THE LADY OF THE LAKE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The Lady of the Lake, Scott says, was a very sudden thought. It was begun in the fall of 1809, when Marmion had enjoyed a year and a half of popularity. The first hundred lines,' he writes to Lady Abercorn, 'were written, I think, in October, 1809, and the first canto was sent to your Ladyship in Ireland so soon as it was complete, and you were the first who saw them, excepting one friend and the printer, Mr. Ballantyne, who is a great critic as well as an excellent printer. I have been always, God help me, too poor and too impatient to let my poems lie by me for years, or for months either; on the contrary, they have hitherto been always sent to the press before they were a third part finished. This is, to be sure, a very reprehensible practice in many respects, and I hope I shall get the better of it the next time.'

He had by this time separated from Constable and made Ballantyne's interests his own. In his Introduction' given below, Scott details in lively fashion the effect which the reading of the poem, while in course of composition, had upon the friend who started in to 'heeze up his hope.' Lockhart quotes also from the recollection of Robert Cadell an account of the interest excited by the poem before it was published. James Ballantyne read the

cantos from time to time to select coteries, as

they advanced at press. Common fame was loud in their favor; a great poem was on all hands anticipated. I do not recollect that any of all the author's works was ever looked for with more intense anxiety, or that any one of them excited a more extraordinary sensation when it did appear. The whole country rang with the praises of the poet-crowds set off to view the scenery of Loch Katrine, till then comparatively unknown; and as the book came out just before the season for excursions, jevery house and inn in that neighborhood was erammed with a constant succession of visitors.' 'I have tried,' writes Scott to Lady Abercorn, according to promise, to make "a knight of love who never broke a vow." But welladay, though I have succeeded tolerably with the damsel, my lover, spite of my best exertions, is like to turn out what the players call a walking gentleman. It is incredible the pains it has cost me to give him a little dignity.' And then follows this curious and rueful reflection. 'Notwithstanding this, I have had

in my time melancholy cause to paint from experience, for I gained no advantage from three years' constancy, except the said experi ence and some advantage to my conversation and manners. Mrs. Scott's match and mine was of our own making, and proceeded from the most sincere affection on both sides, which has rather increased than diminished during twelve years' marriage. But it was something short of love in all its forms, which I suspect people only feel once in their lives; folks who have been nearly drowned in bathing rarely venturing a second time out of their depth.' In a later letter written to the same lady, he returns to the subject, which plainly gave him some uneasiness. As for my lover, I find with deep regret that, however interesting lovers are to each other, it is no easy matter to render them generally interesting. There was, however, another reason for keeping Malcolm Græme's character a little under, as the painters say, for it must otherwise have interfered with that of the king, which I was more anxious to bring forward in splendor, or something like it.'

Once again, in a letter to Miss Smith, who took the part of Ellen in a dramatization of the poem, he wrote: You must know this Mal colm Græme was a great plague to me from the beginning. You ladies can hardly comprehend how very stupid lovers are to everybody but mistresses. I gave him that dip in the lake by way of making him do something; but wet or dry I could make nothing of him. His insignificance is the greatest defect among many others in the poem; but the canvas was not broad enough to include him, considering I had to group the king, Roderick, and Doug

las.'

On another point, Scott had been criticised by his vigilant friend Morritt. The only disappointment,' writes Morritt, 'I felt in the poem is your own fault. The character and terrific birth of Brian is so highly wrought that I expected him to appear again in the denouement, and wanted to hear something more of him; but as we do not hear of his death, it is your own fault for introducing us to an acquaintance of so much promise and not telling us how he was afterwards disposed of.' To this Scott replied: Your criticism is quite just as to the Son of the dry bone, Brian. Truth is, I had intended the battle should

152

INTRODUCTION.

men of the last generation. thought the old Scottish Gael highly adapted for poetical composition. The feuds and political dissensions which, half a century earlier, would have rendered the richer and wealthier part of the kingdom indisposed to countenance a poem, the scene of which was laid in the Highlands, were now sunk in the generous compassion which the English, more than any other nation, feel for the misfortunes of an honorable foe. The Poems of Ossian had by their popularity sufficiently shown that if writings on Highland subjects were qualified to interest the reader, mere national prejudices were, in the present day, very unlikely to interfere with their success.

