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Coppee, Henry

"English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction"



Walter Scott. Translations and Minstrelsy. The Lay of the Last
Minstrel. Other Poems. The Waverly Novels. Particular Mention.
Pecuniary Troubles. His Manly Purpose. Powers Overtasked. Fruitless
Journey. Return and Death. His Fame.

The transition school, as we have seen, in returning to nature, had
redeemed the pastoral, and had cultivated sentiment at the expense of the
epic. As a slight reaction, and yet a progress, and as influenced by the
tales of modern fiction, and also as subsidizing the antiquarian lore and
taste of the age, there arose a school of poetry which is best represented
by its _Tales in verse_;--some treating subjects of the olden time, some
laying their scenes in distant countries, and some describing home
incidents of the simplest kind. They were all minor epics: such were the
poetic stories of Scott, the _Lalla Rookh_ of Moore, _The Bride_ and _The
Giaour_ of Byron, and _The Village_ and _The Borough_ of Crabbe; all of
which mark the taste and the demand of the period.


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