IVANHOE
From 'Bonnie Scotland' to 'Merrie England' was not a long step for Sir
Walter, for he had already peeped into Yorkshire at Barnard Castle for
his poem, 'Rokeby.' The principal scenes of 'Ivanhoe' are laid in the
opposite end of the same county, between Sheffield and Doncaster. They
extend, however, as far south as Ashby de la Zouch, and northward to
the ancient city of York. As we rode through this populous country,
humming with the industry of thousands of busy mills, its crowded
cities showing street after street of substantial business houses, its
more open spaces dotted with neat cottages surrounded by well-kept
gardens, its streams crossed by bridges of stone and steel, its roads
in excellent repair, and its entire aspect betokening the peace and
prosperity of a great civilization, it was difficult to picture it in
fancy as the great forest roamed by Robin Hood and his merry men; as a
land in which King Richard and Wilfred of Ivanhoe performed their feats
of chivalry and daring; as the region in which Cedric the Saxon still
resented the intrusion of the Normans, and Front-de-Boeuf maintained a
feudal castle concealing horrors too frightful to mention.
[Illustration: Map of England]
We succeeded, however, in finding a bit of the original forest, in
identifying the ruins of two castles which figure prominently in the
story, and several others which doubtless served as types of the
prevailing Norman style {235} of architecture, besides other
interesting places more remotely associated with the tale.
The town of Ashby de la Zouch, to which all the people of the story
wend their way in the early chapters, is on the western edge of
Leicestershire, about midway between Birmingham and Nottingham. The
ancient castle derives its name from the fact that it was formerly
owned by the Zouch family, who seem to have had possession until 1399.
Scott was slightly in error in stating that at this time (1194) 'the
castle and town of Ashby belonged to Roger de Quincey, Earl of
Winchester,' who was then absent in the Holy Land. It is not
inconceivable, however, that Prince John might have taken temporary
possession, and, after all, that is the main point of the story.
The castle was a ruin in Scott's day, presenting an appearance very
much the same as now. It suggested the scene of Prince John's banquet,
but the novelist well knew that it was not the original castle which
stood on the spot in 1194. Of the old castle we found only a single
wall. The date of its foundation is uncertain, but it was probably
built in the earlier part of the same century. Its successor,
represented by the ruins now visible, was built in 1474, nearly three
hundred years after the period of the novel. The reigning king was
Edward IV, and one of his prime favourites was William, Lord Hastings,
who was not only loaded with wealth by his sovereign, but given almost
unlimited authority to enclose for private use whatever land he wished
and to build wherever he pleased. Accordingly Hastings took possession
of three thousand acres of land at Ashby and erected a huge castle,
despoiling the {236} neighbouring castle of Belvoir of much lead, with
which he covered his towers. The strong fortress and splendid castle
thus erected stood intact for less than two centuries. During the
Civil War it was besieged and captured by the Parliamentary Army, and
in 1648 was deliberately made untenable by a Committee of the House of
Commons, who had been appointed to determine what castles and other
fortified places were to be retained and which ones were to be
destroyed. Ashby, unfortunately, was condemned and huge sections of
its walls and towers were undermined and pulled down.
The ruin consists of two large towers, connected by an underground
passage, the great hall, the chapel, and the room of Mary Queen of
Scots. The kitchen tower was of great strength, having walls in some
places ten feet thick, and the remains of a huge kitchen fireplace may
still be seen. The most imposing part of the ruin is the keep. This
was a tower eighty feet high, fitted up in great magnificence as the
Earl's apartment.
