Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/59

 himself a large share of the public notice, let his abilities be what they might. This work, however, gave Motherwell, what it had been the object of his life to attain, a place among the poets of Britain; and it carried his name into quarters which it never would have otherwise reached. A commendatory criticism in Blackwood's Magazine for April, 1833, proclaimed his pretensions wherever the English language is read; and though his nature was too modest and too manly for the display of any open exultation at the triumph which he had so honourably won, he never ceased to feel the deepest gratitude to the distinguished reviewer whom he knew to be a consummate judge of poetical merit, and for whose genius and character he always felt and expressed the warmest admiration.

The last work in which Motherwell engaged, and which he did not live to complete, was, a joint edition of Burns's works by him and James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. His share in this production consisted merely of occasional notes, critical and explanatory, which are marked with the letter M., and in which he exhibits much knowledge of the contemporary history of Burns's period, and his usual discrimination as a commentator. The fifth and last volume contains the life of the Ayrshire poet by Hogg;