The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott

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Title: The Talisman

Author: Sir Walter Scott

Release Date: July, 1998 [Etext #1377]
Posting Date: 8, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TALISMAN

By Sir Walter Scott

INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.

The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
that it did not well correspond to the general title of "The Crusaders."
They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of
the Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the
title of a "Tale of the Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which
is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of
the Prince of Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the
difficulty of giving a vivid picture of a part of the world with which
I was almost totally unacquainted, unless by early recollections of
the Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the
incapacity of ignorance--in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I
was as thickly wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog--but my contemporaries
were, many of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had
been inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling
had pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all
quarters of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by
its struggles for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name,
where every fountain had its classical legend--Palestine, endeared
to the imagination by yet more sacred remembrances--had been of late
surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my
own invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost every
traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was anciently
called "The Grand Tour," had acquired a right, by ocular inspection, to
chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the Travellers' Club who
could pretend to have thro