Puritans of Scotland

the Puritans of Scotland (in English Old Mortality ) is a novel of Sir Walter Scott which is located during the decade 1679-1689 at the south-west of the Scotland. It composes, with the Black Dwarf , the first series of the Contes of my host . The two novels were published together in 1816. Old Mortality is regarded as one of the best novels of Scott. The title was initially the History of Old Mortality .

Summary

The novel tells the history of Henry Morton, who shelters John Balfour de Burley, one of the assassins of the archbishop James Sharp. Consequently, Morton joined Burley in a rising of the Covenantaires (which want the re-establishment of the Presbytérianisme in Scotland), which is finally beaten with the Bataille of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, by the forces ordered by the duke of Monmouth and John Graham de Claverhouse. The essence of the novel describes progress of the rebellion since its initial successes with the Bataille of Drumclog and the development of the factions, which precipitate its defeat.

Its engagement in the rebellion becomes problematic for Henry, when who it falls in love with Edith Bellenden, young woman who belongs to a family opposed to the revolt. The beliefs of Henry are not as extremists as those of rebellious Burley and other chiefs, who push it to engage in the arguments between the factions. The novel also shows their oppressors, ordered by Claverhouse, who appear extremists in their belief and their methods. A comic key is added by Cuddie Headrigg, a peasant who unwillingly joined the rebellion because of his personal honesty with regard to Morton, as well as of his own mother, a fanatic.

The novel is completed with the return of Morton in Scotland in 1689, where it finds a political climate and monk very different since the inversion from Jacques VII, and its reconciliation with Edith.

The title of the novel comes from the nickname of Robert Paterson, a Scot of the 18th century which, in the last years of its life, had decided to travel through Scotland Re-to engrave the tombs of the martyrs covenantaires 17th century. The first chapter of the novel describes a conversation between him and the fictitious narrator of the work.

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