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diff --git a/old/llake10.txt b/old/llake10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d64773c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/llake10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13341 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Lady of the Lake +by Sir Walter Scott + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Rolfe, A.M. + Formerly Head Master of the High School, Cambridge, Mass. + + + Boston + + 1883 + + + + + Preface + + + +When I first saw Mr. Osgood's beautiful illustrated edition of +The Lady of the Lake, I asked him to let me use some of the cuts +in a cheaper annotated edition for school and household use; and +the present volume is the result. + +The text of the poem has given me unexpected trouble. When I +edited some of Gray's poems several years ago, I found that they +had not been correctly printed for more than half a century; but +in the case of Scott I supposed that the text of Black's +so-called "Author's Edition" could be depended upon as accurate. +Almost at the start, however, I detected sundry obvious misprints +in one of the many forms in which this edition is issued, and an +examination of others showed that they were as bad in their way. +The "Shilling" issue was no worse than the costly illustrated +one of 1853, which had its own assortment of slips of the type. +No two editions that I could obtain agreed exactly in their +readings. I tried in vain to find a copy of the editio princeps +(1810) in Cambridge and Boston, but succeeded in getting one +through a London bookseller. This I compared, line by line, with +the Edinburgh edition of 1821 (from the Harvard Library), with +Lockhart's first edition, the "Globe" edition, and about a +dozen others English and American. I found many misprints and +corruptions in all except the edition of 1821, and a few even in +that. For instance in i. 217 Scott wrote "Found in each cliff a +narrow bower," and it is so printed in the first edition; but in +every other that I have seen "cliff" appears in place of +clift,, to the manifest injury of the passage. In ii. 685, every +edition that I have seen since that of 1821 has "I meant not all +my heart might say," which is worse than nonsense, the correct +reading being "my heat." In vi. 396, the Scottish "boune" +(though it occurs twice in other parts of the poem) has been +changed to "bound" in all editions since 1821; and, eight +lines below, the old word "barded" has become "barbed." Scores +of similar corruptions are recorded in my Notes, and need not be +cited here. + +I have restored the reading of the first edition, except in cases +where I have no doubt that the later reading is the poet's own +correction or alteration. There are obvious misprints in the +first edition which Scott himself overlooked (see on ii. 115, +217,, Vi. 527, etc.), and it is sometimes difficult to decide +whether a later reading--a change of a plural to a singular, or +like trivial variation--is a misprint or the author's correction +of an earlier misprint. I have done the best I could, with the +means at my command, to settle these questions, and am at least +certain that the text as I give it is nearer right than in any +edition since 1821 As all the variae lectiones are recorded in +the Notes, the reader who does not approve of the one I adopt can +substitute that which he prefers. + +I have retained all Scott's Notes (a few of them have been +somewhat abridged) and all those added by Lockhart.[FN#l] My own +I have made as concise as possible. There are, of course, many of +them which many of my readers will not need, but I think there +are none that may not be of service, or at least of interest, to +some of them; and I hope that no one will turn to them for help +without finding it. + +Scott is much given to the use of Elizabethan words and +constructions, and I have quoted many "parallelisms" from +Shakespeare and his contemporaries. I believe I have referred to +my edition of Shakespeare in only a single instance (on iii. 17), +but teachers and others who have that edition will find many +additional illustrations in the Notes on the passages cited. + +While correcting the errors of former editors, I may have +overlooked some of my own. I am already indebted to the careful +proofreaders of the University Press for the detection of +occasional slips in quotations or references; and I shall be very +grateful to my readers for a memorandum of any others that they +may discover. + +Cambridge, June 23, 1883.. + + + + Argument. + + + +The scene of the following Poem is laid chiefly in the vicinity +of Loch Katrine, in the Western Highlands of Perthshire. The time +of Action includes Six Days, and the transactions of each Day +occupy a Canto. + + + + + THE LADY OF THE LAKE. + + + + + CANTO FIRST. + + The Chase. + + + +Harp of the North! that mouldering long hast hung + On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring +And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung, + Till envious ivy did around thee cling, +Muffling with verdant ringlet every string,-- + O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep? +Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring, + Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep, +Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep? + +Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, + Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd, +When lay of hopeless love, or glory won, + Aroused the fearful or subdued the proud. +At each according pause was heard aloud + Thine ardent symphony sublime and high! +Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bowed; + For still the burden of thy minstrelsy +Was Knighthood's dauntless deed, and Beauty's matchless eye. + +O, wake once more! how rude soe'er the hand + That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray; +O, wake once more! though scarce my skill command + Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay: +Though harsh and faint, and soon to die away, + And all unworthy of thy nobler strain, +Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway, + The wizard note has not been touched in vain. +Then silent be no more! Enchantress, wake again! + + +I. + +The stag at eve had drunk his fill, +Where danced the moon on Monan's rill, +And deep his midnight lair had made +In lone Glenartney's hazel shade; +But when the sun his beacon red +Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head, +The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay +Resounded up the rocky way, +And faint, from farther distance borne, +Were heard the clanging hoof and horn. + + +II. + +As Chief, who hears his warder call, +'To arms! the foemen storm the wall,' +The antlered monarch of the waste +Sprung from his heathery couch in haste. +But ere his fleet career he took, +The dew-drops from his flanks he shook; +Like crested leader proud and high +Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky; +A moment gazed adown the dale, +A moment snuffed the tainted gale, +A moment listened to the cry, +That thickened as the chase drew nigh; +Then, as the headmost foes appeared, +With one brave bound the copse he cleared, +And, stretching forward free and far, +Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var. + + +III. + +Yelled on the view the