Excerpt from The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott
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, a... Læs merend com bining habits of constant depredation with the in¿uence 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 Metrical Romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude, in this respect, than would be con sistent 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, authorises the change 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 ¿ourished. The time occupied by the action is Three Nights and Three Days.
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