. . .  The greater authors of the twelfth century have more affinity to the ‘heroic romance’ of the school of the ‘Grand Cyrus’ than to the dreams of Spenser or Coleridge. . . .  The magic that is wanting to the clear and elegant narrative of Benoit and Chrestien will be found elsewhere; it will be found in one form in the mystical prose of the ’Queste del St. Graal’—­a very different thing from Chrestien’s ’Perceval’—­it will be found, again and again, in the prose of Sir Thomas Malory; it will be found in many ballads and ballad burdens, in ‘William and Margaret,’ in ‘Binnorie,’ in the ‘Wife of Usher’s Well,’ in the ‘Rime of the Count Arnaldos,’ in the ‘Koenigskinder’; it will be found in the most beautiful story of the Middle Ages, ‘Aucassin and Nicolette,’ one of the few perfectly beautiful stories in the world.”—­“Epic and Romance,” W. P. Ker, London, 1897, p. 371 ff.

[1] Scott’s translations from the German are considered in the author’s earlier volume, “A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century.”  Incidental mention of Scott occurs throughout the same volume; and a few of the things there said are repeated, in substance though not in form, in the present chapter.  It seemed better to risk some repetition than to sacrifice fulness of treatment here.

[2] “The Development of the English Novel,” by Wilbur L. Cross, p. 131.

[3] Vol. i., p. 300.

[4] The sixth canto of the “Lay” closes with a few lines translated from the “Dies Irae” and chanted by the monks in Melrose Abbey.

[5] Vol. i., pp. 389-404.

[6] Vol. i., pp. 48-49.

[7] “Scott was entirely incapable of entering into the spirit of any classical scene.  He was strictly a Goth and a Scot, and his sphere of sensation may be almost exactly limited by the growth of heather.”—­Ruskin, “Modern Painters,” vol. iii., p. 317.

[8] “Marmion”:  Introduction to Canto third.  In the preface to “The Bridal of Triermain,” the poet says:  “According to the author’s idea of Romantic Poetry, as distinguished from Epic, the former comprehends a fictitious narrative, framed and combined at the pleasure of the writer; beginning and ending as he may judge best; which neither exacts nor refuses the use of supernatural machinery; which is free from the technical rules of the Epee. . . .  In a word, the author is absolute master of his country and its inhabitants.”

[9] Scott’s ascription of “Sir Tristram” to Thomas the Rhymer, or Thomas of Erceldoune, was doubtless a mistake.  His edition of the romance was printed in 1804.  In 1800 he had begun a prose tale, “Thomas the Rhymer,” a fragment of which is given in the preface to the General Edition of the Waverley Novels (1829).  This old legendary poet and prophet, who flourished circa 1280, and was believed to have been carried off by the Queen of Faerie into Eildon Hill, fascinated Scott’s imagination strongly.  See his version of the “True Thomas’” story in the “Minstrelsy,” as also the editions of this very beautiful romance in Child’s “Ballads,” in the publications of the E. E. Text So.; and by Alois Brandl, Berlin:  1880.