Halleck's New English Literature Part 47

Later, Scott went to the Edinburgh High School and to the University.

At the High School he showed wonderful genius for telling stories to the boys. "I made a brighter figure in the _yards_ than in the _cla.s.s_," he says of himself at this time. This early practice of relating tales and noting what held the attention of his cla.s.smates was excellent training for the future Wizard of the North.

After the apprenticeship to his father, the son was called to the bar and began the practice of law. He often left his office to travel over the Scottish counties in search of legendary ballads, songs, and traditions, a collection of which he published under the t.i.tle of _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_. In 1797 he married Miss Charlotte Carpenter, who had an income of 500 a year. In 1799, having obtained the office of sheriff of Selkirkshire at an annual salary of 300, with very light duties, he found himself able to neglect law for literature. His early freedom from poverty is in striking contrast to the condition of his fellow Scotsman, Robert Burns.

During the period between thirty and forty years of age, he wrote his best poems. Not until he was nearly forty-three did he discover where his greatest powers lay. He then published _Waverley_, the first of a series of novels known by that general name. During the remaining eighteen years of his life he wrote twenty-nine novels, besides many other works, such as the _Life of Napoleon_ in nine volumes, and an entertaining work on Scottish history under the t.i.tle of _Tales of a Grandfather_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ABBOTSFORD, HOME OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.]

The crisis that showed Scott's sterling character came in the winter of 1825-1826, when an Edinburgh publishing firm in which he was interested failed and left an his shoulders a debt of 117,000. Had he been a man of less honor, he might have taken advantage of the bankrupt law, which would have left his future earnings free from past claims; but he refused to take any step that would remove his obligation to pay the debt. At the age of fifty four, he abandoned his happy dream of founding the house of Scott of Abbotsford and sat down to pay off the debt with his pen. The example of such a life is better than the finest sermon on honor. He wrote with almost inconceivable rapidity. His novel _Woodstock_, the product of three months' work, brought him 8228. In four years he paid 70,000 to his creditors. One day the tears rolled down his cheeks because he could no longer force his fingers to grasp the pen. The king offered him a man-of-war in which to make a voyage to the Mediterranean. Hoping to regain his health, Scott made the trip, but the rest came too late. He returned to Abbotsford in a sinking condition, and died in 1832, at the age of sixty-one.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCOTT'S GRAVE IN DRYBURGH ABBEY.]

Poetry.--Scott's three greatest poems are _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_ (1805), _Marmion_ (1808), and _The Lady of the Lake_ (1810).

They belong to the distinct cla.s.s of story-telling poetry. Like many of the ballads in Percy's collection, these poems are stories of old feuds between the Highlander and the Lowlander, and between the border lords of England and Scotland. These romantic tales of heroic battles, thrilling incidents, and love adventures, are told in fresh, vigorous verse, which breathes the free air of wild nature and moves with the prance of a war horse. Outside of Homer, we can nowhere find a better description of a battle than in the sixth canto of _Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field_:--

"They close, in clouds of smoke and dust, With sword sway and with lance's thrust; And such a yell was there, Of sudden and portentous birth, As if men fought upon the earth, And fiends in upper air; * * * * *

And in the smoke the pennons flew, As in the storm the white sea mew."

_The Lady of the Lake_, an extremely interesting story of romantic love and adventure, has been the most popular of Scott's poems. Loch Katrine and the Trossachs, where the scene of the opening cantos is laid, have since Scott's day been thronged with tourists.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOCH KATRINE AND ELLEN'S ISLE.]

The most prominent characteristic of Scott's poetry is its energetic movement. Many schoolboys know by heart those dramatic lines which express Marmion's defiance of Douglas, and the ballad of _Lochinvar_, which is alive with the movements of tireless youth. These poems have an interesting story to tell, not of the thoughts, but of the deeds, of the characters. Scott is strangely free from nineteenth century introspection.

Historical Fiction.--Seeing that Byron could surpa.s.s him as a poet, and finding that his own genius was best adapted to writing prose tales, Scott turned to the composition of his great romances. In 1814 he published _Waverly_, a story of the attempt of the Jacobite Pretender to recover the English throne in 1745. Seventeen of Scott's works of fiction are historical.

