Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe

by

Walter Scott

Known to his friends and neighbors as “Cedric the Saxon” because of his resolute and staunch support of the Saxon cause against the conquering Normans, Cedric is the Thane of Rotherwood, the father of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, the guardian of Rowena, and Athelstane’s closest advisor. His household servants include the ever-faithful Gurth, the beloved Wamba, and the tiny Oswald. Cedric wants to unify the Saxons behind one person and lead them in rebellion against Prince John, King Richard, and the rest of the Norman aristocracy. He disowns and banishes his son Ivanhoe in an attempt to force the marriage of Athelstane and Rowena for the purpose of Saxon unification, and because he resents Ivanhoe’s adoption of Norman dress and customs and choice to follow King Richard in the Third Crusade. Cedric can understand Norman although he refuses to speak it; he wears only identifiably “Saxon” clothes and decorates his home in Saxon style. However, despite his pride and wounded sense of cultural identity, he proves himself to be an upright, brave, and honorable man. Confronted with evidence of Ivanhoe’s chivalric and personal virtue, he reconciles with his son; confronted with evidence of King Richard’s love and concern for all English subjects, Saxon and Norman, he eventually supports Richard’s claim on the throne. Confronted by his beloved and faithful jester, Wamba, about his unfair treatment of swineherd Gurth, Cedric frees the faithful servant.

Cedric Quotes in Ivanhoe

The Ivanhoe quotes below are all either spoken by Cedric or refer to Cedric. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Merits of Chivalry Theme Icon
).
Volume 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

“By St Dunstan,” answered Gurth, “thou speakest but sad truths; little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation, clearly for the purpose of enabling us to endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders. The finest and fattest is for their board; the loveliest is for their couch; the best and bravest supply their foreign masters with soldiers, and whiten distant land with their bones, leaving few here who have either will or power to protect the unfortunate Saxon. God’s blessing on our master Cedric, he hath done the work of a man in standing in the gap; but Reginald Front-de-Boeuf is coming down to this country in person, and we shall soon see how little Cedric’s trouble will avail him.”

Related Characters: Gurth (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Wamba, Lawrence Templeton
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

“I would soon have beat him into courtesy,” observed Brian; “I am accustomed to deal with such spirits: Our Turkish captives are as fierce and intractable as Odin himself could have been; yet two months in my household, under the management of my master of slaves, has made them humble, submissive, serviceable, and observant of your will. Marry, sir, you must beware of the poison and the dagger, for they use either with free will when you give them the slightest opportunity.”

“Aye, but,” answered Prior Aymer, “every land hath its own manners and fashions; and, besides that beating this fellow could procure us no information could respecting the road to Cedric’s house, it would have been sure to have established a quarrel betwixt you and him had we found our way thither.”

Related Characters: Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert (speaker), Prior Aymer (speaker), Cedric, Gurth, Wamba
Page Number: 29-30
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

While Isaac thus stood an outcast in the present society, like his people among the nations, looking in vain for welcome or resting place, the Pilgrim who sat by the chimney took compassion upon him, and resigned his seat, saying briefly, “Old man, my garments are dried, my hunger is appeased, thou art both wet and fasting.” So saying, he gathered together, and brought to a flame, the decaying brands which lay scattered on the ample hearth; took form the larger board a mess of pottage and seethed kid, placed it upon the small table at which he himself had supped, and without waiting the Jew’s thanks, went to the other side of the hall;—whether from unwillingness to hold more close communication with the object of his benevolence, or from a wish to draw near to the upper end of the table, seemed uncertain.

Related Characters: Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Isaac, Cedric, Prior Aymer
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared with the proudest beauties of England. […] Her form was exquisitely symmetrical, and was shewn to advantage by a sort of Eastern dress, which she wore according to the fashion of the females of her nation. Her turban of yellow silk suited well the darkness of her complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the superb arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline nose, her teeth as white as pearl and the profusion of her sable tresses[…]—all these constituted a combination of loveliness, which yielded not to the loveliest of the maidens who surrounded her. […] The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction of the beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by the proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied by those who affected to deride them.

Related Characters: Rebecca, Isaac, Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John, Rowena, Ulrica (Dame Urfried)
Page Number: 71-72
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 10 Quotes

“Ay,” answered Isaac, “but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did to-day and compels me to smile while he is robbing me—O daughter, disinherited and wandering as we are, the worst evil that befalls our race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury and to smile tamely, when we should revenge bravely.”

