Scott, Sir Walter - Jill Rubenstein (essay date 1972)
Jill Rubenstein (essay date 1972)
SOURCE: "The Dilemma of History: A Reading of Scott's Bridal of Triermain, " in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. XII, No. 4, Autumn, 1972, pp. 721-34.
[Rubenstein is the author of Sir Walter Scott: A Reference Guide (1978), as well as other writings on Scott. In the following essay, she maintains that The Bridal of Triermain addresses the reconciliation of tradition with progress.]
Most critics of Scott have followed the poet's own lead in regarding The Bridal of Triermain (1813) as little more than a trifle, but it is a much more serious and noteworthy poem than it initially appears, and Scott's relatively frivolous attitude toward it has tended to obscure its very real significance and merit. It illustrates, to a greater extent than any other of Scott's narrative poems, his continuing preoccupation with the conflicting values of tradition and progress. The theme...
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