John Gibson Lockhart
Encyclopedia
John Gibson Lockhart was a Scottish
writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the definitive "Life" of Sir Walter Scott. This biography has been called the second most admirable in the English language, after Boswell
.
in Lanarkshire
, where his father, Dr John Lockhart, transferred in 1796 to Glasgow
, and was appointed minister
.His mother, who was the daughter of the Rev. John Gibson, of Edinburgh
, was a woman of considerable intellectual gifts.
Lockhart was sent to the Glasgow High School
, where he showed himself clever rather than industrious. He fell into ill-health, and had to be removed from school before he was twelve; but on his recovery he was sent at this early age to Glasgow University
, and displayed so much precocious learning, especially in Greek
, that he was offered a Snell exhibition at Oxford. He was not fourteen when he entered Balliol College, Oxford
, where he acquired a great store of knowledge outside the regular curriculum. He read French
, Italian
, German
and Spanish
, was interested in classical and British antiquities, and became versed in heraldic
and genealogical
lore.
before settling to the study of Scots law
in Edinburgh
, where he was elected to the Faculty of Advocates
in 1816. A tour on the continent in 1817, when he visited Goethe
at Weimar
, was made possible by the kindness of the publisher Blackwood, who advanced money for a promised translation of Schiegel's Lectures on the History of Literature, which was not published until 1838. Edinburgh was then the stronghold of the Whig
party, whose organ was the Edinburgh Review
, and it was not till 1817 that the Scottish Tories
found a means of expression in Blackwood's Magazine
. After a somewhat hum-drum opening, Blackwood
suddenly electrified the Edinburgh world by an outburst of brilliant criticism. John Wilson
(Christopher North) and Lockhart had joined its staff in 1817. Lockhart no doubt took his share in the caustic and aggressive articles which marked the early years of Blackwood; but his biographer, Mr Andrew Lang
, brings evidence to show that he was not responsible for the virulent articles on Coleridge
and on "The Cockney School of Poetry" - that is, on Leigh Hunt, Keats
and their friends. He has been persistently accused of the later Blackwood article (August 1818) on Keats, but he showed at any rate a real appreciation of Coleridge and Wordsworth
.
He contributed to Blackwood many spirited translations of Spanish ballads, which in 1823 were published separately. In 1818 the brilliant and handsome young man attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott
, and the acquaintance soon ripened into an intimacy which resulted in a marriage between Lockhart and Scott's eldest daughter Sophia, in April 1820. Five years of domestic happiness followed, with winters spent in Edinburgh and summers at a cottage at Chiefswood, near Abbotsford
, where Lockhart's child John Hugh was born; the second son Walter and daughter Charlotte were born later in London
and Brigton.
In 1820 John Scott
, the editor of the London Magazine, wrote a series of articles attacking the conduct of Blackwood's Magazine, and making Lockhart chiefly responsible for its extravagances. A correspondence followed, in which a meeting between Lockhart and John Scott was proposed, with Jonathan Henry Christie and Horace Smith as seconds. A series of delays and complicated negotiations resulted early in 1821 in a duel
between Christie and John Scott, in which Scott was killed. This unhappy affair, which has been the subject of much misrepresentation, is fully discussed in Andrew Lang
's book on Lockhart.
. Four novels followed: Valerius in 1821, Some passages in the Life of Adam Blair, Minister of Gospel at Cross Meikle in 1822, Reginald Dalton in 1823 and Matthew Wald in 1824. But his strength did not lie in novel writing, although the vigorous quality of Adam Blair has been recognized by modern critics. In 1825 Lockhart accepted the editorship of the Quarterly Review
, which had been in the hands of Sir John Taylor Coleridge
since Gifford's resignation in 1824.
By this point in time he had established his literary position, and, as the next heir to his unmarried half-brother's property in Scotland, Milton Lockhart, he was sufficiently independent, though he had abandoned the legal profession. In London he had great social success, and was recognized as a brilliant editor. He contributed largely to the Quarterly Review himself, his biographical articles being especially admirable. He showed the old, railing spirit in an amusing but violent article in the Quarterly on Tennyson
's Poems of 1833, in which he failed to discover the mark of genius.
He continued to write for Blackwood; he produced for Constable
's Miscellany Volume XXIII in 1828 what remains the most charming of the biographies of Burns, his Life of Robert Burns
. Because Lockhart was the only one of Burns's biographers to have been the author of a classic, his Burns has been treated with a respect and given a circulation which its merits, in spite of its graceful style do not justify. For it is misleading and dishonest. As Snyder puts it: 'The best that one can say of it today... is that it occasioned Carlyle's review. It is inexcusably inaccurate from beginning to end, at times demonstrably mendacious, and should never be trusted in any respect or detail.'.