“Think not thus of it, my father,” said Rebecca; “we also have advantages. These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise and persecute. Without the aid of our wealth, they could neither furnish forth their hosts in war, nor their triumphs in peace; and the gold which we lend them returns with increase to our coffers.”

Related Characters: Rebecca (speaker), Isaac (speaker), Cedric, Wamba, Prince John
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 14 Quotes

[I]t was the misfortune of this Prince, that his levity and petulance were perpetually breaking out, and undoing all that had been gained by his previous dissimulation.

Of this fickle temper he gave a memorable example in Ireland […]. Upon this occasion, the Irish chieftains contended which should first offer to the young Prince their loyal homage and the kiss of peace. But, instead of receiving their salutations with courtesy, John and his petulant attendants could not resist the temptation of pulling the long beards of the Irish chieftains, a conduct which, as might have been expected, was highly resented by these insulted dignitaries, and produced fatal consequences to the English domination of Ireland.

Related Characters: Lawrence Templeton (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:

Cedric and Athelstane were both dressed in the ancient Saxon garb, which, although not unhandsome in itself […] was so remote in shape and appearance from that of the other guests, that Prince John took great credit to himself […] for refraining from laughter. […] Yet, in the eye of sober judgement, that short close tunic and long mantle of the Saxons was a more graceful, as well as a more convenient dress, than the garb of the Normans, whose under garment was a long doublet, so loose as to resemble a shirt or waggoner’s frock, covered by a cloak of scanty dimensions, neither fit to defend the wearer from cold or from rain, and the only purpose of which seemed to be to display as much fur, embroidery, and jewellery work, as the ingenuity of the tailor could contrive to lay upon it.

Related Characters: Lawrence Templeton (speaker), Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

No spider ever took more pains to repair the shattered meshes of his web, than did Waldemar Fitzurse to reunite and combine the scattered members of Prince John’s cabal. Few of these were attached to him from inclination, and none from personal attachment. It was therefore necessary […to] open to them new prospects of advantage, and remind them of those which they presently enjoyed. To the young and wild nobles, he held out the prospect of unpunished license and uncontrolled revelry; to the ambitions, that of power, and to the covetous, that of increased wealth and extended domains. The leaders of the mercenaries received a donation in gold; an argument most persuasive to their minds, and without which all others would have proved in vain. Promises were still more liberally distributed than money by this active agent; […] nothing was left undone that could determine the wavering, or animate the disheartened.

Related Characters: King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Waldemar Fitzurse, Prince John
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

Both the Saxon chiefs were made prisoners at the same moment, and each under circumstances expressive of his character. Cedric, the instant that an enemy appeared, launched at him his remaining javelin, which, taking better effect than that which he had hurled at Fangs, nailed the man against an oak-tree that happened to be close behind him. Thus far successful, Cedric spurred his horse against a second, drawing his sword at the same time, and striking with such inconsiderate fury, that his weapon encountered a thick branch which hung over him, and he was disarmed by the violence of his own blow. He was instantly made prisoner, and pulled from his horse by two or three of the banditti who crowded around him. Athelstane shared his captivity, his bridle having been sized, and he himself forcibly dismounted, long before he could draw his weapon, or assume any posture of effectual defense.

Related Characters: Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Maurice de Bracy, Rowena
Related Symbols: Oak Tree
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

“It may be so […] but I cannot look on that stained lattice without its awakening other reflections than those which concern the passing moment, or its privations. When that window was wrought, my dear friend, our hardy fathers knew not the art of making glass, or of staining it—The pride of Wolfganger’s father brought an artist from Normandy to adorn his hall with this new species of emblazonment, that breaks the golden light of God’s blessed day into so many fantastic hues. The foreigner came here, poor, beggarly, cringing, and subservient, ready to doff his cap to the meanest native of the household. He returned pampered and proud, to tell his rapacious countrymen of the wealth and the simplicity of the Saxon noble—a folly, oh Athelstane, foreboded of old, as well as foreseen, by those descendants of Hengist and his hardy tribes who retained the simplicity of their manners.

