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Sir Walter Scott
THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805) Reviewed by Patrick Killough NOTE: For each review I
rated
THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL * * * * *, as high as permitted.
I. Review for www.bn.com REVIEW TITLE: Human Love Triumphs Over Preternatural Evil "The
way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old." This couplet begins THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. That narrative poem in six cantos by Sir Walter Scott burst in 1805 upon a world tiring of learned, long-syllabled, rationalistic verse tales. Europe was ready for something simpler, something old-timey, direct, passionate, colorful, romantic. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL was an answer to a prayer. For nearly three more decades Walter Scott repeatedly put narrative layers between himself and his readers, between his time and past time. That literary pattern of layering or framing began brilliantly with a tale told not by Scott but by his creature, "the last minstrel." An aged Scottish bard had played his harp and sung before nobles and kings, specifically in Edinburgh to "King Charles the Good" (Charles I). But now it is the 1690s. The Stuarts were recently ousted and a stodgy German dynasty rules from London. Hanoverian tastes were, thank God, not as extreme as those of the Puritans who had once passed laws against minstrels. Still, the tale's narrator is nowadays unsponsored and almost forgotten, playing more often for villagers than for nobles. Of an evening he wearily seeks lodging at Branksome Tower and is welcomed by the Duchess of Buccleuch, widow of Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. To an appreciative audience he sings a tale of one of their border clan Scott ancestors. Events sung occurred in the 1550s when Mary Stuart was losing her sway as Queen of Scots and her half-brother held real power as Regent. A much earlier widowed "Ladye" of Buccleuch than she before whom the Last Minstrel sang had enjoyed considerable inherited magical power. To prevent her daughter Margaret from marrying Lord Henry Cranstoun, with whom the Scotts Clan were feuding, she sends a valiant but unlearned and irreligious knight, Sir William Deloraine, on a ride 20 miles by night to Melrose Abbey to fetch from the tomb of the late wizard Michael Scott a book of magic containing a powerful spell to prevent the marriage. On his return ride from Melrose to Bransome, Deloraine encounters and is severely wounded in battle by Lord Henry Cranstoun. Baron Henry leaves his "elfin page" (based on Gilpin Horner a well known figure in Scottish legend) to tend the fallen foe. The page, a creature of both Satan and the dead Michael Scott, opens the forbidden book and learns one spell: how to create "glamour" (i.e. to make things seem to change their shapes to beholders). He then kidnaps the boy heir of Buccleuch, leaves him in the woods and returns to Bransome to impersonate the lad and to engage in no little mischief. The young heir is captured by the English who use him to persuade his mother to hand over for trial Sir William Deloraine, a notorious cross-border raider. In an agreed upon duel, Lord Cranstoun impersonates the wounded Deloraine and defeats the English champion. The young heir and chief of the Clan Scott is then restored to his mother. "The Ladye" also yields to a fate beyond and above her magic and allows Margaret to wed Cranstoun. Nearby river and mountain spirits are pleased that higher powers have blessed the love of Margaret and Henry." Scott wrote that THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL "is intended to illustrate the customs and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England Scotland." The poem can be enjoyed by people who do not know or care for the history of Scotland or the ancient superstitions of the Borderfor its glorious music and as if it were a science fiction tale of a parallel universe. But thanks to long notes by Scott and other commentators, THE LAY is also a compelling introduction to real Scottish history. In England and on the Continent this long poem put Scotland on the map as something other than a small appendage of England; Scotland ancient Alba, it was Caledonia, it was a land of beauty, magic, feuds and tradition. Scots were important, passionate people. No less a figure than Dante had mentioned the wizard Michael Scott. A beautiful Countess Dalkeith, later duchess of Buccleuch, had importuned Scott to write a ballad about the goblin page, Gilpin Horner. The result, THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL, was an instant international best seller. For it spoke to something deep within all humans and not just within a few thousand Scotsmen who knew its historical background. -OOO- ==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- II. Review for www.amazon.com THIS REVIEW'S TITLE: "For love is heaven, and heaven is love." THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL is a story of love triumphant over black magic and sorcery. Lord Walter Scott, hereditary chief of the lowland border Clan Scott and 16th century ancestor of the LAY's early 19th century author, Sir Walter Scott, had recently fallen in a feud with other Scottish clans. His daughter