WALTER SCOTT. SIR IR WALTER SCOTT was born in the city of Edinburgh on the 15th of August, 1771. After an unusually busy and successful literary life, he died on the 21st of September, 1832. The poet and novelist was well related and he came from good ancient Scottish families. Delicate health, arising chiefly from lameness, led to his being placed under charge of some relations in the country. His early impressions from country life and Border stories, he received while residing with his grandfather at Sandy-Knowe, an extremely romantic situation near Kelso. At an early age, he had tried his hand at verse with considerable success. He passed through the High School and University of Edinburgh. Although he made some proficiency in Latin, and in classes of ethics, moral philosophy and history, "he had an aversion to Greek, and we may regret, with Lord Lytton, 'that he refused to enter into that chamber in the magic palace of literature in which the sublimest relics of antiquity are stored.' Being a great reader, he had gathered a vast variety of miscellaneous knowledge. Romances and stories were his chief delight. His earliest literary labors were translations. "In 1796, he published translations of Burger's Lenore and The Wild Huntsman, ballads of singular wildness and power." In 1799, appeared his translation of Goethe's tragedy, Goetz von Berlichingen. In 1799, he was appointed sheriff of Selkirkshire at a salary of £300 per annum. Scott now visited the country for the purpose of collecting the ballad poetry of Scotland. As a result, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border appeared in 1802. After other work of importance, his Lay of the Last Minstrel appeared in 1805, "which instantly. stamped him as one of the greatest poets of the age." The tide of his popularity had now fully set in, and as of Burns, the people murmured of him from shore to shore. In 1808 appeared the great poem Marmion, and also his edition of Dryden. Lady of the Lake was published in 1810. In 1811, The Vision of Don Roderick; in 1813, Rokeby, and The Bridal of Triermain; 1814, The Lord of the Isles; 1815, The Field of Waterloo; and in 1817, Harold the Dauntless. "So early as 1805, before his great poems were produced, Scott had entered on the composition of Waverly, the first of his illustrious progeny of tales." Waverly appeared in 1814, and was received with "unmingled applause." For fear that he would compromise his reputation as a poet, Scott did not prefix his name to the work. In 1815 appeared Guy Mannering; in 1816, The Antiquary, and also The Black Dwarf, and Old Mortality. The year 1818 witnessed two other coinages from Waverly mint, Rob Roy and The Heart of Mid-Lothian." The Bride of Lammermoor, a story of sustained and overwhelming pathos, appeared in 1819. 66 Ivanhoe, from which we have taken our selection, appeared in 1820. For want of space, we must omit mention of Scott's other excellent works, and pass to a brief sketch of his life. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. He joined the Tory party, and became one of a band of volunteers to defend his country. After his first love disappointment, he was finally married to Char lotte Margaret Carpenter in 1797. Miss Carpenter had some fortune and the young couple retired to a cottage at Lasswade, where they seem to have enjoyed sincere and unalloyed happiness.” The success of Scott's works gained for him a large fortune. At a princely outlay, he purchased land and fitted up a home known now by the immortal name of Abbotsford. Princes, peers and poets-men of all grades-were his constant visitors. Failure of his publishers left him heavily in debt. In his old age, Scott undertook the task of paying a debt of £120,000. "The fountain was awakened from its inmost recess, as if the spirit of affliction had troubled it in his passage," and before his death, the commercial debt was reduced to £54,000. "In six years, Scott had nearly reached the goal of his ambition. He had ranged the wide fields of romance, and the public had liberally rewarded their illustrious favorite. The ultimate prize was within view, and the world cheered him on, eagerly anticipating his triumph; but the victor sank exhausted on the course. He had spent his life in the struggle. The strong man was bowed down, and his living honor, genius, and integrity were extinguished by delirium and death. "About half past one, p. m.," says Mr. Lockhart, "on the 21st of September, 1832, Sir Walter breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day -so warm that every window was wide open-and so perfectly still that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes." |