easure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspired strain,
Deem'd their own Shakespeare lived again."

Avon's swans must have been Avon's geese, I think, if they had deemed
anything of the kind. Joanna Baillie's dramas are "nice," and rather
dull; now and then she can write a song with the ease and sweetness
that suggest Shakespearian echoes. But Scott's judgment was obviously
blinded by his just and warm regard for Joanna Baillie herself.

Of course with such interfering causes to bring unsaleable books to
the house--of course I do not mean that John Ballantyne and Co.
published for Joanna Baillie, or that they would have lost by it if
they had--the new firm published all sorts of books which did not sell
at all; while John Ballantyne himself indulged in a great many
expenses and dissipations, for which John Ballantyne and Co. had to
pay. Nor was it very easy for a partner who himself drew bills on the
future--even though he were the well-spring of all the paying business
the company had--to be very severe on a fellow-partner who supplied
his pecuniary needs in the same way. At all events, there is no
question that all through 1813 and 1814 Scott was kept in constant
suspense and fear of bankruptcy, by the ill-success of John Ballantyne
and Co., and the utter want of straightforwardness in John Ballantyne
himself as to the bills out, and which had to be provided against. It
was the publication of _Waverley_, and the consequent opening up of
the richest vein not only in Scott's own genius, but in his popularity
with the public, which alone ended these alarms; and the many
unsaleable works of John Ballantyne and Co. were then gradually
disposed of to Constable and others, to their own great loss, as part
of the conditions on which they received a share in the copyright of
the wonderful novels which sold like wildfire. But though in this way
the publishing business of John Ballantyne and Co. was saved, and its
affairs pretty decently wound up, the printing firm remained saddled
with some of their obligations; while Constable's business, on which
Scott depended for the means with which he was buying his estate,
building his castle, and settling money on his daughter-in-law, was
seriously injured by the purchase of all this unsaleable stock.

I do not think that any one who looks into the complicated co