THE POETICAL WORKS OF К SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE; NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. A Poem. IN SIX CANTOS. "Dum relego, scripsisse pudet; quia plurima cerno, ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL OF DALKEITH, THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1805, THE Poem now offered to the Public is intended to illustrate the customs and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England and Scotland. The inhabitants, living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highly susceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery and manners was more the object of the Author, than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the ancient inetrical romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude in this respect than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular poem. The same model offered other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorizes the changes of rhythm in the text. The machinery also, adopted from popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a poem which did not partake of the rudeness of the old Ballad or Metrical Romance. For these reasons, the Poem was put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the last of the race, who, as he is supposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the tale itself is about the middle of the sixteenth century, when most of the personages actually flourished. The time occupied by the action is three nights and three days. |