shall find time enough this morning to knock him on the head with two or three thumping stanzas."

Among contemporary criticisms of this new poem, those of Southey and Jeffrey are interesting. Southey says: "The story is made of better materials than 'The Lay,' yet they are not so well fitted together. As a whole, it has not pleased me so much in parts, it has pleased me more. There is nothing so finely conceived in your former poem as the death of Marmion: there is nothing finer in its conception anywhere. The introductory epistles I did not wish away, because, as poems, they gave me great pleasure; but I wished them at the end of the volume, or at the beginning-anywhere except where they were."

Jeffrey says, in a criticism of "Marmion," in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1808: "The characteristics of both [the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel' and 'Marmion'] are evidently the same; a broken narrative - a redundancy of minute description - bursts of unequal and energetic poetry—and a general tone of spirit and animation, unchecked by timidity or affectation, and unchastened by any great delicacy of taste or elegance of fancy."

Lockhart considers Jeffrey's criticism, of which only an extract is here given, and one which appears to the editor a just summary, as exceedingly severe and unwarranted. The poet himself felt that his analytic friend had dropped a caustic pen in blacker ink than “Marmion” required. Lockhart considers "Marmion" "as, on the whole, the greatest of Scott's poems."

Professor Minto of the University of Aberdeen said: "Scott's resuscitation of the four-beat measure of the old 'gestours' afforded a signal proof of the justness of their instinct in choosing this vehicle for their recitations. The four-beat lines of Marmion' took possession of the public like a kind of madness; they not only clung to the memory, but they would not keep off the tongue people could not help spouting them in solitary places and muttering them as they walked about the streets."

For variety of metre, the judicious intermixture of light and gay passages, and a realistic reproduction of the over-wrought chivalric spirit of the ancient clans of Scotland," Marmion" must always be admired. The poem betrays, with all the added labor its author gave it, the carelessness characteristic of his writings. The poet, however, never aimed at Dutch fidelity in details as regards fact, composition, or a literary style. He was, in these respects, notwithstanding the length and elaboration of his tales, whether in prose or verse, an impressionist. He needed a large canvas, a free brush, and a distant perspective.

Like all men of true genius, he had an immense capacity for work; and composition, whether of a romance or a poem, was a recreation. He was fortunate in being the predecessor of Byron, and this he appreciated. He was sufficiently free from the unhappy egotism which marks so many authors to realize when he had exhausted the vein from which was wrought "The Lay" and "Marmion" and the " Lady of the Lake."

It was then that Scott turned novelist. The genius of a man who could write poems like these, and novels like "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" and "Guy Mannering," must touch the imagination as epic in its proportions, and ally its possessor in versatility with Shakspeare and Goethe.

M. H. N.

IMPORTANT FACTS IN THE LIFE OF

WALTER SCOTT,

AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF MARMION.

1806-1808. The poet edited the Works of John Dryden.

1808-1812.

He edited the Works of Jonathan Swift.

1808. He with others projected the Quarterly Review in opposition to the Edinburgh Review.

1810. Lady of the Lake published, and the composition of Waverley, the poet's first novel, resumed.

1811. Poem of Don Roderick published, and the nucleus of the estate, which the poet named Abbotsford, bought.

1813. Rokeby published; also the Bridal of Triermain. The Poet Laureateship declined.

1814. Waverley published.

1815. Poem, the Lord of the Isles, and second romance, Guy Mannering, published. A visit to the Continent, where, on the field of Waterloo and in Paris, Scott collected much material for Life of Napoleon.

1816. The Antiquary, Tales of my Landlord, the Black Dwarf, and Old Mortality published.

1817. Harold the Dauntless [poem] published. The poet's first serious illness. Rob Roy published.

1818. Heart of Mid-Lothian published. Offer of a baronetcy accepted.

1819. Ivanhoe published.

1820. The Monastery published. A visit at Abbotsford from Prince Gustavus Vasa of Sweden. Scott made baronet. His portrait painted at the request of the King by Sir Thomas Lawrence, for the great gallery at Windsor Castle. Offered honorary degrees by Oxford and Cambridge. Many distinguished literary and scientific guests received at Abbotsford. The Abbot published. Scott elected president of Royal Society of Edinburgh.

1821. Kenilworth published. At this date Scott estimated that his yearly net income from new literary work was about $75,000. He continued to improve and enlarge his beautiful chateau and estate at Abbotsford. The Pirate published. 1822. Fortunes of Nigel published. Edinburgh visited by George IV. Scott almost daily the King's guest at dinner at Dalkeith Palace.

1823. Peveril of the Peak published. First novel of Continental Life, Quentin Durward, and St. Ronan's Well published.

1824. Red Gauntlet published. Maida, the noblest and most celebrated of all his dogs," died.

1825. Marriage of the poet's older son, Lieutenant Scott. Abbotsford, with the reservation of Sir Walter Scott's liferent, settled by marriage contract on Lieutenant Scott and wife. Expenses to Scott connected with the marriage of his son about $25,000. Poet's library at this time contained at least fifteen thousand volumes. Great entrance hall of Abbotsford now finished, and ornamented below the cornice with the shields of the ancient clans, such as those of Douglas, Kerr, Hume, etc. Visited Ireland and received with great honor. Diary begun.