Ivanhoe and the Black Knight — Costumes for the 1828 Stage Adaptation
Ivanhoe: A Romance is an 1819 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, set in the reign of King Richard The Lion Heart and largely concerning the long-smouldering antagonism between the Normans and Saxons in the centuries after the Norman Conquest — an antagonism which, at that date, is highly anachronistic (one might call it a sort of Hollywood History) and largely the product of Scott's teeming imagination. In the face of severe criticism by his own contemporaries on this and other historical inaccuracies, Scott himself admitted, "It is extremely probable that I may have confused the manners of two or three centuries," but comforted himself that "errors of this kind will escape the general class of readers." And indeed, despite the author's Whig history limitations and prejudices (which are evident), Ivanhoe is a stirring and colourful tale, with plenty of action, lovable heroes and heroines and hissable villains, and a real feeling for the genuine — if extremely exaggerated — romance of The High Middle Ages.The novel was originally something of a Pot-boiler. Scott's popularity as a poet was waning in the face of the more exotic verses of Lord Byron, and his over-gentrified lifestyle and a life-threatening bout of illness had left his pocketbook in an equally sickly condition. His Scottish novels were popular enough, but of limited appeal; Scott felt, moreover, the need for a fresher source of inspiration — so he turned to History and The Middle Ages, the object of his lifelong and devoted — if not always pedantically accurate — study. The novel won immediate, long-lasting, and deserved popularity, restored Scott's fortunes, and helped to launch the entire Historical Fiction genre.
Ivanhoe was a US production, directed by Herbert Brenon, and starring King Baggot as Ivanhoe, Leah Baird as Rebecca, Herbert Brenon as Isaac, Evelyn Hope as Rowena, and Wallace Widdicombe as Bois-Guilbert;
Rebecca the Jewess was directed by Leedham Bantock and featured Lauderdale Maitland, Ethel Bracewell, Hubert Carter, Nancy Bevington, and Harry Lonsdale in the same rôles, respectively. (Oddly, both were filmed in the same locations at Chepstow Castle in Wales.)
In 1952, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced what is probably the best remembered film version, Ivanhoe, directed by Richard Thorpe, and starring Robert Taylor as Wilfred, Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca, Felix Aylmer as Isaac, Joan Fontaine as Rowena, George Sanders as Bois-Guilbert, Finlay Currie as Cedric. This version was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Colour Cinematography, and Best Score for Miklós Rózsa; it stressed the spectacular and swashbuckling elements.
A Russian adaptation in 1983, The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (Баллада о доблестном рыцаре Айвенго, Ballada o Dovlestnom Ryzare "Ayvenho") appeared, directed by Sergey Tarasov, starring Peteris Gaudins as Ivanhoe and featuring songs by Vladimir Vysotsky.
A 1958 television series with Roger Moore as Ivanhoe.
A 1970 miniseries starring Eric Flynn.
A very well regarded adaptation in 1982 with Anthony Andrews as Ivanhoe, Olivia Hussey as Rebecca, James Mason as Isaac, Lysette Anthony as Rowena, and Sam Neill as Bois-Guilbert.
Another 1997 production, a mini-series produced by A&E and the BBC, starring Steven Waddington, with Susan Lynch as Rebecca, Victoria Smurfit as Rowena, Christopher Lee as Beaumanoir, and Ciarán Hinds as Bois-Guilbert.
Darkest Knight, a 2000 Channel 5 adaptation starring Ben Pullen as Ivanhoe and Charlotte Comer as Rebecca.
Interestingly, there have been several operatic versions: Gioachino Rossini's Ivanhoé (a pastiche which did not impress Scott, who attended a performance), Thomas Sari's Ivanhoé, Bartolomeo Pisani's Rebecca, A. Castagnier's Rébecca, Otto Nicolai's Il Templario, and Heinrich Marschner's Der Templer und die Jüdin. The best known, however, is probably Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan's rather turgidly solemn 1891 adaptation, which impressed Queen Victoria and ran for over 150 performances.
Tropes employed by this novel (and its various adaptations) include:
The Book
Abhorrent Admirer: Athelstane and de Bracy for Rowena; Bois-Guilbert for Rebecca; Prince John for Alicia Fitzurse.
Adaptation Distillation: A number of the various adaptations have successfully reinterpreted the original in the terms of their own eras. The 1952 version was extremely popular in an age which demanded spectacle. The 1982 version attempted a sort of Adventures of Ivanhoe approach, and featured some striking performances. The 1997 A&E/BBC version went for a Darker and Edgier, de-romanticized interpretation that captured more of the sense of suspense and tragedy in the novel than other versions. As is the way with most great works, each age will get the kind of Ivanhoe that best suits it.
Anticlimax: In the trial by combat to determine the fate of Rebecca, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, the invincible Templar, is facing Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is still recovering from his wounds — but when they actually joust, Bois-Guilbert simply keels over dead, "a victim of his own contending passions," and Wilfred is left standing there, looking awkward.
Big Damn Heroes: The Black Knight for Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe for Rebecca.
