The Casquet Of Literature A Selection In Poetry And Prose Ed With Notes By C Gibbon PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...In collecting materials for the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, thinking, as it was said, "of little but the queerness and the fun, ' he was making himself for the work of his life. He was also in no small degree making at the same time the public taste to which that work was to be submitted. In fulness of time the Lay "f the Last Minstrel was born, to fascinate a world athwart which the genius of Burns had lately flashed, but in which Hayley was proWily the most popular poet, and the laurel of Drydcn certainly wreathed the brows of Pye. Few critics will question the supremacy of Scott, at least in our language, in the field of metrical romance. Opinion may vary as to I lie rank to be assigned to that class of composition. Other poets have soared higher into the empyrean of thought, or have dived deeper into the mystery of life, but none has ever told his talc with greater breadth of light and shade, or hurried his reader along with a more senial vivacity; none has ever lit up the lianquet-hall or the battle-field with more of Homeric fire, or adorned his action with a more exquisite transcript of the scenery of nature. (Applause.) It is in virtue of these qualities that a great poet holds as his own for ever the ground, historical or topographical, which his "and has once touched; and conquests of this kind are in one sense a measure of his power. In this sphere Scott is certainly the greatest of peaceful and beneficent conquerors in the orld of letters. Bannockburn and Flodden are his; Melrose and Dunvegan, and many a fair domain and ancient pile between. The house of Bucclcuch is not less indebted to his genius than to the valour of another Sir Walter, the favour of King James, or the good housewifery of the lady...