Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field 9781474425209

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TH E E DINBURGH E DITION OF W ALTE R SCOTT’S POE TR Y general editor Professor Alison Lumsden

patrons His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch Dr Walter Scott Dr J. H. Alexander  :  Professor Claire Lamont Professor Jane Millgate advisory board Professor David Hewitt, Chair Professor Gerard Carruthers  :  Professor Patrick Crotty Professor Ian Duncan  :  Professor Penny Fielding Professor Kirsteen McCue  :  Professor Lynda Pratt Professor Margaret Ross  :  Professor Jane Stabler editorial board The General Editor, Chair Professor Peter Garside  :  Dr Gillian Hughes Dr Ainsley McIntosh The Chair of the Advisory Board

volume two MARMION

THE E DINBURGH E DITIO N O F WAL TE R SCOTT’S POETRY

to be complete in ten volumes 1 The Lay of the Last Minstrel [1805] 2 Marmion [1808] 3 The Lady of the Lake [1810] 4 Rokeby [1813] 5 Vision of Don Roderick [1811], The Bridal of Triermain [1813], The Field of Waterloo [1815], and Harold the Dauntless [1817] 6 The Lord of the Isles [1815] 7 The Shorter Poems 8  Poetry from the Waverley Novels and Other Works 9 Verse Drama 10 Scott’s Reflections on Poetry

WALTER SCOTT

MARMION A TALE OF

FLODDEN FIELD

Edited by Ainsley McIntosh

e dinburgh University Press

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cuttingedge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation, Ainsley McIntosh 2018 © the text, Edinburgh University Press 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in Linotype Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2519 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2520 9 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2521 6 (epub) The right of Ainsley McIntosh to be identified as author of the editorial matter has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

CONTENTS



Acknowledgements vi General Introduction ix

MARMIO N Canto First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

Canto Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Canto Third . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Canto Fourth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Canto Fifth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Canto Sixth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Essay on the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287  genesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287   composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291   the later editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314   the present text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Emendation List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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End-of-line Hyphens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Historical Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 Explanatory Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Although this edition is the work of scholars employed by universities, it could not prosper without the help of the sponsors cited below. Their generosity has met the costs of the initial research and the preparation of the volumes. Those universities which employ the editors have also contributed greatly. Particular thanks are extended to the University of Aberdeen. dr walter grant scott The editors and Advisory Board of the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry wish to acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of Dr Walter Scott, senior partner of Scott Investments in Henley-on-Thames. It was inevitable that the editors would approach someone bearing this name; but it was not inevitable that he should provide assistance. His help has facilitated much of the editorial investigation, and paid for those activities which are essential to establishing the reliability of a scholarly edition such as the almost incessant processes of proof-reading and checking the text. He approaches investment with a view to fostering long-term growth, and that belief is further expressed in the very different field of literary scholarship and his trust in the editors of the eewsp. the carnegie trust for the universities of scotland The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland generously provided funding for a pilot project via its Larger Grants Fund. This funding was invaluable in developing a methodology for the edition and in employing a research assistant in its early stages. the british academy The pilot project was also generously supported by a Small Research Grant from the British Academy. This funding facilitated travel to the National Library of Scotland and also supported the employment of a research assistant. libraries Without the generous assistance of the two great repositories of Scott manuscripts the National Library of Scotland and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, it would not have been able to undertake the editing



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of Scott’s poetry and the Board and the editors cannot overstate the extent to which they are indebted to their Trustees and staffs. The generosity of the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Scotland in allowing permission to quote from their holdings is warmly acknowledged. Particular thanks are also extended to the Special Collections Department of the Sir Duncan Rice Library at the University of Aberdeen, home to the Bernard C. Lloyd Collection of Scott Materials. The presence of the Lloyd Collection at Aberdeen offers an invaluable resource for editing Scott’s poetry and the foresight of Bernard Lloyd in compiling this collection and finding a home for it at the University of Aberdeen is also very much appreciated. The Faculty of Advocates Abbotsford Collection Trust is also thanked for its permission to grant access to Scott’s books at Abbotsford, Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders, and the support of Andrea Longson has been invaluable. marmion The editor would like to begin by thanking the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the Caledonian Research Foundation for their generosity in funding her doctoral studies, thereby making the initial research that led to this volume possible. The manuscript of Marmion is in the National Library of Scotland and she wishes to thank staff there and at the British Library for their generosity in making their holdings accessible. Warm thanks go to the staff and former staff in the Special Collections Department of the Sir Duncan Rice Library at the University of Aberdeen, Dr Iain Beavan, June Ellner and Michelle Gait. The librarians in the Special Collections departments of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow are also due thanks. The valuable assistance of the staff at Reading University Library, where the Longman correspondence is held, is gratefully acknowledged. The sole known copy of the Introductory Epistle to Canto First which Scott had printed in February 1807 is held by the Morgan Library, and we are grateful to the Morgan for making it accessible to us, and to Christine Nelson in particular. A marked up copy of the second edition of the poem is held in the Beinecke Library at the University of Yale and the editor thanks the Beinecke for permission to quote from it and in particular acknowledges the help of Dolores Colon in facilitating access to this document. Historians Katie Stevenson (University of St Andrews) and Jackson Armstrong (University of Aberdeen) are warmly thanked for directing the editor to the best scholarly and historical accounts of the Battle of Flodden. Editing Scott requires knowledge and expertise beyond the capacity of any one person; the joy of carrying out such work lies partly in the spirit of collaboration that it engenders, and many people have helped the present editor. Special mention must go to Jane Millgate for her advice

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r­ egarding the possible existence of an interleaved set of Scott’s poetry and to J. H. Alexander and Mhairi Pooler for their invaluable help with the Explanatory Notes. The following assisted the editors with answers to particular questions, and she remains indebted to them: Roy Pinkerton who checked all the Latin quotations and provided translations, Peter Ainger (Whitby Museum), Jeremy Coleman, Rosalind Coleman, Grant Conchie (The Hirsel, Coldstream), Elizabeth Elliott, David Forsyth (Royal Museum of Scotland), Christian Heitzmann, William Hunt (Windsor Herald), Ian King (Dolgellau Information Centre), Felix Kommnick (Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel), Shona Potts, Lynda Pratt, Don Robertson (Southampton Tour Guides Association), Alison Rosie (National Register of Archives for Scotland), and Angela Schofield. Sheena Ford undertook the second, independent collation of the manuscript and also proof-read the text. Sally Hughes carefully checked quotations and references and proof-read end matter. Erasmus interns visiting the Walter Scott Research Centre from the University of Mainz also undertook additional checks and thanks are extended to Christian Hensen, Qendresa Zejnullahu and Melissa Merz and to Sigrid Rieuwerts for arranging their visits. The careful proof-reading of the edition undertaken by Eddie Clark has also been invaluable. Above all, thanks must go to the General Editors, Alison Lumsden, and David Hewitt for their invaluable advice and contributions to this edition and their encouragement over the years. Their unrivalled knowledge of Scott and textual editing and unfailing attention to detail have enriched the present volume in many ways. The editors of the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Novels and the extended family of Scott scholars merit heartfelt gratitude for providing the context, setting the standard, and keeping the conversation about Scott alive. Countless former colleagues at the School of Language and Literature at the University of Aberdeen are gratefully remembered. Wayne Price is thanked for his assistance and much valued friendship. Finally the editor would like to thank her family for their love and support. The General Editors for this volume were Professor David Hewitt and Professor Alison Lumsden

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Even although Scott’s literary reputation has been transformed by a tide of critical studies by international scholars, and by the first critical edition of his novels which appeared between 1993 and 2012, little attention has been paid to the poetry. One of the reasons for this situation is that there has never been a scholarly edition, and no complete edition is in print. The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry will be the first to provide a reliable text, and it will be the first to make all his poetry available. No previous edition has been as comprehensive, and none claiming to be comprehensive has appeared for over one hundred years. On historical grounds the neglect of Scott’s poetry is curious. It was his poetry that defined the new sensibility which is now termed ‘Romanticism’. His poetry was incomparably the most popular in the first decade of the nineteenth century: in 1810 the publication of The Lady of the Lake was the media event of the year and over 25,000 copies were sold in the first twelve months. His success was dazzling: readers could not get enough of his work. Further, to understand Scott it is necessary to understand his career as a poet, for it was his poetry, particularly The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion and The Lady of the Lake, which first established his reputation. Of course, Scott did not help himself. In the Introduction to Rokeby1 he made a typically self-effacing suggestion that the emergence of Byron as a major (and arguably darker and sexier) poet caused him to abandon his poetic endeavours and turn to writing fiction; this almost certainly instigated in later generations a sense that his poetry was less significant than the novels that followed. In fact Scott’s narrative distorts the actualities of his poetic career. What we now consider to be Scott’s major poetic achievements, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion and The Lady of the Lake, were certainly all published before the appearance of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Cantos I and II, in 1812, but Scott wrote several more significant narrative poems after this date, including Rokeby (1813) and The Lord of the Isles (1815). Work on the volume of Shorter Poems for the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry demonstrates that Scott also wrote short and occasional verse throughout his life, and of course, as the Edinburgh Edition of

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the Waverley Novels has shown, Scott wrote much original poetry for the novels as mottos and to represent the (sometimes not very laudable) poetic aspirations of his characters. Writing poetry was an activity that spanned his whole career. A new critical edition of Scott’s poetry therefore seems timely but what it should include is less evident. While the body of Scott’s fiction is fairly well defined the poetry is more challenging. Several models present themselves. The first lies in J. G. Lockhart’s 1833–34 Poetical Works edition, but this is problematic; Volumes 1–5 comprise Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and Scott’s edition of the medieval romance Sir Tristrem: early in its discussions the eewsp team decided that edited works lie outside the scope of this edition. A second model is offered by J. Logie Robertson’s Oxford edition of 1894, which does not include the Minstrelsy material but does include Scott’s original contributions to it. It also expands upon Lockhart’s body of miscellaneous and shorter poems, and incorporates the poetry and verse Scott wrote for the novels. After much discussion it was agreed that the eewsp should include not just the narrative poems and all the shorter and lyric poems that appear in Lockhart’s edition, but also the uncollected poetry which has been discovered by the editors of the Shorter Poems, and which significantly expands the known body of Scott’s work. Original works by Scott himself which appeared in the Minstrelsy are included, but not the poems and songs he collected. His verse drama appears in its own volume; while there may be little appetite for verse drama at the moment its inclusion will facilitate scholarship and comparison with the plays of contemporaries like Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron. The incidental original poetry in the Waverley Novels also forms part of the edition, for Scott himself sanctioned its separate collection and publication by Archibald Constable in 1822. The Edinburgh Edition of Scott’s Poetry will also include Scott’s own essays on poetry, published as the 1830 Introductions to Poetical Works and as essays in the 1833–34 edition. It is true to say that Scott never provides us with a formulated theory of fiction, although we can see one if we synthesise views articulated in the introductory chapters in the Waverley Novels, in reviews, and his ‘Lives of the Novelists’. But nowhere does he provide so comprehensive a view of literature as he does in these essays on poetry. The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels provided a wealth of information about publishing practices relating to Scott’s fiction, and indeed, nineteenth-century fiction more generally. But the eewsp team recognised that the poetry was written and published in different conditions and so it examined the publishing history and the textual archaeology of a number of key texts; all textual witnesses published



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in Scott’s lifetime were collated against a standard of collation and publishing papers were comprehensively examined. It was found that Scott’s poetry, being published under his own name, was subjected to considerable social pressure, unlike the novels where the main problem was the copying which preserved Scott’s anonymity, but generated many errors. It was concluded that the discoveries of the eewn editors, and the methodologies developed from them, could not be transferred and applied to editing the poetry. New approaches were required. A new edition of Scott’s longer poems could be based on the manuscripts, most of which are close to being intact: only that of the Lay is missing. However the manuscripts are not appropriate since Scott expected the conventions of print to be imposed upon his poetry before its publication. The 1833–34 Poetical Works, edited by Lockhart and appearing just after Scott’s death, offers the model based on the latest appearance in print. However, it is clear that as a base-text for a new edition, at least for those poems examined to date, it would be wholly unsuitable. There is no evidence to suggest that Scott was artistically engaged in its production, and while Lockhart makes reference to the existence of an interleaved set of the poetry similar to that used in the preparation of the Magnum edition of the novels, no set has been found, and Lockhart makes almost no emendations on its supposed authority. In fact, Lockhart’s edition reveals more about the commercial agenda that he and Robert Cadell were pursuing at the point of its publication than it does about Scott’s ‘final intentions’ for his poetry. Unfortunately Lockhart’s edition provided the textual basis for all other editions published in the nineteenth century, and for the one most widely available in the twentieth century, that edited by J. Logie Robertson (1894). If Lockhart’s edition is inappropriate what of the first editions of Scott’s poems? While the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels never explicitly states that the first editions should form the base-text, arguing instead that this should be the first fully articulated version of the work, in nearly every case it was the first edition that was chosen, since (with some notable exceptions such as Waverley) there is very little evidence that Scott intervened in the texts of his novels between the first editions and the late Magnum project. However, a very different picture emerges in relation to the long poems. The different versions of those works examined in detail reveal that the texts do not remain stable but evolve and change in subtle ways from one edition to the next. We can reflect on the reasons for this: when Scott was writing the early narrative poems he was a much younger and less influential figure and it is possible that he had less control over the publication of

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his work. However, Scott’s open avowal of authorship and the freeness with which he communicated his plans to friends makes the production of the poetry significantly different to that of the novels of the ‘Great Unknown’. With no need for secrecy Scott’s poetry reached print very publicly, with friends and correspondents contributing their thoughts and responses. After publication, this process continued, with correspondents advising Scott on how his poems could be improved and contributing additional material for notes; his friends too criticised what he had written, and made suggestions for revisions, and even rewrote lines of verse. Ainsley McIntosh, editor of Marmion, following Jerome McGann, has described this process as a highly ‘socialised’ form of development and production where dialogues and interactions between Scott and his audience had direct consequences for the development of the text in both its pre- and post-publication stages. This pattern is replicated in The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), The Lady of the Lake (1810) and, tellingly, even in The Lord of the Isles (1815), published after Scott had begun to publish fiction. In each Scott continues to be artistically engaged with the poem beyond its first appearance in print; the first edition is not the end point of its creative evolution. However there comes a point, usually about a year after a poem was first published, where the continuing process of adjustment and augmentation more or less ceases. The editors consider this point to be the culmination of the creative process. In other words, these early editions are part of what we might call an initial creative process which is in the main Scott’s, but which takes in and responds to the public context. As a consequence the base-text for each of these long poems is the edition in which the poem settles into its fullest articulation. Collation also revealed that while Scott may have been ‘improving’ his poems at this early stage, they were also simultaneously deteriorating: punctuation, layout and even occasional words were inevitably corrupted as compositors ‘translated’ the manuscript into print, and repeatedly used the last published edition as the copy-text for the next. Scott’s handwriting is much easier to read in his younger years than in his later and the layout of a poem on the page mitigates against the kind of cramped script that is found in the manuscripts of the novels. However, this does not mean that there were no errors in reading them; as with his fiction, Scott’s poetry reveals that he has a more extensive and technical vocabulary than those who were preparing his work for publication and it was not always understood. The manuscripts of his poems also reveal layers of revision which were sometimes brought into the printed text incorrectly. While the manuscripts are lightly punctuated, Scott is emphatic when punctuation is meaningful but



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his wishes were not always followed. At times he was also emphatic about the layout of his text: indentation is closely aligned with his complex rhyming pattern but it was not always followed and errors were made. As new editions appeared further deterioration inevitably ensued. Scott’s texts, therefore, came under pressure both from what might be seen as authorial improvement and textual deterioration thus raising particularly interesting questions for legitimate emendation. Our policy, therefore, is to emend copy-texts both where there are obvious misreadings of the manuscript and where there is clear deterioration which can be attributed to compositors’ errors and blundered attempts at correction. By returning to manuscript readings the freshness of the original texts can be captured without detracting from the developed text, and by removing the accretions of printing errors Scott’s intentions, as discerned in what he wrote, can be recovered. While emendation may not be as extensive as in the novels it is nevertheless significant, and it is hoped that it results in a text that fully captures Scott’s artistic vision. Emendations to the poetic texts are not, however, the only changes. This edition is novel in its treatment of Scott’s annotation. In the novels the majority of Scott’s notes were introduced as part of the Magnum Opus edition of 1829–33, but the notes to his longer narrative poems, and indeed some of his shorter verse, were always intrinsic to the original texts. The notes constitute an important part of their paratextual dialogue, and they are frequently textually unstable. A cursory look reveals that they are not notes as we would now understand them: they give accounts of his sources; they provide supplementary material; at times they are narratives in their own right. Indeed, they are best understood as a kind of surplusage, indicative of a process which he describes late on in his career as an inability to resist the act of storytelling, stating in Reliquiae Trotcosienses that he could never prevent himself from ‘gliding into the true musing style of an antiquarian disposed in sailors’ phrase to “spin a tough yarn”’.2 Lockhart’s approach to this annotation compounds the inadequacy of his edition. While Scott makes a clear distinction between end notes and what he calls ‘glossarial’ notes at the foot of the page Lockhart muddles this distinction and even adds his own observations about the poem and its reception amongst the annotatory material. Other editions omit the notes altogether. However, in the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry his notes are presented, as they were in the early editions, as part of the text of his poems, thus restoring a relationship that was clear in Scott’s mind but has been lost in later reprintings of his poems. The notes introduce an additional textual complication: Scott often relied upon amanuenses to copy material from other works to include

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in his own notes, and examining the copies against their sources it is possible to see where mistakes were made. When Scott himself copied documents he often adjusted and modernised his source, and this is allowed to stand in this edition for it is what Scott intended. But when an amanuensis misread a manuscript, introduced errors, or provided an ‘interpretation’ of the source, the eewsp emends. This, then, is the textual policy and general procedure governing the treatment of the longer narrative poems. However, the rest of Scott’s poetry, poetic dramas, and essays on poetry cannot be subjected to a single editorial policy or methodology, because of the varied nature of the textual witnesses: manuscripts, newspapers, magazines, books, and even a funerary inscription. The approach will be explained in each volume as it appears, but at all times the overriding principle is that the text demonstrably closest to the author will be preferred. Of course the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry also provides its own paratextual material to re-invigorate understanding of Scott’s verse. Along with the text of the poems, verse and notes combined, it provides an essay on the text, an emendation list, a historical note, explanatory notes, where necessary a glossary and, in some instances, a map. In these respects the poetry volumes follow the pattern of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels and provide a companion to it. Walter Scott’s poetry is truly innovative. In Marmion Scott suggests that the poet should ‘scorn pedantic laws’ (5.183) and while his extraordinary dexterity in handling verse forms was at times perplexing for critics, it prompted a recognition that something new and radical was at work within his poetry. He was also experimenting with the supernatural as was Coleridge, and with the construction of memory in relation to time and locale long before Wordsworth’s Prelude was published. The aim of the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry is to restore his poems to a form which best reflects his intentions during the initial creative process and which is freed as far as possible from the various errors and non-authorial interventions that arose in the course of their publication and successive re-printings. It also aims to enrich the reading experience of those who come fresh to Scott’s poetry. It is the hope of all involved that by doing so his full significance as a poet will be realized, and that the complexities at work within his poetry, and the relevance of the issues with which it deals, will be revealed. The editorial team is not blind to the challenge; reading nineteenthcentury narrative poetry of the kind that Scott writes, to say nothing of verse dramas, requires a re-discovery of a type of reading that has to some extent been forgotten. It is hoped that a critical edition, which



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provides readers with clear and accurate texts along with the support they need to understand them in a twenty-first century context, will encourage a rediscovery of the pleasures of this kind of reading. The rewards are, we are certain, invigorating. Alison Lumsden

Notes 1 Walter Scott, Introduction to Rokeby, The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, Bart., [ed. J. G Lockhart], 12 vols (Edinburgh 1833–34), 9.15–20. 2 Walter Scott, Reliquiae Trotcosienses or the Gabions of the Late Jonathan Oldbuck. Esq. of Monkbarns, ed. Gerard Carruthers and Alison Lumsden (Edinburgh, 2004), 34.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY, LORD MONTAGU, &c. &c. &c. THIS ROMANCE IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.

ADVERTISEMENT

It is hardly to be expected, that an Author, whom the Public has honoured with some degree of applause, should not be again a trespasser on their kindness. Yet the Author of Marmion must be supposed to feel some anxiety concerning its success, since he is sensible that he hazards, by this second intrusion, any reputation which his first Poem may have procured him. The present Story turns upon the private adventures of a fictitious character; but is called a Tale of Flodden Field, because the hero’s fate is connected with that memorable defeat, and the causes which led to it. The design of the Author was, if possible, to apprize his Readers, at the outset, of the date of his Story, and to prepare them for the manners of the Age in which it is laid. Any Historical narrative, far more an attempt at Epic composition, exceeded his plan of a Romantic Tale; yet he may be permitted to hope, from the popularity of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, that an attempt to paint the manners of the feudal times, upon a broader scale, and in the course of a more interesting story, will not be unacceptable to the Public. The Poem opens about the commencement of August, and concludes with the defeat of Flodden, 9th September, 1513.

MARMION Introduction to Canto First TO

WILLIAM STEWART ROSE, ESQ. Ashestiel, Ettricke Forest. November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear: Late, gazing down the steepy linn, That hems our little garden in, Low in its dark and narrow glen,5 You scarce the rivulet might ken, So thick the tangled green-wood grew, So feeble trilled the streamlet through: Now, murmuring hoarse, and frequent seen Through bush and brier, no longer green,10 An angry brook, it sweeps the glade, Brawls over rock and wild cascade, And, foaming brown with doubled speed, Hurries its waters to the Tweed.   No longer Autumn’s glowing red15 Upon our Forest hills is shed; No more, beneath the evening beam, Fair Tweed reflects their purple gleam; Away hath passed the heather-bell That bloomed so rich on Needpath-fell;20 Sallow his brow, and russet bare Are now the sister-heights of Yair.

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The sheep, before the pinching heaven, To sheltered dale and down are driven, Where yet some faded herbage pines,25 And yet a watery sun-beam shines: In meek despondency they eye The withered sward and wintry sky, And far beneath their summer hill, Stray sadly by Glenkinnon’s rill:30 The shepherd shifts his mantle’s fold, And wraps him closer from the cold; His dogs no merry circles wheel, But, shivering, follow at his heel; A cowering glance they often cast,35 As deeper moans the gathering blast.   My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild, As best befits the mountain child, Feel the sad influence of the hour, And wail the daisy’s vanished flower;40 Their summer gambols tell, and mourn, And anxious ask,—Will spring return, And birds and lambs again be gay, And blossoms clothe the hawthorn spray?   Yes, prattlers, yes. The daisy’s flower45 Again shall paint your summer bower; Again the hawthorn shall supply The garlands you delight to tie; The lambs upon the lea shall bound, The wild birds carol to the round,50 And while you frolic light as they, Too short shall seem the summer day.   To mute and to material things New life revolving summer brings; The genial call dead Nature hears,55 And in her glory re-appears.



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But Oh! my country’s wintry state What second spring shall renovate? What powerful call shall bid arise The buried warlike, and the wise;60 The mind, that thought for Britain’s weal, The hand, that grasped the victor steel? The vernal sun new life bestows Even on the meanest flower that blows; But vainly, vainly, may he shine,65 Where Glory weeps o’er Nelson’s shrine; And vainly pierce the solemn gloom, That shrouds, O Pitt, thy hallowed tomb!   Deep graved in every British heart, O never let those names depart!70 Say to your sons,—Lo, here his grave, Who victor died on Gadite wave; To him, as to the burning levin, Short, bright, resistless course was given; Where’er his country’s foes were found,75 Was heard the fated thunder’s sound, Till burst the bolt on yonder shore, Rolled, blazed, destroyed,—and was no more.   Nor mourn ye less his perished worth, Who bade the conqueror go forth,80 And launched that thunderbolt of war On Egypt, Hafnia,* Trafalgar; Who, born to guide such high emprize, For Britain’s weal was early wise; Alas! to whom the Almighty gave,85 For Britain’s sins, an early grave; His worth, who, in his mightiest hour, A bauble held the pride of power, *

Copenhagen.

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Spurned at the sordid lust of pelf, And served his Albion for herself;90 Who, when the frantic crowd amain Strained at subjection’s bursting rein, O’er their wild mood full conquest gained, The pride, he would not crush, restrained, Shewed their fierce zeal a worthier cause,95 And brought the freeman’s arm to aid the freeman’s laws.   Had’st thou but lived, though stripp’d of power, A watchman on the lonely tower, Thy thrilling trump had roused the land, When fraud or danger were at hand;100 By thee, as by the beacon-light, Our pilots had kept course aright; As some proud column, though alone, Thy strength had propp’d the tottering throne: Now is the stately column broke, 105 The beacon-light is quenched in smoke, The trumpet’s silver sound is still, The warder silent on the hill!   Oh, think, how to his latest day, When death, just hovering, claimed his prey,110 With Palinure’s unaltered mood, Firm at his dangerous post he stood; Each call for needful rest repelled, With dying hand the rudder held, Till, in his fall, with fateful sway,115 The steerage of the realm gave way! Then, while on Britain’s thousand plains, One unpolluted church remains, Whose peaceful bells ne’er sent around The bloody tocsin’s maddening sound,120 But still, upon the hallowed day, Convoke the swains to praise and pray;



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While faith and civil peace are dear, Grace this cold marble with a tear,— He, who preserved them, Pitt, lies here!125   Nor yet suppress the generous sigh, Because his Rival slumbers nigh; Nor be thy requiescat dumb, Lest it be said o’er Fox’s tomb. For talents mourn, untimely lost,130 When best employed, and wanted most; Mourn genius high, and lore profound, And wit that loved to play, not wound; And all the reasoning powers divine, To penetrate, resolve, combine;135 And feelings keen, and fancy’s glow,— They sleep with him who sleeps below: And, if thou mourn’st they could not save From error him who owns this grave, Be every harsher thought suppressed,140 And sacred be the last long rest. Here, where the end of earthly things Lays heroes, patriots, bards, and kings; Where stiff the hand, and still the tongue, Of those who fought, and spoke, and sung;145 Here, where the fretted aisles prolong The distant notes of holy song, As if some angel spoke agen, All peace on earth, good-will to men; If ever from an English heart,150 O here let prejudice depart, And, partial feeling cast aside, Record, that Fox a Briton died! When Europe crouched to France’s yoke, And Austria bent, and Prussia broke,155 And the firm Russian’s purpose brave Was bartered by a timorous slave,

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Even then dishonour’s peace he spurned, The sullied olive-branch returned, Stood for his country’s glory fast,160 And nailed her colours to the mast. Heaven, to reward his firmness, gave A portion in this honoured grave; And ne’er held marble in its trust Of two such wonderous men the dust.165   With more than mortal powers endowed, How high they soared above the crowd! Theirs was no common party race, Jostling by dark intrigue for place; Like fabled Gods, their mighty war170 Shook realms and nation in its jar; Beneath each banner proud to stand, Looked up the noblest of the land, Till through the British world were known The names of Pitt and Fox alone.175 Spells of such force no wizard grave E’er framed in dark Thessalian cave, Though his could drain the ocean dry, And force the planets from the sky. These spells are spent, and, spent with these,180 The wine of life is on the lees. Genius, and taste, and talent gone, For ever tombed beneath the stone, Where,—taming thought to human pride!— The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.185 Drop upon Fox’s grave the tear, ’Twill trickle to his rival’s bier; O’er Pitt’s the mournful requiem sound, And Fox’s shall the notes rebound. The solemn echo seems to cry,—190 “Here let their discord with them die; Speak not for those a separate doom, Whom Fate made brothers in the tomb,



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But search the land, of living men, Where wilt thou find their like agen?”195   Rest, ardent Spirits! till the cries Of dying Nature bid you rise; Not even your Britain’s groans can pierce The leaden silence of your hearse: Then, O how impotent and vain200 This grateful tributary strain! Though not unmarked from northern clime, Ye heard the Border Minstrel’s rhyme: His Gothic harp has o’er you rung; The bard you deigned to praise, your deathless names has sung.   Stay yet, Illusion, stay a while,206 My wildered fancy still beguile! From this high theme how can I part, Ere half unloaded is my heart! For all the tears e’er sorrow drew,210 And all the raptures fancy knew, And all the keener rush of blood, That throbs through bard in bard-like mood, Were here a tribute mean and low, Though all their mingled streams could flow—215 Woe, wonder, and sensation high, In one spring-tide of ecstacy.— It will not be—it may not last— The vision of enchantment’s past: Like frost-work in the morning ray,220 The fancied fabric melts away; Each Gothic arch, memorial stone, And long, dim, lofty aisle, are gone, And, lingering last, deception dear, The choir’s high sounds die on my ear.225 Now slow return the lonely down, The silent pastures bleak and brown,

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The farm begirt with copse-wood wild, The gambols of each frolic child, Mixing their shrill cries with the tone230 Of Tweed’s dark waters rushing on.   Prompt on unequal tasks to run, Thus Nature disciplines her son: Meeter, she says, for me to stray, And waste the solitary day, 235 In plucking from yon fen the reed, And watch it floating down the Tweed; Or idly list the shrilling lay With which the milk-maid cheers her way, Marking its cadence rise and fail,240 As from the fold, beneath her pail, She trips it down the uneven dale: Meeter for me, by yonder cairn, The ancient shepherd’s tale to learn, Though oft he stops to wonder still245 That his old legends have the skill To win so well the attentive ear Perchance to draw the sigh or tear Of one, who, in his simple mind, May boast of book-learned taste refined.250   But thou, my friend, canst fitly tell (For few have read romance so well) How still the legendary lay O’er poet’s bosom holds its sway; How on the ancient minstrel strain255 Time lays his palsied hand in vain; And how our hearts at doughty deeds, By warriors wrought in steely weeds, Still throb for fear or pity’s sake; As when the Champion of the Lake260 Enters Morgana’s fated house,



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Or in the Chapel Perilous, Despising spells and demons’ force, Holds converse with the unburied corse; Or when, Dame Ganore’s grace to move,265 (Alas! that lawless was their love) He sought proud Tarquin in his den, And freed full sixty knights; or when, A sinful man, and unconfessed, He took the Sangreal’s holy quest,270 And, slumbering, saw the vision high, He might not view with waking eye.   The mightiest chiefs of British song Scorned not such legends to prolong: They gleam through Spenser’s elfin dream,275 And mix in Milton’s heavenly theme; And Dryden, in immortal strain, Had raised the Table Round again, But that a ribald king and court Bade him toil on, to make them sport;280 Demanded for their niggard pay, Fit for their souls, a looser lay, Licentious satire, song, and play: The world defrauded of his high design, Prophaned his God-given strength, and marred his lofty line.   Warmed by such names, well may we then,286 Though dwindled sons of little men, Essay to break a feeble lance In the fair fields of old romance; Or seek the moated castle’s cell,290 Where long through talisman and spell, While tyrants ruled, and damsels wept, Thy Genius, Chivalry, hath slept:

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There sound the harpings of the North, Till he awake and sally forth,295 On venturous quest to prick again, In all his arms, with all his train, Shield, lance, and brand, and plume, and scarf, Fay, giant, dragon, squire, and dwarf, And wizard with his wand of might,300 And errant maid on palfrey white. Around the Genius weave their spells, Pure Love, who scarce his passion tells; Mystery, half veiled and half revealed; And Honour, with his spotless shield;305 Attention, with fixed eye; and Fear, That loves the tale she shrinks to hear; And gentle Courtesy; and Faith, Unchanged by sufferings, time, or death; And Valour, lion-mettled lord,310 Leaning upon his own good sword.   Well has thy fair achievement shown, A worthy meed may thus be won; Ytene’s* oaks—beneath whose shade Their theme the merry minstrels made,315 Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold, And that Red King,† who, while of old, Through Boldrewood the chase he led, By his loved huntsman’s arrow bled— Ytene’s oaks have heard again320 Renewed such legendary strain; For thou hast sung, how He of Gaul, That Amadis so famed in hall, For Oriana, foiled in fight The Necromancer’s felon might;325

*

The new forest in Hampshire, anciently so called. † William Rufus.



introduction to canto first

And well in modern verse hast wove Partenopex’s mystic love: Hear then, attentive to my lay, A knightly tale of Albion’s elder day.

19

MARMION CANT O F I RS T

The Castle I. Day set on Norham’s castled steep, And Tweed’s fair river, broad and deep,   And Cheviot’s mountains lone: The battled towers, the Donjon Keep, The loop-hole grates where captives weep, The flanking walls that round it sweep,335   In yellow lustre shone. The warriors on the turrets high, Moving athwart the evening sky,   Seemed forms of giant height: Their armour, as it caught the rays,340 Flashed back again the western blaze,   In lines of dazzling light. II. St George’s banner, broad and gay, Now faded, as the fading ray   Less bright, and less, was flung;345 The evening gale had scarce the power To wave it on the Donjon tower,   So heavily it hung. The scouts had parted on their search,   The castle gates were barr’d;350 Above the gloomy portal arch, Timing his footsteps to a march,



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  The warder kept his guard, Low humming, as he paced along, Some ancient Border gathering-song.355 III. A distant trampling sound he hears; He looks abroad, and soon appears, O’er Horncliff-hill, a plump* of spears,   Beneath a pennon gay; A horseman, darting from the crowd,360 Like lightning from a summer cloud, Spurs on his mettled courser proud,   Before the dark array. Beneath the sable palisade, That closed the castle barricade,365   His bugle-horn he blew; The warder hasted from the wall, And warned the Captain in the hall,   For well the blast he knew; And joyfully that Knight did call,370 To sewer, squire, and seneschal. IV. “Now broach ye a pipe of Malvoisie,   Bring pasties of the doe, And quickly make the entrance free, And bid my heralds ready be,375 And every minstrel sound his glee,   And all our trumpets blow; And, from the platform, spare ye not To fire a noble salvo-shot:   Lord Marmion waits below.”—380 * This word properly applies to a flight of water-fowl; but is applied, by analogy, to a body of horse.    There is a Knight of the North Country,     Which leads a lusty plump of spears. Flodden Field.

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Then to the Castle’s lower ward   Sped forty yeomen tall, The iron-studded gates unbarred, Raised the portcullis’ ponderous guard, The lofty palisade unsparred,385   And let the draw-bridge fall. V. Along the bridge Lord Marmion rode, Proudly his red-roan charger trod, His helm hung at the saddle-bow; Well, by his visage, you might know390 He was a stalworth knight, and keen, And had in many a battle been; The scar on his brown cheek revealed A token true of Bosworth field; His eye-brow dark, and eye of fire,395 Shewed spirit proud, and prompt to ire; Yet lines of thought upon his cheek, Did deep design and counsel speak.   His forehead, by his casque worn bare,   His thick moustache, and curly hair,400   Coal-black, and grizzled here and there,    But more through toil than age;   His square-turned joints, and strength of limb,   Shewed him no carpet knight so trim,   But, in close fight, a champion grim,405    In camps, a leader sage. VI. Well was he armed from head to heel, In mail, and plate, of Milan steel; But his strong helm, of mighty cost, Was all with burnished gold emboss’d;410 Amid the plumage of the crest, A falcon hovered on her nest, With wings outspread, and forward breast;



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E’en such a falcon, on his shield, Soared sable in an azure field:415 The golden legend bore aright, Who checks at me, to death is dight. Blue was the charger’s broidered rein; Blue ribbands decked his arching mane; The knightly housing’s ample fold420 Was velvet blue, and trapped with gold. VII. Behind him rode two gallant squires, Of noble name, and knightly sires; They burned the gilded spurs to claim; For well could each a war-horse tame,425 Could draw the bow, the sword could sway, And lightly bear the ring away; Nor less with courteous precepts stored, Could dance in hall, and carve at board, And frame love ditties passing rare,430 And sing them to a lady fair. VIII. Four men-at-arms came at their backs, With halbard, bill, and battle-axe: They bore Lord Marmion’s lance so strong, And led his sumpter mules along,435 And ambling palfrey, when at need Him listed ease his battle-steed. The last, and trustiest of the four, On high his forky pennon bore; Like swallow’s tail, in shape and hue,440 Fluttered the streamer glossy blue, Where, blazoned sable, as before, The towering falcon seemed to soar. Last, twenty yeomen, two and two, In hosen black, and jerkins blue,445

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With falcons broidered on each breast, Attended on their lord’s behest. Each, chosen for an archer good, Knew hunting-craft by lake or wood; Each one a six-foot bow could bend,450 And far a cloth-yard shaft could send; Each held a boar-spear tough and strong, And at their belts their quivers rung. Their dusty palfreys, and array, Shewed they had marched a weary way.455 IX. ’Tis meet that I should tell you now, How fairly armed, and ordered how,   The soldiers of the guard, With musquet, pike, and morion, To welcome noble Marmion,460   Stood in the Castle-yard; Minstrels and trumpeters were there, The gunner held his linstock yare,   For welcome-shot prepared:— Entered the train, and such a clang,465 As then through all his turrets rang,   Old Norham never heard. X. The guards their morrice-pikes advanced,   The trumpets flourished brave, The cannon from the ramparts glanced,470   And thundering welcome gave. A blythe salute, in martial sort,   The minstrels well might sound, For, as Lord Marmion crossed the court,   He scattered angels round.475 “Welcome to Norham, Marmion,   Stout heart, and open hand!



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Well dost thou brook thy gallant roan,   Thou flower of English land.” XI. Two pursuivants, whom tabarts deck,480 With silver scutcheon round their neck,   Stood on the steps of stone, By which you reach the Donjon gate, And there, with herald pomp and state,   They hailed Lord Marmion:485 They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye, Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,   Of Tamworth tower and town; And he, their courtesy to requite, Gave them a chain of twelve marks weight,490   All as he lighted down. “Now largesse, largesse,* Lord Marmion,   Knight of the crest of gold! A blazon’d shield, in battle won,   Ne’er guarded heart so bold.”—495 XII. They marshall’d him to the castle-hall,   Where the guests stood all aside, And loudly flourished the trumpet-call,   And the heralds loudly cried, —“Room, lordings, room for Lord Marmion,500   With the crest and helm of gold! Full well we know the trophies won   In the lists at Cottiswold: There, vainly Ralph de Wilton strove   ’Gainst Marmion’s force to stand;505 To him he lost his ladye-love,   And to the King his land. *

The cry by which the heralds expressed their thanks for the bounty of the nobles.

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Ourselves beheld the listed field,   A sight both sad and fair; We saw Lord Marmion pierce his shield,510   And saw his saddle bare; We saw the victor win the crest,   He wears with worthy pride; And on the gibbet-tree, reversed,   His foeman’s scutcheon tied.515 Place, nobles, for the Falcon-Knight!   Room, room, ye gentles gay, For him who conquered in the right,   Marmion of Fontenaye!”— XIII. Then stepped to meet that noble lord,520   Sir Hugh the Heron bold, Baron of Twisell, and of Ford,   And Captain of the Hold. He led Lord Marmion to the deas,   Raised o’er the pavement high,525 And placed him in the upper place—   They feasted full and high: The whiles a Northern harper rude Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,  “How the fierce Thirwalls, and Ridleys all,530   Stout Willimondswick,    And Hard-riding Dick,   And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will o’ the Wall, Have set on Sir Albany Featherstonhaugh, And taken his life at the Deadman’s-shaw.”—*535   Scantly Lord Marmion’s ear could brook    The harper’s barbarous lay;   Yet much he praised the pains he took,    And well those pains did pay: *

The rest of this old ballad may be found in the note.



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For lady’s suit, and minstrel’s strain,540 By knight should ne’er be heard in vain. XIV. “Now, good Lord Marmion,” Heron says,   “Of your fair courtesy, I pray you bide some little space,   In this poor tower with me.545 Here may you keep your arms from rust,   May breathe your war-horse well; Seldom hath pass’d a week but giust   Or feat of arms befel: The Scots can rein a mettled steed,550   And love to couch a spear;— St George! a stirring life they lead,   That have such neighbours near. Then stay with us a little space,   Our northern wars to learn;555 I pray you for your lady’s grace.”—   Lord Marmion’s brow grew stern. XV. The Captain marked his altered look,   And gave a squire the sign; A mighty wassell bowl he took,560   And crown’d it high with wine. “Now pledge me here, Lord Marmion:   But first I pray thee fair, Where hast thou left that page of thine, That used to serve thy cup of wine,565   Whose beauty was so rare? When last in Raby towers we met,   The boy I closely eyed, And often marked his cheeks were wet   With tears he vain would hide:570 His was no rugged horse-boy’s hand, To burnish shield, or sharpen brand,

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  Or saddle battle-steed; But meeter seemed for lady fair, To fan her cheek, or curl her hair,575 Or through emboidery, rich and rare,   The slender silk to lead: His skin was fair, his ringlets gold,   His bosom—when he sigh’d, The russet doublet’s rugged fold580   Could scarce repel its pride! Say, hast thou given that lovely youth   To serve in lady’s bower? Or was the gentle page, in sooth,   A gentle paramour?”—585 XVI. Lord Marmion ill could brook such jest;   He rolled his kindling eye, With pain his rising wrath suppressed,   Yet made a calm reply: “That boy thou thought’st so goodly fair,590 He might not brook the northern air. More of his fate if thou would’st learn, I left him sick in Lindisfarn: Enough of him.—But, Heron, say, Why does thy lovely lady gay595 Disdain to grace the hall to-day? Or has that dame, so fair and sage, Gone on some pious pilgrimage?”— He spoke in covert scorn, for fame Whispered light tales of Heron’s dame.600 XVII. Unmarked, at least unrecked, the taunt,   Careless the Knight replied, “No bird, whose feathers gaily flaunt,   Delights in cage to bide:



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Norham is grim, and grated close,605 Hemmed in by battlement and fosse,   And many a darksome tower; And better loves my lady bright, To sit in liberty and light,   In fair Queen Margaret’s bower.610 We hold our greyhound in our hand,   Our falcon on our glove; But where shall we find leash or band,   For dame that loves to rove? Let the wild falcon soar her swing,615 She’ll stoop when she has tired her wing.”— XVIII. “Nay, if with Royal James’s bride The lovely Lady Heron bide, Behold me here a messenger, Your tender greetings prompt to bear;620 For, to the Scottish court addressed, I journey at our king’s behest, And pray you, of your grace, provide For me, and mine, a trusty guide. I have not ridden in Scotland since625 James backed the cause of that mock prince, Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit, Who on the gibbet paid the cheat. Then did I march with Surrey’s power, What time we razed old Ayton tower.”—630 XIX. “For such like need, my lord, I trow, Norham can find you guides enow; For here be some have pricked as far On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar; Have drunk the monks of St Bothan’s ale,635 And driven the beeves of Lauderdale;

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Harried the wives of Greenlaw’s goods, And given them light to set their hoods.”— XX. “Now, in good sooth,” Lord Marmion cried, “Were I in warlike-wise to ride,640 A better guard I would not lack, Than your stout forayers at my back: But, as in form of peace I go, A friendly messenger, to know, Why through all Scotland, near and far,645 Their King is mustering troops for war, The sight of plundering Border spears Might justify suspicious fears, And deadly feud, or thirst of spoil, Break out in some unseemly broil:650 A herald were my fitting guide; Or friar, sworn in peace to bide; Or pardoner, or travelling priest, Or strolling pilgrim, at the least.”— XXI. The Captain mused a little space,655 And passed his hand across his face. —“Fain would I find the guide you want, But ill may spare a pursuivant, The only men that safe can ride Mine errands on the Scottish side:660 Then, though a bishop built this fort, Few holy brethren here resort; Even our good chaplain, as I ween, Since our last siege, we have not seen: The mass he might not sing or say,665 Upon one stinted meal a day; So, safe he sat in Durham aisle, And prayed for our success the while.



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Our Norham vicar, woe betide, Is all too well in case to ride.670 The priest of Shoreswood—he could rein The wildest war-horse in your train; But then, no spearman in the hall Will sooner swear, or stab, or brawl. Friar John of Tillmouth were the man;675 A blithesome brother at the can, A welcome guest in hall and bower, He knows each castle, town, and tower, In which the wine and ale is good, ’Twixt Newcastle and Holy-Rood.680 But that good man, as ill befalls, Hath seldom left our castle walls, Since on the vigil of St Bede, In evil hour he crossed the Tweed, To teach Dame Alison her creed.685 Old Bughtrig found him with his wife; And John, an enemy to strife, Sans frock and hood, fled for his life. The jealous churl hath deeply swore, That, if again he ventures o’er,690 He shall shrieve penitent no more. Little he loves such risques, I know; Yet, in your guard, perchance will go.”— XXII. Young Selby, at the fair hall-board Carved to his uncle, and that lord,695 And reverently took up the word. “Kind uncle, woe were we each one, If harm should hap to brother John. He is a man of mirthful speech, Can many a game and gambol teach;700 Full well at tables can he play, And sweep at bowls the stake away. None can a lustier carol bawl,

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The needfullest among us all, When time hangs heavy in the hall,705 When snow comes thick at Christmas tide, And we can neither hunt, nor ride A foray on the Scottish side. The vowed revenge of Bughtrig rude, May end in worse than loss of hood.710 Let Friar John, in safety, still In chimney-corner snore his fill, Roast hissing crabs, or flaggons swill: Last night, to Norham there came one, Will better guide Lord Marmion.”—715 “Nephew,” quoth Heron, “by my fay, Well hast thou spoke; say forth thy say.”— XXIII. “Here is a holy Palmer come, From Salem first, and last from Rome; One, that hath kissed the blessed tomb,720 And visited each holy shrine, In Araby and Palestine; On hills of Armenie hath been, Where Noah’s ark may yet be seen; By that Red Sea, too, hath he trod,725 Which parted at the prophet’s rod; In Sinai’s wilderness he saw The Mount, where Israel heard the Law, Mid thunder-dint, and flashing levin, And shadows, mists, and darkness, given.730   He shews Saint James’s cockle-shell,   Of fair Montserrat, too, can tell;    And of that Grot where olives nod,   Where, darling of each heart and eye,   From all the youth of Sicily,735    Saint Rosalie retired to God.



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XXIV. “To stout Saint George of Norwich merry, Saint Thomas, too, of Canterbury, Cuthbert of Durham and Saint Bede, For his sins’ pardon hath he prayed.740 He knows the passes of the North, And seeks far shrines beyond the Forth; Little he eats, and long will wake, And drinks but of the stream or lake. This were a guide o’er moor and dale;745 But, when our John hath quaffed his ale, As little as the wind that blows, And warms itself against his nose, Kens he, or cares, which way he goes.”— XXV. “Gramercy,” quoth Lord Marmion,750 “Full loth were I, that Friar John, That venerable man, for me, Were placed in fear or jeopardy.   If this same Palmer will me lead    From hence to Holy-Rood,755   Like his good saint, I’ll pay his meed,   Instead of cockle-shell, or bead,    With angels fair and good. I love such holy ramblers; still They know to charm a weary hill,760   With song, romance, or lay: Some jovial tale, or glee, or jest, Some lying legend at the lest,   They bring to cheer the way.”— XXVI. “Ah! noble sir,” young Selby said,765 And finger on his lip he laid, “This man knows much, perchance e’en more Than he could learn by holy lore.

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Still to himself he’s muttering, And shrinks as at some unseen thing.770 Last night we listened at his cell; Strange sounds we heard, and sooth to tell, He murmured on till morn, howe’er No living mortal could be near. Sometimes I thought I heard it plain,775 As other voices spoke again. I cannot tell—I like it not— Friar John hath told us it is wrote, No conscience clear, and void of wrong, Can rest awake, and pray so long.780 Himself still sleeps before his beads Have marked ten aves, and two creeds.”— XXVII. “—Let pass,” quoth Marmion; “by my fay, This man shall guide me on my way, Although the great arch-fiend and he785 Had sworn themselves of company; So please you, gentle youth, to call This Palmer to the castle-hall.”— The summoned Palmer came in place; His sable cowl o’er-hung his face;790 In his black mantle was he clad, With Peter’s keys, in cloth of red,    On his broad shoulders wrought;   The scallop shell his cap did deck;   The crucifix around his neck795    Was from Loretto brought; His sandals were with travel tore, Staff, budget, bottle, scrip, he wore; The faded palm-branch in his hand, Shewed pilgrim from the Holy Land.800



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XXVIII. Whenas the Palmer came in hall, Nor lord, nor knight, was there more tall, Or had a statelier step withal,   Or looked more high and keen; For no saluting did he wait,805 But strode across the hall of state, And fronted Marmion where he sate,   As he his peer had been. But his gaunt frame was worn with toil; His cheek was sunk, alas the while!810 And when he struggled at a smile,   His eye looked haggard wild: Poor wretch! the mother that him bare, If she had been in presence there, In his wan face, and sun-burned hair,815   She had not known her child. Danger, long travel, want, or woe, Soon change the form that best we know— For deadly fear can time outgo,   And blaunch at once the hair;820 Hard toil can roughen form and face, And want can quench the eye’s bright grace, Nor does old age a wrinkle trace,   More deeply than despair. Happy whom none of these befal,825 But this poor Palmer knew them all. XXIX. Lord Marmion then his boon did ask; The Palmer took on him the task, So he would march with morning tide, To Scottish court to be his guide.830 —“But I have solemn vows to pay, And may not linger by the way,   To fair Saint Andrew’s bound, Within the ocean-cave to pray,

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Where good Saint Rule his holy lay,835 From midnight to the dawn of day,   Sung to the billows’ sound; Thence to Saint Fillan’s blessed well, Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,   And the crazed brain restore:840 Saint Mary grant, that cave or spring Could back to peace my bosom bring,   Or bid it throb no more!”— XXX. And now the midnight draught of sleep, Where wine and spices richly steep,845 In massive bowl of silver deep,    The page presents on knee. Lord Marmion drank a fair good rest, The Captain pledged his noble guest, The cup went through among the rest,850    Who drained it merrily; Alone the Palmer passed it bye, Though Selby pressed him courteously. This was the sign the feast was o’er; It hushed the merry wassel roar,855    The minstrels ceased to sound. Soon in the castle nought was heard, But the slow footstep of the guard,    Pacing his sober round. XXXI. With early dawn Lord Marmion rose:860 And first the chapel doors unclose; Then, after morning rites were done, (A hasty mass from Friar John,) And knight and squire had broke their fast, On rich substantial repast,865 Lord Marmion’s bugles blew to horse: Then came the stirrup-cup in course;



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Between the Baron and his host, No point of courtesy was lost; High thanks were by Lord Marmion paid,870 Solemn excuse the Captain made, Till, filing from the gate, had past That noble train, their Lord the last. Then loudly rung the trumpet-call; Thundered the cannon from the wall,875    And shook the Scottish shore;   Around the castle eddied slow,   Volumes of smoke as white as snow,    And hid its turrets hoar; Till they rolled forth upon the air,880 And met the river breezes there, Which gave again the prospect fair. end of canto first.

MARMION Introduction to Canto Second TO

THE REV. JOHN MARRIOT, M.A. Ashestiel, Ettricke Forest. The scenes are desart now, and bare, Where flourished once a forest fair, When these waste glens with copse were lined, And peopled with the hart and hind. Yon thorn—perchance whose prickly spears5 Have fenced him for three hundred years, While fell around his green compeers— Yon lonely thorn, would he could tell The changes of his parent dell, Since he, so grey and stubborn now,10 Waved in each breeze a sapling bough; Would he could tell how deep the shade, A thousand mingled branches made; How broad the shadow of the oak, How clung the rowan* to the rock,15 And through the foliage shewed his head, With narrow leaves, and berries red; What pines on every mountain sprung, O’er every dell what birches hung, In every breeze what aspens shook,20 What alders shaded every brook! *

Mountain-ash.

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  “Here, in my shade,” methinks he’d say, “The mighty stag at noontide lay: The wolf I’ve seen, a fiercer game, (The neighbouring dingle bears his name,)25 With lurching step around me prowl, And stop against the moon to howl; The mountain boar, on battle set, His tusks upon my stem would whet; While doe and roe, and red-deer good,30 Have bounded by through gay green-wood. Then oft, from Newark’s riven tower, Sallied a Scottish monarch’s power: A thousand vassals mustered round, With horse, and hawk, and horn, and hound;35 And I might see the youth intent, Guard every pass with cross-bow bent; And through the brake the rangers stalk, And falc’ners hold the ready hawk; And foresters, in green-wood trim,40 Lead in the leash the gaze-hounds grim, Attentive, as the bratchet’s* bay From the dark covert drove the prey, To slip them as he broke away. The startled quarry bounds amain,45 As fast the gallant grey-hounds strain; Whistles the arrow from the bow, Answers the harquebuss below; While all the rocking hills reply, To hoof-clang, hound, and hunters’ cry,50 And bugles ringing lightsomely.”—   Of such proud huntings, many tales Yet linger in our lonely dales, Up pathless Ettricke, and on Yarrow, Where erst the Outlaw drew his arrow.55 *

Slow-hound.



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But not more blythe that sylvan court, Than we have been at humbler sport; Though small our pomp, and mean our game, Our mirth, dear Marriot, was the same. Remember’st thou my grey-hounds true?60 O’er holt, or hill, there never flew, From slip, or leash, there never sprang, More fleet of foot, or sure of fang. Nor dull, between each merry chase, Passed by the intermitted space;65 For we had fair resource in store, In Classic, and in Gothic lore: We marked each memorable scene, And held poetic talk between; Nor hill, nor brook, we paced along,70 But had its legend, or its song. All silent now—for now are still Thy bowers, untenanted Bowhill! No longer, from thy mountains dun, The yeoman hears the well-known gun,75 And while his honest heart glows warm, At thought of his paternal farm, Round to his mates a brimmer fills, And drinks, “The Chieftain of the Hills!” No fairy forms, in Yarrow’s bowers,80 Trip o’er the walks, or tend the flowers, Fair as the elves whom Janet saw By moonlight dance on Carterhaugh; No youthful baron’s left to grace The Forest-Sheriff’s lonely chace,85 And ape, in manly step and tone, The majesty of Oberon: And she is gone, whose lovely face Is but her least and lowest grace; Though if to Sylphid Queen ’twere given,90 To shew our earth the charms of heaven,

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She could not glide along the air, With form more light, or face more fair. No more the widow’s deafened ear Grows quick that lady’s step to hear:95 At noontide she expects her not, Nor busies her to trim the cot; Pensive she turns her humming wheel, Or pensive cooks her orphan’s meal; Yet blesses, ere she deals their bread,100 The gentle hand by which they’re fed.   From Yair,—which hills so closely bind, Scarce can the Tweed his passage find, Though much he fret, and chafe, and toil, Till all his eddying currents boil,—105 Her long-descended lord is gone, And left us by the stream alone. And much I miss those sportive boys, Companions of my mountain joys, Just at the age ’twixt boy and youth,110 When thought is speech, and speech is truth. Close to my side, with what delight, They pressed to hear of Wallace wight, When, pointing to his airy mound, I called his ramparts holy ground!*115 Kindled their brows to hear me speak; And I have smiled, to feel my cheek, Despite the difference of our years, Return again the glow of theirs. Ah, happy boys! such feelings pure,120 They will not, cannot long endure; Condemned to stem the world’s rude tide, You may not linger by the side;

*

There is, on a high mountainous ridge above the farm of Ashestiel, a fosse called Wallace’s Trench.



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For Fate shall thrust you from the shore, And Passion ply the sail and oar.125 Yet cherish the remembrance still, Of the lone mountain, and the rill; For trust, dear boys, the time will come, When fiercer transport shall be dumb, And you will think right frequently,130 But, well I hope, without a sigh, On the free hours that we have spent, Together, on the brown hill’s bent.   When, musing on companions gone, We doubly feel ourselves alone,135 Something, my friend, we yet may gain, There is a pleasure in this pain: It soothes the love of lonely rest, Deep in each gentler heart impressed. ’Tis silent amid worldly toils,140 And stifled soon by mental broils; But, in a bosom thus prepared, Its still small voice is often heard, Whispering a mingled sentiment, ’Twixt resignation and content.145 Oft in my mind such thoughts awake, By lone St Mary’s silent lake; Thou know’st it well,—nor fen, nor sedge, Pollute the pure lake’s crystal edge; Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink150 At once upon the level brink; And just a trace of silver sand Marks where the water meets the land. Far in the mirror, bright and blue, Each hill’s huge outline you may view;155 Shaggy with heath, but lonely bare, Nor tree, nor bush, nor brake is there, Save where, of land, yon slender line Bears thwart the lake the scattered pine.

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Yet even this nakedness has power,160 And aids the feeling of the hour: Nor thicket, dell, nor copse you spy, Where living thing concealed might lie; Nor point, retiring, hides a dell, Where swain, or woodman lone, might dwell;165 There’s nothing left to fancy’s guess, You see that all is loneliness: And silence aids—though the steep hills Send to the lake a thousand rills; In summer tide, so soft they weep,170 The sound but lulls the ear asleep; Your horse’s hoof-tread sounds too rude, So stilly is the solitude.   Nought living meets the eye or ear, But well I ween the dead are near;175 For though, in feudal strife, a foe Hath laid Our Lady’s chapel low, Yet still, beneath the hallowed soil, The peasant rests him from his toil, And, dying, bids his bones be laid,180 Where erst his simple fathers prayed.   If age had tamed the passions’ strife, And fate had cut my ties to life, Here, have I thought, ’twere sweet to dwell, And rear again the chaplain’s cell,185 Like that same peaceful hermitage, Where Milton longed to spend his age. ’Twere sweet to mark the setting day, On Bourhope’s lonely top decay; And, as it faint and feeble died,190 On the broad lake, and mountain’s side, To say, “Thus pleasure fades away; Youth, talents, beauty, thus decay,



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And leave us dark, forlorn, and grey;”— Then gaze on Dryhope’s ruined tower,195 And think on Yarrow’s faded Flower: And when that mountain-sound I heard Which bids us be for storm prepared, The distant rustling of his wings, As up his force the Tempest brings,200 ’Twere sweet, ere yet his terrors rave, To sit upon the Wizard’s grave; That Wizard Priest’s, whose bones are thrust From company of holy dust; On which no sun-beam ever shines—205 (So superstition’s creed divines,) Thence view the lake, with sullen roar, Heave her broad billows to the shore, And mark the wild swans mount the gale, Spread wide through mist their snowy sail,210 And ever stoop again, to lave Their bosoms on the surging wave. Then, when against the driving hail No longer might my plaid avail, Back to my lonely home retire,215 And light my lamp, and trim my fire: There ponder o’er some mystic lay, Till the wild tale had all its sway, And, in the bittern’s distant shriek, I heard unearthly voices speak,220 And thought the Wizard Priest was come, To claim again his ancient home! And bade my busy fancy range, To frame him fitting shape and strange, Till from the task my brow I cleared,225 And smiled to think that I had feared.   But chief, ’twere sweet to think such life, (Though but escape from fortune’s strife,) Something most matchless good, and wise,

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A great and grateful sacrifice;230 And deem each hour, to musing given, A step upon the road to heaven.   Yet him, whose heart is ill at ease, Such peaceful solitudes displease: He loves to drown his bosom’s jar235 Amid the elemental war: And my black Palmer’s choice had been Some ruder and more savage scene, Like that which frowns round dark Loch Skene. There eagles scream from isle to shore;240 Down all the rocks the torrents roar; O’er the black waves incessant driven, Dark mists infect the summer heaven; Through the rude barriers of the lake, Away its hurrying waters break,245 Faster and whiter dash and curl, Till down yon dark abyss they hurl. Rises the fog-smoke white as snow, Thunders the viewless stream below, Diving, as if condemned to lave250 Some demon’s subterranean cave, Who, prisoned by enchanter’s spell, Shakes the dark rock with groan and yell. And well that Palmer’s form and mien Had suited with the stormy scene,255 Just on the edge, straining his ken To view the bottom of the den, Where, deep deep down, and far within, Toils with the rocks the roaring linn; Then, issuing forth one foamy wave,260 And wheeling round the Giant’s Grave, White as the snowy charger’s tail, Drives down the pass of Moffatdale.



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  Marriot, thy harp, on Isis strung, To many a Border theme has rung:265 Then list to me, and thou shalt know Of this mysterious man of woe.

MARMION CANT O S E CO ND

The Convent I. The breeze, which swept away the smoke,   Round Norham Castle rolled, When all the loud artillery spoke,270 With lightning-flash, and thunder-stroke,   As Marmion left the Hold. It curled not Tweed alone, that breeze, For, far upon Northumbrian seas,   It freshly blew, and strong,275 Where, from high Whitby’s cloistered pile, Bound to Saint Cuthbert’s Holy Isle,   It bore a bark along. Upon the gale she stooped her side, And bounded o’er the swelling tide,280   As she were dancing home; The merry seamen laughed, to see Their gallant ship so lustily   Furrow the green sea-foam. Much joyed they in their honoured freight;285 For, on the deck, in chair of state, The Abbess of Saint Hilda placed, With five fair nuns, the galley graced. II. ’Twas sweet to see these holy maids, Like birds escaped to green-wood shades,290



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  Their first flight from the cage, How timid, and how curious too, For all to them was strange and new, And all the common sights they view,   Their wonderment engage.295 One eyed the shrouds and swelling sail,   With many a benedicite; One at the rippling surge grew pale,   And would for terror pray; Then shrieked, because the sea-dog, nigh,300 His round black head, and sparkling eye,   Reared o’er the foaming spray: And one would still adjust her veil, Disordered by the summer gale, Perchance lest some more worldly eye305 Her dedicated charms might spy; Perchance, because such action graced Her fair-turned arm and slender waist. Light was each simple bosom there, Save two, who ill might pleasure share,—310 The Abbess, and the Novice Clare. III. The Abbess was of noble blood, But early took the veil and hood, Ere upon life she cast a look, Or knew the world that she forsook.315 Fair too she was, and kind had been As she was fair, but ne’er had seen For her a timid lover sigh, Nor knew the influence of her eye; Love, to her ear, was but a name,320 Combined with vanity and shame; Her hopes, her fears, her joys, were all Bounded within her cloister wall: The deadliest sin her mind could reach, Was of monastic rule the breach;325

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And her ambition’s highest aim, To emulate Saint Hilda’s fame. For this she gave her ample dower, To raise the convent’s eastern tower; For this, with carving rare and quaint,330 She decked the chapel of the saint, And gave the relique-shrine of cost, With ivory and gems embost. The poor her convent’s bounty blest, The pilgrim in its halls found rest.335 IV. Black was her garb, her rigid rule Reformed on Benedictine school; Her cheek was pale, her form was spare; Vigil, and penitence austere, Had early quenched the light of youth,340 But gentle was the dame in sooth; Though vain of her religious sway, She loved to see her maids obey, Yet nothing stern was she in cell, And the nuns loved their Abbess well.345 Sad was this voyage to the dame; Summoned to Lindisfarn, she came, There, with Saint Cuthbert’s Abbot old, And Tynemouth’s Prioress, to hold A chapter of Saint Benedict,350 For inquisition stern and strict, On two apostates from the faith, And, if need were, to doom to death. V. Nought say I here of Sister Clare, Save this, that she was young and fair,355 As yet a novice unprofessed, Lovely, and gentle, but distressed.



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She was betrothed to one now dead, Or worse, who had dishonoured fled. Her kinsmen bade her give her hand360 To one, who loved her for her land; Herself, almost heart-broken now, Was bent to take the vestal vow, And shroud, within Saint Hilda’s gloom, Her blasted hopes and withered bloom.365 VI. She sate upon the galley’s prow, And seemed to mark the waves below; Nay seemed, so fixed her look and eye, To count them as they glided by. She saw them not—’twas seeming all—370 Far other scene her thoughts recal,— A sun-scorched desart, waste and bare, Nor wave, nor breezes, murmured there; There saw she, where some careless hand O’er a dead corpse had heaped the sand,375 To hide it till the jackalls come, To tear it from the scanty tomb.— See what a woeful look was given, As she raised up her eyes to heaven! VII. Lovely, and gentle, and distressed—380 These charms might tame the fiercest breast: Harpers have sung, and poets told, That he, in fury uncontrouled, The shaggy monarch of the wood, Before a virgin, fair and good,385 Hath pacified his savage mood. But passions in the human frame Oft put the lion’s rage to shame: And jealousy, by dark intrigue, With sordid avarice in league,390

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Had practised, with their bowl and knife, Against the mourner’s harmless life. This crime was charged ’gainst those who lay Prisoned in Cuthbert’s islet gray. VIII. And now the vessel skirts the strand395 Of mountainous Northumberland; Towns, towers, and halls successive rise, And catch the nuns’ delighted eyes. Monk-Wearmouth soon behind them lay, And Tynemouth’s priory and bay;400 They marked, amid her trees, the hall Of lofty Seaton-Delaval; They saw the Blythe and Wansbeck floods, Rush to the sea through sounding woods; They past the tower of Widderington,405 Mother of many a valiant son; At Coquet-isle their beads they tell To the good Saint who owned the cell; Then did the Alne attention claim, And Warkworth, proud of Percy’s name;410 And next, they crossed themselves, to hear The whitening breakers sound so near, Where, boiling through the rocks, they roar On Dunstanborough’s caverned shore; Thy tower, proud Bamborough, marked they there,415 King Ida’s castle, huge and square, From its tall rock looked grimly down, And on the swelling ocean frown; Then from the coast they bore away, And reached the Holy Island’s bay.420 IX. The tide did now its flood-mark gain, And girdled in the Saint’s domain:



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For, with the flow and ebb, its stile Varies from continent to isle; Dry-shod, o’er sands, twice every day,425 The pilgrims to the shrine find way; Twice every day, the waves efface Of staves and sandaled feet the trace. As to the port the galley flew, Higher and higher rose to view,430 The Castle with its battled walls, The ancient Monastery’s halls, A solemn, huge, and dark-red pile, Placed on the margin of the isle. X. In Saxon strength that Abbey frowned,435 With massive arches broad and round,   That rose alternate, row and row,   On ponderous columns, short and low,    Built ere the art was known,   By pointed aisle, and shafted stalk,440   The arcades of an alley’d walk    To emulate in stone. On the deep walls, the heathen Dane Had poured his impious rage in vain; And needful was such strength to these,445 Exposed to the tempestuous seas, Scourged by the wind’s eternal sway, Open to rovers fierce as they, Which could twelve hundred years withstand Winds, waves, and northern pirates’ hand.450 Not but that portions of the pile, Rebuilded in a later stile, Shewed where the spoiler’s hand had been; Not but the wasting sea-breeze keen Had worn the pillar’s carving quaint,455 And mouldered in his niche the saint,

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And rounded, with consuming power, The pointed angles of each tower: Yet still entire the Abbey stood, Like veteran, worn, but unsubdued.460 XI. Soon as they neared his turrets strong, The maidens raised Saint Hilda’s song,   And with the sea-wave and the wind,   Their voices, sweetly shrill, combined,    And made harmonious close;465   Then, answering from the sandy shore,   Half-drowned amid the breakers’ roar,    According chorus rose:   Down to the haven of the Isle,   The monks and nuns in order file,470   From Cuthbert’s cloisters grim; Banner, and cross, and reliques there, To meet Saint Hilda’s maids, they bare; And, as they caught the sounds on air,   They echoed back the hymn.475 The islanders, in joyous mood, Rushed emulously through the flood,   To hale the bark to land; Conspicuous by her veil and hood, Signing the cross, the Abbess stood,480   And blessed them with her hand. XII. Suppose we now the welcome said, Suppose the Convent banquet made:   All through the holy dome, Through cloister, aisle, and gallery,485 Wherever vestal maid might pry, Nor risk to meet unhallowed eye,   The stranger sisters roam:



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Till fell the evening damp with dew, And the sharp sea-breeze coldly blew,490 For there, even summer night is chill. Then, having strayed and gazed their fill,   They closed around the fire; And all, in turn, essayed to paint The rival merits of their saint,495   A theme that ne’er can tire A holy maid; for, be it known, That their saint’s honour is their own. XIII. Then Whitby’s nuns exulting told, How to their house three barons bold500   Must menial service do; While horns blow out a note of shame, And monks cry “Fye upon your name! In wrath, for loss of sylvan game,   Saint Hilda’s priest ye slew.”505 “This, on Ascension-day, each year, While labouring on our harbour-pier, Must Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear.” They told, how in their convent cell A Saxon princess once did dwell,510   The lovely Edelfled; And how, of thousand snakes, each one Was changed into a coil of stone,   When holy Hilda prayed; Themselves, within their holy bound,515 Their stony folds had often found. They told, how sea-fowls’ pinions fail, As over Whitby’s towers they sail, And, sinking down, with flutterings faint, They do their homage to the saint.520

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XIV. Nor did Saint Cuthbert’s daughters fail, To vie with these in holy tale; His body’s resting-place, of old, How oft their patron changed, they told; How, when the rude Dane burned their pile,525 The monks fled forth from Holy Isle; O’er northern mountain, marsh, and moor, From sea to sea, from shore to shore, Seven years Saint Cuthbert’s corpse they bore.   They rested them in fair Melrose;530    But though, alive, he loved it well,   Not there his reliques might repose;    For, wondrous tale to tell!   In his stone-coffin forth he rides,   (A ponderous bark for river tides)535   Yet light as gossamer it glides,    Downward to Tilmouth cell. Nor long was his abiding there, For southward did the saint repair; Chester-le-Street, and Rippon, saw540 His holy corpse, ere Wardilaw   Hailed him with joy and fear; And, after many wanderings past, He chose his lordly seat at last, Where his cathedral, huge and vast,545   Looks down upon the Wear: There, deep in Durham’s Gothic shade, His reliques are in secret laid;   But none may know the place, Save of his holiest servants three,550 Deep sworn to solemn secrecy,   Who share that wondrous grace. XV. Who may his miracles declare! Even Scotland’s dauntless King, and heir,



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  (Although with them they led555 Galwegians, wild as ocean’s gale, And Lodon’s knights, all sheathed in mail, And the bold men of Teviotdale,)   Before his standard fled. ’Twas he, to vindicate his reign,560 Edged Alfred’s faulchion on the Dane, And turned the conqueror back again, When, with his Norman bowyer band, He came to waste Northumberland. XVI. But fain Saint Hilda’s nuns would learn,565 If, on a rock, by Lindisfarn, Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame The sea-born beads that bear his name: Such tales had Whitby’s fishers told, And said they might his shape behold,570   And hear his anvil sound; A deadened clang,—a huge dim form, Seen only when the gathering storm,   And night were closing round. But this, as tale of idle fame,575 The nuns of Lindisfarn disclaim. XVII. While round the fire such legends go Far different was the scene of woe, Where, in a secret aisle beneath, Council was held of life and death.580   It was more dark and lone, that vault,    Than the worst dungeon cell;   Old Colwulf built it, for his fault,    In penitence to dwell, When he for cowl and beads, laid down585 The Saxon battle-axe and crown. This den, which, chilling every sense

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  Of feeling, hearing, sight, Was called the Vault of Penitence,   Excluding air and light,590 Was, by the prelate Sexhelm, made A place of burial, for such dead As, having died in mortal sin, Might not be laid the church within. ’Twas now a place of punishment;595 Where, if so loud a shriek were sent,   As reached the upper air, The hearers blessed themselves, and said, The spirits of the sinful dead   Bemoaned their torments there.600 XVIII. But though, in the monastic pile, Did of this penitential aisle   Some vague tradition go, Few only, save the Abbot, knew Where the place lay; and still more few605 Were those, who had from him the clew   To that dread vault to go. Victim and executioner Were blind-fold when transported there. In low dark rounds the arches hung,610 From the rude rock the side-walls sprung; The grave-stones, rudely sculptured o’er, Half sunk in earth, by time half wore, Were all the pavement of the floor; The mildew drops fell one by one,615 With tinkling plash, upon the stone. A cresset,* in an iron chain, Which served to light this drear domain, With damp and darkness seemed to strive, As if it scarce might keep alive;620 *

Antique Chandelier.



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And yet it dimly served to shew The awful conclave met below. XIX. There, met to doom in secrecy, Were placed the heads of convents three: All servants of Saint Benedict,625 The statutes of whose order strict   On iron table lay; In long black dress, on seats of stone, Behind were these three judges shewn,   By the pale cresset’s ray:630 The Abbess of Saint Hilda’s, there, Sate for a space with visage bare, Until, to hide her bosom’s swell, And tear-drops that for pity fell,   She closely drew her veil:635 Yon shrouded figure, as I guess, By her proud mien and flowing dress, Is Tynemouth’s haughty Prioress,   And she with awe looks pale: And he, that Ancient Man, whose sight640 Has long been quenched by age’s night, Upon whose wrinkled brow alone, Nor ruth, nor mercy’s trace is shown,   Whose look is hard and stern,— Saint Cuthbert’s Abbot is his stile;645 For sanctity called, through the isle,   The Saint of Lindisfarn. XX. Before them stood a guilty pair; But, though an equal fate they share, Yet one alone deserves our care.650 Her sex a page’s dress belied; The cloak and doublet, loosely tied, Obscured her charms, but could not hide.

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  Her cap down o’er her face she drew;    And, on her doublet breast,655   She tried to hide the badge of blue,    Lord Marmion’s falcon crest. But, at the Prioress’ command, A Monk undid the silken band,   That tied her tresses fair,660 And raised the bonnet from her head, And down her slender form they spread,   In ringlets rich and rare. Constance de Beverley they know, Sister professed of Fontevraud,665 Whom the church numbered with the dead For broken vows, and convent fled. XXI. When thus her face was given to view, (Although so pallid was her hue, It did a ghastly contrast bear670 To those bright ringlets glistering fair,) Her look composed, and steady eye, Bespoke a matchless constancy; And there she stood so calm and pale, That, but her breathing did not fail,675 And motion slight of eye and head, And of her bosom, warranted, That neither sense nor pulse she lacks, You might have thought a form of wax, Wrought to the very life, was there;680 So still she was, so pale, so fair. XXII. Her comrade was a sordid soul,   Such as does murther for a meed; Who, but of fear, knows no controul, Because his conscience, seared and foul,685   Feels not the import of his deed;



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One, whose brute-feeling ne’er aspires Beyond his own more brute desires. Such tools the tempter ever needs, To do the savagest of deeds;690 For them no visioned terrors daunt, Their nights no fancied spectres haunt; One fear with them, of all most base, The fear of death,—alone finds place. This wretch was clad in frock and cowl,695 And shamed not loud to moan and howl, His body on the floor to dash, And crouch, like hound beneath the lash; While his mute partner, standing near, Waited her doom without a tear.700 XXIII. Yet well the luckless wretch might shriek, Well might her paleness terror speak! For there were seen, in that dark wall, Two niches, narrow, deep, and tall;— Who enters at such griesly door,705 Shall ne’er, I ween, find exit more. In each a slender meal was laid, Of roots, of water, and of bread: By each, in Benedictine dress, Two haggard monks stood motionless;710 Who, holding high a blazing torch, Shewed the grim entrance of the porch: Reflecting back the smoky beam, The dark-red walls and arches gleam. Hewn stones and cement were displayed,715 And building tools in order laid. XXIV. These executioners were chose, As men who were with mankind foes,

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And, with despite and envy fired, Into the cloister had retired;720   Or who, in desperate doubt of grace,   Strove, by deep penance, to efface    Of some foul crime the stain;   For, as the vassals of her will,   Such men the church selected still,725   As either joyed in doing ill,    Or thought more grace to gain, If, in her cause, they wrestled down Feelings their nature strove to own. By strange device were they brought there,730 They knew not how, and knew not where. XXV. And now that blind old Abbot rose,   To speak the Chapter’s doom, On those the wall was to inclose,   Alive, within the tomb;735 But stopped, because that woeful maid, Gathering her powers, to speak essayed. Twice she essayed, and twice in vain, Her accents might no utterance gain; Nought but imperfect murmurs slip740 From her convulsed and quivering lip:   ’Twixt each attempt all was so still,   You seemed to hear a distant rill—    ’Twas ocean’s swells and falls;   For though this vault of sin and fear745   Was to the sounding surge so near,   A tempest there you scarce could hear,    So massive were the walls. XXVI. At length, an effort sent apart The blood that curdled to her heart,750   And light came to her eye,



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And colour dawned upon her cheek, A hectic and a fluttered streak, Like that left on the Cheviot peak,   By Autumn’s stormy sky;755 And when her silence broke at length, Still as she spoke, she gathered strength,   And armed herself to bear. It was a fearful thing to see Such high resolve and constancy,760   In form so soft and fair. XXVII. “I speak not to implore your grace; Well know I, for one minute’s space   Successless might I sue: Nor do I speak your prayers to gain;765 For if a death of lingering pain, To cleanse my sins, be penance vain,   Vain are your masses too.— I listened to a traitor’s tale, I left the convent and the veil,770 For three long years I bowed my pride, A horse-boy in his train to ride; And well my folly’s meed he gave, Who forfeited, to be his slave, All here, and all beyond the grave.—775 He saw young Clara’s face more fair, He knew her of broad lands the heir, Forgot his vows, his faith forswore, And Constance was beloved no more.—   ’Tis an old tale, and often told;780    But, did my fate and wish agree,   Ne’er had been read, in story old,   Of maiden true betrayed for gold,    That loved, or was avenged, like me!

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XXVIII. “The King approved his favourite’s aim;785 In vain a rival barred his claim,   Whose faith with Clare’s was plight, For he attaints that rival’s fame With treason’s charge—and on they came,   In mortal lists to fight.790    Their oaths are said,    Their prayers are prayed,    Their lances in the rest are laid,   They meet in mortal shock; And hark! the throng, with thundering cry,795 Shout ‘Marmion, Marmion, to the sky!   De Wilton to the block!’ Say ye, who preach heaven shall decide, When in the lists two champions ride,   Say, was heaven’s justice here?800 When, loyal in his love and faith, Wilton found overthrow or death,   Beneath a traitor’s spear. How false the charge, how true he fell, This guilty packet best can tell.”—805 Then drew a packet from her breast, Paused, gathered voice, and spoke the rest. XXIX. “Still was false Marmion’s bridal staid; To Whitby’s convent fled the maid,   The hated match to shun.810 ‘Ho! shifts she thus?’ King Henry cried, ‘Sir Marmion, she shall be thy bride,   If she were sworn a nun.’ One way remained—the King’s command Sent Marmion to the Scottish land:815 I lingered here, and rescue plann’d   For Clara and for me:



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This caitiff monk, for gold, did swear, He would to Whitby’s shrine repair, And, by his drugs, my rival fair820   A saint in heaven should be. But ill the dastard kept his oath, Whose cowardice hath undone us both. XXX. “And now my tongue the secret tells, Not that remorse my bosom swells,825 But to assure my soul, that none Shall ever wed with Marmion. Had fortune my last hope betrayed, This packet, to the King conveyed, Had given him to the headsman’s stroke,830 Although my heart that instant broke.— Now, men of death, work forth your will, For I can suffer, and be still; And come he slow, or come he fast, It is but Death who comes at last.835 XXXI. “Yet dread me, from my living tomb, Ye vassal slaves of bloody Rome! If Marmion’s late remorse shall wake, Full soon such vengeance will he take, That you shall wish the fiery Dane840 Had rather been your guest again. Behind, a darker hour ascends! The altars quake, the crosier bends, The ire of a despotic King Rides forth upon destruction’s wing.845 Then shall these vaults, so strong and deep, Burst open to the sea-winds’ sweep; Some traveller then shall find my bones, Whitening amid disjointed stones,

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And, ignorant of priests’ cruelty,850 Marvel such relics here should be.”— XXXII. Fixed was her look, and stern her air; Back from her shoulders streamed her hair; The locks, that wont her brow to shade, Stared up erectly from her head;855 Her figure seemed to rise more high; Her voice, despair’s wild energy Had given a tone of prophecy. Appalled the astonished conclave sate; With stupid eyes, the men of fate860 Gazed on the light inspired form, And listened for the avenging storm; The judges felt the victim’s dread, No hand was moved, no word was said, Till thus the Abbot’s doom was given,865 Raising his sightless balls to heaven:— “Sister, let thy sorrows cease; Sinful brother, part in peace!”—   From that dire dungeon, place of doom,   Of execution too, and tomb,870    Paced forth the judges three;   Sorrow it were, and shame, to tell   The butcher-work that there befell,   When they had glided from the cell    Of sin and misery.875 XXXIII. An hundred winding steps convey That conclave to the upper day; But, ere they breathed the fresher air, They heard the shriekings of despair,   And many a stifled groan:880 With speed their upward way they take, (Such speed as age and fear can make,)



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And crossed themselves for terror’s sake,   As hurrying, tottering on: Even in the vesper’s heavenly tone,885 They seemed to hear a dying groan, And bade the passing knell to toll For welfare of a parting soul. Slow on the midnight wave it swung, Northumbrian rocks in answer rung;890 To Warkworth cell the echoes rolled, His beads the wakeful hermit told; The Bamborough peasant raised his head, But slept ere half a prayer he said; So far was heard the mighty knell,895 The stag sprung up on Cheviot Fell, Spread his broad nostril to the wind, Listed before, aside, behind, Then couched him down beside the hind; And quaked among the mountain fern,900 To hear that sound, so dull and stern. end of canto second.

MARMION Introduction to Canto Third TO

WILLIAM ERSKINE, Esq. Ashestiel, Ettricke Forest. Like April morning clouds, that pass, With varying shadow, o’er the grass, And imitate, on field and furrow, Life’s chequered scene of joy and sorrow; Like streamlet from the mountain north,5 Now in a torrent racing forth, Now winding slow its silver train, And almost slumbering on the plain; Like breezes of the autumn day, Whose voice inconstant dies away,10 And ever swells again as fast, When the ear deems its murmur past; Thus various, my romantic theme Flits, winds, or sinks, a morning dream. Yet pleased, our eye pursues the trace15 Of Light and Shade’s inconstant race; Pleased, views the rivulet afar, Weaving its maze irregular; And pleased, we listen as the breeze Heaves its wild sigh through autumn trees.20 Then wild as cloud, or stream, or gale, Flow on, flow unconfined, my tale.

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  Need I to thee, dear Erskine, tell, I love the license all too well, In sound now lowly, and now strong,25 To raise the desultory song?— Oft, when mid such capricious chime, Some transient fit of loftier rhyme To thy kind judgment seemed excuse For many an error of the muse;30 Oft hast thou said, “If still mis-spent, Thine hours to poetry are lent, Go, and, to tame thy wandering course, Quaff from the fountain at the source; Approach those masters, o’er whose tomb35 Immortal laurels ever bloom: Instructive of the feebler bard, Still from the grave their voice is heard; From them, and from the paths they shew’d, Chuse honoured guide and practised road;40 Nor ramble on through brake and maze, With harpers rude of barbarous days.   “Or deem’st thou not our later time Yields topic meet for classic rhyme? Hast thou no elegiac verse45 For Brunswick’s venerable hearse? What! not a line, a tear, a sigh, When valour bleeds for liberty?— Oh, hero of that glorious time, When, with unrivalled light sublime,—50 Though martial Austria, and though all The might of Russia, and the Gaul, Though banded Europe stood her foes— The star of Brandenburgh arose! Thou could’st not live to see her beam55 For ever quenched in Jena’s stream. Lamented Chief!—it was not given To thee to change the doom of heaven,



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And crush that dragon in its birth, Predestined scourge of guilty earth.60 Lamented Chief!—not thine the power, To save in that presumptuous hour, When Prussia hurried to the field, And snatched the spear, but left the shield! Valour and skill ’twas thine to try,65 And—tried in vain—’twas thine to die. Ill had it seemed thy silver hair The last, the bitterest pang to share, For princedoms reft, and scutcheons riven, And birthrights to usurpers given;70 Thy land’s, thy children’s wrongs to feel, And witness woes thou could’st not heal! On thee relenting heaven bestows For honoured life an honoured close; And when revolves, in time’s sure change,75 The hour of Germany’s revenge, When, breathing fury for her sake, Some new Arminius shall awake, Her champion, ere he strike, shall come To whet his sword on Brunswick’s tomb.80   “Or of the Red-Cross hero teach, Dauntless in dungeon as on breach: Alike to him the sea, the shore, The brand, the bridle, or the oar; Alike to him the war that calls85 Its votaries to the shattered walls, Which the grim Turk, besmeared with blood, Against the Invincible made good; Or that, whose thundering voice could wake The silence of the polar lake,90 When stubborn Russ, and metal’d Swede, On the warped wave their death-game played; Or that, where vengeance and affright Howled round the father of the fight,

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Who snatched, on Alexandria’s sand,95 The conqueror’s wreath with dying hand.   “Or, if to touch such chord be thine, Restore the ancient tragic line, And emulate the notes that rung From the wild harp, which silent hung100 By silver Avon’s holy shore, Till twice an hundred years rolled o’er; When she, the bold Enchantress, came, With fearless hand and heart on flame! From the pale willow snatched the treasure,105 And swept it with a kindred measure, Till Avon’s swans, while rung the grove With Monfort’s hate and Basil’s love, Awakening at the inspired strain, Deemed their own Shakespeare lived again.”—110   Thy friendship thus thy judgment wronging, With praises not to me belonging, In task more meet for mightiest powers, Would’st thou engage my thriftless hours. But say, my Erskine, hast thou weighed115 That secret power by all obeyed, Which warps not less the passive mind, Its source concealed or undefined; Whether an impulse, that has birth Soon as the infant wakes on earth,120 One with our feelings and our powers, And rather part of us than ours; Or whether fitlier termed the sway Of habit, formed in early day? Howe’er derived, its force confessed125 Rules with despotic sway the breast, And drags us on by viewless chain, While taste and reason plead in vain.



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Look east, and ask the Belgian why, Beneath Batavia’s sultry sky, 130 He seeks not eager to inhale The freshness of the mountain gale, Content to rear his whitened wall Beside the dank and dull canal? He’ll say, from youth he loved to see135 The white sail gliding by the tree. Or see yon weather-beaten hind, Whose sluggish herds before him wind, Whose tattered plaid and rugged cheek His northern clime and kindred speak;140 Through England’s laughing meads he goes, And England’s wealth around him flows; Ask, if it would content him well, At ease in these gay plains to dwell, Where hedge-rows spread a verdant screen,145 And spires and forests intervene, And the neat cottage peeps between? No! not for these will he exchange His dark Lochaber’s boundless range, Nor for fair Devon’s meads forsake150 Bennevis grey, and Garry’s lake.   Thus, while I ape the measure wild Of tales that charmed me yet a child, Rude though they be, still with the chime Return the thoughts of early time;155 And feelings, roused in life’s first day, Glow in the line, and prompt the lay. Then rise those crags, that mountain tower, Which charmed my fancy’s wakening hour. Though no broad river swept along160 To claim perchance heroic song; Though sighed no groves in summer gale To prompt of love a softer tale;

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Though scarce a puny streamlet’s speed Claimed homage from a shepherd’s reed; 165 Yet was poetic impulse given, By the green hill and clear blue heaven. It was a barren scene, and wild, Where naked cliffs were rudely piled; But ever and anon between170 Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green; And well the lonely infant knew Recesses where the woodbine grew, And honey-suckle loved to crawl Up the low crag and ruined wall.175 I deemed such nooks the sweetest shade The sun in all his round surveyed; And still I thought that shattered tower The mightiest work of human power; And marvelled, as the aged hind180 With some strange tale bewitched my mind, Of forayers, who, with headlong force, Down from that strength had spurred their horse, Their southern rapine to renew, Far in the distant Cheviots blue,185 And, home returning, filled the hall With revel, wassell-route, and brawl.— Methought that still with tramp and clang The gate-way’s broken arches rang; Methought grim features, seamed with scars,190 Glared through the window’s rusty bars. And ever, by the winter hearth, Old tales I heard of woe and mirth, Of lovers’ sleights, of ladies’ charms, Of witches’ spells, of warriors’ arms;195 Of patriot battles, won of old By Wallace wight and Bruce the bold; Of later fields of feud and fight, When, pouring from their Highland height,



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The Scottish clans, in headlong sway,200 Had swept the scarlet ranks away. While stretched at length upon the floor, Again I fought each combat o’er, Pebbles and shells, in order laid, The mimic ranks of war displayed;205 And onward still the Scottish Lion bore, And still the scattered Southron fled before.   Still, with vain fondness, could I trace, Anew, each kind familiar face, That brightened at our evening fire;210 From the thatched mansion’s grey-haired sire, Wise without learning, plain and good, And sprung of Scotland’s gentler blood; Whose eye in age, quick, clear, and keen, Shewed what in youth its glance had been;215 Whose doom discording neighbours sought, Content with equity unbought; To him the venerable priest, Our frequent and familiar guest, Whose life and manners well could paint220 Alike the student and the saint; Alas! whose speech too oft I broke With gambol rude and timeless joke: For I was wayward, bold, and wild, A self-will’d imp, a grandame’s child;225 But half a plague, and half a jest, Was still endured, beloved, carest.   From me, thus nurtured, dost thou ask The classic poet’s well-conned task? Nay, Erskine, nay—on the wild hill230 Let the wild heathbell flourish still; Cherish the tulip, prune the vine, But freely let the woodbine twine,

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And leave untrimmed the eglantine: Nay, my friend, nay—since oft thy praise235 Hath given fresh vigour to my lays, Since oft thy judgment could refine My flattened thought, or cumbrous line, Still kind, as is thy wont, attend, And in the minstrel spare the friend.240 Though wild as cloud, as stream, as gale, Flow forth, flow unrestrained, my tale!

MARMION CANT O T HI RD

The Hostel, or Inn I. The livelong day Lord Marmion rode: The mountain path, the Palmer shewed, By glen and streamlet, winded still,245 Where stunted birches hid the rill. They might not chuse the lowland road, For the Merse forayers were abroad, Who, fired with hate and thirst of prey, Had scarcely failed to bar their way.250 Oft on the trampling band, from crown Of some tall cliff, the deer looked down; On wing of jet, from his repose In the deep heath, the black-cock rose; Sprung from the gorse the timid roe,255 Nor waited for the bending bow; And when the stony path began, By which the naked peak they wan, Up flew the snowy ptarmigan. The noon had long been passed before260 They gained the height of Lammermore; Thence winding down the northern way, Before them, at the close of day, Old Gifford’s towers and hamlet lay.

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II. No summons calls them to the tower,265 To spend the hospitable hour. To Scotland’s camp the Lord was gone; His cautious dame, in bower alone, Dreaded her castle to unclose, So late, to unknown friends or foes.270   On through the hamlet as they paced,   Before a porch, whose front was graced   With bush and flaggon trimly placed,    Lord Marmion drew his rein:   The village inn seemed large, though rude;275   Its cheerful fire and hearty food    Might well relieve his train. Down from their seats the horsemen sprung, With jingling spurs the court-yard rung; They bind their horses to the stall,280 For forage, food, and firing call, And various clamour fills the hall; Weighing the labour with the cost, Toils everywhere the bustling host. III. Soon, by the chimney’s merry blaze,285 Through the rude hostel might you gaze; Might see, where, in dark nook aloof, The rafters of the sooty roof   Bore wealth of winter cheer; Of sea-fowl dried, and solands store,290 And gammons of the tusky boar,   And savoury haunch of deer. The chimney arch projected wide; Above, around it, and beside,   Were tools for housewives’ hand:295 Nor wanted, in that martial day, The implements of Scottish fray,   The buckler, lance, and brand.



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Beneath its shade, the place of state, On oaken settle Marmion sate,300 And viewed around the blazing hearth. His followers mix in noisy mirth, Whom with brown ale, in jolly tide, From ancient vessels ranged aside, Full actively their host supplied.305 IV. Theirs was the glee of martial breast, And laughter theirs at little jest; And oft Lord Marmion deigned to aid, And mingle in the mirth they made: For though, with men of high degree,310 The proudest of the proud was he, Yet, trained in camps, he knew the art To win the soldier’s hardy heart. They love a captain to obey, Boisterous as March, yet fresh as May;315 With open hand, and brow as free, Lover of wine, and minstrelsy; Ever the first to scale a tower, As venturous in a lady’s bower:— Such buxom chief shall lead his host320 From India’s fires to Zembla’s frost. V. Resting upon his pilgrim staff,   Right opposite the Palmer stood; His thin dark visage seen but half,   Half hidden by his hood.325 Still fixed on Marmion was his look, Which he, who ill such gaze could brook,   Strove by a frown to quell; But not for that, though more than once Full met their stern encountering glance,330   The Palmer’s visage fell.

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VI. By fits less frequent from the crowd Was heard the burst of laughter loud; For still, as squire and archer stared On that dark face and matted beard,335   Their glee and game declined. All gazed at length in silence drear, Unbroke, save when in comrade’s ear Some yeoman, wondering in his fear,   Thus whispered forth his mind:—340 “Saint Mary! saw’st thou e’er such sight? How pale his cheek, his eye how bright, Whene’er the fire-brand’s fickle light   Glances beneath his cowl! Full on our Lord he sets his eye;345 For his best palfrey, would not I   Endure that sullen scowl.”— VII. But Marmion, as to chase the awe Which thus had quelled their hearts, who saw The ever-varying fire-light shew350 That figure stern and face of woe,   Now called upon a squire:— “Fitz-Eustace, know’st thou not some lay, To speed the lingering night away?   We slumber by the fire.”—355 VIII. “So please you,” thus the youth rejoined, “Our choicest minstrel’s left behind. Ill may we hope to please your ear, Accustomed Constant’s strains to hear. The harp full deftly can he strike,360 And wake the lover’s lute alike; To dear Saint Valentine, no thrush Sings livelier from a spring-tide bush;



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No nightingale her love-lorn tune More sweetly warbles to the moon.365 Woe to the cause, whate’er it be, Detains from us his melody, Lavished on rocks, and billows stern, Or duller monks of Lindisfarn. Now must I venture, as I may,370 To sing his favourite roundelay.”— IX. A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had, The air he chose was wild and sad; Such have I heard, in Scottish land, Rise from the busy harvest band,375 When falls before the mountaineer, On lowland plains, the ripened ear. Now one shrill voice the notes prolong, Now a wild chorus swells the song: Oft have I listened, and stood still,380 As it came softened up the hill, And deemed it the lament of men Who languished for their native glen; And thought how sad would be such sound, On Susquehana’s swampy ground,385 Kentucky’s wood-encumbered brake, Or wild Ontario’s boundless lake, Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain, Recalled fair Scotland’s hills again! X. Song.    Where shall the lover rest,390     Whom the fates sever    From his true maiden’s breast,    Parted for ever?    Where, through groves deep and high,     Sounds the far billow,395

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   Where early violets die,    Under the willow. chorus.   Eleu loro, &c. Soft shall be his pillow.    There, through the summer day,     Cool streams are laving;400    There, though the tempests sway,     Scarce are boughs waving;    There, thy rest shalt thou take,    Parted for ever,    Never again to wake,405    Never, O never. chorus.   Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never. XI.    Where shall the traitor rest,    He, the deceiver,    Who could win maiden’s breast,410     Ruin, and leave her?    In the lost battle,     Borne down by the flying,    Where mingles war’s rattle,     With groans of the dying.415 chorus.   Eleu loro, &c. There shall he be lying.    Her wing shall the eagle flap,     O’er the false hearted;    His warm blood the wolf shall lap,     Ere life be parted.420    Shame and dishonour sit     By his grave ever;    Blessing shall hallow it,—    Never, O never.



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chorus.   Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never.425 XII. It ceased, the melancholy sound; And silence sunk on all around.   The air was sad; but sadder still    It fell on Marmion’s ear,   And plained as if disgrace and ill,430    And shameful death, were near.   He drew his mantle past his face,    Between it and the band,   And rested with his head a space,    Reclining on his hand.435   His thoughts I scan not; but I ween,   That, could their import have been seen,   The meanest groom in all the hall,   That e’er tied courser to a stall,   Would scarce have wished to be their prey,440   For Lutterward and Fontenaye. XIII. High minds, of native pride and force, Most deeply feel thy pangs, Remorse! Fear, for their scourge, mean villains have, Thou art the torturer of the brave!445 Yet fatal strength they boast to steel Their minds to bear the wounds they feel; Even while they writhe beneath the smart Of civil conflict in the heart. For soon Lord Marmion raised his head,450 And, smiling, to Fitz-Eustace said:— “Is it not strange, that, as you sung, Seemed in mine ear a death-peal rung, Such as in nunneries they toll For some departing sister’s soul?455

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  Say, what may this portend?”— Then first the Palmer silence broke, (The live-long day he had not spoke,)   “The death of a dear friend.” XIV. Marmion, whose steady heart and eye460 Ne’er changed in worst extremity; Marmion, whose pride could never brook, Even from his King, a haughty look; Whose accent of command controuled, In camps, the boldest of the bold—465 Thought, look, and utterance, failed him now, Fallen was his glance, and flushed his brow:   For either in the tone, Or something in the Palmer’s look, So full upon his conscience strook,470   That answer he found none. Thus oft it haps, that when within They shrink at sense of secret sin,   A feather daunts the brave; A fool’s wild speech confounds the wise,475 And proudest princes vail their eyes   Before their meanest slave. XV. Well might he faulter!—by his aid Was Constance Beverley betrayed; Not that he augur’d of the doom,480 Which on the living closed the tomb: But, tired to hear the desperate maid Threaten by turns, beseech, upbraid; And wroth, because, in wild despair, She practised on the life of Clare;485 Its fugitive the church he gave, Though not a victim, but a slave;



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And deemed restraint in convent strange, Would hide her wrongs, and her revenge. Himself, proud Henry’s favourite peer,490 Held Romish thunders idle fear; Secure his pardon he might hold, For some slight mulct of penance-gold. Thus judging, he gave secret way, When the stern priests surprised their prey:495 His train but deemed the favourite page Was left behind, to spare his age; Or other if they deemed, none dared To mutter what he thought and heard: Woe to the vassal, who durst pry500 Into Lord Marmion’s privacy! XVI. His conscience slept—he deemed her well, And safe secured in distant cell; But, wakened by her favourite lay, And that strange Palmer’s boding say,505 That fell so ominous and drear, Full on the object of his fear, To aid remorse’s venomed throes, Dark tales of convent vengeance rose; And Constance, late betrayed and scorned,510 All lovely on his soul returned: Lovely as when, at treacherous call, She left her convent’s peaceful wall, Crimsoned with shame, with terror mute, Dreading alike escape, pursuit,515 Till love, victorious o’er alarms, Hid fears and blushes in his arms. XVII. “Alas!” he thought, “how changed that mien! How changed these timid looks have been,

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Since years of guilt, and of disguise,520 Have steeled her brow, and armed her eyes! No more of virgin terror speaks The blood that mantles in her cheeks; Fierce, and unfeminine, are there, Frenzy for joy, for grief despair;525 And I the cause—for whom were given Her peace on earth, her hopes in heaven!— Would,” thought he, as the picture grows, “I on its stalk had left the rose! Oh why should man’s success remove530 The very charms that wake his love!— Her convent’s peaceful solitude Is now a prison harsh and rude; And, pent within the narrow cell, How will her spirit chafe and swell!535 How brook the stern monastic laws! The penance how—and I the cause!— Vigil and scourge—perchance even worse!”— And twice he rose to cry “to horse!” And twice his sovereign’s mandate came,540 Like damp upon a kindling flame; And twice he thought, “Gave I not charge She should be safe, though not at large? They durst not, for their island, shred One golden ringlet from her head.”—545 XVIII. While thus in Marmion’s bosom strove Repentance and reviving love, Like whirlwinds, whose contending sway I’ve seen Loch Vennachar obey, Their Host the Palmer’s speech had heard,550 And, talkative, took up the word:—   “Aye, reverend Pilgrim, you, who stray From Scotland’s simple land away,   To visit realms afar,



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Full often learn the art to know,555 Of future weal, or future woe,   By word, or sign, or star. Yet might a knight his fortune hear, If, knight-like, he despises fear, Not far from hence;—if fathers old560 Aright our hamlet legend told.”— These broken words the menials move, (For marvels still the vulgar love;) And, Marmion giving license cold, His tale the Host thus gladly told.565 XIX. The Host’s Tale. “A clerk could tell what years have flown Since Alexander filled our throne, (Third monarch of that warlike name,) And eke the time when here he came To seek Sir Hugo, then our lord:570 A braver never drew a sword; A wiser never, at the hour Of midnight, spoke the word of power: The same, whom ancient records call The founder of the Goblin-Hall.575 I would, Sir Knight, your longer stay Gave you that cavern to survey. Of lofty roof, and ample size, Beneath the castle deep it lies: To hew the living rock profound,580 The floor to pave, the arch to round, There never toiled a mortal arm, It all was wrought by word and charm; And I have heard my grandsire say, That the wild clamour and affray585 Of those dread artizans of hell, Who laboured under Hugo’s spell,

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Sounded as loud as ocean’s war, Among the caverns of Dunbar. XX. “The King Lord Gifford’s castle sought,590 Deep-labouring with uncertain thought: Even then he mustered all his host, To meet upon the western coast; For Norse and Danish galleys plied Their oars within the firth of Clyde.595 There floated Haco’s banner trim, Above Norweyan warriors grim, Savage of heart, and large of limb; Threatening both continent and isle, Bute, Arran, Cunninghame, and Kyle.600 Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, Heard Alexander’s bugle sound. He tarried not his garb to change, But, in his wizard habit strange, Came forth,— a quaint and fearful sight!605 His mantle furred with fox-skins white; His high and wrinkled forehead bore A pointed cap, such as of yore Clerks say that Pharaoh’s Magi wore; His shoes were marked with cross and spell;610 Upon his breast a pentacle; His zone, of virgin parchment thin, Or, as some tell, of dead-man’s skin, Bore many a planetary sign, Combust, and retrograde, and trine;615 And in his hand he held prepared, A naked sword without a guard. XXI. “Dire dealings with the fiendish race Had stamped strange lines upon his face;



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Vigil and fast had worn him grim,620 His eyesight dazzled seemed, and dim, As one unused to upper day; Even his own menials with dismay Beheld, Sir Knight, the griesly sire, In this unwonted wild attire;—625 Unwonted, for traditions run, He seldom thus beheld the sun. ‘I know,’ he said,—his voice was hoarse, And broken seemed its hollow force,— ‘I know the cause, although untold,630 Why the King seeks his vassal’s hold: Vainly from me my liege would know His kingdom’s future weal or woe; But yet, if strong his arm and heart, His courage may do more than art.635 XXII. “‘Of middle air the demons proud, Who ride upon the racking cloud, Can read, in fixed or wandering star, The issue of events afar; But still their sullen aid withhold640 Save when by mightier force controuled. Such late I summoned to my hall; And though so potent was the call, That scarce the deepest nook of hell I deemed a refuge from the spell,645 Yet, obstinate in silence still, The haughty demon mocks my skill. But thou,—who little knowest thy might, As born upon that blessed night, When yawning graves, and dying groan,650 Proclaimed hell’s empire overthrown,— With untaught valour shalt compel Response denied to magic spell.’—

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‘Gramercy,’ quoth our monarch free, ‘Place him but front to front with me,655 And, by this good and honoured brand, The gift of Cœur-de-Lion’s hand, Soothly I swear, that, tide what tide, The demon shall a buffet bide.’— XXIII. “His bearing bold the wizard viewed,660 And thus, well pleased, his speech renewed.— ‘There spoke the blood of Malcolm!—mark: Forth pacing hence, at midnight dark, The rampart seek, whose circling crown Crests the ascent of yonder down:665 A southern entrance wilt thou find; There halt, and there thy bugle wind, And trust thine elfin foe to see, In guise of thy worst enemy: Couch then thy lance, and spur thy steed—670 Upon him! and Saint George to speed! If he go down, thou soon shalt know, Whate’er these airy sprites can shew;— If thy heart fail thee in the strife, I am no warrant for thy life.’—675 XXIV. “Soon as the midnight bell did ring, Alone, and armed, rode forth the king To that encampment’s haunted round:— Sir Knight, you well might mark the mound, Left hand the town,—the Pictish race680 The trench, long since, in blood did trace; The moor around is brown and bare, The space within is green and fair. The spot our village children know, For there the earliest wild flowers grow;685



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But woe betide the wandering wight, That treads its circle in the night! The breadth across, a bowshot clear, Gives ample space for full career; Opposed to the four points of heaven,690 By four deep gaps are entrance given. The southern gate our monarch past, Halted, and blew a gallant blast; And on the north, within the ring, Appeared the form of England’s King;695 Who then, a thousand leagues afar, In Palestine waged holy war: Yet arms like England’s did he wield, Alike the leopards in the shield, Alike his Syrian courser’s frame,700 The rider’s length of limb the same: Long afterwards did Scotland know, Fell Edward* was her deadliest foe. XXV. “The vision made our monarch start, But soon he mann’d his noble heart,705 And in the first career they ran, The Elfin Knight fell, horse and man; Yet did a splinter of his lance Through Alexander’s visor glance, And razed the skin—a puny wound.710 The King, light leaping to the ground, With naked blade his phantom foe Compelled the future war to show.   Of Largs he saw the glorious plain,   Where still gigantic bones remain,715    Memorial of the Danish war;   Himself he saw, amid the field,   On high his brandished war-axe wield, *

Edward I., surnamed Longshanks.

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   And strike proud Haco from his car,   While, all around the shadowy King,720   Denmark’s grim ravens cowered their wing. ’Tis said, that, in that awful night, Remoter visions met his sight, Fore-shewing future conquests far, When our sons’ sons wage northern war;725 A royal city’s towers and spires, Reddened the midnight sky with fires; And shouting crews her navy bore, Triumphant, from the vanquished shore. Such signs may learned clerks explain,730 They pass the wit of simple swain. XXVI. “The joyful King turned home again, Headed his host, and quelled the Dane; But yearly, when returned the night Of his strange combat with the sprite,735   His wound must bleed and smart; Lord Gifford then would gibing say, ‘Bold as ye were, my liege, ye pay   The penance of your start.’ Long since, beneath Dunfermline’s nave,740 King Alexander fills his grave,   Our Lady give him rest! Yet still the knightly spear and shield The elfin warrior doth wield,   Upon the brown hill’s crest;745 And many a knight hath proved his chance, In the charmed ring to break a lance,   But all have foully sped; Save two, as legends tell, and they Were Wallace wight, and Gilbert Hay.—750   Gentles, my tale is said.”—



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XXVII. The quaighs were deep, the liquor strong, And on the tale the yeoman throng Had made a comment sage and long,   But Marmion gave a sign;755 And, with their lord, the squires retire; The rest, around the hostel fire, Their drowsy limbs recline; For pillow, underneath each head, The quiver and the targe were laid:760 Deep slumbering on the floor of clay, Oppressed with toil and ale, they lay: The dying flame, in fitful change, Threw on them lights and shadows strange. *

XXVIII. Apart, and nestling in the hay765 Of a waste loft, Fitz-Eustace lay; Scarce, by the pale moonlight, was seen The foldings of his mantle green: Lightly he dreamt, as youth will dream, Of sport by thicket, or by stream,770 Of hawk or hound, of ring or glove, Or, lighter yet, of lady’s love. A cautious tread his slumber broke, And, close beside him, when he woke, In moonbeam half, and half in gloom,775 Stood a tall form, with nodding plume; But, ere his dagger Eustace drew, His master Marmion’s voice he knew. XXIX. —“Fitz-Eustace! rise,—I cannot rest; Yon churl’s wild legend haunts my breast,780 *

A wooden cup, composed of staves hooped together.

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And graver thoughts have chafed my mood; The air must cool my feverish blood; And fain would I ride forth, to see The scene of elfin chivalry. Arise, and saddle me my steed;785 And, gentle Eustace, take good heed Thou dost not rouse these drowsy slaves; I would not, that the prating knaves Had cause for saying, o’er their ale, That I could credit such a tale.”—790 Then softly down the steps they slid, Eustace the stable door undid, And, darkling, Marmion’s steed arrayed, While, whispering, thus the Baron said:— XXX. “Did’st never, good my youth, hear tell,795   That on the hour when I was born, St George, who graced my sire’s chapelle, Down from his steed of marble fell,   A weary wight forlorn? The flattering chaplains all agree,800 The champion left his steed to me. I would, the omen’s truth to show, That I could meet this Elfin Foe! Blithe would I battle, for the right To ask one question at the sprite:—805 Vain thought! for elves, if elves there be, An empty race, by fount or sea, To dashing waters dance and sing, Or round the green oak wheel their ring.”— Thus speaking, he his steed bestrode,810 And from the hostel slowly rode. XXXI. Fitz-Eustace followed him abroad, And marked him pace the village road,



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  And listened to his horse’s tramp,    Till, by the lessening sound,815   He judged that of the Pictish camp   Lord Marmion sought the round. Wonder it seemed, in the squire’s eyes, That one, so wary held, and wise,— Of whom ’twas said, he scarce received820 For gospel, what the church believed,—   Should, stirred by idle tale, Ride forth in silence of the night, As hoping half to meet a sprite,   Arrayed in plate and mail.825 For little did Fitz-Eustace know, That passions, in contending flow,   Unfix the strongest mind; Wearied from doubt to doubt to flee, We welcome fond credulity,830   Guide confident, though blind. XXXII. Little for this Fitz-Eustace cared, But, patient, waited till he heard,   At distance, pricked to utmost speed,   The foot-tramp of a flying steed,835    Come town-ward rushing on:   First, dead, as if on turf it trode,   Then, clattering on the village road,—   In other pace than forth he yode,*    Returned Lord Marmion.840 Down hastily he sprung from selle, And, in his haste, well nigh he fell; To the squire’s hand the rein he threw, And spoke no word as he withdrew: But yet the moonlight did betray,845 The falcon crest was soiled with clay; *

Used by old poets for went.

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And plainly might Fitz-Eustace see, By stains upon the charger’s knee, And his left side, that on the moor He had not kept his footing sure.850 Long musing on these wondrous signs, At length to rest the squire reclines, Broken and short; for still, between, Would dreams of terror intervene: Eustace did ne’er so blithely mark855 The first notes of the morning lark. end of canto third.

MARMION Introduction to Canto Fourth TO

JAMES SKENE, Esq. Ashestiel, Ettricke Forest. An ancient minstrel sagely said, “Where is the life which late we led?”— That motley clown, in Arden wood, Whom humorous Jaques with envy viewed, Not even that clown could amplify,5 On this trite text, so long as I. Eleven years we now may tell, Since we have known each other well; Since, riding side by side, our hand First drew the voluntary brand;10 And sure, through many a varied scene, Unkindness never came between. Away these winged years have flown, To join the mass of ages gone; And though deep marked, like all below,15 With chequered shades of joy and woe; Though thou o’er realms and seas hast ranged, Marked cities lost and empires changed, While here, at home, my narrower ken Somewhat of manners saw, and men;20 Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears, Fevered the progress of these years,

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Yet now, days, weeks, and months, but seem The recollection of a dream, So still we glide down to the sea25 Of fathomless eternity.   Even now it scarcely seems a day, Since first I tuned this idle lay; A task so often thrown aside, When leisure graver cares denied, 30 That now, November’s dreary gale, Whose voice inspired my opening tale, That same November gale once more Whirls the dry leaves on Yarrow shore; Their vex’d boughs streaming to the sky, 35 Once more our naked birches sigh; And Blackhouse Heights, and Ettricke Pen, Have don’d their wintry shrouds again; And mountain dark, and flooded mead, Bid us forsake the banks of Tweed.40 Earlier than wont along the sky, Mixed with the rack, the snow-mists fly: The shepherd, who, in summer sun, Has something of our envy won, As thou with pencil, I with pen,45 The features traced of hill and glen; He who, outstretched, the livelong day, At ease among the heath-flowers lay; Viewed the light clouds with vacant look, Or slumbered o’er his tattered book,50 Or idly busied him to guide His angle o’er the lessened tide;— At midnight now, the snowy plain Finds sterner labour for the swain.   When red hath set the beamless sun,55 Through heavy vapours dank and dun; When the tired ploughman, dry and warm, Hears, half asleep, the rising storm



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Hurling the hail, and sleeted rain, Against the casement’s tinkling pane;60 The sounds that drive wild deer, and fox, To shelter in the brake and rocks, Are warnings which the shepherd ask To dismal, and to dangerous task. Oft he looks forth, and hopes, in vain,65 The blast may sink in mellowing rain; Till, dark above, and white below, Decided drives the flaky snow, And forth the hardy swain must go, While, with dejected look and whine,70 To leave the hearth his dogs repine. Whistling and cheering them to aid, Around his back he wreathes the plaid: His flock he gathers, and he guides To open downs, and mountain sides,75 Where fiercest though the tempest blow, Least deeply lies the drift below. The blast, that whistles o’er the fells, Stiffens his locks to icicles; Oft he looks back, while, streaming far,80 His cottage window seems a star, Loses its feeble gleam, and then Turns patient to the blast again, And, facing to the tempest’s sweep, Drives through the gloom his lagging sheep:85 If fails his heart, if his limbs fail, Benumbing death is in the gale; His paths, his landmarks, all unknown, Close to the hut, no more his own, Close to the aid he sought in vain,90 The morn may find the stiffened swain: His widow sees, at dawning pale, His orphans raise their feeble wail; And, close beside him, in the snow, Poor Yarrow, partner of their woe,95

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Couches upon his master’s breast, And licks his cheek, to break his rest.   Who envies now the shepherd’s lot, His healthy fare, his rural cot, His summer couch by greenwood tree,100 His rustic kirn’s* loud revelry, His native hill-notes, tuned on high, To Marion of the blithesome eye; His crook, his scrip, his oaten reed, And all Arcadia’s golden creed?105   Changes not so with us, my Skene, Of human life the varying scene? Our youthful summer oft we see Dance by on wings of game and glee, While the dark storm reserves its rage,110 Against the winter of our age: As he, the ancient Chief of Troy, His manhood spent in peace and joy; But Grecian fires, and loud alarms, Called ancient Priam forth to arms.115 Then happy those,—since each must drain His share of pleasure, share of pain,— Then happy those, beloved of heaven, To whom the mingled cup is given; Whose lenient sorrows find relief,120 Whose joys are chastened by their grief. And such a lot, my Skene, was thine, When thou of late wert doomed to twine,— Just when thy bridal hour was by,— The cypress with the myrtle tie;125 Just on thy bride her Sire had smiled, And blessed the union of his child, *

The Scottish harvest-home.



