aid tribute. Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Southey, and Byron, whom he classed as the great English
poets of his time, may, with the exception of Southey, be given the
places he assigned to them. In regard to Byron, Scott expressed a
critical estimate that the public is only now getting ready to accept
after a long period of depreciating Byron's genius. The men whose work
Scott judged fairly and sympathetically represent widely different
types. With some of them he was connected by the new impulse that they
were imparting to English poetry, but he was so close to the transition
period that he could look backward to his predecessors with no sense of
strangeness. He was never inclined to quarrel with the "erroneous
system" of a poem which he really liked. His comments on Byron's
_Darkness_ suggest that if he had read more than he did of Shelley and
others among his younger contemporaries he might have found much to
reprehend, but he held that "we must not limit poetical merit to the
class of composition which exactly suits one's own particular
taste."[346] Among novelists even less than among poets can we trace a
"school" to which he paid special allegiance. He read and enjoyed all
sorts of good stories, growing in this respect more catholic in his
tastes, though perhaps more severe in his standards, as he grew older.

In speaking of Scott's relations with his contemporaries, we must
especially remember his ardent interest in those realities of life which
he considered greater than the greatest books. In one of his reviews he
laid stress on the merit of writing on contemporary events,[347] and he
seemed to think there was too little of such celebration. There are many
evidences of his great admiration for those of his contemporaries who
were men of action, but it is sufficient to remember that the only man
in whose presence Scott felt abashed was the Duke of Wellington, for he
counted that famous commander the greatest man of his time.

CHAPTER V

SCOTT AS A CRITIC OF HIS OWN WORK

Lack of dogmatism about his own work--Harmony between his talents
and his tastes--His conviction of the value of spontaneity and
abundance--Merits of a rapid meter--Greater care necessary in verse
writing a reason why he turned to prose--His attitude in regard to
revision--Modesty about his own work--His opinion of the popular
judgment--Importance of novelty--Rivalry with Byron--Scott's
attempts to keep ahead of h