[Illustration: CASTLE OF ASHBY DE LA ZOUCH]
The great tournament was supposed to be held in a field a mile or two
from the tower. After the tournament and the banquet in the castle
which followed, Cedric the Saxon and his kinsman, Athelstane of
Coningsburgh, with the Lady Rowena and their servants and retainers,
set out for Rotherwood, the house of Cedric, presumably in the
neighbourhood of, or possibly a fictitious substitute for, the present
city of Rotherham. Their way led through a great forest, some remnants
of which may still be seen. In King Richard's time the entire country
between Ashby and Rotherham may have been thickly wooded. The famous
Sherwood Forest occupied the western portion of Nottinghamshire,
extending north {237} and south about twenty-five miles, with a width
varying from six to eight miles. In this extensive woodland, Robin
Hood, with the jolly Friar Tuck and the minstrel Allan-a-Dale, and all
the rest of the 'merry men,' hunted the king's deer, robbed the rich
and bestowed charity upon the poor, worshipped the Virgin and pillaged
the ecclesiastical establishments, supported themselves by means of
their marvellous archery, played practical jokes and indulged in no end
of fun, and lived a free, open, adventurous, brave, and generous life,
in spite of their outlawry. Robin Hood was undoubtedly an historical
character, who may have had an existence as early as the time of King
Richard, but whose deeds have been so much enveloped in fiction and
poetry that his real exploits cannot be determined. The legends that
have been woven about him are like the tales of King Arthur--mythical
but probably evolved from some hidden germ of truth. From 1377, when
the oldest known mention of him was made in an edition of 'Piers the
Ploughman,' down to the Elizabethan era, his popularity is evinced by
the great volume of ballad poetry recording his performances.
That such a personage should have made a strong appeal to Sir Walter
Scott was inevitable, and he seems to have woven the characteristic
exploits of Robin Hood into the tale of 'Ivanhoe' with the same zest
which he displayed in 'The Lady of the Lake,' 'Waverley,' 'Rob Roy,'
and 'A Legend of Montrose,' where he so delighted to picture the
Scottish Highlanders in their native country.
North of Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, a beautiful part of the Forest
of Sherwood may still be seen. For {238} many miles we drove through
endless glades and avenues, the rugged oaks intertwining their branches
over our heads, now and then forming those 'long sweeping vistas' which
Scott describes so well, 'in the intricacy of which the eye delights to
lose itself, while imagination considers them as the paths to yet
wilder scenes of silvan solitude.' Here and there we could see herds
of deer, coming boldly into view, knowing well that the arrows of Robin
Hood's men are things of the past. All this region is now well cared
for. There are splendid palaces with lakes, fountains, and flowers,
transforming the old forest into a veritable fairy-land. Thoresby
House with its beautiful park is the property of Earl Manvers; Clumber,
on the border of the Carburton Lakes, is the stately seat of the Duke
of Newcastle, and Welbeck Abbey, with gardens covering thirty-two
acres, lakes of one hundred and fifty-nine acres, and a deer park of
sixteen hundred and forty acres, is the magnificent domain of the Duke
of Portland. All this section, which has been dubbed 'the Dukeries,'
while preserving something of the appearance of a forest, can only
present a striking contrast to the wild tangle of the woods, with their
narrow and devious paths, through which the Saxon party passed on their
way to Rotherwood.
[Illustration: THE BUCK-GATE. ENTRANCE TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND'S
ESTATE, SHERWOOD FOREST]
Cedric, it will be remembered, soon overtook Isaac of York, the rich
Jew, and his lovely daughter, Rebecca, who had been deserted by their
cowardly escort. They were carrying, in a litter, 'a sick friend,'
under which designation they concealed the identity of Ivanhoe. The
whole party was later surprised and captured by some of the Norman
nobles of Prince John's party, {239} disguised as outlaws, by whom they
were carried to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Boeuf. This
imaginary feudal edifice may be supposed to be in the vicinity of
Harthill, a village nine miles south of Rotherham.
The dramatic incidents that occurred here are familiar to every one:
how De Bracy made his futile attempt to woo the Lady Rowena, trusting
to his handsome face and foppish clothes; how the Templar tried his
blandishments upon Rebecca and was defeated by her courage in
threatening to leap from the battlements, should he advance a single
step; how Front-de-Boeuf sought to extort a fortune from Isaac the Jew
by the most cruel torture; and how the villainy of all three was
interrupted by a bugle blast, announcing an attack upon the castle by a
band of outlaws, headed by the gallant Robin Hood, who was ably
supported by the powerful battle-axe of the Black Knight and the wit of
Wamba the Jester.
After the fall of the castle it will be remembered that the victors
assembled under a huge oak to divide the spoils, and that Isaac of York
and the rich Prior Aymer were compelled to sentence each other to the
payment of a heavy ransom--a clever scheme well calculated to furnish
not only amusement but substantial profit to the outlaws.
