

                                Sir Walter Scott

                                    Ivanhoe

                                   A Romance

                                  Introduction

 Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
 And often took leave, but seem'd loath to depart!1
                                                                          Prior.
 
The Author of the Waverley Novels had hitherto proceeded in an unabated course
of popularity, and might, in his peculiar district of literature, have been
termed L'Enfant Gâté of success. It was plain, however, that frequent
publication must finally wear out the public favour, unless some mode could be
devised to give an appearance of novelty to subsequent productions. Scottish
manners, Scottish dialect, and Scottish characters of note, being those with
which the author was most intimately and familiarly acquainted, were the
groundwork upon which he had hitherto relied for giving effect to his narrative.
It was, however, obvious, that this kind of interest must in the end occasion a
degree of sameness and repetition, if exclusively resorted to, and that the
reader was likely at length to adopt the language of Edwin, in Parnell's Tale:-
 
--»Reverse the spell,« he cries,
»And let it fairly now suffice,
The gambol has been shown.«
 
Nothing can be more dangerous for the fame of a professor of the fine arts than
to permit (if he can possibly prevent it) the character of a mannerist to be
attached to him, or that he should be supposed capable of success only in a
particular and limited style. The public are, in general, very ready to adopt
the opinion, that he who has pleased them in one peculiar mode of composition,
is, by means of that very talent, rendered incapable of venturing upon other
subjects. The effect of this disinclination, on the part of the public, towards
the artificers of their pleasures, when they attempt to enlarge their means of
amusing, may be seen in the censures usually passed by vulgar criticism, upon
actors or artists who venture to change the character of their efforts, that, in
so doing, they may enlarge the scale of their art.
    There is some justice in this opinion, as there always is in such as attain
general currency. It may often happen on the stage, that an actor, by possessing
in a pre-eminent degree the external qualities necessary to give effect to
comedy, may be deprived of the right to aspire to tragic excellence; and in
painting or literary composition, an artist or poet may be master exclusively of
modes of thought, and powers of expression, which confine him to a single course
of subjects. But much more frequently the same capacity which carries a man to
popularity in one
