英国 汉诺威王朝  (1771年8月15日～1832年9月21日)

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet

沃尔特·司各特

沃尔特·司各特爵士

 诗词： 《青春的骄傲 prime hubris》    阅读司各特 Sir Walter Scott在诗海的作品!!!

英国19世纪著名历史小说家和诗人。

英国作家。1771年8月15日生于爱丁堡一古老家 族，1832年9月21日卒于阿伯茨福德。曾在爱丁堡大学攻读法律，1792年成为律师，后任塞尔扣克郡副郡长和爱丁堡高等民事法庭庭长。他终生辛勤笔耕，写作了大量诗歌、小说、历史、评论等。晚年因经营出版业不善而破产，为还债日夜写作，终因积劳成疾而去世。

1802～1803年，司各特搜集出版了三卷本《苏格兰边境歌谣集》，得到好评。1805年后，陆续出版了《最后一个行吟诗人之歌》、《玛密恩》和《湖上夫人》等8部长诗。他的长诗受哥特派前浪漫主义影响，大都以历史或民间传说为题材，表现古代苏格兰和英格兰君王和贵族们的骑士冒险事迹。作品富于浪漫主义情调，表达了对苏格兰风光的热爱和对古代骑士理想的向往。

1814年，司各特开始创作历史小说，匿名出版了《威弗莱》。它以18世纪苏格兰詹姆斯党人起义为题材，歌颂高地人民的英勇，也哀悼苏格兰氏族社会必然衰亡的命运。主人公威弗莱既怀着正统思想，又同情起义者，在两个阵营之间徘徊不定。这个人物类型在司各特的历史小说里一再出现，被匈牙利批评家卢卡契称为“中间道路”的主人公。司各特一生共写了27部历史小说，其中有较大一部分以苏格兰历史为题材，主要有：《修墓老人》，描写17世纪苏格兰清教徒反抗英国当局的残酷镇压而英勇起义的故事，曾受到马克思的高度赞扬；《红酋罗伯》，描写被人称作“苏格兰的罗宾汉”的部落英雄“红酋罗伯”杀富济贫和对抗官府的动人事迹；《中洛辛郡的心脏》的背景也是爱丁堡市民反对英国统治者的一次历史暴乱，但着重创造了具有高尚品质的普通苏格兰姑娘珍妮·迪恩斯令人难忘的形象，被认为是司各特最优秀的作品。司各特还写了不少以英格兰和欧洲历史为题材的历史小说，主要有：《艾凡赫》通过主人公艾凡赫的历险，表现了英国狮心王理查时期复杂的民族矛盾和社会矛盾。故事曲折，人物形象有鲜明个性，是作者最为脍炙人口的小说；《城堡风云》通过法王路易十一的卫士昆廷·达沃德的经历，描写了法国反对封建割据、建立中央集权的斗争。司各特是英国历史小说的创始人，他的小说创造了许多栩栩如生的历史人物和普通劳动者的形象，充满浪漫激情，引人入胜，同时又真实地反映历史发展的总趋势。司各特的历史小说对19世纪欧美的许多作家都产生过重要的影响。

沃尔特·司各特爵士，第一代准男爵 FRSE（Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet，1771年8月15日－1832年9月21日），18世纪末苏格兰著名历史小说家及诗人。

生平

司各特出生在爱丁堡牛门附近一个小巷里，是家中老九，但他的兄弟中有六人没有活到成年。父亲沃尔特·司各特是一名律师，母亲是哈里伯顿（Haliburton）家族成员。和哈里伯顿家族的詹姆斯·伯顿（James Burton，地产商）及其子德西默斯·伯顿一样，司各特后来也加入了克拉伦斯俱乐部（Clarence Club，1826年创建的一个绅士俱乐部）。

18个月时患小儿麻痹症而有腿萎缩。为了养病他在1773年被父母送到苏格兰边境靠近斯梅洛姆塔的祖父的农场生活。在这里，他的姑姑詹妮教会了他读写，给他讲了许多童话故事，这些故事在他后来的文学创中常有出现。1775年1月，司各特回到爱丁堡，同年夏和詹妮一起前往巴斯泡温泉。1776年冬回到斯梅洛姆塔，同年夏又前往普雷斯顿潘斯疗养。

1778年司各特返回爱丁堡，住在乔治广场的新家里。次年10月，他进入爱丁堡皇家高中读书，这时他的身体已经有了显著的好转，可以自己走路了。毕业之后，前往姑姑定居的凯尔索，在凯尔索高中读书，结识了詹姆斯·巴兰坦和约翰·巴兰坦，后者在未来将成为他重要的商业伙伴，负责出版司各特的作品。