There are several large oaks of Sherwood Forest still in existence, any
one of which might have been in the mind of Sir Walter. We found an
excellent type, which was perhaps known to him, near Edwinstowe,
northeast of Mansfield. It is called the 'Major Oak' and was a monarch
of the forest in Robin Hood's time. It is said to be fourteen hundred
years old. Its circumference, just {240} above the ground, is sixty
feet, and there is room inside the hollow trunk for a round dozen of
average-sized men. Unlike many other ancient oaks, its huge limbs are
well preserved and remarkably symmetrical, its foliage forming a huge
ellipsoid, seventy-five feet in length.
Although Torquilstone was imaginary, Sir Walter was not without types
of the old Norman castles. He refers to Middleham as the seat of the
brother of Prior Aymer, and the ruins of this castle may still be seen
in the village of that name, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The
interior or keep is in the distinctive Norman style of architecture,
but the outer walls belong to a later period. This castle was founded
by Robert Fitz-Ralph or Ranulph, a nephew of King William Rufus, about
1190. Its walls are plain and massive, suggesting great strength, but
no beauty. In the interior of the keep may be seen the remains of what
was once a huge and magnificent banqueting-hall, with high arched
windows on the side. For centuries Middleham was the residence of
powerful barons and at times of royalty. In the fifteenth century it
came into the possession of the famous Earl of Warwick, 'the
Kingmaker,' and later of his infamous son-in-law, the Duke of
Gloucester, afterward King Richard III. Edward, Prince of Wales, the
only legitimate son of Richard, was born here. It was to secure the
succession of this prince to the throne that Richard caused the murder
of his two nephews to be perpetrated in the Tower of London.
[Illustration: THE AVENUE OF LIMES, SHERWOOD FOREST]
Edward IV was a prisoner here, and made his escape as told by
Shakespeare in 'King Henry VI.'[1] After the battle of Bosworth, Henry
VII took possession of {241} Middleham. In the Civil Wars the forces
of Cromwell destroyed the castle. From that time until 1884, when it
came into possession of the present owner, the ruins have been a stone
quarry for the neighbourhood and a large part of the castle has been
carried away piecemeal. The enclosure became a dumping-ground for all
kinds of trash and a free pig-pen and cow-stable. In 1884, it was
cleaned out and is now in charge of a keeper. This famous castle,
occupied as it was at times by men of all the ferocious and
conscienceless qualities of Front-de-Boeuf, might well have served as a
suggestion for Torquilstone.
Richmond Castle, lying a few miles north of Middleham, is of even
greater antiquity and a far nobler specimen of the Norman architecture.
It was founded in 1071 by Alan Rufus, to whom William the Conqueror
granted the land of Richmondshire. Alan selected a rock on the bank of
the river Swale and here he constructed a fortress that was well-nigh
impregnable. The great 'keep' was built in 1146, and still stands
proudly erect, in spite of its nearly eight hundred years' resistance
to wind and weather as well as the storms of war, looking as if
conscious of its power to stand the assaults of eight centuries more.
We went to Richmond expecting to see a ruin; we were astonished to
find, instead, a fine tower one hundred and eight feet high, fifty-four
feet long, and forty-eight feet wide, used as an armoury by a modern
regiment of soldiers. Its walls are of extraordinary thickness and the
masonry looks as fresh and clean as that of many a building of half a
century's duration.
Aside from the remarkable keep, the castle is really a ruin. Its
walls, which originally enclosed a triangular {242} space of five
acres, have crumbled away, but enough remains to identify various
halls, chapels, dungeons, and underground passages.
The castle was seized by Richard Coeur-de-Lion and held by him and his
successor King John for several years. For five centuries thereafter
it passed from royalty to nobility and back again, time after time, as
a reward for services or the spoils of war, until in 1674 it was
granted by Charles II to the ancestor of the present Duke of Richmond.
Torquilstone is described as 'a fortress of no great size, consisting
of a donjon, or large and high square tower, surrounded by buildings of
inferior height, which were encircled by an inner courtyard.' It had
'towers upon the outward wall so as to flank it at every angle.' It
would appear from this that the castle of Front-de-Boeuf might have
been a miniature copy of Richmond Castle.
