The winds
that blew over Lammermoor were indeed cold on the forehead of Edgar, the Master
of Ravenswood, protagonist of Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Bride of
Lammermoor’. A dashing gentleman, Ravenswood, fierce, alone in the world,
temporarily overshadowed by family misfortune, yet with all his life ahead of
him. Time and the political fortunes have brought his old and noble family to
its knees and Ravenswood swears vengeance on those who displaced
them. Instead, he falls in love with Lucy, the daughter of his family’s enemy.
Ravenswood
now wants to reconcile, and the reader may fully expect him to be lucky, especially as the politics in London turn is his favour. Yet, this young
man appears to be the ghost ship of that sea shanty, rudderless in the wild
ocean. Where did those winds arise, to drive him into the darkness?
In a minor
but significant point, the novel deviates from the opera – here, Lucy Ashton’s
family is wealthy. Unlike the opera, in which her brother Enrico is driven to
make a profit by her marriage, this family is under no such compulsion. In
fact, the opposite is true: the change in London politics ensured that Lucy’s
alliance to Edgar Ravenswood would have reconciled a powerful enemy and saved a large
portion of their fortune.
However, Lucy’s
mother (and not her brother Enrico) turns into her implacable enemy. Lady Ashton guards her night and day, steals her
correspondence, surrounds her with malignant company that tells her of Ravenswood’s
supposed infidelity and finally gets her to agree to marry Bucklaw, the man of her
mother’s choice. And Lady Ashton exerts this control even when she sees her
daughter pining away into sickness.
In that
moment when Lucy, in the presence of her family and the priest, is signing the
papers that would legally bind her to Bucklaw, Ravenswood enters. Shutting out the ensuing storm, he simply asks her if THIS
is what she wants.
This is
Lucy’s cue. After weeks of persecution, all she needs to do now is stand up and
tell Ravenswood ‘No, this is not what I want. Please take me away.’ And she
needs to look Bucklaw in the eye and tell him ‘Mr Bucklaw, I consented to this
marriage because of my mother’s coercion, but, as you see, I love another.’
After such a declaration, Bucklaw could hardly agree to Lady Ashton’s plans. And
surely it would be a simple matter for Ravenswood to find a way to rescue her.
Lucy
does none of this. She simply looks around vaguely, saying nothing. Stepping in, Lady Ashton quickly
points out that of course this is what Lucy wants - does he not see that she
has signed the papers? Ravenswood has to admit the truth of this. Disappointment makes him harsh. He commends Lucy to God’s
forgiveness (but not his own) and departs.
The storm
that tossed the Ghost ship now dashes Lucy like a wounded bird against the
cliffs. On the night of her wedding, she tips over the edge of insanity. And in
Scott’s novel, her ‘bonny bridegroom’ does not die by her insane hand, but survives
her poniard stab to be a softened man. In fact, the author grants a happy
ending to every other character but Lucy and Ravenswood, including Lady Ashton
herself, who lived to a ripe old age, imperious to the last.
We come full circle to that question – whence arose the winds that raged across Lammermoor, pounding the two lives that were tossed into the encircling ocean? I believe that same ferocious wind drives Lucy's mother herself - for she is certainly not guided by her own interests. To me it appeared that the winds that battered the Ghost Ship were the superstitious legends of the wild moor. These superstitions are woven all through the story, in keeping with the stern landscape. They remind me of the legendary hound that had once been the nemesis of the Baskervilles.
The hound of the Baskervilles was controlled by an avaricious human hand. In Scott’s novel, however, Ravenswood’s fate could be traced to a mysterious woman, who held assignations with an ancient Lord of Ravenswood at a fountain in his park. Despite her request to end each meeting before a certain hour at dusk, this man’s curiosity drove him to trick and delay her at the fountain. When she realized she had crossed the hour, she vanished mournfully into the waters, forever. Superstition then held that approaching this fountain would be fatal to all Ravenswood descendants thereafter.
At this
very fountain, Edgar Ravenswood had first met Lucy. And omen followed omen.
One day, a storm on the moors drove Lucy
and her father (now living in Ravenswood’s ancient family property) to his new home in Wolf's Crag. Inside, when
Ravenswood’s hand first touched hers in friendship, they were startled by a burst of lightning and thunder that shook the structure to its
foundations. It was as though the founder of the fortress was expressing his
displeasure at their reconciliation.
Ravenswood’s
sole dependant, Caleb, now contributed the next sign. In the moment when his
master was about to leave home to visit Lucy and her father at Ravenswood
Park, he remembered the following prophecy:
“When the last Laird of Ravenswood
to Ravenswood shall ride,
And woo a dead maiden to be his bride,
He shall stable his steed in the Kelpie’s flow,
And his name shall be lost for evermoe!”
Ravenswood, impatient to return to Lucy, asked Caleb why anyone would
want to stable a steed in the 'Kelpie's flow', the quicksands near Wolf's Crag. Also, he declared that he was not going to
Ravenswood Castle to woo a bride, dead or alive. He then led Lucy’s horse by
the bridle through the rocky paths, in one of the
happiest moments of their love.
They promised themselves to each other at
that same fountain in the grounds, where a deceived creature had once disappeared. And in that moment appeared omen number three. A curious raven, gazing at the couple as if turned to stone, was shot by Lucy’s young brother and fell dead at Ravenswood’s feet. Magic was
brewing, as dark as the dead bird.
Spurned by Lucy’s mother, Edgar was
was leaving Ravenswood Park, when he experienced the climactic omen. As he rode
through the woods, his horse stood still, gripped by a strange terror, and he
spied, at that very fountain, a female figure that he first took to be Lucy
herself. As he came close, the figure turned and raised a hand to stop him. It
was not Lucy, but an old retainer of the Ravenswoods who still lived in the
Park and was known as Alice. She did not speak, but her lips moved wordlessly
as she gazed at him. With her face still
turned towards him, she seemed to glide, not walk, backwards to disappear into the thicket.
Her appearance was so strange that
Ravenswood rode towards Alice’s home. He learned that she had died just a moment ago, desiring till the end to speak to him. Her messenger had not reached him in time.
A few more delightful prophecies followed. The first was by the sexton who buried
Alice and saw death on Ravenswood’s forehead. The other was made by an old lady on
the day Lucy was married to Bucklaw. She foresaw that the bride of Lammermoor
was soon for the grave.
After
Lucy’s death, Ravenswood was challenged to a duel by her brother. In his
impatience to reach the rendezvous, he and his horse fell into the same
quicksands of Kelpie, of which he had been warned.
This is the tale of the ghost ship and the wounded bird, shrouded in the wool-white fog of the moors. While Ravenswood’s love was not meant to be, it also seemed that it was MEANT not to be. In the author’s own words, ‘This could not be called a Scottish story unless it manifested a tinge of Scottish superstition.’
Acknowledgements: I thank Tithiparna Sengupta for the painting of the ghost ship. I am indebted to the Met Opera Education for sharing content from Dr. Emily Saenz. I am ever indebted to Sir Walter Scott, for providing many hours of escape from real life.
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