| 328 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
In the course of this autumn appeared the Poetical Works of Miss Seward, in three volumes
12mo, with a Prefatory Memoir of her Life by Scott. This
edition had, as we have seen, been enjoined by her last will—but his part in it was an
ungrateful one, and the book was among the most unfortunate that James Ballantyne printed, and his brother published, in deference to the personal feelings
of their partner. He had been, as was natural, pleased and flattered by the attentions of
the Lichfield poetess in the days of his early aspirations after literary distinction; but
her verses, which he had with his usual readiness praised to herself beyond their worth,
appeared when collected a formidable monument of mediocrity. Her Correspondence, published at the same time by
Constable, was considered by him with still
greater aversion. He requested the bookseller to allow
| WAVERLEY—1810. | 329 |
And now I come to a very curious letter of James Ballantyne’s, the date of which seems to fix pretty accurately the time when Scott first resumed the long-forgotten MS. of his Waverley. As in the Introduction of 1829 he mentions having received discouragement as to the opening part of the novel from two friends, and as Ballantyne on this occasion writes as if he had never before seen any portion of it, I conclude that the fragment of 1805 had in that year been submitted to Erskine alone.
“What you have sent of Waverley has amused me much; and certainly if
I had read it as part of a new novel, the remainder of which was open to my
perusal, I should have proceeded with avidity. So much for its general effect;
but you have sent me too little to enable
| 330 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“The account of the studies of Waverley seems unnecessarily minute. There are few novel readers to whom it would be interesting. I can see at once the connection between the studies of Don Quixote, or of the Female Quixote, and the events of their lives; but I have not yet been able to trace betwixt Waverley’s character and his studies such clear and decided connection. The account, in short, seemed to me too particular; quite unlike your usual mode in your poetry, and less happy. It may be, however, that the further progress of the character will defeat this criticism. The character itself I think excellent and interesting, and I was equally astonished and delighted to find in the last-written chapter, that you can paint to the eye in prose as well as in verse,
“Perhaps your own reflections are rather too often
mixed with the narrative but I state this with much diffidence. I do not mean
to object to a train of reflections arising from some striking event, but I
don’t like
| JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. | 331 |
The part of the letter which I have omitted, refers to the state of Ballantyne’s business at the time when it was written. He had, that same week, completed the eleventh edition of the Lay; and the fifth of the Lady of the Lake had not passed through his press, before new orders from London called for the beginning of a sixth. I presume the printer’s exultation on this triumphant success, had a great share in leading him to consider with doubt and suspicion the propriety of his friend’s interrupting just then his career as the great caterer for readers of poetry. However this and other matters may have stood, the novel appears to have been forthwith laid aside again.
Some sentences refer to less fortunate circumstances in their joint
affairs. The publishing firm was as yet little more than a twelvemonth old, and already
James began to apprehend that some of their
mightiest undertakings would wholly disappoint Scott’s prognostications. He speaks with particular alarm of the
edition of Beaumont and Fletcher’s
plays, of which Weber had now dismissed
several volumes from his incompetent and presumptuous hand. How Scott
should ever have countenanced the project of an edition of an English book of this class,
by a mere drudging German, appears to me quite inexplicable. He
placed at Weber’s disposal his own annotated copy, which had
been offered some years before for the use of Gifford; but Weber’s text is thoroughly
disgraceful, and so are all the notes,
| 332 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Another unpromising adventure of this season, was the publication of the
History of the
Culdees (that is, of the clergy of the primitive Scoto-Celtic Church),
by Scott’s worthy old friend, Dr John
Jamieson, the author of the celebrated Dictionary. This work, treating of an obscure
subject, on which very different opinions were and are entertained by Episcopalians on the
one hand, and the adherents of Presbyterianism on the other, was also printed and published
by the Ballantynes, in consequence of the interest which Scott felt, not for the writer’s hypothesis, but for the
writer personally: and the result was another heavy loss to himself and his partners. But a
far more serious business was the establishment of the Edinburgh Annual Register, which, as we have seen, was
suggested by Scott in the very dawn of his bookselling projects. The
two first volumes were issued about this time, and expectation had been highly excited by
the announcement that the historical department was in the hands of Southey, while Scott and many other
eminent persons were to contribute regularly to its miscellaneous literature and science.