Related Characters: Cedric (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Maurice de Bracy, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Prince John
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

“Glory?” continued Rebecca; “alas, it is the rusted mail which hangs as a hatchment over the champion’s dim and mouldering tomb—is the defaced sculpture of the inscription with which the ignorant monk can hardly read to the inquiring pilgrim—are these sufficient rewards for the sacrifice of every kindly affection, for a life spent miserably that ye make others miserable? Or is there such virtue in the rude rhymes of a wandering bard, that domestic love, kindly affection, peace and happiness are so wildly bartered, to become the hero of these ballads which vagabond minstrels sing to drunken churls over their evening ale?”

[…] “Thou speakest, maiden of thou knowest not what. Thou wouldst quench the pure light of chivalry, which alone distinguishes the noble from the base, the gentle knight from the churl and the savage; which rates our life far, far beneath the pitch of our honor […].”

Related Characters: Rebecca (speaker), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight) (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Locksley/Robin Hood (The Yeoman Archer), Maurice de Bracy, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Rowena, Cleric of Copmanhurst
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

“O, assuredly,” said Isaac. “I have trafficked with the good fathers, and bought wheat and barley, and fruits of the earth, and also much wool. O, it is a rich abbey-stede, and they do live up on the fat, and drink the sweet wine upon the lees, these good fathers of Jorvaulx. Ah, if an out-cast like me had such a home to go to, and such incomings by the year and by the term, I would pay much gold and silver to redeem my captivity.”

“Hound of a Jew!” exclaimed the Prior, “no one knows better than thy own cursed self, that our holy house of God is indebted for the finishing of our chancel!”—

“And for the storing of your cellars in the last season with the due allowance of Gascon wine,” interrupted the Jew; “but it is small matters.”

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Prior Aymer (speaker), Cedric, Locksley/Robin Hood (The Yeoman Archer), Allan-a-Dale
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 12 Quotes

I asked for wine—they gave me some, but it must have been highly medicated, for I slept yet more deeply than before, and wakened not for many hours. I found my arms swathed down—my feet tied so fast that mine ankles ache at the very remembrance—the place was utterly dark—the oubliette, as I suppose, of their accursed convent, and from the close, stifled, damp smell, I conceive it is also used as a place of sepulture. I had strange thoughts of what had befallen me, when the door of my dungeon creaked, and two villain monks entered. They would have persuaded me I was in purgatory, but I knew too well the pursy short-breathed voice of the Father Abbot.—Saint Jeremy! how different form that tone with which he used to ask me for another slice of the haunch!—the dog has feasted with me from Christmas to Twelfth-night.

Related Characters: Athelstane of Coningsburgh (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Rowena
Page Number: 377
Explanation and Analysis:
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Cedric Quotes in Ivanhoe

The Ivanhoe quotes below are all either spoken by Cedric or refer to Cedric. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Merits of Chivalry Theme Icon
).
Volume 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

“By St Dunstan,” answered Gurth, “thou speakest but sad truths; little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation, clearly for the purpose of enabling us to endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders. The finest and fattest is for their board; the loveliest is for their couch; the best and bravest supply their foreign masters with soldiers, and whiten distant land with their bones, leaving few here who have either will or power to protect the unfortunate Saxon. God’s blessing on our master Cedric, he hath done the work of a man in standing in the gap; but Reginald Front-de-Boeuf is coming down to this country in person, and we shall soon see how little Cedric’s trouble will avail him.”

Related Characters: Gurth (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Wamba, Lawrence Templeton
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 2 Quotes

“I would soon have beat him into courtesy,” observed Brian; “I am accustomed to deal with such spirits: Our Turkish captives are as fierce and intractable as Odin himself could have been; yet two months in my household, under the management of my master of slaves, has made them humble, submissive, serviceable, and observant of your will. Marry, sir, you must beware of the poison and the dagger, for they use either with free will when you give them the slightest opportunity.”

“Aye, but,” answered Prior Aymer, “every land hath its own manners and fashions; and, besides that beating this fellow could procure us no information could respecting the road to Cedric’s house, it would have been sure to have established a quarrel betwixt you and him had we found our way thither.”