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When love must change its joyous cheer, And wipe affection’s filial tear. Nor did the actions, next his end,130 Speak more the father than the friend: Scarce had lamented Forbes paid The tribute to his Minstrel’s shade; The tale of friendship scarce was told, Ere the narrator’s heart was cold.135 Far may we search before we find A heart so manly and so kind. But not around his honoured urn, Shall friends alone and kindred mourn; The thousand eyes his care had dried,140 Pour at his name a bitter tide; And frequent falls the grateful dew, For benefits the world ne’er knew. If mortal charity dare claim The Almighty’s attributed name,145 Inscribe above his mouldering clay, “The widow’s shield, the orphan’s stay.” Nor, though it wake thy sorrow, deem My verse intrudes on this sad theme; For sacred was the pen that wrote,150 “Thy father’s friend forget thou not:” And grateful title may I plead, For many a kindly word and deed, To bring my tribute to his grave:— ’Tis little—but ’tis all I have.155   To thee, perchance, this rambling strain Recals our summer walks again; When, doing nought,—and, to speak true, Not anxious to find aught to do,— The wild unbounded hills we ranged,160 While oft our talk its topic changed, And desultory, as our way, Ranged unconfined from grave to gay.

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Even when it flagged, as oft will chance, No effort made to break its trance.165 We could right pleasantly pursue Our thoughts in social silence too; Thou gravely labouring to pourtray The blighted oak’s fantastic spray; I spelling o’er, with much delight,170 The legend of that antique knight, Tirante by name, ycleped the White. At either’s feet a trusty squire, Pandour and Camp, with eyes of fire, Jealous, each others motions viewed,175 And scarce suppressed their ancient feud. The laverock whistled from the cloud; The stream was lively, but not loud; From the white thorn the May-flower shed Its dewy fragrance round our head:180 Not Ariel lived more merrily Under the blossomed bough, than we.   And blithesome nights, too, have been ours, When winter stript the summer’s bowers; Careless we heard, what now I hear,185 The wild blast sighing deep and drear, When fires were bright, and lamps beamed gay, And ladies tuned the lovely lay; And he was held a laggard soul, Who shunned to quaff the sparkling bowl.190 Then he, whose absence we deplore, Who breathes the gales of Devon’s shore, The longer missed, bewailed the more; And thou, and I, and dear-loved R——, And one whose name I may not say,—195 For not Mimosa’s tender tree Shrinks sooner from the touch than he,— In merry chorus well combined, With laughter drowned the whistling wind.



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Mirth was within; and Care, without,200 Might gnaw her nails to hear our shout. Not but amid the buxom scene Some grave discourse might intervene— Of the good horse that bore him best, His shoulder, hoof, and arching crest:205 For, like mad Tom’s,* our chiefest care, Was horse to ride, and weapon wear. Such nights we’ve had; and, though the game Of manhood be more sober tame, And though the field-day, or the drill,210 Seem less important now—yet still Such may we hope to share again. The sprightly thought inspires my strain; And mark, how like a yeoman true, Lord Marmion’s march I thus renew.215

*

See King Lear.

MARMION CANT O F O URT H

The Camp I. Eustace, I said, did blithely mark The first notes of the merry lark. The lark sung shrill, the cock he crew, And loudly Marmion’s bugles blew, And, with their light and lively call,220 Brought groom and yeoman to the stall.   Whistling they came, and free of heart;    But soon their mood was changed:   Complaint was heard on every part,    Of something disarranged.225 Some clamoured loud for armour lost; Some brawled and wrangled with the host; “By Becket’s bones,” cried one, “I swear, That some false Scot has stolen my spear!”— Young Blount, Lord Marmion’s second squire,230 Found his steed wet with sweat and mire; Although the rated horse-boy sware, Last night he dressed him sleek and fair. While chafed the impatient squire like thunder, Old Hubert shouts, in fear and wonder,—235 “Help, gentle Blount! help, comrades all! Bevis lies dying in his stall: To Marmion who the plight dare tell, Of the good steed he loves so well?”—



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Gaping for fear and ruth, they saw240 The charger panting on his straw; Till one, who would seem wisest, cried,— “What else but evil could betide, With that cursed Palmer for our guide? Better we had through mire and bush245 Been lanthorn-led by Friar Rush.”* II. Fitz-Eustace, who the cause but guessed,   Nor wholly understood, His comrades’ clamourous plaints suppressed;   He knew Lord Marmion’s mood.250 Him, ere he issued forth, he sought, And found deep plunged in gloomy thought,   And did his tale display Simply, as if he knew of nought   To cause such disarray.255 Lord Marmion gave attention cold, Nor marvelled at the wonders told,— Passed them as accidents of course, And bade his clarions sound to horse. III. Young Henry Blount, meanwhile, the cost260 Had reckoned with their Scottish host; And, as the charge he cast and paid, “Ill thou deserv’st thy hire,” he said;   “Dost see, thou knave, my horse’s plight?   Fairies have ridden him all the night,265    And left him in a foam!   I trust, that soon a conjuring band,   With English cross, and blazing brand,   Shall drive the devils from this land, *

Alias Will o’ the Wisp.—See Note.

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   To their infernal home:270   For in this haunted den, I trow,   All night they trampled to and fro.”—   The laughing host looked on the hire,—   “Gramercy, gentle southern squire,   And if thou com’st among the rest,275   With Scottish broad sword to be blest,   Sharp be the brand, and sure the blow,   And short the pang to undergo.”—   Here stayed their talk,—for Marmion   Gave now the signal to set on.280   The Palmer shewing forth the way,   They journeyed all the middle day. IV. The green-sward way was smooth and good, Through Humbie’s and through Saltoun’s wood; A forest glade, which, varying still,285 Here gave a view of dale and hill; There narrower closed, till over head A vaulted screen the branches made. “A pleasant path,” Fitz-Eustace said; “Such as where errant-knights might see290 Adventures of high chivalry; Might meet some damsel flying fast, With hair unbound, and looks aghast; A smooth and level course were here, In her defence to break a spear.295 Here, too, are twilight nooks and dells; And oft, in such, the story tells, The damsel kind, from danger freed, Did grateful pay her champion’s meed.”—   He spoke to cheer Lord Marmion’s mind;300   Perchance to shew his lore designed;    For Eustace much had pored   Upon a huge romantic tome,   In the hall-window of his home,



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  Imprinted at the antique dome305    Of Caxton, or De Worde.   Therefore he spoke,—but spoke in vain,   For Marmion answered nought again. V. Now sudden distant trumpets shrill, In notes prolonged by wood and hill,310   Were heard to echo far; Each ready archer grasped his bow, But by the flourish soon they know,   They breathed no point of war. Yet cautious, as in foeman’s land,315 Lord Marmion’s order speeds the band,   Some opener ground to gain; And scarce a furlong had they rode, When thinner trees, receding, shewed   A little woodland plain.320 Just in that advantageous glade, The halting troop a line had made, As forth from the opposing shade   Issued a gallant train. VI. First came the trumpets, at whose clang325 So late the forest echoes rang; On prancing steeds they forward pressed, With scarlet mantle, azure vest; Each at his trump a banner wore, Which Scotland’s royal scutcheon bore:330 Heralds and pursuivants, by name Bute, Islay, Marchmount, Rothsay, came   In painted tabards, proudly showing   Gules, argent, or, and azure glowing,   Attendant on a King-at-arms,335 Whose hand the armorial truncheon held, That feudal strife had often quelled,

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  When wildest its alarms. He was a man of middle age; In aspect manly, grave, and sage,340   As on King’s errand come; But in the glances of his eye, A penetrating, keen, and sly   Expression found its home; The flash of that satiric rage,345 Which, bursting on the early stage, Branded the vices of the age,   And broke the keys of Rome. On milk-white palfrey forth he paced; His cap of maintenance was graced350   With the proud heron-plume. From his steed’s shoulder, loin, and breast,   Silk housings swept the ground, With Scotland’s arms, device, and crest,   Embroidered round and round.355 The double tressure might you see,   First by Achaius borne, The thistle, and the fleur-de-lis,   And silver unicorn. So bright the King’s armorial coat,360 That scarce the dazzled eye could note, In living colours, blazoned brave, The Lion, which his title gave. A train, which well beseemed his state, But all unarmed, around him wait.365   Still is thy name in high account,    And still thy verse has charms,   Sir David Lindesay of the Mount,    Lord Lion King-at-arms! VII. Down from his horse did Marmion spring,370 Soon as he saw the Lion-King;



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For well the stately Baron knew, To him such courtesy was due,   Whom royal James himself had crowned,   And on his temples placed the round375    Of Scotland’s ancient diadem;   And wet his brow with hallowed wine,   And on his finger gave to shine    The emblematic gem. Their mutual greetings duly made,380 The Lion thus his message said:— “Though Scotland’s King hath deadly swore, Ne’er to knit faith with Henry more, And strictly hath forbid resort From England to his royal court;385 Yet, for he knows Lord Marmion’s name, And honours much his warlike fame, My Liege hath deemed it shame, and lack Of courtesy, to turn him back;   And, by his order, I, your guide,390   Must lodging fit and fair provide,   Till finds King James meet time to see   The flower of English chivalry.”— VIII. Though inly chafed at this delay, Lord Marmion bears it as he may.395 The Palmer, his mysterious guide, Beholding thus his place supplied,   Sought to take leave in vain: Strict was the Lion-King’s command, That none, who rode in Marmion’s band,400   Should sever from the train,— “England has here enow of spies In Lady Heron’s witching eyes;”— To Marchmount thus, apart, he said, But fair pretext to Marmion made.405

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The right-hand path they now decline, And trace against the stream the Tyne:   At length up that wild dale they wind,    Where Crichtoun-Castle crowns the bank;   For there the Lion’s care assigned410    A lodging meet for Marmion’s rank. IX. That Castle rises on the steep   Of the green vale of Tyne; And far beneath, where slow they creep From pool to eddy, dark and deep,415 Where alders moist, and willows weep,   You hear her streams repine. The towers in different ages rose; Their various architecture shows   The builders’ various hands;420 A mighty mass, that could oppose, When deadliest hatred fired its foes,   The vengeful Douglas bands. Crichtoun! though now thy miry court   But pens the lazy steers and sheep,425   Thy turrets rude, and tottered Keep, Have been the minstrel’s loved resort. Oft have I traced within thy fort,   Of mouldering shields the mystic sense,   Scutcheons of honour, or pretence,430 Quartered in old armorial sort,   Remains of rude magnificence: Nor wholly yet hath time defaced   Thy lordly gallery fair; Nor yet the stony cord unbraced,435 Whose twisted knots, with roses laced,   Adorn thy ruined stair. Still rises unimpaired, below, The court-yard’s graceful portico;



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Above its cornice, row and row440 Of fair hewn facets richly show   Their pointed diamond form, Though there but houseless cattle go,   To shield them from the storm. And, shuddering, still may we explore,445   Where oft whilome were captives pent, The darkness of thy Massy More;*   Or, from thy grass-grown battlement, May trace, in undulating line, The sluggish mazes of the Tyne.450 X. Another aspect Crichtoun shewed, As through its portal Marmion rode; But yet ’twas melancholy state Received him at the outer gate; For none were in the castle then,455 But women, boys, or aged men. With eyes scarce dried, the sorrowing dame, To welcome noble Marmion, came; Her son, a stripling twelve years old, Proferred the Baron’s rein to hold;460 For each man, that could draw a sword, Had marched that morning with their lord, Earl Adam Hepburn,—he who died On Flodden, by his sovereign’s side. Long may his Lady look in vain!465 She ne’er shall see his gallant train Come sweeping back through Crichtoun-Dean. ’Twas a brave race, before the name Of hated Bothwell stained their fame.   And here two days must Marmion rest,470    With every rite that honour claims, *

The pit, or prison vault.—See Note.

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  Attended as the King’s own guest,—    Such the command of royal James; Who marshalled then his land’s array, Upon the Borough-moor that lay.475 Perchance he would not foeman’s eye Upon his gathering host should pry, Till full prepared was every band To march against the English land. XI. Here while they dwelt, did Lindesay’s wit480 Oft cheer the Baron’s moodier fit; And, in his turn, he knew to prize Lord Marmion’s powerful mind, and wise,— Trained in the lore of Rome, and Greece, And policies of war and peace.485   It chanced, as fell the second night,    That on the battlements they walked,   And, by the slowly fading light,    Of varying topics talked;   And, unaware, the Herald-bard490   Said, Marmion might his toil have spared,    In travelling so far;   For that a messenger from heaven   In vain to James had counsel given    Against the English war:495   And, closer questioned, thus he told   A tale, which chronicles of old   In Scottish story have enrolled:— XII. Sir David Lindesay’s Tale.   “Of all the palaces so fair,    Built for the royal dwelling,500   In Scotland, far beyond compare    Linlithgow is excelling;



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And in its park, in jovial June, How sweet the merry linnet’s tune,   How blithe the blackbird’s lay!505 The wild buck bells* from ferny brake, The coot dives merry on the lake, The saddest heart might pleasure take   To see all nature gay. But June is to our Sovereign dear510 The heaviest month in all the year: Too well his cause of grief you know,— June saw his father’s overthrow. Woe to the traitors, who could bring The princely boy against his King!515 Still in his conscience burns the sting. In offices as strict as Lent, King James’s June is ever spent. XIII. “When last this ruthful month was come, And in Linlithgow’s holy dome520   The King, as wont, was praying; While, for his royal father’s soul, The chaunters sung, the bells did toll,   The Bishop mass was saying— For now the year brought round again525 The day the luckless King was slain—   In Katherine’s aisle the Monarch knelt,   With sackcloth-shirt, and iron belt,    And eyes with sorrow streaming;   Around him, in their stalls of state,530   The Thistle’s Knight-Companions sate,    Their banners o’er them beaming.   I too was there, and, sooth to tell,   Bedeafened with the jangling knell,   Was watching where the sunbeams fell,535 *

An ancient word for the cry of deer.—See Note.

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   Through the stained casement gleaming;   But, while I marked what next befel,    It seemed as I were dreaming. Stepped from the crowd a ghostly wight, In azure gown, with cincture white;540 His forehead bald, his head was bare, Down hung at length his yellow hair.— Now, mock me not, when, good my Lord, I pledge to you my knightly word, That, when I saw his placid grace,545 His simple majesty of face, His solemn bearing, and his pace   So softly gliding on,— Seemed to me ne’er did limner paint So just an image of that Saint,550 Who propped the Virgin in her faint,—   The loved Apostle John. XIV. “He stepped before the Monarch’s chair, And stood with rustic plainness there,   And little reverence made;555 Nor head, nor body, bowed nor bent, But on the desk his arm he leant,   And words like these he said, In a low voice,—but never tone So thrilled through vein, and nerve, and bone:—560   ‘My mother sent me from afar,   Sir King, to warn thee not to war,—    Woe waits on thine array;   If war thou wilt, of woman fair,   Her witching wiles and wanton snare,565   James Stuart, doubly warned, beware:    God keep thee as he may!’—   The wondering Monarch seemed to seek    For answer, and found none;   And when he raised his head to speak,570



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   The monitor was gone.   The Marshal, and myself, had cast   To stop him as he outward past;   But, lighter than the whirlwind’s blast,    He vanished from our eyes,575   Like sunbeam on a billow cast,    That glances but, and dies.”— XV. While Lindesay told this marvel strange,   The twilight was so pale, He marked not Marmion’s colour change,580   While listening to the tale: But, after a suspended pause, The Baron spoke:—“Of Nature’s laws   So strong I held the force, That never super-human cause585   Could e’er controul their course; And, three days since, had judged your aim Was but to make your guest your game. But I have seen, since past the Tweed, What much has changed my sceptic creed,590 And made me credit aught.”—He staid, And seemed to wish his words unsaid:   But, by that strong emotion pressed,   Which prompts us to unload our breast,    Even when discovery’s pain,595   To Lindesay did at length unfold   The tale his village host had told,    At Gifford, to his train. Nought of the Palmer says he there, And nought of Constance, or of Clare:600 The thoughts, which broke his sleep, he seems To mention but as feverish dreams.

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XVI. “In vain,” said he, “to rest I spread My burning limbs, and couched my head:   Fantastic thoughts returned;605 And, by their wild dominion led,   My heart within me burned. So sore was their delirious goad, I took my steed, and forth I rode, And, as the moon shone bright and cold,610 Soon reached the camp upon the wold. The southern entrance I passed through, And halted, and my bugle blew. Methought an answer met my ear,— Yet was the blast so low and drear,615 So hollow, and so faintly blown, It might be echo of my own.   Thus judging, for a little space   I listened, ere I left the place;    But scarce could trust my eyes,620   Nor yet can think they served me true,   When sudden in the ring I view,   In form distinct of shape and hue,    A mounted champion rise.—   I’ve fought, Lord Lion, many a day,625   In single fight, and mixed affray,   And ever, I myself may say,    Have borne me as a knight;   But when this unexpected foe   Seemed starting from the gulph below,—630   I care not though the truth I show,—    I trembled with affright;   And as I placed in rest my spear,   My hand so shook for very fear,    I scarce could couch it right.635



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XVII. “Why need my tongue the issue tell? We ran our course,—my charger fell;— What could he ’gainst the shock of hell?—   I rolled upon the plain. High o’er my head, with threatening hand,640 The spectre shook his naked brand,—   Yet did the worst remain; My dazzled eyes I upward cast,— Not opening hell itself could blast   Their sight, like what I saw!645 Full on his face the moonbeam strook,— A face could never be mistook! I knew the stern vindictive look,   And held my breath for awe. I saw the face of one who, fled650 To foreign climes, has long been dead,—   I well believe the last; For ne’er, from visor raised, did stare A human warrior, with a glare   So grimly and so ghast.655 Thrice o’er my head he shook the blade; But when to good Saint George I prayed, (The first time e’er I asked his aid,)   He plunged it in the sheath; And, on his courser mounting light,660 He seemed to vanish from my sight: The moonbeam drooped, and deepest night   Sunk down upon the heath.— ’Twere long to tell what cause I have   To know his face, that met me there,665 Called by his hatred from the grave   To cumber upper air: Dead, or alive, good cause had he To be my mortal enemy.”—

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XVIII. Marvelled Sir David of the Mount;670 Then, learned in story, ’gan recount   Such chance had happ’d of old, When once, near Norham, there did fight A spectre fell of fiendish might, In likeness of a Scottish knight,675   With Ralph de Bulmer bold, And trained him nigh to disallow The aid of his baptismal vow.   “And such a phantom, too, ’tis said,   With Highland broad-sword, targe, and plaid,680    And fingers red with gore, Is seen in Rothiemurcus glade, Or where the sable pine-trees shade Dark Tomantoul, and Achnaslaid,   Dromouchty, or Glenmore.*685 And yet, whate’er such legends say, Of warlike demon, ghost, or fay,   On mountain, moor, or plain, Spotless in faith, in bosom bold, True son of chivalry should hold690   These midnight terrors vain; For seldom have such spirits power To harm, save in the evil hour, When guilt we meditate within, Or harbour unrepented sin.”—695 Lord Marmion turned him half aside, And twice to clear his voice he tried,   Then pressed Sir David’s hand,— But nought, at length, in answer said; And here their farther converse staid,700   Each ordering that his band

*

See the traditions concerning Bulmer, and the spectre called Lhamdearg, or Bloody-hand, in a note on Canto III.



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Should bowne them with the rising day, To Scotland’s camp to take their way,—   Such was the King’s command. XIX. Early they took Dun-Edin’s road,705 And I could trace each step they trode; Hill, brook, nor dell, nor rock, nor stone, Lies on the path to me unknown. Much might it boast of storied lore; But, passing such digression o’er,710 Suffice it that their route was laid Across the furzy hills of Braid. They passed the glen and scanty rill, And climbed the opposing bank, until They gained the top of Blackford Hill.715   Blackford! on whose uncultured breast,    Among the broom, and thorn, and whin,   A truant-boy, I sought the nest,   Or listed, as I lay at rest,    While rose, on breezes thin,720   The murmur of the city crowd,   And, from his steeple jangling loud,    Saint Giles’s mingling din. Now from the summit to the plain, Waves all the hill with yellow grain;725   And o’er the landscape as I look, Nought do I see unchanged remain,   Save the rude cliffs and chiming brook. To me they make a heavy moan Of early friendships past and gone.730 XX. But different far the change has been,   Since Marmion, from the crown Of Blackford, saw a martial scene   Upon the bent so brown:

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Thousand pavilions, white as snow,735 Spread all the Borough-moor below,   Upland, and dale, and down:— A thousand did I say? I ween, Thousands on thousands there were seen, That chequered all the heath between740   The streamlet and the town; In crossing ranks extending far, Forming a camp irregular; Oft giving way, where still there stood Some reliques of the old oak wood,745 That darkly huge did intervene, And tamed the glaring white with green: In these extended lines there lay A martial kingdom’s vast array. For from Hebudes, dark with rain,750 To eastern Lodon’s fertile plain, And from the southern Redswire edge, To farthest Rosse’s rocky ledge; From west to east, from south to north, Scotland sent all her warriors forth.755 Marmion might hear the mingled hum Of myriads up the mountain come; The horses’ tramp, and tingling clank, Where chiefs reviewed their vassal rank,   And charger’s shrilling neigh;760 And see the shifting lines advance, While frequent flashed, from shield and lance,   The sun’s reflected ray. XXI. Thin curling in the morning air, Slight wreaths of failing smoke declare,765 To embers now the brands decayed, Where the night-watch their fires had made. They saw, slow rolling on the plain, Full many a baggage-cart and wain,



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And dire artillery’s clumsy car,770 By sluggish oxen tugged to war; And there were Borthwick’s Sisters Seven,* And culverins which France had given. Ill-omened gift! the guns remain The conqueror’s spoil on Flodden plain.775 Nor marked they less, where in the air A thousand streamers flaunted fair;   Various in shape, device, and hue,   Green, sanguine, purple, red, and blue, Broad, narrow, swallow-tailed, and square,780 Scroll, pennon, pensil, bandrol,† there   O’er the pavilions flew. Highest, and midmost, was descried The royal banner floating wide;   The staff, though pine-tree strong and straight,785    Pitched deeply in a massive stone,    Which still in memory is shown,   Yet bent beneath the standard’s weight   Whene’er the western wind unrolled,   With toil, the huge and cumbrous fold,790    And gave to view the dazzling field,    Where, in proud Scotland’s royal shield,   The ruddy Lion ramped in gold. XXII. Lord Marmion viewed the landscape bright,— He viewed it with a chief’s delight,—795   Until within him burned his heart,   And lightning from his eye did part,    As on the battle-day;   Such glance did falcon never dart,    When stooping on his prey.800   “Oh! well, Lord Lion, hast thou said, *

Seven culverins so called, cast by one Borthwick. Each of these feudal ensigns intimated the different rank of those entitled to display them. †

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  Thy King from warfare to dissuade    Were but a vain essay;   For, by Saint George, were that host mine,   Not power infernal, nor divine,805   Should once to peace my soul incline,   Till I had dimmed their armour’s shine,    In glorious battle fray!”—   Answered the bard, of milder mood:   “Fair is the sight,—and yet ’twere good,810    That kings would think withal,   When peace and wealth their land has blessed,   ’Tis better to sit still at rest,    Than rise, perchance to fall.”— XXIII. Still on the spot Lord Marmion stayed,815 For fairer scene he ne’er surveyed.   When sated with the martial show   That peopled all the plain below,   The wandering eye could o’er it go,   And mark the distant city glow820    With gloomy splendour red;   For on the smoke-wreaths, huge and slow,   That round her sable turrets flow,    The morning beams were shed,   And tinged them with a lustre proud,825   Like that which streaks a thunder-cloud. Such dusky grandeur clothed the height, Where the huge castle holds its state,   And all the steep slope down, Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky,830 Piled deep and massy, close and high,   Mine own romantic town! But northward far, with purer blaze, On Ochil mountains fell the rays, And as each heathy top they kissed,835 It gleamed a purple amethyst.



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  Yonder the shores of Fife you saw;   Here Preston-Bay, and Berwick-Law;    And, broad between them rolled,   The gallant firth the eye might note,840   Whose islands on its bosom float,    Like emeralds chased in gold. Fitz-Eustace’ heart felt closely pent; As if to give his rapture vent, The spur he to his charger lent,845   And raised his bridle-hand, And, making demi-volte in air, Cried, “Where’s the coward that would not dare   To fight for such a land!” The Lion smiled his joy to see;850 Nor Marmion’s frown repressed his glee. XXIV. Thus while they looked, a flourish proud, Where mingled trump, and clarion loud,   And fife, and kettle-drum, And sackbut deep, and psaltery,855 And war-pipe with discordant cry, And cymbal clattering to the sky, Making wild music bold and high,   Did up the mountain come; The whilst the bells, with distant chime,860 Merrily tolled the hour of prime,   And thus the Lion spoke:— “Thus clamour still the war-notes when The King to mass his way has ta’en, Or to Saint Catherine’s of Sienne,865   Or chapel of Saint Rocque. To you they speak of martial fame; But me remind of peaceful game,   When blither was their cheer, Thrilling in Falkland-woods the air,870 In signal none his steed should spare,

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But strive which foremost might repair   To the downfall of the deer. XXV. “Nor less,” he said,—“when looking forth, I view yon Empress of the North875   Sit on her hilly throne; Her palace’s imperial bowers, Her castle proof to hostile powers, Her stately halls and holy towers—   Nor less,” he said, “I moan,880 To think what woe mischance may bring, And how these merry bells may ring The death-dirge of our gallant King;   Or, with their larum, call The burghers forth to watch and ward,885 ’Gainst southern sack and fires to guard   Dun-Edin’s leaguered wall.— But not for my presaging thought, Dream conquest sure, or cheaply bought!   Lord Marmion, I say nay:—890 God is the guider of the field, He breaks the champion’s spear and shield,—   But thou thyself shalt say, When joins yon host in deadly stowre, That England’s dames must weep in bower,895   Her monks the death-mass sing; For never saw’st thou such a power   Led on by such a King.”— And now, down winding to the plain, The barriers of the camp they gain,900   And there they made a stay.— There stays the Minstrel, till he fling His hand o’er every Border string, And fit his harp the pomp to sing,



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Of Scotland’s ancient Court and King,905   In the succeeding lay. end of canto fourth.

MARMION Introduction to Canto Fifth TO

GEORGE ELLIS, Esq. Edinburgh. When dark December glooms the day, And takes our autumn joys away; When short and scant the sun-beam throws, Upon the weary waste of snows, A cold and profitless regard,5 Like patron on a needy bard; When sylvan occupation’s done, And o’er the chimney rests the gun, And hang, in idle trophy, near, The game-pouch, fishing-rod, and spear;10 When wiry terrier, rough and grim, And greyhound, with his length of limb, And pointer, now employed no more, Cumber our parlour’s narrow floor; When in his stall the impatient steed15 Is long condemned to rest and feed; When from our snow-encircled home, Scarce cares the hardiest step to roam, Since path is none, save that to bring The needful water from the spring;20 When wrinkled news-page, thrice con’d o’er, Beguiles the dreary hour no more,

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And darkling politician, crossed, Inveighs against the lingering post, And answering house-wife sore complains25 Of carrier’s snow-impeded wains: When such our country cheer, I come, Well pleased, to seek our city home; For converse, and for books, to change The Forest’s melancholy range,30 And welcome, with renewed delight, The busy day, and social night.   Not here need my desponding rhyme Lament the ravages of time, As erst by Newark’s riven towers,35 And Ettricke stripped of forest bowers.* True,—Caledonia’s Queen is changed, Since on her dusky summit ranged, Within its steepy limits pent, By bulwark, line, and battlement,40 And flanking towers, and laky flood, Guarded and garrisoned she stood, Denying entrance or resort, Save at each tall embattled port; Above whose arch, suspended, hung45 Portcullis spiked with iron prong. That long is gone,—but not so long, Since, early closed, and opening late, Jealous revolved the studded gate; Whose task, from eve to morning tide,50 A wicket churlishly supplied. Stern then, and steel-girt was thy brow, Dun-Edin! O, how altered now, When safe amid thy mountain court Thou sitst, like Empress at her sport,55 *

See Introduction to Canto II.



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And liberal, unconfined, and free, Flinging thy white arms to the sea, For thy dark cloud, with umbered lower, That hung o’er cliff, and lake, and tower, Thou gleam’st against the western ray60 Ten thousand lines of brighter day.   Not she, the championess of old, In Spenser’s magic tale enrolled, She for the charmed spear renowned, Which forced each knight to kiss the ground,—65 Not she more changed, when, placed at rest, What time she was Malbecco’s guest,* She gave to flow her maiden vest; When from the corslet’s grasp relieved, Free to the sight her bosom heaved;70 Sweet was her blue eye’s modest smile, Erst hidden by the aventayle; And down her shoulders graceful rolled Her locks profuse, of paly gold. They who whilome, in midnight fight,75 Had marvelled at her matchless might, No less her maiden charms approved, But looking liked, and liking loved.† The sight could jealous pangs beguile, And charm Malbecco’s cares awhile;80 And he, the wandering Squire of Dames, Forgot his Columbella’s claims, And passion, erst unknown, could gain The breast of blunt Sir Satyrane; Nor durst light Paridel advance,85 Bold as he was, a looser glance,— She charmed, at once, and tamed the heart, Incomparable Britomarte! * †

See “The Fairy Queen,” Book III. Canto IX. “For every one her liked, and every one her loved.” Spenser, as above.

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  So thou, fair City! disarrayed Of battled wall, and rampart’s aid,90 As stately seem’st, but lovelier far Than in that panoply of war. Nor deem that from thy fenceless throne Strength and security are flown; Still, as of yore, Queen of the North!95 Still canst thou send thy children forth. Ne’er readier at alarm-bell’s call Thy burghers rose to man thy wall, Than now, in danger, shall be thine, Thy dauntless voluntary line;100 For fosse and turret proud to stand, Their breasts the bulwarks of the land. Thy thousands, trained to martial toil, Full red would stain their native soil, Ere from thy mural crown there fell105 The slightest knosp, or pinnacle. And if it come,—as come it may, Dun-Edin! that eventful day,— Renowned for hospitable deed, That virtue much with heaven may plead,110 In patriarchal times whose care Descending angels deigned to share; That claim may wrestle blessings down On those who fight for the Good Town, Destined in every age to be115 Refuge of injured royalty; Since first, when conquering York arose, To Henry meek she gave repose, Till late, with wonder, grief, and awe, Great Bourbon’s reliques, sad she saw.120   Truce to these thoughts!—for, as they rise, How gladly I avert mine eyes, Bodings, or true or false, to change, For Fiction’s fair romantic range,



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Or for Tradition’s dubious light,125 That hovers ’twixt the day and night: Dazzling alternately and dim, Her wavering lamp I’d rather trim, Knights, squires, and lovely dames to see, Creation of my fantasy,130 Than gaze abroad on reeky fen, And make of mists invading men.— Who loves not more the night of June Than dull December’s gloomy noon? The moonlight than the fog of frost?135 And can we say, which cheats the most?   But who shall teach my harp to gain A sound of the romantic strain, Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere Could win the Royal Henry’s ear,140 Famed Beauclerc called, for that he loved The minstrel, and his lay approved? Who shall these lingering notes redeem, Decaying on Oblivion’s stream; Such notes as from the Breton tongue145 Marie translated, Blondel sung?— O! born Time’s ravage to repair, And make the dying Muse thy care; Who, when his scythe their hoary foe Was poising for the final blow,150 The weapon from his hand could wring, And break his glass, and shear his wing, And bid, reviving in their strain, The gentle poets live again; Thou, who canst give to lightest lay155 An unpedantic moral gay, Nor less the dullest theme bid flit On wings of unexpected wit: In letters as in life approved, Example honoured, and beloved,—160

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Dear Ellis! to the bard impart A lesson of thy magic art, To win at once the head and heart,— At once to charm, instruct, and mend, My guide, my pattern, and my friend!165   Such minstrel lesson to bestow Be long thy pleasing task,—but, O! No more by thy example teach What few can practice, all can preach; With even patience to endure170 Lingering disease, and painful cure, And boast affliction’s pangs subdued By mild and manly fortitude. Enough, the lesson has been given: Forbid the repetition, Heaven!175   Come listen, then! for thou hast known, And loved the Minstrel’s varying tone; Who, like his Border sires of old, Waked a wild measure rude and bold, Till Windsor’s oaks, and Ascot plain,180 With wonder heard the northern strain. Come, listen!—bold in thy applause, The Bard shall scorn pedantic laws; And, as the ancient art could stain Achievements on the storied pane,185 Irregularly traced and planned, But yet so glowing and so grand; So shall he strive, in changeful hue, Field, feast, and combat, to renew, And loves, and arms, and harpers’ glee,190 And all the pomp of chivalry.

MARMION CANT O F I F T H

The Court I. The barrier guard the Lion knew, Advanced their pikes; and soon withdrew The slender palisades and few   That closed the tented ground;195 And Marmion with his train rode through,   Into its ample bound. Fast ran the Scottish warriors there, Upon the Southern band to stare; And envy with their wonder rose,200 To see such well-appointed foes; Such length of shafts, such mighty bows, So huge, that many simply thought, But for a vaunt such weapons wrought; And little deemed their force to feel205 Through links of mail, and plates of steel, When, rattling upon Flodden vale, The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail. II. Nor less did Marmion’s skilful view Glance every line and squadron through;210 And much he marvelled one small land Could marshal forth such various band:   For men-at-arms were here,

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Heavily sheathed in mail and plate, Like iron towers for strength and weight,215 On Flemish steeds of bone and height,   With battle-axe and spear. Young knights and squires, a lighter train, Practised their chargers on the plain, By aid of leg, of hand, and rein,220   Each warlike feat to show; To pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain, And high curvett, that not in vain The sword-sway might descend amain   On foeman’s casque below.225 He saw the hardy burghers there March armed, on foot, with faces bare,   For visor they wore none, Nor waving plume, nor crest of knight; But burnished were their corslets bright,230 Their brigantines, and gorgets light,   Like very silver shone. Long pikes they had for standing fight,   Two-handed swords they wore, And many wielded mace of weight,235   And bucklers bright they bore. III. On foot the yeoman too, but dressed In his steel jack, a swarthy vest,   With iron quilted well; Each at his back, (a slender store,)240 His forty days provision bore,   As feudal statutes tell. His arms were halbard, axe, or spear, A cross-bow there, a hagbut here,   A dagger-knife, and brand.—245 Sober he seemed, and sad of cheer, As loth to leave his cottage dear,   And march to foreign strand,



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Or musing, who would guide his steer,   To till the fallow land.250 Yet deem not in his thoughtful eye Did aught of dastard terror lie;   More dreadful far his ire, Than theirs, who, scorning danger’s name, In eager mood to battle came,255 Their valour like light straw on flame,   A fierce but fading fire. IV. Not so the Borderer:—bred to war, He knew the battle’s din afar,   And joyed to hear it swell.260 His peaceful day was slothful ease; Nor harp, nor pipe, his ear could please,   Like the loud slogan yell. On active steed, with lance and blade, The light-armed pricker plied his trade,—265   Let nobles fight for fame; Let vassals follow where they lead, Burghers, to guard their townships, bleed,   But war’s the Borderers’ game. Their gain, their glory, their delight,270 To sleep the day, maraud the night,   O’er mountain, moss, and moor; Joyful to fight they took their way, Scarce caring who might win the day,   Their booty was secure.275 These, as Lord Marmion’s train passed by, Looked on at first with careless eye, Nor marvelled aught, well taught to know The form and force of English bow.   But when they saw the Lord arrayed280   In splendid arms, and rich brocade,   Each Borderer to his kinsman said,—   “ Hist, Ringan! seest thou there!

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Canst guess which road they’ll homeward ride?— O! could we but, on Border side,285 By Eusedale glen, or Liddell’s tide,   Beset a prize so fair! That fangless Lion, too, their guide, Might chance to lose his glistering hide; Brown Maudlin, of that doublet pied,290   Could make a kirtle rare.” V. Next, Marmion marked the Celtic race, Of different language, form, and face,   A various race of man; Just then the Chiefs, their tribes arrayed,295 A wild and garish semblance made, The chequered trews, and belted plaid, And varying notes the war-pipes brayed   To every varying clan; Wild through their red and shaggy hair300 Looked out their eyes, with savage stare,   On Marmion as he past; Their legs above the knee were bare; Their frame was sinewy, short, and spare,   And hardened to the blast;305 Of taller race, the chiefs they own Were by the eagle’s plumage known. The hunted red-deer’s undressed hide Their hairy buskins well supplied; The graceful bonnet decked their head;310 Back from their shoulders hung the plaid; A broad-sword of unwieldy length, A dagger proved for edge and strength,   A studded targe they wore, And quivers, bows, and shafts,—but, O!315 Short was the shaft, and weak the bow,   To that which England bore.



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The Isles-men carried at their backs The ancient Danish battle-axe. They raised a wild and wondering cry,320 As with his guide rode Marmion by. Loud were their clamouring tongues, as when The clanging sea-fowl leave the fen, And, with their cries discordant mixed, Grumbled and yelled the pipes betwixt.325 VI. Thus through the Scottish camp they passed, And reached the City gate at last, Where all around, a wakeful guard, Armed burghers kept their watch and ward. Well had they cause of jealous fear,330 When lay encamped, in field so near, The Borderer and the Mountaineer. As through the bustling streets they go, All was alive with martial show; At every turn, with dinning clang,335 The armourers’ anvil clashed and rang; Or toiled the swarthy smith, to wheel The bar that arms the charger’s heel; Or axe, or faulchion to the side Of jarring grind-stone was applied.340   Page, groom, and squire, with hurrying pace,   Through street, and lane, and market-place,    Bore lance, or casque, or sword;   While burghers, with important face,    Described each new-come lord,345   Discussed his lineage, told his name,   His following,* and his warlike fame. The Lion led to lodging meet, Which high o’erlooked the crowded street; *

Following—Feudal Retainers.

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  There must the Baron rest,350 Till past the hour of vesper tide, And then to Holy-Rood must ride,—   Such was the King’s behest. Meanwhile the Lion’s care assigns A banquet rich, and costly wines,355   To Marmion and his train; And when the appointed hour succeeds, The Baron dons his peaceful weeds, And following Lindesay as he leads,   The palace-halls they gain.360 VII. Old Holy-Rood rung merrily, That night, with wassel, mirth, and glee: King James within her princely bower Feasted the chiefs of Scotland’s power, Summoned to spend the parting hour;365   For he had charged, that his array   Should southward march by break of day.   Well loved that splendid monarch aye    The banquet and the song,   By day the tourney, and by night370   The merry dance, traced fast and light,   The masquers quaint, the pageant bright,    The revel loud and long.   This feast outshone his banquets past;   It was his blithest,—and his last.375 The dazzling lamps, from gallery gay, Cast on the court a dancing ray; Here to the harp did minstrels sing; There ladies touched a softer string; With long-eared cap, and motley vest,380 The licensed fool retailed his jest; His magic tricks the juggler plied; At dice and draughts the gallants vied;



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  While some, in close recess apart,   Courted the ladies of their heart,385    Nor courted them in vain;   For often, at the parting hour,   Victorious Love asserts his power    O’er coldness and disdain;   And flinty is her heart, can view390   To battle march a lover true,—   Can hear, perchance, his last adieu,    Nor own her share of pain. VIII. Through this mixed crowd of glee and game, The King to greet Lord Marmion came,395   While, reverend, all made room. An easy task it was, I trow, King James’s manly form to know, Although, his courtesy to show, He doffed, to Marmion bending low,400   His broidered cap and plume. For royal were his garb and mien,   His cloak, of crimson velvet piled,   Trimmed with the fur of martin wild; His vest of changeful sattin sheen,405   The dazzled eye beguiled. His gorgeous collar hung adown, Wrought with the badge of Scotland’s crown, The thistle brave, of old renown,   Twined with the Fleur de lis.410 His trusty blade, Toledo right, Descended from a baldric bright,   And dangled at his knee. White were his buskins, on the heel His spurs inlaid of gold and steel415   Were jingling merrily. His bonnet, all of crimson fair, Was buttoned with a ruby rare.

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And Marmion deemed he ne’er had seen A prince of such a noble mien.420 IX. The Monarch’s form was middle size; For feat of strength, or exercise,   Shaped in proportion fair; And hazle was his eagle eye, And auburn of the darkest dye425   His short curled beard and hair. Light was his footstep in the dance,   And firm his stirrup in the lists; And, oh! he had that merry glance,   That seldom lady’s heart resists.430 Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue;— Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.   I said he joyed in banquet-bower;435    But, mid his mirth, ’twas often strange,    How suddenly his cheer would change,   His look o’ercast and lower,    If, in a sudden turn, he felt    The pressure of his iron belt,440    That bound his breast in penance pain,    In memory of his father slain.   Even so ’twas strange how, evermore,   Soon as the passing pang was o’er,   Forward he rushed, with double glee,445   Into the stream of revelry:   Thus, dim-seen object of affright   Startles the courser in his flight,   And half he halts, half springs aside,   But feels the quickening spur applied,450   And, straining on the tightened rein,   Scours doubly swift o’er hill and plain.



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X. O’er James’s heart, the courtiers say, Sir Hugh the Heron’s wife held sway:   To Scotland’s court she came,455 To be a hostage for her lord, Who Cessford’s gallant heart had gored, And with the King to make accord,   Had sent his lovely dame. Nor to that lady free alone460 Did the gay King allegiance own;   For the fair Queen of France Sent him a Turquois ring, and glove, And charged him, as her knight and love,   For her to break a lance;465 And strike three strokes with Scottish brand, And march three miles on Southron land, And bid the banners of his band   In English breezes dance. And thus, for France’s Queen he drest470 His manly limbs in mailed vest; And thus admitted English fair His inmost counsels still to share;   And thus, for both, he madly planned   The ruin of himself and land!475    And yet, the sooth to tell,   Nor England’s fair, nor France’s Queen,   Were worth one pearl-drop, bright and sheen,    From Margaret’s eyes that fell,— His own Queen Margaret, who, in Lithgow’s bower,480 All lonely sat, and wept the weary hour. XI.   The Queen sits lone in Lithgow pile,    And weeps the weary day,   The war against her native soil,   Her Monarch’s risk in battle broil;—485

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  And in gay Holy-Rood the while   Dame Heron bownes her with a smile    Upon the harp to play.   Fair was her rounded arm, as o’er    The strings her fingers flew;490   And as she touched and tuned them all,   Ever her bosom’s rise and fall    Was plainer given to view;   For all, for heat, was laid aside,   Her wimple, and her hood untied.495   And first she pitched her voice to sing,   Then glanced her dark eye on the King,   And then around the silent ring;   And laughed, and blushed, and oft did say   Her pretty oath, by Yea, and Nay,500   She could not, would not, durst not play!   At length, upon the harp, with glee,   Mingled with arch simplicity,   A soft, yet lively, air she rung,   While thus the wily lady sung.505 XII. lochinvar Lady Heron’s Song. O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; And save his good broad-sword he weapons had none, He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,510 There never was knight like the young Lochinvar. He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone; He swam the Eske river where ford there was none; But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate, The bride had consented, the gallant came late:515 For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.



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So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, Among bride’s-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all: Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword,520 (For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,) “O come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?”— “I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;— Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide—525 And now am I come, with this lost love of mine, To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far, That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.” The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,530 He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup. She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye. He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,— “Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar.535 So stately his form, and so lovely her face, That never a hall such a galliard did grace; While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; And the bride-maidens whispered, “’Twere better by far540 To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.” One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near; So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her he sprung!545 “She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,” quoth young Lochinvar. There was mounting ’mong Græmes of the Netherby clan; Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:

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There was racing, and chasing, on Cannobie Lee,550 But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see. So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar? XIII. The Monarch o’er the syren hung, And beat the measure as she sung;555 And, pressing closer, and more near, He whispered praises in her ear. In loud applause the courtiers vied; And ladies winked, and spoke aside.   The witching dame to Marmion threw560    A glance, where seemed to reign   The pride that claims applauses due,   And of her royal conquest, too,    A real or feigned disdain:   Familiar was the look, and told,565   Marmion and she were friends of old. The King observed their meeting eyes With something like displeased surprise; For monarchs ill can rivals brook, Even in a word, or smile, or look.570 Strait took he forth the parchment broad, Which Marmion’s high commission showed: “Our Borders sacked by many a raid, Our peaceful liege-men robbed,” he said; “On day of truce our Warden slain,575 Stout Barton killed, his vessels ta’en— Unworthy were we here to reign, Should these for vengeance cry in vain; Our full defiance, hate, and scorn, Our herald has to Henry borne.”—580 XIV. He paused, and led where Douglas stood, And with stern eye the pageant viewed:



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  I mean that Douglas, fifth of yore,   Who coronet of Angus bore,   And, when his blood and heart were high,585   Did the third James in camp defy,   And all his minions led to die    On Lauder’s dreary flat:   Princes and favourites long grew tame,   And trembled at the homely name590    Of Archibald Bell-the-Cat.   The same who left the dusky vale   Of Hermitage in Liddisdale,    Its dungeons, and its towers,   Where Bothwell’s turrets brave the air,595   And Bothwell bank is blooming fair,    To fix his princely bowers.   Though now, in age, he had laid down   His armour for the peaceful gown,    And for a staff his brand,600   Yet often would flash forth the fire,   That could, in youth, a monarch’s ire    And minion’s pride withstand;   And even that day, at council board,    Unapt to sooth his sovereign’s mood,605    Against the war had Angus stood,   And chafed his royal Lord. XV. His giant-form, like ruined tower,   Though fallen its muscles’ brawny vaunt,   Huge-boned, and tall, and grim, and gaunt,610 Seemed o’er the gaudy scene to lower: His locks and beard in silver grew; His eye-brows kept their sable hue. Near Douglas when the Monarch stood, His bitter speech he thus pursued:—615 “Lord Marmion, since these letters say That in the North you needs must stay,

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  While slightest hopes of peace remain, Uncourteous speech it were, and stern, To say—Return to Lindisfarn,620   Until my herald come again.— Then rest you in Tantallon Hold; Your host shall be the Douglas bold,— A chief unlike his sires of old. He wears their motto on his blade,625 Their blazon o’er his towers displayed; Yet loves his sovereign to oppose, More than to face his country’s foes. And, I bethink me, by Saint Stephen, But e’en this morn to me was given630   A prize, the first fruits of the war,   Ta’en by a galley from Dunbar, A bevy of the maids of heaven. Under your guard, these holy maids Shall safe return to cloister shades,635 And, while they at Tantallon stay, Requiem for Cochran’s soul may say.”— And, with the slaughtered favourite’s name, Across the Monarch’s brow there came A cloud of ire, remorse, and shame.640 XVI. In answer nought could Angus speak; His proud heart swelled well nigh to break: He turned aside, and down his cheek   A burning tear there stole. His hand the Monarch sudden took,645 That sight his kind heart could not brook:   “Now, by the Bruce’s soul, Angus, my hasty speech forgive! For sure as doth his spirit live, As he said of the Douglas old,650   I well may say of you,—



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That never king did subject hold, In speech more free, in war more bold,   More tender, and more true:* Forgive me, Douglas, once again.”—655 And, while the King his hand did strain, The old man’s tears fell down like rain. To seize the moment Marmion tried, And whispered to the King aside:— “Oh! let such tears unwonted plead660 For respite short from dubious deed! A child will weep a bramble’s smart, A maid to see her sparrow part, A stripling for a woman’s heart: But woe awaits a country, when665 She sees the tears of bearded men. Then, oh! what omen, dark and high, When Douglas wets his manly eye!”— XVII. Displeased was James, that stranger viewed And tampered with his changing mood.670 “Laugh those that can, weep those that may,” Thus did the fiery Monarch say, “Southward I march by break of day; And if within Tantallon strong, The good Lord Marmion tarries long,675 Perchance our meeting next may fall At Tamworth, in his castle-hall.”— The haughty Marmion felt the taunt, And answered, grave, the royal vaunt: “Much honoured were my humble home,680 If in its halls King James should come; But Nottingham has archers good, And Yorkshire men are stern of mood; *

O, D  owglas! Dowglas!   Tendir and trew. The Houlate.

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Northumbrian prickers wild and rude. On Derby hills the paths are steep;685 In Ouse and Tyne the fords are deep; And many a banner will be torn, And many a knight to earth be borne, And many a sheaf of arrows spent, Ere Scotland’s King shall cross the Trent:690 Yet pause, brave Prince, while yet you may.”— The Monarch lightly turned away, And to his nobles loud did call,— “Lords, to the dance,—a hall! a hall!”* Himself his cloak and sword flung by,695 And led Dame Heron gallantly; And minstrels, at the royal order, Rung out—“Blue Bonnets o’er the Border.” XVIII. Leave we these revels now, to tell What to Saint Hilda’s maids befel,700 Whose galley, as they sailed again To Whitby, by a Scot was ta’en. Now at Dun-Edin did they bide, Till James should of their fate decide;   And soon, by his command,705 Were gently summoned to prepare To journey under Marmion’s care, As escort honoured, safe, and fair,   Again to English land. The Abbess told her chaplet o’er,710 Nor knew which Saint she should implore; For, when she thought of Constance, sore   She feared Lord Marmion’s mood. And judge what Clara must have felt! The sword, that hung in Marmion’s belt,715   Had drunk De Wilton’s blood. *

The ancient cry to make room for a dance, or pageant.



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And he aspired to grasp her land By wresting her unwilling hand. Unwittingly, King James had given,   As guard to Whitby’s shades,720 The man most dreaded under heaven   By these defenceless maids; Yet what petition could avail, Or who would listen to the tale Of woman, prisoner and nun,725 Mid bustle of a war begun? They deemed it hopeless to avoid The convoy of their dangerous guide. XIX. Their lodging, so the King assigned, To Marmion’s, as their guardian, joined;730 And thus it fell, that, passing nigh, The Palmer caught the Abbess’ eye,   Who warned him by a scroll, She had a secret to reveal, That much concerned the Church’s weal,735   And health of sinners’ soul; And, with deep charge of secrecy,   She named a place to meet, Within an open balcony, That hung from dizzy pitch, and high,740   Above the stately street; To which, as common to each home, At night they might in secret come. XX. At night, in secret, there they came, The Palmer and the holy dame.745 The moon among the clouds rode high, And all the city hum was by.

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  Upon the street, where late before   Did din of war and warriors roar,    You might have heard a pebble fall,750   A beetle hum, a cricket sing,   An owlet flap his boding wing    On Giles’s steeple tall. The antique buildings, climbing high, Whose Gothic frontlets sought the sky,755   Were here wrapt deep in shade; There on their brows the moon-beam broke, Through the faint wreaths of silvery smoke,   And on the casements played. And other light was none to see,760   Save torches gliding far, Before some chieftain of degree, Who left the royal revelry   To bowne him for the war.— A solemn scene the Abbess chose;765 A solemn hour, her secret to disclose. XXI. “O, holy Palmer!” she began,— “For sure he must be sainted man, Whose blessed feet have trod the ground Where the Redeemer’s tomb is found;—770 For his dear Church’s sake, my tale Attend, nor deem of light avail, Though I must speak of worldly love,— How vain to those who wed above!— De Wilton and Lord Marmion wooed775 Clara de Clare, of Gloster’s blood; (Idle it were of Whitby’s dame, To say of that same blood I came;) And once, when jealous rage was high, Lord Marmion said despiteously,780



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Wilton was traitor in his heart, And had made league with Martin Swart,* When he came here on Simnel’s part; And only cowardice did restrain His rebel aid on Stokefield’s plain,—785 And down he threw his glove:—the thing Was tried, as wont, before the King; Where frankly did De Wilton own, That Swart in Guelders he had known; And that between them then there went790 Some scroll of courteous compliment. For this he to his castle sent; But when his messenger returned, Judge how De Wilton’s fury burned! For in his packet there were laid795 Letters that claimed disloyal aid, And proved King Henry’s cause betrayed. His fame, thus blighted, in the field He strove to clear, by spear and shield;— To clear his fame in vain he strove,800 For wonderous are His ways above! Perchance some form was unobserved; Perchance in prayer, or faith, he swerved; Else how could guiltless champion quail, Or how the blessed ordeal fail?805 XXII. “His squire, who now De Wilton saw As recreant doomed to suffer law,   Repentant, owned in vain, That, while he had the scrolls in care, A stranger maiden, passing fair,810 Had drenched him with a beverage rare;— * A German general, who commanded the auxiliaries sent by the Duchess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel. He was defeated and killed at Stokefield.

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  His words no faith could gain. With Clare alone he credence won, Who, rather than wed Marmion, Did to Saint Hilda’s shrine repair,815 To give our house her livings fair, And die a vestal vot’ress there. The impulse from the earth was given, But bent her to the paths of heaven. A purer heart, a lovelier maid,820 Ne’er sheltered her in Whitby’s shade, No, not since Saxon Edelfled;   Only one trace of earthly strain,    That for her lover’s loss   She cherishes a sorrow vain,825    And murmurs at the cross.— And then her heritage;—it goes   Along the banks of Tame; Deep fields of grain the reaper mows, In meadows rich the heifer lows,830 The falconer, and huntsman, knows   Its woodlands for the game. Shame were it to Saint Hilda dear, And I her humble vot’ress here,   Should do a deadly sin,835 Her temple spoiled before mine eyes, If this false Marmion such a prize   By my consent should win; Yet hath our boisterous Monarch sworn, That Clare shall from our house be torn;840 And grievous cause have I to fear, Such mandate doth Lord Marmion bear. XXIII. “Now, prisoner, helpless, and betrayed To evil power, I claim thine aid,   By every step that thou hast trod845



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To holy shrine and grotto dim, By every martyr’s tortured limb, By angel, saint, and seraphim,   And by the Church of God! For mark:—When Wilton was betrayed,850 And with his squire forged letters laid, She was, alas! that sinful maid,   By whom the deed was done,— O! shame and horror to be said!—   She was a perjured nun:855 No clerk in all the land, like her, Traced quaint and varying character.   Perchance you may a marvel deem,    That Marmion’s paramour,   (For such vile thing she was,) should scheme860    Her lover’s nuptial hour;   But o’er him thus she hoped to gain,   As privy to his honour’s stain,   Illimitable power:   For this she secretly retained865    Each proof that might the plot reveal,    Instructions with his hand and seal;   And thus Saint Hilda deigned,    Through sinner’s perfidy impure,    Her house’s glory to secure,870   And Clare’s immortal weal. XXIV. “’Twere long, and needless, here to tell, How to my hand these papers fell;   With me they must not stay. Saint Hilda keep her Abbess true!875 Who knows what outrage he might do,   While journeying by the way?— O blessed Saint, if e’er again I venturous leave thy calm domain, To travel or by land or main,880

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  Deep penance may I pay!— Now, saintly Palmer, mark my prayer: I give this packet to thy care, For thee to stop they will not dare;   And O! with cautious speed,885 To Wolsey’s hand the papers bring, That he may shew them to the King;   And, for thy well-earned meed, Thou holy man, at Whitby’s shrine A weekly mass shall still be thine,890   While priests can sing and read.— What ail’st thou?—Speak!”—For as he took Her charge, a strong emotion shook   His frame; and, ere reply, They heard a faint, yet shrilly tone,895 Like distant clarion feebly blown,   That on the breeze did die; And loud the Abbess shrieked in fear, “Saint Withold save us!—What is here!   Look at the city cross!900 See on its battled tower appear Phantoms, that scutcheons seem to rear,   And blazoned banners toss!”— XXV. Dun-Edin’s cross, a pillar’d stone, Rose on a turret octagon;905   (But now is razed that monument,    Whence royal edict rang,   And voice of Scotland’s law was sent    In glorious trumpet clang. O! be his tomb as lead to lead,910 Upon its dull destroyer’s head!— A minstrel’s malison* is said.—) *

i.e. Curse.



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Then on its battlements they saw A vision, passing Nature’s law,   Strange, wild, and dimly seen;915 Figures that seemed to rise and die, Gibber and sign, advance and fly, While nought confirmed could ear or eye   Discern of sound or mien. Yet darkly did it seem, as there920 Heralds and Pursuivants prepare, With trumpet sound, and blazon fair,   King’s summons to proclaim; But indistinct the pageant proud, As fancy forms of midnight cloud,925 When flings the moon upon her shroud   A wavering tinge of flame; It flits, expands, and shifts, till loud, From midmost of the spectre crowd,   This awful summons came:—930 XXVI. “Prince, prelate, potentate, and peer,   Whose names I now shall call, Scottish, or foreigner, give ear! Subjects of him who sent me here, At his tribunal to appear,935   I summon one and all: I cite you by each deadly sin, That e’er hath soiled your hearts within; I cite you by each brutal lust, That e’er defiled your earthly dust,—940   By wrath, by pride, by fear, By each o’er-mastering passion’s tone, By the dark grave, and dying groan! When forty days are past and gone, I cite you, at your Monarch’s throne,945   To answer and appear.”—

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Then thundered forth a roll of names:— The first was thine, unhappy James!   Then all thy nobles came; Crawford, Glencairn, Montrose, Argyle,950 Ross, Bothwell, Forbes, Lennox, Lyle,— Why should I tell their separate style?   Each chief of birth and fame, Of Lowland, Highland, Border, Isle, Fore-doomed to Flodden’s carnage pile,955   Was cited there by name; And Marmion, Lord of Fontenaye, Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbay, De Wilton, erst of Aberley, The self-same thundering voice did say.—960   But then another spoke: “Thy fatal summons I deny, And thine infernal lord defy, Appealing me to Him on High,   Who burst the sinner’s yoke.”—965 At that dread accent, with a scream, Parted the pageant like a dream,   The summoner was gone. Prone on her face the Abbess fell, And fast, and fast, her beads did tell;970 Her nuns came, startled by the yell,   And found her there alone. She marked not, at the scene aghast, What time, or how, the Palmer passed. XXVII. Shift we the scene.—The camp doth move,975   Dun-Edin’s streets are empty now, Save when, for weal of those they love,   To pray the prayer, and vow the vow, The tottering child, the anxious fair, The grey-haired sire, with pious care,980



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To chapels and to shrines repair.— Where is the Palmer now? and where The Abbess, Marmion, and Clare?— Bold Douglas! to Tantallon fair   They journey in thy charge:985 Lord Marmion rode on his right hand, The Palmer still was with the band; Angus, like Lindesay, did command,   That none should roam at large. But in that Palmer’s altered mien990 A wonderous change might now be seen;   Freely he spoke of war, Of marvels wrought by single hand, When lifted for a native land; And still looked high, as if he planned995   Some desperate deed afar. His courser would he feed and stroke, And, tucking up his sable frock, Would first his metal bold provoke,   Then soothe or quell his pride.1000 Old Hubert said, that never one He saw, except Lord Marmion,   A steed so fairly ride. XXVIII. Some half-hour’s march behind, there came,   By Eustace governed fair,1005 A troop escorting Hilda’s Dame,   With all her nuns, and Clare. No audience had Lord Marmion sought;   Ever he feared to aggravate   Clara de Clare’s suspicious hate;1010 And safer ’twas, he thought,   To wait till, from the nuns removed,   The influence of kinsmen loved,   And suit by Henry’s self approved,

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Her slow consent had wrought.1015   His was no flickering flame, that dies   Unless when fanned by looks and sighs,   And lighted oft at lady’s eyes;   He longed to stretch his wide command   O’er luckless Clara’s ample land:1020   Besides, when Wilton with him vied,   Although the pang of humbled pride   The place of jealousy supplied, Yet conquest by that meanness won, He almost loathed to think upon,1025 Led him, at times, to hate the cause, Which made him burst through honour’s laws. If e’er he loved, ’twas her alone, Who died within that vault of stone. XXIX. And now, when close at hand they saw1030 North Berwick’s town, and conic Law, Fitz-Eustace bade them pause a while, Before a venerable pile,   Whose turrets viewed afar, The lofty Bass, the Lambie Isle,1035   The ocean’s peace or war. At tolling of a bell, forth came The convent’s venerable Dame, And prayed Saint Hilda’s Abbess rest With her, a loved and honoured guest,1040 Till Douglas should a bark prepare, To waft her back to Whitby fair. Glad was the Abbess, you may guess, And thanked the Scottish Prioress; And tedious were to tell, I ween,1045 The courteous speech that passed between.   O’erjoyed the nuns their palfreys leave;    But when fair Clara did intend,    Like them, from horse-back to descend,



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  Fitz-Eustace said,—“I grieve,1050   Fair lady, grieve e’en from my heart,   Such gentle company to part.—    Think not discourtesy,   But lords’ commands must be obeyed;   And Marmion and the Douglas said,1055    That you must wend with me. Lord Marmion hath a letter broad, Which to the Scottish Earl he shewed, Commanding, that, beneath his care, Without delay, you shall repair,1060 To your good kinsman, Lord Fitz-Clare.”— XXX. The startled Abbess loud exclaimed; But she, at whom the blow was aimed, Grew pale as death, and cold as lead,— She deemed she heard her death-doom read.1065 “Cheer thee, my child!” the Abbess said, “They dare not tear thee from my hand, To ride alone with armed band.”—   “Nay, holy mother, nay,” Fitz-Eustace said, “the lovely Clare1070 Will be in Lady Angus’ care,   In Scotland while we stay; And, when we move, an easy ride Will bring us to the English side, Female attendance to provide1075   Befitting Gloster’s heir; Nor thinks, nor dreams, my noble lord, By slightest look, or act, or word,   To harass Lady Clare. Her faithful guardian he will be,1080 Nor sue for slightest courtesy   That e’en to stranger falls, Till he shall place her, safe and free,   Within her kinsman’s halls.”—

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He spoke, and blushed with earnest grace;1085 His faith was painted on his face,   And Clare’s worst fear relieved. The Lady Abbess loud exclaimed On Henry, and the Douglas blamed,   Entreated, threatened, grieved;1090 To martyr, saint, and prophet prayed, Against Lord Marmion inveighed, And called the Prioress to aid, To curse with candle, bell, and book,— Her head the grave Cistertian shook:1095 “The Douglas, and the King,” she said, “In their commands will be obeyed; Grieve not, nor dream that harm can fall The maiden in Tantallon hall.”— XXXI. The Abbess, seeing strife was vain,1100 Assumed her wonted state again,—   For much of state she had,— Composed her veil, and raised her head, And—“Bid,” in solemn voice she said,   “Thy master, bold and bad,1105 The records of his house turn o’er,   And, when he there shall written see,   That one of his own ancestry   Drove the Monks forth from Coventry, Bid him his fate explore!1110   Prancing in pride of earthly trust,   His charger hurled him to the dust,   And, by a base plebeian thrust, He died his band before.   God judge ’twixt Marmion and me;1115   He is a chief of high degree, And I a poor recluse;   Yet oft, in holy writ, we see   Even such weak minister as me



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May the oppressor bruise:1120   For thus, inspired, did Judith slay    The mighty in his sin,   And Jael thus, and Deborah,”—    Here hasty Blount broke in: “Fitz-Eustace, we must march our band;1125 St Anton’ fire thee! wilt thou stand All day, with bonnet in thy hand,   To hear the lady preach? By this good light! if thus we stay, Lord Marmion, for our fond delay,1130   Will sharper sermon teach. Come, d’on thy cap, and mount thy horse; The Dame must patience take perforce.”— XXXII. “Submit we then to force,” said Clare; “But let this barbarous lord despair1135   His purposed aim to win; Let him take living, land, and life; But to be Marmion’s wedded wife   In me were deadly sin: And though it be the King’s decree,1140 That I must find no sanctuary, In that inviolable dome Where even a homicide might come,   And safely rest his head, Though at its open portals stood,1145 Thirsting to pour forth blood for blood,   The kinsmen of the dead; Yet one asylum is my own,   Against the dreaded hour; A low, a silent, and a lone,1150   Where kings have little power. One victim is before me there.— Mother, your blessing, and in prayer

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Remember your unhappy Clare!”— Loud weeps the Abbess, and bestows1155   Kind blessings many a one; Weeping and wailing loud arose Round patient Clare, the clamorous woes   Of every simple nun. His eyes the gentle Eustace dried,1160 And scarce rude Blount the sight could bide.   Then took the squire her rein, And gently led away her steed, And, by each courteous word and deed,   To cheer her strove in vain.1165 XXXIII. But scant three miles the band had rode,   When o’er a height they passed, And, sudden, close before them showed   His towers, Tantallon vast; Broad, massive, high, and stretching far,1170 And held impregnable in war. On a projecting rock they rose, And round three sides the ocean flows; The fourth did battled walls inclose,   And double mound and fosse.1175 By narrow draw-bridge, outworks strong, Through studded gates, an entrance long,   To the main court they cross. It was a wide and stately square: Around were lodgings, fit and fair,1180   And towers of various form, Which on the court projected far, And broke its lines quadrangular. Here was square keep, there turret high, Or pinnacle that sought the sky,1185 Whence oft the warder could descry   The gathering ocean-storm.



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XXXIV. Here did they rest.—The princely care Of Douglas, why should I declare, Or say they met reception fair?1190   Or why the tidings say, Which, varying, to Tantallon came, By hurrying posts, or fleeter fame,   With every varying day? And, first, they heard King James had won1195   Etall, and Wark, and Ford; and then,   That Norham’s castle strong was ta’en. At that sore marvelled Marmion;— And Douglas hoped his Monarch’s hand Would soon subdue Northumberland:1200   But whispered news there came, That, while his host inactive lay, And melted by degrees away, King James was dallying off the day   With Heron’s wily dame.—1205 Such acts to chronicles I yield;   Go seek them there, and see: Mine is a tale of Flodden Field,   And not a history.— At length they heard the Scottish host1210 On that high ridge had made their post,   Which frowns o’er Millfield Plain; And that brave Surrey many a band Had gathered in the Southern land, And marched into Northumberland,1215   And camp at Wooler ta’en. Marmion, like charger in the stall, That hears, without, the trumpet-call,   Began to chafe, and swear:— “A sorry thing to hide my head1220 In castle, like a fearful maid,   When such a field is near!

Needs must I see this battle-day: Death to my fame, if such a fray Be fought, and Marmion away!1225   The Douglas, too, I wot not why,   Hath ’bated of his courtesy: No longer in his halls I’ll stay.”— Then bade his band, they should array For march against the dawning day.1230 end of canto fifth.

MARMION Introduction to Canto Sixth TO

RICHARD HEBER, Esq. Mertoun-House, Christmas. Heap on more wood!—the wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, We’ll keep our Christmas merry still. Each age has deemed the new-born year The fittest time for festal cheer:5 Even heathen yet, the savage Dane At Iol more deep the mead did drain; High on the beach his galleys drew, And feasted all his pirate crew; Then in his low and pine-built hall,10 Where shields and axes decked the wall, They gorged upon the half-dressed steer; Caroused in seas of sable beer; While round, in brutal jest, were thrown The half-gnawed rib, and marrow-bone;15 Or listened all, in grim delight, While scalds yelled out the joys of fight. Then forth, in frenzy, would they hie, And wildly loose their red locks fly, And dancing round the blazing pile,20 They make such barbarous mirth the while, As best might to the mind recal The boisterous joys of Odin’s hall.

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  And well our Christian sires of old Loved when the year its course had rolled,25 And brought blithe Christmas back again, With all his hospitable train. Domestic and religious rite Gave honour to the holy night: On Christmas Eve the bells were rung;30 On Christmas Eve the mass was sung; That only night, in all the year, Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear. The damsel donned her kirtle sheen; The hall was dressed with holly green;35 And forth did merry woods-men go, To gather in the misletoe. Then opened wide the baron’s hall To vassal, tenant, serf, and all; Power laid his rod of rule aside,40 And Ceremony doffed his pride. The heir, with roses on his shoes, That night might village partner chuse; The lord, underogating, share The vulgar game of “post and pair.”45 All hailed, with uncontrolled delight, And general voice, the happy night, That to the cottage, as the crown, Brought tidings of salvation down.   The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,50 Went roaring up the chimney wide; The huge hall-table’s oaken face, Scrubbed till it shone the day to grace, Bore then upon its massive board No mark to part the squire and lord.55 Then was brought in the lusty brawn, By old blue-coated serving-man; Then the grim boar’s-head frowned on high, Crested with bays and rosemary.



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Well can the green-garbed ranger tell,60 How, when, and where, the monster fell; What dogs before his death he tore, And all the baiting of the boar. The wassel round, in good brown bowls, Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.65 There the huge sirloin reeked; hard by Plumb-porridge stood, and Christmas pye; Nor failed old Scotland to produce, At such high tide, her savoury goose. Then came the merry masquers in,70 And carols roared with blithesome din; If unmelodious was the song, It was a hearty note, and strong. Who lists may in their mumming see Traces of ancient mystery;75 White shirts supplied the masquerade, And smutted cheeks the visors made; But, O! what masquers, richly dight, Can boast of bosoms half so light! England was merry England, when80 Old Christmas brought his sports again. ’Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale; ’Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man’s heart through half the year.85   Still linger, in our northern clime, Some remnants of the good old time; And still, within our vallies here, We hold the kindred title dear, Even when, perchance, its far-fetched claim90 To Southron ear sounds empty name; For course of blood, our proverbs deem, Is warmer than the mountain-stream.* *

“Blood is warmer than water,”—a proverb meant to vindicate our family predilections.

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And thus, my Christmas still I hold Where my great-grandsire came of old,95 With amber beard, and flaxen hair, And reverend apostolic air— The feast and holy-tide to share, And mix sobriety with wine, And honest mirth with thoughts divine:100 Small thought was his, in after time E’er to be hitched into a rhyme. The simple sire could only boast, That he was loyal to his cost; The banished race of kings revered,105 And lost his land,—but kept his beard.   In these dear halls, where welcome kind Is with fair liberty combined; Where cordial friendship gives the hand, And flies constraint the magic wand110 Of the fair dame that rules the land. Little we heed the tempest drear, While music, mirth, and social cheer, Speed on their wings the passing year. And Mertoun’s halls are fair e’en now,115 When not a leaf is on the bough. Tweed loves them well, and turns again, As loath to leave the sweet domain; And holds his mirror to her face, And clips her with a close embrace:—120 Gladly as he, we seek the dome, And as reluctant turn us home.   How just, that, at this time of glee, My thoughts should, Heber, turn to thee! For many a merry hour we’ve known,125 And heard the chimes of midnight’s tone.



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Cease, then, my friend! a moment cease, And leave these classic tomes in peace! Of Roman and of Grecian lore, Sure mortal brain can hold no more.130 These ancients, as Noll Bluff might say, Were “pretty fellows in their day;”* But time and tide o’er all prevail— On Christmas Eve a Christmas tale— Of wonder and of war—“Profane!135 What! leave the lofty Latian strain, Her stately prose, her verse’s charms, To hear the clash of rusty arms; In fairy land or limbo lost, To jostle conjuror and ghost,140 Goblin and witch!”—Nay, Heber dear, Before you touch my charter, hear; Though Leyden aids, alas! no more, My cause with many-languaged lore, This may I say:—in realms of death145 Ulysses meets Alcides’ wraith; Æneas, upon Thracia’s shore, The ghost of murdered Polydore; For omens, we in Livy cross, At every turn, locutus Bos.150 As grave and duly speaks that ox, As if he told the price of stocks; Or held, in Rome republican, The place of Common-councilman.   All nations have their omens drear,155 Their legends wild of woe and fear. To Cambria look—the peasant see, Bethink him of Glendowerdy, And shun “the spirit’s blasted tree.” *

“Hannibal was a pretty fellow, sir—a very pretty fellow in his day.”—Old Bachelor.

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The Highlander, whose red claymore160 The battle turned on Maida’s shore, Will, on a Friday morn, look pale, If asked to tell a fairy tale: He fears the vengeful Elfin King, Who leaves that day his grassy ring;165 Invisible to human ken, He walks among the sons of men.   Didst e’er, dear Heber, pass along Beneath the towers of Franchémont, Which, like an eagle’s nest in air,170 Hang o’er the stream and hamlet fair?— Deep in their vaults, the peasants say, A mighty treasure buried lay, Amassed through rapine and through wrong By the last lord of Franchémont.175 The iron chest is bolted hard, A huntsman sits, its constant guard; Around his neck his horn is hung, His hanger in his belt is slung; Before his feet his bloodhounds lie:180 An ’twere not for his gloomy eye, Whose withering glance no heart can brook, As true a huntsman doth he look, As bugle e’er in break did sound, Or ever hollowed to a hound.185 To chase the fiend, and win the prize, In that same dungeon ever tries An aged Necromantic Priest; It is an hundred years at least, Since ’twixt them first the strife begun,190 And neither yet has lost or won. And oft the Conjuror’s words will make The stubborn Demon groan and quake; And oft the bands of iron break,



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Or bursts one lock, that still amain,195 Fast as ’tis opened, shuts again. That magic strife within the tomb May last until the day of doom, Unless the Adept shall learn to tell The very word that clenched the spell,200 When Franch’mont locked the treasure cell. An hundred years are past and gone, And scarce three letters has he won.   Such general superstition may Excuse for old Pitscottie say;205 Whose gossip history has given My song the messenger from heaven, That warned, in Lithgow, Scotland’s King, Nor less the infernal summoning; May pass the Monk of Durham’s tale,210 Whose Demon fought in Gothic mail; May pardon plead for Fordun grave, Who told of Gifford’s Goblin-Cave. But why such instances to you, Who, in an instant, can review215 Your treasured hoards of various lore, And furnish twenty-thousands more? Hoards, not like theirs whose volumes rest Like treasures in the Franch’mont chest, While gripple owners still refuse220 To others what they cannot use; Give them the priest’s whole century, They shall not spell you letters three; Their pleasure in the books the same The magpie takes in pilfered gem.225 Thy volumes, open as thy heart, Delight, amusement, science, art, To every ear and eye impart; Yet who, of all who thus employ them, Can, like the owner’s self, enjoy them?—230

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But, hark! I hear the distant drum: The day of Flodden field is come.— Adieu, dear Heber! life and health, And store of literary wealth.

MARMION CANT O S I X T H

The Battle I. While great events were on the gale, And each hour brought a varying tale, And the demeanour, changed and cold, Of Douglas, fretted Marmion bold, And, like the impatient steed of war, He snuffed the battle from afar;240 And hopes were none, that back again Herald should come from Terouenne, Where England’s King in leaguer lay, Before decisive battle-day; While these things were, the mournful Clare245 Did in the Dame’s devotions share: For the good Countess ceaseless prayed, To Heaven and Saints, her sons to aid, And, with short interval, did pass From prayer to book, from book to mass,250 And all in high Baronial pride,— A life both dull and dignified;— Yet as Lord Marmion nothing pressed Upon her intervals of rest, Dejected Clara well could bear255 The formal state, the lengthened prayer, Though dearest to her wounded heart The hours that she might spend apart.

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II. I said, Tantallon’s dizzy steep Hung o’er the margin of the deep.260 Many a rude tower and rampart there Repelled the insults of the air, Which, when the tempest vexed the sky, Half breeze, half spray, came whistling by. Above the rest, a turret square265 Did o’er its Gothic entrance bear, Of sculpture rude, a stony shield; The Bloody Heart was in the field, And in the chief three mullets stood, The cognizance of Douglas blood.270 This turret held a narrow stair, Which, mounted, gave you access where A parapet’s embattled row Did seaward round the castle go; Sometimes in dizzy steps descending,275 Sometimes in narrow circuit bending, Sometimes in platform broad extending, Its varying circle did combine Bulwark, and bartisan, and line, And bastion, tower, and vantage-coign;280 Above the booming ocean leant The far-projecting battlement; The billows burst, in ceaseless flow, Upon the precipice below. Where’er Tantallon faced the land,285 Gate-works, and walls, were strongly manned; No need upon the sea-girt side; The steepy rock, and frantic tide, Approach of human step denied; And thus these lines, and ramparts rude,290 Were left in deepest solitude.



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III. And, for they were so lonely, Clare Would to these battlements repair, And muse upon her sorrows there,   And list the sea-bird’s cry;295 Or slow, like noon-tide ghost, would glide Along the dark-grey bulwarks’ side, And ever on the heaving tide   Look down with weary eye. Oft did the cliff, and swelling main,300 Recal the thoughts of Whitby’s fane,— A home she ne’er might see again;   For she had laid adown, So Douglas bade, the hood and veil, And frontlet of the cloister pale,305   And Benedictine gown: It were unseemly sight, he said, A novice out of convent shade.— Now her bright locks, with sunny glow, Again adorned her brow of snow;310 Her mantle rich, whose borders, round, A deep and fretted broidery bound, In golden foldings sought the ground; Of holy ornament, alone Remained a cross with ruby stone;315   And often did she look On that which in her hand she bore, With velvet bound, and broidered o’er,   Her breviary book. In such a place, so lone, so grim,320 At dawning pale, or twilight dim,   It fearful would have been, To meet a form so richly dressed, With book in hand, and cross on breast,   And such a woeful mien.325 Fitz-Eustace, loitering with his bow, To practise on the gull and crow,

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Saw her, at distance, gliding slow,   And did by Mary swear,— Some love-lorn Fay she might have been,330 Or, in romance, some spell-bound queen; For ne’er, in work-day world, was seen   A form so witching fair. IV. Once walking thus, at evening tide, It chanced a gliding sail she spied,335 And, sighing, thought—“The Abbess there, Perchance, does to her home repair; Her peaceful rule, where Duty, free, Walks hand in hand with Charity; Where oft Devotion’s tranced glow340 Can such a glimpse of heaven bestow, That the enraptured sisters see High vision, and deep mystery; The very form of Hilda fair,* Hovering upon the sunny air,345 And smiling on her votaries’ prayer. O! wherefore, to my duller eye, Did still the Saint her form deny! Was it, that, seared by sinful scorn, My heart could neither melt nor burn?350 Or lie my warm affections low, With him, that taught them first to glow? Yet, gentle Abbess, well I knew, To pay thy kindness grateful due, And well could brook the mild command,355 That ruled thy simple maiden band.— How different now! condemned to bide My doom from this dark tyrant’s pride.— But Marmion has to learn, ere long, That constant mind, and hate of wrong,360 *

See Note.



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Descended to a feeble girl, From Red De Clare, stout Gloster’s Earl: Of such a stem, a sapling weak, He ne’er shall bend, although he break. V. “But see!—what makes this armour here?”365   For in her path there lay Target, corslet, helm;—she viewed them near.— “The breast-plate pierced!—Aye, much I fear, Weak fence wert thou ’gainst foeman’s spear, That hath made fatal entrance here,370   As these dark blood-gouts say.— Thus Wilton!—Oh! not corslet’s ward, Not truth, as diamond pure and hard, Could be thy manly bosom’s guard,   On yon disastrous day!”—375 She raised her eyes in mournful mood,— Wilton himself before her stood! It might have seemed his passing ghost, For every youthful grace was lost; And joy unwonted, and surprise,380 Gave their strange wildness to his eyes.— Expect not, noble dames and lords, That I can tell such scene in words: What skilful limner e’er would chuse To paint the rainbow’s varying hues,385 Unless to mortal it were given To dip his brush in dyes of heaven?   Far less can my weak line declare    Each changing passion’s shade;   Brightening to rapture from despair,390   Sorrow, surprise, and pity there,   And joy, with her angelic air,   And hope, that paints the future fair,    Their varying hues displayed:

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Each o’er its rival’s ground extending,395 Alternate conquering, shifting, blending, Till all, fatigued, the conflict yield, And mighty Love retains the field. Shortly I tell what then he said, By many a tender word delayed,400 And modest blush, and bursting sigh, And question kind, and fond reply. VI. De Wilton’s History. “Forget we that disastrous day, When senseless in the lists I lay. Thence dragged,—but how I cannot know,405   For sense and recollection fled,— I found me on a pallet low,   Within my ancient beadsman’s shed. Austin,—remember’st thou, my Clare,   How thou didst blush, when the old man,410   When first our infant love began, Said we would make a matchless pair?—   Menials, and friends, and kinsmen fled   From the degraded traitor’s bed,—   He only held my burning head.415   He tended me for many a day,   While wounds and fever held their sway.   But far more needful was his care,   When sense returned to wake despair;    For I did tear the closing wound,420    And dash me frantic on the ground,   If e’er I heard the name of Clare. At length, to calmer reason brought, Much by his kind attendance wrought,   With him I left my native strand,425 And, in a palmer’s weeds arrayed, My hated name and form to shade,   I journeyed many a land;



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No more a lord of rank and birth, But mingled with the dregs of earth.430 Oft Austin for my reason feared,   When I would sit, and deeply brood   On dark revenge, and deeds of blood, Or wild mad schemes upreared. My friend at length fell sick, and said,435   God would remove him soon; And, while upon his dying bed,   He begged of me a boon— If ere my deadliest enemy Beneath my brand should conquered lie,440 Even then my mercy should awake, And spare his life for Austin’s sake. VII. “Still restless as a second Cain, To Scotland next my route was ta’en,   Full well the paths I knew;445 Fame of my fate made various sound, That death in pilgrimage I found, That I had perished of my wound,—   None cared which tale was true: And living eye could never guess450 De Wilton in his palmer’s dress;   For now that sable slough is shed,   And trimmed my shaggy beard and head, I scarcely know me in the glass. A chance most wond’rous did provide,455 That I should be that Baron’s guide—   I will not name his name!— Vengeance to God alone belongs; But, when I think on all my wrongs,   My blood is liquid flame!460 And ne’er the time shall I forget, When, in a Scottish hostel set,   Dark looks we did exchange:

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What were his thoughts I cannot tell; But in my bosom mustered Hell465   Its plans of dark revenge. VIII. “A word of vulgar augury, That broke from me, I scarce knew why,   Brought on a village tale; Which wrought upon his moody sprite,470 And sent him armed forth by night.   I borrowed steed and mail, And weapons, from his sleeping band;   And, passing from a postern door, We met, and ’countered, hand to hand,—475   He fell on Gifford-moor. For the death-stroke my brand I drew, (O then my helmed head he knew,   The palmer’s cowl was gone,) Then had three inches of my blade480 The heavy debt of vengeance paid,— My hand the thought of Austin staid;   I left him there alone.— O, good old man! even from the grave, Thy spirit could De Wilton save:485 If I had slain my foeman, ne’er Had Whitby’s Abbess, in her fear, Given to my hand this packet dear, Of power to clear my injured fame, And vindicate De Wilton’s name.—490 Perchance you heard the Abbess tell Of the strange pageantry of Hell,   That broke our secret speech— It rose from the infernal shade, Or featly was some juggle played,495   A tale of peace to teach. Appeal to Heaven I judged was best, When my name came among the rest.



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IX. “Now here, within Tantallon Hold, To Douglas late my tale I told,500 To whom my house was known of old. Won by my proofs, his faulchion bright This eve anew shall dub me knight. These were the arms that once did turn The tide of fight on Otterburne,505 And Harry Hotspur forced to yield, When the Dead Douglas won the field. These Angus gave—his armourer’s care, Ere morn, shall every breach repair; For nought, he said, was in his halls,510 But ancient armour on the walls, And aged chargers in the stalls, And women, priests, and grey-haired men; The rest were all in Twisel glen.* And now I watch my armour here,515 By law of arms, till midnight’s near; Then, once again a belted knight, Seek Surrey’s camp with dawn of light. X. “There soon again we meet, my Clare! This Baron means to guide thee there:520 Douglas reveres his King’s command, Else would he take thee from his band. And there thy kinsman, Surrey, too, Will give De Wilton justice due. Now meeter far for martial broil,525 Firmer my limbs, and strung by toil,   Once more”——“O, Wilton! must we then   Risk new-found happiness again,   Trust fate of arms once more? And is there not a humble glen,530 *

Where James encamped before taking post on Flodden.

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  Where we, content and poor, Might build a cottage in the shade, A shepherd thou, and I to aid   Thy task on dale and moor?— That reddening brow!—too well I know,535 Not even thy Clare can peace bestow,   While falsehood stains thy name: Go then to fight! Clare bids thee go! Clare can a warrior’s feelings know,   And weep a warrior’s shame;540 Can Red Earl Gilbert’s spirit feel, Buckle the spurs upon thy heel, And belt thee with thy brand of steel,   And send thee forth to fame!”— XI. That night, upon the rocks and bay,545 The midnight moon-beam slumbering lay, And poured its silver light, and pure, Through loop-hole, and through embrazure,   Upon Tantallon tower and hall; But chief where arched windows wide550 Illuminate the chapel’s pride,   The sober glances fall. Much was there need; though, seamed with scars, Two veterans of the Douglas’ wars,   Though two grey priests were there,555 And each a blazing torch held high, You could not by their blaze descry   The chapel’s carving fair. Amid that dim and smoky light, Chequering the silvery moon-shine bright,560   A Bishop by the altar stood,   A noble lord of Douglas blood, With mitre sheen, and rocquet white.   Yet shewed his meek and thoughtful eye   But little pride of prelacy;565



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  More pleased that, in a barbarous age,   He gave rude Scotland Virgil’s page, Than that beneath his rule he held The bishopric of fair Dunkeld. Beside him ancient Angus stood,570 Doffed his furred gown, and sable hood: O’er his huge form, and visage pale, He wore a shirt and cap of mail; And leaned his large and wrinkled hand Upon the huge and sweeping brand,575 Which wont, of yore, in battle fray, His foeman’s limbs to shred away, As wood-knife lops the sapling spray. He seemed as, from the tombs around   Rising at judgment-day,580 Some giant Douglas may be found   In all his old array; So pale his face, so huge his limb, So old his arms, his look so grim. XII. Then at the altar Wilton kneels,585 And Clare the spurs binds on his heels; And think what next he must have felt, At buckling of the faulchion belt!   And judge how Clara changed her hue, While fastening to her lover’s side590 A friend, which, though in danger tried,   He once had found untrue! Then Douglas struck him with his blade: “Saint Michael and Saint Andrew aid,   I dub thee knight.595 Arise Sir Ralph, De Wilton’s heir! For King, for Church, for Lady fair,   See that thou fight.”— And Bishop Gawain, as he rose, Said,—“Wilton! grieve not for thy woes,600

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  Disgrace, and trouble; For He, who honour best bestows,   May give thee double.”— De Wilton sobbed, for sob he must— “Where’er I meet a Douglas, trust605   That Douglas is my brother!”— “Nay, nay,” old Angus said, “not so; To Surrey’s camp thou now must go,   Thy wrongs no longer smother. I have two sons in yonder field;610 And, if thou meet’st them under shield, Upon them bravely—do thy worst; And foul fall him that blenches first!”— XIII. Not far advanced was morning day, When Marmion did his troop array615   To Surrey’s camp to ride; He had safe conduct for his band, Beneath the royal seal and hand,   And Douglas gave a guide: The ancient Earl, with stately grace,620 Would Clara on her palfrey place, And whispered, in an under tone, “Let the hawk stoop, his prey is flown.” The train from out the castle drew; But Marmion stopped to bid adieu:—625   “Though something I might plain,” he said,    “Of cold respect to stranger guest,    Sent hither by your King’s behest,   While in Tantallon’s towers I staid;   Part we in friendship from your land,630   And, noble Earl, receive my hand.”— But Douglas round him drew his cloak, Folded his arms, and thus he spoke:—   “My manors, halls, and bowers, shall still   Be open, at my sovereign’s will,635



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To each one whom he lists, howe’er Unmeet to be the owner’s peer. My castles are my king’s alone, From turret to foundation-stone— The hand of Douglas is his own;640 And never shall in friendly grasp The hand of such as Marmion clasp.”—

XIV. Burned Marmion’s swarthy cheek like fire, And shook his very frame for ire,   And—“This to me?” he said,—645 “An ’twere not for thy hoary beard, Such hand as Marmion’s had not spared   To cleave the Douglas’ head! And, first, I tell thee, haughty Peer, He, who does England’s message here,650 Although the meanest in her state, May well, proud Angus, be thy mate: And, Douglas, more I tell thee here,   Even in thy pitch of pride, Here in thy hold, thy vassals near,655 (Nay, never look upon your lord, And lay your hands upon your sword,)   I tell thee, thou’rt defied! And if thou said’st, I am not peer To any lord in Scotland here,660 Lowland or Highland, far or near,   Lord Angus, thou hast lied!”— On the Earl’s cheek the flush of rage O’ercame the ashen hue of age: Fierce he broke forth:—“And dar’st thou then665 To beard the lion in his den,   The Douglas in his hall? And hop’st thou hence unscathed to go?— No, by Saint Bryde of Bothwell, no!— Up drawbridge, grooms—what, Warder, ho!670

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  Let the portcullis fall.”— Lord Marmion turned,—well was his need, And dashed the rowels in his steed, Like arrow through the arch-way sprung, The ponderous grate behind him rung:675 To pass there was such scanty room, The bars, descending, razed his plume. XV. The steed along the drawbridge flies, Just as it trembled on the rise; Not lighter does the swallow skim680 Along the smooth lake’s level brim: And when Lord Marmion reached his band, He halts, and turns with clenched hand, And shout of loud defiance pours, And shook his gauntlet at the towers.685 “Horse! horse!” the Douglas cried, “and chase!” But soon he reined his fury’s pace: “A royal messenger he came, Though most unworthy of the name.— A letter forged! Saint Jude to speed!690 Did ever knight so foul a deed! At first in heart it liked me ill, When the King praised his clerkly skill. Thanks to Saint Bothan, son of mine, Save Gawain, ne’er could pen a line:695 So swore I, and I swear it still, Let my boy-bishop fret his fill.— Saint Mary mend my fiery mood! Old age ne’er cools the Douglas blood, I thought to slay him where he stood.700 ’Tis pity of him, too,” he cried; “Bold can he speak, and fairly ride: I warrant him a warrior tried.”— With this his mandate he recals, And slowly seeks his castle halls.705



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XVI. The day in Marmion’s journey wore; Yet, ere his passion’s gust was o’er, They crossed the heights of Stanrig-moor. His troop more closely there he scann’d, And missed the Palmer from the band.—710 “Palmer or not,” young Blount did say, “He parted at the peep of day; Good sooth it was in strange array.”— “In what array?” said Marmion, quick. “My lord, I ill can spell the trick;715 But all night long, with clink and bang, Close to my couch did hammers clang; At dawn the falling drawbridge rang, And from a loop-hole while I peep, Old Bell-the-Cat came from the Keep,720 Wrapped in a gown of sables fair, As fearful of the morning air; Beneath, when that was blown aside, The rusty shirt of mail I spied, By Archibald won in bloody work,725 Against the Saracen and Turk: Last night it hung not in the hall; I thought some marvel would befal. And next I saw them saddled lead Old Cheviot forth, the Earl’s best steed;730 A matchless horse, though something old, Prompt to his paces, cool and bold. I heard the Sheriff Sholto say, The Earl did much the Master* pray To use him on the battle day;735 But he preferred”—“Nay, Henry, cease! Thou sworn horse-courser, hold thy peace.— Eustace, thou bear’st a brain—I pray, What did Blount see at break of day?”— *

His eldest son, the Master of Angus.

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XVII. “In brief, my lord, we both descried740 (For I then stood by Henry’s side) The Palmer mount, and outwards ride,   Upon the Earl’s own favourite steed; All sheathed he was in armour bright, And much resembled that same knight,745 Subdued by you in Cotswold fight:   Lord Angus wished him speed.”— The instant that Fitz-Eustace spoke, A sudden light on Marmion broke;— “Ah! dastard fool, to reason lost!”750 He muttered; “’Twas nor fay nor ghost, I met upon the moonlight wold, But living man of earthly mould.—   O dotage blind and gross! Had I but fought as wont, one thrust755 Had laid De Wilton in the dust,   My path no more to cross.— How stand we now?—he told his tale To Douglas; and with some avail;   ’Twas therefore gloomed his rugged brow.—760 Will Surrey dare to entertain, ’Gainst Marmion, charge disproved and vain?   Small risk of that, I trow.— Yet Clare’s sharp questions must I shun; Must separate Constance from the Nun—765 O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!— A Palmer too!—no wonder why I felt rebuked beneath his eye: I might have known there was but one,770 Whose look could quell Lord Marmion.”— XVIII. Stung with these thoughts, he urged to speed His troop, and reached, at eve, the Tweed,



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Where Lennel’s convent closed their march: (There now is left but one frail arch,775   Yet mourn thou not its cells; Our time a fair exchange has made; Hard by, in hospitable shade,   A reverend pilgrim dwells, Well worth the whole Bernardine brood,780 That e’er wore sandal, frock, or hood.) Yet did Saint Bernard’s Abbot there Give Marmion entertainment fair, And lodging for his train and Clare. Next morn the Baron climbed the tower,785 To view afar the Scottish power,   Encamped on Flodden edge: The white pavilions made a show, Like remnants of the winter snow,   Along the dusky ridge.790 Long Marmion looked:—at length his eye Unusual movement might descry,   Amid the shifting lines: The Scottish host drawn out appears, For, flashing on the hedge of spears795   The eastern sun-beam shines. Their front now deepening, now extending; Their flank inclining, wheeling, bending, Now drawing back, and now descending, The skilful Marmion well could know,800 They watched the motions of some foe, Who traversed on the plain below. XIX. Even so it was;—from Flodden ridge   The Scots beheld the English host   Leave Barmore-wood, their evening post,805   And heedful watched them as they crossed The Till by Twisel Bridge.

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  High sight it is, and haughty, while   They dive into the deep defile;   Beneath the caverned cliff they fall,810   Beneath the castle’s airy wall.    By rock, by oak, by hawthorn tree,   Troop after troop are disappearing;   Troop after troop their banners rearing,    Upon the eastern bank you see.815   Still pouring down the rocky den,    Where flows the sullen Till,   And rising from the dim-wood glen,   Standards on standards, men on men,    In slow succession still,820   And sweeping o’er the Gothic arch,   And pressing on, in ceaseless march,   To gain the opposing hill. That morn, to many a trumpet-clang, Twisel! thy rock’s deep echo rang;825 And many a chief of birth and rank, Saint Helen! at thy fountain drank. Thy hawthorn glade, which now we see In spring-tide bloom so lavishly, Had then from many an axe its doom,830 To give the marching columns room. XX. And why stands Scotland idly now, Dark Flodden! on thy airy brow, Since England gains the pass the while, And struggles through the deep defile?835 What checks the fiery soul of James? Why sits that champion of the dames   Inactive on his steed, And sees, between him and his land, Between him and Tweed’s southern strand,840   His host Lord Surrey lead? What vails the vain knight-errant’s brand?—



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O, Douglas, for thy leading wand!   Fierce Randolph, for thy speed! O for one hour of Wallace wight,845 Or well-skilled Bruce, to rule the fight, And cry—“Saint Andrew and our right!” Another sight had seen that morn, From Fate’s dark book a leaf been torn, And Flodden had been Bannock-bourne!—850 The precious hour has passed in vain, And England’s host has gained the plain; Wheeling their march, and circling still, Around the base of Flodden-hill. XXI. Ere yet the bands met Marmion’s eye,855 Fitz-Eustace shouted loud and high,—   “Hark! hark! my lord, an English drum!   And see ascending squadrons come    Between Tweed’s river and the hill, Foot, horse, and cannon:—hap what hap,860 My basnet to a prentice cap,   Lord Surrey’s o’er the Till!— Yet more! yet more!—how fair arrayed They file from out the hawthorn shade,   And sweep so gallant by!865 With all their banners bravely spread,   And all their armour flashing high, Saint George might waken from the dead,   To see fair England’s standards fly.”— “Stint in thy prate,” quoth Blount; “thou’dst best,870 And listen to our lord’s behest.”— With kindling brow Lord Marmion said,— “This instant be our band arrayed; The river must be quickly crossed, That we may join Lord Surrey’s host.875 If fight King James,—as well I trust, That fight he will, and fight he must,—

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The Lady Clare behind our lines Shall tarry, while the battle joins.”— XXII. Himself he swift on horseback threw,880 Scarce to the Abbot bade adieu;   Far less would listen to his prayer,   To leave behind the helpless Clare. Down to the Tweed his band he drew, And muttered as the flood they view,885   “The pheasant in the falcon’s claw,   He scarce will yield to please a daw:   Lord Angus may the Abbot awe,    So Clare shall bide with me.”   Then on that dangerous ford, and deep,890   Where to the Tweed Leat’s eddies creep,    He ventured desperately:   And not a moment will he bide,   Till squire, or groom, before him ride;   Headmost of all he stems the tide,895    And stems it gallantly.   Eustace held Clare upon her horse,    Old Hubert led her rein, Stoutly they braved the current’s course, And though far downward driven per force,900   The southern bank they gain; Behind them, straggling, came to shore,   As best they might, the train: Each o’er his head his yew-bow bore,   A caution not in vain;905 Deep need that day that every string, By wet unharmed, should sharply ring. A moment then Lord Marmion staid, And breathed his steed, his men arrayed,   Then forward moved his band,910 Until, Lord Surrey’s rear-guard won,



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He halted by a cross of stone, That, on a hillock standing lone,   Did all the field command. XXIII. Hence might they see the full array915 Of either host, for deadly fray; Their marshalled lines stretched east and west,   And fronted north and south, And distant salutation past   From the loud cannon mouth;920 Not in the close successive rattle, That breathes the voice of modern battle,   But slow and far between.— The hillock gained, Lord Marmion staid: “Here, by this cross,” he gently said,925   “You well may view the scene. Here shalt thou tarry, lovely Clare: O! think of Marmion in thy prayer!— Thou wilt not?—well,—no less my care Shall, watchful, for thy weal prepare.—930 You, Blount and Eustace, are her guard,   With ten picked archers of my train; With England if the day goes hard,   To Berwick speed amain.— But, if we conquer, cruel maid!935 My spoils shall at your feet be laid,   When here we meet again.”— He waited not for answer there, And would not mark the maid’s despair,   Nor heed the discontented look940 From either squire; but spurred amain, And, dashing through the battle-plain,   His way to Surrey took.

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XXIV. “——The good Lord Marmion, by my life!   Welcome to danger’s hour!—945 Short greeting serves in time of strife:—   Thus have I ranged my power: Myself will rule this central host,   Stout Stanley fronts their right, My sons command the vaward post,950   With Brian Tunstall, stainless knight;   Lord Dacre, with his horsemen light,   Shall be in rear-ward of the fight, And succour those that need it most.   Now, gallant Marmion, well I know,955   Would gladly to the vanguard go; Edmund, the Admiral, Tunstal there, With thee their charge will blithely share; There fight thine own retainers too, Beneath De Burg, thy steward true.”—960 “Thanks, noble Surrey!” Marmion said, Nor further greeting there he paid; But, parting like a thunder-bolt, First in the vaward made a halt,   Where such a shout there rose965 Of “Marmion! Marmion!” that the cry Up Flodden’s mountain shrilling high,   Startled the Scottish foes. XXV. Blount and Fitz-Eustace rested still With Lady Clare upon the hill,970 On which, (for far the day was spent,) The western sun-beams now were bent. The cry they heard, its meaning knew, Could plain their distant comrades view: Sadly to Blount did Eustace say,975 “Unworthy office here to stay! No hope of gilded spurs to-day.—



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But, see! look up—on Flodden bent, The Scottish foe has fired his tent.”—   And sudden, as he spoke,980 From the sharp ridges of the hill, All downward to the banks of Till,   Was wreathed in sable smoke; Volumed and vast, and rolling far, The cloud enveloped Scotland’s war,985   As down the hill they broke; Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone, Announced their march; their tread alone, At times one warning trumpet blown,   At times a stifled hum,990 Told England, from his mountain-throne   King James did rushing come.— Scarce could they hear, or see their foes, Until at weapon-point they close.— They close, in clouds of smoke and dust,995 With sword-sway, and with lance’s thrust;   And such a yell was there, Of sudden and portentous birth, As if men fought upon the earth,   And fiends in upper air;1000 O life and death were in the shout, Recoil and rally, charge and rout,   And triumph and despair. Long looked the anxious squires; their eye Could in the darkness nought descry.1005 XXVI. At length the freshening western blast Aside the shroud of battle cast; And, first, the ridge of mingled spears Above the brightening cloud appears; And in the smoke the pennons flew,1010 As in the storm the white sea-mew.

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Then marked they, dashing broad and far The broken billows of the war, And plumed crests of chieftains brave, Floating like foam upon the wave;1015   But nought distinct they see: Wide raged the battle on the plain; Spears shook, and faulchions flashed amain; Fell England’s arrow-flight like rain; Crests rose, and stooped, and rose again,1020   Wild and disorderly. Amid the scene of tumult, high They saw lord Marmion’s falcon fly: And stainless Tunstall’s banner white, And Edmund Howard’s lion bright,1025 Still bear them bravely in the fight;   Although against them come, Of gallant Gordons many a one, And many a stubborn Highlandman, And many a rugged Border clan,1030   With Huntley, and with Home. XXVII. Far on the left, unseen the while, Stanley broke Lennox and Argyle; Though there the western mountaineer Rushed with bare bosom on the spear,1035 And flung the feeble targe aside, And with both hands the broad-sword plied: ’Twas vain.—But Fortune, on the right, With fickle smile, cheered Scotland’s fight. Then fell that spotless banner white,1040   The Howard’s lion fell; Yet still Lord Marmion’s falcon flew With wavering flight, while fiercer grew   Around the battle yell. The Border slogan rent the sky:1045 A Home! A Gordon! was the cry;



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  Loud were the clanging blows; Advanced,—forced back,—now low, now high,   The pennon sunk and rose; As bends the bark’s mast in the gale,1050 When rent are rigging, shrouds, and sail,   It wavered mid the foes. No longer Blount the view could bear:— “By heaven, and all its saints! I swear,   I will not see it lost!1055 Fitz-Eustace, you with Lady Clare May bid your beads, and patter prayer,—   I gallop to the host.” And to the fray he rode amain, Followed by all the archer train.1060 The fiery youth, with desperate charge, Made, for a space, an opening large,—   The rescued banner rose,— But darkly closed the war around, Like pine uprooted from the ground,1065   It sunk among the foes. Then Eustace mounted too;—yet staid, As loth to leave the helpless maid,   When, fast as shaft can fly, Blood-shot his eyes, his nostrils spread,1070 The loose rein dangling from his head, Housing and saddle bloody red,   Lord Marmion’s steed rushed by; And Eustace, maddening at the sight,   A look and sign to Clara cast,1075   To mark he would return in haste, Then plunged into the fight. XXVIII. Ask me not what the maiden feels,   Left in that dreadful hour alone: Perchance her reason stoops, or reels;1080

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  Perchance a courage, not her own,   Braces her mind to desperate tone.— The scattered van of England wheels;—   She only said, as loud in air   The tumult roared, “Is Wilton there?”—1085   They fly, or, maddened by despair,   Fight but to die.—“Is Wilton there?”— With that, straight up the hill there rode   Two horsemen drenched with gore, And in their arms, a helpless load,1090   A wounded knight they bore. His hand still strained the broken brand; His arms were smeared with blood and sand. Dragged from among the horses feet, With dinted shield, and helmet beat,1095 The falcon-crest and plumage gone, Can that be haughty Marmion! . . Young Blount his armour did unlace, And, gazing on his ghastly face,   Said—“By Saint George, he’s gone!1100 That spear-wound has our master sped; And see the deep cut on his head!   Good night to Marmion.”— “Unnurtured Blount! thy brawling cease: He opes his eyes,” said Eustace; “peace!”—1105 XXIX. When, doffed his casque, he felt free air, Around gan Marmion wildly stare:— “Where’s Harry Blount? Fitz-Eustace where? Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare! Redeem my pennon,—charge again!1110 Cry—‘Marmion to the rescue!’—Vain! Last of my race, on battle-plain That shout shall ne’er be heard again!— Yet my last thought is England’s:—fly,



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  To Dacre bear my signet-ring;1115   Tell him his squadrons up to bring.— Fitz-Eustace, to Lord Surrey hie;   Tunstall lies dead upon the field,   His life-blood stains his spotless shield:   Edmund is down;—my life is reft;—1120   The Admiral alone is left.   Let Stanley charge with spur of fire,—   With Chester charge, and Lancashire,    Full upon Scotland’s central host,   Or victory and England’s lost.—1125   Must I bid twice?—hence, varlets! fly!   Leave Marmion here alone—to die.”—   They parted, and alone he lay;   Clare drew her from the sight away, Till pain wrung forth a lowly moan,1130 And half he muttered,—“Is there none,   Of all my halls have nurst, Page, squire, or groom, one cup to bring Of blessed water, from the spring,   To slake my dying thirst!”—1135 XXX. O, woman! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow,1140 A ministering angel thou!— Scarce were the piteous accents said, When, with the Baron’s casque, the maid   To the nigh streamlet ran: Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears;1145 The plaintive voice alone she hears,   Sees but the dying man. She stooped her by the runnel’s side,   But in abhorrence backward drew;

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For, oozing from the mountain’s side,1150 Where raged the war, a dark red tide   Was curdling in the streamlet blue. Where shall she turn!—behold her mark   A little fountain cell, Where water, clear as diamond-spark,1155   In a stone bason fell. Above, some half-worn letters say, Drink. weary. pilgrim, drink. and. pray. For. the. kind. soul. of. Sybil. Gray.   Who. built. this. cross. and. well.1160 She filled the helm, and back she hied, And with surprise and joy espied   A Monk supporting Marmion’s head; A pious man, whom duty brought To dubious verge of battle fought,1165   To shrieve the dying, bless the dead. XXXI. Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave, And, as she stooped his brow to lave— “Is it the hand of Clare,” he said, “Or injured Constance, bathes my head?”1170   Then, as remembrance rose,— “Speak not to me of shrift or prayer!   I must redress her woes. Short space, few words, are mine to spare; Forgive and listen, gentle Clare!”—1175   “Alas!” she said, “the while,— O think of your immortal weal! In vain for Constance is your zeal;   She——died at Holy Isle.” Lord Marmion started from the ground,1180 As light as if he felt no wound; Though in the action burst the tide, In torrents, from his wounded side. “Then it was truth!”—he said—“I knew



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That the dark presage must be true.—1185   I would the Fiend, to whom belongs   The vengeance due to all her wrongs,    Would spare me but a day!   For wasting fire, and dying groan,   And priests slain on the altar stone,1190    Might bribe him for delay. It may not be!—this dizzy trance— Curse on yon base marauder’s lance, And doubly curse my failing brand! A sinful heart makes feeble hand.”—1195 Then, fainting, down on earth he sunk, Supported by the trembling Monk. XXXII. With fruitless labour, Clara bound, And strove to staunch, the gushing wound: The Monk, with unavailing cares,1200 Exhausted all the Church’s prayers. Ever, he said, that, close and near, A lady’s voice was in his ear, And that the priest he could not hear,    For that she ever sung,1205 “In the lost battle, borne down by the flying, Where mingles war’s rattle with groans of the dying!”    So the notes rung;— “Avoid thee, Fiend!—with cruel hand, Shake not the dying sinner’s sand!—1210 O look, my son, upon yon sign Of the Redeemer’s grace divine;    O think on faith and bliss!— By many a death-bed I have been, And many a sinner’s parting seen,1215    But never aught like this.”— The war, that for a space did fail, Now trebly thundering swelled the gale,   And—Stanley! was the cry;—

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A light on Marmion’s visage spread,1220    And fired his glazing eye: With dying hand, above his head He shook the fragment of his blade,    And shouted “Victory!— “Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!”…1225 Were the last words of Marmion. XXXIII. By this, though deep the evening fell, Still rose the battle’s deadly swell, For still the Scots, around their king, Unbroken, fought in desperate ring.1230 Where’s now their victor vaward wing,    Where Huntley, and where Home?— O for a blast of that dread horn, On Fontarabian echoes borne,    That to King Charles did come,1235 When Rowland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer,    On Roncesvalles died! Such blast might warn them, not in vain, To quit the plunder of the slain,1240 And turn the doubtful day again,    While yet on Flodden side, Afar, the royal standard flies, And round it toils, and bleeds, and dies,    Our Caledonia’s pride!1245 In vain the wish—for far away, While spoil and havoc mark their way, Near Sybil’s Cross the plunderers stray.— “O, Lady,” cried the Monk, “away!”—    And placed her on her steed;1250 And led her to the chapel fair,    Of Tilmouth upon Tweed. There all the night they spent in prayer,



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And, at the dawn of morning, there She met her kinsman, Lord Fitz-Clare.1255 XXXIV. But as they left the darkling heath, More desperate grew the strife of death. The English shafts in vollies hailed, In headlong charge their horse assailed; Front, flank, and rear, the squadrons sweep,1260 To break the Scottish circle deep,   That fought around their King. But still, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights like whirlwinds go, Though bill-men ply the ghastly blow,1265   Unbroken was the ring; The stubborn spear-men still made good Their dark impenetrable wood, Each stepping where his comrade stood,   The instant that he fell.1270 No thought was there of dastard flight;— Linked in the serried phalanx tight, Groom fought like noble, squire like knight,   As fearlessly and well, Till utter darkness closed her wing1275 O’er their thin host and wounded King. Then skilful Surrey’s sage commands Led back from strife his shattered bands;   And from the charge they drew, As mountain-waves, from wasted lands,1280   Sweep back to ocean blue. Then did their loss his foemen know; Their King, their lords, their mightiest, low, They melted from the field as snow, When streams are swoln and south winds blow,1285   Dissolves in silent dew. Tweed’s echoes heard the ceaseless plash,

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  While many a broken band, Disordered, through her currents dash,   To gain the Scottish land;1290 To town and tower, to down and dale, To tell red Flodden’s dismal tale, And raise the universal wail. Tradition, legend, tune, and song, Shall many an age that wail prolong:1295 Still from the sire the son shall hear Of the stern strife, and carnage drear,   Of Flodden’s fatal field, Where shivered was fair Scotland’s spear,   And broken was her shield!1300 XXXV. Day dawns upon the mountain’s side:— There, Scotland! lay thy bravest pride, Chiefs, knights, and nobles, many a one; The sad survivors all are gone.— View not that corpse mistrustfully,1305 Defaced and mangled though it be;   Nor to yon Border castle high   Look northward with upbraiding eye;    Nor cherish hope in vain,   That, journeying far on foreign strand,1310   The Royal Pilgrim to his land    May yet return again.   He saw the wreck his rashness wrought;   Reckless of life, he desperate fought,    And fell on Flodden plain:1315   And well in death his trusty brand,   Firm clenched within his manly hand,    Beseemed the monarch slain.   But, O! how changed since yon blithe night!—   Gladly I turn me from the sight,1320    Unto my tale again.



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XXXVI. Short is my tale:—Fitz-Eustace’ care A pierced and mangled body bare To moated Lichfield’s lofty pile; And there, beneath the southern aisle,1325 A tomb, with Gothic sculpture fair, Did long Lord Marmion’s image bear. (Now vainly for its site you look; ’Twas levelled, when fanatic Brook The fair cathedral stormed and took;1330 But, thanks to heaven, and good Saint Chad, A guerdon meet the spoiler had!) There erst was martial Marmion found, His feet upon a couchant hound,   His hands to heaven upraised;1335 And all around, on scutcheon rich, And tablet carved, and fretted niche,   His arms and feats were blazed. And yet, though all was carved so fair, And priests for Marmion breathed the prayer,1340 The last Lord Marmion lay not there. From Ettrick woods, a peasant swain Followed his lord to Flodden plain,— One of those flowers, whom plaintive lay In Scotland mourns as “wede away:”1345 Sore wounded, Sybil’s Cross he spied, And dragged him to its foot, and died, Close by the noble Marmion’s side. The spoilers stripped and gashed the slain, And thus their corpses were mista’en;1350 And thus, in the proud Baron’s tomb, The lowly woodsman took the room. XXXVII. Less easy task it were, to shew Lord Marmion’s nameless grave, and low.

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  They dug his bed e’en where he lay,1355    But every mark is gone;   Time’s wasting hand has done away   The simple Cross of Sybil Gray,    And broke her font of stone:   But yet from out the little hill1360   Oozes the slender springlet still.    Oft halts the stranger there,   For thence may best his curious eye   The memorable field descry;    And shepherd boys repair1365   To seek the water flag and rush,   And rest them by the hazel bush,    And plait their garlands fair;   Nor dream they sit upon the grave,   That holds the bones of Marmion brave.—1370 When thou shalt find this little hill, With thy heart commune, and be still. If ever, in temptation strong, Ye left the right path for the wrong; If every devious step, you trode,1375 Still led you further from the road; Dread thou to speak presumptuous doom, On noble Marmion’s lowly tomb; But say, “Here died a gallant knight, With sword in hand, for England’s right.”1380 XXXVIII. I do not rhyme to that dull elf, Who cannot image to himself, That all through Flodden’s dismal night, Wilton was foremost in the fight; That, when brave Surrey’s steed was slain,1385 ’Twas Wilton mounted him again; ’Twas Wilton’s brand that deepest hewed, Amid the spearmen’s stubborn wood:



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Unnamed by Hollinshed or Hall, He was the living soul of all;1390 That, after fight, his faith made plain, He won his rank and lands again; And charged his old paternal shield With bearings won on Flodden Field.— Nor sing I to that simple maid,1395 To whom it must in terms be said, That King and kinsmen did agree, To bless fair Clara’s constancy; Who cannot, unless I relate, Paint to her mind the bridal’s state;1400 That Wolsey’s voice the blessing spoke, More, Sands, and Denny, passed the joke; That bluff King Hal the curtain drew, And Catherine’s hand the stocking threw; And afterwards, for many a day,1405 That it was held enough to say, In blessing to a wedded pair, “Love they like Wilton and like Clare!”— __________________

L’Envoy. to the reader. Why then a final note prolong, Or lengthen out a closing song,1410 Unless to bid the gentles speed, Who long have listed to my rede?*— To Statesman grave, if such may deign To read the Minstrel’s idle strain, *

Used generally for tale, or discourse.

