THE WAVERLEY NOVELS
You have heard at times a strain of music far away. A band, perhaps,
is playing the air of some martial song that you know well. The
music comes nearer, nearer. You can almost imagine that you see the
players marching down the street. And here they are. As stirring,
as romantic, as beautiful as the distant music, are the spirit,
scenes, and happenings of The Waverley Novels by Sir Walter Scott.
Scott did not begin by writing novels; his first writing was
poetical; he wrote stories in verse. If you do not already know
these poetical stories, you probably will some day soon, because they
are charming and delightful, and so easy to read that one almost
feels one must have read them before in a dream. The novels are,
perhaps, a little more difficult to follow, but not after we once get
fairly started. They are wonderful books to read. Some of them are
world novels. This means that in many countries, and in many
different languages, people may be found reading the Waverley Novels.
This statement is true of Dickens' novels also. When we learn to
know Dickens' work and Scott's work intimately, we will perceive that
there is a difference.
Let us begin with _Rob Roy_, one of the Waverley Novels which is a
great favourite with boys {22} and girls. Francis Osbaldistone is
sent by his father to visit his uncle, Sir Hildebrand, at the family
seat, Osbaldistone Hall, in the north of England. Frank does not
want to go into business and become his father's successor. The
visit to Osbaldistone Hall is by way of punishment. His father means
to choose one of Frank's six cousins to inherit his place in the
business. Frank goes north, meets all the six cousins, his uncle,
Sir Hildebrand, Andrew Fairservice, a serving man, who is as notable
a character after his own way of life as Sam Weller; and above all he
meets a cousin of his cousins, Die Vernon, beautiful, spirited,
altogether charming and lovable Die.
Owing to a business matter, Frank has to go further north from
Osbaldistone Hall into Scotland. In the city of Glasgow, he is
directed to Bailie Nicol Jarvie. He is given a mysterious warning in
Glasgow Cathedral, and goes up to the Highlands with Bailie Nicol
Jarvie, seeking to recover a debt. Now we are fully set in the midst
of the scenes of Sir Walter Scott's enchantment. The wild, romantic,
beautiful scenery of Scotland, painted by a master's hand; the
Highlanders themselves, proud, devoted, chivalrous, faithful; the
cause of the royal Stuarts whose adherents loved them and sacrificed
for them without stint; the glamour of old Scots songs; romantic
stories of love and conflict, all these delights you will find in
_Rob Roy_ and in other of the Waverley Novels. The mysterious Mr.
Campbell of the highroad and the drove of cattle, turns out to be Rob
Roy MacGregor himself. His wife, Helen, who is as fierce as she is
heroic, is the central figure of one of the {23} most dramatic
actions of the story. Escape, danger, flight, battle, the allurement
of a lost cause, striking characters for whom one forms a romantic
attachment, are all gathered within the pages of this novel.
_Kenilworth_ and _Ivanhoe_ will prove themselves as fascinating as
_Rob Roy_. _Kenilworth_ is written of the time of Queen Elizabeth
and tells the story of the beautiful, unfortunate Amy Robsart, the
wife of the Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favourite. Amy, who
had made a secret, runaway match, is sought by Tressilian on behalf
of her father. She lives in hiding at Cumnor Hall, waited on by
Janet Foster and her father, Anthony Foster. Seeking redress for
Amy, we go with Tressilian to find Leicester at the great castle of
Kenilworth to which Elizabeth makes one of her royal progresses. On
the way we meet Wayland Smith, and Flibbertigibbet, and we learn what
black magic means.
At Kenilworth are stirring scenes. We encounter Raleigh, Spenser, an
astrologer, and scores of brightly coloured, romantic figures. We
are present at a pageant, and see Elizabeth conferring knighthood on
some of Leicester's men. All the while, Amy Robsart is to be
vindicated, later Amy is to be saved. But, partly through
misunderstanding, yet also by cowardice, cruelty and falsehood, Amy
is betrayed. _Kenilworth_ is notable for its scenes from English
history, but the story of Amy Robsart, after we read it for the first
time, leaves something in our memories that in all likelihood had not
been there before, something gentle, full of pity, and precious.
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_Ivanhoe_ is more robust and exciting. Read the opening scene
between Gurth, the swineherd, and Wamba, the jester. This is Merrie
England of long ago, when Saxons and Normans were still hostile and
separate, although living together in the heart of England. John had
usurped the throne from King Richard, his brother, who had been
fighting on Crusade in the Holy Land. Here in the greenwood we meet
Friar Tuck, and various knights. We visit Rotherwood, and listen to
Cedric, the Saxon master of Gurth and Wamba. We see the beautiful
Rowena. We meet the Jew, Isaac of York and his lovely daughter
Rebecca. There are great combats for knights to prove their
knighthood at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. There is the thrilling siege of
the castle, Torquilstone. We discover who the Black Knight is, and,
best of all, we encounter, in many disguises and lastly as himself,
Robin Hood. Read the account of the archery contest in chapter
thirteen. Every word is thrilling. If we could go back through the
centuries, we, too, would visit Merrie England, walk in the greenwood
and taste the venison pasty in Friar Tuck's cell, watch while
Locksley shot his arrows, and with Rebecca on the ramparts, follow
the course of the great siege of Torquilstone. But, thanks to the
genius of Sir Walter, we can see these happenings in imagination
without leaving the twentieth century, although the novel Ivanhoe was
published more than a hundred years ago.
