Details
SCOTT, Sir Walter (1771-1832). Manuscript (part autograph, part in the hand of an unknown amanuensis) of "The House of Aspen, A Drama of Chivalry founded upon a German Story," a five-act dramatic work, n.p., 1820. 4to, 233 x 182 mm., 87 pages written on rectos only of 87 leaves. Manuscript titlepage (dated 1800), list of dramatis personae (2pp.), 83 pages text, the titlepage, dramatis personae and the first 7 pages and five lines in Scott's hand, the remainder in an unidentified hand, but with some 24 emendations, deletions and corrections by Scott. Contemporary quarter diced russia and marbled paper boards, front pastedown with the very bold inscription: "Charlotte Maria from Walter Scott," rubbed, the cover and first several pages detached, but the paper in excellent, unfoxed condition throughout.
A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT OF A GOTHIC DRAMATIC WORK
"The House of Aspen: A Drama of Chivalry," is set in an unspecified medieval time. Scott notes that the action takes place in "the Castle of Ebersdorf in Bavaria-the ruins of Greiffenhaus, and the adjacent woods." Act I Scene 1, opens in a hall which sounds strikingly similar to Scott's Abbotsford: "an ancient Gothick chamber in the Castle of Ebersdorf. Spears, cross-bows, and other arms, with the horns of Buffaloes & of Deer are hung around the walls. An antique Beauffet with Beakers and stem bottles." The male characters of the drama include Rudiger, Baron of Aspen, "an old German warrior"; the two sons of Rudiger, George and Henry, the Duke of Bavaria "Supreme Chief of the Invisible Tribunal," Roderic Count of Maltingen "Chief of a Department of the Invisible Tribunal and the hereditary enemy of the family of Aspen"; the female characters feature Isabella, Baroness of Aspen "formerly married to Arnolph of Ebersdorf, now the wife of Rudiger, Gertrude, Isabella's nurse and others." The action is high-spirited, at times violent, the dialogue high-flown and the characters strongly delineated, as in Scott's novels. When Scott embarked on the drama, he entertained great hopes that it would become a triumph on the London stage. But when it was submitted to Kemble, it was rejected, and in a letter to Richard Heber, Scott alluded to the now "dishonor'd Ms" of his play. It is likely that several manuscripts of this early dramatic project survive; one biographer, Arthur Melville Clark, notes one dated 1809, nearly a decade after the present version. (Sir Walter Scott: The Formative Years, 1969, p.279). This manuscript is apparently unknown and completely unrecorded.
A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN MANUSCRIPT OF A GOTHIC DRAMATIC WORK
"The House of Aspen: A Drama of Chivalry," is set in an unspecified medieval time. Scott notes that the action takes place in "the Castle of Ebersdorf in Bavaria-the ruins of Greiffenhaus, and the adjacent woods." Act I Scene 1, opens in a hall which sounds strikingly similar to Scott's Abbotsford: "an ancient Gothick chamber in the Castle of Ebersdorf. Spears, cross-bows, and other arms, with the horns of Buffaloes & of Deer are hung around the walls. An antique Beauffet with Beakers and stem bottles." The male characters of the drama include Rudiger, Baron of Aspen, "an old German warrior"; the two sons of Rudiger, George and Henry, the Duke of Bavaria "Supreme Chief of the Invisible Tribunal," Roderic Count of Maltingen "Chief of a Department of the Invisible Tribunal and the hereditary enemy of the family of Aspen"; the female characters feature Isabella, Baroness of Aspen "formerly married to Arnolph of Ebersdorf, now the wife of Rudiger, Gertrude, Isabella's nurse and others." The action is high-spirited, at times violent, the dialogue high-flown and the characters strongly delineated, as in Scott's novels. When Scott embarked on the drama, he entertained great hopes that it would become a triumph on the London stage. But when it was submitted to Kemble, it was rejected, and in a letter to Richard Heber, Scott alluded to the now "dishonor'd Ms" of his play. It is likely that several manuscripts of this early dramatic project survive; one biographer, Arthur Melville Clark, notes one dated 1809, nearly a decade after the present version. (Sir Walter Scott: The Formative Years, 1969, p.279). This manuscript is apparently unknown and completely unrecorded.
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We are grateful to Dr. Iain Brown, Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland, for his assistance in the cataloging of this lot.