I had also read a great deal, seen much, and heard more, of that romantic country where I was in the habit of spending some time every autumn; and the scenery of Loch Katrine was connected with the recollection of many a dear friend and merry expedition of former days. This poem, the action of which lay among scenes so beautiful and so deeply imprinted on my recollections, was a labor of love, and it was no less so to recall the manners and inesdents introduced. The frequent custom of James IV., and particularly of James V. to walk through their kingdom in disguise, affended me the hint of an incident which never falis to be interesting if managed with the sichrest address or dexterity.

max wew confess, however, that the employment, though attended with great pleasure, was met without its donhts and anxieties. A lady to whom I was wearly related, and with whom 1 Bord. Anring her whole life, on the most bavahetic terras of affection, was residing with me at the time when the work was in progress. arā used to ask me what I comid possibly do no misse so early in the morning that happening to e time thosh avvennent no the ten composition i At Test & malā dien the subject Å NY MOĆTactions så li can never forget the anxiery and affermiam expressed in her reply. De mit be so rash.” she sich.“nx hetzesti cvmsım. You are strende mpscapitāāsim, — more sa, perhaps, than won yourself will believe, or that even L. er enther purmali trends, cu furie słom to war worn. Yo stunt high.

-Do not rusha amemt no dimi higher, und inour the risk of a full, to be punë upon it. & treurne will not be permitted En "no grumble with ingunier, li regibed zo This affectionare expostulation in the words of

fr his deserts ww smuli

Whe dures nm The Touch
Tr put: mirer. I li

Tful I said for the dialog is strong in ne varallaation, it is a sign that I ought

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retractation of the unfavorable judgment, when I recollected how likely a natural partiality was to effect that change of opinion. In such cases affection rises like a light on the canvas, improves any favorable tints which it formerly exhibited, and throws its defects into the shade.

I remember that about the same time a friend started in to heene up my hope, like the sportsman with his catty gun in the old song. He was bred a farmer, but a man of powerful understanding, natural good taste. and warm poetical feeling, perfectly competent to supply the wants of an imperfect or irregu lar education. He was a passionate admirer of field-sports, which we often pursued together.

As this friend happened to dine with me at Asbestiel one day. I took the opportunity of reading to him the first came of The Locy of the Lake, in order to ascertain the effect the poem was likely to produce upon a person who was but too favorabile a representative of readers on large. It is of course ne be smpposed than I determined rather ne gide my epcion by what my friend in a T feel thum by whầm be uncha thank in to SATHis reception of my recitation, or preleton. was rather sogliar Be punced his hand across bus brow, and Istemed with gren amentun through the white aœna ed the st him, the digs drew themselves mu the

daw their master, who eminats with Ellen Dongius. Be them summed up with smöden ezhamation, struck ins hund on the tabit, und drohoed, în a voice of censure cuimined to the venusion, thus the dŋgs JUUSÍ (Tuve been totally rumei de duing pormined to make the water en su a se chase. I town I was much menggad de ziu species of wet wind band possessed so zeulos a Sulover of the spurts of the mucion Simend who had been complert's surpriset nut of all àmits of the caulis of the zils. Another of his romans gave me less insure it d zemel. The sentire af de kng with the wa

never to hư surresöst, and I will win prosedażng knight. Fiz-James, when he veinis lis

troubled me; and I was at a good deal of pains to efface any marks by which I thought my secret could be traced before the conclusion, when I relied on it with the same hope of producing effect, with which the Irish post-boy is said to reserve a 'trot for the avenue.'

I took uncommon pains to verify the accuracy of the local circumstances of this story. I recollect, in particular, that to ascertain whether I was telling a probable tale I went into Perthshire, to see whether King James could actually have ridden from the banks of Loch Vennachar to Stirling Castle within the time supposed in the poem, and had the pleasure to satisfy myself that it was quite practicable.

