The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-22

7 tributor to 'Blackwood's Magazine
| published many volumes that attracted
the attention of contemporaries, among
| them four novels, and in 1924, sent forth
Ancient Spanish Ballads" possibly the
most popular of all his writings. 1t was
not until 1887 and after, that he gave
to the world the very best biography
since James Boswell published his most
extraordinary Life of DIR. Johnson"
Lockhart died in 1854. and Sir Walter in
1882. Of Anne of Geierstein" this most
accomplished author. in the life of Scott,
wrote as follows. and no man has lived
since who is better qualified to appraise
| it's true value
1T may be almost called the last work
| of Scott's imaginative genius.
Its pages display in undiminished per-
lection all the skill and grace of the
mere artist. with occasional outbreaks
of the old poetic fire. Indeed. the vari-
Gus play of fancy in the combination
of persons and events, and the airy
] liveliness of both imagery and dictiop
may well justify in applying to the
author what he beautifully says of King
| Rene
"A mirthful man he was; the SHOWS Of
age
! Fell, but they did not chill him.
| 1T is a common saying, that there is
nothing so destructive of genius as the
| loss, in advanced years, of the ca
| pacity to depict the feelings of youth
with all their original glow and purity.
/ But l apprehend this blessed distinction
| belongs to, and is the Just reward or
virtuous genius only. Perhaps
Scott has nowhere painted such feelings
more deliciously than in those very
scenes of Anne of Geierstein." which
| offer every now and then, in some incl
dental circumstance or reflection, the
| best evidence that they are drawn by
a grey-headed man
Having written so far of the neglected
novel, let me detain the reader little
while longer with a few remarks as to
the immortal author, who is the favorite
of my life in the nobility and attractive
ness of his character. and next to
| Shakespeare, the most engaging and con-
| trolling of all authors. We know of no
other man of letters who has so fine
and pleasant a personality. If you will
read Lockhart's great work you will
understand this. Get the complete edi-
! tion in five or six volumes. / am not
attempting here any study of Scott. To
| do that with half satisfaction would re-
quire many columns. Strange to say
he was not properly appreciated by his
| distinguished contemporary, William
Hazlett, one of England's greatest criti
cal minds. and one of the best writer's
! in the first quarter Of the last century
or later. He wrote at length of Scott,
| but he depreciates no little his poetical
| gifts, and fails to do ample justice to
/ his wonderful novels. Since this CEN
| fury began several new editions of Scott
/ have appeared, showing the undying
| interest in his productions. In Ha3litt
| there is a general air of repulsion rather
| than insight manifested. He even goes
so far as to state that he had forgotten
Scott's poetry, and had long ago ceased
| to read it. We read it all not long
since, and it was delightfully."- refreshing
and charming. But Hazlitt is forced in
] the midst of his "damning with faint
praise to say that lit is not to be de-
MED that he had great merit, both of an
obvious and intrinsic kind" OF his great
romances he writes in partial praise
that che is only the amanuensis of truth
| and history" and so on. But at last,
as if against his inclination, he is forced
to concede much merit, and to admit
| that the greatest novels show 1.-The
| power of genius" that he is very pro-
/ ductvc and without exhaustion" and,
listen, that "his worst is better than
/ any other persons best This was said
somewhere between 1920 and 1928. The
/ great novelists of the English tongue
have since lived with the exception of
Harry Fielding
! Saintsbury, an excellent critic and
generally with a sure insight, has great
deserved praise for Scott. He is one of
the most widely cultivated authors of
the English race now living He thinks
Scott really created the historical novel,
and says that after two thousand years
of failure he vas the first to succeed
that before Scott no one. ancient or
modern, English or foreigner, had really
| succeeded" and he writes of 1.-The ex-
traordinary greatness of Scott" and of
| the wonderful variety of his productions
| We are to know that he says that
there are critics who rank Anne of
Geiorstein' very high indeed" He as
serts that Scott at his worst excels all
others at their best. He contends well
| and most wisely that his novels cOnsti-
tute ''such a body of literature as, for
complete liberation from any debts to
models, fertility and abundance of in
vention, nobility of sentiment variety
and keenness of delight, nowhere else
exists as the, work of single author in
! prose-" / have insisted through the
| years and hold yet with unfatterng
tenacity, that in all literature. ancient
and modern, past and present, however
splendid and numerous the works are.
there are not to be found such richness
of creative power, such a perfect en-
bodiment of splendid production and
united activity of brain as are found in
! the writings of the greatest ScotchmaD
the w0st unique genius of the very
fecund nineteenth century. AS a dis
! tinguished critic of the first half of that
! century said of him. "he is as prolific
as Lope de Vega, as absolutely original
| as Homer" | may mention here that
| he was the forerunner and insoirer of
all the British and American romanticists
/ of the past and gave to Hugo, Dumas,
! the elder, Balzac, the unclean, ard other
| eminent French novelists the cue. The
man who can not enjoy Scott is not to