Sir Walter Scott, página 2 de 5

"Peveril of the Peak" is an elaborately constructed tale dealing with a pretended Popish plot against Charles II of England, but introducing a great variety of figures and interests, only a few of which can be given in a brief outline.Sir Geoffrey Peveril, currently known as "Peveril of the Peak,"the popular title of all his ancestors from the time of William the Conqueror their natural father, because of their mountain castle in Derbyshire,is an old friend of Major Bridgenorth, a neighbor. Peveril is a Royalist and Bridgenorth a Puritan, but their personal friendship is undisturbed during the troubled days of Civil War; and in fact the Major is able to render his friend great service at this time. It is requited when the Majors wife dies, leaving an infant daughter, Alice, whom Lady Peveril rears like her own; the little girl being the childhoods comrade of Julian Peveril, only heir of the Peak estates.When Alice is in her third year the two families become estranged, in this wise. The Countess of Derby, feudal sovereign of the Isle of Man, having suffered imprisonment at the hands of the Roundheads, causes one of their leaders, William Christian, to be executed ...

The term "Castle Dangerous" was applied to the feudal home of the Scotch Douglases, because of the many fierce fights for its possession which raged between the English and the Scotch lords, during the struggle of Kobert Bruce against King Edward I.Sir James Douglas, popularly called the Black Douglas, chief supporter of Bruce, has sworn that Douglas Castle shall not remain in the hands of the English. More than one English lord has attempted to hold it against attack or trickery, but in every case has come to a violent end. At last Lady Augusta de Berkely promises her hand and large estates to Sir John de Walton on condition that he hold the "Dangerous Castle" for a year and a day. He accepts the task and is made governor of the stronghold; but as the months slowly go by, Lady Augusta is overcome by misgivings and resolves to go to the castle and shorten the probation. Disguising herself as a youth, she goes in company of her fathers minstrel Bertram as his son. They meet the deputy governor, De Valence, who agrees that the supposed boy shall be left at the convent of St. Brides, near by, until formal permission to enter the castle has been secured, while the minstrel obtains entrance upon pretext of examining ancient songs ...

"The Betrothed" is a picture of the troublous times at home, while English knights were away upon the Crusades. The scene is laid upon the borderland of Wales, during the reign of Henry II, and the action clusters around the person of a young Norman heiress beset by Welsh and English alike.The venerable Archbishop of Canterbury makes it his chief business to preach the Third Crusade; and to this end he exhorts Normans, settled in England and Wales, to lay aside all private feuds with their neighbors. Moved by his teaching, Gwenwyn, a Welsh chieftain, and Sir Raymond Berenger, a Norman knight, exchange friendly courtesies; and Gwenwyn even goes so far as to make plans to divorce his wife in order that he may wed the Normans daughter Eveline. When he makes this proposal, however, an answer is returned that the lady is already betrothed to Sir Hugo de Lacy, an accomplished soldier, but a man of mature years. The fiery Welsh consider this in the light of an affront, and make war upon Sir Raymond in his stronghold of Garde Doloureuse ...

Although France is the scene of this romance, the hero and several other characters are members of the Scottish guard to the French King. The period is that when chivalry and feudalism are passing away, and the governments becoming centralized, Louis XI of France is, in fact, warring against his most powerful vassal, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.Quentin Durward, a Scotch youth, comes to Tours, where his uncle is a member of the celebrated Scottish bodyguard, and seeks military service. First, however, he meets the pretended merchant, Maitre Pierre, who is actually King Louis himself; and next the young adventurer narrowly escapes hanging for interfering with a public execution. He is enrolled among the guards and finds favor in Louiss eyes by aiding him against the attack of a frenzied boar, in a hunt.On the same day of the hunt, the Count de Crevecoeur, on behalf of his master, openly renounces allegiance to Louis, and also demands the surrender of Isabelle de Croye, the Dukes ward, who has fled from Burgundy to escape a political marriage ...

