f beauty, nor elegance of diction, and
which form an extraordinary contrast with the more animated and finished
portions of the poem. We shall not afflict our readers with more than
one specimen of this falling off. We select it from the Abbess's
explanation to De Wilton.

'De Wilton and Lord Marmion wooed
Clara de Clare, of Gloster's blood;
(Idle it were of Whitby's dame,
To say of that same blood I came;)
And once, when jealous rage was high,
Lord Marmion said despiteously,
Wilton was traitor in his heart,
And had made league with Martin Swart,
When he came here on Simnel's part;
And only cowardice did restrain
His rebel aid on Stokefield's plain,--
And down he threw his glove:--the thing
Was tried, as wont, before the king;
Where frankly did De Wilton own,
That Swart in Guelders he had known;
And that between them then there went
Some scroll of courteous compliment.
For this he to his castle sent;
But when his messenger returned,
Judge how De Wilton's fury burned!
For in his packet there were laid
Letters that claimed disloyal aid,
And proved King Henry's cause betrayed.' p. 272-274.

In some other places, Mr Scott's love of variety has betrayed him into
strange imitations. This is evidently formed on the school of Sternhold
and Hopkins.

'Of all the palaces so fair,
Built for the royal dwelling,
In Scotland, far beyond compare,
Linlithgow is excelling.'

The following is a sort of mongrel between the same school, and the
later one of Mr Wordsworth.

'And Bishop Gawin, as he rose,
Said--Wilton, grieve not for thy woes,
Disgrace, and trouble;
For He, who honour best bestows,
May give thee double.'

There are many other blemishes, both of taste and of diction, which we
had marked for reprehension, but now think it unnecessary to specify;
and which, with some of those we have mentioned, we are willing to
ascribe to the haste in which much of the poem seems evidently to have
been composed. Mr Scott knows too well what is due to the public, to
make any boast of the rapidity with which his works are written; but the
dates and the extent of his successive publications show sufficiently
how short a time could be devoted to each; and explain, though they do
not apologize for, the many imperfections with which they have been
suffered to appear. He who writes for immortality