“‘Dinas Emlinn’ of Scott, like his ‘Helvellyn,’ shows how near to a poet
he was. All the Birmingham part he had, and what taste and sense! Yet
never rose into the creative region. As a practitioner or professional
poet he is unrivalled in modern times.” Yet he immediately adds, “In
lectures on Poetry almost all Scott would be to be produced.”
[214] _Page 463, note 1._ Mr. Emerson took especial pleasure in the
passage in the _Lord of the Isles_ where the old abbot, rising to
denounce excommunicated Bruce to his foes, is inspired against his will
to bless him and prophesy his triumph as Scotland’s deliverer.
Mr. Emerson, writing in his journal in 1842 of his impatience of
superficial city life, during a visit to New York, alludes to the renewed
comfort he had in the _Lord of the Isles_:
“Life goes headlong. Each of us is always to be found hurrying headlong
in the chase of some fact, hunted by some fear or command behind us.
Suddenly we meet a friend. We pause. Our hurry and _empressement_ look
ridiculous.... When I read the _Lord of the Isles_ last week at Staten
Island, and when I meet my friend, I have the same feeling of shame at
having allowed myself to be a mere huntsman and follower.”
His boyish love for the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ remained through life.
As we walked on Sunday afternoons he recited to his children the stanzas
about “the custom of Branksome Hall,” and the passage where the Ladye of
Branksome defies the spirits of the flood and fell; and the bleak mile of
road between Walden woods and home would often call out from him
“The way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old,” etc.
[215] _Page 465, note 1._ The _Bride of Lammermoor_ was the only dreary
tale that Mr. Emerson could abide, except _Griselda_.
Journal, 1856. “Eugène Sue, Dumas, etc., when they begin a story, do
not know how it will end, but Walter Scott, when he began the _Bride of
Lammermoor_, had no choice; nor Shakspeare, nor Macbeth.”
[216] _Page 467, note 1._ Journal. “We talked of Scott. There is some
greatness in defying posterity and writing for the hour.”