Margaret Ball - Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

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[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_,
Act I, Sc. 2.]

[Footnote 393: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p 297; see also _Familiar
Letters_, Vol. I, p. 55.]

[Footnote 394: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 104 and 124.]

[Footnote 395: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 222; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 18.]

[Footnote 396: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 350.]

[Footnote 397: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 508.]

[Footnote 398: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 229.]

[Footnote 399: When Constable was proposing to publish the poetry of
the novels separately, Scott wrote to him that it was beyond his own
power to distinguish what was original from what was borrowed, and
suggested the following Advertisement for the book:

"We believe by far the greater part of the poetry interspersed through
these novels to be original compositions by the author. At the same
time the reader will find passages which are quoted from other
authors, and may probably debit more of these than our more limited
reading has enabled us to ascertain. Indeed, it is our opinion that
some of the following poetry is neither entirely original nor
altogether borrowed, but consists in some instances of passages from
other authors, which the author has not hesitated to alter
considerably, either to supply defects of his own memory, or to adapt
the quotation more explicitly and aptly to the matter in hand."
(_Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, pp. 222-3.)]

[Footnote 400: "I have taught nearly a hundred gentlemen to fence very
nearly, if not altogether, as well as myself," he said. (_Journal_,
Vol. I, p. 167. See also pp. 273-5.)]

[Footnote 401: _Journal_, Vol. I, pp. 275-6; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
45.]

[Footnote 402: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 322 and 492; Vol. V, p. 186.]

[Footnote 403: _Ibid._, Vol. IV, p. 110.]

[Footnote 404: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 106, and _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
162.]

[Footnote 405: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, pp. 33-4.]

[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, Vol. III, p. 259.]

[Footnote 407: _Waverley_, Vol. I, pp. 112-3. See also Mackenzie's
_Life of Scott_, p. 364.]

[Footnote 408: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 29.]

[Footnote 409: _Journal_, Vol. I, pp. 274-5; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
44. See also his review of Godwin's _Life of Chaucer_.]

[Footnote 410: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 103.]

[Footnote 411: _Ibid._, Vol. IV, p. 260.]

[Footnote 412: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 96.]

[Footnote 413: Review of Tytler's _History of Scotland_, _Quarterly_,
November, 1829.]

[Footnote 414: _Southey's Letters_, Vol. IV, p. 62.]

[Footnote 415: Herford's _Age of Wordsworth_, pp. 39-40.]

[Footnote 416: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 60.]

[Footnote 417: _Paul's Letters_, Letter XVI.]

[Footnote 418: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 320.]

[Footnote 419: On Goethe's favorable opinion of the _Napoleon_, see a
letter given in the appendix to Scott's _Journal_ (Vol. II, pp. 485-6
and note).]

[Footnote 420: Carlyle's _Essay on Scott_. See also Taine's _History
of English Literature_, Introduction, I.]

[Footnote 421: Review of _Metrical Romances_, _Edinburgh Review_,
January, 1806.]

[Footnote 422: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 333.]

[Footnote 423: _The Pirate_, Vol. II, p. 138.]

[Footnote 424: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_. Freeman, in his
_Norman Conquest_, vigorously attacks _Ivanhoe_ for its unwarranted
picture of the relations between Saxons and Normans in the thirteenth
century. (Vol. V, pp. 551-561.)]

[Footnote 425: Mr. Lang points out that he made many written notes of
his reading, as we should hardly expect a man of his unrivalled memory
to do. (_Life of Scott_, p. 27.)]

[Footnote 426: _Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, p. 161.]

[Footnote 427: _Constable's Correspondence_, Vol. III, pp. 93-4.]

[Footnote 428: _Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart_, p. 247.]

[Footnote 429: Mr. Lang's theory that Scott was responsible for a
decline in serious reading cannot be either proved or refuted
completely, but more than one man has given personal testimony
concerning the stimulating effect of the Waverley novels. Thierry's
_Norman Conquest_ was directly inspired by _Ivanhoe_, and with
_Ivanhoe_ is condemned by Freeman for its mistaken views. Mr. Andrew
D. White says in his _Autobiography_ that _Quentin Durward_ and _Anne
of Geierstein_ led him to see the first that he had ever clearly
discerned of the great principles that "lie hidden beneath the surface
of events"--"the secret of the centralization of power in Europe, and
of the triumph of monarchy over feudalism." (Vol. I, pp. 15-16.)]

[Footnote 430: Scott had theories as to what children's books ought to
be. They should stir the imagination, he said, instead of simply
imparting knowledge as certain scientific books attempted to do.
(_Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 27.) But he seriously objected to any attempt
to write down to the understanding of children. Of the _Tales of a
Grandfather_ he said: "I will make, if possible, a book that a child
shall understand, yet a man will feel some temptation to peruse,
should he chance to take it up." (_Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 112. See also
_ib._, Vol. I, p. 19.) Anatole France has expressed ideas about
children's books which are practically the same as those of Scott.
(See _Le Livre de Mon Ami_, 3me partie: "A Madame D * * *.")]

[Footnote 431: Introduction to _The Fortunes of Nigel_.]

[Footnote 432: See the Introduction to _Waverley_.]

[Footnote 433: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_.]

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._ In _Old Mortality_, Claverhouse was made to use
the phrase "sentimental speeches," but when Lady Louisa Stuart pointed
out to Scott that the word "sentimental" was modern, he struck it out
of the second edition.]

[Footnote 435: Introductory Epistle to _Ivanhoe_. For other references
to the use of a moderately antique diction see the essays on Walpole
and Clara Reeve in _Lives of the Novelists_, and the review of
Southey's _Amadis de Gaul_, _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1803.]