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Sound head, clean hand, and piercing wit,1415 And patriotic heart—as Pitt! A garland for the hero’s crest, And twined by her he loves the best; To every lovely lady bright, What can I wish but faithful knight?1420 To every faithful lover too, What can I wish but lady true? And knowledge to the studious sage; And pillow soft to head of age. To thee, dear schoolboy, whom my lay1425 Has cheated of thy hour of play, Light task, and merry holiday! To all, to each, a fair good night, And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light! end of marmion.

NOTES TO CANTO FIRST Note I. As when the Champion of the Lake Enters Morgana’s fated house, Or in the Chapel Perilous, Despising spells and demons’ force, Holds converse with the unburied corse.—1.260–64 The Romance of the Morte Arthur contains a sort of abridgment of the most celebrated adventures of the Round Table; and, being written in comparatively modern language, gives the general reader an excellent idea of what romances of chivalry actually were. It has also the merit of being written in pure old English; and many of the wild adventures which it contains, are told with a simplicity bordering upon the sublime. Several of these are referred to in the text; and I would have illustrated them by more full extracts, but as this curious work is about to be republished, I confine myself to the tale of the Chapel Perilous, and of the quest of Sir Launcelot after the Sangreall. “Right so Sir Launcelot departed; and when he came to the Chapell Perilous, he alighted downe, and tied his horse to a little gate. And as soon as he was within the church-yard, he saw, on the front of the chapell, many faire rich shields turned upside downe, and many of the shields Sir Launcelot had seene knights bare before; with that he saw stand by him thirtie great knights, more, by a yard, than any man that ever he had seene, and all those grinned and gnashed at Sir Launcelot; and when he saw their countenance, hee dread them sore, and so put his shield afore him, and tooke his sword in his hand, ready to doe battaile; and they were all armed in black harneis, ready, with their shields and swords drawen. And when Sir Launcelot would have gone through them, they scattered on every side of him, and gave him the way; and therewith hee waxed all bold, and entered into the chapell, and then hee saw no light but a dimme lampe burning, and then was hee ware of a corps covered with a cloath of silke; then Sir Launcelot stooped downe, and cut a piece of that cloath away, and then it fared under him as the earth had quaked a little, whereof hee was afeared, and then he saw a faire sword lye by the dead knight, and that he gat in his hand, and hied him out of the chappell. As soon as he was in the chappell-yerd,

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all the knights spoke to him with a grimly voice, and said, ‘Knight Sir Launcelot, lay that sword from thee, or else thou shalt die.’ ‘Whether I live or die,’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘with no great words get yee it againe, therefore fight for it and yee list.’ Therewith he passed through them; and, beyond the chappell-yerd, there met him a faire damosel, and said, ‘Sir Launcelot, leave that sword behind thee, or thou wilt die for it.’ ‘I will not leave it,’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘for no threats.’ ‘No;’ said she, ‘and ye did leave that sword, Queene Guenever should ye never see.’ ‘Then were I a foole and I would leave this sword,’ said Sir Launcelot. ‘Now, gentle knight,’ said the damosel, ‘I require thee to kisse me once.’ ‘Nay,’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘that, God forbid!’ ‘Well, sir,’ said she, ‘and thou haddest kissed me, thy life dayes had been done; but now, alas!’ said she, ‘I have lost all my labour; for I ordeined this chappell for thy sake, and for Sir Gawaine: and once I had Sir Gawaine within it; and at that time he fought with that knight which there lieth dead in yonder chappell, Sir Gilbert the bastard, and at that time hee smote off Sir Gilbert the bastard’s left hand. And so, Sir Launcelot, now I tell thee, that I have loved thee this seaven yeare; but there may no woman have thy love but Queene Guenever; but sithen I may not rejoyce thee to have thy body alive, I had kept no more joy in this world but to have had thy dead body; and I would have balmed it and served, and so have kept it my life daies, and daily I should have clipped thee, and kissed thee, in the despite of Queene Guenever.’ ‘Yee say well;’ said Sir Launcelot, ‘Jesus preserve me from your subtill crafts!’ And therewith he took his horse, and departed from her.”

Note II. A sinful man, and unconfessed, He took the Sangreal’s holy quest, And, slumbering, saw the vision high, He might not view with waking eye.—1.269–72 One day, when Arthur was holding a high feast with his Knights of the Round Table, the Sangreall, or vessel out of which the last passover was eaten, a precious relick, which had long remained concealed from human eyes, because of the sins of the land, suddenly appeared to him and all his chivalry. The consequence of this vision was, that all the knights took on them a solemn vow to seek the Sangreall. But, alas! it could only be revealed to a knight at once accomplished in earthly chivalry, and pure and guiltless of evil conversation. All Sir Launcelot’s noble accomplishments were therefore rendered vain by his guilty



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intrigue with Queen Guenever, or Ganore; and in this holy quest he encountered only such disgraceful disasters as that which follows: “But Sir Launcelot rode overthwart and endlong in a wild forest, and held no path, but as wild adventure led him; and at the last, he came unto a stone crosse, which departed two wayes, in wast land; and by the crosse, was a stone that was of marble; but it was so darke, that Sir Launcelot might not well know what it was. Then Sir Launcelot looked by him, and saw an old chappell, and there he wend to have found people. And so Sir Launcelot tied his horse to a tree, and there hee put off his shield, and hung it upon a tree, and then hee went unto the chappell doore, and found it wasted and broken. And within he found a faire altar, full richly arrayed with cloth of silk, and there stood a faire candlestick, which beare six great candles, and the candlesticke was of silver. And when Sir Launcelot saw this light, hee had a great will for to enter into the chappell, but hee could find no place where he might enter. Then was he passing heavie and dismaied. Then he returned, and came againe to his horse, and tooke off his saddle and his bridle, and let him pasture, and unlaced his helme, and ungirded his sword, and laid him downe to sleepe upon his shield before the crosse. “And so hee fell on sleepe, and halfe waking and halfe sleeping, hee saw come by him two palfryes, both faire and white, the which beare a litter, therein lying a sicke knight. And when he was nigh the crosse, he there abode still. All this Sir Launcelot saw and beheld, for hee slept not verily, and hee heard him say, ‘Oh sweete Lord, when shall this sorrow leave me, and when shall the holy vessell come by me, where through I shall be blessed, for I have endured thus long, for little trespasse.’ And thus a great while complained the knight, and allwaies Sir Launcelot heard it. With that Sir Launcelot saw the candlesticke, with the fire tapers, come before the crosse; but he could see no body that brought it. Also there came a table of silver, and the holy vessell of the Sancgreall, the which Sir Launcelot had seene before that time in king Petchour’s house. And therewithall the sicke knight set him upright, and held up both his hands, and said, ‘Faire sweete Lord, which is here within the holy vessell, take heede to mee, that I may bee hole of this great malady.’ And therewith upon his hands, and upon his knees, he went so nigh, that he touched the holy vessell, and kissed it: And anon he was hole, and then he said, ‘Lord God, I thank thee, for I am healed of this malady.’ Soo when the holy vessell had been there a great while, it went unto the chappell againe with the candlesticke and the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not where it became, for he was overtaken with sinne, that hee had no power to arise against the holy vessell, wherefore afterward many men said of him shame. But he tooke repentance afterward. Then the sicke knight dressed him upright, and kissed the

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crosse. Then anon his squire brought him his armes, and asked his lord how he did. ‘Certainly,’ said hee, ‘I thanke God, right heartily, for through the holy vessell I am healed: But I have right great mervaile of this sleeping knight, which hath had neither grace nor power to awake during the time that this holy vessell hath beene here present.’ ‘I dare it right well say,’ said the squire, ‘that this same knight is defouled with some manner of deadly sinne, whereof he was never confessed.’ ‘By my faith,’ said the knight, ‘whatsoever he be, he is unhappie; for, as I deeme, hee is of the fellowship of the Round Table, the which is entred into the quest of the Sancgreall.’ ‘Sir,’ said the squire, ‘here I have brought you all your armes, save your helme and your sword; and therefore, by mine assent, now may ye take this knight’s helme and his sword,’ and so he did. And when he was cleane armed, he tooke Sir Launcelot’s horse, for he was better than his owne, and so they departed from the crosse. “Then anon Sir Launcelot awaked, and set himselfe upright, and he thought him what hee had there seene, and whether it were dreames or not; right so he heard a voice that said, ‘Sir Launcelot, more hardy then is the stone, and more bitter then is the wood, and more naked and bare then is the liefe of the fig-tree, therefore go thou from hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place;’ and when Sir Launcelot heard this, hee was passing heavy, and wist not what to doe. And so he departed sore weeping, and cursed the time that he was borne; for then hee deemed never to have had more worship; for the words went unto his heart, till that he knew wherefore that hee was so called.”

Note III. And Dryden, in immortal strain, Had raised the Table Round again, But that a ribald king and court Bade him toil on, to make them sport; Demanded for their niggard pay, Fit for their souls, a looser lay, Licentious satire, song, and play.—1.277–83 Dryden’s melancholy account of his projected Epic Poem, blasted by the selfish and sordid parsimony of his patrons, is contained in an “Essay on Satire,” addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and prefixed to the Translation of Juvenal. After mentioning a plan of supplying machinery from the guardian angels of kingdoms, mentioned in the book of Daniel, he adds:



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“Thus, my lord, I have, as briefly as I could, given your lordship, and by you the world, a rude draught of what I have been long labouring in my imagination, and what I had intended to have put in practice; (though far unable for the attempt of such a poem,) and to have left the stage, to which my genius never much inclined me, for a work which would have taken up my life in the performance of it. This, too, I had intended chiefly for the honour of my native country, to which a poet is particularly obliged. Of two subjects, both relating to it, I was doubtful whether I should chuse that of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being farther distant in time, gives the greater scope to my invention; or that of Edward the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Don Pedro the Cruel: which, for the compass of time, including only the expedition of one year, for the greatness of the action, and its answerable event, for the magnanimity of the English hero, opposed to the ingratitude of the person whom he restored, and for the many beautiful episodes which I had interwoven with the principal design, together with the characters of the chiefest English persons, (wherein, after Virgil and Spenser, I would have taken occasion to represent my living friends and patrons of the noblest families, and also shadowed the events of future ages in the succession of our imperial line,) – with these helps, and those of the machines which I have mentioned, I might perhaps have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at least chalked out a way for others to amend my errors in a like design; but being encouraged only with fair words by King Charles II., my little salary ill paid, and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then discouraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now age has overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly disenabled me.”

Note IV. Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold.—1.316 The “History of Bevis of Hampton” is abridged by my friend Mr George Ellis, with that liveliness which extracts amusement even out of the most rude and unpromising of our old tales of chivalry. Ascapart, a most important personage in the romance, is thus described in an extract: This geaunt was mighty and strong, And full thirty foot was long.

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marmion He was bristled like a sow; A foot he had between each brow; His lips were great, and hung aside; His eyen were hollow; his mouth was wide; Lothly he was to look on than, And liker a devil than a man. His staff was a young oak, Hard and heavy was his stroke.    Specimens of Metrical Romances, Vol. II. p. 136.

I am happy to say, that the memory of Sir Bevis is still fragrant in his town of Southampton; the gate of which is centinelled by the effigies of that doughty knight-errant, and his gigantic associate.

Note V. Day set on Norham’s castled steep, And Tweed’s fair river, broad and deep, &c.—1.330–31 The ruinous castle of Norham, (anciently called Ubbanford,) is situated on the southern bank of the Tweed, about six miles above Berwick, and where that river is still the boundary between England and Scotland. The extent of its ruins, as well as its historical importance, shews it to have been a place of magnificence, as well as strength. Edward I. resided there when he was created umpire of the dispute concerning the Scottish succession. It was repeatedly taken and retaken during the wars between England and Scotland; and, indeed, scarce any happened, in which it had not a principal share. Norham Castle is situated on a steep bank, which overhangs the river. The repeated sieges which the castle had sustained, rendered frequent repairs necessary. In 1164 it was almost rebuilt by Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, who added a huge keep, or donjon; notwithstanding which, King Henry II., in 1174, took the castle from the bishop, and committed the keeping of it to William de Neville. After this period it seems to have been chiefly garrisoned by the king, and considered as a royal fortress. The Greys of Chillinghame Castle were frequently the castellans, or captains of the garrison: Yet, as the castle was situated in the patrimony of St Cuthbert, the property was in the see of Durham till the Reformation. After that period it passed through various hands. At the union of the crowns, it was in the possession of Sir Robert Carey, (afterwards Earl of Monmouth,) for his own life, and that of two of his sons. After King James’ accession, Carey sold Norham Castle to George Home Earl of



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Dunbar for L.6000. See his curious Memoirs, of which an edition is now reprinting by Mr Constable of Edinburgh. According to Mr Pinkerton, there is, in the British Museum, Cal. B. 6. 216. a curious memoir of the Dacres on the state of Norham Castle in 1522, not long after the battle of Flodden. The inner ward, or keep, is represented as impregnable: “The provisions are three great vats of salt eels, forty-four kine, three hogsheads of salted salmon, forty quarters of grain, besides many cows, and four hundred sheep lying under the castle-wall nightly; but a great number of the arrows wanted feathers, and a good Fletcher (i. e. maker of arrows) was required.”—History of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 201. Note. The ruins of the castle are at present considerable, as well as picturesque. They consist of a large shattered tower, with many vaults, and fragments of other edifices, inclosed within an outward wall of great circuit. Note VI. The Donjon Keep.—1.333 It is perhaps unnecessary to remind my readers, that the donjon, in its proper signification, means the strongest part of a feudal castle; a high square tower, with walls of tremendous thickness, situated in the centre of the other buildings, from which, however, it was usually detached. Here, in case of the outward defences being gained, the garrison retreated to make their last stand. The donjon contained the great hall, and principal rooms of state for solemn occasions, and also the prison of the fortress; from which last circumstance we derive the modern and restricted use of the word dungeon. Ducange (voce Dunjo) conjectures, plausibly, that the name is derived from these keeps being usually built upon a hill, which in Celtic is called Dun. Borlase supposes the word came from the darkness of the apartments in these towers, which were thence figuratively called Dungeons; thus deriving the ancient word from the modern application of it. Note VII. Well was he armed from head to heel, In mail, and plate, of Milan steel.—1.407–08 The artists of Milan were famous in the middle ages for their skill in armoury, as appears from the following passage, in which Froissart

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gives an account of the preparations made by Henry, Earl of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV., and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, for their proposed combat in the lists at Coventry: “These two lords made ample provision of all things necessary for the combat; and the Earl of Derby sent off messengers to Lombardy, to have armour from Sir Galeas, Duke of Milan. The duke complied with joy, and gave the knight, called Sir Francis, who had brought the message, the choice of all his armour for the Earl of Derby. When he had selected what he wished for in plated and mail armour, the lord of Milan, out of his abundant love to the Earl, ordered four of the best armourers in Milan to accompany the knight to England, that the Earl of Derby might be more completely armed.”—Johnes’ Froissart, Vol. IV. p. 597. Note VIII. The golden legend bore aright, Who checks at me, to death is dight.—Lines 1.416–17 The crest and motto of Marmion are borrowed from the following story. Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Crauford, was, among other gentlemen of quality, attended during a visit to London, in 1390, by Sir William Dalzell, who was, according to my authority Bower, not only excelling in wisdom, but also of a lively wit. Chancing to be at the court, he there saw Sir Piers Courtenay, an English knight, famous for skill in tilting, and for the beauty of his person, parading the palace, arrayed in a new mantle, bearing for device an embroidered falcon, with this rhyme,— I bear a falcon, fairest of flight, Who so pinches at her, his death is dight1           In graith.2 The Scottish knight, being a wag, appeared next day in a dress exactly similar to that of Courtenay, but bearing a magpie instead of a falcon, with a motto ingeniously contrived to rhyme to the vaunting inscription of Sir Piers: I bear a pie picking at a piece, Who so picks at her, I shall pick at his nese,3           In faith. This affront could only be expiated by a just with sharp lances. In the course, Dalzell left his helmet unlaced, so that it gave way at 1

Prepared. 

2

Armour. 

3

Nose.



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the touch of his antagonist’s lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter. This happened twice:—in the third encounter, the handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of Dalzell’s fraud in not fastening his helmet, the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion staking in the hand of the king two hundred pounds, to be forfeited, if, on entering the lists, any unequal advantage should be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot demanded, that Sir Piers, in addition to the loss of his teeth, should consent to the extinction of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of Otterburn. As Courtenay demurred to this equalization of optical powers, Dalzell demanded the forfeit; which, after much altercation, the king appointed to be paid to him, saying, he surpassed the English both in wit and valour. This must appear to the reader a singular specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the Jockey Club would have given a different decision from Henry IV.

Note IX. Largesse, largesse.—1.492 This was the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights. Stewart of Lorn distinguishes a ballad, in which he satirizes the narrowness of James V., and his courtiers, by the ironical burden—   Lerges, lerges, lerges, hay,   Lerges of this new year day. First lerges, of the king, my chief, Who came as quiet as a thief, And in my hand slid—shillings twae!1 To put his largeness to the prief,2 For lerges of this new year day. The heralds, like the minstrels, were a race allowed to have great claims upon the liberality of the knights, of whose feats they kept a record, and proclaimed them aloud, as in the text, upon suitable occasions. At Berwick, Norham, and other Border fortresses of importance, persuivants usually resided, whose inviolable character rendered them the only persons that could, with perfect assurance of safety, be sent on 1

Two. 

2

Proof.

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necessary embassies into Scotland. This is alluded to in Stanza XXII. p. 12.

Note X.   They hailed Lord Marmion: They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye, Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye,   Of Tamwarth tower and town.—1.485–88 Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In earlier times, indeed, the family of Marmion, lords of Fontenay, in Normandy, was highly distinguished. Robert de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the Conqueror, obtained a grant of the castle and town of Tamworth, and also of the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. One, or both, of these noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had formerly been to the Dukes of Normandy. But after the castle and demesne of Tamworth had passed through four successive barons from Robert, the family became extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion, who died in 20th Edward I., without issue male. He was succeeded in his castle of Tamworth by Alexander de Freville, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin de Freville, Alexander’s descendant, in the reign of Richard I., by the supposed tenure of his Castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion, and to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any who would gainsay the king’s title. But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dymocke, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferrars: I have not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary personage. It was one of the Marmion family, who, in the reign of Edward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Norham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful Ballad, “The Hermit of Warkworth.” The story is thus told by Leland: “The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and destroyed the Castles of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.



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“At this tyme Thomas Gray and his friendes defended Norham from the Scottes. “It were a wonderful processe to declare, what mischefes cam by hungre and asseges by the space of xi yeres in Northumberland; for the Scottes became so proude after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen. “About this tyme there was a greate feste made yn Lincolnshir, to which came many gentilmen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a healme for a man of were, with a very riche creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandement of her lady, that he should go into the daungerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme to be seene and known as famous. So he went to Norham; whither within 4 days of cumming cam Philip Moubray, guardian of Berwicke, having yn his bande 140 men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches. “Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castel, behind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady’s present. “Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, ‘Sir knight, ye be cum hither to fame your helmet: mount up on yor horse, and ryde lyke a valiant man to yowr foes even here at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body deade or alyve, or I myself wyl dye for it.’ “Whereupon he toke his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes; the which layed sore stripes on hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde. “Then Thomas Gray, with al the hole garrison, lette prick yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrowan; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid agayn, and, with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price; and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase.”

Note XI.   Sir Hugh the Heron bold, Baron of Twisell, and of Ford,   And Captain of the Hold.—1.521–23 Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan’s name ought to have been William: for William Heron of Ford, was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said

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to have cost our James IV. so dear. Moreover, the said William Heron was, at the time supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII., on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford.—See Sir Richard Heron’s curious Genealogy of the Heron Family.

Note XII. The whiles a Northern harper rude Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud,—   “How the fierce Thirwalls, and Ridleys all,” &c. 1.528–30 This old Northumbrian ballad was taken down from the recitation of a woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in Alstonmoor, by an agent for the lead mines there, who communicated it to my friend and correspondent, R. Surtees, Esquire, of Mainsforth. She had not, she said, heard it for many years; but when she was a girl, it used to be sung at merry makings, “till the roof rung again.” To preserve this curious, though rude rhyme, it is here inserted. The ludicrous turn given to the slaughter, marks that wild and disorderly state of society, in which a murder was not merely a casual circumstance, but, in some cases, an exceedingly good jest. The structure of the ballad resembles the “Fray of Suport,”1 having the same irregular stanza and wild chorus. I. Hoot awa’, lads, hoot awa’, Ha’ ye heard how the Ridleys, and Thirwalls, and a’, Ha’ set upon Albany2 Featherstonhaugh, And taken his life at the Deadmanshaugh:     There was Willimoteswick,     And Hardriding Dick, And Hughie of Hawden, and Will of the Wa’,     I canno’ tell a’, I canno’ tell a’, And mony a mair that the deil may knaw. II. The auld man went down, but Nicol, his son, Ran away afore the fight was begun; 1

See Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. I. p. 250. 

2

Pronounced Awbony.



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    And he run, and he run,     And afore they were done, There was mony a Featherston gat sic a stun, As never was seen since the world begun. III. I canna’ tell a’, I canna’ tell a’; Some gat a skelp,1 and some gat a claw; But they gard the Featherstons haud their jaw,—2     Nicol, and Alick, and a’. Some gat a hurt, and some gat nane; Some had harness, and some gat sta’en.3 IV.     Ane gat a twist o’ the craig;4     Ane gat a bunch5 o’ the wame;6     Symy Haw gat lamed of a leg,     And syne ran wallowing7 hame. V. Hoot, hoot, the auld man’s slain outright! Lay him now wi’ his face down:—he’s a sorrowful sight.     Janet, thou donot,8     I’ll lay my best bonnet, Thou gets a new gude-man afore it be night. VI. Hoo away, lads, hoo away, We’s a’ be hangid if we stay.     Tak’ up the dead man, and lay him ahint the bigging; Here’s the Bailey o’ Haltwhistle,9 Wi’ his great bull’s pizzle,     That sup’d up the broo’, and syne——in the piggin.10 In explanation of this ancient ditty, Mr Surtees has furnished me with the following local memorandum: Willimoteswick, the chief seat 1

Skelp signifies slap, or rather is the same word which was orginally spelled schlap. Hold their jaw, a vulgar expression still in use. 3 Got stolen, or were plundered; a very likely termination of the fray. 4 Neck.  5 Punch.  6 Belly.  7 Bellowing. 8 Silly slut. The Border Bard calls her so, because she was weeping for her slain husband; a loss which he seems to think might be soon repaired. 9 The Bailiff of Haltwhistle seems to have arrived when the fray was over. This supporter of social order is treated with characteristic irreverence by the mosstrooping poet. 10 An iron pot with two ears. 2

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of the ancient family of Ridley, is situated two miles above the confluence of the Allon and Tyne. It was a house of strength, as appears from one oblong tower, still in tolerable preservation.1 It has been long in possession of the Blacket family. Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to horsemanship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding,2 the seat of another family of that name, which, in the time of Charles I., was sold on account of expenses incurred by the loyalty of the proprietor, the immediate ancestor of Sir Matthew Ridley. Will of the Wa’ seems to be William Ridley of Walltown, so called from its situation on the great Roman wall. Thirlwall Castle, whence the clan of Thirlwalls derived their name, is situated on the small river of Tippel, near the western boundary of Northumberland. It is near the wall, and takes its name from the rampart having been thirled, i. e. pierced, or breached, in its vicinity. Featherston Castle lies south of the Tyne, towards Alston-moor. Albany Featherstonhaugh, the chief of that ancient family, made a figure in the reign of Edward VI. A feud did certainly exist between the Ridleys and Featherstones, productive of such consequences as the ballad narrates. 24 Oct. 22do Henrici 8vi. Inquisitio capt. apud Hautwhistle, sup. visum corpus Alexandri Featherston, Gen. apud Grensilhaugh, felonice interfecti, 22 Oct. per Nicolaum Ridley de Unthanke, Gen. Hugon Ridle, Nicolaum Ridle, et alios ejusdem nominis. Nor were the Featherstones without their revenge; for 36to Henrici 8vi, we have—Utlagatio Nicolai Fetherston, ac Thome Nyxson, &c. &c. pro homicidio Will. Ridle de Morale.

Note XIII. James backed the cause of that mock prince, Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit, Who on the gibbet paid the cheat. Then did I march with Surrey’s power, What time we razed old Ayton tower.—1.626–30 The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland; and James IV., after 1

Willimoteswick was, in prior editions, confounded with Ridley Hall, situated two miles lower on the same side of the Tyne, the hereditary seat of William C. Lowes, Esq. 2 Ridley, the bishop and martyr, was, according to some authorities, born at Hardriding, where a chair was preserved, called the Bishop’s chair. Others, and particularly his biographer and namesake Dr Glocester Ridley, assign the honour of the martyr’s birth to Willimoteswick.



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conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady Catherine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliate an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this inroad: Surrey.  Are all our braving enemies shrunk back? Hid in the fogges of their distempered climate, Not daring to behold our colours wave In spight of this infected ayre? Can they Looke on the strength of Cundrestine defac’t? The glorie of Heydonhall devastated? that Of Edington cast downe? the pile of Fulden Orethrowne? And this, the strongest of their forts, Old Ayton Castle, yeelded and demolished? And yet not peepe abroad? the Scots are bold, Hardie in battayle, but it seemes the cause They undertake considered, appeares Unjoynted in the frame on’t. Note XIV. For here be some have pricked as far, On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar; Have drunk the monks of St Bothan’s ale, And driven the beeves of Lauderdale; Harried the wives of Greenlaw’s goods, And given them light to set their hoods.—1.633–38 The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed, very troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem, called “The Blind Baron’s Comfort;” when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was haried by Rowland Foster, the English captain of Wark, with his company, to the number of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of 5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots, (L.8: 6: 8,) and every thing else that was portable. “This spoil was committed the 16th day of May, 1570, (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and fourteen years of age, and grown blind,) in time of peace; when nane of that country lippened (expected) such a thing.”—“The Blind Baron’s Comfort” consists in a string of puns on the word Blythe, the name of

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the lands thus despoiled. Like John Littlewit, he had “a conceit left him in his misery,—a miserable conceit.” The last line of the text contains a phrase, by which the Borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Maxwells, in 1585, burned the castle of Lochwood, they said they did so to give the Lady Johnstone “light to set her hood:” Nor was the phrase inapplicable; for, in a letter, to which I have mislaid the reference, the Earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warkworth, by the blaze of the neighbouring villages, burned by the Scotish marauders.

Note XV. The Priest of Shoreswood.—1.671 This churchman seems to have been a-kin to Welsh, the vicar of St Thomas of Exeter, a leader among the Cornish insurgents in 1549. “This man,” says Hollinshed, “had many good things in him. He was of no great stature, but well set, and mightilie compact: He was a very good wrestler; shot well, both in the long-bow, and also in the crossbow; he handled his hand-gun and peece very well; he was a very good woodman, and a hardie, and such a one as would not give his head for the polling, or his beard for the washing. He was a companion in any exercise of activitie, and of a courteous and gentle behaviour. He descended of a good honest parentage, being borne at Peneverin, in Cornwall; and yet, in this rebellion, an arch-captain, and a principal dooer.”—Vol. III. p. 958. 4to edition. This model of clerical talents had the misfortune to be hanged upon the steeple of his own church.

Note XVI.   And of that Grot where olives nod, Where, darling of each heart and eye, From all the youth of Sicily,   Saint Rosalie retired to God.—1.733–36. “Santa Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble family, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father’s house, and never was more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft



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of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chappel is built; and they affirm, she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the Saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and break-neck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayer; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now open’d on purpose to show it to those who come there. This chappel is very richly adorn’d; and on the spot where the Saint’s dead body was discover’d, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is open’d on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marble, representing her in a lying posture, railed in all about with fine iron and brass work; and the altar, on which they say mass, is built just over it.”—Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr John Dryden, (son to the poet,) pp. 107–08.

Note XVII. Himself still sleeps before his beads Have marked ten aves, and two creeds.—1.781–82 Friar John understood the soporific virtue of his beads and breviary, as well as his namesake in Rabelais. “But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself. Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon or prayers: Let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep. The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum, they fell asleep, both the one and the other.”

Note XVIII. The summoned Palmer came in place; His sable cowl o’er-hung his face; In his black mantle was he clad, With Peter’s keys, in cloth of red,   On his broad shoulders wrought.—1.789–93 A Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; travelling incessantly, and subsisting by

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charity: whereas the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot, which was the object of his pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is, in the Bannatyne MS., a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled “Simmy and his Brother.” Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described, (I discard the ancient spelling.) Syne shaped them up to loup owr leas,   Two tabards of the tartan; They counted nought what their clouts were   When sew’d them on, in certain. Syne clampit up St Peter’s keys,   Made of an auld red gartane; St James’s shells, on t’other side slevis   As pretty as a partane        Toe,   On Symmye and his brother.

Note XIX.   To fair Saint Andrew’s bound, Within the ocean-cave to pray, Where good Saint Rule his holy lay, From midnight to the dawn of the day,   Sung to the billows’ sound.—1.833–37 St Regulus, (Scotticé, St Rule) a monk of Patræ, in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have sailed westward, until he landed at St. Andrew’s, in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and, though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St Andrew’s, bears the name of this religious person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. At full tide, egress and regress is hardly practicable. As Regulus first colonized the metropolitan see of Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some reason to complain, that the ancient name of Killrule (Cella Reguli) should have been



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superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St Rule is said to have brought to Scotland the reliques of St Andrew.

Note XX. Thence to Saint Fillan’s blessed well, Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,   And the crazed brain restore.—1.838–40 St Fillan was a Scottish saint of some reputation. Although Popery is, with us, matter of abomination, yet the common people still retain some of the superstition connected with it: There are, in Perthshire, several wells and springs dedicated to St Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even among the Protestants. They are held powerful in cases of madness; and, in cases of very late occurrence, lunatics have been left all night bound to the holy stone, in confidence that the saint would cure and unloose them before morning.

NOTES TO CANTO SECOND Note I. The scenes are desart now, and bare, Where flourished once a forest fair.—2.1–2 Ettricke Forest, now a range of mountainous sheep-walks, was anciently reserved for the pleasure of the royal chace. Since it was disparked, the wood has been, by degrees, almost totally destroyed, although, wherever protected from the sheep, copses soon arise without any planting. When the king hunted there, he often summoned the array of the country to meet and assist his sport. Thus, in 1528, James V. “made proclamation to all lords, barons, gentlemen, landward-men, and freeholders, that they should compear at Edinburgh, with a month’s victuals, to pass with the king where he pleased, to danton the thieves of Teviotdale, Anandale, Liddisdale, and other parts of that country; and also warned all gentlemen that had good dogs, to bring them, that he might hunt in the said country, as he pleased: The whilk the Earl of Argyle, the Earl of Huntley, the Earl of Athole, and so all the rest of the

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gentlemen of the Highland, did, and brought their hounds with them in like manner, to hunt with the king, as he pleased. “The second day of June the king past out of Edinburgh to the hunting, with many of the nobles and gentlemen of Scotland with him, to the number of twelve thousand men; and then past to Meggitland, and hounded and hawked all the country and bounds: that is to say, Crammat, Pappertlaw, St Marylaws, Carlavirick, Chapel, Ewindoores, and Longhope. I heard say, he slew, in these bounds, eighteen score of harts.”1 These huntings had, of course, a military character, and attendance upon them was a part of the duty of a vassal. The act for abolishing ward, or military tenures, in Scotland, enumerates the services of hunting, hosting, watching, and warding, as those which were in future to be illegal. Taylor, the water-poet, has given an account of the mode in which these huntings were conducted in the Highlands of Scotland, in the seventeenth century, having been present at Bræmar upon such an occasion: “There did I find the truly noble and right honourable lords, John Erskine, Earl of Marr; James Stuart, Earl of Murray; George Gordon, Earl of Engye, son and heir to the Marquis of Huntley; James Erskine, Earl of Buchan; and John, Lord Erskine, son and heir to the Earl of Marr, and their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my last assured and approved friend, Sir William Murray, knight of Abercarney, and hundred of others, knights, esquires, and their followers; all and every man, in general, in one habit, as if Lycurgus had been there, and made laws of equality: for once in the year, which is the whole month of August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom (for their pleasure) do come into these highland countries to hunt; where they do conform themselves to the habit of the highland-men, who, for the most part, speak nothing but Irish; and, in former time, were those people which were called the Red-shanks. Their habit is—shoes, with but one sole a-piece; stockings, (which they call short hose,) made of a warm stuff of diverse colours, which they call tartan; as for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuff that their hose is of; their garters being bands or wreathes of hay, or straw: with a plaid about their shoulders; which is a mantle of diverse colours, much finer and lighter stuff than their hose; with blue flat caps on their heads; a handkerchief, knit with two knots, about their neck: and thus are they attired. Now their weapons are—long bowes and forked arrows, 1

Pitscottie’s History of Scotland, folio edition, p. 143.



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swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Lochaber axes. With these arms I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their attire, any man, of what degree soever, that comes amongst them, must not disdain to wear it; for if they do, then they will disdain to hunt, or willingly to bring in their dogs; but if men be kind unto them, and be in their habit, then are they conquered with kindness, and the sport will be plentiful. This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting: “My good Lord of Marr having put me into that shape, I rode with him from his house, where I saw the ruins of an old castle, called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by King Malcolm Canmore, (for a hunting house,) who reigned in Scotland, when Edward the Confessor, Harold, and Norman William, reigned in England. I speak of it, because it was the last house I saw in those parts; for I was the space of twelve days after, before I saw either house, corn-field, or habitation for any creature, but deer, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures,—which made me doubt that I should never have seen a house again. “Thus, the first day, we travelled eight miles, where there were small cottages, built on purpose to lodge in, which they call Lonquhards. I thank my good Lord Erskine, he commanded that I should always be lodged in his lodging: the kitchen being always on the side of a bank; many kettles and pots boiling, and many spits turning and winding, with great variety of cheer,—as venison baked; sodden, rost, and stewed beef; mutton, goats, kid, hares, fresh salmon, pigeons, hens, capons, chickens, partridge, muir-coots, heath-cocks, caperkellies, and termagants; good ale, sacke, white and claret, tent (or allegant,) with most potent aquavitæ. “All these, and more than these, we had continually in superfluous abundance, caught by falconers, fowlers, fishers, and brought by my lord’s tenants and purveyors to victual our camp, which consisteth of fourteen or fifteen hundred men and horses. The manner of the hunting is this: Five or six hundred men do rise early in the morning, and they do disperse themselves divers ways, and seven, eight, or ten miles compass, they do bring, or chase in the deer, in many herds, (two, three, or four hundred in a herd,) to such or such a place, as the noblemen shall appoint them; then, when day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their companies do ride or go to the said places, sometimes wading up to the middles, through burns and rivers; and then, they being come to the place, do lie down on the ground, till those foresaid scouts, which are called the Tinkhell, do bring down the deer: but, as the proverb says of a bad cook, so these tinkhell-men do lick their own fingers; for, besides their bows and arrows, which they carry

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with them, we can hear, now and then, a harquebuss or a musket go off, which they do seldom discharge in vain. Then, after we had staid there three hours, or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer appear on the hills round about us, (their heads making a shew like a wood,) which, being followed close by the tinkhell, are chased down into the valley where we lay; then all the valley, on each side, being way-laid with a hundred couple of strong Irish greyhounds, they are let loose, as occasion serves, upon the herd of deer, that, with dogs, guns, arrows, durks, and daggers, in the space of two hours, fourscore fat deer were slain; which after are disposed of, some one way, and some another, twenty and thirty miles, and more than enough left for us, to make merry withal, at our rendezvous.”

Note II. —————————Yarrow, Where erst the Outlaw drew his arrow.—2.54–55 The tale of the Outlaw Murray, who held out Newark Castle and Ettricke Forest against the king, may be found in the “Border Minstrelsy,” Vol. I. In the Macfarlane MS., among other causes of James the Fifth’s charter to the burgh, is mentioned, that the citizens assisted him to suppress this dangerous outlaw.

Note III. Lone St Mary’s silent lake.—2.147 This beautiful sheet of water forms the reservoir from which the Yarrow takes its source. It is connected with a smaller lake, called the Loch of the Lowes, and surrounded by mountains. In the winter, it is still frequented by flights of wild swans; hence my friend Mr Wordsworth’s lines: The swans on sweet St Mary’s lake Float double, swan and shadow. Near the lower extremity of the lake, are the ruins of Dryhope Tower, the birth-place of Mary Scott, daughter of Philip Scott of Dryhope, and famous by the traditional name of the Flower of Yarrow. She was married to Walter Scott of Harden, no less renowned for his depredations, than his bride for her beauty. Her romantic appellation was, in



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later days, with equal justice, conferred on Miss Mary Lilias Scott, the last of the elder branch of the Harden family. The author well remembers the talent and spirit of the latter Flower of Yarrow, though age had then injured the charms which procured her the name. The words usually sung to the air of “Tweedside,” beginning, “What beauties does Flora disclose,” were composed in her honour.

Note IV. For though, in feudal strife, a foe Hath laid Our Lady’s chapel low.—2.176–77 The chapel of Saint Mary of the Lowes (de lacubus) was situated on the eastern side of the lake, to which it gives name. It was injured by the clan of Scott, in feud with the Cranstouns; but continued to be a place of worship during the seventeenth century. The vestiges of the building can now scarcely be traced; but the burial ground is still used as a cemetery. A funeral, in a spot so very retired, has an uncommonly striking effect. The vestiges of the chaplain’s house are yet visible. Being in a high situation, it commanded a full view of the lake, with the opposite mountain of Bourhope, belonging, like the Loch itself, to Lord Napier. On the left hand is the tower of Dryhope, mentioned in the preceding note.

Note V. ———————the Wizard’s grave; That Wizard Priest’s, whose bones are thrust From company of holy dust.—2.202–04 At one corner of the burial ground of the demolished chapel, but without its precincts, is a small mound, called Binram’s corse, where tradition deposits the remains of a necromantic priest, the former tenant of the chaplainry. His story much resembles that of Ambrosio in the “Monk,” and has been made the theme of a ballad, by my friend Mr James Hogg, more poetically designed the Ettricke Shepherd. To his volume, entitled the “Mountain Bard,” which contains this, and many other legendary stories and ballads of great merit, I refer the curious reader.

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A mountain lake, of considerable size, at the head of the Moffat-water. The character of the scenery is uncommonly savage; and the earn, or Scottish eagle, has, for many ages, built its nest yearly upon an islet in the lake. Loch-skene discharges itself into a brook, which, after a short and precipitate course, falls from a cataract of immense height, and gloomy grandeur, called, from its appearance, the “Grey Mare’s Tail.” The “Giant’s Grave,” afterwards mentioned, is a sort of trench, which bears that name, a little way from the foot of the cataract. It has the appearance of a battery designed to command the pass.

Note VII. Where, from high Whitby’s cloistered pile, Bound to Saint Cuthbert’s Holy Isle.—2.276–77 The Abbey of Whitby, in the Archdeaconry of Cleaveland, on the coast of Yorkshire, was founded A. D. 657, in consequence of a vow of Oswy, King of Northumberland. It contained both monks and nuns of the Benedictine order; but, contrary to what was usual in such establishments, the abbess was superior to the abbot. The monastery was afterwards ruined by the Danes, and rebuilded by William Percy, in the reign of the Conqueror. There were no nuns there in Henry the Eighth’s time, nor long before it. The ruins of Whitby Abbey are very magnificent. Lindisfarne, an isle on the coast of Northumberland, was called Holy Island, from the sanctity of its ancient monastery, and from its having been the episcopal seat of the see of Durham during the early ages of British Christianity. A succession of holy men held that office; but their merits were swallowed up in the superior fame of St Cuthbert, who was sixth bishop of Durham, and who bestowed the name of his “patrimony” upon the extensive property of the see. The ruins of the monastery upon Holy Island betoken great antiquity. The arches are, in general, strictly Saxon; and the pillars which support them, short, strong, and massive. In some places, however, there are pointed windows, which indicate that the building has been repaired at a period long subsequent to the original foundation. The exterior ornaments of the building, being of a light sandy stone, have been wasted, as described in the text. Lindisfarne is not properly an



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island, but rather, as the venerable Bede has termed it, a semi-isle; for, although surrounded by the sea at full tide, the ebb leaves the sands dry between it and the opposite coast of Northumberland, from which it is about two mile distant.

Note VIII. Then Whitby’s nuns exulting told, How to their house three barons bold   Must menial service do.—2.499–501. The popular account of this curious service, which was probably considerably exaggerated, is thus given in “A True Account,” printed and circulated at Whitby: “In the fifth year of the reign of Henry II., after the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, the lord of Uglebarnby, then called William de Bruce; the Lord of Sneaton, called Ralph de Percy; with a gentleman and freeholder called Allatson, did, on the 16th of October, 1159, appoint to meet and hunt the wild boar, in a certain wood, or desart place, belonging to the abbot of Whitby: the place’s name was Eskdale-side; and the abbot’s name was Sedman. Then, these gentlemen being met, with their hounds, and boar-staves, in the place before mentioned, and there having found a great wild boar, the hounds ran him well near about the chapel and hermitage of Eskdale-side, where was a monk of Whitby, who was an hermit. The boar being very sore, and very hotly pursued, and dead-run, took in at the chapel door, there died: whereupon the hermit shut the hounds out of the chapel, and kept himself within at his meditations and prayers, the hounds standing at bay without. The gentlemen, in the thick of the wood, being put behind their game, followed the cry of their hounds, and so came to the hermitage, calling on the hermit, who opened the door, and came forth; and within they found the boar lying dead: for which, the gentlemen, in a very great fury, because their hounds were put from their game, did most violently and cruelly run at the hermit with their boar-staves, whereby he soon after died. Thereupon the gentlemen perceiving and knowing that they were in peril of death, took sanctuary at Scarborough: But at that time the abbot being in very great favour with King Henry, removed them out of the sanctuary; whereby they came in danger of the law, and not to be privileged, but likely to have the severity of the law, which was death. But the hermit being a holy and devout man, and at the point of death, sent for the abbot, and desired him to send for the gentlemen who had wounded him. The abbot so doing, the gentlemen came; and the hermit, being very sick and

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weak, said unto them, ‘I am sure to die of those wounds you have given me.’ The abbot answered, ‘They shall as surely die for the same.’ But the hermit answered, ‘Not so, for I will freely forgive them my death, if they will be contented to be enjoined this penance for the safeguard of their souls.’ The gentlemen being present, and terrified with the fear of death, bid him enjoin what penance he would so that he would but save their lives. Then said the hermit: ‘You and yours shall hold your lands of the abbot of Whitby, and his successors, in this manner: That, upon Ascension-eve, you, or some of you, shall come to the wood of the Stray-heads, which is in Eskdale-side, the same day at sun-rising, and there shall the abbot’s officer blow his horn, to the intent you may know where to find him; and he shall deliver unto you, William de Bruce, ten stakes, eleven strout stowers, and eleven yethers, to be cut by you, or some of you, with a knife of one penny price; and you, Ralph de Percy, shall take twenty-one of each sort, to be cut in the same manner; and you, Allatson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut as aforesaid; and to be taken on your backs, and carried to the town of Whitby, and to be there before nine of the clock the same day before mentioned. At the same hour of nine of the clock, if it be full sea, your labour and service shall cease; and, if low water, each of you shall set your stakes to the brim, each stake one yard from the other, and so yether them on each side with your yethers; and so stake on each side with your strout stowers, that they may stand three tides, without removing by the force thereof. Each of you shall do, make, and execute, the said service, at that very hour, every year, except it be full sea at that hour; but when it shall so fall out, this service shall cease. You shall faithfully do this, in remembrance that you did most cruelly slay me; and that you may the better call to God for mercy, repent unfeignedly of your sins, and do good works. The officer of Eskdale-side shall blow, Out on you! Out on you! Out on you! for this heinous crime. If you, or your successors, shall refuse this service, so long as it shall not be full sea at the aforesaid hour, you, or yours, shall forfeit your lands to the abbot of Whitby, or his successors. This I entreat, and earnestly beg, that you may have lives and goods preserved for this service; and I request of you to promise, by your parts in heaven, that it shall be done by you, and your successors, as is aforesaid requested; and I will confirm it by the faith of an honest man.’ Then the hermit said, ‘My soul longeth for the Lord: and I do as freely forgive these men my death, as Christ forgave the thieves on the cross.’ And, in the presence of the abbot and the rest, he said moreover these words: ‘In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, a vinculis enim mortis redemptisti me, Domine veritatis. Amen.’—So he yielded up the ghost the eighth day of December, anno Domini 1159, whose soul God have mercy upon. Amen.”



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This service, it is added, still continues to be performed with the prescribed ceremonies, though not by the proprietors in person. Part of the lands charged therewith are now held by a gentleman of the name of Herbert.

Note IX. The lovely Edelfled.—2.511 She was the daughter of King Oswy, who, in gratitude to heaven for the great victory which he won in 655, against Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, dedicated Edelfleda, then but a year old, to the service of God in the monastery of Whitby, of which St Hilda was then abbess. She afterwards adorned the place of her education with great magnificence.

Note X. ———of thousand snakes, each one Was changed into a coil of stone,   When holy Hilda prayed; ———how sea-fowls’ pinions fail, As over Whitby’s towers they sail.—2.512–18 These two miracles are much insisted upon by all ancient writers, who have occasion to mention either Whitby, or St Hilda. The reliques of the snakes which infested the precincts of the convent, and were, at the abbess’s prayer, not only beheaded, but petrified, are still found about the rocks, and are termed by Protestant fossilists Ammonitæ. The other miracle is thus mentioned by Camden: “It is also ascribed to the power of her sanctity, that these wild geese, which, in the winter, fly in great flocks to the lakes and rivers unfrozen in the southern parts, to the great amazement of every one, fall down suddenly upon the ground, when they are in their flight over certain neighbouring fields hereabouts: a relation I should not have made, if I had not received it from several credible men. But those who are less inclined to heed superstition, attribute it to some occult quality in the ground, and to somewhat of antipathy between it and the geese, such as they say is between wolves and scylla-roots: For, that such hidden tendencies and aversions, as we call sympathies and antipathies, are implanted in many things by provident nature for the preservation of them, is a thing so evident, that every body grants it.” Mr Charlton, in his history

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of Whitby, points out the true origin of the fable, from the number of sea-gulls, that, when flying from a storm, often alight near Whitby; and from the woodcocks, and other birds of passage, who do the same upon their arrival on shore, after a long flight.

Note XI. His body’s resting-place, of old, How oft their patron changed, they told.—2.523–24 St Cuthbert was, in the choice of his sepulchre, one of the most mutable and unreasonable saints in the Calendar. He died A. D. 686, in a hermitage upon the Farne islands, having resigned the bishopric of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, about two years before. His body was brought to Lindisfarne, where it remained until a descent of the Danes, about 763, when the monastery was nearly destroyed. The monks fled to Scotland, with what they deemed their chief treasure, the reliques of St Cuthbert. The saint was, however, a most capricious fellow-traveller; which was the more intolerable, as, like Sinbad’s Old Man of the Sea, he journeyed upon the shoulders of his companions. They paraded him through Scotland for several years, and came as far west as Whithern, in Galloway, whence they attempted to sail for Ireland, but were driven back by tempests. He at length made a halt at Norham; from thence he went to Melrose, where he remained stationary for a short time, and then caused himself to be launched upon the Tweed in a stone coffin, which landed him at Tilmouth, in Northumberland. This boat is finely shaped, ten feet long, three feet and a half in diameter, and only four inches thick; so that, with very little assistance, it might certainly have swam: It still lies, or at least did so a few years ago, in two pieces, beside the ruined chapel of Tillmouth. From Tillmouth, Cuthbert wandered into Yorkshire; and at length made a long stay at Chester-le-street, to which the bishop’s see was transferred. At length, the Danes continuing to infest the country, the monks removed to Rippon for a season; and it was in return from thence to Chester-le-street, that, passing through a forest called Dunholme, the Saint and his carriage became immoveable at a place named Wardlaw, or Wardilaw. Here the Saint chose his place of residence; and all who have seen Durham must admit, that, if difficult in his choice, he evinced taste in at length fixing it. It is said, that the Northumbrian Catholics still keep secret the precise spot of the Saint’s sepulture, which is only entrusted to three persons at a time. When one dies, the survivors associate to them, in his room, a person judged fit to be the depositary of so valuable a secret.



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Note XII. Even Scotland’s dauntless King, and heir, &c.   Before his standard fled.—2.554–59 Every one has heard, that when David I., with his son Henry, invaded Northumberland in 1136, the English host marched against them under the holy banner of St Cuthbert; to the efficacy of which was imputed the great victory which they obtained in the bloody battle of Northallerton, or Cuton-moor. The conquerors were at least as much indebted to the jealousy and intractability of the different tribes who composed David’s army; among which, as mentioned in the text, were the Galwegians, the Britons of Strath-Clyde, the men of Teviotdale and Lothian, with many Norman and German warriors, who asserted the cause of the Empress Maud. See Chalmers’ Caledonia, p. 622.; a most laborious, curious, and interesting publication, from which considerable defects of style and manner ought not to turn aside the Scottish antiquary.

Note XIII. ’Twas he, to vindicate his reign, Edged Alfred’s faulchion on the Dane, And turned the conqueror back again.—2.560–62 Cuthbert, we have seen, had no great reason to spare the Danes, when opportunity offered. Accordingly, I find in Simeon of Durham, that the Saint appeared in a vision to Alfred, when lurking in the marshes of Glastonbury, and promised him assistance and victory over his heathen enemies: a consolation which, as was reasonable, Alfred, after the victory of Ashendown, rewarded, by a royal offering at the shrine of the Saint. As to William the Conqueror, the terror spread before his army, when he marched to punish the revolt of the Northumbrians, in 1069, had forced the monks to fly once more to Holy Island with the body of the Saint. It was, however, replaced there before William left the North; and, to balance accounts, the Conqueror having intimated an indiscreet curiosity to view the Saint’s body, he was, while in the act of commanding the shrine to be opened, seized with heat and sickness, accompanied with such a panic terror, that, notwithstanding there was a sumptuous dinner prepared for him, he fled without eating a morsel, (which the monkish historian seems to have thought no small part both of the miracle and the penance,) and never drew his bridle till he got to the river Tees.

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marmion Note XIV. Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame The sea-born beads that bear his name.—2.567–68

Although we do not learn that Cuthbert was, during his life, such an artificer as Dunstan, his brother in sanctity, yet, since his death, he has acquired the reputation of forging those Entrochi which are found among the rocks of Holy Island, and pass there by the name of St Cuthbert’s Beads. While at this task, he is supposed to sit during the night upon a certain rock, and use another as his anvil. This story was probably credited in former days; at least the Saint’s legend contains some not more probable.

Note XV. Old Colwulf.—2.583. Ceolwolf, or Colwulf, King of Northumberland, flourished in the eighth century. He was a man of some learning; for the venerable Bede dedicates to him his “Ecclesiastical History.” He abdicated the throne about 738, and retired to Holy Island, where he died in the odour of sanctity. Saint as Colwulf was, however, I fear the foundation of the penance-vault does not correspond with his character; for it is recorded among his memorabilia, that, finding the air of the island raw and cold, he indulged the monks, whose rule had hitherto confined them to milk or water, with the comfortable privilege of using wine or ale. If any rigid antiquary insists on this objection, he is welcome to suppose the penance-vault was intended, by the founder, for the more genial purposes of a cellar. These penitential-vaults were the Geissel-gewolbe of German convents. In the earlier and more rigid times of monastic discipline, they were sometimes used as a cemetry for the lay benefactors of the convent, whose unsanctified corpses were then seldom permitted to pollute the choir. They also served as places of meeting for the chapter, when measures of uncommon severity were to be adopted. But their most frequent use, as implied by the name, was as a place for performing penances, or undergoing punishment.



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Note XVI. Tynemouth’s haughty Prioress.—2.638 That there was an ancient priory at Tynemouth is certain. Its ruins are situated on a high rocky point; and, doubtless, many a vow was made to offer at the shrine by the distressed mariners, who drove towards the iron-bound coast of Northumberland in stormy weather. It was anciently a nunnery; for Virca, abbess of Tynemouth, presented St Cuthbert (yet alive) with a rare winding-sheet, in emulation of a holy lady called Tuda, who had sent him a coffin: But, as in the case of Whitby, and of Holy Island, introduction of nuns at Tynemouth, in the reign of Henry VIII., is an anachronism. The nunnery at Holy Island is altogether fictitious. Indeed, St Cuthbert was unlikely to permit such an establishment; for, notwithstanding his accepting the mortuary gifts above mentioned, and his carrying on a visiting acquaintance with the abbess of Coldingham, he certainly hated the whole female sex; and, in revenge of a slippery trick played to him by an Irish princess, he, after death, inflicted severe penances on such as presumed to approach within a certain distance of his shrine.

Note XVII. On those the wall was to inclose,   Alive, within the tomb.—2.734–35 It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman vestals in a similar case. A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive walls of the convent; a slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, Vade in Pace, were the signal for immuring the criminal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was often resorted to; but, among the ruins of the abbey of Coldingham, were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and position of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured nun.

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marmion NOTES TO CANTO THIRD Note I. The village inn.—3.275

The accommodations of a Scottish hostelrie, or inn, in the 16th century, may be collected from Dunbar’s admirable tale of “The Friars of Berwick.” Simon Lawder, “the gay ostlier,” seems to have lived very comfortably; and his wife decorated her person with a scarlet kirtle, and a belt of silk and silver, and rings upon her fingers. She feasts her paramour with rabbits, capons, partridges, and Bourdeaux wine. At least, if the Scottish inns were not good, it was not for want of encouragement from the legislature; who, so early as the reign of James I., not only enacted, that in all boroughs and fairs there be hostellaries, having stables and chambers, and provision for man and horse, but, by another statute, ordained, that no man, travelling on horse or foot, should presume to lodge any where except in these hostellaries; and that no person, save innkeepers, should receive such travellers, under the penalty of forty shillings, for exercising such hospitality.1 But, in spite of these provident enactments, the Scottish hostels are but indifferent, and strangers continue to find reception in the houses of individuals. Note II. The death of a dear friend.—3.459 Among other omens to which faithful credit is given among the Scottish peasantry, is what is called the “dead-bell,” explained, by my friend James Hogg, to be that tinkling in the ears which the country people regard as the secret intelligence of some friend’s decease. He tells a story to the purpose in the “Mountain Bard,” p. 26. Note III. The Goblin-Hall.—3.575 A vaulted hall under the ancient castle of Gifford, or Yester, (for it bears either name indifferently,) the construction of which has, from 1

James I. Parliament I. cap. 24; Parliament III. cap 56.



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a very remote period, been ascribed to magic. The Statistical Account of the Parish of Garvald and Baro, gives the following account of the present state of this castle and apartment: “Upon a peninsula, formed by the water of Hopes on the east, and a large rivulet on the west, stands the ancient castle of Yester. Sir David Dalrymple, in his Annals, relates, that, ‘Hugh Gifford de Yester died in 1267; that in his castle there was a capacious cavern formed by magical art, and called in the country Bo-Hall. i. e. Hobgoblin Hall.’ A stair of twenty-four steps led down to this apartment, which is a large and spacious hall, with an arched roof; and though it hath stood for so many centuries, and been exposed to the external air for a period of fifty or sixty years, it is still as firm and entire as if it had only stood a few years. From the floor of this hall, another stair of thirty-six steps leads down to a pit which hath a communication with Hopes-water. A great part of the walls of this large and ancient castle are still standing. There is a tradition, that the castle of Yester was the last fortification in this country, that surrendered to General Gray, sent into Scotland by Protector Somerset.” Statistical Account, Vol. XIII. I have only to add, that, in 1737, the Goblin Hall was tenanted by the Marquis of Tweedale’s falconer, as I learn from a poem by Boyse, entitled “Retirement,” written upon visiting Yester. It is now rendered inaccessible by the fall of the stair. Sir David Dalrymple’s authority for the anecdote is Fordun, whose words are,—“A. D. mcclxvii, Hugo Giffard de Yester moritur; cujus castrum, vel saltem caveam, et dongionem, arte dæmonicá antiquæ relationes ferunt fabrifactas: nam ibidem habetur mirabilis specus subterraneus, opere mirifico constructus, magno terrarum spatio protelatus, qui communiter Bo-hall appellatus est.” Lib. X. cap. 21.—Sir David conjectures, that Hugh de Gifford must have been either a very wise man, or a great oppressor.

Note IV. There floated Haco’s banner trim, Above Norweyan warriors grim.—3.596–97 In 1263, Haco, King of Norway, came into the Firth of Clyde with a powerful armament, and made a descent at Largs, in Ayrshire. Here he was encountered and defeated, on the 2d October, by Alexander III. Haco retreated to Orkney, where he died soon after this disgrace to his arms. There are still existing, near the place of battle, many barrows, some of which, having been opened, were found, as usual, to contain bones and urns.

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marmion Note V. His wizard habit strange.—3.604

Magicians, as is well known, were very curious in the choice and form of their vestments. “Their caps are oval, or like pyramids, with lappets on each side, and fur within. Their gowns are long, and furred with fox-skins, under which they have a linen garment, reaching to the knee. Their girdles are three inches broad, and have many cabalistical names, with crosses, trines, and circles, inscribed on them. Their shoes should be of new russet leather, with a cross cut upon them. Their knives are dagger fashion; and their swords have neither guard nor scabbard.” See these, and many other particulars, in the Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits, annexed to Reginald Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, edition 1665.

Note VI. Upon his breast a pentacle.—3.611 “A pentacle is a piece of fine linen, folded with five corners, according to the five senses, and suitably inscribed with characters. This the magician extends towards the spirits which he evokes, when they are stubborn and rebellious, and refuse to be conformable unto the ceremonies and rites of magic.” See the Discourse, &c. above mentioned, p. 66.

Note VII. As born upon that blessed night, When yawning graves, and dying groan, Proclaimed hell’s empire overthrown.—3.649–51 It is a popular article of faith, that those who are born on Christmas, or Good-Friday, have the power of seeing spirits, and even of commanding them. The Spaniards imputed the haggard and down-cast looks of their Philip II., to the disagreeable visions to which this privilege subjected him.



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Note VIII. Yet still the knightly spear and shield The elfin warrior doth wield,   Upon the brown hill’s crest.—3.743–45 The following extract from the Essay upon the Fairy Superstitions, in “The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” Vol. II., will shew whence many of the particulars of the combat between Alexander III. and the Goblin Knight are derived: “Gervase of Tilbury (Otia Imperial. ap. Script. rer. Brunsvic, Vol. I. p. 979.) relates the following popular story concerning a fairy knight: ‘Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited a noble family in the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. Among other stories related in the social circle of his friends, who, according to custom, amused each other by repeating ancient tales and traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by moonlight, and challenged an adversary to appear, he would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight. Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain, which was surrounded by an ancient entrenchment. On repeating the challenge, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom he quickly unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. During this operation, his ghostly opponent sprung up, and, darting his spear, like a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with the horse, which he committed to the care of his servants, The horse was of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and apparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keeper till cock-crowing, when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and vanished. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that he was wounded, and that one of his steel-boots was full of blood. Gervase adds, that, as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the spirit.’”—Less fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who, travelling by night, with a single companion, came in sight of a Fairy host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight pricked forward to break a lance with a champion, who advanced from the ranks, apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian overthrown, horse and man, by his aërial adversary; and returning to the spot next morning, he found the mangled corpses of the knight and steed.—Hierarchie of Blessed Angels, p. 554. Besides the instances of Elfin Chivalry, above quoted, many others might be alleged in support of employing Fairy machinery in this

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manner. The forest of Glenmore, in the North Highlands, is believed to be haunted by a spirit called Lham-dearg, in the array of an ancient warrior, having a bloody-hand, from which he takes his name. He insists upon those with whom he meets doing battle with him; and the clergyman, who makes up an account of the district, extant in the Macfarlane MS., in the Advocates’ Library, gravely assures us, that, in his time, Lham-dearg fought with three brothers whom he met in his walk, none of whom long survived the ghostly conflict. Barclay, in his “Euphormion,” gives a singular account of an officer who had ventured, with his servant, rather to intrude upon a haunted house, in a town in Flanders, than to put up with worse quarters elsewhere. After taking the usual precautions of providing fires, lights, and arms, they watched till midnight, when, behold! the severed arm of a man dropped from the ceiling; this was followed by the legs, the other arm, the trunk, and the head of the body, all separated. The members rolled together, united themselves in the presence of the astonished soldiers, and formed a gigantic warrior, who defied them both to combat. Their blows, although they penetrated the body, and amputated the limbs of their strange antagonist, had, as the reader may easily believe, little effect on an enemy who possessed such powers of self-union; nor did his efforts make more effectual impression upon them. How the combat terminated I do not exactly remember, and have not the book by me; but I think the spirit made to the intruders on his mansion the usual proposal, that they should renounce their redemption; which being declined, he was obliged to retreat. The most singular tale of the kind is contained in an extract communicated to me by my friend Mr Surtees of Mainsforth, in the bishopric, who copied it from a MS. note in a copy of Burthogge “On the Nature of Spirits,” 8vo, 1694, which had been the property of the late Mr Gill, attorney-general to Egerton, Bishop of Durham. “It was not,” says my obliging correspondent, “in Mr Gill’s own hand, but probably an hundred years older, and was said to be, E libro Convent. Dunelm. per T. C. extract., whom I believe to have been Thomas Cradocke, Esq. barrister, who held several offices under the see of Durham an hundred years ago. Mr Gill was possessed of most of his manuscripts.” The extract, which, in fact, suggested the introduction of the tale into the present poem, runs thus: “Rem miram hujusmodi quæ nostris temporibus evenit, teste viro nobili ac fide dignissimo, enarrare haud pigebit. Radulphus Bulmer, cum e castris quæ tunc temporis prope Norham posita erant, oblectationis causa exiissit, ac in ulteriore Tuedæ ripá prædam cum canibus leporariis insequeretur, forte cum Scoto quodam nobili, sibi antehac ut videbatur familiariter cognito, congressus est; ac ut fas erat inter inimicos, flagrante bello, brevissimá



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interrogationis morá interpositá, alterutros invicem incitato cursu infestis animis petiere. Noster, primo occursu, equo præ acerrimo hostis impetu labante, in terram eversus pectore et capite læso, sanguinem, mortuo similis, evomebat. Quem ut se ægre habentem comiter allocutus est alter, pollicitusque modo auxilium non abnegaret, monitisque obtemperans ab omni rerum sacrarum cogitatione abstineret, nec Deo, Deiparæ Virgini, Sanctove ullo, preces aut vota efferret vel inter sese conciperet, se brevi eum sanum validumque restiturum esse. Præ angore oblata conditio accepta est; ac veterator ille nescio quid obscœni murmuris insusurrans, prehensa manu, dicto citius in pedes sanum ut antea sublevavit. Noster autem, maxima præ rei inauditâ novitate formidine perculsus, Mi Jesu! exclamat, vel quid simile; ac subite respiciens nec hostem nec ullum alium conspicit, equum solum gravissimo nuper casu aflictum, per summam pacem in rivo fluvii pascentem. Ad castra itaque mirabundus revertens, fidei dubius, rem primo occultavit, dein confecto bello, Confessori suo totam asseruit. Delusoria procul dubio res tota, ac mala veteratoris illius aperitur fraus, qua hominem Christianum ad vetitum tale auxilium pelliceret. Nomen atcunque illius (nobilis alias ac clarij) reticendum duco, cum haud dubium sit quin Diabolus, Deo permittente, formam quam libuerit, immo angeli lucis, sacro oculo Dei teste, posse assumere.” The MS. chronicle, from which Mr Cradocke took this curious extract, cannot now be found in the chapter library of Durham, or, at least, has hitherto escaped the researches of my obliging correspondent, Mr Surtees. Lindesay is made to allude to this adventure of Ralph Bulmer, as a well known story, in the 4th Canto, Stanza XXII. p. 210. The northern champions of old were accustomed peculiarly to search for, and delight in, encounters with such military spectres. See a whole chapter on the subject in Bartholinus De Causis contemptæ Mortis a Danis, p. 253.

NOTES TO CANTO FOURTH Note I. Close to the hut, no more his own, Close to the aid he sought in vain, The morn may find the stiffened swain.—4.89–91 I cannot help here mentioning, that, on the night in which these lines were written, suggested, as they were, by a sudden fall of snow,

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b­ eginning after sunset, an unfortunate man perished exactly in the manner here described, and his body was next morning found close to his own house. The accident happened within five miles of the farm of Ashestiel.

Note II. Scarce had lamented Forbes paid, &c.—4.132 Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Baronet; unequalled, perhaps, in the degree of individual affection entertained for him by his friends, as well as in the general respect and esteem of Scotland at large. His “Life of Beattie,” whom he befriended and patronised in life, as well as celebrated after his decease, was not long published, before the benevolent and affectionate biographer was called to follow the subject of his narrative. This melancholy event very shortly succeeded the marriage of the friend, to whom this introduction is addressed, with one of Sir William’s daughters.

Note III. Friar Rush.—4.246 This personage is a strolling demon, or esprit follet, who, once upon a time, got admittance into a monastery as a scullion, and played the monks many pranks. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow, and Jack o’ Lanthorn. It is in allusion to this mischievous demon that Milton’s clown speaks,— She was pinched, and pulled, she said, And he by friar’s lanthorn led. “The History of Friar Rush” is of extreme rarity, and, for some time, even the existence of such a book was doubted, although it is expressly alluded to by Reginald Scot, in his “Discovery of Witchcraft.” I have perused a copy in the valuable library of my friend Mr Heber; and I observe, from Mr Beloe’s “Anecdotes of Literature,” that there is one in the excellent collection of the Marquis of Stafford.



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Note IV. Sir David Lindesay of the Mount,   Lord Lion King-at-arms.—4.368–69 The late elaborate edition of Sir David Lindesay’s Works, by Mr George Chalmers, has probably introduced him to many of my readers. It is perhaps to be regretted, that the learned editor had not bestowed more pains in elucidating his author, even although he should have omitted, or at least reserved his disquisitions on the origin of the language used by the poet:1 But, with all its faults, his work is an acceptable present to Scottish antiquaries. Sir David Lindesay was well known for his early efforts in favour of the reformed doctrines; and, indeed, his play, coarse as it now seems, must have had a powerful effect upon the people of his age. I am uncertain if I abuse poetical license, by introducing Sir David Lindesay in the character of LionHerald, sixteen years before he obtained that office. At any rate, I am not the first who has been guilty of the anachronism; for the author of “Flodden Field” dispatches Dallamount, which can mean nobody but Sir David de la Mont, to France, on the message of defiance from James IV. to Henry VIII. It was often an office imposed on the Lion King-at-arms, to receive foreign embassadors; and Lindesay himself did this honour to Sir Ralph Sadler in 1539–40. Indeed, the oath of the Lion, in its first article, bears reference to his frequent employment upon royal messages and embassies. 1

I beg leave to quote a single instance from a very interesting passage. Sir David, recounting his attention to King James V., in his infancy, is made, by the learned editor’s punctuation, to say, — The first sillabis, that thou did mute Was pa, da, lyn, upon the lute; Then played I twenty springis perqueir, Quhilk was great plesour for to hear.           Vol. I. p. 7. 257.

Mr Chalmers does not inform us, by note, or glossary, what is meant by the king “muting pa, da, lyn, upon the lute;” but any old woman in Scotland will bear witness, that pa, da, lyn, are the first efforts of a child to say, Whare’s Davie Lindesay? and that the subsequent words begin another sentence,— ————————upon the lute Then playd I twenty springis perqueir, &c. In another place, “justing lumis,” i.e. looms, or implements of tilting, is facetiously interpreted “playful limbs.” Many such minute errors could be pointed out; but these are only mentioned incidentally, and not as diminishing the real merit of the edition.

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The office of heralds, in feudal times, being held of the utmost importance, the inauguration of the Kings-at-arms, who presided over their colleges, was proportionally solemn. In fact, it was the mimicry of a royal coronation, except that the unction was made with wine instead of oil. In Scotland, a namesake and kinsman of Sir David Lindesay, inaugurated in 1592, “was crowned by King James with the ancient crown of Scotland, which was used before the Scottish kings assumed a close crown;” and, on occasion of the same solemnity, dined at the king’s table, wearing the crown. It is probable that the coronation of his predecessor was not less solemn. So sacred was the herald’s office, that, in 1515, Lord Drummond was by parliament declared guilty of treason, and his lands forfeited, because he had struck, with his fist, the Lion King-at-arms, when he reproved him for his follies.1 Nor was he restored, but at the Lion’s earnest solicitation.

Note V. Crichtoun-Castle.—4.409 A large ruinous castle on the banks of the Tyne, about eleven miles from Edinburgh. As indicated in the text, it was built at different times, and with a very differing regard to splendour and accommodation. The oldest part of the building is a narrow keep, or tower, such as formed the mansion of a lesser Scottish baron; but so many additions have been made to it, that there is now a large court-yard, surrounded by buildings of different ages. The eastern front of the court is raised above a portico, and decorated with entablatures, bearing anchors. All the stones of this front are cut into diamond facets, the angular projections of which have an uncommonly rich appearance. The inside of this part of the building appears to have contained a gallery of great length, and uncommon elegance. Access was given to it by a magnificent stair-case, now quite destroyed. The soffits are ornamented with twining cordage and rosettes; and the whole seems to have been far more splendid than was usual in Scottish castles. The castle belonged originally to the Chancellor Sir William Crichton, and probably owed to him its first enlargement, as well as its being taken by the Earl of Douglas, who imputed to Crichton’s counsels the death of his prede1

The record expresses, or rather is said to have expressed, the cause of forfeiture to be,—“Eo quod Leonem, armorum Regem pugno violasset, dum eum de ineptiis suis admonet.” See Nisbet’s Heraldry, Part IV. chap. 16.; and Leslæi Historia ad Annum 1515.



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cessor Earl William, beheaded in Edinburgh Castle, with his brother, in 1440. It is said to have been totally demolished on that occasion; but the present state of the ruins shews the contrary. In 1483, it was garrisoned by Lord Crichton, then its proprietor, against King James III., whose displeasure he had incurred by seducing his sister Margaret, in revenge, it is said, for the monarch having dishonoured his bed. From the Crichton family the castle passed to that of the Hepburns, Earls Bothwell; and when the forfeitures of Stewart, the last Earl Bothwell, were divided, the barony and castle of Crichton fell to the share of the Earl of Buccleuch. They were afterwards the property of the Pringles of Clifton, and are now that of Sir John Callander, Baronet. It were to be wished the proprietor would take a little pains to preserve these splendid remains of antiquity, which are at present used as a fold for sheep, and wintering cattle; although, perhaps, there are very few ruins in Scotland which display so well the stile and beauty of ancient castle-architecture. The castle of Crichton has a dungeon vault, called the Massy More. The epithet, which is not uncommonly applied to the prisons of other old castles in Scotland, is of Saracenic origin. It occurs twice in the “Epistolæ Itinerariæ” of Tollius: “Carcer subterraneus, sive, ut Mauri appellant, Mazmorra,” p. 147.; and again, “Coguntur omnes Captivi sub noctem in ergastula subterranea, quæ Turcæ Algezerani vocant Mazmorras,” p. 243. The same word applies to the dungeons of the ancient Moorish castles in Spain, and serves to shew from what nation the Gothic stile of castle-building was originally derived.

Note VI. Earl Adam Hepburn.—4.463 He was the second Earl of Bothwell, and fell in the field of Flodden, where, according to an ancient English poet, he distinguished himself by a furious attempt to retrieve the day:— Then on the Scottish part, right proud,   The Earl of Bothwell then out brast, And stepping forth, with stomach good,   Into the enemies throng he thrast; And Bothwell! Bothwell! cried bold,   To cause his souldiers to ensue, But there he caught a wellcome cold,   The Englishmen straight down him threw.              Flodden Field.

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Adam was grandfather to James, Earl of Bothwell, too well known in the history of Queen Mary.

Note VII. For that a messenger from heaven In vain to James had counsel given   Against the English war.—4.493–95 This story is told by Pitscottie with characteristic simplicity: “The king, seeing that France would get no support of him for that time, made a proclamation, full hastily, through all the realm of Scotland, both east and west, south and north, as well in the Isles as in the firm land, to all manner of man betwixt sixty and sixteen years, that they should be ready, within twenty days, to pass with him, with forty days victual, and to meet at the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh, and there to pass forward where he pleased. His proclamations were hastily obeyed, contrary the Council of Scotland’s will; but every man loved his prince so well, that they would, on no ways, disobey him; but every man caused make his proclamation so hastily, conform to the charge of the king’s proclamation. “The king came to Lithgow, where he happened to be for the time at the Council, very sad and dolorous, making his devotion to God, to send him good chance and fortune in his voyage. In this mean time, there came a man clad in a blue gown in at the kirk-door, and belted about him in a roll of linen-cloth; a pair of brotikings1 on his feet, to the great of his legs; with all other hose and clothes conform thereto; but he had nothing on his head, but syde2 red yellow hair behind, and on his haffets,3 which wan down to his shoulders; but his forehead was bald and bare. He seemed to be a man of two-and-fifty years, with a great pike-staff in his hand, and came first forward among the lords, crying and speiring4 for the king, saying, he desired to speak with him. While, at the last, he came where the king was sitting in the desk at his prayers; but when he saw the king, he made him little reverence or salutation, but leaned down groflins on the desk before him, and said to him in this manner, as after follows: ‘Sir king, my mother hath sent me to you, desiring you not to pass, at this time, where thou art purposed; for if thou does, thou wilt not fare well in thy journey, nor none that passeth with thee. Further, she bade thee mell5 with no woman, nor 1

Buskins. 

2

Long. 

3

Cheeks. 

4

Asking. 

5

Meddle.



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use their counsel, nor let them touch thy body, nor thou theirs; for, if thou do it, thou wilt be confounded and brought to shame.’ “By this man had spoken thir words unto the king’s grace, the evening song was near done, and the king paused on thir words, studying to give him an answer; but, in the mean time, before the king’s eyes, and in the presence of all the lords that were about him for the time, this man vanished away, and could no ways be seen or comprehended, but vanished away as he had been a blink of the sun, or a whip of the whirlwind, and could no more be seen. I heard say, Sir David Lindesay, lyon-herauld, and John Inglis the marshal, who were, at that time, young men, and special servants to the king’s grace, were standing presently beside the king, who thought to have laid hands on this man, that they might have speired further tidings at him: But all for nought; they could not touch him; for he vanished away betwixt them, and was no more seen.” Buchanan, in more elegant, though not more impressive language, tells the same story, and quotes the personal information of our Sir David Lindesay: “In iis (i. e. qui proprius astiterant) fuit David Lindesius, Montanus, homo spectatæ fidei et probitatis, nec a literarum studiis alienus, et cujus totæ vitæ tenor longissime a mentiendo aberrat; a quo nisi ego hæc uti tradidi, pro certis accepissem, ut vulgatam vanis rumoribus fabulam, omissurus eram.” Lib. XIII.—The king’s throne, in St Catherine’s aisle, which he had constructed for himself, with twelve stalls for the Knights Companions of the Order of the Thistle, is still shewn as the place where the apparition was seen. I know not by what means St Andrew got the credit of having been the celestial monitor of James IV.; for the expression in Lindesay’s narrative, “My mother has sent me,” could only be used by St John, the adopted son of the Virgin Mary. The whole story is so well attested, that we have only the choice between a miracle or an imposture. Mr Pinkerton plausibly argues, from the caution against incontinence, that the queen was privy to the scheme of those who had recourse to this expedient, to deter King James from his impolitic warfare.

Note VIII. The wild buck bells.—4.506 I am glad of an opportunity to describe the cry of the deer by another word than braying, although the latter has been sanctified by the use of the Scottish metrical translation of the Psalms. Bell seems to be an abbreviation of bellow. This sylvan sound conveyed great delight to

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our ancestors, chiefly, I suppose, from association. A gentle knight in the reign of Henry VIII., Sir Thomas Wortley, built Wantley Lodge, in Wancliffe Forest, for the pleasure (as an ancient inscription testifies,) of “listening to the hart’s bell.”

Note IX. June saw his father’s overthrow.—4.513 The rebellion against James III. was signalized by the cruel circumstance of his son’s presence in the hostile army. When the king saw his own banner displayed against him, and his son in the faction of his enemies, he lost the little courage he ever possessed, fled out of the field, fell from his horse as it started at a woman and water pitcher, and was slain, it is not well understood by whom. James IV., after the battle, passed to Stirling, and hearing the monks of the chapel-royal deploring the death of his father, their founder, he was seized with deep remorse, which manifested itself in severe penances. See a following Note on Canto V. The battle of Sauchie-burn, in which James III. fell, was fought 18th June, 1488.

Note X. Spread all the Borough-moor below, &c.—4.736 The Borough, or Common Moor of Edinburgh, was of very great extent, reaching from the southern walls of the city to the bottom of Braid Hills. It was anciently a forest; and, in that state, was so great a nuisance, that the inhabitants of Edinburgh had permission granted to them of building wooden galleries, projecting over the street, in order to encourage them to consume the timber; which they seem to have done very effectually. When James IV. mustered the array of the kingdom there, in 1513, the Borough-Moor was, according to Hawthornden, “a field spacious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.” Upon that, and similar occasions, the royal standard is traditionally said to have been displayed from the Hare Stane, a high stone, now built into the wall, on the left hand of the high-way leading towards Braid, not far from the head of Bruntsfieldlinks. The Hare Stone probably derives its name from the British word Har, signifying an army.



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Note XI. O’er the pavilions flew.—4.782 I do not exactly know the Scottish mode of encampment in 1513, but Patten gives a curious description of that which he saw after the battle of Pinkey, in 1547:—“Here now to say some what of the manner of their camp: As they had no pavilions, or round houses, of any commendable compas, so wear there few other tentes with posts, as the used maner of making is; and of these few also, none of above twenty foot length, but most far under; for the most part all very sumptuously beset, (after their fashion,) for the love of France, with fleur-de-lys, some of blue buckeram, some of black, and some of some other colours. These white ridges, as I call them, that, as we stood on Fauxsyde Bray, did make so great muster toward us, which I did take then to be a number of tentes, when we came, we found it a linnen drapery, of the coarser cambryk in dede, for it was all of canvas sheets, and wear the tenticles, or rather cabayns and couches of their soldiers; the which (much after the common building of their country beside) had they framed of four sticks, about an ell long a piece, whearof two fastened together at one end aloft, and the two endes beneath stuck in the ground, an ell asunder, standing in fashion like the bowe of a sowes yoke; over two such bowes (one, as it were, at their head, the other at their feet,) they stretched a sheet down on both sides, whereby their cabin became roofed like a ridge, but skant shut at both ends, and not very close beneath on the sides, unless their sticks were the shorter, or their wives the more liberal to lend them larger napery; howbeit, when they had lined them, and stuff’d them so thick with straw, with the weather as it was not very cold, when they wear ones couched, they were as warm as they had been wrapt in horses dung.”—Patten’s Account of Somerset’s Expedition.

Note XII.   ———in proud Scotland’s royal shield, The ruddy Lion ramped in gold.—4.792–93 The well-known arms of Scotland. If you will believe Boethius and Buchanan, the double tressure round the shield, mentioned p. 193., counter fleur-de-lised or, lingued and armed azure, was first assumed by Achaius, King of Scotland, contemporary of Charlemagne, and founder of the celebrated League with France; but later antiquaries make poor Eochy, or Achy, little better than a sort of King of Brentford,

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whom old Grig (who has also swelled into Gregorius Magnus,) associated with himself in the important duty of governing some part of the north-eastern coast of Scotland.

NOTES TO CANTO FIFTH Note I. Caledonia’s Queen is changed.—5.37 The Old Town of Edinburgh was secured on the north side by a lake, now drained, and on the south by a wall, which there was some attempt to make defensible even so late as 1745. The gates, and the greater part of the wall, have been pulled down, in the course of the late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city. My ingenious and valued friend, Mr Thomas Campbell, proposed to celebrate Edinburgh under the epithet here borrowed. But the “Queen of the North” has not been so fortunate as to receive from so eminent a pen the proposed distinction. Note II. Flinging thy white arms to the sea.—Line 5.57 Since writing this line, I find I have inadvertently borrowed it almost verbatim, though with somewhat a different meaning, from a chorus in “Caractacus:” Britain heard the descant bold.   She flung her white arms o’er the sea, Proud in her leafy bosom to enfold   The freight of harmony. Note III. Since first, when conquering York arose, To Henry meek she gave repose.—5.117–18 Henry VI., with his queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal battle of Towton. In this note a doubt was



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formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his queen certainly did; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks to his lordship’s ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King himself, at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane’s MSS. p. 119, 120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the distressed Monarch and his family, called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The English people, he says,— Ung nouveau roy créerent,   Par despiteux vouloir, Le vieil en deboutérent,   Et son legitime hoir, Qui fuytyf alla prendre   D’Escossé le garand, De tous siecles le mendre,   Et le plus tollerant.       Recollection des Advenuës.

Note IV. ————the romantic strain, Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere Could win the Royal Henry’s ear.—5.138–40 Mr Ellis, in his valuable Introduction to the “Specimens of Romance,” has proved, by the concurring testimony of La Ravaillere, Tressan, but especially the Abbe de la Rue, that the courts of our Anglo-Norman kings, rather than those of the French monarchs, produced the birth of romance literature. Marie, soon after mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into Norman-French, or romance language, the twelve curious Lays, of which Mr Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction. The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I., needs no commentary.

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marmion Note V. The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail.—5.208

This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII. and the Cornish insurgents, in 1496, the Bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked band of archers from the rebel army, “whose arrows,” says Hollinshed, “were in length a full clothyard.” The Scottish, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts. Note VI. To pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain, And high curvett, that not in vain The sword-sway might descend amain   On foeman’s casque below.—5.222–25 “The most useful air, as the Frenchmen term it, is territerr; the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it, in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword, strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from their horses to the ground.” Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s Life, p. 48. Note VII. He saw the hardy burghers there March armed, on foot, with faces bare.—5.226–27 The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good axe instead of a bow, if worth L. 100: their armour to be of white or bright harness.



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They wore white hats, i.e. bright steel caps, without crest or visor. By an act of James IV., their weapon-shawings are appointed to be held four times a-year, under the aldermen or bailiffs.

Note VIII. On foot the yeoman too.—5.237 Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used by them. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons cross-bows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, “not for cold, but for cutting.” The mace also was much used in the Scottish army: The old poem on the battle of Flodden, mentions a band— Who manfully did meet their foes,   With leaden mells, and lances long. When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, menat-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light cavalry, acted upon foot.

Note IX. A banquet rich, and costly wines.—5.355 In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem, that a present of wine was an uniform and indispensible preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on embassy to Scotland in 1539–40, mentions, with complacency, “the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the king, both white and red.” Clifford’s Edition, p. 39.

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marmion Note X. ———————his iron belt, That bound his breast in penance pain, In memory of his father slain.—5.440–42

Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief, that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to shew any Scottishman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistence, he sometimes laughed at the superstitious observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar, seemingly addressed to James IV., on one of these occasions of monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the services of the church of Rome, entitled, Dunbar’s Dirige to the King, Byding ower lang in Striviling. We that are here, in heaven’s glory, To you, that are in purgatory, Commend us on our hearty wise; I mean we folks in Paradise. In Edinburgh, with all merriness, To you in Stirling, with distress, Where neither pleasure nor delight is, For pity this epistle wrytis, &c. See the whole in Sibbald’s Collection, Vol. I. p. 234. Note XI. Sir Hugh the Heron’s wife held sway.—5.454 It has been already noticed, that King James’ acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our



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historians impute to the king’s infatuated passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of “The Genealogy of the Heron Family” endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal: that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See Pinkerton’s History, and the authorities he refers to, Vol. II. p. 99. Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort, accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers. Lilburn, and Heron of Ford, were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford’s negociations with James was the liberty of her husband.

Note XII.   For the fair Queen of France Sent him a Turquois ring, and glove, And charged him, as her knight and love,   For her to break a lance.—5.462–65 “Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, shewing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake. To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay his expenses.” Pitscottie, pp. 171–72.—A turquois ring;— probably this fatal gift is, with James’s sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.

Note XIII. Archibald Bell-the-Cat.—5.591 Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat, upon the following remarkable occasion: James the Third, of whom Pitscottie complains, that he delighted more in music, and “policies of building,” than in hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill advised,

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as to make favourites of his architects and musicians, whom the same historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His nobility, who did not sympathise in the king’s respect for the fine arts, were extremely incensed at the honours conferred on these persons, particularly on Cochrane, a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar. And seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the king had convoked the whole array of the country to march against the English, they held a midnight council in the church of Lauder, for the purpose of forcibly removing these minions from the king’s person. When all had agreed on the propriety of the measure, Lord Gray told the assembly the apologue of the Mice; who had formed a resolution, that it would be highly advantageous to their community to tie a bell round the cat’s neck, that they might hear her approach at a distance; but which public measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being willing to undertake the task of fastening the bell. “I understand the moral,” said Angus, “and, that what we propose may not lack execution, I will bell the cat.” The rest of the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie:— “By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the Earl of Mar, came from the king to the council, (which council was holden in the kirk of Lawder for the time,) who was well accompanied with a band of men of war, to the number of three hundred light axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar’s men. Himself was clad in a riding-pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing horns, with both the ends of gold and silk, set with precious stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his heumont born before him, overgilt with gold; and so were all the rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk, and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon his pallions were double overgilt with gold. “This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door. The council enquired who it was that perturbed them at that time. Sir Robert Douglas, laird of Lochlevin, was keeper of the kirk-door at that time, who enquired who that was that knocked so rudely? and Cochran answered, ‘This is I, the Earl of Mar.’ The which news pleased well the lords, because they were ready bound to cause take him, as is afore rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochlevin, there to receive in the Earl of Mar, and so many of his complices who were there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from his craig, and said to



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him, a tow1 would set him better. Sir Robert Douglas syne pulled the blowing-horn from him in like manner, and said, “He had been the hunter of mischief over long.” This Cochran asked, “My lords, is it mows,2 or earnest?” They answered, and said, it is good earnest, and so thou shalt find: for thou and thy complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt have no more credence, but shall have thy reward according to thy good service, as thou hast deserved in times bypast; right so the rest of thy followers. “Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain armed men to pass into the king’s pallion, and two or three wise men to pass with them, and give the king fair pleasant words, till they laid hands on all the king’s servants, and took them and hanged them before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to take one of his own pallion-tows and bind his hands, for he thought shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief. The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and, for despight, they took a hair tether,3 and hanged him over the bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices.”—Pitscottie, pp. 123–25.

Note XIV.   Against the war had Angus stood, And chafed his royal Lord.—5.606–07 Angus was an old man when the war against England was resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its commencement; and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the king said to him, with scorn and indignation, “if he was afraid, he might go home.” The earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired accordingly, leaving his sons, George, master of Angus, and Sir William of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of Douglas. The aged earl, brokenhearted at the calamities of his house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died about a year after the field of Flodden.

1

Rope. 

2

Jest. 

3

Halter.

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marmion Note XV. Then rest you in Tantallon Hold.—5.622

The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock projecting into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks. Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out against James V. The king went in person against it, and, for its reduction, borrowed from the castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie informs us with laudable minuteness, were “Thrawn-mouth’d Mow and her Marrow;” also, “two great botcards, and two moyan, two double falcons, and four quarter-falcons;” for the safe guiding and redelivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet, notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by treaty with the governor, Simeon Panango. When the Earl of Angus returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, who resided there for some time under Angus’s protection, after the failure of his negociation, for matching the infant Mary with Edward VI. He says, that though the place was poorly furnished, it was of such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger.1 There is a military tradition, that the old Scotch March was meant to express the words, Ding down Tantallon, Mak a brig to the Bass. Tantallon was at length “dung down” and ruined by the Covenanters; its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the eighteenth century to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by the then Marquis of Douglas. 1

The very curious State Papers of this able negociator, are shortly to be published by Mr Clifford, with some Notes, by the Author of Marmion.



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Note XVI. Their motto on his blade.—5.625 A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas, bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a heart, which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1329, being the year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which is quoted by Godscroft as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed around the emblem: So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beine, Of ane surname was ne’er in Scotland seine. I will ye charge, efter yat I depart, To holy gravfe, and thair bury my hart; Let it remane ever bothe tyme and howr, To ye last day I sie my Saviour. I do protest in tyme of al my ringe, Ye lyk subject had never ony keing. This curious and valuable relique was nearly lost during the civil war of 1745–6, being carried away from Douglas-Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chiefs of the partizans of Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.

Note XVII. Martin Swart.—5.782 The name of this German general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swart-moor.—There were songs about him long current in England.—See Dissertation prefixed to Ritson’s Ancient Songs, 1792, page lxi.

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marmion Note XVIII. Perchance some form was unobserved; Perchance in prayer, or faith, he swerved.—5.802–03

It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive shifts, used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of “Amys and Amelion,” the one brother-inarms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that he did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. “Turn, coward!” exclaimed his antagonist; “Thou liest,” said the Italian, “coward am I none; and in this quarrel will I fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it.” “Je vous laisse a penser,” adds Brantome, “s’il ny a pas de l’abus la.” Elsewhere he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory; “Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste subjet de querelle, et qu’on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s’en assuroientt-ils du tout, mesmes que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-a-fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donné une patente; et ne regardant point à d’autres fautes passées, et que Dieu en garde la punition à ce coup là pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire.”—Discours sur les Duels.

Note XIX. Dun-Edin’s cross.—5.904 The Cross of Edinburgh was an ancient and curious structure. The lower part was an octagonal tower, sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle there was a pillar, and between them an arch, of the Grecian shape. Above these was a projecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, and medallions, of rude but curious workmanship, between them. Above this rose the proper Cross, a column of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, surmounted with an unicorn. This pillar is preserved at the House of Drum, near Edinburgh.



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The Magistrates of Edinburgh, in 1756, with consent of the Lords of Session, (proh pudor!) destroyed this curious monument, under a wanton pretext, that it encumbered the street; while, on the one hand, they left an ugly mass, called the Luckenbooths, and, on the other, an awkward, long, and low guard-house, which were fifty times more encumbrance than the venerable and inoffensive Cross. From the tower of the Cross, so long as it remained, the heralds published the acts of Parliament; and its scite, marked by radii, diverging from a stone centre, in the High Street, is still the place where proclamations are made.

Note XX. This awful summons came.—5.930 This supernatural citation is mentioned by all our Scottish historians. It was probably, like the apparition at Linlithgow, an attempt, by those averse to the war, to impose upon the superstitious temper of James IV. The following account from Pitscottie is characteristically minute, and furnishes, besides, some curious particulars of the equipment of the army of James IV. I need only add to it, that Plotcock, or Plutock, is no other than Pluto. The Christians of the middle ages by no means disbelieved in the existence of the heathen deities; they only considered them as devils;1 and Plotcock, so far from implying any thing fabulous, was a synonyme of the grand enemy of mankind. “Yet all thir warnings, and uncouth tidings, nor no good counsel, might stop the king, at this present, from his vain purpose, and wicked enterprize, but hasted him fast to Edinburgh, and there to make his provision and furnishing, in having forth of his army against the day appointed, that they should meet in the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh: That is to say, seven cannons that he had forth of the castle of Edinburgh, which were called the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the mastergunner, with other small artillery, bullet, powder, and all manner of ordnance, as the master-gunner could devise. 1

See, on this curious subject, the Essay on Fairies, in the “Border Minstrelsy,” Vol. II, under the fourth head; also Jackson on Unbelief, p. 175. Chaucer calls Pluto the “King of Faerie;” and Dunbar names him “Pluto, that elrich incubus.” If he was not actually the devil, he must be considered as the “prince of the power of the air.” The most remarkable instance of these surviving classical superstitions, is that of the Germans, concerning the Hill of Venus, into which she attempts to entice all gallant knights, and detains them in a sort of Fools’ Paradise.

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“In this mean time, when they were taking forth their artillery, and the king being in the Abbey for the time, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edinburgh, at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had been a summons, which was named and called by the proclaimer thereof, The Summons of Plotcock; which desired all men to compear, both Earl and Lord, and Baron, and all honest gentlemen within the town (every man specified by his own name,) to compear, within the space of forty days, before his master, where it should happen him to appoint, and be for the time, under the pain of disobedience. But whether this summons was proclaimed by vain persons, night-walkers, or drunk men, for their pastime, or if it was but a spirit, I cannot tell truly; but it was shewn to me, that an indweller of the town, Mr Richard Lawson, being evil-disposed, ganging in his gallery-stair forenent the cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this summons, thought marvel what it should be, cried on his servant to bring him his purse; and when he had brought him it, he took out a crown, and cast over the stair, saying, I appeal from that summons, judgment, and sentence thereof, and takes me all whole in the mercy of God, and Christ Jesus his son. Verily the author of this, that caused me write the manner of the summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the field was striken, he swore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which made his protestation, and appealed from the said summons; but all the lave were perished in the field with the king.” Note XXI. Fitz-Eustace bade them pause a while, Before a venerable pile.—5.1032–33 The convent alluded to is a foundation of Cistertian nuns, near North Berwick, of which there are still some remains. It was founded by Duncan Earl of Fife, in 1216. Note XXII. That one of his own ancestry Drove the Monks forth from Coventry.—5.1108–09 This relates to the catastrophe of a real Robert de Marmion, in the reign of King Stephen, whom William of Newbury describes with



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some attributes of my fictitious hero: “Homo bellicosus, ferocia, et astucia, fere nullo suo tempore impar.” This Baron, having expelled the monks from the church of Coventry, was not long of experiencing the divine judgment, as the same monks no doubt termed his disaster. Having waged a feudal war with the Earl of Chester, Marmion’s horse fell, as he charged in the van of his troop, against a body of the Earl’s followers: the rider’s thigh being broken by the fall, his head was cut off by a common foot-soldier, ere he could receive any succour. The whole story is told by William of Newbury.

NOTES TO CANTO SIXTH Note I. —————————the savage Dane At Iol more deep the mead did drain.—6.6–7 The Iol of heathen Danes, (a word still applied to Christmas in Scotland,) was solemnized with great festivity. The humour of the Danes at table displayed itself in pelting each other with bones; and Torfæus tells a long and curious story, in the history of Hrolfe Kraka, of one Hottus, an inmate of the court of Denmark, who was so generally assailed with these missiles, that he constructed, out of the bones with which he was overwhelmed, a very respectable entrenchment, against those who continued the raillery. The dances of the northern warriors round the great fires of pine-trees are commemorated by Olaus Magnus, who says, they danced with such fury, holding each other by the hands, that, if the grasp of any failed, he was pitched into the fire with the velocity of a sling. The sufferer, on such occasions, was instantly plucked out, and obliged to quaff off a certain measure of ale, as a penalty for “spoiling the king’s fire.”

Note II. On Christmas Eve the mass was sung.— 6.31 In Roman Catholic countries, mass is never said at night, excepting on Christmas eve. Each of the frolics with which that holy day used to be celebrated, might admit of a long and curious note; but I shall content

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myself with the following description of Christmas, and his attributes, as personified in one of Ben Jonson’s Masques for the Court. “Enter Christmas, with two or three of the Guard. He is attired in round hose, long stockings, a close doublet, a high-crowned hat, with a broach, a long thin beard, a truncheon, little ruffs, white shoes, his scarfs and garters tied cross, and his drum beaten before him.— “The names of his children, with their attires. “Miss-Rule, in a velvet cap, with a sprig, a short cloak, great yellow ruff, like a reveller; his torch-bearer bearing a rope, a cheese, and a basket. “Caroll, a long tawny coat, with a red cap, and a flute at his girdle; his torch-bearer carrying a song-book open. “Minc’d-pie, like a fine cook’s wife, drest neat, her man carrying a pie, dish, and spoons. “Gamboll, like a tumbler, with a hoop and bells; his torch-bearer arm’d with cole-staff, and blinding cloth. “Post and Pair, with a pair-royal of aces in his hat, his garment all done over with pairs and purs; his squire carrying a box, cards, and counters. “New-year’s-gift, in a blue coat, serving-man like, with an orange, and a sprig of rosemary gilt on his head, his hat full of broaches, with a collar of gingerbread; his torch-bearer carrying a march-pain, with a bottle of wine on either arm. “Mumming, in a masquing pied suit, with a visor; his torch-bearer carrying the box, and ringing it. “Wassall, like a neat sempster and songster; her page bearing a brown bowl, drest with ribbands, and rosemary, before her. “Offering, in a short gown, with a porter’s staff in his hand; a wyth borne before him, and a bason, by his torch-bearer. “Baby Cocke, drest like a boy, in a fine long coat, biggin, bib, muckender, and a little dagger; his usher bearing a great cake, with a bean and a pease.”

Note III. Who lists may in their mumming see Traces of ancient mystery.—6.74–75 It seems certain, that the Mummers of England, who (in Northumberland at least) used to go about in disguise to the neighbouring houses, bearing the then useless ploughshare; and the Guisards of Scotland, not yet in total disuse, present, in some indistinct degree,



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a shadow of the old mysteries, which were the origin of the English drama. In Scotland, (me ipso testé,) we were wont, during my boyhood, to take the characters of the apostles, at least of Peter, Paul, and Judas Iscariot; the first had the keys, the second carried a sword, and the last the bag, in which the dole of our neighbours’ plumb-cake was deposited. One played a Champion, and recited some traditional rhymes; another was . . . . . . . . . Alexander, king of Macedon, Who conquered all the world but Scotland alone; When he came to Scotland his courage grew cold, To see a little nation courageous and bold. These, and many such verses, were repeated, but by rote, and unconnectedly. There was also occasionally, I believe, a Saint George. In all, there was a confused resemblance of the ancient mysteries, in which the characters of scripture, the Nine Worthies, and other popular personages, were usually exhibited. It were much to be wished, that the Chester Mysteries were published from the MS. in the Museum, with the annotations which a diligent investigator of popular antiquities might still supply. The late acute and valuable antiquary, Mr Ritson, showed me several memoranda towards such a task, which are probably now dispersed or lost. See, however, his Remarks on Shakespeare, 1783, p. 38.—Since the quarto edition of Marmion appeared, this subject has received much elucidation from the learned and extensive labours of Mr Douce. Note IV. Where my great-grandsire came of old, With amber beard, and flaxen hair.—6.95–96 Mr Scott of Harden, my kind and affectionate friend, and distant relation, has the original of a poetical invitation, addressed from his grandfather to my relative, from which a few lines in the text are imitated. They are dated, as the epistle in the text, from Mertoun-house, the seat of the Harden family. “With amber beard, and flaxen hair, And reverend apostolic air, Free of anxiety and care, Come hither, Christmas-day, and dine; We’ll mix sobriety with wine, And easy mirth with thoughts divine.

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marmion We Christians think it holy day, On it no sin to feast or play; Others, in spite, may fast and pray. No superstition in the use Our ancestors made of a goose; Why may not we, as well as they, Be innocently blithe that day, On goose or pye, on wine or ale, And scorn enthusiastic zeal?— Pray come, and welcome, or plague rott Your friend and landlord, Walter Scott.” Mr Walter Scott, Lessudden.

The venerable old gentleman, to whom the lines are addressed, was the younger brother of William Scott of Reaburn. Being the cadet of a cadet of the Harden family, he had very little to lose; yet he contrived to lose some small property he had by his wife, by engaging in the civil wars and intrigues of the house of Stuart. His veneration for the exiled family was so great, that he swore he would not shave his beard till they were restored: a mark of attachment, which, I suppose, had been common during Cromwell’s usurpation; for, in Cowley’s “Cutter of Coleman Street,” one drunken cavalier upbraids another, that, when he was not able to afford to pay a barber, he affected to “wear a beard for the king.” I sincerely hope this was not absolutely the original reason of my ancestor’s beard; which, as appears from a portrait in the possession of Sir Henry Hay Macdougal, Bart., and another painted for the famous Dr Pitcairn,1 was a beard of a most dignified and venerable appearance.

Note V. The spirit’s blasted tree.—6.159 I am permitted to illustrate this passage, by inserting “Ceubren yr Ellyll, or the Spirit’s Blasted Tree,” a legendary tale, by the Reverend George Warrington: “The event, on which this tale is founded, is preserved by tradition in the family of the Vaughans of Hengwyrt; nor is it entirely lost, even among the common people, who still point out this oak to 1

The old gentleman was an intimate of this celebrated genius. By the favour of the late Earl of Kelly, descended on the maternal side from Dr Pitcairn, my father became possessed of the portrait in question.



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the p ­ assenger. The enmity between the two Welsh chieftains, Howel Sele, and Owen Glendwr, was extreme, and marked by vile treachery in the one, and ferocious cruelty in the other.1 The story is somewhat changed and softened, as more favourable to the characters of the two chiefs, and as better answering the purpose of poetry, by admitting the passion of pity, and a greater degree of sentiment in the description. Some trace of Howel Sele’s mansion was to be seen a few years ago, and may perhaps be still visible, in the park of Nannau, now belonging to Sir Robert Vaughan, Baronet, in the wild and romantic tracts of Merionethshire. The abbey mentioned passes under two names, Vener and Cymmer. The former is retained, as more generally used. THE SPIRIT’S BLASTED TREE. Ceubren yr Ellyll. Through Nannau’s Chace as Howel passed,   A chief esteemed both brave and kind, Far distant borne, the stag-hound’s cry   Came murmuring on the hollow wind. Starting, he bent an eager ear,—   How should the sounds return again? His hounds lay wearied from the chace,   And all at home his hunter train. Then sudden anger flashed his eye,   And deep revenge he vowed to take, On that bold man who dared to force   His red deer from the forest brake. Unhappy chief! would nought avail,   No signs impress thy heart with fear, Thy lady’s dark mysterious dream,   Thy warning from the hoary seer? Three ravens gave the note of death,   As through mid air they winged their way; Then o’er his head, in rapid flight,   They croak,—they scent their destined prey. Ill omened bird! as legends say,   Who hast the wonderous power to know, While health fills high the throbbing veins,   The fated hour when blood must flow. 1

The history of their feud may be found in Pennant’s Tour in Wales.

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marmion Blinded by rage, alone he passed,   Nor sought his ready vassals’ aid; But what his fate lay long unknown,   For many an anxious year delayed. A peasant marked his angry eye,   He saw him reach the lake’s dark bourne, He saw him near a Blasted Oak,   But never from that hour return. Three days passed o’er, no tidings came;—   Where should the chief his steps delay? With wild alarm the servants ran,   Yet knew not where to point their way. His vassals ranged the mountain’s height,   The covert close, and wide-spread plain; But all in vain their eager search,   They ne’er must see their lord again. Yet Fancy, in a thousand shapes,   Bore to his home the Chief once more: Some saw him on high Moel’s top,   Some saw him on the winding shore. With wonder fraught the tale went round,   Amazement chained the hearer’s tongue; Each peasant felt his own sad loss,   Yet fondly o’er the story hung. Oft by the moon’s pale shadow light,   His aged nurse, and steward grey, Would lean to catch the storied sounds,   Or mark the flitting spirit stray. Pale lights on Cader’s rocks were seen,   And midnight voices heard to moan; ’Twas even said the Blasted Oak,   Convulsive, heaved a hollow groan: And, to this day, the peasant still,   With cautious fear, avoids the ground; In each wild branch a spectre sees,   And trembles at each rising sound. Ten annual suns had held their course,   In summer’s smile, or winter’s storm;



notes to canto sixth The lady shed the widowed tear,   As oft she traced his manly form. Yet still to hope her heart would cling,   As o’er the mind illusions play,— Of travel fond, perhaps her lord   To distant lands had steered his way. ’Twas now November’s cheerless hour,   Which drenching rains and clouds deface; Dreary bleak Robell’s tract appeared,   And dull and dank each valley’s space. Loud o’er the wier the hoarse flood fell,   And dashed the foamy spray on high; The west wind bent the forest tops,   And angry frowned the evening sky. A stranger passed Llanelltid’s bourne,   His dark-grey steed with sweat besprent, Which, wearied with the lengthened way,   Could scarcely gain the hill’s ascent. The portal reached,—the iron bell   Loud sounded round the outward wall; Quick sprang the warder to the gate,   To know what meant the clamorous call. “O! lead me to your lady soon;   Say,—it is my sad lot to tell, To clear the fate of that brave knight,   She long has proved she loved so well.” Then, as he crossed the spacious hall,   The menials look surprise and fear; Still o’er his harp old Modred hung,   And touched the notes for grief’s worn ear. The lady sat amidst her train;   A mellowed sorrow marked her look: Then, asking what his mission meant,   The graceful stranger sighed and spoke:— “O could I spread one ray of hope,   One moment raise thy soul from woe, Gladly my tongue would tell its tale,   My words at ease unfettered flow!

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marmion Now, lady, give attention due,   The story claims thy full belief: E’en in the worst events of life,   Suspense removed is some relief. “Though worn by care, see Madoc here,   Great Glyndwr’s friend, thy kindred’s foe; Ah, let his name no anger raise,   For now that mighty Chief lies low! “E’en from the day, when, chained by fate,   By wizzard’s dream, or potent spell, Lingering from sad Salopia’s field,   ’Reft of his aid the Percy fell;— “E’en from that day misfortune still,   As if for violated faith, Pursued him with unwearied step;   Vindictive still for Hotspur’s death. “Vanquished at length, the Glyndwr fled   Where winds the Wye her devious flood; To find a casual shelter there,   In some lone cot, or desert wood. “Clothed in a shepherd’s humble guise,   He gained by toil his scanty bread; He who had Cambria’s sceptre borne,   And her brave sons to glory led! “To penury extreme, and grief,   The Chieftain fell a lingering prey; I heard his last few faultering words,   Such as with pain I now convey. ‘To Sele’s sad widow bear the tale,   ‘Nor let our horrid secret rest; ‘Give but his corse to sacred earth,   ‘Then may my parting soul be blest.’— “Dim waxed the eye that fiercely shone,   And faint the tongue that proudly spoke, And weak that arm, still raised to me,   Which oft had dealt the mortal stroke. “How could I then his mandate bear?   Or how his last behest obey?



notes to canto sixth A rebel deemed, with him I fled;   With him I shunned the light of day. “Proscribed by Henry’s hostile rage,   My country lost, despoiled my land, Desperate, I fled my native soil,   And fought on Syria’s distant strand. “O, had thy long lamented lord   The holy cross and banner viewed, Died in that sacred cause—than fall   Sad victim of a private feud! “Led, by the ardour of the chace,   Far distant from his own domain; From where Garthmaelan spreads her shades,   The Glyndwr sought the opening plain. “With head aloft, and antlers wide,   A red buck roused then crossed in view; Stung with the sight, and wild with rage,   Swift from the wood fierce Howel flew. “With bitter taunt, and keen reproach,   He, all impetuous, poured his rage; Reviled the Chief as weak in arms,   And bade him loud the battle wage. “Glyndwr for once restrained his sword,   And, still averse, the fight delays; But softened words, like oil to fire,   Made anger more intensely blaze. “They fought; and doubtful long the fray!   The Glyndwr gave the fatal wound!— Still mournful must my tale proceed,   And its last act all dreadful sound. “How could we hope for wished retreat,   His eager vassals ranging wide? His bloodhounds’ keen sagacious scent,   O’er many a trackless mountain tried? “I marked a broad and Blasted Oak,   Scorched by the lightning’s livid glare; Hollow its stem from branch to root,   And all its shrivelled arms were bare.

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marmion “Be this, I cried, his proper grave!—   (The thought in me was deadly sin.) Aloft we raised the hapless Chief,   And dropped his bleeding corpse within.” A shriek from forth the damsels burst,   That pierced the vaulted roofs below; While horror-struck the Lady stood,   A living form of sculptured woe. With stupid stare, and vacant gaze,   Full on his face her eyes were cast, Absorbed!—she lost her present grief, And faintly thought of things long past. Like wild-fire o’er a mossy heath,   The rumour through the hamlet ran; The peasants crowd at morning dawn,   To hear the tale,—behold the man. He led them near the Blasted Oak,   Then, conscious, from the scene withdrew: The peasants work with trembling haste,   And lay the whitened bones to view!— Back they recoiled!—the right hand still,   Contracted, grasped a rusty sword; Which erst in many a battle gleamed,   And proudly decked their slaughtered lord. They bore the corse to Vener’s shrine,   With holy rites, and prayers addressed; Nine white-robed monks the last dirge sang,   And gave the Angry Spirit rest.

Note VI. The Highlander——————— Will, on a Friday morn, look pale, If asked to tell a fairy tale.—6.160, 162–63 The Daoine shi’, or Men of Peace, of the Scottish Highlanders, rather resemble the Scandinavian Duergar than the English Fairies. Notwithstanding their name, they are, if not absolutely malevolent, at least peevish, discontented, and apt to do mischief on slight



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provocation. The belief of their existence is deeply impressed on the Highlanders, who think they are particularly offended with mortals, who talk of them, wear their favourite colour green, or in any respect interfere with their affairs. This is especially to be avoided on Friday, when, whether as dedicated to Venus, with whom, in Germany, this subterranean people are held nearly connected, or for a more solemn reason, they are more active, and possessed of greater power. Some curious particulars concerning the popular superstitions of the Highlanders, may be found in Dr Graham’s Picturesque Sketches of Perthshire.

Note VII. ————The towers of Franchémont.—6.169 The journal of the friend, to whom the Fourth Canto of the poem is inscribed, furnished me with the following account of a striking superstition. “Passed the pretty little village of Franchémont, (near Spaw,) with the romantic ruins of the old castle of the Counts of that name. The road leads through many delightful vales, on a rising ground; at the extremity of one of them stands the ancient castle, now the subject of many superstitious legends. It is firmly believed by the neighbouring peasantry, that the last Baron of Franchémont deposited, in one of the vaults of the castle, a ponderous chest, containing an immense treasure in gold and silver, which, by some magic spell, was entrusted to the care of the devil, who is constantly found sitting on the chest in the shape of a huntsman. Any one adventurous enough to touch the chest, is instantly seized with the palsy. Upon one occasion, a priest of noted piety was brought to the vault: he used all the arts of exorcism to persuade his infernal majesty to vacate the seat, but in vain; the huntsman remained immoveable. At last, moved by the earnestness of the priest, he told him, that he would agree to resign the chest, if the exorciser would sign his name with blood. But the priest understood his meaning, and refused, as by that act he would have delivered over his soul to the devil. Yet if any body can discover the mystic words used by the person who deposited the treasure, and pronounce them, the fiend must instantly decamp. I had many stories of a similar nature from a peasant, who had himself seen the devil, in the shape of a great cat.”

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marmion Note VIII. The very form of Hilda fair, Hovering upon the sunny air.—6.344–45

“I shall only produce one instance more of the great veneration paid to Lady Hilda, which still prevails even in these our days; and that is, the constant opinion that she rendered, and still renders, herself visible, on some occasions, in the abbey of Streanshalh, or Whitby, where she so long resided. At a particular time of the year, (viz. in the summer months,) at ten or eleven in the forenoon, the sun-beams fall in the inside of the northern part of the choir; and ’tis then that the spectators, who stand on the west side of Whitby church-yard, so as just to see the most northerly part of the abbey past the north end of Whitby church, imagine they perceive, in one of the highest windows there, the resemblance of a woman, arrayed in a shroud. Though we are certain this is only a reflection, caused by the splendour of the sun-beams, yet fame reports it, and it is constantly believed among the vulgar, to be an appearance of Lady Hilda in her shroud, or rather in a glorified state; before which, I make no doubt, the papists, even in these our days, offer up their prayers with as much zeal and devotion, as before any other image of their most glorified saint.”—Charlton’s History of Whitby, p. 33. Note IX. A Bishop by the altar stood.—6.561 The well-known Gawain Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, son of Archibald Bell-the-Cat, Earl of Angus. He was author of a Scottish metrical version of the Æneid, and of many other poetical pieces of great merit. He had not at this period attained the mitre. Note X. ————The huge and sweeping brand, Which wont, of yore, in battle-fray His foeman’s limbs to shred away, As wood-knife lops the sapling spray.—6.575–78 Angus had strength and personal activity corresponding to his courage. Spens of Kilspindie, a favourite of James IV having spoken of him lightly, the Earl met him while hawking and, compelling him to single



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combat, at one blow cut asunder his thigh bone, and killed him on the spot. But ere he could obtain James’s pardon for this slaughter, Angus was obliged to yield his castle of Hermitage, in exchange for that of Bothwell, which was some diminution to the family greatness. The sword with which he struck so remarkable a blow, was presented by his descendant, James, Earl of Morton, afterwards Regent of Scotland, to Lord Lindesay of the Byres, when he defied Bothwell to single combat on Carberry-hill.—See Introduction to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, p. ix.

Note XI. And hop’st thou hence unscathed to go?— No, by Saint Bryde of Bothwell, no!— Up drawbridge, grooms,—what, Warder, ho!   Let the portcullis fall.—6.668–71 This ebullition of violence in the potent Earl of Angus is not without its example in the real history of the house of Douglas, whose chieftains possessed the ferocity, with the heroic virtues, of a savage state. The most curious instance occurred in the case of Maclellan, tutor of Bomby, who, having refused to acknowledge the pre-eminence claimed by Douglas over the gentlemen and Barons of Galloway, was seized and imprisoned by the Earl, in his castle of the Thrieve, on the borders of Kirkcudbright-shire. Sir Patrick Gray, commander of King James the Second’s guard, was uncle to the tutor of Bomby, and obtained from the King a “sweet letter of supplication,” praying the Earl to deliver his prisoner into Gray’s hand. When Sir Patrick arrived at the castle, he was received with all the honour due to a favourite servant of the king’s household; but while he was at dinner, the earl, who suspected his errand, caused his prisoner be led forth and beheaded. After dinner, Sir Patrick presented the king’s letter to the earl, who received it with great affectation of reverence; “and took him by the hand, and led him forth to the green, where the gentleman was lying dead, and shewed him the manner, and said, Sir Patrick, you are come a little too late; yonder is your sister’s son lying, but he wants the head: take his body, and do with it what you will. Sir Patrick answered again with a sore heart, and said, My lord, if ye have taken from him his head, dispone upon the body as ye please: and with that called for his horse, and leaped thereon; and when he was on horseback, he said to the Earl on this manner, My lord, if I live, you shall be rewarded for your labours, that you have used at this time, according to your demerits.

