Ballads and Lyrical Pieces

Edinburgh, London: Archibald Constable and Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806. Hardcover (leather spine). Good. [10], 180, [2] pages. Marbled boards and endpapers. Leather spine with gilt. Some foxing noted. Cover has some wear, especially at corners, and soiling. Rare 1st book appearance of Scott's poetry together. This is the first one volume edition of any of his work. Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. Advertisement statement: These Ballads have been already published in different collections, dome in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, others in the Tales of Wonder, and some of both these Miscellanies. They are now first collection into one Volume. The Songs have been written at different times for the Musical Collections of Mr George Thomson and Mr Whyte. He earlier published an idiosyncratic three-volume set of collected ballads of his adopted home region, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. This was the first sign from a literary standpoint of his interest in Scottish history. ?Glenfinlas; or, Lord Ronald's Coronach? by Walter Scott, written in 1798 and first published in 1800, was, as Scott remembered it, his first original poem as opposed to translations from the German. A short narrative of 264 lines, it tells a supernatural story based on a Highland legend. Though highly appreciated by many 19th century readers and critics it is now overshadowed by his later and longer poems. Other entries are: The Eve of Saint John, Cadyow Castle, The Grey Brother, Thomas the Rhymer, The Fire King, Frederick and Alice, The Wild Huntsman, War Song, The Norman Horse-Shoe, The Dying Bard, The Maid of Toro, and Hellvellyn. As a boy, youth, and young man, Scott was fascinated by the oral traditions of the Scottish Borders. He was an obsessive collector of stories, and developed an innovative method of recording what he heard at the feet of local story-tellers using carvings on twigs, to avoid the disapproval of those who believed that such stories were neither for writing down nor for printing.