1783年11月，他在12岁时进爱丁堡大学。他十分欣赏德国的“狂飙文学”，翻译过德国著名民谣《莱诺尔》。1802年司各特出版《苏格兰边区歌两集》。1805年他第一部有分量的作品《最后一个吟游诗人之歌》问世。此后他投资印刷行业。1808年出版诗歌《玛米恩》，以后他创作了《湖边夫人》、《特里亚明的婚礼》、《岛屿的领主》等一系列诗歌。他最后一部长诗是《无畏的哈罗尔德》。

司各特的诗充满浪漫的冒险故事，深受读者欢迎。但当时拜伦的诗才遮蔽了司各特的才华，司各特转向小说创作，从而首创英国历史小说，为英国文学提供了30多部历史小说巨著。最早的一部历史小说《威佛利》1813年出版，其取材于苏格兰。司各特关于英格兰历史小说有脍炙人口的《撒克逊英雄传》（或译为“艾凡赫”、“劫后英雄传”）等，关于欧洲史的小说有《昆丁·达威尔特》及《十字军英雄记》等。司各特的小说情节浪漫复杂，语言流畅生动。后世许多优秀作家都曾深受他的影响。

1826年，他投资的印刷厂倒闭，司各特以英雄气概承担了11万4000英镑的全部债务。他拼命地写作，还清了债务。过分紧张的工作使他的身体垮了下来。司各特之死使英国举国悲伤。

参考文献

• 戴炜栋《英语国家背景知识词典》大象出版社1998年9月第1版，第140-141页 ISBN 9787534720659

 

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.

In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America. His novels and poetry are still read, and many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of The Lake, Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian.

Born in College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh in 1771, the son of a solicitor, the young Walter Scott survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that would leave him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in that year to live in the rural Borders region at his grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends which characterized much of his work. In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that summer went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England. In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure being made at Prestonpans during the following summer,

In 1778 Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school, and in October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh. He was now well able to walk and explore the city as well as the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books. He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Kirk with emphasis on the Covenanters. After finishing school he was sent to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso, attending the local Grammar School where he met James Ballantyne who later became his business partner and printed his books.


Robert BurnsScott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of only twelve, so he was a year or so younger than most of his fellow students. In March 1786 he began an apprenticeship in his father's office, to become a Writer to the Signet. While at the university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, the son of Professor Adam Ferguson who hosted literary salons. Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock who lent him books as well as introducing him to James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of poems. During the winter of 1786–87 the fifteen year old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem "The Justice of the Peace" and asked who had written the poem, only Scott could tell him it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns. When it was decided that he would become a lawyer he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy and Universal History in 1789–90.

After completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. As a lawyer's clerk he made his first visit to the Scottish Highlands directing an eviction. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, who married Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet.


Literary career launched

Scott's childhood at Sandyknowes, close to Smailholm Tower, introduced him to tales of the Scottish Borders.At the age of 25 he began dabbling in writing, translating works from German, his first publication being rhymed versions of ballads by Bürger in 1796. He then published a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. This was the first sign of his interest in Scottish history from a literary standpoint.

Scott then became an ardent volunteer in the yeomanry and on one of his "raids" he met at Gilsland Spa Margaret Charlotte Charpentier (or Charpenter), daughter of Jean Charpentier of Lyon in France whom he married in 1797. They had five children. In 1799 he was appointed Sheriff-Deputy of the County of Selkirk, based in the Royal Burgh of Selkirk.

In his earlier married days, Scott had a decent living from his earnings at the law, his salary as Sheriff-Deputy, his wife's income, some revenue from his writing, and his share of his father's rather meagre estate.

After Scott had founded a printing press, his poetry, beginning with The Lay of the Last Minstrel in 1805, brought him fame. He published a number of other poems over the next ten years, including the popular The Lady of the Lake, printed in 1810 and set in the Trossachs. Portions of the German translation of this work were later set to music by Franz Schubert. One of these songs, Ellens dritter Gesang, is popularly labelled as "Schubert's Ave Maria".

Another work from this period, Marmion, produced some of his most quoted (and most often mis-attributed) lines. Canto VI. Stanza 17 reads:

Yet Clare's sharp questions must I shun,
Must separate Constance from the nun
Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!
A Palmer too! No wonder why
I felt rebuked beneath his eye;
In 1809 his sympathies led him to become a co-founder of the Quarterly Review, a review journal to which he made several anonymous contributions.


