University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 1987 Scott, Chaucer, and Medieval Romance: A Study in Sir Walter Scott's Indebtedness to the Literature of the Middle Ages Jerome Mitchell University of Georgia Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Mitchell, Jerome, "Scott, Chaucer, and Medieval Romance: A Study in Sir Walter Scott's Indebtedness to the Literature of the Middle Ages" (1987). Literature in English, British Isles. 45. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/45 SCOTTP GHAUGER, AND MEDIEVAL ROMANCE AND MEDIEVAL A Study in Sir Walter Scott's Indebtedness to the Literature of the Middle Ages JEROME MITCHELL THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Frontispiere: Sir Walter Scott, from a portrait by John Watson (later Sir John Watson Gordon). Courtesv of the Scottish National Portrait Gallerv. Copyright O 1987 bv Thc University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonurealth serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre <:allege of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, 'The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society Kentucky State CJniversity, Morehead State CTniversity, hlurray State Universitv, Northern Kentucky University, 'Tiansvlvania University, CJniversity of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. I?'ditoria/andSales 0ff;ce.c: Ixxington, Kentucky 40506-0024 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mitchell, Jerome. Scott, Chaucer, and medieval romance. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832-Knowledge- Literature. 2. Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832-Sources. 3. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 140GInfluence-Scott. 4. Romances-History and criticism. 5. Middle ages in literature, 6. Med~evalismin literature. 7. Literature, hledicval-History and crircism. I. Title. PR5343. L56h158 1987 828'.709 87-8294 ISBN 0-81 31 -1 609-0 For my mother MARIE DICK MITCHELL and my brother JOHN LEE MITCHELL and in memoq of my father EMERSON LEE MITCHELL This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Preface ix 1. Scott's Knowledge of Medieval Literature 1 2. The Narrative Poetry 40 3. The Early Novels, 1814-1816 86 4. Novels of the Broken Years, 1817-1819 108 5. Novels of the High-Noon Period, 1820-1825 138 6. Novels of the Dark Days and Servitude, 1826-1832 183 7. Style and Structure in the Waverley Novels 213 8. Conclusion 242 Notes 249 Index 262 This page intentionally left blank THIS BOOK is a study of Sir Walter Scott's indebtedness to Chaucer and to medieval romance, especially the Middle English romances, for story- patterns, motifs, character types, style and structure, and detail ofone sort or another. In the first of eight chapters I establish as best I can the extent of Scott's knowledge of medieval literature, showing which romances he knew (and in which editions), which romances he knew of and had read in, and which ones he did not know. In the second chapter I discuss his poetry, especially the long narrative poems, in relation to Chaucer and medieval romance. Chapters 3 through 6 deal mainly with the Waverley Novels: the early novels, 1814-16; novels of the broken years, 1817-19; novels of the high-noon period, 1820-25; and novels of the dark days and servitude, 1826-32-my phraseology coming from John Buchan's beautifully written biography, Sir Walter Scott (London: Cassell, 1932). In these chapters I go through the novels one by one, showing what specifically Scott has drawn from Chaucer and medieval romance and how he has used it. In some of the novels the borrowing is superficial; in others it runs deep and is essential to what Scott is doing. Matters of style and structure relevant to the poems are discussed in the second chapter; the seventh is devoted to style and structure in the novels. In the last chapter I try to explain how Scott's reliance on Chaucer and medieval romance enhances and deepens his poems and novels and why it works so effectively. John Gibson Lockhart, his son-in-law and biographer, once said about Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: "No person who has not gone through its volumes for the express purpose of comparing their contents with his great original works, can have formed a conception of the endless variety of incidents and images now expanded and emblazoned by his mature art, of which the first hints may be found either in the text of those primitive ballads, or in the notes, which the happy rambles of his youth had gathered together for their illustration." Much the same can be said about Scott and medieval literature. I believe that medieval romance is the x Preface single most important literary source for the Waverley Novels, even more pervasive than Shakespeare (whose influence on Scott was great and profound), and that an understanding of Scott's debt to it is the key to an understanding of his immense appeal. Let me say too that I fully realize the danger inherent in a study of this sort. When one source area is put under a magnifying glass, it inevitably gets blown up out of proportion. As great as the influence of medieval literature is, it does not overshadow all other influences, for Scott's reading was vast and omnivorous. Here and there I have cited other possible sources. While it has long been known that Scott knew medieval romance, other studies have been concerned with his medievalism in general rather than with specific indebtedness to specific romances. The present study deals, as much as possible, in specifics within the boundaries I have set. Some limitations in scope have been necessary and inevitable. I have not said very much about Scott and Italian romance, and for this subject I refer the reader to R.D.S. Jack's chapter on "The Novel and Scott" in his pioneering book, The Italian Influence on Scottish L,iterature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1972). I have also not said much about Scott's debt to Old Norse; for this material the reader may consult John M. Simpson's "Scott and Old Norse Literature," included in the Scott Birentenary Essays, edited by Alan Bell (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1973). I have given very short shrift to chronicles and to long works that hover between romance and chronicle, like Barbour's Bruce. As for ballads, I have tried to limit myself to those that share motifs with romances that Scott knew and to those that are later versions of romances. ("The farther our researches are extended," Scott once wrote, "the more we shall see ground to believe, that the romantic ballads of later times are, for the most part, abridgments of the ancient metrical romances, narrated in a smoother stanza and more modern language.") Despite these and other limitations, a wealth of material is here, and the scope of the present study is very large. I would like to express special thanks to the helpful and friendly staff of the National Library of Scotland, in Edinburgh, where I did the major part of my research. Most of the material I needed was there-and the library is close to where the house once stood, at the top of Guthrie Street, in which Walter Scott was born; it is only a short distance from George Square and the house, still standing, in which he lived as a boy and young man; it is only a stone's throw from the site of the old Tolbooth, long since demolished and removed, where Effie Deans was imprisoned for having allegedly murdered her newborn child; it is at the top of a steep street (Victoria Street and West Bow) leading into the Grassmarket, where Captain John Porteous was lynched by determined,avengers before a mob Preface xi of onlookers; it is a twenty-five-minute walk from the Salisbury Crags, where one awesome night Jeanie Deans met with the seducer of her sister and where on pleasant days young Walter Scott and his friend John Irving used to go to read old romances together and to compose new ones for each other's amusement. I must also thank the library staff at the University of Bonn, where I read the German dissertations that I cite in this book; many of these had to be ordered on interlibrary loan, sometimes from East Germany. I am also indebted to many individuals for help, especially James C. Corson, Kurt Gamerschlag, George 0. Marshall, Jr., Patricia and Jean Maxwell-Scott, Coleman 0. Parsons, Charles I. Patterson, Jr., and Donald E. Sultana. Without their advice this book would have been the poorer, and without their encouragement it might never have been. I hasten to add that all faults and shortcomings are entirely my own. This page intentionally left blank SCOTT'S KNOWLEDGE OF MEDIEVAL LITERATURE HOW MUCH medieval literature was Scott familiar with, specifically, and how do we know? These basic questions must be answered at the outset, and no study of which I am aware considers them with any degree of completeness.1 Fortunately, Scott himself has a lot to tell us. Scattered throughout the four volumes of his Minstrelsy of the Srottish Rorde~zthat is, in the introductions, essays, and explanatory notes, he has numerous allusions to Chaucer and to medieval romance. Much can be found too in the lengthy introduction and notes to his edition (the first ever) of the Middle English poem Sir Tm'strem (1804).