Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Robert Southey, [20 September 1810]
“Ashestiel, Thursday.
“Your letter, this morning received, released me from
the very painful feeling, that a man of Mr
Coleridge’s high talents, which I had always been among
the first to appreciate as they deserve, had thought me worthy of the sort of
public attack which appeared in the Courier of the 15th. The initials are so remarkable, and the trick
so very impudent, that I was likely to be fairly duped by it, for which I have
to request Mr Coleridge’s forgiveness. I believe
attacks of any sort sit as light upon me as they can on any one. If I have had
my share of them, it is one point, at least, in which I resemble greater
poets—but I should not like to have ![]()
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them come from the
hand of contemporary genius. A man, though he does not ‘wear his heart
upon his sleeve for daws to peck at,’ would not willingly be
stooped upon by a falcon. I am truly obliged to your friendship for so speedily
relieving me from so painful a feeling. The hoax was probably designed to set
two followers of literature by the ears, and I daresay will be followed up by
something equally impudent. As for the imitations, I have not the least
hesitation in saying to you, that I was unconscious at the time of
appropriating the goods of others, although I have not the least doubt that
several of the passages must have been running in my head. Had I meant to
steal, I would have been more cautious to disfigure the stolen goods. In one or
two instances the resemblance seems general and casual, and in one, I think, it
was impossible I could practise plagiarism, as Ethwald, one of the poems quoted, was
published after the Lay of the Last Minstrel. A witty rogue, the other day, who sent me
a letter subscribed Detector, proved me guilty of stealing a passage from one
of Vida’s Latin poems, which I had
never seen or heard of; yet there was so strong a general resemblance, as
fairly to authorize Detector’s suspicion.
“I renounced my Greta excursion in consequence of
having made instead a tour to the Highlands, particularly to the Isles. I
wished for Wordsworth and you a hundred
times. The scenery is quite different from that on the mainland, dark, savage,
and horrid, but occasionally magnificent in the highest degree. Staffa, in
particular, merits well its far-famed reputation: it is a cathedral arch,
scooped by the hand of nature, equal in dimensions and in regularity to the
most magnificent aisle of a gothic cathedral. The sea rolls up to the extremity
in most tremendous majesty, and with a voice ![]()
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like ten thousand giants shouting at once. I visited
Icolmkill also, where there are some curious monuments, mouldering among the
poorest and most naked wretches that I ever beheld. Affectionately yours,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Marco Girolamo Vida (1485 c.-1566)
Neo-Latin poet; author of
Christias (1535) and
De arte poetica (1527).
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter
Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and John Galt.
