Note 266 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
In 1818 Scott wrote a review of Frankenstein in which it appears that he thought Shelley was the author. Shelley had sent the book with a note in which he said that it was the work of a friend and he had merely seen it through the press; and Scott took this for the conventional evasion so often resorted to by authors. (See Mr. Lang's note in his Introduction to the Waverley Novels, p. lxxxvi.) Scott praises the substance and style of the book, and advises the author to cultivate his poetical powers, in words which make it evident that he did not know Shelley as a poet, though Alastor had appeared in 1816. Scott also praises Frankenstein in his article on Hoffmann. In reading Scott's novels I have noted two reminiscences of the line, "One word is too often profaned." They are to be found in Old Mortality, Vol. II, p. 93, and in Redgauntlet, Vol. I, p. 224.