The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. X1iii
In the mean time we see him prosecuting for
some time his career of poetical success. The
Lady of the Lake, published in 1810, was followed by the Vision of Don Roderick in 1811;
by Rokeby in 1812; and by the Bridal of Triermain, which came out anonymously in 1813. His
poems may be said to have closed in 1815 with
the Lord of the Isles and the Field of Waterloo;
since Harold the Dauntless, in 1817, appeared
without the writer's name, and the dramatic poems
of 1822 and 1830 are quite unworthy of him. In
the midst of these poetical employments he made
his second and last great appearance as an editor
and commentator of English classics, by publishing, in 1814, his edition of Swift.
But from 1815 till 1825, Scott's name ceased
almost entirely to be before the public as an
avowed author; and for those who chose to believe that he was not the writer, of the Waverley
Novels it must have been a question not a little
puzzling, if it ever occurred to them, how this
man, who wrote with such ease, and seemed to
take such pleasure in writing, was now occupying
his hours of leisure. A few articles in the Quarterly Review, such works as Paul's Letters, and
annotations in occasional editions of ancient tracts,
accounted but poorly for his time during ten years.
About 1813 and 1814, his popularity as a poet
was sensibly on the decline, partly from causes
inherent in his later poems themselves, and partly