Theme: walter scott is the founder of historical novels content

3.3. The Heart of Mid-Lothian
On the day of the jousting tournament, Prince John presides as well-outfitted Normans defeat ragged Saxon challengers. Then Ivanhoe rides onto the field, suited in black armor and identifying himself only as a Saxon. The Saxons cheer as he challenges, then bests, five Norman knights in a row. Despite a wound in the shoulder, Ivanhoe stays on his horse and is declared the winner. As the victor, Ivanhoe selects Rowena as the tournament's Queen of Love and Beauty, then must fight Guilbert, who now recognizes him. After a fierce battle, Ivanhoe is knocked from his horse and carried off the field. Rebecca, who tells Rowena that she has learned the medical arts from a woman burned as a witch, attends to Ivanhoe's serious wounds. Although Rowena senses that Rebecca loves Ivanhoe, she knows that he will be well cared for by her and allows him to be taken to Isaac's house. Their departure is observed by a Norman who tells Guilbert.
That night, Guilbert tells John about Ivanhoe's attempts to raise Richard's ransom money and the involvement of Isaac, who is a wealthy banker. Meanwhile, in Sheffield, Rebecca confesses her love to the unconscious Ivanhoe, but is gently warned by her father that her love is impossible because she is a Jew.
When Ivanhoe awakens, Isaac tells him that money for the ransom is growing, just as Wamba and Locksley, a Saxon nobleman who lives in the forest, arrive to warn him that "Prince John's jackals" are after him. Wamba adds that Cedric and Rebecca have come to Sheffield to be near him, prompting Ivanhoe to ask Wamba to take Rebecca to Cedric while he hides in the forest with Locksley. By the time Guilbert and De Bracey arrive at Sheffield, Ivanhoe is gone, further angering Guilbert. He and his men soon find the caravan on which Rebecca and Rowena are traveling, and take the women, Cedric and Wamba prisoner. Hearing of their capture, Ivanhoe approaches Guilbert's castle and asks that he be allowed to take their place. Guilbert agrees, then Ivanhoe enters the courtyard and asks to speak to Cedric, with whom he reconciles. Instead of allowing Cedric and the others to leave, however, Guilbert breaks his word and puts both men in chains. Upstairs, the ambitious De Bracy proposes to Rowena, who is the last of the royal Saxons, but she slaps him.
Later Guilbert, who desires Rebecca, tells her that he must possess her. She runs to the balcony and threatens to jump, but when he offers to free Ivanhoe if she returns his passion, she agrees. Just then Locksley and his archers surround the castle. Guilbert has Ivanhoe brought up from the dungeon and threatens to hang him, but Ivanhoe is able to escape when the archers fire arrows at his guards. As a battle ensues, Ivanhoe frees the men in the dungeon, but in doing so a fire erupts that envelopes Wamba. As more of Locksley's men storm the castle, Ivanhoe rescues Rowena from De Bracy, but Guilbert escapes by using Rebecca as a shield. When Guilbert brings Rebecca to Prince John's court, John and his advisers come up with a plan to use their captive.
A few days later, Isaac tells Ivanhoe that the king's ransom money has been raised, but Ivanhoe reveals that John has demanded the same amount to free Rebecca or she will be burned as a witch. Isaac tells Ivanhoe that it is his responsibility to free Rebecca and insists that the money raised be sent to ransom Richard. Seeing Ivanhoe's concern, Rowena reveals her fears that he is in love with Rebecca, but he denies it. At Rebecca's trial, paid and coerced witnesses testify that she is a witch, and only Guilbert defends her. After Rebecca denies that she is a witch, Guilbert asks to speak with her privately and begs her to renounce her faith to save her life. After her refusal, the court sentences her to burn at the stake. Just then, Ivanhoe, who has secretly watched the trial, throws down his glove and challenges the court to determine her guilt by a battle with her champion. John accepts the challenge and chooses Guilbert as his champion for a fight to the death at Ashby.
Moments before the tournament, Guilbert offers to default to Ivanhoe if Rebecca will only accept his love, but Rebecca answers that they are in God's hands. While Guilbert and Ivanhoe battle hand-to-hand with ball and chain, Richard and his men ride onto the field, forcing John to bow in submission. Ivanhoe finally defeats Guilbert, who dies after telling Rebecca he loves her and that fate made her love Ivanhoe instead of him. After Guilbert dies, Rowena questions Rebecca about Ivanhoe, but she insists that his heart belongs to Rowena.
The Author of the Waverley Novels had hitherto proceeded in an unabated course of popularity, and might, in his peculiar district of literature, have been termed L’Enfant Gâté of success. It was plain, however, that frequent publication must finally wear out the public favour, unless some mode could be devised to give an appearance of novelty to subsequent productions. Scottish manners, Scottish dialect, and Scottish characters of note, being those with which the author was most intimately, and familiarly acquainted, were the groundwork upon which he had hitherto relied for giving effect to his narrative. It was, however, obvious, that this kind of interest must in the end occasion a degree of sameness and repetition, if exclusively resorted to, and that the reader was likely at length to adopt the language of Edwin, in Parnell’s Tale:
Nothing can be more dangerous for the fame of a professor of the fine arts, than to permit (if he can possibly prevent it) the character of a mannerist to be attached to him, or that he should be supposed capable of success only in a particular and limited style. The public are, in general, very ready to adopt the opinion, that he who has pleased them in one peculiar mode of composition, is, by means of that very talent, rendered incapable of venturing upon other subjects. The effect of this disinclination, on the part of the public, towards the artificers of their pleasures, when they attempt to enlarge their means of amusing, may be seen in the censures usually passed by vulgar criticism upon actors or artists who venture to change the character of their efforts, that, in so doing, they may enlarge the scale of their art.
There is some justice in this opinion, as there always is in such as attain general currency. It may often happen on the stage, that an actor, by possessing in a preeminent degree the external qualities necessary to give effect to comedy, may be deprived of the right to aspire to tragic excellence; and in painting or literary composition, an artist or poet may be master exclusively of modes of thought, and powers of expression, which confine him to a single course of subjects. But much more frequently the same capacity which carries a man to popularity in one department will obtain for him success in another, and that must be more particularly the case in literary composition, than either in acting or painting, because the adventurer in that department is not impeded in his exertions by any peculiarity of features, or conformation of person, proper for particular parts, or, by any peculiar mechanical habits of using the pencil, limited to a particular class of subjects.