"The Pirate" is also the title of novels by Harold Robbins and Frederick Marryat
The Pirate (published at the end of 1821 with the date 1822) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott, based roughly on the life of John Gow who features as Captain Cleveland. The setting is the southern tip of the main island of Shetland (which Scott visited in 1814), towards the end of the 17th century, with 1689 as the likely date of the main incidents.
Contents
Composition and sources
On 21 August 1820 John Ballantyne offered Archibald Constable a new novel to follow Kenilworth (which was to be published in January the following year). No title or subject was specified at that stage, and it was not until April 1821 that Ballantyne noted that what he calls the 'Buccaneer' had been begun. The need for research on the northern isles, and other occupations, slowed Scott down, and the first volume was not completed until early August, but his pace then quickened and the work was finished in late October.
In 1814 Scott had taken a six-week cruise with the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners. He kept a diary (eventually published in his biography by J. G. Lockhart), and when he came to write The Pirate he was able to draw on it for many details about an otherwise unfamiliar part of Scotland. He accumulated a small collection of pirate literature, the most useful being History of the Lives and Actions of the most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c. To which is added, A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the most noted Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (1742). This was supplemented by an account of the pirate John Gow supplied by Alexander Peterkin, Sheriff-Substitute of Orkney and Zetland, published in 1822, the year of the novel's appearance, as Notes on Orkney and Zetland. Scott was also acquainted with several books on the northern isles from the seventeenth century to his own time which discussed the agricultural questions that occupy Triptolemus Yellowley's attention in the novel.
Editions
The Pirate was published in three volumes by Constable and Ballantyne in Edinburgh on 24 December 1821 and by Hurst, Robinson, and Co. in London two days later. As with all the Waverley novels before 1827 publication was anonymous. The print run was 12,000, though 2000 of these were a late afterthought which resulted in a bibliographical complication. The price was one and a half guineas (£1 11s 6d or £1.57½). It is unlikely that Scott was involved with the novel again until March and then August 1830 when he revised the text and provided an introduction and notes for the 'Magnum' edition in which it appeared as Volumes 24 and 25 in May and June 1831.
The standard modern edition, by Mark Weinstein and Alison Lumsden, was published in 2001 as Volume 12 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels: it is based on the first edition with emendations mainly from Scott's manuscript and proof corrections; the Magnum material is included in Volume 25b.
Plot introduction
The arrival of the shipwrecked captain, Cleveland, spoils young Mordaunt's relationship with the Troil girls, and soon a bitter rivalry grows between the two men. Minna falls in love with Cleveland, not knowing his true profession. Brenda however is in love with Mordaunt. The pirates capture the Troils, but after an encounter with the frigate HMS Halcyon, they are freed. Brenda and Mordaunt are reunited, and Minna and Cleveland parted.
Plot summary
Mr Mertoun and his son had arrived as strangers, and resided for several years in the remaining rooms of the old mansion of the Earls of Orkney, the father leading a very secluded life, while the son Mordaunt became a general favourite with the inhabitants, and especially with the udaller, Magnus Troil, and his daughters, Brenda and Minna. On his way home from a visit to them, he and the pedlar Snailsfoot sought shelter from a storm at a farmhouse, at Hafra, home of Triptolemus Yellowley agent of the Chamberlain of Orkney and Shetland, and his sister Barbara. The visitors were amused with the Yellowleys' penurious ways, and encountered Norna, a relative of Magnus Troil who was supposed to be in league with the fairies, and to possess supernatural powers. The next day a ship was wrecked on the rocky coast, and, at the risk of his life, Mordaunt rescued the captain, Cleveland, as he was cast on the beach clinging to a plank, while Norna prevented his sea-chest from being pillaged. Cleveland was in fact a pirate, but they did not know this. The captain promised his preserver a trip in a consort ship which he expected would arrive shortly, and went to seek the Udaller's help in recovering some of his other property that had been washed ashore. After the lapse of several weeks, however, during which the Troils had discontinued their friendly communications with him, Mordaunt heard that the stranger was still their guest, and that they were arranging an entertainment for Saint John's Eve, to which he had not been invited.