Novels

Walter ScottWhen the press became embroiled in pecuniary difficulties, Scott set out, in 1814, to write a cash-cow. The result was Waverley, a novel which did not name its author. It was a tale of the "Forty-Five" Jacobite rising in the Kingdom of Great Britain with its English protagonist Edward Waverley, by his Tory upbringing sympathetic to Jacobitism, becoming enmeshed in events but eventually choosing Hanoverian respectability. The novel met with considerable success. There followed a succession of novels over the next five years, each with a Scottish historical setting. Mindful of his reputation as a poet, he maintained the anonymous habit he had begun with Waverley, always publishing the novels under the name Author of Waverley or attributed as "Tales of..." with no author. Even when it was clear that there would be no harm in coming out into the open he maintained the façade, apparently out of a sense of fun. During this time the nickname The Wizard of the North was popularly applied to the mysterious best-selling writer. His identity as the author of the novels was widely rumoured, and in 1815 Scott was given the honour of dining with George, Prince Regent, who wanted to meet "the author of Waverley".

In 1819 he broke away from writing about Scotland with Ivanhoe, a historical romance set in 12th-century England. It too was a runaway success and, as he did with his first novel, he wrote several books along the same lines. Among other things, the book is noteworthy for having a very sympathetic Jewish major character, Rebecca, considered by many critics to be the book's real heroine - relevant to the fact that the book was published at a time when the struggle for the Emancipation of the Jews in England was gathering momentum.

As his fame grew during this phase of his career, he was granted the title of baronet, becoming Sir Walter Scott. At this time he organized the visit of King George IV to Scotland, and when the King visited Edinburgh in 1822 the spectacular pageantry Scott had concocted to portray George as a rather tubby reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie made tartans and kilts fashionable and turned them into symbols of Scottish national identity.

Scott included little in the way of punctuation in his drafts which he left to the printers to supply.


Financial woes
Beginning in 1825 he went into dire financial straits again, as his company nearly collapsed. That he was the author of his novels became general knowledge at this time as well. Rather than declare bankruptcy he placed his home, Abbotsford House, and income into a trust belonging to his creditors, and proceeded to write his way out of debt. He kept up his prodigious output of fiction (as well as producing a biography of Napoléon Bonaparte) until 1831. By then his health was failing, and he died at Abbotsford in 1832. Though not in the clear by then, his novels continued to sell, and he made good his debts from beyond the grave. He was buried in Dryburgh Abbey where nearby, fittingly, a large statue can be found of William Wallace—one of Scotland's most romantic historical figures.


His home, Abbotsford House

Displays of armour at Abbotsford HouseWhen Sir Walter Scott was a boy he sometimes travelled with his father from Selkirk to Melrose, in the Border Country where some of his novels are set. At a certain spot the old gentleman would stop the carriage and take his son to a stone on the site of the battle of Melrose (1526). Not far away was a little farm called Cartleyhole, and this he eventually purchased. In due course the farmhouse developed into a wonderful home that has been likened to a fairy palace. Through windows enriched with the insignia of heraldry the sun shone on suits of armour, trophies of the chase, fine furniture, and still finer pictures. Panelling of oak and cedar and carved ceilings relieved by coats of arms in their correct colour added to the beauty of the house. More land was purchased, until Scott owned nearly 1,000 acres (4 km²), and it is estimated that the building cost him over £25,000. A neighbouring Roman road with a ford used in olden days by the abbots of Melrose suggested the name of Abbotsford.

The last of his direct descendants to inhabit Abbotsford House was his great-great-great granddaughter Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott (8 June 1923 - 7 July 2004). She inherited it from her elder sister Patricia in 1998. Patricia and Jean turned the house into one of Scotland's premier tourist attractions, after they had to rely on paying visitors to afford the upkeep of the house. It had electricity installed only in 1962. Dame Jean was at one time a lady-in-waiting to Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester; patron of the Dandie Dinmont Club, for a breed of dog named after one of Sir Walter Scott's characters; and a horse trainer, one of whose horses, Sir Wattie, ridden by Ian Stark, won two silver medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.


Critical assessment

The Scott Monument, Edinburgh
Alternative ViewAmong the early critics of Scott was Mark Twain, who blamed Scott's "romanticization of battle" for what he saw as the South's decision to fight the American Civil War. Twain's ridiculing of chivalry in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is considered as specifically targeting Scott's books. Twain also targeted Scott in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where he names a sinking boat the Walter Scott. Three crooks drown on this wreck.


Sir Walter Scott's statue at his memorial in EdinburghFrom being one of the most popular novelists of the 19th century, Scott suffered from a disastrous decline in popularity after the First World War. The tone was set early on in E.M. Forster's classic "Aspects of the Novel" (1927), where Scott was savaged as being a clumsy writer who wrote slapdash, badly plotted novels. Scott also suffered from the rising star of Jane Austen. Considered merely an entertaining "woman's novelist" in the 19th century, in the 20th Austen began to be seen as perhaps the major English novelist of the first few decades of the 19th century. As Austen's star rose, Scott's sank, although, ironically, he had been one of the few male writers of his time to recognize Austen's genius.