opening pack; +Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back; +To many a mingled sound at once +The awakened mountain gave response. +A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong, +Clattered a hundred steeds along, +Their peal the merry horns rung out, +A hundred voices joined the shout; +With hark and whoop and wild halloo, +No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew. +Far from the tumult fled the roe, +Close in her covert cowered the doe, +The falcon, from her cairn on high, +Cast on the rout a wondering eye, +Till far beyond her piercing ken +The hurricane had swept the glen. +Faint, and more faint, its failing din +Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn, +And silence settled, wide and still, +On the lone wood and mighty hill. + + +IV. + +Less loud the sounds of sylvan war +Disturbed the heights of Uam-Var, +And roused the cavern where, 't is told, +A giant made his den of old; +For ere that steep ascent was won, +High in his pathway hung the sun, +And many a gallant, stayed perforce, +Was fain to breathe his faltering horse, +And of the trackers of the deer +Scarce half the lessening pack was near; +So shrewdly on the mountain-side +Had the bold burst their mettle tried. + + +V. + +The noble stag was pausing now +Upon the mountain's southern brow, +Where broad extended, far beneath, +The varied realms of fair Menteith. +With anxious eye he wandered o'er +Mountain and meadow, moss and moor, +And pondered refuge from his toil, +By far Lochard or Aberfoyle. +But nearer was the copsewood gray +That waved and wept on Loch Achray, +And mingled with the pine-trees blue +On the bold cliffs of Benvenue. +Fresh vigor with the hope returned, +With flying foot the heath he spurned, +Held westward with unwearied race, +And left behind the panting chase. + + +VI. + +'T were long to tell what steeds gave o'er, +As swept the hunt through Cambusmore; +What reins were tightened in despair, +When rose Benledi's ridge in air; +Who flagged upon Bochastle's heath, +Who shunned to stem the flooded Teith,-- +For twice that day, from shore to shore, +The gallant stag swam stoutly o'er. +Few were the stragglers, following far, +That reached the lake of Vennachar; +And when the Brigg of Turk was won, +The headmost horseman rode alone. + + +VII. + +Alone, but with unbated zeal, +That horseman plied the scourge and steel; +For jaded now, and spent with toil, +Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, +While every gasp with sobs he drew, +The laboring stag strained full in view. +Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed, +Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed, +Fast on his flying traces came, +And all but won that desperate game; +For, scarce a spear's length from his haunch, +Vindictive toiled the bloodhounds stanch; +Nor nearer might the dogs attain, +Nor farther might the quarry strain +Thus up the margin of the lake, +Between the precipice and brake, +O'er stock and rock their race they take. + + +VIII. + +The Hunter marked that mountain high, +The lone lake's western boundary, +And deemed the stag must turn to bay, +Where that huge rampart barred the way; +Already glorying in the prize, +Measured his antlers with his eyes; +For the death-wound and death-halloo +Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew:-- +But thundering as he came prepared, +With ready arm and weapon bared, +The wily quarry shunned the shock, +And turned him from the opposing rock; +Then, dashing down a darksome glen, +Soon lost to hound and Hunter's ken, +In the deep Trosachs' wildest nook +His solitary refuge took. +There, while close couched the thicket shed +Cold dews and wild flowers on his head, +He heard the baffled dogs in vain +Rave through the hollow pass amain, +Chiding the rocks that yelled again. + + +IX. + +Close on the hounds the Hunter came, +To cheer them on the vanished game; +But, stumbling in the rugged dell, +The gallant horse exhausted fell. +The impatient rider strove in vain + To rouse him with the spur and rein, +For the good steed, his labors o'er, +Stretched his stiff limbs, to rise no more; +Then, touched with pity and remorse, +He sorrowed o'er the expiring horse. +'I little thought, when first thy rein +I slacked upon the banks of Seine, +That Highland eagle e'er should feed +On thy fleet limbs, my matchless steed! +Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, +That costs thy life, my gallant gray!' + + +X. + +Then through the dell his horn resounds, +From vain pursuit to call the hounds. +Back limped, with slow and crippled pace, +The sulky leaders of the chase; +Close to their master's side they pressed, +With drooping tail and humbled crest; +But still the dingle's hollow throat +Prolonged the swelling bugle-note. +The owlets started from their dream, +The eagles answered with their scream, +Round and around the sounds were cast, +Till echo seemed an answering blast; +And on the Hunter tried his way, +To join some comrades of the day, +Yet often paused, so strange the road, +So wondrous were the scenes it showed. + + +XI. + +The western waves of ebbing day +Rolled o'er the glen their level way; +Each purple peak, each flinty spire, +Was bathed in floods of living fire. +But not a setting beam could glow +Within the dark ravines below, +Where twined the path in shadow hid, +Round many a rocky pyramid, +Shooting abruptly from the dell +Its thunder-splintered pinnacle; +Round many an insulated mass, +The native bulwarks of the pass, +Huge as the tower which builders vain +Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain. +The rocky summits, split and rent, +Formed turret, dome, or battlement. +Or seemed fantastically set +With cupola or minaret, +Wild crests as pagod ever decked, +Or mosque of Eastern architect. +Nor were these earth-born castles bare, +Nor lacked they many a banner fair; +For, from their shivered brows displayed, +Far o'er the unfathomable glade, +All twinkling with the dewdrop sheen, +The briar-rose fell in streamers green, +kind creeping shrubs of thousand dyes +Waved in the west-wind's summer sighs. + + +XII. + +Boon nature scattered, free and wild, +Each plant or flower, the mountain's child. +Here eglantine embalmed the air, +Hawthorn and hazel mingled there; +The primrose pale and violet flower +Found in each cliff a narrow bower; +Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, +Emblems of punishment and pride, +Grouped their dark hues with every stain +The weather-beaten crags retain. +With boughs that quaked at every breath, +Gray birch and aspen wept beneath; +Aloft, the ash and warrior oak +Cast anchor in the rifted rock; +And, higher yet, the pine-tree hung +His shattered trunk, and frequent flung, +Where seemed the cliffs to meet on high, +His boughs athwart the narrowed sky. +Highest of all, where white peaks glanced, +Where glistening streamers waved and danced, +The wanderer's eye could barely view +The summer heaven's delicious blue; +So wondrous wild, the whole might seem +The scenery of a fairy dream. + + +XIII. + +Onward, amid the copse 'gan peep +A narrow inlet, still and deep, +Affording scarce such breadth of brim +As served the wild duck's brood to swim. +Lost for a space, through thickets veering, +But broader when again appearing, +Tall rocks and tufted knolls their face +Could on the dark-blue mirror trace; +And farther as the Hunter