Mr Southey was fortunate in beginning his
| EDINBURGH ANNUAL REGISTER, ETC. | 333 |
I am tempted, as Scott’s Essay on Judicial
Reform has never been included in any collection of his writings, to extract
here a few specimens of a composition which appears to be as characteristic of the man as
any that ever proceeded from his pen. His deep jealousy of the national honour of Scotland,
his fear lest the course of
| 334 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“An established system is not to be tried by those
tests which may with perfect correctness be applied to a new theory. A civilized
nation, long in possession of a code of law, under which, with all its inconveniences,
they have found means to flourish, is not to be regarded as an infant colony, on which
experiments in legislation may, without much charge of presumption, be hazarded. A
philosopher is not entitled to investigate such a system by those ideas which he has
fixed in his own mind as the standard of possible excellence. The only unerring test of
every old establishment is the effect it has actually produced;
for that must be held to be good from whence good is derived. The people have, by
degrees, moulded their habits to the law they are compelled to obey; for some of its
imperfections, remedies have been found; to others they have reconciled themselves;
till, at last, they have, from various causes, attained the object which the most
sanguine visionary could promise to himself from his own perfect unembodied system. Let
us not be understood to mean, that a superstitious regard for antiquity ought to stay
the hand of a temperate reform. But the task is delicate, and full of danger; perilous
in its execution, and extremely doubtful in its issue. Is there not rational ground to
apprehend, that, in attempting to eradicate the disease, the sound part of the
constitution may be essentially injured? Can we be quite certain that less
inconvenience will result from that newly-discovered and unknown remedy than from the
evil, which the juices and humours with which it has long been incorporated may have
neutralized?—that, after a thorough reformation has been achieved, it may not be found
necessary to counterwork the antidote itself, by having recourse to the very error we
have incautiously abjured? We are taught, by great authority, that ‘possibly they
may espy something that may, in truth, be mischievous in some particular case, but
weigh not how many inconveniences are, on the other side, prevented or remedied by that
which is the supposed vicious strictness of the law; and he that purchases a
reformation of a law with the introduction of greater inconveniences, by the amotion of
a mischief, makes an ill bargain. No human law can
| ESSAY ON JUDICIAL REFORM—1810. | 335 |
“Every great reform, we farther conceive, ought to be taken at a point somewhat lower than the necessity seems to require. Montesquieu has a chapter, of which the title is, Quit ne faut pas tout corriger. Our improvement ought to contain within itself a principle of progressive improvement. We are thus enabled to see our way distinctly before us; we have, at the same time, under our eyes, the ancient malady, with the palliatives by which the hand of time has controlled its natural symptoms, and the effects arising from the process intended to remove it; and our course, whether we advance or recede, will be safe, and confident, and honourable; whereas, by taking our reform at the utmost possible stretch of the wrong complained of, we cannot fail to bring into disrepute the order of things, as established, without any corresponding certainty that our innovations will produce the result which our sanguine hopes have anticipated; and we thus deprive ourselves of the chance of a secure retreat, in the event of our failure.”