Scott wrote more than twenty novels, and other books as well. The
chief of the Waverley Novels, beside the three already named, are
_Waverley_, {25} _Guy Mannering_, _The Antiquary_, _Old Mortality_,
_The Bride of Lammermoor_, _The Heart of Mid-Lothian_, _The Fortunes
of Nigel_, _Redgauntlet_, _Anne of Geierstein_, _Woodstock_, and _The
Fair Maid of Perth_.
Thrilling and romantically beautiful as _Rob Roy_, _Kenilworth_ and
_Ivanhoe_ are, and exciting as it is to read them, Scott has achieved
even greater scenes in some of the novels appearing in the list
above. Rob Roy, Die Vernon, Locksley, Rebecca of York, are splendid
and memorable characters, but they are not as wonderful as Edie
Ochiltree in _The Antiquary_, or as Jeanie Deans in _The Heart of
Mid-Lothian_. We delight in Rob Roy and Locksley and we love Die
Vernon dearly, and yet somehow we know that Edie Ochiltree and Jeanie
Deans are greater. We respect them profoundly, and think more of
human nature because of what they say and do. We wonder why this
should be so. Puzzling out the way we feel about Edie Ochiltree and
Jeanie Deans, we come to a conclusion somewhat like the following.
In the case of the first dearly loved characters, Scott was writing
about people he had never met or known. He was in reality describing
the beautiful dreams we have of romantic people who do not actually
belong to everyday life. But Edie Ochiltree is such a man as Scott
himself must have known. He is alive and so vivid in his not too
highly coloured perfection, that one can imagine him strolling along
a country road in Scotland. Edie is a wandering beggar and wears a
blue gown. The neighbours give him food and shelter, and in return
he does for them various little services. But Edie {26} at the same
time is a remarkable man. When greatness comes in ordinary people,
they are greater than it is possible to make a romantic character.
We cannot tell why this is so; but so it is.
Turn to chapter seven in _The Antiquary_ and read what Edie says in
answer to Sir Arthur Wardour's offer of a reward if he will save his
daughter and himself from drowning. Such a character as Edie shows
himself to be is an example of Sir Walter's genius at its highest.
You will find other remarkable scenes in which Edie speaks in chapter
twenty. But from his final appearance in chapter forty-four we must
quote a few lines. There is a rumour that the country is to be
invaded, and someone says to Edie that he has not much to fight for.
Read carefully what follows for it is written in one of the dialects
of Scotland, as is the case with a good part of what Sir Walter has
written.
"_Me_ no muckle to fight for, sir?--isna there the country to fight
for, and the burnsides that I gang daundering beside, and the hearths
of the gudewives that gie me my bit bread, and the bits o' weans that
come toddling to play wi' me when I come about a landward town?--"
Here love of country and love of people,--little children and men and
women--are joined, and Edie's words express the highest feelings for
home and country that we have. There is something in every boy and
every girl that thrills to this reply of Edie Ochiltree, who had no
money and no land, but who was rich in his spirit nevertheless. It
is for such reasons as this that we {27} judge Edie's character to be
one of Scott's greatest achievements.
Some day you may read in _The Heart of Mid-Lothian_ of how Jeanie
Deans walked many weary miles to London to plead with Queen Caroline
for the life of her sister. You will learn to admire and reverence
Jeanie when at the last she says to the Queen that "when the hour of
trouble comes to the mind or to the body ... then it isna what we hae
dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on
maist pleasantly." Jeanie's is a sad story, and yet it turns out
happily. Scott's genius for story telling, as well as for the
delineation of character, was singularly rich and ample.
To the contents of these novels, Scott added occasionally a short
story, and often beautiful songs. In _Redgauntlet_, chapter eleven,
you will find Wandering Willie's Tale, one of the greatest short
stories that ever has been written. The Ballad of the Red Harlaw is
in _The Antiquary_, the same novel in which Edie Ochiltree appears.
One of the most beautiful songs in Scottish literature, which is rich
in exquisite songs, is "Proud Maisie"; this song is to be found in
_The Heart of Mid-Lothian_, chapter thirty-nine. Those of you who
are fond of learning poetry by heart will find time well spent in
learning "Proud Maisie". Only when genius is most richly endowed can
it be so generous in its giving as Scott is in his novels with his
songs.
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