strayed, +Still broader sweep its channels made. +The shaggy mounds no longer stood, +Emerging from entangled wood, +But, wave-encircled, seemed to float, +Like castle girdled with its moat; +Yet broader floods extending still +Divide them from their parent hill, +Till each, retiring, claims to be +An islet in an inland sea. + + +XIV. + +And now, to issue from the glen, +No pathway meets the wanderer's ken, +Unless he climb with footing nice +A far-projecting precipice. +The broom's tough roots his ladder made, +The hazel saplings lent their aid; +And thus an airy point he won, +Where, gleaming with the setting sun, +One burnished sheet of living gold, +Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled, +In all her length far winding lay, +With promontory, creek, and bay, +And islands that, empurpled bright, +Floated amid the livelier light, +And mountains that like giants stand +To sentinel enchanted land. +High on the south, huge Benvenue +Down to the lake in masses threw +Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, +The fragments of an earlier world; +A wildering forest feathered o'er +His ruined sides and summit hoar, +While on the north, through middle air, +Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare. + + +XV. + +From the steep promontory gazed +The stranger, raptured and amazed, +And, 'What a scene were here,' he cried, +'For princely pomp or churchman's pride! +On this bold brow, a lordly tower; +In that soft vale, a lady's bower; +On yonder meadow far away, +The turrets of a cloister gray; +How blithely might the bugle-horn +Chide on the lake the lingering morn! +How sweet at eve the lover's lute +Chime when the groves were still and mute! +And when the midnight moon should lave +Her forehead in the silver wave, +How solemn on the ear would come +The holy matins' distant hum, +While the deep peal's commanding tone +Should wake, in yonder islet lone, +A sainted hermit from his cell, +To drop a bead with every knell! +And bugle, lute, and bell, and all, +Should each bewildered stranger call +To friendly feast and lighted hall. + + +XVI. + +'Blithe were it then to wander here! +But now--beshrew yon nimble deer-- +Like that same hermit's, thin and spare, +The copse must give my evening fare; +Some mossy bank my couch must be, +Some rustling oak my canopy. +Yet pass we that; the war and chase +Give little choice of resting-place;-- +A summer night in greenwood spent +Were but to-morrow's merriment: +But hosts may in these wilds abound, +Such as are better missed than found; +To meet with Highland plunderers here +Were worse than loss of steed or deer.-- +I am alone;--my bugle-strain +May call some straggler of the train; +Or, fall the worst that may betide, +Ere now this falchion has been tried.' + + +XVII. + +But scarce again his horn he wound, +When lo! forth starting at the sound, +From underneath an aged oak +That slanted from the islet rock, +A damsel guider of its way, +A little skiff shot to the bay, +That round the promontory steep +Led its deep line in graceful sweep, +Eddying, in almost viewless wave, +The weeping willow twig to rave, +And kiss, with whispering sound and slow, +The beach of pebbles bright as snow. + The boat had touched this silver strand +Just as the Hunter left his stand, +And stood concealed amid the brake, +To view this Lady of the Lake. + The maiden paused, as if again +She thought to catch the distant strain. +With head upraised, and look intent, +And eye and ear attentive bent, +And locks flung back, and lips apart, +Like monument of Grecian art, +In listening mood, she seemed to stand, +The guardian Naiad of the strand. + + +XVIII. + +And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace +A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace, +Of finer form or lovelier face! +What though the sun, with ardent frown, +Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown,-- +The sportive toil, which, short and light +Had dyed her glowing hue so bright, +Served too in hastier swell to show +Short glimpses of a breast of snow: +What though no rule of courtly grace +To measured mood had trained her pace,-- +A foot more light, a step more true, +Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew; +E'en the slight harebell raised its head, +Elastic from her airy tread: +What though upon her speech there hung + The accents of the mountain tongue,--- +Those silver sounds, so soft, so dear, +The listener held his breath to hear! + + +XIX. + +A chieftain's daughter seemed the maid; +Her satin snood, her silken plaid, +Her golden brooch, such birth betrayed. +And seldom was a snood amid +Such wild luxuriant ringlets hid, +Whose glossy black to shame might bring +The plumage of the raven's wing; +And seldom o'er a breast so fair +Mantled a plaid with modest care, +And never brooch the folds combined +Above a heart more good and kind. +Her kindness and her worth to spy, +You need but gaze on Ellen's eye; + Not Katrine in her mirror blue +Gives back the shaggy banks more true, +Than every free-born glance confessed +The guileless movements of her breast; +Whether joy danced in her dark eye, +Or woe or pity claimed a sigh, +Or filial love was glowing there, +Or meek devotion poured a prayer, +Or tale of injury called forth +The indignant spirit of the North. +One only passion unrevealed +With maiden pride the maid concealed, +Yet not less purely felt the flame;-- +O, need I tell that passion's name? + + +XX. + +Impatient of the silent horn, +Now on the gale her voice was borne:-- +'Father!' she cried; the rocks around +Loved to prolong the gentle sound. +Awhile she paused, no answer came;-- +'Malcolm, was thine the blast?' the name +Less resolutely uttered fell, +The echoes could not catch the swell. +'A stranger I,' the Huntsman said, +Advancing from the hazel shade. +The maid, alarmed, with hasty oar +Pushed her light shallop from the shore, +And when a space was gained between, +Closer she drew her bosom's screen;-- +So forth the startled swan would swing, +So turn to prune his ruffled wing. +Then safe, though fluttered and amazed, +She paused, and on the stranger gazed. +Not his the form, nor his the eye, +That youthful maidens wont to fly. + + +XXI. + +On his bold visage middle age +Had slightly pressed its signet sage, +Yet had not quenched the open truth +And fiery vehemence of youth; +Forward and frolic glee was there, +The will to do, the soul to dare, +The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire, +Of hasty love or headlong ire. +His limbs were cast in manly could +For hardy sports or contest bold; +And though in peaceful garb arrayed, +And weaponless except his blade, +His stately mien as well implied +A high-born heart, a martial pride, +As if a baron's crest he wore, +And sheathed in armor bode the shore. +Slighting the petty need he showed, +He told of his benighted road; +His ready speech flowed fair and free, +In phrase of gentlest courtesy, +Yet seemed that tone and gesture bland +Less used to sue than to command. + + +XXII. + +Awhile the maid the stranger eyed, +And, reassured, at length replied, +That Highland halls were open still +To wildered wanderers of the hill. +'Nor think you unexpected come +To yon lone isle, our desert home; +Before the heath had lost the dew, +This morn, a couch was pulled for you; +On yonder mountain's purple head +Have ptarmigan and heath-cock bled, +And our broad nets have swept the mere, +To furnish forth your evening cheer.'