The Talisman | Page 3

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THE TALISMAN
By Sir Walter Scott, Bart.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TALISMAN.
The "Betrothed" did not greatly please one or two friends, who thought
that it did not well correspond to the general title of "The Crusaders."
They urged, therefore, that, without direct allusion to the manners of
the Eastern tribes, and to the romantic conflicts of the period, the title
of a "Tale of the Crusaders" would resemble the playbill, which is said
to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of
Denmark being left out. On the other hand, I felt the difficulty of giving
a vivid picture of a part of the world with which I was almost totally
unacquainted, unless by early recollections of the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments; and not only did I labour under the incapacity of
ignorance--in which, as far as regards Eastern manners, I was as thickly
wrapped as an Egyptian in his fog--but my contemporaries were, many
of them, as much enlightened upon the subject as if they had been
inhabitants of the favoured land of Goshen. The love of travelling had
pervaded all ranks, and carried the subjects of Britain into all quarters
of the world. Greece, so attractive by its remains of art, by its struggles
for freedom against a Mohammedan tyrant, by its very name, where

every fountain had its classical legend--Palestine, endeared to the
imagination by yet more sacred remembrances--had been of late
surveyed by British eyes, and described by recent travellers. Had I,
therefore, attempted the difficult task of substituting manners of my
own invention, instead of the genuine costume of the East, almost
every traveller I met who had extended his route beyond what was
anciently called "The Grand Tour," had acquired a right, by ocular
inspection, to chastise me for my presumption. Every member of the
Travellers' Club who could pretend to have thrown his shoe over Edom
was, by having done so, constituted my lawful critic and corrector. It
occurred, therefore, that where the author of Anastasius, as well as he
of Hadji Baba, had described the manners and vices of the Eastern
nations, not only with fidelity, but with the humour of Le Sage and the
ludicrous power of Fielding himself, one who was a perfect stranger to
the subject must necessarily produce an unfavourable contrast. The
Poet Laureate also, in the charming tale of "Thalaba," had shown how
extensive might be the researches of a person of acquirements and
talent, by dint of investigation alone, into the ancient doctrines, history,
and manners of the Eastern countries, in which we are probably to look
for the cradle of mankind; Moore, in his "Lalla Rookh," had
successfully trod the same path; in which, too, Byron, joining ocular
experience to extensive reading, had written some of his most attractive
poems. In a word, the Eastern themes had been already so successfully
handled by those who were acknowledged to be masters of their craft,
that I was diffident of making the attempt.
These were powerful objections; nor did they lose force when they
became the subject of anxious reflection, although they did not finally
prevail. The arguments on the other side were, that though I had no
hope of rivalling the contemporaries whom I have mentioned, yet it
occurred to me as possible to acquit myself of the task I was engaged in
without entering into competition with them.
The period relating more immediately to the Crusades which I at last
fixed upon was that at which the warlike character of Richard I., wild
and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues, and
its no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin, in which the
Christian and English monarch showed all the cruelty and violence of
an Eastern sultan, and Saladin, on the other hand, displayed the deep

policy and prudence of