'The stream of life's exhausted tide': Breathlessness in Scott's The Lady of the Lake

Abstract:In this article, I consider how The Lady of the Lake navigates two simultaneous and ill-fated revivals. It temporarily brings a fictional episode of Scottish history under King James V back to life, and rejuvenates the outdated literary tradition of medieval, chivalric romance. In uniting the literary revival with the rediscovery and remediation of the ancient ballad-history, Scott begins to trace a complex relationship between literary form and historical narrative. I explore how Scott positions the Harp of the North in the narrative frame to reconcile, negotiate, and ultimately disappoint these revivals, marking the ballad-history for its own transience and obsolescence before it has even begun. I consider why Scott consigns the Harp of the North to its continued decay and abandonment in the wilds of the Trossachs at the poem's conclusion, and then outline the complicated relationship that this forges between poetic inspiration and physical breathlessness in the main narrative. By drawing attention to important instances of exhaustion in Fitz-James's history, I illustrate the nuanced ways that breathlessness underpins the narrative and historical structure of Scott's The Lady of the Lake.