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“At this saying the Earl was highly offended, and cried for horse. Sir Patrick, seeing the Earl’s fury, spurred his horse, but he was chased near Edinburgh ere they left him; and had it not been his led horse was so tried and good, he had been taken.”—Pitscottie’s History, p. 39.

Note XII. A letter forged! Saint Jude to speed! Did ever knight so foul a deed!—6.690–91 Lest the reader should partake of the Earl’s astonishment, and consider the crime as inconsistent with the manners of the period, I have to remind him of the numerous forgeries (partly executed by a female assistant) devised by Robert of Artois, to forward his suit against the Countess Matilda; which, being detected, occasioned his flight into England, and proved the remote cause of Edward the Third’s memorable wars in France. John Harding, also, was expressly hired by Edward IV., to forge such documents as might appear to establish the claim of fealty asserted over Scotland by the English monarchs.

Note XIII. Where Lennel’s convent closed their march.—6.774 This was a Cistertian house of religion, now almost entirely demolished. Lennel House is now the residence of my venerable friend Patrick Brydone, Esquire, so well known in the literary world. It is situated near Coldstream, almost opposite to Cornhill, and consequently very near to Flodden Field.

Note XIV. The Till by Twisel Bridge.—6.807 On the evening previous to the memorable battle of Flodden, Surrey’s head quarters were at Barmoor wood, and King James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Flodden-hills, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, winded between the armies. On the morning of the 9th September, 1513, Surrey marched in a north-westerly direction, and



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crossed the Till, with his van and artillery, at Twisel-bridge, nigh where that river joins the Tweed, his rear-guard column passing about a mile higher, by a ford. This movement had the double effect of placing his army between King James and his supplies from Scotland, and of striking the Scottish monarch with surprise, as he seems to have relied on the depth of the river in his front. But as the passage, both over the bridge and through the ford, was difficult and slow, it seems possible that the English might have been attacked to great advantage while struggling with natural obstacles. I know not if we are to impute James’s forbearance, to want of military skill, or to the romantic declaration which Pitscottie puts in his mouth, “that he was determined to have his enemies before him on a plain field,” and therefore would suffer no interruption to be given, even by artillery, to their passing the river. The ancient bridge of Twisel, by which the English crossed the Till, is still standing beneath Twisel Castle, a splendid pile of Gothic architecture, as now rebuilt by Sir Francis Blake, Bart., whose extensive plantations have so much improved the country around. The glen is romantic and delightful, with steep banks on each side, covered with copse, particularly with hawthorn. Beneath a tall rock, near the bridge, is a plentiful fountain, called St Helen’s Well.

Note XV. Hence might they see the full array Of either host, for deadly fray.—6.915–16 The reader cannot here expect a full account of the battle of Flodden; but, so far as is necessary to understand the Romance, I beg to remind him, that, when the English army, by their skilful counter-march, were fairly placed between King James and his own country, the Scottish monarch resolved to fight; and, setting fire to his tents, descended from the ridge of Flodden to secure the neighbouring eminence of Brankstone, on which that village is built. Thus the two armies met, almost without seeing each other, when, according to the old poem of “Flodden Field,” The English line stretched east and west,   And southward were their faces set; The Scottish northward proudly prest,   And manfully their foes they met. The English army advanced in four divisions. On the right, which first engaged, were the sons of Earl Surrey, namely, Thomas Howard,

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the admiral of England, and Sir Edmund, the knight marshal of the army. Their divisions were separated from each other; but, at the request of Sir Edmund, his brother’s battalion was drawn very near to his own. The centre was commanded by Surrey in person; the left wing by Sir Edward Stanley, with the men of Lancashire, and the Palatinate of Chester. Lord Dacre, with a large body of horse, formed a reserve. When the smoke, which the wind had driven between the armies, was somewhat dispersed, they perceived the Scots, who had moved down the hill in a similar order of battle, and in deep silence.1 The Earls of Huntley and of Home commanded their left wing, and charged Sir Edmund Howard with such success, as entirely to defeat his part of the English right wing. Sir Edmund Howard’s banner was beaten down, and he himself escaped with difficulty to his brother’s division. The admiral, however, stood firm; and Dacre advancing to his support with the reserve of cavalry, probably between the interval of the divisions commanded by the brothers Howard, appears to have kept the victors in effectual check. Home’s men, chiefly Borderers, began to pillage the baggage of both armies; and their leader is branded, by the Scottish historians, with negligence or treachery. On the other hand, Huntley, on whom they bestow many encomiums, is said, by the English historians, to have left the field after the first charge. Meanwhile the admiral, whose flank these chiefs ought to have attacked, availed himself of their inactivity, and pushed forward against another large division of the Scottish army in his front, headed by the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, both of whom were slain, and their forces routed. On the left, the success of the English was yet more decisive; for the Scottish right wing, consisting of undisciplined Highlanders, commanded by Lennox and Argyle, was unable to sustain the charge of Sir Edward Stanley, and especially the severe execution of the Lancashire archers. The King and Surrey, who commanded the respective centres of their armies, were meanwhile engaged in close and dubious conflict. James, surrounded by the flower of his kingdom, and impatient of the galling discharge of arrows, supported also by his reserve under Bothwell, charged with such fury, that the standard of Surrey was in danger. At that critical moment, Stanley, who had routed the left wing of the Scottish, pursued his career of victory, and arrived on the right flank, and in the rear of James’s division, which, throwing itself into a circle, disputed the battle till night came on. Surrey then drew back his forces; for the Scottish centre not having been broken, and 1

“Lesquelz Escossois descendirent la d’montaigne en bonne ordre, en la maniere que marchent les Allemans, sans parler, ne faire aucun bruit.” Gazette of the Battle, Pinkerton’s History, Appendix, Vol. II. p. 456.



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their left wing being victorious, he yet doubted the event of the field. The Scottish army, however, felt their loss, and abandoned the field of battle in disorder, before dawn. They lost, perhaps, from eight to ten thousand men, but that included the very prime of their nobility, gentry, and even clergy. Scarce a family of eminence but has an ancestor killed at Flodden; and there is no province in Scotland, even at this day, where the battle is mentioned without a sensation of terror and sorrow. The English lost also a great number of men, perhaps within one-third of the vanquished, but they were of inferior note.—See the only distinct detail of the field of Flodden in Pinkerton’s History, Book XI.; all former accounts being full of blunder and inconsistency. The spot, from which Clara views the battle, must be supposed to have been on a hillock commanding the rear of the English right wing, which was defeated, and in which conflict Marmion is supposed to have fallen.

Note XVI. ———Brian Tunstall, stainless knight.—6.951 Sir Brian Tunstall, called in the romantic language of the time, Tunstall the Undefiled, was one of the few Englishmen of rank slain at Flodden. He figures in the ancient English poem, to which I may safely refer my reader; as an edition, with full explanatory notes, is about to be published by my friend Mr Henry Weber. Tunstall perhaps derived his epithet of undefiled from his white armour and banner, the latter bearing a white cock about to crow, as well as from his unstained loyalty and knightly faith. His place of residence was Thurland Castle.

Note XVII. View not that corpse mistrustfully, Defaced and mangled though it be;   Nor to yon Border castle high   Look northward with upbraiding eye—6.1305–08 There can be no doubt that King James fell in the battle of Flodden. He was killed, says the curious French Gazette, within a lance’s length of the Earl of Surrey; and the same account adds, that none of his division were made prisoners, though many were killed; a circumstance that testifies the desperation of their resistance. The Scottish

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­ istorians record many of the idle reports which passed among the h vulgar of their day. Home was accused, by the popular voice, not only of failing to support the king, but even of having carried him out of the field, and murdered him. And this tale was revived in my remembrance, by an unauthenticated story of a skeleton, wrapped in a bull’s hide, and surrounded with an iron chain, said to have been found in the well of Home Castle: for which, on inquiry, I could never find any better authority, than the sexton of the parish having said, that, if the well were cleaned out, he would not be surprised at such a discovery. Home was the chamberlain of the king, and his prime favourite; he had much to lose (in fact did lose all) in consequence of James’s death, and nothing earthly to gain by that event: but the retreat, or inactivity of the left wing, which he commanded, after defeating Sir Edmund Howard; and even the circumstance of his returning unhurt, and loaded with spoil, from so fatal a conflict, rendered the propagation of any calumny against him easy and acceptable. Other reports gave a still more romantic turn to the king’s fate, and averred, that James, weary of greatness after the carnage among his nobles, had gone on a pilgrimage to merit absolution for the death of his father, and the breach of his oath of amity to Henry. In particular, it was objected to the English, that they could never shew the token of the iron belt; which, however, he was likely enough to have laid aside on the day of battle, as encumbering his personal exertions. They produce a better evidence, the monarch’s sword and dagger, which are still preserved in the Herald’s College in London. Stowe has recorded a degrading story of the disgrace with which the remains of the unfortunate monarch were treated in his time.—An unhewn column marks the spot where James fell, still called the King’s Stone.

Note XVIII. ——————————fanatic Brook The fair cathedral stormed and took.—6.1329–30 This storm of Lichfield cathedral, which had been garrisoned on the part of the king, took place in the great civil war. Lord Brook, who, with Sir John Gill, commanded the assailants, was shot with a musketball through the visor of his helmet. The royalists remarked, that he was killed by a shot fired from St Chad’s Cathedral, and upon St Chad’s day, and received his death-wound in the very eye with which, he had said, he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in England. The magnificent church in question suffered cruelly upon this, and



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other occasions; the principal spire being ruined by the fire of the besiegers. ____________________________ Upon revising the Poem, it seems proper to mention the following particulars: The lines in page 75, Whose doom discording neighbours sought, Content with equity unbought, have been unconsciously borrowed from a passage in Dryden’s beautiful epistle to John Driden of Chesterton. The ballad of Lochinvar, p. 142., is in a very slight degree founded on a ballad called “Katherine Janfarie,” which may be found in the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.”

the end

ESSAY ON THE TEXT

1. the genesis of marmion 2. the composition of marmion: the Timetable; the Composition of the Notes; the Manuscript; Introduction to Canto First; Changes in Proofs; Socialisation 3. the later editions: the Second and Third Editions; Later Editions; the 1833–34 Edition 4. the present text: Emendations based on Misreadings of the Manuscript; Emendations to Layout and Punctuation; Emendations to Correct Textual Deterioration; Emendations to Scott’s Notes.   The following conventions are used in transcriptions from Scott’s manuscript and proofs: deletions are enclosed and insertions ↑thus↓; superscript letters are lowered without comment. The same conventions are used as appropriate for indicating variants between the printed editions.

1 . the g enes is of marmion In spite of Marmion’s significance for Scott and the history of poetry, we know little about the germination of this remarkable work. Scott’s Introduction written for the 1830 edition of the poem focuses on the circumstances of his life in 1806–07 rather than the seeds of inspiration. He writes that ‘the period of its composition was a very happy one, in my life; so much so, that I remember with pleasure, at this moment, some of the spots in which particular passages were composed’.1 He had moved to Ashestiel, a country house in Selkirkshire, in 1804, and features of the landscape around Ashestiel are registered in the introductory epistles; but this is all he reveals. In the summer of 1806 Scott had been contemplating a Highland poem. Writing to Lady Abercorn on 9  June he talks of ‘a Highland Romance of Love Magic and War founded upon the manners of our mountaineers’, but tells Lady Abercorn that being unable to understand Gaelic he was ‘at a loss to find authentic materials’.2 He thus explains why he cannot embark immediately on a Highland poem, but provides neither a contemporary nor retrospective account of what prompted Marmion, and when. The poem opens with the lines: November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear. (1.1–2)

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There is no reason to doubt Scott’s own dating; no one does so, and Scott’s reference in the fourth introductory epistle back to the opening of the poem, where he remarks upon ‘November’s dreary gale, / Whose voice inspired my opening tale’ (4.31–32), confirms a real, rather than a notional November.3 Of course it could all be a poetic fiction, but the autobiographical nature of the epistles suggests otherwise. Other aspects of the 1830 Introduction both support the poem’s November start date and prompt more oblique speculation as to its origins. Scott tells us that it was written in the year that the office of Principal Clerk to the Court of Session became available to him. He took up this post in May 1806 and attendance at the Court in Edinburgh was obligatory. From 1790, Scottish legal terms ran from 12 November to 24 December, 15 January to 11 March, and 12 May to 11 July. Therefore, he was likely to have been at Ashestiel until 10 or 11 November 1806, which makes it entirely plausible to suggest early November 1806 as the point at which he began to write Marmion. Scott’s appointment as Principal Clerk embroiled him in the politics surrounding Pitt’s death and Fox’s succession. In the Historical Note (366–67) it is argued that these political intrigues are reflected in the epistles, and that the broader political situation facing Britain at the time of the poem’s composition informs the narrative. James Skene recollects Scott’s composing parts of Marmion ‘on the drill ground at Portobello sands’: Sir Walter was often seen dodging up and down on his black gelding at the very edge of the sea in complete abstraction. He used to join me in the rear of the squadron when returning from exercises, and recite what he had been composing.4

While this is an appealing anecdote it is also a reminder that Scott was composing in times of political uncertainty and threat. It is legitimate to speculate that questions of national security, threat of invasion, and the nature of heroism in the modern age were thus playing on his mind as Marmion was being written, and that the political contexts of the first decade of the nineteenth century may well have been one of the subliminal sources of inspiration. However, there are more tangible and textual sources for Marmion’s conception and development, particularly the correspondence between Scott and Robert Surtees which probably began in late October or early November 1806.5 In a long letter of 8 December 1806 Surtees asks if Scott knew the source of a story where ‘James 4 & several of his nobles’ are summoned ‘to appear respondere coram Plotcockie’—summoned to appear before the court of Plotcockie.6 In his reply of 17  December Scott informs Surtees: The story of the nocturnal proclamation at the cross of Edinburgh, summoning all the leaders of the Scottish army to appear before the



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tribunal of Plotcock (Pluto, I suppose,) occurs in Pitscottie’s History of Scotland. I think he gives it on the authority of the person who heard the proclamation; and, hearing his own name in the citation of the infernal herald, appealed from Plotcock’s tribunal to that of God, and threw a florin over the balcony in which he was walking, in evidence of his protest. He was the only man of the number cited who escaped death at the fatal field of Flodden. I have some part of a poem or tale upon this subject, which I will be happy to shew you one day.7

The phrase ‘some part of a poem or tale’ has to be a reference to Marmion; had it been to anything already in print Scott would have directed Surtees to the publication in question.8 This then is the first mention of the poem in any letter, and it makes clear that Scott was writing, that his subject was Flodden, and that he must have had an idea of how he was going to treat the subject, for the tale from Pitscottie appears in Canto 5. In the same letter of 8 December 1806 Surtees says he had stumbled upon another story, in Latin, on a loose manuscript leaf, inside a copy of Richard Burthogge’s An Essay upon Reason, and the Nature of Spirits (1694). The fragment relays the ‘singular tale’ of a supernatural encounter that takes place near Norham between Sir Ralph Bulmer and a phantom adversary dressed like a Scottish knight. Scott replied, with tacit scepticism, that he found the ‘extract of the ghostly combat’ was ‘like the chapter of a romance, and very curious’.9 Nonetheless, he included the story of its discovery by Surtees in a lengthy note to Canto 3 of Marmion together with the Latin quotation in full (244.38–245.20). This instance of ‘Elfin Chivalry’, to quote his own note (243.40), is pivotal to the unfolding of the plot; it underlies the Host’s Tale and Marmion’s encounter in Canto 3; it is mentioned by David Lindesay at 4.670–78; and in Note VIII to Canto Third it is remarked that Lindesay treats it as a ‘well known story’ (245.25). And it is crucial to the questioning of the nature of justice, particularly the justice of trial by combat, which is raised repeatedly in the course of the poem. The third item that Surtees sent was the ballad ‘The Death of Featherstonhaugh’, which he claims to have got ‘from a person who travels into Alston Moor as an agent for the leadmines there who informs me he took it down by recitation from an old woman mother to one of his workmen’. In his reply Scott says ‘I will certainly insert it, with your permission, in the next edition’ of the Minstrelsy; a version of the ballad is indeed included in the fourth edition (published in 1810).10 In a further letter to Surtees on 21  February 1807 Scott outlines his plans for Marmion: I must now tell you (for I think your correspondence has been chiefly the cause of it) that, by calling my attention back to these times and topics which we have been canvassing, you are likely to occasion the world to be troubled with more border minstrelsy. I have made some

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essay on the text progress in a legendary poem, which is to be entitled, “Marmion, or a Tale of Flodden-Field.” It is in six Cantos, each having a l’envoy, or introductory epistle, in more modern verse. In the first Canto I have introduced a verse of the Thirlwalls, &c. Marmion, on an embassy to Scotland, is entertained at Norham Castle, by Heron, the Captn of that fortress. “He led Lord Marmion to the dais, Placed o’er the pavement high, And placed him in the upper place; They feasted full and high. Meanwhile a Northern harper rude, Chaunted a rhyme of deadly feud:— ‘How the fierce Ridleys and Thirlwalls all, Stout Willemoteswick, And Hard-Riding Dick, And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will of the Wall, Have set on Sir Albany Featherstonehaugh, And taken his life at the Deadman’s Shaw.’ Scantly Lord Marmion’s ear could brook The harper’s barbarous lay; Yet much he praised the pains he took, And well those pains did pay; For lady’s suit and minstrel’s strain By Knight should ne’er be heard in vain.” In the notes I will give your copy of the ballad and your learned illustrations. Holy Island is one of my scenes: also Whitby. I have occasion for an Abbess of Whitby, and also for a Nunnery at Lindisfarne. There were nuns in both places, as well as monks; both of the order of St. Benedict: but I suspect I am bringing them down too late by several centuries; this, however, I shall not greatly mind. I fear I shall be obliged to go to London this spring, which may throw me behind in my poetical labours, which, however, are already pretty well advanced. 11

As this letter reveals, Scott’s correspondence with Surtees acted as a catalyst for creativity, firing his imagination and shaping Marmion’s early evolution. Surtees’s stories were his own invention; but this does not matter.12 The poem’s outline existed in Scott’s mind; Surtees provided inspiration to help flesh out its details, and his textual prompts were one of the creative impulses behind the poem. Following its publication Scott wrote to Surtees: ‘I have to request your acceptance of a thumping quarto entitled “Marmion,” in which you will find I have availed myself with suitable acknowledgements of your tale of Sir Ralph Bulmer, and the ballad of the feud between the Ridleys and the Featherstonehaugh family’.13 Unlike other Scott works that had their gestation primarily in his own reading or in the historical record, Marmion had its genesis in a milieu of correspondence, dialogue and exchange. Scott’s letters to Surtees (no less than his lengthy reference to Surtees in the Marmion notes) illustrate how such conversations



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exerted a significant influence over the poem as it took shape in Scott’s mind. 2 . t he co m po s itio n o f marmion The Timetable. While Scott’s first allusion to Marmion is in his letter to Robert Surtees of 17 December 1806, the first explicit reference to the poem comes on 13 January 1807 in a letter to Anna Seward. Scott informs her of a new poem which he tentatively calls ‘Flodden Field’. He tells her that ‘Each canto is to be introduced by a little digressive poem which for want of a better name may be calld an epistle’.14 Lockhart in his Life says that Scott originally intended that the six epistles should be published by Longmans as a separate work, and declares that ‘they were announced, by an advertisement early in 1807, as “Six Epistles from Ettrick Forrest”’.15 That advertisement has not been found. Unfortunately, much of the correspondence in the Longman archive for this period was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, and whether Scott did propose ‘Six Epistles from Ettrick Forrest’ to Longmans cannot be determined.16 What can be gleaned from Scott’s incoming correspondence is that Longmans thought so, and wrote to Scott on 13  January 1807: ‘We have the pleasure to say that we accept of your terms for your Six Epistles, & we are obliged by your leaving us at liberty as to shares’.17 However, as Scott’s letter written on the same date to Anna Seward demonstrates, he had by this point already decided to include introductory epistles in Marmion; examination of the manuscript suggests no major break between the composition of the first epistle and the first canto of the poem; and all Scott’s letters indicate that Longmans misunderstood the nature of the work that he was tendering. He had a single work in mind, which included these six introductory poems. While Scott’s letter to Longmans must have offered them the management of the work, he must also have specified that Constable’s should have a share (to an extent to be determined by Longmans). However, Longmans’ reply of 13 January 1807 says that they could not promise to participate if Constable’s were involved because of ‘the yet unexplained insults we have received’ from Constable & Co.18 (The problem was probably Alexander Hunter whom Archibald Constable had assumed as a partner in 1806, and who seems to have been rather hot-tempered.) However, on 16  January 1807, Scott wrote to Owen Rees of Longmans to explain why he could not leave Constable out of the deal,19 and on 27 January he wrote to Thomas N. Longman, expressing his regret that ‘you are disposed to consider the continuation of the connection with Constable & Coy as an absolute bar to your accepting of my new work’.20 On 30 January Archibald Constable wrote a contractual letter to Scott saying: ‘We have much

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pleasure in accepting of the Property of your new Poem “Flodden Field” and not less in agreeing to pay for the same the sum of One Thousand Guineas’.21 He continues saying that a half share in the poem would go to William Miller and John Murray in London, but that he would reserve the other half for themselves, ‘and we trust it will remain f­orever in the hands of Edinburgh Booksellers for the honour & Glory of Scotland’. The payment of the copy money would be made ‘to suit your conveniency’. Scott accepted the next day in a letter which i­ndicates that the exchange of correspondence was a formal conclusion to an oral negotiation: ‘I am favoured with your letter in which referring to our previous communing you agree to pay one thousand guineas for the poem’.22 On 3  February Scott wrote again to Longmans: I am favoured with your letter of 30th January . . . As your former letter left me not the slightest hopes of renewing our negociation since you rested your objection upon feelings which I certainly could not ask you to surmount, very shortly after writing to you I was under the necessity of taking other measures for the preservation of my new poem in the course of which Messrs Constable & Company became the purchasers on the same basis which I offered to you.23

This is an amazing correspondence, of great significance not just for Scott but for the history of publishing. First of all, Constable purchased the copyright of the poem outright; when Scott came to sign contracts for his novels he licensed the publisher to produce a specified number of copies, but in the case of Marmion, as with his other long poems, he sold the copyright. Secondly, Scott first offered Longmans the chance to purchase the copyright; this was correct procedure, as well as prudent. Longmans had already bought the copyright of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, and in line with established practice they were given the first refusal of a new work. At the time they were also the most important publishers of creative works in Britain. From Scott’s letter of 3 February to Longmans it can be seen that it was Scott who set the price at a thousand guineas (£1050), and when Longmans said that they would not work with Constable’s the latter then offered to meet Scott’s terms. Much later in life after the financial crash of 1826 Scott wrote to Lockhart a philosophic and generous letter about his dealings with publishers and printers over the years, commenting ‘I got £600 for the Lay of the Last Minstrel and (a price which made mens hairs stand on end) £1000 for Marmion’.24 It was an utterly astonishing amount of money, but Scott was using the ownership of copyright effectively for the benefit of the author: he set his own price, and played publishers off against each other to ensure that he got what he wanted, and in doing this he was probably the first author to exploit copyright in this



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way. Thirdly, in Constable’s most unexpected exclamation ‘we trust it will remain forever in the hands of Edinburgh Booksellers for the honour & Glory of Scotland’ we can see the exultation of an upstart publisher wresting a literary property from the dominant publisher of creative literature, and in so doing beginning to create a publishing centre to rival that of London. And fourthly, in selling on one quarter shares in the copyright to William Miller and John Murray Constable was not only spreading risk, but ensuring that sales in London and the south of England would be certain. The business now proceeded apace. On 1  February 1807 Lord Montagu, brother of Scott’s friend the Earl of Dalkeith to whom the Lay had been dedicated, accepted Scott’s request that he be Marmion’s dedicatee.25 On 7 February Scott wrote to John Ballantyne, expressing his desire to progress with the work with some speed. He added: ‘Constable informs me that the paper is daily expected and that you may set up a sheet or two in the mean time. I therefore send the Introduction to Canto I and will send the Canto itself on Monday.’26 The first epistle was duly set up, and on 11 February Scott wrote to Lady Abercorn: ‘I have put under two covers the first sheet of a poem with which I have been for some time closely engaged when my official attendance upon the Court here & my engagements with Dryden would permit.’27 One copy survives, a document consisting of a single octavo sheet of sixteen pages, which is held in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.28 Lockhart wrote in his Life: ‘Constable offered a thousand guineas for the poem very shortly after it was begun, and without seeing one line of it’.29 The letters above show that this is not the whole truth. The claim was made by Lockhart, not Scott. It was nearly three months between beginning the poem and agreeing a contract. And the fact that Scott had begun the first epistle in November 1806 and was sending a printed proof to a friend on 11 February 1807 makes it inconceivable that Constable had not seen one line of the poem when he made Scott his astonishing offer on 30  January 1807. Certainly, Constable had not seen the complete poem, but it is very likely that he had seen the Introduction to Canto First when he first became involved in its publication. Although Scott sent Lady Abercorn a complete, privately published poem, he was quite clear that it was to form part of a greater whole, for his letter of 11 February continues: The sheet now sent forms the Introduction to the 1st Canto of a legendary poem called “Marmion or a Tale of Flodden Field.” Each canto is to have an introductory epistle of the same kind & I hope to have the pleasure of shewing your Ladyship this new poem at least a considerable part of it very soon as I hope I may get to town about the beginning or rather towards the middle of March.30

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In spite of saying to John Ballantyne that he would ‘send the Canto itself on Monday’ (which would have been 9 February), nothing was sent, for the whole canto was eventually dispatched from London on 1 April (see below). When he wrote to Surtees on 21 February he had reached 1.524–41 or a little further, for he quotes these lines (apparently from memory) in his letter. On 15 March Scott did indeed go to London to represent the interests of the Principal Clerks of Session whose positions were threatened by reforms proposed by the new government (the government regarded them as sinecures).31 It was not until 1 April 1807 that the remaining eighteen stanzas of Canto 1 were completed. But in spite of the temporal gaps the entire canto is written on the same type of paper with the folios numbered consecutively from one to twenty-three, which encourages a sense of continuity.32 The whole of Canto 1 was sent to Ballantyne in Edinburgh in six packets on 1  April 1807. Lockhart writes: ‘the press copy of Cantos I. and II. of Marmion attests that most of it reached Ballantyne in sheets, franked by the Marquis [of Abercorn], or his son-in-law, Lord Aberdeen, during April’.33 This is wrong in almost every respect. Although based in London during the spring of 1807 Scott visited various friends at weekends, and he used the right of Members of Parliament, peers as well as members of the House of Commons, to send postal packets free of charge. Canto 1 alone was sent on 1 April from London, not Stanmore; the counter-signatories were Lord Aberdeen and ‘Hamilton’, presumably the Duke of Hamilton.34 (Although the family name of the Marquis of Abercorn was Hamilton, he would have signed as Abercorn.) How and why Hamilton was involved is not known; Scott was no friend, but perhaps Lord Aberdeen felt that sending six packets under his name was excessive. The packets all reached James Ballantyne in Edinburgh on 4 April. It is probable that he began to set the poem as soon as Canto 1 was received: that would be his normal practice. But prior to this it must have been decided that it should appear as a quarto: the poem sent to Lady Abercorn consisted of an octavo sheet; the published poem was a quarto, in large print. Thus the Introduction to Canto First had to be reset. Scott also visited George Ellis, and William Rose, and it was from the latter’s house, Gundimore near Christchurch in Dorset, that the Introduction to Canto Second was sent on 13 April 1807 in two packets, received by Ballantyne on 16 April 1807. It is not known when the proofs were ready, but a later letter from Rose to Scott, endorsed and dated June 1807 by Scott, raises some puzzling issues: I heard from Ballantyne, two days ago, that as the delaying my sheets (till I resumed my franking faculties) would be attended with much impediment to Marmion, he had not complied with my injunction; but transmitted them to London. You will easily believe that I should not for a moment put a pitiful precaution of œconomy in the balance against



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your convenience; but I fear that you will already have experienced that inconvenience much against my will. The sheets, which he states to have been transmitted to Town, have never reachd me. I have directed one of my father’s servants to make every enquiry respecting them; & you may be assured that they shall be returned to Ballantyne the very day of their arrival here.35

The import is not clear. The term ‘sheets’ has to refer to proof sheets, and so it looks as though James Ballantyne sent proofs to Rose’s London address (his father’s house) which neither Scott nor Rose received. Parliament was dissolved on 29 April, an unexpected event as the government was dismissed by the King, and Scott had to return to Edinburgh (calling on Anna Seward in Lichfield on the way)36 to attend to official duties consequent on a dissolution; and, of course, there was no call for him to remain longer in London as the threatened legislation fell as well. It is possible that, hoping to intercept Scott, Ballantyne sent the proof sheets of the second epistle to London, but missed him. It seems that in June Ballantyne suggested that Rose was holding them until after the general election: Rose was an MP, but on the dissolution of Parliament ceased to be one until re-elected; in this interval his franking rights were also suspended. In Canto 2 Scott uses the same paper as he used for the Introduction to Canto Second, and this continues until folio 18, although three folios, 4–7, are missing. The first eighteen folios show no evidence of being posted, which probably indicates that these sheets were handdelivered to Ballantyne, and this is likely for Scott would have been in Edinburgh for the summer session of the Court from 12  May to 11 July. There then followed a long break. The election and work on the edition of Dryden were initially factors delaying progress. In a letter of 12 June 1807 to Surtees, and referring to his assisting role in an edition of Sir Ralph Sadler’s state papers and letters, which was eventually published by Constable in 1809, he confided: This by-job has a little interfered with the progress of my new Poem Marmion, in which I think I told you I had upon the stocks, and in which I have availed myself of your curious old ballad of the Featherstonhaugh feud. But this I intend to resume at a later period of the year, for I have been too much fretted by election bustle to have my pipes in very good tune for poetry.37

Such distractions were only minor, however. In the 1830 introduction to the poem Scott tells us that his brother Thomas’s troubles over the summer of 1807 played a major part in arresting the development of Marmion.38 Thomas had been caught embezzling rents from the Abercorn estate at Duddingston near Edinburgh (of which he was factor) to pay off bills incurred by personal investments in a b­ rickworks

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on the estate.39 Tom’s crime came to light sometime around mid-July 1807, and the reason for it was that he was insolvent. Scott shouldered the responsibility of repaying the money that Tom owed to his creditors.40 The situation impinged upon Marmion’s progress for two reasons: firstly, because of the time that it forced Scott to devote to resolving things; and secondly, because of the adverse effect on his health. On 20 July 1807 Scott wrote to Lady Abercorn to express his sorrow for the ‘most woeful mischance’ which has befallen him. It is, he said, ‘likely to silence the Muse for a good while’. He then went on to entreat the Abercorns to intercede on his behalf with Lord Melville so that he might receive ‘the appointments of my office as Clerke of session’ and ‘admission to the regular profits of a laborious office’, so that he could ensure an income should all his savings and capital be lost in making good Tom’s thefts. He continued: ‘My own mortification has been so great that I was very feverish for three days & if I had [had] leisure would have been most heartily sick with vexation anxiety & grief.’41 It is most probable that Scott is referring to this situation in his letter to Robert Surtees, dated 28 July 1807, when he alludes to having ‘just finished some unpleasant business which has robbed me of some part of my vacation. . . . I am scarce able to write, with a violent nervous headache’.42 Writing about his brother’s situation again to Anna Seward on 11 August 1807, Scott says that ‘it has pleased God . . . to visit me with distress of a kind which least of all others I am able to bear’. And he continues: The consequence of my Brother’s failure was that the whole affairs of these extensive Estates were thrown upon my hands in a state of unutterable confusion, so that to save myself from ruin I was obliged to bend my constant and unremitting attention to their re-establishment. In the course of this unfortunate business I was so absolutely worried to death that I had neither head nor heart to think of any thing else. . . . In the midst of all this bustle it is scarcely necessary to say that my harp has been hung on the willows; my grand poem called Marmion has been entirely stopped even when half finished.43

It seems from the manuscript that Scott had got to the end of stanza 27 on folio 18 when Tom’s troubles intervened. It is also clear that Ballantyne set the text to midway through stanza 26, at the bottom of page 104 in the first edition, for folio 19 is headed by Scott: ‘continuation of Marmion Canto II. (stanza XXVI. continued from p. 104)’. The final two folios are written on both sides, which is contrary to Scott’s normal practice, and they are franked 23 August; it is possible that the post town was Selkirk, but the stamp is unclear. It appears, then, that Scott resumed work in mid-August in Ashestiel, and posted the final batch of copy to Ballantyne from the nearest town, Selkirk. It appears too that there was no one who could give him a frank, and



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so he saved expenditure by writing on both sides of the paper. And, because he was responding to proofs (which stopped at the bottom of page 104 as this was the end of gathering N) and cannot have had his manuscript to hand, folio 19 repeats half of stanza 26 and the whole of stanza 27. What he remembered and what he changed as he did this is highly illuminating, and is further discussed below (305). Thus, it is clear that the shock occasioned by his brother’s misconduct undermined both Scott’s health and his ability to proceed with Marmion: he had been deprived of six weeks of prime writing time. But by late August matters had begun to improve. On 10 September, writing to Lady Abercorn, he indicates that Canto 2 was complete, and had been set, proof-read, corrected, and printed: ‘I have defered writing from day to day my dear Lady Abercorn untill I should be able to make good my promise of sending you the two first cantos of Marmion.’44 At the end of Canto 2, on folio 20v, there is a note ‘Introduction to Canto III. will be sent on Monday’, which would have been 24 August. There is no evidence to show that it was, but on 10 September Scott informed Henry MacKenzie that: ‘Marmion is advancing but with slow steps; some disagreeable family business very unfavourable to composition having intervened. I hope now to get him forwards against January.’45 In the letter of the same date to Lady Abercorn, he said that Marmion ‘is now making some progress’,46 and he sounded more positive nine days later, when he told her ‘Marmion is now well advanced’.47 While it is difficult to date the progress of Marmion’s composition precisely after this period in mid-September, it seems that the work progressed by small increments, that writing was frequently interrupted without there being another major break, and that he sent off what he had written to the printers without reaching sectional breaks. He later told Robert Surtees: ‘it was printed sheet by sheet, as fast as composed’.48 Examination of the manuscript confirms that the third canto was composed in five or possibly even six separate stages, using a variety of paper, and that at one point Scott even breaks off mid-stanza, either to send material to the printers or because he is interrupted mid-flow.49 On the verso of the folio containing stanza 16 Scott writes: ‘The inclosed will complete the Sheet of Marmion of which I want two proofs as soon as possible More copy for this poem will be sent tomorrow’. A further reference to the progress of Canto 3 is found in a playful exchange between Scott and Ballantyne.50 The printer advised Scott to revise the rhyme-scheme for the song that Fitz-Eustace sings at the Inn (3.390–425). The content of Scott’s mischievous reply is discussed later in this essay, but whereas Grierson dates this letter circa May 1807, Corson correctly suggests that he had been misled by Lockhart and that the date must be about October 1807.51 At any rate,

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on 12 November 1807 Scott wrote to Lady Abercorn: ‘Marmion after a long repose has been resumed with spirit & the third canto is at length finished’.52 Scott wrote the fourth introductory epistle and Canto 4 in five or six separate stages. As Canto 4 progresses he appears to be writing each stanza on an individual sheet of paper, suggesting that he is advancing one stanza at a time. On the recto of the folio containing stanza 22, Scott has written the note: ‘The rest of this canto will be sent today I should wish the proofs to be sent as soon as possible because I must leave town for two days on Wednesday & would willingly have the whole canto ready to throw off before I go’. Which Wednesday this was cannot be determined, as on every second Wednesday Scott’s presence in court was not required. The poem was now passing rapidly through the printing press. On 23 November he informed Anna Seward that his labours were ‘pretty well advanced’, and he seems to imply that Canto 4 was finished: ‘Three cantos of Marmion are already printed—two will compleat the adventures of this doughty warrior’.53 Scott was always optimistic about timings, but it is highly probable, as J. H. Alexander suggests, that Canto 4 was finished ‘by the end of the first week in December’.54 It has not proved possible to find dates for the progress of Cantos 5 and 6, and their accompanying epistles, during the closing weeks of 1807 and the first fortnight of 1808. However, a breakdown of Scott’s folio numbering and the changes in the types of paper he used suggest the various stages by which the poem progressed. The Introduction to Canto Fifth is on smaller paper and the folios numbered consecutively 1–7; and the first six folios of Canto 5, leading up to stanza 6, line 7, are written on the same paper as the introductory epistle. The continuity that this implies contrasts markedly with the apparently disrupted composition of the rest of the canto. Scott writes ‘Copy for Marmion’ up the left side of folio 6v. The next folio, a different paper from anything he had used so far,55 is headed ‘Canto V. stanza VI continued’ and picks up directly at line 8. He continues on the same paper for a total of six leaves (numbered 1–5 because he omitted to number the second of these) and ‘Marmion’ is penned along the verso of the last. Picking up again at ‘Young Lochinvar’, stanza 12, eight folios numbered 1–8 follow. Scott changes to yet another new type of paper for the first six,56 but returns to a paper he had used earlier for folios 7 and 8. The difference in the quality of pen and handwriting also suggests that these two sheets are written at a different time from the first six. It appears that there were a further four compositional stages before Canto 5 was finally completed.57 Scott’s use of four varieties of paper, and apparently composing the canto in eight separate stages, suggest that the composition of Canto 5 was more jerky than any other part of the poem.58



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The Introduction to Canto Sixth appears to have been written in two stages (there are four numbered folios followed by four unnumbered folios). Canto 6 begins with ten numbered folios that lead up to and include stanza 10. A further six folios numbered 1–6 follow, which take it up to stanza 17 inclusive, and the verso of the last of these bears the note ‘Continuat / Canto VI’. The canto is continued further in a series of eleven folios (numbered 1–11) that stop at stanza 27 inclusive. After this come six unnumbered leaves, and on the verso of the last is written ‘Marmion / Canto VI / Continued’. Five numbered folios (1–5) follow, and then the very last five lines are written on an unnumbered folio which bears the note ‘Marmion / Concluded’ on its verso. Thus, while dating is not possible, this does suggest that Scott composed the final canto of the poem in five or possibly six stages during the period between December 1807 and the first three weeks of 1808. Scott retrospectively claimed to Anna Seward that ‘the concluding canto of Marmion was written in four days and sent piece-meal to the press as the ink dried on the paper without copying or revisal’.59 Yes, Scott did not write out a fair copy—he never did; but he composed in his head (as Skene’s description of Scott on the beach at Portobello tells us: see 288 above). There was both a gestation and revision period which preceded writing; he corrected as he wrote; and he corrected and revised again in proof. The ‘four days’ misrepresent the period of composition, but they do suggest an urgency about getting to the end. It seems that Scott originally hoped that the poem would be published by 4  June 1807; on 27  March 1807, John Murray informed Constable that Scott appears very desirous that “Marmion” should be published by the King’s birthday, but this I conceive it will be impossible for the printer to effect; but he might be amused with proof-sheets, and so be kept perfectly in humour with you. He said he wished it to be ready at that time for very particular reasons, and yet allows that the poem is not completed, and that he is yet undetermined if he shall make his hero happy or otherwise.60

King George III’s birthday was on 4  June. In spite of the contract specifying that Scott would be paid at his ‘conveniency’, it appears that he did not expect the money until the poem had been completed, hence his aim of finishing in the summer. However, five days previously, Constable had written to his partner, Alexander Gibson Hunter: If Marmion could be delayed till November I should be well pleased but in case WS. should want the cash it will be a tender point to propose to him, but if I mistake not the Printer will do it for us sufficiently.61

In other words, Constable hoped that he would not have to pay the thousand guineas until later in the year, but realises that Scott might

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want his money sooner, would have scruples about saying so himself, and so would use Ballantyne to convey the message. The publishers were not putting pressure on Scott. Long before the fourth of June it must have been apparent even to Scott that the poem would not be ready for publication by that date. He informed Lady Abercorn in a letter of 15 May 1807 that Marmion will have the honor of kissing [your] hand at Christmas having adjourned his introduction to public life till that period. The whirlpool of politics run such risque of absorbing all the public interest, and my own labours have been so effectually interrupted by the gaieties of your Metropolis that this arrangement will be most convenient for both parties.62

Scott’s desire to complete the poem by the festive period shows his awareness of the shape of the yet unwritten sixth canto: he addresses the Introduction to Canto Sixth from Mertoun-House, where he was wont to spend the Christmas period, and Christmas is its dominant theme. However, as the year progressed and Marmion was still incomplete it became apparent that the publication date would have to be pushed back yet again. In a letter to Southey written on 1  October 1807, Scott expressed his hope ‘very soon to send you my Life of Dryden, and eke my last Lay’.63 However, when he wrote again the following month, it was only to echo this vague promise: I hope soon to send you a Life of Dryden and a Lay of former times. The latter I would willingly have bestowed more time upon; but what can I do?—my supposed poetical turn ruined me in my profession, and the least it can do is to give me some occasional assistance instead of it.64

A letter from Archibald Constable & Co. to Murray, simply dated December 1807, says that the entire poem was at least in the proof stage by this point, although the letter to Lady Louisa Stuart quoted below suggests that Constable was being fended off with a rather optimistic assessment of progress: we are happy to tell you that the whole of ‘Marmion’ is now at press. It will make sixty-three sheets, or 504 pages, and cost, including copy-money about £1900. It is several sheets larger than our original calculation; but we suppose it must still be sold at £1, 11s. 6d., and £3, 3s., producing For 2000 demy, say 22s. 6d., £2250 50 royal, £2, 6s., 105 yielding a profit on the first edition of £450. We enclose you a proof copy of the title-page and advertisement, and hope to be able to send you a complete copy of the book by the end of next week, and shall ship 1000 for you and 500 for Mr Miller as soon as Ballantyne can possibly get that quantity ready, and not one shall be in circulation here till after all this has been accomplished. You may mention these things to Mr. Miller, and we shall be happy to understand



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from you that what we have now stated proves satisfactory. As the 4to edition will very soon go off we have instructed Ballantyne about printing an 8vo edition of 2000 copies.65

In his letter to Lady Abercorn of 12 November, Scott estimated that Marmion would be published in about ten weeks, i.e. towards the end of January.66 Similarly, in a letter to Mrs Hughes dated 15 December, he wrote: Marmion is ‘to sally forth in January—the printing is going on rapidly but my time is so much occupied with the discharge of my official duties that I have hardly time to keep up with its exertions’.67 It would appear that Scott’s various commitments slightly delayed progress again, for in a letter of 19 January 1808, he finally informed Lady Louisa Stuart: Marmion is, at this instant, gasping upon Flodden field, and there I have been obliged to leave him for these few days in the death pangs. I hope I shall find time enough this morning to knock him on the head with two or three thumping stanzas.68

The 19th would have been a Wednesday: presumably Scott was not needed in court, and so could finish the poem. Returning the last proofs, Scott wrote to James Ballantyne: I return the two sheets. There shd. be a full stop after L Envoy—God grant the thing may do. . . . I should like much to have a copy clean or foul of the two last sheets of Marmion this eveng. if possible.69

On 22 January 1808, Scott informed Lady Abercorn that he had finally finished Marmion.70 On 16  February, advance copies were sent out to selected friends, including Lady Abercorn and his brother-in-law Charles Carpenter.71 On 20  February, Lord Montagu confirmed its safe arrival at Dalkeith House: ‘Marmion arrived here safe last night by the Stage Coach . . . accept my best thanks for your very flattering attention to me in the Title Page, as well as for the great pleasure I shall enjoy in perusing the contents of your interesting present.’72 It was available to the general public two days later, on 22 February 1808. The Composition of the Notes. The composition of the notes follows its own pattern. Scott’s letter of 21  February 1807 to Robert Surtees mentions notes: he promises him that ‘In the notes I will give your copy of the ballad and your learned illustrations’.73 It looks as though notes were being composed as the poem progressed. The only other mention of notes is in his letter to Ann Hayman of November 1807.74 However examination of the manuscript yields some useful information about their composition and development. They are preceded by the instruction, on a separate unnumbered leaf of the manuscript: ‘These notes to begin with a separate series of numerals on the page’, and accordingly, they are set out with Roman

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numerals in the printed text. Although they are intended to complement the poetic text, the numbering affords them a kind of autonomous status. Lockhart was of the opinion that the ‘bulky appendix of notes, including a mass of curious antiquarian quotations, must have moved somewhat slowly through the printers’ hands’,75 but there is no evidence to suggest that this unduly held up the printing of the poem. Neither is it possible to ascertain from the documentary evidence whether the notes were composed in advance, as he wrote, or when he had reached the end of a canto: however, they cannot have been written after he finished the poem as there was but a month between telling Lady Louisa he was finished and its publication. What the manuscript does reveal is that the notes were less considered than the poetry. He uses both sides of the paper, and the presentation is messier, which makes it reasonable to conjecture that they were penned more rapidly. It is also clear that he composed many of the notes from his recollection of the poem, without the manuscript or the proofs before him. In addition, some of the quotations from historical or literary texts appear to have been remembered rather than copied. It seems he was drawing on his capacious memory to create notes without having either the poem or his secondary sources to hand before him, a creative process that is significant for the present edition. Examination of the manuscript also reveals that the notes were composed collaboratively. For example, a printed slip taken from Scott’s Life of Dryden is pasted onto the lower half of folio four, followed by a smaller printed slip on the top part of the verso, supplying a quotation from Dryden’s ‘Essay on Satire’ for Canto 1, Note III. Scott’s wife Charlotte acted as Scott’s principal amanuensis; following his clear instructions in the manuscript, she copied out almost all of the nineteen sizeable passages from historical and literary texts.76 After his introductory paragraph to Note II of Canto 1, Scott instructs her to ‘Take in from the second vol History of King Arthur end of Chapter XLV. to the 13th line of Chapter XLVII. leaving out the division and titles of the Chapters’. A third hand, most likely William Erskine’s, makes two contributions to the notes to Canto 2. The first, in Note I, is a long excerpt from ‘The Pennyles Pilgrimage’ (1618), an account by John Taylor, the water-poet, of a deer-hunt that he witnessed with William Erskine’s ancestor. The second, in Note VIII, provides a lengthy extract from ‘A True Account’ printed and circulated in Whitby pertaining to a boar hunt. In Canto 6, Note IV, a paper apart written in yet another hand provides information about Scott’s ancestor, Old Beardie. Finally, there are the two versions of ‘The Spirit of the Blasted Tree’, which is presented in Canto 6, Note V. One of these is presumably written in Mrs Hayman’s hand and the other is the corrected version supplied by George Warrington.



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The Manuscript. Archibald Constable’s perspicacity is seen in the first page of the bound manuscript of Marmion. In a foreword dated August 1813, he informs the reader that ‘This is the original manuscript of Marmion by Walter Scott Esq. which I requested the Printer might preserve’. Constable clearly apprehended the cultural, literary, and indeed potential pecuniary, worth invested in a manuscript belonging to such an author as Scott.77 It is also a cultural landmark, for Constable is the first publisher to decide that authorial printer’s copy should be preserved. He continues: it is nearly perfect there being only wanting—In Canto IId stanza’s V VI VII VIII and part of IV & IX, in Canto IIId, stanza’s II III XXXII & XXXIIII Some of the stanza’s in the three last cantos are numbered differently in print, as will be seen by the pencil marks in the M.S. in the Poem as printed there are occasional slight variations from this copy—which probably occurred to the Author during the correction of the proof sheets—this collation refers of course to the first Edition published in the year 1807.

The manuscript was among those sold by Constable’s trustees and was ultimately owned by Sir William Augustus Fraser of Ledeclune and Morar, Bart, who bequeathed it to the Advocates’ Library. It is now owned by that library’s successor institution, the National Library of Scotland, and is in good condition. Scott had a very clear idea about how he wanted the text to be presented: he indents lines and gives some instructions about the layout, such as use of black letter and the instruction to ‘draw in’ sections. The physical presentation of the poem is thus signalled as a textual issue. The manuscript is very lightly punctuated, indeed many parts have practically no punctuation at all. Scott would have expected the punctuation to be normalised in accordance with the conventions of nineteenth-century printed texts, and it is assumed that Scott accepted the printer’s punctuation in the proofs. As J. H. Alexander also notes, the punctuation of two passages is unusually full.78 For example in Canto 4, stanzas 5 through 17, the punctuation is much more emphatic than the rest of the poem: it is large, written in dark ink, and the positioning indicates that it was added after the composition of the stanzas, but it is not possible to determine at which point and by whom. It is possible that Scott returned to reread his work and added revisions and punctuation before sending the manuscript to the printer. The comparability of the ink and the writing, as well as the fact that the punctuation is not systematic, do suggest it was Scott rather than the compositor, for a printer might have been expected to be systematic and consistent. However, a similar phenomenon has been noticed in the manuscript of Guy Mannering, and P. D. Garside has suggested that perhaps James

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Ballantyne would have done this in order to provide the compositor with guidance on how to point the text.79 This suggestion is supported in the manuscript of Marmion by the fact that sometimes there is double punctuation at the end of a line, which suggests that the new punctuation was not authorial revision but another’s addition. An examination of the manuscript shows that although Scott protested that he sent his work to the press ‘without copying or revisal’80 there are many changes in the manuscript itself, some made as he wrote, and others in the course of rereading. He added eight lines at the end of the Introduction to Canto First, and sent these to the printer as a paper apart, which was later pasted into position in the manuscript. The collation of the manuscript against the first edition shows that many more changes were made at proof stage. The whole compositional process has been analysed in detail and at length in J. H. Alexander’s rich and rewarding study, Marmion: Studies in Interpretation and Composition.81 Three examples only will be discussed here as indicative and symptomatic of Scott’s procedures. The manuscript revisions reveal how the narrative evolved and shaped itself in Scott’s mind during the initial stages of the creative process. In Canto 1, stanza 16, after Heron taunts Marmion about the identity of his page, Scott originally wrote: Lord Marmion ill such jest could brook He rolld his kindling eye Fixd on the Knight his dark haughty look And answerd stern and high. “That page thou didst so closely eye So fair of hand and skin Is come I ween of lineage high And of thy ladyes kin That youth so like a paramour Who wept for shame & pride Was erst in Wiltons lordly bower Sir Ralph de Wiltons bride

However, it is clear that Scott quickly rejected the notion of a marriage between Constance and De Wilton, altering the stanza to the form that appears in the printed text, where Marmion instead suppresses his ‘rising wrath’ (1.588) and upholds the pretence that Constance is a boy who has been left behind at Lindisfarne due to ill health. Another interesting passage concerns the eulogy on Pitt. He originally wrote: ‘O had he lived though stripd of power / like a lone watchman on the tower’ but this is revised to ‘ Had’st ↑thou but↓ lived though stripd of power / A watchman on the lonely tower’ (1.97–98). Both revisions (the change to personal pronoun and the escalation from simile to direct analogy) increase the immediacy and the intensity of the address. A further particularly interesting change is in the famous line where Scott refers to Edinburgh as ‘Mine own



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romantic town!’ (4.832). This is an afterthought squeezed in above a heavily scored-through line that is difficult to read but which appears to contain the words ‘Dun Edins towers’. Uniquely, there is the overlapping manuscript passage in Canto 2, stanzas 26 and 27, Scott having rewritten them when he took up Marmion again in the middle of August 1807. When comparing the first and the second versions one could reasonably conclude that Scott had remembered the gist of what he originally wrote, and written it down with some inevitable variation: some of the changes are just variants of the kind which emerge in the course of rewriting as when the original ‘mann’d’ in line 2.758 becomes ‘armed’, and ‘thing’ in the following line becomes ‘sight’. But what is truly extraordinary is the self-criticism which is exercised not on a visible text before him, but in his head. Originally Scott wrote Nor do I speak your prayers to gain For if my penance be in vain Your prayers I cannot want.

This is rather convoluted: I am not asking for your prayers because if my penance will not save my soul, prayers are unnecessary. In the rewrite this becomes: Not do I speak your prayers to gain For if a death of lingering pain To cleanse my sins be penance vain Vain are your masses too– (2.765–68)

The new version is menacing: Constance implies that her mode of death will provide a more efficacious path to salvation than masses said by her judges. The next five lines are an addition in which she quickly summarises three years of her life as Marmion’s mistress, and this paves the way for her self-representation as a story, a further addition, which concludes the stanza: Tis an old tale and often told— But did my fate and wish agree Ne’er had been read in story old Of maiden true betrayd for gold That loved or was avenged like me.” (2.780–84)

Thus in the revised version Constance is given an eloquence, which comments acutely on the nature of her oppression. She is the first of a notable series of female victims in the works of Walter Scott. Introduction to Canto First. As previously indicated, the first printed version of Scott’s letter to William Stewart Rose has survived, and is held by the Pierpont Morgan Library. It is clean except for a revision in Scott’s hand on two separate pieces of paper originally

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pasted into position over the printed text, and for an addition, also in Scott’s hand, on the last page, at the end of the printed text. These two extra pieces were probably added in April 1807, but the document itself is almost certainly an example of what Scott sent to Lady Abercorn. The printed text differs from the manuscript text in that punctuation has been inserted, capitalisation regularised, and small errors corrected: Scott wrote ‘daisies’ in the third verse paragraph (1.40 in the present edition), but the printed document reads ‘daisy’s’, which is surely correct. This is the kind of change we would expect the compositors and correctors to the press to make when converting manuscript into print. Nonetheless, the PML document is much closer to the manuscript than is the first edition. For example in the manuscript the second verse paragraph begins: ‘No longer now in glowing red / The Ettricke-Forest hills are clad’. This is exactly the reading in the PML document, whereas the first edition reads: ‘No longer Autumn’s glowing red / Upon our Forest hills is shed’ (1.15–16). There are many instances where readings in the PML document are identical, or nearly so, to those in the manuscript, with both differing from what ultimately appeared in the first edition of Marmion. The PML document also contains some readings differing from those in the manuscript which suggest that the author had probably lightly revised the poem in a proof (which would be his usual practice). For example, in the manuscript Charles II and his court forced Dryden to produce ‘Licentious lampoon song and play’, and in so doing The world defrauded of his high design Prophaned his God-given strength & marr’d his lofty line

In the PML document and the first edition these lines read: Licentious satire, song, and play; The world defrauded of the high design, Prophaned the God-given strength, and marred the lofty line. (1.283–85)

The punctuation and spelling has been normalised (an activity of the printing office); at least one revision (‘lampoon’ to ‘satire’) must be authorial, and the triple change from ‘his’ to ‘the’ is probably so. Nonetheless there are also signs of deterioration, of which by far the most significant is at 1.241 where ‘fold’ which appeared in the manuscript and the PML document has been misread as ‘field’ thus eliminating the passing (and highly appropriate) reference to Jean Elliot’s ‘The Flowers of the Forest’. In spite of its significance for the history of the writing of Marmion, the document itself is a textual dead-end. It was not used in the printing house (it is too clean for that), and both the additional passages made their way into the poem by a different route, the passage on Rose (1.314–22) as a paper apart which has been pasted into the manuscript.



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Changes in Proofs. As far as it can be ascertained, there are no extant proof sheets for any edition of Marmion.82 Nevertheless, it is possible to deduce from collation that there were many authorial changes between the manuscript and first edition, in which Scott not only corrects, but changes words and phrases to enhance the drama. For instance, when the Palmer first meets Marmion in Norham Castle he was at first placed in a seat ‘near’ his antagonist. However, in proof Scott shifts the Palmer so that instead he ‘fronted Marmion where he sate, / As he his peer had been’ (1.807–08), a change which both heightens tension and foreshadows the revelation of the Palmer’s true identity. The finest analysis is again contained in J. H. Alexander’s study, Marmion: Studies in Interpretation and Composition. But what that study makes less clear is the frequency with which Scott added material, and revised critical passages. Scott added four lines to the Introduction to Canto Second: Though if to Sylphid Queen ’twere given, To shew our earth the charms of heaven, She could not glide along the air, With form more light, or face more fair. (2.90–93)

The Introduction to Canto 3 was revised extensively, including the addition of new lines, at proof stage, in lines 3.75–96; 188–91; 202–205. Marmion’s thoughts about Constance in (Canto 3, stanza 17) were subject to much revision, and ten lines were added at proof stage (3.522–25, 528–33). Six lines were added at 4.744–49; and four to the description of Edinburgh’s razed city cross (5.906–09). In the rousing concluding canto, there was extensive revision of stanza 34; six lines must have been added in the proofs (6.1274–76; 1279–81); and ten lines dictated during a supper party at James Ballantyne’s were added to this stanza (6.1291–300; see 311–12). There are nine instances where couplets are added at proof stage. Finally there was one textual change in a cancel, the addition of the Marquess of Abercorn’s couplet: ‘For talents mourn, untimely lost, / When best employed, and wanted most’ (1.130–31), which is further discussed below at 313. Scott’s proof changes did not change the story nor the direction of the narrative, but they amplified ideas, sharpened the expression, and removed words repeated in close proximity. Readers of the Edinburgh editions of Scott are already familiar with Scott’s practices when revising and correcting, but what makes Marmion so interesting is that this is the first work in which we can see his self-criticism in action. But it is different from the novels for it is in the proofs that Scott’s responsiveness to his audience can be seen in action. It is not normally possible to pick out particular words or phrases which were changed as a result of criticism, but it seems highly probable that the experience of

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reading his poem aloud, and the comments of his auditors, alerted him to loose expression, or flaccid poetic ideas in the first draft which he sharpened in his proof corrections. I call this process of poetic adjustment ‘socialisation’. Socialisation. It has already been shown that the ‘traditional’ lore provided by Robert Surtees had a stimulating effect on the way Scott developed the poem, something which Scott admitted when he wrote to Surtees on 4 April 1808 after the poem was published: ‘When you look into the notes of the aforesaid Marmion, you will see how valuable a correspondent you have been to me’.83 There was also a wide circle of friends and acquaintances who provided a context for writing the poem. Scott openly avowed authorship and, as Lockhart observes, ‘seems to have communicated fragments of the poem very freely during the whole of its progress’.84 This habit had a significant impact on the development of Marmion. In a passage already quoted, James Skene says ‘He used to join me in the rear of the squadron when returning from exercises, and recite what he had been composing’.85 Letters written to Anna Seward and Lady Abercorn reveal Scott’s willingness both to share and discuss details of his work as it progressed. His letter of 13 January 1807 informs Anna Seward that he had ‘laid aside my Highland poem’ in favour of one concerned with the fatal battle of Flodden & I think I will call it Flodden Field. Each canto is to be introduced by a little digressive poem which for want of a better name may be calld an epistle.86

On 29  January 1807, Anna Seward responded: ‘I am also infinitely flattered by your purpose of sending for my inspection such parts of Flodden-Field as are sprung to light’.87 As we have seen on 11 February he sent Lady Abercorn ‘the Introduction to the 1st Canto of a legendary poem called “Marmion or a Tale of Flodden Field”’.88 On 18 February 1807, Lady Abercorn responded: I wish I could express the very great delight I took in reading the part of that beautiful poem you enclosed me some days ago . . . Lord Abercorn . . . has made some remarks which I keep for your arrival, and tho He says you have made a very fair distinction between Pitt and Fox in yr elegie yet He almost wishes there had been more Pitt. tho not one word less of Fox.89

And she becomes quite gushing: ‘I shou’d rejoice to have the greatest statesman [Pitt] as well as the best of men recorded by the first of poets’. On 20  February he confided to Anna Seward that he had revised the poem’s title, consolidated his ideas about its structure, and begun to sketch out the narrative. He writes:



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I have at length fixed on the title of my new poem which is to be christend from the principal character Marmion or a Tale of Flodden Field. There are to be six Cantos & an introductory Epistle to each in the stile of that which I sent to you as a specimen. In the legendary part of the work “Knights Squires and Steeds shall enter on the Stage”.90

Anna Seward replied on 17 April: It is only eight days since your valuable packet, dated February 20th, reached me through a private and unknown channel. The introductory stanzas to your new poem, Flodden-Field, have the first claim upon my grateful attention. Till after the close of your panegyric on our glorious Nelson, all is worthy of your enchanting muse, and is gathered to the much [sic] that evinces your injustice in fancying modern poetic talent in a state of dwarfism, from the days of Chaucer, Spencer, and Dryden; and in deeming them giants in comparison with their successors. . . . With what a never-excelled wintry landscape your introduction to Flodden-Field opens! You place me in the scene, and the cold thrill of sympathy runs through my veins as I read. Nature, Genius—you are alike inexhaustible; and as you were coëval from the first of days, coëval is your progress, and coëval will be your end.91

Anna Seward does not offer suggestions for textual revision. However, like many of Scott’s correspondents, she did not hesitate to offer her critical appraisal, and these interchanges are salient. The circumstances of Scott’s life in 1807 led to his sharing the details of the poem’s progress with the people around him. He had an intensely sociable time during his sojourn in London. Lionised in society and a favourite with the Princess of Wales, his evenings were taken up with endless dinners, receptions and balls, such that he wrote home to Charlotte, ‘my time glides away or rather I should say is wasted among engagements’, and ‘my card-rack is quite coverd with invitations from Secretaries of State and Cabinet Ministers all of which is extremely droll’.92 His letters home are full of juicy titbits of social and political gossip. His immersion in society and politics is evident in the introductory epistles: they can be justifiably called ‘conversation poems’ for they are addressed to the friends in London and Edinburgh whom he was meeting, and to whom he had been writing. The subjects he treats may well relate to conversations in which he had been engaged; we have no proof of this but it is certain that he places compliments within the text without actually addressing those who are complimented; for instance on publication he sent a copy to the Princess of Wales who particularly thanked him for the laudatory lines on her father, the Duke of Brunswick, at 3.43–80.93 He dwells upon themes which, he tells Ellis, he will recognise as ‘a plurality of hobby-horses—a whole stud, on each of which I have, in my day, been accustomed to take an airing’.94

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In the autumn, when work on Marmion had resumed, Scott continued to tell friends not just about progress, but about how he has written them into the text: tributes are paid, and places and houses are featured, so that one gets the sense of an intensely interconnected society. For example, on 11 November 1807, Lady Louisa Stuart both praised and criticised what she was reading: ‘I must tell you how much pleasure it gave me, & that this pleasure rose still higher on reading it over & over again. Like the Lay, it carries one on, & one cannot lay it down’.95 On 12  November Scott wrote to Lady Abercorn: ‘I hope your Ladyship has long since had the sheets of Marmion’.96 On 23  November he apprized Anna Seward: ‘By the way I fetchd [Marmion] from Tamworth in your neighbourhood’.97 Another letter to Lady Louisa Stuart of mid December 1807, indicates that even at this late stage Scott was freely bandying about information regarding unconsolidated details in the narrative. Lady Louisa had told him a story about Henry VI and Muncaster Castle about which he says ‘I am more & more delighted with the tale of King Henry, his cup and his blessing’, but escapes having to include it in Marmion by saying it is too good a story: ‘I am going to discontinue all my dangerous intentions of giving poetic celebrity to Ld. Muncasters habitation (since you were pleased to think I can do so) for I think the story is far too good to be comprized in a stanza & a note which is all I could afford in Marmion’.98 He then tells her exactly where he has got to in Canto 5, flattering her at the same time by playing on the surname which she shared with James IV: ‘I am just now very busy dressing your cousin James 4th in his court suit: his cloaths are all cut, sew’d & ready to put on so I must bid your Ladyship farewell in order to attend his royal levee’. Thus his correspondence shows that the poem was not just responsive to the social nexus, but generated and enlivened it. The poem was making social connections; it responds to those whom he was meeting. It grew in a social context. Scott’s responsiveness to this context is obvious, but whether the society he was keeping actually affected the verbal text is more difficult to determine. There are some bits of written criticism. Rose wrote: ‘One more stricture—I do not like Palinure. “The pilot who weathered the storm” has been so hackneyed at Taverns by public singers, that an association of ideas unfavourable to your simile is instantly produced’.99 James Ballantyne suggested that the rhyme-scheme in the song that Fitz-Eustace sings at the Inn in Canto 3 be revised, to which Scott responded, teasingly: I am much obliged for the rhimes. I presume it can make no difference as to the air if the first three lines rhime—& I wish to know with your leisure if it is absolutely necessary that the fourth should be out of Poetic rythme, as “the deserting fair one” certainly is—for example would this [do?]



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Should my heart from thee falter, To another love alter (For the rhime we’ll say Walter) Deserting my lover. There is here the same number of syllables, but arranged in cadence. I return the proof & send the copy which please return when you have made the calculation—there will be six cantos.100

On 11 November 1807, Louisa Stuart said: It is, I feel a great piece of presumption in me either to commend or criticize, but one passage, I confess, strikes me as more feeble than the rest, ’though by itself, or in a less spirited poem, I should perhaps never have applied to it that epithet. What I mean is that part of the introduction to the third Canto, where you begin to give Mr Erskine your reasons for not adopting his advice; it immediately follows the compliment to Miss Baillie.101

There is no doubt that he effectively entered into a dialogue with his audience, and the exchanges show that he allowed that audience to offer a critique of his work as it progressed. But the record also shows that he resisted particular suggestions: he did not revise the passages criticised by Rose, Ballantyne, and Lady Louisa, and at times he defended what he had written. However, if he resisted direct criticism the process of reading to an audience seems to have stimulated self-criticism. In her reminiscences of Scott Jane Skene writes: One day he had delighted us very much with the famous description of the Battle of Flodden, which he read to us with great animation. I see him before me at this moment as he stood in the middle of the room, partly reading, partly reciting it. After finishing, he pointed out some lines he did not like; then pacing up and down the room for a few seconds . . . he sat down at the table, and taking up the pen, he wrote the new lines, which he repeated to us, on the margin of the proof-sheet.102

There must be some doubts about this description: the speed with which Scott finished Marmion did not give him much time to be reading his account of Flodden out loud, but the story rings true for the Skenes were close friends and did not need to concoct an anecdote to claim intimacy. In any case, descriptions of his reading aloud to an audience, and then revising or amplifying what he had written, are too frequent for them to be wrong, even if particulars may be awry. Another telling example of the way in which Scott responded to an audience is presented in James Ballantyne’s reminiscences. Apparently, Scott was at a dinner that Ballantyne gave in St John’s Street and when the ladies retired he sat silent for some time, then said, ‘James, it’s a strange thing to ask, but I should be glad if you would go with me to the library for

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a quarter of an hour’. To the other guests he explained, ‘To tell you the truth, gentlemen, our worthy landlord & I are just about finishing a new poem, & a few lines have just struck me, which I should be glad to send to the printing house before the sheet is printed off.’ 103 At the close of Canto 6, stanza 34, after the lines Tweed’s echoes heard the ceaseless plash, While many a broken band, Disordered, through her currents dash, To gain the Scottish land; (6.1287–90)

he added: To town and tower, to down and dale, To tell red Flodden’s dismal tale, And raise the universal wail. Tradition, legend, tune, and song, Shall many an age that wail prolong: Still from the sire the son shall hear Of the stern strife, and carnage drear, Of Flodden’s fatal field, Where shivered was fair Scotland’s spear, And broken was her shield! (6.1291–300)

Examination of the manuscript reveals that these lines were indeed added at a later stage and, if Ballantyne’s memory served him correctly, this public setting is most apposite for a poem composed in such a deeply ‘socialised’ way as Marmion so demonstrably was. Of course Scott’s openness to suggestion, and the freedom with which he shared his work, led to many spurious claims about the way in which others had influenced him. For example, in his Anecdotes of Scott, James Hogg claims to recall an occasion when Scott ‘read me Marmion before it was published but I think it was then in the press for part of it at least was read from proof slips and sheets with corrections on the margin’.104 There is no way in which Scott could have read Marmion like this—it is a very long poem which was printed a sheet at a time from the beginning of September—but of course Hogg may have heard an extract. Yet while the anecdote seems improbable, it does provide evidence about the way in which performance and writing were interconnected. In the revised second edition of his Life of Scott, Lockhart presents an additional anecdote supplied by Guthrie Wright, a solicitor who had replaced Scott’s brother Tom as factor of Lord Abercorn’s Duddingston estate. While waiting to meet Lord Abercorn in Dumfries in July 1807, he says, Scott read him the ‘three or four first cantos’. He continues: ‘I said in joke that it appeared to me he had brought his hero by a very strange route into Scotland. “Why,” says I, “did ever mortal coming from England to Edinburgh go by Gifford, Crichton Castle, Borthwick Castle, and over the top



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of Blackford Hill?”.’ 105 This cannot have taken place as Scott did not write Cantos 3 and 4 until the autumn, although the question may have been posed on another occasion. But again here is an acquaintance trying to suggest that he was part of a collaborative circle. Jerome J. McGann uses the term ‘socialisation’ to describe the process whereby an author’s manuscript is prepared for publication and for engagement with its readers.106 A printed-book style of spelling and punctuation was imposed on all of Scott’s works by the intermediaries of the printing-house. But this is a very narrow concept of socialisation, and to cover the way in which audience response is incorporated into Marmion the term needs to be expanded. There really is a developmental kind of socialisation at work in Marmion. Scott writes his audience into the text, as we have seen, and after reading before an audience he adjusts his text. The section on proofs above (307–08) quantifies how many new lines were added at proof stage, but makes no attempt to assess how many of the proof changes to single words, to phrases, or to word order, came about as a result of these performances. He does not take on board the direct criticism of friends, but a process of adjustment takes place within the mind of the poet. Only two acquaintances added to the text, and they are exceptions which prove the general rule. In early April 1807 Scott visited Bentley Priory, Stanmore, now in north-west London, as a guest of Lord and Lady Abercorn. As we have seen (308 above) Lord Abercorn had already read the Introduction to Canto First, and had some views on the passage in which Scott eulogises Pitt and Fox. During his stay with them Scott seems to have read part of Marmion to the assembled company, and in a letter to his wife Charlotte on 22 April he comments that Lord Abercorn had ‘taken prodigiously to my poetry & we are upon a footing of intimacy which his Lady says is very unusual with this great man’.107 In the self-styled role of patron, Lord Abercorn suggested that Scott revise and heighten the dozen or so lines written as tribute to the memory of Charles Fox in the Introduction to Canto First, and he even supplied a laudatory couplet: ‘For talents mourn, untimely lost, When best employed, and wanted most,’ (1.130–31). Scott decided to add the couplet, and to revise the lines which followed, but for some reason the addition was not made. On 10 September he sent sheets of the first two cantos (now printed ready for publication), but on 19 September he had to grovel when writing again to Lady Abercorn, asking her to add the missing lines to the printed sheets he had sent her. He observes: ‘They are an admirable improvement suggested by the M[arquis] when I was at the Priory. The sheet was thrown off before the correction reached the printer, but the leaf is to be cancelled and printed anew before publication.’108 Scott’s ‘admirable improvement’, and the assurance that a cancel would follow, surely indicate that he was particularly anxious not to offend Abercorn in view of the disaster in July.

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His dealings with the Princess of Wales had a similar outcome. Through her privy-purse, Ann Hayman, Scott had sent a presentation copy of his collection Ballads and Lyrical Pieces in March 1807, and was invited to dine with her in Blackheath on 25 April.109 Presuming on this social connection Hayman wrote on 5  November asking, in an appropriately deferential way, if Scott would include in his next collection the poem of a friend.110 Perhaps Scott misunderstood the request, for he replied on 10 November saying ‘Whatever you admire will I am sure add greatly to the value of the work in which you are pleased to request a place for it’, and adding that he is approaching the end of Marmion, ‘a tale of war & wonder with notes like Noah’s ark an ample receptacle for every thing that savours of romantic lore’. 111 The poem is mentioned in the text at 6.155; to bring it in Scott had to add at proof stage a passage of fourteen lines beginning ‘All nations have their omens drear’ (6.155–67). It appears, then, that Scott resisted the direct suggestions of friends, but acceded to the requests of a political grandee and the Lady-inWaiting of the Princess of Wales. It is clear that he had succumbed to social pressure exercised by more powerful and infinitely richer people. Such an outcome was inevitable. Accounts of conversations, and the evidence of correspondence during the poem’s composition, show that Scott’s awareness of his audience had a pervasive influence on its development. His letters suggest ways in which the course of his life both directed and interrupted the flow of the writing process; external, social factors both drove and distracted the poet. The highly sociable nature of his life is reflected in the text, even as the text reflects the concerns of early nineteenth-century society and politics, and this is particularly evident in the Introduction to Canto First. Indeed, the couplet inserted in this first epistle at Lord and Lady Abercorn’s behest was both politically motivated and had political repercussions in its turn. 3. the later editio ns The Second and Third Editions. In a letter to Mrs Hughes of 1 June 1808 Scott writes: Marmion is much flattered by your approbation—he has been very successful with the public 5000 copies being already disposed of. The critics (I mean the professional critics) have not I understand been so favourable as to the Lay but with this I laid my account for many causes.112

Despite the high price of one and a half guineas per copy, Marmion flew off the bookshelves and into the eagerly outstretched hands of the public. The second edition was published in April 1808 in Edinburgh



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and on 8 July 1808 in London,113 the third on 20 July 1808 in Edinburgh and 3 August 1808 in London.114 By the end of May 1808, with 5000 copies in total over two editions already sold due to an ‘unexampled demand’,115 and 3000 copies of a third edition ‘thundering’ through the press, Scott’s popularity was consolidated and his position as the nation’s favourite poet confirmed.116 In evident and justified satisfaction at this knowledge, Scott wrote to Lady Louisa Stuart on 16 June 1808: Marmion is nearly out, and I have made one or two alterations on the third edition, with which the press is now groaning. So soon as it is, it will make the number of copies published within the space of six months amount to eight thousand,—an immense number surely, and enough to comfort the author’s wounded feelings, had the claws of the reviewers been able to reach him through the steel jack of true Border indifference.117

As one might expect both the second and third editions show clear evidence of textual deterioration. There are numerous small changes to spelling that appear in the second edition and continue into the third: ‘Yare’ for ‘Yair’ at 1.22, for example. At times words are also replaced by weaker ones that are unlikely to be authorial, such as the replacement of ‘swear’ with ‘fear’ at 4.228, or ‘where’ by ‘whence’ at 2.596. Scott’s use of ‘murther’ from Scots law becomes the more commonplace ‘murder’ at 2.683. At 4.850 and again at 4.862 the post of ‘Lion’ is replaced with the specific name ‘Lindesay’, presumably because a compositor failed to understand the sense. The most frequent examples of deterioration, however, are in punctuation and capitalisation, where there is a gradual, and at times meaningful, movement away from the first edition. One compositor seems particularly fond of exclamation marks and these are added rather gratuitously at 1.476 and 1.479. The phrase ‘Man of Woe’ is capitalised at 2.267 thus subtly altering the meaning, while the introduction of a semi-colon in place of a comma at 2.738 destroys the ongoing sense of Constance’s inability to speak. On the other hand the removal of a semi-colon at 3.491 fails to recognise the ways in which Scott is dividing up the ideas in the passage. The movement of an apostrophe at 5.336 reduces the many armourers catering for the army to one. The third edition also introduces its own examples of deterioration. Again, some of these changes involve spelling, such as at 6.1328 when ‘site’ becomes ‘scite’. This is clearly a mistake but at times such errors result in a change in meaning or nonsense; at 2.440, for example, the ‘aisle’ of an abbey is replaced with the homophone ‘isle’. There are also several places where words seen inadvertently replaced: ‘And’ replaces ‘Then’ at 1.661, ‘lofty’ replaces the more specific ‘loftier’ at 3.28 and ‘tramp’ becomes ‘trump’ at 3.188. At 5.878, 938, 940 and 6.384 a

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common compositor’s blunder occurs when ‘ere’ replaces ‘e’er’. Again, there are numerous small changes in punctuation and capitalisation. At 1.194, for example, a necessary comma disappears after ‘land’, and a sentence is broken up after 1.353 and 1.405 by the addition of semi-colons. A capital is removed from the word ‘Hills’ at 2.79, thus occluding the fact that the toast is to a particular person in a specific geographical location. Often these changes are subtle but meaningful, such as at 3.20 where the addition of a semi-colon in place of a full stop destroys the sense that Scott is shifting his poetic gaze from the external world back onto the tale in hand. It is hardly surprising that in both editions Scott’s notes also suffer from deterioration, given the difficulties in reading the very small print of one edition and resetting it: at 210.9, for example ‘I a foole’ becomes ‘I foole’ in the third edition, while ‘crafts’ becomes ‘craft’ in the second (210.24). The frequent Latin in the notes added another layer of complexity and in the second edition ‘tuas’ becomes ‘tuos’ (234.40), and ‘redemptisti’ becomes ‘redemisti’ in the third (234.41). Names deteriorate too, with ‘Katherine’ becoming Katharine in the second edition at 285.11. As Scott’s letter to Lady Louisa Stuart of 16 June suggests, however, if the text was degenerating it was also being ‘improved’ or ‘altered’ by Scott. The experience of editing the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels was that, with a few exceptions, Scott was very seldom creatively engaged with his work between the first editions and the Magnum Opus of 1829–33. However, collation of editions of Marmion suggests that Scott continued to intervene in the text both in an editorial and creative capacity, inserting new material and emending errors up until the third edition, and often in response to comments from friends and correspondents in a manner that equates to the ‘socialisation’ described as part of the initial evolution of the text. Some of these changes are relatively small. In the second edition, for example, the line ‘a deep and mellow voice he had’ is revised to read ‘A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had’ (3.372). At 6.821 the word ‘bending’ is altered to the rather more atmospheric ‘sweeping’. Other changes are definite improvements: the rather awkward line ‘By France’s king to Scotland given’ becomes ‘And culverins which France had given’ (4.773). At 5.585–88 what seems to be a missing line is restored: ‘And, when his blood and heart were high, / King James’s minions led to die / On Lauder’s dreary flat:’ are revised to read ‘And, when his blood and heart were high, / Did the third James in camp defy, / And all his minions led to die / On Lauder’s dreary flat’. Four lines are added to the Introduction to Canto Sixth, reinforcing the Gothic elements of the story through the back-reference to the stories of knights fighting demons in Canto 3, and Scott’s own note on the Goblin Hall (Note III in Notes to Canto Third, 240–41):



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May pass the Monk of Durham’s tale, Whose Demon fought in Gothic mail; May pardon plead for Fordun grave, Who told of Gifford’s Goblin-Cave. (6.210–13)

The most extensive changes are, however, to Scott’s own notes, which are frequently expanded and corrected, presumably as new information came to light. For example, in Note VIII in Notes to Canto First (216–17) further information about Sir David Lindsay’s visit to London is added and the story altered so that the emphasis is on William Dalzell rather than Lindsay. In Note III in Notes to Canto Second, an interesting slip whereby Scott refers to himself as ‘editor’ rather than ‘author’ (231) is corrected, and in Note X in Notes to Canto Second additional information is given from Lionel Charlton’s The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey: Mr Charlton, in his history of Whitby, points out the true origin of the fable, from the number of sea-gulls, that, when flying from a storm, often alight near Whitby; and from the woodcocks, and other birds of passage, who do the same upon their arrival on shore, after a long flight. (235–36)

Elsewhere, Scott writes the source of his new information into the notes, thus emphasising the ongoing socialisation of his text. In Note III in Notes to Canto Fifth, for example, the following information is added: In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his queen certainly did; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks to his lordship’s ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King himself, at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane’s MSS. p. 119, 120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. (254–55)

Similarly in Note III in Notes to Canto Sixth Scott comments: ‘Since the quarto edition of Marmion appeared, this subject has received much elucidation from the learned and extensive labours of Mr Douce’ (269). In his letter to Lady Louisa, however, it is to the third edition that Scott alludes, claiming that he is ‘making one or two alterations’ in it. This is confirmed by sheets held in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.118 These are catalogued as proofs of the second edition but examination confirms that the item is a second edition of the poem that includes some sheets from a copy marked up in Scott’s hand

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in ­preparation for the third. As Scott suggests to Lady Louisa, he makes a few but nevertheless significant changes to the text itself. At 6.1001–03, for example, during the thick of battle, the following evocative lines are added: O life and death were in the shout, Recoil and rally, charge and rout, And triumph and despair.

These lines are present in Scott’s hand in the Beinecke sheets and incorporated into the third edition with only the sorts of changes commensurate with rendering manuscript into print, such as the addition of punctuation. More significant changes, however, are made to the notes. The Beinecke copy includes minor alterations to several notes but most significantly includes a change in Note I in Notes to Canto Fifth where Scott’s relationship with Thomas Campbell is cast in a new light when he is now described as ‘My ingenious and valued friend’ (254). It also includes an addition to a note in Note V in Notes to Canto Fifth where further information is added about the archers at the Battle of Blackheath (256). Some changes to the notes in the third edition are not present in the Beinecke copy, but the nature of the alterations that Scott makes in these sheets suggest that they can only have been made by him. In Note XII in Notes to Canto First, for example, a footnote is added that corrects an earlier error: ‘Willimoteswick was, in prior editions, confounded with Ridley Hall, situated two miles lower on the same side of the Tyne, the hereditary seat of William C. Lowes, Esq.’ (222), and to Note XII itself Scott adds ‘It has been long in possession of the Blacket family’. A whole new note on ‘The Priest of Shoreswood’ appears as Note XV in the Notes to Canto First (224). Other notes illustrate the social context in which Scott is working. In Note V in Notes to Canto First Scott describes Norham Castle, but The Memoirs of Robert Cary, which Scott edited and which was published by Constable in November 1808, provided new information, which is now incorporated into the note (214–15). Scott’s ‘alterations’, consequently, expand upon the information available, correct material that is wrong, demonstrate his indebtedness to friends, and once again show the intensely social context in which the poem is evolving. Later Editions. New editions after the third appeared more slowly. On 7 January 1809 3000 copies of the fourth edition were published. There are very few textual changes, and none that could be attributed with any certainty to Scott. The fifth edition followed some sixteen months later, on 16  May 1810, with 2000 copies being printed in London by J. M‘Creery rather than James Ballantyne and Co. who



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had printed the previous editions. This probably means that the volumes were required for the London market, but it is worthy of note that the publishers were free to choose their printer as they owned the copyright, which was not the case with the novels. Some 3000 copies of the sixth edition, this time printed by James Ballantyne and Co., were published a little later in the same year, on 4 August 1810. Again, there are few textual changes, other than slight alterations in punctuation and spelling. However, this edition is noteworthy for being printed in two separate volumes, in a Crown 8o format, containing twelve engraved plate illustrations. On 4 March 1811, 4000 copies of the seventh edition were printed by George Ramsay and Company, Edinburgh. Then 5000 copies of the eighth edition, again printed by Ramsay, were published just four months later, on 5 July 1811,119 but it was not until April 1815 that 3000 copies of the ninth edition (printed by Ballantyne) were published in Edinburgh. It is worth noting that Scott instructed that this text be corrected against the second edition ‘as it was revised with some care’;120 however, the ninth edition contains all the corrections first made in the third edition, and collation shows that the fourth edition provided the copy-text. The transmission of the text becomes somewhat more complicated after this point. The tenth edition of 1821 is a reissue of the version printed in Scott’s Poetical Works (1821). The eleventh edition, or ‘new’ edition, was first published on 15 June 1825, 2000 copies of this first issue being succeeded by 500 copies of a second issue on 20 April 1830. The twelfth edition of 1825 was a variant issue of the 1825 Poetical Works. Again, this was reissued on 20 April 1830. There followed an 1830 edition of Marmion that was the last edition of the poem to be published in Scott’s lifetime and which contained his newly penned Introduction. These reissues were designed to ‘clear the decks’ before the new 1833–34 Magnum edition of the poetry was published. The inclusion of Marmion in collected editions was bibliographically even more complicated. It appeared in the Works of Walter Scott first published in 1806, but with a volume added in 1808 to take account of Marmion: the edition retained the collective 1806 title for five volumes, with the sixth volume containing the second edition, large-paper impression of Marmion, with a new title page. Volume five of the expanded 1812–13 edition of the Works, published in 1812, contains the eighth edition (1811) version of the text. Marmion in the next edition of the Works (1813) was subsequently issued as the ninth edition (1815). The first true edition of Scott’s collected poetry, The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, appeared in 1820, and with new editions in 1822, 1823, and 1825 the poetry was brought into harmony with the novels which since 1819 had begun to be available in octavo, duodecimo, and 18mo formats. Thus Marmion was a much reprinted poem, with a complicated relationship of editions to each other, as the table below shows:

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First Edition (1808) ↓ Second Edition (1808) ↓ Third Edition (1808) ↓ ← ← ← ← ← ← Fourth Edition (1809) → → → → → ↓ ↓ ↓ Sixth Edition (1810) Fifth Edition (1810) ↓ ↓ ↓ Seventh and Eighth Editions (1811) ↓ ↓ Ninth Edition (1815) ↓ Poetical Works (1820) ↓ ←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←← ↓ ↓ ↓ Poetical Works (1821) Poetical Works (1822) Poetical Works (1823) ↓ Poetical Works (1825) ↓ Poetical Works (1833) Note: it has not been determined from which edition the eleventh (1825) was set.

Until the Magnum edition of 1833–34, textual variations between these intervening editions are limited almost exclusively to changes in spelling, punctuation and grammar that can be attributed just as readily to the compositors in the printing house as to Scott himself; and indeed, it seems unlikely that he would concern himself with these transactional tasks while he was absorbed in his main creative project of 1809, The Lady of the Lake (1810), and subsequently with the flow of novels. Indeed, a letter from Scott to Archibald Constable dated 30 October 1809 suggests that by this point in time his attention had been transferred to this new project: As you were about to reprint Marmion (a work for which you had in every way paid liberally) & in doing so with Mr. Ballantyne were sacrificing perhaps your own feelings to my understood wishes I could not but take your conduct handsomely & it occurd to me as the only means of acknowlegement which circumstances have left me, that you might wish to regulate you[r] edition upon my view of coming again before the public as an original author.121



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This is supported by a further letter to Constable the following month, postmarked 15 November 1809, in which Scott says he will ‘be much obliged to him for a copy of Marmion to be revised before going to press’.122 An undated letter to Constable which Corson suggests dates from around the same time, again relating to the fifth edition, states ‘Mr S. does not wish “Marmion” to be sent to press without letting him know’.123 This suggests that certainly in the case of the fifth edition Scott himself was no longer actively engaged in the process of revising Marmion, but rather that it was in the hands of the printers. Indeed, investigation of all the documentary and textual information to hand offers no conclusive evidence to suggest Scott’s ongoing creative involvement with the text after the third edition. However, the Magnum edition does merit some discussion. The 1833–34 Edition. The version of Marmion presented in volume seven of the collected twelve-volume 1833–34 edition of Scott’s poetry makes for a disorientating read. It was edited by Scott’s sonin-law, John Gibson Lockhart (although this is not explicitly stated) and published by Robert Cadell. As a consequence, the Poetical Works reveal more about Cadell’s commercial agenda (a new edition had to be new) than they do about Scott’s ‘final intentions’ for his poetry. The marked divergence of Lockhart’s edition of Marmion from all those printed in Scott’s lifetime manifests itself in various ways and is problematic for several reasons. As with Lockhart’s treatment of all of Scott’s narrative poems, there is the issue presented by Lockhart’s representation of the notes. At their fullest articulation, from the third edition onwards, Scott appends 97 notes to the narrative of Marmion, which are almost always presented after the poem.124 They perform several functions, but they are primarily antiquarian, historical and literary in substance and nature. In addition, Scott provides 68 ‘glossarial’ footnotes,125 some of which refer the reader to the notes, and others are footnotes to the text. In Lockhart’s edition only 15 of Scott’s notes are presented in the format as instructed by Scott. They form an Appendix cited as Notes A–Q with the omission of Note E, which would have been Canto 1, Note XII (a footnote to Note F explains why Note E has been omitted).126 The remaining 81 of Scott’s notes are represented as footnotes to the poem; on several occasions in place of the short footnote that he had supplied.127 Interspersed amongst Scott’s notes, Lockhart interpolates 57 editorial footnotes of his own, which vary in length and function: some are merely glossarial, some provide additional factual information, while yet others offer Lockhart’s own observations about the text and its reception. They include intertextual references to works by other writers, such as Byron, Southey, Hogg, Percy and Samuel Rogers; as well as to other works by Scott, including five references to Minstrelsy

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of the Scottish Border, one each to The Lay of the Last Minstrel, The Lord of the Isles, Ivanhoe, The Bride of Lammermoor, Redgauntlet, the Prose Works and two references to Provincial Antiquities of Scotland. With the exceptions referred to above, the majority of Scott’s own footnotes are retained. Another editorial issue is raised by Lockhart’s citation of 214 variant readings from the manuscript as footnotes. Almost without exception these appear to be somewhat arbitrary selections, serving little more than a perfunctory role and providing no real insight into the process of composition or the transmission of the text. Similarly, he presents the reader with a facsimile of a stanza from Canto 4 with accompanying commentary that does little more than draw attention to the cleanness of Scott’s holograph copy.128 One of the few textual emendations of value that he draws attention to is his reintroduction of line 5.1142 (‘In that inviolable dome’), in Canto 5, stanza 32, which, as he correctly states, is ‘necessary to the rhyme, [and] is now for the first time restored from the MS’.129 Lockhart also makes tantalising reference to a marked-up volume of Marmion that formed part of the interleaved edition of the poetry prepared in August 1829.130 In the Notice to the Marmion volume, Lockhart states that he has ‘followed Sir Walter Scott’s interleaved copy, as finally revised by him in the summer of 1831’.131 However, in the text itself he draws attention to only one such revision at Canto 6, stanza 26, where he replaces ‘the word “Highlandman” with “Badenoch [as it] is the correction of the author’s interleaved copy of the edition of 1830”.132 As the whereabouts, or indeed the survival, of the interleaved poetry edition is currently unknown, it is impossible to do more at this stage than to note this occurrence. However, this singular specific reference to the interleaved edition of the poem does raise certain questions. For one thing, why does Lockhart alert the reader to only one textual alteration from this edition? Does this imply that there are few or no other emendations of note or even that Lockhart is eclectically suppressing potential emendations? Given that he so willingly supplies over 200 variant readings from the manuscript, it seems improbable that he would be less keen to provide any equivalent readings from this much more recent text. One has to conclude that Lockhart made little use of material in Scott’s ‘interleaved copy’ because the material was not there to be used. That this interleaved copy is missing and has not been heard of since Lockhart’s statement, supports this conclusion: it would have been retained had there been anything significant in it. Jane Millgate suggests, with good authority, that the ‘interleaved set was almost certainly made up from the ten-volume octavo edition of 1825’.133 The differences between the version in the 1825 Poetical Works which formed the copy-text for the 1833 edition, and the 1833 edition itself, are few, and in the poem affect mainly punctuation and



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capitalisation. There are more instances of textual difference in the notes, but they can probably be ascribed to Lockhart because they tend to be somewhat pedestrian.134 This appears to confirm Scott’s statement to Cadell on 7 September 1829 that he ‘doubt[s] being able to add much more than corrections to the great poems’, and again, two days later, that he can ‘see little prospect of making alterations in the poems as they stand’.135 In conclusion the 1833–34 edition of Marmion is not authorial, and consequently, not authoritative. In addition to the standard editorial issue of its being a text that is at once deteriorating and evolving, Lockhart’s edition presents many other problems. Perhaps most contentiously of all, this confused text appears to suggest more about the agenda that Lockhart was pursuing in the 1830s than it does about Scott’s final wishes for the presentation of the collected poetry. Filtered as it is through Lockhart’s own editorial perspective, it is arguably his voice that resounds above all others in this text. Interesting as it may be for this reason, it is of no real value to an editor who aspires to present a modern scholarly edition of the text. 4. the pres ent text The present text of Marmion is based on a specific copy of the third edition held in the Bernard C. Lloyd Collection at the University of Aberdeen and published in July 1808. It offers an ideal third edition in that it is purged of the errors which arose in the transmission of the text from Scott’s holograph manuscript to the third edition. As discussed above, the third edition is the culmination of a single compositional process that began in the manuscript; it continued in the lost proofs, and in the first three editions. It represents the earliest fully articulated form of the poem. For this reason the third edition has been chosen as the base-text. Many of the changes to the poem in the third edition of Marmion (when measured against its printed predecessors and the manuscript) are clearly authorial, and the text was not subject to the vagaries of many reprintings. Yet the third edition is not perfect. The careful scrutiny of the manuscript shows that what Scott had written was sometimes misread or misunderstood in the first edition and these errors persisted into the third. Further, the compositors and in-house proof-readers seem to have provided much of the punctuation to be found in the printed editions, but it is clear that sometimes when articulating the sense through their punctuation they did not grasp the ‘meaning’ of what had been written by Scott. And as the compositors of the second and third editions followed their copy they corrected some mistakes, but they also, as has been discussed, perpetrated new ones, thus contributing to a deterioration in the text that went hand in hand with Scott’s revisions.

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Therefore this edition aims to restore Marmion to a form that is freed as far as possible from the various errors that arose in the course of its publication and two reprintings. All emendations to the base-text are, properly speaking, editorial as they require an editorial decision, but most of the new readings are derived from the manuscript or the first edition (in other words the emendations normally involve a return to an earlier reading which the third edition, for whatever reason, had lost); every emendation has been acknowledged in the Emendation List, although some specific examples are described below. The readings of the base-text are always accepted, unless it can be shown that they are in some way wrong or misrepresent authorial intention as expressed in the holograph manuscript. This involves the general acceptance of the work of the printers who gave the poem its public form: no attempt is made to ‘correct’ spellings that were acceptable in their time, such as ‘befal’. It also involves the acceptance of the inputs and suggestions of friends whose contributions to the poem as it evolved were adopted by Scott. Emendations based on Misreadings of the Manuscript. Scott’s hand in his early narrative poems is significantly clearer than in his later life and the space on the page that poetry allows necessarily leads to fewer misreadings than in his fiction. Whereas the manuscripts of the novels were copied before being submitted to the compositors, there is no documentary evidence that the poetic manuscripts were treated in this way. However, the manuscript of Marmion shows no clear evidence of having been used by compositors in the printing office, and so it is at least possible that Marmion was indeed copied, and that the resultant documents were used as printers’ copy. If so the process of normalising Scott’s text in preparation for its appearance in print would have begun at this stage. Even although Scott’s hand at this time is generally easy to read, there are still aspects of his handwriting that remain challenging: his vowels often look the same and when Scott is overwriting during the process of revision misreadings are possible. Several misreadings of Scott’s hand have been corrected in the present text. At 1.419 the manuscript’s more poetic ‘ribbands’ appears as the more mundane ‘ribbons’. More amusingly, a misreading results in someone wearing roses ‘in’ his shoes rather than ‘on’ them at 6.42. At 3.743 the manuscript’s description of a ‘knightly spear’ results in the homophonic ‘nightly spear’. Unfamiliar words are also at times misread (or perhaps misunderstood) such as at 6.964 where Scott’s ‘vaward’ post (meaning forward facing) becomes the more commonplace ‘vanguard’. At times a simple misreading can result in more wholesale revision: at 3.761 ‘floor of clay’ could easily have been misread as ‘floor of day’ and as a consequence the whole phrase is revised to read ‘hostel floor’. Elsewhere



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manuscript misreading takes the form less of the misreading of a single word but of the omission of material. For example at 5.717–18 two whole lines are omitted, possibly because of an eye skip and these are here restored. There is a similar occurrence at 5.1142 where the line ‘In that inviolable dome’ disappears between manuscript and first edition. The compositors at times also make understandable transposition errors, such as at 6.573 where ‘shirt and cap’ becomes ‘cap and shirt’ in the first edition. There are also several places in the poem where Scott’s sense is misunderstood rather than simply misread. At a simple level, while Scott can be fairly casual concerning his use of initial capitals, at other times he makes more careful distinctions but these are not always followed in the first edition. For example, at 4.37 the manuscript ‘Heights’ refers to a specific hill but is rendered with a lower case in the first edition while at 4.112 Scott’s specific reference to Hector of Troy is overlooked so that he is demoted to a ‘chief’ rather than a ‘Chief’. At times revision by the compositor is well meaning but in attempting to resolve what appears as a lack of clarity creates a muddle of its own. At 2.573 the manuscript phrase ‘only when the gathering’ seems to have been taken very literally by someone and having seen ‘clang’ and ‘form’ in an earlier line they have felt that an aural reference must accompany the visual one. The line thus appears in print as ‘but, and heard, when gathering’. This may fix the imagined problem but it misreads the structure and meaning of the sentence. At 3.452 the manuscript’s ‘you’ becomes ‘ye’ when someone misunderstands that the earlier ‘Thou’ is part of a poetic address to ‘Remorse’ while the ‘you’ is to Fitz-Eustace and at 3.726 Scott’s holograph ‘city’s towers & spires’ is misinterpreted to read ‘city, tower and spire’, failing to realise that the reference is to the city of Copenhagen during the Second Battle of Copenhagen in August–September 1807. This should have appeared in print as ‘city’s towers and spires’ as it does in the current edition. At times Scott has a more nuanced vocabulary than those dealing with his text such as at 4.214 where the manuscript ‘yeoman’ appears in print as ‘horseman’. A yeoman has the specific meaning of an attendant in a noble or royal household and in military terms the yeoman was a member of the cavalry but this does not seem to have been understood. Similarly at 4.359 Scott writes the word ‘silver’ knowing that the unicorn is described as ‘argent’ on the Arms of Scotland but this becomes simply ‘gallant’ in the first edition. At 4.676 Ralph de Bulmer has his name changed to Brian, presumably to provide six syllables in the line, but his name is Ralph and this is what the poem must read and the line scans in any case. Emendations to Layout and Punctuation. While Scott on the whole trusted the compositors to supply punctuation this does not

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mean that they never misinterpreted his intentions. At 2.212, for example, the line ends with a semi-colon. However, line 212 ends the description of the lake and the swans in the storm and line 213 opens with a new image: that of Scott’s enforced return indoors because of the weather. The poet has turned from the consideration of nature and the external to man and the personal, and thus, the full stop is necessary to mark this change of thought. At 3.66 he supplies dashes in the phrase ‘And—tried in vain—’. However, this is rendered in the first edition as ‘And, tried in vain,’. As he punctuates relatively infrequently what punctuation he does provide should be followed; this has been corrected in the present text. There are also several places where Scott’s instructions concerning indentation have been incorrectly interpreted. As mentioned earlier he is quite meticulous in this respect, and frequently indents to indicate that units of rhyme are falling together. However, this is not always fully understood and fully followed through into the first edition. For example, at 1.591 and 593 the manuscript places the lines full out but they are indented in the first edition. In both instances the line is the second of a couplet and Scott’s manuscript layout reflects this. A similar situation occurs at 1.791–92 where a whole couplet was indented. In some instances adjustment has been made editorially to cluster rhymes together thus carrying out the pattern that the compositors should have followed to fully articulate Scott’s plan. All examples of changes to indentation are recorded in the emendation list. Emendations to correct Textual Deterioration. As the base-text for the current edition is the third edition, it is inevitable that it was subject not only to a process of ongoing creative evolution at the hand of Scott but also to the type of textual deterioration that occurs as one edition is set from another. Where this is evident the current text has sought to emend it. For example, as discussed earlier, at 2.440 the word ‘aisle’ from the first edition is replaced in the third by the homophone ‘isle’; it is an aisle in an abbey that is being referred to here and so the first edition is correct. And this is an error which is repeated at 2.579, which had been consistently ‘aisle’ until the third edition. At 5.998 the first edition’s ‘frock’ becomes ‘frocke’ in the second and third editions, thus offering a non-standard spelling, and similarly at 5.1000 the third edition introduces ‘sooth’ for ‘soothe’. At 6.1328 the third edition also, as we have seen, introduces the misspelling ‘scite’ for ‘site’. Emendations to Scott’s Notes. The collaborative and piece-meal process by which the notes were produced, along with the complicated nature of the material they contain, inevitably led to errors being introduced as they made their way into print and, as already discussed, as they were transmitted through the first three editions. This poses



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particular issues for a new edition of Marmion. The editorial policy of eewsp states that where the manuscript is in Scott’s hand adjustments may be taken as artistic embellishment unless a clear error has been made. For example, both Warrington’s manuscript and Scott’s copy of it are extant (see Note V in Notes to Canto Sixth). In many places Scott makes small changes, which improve what he is dealing with. For example the very first line in Warrington reads ‘The Park’s wide range as Howel pass’d’; Scott first changes this awkward phrase to ‘His Chace’s range as Howel passed’, which brings out the fact that Howel owns this chace, which is critical to the action, and then he further changes it to ‘Through Nannau’s Chace’ which removes the awkwardness, and immediately locates the action, which is important as this is a poem about a particular place. In the seventh stanza Scott changes ‘All blind with rage’ to ‘Blinded by rage’. In stanza 47 Warrington says that the lady’s eyes were ‘Full on the earth’, but her vacancy is much better suggested by Scott’s version which reads ‘Full on his face her eyes were cast’. Warrington’s ‘sorrel steed’ becomes a ‘dark-grey steed’ in stanza 20. Even smaller changes adjust Warrington’s text, and improve the idiom, as in ‘Three days pass’d on’ in stanza 9 becoming ‘Three days passed o’er’. The most significant changes are the addition of two complete stanzas, 23 and 34. Stanza 23 links the poem to Marmion, and to ‘Young Lochinvar’: here a warrior enters an enemy house with a different mission, but the verbal connection ties the two together. However, there are many more instances where copies of sources are in someone else’s hand and frequently there are clear errors in transmission that cannot be accounted for by creative embellishment. In these instances the source texts have been consulted and where there are clear errors in transcription an emendation has been made. For example, at 209.23 ‘bare’ replaces the third edition’s ‘have’ on the authority of the source text and at 212.22 ‘wist’ replaces ‘wit’. At 224.31 ‘Santa’ replaces ‘Sante’, while at 250.32 ‘groflins’ replaces a nonsensical word ‘grofling’; it is clear that this is the kind of error one makes when copying. One source text has caused particular problems. The ‘True Account of the Murder of the Monk of Whitby’ is quoted in Note VIII in the Notes to Canto Second (233–34). There is a version in Lionel Charlton, The History of Whitby (York, 1779), 125–27, which Scott possessed. There is a broadside in the Abbotsford Library which Scott probably purchased after 1808 as it came into his collection along with materials purchased from the Newcastle bookseller John Bell. There is also a broadside in the British Library. All are different, but the version printed in Marmion is noticeably different: there are verbal deviations (words and phrases omitted, others added, and yet more substituted). Some of the discrepancies can be accounted for by a hankering for literary embellishment, and as the copy is probably in the hand of

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Scott’s friend William Erskine the elaborations may be his. Although the specific source document has not been traced the principle applied to material copied by Scott’s helpers has been followed here, except the other three witnesses have been treated as collective evidence: emendations have therefore been made to the Marmion version when all three of the other witnesses agree on a reading. Where the witnesses disagree the current text has been left unaltered. What is the ultimate effect of these changes to Marmion? No radical alteration has been made to the poem or to the notes, but offering an ideal text based on the third edition hopefully allows readers to see the poem with the freshness with which it met its early audiences. Scott claims his poem will ‘scorn pedantic laws’ of verse (5.183) and this edition aims to remove the weight which subsequent reprintings and Lockhart’s overbearing apparatus added to Marmion and to capture the energy with which it evolved in its early creative stages. This edition also refocuses attention on Scott’s notes, an aspect of the poem to which he clearly gave much care and attention. Marmion provides a valuable insight into the working practices of a young poet poised at the threshold of literary and historical fame. It is with the overwhelming success of this poem that Scott’s poetic reputation is indisputably established, his immersion in the world of commercial publishing confirmed, and his commitment to a literary life fully determined. Historically, poetically, and morally Marmion is a truly challenging poem and it is hoped that in the form in which it is presented here its full significance may once again become apparent to its readers. notes All the manuscripts referred to below are in the National Library of Scotland unless otherwise stated.   1 The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., [ed. J. G. Lockhart], 12 vols (Edinburgh, 1833–34), 7.10. The quotation is taken from Poetical Works rather than the 1830 edition because of the general availability of the one, and the rarity of the other.   2 The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J. C. Grierson and others, 12 vols (London, 1932–37), 1.303.    3 Scholars such as John Sutherland and J. H. Alexander agree that Scott began writing in November 1806: see J. H. Alexander, Marmion: Studies in Interpretation and Composition (Salzburg, 1981), 113; John Sutherland, The Life of Walter Scott (Oxford, 1995), 120. Sutherland makes an unsubstantiated claim for a specific start date of 6 November 1806.   4 James Skene, Memories of Sir Walter Scott (London, 1909), 16. Lockhart provides a fanciful version of Skene’s story in Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 7 vols (Edinburgh, 1837–38), 2.117 (henceforward cited as Life), and is wrong to say that Scott was composing Canto 6 of the poem in October 1807.    5 Surtees’s first letter to Scott is missing. Scott’s first letter to Surtees is almost



   6   7    8   9   10  11   12  13  14  15   16   17   18   19   20   21  22   23  24   25  26

 27   28  29  30   31   32  33   34

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certainly the undated item in Letters, 1.297–99. The formal tone of this letter suggests that he is addressing a new correspondent. He refers to the ‘new edition’ of Minstrelsy that has ‘just issued from the press’ (297): the third edition was published in November 1806. He addresses the letter from Ashestiel; his obligation to attend the Court of Session from 12 November to 24 December of each year suggests that this letter should be dated early November 1806. MS 870, ff. 6r–7v. Letters, 1.344. The story appears in Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, The History of Scotland, from February 21. 1436, to March 1565, 3rd edn (Edinburgh, 1778), 173–75, and is quoted in Note XX in Notes to Canto Fifth, 265–66. J. H. Alexander takes the same view: Interpretation, 114. Letters, 1.343. Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 4th edn, 3 vols (London, 1810), 1.233–36. Letters, 1.356–57. The lines from Marmion appear at 1.524–41 in a slightly revised form. The whole ballad is quoted in Note XII in Notes to Canto First, 220–22. The issues are further discussed in the Historical Note, 364–65, and see note to 220.11. Letters, 2.20 (20 February 1808). Letters, 1.347. Life, 2.151. The Longman archive is now held in the Special Collection Department at the University of Reading. MS 3876, f. 8r. MS 3876, f. 8r. MS 23141, ff. 71r–72v. MS 23141, f. 73r. The quotation is taken from the MS as Letters, 1.348 implies that Scott wrote to ‘James Longman’, when the addressee of the letter actually sent is Thomas N. Longman. Edinburgh University MS La.III.584, f. 40. Letters, 1.349. MS 23141, f. 75. Letters, 9.371. MS 3876, f. 8r. Letters, 2.2. The letter is dated ‘Saturday’; Corson suggests Saturday 7 February 1807 as a likely date. This is probably correct, for although Saturday 31 January is possible it would be a little soon for Constable to be promising paper: he had made his formal offer for the poem on 30 January. The editors of the Letters suggest 1808, but this is wrong. Letters, 1.350. PML 75013. Life, 2.114. Letters, 1.350. See the postscript ‘I set off tomorrow’ in the letter to Charles Erskine dated 14 March 1807: Letters, 1.359. Scott skips from folio 4 to 6, but this is just a mistake as the stanzas are numbered consecutively and there is nothing to suggest a missing folio. Life, 2.118. Archibald Douglas Hamilton, the 9th Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer in

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 36  37  38  39   40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48   49

 50   51  52  53   54   55   56   57

essay on the text Scotland. By virtue of his being also the Duke of Brandon he had a seat in the House of Lords and so was entitled to frank mail. MS 3876, f. 71v. Lockhart says that ‘Several sheets of the MS., and corrected proofs of Canto III’. were also under covers franked by Rose. Only the Introduction to Canto Second was franked by Rose; Scott had not yet begun Canto 3, and there are no extant proofs. Life, 2.121. Lockhart quotes Seward as saying ‘On Friday last . . . the poetically great Walter Scott came’. ‘Friday last’ was either 1 or 8 May 1807. Letters, 1.366. Poetical Works, 7.11. Letters, 1.367. John Sutherland, The Life of Walter Scott, 117, 121. Letters, 1.367–70. Letters, 1.371–72. Letters, 1, 373–74. Letters, 1.381. Letters, 12.391. Letters, 1.382. Letters, 1.385. Letters, 2.20. The paper used for the third epistle and start of the third canto is of a different size and quality to that used previously and bears the watermark ‘1805 C WILMOTT’. Stanzas 2 and 3 are missing from the bound manuscript in the NLS, but it appears that all of this material was written, and probably sent on, at the same time. Scott restarts the folio numbering at stanza 4, from folio 1–7. Folio 7 stops 4 lines into stanza 14. With the next folio, Scott begins this stanza again, incorporating revisions to these first four lines. This folio is unnumbered, as is the next one, and then there follows another 6 numbered folios, then 4 unnumbered sheets, and then the last 2 stanzas which are now missing. This is all written on the same type of paper that was used previously for Cantos 1 and 2, but folios 1–7 have been cut to the same smaller size as the paper used for the first stanzas of this canto. Letters, 1.363. James C. Corson, Notes and Index to Sir Herbert Grierson’s Edition of the Letters of Sir Walter Scott (Oxford, 1979), 28. Letters, 1.395. This refutes Sutherland’s suggestion that ‘four cantos were complete by September’, for which, see John Sutherland, The Life of Walter Scott, 121. Letters, 1.399. The date of this letter has been disputed by Corson (30), but the date is confirmed by Lord Dalhousie’s frank and the postmark. J. H. Alexander, Interpretation, 117. This paper is much darker in colour, thin and smooth. It is almost as large as the standard size that Scott uses for most of the poem. The same type of paper as noted previously for the start of Canto 3, but bearing the watermark ‘1806 J WHATMAN’. Scott starts the folio numbering at 19, then misses out 20 and goes straight to 21. It is possible that the folio is missing, but if so then Scott misnumbers all succeeding stanzas. Next follows 2 unnumbered sheets. The third section is numbered ff. 24–29. On the verso of f. 29 Scott writes ‘Copy / Canto V continued’. Finally, there are 6 unnumbered folios, and on the verso of the last of these is written ‘Conclusion / of / Canto V’.



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  58 It also reflects Scott’s greater mobility during this period: for example, he composed some of this canto while he was stationed with his regiment at Musselburgh.  59 Letters, 2.50 (23 April 1808).   60 MS 23233, ff. 52v–53r.   61 MS 328, f. 107 (22 March 1807).  62 Letters, 1.362–63.  63 Letters, 1.386.  64 Letters, 1.390.   65 MS 23233, p. 73.  66 Letters, 1.395.  67 Letters, 1.403.  68 Letters, 2.3.  69 Letters, 2.9. The letter is undated.  70 Letters, 2.7.  71 Letters, 2.16–17.   72 MS 3876, f. 191v.  73 Letters, 1.357.  74 Letters, 1.393.   75 Lockhart, 2.123.   76 Including one that is not used in the notes to Canto 1 (see f. 4v, which contains part of note that is written upside down).   77 It seems to be assumed that ownership of the copyright conferred ownership of the manuscript. Scott retained the manuscripts of the novels, but when Constable bought the copyrights in successive deals in 1819 and the 1820s Scott presented the manuscripts to him.   78 J. H. Alexander, Interpretation, 218.   79 Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, ed. P. D. Garside, eewn 2 (Edinburgh, 1999), 375–76.  80 Letters, 2.50 (23 April 1808).   81 J. H. Alexander, Interpretation, 117–219.   82 The catalogues of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York and of the Beinecke Library at Yale University suggest that they have proofs, but the document in the PML is actually the first setting of the Introduction to Canto First (discussed at 305–06 above), and that in Yale is a marked-up copy of the second edition which was used as copy-text for the third (see 317–18 above).  83 Letters, 2.37.  84 Life, 2.117.   85 Skene, 16.  86 Letters, 1.347.  87 Letters of Anna Seward: written between the years 1784 and 1807, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1811), 6.327–28.  88 Letters, 1.350.   89 MS 3876, f. 28r–v.  90 Letters, 1.352–53.  91 Letters of Anna Seward, 6.332–34.  92 Letters, 12.109 and 12.101; Edgar Johnson, Walter Scott the Great Unknown, 2 vols (London, 1970), 1.267.  93 The Private Letter Books of Sir Walter Scott, ed. Wilfred Partington (London, 1930), 8–9. Lockhart makes a hash of this; the letter is postmarked 23 February 1808;

332

 94   95  96  97  98   99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108

109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124

essay on the text Lockhart (2.117) gives the date as 1807, and so has Scott sending the Princess the lines on her father in February 1807 when they were not written until August. Letters, 2.22; Herbert Grierson, Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (London, 1938), 95. MS 3876, ff. 120r–120v. Letters, 1.394. Letters, 1.399. Scott first met Anna Seward and enjoyed her hospitality at Lichfield for two nights in the first week of May 1807. Letters, 1.391–92. MS 3875, f. 269r. Undated; a pencilled date of circa 1806 has been supplied but it must be 1807. For ‘The pilot who weathered the storm’ see Explanatory Note to 1.102. Letters, 1, pp. 363–64. MS 3876, ff. 120r–120v. Skene, 225. MS 921, ff. 200–02. James Hogg, Anecdotes of Scott, ed. Jill Rubenstein (Edinburgh, 1999), 54–55. Hogg tells the anecdote alternatively on 24–25. J. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 2nd edn, 10 vols (Edinburgh, 1839), 3.16–17. Jerome J. McGann, A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism, revised edn (Charlottesville and London, 1992), 8. Letters, 12.110. Letters, 1.385. Abercorn’s intervention was to have repercussions after the publication of the first edition of the poem, for some copies were without the cancel and this was picked up by the Morning Chronicle, which accused him of insulting Fox by omitting a couplet favourable to him from copies given to followers of Pitt: see Letters, 2.35. Letters, 12.111–12. MS 3877, ff. 176–77. Letters, 1.392–93. Letters, 2.68. William B. Todd and Ann Bowden, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796–1832 (New Castle, Delaware, 1998), 90. Todd and Bowden, 92. Letters, 2.41. Edgar Johnson, 1.279. The production figures for each edition are derived from Todd and Bowden, 87–100. Letters, 2.74. Tinker 1864. This is a copy of the second edition with holograph changes in Scott’s hand. The increase in sales in 1810–11 may reflect a resurgence of interest in Scott’s poetry in the wake of the publication of The Lady of the Lake (1810), although this is speculative. Letters, 3.532. Letters, 2.265. This letter refers to the fifth edition of 1810 printed by J. M‘Creery of London. Letters, 2.271. Letters, 2.280. In some instances, such as in the two-volume sixth edition, the notes are split up,



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so that the notes to the first three cantos are contained with Cantos 1–3 in the first volume and the notes to Cantos 4–6 are in the second volume. However, the principle remains the same: the notes follow the narrative, even as they are presented in the bound MS. 125 Scott’s own term for them, which is contained in the reference quoted directly below. 126 It refers to Scott’s note containing the rest of Robert Surtees’s spurious ballad, which Lockhart decides to omit, referring the reader to its location in the ‘Border Minstrelsy’, as he refers to it, instead. 127 For example, see Lockhart’s representation of notes on St Mary’s Loch and the Chapel of St Mary of the Lowes in the Introduction to Canto 2; Canto 4, stanza 1; Canto 4, stanza 15; Canto 5, stanza 21, as they are numbered in the 1833–34 text. 128 See Poetical Works, 7.219. 129 Poetical Works, 7.284. 130 MS 3910, f. 15r. 131 Poetical Works, 7.1. 132 Poetical Works, 7.342. 133 Jane Millgate, ‘Scott the Cunning Tailor: Refurbishing the Poetical Works’, The Library, 6th series, 11 (1989), 346. 134 For example, in Canto 5, Note XIX, the location of the Cross of Edinburgh is emended from ‘at the House’ of Drum to ‘in the grounds of the property’ of Drum. There are two emendations that are perhaps slightly more noteworthy, but again they could be ascribed to Lockhart as easily as to Scott. The first is at Canto 1, Note X where several Scots words are restored in a quotation from a ballad by Stewart of Lorn (they appear in standard English elsewhere). The second is the introduction of two lines of poetry to ‘Flodden Field’, quoted at Canto 4, Note VI, in Lockhart’s edition. The details ‘a Poem; edited by H. Weber. Edin, 1808.’ are also added. 135 Letters, 11.235, 240.