Related Characters: Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert (speaker), Prior Aymer (speaker), Cedric, Gurth, Wamba
Page Number: 29-30
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 5 Quotes

While Isaac thus stood an outcast in the present society, like his people among the nations, looking in vain for welcome or resting place, the Pilgrim who sat by the chimney took compassion upon him, and resigned his seat, saying briefly, “Old man, my garments are dried, my hunger is appeased, thou art both wet and fasting.” So saying, he gathered together, and brought to a flame, the decaying brands which lay scattered on the ample hearth; took form the larger board a mess of pottage and seethed kid, placed it upon the small table at which he himself had supped, and without waiting the Jew’s thanks, went to the other side of the hall;—whether from unwillingness to hold more close communication with the object of his benevolence, or from a wish to draw near to the upper end of the table, seemed uncertain.

Related Characters: Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Isaac, Cedric, Prior Aymer
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 7 Quotes

The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared with the proudest beauties of England. […] Her form was exquisitely symmetrical, and was shewn to advantage by a sort of Eastern dress, which she wore according to the fashion of the females of her nation. Her turban of yellow silk suited well the darkness of her complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the superb arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline nose, her teeth as white as pearl and the profusion of her sable tresses[…]—all these constituted a combination of loveliness, which yielded not to the loveliest of the maidens who surrounded her. […] The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction of the beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by the proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied by those who affected to deride them.

Related Characters: Rebecca, Isaac, Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John, Rowena, Ulrica (Dame Urfried)
Page Number: 71-72
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 10 Quotes

“Ay,” answered Isaac, “but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did to-day and compels me to smile while he is robbing me—O daughter, disinherited and wandering as we are, the worst evil that befalls our race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury and to smile tamely, when we should revenge bravely.”

“Think not thus of it, my father,” said Rebecca; “we also have advantages. These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise and persecute. Without the aid of our wealth, they could neither furnish forth their hosts in war, nor their triumphs in peace; and the gold which we lend them returns with increase to our coffers.”

Related Characters: Rebecca (speaker), Isaac (speaker), Cedric, Wamba, Prince John
Page Number: 97
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 1, Chapter 14 Quotes

[I]t was the misfortune of this Prince, that his levity and petulance were perpetually breaking out, and undoing all that had been gained by his previous dissimulation.

Of this fickle temper he gave a memorable example in Ireland […]. Upon this occasion, the Irish chieftains contended which should first offer to the young Prince their loyal homage and the kiss of peace. But, instead of receiving their salutations with courtesy, John and his petulant attendants could not resist the temptation of pulling the long beards of the Irish chieftains, a conduct which, as might have been expected, was highly resented by these insulted dignitaries, and produced fatal consequences to the English domination of Ireland.

Related Characters: Lawrence Templeton (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:

Cedric and Athelstane were both dressed in the ancient Saxon garb, which, although not unhandsome in itself […] was so remote in shape and appearance from that of the other guests, that Prince John took great credit to himself […] for refraining from laughter. […] Yet, in the eye of sober judgement, that short close tunic and long mantle of the Saxons was a more graceful, as well as a more convenient dress, than the garb of the Normans, whose under garment was a long doublet, so loose as to resemble a shirt or waggoner’s frock, covered by a cloak of scanty dimensions, neither fit to defend the wearer from cold or from rain, and the only purpose of which seemed to be to display as much fur, embroidery, and jewellery work, as the ingenuity of the tailor could contrive to lay upon it.

Related Characters: Lawrence Templeton (speaker), Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Prince John
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

No spider ever took more pains to repair the shattered meshes of his web, than did Waldemar Fitzurse to reunite and combine the scattered members of Prince John’s cabal. Few of these were attached to him from inclination, and none from personal attachment. It was therefore necessary […to] open to them new prospects of advantage, and remind them of those which they presently enjoyed. To the young and wild nobles, he held out the prospect of unpunished license and uncontrolled revelry; to the ambitions, that of power, and to the covetous, that of increased wealth and extended domains. The leaders of the mercenaries received a donation in gold; an argument most persuasive to their minds, and without which all others would have proved in vain. Promises were still more liberally distributed than money by this active agent; […] nothing was left undone that could determine the wavering, or animate the disheartened.

