Margaret Ball - Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

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[Footnote 31: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 177.]

[Footnote 32: Review of _Poems of William Herbert_, _Edinburgh
Review_, October, 1806.]

[Footnote 33: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 275-6.]

[Footnote 34: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 333.]

[Footnote 35: In 1830.]

[Footnote 36: Ritson's principal works were as follows: _Select
Collection of English Songs_ (1783); _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry
from Authentic Manuscripts and Old Printed Copies_ (1791); _Ancient
Songs from the Time of Henry III. to the Revolution_ (1792); _Scottish
Songs with the Genuine Music_ (1794); _Poems by Laurence Minot_
(1795); _Robin Hood Poems_ (1795); _Ancient English Metrical Romances_
(1802).]

[Footnote 37: Ellis published his _Specimens of the Early English
Poets_ in 1790, and it was reissued with the addition of the
Introduction in 1801 and 1803. He edited also Way's translations of
the Fabliaux (1796), and _Specimens of Early English Romances in
Metre_ (1805).]

[Footnote 38: Review of Dunlop's _History of Fiction_, July, 1815.]

[Footnote 39: The _Magnum Opus_ of Robert Surtees was his _History of
Durham_, published 1816-1840.]

[Footnote 40: Douce published _Illustrations of Shakespeare_ in 1807.
Later he edited _Arnold's Chronicle; Judicium, a Pageant_; and a
metrical _Life of St. Robert_. The two latter, which appeared in 1822
and 1824, were done for the Roxburghe Club. In 1824 he also wrote some
notes for Warton's _History of English Poetry_.]

[Footnote 41: _Age of Wordsworth_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 42: A number of volumes containing old ballads together with
modern imitations had been published both before and after the
appearance of Percy's _Reliques_, but Ritson's collections were the
first, except Percy's, to treat the material in a scholarly way.]

[Footnote 43: The discussion centered upon the social and literary
position of minstrels. The first edition of the _Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry_, published in 1765, contained an essay on the History
of Minstrelsy, and one on the Origin of the Metrical Romances, which,
taken together, says Mr. Courthope, "may be said to furnish the first
generalized theory of the nature of mediaeval poetry." (_History of
English Poetry_, Vol. I, p. 426.) Percy considered the minstrels as
the authors of the compositions which they sang to the harp, and as
holding a dignified social position similar to that of the Anglo-Saxon
scop or the old Norse scald. This theory was vigorously attacked by
Joseph Ritson in the preface of his _Select Collection of English
Songs_ in 1783, and again in his _Ancient English Metrical Romances_
in 1802, and in his essay On the Ancient English Minstrels in Ancient
Songs and Ballads (1792). Ritson contended that minstrels were musical
performers of a low class, or even acrobats, and that they were not
literary composers. Scott used his knowledge of ballads and romances
and the customs depicted in them to reinforce his own decision that
the truth lay somewhere between the two extremes. He pointed out that
the word may have covered a wide variety of professional entertainers.
A modern comment (by E.K. Chambers, in _The Mediaeval Stage_, Vol. I,
p. 66) seems like an echo of Scott: "This general antithesis between
the higher and lower minstrelsy may now, perhaps, be regarded as
established. It was the neglect of it, surely, that led to that
curious and barren logomachy between Percy and Ritson, in which
neither of the disputants can be said to have had hold of more than a
bare half of the truth."]

[Footnote 44: Scott's theory as to the authorship of ballads is even
now held by Mr. Courthope. At the end of his chapter on Minstrelsy, in
_The History of English Poetry_, he thus sums up the matter: "All the
evidence cited in this chapter shows that, so far from the ballad
being a spontaneous product of popular imagination, it was a type of
poem adapted by the professors of the declining art of minstrelsy,
from the romances once in favour with the educated classes. Everything
in the ballad--matter, form, composition--is the work of the minstrel;
all that the people do is to remember and repeat what the minstrel has
put together." This statement represents a position which is actively
assailed by the adherents of the communal origin theory. Another
critical idea which originated in Germany, and in which Scott had no
interest, though he knew something about it, was the Wolffian
hypothesis in regard to the Homeric poems. He once heard Coleridge
expound the subject, but failed to join in the discussion. (_Journal_,
Vol. II, p. 164; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 193.) He said the theory could
never be held by any _poet_. See a note by Lockhart on the essay on
_Popular Poetry_. Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. 3.]

[Footnote 45: Review of Cromek's _Reliques of Burns_. _Quarterly
Review_, February, 1809.]

[Footnote 46: "No one but Burns ever succeeded in patching up old
Scottish songs with any good effect," Scott wrote in his _Journal_
(Vol. II, p. 25). And in his review of Cromek's _Reliques of Burns_ he
said on the same subject of Scottish songs: "Few, whether serious or
humorous, past through his hands without receiving some of those magic
touches which, without greatly altering the song, restored its
original spirit, or gave it more than it had ever possessed."
(_Quarterly_, February, 1809.)]

[Footnote 47: _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, Henderson's edition of
_Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. 46.]

[Footnote 48: Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p. xix.]

[Footnote 49: Henderson's edition of _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, pp. 167-8.]

[Footnote 50: The matter may be traced in Child's collection of
ballads, or more easily in the latest edition of the _Minstrelsy_,
edited by T.F. Henderson and published in four volumes in 1902. Mr.
Henderson's views of ballad origins are quite in accord with Scott's
own, but he notes the points at which Scott failed to follow any
originals. There seems to be some reason to believe, however, though
Mr. Henderson does not say so, that Scott wrote _Kinmont Willie_
without any originals at all, except the very similar situations in
three or four other ballads. See the introduction by Professor
Kittredge to the abridged edition of Child's ballads, edited by
himself and Helen Child Sargent.

It is unnecessary to give here any detailed account of Scott's
procedure, as the matter has been thoroughly worked out by students of
ballads. A few examples may be given as illustrations, however. In
_The Dowie Dens of Yarrow_ (Henderson's edition, Vol. III, p. 173) 28
lines out of the 68 are noted by Mr. Henderson as either changed or
added by Scott. Scott writes (beginning of fifth stanza), "As he gaed
up the Tennies bank" for "As he gaed up yon high, high hill," and we
find from a note of Lockhart's that _The Tennies_ is the name of a
farm belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch. In the sixth stanza Scott
changes the lines,

"O ir ye come to drink the wine
As we hae done before, O?" to
"O come ye here to part your land,
The bonnie forest thorough?"

In the seventeenth stanza he changes,

"A better rose will never spring
Than him I've lost on Yarrow?" to
"A fairer rose did never bloom
Than now lies cropp'd on Yarrow."

In _Jellon Grame_ (Vol. III, p. 203), Mr. Henderson notes changes in
15 different lines, and points out 2 whole stanzas, out of the 21,
that are interpolated. In the _Gay Goss-hawk_ (Vol. III, p. 187) 6
stanzas out of 39 are noted as probably wholly or mainly by Scott, and
30 stanzas were changed by him. Sometimes his alterations occurred in
every line of a stanza. It is probable that Scott changed _Jamie
Telfer_ enough to make the Scotts take the place of prominence that
had been held by the Elliotts in the original form of the story. See
_The Trustworthiness of Border Ballads as Exemplified by 'Jamie Telfer
i' the Fair Dodhead' and other Ballads_; by Lieut.-Col. the Hon.
Fitzwilliam Elliott. Reviewed in _Edinburgh Review_, No. 418, p. 306
(October, 1906).]

[Footnote 51: See the examples given in the preceding note. Most of
the changes there spoken of were made without annotation.]

[Footnote 52: This extraordinary young man was poet and scholar on his
own account by 1800, though he was four years younger than Scott. His
erudition in many fields was remarkable, and he was as enthusiastic as
Scott himself about Scotch poetry, and was the chief assistant in
gathering ballads for the _Minstrelsy_. He also collected the material
for the essay on Fairies in the second volume, which was especially
praised by the reviewer in the _Edinburgh Review_ (January, 1803).
Leyden's chief fame was derived from his wonderfully varied activities
in India, from 1803 to his early death in 1811. Any reader of
Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ or of Scott's delightful little memoir,
published first in the _Edinburgh Annual Register_ for 1811, and
included in the _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, must feel that the
uncouth young genius is a familiar acquaintance.]

[Footnote 53: The Ettrick Shepherd, who, after reading the first two
volumes of the _Minstrelsy_, sought an acquaintance with Scott, and
offered assistance which was gladly made use of in the preparation of
the third volume. Scott in his turn provided much of the material for
Hogg's _Jacobite Relics_, published in 1819. The following note on one
of the songs in that work adds to the reader's doubts concerning the
accuracy of Scott's texts: "I have not altered a word from the
manuscript, which is in the handwriting of an amanuensis of Mr.
Scott's, the most incorrect transcriber, perhaps, that ever tried the
business." (_Jacobite Relics_, Vol. I, p. 282. Note on song lxiii.)]

[Footnote 54: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. I, p.
284.]

[Footnote 55: _Quarterly_, May, 1810.]

[Footnote 56: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 514.]

[Footnote 57: Still more striking evidence that Scott lacked an
infallible sense of the difference between genuine and spurious ballad
material is afforded by his comments on Peter Buchan's collection,
which is now considered particularly untrustworthy. He thought that
with two or three exceptions the pieces in the book were genuine, and
said: "I scarce know anything so easily discovered as the piecing and
patching of an old ballad; the darns in a silk stocking are not more
manifest." (_Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe_, Vol. II, p. 424.)]

[Footnote 58: Scott's manuscript collections of ballads dropped
partially out of sight after his death, and it was only about 1890
that their magnitude and importance became known. Professor Child and
later editors have found them of very great service. (On Child's use
of the Abbotsford materials, see the Advertisement to Part VIII of his
collection, contained in Volume IV.) In 1880 appeared a reprint of the
_Ballad Book_ of C.K. Sharpe, "with notes and ballads from the
unpublished manuscripts of C.K. Sharpe and Sir Walter Scott," but the
contributions from Scott's papers did not amount to much. Scott's
materials were at the service of his friend for use in the original
edition of the _Ballad Book_, published in 1823. See _Sharpe's
Correspondence_, Vol. II, pp. 264, 271 and 325, for letters from Scott
on this subject.]

[Footnote 59: Note on _The Raid of the Reidswire_, in the
_Minstrelsy_.]

[Footnote 60: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. III, p.
232.]

[Footnote 61: Henderson's edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. II, p.
57.]

[Footnote 62: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 360.]

[Footnote 63: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 332.]

[Footnote 64: First edition of the _Minstrelsy_, Vol. II, pp. 156-7.]

[Footnote 65: _Edinburgh Review_, January, 1803.]

[Footnote 66: The _Minstrelsy_ is arranged in three parts: I.,
Historical Ballads; II., Romantic Ballads; III., Imitations of the
Ballad. The first part is preceded by the Introductory Remarks on
Popular Poetry, and by the historical introduction. The second part is
preceded by the essay on The Fairies of Popular Superstition; and the
third by the essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad. The poems by
Scott given in this third part are as follows: _Thomas the Rhymer_
(parts 2 and 3), _Glenfinlas_, _The Eve of St. John_, _Cadyow Castle_,
_The Gray Brother_, _War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons_.
Besides these there are three poems by John Leyden (and he has also an
_Ode on Scottish Music_ preceding the Romantic ballads), two by C.K.
Sharpe, three by John Marriott, who was tutor to the children of the
Duke of Buccleuch, and one each by Matthew Lewis, Anna Seward, Dr.
Jamieson, Colin Mackenzie, J.B.S. Morritt, and an unnamed author. In
the other parts of the book there are a few imitations, notably the
three by Surtees--_Lord Ewine_, the _Death of Featherstonhaugh_, and
_Barthram's Dirge_, which Scott supposed were old; and one or two like
the _Flowers of the Forest_, which he noted as largely modern, or
which he had found, after arranging his material, to be wholly modern.
Nearly forty old ballads were published in the _Minstrelsy_ for the
first time.]

[Footnote 67: _Remarks on Popular Poetry_, conclusion.]

[Footnote 68: Review of the Poems of William Herbert. _Edinburgh
Review_, October, 1806.]

