Portland gazette and Maine advertiser., 1814-06-20

cess, to convince criticks that he wss create
than all who had gone before him. The rapidly
with which he poured forth his unprem.di,s
ted verse" would induce one 10 believe be had
discovered some new avenue to the heights Of
Psrnassus. These productions, however, did not
bring the immortality TO which he aspired. and
il was reserved for his Madoc" Ind "Curise
of Kebsma"t to place him beside Walter Scott on
the pinnacle Of the temple Of fame.
Scott rose more apdly.-- He burst upon the
world with blaze OF Scottish border heroes.
dressed in the glitter Of me,rical romance, ihs,
sstonished his readers and distanced all bis com.
petitors. The multitude admired him and
Scolch revie wers, who are known 10 hove Scotch
men better than truth, proved TO their own salts
fac, ion at least, tina, his poetry was superior to
that Of Homer and Nixon. SCOTS poems thus
ohtsined popularity threatening q revolution il
tas.e and criticism and subvcrsive of,he fame OF
he purcss models in our lnngusge. Dryder
add Pope, by their harmonious numbers. riciF
and fn>ving verse, brought our language TO de
gree ofrefnement not equsllcd by any WHO have
succeeded them. Scott, in many insts noes. has
reduced the language Of poetry to the hsrshness
of rbsrism, or the earlier sges Of civilization.
The choice Of subjects has NOT little aided him
in his degrading efforts to incrus, our language
will, barbsrick roughness. His heroes are gen.
e,sy those Of unpublished age. and possess the
vices Of the worst times, with nothing to recon-
mend them bu, ferocious courage. The moral
tendency 0! some of SCOTS writings csnno, b.,
too severely reprob.ted. Villains, whom justice
would have consigned to the gibbet. are decked
IN slfthe tnsel ofromapce and made heroes of .
ale fog Instruction and amuse men, in our FAM.
lies and fire ides. That the mob of readers
who srs toe indolent, or teo weak TO discriminate
should be pleased, they know not how and care
not wherefore. is no, strange; but tina, criticks
OF high reputation should have been so rrodigsi
OF prsiss. without any cavest against bis faults. is
mater of regret and establishment. There are
many passages where the sense or meaning Of
the sMhor, ifindeed he Intended any. is smo h
cred in hsxy indistincness Of expression. An
affected, unnstural, fan,sstick dress is adopted
to put com non sense into masquerade Obso-
lete and newfane'ed words are frequently
thrown together and inl.id upon his pages into
sort Of poetick mosaic.
Don Frederick has doEe more towsrds opening
the eyes ofreaders to the real merits of Scott
than any thing tina, could be done by the, sound
est criticism. This is. doubtless, the dulles, Of
ell his compositions aud when it was once dis
covered that he nigh, possibly write bad poetry.
there was some hope Tia, just estimate nigh.
be one day formed If all bis works Ye, so gres,
was the infa us,ion, even of criicks, in his favor
that some respectable revue wers were as elabo
ate in the praise Of this weak production ~ Of
any ofhis former poems.
SCOTS fame began with the Lay Of the last
minstrel work ,hs, indeed contains passages
of fne poetry. which by its tenderness and sim.
pllci'y found is way TO every heart. The intro
duc,ory pieces TO each csnto are mimi ably besu.
,fnl; bs, as a whole il is greatly debased by
feeble and prosaick lines that ought not 20 be
tolerated IN one who is able to write so good
poetry as Scott, The praise bestowed on his
lines in the Lay induced him to
leng,en out tie same sppendsges in another
work to an immoderate degree. The reader of
M4rmion is surfeited with nm uncomfortable
quantity Of matter, by way of introduction TO
cantos, that has no more come ciion with the
subject of,he book than as many RACES Of an old
almsnsck. There is one trick, pc, uliar to Scott,
that Of swelling his books to grievous dimensions
by adding an unwieldy mass Of notes. so dull and
heavy that they ought to operate as mill stones
weighing down the tex, into oblivion. We can
frame no excuse for such egregious imposl,icns.
They are worse than direct taxes sud double du-
ties upon the understanding. They are generally
relating to barbarians and banditti, who like some
ofthe heroes of his verse are distinguished BY
nothing honorable or respectable in civilized
society. 1t is TO be regretted tbs, readers can be
found with any sympsth.es for such heroes or
their foul deeds.
Scoti's collection of "Scotch Ballads" exhib
its another proof os,he power offs mao Of genius
and popularity TO set common sense and good
taste at open defiance. None but such man
would have the power, il he had the impudence
to collect snch a mass Of vile, tame trash. with
the usual proportion OF notes Of the same stamp,
and have the efiron'ery to callit book. X
II cnteiaff,rc nf nau6carI, ccffn