Lecture 15 Walter Scott(1st hour), Ivanhoe,Charles Lamb

1. Lecture 15 Walter Scott(1st hour), Ivanhoe,Charles Lamb

2. I . Life • Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. His father was a barrister and his mother a woman of education and a good story-teller, both descended from old families on the Scottish border. • As a child, Scott was 'lame and delicate, and was sent to the countryside to live with his grandmother who was a treasure-house of stories concerning the old border feuds. So Scott early developed an intense love of Scottish history and folk literature.

3. He paid frequent visits to the countryside, entered into friendly relations with shepherds and farmers and gained first-hand knowledge of the old Scottish traditions, legends and ballads. All this played a vital role in his later creative work. • From 1796 to 1812 Scott was known as a poet, but he felt that he had not yet found himself. The overwhelming success of Byron's "Childe Harold" in 1812 led Scott into a new field which suited him a great deal better. He gave up romantic poetry and turned to novel-writing.

4. His first novel “Waverley" appeared anonymously in 1814 with immediate success. Then he kept on writing novels in the ensuing years, at the rate of nearly two novels per year, while his authorship was kept a secret for a long time. 'From 1814 to 1831 he published more than 20 novels. • Meanwhile, owing to the economic crisis in England and mismanagement, the printing and publishing firm in which Scott was a silent partner, went bankrupt. • but he toiled heroically and actually cleared off a considerable portion of the debt. This literary drudgery in turn, ruined his health and he died in 1832.

5. His Historical Novels: • Scott has been universally regarded as the founder and great master of the historical novel. • He lived in a period of rapid social changes after the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. • Scotland of his time was a country that contained within its borders the different modes of life of three historical periods, i.e. the tribal mode of life prevailing in the mountains or the Highlands. the preservation of feudal customs in the estates of the large landowners. the early development of capitalism in the big cities.

6. Scott's historical novels cover a long period of time, ranging from the Middle Ages up to the 18th century. They may be conveniently divided into three groups according to the subject-matter: • the group on the history of Scotland, • the group on English history • and the group on the history of European countries.

7. During the years 1814-1826 Scott was the ' Great unknown" author of such novels as " Waverley" (1814), ." GuyMannering'(1815) "Old Morality‘(1816), "Rob Roy" (1817) and ' The Heart of Midlothian' (1818). These novels dealing with Scottish history were highly successful for their vivid depictions of typically Scottish characters and their powerful representation of the past events in Scotland.

8. Scott's novels of the next period are devoted to English subjects, covering the days after the Norman Conquest • (" Ivanhoe",1820), the life during the Tudor dynasty (" Kenilworth", 1821) and the Stuart rule ("The Fortunes of Nigel", l822). • the English Revolution("Woodstock",1826) and the Restoration period ("Peveril of the Peak" . 1828). • Of this group the best known is "Ivanhoe".

9. Among Scott's novels on the history of European countries, the best-known is" Quentin Durward" (1823), which takes an epoch of the French history as its subject. And "St. Ronan's Wells" (1823) is the only one of Scott's novels, which deals with his contemporary life.

10. Features of Scott's Historical Novels: • 1. Scott has an outstanding gift of vivifying the past. His novels, give a picturesque representation of various historical personages and events. He was especially versed in portraying Scottish history and Scottish characters. • In his novels, historical events are closely interwoven with the fates of individuals. The plot unfolds itself through the interaction between historical life and individual life, thus giving a view "of individuals as they are affected by the public strifes and social divisions of the age“.

11. When Scott describes historical events, he is concerned not only with the lives and deeds of kings, statesmen and other historical figures, but is always mindful of the fates of the ordinary people such as peasants, shepherds and villagers. Hence the numerous pen-portraits of the people from various social positions, which constitute an important characteristic in Scott's novels.

12. Scott is a romantic. He said: " a romancer wants but a hair to make a tether of it. But besides romantic imagination, he also relies upon careful studies and investigations into the details of historical life. He could create a living world from some old records of the past.

13. Ivanhoe Chapter 13 • The name of Ivanhoe was no sooner pronounced than it flew from mouth to mouth, with all the celerity with which eagerness could convey and curiosity receive it. It was not long ere it reached the circle of the Prince, whose brow darkened as he heard the news. Looking around him, however, with an air of scorn, ``My Lords,'' said he, ``and especially you, Sir Prior, what think ye of the doctrine the learned tell us, concerning innate attractions and antipathies? Methinks that I felt the presence of my brother's minion, even when I least guessed whom yonder suit of armour enclosed.''

14. The victorious archer would not perhaps have escaped John's attention so easily, had not that Prince had other subjects of anxious and more important meditation pressing upon his mind at that instant. He called upon his chamberlain as he gave the signal for retiring from the lists, and commanded him instantly to gallop to Ashby, and seek out Isaac the Jew. ``Tell the dog,'' he said, ``to send me, before sun-down, two thousand crowns. He knows the security; but thou mayst show him this ring for a token. The rest of the money must be paid at York within six days. If he neglects, I will have the unbelieving villain's head. Look that thou pass him not on the way; for the circumcised slave was displaying his stolen finery amongst us.'' • So saying, the Prince resumed his horse, and returned to Ashby, the whole crowd breaking up and • dispersing upon his retreat.

15. Lamb • Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was born in London, his father being a poor clerk to a lawyer of the Inner Temple, i.e. one of the law colleges in London. At seven Charles went to Christ Hospital, a charity school, where he studied from 1782 to 1789, forming a lifelong friendship with Coleridge. On leaving school at 14, he served as a clerk in the South Sea House.

16. In 1823 the Lambs left London and took a cottage in the countryside. They adopted an orphan girl, Emma Leola, whose presence brightened their life until her marriage to a publisher. Lamb served in the East India House for 33 years and retired in 1825, Mary's illness became worse and Lamb's health was impaired with frequent anxieties. In 1834 he fell in a walk, hurting his face, and died from the wound. Mary, ten years his senior, survived until 1847.

17. Lamb's Literary Career • To Lamb literature was a side—occupation. His daily drudgery left little time for his literary work. So he did not write much in his early years. He first tried his hand at poetry (Old Familiar Faces". "On an Infant Dying as Soon as Born'. etc.). He wrote a sentimental romance" Rosamund Gray', which is commonplace. A lover of the stage, he also tried his hand at drama, though he never succeeded in play-writing. His farce" Mr.H.--- proved a failure in its first performance, and Lamb himself hissed it with the audience.

18. The "Tales from Shakespeare' was Lamb's first literary success. They were written by Charles and Mary Lamb, the former reproducing the tragedies and the latter the comedies. • their collaboration was so successful that both young and old were delighted with this version of Shakespeare's stories and the book has become very popular. It has, in fact, made Shakespeare a familiar author to the general readers.

19. "The Essays of Elia" • Lamb wrote a series of miscellaneous essays, collected in 1823 as the" Essays of Elia". The second series, "Last Essays of Elia', was published in 1833. The pen-name "Elia" was borrowed from an old clerk with whom Lamb had worked in the South Sea House. There are over fifty of these essays, in which the author chats with the reader on various topics and makes a clean breast of himself. This is the genre of the intimately personal familiar essay.

20. The most striking feature of Lamb's essays is his humour. • Lamb's style is touched with archaisms, interspersed with quotations from his favourite authors but always faithful in his own personality. It is highly artistic but inimitable. • Lamb was a romanticist, seeking a free expression of his own personality and weaving romance into the daily limb. But his romanticism is different from that of Wordsworth. Wordsworth was the romanticist of nature, and Lamb the romanticist of the city.