The Spider and the King

“IF the insect shall make another effort to fix its thread, and shall be successful, I will venture a seventh time to try my fortune in Scotland; but if the spider shall fail, I will go to the wars in Palestine, and never return to my native country more.”*

While Bruce was forming this resolution, the spider made another exertion with all the force it could muster, and fairly succeeded in fastening its thread to the beam which it had so often in vain attempted to reach. Bruce, seeing the success of the spider, resolved to try his own fortune; and as he had never before gained a victory, so he never afterwards sustained any considerable or decisive check or defeat.*

I have often met with people of the name of Bruce, so completely persuaded of the truth of this story, that they would not on any account kill a spider; because it was that insect which had shown the example of perseverance, and given a signal of good luck to their great namesake.

by Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832

Abridged from ‘Tales of a Grandfather’ Vol. 1 (1831, 1842) by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).

Robert perhaps could not yet believe that Edward I’s Ninth Crusade (1271-1272) was the last of its kind, and that the fall of Acre in 1291 would never be avenged. A so-called ‘popular’ crusade, the Crusade of the Poor, left England in 1309 but did not get beyond Avignon and Marseilles.

Winston Churchill made reference to Robert and his spider when looking back at the Battle of El Alamein. See The Miracle of El Alamein.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Tags

Scottish History 25 Sir Walter Scott 10 Robert I ‘the Bruce’, King of Scots 1 Extracts from Literature 678 Character and Conduct 128

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