-- +'Now, by the rood, my lovely maid, +Your courtesy has erred,' he said; +'No right have I to claim, misplaced, +The welcome of expected guest. +A wanderer, here by fortune toss, +My way, my friends, my courser lost, +I ne'er before, believe me, fair, +Have ever drawn your mountain air, +Till on this lake's romantic strand +I found a fey in fairy land!'-- + + +XXIII. + +'I well believe,' the maid replied, +As her light skiff approached the side,-- +'I well believe, that ne'er before +Your foot has trod Loch Katrine's shore +But yet, as far as yesternight, +Old Allan-bane foretold your plight,-- +A gray -haired sire, whose eye intent +Was on the visioned future bent. +He saw your steed, a dappled gray, +Lie dead beneath the birchen way; +Painted exact your form and mien, +Your hunting-suit of Lincoln green, +That tasselled horn so gayly gilt, +That falchion's crooked blade and hilt, +That cap with heron plumage trim, +And yon two hounds so dark and grim. +He bade that all should ready be +To grace a guest of fair degree; +But light I held his prophecy, +And deemed it was my father's horn +Whose echoes o'er the lake were borne.' + + +XXIV. + +The stranger smiled: -- 'Since to your home +A destined errant-knight I come, +Announced by prophet sooth and old, +Doomed, doubtless, for achievement bold, +I 'll lightly front each high emprise +For one kind glance of those bright eyes. +Permit me first the task to guide +Your fairy frigate o'er the tide.' +The maid, with smile suppressed and sly, +The toil unwonted saw him try; +For seldom, sure, if e'er before, +His noble hand had grasped an oar: +Yet with main strength his strokes he drew, +And o'er the lake the shallop flew; +With heads erect and whimpering cry, +The hounds behind their passage ply. +Nor frequent does the bright oar break +The darkening mirror of the lake, +Until the rocky isle they reach, +And moor their shallop on the beach. + + +XXV. + +The stranger viewed the shore around; +'T was all so close with copsewood bound, +Nor track nor pathway might declare +That human foot frequented there, +Until the mountain maiden showed +A clambering unsuspected road, +That winded through the tangled screen, +And opened on a narrow green, +Where weeping birch and willow round +With their long fibres swept the ground. +Here, for retreat in dangerous hour, +Some chief had framed a rustic bower. + + +XXVI. + +It was a lodge of ample size, +But strange of structure and device; +Of such materials as around +The workman's hand had readiest found. +Lopped of their boughs, their hoar trunks bared, +And by the hatchet rudely squared, +To give the walls their destined height, +The sturdy oak and ash unite; +While moss and clay and leaves combined +To fence each crevice from the wind. +The lighter pine-trees overhead +Their slender length for rafters spread, +And withered heath and rushes dry +Supplied a russet canopy. +Due westward, fronting to the green, +A rural portico was seen, +Aloft on native pillars borne, +Of mountain fir with bark unshorn +Where Ellen's hand had taught to twine +The ivy and Idaean vine, +The clematis, the favored flower +Which boasts the name of virgin-bower, +And every hardy plant could bear +Loch Katrine's keen and searching air. +An instant in this porch she stayed, +And gayly to the stranger said: +'On heaven and on thy lady call, +And enter the enchanted hall!' + + +XXVII. + +'My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, +My gentle guide, in following thee!'-- + He crossed the threshold,--and a clang +Of angry steel that instant rang. +To his bold brow his spirit rushed, +But soon for vain alarm he blushed +When on the floor he saw displayed, +Cause of the din, a naked blade +Dropped from the sheath, that careless flung +Upon a stag's huge antlers swung; +For all around, the walls to grace, +Hung trophies of the fight or chase: +A target there, a bugle here, +A battle-axe, a hunting-spear, +And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, +With the tusked trophies of the boar. +Here grins the wolf as when he died, +And there the wild-cat's brindled hide +The frontlet of the elk adorns, +Or mantles o'er the bison's horns; +Pennons and flags defaced and stained, +That blackening streaks of blood retained, +And deer-skins, dappled, dun, and white, +With otter's fur and seal's unite, +In rude and uncouth tapestry all, +To garnish forth the sylvan hall. + + +XXVIII. + +The wondering stranger round him gazed, +And next the fallen weapon raised:-- +Few were the arms whose sinewy strength +Sufficed to stretch it forth at length. +And as the brand he poised and swayed, +'I never knew but one,' he said, +'Whose stalwart arm might brook to wield +A blade like this in battle-field.' +She sighed, then smiled and took the word: +'You see the guardian champion's sword; +As light it trembles in his hand +As in my grasp a hazel wand: +My sire's tall form might grace the part +Of Ferragus or Ascabart, +But in the absent giant's hold +Are women now, and menials old.' + + +XXIX. + +The mistress of the mansion came, +Mature of age, a graceful dame, +Whose easy step and stately port +Had well become a princely court, +To whom, though more than kindred knew, +Young Ellen gave a mother's due. +Meet welcome to her guest she made, +And every courteous rite was paid +That hospitality could claim, +Though all unasked his birth and name. +Such then the reverence to a guest, +That fellest foe might join the feast, +And from his deadliest foeman's door +Unquestioned turn the banquet o'er +At length his rank the stranger names, +'The Knight of Snowdoun, James Fitz-James; +Lord of a barren heritage, +Which his brave sires, from age to age, +By their good swords had held with toil; +His sire had fallen in such turmoil, +And he, God wot, was forced to stand +Oft for his right with blade in hand. +This morning with Lord Moray's train +He chased a stalwart stag in vain, +Outstripped his comrades, missed the deer, +Lost his good steed, and wandered here.' + + +XXX. + +Fain would the Knight in turn require +The name and state of Ellen's sire. +Well showed the elder lady's mien +That courts and cities she had seen; +Ellen, though more her looks displayed +The simple grace of sylvan maid, +In speech and gesture, form and face, +Showed she was come of gentle race. +'T were strange in ruder rank to find +Such looks, such manners, and such mind. +Each hint the Knight of Snowdoun gave, +Dame Margaret heard with silence grave; +Or Ellen, innocently gay, +Turned all inquiry light away:-- +'Weird women we! by dale and down +We dwell, afar from tower and town. +We stem the flood, we ride the blast, +On wandering knights our spells we cast; +While viewless minstrels touch the string, +'Tis thus our charmed rhymes we sing.' +She sung, and still a harp unseen +Filled up the symphony between. + + +XXXI. + +Song. + +Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, + Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; +Dream of battled fields no more, + Days of danger, nights of waking. +In our isle's enchanted hall, + Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, +Fairy strains of music fall, + Every sense in slumber dewing. +Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, +Dream of fighting fields no more; +Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, +Morn