Ivanhoe

Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins (#ulink_d7534187-bb84-545b-a449-2d7251246892)

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and ThePilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Life & Times (#ulink_7a70ed06-04ab-578e-a361-ccad59e6a34d)

In purely literary terms, the view of Scott’s talents has fluctuated over the two centuries since his lifetime. It is important to remember that he became successful at a time when relatively few people attempted to become authors, so it was easier to be published and there was little by way of competition. In addition, Scott invented the historical novel genre, so he hit on a formula that immediately appealed to a burgeoning readership.

His skills as a novelist had been called into question by the early 20th century, when the medium had progressed to a point of high professionalism. It was thought by many that Scott was inefficient with his prose and his plotting left a good deal to be desired. His characterization was also rather two-dimensional, because he was more concerned with telling a good yarn than saying anything about the human condition. To E. M. Forster, Scott’s limitations made him the lesser novelist when compared with his contemporary Jane Austen who was already experimenting with ideas of what it meant to be human and was, therefore, using literature as a high art form. The Brontë sisters went on to take the baton from Austen, continuing the development of English literature in that direction. That is not to say, however, that Scott was not an influence on subsequent authors – far from it. His approach was the equivalent of a blockbuster movie as opposed to an ‘art house’ film. Consequently there have been plenty of authors who have taken the historical novel genre and run with it.

In terms of sales Scott was extremely successful and became a very wealthy man. He was also held in very high esteem in Britain, America, and the European continent and had a strong work ethic, continuing with his writing until his death. He was also a proud man and insisted on getting himself out of debt with sales of his books when he was made bankrupt by a banking crisis in 1825–26 that saw his investments crash. He might easily have asked for financial assistance from his many friends in high places, but was too principled to take the easy road. He remained in debt for the rest of his days, but the sales of his books did eventually balance the books posthumously.

Scott’s Works

Although Scott was writing fiction, he was using real historical events as his backdrop and framework. Some literary scholars use the term ‘faction’ to describe this hybrid between fact and fiction. The results can be misleading because the reader receives an obscured version of history, partly from the narrative tale and partly from the partiality of the author. Even when historians attempt to document historical events as accurately as possible, in reference books, they can only ever arrive at a ‘version’ of history. Added to this is the author’s choice of literary style which further blurs the lines between historical fact and fiction.

Rob Roy tells the story of an Englishman named Frank Osbaldistone who travels to Northumberland, an English county that borders southern Scotland. The eponymous Rob Roy is Rob Roy MacGregor, a real-life outlaw and folk hero, whom Osbaldistone encounters several times as the story plays out. Scott paints Rob Roy as a mysterious and powerful character, who devotes his life to the defence of Scotland against the tyranny of the English monarchy and parliament. Thus, Scott did a good job at expanding the myth and legend of Rob Roy and extending his fame and reputation to an international audience.

Most of Scott’s novels have Scotland as their setting, but not all. A notable exception is Woodstock (1826), which is set in England following the English Civil War. The story is about the failure of the revolutionaries to control and run the nation, with the ultimate reinstatement of the English monarchy as the son of the executed King Charles I reclaims the throne to become King Charles II. The eponymous Woodstock was a royal residence near Oxford – Woodstock Manor – which was surveyed for its assets in 1649 following the execution of the king. Legend has it that the commissioners were tormented in their beds night after night during their stay by, what became known as, the ‘Good Devil’ of Woodstock. In 1660, the year that saw King Charles II begin his reign, a pamphlet was published explaining that one of the servants had been responsible for the strange nocturnal goings on, but people preferred the idea that a supernatural entity had been assigned to haunt the civil servants by the executed king.

The story of Ivanhoe (1820) is set in medieval England in the late 12th century – AD 1194 to be precise. This period in history was dominated by Christian fanaticism, when noblemen believed they would secure their passage to heaven by crusading against the Saracens in the Middle East. The central character is Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a Saxon and supporter of the Norman King, Richard I. As the setting is only 130 years after the Norman Conquest, Wilfred is not well regarded by his Saxon kith and kin.

Richard is abroad on the Continent, following the Third Crusade, and thought to be held captive. His brother, Prince John, has assumed the throne in Richard’s absence and is abusing his powerful position. During a jousting tournament, Wilfred is badly wounded and finds himself captive. The Black Knight then appears on the scene and Wilfred is rescued. The Black Knight turns out to be none other than King Richard himself in disguise, for he has returned to England covertly to find out what his brother has been up to.

