rrative that is written in verse and the
narrative that is written in prose. The two differ in the mood of
their materials and the medium through which they are expressed; but
they do not differ distinctly in methods of construction. As far as
plot and characters and setting are concerned, Sir Walter Scott went
to work in the Waverley Novels, which are written in prose, just as he
had gone to work in "Marmion" and "The Lady of the Lake," which are
written in verse. In his verse he said things with the better art, in
his prose he had more things to say; but in each case his central
purpose was the same: and nothing can be gained from a critical dictum
that "Ivanhoe" is fiction and that "Marmion" is not. In the history of
every nation, fiction has been written earliest in verse and only
afterwards in prose. What we loosely call the novel was developed
late in literature, at a time after prose had supplanted verse as the
natural medium for narrative. Therefore, and therefore only, have we
come to regard the novel as a type of prose literature. For there is
no inherent reason why a novel may not be written in verse. There is a
sense in which Mrs. Browning's "Aurora Leigh," Owen Meredith's
"Lucile," and Coventry Patmore's "The Angel in the House," to mention
works of very different quality and calibre, may be regarded more
properly as novels than as poems. The story of "Maud" inspired
Tennyson to poetic utterance, and he told the tale in a series of
exquisite lyrics; but the same story might have been used by a
different author as the basis for a novel in prose. The subject of
"Evangeline" was suggested to Longfellow by Hawthorne; and if the
great prose poet had written the story himself, it would not have
differed essentially in material or in structural method from the
narrative as we know it through the medium of the verse romancer.
Francois Coppee has composed admirable short-stories in verse as
well as in prose. "The Strike of the Iron-Workers" ("_La Greve des
Forgerons_"), which is written in rhymed Alexandrines, does not
differ markedly in narrative method from "The Substitute" ("_Le
Remplacant_"), which is written in prose. To be sure, the former is a
poem and the latter is not; but only a very narrow-minded critic would
call the latter a short-story without applying the same term also to
the former. Therefore, the question whether a certain fictitious tale
should be told in verse or in prose has no place in a general