MARMION, Scott's pub lished 1805, is the second of his metrical ro mances, and the first —after the preliminary experiment of the (Lay of the Last Minstrel'— in which he developed the full possibilities of the form. Because of the success of the earlier poem, he was offered f1,000 for this one be fore he had begun to write it — a circumstance which enabled Byron to barb his satire with the taunt: "And think'st thou, Scott' by vain conceit perchance, On public taste to foist thy stale romance, Though Murray with his MDler may combine To yield thy muse just half a crown per line?" Like most of Scott's fiction, in prose or verse, the story of 'Marmion) is based on the funda mental impulse to revivify the past, especially in connection with the historic associations of picturesque scenes. Hence he weaves a romance about persons, some historic and some imagina tive, but always with an eye toward the climax, the account of the battle of Flodden Field. It is significant, too, that the famous scene de scribing the quarrel between Marmion and Douglas (canto vi) was an afterthought, due to a suggestion from one of Scott's friends that he should plan Marmion's journey from Eng land to Edinburgh so as to introduce the Doug las castle of Tantalion. Critical opinions have
varied concerning the romantic plot of this poem, and Scott himself spoke severely of his having based it in part on the crime of forgery, characteristic ("of a commercial rather than a proud and warlike age.° But there can he no difference of view as to the splendid movement and glow of the more stirring scenes of the story — those of the kind in which Scott's genius was always at its best — especially the account of the battle of Flodden, culminating in the death of Marmion. The work also contains some interesting personal poetry, in the epistles, addressed to different friends, which Scott prefixed to the several cantos, and (in canto v) one of his most popular narrative ballads,