers, p. 143.]
[Footnote 445: _Recollections of Scott_, by R.P. Gillies. _Fraser's_,
xii: 254.]
[Footnote 446: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 62.]
[Footnote 447: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 155, and Vol. II, p. 37;
_Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 476, and Vol. V, p. 380.]
[Footnote 448: In the discussion of _Lives of the Novelists_.]
[Footnote 449: See his _Essay on Scott_.]
[Footnote 450: _Dryden_, Vol. XIV, p. 136.]
[Footnote 451: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 415, and Introductory Epistle to
_Nigel_.]
[Footnote 452: _Letters to Heber_, p. 44.]
[Footnote 453: _Op. cit._, p. 120.]
[Footnote 454: _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_.]
[Footnote 455: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 8.]
[Footnote 456: Review of Hoffmann's Novels, _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, July, 1827.]
[Footnote 457: _Letters to R. Polwhele_, etc., p. 102.]
[Footnote 458: Lodge's _Illustrious Personages_, Preface.]
[Footnote 459: Article on Molière, _Foreign Quarterly Review_,
February, 1828.]
[Footnote 460: _Three Studies in Literature_, p. 12.]
[Footnote 461: _Edinburgh Review_, No. 1, October, 1802: review of
_Thalaba_.]
[Footnote 462: _Three Studies in Literature_, p. 38.]
[Footnote 463: _Dryden_, Vol. XI, p. 26.]
[Footnote 464: Herford, _op. cit._, pp. 51-2.]
[Footnote 465: _Essay on the Drama_.]
[Footnote 466: Wylie, _Studies in Criticism_, pp. 107-8.]
[Footnote 467: _Table Talk_, August 4, 1833. _Works_, Vol. VI, p.
472.]
[Footnote 468: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 402.]
[Footnote 469: Article on Scott's _Demonology and Witchcraft_,
_Fraser's_, December, 1830.]
[Footnote 470: Mackenzie's _Life of Scott_, p. 118.]
[Footnote 471: _The Plain Speaker_, Hazlitt's _Works_, Vol. VII, p.
345.]
[Footnote 472: _Dryden_, Vol. I, p. 342. See above, pp. 136-7.]
[Footnote 473: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 84.]
[Footnote 474: _Life of Bage_, in _Novelists' Library_.]
[Footnote 475: _Essay on Judicial Reform_, _Edinburgh Annual
Register_, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 352. Everyone knows that Scott was a
decided Tory, and it is commonly supposed that he was an extremely
prejudiced partisan. But he closes a political passage in _Woodstock_
with these words: "We hasten to quit political reflections, the rather
that ours, we believe, will please neither Whig nor Tory." (End of
Chapter 11.) From the definitions of Whig and Tory given in the _Tales
of a Grandfather_, no one could guess his politics. (Chapter 53.)]
[Footnote 476: Leigh Hunt's _Autobiography_, Vol. I, p. 263. See also
pp. 258-260, and the notes on his _Feast of the Poets_.]
[Footnote 477: Courthope's _Liberal Movement_, p. 122.]
[Footnote 478: _Life of Murray_, Vol. II, p. 159.]
[Footnote 479: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 232]
[Footnote 480: _Macmillan's Magazine_, lxx: 326.]
[Footnote 481: Newman's _Apologia_, pp. 96-97. Mark Twain thinks the
influence of the novels was pernicious. He says: "A curious
exemplification of the power of a single book for good or harm is
shown in the effects wrought by Don Quixote and those wrought by
Ivanhoe. The first swept the world's admiration for the mediaeval
chivalry-silliness out of existence; and the other restored it.... Sir
Walter had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed
before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war."
(_Life on the Mississippi_, ch. xlvi.)]
[Footnote 482: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, pp. 216-17. See also his
remarks upon booksellers in his review of Pitcairn's _Ancient Criminal
Trials_, _Quarterly_, February, 1831.]
[Footnote 483: _Fraser's_, xiii: 693.]
[Footnote 484: Essay on Dunbar in _Ephemera Critica_.]
[Footnote 485: _English Historical Review_, vi: 97.]
[Footnote 486: _Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor_, Vol. I,
p. 283.]
[Footnote 487: Carlyle's _Essay on Scott_.]
[Footnote 488: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 9.]
[Footnote 489: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 259; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
248.]
[Footnote 490: _Dryden_, Vol. I, conclusion.]
[Footnote 491: _British Novelists and their Styles_, p. 204.]
[Footnote 492: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 173; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 99.]
[Footnote 493: _History of Criticism_, Vol. I, p. 156.]
[Footnote 494: _Recollections of Scott_ by R.P. Gillies, _Fraser's_,
xii: 688.]