Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
George Ellis to Walter Scott, [May? 1805]
Mr Ellis does not seem to have written
at any length on the subject of the Lay, until he had perused the article in the Edinburgh Review. He then says, “Though I
had previously made up my mind, or rather perhaps because I had done so, I was
very anxious to compare my sentiments with those of the Edinburgh critic, and I
found that in general we were perfectly agreed, though there are parts of the
subject which we consider from ![]()
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very different points of
view. Frere, with whom I had not any
previous communication about it, agrees with me; and trusting very much to the
justice of his poetical feelings, I feel some degree of confidence in my own
judgment though in opposition to Mr
Jeffrey, whose criticism I admire upon the whole extremely, as
being equally acute and impartial, and as exhibiting the fairest judgment
respecting the work that could be formed by the mere assistance of good sense
and general taste, without that particular sort of taste which arises from the
study of romantic compositions.
“What Frere
and myself think, must be stated in the shape of a hyper-criticism—that is to say, of a review of the reviewer. We say
that the Lay of the Last Minstrel
is a work sui generis, written with
the intention of exhibiting what our old romances do indeed exhibit in point of
fact, but incidentally, and often without the wish, or rather contrary to the
wish of the author;—viz. the manners of a particular age; and that therefore,
if it does this truly, and is at the same time capable of keeping the steady
attention of the reader, it is so far perfect. This is also a poem, and ought
therefore to contain a great deal of poetical merit. This indeed it does by the
admission of the reviewer, and it must be admitted that he has shown much real
taste in estimating the most beautiful passages; but he finds fault with many
of the lines as careless, with some as prosaic, and contends that the story is
not sufficiently full of incident, and that one of the incidents is borrowed
from a merely local superstition, &c. &c. To this we answer—1st, that
if the Lay were intended to give any idea of the
Minstrel compositions, it would have been a most glaring absurdity to have
rendered the poetry as perfect and uniform as the works usually submitted to
modern readers—and as in telling a story, nothing, or very little would be
lost, ![]()
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though the merely
connecting part of the narrative were in plain prose, the reader is certainly
no loser by the incorrectness of the smaller parts. Indeed, who is so unequal
as Dryden? It may be said that he was
not intentionally so—but to be very smooth is very often
to be tame; and though this should be admitted to be a
less important fault than inequality in a common modern poem, there can be no
doubt with respect to the necessity of subjecting yourself to the latter fault
(if it is one) in an imitation of an ancient model. 2d, Though it is naturally
to be expected that many readers will expect an almost infinite accumulation of
incidents in a romance, this is only because readers in general have acquired
all their ideas on the subject from the prose romances, which commonly
contained a farrago of metrical stories. The only thing
essential to a romance was, that it should be believed by the hearers. Not only tournaments, but
battles are indeed accumulated in some of our ancient romances, because
tradition had of course ascribed to every great conqueror a great number of
conquests, and the minstrel would have been thought deficient if, in a warlike
age, he had omitted any military event. But in other respects a paucity of
incident is the general characteristic of our minstrel poems. 3d, With respect
to the Goblin Page, it is by no means necessary that the superstition on which
this is founded should be universally or even generally current. It is quite
sufficient that it should exist somewhere in the neighbourhood of the castle
where the scene is placed; and it cannot fairly be required that because the
goblin is mischievous, all his tricks should be directed to the production of
general evil. The old idea of goblins seems to have been, that they were
essentially active, and careless about the mischief they produced, rather than
providentially malicious.
“We therefore (i.e. Frere and myself)
dissent from all ![]()
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the reviewer’s objections to these
circumstances in the narrative; but we entertain some doubts about the
propriety of dwelling so long on the Minstrel songs in the last Canto. I say we
doubt, because we are not aware of your having ancient authority for such a practice; but though the
attempt was a bold one, inasmuch as it is not usual to add a whole canto to a
story which is already finished, we are far from wishing that you had left it
unattempted. I must tell you the answer of a philosopher (Sir Henry Englefield) to a friend of his who
was criticising the obscurity of the language used in the Minstrel. ‘I read little poetry, and
often am in doubt whether I exactly understand the poet’s meaning;
but I found, after reading the Minstrel three
times, that I understood it all perfectly.’ ‘Three
times?’ replied his friend. ‘Yes, certainly; the first
time, I discovered that there was a great deal of meaning in it; a second
would have cleared it all up, but that I was run away with by the beautiful
passages, which distracted my attention; the third time I skipped over
these, and only attended to the scheme and structure of the poem, with
which I am delighted.’ At this conversation I was present, and
though I could not help smiling at Sir Henry’s mode
of reading poetry, was pleased to see the degree of interest which he took in
the narrative.”*
John Dryden (1631-1700)
English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of
Of Dramatick
Poesie (1667),
Absalom and Achitophel (1681),
Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697),
The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and
Fables (1700).
George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of
Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.
Sir Henry Charles Englefield, seventh baronet (1752 c.-1822)
Of White Knights, Berkshire, the son of the sixth baronet (d. 1780); given a Catholic
education, he was a scientist and antiquary, author of
Picturesque
Beauties of the Isle of Wight (1816).
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
