Owens's theory of a symbolic and allegoric meaning underlying
Endymion, his final judgment on Keats as 'the most Shaksperean spirit
that has lived since Shakspere' is not very fortunate, and we are
surprised to find him suggesting, on the evidence of a rather silly story
of Severn's, that Sir Walter Scott was privy to the Blackwood article.
There is nothing, however, about his estimate of the poet's work that is
harsh, irritating or uncouth. The true Marcellus of English song has not
yet found his Virgil, but Mr. Colvin makes a tolerable Statius.

(1) Keats. By Sidney Colvin. 'English Men of Letters' Series.
(Macmillan and Co.)

(2) Life of John Keats. By William Michael Rossetti. 'Great Writers'
Series. (Walter Scott.)

A SCOTCHMAN ON SCOTTISH POETRY

(Pall Mall Gazette, October 24, 1887.)

A distinguished living critic, born south of the Tweed, once whispered in
confidence to a friend that he believed that the Scotch knew really very
little about their own national literature. He quite admitted that they
love their 'Robbie Burns' and their 'Sir Walter' with a patriotic
enthusiasm that makes them extremely severe upon any unfortunate southron
who ventures to praise either in their presence, but he claimed that the
works of such great national poets as Dunbar, Henryson and Sir David
Lyndsay are sealed books to the majority of the reading public in
Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow, and that few Scotch people have any idea
of the wonderful outburst of poetry that took place in their country
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, at a time when there was
little corresponding development in England. Whether this terrible
accusation be absolutely true, or not, it is needless to discuss at
present. It is probable that the archaism of language alone will always
prevent a poet like Dunbar from being popular in the ordinary acceptation
of the word. Professor Veitch's book, however, shows that there are
some, at any rate, in the 'land o' cakes' who can admire and appreciate
their marvellous early singers, and whose admiration for The Lord of the
Isles and the verses To a Mountain Daisy does not blind them to the
exquisite beauties of The Testament of Cresseid, The Thistle and the
Rose, and the Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour.

Taking as the subject of his two interesting volumes the feeling for
Nature in Scottish Poetry, Professor Veitch starts with a historical
disquisition on the growth of the sentiment in humanity. The primitive
state he regards as being simply a sort of 'open-air feeling.' The chief
sources of pleasure are the warmth of the sunshine, the cool of the
breeze and the general fresh aspect of the earth and sky, connecting
itself with a consciousness of life and sensuous enjoyment; while
darkness, storm and cold are regarded as repulsive. This is followed by
the pastoral stage in which we find the love of green meadows and of
shady trees and of all things that make life pleasant and comfortable.
This, again, by the stage of agriculture, the era of the war with earth,
when men take pleasure in the cornfield and in the garden, but hate
everything that is opposed to tillage, such as woodland and rock, or that
cannot be subdued to utility, such as mountain and sea.