1819 was a year of dark omens and apocalyptic portents. Old King George III was dying and the very world itself seemed to be dying in sympathy with him. The crops in the fields were failing in the face of severe weather; there was hunger across the country and rioting in the streets. Such national distress was further mirrored in Walter Scott's personal life. In December he was to be devastated by the news of his mother's death, but before that he had himself faced death having succumbed to a serious bout of illness. Not yet 50 years old, he had been suffering from stomach cramps and gallstones for two years and in April an attack of jaundice brought him to crisis point. And yet at the height of his illness, numbed with opium to kill the

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Published 20 March 2002

Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "The Bride of Lammermoor". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 March 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1389, accessed 9 February 2010.]