Memoir of Sir Walter Scott.

BY J. W. LAKE.

the team, till some friends succeeded in getting him transplanted to college.

Having completed his classical studies at the High School, with as much reputation, we suppose, as others of his standing, Walter Scott was removed to the University of Edinburgh, where, also, he passed the classes in a similar manner.

His continuance here, however, could not have been long; for, after serving the prescribed terms in the office of a writer to the signet, he was ad

had not quite attained the age of twenty-one.— From this time to the year 1798, his life appears to have passed in a devoted attention to his professional duties, mindful of the advice,

SIR WALTER SCOTT, descended from one of the was declared to be fit for nothing but to drive most ancient families of Scotland-the Scotts of Harden, is the eldest surviving son of a gentleman of the same name, who was an eminent writer to the signet at Edinburgh, where the subject of this sketch was born, August 15, 1771. His mother, Mrs Elizabeth Scott, was the daughter of David Rutherford, Esq., writer to the signet, from whom she obtained a handsome fortune. She was a woman of great virtue and accomplishments, with a good taste for poetry, as appeared from some of her pro-mitted an advocate of the Scotch bar, when he ductions, which were deemed worthy of being printed after her death, in 1789. Walter, from the tenderness of his constitution, and the circumstance of his lameness, occasioned by a fall from his nurse's arms at two years of age, was Not to pen stanzas when he should engross. in a great measure brought up at home, under the immediate care and instruction of this excelAt the last-mentioned date he entered into the lent parent, to whom he was much attached matrimonial state with Miss Carpenter, by whom through life, and whose loss he sincerely lament- he has four children. At the close of the year ed. Of his early pursuits little is known, except following, he received the appointment of Shethat he evinced a genius for drawing landscapes riff-Depute of the county of Selkirk; and in after nature.-At a proper age he was sent to March, 1806, he was named one of the principal the High School at Edinburgh, then directed clerks of Session in Scotland. With regard to by Dr Alexander Adam. In this school, young this last preferment, it should be observed that Scott passed through the different forms with-his warrant, though drawn, had not passed the out exhibiting any of those extraordinary seals when the death of Mr Pitt produced an enpowers of genius, which are seldom remembered till the person to whom they are ascribed has become, by the maturity of his talents, an object of distinction. It is said, that he was considered in his boyhood rather heavy than otherwise, and that the late Dr Hugh Elair had discernment enough to predict his future eminence, when the master of the school lamented his dulness; but this only affords another instance of the fallacy of human opinion in pronouncing upon the real capacity of the youthful understanding.' Barrow, the greatest scholar of his age, was discarded as a blockhead by successive teachers; and his pupil, the illustrious Newton,

The prediction of Dr Blair, here alluded to, arose out of the following circumstances. Shortly after Dr Paterson succeeded to the grammar-school, Musselburgh, where Walter Scott was a short time a pupil, Blair, accompanied by some friends, paid him a visit; in the course of which he examined several of his pupils, and paid particular

tire change in the ministry. The appointment of Mr Scott had been effected through the friendship of Lord Melville, who was then actually under impeachment. This circumstance seemned very ominous against the confirmation of the nomination; but, fortunately for Mr Scott, the new ministry consisted of such men as the late Mr Fox, Sheridan, Lord Erskine, and the Marquis of Lansdowne, with several others attached to literature and philosophy; and, in a manner that did them infinite honour, they made no objection to the advancement of their poetical opponent. Thus, as a witty friend remarked, this appointment was the last Lay of the old Ministry.»

attention to young Scott. Dr Paterson thought it was the youth's stupidity that engaged the doctor's notice, and said, «My predecessor tells me, that boy has the thickest skull in the school.» «May be so,» replied Dr Blair, «but through that thick skull I can discern many bright rays of future genius.»