Nor does the following paragraph on the proposal for extending to Scotland the system of Jury Trial in civil actions of all classes, appear to me less characteristic of Scott:—
“We feel it very difficult to associate with this subject any idea of political or personal liberty; both of which have been supposed to be secured, and even to be rendered more valuable, by means of the trial by jury in questions of private right. It is perhaps owing to our want of information, or to the phlegm and frigidity of our national character, that we cannot participate in that enthusiasm which the very name of this institution is said to excite in many a patriotic bosom. We can listen to the cabalistic sound of Trial by Jury, which has produced effects only to be paralleled by those of the mysterious words uttered by the Queen of the City of Enchantments, in the Arabian Tale, and retain the entire possession of our form and senses. We understand that sentiment of a celebrated author, that this barrier against the usurpation of power, in matters where power has any concern, may probably avert from our island
* Lord Hale on the Amendment of the Laws. |
| 336 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Some, though not all, of the changes deprecated in this Essay, had been
adopted by the Legislature before it was published; others of them have since been
submitted to experiment; and I believe that, on the whole, his views may safely bear the
test to which time has exposed them—though as to the particular point of trial by jury in civil causes, the dreaded innovation, being conducted by wise
and temperate hands, has in its results proved satisfactory to the people at large, as well
as to the Bench and the Bar of Scotland. I have, however, chiefly introduced the above
extracts as illustrative of the dissatisfaction with which Scott considered
| INDIAN PROJECT—1810. | 337 |
But, though it is easy to account for his expressing in
| 338 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
At the same time I have no notion that at this or any other period he
contemplated abandoning literature. Such a thought would hardly enter the head of the man,
not yet forty years of age, whose career had been one of unbroken success, and whose third
great work had just been received with a degree of favour, both critical and popular,
altogether unprecedented in the annals of his country. His hope, no doubt, was that an
honourable official station in the East might afford him both a world of new materials for
poetry, and what would in his case be abundance of leisure for turning them to account,
according to the deliberate dictates of his own judgment. What he desired to escape from
was not the exertion of his genius, which must ever have been to him the source of his most
exquisite enjoyment, but the daily round of prosaic and perplexing toils in which his
connexion with the Ballantynes had involved him. He was able to
combine the regular discharge of such functions with the exercise of the high powers of
| THE PENINSULAR WAR—1811. | 339 |
The letters of Scott to all his friends have sufficiently shown the unflagging interest with which, among all his personal labours and anxieties, he watched the progress of the great contest in the Peninsula. It was so earnest that he never on any journey, not even in his very frequent passages between Edinburgh and Ashestiel, omitted to take with him the largest and best map he had been able to procure of the seat of war; upon this he was perpetually poring, tracing the marches and countermarches of the French and English, by means of black and white pins; and not seldom did Mrs Scott complain of this constant occupation of his attention and her carriage. In the beginning of 1811, a committee was formed in London to collect subscriptions for the relief of the Portuguese, who had seen their lands wasted, their vines torn up, and their houses burnt in the course of Massena’s last unfortunate campaign; and Scott, on reading the advertisement, immediately addressed Mr Whitmore, the chairman, begging that the committee would allow him to contribute to their fund the profits, to whatever they might amount, of a poem which he proposed to write upon a subject connected with the localities of the patriotic struggle. His offer was of course accepted; and “The Vision of Don Roderick” was begun as soon as the Spring vacation enabled him to retire to Ashestiel.
| 340 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
On the 26th of April he writes thus to Mr Morritt, who had lost a dear young friend in the battle of Barrosa.
“I rejoice with the heart of a Scotsman in the success of Lord Wellington, and with all the pride of a seer to boot. I have been for three years proclaiming him as the only man we had to trust to—a man of talent and genius—not deterred by obstacles, not fettered by prejudices, not immured within the pedantries of his profession—but playing the general and the hero when most of our military commanders would have exhibited the drill sergeant, or at best the adjutant. These campaigns will teach us what we have long needed to know, that success depends not on the nice drilling of regiments, but upon the grand movements and combinations of an army. We have been hitherto polishing lunges, when we should have studied the mechanical union of a huge machine. Now—our army begin to see that the grand secret, as the French call it, consists only in union, joint exertion, and concerted movement. This will enable us to meet the dogs on fair terms as to numbers, and for the rest, ‘my soul and body on the action both.’
