PREFACE
The lack of any adequate discussion of Scott's critical work is a sufficient reason for the undertaking of this study, the subject of which was suggested to me more than three years ago by Professor Trent of Columbia University. We still use critical essays and monumental editions prepared by the author of the Waverley novels, but the criticism has been so overshadowed by the romances that its importance is scarcely recognized. It is valuable in itself, as well as in the opportunity it offers of considering the relation of the critical to the creative mood, an especially interesting problem when it is presented concretely in the work of a great writer.
No complete bibliography of Scott's writings has been published, and perhaps none is possible in the case of an author who wrote so much anonymously. The present attempt includes some at least of the books and articles commonly left unnoticed, which are chiefly of a critical or scholarly character.
I am glad to record my gratitude to Professor William Allan Neilson, now of Harvard University, and to Professors A.H. Thorndike, W.W. Lawrence, G.P. Krapp, and J.E. Spingarn, of Columbia, for suggestions in connection with various parts of the work. From the beginning Professor Trent has helped me constantly by his advice as well as by the inspiration of his scholarship, and my debt to him is one which can be understood only by the many students who have known his kindness.
MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE,
June, 1907.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I. | |
|---|---|
| Introduction: An Outline of Scott's Literary Career | [1] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| Scott's Qualifications as Critic | [9] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| Scott's Work as Student and Editor in the Field ofLiterary History | |
| 1. The Mediaeval Period | |
| (a) Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border | [17] |
| (b) Studies in the Romances | [32] |
| (c) Other Studies in Mediaeval Literature | [40] |
| 2. The Drama | [46] |
| 3. The Seventeenth Century: Dryden | [59] |
| 4. The Eighteenth Century | |
| (a) Swift | [65] |
| (b) The Somers Tracts | [70] |
| (c) The Lives of the Novelists, and Commentson other Eighteenth Century Writers | [72] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| Scott's Criticism of His Contemporaries | [81] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| Scott as a Critic of His Own Work | [108] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Scott's Position as Critic | [134] |
| APPENDICES | |
| I. Bibliography of Scott, Annotated | [147] |
| II. List of Books Quoted | [174] |
| Index | [179] |