His chain of gold the King unstrung, Thus ends this poem, and the poet sings, "Harp of the North, farewell," -"Enchantress, fare thee well!" -a poem not of the sublimest order of high art perhaps, but a chivalrous poem, telling of chivalrous character in many ranks, from the Highland clansman to the generous, magnanimous, manly King - the poet's self as much as James V.;- a poem that is one of the most delightful in literature, than which there is none more exquisitely picturesque, none haunting more fascinatingly the fair scenes of nature in which its action is chiefly laid, - a poem genial and noble in spirit as was its author, genial as the sunlight and the summer breeze on the heathery banks and quiet waters of Katrine; whose enchanted region, long as it endures, will be fondly associated with memories of Sir Walter Scott, and his fairest creation, — “The Lady of the Lake.” D VIII. "THE VISION OF DON RODERICK." URING 1811, the next year after the appearance of "The Lady of the Lake," Scott, then forty years old, among various minor works, published "The Vision of Don Roderick," one of the less important of his poems. It has less story, less localization, less exhibition of character, than is usual in his works. And yet, its Spenserian verse gives it a grander style of its own, and distinguishes it from most of his other poetry. The general scene of this poem is near the ancient city Toledo, in Spain, and there shows that vision of Don Roderick the Goth, in which "his nation's future fate a Spanish King" beheld, through periods when Arabs controlled the country; or when, in turn, it controlled almost the world, and, after various changes, passed the crisis when the famous British Peninsular Army victoriously expelled the invaders directed by Napoleon. Indeed, the poem chiefly recalls those famous campaigns contemporaneous with its composition, and especially does it in its motive, for it was written to benefit a fund in aid of Portuguese sufferers by the war. There is thus a deal of peculiar credit belonging to this work. Railways now render so much of Old Spain so comfortably accessible, that many travellers are likely to visit Toledo, placed nearly at the exact geographical centre of the country, and to such an extent abounding in relics of many past ages as to equal, or almost surpass, any other Peninsular city, as a scene for a vision showing the long, eventful course of Spanish history. Scarcely any thing, other than actual view, can more vividly show the general aspect of Toledo than do the opening lines of this poem. Well might the "Monthly Review," when quoting them, assert, that "scarcely any poet, of any age or country, has excelled Mr. Scott in bringing before our sight the very scene he is describing, -in giving a reality of existence to every object on which he dwells." The poet never saw this city, but how graphic does the traveller there find these opening lines! "Rearing their crests amid the cloudless skies, And darkly clustering in the pale moonlight, Toledo's holy towers and spires arise, As from a trembling lake of silver white." "All sleeps in sullen shade, or silver glow, All save the heavy swell o Teio's ceaseless flow." Out of the wide, bare, mountain country, and above the curving river, high on its steep and rocky hills we see the ancient city rise, -its dwellings and lesser works crowned by its mighty square Alcazar, towering, pinnacled Cathedral, Arabic turrets or portals, and Christian spires; while the clear air, brightening all, brings softly to our ears sounds of quiet life, toned by frequent and varied notes of seemingly numberless consecrated bells. The numerous wonders of Toledo are adequately described by two or three excellent English guide-books, and by these travellers can be well directed to its Arabic houses, baths, and arches; to its marvellous San Juan de los Reyes, - -the "Henry VII. chapel" of Spain; to all its picturesqueness and antiquities; and, chiefest of all, to its sublimely superb Cathedral, that, unravaged, and retaining accumulated treasures of centuries, realizes, as does scarcely another, the richest, stateliest art of the Middle Ages and of the Pointed Style. The sumptuous portals, the five vast aisles, the grand cloisters, the lavishly decorated chapels-espe cially the astonishing Capilla Mayor- of this church show, as scarcely elsewhere is shown, the religious pomp of the times of their origin, and of the period when Spain, with "wealth of Ormus" and "of Ind," ruled half the world. Truly there is enough beside "Don Roderick" to take travellers to Toledo, and pleasantly they may there read or remember Scott's verses, and the Vision of the Gothic King. IX. SCOTT'S LIFE,- 1804-1812. URING the period 1804 to 1812, Scott was rapidly shaping his name and fame and personal story, - all the while occupied with literary, professional, social, or public affairs. In the year 1804 he removed from Lasswade Cottage to Ashestiel House, a more commodious and pleasant residence upon the Tweed, about half a dozen miles above-Selkirk, and the same distance below Innerleithen. Ashestiel has long been strictly private. It is described in chapter xxxi., when the traveller is led to its neighborhood in search of Saint Ronan's Well. Until May, 1812, when Scott removed to Abbotsford, he held and occupied Ashestiel under lease, and there wrote the larger portion of the great poems already sketched upon these pages, and edited "Dryden " (18 vols., 8vo), and the "Somers" (13 vols., 4to) and "Sadler's" Papers (3 