CHAPTER IV

SCOTT’S CRITICISM OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Scott’s freedom from literary jealousy—­His disapproval of the typical reviewer’s attitude—­Jeffrey, Gifford, and Lockhart—­His own practice in regard to reviewing—­His informal critical remarks—­Opportunity for favorable judgments afforded by the number of important writers in his period.

Poets—­Burns—­Coleridge—­Relation of Christabel to Scott’s work—­Scott’s dislike for extreme Romanticism—­Wordsworth—­Southey—­Scott’s review of Kehama—­Byron—­Scott’s opinion of Byron’s character—­Campbell—­Moore—­Allan Cunningham—­Hogg—­Crabbe—­Joanna Baillie—­Matthew Lewis—­Scott’s judgment on his early taste for poetry—­Absence of comment on the work of Lamb, Landor, Hunt, Hazlitt, and DeQuincey.

Novelists—­Jane Austen—­Maria Edgeworth—­Cooper—­Personal relations between Scott and Cooper—­Scott’s verdict on Americans in general—­Washington Irving—­Goethe—­Fouque—­Scott’s interest in men of action.

To study Scott’s relations with contemporary writers is a very pleasant task because nothing shows better the greatness of his heart.  His admirable freedom from literary jealousy was an innate virtue which he deliberately increased by cultivation, taking care, also, never to subject himself to the conditions which he thought accounted for the faults of Pope, who had “neither the business nor the idleness of life to divide his mind from his Parnassian pursuits."[231] “Those who have not his genius may be so far compensated by avoiding his foibles,” Scott said; and some years later he wrote,—­“When I first saw that a literary profession was to be my fate, I endeavoured by all efforts of stoicism to divest myself of that irritable degree of sensibility—­or, to speak plainly, of vanity—­which makes the poetical race miserable and ridiculous."[232] The record of his life clearly shows that his kindness towards other men of letters was not limited to words.  One who received his good offices has written,—­“The sternest words I ever heard him utter were concerning a certain poet:  ‘That man,’ he said, ’has had much in his power, but he never befriended rising genius yet.’"[233] We may safely say that Scott enjoyed liking the work of other men.  “I am most delighted with praise from those who convince me of their good taste by admiring the genius of my contemporaries,"[234] he once wrote to Southey.

It is commonly supposed that Scott’s amiability led him into absurd excesses of praise for the works of his fellow-craftsmen, and indeed he did say some very surprising things.  But when all his references to any one man are brought together, they will be found, with a few exceptions, pretty fairly to characterize the writer.  His obiter dicta must be read in the light of one another, and in the light, also, of his known principles.  Temperamentally modest about his own work, he was also habitually optimistic, and the combination gave him an utterly different quality from that of the typical Edinburgh or Quarterly critics.