Old Mortality

We all know that Sir Walter Scott invented the historical novel. Some scholars also call him father of the political novel. THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY (1816) is certainly a political novel. And a religious novel. And an historical novel. And a love story. And a masterpiece of psychological analysis. *** About all that a literate American reader might find a chore is the broad lowland Scots spoken by many of the characters, both aristocrats, servants, innkeepers and plowmen. Here is an example from Penguin Classics, Chapter 39, p. 317. It is ten years after novel's beginning. The hero, Henry Morton, using his mother's family name, Melville, has returned from political exile in the Netherlands. He had risen to major general serving King William of England and Scotland. He visits his old home and his old family domestic servant, Alison Wilson. Most people no longer recognize him. But his old cocker spaniel, Elphin, does. His servant is delighted to see her darling ("hinny") returned. For he had been thought drowned at sea. Here is some of her Scots as lightly "Europeanized" by Scott: "And what cam ye here, hinny? And where hae ye been? -- And what hae been doing? --And what for did ye na write till us? -- And how cam ye to pass yersel for dead? -- And what for did ye come creeping to your ain house as if ye had been an unco body, to gi'e pour auld Ailie sic a start?" *** Heavy doses of even thicker Scots are but one reason for American readers to prefer the Penguin Classics "ideal" first edition of MORTALITY. That scholarly Edinburgh version abounds in notes, has a very ample glossary, explanations of Scots and English idioms. Also indispensable are the "Historical Notes" (pp. 354 - 358) and the follow-on map of the upper Clyde river where so much of the action takes place. On May 3, 1679 James Sharp, Archbishop of Saint Andrews in Scotland was dragged from his coach three miles from home and executed by representatives of the extreme wing of Scottish Presbyterians known as Covenanters. Scott's novel opens a day or two later along the Clyde River upstream from Glasgow in southwestern Scotland. We meet the hero, young Henry Morton, as a moderate Presbyterian attending a Royalist muster. He loves a local Episcopalian girl of noble birth. The next few months of the novel are driven by the armed rebellion of the most fanatical of the Presbyterians being put down by the most vicious of the Royalists. *** In the process Scott lays out the abuses of power of King Charles II, including the same which nearly a century later led to the American Revolution: empowering soldiers to arrest and kill suspects without trial, quartering soldiers in private houses against the will of the owners, etc. The future of Britain (and North America) belongs to moderates, but their day will be long in dawning and hard fought. True love is tested by difference in politics and religion. Drawing on contemporary documents, Walter Scott reproduces the torrents of Bib

The tale of Old Mortality is certainly one of the great Waverley novels. Scott was writing about a historical period he knew well and a subject he cared deeply about. The result is a story both exciting and informative, full of romance and action. The novel is set mainly in the year 1679 and concerns the revolt of the strict Presbyterian Covenanters against the Episcopalian forces of Charles II. The hero of the novel, Henry Morton, is a moderate Presbyterian who through misfortune is driven to join the more extreme Covenanters. He strives to bring peace and stability back to Scotland by both opposing the zealous excesses of the Covenanters and attempting to bring about a reconciliation with those Royalists who accept, as he does, that freedom of conscience is necessary in a land divided into factions and by civil war. Morton must tread a fine line between the extremes on both sides, all the while hoping that his intended bride, the Royalist Edith Bellenden, will forgive his joining the rebels. Scott's sympathies, on the whole, are with the Royalists, but he recognises that the Covenanters, persecuted and driven to rebellion had genuine grievances. Characters on both sides behave with honour and humanity as well as with brutality and intolerance. He paints a vivid picture of these troubled times with good descriptions of the battles of Loudoun Hill and Bothwell Bridge. The characters Scott creates are often complex and full of depth. His depiction of the Royalist leader Claverhouse ("Bonnie Dundee"), is particularly good, showing him as both stern and cruel yet brave and chivalrous, a character who can be liked despite his faults. At times his depictions of the leaders of the Covenanters tend towards caricature. They are often depicted as crazed bigots. But this is counterbalanced by the characterization of Morton a man who while fighting for the right to worship as he pleases, recognises that his opponents have the same right. He embodies the message of the novel that it is tyranny, no matter from which direction it comes that is the enemy of stability and civilization. Old Mortality is written very well and is a good read, fast paced and with a plot which keeps the pages turning. However, even a Scottish reader with a good knowledge of modern Scots dialect usage is often faced with passages of Old Scots, which can be hard to decipher. It is frequently necessary to turn to the glossary and notes to translate obscure phrases and sentences. That said, it should be recognised that Scott only uses dialect in the mouths of his minor characters and the majority of the novel is written in Standard English. No one should be deterred therefore from reading what may well be Scott's masterpiece and which is certainly amongst the finest novels of the nineteenth century.

Scott's "Old Mortality" is set amidst political and religious turmoil in late 17th century Scotland. Covenanters, in that time, a sect of Presbyterians, engaged government forces of both Scotland and Britain in an effort to secure their religious freedoms. In the middle of this action is Henry Morton, a moderate youth, drawn out of his secure life by a chance encounter, and into a ten-year Odyssey of strife and conflict. Scott's portrayal of extremist religious leaders is balanced by his equally fierce portrayal of the leaders of the government's attempt to quell the uprisings. Out of this emerges Scott's real triumphs of characterization - Cuddie Headrigg, Bessie Maclure, and Jenny Denison, minor characters whose very humanity and seeming irrelevance in the cosmic scheme that Scott sets up make their actions more impressive in the context of the novel. This new Penguin edition is complemented by a wonderfully insightful introduction by Douglas Mack. If you are unfamiliar with Scott's work, this novel is an excellent introduction to one of the world's great authors.

Old Mortality is Scott's single best novel, without an ounce of fat in its taut, well-paced, and exciting narrative. The language of the characters--all of them, except for the hero and one or two other, fanatics of one type or another--is rich and fascinating, and the window it provides on a crucial moment of British history is indispensible. The Edinburgh edition is exemplary: highly readable yet to the highest standards of scholarship. A cracking good read!