of toil, nor night of waking. + +'No rude sound shall reach thine ear, + Armor's clang or war-steed champing +Trump nor pibroch summon here + Mustering clan or squadron tramping. +Yet the lark's shrill fife may come + At the daybreak from the fallow, +And the bittern sound his drum + Booming from the sedgy shallow. +Ruder sounds shall none be near, +Guards nor warders challenge here, +Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing, +Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.' + + +XXXII. + +She paused,--then, blushing, led the lay, +To grace the stranger of the day. +Her mellow notes awhile prolong +The cadence of the flowing song, +Till to her lips in measured frame +The minstrel verse spontaneous came. + +Song Continued. + +'Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; + While our slumbrous spells assail ye, +Dream not, with the rising sun, + Bugles here shall sound reveille. +Sleep! the deer is in his den; + Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying; +Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen +How thy gallant steed lay dying. +Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done; +Think not of the rising sun, +For at dawning to assail ye +Here no bugles sound reveille.' + + +XXXIII. + +The hall was cleared,--- the stranger's bed, +Was there of mountain heather spread, +Where oft a hundred guests had lain, +And dreamed their forest sports again. +But vainly did the heath-flower shed +Its moorland fragrance round his head; +Not Ellen's spell had lulled to rest +The fever of his troubled breast. +In broken dreams the image rose +Of varied perils, pains, and woes: + His steed now flounders in the brake, +Now sinks his barge upon the lake; +Now leader of a broken host, +His standard falls, his honor's lost. +Then,--from my couch may heavenly might +Chase that worst phantom of the night!-- +Again returned the scenes of youth, +Of confident, undoubting truth; +Again his soul he interchanged +With friends whose hearts were long estranged. +They come, in dim procession led, +The cold, the faithless, and the dead; +As warm each hand, each brow as gay, +As if they parted yesterday. +And doubt distracts him at the view,-- +O were his senses false or true? +Dreamed he of death or broken vow, +Or is it all a vision now? + + +XXXIV. + +At length, with Ellen in a grove +He seemed to walk and speak of love; +She listened with a blush and sigh, +His suit was warm, his hopes were high. +He sought her yielded hand to clasp, +And a cold gauntlet met his grasp: +The phantom's sex was changed and gone, +Upon its head a helmet shone; +Slowly enlarged to giant size, +With darkened cheek and threatening eyes, +The grisly visage, stern and hoar, +To Ellen still a likeness bore.-- +He woke, and, panting with affright, +Recalled the vision of the night. +The hearth's decaying brands were red +And deep and dusky lustre shed, +Half showing, half concealing, all +The uncouth trophies of the hall. +Mid those the stranger fixed his eye +Where that huge falchion hung on high, +And thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng, +Rushed, chasing countless thoughts along, +Until, the giddy whirl to cure, +He rose and sought the moonshine pure. + + +XXXV. + +The wild rose, eglantine, and broom +Wasted around their rich perfume; +The birch-trees wept in fragrant balm; +The aspens slept beneath the calm; +The silver light, with quivering glance, +Played on the water's still expanse,-- +Wild were the heart whose passion's sway +Could rage beneath the sober ray! +He felt its calm, that warrior guest, +While thus he communed with his breast:-- +'Why is it, at each turn I trace +Some memory of that exiled race? +Can I not mountain maiden spy, +But she must bear the Douglas eye? +Can I not view a Highland brand, +But it must match the Douglas hand? +Can I not frame a fevered dream, +But still the Douglas is the theme? +I'll dream no more,-- by manly mind +Not even in sleep is will resigned. +My midnight orisons said o'er, +I'll turn to rest, and dream no more.' +His midnight orisons he told, +A prayer with every bead of gold, +Consigned to heaven his cares and woes, +And sunk in undisturbed repose, +Until the heath-cock shrilly crew, +And morning dawned on Benvenue. + + + + + CANTO SECOND. + + The Island. + + +I. + +At morn the black-cock trims his jetty wing, + 'T is morning prompts the linnet's blithest lay, +All Nature's children feel the matin spring + Of life reviving, with reviving day; +And while yon little bark glides down the bay, + Wafting the stranger on his way again, +Morn's genial influence roused a minstrel gray, + And sweetly o'er the lake was heard thy strain, +Mixed with the sounding harp, O white-haired Allan-bane! + + +II. + +Song. + +'Not faster yonder rowers' might + Flings from their oars the spray, +Not faster yonder rippling bright, +That tracks the shallop's course in light, + Melts in the lake away, +Than men from memory erase +The benefits of former days; +Then, stranger, go! good speed the while, +Nor think again of the lonely isle. + +'High place to thee in royal court, + High place in battled line, +Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport! +Where beauty sees the brave resort, + The honored meed be thine! +True be thy sword, thy friend sincere, +Thy lady constant, kind, and dear, +And lost in love's and friendship's smile +Be memory of the lonely isle! + + +III. + +Song Continued. + +'But if beneath yon southern sky + A plaided stranger roam, +Whose drooping crest and stifled sigh, +And sunken cheek and heavy eye, + Pine for his Highland home; +Then, warrior, then be thine to show +The care that soothes a wanderer's woe; +Remember then thy hap erewhile, +A stranger in the lonely isle. + +'Or if on life's uncertain main + Mishap shall mar thy sail; +If faithful, wise, and brave in vain, +Woe, want, and exile thou sustain + Beneath the fickle gale; +Waste not a sigh on fortune changed, +On thankless courts, or friends estranged, +But come where kindred worth shall smile, +To greet thee in the lonely isle.' + + +IV. + +As died the sounds upon the tide, +The shallop reached the mainland side, +And ere his onward way he took, +The stranger cast a lingering look, +Where easily his eye might reach +The Harper on the islet beach, +Reclined against a blighted tree, +As wasted, gray, and worn as he. +To minstrel meditation given, +His reverend brow was raised to heaven, +As from the rising sun to claim +A sparkle of inspiring flame. +His hand, reclined upon the wire, +Seemed watching the awakening fire; +So still he sat as those who wait +Till judgment speak the doom of fate; +So still, as if no breeze might dare +To lift one lock of hoary hair; +So still, as life itself were fled +In the last sound his harp had sped. + + +V. + +Upon a rock with lichens wild, +Beside him Ellen sat and smiled.-- +Smiled she to see the stately drake +Lead forth his fleet upon the lake, +While her vexed spaniel from the beach +Bayed at the prize beyond his reach? +Yet tell me, then, the maid who knows, +Why deepened on her cheek the rose?