When we wish a vivid picture of the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, of the knight and the castle, of the Saxon swineherd Gurth and of the Norman master who ate the pork, we may read _Ivanhoe_. If we desire some reading that will make the Crusaders live again, we find it in the pages of _The Talisman_. When we wish an entertaining story of the brilliant days of Elizabeth, we turn to _Kenilworth_. If we are moved by admiration for the Scotch Covenanters to seek a story of their times, we have Scott's truest historical tale, _Old Mortality_.

Shortly after this story appeared, Lord Holland was asked his opinion of it. "Opinion!" he exclaimed; "we did not one of us go to bed last night--nothing slept but my gout." The man who could thus charm his readers was called "the Wizard of the North."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALTER SCOTT. _From a life sketch by Maclise_.]

Scott is the creator of the historical novel, which has advanced on the general lines marked out by him. Carlyle tersely says: "These historical novels have taught all men this truth, which looks like a truism, and yet was as good as unknown to writers of history and others till so taught: that the by-gone ages of the world were actually filled by living men, not by protocols, state papers, controversies, and abstractions of men."

The history in Scott's novels is not always absolutely accurate. To meet the exigencies of his plot, he sometimes takes liberties with the events of history, and there are occasional anachronisms in his work.

Readers may rest a.s.sured, however, that the most prominent strokes of his brush will convey a sufficiently accurate idea of certain phases of history. Although the hair lines in his pictures may be neglected, most persons can learn more truth from studying his gallery of historic scenes than from poring over volumes of doc.u.ments and state papers. Scott does not look at life from every point of view. The reader of _Ivanhoe_, for instance, should be cautioned against thinking that it presents a complete picture of the Middle Ages. It shows the bright, the n.o.ble side of chivalry, but not all the brutality, ignorance, and misery of the times.

Novels that are not Historical.--Twelve of Scott's novels contain but few attempts to represent historic events. The greatest of these novels are _Guy Mannering, The Heart of Midlothian, The Antiquary, and The Bride of Lammermoor_.

Scott said that his most rapid work was his best. _Guy Mannering_, an admirable picture of Scottish life and manners, was written in six weeks. Some of its characters, like Dominie Sampson, the pedagogue, Meg Merrilies, the gypsy, and d.i.c.k Hatteraick, the smuggler, have more life than many of the people we meet.

A century before, Pope said that most women had no characters at all.

His writings tend to show that this was his real conviction, as it was that of many others during the time when Shakespeare was little read.

_The Heart of Midlothian_ presents in Jeanie Deans a woman whose character and feminine qualities have won the admiration of the world.

Scott could not paint women in the higher walks of life. He was so chivalrous that he was p.r.o.ne to make such women too perfect, but his humble Scotch la.s.s Jeanie Deans is one of his greatest creations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCOTT'S DESK AT ABBOTSFORD.]

When we note the vast number of characters drawn by his pen, we are astonished to find that he repeats so little. Many novelists write only one original novel. Their succeeding works are merely repet.i.tions of the first. The hero may have put on a new suit of clothes and the heroine may have different colored hair, or each may be given a new mannerism, but there is nothing really new in character, and very little in incident. Year after year, however, Scott wrote with wonderful rapidity, without repeating his characters or his plots.

General Characteristics.--All critics are impressed with the healthiness of Scott's work, with its freedom from what is morbid or debasing. His stories display marked energy and movement, and but little subtle a.n.a.lysis of feelings and motives. He aimed at broad and striking effects. We do not find much development of character in his pages. "His characters have the brilliance and the fixity of portraits."

Scott does not particularly care to delineate the intense pa.s.sion of love. Only one of his novels, _The Bride of Lammermoor_, is aflame with this overmastering emotion. He delights in adventure. He places his characters in unusual and dangerous situations, and he has succeeded in making us feel his own interest in the outcome. He has on a larger scale many of the qualities that we may note in the American novelist Cooper, whose best stories are tales of adventure in the forest or on the sea. Like him, Scott shows lack of care in the construction of sentences. Few of the most cultured people of to-day could, however, write at Scott's breakneck speed and make as few slips. Scott has far more humor and variety than Cooper.

Scott's romanticism is seen in his love for supernatural agencies, which figure in many of his stories. His fondness for adventure, for mystery, for the rush of battle, for color and sharp contrast, and his love for the past are also romantic traits. Sometimes, however, he falls into the cla.s.sical fault of overdescription and of leaving too little to the imagination.