Scott's ponderousness and prolixity were fundamentally out of step with Modernist sensibilities. Nevertheless, Scott was responsible for two major trends that carry on to this day. First, he essentially invented the modern historical novel; an enormous number of imitators (and imitators of imitators) would appear in the 19th century. It is a measure of Scott's influence that Edinburgh's central railway station, opened in 1854 for the North British Railway, is called Waverley Station. Second, his Scottish novels followed on from James Macpherson's Ossian cycle in rehabilitating the public perception of Highland culture after years in the shadows following southern distrust of hill bandits and the Jacobite rebellions. As enthusiastic chairman of the Celtic Society of Edinburgh he contributed to the reinvention of Scottish culture. It is worth noting, however, that Scott was a Lowland Scot, and that his re-creations of the Highlands were more than a little fanciful. His organisation of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 was a pivotal event, leading Edinburgh tailors to invent many "clan tartans" out of whole cloth, so to speak. After being essentially unstudied for many decades, a small revival of interest in Scott's work began in the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, postmodern tastes (which favoured discontinuous narratives, and the introduction of the 'first person' into works of fiction) were more favourable to Scott's work than Modernist tastes. Despite all the flaws, Scott is now seen as an important innovator, and a key figure in the development of Scottish and world literature.

Scott was also responsible, through a series of pseudonymous letters published in the Edinburgh Weekly News in 1826, for retaining the right of Scottish banks to issue their own banknotes, which is reflected to this day by his continued appearance on the front of all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland.

Many of his works were illustrated by his friend, William Allan.

In addition to Landseer, fine portraits of him were painted by fellow-Scots Sir Henry Raeburn and James Eckford Lauder.

Sir Walter Scott is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.

_Select_ions for Makars' Court are made by The Writers' Museum; The Saltire Society; The Scottish Poetry Library.


Works
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Walter Scott
The Waverley Novels
Waverley (1814)
Guy Mannering (1815)
The Antiquary (1816)
Rob Roy (1818)
Ivanhoe (1819)
Kenilworth (1821)
The Pirate (1822)
The Fortunes of Nigel (1822)
Peveril of the Peak (1822)
Quentin Durward (1823)
St. Ronan's Well (1824)
Redgauntlet (1824)
Tales of the Crusaders, consisting of The Betrothed and The Talisman (1825)
Woodstock (1826)
Chronicles of the Canongate, 2nd series, The Fair Maid of Perth (1828)
Anne of Geierstein (1829)

Tales of My Landlord
1st series The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality (1816)
2nd series, The Heart of Midlothian (1818)
3rd series, The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose (1819)
4th series, Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous (1832)

Tales from Benedictine Sources
The Abbot (1820)
The Monastery (1820)

Short stories
Chronicles of the Canongate, 1st series (1827). Collection of three short stories:
The Highland Widow, The Two Drovers and The Surgeon's Daughter.

The Keepsake Stories (1828). Collection of three short stories:
My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, The Tapestried Chamber and Death Of The Laird's Jock.


Poems
William and Helen, Two Ballads from the German (translator) (1796)
The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-1803)
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
Ballads and Lyrical Pieces (1806)
Marmion (1808)
The Lady of the Lake (1810)
The Vision of Don Roderick (1811)
The Bridal of Triermain (1813)
Rokeby (1813)
The Field of Waterloo (1815)
The Lord of the Isles (1815)
Harold the Dauntless (1817)
Young Lochinvar
Bonnie Dundee (1830)

Other

Sir Walter Scott's study at AbbotsfordIntroductory Essay to The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland (1814-1817)
The Chase (translator) (1796)
Goetz of Berlichingen (translator) (1799)
Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk (1816)
Provincial Antiquities of Scotland (1819-1826)
Lives of the Novelists (1821-1824)
Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and Drama Supplement to the 1815–24 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Halidon Hill (1822)
The Letters of Malachi Malagrowther (1826)
The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte (1827)
Religious Discourses (1828)
Tales of a Grandfather, 1st series (1828)
History of Scotland, 2 vols. (1829-1830)
Tales of a Grandfather, 2nd series (1829)
The Doom of Devorgoil (1830)
Essays on Ballad Poetry (1830)
Tales of a Grandfather, 3rd series (1830)
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (1831)
The Bishop of Tyre

Quote
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Walter ScottBreathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
from The Lay of the Last Minstrel by Walter Scott


Further reading
Bautz, Annika. Reception of Jane Austen and Walter Scott: A Comparative Longitudinal Study. Continuum, 2007. ISBN-10 082649546X, ISBN-13 978-0826495464
Brown, David. Walter Scott and the Historical Imagination. Routledge, 1979. ISBN 0710003013