The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-05-01

1t is known but too well that, during
the later years of Walter Scott's life,
there came with bodily prostration a
great, but not constant, failure of his
mental powers. Some of the phenomena
presented during this part of his career
the strikingly illustrative of abnormal
mental action occurring even at times
when the mental power is, on the whole,
much weakened. "Lucy of Lammer-
moor" though not one of the best of
Scotfs novels, is certainly far above such
works as Count Robert of Paris" "The
Betrothed," and "Castle Dangerous" Its
popularity may, perhaps, be attributed
chiefly to the deep interest of tie "ower
true tale" on which it is founded; but
some of the characters are painted with
exceeding skill.
Lucy herself is almost nonentity, and
Edgar is little more than a gloomy, un-
pleasant man, made interesting only by
the troubles which fall on him. But
Ailsie Gourlay and Caleb Bladerstone
stand out from the canvas as if alive;
they are as life-like and natural, yet as
thoroughly individuhlized, as Edie Och
iltree and Meg Merrilies. The novel
neither suggested when it first appeared,
nor has been regarded even after the facts
became known, as suggesting that Scott,
when he wrote it, was in ill health. Yet
it was produced under pressure of severe
illness, and when Scott was at least in
this sense unconscious, and nothing OF
what he said and did in connection with
the work was remembered when he re-
covered.
"The book" says James Ballantyne
"was not only written, but published
before Mr. Scott was able TO rise from
his bed; and he assured me that, wher
it was first put into his hands in com.
plete shape, he did not recollect one
single incident, character or conversation
it contained! He did not desire me tC
understand, nor did I understand, that
his illness had erased from his memory
the original incidents of the story with
which he had been acquainted from hi;
boyhood. These remained rooted where
they had ever been; or, to speak more
explicitly, he remembered the genera
facts of the existence of the father and
mother, of the son and daughter, of the
rival lovers, of the compulsory marriage
and the attack made by the bride upor
the hapless bridegroom, with the genera
catastrophe of the whole.
All these things he recollected, just as
he did before he took to his bed; but he
literally recollected nothing else-pot 6
single character woven by the romancer
not one of the many scenes and points Of
humor, not anything with which he was
himself connected, as the writer of the
work" Later, when Scott was breaking
down under severe and long g-continueC
labor, and first felt the approach of the
illness which ultimately ended in death
he experienced strange mental phenom
ena. In his diary for February 18th
1929, he notes that'on the preceding day
at dinner, though in company with tive
or three old friends, he was haunted by
"a sense of persistence" a confused
idea that nothing that passed was saic
for the first time; that the same topic
had been discussed, and that the sam'
persons had expressed the same opinions
before. "There was a vile sense of
: want of reality in all that l did or said.
i The Cornhill Magazine.