Ivanhoe


"Ivanhoe," in common with "The Legend of Montrose" and "The
Bride of Lammermoor," was written, or rather dictated to
amanuenses, during a period of great physical suffering;
"through fits of suffering," says one of Scott's biographers,
"so great that he could not suppress cries of agony."
"Ivanhoe" made its appearance towards the end of 1819.
Although the book lacks much of that vivid portraiture that
distinguishes Scott's other novels, the intense vigour of the
narrative, and the striking presentation of mediaeval life,
more than atone for the former lapse. From the first,
"Ivanhoe" has been singularly successful, and it is, and has
been, more popular among English readers than any of the
so-called "Scottish novels." According to Sir Leslie Stephen,
it was Scott's culminating success in the book-selling sense.


_I.--The Hall of Cedric the Saxon_


In the hall of Rotherwood at the centre of the upper table sat Cedric
the Saxon, irritable at the delay of his evening meal, and impatient for
the presence of his favourite clown Wamba, and the return of his
swineherd Gurth. "They have been carried off to serve the Norman lords,"