Walter Scott

:For the first Premier of Saskatchewan see Thomas Walter Scott

Literary career launched

At the age of 25 he began dabbling in writing, translating works from German, his first publication being rhymed versions of ballads by Bürger in 1796. He then published a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. This was the first sign of his interest in Scotland and history from a literary standpoint.

Related Topics:
German - 1796

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Scott then became an ardent volunteer in the yeomanry and on one of his "raids" he met at Gilsland Spa Margaret Charlotte Charpentier (or Charpenter), daughter of Jean Charpentier of Lyon in France who he married in 1797. They had five children. In 1799 he was appointed sheriff deputy of the county of Selkirk. In his earlier married days, Scott had a decent living from the monies he earned at the law, his salary as deputy sheriff, his wife's income, some revenue from his writing, and his share of his father's rather meagre estate.

Related Topics:
Yeomanry - Margaret Charlotte Charpentier - Jean Charpentier - Lyon - France - 1797 - 1799 - Selkirk

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After Scott had founded a printing press, his poetry, beginning with The Lay of the Last Minstrel in 1805, brought him fame. He published a number of other poems over the next ten years, including in 1810 the popular Lady of the Lake set in the Trossachs, portions of which (translated into German) were set to music by Franz Schubert. One of these songs, Ellens dritter Gesang, is popularly called "Schubert's Ave Maria".

Related Topics:
1805 - 1810 - Lady of the Lake - Trossachs - Franz Schubert - Ellens dritter Gesang - Ave Maria

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Another work from this time period, Marmion, produced some of his most quoted (and most often mis-attributed) lines. Canto VI. Stanza 17 reads:

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:Yet Clare's sharp questions must I shun,

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:Must separate Constance from the nun

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:Oh! what a tangled web we weave

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:When first we practise to deceive!

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:A Palmer too! No wonder why

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:I felt rebuked beneath his eye;

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In 1809 his Tory sympathies led him to become a co-founder of the Quarterly Review, a review journal to which he made several anonymous contributions.

Related Topics:
Tory - Quarterly Review

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