Stephenson: The Ettrick Shepherd 



91 



laid out for burial but in the night starts up and shows signs 

 of life. Gradually she recovers her physical strength, but is 

 wholly without the least trace of intellect. The situation is 

 even worse, for her soul seems to have departed with her 

 mind, and she remains in a state that Hogg constantly com- 

 pares to that of a vegetable. In this condition she is removed 

 to a mad-house where she remains for three years. In the 

 meantime a boy is born to her who, however, is a splendid lit- 

 tle fellow and quite unaffected by his mother's mysterious 

 malady. Three years afterward, to the very day and hour, she 

 is seized with a paroxysm that leaves her unconscious for 

 some time. Then she slowly recovers and becomes her old 

 self again in every respect. Hogg's merits and defects as a 

 story writer are startlingly shown in this book. Once, in 

 order to divert Gatty, a burly, hot-headed, wholly ridiculous 

 cousin is introduced by her parents to be her suitor. On the 

 day of his introduction he gets into a drunken frolic, and the 

 story is interrupted interminably, in order to describe the 

 three duels that emanate therefrom. The story is divided 

 into eight chapters or ''Circles". After Gatty is recovered 

 and the story is done, comes the eighth circle which narrates 

 how the ribald cousin marries a lewd woman whom he after- 

 wards learns is with child by her seducer. The whole purpose 

 of this disjointed and irrelevant piece of coarseness is set 

 forth in the phrase below. 



I have shown by a simple relation, all founded on literal facts, that 

 by yielding to its [love's] fascinating sway she [woman] is exposed to the 

 loss of life — the loss of reason — the loss of virtue, honor and happiness. 



Had these portions been omitted there would have been left 

 a tale of wonderful originality and brilliancy. One biographer 

 of the Ettrick Shepherd charges him with the total lack of 

 ability to draw a character or to portray the heroic. The 

 double charge is sufficiently refuted by this story. Daniel 

 Bell, the droll, simple-hearted father of the heroine is a true 

 son of Scotland, worthy to rank as a creation beside Andrew 

 Fa'irservice, Osbaldistone, or Ritchie Monoplies. Equal skill 

 is shown in the portraiture of Cherry. Her renunciation, her 

 assumed buoyancy of spirit which lasts till after the wedding 

 of the pair to whom she has sacrificed her happiness, her sub- 

 sequent collapse and death — these form a picture of heroism 

 and pathos that one will read far to meet again. The ghastly' 