the Lady Margaret Scott nonetheless loves her clan's foeman, Lord Henry Cranstoun. They are determined to find a way to wed. But Margaret's widowed mother, "the Ladye" Scott, will have none of this and she has inherited magical powers to call upon. Beyond her own moderate skills in the black arts, the Ladye also has the right in dire need, such as this love affair, to remove from a tomb in nearby Melrose Abbey the Book of Spells of William Scott, a powerful wizard known even to Dante. She sends a knight to fetch the book. After interventions by spirits of river and mountains, and by a "goblin page" of Baron Cranstoun and after kidnapping for black-mail of the Ladye's young son and heir, Lord Henry and Lady Margaret are finally permitted to wed. Powers greater than her magic have forced the Ladye's hand. The poem takes its title from the fact that its story is narrated nearly a century and a half later than events re-created by the last wandering bard of Scotland. He sings to another high Clan Scott lady, the widow of the recently executed treasonous Duke of Monmouth. In the third of the poem's six cantos the Last Minstrel exclaims: "In
peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;
In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above; For love is heaven, and heaven is love." The Europe of 1805 wanted love, color, music and magic. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL burst upon that world and gave it all it wanted, and more. -OOO- =-===-=-=-=-=-=-= Kerrville, Texas 02/14/2007 III. Review for www.epinions.com Title of this review: In 16th Century Scotland spirits good and evil abound. But human love conquers all In the 1550s the marshy low country Borderlands of Scotland and England were more than usually unsettled. Both English and Scottish raiders stole cattle and fled across the moors. On constant guard against their Southern neighbors, Scots also made time for bloody feuds with other Scots. Caught in one of these is young, beautiful Lady Margaret Scott and brave young Lord Henry Cranstoun. Heaven is in favor of young love and so are local spirits of river and hill, whose voices reach to Branksome Tower and Margaret's mother. Styled "The Ladye," of Buccleuch, she has been recently widowed in a feud and will not hear of a marriage. She has inherited moderate abilities in black magic and replies to the spirits: "Your
mountains shall bend
And your streams ascend, Ere Margaret be our foeman's bride." The Ladye sends a devoted knight to Melrose Abbey to fetch from an ancestral tomb a powerful book of spells. On his return, the knight is unhorsed and nigh mortally wounded by Lord Henry Cranstoun. To Cranstoun is attached an elfin page who had been a creature of the powerful wizard Michael of the Scott Clan buried at Melrose. This page carries the wounded knight to be healed by the Ladye but not before opening the book of spells and learning how to make viewers misread shapes of creatures they see. He kidnaps the young heir of the Duke of Buccleuch. The English capture the boy and use him as a pawn to extract concessions on border raids and other points from Ladye Scott. As Scottish and English forces assemble, a compromise allows a duel to settle the matter. Posing as the stricken knight of The Ladye, young Lord Henry bests his foe. The boy heir comes back to his mother, who feels compelled to consent to the wedding she had fought by the black arts. Love conquers even Satan, imps and magic. That is the Lay. It is, however, cleverly framed. For the events above are sung nearly a century and a half later by Scotland's "Last Minstrel." His profession had been virtually exterminated under Cromwell and the Puritans. But he had later sung for Stuart Kings before they lost the throne to the German Hanoverians. Now virtually unknown, this great bard is invited to sing by a much later Lady of Buccleuch, recent widow of the Duke of Monmouth, who had been executed by his uncle King James II for treason. He recounts the love of Margaret and Henry, the enmity of The Ladye, the interest of local spirits of water and hill, the power of love, the meddling of Henry's goblin page (based on the Lowland Scot legend of one Gilpin Horner) and other complicated developments. Besides the plot and
its brilliant framework as being the re-telling of an ancient story by
a not much less ancient (in 1805) bard, THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL
abounds in lyric couplets, landscape descriptions
("If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight"), moral reflections, scenes of combat, magic, superstition, religion and more. Nothing quite like THE LAY had been seen before in Europe. It took the world by storm for its freshness, simplicity and glimpses of vanished times and practices on the borders of Scotland and England. -OOO- Pros The poem that put Scotland on the world's literary map. Sheer delight to read aloud. Cons For readers not native to the Scottish borderland, historical and linguistic notes are a must. The Bottom Line A brilliant title for a brilliant literary device: an early tale told by a minstrel still ancient to us. You want to shout or sing this tale for sheer joy. Kerrville, Texas 02/14/2007 Revisited Black Mountain, NC 07/07/2007 =-=-=-=-=- http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/sirws_lay.html |