Walter Scott

Walter Scott (1771-1832) was one of the most progressive figures of the romantic period. He was very popular during his lifetime with his poems and historic novels.

Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh to the family of educated middle-class people. His father who belonged to an ancient Scottish family was a lawyer. When Walter was 18 months old, he fell ill and the disease left him lame for life. He began to go to a private school in Bristol and continued his education in High School in Edinburgh. After school he followed his father’s profession and became a lawyer.

Soon Scott began to write. His famous works are Ivanhoe, The Monastery, Black Dwarf, Richard the Lion-Heart and many others. Walter Scott created a new genre in English literature, the historic novel. He was greatly interested in the past of his country and studied it by documents, history and legends.

Ivanhoe, one of the best novels of Walter Scott, describes the events of the 12th century during the reign of Richard the Lion-Heart. The power in England at that time was in the hands of the Normans, who oppressed the native Anglo-Saxon population. There were serious conflicts between the Anglo-Saxon nobility and the Normans. In his novel Scott wanted to show how, as years passed, the Anglo-Saxon and the Normans became one nation. Besides, we see how Norman-French influenced the English language. The main characters of the novel are Cedric the Saxon, his son Ivanhoe and his niece Rowena. At the beginning of the novel Cedric considers the Normans the enemies of England, but in the end he realises that it’s impossible to rid England of the Normans. The novel has a happy end and Ivanhoe and Rowena get married.

Also Walter Scott wrote poems. Here are some of them:

Fame

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!

To all sensual world proclaim,

One crowded hour of glorious life

Is worth an age without a name!

clarion – поэт. рожок, горн sensual[‘sensjuэl]– чувственный

fife – труба proclaim – провозглашать

worth – стоящий glorious – славный

Love and the Rose

The rose is fairest when ’tis budding new,

And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears,

The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew,

And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears!..

’tis = it is dew – роса

bud – бутон; даватьбутоны embalm[im’ba:m] – бальзамировать

dawn – рассвет; рассветать, пробуждаться tear – слеза