but circumstances having rendered publication more hasty than he intended, this and other defects, of which none was more sensible than himself, he would not afterwards alter.

He was too good a judge of human nature, and too well read in History, to be much moved by the objection expressed in Byron's epitome of his chief character:

"Now forging Scrolls, now foremost in the fight,
Not quite a felon, yet, but half a knight,
The gibbet or the field prepared to grace;
A mighty mixture of the great and base."

But Jeffrey's criticism, which, though just as regards the "flatness and tediousness" of parts of the narrative, was both unjust and inaccurate in attributing "a debasing lowness and vulgarity" to some passages which he conceived would be "offensive to every reader of delicacy" was the occasion of an estrangement between the Poet and the Critic which their political differences widened.

Though all may not acquiesce in Mr Lockhart's opinion, that, notwithstanding the flatness of a great part of the narrative, "Marmion is, on the whole, the greatest of Scott's Poems," yet most readers will agree that even the flatest parts serve wonderfully to vivify our conception of the characters, and that "the breadth and boldness both of the conception and execution" are the most distinct indications, in his poetry, of those rare gifts which he afterwards more largely developed in prose.

EDINBURGH, May 1873.

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

HENRY, LORD MONTAGU

ETC. ETC. ETC.

This Romance is Enscribed

BY

THE AUTHOR

ADVERTISEMENT

[TO THE FIRST EDITION.]

It is hardly to be expected, that an Author whom the public have honoured with some degree of applause, should not be again a trespasser on their kindness. Yet the Author of MARMION must be supposed to feel some anxiety concerning its success, since he is sensible that he hazards, by this second intrusion, any reputation which his first Poem may have procured him. The present story turns upon the private adventures of a ficticious character; but is called a Tale of Flodden Field, because the hero's fate is connected with that memorable defeat, and the causes which led to it. The design of the Author was, if possible, to apprize his readers, at the outset, of the date of his Story, and to prepare them for the manners of the age in which it is laid. Any Historical Narrative, far more an attempt at Epic composition, exceeded his plan of a Romantic Tale; yet he may be permitted to hope, from the popularity of THEe Lay of THE LAST MINSTREL, that an attempt to paint the manners of the feudal times, upon a broader scale, and in the course of a more interesting story, will not be unacceptable to the Public.

The Poem opens about the commencement of August, and concludes with the defeat of Flodden, 9th September 1513.

ASHESTIEL, 1808.

Alas! that Scottish maid should sing

The combat where her lover fell! That Scottish Bard should wake the string, The triumph of our foes to tell!

LEYDEN.