ABSTRACT
So says Frank Osbaldistone, the narrator of Rob Roy (1817), and surely his faintly ironic tone here represents Scott himself. Among the wildly heterogeneous examples of this 'superior composition' are five labelled 'old ballad', 'old song', or by the names of specific pieces of this type: five out of thirty-nine-about 13%, a significant proportion. Such chapter tags are also prominent in Scott's work as a whole. Similar kinds of quotation play intimate parts in the main texts of the novels. Why did Scott use them? How far do Frank's words offer a credible explanation, and what is the reader's reaction? Is his or her attention successfully seduced?