Black and White Morality: YMMV. Certainly most of the Goodies are very good, and most of the Baddies very bad, but it does not prevent them from being memorable characters. One is inclined to say that, rather than being Black and White, they are all rendered in primary colours.
Black Knight: "Le Noir Faineant" (aka The Black Sluggard)
Cold-Blooded Torture: As when Front-de-Bœuf threatens to roast Isaac alive on a grill.
Christianity is Catholic: The setting dictates this, though Sir Walter throws in a number of hints that "it ain't necessarily so."
Corrupt Church: Sir Walter, being a conventional if not convicted Presbyterian, invented quite a few corrupt churchmen as Take Thats against the Roman Catholic Church: the worldly Prior Aylmer, the proud, cruel, and lustful Bois-Guilbert, the ignorant and violent "hedge-priest" Friar Tuck, the unscrupulous Malvoisin, the fanatical Beaumanoir, the greedy and treacherous Abbot Wolfram who betrays Athelstane. Indeed, there is not a single completely decent cleric in the whole novel.
Courtly Love: Played straight by Wilfred and Rowena (and Rebecca for Wilfred; subverted by Athelstane and de Bracy for Rowena; beaten all to hell and back by Bois-Guilbert for Rebecca
The Crusades: Where many of the main characters are returning from — specifically, the Third Crusade.
Did Not Do the Research: Numerous examples, of which perhaps the most extreme is the warping of the real Saxon name "Cerdic" into the previously non-existent "Cedric". Though making Ulrica, and Englishwoman of the 12th century invoke "Zernebock" (i.e., Chernabog) is a pretty epicResearch Failure, too.
The Dung Ages: Averted in Scott's original novel, though some adaptations have depicted at least parts of the setting this way.
Estrogen Brigade: In-universe. In the first volume, the narrator spends a lot of time repeatedly pointing out how much the ladies enjoy tournaments and matches between knights even more enthusiastically than many men.
Evil Chancellor: Waldemar Fitzurse — not personally depraved, but certainly ruthlessly ambitious — and a heck of a lot smarter than nearly all the other baddies.
Gratuitous Norman French: Mort de ma vie! The Normans here are always bursting out with Gallic oaths and phrases — in fact, the novel practically opens with a long discussion between Gurth and Wamba of the intermingling of French words with English and the subtle distinctions of meaning between them both.
Foil: Rowena and Rebecca, as Scott shows by paralleling their reactions to their would-be-rapists.
Greedy Jew: Isaac of York in Ivanhoe is somewhere between an example and a subversion.
Historical Hero Upgrade: Richard I — though Scott's depiction is not uniformly a positive one; his Richard is proud, reckless, a bit sensual, rather violent, and perhaps on the whole not an entirely inaccurate depiction of the warrior king. Still, he does seem to leave out the king’s extreme arrogance, deviousness, intolerance, morbidity, and occasional bouts of almost insane fury. (The theory, by the way, that Richard was a homosexual — which would doubtless have scandalized the strait-laced Puritan Scott — was not seriously advanced until after his time.)
History Marches On: The view popularised by Sir Walter, of plucky "English" commoners still resisting their "Norman" overlords a century or two after the Conquest was questioned even in Scott's own time, and almost wholly abandoned by serious historians within the same century.
Hollywood Costuming: Scott's descriptions of clothing and armour are wildly at variance with our knowledge of 12th century costume.
The Knights Hospitallers: The Hospitaller, Ralph de Vipont, is a much less formidable figure than any of the other challengers at Ashby-de-la-Zouche.
The Knights Templar: Most importantly Brian de Bois-Guilbert, but also Albert de Malvoisin, Grand Master Lucas de Beaumanoir, et al.
Knight Templar: Averted, oddly enough, by most of the actual Templars in the story, but played absolutely straight by Lucas de Beaumanoir, who is a Knight Templar in both senses of the term — indeed, the Grand Master of the Order.
Literary Agent Hypothesis: Scott originally published the novel under the pseudonym Laurence Templeton, in which guise he claimed he was merely transcribing and editing an actual medieval document, the "Wardour Manuscript" *
a pun on "Wardour Street" in London, which was known for its shops that sold antique furniture of dubious provenance
— though the author’s actual identity seems to have been an open secret.
Love Dodecahedron: Rowena for Wilfred; Athelstane for Rowena, Maurice de Bracy for Rowena, Wilfred for Rowena; Rebecca for Wilfred; Bois-Guilbert for Rebecca.
Lust: Exemplified by a number of the baddies, perhaps most egregiously by Brian de Bois-Guilbert.
Medieval Morons: Averted for the most part; though some play is made of the credulity of the crowd during Rebecca's trial, it is made clear that the accusing witnesses found by Malvoisin are acting more out of greed, envy, and political corruption rather than out superstition. (Beaumanoir, though a fanatic, is not exactly a moron.)
