Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

Scott's early interest in ballads--Casual origin of the _Minstrelsy_--Importance of the book in Scott's career--Plan of the book--Mediaeval scholarship of Scott's time--His theo...

See the index. Vol. XI, p. 196 has a letter from Scott which I think had not previously been published. Vol. X, p. 105, gives one which Lockhart quotes "very imperfectly," accor...

Comparison of Scott with Jeffrey and with the Romantic critics--His criticism largely appreciative--Romantic in special cases and Augustan in attitude--Comparison with Coleridge...

Lack of dogmatism about his own work--Harmony between his talents and his tastes--His conviction of the value of spontaneity and abundance--Merits of a rapid meter--Greater care...

Scott's freedom from literary jealousy--His disapproval of the typical reviewer's attitude--Jeffrey, Gifford, and Lockhart--His own practice in regard to reviewing--His informal...

Wide and appreciative reading was Scott's first qualification for critical work. A memory that retained an incredible amount of what he read was the second. One of the severest...

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 intere...

[Footnote 399: When Constable was proposing to publish the poetry of the novels separately, Scott wrote to him that it was beyond his own power to distinguish what was original...

[Footnote 481: Newman's _Apologia_, pp. 96-97. Mark Twain thinks the influence of the novels was pernicious. He says: "A curious exemplification of the power of a single book fo...