Walter Scott
Books and Quotes Collection
Marmion
1808The Lady of the Lake
1810
Fear naught—nay, that I need not say— / But—doubt not aught from mine array. / Thou art my guest;—I pledged my word / As far as Coilantogle ford: [...]
To share, with ill-concealed disdain, / Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain.
Slighting the petty need he showed, / He told of his benighted road; [...]
"Have, then, thy wish!"—he whistled shrill, / And he was answered from the hill; / Wild as the scream of the curlieu, / From crag to crag the signal flew.
So toilsome was the road to trace, /
The guide, abating of his pace, /
Led slowly through the pass's jaws, […]
As the tall ship, whose lofty prore / Shall never stem the billows more […] !
Waverley
1814
Captain Waverley,—my young and esteemed friend, Mr Falconer of Balmawhapple, has craved of my age and experience, as of one not wholly unskilled in the dependencies and punctilios of the duello or monomachia, to be his interlocutor in expressing to you the regret with which he calls to remembrance certain passages of our symposion last night, which could not but be highly displeasing to you, as serving for the time under this present existing government.
The title of this work has not been chosen without the grave and solid deliberation which matters of importance demand from the prudent.
Would not the owl have shrieked and the cricket cried in my very title-page? and could it have been possible for me, with a moderate attention to decorum, to introduce any scene more lively than might be produced by the jocularity of a clownish but faithful valet, or the garrulous narrative of the heroine's fille-de-chambre, when rehearsing the stories of blood and horror which she had heard in the servants' hall?
Or if I had rather chosen to call my work a 'Sentimental Tale,' would it not have been a sufficient presage of a heroine with a profusion of auburn hair, and a harp, the soft solace of her solitary hours...
Again, had my title borne, 'Waverley, a Romance from the German,' what head so obtuse as not to image forth a profligate abbot, an oppressive duke, a secret and mysterious association of Rosycrucians and Illuminati, with all their properties of black cowls, caverns, daggers, electrical machines, trap-doors, and dark-lanterns?
Much may also be gained by a lively display of a modern fete, such as we have daily recorded in that part of a newspaper entitled the Mirror of Fashion...
Our malignant feelings, which must seek gratification through more indirect channels, and undermine the obstacles which they cannot openly bear down, may be rather said to be tinctured sable.
It is, then, sixty years since Edward Waverley, the hero of the following pages, took leave of his family, to join the regiment of dragoons in which he had lately obtained a commission.
The ministry of George the First's time were prudently anxious to diminish the phalanx of opposition.
Although these events followed each other so closely that the sagacity of the editor of a modern newspaper would have presaged the two last even while he announced the first, yet they came upon Sir Everard gradually, and drop by drop, as it were, distilled through the cool and procrastinating alembic of Dyer's 'Weekly Letter.'
Guy Mannering
1815
Men and women busy in baking, broiling, roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron.
Though an East-Indian, he was not partial to an ostentatious display of wealth. In fact, he was too proud a man to be a vain one.
The public road, however, was tolerably well-made and safe, so that the prospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger.
Of a surety, little Harry, we must speedily resume our studies.
his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villainy
[T]he good Dominie bore all his disasters with gravity and serenity equally imperturbable. "Prodi-gi-ous!" was the only ejaculation they ever extorted from the much-enduring man.
The Antiquary
1816
As they thus pressed forward, longing doubtless to exchange the easy curving line, which the sinuosities of the bay compelled them to adopt, for a straiter and more expeditious path, though less conformable to the line of beauty, Sir Arthur observed a human figure on the beach advancing to meet them.
Now I will make dis avail me at de change of every quarter-moon dat I shall find by the same proportions of expenses I lay out in de suffumigations, as nine, to de product of nine multiplied unto itself.
Quickens-bog may at first seem to derive its name from the plant Quicken, by which, Scotticé, we understand couch-grass, dog-grass, or the Triticum repens of [Carl] Linnæus, and the common English monosyllable Bog, by which we mean, in popular language, a marsh or morass; in Latin, Palus.
