Illustrations of the author of Waverley : $b being notices and anecdotes of real characters, scenes, and incidents supposed to be described in his works — John Shaqi
Illustrations of the author of Waverley : $b being notices and anecdotes of real characters, scenes, and incidents supposed to be described in his worksChambers, Robert
History
Illustrations of the author of Waverley : $b being notices and anecdotes of real characters, scenes, and incidents supposed to be described in his works
Chambers, Robert
Scotland -- In literature; Scott, Walter, 1771-1832
The author of “Waverley” has described Davie Gellatley as dressed in
a grey jerkin, with scarlet cuffs, and slashed sleeves, showing a
scarlet lining, a livery with which the Baron of Bradwardine indued
him, in consideration of his services and character. Daft Jock Grey has
at no period of his life exhibited so much personal magnificence. His
usual dress is a rather shabby suit of hodden grey, with _ridge and
furrow_[1] stockings; and the utmost extent of his finery is a pair of
broad red garters, bound neatly below the knee-strings of his nether
garments, of which, however, he is probably more vain than ever belted
knight was of the royal garter. But waiving the matter of dress, their
discrepance in which is purely accidental, the resemblance is complete
in every other respect. The face, mien, and gestures are exactly
the same. Jock walks with all that swing of the body and arms, that
abstracted air and sauntering pace, which figure in the description of
Davie (“Waverley,” vol i. chap. ix.), and which, it may indeed be said,
are peculiar to the whole genus and body of Scottish madmen. Jock’s
face is equally handsome in its outline with that given to the fool of
Tully-Veolan, and is no less distinguished by “that wild, unsettled,
and irregular expression, which indicated neither idiocy nor insanity,
but something resembling a compound of both, where the simplicity of
the fool was mixed with the extravagance of a crazed imagination.” Add
to this happy picture the prosaic and somewhat unromantic circumstance
of a pair of buck-teeth, and the reader has our friend Jock to a single
feature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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