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Released now from the drudgery of profes- | Minstrel,» which appeared, in quarto, in 1805.— sional labour, by the acquisition of two lucrative The following year he published a collection of situations, and the possession of a handsome es- Ballads and Lyrical Pieces.» Shortly after this, tate through the death of his father and that of public expectation was raised by the promise of a an uncle, Mr Scott was enabled to court the poem, on the perfection of which the bard was Muses at his pleasure, and to indulge in a va- said to labour as for immortality. Accordingly, riety of literary pursuits without interruption.-in 1808, appeared « Marmion, a tale of Flodden His first publications were translations from the Field," which the author himself has characGerman, at a time when the wildest productions terised as containing the best and the worst

of that country were much sought after in Eng-poetry he has ever written. » land, owing to the recent appearance of that The same year Mr Scott favoured the world horrible story of Lenora of Bürger. The very with a complete edition of the Works of Dryden, year when different versions of that tale came in which he gave a new life of that great writers out, and some of these highly ornamented, Mr and numerous notes. But this was not the only Scott produced two German ballads in an Eng- instance of the fecundity of his genius and the lish dress, entitled, « The Wild Huntsmen,» and rapidity of his pen, for, while these volumes were « William and Helen.» proceeding through the press, he found time for a quarto of « Descriptions and Illustrations of the Lay of the Last Minstrel.»

These little pieces, however, were not originally intended for the press, being nothing more than exercises in the way of amusement, till a friend, to whom they were shown, prevailed upon the author to publish them, and at the same time contributed the preface. Three years elapsed before Mr Scott ventured to appear again in print, when he produced another translation from the German, « Goetz of Berlichingen,» a tragedy, by Goethe. Two years afterwards the late Matthew Gregory (commonly called Monk) Lewis, enriched his « Tales of Wonder» with two ballads communicated to him by our author, one entitled The Eve of Saint John,» and the other « Glenfinlas.»

In 1802 his first great work, « The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," came out, beautifully printed at Kelso, by Ballantyne. This collection immediately arrested general attention, and though the pieces of which it is composed are very unequal, the master-mind and soaring genius of the poet are conspicuous throughout.

The studies of our author at this time were entirely antiquarian. He lived and breathed only among the knights, the heroes, the monks, and robbers of olden time; the feats of chivalry, and the rough heroism of northern warfare and border feuds, were the scenes in which his soul delighted to dwell. He drank deeply of the stream of history as it darkly flowed over the middle ages, and his spirit seemed for a time to be imbued with the mysteries, the superstitions, and the romantic valour which characterised the then chieftains of the north countrie.

His next production was « Sir Tristram, a metrical romance of the thirteenth century, by Thomas of Ercildoun,» printed in 1804. Still, however, Mr Scott may be said as yet to have been only rising in fame: but he soon gained enough to have intoxicated an ordinary mind in the applause bestowed upon his « Lay of the last

Within a few months after this he undertook, at the request of the booksellers, the superintendence of a new edition of Lord Somers's collection of Historical Tracts; and at the same time edited Sir Ralph Sadler's State Papers, and Anna Seward's Poetical Works. Yet the very year in which these last publications appeared witnessed the birth of another original offspring of his prolific muse. This was " The Lady of the

Lake,» the most popular of all his poems, though, in the opinion of many, inferior in several respects to his « Lay of the Last Minstrel,»

The Vision of Don Roderick» appeared in 1811, and was intended by its author to commemorate the achievements of the Duke of Wellington and the British army in Spain. This poem is considered a complete failure.

Rokeby was published in 1812-13. It comprises, in an eminent degree, all the beauties and all the defects of our poet's muse.

K

In 1814 The Lord of the Isles appeared, but failed to excite equal interest with most of its predecessors. This is the last grand original poem of the northern bard.

In the last-mentioned year he also published a prose work, entitled, « The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, with Descriptions and Illustrations,» and brought out a new edition of Swift, with a biographical memoir and annotatious.

These were followed by two performances, one in prose and the other in verse, the first entitled << Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk," and the other The Battle of Waterloo. »

As an instance of the popularity of Scott's poems, we subjoin a statement of the sale of « Rokeby » and « The Lady of the Lake,» in nearly four months, as submitted by the publishers.

The Lady of the Lake,» from June with which they frequently describe great events

Sold of. 2d to September 22, 1810,

2,000 quarto, at 2l. 25.

