Chapter XIV: Appendix: II (2)

[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.]