But his chief work was the Life of Sir Walter Scott (7 vols, 1837—1838; 2nd ed., 10 vols., 1839). This edited a great number of Scott's letters. There were not wanting those in Scotland who taxed Lockhart with ungenerous exposure of his subject, but to most healthy minds the impression conveyed by the biography was, and is, quite the opposite. Carlyle did justice to many of its excellencies in a criticism contributed to the London and Westminster Review (1837). Lockhart's account of the transactions between Scott and the Ballantynes and Constable caused great outcry; and in the discussion that followed he showed unfortunate bitterness by his pamphlet, "The Ballantyne Humbug handled." The Life of Scott has been called, after Boswell
's Johnson
, the most admirable biography in the English language. The proceeds, which were considerable, Lockhart resigned for the benefit of Scott's creditors.
, near Sir Walter Scott.
Robert Scott Lauder
painted two portraits of Lockhart, one of him alone, and the other with Charlotte Scott.
Lockhart's Life (2 vols., London and New York, 1897) was written by Andrew Lang. A.W. Pollard's edition of the Life of Scott (1900), is the best.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the definitive "Life" of Sir Walter Scott. This biography has been called the second most admirable in the English language, after Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
.
Early years
He was born in the manse of Cambusnethan HouseCambusnethan House
Cambusnethan House, or Cambusnethan Priory, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, was designed by James Gillespie Graham and completed in 1820. It is generally regarded as being the best remaining example of a Graham-built country house in the quasi-ecclesiastical style of the Gothic revival...
in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
, where his father, Dr John Lockhart, transferred in 1796 to Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, and was appointed minister
Minister of religion
In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...
.His mother, who was the daughter of the Rev. John Gibson, of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, was a woman of considerable intellectual gifts.
Lockhart was sent to the Glasgow High School
High School of Glasgow
The High School of Glasgow is an independent, co-educational day school in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded as the Choir School of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1124, it is the oldest school in Scotland, and the twelfth oldest in the United Kingdom. It remained part of the Church as the city's grammar...
, where he showed himself clever rather than industrious. He fell into ill-health, and had to be removed from school before he was twelve; but on his recovery he was sent at this early age to Glasgow University
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
, and displayed so much precocious learning, especially in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, that he was offered a Snell exhibition at Oxford. He was not fourteen when he entered Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, where he acquired a great store of knowledge outside the regular curriculum. He read French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, was interested in classical and British antiquities, and became versed in heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
and genealogical
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
lore.
Blackwood magazine and his marriage
In 1813 he took a first class in classics in the final schools. For two years after leaving Oxford he lived chiefly in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
before settling to the study of Scots law
Scots law
Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is considered a hybrid or mixed legal system as it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. With English law and Northern Irish law it forms the legal system of the United Kingdom; it shares with the two other systems some...
in Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, where he was elected to the Faculty of Advocates
Faculty of Advocates
The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary...
in 1816. A tour on the continent in 1817, when he visited Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
at Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, was made possible by the kindness of the publisher Blackwood, who advanced money for a promised translation of Schiegel's Lectures on the History of Literature, which was not published until 1838. Edinburgh was then the stronghold of the Whig
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
party, whose organ was the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
, and it was not till 1817 that the Scottish Tories
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
found a means of expression in Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
. After a somewhat hum-drum opening, Blackwood
William Blackwood
William Blackwood was a Scottish publisher who founded the firm of William Blackwood & Sons.Blackwood was born of humble parents in Edinburgh. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a firm of booksellers in Edinburgh, and he followed his calling also in Glasgow and London for several years...
suddenly electrified the Edinburgh world by an outburst of brilliant criticism. John Wilson
John Wilson (Scottish writer)
John Wilson of Ellerey FRSE was a Scottish advocate, literary critic and author, the writer most frequently identified with the pseudonym Christopher North of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine....
(Christopher North) and Lockhart had joined its staff in 1817. Lockhart no doubt took his share in the caustic and aggressive articles which marked the early years of Blackwood; but his biographer, Mr Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
, brings evidence to show that he was not responsible for the virulent articles on Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
and on "The Cockney School of Poetry" - that is, on Leigh Hunt, Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
and their friends. He has been persistently accused of the later Blackwood article (August 1818) on Keats, but he showed at any rate a real appreciation of Coleridge and Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
.
He contributed to Blackwood many spirited translations of Spanish ballads, which in 1823 were published separately. In 1818 the brilliant and handsome young man attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
, and the acquaintance soon ripened into an intimacy which resulted in a marriage between Lockhart and Scott's eldest daughter Sophia, in April 1820. Five years of domestic happiness followed, with winters spent in Edinburgh and summers at a cottage at Chiefswood, near Abbotsford
Abbotsford House
Abbotsford is a historic house in the region of the Scottish Borders in the south of Scotland, near Melrose, on the south bank of the River Tweed. It was formerly the residence of historical novelist and poet, Walter Scott...
, where Lockhart's child John Hugh was born; the second son Walter and daughter Charlotte were born later in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Brigton.
In 1820 John Scott
John Scott (editor)
John Scott , editor and publisher. He edited several liberal newspapers: the Statesman, which Leigh Hunt had recently founded; the Stamford News, published by John Drakard; Drakard's Paper , which he renamed The Champion; and the most notable, the London Magazine, which he revived, as a monthly,...