Related Characters: King Richard (the Black Knight), Cedric, Waldemar Fitzurse, Prince John
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

Both the Saxon chiefs were made prisoners at the same moment, and each under circumstances expressive of his character. Cedric, the instant that an enemy appeared, launched at him his remaining javelin, which, taking better effect than that which he had hurled at Fangs, nailed the man against an oak-tree that happened to be close behind him. Thus far successful, Cedric spurred his horse against a second, drawing his sword at the same time, and striking with such inconsiderate fury, that his weapon encountered a thick branch which hung over him, and he was disarmed by the violence of his own blow. He was instantly made prisoner, and pulled from his horse by two or three of the banditti who crowded around him. Athelstane shared his captivity, his bridle having been sized, and he himself forcibly dismounted, long before he could draw his weapon, or assume any posture of effectual defense.

Related Characters: Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Maurice de Bracy, Rowena
Related Symbols: Oak Tree
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

“It may be so […] but I cannot look on that stained lattice without its awakening other reflections than those which concern the passing moment, or its privations. When that window was wrought, my dear friend, our hardy fathers knew not the art of making glass, or of staining it—The pride of Wolfganger’s father brought an artist from Normandy to adorn his hall with this new species of emblazonment, that breaks the golden light of God’s blessed day into so many fantastic hues. The foreigner came here, poor, beggarly, cringing, and subservient, ready to doff his cap to the meanest native of the household. He returned pampered and proud, to tell his rapacious countrymen of the wealth and the simplicity of the Saxon noble—a folly, oh Athelstane, foreboded of old, as well as foreseen, by those descendants of Hengist and his hardy tribes who retained the simplicity of their manners.

Related Characters: Cedric (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Maurice de Bracy, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Prince John
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

“Glory?” continued Rebecca; “alas, it is the rusted mail which hangs as a hatchment over the champion’s dim and mouldering tomb—is the defaced sculpture of the inscription with which the ignorant monk can hardly read to the inquiring pilgrim—are these sufficient rewards for the sacrifice of every kindly affection, for a life spent miserably that ye make others miserable? Or is there such virtue in the rude rhymes of a wandering bard, that domestic love, kindly affection, peace and happiness are so wildly bartered, to become the hero of these ballads which vagabond minstrels sing to drunken churls over their evening ale?”

[…] “Thou speakest, maiden of thou knowest not what. Thou wouldst quench the pure light of chivalry, which alone distinguishes the noble from the base, the gentle knight from the churl and the savage; which rates our life far, far beneath the pitch of our honor […].”

Related Characters: Rebecca (speaker), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight) (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Locksley/Robin Hood (The Yeoman Archer), Maurice de Bracy, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, Rowena, Cleric of Copmanhurst
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 3 Quotes

“O, assuredly,” said Isaac. “I have trafficked with the good fathers, and bought wheat and barley, and fruits of the earth, and also much wool. O, it is a rich abbey-stede, and they do live up on the fat, and drink the sweet wine upon the lees, these good fathers of Jorvaulx. Ah, if an out-cast like me had such a home to go to, and such incomings by the year and by the term, I would pay much gold and silver to redeem my captivity.”

“Hound of a Jew!” exclaimed the Prior, “no one knows better than thy own cursed self, that our holy house of God is indebted for the finishing of our chancel!”—

“And for the storing of your cellars in the last season with the due allowance of Gascon wine,” interrupted the Jew; “but it is small matters.”

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Prior Aymer (speaker), Cedric, Locksley/Robin Hood (The Yeoman Archer), Allan-a-Dale
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 3, Chapter 12 Quotes

I asked for wine—they gave me some, but it must have been highly medicated, for I slept yet more deeply than before, and wakened not for many hours. I found my arms swathed down—my feet tied so fast that mine ankles ache at the very remembrance—the place was utterly dark—the oubliette, as I suppose, of their accursed convent, and from the close, stifled, damp smell, I conceive it is also used as a place of sepulture. I had strange thoughts of what had befallen me, when the door of my dungeon creaked, and two villain monks entered. They would have persuaded me I was in purgatory, but I knew too well the pursy short-breathed voice of the Father Abbot.—Saint Jeremy! how different form that tone with which he used to ask me for another slice of the haunch!—the dog has feasted with me from Christmas to Twelfth-night.

Related Characters: Athelstane of Coningsburgh (speaker), King Richard (the Black Knight), Wilfred of Ivanhoe (the Palmer, the Disinherited Knight), Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Rowena
Page Number: 377
Explanation and Analysis: