SCOTT, Sir Walter

SCOTT, Sir Walter [1771–1832]. Scottish poet, novelist, collector of ballads, and historian. Born in Edinburgh, he was partly brought up in the Borders, whose history and traditions were a fundamental influence. He was educated at the High School and U. in Edinburgh, and after training as a lawyer was appointed Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire in 1799. His first important published work was Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–3), an edited collection in three volumes of over 70 ballads. The tone and quality of ballad poetry influenced his series of narrative poems on Scottish historical themes. However, his reputation rests mainly on his novels, of which many are set in 17–18c Scotland, but others have settings from various periods in the history of England and France.

By virtually inventing the historical and regional novel as genres, Scott exerted a profound influence on the subsequent course of literature throughout the world. His successors include not only English regional novelists such as the Brontë sisters and Thomas HARDY, but James Fenimore Cooper and Mark Twain, for example, in the US, and others in Australia, Canada, India, and elsewhere. His use of SCOTS for dialogue encouraged others to experiment with non-standard forms of English and to provide them with more or less consistent orthographies. His English vocabulary is ornamented not only with words taken from Scots but with a large number of ARCHAISMS from Spenser and SHAKESPEARE, particularly in such fields as warfare, weaponry, horsemanship, and medieval architecture. His Scots dialogue is realistic and expressive, but most of his Scots-speaking characters belong to the lower orders or are associated with an age that was gone or passing when he wrote.