The writer was sought for among the most gifted personages of the day, and the illustrious Scott, with others then equally appreciated, was suspected as the author."] [Footnote 130: _Lockhart_, Vol.

I, p.

380.] [Footnote 131: _Life of Dryden_, ch.

I.In _Guy Mannering_ and _The Antiquary_, the first two novels in which Scott habitually used mottoes to head his chapters, most of the selections are from plays.
Eighteen plays of Shakspere are represented by twenty-nine quotations.
Other mottoes are from _The Merry Devil of Edmonton_, from Jonson, from Fletcher (_The Little French Lawyer_, _Women Pleased_, _The Fair Maid of the Inn_, _The Beggar's Bush_), from Brome, Dekker, Middleton and Rowley, Cartwright, Otway, Southerne, _The Beggar's Opera_, Walpole's _Mysterious Mother_, _The Critic_, _Chrononhotonthologos_, Joanna Baillie.

For the latter part of _The Antiquary_ many of the mottoes were composed by Scott himself.