“The downfal of Buonaparte’s military fame will be the signal of his
ruin, and, if we may trust the reports this day brings us from Holland, there
is glorious mischief on foot already. I hope we shall be able to fling fuel
into the flame immediately. A country with so many dykes and ditches must be
fearfully tenable when the peasants are willing to fight. How I should enjoy
the disconsolate visages of those Whig dogs, those dwellers upon the Isthmus,
who have been foretelling the rout and ruin which it only required their being
in power to have achieved! It is quite plain, from Sir Robert Wilson’s account, that they neglected to feed
the lamp of
| LETTER TO MR MORRITT—APRIL, 1811. | 341 |
“I grieve for your loss at Barrosa, but what more glorious fall could a man select for himself or friend, than dying with his sword in hand and the cry of victory in his ears?
“As for my own operations they are very trifling, though sufficiently miscellaneous. I have been writing a sketch of Buonaparte’s tactics for the Edinburgh Register, and some other trumpery of the same kind. Particularly I meditate some wild stanzas referring to the Peninsula: if I can lick them into any shape I hope to get something handsome from the booksellers for the Portuguese sufferers: ‘Silver and gold have I none, but that which I have I will give unto them.’ My lyrics are called the Vision of Don Roderick: you remember the story of the last Gothic King of Spain descending into an enchanted cavern to know the fate of the Moorish invasion—that is my machinery. Pray, don’t mention this, for some one will snatch up the subject as I have been served before: and I have not written a line yet. I am going to Ashestiel for eight days, to fish and rhyme.”
The poem was published, in 4to, in July; and the immediate proceeds were forwarded to the board in London. His friend the Earl of Dalkeith seems to have been a member of the committee, and he writes thus to Scott on the occasion:—
| 342 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Those with ample fortunes and thicker heads may easily give 100 guineas to a subscription, but the man is really to be envied who can draw that sum from his own brains, and apply the produce so beneficially and to so exalted a purpose.” I presume, however, that when his Lordship thus mentions 100 guineas, he alludes merely to the first instalment of Scott’s contribution.
In the original preface to this poem Scott alludes to two events which had “cruelly interrupted his task”—the successive deaths of his kind friend the Lord President of the Court of Session (Blair),* and his early patron, Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville: and his letters at the time afford additional evidence of the shock his feelings had thus sustained.—
The following, to Mrs Scott of Harden, is dated May 28th, 1811—
“We are deprived of the prospect of waiting upon you on the birth-day, by the confusion into which the business of this court is thrown by the most unexpected and irreparable loss which it has sustained in the death of the President—it is scarcely possible to conceive a calamity which is more universally or will be so long felt by the country. His integrity and legal knowledge, joined to a peculiar dignity of thought, action, and expression, had begun to establish in the minds of the public at large that confidence in the regular and solemn administration of justice, which is so necessary to its usefulness and respectability. My official situation, as well as the private intimacy of our families, makes me a sincere mourner on this melancholy occasion, for I feel a severe personal deprivation, besides the general share of
* The Right Hon. Robert Blair of Avontoun, son of the Author of “The Grave.” |
| LETTER TO MRS SCOTT OF HARDEN. | 343 |
“He was a rare instance of a man whose habits were every way averse to the cultivation of popularity, rising, nevertheless, to the highest point in the public opinion, by the manly and dignified discharge of his duty. I have been really so much shocked and out of spirits, yesterday and the day preceding, that I can write and think of nothing else,
“I have to send you the Vision of Don Roderick, as soon as we can get it out—it is a trifle I have written to eke out the subscription for the suffering Portuguese. Believe me, my dear Mrs Scott, ever yours most truly and respectfully,
The next letter is to Mr Morritt, who, like himself, had enjoyed a large share of Lord Melville’s friendly regard; and had more than once met his Lordship, after his fall, at the Poet’s house in Castle Street; where, by the way, the old Statesman entered with such simple-heartedness into all the ways of the happy circle, that it had come to be an established rule for the children to sit up to supper whenever Lord Melville dined there.
