Show Sir Walter Scott W WILIER LTER SCOT r was born in Edinburgh Edinburgh Edinburgh Edin Edin- burgh on August 15 1771 At the age of eighteen months he had a fever which left him afflicted by long life-long lameness In spite of ot this lam lameness ness he early taught himself to clam clamber ber about with an agility that few children could have surpassed but his deformity was often a source of pain to him on account of the taunts of his more hardy schoolmates His school reputation was one of irregular ability bili ty he II glanced like a meteor from one end of the class to the other and arid received more praise for his interpretation of the spirit of his authors than for his knowledge of their language Out of school his fame stood higher He extemporized Innumerable In- In innumerable innumerable in in- numerable stories to which his schoolfellows schoolfellows schoolfellows school school- fellows delighted to listen and the hours he spent in romantic reading stored his mind with rich material fo for future years This romantic reading influenced his mind greatly in in later years when after leaving the High School he en entered ter d college His reading reading reading read read- ing was almost all in the direction of military exploit or romantic and medieval legend and the later border songs of his own country He studied law but that profession seems never to have been very congenial congenial congenial con con- f genial to his tastes He had the pride and impatience of genius and it fretted him to think that he was dependent on the good opinions of his clients This impatience of clients' clients patience was against him hint and his well-known well dab dab- in poetry were still more against him He continued to practice law for fourteen years with moderate success Hutton says Literature was a far greater gainer by his choice than Law could have been a loser For his capacity for the law he shared with thousands of able men his capacity for literature with few or none His first serious attempt at poetry was a translation of Burgeo's Burgees Lenore but his real genius was not manifest until rather late in life He was thirty- thirty one years of age when he wrote the first canto of his great romance in verse The Lay of the Last Minstrel Scotts Scott's ambition was boundless He Hed d desired si ed to excel in everything he undertook undertook undertook under under- took and though his works were devoured devoured devoured de de- with an interest very flattering to the author he felt that he could never attain the height in poetry which Byron was fast attaining for Byron was just then making himself felt by byh byis h his is fiery pen 2 j f Thereafter he wrote almost entirely in prose His first work prose was Waverley W averley which although published anonymously met with astonishing success success success suc suc- cess and the fourteen years following C its publication were the most effective I of Scotts Scott's life Sir Walters Walter's pictures of beautiful casties castles castles cas cas- ties and homes had caused him to have an ideal home for himself and in 1812 he had sufficient means to realize his cherished dreams and he moved from I his home at to Abbotsford on the Tweed t Previous to the writing of Waverley l before before he had ad any idea ide of t the e. e gains he i A 11 might derive from his writings and 1 while his income from other sources 1 was very limited he entered into the printing business with his pis is old friend James Ballantyne For some years after this on account of the inability on the part of Ballantyne to manage the b. b business S Scott cott was kept k ept in In constant f fear ar of bankruptcy but it was not until 1825 that the final crisis came and and he and his partners w were re in debt to the 1 enormous sum of Scott bore the blow with remarkable bravery and this was his preparation n ik for his failure and the bold resolve i which followed it to it-to to to work for his hs creditors creditors cre cre- as he had worked for himself and to pay payoff off if possible the the whole of t the by his own literary exer exer- He was far from well at the the J w i time of the failure and the years of toil which followed told terribly upon his strength But even when his strength w failed not only did he row much harder against the stream of fortune than he had ever rowed with it but what required required required re re- still more exertion he fought on against the growing conviction that his imagination would not kindle as it 3 once did to its old heat He struggled on to the end and would not consent to take a rest until too late So intense and continuous z I had been his application to work that his constitution was no longer able to bear the ravages of disease and on September 21 1832 he died at his beloved beloved beloved be be- loved Abb Abbotsford Although his great debt was not entirely entirely entirely en en- paid up at the time of his death within fifteen years after it was entirely extinguished and his name left un un- stained Well Wel might Lord Shepheard apply to Scott Cicero's description of some contemporary contemporary contemporary con con- temporary of his own who had borne adversity wisely and had not been broken by fortune and who amidst the buffets of fate had maintained his dignity S Edith Elle Ellerbeck beck |