The Scott Legacy

Abstract

The originality of Sir Walter Scott may be defined in any number of ways. For one thing, he dignified the Scots language; after him, the use of Scots for farce and low comedy was seen for what it was, a cheap patronizing of those who spoke it. He believed that Scots was, or could be, ‘responsive to every sentiment of sublimity, or awe, or error which the author may be disposed to excite.’ He thus helped to create a national language. ‘It is in the dialogue of the Scots-speaking characters that his greatest passages are to be found’, Ian Jack has written.¹