Ivanhoe is famous for introducing the legend of Robin Hood to popular fiction. In the story, Robin of Locksley and his men are allies of Wilfred and Richard. Robin is portrayed as a happy-go-lucky outlaw in command of his merry men, and this became the model for the Robin Hood known and loved today. The legend of Robin was part of English folklore, although he was formerly known as a rather more mysterious figure, who wore a hood to obscure his identity. Scott’s version of the character is able to reveal his identity because he possessed an untouchable quality that meant he had no reason to fear anyone. This made him the perfect outlaw: debonair, and acting on behalf of the common man – stealing from the rich Normans and giving to the poor Saxons.

As one might expect from his characterization of Robin Hood, Scott’s interpretation of this historical era is rather romanticized. The lot of the Saxons under Norman rule was, in truth, rather dire. Life was cheap and Saxons were severely and cruelly punished for breaking the Norman laws of the land, often paying with their lives for relatively minor offences. Starvation, disease, and pestilence were part of everyday life for all except those in positions of power. Scott’s version of medieval England was, for good or ill, a highly sanitized, picture-book version.

Scott now holds a curious place in the history of English literature. While he is rather disregarded in the context of his ability as a writer, he is seen as something of an innovator with his ideas. The basic notion that one might take real events and bring them to life in the form of a novel was immediately attractive to the reader. It made the fictitious elements seem more believable, not least because the reader had no clear idea of where fact ran into fiction. Of course, from Scott’s point of view it made the process of planning his books easier, because the structure of major events was already in place. In addition, Scott was a historian, so his acquired knowledge gave him the perfect platform on which to imagine and build his stories. Some might say that it was a lazy way to write, but others might say that it was inspired. One thing is for sure: Scott’s legacy is a tradition in historical fiction that is now seen ubiquitously in books, films, plays and television.

Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,

And often took leave,—but seemed loath to depart!

—Prior.

Dedicatory Epistle

To

The Rev. Dr Dryasdust, F.A.S.

Residing in the Castle-Gate, York.

Much esteemed and dear Sir,

It is scarcely necessary to mention the various and concurring reasons which induce me to place your name at the head of the following work. Yet the chief of these reasons may perhaps be refuted by the imperfections of the performance. Could I have hoped to render it worthy of your patronage, the public would at once have seen the propriety of inscribing a work designed to illustrate the domestic antiquities of England, and particularly of our Saxon forefathers, to the learned author of the Essays upon the Horn of King Ulphus, and on the Lands bestowed by him upon the patrimony of St Peter. I am conscious, however, that the slight, unsatisfactory, and trivial manner, in which the result of my antiquarian researches has been recorded in the following pages, takes the work from under that class which bears the proud motto, “Detur digniori”. On the contrary, I fear I shall incur the censure of presumption in placing the venerable name of Dr Jonas Dryasdust at the head of a publication, which the more grave antiquary will perhaps class with the idle novels and romances of the day. I am anxious to vindicate myself from such a charge; for although I might trust to your friendship for an apology in your eyes, yet I would not willingly stand conviction in those of the public of so grave a crime, as my fears lead me to anticipate my being charged with.

I must therefore remind you, that when we first talked over together that class of productions, in one of which the private and family affairs of your learned northern friend, Mr Oldbuck of Monkbarns, were so unjustifiably exposed to the public, some discussion occurred between us concerning

the cause of the popularity these works have attained in this idle age, which, whatever other merit they possess, must be admitted to be hastily written, and in violation of every rule assigned to the epopeia. It seemed then to be your opinion, that the charm lay entirely in the art with which the unknown author had availed himself, like a second M’Pherson, of the antiquarian stores which lay scattered around him, supplying his own indolence or poverty of invention, by the incidents which had actually taken place in his country at no distant period, by introducing real characters, and scarcely suppressing real names. It was not above sixty or seventy years, you observed, since the whole north of Scotland was under a state of government nearly as simple and as patriarchal as those of our good allies the Mohawks and Iroquois. Admitting that the author cannot himself be supposed to have witnessed those times, he must have lived, you observed, among persons who had acted and suffered in them; and even within these thirty years, such an infinite change has taken place in the manners of Scotland, that men look back upon the habits of society proper to their immediate ancestors, as we do on those of the reign of Queen Anne, or even the period of the Revolution. Having thus materials of every kind lying strewed around him, there was little, you observed, to embarrass the author, but the difficulty of choice. It was no wonder, therefore, that, having begun to work a mine so plentiful, he should have derived from his works fully more credit and profit than the facility of his labours merited.

