ors Scott always considered as trifles to be dispatched in the
odd moments of his time, but the great edition of _Dryden's Complete
Works_, which he began to prepare soon after the _Minstrelsy_ appeared,
was more important. This, next to the _Minstrelsy_, was probably the
most notable of all Scott's editorial enterprises. It was published in
eighteen volumes in 1808, the year in which _Marmion_ also appeared.
When the poet was reproached by one of his friends for not working more
steadily at his vocation, he replied, "The public, with many other
properties of spoiled children, has all their eagerness after novelty,
and were I to dedicate my time entirely to poetry they would soon tire
of me. I must therefore, I fear, continue to edit a little."[5] His
interest in scholarly pursuits appears even in his first attempt at
writing prose fiction, since Joseph Strutt's unfinished romance,
_Queenhoo Hall_, for which Scott wrote a conclusion, is of consequence
only on account of the antiquarian learning which it exhibits.

Having become seriously alarmed over the political influence of the
_Edinburgh Review_, Scott was active in forwarding plans for starting a
strong rival periodical in London, and 1809 saw the establishment of the
_Quarterly Review_. By that time he had done a considerable amount of
work in practically every kind except the novel, and he was recognized
as a most efficient assistant and adviser in any such enterprise as the
promoters of the _Quarterly_ were undertaking. Moreover, his own
writings were prominent among the books which supplied material for the
reviewer. He worked hard for the first volume. But after that year he
wrote little for the _Quarterly_ until 1818, and again little until
after Lockhart became editor in 1825. From that time until 1831 he was
an occasional contributor.

1814 was the year of _Waverley_. Before that the poems had been
appearing in rapid succession, and Scott had been busy with the _Works
of Swift_, which came out also in 1814. The thirteen volumes of the
edition of _Somers' Tracts_, already mentioned, and several smaller
books, bore further witness to his editorial energy. The last of the
long poems was published in 1815, about the same time with _Guy
Mannering_, the second novel, and after that the novels continued to
appear with that rapidity which constitutes one of the chief facts of
Scott's literary career. For a few years after this period he did
comparatively little in