As he was brooding over this slight, Norna touched his shoulder, and, assuring him of her goodwill, advised him to join the party uninvited. Warned by his father against falling in love, and with some misgivings as to his reception, he called at Harfra on his way, and accompanied Yellowley and his sister to the feast. Minna and Brenda Troil replied to their discarded companion's greeting with cold civility, and he felt convinced that Captain Cleveland had supplanted him in their esteem. The bard, Claud Halcro, endeavoured to cheer him with his poetry and reminiscences of "glorious" John Dryden; and, in the course of the evening, Brenda, disguised as a masquer, told him they had heard that he had spoken unkindly of them, but that she did not believe he had done so. She also expressed her fear that the stranger had won Minna's love, and begged Mordaunt to discover all he could respecting him. During an attempt to capture a whale the following day, Cleveland saved Mordaunt from drowning, and, being thus released from his obligation to him, intimated that henceforth they were rivals. The same evening the pedlar brought tidings that a strange ship had arrived at Kirkwall, and Cleveland talked of a trip thither to ascertain whether it was the consort he had been so long expecting.
Characters
Principal characters in bold
Basil Mertoun, alias Vaughan, of Jarlshof
Mordaunt Mertoun, his son
Swertha, their housekeeper
Sweyn Erickson, a fisherman
Magnus Troil, an udaller
Minna and Brenda, his daughters
Euphane Fea, his housekeeper
Eric Scambester, his servant
Ulla Troil, alias Norna of the Fitful Head, his kinswoman
Nicholas Strumpfer, alias Pacolet, her servant
Niel Ronaldson, parish constable of Jarlshof
Triptolemus Yellowley, of Harfa, a factor
Barbara (Baby) Yellowley, his sister
Tronda Dronsdaughter, their servant
Bryce Snailsfoot, a pedlar
Claud Halcro, a bard
Captain Clement Cleveland, alias Vaughan, a pirate
John Bunce, alias Frederick Altamont, his lieutenant
Dick Fletcher, Bunce's associate
Captain Goffe, a pirate
Chapter summary
Advertisement: The Author of Waverley outlines the history of the pirate John Gow on which his narrative is based.
Volume One
Ch. 1: Some years before the story begins, the mysterious and melancholy Basil Mertoun and his young son Mordaunt arrive in Zetland, where Magnus Troil of Burgh Westra agrees to rent him the deserted Jarlshof castle.
Ch. 2: Basil is cheated by the locals: he dismisses his housekeeper Swertha, but following advice from Mordaunt she achieves reinstatement. During his father's black moods Mordaunt engages in social activities in the neighbourhood.
Ch. 3: Mordaunt's affections seem to hover between the contrasting Troil daughters Minna and Brenda.
Ch. 4: Returning to Jarlshof from Burgh Westra in a storm, Mordaunt seeks refuge at Harfra (or Stourburgh) with Triptolemus Yellowley, a factor from Yorkshire devoted to agricultural improvements, and his sister Barbara (Baby).
Ch. 5: The Yellowleys discuss their unexpected guest and are joined by a pedlar [Bruce Snailsfoot] and Norna of the Fitful-head.
Ch. 6: After apparently quelling the storm, Norna departs from Harfra and Mordaunt prepares to continue his journey.
Ch. 7: Back at Jarlshof, Mordaunt rescues a sailor from a shipwreck. Bruce, Norna, and some of the locals arrive on the scene.
Ch. 8: At the house of the parish constable Niel Ronaldson, the sailor introduces himself to Mordaunt as Captain Clement Cleveland and gives him a Spanish fowling-piece. Mordaunt provides him with a letter of introduction to Magnus.
Ch. 9: A month later Bryce sells Mordaunt material for a waistcoat which he intends to wear at a dance at Burgh Westra, though he has oddly not been invited.
Reception
Critical assessments of The Pirate differed widely. A third of the reviews were almost entirely enthusiastic, a smaller number were dismissive, and the rest came up with 'middle rank' verdicts. Norna was widely admired as a more sublime Meg Merrilees, and her poetry attracted high praise even from reviewers who were otherwise unimpressed. The Yellowleys were found novel and highly entertaining. Other favourite characters were Bunce, Halcro (albeit over-extended), and the pirate crew. Contrasting pairs were admired in Brenda and Minna, and in Cleveland and Mordaunt. Several reviewers complained about repetition of characters from previous novels, but others discerned discriminating facets.