Admitting (as I could not deny) the general truth of these conclusions, I cannot but think it strange that no attempt has been made to excite an interest for the traditions and manners of Old England, similiar to that which has been obtained in behalf of those of our poorer and less celebrated neighbours. The Kendal green, though its date is more ancient, ought surely to be as dear to our feelings, as the variegated tartans of the north. The name of Robin Hood, if duly conjured with, should raise a spirit as soon as that of Rob Roy; and the patriots of England deserve no less their renown in our modern circles, than the Bruces and Wallaces of Caledonia. If the scenery of the south be less romantic and sublime than that of the northern mountains, it must be allowed to possess in the same proportion superior softness and beauty; and upon the whole, we feel ourselves entitled to exclaim with the patriotic Syrian—“Are not Pharphar and Abana, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel?”

Your objections to such an attempt, my dear Doctor, were, you may remember, two-fold. You insisted upon the advantages which the Scotsman possessed, from the very recent existence of that state of society in which his scene was to be laid. Many now alive, you remarked, well remembered persons who had not only seen the celebrated Roy M’Gregor, but had feasted, and even fought with him. All those minute circumstances belonging to private life and domestic character, all that gives verisimilitude to a narrative, and individuality to the persons introduced, is still known and remembered in Scotland; whereas in England, civilisation has been so long complete, that our ideas of our ancestors are only to be gleaned from musty records and chronicles, the authors of which seem perversely to have conspired to suppress in their narratives all interesting details, in order to find room for flowers of monkish eloquence, or trite reflections upon morals. To match an English and a Scottish author in the rival task of embodying and reviving the traditions of their respective countries, would be, you alleged, in the highest degree unequal and unjust. The Scottish magician, you said, was, like Lucan’s witch, at liberty to walk over the recent field of battle, and to select for the subject of resuscitation by his sorceries, a body whose limbs had recently quivered with existence, and whose throat had but just uttered the last note of agony. Such a subject even the powerful Erictho was compelled to select, as alone capable of being reanimated even by “her” potent magic—

—gelidas leto scrutata medullas,

Pulmonis rigidi stantes sine vulnere fibras

Invenit, et vocem defuncto in corpore quaerit.

The English author, on the other hand, without supposing him less of a conjuror than the Northern Warlock, can, you observed, only have the liberty of selecting his subject amidst the dust of antiquity, where nothing was to be found but dry, sapless, mouldering, and disjointed bones, such as those which filled the valley of Jehoshaphat. You expressed, besides, your apprehension, that the unpatriotic prejudices of my countrymen would not allow fair play to such a work as that of which I endeavoured to demonstrate the probable success. And this, you said, was not entirely owing to the more general prejudice in favour of that which is foreign, but that it rested partly upon improbabilities, arising out of the circumstances in which the English reader is placed. If you describe to him a set of wild manners, and a state of primitive society existing in the Highlands of Scotland, he is much disposed to acquiesce in the truth of what is asserted. And reason good. If he be of the ordinary class of readers, he has either never seen those remote districts at all, or he has wandered through those desolate regions in the course of a summer tour, eating bad dinners, sleeping on truckle beds, stalking from desolation to desolation, and fully prepared to believe the strangest things that could be told him of a people, wild and extravagant enough to be attached to scenery so extraordinary. But the same worthy person, when placed in his own snug parlour, and surrounded by all the comforts of an Englishman’s fireside, is not half so much disposed to believe that his own ancestors led a very different life from himself; that the shattered tower, which now forms a vista from his window, once held a baron who would have hung him up at his own door without any form of trial; that the hinds, by whom his little pet-farm is managed, a few centuries ago would have been his slaves; and that the complete influence of feudal tyranny once extended over the neighbouring village, where the attorney is now a man of more importance than the lord of the manor.

