'Breathes there the man' by Sir Walter Scott<br /> by [[Sir Walter Scott]] in Scottish Poetry Library<br /> from ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’, Canto sixth<br /> accessed on 2025-08-25T11:04:25

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/breathes-there-man/

Old King Cole

Sir Walter is so self centred he can't image that the Admiral (a very high rank - perhaps the highest? - in his profession) ever had a life or an acquaintance before renting Kellynch

In the 1995 adaptation Anne does say this. In reality it would have only made things uncomfortable for her, she is right not to speak. Her father would not understand her meaning and Elizabeth would take offense. Does anyone recall if she expresses this in the other adaptations?

I'd like to think that Anne would support Mrs Clay and Sir Walter if she thought they were genuinely in love but she can see Mrs Clays mechanisms - this may be her motivation rather than that Mrs Clay is "beneath him" (though it would be a match that shocked)

This is a hilarious image - all based on the family tree. Mr Elliot is part of the family but Sir Walter is not his father, he is the head of the family estate

All the changes indicate that the Crofts are practical, thinking of the servants convenience - they can get their own umbrellas rather than sending for them, the door was a nuisance - and not as obsessed with appearance as Sir Walter. They even move the looking glasses themselves.

All Baronets were "created", either bought or gifted by the crown. Mary wants Sir Walter to remain superior because he's more "established"

Sir Walter and Elizabeth left much earlier than they needed to

Is Mary being treated/acting like a child as she's seen Sir Walter do?

Like Sir Walter, Elizabeth cares more for appearances than substance

Mr Shepherd is so good at what he does and plays Sir Walter who is basically a child

Richard E. Grant as Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall in Persuasion (2022).

We are hearing the echo of Sir Walter and Elizabeth's opinions/words. This is a strange introduction for the main character, she is ignored and secondary. Chapter 1 focuses on Sir Walter and then the family context, Chapters 2 and 3 are a group setting (and people finally speak). A first time reader may not identify Anne as the main character till chapter 4 when the text pivots to focus on her. In chapter 1 we hear of Elizabeth's disappointment with Mr Elliot but the history with Wentworth is hidden till Anne is alone. Modern texts tend to have more active, vibrant main characters (like Lizzy Bennet) who have agency and push the story forward through their choices and actions. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is another good example of the sort of main character modern readers struggle with.

Sir Walter bases peoples worth on their lineage, not their actions or character - he mocks Lord St Ives for his father being a poor curate like this somehow makes him less of a person. Titles aren't worth anything to him if they are earned. Which is funny because Baronet is a title that could be bought or "earned" (gifted for performing some duty for royalty), it is the lowest ranked title that can be inherited. For all his airs Sir Walter isn't even part of the nobility.

Sir Walter is asking for the ridiculous - that people can stay in his home but not be allowed in the grounds. Mr Shepherd is very diplomatically stating that there is a standard set of usage for tenants (kinda like tenants rights).

Sounds like father and daughter are working together on her plot to seduce Sir Walter

I take this to mean that he wants to get paid too and he's probably being chased by Sir Walters creditors

Two of Shakespeare's more fanciful plays, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream explore the limits of the human form through its characters: the grotesque monster-human hybrid Caliban in The Tempest and the comical Bottom from Midsummer, a human with the head of an ass.

Shelley is conscious of Frankenstein's play with generic convention, and the role genre has in its agreement with representation of reality. In his review of the first edition in 1818 for Edinburgh Magaizine, Sir Walter Scott seems cognizant of the shift in consciousness. He notes: "The real events of the world have, in our day, too, been of so wondrous and gigantic a kind--the shiftings of the scenes in our stupendous drama have been so rapid and various, that Shakespeare himself, in his wildest flights, has been completely distanced by the eccentricities of actual existence."

Highlights the slight strife between "old" and "new" money. Lady Denham's words seem reminiscent of Sir Walter Elliot's disdain for those who made their fortune instead of inheriting it in Persuasion.