After a considerable delay, The Lady of the Lake appeared in June, 1810; and its success was certainly so extraordinary as to induce me for the moment to conclude that I had at last fixed a nail in the proverbially inconstant wheel of Fortune, whose stability in behalf of an individual who had so boldly courted her favors for three successive times had not as yet been shaken. I had attained, perhaps, that degree of reputation at which prudence, or certainly timidity, would have made a halt, and discontinued efforts by which I was far more likely to diminish my fame than to increase it. But, as the celebrated John Wilkes is said to have explained to his late Majesty, that he himself, amid his full tide of popularity, was never a Wilkite, so I can, with honest truth, exculpate myself from having been at any time a partisan of my own poetry, even when it was in the highest fashion with the million. It must not be supposed that I was either so ungrateful or so superabundantly candid as to despise or scorn the value of those whose voice had elevated me so much higher than my own opinion told me I deserved. I felt, on the contrary, the more grateful to the public, as receiving that from partiality to me, which I could not have claimed from merit; and I endeavored to deserve the partiality by continuing such exertions as I was capable of for their amusement.

It may be that I did not, in this continued course of scribbling, consult either the interest of the public or my own. But the former had effectual means of defending themselves, and could, by their coldness, sufficiently check any approach to intrusion; and for myself, I had now for several years dedicated my hours so much to literary labor that I should have felt difficulty in employing myself otherwise; and so, like Dogberry, I generously bestowed all my tediousness on the public, comforting my

self with the reflection that, if posterity should think me undeserving of the favor with which I was regarded by my contemporaries, they could not but say I had the crown,' and had enjoyed for a time that popularity which is so much coveted.

I conceived, however, that I held the distinguished situation I had obtained, however unworthily, rather like the champion of pugilism, on the condition of being always ready to show proofs of my skill, than in the manner of the champion of chivalry, who performs his duties only on rare and solemn occasions. I was in any case conscious that I could not long hold a situation which the caprice rather than the judgment of the public had bestowed upon me, and preferred being deprived of my precedence by some more worthy rival, to sinking into contempt for my indolence, and losing my reputation by what Scottish lawyers call the negative prescription. Accordingly, those who choose to look at the Introduction to Rokeby, will be able to trace the steps by which I declined as a poet to figure as a novelist; as the ballad says, Queen Eleanor sunk at Charing Cross to rise again at Queenhithe.

It only remains for me to say that, during my short preeminence of popularity, I faithfully observed the rules of moderation which I had resolved to follow before I began my course as a man of letters. If a man is determined to make a noise in the world, he is as sure to encounter abuse and ridicule, as he who gallops furiously through a village must reckon on being followed by the curs in full cry. Experienced persons know that in stretching to flog the latter, the rider is very apt to catch a bad fall; nor is an attempt to chastise a malignant critic attended with less danger to the author. On this principle, I let parody, burlesque, and squibs find their own level; and while the latter hissed most fiercely, I was cautious never to catch them up, as schoolboys do, to throw them back against the naughty boy who fired them off, wisely remembering that they are in such cases apt to explode in the handling. Let me add that my reign (since Byron has so called it) was marked by some instances of good-nature as well as patience. I never refused a literary person of merit such services in smoothing his way to the public as were in my power; and I had the advantage- rather an uncommon one with our irritable race- to enjoy general favor without incurring permanent ill-will, so far as is known to me, among any of my contemporaries.

ABBOTSFORD, April, 1830.

THE LADY OF THE LAKE

ΤΟ

THE MOST NOBLE

JOHN JAMES, MARQUIS OF ABERCORN

&C., &c., &c.,

THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR.

ARGUMENT

THE scene of the following Poem is laid chiefly in the vicinity of Loch Katrine, in the Western Highlands of Perthshire. The time of Action includes Six Days, and the transactions of each Day occupy a Canto.

Thine ardent symphony sublime and high hAs Chief, who hears his warder call,

Fair dames and crested chiefs attention