The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott/Rokeby

by Walter Scott

Layout 2

ROKEBY.

 

A Poem.

 

IN SIX CANTOS.

TO
JOHN B. S. MORRITT, ESQ.,
THIS POEM,
THE SCENE OF WHICH IS LAID IN HIS BEAUTIFUL DEMESNE OF ROKEBY,
IS INSCRIBED,
IN TOKEN OF SINCERE FRIENDSHIP
BY
WALTER SCOTT.

Dec. 31st, 1812.

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ADVERTISEMENT TO FIRST EDITION, 1813.

The scene of this poem is laid at Rokeby, near Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, and shifts to the adjacent fortress of Barnard Castle, and to other places in that vicinity.

The time occupied by the action is a space of Five Days, three of which are supposed to elapse between the end of the Fifth and beginning of the Sixth Canto.

The date of the supposed events is immediately subsequent to the great battle of Marston Moor, 3rd July, 1644. This period of public confusion has been chosen, without any purpose of combining the Fable with the Military or Political Events of the Civil War, but only as affording a degree of probability to the Fictitious Narrative now presented to the Public.

Contents (not listed in original)

• Canto I
• Canto II
• Canto III
• Canto IV
• Canto V
• Canto VI