6,000 octavo, at 12s.

8,000

4,2001.
3,600l.
7,8ool.

-and the lively colouring and accurate drawing by which they give the effect of reality to every scene they undertake to delineate. In executing this arduous task, he was permitted to avail himself of all the variety of style and manner which had been sanctioned by the ancient practice, and

Sold of Rokeby, in three months (Jan. 14th bound to embellish his performance with all the

to April 14th, 1813),

.

We shall now attempt to offer a few critical observations on the three most deservedly popular poems of Walter Scott, viz. The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and The Lady of the Lake.

The LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL is an endeavour to transfer the refinements of modern poetry to the matter and the manner of the ancient metrical romance. The author, enamoured of the lofty visions of chivalry, and partial to the strains in which they were formerly embodied, employed all the resources of his genius in endeavouring to recal them to the favour and admiration of the public, and in adapting to the taste of modern readers a species of poetry, which was once the delight of the courtly, but which has long ceased to gladden any other eyes than those of the scholar and the antiquary. This is a romance, therefore, composed by a minstrel of the present day, or such a romance as we may suppose would have been written in modern times, if that style of composition had been cultivated, and partaken, consequently, of the improvements which every branch of literature has received since the time of its desertion.

graces of diction and versification which could be reconciled to the simplicity and familiarity of the minstrel's song.

The success which attended Mr Scott's efforts in the execution of this adventurous essay is well known;-he produced a very beautiful and entertaining poem, in a style which might fairly be considered as original, and the public approbation afforded the most flattering evidence of the genius of the author. Perhaps, indeed, his partiality for the strains of antiquity imposed a little upon the severity of his judgment, and impaired the beauty of his imitation, by directing his attention rather to what was characteristic, than to what was unexceptionable in his originals. Though he spared too many of their faults, however, he improved upon their beauties, and while it was regretted by many, that the feuds of border chieftains should have monopolized as much poetry as might have served to immortalize the whole baronage of the empire, yet it produced a stronger inclination to admire the interest and magnificence which he contrived to communicate to a subject so unpromising.

MARMION has more tedious and flat passages, and more ostentation of historical and antiquarian lore, than its predecessor, but it has also greater richness and variety, both of character and incident; and, if it has less sweetness and pathos in the softer passages, it has certainly more vehemence and force of colouring in the loftier and busier representations of action and emotion. Upon this supposition, it was evidently the au- The place of the prologuizing minstrel is but ill thor's business to retain all that was good, and supplied, indeed, by the epistolary dissertations to reject all that was bad, in the models upon which are prefixed to each book of this poem; but which he was to form himself; adding, at the there is more airiness and spirit in the lighter same time, all the interest and the beauty which delineations, and the story, if not more skilfully could possibly be assimilated to the manner and conducted, is at least better complicated, and exspirit of his original. It was his duty, therefore, tended through a wider field of adventure. The to reform the rambling, obscure, and intermina- characteristics of both, however, are evidently the ble narratives of the ancient romancers, -to mo- same; - a broken narrative-a redundancy of derate their digressions,-to abridge or retrench minute description-bursts of unequal and enertheir prolix or needless descriptions, -and to ex-getic poetry-and a general tone of spirit and punge altogether those feeble and prosaic pas-animation, unchecked by timidity or affectation, sages, the rude stupidity of which is so apt to and unchastened by any great delicacy of taste, excite the derision of a modern reader: at the or elegance of fancy. same time he was to rival, if he could, the force and vivacity of their minute and varied representations-the characteristic simplicity of their pictures of manners- the energy and conciseness