South of Richmond and about three miles from Middleham are the ruins of
Jorvaulx Abbey, the seat of the Prior Aymer, 'a free and jovial priest,
who loves the wine-cup and the bugle-horn better than bell and book.'
The monks of Jorvaulx were famous for their love of feasting and the
excellence of their wines. The Abbey church was originally an
extensive structure, two hundred and seventy feet long, with transepts
one hundred and thirteen feet wide. It was roughly treated and nearly
demolished during the Reformation and neglected in the succeeding years
until about a century ago, when the accumulated rubbish was cleared
away. It now presents a picturesque appearance because of the ivy,
moss, and shrubbery with which nature has softened {243} the aspect of
its rudely broken walls and the fragments of stone which once were
heavy columns supporting a lofty nave.
Still farther south are the imposing ruins of Fountains Abbey, which
must not be overlooked in any survey of the scenery of 'Ivanhoe,' for
here was the alleged abode of that delightful character, the jolly
Clerk of Copmanhurst, Friar Tuck, whose all-night carousal with King
Richard in the forest 'Chapel of St. Dunstan' will be ever memorable as
one of Scott's choicest bits of humour. This celebrated 'churchman'
was the type of a class of so-called 'hedge-priests' who flourished in
the period preceding the Reformation, when every great house maintained
a confessor to say masses and grant absolution. The bands of outlaws,
with equal superstition, felt the need of the same services, and
maintained their own priests accordingly. Many of these performed
their holy offices in ragged and dirty attire and with improper forms
of ritual, for the benefit of thieves and murderers in out-of-the-way
ruins and other hiding places, thereby incurring the wrath of the
dignitaries of the Church. Not infrequently, no doubt, their
uncanonical performances were no better than those of Friar Tuck.
Fountains Abbey is, next to Melrose, the most beautiful ruin of the
kind in Great Britain--at least so far as I have been able to observe.
In beauty of situation, it far surpasses Melrose. The latter is in the
midst of a town with nothing to make a picturesque setting except its
own churchyard and the garden of an adjoining estate. Fountains is
reached by walking nearly a mile through the beautiful park of Studley
Royal, first by the {244} side of a canal, bordered by trees of
luxuriant foliage, through which, at intervals, are various 'peeps,'
revealing carefully studied scenes, with temples, statuary, rustic
bridges, towers, lakes, and woods; then by a path of more natural
beauty, beside the little rivulet called the Skell, until the extensive
ruins are reached. The foundation of Fountains Abbey has been traced
to the year 1132, according to the narrative of a monk which was
committed to writing in 1205. In the winter of 1132-33, a small
company of Benedictine monks from St. Mary's Abbey at York, becoming
dissatisfied with the laxity of discipline there, felt impelled to
withdraw. They retired to a wild and uncultivated valley, covered with
stones and briars, and better suited for wild beasts and reptiles than
for humanity, and built a monastery beside the brook Skell. From this
humble beginning, Fountains Abbey grew until the establishment became
one of the richest in England, comprising sixty-four thousand acres of
valuable lands and its buildings, covering an area of twelve acres,
were among the most magnificent. In 1539, King Henry VIII confiscated
the entire property, and rendered the monastery unfit for further use.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF FOUNTAINS ABBEY]
The ruins are more complete than those of any other similar structure,
and give an excellent idea of the extent and arrangement of an
important monastery. From the Chapel of the Nine Altars to the west
doorway, which was the chief entrance, is a distance of three hundred
and sixty-nine feet. It is an impressive architectural vista, the eye
sweeping over the choir and transepts and down through the narrow nave,
where the walls are supported by eleven obtuse pointed arches,
springing {245} from massive columns, each sixteen feet in
circumference and twenty-three feet high. The Chapel of the Nine
Altars, considered to have been the most magnificent architectural
feature of the structure, is divided into three parts by a series of
very high pointed arches, supported by slender octagonal pillars
scarcely two feet in diameter. A great east window, sixty feet high
and twenty-three feet wide, completed the dignity and beauty of the
chapel. From the exterior, the most striking feature is the tower,
rising one hundred and sixty-eight feet high, with walls nearly thirty
feet square, and projecting buttresses, adding an effect of great
solidity.
