first plan had been adhered to. But, however that may be, are there any pages among all he ever wrote that any one would be more sorry he should not have written? They are among the most delicious portraitures that genius ever painted of itself, — buoyant, virtuous, happy genius, exulting in its own energies, yet possessed and mastered by a clear, calm, modest mind, and happy only in diffusing happiness around it. With what gratification those Epistles were read by the friends to whom they were addressed, it would be superfluous to show. He had, in fact, painted them almost as fully as himself; and who might not have been proud to find a place in such a gallery! The tastes and habits of six of those men, in whose intercourse Scott found the greatest pleasure when his fame was approaching its meridian splendor, are thus preserved for posterity; and, when I reflect with what avidity we catch at the least hint which seems to afford us a glimpse of the intimate circle of any great poet of former ages, I cannot but believe that posterity would have held this record precious, even had the individuals been in themselves far less remarkable than a Rose, an Ellis, a Heber, a Skene, a Marriott, and an Erskine." Scott himself, speaking of the composition of Marmion twenty-two years afterward, says: "I may be permitted to say that the period of its composition was a very happy one in my life; so much so, that I remember with pleasure, at this moment, some of the spots in which particular passages were composed. It is probably owing to this that the Introductions to the several cantos as sumed the form of familiar epistles to my intimate friends, in which I alluded, perhaps more than was necessary or graceful, to my domestic occupations and amusements,a loquacity which may be excused by those who remember that I was still young, light-headed, and happy, and that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."" Suggestions. To the student, it may be said, one should bear constantly in mind that Scott is describing scenery and customs which he had long studied. Norham is less than twenty-five miles from the home of his grandparents. Marmion was written within a morning's gallop of Flodden Field. Much of the poem was composed, or at least thought out, while Scott's eye actually rested on the hills and valleys mentioned. Make a list of the dozen or more adjectives in the first stanza of the first canto, and you will see that each is used as by one who had actually gazed long and lovingly on the high turrets, or if these had fallen, upon the mountains of Cheviot, and upon the river Tweed, whose murmuring under the window of Abbotsford, one quiet afternoon, was the last sound he heard. Genius finds literary material near at hand; mediocrity goes far afield; an unawakened mind goes to an encyclopædia. Use a dictionary. Such words as yard, stalworth, hosen, and plump are good old English words. Look them up with care. Another thing: critics have given Scott high praise for the minuteness and accuracy of his descriptions. No literary man of the century has approached him in an intensive knowledge of the manners and customs of medieval chivalry. Marmion's entrance into Norham Castle, for instance, and his entertainment by Sir Hugh the Heron, are related with a wealth of circumstance that is wasted upon the student who does not consult his dictionary for the significance of unfamiliar terms. Look up the meaning of squire, seneschal, sewer, and pursuivant, of sumpter, housing and palfrey, of linstock, of pennon and scutcheon, and of mail and plate. When each word calls up a clear-cut idea the imagination can combine them into a picture or scene. Be painstaking from the first to extract the sense from the rhythm. Here, for instance, are the first three lines of the second stanza of Canto I.: - "Saint George's banner, broad and gay, Now faded, as the fading ray Less bright, and less, was flung." It is quite possible to run over such a passage without getting the meaning. The reader should dwell on the passage until, without transposing the words into a prose order, a clear impression is formed that the gay banner of England, floating out broadly on the evening sky, simply lost its brightness as the sunlight faded away. Unless the subject is unimportant or the reader intends to return, it is a mistake to pass by a sentence with a vague understanding of what it means. As a boy the pres ent writer had an erroneous notion that poetry was written as a sort of melodious rhapsody which no one, not even the writer, was expected to understand fully. The intel ligent study of this poem will help the student to a clearer view of the usefulness and importance of real poetry. Books of Reference. -Scott's part in the literary world has been so great that a list of essays and criticisms bearing on his own works would almost rival the bibliography of Milton or Shakespeare. Four books the student should have. They are a comprehensive dictionary. the Globe edition of Scott's Poetical Works, Lockhart's Life of Scott, and a good atlas of the Border country. Text. -The text adopted for this edition is that collated by Mr. William J. Rolfe, and is here used with his courteous permission. In this text, which is certainly the most correct yet printed, numerous important misprints and misconstructions of the earlier editions have been corrected by Mr. Rolfe, and the whole carefully compared with all of the preceding editions. |