The Bride of Lammermoor
by Sir Walter Scott
INTRODUCTION TO THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR
THE Author, on a former occasion, declined giving the real source
from which he drew the tragic subject of this history, because,
though occurring at a distant period, it might possibly be
unpleasing to the feelings of the descendants of the parties.
But as he finds an account of the circumstances given in the
Notes to Law's Memorials, by his ingenious friend, Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., and also indicated in his reprint of
the Rev. Mr. Symson's poems appended to the Large Description of
Galloway, as the original of the Bride of Lammermoor, the
Author feels himself now at liberty to tell the tale as he had it
from connexions of his own, who lived very near the period, and
were closely related to the family of the bride.
It is well known that the family of Dalrymple, which has
produced, within the space of two centuries, as many men of
talent, civil and military, and of literary, political, and
professional eminence, as any house in Scotland, first rose into
distinction in the person of James Dalrymple, one of the most
eminent lawyers that ever lived, though the labours of his
powerful mind were unhappily exercised on a subject so limited as
Scottish jurisprudence, on which he has composed an admirable
work.
He married Margaret, daughter to Ross of Balneel, with whom he
obtained a considerable estate. She was an able, politic, and
high-minded woman, so successful in what she undertook, that the
vulgar, no way partial to her husband or her family, imputed her
success to necromancy. According to the popular belief, this
Dame Margaret purchased the temporal prosperity of her family
from the Master whom she served under a singular condition, which
is thus narrated by the historian of her grandson, the great Earl
of Stair: "She lived to a great age, and at her death desired
that she might not be put under ground, but that her coffin
should stand upright on one end of it, promising that while she
remained in that situation the Dalrymples should continue to
flourish. What was the old lady's motive for the request, or
whether she really made such a promise, I shall not take upon me
to determine; but certain her coffin stands upright in the
isle of the church of Kirklistown, the burial-place belonging to
the family." The talents of this accomplished race were
suifficient to have accounted for the dignities which many
members of the family attained, without any supernatural
assistance. But their extraordinary prosperity was attended by
some equally singular family misfortunes, of which that which
befell their eldest daughter was at once unaccountable and
melancholy.
Miss Janet Dalrymple, daughter of the first Lord Stair and Dame
Margaret Ross, had engaged herself without the knowledge of her
parents to the Lord Rutherford, who was not acceptable to them
either on account of his political principles or his want of
fortune. The young couple broke a piece of gold together, and
pledged their troth in the most solemn manner; and it is said the
young lady imprecated dreadful evils on herself should she break
her plighted faith. Shortly after, a suitor who was favoured by
Lord Stair, and still more so by his lady, paid his addresses to
Miss Dalrymple. The young lady refused the proposal, and being
pressed on the subject, confessed her secret engagement. Lady
Stair, a woman accustomed to universal submission, for even her
husband did not dare to contradict her, treated this objection as
a trifle, and insisted upon her daughter yielding her consent to
marry the new suitor, David Dunbar, son and heir to David Dunbar
of Baldoon, in Wigtonshire. The first lover, a man of very high
spirit, then interfered by letter, and insisted on the right he
had acquired by his troth plighted with the young lady. Lady
Stair sent him for answer, that her daughter, sensible of her
undutiful behaviour in entering into a contract unsanctioned by
her parents, had retracted her unlawful vow, and now refused to
fulfil her engagement with him.
The lover, in return, declined positively to receive such an
answer from any one but his mistress in person; and as she had to
deal with a man who was both of a most determined character and
of too high condition to be trifled with, Lady Stair was obliged
to consent to an interview between Lord Rutherford and her
daughter. But she took care to be present in person, and argued
the point with the disappointed and incensed lover with
pertinacity equal to his own. She particularly insisted on the
Levitical law, which declares that a woman shall be free of a vow
which her parents dissent from. This is the passage of Scripture
she founded on:
"If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his
soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do
according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
"If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a
bond, being in her father's house in her youth;
"And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath
bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then
all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath
bound her soul shall stand.
"But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not
any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her
soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her
father disallowed her."--Numbers xxx. 2-5.
While the mother insisted on these topics, the lover in vain
conjured the daughter to declare her own opinion and feelings.
She remained totally overwhelmed, as it seemed--mute, pale, and
motionless as a statue. Only at her mother's command, sternly
uttered, she summoned strength enough to restore to her plighted
suitor the piece of broken gold which was the emblem of her
troth. On this he burst forth into a tremendous passion, took
leave of the mother with maledictions, and as he left the
apartment, turned back to say to his weak, if not fickle,
mistresss: "For you, madam, you will be a world's wonder"; a
phrase by which some remarkable degree of calamity is usually
implied. He went abroad, and returned not again. If the last
Lord Rutherford was the unfortunate party, he must have been the
third who bore that title, and who died in 1685.
The marriage betwixt Janet Dalrymple and David Dunbar of
Baldoon now went forward, the bride showing no repugnance, but
being absolutely passive in everything her mother commanded or
advised. On the day of the marriage, which, as was then usual,
was celebrated by a great assemblage of friends and relations,
she was the same--sad, silent, and resigned, as it seemed, to her
destiny. A lady, very nearly connected with the family, told the
Author that she had conversed on the subject with one of the
brothers of the bride, a mere lad at the time, who had ridden
before his sister to church. He said her hand, which lay on his
as she held her arm around his waist, was as cold and damp as
marble. But, full of his new dress and the part he acted in the
procession, the circumstance, which he long afterwards remembered
with bitter sorrow and compunction, made no impression on him at
the time.
The bridal feast was followed by dancing. The bride and
bridegroom retired as usual, when of a sudden the most wild and
piercing cries were heard from the nuptial chamber. It was then
the custom, to prevent any coarse pleasantry which old times
perhaps admitted, that the key of the nuptial chamber should be
entrusted to the bridesman. He was called upon, but refused at
first to give it up, till the shrieks became so hideous that he
was compelled to hasten with others to learn the cause. On
opening the door, they found the bridegroom lying across the
threshold, dreadfully wounded, and streaming with blood. The
bride was then sought for. She was found in the corner of the
large chimney, having no covering save her shift, and that
dabbled in gore. There she sat grinning at them, mopping and
mowing, as I heard the expression used; in a word, absolutely
insane. The only words she spoke were, "Tak up your bonny
bridegroom." She survived this horrible scene little more than a
fortnight, having been married on the 24th of August, and dying
on the 12th of September 1669.
The unfortunate Baldoon recovered from his wounds, but sternly
prohibited all inquiries respecting the manner in which he had
received them. "If a lady," he said, "asked him any question
upon the subject, he would neither answer her nor speak to her
again while he lived; if ...
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