Sir Walter Scott and the drama (with some account of the theatre in Edinburgh)

Abstract

Now that we have examined in some detail Scott's various points of contact with the theatre we may, I think, stop a moment to ask, what did he do for the drama? what did the drama do for him?His own dramas we may leave aside, for they have little or no practical significance; but in these "dramatic grand -children" of his, he captured, for two decades, the interest of play -goers everywhere. Professor Nicoll contents that his plots had, from their very nature, the effect of tightening the fetters of melodramatic tradition. It seems to me, nevertheless, that the Waverley dramas rendered two important services. In the first place, as I have tried to show, they gave to the bastard race of melodrama at least-a few examples in which sense, feeling and historical accuracy mingled with clear characterization well -oiled motivation and sound, but not smug morality. With the rise of melodrama, Scott had nothing to do - he would gladly have seen it "swept from the boards" - and it is obvious, when we consider how it has persisted even to our own day that there are about it many "fetters" stronger than any hammered by Scott. In rendering melodrama more artistic, therefore, I believe that the Waverley series did more good than harm. The second service is pointed out in the reminiscences of Edward Fitzball, one of the most facile of Scott's adaptors. He hails Sir Walter Scott as "the mighty luminary which reflected its lustre upon the so- called illegitimate drama" - by which he means that Scott helped to make the Minor Theatres popular, - for the great majority of the Waverley dramatizations, so far, at least, as London was concerned, were produced outside the pale of legitimacy. The competition of these unlicensed but ambitious Minor Theatres caused eventually, - though we may smile at some of the immediate results, - the downfall of monopoly and so prepared the way for the slow but sure regeneration of dramatic art in England. It would be foolish to claim for the Waverley plays any very great part in this movement, but their influence, though small, was definite, and so, I think, deserves mention.Scott's agreement and co- operation with John Kemble on the subject of accurate stage costume and setting was another distinct contribution to the betterment of the theatre. J. Robinson Planche, whom we remember as one of Fitzball's rivals, has in fact ascribed to Sir Walter "the honour of having first attracted public attention to the advantages derivable from the study of such subjects as a new source of effect as well as of historical illustration", and Professor Nicoll agrees that here, at least, Scott's influence, though he left the actual achievement, indeed, to other men, can hardly be over-exaggerated.Worthy of mention, too, is his lifelong condemnation alike of the unwieldy size of the Major Theatres in London and the immoral conditions which were still allowed to prevail there. The opinions of a man of his eminence and popularity were not, it is easy to believe, without weight, and had effect in the campaign against both of these evils.For the Scottish stage, Sir Walter did a great deal more. It is curious to note in passing that Fitzball's "mighty luminary" was in his own country the saviour of the patent house, the Edinburgh Theatre -Royal. As a shareholder, a public trustee, and a regular attendant, he lent the theatre the mantle of his eminent respectability; his open- hearted friendship with some of the foremost actors and actresses on the English stage and his evident fondness for their company at AshestriS 1 and Abbotsford, must certainly have lessened the prejudices of his countrymen toward the theatre and its folk. Not the least of his services, finally, was the entertaining tolerant and enthusiastic way he wrote of the drama in his letters, essays and review articles.quite apart from the pleasure and recreation which he got from the stage throughout his life,|Scott in his turn owes much to the drama. Benson Hill, the actor, thought that "as other authors read for a style, so he drugged himself at theatres for plots and characters" and went on to point out that there were coincidences between Scott's novels and "sundry plays, those of Shakes1 peare in particular." There can be no doubt, I third that Hill's last observation at least, is perfectly true, for nothing could be more natural than a man's interests being reflected in his work.Yet when we try to put a finger on specific instances of Scott's borrowings, we find it no simple task. "Then I convey an incident or so", he wrote in his Journal, "I am at as much pains to avoid detection as if the offense could be indicted in literal fact at the Old Bailey ". Nevertheless it is sometimes possible to detect him. Hill was not the -only contemporary to notice Shakespeare's importance in the works of Scott.In 1833, several years before the material in Lockhart's memoir was available, there appeared a. series of three lectures, the author of which is unknown, entitled A Parallel of Shakespeare and Scott. Recently the subject was taken up seriously by Dr Wilmon Brewer of Harvard, who set about combing the complete works of both authors. His care and accumen as well as the systematic presentation of his findings are commendable and convincing. Dr Brewer points out that Scott's writings from his novels to his Journal simply teem with Shakespearian allusions, and scarcely gives him credit in fact for an original idea. We must certainly discount to some extent the enthusiasm of the investigation, but one cannot I think escape the fact that Shakespeare was the greatest single influence on Scott's creative career.Lesser in degree, but quite as distinct, is his debt to other English dramatists, particularly those of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Most of them, even such forgotten men as Dekker Middleton, Brome and Southerne, furnish him with occasional mottos for his chapter headings. With others he was more intimate. Throughout his writings, he quotes freely from Ben Jonson; but he seems to have been particularly fond of Captain Bobadil who was probably (with Pistol) the original of Colepepper in Nigel. Much of the atmosphere of Old London and its characters in the same novel may well have come from his recollection of Eastward Ho. Beaumont and Fletcher, also, particularly the latter partner, interested Scott greatly. I have referred already to his use of a. long speech from their Bonduca to preface his war-song for the Light Dragoons. In the heroine of this play we recognize many of the fierce traits of Helen Macgregor. To Philaster the poem of Harold the Dauntless owed the first part of the story of Eiver.Nearly every Restoration dramatist is mentioned at least by name in The Pirate; and in his introduction to The Fortunes of Nigel, Mr Andrew Lang says "The scenes in Alsatia, are a distinct gain to literature, a pearl rescued from the unread mass of Shadwell" - particularly, of course, The Squire of Alsatia. Scott often quoted from Otway's Venice Preserved, and he may have found in The Orphan many suggestions for the betrayal of Clara in St. Ronan's Well. Chief of the Restoration influences, naturally, was that of Dryden himself. The poetry of The Lay seems at some points to resemble passages in Tyrannic Love; but the outstanding example of borrowing, it seems to me, is Ivanhoe, which is "heroic" and Drydonian throughout. The trial of Rebecca follows closely the outline of Alma hide's in The Conquest of Granada. The tournament, it is true, owes something to Drydon's Chaucerian Pala.mon and Arcite and The Knight's Tale, but there is in it also much of the bull-fight which begins the same play. Czmyn salutes and curvets exactly as the editor's Ivanhoe does before the Royal Box at Ashby.To Schiller, as well, Scott owes a debt. In Kenilworth the whole of Chapter eighteen is based on Wallenstein; which supplied many of the picturesque details of Leicester's interview with his astrologer. The chapter in Ivanhoe which describes the attack on the castle of Torquilstone is headed by a quotation (probably Scott's own rendering for at that time no translation had appeared) from The Maid of Orleans, and Rebecca's description of the battle may have drawn inspiration from the play. Schiller's chief influence, however, was a matter more of method than of context, for he had developed Shakespeare's practice of combining romance and history, and must share with Shakespeare himself the credit of having passed it along to Scott.Finally, we can hardly do better than to quote his own remark a few years before his death which sums up rather adequately our study of Walter Scott and the Drama:"In Short, the drama is in ours, as in most civilized countries, an engine possessing the most powerful effect on the manners of society. The frequency of reference, quotation and allusion to plays of all kinds, from the masterpieces of Shakespeare's genius down to the farce which has the run of a season, gives a dramatic colouring to the conversation and habits of expression; and those who look into the matter strictly will be surprised to find, how much our ordinary language and ordinary ideas are modified by what we have seen and heard on the stage."