The connection of Friar Tuck with this fine abbey is derived from the
ancient ballad of 'Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar.' The outlaws were
indulging in an exhibition of their wonderful archery when an unusually
fine shot caused Robin Hood to exclaim:--
I would ride my horse an hundred miles
To finde one could match with thee.
This brought a laugh from Will Scarlet, who declared:--
There lives a curtal frier in Fountains Abby
Will beat both him and thee.
Robin Hood could not rest until he found the friar, walking by the
waterside near the abbey. A conflict followed in which the friar threw
Robin into the stream. After Robin had shot all his arrows at the
friar without effect,--
They took their swords and steel bucklers
And fought with might and maine;
From ten oth' clock that day,
Till four ith' afternoon.
{246} Then Robin blew three blasts of his horn and called half a
hundred yeomen. The friar whistled with fist in his mouth and half a
hundred ban-dogs answered. The end of the battle proved the stout
friar well qualified to join the band of merry men.
This curtal frier had kept Fountains Dale
Seven long years or more;
There was neither knight, lord, nor earl
Could make him yield before.
An arched recess, of stone, well covered with foliage, by the side of
the path along the river, marks the traditional site of this famous
combat, and is known as 'Robin Hood's Well.' The following lines were
written by Sir Walter while a guest at Studley Royal, and the
manuscript is now in the possession of the Marquess of Ripon:--
Beside this crystal font of old,
Cooled his flushed brow an outlaw bold,
His bow was slackened while he drank,
His quiver rested on the bank,
Giving brief pause of doubt and fear
To feudal lords and forest deer.
Long runs the tale, but village sires
Still sing his feats by Christmas fires;
And still old England's free-born blood
Stirs at the name of Robin Hood.
After the fall of Torquilstone and the almost miraculous deliverance of
all the prisoners, Cedric and his company journeyed to the Castle of
Coningsburgh, the seat of Athelstane, to perform the funeral rites of
that noble warrior, who had fallen a victim to the Templar's
battle-axe. Athelstane interrupts the proceedings, somewhat {247}
unnecessarily it would seem, by coming to life again. A visit to this
castle takes us back to the valley of the Don, where the story began.
Conisborough, as the village is now called, is situated about midway
between Rotherham and Doncaster. There is nothing fanciful in Scott's
description here. He introduced the castle because it interested him,
and made it the seat of Athelstane for convenience. In a letter to his
friend Morritt in 1811 Scott inquires, 'Do you know anything of a
striking ancient castle ... called Coningsburgh? ... I once flew past
it in a mail-coach when its round tower and flying buttresses had a
most romantic effect in the morning dawn.'
It was characteristic of Scott, not only that every old ruined castle
appealed to his imagination, but that his curiosity, once aroused,
usually had to be satisfied by a personal inspection. It was so with
Coningsburgh. He went to the village and spent two nights at the
Sprotbrough Boathouse, a near-by inn, that he might have leisure to
examine the ruins of the castle. The result of his study and the
further reading of such antiquarian authorities as were available,
convinced him that the round tower was an ancient Saxon castle. He
found satisfaction in comparing it with the rude towers, or burghs,
built by the Saxons or Northmen, of which one of the most striking
examples is the Castle of Mousa[2] in the Shetland Islands. These were
built of rough stone, without cement. They were roofless, and had
small apartments constructed within the circular walls themselves. In
this last respect Coningsburgh somewhat resembles these ancient burghs,
and Scott conceived {248} that the former was an evolution from the
latter, and therefore Saxon. He says, 'the outer walls have probably
been added by the Normans, but the inner keep bears token of very great
antiquity.' He also says: 'When Coeur-de-Lion and his retinue
approached this rude yet stately building, it was not, as at present,
surrounded by external fortifications. The Saxon architect had
exhausted his art in rendering the main keep defensible, and there was
no other circumvallation than a rude barrier of palisades.'
The facts, as indicated by more recent investigation, seem to be that
the Saxons selected the hill of hard limestone as a suitable place for
a stronghold, excavated a ditch around it and erected some outworks.
There is no doubt that Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings,
either purchased or inherited the property, and there is mention of a
certain 'lord of Coningesboro,' who possessed part of the domain as
early as the year 1000 A.D.
