Kenilworth

KENILWORTH. Sir Walter Scott's 'Kenilworth,' published 1821, is a historical romance of the time of Elizabeth, involving the relations between the queen and the Earl of Leicester. Leicester is represented as having' contracted a secret marriage with Amy Rob sart and as being torn between the two motives of love for his beautiful bride and a consum ing ambition to rise superior to all his rivals in the royal favor. It is for fear of his jealous sovereign's displeasure that he has concealed his marriage and hidden his wife in Cumnor Hall. At the opening of the story Tressilian, her former lover, discovers her whereabouts and attempts to get her to return to her fa ther's house. He is opposed by the machinations of Richard Varney, a retainer of Leicester's. Tressilian appeals to the queen to restore the lady to her parents. Discovery is imminent, but Varney temporarily saves the situation by claiming that she is his wife. Elizabeth com mands that Amy be brought before her at her approaching visit to Lord Leicester's 'castle of Kenilworth. Varney, after trying in vain to induce her to pose as his wife, gives her a drug intended to produce an illness which will make her removal impossible, but, fortified with an antidote administered by a servant of Tres silian's, she escapes from Cumnor Hall and journeys to Kenilworth seeking her husband. During the revels at the castle the queen in flames Lord Leicester's ambitions by letting him lige that be may even aspire to her hand. Var ney convinces him that Amy has been unfaith.

ful and he gives orders for her death. Later, learning that Varney has deceived him, Leices ter confesses the truth to Elizabeth in a par, oxysm of remorse and is subjected to an out burst, of the royal anger. The messengers which he has sent to Cumnor Hall, Amy has been carried, arrive to late, and the unfortunate countess is killed by falling through a trap door laid at the entrance of her chamber by the hand of Varney.

In no novel of Scott's is the historical set ting elaborated with more care than in While indifferent to literal aCcuraty Scott has brilliantly rendered the atmosphere of the time by a multitude of characteristic de tails drawn from his wide reading of Eliza bethan literature. The revels at for example, are elaborately described after, the contemporary account of Laneham. The de lineation of Elizabeth is a fine specimen of Scott's characteristic art of reading romance and, human nature into the outlines afforded by historical record. The Amy Robsart story is based on rumors,and traditions current in Lei ewer's. time and recorded in contemporary documents, but Scott has combined the circumstances of more than one of Leicester's, marriages and has also drawn heavily on his imagination. For references, consult article Ivanhoe. Tice facts of Leicester's marriage to Amy Robsart are given in the article on Leices-, ter in the