Chapter XV: Appendix: II (3)

[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_,