A Critical Survey of Six Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake."

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3877, 2 June 1881, Page 2

A Critical Survey of Six Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake."

Part I. " The western waves of ebbing day" May sound euphorious to the gay; tf Each purple peak, each flinty spire," Makes ordinary man perspire. This Sort of stuff, which is d—d slow, And conjures up the realms below, Where evil spirits lie, all hid, With Satan for their saucepan lid; Sounds to my mind like Satan's yell, With echoing sprites from demon hell. ■" With boughs that quaked at every breath," Is most suggestive, too, of death ; — " Aloft, the ash and warrior oak ' Seem bent to watch their victims croak; , And, lower down, the drunkard sings His sodden tune, and frequent flung, Where seemed the focus of his eye, His hat against the darkening sky— Would seem to me much better far To read, than those lines as they are. " The wanderer's eye could barely view The summer heaven's delicious blue"— What! Does Sir Walter Scott suppose He'd view the heavens with his nose ? " And, now, to issue from the glen"— Thank Heaven! Let uasee what thenNo path, no track, no grog shop near (The wanderer could have done a beer)—Bah ] What a spot a man to take To meet the " Lady of the Lake."