THE ANTIQUARY
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THE ANTIQUARY
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
I knew Anselmo. He was shrewd and prudent,
Wisdom and cunning had their shares of him;
But he was shrewish as a wayward child,
And pleased again by toys which childhood please;
As---book of fables, graced with print of wood,
Or else the jingling of a rusty medal,
Or the rare melody of some old ditty,
That first was sung to please King Pepin's cradle
INTRODUCTION
The present work completes a series of fictitious narratives, intended
to illustrate the manners of Scotland at three different periods.
_Waverley_ embraced the age of our fathers, _Guy Mannering_ that
of our own youth, and the _Antiquary_ refers to the last ten years
of the eighteenth century. I have, in the two last narratives especially,
sought my principal personages in the class of society who are
the last to feel the influence of that general polish which assimilates
to each other the manners of different nations. Among the same
class I have placed some of the scenes in which I have endeavoured
to illustrate the operation of the higher and more violent passions;
both because the lower orders are less restrained by the habit of suppressing
their feelings, and because I agree, with my friend Wordsworth,
that they seldom fail to express them in the strongest and
most powerful language. This is, I think, peculiarly the case with
the peasantry of my own country, a class with whom I have long
been familiar. The antique force and simplicity of their language,
often tinctured with the Oriental eloquence of Scripture, in the
mouths of those of an elevated understanding, give pathos to their
grief, and dignity to their resentment.
I have been more solicitous to describe manners minutely than to
arrange in any case an artificial and combined narrative, and have
but to regret that I felt myself unable to unite these two requisites of
a good Novel.
The knavery of the adept in the following sheets may appear
forced and improbable; but we have had very late instances of the
force of superstitious credulity to a much greater extent, and the
reader may be assured, that this part of the narrative is founded on
a fact of actual occurrence.
I have now only to express my gratitude to the Public for the
distinguished reception which, they have given to works, that have
little more than some truth of colouring to recommend them, and to
take my respectful leave, as one who is not likely again to solicit
their favour.
*
To the above advertisement, which was prefixed to the first edition
of the Antiquary, it is necessary in the present edition to add a few
words, transferred from the Introduction to the Chronicles of the
Canongate, respecting the character of Jonathan Oldbuck.
``I may here state generally, that although I have deemed historical
personages free subjects of delineation, I have never on any
occasion violated the respect due to private life. It was indeed
impossible that traits proper to persons, both living and dead, with
whom I have had intercourse in society, should not have risen
to my pen in such works as Waverley, and those which, followed it.
But I have always studied to generalise the portraits, so that they
should still seem, on the whole, the productions of fancy, though
possessing some resemblance to real individuals. Yet I must own
my attempts have not in this last particular been uniformly successful.
There are men whose characters are so peculiarly marked,
that the delineation of some leading and principal feature, inevitably
places the whole person before you in his individuality. Thus
the character of Jonathan Oldbuck in the Antiquary, was partly
founded on that of an old friend of my youth, to whom I am indebted
for introducing me to Shakspeare, and other invaluable favours; but
I thought I had so completely disguised the likeness, that it could not
be recognised by any one now alive. I was mistaken, however, and
indeed had endangered what I desired should be considered as a
secret; for I afterwards learned that a highly respectable gentleman,
one of the few surviving friends of my father, and an acute critic,
had said, upon the appearance of the work, that he was now convinced
who was the author of it, as he recognised, in the Antiquary, traces
of the character of a very intimate friend<*> of my father's family.''
* [The late George Constable of Wallace Craigie, near Dundee.]
