well-known critic that the night ride of William of Deloraine to Melrose Abbey, in the "Lay," is as fine a piece of descriptive poetry of its kind as could be found anywhere; and this is true, or was until Mr. Browning produced his famous ride from Ghent to Aix. A considerable portion of "Marmion," Scott's second poem, was composed, as I have already said, in the saddle, when Edinburgh, like the rest of the island, was threatened with an invasion by the first Napoleon. It is not entitled to be called a great pocm, but it has great and, indeed, unequalled passages, one of which--the battle of Flodden-is worthy of the poet who has written his own character, or rather one aspect of it, in the following stanza : "Sound, sound the clarion! fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.” The epistles prefixed to the different cantos of "Marmion" may be read separately. Some readers will look upon them as the choicest portion of the work, nor will they be far wrong. Scott was not "We hope there is a patriotism founded on something better than prejudice, that our country may be dear to us without injury to our philosophy, that in loving and justly prizing all other lands, we may prize justly and yet love before all others our own stern Motherland, and the venerable structure of social and moral life which mind has through long ages been building up for us there. Surely there is nourishment for the better part of man's heart in all this; surely the roots that have fixed themselves in the very core of man's being may be so cultivated as to grow up, not into briers, but into roses, in the field of his life." an egotist like Byron, but in these poetical letters we see something of his healthy and lovable nature. The "Lady of the Lake" followed "Marmion," in little more than two years. According to Lockhart it is "the most interesting, romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems." It was certainly the most popular at the time, and brought a vast swarm of tourists to Loch Katrine and the Trosachs. Through this poem, and still more by his Scotch novels, Sir Walter opened his country to the civilized world. No Scotchman has indirectly conferred such benefits on the land of the mountain and the flood. "It is stated as a fact, that from the year in which the Lady of the Lake' was published, the post-horse duty in Scotland rose in an extraordinary degree, and continued to do so. regularly for some time afterwards, as successive editions of the poem appeared, and as the circle of readers grew wider."* The story is charmingly told, but it is not for its story that we judge a poem, and in poetical qualities the "Lady of the Lake" is inferior to "Marmion." On the other hand, nowhere in Scott's verse will you find such picturesque scenes, more sensibility, which, however, is sometimes in danger of verging on sentimentality, or sweeter snatches of song. An anecdote characteristic of Scott may be given here. His little daughter Sophia was asked how she liked the "Lady of the Lake." Her answer was given with perfect simplicity: "Oh, I have not *F. T. Palgrave. read it. Papa says there is nothing so bad for young people as reading bad poetry." Here is another. His son Walter came home from the High School one day with signs that he had been fighting. He had been called a lassie, he said, and would not bear the imputation. The fact was his companions had dubbed him "The Lady of the Lake," a phrase the bold boy naturally resented, for he had never heard of the poem. To return to Scott's poetry. The young student must read, and is sure to enjoy, the three poems upon which the author's reputation rests as a verse "Rokeby" and the "Lord of the Isles," though full of spirited passages, have not the merit of the earlier poems, and one notices a still greater decline in the strength and freshness of his song when reading the "Bridal of Triermain" and "Harold the Dauntless." His "Field of Waterloo " does not do justice to the subject, but there is a passage in it scarcely to be surpassed for energetic force. It is too long to quote, but you will turn to the volume. The lines to which I refer begin with the eleventh section of the poem and end with the twelfth. In verse as in prose this "wondrous Potentate," as he is justly called by Wordsworth, shows the fine moral qualities which make us love the man while admiring the artist. What he has done for his country is inestimable, what he has done for literature, by the scorn of what is base, and the honour paid to all that is pure and noble, is of even greater value. It was not Scott's design to be a teacher, but his work has taught the world. lessons it is not likely to forget. [The best editions of Scott's poems and novels are published by Messrs. Black, in every variety of form. Of late years, owing to the expiration of copyright, other publishers have reproduced the poet's works, and the editions are innumerable. Lockhart's life, in ten volumes, was abridged by the author, and another abridgement also, published by Messrs. Black, was made a few years ago by Mr. Jenkinson. I have already referred to Mr. R. H. Hutton's biography, and to Mr. Palgrave's critical memoir prefixed to the Globe edition. Both these books are issued by Macmillan and Co.] CHAPTER XV. POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (Continued). SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE-ROBERT SOUTHEY- Samuel Taylor He SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, whose extraordinary influence has been felt by men ranking with the intellectual rulers of 1772-1834. the century, was Wordsworth's most intimate friend in the early years of his poetic life. His mind, unlike that of Wordsworth, ranged over a vast field of philosophy and of literature. read immensely, and made use of what he read with a happy forgetfulness of the original sources of his knowledge. His genius was receptive of ideas from every quarter, and without apparent effort he made these ideas his own. It is neither as a philosopher nor as a profoundly suggestive critic that Coleridge claims our attention. He was a poet also, and one who in his own department is |