“I was honoured with your Lordship’s letter
of
| LETTER TO LORD BYRON. | 99 |
“The author of the Queen’s Wake will be delighted with your approbation. He is a wonderful creature for his opportunities, which were far inferior to those of the generality of Scottish peasants. Burns, for instance—(not that their extent of talents is to be compared for an instant)—had an education not much worse than the sons of many gentlemen in Scotland. But poor Hogg literally could neither read nor write till a very late period of his life; and when he first distinguished himself by his poetical talent, could neither spell nor write grammar. When I first knew him he used to send me his poetry, and was both indignant and horrified when I pointed out to him parallel passages in authors whom
* The letter in question has not been preserved in Scott’s collection of correspondence. This leaves some allusions in the answer obscure. |
| 100 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have not yet seen Southey in the Gazette as Laureate. He is a real poet, such as we read of in former times, with every atom of his soul and every moment of his time dedicated to literary pursuits, in which he differs from almost all those who have divided public attention with him. Your Lordship’s habits of society, for example, and my own professional and official avocations, must necessarily connect us much more with our respective classes in the usual routine of pleasure or business, than if we had not any other employment than vacare musis. But Southey’s ideas are all poetical, and his whole soul dedicated to the pursuit of literature. In this respect, as well as in many others, he is a most striking and interesting character.
“I am very much interested in all that concerns
your Giaour, which is
universally approved of among our mountains. I have heard no objection except
by one or two geniuses, who run over poetry as a cat does over a harpischord,
and they affect to complain of obscurity. On the contrary, I hold every real
lover of the art is obliged to you for condensing the narrative, by giving us
only those striking scenes which you have shown to be so susceptible of poetic
ornament, and leaving to imagination the says I’s and says he’s,
and all the minutiæ of detail which might be proper in giving evidence
before a court of justice. The truth is, I think poetry is most striking when
the mirror can be held up to the reader, and the same kept constantly before
his eyes; it requires most uncommon powers to support a
| LETTER TO LORD BYRON. | 101 |
“As to those who have done me the honour to take my rhapsodies for their model, I can only say they have exemplified the ancient adage, ‘one fool makes many;’ nor do I think I have yet had much reason to suppose I have given rise to any thing of distinguished merit. The worst is, it draws on me letters and commendatory verses, to which my sad and sober thanks in humble prose are deemed a most unmeet and ungracious reply. Of this sort of plague your Lordship must ere now have had more than your share, but I think you can hardly have met with so original a request as concluded the letter of a bard I this morning received, who limited his demands to being placed in his due station on Parnassus—and invested with a post in the Edinburgh Custom House.
“What an awakening of dry bones seems to be taking
place on the Continent! I could as soon have believed in the resurrection of
the Romans as in that of the Prussians—yet it seems a real and active
renovation of national spirit. It will certainly be strange enough if that
tremendous pitcher, which has travelled to so many fountains, should be at
length broken on the banks of the Saale; but from the highest to the lowest we
are the fools of fortune. Your Lordship will probably recollect where the
Oriental tale occurs, of a Sultan who consulted Solomon on
the proper inscription for a signet-ring, requiring that the maxim which it
conveyed should be at once proper for moderating the presumption of prosperity
and tempering the pressure of adversity. The apophthegm supplied by the Jewish
sage was, I think, admirably adapted for both purposes, being
| 102 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“When your Lordship sees Rogers, will you remember me kindly to him? I hope to be in London next spring, and renew my acquaintance with my friends there. It will be an additional motive if I could flatter myself that your Lordship’s stay in the country will permit me the pleasure of waiting upon you. I am, with much respect and regard, your Lordship’s truly honoured and obliged humble servant,
