O all-enjoying and all-blending sage, Long be it mine to con thy mazy page, Where half conceal'd, the eye of fancy views Fauns, nymphs, and winged saints, all gracious to thy muse! I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of Boccaccio, where the sage instructor, Racheo, as soon as the young prince and the beautiful girl Biancofiore had learned their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of Love. "Incominciò Racheo a mettere il suo officio in esecuzione con intera sollecitudine. E loro, in breve tempo, insegnato a conoscer le lettere, fece leggere il santo libro d'Ovvidio, nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come I santi fuochi di Venere si debbano ne' freddi cuori accendere." (Coleridge.) Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks, And see in Dian's vest between the ranks Of the trim vines, some maid that half believes The vestal fires, of which her lover grieves, With that sly satyr peeping through the leaves ! 1828. 1829. PHANTOM OR FACT A DIALOGUE IN VERSE AUTHOR A LOVELY form there sate beside my bed, And such a feeling calm its presence shed, A tender love so pure from earthly leaven, That I unnethe the fancy might control, 'Twas my own spirit newly come from heaven, Wooing its gentle way into my soul! But ah! the change-It had not stirr'd, and yet Alas! that change how fain would I forget! That shrinking back, like one that had mistook! That weary, wandering, disavowing look! 'Twas all another, feature, look, and frame, And still, methought, I knew, it was the same! FRIEND This riddling tale, to what does it belong? Is't history? vision? or an idle song? Or rather say at once, within what space Of time this wild disastrous change took place? AUTHOR Call it a moment's work (and such it seems) This tale's a fragment from the life of dreams; But say, that years matur'd the silent strife, And 'tis a record from the dream of life. 1830. 1834. SCOTT LIST OF REFERENCES EDITIONS POETICAL WORKS, edited by William Minto, 2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1887-88. POETICAL WORKS, 1 volume, edited, with revision of text, by W. J. Rolfe, Boston, 1888. POETICAL WORKS, edited by Andrew Lang, 6 volumes, 1902. POETICAL WORKS, 1 volume, edited by F. T. Palgrave, The Macmillan Co., 1866 (Globe Edition; not complete). - * COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS, 1 volume, edited by H. E. Scudder, The Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1900 (Cambridge Edition).- POEMS, 1 volume, edited by J. Logie Robertson, Clarendon Press, 1906 (Oxford Edition). - JOURNAL, 1825-1832, 2 volumes, edited by David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1890.FAMILIAR LETTERS, 2 volumes, edited by David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1894. BIOGRAPHY ** LOCKHART (J. G.), Life of Sir Walter Scott, 1837.-*HUTTON (R. H.), Scott, 1878 (English Men of Letters Series). (Containing two chapters of excellent criticism on Scott as a poet.) · YONGE (C. D.), Scott, 1888 (Great Writers Series). SAINTSBURY (George), Sir Walter Scott, 1897 (Famous Scots Series). HUDSON (W. H.), Sir Walter Scott, 1901 (Scots Epoch Makers). - HUGHES (Mary A. W.), Letters and Recollections of Scott, Smith, Elder & Co., 1904. NORGATE (G. Le G.), Life of Sir Walter Scott, Methuen, 1906. JENKS (T.), In the Days of Scott, A. S. Barnes, 1906.*LANG (A.), Sir Walter Scott, 1906 (Literary Lives Series). CRITICISM BALL (Margaret), Sir Walter Scott as a Critic, 1907. - BEERS (H. A.), English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century, 1901. - *BROOKE (Stopford A.), Studies in Poetry, 1907. - *CARLYLE (T.), Miscellanies, Vol. IV; from the London and Westminster Review, 1838. — CROCKETT (S. R.), The Scott Country, 1902. EMERSON (R. W.), Miscellanies. - HAY (John), Addresses: Speech at the Unveiling of the Bust of Scott in Westminster Abbey, 1897. HOWELLS (W. D.), My Literary Passions, 1895. HUGO (Victor), Littérature et Philosophie, 1834. HUTTON (R. H.), Brief Literary Criticisms, 1906.-JEFFREY (Francis), Edinburgh Review, No. 23 (April, 1808), Art. 1, Marmion; No. 32, Art. 1, Lady of the Lake; No. 36, Art. 6, Vision of Don Roderick; No. 48, Art. 1, Lord of the Isles. Also in his Critical Essays. -KER (W. P.), Scott, in Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature, Vol. III, new edition, 1904. *LANG (A.), Letters to Dead Authors, 1886. LANG (A.), Essays in Little, 1891. LANG (A.), Poets' Country, 1907. — PRESCOTT (W. H.), Biographical and Critical Miscellanies, 1845. - *PALGRAVE (F. T.), Introduction to the Globe Edition, 1866. *RUSKIN (John), Modern Painters, Part IV, Chap. 16 (especially sections 2245) and 17.