is as sure to
encounter abuse and ridicule, as he who gallops furiously through
a village must reckon on being followed by the curs in full cry.
Experienced persons know that in stretching to flog the latter, the
rider is very apt to catch a bad fall; nor is an attempt to chastise
a malignant critic attended with less danger to the author. On this
principle, I let parody, burlesque, and squibs find their own level;
and while the latter hissed most fiercely, I was cautious never to catch
them up, as schoolboys do, to throw them back against the naughty boy
who fired them off, wisely remembering that they are in such cases apt
to explode in the handling. Let me add, that my reign [4] (since Byron
has so called it) was marked by some instances of good-nature as well
as patience. I never refused a literary person of merit such services
in smoothing his way to the public as were in my power; and I had the
advantage, rather an uncommon one with our irritable race, to enjoy
general favour without incurring permanent ill-will, so far as is known
to me, among any of my contemporaries.

W.S.
Abbotsford, April, 1830.

Our limits do not permit us to add any extended selections from the many
critical notices of the poem. The verdict of Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh
Review, on its first appearance, has been generally endorsed:--

"Upon the whole, we are inclined to think more highly of The Lady of
the Lake than of either of its author's former publications [the Lay and
Marmion]. We are more sure, however, that it has fewer faults than that
it has greater beauties; and as its beauties bear a strong resemblance
to those with which the public has been already made familiar in these
celebrated works, we should not be surprised if its popularity were less
splendid and remarkable. For our own parts, however, we are of opinion
that it will be oftener read hereafter than either of them; and that,
if it had appeared first in the series, their reception would have been
less favourable than that which it has experienced. It is more polished
in its diction, and more regular in its versification; the story is
constructed with infinitely more skill and address; there is a greater
proportion of pleasing and tender passages, with much less antiquarian
detail; and, upon the whole, a larger variety of characters, more
artfully and judiciously contrasted. There is nothing so fine, perhaps,
as the battle in Marmion, or so picturesque as some of the