te 6: From the famous "Preface" to the second edition of
"Lyrical Ballads," published in 1800. The poems in the first edition
of "Lyrical Ballads," published in 1798, had been the joint production
of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The volume was published in Bristol by
Cottle. It met with a cold, if not scoffing, reception, altho among
its contents were the "Lines Written Above Tintern Abbey." When
Cottle's publishing business was transferred to Longmans in 1799, the
value of the copyright of "Lyrical Ballads," for which Cottle had paid
the authors 30 guineas, was estimated at nothing. Cottle then
presented the copyright to Wordsworth and Coleridge. Wordsworth,
meanwhile, had written other poems and Longmans offered him L100 for a
new and enlarged edition of "Lyrical Ballads," restricted to his own
verse and to which Wordsworth was to contribute an explanatory
preface, the same being the "Preface" which aroused a controversy now
historical in the history of English poetry. Critics were deeply
incensed at Wordsworth's defense of his own poems. The "Preface" was a
revolutionary proclamation against the taste in poetry which had been
established in a previous century.]

SIR WALTER SCOTT

Born in 1771, died in 1832; educated at Edinburgh; sheriff
of Selkirkshire in 1799; published "The Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border" in 1802-03; "The Lay of the Last Minstrel"
in 1805, followed by "Marmion" in 1808, and "The Lady of the
Lake" in 1810; his first novel, "Waverley," published in
1814; involved to the extent of L120,000 in the failure of
his publishers in 1826; with additional private debts of
L30,000; struggled the rest of his life under this load of
debt, which his writings finally extinguished; made a
baronet in 1820; lived at Abbotsford, 1812-1826.

I

THE ARRIVAL OF THE MASTER OF RAVENSWOOD[7]

Hardly had Miss Ashton dropt the pen, when the door of the apartment
flew open, and the Master of Ravenswood, entered the apartment.

Lockhart and another domestic, who had in vain attempted to oppose his
passage through the gallery or antechamber, were seen standing on the
threshhold transfixt with surprize, which was instantly communicated
to the whole party in the stateroom. That of Colonel Douglas Ashton
was mingled with resentment; that of Bucklaw with haughty and affected
indifference; the rest, even Lady Ashton herself, showed signs of
fear; and Lucy seeme