“I have this moment got your kind letter, just as I
was packing up Don Roderick for
you. This patriotic puppet-show has been finished under wretched auspices; poor
Lord Melville’s death so quickly
succeeding that of President Blair, one
of the best and wisest judges that ever distributed justice, broke my spirit
sadly. My official situation placed me in daily contact with the President, and
his ability and candour were the source
| 344 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“There is a very odd coincidence between the deaths of these eminent characters, and that of a very inferior person, a dentist of this city, named Dubisson. He met the President the day before his death, who used a particular expression in speaking to him; the day before Lord Melville died, he also met Dubisson nearly on the same spot, and to the man’s surprise used the President’s very words in saluting him. On this second death, he expressed (jocularly, however) an apprehension that he himself would be the third—was taken ill and died in an hour’s space. Was not this remarkable? Yours ever,
The Vision of Don
Roderick had features of novelty, both as to the subject and the manner of the
composition, which excited much attention, and gave rise to some sharp controversy. The
main fable was indeed from the most picturesque region of old romance; but it was made
throughout the vehicle of feelings directly adverse to those with which the Whig critics
had all along regarded the interference of Britain in behalf of the nations of the
Peninsula; and the silence which, while celebrating our other generals on that scene of
action, had been preserved with respect to Scott’s
own gallant countryman, Sir John Moore, was
considered or represented
| VISION OF DON RODERICK—1811. | 345 |
Of the letters which reached him in consequence of the appearance of
The Vision, he has preserved several,
which had no doubt interested and gratified him at the time. One of these was from
Lady Wellington, to
| 346 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I am very glad that you have essayed a new metre—new I mean for you to use. That which you have chosen is perhaps at once the most artificial and the most magnificent that our language affords; and your success in it ought to encourage you to believe, that for you, at least, the majestic march of Dryden (to my ear the perfection of harmony) is not, as you seem to pronounce it, irrecoverable. Am I wrong in imagining that Spenser does not use the plusquam-Alexandrine—the verse which is as much longer than an Alexandrine, as an Alexandrine is longer than an ordinary heroic measure? I have no books where I am, to which to refer. You use this—and in the first stanza.
“Your poem has been met on my part by an exchange
somewhat like that of Diomed’s armour
against Glaucus’s—brass for gold—a
heavy speech upon bullion. If you have never thought upon the subject—as to my
great contentment I never had a twelvemonth ago—let me counsel you to keep
clear of it, and forthwith put my speech into the fire, unread. It has no one
merit but that of sincerity. I formed my opinion most reluctantly;
| LETTER FROM MR CANNING. | 347 |
But, of all the letters addressed to the author of the Vision of Don Roderick, I am very sure no one was so welcome as that which reached him, some months after his poem had ceased to be new in England, from a dear friend of his earliest days, who, after various chances and changes of life, was then serving in Lord Wellington’s army, as a captain in the 58th regiment. I am sure that Sir Adam Ferguson’s good-nature will pardon my inserting here some extracts from a communication which his affectionate schoolfellow very often referred to in after years with the highest appearance of interest and pleasure.