EMENDATION LIST

The base-text for this edition of Marmion is a specific copy of the third edition in the Bernard C. Lloyd Walter Scott Collection in the University of Aberdeen. All verbal, orthographical, and punctuational emendations, and emendations to paragraphing and indentation, have been recorded below, with a few exceptions. The exceptions involve the omission of full-stops at the end of lines in canto titles, and running heads; the removal of indentations in the first line of each of Scott’s notes; and cross-references in Scott’s notes, where canto and line numbers to this edition have been substituted for the page numbers provided in the base-text. The first element in each emendation entry is the reference, which applies to that point where the emendation begins. Emendations to the poetry are keyed to the text of the poem by canto and line number; emendations to the notes are keyed by page and line number. The second element in each entry gives the reading in this edition of Marmion. It is followed, in parentheses, by an indication of where the new reading has come from, whether the manuscript (‘ms’), or the first edition (‘Ed1’). Some emendations to quotations in Scott’s notes are labelled ‘source’, and are adopted when Scott’s amanuensis, and sometimes Scott himself, has made a mistake. Other emendations have been made by the editor, using her knowledge of the text and the circumstances of production, to correct manifest errors; these are indicated by ‘Editorial’. Where the spelling or punctuation of an emendation derived from the manuscript has had to be normalised, the actual manuscript reading is given following the ‘ms’ within the parentheses. There follows a slash which divides the new reading from the old, and after the slash there follows the third-edition reading that has been replaced. Finally, the place (whether manuscript or printed edition) in which the third-edition reading first appeared is given in parentheses. The abbreviated titles are obvious, except for ‘PML’ which refers to the version of the Introduction to Canto First printed in February 1807; the one known copy of this document is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. More complicated emendations are laid out differently, but the elements of each entry remain the same. Although collation evidence suggested that the third edition of Marmion constitutes the most appropriate base-text, it also showed



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errors within the third edition that had to be corrected: in addition to the process of textual accretion, the text was simultaneously deteriorating. Determining whether a change is accretion or deterioration is a matter of judgment, and so occasionally there is a brief comment which indicates why the editor has decided that the emendation is required. More general categories of emendation are discussed in the Essay on the Text. References for the first two entries are to page and line number; thereafter references are to canto and line number until Scott’s notes where there is a reversion to page and line number. 7.11

Readers (Ed1) / readers (Ed2) Eds 2 and 3 lower the initial capital of ‘Readers’, but fail to treat ‘Author’ similarly; the Ed1 reading has therefore been adopted. 9.5 Forest (ms and Ed1) / Forrest (Ed2) 1.22 Yair (ms and Ed1) / Yare (Ed2) 1.61 mind, (Ed1) / mind (Ed3) 1.71 grave, (Ed1) / grave; (Ed3) 1.96 arm (ms and Ed1) / arm, (Ed3) 1.171 nation (ms) / nations (PML) The ms is right: Pitt and Fox shook three realms but one nation. This is supported by the deleted phrase . 1.192 Speak (ms) / “Speak (PML) Although the insertion of speech marks at the beginning of each line of verse is standard 18th-century practice, direct speech is not treated similarly elsewhere in the poem. 1.193 Whom (ms) / “Whom (PML) 1.194 But (ms) / “But (PML) 1.194 land, (Ed1) / land (Ed3) 1.195 Where (ms) / “Where (PML) 1.206 Illusion (ms) / illusion (PML) 1.241 fold (ms) / field (Ed1) 1.245 [. . .] he stops to wonder still That his old legends have the skill To win so well the attentive ear Perchance to draw the sigh or tear Of one (ms) / [. . .] he stop in rustic fear, Lest his old legends tire the ear Of one (Ed1) 1.259 or (ms) / and (PML) 1.353 guard, (Ed1) / guard; (Ed3) 1.405 grim, (Ed1) / grim; (Ed3) 1.419 ribbands (ms) / ribbons (Ed1) 1.476 Marmion, (Ed1) / Marmion! (Ed2) 1.479 land. (Ed1) / land! (Ed2) 1.507 King (ms) / king (Ed1) Almost all cases where King has a specific reference to James or Henry are capitalised in both the ms and Ed1. Although there is an initial effort in Ed1 to change to lower case, the majority of examples are still

336

emendation list

in the upper case. From Canto 4.360 the practice changes abruptly and the capital K is normally accepted. 1.591 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) This line ought to be full out as it is the second line of a couplet. 1.593 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.646 King (Editorial) / king (Ed1) This is a specific reference to King James IV. 1.661 Then (ms and Ed1) / And (Ed3) 1.676 blithesome (Ed1) / blythsome (Ed3) 1.706 When (ms) / And (Ed1) 1.728 Law (ms) / law (Ed1) This is a reference to God’s law, not secular law. 1.733 olives (Editorial) / Olives (ms) The ms has been much revised at this point and in the final version of this line the O of ‘olives’ appears to be capitalised. However, it is not always clear in Scott’s handwriting whether an opening O is a capital or just bigger than usual, and so the decision has been taken to emend on editorial authority. 1.750 “Gramercy,” (ms and Ed1) / “Gramercy!” (Ed2) 1.763 lest (ms)/ least (Ed1) 1.791 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.792 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.847 [indent two ems] (Editorial) / [indent one em] (Ed1) This aligns this section with 1.856–59 below. 1.851 [indent two ems] (Editorial) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.854 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.855 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.874 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 1.875 [full out] (ms) / [indent one em] (Ed1) 2.14 shadow (ms) / shadows (Ed1) 2.15n *Mountain-ash (Ed1) / Mountain-ash (Ed3) 2.79 Hills (Ed1) / hills (Ed3) 2.82 saw (ms) / saw, (Ed1) 2.86 tone, (Ed1) / tone (Ed3) 2.192 pleasure fades (ms) / pleasures fade (Ed1) 2.208 shore, (Ed1) / shore; (Ed2) 2.212 wave. (ms) / wave: (Ed1) Line 212 ends the description of the lake and the swans in the storm. Line 213 opens a new subject. 2.239 Loch Skene (ms Lock skene) / Lochskene (Ed1) 2.267 man of woe (Ed1) / Man of Woe (Ed2) 2.323 her (ms) / the (Ed1) 2.339 Vigil (ms) / Vigils (Ed1) 2.355 fair, (Ed1) / fair; (Ed2) 2.361 land; (Ed1) / land: (Ed2) 2.387 frame (Ed1) / frame, (Ed3) 2.397 halls (Ed1) / halls, (Ed3) 2.401 hall (Ed1) / hall, (Ed3) 2.413 roar (Ed1) / roar, (Ed3) 2.415 there (Ed1) / here (Ed2) In Ed2 there is a gap which suggests that either the ‘t’ failed to register, or that it had fallen out. 2.431 Castle (Ed1) / castle (Ed3)

2.437 2.440 2.484 2.554 2.573

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337

row and row, (Ed1) / row and row (Ed2) aisle (Ed1) / isle (Ed3) dome, (Ed1) / dome; (Ed3) King (ms) / king (Ed1) only when the gathering (ms) / but, and heard, when gathering (Ed1) Somebody read this literally: having seen ‘clang’ and ‘form’ in 2.572, he must have felt that ‘heard’ was required as well as ‘seen’. However, the revision misreads the structure of the sentence: ‘Seen only when the gathering storm’ appertains both grammatically and in sense to ‘form’ alone. 2.579 aisle (ms) / isle (Ed3) 2.581 lone, (Ed1) / lone (Ed2) 2.596 Where, (Ed1) / Whence (Ed2) 2.683 murther (Ed1) / murder (Ed2) ‘Murther’ was the normal form of the word in legal documents. 2.683 meed; (Ed1) / meed (Ed3) 2.694 place. (Ed1) / place (Ed3) 2.738 vain, (Ed1) / vain; (Ed2) 2.759 thing (ms) / sight (Ed1) 2.785 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 2.796 ‘Marmion (Magnum) / “Marmion (Ed1) 2.797 block!’ (Magnum) / block!” (Ed1) 2.811 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 2.814 King’s (ms Kings) / king’s (Ed1) 2.818 monk (Ed1) / Monk (Ed2) 2.829 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 2.838 shall (ms) / should (Ed1) 2.844 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 2.863 dread, (Ed1) / dread; (Ed2) 2.889 on (ms) / o’er (Ed1) 3.5 from (ms) / of (Ed1) 3.20 autumn (ms) / Autumn (Ed1) The capitalisation is unnecessary; autumn is not capitalised at 3.9. 3.20 trees. (Ed1) / trees; (Ed3) 3.25 sound (Ed1) / sounds (Ed3) The plural form is not required by the sense. 3.28 loftier (Ed1) / lofty (Ed3) 3.57 Chief (ms) /chief (Ed1) This is a specific reference to Brunswick. 3.61 Chief (ms) / chief (Ed1) 3.66 And—tried in vain— (ms) / And, tried in vain, (Ed1) Scott punctuates relatively infrequently; what punctuation he provides should therefore be followed. 3.86 Its (Editorial) / It’s (Ed1) The ms leaf is missing; this editorial emendation is made on the basis that Scott does not normally write ‘it’s’ as the possessive adjective. 3.160 along (Ed1) / along, (Ed2) 3.161 claim perchance (Ed1) / claim, perchance, (Ed3) 3.162 gale (Ed1) /gale, (Ed2) 3.173 woodbine (ms) / wallflower (Ed1) The echo of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (see note to 3.233–34) indicates that wallflower was a misreading. 3.188 tramp (Ed1) / trump (Ed3)

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3.193 and (ms) / or (Ed1) 3.195 witches’ (Editorial) / witches (Ed1) There is no apostrophe in the ms nor in the printed editions, and yet it is required. 3.211 sire (Ed1) / Sire (Ed2) 3.218 priest (Ed1) / Priest (Ed2) 3.244 path, the Palmer shewed, [new line] By glen and streamlet, winded still (ms) / path the Palmer shewed; [new line] By glen and streamlet winded still, (Ed1) The punctuation supplied in print was incorrect, creating a clause without a subject. 3.261 Lammermore (ms) / Lammermoor (Ed1) 3.306 Theirs (Editorial) / Their’s (ms) 3.307 theirs (ms) / their’s (Ed1) Nearly all possessive adjectives in both ms and print are without an apostrophe, and so to standardise on the basis of 3.306 was a mistake. 3.401 though (ms) / while (Ed1) 3.452 you (ms) / ye (Ed1) 3.462 pride could never (ms) / soul could scantly (Ed1) 3.463 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 3.491 fear; (Ed1) / fear, (Ed2) The semi-colon is necessary to create the appropriate division between the ideas. 3.557 star. (ms) / star; (Ed1) 3.590 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 3.602 sound. [new line] He (ms sound [new line] He) / sound, [new line] And (Ed1) If ‘He’ is restored it is necessary to introduce a full stop at the end of the line. 3.606 furred (ms furrd) / lined (Ed1) 3.619 stamped (ms stamp’d) / marked (Ed1) 3.628 ‘I know,’ (Editorial) / “I know,” (Ed1) 3.630 ‘I (Editorial) / “I (Ed 1) 3.631 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 3.636 “‘Of (Editorial) / “Of (Ed1) 3.653 spell.’ (Editorial) / spell.” (Ed1) 3.654 ‘Gramercy,’ (Editorial) / “Gramercy,” (Ed 1) 3.655 ‘Place (Editorial) / “Place (Ed1) 3.659 bide.’ (Editorial) / bide.” (Ed1) 3.659b XXIII. (ms XXIV) / [no break] (Ed1) 3.660 “His (Editorial) / His (Ed1) 3.662 ‘There (Editorial) / “There (Ed1) 3.666 wilt (ms) / shalt (Ed1) 3.675 life.’ (Editorial) / life.” (Ed1) 3.675b XXIV. (Editorial) / XXIII. (Ed3) 3.678 encampment’s haunted (ms) / old camp’s deserted (Ed1) In ms Scott wrote: ‘To that encampment’s haunted round’. If the compositor did not notice the deletion of ‘old’, the line would have been hypermetric and would have been revised in proof. 3.692 southern gate (ms) /southernmost (Ed1) 3.695 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 3.703b XXV. (Editorial) / XXIV. (Ed2) 3.711 King (ms) / king (Ed1)



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3.720 King (ms) / kings (Ed1) Haco is the shadowy King referred to, so the singular capitalised form should be taken. 3.721 wing (ms) / wings (Ed1) 3.726 city’s towers and spires (ms city’s towers & spires) / city, tower and spire (Ed1) 3.727 fires (ms) / fire (Ed1) 3.729 from the vanquished (ms from the vanquishd) / to the victor (Ed1) 3.731b XXVI. (Editorial) / XXV. (Ed2) 3.732 King (ms) / king (Ed1) 3.738 ‘Bold (Editorial) / “Bold (Ed1) 3.739 start.’ (Editorial) / start.” (Ed1) 3.743 knightly (ms) / nightly (Ed1) 3.745 crest (ms) / breast (Ed1) 3.751b XXVII. (Editorial) / XXVI. (Ed2) 3.761 floor of clay (ms) / hostel floor (Ed1) The ms can easily be read as ‘floor of day’, which, making no sense, would have been revised in proof. 3.762 they lay (ms) / they snore (Ed1) This was revised because of the change introduced in 3.761. 3.764 them lights and (ms) / the groupe its (Ed1) 3.764b XXVIII. (Editorial) / XXVII. (Ed2) 3.778b XXIX. (Editorial) / XXVIII. (Ed2) 3.794b XXX. (Editorial) / XXIX. (Ed2) 3.811b XXXI. (Editorial) / XXX. (Ed2) 3.831b XXXII. (Editorial) / XXXI. (Ed2) 3.839 yode,* (Ed1) / yode* (Ed3) 4.37 Heights (ms) / heights (Ed1) The reference is to the name of a hill. 4.69 go, [new line] While (ms go [new line] While) / go. [new line] Long (Ed1) 4.71 repine. [new line] Whistling (ms derived: repine [new line] Whistling) / repine; [new line] Whistling (Ed1) 4.80 while, (Ed1) / while ((Ed3) 4.112 Chief (ms) / chief (Ed1) This is a direct reference to Hector of Troy. 4.165 trance. (Editorial) / trance, (Ed1) A full stop is needed; there is no punctuation in the ms. 4.167 thoughts (ms) / sports (Ed1) While sketching and writing are neither sports nor thoughts, the original ‘thoughts’ seems more apposite. 4.184 winter (ms) / Winter (Ed1) 4.214 yeoman (ms) / horseman (Ed1) ‘Yeoman’ is correct: a yeoman was an attendant in a noble or royal household, and in military terms was a member of the cavalry. 4.228 swear (Ed1) / fear (Ed2) 4.282 middle (ms) / morning (Ed1) 4.294 A (ms) / And (Ed1) 4.309 sudden (Ed1) / sudden, (Ed3) 4.332 came (Ed1) / came, (Ed2) 4.334 argent, or, and azure (ms) / Argent, Or, and Azure (Ed1) 4.338 alarms. [line break] (ms) / alarms. [stanza break] VII. (Ed1) There is no evidence that Scott wants a stanza break here.

340 4.341 4.359 4.360 4.369b 4.378 4.382 4.388 4.393b 4.401 4.403

4.407 4.411 4.423 4.425 4.450b 4.469 4.470 4.472 4.479 4.485 4.498b 4.518b 4.526 4.527 4.548 4.550 4.552b 4.572 4.576 4.577b 4.602b 4.608 4.617 4.618 4.625 4.635b 4.669b 4.676 4.704b 4.715 4.730b 4.733

emendation list King’s (ms) / king’s (Ed1) silver (ms) / gallant (Ed1) The unicorn is described as ‘argent’ on the Arms of Scotland. King’s (ms Kings) / king’s (Ed3) VII. (ms) / VIII. (Ed1) gave (Ed1) / given (Ed2) deadly (ms) / deeply (Ed1) Liege (ms) / liege (Ed1) VIII. (ms) / IX. (Ed1) train,— (ms) / train: (Ed1) eyes;”— (ms derived eyes;—”) / eyes;” (Ed1) In the ms the speech marks are above a long dash, towards the right; as there is no example in Marmion of an end-of-line dash followed by speech marks, while there are over 60 examples of speech marks followed by a dash, the prevailing practice of the printed text has been followed. Tyne: [line break] (ms) / Tyne. [stanza break] X. (Ed1) There is no evidence that Scott wants a stanza break inserted here. At no point in the ms does he begin a stanza with indented lines. rank. [stanza break] IX. (ms rank. [stanza break] IX) / rank. [line break] (Ed1) bands. [line break] (ms) / bands. [stanza break] XI. (Ed1) steers (ms) / steer (Ed1) X. (ms) / XII. (Ed1) fame. [line break] (ms) / fame. [stanza break] XIII. (Ed1) must (ms) / did (Ed1) King’s (Ed1) / king’s land. [stanza break] XI. (ms) / land. [line break] (Ed1) peace. [line break] (ms) / peace. [stanza break] XIV. (Ed1) XII. (ms XII) / XV. (Ed1) XIII. (ms XIII) / XVI. (Ed1) King (ms) / king (Ed1) Katherine’s (ms) / Katharine’s (Ed1) softly (ms) / stately (Ed1) that (ms) / the (Ed1) XIV. (ms XV.) / XVII. (Ed1) Marshal, and myself, (ms) / Marshal and myself (Ed1) a (ms) / the (Ed1) XV. (Editorial) / XVIII. (Ed1) XVI. (ms XVII) / XIX. (Ed1) their (ms) / the (Ed1) own. [line break] (ms) / own. [stanza break] XX. (Ed1) Thus (Editorial) / “Thus (Ed3) The inverted commas had been inserted only because this was the start of a new stanza. Lord Lion (ms) / Lord-Lion (Ed1) XVII. (ms XVIII) / XXI. (Ed1) XVIII. (ms [break but no number]) / XXII. (Ed1) Ralph de (ms) / Brian (Ed1) XIX. (ms [break but no number]) / XXIII. (Ed1) Hill. [line break] (ms) / Hill. [stanza break] XXIV. (Ed1) XX. (ms [break but no number]) / XXV. (Ed1) a (ms) / that (Ed1)



emendation list

4.749 array. [line break] (ms) / array. [stanza break] XXVI. (Ed1) 4.763b XXI. (ms [break but no number]) / XXVII. (Ed1) 4.765 Slight (ms) / The (Ed1) 4.775 plain. [line break] (ms) / plain. [stanza break] XXVIII. (Ed1) 4.785 though (ms) / a (Ed1) 4.793b XXII. (ms [break but no number]) / XXIX. (Ed1) 4.801 Lord Lion (ms) / Lord-Lion (Ed1) 4.814b XXIII. (Editorial) / XXX. (Ed1) 4.840 firth (ms) / Firth (Ed1) 4.850 Lion (Ed1) / Lindesay (Ed2) 4.851b XXIV. (ms XXIX) / XXXI. (Ed1) 4.862 Lion (Ed1) / Lindesay (Ed2) 4.873b XXV. (ms XXX) / XXXII. (Ed1) 4.898 King (Ed1) / king (Ed3) 5.26 carrier’s (ms) / carriers’ (Ed2) 5.27 our (ms) / the (Ed1) 5.148 Muse (ms and Ed1) / muse (Ed3) 5.149 their (ms) / her (Ed1) Scott is referring to both Marie and Blondel. 5.153 their (ms) / his (Ed1) 5.154 poets (ms) / poet (Ed1) 5.192 The barrier guard the Lion knew, Advanced their pikes; and soon withdrew The slender palisades and few That closed the tented ground; And Marmion with his train rode through, (ms: The Barrier Guard the Lion knew Advanced their pikes; & soon withdrew The slender palisades and few That closed the tented ground And Marmion his train rode through) / ed3: The train has left the hills of Braid; The barrier guard have open made, (So Lindesay bade,) the palisade, That closed the tented ground; Their men the warders backward drew, And carried pikes as they rode through, It is not clear why this passage was changed in Ed1, but the revisions are so inept it is hard to believe that they were written by Scott. 5.205 feel (Ed1) / feel, (Ed2) 5.236 bore. (ms and Ed1) / bore (Ed3) 5.248 strand, (Ed1) / strand; (Ed2) 5.254 theirs (Ed1) / their’s (Ed3) 5.269 Borderers’ (Ed1) / Borderer’s (Ed3) 5.285 but, (Ed1) / but (Ed2) 5.295 Just then the Chiefs, their tribes arrayed, A wild and garish semblance made (ms: Just then the Chiefs their tribes arrayd A wild and garish semblance made) / Just then the chiefs their tribes arrayed,

341

342

emendation list

And wild and garish semblance made (Ed1) Insertion of the wrong punctuation led to the substitution of ‘And’ for ‘A’. 5.298 brayed (Ed1) / brayed, (Ed3) 5.300 and shaggy (ms) / or sable (Ed1) The change to ‘sable’ gave two colours of hair. 5.336 armourers’ (Ed1) / armourer’s (Ed2) 5.387 at (ms) / in (Ed1) 5.406 beguiled. (ms) / beguiled; (Ed1) 5.409 renown, (Editorial) / renown; (Ed1) The punctuation needs to be changed to accommodate the omitted line at 5.410. There is no punctuation in the ms. 5.410 [indent one em] Twined with the Fleur de lis. (ms [indent one em] Twined with the Fleur de lis) / [line omitted] (Ed1) 5.412 bright, (Editorial) / bright; (Ed1) A change in punctuation is required to accommodate the restoration of the next line which was omitted. 5.413 [indent one em] And dangled at his knee. (ms) / [line omitted] (Ed1) 5.415 steel (ms) / steel; (Ed1) A change in punctuation is required to accommodate the restoration of the missing line which follows. 5.416 [indent one em] Were jingling merrily. (ms [indent one em] Were jingling merrily) / [line omitted] (Ed1) 5.418 rare. (ms) / rare: 5.425 dye (ms) / dye, (Ed1) 5.449 aside, (Ed1) / aside; (Ed2) 5.486 Holy-Rood the while (Ed1) / Holy-rood, the while, (Ed2) 5.487 bownes her (ms) / rises (Ed1) 5.499 say (Ed1) / say, (Ed3) 5.512 stone; (Ed1) / stone, (Ed2) 5.567 eyes (Ed1) / eyes, (Ed2) 5.583 fifth (ms) / sixth (Ed1) Fifth is historically correct. 5.608 The ms indentation in stanza 15 was not followed in printed editions, and the stanza has been emended to restore the ms indentation pattern, which can be seen in the new text. The base-text (Ed3) reads: His giant-form, like ruined tower, Though fallen its muscles’ brawny vaunt, Huge-boned, and tall, and grim, and gaunt, Seemed o’er the gaudy scene to lower: His locks and beard in silver grew; His eye-brows kept their sable hue. Near Douglas when the Monarch stood, His bitter speech he thus pursued:— “Lord Marmion, since these letters say That in the North you needs must stay, While slightest hopes of peace remain, Uncourteous speech it were, and stern, To say—Return to Lindisfarn, Until my herald come again.— Then rest you in Tantallon Hold; Your host shall be the Douglas bold,— A chief unlike his sires of old.



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343

He wears their motto on his blade, Their blazon o’er his towers displayed; Yet loves his sovereign to oppose, More than to face his country’s foes. And, I bethink me, by Saint Stephen, But e’en this morn to me was given A prize, the first fruits of the war, Ta’en by a galley from Dunbar, A bevy of the maids of heaven. 5.685 hills (ms) / Hills (Ed1) The Peak District is in question, and so Derby is a description of where the hills are, rather than a name. 5.691 Prince (ms) / prince (Ed1) Marmion is directly addressing James IV so a capital letter is appropriate. 5.717 And he aspired to grasp her land/ By wresting her unwilling hand. (ms) / [omitted] (Ed1) 5.787 King (ms and Ed1) / king (Ed3) 5.878 e’er (Ed1) / ere (Ed3) The meaning is ‘ever’, not ‘before’. 5.893 Her (ms) / The (Ed1) 5.900 the (ms) / yon (Ed1) 5.900 city cross (Ed1) / City Cross (Ed2) 5.904 cross (Ed1) / Cross (Ed2) 5.922 blazon (Ed1) / blazoned (Ed3) 5.923 King’s (ms) / A (Ed1) 5.938 e’er (Ed1) / ere (Ed3) 5.940 e’er (Ed1) / ere (Ed3) 5.998 frock (Ed1) / frocke (Ed2) 5.1000 soothe (Ed1) / sooth (Ed3) 5.1024 conquest by that meanness won, (Ed1) / conquest, by that meanness won (Ed2) 5.1031 conic (ms) / lofty (Ed1) 5.1034 viewed (Ed1) / viewed, (Ed2) 5.1061b XXX. (Ed1) / [omitted at a page-turn] (Ed3) 5.1107 there shall (ms) / shall there (Ed1) 5.1109 from (ms) / of (Ed1) 5.1128 lady (Ed1) / Lady (Ed2) 5.1140 though (ms) / if (Ed1) 5.1140 King’s (ms) / king’s (Ed1) 5.1142 In that inviolable dome (ms) / [line omitted] (Ed1) 5.1157 arose (Ed1) / arose, (Ed3) 5.1186 warder (ms) / Warder (Ed1) 5.1197 Norham’s (Ed1) / Norham (Ed2) 5.1225 Be (ms) / Were (Ed1) 6.19 And (Ed1) / While (Ed2) 6.30 Eve (ms) / eve (Ed1) 6.31 Eve (ms) / eve (Ed1) 6.36 And forth did merry woods-men go, (ms And forth did merry woods men go) / Forth to the wood did merry-men go, (Ed1) 6.42 on (ms) / in (Ed1) 6.45 pair.” (Ed1) / pair.’ (Ed3) 6.53 shone (Ed1) / shone, (Ed2)

344 6.134 6.139 6.144 6.159 6.177 6.217 6.218 6.262 6.271 6.384 6.415 6.416 6.485 6.521 6.573 6.586 6.597 6.628 6.645 6.869 6.933 6.964 6.967 6.970 6.988 6.1038 6.1045 6.1046 6.1047 6.1065 6.1090 6.1093 6.1101 6.1116 6.1119 6.1131 6.1159 6.1164 6.1170 6.1194 6.1243 6.1245 6.1256 6.1262 6.1263 6.1274 6.1276 6.1283

emendation list Eve (ms) / eve (Ed1) fairy land or limbo (ms) / Fairy Land or Limbo (Ed1) lore, (Ed1) / lore. (Ed3) blasted tree (Ed1) / Blasted Tree (Ed3) huntsman (ms) / Huntsman (Ed1) twenty-thousands (ms) / twenty-thousand (Ed1) theirs (ms) / their’s (Ed1) insults (ms) / insult (Ed1) This (ms) / The (Ed1) e’er (Ed1) / ere (Ed3) head. (ms head) / head, (Ed1) He (ms) / And (Ed1) De Wilton (ms) / thy master (Ed1) There is nothing to indicate that De Wilton was the beadman’s master. King’s (ms Kings) / king’s (Ed1) shirt and cap (ms) / cap and shirt (Ed1) binds (ms) / bound (Ed1) For King, for Church, for Lady fair (ms) / For king, for church, for lady fair (Ed1) These three are the tenets of chivalry. King’s (ms) / king’s (Ed1) me? (ms) / me! (Ed1) fly.”— (Ed1) / fly.—” (Ed3) goes (ms) / go (Ed1) vaward (ms) / vanguard (Ed1) Flodden’s (ms) / Flodden (Ed1) hill, (ms hill) / hill; (Ed1) march; (Ed1) / march (Ed3) vain. (Ed1) / vain: (Ed3) sky: (Ed1) / sky! (Ed3) A Gordon (ms) / a Gordon (Ed1) This is not the indefinite article but a slogan. [indent one em] (ms and Ed1) / [full out] (Ed3) pine uprooted (ms) / pine-tree, rooted (Ed1) And in (Ed1, Ed2) / Andin (Ed3) sand. (Ed1) / sand: (Ed2) sped; (Ed1) / sped, (Ed3) bring.— (Ed1) / bring:— (Ed3) his spotless (ms) / the spotless (Ed1) muttered (ms mutterd) / murmured (Ed1) Gray (ms) / Grey (Ed1) brought (Ed1) / brought, (Ed3) head? (Ed1) / head! (Ed2) curse (ms) / cursed (Ed1) royal standard (ms) / Royal Standard (Ed1) Caledonia’s (ms) / Caledonian (Ed1) darkling (ms) / dark’ning (Ed1) King (ms) / king (Ed1) still (ms) / yet (Ed1) well, (Ed1) / well; (Ed2) King (Editorial) / king (Ed1) King (ms) / king (Ed1)

6.1285 6.1328 6.1340 6.1355 6.1358 6.1371 6.1374 6.1375 6.1376 6.1379 6.1397 6.1402

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345

swoln (Ed1) / swollen (Ed3) site (Ed1) / scite (Ed3) priests (ms and Ed1) / priest (Ed3) bed (ms) / grave (Ed1) Gray (ms) / Grey (Ed1) this (ms) / the (Ed1) Ye left (ms) / Thou left’st (Ed1) The pronouns in the passage 6.1371–76 are muddled in the ms: ‘thou’, ‘Ye’, ‘you’. But the attempt to sort them out was clumsy; the muddle of the ms is preferable. you (ms) / thus (Ed1) you further (ms) / thee further (Ed1) Here (ms) / He (Ed1) King (ms) / king (Ed1) joke; (Ed1) / joke: (Ed2)

sc ot t ’ s not e s Emendations to Scott’s notes are keyed to the text by page and line number. 209.23 bare (source) / have (copyist) 210.9 I a foole (ms and Ed1) / I foole (Ed3) 210.24 crafts (ms and Ed1) / craft (Ed2) 212.22 wist (source) / wit (copyist) 213.29 disenabled (source) / disabled (Ed1) See The Works of John Dryden, ed. Walter Scott, 18 vols (London, 1808), 13.31. 215.7 quarters (source) / quartes (Ed1) 215.9 a great number (source) / a number (Scott in ms) 215.17 Donjon Keep (new text) / donjon keep (Ed1) 216.2 Marshal (ms) / Marischal (Ed1) 216.10 to the Earl (ms copy) / for the Earl (Ed1) 219.12 heaulme to be (source and ms copy) / heaulme be (Ed1) 219.14 140 (source) / 40 (copyist) 221.3 mony (ms) / many (Ed1) 221.25 We’s (ms) / Wi’s (Ed1) The sense requires ‘We’s’, but in fact it is not possible to determine whether the vowel is ‘e’ or ‘i’. 223.1 Catherine (ms) / Catharine (Ed1) 223.7 back? (ms) / back; (Ed1) 223.11 defac’t? (ms) / defac’t; (Ed1) 223.13 downe? (ms) / downe, (Ed1) 223.14 Orethrowne? (ms) / Orethrowne; (Ed1) 223.15 demolished? (ms) / demolished, (Ed1) 224.4 1585 (Editorial) / 1685 (Scott in ms) 224.24 Vol. III. (source) / Vol. IV. (Ed3) This note first appeared in Ed3. 224.27 olives (new text) / Olives (Ed1) See note to the emendation at 1.733. 224.31 Santa (source) / Sante (copyist) 225.10 come (ms) / came (Ed1) 225.10 there (source) / here (copyist) 225.16 pp. 107–08 (source and editorial) / p. 107. (Scott in ms) 225.30 His sable cowl o’er-hung his face; (new text) / — — — — — (Ed1)

346 225.33 226.8

226.13 226.14 226.19 226.21 227.10 228.40 229.31 230.7 230.22 231.1 231.18 231.18 231.22 231.23 232.2 232.13 232.33 233.4 233.6 233.7 233.13 233.18 233.22 233.23 233.29 233.34 233.36 234.4 234.4 234.5 234.9 234.40 234.41

emendation list When Scott wrote these lines in ms he omitted one line; instead of correcting Scott’s error the compositor indicated a missing line. [indent two ems] (new text) / [indent one em] (Ed1) owr (Bannatyne ms and MacLaine) / on (Ed1) Sibbald misread the version of the poem in the Bannatyne ms, and Scott, although modernising the text, follows Sibbald. Normally the reading in the immediate source would stand, but ‘loup on’ a meadow does not make much sense whereas ‘loup owr’ does. For Sibbald and MacLaine see note to 226.6. auld (ms) / old (Ed1) side slevis (Bannatyne ms and MacLaine) / side, shews See note to 226.8 above. Saint (new text) / St (Ed1) Saint (new text) / St (Ed1) superstition (ms) / superstitions (Ed1) neck (ms copy) / necks (Ed1) camp (source) / camps (copyist) are let (ms copy) / are all let (Ed1) silent (new text) / silver (Ed1) later (ms) / latter (Ed1) like (ms) / with (Ed1) Loch (ms) / lake (Ed1) The change to ‘lake’ ensures that the reader recognises that the ‘lake’ of line 17 is the same as the ‘lake’ of 18. But it also introduces repetition. Wizard’s (new text) / wizard’s (Ed1) Wizard Priest’s (new text) / wizard priest’s (Ed1) Dark Loch Skene (new text) / Wild Loch-skene (Ed1) Where, (new text) / Where (Ed1) massive (ms) / massy (Ed1) mile (ms) / miles (Ed1) nuns exulting told (new text) / nuns, exulting, told (Ed1) barons (new text) / Barons (Ed1) Sneaton (source and ms) / Smeaton (Ed1) these gentlemen (ms) / these young gentlemen (Ed1) being very sore, and very hotly pursued (all other witnesses) / being very sorely pursued (copyist) there died: whereupon the (all other witnesses) / there laid him down, and presently died. The (copyist) their hounds (all other witnesses) / the hounds (copyist) King Henry (all other witnesses) / the king (copyist) was death. (all other witnesses) / was death for death. (copyist) contented (all other witnesses) / content (copyist) this penance for (all other witnesses) / the penance I shall lay on them for (copyist) present, and terrified with the fear of death, bid him enjoin what penance he would so that he would but save (all other witnesses) / present, bade him save (copyist) Ascension-eve (BL Ascension-Eve) / Ascension-day (copyist) Ascension-day is wrong: the context implies ‘Ascension-eve’. The reading in the version in the BL has therefore been adopted. tuas (ms and Ed1) / tuos (Ed2) redemptisti (ms and Ed1) / redemisti (Ed3)



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347

234.43 Amen.” (Editorial) / Amen. (Ed1) As the next paragraph is a paraphrase, concluding quotation marks have been inserted here, and removed in the lines that follow. 235.1 This service, it is added, still (editorial) / “This service,” it is added, “still (Ed1) 235.4 Herbert. (Editorial) / Herbert.” (Ed1) 235.14 stone, (new text) / stone (Ed1) 235.15 prayed; (new text) / prayed. (Ed1) 236.6 resting-place, (new text) / resting-place (Ed3) 237.2 King (new text) / king (Ed1) 237.10 which (ms) / whom (Ed1) 237.19 conqueror (new text) / Conqueror (Ed1) 237.28 1069 (Editorial) / 1096 (Scott in ms) 237.29 replaced there before (ms) / replaced before (Ed1) 238.2 Saint (new text) / St (Ed1) 238.3 beads (new text) / beads, (Ed3) 238.10 probably (ms) / perhaps (Ed1) The change to ‘perhaps’ was made to avoid repetition with ‘probable’ on line 11. However, ‘perhaps’ is not right, while ‘probably’ is. 238.32 a place (ms) / places (Ed1) 239.4 made to offer at the shrine (ms) / made the shrine (Ed1) 239.20 inclose, (new text) / inclose (Ed1) 239.25 walls (ms) / wall (Ed1) 240.4 inn (new text) / Inn (Ed1) 240.9 fingers. She feasts (ms) / fingers; and feasted (Ed1) 240.29 Goblin-Hall (new text) / Goblin Hall (Ed1) 241.23 cujus (ms, Ed1, Ed2) / cujas (Ed3) 242.3 Magicians (ms) / “Magicians (Ed1) 242.4 “Their caps (Editorial) / Their caps (Ed1) 243.2 shield (new text) / shield, (Ed1) 243.3 wield, (new text) / wield (Ed1) 243.4 crest (new text) / breast (Ed1) 243.10 p. 979 (source) / p. 797 (ms) The page number given in the ms is probably not in Scott’s hand. 243.32 spirit.’”—Less (Editorial) / spirit.”—Less (Ed1) 243.33 night (ms and Ed1) / knight (Ed3) 243.39 steed.— (Editorial) / steed.”— (Ed1) 244.15 separated (ms copy) / separately (Ed1) 244.40 exiissit (ms and Ed1) / exiisset (Ed3) 245.18 clarij (ms) /clari (Ed1) 245.23 obliging correspondent, Mr Surtees. (ms obliging correspondent Mr. Surtee’s) / friendly correspondent. (Ed1) 248.16 Crichtoun-Castle (new text) / Crichton Castle (Ed1) 248.17 eleven (ms) / seven (Ed1) 250.4 heaven (new text) / heaven, (Ed1) 250.8 would (ms) / could (Ed1) 250.32 groflins (source) / grofling (copyist) 251.18 proprius (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / propius (Ed3) 251.20 totæ (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / totius (Ed3) 251.22 Catherine’s (ms Catherines and Ed1) / Catharine’s (Ed2) 251.26 celestial (ms) / celebrated (Ed1) 251.34 VIII. (Editorial) / VII. (Ed1)

348 252.5 252.18 252.19 253.1 253.20 253.29 253.30 254.21 255.23 255.26 256.18 257.8 257.15 258.3 259.26 260.38 261.19 261.22 262.25 262.32 263.9 263.12 263.20 264.2 265.31 266.11 266.11 266.13 266.25 266.26 266.32 266.34 267.30 267.32 268.34 269.27 270.1 270.16 270.16 270.29 275.9

emendation list There are two Note VIIs. Scott has two Note Is; his misnumbering was corrected only up to the first Note VII. IX. (Editorial) / VIII. (Ed1) X. (Editorial) / IX. (Ed1) Borough-moor (new text) / Borough-Moor (Ed1) XI. (Editorial) / X. (Ed1) bowe of a sowes (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / bowes of a sowes (Ed3) XII. (Editorial) / XI. (Ed1) shield, (new text) / shield (Ed1) bold. (ms bold) / bold, (Ed1) Advenuës (source) / Avantures (Scott in ms) This is a characteristic Scott error: at times he remembers the sense rather than the precise words. tones (new text) / strains (Ed1) pas (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / pass (Ed3) by (ms) / instead of (Ed1) mells (source) / mauls (Scott in ms) penance pain (new text) / penance-pain (Ed1) pp. 171–72 (source and editorial) / p. 110 (Scott in ms) bound (source) / boun (copyist) pp. 123–25. (Editorial) / p. 78 folio edit. (Scott in ms) Lord (new text) / lord (Ed1) the (ms) / this (Ed1) Bass. (Ed1) / Bass (Ed3) beine (ms and Ed1) / beinge (Ed2) gravfe (source) / grawe (copyist) chiefs of the partizans (ms) / chief partizans (Ed1) unobserved; (new text) / unobserved, (Ed1) ordnance (source) / order (copyist) drunk (source) / drunken (copyist) was but a (source) / was a (copyist) forenent (source) / foreanent (copyist) lave (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / leve (Ed3) XXI. (Editorial) / XX. (Scott in ms) XXII. (Editorial) / XXI. (Scott in ms) from (new text) / of (Ed1) Eve (new text) / eve (Ed1) holy day (ms) / holiday (Ed1) see (new text) / spy (Ed1) beard, (new text) / beard (Ed1) holy day (ms copy) / holiday (Ed1) There are two versions of the poem bound into the manuscript, one in Scott’s hand and another in another hand on a paper apart; Ed1 followed the pa. some (ms) / the (Ed1) had by his wife, by engaging (ms had by his wife by engaging) / had, by engaging (Ed1) blasted tree (new text) / Blasted Tree (Ed 2) cause—than fall (ms copy) /cause! who fell (Ed1) There are two versions of the poem bound into the ms. There are some signs that the Ed1 text was set from the first version, and then corrected by the second; this change corrects a mistake in the original version.

275.30 276.5 276.31 277.3 277.6 278.29 278.30 278.31 279.11 279.12 279.12 279.13 280.3 280.6 280.7 281.23 282.5 282.6 283.22 283.29 283.30 285.7 285.11 285.11

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349

its (ms copy) / it’s (Ed1) forth (ms copy) /all (Ed1) Will, on a Friday morn, (new text) / Will on a Friday morn (Ed1) them, wear (ms) / them, who wear (Ed1) subterranean (ms) / subterraneous (Ed1) Which wont, of yore, in battle-fray (new text) / That wont of yore in battle fray (Ed1) shred (new text) / lop (Ed1) lops (new text) / shreds (Ed1) hop’st [. . .] go?— (new text) / hopest [. . .] go? (Ed1) Saint (new text) / St (Ed1) no!— (new text) / no: (Ed1) drawbridge (new text) / draw-bridge (Ed1) led (source) / lead (copyist) Saint (new text) / St (Ed1) deed! (new text) / deed? (Ed1) deadly (new text) / battle (Ed1) and the Palatinate (ms & the Palatinate) / and of the palatinate (Ed1) Dacre (Editorial) / Dacres (Scott in ms) ‘Dacre’ is the usual name in the text. Tunstall (ms, Ed1 and Ed2) / Tunstal (Ed3) [indent one em] (new text) / [no indent] (Ed1) [indent one em] (new text) / [no indent] (Ed1) discording (text) / contending (Ed2) 142 (Editorial) / 258 This is a cross-reference. Katherine (ms and Ed1) / Katharine (Ed2)

END-OF-LINE HYPHENS

All end-of-line hyphens in the present text are soft unless included in the list below. The hyphens listed are hard and should be retained when quoting. 220.12 Alston-moor 221.39 moss-trooping 224.17 cross-bow 247.14 Lion-Herald 252.32 Bruntsfield-links 256.8 cloth-yard 257.19 men-at-arms 261.31 broken-hearted 264.9 brother-in-arms 264.22 assuroient-t-ils 265.29 master-gunner 269.2 boy-hood 284.34 musket-ball

HISTORICAL NOTE

Historical and Political Context. The Battle of Flodden, the largest battle ever to be fought between England and Scotland, took place in the late afternoon of 9 September 1513 on the slopes of Branxton Hill in Northumberland. It was the culmination of a three-week campaign, led by King James IV, King of Scots (1473–1513; king from 1488), which had its equal origins in the longstanding antipathy that existed between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England (notwithstanding their signing of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace in 1502), and in the political alliance first forged between Scotland and France in 1492 and formally renewed in 1512.1 When the events of the early 1500s made it impossible for James to maintain both pacts simultaneously, he chose to honour the auld alliance with France (the first mutually defensive treaty between Scotland and France dates from 1295) and ignore the newer bond of peace with England. In addition to historical links, and treaties, Scotland and France were connected by trade, and particularly by the financial and material support that France gave James IV in his ambition to build a navy.2 The fragile peace that was, for the most part, maintained north and south of the Anglo-Scottish border during the reign of Henry VII had been severely tested when Henry VIII, shortly after his coronation in 1509, publicly declared his intention to wage war against Scotland’s historic ally, France.3 In mid-November 1511, with the blessing of Pope Julius II, Henry joined the Papacy, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and Ferdinand of Spain in the Holy League against France, and less than two years later (despite the disintegration of this political consortium, and various truces between France and these powers) he was ready to attack France. Henry’s European counterparts claimed that such a move was necessary to block Louis XII’s opportunistic incursions into northern Italy, while Henry’s pretext for war was that he had a just and rightful claim to the French throne that dated back to the time of Henry V. On 30 June 1513 Henry departed for France, arriving in Calais that same day.4 By 21 July he was ready to march on Th󠄨érouanne.5 Henry VIII’s and James IV’s involvement in the messy arena of European politics demonstrates the international ambitions of both kings. However, the Scots had other motivations for invading their

352

historical note

neighbours (see text 5.573–80) in addition to their agreement to protect French territories and interests against English attack. Among these featured an unresolved grievance over the murder of the Scottish warder Sir Robert Ker of Ferniehurst by ‘Bastard’ John Heron in the disputed borders region (see note to 5.456–59); recurring skirmishes with the English on land and at sea; the temporary detention of Scotsmen returning from diplomatic missions to France; the withholding of part of Queen Margaret’s dowry; the question of succession to the English throne; and the Subsidy Act and renewal in 1512 of England’s claims to sovereignty over Scotland.6 James offered Louis XII support ‘on sea and land’, and on 8 May 1513 the French king promised in return that the Scottish navy would ‘be equipped with provisions, powder, and guns as are the French ships’ and that James IV would ‘have 50,000 Francs’.7 He further promised that when ‘the ships have come and joined with the French ones, all of them with seven galleys will be sent to Scotland, well equipped to fight the English and at the command of the King of Scots’. All of this was offered partly in recognition of the fact that James IV claimed to have turned down an offer made to him by English ambassadors to the King of Scots that provided that he maintain the peace with England he should be declared the future King of England if Henry VIII died childless. Anne of Brittany, Louis XII’s Queen, sent a direct appeal to James, and a turquoise ring (see text 5.462–65, and Note XII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 259). These combined factors finally led James IV to support the French, launching an attack on England, with the intention of forcing Henry VIII to divert part of his army from France to deal with the Scottish incursion at home. On 11  August 1513, Henry VIII dismissed James IV’s demand, delivered at Thérounne by his senior herald, the Lyon King at Arms Sir William Cumming of Inverallochy, to desist from attacking Louis. Henry’s reply was typically provocative: in his Chronicle Edward Hall says that Henry told the Scottish herald: thus saye to thy master, that I am the very owner of Scotland, & that he holdeth it of me by homage, and in so much as now contrary to his bounden duety he beinge my vassall, doth rebell against me, with Gods help I shal at my returne expulse him his realme, & so tell hym.8

James IV responded by launching a two-pronged attack, on land and at sea. On 19 August his troops began to march out of Edinburgh; he followed that same evening.9 On 22 August James and his whole host congregated at the final muster near the border with England. Most of the army forded the Tweed near Coldstream, and crossed into northern England; a detachment was sent to take Wark Castle, while the main body assembled at Twizel Haugh, about five kilometres (3 miles) from Norham Castle (see note to 1.330), and it was here that James



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held his last parliament on 24  August. They then moved eastward along the Tweed to Norham and on 28 or 29 August Norham surrendered. The Castles of Etal and Ford quickly followed. Up to this point, James’s campaign had been successful: he had advanced swiftly with minimal losses and maximum gains. Even as he prepared to depart for France, Henry VIII had anticipated trouble from the north: Edward Hall amusingly observes that ‘he and his counsaill forgat not the olde Prankes of the Scottes which is ever to inuade England when the kyng is out’.10 He therefore appointed the ageing Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, as Lord Lieutenant of the Northern Marches to keep an eye on the restive Scots and to ward off any attack. Surrey’s army had begun the march north on 25 August, as soon as news reached him of the Scots mobilisation. Surrey and his forces marched through Pontefract, York, Durham (where he paused to hear mass and to gather the banner of St Cuthbert), and Newcastle, finally reaching a spot, Bolton near Alnwick, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Newcastle, by 3 September. Thomas Hawley, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, was sent to James to deliver Surrey’s peremptory demands to engage in battle on the flat ground of Milfield Plain on Friday 9 September. James accepted the challenge, but not the location: he preferred to remain in his fortified, defensive position on Flodden Hill. On 6 September Surrey advanced to Wooler Haugh, about 15 kilometres (9 miles) to the south of the Scottish position on Flodden Hill. On 8 September he marched east, away from Flodden, then north. The Scots had placed their large, heavy guns, ‘Borthwick’s Sisters Seven, / And culverins which France had given’ (text 4.772–73), facing defensively against an English approach from the south. Their position was enviable; Surrey complained to James that it was not fair to have ‘put your self into a ground more like a fortresse or Campe then upon any indifferent ground for battell to be tryede’.11 However, the Scots were caught with their guns facing the wrong way when the English moved unexpectedly around the plain, so that they were northeast of the Scottish army. This reversed positions radically: the Scots had been outflanked.12 On the day of the battle itself,13 Surrey’s forces set off at five o’clock in the morning for Branxton Hill, splitting into two groups: Admiral Thomas Howard, Surrey’s younger son, commanded the English vanguard, while Surrey led the rearguard. Vanguard and rearguard were divided further into left, centre, and right wings. The vanguard and artillery moved northwest, almost to the River Tweed and the border to cross the River Till at Twizel Bridge at around noon and made their final approach to Branxton from the north. Flodden can best be understood as four engagements within the overarching context of the battle itself. Surrey arranged his own troops into four fighting units: Edmund Howard commanded the right, the

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Admiral was in the centre, Surrey himself to the left, and Dacre in reserve.14 When the armies engaged, the Scots guns proved ineffectual: they could not be repositioned to good effect. Then, the Scottish pikes proved particularly unfortunate; in adopting the pike James had followed the example of the Swiss in their war with the Duke of Burgundy, but the length of the eighteen-foot weapons halted the Scots’ progress, and their pike-formations fell into disarray as they struggled over the sodden, uneven, marshy ground. The English fought, and fared better, with lighter guns, the halberd, and longbows. What ensued over the course of the next two to three hours of closecombat fighting was the near-total devastation of the Scottish side and a decisive victory for the English. One of the interesting features about the Battle of Flodden is the lack of clarity, even in the earliest surviving historical accounts, regarding the size of each army, and the number of casualties incurred. Estimates of figures for both vary wildly. Today leading historians agree that both sides were equally matched, and that each perhaps numbered between 20,000 and 30,000 men,15 although one estimates the size of James’s army as 34,000.16 Incontrovertibly, the Scots suffered the heavier blow and the losses on the Scots side have been estimated at around 5,000.17 It was said that not one noble house in Scotland escaped. In a letter of 20 September to Henry VIII’s almoner Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Ruthal, Bishop of Durham commented that ‘10,000 Scots are slain, and a great number of noblemen’.18 Among these were the King, two abbots, nine earls, and fourteen lords of parliament.19 He adds, ‘The English have lost 1,000 men, but only one of eminence, Sir Jo. Bothe of Lancashire’. Modern estimates place English losses at between 1,500 and 4,000 men. The Battle of Flodden was a deadly battle, incurring the shocking loss of thousands of lives in a mere two and a half hours of fighting. It was also the last time that a British monarch was slain in battle. Thomas Ruthal summarises the sad unfolding and aftermath of the battle in his letter to Wolsey: The Scots had a large army, and much ordnance, and plenty of victuals. . . . They were so cased in armour the arrows did them no harm, and were such large and strong men, they would not fall when four or five bills struck one of them. The bills disappointed the Scots of their long spears, on which they relied. Lord Howard led the van, followed by St. Cuthbert’s banner and the men of the Bishopric. The banner men won great honor, and gained the King of Scots’ banner . . . The King fell near his banner. . . . The English did not trouble themselves with prisoners, but slew and stripped King, bishop, lords, and nobles, and left them naked on the field. There might be seen a number of goodly men, well fed and fat, amongst which number was the King of Scots’ body found, having many wounds and naked.20



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Scott does not deal with the aftermath to any great extent. James IV and Lord Marmion are connected by the failure to adequately memorialise their physical remains after death. Marmion lies in an unmarked grave, thereby perpetuating him in a limbo-like state of existence. This correlates with the proliferation of rumours surrounding the possible escape and survival of King James IV in the years following Flodden. Pitscottie has a tale of four horsemen who appeared at the battle to spirit him away, and claims that the body of the king could not be identified because James had clothed several of his men in his own armour to cause confusion.21 According to Norman Macdougall, this ‘shows the chronicler attempting, more than sixty years after the event, to come to terms with the mass of conflicting evidence circulating about the disaster of 1513’.22 Hall states that James’s body was taken to Berwick and identified positively by two of James’s courtiers who had been taken prisoner, and who ‘made greate lamentacyon’.23 John Stow writing 85 years later in his A Suruay of London (London, 1598) tells of the degrading way in which James’s remains were treated in London. Scott deals with these matters in Note XVII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 283–84; for the quotation from Stowe see note to 284.25. Table of Dates 1488 James IV of Scotland ascends the throne. 1492 Franco-Scottish treaty. 1497 30 September. England and Scotland enter into a 30-year truce. 1502 Treaty of Perpetual Peace which ratifies the truce of 1497 is signed between England and Scotland. 1503 8 August. Marriage of James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor of England (older sister of Henry VIII) consolidates the Treaty of Perpetual Peace. 1508 Sir Robert Ker, Scottish Border Warden, is murdered on a truce day by the ‘Bastard’ Heron of Ford. 1509 21–22 April. Death of Henry VII. Succession of his son Henry VIII as King of England. 1509 29 June. Renewal of the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of Perpetual Peace. 1511 November. Henry VIII enters into an accord with Pope Julius II and joins the ‘Holy League’ which allied the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand II of Spain, Henry VIII, and the Venetians against France. 1512 January. English parliament passes Subsidy Act to finance England’s war against France, and declares Scotland subservient to the English crown. 1512 Franco-Scottish alliance renewed. 1513 May. Anne of Brittany writes to James IV asking him to intervene on her behalf.

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1513 24 May. James writes to Henry requesting him to desist from attacking France. 1513 Late June. Henry VIII departs for France. Earl of Surrey made Lord Lieutenant of the Northern Marches. 19 July. James IV orders his fleet to be ready for action. 24 July. Scottish feudal host assembled at Edinburgh. 26 July. The Lord Lyon, the Scottish Herald, sent to Henry in France with declaration of war. 11 August. Lord Lyon arrives at Thérouanne to deliver ultimatum. 13 August. Unsuccessful Scottish raid into Northumberland. 19–21 August. Scots muster at Edinburgh and begin to march south through the Lammermoor hills. 24 August. James holds his last parliament at Twizel. The Scots besiege Norham Castle. 25 August. The Earl of Surrey learns of the Scots movement. The English march north. 28 or 29 August. James captures Norham. More provisions arrive. The Scots now control the River Tweed and all crossing points from Norham to Wark, west of Coldstream. 30 August. Surrey arrives in Newcastle, having paused in Durham for mass and to collect St Cuthbert’s standard. 31 August. English army leaves Newcastle. 1 September. Scots take Ford Castle. The Scottish army camps on Flodden Hill. James awaits arrival of Surrey. The English army marches out of Newcastle, north to Bolton near Alnwick. 4 September. Full muster of English army at Bolton. 5 September. James burns Ford Castle. Leaves to join the Scottish camp on Flodden Hill. Herald Thomas Hawley, the Rouge Croix pursuivant, sent to James with offer of battle on 9 September. No quarter offered. The Rouge Croix Herald detained by James but the Scottish Islay Herald sent with agreement to undertake the battle. 6 September. English move to Wooler Haugh. Surrey expects to fight on Milfield Plain. 7 September. The Rouge Croix returns to Surrey with news of fortifications on Flodden Hill. 8 September. Surrey circumvents Flodden and moves north-east. 9 September. English army moves west and approaches Branxton from the north. James moves hurriedly to defend the high ground of Branxton Hill. 9 September (afternoon). The Battle of Flodden, which ends in



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a decisive victory for the English, the death of James IV, and the almost total eradication of the Scottish nobility. Narrative Timeline. In the Advertisement to Marmion Scott says: ‘The Poem opens about the commencement of August, and concludes with the defeat of Flodden, 9th September, 1513’. This statement establishes the time scheme of the poem, and links its action directly to historical events. The action take place within a period of 40 days; the events of Cantos Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth take place within three weeks, for Marmion and his followers review the Scottish army encamped on the Borough-moor of Edinburgh, and that night, Thursday 18  August 1513, take part in the entertainments at Holyrood. James’s troops begin to set out for England the next day. Topography. Topography is a key feature of the poem. Throughout, detailed and precise topographical description fixes events in specific, and easily recognisable locations that have both strategic and symbolic significance. For example, the poem’s first Canto, entitled ‘The Castle’, opens with a description of Norham Castle. Situated in Northumberland, England, overlooking the River Tweed on the border between England and Scotland. Norham was a significant English stronghold and, as such, came under frequent attack by the Scots. It fell to James IV, under heavy cannon fire, just two weeks before his defeat nearby at Flodden Field. Marmion appears first in the poem riding in a cavalcade that comes over ‘Horncliff-hill’ (text 1.358) on the approach to Norham Castle. Place, physical space, and journeying continue to mark the poem’s progress, and allow Scott to continue to introduce characters and locations of pertinence to the historical context of the poem. In Canto Second we move from Castle to Convent. In the opening stanzas, we follow a group of nuns on a sea voyage, past Monk-Wearmouth, Tynemouth, Seaton-Delaval, the rivers Blythe and Wansbeck, Widderington, Coquet-isle, the Alne, Warkworth, until finally arriving at Lindisfarne. The dense concentration of physical descriptors makes the reader feel as if they have undertaken this voyage with the nuns; and although this is not the route taken by the English army on its road north, the litany of places creates ‘the north’. Similarly, in Canto Third Marmion and his train travel north over the Lammermoor hills. Information is sketchy, both in the poem and the historical record, but it seems as though the route taken by Marmion is also that taken by the Scottish army on its way south to Flodden. Marmion and his train pause to rest at an Inn in Gifford, East Lothian, and pass through the woods of Humbie and Saltoun on their way to Crichton Castle; they then make their way across the Braid and Blackford hills to Edinburgh. In Canto Sixth the action confines Marmion to Tantallon

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Castle and then returns to the vicinity of Norham, and the Battle of Flodden. Historical Characters and Character Prototypes. Broadly speaking, the poem’s major characters can be divided into actual historical figures, fictionalised historical figures, and those that are wholly fictitious. The main historical figures are James IV (1473–1513), King of Scots from 1488, and Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus (c. 1449–1513). Scott’s detailed portrait of James IV (for example see the detailed physical description of the King in Canto Fifth, 5.361–452) is drawn from the historical records and accounts available to him. However, he appears to rely most heavily upon Pitscottie’s moralistic characterisation of the King. The portrait of Douglas (5.583–640) also relies upon Pitscottie, but is amplified by works such as David Hume of Godscroft’s The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus. There are, in addition, a great many historical figures, such as James IV’s Queen, Margaret Tudor, who are brought in but who do not exist as ‘characters’. The description of the fighting at Flodden is particularly rich in such names, both English and Scottish. And several key historical characters of the period are mentioned, and are important actors without ever appearing in the poem, most notably King Henry VIII. Lady Heron and Sir David Lindesay (c. 1486–1555) are both historical characters, but fictionalised. Scott follows Pitscottie in the presentation of Lady Heron: she is a Mata Hari figure, that is one who uses her sexual charms to obtain information which she then feeds to the enemy. And so little is known of Lindsay the man that in spite of his leaving us with a considerable body of verse Scott was entirely free to put him into a historical context quite different to the one that he actually belonged to—he became Lord Lyon only in 1542. In the notes to the poem, Scott states that Lord Marmion is ‘entirely a fictitious personage’. However, he then proceeds to provide a genealogy of sorts for the knight that suggests a historical prototype for his hero: see Note X in Notes to Canto First, 218–19, and the accompanying explanatory notes. Scott cites John Leland (see note to 218.37–219.32) and Thomas Percy’s balled ‘The Hermit of Warkworth’ as sources for the Marmion family material. See also Note XXII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 266–67, where Scott relates ‘the catastrophe of a real Robert de Marmion’. Other characters such as De Wilton, Clara and Constance are entirely fictional. In the mixture of historical and fictional figures Marmion represents a great advance on The Lay of the Last Minstrel. The Lay has no recognisable historical characters, and little story; but Marmion and his associates provide a narrative structure which lead the reader into real history. The narrative in Cantos Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth,



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for example, follows the historical account of events, but Scott places fictional observers within the scenes he describes. In the poem, Lord Marmion has been sent to Scotland by Henry VIII as an envoy, to find out why ‘through all Scotland, near and far,/ Their King is mustering troops for war’ (1.645–46). When he reaches Edinburgh, he sees the thousands of white pavilions that form the Scottish camp, hears the ‘mingled hum/ Of myriads up the mountain come’ (4.756–57), and witnesses the Scots’ extensive preparations for war. He observes too the clothing worn by the yeoman Scots, dressed in a ‘steel jacket, a swarthy vest,/ With iron quilted well’ (5.238–39). Just as Marmion allows Scott to describe these preparations for war, key characters (the chivalric prototypes, Knights Blount and Fitz-Eustace) are positioned at a vantage point overlooking Flodden, thereby allowing the reader a spectator-side view of the battle as it unfolds. Scott departs from the strictly historical in placing Lady Elizabeth Heron within James’s court. The historical Lady Heron was chatelaine of Ford Castle while her husband, Sir William, was held prisoner by the Scots for the murderous deeds of his half-brother. After taking Norham and Etal Castles, James attacked Ford Castle. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie has it that Lady Heron detained James in ‘dalliance’ to delay destruction of the Castle and give Surrey more time to advance. Pitscottie writes: Some say the lady of Foord was a beautiful woman, and that the king meddled with her; and also his son Alexander Stuart, bishop of St. Andrews, with her daughter; which was against God’s commandments, and against the order of all good captains of war, to begin at whoredom and harlotry before any good success of battle or victory had fallen unto them; and fornication had a great part of the wyte of their evil success.24

There is no corroborative historical evidence to support what Pitscottie says, but Scott, although much more sympathetic to James IV and Elizabeth Heron, accepts Pitscottie’s information, creates a new fictional situation, and thus enhances the drama of his own story. Sources. Contemporary and eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Flodden are scarce, and, not surprisingly, there are more from England than Scotland. In Pinkerton’s History of Scotland Scott found the contemporary account of the battle from Thomas Hawley, the Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms, written in diplomatic French (see note to 282.40–42). The earliest publication upon Flodden ‘The Trewe Encountre or . . . Batayle lately don betwene Englande and Scotlande’, penned by a Northumbrian in the weeks following the battle, and published by Richard Faques,25 was probably not known to Scott, but it is generally agreed that it was closely followed by the near-contemporary chronicler Edward Hall, whose work Scott certainly knew and used.

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Scott’s most important source is Pitscottie’s The History of Scotland, from February 21. 1436, to March 1565 (Edinburgh, 1778); it was completed about 1575 (but was not published until 1728) and so the events of the Battle of Flodden were sixty years previous. However, it is probable that Pitscottie had information from Sir David Lindsay, the poet and Lord Lyon; ‘Sir David Lindesay’s Tale’ (4.499–577) is derived from Pitscottie who says that Lindsay was a witness (see note to 4.497). Similarly the story of Plotcock and the midnight warning (5.892–968) comes from Pitscottie (see Note XX in Notes to Canto Fifth, 265–66); later historians also recount the tales, but they probably derived them from Pitscottie. Scott possessed an edition of 1778, which he cites, or from which he quotes, at least 25 times. Pitscottie was supplemented by John Pinkerton’s The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary, 2 vols (London, 1797); of its treatment of Flodden Scott notes that Pinkerton alone provides ‘distinct detail . . . all former accounts being full of blunder and inconsistency’ (283.10–11). Pinkerton is also valuable for providing sources, as indicated above. Scott also used George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum historia, history of the affairs of Scotland, published in 1582 (he possessed and quotes from the fifth edition of the translation in 2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1762), and William Drummond’s The History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five James’s (Edinburgh, 1711). For an English perspective on Anglo-Scottish relations at the time of Flodden Scott used Edward Hall’s The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, first published in 1548 and now commonly known as Hall’s Chronicle, which covers the history of England from the usurpation of Henry IV to the death of Henry VIII (see notes to 6.1389 and 282.20–21), and Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, first published in 1577 (see notes to 4.772–73, 224.15–24, 256.8–9). There is also much early history, which, it would seem, Scott used to provide a context of belief within which the political events take place. The cult of Cuthbert was second only to that of St Thomas of Canterbury, and, of course, was much more important than Thomas to the faith in northern England and southern Scotland. For Cuthbert Scott draws on Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, the ecclesiastical history of the English people, completed in 731; the version that Scott may have read was included in a volume entitled Rerum Britannicarum (Lyon, 1587) which he owned. He quotes from Symeon of Durham (died after 1129), and probably used Thomas Bedford’s edition, Symeonis monachi Dunhelmensis libellus de exordio (London, 1732), which was available to him in the Advocates’ Library. On earlier Scottish history he draws on John of Fordun’s Scotichronicon which was absorbed into Walter Bower’s greater work: Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, ed. Walter Goddall, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1759). This too



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is in the Abbotsford library, and it is from this work that Marmion’s heraldic motto is derived: ‘I beer a falcon fairest of flicht; qwha so pinchez at hir his deth is dicht’ (see note to 1.417). The whole is supplemented by Scott’s extraordinary knowledge of popular belief and custom. For instance he quotes from the ‘Essay on the Fairy Superstitions’ in the Minstrelsy, but the passage in question itself draws upon Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia (completed about 1215), which is contained in a volume edited by Leibnitz which Scott possessed (see note to 243.9). This is a process of incorporation, that at once brings the ethos of the ballads into play, and relates them to superstitious belief; it has to be quoted before the modern reader can get a real sense of a world of spirits and so Scott gives it in one of his notes (Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 243–45). He occasionally quotes from ballads, but the most obvious ‘popular’ work within Marmion is The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, in Nine Fits or Parts. It may date from the sixteenth century; Scott knew the seventeenth-century edition, and he possessed two others, both edited by Joseph Benson (London, 1774; Lancaster, 1805). The other work of popular literature whose appearance seems almost incongruous and anachronistic is the Morte d’Arthur. Marmion begins with a discussion of Arthurian romance, and the first notes quote from it at length, but this is not anachronistic when one remembers that Scott is quoting Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, completed by 1470, and printed by William Caxton in 1485. Further, Scott is himself writing a romance, and discussion of the Arthurian metrical romances is directly relevant to both Marmion and Scott. Other Literary Materials. Scott represents the otherness of an earlier period through abundant use of works of history, historical documents, poetry and stories still alive at the time at which the poem is set; and yet the idiom in which the story is narrated is of his own period. Of course there are many archaic words (there are about 600 items in the Glossary), but they provide a patina suggesting the past without making the language obscure. In 1807–08 Scott undertook to finish Joseph Strutt’s romance Queenhoo Hall for the publisher, John Murray. It took place, said Scott much later in the ‘General Preface to the Waverley Novels’ (1829), in the reign of Henry VI, and ‘was written to illustrate the manners, customs and language of the people of England during that period’. He goes on: Queen-Hoo-Hall was not, however, very successful. I thought I was aware of the reason, and supposed that, by rendering his language too ancient, and displaying his antiquarian knowledge too liberally, the ingenious author had raised up an obstacle to his own success. Every work designed for mere amusement must be expressed in language easily comprehended; and when, as is sometimes the case in Queen-Hoo-Hall,

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historical note the author addresses himself exclusively to the Antiquary, he must be content to be dismissed by the general reader with the criticism of Mungo, in the Padlock, on the Mauritanian music, “What signifies me hear, if me no understand?”26

In the ‘General Preface’ Scott applies this view of the appropriate language for a historical novel to writing Waverley which he must have commenced shortly after the publication of Marmion.27 But it also applies to Marmion itself: Scott had had Strutt’s papers since 1806, and dated the continuation of Queenhoo Hall 1  April 1808. Hundreds of phrases in Marmion constitute language that is ‘easily comprehended’, because they have been used before. It is, perhaps, to be expected that Scott would draw upon his other preoccupation, Dryden, whose works he was editing: his eighteen-volume edition appeared in April 1808, and Scott quotes Dryden on thirty-five occasions; in comparison Shakespeare is quoted, or referred to, twenty-nine times. There are twenty-two phrases from Pope, mainly from the translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, some eighteen from Milton, and fifteen from Spenser. As eighteenth-century poets regularly borrowed from their predecessors, and each other, one cannot be sure from where precisely Scott’s borrowings came, but it is most likely to be the major poets themselves. To re-use such material is acknowledgement of, or even homage to, great predecessors. It is also a way of strengthening one’s own poetry: Scott is borrowing from epic to create epic, alluding to and bringing into play poetic and human contexts which critically interplay with what he himself is creating and recreating. What is more surprising is the use of his own contemporaries. Southey and Anna Seward are quoted or evoked on eight occasions each, Burns on seven, and Wordsworth on six; there are four quotations each from Joanna Baillie, Coleridge, and Scott’s Cornish friend, Richard Polwhele. He quotes the imitations more often than the ballads from the Minstrelsy: himself in the continuation of ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ three times, but also Jean Elliot, John Marriott, and Colin Mackenzie. The vivid but bluntly damning phrase ‘red Flodden’ (6.1292) comes from John Leyden’s ‘Ode on Visiting Flodden’ which was published in the Minstrelsy. Other contemporaries include James Hogg, George Canning, George Ellis, Thomas Campbell, Hector Macneill, M. G. Lewis, Ann Radcliffe, William Bowles, and Henry Francis Cary. In all about a hundred books printed and published in the twenty years before Marmion appeared are cited in one way or another in the text of the poems and in the notes. Many of these borrowings are submerged; they do not stand out as quotations. Yet some do, such as ‘The Death of Featherstonhaugh’ which Robert Surtees sent to Scott in a letter dated 8 December 1806 (see Essay on the Text, 288–91; and note to 1.530–35), and ‘The



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Spirit’s Blasted Tree’, by George Warrington which he was asked to include by Ann Hayman, privy-purse to the Princess of Wales, who wrote to Scott on 5 and 16 November 1807 (see Essay on the Text, 314; and see note to 270.31–32). Both incidents cause some disquiet, as the reader inevitably feels that Scott has been put upon. Discussion of Surtees and his contribution has concentrated upon whether Scott knew that he had been deceived. Surtees’s first-ever letter to Scott was sent on 8 December 1806.28 It includes a copy of the ballad, Surtees’s discussion of it which is given at the end of Note XII in Notes to Canto First, 221–22, and the tale of Bulmer in Latin quoted in Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 244–45. He tells Scott that he had the ballad ‘from a person who travels into Alston Moor as an agent for the leadmines there who informs me he took it down by recitation from an old woman mother to one of his workmen whose modesty wd hardly however permit to give the last stanza’. Describing the line of transmission is one way of demonstrating the authenticity of a traditional song, and Scott was impressed with the circumstantial detail. But his response was wary. In his letter of acknowledgement to Surtees he calls the ballad ‘extremely curious’, and not ‘like any Scottish ballad I ever saw’.29 It is also significant that he tidied up Surtees’s poem before including it in Marmion, which is not what he normally did with a ballad. It seems likely, therefore, that Scott doubted its authenticity, although he does not say so in Marmion. The quotations in Latin which purport to come from records in the reign of Henry VIII (222.18–24) should also be treated with suspicion. Surtees provides no source, and no source has been found. The story of Bulmer, which appears at 244.26–245.23, is probably another forgery. Surtees describes its provenance: a quotation from an unnamed manuscript once in the Durham Cathedral Library (‘E libro Convent. Dunhelm.’: from a book in the Abbey of Durham), copied in a seventeenth-century hand on a loose leaf within a book. Surtees has made it impossible for the story to be checked. Certain aspects of the content confirm the suspicion that his Latin story is another fabrication: for instance a delicacy about naming someone who may have been in league with the devil seems more characteristic of the nineteenth century than the middle ages. The editors of the Letters say that ‘Both the ballad and Latin extract were concoctions of Surtees’, but they do not give their reasoning.30 But whether or not Scott had doubts, there is nothing wrong with inserting another author’s imitations into a work that is itself an imitation romance, nor with including an unacknowledged imitation in a ballad collection that included professed imitations. There is no subterfuge about ‘The Spirit’s Blasted Tree’. Ann Hayman, privy-purse to the Princess of Wales, wrote to Scott on 16  November 1807 asking that he incorporate Warrington’s poem.

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He replied that ‘Whatever you admire will I am sure add greatly to the value of the work in which you are pleased to request a place for it’.31 The reader squirms, but there is no reason to doubt his willingness to generate a kind of composite authorship. By accommodating materials from complete outsiders, even when it is the social hierarchy which has led him to do it (see Essay on the Text, 313–14), he demonstrates that the community of students of romance, as is evidenced in the epistles, is open to all who are prepared to participate intellectually and imaginatively. The Epistles. The epistles were not well received when Marmion was published. Francis Jeffrey, the foremost journal critic of the day, complained that there is ‘too much of them about the personal and private feelings and affairs of the author; and too much of the remainder about the most trite common places of politics and poetry’.32 Jeffrey failed completely to understand the function of the epistles. During the years in which Scott was writing Marmion, from 1806–08, Britain was undergoing a period of profound political upheaval and indeed crisis. From the resumption of the war with France in 1803, there was fear of a French invasion. As late as 15  August 1805 the Caledonian Mercury was reporting: The long meditated invasion of this country is, as it is now believed, to be immediately attempted. The preparations of the French for this purpose are immense; and it is reported that Bonaparte was at Boulogne last week to hasten the sailing of his large flotilla. In the mean time, every preparation is making to give them a warm reception, and we have little fear of the result of such an attempt.33

Trafalgar on 21  October 1805 dissipated any sense of an immediate threat to security, but the deaths in quick succession of Nelson, then Pitt, and then Fox certainly left Scott feeling that there was no clear policy and no one capable of dealing with France’s European supremacy. These fears are articulated in the first of the six dedicatory epistles that frame the narrative: Scott laments his ‘country’s wintry state’ and the demise of Nelson, Pitt and Fox, questioning who or what power can come to Britain’s aid against its ‘foes’ in the absence of these great leaders. Thus a very broad parallel can be drawn between 1513 and 1806–08. It is tempting to observe further connections; for instance there is a similarity between the diversionary military strategies adopted by the English forces at the Battle of Flodden and the tactics favoured by Bonaparte several centuries later. The historian Donald M. G. Sutherland writes: The ideal Napoleonic battle was to manipulate the enemy into an unfavourable position through manoeuvre and deception, force him to commit his main forces and reserve to the main battle and then undertake



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an enveloping attack with uncommitted or reserve troops on the flank or rear.34

This recalls the way in which Surrey’s forces outflanked the Scots in 1513, blocking any means of retreat back to Scotland by circumventing Flodden Hill and establishing a position of strength behind James IV’s army. Marmion’s structure, weaving together the contemporary political events of Scott’s day with those of the sixteenth century, at least invites the reader to search for such analogies. But the real purpose of the epistles is to allow Scott to engage in selfexploration through imaginary conversations with six of his closest friends and scholarly colleagues: who is he, why is he interested in the past? He develops a theme of decay, degeneration and loss, exuding a sense of backwards longing for previous ages, but really they are about himself. Jeffrey noticed this and complained that there was too much of the ‘personal and private feelings and affairs of the author’, but questions about the intellectual personality of the historian are crucial in understanding works of history. Scott is the first writer to articulate clearly the problem of the historian’s double vision: the historian is in the present, writing for the present, and yet wishes to create and to understand the otherness of the past. These are brilliant poems, every bit as insightful about the operation of the perceiving intelligence as Coleridge’s conversation poems. Marmion is an exciting read; but it is made truly significant by Scott’s epistles to his friends in which he tries to explore the mind and sensibility of Scott the poet and historian. no tes   1 Norman Macdougall, James IV (East Linton, 1997; first published 1989), 248–64. This work provides the best analysis of the political context of Flodden.   2 See Macdougall, 223–46.  3 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. S. Brewer, 2nd edn rev. R. H. Brodie (London, 1920), Vol. 1, Part 1, 4 (item 5 ii). See also Macdougall, 257.  4 Letters and Papers . . . of Henry VIII, Vol. 1, Part 2, 942 (item 2056).   5 Clive Hallam-Baker, The Battle of Flodden: Why and How ([Branxton, Northumberland, 2012]), 10–11.   6 See Macdougall, Chapters 9 and 10.   7 ‘Instructions to Master James Ogilvy by Louis XII. Blois, 8th May 1513’, in Flodden Papers: diplomatic correspondence between the courts of France and Scotland, 1507–1517, ed. Marguerite Wood (Edinburgh, 1933), 79. The summary in English of this letter is on 79–80, the French text 80–83. Macdougall notes that the claim about James being declared heir was untrue and Louis XII was likely to have known it, but was happy to accept James IV’s commitment to war: Macdougall, 259.   8 Edward Hall, Hall’s Chronicle; containing the History of England, [ed. Henry Ellis] (London, 1809), 545, ALC. The contractions in the text have been expanded. The

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work was originally published as The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (London, 1548).   9 R. L. Mackie, King James IV of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1958), 247. 10 Hall, 555. 11 Original Letters illustrative of English History, ed. Henry Ellis, 3 vols (London, 1824), 1.86. 12 Hallam-Barker, 46–47. 13 For an account of the actual battle see Mackie, 246–69. 14 George Goodwin, Fatal Rivalry: Flodden 1513 (London, 2014), 196. 15 For example, Katie Stevenson and Gordon Pentland, ‘The Battle of Flodden and its Commemoration, 1513–2013’, in England and Scotland at War, c. 1296–c. 1513, ed. Andy King and David Simpkin (Leiden, 2012), 357. See also Macdougall, 280, note 124. 16 Goodwin, 163. 17 George Buchanan, The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 2.139; Stevenson and Pentland, 367. 18 Letters and Papers . . . of Henry VIII, Vol. 1, Part 2, 1020–21 (item 2283). 19 Macdougall, 276. 20 Letters and Papers . . . of Henry VIII, Vol. 1, Part 2, 1020–21 (item 2283). 21 Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, The History of Scotland, from February 21. 1436, to March 1565, 3rd edn (Edinburgh, 1778), 182–84. 22 Macdougall, 247. 23 Hall, 564. 24 Pitscottie, 176. 25 Hereafter Ensue the Trewe Encountre or . . . Batayle lately don betwene Englande and Scotlande (London, [1513]). This work was republished by David Laing, in ‘A Contemporary Account of the Battle of Flodden’, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 7 (1866–67), 141–52. 26 Walter Scott, Introductions and Notes from the Magnum Opus: Waverley to A Legend of the Wars of Montrose, ed. J. H. Alexander et al., eewn 25a (Edinburgh, 2012), 13. 27 Walter Scott, Waverley, ed. P. D. Garside, eewn 1 (Edinburgh, 2007), 373–74. 28 NLS ms 870, ff. 6r–7v. 29 The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J. C. Grierson and others, 12 vols (London, 1932–37), 1.342; Scott to Surtees, 17 December 1806. 30 Letters, 1.341n. 31 Letters, 1.392–93; Scott to Hayman, 10 November 1807. 32 Edinburgh Review, 12 (April 1808), 35. 33 Caledonian Mercury, 15 August 1805, 1, column 1. 34 Donald M. G. Sutherland, The French Revolution and Empire: the Quest for a Civic Order (Oxford, 2003), 356.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

In these notes a comprehensive attempt is made to identify places, historical events, and people, Scott’s sources, and all quotations and references; to explain proverbs; and to translate difficult or obscure language (phrases are explained in the notes while single words are treated in the glossary). The notes are brief; they offer information rather than critical comment or exposition. Historic personages are simply identified; most have an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography where fuller information can be found. Authors are identified by name and dates, but the dates are omitted for those whom Scott quotes often, such as Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope. References are to standard editions, or to the editions Scott himself used. Proverbs are identified by reference to The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3rd edn, rev. F. P. Wilson. Biblical references are to the Authorised (King James) Version. Plays by Shakespeare are cited without authorial ascription, and references are to The Oxford Shakespeare: the Complete Works, 2nd edn, ed. John Jowett, William Montgomery, Gary Taylor, and Stanley Wells (Oxford, 2005). When quotations reproduce their sources accurately, the reference is given without comment. Verbal differences in the source are indicated by a prefatory ‘see’, while a general rather than a verbal indebtedness is indicated by ‘compare’. However, in the epistles which preface each of the cantos of Marmion Scott often draws upon the common stock of eighteenth-century poetic language. Such phrases are annotated wherever possible by indicating their origins, but sometimes a poetic phrase is found frequently in eighteenth-century literature. Where appropriate this is indicated, and this pointer will allow the reader to differentiate between poetic idiom and Scott’s own invention. Scott annotated his own poem, and his notes are registered in these Explanatory Notes by, for example, ‘see Note X in Notes to Canto First, 218–19’. Books in the Abbotsford Library are identified by ‘ALC’ which refers to the electronic catalogue which is part of the catalogue of the Advocates’ Library; ‘see ALC’ indicates that Scott possessed an edition of the relevant work, but not the one cited in the note. The letters ‘ALC’ are not used of the works of Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton, nor of Scott’s own writings and edited works. The following shortened forms of reference are used: ALC  Abbotsford Library Catalogue, which is part of the online catalogue of the Advocates’ Library. The Canterbury Tales  Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, in The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn, ed. Larry D. Benson (Oxford, 1988); see ALC. EEWN  The Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, 30 vols (Edinburgh, 1993–2012). The Faerie Queene  Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Bks 1–3 (London, 1590). Letters  The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H. J. C. Grierson and others, 12 vols (London, 1932–37).

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Life  J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 7 vols (Edinburgh, 1837–38). Minstrelsy  Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ed. Walter Scott, 2 vols (Kelso, 1802). ODEP  The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3rd edn, rev. F. P. Wilson (Oxford, 1970). OED  The Oxford English Dictionary, online edition, Oxford University Press. Pinkerton  The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary, 2 vols (London, 1797), ALC. Pitscottie  Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, The History of Scotland, from February 21. 1436, to March 1565, 3rd edn (Edinburgh, 1778), ALC. Poetical Works  The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., [ed. J. G. Lockhart], 12 vols (Edinburgh, 1833–34). Prose Works  The Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., 28 vols (Edinburgh, 1834–36). Scott’s Dryden  The Works of John Dryden, ed. Walter Scott, 18 vols (London, 1808). Half-title  Marmion  in Note X in Notes to Canto First, Scott says ‘Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage’ (218.8–9). He may have been attracted by the absence of definite association; compare ‘Waverley, an uncontaminated name, bearing with its sound little of good or evil’ (Waverley, ed. P. D. Garside, eewn 1 (Edinburgh, 2007), 3). But he was prompted by history as the note makes clear: in 1066 the hereditary office of king’s champion was conferred by William I of England on a Robert Marmion, and, descending by the female line, transferred to the family of Dymoke in 1377. The role, which was purely ceremonial, survived until the 19th century and required the champion to represent the king at his coronation should anyone challenge his title to the throne. Scott describes this coronation ritual in Redgauntlet, ed. G. A. M. Wood with David Hewitt, eewn 17 (Edinburgh and New York, 1997), 307. Half-title Romance  a ‘military fable of the middle ages; a tale of wild adventures in war and love’: Samuel Johnson (1709–84), A Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols, 6th edn (London, 1785), ALC. Romance was also the characteristic ‘adventure’ story of the early 16th century, of which Orlando furioso (1516–32) by Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533) is the supreme example; Scott’s descriptive subtitle advertises that the poem is ‘in period’. Title-page  Flodden Field  the battle fought near Branxton in Northumberland on 9 September 1513 between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. The Scots were heavily defeated and James IV, King of Scots (1473–1513; king from 1488), was killed. This was not a new subject for poetry: Scott possessed two editions of The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, in Nine Fits or Parts (London, 1774; Lancaster, 1805), both edited by Joseph Benson. In 1808 Scott’s amanuensis and assistant Henry Weber (1783–1818) published an edition of The Battle of Floddon Field; . . . A Poem of the Sixteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1808), ALC, including some of the historical sources for Marmion. Weber was probably encouraged by Scott, thus initiating a practice repeated on other occasions. Title-page  Alas! . . . foes to tell  John Leyden, ‘Ode on Visiting Flodden’, in Minstrelsy, 1.254. Scott first met Leyden (1775−1811) in 1799; they became firm friends. Leyden, from Denholm in the Scottish Borders, contributed original poems to the first edition of the Minstrelsy and collected others. He



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was a formidable linguist and after going to India as a doctor in 1803 acquired many native languages. Dedication  Lord Montagu  Henry James Montagu Scott (1776−1845), 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton. He was the third son of the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, and was brother to Scott’s friend Charles William Henry Montagu Scott (1774–1819), then Earl of Dalkeith and later 4th Duke of Buccleuch, to whom The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) had been dedicated. Advertisement  degree of applause . . . second intrusion  Scott had achieved considerable poetic fame as the author of The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805). Advertisement  manners of the Age . . . Romantic Tale  Scott says that his subject, a description of the typical modes of behaviour in the period, is inferior to history writing and the epic. Hugh Blair (1718–1800), first Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh, calls history ‘a record of truth’, and writes ‘Of all poetical works, the epic poem is allowed to be the most dignified’: Essays on Rhetoric, 2nd edn (London, 1785), 369, 430. Canto 1 heading  William Stewart Rose  (1775–1843) poet, translator, MP. His free translation of the first three books of Amadis de Gaul (a 14th-century romance of Portuguese or Spanish origin, first published in 1508 by Garci Roderiguez de Montalvo) from the 15th-century French version by Herberay des Essarts, was published in 1803. According to Lockhart Scott probably first met Rose in London in April 1803 (Life, 1.373) through other medievalists such as the bibliophile Richard Heber (1774–1833; see note to Canto 6 heading) and George Ellis (1753–1815; see note to Canto 5 heading). Canto 1 heading  Ashestiel  Ashestiel House, situated on the S bank of the Tweed about 6 km (4 miles) W of Galashiels. It was leased 1804–12 by Scott from his cousin James Russell. Canto 1 heading  Ettricke Forest  from 1455 to about 1550 a royal forest (an area set aside for the hunting of game) in the Scottish Borders. It was a large area of moorland, encompassing the valleys of Ettrick and Yarrow, roughly the same as what was later called Selkirkshire. It was then covered in trees and scrub, but much of this was cleared in the 16th and 17th centuries as agriculture expanded and sheep were introduced. Scott’s home at Ashestiel was within the ancient forest. See also Note I in Notes to Canto Second, 227–30. 1.1  November’s sky  this implies that Scott began writing the epistle in November 1806: see ‘Essay on the Text’, 287–88. 1.1  chill and drear  [Richard Cumberland] (1732–1811), The Observer, 5 vols (London, 1786–90), 5.5. 1.3  linn  the ravine E of Ashestiel House. A fine representation viewed from the N over the Tweed (see note to 1.14) is to be found on the title page of Marmion in Poetical Works, Vol. 7. The engraving by J. Horsburgh (1791–1869) is after the picture by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). 1.10  Through bush and brier  a common collocation, deriving from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2.1.3: ‘Thorough bush, thorough brier’. 1.12  wild cascade  R[ichard] P[ayne] Knight (1751–1824), The Landscape, A Didactic Poem (London, 1794), 29 (Bk 2, line 127): ‘rich Tibur’s broken, wild cascade’; Mary Robinson (1758–1800), The False Friend, 4 vols (London, 1799), 1.169: ‘where the wild cascade rushes from the over-arching cliff, and roars in a rapid river’. 1.14 Tweed the River Tweed, the principal river of the Scottish Borders. It flows from W to E for 156 km (97 miles) and in the E forms part of the border between Scotland and England.

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1.18  purple gleam  Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho, 4 vols (London, 1794), 4.72; see ALC. 1.20  Needpath-fell  Neidpath Hill, about 3 km (2 miles) E of Ashestiel. See next note. 1.22  sister-heights of Yair  Yair Hill, immediately SE of Ashestiel. After passing Ashestiel the Tweed turns to flow roughly N–S; Neidpath Hill is on the E side of the river, while Yair Hill is on the W. Both are visible from the house. 1.23  pinching heaven  severe weather, harsh and biting wind and rain: see OED, pinching, adj. 2a. 1.30  Glenkinnon’s rill  the Glenkinnon Burn; it runs down the NW side of Yair Forest which now covers Yair Hill. 1.31  shifts his mantle’s fold  compare John Milton, ‘Lycidas’ (1637), line 192, where the swain ‘twitch’d his mantle blue’. 1.37  My imps  Scott’s four children: Charlotte Sophia, born 1799; Walter, born 1801; Anne, born 1803; and Charles, born 1805. 1.46  summer bower  James Beattie (1735–1803), The Minstrel, 2.38, in his The Minstrel, or The Progress of Genius. With Some Other Poems (Edinburgh, 1807; first published 1771–72), 89, ALC. 1.55  genial call  Oliver Goldsmith (1728?–74), An History of the Earth, 8 vols (London, 1774), 7.26; and John Langhorne (1735–79), ‘Fable I. The Sunflower and the Ivy’, The Fables of Flora (London, 1771), 12. 1.57  my country’s wintry state  when composing this epistle November to January 1806–07 Scott felt despairing about political prospects, William Pitt the Prime Minister having died (see note to 1.68) and his successors lacking any strategy or sense of direction when dealing with continental Europe dominated by France under Napoleon. 1. 63  The vernal sun  James Beattie (1735–1803), ‘The Triumph of Melancholy’, line 31, Original Poems and Translations (Aberdeen, 1761), 26; see ALC. 1.64  the meanest flower that blows  William Wordsworth (1770–1850), ‘Ode [Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood]’, line 205. The ‘Ode’ was probably finished in March 1804, and so Wordsworth was not quoting Scott. It first appeared in Poems, in Two Volumes (London, 1807), 2.147–58, ALC, in May 1807, but Scott is not quoting from Wordsworth’s published collection as he finished the Introduction to Canto First in January 1807. It is possible that Wordsworth either showed or read his poem to Scott during the latter’s visit to Cumberland in 1805. 1.66  Nelson’s shrine  in St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1758–1805) was an outstanding naval commander and became a national hero following a succession of victories over the French navy and their allies, culminating in the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805), during which he was killed. 1.67  solemn gloom  James Thomson (1700–48), Alfred: A Masque (London, 1740), 17 (Act 1, Scene 5), ALC; Henry Fielding (1707–54), The History of Tom Jones (1749), Bk 8, Ch. 10; see ALC. The phrase became very common in late 18th-century literature. 1.68  Pitt  William Pitt, known as the Younger (1759−1806). He was Prime Minister from 1783−1801 and again from 1804 until his death in 1806. (Being Prime Minister at the age of 24 is why he is called ‘early wise’ at 1.84.) He wished to lead a reforming administration and in the 1780s achieved many fiscal improvements, although failing to get Parliament to accept his proposals to reform the Commons; but after the onset of the Revolutionary War in 1793 he introduced repressive legislation to counter internal subversion. Pitt



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was initially unprepared for war, but, in spite of Napoleon’s domination of continental Europe, at the time of his death he was assured that the threat of invasion had been defeated. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. 1.68  hallowed tomb  George Lyttelton (1709–73), ‘To the Memory of a Lady Recently Deceased’, also called ‘To the Memory of the Same Lady. A Monody. A. D. 1747’, in The Works of George Lord Lyttelton, 3rd edn, 3 vols (London, 1776), 3:151, ALC. The phrase was reused later in the 18th century in works read by Scott: e.g. Henry James Pye (1745–1813), Alfred. A Poem (London, 1801), 112 (Bk 5, line 176). 1.69  Deep graved  William Mason (1725–97), Elfrida, in Poems, 5th edn (York, 1779), 153, ALC. 1.72  Gadite wave  the sea off Gades (the Latin name for Cadiz) in SW Spain; the Battle of Trafalgar was fought in these waters. 1.73  burning levin  see Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Bk 7 (published 1609), 7.6.30: ‘burning levin-brond’ (levin means ‘lightning’). 1.74  resistless course  Anna Seward (1747–1809), Louisa, A Poetical Novel, 5th edn (London, 1792), 15. 1.80  Who bade the conqueror go forth  referring to Pitt: see note to 1.68. 1.81  thunderbolt of war  a phrase first used in the Elizabethan period, and found more frequently in the early 18th century. Scott would have read it in John Dryden, ‘The Latter Part of the Third Book of Lucretius’, line 249 (Scott’s Dryden, 12.324); and in Alexander Pope’s translation of The Iliad (1715–20), 20.288; see ALC. 1.82  Egypt, Hafnia, Trafalgar  British naval victories over the French and their allies during the wars against France. At the battles of the Nile or Aboukir Bay (1−3 August 1798), of Copenhagen (2 April 1801) the Latin name of which is Hafnia, and Trafalgar (21 October 1805) the British fleets were commanded by Nelson. 1.83  high emprize  Torquato Tasso (1544–95), Gerusalemme liberata (1581), translated as Geoffrey of Boulogne, or The Recouerie of Jerusalem, trans. Edward Fairfax (London, 1600), 17.20; see ALC. 1.84  early wise  see note on Pitt at 1.68. 1.88  the pride of power  John Langhorne (1735–79), ‘To George Colman, Esq.’, prefixed to The Correspondence of Theodosius and Constantia (London, 1765), iv. 1.89  Spurned at the sordid lust of pelf  in its original sense pelf means ‘stolen goods’; later it came to mean ‘wealth’ especially if that wealth corrupts. Pitt was well known for his probity: in a letter of 12 February 1806 after Pitt’s death William Wilberforce wrote: ‘for personal purity, disinterestedness, integrity, and love of his country, I have never known his equal’: Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Samuel Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, 5 vols (London, 1838), 3.250. The expression ‘lust of pelf’ is found in William Somervile (1675–1742), ‘Fable XIV. The Fortune-Hunter’ (1727), 3.29; ‘sordid lust’ is common in poetry before Scott. 1.90 Albion  the whole island of Britain (although it was later used to designate England alone). The name, derived from a Latin source, may have a Celtic root. 1.91–92  when the frantic crowd . . . bursting rein  probably referring to the enthusiasm with which the ideas of the French Revolution were initially received in Britain: e.g. it is estimated that over one million of Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man (in two parts, London, 1791–92) were sold. However, extra-parliamentary societies such as the London Corresponding Society, the London Constitutional Society, and the umbrella organisation the Friends of

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explanatory notes

the People were eventually suppressed by the suspension of Habeas Corpus (see note to 1.96) in 1794 and again in 1795, by the arrest of the leaders of the societies on charges of sedition, and by a series of acts passed between 1794 and 1796 restricting the right to hold meetings and to speak freely. Bills to increase recruitment to the army and navy, and to set up volunteer forces, were passed in 1794, 1795, and 1796, and, as the fear of invasion from France intensified, patriotic zeal gradually submerged the movement for political reform. The phrase ‘the frantic crowd’ is found in John Thelwall (1764–1834), The Peripatetic, 3 vols (London, 1793), 2.9. 1.93  wild mood  John Fletcher (1579–1625), Women Pleas’d (published 1647), 2.6.145; see ALC. 1.95  fierce zeal  a common phrase in 18th-century literature, but used mainly in a religious context where it implies excessive commitment to a religious cause. 1.95–96  worthier cause . . . freeman’s laws  the worthier cause is that of liberty. In the 18th century ‘liberty’ was considered part of British identity: see e.g. James Thomson (1700–48), Liberty: A Poem, Part 4 (1736). It is a loose concept, with a content that varies according to context, but is certainly related to ‘An Act for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject’, which was passed by the Parliament of England in 1679 (31 Cha. 2, c. 2), often called the ‘habeas corpus’ act as it was supposed to protect the citizen against arbitrary arrest, unlike the situation in France where arrest by decree was possible. Scott’s use of the word ‘freedom’ in this slogan may reflect a Scottish tradition; the Declaration of Arbroath (1320) states ‘It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, that we are fighting, but for freedom—for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself’. 1.97  though stripp’d of power  Scott says that even if Pitt had been out of office he would still have had the moral power to tell his country about how things were. 1.98  A watchman on the lonely tower  see Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), Ethwald, Part 1, Act 5, Scene 2: ‘The midnight watcher, in his lonely tower’, in A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London, 1802), 2.221, ALC. Compare Isaiah 21.6–11 where the watchman stands ‘continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and . . . whole nights’, before prophesying the fall of Babylon, and John Milton, ‘Il Penseroso’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), lines 85–88: ‘Or let my lamp at midnight hour/ Be seen in some high lonely tow’r,/ Where I may oft outwatch the Bear’. 1.101 beacon-light lighthouse, or the light warning of invasion on the top of prominent hills. 1.102  Our pilots had kept course aright  compare ‘Song.——George Canning’, in English Minstrelsy, [ed. Walter Scott], 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1810), 2.199–201. The song was first sung in 1802 at a dinner to celebrate Pitt’s birthday after his resignation as Prime Minister in 1801. The phrase ‘the pilot that weather’d the storm’ came to be applied frequently to Pitt in the period; see Essay on the Text, 310. See also note to 1.111. Scott first met Canning (1770–1827) in February 1806. 1.103–05  proud column . . . stately column broke  in freemasonry a symbol of a life cut short or of the death of a chief supporter: Scott was a mason. In the Bible the pillars of the Temple of Solomon literally support the whole edifice, and metaphorically represent the teachers who proclaim the truth (e.g. see Jeremiah 1.18; Galatians 2.9; and Revelation 3.12). 1.104  tottering throne  James Thomson (1700–48), Alfred: A Masque



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(London, 1740), 33 (Act 2, Scene 3), ALC; and Tancred and Sigismunda (London, 1745), 63 (Act 4, Scene 5), ALC. Scott had previously used the phrase in 1806 in his comparative review of the romances edited by George Ellis and Joseph Ritson when he writes of the hero of romance ‘supporting the tottering throne of a lawful monarch’: Prose Works, 17.46. 1.107  trumpet’s silver sound  John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Bk 3, line 85 in Fables Ancient and Modern (1700); Scott’s Dryden, 11.294. Thereafter the phrase was used quite often in 18th-century poetry. 1.108  warder silent  since Saxon times watchmen had been set on hills stretching northwards from the south coast ready to light beacons so that a chain of visible fires would bring news of any invasion; the system was reinvented during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars as a means of warning of French invasion. 1. 110  death, just hovering  Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), The Observer, 2nd edn (London, 1787), 230 (No 84). 1.111  Palinure’s unaltered mood  Palinurus, traditionally considered the model of trustworthy helmsmen. He steers Aeneas’s boat in Virgil’s Aeneid (29–19 bc), and leads the fleet on leaving Sicily. Dryden’s translation of The Aeneid, 5.833–34, reads: ‘Ahead of all the master pilot steers;/ And, as he leads, the following navy veers’. When attacked by the god of sleep (852–53) ‘his fastened hands the rudder keep,/ And, fixed on heaven, his eyes repel invading sleep’; Scott’s Dryden, 14.386. See also note to 1.102. 1.118  unpolluted church  compare John Milton, Comus (performed 1634, published 1637), line 461: ‘The unpolluted temple of the mind’. Scott is probably asserting the superiority of British Protestantism to the Catholicism of France. 1.120  bloody tocsin’s maddening sound  the Parisian alarm signal, consisting of a bell or bells, used to summon the populace into the streets. The tocsin sounded at midnight on 10 August 1792, and the attack on the Tuileries, heralding the Revolution, the Terror, and the end of the Bourbon monarchy, began on that day. 1.121  the hallowed day Sunday. 1.126  the generous sigh  Richard Polwhele (1760–1838), ‘The British Orator’, in Poems, 3 vols (London, 1806), 1.73 (Bk 2, line 542), ALC. 1.127  slumbers nigh  Pitt and Fox are buried near each other in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey in London. 1.129 Fox  Charles James Fox (1749−1806), Whig statesman and leader of the opposition to Pitt in the House of Commons. He supported the American War of Independence (he was in correspondence with Washington), and was seen as an apologist for France during the Revolutionary War (1793–1802). He became Foreign Secretary in the grand coalition that followed Pitt’s death, but found that it was not possible to make peace with France. He died about eight months after Pitt. 1.130–31  For talents mourn . . . wanted most  these lines were added in a cancel in the first edition. Scott’s letter to Lady Abercorn of 19 September 1807 (Letters, 1.385) indicates that they were supplied by Lord Abercorn. 1.130  untimely lost  Arthur Murphy (1727–1805), Zenobia. A Tragedy (London, 1768), 34. 1.132  genius high  very common in 18th-century poetry. 1.132  lore profound  William Mason (1725–97), Caractacus, a Dramatic Poem (London, 1759), 30, ALC. See also note to 5.57. 1.142 Here  i.e. in Westminster Abbey. 1.149  All peace on earth, good-will to men  see Luke 2.14.

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1.153  Fox a Briton died  i.e. he gave up his Francophile position when he found it was not possible to make peace with Napoleon. See note to 1.129. 1.155 Austria  the Austrian Empire, created in 1804 as direct response to Napoleon being crowned Emperor of France in that year. In April 1805 it entered the Third Coalition against France; it was decisively defeated by Napoleon at the Battles of Ulm (20 October 1805) and Austerlitz (2 December 1805). In the subsequent treaty of Pressburg (now called Bratislava) signed on 26 December Austria withdrew from the Coalition against France. 1.155 Prussia Kingdom of Prussia 1701–1918, centred on its capital, Berlin; it included what is now the eastern part of Germany as well as parts of modern Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. Under Frederick William III (1770–1840; reigned from 1797), Prussia was originally an ally of France, but turned against the French Empire and was catastrophically defeated at the Battle of Jena (14 October 1806). Scott wrote the Introduction to Canto First between November 1806 and January 1807. 1.156–57  firm Russian’s purpose . . . timorous slave  the ‘firm Russian’ may refer to Russia, which joined Britain and Sweden in the Third Coalition against France in April 1805, or to Emperor Alexander I (1777–1825; Tsar from 1801). In the autumn of 1806 the Russian and Austrian armies joined forces and were defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805), probably Napoleon’s greatest victory. Austria made peace with France (see note to 1.155); Russia did not do so. The Tsar’s envoy in Paris, Peter Yakovlevich Ubri (1775–1847), agreed on the wording of an ‘eternal peace and friendship’ treaty with France on 20 July 1806, but that treaty was never ratified by Alexander, something that Scott probably did not know at the time of writing. Thus Ubri is likely to be the ‘timorous slave’ (a phrase common in 18th-century poetry). 1.159  The sullied olive-branch  the terms on which Napoleon was prepared to offer peace with the United Kingdom. See note to 1.129. 1.161  nailed her colours to the mast  refused to surrender. Scott probably refers to the real practice of nailing a flag to the mast of a ship during battle; an inability to fly the flag could be interpreted as a signal of surrender (see OED, nail, P1); but he may also have in mind the sense that later become proverbial (see ODEP, 553), meaning Fox committed Britain irrevocably to a course of action. This is the first recorded literary use of the phrase. 1.170  fabled Gods  Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), Prince Arthur, 4th revised edn (London, 1714), 146 (Bk 5); see ALC. The phrase is used occasionally in later poetry. 1.170  mighty war  James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Spring’, line 62, in The Seasons, quarto edn (London, 1730), 4; see ALC. 1.176–79  Spells . . . Thessalian cave . . . from the sky  ancient Thessaly, in NE Greece, regarded as pre-eminent for magicians. In the comic context of the Metamorphoses (commonly known as ‘The Golden Ass’) of Lucius Apuleius (2nd century ad), the hero Lucius tells us ‘I was in the heart of Thessaly, the home of those magic arts whose powerful spells are praised throughout the world’ (Bk 2.1), and that his landlady had ‘divine powers to lower the sky, and halt the globe, make fountains stone, and melt the mountains’ (Bk 1.8). 1.181  The wine of life is on the lees  the good wine has gone, and only the dregs remain: see Macbeth, 2.3.94–95: ‘The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees/ Is left this vault to brag of’.



