Page "Walter Scott" Paragraph 28

Ivanhoe ( 1819 ) set in twelfth-century England, marked a move away from Scott's focus on the local history of Scotland.

Based partly on Hume's History of England and the ballad cycle of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe was quickly translated into many languages and inspired countless imitations and theatrical adaptations.

Ivanhoe depicts the cruel tyranny of the Norman overlords ( Norman Yoke ) over the impoverished Saxon populace of England, with two of the main characters, Rowena and Locksley ( Robin Hood ), representing the dispossessed Saxon aristocracy.

When the protagonists are captured and imprisoned by a Norman baron, Scott interrupts the story to exclaim: It is grievous to think that those valiant barons, to whose stand against the crown the liberties of England were indebted for their existence, should themselves have been such dreadful oppressors, and capable of excesses contrary not only to the laws of England, but to those of nature and humanity.

But, alas.

fiction itself can hardly reach the dark reality of the horrors of the period.

( Chapter 24. 33 ) The institution of the Magna Carta which happens outside the timeframe of the story, is portrayed as a progressive ( incremental ) reform, but also as a step toward recovery of a lost golden age of liberty endemic to England and the English system.

Scott puts a derisive prophesy in the mouth of the jester Wamba: