Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott

First published: 1821

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Romance

Time of plot: 1575

Locale: England

Principal characters

• Dudley, the earl of Leicester
• Richard Varney, his master of horse
• Amy Robsart, Dudley’s wife
• Edmund Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman and a friend of Amy Robsart
• Wayland Smith, his servant
• The Earl of Sussex,
• Queen Elizabeth,
• Sir Walter Raleigh,
• Michael Lambourne, the nephew of Giles Gosling and an innkeeper
• Doctor Doboobie, alias Alasco, an astrologer and alchemist
• Dickie Sludge, alias Flibbertigibbet, a bright child and a friend of Wayland Smith

The Story:

Michael Lambourne, a ne’er-do-well in his early youth, returns from his travels. While drinking and boasting in Giles Gosling’s inn, he wagers that he can gain admittance to Cumnor Place, a large manor where an old friend is now steward. It is rumored in the village that Tony Foster is keeping a beautiful young woman prisoner at the manor. Edmund Tressilian, another guest at the inn, goes with Lambourne to Cumnor Place. As Tressilian suspects, he finds the woman there to be his former sweetheart, Amy Robsart, apparently a willing prisoner. He also encounters Richard Varney, her supposed seducer, and the two men engage in a sword fight. Lambourne, who decides to ally himself with his old friend, Tony, intervenes.

Contrary to Tressilian’s suspicion, Amy is not Varney’s mistress but the wife of Varney’s master, the earl of Leicester. Varney only served as the go-between and accomplice in Amy’s elopement. Leicester, who is competing for Queen Elizabeth’s favor with the earl of Sussex, fears that the news of his marriage to Amy will displease the queen; he therefore convinces Amy that their marriage must be kept secret.

Tressilian returns to Lidcote Hall to obtain Hugh Robsart’s permission to bring Varney to justice on a charge of seduction. On his way, he employs Wayland Smith as his manservant. Smith formerly served as an assistant to Dr. Doboobie, an alchemist and astrologer. Tressilian later visits the earl of Sussex, through whom he hopes to petition either the queen or the earl of Leicester in Amy’s behalf. During that visit, Wayland saves Sussex’s life after the earl was poisoned.

When the earl hears Tressilian’s story, he presents the petition directly to the queen. Confronted by Elizabeth, Varney swears that Amy is his lawful wife, and Leicester, who is standing by, confirms the lie. Elizabeth then orders Varney to present Amy to her when she visits Kenilworth the following week.

Leicester sends a letter to Amy asking her to appear at Kenilworth as Varney’s wife. She refuses. In order to have an excuse for disobeying Elizabeth’s orders regarding Amy’s presence at Kenilworth, Varney has Alasco, the former Dr. Doboobie, mix a potion that will make Amy ill without killing her. This plan is thwarted, however, by Wayland, who was sent by Tressilian to help her. She escapes from Cumnor Place and with the assistance of Wayland makes her way to Kenilworth to see Leicester.

When she arrives at Kenilworth, the place is bustling in preparation for Elizabeth’s arrival that afternoon. Wayland takes Amy to Tressilian’s quarters, where she writes Leicester a letter telling him of her escape from Cumnor Place and asking his aid. Wayland loses the letter, and through a misunderstanding, he is ejected from the castle. Disappointed that Leicester does not come to her, Amy leaves her apartment and goes into the garden. There she is discovered by the queen, who, judging Amy to be insane because of her contradictory statements, returns her to the custody of Varney, her supposed husband.

Leicester decides to confess the true story to the queen, but Varney is afraid for his own fortunes if Leicester falls from favor; he convinces the earl that Amy was unfaithful to him and that Tressilian is her lover. Leicester, acting on Varney’s lies, decides that death will be just punishment for Amy and her lover. Varney takes Amy back to Cumnor Place and plots her death. When Leicester relents and sends Lambourne to tell Varney that Amy must not die, Varney kills Lambourne so that he might go through with Amy’s murder. Leicester and Tressilian fight a duel; but before either can harm the other, they are interrupted by Dickie Sludge, the child who stole Amy’s letter. Leicester reads the letter and realizes that Amy was faithful to him and that the complications of the affair were caused by Varney’s machinations.

Leicester immediately goes to the queen and confesses the whole story. Elizabeth is angry, but she sends Tressilian and Sir Walter Raleigh to bring Amy to Kenilworth. They arrive too late to save her. She falls through a rigged trapdoor and plunges to her death.

Tressilian and Raleigh seize Varney and bring him to prison. There Varney commits suicide. Elizabeth permits the grief-stricken Leicester to retire from her court for several years but later recalls him to her favor. Much later in life, he remarries, and he eventually meets his death as a result of poison he intended for someone else.

Bibliography

Hayden, John O., ed. Scott: The Critical Heritage. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970. Provides information on the original reception of Kenilworth, presenting reviews dating from 1805 to an 1883 article on Scott written by Mark Twain. Also provides a thorough guide to the critical and literary treatment of Scott in the twentieth century.

Henderson, Diana E. “Bards of the Borders: Scott’s Kenilworth, the Nineteenth Century’s Shakespeare, and the Tragedy of Othello.” In Collaborations with the Past: Reshaping Shakespeare Across Time and Media. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006. Argues that William Shakespeare is fundamental to the structure and vision of the novel, focusing on the similarities between the novel and Othello.

Hillhouse, James T. The Waverley Novels and Their Critics. New York: Octagon Books, 1970. A collection of critical reviews, including criticism by Scott himself and reviews of Kenilworth after its publication. Also includes critical interpretations of Scott and Kenilworth in the fifty years following his death.

Irvine, Robert P. “The State, the Domestic, and National Culture in the Waverley Novels.” In Enlightenment and Romance: Gender and Agency in Smollett and Scott. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. Analyzes the fiction of Scott and Tobias Smollett within the context of the emergence of social sciences and the dominance of novels written by female writers in the eighteenth century. Describes how the authors adapted the feminine romance and the domestic novel to assert control over the narrative structure of their novels.

Johnson, Edgar. Sir Walter Scott: The Great Unknown. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1970. Considers the historical significance of Kenilworth, with particular emphasis on Scott’s treatment of royalty. Concludes that the subject matter and the setting are perfectly matched.

Lincoln, Andrew. “The Condition of England: Ivanhoe and Kenilworth.” In Walter Scott and Modernity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. In his examination of Scott’s novels and poems, Lincoln argues that these were not works of nostalgia; instead, Scott used the past as a means of exploring modernist moral, political, and social issues.

Macintosh, W. Scott and Goethe: German Influence on the Writings of Sir Walter Scott. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970. Compares Kenilworth with William Shakespeare’s Othello and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Egmont. Summarizes Goethe’s opinion of Scott’s writing.

Shaw, Harry E., ed. Critical Essays on Sir Walter Scott: The Waverley Novels. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. Collection of essays published between 1858 and 1996 about Scott’s series of novels. Includes journalist Walter Bagehot’s 1858 article about the Waverly novels and discussions of Scott’s rationalism, storytelling and subversion of the literary form in his fiction, and what his work meant to Victorian readers.