Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

210 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
"Walter Scott, Sir Humphry Davy (query, a Whig
or not ?), and Mr Stewart Rose all sat bursting their
sides over Oehlenschlaeger. Tell the author this,"
Lockhart says. The author was Maginn, and the
article an imaginary review of a play very much in
King Cambyses' vein, with copious extracts, which
apparently it was supposed even by these admirable
authorities a good joke to mark with the Danish
dramatist's name, and which called forth a great deal
of absmrd and witty discussion from various imaginary
German critics, principally by Lockhart's hand. Pro-
fessor Aytoun did the same thing afterwards in
' Firmilian ' with great effect, but his supposed author
was as fictitious as the tragedy, which proves a cer-
tain amelioration in literary morals. Maginn had not
joined the band till the year 1821, but plunged at
once into the very heart of all its devices, as will
hereafter be seen.
That Mr Blackwood, however, did not invariably
receive these triumphant ' Noctes ' without criticism
is apparent from the following letter :
W. Blackwood to J. G. Lockhart.
—
12th August 1824.
. . . Inclosed you have the slips of the 'Noctes/ which
are most lively and amusing. There is one part, however,
which I hope you will consider again, the introduction of Crafty
and me. Anything, whether praise or ridicule of me as an
individual in my own Magazine, will always appear out of
place, and though I care, as you know, as little for these things
as any one, yet it has always been very unpleasant to me to
have myself individually brought forward. On the other hand,
I can see no good effect it would have for my Magazine to be
the channel through which the praises of the Crafty should be
poured in such copious streams. It is not that this worthy and