The Heart of Mid-Lothian | Page 5

Scott was making
his own plots, or letting them make themselves. "I never could lay
down a plan, or, having laid it down, I never could adhere to it; the
action of composition always diluted some passages and abridged or

omitted others; and personages were rendered important or
insignificant, not according to their agency in the original conception of
the plan, but according to the success or otherwise with which I was
able to bring them out. I only tried to make that which I was actually
writing diverting and interesting, leaving the rest to fate. . . When I
chain my mind to ideas which are purely imaginative--for argument is a
different thing--it seems to me that the sun leaves the landscape, that I
think away the whole vivacity and spirit of my original conception, and
that the results are cold, tame, and spiritless."
In fact, Sir Walter was like the Magician who can raise spirits that,
once raised, dominate him. Probably this must ever be the case, when
an author's characters are not puppets but real creations. They then have
a will and a way of their own; a free-will which their creator cannot
predetermine and correct. Something like this appears to have been
Scott's own theory of his lack of constructive power. No one was so
assured of its absence, no one criticised it more severely than he did
himself. The Edinburgh Review about this time counselled the "Author
of Waverley" to attempt a drama, doubting only his powers of
compression. Possibly work at a drama might have been of advantage
to the genius of Scott. He was unskilled in selection and rejection,
which the drama especially demands. But he detested the idea of
writing for actors, whom he regarded as ignorant, dull, and conceited.
"I shall not fine and renew a lease of popularity upon the theatre. To
write for low, ill-informed, and conceited actors, whom you must
please, for your success is necessarily at their mercy, I cannot away
with," he wrote to Southey. "Avowedly, I will never write for the stage;
if I do, 'call me horse,'" he remarks to Terry. He wanted "neither the
profit nor the shame of it." "I do not think that the character of the
audience in London is such that one could have the least pleasure in
pleasing them." He liked helping Terry to "Terryfy" "The Heart of
Mid-Lothian," and his other novels, but he had no more desire than a
senator of Rome would have had to see his name become famous by
the Theatre. This confirmed repulsion in one so learned in the dramatic
poets is a curious trait in Scott's character. He could not accommodate
his genius to the needs of the stage, and that crown which has most
potently allured most men of genius he would have thrust away, had it

been offered to him, with none of Caesar's reluctance. At the bottom of
all this lay probably the secret conviction that his genius was his master,
that it must take him where it would, on paths where he was compelled
to follow. Terse and concentrated, of set purpose, he could not be. A
notable instance of this inability occurs in the Introductory Chapter to
"The Heart of Mid-Lothian," which has probably frightened away
many modern readers. The Advocate and the Writer to the Signet and
the poor Client are persons quite uncalled for, and their little adventure
at Gandercleugh is unreal. Oddly enough, part of their conversation is
absolutely in the manner of Dickens.
"'I think,' said I, . . . 'the metropolitan county may, in that case, be said
to have a sad heart.'
"'Right as my glove, Mr. Pattieson,' added Mr. Hardie; 'and a close
heart, and a hard heart--Keep it up, Jack.'
"'And a wicked heart, and a poor heart,' answered Halkit, doing his
best.
"'And yet it may be called in some sort a strong heart, and a high heart,'
rejoined the advocate. 'You see I can put you both out of heart.'"
Fortunately we have no more of this easy writing, which makes such
very melancholy reading.
The narrative of the Porteous mob, as given by the novelist, is not, it
seems, entirely accurate. Like most artists, Sir Walter took the liberty
of "composing" his picture. In his "Illustrations of the Author of
Waverley" (1825) Mr. Robert Chambers records the changes in facts
made by Scott. In the first place, Wilson did not attack his guard, and
enable Robertson to escape, after the sermon, but as soon as the
criminals took their seats in the pew. When fleeing out, Robertson
tripped over "the plate," set on a stand to receive alms and oblations,
whereby he hurt himself, and was seen to stagger and fall in running
down the stairs leading