Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature | Page 2

Currency.

1827 The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte.
1828 Tales of a Grandfather, first series.
1828 Religious Discourses, by a Layman.
1828 Proceedings in the Court-martial held upon John, Master of
Sinclair, etc. (edited).
1829 Memorials of George Bannatyne (edited).
1829 Tales of a Grandfather, second series.
1829-32 The "Opus Magnum" (Novels, Tales, and Romances, with
Introductions and Notes by the Author).
1830 Tales of a Grandfather, third series.
1830 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft.
1830 History of Scotland.
1831 Tales of a Grandfather, fourth series.
1831 Trial of Duncan Terig, etc. (edited).
* * * * *
1890 The Journal of Sir Walter Scott.
1894 Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Importance of a study of Scott's critical and scholarly
work--Connection between his creative work and his
criticism--Chronological view of his literary career.

Scott's critical work has become inconspicuous because of his
predominant fame as an imaginative writer; but what it loses on this
account it perhaps gains in the special interest attaching to criticism
formulated by a great creative artist. One phase of his work is
emphasized and explained by the other, and we cannot afford to ignore
his criticism if we attempt fairly to comprehend his genius as a poet
and novelist. The fact that he is the subject of one of the noblest
biographies in our language only increases our obligation to become
acquainted with his own presentation of his artistic principles.
But though criticism by so great and voluminous a writer is valuable
mainly because of the important relation it bears to his other work, and
because of the authority it derives from this relation, Scott's scholarly
and critical writings are individual enough in quality and large enough
in extent to demand consideration on their own merits. Yet this part of
his achievement has received very little attention from biographers and
critics. Lockhart's book is indeed full of materials, and contains also
some suggestive comment on the facts presented; but as the passing of
time has made an estimation of Scott's power more safe, students have
lost interest in his work as a critic, and recent writers have devoted little
attention to this aspect of the great man of letters.[1]
The present study is an attempt to show the scope and quality of Scott's
critical writings, and of such works, not exclusively or mainly critical,
as exhibit the range of his scholarship. For it is impossible to treat his
criticism without discussing his scholarship; since, lightly as he carried
it, this was of consequence in itself and in its influence on all that he
did. The materials for analysis are abundant; and by rearrangement and
special study they may be made to contribute both to the history of
criticism and to our comprehension of the power of a great writer. In
considering him from this point of view we are bound to remember the
connection between the different parts of his vocation. In him, more
than in most men of letters, the critic resembled the creative writer, and
though the critical temperament seems to show itself but rarely in his
romances, we find that the characteristic absence of precise and
conscious art is itself in harmony with his critical creed.

The relation between the different parts of Scott's literary work is
exemplified by the subjects he treated, for as a critic he touched many
portions of the field, which in his capacity of poet and novelist he
occupied in a different way. He was a historical critic no less than a
historical romancer. A larger proportion of his criticism concerns itself
with the eighteenth century, perhaps, than of his fiction,[2] and he often
wrote reviews of contemporary literature, but on the whole the
literature with which he dealt critically was representative of those
periods of time which he chose to portray in novel and poem. This
evidently implies great breadth of scope. Yet Scott's vivid sense of the
past had its bounds, as Professor Masson pointed out.[3] It was the
"Gothic" past that he venerated. The field of his studies,
chronologically considered, included the period between his own time
and the crusades; and geographically, was in general confined to
England and Scotland, with comparatively rare excursions abroad.
When, in his novels, he carried his Scottish or English heroes out of
Britain into foreign countries, he was apt to bestow upon them not only
a special endowment of British feeling, but also a portion of that
interest in their native literature which marked the taste of their creator.
We find that the personages in his books are often distinguished by that
love of stirring poetry, particularly of popular and national poetry,
which was a dominant trait in Scott's whole literary career.
With Scotland and with popular poetry any discussion of Sir Walter
properly begins. The love of