The Middle Ages: Scott's Early Romantic, "Look-to-the-Knight-of-the-Fetterlock-Fair-Rebecca" conception of the 12th century England veers at times very close to the Theme Park Version of the mediæval period.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: A lot of these. The Templar Preceptor Albert de Malvoisin ("bad neighbour").and his brother Philip; Reginald Front-de-Boeuf ("Or 'Beef-head'" as Richard Armour put it, in The Classics Reclassified). Waldemar Fitzurse's last name means "Son of the Bear" — which was also the surname of the ringleader of St. Thomas Becket's assassins.
Never My Fault: Bois-Guilbert, refusing to realize that Rebecca is in danger of being sentenced to burn mainly because he kidnapped her.
Nobody Calls Me Chicken: How Wilfred goads Bois-Guilbert into dueling him in the third volume.
Now Let Me Carry You: Rebecca nurses Wilfred back to health. Later he comes to save her from being burned as a witch.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Rebecca of York is described as having "Bright eyes, black locks, and a skin like paper, ere the priest stains it with his black unguent."
People of Hair Color: Although Scott’s assertion of a lingering racial animosity between Normans and Saxons was not absolutely without basis (there was in Henry II's time a Saxon noble called "William with the Beard" who refused to shave as a protest against the Conquest), there can be absolutely no doubt that such feelings were highly eccentric, uncommon, and of no practical social or political importance by the reign of Richard I.
"... ever since I grew to love Rebecca, that sweetest creature of the poet's fancy, and longed to see her righted." — Excerpt from Rebecca and Rowena
Pinball Protagonist: One of Scott's calling cards is the passive protagonist, who often spends most of the novel being carted around by the Action Hero. Ivanhoe is one of the best-known examples, and famously spends a battle sequence flat on his back in a tower, unable to see anything that's going on.
Playing the Victim Card: After Rebecca has been sentenced to death, Bois-Guilbert sees himself as the injured party because the girl still refuses to love him. Sure, it's his fault she's in this mess in the first place, but he would save her if she would just agree to reward him.
Public Domain Character: Robin Hood. Scott was not the first, by any means, but he is probably the most influential author in linking the outlaw's legend with Richard The Lion Heart and Prince John; more original with Scott was the linking of the legend with a supposed racial animosity between the Normans and the Saxons. Scott also popularised the name "Locksley" as associated with the outlaw.
Farewell, Front-de-Bœuf! May Mista, Skogula, and Zernebock, gods of the ancient Saxons — fiends as the priests now call them – supply the place of comforters at your dying bed, which Ulrica now relinquishes! But know, if it will give thee comfort to know it, that Ulrica is bound to the same dark coast with thyself, the companion of thy punishment as the companion of thy guilt. And now, parricide, farewell for ever! May each stone of this vaulted roof find a tongue to echo that title into thine ear!
Reality Is Unrealistic: The almost impossibly noble Rebecca is said to be the only character based directly one of Scott's contemporaries — a friend of Scott's friend Washington Irving — a Jewish lady from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, named Rebecca Gratz.
Shown Their Work: Scott appended notes to later editions, justifying some of the historical assertions he made, or at least showing what historical incidents had suggested them.
Trial by Combat: The climax of the novel Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe fights on behalf of Rebecca, the daughter of Isaac of York, who has been accused of sorcery.
Unfortunate Names: De Bigot, Prince John's seneschal, mentioned in a throwaway line. Very nearly a Mel Brooks character.
You Can Barely Stand: Wilfred of Ivanhoe meets Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert as challenger in a trial by combat despite barely having recovered of his wounds from the tournament.
You Got Spunk: Brian de Bois-Guilbert's opinion of Rebecca's attempted suicide to escape him.
Big Damn Heroes: Richard shows up at the very end to do this.
Combat Pragmatist: Ivanhoe has no compunctions about sneaking up behind people and stabbing them in the back, or hiding in dark corners and popping out to stab them in the back.
Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: Played with. During the final duel, Bois-Guilbert uses a mace and chain—a nicely evil weapon—but Ivanhoe uses an axe. This is to drive home that he's not Rebecca's Knight in Shining Armor.
Flynning: Oh, yes. At several points you can see one combatant just holding his sword up while the other hits it repeatedly.
Historical Hero Upgrade: Also present in this adaptation, although it's played with differently. Ivanhoe staunchly supports Richard, because he's Richard's friend; almost all the other characters point out that there's very little to choose between Richard and John. Ivanhoe builds support for Richard by promising a civil rights movement.
Kangaroo Court: One of the witnesses against Rebecca starts crying and admits that she was forced to testify.
Historical Hero Upgrade: Somewhat played with, as is the Historical Villain Upgrade. Near the end of the plot Eleanor of Aquitane confronts both her sons and lambasts not only John, but Richard as well. If anything she's more annoyed with the latter, since he's spent all but three or four months of his reign in the Holy Lands and has near bankrupted England to pay for his war, leaving John to do the unpleasant but necessary task of raising the money and, oh yeah, keep the country running. As she says, 'John may be a miserable little runt, but at least he's been here!'
Meaningful Echo: When Bois-Guilbert is about to rape Rebecca, she tells him that "Reason is a gift of God to civilized men; it has no place here." He repeats this to Beaumanoir during the trial.
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