THE LADY OF THE LAKE is more polished in its diction, and more regular in its versification, than the author's preceding poems; the story is constructed with infinitely more skill and address;

there is a greater proportion of pleasing and sels, wizards, and true lovers. He never ventured teader passages, with much less antiquarian de- to carry us into the cottage of the peasant, like tail, and, upon the whole, a larger variety of Crabbe or Cowper; nor into the bosom of domescharacters, more artfully and judiciously con- tic privacy, like Campbell; nor among creatures trasted. There is nothing so fine, perhaps, as the of the imagination, like Southey or Darwin. Such i battle in Marmion, or so picturesque as some of personages, assuredly, are not in themselves so the scattered sketches in the Lay of the Last Min-interesting or striking as those to which our strel; but there is a richness and a spirit in the poet devoted himself; but they are far less famiLady of the Lake, which does not pervade either liar in poetry, and are therefore more likely to of these poems; a profusion of incident, and a engage the attention of those to whom poetry is shifting brilliancy of colouring, that reminds familiar. In the management of the passions, ns of the witchery of Ariosto, and a constant again, he pursued the same popular and compaelasticity and occasional energy, which seem to ratively easy course. He raised all the most fabelong more peculiarly to the author himself. miliar and poetical emotions, by the most obvious aggravations, and in the most compendious and judicious way. He dazzled the reader with the splendour, and even warmed him with the transient heat of various affections; but he nowhere fairly kindled him into enthusiasm, or melted him into tenderness. Writing for the world at large (unlike Byron), he wisely abstained from at- | tempting to raise any passion to a height to which worldly people could not be transported, and contented himself with giving his reader the chance of feeling as a brave, kind, and affectionate gentleman should often feel in the ordinary course of his existence, without trying to breathe into him either that lofty enthusiasm which dis

life, or that quiet and deep sensibility, which unfits for all its pursuits. With regard to diction and imagery, too, it is quite obvious that he aim

At this period Mr Scott had ontstripped all his poetical competitors in the race of popularity. The mighty star of Byron had not yet risen; and we doubt whether any British poet had ever had so many of his books sold, or so many of his verses read and admired by such a multitude of persons in so short a time as Walter Scott. Confident in the force and originality of his own genius, he was not afraid to avail himself of diction and of sentiment, wherever they appeared to be beautiful and impressive, using them, however, at all times, with the skill and spirit of an inventor; and, quite certain that he could not be mistaken for a plagiarist or imitator, he made free use of that great treasury of characters, images, and ex-dains the ordinary business and amusements of pressions, which had been accumulated by the most celebrated of his predecessors; at the same time that the rapidity of his transitions, the novelty of his combinations, and the spirit and va-ed not at writing in either a pure or very common riety of his own thoughts and inventions, show plainly that he was a borrower from any thing but poverty, and took only what he could have given if he had been born in an earlier age. The great secret of his popularity at the time, and the leading characteristic of his poetry, consisted evidently in this, that he made use of more common topics, images, and expressions, than any original poet of later times; and, at the same time, displayed more genius and originality than any recent author who had hitherto worked in the same materials. By the latter peculiarity, he entitled himself to the admiration of every description of readers; by the former he came recom-rity. There is nothing in Scott's poetry of the mended in an especial manner to the inexperienced, at the hazard of some little offence to the more cultivated and fastidious.

style. He seems to have been anxious only to strike, and to be easily and universally understood; and, for this purpose, to have culled the most glittering and conspicuous expressions of the most popular authors, and to have interwoven them in splendid confusion with his own nervous diction and irregular versification. Indifferent whether he coius or borrows, and drawing with equal freedom on his memory and his imagination, he went boldly forward, in full reliance on a never-failing abundance, and dazzled, with his richness and variety, even those who are most apt to be offended with his glare and irregula

severe and majestic style of Milton-or of the terse and fine composition of Pope-or of the elaborate elegance and melody of Campbell—or even of the flowing and redundant diction of Southey; but there is a medley of bright images and glowing words, set carelessly and loosely to

In the choice of his subjects, for example, he did not attempt to interest merely by fine observations or pathetic sentiment, but took the assistance of a story, and enlisted the reader's curio-gether-a diction tinged successively with the sity among his motives for attention. Then his characters were all selected from the most common dramatis personæ of poetry-kings, warriors, knights, outlaws, nuns, minstrels, secluded dam

careless richness of Shakspeare, the harshness and autique simplicity of the old romances, the homeliness of vulgar ballads and anecdotes, and the sentimental glitter of the most modern poetry-

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buskin, and to the dubious and captious shouts of the pit and gallery.

