“I am now sensible that there were needless asperities in my review of ‘Marmion,’ and from the hurry in which I have been forced to write, I dare say there may be some here also....  I am sincerely proud both of your genius and of your glory, and I value your friendship more highly than most either of my literary or political opinions.”

Southey, Ellis, and Wordsworth, Erskine, Heber, and other friends wrote congratulatory letters about “Marmion,” with slight allusions to minor blemishes.  Lockhart thought that it was on the whole the greatest of Scott’s poems, in strength and boldness.  Most critics regarded the long introduction to each canto as a defect, since it broke the continuity of the narrative; but it may at least be said that these preludes give an interesting insight into the author’s moods and views.  The opinions of literary men of course differ as to the relative excellence of the different poems.  “Marmion” certainly had great merit, and added to the fame of the author.  There is here more variety of metre than in his other poems, and also some passages of such beauty as to make the poem immortal,—­like the death of Marmion, and those familiar lines in reference to Clara’s constancy:—­

     “O woman! in our hours of ease,
      Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
      And variable as the shade
      By the light, quivering aspen made,—­
      When pain and anguish wring the brow,
      A ministering angel thou.”

The sale of “Marmion” ultimately reached fifty thousand copies in Great Britain.  The poem was originally published in a luxurious quarto at thirty-one and a-half shillings.  Besides one thousand guineas in advance, half the profits went to Scott, and must have reached several thousand pounds,—­a great sale, when we remember that it was confined to libraries and people of wealth.  In America, the poem was sold for two or three shillings,—­less than one-tenth of what it cost the English reader.  A successful poem or novel in England is more remunerative to the author, from the high price at which it is published, than in the United States, where prices are lower and royalties rarely exceed ten per cent.  It must be borne in mind, however, that in England editions are ordinarily very small, sometimes consisting of not more than two hundred and fifty copies.  The first edition of “Marmion” was only of two thousand copies.  The largest edition published was in 1811, of five thousand copies octavo; but even this did not circulate largely among the people.  The popularity of Scott in England was confined chiefly to the upper classes, at least until the copyright of his books had expired.  The booksellers were not slow in availing themselves of Scott’s popularity.  They employed him to edit an edition of Swift for L1500, and tried to induce him to edit a general edition of English poets.  That scheme was abandoned in consequence of a disagreement between Scott and Murray, the London publisher, as to the selection of poets.