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Indiana University Studies 



than by supposing that he thought it mean in me to attempt either to 

 acquire gain, or a name, by the efforts of other men; and that it was 

 much more honorable, to use a proverb of his own, 'that every herring 

 should hang by its own head'."^ 



Meantime our attention has been diverted from the cause 

 of the quarrel. Hogg, in looking over the contributions that 

 had been sent in to form part of The Thistle and the Rose, 

 as he first intended to call The Poetic Mirror, found that the 

 contributions were not only few in number but poor in quality. 

 His disappointment was great, but short-lived. His mighty 

 self-conceit supplied him with a happy expedient. He deter- 

 mined to take Scott's suggestion and to let this herring hang 

 by its own head. In an incredibly short space of time he him- 

 self wrote all but one or two of the poems that compose the 

 volume. This book is certainly one of the most perfect 

 achievements of the kind in the language. The various poems 

 of which it is composed purport to be written by Byron, Scott, 

 Wordsworth, Hogg,- Coleridge, Southey, and Wilson. The 

 reader should not be confused because this production is often 

 compared with the Rejected Addresses. The two volumes are 

 not to be compared. They are altogether different. The 

 Rejected Addresses are parodies; the supposed contributions 

 in The Poetic Mirror are forgeries, and, as such, actually im- 

 posed upon readers for a brief interval. A few stanzas are 

 sufficient to illustrate the quality of the imitations. 



[Scott] 



WAT 0' THE CLEUCH 



Canto First 



Wat o' the Cleuch came down through the dale, 

 In helmet and hauberk of glistening mail ; 

 Full proudly he came on his berry-black steed, 

 Caparisoned, belted for warrior deed. 

 Oh, bold was the bearing, and brisk the career, 

 And broad was the cuirass, and long was the spear. 

 And tall was the plume that waved over the brow 

 Of that dark reckless borderer, Wat o' the Cleuch. 



His housing, the buck's hide, of rude massy fold. 

 Was tasselled and tufted with trappings of gold; 



^ Introduction to Hogg's Woi-ks, page xxxvi. 



2 The Chide Grey Katt, Hogg's imitation of himself, is written in an ancient dialect, 

 difficult to understand. A modernized version of the same, also written by Hogg, is 

 published in Mrs. Garden's Memoir. 