In the variety of his creations, he is equaled by no one. He did more than any other pioneer to aid fiction in dethroning the drama. His influence can be seen in the historical novels of almost every nation.

JANE AUSTEN, 1775-1817

[Ill.u.s.tration: JANE AUSTEN. _From an original family portrait_.]

Life and Works.--While Sir Walter Scott was laying the foundations of his large family estates and recounting the story of battles, chivalry, and brigandage, a quiet little woman, almost unmindful of the great world, was enlivening her father's parsonage and writing about the clergy, the old maids, the short-sighted mothers, the marriageable daughters, and other people that figure in village life.

This cheery, sprightly young woman was Jane Austen, who was born in Steventon, Hampshire, in 1775.

She spent nearly all her life in Hampshire, which furnished her with the chief material for her novels. She loved the quiet life of small country villages and interpreted it with rare sympathy and a keen sense of humor, as is shown in the following lines from _Pride and Prejudice_:--

"'Oh, Mr. Bennet, you are wanted immediately; we are all in an uproar! You must come and make Lizzy marry Mr. Collins, for she vows she will not have him; and if you do not make haste he will change his mind and not have her!'

"'Come here, child,' cried her father ... 'I understand that Mr.

Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?' Elizabeth replied that it was. 'Very well--and this offer of marriage you have refused?'

"'I have, sir.'

"'Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?'

"'Yes, or I will never see her again.'

"'An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do!'"

She began her literary work early, and at the age of sixteen she had acc.u.mulated quite a pile of ma.n.u.scripts. She wrote as some artists paint, for the pure joy of the work, and she never allowed her name to appear on a t.i.tle page. The majority of her acquaintances did not even suspect her of the "guilt of authorship."

She disliked "Gothic" romances, such as _The Mysteries of Udolpho_, and she wrote _Northanger Abbey_ as a burlesque of that type. In this story the heroine, Catherine Moreland, who has been fed on such literature, is invited to visit Northanger Abbey in Gloucestershire, where with an imagination "resolved on alarm," she is prepared to be agitated by experiences of trapdoors and subterranean pa.s.sages. On the first night of her visit, a violent storm, with its mysterious noises, serves to arouse the most characteristic "Gothic" feelings; but when the complete awakening comes and the "visions of romance are over,"

Catherine realizes that real life is not fruitful of such horrors as are depicted in her favorite novels.

_Pride and Prejudice_ is usually considered Jane Austen's best work, although _Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park_, and _Persuasion_ have their ardent admirers. In fact, there is an increasing number of discriminating readers who enjoy almost everything that she wrote. During the last five years of the eighteenth century, she produced some of her best novels, although they were not published until the period between 1811 and 1818.

The scenes of her stories are laid for the most part in small Hampshire villages, with which she was thoroughly familiar, the characters being taken from the middle cla.s.s and the gentry with whom she was thrown. Simple domestic episodes and ordinary people, living somewhat monotonous and narrow lives, satisfy her. She exhibits wonderful skill in fashioning these into slight but entertaining narratives. In _Pride and Prejudice_, for example, she creates some refreshing situations by opposing Philip Darcy's pride to Elizabeth Bennet's prejudice. She manages the long-delayed reconciliation between these two lovers with a tact that shows true genius and a knowledge of the human heart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JANE AUSTEN'S DESK.]

A strong feature of Jane Austen's novels is her subtle, careful manner of drawing character. She perceives with an intuitive refinement the delicate shadings of emotion, and describes them with the utmost care and detail. Her heroines are especially fine, each one having an interesting individuality, thoroughly natural and womanly. The minor characters in Miss Austen's works are usually quaint and original. She sees the oddities and foibles of people with the insight of the true humorist, and paints them with most dexterous cunning.

William D. Howells, the chief American realist of the nineteenth century, wrote in 1891 of her and her novels:--

"She was great and they were beautiful because she and they were honest and dealt with nature nearly a hundred years ago as realism deals with it to-day. Realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material."

She was, indeed, a great realist, and it seems strange that she and Scott, the great romanticist, should have been contemporaries. Scott was both broad and big-hearted enough to sum up her chief characteristics as follows:--