SOURCE: A review of Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, in The Eclectic Review, Vol. IV, May, 1808, pp. 407-22.

Here, the reviewer complains about the "impertinent intervention" of the various epistles included in Marmion, but finds other passages in the poem exciting and entertaining, despite several flaws that are detected in Scott's writing.

Public expectation is seldom so highly excited by the promise of a new poem, as it has been, for some time past, by the repeated annunciation of Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field, by the author of The Lay of the last Minstrel. Mr. Scott is probably the most popular poet living in this country, even in an age distinguished for poets of various and eminent talents. Without presuming to depreciate him in comparison with any of his less fortunate contemporaries, we may attribute a portion of his fame to the felicitous circumstance of his...