, the editor of the London Magazine, wrote a series of articles attacking the conduct of Blackwood's Magazine, and making Lockhart chiefly responsible for its extravagances. A correspondence followed, in which a meeting between Lockhart and John Scott was proposed, with Jonathan Henry Christie and Horace Smith as seconds. A series of delays and complicated negotiations resulted early in 1821 in a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
between Christie and John Scott, in which Scott was killed. This unhappy affair, which has been the subject of much misrepresentation, is fully discussed in Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
's book on Lockhart.
Literary contributions
Between 1818 and 1825 Lockhart worked indefatigably. In 1819 Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk appeared, and in 1822 he edited Peter Motteux's edition of Don Quixote, to which he prefixed a life of CervantesMiguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
. Four novels followed: Valerius in 1821, Some passages in the Life of Adam Blair, Minister of Gospel at Cross Meikle in 1822, Reginald Dalton in 1823 and Matthew Wald in 1824. But his strength did not lie in novel writing, although the vigorous quality of Adam Blair has been recognized by modern critics. In 1825 Lockhart accepted the editorship of the Quarterly Review
Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
, which had been in the hands of Sir John Taylor Coleridge
John Taylor Coleridge
Sir John Taylor Coleridge was an English judge, the second son of Captain James Coleridge and nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.-Life:...
since Gifford's resignation in 1824.
By this point in time he had established his literary position, and, as the next heir to his unmarried half-brother's property in Scotland, Milton Lockhart, he was sufficiently independent, though he had abandoned the legal profession. In London he had great social success, and was recognized as a brilliant editor. He contributed largely to the Quarterly Review himself, his biographical articles being especially admirable. He showed the old, railing spirit in an amusing but violent article in the Quarterly on Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's Poems of 1833, in which he failed to discover the mark of genius.
He continued to write for Blackwood; he produced for Constable
Archibald Constable
Archibald Constable was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer.He was born at Carnbee, Fife, as the son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to Peter Hill, an Edinburgh bookseller, but in 1795 he started in business for himself as a dealer in rare...
's Miscellany Volume XXIII in 1828 what remains the most charming of the biographies of Burns, his Life of Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
. Because Lockhart was the only one of Burns's biographers to have been the author of a classic, his Burns has been treated with a respect and given a circulation which its merits, in spite of its graceful style do not justify. For it is misleading and dishonest. As Snyder puts it: 'The best that one can say of it today... is that it occasioned Carlyle's review. It is inexcusably inaccurate from beginning to end, at times demonstrably mendacious, and should never be trusted in any respect or detail.'.
Murray's Family Library
He also undertook the superintendence of the series called "Murray's Family Library", which he opened in 1829 with a History of Napoleon.But his chief work was the Life of Sir Walter Scott (7 vols, 1837—1838; 2nd ed., 10 vols., 1839). This edited a great number of Scott's letters. There were not wanting those in Scotland who taxed Lockhart with ungenerous exposure of his subject, but to most healthy minds the impression conveyed by the biography was, and is, quite the opposite. Carlyle did justice to many of its excellencies in a criticism contributed to the London and Westminster Review (1837). Lockhart's account of the transactions between Scott and the Ballantynes and Constable caused great outcry; and in the discussion that followed he showed unfortunate bitterness by his pamphlet, "The Ballantyne Humbug handled." The Life of Scott has been called, after Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
's Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, the most admirable biography in the English language. The proceeds, which were considerable, Lockhart resigned for the benefit of Scott's creditors.
His later years
Lockhart's life was saddened by family bereavement, resulting in his own breakdown in health and spirits. His eldest boy (the suffering "Hugh Littlejohn" of Scott's Tales of a Grandfather) died in 1831; Scott himself in 1832; Anne Scott in 1833; Mrs Lockhart in 1837; and the surviving son, Walter Scott Lockhart, in 1853. Resigning the editorship of the Quarterly Review in 1853, he spent the next winter in Rome, but returned to England without recovering his health; and being taken to Abbotsford by his daughter Charlotte, who had become Mrs James Robert Hope-Scott, he died there on 25 November 1854. He was buried in Dryburgh AbbeyDryburgh Abbey
Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland...
, near Sir Walter Scott.
Robert Scott Lauder
Robert Scott Lauder
Robert Scott Lauder was a Scottish mid-Victorian artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy.-Life and work:...
painted two portraits of Lockhart, one of him alone, and the other with Charlotte Scott.
Lockhart's Life (2 vols., London and New York, 1897) was written by Andrew Lang. A.W. Pollard's edition of the Life of Scott (1900), is the best.
External links
- portrait, with wife (daughter of Walter ScottWalter ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
), by Robert Scott LauderRobert Scott LauderRobert Scott Lauder was a Scottish mid-Victorian artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy.-Life and work:...
at the National Gallery of ScotlandNational Gallery of ScotlandThe National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...
