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SCOTT, WALTER. 



SCOTT, WALTER. 



372 



circulated among his friends the ballads of ' Glenfinlaa' and ' The Eve 

 of St. John.' In 1799 he received a visit from Mr. (now Sir John) 

 Stoddart, who repeated to him many then unpublished poems of his 

 friends Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, and inspired him with a 

 relish for their peculiar beauties. An intimacy which Scott formed 

 with Mr. Heber, on the occasion of that gentleman's residence in 

 Edinburgh during the winter of 1799-1800, confirmed his antiquarian 

 tastes and extended his acquaintance with old English literature : he 

 advanced from the school of the old ballad into that of the Elizabethan 

 drama. The bustling patronage of Lewis had made Scott's name 

 familiar to many persons of literary tastes in England, and his 

 acquaintance with the literati of Edinburgh became more extensive 

 and intimate. About the beginning of the present century he paid 

 several visits to Teviotdale, a district even less visited at that period 

 than the Highlands, and in the course of these excursions not only 

 added considerably to his stores of traditionary song, but, what was of 

 more consequence, learned to know that stalwart race whom he 

 afterwards portrayed with such graphic power in ' Guy Mannering.' 



We have now reached the period of his life at which he took his 

 final plunge into literary occupation and avowedly commenced author 

 by profession. His first publication in this capacity was his ' Border 

 Minstrelsy,' a work which afforded him an opportunity of exercising 

 his talents in various departments and showing the magnitude of his 

 store of heterogeneous and not very well assorted knowledge. In his 

 introductions he showed his talents as an essayist ; iu his notes, his 

 research and critical acumen as an antiquarian ; in the imitations of 

 the old ballad, his taste and talent for poetical composition. ' The 

 Border Minstrelsy' is indeed little more than the accumulated materials 

 out of which he hewed the best of his later works a chaos through 

 which the fragmentary lights of creative imagination were everywhere 

 sparkling. The book is scarcely less interesting when viewed as the 

 commencement of his connection with those commercial speculations 

 in literature which ultimately broke down and crushed him, than as 

 his first serious effort in the character of an author. Mr. James 

 Ballantyne was, at the time of the publication of the 'Border Min- 

 strelsy,' the editor of a provincial newspaper in Kelso. To him Scott 

 offered the printing of his book. The offer, after some hesitation, was 

 accepted, a new fount of types, superior to anything previously seen 

 in Scotland, was procured, and under the direction of the principal 

 workman on Mr. Ballantyne's establishment, who had been some time 

 in the employment of Bensley, a specimen of typography was pro- 

 duced, which at once established the reputation of what was for a 

 time rather affectedly called the "border press." Not long after 

 Mr. Ballantyne removed to Edinburgh, and commenced printer on a 

 large scale, in partnership, as was proved by subsequent disclosures, 

 with Scott. To this part of Scott's history we shall have occasion to 

 return hereafter. 



Scott commenced his career as the most popular poet of his day, in 

 1805, with the publication of ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel' This 

 poem was followed in 1808 by ' Marmion ; ' in 1809, by ' The Lady of 

 the Lake ;' in 1811, by ' Don Roderick ; ' in 1813, by ' Rokeby ; ' in 

 1814, by 'The Lord of the Isles.' To these may be added 'The 

 Bridal of Triermain ' and ' Harold the Dauntless,' published anony- 

 mously, the former in 1814, the latter in 1816. These poems took 

 the literary world by surprise ; they were unlike anything that had 

 preceded them. There was an easy flow in their frequently slovenly 

 versification, a condensed energy of thought, which even the total 

 neglect of the 'limso labor' could not entirely conceal or obliterate ; a 

 pithy shrewdness in the occasional remarks upon life and manners ; 

 enough of the wild recondite spirit which the author had caught from 

 Coleridge to lend a zest to his composition ; enough of the leaven of 

 common-place to render it intelligible to the mass of readers ; and an 

 entirely new class of heroes and adventures. Much of the popularity 

 which attached to Scott's poems was owing to the novelty of their 

 subjects, and much to his compliance with the taste of the times ; but 

 his strong native sense, the stores of out-of-the-way knowledge upon 

 which he could draw, and the easy flow of his versification and 

 imagery, rendered them also works of real intrinsic merit. As the 

 first gloss of novelty wore off, the voice of criticism was more dis- 

 tinctly heard. Lord Byron's more exaggerated tone of sentiment and 

 greater power of condensed rythmical declamation made a deeper im- 

 pression upon the public mind, and caused Scott's works to appear 

 comparatively feeble by the force of contrast. The imitators, too, 

 who had caught tbe outward form of Scott's versification, and found 

 plenty of heroes in old ' fabliaux ' and romances, had for a time sur- 

 feited the public with his peculiar style of poetical composition 

 With a prudent caution, said to be characteristic of his nation, he 

 prepared to exchange a field of literary exertion in which he founc 

 himself in danger of losing his popularity, and after the failure of two 

 anonymous trials (' The Bridal of Triermain,' and 'Harold the Daunt 

 less ') never attempted to re-enter it. 



