SOURCE: "The Romance of History," in A History of English Poetry Vol. VI, Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1910, pp. 381-417.

Courthope was an English educator, poet, literary critic, and biographer whose most notable work is his six-volume History of English Poetry (1895-1910). Described by Stuart P. Sherman as a confirmed classicist in poetical theory, Courthope reacted against Romantic theory and practice and advocated a return to the heroic couplet and the satiric poetry characteristic of the age of Alexander Pope, whose collected works he edited. Courthope's criticism tends to center on the extent to which authors reflect the English character and traditions that had enabled the British empire to arise from the institutions of the Middle Ages. Below, he discusses the historic and social factors that played a role in Scott's immense popularity and comments on the poetic style that Scott developed and refined in response to these factors...