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1.188  mournful requiem  John Thelwall (1764–1834), ‘The Tears of the Genii on the Death of Jonan Hanway, Esq.’, in Poems on Various Subjects, 2 vols (London, 1787), 2.197 (line 168). 1.189  notes rebound  John Dryden, Æneis, 8.407; Scott’s Dryden, 15.13. Thereafter the phrase appears quite frequently in minor poems of the 18th century. 1.190  solemn echo  James Boswell (1740–95), The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London, 1785), 59: ‘As we walked in the cloisters, there was a solemn echo, while he [Johnson] talked loud of a proper retirement from the world’. 1.196  ardent Spirits  a very common phrase in 18th-century literature, but usually with reference to alcoholic drink. 1.197  dying Nature  Isaac Watts (1674–1748), Psalm 112, in The Psalms of David, (London, 1719), 294: ‘When dying Nature sleeps in Dust’ (verse 3). The phrase was well known in Scott’s era because of the use of Watts in worship. 1.199  The leaden silence of your hearse leaden hearses (coffins) were used for burial in church vaults. 1.201  tributary strain  lines written in tribute: Samuel Boyse (1708–49), ‘To the Same’, in Translations and Poems (Edinburgh 1731), 66. The phrase occasionally appears in later works by minor poets. 1.203  Border Minstrel  Scott himself; his first major publication was as the editor of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802), and it is easy to identify him with the nominal narrator of his first long poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805). 1.204 Gothic harp  the minstrel was usually imaged as a harper, and the term ‘Gothic’ suggests that his mode of poetry is medieval in origin. The phrase is found in A[ndrew] M‘Donald (1757–90), ‘Probationary Odes for the Laureatship. Number IX’, in Miscellaneous Works (London, 1791), 95 (line 6), ALC. This poem is nominally written by James Beattie (1735–1803), author of The Minstrel, which is why M‘Donald talks of the ‘gothic harp’: for in stanza 60 of Bk 1 of The Minstrel (stanza 62 in the 1st edn) the speaker talks of his ‘gothic lyre’, and again in stanza 3 of Bk 2. 1.205  The bard you deigned to praise  Lockhart reports: ‘Pitt’s praise [for The Lay of the Last Minstrel], as expressed to his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, . . . was repeated by her to Mr William Stewart Rose, who, of course, communicated it forthwith to the author’ (Life, 2.34). In his letter of 26 May 1805 to George Ellis, Scott writes: ‘I have had a flattering assurance of Mr. Fox’s approbation’ (Letters, 1.253). 1.205  deathless names  James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Liberty’, in The Works of Mr. Thomson, 2 vols (London, 1736), 2.16 (line 229); see ALC. 1.206  Stay yet, Illusion see Hamlet, 1.1.108. 1.207  wildered fancy  James Beattie (1735–1803), ‘Retirement. An Ode’, line 14, Original Poems and Translations (Aberdeen, 1761), 12; see ALC. 1.208  high theme  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616), The History of the Renowned Don Quixote De la Mancha, 4 vols (London, 1703), 3.161 (Part 2, Ch. 15); the phrase was very common in later literature. 1.222  Gothic arch  the pointed arch of medieval churches. 1.227  bleak and brown  George Colman the younger (1762–1836), The Mountaineers; a Play, in Three Acts (London, 1794), 47. 1.229  frolic child  compare John Milton, ‘L’Allegro’ (written c. 1631; published 1645), line 18: ‘The frolic wind that breathes the spring’. 1.232–50  Prompt . . . refined  compare John Milton, ‘Lycidas’ (1638),

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lines 65–74. The phrase ‘unequal tasks’ means tasks to which his strength was unequal. 1.235  the solitary day  John Gay (1685–1732), The Fan (London, 1714), 29 (line 140), see ALC; James Beattie (1735–1803), ‘The Hares: a Fable’, line 144, in Original Poems and Translations (Aberdeen, 1761), 59, see ALC; John Langhorne (1735–79), ‘The Wallflower’, line 4, in The Fables of Flora (London, 1771), 41. Gay’s poems were reprinted so frequently that the phrase would have been well known. 1.238–42  Or idly list . . . uneven dale  see Jane Elliot (1727–1805), ‘The Flowers of the Forest’, lines 1–2, in Minstrelsy, 2.158. 1.254  poet’s bosom  William Mason (1725–97), ‘Elegy I’, line 26, in Poems by William Mason (London, 1764), 52; see ALC. The piece was much anthologised in the 18th century. 1.255–56  on the ancient minstrel strain . . . palsied hand  Scott echoes the opinions of Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86) in his The Defence of Poesie (1595), and Joseph Addison (1672–1719) in The Spectator, 70 (21 May 1712). 1.256  palsied hand  common in literature of the 1790s. 1.257  doughty deeds  from the 15th century onwards a phrase used by Scottish writers, e.g. Hary (c. 1440–c. 1492), author of The Wallace. 1.258  steely weeds  literally steel clothing, i.e. armour. 1.260–64  As when the Champion of the Lake . . . unburied corse  see Note I in Notes to Canto First, 209–10. 1.260  Champion of the Lake  Sir Launcelot du Lac, in Arthurian Legend a knight of the Round Table, and its greatest champion. He features in many medieval romances and romance cycles. The fellowship of the Round Table was instituted by King Arthur; its 100 knights shared a common purpose, and, being seated at a round table, were equal in status. 1.261  Morgana’s fated house  in ‘Sir Launcelot du Lac’, in Thomas Malory (d. 1471), Le Morte Darthur (completed by 1470; printed and published by William Caxton, 1485), Bk 6, Ch. 3, Morgan le Fay, a powerful sorceress and Arthur’s half-sister, enchants Launcelot and takes him to her castle. When he wakes he has to choose which of four queens is to be his paramour, but he rejects them all. See Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 1.256–58 (Bk 6, Ch. 3). 1.262  the Chapel Perilous  see ‘Sir Launcelot du Lac’, in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 1.280–81 (Bk 6, Ch. 15), where the sorceress Hallewes unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Sir Launcelot, but he remains loyal to Guinevere. See also Note I in Notes to Canto First, 209–10, where Scott quotes part of the story. 1.265  Dame Ganore  an alternative name for Queen Guinevere. 1.267−68  Tarquin . . . sixty knights  see ‘Sir Launcelot du Lac’, in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 1.262–67 (Bk 6, Chs 7–9). Sir Lancelot meets a lady who urges him to free sixty-four knights of the Round Table imprisoned by Tarquin. Lancelot fights and kills him, and the prisoners are released. See also the ballad of ‘Sir Lancelot du Lake’, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Thomas Percy, 4th edn, 3 vols (London, 1794), 1.214–19, ALC. 1.269–72  A sinful man . . . waking eye  see Note II in Notes to Canto First, 210–12. 1.270  the Sangreal’s holy quest  see ‘The Tale of the Sankgreal’, in



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Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 2.892–94 (Bk 13, Ch. 17). See also Note II in Notes to Canto First, 210–12, where Scott quotes part of the story. The Sangreal is the Holy Grail, the cup supposedly used by Christ at the Last Supper, and preserved by Joseph of Arimathea; finding the Grail was an important objective for the knights of the Round Table but, as it vanished when approached by anyone of less than perfect purity, only Sir Perceval won a sight of it. 1.275  Spenser’s elfin dream  in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Bks 1–3, 1590; Bks 4–6, 1596), the knight Prince Arthur who is the perfection of all virtues has a vision of the Faerie Queene who signifies glory and in particular Queen Elizabeth I of England. The term ‘elfin’ is alternative to ‘fairy’. 1.276  Milton’s heavenly theme  in his Latin poem ‘Mansus’ (1638), lines 80–84, John Milton talks of the possibility of writing a British epic: ‘if ever I shall call back into verse our native kings, and Arthur waging his wars even under the earth, or shall tell of the great-hearted heroes united in the invincible fellowship of the table; and—if only inspiration be with me—I shall break the Saxon battalions under British arms’ (Milton: Poetical Works, ed. Douglas Bush (Oxford, 1966), 154). In Paradise Lost (1667; rev. 1674) Satan’s followers surpass many heroes including ‘what resounds/ In fable or romance of Uther’s son/ Begirt with British and Armoric knights’ (1.579–81); Uther’s son was Arthur and Armoric means ‘Breton’. In Paradise Regained (1671) Satan tempts Jesus with a meal where the attendants seemed ‘Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since/ Of fairy damsels met in forest wide/ By knights of Logres, or of Lyonnesse,/ Lancelot or Pelleas, or Pellenore’ (2.358–61). 1.277–83  And Dryden . . . song, and play  around 1684 John Dryden (1631−1700) was contemplating an epic on an Arthurian subject or on the Black Prince. For comment on his thwarted ambition see Note III in Notes to Canto First, 212–13. Scott’s edition of Dryden was published in 1808. 1.278  Table Round  see note to 1.260. 1.279  ribald king  Charles II (1630–85; reigned from 1660). He was well-known for his general licentiousness, hence the ‘ribald’. As Dryden had stopped writing for the theatre in 1682 Scott’s ‘Bade him toil on, to make them sport’ may be taken as an imaginative representation of the king’s attitude. 1.283  Licentious satire  possibly Absalom and Achitophel (1681), one of Dryden’s most brilliant polemics, which was commissioned at the time of the Popish Plot (1678–81). Throughout his career Scott was consistently hostile to satire: see his later discussion of Aristophanes in his ‘Essay on the Drama’, Prose Works, 6.249–50, and especially the remark ‘ridicule cannot be considered as the test of truth’ (250). 1.284  high design  a fairly common phrase in the poetry of Dryden’s time and the early 18th century. 1.285  God-given strength  compare ‘God, when he gave me strength’, in John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671), line 58. 1.285  lofty line  a very common phrase in 17th-century literature. 1.288  Essay to break a feeble lance  i.e. try to engage in metaphoric combat with the masters of romance writing. 1.290  moated castle  compare ‘moated grange’, in Measure for Measure, 3.1.266. The phrase ‘moated castle’ appears in Dryden’s dedication in AurengZebe; Scott’s Dryden, 5.177. 1.294  the harpings of the North  referring to the ballad minstrels who traditionally come from the north. James Beattie (1735–1803) writes: ‘There is

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hardly an ancient ballad, or romance, wherein a Minstrel or a Harper appears, but he is characterised by way of eminence, to have been “Of the North Countrie.” Percy’s Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 21. 22.’: The Minstrel, Bk 1 (Edinburgh, 1771), 7. 1.301  errant maid on palfrey white  a reference to Una, who represents truth in the first book of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1590). Having been abandoned by her companion the Redcrosse Knight, she wanders on her ‘snowy Palfrey’ (1.3.8). The specific phrase ‘palfrey white’ comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Christabel’, line 84. The poem was written in 1797 and 1800, and Scott had known it since 1802. It was first published in 1816. 1.310 lion-mettled  Macbeth, 4.1.106. 1.312  fair achievement  for Rose and his publications see note Canto 1 heading, and note to 1.327. 1.313  worthy meed  The Faerie Queene, 1.7.14. 1.314  Ytene’s oaks  as Scott notes, ‘Ytene’ was the pre-Conquest name of the New Forest in Hampshire. William Stewart Rose had a cottage at Mudeford in Christchurch, which Scott visited in April 1807; on 14 April they went by horseback to Cuffnells (Rose’s father’s house) near Lyndhurst from where they explored the New Forest (Letters, 12.105). 1.316  Ascapart, and Bevis  see Note IV in Notes to Canto First, 213–14. In the 14th-century verse romance Sir Bevis of Hamptoun, Bevis has various adventures in England and in the East, and converts the giant Ascapart to Christianity. Scott’s friend George Ellis included an abridgement in his Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, 3 vols (London, 1805), 2.93–168. 1.317  Red King  William II (c. 1060−1100), King of England from 1087; he was known as William Rufus (the Red) because of his florid complexion. He was killed by an arrow shot by his companion Walter Tirel during a hunt in the New Forest in Hampshire, but exactly where is disputed. 1.318 Boldrewood  Bolderwood, situated NW of Lyndhurst in the heart of the New Forest, Hampshire. 1.322–23  He of Gaul, That Amadis so famed in hall  Amadis of Gaul, i.e. Wales, the hero of Amadis de Gaul, a 14th-century romance of Portuguese or Spanish origin, first published in 1508 by Garci Roderiguez de Montalvo. The phrase ‘so famed in hall’ simply means that it was a very popular story. 1.324 Oriana daughter of King Lisuarte of Britain, childhood sweetheart and eventually wife of Amadis of Gaul. 1.325  The Necromancer  Arcalaus with whom Amadis fights and escapes the spell which had been put on him. 1.327  Partenopex’s mystic love  allusion to Partenopex de Blois, a medieval French romance in four cantos, translated by William Stewart Rose (London, 1807). The expression ‘mystic love’ is common in 18th-century poetry. 1.329  A knightly tale of Albion’s elder day  see Thomas Warton (1728–90), ‘Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Painted Window at New College Oxford’, lines 11–12, in The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton, 5th edn, 2 vols (Oxford, 1802), 1.55, ALC: ‘To view the festive rites, the knightly play,/ That deck’d heroic Albion’s elder day’. 1.330  Norham’s castled steep  English stronghold on the S bank of the river Tweed, confronting Scotland on the N bank, 10 km (6 miles) SW of Berwick upon Tweed. On a high escarpment it commanded the fords over the River Tweed, and helped guard the eastern Border. Originally built in the early 12th century, by the early 16th century Norham consisted of an inner court or ward containing a great tower or keep, within an inner moat. Outside



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the moat was a large outer ward surrounded by a turreted wall and outer moat. See also Note V in Notes to Canto First, 214–15. The expression ‘castled steep’ occurs in William Julius Mickle (1734 or 1735–88), ‘Almada Hill: An Epistle from Lisbon’, line 49, in Poems, and a Tragedy (London, 1794), 166. 1.331  Tweed’s fair river  the Tweed runs E from the hills above Moffat to Berwick in Northumberland. At Norham it constitutes the boundary between England and Scotland. The expression ‘fair river’ is very common in 18th-century poetry. 1.332  Cheviot’s mountains  a range of rounded hills straddling the Anglo-Scottish border, extending from The Cheviot, 36 km (22 miles) SW of Berwick, to Peel Fell, 40 km (25 miles) further SW. 1.333  Donjon Keep  the stronghold of a castle, usually a free-standing tower situated in the inner court or ward. Norham’s great keep stands at the SE corner of the inner ward, and was 5 storeys high at this time. See also Note VI in Notes to Canto First, 215. 1.334  loop-hole grates  iron gratings, covering narrow vertical openings, used on prison windows. 1.335  flanking walls  protecting walls, with the implication that from them defenders could attack from the side anyone menacing the main keep. 1.336  yellow lustre shone  i.e. the walls gleam yellow in the light of the setting sun. The expression ‘yellow lustre’ is common in 18th-century poetry. 1.343  St George’s banner  English national flag, consisting of a white ground quartered by a red centred cross. St George, possibly a 3rd or 4th century martyr, is the patron saint of England. His cult became particularly significant for England during the Crusades, and his feast day, 23 April, was made one of the principal festivals of the year in 1415. 1.346  evening gale  common in minor 18th-century poetry. 1.349  scouts had parted  i.e. those who keep a look out for comings and goings well beyond the walls of the castle had departed. 1.354  Low humming  James Macpherson (1736–96), Temora: An Epic Poem (1763), in The Poems of Ossian, ed. Malcolm Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1805), 2.185, ALC. 1.355  Border gathering-song  verses used to call the members of a Border clan together both for offensive and defensive purposes. The ballad ‘The Fray of Suport’ is subtitled ‘An Ancient Border Gathering Song’ (Minstrelsy, 1.184–93). 1.358 Horncliff-hill not identified in modern maps. Scott probably refers to the hill between Norham and Horncliffe village, 3 km (2 miles) to the NE of the castle. 1.358 plump of spears  a band of spear carriers. Plump refers to a group, band or company of people, with a secondary meaning referring to a group of animals or birds (OED). Compare John Dryden (1631–1700), ‘Pastoral IX’, lines 17–18, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 42: ‘As would a plump of trembling fowl, that rise/ Against an eagle sousing from the skies’ (Scott’s Dryden, 13.414). 1.358 footnote  Scott quotes from Floddan Field (London, 1664), 9, which has ‘plumpe of Spears’. The Battle of Floddon Field (Edinburgh, 1808), edited by Scott’s assistant Henry Weber (1783–1818), and which appeared after the publication of Marmion, also reads ‘plump’ (13). The 18th-century editions (Preston, 1773; and London, 1774) read ‘clump of spears’. See also note to Flodden Field on the title-page. 1.359 pennon  long narrow swallow-tailed flag usually attached to the end of a knight’s lance; see 1.439–40. In his ‘Essay on Chivalry’, Scott writes: ‘The

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pennon differed from the penoncel, or triangular streamer which the squire was entitled to display, being double the breadth, and indented at the end like the tail of a swallow’ (Prose Works, 6.78). 1.362  mettled courser  high-spirited horse: Sarah Fielding (1710–68), The Adventures of Joseph Simple, 2 vols (London, 1744), 1.218 (Bk 2, Chapter 7). 1.363  dark array  The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 5.641; see ALC. 1.365  closed the castle barricade  i.e. enclosed the fortifications at the entrance to the castle. 1.368 hall the great hall of the castle, which was on the first floor of the keep. It was a place where all ranks congregated, ate, danced, etc. 1.371  sewer, squire, and seneschal  officers in a noble household. A sewer was an attendant at a meal and oversaw the tasting and serving of food. For squire see note to 1.422. A seneschal or steward had control of all domestic arrangements. 1.372  broach ye  open up. 1.372  pipe of Malvoisie  cask of a strong sweet wine, originally from Monemvasia (Napoli di Malvasia) in Greece, and later from other Mediterranean countries, principally France. 1.373  pasties of the doe  venison pies, or perhaps, more particularly, pies made of the flesh of the female fallow deer. 1.380  Lord Marmion  see note to half-title page and Note X in Notes to Canto First, 218–19. 1.391  a stalworth knight, and keen  compare ‘Thomas the Rhymer’, Part Second, Minstrelsy, 2.278: ‘a stalwart knight, and strong’. The term stalwart means strong and stoutly built; brave, courageous. The term keen means bold, valiant, brave, daring. The description which follows contrasts with the portrait of the Knight in Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales, I (A), 43–78. 1.394  token true  Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Bk 5 (London, 1596), 5.5.34. 1.394  Bosworth field  battle fought on 22 August 1485 near the village of Market Bosworth, 20 km (12½ miles) W of Leicester. The outcome involved dynastic change: Richard III (1452–85; reigned from 1483) was defeated and killed; Henry Tudor (1457–1509) became King Henry VII. 1.395  eye of fire see 2 Henry IV, 4.1.119: ‘Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel’. The phrase became very common in 18th-century literature. 1.396  spirit proud  common in 18th-century literature. 1.398  deep design  very common in 18th-century poetry. 1.403  square-turned joints  probably sturdy or strong joints. The term ‘square-turned’ is not found elsewhere, but seems to be formed from square meaning ‘solid’ or ‘sturdy’, and turned meaning ‘formed’ or ‘shaped’. 1.404  carpet knight  derisive term for a knight who prefers a carpeted room to the battle-field. 1.408  In mail, and plate  i.e. in chain mail and in armour. 1.408  Milan steel  steel from the Italian city of Milan. In the Middle Ages Milan was famous for its steel, used for making swords, chain armour, etc. See also Note VII in Notes to Canto First, 215–16. 1.411  crest  a device or ornament mounted on the helmet in addition to the coat of arms displayed on a shield (see next note). In its earliest form the crest consisted of a painted device on a fan-shaped plate rising from the helmet,



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but it took a more decorative three-dimensional form for tournaments in later periods. 1.414–15  such a falcon . . . sable in an azure field  in addition to its defensive purpose the shield displayed heraldic decoration, i.e. designs distinguishing one knight from another. Marmion’s shield shows a black (sable) falcon on a blue (azure) background. In the symbolic system of heraldry a falcon or hawk signifies one eager in the pursuit of a desired object, while azure or blue represents loyalty and truth. Shields varied in shape and size in different periods; in his ‘Essay on Chivalry’ Scott describes a knight’s shield as ‘a small triangular buckler of light wood, covered with leather, and sometimes plated with steel’ (Prose Works, 6.77). 1.417  Who checks at me, to death is dight  anyone who strikes at me is destined to die. Probably because Marmion’s crest includes a falcon, the OED has taken ‘check’ as a term from falconry, saying that ‘Sir Walter Scott’s archaic use appears to be erroneous’, but it has misunderstood Scott’s meaning, which is found under ‘check’, verb 2b, rather than 6b. The motto is derived from ‘I beer a falcon fairest of flicht; quha so pinches at hir, his deth is dicht’, which is given in Book 15 of John of Fordun, Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, ed. Walter Goddall, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1759), 2.423; Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1987–98), 8.16–17. For the whole story see Note VIII in Notes to Canto First, 216–17. 1.420  ample fold  Henry James Pye (1745–1813), Alfred. A Poem (London, 1801), 85, 155 (3.148, 5.191). 1.422 squires young man of good birth attendant on a knight; Scott describes this position at some length in his ‘Essay on Chivalry’, Prose Works, 6.55–65. For the pen-portrait compare the description of the squire by Geoffrey Chaucer in the ‘General Prologue’ to The Canterbury Tales, I (A), 79–100. 1.424  gilded spurs  spurs overlaid with a coating of gold. They were one of the emblems of knighthood. 1.427  bear the ring away  a knightly game, the object of which was ‘to ride at full speed, and thrust the point of the lance through a ring’ and carry it off: Joseph Strutt (1749–1802), The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (London, 1801), 96–97, and plate XII. 1.429  carve at board  compare Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, I (A), 100: the ‘yong squier’ did ‘carf biforn his fader at the table’. 1.433 halbard halberd, a military weapon of the 15th and 16th centuries, which combines an axe head and spear point mounted at the end of a 6-foot wooden handle. 1.435  sumpter mules  mules for carrying baggage. 1.436 palfrey horse for ordinary riding, as distinct from a war-horse. The phrase ambling palfrey probably means a horse that walks rather than gallops; it sounds archaic, but seems to have been first used by Thomas Chatterton (1752–70): see ‘Elinoure and Juga’, line 24. 1.437  Him listed ease  he wanted to relieve. 1.439  forky pennon  see note to 1.359. 1.443  The towering falcon  The Prophetess, Act 4, Scene 4, in The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont and Mr. John Fletcher, 10 vols (London, 1750), 6.162: ‘scatter ’em,/ As an high-tow’ring Falcon on her Stretches,/ Severs the fearful Fowl’. Scott’s assistant, Henry Weber, published an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher in 14 vols in 1812.

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1.449  hunting-craft by lake or wood  knowledge of the procedures for fishing and hunting game was essential to the knight and his followers. Scott possessed several treatises on the subject. 1.450  six-foot bow  the English long-bow, ‘the national arm of England from the 14th century till the introduction of firearms’ (OED). To judge from the few surviving examples from this period, they were approximately 6ft (2m) in length. 1.451  cloth-yard shaft  the yard-long arrow of the long-bow. It measured 1 ell (39 inches, nearly 1m). In the days before standard measurements a yard was a measure which varied slightly depending on the material being measured and location; a cloth-yard was the yard used in measuring cloth. See Note V in Notes to Canto Fifth, 256. 1.455  weary way  best known from Thomas Gray (1716–71), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), line 3; see ALC. But it is not original to Gray: e.g. it occurs in Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Bk 6 (1596), 6.7.39. 1.459  musquet, pike, and morion  a musquet is a type of long-barrelled, heavy, large calibre infantry fire arm; a pike is a weapon with a long wooden shaft of between 4 and 6m with a pointed spearhead, and was the standard infantry weapon throughout Europe during the 16th century; a morion is a tall, crested military helmet. 1.472  in martial sort  of a military variety; in military fashion. 1.475 angels  old English gold coins featuring the archangel Michael slaying the dragon. The full name of the currency was angel-noble and was first coined in 1465 by Edward IV. 1.480  pursuivants, whom tabarts deck  heraldic attendants, in the official dress of heralds. Tabarts were outer garments, without sleeves, which bore the arms of the official or nobleman the pursuivants served. 1.483  the Donjon gate  the entrance to the donjon tower, which at Norham is by an external staircase to the first floor. See also note to 1.4. 1.486–87  Lord of Fontenaye, Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye  although Scott’s Marmion is a fictional character, Fontenay-leMarmion in Normandy was the place of origin of the first English Marmions: see Note X in Notes to Canto First, 218–19. Lutterward has not been identified but may be Lutterworth, 11 km (7 miles) N of Rugby; the Marmions held land in Scrivelsby, a parish 27 km (17 miles) E of Lincoln. 1.488 Tamworth  a town in Staffordshire, 15 km (9 miles) NE of Birmingham. The tower is probably Tamworth Castle, a Norman building dating from the 11th century. The historical Marmions held land here. 1.490  twelve marks weight  i.e. 6 lbs or 2.5 kilos. The mark was a weight usually equal to 8 ounces which used throughout Europe for various goods, but especially for gold and silver. 1.491  All as he lighted down  just as he dismounted. 1.503 lists  enclosed spaces set aside for knightly jousting tournaments, more particularly the wooden barriers, sometimes cloth-covered, used to separate the horses as knights jousted or charged at each other with lances seeking to unhorse their opponent. The popularity of tournaments greatly diminished in the 14th century, but jousting as a sport was resurrected under the Tudors: e.g. Henry VII presided over a series of tournments when the future Henry VIII (who became a keen jouster himself) was created Duke of York in 1494: see A Collection of Scrace and Valuable Tracts, 2nd edn, ed. Walter Scott, 13 vols (London, 1809–15), 1.26. 1.503 Cottiswold  the Cotswolds, the range of hills in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It has not been determined whether jousting took place in



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the Cotswolds in Henry VII’s reign, but the most likely place was Sudeley (or Sudley) Castle, NE of Cheltenham, owned successively by Richard III, Henry VII, his uncle the Duke of Bedford, and Henry VIII. 1.504–18  There, vainly . . . in the right  this is a judicial tournament where the parties have accused each other of treason. In normal jousting the aim was to unhorse the opponent, but in a trial by combat the aim was to kill him, or force him to submit. The defeated party was esteemed to be guilty: the arms were dishonoured on the gibbet, and the lands forfeit to the crown. Trial by combat died out in England in the 16th century. See also note to 5.799. 1.504  Ralph de Wilton  a fictional character. 1.508  listed field  a common poetic expression, deriving from John Milton, Samson Agonistes (published 1671), line 1087: ‘in camp or listed field’. 1.509  sad and fair  Scott had used the same phrase of Melrose Abbey by moonlight in The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), 2.18: ‘Was never scene so sad and fair’. 1.514 gibbet-tree  a post with a projecting arm from which the bodies of criminals were hung after execution. 1.521  Sir Hugh the Heron  based on a historical person, Sir William Heron (1477–1535); see Note XI in Notes to Canto First, 219–20. 1.522  Baron of Twisell, and of Ford  owner of the estates attached to the castles of Twisell and Ford in Northumberland on the River Till. Twizel, 15 km (9 miles) SW of Berwick, was first recorded in 1415 as held by a Sir John Heron, although it was destroyed by the Scots in 1496. Ford Castle, situated at a crossing point on the Till, was built in 1287 by an earlier Sir William Heron. 1.523  Captain of the Hold  Captain of the Stronghold, here Norham. 1.530–35  Thirwalls . . . Deadman’s-shaw  see Note XII in Notes to Canto First, 220–22. The ballad imitation ‘The Death of Featherstonhaugh’ was sent by Robert Surtees (1779–1834) on 8 December 1806 (NLS ms 870, ff. 6–7) to Scott: see Essay on the Text, 289–91, and Historical Note, 364–65. 1.543  Of your fair courtesy  Pericles, 2.3.107. The meaning in Shakespeare is disputed, but here the expression means ‘If you will be so gracious’. 1.544  some little space  for a short time. 1.548 giust the OED describes this word as ‘Spenser’s quasi-Italian spelling of joust’. 1.554  a little space  a short while. 1.556  I pray you for your lady’s grace  the sense here is uncertain, but as knights nominally fought at the behest of a lady (see ‘An Essay on Chivalry’, Prose Works, 7.27) it seems that Heron is asking for Marmion’s lady to favour him with her presence at the lists. It becomes apparent later that Marmion’s chosen bride has repudiated him following his appearance at ‘the lists at Cottiswold’, hence his ‘stern’ brow. 1.560  wassell bowl  bowl full of liquor for drinking toasts. 1.561  crown’d it high with wine  compare the translation by John Dryden of Virgil’s fifth Eclogue (1697), line 108: ‘Two goblets will I crown with sparkling wine’; Scott’s Dryden, 13.395. 1.562  pledge me  drink with me as a sign of friendship. 1.567  Raby towers  the 14th-century Raby Castle near Staindrop in County Durham, 10 km (6 miles) SW of Bishop Auckland. 1.587  kindling eye  James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Summer’, line 1508, in The Seasons, rev. edn (London 1744), 117; see ALC. The phrase became common in 18th-century poetry. 1.593 Lindisfarn  Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumberland,

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but accessible at low tide. It is also known as Holy Isle because of its association with St Aidan (d. 651) who founded Lindisfarne Priory in 634, and St Cuthbert (c. 634–87), who became prior and later Bishop of Lindisfarne. The Priory was abandoned in the 9th century following Viking raids, and re-established early in the 11th. 1.600  Heron’s dame  Elizabeth, wife of Sir William Heron (called Hugh in Marmion), mistress of James IV, King of Scots from 1488 (1473–1513). Scott recognises that her liaison with James is disputed: see Note XI in Notes to Canto First, 219–20, and Note XI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 258–59. The historian John Pinkerton had no doubts: when James reached her castle at Ford ‘the royal warrior was at once dissolved in indolence, and love’: Pinkerton, 2.99. 1.610  Queen Margaret  Margaret Tudor (1489–1541), wife of James IV and sister of Henry VIII of England. 1.617  Royal James  James IV (1473–1513), King of Scots from 1488. 1.627  Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit  Perkin Warbeck, or Pierrechon de Werbecque (c. 1474–99). The son of prosperous French parents, Warbeck’s cosmopolitan early life led him to Ireland in 1491 where he was persuaded by English Yorkists to impersonate Richard, Duke of York, the second son of Edward IV, who had disappeared in 1483. Initially he found a patron in James IV of Scotland, but was exposed as an imposter in 1497; he led a rebellion against Henry VII, was captured, and was hanged in 1499. See Note XIII in Notes to Canto First, 222–23. 1.629 Surrey Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey and 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524). He served Edward IV and Richard III: it took many years of service to Henry VII to secure his rehabilitation, but in the end, he became one of the most trusted counsellors of both Henry VII and Henry VIII. In 1502 he escorted Princess Margaret to Scotland for her marriage to James IV. He led the English forces at Flodden. 1.630 Ayton tower a fortified castle in the Scottish borders, 9 km (6 miles) NW of Berwick. The castle was seized by Surrey in 1497 in response to James IV’s attack on Norham Castle in support of Perkin Warbeck. 1.634 Dunbar  town in East Lothian on Scotland’s SE coast. It is about 50 km (31 miles) from Edinburgh. 1.635  monks of St Bothan’s ale  ale brewed by the monks of St Bothan’s, historically a priory for Cistercian nuns (rather than monks) in the village of Abbey St Bathans in the E of the Scottish Borders. Nothing now remains of the church buildings. Bathan (d. 598) was possibly the cousin of St Columba and the second abbot of Iona. 1.636  beeves of Lauderdale  cattle or oxen from the district round Lauder and the river Leader in the Scottish Borders. See also Note XIV in Notes to Canto First, 223–24. 1.637 Greenlaw  a small town in Berwickshire, in the east of the Scottish Borders. 1.638  given them light to set their hoods  literally provided light so that the women could put on their outdoors clothes, i.e. fired the houses of the village. 1.639  in good sooth  in truth. 1.642 forayers  Border reivers, lawless men who at the behest of their clan leader would ride into Scotland on raids for cattle or revenge for similar raids on them. Compare note to 3.182. 1.658–59  a pursuivant, The only men that safe can ride  see Note IX in Notes to Canto First, 217–18.



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1.661  though a bishop built this fort  Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham from 1099 to 1128, gave orders in 1121 for the construction of Norham Castle. 1.664  last siege  in 1498 when James IV besieged Norham. 1.667  Durham aisle  i.e. in the aisles of Durham Cathedral. The bishopric of Durham was created in 995. It later became important as a buffer zone between England and Scotland, and the king delegated extensive civil and military powers to the bishop. The Cathedral was founded in 1093, and is regarded as an outstanding example of Norman architecture. 1.669  woe betide  may evil befall him, a curse upon him, but in this context it may amount to little more than ‘unfortunately’. 1.670  too well in case  too comfortable physically; too plump. 1.671 Shoreswood  village near Norham. See also Note XV in Notes to Canto First, 224. 1.675 Tillmouth village 5 km (3 miles) SW of Norham, near where the River Till flows into the River Tweed. 1.680 Newcastle  the city upon the Tyne in NE England, about 80 km (50 miles) to the SE of Norham. 1.680 Holy-Rood Holyrood Palace, situated at the foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It was built next door to Holyrood Abbey by James IV between 1501 and 1505. It was extended by James V 1528–36, and extended again by Charles II 1671–79. 1.681–88  But that good man . . . life  a stock situation: compare ‘The Freiris of Berwik’, a Scottish but anonymous 15th-century comic poem, in which the wife is called Alison and her lover Friar John. Scott refers to the poem in Note I in Notes to Canto Third, 240; he could have read it in Ancient Scotish Poems, [ed. John Pinkerton], 2 vols (London, 1786), 1.65–85, ALC; or in Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, ed. James Sibbald, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 2.372–88, ALC. 1.683  vigil of St Bede  probably 26 May (the day of Bede’s death). See also note to 1.739. 1.686 Bughtrig  an invented figure; the name is probably generated from bught, a sheepfold, and rig, a strip of arable land, but there is possibly a pun in that rig is also a term for a loose woman or harlot. 1.694 Selby one of the historic names associated with reivers on the English side of the Border: see George MacDonald Fraser in The Steel Bonnets (London, 1971), 186–88. 1.695  Carved to his uncle  carving was one of the duties of a squire; see note to 1.422. 1.697  woe were we  we would be unhappy. 1.713  Roast hissing crabs  roast crab-apples (wild apples) which would hiss while in the fire. Crab-apples are very sour, and are unlikely to have been eaten, but it is possible that Friar John used them to make a drink known as ‘lamb’s-wool’, which is explained in the following note to The Abbot, ed. Penny Fielding, eewn 10, 501 (note to 174.15): ‘made by pouring hot ale over a roasted sour apple, and then sweetening and spicing the mixture. The drink is often mentioned in 16th-century drama: e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2.1.48–50.’ 1.718 Palmer  a pilgrim, principally one returned from the Holy Land. See Note XVIII in Notes to Canto First, 225–26. 1.719 Salem Jerusalem. 1.720  the blessed tomb  the Holy Sepulchre, by tradition the burial place of Jesus in Jerusalem.

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1.722 Araby  the Arabian peninsula. 1.723–24  hills of Armenie . . . Noah’s ark  traditionally Noah’s ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, the highest peak in the Armenian Highlands, which are now in SE Turkey. However, where modern Bibles talk of ‘the mountains of Ararat’ (Genesis 8.4), Scott’s couplet responds to the phrase in the traditional Latin version of the Bible (the Vulgate): ‘requievitque arca . . . super montes Armeniæ’, which means literally ‘and the ark rested on the mountains of Armenia’. 1.725–26  Red Sea . . . parted at the prophet’s rod  in Exodus 14:21 Moses, with the help of God, divides the Red Sea allowing the Israelites to escape safely from Egypt. 1.727  Sinai’s wilderness  the huge, barren area in the NE corner of Egypt. It is called ‘wilderness’ because in the Bible the Israelites having escaped from Egypt wander for 40 years ‘in the wilderness’. 1.728  The Mount . . . Law  Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai: see Exodus Ch. 19. 1.729–30  Mid thunder-dint . . . and darkness  see Exodus 19.16–18. The word thunder-dint means ‘thunder-stroke’, and levin means ‘lightning’. Scott may have recalled the occurrence of the former in Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340–1400), Troilus and Criseyde, 5.1505. 1.731  Saint James’s cockle-shell  a scallop shell, an emblem worn by pilgrims to indicate that they had visited the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela in N Spain. Tradition recounts that after Christ’s death his brother James went to Spain to preach the gospel, and came ashore in Finisterre. 1.732 Montserrat  a mountain in Spain, 50 km (31 miles) NW of Barcelona, location of the Benedictine Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat. The abbey houses a Black Madonna which is the object of particular veneration. It has long been a place of pilgrimage and sanctuary. 1.733–36  Grot where olives nod . . . retired to God  Santa Rosalia (1130–66), patron saint of Palermo in Sicily, was of noble birth, but after being called to the court where her beauty attracted attention she retreated to live as a hermit in a cell on the family estate, and later to a cave on Monte Pellegrino. Although she was venerated in the middle ages, her cult really began in the 17th century. See also Note XVI in Notes to Canto First, 224–25. 1.737  Saint George of Norwich  St George, the 3rd or 4th century martyr, was considered the patron saint of Norwich: two churches were named after him, and in other churches there were many representations of him killing the dragon. There was also the medieval Guild of St George. He was considered a soldier-saint, thus the epithet ‘stout’ (brave, undaunted), while ‘merry’ indicates general cheerfulness. 1.738  Saint Thomas . . . of Canterbury  Thomas Becket (c. 1120–70). He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. Although elevated and enriched by Henry II, Becket quarrelled with him over the question of how to deal with priests who had committed criminal offences. He was disgraced and in 1164 went into exile. There was a brief reconciliation in 1170 which allowed Becket to return to England, but the quarrel broke out again and he was murdered on 29 December in Canterbury Cathedral. The reaction was immediate. Miracles were attributed to him at once; his cult grew; he was canonised in 1173; and for the next 400 years his shrine in Canterbury was one of the most popular pilgrimage resorts in Europe. 1.739  Cuthbert of Durham  St Cuthbert (c. 634–87), prior of the monastery of Old Melrose and later prior and Bishop of Lindisfarne. He was



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buried in Lindisfarne, but in 793, to escape the Danish raids, the community took his body to the mainland. In 883 it settled in Chester-le-Street (between Newcastle and Durham), and in 995 in Durham. In 1104 his body was moved to the new Durham Cathedral. (See Note XI in Notes to Canto Second, 236.) The cult of St Cuthbert began soon after his death, and he became one of the most popular saints of the middle ages. 1.739  Saint Bede  the Venerable Bede (c. 673–735), historian, and one of the greatest figures of the English church. He became a monk in Jarrow, at the mouth of the Tyne, and there spent the rest of his life, but his fame was widespread as a Biblical commentator, and as the author of Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, an ecclesiastical history of the English people (completed 731). Bede was not recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church until 1935, but he was venerated throughout the middle ages, particularly after his remains were moved to Durham in the 11th century. Scott may have read Bede’s History in a book he probably already owned before writing Marmion, Rerum Britannicarum (Lyon, 1587): see note to 267.1–2. 1.742 Forth  river rising in W Stirlingshire, flowing east through Stirling and into the Firth of Forth. It was considered to be the dividing line between Lowland and Highland Scotland. 1.755 Holy-Rood see note to 1.680. 1.782  ten aves  ten recitations of the prayer to the Virgin Mary known as ‘Hail Mary’, and named after the first two words of the Latin text, ‘Ave Maria’. The prayer forms the basis of prayers using the rosary. See Note XVII in Notes to Canto First, 225. 1.786  Had sworn themselves of company  were in league with each other. 1.788 Palmer see note XVIII in Notes to Canto First, 225–26. 1.789  came in place appeared. 1.790  sable cowl  black robe with a hood. 1.792  Peter’s keys  the keys of the kingdom of heaven entrusted to St Peter by Jesus: see Matthew 16.19. The keys were embroidered on to the garments of those who had taken a pilgrimage to Rome. 1.796 Loretto the Basilica della Santa Casa (the Basilica of the Holy House) in Loreto, Italy. It contains the house in which the Virgin Mary lived, and has been a place of pilgrimage since the 13th century. 1.798  Staff, budget, bottle, scrip  standard accoutrements for a pilgrim’s journey: the staff is a stout stick used when walking; the budget is a pouch or bag usually made of leather; and the scrip is a small bag or wallet. 1.799 palm-branch  traditionally carried by pilgrims as a sign of their travels in the Holy Land. 1.806  hall of state  richly decorated hall, used on ceremonial occasions by a person of high rank; compare chair of state (2.286), place of state (3.299), and stalls of state (4.530). 1.814  in presence present. 1.829  morning tide  in the morning. The word ‘tide’ here means an agreed point in the day. 1.833  Saint Andrew’s  the town on the E coast of Fife in Scotland. It is named after the apostle St Andrew, was an ecclesiastical centre, and is the seat of Scotland’s oldest university. 1.835  Saint Rule  also known as St Regulus, a legendary 4th-century monk or bishop of Patras in Greece, who in ad 345 is said to have fled to Scotland with the bones of St Andrew, which he deposited in the town of St Andrews. For the cave see Note XIX in Notes to Canto First, 226–27.

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1.838  Saint Fillan’s blessed well  wells and springs dedicated to St Fillan in the village of St Fillans at the E end of Loch Earn, Perthshire, 40 km (25 miles) W of Perth. Fillan was an Irish monk who arrived in Scotland in the 8th century. See also Note XX in Notes to Canto First, 227. 1.841  Saint Mary  i.e. the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. 1.855 wassel  wassail, the salutations when drinking to the good health of a person, especially a guest. 1.863  hasty mass  an abbreviated service. 1.867 stirrup-cup cup of wine or other drink presented to a man on horseback as he sets out on a journey. Canto 2 heading  Rev. John Marriot  1780–1825, graduate of Oxford (BA 1802, MA 1806), priest of the Church of England, and minor poet who contributed to later editions of the Minstrelsy. He was employed by the Buccleuch family as tutor to Lord Scott, the eldest grandson of the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch. 2.2  a forest fair  Ettrick Forest: see note to Canto 1 heading, and Note I in Notes to Canto Second, 227–30. 2.4  hart and hind  a regular pairing in ballads. 2.5–8  Yon thorn . . . Yon lonely thorn  compare William Wordsworth (1770–1850), ‘The Thorn’, stanzas 1–3: [William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge], Lyrical Ballads (London, 1798), 117–19; see ALC. The expression ‘prickly spears’ is found in Susanna Blamire (1747–94), ‘The Bower of Elegance’, The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (Edinburgh, 1842), 63. Although Blamire’s work was little published in her lifetime, Scott quotes her in his letters. 2.20  aspens shook  legend has it that the aspen trembles in shame because Christ’s cross was made of this wood. 2.25  The neighbouring dingle bears his name  Wolf Glen, a small glen about 2 km (1 mile) SW of Ashestiel. 2.32 Newark  a large 15th-century tower-house standing on the S bank of Yarrow Water, 5 km (3 miles) W of Selkirk. In 1473 it was given to Margaret of Denmark, wife of James III, King of Scots (1452–88; king from 1460), but later became a possession of the Buccleuch family. By Scott’s time it was a ruin. 2.43  dark covert  Sir John Denham (1615–69), Coopers-Hill. A Poem (London, 1709), 13 (line 249), ALC: the stag ‘To some dark Covert his retreat had made’. 2.49  rocking hills  hills covered in rocks: James Macpherson (1736–96), ‘The War of Caros’, in Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, 2nd edn (London, 1762), 101: ‘The rocking hills echoed around: the starting roes bounded away’. See ALC. 2.51 lightsomely  Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘The Holy Fair’, in Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Kilmarnock, 1786), line 10; see ALC. 2.54–55  Yarrow, Where erst the Outlaw drew his arrow  see Note II in Notes to Canto Second, 230. The story of the outlaw is found in the ballad ‘The Sang of the Outlaw Murray’, in Minstrelsy, 1.1–30. 2.56  sylvan court  Samuel Coxall (d. 1752), ‘The Fable of Midas’, line 227, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, trans. John Dryden and others, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London, 1720), 195. 2.61  holt, or hill  see ‘The Heir of Linne’, 1.42 and 2.2 (‘hill and holt’) in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Thomas Percy, 3 vols (London, 1765), 2.311, 313; see ALC. 2.62 slip  a dog leash which can be released quickly, especially one used to release two coursing greyhounds simultaneously.



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2.73 Bowhill  one of the residences of the Dukes of Buccleuch, 4 km (2½ miles) W of Selkirk. The present house dates from 1812. It is not known why none of the Buccleuch family was living in ‘untenanted’ Bowhill. 2.80  fairy forms  i.e. the children of his close friends the Earl and Countess of Dalkeith. The phrase is common in 18th-century literature. 2.82–83  Fair as the elves . . . dance on Carterhaugh  see the ballad ‘The Young Tamlane’: Minstrelsy, 2.228–43. The ‘maidens’ are forbidden to go to Carterhaugh (an area at the confluence of Ettrick and Yarrow waters just E of Bowhill), but Janet disobeys, sees the fairies, and releases her lover, Young Tamlane, from his imprisonment by the Fairy Queen. 2.84  youthful baron  Henry, Lord Scott (1798–1808), eldest son of Charles, Earl of Dalkeith. 2.85 Forest-Sheriff  i.e. Scott, from 1799 Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire (roughly commensurate with Ettrick Forest), and thus the principal legal officer in the county. 2.87 Oberon  king of fairies. 2.88  she is gone  i.e. the Countess of Dalkeith is no longer there. 2.90  Sylphid Queen  literally the queen of spirits who inhabit the air, but sylph is also used of a particularly gracious and slender woman. 2.94  the widow  a figure representing those dependent upon the Buccleuchs for charitable support. 2.98  humming wheel  Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), ‘A Winter Day’, in Poems; wherein it is attempted to describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners . . . (London, 1790), 7. 2.102 Yair  Yair House, built in 1783, on the right bank of the River Tweed about 4 km (2½ miles) downstream from Ashestiel. 2.106  Her long-descended lord  Alexander Pringle of Whytbank and Yair (1747–1827). He was descended from Robert Hoppringle (d. 1424) who built Smailholm Tower (see note to 3.158). It is not known why he ‘is gone’. 2.108  sportive boys  Charles Churchill (1731–64), The Rosciad (London, 1761), 20; see ALC. The boys in question are presumably Alexander (1791–1857), John (1792–1839), and William (1793–55), sons of the Alexander Pringle of the preceding note. 2.113  Wallace wight  the Scottish hero Sir William Wallace (c. 1270–1305). He led the opposition to Edward I of England’s attempt to annex Scotland, was captured in 1305, and sent to London where he was tried for treason and beheaded. His story is told in Blind Harry’s Wallace (c. 1460), ALC, which appeared in a modernised version by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield in 1722, and was recounted in ballads and chapbooks. The phrase ‘Wallace wight’ is used frequently by Hamilton. 2.114  airy mound  Thomas Warton (1728–90), ‘Ode XXI. On His Majesty’s Birth-Day, June 4th, 1788’, line 38, in The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton, 5th edn, 2 vols (Oxford, 1802), 2.127, ALC. The mound in question, known as Wallace’s Trench, is a linear earthwork, adjacent to the old road over Minchmoor. Its age and archaeological significance are not known. Wallace (see note to 2.113) was declared Guardian of Scotland in Ettrick Forest in 1297, and it is thought that this earthwork was the first defensive position he took up in his rising against Edward I: see T. Craig-Brown, The History of Selkirkshire, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1886), 1.72–74. 2.115  holy ground  Exodus 3.5. 2.127  lone mountain  The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 9.223.

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explanatory notes

2.132  free hours  Cymbeline, 1.6.73. 2.140  worldly toils  Robert Lloyd (1733–64), ‘The First Book of the Henriade. Translated from the French of M. de Voltaire’, in his Poems (London, 1762), 150, ALC. 2.143  still small voice  1 Kings 19.12. 2.144  a mingled sentiment  M. G. (‘Monk’) Lewis (1775–1818), The Monk 3 vols (London, 1796), Vol. 2, Ch. 6. This was a new phrase at the end of the 18th century. 2.147  lone St Mary’s silent lake  see Note III in Notes to Canto Second, 230–31. St Mary’s Loch is a large expanse of water at the head of the Yarrow valley, in the W of Selkirkshire. 2.158–59  yon slender line Bears thwart the lake the scattered pine a spit of land on which a few trees grow separates St Mary’s Loch at its W end from the next loch. 2.175  well I ween  I really believe. 2.176–77  in feudal strife, a foe Hath laid Our Lady’s chapel low see Note IV in Notes to Canto Second, 231. The chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was on the hillside on the N bank of the Loch, towards the E end. In a note to his poem ‘Mess John’, James Hogg says that the ‘ruins of St Mary’s Chapel are still visible’: The Mountain Bard (Edinburgh, 1807), 86, ALC. The graveyard is still there. 2.186–87  peaceful hermitage, Where Milton longed to spend his age  see John Milton, ‘Il Penseroso’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), lines 167–74: ‘And may at last my weary age/ Find out some peaceful hermitage,/ The Hairy Gown and Mossy Cell,/ Where I may sit and rightly spell/ . . .’. 2.189 Bourhope  Bourhope Law, the main hill, 487 m, on the SE side of St Mary’s Loch. 2.189  lonely top  Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), ‘Night Scenes of Other Times’, in Poems (London, 1790), 35. 2.190  faint and feeble  a standard collocation from Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) onwards. 2.195  Dryhope’s ruined tower  a 16th-century four-storey tower-house just NE of the E end of St Mary’s Loch. 2.196  Yarrow’s faded Flower  a reference to Mary Scott, known as ‘the Flower of Yarrow’ (d. before 1598). She was a daughter of John Scott of Dryhope, and married Walter Scott of Harden (c. 1550–1629?) in 1567. 2.202–04  the Wizard’s grave; . . . holy dust  see Note V in Notes to Canto Second, 231. 2.203  Wizard Priest  Robert Southey (1774–1843), Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal, 2nd edn (Bristol, 1799), 31; see ALC. 2.204  holy dust  John Wilson (1720–89), Clyde: A Poem (1764), 1.198; see ALC. 2.207  sullen roar  John Milton, ‘Il Penseroso’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), line 76. 2.208  Heave her broad billows to the shore  see James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Winter’, lines 140–42, in The Seasons, quarto edn (London, 1730), 198: ‘Mean-time whole oceans, heaving to the clouds/ And in broad billows rolling gather’d seas,/ Surge over surge, burst in a general roar’. These lines were revised in the 1744 edn. 2.210  snowy sail  see e.g. Anna Seward (1747–1809), Louisa, A Poetical Novel, 5th edn (London, 1792), 61.



explanatory notes

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2.212  surging wave  Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse, trans. John Harington (London, 1591), Bk 21, stanza 14; Bk 41, stanzas 47 and 67. 2.236  elemental war  John Dryden, ‘The First Book of the Georgics’, line 612, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 67: ‘Winds, rain, and storms, and elemental war’; Scott’s Dryden, 14.46. The phrase became common in 18th-century literature. 2.237  black Palmer  identifies the palmer as an Augustinian, rather than a Dominican. The Dominicans were known as black friars because of their black cappa, while the Augustinian habit is wholly black. 2.239  dark Loch Skene  see Note VI in Notes to Canto Second, 232. The loch (lake) at about 500 m feeds the waterfall called Grey Mare’s Tail (see note to 2.262). 2.242  black waves  the image is derived from Homer. In Dryden’s translation of The Aeneid an arm rises from the Styx and ‘Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around’: The Æneis, 7.784, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 423; Scott’s Dryden, 14.451. In Pope’s translation of The Iliad Juno swears ‘By thy black Waves, tremendous Styx’ (in Greek myth the principal river of the underworld): The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 15.43. Virgil was inspired by Homer; the collocation became common in 18th-century literature. 2.243  summer heaven  Robert Southey (1774–1843), Letters Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal (Bristol, 1797), 152; see ALC. 2.261  the Giant’s Grave  an iron-age earthwork below the Grey Mare’s Tail (see next note), near the roadside in the narrow valley on the road to Moffat, and 8 km (5 miles) SW of St Mary’s Loch. 2.262–63  snowy charger’s tail, . . . pass of Moffatdale  the Grey Mare’s Tail, a 60 m waterfall visible from the road in the narrow valley between Selkirk and Moffat, 8 km (5 miles) SW of St Mary’s Loch. 2.264–65  Isis . . . Border theme  the Isis is that part of the River Thames flowing through Oxford. Marriot was an Oxford graduate, who contributed ‘The Feast of Spurs’, ‘On a Visit paid to the Ruins of Melrose Abbey’, and ‘Archie Armstrong’s Aith’ to the 3rd edition of the Minstrelsy, 3 vols (London, 1806), 3.452–65. 2.267  man of woe  a phrase commonly used in 18th-century hymns of Christ in human form, and extended in poetry to those whose suffering makes them seem Christ-like. 2.274  Northumbrian seas  either the sea off the county of Northumberland, or the sea off the ancient kingdom of Northumbria which stretched the whole way (and beyond) from Whitby to Lindisfarne. 2.276  high Whitby’s cloistered pile  monastery on the cliffs above the town of Whitby on the coast of North Yorkshire. The monastery was originally founded in 657. A new monastic community for men was established about 1087, and followed the Benedictine Rule (see note to 2.336–37); it was dissolved in 1539. The ruins that remain date from the 13th century. See also Note VII in Notes to Canto Second, 232–33. 2.277  Saint Cuthbert’s Holy Isle  Lindisfarne (see note to 1.593); St Cuthbert (c. 634–87) was prior of the monastery on Lindisfarne from 665 (see note to 1.739). See also Note VII in Notes to Canto Second, 232–33. 2.280  swelling tide  a very common expression from the 16th century onwards. 2.287  Saint Hilda  an imaginary religious house for women. The original foundation on the site of Whitby Abbey (see note to 2.276) was Celtic, and

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explanatory notes

was a monastery for both monks and nuns. The first Abbess was St Hilda of Whitby (c. 614–80): see note to 2.327. 2.290  green-wood shades  John Dryden, Æneis, Bk 8, line 128; Scott’s Dryden, 15.5; John Gay (1685–1732), ‘Dione’, Poems on Several Occasions, 2 vols (London, 1775), 2.198, ALC. 2.293  strange and new  a very common expression from the 16th century onwards. 2.297 benedicite  an expression of astonishment. The word is the imperative of the Latin benedicere, meaning praise, bless. It refers to the canticle ‘Benedicite, omnia opera’, which in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1662) begins ‘O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord’. 2.302  foaming spray  Richard Polwhele (1760–1838), ‘Claudian’s Rape of Proserpine’, in Poems, chiefly by Gentlemen of Devonshire and Cornwall, 2 vols (Bath, 1792), 2.122, 140, ALC. 2.304  the summer gale  Thomas Blacklock (1721–91), ‘Psalm 1. Imitated’, in Poems (Edinburgh, 1756), 7, ALC. The phrase is common in literature of the second half of the 18th-century. 2.311 Novice  a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation before taking the required vows. 2.327  Saint Hilda’s fame  St Hilda of Whitby (c. 614–80) early became an object of veneration. Her life is told by the Venerable Bede (c. 673–735) in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, an ecclesiastical history of the English people (completed 731), 4.23. 2.328 dower  money or property which was given to the monastery when a novice took her vows on becoming a nun, i.e. a bride of Christ. 2.332  relique-shrine of cost  i.e. a costly box for holding a religious relic, which would usually be some physical part of a saint. 2.336  Black was her garb  the Benedictine habit. 2.336–37  her rigid rule . . . Benedictine school  the ‘rule’ consists of the rules and regulations of the monastery or the order. The Regula Benedicti (the Rule of St Benedict) was written by St Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547), and describes how a monastery should work. However, as each monastery in the Benedictine Order is independent, the abbess was free to devise a stricter set of regulations for her own institution. 2.342  vain of her religious sway  with a high opinion of her power within the monastery. 2.349  Tynemouth’s Prioress  Tynemouth Priory, a Benedictine foundation, was situated in Tynemouth, on the N bank of the River Tyne where it enters the sea. In the period of which Scott is writing it was an institution for men and was ruled by a Prior. 2.352  two apostates from the faith  i.e. two members of the Order who had left, or renounced their adherence to it, without getting legal permission to do so. 2.365  blasted hopes  common in poetry of the 17th century, and very common in the 18th. 2.372–77  A sun-scorched desart . . . scanty tomb  compare Robert Southey (1774–1843), Thalaba the Destroyer, 2 vols (London, 1801; ALC), Bk 3, lines 63–96, where the corpse of the evil magician Abdaldar is exposed as the covering sand is blown away, and a vulture is hovering. The opening of the poem where Zeinab, Thalaba’s mother, wanders in a desert landscape pondering the loss of her husband, is also relevant. 2.382–86  Harpers have sung . . . savage mood  see the story of Una and the lion in The Faerie Queene, 1.3.4–9. The expression ‘the shaggy monarch of



explanatory notes

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the wood’ is found in Thomas Blacklock (1721–91), ‘An Hymn to the Supreme Being’, line 85, in his Poems, 3rd edn (London, 1761), 13, ALC. 2.389  dark intrigue  Anna Seward (1742–1809), Louisa, a Poetical Novel (Lichfield, 1784), 76. 2.390  sordid avarice  John Dryden in his translation of the Third Satire of Juvenal (1693), line 69; Scott’s Dryden, 13.135. It became quite a common poetical phrase. 2.391  bowl and knife  probably poison and dagger. 2.399 Monk-Wearmouth area of Sunderland located near the mouth of the River Wear. An Anglo-Saxon monastery on the site was re-founded as a Benedictine order (see note to 2.336–37) in the 11th century. 2.401–02  the hall Of lofty Seaton-Delaval  a fortified tower-house (in 1513) in the village of Seaton Delaval near the Northumberland coast, a little N of Newcastle upon Tyne. The present Seaton Delaval Hall, designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, was built 1718–28. 2.403  the Blythe and Wansbeck floods  the rivers of Blyth and Wansbeck which flow E through Northumberland into the North Sea. 2.404  sounding woods  John Logan (1748–88), ‘Ode. Written in a Visit to the Country in Autumn’, line 10, in his Poems, 3rd edn (London, 1789), 86, ALC. 2.405  the tower of Widderington  Widdrington Castle, a medieval tower-house, within a mile of the coast. The original castle no longer exists; in the later 16th century it is known to have consisted of the original south tower, a great hall and beyond that the north tower. 2.406  Mother of many a valiant son  in the ballad ‘Chevy Chase’, ‘Then stept a gallant squier forth,/ Witherington was his name’: Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Thomas Percy, 4th edn, 3 vols (London, 1794), 1.274 (lines 93–94), ALC. 2.407 Coquet-isle a small island situated less than 2 km (1½ miles) off the Northumberland coast opposite the mouth of the River Coquet. 2.409 Alne river that flows SE through Northumberland from the Cheviot Hills and into the North Sea at Alnmouth. 2.410 Warkworth Warkworth Castle, on the River Coquet 1 km from the Northumbrian coast, and 48 km (30 miles) N of Newcastle. Originally built in the 12th century, the castle was frequently remodelled; in the period Scott is describing it was owned by the Percy family (which wielded great power), and was considered one of the strongest castles in the north. 2.414 Dunstanborough Dunstanburgh Castle, a strong and substantial 14th-century building with its own harbour that stands on a headland overlooking the North Sea, 12 km (7½ miles) N of Alnmouth. 2.414  caverned shore  Luis de Camōes (1524–80), The Lusiad, trans. William Julius Mickle (London, 1776), 206 (Bk 5, line 206), ALC. 2.415–16  Bamborough . . . King Ida’s castle  castle on the coast of Northumberland, 15 km (9 miles) N of Dunstanburgh. King Ida (d. 560) conquered the area in the 6th century and made Bamburgh the capital of Bernicia. The keep of the present castle was built by Henry II in the 12th century, and it remained a royal fortress until 1610. It was rebuilt by Sir William Armstrong in the 1890s. 2.418  the swelling ocean  common in 17th- and 18th-century literature. Scott would have read it early in life in James Ridley [Sir Charles Morrell on the title-page], Tales of the Genii, 2 vols (London, 1764), 2.178, 200, 220. 2.423  flow and ebb  i.e. of the tides. As the text explains Lindisfarne is accessible on foot over a causeway at low tide, but is cut off at high tide.

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explanatory notes

2.428  sandaled feet  Anthony Pasquin (1761–1818), ‘Irregular Ode’, in An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, new edn (London, 1785), 194, ALC. 2.431–32  Castle . . . Monastery  Lindisfarne Castle and Lindisfarne Priory are both at the S end of Holy Isle. 2.435 Saxon in Scott’s period the term ‘Saxon’ was often used as the name for what is now called Norman architecture, characterised by short round pillars and semicircular arches. Lindisfarne Priory was founded in the 7th century, abandoned in the 9th following Viking raids, and re-established early in the 11th. 2.443  the heathen Dane  the priory was subject to brutal Viking raids in 793 and 875. 2.444  impious rage  John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 5.845; thereafter a very common literary phrase. 2.447  eternal sway  common in 18th-century poetry, usually referring to divine rule: e.g. Edward Young (1683–1765), A Poem on the Last Day (Oxford, 1713), 42; see ALC. 2.459  still entire the Abbey stood  this is correct for 1513. In 1537 the priory was closed on the orders of the commissioners of Henry VIII, but the buildings were not dismantled. Drawings and descriptions show that until about 1780 the church survived virtually intact, but by the 1820s the central tower and south aisle had collapsed. 2.462  Saint Hilda’s song  Scott probably refers to Caedmon’s hymn, the oldest surviving piece of English verse. In 4.24 of his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Bede tells the story of how a man appeared to Caedmon in a dream and ordered him to write a song ‘about the Creation of all things’; when next day he sung it before the abbess, St Hilda, she was so impressed she invited him to become a brother in her monastery at Whitby. 2.465  harmonious close  Hugh Blair (1718–1800), Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 2 vols (London, 1783), 1.453. Talking of Addison he writes: ‘The members rise one above another, and conduct the sentence, at last, to that full and harmonious close, which leaves upon the mind . . . an impression, . . . of something uncommonly great, awful, and magnificent.’ 2.484  holy dome  a phrase which from William Tyndale (c. 1495–1536) onwards has tended to be applied to Catholic churches, and is indicative of disapprobation if used by a Protestant. 2.500–01  to their house . . . service do  the full title of the broadside Scott gives as his source in Note VIII in Notes to Canto Second, 233–35, explains the story: ‘A true account of the murder of the monk of Whitby, by Lord William de Bruce, of Uglebarnby, Lord Ralph de Pearcy of Sneaton, and Allatson, a Freeholder; with the Monk’s Pennance laid upon them, to be performed on Ascension-Evening every Year, otherwise to forfeit their Lands to the Abbot of Whitby’. 2.504  sylvan game  John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite (1700), Bk 3, line 226; Scott’s Dryden, 11.298. 2.506 Ascension-day  the Thursday 40 days from Easter Sunday when Jesus is said to have ascended to heaven: see Mark 16.19, Luke 24.51, and Acts 1.9. 2.508  Herbert, Bruce, and Percy  the three barons obliged to do service to the Abbot of Whitby. See note 2.500–01, and Note VIII in Notes to Canto Second, 233–35. ‘Herbert’ replaces ‘Allatson’ because, Scott’s note explains, ‘Part of the lands charged therewith are now held by a gentleman of the name of Herbert’. 2.511 Edelfled Ælfflæd (654–714), daughter of Oswiu, King of



explanatory notes

395

Northumbria (d. 670). At one year old she was dedicated to God and placed in a monastery in the care of her maternal relative St Hilda; see also Note IX in Notes to Canto Second, 235. 2.512–13  thousand snakes . . . coil of stone  legend has it that St Hilda was able to turn snakes into stone. The many ammonites found in the cliffs around Whitby may have given rise to this legend: see Alfred Kecher, ‘Ammonites, Legends, and Politics: The Snakestones of Hilda of Whitby’, European Journal of Science and Theology, 8 (Dec. 2012), 51–66; and Note X in Notes to Canto Second, 235–36. 2.517  sea-fowls’ pinions fail  it was said that when birds, especially seabirds, flew past the Abbey they dipped their wings in reverence to St Hilda. See Note X in Notes to Canto Second, 235–36. 2.523  His body’s resting-place  his final resting place was Durham: see note to 1.739. In Note XI in Notes to Canto Second, 236, Scott lists and explains the places between which St Cuthbert’s body was moved before eventually arriving at Durham. 2.530 Melrose town in Roxburghshire, now the Scottish Borders. In 651 Cuthbert entered the monastery at Old Melrose where he later became prior. 2.536  light as gossamer compare King Lear (folio text), 4.5.49: ‘Hadst though been aught but gossamer, feathers, air’ (Edgar speaking to Gloucester). In Scott’s day ‘light as gossamer’ became an established phrase: e.g. George Colman, The Iron Chest (London, 1796), 79 (3.2.23). 2.537 Tilmouth small village on the river Till in Northumberland. In An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1825), 1.338, Eneas Mackenzie writes: ‘Tillmouth chapel, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and situated on a peninsula at the confluence of the Till and Tweed, is now in ruins [. . .] Near this place lay till lately the remains of a stone boat or coffin, in which, tradition says, the body of St. Cuthbert was miraculously conveyed down the Tweed from Melrose.’ See also Note XI in Notes to Canto Second, 236. 2.540 Chester-le-Street town in County Durham, 14 km (9 miles) S of Newcastle. The religious community of Lindisfarne settled at Chester-leStreet in about 883, where the Danish Christian King Guthfrith endowed it with lands between the rivers Tyne and Wear. They, and the shrine of St Cuthbert, stayed here for over a century. 2.540 Rippon a cathedral town in North Yorkshire. The cathedral is built on the site of the Anglo-Saxon monastery founded in the mid 7th century. The body of St Cuthbert was moved to Ripon for a brief period in 995. 2.541 Wardilaw possibly Warden Law, a village between Durham and Sunderland. One of the monks carrying Cuthbert’s body is said to have had a vision revealing that they should take it to Durham, but where this happened is not known for certain. 2.544  lordly seat  Luis de Camōes (1524–80), The Lusiad, trans. William Julius Mickle (London, 1776), 179 (Bk 7, line 104), ALC. 2.545  his cathedral  Durham Cathedral, properly called the ‘Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham’. 2.546  the Wear  river in NE England that flows through County Durham into the North Sea. Durham Cathedral stands on a high promontory above a loop in the river. 2.547  Durham’s Gothic shade  Durham Cathedral, originally a Benedictine priory (see note to 2.336–37). The main body of the church was constructed between 1093 and 1130. Gothic refers to the style of architecture

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explanatory notes

widespread in Western Europe in the medieval period, i.e. from about the 11th to the 16th centuries. 2.548  His reliques are in secret laid  in the early 19th century it was popularly believed that Cuthbert’s body had been stolen by Catholics at the time of the Reformation, and secretly interred: see Note XI in Notes to Canto Second, 236. In 1542 Cuthbert’s highly ornate tomb behind the high altar in Durham was desecrated by Henry VIII’s commissioners (those made responsible for closing down religious houses, and despoiling them of their wealth and possessions), but the body was reburied in the original coffin, where it was found when reopened in 1827 by an acquaintance of Scott, Canon James Raine. 2.551  Deep sworn  King John, 3.1.157. 2.552  wondrous grace  a very common phrase in poetry and religious writings before Scott; e.g. The Faerie Queene, the argument to 1.6: ‘From lawlesse lust by wondrous grace/ fayre Vna is releast’. 2.554–59  Scotland’s dauntless King . . . Before his standard fled  in the Battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton (in North Yorkshire, 70 km (44 miles) S of Newcastle) in 1138, a Scottish force under David I (c. 1085–1153) and his heir, Prince Henry, was defeated by an English army which displayed consecrated banners (hence the name of the battle) from the Cathedrals of York, Beverly, and Ripon (but not Durham). The expression ‘dauntless king’ is found in The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 4.244; see ALC. 2.556–58  Galwegians . . . Lodon’s knights . . . Teviotdale in Caledonia, or, an Account, Historical and Topographic of North Britain, 3 vols (London, 1807–24), ALC, George Chalmers notes that ‘David had with him the people of Galloway, the Britons of Strathclyde, the men of Teviotdale and Lothians’ (1.622n); see also Note XII in Notes to Canto Second, 237, which mentions this source. Galwegians (natives of Galloway) are described by Chalmers as ‘a barbarous people’ (1.34); Lodon’s knights came from the Lothians; men of Teviotdale, often used almost as a synonym for Borderers, more properly applies to those from the valley of the River Teviot, a tributary of the Tweed. 2.560  vindicate his reign  deliver or rescue his kingdom. 2.561  Edged Alfred’s faulchion on the Dane  Alfred the Great (849–99), King of the West Saxons is said to have been inspired in his struggle against the Danes by a vision of St Cuthbert (see note to 237.21). See also Note XIII in Notes to Canto Second, 237. A faulchion or falchion is a broad sword. 2.562  the conqueror  William the Conqueror (1028–84; reigned from 1066). The story of why William retreated is told in Note XIII in Notes to Canto Second, 237. 2.563  Norman bowyer band  group of Norman bowmen or archers. 2.568  sea-born beads that bear his name  St Cuthbert’s beads, or crinoid columnals, the hollow, fossilized ‘legs’ of small sea creatures. They are found on Lindisfarne, and in medieval Northumberland were strung together as rosaries. They are first mentioned in print in John Ray, Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological (London, 1673), 116. See Note XIV in Notes to Canto Second, 238; see also N. Gary Lane and William I. Ausich, ‘The Legend of St Cuthbert’s Beads: A Palaeontological and Geological Perspective’, Folklore, 112 (Apr. 2001), 65–73. 2.569  Such tales had Whitby’s fishers told  the story of St Cuthbert forging his beads on his anvil is reported in Francis Grose, Antiquities of England and Wales, new edn, 8 vols (London, 1783–97), 4.120; see ALC.



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2.572  dim form  James Macpherson (1736–96), The Six Bards: A Fragment, line 11, in The Poems of Ossian, ed. Malcolm Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1805), 2.417, ALC. 2.575  idle fame  a standard image from the 15th to 17th centuries. 2.578  scene of woe  extremely common in 18th-century poetry. 2.581  dark and lone  Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837), Mary de-Clifford (London, 1792), 41. 2.583  Old Colwulf  Ceolwulf (c. 695–764), King of Northumbria 729–37. He abdicated in 737 to become a monk in Lindisfarne, where he later died. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History is dedicated to Ceolwulf. See also Note XV in Notes to Canto Second, 238, and note to 238.20. 2.589  Vault of Penitence  for the possible interpretations of such a vault see Note XV in Notes to Canto Second, 238. 2.591  the prelate Sexhelm  bishop of Chester-le-Street, transferred from Lindisfarne, for six months only, c. 947. 2.597  upper air  above ground. The phrase is very common in 18th-century poetry. 2.606  the clew  literally the ball of thread, used as a way of getting through a labyrinth or maze, here used figuratively as the instructions for getting to the vault. 2.611  the rude rock  common in 18th-century poetry. 2.618  drear domain  William Mason (1725–97), Caractacus, a Dramatic Poem (London, 1759), 1; Anna Seward (1747–1809), Louisa, A Poetical Novel, 5th edn (London, 1792), 4. 2.625  Saint Benedict  St Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547). He founded the Benedictine Order, a loose confederation of monasteries rather than a single institution, but one held together by the Regula Benedicti (the Rule of St Benedict): see note to 2.336–37. 2.638  Tynemouth’s haughty Prioress  see Note XVI in Notes to Canto Second, 239. 2.659  silken band  Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘The Posie’: ‘I’ll tie the posie round wi’ the silken band o’ luve’; it was published in The Scots Musical Museum, Vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1792), and reproduced in The Works of Robert Burns, ed. James Currie, 4 vols (Liverpool, 1800), 4.324, ALC. 2.660  tresses fair  common in 18th-century poetry. 2.662  slender form  common in 18th-century poetry. 2.664 Beverley a town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, from which the family took its name. 2.665 Fontevraud an order established in 1101 at Fontevraud in the Loire valley in France. It had its own rule which was based upon that of the Regula Benedicti (the Rule of St Benedict), but unusually it accommodated both men and women within the one institution. The Abbey of Fontevraud dates from the early 12th century. 2.672  steady eye  very common in 18th-century poetry. 2.683  murther for a meed  murder for payment. 2.684  but of  except for. 2.695  frock and cowl  long habit with wide sleeves, worn by monks, and a garment with a hood. 2.713  smoky beam  Richard Polwhele (1760–1838), ‘Sir Allan; or, The Knight of Expiring Chivalry’, 6.130, in Poems, 3 vols (London, 1806), 2.157, ALC. 2.721  desperate doubt of grace  in deep despair about whether God will show them mercy.

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explanatory notes

2.730  strange device  common in 16th- and 17th-century literature. 2.734–35  inclose, Alive, within the tomb  see Note XVII in Notes to Canto Second, 239. 2.743  distant rill  William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850), ‘Verses Inscribed to His Grace the Duke of Leeds, and Other Promoters of The Philanthropic Society’, in his Sonnets, and Other Poems, 4th edn (Bath, 1796), 89. 2.746  the sounding surge  James Macpherson (1736–96), Fingal: An Epic Poem (1761), in The Poems of Ossian, ed. Malcolm Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1805), 1.84, ALC. 2.754  the Cheviot peak  the summit of the Cheviot (814 m), the highest of the Cheviot hills that straddle the Anglo-Scottish border. 2.760  high resolve  1 Henry VI, 5.7.75. The phrase is frequently reused in literature. 2.785  The King  Henry VIII (1491–1547), King of England and Ireland from 1509. 2.790  mortal lists  see note to 1.504–18. 2.797  to the block  to the execution block. 2.836  living tomb  Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Orlando furioso, trans. John Hoole, 5 vols (London, 1783), 2.17; see ALC. 2.837  bloody Rome  common in 17th-century polemical literature and found in 18th-century poetry. 2.842  a darker hour ascends  Constance is predicting the Reformation in which the Catholic Church with the Pope as its earthly head was replaced in England by the national Church of England, with the king as head, through a series of acts of Parliament passed between 1532 and 1534. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540 was an aspect of this movement. The expression ‘darker hour’ is found e.g. in John Langhorne (1735–79), Precepts of Conjugal Happiness (London, 1767), 7. 2.868  part in peace  die in peace. See Luke 2.29: the words are spoken by Simeon after he has taken the infant Christ in his arms. 2.877  upper day Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 11.269–70: ‘from the dark dominions speed thy way,/ And climb the steep ascent to upper day’. 2.885  vesper’s heavenly tone  the bell ringing for vespers, a service said or sung towards evening. 2.887  passing knell  ringing of a bell to elicit prayers for a soul as death approaches: Robert Southey (1774–1843), ‘Bishop Bruno’, line 4, in The Annual Anthology (London, 1799), 10: ‘And the sound that it gave was his passing knell’. 2.891  Warkworth cell  in addition to the castle (see note to 2.410) there was a hermitage at Warkworth. It provides the basis of Thomas Percy (1729–1811), The Hermit of Warkworth (London, 1771); see also note to 218.35–36. 2.896  Cheviot Fell  see note to 2.754. 2.898 Listed  listened. This example is cited in the OED. Canto 3 heading  William Erskine  Scott’s closest confidant. Erskine (1768–1822) was an advocate, qualifying in 1790, two years earlier than Scott. Their intimacy probably began when studying German together in autumn 1792; from this point Erskine was regularly consulted by Scott on both personal and literary matters until his sudden death in 1822. 3.4  chequered scene  Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest (London, 1713), line 17: ‘Here waving Groves a checquer’d Scene display’. It was towards the end of the 18th century before the idea of ‘life’s chequered scene’ emerged,



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in e.g. The Letters of the Late Lord Lyttelton, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London, 1785), 2.192: ‘Life becomes a chequered scene of agitation and distress’. 3.7  silver train  Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), Prince Arthur (London, 1695), 156 (Bk 5, 466); see ALC. The phrase first appears in Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion (1613–22), and is used throughout the 18th century. 3.28  Some transient fit of loftier rhyme  a combining of Pope and Milton. The words ‘A transient Fit of fond Desire’ are found in Alexander Pope (1688–1744), ‘Chorus of Youth and Virgins’ (one of ‘Two Chorus’s to the Tragedy of Brutus’), in The Works of John Sheffield . . . Duke of Buckingham, 2nd edn, 2 vols (London, 1729), 1.349, ALC. Pope revised the chorus omitting these words when he published his Works in 1717. The expression ‘lofty rhyme’ is found in John Milton, ‘Lycidas’ (1638), line 11. 3.35–42  Approach those masters . . . harpers rude of barbarous days  Erskine (who was a good classicist) apparently advises Scott to study the masters of English poetry, and not to waste his time on ballads and ballad singers. 3.41  through brake and maze  through thickets and areas where progress cannot be discerned. 3.44  classic rhyme  George Dyer (1755–1841), ‘Ode III. Written in the Cloisters of Christ’s Hospital, in London’, line 27: Poems (London, 1801), 11. 3.46 Brunswick  the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1735–1806), commander-in-chief of the Prussian army defeated by Marshal Davout (1770–1823) at Jena-Auerstädt (14 October 1806). Brunswick lost both eyes and died 10 November. He was the father of the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick (1768–1821), who was, at this period, a friend of Scott’s. 3.51–54  Though martial Austria, . . . Brandenburgh arose  the sense is that although Austria and Russia were banded together in arms, and although France was at war with them all, yet Prussia stood out. The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia had a single ruler from 1618 and the two were known as Brandenburg-Prussia; the Kingdom of Prussia was created from them in 1701. Thus in this context ‘Brandenburgh’ is another name for Prussia. 3.56  quenched in Jena’s stream  on 14 October 1806 the Napoleonic forces defeated Prussia beside the river Saale near Jena in the German state of Thuringia. 3.58  the doom of heaven  [William Falconer (1732–69], The Shipwreck, rev. edn (London, 1764), 113 (Canto 3, lines 650–51, see ALC); Walter Scott, William and Helen, in Poetical Works, 6.306 (first published 1796); Thomas Campbell (1777–1844), The Pleasures of Hope, rev. edn (Edinburgh, 1800), 77 (Part 2, line 368, see ALC); and Robert Southey (1774–1843), Thalaba the Destroyer, 2 vols (London, 1801), 1.299 (Bk 5, line 326), ALC. 3.59  that dragon  i.e. the devil. Napoleon was frequently thought to have been a devil sent to scourge earth for its sins. 3.62  presumptuous hour  [George Ellis (1753–1815)], ‘Lines Written by a Traveller at Czarco-Zelo’, in Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin (London, 1799), 70; see ALC. 3.69–70  princedoms reft . . . birthrights to usurpers  the general sense is that Brunswick witnessed, but could not redress, Napoleon’s habit of removing hereditary rulers and substituting other persons in their place. 3.73  relenting heaven  Richard Polwhele (1760–1838), ‘Sir Allan; or, the Knight of Expiring Chivalry’, in Poems, 3 vols (London, 1806), 2.15, ALC. 3.74  honoured close  John Thelwall (1764–1834), ‘The Seducer’, in Poems on Various Subjects, 2 vols (London, 1787), 1.167 (Canto 5, line 172).

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3.77  breathing fury  Edmund Spenser, ‘The Visions of Bellay’ (1569), line 193; William Mason (1724–97), ‘Il Bellicoso’, in A Collection of Poems . . . by Several Hands, 2nd edn, 4 vols (London, 1770), 3.87, ALC. 3.78 Arminius (17 bc–ad 21), a Germanic chieftain who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in ad 9. The battle had considerable effect at the time (the Romans made no further concerted attempt to subdue Germanic tribes), and in the 19th century Arminius became a symbol of German unity in opposition to other powers. 3.81  the Red-Cross hero  Admiral Sir Sidney Smith (1764–1840). After victory in Egypt in 1799 Napoleon headed north to Acre (now known as Akko) which he regarded as a key fortress from which he could dominate the Middle East and open the overland route to Asia. Smith helped Jezza Pashar, the Ottoman commander, to reinforce the city’s defences against Napoleon; he supplied cannon and marines; he captured the French siege artillery being sent by ship from Egypt; and he bombarded the French army from the sea. The epithet ‘Red-Cross’ suggests that he was a crusader (crusaders wore red crosses on their right shoulder), and recalls the first siege of Acre (1198–91) during the Third Crusade. It also recalls the Redcrosse Knight of the first book of The Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser; the knight represents Holiness and he fights the dragon Errour. 3.82  Dauntless in dungeon  Smith was captured by the French in 1796 and confined in the Temple prison in Paris for two years. He escaped in February 1798. 3.86–87  shattered walls . . . grim Turk  the siege of Acre began on 20 March 1799; in early May Napoleon effected a breach in the walls, but was repulsed in fierce fighting. After suffering many losses Napoleon raised the siege on 20 May. For the expression ‘grim Turk’ see John Arbuthnot (1667–1735), ‘The Masquerade’, in Miscellaneous Works of the late Dr. Arbuthnot, 2 vols (London, 1770), 2.5, ALC. 3.87  besmeared with blood  John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 1.392; but the phrase was very common in 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century literature. 3.88  the Invincible  i.e. Napoleon. 3.89  Or that  the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. It was instigated by Gustav III of Sweden and was mainly fought by naval forces in the Gulf of Finland. Although Britain encouraged Sweden as it hoped the war would hamper Russia’s war against the Turks, it did not participate. Smith served as a volunteer for Sweden but he did not have official approval to engage on the Swedish side. 3.89  thundering voice  the naval engagements which took place in the Gulf of Finland during the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. The phrase is very common in literature from the 16th to the 18th centuries. 3.90  polar lake  the Gulf of Finland; it is bounded by Finland (which was a Swedish territory in 1808) in the north, Russia in the east, and Estonia in the south. Although the Gulf is usually frozen from late November to April, some licence is involved in calling it ‘polar’. 3.92  warped wave  the Gulf is exposed to strong western winds which cause high waves and water surges, but Scott may, alternatively, be referring to ice. 3.94  the father of the fight  General Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734–1801), who led the British expedition to Egypt in 1801, and defeated the French under Napoleon at the Battle of Alexandria (21 March 1801). He was wounded and died a week later.



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3.96  The conqueror’s wreath  the laurel wreath, the reward for victory in Classical times. 3.98  the ancient tragic line  the Shakespearean tradition in tragedy. William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, hence ‘silver Avon’s holy shore’ in line 101. 3.100  wild harp  James Beattie (1735–1803), The Minstrel (London, 1771), 30 (Bk 1, stanza 30). See also note to 1.204. 3.101  silver Avon  common in the second half of the 18th century. It was probably established as a phrase in David Garrick’s celebrations of the bicentenary of the birth of Shakespeare, and thereafter it appears frequently in popular song. 3.103  the bold Enchantress  Joanna Baillie (1762–1851). Her first volume of plays, simply called A Series of Plays but subtitled ‘in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind. Each passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy’ (and hence known as Plays on the Passions) appeared in 1798, and included Count Basil: a Tragedy (on love) and De Monfort: a Tragedy (on hatred). Further volumes appeared in 1802 and 1812. Her tragedies, verse dramas which echo Shakespeare, won her a considerable literary reputation, but are literary rather than dramatic. She was born in Lanarkshire, and settled in London with her mother and brother in 1783. Scott first met her in February 1806. 3.105  From the pale willow snatched the treasure  Joanna Baillie takes over Shakespeare’s harp, hung on a willow tree beside the Avon, while recalling the harps so hung by the Jews during the exile in Babylon (Psalm 137.1–2). For the expression ‘pale willow’ see Ambrose Phillips, ‘The Fourth Pastoral’, in Pastorals (London, 1710). 3.113  more meet  more appropriate. 3.114  thriftless hours  The Faerie Queene, 1.5.51. 3.126  despotic sway  very frequent in 18th-century literature. 3.127  viewless chain  Henry Boyd (d. 1832), The Temple of Vesta, Act 1, Scene 2, in his Poems, Chiefly Dramatic and Lyric (London, 1793), 164. 3.129  the Belgian  an inhabitant of what had been the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. This covered an area comprising the Netherlands S of the Rhine, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of northern France. The country Belgium was created only after its secession from the Netherlands in 1830. 3.130 Batavia the area in the Netherlands around Nijmegen. It was the name used by the Roman Empire for the land of the Batavi who rebelled against Roman rule in ad 69–70. 3.130  sultry sky  most often found in 18th-century translations of Virgil, Ovid, and other Roman poets. 3.132  the mountain gale  John Langhorne (1735–79), Solyman and Almena (London, 1762), 99; William Shenstone (1714–63), ‘Verses in the Gardens of William Shenstone’, in The Works in Verse and Prose, 2 vols (London, 1764), 2.385; Anna Seward (1742–1809), Louisa, a Poetical Novel (Lichfield, 1784), 42. 3.139  rugged cheek  Walter Scott, ‘Thomas the Rhymer’, Part III, in Minstrelsy, 2.291. 3.141  laughing meads  J. Giles, ‘The Robin: an Elegy’, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes (London, 1758), 5.90; see ALC. This collection was frequently reprinted, and the phrase was reused in e.g. Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), The Botanic Garden, 3rd edn (London, 1795), 64 (Canto 2, line 54), ALC. 3.144  gay plains  common in 18th-century literature.

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3.145  verdant screen  John Thelwall (1764–1834), ‘The Tears of the Genii on the Death of Jonas Hanway, Esq.’, in Poems on Various Subjects, 2 vols (London, 1787), 2.191, 198. 3.149  Lochaber’s boundless range  a large area of the western Highlands of Scotland, which includes Ben Nevis (1344m), the highest mountain in Britain, and Loch Garry, 25 km (16 miles) N of Fort William. The loch is 16 km (10 miles) long. The phrase ‘boundless range’ is found in ‘A Poem in Imitation of Milton’, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes (London, 1758), 1.160 (see ALC); and in Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), A Sicilian Romance, 2 vols (London, 1790), 1.12. 3.157  Glow in the line  John Thelwall (1764–1834), ‘The Epic Poem’, 66, in The Peripatetic, 3 vols (London, 1793), 3.64: ‘Some varied Landscape glow in every Line’. 3.157  prompt the lay  in various forms common in 18th-century literature; see e.g. Thomas Blacklock, ‘An Irregular Ode’, in Poems on Several Occasions, 3rd edn (London, 1756), 56, ALC: ‘prompt the chearful lay’. 3.158  that mountain tower  Smailholm Tower, a red sandstone tower house situated on a rocky outcrop in the Scottish Borders, and commanding an extensive view. From 1773–78 Scott lived with his grandparents on the farm of Sandyknowe below the tower. 3.161  heroic song  John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 9.25. 3.162  summer gale  see note to 2.304. 3.163  a softer tale  ‘Verses to a Young Lady’, in The Works of Richard Savage, new edn, 2 vols (London, 1777), 2.168, ALC. 3.165  shepherd’s reed  a very common poetical concept in 17th- and 18th-century literature, reed meaning ‘pipe’. 3.168  barren scene  Anna Seward (1742–1809), ‘Sonnet III. Written at Buxton in a Rainy Season’, in Original Sonnets on Various Subjects (London, 1799), 5. 3.169  naked cliffs  a phrase more common in travel than in imaginative literature: e.g. William Hutchinson, An Excursion to the Lakes (London, 1774), 65. 3.170  ever and anon  every now and then. 3.176  sweetest shade  2 Henry VI, 3.2.324. 3.180  the aged hind  identified by Lockhart as Sandy Ormistoun ‘the Cow-bailie’, i.e. the man in charge of the sheep and cattle on a farm (Life, 1.82). The phrase is found in John Langhorne, The Fables of Flora (London, 1771), 17. 3.182 forayers  Border reivers, lawless men who at the behest of their clan leader would ride into England S of ‘the distant Cheviots blue’ on raids for cattle. Compare note to 1.642. 3.193  Old tales I heard of woe and mirth  in his ‘Memoirs’ Scott describes his grandmother and his aunt’s story-telling: see ‘Memoirs’, Scott on Himself, ed. David Hewitt (Edinburgh, 1981), 13–14. 3.197  Wallace wight  see note to 2.113. 3.197  Bruce the bold  Robert I (1274–1329), King of Scots from 1306, known as Robert the Bruce. He is the most heroic figure in the history of Scotland, for he led the country in its opposition to annexation by England under Edward I, and through his victory at Bannockburn in 1314 established the country as an independent state. His exploits are recorded in John Barbour (1316?–95), The Brus. 3.200–01  Scottish clans . . . swept the scarlet ranks away probably referring to the Jacobite rising of 1745–46 in which Jacobite forces defeated



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government forces with their red uniforms at Prestonpans near Edinburgh and went as far south as Derby. 3.206  the Scottish Lion  heraldic symbol of Scotland. 3.211  grey-haired sire  Scott’s grandfather, Robert Scott (1699–1775). 3.216–17  Whose doom . . . equity unbought  see John Dryden, ‘To My Honoured Kinsman John Driden’ (first published 1700), lines 7–8: ‘Just, good, and wise, contending neighbours come,/ From your award to wait their final doom’ (Scott’s Dryden, 11.75). Scott added a note at the end of the second edition of Marmion saying he had ‘unconsciously borrowed’ these lines. 3.218  the venerable priest  Rev. Dr Alexander Duncan (1708–95), minister of Smailholm from 1743. For a description see ‘Memoirs’, Scott on Himself, ed. David Hewitt (Edinburgh, 1981), 13–14; and Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, new edn, 11 vols (Edinburgh, 1915), 2.162. The phrase venerable priest comes from Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), Prince Arthur (London, 1695), 123; see ALC. 3.229  well-conned task  compare John Ford (1586–c. 1640), The Chronicle Historie of Perkin Warbeck (1634), 5.1.222: ‘The lesson prompted, and well conn’d’. 3.233–34  woodbine twine, . . . the eglantine  compare A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2.1.249–52: ‘I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,/ Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows;/ Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,/ With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.’ 3.243  The livelong day  very common in 18th-century poetry. 3.247  the lowland road  the normal route from Norham to the north was to follow the coast; Marmion’s party goes inland but is not following the established route via Lauder and Soutra Hill. 3.248  Merse forayers  raiders from the Merse, the area between the Lammermuir Hills and the border with England, equivalent to Berwickshire, the eastern part of the Scottish Borders. 3.259  snowy ptarmigan  a grouse found at higher altitudes, with mottled grey-brown and white plumage which changes to white in winter. 3.261  height of Lammermore  Lammer Law, 528 m, 10 km (6 miles) S of the village of Gifford. It gives its name to the range of hills (the Lammermuir Hills) between East Lothian and Berwickshire in SE Scotland which form the northern edge of the Tweed basin. 3.264  Old Gifford’s towers and hamlet  the village of Gifford 6 km (4 miles) S of Haddington in East Lothian; the ‘towers’ are those of Yester Castle, which stood on the left bank of Gifford Water. However ‘Old Gifford’ may refer not to the ancient village, but to the baron who built Yester Castle in the 13th century, Sir Hugo de Giffard. 3.267  the Lord  John Hay, the second Lord Hay of Yester, who was killed at the Battle of Flodden. 3.273  bush and flaggon  the inn sign. Compare the proverb ‘good wine needs no bush’ (ODEP, 326); the ‘bush’ was a bunch of ivy. 3.275  The village inn  see Note I in Notes to Canto Third, 240. 3.291  the tusky boar  The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 11.754; see ALC. 3.298  buckler, lance, and brand  weaponry. A buckler is a small, round shield; a lance consists of a long wooden shaft with a steel or iron tip to be carried on horseback at full charge; and a brand is a sword. 3.304  ranged aside  arranged in a row. 3.315  fresh as May  common in 17th-century poetry. 3.321  India’s fires to Zembla’s frost  a poetic description familiar in the

404

explanatory notes

18th century encompassing extremes of climate and geographical location. See e.g. Dorothea Celesia, Indolence: A Poem (London, 1772), 5: ‘Zembla’s cold Blast, or Afric’s raging Sun’. Nova Zembla is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean belonging to Russia. 3.337  silence drear  Thomas Warton (1728–90), ‘The Pleasures of Melancholy’ (1745), line 151, in The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton, 5th edn, 2 vols (Oxford, 1802), 1.82, ALC. 3.359 Constant the male equivalent of Constance. 3.362  Saint Valentine  an obscure 3rd- or 4th-century saint, considered to be the patron saint of lovers. 3.364  No nightingale her love-lorn tune  love and pain are associated with the nightingale; in Greek myth Philomela, a princess of Athens, was transformed into a nightingale to escape the aggressive attention of Tereus, as told in Book 6 of Metamorphoses, by Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 bc–ad 17). 3.374–75  Such have I heard . . . harvest band  the idea of harvesting as melancholy may owe something to Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Solitary Reaper’, which although first published in 1815 was written in 1805; Scott may have known it. However, Scott is observing harvesting in the lowlands for which Highland workers (the ‘harvest band’) would be hired. 3.382–83  lament of men Who languished for their native glen a reference to emigration from the Highland areas of Scotland in the late 18th century, and the clearances of the early 19th century. 3.385 Susquehana the Susquehanna river, which flows through the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland into the Atlantic. 3.386 Kentucky a landlocked, mideastern state in the USA. 3.386 brake a brake is normally a thicket, but here Scott seems to apply it to an area of unbroken scrubland. 3.387  wild Ontario’s boundless lake  Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes of North America, located between Canada and New York State. 3.398  Eleu loro  no convincing specific meaning has been suggested for this refrain. 3.441  For Lutterward and Fontenaye  see 1.486–87. For here means ‘even if they were compensated by owning’. 3.453 death-peal ‘a tinkling in the ears, which our peasantry in the country regard as a secret intelligence of some friend’s decease’: James Hogg (1770–1835), note on ‘The Pedlar’, The Mountain Bard (Edinburgh, 1807), 25–26; and see Note II in Notes to Canto Third, 240. 3.458  The live-long day  see note to 3.243. 3.475  A fool’s wild speech confounds the wise  proverbial see the Latin proverb ‘Interdum stultus bene loquitur’ (even a fool sometimes speaks to the purpose): Alfred Henderson, Latin Proverbs and Quotations (London, 1869), 183; ODEP, 274. 3.494  he gave secret way  he facilitated, he showed the way. 3.497  to spare his age  to spare his youth. 3.498  other if they deemed  if they thought otherwise. 3.529  on its stalk had left the rose  i.e. left her intact. The rose is commonly used as a symbol of love, and plucking the rose as a symbol of a man’s taking a woman’s virginity. 3.538  Vigil and scourge  penances could involve long sessions of prayer, and the self-application of a whip. 3.549  Loch Vennachar  Loch Venachar, in the W of Stirlingshire. It is the setting for part of Scott’s The Lady of the Lake (1810).



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3.556  future weal, or future woe  a modification of the standard phrase ‘weal or woe’, meaning ‘health and prosperity’, versus ‘misery and misfortune’. 3.567 Alexander Alexander III (1241–86), King of Scots from 1249. 3.570  Sir Hugo  Hugh or Hugo de Giffard (d. 1267). He served as guardian to the young King Alexander III, and built Yester Castle. 3.575 Goblin-Hall Sir Hugo de Giffard was supposed to have built the large vaulted cavern beneath Yester Castle with the help of goblins. It was known locally as Bo’hall or Hobgoblin Hall. See Note III in Notes to Canto Third, 240–41. 3.589  caverns of Dunbar  in his Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, Scott writes of the Castle of Dunbar, located on the rocky coastline of East Lothian: ‘Beneath the reef of rocks which sustains these stern memorials of a warlike age, run several caverns, some of them to a great extent, through which the tide, when in strong current, rages with awful fury.’ (Prose Works, 7.411). 3.594  Norse and Danish galleys  the Scandinavian fleet of King Haakon IV which made an expedition to the west of Scotland in 1263. 3.595  firth of Clyde  an area of sheltered deep water in western Scotland developing from the river of the same name and separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre Peninsula. 3.596 Haco King Haakon IV of Norway (1204–63), who fought Alexander III at the Battle of Largs on 2 October 1263. The battle was inconclusive (although it is usually represented as a victory for Alexander), but Haakon withdrew, and died soon afterwards in Orkney, which was a Norwegian possession until 1469. See Note IV in Notes to Canto Third, 241. 3.600  Bute, Arran, Cunninghame, and Kyle  places in or around the Firth of Clyde. Bute and Arran are islands; Cunninghame and Kyle are historic districts now in Ayrshire. In 1263 the Isle of Bute was taken by Haakon IV, making the Firth of Clyde a border territory. 3.604  wizard habit  see Note V in Notes to Canto Third, 242. 3.608–09  pointed cap . . . Pharaoh’s Magi wore  the Magi are the ‘magicians of Egypt’ on whom Pharaoh calls in Genesis 41.8 and Exodus 7.11. It is not known of whom Scott is thinking when he writes ‘Clerks say’, but the ‘pointed cap’ is not the long black witch’s hat (which originates in the 19th century) but the peaked cap (compared to a pyramid in Note V in Notes to Canto Third, 242) in which, from the 11th century, the Magi (the wise men of the New Testament) are often depicted, and which indicates eastern wisdom and authority: see Sara Lipton, Dark Mirror (New York, 2014), 25–32. 3.610  cross and spell  see Note V in Notes to Canto Third, 242; a spell is a formula or set of words, supposed to possess magical powers. 3.611 pentacle talisman or magical symbol bearing a five-pointed star, or pentagram. See Note VI in Notes to Canto Third, 242. 3.614  many a planetary sign  see Note V in Notes to Canto Third, 242. 3.615  Combust, and retrograde, and trine  astrological terms. Combust denotes a planet that seems to be extinguished by the light of the sun when near it; retrograde describes the apparent backward movement of a planet along its course; and trine denotes ‘the “aspect” of two heavenly bodies which are a third part of the zodiac, i.e. 120°, distant from each other’ (OED). 3.617  sword without a guard  see Note V in Notes to Canto Third, 242. 3.622  upper day  see note to 2.877. 3.626  Unwonted, for traditions run  unusual, so the tradition goes. 3.633  weal or woe  see note to 3.556. 3.636  middle air  John Milton, ‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity’ (1629; published 1645), line 164.

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explanatory notes

3.637  racking cloud  cloud driven before the wind. See 3 Henry VI, 2.1.27. 3.638  wandering star  planet; the phrase is found e.g. in Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Orlando furioso, trans. John Hoole, 5 vols (London, 1783), 3.121; see ALC. 3.644  the deepest nook  Thomas Warton (1728–90), ‘Eclogue the Second’, in Five Pastoral Eclogues (London, 1745), 15; William Julius Mickle, ‘The Sorceress’, in Poems, and a Tragedy (London, 1794), 151. 3.649  that blessed night  Christmas Eve or Good Friday. Scott refers to the ancient belief held in some cultures that persons born on these days can see spirits. See Note VII in Notes to Canto Third, 242. 3.650  yawning graves  common in 18th-century poetry. 3.650  dying groan  very common in 18th-century poetry and drama. 3.651  hell’s empire  Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), Alfred. An Epick Poem (London, 1723), 4. 3.657 Cœur-de-Lion  Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart (1157–1199). 3.658  tide what tide  whatever betide, whatever happens. 3.662 Malcolm Malcolm III, King of Scots 1058–93, known as Canmore, or Big Head. He was a warlike king, but his vigorous rule established a territorially defined Scotland, while his second marriage, to Margaret, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside (d. 1016), King of England, and grand-niece of Edward the Confessor (King of England 1042–66), aligned Scottish politics with those of Norman England. 3.671  Saint George to speed  may St George assist you. 3.680  Pictish race  a people who lived north of the Forth and who flourished from about ad 500 to 900. The round fort in which Alexander and later Marmion fight would, therefore, not be Pictish, but would be an earlier, iron-age settlement; this was not known in Scott’s time. 3.686–87  woe betide . . . night  i.e. the fellow who wanders into the circle at night will get into trouble. 3.690  the four points of heaven  the four directions of the compass, north, south, east and west. It is a recurring biblical phrase: e.g. ‘And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven’ (Jeremiah 49:36). 3.695  England’s King  Edward I (1239–1307), King of England from 1272. 3.697  In Palestine waged holy war  Edward led the Ninth Crusade in Palestine, leaving in 1270, returning in 1274 two years after the death of his father Henry III. 3.699  the leopards in the shield  i.e. the coat of arms of the English monarch. The three animals look out and are therefore called leopards. 3.701  length of limb  Edward was very tall for his time (1.9m), and was nicknamed ‘Longshanks’ (Long Legs). 3.703  Fell Edward  cruel, ruthless Edward. Edward used dynastic uncertainty in Scotland following the death of Alexander III in 1286 to establish himself as overlord. He invaded in 1296, and achieved an apparently successful conquest in 21 weeks, but a guerilla war under Sir William Wallace was waged 1297–98. Edward reconquered and annexed Scotland in the years following, placing Englishmen in most public offices. Armed resistance began again in 1305, and Edward was too ill to achieve his aims and died in 1307. 3.714 Largs the battle of Largs (a coastal town in Ayrshire), fought in 1263 by the forces of Alexander III and Haakon IV of Norway. Neither side can be said to have won, but Haakon’s withdrawal, and Scotland’s purchase



explanatory notes

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of the Western Isles, led to the Battle of Largs being represented in Scottish mythology as a great victory. 3.716  the Danish war  Haakon was King of Norway, not Denmark. Scott’s mistake may have two causes: the Vikings came from both Norway and Denmark, and from 1397 to 1814 Denmark and Norway were united in the Kalmar Union. 3.721  Denmark’s grim ravens  the raven banner was reportedly depicted on the banners of Viking warriors; it appeared on the sail of their long ships and was the emblem on the Danish standard. The Vikings revered the bird which had a prominent place in Norse mythology as the device of Odin, god of war. 3.725–29  northern war . . . vanquished shore  probably a reference to the second Battle of Copenhagen 2–5 September 1807 in which the British bombarded the city (the weaponry included rockets which created fires), and destroyed the Danish fleet. Scott had completed Canto 3 by 12 November 1807 (see Essay on the Text, 298). 3.739 start  Scots probably a noun generated from the verb start meaning to ride a horse at full speed. 3.740  Dunfermline’s nave  Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, where Alexander III was buried. 3.744  elfin warrior  for accounts of elfin warriors see Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 243–45. 3.746  proved his chance  tried his luck. 3.748  foully sped  fared badly. 3.750  Wallace wight, and Gilbert Hay  Sir William Wallace (d. 1305) and Sir Gilbert Hay of Erroll (d. 1333). Wight means ‘strong’ or ‘brave’, especially in battle; see note to 2.113. Wallace led the uprising against Edward I in 1297–98, and is one of the heroes of Scottish history. Hay supported King Robert I (the Bruce) in his fight against Edward I, and after the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) was made Hereditary High Constable of Scotland. 3.751  Gentles, my tale is said  compare ‘my tale is at an ende’ and ‘my tale is doon’ which are ubiquitous in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, as is the address ‘gentil’. 3.771  ring or glove  both forms of tilting. For the ring see note to 1.427; the precise nature of tilting at a glove has not been determined. In the ballad ‘The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray’ the Earl plays at both ‘the ring’ and ‘the glove’. 3.776  nodding plume  Luis de Camōes (1524–80), The Lusiad, trans. William Julius Mickle (London, 1776), 79 (Bk 2, line 742), ALC. 3.788  prating knaves  John Taylor (1578–1653), Taylors Farewell, to the Tower-bottles ([London], 1622), A3v. 3.799  A weary wight forlorn  see William Julius Mickle (1735–88), ‘Sir Martyn: A Poem, in the Manner of Spencer’, 2.519, in Poems, and a Tragedy (London, 1794), 90: ‘this weary Wight all woe-begone’. See also Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844), ‘Sonnet XVIII’, lines 4–5, in his Sonnets and Odes (London, 1788), 24: ‘a wand’ring wight/ Forlorn’. A wight is a living being, but the epithets have supernatural connotations. 3.807  empty race  Thomas James Mathias (1754–1835), The Grove (London, 1789?), 12 (line 75). An entry in the index to Samuel Johnson’s Works of the English Poets, 75 vols (London, 1790), reads ‘Coxcombs, an ever empty race’ (74.109), whereas Gay actually wrote ‘Coxcombs, an ever-noisy race’: ‘The Lyon and the Cub’, in Fables (London, 1727), 60; see ALC. 3.808  dashing waters  Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), Prince Arthur (London, 1695), 280, see ALC. 3.809  the green oak  a sacred tree: it was associated with fairies (‘Fairy

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folks/ Are in old oaks’); and green is the fairy colour, particularly in Celtic cultures. See ‘Oakmen’ and ‘Dress and appearance of the fairies’, in Katharine Briggs A Dictionary of Fairies (Harmondsworth, 1976). 3.809  wheel their ring  a round dance. Elves and fairies were supposed to dance rounds (dancing was a fairy activity), and to leave the darker rings seen in damp grass. 3.816  Pictish camp  see note to 3.680. 3.819  so wary held  believed to be so careful. 3.830  fond credulity  Samuel Johnson (1709–84), London: A Poem (1738), line 112. 3.839  In other pace  at a different speed. Canto 4 heading  James Skene  of Rubislaw in Aberdeen (1775–1854). He met Scott in 1794 when Scott was learning German (in which Skene was proficient), and they became close friends. 4.1  ancient minstrel  Shakespeare, but perhaps Scott refers to the anonymous author of the lost song referred to in the next note. 4.2  Where is the life which late we led? see The Taming of the Shrew, 4.1.126: ‘Where is the life that late I led?’ It appears to be a fragment of a lost song, sung by Petruccio, and quoted by Pistol in 2 Henry IV, 5.3.139. 4.3–4  motley clown . . . Jaques  see As You Like It, 2.7.12–13: ‘A fool, a fool, I met a fool i’th’ forest,/ A motley fool’. 4.7–8  Eleven years . . . known each other well  Scott wrote these lines in November 1807; 1797 to 1807 inclusive amounts to 11 years. 4.10  voluntary brand  a brand is a sword. Scott and Skene were volunteers (hence voluntary), joining the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoon Guards on its formation in 1797. 4.11  varied scene  James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Autumn’, line 1265, in The Seasons, quarto edn (London, 1730), 188 (see ALC): ‘the mind,/ The varied scene of quick-compounded thought’. The phrase (with varying scene) became very common in 18th-century verse. 4.13  winged years  a translation of ‘fugaces . . . anni’: Horace (65–8 bc), Ode 2.14, 1–2. The exact phrase is found in John Leyden, ‘Melancholy. Written in 1798’, in Poetical Remains (London, 1819), 16. For Leyden see note to the Title-page. 4.15  like all below  like everything that lives below the heavens. 4.16  chequered shades  see John Milton, ‘L’Allegro’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), line 96; it is common in 18th-century literature, but it is normally used literally. 4.17  Though thou o’er realms and seas hast ranged  in 1791 Skene was sent to Hanau, near Frankfurt, to further his education; and in 1802 he went back to Europe following the Treaty of Amiens, travelling through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy all the way to Sicily, and returning through France. 4.30  When leisure graver cares denied  i.e. when graver cares prevented leisure. Scott made reasonable progress on the poem until June 1807; in July and the first half of August he was wholly distracted by the bankruptcy of his brother Tom who had appropriated funds belonging to the Marquis of Abercorn. See Essay on the Text, 295–96. 4.37  Blackhouse Heights, and Ettricke Pen  two high hills in the upper reaches of the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys respectively. 4.40  the banks of Tweed  Ashestiel is on the S side of the River Tweed. 4.45  thou with pencil  Skene was a very talented amateur artist, with particular skill in drawing.



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4.55–97  When red . . . break his rest  see Note I in Notes to Canto First, 209–10, and compare the parallel tale in James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Winter’, lines 276–321, in The Works of James Thomson, 2 vols (London, 1762), 1.172–74, ALC. 4.55  the beamless sun  Richard Polwhele (1760–1838), ‘Dunhevid: An Ode’, in his Poetic Trifles (London, 1796), 11. 4.56  heavy vapours  The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 4.316; see ALC. 4.68  flaky snow  James Macpherson (1736–96), ‘Carthon: a Poem’, in Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, 2nd edn (London, 1762), 131; see ALC. 4.69  hardy swain  William Somervile (1675–1742), Hobbinol, or the Rural Games, 3rd edn (London, 1740), 11, ALC. 4.89–91  Close to the hut . . . stiffened swain  see Note I in Notes to Canto Fourth, 245–46. 4.93  feeble wail  James Beattie (1735–1803), ‘The Hares. A Fable’, in Original Poems and Translations (London, 1760), 50; see ALC. 4.95 Yarrow  apparently a common name for a dog: compare Walter Scott, ‘Alarming Increase of Depravity among Animals’, in The Shorter Fiction, ed. Graham Tulloch and Judy King, eewn 24 (Edinburgh, 2009), 32–42. 4.99  rural cot  common in 18th-century literature. 4.100  summer couch  William Wordsworth (1770–1850), ‘Inscription For the House (and Outhouse) on the Island at Grasmere’ (1800), line 21. 4.100  greenwood tree  As You Like It, 2.5.1. The phrase occurs in the first line of the archetypal pastoral poem: ‘Under the greenwood tree/ Who loves to lie with me,/ And turn his merry note/ Unto the sweet bird’s throat,/ Come hither, come hither, come hither./ Here shall he see/ No enemy/ But winter and rough weather.’ 4.104  crook, his scrip, his oaten reed  i.e. shepherd’s stick for guiding sheep, his bag, and his musical pipe consisting of an oat straw. The expression ‘oaten reed’ is very common in 17th- and 18th-century literature. 4.105  all Arcadia’s golden creed  the idea of the golden age which was peopled by shepherds playing music and singing songs to their beloved. Arcadia is thus a mythical place, but it was originally a real area in the Peloponnese (the southern part of Greece). 4.107  varying scene  see note to 4.11. 4.108  youthful summer  Michael Bruce (1746–67), ‘Daphnis: A Monody’, in Poems on Several Occasions (Edinburgh, 1770), 26. 4.109  Dance by on wings of game and glee  compare Thomas Gray (1716–71), ‘Ode on the Spring’ (1742), lines 25–26: ‘The insect youth are on the wing,/ Eager to taste the honeyed spring’ (see ALC). The expression ‘game and glee’ is common in 18th-century literature. 4.112  ancient Chief of Troy  in Greek legend and in Homer’s The Iliad, Priam was King of Troy (in what is modern Turkey), which enjoyed peaceful prosperity until attacked by the Greeks. 4.118  beloved of heaven  a seemingly familiar phrase, probably because of the collocation of heaven and beloved in ‘there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son’ (Mark 1.11). Beloved of heaven is not common, and tends to appear in translations and in literature set in distant eras or exotic places. 4.119  the mingled cup  very common in religious literature of the 18th century; see Isaac Watts (1674–1748), Psalm 102, in The Psalms of David (London, 1719), 260: ‘My Cup is mingled with my Woes’ (verse 7). Watt’s work was reprinted more than 30 times in the 18th century.

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4.122  such a lot, my Skene, was thine  Skene married Jane (1787–1862), youngest child of Sir William Forbes (1739–1806) on 11 September 1806; Sir William died on 12 November. 4.125  cypress with the myrtle  emblems of mourning, and of love. 4.128  joyous cheer  The Faerie Queene, 1.8.26; Matthew Prior (1664–1721), Colin’s Mistakes: Written in Imitation of Spenser’s Style (London, 1721), 4 (stanza 7). 4.129  filial tear  Isaac Watts (1674–1748), ‘To the dear Memory of . . . Thomas Gunston’, in Horae Lyricae (London, 1706), 226. The phrase became common in 18th-century literature. 4.132–33  Scarce had lamented Forbes . . . Minstrel’s shade Forbes wrote a two-volume biography of his friend, the poet and philosopher James Beattie (1735–1803): An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie (Edinburgh, 1806). Beattie’s most famous poem, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius, in two books, appeared in 1771 and 1774. ‘Forbes’ is a disyllabic name, pronounced For-bes. See Note II in Notes to Canto Fourth, 246. 4.136–47  Far may we search . . . the orphan’s stay  Forbes, a banker and head of the house of Sir William Forbes and Co., was a noted philanthropist; apart from his private generosity the ‘charity workhouse, Orphans’ Hospital, Maidens’ Hospital, Watson’s Hospital, Gillespie’s Hospital, Royal Infirmary, lunatic asylum, asylum for blind people, and Royal High School all benefited by him, as instigator or money raiser’ (ODNB). 4.141  bitter tide  Mark Akenside (1721–70), The Pleasures of the Imagination (London, 1744), 61 (Bk 2, line 680). 4.142  grateful dew  see Alexander Pope, ‘Winter’, line 45, in Pastorals (London, 1709); see ALC. 4.145  The Almighty’s attributed name  i.e. the names given to God in 4.147. 4.147  The widow’s shield, the orphan’s stay  see Psalm 146.9 in the metrical version in the Scottish Psalter: ‘The stranger’s shield, the widow’s stay,/ the orphan’s help is he’. The verbal switch to ‘the orphan’s stay’ is first recorded in James Thomson (1700–48), ‘On the Death of his Mother’; although this poem must have been written in 1725 (she died on 12 May), it was not published until 1792. 4.151  Thy father’s friend forget thou not  see Proverbs 27.10: ‘Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not’. 4.157–60  our summer walks . . . unbounded hills  ‘during his residence at Ashestiel I never failed to pass part of the season with him . . . We spent some hours riding at random over the hills . . . We traversed the entire vale of the Ettrick . . . The course of the Yarrow had also its full share of these rambling excursions’: James Skene, Memories of Sir Walter Scott (London, 1909), 29–31. 4.170  spelling o’er  reading, slowly and with difficulty. 4.172  Tirante by name, ycleped the White  Tirant called the White. Scott possessed a French version, Histoire du Vaillant Chevalier Tiran le Blanc ([Paris], 1737), ALC, and it was probably this that he was reading rather than the original, which is in Catalan. Tiran lo Blanch, a romance by Joanot Martorell (1413–68), and finished by his friend Martí Joan de Galba (d. 1490), was published in Valencia in 1490. The story concerns Tiran, a knight from Brittany, who is invited by the Byzantine emperor to help defend the empire against the Ottoman Turks; Tirant defeats the Turkish invaders, and saves the Empire (even although Byzantium actually fell in 1453).



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4.173  trusty squire  a common phrase used in The Faerie Queene, 2.1.17, but most famously applied to Sancho Panza in Don Quixote. 4.174  Pandour and Camp  dogs. Presumably Pandour belonged to Skene. Camp, a bull terrier, was Scott’s; he appears in Henry Raeburn’s two portraits of Scott the poet (1808, 1809), one of which is in the Buccleuch collection and the other at Abbotsford. Camp died in 1809. 4.174  eyes of fire  see note to 1.395. 4.180  dewy fragrance  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), ‘To Robert Southey’, line 7, first published in The Morning Chronicle, 14 January 1795: ‘Rich showers of dewy fragrance’. 4.181–82  Not Ariel lived . . . the blossomed bough see The Tempest, 5.1.93–94, where, just before being freed, Ariel sings: ‘Merrily, merrily shall I live now/ Under the blossom that hangs on the bough’. 4.186  wild blast  see Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘Song’, in Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1787), 242: ‘The gloomy night is gath’ring fast,/ Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast’ (ALC); William Collins, An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands (London, 1788), 22. 4.188  lovely lay  Edmund Spenser, Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (London, 1595), line 97: ‘Record to us that lovely lay againe’. The phrase was very popular in the 18th century. 4.190  quaff the sparkling bowl  see Dryden’s translation of Persius, 5.264, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (London, 1693), 71: ‘when sparkling bowls go round’ (Scott’s Dryden, 13.260). And compare John Dryden, The Æneis, 8.363, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 445: ‘Fill high the goblets with a sparkling flood’ (Scott’s Dryden, 15.11). The phrase is very common in 18th-century literature, and bowls are frequently quaffed, but the most famous example is Thomas Gray, ‘Fill high the sparkling bowl’, ‘The Bard’, line 77, in Odes, by Mr. Gray (London, 1757). 4.191  he, whose absence we deplore  Colin Mackenzie (1770–1830), a friend who contributed ‘Ellandonan Castle’ to the second edition of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 3 vols (London, 1803), 3.374–79. He too had married a daughter of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo. He was seriously ill in 1807, and, it may be presumed, was in Devon for his health. 4.194  dear-loved R——  Lockhart identifies him as Sir William Rae (1769–1842), another advocate and another member of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons (Poetical Works, 7.184). 4.195  one whose name I may not say  identified by James Skene as Sir William Forbes (1773–1828), who, Skene writes, was Scott’s ‘early and much-loved friend, his brother trooper, and one of those intimates to whom that Canto especially refers’ (Memories of Sir Walter Scott (London, 1909), 16). Skene specifically says that Lockhart is wrong in saying that Scott refers to Forbes’s brother John Hay Forbes, later Lord Medwyn (Poetical Works, 7.184). 4.196–97  Mimosa’s tender tree Shrinks  touching the leaves of some varieties of mimosa causes the leaves to curl up. The expression ‘tender tree’ is common in 18th-century literature, and is found in John Dryden, ‘Pastoral III’, line 130, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 15: ‘the Sallow’s tender tree’ (Scott’s Dryden, 13.383). 4.198  merry chorus  compare the chorus to the traditional song which goes ‘three merry men,/ And three merry men,/ And three merry men we be’. 4.199  drowned the whistling wind see Macbeth, 1.7.25: ‘tears shall drown the wind’. 4.200  Mirth was within; and Care, without  for the contrast between

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mirth and care compare Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ (1791), lines 37–58 and 143–44. 4.205  arching crest  Robert Southey (1774–1843), ‘Rudiger’, lines 17, 117, in Poems (Bristol, 1797), 188, 194. 4.206  Mad Tom  the name and character taken by Edgar when in hiding, in King Lear. 4.207  horse to ride, and weapon wear see King Lear (folio text), 3.4.129. 4.209  sober tame  Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), Robinson Crusoe (1719), ed. J. Donald Crowley (London, 1972), 226: Friday says ‘you teach wild Mans be good sober tame Mans’. 4.210–11  though the field-day . . . less important now  although the volunteer forces were not disbanded until the end of the war there was now little likelihood of invasion because of the defeat of the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805). 4.213  sprightly thought  George, Lord Lyttelton (1709–73), ‘Part of an Elegy of Tibullus’, line 64, in The Works of George Lord Lyttelton, 3rd edn, 3 vols (London, 1776), 3.124. 4.217  merry lark  in the version of Chaucer’s ‘Knight’s Tale’ reworked by Dryden the ‘merie larke’ is ‘messanger of the daie’: Fables Ancient and Modern (London, 1700), 579. This is also the reading in The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. John Urry (London, 1721), 12, ALC. Modern editions read ‘bisy larke’: ‘The Knight’s Tale’, in The Canterbury Tales, 1 (A), 1491. The phrase ‘merry lark’ is found quite often in 18th-century poems read by Scott; e.g. William Somervile (1675–1742), The Chace, 3rd edn (London, 1735), 9 (Bk 1, line 132); see ALC. 4.228  By Becket’s bones  oath; see note to 1.738. 4.237 Bevis  named after the legendary Bevis of Hampton (Southampton), hero of a number of medieval romances. 4.245–46  Better . . . Friar Rush  the overall meaning of the lines is that ‘we would have been better off being misled by a comic devil like Friar Rush than be guided by the Palmer’. The phrase lanthorn-led means ‘led by a will o’ the wisp’: see John Milton, ‘L’Allegro’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), line 104. A will o’ the wisp is a thing that deludes or misleads by means of fugitive appearances, and is associated with ignis fatuus which is the Latin name for burning marsh-gas. Scott seems to have taken from Milton the idea that Rush and his lantern were the will o’ the wisp, but in the anonymous The Historie of Frier Rvsh: how he came to a house of Religion to seeke seruice (London, 1620), Rush is a disguised demon who gains access to a monastery where he generates mayhem. See Note III in Notes to Canto Fourth, 246; see also Katherine Briggs, ‘Friar Rush’, in A Dictionary of Fairies (Harmondsworth, 1976). 4.258  Passed them as accidents of course  dismissed them as normal accidents. 4.267–68  conjuring band . . . blazing brand  a group who could perform an exorcism, in this case a group who carry the English flag (the St George’s cross), and a burning torch (‘blazing brand’). For ‘Blazing brand’, a poetic version of ‘blazing torch’, see Dryden’s translation of the Aeneid (12.451), and Pope’s of The Iliad (8.221), and The Odyssey (19.84). 4.270  infernal home  M. G. (‘Monk’) Lewis (1775–1818), The Minister: A Tragedy. In Five Acts. Translated from the German of Schiller (London, 1797), 187. The phrase is a development from the extremely common ‘eternal home’, itself a way of talking about God as in the hymn by Isaac Watts (1674–1748) ‘O God, our help in ages past,/ . . . And our eternal home’.