[Footnote 69: Stanzas 10-12, and 31, are noted by Child as
particularly suspicious. "Basnet," which occurs in stanza 10, is not a
very common word in ballads. It is used in _The Lay_, Canto I., stanza
25, and in _Marmion_, Canto VI, st. 21.]

[Footnote 70: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 221.]

[Footnote 71: _Memoir of William Taylor_, Vol. I, pp. 98-99, and see
_Sharpe's Correspondence_, Vol. I, pp. 146-7, for a letter to Sharpe
on a similar point.]

[Footnote 72: _Minstrelsy_, Introduction to _Lord Thomas and Fair
Annie_.]

[Footnote 73: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 101.]

[Footnote 74: _Ibid._, Vol. I, pp. 35-6.]

[Footnote 75: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 244. See also _Lockhart_,
Vol. V, p. 408.]

[Footnote 76: Sometime before 1821 (probably a good while before, but
the date cannot be fixed), Scott began a translation of _Don Quixote_,
and afterwards gave the work over to Lockhart, who completed it. See
_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 161.]

[Footnote 77: Louis-Elizabeth de la Vergne, Comte de Tressan, was born
in 1705 and died in 1783. In early life he was sent to Rome on
diplomatic business, and it is said that in the Vatican library he
acquired his taste for the literature of chivalry. His chief works
were _Amadis de Gaules_ (1779); _Roland furieux_ (translated from the
Italian, 1780); _Corps d'extraits romans de chevalerie_ (1782). His
translations were partly adaptations, and were far from being rendered
with precision.]

[Footnote 78: See particularly his article on Ellis's and Ritson's
_Metrical Romances_ (_Edinburgh Review_, January, 1806), the essay on
_Romance_, and _Remarks on Popular Poetry_ in the _Minstrelsy_.]

[Footnote 79: _Edinburgh Review_, July, 1804. Ellis and Scott had had
much correspondence on _Sir Tristrem_, and it was Ellis's queries that
first led Scott into the detailed investigation which resulted in the
separate publication of the work. He had intended to print it in the
_Minstrelsy_ (_Lockhart_, Vol. I. p. 289). The letters are given in
_Lockhart_, Vol. I.]

[Footnote 80: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 381.]

[Footnote 81: _Die nordische und die englische Version der
Tristan-sage_--II. _Sir Tristrem_. Heilbronn, 1882. Mr. George P.
McNeill's edition of _Sir Tristrem_ was printed for the Scottish Text
Society, Edinburgh, 1886.]

[Footnote 82: Koelbing thinks Scott probably hired a transcriber who
knew nothing of Middle English--a usual method of procedure in the
beginning of the nineteenth century. In later editions more errors
were introduced by the carelessness of printers, until, after 1830,
when the book was included in the complete editions of Scott's poems,
the text was collated with the manuscript. But it was still far from
correct. Koelbing enumerates about a hundred and thirty mistakes (see
his Introduction, p. xvii). Of these I took twenty-one at random, and
found that eight of them did not occur in the 1806 edition--in other
words, the person who collated the text nearly thirty years after
Scott or his hired transcriber had done it was far from infallible. A
few illustrations may be given of mistakes that occur in both the 1806
and the 1833 editions: l. 117, _send_ is given for _sent_; l. 846,
_telle_ for _tel_; l. 863, _How_ for _Hou_; l. 912, _mak_ for _make_;
l. 1212, _leuedi_ for _leuedy_; l. 1580, _wende sche weren_ for
_whende sche were_; l. 1334. _have_ for _han_; l. 1514, _as_ for
_als_.]

[Footnote 83: Review of Johnes's Translation of Froissart, _Edinburgh
Review_, January, 1805.]

[Footnote 84: Waverley, and Claverhouse in _Old Mortality_.]

[Footnote 85: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 480 and 482. _Familiar Letters_,
Vol. I, p. 147.]

[Footnote 86: _Essay on Romance_.]

[Footnote 87: See Gaston Paris, _La Litterature Francaise au Moyen
Age_, 1ere partie, ch. IV.]

[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 _Encyclopaedia 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 L1280, a sum which he was afterward obliged to
pay with the addition of L500 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.]

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