That HALIDON HILL is a native, heroic, and chi

passing from the borders of the ludicrous to those of the sublime-alternately minute and energetic -sometimes artificial, and frequently negligent, but always full of spirit and vivacity-abounding valrous drama-clear, brief, and moving in its in images that are striking, at first sight, to minds of every contexture-and never expressing a sentiment which it can cost the most ordinary reader any exertion to comprehend.

story-full of pictures, living and breathing, and impressed with the stamp of romantic and peculiar times, and expressed in language rich and felicitous, must be felt by the most obtuse intellect; yet we are not sure that its success would be great on the stage, if for the stage it had ever been designed. The beauties by which it charms and enchains attention in the closet—those bright and innumerable glimpses of past times—those frequent allusions to ancient deeds and departed heroes-the action of speech rather than of body, would be lost in the vast London theatres, where a play is wanted, adapted to the eye rather than to the head or heart. The time of action equals, it is true, the wishes of the most limited critic; the place, too, the foot of Halidon, and its barren ascent, cannot be much more ample than the space from the further side of the stage to the upper regions of the gallery; and the heroes who are called forth to triumph and to die are native flesh and blood, who yet live in their descendants. It has all the claims which a dramatic poem can well have on a British audience; yet we always hoped it would escape the clutches of those who cut up quantities for the theatres.

Among the peculiarities of Scott, as a poet, we might notice his singular talent for description, and especially for that of scenes abounding in motion or action of any kind. In this department, indeed, he may be considered almost without a rival, either among modern or ancient bards; and the character and process of his descriptions are as extraordinary as their effect is astonishing. He places before the eyes of his readers a more distinct and complete picture, perhaps, than any other artist ever presented by mere words; and yet he does not enumerate all the visible parts of the subject with any degree of minuteness, nor confine himself by any means to what is visible. The singular merit of his delineations, on the contrary, consists in this, that, with a few bold and abrupt strokes, he sketches a most spirited outline, and then instantly kindles it by the sudden light and colour of some moral affection. There are none of his fine descriptions, accordingly, which do not derive a great part of their clearness and picturesque effect, as well as their interest, from the quantity of character and moral expression which is thus blended with their details, and which, so far from interrupting the conception of the external object, very power-two disastrous battles can never excuse. It is danfully stimulate the fancy of the reader to complete it; and give a grace and a spirit to the whole representation, of which we do not know where to look for a similar example. Walter Scott has many other characteristic excellencies, but we must not detain our readers any longer with this imperfect sketch of his poetical cha

racter.

The transfer which the poet has avowedly made of the incidents of the battle of Homildon to the Hill of Halidon, seems such a violation of authentic history, as the remarkable similarity of those

gerous to attempt this violent shifting of heroic deeds. The field of Bannockburn would never tell of any other victory than the one which has rendered it renowned: History lifts up her voice against it; nor can the Hill of Homildon tell the story of the Hill of Halidon, nor that of any other battle but its own.

It will scarcely be expected that, in this rapid sketch, we should enter into a respective analysis of those works, so well known, and so universally admired, by the appellation of the « Waverley Novels. The painful circumstances which compelled their author to disclose himself are still fresh in the recollection and the sympathy of the public: the motives, or no motives, which induced him so long and so pertinaciously to abstain from avowing himself, it is not our province to criticise, nor do we wish to make a boast of having always believed what could scarcely be ever doubted, viz. that the Great Unknown and the author of Marmion were «< one and indivi

To the list of poetical works given above, we have here to add two poems, at first published anonymously, but since acknowledged, viz. « The Bridal of Triermain,» and «Harold the Dauntless; and, in 1822, a dramatic sketch called « Halidon Hill. In his preface to the latter, the poet says, that his dramatic sketch is in no particular designed or calculated for the stage, and that any attempt to produce it in action will be at the peril of those who make the experiment. The truth is that, like most of the higher poetical spirits of the age, he has found out a far safer and surer way to equitable judgments and fame, than trusting to the hazardous presentment of the charac-sible.» ters he draws, by the heroes of the sock and

The annexed is a list of the novels in question,