of Waverley, either as an acquaintance or as an admired countryman and contemporary.

It now only remains to notice a few peculiarities in phraseology, which I think will fully.complete the sum of proof necessary for identifying the two great compeers in romantic celebrity.

I

There is one general observation on this subject, which, I think, has considerable weight. In every work of each writer, which, by its nature, admits the indulgence of such a humour, occasion is taken to introduce a vein of quaint, formal, and antiquated discourse, where the thoughts appear in a kind of masquerade dress, sometimes the garb of a remote age, sometimes an anomalous and merely fanciful costume. I scarcely need recall to your mind the oldfashioned turn of expression adopted in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, as appropriate to that species of fable, and never wholly discarded in the subsequent poetical romances. believe there is not a single volume of the novels in which some personage is not appointed to entertain us with the bur lesque solemnity of an obsolete and affected diction. The Baron of Bradwardine performs this office admirably well in Waverley; Mr. Sampson sustains it in Guy Mannering; Monkbarns, in The Antiquary; Andrew Fair-Service, occasionally, in Rob Roy; Jedediah Cleishbotham, in the introductions and notes to the Tales of My Landlord; Poundtext, Kettledrummle, and Mause, in Old Mortality; David Deans, in some parts of The Heart of Mid Lothian (I say in some parts, for the language of this as of other characters by the same author becomes simple and energetic, or forced and fantastical, as occasions vary); Caleb Balderstone, in The Bride of Lammermoor; Dalgetty, in A Legend of Montrose; Sir Piercie Shafton, and, in a different style, Father Boniface, in The Monastery; and Doctor Luke

I I

Lundin, in the Abbot. But in the last two novels, as in Ivanhoe and Kenilworth, the whole dialogue is of an antique fashion; which, however, becomes more or less marked as the scene is tranquil or impassioned, humorous or pathetic.

The coincidences falling within the scope of verbal criticism, which appear to me most worth notice, are these. The word 'peril' is continually used as a verb by both writers.

"Nor peril aught for me agen.”

Lady of the Lake, Canto II. St. 26.

"I peril'd thus the helpless child."

Lord of the Isles, Canto V. St. 10.

"Before that adventure be peril'd and won.'

Harold the Dauntless, Canto IV. St. 14.

• Were' the blood of all my ancestors in my veins, I 'would have peril'd it in this quarrel.'-Waverley, vol. iii.

ch. 20.

To avoid perilling what I prize so highly.'-Bride of Lammermoor, vol. ii. ch. 8.

• The person of least consequence-were better perilled.' -Abbot, vol. iii. ch. 10.

'I were undeserving his grace, did I not peril it for his good.'-Ivanhoe, vol. iii. ch. 11.

You may peril your own soul, if you list.'-Kenilworth, vol. i. ch. 9.

Many more instances might be given, particularly from the last two novels.

The old-fashioned, if not obsolete substantive cumber,' signifying perplexity or embarrassment, is used by both writers.

"Sage counsel in cumber."

Lady of the Lake, Canto III. St. 16.

Thou, good fellow, shalt have no more cumber with 6 me.'-Kenilworth, vol. iii. ch. 1.

The verb to cumber is often employed in the same sense; as, 'Who would cumber themselves about pedlar's tidings ?^ -Kenilworth, vol. ii. ch. 8.

'Cumber' for incumbrance, occurs in one passage. The 'miller's daughter will be no farther cumber to you.'Monastery, vol. iii, ch. 4.

Space' is often put for

time.'

"Short space he stood then waved his hand.”

Lady of the Lake, Canto V. St. 10.

'Dryden's residence at the university was prolonged to the unusual space of nearly seven years.'-Life of Dryden, sect. i.

p. 81.

The incidents which had occurred in that space' (the Annus Mirabilis, 1666).—Ibid. p. 58.

'I will return in brief space.'-Kenilworth, vol. ii. ch. 10. To give her-space to plead her own cause.'-Ibid.

"The loved caresses of the maid

The dogs with crouch and whimper paid."

Lady of the Lake, Canto II. St. 24.

Mr. D. Swift paid the cold and reluctant courtesy of his • illustrious relative with the warmest attachment.'-Life of

Swift, sect. vii. p. 447.

"Permit I marshal you the way."

Lady of the Lake, Canto VI. St. 10.

66

Marshalling the stranger's way."

Rokeby, Canto I. St. 5.

'I must marshall them the way to the high altar.'-Abbot, vol. i. ch. 13.

Ratcliffe marshalled her the way to the apartment.'Heart of Mid Lothian, vol. ii. ch. 8.

Despite thine arrows and thy bow."

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto III. St. 19.

Despite those titles, power, and pelf."

Ibid. Canto VI. St. 1.

'Despite the uncertainty of my situation.'-Rob Roy, vol. iii. ch. 7.

'Despite the asseverations of Edie Ochiltree.—Antiquary, vol. ii. ch. 6.

Despite my Dutch education.'-Guy Mannering, vol. i. ch. 21.

"Their hands oft grappled to their swords."

'His quivering fingers griped towards the handle of his 'sword.'-Ivanhoe, vol. i. ch. 5.

A slight inaccuracy of construction in the following sentence,

"Poor wretch! the mother that him bare,

If she had been in presence there,
In his wan face and sunburn'd hair,
She had not known her child."

Marmion, Canto I. St. 28.

Is thus repeated,-" A countenance so much reduced by 'loss of blood.... that no one could have recognized in it 'the gallant soldier who had behaved with so much spirit ' at the skirmish of Loudon-hill.'-Old Mortality, vol. iii. ch. 15.

the prey from the valiant?'-Tales of my Landlord, First Series, vol. iv. ch. 14.

"To spoil the spoiler as we may,

And from the robber rend the prey?"

Lady of the Lake, Canto 5. St. 7.

"From the chafed tyger rend the prey."

6

Bridal of Triermain, Canto I. St. 19.

I have already noticed the occasional inadvertent use of Scoticisms by the author of Waverley. Nor is the poet exempt from slips of the same kind; such as the writing 'will' for 'shall;' We will fall considerably under the 'mark.'-Life of Dryden, sect. ii. p. 116. ed. 1808, 'Pays' instead of 'pays for,'-' Shaftesbury pays the lenity with 'which Monmouth is dismissed.'-Ibid. sect. v. p. 245. To be 'long of' doing a thing; The storm-was not long ' of bursting.'-Life of Swift, sect. v. p. 280. To inquire 'at' a person; 'Inquiries were frequently made at his faith'ful clerk Roger Coxe.'-Ibid. sect. ii. p. 68.* And a few other irregularities of idiom, with which I will not now detain

you.

Both writers sometimes employ the same form of words to announce a transition from one part of the fable to another.

* The same inaccuracy is found in the novels: Antiquary, vol. i. ch. 5; Monastery, vol. i. ch. 6.