- *RUSKIN (John), Fors Clavigera, Letters 31-34, 92. SAINTSBURY (G.), Essays on English Literature, Second Series, 1895. *SHAIRP (J. C.), Aspects of Poetry: Homeric Spirit of Scott, 1881. SMITH (Goldwin), Scott's Poetry again; in the Atlantic, March, 1905. STEPHEN (Leslie), Hours in a Library, Vol. I, 1874, 1892. - SWINBURNE (A. C.), Studies in Prose and Poetry, 1894. SYMONS (Arthur), Was Sir Walter Scott a Poet; in the Atlantic, Nov., 1904. SYMONS (Arthur), Romantic Movement in English Poetry, 1909. WOODBERRY (G. E.), Great Writers, 1907; from McClure's Magazine, June, 1905. -- WILLIAM AND HELEN SCOTT Imitated from Bürger's Lenore. See Lockhart's Life of Scott, Volume I, Chap. 7. FROM heavy dreams fair Helen rose, And eyed the dawning red : "Alas, my love, thou tarriest long! O art thou false or dead?" With gallant Frederick's princely power With Paynim and with Saracen At length a truce was made, Our gallant host was homeward bound And old and young, and sire and son, Full many a maid her true-love met, Nor joy nor smile for Helen sad, For none could tell her William's fate, The martial band is past and gone; And in distraction's bitter mood "O, rise, my child," her mother said, "Nor sorrow thus in vain ; A perjured lover's fleeting heart "O, Mother, what is gone is gone, Death, death alone can comfort me; "O, break, my heart, O, break at once' "O, enter not in judgment, Lord!" "O, say thy pater-noster, child! "O mother, mother, what is bliss? My William's love was heaven on earth, Without it earth is hell. 66 "Why should I pray to ruthless Heaven, "No sacrament can quench this fire, "O, break, my heart, O, break at once! Be thou my god. Despair! Heaven's heaviest blow has fallen on me, And vain each fruitless prayer." Wild she arraigns the eternal doom, She beat her breast, she wrung her hands, Till sun and day were o'er, And through the glimmering lattice shone The twinkling of the star. Then, crash! the heavy drawbridge fell The clank of echoing steel was heard And slowly on the winding stair And hark! and hark! a knock - tap! A rustling stifled noise ;- "Awake, awake, arise, my love! Hast thought on me, my fair?" "My love! my love!-so late by night!I waked, I wept for thee; Much have I borne since dawn of morn; Where, William, couldst thou be?" "We saddle late--from Hungary And to its bourne we both return "Let the wind howl through hawthorn bush! This night we must away; The steed is wight, the spur is bright; I cannot stay till day.' "Busk, busk, and boune! Thou mount'st behind Upon my black barb steed : "To-night-to-night a hundred miles!O dearest William, stay! The bell strikes twelve-dark, dismal hour! O, wait, my love, till day!" "Look here, look here-the moon shines clear Full fast I ween we ride : Mount and away! for ere the day We reach our bridal bed. "The black barb snorts, the bridle rings; Haste, busk, and boune, and seat thee! The feast is made, the chamber spread, The bridal guests await thee." Strong love prevailed: she busks, she bounes, She mounts the barb behind, And round her darling William's waist And, hurry! hurry! off they rode, Spurned from the courser's thundering "But why so stern and cold? "What yonder rings? what yonder sings? Why shrieks the owlet gray?" ""T is death-bell's clang, 't is funeral song, The body to the clay. "Dost fear? dost fear? The moon shines clear, Dost fear to ride with me?— Hurrah! hurrah! the dead can ride!""O William, let them be ! 66 See there, see there! What yonder And creaks, mid whistling rain?"— 'Hollo! thou felon, follow here: And thou shalt prance a fetter dance And, hurry! hurry! clash, clash, clash! And fleet as wind through hazel bush Tramp! tramp! along the land they Splash! splash! along the sea; How fled what showed! moonshine faintly How fled what darkness hid! "Dost fear? dost fear? The moon shines clear, And well the dead can ride; Dost, faithful Helen, fear for them?""O leave in peace the dead!” "Barb! Barb! methinks I hear the cock, Barb! Barb! I smell the morning air; Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode, Splash! splash! along the sea; "Hurrah! hurrah! well ride the dead; Reluctant on its rusty hinge And by the pale moon's setting beam With many a shriek and cry whiz round O'er many a tomb and tombstone pale He checked the wondrous course. |