IVANHOE: A ROMANCE - LimpidSoft

1 ivanhoe : A ROMANCEby Sir Walter ScottSTYLED BYLIMPIDSOFTC ontentsINTRODUCTION TO EPISTLE24 CHAPTER I45 CHAPTER II62 CHAPTER III86 CHAPTER IV101 CHAPTER V116 CHAPTER VI1342 CONTENTSCHAPTER VII159 CHAPTER VIII183 CHAPTER IX205 CHAPTER X223 CHAPTER XI242 CHAPTER XII257 CHAPTER XIII279 CHAPTER XIV297 CHAPTER XV314 CHAPTER XVI325 CHAPTER XVII347 CHAPTER XVIII357 CHAPTER XIX3733 CONTENTSCHAPTER XX387 CHAPTER XXI401 CHAPTER XXII418 CHAPTER XXIII435 CHAPTER XXIV450 CHAPTER XXV471 CHAPTER XXVI487 CHAPTER XXVII500

2 CHAPTER XXVIII534 CHAPTER XXIX559 CHAPTER XXX580 CHAPTER XXXI597 CHAPTER XXXIII649 CHAPTER XXXIV674 CHAPTER XXXV691 CHAPTER XXXVI715 CHAPTER XXXVII731 CHAPTER XXXVIII756 CHAPTER XXXIX773 CHAPTER XL796 CHAPTER XLI830 CHAPTER XLII847 CHAPTER XLIII872 CHAPTER XLIV8955 CONTENTSNOTES917 NOTE TO CHAPTER I..918 NOTE TO CHAPTER II..920 NOTE TO CHAPTER XVII..922 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXI..923 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXII..925 THE EARL OF CASSILIS TYRANNY ..928 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXIX..938 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXI..940 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXII.

3 941 NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXIII..942 NOTE TO CHAPTER XLI..9446 The present document was derived from textprovided by Project Gutenberg (document82), which was made available free of document is also free of fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,And often took leave but seemed loath to depart!1 motto alludes to the Author returning to the stage repeatedly after having taken of the Waverley Novels had hithertoproceeded in an unabated course of popularity,and might, in his peculiar district of literature, havebeen termed L Enfant Gate of success.

4 It was plain,however, that frequent publication must finally wearout the public favour, unless some mode could be de-vised to give an appearance of novelty to subsequentproductions. Scottish manners, Scottish dialect, andScottish characters of note, being those with whichthe author was most intimately, and familiarly ac-quainted, were the groundwork upon which he hadhitherto relied for giving effect to his narrative. Itwas, however, obvious, that this kind of interest mustin the end occasion a degree of sameness and repe-tition, if exclusively resorted to, and that the reader9 INTRODUCTION TO likely at length to adopt the language of Edwin,in Parnell s Tale: Reverse the spell, he cries, And let it fairly now gambol has been shown.

5 Nothing can be more dangerous for the fame of aprofessor of the fine arts, than to permit (if he can pos-sibly prevent it) the character of a mannerist to be at-tached to him, or that he should be supposed capableof success only in a particular and limited style. Thepublic are, in general, very ready to adopt the opin-ion, that he who has pleased them in one peculiarmode of composition, is, by means of that very tal-ent, rendered incapable of venturing upon other sub-jects. The effect of this disinclination, on the part ofthe public, towards the artificers of their pleasures,when they attempt to enlarge their means of amus-ing, may be seen in the censures usually passed byvulgar criticism upon actors or artists who venture tochange the character of their efforts, that, in so doing,they may enlarge the scale of their is some justice in this opinion, as there alwaysis in such as attain general currency.

6 It may oftenhappen on the stage, that an actor, by possessing ina preeminent degree the external qualities necessary10 INTRODUCTION TO give effect to comedy, may be deprived of the rightto aspire to tragic excellence; and in painting or lit-erary composition, an artist or poet may be masterexclusively of modes of thought, and powers of ex-pression, which confine him to a single course of sub-jects. But much more frequently the same capacitywhich carries a man to popularity in one departmentwill obtain for him success in another, and that mustbe more particularly the case in literary composition,than either in acting or painting, because the adven-turer in that department is not impeded in his exer-tions by any peculiarity of features, or conformationof person, proper for particular parts, or, by any pecu-liar mechanical habits of using the pencil.

7 Limited to aparticular class of this reasoning be correct or otherwise, thepresent author felt, that, in confining himself to sub-jects purely Scottish, he was not only likely to wearyout the indulgence of his readers, but also greatlyto limit his own power of affording them a highly polished country, where so much geniusis monthly employed in catering for public amuse-ment, a fresh topic, such as he had himself had thehappiness to light upon, is the untasted spring of thedesert; 11 INTRODUCTION TO ivanhoe .

8 Men bless their stars and call it luxury. But when men and horses, cattle, camels, anddromedaries, have poached the spring into mud, itbecomes loathsome to those who at first drank of itwith rapture; and he who had the merit of discover-ing it, if he would preserve his reputation with thetribe, must display his talent by a fresh discovery ofuntasted the author, who finds himself limited to a partic-ular class of subjects, endeavours to sustain his rep-utation by striving to add a novelty of attraction tothemes of the same character which have been for-merly successful under his management, there aremanifest reasons why, after a certain point.

9 He is likelyto fail. If the mine be not wrought out, the strengthand capacity of the miner become necessarily ex-hausted. If he closely imitates the narratives whichhe has before rendered successful, he is doomed to wonder that they please no more. If he struggles totake a different view of the same class of subjects, hespeedily discovers that what is obvious, graceful, andnatural, has been exhausted; and, in order to obtainthe indispensable charm of novelty, he is forced uponcaricature, and, to avoid being trite, must become TO is not, perhaps, necessary to enumerate so manyreasons why the author of the Scottish Novels, as theywere then exclusively termed, should be desirous tomake an experiment on a subject purely English.

10 Itwas his purpose, at the same time, to have renderedthe experiment as complete as possible, by bringingthe intended work before the public as the effort of anew candidate for their favour, in order that no de-gree of prejudice, whether favourable or the reverse,might attach to it, as a new production of the Au-thor of Waverley; but this intention was afterwardsdeparted from, for reasons to be hereafter period of the narrative adopted was the reignof Richard I., not only as abounding with characterswhose very names were sure to attract general atten-tion, but as affording a striking contrast betwixt theSaxons, by whom the soil was cultivated, and theNormans, who still reigned in it as conquerors, re-luctant to mix with the vanquished, or acknowledgethemselves of the same stock.