Old Mortality
1816Rob Roy
1817
In the entrance hall I was somewhat surprised, and my fair companion still more so, when we met Rashleigh Osbaldistone, who could not help shewing equal wonder at our rencontre.
He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.
Although youngest of the family, he has somehow or other got the entire management of all the others.
The wits and humourists, the distinguished worthies of the town or village, the apothecary, the attorney, even the curate himself, did not disdain to partake of this hebdomadal festivity.
Soh! she would secure me as a pis aller, I suppose, in case Mr Rashleigh Osbaldistone should not take compassion upon her!
[H]ad I been in ony o' your rotten French camlets now, or your drab-de-berries, it would hae screeded like an auld rag wi' sic a weight as mine.
“In that case, sir,” she rejoined, “as my kinsman’s politeness seems to be still slumbering, you will permit me (though I suppose it is highly improper) to stand mistress of ceremonies, and to present to you young Squire Thorncliff Osbaldistone, your cousin, […]”
Was it not Wat the Devil, who drove all the year-old hogs off the braes of Lanthorn-side, in the very recent days of my grandfather's father?
Rob soon gathered an unco band o' blue-bonnets at his back.
"That's as muckle as till say, Bark, Bawtie, and be dune wi't!—I tell ye," raising her termagant voice, "I want my bairn! is na that braid Scots?"
I shall be on that lay nae mair
What think ye o' yon bonny hill yonder, lifting its brow to the moon? […] [M]aybe we will win there the night yet, God sain us, though our minny [a horse] here's rather driegh in the upgang.
Ivanhoe
1819
“By my halidom,” said he, “we have forgotten, Sir Prior, to name the fair Sovereign of Love and of Beauty, by whose white hand the palm is to be distributed.”
"That will I do blithely," replied the Pilgrim, "and without guerdon; my oath, for a time, prohibits me from touching gold."
The entrance to this ancient place of devotion was under a very low round arch, ornamented by several courses of that zig-zag moulding, resembling shark's teeth, which appears so often in the more ancient Saxon churches.
He led the way to the adjoining cell, which, as the reader is apprised, was occupied by Gurth the swine-herd.— […]
[W]here am I to find such a sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar at Jorvaulx, I shall scarce raise the half; […]
By Heaven, and all saints in it, better food hath not passed my weasand for three livelong days, and by God’s providence it is that I am now here to tell it.
A hide of land I give to thee in my steads of Walbrugham, from me and mine to thee and thine aye and for ever; and God’s malison on his head who this gainsays!
It may be they know something of the witcheries of this woman.
“It is full time,” said De Bracy, “that the outrecuidance of these peasants should be restrained by some striking example.”
The Prior at length […] rode off with considerably less pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition, so far as worldly matters were concerned, than he had exhibited before this rencounter.
A Legend of Montrose
1819
There they are that were capering on their prancing nags four days since, and they are now ganging as driegh and sober as oursells the day.
Some secret sorrow, or the brooding spirit of some moody passion, had quenched the light and ingenuous vivacity of youth in a countenance singularly fitted to display both […]
The Monastery
1820
These are thing to make modern agriculturists hold up their hands and stare; but the same mode of cultivation is not yet entirely in desuetude in some distant parts of North Britain, and may be witnessed in full force and exercise in the Zetland Archipelago.
"As we have," he said, "in the course of this our toilsome journey, lost our meridian, indulgence shall be given to those of our attendants who shall, from very weariness, be unable to attend the duty at prime, and this by way of misericord or indulgentia."
“Sir Knight,” said the youth, “it is the custom of this Halidome, or patrimony of St. Mary's, to trouble with inquiries no guests who receive our hospitality, providing they tarry in our house only for a single revolution of the sun. We know that both criminals and debtors come hither for sanctuary, and we scorn to extort from the pilgrim, whom chance may make our guest, an avowal of the cause of his pilgrimage and penance.
The Abbot
1820Kenilworth
1821Saint Ronan's Well
1823
"This Mr. Tyrrel," she said, in a tone of authoritative decision, "seems after all a very ordinary sort of person, quite a commonplace man."