While I own the force of these objections, I must confess, at the same time, that they do not appear to me to be altogether insurmountable. The scantiness of materials is indeed a formidable difficulty; but no one knows better than Dr Dryasdust, that to those deeply read in antiquity, hints concerning the private life of our ancestors lie scattered through the pages of our various historians, bearing, indeed, a slender proportion to the other matters of which they treat, but still, when collected together, sufficient to throw considerable light upon the “vie prive” of our forefathers; indeed, I am convinced, that however I myself may fail in the ensuing attempt, yet, with more labour in collecting, or more skill in using, the materials within his reach, illustrated as they have been by the labours of Dr Henry, of the late Mr Strutt, and, above all, of Mr Sharon Turner, an abler hand would have been successful; and therefore I protest, beforehand, against any argument which may be founded on the failure of the present experiment.

On the other hand, I have already said, that if any thing like a true picture of old English manners could be drawn, I would trust to the good-nature and good sense of my countrymen for insuring its favourable reception.

Having thus replied, to the best of my power, to the first class of your objections, or at least having shown my resolution to overleap the barriers which your prudence has raised, I will be brief in noticing that which is more peculiar to myself. It seems to be your opinion, that the very office of an antiquary, employed in grave, and, as the vulgar will sometimes allege, in toilsome and minute research, must be considered as incapacitating him from successfully compounding a tale of this sort. But permit me to say, my dear Doctor, that this objection is rather formal than substantial. It is true, that such slight compositions might not suit the severer genius of our friend Mr Oldbuck. Yet Horace Walpole wrote a goblin tale which has thrilled through many a bosom; and George Ellis could transfer all the playful fascination of a humour, as delightful as it was uncommon, into his Abridgement of the Ancient Metrical Romances. So that, however I may have occasion to rue my present audacity, I have at least the most respectable precedents in my favour.

Still the severer antiquary may think, that, by thus intermingling fiction with truth, I am polluting the well of history with modern inventions, and impressing upon the rising generation false ideas of the age which I describe. I cannot but in some sense admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse by the following considerations.

It is true, that I neither can, nor do pretend, to the observation of complete accuracy, even in matters of outward costume, much less in the more important points of language and manners. But the same motive which prevents my writing the dialogue of the piece in Anglo-Saxon or in Norman-French, and which prohibits my sending forth to the public this essay printed with the types of Caxton or Wynken de Worde, prevents my attempting to confine myself within the limits of the period in which my story is laid. It is necessary, for exciting interest of any kind, that the subject assumed should be, as it were, translated into the manners, as well as the language, of the age we live in. No fascination has ever been attached to Oriental literature, equal to that produced by Mr Galland’s first translation of the Arabian Tales; in which, retaining on the one hand the splendour of Eastern costume, and on the other the wildness of Eastern fiction, he mixed these with just so much ordinary feeling and expression, as rendered them interesting and intelligible, while he abridged the long-winded narratives, curtailed the monotonous reflections, and rejected the endless repetitions of the Arabian original. The tales, therefore, though less purely Oriental than in their first concoction, were eminently better fitted for the European market, and obtained an unrivalled degree of public favour, which they certainly would never have gained had not the manners and style been in some degree familiarized to the feelings and habits of the western reader.

In point of justice, therefore, to the multitudes who will, I trust, devour this book with avidity, I have so far explained our ancient manners in modern language, and so far detailed the characters and sentiments of my persons, that the modern reader will not find himself, I should hope, much trammelled by the repulsive dryness of mere antiquity. In this, I respectfully contend, I have in no respect exceeded the fair license due to the author of a fictitious composition. The late ingenious Mr Strutt, in his romance of Queen-Hoo-Hall, acted upon another principle; and in distinguishing between what was ancient and modern, forgot, as it appears to me, that extensive neutral ground, the large proportion, that is, of manners and sentiments which are common to us and to our ancestors, having been handed down unaltered from them to us, or which, arising out of the principles of our common nature, must have existed alike in either state of society. In this manner, a man of talent, and of great antiquarian erudition, limited the popularity of his work, by excluding from it every thing which was not sufficiently obsolete to be altogether forgotten and unintelligible.

The license which I would here vindicate, is so necessary to the execution of my plan, that I will crave your patience while I illustrate my argument a little farther.