Some time previous to iiis abdication of tho laurel, the success o 

 Miss Edgeworth's ' Pictures of Irish Life/ and his consciousness of an 

 extensive acquaintance with the manners and customs of Scotland 

 more especially of the olden tune, had stimulated him to attempt 

 portraiture of them in a prose imaginative narrative. The task waf 

 prosecuted for some time, but in consequence of the unfavourable 

 opinion of a friend, laid aside. In 1814 however he resolved to make 



he attempt, and ' Waverley ' was published anonymously. This book, 



)ublished without any parade of announcement, and without the 



attraction of an author's name, made its way noiselessly and rapidly 



o a high place in public estimation. In the course of four years it 



was followed hi rapid succession by ' Guy Mannering,' ' The Antiquary,' 



The Black Dwarf,' ' Old Mortality,' ' Rob Roy,' and ' The Heart of 



lid-Lothian,' all bearing the indisputable impress of the same parent 



mind. The circumstance of Scott's having published a poem in the 



same year in which ' Waverley ' appeared, and his engagement in other 



iterary undertakings being known, combined, with the common pre- 



udice that a poet cannot excel as a prose writer, to avert from him 



or a time the suspicion of the authorship of the ' Waverley ' novels. 



The taciturnity of the few intrusted with the secret defeated all 



Attempts to obtain direct evidence aa to who was the author. From 



;hc first, however, suspicion pointed strongly towards Scott, and so 



many circumstances tended to strengthen it, that the disclosures from 



Constable's and Ballantyne's books, and his own confession, scarcely 



ncreased the moral conviction which had long prevailed, that he was 



;he " great Unknown." 



The light half-playfully worn veil of mystery served however, no 

 doubt, to excite the public curiosity and to add a factitious interest to 

 ;he ' Waverley ' novels at the time of their publication. But their 

 own merits were doubtless the mam cause of their success. As narra- 

 ives they have little merit : the plot is uniformly inartificial and un- 

 skilfully wrought up ; the ostensible heroes and heroines, insipid or 

 unnatural It is in the admirable Scotch characters, in the ease and 

 ;ruth of their actions and conversation, that the charm of these novels 

 ionsists. There is a power and depth in the characters themselves ; 

 ;hey had been originally conceived with the intense love of a strong 

 mind ; thejr had remained stored up in its memory for years, mellow- 

 ing in tone and growing more distinct in form, and were at last, 

 accidentally we may almost say, poured out with a felicity and 

 strength of expression of which the author was himself scarcely aware 

 ;hat he was capable. This new vein of popular applause was worked 

 as sedulously as the former, and, like it, worked out. The novels 

 which from 1818 to 1826 followed those we have enumerated in rapid 

 succession, are not, like them, the outpourings of long-treasured 

 thoughts; they bear marks of reading for the purpose of finding 

 materials to fill up a previously sketched outline. They are of dif- 

 ferent degrees of merit, but all are inferior in depth of tone and weight 

 of metal, to the works of the first four years. Individual characters 

 and incidents in some of them may be equal, but not one of them can 

 bear comparison when considered as a whole. 



Scott's novels and poems however occupied by no means the whole 

 of his time, during the thirty years of his busy life, of which they 

 were the luxuriant produce. He contributed to the ' Edinburgh 

 Review ' at its commencement, and when differences of political 

 opinion induced him to break off from that publication, he took a 

 warm interest in the establishment of the ' Quarterly.' His trade 

 connections with the Ballantynes, and through them with Constable 

 and other publishers, led him to project many publications, and to 

 take an active part in them as editor or contributor. To these we owe 

 the 'Life of Dryden" (1808), of Swift (1814), the biographical and 

 critical prefaces to Ballantyne's collection of the English novelists, 

 and his annotations to such books as Sadler's ' Correspondence.' His 

 biographical and critical writings are characterised by masculine good 

 sense, vigour, and a happy play of humour, rather than by subtle 

 analysis or a just and delicate taste. 



From 1796 till 1826 Scott's life was busy and happy, and seemingly 

 prosperous. By the patronage of friends he was rendered independent ; 

 by his own exertions he was raised to affluence. His notoriety as an 

 author gave him an extensive circle of acquaintance. His manly and 

 sensible character commanded respect, his bonh&mmie and talent for 

 increasing the hilarity of the social hour conciliated the love of all 

 who knew him. The continuance of apparent success increased his 

 confidence in his own resources to a degree bordering on presumption. 

 The ambition of his life was to enact the part of one of those feudal 

 lords who were the favourite objects upon which his imagination 

 dwelt. To this was owing the purchase and building of Abbotsford, 

 the strewing of it with "auld nick-nackets," and the extensive scale on 

 which he exercised his hospitality. He endeavoured to revive old 

 times in his mansion on the Tweed. The last few years of his 

 prosperity were spent in a gorgeous dream. The open-air daylight 

 masquerade of the reception of George IV. in Edinburgh, in which 

 Sir Walter Scott was a prominent actor, was the most gorgeous scene 

 of "what we can scarcely look upon in any other light than that of an 

 opium dream. But the worm was gnawing at the root of his magni- 

 ficence. Constable, Ballantyne, and Scott were all men of sense and 

 talent, but the spirit of enterprise was stronger in them than that of 

 accurate mercantile calculation. From the beginning their under- 

 takings had been on a larger scale than their capital warranted ; and 

 as difficulties thickened around them their confident spirits looked for 

 relief to bolder and more extensive speculations. This could not go 

 on for ever : the commercial crisis of 1825-26 precipitated, but did not 

 cause the catastrophe. 



When what is called in Scotland " a state of the affairs " of Constable 

 and Co. and Ballantyne and Co. was made up subsequently to the 

 bankruptcy of the two companies, it appeared that Sir Walter Scott 



