who was perhaps the best poet and best prose writer in the languagebut it is foolish to say so much,

after promising to say nothing. Indeed I own myself guilty of possessing all his works in a very indifferent edition, and I shall certainly purchase a better one whenever you put it in my power. With regard to your competitors, I feel perfectly at my ease, because I am convinced that though you should generously furnish them with all the materials, they would not know how to use them: non cuivis hominum contingit to write critical notes that any one will read." Alluding to the regret which Scott had expressed some time before at the shortness of his visit to the libraries of Oxford, Ellis says, in another of these letters :- "A library is like a butcher's shop: it contains plenty of meat, but it is all raw; no person living (Leyden's breakfast was only a tour de force to astonish Ritson, and I except the Abyssinians, whom I never saw) can find a meal in it, till some good cook (suppose yourself) comes in and says, 'Sir, I see by your looks that you are hungry; I know your taste-be patient for a moment, and you shall be satisfied that you have an excellent appetite.""

I shall not transcribe the mass of letters which Scott received from various other literary friends whose assistance he invoked in the preparation of his edition of Dryden; but among them there occurs one so admirable, that I cannot refuse myself

the pleasure of introducing it, more especially as the views which it opens harmonize as remarkably with some, as they differ from others, of those which Scott himself ultimately expressed respecting the poetical character of his illustrious author:

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My Dear Scott,

"Patterdale, Nov. 7, 1805.

"I was much pleased to hear of your engagement with Dryden: not that he is, as a poet, any great favourite of mine: I admire his talents and genius highly, but his is not a poetical genius. The only qualities I can find in Dryden that are essentially poetical, are a certain ardour and impetuosity of mind, with an excellent ear. It may seem strange that I do not add to this, great command of language: That he certainly has, and of such language, too, as it is most desirable that a poet should possess, or rather that he should not be without. But it is not language that is, in the highest sense of the word, poetical, being neither of the imagination nor of the passions; I mean the amiable, the ennobling, or the intense passions. I do not mean to say that there is nothing of this in Dryden, but as little, I think, as is possible, considering how much he has written. You will easily understand my meaning, when I refer to his versification of Palamon and Arcite, as contrasted with the language of Chaucer.

Dryden had neither a tender heart nor a lofty sense of moral dignity. Whenever his language is poetically impassioned, it is mostly upon unpleasing subjects, such as the follies, vices, and crimes of classes of men or of individuals. That his cannot be the language of imagination, must have necessarily followed from this, that there is not a single image from nature in the whole body of his works; and in his translation from Virgil, wherever Virgil can be fairly said to have his eye upon his object, Dryden always spoils the passage.

"But too much of this; I am glad that you are to be his editor. His political and satirical pieces may be greatly benefited by illustration, and even absolutely require it. A correct text is the first object of an editor-then such notes as explain difficult or obscure passages; and lastly, which is much less important, notes pointing out authors to whom the poet has been indebted, not in the fiddling way of phrase here and phrase there-(which is detestable as a general practice) but where he has had essential obligations either as to matter or manner.

"If I can be of any use to you, do not fail to apply to me. One thing I may take the liberty to suggest, which is, when you come to the fables, might it not be advisable to print the whole of the tales of Boccace in a smaller type in the original language? If this should look too much like swelling

a book, I should certainly make such extracts as would show where Dryden has most strikingly improved upon, or fallen below, his original. I think his translations from Boccace are the best, at least the most poetical, of his poems. It is many years since I saw Boccace, but I remember that Sigismunda is not married by him to Guiscard-(the names are different in Boccace in both tales, I believe-certainly in Theodore, &c.) I think Dryden has much injured the story by the marriage, and degraded Sigismunda's character by it. He has also, to the best of my remembrance, degraded her still more by making her love absolute sensuality and appetite; Dryden had no other notion of the passion. With all these defects, and they are very gross ones, it is a noble poem. Guiscard's answer, when first reproached by Tancred, is noble in Boccace-nothing but this: Amor può molto più che ne voi ne io possiamo. This, Dryden has spoiled. He says first very well, the faults of love by love are justified,' and then come four lines of miserable rant, quite à la Maximin. Farewell, and believe me ever your affectionate friend,

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH."

VOL. II.

T

CHAPTER XV.

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Affair of the Clerkship of Session - Letters to Ellis and Lord Dalkeith - Visit to London Earl Spencer and Mr Fox Caroline, Princess of Wales-Joanna Baillie-Appointment as Clerk of Session Lord Melville's TrialSong on his Acquittal.

1806.

WHILE the first volumes of his Dryden were passing through the press, the affair concerning the Clerkship of the Court of Session, opened nine or ten months before, had not been neglected by the friends on whose counsel and assistance Scott had relied. In one of his Prefaces of 1830, he briefly tells the issue of this negotiation, which he justly describes as an important circumstance in his life, of a nature to relieve him from the anxiety which he must other

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