vols., 4to). In 1805 he visited Cumberland, and in 1809, for the first time, the seat of his friend, J. B. S. Morritt, Esq., — Rokeby Park, Yorkshire, a charming estate, destined soon to become associated with one of his chief poems. In 1809, he, with his wife and daughter, made an excursion to the Highlands, and to the scenery of "The Lady of the Lake" (partly written during that year). He made his first visit to the Hebrides in 1810. In 1811, he purchased his first acquired portion of the Abbotsford estate. He did not, however, remove thither until May in the next year; and then, not to his grand "romance in stone and lime" now existing there, but to an humble home, that he described as "the smallest of possible cottages." The "romance" is minutely described in chapter xxxiv. Early in the autumn of 1812, he again visited his friend Mr. Morritt, at Rokeby Park. At that charming place he remained about a week, viewing its many beauties. Result of the two visits became apparent after Christmas, of the same year, when his next great poem appeared, named from the picturesque region in which most of its action is represented — "Rokeby.” THIS X. 66 HIS poem, in six Cantos, though meditated during a year or two, was practically commenced at Abbotsford on the 15th day of September, 1812, and was finished on the last day of the following December. Its scene, the poet informs us, "is laid at Rokeby, near Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, and shifts to the adjacent fortress of Barnard Castle, and to other places in that vicinity. The Time occupied by the Action is a space of Five Days, Three of which are supposed to elapse between the end of the Fifth and beginning of the Sixth Canto. The date of the supposed events is immediately subsequent to the great Battle of Marston Moor, 3d July, 1644. This period of public confusion has been chosen," "as affording a degree of probability to the Fictitious Narrative." The poet also informs us that for success in this composition he depended more upon presentation of character than of material objects. The scenery amid which its action is represented to have occurred is delightful, yet it is visited by comparatively few travellers. It is all within one not extensive neighborhood. Some description of that is proposed here without as extended a sketch of the story of the poem as are the sketches already given of three others. Mr. Lockhart concisely expressed a thought that many readers may find true, when he wrote that he " never understood or appreciated half the charm of this poem until" he "had become familiar with its scenery," — shown in this composition with "admirable, perhaps unique, fidelity." Scott himself, notwithstanding any subordination of natural objects to presentation of character in "Rokeby," felt great interest in the "local habitation" of this creation, and made careful researches and personal examinations in regard to its characteristics and various antiquities. As early as July 8, 1809, he wrote to George Ellis, describing Rokeby Park, that he had just then visited, as "one of the most enviable places " he had "ever seen, as it unites the richness and luxuriance of English vegetation with the romantic variety of glen, torrent, and copse, which dignifies our northern scenery. The Greta and Tees, two most beautiful and rapid rivers, join their currents in the demesne. The banks of the Tees resemble, from the height of the rocks, the glen of Roslin, so much and justly admired.” Mr. Morritt's Memorandum pleasantly informs us respecting Scott's "conscientious fidelity" in local descriptions, and his mode of harmonizing natural objects and legends, and his own creations. When the poet was at Rokeby Hall (about a week) in 1812, Mr. Morritt recorded that then he "could not help being singularly struck with the lights which this visit threw on " the characteristics of Scott's "compositions. The morning after he arrived, he said: 'You have often given me materials for romance; now I want a good robber's cave, and an old church of the right sort.' We rode out, and he found what he wanted in the ancient slate quarries of Brignal and the ruined Abbey of Eggleston. I observed him noting down even the peculiar little wild flowers and herbs that accidentally grew round, and on the side of a bold crag near his intended cave of Guy Denzil; and could not help saying, that as he was not to be upon oath in his work, daisies, violets, and primroses would be as poetical as any of the humble plants he was examining. I laughed, in short, at his scrupulousness; but I understood him when he replied, 'that in Nature herself, no two scenes were exactly alike, and that whoever copied truly what was before his eyes, would possess the same variety in his descriptions, and exhibit apparently an imagination as boundless as the range of nature in the scenes he recorded; whereas, whoever trusted to imagination, would soon find his own mind circumscribed and contracted to a few favorite images, and the repetition of these would sooner or later produce that very monotony and barrenness which had always haunted descriptive poetry in the hands of any but the patient worshippers of truth. Besides which,' he said, 'local names and peculiarities make a fictitious story look so much better in the face.' In fact, from his boyish habits, he was but half satisfied with the most beautiful scenery when he could not connect with it some local legend; and when I was forced sometimes to confess with the Knife-grinder, 'Story! |