66 66 66 66 66 critics, and had occasion to study him when I was writing to Bowles. 66 Of all the disgraces that attach to England in the eye of foreigners, who admire Pope more than any of our poets, (though it is the fashion to under-rate him among ourselves,) the greatest perhaps is, that there should be no place assigned to him in Poets' Corner. I "have often thought of erecting a monument to him` at 66 66 my own expense, in Westminster Abbey; and hope to "do so yet. But he was a Catholic, and, what was worse, puzzled Tillotson and the Divines. That accounts for "his not having any national monument. Milton, too, had very nearly been without a stone; and the mention "of his name on the tomb of another was at one time con"sidered a profanation to a church. The French, I am told, 66 66 lock up Voltaire's tomb. Will there never be an end to "this bigotry? Will men never learn that every great poet 66 is necessarily a religious man?—so at least Coleridge says." 66 66 Yes," replied Shelley; and he might maintain the converse,--that every truly religious man is a poet; meaning by poetry the power of communicating intense and impassioned impressions respecting man and Nature." When I entered the room, Lord Byron was devouring, as he called it, a new novel of Sir Walter Scott's. "How difficult it is," said he, "to say any thing new! "Who was that voluptuary of antiquity, who offered a Perhaps all nature and art 66 reward for a new pleasure? "could not supply a new idea. 66 brilliant one; "This page, for instance, is a it is full of "wit. But let us see how much of it is original. This passage, for instance, comes from Shakspeare; this bon "mot from one of Sheridan's Comedies; this observation "from another writer (naming the author); and yet the 66 66 ideas are new-moulded,-and perhaps Scott was not aware of their being plagiarisms. It is a bad thing to "have too good a memory." "I should not like to have you for a critic," I observed. "Set a thief to catch a thief,'" was the reply. "I never travel without Scott's Novels," said he: “ they "could read them once a-year with new pleasure." 66 are a library in themselves—a perfect literary treasure. I I asked him if he was certain about the Novels being Sir Walter Scott's? 66 66 "Scott as much as owned himself the author of Waverley' to me in Murray's shop," replied he. "I was talking to him about that novel, and lamented that its author had not carried back the story nearer to the time of the Re"volution. Scott, entirely off his guard, said, 'Ay, I 66 66 might have done so, but 'There he stopped. It was in vain to attempt to correct himself: he looked confused, "and relieved his embarrassment by a precipitate retreat. "On another occasion I was to dine at Murray's; and "being in his parlour in the morning, he told me I should "meet the author of Waverley' at dinner. He had "received several excuses, and the party was a small one; 6 and, knowing all the people present, I was satisfied that "the writer of that novel must have been, and could have "been, no other than Walter Scott. 66 66 "He spoiled the fame of his poetry by his superior prose. He has such extent and versatility of powers in writing, that, should his Novels ever tire the public, "which is not likely, he will apply himself to something "His mottoes from old plays prove that he, at all events, possesses the dramatic faculty, which is denied me. And yet I am told that his 'Halidon Hill' did not justify expectation. I have never met with it, but have seen "extracts from it." 66 66 "Do you think," asked I, that Sir Walter Scott's Novels owe any part of their reputation to the concealment of the author's name ?" 66 No," said he; "such works do not gain or lose by it. "I am at a loss to know his reason for keeping up the incognito, — but that the reigning family could not "have been very well pleased with 'Waverley.' There is "a degree of charlatanism in some authors keeping up "the Unknown. Junius owed much of his fame to that "trick; and now that it is known to be the work of Sir .66 66 66 Philip Francis, who reads it? A political writer, and one who descends to personalities such as disgrace Junius, should be immaculate as a public, as well as a private "character; and Sir Philip Francis was neither. He "had his price, and was gagged by being sent to In"dia. He there seduced another man's wife. It would "have been a new case for a Judge to sit in judgment 66 66 66 on himself, in a Crim.-con. It seems that his conjugal felicity was not great, for, when his wife died, he came into the room where they were sitting up with the corpse, and said 'Solder her up, solder her up!' He saw "his daughter crying, and scolded her, saying, 'An old "hag-she ought to have died thirty years ago! He married, shortly after, a young woman. He hated Hastings to a violent degree; all he hoped and prayed "for was to outlive him.-But many of the newspapers of 66 66 66 66 the day are written as well as Junius. Matthias's book, "The Pursuits of Literature,' now almost a dead-letter, had once a great fame. 66 66 "When Walter Scott began to write poetry, which was not at a very early age, Monk Lewis corrected "his verse: he understood little then of the mechanical 66 part of the art. The Fire King in The Minstrelsy of "the Scottish Border,' was almost all Lewis's. One of "the ballads in that work, and, except some of Leyden's, 66 perhaps one of the best, was made from a story picked "up in a stage-coach ;-I mean that of Will Jones.' |