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4.281  shewing forth  showing, indicating. 4.284  Through Humbie’s and through Saltoun’s wood  a stretch of woodland between the villages of East and West Saltoun and Humbie, 7 km (4 miles) W of Gifford, and 9 km (6 miles) SW of Haddington in East Lothian. 4.291  high chivalry  ideal chivalry; the phrase is found in romances such as Emanuel Ford, The Most Famous, Delectable, and Pleasant Historie of Parismus, Part 2 (1599), Ch. 10 (see ALC); some translations of Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part 2 (1615), Ch. 35 (see ALC); and as ‘high-soul’d chivalry’ in Luis de Camōes (1524–80), The Lusiad, trans. William Julius Mickle (London, 1776), 252 (Bk 6, line 378), ALC. 4.303  romantic tome  book containing medieval or Renaissance romance or romances. 4.306 Caxton  William Caxton (d. 1492), the first Englishman to print books, bringing a printing press to England from the continent probably in 1476. Caxton published many chivalric romances: the first was The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (1473 or 1474); the most important was Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (1485). 4.306  De Worde  Wynkyn de Worde (d. 1535), a printer, probably of German origin, who worked with Caxton, taking over the printing business after Caxton’s death in 1492. 4.314  point of war  musical signal for war. 4.330  Scotland’s royal scutcheon  the royal badge or device, consisting of a red lion rampant with a blue tongue, on a gold background with a fleur-delys border. 4.332  Bute, Islay, Marchmount, Rothsay  Scottish heraldry official titles of 4 of the 11 officers of arms subordinate to the Lord Lyon King of Arms (see note to 4.335). The heraldic titles of the Bute Pursuivant, Islay Herald, Marchmont Herald, and Rothesay Herald originated in the 15th century. 4.333  painted tabards  official dress of heralds or pursuivants, being coats open at the sides with short sleeves, emblazoned (hence painted) with the arms of the sovereign. 4.334  Gules, argent, or, and azure glowing  heraldic colours: gules is red; argent silver; or gold; and azure blue. 4.335  a King-at-arms  the chief herald of a college of arms; this one is the Lord Lyon King of Arms, chief heraldic officer in Scotland, holding judicial powers, and answering directly to the Sovereign. He was called Lyon King because of the lion rampant in the royal arms which was emblazoned on his tabard. See also Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48. 4.336  armorial truncheon  heraldic staff, the symbol of office. 4.345  satiric rage  either anger expressing itself in satire or satiric inspiration. Scott describes Sir David Lyndsay (see note to 4.368–69), poet and playwright, a version of whose satiric work, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, may have been performed in 1540; the full version was first played in 1552. The satire, directed at all three of the Estates (the church, the nobility, and the representatives of the royal burghs) which constituted the Scottish Parliament, was considered in Scott’s day to have helped to bring about the Reformation in Scotland. See Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48. The expression ‘satiric rage’ is found e.g. in ‘New Morality’, line 16 (‘Pope’s satiric rage’), Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin (London, 1799), 220; see ALC. The poem was a joint composition by George Canning, John Hookham Frere, William Gifford, and George Ellis. 4.348  the keys of Rome  i.e. the power of the Papacy. The coat of arms of

414

explanatory notes

the Pope includes crossed keys representing the keys of the kingdom of heaven as promised by Jesus to St Peter in Matthew 16.19. 4.350  cap of maintenance  headgear worn as a symbol of official or high rank. 4.353–54  housings . . . With Scotland’s arms, device, and crest silk covering decorated with the full version of Scotland’s royal coat of arms. This consists of the badge or device (a red lion rampant with a blue tongue, on a gold background with a fleur-de-lis border), the crest which is the part of the coat of arms above the helmet; it sits above the helm and depicts the red lion, forward facing, sitting on the crown of Scotland, and carrying the sceptre and the sword of state. There are also the supporters, for which see note to 4.358–59. 4.356  double tressure  heraldry a double border inset from the edge of a shield, as in the royal arms of Scotland, where the double tressure is enriched with fleurs-de-lys pointing alternately inwards and outwards. 4.357 Achaius  supposedly the 65th King of Scots (that is King of Dál Riata), who ruled 788–819. In Note XII in Notes to Canto Fourth, 253–54, Scott says that, according to the 16th-century Scottish historians Hector Boethius (Hector Boece, c. 1465–1536) and George Buchanan (1506–82), he was the first king to assume the Scottish arms. The arms with tressure appear in his portrait in the series begun in 1684 in the Great Gallery in Holyrood Palace (see note to 1.680) by the Dutch artist Jacob de Wet II (1641–97). See also note to 253.35. 4.358–59  The thistle, and the fleur-de-lis, And silver unicorn  components of the Scottish royal arms. There is a collar of thistles encircling the device (a red lion rampant, on a gold field, within a double red tressure as described in the note to 4.356, ornamented with fleurs-de-lys). The device is supported by the ‘silver unicorn’ (there are two, one on each side), having the head and body of a horse, a twisted horn projecting from the centre of the forehead, a beard, cloven hooves, and a lion’s tail. Different parts of the full coat of arms emerged at different times; e.g. the collar of thistles was first included in the Royal Arms during the reign of Charles II. 4.367  And still thy verse has charms  Lyndsay’s poetry remained popular, unlike that of his near-contemporaries. Scott refers in Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48, to a new edition, The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, ed. George Chalmers (1742–1825), which was published in 1806. 4.368–69  Sir David Lindesay of the Mount, Lord Lion King-atarms!  Lyndsay (c. 1486–1555) held lands in the Mount, outside Cupar in Fife, as well as in Garleton, near Haddington in East Lothian. In 1512 he was appointed an usher to the future James V (1512–42; king from 1513), Snowdon herald in 1530, and Lyon King (for which see note to 4.335) in 1542. See Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48. 4.374  Whom royal James himself had crowned  as Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48, explains, the monarch used to crown the Lyon King. 4.376  Scotland’s ancient diadem  the crown of Scotland. The ‘ancient diadem’ is an historically accurate detail, distinguishing the crown that would have been used during James IV’s reign from that which is now amongst the crown jewels kept in Edinburgh Castle. In his ‘Regalia of Scotland’, Scott defends his idea that the diadem in the royal crown is ‘unquestionably of a date more ancient’ than the arches, ball and cross that now adorn it, which were added by James V (Prose Works, 7.298). Scott argues that the diadem probably dates from the time of Robert the Bruce (1273–1329). 4.377  wet his brow with hallowed wine  the installation of the king-



explanatory notes

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at-arms took place with great state and was not unlike a royal coronation, the most sacred part of which is the anointing, i.e. placing consecrated oil on the brow, hands and heart. In Note IV in Notes to Canto Fourth, 247–48, Scott observes that the inauguration of the Lyon King mimicked a royal coronation, except that he was anointed with wine rather than oil. 4.379  The emblematic gem  the coronation ring. It is not known whether there was a Scottish coronation ring, but as the Stuart coronation ring in the possession of HM the Queen probably dates back to Charles I, it is possible that a coronation ring was an emblem of majesty in both England and Scotland. It is not one of the crown jewels because it is the personal possession of the monarch. 4.384–85  hath forbid resort From England to his royal court  whether there is historical warrant for this is not known; however in 1586 James VI (1566–1625), who had assumed direct rule in 1585 after the succession of regents who ruled in his childhood, refused to allow Sir Robert Carey (1560–1639) to enter Scotland, and so prevented him from delivering a message from Queen Elizabeth which explained her innocence in the decision to execute Mary Queen of Scots. Scott’s edition of Carey’s Memoirs was published in November 1808. 4.403  Lady Heron  Elizabeth Heron, wife of Sir William Heron: see note to 1.600. 4.403  witching eyes  ‘Criticisms on the Rolliad’, 6, November 1784, in An Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, new edn (London, 1785), 273, ALC; and compare Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘A Prayer. In the Prospect of Death’, line 11, in Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Kilmarnock, 1786), 169, ALC: ‘Thou hast formed me,/ With Passions wild and strong;/ And list’ning to their witching voice/ Has often led me wrong.’ See also notes to 4.565, and 6.333. 4.404 Marchmount see note to 4.332. 4.406–07  The right-hand path . . . the Tyne  they reject (‘decline’) the right-hand path which leads to Edinburgh, and turn up the river Tyne: its source is in Midlothian, but it flows mainly through East Lothian in a NE direction into the North Sea. 4.409 Crichtoun-Castle  now a massive ruin on the bank of the River Tyne in Midlothian, about 16 km (10 miles) SE of Edinburgh. It was the residence of the Crichtons passing to the Hepburns of Hailes, Earls of Bothwell, in 1484. 4.415  dark and deep  a very common literary expression. 4.418–20  towers in different ages . . . various hands  a tower-house was built in the late 14th century, followed by a keep in the early 15th. There were further additions in the 15th and 16th centuries, including a decorative Italianate façade in 1585. 4.423  Douglas bands  Crichton Castle was attacked a number of times by the Douglases. Conflict between the powerful Crichton and the Douglas families lasted many years after the murder of James I in 1437 and the execution of the 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother in 1440, allegedly on the advice of Sir William Crichton, the Chancellor (d. 1454). See Note V in Notes to Canto Fourth, 248–49, and Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland (Prose Works, 7.188–94). 4.430  Scutcheons of honour, or pretence  arms given to commemorate some noble action, or small coats of arms in the centre of a larger one in which a man carries the arms of his wife if she herself is the family heiress. 4.431  Quartered in old armorial sort  divided into quarters in the traditional heraldic way.

416

explanatory notes

4.432  rude magnificence  Sir Richard Blackmore (1654–1729), King Arthur (London, 1697), 33 (1.928); see ALC. 4.435–36  stony cord . . . roses laced  decorative stone cordage; in The Provincial Antiquities Scott writes the ‘soffits of this staircase have been ornamented with cordage and rosettes, carved in freestone’ (Prose Works, 7.190). The part of the castle he describes in lines 433–44 is the late 16th-century extension. 4.447  Massy More  or Massamore, the principal dungeon of a feudal castle, probably deriving from the Spanish mazmorra, and brought into wider use through Scott. See Note V in Notes to Canto Fourth, 248–49, and note to 249.19–22. 4.449  undulating line  an expression from landscape gardening. In Observations on the River Wye (London, 1782), 63, William Gilpin (1724–84) writes: ‘it is common to fetch our images from water, and to apply them to land. We talk of an undulating line, a playing lawn, a billowy surface.’ 4.463–64  Earl Adam Hepburn . . . sovereign’s side  the second Earl of Bothwell (d. 1513), who was killed at the battle of Flodden where he distinguished himself sufficiently to be mentioned in the poem The Battle of Floddon Field; A Poem of The Sixteenth Century, ed. Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1808), 111 (lines 2122–30). See Note VI in Notes to Canto Fourth, 249–50. 4.465  Long may his Lady look in vain  compare the ballad ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray’, in Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), The Tea-table Miscellany, 13th edn, 4 vols in 1 (Edinburgh, 1762), 357, ALC: ‘Oh! lang will his lady/ Look o’er the castle Down,/ Ere she see the Earl of Murray/ Come sounding thro’ the town.’ 4.467 Crichtoun-Dean  the castle estate. 4.468  a brave race  Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) and John Fletcher (1579–1625), Loves Cure; or, The Martial Maid (published 1647), 4.2.260. 4.469  hated Bothwell  James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell (1535–78). He lived a turbulent life. In 1566 his familiarity with Mary Queen of Scots (1542–87) aroused suspicion and distrust, leading an English commentator to call him ‘the most hated man among the noblemen in Scotland’. He was involved in the murder on 10 February 1567 of Mary’s husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley (1546–67). On 24 April he abducted and raped the Queen; they married on 15 May. On 26 June evidence of his complicity in the murder emerged; he fled from justice. He was eventually captured in Bergen, and taken to Copenhagen where he died in prison in 1578. 4.475 Borough-moor  an open common on the S side of Edinburgh, which incorporated the present Meadows and stretched S as far as the Braid Hills. See Note X in Notes to Canto Fourth, 252. 4.484  the lore of Rome, and Greece  the teachings, or the body of knowledge, belonging to the Greco-Roman cultures in classical antiquity. The sentence does not imply knowledge of Latin and Greek which would have been improbable for a knight in 1513. 4.490  the Herald-bard  i.e. Sir David Lyndsay, who was both herald and poet. 4.493  For that because. 4.493–95  a messenger from heaven . . . the English war  James IV is said to have seen a vision of St John (in some accounts St Andrew) who said he had been sent by the Virgin Mary to warn him against his plans to invade England. Both Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie (c. 1532–c. 1586) and George Buchanan (1506–82) say that Sir David Lyndsay witnessed the event: see next note.



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4.497  chronicles of old  see Pitscottie, 172–73; George Buchanan (1506–82), The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 2.133, ALC. See also Note VII in Notes to Canto Fourth, 250–51. It seems likely that Buchanan’s tale is derived from Pitscottie. 4.498c  Sir David Lindesay’s Tale  what follows is an elaborated version of the story as told by Pitscottie (see note to 4.497, and Note VII in Notes to Canto Fourth, 250–51). 4.502 Linlithgow  the Palace of Linlithgow, 25 km (16 miles) W of Edinburgh. It was begun by James I following a fire in 1424 which destroyed the old castle; it was expanded by James III and completed by James IV, who turned it into a sumptuous Renaissance dwelling. 4.504  sweet the . . . linnet’s tune  see Anna Seward (1747–1809), ‘To Remembrance’, line 28, in The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, ed. Walter Scott, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1810), 3.400. 4.505  blackbird’s lay  see Anna Seward (1747–1809), ‘The Red-breast and Sparrow: a Fable’, line 17, in The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, ed. Walter Scott, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1810), 2.208. 4.506 bells  bellows; stags and bucks are said to bell during the rutting season. See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Fourth, 251–52. 4.506  ferny brake  John Dryden, Æneïs, 11.1305, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 577; Scott’s Dryden, 15.141. Brake means ‘thicket’. 4.509  nature gay  very common in 18th-century literature. 4.513  June saw his father’s overthrow  King James III (1452–88; king from 1460) was killed at Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488 following a rebellion during which his fifteen-year-old son sided with the rebels. Although the king’s death was expressly against his orders, James IV accepted the moral responsibility for the event and for the rest of his life wore an iron belt as an act of penitence. See Note IX in Notes to Canto Fourth, 252. 4.517 Lent period of fasting and penitence observed by the Christian church, lasting 40 weekdays between AshWednesday and the eve of Easter Sunday. 4.520  Linlithgow’s holy dome  St Michael’s Church, Linlithgow, which is adjacent to the palace. It was built in stages in the course of the 15th and early 16th centuries. The term dome here means ‘stately building’. The expression ‘holy dome’ is common in 18th-century poetry. 4.527  Katherine’s aisle  the S transept of St Michael’s Church, Linlithgow, where it is said James IV beheld the apparition warning him against further war with England (see note to 4.493–95). 4.528  sackcloth-shirt, and iron belt  worn as signs of penitence. Sackcloth is a coarse fabric. See also note to 4.513. 4.531  The Thistle’s Knight-Companions  knights of the Order of the Thistle. The Order has obscure origins, but, according to John Pinkerton it was possibly instituted by James IV, who is said to have installed 12 stalls for the Knights-Companions of the Thistle and a throne for himself in St Michael’s Church (Pinkerton, 2.36). 4.550–52  that Saint . . . Apostle John  St John (d. late 1st century), one of the Apostles and traditionally credited with the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. He took the Virgin Mary as his adopted mother after Christ’s crucifixion, and is depicted supporting her in many Renaissance paintings. 4.561  My mother  the Virgin Mary, the mother he had adopted. 4.565  witching wiles  Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Orlando furioso, trans. Sir John Harington, 2nd edn (London, 1634), 43 (Bk 6, stanza 34), ALC. See also notes to 4.403, and 6.333.

418

explanatory notes

4.565  wanton snare  The Fairie Queene, 1.10.30. 4.566  doubly warned  he has been warned to avoid war, and women. 4.567  God keep thee as he may  God protect you as he can do. 4.572  The Marshal  identified as John Inglis by Pitscottie, who adds that Lyndsay and he were ‘at that time, young men, and special servants to the king’s grace’: Pitscottie, 173. 4.574–75  lighter than the whirlwind’s blast, He vanished  see Pitscottie, 173, where the monitor ‘vanished away as he had been a blink of the sun, or a whip of the whirlwind’. The phrase ‘whirlwind’s blast’ is found in Luis de Camōes (1524–80), The Lusiad, trans. William Julius Mickle (London, 1776), 363 (Bk 9, line 152), ALC. 4.591  credit aught  believe anything. 4.602  feverish dreams  see James Beattie (1735–1805), The Minstrel, 1st edn (London, 1771), Bk1, stanza 52 (from 1784 numbered 50); see ALC. 4.604–05  burning limbs . . . Fantastic thoughts  although both phrases had appeared in one or two pieces of earlier poetry it seems most unlikely that Scott had read them; Shelley (in Alastor) and Coleridge (in Biographia Literaria) were probably drawing on Scott. 4.606  wild dominion  a term used of democracy: e.g. ‘the wild Dominion of a Rabble’, in Charles D’Avenant, Essays on Peace at Home, and War Abroad (London, 1704), 26. 4.607  My heart within me burned  see Luke 24.32: ‘Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way . . .?’ (two disciples, of the risen Jesus). 4.626  mixed affray  a mêlée, a mock battle at a tournament involving two groups of combatants. 4.637  ran our course charged. 4.643  dazzled eyes  very common in literature from the late 16th-century onwards. 4.662  deepest night  common in literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. 4.667  upper air  the area above ground. The phrase is very common in 18th-century poetry. 4.672  Such chance  such an occurrence. 4.676  Ralph de Bulmer  Sir Ralph Bulmer of Wilton Castle, Cleveland. See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 243–45, on the origin of this tale, and Essay on the Text, 289. 4.678  his baptismal vow  at his baptism Bulmer (or more likely his godparents on his baptism as an infant) would have promised to renounce the devil. 4.679 phantom See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 243–45, and notes to 244.1–8, for the spectre called Lhamdearg. 4.680 plaid length of woollen fabric, usually in a tartan pattern, worn by Highlanders; one end was pleated like a kilt and held round the waist by a belt and the other end thrown over the shoulder. It was the standard form of Highland dress from the 16th century. 4.682  Rothiemurcus glade  an area near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. 4.684 Tomantoul  Tomintoul, an area in the south of Moray on the north side of the Cairngorm mountains. 4.684 Achnaslaid not identified. 4.685 Dromouchty possibly Drumochter on the western side of the Cairngorms. 4.685 Glenmore  glen on the NW slopes of the Cairngorms.



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4.702  bowne them  make themselves ready, prepare themselves. 4.705 Dun-Edin a Gaelic form of the name Edinburgh. 4.709  storied lore  information with stories attached. 4.712  hills of Braid  range of low hills (about 200 m) in the S of Edinburgh. 4.713  glen and scanty rill  the valley between the Braid Hills and the Blackford Hill through which the Braid Burn runs E. The phrase ‘scanty rill’ is common in 18th-century poetry. 4.715  Blackford Hill  hill in Edinburgh (164 m); in 1513 it lay 2.5 km (1½ miles) S of the city. 4.723  Saint Giles’s mingling din  the chimes of St Giles’ Cathedral in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh which ring every quarter hour; although there are chimes there is no clock face. 4.725  yellow grain  yellow colour; i.e. the hill is covered in gorse. 4.728  rude cliffs  principally Salisbury Crags, and the Castle rock. The phrase ‘rude cliffs’ is common in 18th-century poetry. 4.735  white as snow  very common in literary texts. 4.747  glaring white  Uvedale Price (1747–1829), Essays on the Picturesque, as Compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful, 3 vols (London, 1810), 1.163, ALC: ‘when I speak of white-wash and whitened buildings, I mean that glaring white which is produced by lime alone, or without a sufficient quantity of any lowering ingredient’. Essays on the Picturesque was first published in 1794. 4.750 Hebudes  the Hebrides or Western Isles, a large group of islands about 80 km (50 miles) off the NW coast of Scotland. 4.751  eastern Lodon’s fertile plain  the plain of East Lothian, a very fertile area of Scotland. 4.752  Redswire edge  on the border between Scotland and England, 15 km (9 miles) S of Jedburgh. 4.753  Rosse’s rocky ledge  i.e. Ross-shire, in the far N of Scotland. 4.756  mingled hum  [Sir William Jones (1746–94)], ‘The Palace of Fortune: An Indian Tale’, in Poems Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages (Oxford, 1772), 18. Although Jones’s works do not feature in the Abbotsford library, Scott apparently knew them because Jones’s ‘Song from Hafiz’ was anthologised in Scott’s English Minstrelsy, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1810), 1.256–59. 4.768  slow rolling  James Thomson (1700–48), Winter (London, 1726), 2. Thomson sings of Autumn, ‘When all the golden Hours are on the Wing,/ Attending thy Retreat, and round thy Wain/ Slow-rolling, onward to the Southern Sky’. This phrase ‘slow rolling’ was written out of the poem when Thomson revised ‘Winter’ for inclusion in The Seasons in 1730. 4.770  clumsy car  the large-scale wooden carriage on which artillery was placed, like that which bears Mons Meg, the famous 15th-century cannon in Edinburgh Castle. 4.772–73  Borthwick’s Sisters Seven, And culverins  Pitscottie writes that James took seven cannons from Edinburgh Castle ‘which were called The Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick the master-gunner’ (Pitscottie, 174). And Holinshed says that at Flodden the English captured ‘a two and twentie péeces of great ordinance, amongest the which where seauen culuerings of a large assise . . . King Iames named them . . . the seuen sisters’: Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–80?), Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, [ed. Sir Henry Ellis], 6 vols (London, 1807–08), 3.598, ALC. A culverin was a heavy cannon with a very long bore. 4.775  Flodden plain  20 km (12½ miles) SW of Berwick, near the village of Branxton in northern Northumberland.

420

explanatory notes

4.781  Scroll, pennon, pensil, bandrol  types of flags denoting heraldic rank, used to reveal a knight’s position during battle. A scroll is a narrow streamer; a pennon is a long triangular flag (see note to 1.359); a pensil is a small pennon; and a bandrol is a long, narrow flag with a cleft end. 4.782 pavilions for the description of a Scottish camp see Note XI in Notes to Canto Fourth, 253. 4.786  massive stone  identified in Note X in Notes to Canto Fourth, 252, as the Hare Stane. A plaque on the E side of Morningside Rd near its junction with Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh, claims that a stone set high on the wall is that in which the Royal Standard was placed for the muster of the Scottish army, and quotes lines 4.783–88, ‘Highest, and midmost, . . . standard’s weight’. The stone, also known as the Bore Stone, was placed in its present site in 1852. 4.792–93  Scotland’s royal shield, The ruddy Lion ramped in gold  see notes to 4.330 and 4.358–59. 4.796  within him burned his heart  see note to 4.607. 4.809  milder mood  Thomas Campbell (1777–1844), The Pleasures of Hope, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1800), 5, 53 (1.171, 2.5); see ALC. 4.822 smoke-wreaths from the 17th century the Old Town of Edinburgh was called ‘Auld Reekie’ (Old Smokey) because of the amount of smoke hovering over it. 4.825  lustre proud  see Edward Young (1683–1765), The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality, 2 vols (London, 1749), 2.207: ‘Of independent, native Lustre, proud’; see ALC. 4.832  romantic town  Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), ed. Bonamy Dobrée (London, 1966), 60 (Ch. 6). 4.834  Ochil mountains  the Ochil hills, situated some 45 km (28 miles) NW of Edinburgh. 4.837 Fife  county on the opposite side of the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. 4.838  Preston-Bay, and Berwick-Law  the long bay stretching from Portobello to Prestonpans on the S side of the Firth of Forth, and Berwick Law, a conical hill rising above the town North Berwick at the E end of the Firth of Forth, 32 km (20 miles) NE of Edinburgh. 4.840  The gallant firth  the Firth of Forth. 4.861  the hour of prime  6 a.m. when bells would ring for prime, one of the daily monastic offices. 4.865  Saint Catherine’s of Sienne  a chapel and convent of Dominican nuns dedicated to St Catherine of Sienna (1333 or 1347?–1380) which stood in Sciennes at the E end of the Borough Muir; it was demolished in the 19th century. 4.866  chapel of Saint Rocque  a chapel, since demolished, SW of the Borough Muir. St Roque or Roch (c. 1350–c. 1380) was the patron saint of those afflicted by plague. Plague sufferers, or those apprehensive of contracting it, visited the chapel to entreat protection; James IV made an offering to it in 1507. 4.870 Falkland-woods  the extensive oak woods around the royal palace of Falkland in central Fife. The old castle which dated from the 12th century was transformed into a royal palace by James IV and James V between 1501 and 1541. 4.875  Empress of the North  the city of Edinburgh. 4.877  palace’s imperial bowers  Holyrood Palace. The first building was erected by James IV 1501–05; James IV claimed imperial status matching that



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of the Holy Roman Emperor, as evidenced by his use of a crown closed with arches. 4.885  watch and ward  keeping watch and guard, the two principal duties of citizens in burghs, and of feudal vassals. 4.887 Dun-Edin  see note to 4.705. 4.888  presaging thought  Edward Young (1683–1765), The Force of Religion (London, 1714), 27; see ALC. The phrase means ‘thought foretelling future events’. 4.892  spear and shield  a collocation found six times in the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament. 4.902–03  the Minstrel . . . Border string  by Scott’s time the term minstrel had been restricted to mean a medieval musician or singer who sang or recited popular poetry while playing an accompaniment on a stringed instrument, but by calling his first long poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel he revivified the term and it came to indicate Scott himself. Canto 5 heading  George Ellis  (1753–1815) an enthusiast for medieval literature who began a correspondence with Scott in 1801. Ellis tried many kinds of writing, including history, but his main literary achievements are Specimens of the Early English Poets (1790), working on The Anti-Jacobin (with George Canning and William Gifford) 1797–98, and his Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances (1805). When in London Scott nearly always visited the Ellises in their home in Ascot, in Berkshire, about 40 km (25 miles) SE of London. 5.4  weary waste  Oliver Goldsmith (1728?–74), The Traveller, 2nd edn (London, 1765), 1 (line 6). 5.21  con’d o’er  read over. The phrase is common in 18th-century literature. 5.22  dreary hour  David Mallet (?1705–65), ‘William and Margaret’, in Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, Etc., ed. David Herd, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1776), 1.79 (line 25), ALC. Being a ballad phrase it is relatively common in 18th-century literature. 5.30  The Forest’s . . . range  for Ettrick Forest see note to Canto 1 heading. 5.32  social night  Robert Burns (1759–96), ‘Scotch Drink’, line 71, in Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1787), 26, ALC. 5.34  ravages of time  a very common phrase and concept in 18th-century literature. 5.35  riven towers  Thomas Warton (1728–90), ‘Ode XI. On the Approach of Summer’, line 241, in The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton, 5th edn, 2 vols (Oxford, 1802), 2.26, ALC. For Newark see note to 2.32. 5.37  Caledonia’s Queen is changed  see Note I in Notes to Canto Fifth, 254. Caledonia’s Queen is Edinburgh. In the lines that follow, Scott is referring to the description of Edinburgh in Canto IV. 5.40–41  bulwark . . . laky flood  Edinburgh was surrounded by walls, the last of which was completed after Flodden, and known as the Flodden Wall. There was no wall north of the castle, which was protected by the Nor Loch occupying the valley of what is now Princes St Gardens. Some remnants of the Flodden Wall can still be seen S of the Grassmarket, but most were demolished, or collapsed, in the 18th and 19th centuries. 5.44  each tall embattled port  each battlemented gate. There were six gates, all of which were demolished in the course of the 18th century, the last two in the 1780s. There were also a number of wickets, small gates through which those on foot could get in and out when the main gates were closed.

422

explanatory notes

5.57  Flinging thy white arms to the sea  see Note II in Notes to Canto Fifth, 254. Scott says that this line was taken (‘inadvertently’ and ‘almost verbatim’) from William Mason (1725–97), Caractacus, a Dramatic Poem (London, 1759), 28, where Britain ‘flung her white arms o’er the sea’. Scott possessed the fifth edition of Mason’s poems (1779). 5.58  For thy dark cloud, with umbered lower  in place of your dark cloud with its shadowy gloomy look. From the 17th century the Old Town of Edinburgh was called ‘Auld Reekie’ because of the smoke hovering over it. 5.62  championess of old  Britomart, who to the men watching seems utterly transformed when she takes off her armour: see The Faerie Queene, 3.9.20–23. 5.67 Malbecco an old husband with a young wife. He refuses to entertain knightly visitors (until forced to) out of jealousy of younger men: see The Faerie Queene, 3.9. 5.78  But looking liked, and liking loved see The Faerie Queene, 3.9.24: ‘Yet euery one her likte, and euery one her loued’. 5.81  the wandering Squire of Dames  see The Faerie Queene, 3.7.51. The Squyre of Dames has made a vow of constancy to Columbell; he has accompanied Sir Satyrane, Paridell, and Britomart into Malbecco’s castle, and is as amazed as the others at the revelation of Britomart’s beauty. 5.92  panoply of war  Thomas Scott, ‘The Picture of Human Life’, line 370, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes (London, 1758), 6.114; see ALC. 5.96–100  send thy children forth . . . voluntary line  Edinburgh raised three volunteer regiments: the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers (1794), the second regiment the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers (1797), and the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons (1797). 5.105  mural crown  crown representing city walls, given by the Romans to the soldier who first scaled the walls of a besieged town. Here Scott is using the phrase literally, and is probably seeing the Castle as Edinburgh’s crown. 5.108 Dun-Edin see note to 4.705. 5.111–12  In patriarchal times . . . to share  in Genesis 18.1–16 Abraham offers hospitality to ‘three men’. 5.114  the Good Town  sobriquet for Edinburgh. 5.115–18  Destined . . . she gave repose  see Note III in Notes to Canto Fifth, 254–55. 5.117  conquering York  Edward IV (1442–83) who as Duke of York seized the throne following the battle of Towton in 1461. He was himself ousted in 1470, but regained the throne in 1471. 5.118  Henry meek  Henry VI of England (1422–71; king 1422–61, and 1470–71). After their defeat at Towton in 1461 Henry and Queen Margaret took refuge in Edinburgh, remaining until 1463. Henry was, for his times, of an unusually unwarlike disposition. 5.120  Great Bourbon’s reliques  i.e. the last remains of the great House of Bourbon. The Comte d’Artois (1757–1836), the youngest brother of Louis XVI, lived in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, with his sons and mistress, 1796–99. The first Bourbon king was Henry IV (1553–1610; king of France from 1589). To Scott writing in 1808 the House of Bourbon had been extinguished with the execution of Louis XVI; in fact the Comte d’Artois became the last Bourbon king, inheriting the throne in 1824, and abdicating in 1830. 5.121  Truce to  enough of; have done with. 5.125  Tradition’s dubious light  although the phrase dubious light is common in 18th-century literature it usually describes poor daylight (e.g.



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Henry Mackenzie (1745–1831), The Man of Feeling (London, 1771), 237; see ALC); this is the first time it is applied metaphorically to suggest the kind of truth offered by tradition. 5.137–38  who shall teach . . . romantic strain  a rhetorical question to which the answer is Scott’s addressee George Ellis (1753–1815), whose Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances appeared in 1805. 5.138–39  the romantic strain . . . Anglo-Norman tones  see Note IV in Notes to Canto Fifth, 255. In his Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, 3 vols (London, 1805), 1.38–40, ALC, Ellis argues that the romances were the product of Anglo-Norman culture. 5.140–41  Royal Henry . . . Beauclerc  Henry I of England (1069–1135; reigned from 1100), who on account of his literacy and learning was called ‘Beauclerc’ (good clerk). 5.144  Oblivion’s stream  Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Orlando furioso, trans. John Hoole, 5 vols (London, 1783), 4.230 (Bk 35, line 152); Peter Pindar, ‘To my Candle’, line 11, in The Works of Peter Pindar, 3 vols (London, 1794), 3.329, ALC. 5.146  Marie translated  an unidentified poet who was brought up in France and was associated with the court of Henry II of England. Her best known work is the Lais of Marie de France, twelve narrative poems which, she says, she has learned from Breton minstrels, and translated into Norman French. She is known as Marie de France because one line reads: ‘Marie ai num, si sui de France’ (my name is Marie and I come from France). When Scott wrote Marmion Marie’s work was little known, but Scott had sent George Ellis a version in the Auchinleck Manuscript in the Advocates’ Library of one of her poems, ‘Lay le Fraine’, which Ellis included in Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, 3 vols (London, 1805), 3.282–98. See also note to 255.29–30. 5.146 Blondel  probably Blondel de Nesle (c. 1155–1202), the most famous troubadour of the 12th century. Legend has it that he went round Europe looking for Richard I of England who in 1192 on his way back from the Third Crusade had been captured by the Duke of Austria and held for ransom; it is Scott’s interest in this story (e.g. see Note IV in Notes to Canto Fifth, 255, and The Talisman, ed. J. B. Ellis and others, eewn 18b, notes to 160.18–22 and 237.12) that makes it certain that Scott refers to the older Blondel rather than his son of the same name. 5.147  Time’s ravage  see note to 5.34. 5.149  their hoary foe  Death, who is often portrayed as holding a scythe to cut down life, and holding an hour-glass to indicate that time is up. 5.154  gentle poets  common in 18th-century literature. 5.158  unexpected wit  possibly a reference to George Ellis (1753–1815), Poetical Tales by Sir Gregory Gander, Knt. (Bath, 1778). 5.171  Lingering disease  what was wrong is not known, but in a letter of 18 August 1806 Scott talks of his ‘sedentary habits so unfit for an invalid’ (Letters, 12.288). 5.177  varying tone  Mark Akenside (1721–70), ‘Ode VI. Hymn to Cheerfulness’, in The Poems of Mark Akenside, octavo edn (London, 1772), 246. 5.180  Windsor’s oaks  ancient and solitary oak trees which are one of the features of Windsor Great Park. They are frequently invoked in poetry, but the most important context, to which Scott may be alluding, is Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest (1713) ‘Where Order in Variety we see’ (line 15); see ALC.

424

explanatory notes

5.180  Ascot plain  i.e. the flat lands of Ascot where the Ellises lived. They were at the SW corner of Windsor Great Park. In April 1807 Scott travelled by Windsor on his way to visit the Ellises instead of the usual route via Staines (see Letters, 12.113–14); this may account for the bracketing of Windsor and Ascot. 5.182  bold in thy applause  in both his letters to Scott, and his reviews of Scott, Ellis was highly complimentary. 5.185  storied pane  i.e. stained-glass windows: Robert Southey (1774–1843), Joan of Arc (Bristol, 1796), 110 (Bk 3, line 361), ALC. 5.188  changeful hue  Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844), ‘Ode (‘The Man, on whom the genial Muse’), in his Sonnets and Odes (London, 1788), 47; the most notable use of the phrase is in The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto 6, stanza 4. 5.193  Advanced their pikes  this sense of ‘advanced’ is not covered by the OED, but to judge from The Compleat Gentleman Soldier: or, a Treatise of Military Discipline (London, 1702), by ‘An Officer in the Army’, it is the equivalent, for pikemen, of ‘presented arms’, or ‘came to attention’. 5.204 vaunt  boast. The line means that such weapons were made only as a boast. 5.208  cloth-yard arrows  see note to 1.451, and Note V in Notes to Canto Fifth, 256. 5.216  Flemish steeds  horses of superior size and strength, introduced to England from Flanders by King John (1167–1216; reigned from 1199). 5.222 pass probably perform a passage, the term used of a horse walking sideways. 5.222  croupe to gain  achieve one of the regulation distances between horses in formation. In Rules and Regulations for the Cavalry (London, 1795) the croup (the hind quarters of a horse) is described as ‘one third of a horse’s length’ and ‘close to the croup’ is ‘the distance that all ranks are to be in manœuvring’ (222). 5.223 curvett leap of a horse in which the fore-legs are raised together, and the hind-legs raised with a spring before the fore-legs reach the ground. See Note VI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 256. 5.226 burghers  the burgesses or citizens of a town. See Note VII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 256–57. 5.237 yeoman  man of some standing who owned and usually worked a bit of land, and who served as a foot soldier. See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 257. 5.238  steel jack  probably steel mail sewn on to a quilted vest, as glossed by Scott in the text. 5.240  slender store  Alexander Pope (1688–1744), The Dunciad (1743), 4.253; see ALC. 5.241–42  forty days provision bore . . . statutes tell  vassals owed their feudal lords forty days of military service a year; when summoned to fulfill this feudal obligation they were required to be self-sufficient and bring adequate supplies. See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 257. 5.248  foreign strand  foreign shore, foreign country: Matthew Prior (1664–1721), ‘Celia to Damon’, line 73, in Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1718), 41, ALC; thereafter it was a common phrase in 18th-century poetry, and used in The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto 6, stanza 1 (which begins ‘Breathes there a man’). 5.249  musing, who would guide his steer  wondering about who would lead his ox.



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5.250  fallow land  land left uncultivated for a year. 5.258 Borderer  native of the south of Scotland, bordering on England. The area was very unsettled and there was constant armed conflict both between Border clans and with their counterparts in the northern counties of England: see George Macdonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets (London, 1971). 5.261  slothful ease  John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy (1675), Act 4, line 197; Scott’s Dryden, 5.246. Morat, speaking to the empress his mother, says: ‘Pleasure’s your portion, and your slothful ease’. 5.286  Eusedale glen  a valley in Dumfries-shire. The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, ed. Francis H. Groome, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1882–84), 3.577 describes the area within Eskdale in the east of Dumfries-shire as ‘the basin of the tributary rivulet Ewes, which often is styled Ewesdale’. 5.286  Liddell’s tide  Liddel Water, a river rising in Scotland, forming the W border between Scotland and England for 18 km (12 miles), then joining the River Esk. The Esk also rises in Scotland, and crosses the border into England to go into the Solway Firth N of Carlisle. 5.289  glistering hide  i.e. the Lord Lyon’s many-coloured coat: see notes to 4.353–54, 4.356, and 4.358–59. In Troilus and Cressida, 5.6.31, Hector, seeing a Greek in ‘sumptuous armour’, says ‘I’ll hunt thee for thy hide’. 5.290 Maudlin i.e. Brown Magdalen, who is, presumably, one of the women of his household. 5.290  doublet pied  many-coloured doublet. 5.292  the Celtic race  Gaelic-speaking peoples from northern Scotland, distinct from those of Saxon origin. 5.297  chequered trews  tartan, close-fitting trousers. 5.297  belted plaid  see note to 4.680. 5.300  red . . . hair  a stereotype of the Highlander. 5.307  eagle’s plumage  a Highland chief was distinguished by a single eagle’s feather in his cap or bonnet. 5.309  hairy buskins  calf or knee-high boots made from undressed hide. 5.319  Danish battle-axe  a heavy weapon with a sharp, thin blade slanted downwards and backwards to maximise the slicing effect. It was wielded with two hands due to its weight and the length of its shaft. 5.329  watch and ward  see note to 4.885. 5.349  high o’erlooked  in the 18th century the best lodgings in the Old Town of Edinburgh were on the top floors; Scott assumes that this was also true in the 16th. 5.351  the hour of vesper tide  sunset. Vespers, or evensong, is the church service conducted just before sunset. 5.352 Holy-Rood see note to 1.680. 5.355  costly wines  for historical support see Note IX in Notes to Canto Fifth, 257. 5.377  dancing ray  George Lord Lyttelton (1709–73), ‘Blenheim’, line 82, in The Works of George Lord Lyttelton, 3rd edn, 3 vols (London, 1776), 3:79, ALC: ‘the silver-sparkling foam/ Glitters relucent in the dancing ray’. 5.379  touched a softer string  i.e. sang of love. 5.380  long-eared cap, and motley vest  the traditional cap of a fool or jester with large asses’ ears and particoloured costume; the jester had licence to make outrageous comments. 5.381  licensed fool  King Lear (folio text), 1.4.183; Goneril complains to Lear about his ‘all-licensed fool’. 5.383  dice and draughts  a phrase used previously by Scott in The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto 5, stanza 6.

426

explanatory notes

5.388  Victorious Love  a common poetic phrase in the 17th and 18th centuries. 5.389  coldness and disdain  a very common phrase in 18th-century literature. 5.390 can  i.e. who can. 5.394  glee and game  Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), The Gentle Shepherd (Edinburgh, 1725), 20 (2.1.78); see ALC. The phrase means ‘merry-making and pleasure’. 5.402  garb and mien  dress and bearing. 5.403  velvet piled  velvet cloth with a pile given by artificially raising, cutting, and smoothing the short fibres. 5.406  dazzled eye  Joseph Addison (1672–1719), Cato. a Tragedy, 8th edn (London, 1713), 27 (Act 2, Scene 1), ALC. After Addison the phrase was used very frequently in literature. 5.409–10  thistle brave . . . Fleur de lis  emblems of Scotland: see notes to 4.356 and 4.358–59. 5.411 Toledo  made in Toledo, Spain, a centre of sword-making from Roman times. 5.438 lower  lour, having a gloomy look. Using ‘lower’ or ‘lour’ as an adjective is a Scots usage. 5.440  iron belt  see note to 4.513, and Note X in Notes to Canto Fifth, 258. 5.445  double glee  Hector Macneill (1746–1818), ‘Scotland’s Scaith; or, the History of Will and Jean’, Part 1, line 126: The Poetical Works of Hector Macneill, Esq., 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1806), 2.17, ALC. 5.454  Sir Hugh the Heron’s wife  Elizabeth Heron, wife of Sir William Heron. She was not in Edinburgh at this time (see next note); James did form a liaison with her after his invasion of England (see note to 1.600), although this is disputed by Richard Heron in A Genealogical Table of the Family of the Herons of Newark ([London, 1798?]): see Note XI in Notes to Canto First, 219–20), and Note XI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 258–59. 5.456–59  hostage . . . dame  on a truce day in 1508 Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, the Warden (see note to 5.575) of the Middle March, and a favourite of James IV, was murdered by three Englishmen, one of whom was the half-brother of Sir William Heron (see notes to 1.521 and 1.522); Heron himself was in some way implicated. In Marmion Elizabeth Heron has been surrendered by Sir Hugh Heron as a peace-offering, but the historical actuality was that Sir William was surrendered by Henry VII as one of the sureties for the good behaviour of those on the English side of the Border. See Note XI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 258–59. 5.458  make accord  effect a reconciliation. 5.462  Queen of France  Anne of Brittany (1477–1514). 5.463  Turquois ring, and glove  see Note XII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 259. 5.465  break a lance  enter the lists. 5.478  bright and sheen  ‘Thomas the Rhymer’, Part Second, stanza 15, in Minstrelsy, 2.281. 5.480  Queen Margaret  see note to 1.610. 5.480 Lithgow  Linlithgow: see note to 4.502. 5.481  weary hour  ‘Cadwal: a legendary tale’, in Old Ballads, ed. Thomas Evans, 4 vols (London, 1784), 4.238. 5.482–83  The Queen . . . the weary day  although this does not seem to be a quotation, the verse form, rhythm, and language suggest two lines from



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a ballad. The phrase ‘weary day’ is common in 18th-century literature. 5.484  native soil  the Queen is the sister of Henry VIII. 5.485  battle broil see Othello, 1.3.86–87: ‘And little of this great world can I speak/ More than pertains to feats of broil and battle.’ 5.487  bownes her  makes herself ready. 5.489  rounded arm  [Jean-François] Marmontel, ‘Soliman II’, in Moral Tales, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1768), 1.47 (see ALC): ‘She then took the theorbo, an instrument favourable to the display of a rounded arm’. 5.500  oath . . . Nay  see Matthew 5.34, 37: ‘Swear not at all . . . But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay’. 5.505c Lochinvar the song is based upon the traditional ballad ‘The Laird of Laminton’, Minstrelsy, 1.216–19. A different version of the ballad appears in the second edition under the name ‘Katharine Janfarie’: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 2nd edn, 3 vols (London, 1803), 1.238–42. The name Lochinvar is derived from the loch of that name, 6 km (4 miles) NE of St John’s Town of Dalry in central Galloway. Young Lochinvar (the ‘Young’ designates the eldest son of the Laird of Lochinvar) is said to have been modelled on a historical figure, William de Gordon of Kenmure, a castle in nearby New Galloway. Across-border marriages were prevalent, especially in the West March as the border in this area was not determined until the 16th century, although both the English and Scottish governments did their best to prevent them: see George MacDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets (London, 1971), 67. 5.506  out of the west  i.e. from Galloway. 5.513  the Eske river  see note to 5.286. 5.514  Netherby gate  i.e. the gate to Netherby Hall, N of Longtown, in Cumbria, close to the current border with Scotland. In 1513 it was a peel tower (it was redeveloped into a house in the 18th and 19th centuries), owned by the Grahams (or Graemes), a family of Border reivers who entered fully into cross-border marauding in the 15th and 16th centuries. 5.525  swells like the Solway  the tides of the Solway Firth (which divides NW England from SW Scotland) move with extreme rapidity. 5.530  The bride kissed the goblet  took a sip of wine. 5.549  Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves  Cumbrian families. 5.550  Cannobie Lee  Canonbie Lea, a tract of open ground or moor near the village of Canonbie, N of Netherby. 5.554 syren a woman who allures and deceives. In classical mythology the syrens were part woman, part bird, and were supposed to lure sailors to destruction by their enchanting singing: see The Odyssey, Bk 12. 5.575  day of truce  see note to 5.456–59. 5.575 Warden  the Warden of the Middle March, Sir Robert Ker (see note to 5.456–59). Wardens were appointed from amongst the Border chieftains to the East, Middle and West Marches (roughly Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, and E Dumfries-shire) to keep order in that volatile region, and to regulate dealings with families on the southern side of the border. 5.576  Stout Barton  Andrew Barton (c. 1470–1511), frequently employed as a naval commander by James IV. He was something of a Scottish hero, but little better than a pirate. He was killed in a naval battle with English ships commanded by Lord Thomas Howard (1473–1554) and his brother Sir Edmund (1478–1539). 5.580  Our herald has to Henry borne  James’s letter of defiance was taken by the Lyon King at Arms to Henry VIII who was then engaged in the siege of Thérouanne, in N France. It was delivered on 11 August 1513.

428

explanatory notes

5.581–84  Douglas . . . Who coronet of Angus bore  Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus (c. 1449–1513). Although one of the most powerful noblemen of the period, he was a political maverick whose favour at court ebbed and flowed. He took part in the Lauder coup of July 1482, when James III was seized by his own lords and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle (see note to 5.586–91). For another portrait of Angus see Minstrelsy, 1.vi–viii. 5.586–91  the third James in camp defy . . . Archibald Bell-theCat  James III, having summoned his army to oppose an English invasion, was seized by his own nobles in July 1482 in Lauder, a village in the Scottish Borders 38 km (24 miles) SE of Edinburgh; Angus was party to the coup. The epithet ‘Bell-the-Cat’ was first applied to Angus by David Hume of Godscroft in The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1743; first published 1644), 2.39–40, ALC: at a meeting of nobles Lord Gray told the old story of the mice who resolved to hang a bell about the cat’s neck, to give warning of its approach, but lacked the courage to do so, whereupon Earl Archibald said ‘I will Bell the Cat’. See Note XIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 259–61. 5.587  minions led to die  see Note XIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 259–61. 5.592  dusky vale  Alexander Pope (1688–1744), The Dunciad (1743), 3.23; see ALC. 5.593  Hermitage in Liddisdale  Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale, 18 km (12 miles) S of Hawick. Founded in the mid-13th century, although most of the present building dates from the 14th, it is a formidable and forbidding structure, with a sinister history. Liddesdale is a valley running NE into the Cheviot Hills, and is very close to the English border. 5.595  Bothwell’s turrets  in 1492 Douglas was forced by the King to exchange Hermitage Castle for Bothwell Castle on the Clyde, 16 km (10 miles) SE of Glasgow. 5.596  blooming fair  a very common phrase in 18th-century literature: e.g. John Gay (1685–1732), ‘The Fan’, line 130, in Poems upon Several Occasions, 2 vols (London, 1775), 1.55, ALC; and Lodovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Orlando furioso, trans. John Hoole, 5 vols (London, 1783), 1.22, 50, 290; see ALC. 5.597  princely bowers  John Langhorne (1735–79), ‘Fable IX. The Beeflower’, The Fables of Flora (London, 1771), 53. 5.599  peaceful gown  John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther (London, 1687), 78 (Part 3, line 93); Scott’s Dryden, 10.200. The phrase is frequently re-used in the 18th century. 5.606  Against the war had Angus stood  Angus was one of two members of James’s Council (the other being William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Bishop of Aberdeen) to oppose James IV’s war with England in 1513. See Note XIV in Notes to Canto Fifth, 261. 5.613  sable hue  Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), ‘Elegy on Maggy Johnston’, line 1, in Poems (Edinburgh, 1720), 25; see ALC. 5.622  Tantallon Hold  a castle on the coast of East Lothian, overlooking the Firth of Forth, 35 km (22 miles) NE of Edinburgh. It is thought to date from the 14th century and was a stronghold of the Douglas family. See Note XV in Notes to Canto Fifth, 262. Hold means ‘fortress’. The idea of sending Marmion to Tantallon came from the letters of Sir Ralph Sadler (1507–87), English ambassador to Scotland in 1543. He was sent to ‘Temptallon’ for his own safety, but while there found that ‘no letters or messengers shall come or go from me unsearched’, and that ‘threescore horsemen’ lay in wait to prevent his going too far: Sadler to Lords Suffolk and Durham, 7 Nov. 1543,



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in The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford with a biographical memoir by Walter Scott, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1809), 1.333. 5.624  A chief unlike his sires of old  in the Wars of Independence in the early 14th century the Douglas family, and Sir James Douglas (d. 1330) in particular, were consistent supporters of independence and of King Robert I (1274–1329; reigned from 1306), whereas Angus has opposed war with England. 5.625  their motto  see Note XVI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 263, which describes the inscriptions on a broadsword said to have been presented to Sir James Douglas to commemorate his setting out in 1330 to take King Robert I’s heart to the Holy Land. He got as far as Spain where he was killed fighting the Moslem rulers of Granada. See also note to 263.3. 5.626  Their blazon  the Douglas arms include a red heart which is said to derive from Sir James Douglas’s promising to take King Robert I’s heart to the Holy Land. 5.629  I bethink me  I recollect. 5.629  Saint Stephen (d. c. ad 35) the first Christian martyr, whose feast day is 26 December. Other than meeting the exigencies of rhyme, it is not clear why the king should swear by St Stephen. 5.632 Dunbar  see note to 1.634. 5.637 Cochran  Thomas Cochrane (d. 1482), a favourite in the court of James III, who was hanged in Lauder during the crisis of that year; Pitscottie’s description of his end is given in Note XIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 259–61. Cochrane was constable of the Castle of Kildrummy in NE Scotland, and as such was the royal agent in the Earldom of Mar; it may be that he was killed because in this role he offended some of the magnates of the area, but Pitscottie is wrong in calling him ‘the Earl of Mar’. 5.642  proud heart  a very common poetic phrase: see e.g. Shakespeare, Sonnet 140, line 14. 5.644  burning tear  Thomas Chatterton (1752–70), ‘Elegy of The Death of Mr. Phillips’, line 2, in The Works of Thomas Chatterton, [ed. Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle], 3 vols (London, 1803), 1.214, ALC. Scott reviewed this work in The Edinburgh Review for April 1804 (Prose Works, 17.215–41). The image may be derived from King Lear (folio text), 4.6.40–41: ‘mine own tears/ Do scald like molten lead’. 5.647  the Bruce  see note to 3.197. 5.654  More tender, and more true  see [Richard Holland], ‘The Houlate’ [The Owl], Part 2, stanza 7, in Scotish Poems, reprinted from Scarce Editions, ed. John Pinkerton, 3 vols (London, 1792), 3.164, ALC. Richard Holland (d. in or after 1483) wrote The Buke of the Howlat, probably in 1448, when he was secretary to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray. His poem is an allegorical warning about the dangers of increasing power and self-importance, but its political application to the affairs of Scotland is disputed. Tendir and trew means ‘loving and loyal’. ‘O Dowglas! Dowglas!’ is recorded in the 14th century as the Douglas battle-cry, and it appears in one of Scott’s notes to Castle Dangerous: see Introduction and Notes from the Magnum Opus, ed. J. H. Alexander, EEWN 25b, 598.5. See also John Barbour, The Bruce, ed. A. A. M. Duncan (Edinburgh, 1997), Bk 5, line 345. 5.671  Laugh . . . may  proverbial. See ODEP, 911: ‘Women laugh when they can, and weep when they will’. 5.677 Tamworth  see note to 1.488. 5.685  On Derby hills  the Peak District and the beginnings of the Pennine range in the north of Derbyshire.

430

explanatory notes

5.686  Ouse and Tyne  rivers flowing E in the north of England. The Ouse is in North Yorkshire; the Tyne flows across Northumberland, through Newcastle, into the North Sea. 5.690  the Trent  river in the north of the English Midlands; it joins the Ouse to form the Humber Estuary. The Humber formed the absolute limit to Scottish incursions into England. 5.694  a hall! a hall!  a cry to clear the way or make room in a throng of people, especially for a dance or entertainment: see Romeo and Juliet, 1.5.25–26: ‘come, musicians, play./ A hall, a hall! Give room, and foot it, girls.’ 5.698  Blue Bonnets o’er the Border  the first mention of Scott’s song which appeared in its full version in The Monastery in 1820: ed. Penny Fielding, eewn 9 (Edinburgh, 2000), 230.10–31. It was developed from the Covenanting song ‘General Lesly’s March to Long-maston Moor’ of which the words seem to have been first printed in the 5th edition of Allan Ramsay’s The Tea-Table Miscellany, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1729), 2.47–48; Scott included ‘Lesly’s March’ in the 2nd edition of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 3 vols (London, 1803), 3.151–52. The first printed version of the tune (under the title ‘Lasly’s March’) seems to have been in James Oswald’s The Caledonian Pocket Companion, 6 vols (1742–49), 2.36; both the words and a somewhat different tune appear together in Scotish Songs, [ed. Joseph Ritson], 2 vols (London, 1794), 2.37–40. The Ritson tune was adapted to fit Scott’s words by R. A. Smith in The Scotish Minstrel, 6 vols (1821–23), 5.10–11. Thereafter Scott’s words were frequently reprinted in chapbooks, and with music in 19th-century song books. George MacDonald Fraser quotes an unspecified source to the effect that ‘almost all the country wore . . . flat blue caps very broad’: The Steel Bonnets (London, 1971), 54; compare also 1 Henry IV, 2.5.360, where Falstaff refers to the Scots as ‘blue-caps’. 5.700  Saint Hilda  see note to 2.327. 5.702 Whitby  see note to 2.276. 5.703 Dun-Edin see note to 4.705. 5.720  Whitby’s shades  the inseparable followers of Whitby. 5.747  was by  had ceased. 5.752  boding wing  an expression associated with the owl in e.g. the translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by several hands published in 2 volumes in London in 1720, 2.25. The word boding means ‘ominous’, ‘portending’. The owl was regarded as a bird of ill-omen. 5.753  Giles’s steeple tall  the crown or lantern steeple of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh; see note to 4.723. 5.758  silvery smoke  Robert Southey (1774–1843), Madoc (London, 1805), 327 (Part 15, line 2832), ALC. 5.761 torches as Edinburgh was a town of steep gradients and narrow closes or alleys people walked, but those of high status would be accompanied by servants carrying torches. 5.770  the Redeemer’s tomb  the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Jesus is believed to have been buried. 5.774  those who wed above  those who marry Christ; on entering their monastic order nuns are said to marry Christ as a sign of their chastity and purity. 5.776  Clara de Clare, of Gloster’s blood  a reference to Clara’s supposed descent from Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester and 6th Earl of Hertford (1243–95). 5.782  Martin Swart  Martin Schwartz (d. 1487), a Germany mercenary.



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In the rebellion of 1487 by members and followers of the House of York who were disgruntled with the rule of Henry VII, he led 1500 troops in support of Lambert Simnel, who, it was claimed, was the last surviving male heir of Edward IV (see note to 5.783). Schwartz was killed at the battle of Stoke Field in Nottinghamshire on 16 June 1487. See Note XVII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 263. 5.783 Simnel  Lambert Simnel (b. 1477, d. after 1534), an imposter who, it was claimed, was Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, nephew of the late King Edward IV, and thus England’s rightful king. 5.785  Stokefield’s plain  the battle of Stoke Field, fought near the village of East Stoke in Nottinghamshire on 16 June 1487 between the forces of Henry VII and a rebel Yorkist army, under the Earl of Lincoln. 5.786  down he threw his glove  a knightly mode of challenging an enemy to fight; the glove was an emblem of truth and integrity. 5.789 Guelders  a duchy in an area now mainly in the Netherlands. Martin Schwartz had fought against rebels there in 1485. 5.799  by spear and shield  through combat in the lists. These fights were religious and judicial in character (it is a ‘blessed ordeal’, line 5.805); the parties have accused each other of treason, and the defeated party is esteemed guilty, a belief on which the Abbess hints doubt in lines 800–05. See Note XVIII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 264, and note to 1.504–18. 5.807  doomed to suffer law  see note to 1.504–18. 5.811  drenched him  made him drink, administered drink to him. 5.817  a vestal vot’ress  a chaste nun; one committed to a life of purity and bound by vows to a religious life. In ancient Rome the Vestal Virgins were priestesses devoted to Vesta, goddess of the hearth; they took a vow of chastity, and committed themselves to the observance of state rituals. 5.818–19  The impulse . . . paths of heaven  compare William Wordsworth (1770–1850), ‘The Tables-Turned’, lines 21–24, in Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems, 4th edn, 2 vols (London, 1805), 1.5, ALC: ‘One impulse from a vernal wood/ May teach you more of man,/ Of moral evil and of good,/ Than all the sages can.’ 5.822  Saxon Edelfled  see note to 2.511. 5.826  murmurs at the cross  John Newton (1725–1807), ‘Prayer for Patience’, line 15, in Olney Hymns, 5th edn (London, 1788), 266: ‘Nor murmur at the cross I bear’. 5.828 Tame  river flowing through the English West Midlands, joining the River Trent. 5.829  Deep fields of grain  Scott’s own phrase, presumably meaning extensive fields, but giving an impression of both wealth and fecundity. 5.855  perjured nun  a nun who has broken her vows. 5.879  calm domain  Mary Robinson (1758–1800), ‘Petrarch to Laura’, line 91: ‘In vain I sought Religion’s calm domain’, in her Poems, 2 vols (London, 1791). 2.190. 5.886 Wolsey  Thomas Wolsey (1471–1530), royal minister and Archbishop of York. He joined the royal council in 1511 and from 1515 was Henry VIII’s principal minister in charge of domestic affairs. 5.890  A weekly mass shall still be thine  i.e. after your death mass will be said weekly in perpetuity for the repose of your soul. 5.899  Saint Withold  Saxon saint who was said to have traversed Britain three times, banishing demons. In King Lear one of Edgar’s nonsense rhymes begins ‘Swithald footed thrice the wold’ (folio text 3.4.113). Lewis Theobald in his edition of The Works of Shakespeare, 7 vols (London, 1733), emended

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explanatory notes

the reading to ‘St Withold’, and this reading appears as ‘Saint Withold’ in The Plays of William Shakespeare, ed. Samuel Johnson, 8 vols (London, 1765), 6.91. Scott owned the 5th edn of Johnson, revised and augmented by George Steevens and Isaac Reed (ALC). 5.900  the city cross  also known as the Mercat Cross, ‘a curious architectural object’, as Scott calls it in The Provincial Antiquities of Scotland (Prose Works, 7.244). It stood in the middle of the High Street of Edinburgh, down from St Giles’ Cathedral. The base was octagonal, 5 m in diameter, and 5 m high. An internal staircase led to a platform from which proclamations and Acts of Parliament were read. Arising from the platform there was a 6 m column with a unicorn on top. For an illustration see James Grant, Old and New Edinburgh, 3 vols (London, 1882), 1.152. The original cross was dismantled in 1756, but its position is marked in the road; the base of the current cross, which is in a different position, is a Victorian imitation, dating from 1885, but the shaft comes from the original. See Note XIX in Notes to Canto Fifth, 264–65. 5.917 Gibber  utter meaningless sound; for the word in this context compare Hamlet, additional passage A (after 1.1.106), lines 8–9: ‘The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead/ Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets’. 5.930  This awful summons came  what follows is a version of the story contained in Pitscottie: see Note XX in Notes to Canto Fifth, 265–66. The phrase ‘awful summons’ is found in John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis (1667), line 58; Scott’s Dryden, 9.107. 5.937  each deadly sin  there are seven: pride, envy, sloth, gluttony, greed, anger, and lust. 5.950‒51  Crawford . . . Lyle  Scottish noblemen in the court of James IV, all killed at Flodden. 5.957‒58  Marmion . . . Scrivelbaye  see note to 1.486–87. 5.959  erst of Aberley  formerly of Abberley (a village in Worcestershire). 5.964–65  Him on High, Who burst the sinner’s yoke  Christ. The sinner’s yoke is the burden of sin which enslaves all, but from which Christ liberates all. See Leviticus 26.13, ‘I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright’; and Galatians 5.1, ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage’. 5.974  What time when. 5.979  tottering child toddler. 5.1019  wide command  a very common phrase in 18th-century literature. 5.1031  North Berwick’s town, and conic Law  town on the coast in East Lothian, 32 km (20 miles) NE of Edinburgh; it is overlooked by the conical hill, Berwick Law, which rises 187 m above sea level. 5.1033  venerable pile  St Mary’s Priory, a medieval Cistercian nunnery near North Berwick, thought to have been founded c. 1150 by Duncan Macduff, 3rd earl of Fife (d. 1154). See Note XXI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 266. 5.1035  The lofty Bass  a steep-sided rocky island in the Firth of Forth, 4 km (2½ miles) NE of North Berwick. 5.1035  the Lambie Isle  The Lamb, a small island in the Firth of Forth, 2 km (1½ miles) N of North Berwick. 5.1057  a letter broad  The Battle of Flodden-Field, ed. Joseph Benson (Lancaster, 1805), 20 (Fit the First, stanza 66), ALC. A ‘letter broad’ is an open letter, as distinct from a rolled or sealed letter. It is a common ballad



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phrase; e.g. see ‘Sir Patrick Spens’, line 9, ‘The king has written a braid letter’: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 2nd edn, 3 vols (London, 1803), 3.64. 5.1064  pale as death, and cold as lead  both proverbial comparisons (see ODEP, 608 and 449), common in 18th-century literature. 5.1081  Nor sue for slightest courtesy  Marmion will not ask for any show of favour. 5.1094  curse with candle, bell, and book  the anathema, a Roman rite of excommunication imposed on a person who has committed a grave sin. It was read in church, and at the end the Bible was flung on the ground, the bell tolled, and the candle was extinguished. 5.1095 Cistertian  member of the monastic order founded by St Bernard at Cîteaux in eastern France in 1098. It was one of the most wealthy orders in Scotland. 5.1105  bold and bad  a set expression in the 18th century. 5.1108‒09  one of his own ancestry . . . Coventry  as Note XXII in Notes to Canto Fifth, 266–67, indicates, this refers to an historical Robert Marmion (d. 1144), who expelled the monks from a monastery in Coventry to use the building as a fortress from which to launch attacks on his opponent, Ranulf, 4th Earl of Chester (d. 1153). 5.1111  Prancing in pride  see ‘The Palphry’, lines 1–2, in Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, ed. Henry Playford, 6 vols (London, 1719–20), 4.10, ALC. 5.1121‒23  Judith . . . Jael . . . Deborah  Judith kills Holophernes, an Assyrian general, in the Book of Judith in the Apocrypha; Jael kills Sisera, captain of a Canaanite army, in Judges, Ch. 4; Deborah is a prophetess who leads the counter-attack against the Canaanites led by Sisera in Judges, Chs 4 and 5. All three are examples of warrior women who successfully take on oppressive men. 5.1126  Saint Anton’ fire thee  a punning curse in that St Anthony’s fire is a disease of which one of the symptoms is a painful burning sensation in the limbs. 5.1127  bonnet in thy hand  often used in popular literature as an indication of male ineffectiveness; e.g. see ‘Lochinvar’, line 5.539, ‘the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume’. 5.1129  By this good light!  a very common oath in the old drama, e.g. The Tempest, 2.2.143 (Trinculo). 5.1132 d’on do on; by the 17th century it had become became ‘don’, but re-appeared in the 19th century as a literary archaism. 5.1141–44  sanctuary . . . head  according to the law of the medieval church a fugitive from justice was entitled to immunity from arrest for 40 days by taking shelter in a church or other sacred place. This right was abolished in 1625. 5.1142  inviolable dome  Edward Jerningham, An Elegy written among the Ruins of an Abbey, 2nd edn (London, 1765), 8. 5.1146  blood for blood  see Macbeth, 3.4.122, and ODEP, 69; compare Genesis 9.6; Numbers 35.33, etc. 5.1157  Weeping and wailing  Jeremiah 9.10; Revelation 18.15, 19. 5.1175  double mound and fosse  two deep ditches (fosse), with the spoil from the ditches forming the defensive mounds. On the landward side of the castle, they cut off the small peninsula on which it stands. 5.1196  Etall, and Wark, and Ford  castles in Northumberland, close to the Scottish Borders. Etal and Ford are situated in the valley of the River Till, a few km S of Norham; Wark lies some 5 km (3 miles) SW of

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explanatory notes

Coldstream. Ford Castle was the residence of Sir William Heron and his wife Elizabeth. 5.1197  Norham’s castle  see note to 1.330. 5.1204  dallying off the day  putting the day off by amorous trifling. 5.1206  to chronicles I yield  see note to 4.497. 5.1212  Millfield Plain  an area in Northumberland spreading S from the Cheviots. 5.1213 Surrey  see note to 1.629. 5.1216 Wooler  town in Northumberland, 20 km (12½ miles) SW of Berwick-upon-Tweed. 5.1217–18  charger . . . trumpet-call  see Job 39.25: the horse ‘saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off’. 5.1227  ’bated of  reduced, lowered. 5.1229–30  array For march against the dawning day make preparations for marching at first light. Canto 6 heading  Richard Heber  (1774–1833) an English book collector who also edited classical texts. He met Scott in 1799 (he passed the winter of 1799–1800 in Edinburgh). Letters of 1800 show Heber’s interest in Scott’s ballad collecting, and imply that Heber had been urging Scott to publish: he is important in helping to turn Scott into a professional writer. Canto 6 heading  Mertoun-House  an early 18th-century house designed by Sir William Bruce (c. 1625–1710), 3 km (2 miles) E of the village of St Boswells in the Scottish Borders. It was owned by Hugh Scott of Harden (1758–1841), a distant relative with whom Scott and his family normally spent Christmas. 6.6–7  the savage Dane . . . did drain  see Note I in Notes to Canto Sixth, 267. 6.7 Iol  Yule, i.e. Christmas and its festivities. 6.16  grim delight  Thomas Gray (1716–71), ‘Essay I’ [‘The Alliance of Education and Government. A Fragment’], line 54, in The Poems of Mr. Gray, ed. W. Mason, 4 vols (London [usually given as York], 1778), 3.105 (see ALC); ‘The Progress of Man’, Canto 1, line 86, in The Beauties of the Anti-Jacobin (London, 1799), 187, ALC. 6.17  joys of fight  Thomas Chatterton (1752–70), ‘Ælla’, line 305, in The Works of Thomas Chatterton, [ed. Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle], 3 vols (London, 1803), 2.229, ALC. 6.20  blazing pile  The Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 4.309; see ALC. 6.21  barbarous mirth  William Drummond (1585–1649), The History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five James’s (Edinburgh, 1711), 40, ALC. 6.23  boisterous joys  Isaac Watts (1674–1748), ‘To Sarissa’, in his Horæ Lyricæ, 6th edn (London, 1731), 156. 6.23 Odin  chief of the Scandinavian gods. 6.31  On Christmas Eve the mass was sung  see Note II in Notes to Canto Sixth, 267–68. 6.32–33  That only night . . . the chalice rear  traditionally Communion was celebrated before 12 noon except on Christmas at midnight. The chalice is raised above the priest’s head. 6.40  rod of rule  John Taylor (1580–1653), ‘The Praise of Hemp-seed’, line 726, in All the Workes of John Taylor (London, 1630), 70, ALC. 6.42  with roses on his shoes  probably indicative of a party atmosphere. Hamlet talks of ‘two Provençal roses on my razed [slashed] shoes’ in a context



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where he suggests that reciting doggerel and wearing flamboyant dress will get him a place in a troupe of actors (Hamlet, 3.2.264–65). 6.45  post and pair  a card game in which players are dealt three cards on which they place bets. 6.46  uncontrolled delight  John Oldham (1653–83), ‘Satyr III: Loyala’s Will’, line 385, in The Works of John Oldham (London, 1684), 58, ALC. 6.55  No mark to part the squire and lord  normally the salt cellar would separate those of superior and inferior rank sitting ‘above and below the salt’. 6.67  Christmas pye  mince-pie, a pastry containing currants, raisins, sugar, suet, apples, almonds, candied peel, and spices, traditionally served at Christmas. 6.74–75  in their mumming . . . ancient mystery  see Note III in Notes to Canto Sixth, 268–69. An ‘ancient mystery’ is a medieval play in which some scene central to the Christian message is enacted. 6.78  richly dight  richly dressed: John Milton, ‘Il Penseroso’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), line 159. 6.80  merry England  a phrase common in Robin Hood ballads, and in the literature of the Elizabethan period, e.g. The Faerie Queene, 1.10.61: ‘Saint George of mery England, the signe of victoree’. 6.84  Christmas gambol  The Taming of the Shrew, Induction 2, 134: Sly is told that ‘they thought it good you hear a play/ And frame your mind to mirth and merriment’, to which he asks whether a comedy is ‘a Christmas gambol, or a tumbling trick’. The association of play-acting and Christmas is continued in the periodical literature of the 18th century. 6.87  Some remnants of the good old time  after the Reformation in the 16th century traditional festival customs were gradually suppressed, particularly in Scotland, on the grounds that they were superstitious. 6.89  the kindred title  the claim that someone is family. 6.92–93  course of blood . . . mountain-stream  proverbial: see ODEP, 69. 6.95–96  great-grandsire . . . With amber beard, and flaxen hair  see Note IV in Notes to Canto Sixth, 269–70. The ‘great-grandsire’ was Walter Scott (1653–1729), known as Beardie. In his ‘Memoirs’ Scott writes: ‘Beardie, my great grandfather aforesaid, derived his agnomen from a venerable beard which he wore unblemished by razor or scissors in token of his regret for the banished dynasty of Stuart’ (Scott on Himself, ed. David Hewitt (Edinburgh, 1981), 2). See note to 6.105. 6.100  honest mirth  common in 17th- and 18th-century literature. 6.105  banished race of kings  the Stewart ‘monarchs’ descended from James VII and II (1633–1701; king 1685–88) who fled the country at Christmas 1688. Beardie was a Jacobite (from the Latin Jacobus, meaning James), a supporter of the exiled Stewart kings. James was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband William; as their coming as monarchs broke the principles of primogeniture, many in public office and the church refused to take the oaths of loyalty to the new monarchs and so lost their jobs or livings; some took to arms. Beardie seems to have taken part in the Jacobite risings of 1689 and 1715 as Scott explains: ‘He bore arms in 1689, and was at Killiecrankie with Dundee [i.e. fought under Viscount Dundee on the Jacobite side],—and also, I believe, in 1715; at any rate, he was imprisoned, and in danger, during that time’ (Letters, 4.153). The property of many of those who took part in the Jacobite risings of 1689, 1715 and 1745–46, was forfeited, as was Beardie’s. 6.108  fair liberty  very common in 18th-century poetry.

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6.109  cordial friendship  a very common phrase in 18th-century literature. It is possibly associated with free masonry; in The Free Masons Pocket Companion (Edinburgh, 1761), Appendix 36, William Auld writes ‘we serve on another most readily in all the kind offices of a cordial friendship’. 6.111  the fair dame that rules the land  Harriet Bruhl (1773–1853), who married Hugh Scott (1758–1841) in 1795. Scott was particularly fond of her and she supported his German studies and encouraged his translations. 6.113  social cheer  Robert Fergusson (1750–74), ‘The Daft Days’, line 55, in The Poetical Works of Robert Fergusson (Glasgow, 1800), 98, ALC. 6.117  Tweed . . . turns again  Mertoun House stands in the neck of a piece of land round which the River Tweed flows in a horse-shoe curve. The phrase ‘sweet domain’ is common in 18th-century literature. 6.126  heard the chimes of midnight’s tone see 2 Henry IV, 3.2.211–12, where Falstaff says: ‘We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow’. 6.128  these classic tomes  see note to Canto 6 heading. 6.131  Noll Bluff  character in William Congreve’s play The Old Bachelor (1693). 6.132  pretty fellows in their day  see William Congreve (1620–1729), The Old Bachelor (1693), Act 2, Scene 1: ‘faith, Hannibal was a very pretty fellow. But, Sir Joseph, comparisons are odious—Hannibal was a very pretty fellow in those days, it must be granted’. 6.133  time and tide o’er all prevail  proverbial. See ODEP, 822: time and tide wait for no man. 6.136 Latian  of Latium, i.e. Latin. 6.143–44  Leyden . . . many-languaged lore  John Leyden (1775–1811) was introduced by Heber (see note to Canto 6 heading) to Scott in 1799, and almost immediately became Scott’s enthusiastic assistant in gathering and editing ballads for Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802). He went to Madras as an assistant surgeon in 1803. He was a formidable linguist; as well as the usual classical and modern languages, he had mastered Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian before going to India. Of his many publications Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese Nations (Calcutta, 1808) is the most remarkable, being a survey of fourteen different languages and literatures, including those of Malaysia, Java, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Bali. The phrase many-languaged is used in ‘New Morality’, in Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin (London, 1800), 222; see ALC. 6.146  Ulysses meets Alcides’ wraith see The Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 11.741–74 (see ALC) where Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman myth) meets the ghost of Alcides (also known as Heracles in Greek, and Hercules in Roman literature). 6.147–48  Æneas . . . murdered Polydore  in Virgil (70–19 bc), The Aeneid, Bk 3, lines 13–68, Aeneas arrives in Thrace in northern Greece, and on cutting some bushes confronts the ghost of Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam of Troy, who had been murdered by the king of Thrace. 6.149 Livy the Roman historian Titus Livius (59 bc –ad 17), who wrote a history of Rome, Ab urbe condita. 6.150  locutus Bos Latin a shortened form of ‘bos locutus est’, an ox has spoken. In the Roman era an ox speaking was regarded as an omen, which had to be interpreted by an augur. In his edition of Dryden, Scott remarks in a footnote to a passage where Dryden is arguing for the superiority of Polybius (a Greek historian, c. 202–120 bc) to the Roman historian Livy: ‘I believe the most enthusiastic admirers of Livy must tire of these unvaried prodigies. Et bos locutus appears as often, and is mentioned with as much



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indifference, as a nomination of sheriffs in Hall, Stone, or Speed.’ (Scott’s Dryden, 18.42). 6.154 Common-councilman  an elected member of the Court of Common Council, the ruling body of the City of London. 6.157 Cambria  Wales: Cambria is the Latinised form of the Welsh name Cymru. 6.158 Glendowerdy  a nonce word invented by Scott to characterise a commitment to all things Welsh. It alludes to the leader of the Welsh rebellion in the early 15th century, Owen Glendwr (see note to 271.2), and his mode of utterance in 1 Henry IV. 6.159  the spirit’s blasted tree  an oak struck by lightning within which the bones of a lost warrior are found in a version of a traditional Welsh tale: see Note V in Notes to Canto Sixth, 270–76, and note to 270.30–31. 6.160–63  The Highlander . . . fairy tale  for Scott’s analysis of these superstitions see Note VI in Notes to Canto Sixth, 276–77. 6.161  Maida’s shore  the Battle of Maida, 4 July 1806 in which a British force defeated a French division near the town of Maida in Calabria in Italy. 6.162  Friday morn  the sense is that the Highland soldier will kill in battle one day, but will be frightened if asked to tell a fairy tale on a Friday in case the fairies interfered. Friday was considered ill-omened, as fairies were particularly active on Fridays: see Note VI in Notes to Canto Sixth, 276–77. 6.165  grassy ring  see note to 3.809. 6.169  the towers of Franchémont  for a description of the superstition referred to see James Skene’s narrative in Note VII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 277. The Château of Franchimont is an 11th-century castle in the municipality of Theux near Liège in Belgium. 6.205 Pitscottie  Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie (c. 1532–c. 1586), author of The History of Scotland, from February 21. 1436, to March 1565. 6.206  gossip history  J[ohn] Taylor (1757–1832), ‘Epilogue’, line 41, in Henry James Pye, Adelaide: A Tragedy (London, 1800), xi. 6.210  Monk of Durham  not an identifiable person: see Note VIII in Notes to Canto Third, 243–45, where Scott tells us that the story of Marmion’s nocturnal encounter was suggested by a story extracted by Thomas Cradocke from a ms in Durham Cathedral, and communicated to Scott by Robert Surtees (1779–1834). For a full discussion see Essay on the Text, 289, and Historical Note, 365. 6.212 Fordun  (d. in or after 1363), a compiler of historical works relating to Scotland which, after circulating for some eighty years, came to be incorporated in the 1440s in the more extensive Scotichronicon of Walter Bower (1385–1449). Scott possessed two 18th-century editions of Fordun’s work whose titles reflect the fusion of Fordun and Bower: Johannis de Fordun Scotichronicon geuinum (1722) and Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, cum supplementis et continuatione Walteri Boweri (1759). 6.216  various lore  Robert Dodsley (1703–64), Melpomene (London, 1757), 4: ‘Young Shakespear, Fancy’s child, was taught his various lore’. 6.217 twenty-thousands Heber amassed a collection of books which was extraordinary in both extent and rarity. 6.220 gripple  mean, ungenerous. Heber was extraordinarily generous in the way in which he lent books to friends. He is said to have observed: ‘No gentleman can be without three copies of a book, one for show, one for use, and one for borrowers’. 6.222  the priest’s whole century  see lines 6.186–203. 6.235  were on the gale  were in the wind, were happening, were afoot.

438

explanatory notes

6.239–40  impatient steed . . . from afar  see Job 39.25: the war-horse ‘smelleth the battle afar off’. 6.242–44  Terouenne . . . decisive battle-day  Henry VIII’s army lay in siege round Thérouanne in the Pas-de-Calais region of Northern France. An attempt by the French to relieve the town on 16 August 1513 led to their disastrous defeat at Guinegate (Enguinegatte). 6.259  Tantallon’s dizzy steep  see note to 5.622. 6.260  margin of the deep  The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 1.456; see ALC. 6.262  insults of the air  see John Langhorne (1735–79), The Country Justice, Part the Second (London, 1775), 11. 6.263  the tempest vexed the sky  compare John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 3.429: ‘glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud’. 6.268  Bloody Heart  see note to 5.626. 6.279  Bulwark, and bartisan, and line  castle fortifications: a bulwark is a rampart; bartizan refers to a battlemented parapet at the top of the castle; line is another word for a rampart. 6.280 vantage-coign  a projecting vantage point: see ‘coign of vantage’ in Macbeth, 1.6.7. 6.288  steepy rock  William Somervile (1675–1742), The Chace, 3rd edn (London, 1735), 2 (Bk 1, line 17); see ALC. 6.298  heaving tide  John Gay (1685–1732), ‘Trivia’, Bk 2, line 193, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2 vols (London, 1775), 1.156, ALC. 6.300  swelling main  The Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1725–26), 8.611; see ALC. 6.303  laid adown discarded. 6.306 Benedictine gown  see notes to 2.336 and 2.336–37. 6.312  fretted broidery  embroidery with an intricate interlacing pattern. 6.319  breviary book  a book used in the Catholic church containing the Divine Office for each day, which priests, monks, and nuns are bound to recite. 6.333  witching fair  ‘The Squire of Dames’, Canto 2, stanza 2, in A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes (London, 1758), 4.135; see ALC. See also notes to 4.403, and 4.565. 6.335  gliding sail  i.e. a sailing vessel moving forward without giving any impressions of effort. The expression, which occurs several times in 18th-century poetry, seems to have appeared first in William Collins (1721–59), Ode Occasion’d by the Death of Mr. Thomson (London, 1749), 6 (line 24). 6.344  The very form of Hilda fair  according to Lionel Charlton, the belief that St Hilda’s form would appear in Whitby Abbey in the sunbeams during the summer months persisted into the 18th century: The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey (York, 1779), 33. See Note VIII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 278. 6.362  Red De Clare, stout Gloster’s Earl  Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester and 6th Earl of Hertford (1243–95). He was known as Gilbert the Red due to the colour of his hair. 6.365  what makes  why is. 6.367  Target, corslet, helm  pieces of armour: a target is a light round shield; a corslet is a defensive piece of armour covering the body; a helm is the piece of armour protecting the head, a helmet. 6.371 blood-gouts  splashes of blood. See Macbeth, 2.1.46: ‘gouts of blood’.



explanatory notes

439

6.387  dyes of heaven  John Hervey (1714–58), ‘Contemplations on the Night’, in Meditations and Contemplations, 2 vols (London, 1748), 2.7. 6.401  bursting sigh  common in 18th-century literature. 6.403  Forget we  let us forget. 6.407  found me  found myself. 6.426  palmer’s weeds  black robes (see line 6.452), in poor or tattered condition as a palmer had to profess poverty. In The Faerie Queene, there is a palmer ‘clad in blacke attire’ (2.1.7). 6.430  the dregs of earth  very common in 18th-century literature. 6.433  dark revenge  common in 18th-century poetry. 6.443  a second Cain  Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother Abel and was cursed to wander the earth as ‘a fugitive and a vagabond’ (Genesis 4.12). The expression ‘a second Cain’ is found in George Crabbe (1754–1832), The Candidate (1780), line 199. 6.458  Vengeance to God alone belongs  see Romans 12.19: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord’. 6.460  liquid flame  Thomas Gibbons, ‘An Elegy on the Death of . . . Col. James Gardiner’, in Philip Doddridge, Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Honourable Col. James Gardiner (Edinburgh, 1747), 205, ALC. 6.462 set  seated. Actually while Marmion is seated (3.300), De Wilton is standing (3.323) 6.474  postern door  unobtrusive side entrance. 6.476 Gifford-moor moorland near the village of Gifford: see note to 3.264. 6.494  infernal shade  The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 10.589; see ALC. The phrase is also used by several 18th-century poets whom Scott had read. 6.505 Otterburne  the Battle of Otterburn, fought between the Scots and the English at Otterburn in Redesdale, in the north of Northumberland, in August, 1388. The Scots won, although their leader James, 2nd Earl of Douglas, was killed. 6.506  Harry Hotspur  Sir Henry Percy, known as Harry Hotspur (1364–1403), son of the first Earl of Northumberland. He was captured at the Battle of Otterburn. 6.507  the Dead Douglas  James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas (c. 1358–88), killed at the Battle of Otterburn. 6.514  Twisel glen  although this name does not appear in modern maps it seems to refer to the steep-sided valley of the Till below Twizel Castle, 15 km (9 miles) SE of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In fact the Scottish army camped on Flodden Hill, not in a valley. 6.515–16  now I watch . . . midnight’s near  before being dubbed knight the candidate would place his sword and shield on a chapel altar and spend several hours in vigil. 6.517  belted knight  a special belt was one of the distinguishing insignia of a Scottish knight. 6.518  Surrey’s camp  the camp of the English army under its commander the Earl of Surrey (for whom see note to 1.629). 6.525  meeter far for martial broil  De Wilton is saying that he is now more ready for fighting, being older and tougher. 6.541  Red Earl Gilbert  see note to 6.362. 6.554  Douglas’ wars  after the powerful William, 8th Earl of Douglas (1425–52) was assassinated by James II, his followers mustered forces against the king in revenge, resulting in what was almost a civil war.

440

explanatory notes

6.555  grey priests  probably Franciscan friars, who were commonly called grey friars; alternatively monks of the Tironensian Order, named after the location of the mother church in Thiron, 50 km (31 miles) W of Chartres in W France. The Tironensian house closest to Tantallon was Kelso Abbey, 50 km to the S. 6.561–62  Bishop . . . Douglas blood  Gawain Douglas (c. 1476–1522), whose father was Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus (see note to 5.581–84), owner of Tantallon. He was not yet Bishop of Dunkeld (to which he was elevated in 1515), but was deeply involved in Scottish politics. By 1513 he had an established reputation as a poet; his greatest work is his Eneados, the first translation of the whole of Virgil’s Aeneid into any form of English. See Note IX in Notes to Canto Sixth, 278. 6.563  rocquet white  a vestment of white linen worn by a bishop. 6.565  pride of prelacy  sense of self-importance arising from ecclesiastical status. 6.567  gave rude Scotland Virgil’s page  see Gawin Douglas, Eneados, Prologue to Bk 1, lines 43–44: ‘I wald [would], into my rurall vulgar gros [uncultivated vulgar tongue],/ Wryte sum savoryng of thyne Eneados’. 6.569 Dunkeld  town, 20 km (12½ miles) N of Perth, a centre of Christianity in Scotland from the 7th century onwards. 6.575–78  the huge and sweeping brand . . . sapling spray  see Note X in Notes to Canto Sixth, 278–79. 6.588  buckling of the faulchion belt  see note to 6.517. 6.594  Saint Michael  the archangel Michael. 6.594  Saint Andrew (d. c. ad 60), apostle, martyr, and patron saint of Scotland. 6.597  For King, for Church, for Lady fair  a medieval knight’s chivalric code of honour demanded loyalty and respect to his country, to God and to women. 6.611  under shield  in combat; the phrase is found in medieval romance. 6.613  foul fall him  may evil fall on him. 6.623  Let the hawk stoop, his prey is flown  although sounding proverbial this is not a recognised proverb. A hawk diving on its prey is said to ‘stoop’. 6.654  pitch of pride  exalted state of pride. The pitch is the height to which a bird of prey soars before swooping down on its quarry. The phrase is found in 18th-century sermons, but Scott seems to have reintroduced it for literary effect. 6.666  beard the lion proverbial: ODEP, 35; beard means ‘defy’. 6.668–71  And hop’st . . . portcullis fall  see Note XI in Notes to Canto Sixth, 279–80. 6.669  Saint Bryde of Bothwell  St Bride, or Bridget (c. 525) of Kildare, the patron saint of the Douglas family. The collegiate church at Bothwell, the Douglas castle in Lanarkshire, was dedicated to her. See also note to 5.595. 6.690  letter forged  see Note XII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 280. 6.690  Saint Jude to speed  St Jude (Judas Thaddaeus, one of the apostles) help us. 6.692  it liked me ill  I did not like it at all. 6.694  Thanks to Saint Bothan  thanks be to St Bothan. Bothan or Bathan (d. 598) was possibly the cousin of St Columba and the second abbot of Iona. 6.695 Gawain  Gawin Douglas: see note to 6.561–62. 6.708 Stanrig-moor  not identified. Many of the Lammermuir hills include ‘rig’ (meaning a ridge of high ground) as part of their name.



explanatory notes

441

6.712  the peep of day daybreak. 6.713  Good sooth  in truth. 6.713  it was in strange array  in an odd kind of military grouping. 6.715  I ill can spell the trick  I find it difficult to tell the story. 6.720 Bell-the-Cat see note to 5.586–91. 6.722  As fearful  as if fearful. 6.730 Cheviot  the horse is named after the Cheviot hills, for which see note to 1.332. 6.733  Sheriff Sholto  from the 12th century in Scotland the sheriff acted as the representative of the royal authority in a county. Sholto is a Douglas name, being that of the legendary 8th-century founder of the house of Douglas. It has a Gaelic derivation: see Walter Scott, Castle Dangerous, ed. J. H. Alexander, eewn 23b (Edinburgh, 2006), 395–96, note to 25.4–8. 6.734  the Master  the normal title given to the eldest son of a Scottish peer or major landowner. Here it refers to George, Master of Angus, eldest son of Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus; he was killed at Flodden. 6.753  earthly mould  John Milton, ‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity’ (published 1645), line 138. Mould is soil, the material of the human body. 6.774  Lennel’s convent  Coldstream Priory in Coldstream (known as Lennel until the 18th century), in the Scottish Borders. It was a Cistercian nunnery founded in 1166: see Note XIII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 280. By the end of the 19th century no trace of the buildings remained. 6.778  hospitable shade  common in 18th-century poetry. 6.779  A reverend pilgrim  Patrick Brydone (1736–1818), traveller and author. He was known for A Tour through Sicily and Malta, 2 vols (London, 1773), which is significant for its observations upon volcanology and its implications for the age of the earth. 6.780 Bernardine  another name for Cistercian, derived from St Bernard (c. 1090–1153), the most influential figure of the Cistercian order. The abbey at Cîteaux (whence the name ‘Cistercian’) near Dijon was founded in 1098, as a reformed Benedictine monastery; Bernard entered as a monk early in the 12th century. In 1115 he founded his own monastery at Clairvaux; it soon attracted so many monks that sister houses proliferated, and in 1119 a general chapter agreed on a constitution and regulations to guide the order. 6.782  Saint Bernard’s Abbot  Lennel was a priory for nuns, and so would not have an abbot; Scott’s uncertainty over such matters exemplifies a more general ignorance of the middle ages and of pre-reformation religious orders in the 18th century. 6.805 Barmore-wood  where English forces spent the night before the battle of Flodden. Barmoor in Northumberland is situated 2 km (a little over a mile) W of Lowick, and 12 km (7½ miles) from the village of Branxton, near Flodden Hill, itself 5 km (3 miles) SE of Coldstream. 6.807  The Till by Twisel Bridge  at Twizel, about 8 km (5 miles) N of Branxton and 12 km (7½ miles) NW of Barmoor, the river Till is spanned by an ancient arched-stone bridge, which was crossed by the English army on the morning of 9 September 1513. See Note XIV in Notes to Canto Sixth, 280–81. 6.811  airy wall  The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 2.867; see ALC. 6.827  Saint Helen . . . fountain  a spring a little below Twizel Bridge. St Helen (c. 250–330) was the mother of Constantine the Great (c. 272–337), the first Christian Roman Emperor. 6.833  airy brow  John Dryden, Æneïs, 1.255, in The Works of Virgil (London, 1697), 209; Scott’s Dryden, 14.239. The phrase is also used by

442

explanatory notes

Alexander Pope in his translation of The Odyssey (London, 1725–26), 10.111 (see ALC); and James Thomson (1700–48), ‘Liberty’, Part 1, line 68, in The Works of James Thomson, 2 vols (London, 1762), 1.239, ALC. 6.836  fiery soul  John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), line 156; Scott’s Dryden, 9.222. 6.843 Douglas Sir James Douglas, the hero of the Wars of Independence: see notes to 5.624 and 5.625. 6.844  Fierce Randolph  Thomas Randolph, first Earl of Moray (d. 1332), soldier under Robert I. He played a decisive role in the Wars of Independence, notably at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314). 6.845  Wallace wight  see note to 2.113. 6.846 Bruce  see note to 3.197. 6.849  Fate’s dark book  John Hughes, ‘A Wish to the New Year, 1705’, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2 vols (London, 1735), 1.175. 6.850 Bannock-bourne  the Battle of Bannockburn, fought between the Scots and the English on 24 June 1314, and in which the Scots were victorious. 6.854 Flodden-hill  5 km (3 miles) SE of Coldstream. 6.860  hap what hap  whatever chance befalls. 6.861  My basnet to a prentice cap a basnet was a hemispherical helmet without a visor, worn under the fighting helmet. The phrase wagers this against the less valuable apprentice’s flat cap; i.e. Fitz-Eustace is expressing his absolute conviction that Surrey has crossed the Till. Although the phrase sounds proverbial it seems to be Scott’s own; the term basnet appears in literature up to the early 16th century; it is used by Scott and appears frequently in later 19th-century works. 6.868  Saint George  see note to 1.343. 6.870  Stint in thy prate  cut short your talking, shut up. 6.886–87  The pheasant . . . daw  the falcon won’t give up a pheasant to please a jackdaw. Although this utterance has a proverbial ring it seems to be Scott’s own. 6.891  Leat’s eddies  the little river Leat which flows into the Tweed near Coldstream in the Scottish Borders. 6.895  stems the tide  resists the current. 6.909  breathed his steed  paused to give his horse time to get its breath back. 6.912  cross of stone  in 1840 William Howitt reported that a well below King’s-Chair Hill marks the spot where Scott situates his wayside cross: Visits to Remarkable Places (London, 1840), 191–92. 6.915–16  the full array . . . deadly fray  see Note XV in Notes to Canto Sixth, 281–83. 6.921–23  Not in the close successive rattle . . . between  the noise of the continuous firing of small arms versus that of heavy cannon. Armies of the Napoleonic era used muskets which could fire three volleys a minute; the only fire-arms at Flodden were the cannon, of which there were only 22 pieces on the Scots side (see note to 4.772–73). 6.947  ranged my power  arranged my forces. 6.949 Stanley  Sir Edward Stanley, first Baron Monteagle (c. 1460–1523). 6.950  My sons  Sir Thomas Howard, the Lord Admiral and later 3rd duke of Norfolk (1473–1554), and his third son, Sir Edmund Howard (1478–1539). 6.950  vaward post  forward position. 6.951  Brian Tunstall  Sir Brian Tunstall (c. 1480–1513), one of the few English leaders to die in the battle. See Note XVI in Notes to Canto Sixth, 283.



explanatory notes

443

6.952  Lord Dacre  Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre of Gilsland (1467–1525). 6.957  Edmund, the Admiral  see note to 6.949. 6.960  De Burg  probably a fictional character. 6.1000  in upper air  in the atmosphere of earth instead of in hell below. The phrase is very common in 18th-century poetry. 6.1001  life and death were in the shout  the shouts of battle portended life and death. 6.1012–13  Then marked they . . . the war compare The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (London, 1715–20), 23.71–72 (see ALC): ‘the Shore/ Where dash’d on Rocks the broken Billows roar’. 6.1020  Crests rose, and stooped, and rose again  according to the College of Arms it is improbable that anyone wore a crest in battle. Crests came into being as the tournament became an elaborate pageant; they were made out of boiled leather or wood and were bolted to the tournament helm for show, and would have been unwieldy in battle. Scott’s description is not historically accurate, but it is colourful. 6.1024  stainless Tunstall’s banner white  it appears that ‘stainless’ has affected the representation of Tunstall’s banner. The Tunstall coat of arms was sable (black), with three combs argent (silver); his crest was a white cockerel. 6.1025  Edmund Howard’s lion bright  it is not known as a matter of historical fact what Sir Edmund Howard’s arms were, but he would have shared aspects of the family arms which would include a lion as a crest. However, he is unlikely to have been wearing a crest: see note to 6.1020. 6.1028 Gordons  a great NE Scotland family, whose head was the Earl of Huntly (see next entry); the epithet ‘gallant’ is traditionally associated with the Gordons. 6.1031 Huntley  Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly (d. 1524); he was one of the few Scottish noblemen to survive the battle. 6.1031 Home  Alexander, 3rd Lord Home (d. 1516), Warden of the East March and one of James IV’s key divisional commanders. The Homes were a dominant family in the SE of Scotland, especially during the 15th and 16th centuries. 6.1033 Lennox  Matthew Stewart, 2nd Earl of Lennox (c. 1455–1513). 6.1033 Argyle  Gillespie Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll (d. 1513). He was joint commander of the Highland division with the Earl of Lennox. 6.1045–46  The Border slogan . . . A Gordon  the Gordons hailed originally from SE Scotland and so it is not inappropriate to talk of ‘A Gordon’ as a Border slogan (war-cry). 6.1057  bid your beads  tell your beads; say your prayers. 6.1065–66  Like pine . . . the foes  compare the description of Satan’s spear in John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 1.292–94: ‘His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine/ Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast/ Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand’. 6.1083  van of England  the English vanguard. 6.1109  hearts of hare  timid or cowardly people. ‘As fearful as the hare’ is a proverbial expression (ODEP, 250). 6.1123  Chester . . . Lancashire  Edmund Howard commanded men from Cheshire and Lancashire. 6.1141  ministering angel  Hamlet, 5.1.236. 6.1151–52  dark red tide . . . streamlet blue  see Pitscottie, 182. 6.1155 diamond-spark  small diamond. 6.1159  Sybil. Gray  apparently fictitious. For the cross see note to 6.912.

444

explanatory notes

6.1176  Alas! . . . the while  this expression of grief, with ‘the while’ as intensifier, is found in the translation of Virgil’s The Aeneid by Gavin Douglas (c. 1476–1522), Eneados, 4.Proloug.259; 4.10.52; 6.8.77. 6.1179  Holy Isle  the small island of Lindisfarne. See note to 1.593. 6.1185  dark presage  Anna Seward (1742–1809), Poem to the Memory of Lady Miller (London, 1782), 18. 6.1186–87  the Fiend . . . all her wrongs  Marmion is wrong to invoke the Devil: ‘vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord’ (Romans 12.19). 6.1189  wasting fire  Thomas Heywood (c. 1573–1641), The Iron Age (London, 1632), Part 2, Act 2, Scene 1, ALC; also The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels (London, 1635), 618. Wasting means ‘devastating’. In Renaissance literature the phrase is applied to warfare and the last judgment. 6.1192  dizzy trance  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), ‘Christabel’, lines 589, and 607. The poem was written in 1797 and 1800, and Scott had known it since 1802. It was first published in 1816. 6.1206–07  In the lost . . . dying  see 3.412–15. 6.1209  Avoid thee  be off! 6.1210  Shake not the dying sinner’s sand  i.e. do not shake the hourglass to speed up the sinner’s last moments. 6.1211–12  yon sign . . . divine  the cross, presumably borne by the monk. 6.1234  Fontarabian echoes  see John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, rev. 1674), 1.586–87. Fuenterrabia is a border town in the north of Spain. The short narrative in lines 6.1233–38 is a summary of the central episode in La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland). In the Battle of Rencesvalles in 778, Roland and Olivier command the rearguard of a Christian army that is attacked by the Moors; Olivier begs Roland to sound his magic horn to alert Charlemagne, who is still within hearing distance, that they are under attack, but Roland refuses and all die. 6.1235  King Charles  Charlemagne, or Charles the Great (768–814), ruler of the Frankish Empire, and from 800 Holy Roman Emperor. 6.1237 paladin  one of the twelve peers or best-known warriors of Charlemagne’s court; a knight renowned for heroism and chivalry. 6.1238 Roncesvalles  a mountain pass in the Pyrenees between France and Spain. It figures in Charlemagne’s Spanish campaigns against the Moors in 778. 6.1239–40  Such blast . . . slain  the left wing of the Scottish army under Home and Huntly was initially successful, but the followers of Home set about pillaging the baggage rather than continue the fight. See Note XV in Notes to Canto Sixth, 281–83. 6.1248  Sybil’s Cross  see notes to 6.912 and 6.1159. 6.1251–52  the chapel fair, Of Tilmouth upon Tweed  now ruined, the chapel was situated near the confluence of the rivers Till and Tweed. 6.1265 bill-men  soldiers armed with bills: see note to 1.433. In the conditions of the battle English bills proved more effective than Scottish pikes; in a cavalry battle the situation could have been reversed. 6.1272  serried phalanx  files or ranks of armed men pressed close together in close order. 6.1292  red Flodden  John Leyden (1775–1811), ‘Ode on Visiting Flodden’, line 41, in Minstrelsy, 1.252. 6.1294  Tradition, legend, tune, and song  memories of Flodden were so perpetuated; the most famous are the two version of ‘The Flowers of the Forest’ by Jean Elliot and Alison Cockburn. The Hawick Common Riding commemorates an incident consequent upon Flodden.



explanatory notes

445

6.1305  View not that corpse mistrustfully  Pitscottie reports that the king could not be identified because ‘he caused ten to be clad in his coat of armour’, and because they did not find ‘the token of the iron belt’: Pitscottie, 184. See also Note XVII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 283–84. 6.1307  yon Border castle  Home Castle near Coldstream; Home can be criticised for his failure to follow up his initial success, but stories suggested that he was directly implicated in the death of James IV: See Note XVII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 283–84. 6.1309–12  Nor cherish hope . . . May yet return again  there were many reports that James had been spirited away, and that he would return. For example, Pitscottie, 182–83, says: ‘Some say, that there came four men upon four horses riding to the field . . . and horsed the king, and brought him forth of the field on a din hackney’. 6.1310  foreign strand  see note to 5.248. 6.1311  The Royal Pilgrim  speculation following Flodden suggested that James had survived and gone abroad on a pilgrimage: see Note XVII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 283–84. 6.1314  Reckless of life  found e.g. in The Mirror. A Periodical Paper, Published at Edinburgh in the Years 1779, and 1780, 4th edn (London, 1782), 42. 6.1316  trusty brand  a ballad phrase: ‘Gil Morrice’, line 136, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Thomas Percy, 2nd edn, 3 vols (London, 1767), 3.95; see ALC. 6.1317  manly hand  Shakespeare and others, Edward III, 6.192. 6.1324  moated Lichfield’s lofty pile  Lichfield Cathedral, 20 km (12½ miles) N of Birmingham. In the mid-12th century it was fortified with a moat, of which Minster Pool is a survival. Tamworth (see 1.488) is nearby. 6.1329  fanatic Brook  Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke (1607–43), a Parliamentary army officer during the English Civil War. He was killed on 2 March 1643 while besieging Lichfield Cathedral. The cathedral suffered extensive damage when it was taken two days later. See Note XVIII in Notes to Canto Sixth, 284–85. 6.1331  Saint Chad  (d. 672) the 1st Bishop of Mercia and Lindsey at Lichfield. Lichfield Cathedral is dedicated to him. 6.1332  guerdon meet  fitting reward or requital. 6.1342  Ettrick woods  see note to Canto 1 heading. 6.1345  wede away  Jean Elliot (1727–1805), ‘The Flowers of the Forest’, line 4, Minstrelsy, 2.158. The words come from the now lost traditional version of the lament for Flodden. Wede away means ‘gone away’, ‘withered’. 6.1357  Time’s wasting hand  see Edmund Burke (1729–97), Substance of the Speech of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, in the Debate on the Army Estimates, in the House of Commons, On Tuesday, the 9th Day of February, 1790, 3rd edn (London, 1790), 30: ‘the wasting hand of time’. 6.1366  water flag iris. 6.1372  With thy heart commune, and be still  see Psalm 4.4: ‘commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still’. 6.1388  stubborn wood  John Dryden in his translation of Virgil’s Georgics (1697), 1.111; Scott’s Dryden, 14.31. 6.1389 Hollinshed  Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–80?), historian, author of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577). 6.1389 Hall  Edward Hall (1497–1547), lawyer and historian, author of The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York, which is commonly known as Hall’s Chronicle. It covers the history of England from the usurpation of Henry IV to the death of Henry VIII.

446

explanatory notes

6.1393 charged a shield is said to be charged when any object, figure or bearing is placed on it. What is said to have been done to Wilton’s arms was actually done to the Earl of Surrey’s: to commemorate Flodden the coat of arms of the Howards contains a version of the royal arms of Scotland with the lion cut off at the waist and pierced by an arrow. 6.1396  in terms  in plain words, spelling the matter out. 6.1401 Wolsey  see note to 5.886. 6.1402  More, Sands, and Denny  Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), Lord Chancellor; Sir William Sandys (c. 1470–1540), a soldier and courtier very close to the king; and Sir Anthony Denny (1501–49), a confidant of Henry in later life. All are characters in Henry VIII or All Is True (1613), by Shakespeare and John Fletcher (1579–1625). 6.1403–04  bluff King Hal . . . the stocking threw  traditional ceremonies performed in the bridal bed-chamber here implemented by the king and queen, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536). It was held that the person hit by the bride or bridegroom’s stocking, or who caught it, was the guest most likely to marry next, but that may be a rationalisation of some crude sexual play. 6.1408b L’Envoy the author’s parting words, from the French verb meaning to send. Compare Robin’s closing lines in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 6.1415  piercing wit  common in 18th-century literature. 6.1416 Pitt  see note to 1.68. scott’s notes 209.9  Romance of the Morte Arthur  the collection of traditional Arthurian tales as retold by Sir Thomas Malory (d. 1471). Le Morte Darthur was completed by 1470; and printed and published by William Caxton, 1485. 209.10  Round Table  see note to 1.260. 209.16–17  this curious work is about to be republished  in a letter to Richard Heber, 18 November 1807, Scott asks for advice on ‘republishing the old romance of the Morte Arthur’, adding ‘I have determind upon this’ (Letters, 12.296). Writing the notes to Marmion may have been the stimulus for this ambition; Heber’s reply is not extant, and the project came to nothing. 209.19–210.25  Right so . . . departed from her  see note to 1.262. The quotation is derived from Part 1, Ch. 116, of The Most Ancient and Famous History of the Renowned Prince Arthur King of Britaine (London, 1634), ALC; it is more easily located in ‘Sir Launcelot du Lac’, in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 1.280–81 (Bk 6, Ch. 15). 209.19  Right so  at once, immediately. 209.37  hied him out  hurried out. 210.4  and yee list  if you choose. 210.5  a faire damosel  the sorceress Hallewes. 210.8  and ye did leave  if you were to leave. 210.8  Queene Guenever  wife of King Arthur. 210.9  and I would leave  if I were to leave. 210.12  and thou haddest kissed me  if you had kissed me. 210.14  Sir Gawaine  one of the knights of the Round Table, the son of King Lot of Orkney and Arthur’s sister Morgana (see note to 1.261). 210.32  last passover  the last supper, taken by Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the Jewish Passover. 210.39–211.1  guilty intrigue  Launcelot and Guenever were lovers.



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211.3–212.25  But Sir Launcelot . . . so called  see Part 3, Chs 45, 46, and 47 of The Most Ancient and Famous History of the Renowned Prince Arthur King of Britaine (London, 1634), ALC; ‘The Tale of the Sankgreal’, in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugene Vinaver, 2nd edn, 3 vols (Oxford, 1967), 2.892–94 (Bk 13, Ch. 17). 211.5  which departed two wayes  which stood at the parting of two ways. 211.7  might not  could not. 211.20  on sleepe asleep. 212.13  cleane armed  properly or completely armed. 212.34  Dryden’s . . . Epic Poem  see note to 1.277–83. 212.36  Essay on Satire  ‘Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire’; Scott’s Dryden, 13.3–118. 212.36  Earl of Dorset  Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (1643–1706), politician and poet. He was a Whig who, unlike Dryden, opposed the succession of the Roman Catholic James VII and II in 1685. Dryden was replaced as Poet Laureate, in 1689 after the Revolution, by Thomas Shadwell (1642–92), and so suffers from ‘the change of the times’ (213.28–29). Dorset helped Dryden in his impoverished state. 212.37  Translation of Juvenal  The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (London, 1693); Scott’s Dryden, 13.119–202. Dryden translated satires 1, 3, 6, 10, and 16. Juvenal wrote at the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd centuries ad. 212.37–38  machinery from the guardian angels of kingdoms  by machinery Dryden (and Scott) mean supernatural agents. Dryden writes: ‘It is a doctrine almost universally received by Christians, as well Protestants as Catholics, that there are guardian angels, appointed by God Almighty, as his vicegerents, for the protection and government of cities, provinces, kingdoms, and monarchies’. St Michael is said by Dryden to be ‘the patron of the Jews’, and in a footnote Scott cites the passage in Daniel where Michael is described as ‘the great prince which standeth up for the children of Daniel’s people’ (see Daniel, 12.1); i.e. Michael protects the Jews, and by extension Christians; Scott’s Dryden, 13.27. 213.1–29  Thus, my lord . . . disenabled me  ‘Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire’; Scott’s Dryden, 13.30–31. 213.11  Edward the Black Prince  Prince of Wales and of Aquitaine (1330–1376), the eldest son of Edward III (1312–77). He is famous as a military commander, particularly in his campaign in Aquitaine (SW France) in 1355–60. In 1366–67 he helped Peter of Castile, known as Don Pedro the Cruel (1334–69), to regain his throne (Castile is in north-central Spain), but Peter failed to pay for the costs of the campaign, and effectively bankrupted the Prince. 213.19  Virgil and Spenser  the Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 bc), author of the Aeneid, and the English poet Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–99), author of The Faerie Queene. 213.31  Of Ascapart, and Bevis bold  see note to 1.316. 213.33  George Ellis  see note to Canto 5 heading. 213.37–214.8  This geaunt . . . his stroke  Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, ed. George Ellis, 3 vols (London, 1805), 2.136. 214.11–12  effigies of that doughty knight-errant, and his gigantic associate  painted wooden figures which stood on either side of the Bargate in Southampton until the late 19th century. The figures are now stored in an upper room inside. Scott would have seen them in April 1807 when on a visit to William Stewart Rose (see note to Canto 1 heading).

448

explanatory notes

214.20–22  Edward I. . . . the Scottish succession  when Alexander III, King of Scots, died in 1286 he was succeeded by his three-year-old granddaughter, who was daughter of King Eric of Norway. She died in 1290 on her way to Scotland, leaving the country with a disputed succession. Edward I of England was invited to arbitrate; holding court in Norham in May 1291, he refused the commission unless he was recognised as Scotland’s feudal overlord. His terms were rejected, but individual claimants accepted him as their rightful overlord. The arbitration, known as the Great Cause, concluded after 13 months of legal argument. The decision in favour of John Balliol was announced by Edward in Berwick on 17 November 1292. 214.27  Hugh Pudsey  Hugh de Puiset (c. 1125–95), a Norman who was elected Bishop of Durham at the age of 28 in 1153. The Bishop, inheriting a long series of privileges and immunities granted by the crown as a means of securing the North against the Scots, enjoyed a wholly exceptional position of quasi-royal authority and military power. 214.30  William de Neville  unidentified. 214.32  Chillinghame Castle  Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, a 13th-century fortress extended in the 1500s, about 28 km (17½ miles) S of Berwick. It was owned by the Earls Grey. 214.33–34  the patrimony of St Cuthbert  properties which in preConquest days came to form the endowment of the see of Durham; they included Norham. 214.34  the Reformation  the process of repudiating the supremacy of the Papacy, and reforming the practices and theology of the church. Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church in England in 1529, but while this was the decisive political act, the process of reform continued for decades. 214.35–36  union of the crowns  James VI, King of Scots (1566–1625), succeeded Elizabeth, Queen of England, on her death in 1603. While there was now one monarch, the two countries kept their own legislatures and administration until 1707. 214.36  Sir Robert Carey  (1560–1639). He had various royal appointments under Elizabeth, James VI and I, and Charles I, including Warden of the Middle March in 1597. It was he who rode from London to Edinburgh in two days, 24 to 26 March 1603, to bring the news of the Queen’s death and James’s accession to the English throne. 215.1  his curious Memoirs  Scott’s edition of Memoirs of Robert Cary, Earl of Monmouth (Edinburgh, 1808) was published by Archibald Constable in November 1808. 215.3  Mr Pinkerton  John Pinkerton (1758–1826), literary scholar and historian. Born in Edinburgh, he moved to London in 1781 and to Paris in 1815. His two most important works are his edition of medieval Scottish poetry, Ancient Scotish Poems, 2 vols (London, 1786), and The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary, 2 vols (London, 1797). 215.3–5  British Museum . . . 1522  this ms has not been inspected but it is probably Cotton ms Caligula B VI, 150, which contains a report from Lord Dacre and Phil. Dacre to Wm Franklyn, chancellor to the Bishop of Durham, concerning the state of Norham Castle, and is dated 7 February [1522]. 215.6–11  The provisions . . . Note  Pinkerton, 2.201n. 215.26 Ducange Charles Du Fresne, sieur Du Cange (1610–88). Du Cange was an important medievalist and lexicographer: he published a dictionary of medieval Latin, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis, 6 vols (Paris, 1733–36). In Anglo-Norman times fortified towers,



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known by the word dungeon, dunjo, or its more modern form donjon, sometimes standing alone but in later times being the innermost fortified place in a castle, stood upon small hills; Du Cange suggests that their name was derived from the Celtic word for a hill, dun. In fact the word dunjo or dungeon is derived from domnum, a late medieval form of ‘dominus’ meaning ‘lord’; neither Du Cange nor the OED explains how a word for a whole building came, in modern languages, to be exclusively applied to the prison which is only one feature of a fortified tower. The term voce, the ablative of the Latin word ‘vox’, here means ‘[see] under the word’. 215.29 Borlase not identified. 216.3–12  These two lords . . . armed  Sir John Froissart’s Chronicles of England, France and the Adjoining Countries, trans. Thomas Johnes, 4 vols (Pwll Peiran, 1803–05), 4.597, ALC. 216.14–217.16  The golden legend . . . Henry IV.  see Bk 15 of John of Fordun, Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, ed. Walter Goddall, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1759), 2.423–24; Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1987–98), 8.16–19. 216.17  Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Crauford  (d. 1407), a magnate who served the Scottish crown; he was knighted in the early 1380s, and made an earl in 1398. He visited London in 1390. 216.19  Sir William Dalzell  not identified. 216.21  Sir Piers Courtenay  son of the 2nd Earl of Devon; d. 1409. He was famous for jousting: see Sir John Froissart’s Chronicles of England, France and the Adjoining Countries, trans. Thomas Johnes, 4 vols (Pwll Peiran, 1803–05), 4.147–48, ALC. 216.27  In graith  straight away; without delay. Scott’s gloss is wrong. 217.10  fight of Otterburn  battle in Northumberland in 1388 between English and Scottish armies; the Scots won. 217.16  Henry IV.  the king in 1390 was Richard II. 217.20–22  Stewart of Lorn . . . the narrowness of James V.  see James Sibbald, Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 2.35, ALC. Nothing is known about Stewart of Lorn, although he is mentioned in David Lyndsay’s poem ‘The Complaint of the Papyngo’. The poem is dated 1522 in Sibbald. 217.23–29  Lerges . . . this new year day  see ‘Lerges, Lerges, Lerges Hay’, in James Sibbald, Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 2.40–41, ALC. See also Ancient Scottish Poems, [ed. David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes] (Edinburgh, 1770), 151–52. In both Hailes and Sibbald the first two lines are given as the title, not the refrain. 218.18–19  20th Edward I.  1291–92. The 20th year of Edward’s reign began on 20 November 1291. 218.21–22  reign of Richard I.  1189–99. 218.25  Westminster Hall  the oldest of the buildings housing Parliament in Westminster. It was commissioned by William II in 1097, and the great hammer-beam roof by Richard II in 1393. It was the place where a new king or queen was acclaimed by the lords, and presented with the symbols of royal power before his or her coronation. 218.29  Hereditary Champion  see note to Half-title. 218.33  reign of Edward II.  1307–27. 218.35–36  The Hermit of Warkworth  poem by Thomas Percy (London, 1771). The phrase ‘that chivalrous feat’ is a description of a story about a woman who presents a fine helmet to her lover, requiring him to prove himself against the Scots. See also note to 2.410.

