Famous Scots Series, 22

Sir William Wallace

'The ignorance of some otherwise well-informed persons respecting the claims of Wallace as a national patriot,' wrote Dr. Charles Rogers, 'is deplorable.' The documentary authorities are, indeed, fragmentary, and exceptionally perplexing. Some are clearly trustworthy; many are conflicting, dissimulatory, falsified, false, biassed in all degrees, and full of inference and hearsay set forth in the guise of indubitable fact. The researches of English historianseven when they happen to be Scotsmenhave not yet rendered further investigation superfluous. The fact is, that a large critical undertaking must form the basis of any adequate account of Wallace. In a brief narrative the writer must resign himself to the simple if somewhat perilous course of telling his story as it has shaped itself in his mind during perusal of the available authorities, with but occasional and slight indications of the shaping process. The noble poem of Blind Harry, thanks largely to the ingenium perfervidum of the minstrel himself, has been muchwe may say whollydiscredited as history. Harry has been very cavalierly dealt with, however; it is more by a grin than otherwise that he has been vanquished.8 Stevenson's tentative protest is here emphasised. For the present sketch, however, Harry is used rather by way of illustration than as a source of facts. He is cited without any claim to credence, except on grounds definitely specified. But such reservation is provisional, and conditioned by such rational criticism as may one day yet be applied. The citations in the text have been conservatively modernised. All students of Harry's poem owe their most grateful acknowledgments to Dr. James Moir and the Scottish Text Society. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 45035
Author: Murison, Alexander Falconer
Release Date: Feb 28, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English