[T]wo raw lads from a certain great manufacturing town […] were in the act of seeking for the speediest exit from the gardens; rather choosing to resign their share of the dinner, than to abide the farther consequences that might follow from the displeasure of his Highland Termagaunt.
Quentin Durward
1823
The latter part of the fifteenth century prepared a train of future events, that ended by raising France to a formidable power, which has ever since been, from time to time, the principal object of jealousy to the other European nations.
" […] And now, our news are told, noble Crevecoeur, and what think you they resemble?" "A mine full charged with gunpowder," answered Crevecoeur, "to which, I fear, it is my fate to bring the kindled linstock. Your news and mine are like flax and fire, which cannot meet without bursting into flame, or like certain chemical substances which cannot be mingled without an explosion."
"I can answer a civil question civilly," said the youth, "and will pay fitting respect to your age, if you do not urge my patience with mockery. Since I have been here in France and Flanders, men have called me, in their fantasy, the Varlet with the Velvet Pouch, because of this hawk purse which I carry by my side; but my true name, when at home, is Quentin Durward." / "Durward!" said the querist; "is it a gentleman's name?"
Some male or female flatterer had, in evil hour, possessed him with the idea that there was much beauty of contour in a pair of huge substantial legs, which he had derived from his father, a car-man of Limoges; […]
Peveril of the Peak
1823
"And thereupon I pledge thee," said the young nobleman, "which on any other argument I were loth to do—thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut of a villain."
I ought to have temporized with this singular being, learned the motives of its interference, and availed myself of its succor, [...]
[…] Lance, after having made some shew of helping him to his horse, ran back to tell his master the joyful intelligence, that a lucky accident had abated Chiffinch's party to their own number.
Redgauntlet
1824
"Ow, he is just a wood harum-scarum creature, that wad never take to his studies;—daft, sir, clean daft." / […] / "[W]owff—a wee bit by the East-Nook or sae; it's a common case—the ae half of the warld thinks t'other daft. I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell; […]" / "I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue," said the Cumbrian justice; "can you, neighbour—eh? What can he mean by deft?" / "He means mad", said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard by impatience of this protracted discussion.
[…] Cristal Nixon at that moment rode up to them, and said, with an affectation of jocularity which sat very ill upon his sullen features, […]
The old man […] began to suffer in the body as well as the mind. He had formed the determination of setting out in person for Dumfriesshire, when, after having been dogged, peevish, and snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost intolerable degree, the acrimonious humours settled in a hissing-hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known tamer of the most froward spirits, […]
The Talisman
1825
Thou hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile — some well-devised stratagem — the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye.
" […] Formerly, it is said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points, and must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the gainstander."
Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts, and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of particular planets, and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the means of advancing men's fortunes in various manners.
But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger.
An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.
Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and—search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom—it is either in the steel-casket, or somewhere else.
The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.
The rose-buds, withered as they were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his heart.
Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and partisans brandished, and bows already bended.
"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."
Woodstock
1826
"Yes, fell woman," answered Middlemas; "but was it I who encouraged the young tyrant's outrageous passion for a portrait, or who formed the abominable plan of placing the original within his power?" / "No—for to do so required brain and wit. But it was thine, flimsy villain, to execute the device which a bolder genius planned; it was thine to entice the woman to this foreign shore, under pretence of a love, which, on thy part, cold-blooded miscreant, never had existed."
"She canna do that," said another sapient of the same profession— […]
Anne of Geierstein
1829Books Collection
Marmion
The Lady of the Lake
Waverley
The Lord of the Isles
The Antiquary
Old Mortality
Rob Roy
The Heart of Midlothian
Ivanhoe
The Bride of Lammermoor
The Monastery
The Abbot
Kenilworth
Saint Ronan's Well
Quentin Durward
Peveril of the Peak
Redgauntlet
The Talisman
Chronicles of the Canongate
Anne of Geierstein
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott
Pro
Guy Mannering
Pro
A Legend of Montrose
Pro
Woodstock