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explanatory notes

218.37–219.32  The Scottes . . . the chase  see John Leland, de Rebus Britannicus Collectanea, ed. Thomas Hearne, 6 vols (London, 1770), 2.548–49. 219.39  syren charms  see note to 1.600, Note XI in Notes to Canto First, 219–20, and Note XI in Notes to Canto Fifth, 258–59. 220.6  Sir Richard Heron’s curious Genealogy of the Heron Family  Richard Heron (1726–1805), A Genealogical Table of the Family of the Herons of Newark ([London, 1798?]), ALC. It is probably described as ‘curious’ as the book contains fold-out genealogical tables with elaborate notes also on fold-out unnumbered pages. 220.11  old Northumbrian ballad was taken down  the ballad was in fact written by Robert Surtees (1779–1834). In his A Memoir of Robert Surtees, Esq., ed. James Raine (Durham, 1852), 25, George Taylor says: ‘This is proved by more than one copy, among his papers, of this ballad corrected and interlined’. See Essay on the Text, 289–90, and Historical Note, 365, for a full discussion of the implications. 220.12–13 Alston-moor an area surrounding the village of Alston in E Cumbria 70 km (44 miles) W of Newcastle, historically an area where lead and silver were mined. 220.14 Mainsforth  12 km (7½ miles) S of the City of Durham, in County Durham. 220.23  Hoot awa’  what this phrase means in this context is uncertain, but seems to be asking for laughter: compare hoot with laughter. In Scots the phrase indicates incredulity. 220.24 Thirlwalls the people of Thirlwall Castle, in Greenhead, 60 km (37½ miles) W of Newcastle. 220.27–29  Willimoteswick . . . Hardriding . . . Hawden . . . the Wa’  small places W of Newcastle, in Northumberland, and just S of Hadrian’s Wall. Hawdon is probably the modern Haydon and the Wa’ Walltown. Very often landowners were called, or designated, by the land they owned. 221.8  gard . . . haud their jaw  made the Featherstons shut up. 221.27  the Bailey o’ Haltwhistle  the magistrate at Haltwhistle, a small place 60 km (37½ miles) W of Newcastle, just S of Hadrian’s Wall. 222.6–7  time of Charles I.  reigned 1625–49. 222.14  Featherston Castle  about 5 km (3 miles) S of Haltwhistle (see note to 221.27). 222.16  reign of Edward VI.  reigned 1547–53. 222.18–24  24 Oct. . . . de Morale  Latin On 24 October in the 22nd year of the reign of Henry VIII [began 21 April 1530] an inquest was held at Haltwhistle concerning the verified death of Alexander Featherston, Gentleman at Grensilhaugh, feloniously killed on 22 October by Nicholas Ridley of Unthank, Gentleman Hugo Ridley, Nicholas Ridley, and others of the same name. Nor were the Featherstones without their revenge; for in the 36th year of the reign of Henry VIII [began 21 April 1544], we have—the outlawing of Nicholas Featherston and Thomas Nixon etc. for the murder of William Ridley of Morale. The phrase ‘visum corpus’, translated here as ‘verified death’, could mean that the corpse has been seen, but may equally mean that the corpse is exhibited before whoever is conducting the inquest. It is uncertain whether ‘Gen.’ means ‘Gentleman’. It is assumed in the translation that Ridley and Ridle are the same name. It is not known where Grensilhaugh is, but Unthank is a village near Haltwhistle (see note to 221.27), and was the birthplace of Bishop Nicholas Ridley (see note to 222.36). These scraps of Latin were probably fabricated by Robert Surtees; they were included



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in Surtees’s letter to Scott of 8 December 1806 (NLS ms 870, ff. 6–7); for a discussion of the implications see Essay on the Text, 289–90, and Historical Note, 365. 222.31  Perkin Warbeck  see note to 1.627. 222.36  Ridley, the bishop and martyr  Nicholas Ridley (1500–55), Bishop of London. He came from Unthank (see note to 222.18–24). He supported the English Reformation, and when Mary (1516–58), a Roman Catholic, succeeded the Protestant Edward VI (1537–53; king from 1547) on the throne in 1553, he was tried for heresy, and burned at the stake in Oxford in 1555. His biography was written by Glocester Ridley (1702–74): The Life of Dr. Nicholas Ridley (London, 1763). 223.5 Ayton  see note to 1.630. 223.5–19  Ford . . . the frame on’t  John Ford (1586–c. 1640), The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck (London, 1634), Act 4, Scene 1. 223.29  Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington  (1496–1586), Scottish politician during the reign of Mary (1542–67), described by Sir Ralph Sadler as ‘the wisest man of them’: The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1809), 1.448. The Maitland folio and quarto manuscripts, now in the Pepys collection in Magdalen College Library, Cambridge, contain 44 poems by Sir Richard, and 182 other poems; together they constitute one of the three most important collections of early Scottish poetry. 223.30  The Blind Baron’s Comfort  Ancient Scotish Poems, [ed. John Pinkerton], 2 vols (London, 1786), 2.305–06, ALC. Pinkerton’s was the first edition of the poems in the Maitland manuscripts. Maitland went blind in 1561. 223.31 Lauderdale area around the river Leader, SE of Edinburgh, in the Scottish Borders. 223.34  100 pounds Scots £8.33. 223.35–38  This spoil . . . thing see Ancient Scotish Poems, [ed. John Pinkerton], 2 vols (London, 1786), 2.306, ALC. 224.1  John Littlewit  character in Ben Jonson (?1573–1637), Bartholemew Fair (first performed 1614, published 1631). 224.1–2  a conceit . . . miserable conceit  John Dryden, ‘Preface to Fables Ancient and Modern’; Scott’s Dryden, 11.218. 224.6  light to set her hood  source unidentified. The same incident is reported in George MacDonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets (London, 1971), 176, but he does not provide a source for the quotation. However, he more plausibly dates the incident in 1585, which has been accepted as correct. 224.7–10  Earl of Northumberland . . . Scotish marauders  the source has not been identified. 224.14  Cornish insurgents in 1549  a rising which lasted from June to August 1549. The Act of Uniformity requiring the use of the new Book of Common Prayer became effective on Whitsunday, and immediately unrest turned into an armed rising in Cornwall. 224.15–24  This man . . . principal dooer  see Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–80?), Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, [ed. Sir Henry Ellis], 6 vols (London, 1806), 3.958, ALC. 224.31–225.15  Santa Rosalia . . . over it  John Dryden Jr, Voyage to Sicily and Malta . . . in the Years 1700 and 1701 (London, 1776), 107–08, ALC. 225.21–27  But Gargantua . . . the other  François Rabelais (c. 1490–1553?), The Works of Francis Rabelais, [trs Jacob le Duchat, Peter Anthony Motteux, John Ozell], 4 vols (London, 1784), 1.268 (Bk 1, Ch. 41); see ALC.

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explanatory notes

226.4  Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296  see Hailes, as quoted in Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, ed. James Sibbald, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 1.359, ALC. The quaestionarii were begging friars, who are mentioned in Scottish church laws in 1242 and 1296. For the context in Hailes, see Ancient Scottish Poems, [ed. David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes] (Edinburgh, 1770), 299–300, ALC. 226.6  Simmy and his Brother  Scott quotes from ‘Symmye and his Bruder’, in James Sibbald, Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 1.360–61 (stanza 3), ALC. Sibbald gives only seven stanzas; for the whole poem see The Christis Kirk Tradition, ed. Allan H. MacLaine (Glasgow, 1996), 23–27. Although generally regarded as anonymous, it may have been written by David Lyndsay; for the evidence as regards authorship see MacLaine, 164. 226.8  loup owr leas  dash over meadows, make a quick trip to the countryside. 226.10  counted nought  didn’t care 226.11  in certain  uncertainly. 226.12  clampit up St Peter’s keys  patched together the crossed keys of St Peter, symbols (in this case false symbols) of having visited Rome on pilgrimage. 226.14  St James’s shells  scallop shells, symbols of having visited the shrine of St James in Santiago of Compostella in NW Spain. 226.14  on t’other side slevis  on the sleeve at the other side. 226.24  St Regulus  see note to 1.835. 226.24 Achaia area in the N of the Peloponnese in Greece. 226.26  chapel and tower  built around 1130, St Rule’s Church was the first place of worship in Scotland for the newly arrived Augustinian canons; the ruins lie SE of the medieval cathedral. The tower, which still stands, is 33 m high. 226.29–30  ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St Andrew’s originally built in the times of Bishop Roger (1189–1202), it was the official residence of the bishop, and from 1472 the archbishop of St Andrews, the most senior clergyman in Scotland. 226.31–32  German ocean  the North Sea. 227.8  St Fillan  an Irish monk who arrived in Scotland in the 8th century. See note to 1.838. 227.21  Ettricke Forest  see note to Canto 1 heading. 227.22 disparked ceased to be a royal park reserved for hunting. In order to increase his revenues, James V ‘turned 10,000 sheep into Ettrick Forest, to graze there under the tending of a thrifty keeper, instead of 10,000 bucks that scoured its woodlands during the bounteous age of Edward I.; and by this act he led the way to such a conversion of the entire forest into sheep-pasture, as occasioned a rapid and almost total destruction of the trees’: Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, new edn, ed. Francis H. Groome, 6 vols (London, [1894–95]), 1.557. 227.26–228.9  made proclamation . . . score of harts  see Pitscottie, 225–26. 227.30  Teviotdale, Anandale, Liddisdale  three areas in the Western March: the first is the area of the upper Teviot river, S of Hawick; ‘Anandale’ is an area to the W, round the river Annan which flows S into the Solway Firth at the town of Annan; Liddesdale is the area round the river Liddel which forms part of the English-Scottish border NE of Carlisle, and then veers into Scotland. Some of the most notable Border freebooters lived and operated here.



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228.5 Meggitland possibly the area round Megget Water, a river to the N of St Mary’s Loch, into which it drains, but more probably the area round Meggat Water, a tributary of the Esk in NE Dumfries-shire. 228.7–8  Crammat . . . Longhope  what and where these places are is uncertain: Pappertlaw may be Pappert Hill, near Lockerbie; and Ewindoores may be a former parish near Langholm. ‘Carlavirick’ sounds like Caerlaverock’, a stronghold 12 km (7½ miles) SE of Dumfries on the Solway coast, but Caerlaverock is well out of the relevant area. It is possible that Caerlanrig, in Teviotdale, is in question, for it was here that the king ‘hanged John Armstrong, laird of Kilknockie’ after the hunting (Pitscottie, 226). 228.8  eighteen score  360. 228.11–12  act for abolishing ward, or military tenures  20 Geo. 2, c. 50, which was passed in 1746, and came into effect on 25 March 1748. The act abolished ward tenure (whereby a vassal was given a grant of land in return for military service), and substituted a feu duty (a monetary payment) in its place. The words of the act do not mention ‘hunting, hosting, watching, and warding’, but there is no doubt that these are the services being abolished. The act destroyed the power of feudal superiors to raise an army which could threated the state, as had happened in the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745. The term ‘ward’ is Scottish; ‘military tenure’ is the equivlant term in English law. Hunting involves the compulsory attending a hunt (which could be that of a major landowner) such as described in the proclamation at 227.26–32. Hosting involves having to turn out to join the king’s host, or army. Watching and warding involved taking one’s turn in being watch in towns, and undertaking military service. 228.15  Taylor, the water-poet  John Taylor (1578–1653), English poet, who worked as a royal waterman on the Thames. In 1618 he undertook a journey from London to Edinburgh; he travelled on foot, pledging to take no money, but 1650 friends promised to buy the account of his adventures when he returned. 228.19–230.12  There did . . . rendezvous  see ‘The Pennyles Pilgrimage’ (1618), in All the Workes of John Taylor the Water Poet (London, 1630), 135–36, ALC. 228.26 Lycurgus legendary legislator of Sparta; it is not known when he lived, but according to Plutarch he laid the legal foundations of the Spartan state. 228.32 Irish i.e. Gaelic. 228.33 Red-shanks in the Scottish lowlands, Highlanders were often called red-shanks from the colour of their ‘shoes’ which consisted of raw deerhide with the hair worn outside. 228.39  blue flat caps  see note to 5.698. 229.1  Lochaber axes  weapon combining an axe and a spear with a hook behind for laying hold of the victim of an assault, named after a district of the Highlands SW of Inverness. 230.16  tale of the Outlaw Murray  ‘The Sang of the Outlaw Murray’, Minstrelsy, 1.1–24. 230.16  Newark Castle  see note to 2.32. 230.18  Macfarlane MS.  transcripts of manuscripts and other documents relating to Scotland produced by, or under the direction of, Walter Macfarlane (1698?–1767). The transcripts were purchased after his death by the Advocates’ Library, and are now in its successor the National Library of Scotland. Five volumes of material from the transcripts have been published, as Genealogical Collections concerning Families in Scotland made by Walter

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Macfarlane, ed. James T. Clark, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1900); and Geographical Collections as given in the note below. 230.19  James the Fifth’s charter to the burgh  to the burgh of Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. See Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland made by Walter Macfarlane, ed. Sir Arthur Mitchell, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1906–08), 1.364–65: ‘King James the 5th when he came to the forrest of Selkirk to expell the outlaw     and understanding the good services don by the burghers of Selkirk to K. James the 4th at Flowden did make a grant . . .’ 230.28–29  The swans . . . shadow  see William Wordsworth (1770–1850), ‘Yarrow Unvisited’ (1803), Poems, in Two Volumes, 2 vols (London, 1807), 2.34 (line 44), ALC. 230.30  Dryhope Tower  see note to 2.195. 230.31–32  Mary Scott . . . Philip Scott . . . Flower of Yarrow  see note to 2.196. Mary’s father was called John Scott of Dryhope. 230.33  Walter Scott of Harden (c. 1550–1629?), landowner and border reiver, also known as Auld Wat of Harden. He features repeatedly in ballads: see ‘Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead’, and ‘Kinmont Willie’, Minstrelsy, 1.80–93, 111–25. 231.1  Mary Lilias Scott  (d. 1790), daughter of John Scott, 9th laird of Harden. It is not known why Scott describes her as ‘the last of the elder branch of the Harden family’. 231.5–6  What beauties does Flora disclose  a song anthologised with great frequency in the 18th century; it appears to have been first published (under the title ‘Tweed-Side’, which, as Scott indicates, is the name of the tune) in the first edition of Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), The Tea-Table Miscellany (Edinburgh, 1724), 7–8; see ALC. 231.10  chapel of Saint Mary of the Lowes  see note to 2.176–77. Lowes is a form of the Scots word ‘lochs’ (lakes). 231.10  de lacubus  Latin of the lakes. 231.11  the lake  St Mary’s Loch. 231.11–13  injured by the clan of Scott . . . seventeenth century  according to T. Craig-Brown ‘in April 1557 this church was the scene of a daring sacrilege committed by the clan Scott in pursuit of their enemy’, but this did not destroy the church, which continued in use until a new parish church was built for Yarrow in 1640: The History of Selkirkshire, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1886), 1.373–74. The version of the story in The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto 2, stanza 33, is exaggerated. 231.18 Bourhope Bowerhope Law (478 m), a hill on the S side of St Mary’s Loch. 231.19  Lord Napier  Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier (1758–1823). He was a Scottish representative peer in the House of Lords 1796–1806 and 1807–1823. 231.28–29  Ambrosio in the “Monk,”  the principal character in The Monk (London, 1796), a novel by Matthew G. Lewis (1775–1818). He is the monk of the title. He falls to various temptations and finally compounds with the devil to escape death by burning. 231.30–31  a ballad, by . . . James Hogg  ‘Mess John’, The Mountain Bard (Edinburgh, 1807), 68–95. The volume was dedicated to Scott. Scott met Hogg (1770–1835) when he was preparing the second edition of the Minstrelsy, to which Hogg contributed. They maintained an uneasy friendship for the rest of their lives. 231.30  designed the Ettricke Shepherd  Hogg was described as the



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Ettrick Shepherd because he was a shepherd from Ettrick, but he applied it to himself as a cognomen on the title page of The Mountain Bard. 232.8  Grey Mare’s Tail  see note to 2.262–63. 232.9  Giant’s Grave  see note to 2.261. 232.15  Abbey of Whitby  see note to 2.276. 232.17 Oswy  Oswiu (612–70), King of Northumbria from 642. Before a battle in 655 against Penda, King of Mercia, he vowed to give 12 estates for the founding of monasteries if he were victorious: one of the 12 resulting monasteries was Whitby. His victory safeguarded Christianity in northern Britain, and provided the basis for converting the pagan Saxons to the south. 232.18  Benedictine order  a Celtic foundation is unlikely to have observed the Benedictine rule (see note to 2.336–37) before the Synod of Whitby of 664, but Whitby was a Benedictine monastery when it was re-established in the 11th century. 232.20  ruined by the Danes  it seems that the Vikings destroyed the original monastery in the 9th century. 232.21  the Conqueror  William I (1027–87), who invaded and conquered England in 1066. 232.26  episcopal seat of the see of Durham  the bishop of the see was originally the bishop of Lindisfarne. After Cuthbert’s body settled in Durham in 995, it became the seat of the bishop in succession to Lindisfarne and Chester-le-Street (see note to 2.540). 232.29  sixth bishop of Durham  Cuthbert appears as the sixth bishop in the line of bishops of Durham in the history of Durham by Symeon of Durham (died after 1129): see Libellus de exordio [Tract on the origins and progress of this the church of Durham], ed. and trans. David Rollason (Oxford, 2000), 4–5. 232.30 patrimony  see note to 214.33–34. 232.32  strictly Saxon  see note to 2.435. 233.1  as the venerable Bede has termed it  see Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, 3.3. 233.10  A True Account  there are two extant broadsides of ‘The True Account of the Murder of the Monk of Whitby’, one in the British Library, and the other at Abbotsford; there is a third version in Lionel Charlton, The History of Whitby (York, 1779), 125–27. However, the document containing the version of the story which Scott is quoting has not been located (it is likely that Scott purchased the Abbotsford version in 1818), and so Marmion is the fourth witness. The story is legendary: commentators have shown that the date and personages involved do not correspond with known records; there is no agreement as to whether the story is very old, or whether it is a post-Reformation invention; and there is no agreement as to the symbolic significance or practical application of the sea fence. But the legend is kept up, and the ceremony of the horngarth, or planting of the penny (penance) fence, is performed in Whitby each year on the eve of Ascension Day (40 days from Easter Sunday); see the information at www.whitbymuseum.org.uk/whist/ penn.htm provided by Whitby Museum. 233.11  reign of Henry II.  1154–89. 233.32–33  took sanctuary  see note to 5.1141–44. 234.13  strout stowers  fencing stakes used as struts to support the upright poles. 234.40–41  In manus tuas . . . veritatis  Latin Lord, into your hands I commit my soul, for from the chains of death you have redeemed me, Lord of Truth.

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235.1–4  This service . . . Herbert  see Lionel Charlton, The History of Whitby (York, 1779), 131. 235.7  daughter of King Oswy  Ælfflæd (654–714); see notes to 2.511 and 232.17. 235.19–20  reliques of the snakes  see note to 2.512–13. 235.23–35  It is also . . . grants it  William Camden, Camden’s Britannia, trans. Edmund Gibson (London, 1695), 750. Scott possessed the four-volume 1806 edition, translated by Richard Gough, but quoted from this earlier one. 235.35–236.1  Charlton . . . true origin of the fable  Lionel Charlton, The History of Whitby (York, 1779), 33, ALC. 236.8–9  one of the most mutable . . . saints  for the wanderings of Cuthbert’s remains see Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio, ed. and trans. David Rollason (Oxford, 2000), 100–27. 236.9–11  He died A. D. 686 . . . having resigned the bishopric of Lindisfarne  Cuthbert was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne in York on Easter Day 685. He was at Lindisfarne at Christmas 686, but he then returned to his hermitage on the Inner Farne and died there on 20 March 687. It is possible that returning to his hermitage has been misunderstood as a resignation from his position as Bishop of Lindisfarne. 236.16  Sinbad’s Old Man of the Sea  see ‘The fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor’, in Tales of the East, ed. Henry Weber, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1812), 1.80–82. The Old Man of the Sea fastens his legs round Sinbad’s neck and will not let him go, forcing Sinbad to carry him about. 236.18 Whithern  Whithorn, in the extreme SW of Scotland. 236.21 Melrose  the monastery at Old Melrose centrally situated in the Scottish Borders. 236.23 Tillmouth  see note to 2.537. 236.28 Chester-le-street see note to 2.540. 236.30 Rippon  Ripon: see note to 2.540. 236.33  Wardlaw, or Wardilaw  see note to 2.541. 236.36–39  Northumbrian Catholics . . . a secret  see note to 2.548. 237.4  David I.  (c. 1085–1153), King of Scots from 1124. His son Henry predeceased him in 1152. 237.7  battle of Northallerton  see note to 2.554–59. 237.10–11  Galwegians, the Britons of Strath-Clyde  inhabitants of Galloway, the SW corner of Scotland, and of Lanarkshire and Dumfries-shire. 237.11  men of Teviotdale and Lothian  those living in the Scottish Borders and in the Lothians, the area round Edinburgh. 237.13  Empress Maud  or Matilda (1102–67), claimant to the throne of England. She was daughter of Henry I of England and married Henry V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Although Henry I had nominated her as his heir, she was in Normandy when he died in 1135, and the English throne was seized by her cousin Stephen (1096–1154). Maud’s attempt to assert her right failed after a civil war in which she was supported by her uncle, David I, King of Scots; but she left her son to continue the fight, and he succeeded Stephen in 1154 as Henry II. 237.13  Chalmers’ Caledonia  George Chalmers, Caledonia, 2 vols (London, 1807), 1.621–23, ALC. 237.21  in Simeon of Durham  for the story of Alfred being inspired in a vision by Cuthbert see Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio, ed. and trans. David Rollason (Oxford, 2000), 110–11 (Bk 2.10); for the removal of Cuthbert’s body see 184–87 (Bk 3.15); for William the Conqueror’s precipitate retreat (in 1072) see 196–97 (Bk 3.19).



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237.25 Ashendown or Ashdown, in the Berkshire Downs, where Alfred (849–99), King of the West Saxons from 871, and ultimately of England, defeated the Danes in the winter of 870–71. 237.27  to punish the revolt of the Northumbrians  resistance to Norman rule in England continued long after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In the winter of 1069–70 William I laid waste the whole of the north of England, destroying communities, and all forms of subsistence; it has been estimated that he and his armies killed, or starved, more than 100,000 people. This campaign is known as ‘the harrying of the north’. 238.5 Dunstan (d. 988), Abbot of Glastonbury, royal councillor, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 959. It is not clear exactly which attributes Scott refers to, but Dunstan was a scholar who also had skills as a metalworker and bell-founder, as a scribe and draughtsman, and had a reputation as a musician. After his death he was immediately venerated as a saint. 238.7–8  St Cuthbert’s Beads  see notes to 2.568 and 2.569. 238.14  Ceolwolf, or Colwulf  see note to 2.583. 238.17–18  odour of sanctity  Ceolwulf was canonised after his death and became St Ceolwulf. The phrase refers to the sweet odour supposed to have been exhaled by the bodies of saints, and which attested to their saintliness. 238.20  among his memorabilia  among the things to be remembered about [St Ceolwulf]. The story about his permitting the use of wine and beer is found in Vita S. Oswaldi, in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. Thomas Arnold, 2 vols (1882–85), 1.361. Where Scott found or heard the story has not been determined. 238.26 Geissel-gewolbe German penitential vaults. 239.3  an ancient priory at Tynemouth  founded in the 8th century, plundered by the Danes in 800 and destroyed in 865. It was refounded in 1090. In the 8th and 9th centuries it was probably a monastery for both men and women, but from 1090 it was a Benedictine foundation for monks alone (see note to 2.336–37). It was disbanded in 1538. 239.7–9  Virca . . . Tuda  there are two possible sources for this story: Bede’s prose life of St Cuthbert, Vita Sancti Cuthberti, and Symeon of Durham’s history of the see of Durham. For the former see Two Lives of St Cuthbert, ed and trans. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), 273; for Symeon see Libellus de exordio, ed and trans. David Rollason (Oxford, 2000), 50–51 (Bk 1.10). There is no sign that Scott knew Bede’s Life, but he quotes Symeon. It is therefore probable that Symeon is his source, and if so the version he had read was probably Symeonis monachi Dunhelmensis libellus de exordio, ed. Thomas Bedford (London, 1732), which was held by the Advocates’ Library. In Rollason’s translation Symeon says: ‘on the north side of that oratory there is hidden under sods of earth a sarcophagus which was once given to me by the venerable abbot Cudda. Place my body in this, wrapping it in the cloth which you will find there. For indeed I did not wish to wear it during my lifetime but, for the love of the abbess Verca, a woman loved of God, who gave it to me, I have taken care to keep it so that my body might be wrapped in it.’ Verca was Abbess of Tynemouth. Cudda was not Abbot of Lindisfarne: in the Anglo-Saxon era the term ‘abbas’ (which is what appears in the Latin text) indicates that he was respected, and he is listed in the Liber vitae ecclesiae dunelmensis as a benefactor. No written sources have been found to explain why Scott says it was Tuda rather than Cudda who gave Cuthbert the sarcophagus, nor why he thought Tuda was a woman; it may be that he had merely skimmed the Latin, and remembered it imperfectly. Tuda (d. 664) was the fourth Abbot and Bishop of Lindisfarne. 239.15  he certainly hated the whole female sex  this view may be

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overstated. Symeon writes: ‘It remains the case even today that women are not given permission to enter virtually any of the churches which the blessed confessor has sanctified with the presence of his sacred body either now or formerly’. But Symeon goes on to explain that this was because the monks and nuns of the monastery of Coldingham (see note to 239.28–29) had, through their ‘improper familiarity’, been punished with ‘divine vengeance’: Libellus de exordio, 107–09 (Bk 2.7). The Irish princess’s ‘slippery trick’ has not been identified, but Symeon records stories of how women trying to approach places where Cuthbert’s body had rested were punished for their presumption: 108–11 (Bk 2.8–9), 174–77 (Bk 3.11). 239.22–23  It is well known . . . the same penalty as the Roman vestals  in his ‘Life of Numa’ Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer (c. 46 ad–after 120), describes the judicial process by which a Vestal virgin who broke her vow of chastity was executed by immurement. It was widely believed in Protestant Great Britain that a parallel practice was followed in the pre-Reformation church, both as a means of imprisonment and execution; in Scott’s era such views were exacerbated by the excesses of Matthew Lewis’s novel The Monk (London, 1796) in which Agnes is immured by nuns. However, there is no documentary evidence for immurement as a form of judicial execution in the pre-Reformation church, although immurement as a form of solitary life imprisonment was used against monks and nuns who had broken their vows of chastity. The finding of bones in the walls of Coldingham Priory has not been authenticated. 239.26  Vade in Pace  Latin go in peace. 239.28–29  abbey of Coldingham  Coldingham Priory, founded in 635, when a monastery open to both monks and nuns was established; it was destroyed by the Vikings in 870. By 1100 a new Benedictine monastery had been established. Coldingham is on the E coast of Scotland, about 15 km (9 miles) N of Berwick. 240.6–7  Friars of Berwick  see note to 1.681–88. The poem is anonymous; in Scott’s day it was thought to have been written by William Dunbar (c. 1460–1513?). 240.27  Mountain Bard  see note to 3.453. 241.3–17  Upon a peninsula . . . Protector Somerset  ‘Parishes of Garvald and Baro’, in The Statistical Account of Scotland, ed. Sir John Sinclair, 21 vols (Edinburgh, 1791–99), 13.361–62. The inset quotation comes from: Sir David Dalrymple, Annals of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1776), 305. Scott, or someone acting for him, has checked the quotation from Dalrymple against the original, and corrected an error that was not evidently an error. 241.17  General Gray  William, Lord Grey (1509–62). Under Henry VIII he served in Boulogne and Calais, and was second to Somerset in the invasion of Scotland in September 1547 (see next note). When Somerset returned south, Grey was made captain-general and warden of the eastern marches, gradually subduing resisting garrisons such as that of Yester. 241.17  Protector Somerset  Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (c. 1500–52). Following the death of Henry VIII on 28 January 1547 he was appointed Lord Protector until the new king, Edward VI, reached the age of 18. Somerset engaged in an aggressive foreign policy which included the subjugation of Scotland, and the marriage of Edward VI with the infant Mary Queen of Scots; he invaded in September 1547 and defeated the Scots at Pinkie, near Musselburgh 10 km (6 miles) E of Edinburgh. But he provoked the French into coming to Scotland’s aid, was unable to garrison the country and was forced to withdraw.



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241.20  Boyse, entitled “Retirement”  Samuel Boyse (1708–49), Retirement: a Poem (Edinburgh, 1735). The description of the old castle of Yester appears at 12–13; a footnote reads: ‘The Falconer’s House is in a Vault below the Ruins of the Castle’. 241.23–27  Hugo Giffard . . . appellatus est  Latin Hugh Gifford, lord of Yester, died. Old tales tell that his castle, or at least his cellar and keep, were wrought by witchcraft. For there is a marvellous underground cavern wonderfully constructed and extending under a large area of ground. It is popularly called Bo-hall: see John of Fordun, Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, ed. Walter Goddall, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1759), 2.105, ALC; Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1987–98), 5.359. 241.31 Haco  see note to 3.596. 242.3–11  Magicians . . . scabbard  this is not a single quotation but a compilation. For ‘Their caps . . . inscribed on them’ and ‘Their knives are dagger fashion’ see ‘A Discourse concerning the Nature and Substance of Devils and Spirits’, 72 (Bk 2, Ch. 7), which follows the title work in Reginald Scot (1538?–99), The Discovery of Witchcraft (London, 1665), ALC. For ‘their swords have neither guard nor scabbard’ compare ‘Their swords are steel with out guards’ on the same page. For ‘Their shoes . . . cross cut upon them’ see The Discovery of Witchcraft, 215 (Bk 15, Ch. 1). 242.16–20  A pentacle . . . rites of magic  see ‘A Discourse concerning the Nature and Substance of Devils and Spirits’, 66 (Bk 2, Ch. 6), which follows the title work in Reginald Scot (1538?–99), The Discovery of Witchcraft (London, 1665), ALC. 243.9  Gervase of Tilbury (b. 1150s, d. in or after 1222). He was presumably born in Tilbury in Essex; he studied and taught canon law at Bologna, and thereafter had a career as an international civil servant. His principal work is his Otia imperialia (‘Recreation for an emperor’) which he sent to Emperor Otto IV (d. 1218) in 1215. 243.9–32  Gervase . . . encountered the spirit  Minstrelsy, 2.184–85. Although what is printed here follows the Minstrelsy it is a paraphrased translation of what Gervase wrote in Latin. The full story of the encounter at Wandlebury can be read in Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, ed. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford, 2002), 668–73 (3.59). 243.9  Otia Imperial. ap. Script. rer. Brunsvic  Otia imperialia, as in Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium, ed. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, 3 vols (Hannover, 1707–11), 1.979–80, ALC. The book contains editions of some of the manuscript treasures of the Herzog August Bibliotheck in Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony in Germany, of which Leibnitz was librarian 1691–1716. 243.32–39  Less fortunate . . . p. 554  the story is paraphrased from Thomas Heywood (c. 1573–1641), The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells (London, 1635), 554–55, ALC. 244.1–8  forest of Glenmore . . . ghostly conflict  see Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland made by Walter Macfarlane, ed. Sir Arthur Mitchell, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1906–08), 3.242: ‘There is much talking of a Spirit called Ly-Erg that frequents the Glen-More. He appears with a red hand in the habit of a Souldier and challenges men to fight with him, as lately in 69 he fought with three Brothers one after another, who immediately dyed thereafter’. Presumably ‘69’ refers to 1669. 244.1 Glenmore glen on the NW slopes of the Cairngorms. 244.2 Lham-dearg Gaelic Red-hand. 244.6  Macfarlane MS.  see note to 230.18.

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explanatory notes

244.8–9  Barclay, in his “Euphormion,”  John Barclay (1582–1621), Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, [Part 1] (Paris, 1605), 26–30. For a translation see John Barclay, Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon (Euphormio’s Satyricon) 1605–1607, trans. David A. Fleming (Nieuwkoop, 1973), 32–39 (Ch. 8). Barclay was born in France of a Scottish father; he spent the greater part of his life in London and Rome, under the patronage of James VI and I and the Pope. His Satyricon is a kind of satirical novel in Latin. 244.27–35  Mr Surtees . . . his manuscripts  this story was probably fabricated by Robert Surtees, who sent it to Scott in a letter of 8 December 1806 (NLS ms 870, ff. 6–7), and the passage in Latin (244.38–245.20) was probably written by Surtees. See Essay on the Text, 289–90, and Historical Note, 365, for discussions of the implications. 244.28 Burthogge  Richard Burthogge (1638–1705), An Essay upon Reason, and the Nature of Spirits (London, 1694). 244.30  Egerton, Bishop of Durham  John Egerton was Bishop 1771–87. 244.38–245.20  Rem miram . . . posse assumere  Latin I will have no scruples in relating a strange incident of this kind which happened in our own day, as witnessed by a noble and extremely trustworthy man. Intent on enjoying himself, Ralph Bulmer had left the camp that was situated at that time close to Norham and was chasing his prey with his hare-coursing dogs on the further bank of the Tweed, when he happened to encounter a certain noble Scotsman with whom he had apparently been on good terms in times past. As is right and proper with enemies in time of war they first questioned each other very briefly and then fell upon each other with hostile intent, each spurring on his horse. At the first onslaught, our friend’s horse lost its footing as a result of the enemy’s very fierce attack and he was thrown to the ground with injuries to body and head, starting to spew up blood as if he were dead. Seeing that he was in a bad way, his opponent spoke kindly to him and promised that he would soon restore him to health and strength, provided only that he would not reject his help, that he would follow his advice to abstain from all thought of sacred matters, and that he would neither offer prayers or vows to God, to the Virgin Mother of God, or to any of the Saints nor have any dealings with them. His pain constrained him to accept the condition that was offered, and his opponent, a skilful old rascal, muttered under his breath some words of ill-omen, took him by the hand and, no sooner said than done, raised him to his feet, restored to health. Overcome by considerable fright at this unheard-of and unexpected outcome, our friend cried out ‘My Jesus’ or something of the sort, and suddenly looking round he saw neither his enemy nor anyone else, save only his horse, that had but a moment ago suffered a very bad fall, grazing in perfect peace on the bank of the river. When he returned to the camp in astonishment and doubtful of being believed, he kept the matter secret to begin with, and then when the war had come to an end told the whole story to his Confessor. Undoubtedly the whole business was clearly a trick, a deceitful piece of evil on the part of that skilful old rascal, to induce a Christian to refuse proper help. I think, however, that the man’s name (he was in other respects a noble and famous person) should not be revealed, since there is no doubt that the Devil, with God’s permission and with God’s sacred eye as a witness, can take any shape he pleases, even that of an angel of light. 245.28–29  Bartholinus . . . Danis  Thomas Bartholin (1659–90), Antiquitatum Danicarum de causis contemptae a Danis adhuc Gentilibus Mortis libri tres (Copenhagen, 1689), 258–86 (Bk 2, Ch. 2), ALC. The book, ‘Three books of Danish Antiquities explaining why death was despised by the Danes



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when they were still heathens’, was probably given to Scott by either Walter or Hugh Scott of Harden in 1792. 246.7–10  Sir William Forbes . . . Life of Beattie  see note to 4.132–33. 246.13–14  marriage of the friend  see note to 4.122. 246.18  This personage  for Friar Rush see note to 4.245–46. 246.23–24  She was pinched . . . led  John Milton, ‘L’Allegro’ (composed c. 1631, published 1645), lines 103–04. 246.25  The History of Friar Rush  see note to 4.245–46. 246.26–27  expressly alluded to  see ‘A Discourse concerning the Nature and Substance of Devils and Spirits’, 18 (Bk 1, Ch. 21), which follows the title work in Reginald Scot (1538?–99), The Discovery of Witchcraft (London, 1665), ALC. 246.28  Mr Heber  see note to Canto 6 heading. 246.29  Mr Beloe’s “Anecdotes of Literature,”  see William Beloe (1756–1817), Anecdotes of Literature, 2 vols (London, 1807), 1.248–55, ALC. Further volumes were published later. 247.4–5  The late elaborate edition . . . Chalmers  The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, ed. George Chalmers, 3 vols (London, 1806). 247.12  his play  Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits: see note to 4.345. 247.14–15  introducing Sir David . . . before he obtained that office  in fact Lyndsay was not appointed Lord Lyon until 1542; he became the Snowdon herald in 1529. See note to 4.368–69. 247.16–17  the author of “Flodden Field” dispatches Dallamount  Scott’s memory is at fault: James asks ‘De-la-mount’ to name the English nobles who accompany Henry VIII in France (Fit the First, stanza 50), while he sends ‘Lion, king at arms’ on an embassy to Henry (Fit the First, stanza 66): The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, ed. Joseph Benson (Lancaster, 1805), 18, 20, ALC. 247.18  the message of defiance  dated 16 July 1513. 247.20–21  Lindesay . . . Sir Ralph Sadler  Lyndsay came to Sir Ralph Sadler to conduct him to meet James V a day after his arrival in Edinburgh in 1539: see The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1809), 1.18–19. 247.27–30  The first sillabis . . . for to hear  see The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, ed. George Chalmers, 3 vols (London, 1806), 1.7, 1.257. The spelling and the punctuation of the lines quoted by Chalmers in his prefatory ‘Life of Sir David Lyndsay’ do not correspond with those of his text. 248.6–8  was crowned . . . close crown  not identified. This description of the inauguration of a Lord Lyon must have a source, but it has not been traced. 248.11–12  Lord Drummond . . . guilty of treason  see Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1722, 1742), 2.170 (Part 4, Ch. 16), see ALC. 248.17 Tyne  a river whose source is in Midlothian, but flows mainly through East Lothian in a NE direction into the North Sea. 248.32  Sir William Crichton  (d. 1454), Chancellor of Scotland 1439–44, and 1448–53. 248.33–34  Earl of Douglas  William Douglas, 8th Earl (c. 1425–52; succeeded 1443). 248.36–37  Eo . . . admonet  Latin by this blow, said the Lyon, he violated the King of Arms when he was admonishing him about his follies: Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1722, 1742), 2.170 (Part 4, Ch. 16); see ALC.

462

explanatory notes

248.37–38  Leslaei Historia ad Annum 1515  see John Leslie (c. 1527–96), Historie of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), 102. Scott possessed the first, Latin version: De origine moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum (Rome, 1578). 249.1  Earl William  William Douglas, 6th Earl (d. 1440). He was succeeded by his great-uncle James (d. 1443). On 28 November 1440 the 6th Earl and his brother were invited by Sir William Crichton to a meal with James II in Edinburgh Castle. At the end of the meal the Douglases were seized and beheaded. 249.4  Lord Crichton (d. c. 1493) the grandson of Sir William Crichton (see note to 248.32), who lost both his castle and his title in 1484. 249.7–8  Hepburns, Earls Bothwell  see notes to 4.409, 4.463–64, 4.469. 249.8  forfeitures of Stewart, the last Earl Bothwell  Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell (1563–1612); nephew of the 4th Earl (see note to 4.469). He was a constant and habitual rebel: his title and property were finally forfeited in 1595. 249.9–10  fell to the share of the Earl of Buccleuch  this has not been ascertained. In that the Buccleuch papers deposited in the National Records of Scotland has lists of the properties owned by the forfeited Earl of Bothwell (e.g. see GD 224/890/21), it seems likely that the crown did transfer them to the Buccleuchs. However the transfer may not have been to the ‘Earl’, for the head of the family of Scott in 1595 was Walter (c. 1565–1611) who was created 1st Lord of Buccleuch in 1606; his son, Walter, the 2nd Lord of Buccleuch (c. 1606–33) was created 1st Earl of Buccleuch in 1619. 249.19–22  Carcer subterraneus . . . Mazmorras  Latin ‘an underground dungeon, or, as the Moors call it, Mazmorra . . . At night all the prisoners are herded into underground dungeons, which the Algezerian Turks call Mazmorras’: Jacobus Tollius, Epistolae Itinerariae, ed. Henricus Christianus Henninius (Amsterdam, 1700), 147, 243. Turks is a generic name for Moslems, and Algezerian refers either to Algeciras on the south coast of Spain which was a Moorish city until 1344, or to Algiers. Tollius (1633–96) was a Dutch classicist who taught in Dutch and German universities before travelling; Epistolae Itinerariae reports on his observations. 249.27  second Earl of Bothwell  see note to 4.463–64. 249.30–37  Then on . . . down him threw  see note to 4.463–64. 250.1  James, Earl of Bothwell  see note to 4.469. 250.7–251.15  The king . . . was no more seen  see Pitscottie, 172–73. 251.18–22  In iis . . . omissurus eram  Latin amongst them, there was David Lindsay of Mont, a man of proved worth and honesty, and of a learned education, who in the whole course of his life abhorred lying; and, if I had not received this story from him as a certain truth, I had omitted it as a romance of the vulgar: George Buchanan, The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 2.133, ALC. 251.22–24  The king’s throne . . . Order of the Thistle  see note to 4.531. 251.25–26  I know not by what means St Andrew got the credit John Pinkerton suggests that the ghostly figure was ‘probably representing St Andrew, the patron of Scotland’ but Scott’s rebuttal is right: Pinkerton, 2.95. 251.28–29  St John, the adopted son of the Virgin Mary  see John 19.26 251.30–32  Mr Pinkerton . . . queen was privy to the scheme see Pinkerton, 2.95–96. 251.37–38  braying . . . Scottish metrical translation of the Psalms  ‘Like as the hart for water-books/ in thirst doth pant and bray’: Metrical Psalm 42.1.



explanatory notes

463

252.2–3  Sir Thomas Wortley, built Wantley Lodge, in Wancliffe Forest  Wortley seems to have lived c. 1461–1514. The places are in or near Sheffield. Scott seems to be remembering names aurally, for he is referring to Wharncliffe Lodge (a hunting lodge) in Wharncliffe Chase. The Lodge was rebuilt in the 18th century, but a modern transcription of a weathered inscription on the present house reads: ‘Pray for the soul of Thomas Wortley/ Knight for the Kings body to the Kings Edward 4th/ Richard 3rd and Henry 8th (whose faults/ God pardon) which Thomas caus’d a Lodge to be built/ on this crag in the midst of Wharncliffe for his/ pleasure to hear the Harts bell in the year of our Lord 1510.’ Sir Thomas’s main residence was Wortley Hall, which was replaced in the 18th century by a new building which retains the name. 252.28–29  a field . . . oaks  see William Drummond (1585–1649), The History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five James’s (first published in 1655), in The Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden (Edinburgh, 1711), 74, ALC. See note to 4.475. 252.30–31  Hare Stane  see note to 4.786. 253.4 Patten William Patten (d. in or after 1598), author of The Expedicion into Scotlāde, of the most Woorthely Fortunate Prince, Edward, Duke of Soomerset (London, 1548). 253.5–28  Here now to say . . . horses dung  see William Patten, ‘The Expedicion into Scotlāde’, in Fragments of Scotish History, [ed. William Dalyell] (Edinburgh, 1798), 70–71. 253.20  the bowe of a sowes yoke  it is not known what a sow’s yoke would have looked like, nor why a sow would have a yoke, but the description of the tent is clear enough. 253.32  well-known arms of Scotland  see notes to 4.330 and 4.358–59. 253.32 Boethius Hector Boethius, or Boece (c. 1465–1536), Scottish historian. He was born in Dundee, and educated in the University of Paris, where he taught until 1497. He was then invited by William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Bishop of Aberdeen, to become the first principal of the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his history of Scotland, Scotorum historiae, which was printed in Paris in 1527. 253.33 Buchanan George Buchanan (1506–82), poet and historian. He was educated in St Andrews and Paris. He spent time in Portugal and Paris, writing poetry and plays, returning to Scotland in 1560. He adhered at once to the Protestant party, but although he was politically involved he is important principally as the writer of De jure regni, a work which advocated a monarchy in which bad kings could be legitimately deposed, and of his great Rerum Scoticarum historia, history of the affairs of Scotland, published in 1582. 253.33  double tressure  see note to 4.356. 253.35 Achaius see note to 4.357. He was supposed to have had an agreement with Charlemagne (Charles the Great, c. 742–814), King of the Franks from 768 and from 800 the first Holy Roman Emperor. See George Buchanan (1506–82), The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 1.221–22, ALC. 253.36  later antiquaries  e.g. John Pinkerton, An Enquiry into the History of Scotland; preceding the Reign of Malcolm III, 2 vols (London, 1789), 2.179–80, ALC. 253.37 Eochy  Eochaid mac Run (c. 860–after 889) is supposed to have reigned jointly with Giric (see note to 254.1) from 878–89, but was probably subservient to him. Achaius is a Latinised form of Eochy, but the Achaius and Eochy mentioned here are different people.

464

explanatory notes

253.37  King of Brentford  traditionally there were two kings of Brentford. 254.1  old Grig  Giric, considered the 73rd King of Scots (reigned c. 878–889). Buchanan writes that he was ‘no less eminent for his justice and temperance, than for his valour and magnanimity. So that he was justly sirnamed, by his countrymen, Gregory the Great’: George Buchanan, The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 1.239, ALC. The great exploits attributed to him by the chroniclers were largely fictitious. 254.1  Gregorius Magnus  Latin Gregory the Great. 254.11–12  late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city there were developments both to the south and north. George Square, begun after 1761, was the first southern suburb to be built; Scott’s father feued the land for his house on the square’s western side in 1773. Plans for a northern suburb (now known as the New Town) were published in 1767. 254.13  Thomas Campbell  (1777–1844), Scottish poet. He began ‘Queen of the North’ in 1800, but only a fragment was completed. 254.20 Caractacus  see note to 5.57. 254.29–255.1  In this note a doubt was formerly expressed  the note was changed in the second edition. 255.2–3  Mr Pinkerton . . . Kirkcudbright  see Pinkerton, 2.248. 255.3  Lord Napier  see note to 231.19. 255.7 Douglas  Sir Robert Douglas (1694–1770) author of The Peerage of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1764), 507; see ALC. 255.9  Macfarlane’s MSS. p. 119, 120  this reference does not now locate the document in question. The Napier archive was broken up in the 20th century and the whereabouts of the original charter of Henry VI awarding John Napier an annuity of 50 (not 40) marks is not known, but its wording is given in an appendix to Mark Napier, Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston (Edinburgh, 1834), 511. It is dated, from Edinburgh, 28 August in the 39th year of Henry’s reign, i.e. 1461, as given by Scott; Mark Napier adds ‘No seal or signature’. 255.10–11  John Napier . . . Sir Alexander Napier  Sir Alexander was Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1453, 1456, and 1469; his son John was Lord Provost in 1484. 255.14 Molinet  Jean Molinet (1435–1507), French poet and chronicler, who served in the Burgundian court. 255.15–22  Ung nouveau . . . tollerant  French the English crowned a new king out of resentment and dismissed the old one and his legitimate heir. A fugitive, he sought the protection of Scotland, the least and the most capable of providing it of all times: ‘Recollection de merveilleuses advenuës’, stanza 32, in Poesies diverses de Jehan Mollinet, which is in Charles Bourdigné, La Legende de maistre Pierre Faifeu (Paris, 1723), 156, ALC. 255.28  Ellis, in his valuable Introduction  see note to 5.138–39. 255.29–30  La Ravaillere, Tressan, . . . Abbe de la Rue  French writers engaged in the exploration of early romances. Pierre-Alexandre Lévesque de La Ravallière (1697–1762) edited Les Poésies du roy de Navarre, 2 vols (Paris, 1742), which is prefaced by an essay of ‘La Revolution de la langue Françoise’. Louis-Elisabeth de Lavergne, comte de Tressan (1705–83) published many things on romances including Histoire de Tristan de Léonois (Paris, 1780), and Corps d’etraits de romans de chevalerie, 4 vols (Paris, 1782). With others he founded the Bibliothèque universelle des romans, a series which ran from 1775–89. L’abbé Gervais de la Rue (1751–1835) left France in 1792, taking refuge in London, where he explored the British Museum’s romance holdings.



explanatory notes

465

He discovered numerous poems including, in Harleian ms 978, the works of Marie de France, who was then little known (see note to 5.146). He published four papers on the writings of Anglo-Norman poets of the 12th century in volumes 12 and 13 of Archaeologia, then the main publication of the Society of Antiquaries: ‘An Epistoary Dissertation upon the Lives and Writings of Robert Wace’, Archaeologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, 12 (1796), 50–79; ‘A Letter to Sir Joseph Banks . . . concerning the Lives and Writings of various Anglo-Norman Poets of the 12th Century’, Archaeologia, 12 (1796), 297–326; ‘Dissertation on the Life and Writings of Mary, an AngloNorman Poetess of the 13th Century’, trans. Francis Douce, Archaeologia, 13 (1800), 35–67; ‘Dissertation on the Lives and Works of several Anglo-Norman Poets of the Thirteenth Century’, Archaeologia, 13 (1800), 230–50. His culminating work was Essais historiques sur les bardes, les jongleurs et les trouvères normands et anglo-normands, 4 vols (Caen, 1834). 255.35 Blondel  see note to 5.146. 256.8–9  whose arrows . . . full cloth-yard  Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–80?), Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, [ed. Sir Henry Ellis], 6 vols (London, 1807–08), 3.515, ALC. 256.9 Ascham  Roger Ascham (c. 1515–68), Toxophilus (1545), 38: ‘euery Englysihe Archer beareth vnder his gyrdle .xxiiii. Scottes’. 256.17–28  The most useful . . . the ground  see The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Written by Himself (London, 1770), 48. The general sense is that a horse trained for what is now termed dressage is of little use to a soldier. An air is any one of the movements performed in dressage: territerr (‘terre-à-terre’) involves a low leap (the legs being close to the ground) whereby the fore-legs are raised together and equally advanced, and the hind-legs raised before the fore-legs reach the ground; the courbette is a similar action but the leap is higher; the cabriole is a high leap with the horse throwing its hind-legs out backwards; a pas et un sault is a step and a leap. A demivolte involves a half turn with the fore-legs raised and when this is combined with the courbette the horse will be high, turning away from the enemy, and falling so that a sword can descend with force upon the opponent without the rider getting involved with him. Scott edited Herbert’s life: this passage will be found in The Life of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, [ed. Walter Scott] (Edinburgh, 1809), 75–76. 256.21 Labroue  Salomon de La Broue (c. 1530–c. 1610), whose work Preceptes principavx qve les bons caualerisses doiuent exactement obseruer en leurs escole was published in La Rochelle in 1598, with a second work, Des préceptes du cavalerice françois, appearing in Paris in 1602. They were the first works on horsemanship in French. For the story about Montmorency see Des préceptes du cavalerice françois, Bk 2, 49–50 (the books are separately paginated). Henri I, Duc de Montmorency (1534–1614), was a Marshall of France, the Constable of France, and the seigneur of Damville, the name he bears in de La Broue. 256.32–257.2  Scottish burgesses . . . act of James IV.  required by the act of 1491, c. 13, II.226. The requirement that weapon-shawings (or wapinschaws to use the word in the acts) be held four times a year was first laid down in acts of 1424 and 1425. 257.6–7  Bows and quivers . . . repeated statutes  see the acts of 1424, 1425, 1457, and 1491; the latter (1491, c. 13, II.226) specified that yeoman bring ‘bow and sheaf, sword, buckler [small shield], knife, spear, or good axe instead of bow’. 257.10–12  swords . . . cutting  the swords were of ‘excedinge good temper’. The sense of ‘not for cold, but for cutting’ must be that the kerchiefs were worn to protect them against being cut in the neck: William Patten,

466

explanatory notes

‘The Expedicion into Scotlāde’, in Fragments of Scotish History, [ed. William Dalyell] (Edinburgh, 1798), 58. 257.14–15  Who manfully . . . lances long  see The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, ed. Joseph Benson (Lancaster, 1805), 106 (Fit the Eight, stanza 39), ALC. 257.26  Sir John Falstaff  principal character in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Bardolph tells Falstaff: ‘Sir John, there’s one Master Brooke below would fain speak with you and be acquainted with you, and hath sent your worship a morning’s draught of sack’ (The Merry Wives of Windsor, 2.2.140–43). 257.29–31  the same night . . . white and red see The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, ed. Arthur Clifford, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1809), 1.39–40. 258.6–8  Pitscottie . . . iron-belt  see Pitscottie, 184. 258.20–21  daring and profane parody on the services of the church of Rome  see Hailes, as quoted in Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, ed. James Sibbald, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 1.234, ALC. For the context in Hailes see Ancient Scottish Poems, [ed. David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes] (Edinburgh, 1770), 243–44, ALC. 258.22–31  Dunbar’s Dirige . . . wrytis, &c.  the first stanza of William Dunbar, ‘Dirige to the King Bydand our Lang in Stirling’, in Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, ed. James Sibbald, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 1.235, ALC. For the whole poem see The Poems of William Dunbar, ed. Priscilla Bawcutt, 2 vols (Glasgow, 1998), 1.274–77 (Poem 84). 258.36–259.1  Our historians  see note to 1.600. 259.2–3  The Genealogy of the Heron Family  Richard Heron, A Genealogical Table of the Family of the Herons of Newark ([London, 1798?]), ALC. 259.7  slaughter of Sir Robert Ker  see note to 5.456–59. 259.11 Fastcastle  Fast Castle, in Berwickshire on the E coast of Scotland, about 20 km (12½ miles) N of Berwick. 259.19–26  Also the Queen . . . his expenses  see Pitscottie, 171–72. 259.26–27  turquois ring . . . James’s sword and dagger  these items were deposited in the College of Arms in 1681 by the 6th Duke of Norfolk; the entry in the College Chapter book describes them as ‘the very Sword and dagger and a gold ring set with a Turquoise Stone which his Ancestor the Duke of Norfolk took from James the 4th, King of Scotland, at the Battle of Flodden Field, where the said King was slain’. A sketch of the sword and dagger by Francis Grose was used as the frontispiece to The Battle of Floddon Field, ed. Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1808). However, modern expert opinion doubts the claims; the sword and dagger can be dated to the late 16th century, although the sword blade may be an older example that has been reused and refitted to the hilt. The ring cannot be reliably dated. 259.34  policies of building  ‘he delighted more in music and policies of bigging [building]’: Pitscottie, 115. 260.5  Cochrane . . . Earl of Mar  see note to 5.637. 260.10–16  Lord Gray . . . bell the cat  see note to 5.586–91; see also David Hume of Godscroft, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1743; first published 1644), 2.39–40, ALC. 260.10  apologue of the Mice  for this story see note to 5.586–91. 260.18–261.19  By this was advised . . . rest of his complices Pitscottie, 123–25. 260.22  white livery armour.



explanatory notes

467

261.23  Angus was an old man  Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, c. 1449–1513; i.e. he was 64. 261.27  if he was afraid, he might go home  see Pinkerton, 2.99. 262.3  Tantallon Castle  see note to 5.622. 262.9  Earl of Angus  Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus (c. 1489–1557). 262.13–17  Pitscottie . . . Dunbar  see Pitscottie, 222–23. Dunbar is on the E coast of Scotland, half way between Edinburgh and Berwick. 262.14 botcards probably an error for battards, from the French bastards, meaning small cannons. 262.15  double falcons . . . quarter-falcons  as a falcon (a light artillery piece) took a six-pound shot, presumably a double falcon took twelve-pound shot and a quarter falcon 1½ pounds. 262.19  treaty with the governor, Simeon Panango  Pitscottie says he was bought: see Pitscottie, 223–24. 262.20  returned from banishment  he had fled to England in 1527 and returned in 1543. 262.21–23  refuge to . . . Sir Ralph Sadler  see note to 5.622. 262.31–32  Ding down . . . Bass  nothing is known about the origin of this tag but the sense is that if you can ‘ding down’ (knock down) Tantallon you can build a bridge to the Bass Rock (which is impossible). The Bass Rock is a precipitous, uninhabited island about 2 km off the coast at Tantallon. 262.33  ruined by the Covenanters  in fact it seems to have been a bombardment in the course of Cromwell’s invasion of 1650 that ended Tantallon as a residence and military fortress. 262.36  President Dalrymple of North Berwick  Huw Dalrymple (1652–1737), Lord President of the Court of Session (Scotland’s supreme court) 1698–1737. He was created Lord North Berwick. 262.36–37  the then Marquis of Douglas  either James Douglas, 2nd Marquess (c. 1646–1700) or Archibald, the 3rd Marquess (1694–1761) who was made Duke of Douglas in 1703. 263.3  very ancient sword  the sword is now owned by the Earl of Home, whose familial name, Douglas-Home, shows the connection with the Douglases of Marmion. The sword probably dates from the 16th century. The device is as described; the verse has been slightly modernised. The first four lines are on one side of the sword; presumably the other four are on the reverse, but it has not been possible to inspect them. For an illustration see David H. Caldwell, ‘Collecting Scottish Weapons’, in Making for America, ed. V. Habib (Edinburgh, 2013), 215. 263.7–10  Godscroft . . . seine  David Hume of Godscroft in The History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus (Edinburgh, 1644), Preface, ALC. 263.9–16  So mony . . . ony keing  more good people of one surname were never seen in Scotland than the Douglases. I will place this duty on you: that after I depart, you take my heart to the Holy Sepulchre, and there bury it; let it remain there until the time and hour on the last day when I see my Saviour. I submit that through the whole time of my reign this subject had no other king. 263.17–18  the civil war of 1745–6  the Jacobite Rising led by Prince Charles Edward Stewart. 263.18 Douglas-Castle  in South Lanarkshire. It was burnt down in 1755, and partially rebuilt to a design by the Adam brothers; the later building was demolished in 1938. 263.20  Duke of Douglas  see note to 262.36–37.

468

explanatory notes

263.21  Highland claymore  a very long, two-handed sword. 263.25  this German general  see note to 5.782. 263.26 Swart-moor  to what Scott is alluding has not been determined. The decisive battle was Stoke Field, at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire, but there may have been other skirmishes on the route from Furness (then in Lancashire) where the rebel force landed, and East Stoke. 263.28  Ritson’s Ancient Songs  Ancient Songs, [ed. Joseph Ritson] (London, 1790), lxi, ALC. Scott’s date of 1792 is not wrong, for it is so in some copies, but not that in Abbotsford. 264.5  trial by duel  also called trial by combat: see notes to 1.504–18 and 5.799. 264.9  Amys and Amelion  a 13th-century metrical romance. The one English version is to be found in the British Library, Harleian ms 2386, 42. It is summarised in Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, ed. George Ellis, 3 vols (London, 1805), 3.384–419. 264.12–18  Brantome tells a story . . . l’abus la  Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme (c. 1540–1614), Memoires de Mre Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantome, contenant les anecdotes de la cour de France, sous les Rois Henry II. François II. Henry III. & IV. Touchant les duels (London, 1739), 70; see ALC. The French means: ‘I leave you to consider whether there is not injustice there’. 264.20–26  Un autre abus . . . exemplaire  French the sense is: there was another injustice in that those who had a righteous cause to which they had to swear before entering the field believed that rapid victory would be theirs, indeed they made sure of it in every way; what’s more their confessors, patrons and confidants gave their absolute word, as if God had given them licence to do so, and paid no attention to past sins for which God reserves punishment more severe, unpleasant, and exemplary than that in the lists: Memoires de Mre Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantome (London, 1739), 65–66; see ALC. In the final clause Brantôme refers to Romans 12.19: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord’. 264.30  Cross of Edinburgh  see note to 5.900. 264.33  arch, of the Grecian shape  i.e. semi-cricular. 264.37  House of Drum  an 18th-century house in the SE outskirts of Edinburgh. The shaft of the cross was at Drum until it was taken back to the High Street in 1866 and placed on top of the replacement base in 1885; see note to 5.900. 265.1–2  Lords of Session  the judges of the Court of Session, the supreme civil court in Scotland. 265.2  proh pudor  Latin oh shame. 265.4  the Luckenbooths  locked booths: stalls or timber-fronted shops, on the ground floor of a four-storey block of buildings which stood against the north side of St Giles’ Cathedral in the High Street, nearly closing off the High Street near its head. An illustration showing these buildings in the High Street of c. 1750 is given in A. J. Youngson, The Making of Classical Edinburgh 1750–1840 (Edinburgh, 1966), 9; they were demolished in 1817. 265.5 guard-house  a low building, the ‘headquarters’ of the city guard, which stood in the middle of the High Street down from St Giles’ Cathedral; it was demolished in 1785. 265.14  apparition at Linlithgow  see note to 4.493–95. 265.22–266.25  Yet all thir . . . with the king  see Pitscottie, 173–75. 265.27  the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh  the Borough-moor; see note to 4.475.



explanatory notes

469

265.29  Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick  see note to 4.772–73. 265.32–33  Essay on Fairies . . . fourth head  ‘On the Fairies of Popular Superstition’, in Minstrelsy, 2.192–224. 265.33  Jackson on Unbelief  Thomas Jackson (1579–1640), A Treatise Containing the Originall of Unbelief (London, 1625), ALC. Although Scott provides ‘175’ as a page reference, Jackson does not discuss the heathen deities there, although it is clear from numerous contexts in the book that he considers them to be false gods and ‘true devills’. 265.34  King of Faerie  Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Merchant’s Tale’, in The Canterbury Tales, 4 (E), 2227; see ALC. See also Minstrelsy, 2.192. 265.34  Pluto, that elrich incubus  William Dunbar (c. 1460–1513?), ‘The Golden Targe’, line 125 (stanza 14): Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, ed. James Sibbald, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1802), 257, ALC. See also Minstrelsy, 2.192. 265.35–36  prince of the power of the air  Satan: Ephesians 2.2. 265.37  Hill of Venus  name of a mythical mountain in Germany into whose caverns Venus, goddess of love, attempted to lure and imprison knights. The story is found in the 16th-century Lied von dem Danheüser, on which Richard Wagner (1813–83) based his opera Tannhäuser (1845). 266.16  he took out a crown  the coins of James III and James IV had a cross as part of the design on the obverse; flourishing the coin was therefore a ready way for Lawson to protect himself against the devil. 266.29  convent . . . Cistercian nuns  see note to 5.1033. The date given by Scott, 1216, is wrong (the real one being about 1150), but he got it from John of Fordun, Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, ed. Walter Goddall, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1759), 2.38, ALC; Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed. D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1987–98), 5.93. 266.35  Robert de Marmion  (d. 1144), 4th Lord of Scrivelsby and Tamworth. 266.36  King Stephen (c. 1092–1154; reigned from 1135). Stephen seized power on the death of Henry I, but because of a contested succession his reign was marked by continuing civil war. 266.36  William of Newbury  William of Newburgh (1136–c. 1198), Augustinian canon and historian. His principal work, Historia rerum Anglicarum (History of England), was written 1194–98. 267.1–2  Homo bellicosus . . . impar  Latin an aggressive man, in his time virtually unequalled by any other man for daring, and adroitness: William of Newburgh, The History of English Affairs [Historia rerum Anglicarum], ed. and trans. P. G. Walsh and M. J. Kennedy (Warminster, 1988), 70–71. Scott owned Rerum Britannicarum (Lyon, 1587), which included both Bede and William of Newburgh’s histories. The signature on the title-page is that of the young Scott, so he is likely to have read both Bede and William of Newburgh in this book before writing Marmion. 267.3  church of Coventry  see note to 5.1108‒09. 267.18 Torfæus  Thormodus Torfæus (Thormodr Torfason, 1636–1719), historian. He was Icelandic by birth, but lived most of his life in Norway, in the kingdom of Denmark and Norway. His principal work is Historia rerum Norvegicarum (History of Norway), 4 vols (Copenhagen, 1711). 267.18  story, in the history of Hrolfe Kraka  Thormodus Torfæus, Historia Hrolfi Krakii (Copenhagen, 1715), 111–19 (Ch. 18). Hrólfr Kraki was a legendary 6th-century Danish king who appears in Beowulf and in several Icelandic sagas, including the one named after him, Hrólfs Saga Kraka. 267.24  Olaus Magnus  Swedish writer (1490–1557). His principal work

470

explanatory notes

is Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Rome, 1555), ALC. For the story and the direct quotation in the English translation see Compendious History of the Goths, Svvedes, & Vandals (London, 1658), 168, ALC. 268.3–32  Enter Christmas . . . and a pease  see Ben Jonson (1573–1637), ‘Christmas, his Masque; as it was presented in Court. 1616’, in The Works of Benjamin Jonson (London, 1640), 171–72. It is not known from which edition Scott is quoting. 268.4  round hose  breeches, the short trousers coming below the knee, where they were tied, worn by men in Jacobean England. 268.4  close doublet  close-fitting body-garment, with or without sleeves, worn by men. 268.6  garters tied cross  garters that cross over the knee and are tied both above and below. 268.16  blinding cloth  probably strip of fabric used to cover the eyes in the game of blind-man’s buff. 268.17–18  Post and Pair . . . pair-royal . . . pairs and purs  card game in which players are dealt three cards on which they place bets; set of three playing cards of the same denomination in the same game; two playing cards of the same denomination, and jacks in post and pair. 268.21  sprig of rosemary gilt  probably a sprig of rosemary (an emblem of remembrance) covered with a thin layer of gold. 268.24  pied suit  a variedly coloured suit. 268.36–38  Mummers . . . Guisards  masquerading in fancy dress was traditional in the North of England and Scotland at New Year. In an ‘Introductory Notice’ (1831) to Two Bannatyne Garlands from Abbotsford (Edinburgh, 1848), 5, Scott remembers how, when he was a boy, children would ‘go from house to house disguised with shirts over their clothes, and fantastic vizards, which was termed in Scotland guisarding, and in England mumming’. 268.39  not yet in total disuse  for reminiscences of New Year ‘guisarding’ in Melrose and Abbotsford see Jessie MacDonald, ‘The Reminiscences of Bonnie Jessie o’ Coatgreen’, Scottish Literary Journal, 14 (1), 47–52; compare also Robert Chambers, ‘Galatian, a New-year Play’, in Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1842), 68–69. 269.1  old mysteries  sequences of plays in which in the middle ages episodes from the Bible and the life of Christ were acted out. 269.2  me ipso testé  Latin myself being witness. 269.4–5  keys . . . sword . . . bag  the symbols respectively of Peter (‘I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven’: Matthew 16.19), Paul (who was beheaded in Rome in ad 67), and Judas (who carried the disciples’ moneybag: John 12.6). 269.8–13  Alexander . . . Saint George  compare Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1842), 70. He reports on folk plays performed at Christmas in Northumberland and Cornwall, and compares them to the Papa Stour sword-dance in Shetland. A note on Scott’s novel The Pirate provides more information on the sword-dance: see Walter Scott, Introduction and Notes from the Magnum Opus: Ivanhoe to Castle Dangerous, ed. J. H. Alexander and others, eewn 25b (Edinburgh, 2012), 146–51. 269.15  Nine Worthies  nine historical, scriptural, and legendary personages who personify the medieval ideals of chivalry. They are: Hector (Trojan leader and hero of Homer’s Iliad), Alexander the Great (356–323 bc; king of Macedon who created an empire stretching from Greece to India),



explanatory notes

471

Julius Caesar (100–44 bc; Roman general and politician), Joshua (the successor to Moses; he led the Israelites into the Promised Land), David (King of Judah), Judas Maccabeus (who led the Jewish revolt against the Babylonians in the 2nd century bc ), King Arthur (the legendary British hero), Charlemagne (see note to 6.1235) and Godfrey of Bouillon (1060–1100; leader of the first Crusade from 1096 until his death). 269.17  Chester Mysteries . . . Museum  one manuscript of the Chester Mystery Plays was in the British Museum (Harleian ms 2124), and is now in the British Library. 269.19  Mr Ritson  Joseph Ritson (1752–1803), lawyer and antiquary. He collected and edited many works of popular literature, of which the best known is Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, 2 vols (London, 1795). He had a reputation for being difficult, but was kind to Scott. 269.21  Remarks on Shakespeare  Joseph Ritson, Remarks Critical and Illustrative, on the Text and Notes of the Last Edition of Shakespeare (London, 1783), 38–40, ALC. Here Ritson discusses not the Chester Mystery Plays but the kind of popular drama which Scott describes above. 269.24  labours of Mr Douce  Francis Douce (1757–1834), an antiquary and collector, who was appointed to the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum in 1807. Scott is probably thinking of Douce’s Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners, 2 vols (London, 1807), ALC; the Chester and Coventry mystery plays are mentioned or quoted at 1.137, 1.353, 2.114–15, and 2.241–45. Scott was given these volumes by Douce after Marmion was in press; in a letter of 23 February 1808 he tells George Ellis that Douce’s ‘lucubrations have been my study for some days’ (Letters, 2.22). 269.31 dated the date given but deleted on the copy is ‘Decr. 22 1716’. 270.12 Lessudden  Lessudden House, in St Boswells, in the Scottish Borders. 270.13  venerable old gentleman  see note to 6.95–96. 270.20  Cromwell’s usurpation  i.e. 1649–60. 270.20–23  Cowley’s . . . beard for the king  see Abraham Cowley (1618–67), The Cutter of Coleman Street, in The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 11th edn, 2 vols (London, 1710), 818 (Act 1, Scene 6); see ALC. 270.26  Dr Pitcairn  Archibald Pitcairn (1652–1713), Edinburgh physician, controversialist, and Jacobite; his anti-Presbyterian satiric play The Assembly (written 1692) is still read. 270.30–31  Ceubren yr Ellyll  Welsh spirit of the hollow tree. 270.31–32  Reverend George Warrington  (1744–1830), English clergyman and minor poet. Ann Hayman, privy-purse to the Princess of Wales, wrote to Scott on 5 November 1807 asking that he incorporate Warrington’s poem. He replied that ‘Whatever you admire will I am sure add greatly to the value of the work in which you are pleased to request a place for it’ (Letters, 1.392–93). 270.34  the Vaughans of Hengwyrt  while it would have been better had Warrington defined the line of transmission, this family can be seen as inheritors of ‘tradition’, for the antiquary and collector Robert Vaughan (c. 1592–1667) built in quality and quantity the most important single collection of Welsh manuscripts, most of which are now in the National Library of Wales. In addition Vaughan wrote Memoirs of Owen Glendowr (attributed wrongly to Thomas Ellis), which was first published in 1775. Hengwyrt is near the town of Dolgellau, in Gwynned, about 40 km (25 miles) N of Aberystwyth. 270.35  who still point out this oak  Thomas Pennant (1726–98) wrote in

472

explanatory notes

1778: ‘On the road side is a venerable oak, in its last stage of decay, and pierced by age into the form of a gothic arch; yet its present girth is twenty-seven feet and a half’: A Tour in Wales, 2 vols (London, 1778), 2.96–97; see ALC. The oak fell during a storm in 1813 after being hit by lightning. 270.37  Earl of Kelly  either Thomas the 6th Earl (1732–81), or his brother Archibald the 7th Earl (1736–95), whose mother was Janet Pitcairn, daughter of Archibald Pitcairn (see note to 270.26). 271.1–2  Howel Sele  Hywel Sele, 8th Lord of Nannau (see note to 271.8), who was killed in 1404 by his cousin, Owen Glendwr. 271.2  Owen Glendwr  Owain Glyn Dŵr (c. 1359–c. 1416), the leader of the most serious and widespread rebellion against England (lasting from 1401–15) since the conquest of Wales in 1282–83. 271.8  in the park of Nannau  the deer park of an estate long associated with the Nanney and Vaughan families. It is near Dolgellau, formerly in Merioneth, now in Gwynned, about 40 km (25 miles) N of Aberystwyth. 271.38  The history . . . in Pennant’s Tour in Wales  see Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Wales, 2 vols (London, 1778), 1.324–25. 272.19  Moel’s top  Moel Siabod (872 m), a mountain in Snowdonia, 37 km (23 miles) N of Dolgellau. 272.29  Cader’s rocks  Cadair Idris (893 m), a mountain 5 km (3 miles) S of Dolgellau. 273.9  Robell’s tract  Rhobell Fawr (734 m), a mountain 10 km (6 miles) NE of Dolgellau. 273.15  Llanelltid’s bourne  probably the area (rather than the edge or boundary) of the village of Llanelltyd, 3 km (2 miles) SW of Nannau, and 2 km NW of Dolgellau. 273.29 Modred  the name of one of the bards killed by Edward I in Thomas Gray (1716–71), ‘The Bard’, line 33, in Odes, by Mr. Gray (London, 1757). 274.5 Madoc  not identified. The ‘original’ Madoc was, according to legend, a Welsh prince who settled in America in 1170; in consequence Madoc appears to have become a common name. Robert Southey published his long poem Madoc in 1805. 274.11  Salopia’s field  the Battle of Shewsbury, Shropshire, 1403, in which Henry Percy (1364–1403), nicknamed ‘Hotspur’, was killed and defeated. He had originally supported Henry IV who had usurped the English throne in 1399, but led a rebellion against him when Henry did not deliver the rewards he had promised. At Shrewsbury Percy had expected the support of Owain Glyn Dŵr, but it did not materialise. Salopia is Latin for Shropshire. 274.23  Cambria’s sceptre  the sceptre of Wales. 275.3 Henry Henry IV (1367–1413; king from 1399). 275.13 Garthmaelan  woodland to the E of Dolgellau, Gwynned. 276.25  Vener’s shrine  Cymer Abbey in the village of Llanelltyd, 3 km (2 miles) SW of Nannau, and 2 km NW of Dolgellau. It was a Cistercian monastery, hence the ‘white-robed monks’. 276.33  Daoine shi’  in modern Gaelic daoine-sidh, fairy folk. 277.8–10  popular superstitions . . . Perthshire  see Patrick Graham, Sketches descriptive of the Picturesque Scenery of Perthshire (Edinburgh, 1810), 103–27. Scott’s description of the Daoine shi’ is partly drawn from Graham, who, for example, calls them a ‘peevish, repining race of beings’ (107). 277.13 friend James Skene of Rubislaw; see notes to Canto 4 heading and 4.17. 277.16 Franchémont  Franchimont, a village with an 11th-century castle in the municipality of Theux near Liège in Belgium.



explanatory notes

473

278.4–20  I shall only produce . . . glorified saint  Lionel Charlton, The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey (York, 1779), 33. 278.23  Gawain Douglas  see note to 6.561–62. 278.32–279.4  Angus . . . family greatness  for this story see David Hume of Godscroft, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1743; first published, 1644), 2.58–59, ALC, and Minstrelsy, 1.viii–ix. 279.5–8  sword . . . Carberry-hill  for this story see David Hume of Godscroft, The History of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1743; first published 1644), 2.174, ALC. Mary Queen of Scots surrendered to the rebel lords, the Protestant party, after the Battle of Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567; The Earl of Morton (c. 1516–81) was regent 1572–81 in the minority of James VI. 279.7  Lord Lindesay of the Byres  6th Lord Lindsay (d. 1521–89). Unlike Morton, Lindsay was not consistently opposed to Mary Queen of Scots, but he deeply resented the murder in 1567 of the Queen’s husband, Lord Darnley, who was related to him, and clearly held the Queen and her lover Bothwell to blame. 279.18–280.4  Maclellan . . . taken  see Pitscottie, 62–65. The direct quotations are on 62, and 64–65. 279.19 Bomby  Bombie, a property in Kirkcudbright, in Dumfries and Galloway. Scottish landowners were often known by the name of their property. 279.21 Thrieve Threave, a castle on an island in the middle of the River Dee, 2 km W of the town of Castle Douglas. 280.11–12  Robert of Artois . . . Countess Matilda  Robert III of Artois (1287–1342), and his aunt Matilda also known as Mahaut (1268–1329). Robert’s father died in 1298, and his grandfather, Robert II, in 1302. As surviving child of Robert II Matilda inherited Artois, but Robert III later disputed this. In 1331 he used a will forged by Jeanne Divion to promote his claims but the forgery was detected and he was banished, ultimately taking refuge in England. While there, he became a member of Edward III’s council and his influence, it is claimed, led directly to the start of the Hundred Years War. 280.13  Edward the Third  (1312–77), King of England from 1327. He declared himself heir to the French throne in 1337 but his claim, being denied, started what became the Hundred Years War. 280.14  John Harding  John Hardyng (b. 1378, d. in or after 1464), described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as ‘chronicler and forger’. He produced documents in support of English claims to Scotland for Henry V in 1422, Henry VI in 1440 and 1457, and Edward IV in 1462. 280.15  Edward IV.  see note to 5.117. 280.19  Cistertian house  see note to 6.774. 280.21  Patrick Brydone  see note to 6.779. 281.11–12  that he was determined . . . field  see Pitscottie, 181. 281.16  Sir Francis Blake  (1737–1818), political writer who published works on the public debt, collected as Political Tracts (Berwick, 1788). He built a Gothic folly on the banks of the river, incorporating the original tower-house (Twizel Castle), but the project was never completed even although he is reputed to have spent £80,000 on it. 281.20  St Helen’s Well  see note to 6.827. 281.33–36  The English line . . . they met see The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, ed. Joseph Benson (Lancaster, 1805), 95, ALC (Fit the Eighth, stanza 15).

474

explanatory notes

281.38  Earl Surrey  see note to 1.629. 281.38–282.6  Thomas Howard . . . Sir Edmund . . . Stanley . . . Dacre  see notes to 6.950, 6.949, 6.952. 282.9–10  Earls of Huntley and of Home  see notes to 6.1031. 282.18–19  the Scottish historians  e.g. see Pitscottie, 182. 282.20–21  English historians  e.g. see Edward Hall, Hall’s Chronicle, [ed. Henry Ellis] (London, 1809), 562: ‘a great number of Scottes . . . were sore fought with all, which perceyuing the erle of Huntley toke a horse and saued hym selfe’. The work was first published as The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (London, 1548). 282.24–25  Earls of Crawford and Montrose  John Lindsay (before 1483–1513), 6th Earl, and William Graham (1463–1513), first Earl. 282.28  Lennox and Argyle  see notes to 6.1033. 282.40–41  Lesquelz . . . bruit  French those Scots came down from the hill in good order, in the way the Germans march, without speaking, and making no noise: Pinkerton, 2.456. This was part of the report in diplomatic French sent by the Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms (Thomas Hawley) after the battle: see A Catalogue of Manuscripts in the College of Arms, M.16 bis, ff. 145v–47. 283.9–10  the only distinct detail . . . in Pinkerton’s History see Pinkerton, 2.99–107. 283.19  Tunstall the Undefiled see The Battle of Flodden-Field . . . An Heroic Poem, ed. Joseph Benson (Lancaster, 1805), 65, ALC (Fit the Fifth, stanza 30). Tunstall is mentioned many times in the poem, but the main description is to be found at 63–65 (Fit the Fifth, stanzas 22–32). 283.21–22  an edition . . . Henry Weber  The Battle of Floddon Field, ed. Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1808). Henry William Weber (1783–1818) worked as Scott’s research assistant from 1807 to 1814. His own independent literary career flourished at this time, but came to an abrupt end in 1814 when he suffered some kind of mental breakdown. 283.23–24  white armour and banner . . . about to crow  see note to 6.1024. Tunstall’s crest included a white cockerel; at 6.1024 his banner is said to have been white, but obviously a white cockerel would not show up on a white banner. 283.25  Thurland Castle  near Kikby Lonsdale, in Lancashire. 283.32  says the . . . French Gazette  see Pinkerton, 2.456–57. This is the report in diplomatic French sent by the Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms (Thomas Hawley) after the battle: see note to 282.40–41. 283.35–284.1  The Scottish historians . . . idle reports  e.g. see Pitscottie, 182–83; George Buchanan (1506–82), The History of Scotland, trans. from the Latin, 5th edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1762), 2.140–41, ALC. See also note to 6.1309–12. 284.21  could never shew the token of the iron belt  see Pitscottie, 184. 284.24–25  monarch’s sword and dagger . . . the Herald’s College see note to 259.26–27. 284.25  Stowe . . . degrading story  see John Stow (1525–1605), A Suruay of London (London, 1598), 238: ‘After the battaile the bodie of the said King being founde, was closed in lead, and conueyed from thence to London, and so to the Monasterie of Sheyne in Surrey, where it remained for a time, in what order I am not certaine: but since the dissoluti|on of that house, in the raigne of Edward the sixt, Henry Cray Duke of Suffolke, being lodged and kéeping house there: I haue béene shewed the same bodie so lapped in lead, close of the head and bodie, throwne into a waste roome, amongst the old



explanatory notes

475

timber, leade, and other rubble. Since the which time workemen there for their foolish pleasure hewed off his head: and Launcelot Young at this present mayster Glasier to her Maiestie, féeling a swéet sa|uour to come from thence, and séeing the same dryed from all moi|sture, and yet the forme remayning, with the hayre of the heade, and beard red, brought it to London to his house in Woodstréet, where for a time he kept it for the swéetnesse, but in the end caused the Sexton of that church to burie it amongst other bones, taken out of their charnell &c. I reade in diuers Recordes of a house in Woodstréet then called Blacke Hall, but no man at this day can tell thereof.’ 284.33  Lord Brook  see note to 6.1329. 284.34  Sir John Gill  Sir John Gell (1593–1671), a Parliamentary officer who nevertheless turned back to become a royalist in 1648. 284.36  St Chad’s Cathedral  see note to 6.1331. 284.36–37  St Chad’s day 2 March. 285.11–12  Katherine Janfarie  see note to 5.505c.

GLOSSARY

This selective glossary defines single words; phrases are treated in the Explanatory Notes. It covers Scottish and English dialectal words, archaic and technical terms, and occurrences of familiar words in senses that may be strange to the modern reader, but which are unlikely to be in commonly-used one-volume dictionaries. Orthographical variants of single words are listed together, usually with the most common use first. Up to four occurrences of each word (or clearly distinguishable sense) are normally noted; when a word occurs four or more times in the poem and Scott’s notes, only the first instance is normally given, followed by ‘etc.’. Often the most economical and effective way of defining a word is to refer the reader to the appropriate explanatory note. according matching, fitting and appropriate 2.468, 242.16, 261.7, 279.39 adown down 5.407, 6.303 affright terror, fear, that which causes fear 3.93, 4.632, 5.447 afore before 209.27, etc. ahint behind 221.26 air equestrianism any of the movements performed in advanced dressage 256.17 (see note to 256.17–28) allegant type of wine produced in Alicante in E Spain 229.27 amain with full force 1.91, 5.224, 6.1018; at once, at full speed 2.45, 6.195, 6.934, 6.941, 6.1059 angel old English gold coin 1.475, 1.758 (see note to 1.475) angle fishing-rod 4.52 anon at once 211.36, 212.1; in a short time 212.16; for 3.170 see note apologue allegorical story 260.10 aquavitæ whisky 229.28 archdeaconry area of a diocese that a bishop puts under the

superintendence of a high-ranking priest called an archdeacon 232.15 arch-fiend the devil 1.785 argent heraldry silver 4.334 (see note) Armorican Breton 255.33 array noun military troop, force, army 1.363, etc. array noun dress 1.454, 244.2 array verb prepare, draw up in order 5.295, etc. arrayed dressed 3.793, etc. art divination, necromancy 3.555, 3.635, 241.7; skill, application of specialist knowledge or learning 2.439, 5.162, 5.184, 6.227 athwart across, from side to side 1.338 attaint dishonour 2.788 aught anything 4.159, 4.591, 5.252, 6.1216; at all 5.278 augur have foreboding about, anticipate 3.480 augury foretelling, prophecy 6.467 aventayle the movable front of a helmet 5.72



glossary

azure blue 1.415, 4.328, 4.334 (see note), 4.540, 253.34 bailey person who manages an estate for a landlord 221.27 baldric ornamented belt worn across the body to support a sword 5.412 balm embalm 210.21 bar close, with the double doors being secured by heavy beams at the rear 1.350; raise legal objection to 2.786; block, prevent, forbid 3.250, 5.534 bark small ship 2.278, etc. barony lands 223.30, 249.9, 262.35 bars portcullis 6.677 bastion projecting part of a fortification, facing outwards 6.280 battled battlemented 1.333, etc. beads prayers, especially those said when following the beads of a rosary 1.781, etc. beadsman dependant charged with the duty of praying for the souls of his benefactors 6.408 beeves cattle, oxen 1.636 behest command, bidding 1.447, etc. bells for 4.506 see Note VIII in Notes to Canto Fourth, 251–52. bend ribbon 260.22 benedicite an expression of astonishment 2.297 (see note) bent hill covered in grass 2.133, 4.734, 6.978 beset set upon, assail 5.287; set out in order 253.9 betide befall 1.669 (see note), 3.686 (see note to 3.686–87), 4.243 bide stay, live 1.544, etc.; suffer, put up with 3.659, 5.1161, 6.357 biggin child’s cap 268.30 bigging building, farm steading 221.26 bill concave, hooked blade mounted on a long shaft 1.433 bill-men fighters using bills 6.1265 blast wind, particularly a storm wind 1.36, etc.; bugle-call 1.369, 4.615, 6.1233, 6.1239 blasted destroyed 2.365, 212.34; destroyed by lightning, wind, or supernatural agency 6.159, etc. blaunch blanch 1.820 blaze publish abroad 6.1338

477

blood-gouts splashes of blood 6.371 (see note) boding ominous 3.505, 5.752 bodings presentiments 5.123 bonnet female head-gear 2.661; man’s cap 5.310, 5.417, 5.539, 5.698 (see note), 5.1127, 221.21 boon urgent request 1.827, 6.438 botcard see note to 262.14 bound place or district with a boundary 1.833, 2.515, 5.197, 228.6, 228.8 bounded enclosed 2.323 bourne boundary 272.6, 273.15 (see note) bowne prepare 4.702, 5.487, 5.764 brake thicket, clump of bushes 2.38, etc.; for 3.386 see note bramble blackberry 5.662 brand sword 1.298, etc.; torch 4.268 (see note to 4.267–68), 4.766 brawl make a noise, wrangle noisily 1.12, 3.187, 4.227; fight 1.674 brawling noise, unnecessary talking 6.1104 breach gap made by battery in fortifications 3.82; hole 6.509 breathe rest [a horse] 1.547, 6.909 bride-maiden attendant on a bride 5.540 bride’s-man attendant on a bridegroom 5.519 brigantine body armour made up of metal rings or plates sewn onto leather or other material worn by foot soldiers 5.231, 257.9 brim edge of the sea or lake 6.681, 234.21 brimmer brimming cup or goblet 2.78 broidered embroidered 1.418, 1.446, 5.401, 6.318 broidery ornamental needlework 6.312 broo’ liquor 221.29 brook enjoy the use of, profit from 1.478; put up with, tolerate, endure 1.536, etc. brotikings high boots 250.23 buckler small, round shield 3.298, 5.236, 256.33 buffet blow, stroke 3.659 burgher burgess (magistrate) or

478

glossary

citizen of a town 4.885, etc.; for 5.226 see note buskin calf-high or knee-length boot 5.309 (see note), 5.414 buxom vigorous, lively 3.320, 4.202 bypast past 261.8 cabalistic mysterious, pertaining to the cabala 242.7 cadet younger son 270.14, 270.15 caitiff vile, wretched 2.818 Cambria Wales 6.157, 274.23 can drinking vessel 1.676 caperkellie capercailzie (a member of the grouse family), the largest Scottish game-bird 229.26 career charge of horses at full speed 3.689, 3.706, 282.36 casque helmet 1.399, etc. cast counted up 4.262; intended 4.572 chace forest, area for hunting 271.14; hunt 2.85, 227.22, 271.20, 275.11 chafe feel or express anger or irritation 2.104, 3.535, 4.234, 5.1219; irritate, anger 3.781, 4.394, 5.607 chaplet string of beads used for counting prayers 5.710 chapter court for the trial of offenders against ecclesiastical law 2.350, 2.733, 238.30; ruling body of a monastery or cathedral 245.21 charged for 6.1393 see note chaunter singers in a church choir, or specifically singers endowed to say masses for a dead person 4.523 cheat escheat, legal forfeit 1.628 check strike at, attack 1.417 (see note) chief heraldry the top part of the shield in a coat of arms, divided from the rest by a straight line 6.269 chiming tinkling 4.728 churl fellow 1.689, 3.780 cincture girdle worn around the waist 4.540 clanging of birds uttering a loud harsh cry 5.323 clarion trumpet, used to broadcast signals in war 4.259, 4.853, 5.896 claw blow 221.7 clerk someone who can read and

write, scholar 3.566, 3.609, 3.730, 5.856 clew see note to 2.606 clip clasp with the arms, embrace 6.120, 210.22 closed enclosed 1.365, 5.195 cloth-yard for 1.451, 5.208, and 256.8 see note to 1.451 clouts clothes, rags 226.10 cognizance heraldry distinguishing device 6.270 cole-staff stout staff 268.16 combust astrology see note to 3.615 compear formally present oneself 227.28, 266.5, 266.7 compose adjust, arrange 5.1103 continent mainland 2.424, 3.599 convoy attendance as an escort 5.728 corse body 1.264, 274.31, 276.25 corslet armour covering the body 5.69, 5.230, 6.367, 6.372 cot cottage 2.97, 4.99, 274.20 couchant heraldry lying down, especially with reference to animals 6.1334 ’countered encountered, fought 6.475 course onward movement of time, etc. 1.74, 4.586; direction as determined at sea by the compass or stars 1.102; according to customary procedure 1.867, 4.258, 6.92; field of play 4.294; charge of combatants against each other 4.637, 216.36, 217.5 cowl garment with a hood covering head and shoulders, and without sleeves 1.790, etc. craig neck 221.13, 260.43 creed the apostles’ creed, an ancient affirmation of faith 1.685, 1.782; statement of faith 2.206, 4.105, 4.590 cresset oil light suspended from the roof 2.617, 2.630 crest heraldry device or ornament mounted on the helmet 1.411 (see note), 4.354 (see note to 4.353–54), etc.; the crown, the prize 1.512 crosier bishop’s staff 2.843 croupe rump of a horse 5.222 (see note), 5.544



glossary

cumber burden, encumber 4.667, 5.14 curvett for 5.223 see note damosel damsel 210.5, 210.10 danton subdue, overcome 227.29 darkling in the dark 3.793; obscure 5.23; darkening 6.1256 dastard someone who shrinks from risk or danger 2.822, 5.516; cowardly 5.252, 6.750, 6.1271 dead-run run to death 233.22 deas dias, raised platform and table at which the principal people sat at feasts 1.524 death-doom sentence of death 5.1065 death-peal for 3.453 see note deem think, consider 2.231, etc. defied challenged to combat 6.658, 244.17, 279.7 defy challenge 5.586, 5.963 defouled defiled 212.6 demi-volte, demivolte half-turn made by a horse with its fore-legs raised 4.847, 256.19, 256.23 (see note to 256.17–28) design designate, represent with a distinctive name 231.30 despite scorn, hatred of others 2.719, 210.23 despiteously contemptuously, spitefully, cruelly 5.780 dight destined 1.417, 216.26; equipped, dressed 6.78 disarrayed despoiled, stripped 5.89 disparked ceased to have the status of a royal hunting ground 227.22 (see note) dome temple, sanctuary 2.484, 4.520, 5.1142; house (with some implication of the previous sense) 4.305, 6.121 donjon for 1.333, 1.347, 1.483, 214.28, 215.18, 215.23 see note to 1.333 donot literally ‘do naught’, an idle or stupid person 221.20 doom noun judgment, sentence 2.700, etc.; death, fate 1.192, 6.358, 6.830 doom verb pass judgment, condemn 2.353, 2.623, 5.807 doomed fated 4.123

479

dotage stupidity, state of a person with impaired intellect 6.754 dower for 2.328 see note durk dirk, a short dagger 229.1, 230.9 earn golden eagle 232.4 edge urge on, encourage 2.561 elf poor creature 6.1381 elfin fairy 1.275 (see note), etc. ell unit of linear measurement 1.15 metres 253.18, 253.19 elrich weird, supernatural 265.34 embattled having battlements 5.44, 6.273 embrazure opening in a parapet through which to fire a cannon 6.548 emprize bold undertaking, adventurous enterprise 1.83 enow enough 1.632, 4.402 errant-knight knight-errant, knight travelling in search of adventure 4.290 erst a little time since, formerly 2.55, etc. essay verb and noun attempt 1.288, 2.494, 2.737, 2.738, 4.803 evil-disposed in poor health 266.13 falcon light cannon 262.15 (see note) fame noun report, rumour 1.599, 2.575, 5.1193, 6.446; reputation 2.788, etc. fame verb spread the fame of 219.21 fane temple 6.301 faulchion broadsword 2.561, etc. fay fairy 1.299, 4.687, 6.330, 6.751; faith 1.716, 1.783 featly neatly, elegantly 6.495 fell adjective fierce, cruel 3.703, 4.674, 6.1019 fell noun hill, elevated stretch of moorland 1.20, 2.896, 4.78 fence defence 6.369; defend 2.6, 262.6 fenceless defenceless 5.93 fife military small flute used to accompany a drum 4.854 fire-brand piece of burning wood and pitch used as a torch 3.343 firing fuel for a fire 3.281 flaunt wave gaily 1.603, 4.777 fleet fast, speedy 2.63, 5.547, 5.1193 flood river, flowing water 2.403, etc.

480

glossary

flood-mark high-water mark 2.421 foldings the folds in the fabric of a garment 3.768, 6.313 following retainers or attendants 5.347 (see footnote) fond foolish 3.830, 5.1130; tender, loving 6.402 forage fodder 3.281 forayer Border reiver or raider 1.642, 3.182, 3.248 (see notes) forenent before, in front of 266.13 fosse defensive ditch 1.606, 2.115 (footnote), 5.101, 5.1175 fourscore eighty 230.9 frock ecclesiastical long outer garment with large open sleeves 1.688, 2.695, 5.998, 6.781 front verb confront, look directly at, face 1.807, 6.918, 226.29; face 6.918; lead 6.949 front noun centre, central division 6.797, 6.1260; main elevation of a building 248.23, 248.25 frontlet façade, front elevation 5.755, 6.305 furlong one eighth of a mile, 220 yards (200 m) 4.318 furzy covered in furze (gorse) 4.712 gale breeze, light wind 1.346, etc.; strong wind 2.556, etc. gallant adjective excellent, splendid, handsome, courageous, brave, daring 1.422, etc. gallant noun fine gentleman, man full of daring 5.383, 5.515, 5.553, 256.24 galliard fast, lively dance in triple time 5.537 ’gan began 4.671 gard made, forced 221.8 gartane garter 226.13 gathering-song for 1.355 see note gauntlet glove worn as part of medieval armour 6.685 ghast ghastly 4.655 gibber utter meaningless sound 5.917 (see note) gibbet, gibbet-tree gallows, post with a projecting arm 1.514, 1.628 giust joust 1.548 (see note ) glance verb flash, dart 1.470, 3.344, 4.577; pass obliquely 3.709; look quickly over 5.210

glister sparkle, glitter brilliantly 2.671, 5.289 (see note) gorget piece of armour that protects the throat 5.231 grace mercy, pity 1.265, etc.; beauty, elegance, dignity 1.822, etc.; the mercy of God 2.552, etc. gramercy literally grant mercy; thank you 1.750, 3.654, 4.274 green-sward area of grass-covered ground 4.283 griesly grisly, horrible, terrible 2.705, 3.624 grimly grim-looking 2.417, 4.655; grim-sounding 210.1 gripple mean, ungenerous 6.220 (see note) groflins prostrate 250.32 gude-man husband 221.22 gules heraldry red 4.334 (see note) habit clothing, dress 3.604, 228.26, 228.33, 229.6 haffets temples 250.26 hagbut portable firearm 5.244 halbard halberd, a combined axe head and spear point on a long shaft 1.433 (see note), 5.243 hall the great hall of a castle or palace, where people of all ranks congregated 1.323, etc. (and see note to 1.368) hap happen 1.698, 3.472, 4.672, 6.860 (see note) harneis harness, body-armour 209.28 harquebuss early type of portable gun 2.48, 229.1, 230.1 harry, hary make predatory raids, despoil 1.637, 223.31 haste verb hurry 1.367, 265.25 hearse coffin 1.199, 3.46 heavie, heavy dark, gloomy 4.56, 4.511; having a depressing effect 1.704; disappointed, depressed 211.16, 212.22 helm, helme helmet 1.389, etc. helmed wearing a helmet 6.478 heumont helmet 260.27 hie hurry 6.18, 6.1117, 6.1161, 209.37 hire payment 4.263, 4.273 hist pay attention, listen 5.283 hold stronghold, castle 1.523, etc.



glossary

holden held 260.20 hole whole, cured 211.34, 211.37, 219.27 horse-courser dealer in horses 6.737 hose stockings 228.34, 228.37, 228.39; for 250.24 and 268.4 see note to 268.4 hosen stockings 1.445 host army 3.320, etc. hosting attending the king’s host, or army 228.13 housing ornamental cloth covering a horse 1.420, 4.353, 6.1072 idle without significance or value 2.575, etc. incontinent immediately, at once 261.13 indweller inhabitant 266.12 Iol Yule, Christmas and its festivities 6.7, 267.15 ire anger 1.396, etc. iron-bound of a coast covered or enclosed with rocks 239.6 isles-men men from the islands of W Scotland 5.318 jar discord 1.171, 2.235 justing jousting 247.38 keen sharp 1.136, etc.; bold, brave, daring 1.391, 1.804 keep stronghold of a castle, usually a free-standing tower within the fortifications 1.333 (see note), etc. kettle-drum drum with a semispherical bottom of copper over which is stretched a skin 4.854 kirtle knee-length tunic, skirt 5.291, 6.34, 240.8 knosp architectural ornament knob, boss 5.106 laggard hanging back 4.189; someone who hangs back 5.516 lance spear used in a tournament 1.288 (see note), etc. landward-man countryman 227.27 largesse for 1.492 see Note IX in Notes to Canto First, 217–18 larum alarm call warning of impending danger 4.884 lave1 [the] rest 266.25 lave2 wash, bathe 2.211, 2.250, 3.400, 6.1168 laverock lark 4.177

481

lay1 song or narrative poem intended to be sung 1.238, etc. lay2 bet 221.21 league distance of 5 km approx. 3.696 leaguer in camp, engaged in a siege 6.243 leagured besieged 4.887 Lent for 4.517 see note lerges, largeness the ceremonial giving of gifts on New Year’s Day; the cry of the heralds announcing the bestowing of gifts 217.23, 217.24, 217.25, 217.28, 217.29 levin lightning 1.73, 1.729 liege-men vassals sworn to the service of a lord by feudal law 5.574 limbo the supposed abode of the just who died before Christ’s coming 6.139 limner a painter, especially of portraits 4.549, 6.384 linn ravine, waterfall 1.3 (see note), 2.259 linstock staff of about 1 m with a forked head for holding a lighted torch 1.463 lion-mettled spirited like a lion, courageous 1.310 list1 listen to 1.238, 2.266, 2.898, 4.719, 6.295, 6.1412 list2 choose, want to 1.437, 6.74, 6.636, 210.4 listed having lists: for 1.508 see note to 1.503 lists for 1.503, etc. see note to 1.503 livelong whole stretch [of a day] 3.243, 4.47 living landed estate and the income from it 5.816, 5.1137 lonquhard sheiling, hut 229.20 loom noun implement 247.38 lordings lords 1.500 lore learning, knowledge 1.132, etc. lothly ugly 214.5 lower noun and verb lour 5.58, 5.611 lower adjective having a gloomy or sullen appearance 5.438 mace club, often with a spiked head 5.235, 257.12 main sea 5.880, 6.300 malison curse 5.912

482

glossary

man brace, make to seem manly 3.705 march-pain marchpane, a flat disc of marzipan mounted on wafers and usually decorated 268.22 marrow close friend, mate 260.33, 262.14 martin the marten, a small animal often hunted for its fur 5.404 masquers people, often wearing masks, who provide a court entertainment, act a traditional play, or sing carols 5.372, 6.70, 6.78 mate friend 2.78; equal in status 6.652 maze winding movement 3.18, 4.450; for 3.41 see note measure poetry, the poetic line 3.106, 3.152, 5.179; dance 5.527, 5.535; rhythm 5.555 meed reward for service or achievement 1.313 (see note), etc.; payment 2.683 meet fitting, appropriate 1.234, etc. mell verb engage with 250.36 mell noun mace, club 257.15 mervaile marvel 212.3 metal spirit 5.999 metal’d, mettled spirited 1.362, 1.550, 3.91 mien appearance, bearing 2.254, etc. miry muddy 4.424 monitor somebody providing a warning 4.571, 251.26 morion brimmed helmet, without a visor 1.459 morrice-pike long spear thought to be of Moorish origin 1.468 moss area of boggy land 5.272 moss-trooping pertaining to Border reivers (marauders who crossed the Border mosses) 221.39 mows joke, jest 261.4 moyan cannon of intermediate size 262.15 muckender handkerchief 268.30 mulct fine imposed for an offence 3.493 mullet heraldry five-pointed star in a coat of arms 6.269 mumming performing in costume

6.74; character representing a mummer 268.24 musquet, musket long-barrelled fire arm 1.459, 229.1, 230.1 mute say, utter 247.27 mystic secret, obscure 1.327, 2.217, 4.429, 277.33 napery cloth, linen 253.25 nolt cattle 223.33 novice for 2.311, 2.356, 6.308 see note to 2.311 ones once 253.27 or heraldry gold 4.334 (see note) overthwart obliquely across 211.3 pair-royal for 268.17 see note to 268.17–18 palfrey horse for ordinary riding 1.301, etc., palisade row of posts either vertical or inclined 1.364, 1.385, 5.194 pallion tent, pavilion 260.29, 260.30, 261.10 pallion-tow tent rope 261.15 palmer pilgrim 1.718 (see note), etc. pardoner person selling papal pardons for sin 1.653 part depart 2.868, etc. partane partan, edible crab 226.15 pass go 227.29; for 5.222 see note passing fairly 1.430, 211.16, 212.22; surpassing 5.810, 5.914 pasties pies 1.373 pasture verb graze 211.18 pavilion large ornamental tent 4.735, 4.782, 6.788, 253.6 pease [a] pea 268.32 peer adjective equal 1.808, 6.637, 6.659 peer noun lord 3.490, 5.931, 6.649, 6.1237 pelf wealth 1.89 (see note) pennon long narrow swallow-tailed flag 1.359 (see note), etc. pent enclosed, constrained 3.534, 4.446, 4.843, 5.39 pentacle for 3.611, 242.16 see note to 3.611 perqueir without hesitation 247.29 persuivant heraldic attendant 217.35; see also pursuivant pie magpie 216.32 piece Scots piece of meat or food 216.32



glossary

pike spear with a long wooden shaft 1.459, 5.193, 5.233 pinch attack 216.26 pipe cask 1.372 pitch height, highest point 5.740, 6.654 pizzle penis 221.28 plaid large piece of fabric worn as a cloak, probably with a belt 2.214, 3.139, 4.73; for 4.680, 5.297, 5.311, and 228.38 see note to 4.680 plain complain 6.626; make a mournful sound 3.430 plesour pleasure 247.30 plumb-porridge thick porridge containing raisins, currants, and spices, often flavoured with brandy, traditionally served at Christmas 6.67 plump band [of spear carriers] 1.358 (see footnote and note) portcullis strong grating of wooden or iron bars, usually suspended by chains above the gateway of a fortress 1.384, 5.46, 6.671 post position 1.112, etc. posts messengers 5.1193 power army 1.629, etc. prick ride fast 1.296, etc. pricker mounted soldier or reiver 5.265, 5.684, 257.20 prief proof 217.28 psaltery medieval stringed instrument 4.855 ptarmigan grouse with mottled grey-brown and white plumage 3.259 (see note) purs for 268.18 see note to 268.17–18 pursuivant heraldic attendant 1.480 (see note), 1.658, 4.331 (see note to 4.332), 5.921, 217.19 quaigh Gaelic shallow cup, usually used for drinking spirits 3.752 quick alive 2.95 quhilk which 247.30 rack mass of low cloud, moving quickly 4.42 racking driven by the wind 3.637 rated berated, scolded 4.232 raze demolish, burn down 1.630, 5.906; graze, scrape 3.710, 6.677 rede narrative, story 6.1412 redeem recover 5.143, 6.1110

483

red-shanks for 228.33 see note reft lost, taken away by force 3.69, 6.1120, 274.12 reign territory ruled by a monarch 2.560 relique (usually in the plural) remains of a saint or other object of veneration 2.472, etc.; remains 2.548, etc. relique-shrine box to hold some object of veneration 2.332 requiescat Latin prayer that a dead person may rest in eternal peace 1.128 rest device attached to the breastplate to support the butt-end of a spear when charging in the lists 2.793, 4.633 retail repeat 5.381 retrograde astrology for 3.615 see note reverend worthy of deep respect 3.552, 6.97, 6.779, 269.34; showing deep respect 5.396 riding-pie short coat or jacket for riding in 260.24 risque risk 1.692 rocquet rochet, a vestment similar to a surplice, worn by a bishop 6.563 roundelay short, simple song with a refrain 3.371 rowel small spiked revolving disc attached to the end of a rider’s spur 6.673 rude unrefined, uneducated, uncultured, rough, pertaining to an early age 1.528, etc. runnel small stream, rivulet 6.1148 Russ Russian 3.91 ruth sorrow, compassion 2.643, 4.240 ruthful sad, sorrowful 4.519 sable black 1.364, etc. sables fur of the sable, a small animal similar to a marten 6.721 sackbut early type of trombone 4.855 saddle-bow arched front part of a saddle 1.389 salvo saving clause, expedient for saving one’s reputation 264.6 salvo-shot discharge of artillery or other firearms as a salute 1.379

484

glossary

sanctuary for 5.1141, 233.33, and 233.34 see note to 5.1141–44 sanguine blood-red 4.779 sans without 1.688 say utterance 1.717, 3.505 scald skald, traditional Scandinavian poet who both composed and sung 6.17 scant limited 5.3; scarcely 5.1166 scantly scarcely 1.536 scanty deficient in extent 2.377, 4.713, 6.676, 274.22 scarf band of material, worn diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite hip 1.298, 268.6 scaur cliff, steep embankment 5.546 scour move rapidly 5.452 scroll rolled up piece of writing 5.733, 5.791, 5.809; for 4.781 see note scutcheon escutcheon, a shieldshape badge bearing a coat of arms 1.481, etc. sea-dog seal 2.300 sea-mew common gull 6.1011 selle saddle 3.841 sempster tailor, seamstress 268.26 seneschal steward who controls all domestic arrangements 1.371 seraphim class of angel 5.848 serve preserve 210.21 set seated 6.462 (see note) sewer attendant at a meal who oversees the serving of food 1.371 shaft arrow 1.451, etc. sheen bright, shining 5.405, 5.478, 6.34, 6.563 sheep-walk tract of land kept for pasturing sheep 227.21 shift arrange, order 1.31; escape, move, change 2.811, 5.928, 5.975 shifting moving, changing direction 4.761, 6.396, 6.793 shrieve shrive, hear confession and grant absolution from sin 1.691, 6.1166 shrift process of confession and absolution 6.1172 shrouds set of ropes leading from the mast to deck 2.296, 6.1051 sithen since 210.19 skant scarcely 253.23

skelp slap 221.7 slake lessen, quench 6.1135 slip verb release a dog from a leash 2.44; noun dog leash 2.62 (see note) slogan war-cry 5.263, 6.1045 slough outer skin shed by a snake 6.452 sodden boiled 229.24 soffit undersurface of a lintel, vault, or arch 248.29 soland gannet, large sea-bird 3.290 sooth truth 1.584, etc. soothly truly 3.658 Southron southern, English 3.207, 5.467, 6.91 sped fared 3.748; killed 6.1101 speed good fortune 6.747, 6.1411; for 3.671 and 6.690 see notes speir ask 250.29, 251.13 spring lively tune 247.29 sprite spirit 3.673, etc. spurs for 1.424, 5.415, 6.977 see note to 1.424 squire young man of good birth attendant on a knight 1.299, etc., and see note to 1.422 staid stopped 2.808, etc. stalworth stalwart, strong, brave, courageous 1.391 start Scots a charge on a horse 3.739 (see note) state pomp, stateliness of bearing 1.484, 5.1101, 5.1102; for 1.806, 2.286, 3.299, 4.530 see note to 1.806 staves plural of staff (see note to 1.798) stay1 stop 1.206, etc. stay2 support 4.147 (see note) steep steep hill 1.330, 4.412, 6.259 steepy steep, precipitous 1.3, 5.39, 6.288, 225.4 stile official title 2.645; way in which something characteristically occurs 2.423 stilly still, characterised by stillness, with a hint of secrecy 2.173 stinted scanty 1.666 stirring busy 1.552 stoop of a bird swoop, dive in an attack, come down 1.616, 2.211, 4.800, 6.623 stout brave, undaunted 1.477, etc.



glossary

stower for 234.13, 234.22 see note to 234.13 stowre stour, armed fight 4.894 strength stronghold 3.183 strook struck 3.470, 4.646 strout for 234.13, 234.22 see note to 234.13 strung made strong 6.526 swing vigorous flight on a curved path 1.615 sword-sway swinging down-stroke of a sword 5.224, 6.996 sworn committed by oath to a course of action or state of conviction 1.652, etc. syde long 250.25 syne then 221.16, 221.29, 226.8, 226.12, 261.1 syren woman who allures and deceives 5.554 (see note); as adjective 219.39 tabard heraldic tunic 4.333; tunic without sleeves 226.9 targe light shield made of leather 3.760, etc. target see note to 6.367 tent type of wine produced in Alicante in E Spain 229.27 tented probably covered in tents, but perhaps being watched, being paid attention to 5.195 termagant ptarmigan, mountain grouse 229.27 tether halter 261.18 than them 214.5 thir these 251.3, 251.4, 260.18, 265.23 thunder-dint thunder-stroke 1.729 tingling vibrating 4.758 tinkhell tynchell, a line of men who drive deer towards the hunters 229.41, 229.42, 230.5 tocsin Parisian alarm signal 1.120 (see note) torch light usually made of wood and pitch 2.711, 5.761, 6.556 tottered battered, ruinous 4.426 tourney tournament, a meeting for knightly sports and exercises 5.370, 256.24 tow rope 261.1, 261.14, 261.16 trace verb dance 5.371

485

train followers, soldiers in attendance, retinue 1.297, etc.; military equipment (horses, baggage, etc.) 1.672; course of a stream 3.7; sequence of events 6.27 tranced in a trance 6.340 trapped adorned with trappings 1.421 tributary that which pays tribute 1.201 trine astrology for 3.615 and 242.8 see note to 3.615 trow believe, trust 1.631, 4.271, 5.397, 6.763 trowl circulate, move round 6.65 trump trumpet 1.99, 4.329, 4.853 tumbler acrobat, someone who performs somersaults, etc. 268.15 tutor legal guardian 279.18, 279.23 twae two 217.27 twine weave, twist 3.233, 4.123, 5.410, 6.1418, 260.30 unapt not disposed 5.605 unbarred opened by means of moving the bar behind the gate 1.383 uncouth unwelcome, foreign 265.23 underogating without losing dignity 6.44 unmeet unworthy 6.637 unnurtured unrefined 6.1104 unrecked unnoticed, unheeded 1.601 unsparred unbarred 1.385 unwonted unusual, abnormal 3.625, 3.626, 5.660, 6.380 vail veil, cover 3.476; lower, cause to drop 6.842 vantage-coign projecting vantage point 6.280 (see note) varlet menial, knave 6.1126 vaunt boast 5.204 (see note), 5.609, 5.679, 216.30 vaward forward 6.950, 6.1231; vanguard 6.964 verily truly, properly 211.24, 266.19 vex agitate, disturb 4.35, 6.263 vicar parish priest 1.669, 224.13 vindicate make or set free 2.560; clear from a charge 6.93 footnote, 6.490 visioned seen in a vision 2.691 voce Latin for 215.26 see note

486

glossary

volumed in a rolling dense mass 6.984 wain large wagon for carrying heavy loads, drawn by horses or oxen 4.769, 5.26 wan adjective pale 1.815 wan verb reached 3.258, 250.26 wand magic wand 1.300, 6.110; rod or staff borne as a sign of office 6.843 ward guard 4.885 (see note), 5.329, 6.372, 228.12; the ground between two encircling walls in a castle 1.381, 215.5 warder soldier who keeps ward, or guard 1.108, etc. warding keeping guard, particularly in a town 228.13 ware aware 209.32 warp divert in a particular direction 3.117; for 3.92 see note war-pipe bagpipes 4.856, 5.298 wary habitually on guard against danger or deception 3.819 wassel, wassell wassail (spiced ale), drinking 5.362; pertaining to drinking healths and at Christmas 1.560 (see note), 1.855 (see note), 6.64 wassell-route riotous gathering, drinking and revelry 3.187 watching keeping watch, particularly in a town 228.13 wax grow 209.31, 274.33 weal well-being, prosperity 1.61, etc. wear were 253.7, 253.15, 253.27 weeds clothing 1.258, 5.358, 6.426 ween surmise, think, believe 1.663, etc. wend1 go 5.1056 wend2 thought, supposed 211.8 wheel military formation turn as though a spoke of a wheel 5.222, 6.798, 6.853, 6.1083; run in circles, go round 1.33, 2.261, 3.809 (see note); bend 5.337; spinning wheel 2.98 whenas at the time when 1.801

whilk which 227.32 whilome once, sometime in the past 4.446, 5.75 whin gorse 4.717 wight person, hero, fellow 2.113, etc. (see note) wildered bewildered 1.207 wimple head covering surrounding the head, sides of the face, and the neck 5.495 wind blow (a wind instrument) 3.667 wist knew 211.40, 212.22 witching bewitching 4.403 (see note), 4.565 (see note), 5.560, 6.333 withal besides 1.803, 4.811, 230.12 without outside 4.200, 5.1218, 231.25, 233.25, 243.19 wives women 1.636 woe for 1.669, 2.267, and 3.686 see notes woe to may misfortune or distress fall on, a curse on 3.366, 3.500, 4.514 wold piece of open country, a hill 4.611, 6.752 wont to be accustomed 2.854, 6.576, 217.19, 258.13, 269.2; custom 3.239; normal 4.41, 4.521, 5.787, 6.755 wonted normal 5.1101 wore adjective worn 2.613 wore verb gradually wore on 6.706 wroth angry 3.484 wyth willow wand or garland carried into a nobleman’s house 268.28 yare ready, at the ready 1.463 yeoman attendant, freeholder (someone who cultivates his own land) engaged in feudal service 1.382, etc. yether noun osier, pliable wood 234.13, 234.22 yether verb interweave with twigs as in basket-making 234.21 yode Middle English went 3.839 zone belt, girdle 3.612