The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Aytoun's "Lays," Superbly Illustrated,
Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, and other Poems.
By William Edmonstoune Aytoun, D.C.L. With
Illustrations, by Joseph Noel Paton, R.S.A.
One Vol., pp. 268. Wm. Blackwood and Sons.
As a rule, it is only the truest poetry that comes
to be thus magnificently illustrated. Occasional
exceptions there are to the contrary. But even
then, according to the whimsical old saying, those
very exceptions to the contrary have actually their
advantage, for inasmuch as they serve to " prove
the rale," meaning by that, of course, to point or
emphasise it. An accomplished banker, for example,
like the late Samuel Rogers, gifted by fortune with
wealth, and by nature with refined tastes at once
in art and in literature—one of those happy -go-
lucky Coquetters with the Muse who can jot
down their rhythmical fancies, so to speak, upon
bank-notes, and have them bound afterwards,
if they so please it, in lieu of morocco, in
cloth of gold—a man thus gracefully endowed
in intellect, and bountifully in means, may, just for
once in a way, for the gratification of a personal
whim, afford the world the wonder, and him-
self the luxury, of causing the publication of a
very indifferent, comparatively speaking a posi-
tively insignificant, poem, in one of those sump-
tuous editions that ought to be reserved solely
for the real treasures of poetic literature. Of this
violation of the fitness of things, " Rogers's Italy,"
the resplendently illustrated edition of it, that is,
may be regarded as perhaps the most striking ex-
emplar that could be particularised. " Very pretty
poetry, Mr. Pope, but not Homer," was the cynical
sneer addressed to the translator of the "Iliad"
and the " Odyssey." " Very pretty versification,
bat not poetry," might certainly have been ad-
dressed to Mr. Rogers, on the earliest issue of
his maundering rhymes about that beautiful
land which ought to have been regarded by
him as under a kind of literary taboo (at any
rate for writers of his calibre), after the wondrous
completion of Childe Harold's "Pilgrimage.'
It was, at the very least, a preposterous misap-
plication of one art to another, to the extent of an
extravagantly disproportioned adornment—the
lavishing, upon a literary nonentity like " Rogere's
Italy," of those lovely engravings from sketches made
by the first artists of the day—one of them J. M.
W. Turner, the first artist of any day as a land-
scape painter—embellishments suitable, by reason
of their exceeding beauty, for the decoration alone of
one of the world's greatest masterpieces ! Very rarely
again, a mistaken popularity will lead to a some-
what similar result, as in the instance of an ele-
gantly embellished edition published a few years
since, of Mr. Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. Re-
verting to our first remark, however—as a rule, it is
only the truest poetry that wins for itself the glory
and honour of these superbly illustrated editions—
editions that, coming to a poet in his own life-
time, must be to him the realisation of a sort of
Euthanasia. Here, in this magnificent edition of
Professor Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish Cava-
liers," is a precise and veritable case-in-point.
For here are, in very deed, the true ingots or
doubloons of poetry; rung out with the
genuine ring, in these resounding verses—the mere
artistic adornment here " is bat the guinea stamp,"
the noble text of the book itself is "the gold for a'
that !" Coming in any shape, or in any size, or under
any aspect—how the true poetry, like the true gold,
is ever sure of its welcome among the children of
men, the whole world knows. " Professor Aytoun's
Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers" were thus welcomed
years ago, when published for the first time, at un
certain intervals in the pages of Blackwood's Maga-
zine. Eventually, when the series had been brought
to a close in Maga, they were collected together and
reissued from the press, in that collective form, as a
separate publication. Since.then, in various shapes
and sizes, they have passed through several large
editions, and have all the while widened and
widened in their popularity. Finally, as if to
crown the long-recognised fact of their success,
as if to give at last some fitting honour to the
great Scotch ballad-writer's reputation, they ap-
pear, so to speak, in this magnificent apparel,
the poet's singing robe receiving at length, as it
were, the significant symbol of the purple hem.
Here, at any rate, the adornments and decorations
are not misplaced. " The Execution of Montrose,"
as sung by Professor Aytoun, has long since assumed
its place among the national poems of Scotland.
" The Heart of the Bruce," as chaunted by Aytoun,
is one of the cherished gems of Scottish Literature.
" Edinburgh after Flodden," as recounted by him,
is hardly to be thought of, is certainly not to be
read aloud, by any patriot Scot, without tears, those
tears-of-sound at least called so exquisitely, les
larmes dans la voix. In how many of the "Lays
of the Scottish Cavaliers" may we not recognise
readily enough, upon casually turning over these
same thickly-giiten leaves, richly bound, exquisitely
printed, and still more exquisitely embellished—
line after line, each of which has already grown
into household words, by reason of a general appre-
ciation of their intrinsic worth, those "jewels five-
words long," as the Poet-Laureate has quaintly
but beautifully called them, " that on the
stretched fore-finger of all 'rime sparkle for ever !"
Familiar veises for example, in these noble Lays,
such, let us say, as—
" They know so sad a messenger,
Soma ghastly news must bring,
And all of then; were fathers,
And their sons were with the King .11'

Instances, however, these, which it were idle here
to multiply. Hardly a page bat yields them, some-
times even abundantly. It was a happy selection,
therefore, the one here made by the eminent pub-
lishing firm to whose enterprise modern literature
is under so many obligations—the distinguished
house to which we are indebted for the great
monthly magazine, Maga, as it is called par excel-
lence, for writers like Wilson, end Pollok, and Ali-
son, and Moir, for books like " Tom Cringle's Log"
and " Ten Thousand a Year "—it was an especially
happy choice, we say, that led the Messrs. Black
wood to the enterprise which has just now resulted
in this singularly beautiful volume. In the mere
getting up of the book even, the utmost care has
manifestly been taken—the affect of this care
being, we should suppose, all that the author
himself could well desire. The shattered
glaive upon the cover, the royal crown
above the thistle, the crossed claymores
interwoven with the scroll, bearing upon
it the haughty national device, Nemo me
impune lacessit —mere external decorations
like these evidence the delicate towhee of grace
which have been applied, even in such minute de-
tails, to the accessories of the publication. The
embellishments scattered through the letterpress,
while of variable excellence, are almost all of them
worthy of the skilled pencil and imaginative power
of the eminent artist, Joseph Noel Paton of the
Royal Scotch Academy, from whom they have, nearly
all of them, emanated. Nearly all of them, we say,
because some few of the designs are from the hand
of Waller Paton. As indicative of the precautions,
taken by the publishers with a view to ensure these
designs ol the Messrs. Paton being engraved upon
wood in the highest style of art, it will be as well
perhaps to give here the names of at least nine amens
the engravers to whose cunning implements the ori-
ginal sketches have been entrusted: to wit—John
Thompson, W. J. Linton, W. Thomas, J. W. Whym-
per, J. Cooper, W. T. Green, J. Adams, E. Evans,
cud Dalziels Brothers. The merit of the illustrations,
as we have said, is variable—as, indeed, among so
many, could alone in reason have been expected.
Several among them, however, are wonderfully
fine in their vigour and animation. About
the very finest in the book, to our fancy, being the
one at page 91, where the Warrior Chief on his
black charger flashes by at full gallop over the
heather, waving his brand, and crying out to his
followers, over his right shoulder, as be bids them
charge with him into the deadly strife of Killie-
crankie ! Another lovely picture is prefixed at
page 105 to the " Widow of Glencoe." The
March
of again, at page 85, to "The Burialthat m
oura-
of Dundee" is a worthy illustration.
to
fat ehaunt of Aytoun. Montrose,
at nthp. 34, hauntse tumbril or
death-cart, on his way to execution,
the memory, as we read on, even after the most
casual glance at it.
one omission we cannot