The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER' 28, 1912. LITERARY COMPARISONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1582, 28 October 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER' 28, 1912. LITERARY COMPARISONS.

_ Eighty years have just passed away since.Sir Walter Scott was laid to rest within Dryburgk Abbey, and of late the question has been debated in more than literary circles whether or not he now has, or ever had, a worthy successor as a publicist, a poet, or a novelist. George Meredith, interviewed ten years ago in his chalet on Box Hill, said that Great Britain from the critics' point of view was then in the trough of a wave, but J that the crest was rearing its head and approaching. . To judge contemporary authors with the object either of dismissing their claims to fame, or of seeking to rank them among thoimmortals is a hazardous, if not an impossible task. But comparisons may Be made between the authors who have achieved renown since 1832 —the year of Scott's death—and the men who flourished :and established their pre-eminence immediately before that time. When this is done, in the opinion of many, the crest of tho wave which Meredith foresaw seems to be still far off, well beyond the literary horizon. For it was a brilliant company that which claimed Sir Walter Scott as one of its most conspicuous members, embracing as it did Crabbe, Coleridge, Byron, Southey, and Wordsworth. All of them were on friendly terms with Sir Walter, more particularly Southey and Wordsworth. The latter paid his first visit to the Scottish author as Lasswade, while yet Scott was comparatively unknown. Wordsworth in after years gave Lockhart his impressions of Scott as ho appeared to him on that occasion, and these _ impressions possess the merit of being the first we know of Scott formed by an observer so keen as Wordsworth. "I found him then," said Wordsworth, "in every respect the same man that you knew him in later life; the same lively, entertaining conversation, full of anecdote and averse from disquisition; the same unaffected modesty about himself; the same cheerful and benevolent and hopeful views of man and the world.", Scott was-then writing his first great poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel.

Sir Walter Scott seems to be the most suitable for selection from among his contemporaries for purposes of comparison with modern writers, and that for. many reasons. The chief of these may be stated as his large-heartedncss—hie heart was as big as his mind—his untiring industry, his rich and unfailing imagination, and his unparalleled popularity. That popularity brought him a financial success which has been seldom—probably never—exceeded by any European writer. Then again, Scott should appeal powerfully to the imagination of New Zealand readers. He is essentially the poet and romancist of the open air, of the mountain and the flood. The Lady of the lake cast a clamour over the Trossachs in Scotland which has remained as alluring to successive generations as it was to the first enraptured readers of the poem. How many thousands of,almost devout pilgrims has Hob 'Roy sent to the Braes of Balquihiclder, or to explore the Glasgow home of Bailie Nicol Jarvie ? Sir Walter Scott provides a signal example of what may be termed the gradual evolution of creative genius. Beginning with translations from the German, he progressed to the collecting—and doubtless the improving—of old ballad poetry, in the main, ballads of tho Border. He, however, quickly revealed his extraordinary love of, and admiration for, all that concerned itself with old Border life, from fairy lore to raids, and "deeds of highest chivalry." The Minstrelsy of ike Hcottisli Border was followed, two years later—in 1805—by The Lay of the Ijud Minstrel, and Scott's fame as a poet was established. The Lady of the Iqke, Marmion, and other great poems followed, along with The Life of Dryden, and contributions to the' Quarterly Review. Large siims were yearly won by, his pen, and he was famous not only throughout the British Isles hut also on the Continent. Still, Scott had not yet discovered the highest form of imaginative work of which he was capable. ■

At the time Scott was engaged upon his poems be began, but threw aside, bis first novel, Waverhy. Eight years later these, the opening, chapters were accidentally discovered by him, as all the world knows, the work was finished, published, and the author, then unknown, wna hailed as a great light in the literary flrma-

| ment. Scon', thus, almost by chance it would seem, was made to realise that, clever as he was as a Border balladist, and powerful as a poet, his real strength lay in historical romance. "When this stage of Sir Walter Scott's career is reached comparisons with present or recent nuthors are manifestly easy. When Warerlcy was published he was engaged upon the Lord of the Isles, the Memoire of the, Somerpilles ("a very curious specimen of family history"), poems on Galloway and Ayrshire, essays and criticisms, and his second novel, Guy Man-nerinr/. This entrancing work, Lockhart states he often heard Scott say, "was the work of six weeks at a Christmas." Then followed, in rapid succession, those wonderful romances which shed lustre not alone upon,the still undeclared "Author of Woverlay," but also made him wealthy. Abbotsford, that "romance in stone and lime," rose by the Tweed, and devotees of every rank, with lilcrateurs known in Great Britain, Europe, and America, flocked to the 'Scottish Border to gaze upon and converse with this new and wonderful genius. The annals of literature during the past eighty years will be searched in vain for the bestowing upon any author of a homage so great as that received by Sin Walter Scott. But it was in the heroic determination to pay the £130,000 which the failure of his publishing firms placed upon his shoulders tliat revealed to the full Scott's high integrity and amazing fertility, likewise his extraordinary financial successes. Woodstock was written in less than three months, and sold for £8,228. Lockhart, la'ter, records: "The rpsult of their high-hearted debtor's exertions, between January, 1826, and January, 1828, was, in all, nearly £40,000. No literary biographer, in all likelihood, will ever have such another fact to record." The fact is sure: there are no Sir Walter Scotts at the present time.