"The Great Unknown."
It was many years before "The Great Unknown" was identified as "The Wizard of the North." The bewitching "Lay of the Last Minstrel"; the greater poem, "Marmion"; the chivalric, picturesque "Lady of the Lake," had won Sir Walter Scott the title "Wizard of the North," and also "The Great Modern Troubadour," in the early part of the present century; but when, in 1814, a prose novel appeared, called "Waverley," published anonymously, and followed by a perfect flood of successors, the whole kingdom rang with the fame of "The Great Unknown." Popular curiosity was excited; it became the fashion to buy and read his books as soon as they appeared (and they averaged two a year), so as to be able to discuss, at social gatherings, the internal evidences of their authorship.
The secret was well kept; Sir Walter, who all his life had been storing up material and training his mind to such habits of concentration that he could work at all odd moments and in the midst of interruptions, was able to turn out volume after volume, with a rapidity that made even his confidential associates doubt their senses. His incognito was all the more perfectly preserved in that he kept open house at Abbotsford, devoting a fair share of his time to entertaining guests, visiting his neighbors, superintending building and gardening operations about his place, etc., etc. It was not until the financial embarrassment of his publishers, and the disclosure of his name among others on their books, that the positive identity of the authorship of "The Waverley Novels" was forthcoming. Even after that, there were many who positively refused to believe the truth. The case of Scott furnishes one of the many notable illustrations of the power of deceiving the public in literary matters. The following list, including historical epochs and dates, gives us some idea of the works which made "The Great Unknown" the wonder of his Age--a many-sided man beyond all his contemporaries.
1. HISTORICAL.
Waverley, Scottish. Pretender's Attempt, 1745.
Old Mortality, Scottish. Rebellion of the Covenanters, 1679.
Legend of Montrose, Scottish. Civil War, 1645.
The Abbot, Scottish. Mary, Queen of Scots, 1568.
The Monastery, Scottish. Mary, Queen of Scots, 1559.
Fair Maid of Perth, Scottish. Reign of Robert III., 1402.
Castle Dangerous, Scottish. Black Douglas, 1306.
Ivanhoe, English, Richard Lion-Heart, 1194.
Kenilworth, English, Reign of Elizabeth, 1575.
Fortunes of Nigel, English, Reign of James I., 1620.
Peveril of the Peak, English, Reign of Charles II., 1660.
Betrothed, English, Welsh Wars, 1187.
Talisman, English, Richard Lion-Heart, 1193.
Woodstock, English, Civil War and Commonwealth, 1652.
Quentin Durward, Continental. Louis XI. and Charles the Bold, 1470.
Anne of Geierstein, Continental. Epoch of Battle of Nancy, 1477.
Count Robert of Paris, Continental. Crusaders at Byzantium, 1090.
TITLES. DATES.
Guy Mannering, 1750.
Antiquary, 1798.
Black Dwarf, 1708.
Rob Roy, 1715.
Heart of Midlothian, 1751.
Bride of Lammermoor, 1700.
The Pirate, 1700.
St. Roan's Well, 1800.
Red Gauntlet, 1770.
Surgeon's Daughter, 1750.
Two Drovers, 1765.
Highland Widow, 1755.
The narrative poems of Scott were written between the years 1805 and 1815; his splendid series of prose fictions known under the name of the Waverley Novels, twenty-nine in number, were written between 1815 and 1830 his works as a whole forming a great epoch in modern literature. In character Sir Walter Scott was almost perfect, an honor to his age, to his country, and to mankind. He died at Abbotsford September 21st, 1832, aged sixty-one years.