“After such a length of silence between us, and, I
grant on my part, so unwarrantable, I think I see your face of surprise on
recognising this MS., and hear you exclaim—What strange wind has blown a letter
from Linton? I
must say, that although both you and my good
| 348 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“But now, quitting self, I need not tell you how
greatly I was delighted at the success of the Lady of the Lake. I dare say you are by this time
well tired of such greetings—so I shall only say, that last spring I was so
fortunate as to get a reading of it, when in the lines of Torres Vedras, and
thought I had no inconsiderable right to enter into and judge of its beauties,
having made one of the party on your first visit to the Trossachs; and you will
allow, that a little vanity on my part on this account (every thing
considered), was natural enough. While the book was in my possession, I had
nightly invitations to evening parties! to read and
illustrate passages of it; and I must say that (though not conscious of much
merit in the way of recitation) my attempts to do justice to the grand opening
of the stag-hunt, were always followed with bursts of applause—for this Canto
was the favourite among the rough sons of the fighting Third Division. At that
time supplies of various kinds, especially any thing in the way of delicacies,
were very scanty; and, in gratitude, I am bound to declare, that to the good
offices of the Lady, I owed many a nice slice of ham,
and rummer of hot punch, which, I assure you, were amongst the most welcome
favours that one officer could bestow on another during the long rainy nights
of last January and February. By desire of my messmates of the Black-cuffs, I
some time ago sent a commission to London for a copy of the music of the
Boat-Song, ‘Hail to the Chief,’ as
per-
| LETTER FROM CAPT. ADAM FERGUSON—1811. | 349 |
“I had written all the foregoing botheration,
intending to send it by a wounded friend going home to Scotland, when, to my no
small joy, your parcel, enclosing Don
Roderick, reached me. How kind I take it your remembering old
Linton in this way. A day or two
after I received yours I was sent into the Alentejo, where I remained a month,
and only returned a few days ago, much delighted with the trip. You wish to
know how I like the Vision; but as you can’t
look for any learned critique from me, I shall only say that I fully entered
into the spirit and beauty of it, and that I relished much the wild and
fanciful opening of the introductory part; yet what particularly delighted me
were the stanzas announcing the approach of the British fleets and armies to
this country, and the three delightful ones descriptive of the different
troops, English, Scotch, and Irish; and I can assure you the Pats are, to a
man, enchanted with the picture drawn of their countrymen, and the mention of
the great man himself. Your swearing, in the true character of a minstrel,
‘shiver my harp and burst its every chord,’ amused me
not a little. From being well acquainted with a great many of the situations
described, they had of course the more interest, and ‘Grim
Busaco’s iron ridge’ most happily paints the appearance of
that memorable field. You must know that we have got with us some bright
geniuses, natives of the dear country, and who go by the
name of ‘the
| 350 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I am most happy to hear that the Club* goes on in the old smooth style. I am afraid, however, that now * * * has become a judge, the delights of Scrogum and The Tailor will be lost, till revived perhaps by the old croupier in the shape of a battered half-pay officer. Yours affectionately,
More than one of the gallant captain’s chateaux en Espagne were, as we shall see, realized in the sequel. I must not omit a circumstance which had reached Scott from another source, and which he always took special pride in relating, namely, that in the course of the day when the Lady of the Lake first reached Sir Adam Ferguson, he was posted with his company on a point of ground exposed to the enemy’s artillery; somewhere no doubt on the lines of Torres Vedras. The men were ordered to lie prostrate on the ground; while they kept that attitude, the Captain, kneeling at their head, read aloud the description of the battle in Canto VI., and the listening soldiers only interrupted him by a joyous huzza, whenever the French shot struck the bank close above them.
The only allusion which I have found, in Scott’s letters, to the Edinburgh Review on his Vision, occurs in a letter to Mr Morritt (26th September, 1811), which also contains the only hint of his having been about this
* See ante, vol. i. p. 153. |
| THE VISION OF DON RODERICK. | 351 |
I have alluded to some other new experiments in versification about this time as probably originating in the many hints of Ellis, Canning, and probably of Erskine, that, if he wished to do himself full justice in poetical narration, he ought to attempt at least the rhyme of Dryden’s Fables. Having essayed the most difficult of all English measures in Don Roderick, he this year tried also the heroic couplet, and produced that imita-
* The ponderous epic entitled, Charlemagne, ou l’Eglise Delivrée, was published in 1814; and an English version, by the Rev. S. Butler and the Rev. F. Hodgson, appeared in 1815. 2 vols. 4to. |
| 352 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* See Poetical Works, edition 1834, vol. viii. p. 374. |
| POETICAL IMITATIONS, ETC.—1811. | 353 |
The quarto edition of Don Roderick having rapidly gone off, instead of reprinting the poem as usual in a separate octavo, he inserted it entire ‘in the current volume of the Register; a sufficient proof how much that undertaking was already felt to require extraordinary exertion on the part of its proprietors. Among other minor tasks of the same year, he produced an edition of Wilson’s Secret History of the Court of King James I., in two vols. 8vo, to which he supplied a copious preface, and a rich body of notes. He also contributed two or three articles to the Quarterly Review.
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