William the Conqueror, shortly after his accession to the English
throne, granted the estate to an adherent, William de Warrenne, who was
created Earl of Surrey. A great-granddaughter of this earl married
Hameline Plantagenet, a half-brother of Henry II, and he was one of the
soldiers and faithful attendants of Richard I. It is this earl who is
supposed to have built the tower, or keep, at least a century after his
Norman predecessors had erected the outer walls of the castle. This,
it will be noted, is exactly the reverse of Scott's supposition.
[Illustration: CONINGSBURGH CASTLE]
The Saxon founders selected a steep hill, or knoll, rising one hundred
and seventy-five feet above the river--an ideal site for a fortress in
those days.
{249}
Earl Warren, who came into possession about 1068, found the place
already well fortified. His son and grandson were the ones who, it is
supposed, constructed the outer walls, with their various buildings for
domestic purposes, comprising a hall, kitchen, chapel, etc. These
cover a large area, but present no features of extraordinary interest.
The inner tower, or keep, however, is one of the most remarkable
structures in England. It is a huge cylindrical tower built of grey
limestone on a base of solid natural rock. It formerly rose to a
height of one hundred and twenty feet, and is now about ninety feet
high. It is sixty-six feet in diameter at the base, and is supported
by six massive buttresses, each fifteen and one half feet broad and
extending outward about nine feet. The walls themselves are nearly
fifteen feet in thickness. The only entrance is a door, twenty feet
above the ground, originally reached by an outside stair connecting
with a small drawbridge.
The rooms beneath the main floor were used for the storage of
provisions and in the centre was a well, said to have been one hundred
and five feet deep. There was then ample provision to resist a siege,
lack of food and water being the only danger to be feared, inasmuch as
the catapults and other engines of war of that period would be
powerless against the massiveness of such a castle. The upper rooms
are built within the walls and reached by narrow stairways. The main
floor was probably used by the lord of the castle with his family and
guests; the rooms above were occupied by the ladies of the household,
and on the same floor was a small oratory or chapel, hexagonal in shape
and about eight feet wide. The top floor contained the kitchen and the
{250} sleeping-rooms of the garrison. The six buttresses projected
above the level of the parapet, forming turrets, convenient for
defence. These have now disappeared. The parapet floor is still
accessible, and from it a fine view is obtained of the surrounding
country.
The Castle of York, where Prince John is supposed to have feasted the
nobles and leaders after the exciting scenes of Torquilstone, and where
De Bracy announced to him that Richard was really in England, was the
Norman fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1068, some portions
of which are now incorporated in the building known as Clifford's
Tower. A substantial rectangular structure stands between two ancient
and ruined turrets, which lean outward, looking as though the stronger
building were trying to usurp the hill on which they stand and push his
feebler brethren out of the way. This castle was the scene in 1190 of
a terrible massacre of the Jews. Two rich Jewish bankers, Joses and
Benedict, attended the coronation of Richard I. In a general attack
upon the Jews, Benedict was killed, but Joses got back to York. The
house of Benedict in York was plundered and his wife and children
murdered. Joses rallied the other Jews, who took refuge, with their
property, in the castle. The governor ordered an assault, and the
Jews, finding themselves unable to hold the citadel, set fire to the
buildings, put to death all their relatives, and killed themselves,
over five hundred lives being sacrificed. This incident throws some
light upon the state of mind of the wealthy Isaac, who was a resident
of the city of York.
'Ivanhoe' closes with the wedding of Wilfred and Rowena, 'celebrated in
the most august of temples, the {251} noble minster of York.' The
cathedral as it stands to-day is, indeed, noble. Perhaps it cannot
properly be called the largest in England; Winchester Cathedral is
longer, and Lincoln's towers are higher; but in the length of its choir
and nave, the breadth of its transepts, the height of the great pointed
arches supporting the roof, and the massive grandeur and dignity of the
whole, whether viewed from the exterior or the interior, it is
unsurpassed by any other cathedral in England and by few on the
continent.