[Footnote 436: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 226.]

[Footnote 437: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 319.]

[Footnote 438: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 216.]

[Footnote 439: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 323.]

[Footnote 440: _Lockhart_, Vol. I, p. 40.]

[Footnote 441: Introduction to _Chronicles of the Canongate_. See also
_Letters to Heber_, pp. 128-32, and 154; and Ruskin's analysis of
Scott's descriptions: _Modern Painters_, Part IV, ch. 16, Sec. 23 ff.]

[Footnote 442: See particularly his reviews of _Childe Harold_, _Canto
III_, _Quarterly_, October, 1816; and of Southey's translation of the
_Amadis de Gaul_, _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1803.]

[Footnote 443: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 232-3.]

[Footnote 444: Quoted in _Wordsworth_ (English Men of Letters) by
F.W.H. Myers, p. 143.]

[Footnote 445: _Recollections of Scott_, by R.P. Gillies. _Fraser's_,
xii: 254.]

[Footnote 446: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 62.]

[Footnote 447: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 155, and Vol. II, p. 37;
_Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 476, and Vol. V, p. 380.]

[Footnote 448: In the discussion of _Lives of the Novelists_.]

[Footnote 449: See his _Essay on Scott_.]

[Footnote 450: _Dryden_, Vol. XIV, p. 136.]

[Footnote 451: _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 415, and Introductory Epistle to
_Nigel_.]

[Footnote 452: _Letters to Heber_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 453: _Op. cit._, p. 120.]

[Footnote 454: _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_.]

[Footnote 455: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 8.]

[Footnote 456: Review of Hoffmann's Novels, _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, July, 1827.]

[Footnote 457: _Letters to R. Polwhele_, etc., p. 102.]

[Footnote 458: Lodge's _Illustrious Personages_, Preface.]

[Footnote 459: Article on Moliere, _Foreign Quarterly Review_,
February, 1828.]

[Footnote 460: _Three Studies in Literature_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 461: _Edinburgh Review_, No. 1, October, 1802: review of
_Thalaba_.]

[Footnote 462: _Three Studies in Literature_, p. 38.]

[Footnote 463: _Dryden_, Vol. XI, p. 26.]

[Footnote 464: Herford, _op. cit._, pp. 51-2.]

[Footnote 465: _Essay on the Drama_.]

[Footnote 466: Wylie, _Studies in Criticism_, pp. 107-8.]

[Footnote 467: _Table Talk_, August 4, 1833. _Works_, Vol. VI, p.
472.]

[Footnote 468: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. II, p. 402.]

[Footnote 469: Article on Scott's _Demonology and Witchcraft_,
_Fraser's_, December, 1830.]

[Footnote 470: Mackenzie's _Life of Scott_, p. 118.]

[Footnote 471: _The Plain Speaker_, Hazlitt's _Works_, Vol. VII, p.
345.]

[Footnote 472: _Dryden_, Vol. I, p. 342. See above, pp. 136-7.]

[Footnote 473: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 84.]

[Footnote 474: _Life of Bage_, in _Novelists' Library_.]

[Footnote 475: _Essay on Judicial Reform_, _Edinburgh Annual
Register_, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 352. Everyone knows that Scott was a
decided Tory, and it is commonly supposed that he was an extremely
prejudiced partisan. But he closes a political passage in _Woodstock_
with these words: "We hasten to quit political reflections, the rather
that ours, we believe, will please neither Whig nor Tory." (End of
Chapter 11.) From the definitions of Whig and Tory given in the _Tales
of a Grandfather_, no one could guess his politics. (Chapter 53.)]

[Footnote 476: Leigh Hunt's _Autobiography_, Vol. I, p. 263. See also
pp. 258-260, and the notes on his _Feast of the Poets_.]

[Footnote 477: Courthope's _Liberal Movement_, p. 122.]

[Footnote 478: _Life of Murray_, Vol. II, p. 159.]

[Footnote 479: _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 232]

[Footnote 480: _Macmillan's Magazine_, lxx: 326.]

[Footnote 481: Newman's _Apologia_, pp. 96-97. Mark Twain thinks the
influence of the novels was pernicious. He says: "A curious
exemplification of the power of a single book for good or harm is
shown in the effects wrought by Don Quixote and those wrought by
Ivanhoe. The first swept the world's admiration for the mediaeval
chivalry-silliness out of existence; and the other restored it.... Sir
Walter had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed
before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war."
(_Life on the Mississippi_, ch. xlvi.)]

[Footnote 482: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, pp. 216-17. See also his
remarks upon booksellers in his review of Pitcairn's _Ancient Criminal
Trials_, _Quarterly_, February, 1831.]

[Footnote 483: _Fraser's_, xiii: 693.]

[Footnote 484: Essay on Dunbar in _Ephemera Critica_.]

[Footnote 485: _English Historical Review_, vi: 97.]

[Footnote 486: _Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor_, Vol. I,
p. 283.]

[Footnote 487: Carlyle's _Essay on Scott_.]

[Footnote 488: _Lockhart_, Vol. II, p. 9.]

[Footnote 489: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 259; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p.
248.]

[Footnote 490: _Dryden_, Vol. I, conclusion.]

[Footnote 491: _British Novelists and their Styles_, p. 204.]

[Footnote 492: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 173; _Lockhart_, Vol. V, p. 99.]

[Footnote 493: _History of Criticism_, Vol. I, p. 156.]

[Footnote 494: _Recollections of Scott_ by R.P. Gillies, _Fraser's_,
xii: 688.]

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