The second novel written by Scott turned aside from the path of history, so successfully followed in "Waverley," and dealt no less happily with private scenes and characters. Some of the most enduring and popular types in the authors entire gallery are to be found in "Guy Mannering."Godfrey Bertram, the easy-going laird of the Ellengowan estate, whose hearth-stone is open to vagrant and gentleman alike, shelters a young Englishman of good family during a night when an heir is born to Ellangowari. The vistor, Guy Mannering, knows the rudiments of the discredited science of astrology, andpartly out of curiosity, partly to gratify the fathers whimcasts the horoscope of the infant. The prediction shows three periods of baleful influence upon the child, beginning at five years and ending at twenty-onethe last period strangely coinciding with a storm-centre prophesied for Mannerings promised wife. Disturbed by these coincidences, Mannering absolves astrology henceforth, and in order to avoid the possibility of influencing his hosts son, he writes and seals the prediction, with instructions that it be left unopened until after the childs fifth birthday. The next day he departs, and soon after enters military service in India, where he attains the rank of Colonel...

In a historical sense " Redgauntlet" is a sequel to Waverley. It takes up the action some eighteen years later, at "that point of time when the Chevalier Charles Edward, though fallen into the sere and yellow leaf, was yet meditating a second attempt, which could scarcely have been more hopeless than his first."Mr. Alexander Fairford, a worthy advocate of Edinburgh, has received into his home, for his son Alans sake, an impulsive young man known as Darsie Latimer. Darsie has an ample income and is assured of a legacy upon reaching the age of twenty-five; but meanwhile knows nothing of his family history and is warned not to venture into England. The two young men have a David and Jonathan affection, although Mr. Fairford eyes Darsies harum-scarum tendencies with disapproval. Alan enters the law, while Darsie sets forth on a jaunt to Dumfries, writing back chatty letters to his friend, who replies in kind.At Solway Firth, Darsie escapes the dangers of tide and quicksand by the intervention of a taciturn stranger, who conducts him grudgingly to an out-of-the-way and mysterious home, where Darsie is sheltered for the night ....

(Note: from Tales Of My Landlord, 1st Series)

Translator: Albert Mont?mont / Corrections made and illustrations added to the html file.

(See also #2034)

(Note: from The Chronicles Of The Canongate, 1st Series)

Editor: William Vaughn Moody

Sir Walter Scotts "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" were his contribution to a series of books, published by John Murray, which appeared between the years 1829 and 1847, and formed a collection of eighty volumes known as "Murrays Family Library." In these "Letters upon Demonology and Witchcraft," addressed to his son-in-law, written under the first grasp of death, the old kindliness and good sense, joined to the old charm in story-telling, stand firm yet against every assault; and even in the decay that followed, when the powers were broken of the mind that had breathed, and is still breathing, its own health into the minds of tens of thousands of his countrymen, nothing could break the fine spirit of love and honour that was in him. When the end was very near, and the son-in-law to whom these Letters were addressed found him one morning entirely himself, though in the last extreme of feebleness: his eye was clear and calmevery trace of the wild fire of delirium was extinguished: "Lockhart," he said, "I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good manbe virtuous, be religiousbe a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here."

"Harp of the North! that mouldering long hast hungOn the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillans springAnd down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung,Till envious ivy did around thee cling,Muffling with verdant ringlet every string,O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep?Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring,Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep,Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep?"

THE ABBOT by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) in 1820, a sequel to The Monastery. The history is concerned with that period of the life of Mary Queen of Scots which she spent in imprisonment at Lochleven Castle, her escape, the rally of her supporters and their defeat at the battle of Langside. With these historical events is woven the romantic story of Roland Avenel, over whose parentage hangs a certain mystery. He is sent by the Regent Murray to act as page to Mary Stuart in her imprisonment, with directions to watch and report any attempt at escape. Instead, he becomes an active agent in devising the queens flight. The Introductory Epistle to the First Edition informs the reader that the narrative is the continuation of the Benedictine manuscript from which Scott purported to have drawn his preceding novel The Monastery.