It was not in this magnificent temple, however, that the wedding took
place, and perhaps if we could see a picture of the old Norman church
which stood on the site in 1194, we might not think of it as 'a noble
minster.' The church of that period was the structure built by the
first Norman Archbishop of York, with the addition of the choir,
erected a century later. In the crypt of the present cathedral some
bits of the walls of these early buildings are still preserved. They
replaced the first stone church, built about 633, which had superseded
the original wooden church, built by Eadwine, King of Northumbria, then
the most powerful monarch in England. The minster was, therefore, more
than five centuries old even in the period of 'Ivanhoe.'
Of the characters in the novel, King Richard and his brother John were
of course historical. Cedric and Athelstane were types of the Saxon
nobles who still resented the intrusion of the Normans. Front-de-Boeuf
represents a class of Norman noblemen who did not hesitate at any deed
of villainy to accomplish their selfish purposes. Brian de
Bois-Guilbert typifies the chivalry which professed great zeal for the
Christian {252} religion, but used it as a cloak to cover motives of
vengeance or other base purposes. Prior Aymer stands for the wealthy
churchman and Isaac of York for the Jewish banker, upon whom all
classes, kings, barons, and churchmen, were obliged to depend for the
accomplishment of their various plans. Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and the
men in Lincoln Green were borrowed from the ballad poetry of the Middle
Ages. All of these were introduced to perfect the picture of the
conditions of social and political life in the reign of King Richard.
One character only found a place in the novel for another reason. The
story of Rebecca reveals an interesting incident in the life of
Washington Irving. When the American author visited Sir Walter at
Abbotsford a feeling of mutual respect and admiration quickly sprang up
between them and developed into a friendly intimacy. In the course of
their conversations, Irving told Sir Walter something of the character
of Rebecca Gratz, a young woman of Jewish family, living in the city of
Philadelphia. One of this lady's brothers was a warm personal friend
of Irving's, who was always a welcome guest at their home. One of
Rebecca's dearest friends was Matilda Hoffman, Irving's first and only
love. This estimable young woman died at the early age of eighteen,
tenderly nursed to the end by her friend Rebecca, in whose arms she
expired.
Rebecca Gratz is described as a very beautiful girl. 'Her eyes were of
exquisite shape, large, black, and lustrous; her figure was graceful
and her carriage was marked by a quiet dignity,--attractions which were
heightened by elegant and winning manners. Gentle, benevolent, with
instinctive refinement and innate {253} purity, she inspired affection
among all who met her.'[3] Although a Jewess, Rebecca Gratz found many
companions among the Christians by whom she was held in high esteem.
She was interested in all kinds of benevolent work, founded an orphan
asylum and a mission Sabbath-School for Hebrew children, and
contributed to many charities.
A Christian gentleman of wealth and high social position fell in love
with her and his feelings were reciprocated. But Rebecca conceived
that duty demanded loyalty to her religion, and her lofty
conscientiousness and remarkable moral courage enabled her to maintain
her resolution. She refused to marry, in spite of the pain to herself
and the bitter disappointment to her lover which the self-denial
involved. Her life was devoted to 'a long chain of golden deeds,'
until the end came at the good old age of eighty-eight.
Such a story could not fail to capture the sympathetic heart of Sir
Walter, and as usual when anything appealed strongly to him, he wove it
into a novel at the earliest opportunity, later writing to Irving, 'How
do you like your Rebecca? Does the picture I have painted compare well
with the pattern given?'
'Ivanhoe' marks the high-tide of Scott's literary success. The book
instantly caught the attention of thousands to whom the Scottish
romances had not appealed. It sold better than its predecessors, and
from the day of its publication has been easily the most popular of the
Waverley Novels. Lockhart, who, in common with most Scotchmen, could
not help {254} preferring the tales of his native land and thought
'Waverley,' 'Guy Mannering,' and 'The Heart of Midlothian' superior as
'works of genius,' nevertheless gave 'Ivanhoe' the first place among
all Scott's writings, whether in prose or verse, as a 'work of art.'
Its historical value is perhaps greater than that of any of the others,
and certainly no other author has ever given a picture, so graphic and
yet so comprehensible, of 'merrie England' in the days of chivalry.
[1] Part iii, act iv, scene v.
[2] See Chapter xxi, 'The Pirate,' p. 300.
[3] From an article by Grata van Rensselaer, in the _Century Magazine_,
September, 1882.
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