The Project Gutenberg eBook, Anne of Geierstein, Volume I (of 2), by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Ricardo de Los Rios

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Title: Anne of Geierstein, Volume I (of 2)

The Maiden of the Mist

Author: Sir Walter Scott

Release Date: September 9, 2013 [eBook #43678]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN, VOLUME I (OF 2)***

E-text prepared by Melissa McDaniel
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(http://archive.org)

WAVERLEY NOVELS

FORTY-EIGHT VOLUMES

VOLUME XLIII.

BORDER EDITION
The Introductory Essays and Notes by Andrew Lang to this Edition of the Waverley Novels are Copyright

THE DUEL.
Drawn and Etched by R de Los Rios

Anne of Geierstein

by

Sir WALTER SCOTT, Bart.

WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAY AND NOTES
By ANDREW LANG

TEN ETCHINGS

VOLUME I.

LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
MDCCCXCIV

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

THIS EDITION OF THE WAVERLEY NOVELS,

THE BORDER EDITION,

IS DEDICATED BY THE PUBLISHER

TO

THE HON. MRS. MAXWELL SCOTT OF ABBOTSFORD
AND HER CHILDREN,
WALTER, MARY, MICHAEL, ALICE, MALCOLM,
MARGARET, AND HERBERT,
GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER AND GREAT-GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN
OF THE AUTHOR.

TO

The King's Most Gracious Majesty.

Sire,

The Author of this Collection of Works of Fiction would not have presumed to solicit for them your Majesty's august patronage, were it not that the perusal has been supposed in some instances to have succeeded in amusing hours of relaxation, or relieving those of languor, pain, or anxiety, and therefore must have so far aided the warmest wish of your Majesty's heart, by contributing in however small a degree to the happiness of your people.

They are therefore humbly dedicated to your Majesty, agreeably to your gracious permission, by

Your Majesty's Dutiful Subject,

WALTER SCOTT.

Abbotsford,
1st January, 1829.

LIST OF ETCHINGS.

PRINTED BY F. GOULDING, LONDON.

VOLUME THE FIRST.

ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN;

OR,

THE MAIDEN OF THE MIST.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

TO

ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN.

With "The Fair Maid of Perth" we take farewell of Scott at his best, though "even from the stubble one may tell what the grain has been." "Anne of Geierstein" was no favourite of the author's, and, as Mr. Matthew Arnold says, the world does not contemplate with pleasure what the poet creates without joy. The novel was begun in the late summer or autumn of 1828, but for part of the time Scott neglected his Diary. He was become (June 19) "a writing automaton," and suffered much pain from rheumatism and rheumatic headaches. He feared that this affected "the quality of the stuff," but he was not one who "waited for the spark from heaven to fall." He plodded on, in these late years, invita Minerva. Of old the goddess had generally been willing; but now his task took the likeness of journalism, the round had to be trodden, be he well or be he ill. Masterpieces are not written thus: it is the moral effort that we admire, and the contempt for fame, even for art, compared with the respect for duty. Scott believed in his duty and in his power of will, but imagination will not obey a moral dictate. We find Ballantyne "complaining of his manuscript": the wearied hand no longer wrote legibly, despite the mechanical supports which he used. "I cannot trace my pieds de mouche but with great labour and trouble" (June 22). He "wrought and endured," afflicted by a hypochondriacal melancholy: "it may be chased away