-- +Forgive, forgive, Fidelity! +Perchance the maiden smiled to see +Yon parting lingerer wave adieu, +And stop and turn to wave anew; +And, lovely ladies, ere your ire +Condemn the heroine of my lyre, +Show me the fair would scorn to spy +And prize such conquest of her eve! + + +VI. + +While yet he loitered on the spot, +It seemed as Ellen marked him not; +But when he turned him to the glade, +One courteous parting sign she made; +And after, oft the knight would say, +That not when prize of festal day +Was dealt him by the brightest fair +Who e'er wore jewel in her hair, +So highly did his bosom swell +As at that simple mute farewell. +Now with a trusty mountain-guide, +And his dark stag-hounds by his side, +He parts,--the maid, unconscious still, +Watched him wind slowly round the hill; +But when his stately form was hid, +The guardian in her bosom chid,-- +'Thy Malcolm! vain and selfish maid!' +'T was thus upbraiding conscience said,-- +'Not so had Malcolm idly hung +On the smooth phrase of Southern tongue; +Not so had Malcolm strained his eye +Another step than thine to spy.'-- +'Wake, Allan-bane,' aloud she cried +To the old minstrel by her side,-- +'Arouse thee from thy moody dream! +I 'll give thy harp heroic theme, +And warm thee with a noble name; +Pour forth the glory of the Graeme!' +Scarce from her lip the word had rushed, +When deep the conscious maiden blushed; +For of his clan, in hall and bower, +Young Malcolm Graeme was held the flower. + + +VII. + +The minstrel waked his harp,--three times +Arose the well-known martial chimes, +And thrice their high heroic pride +In melancholy murmurs died. + 'Vainly thou bidst, O noble maid,' +Clasping his withered hands, he said, +'Vainly thou bidst me wake the strain, + Though all unwont to bid in vain. +Alas! than mine a mightier hand +Has tuned my harp, my strings has spanned! +I touch the chords of joy, but low +And mournful answer notes of woe; +And the proud march which victors tread +Sinks in the wailing for the dead. +O, well for me, if mine alone +That dirge's deep prophetic tone! +If, as my tuneful fathers said, +This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed, +Can thus its master's fate foretell, +Then welcome be the minstrel's knell.' + + +VIII. + +'But ah! dear lady, thus it sighed, +The eve thy sainted mother died; +And such the sounds which, while I strove +To wake a lay of war or love, +Came marring all the festal mirth, +Appalling me who gave them birth, +And, disobedient to my call, +Wailed loud through Bothwell's bannered hall. +Ere Douglases, to ruin driven, +Were exiled from their native heaven.-- +O! if yet worse mishap and woe +My master's house must undergo, +Or aught but weal to Ellen fair +Brood in these accents of despair, +No future bard, sad Harp! shall fling +Triumph or rapture from thy string; +One short, one final strain shall flow, +Fraught with unutterable woe, +Then shivered shall thy fragments lie, +Thy master cast him down and die!' + + +IX. + +Soothing she answered him: 'Assuage, +Mine honored friend, the fears of age; +All melodies to thee are known +That harp has rung or pipe has blown, +In Lowland vale or Highland glen, +From Tweed to Spey--what marvel, then, +At times unbidden notes should rise, +Confusedly bound in memory's ties, +Entangling, as they rush along, +The war-march with the funeral song?-- +Small ground is now for boding fear; +Obscure, but safe, we rest us here. +My sire, in native virtue great, +Resigning lordship, lands, and state, +Not then to fortune more resigned +Than yonder oak might give the wind; +The graceful foliage storms may reeve, +'Fine noble stem they cannot grieve. +For me'--she stooped, and, looking round, +Plucked a blue harebell from the ground,-- +'For me, whose memory scarce conveys +An image of more splendid days, +This little flower that loves the lea +May well my simple emblem be; +It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose +That in the King's own garden grows; +And when I place it in my hair, +Allan, a bard is bound to swear +He ne'er saw coronet so fair.' +Then playfully the chaplet wild +She wreathed in her dark locks, and smiled. + + +X. + +Her smile, her speech, with winning sway +Wiled the old Harper's mood away. +With such a look as hermits throw, +When angels stoop to soothe their woe +He gazed, till fond regret and pride +Thrilled to a tear, then thus replied: +'Loveliest and best! thou little know'st +The rank, the honors, thou hast lost! +O. might I live to see thee grace, +In Scotland's court, thy birthright place, +To see my favorite's step advance +The lightest in the courtly dance, +The cause of every gallant's sigh, +And leading star of every eye, +And theme of every minstrel's art, +The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!' + + +XI. + +'Fair dreams are these,' the maiden cried,-- +Light was her accent, yet she sighed,-- +'Yet is this mossy rock to me +Worth splendid chair and canopy; +Nor would my footstep spring more gay +In courtly dance than blithe strathspey, +Nor half so pleased mine ear incline +To royal minstrel's lay as thine. +And then for suitors proud and high, +To bend before my conquering eye,-- +Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say, +That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway. +The Saxon scourge, Clan- Alpine's pride, +The terror of Loch Lomond's side, +Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay +A Lennox foray--for a day.'-- + + +XII.. + +The ancient bard her glee repressed: +'Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest! +For who, through all this western wild, +Named Black Sir Roderick e'er, and smiled? +In Holy-Rood a knight he slew; +I saw, when back the dirk he drew, +Courtiers give place before the stride +Of the undaunted homicide; +And since, though outlawed, hath his hand +Full sternly kept his mountain land. + +Who else dared give--ah! woe the day, +That I such hated truth should say!-- +The Douglas, like a stricken deer, +Disowned by every noble peer, +Even the rude refuge we have here? +Alas, this wild marauding +Chief Alone might hazard our relief, +And now thy maiden charms expand, +Looks for his guerdon in thy hand; +Full soon may dispensation sought, +To back his suit, from Rome be brought. +Then, though an exile on the hill, +Thy father, as the Douglas, still +Be held in reverence and fear; +And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear +That thou mightst guide with silken thread. +Slave of thy will, this chieftain dread, +Yet, O loved maid, thy mirth refrain! +Thy hand is on a lion's mane.'-- + + +XIII. + +Minstrel,' the maid replied, and high +Her father's soul glanced from her eye, +'My debts to Roderick's house I know: +All that a mother could bestow +To Lady Margaret's care I owe, +Since first an orphan in the wild +She sorrowed o'er her sister's child; +To her brave chieftain son, from ire +Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire, +A deeper, holier debt is owed; +And, could I pay it with my blood, Allan! +Sir Roderick should command +My blood, my life,--but not my hand. +Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell +A votaress in Maronnan's cell; +Rather through realms beyond the sea, +Seeking the world's cold charity +Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word, +And ne'er the name of Douglas heard +An outcast pilgrim will she rove, +Than wed the man she cannot love. + + +XIV. + +'Thou shak'st, good friend, thy tresses gray,-- +That pleading look, what can it say +But what I own?--I grant him brave, +But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave; +And generous, ---save vindictive mood +Or jealous transport chafe his blood: +I grant him true to friendly band, +As his claymore is to his hand; +But O! that very blade of steel +More mercy for a foe would feel: +I grant him liberal, to fling +Among his clan the wealth they bring, +When back by lake and glen they wind, +And in the Lowland leave behind, +Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, +A mass of ashes slaked with blood. +The hand that for my father fought +I honor, as his daughter ought; +But can I clasp it reeking red +From peasants slaughtered in their shed? +No! wildly while his virtues gleam, +They make his passions darker seem, +And flash along his spirit high, +Like lightning o'er the midnight sky. +While yet a child,--and children know, +Instinctive taught, the friend and foe,-- +I shuddered at his brow of gloom, +His shadowy plaid and sable plume; +A maiden grown, I ill could bear +His haughty mien and lordly air: +But, if thou join'st a suitor's claim, +In serious mood, to Roderick's name. +I thrill with anguish! or, if e'er +A Douglas knew the word, with fear. +To change such odious theme were best,-- +What think'st thou of our stranger guest? '-- + + +XV. + +'What think I of him?--woe the while +That brought such wanderer to our isle! +Thy father's battle-brand, of yore +For Tine-man forged by fairy lore, +What time he leagued, no longer foes +His Border spears with Hotspur's bows, +Did, self-unscabbarded, foreshow +The footstep of a secret foe. +If courtly spy hath harbored here, +What may we for the Douglas fear? +What for this island, deemed of old +Clan-Alpine's last and surest hold? +If neither spy nor foe, I pray +What yet may jealous Roderick say?-- +Nay, wave not thy disdainful head! +Bethink thee of the discord dread +That kindled when at Beltane game +Thou least the dance with Malcolm Graeme; +Still, though thy sire the peace renewed +Smoulders in Roderick's breast the feud: +Beware!--But hark! what sounds are these? +My dull ears catch no faltering breeze +No weeping birch nor aspens wake, +Nor breath is dimpling in the lake; +Still is the canna's hoary beard, +Yet, by my minstrel faith, I heard-- +And hark again! some pipe of war +Sends the hold pibroch from afar.' + + +XVI. + +Far up the lengthened lake were spied +Four darkening specks upon the tide, +That, slow enlarging on the view, +Four manned and massed barges grew, +And, bearing downwards from Glengyle, +Steered full upon the lonely isle; +The point of Brianchoil they passed, +And, to the windward as they cast, +Against the sun they gave to shine +The bold Sir Roderick's bannered Pine. +Nearer and nearer as they bear, +Spears, pikes, and axes flash in air. +Now might you see the tartars brave, +And plaids and plumage dance and wave: +Now see the bonnets sink and rise, +As his tough oar the rower plies; +See, flashing at each sturdy stroke, +The wave ascending into smoke; +See the proud pipers on the bow, +And mark the gaudy streamers flow +From their loud chanters down, and sweep +The furrowed bosom of the deep, +As, rushing through the lake amain, +They plied the ancient Highland strain. + + +XVII. + +Ever, as on they bore, more loud +And louder rung the pibroch proud. +At first the sounds, by distance tame, +Mellowed along the waters came, +And, lingering long by cape and bay, +Wailed every harsher note away, +Then bursting bolder on the ear, +The clan's shrill Gathering they could hear, +Those thrilling sounds that call the might +Of old Clan-Alpine to the fight. +Thick beat the rapid notes, as when +The mustering hundreds shake the glen, +And hurrying at the signal dread, +'Fine battered earth returns their tread. +Then prelude light, of livelier tone, +Expressed their merry marching on, +Ere peal of closing battle rose, +With mingled outcry, shrieks, and blows; +And mimic din of stroke and ward, +As broadsword upon target jarred; +And groaning pause, ere yet again, +Condensed, the battle yelled amain: +The rapid charge, the rallying shout, +Retreat borne headlong into rout, +And bursts of triumph, to declare +Clan-Alpine's congest--all were there. +Nor ended thus the strain, but slow +Sunk in a moan prolonged and low, +And changed the conquering clarion swell +For wild lament o'er those that fell. + + + XVIII. + +The war-pipes ceased, but lake and hill +Were busy with their echoes still; +And, when they slept, a vocal strain +Bade their hoarse chorus wake again, +While loud a hundred clansmen raise +Their voices in their Chieftain's praise. +Each boatman, bending to his oar, +With measured sweep the burden bore, +In such wild cadence as the breeze +Makes through December's leafless trees. +The chorus first could Allan know, +'Roderick Vich Alpine, ho! fro!' +And near, and nearer as they rowed, +Distinct the martial ditty flowed. + + +XIX. + +Boat Song + +Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances! + Honored and blessed be the ever-green Pine! +Long may the tree, in his banner that glances, + Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line! + Heaven send it happy dew, + Earth lend it sap anew, + Gayly to bourgeon and broadly to grow, + While every Highland glen + Sends our shout back again, + 'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!' + +Ours is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountain, + + Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade; +When the whirlwind has stripped every leaf on the mountain, + The more shall Clan-Alpine exult in her shade. + Moored in the rifted rock, + Proof to the tempest's shock, + Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow; + Menteith and Breadalbane, then, + Echo his praise again, + 'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!' + + +XX. + +Proudly our pibroch has thrilled in Glen Fruin, + And Bannochar's groans to our slogan replied; +Glen Luss and Ross-dhu, they are smoking in ruin, + And the best of Loch Lomond lie dead on her side. + Widow and Saxon maid + Long shall lament our raid, + Think of Clan-Alpine with fear and with woe; + Lennox and Leven-glen + Shake when they hear again, +'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!' + +Row, vassals, row, for the pride of the Highlands! + Stretch to your oars for the ever-green Pine! +O that the rosebud that graces yon islands + Were wreathed in a garland around him to twine! + O that some seedling gem, + Worthy such noble stem, + Honored and blessed in their shadow might grow! + Loud should Clan-Alpine then + Ring from her deepmost glen, + Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!' + + +XXI. + +With all her joyful female band +Had Lady Margaret sought the strand. +Loose on the breeze their tresses flew, +And high their snowy arms they threw, +As echoing back with shrill acclaim, +And chorus wild, the Chieftain's name; +While, prompt to please, with mother's art +The darling passion of his heart, +The Dame called Ellen to the strand, +To greet her kinsman ere he land: + 'Come, loiterer, come! a Douglas thou, +And shun to wreathe a victor's brow?' +Reluctantly and slow, the maid +The unwelcome summoning obeyed, +And when a distant bugle rung, +In the mid-path aside she sprung:-- +'List, Allan-bane! From mainland cast +I hear my father's signal blast. +Be ours,' she cried, 'the skiff to guide, +And waft him from the mountain-side.' +Then, like a sunbeam, swift and bright, +She darted to her shallop light, +And, eagerly while Roderick scanned, +For her dear form, his mother's band, +The islet far behind her lay, +And she had landed in the bay. + + +XXII. + +Some feelings are to mortals given +With less of earth in them than heaven; +And if there be a human tear +From passion's dross refined and clear, +A tear so limpid and so meek +It would not stain an angel's cheek, +'Tis that which pious fathers shed +Upon a duteous daughter's head! +And as the Douglas to his breast +His darling Ellen closely pressed, +Such holy drops her tresses steeped, +Though 't was an hero's eye that weeped. +Nor while on Ellen's faltering tongue +Her filial welcomes crowded hung, + Marked she that fear--affection's proof-- +Still held a graceful youth aloof; +No! not till Douglas named his name, +Although the youth was Malcolm Graeme. + + +XXIII. + +Allan, with wistful look the while, +Marked Roderick landing on the isle; +His master piteously he eyed, +Then gazed upon the Chieftain's pride, +Then dashed with hasty hand away +From his dimmed eye the gathering spray; +And Douglas, as his hand he laid +On Malcolm's shoulder, kindly said: +'Canst thou, young friend, no meaning spy +In my poor follower's glistening eye? +I 'll tell thee:--he recalls the day +When in my praise he led the lay +O'er the arched gate of Bothwell proud, +While many a minstrel answered loud, +When Percy's Norman pennon, won +In bloody field, before me shone, +And twice ten knights, the least a name +As mighty as yon Chief may claim, +Gracing my pomp, behind me came. +Yet trust me, Malcolm, not so proud +Was I of all that marshalled crowd, +Though the waned crescent owned my might, +And in my train trooped lord and knight, +Though Blantyre hymned her holiest lays, +And Bothwell's bards flung back my praise, +As when this old man's silent tear, +And this poor maid's affection dear, +A welcome give more kind and true +Than aught my better fortunes knew. +Forgive, my friend, a father's boast,-- +O, it out-beggars all I lost!' + + +XXIV. + +Delightful praise!--like summer rose, +That brighter in the dew-drop glows, +The bashful maiden's cheek appeared, +For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard. +The flush of shame-faced joy to hide, +The hounds, the hawk, her cares divide; +The loved caresses of the maid +The dogs with crouch and whimper paid; +And, at her whistle, on her hand +The falcon took his favorite stand, +Closed his dark wing, relaxed his eye, +Nor, though unhooded, sought to fly. +And, trust, while in such guise she stood, +Like fabled Goddess of the wood, +That if a father's partial thought +O'erweighed her worth and beauty aught, +Well might the lover's judgment fail +To balance with a juster scale; +For with each secret glance he stole, +The fond enthusiast sent his soul. + + +XXV. + +Of stature fair, and slender frame, +But firmly knit, was Malcolm Graeme. +The belted plaid and tartan hose +Did ne'er more graceful limbs disclose; +His flaxen hair, of sunny hue, +Curled closely round his bonnet blue. +Trained to the chase, his eagle eye +The ptarmigan in snow could spy; +Each pass, by mountain, lake, and heath, +He knew, through Lennox and Menteith; +Vain was the bound of dark-brown doe +When Malcolm bent his sounding bow, +And scarce that doe, though winged with fear, +Outstripped in speed the mountaineer: +Right up Ben Lomond could he press, +And not a sob his toil confess. +His form accorded with a mind +Lively and ardent, frank and kind; +A blither heart, till Ellen came +Did never love nor sorrow tame; +It danced as lightsome in his breast +As played the feather on his crest. +Yet friends, who nearest knew the youth +His scorn of wrong, his zeal for truth +And bards, who saw his features bold +When kindled by the tales of old +Said, were that youth to manhood grown, +Not long should Roderick Dhu's renown +Be foremost voiced by mountain fame, +But quail to that of Malcolm Graeme. + + +XXVI. + +Now back they wend their watery way, +And, 'O my sire!' did Ellen say, +'Why urge thy chase so far astray? +And why so late returned? And why '-- +The rest was in her speaking eye. +'My child, the chase I follow far, +'Tis mimicry of noble war; +And with that gallant pastime reft +Were all of Douglas I have left. +I met young Malcolm as I strayed +Far eastward, in Glenfinlas' shade +Nor strayed I safe, for all around +Hunters and horsemen scoured the ground. +This youth, though still a royal ward, +Risked life and land to be my guard, +And through the passes of the wood +Guided my steps, not unpursued; +And Roderick shall his welcome make, +Despite old spleen, for Douglas' sake. +Then must he seek Strath-Endrick glen +Nor peril aught for me again.' + + +XXVII. + +Sir Roderick, who to meet them came, +Reddened at sight of Malcolm Graeme, +Yet, not in action, word, or eye, +Failed aught in hospitality. +In talk and sport they whiled away +The morning of that summer day; +But at high noon a courier light +Held secret parley with the knight, +Whose moody aspect soon declared +That evil were the news he heard. +Deep thought seemed toiling in his head; +Yet was the evening banquet made +Ere he assembled round the flame +His mother, Douglas, and the Graeme, +And Ellen too; then cast around +His eyes, then fixed them on the ground, +As studying phrase that might avail +Best to convey unpleasant tale. +Long with his dagger's hilt he played, +Then raised his haughty brow, and said:-- + + +XXVIII. + +'Short be my speech; -- nor time affords, +Nor my plain temper, glozing words. +Kinsman and father,--if such name +Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim; +Mine honored mother;--Ellen,--why, +My cousin, turn away thine eye?-- +And Graeme, in whom I hope to know +Full soon a noble friend or foe, +When age shall give thee thy command, +And leading in thy native land,-- +List all!--The King's vindictive pride +Boasts to have tamed the Border-side, +Where chiefs, with hound and trawl; who came +To share their monarch's sylvan game, +Themselves in bloody toils were snared, +And when the banquet they prepared, +And wide their loyal portals flung, +O'er their own gateway struggling hung. +Loud cries their blood from Meggat's mead, +From Yarrow braes and banks of Tweed, +Where the lone streams of Ettrick glide, +And from the silver Teviot's side; +The dales, where martial clans did ride, +Are now one sheep-walk, waste and wide. +This tyrant of the Scottish throne, +So faithless and so ruthless known, +Now hither comes; his end the same, +The same pretext of sylvan game. +What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge ye +By fate of Border chivalry. +Yet more; amid Glenfinlas' green, +Douglas, thy stately form was seen. +This by espial sure I know: +Your counsel in the streight I show.' + + +XXIX. + +Ellen and Margaret fearfully +Sought comfort in each other's eye, +Then turned their ghastly look, each one, +This to her sire, that to her son. +The hasty color went and came +In the bold cheek of Malcohm Graeme, +But from his glance it well appeared +'T was but for Ellen that he feared; +While, sorrowful, but undismayed, +The Douglas thus his counsel said: +'Brave Roderick, though the tempest roar, +It may but thunder and pass o'er; +Nor will I here remain an hour, +To draw the lightning on thy bower; +For well thou know'st, at this gray head +The royal bolt were fiercest sped. +For thee, who, at thy King's command, +Canst aid him with a gallant band, +Submission, homage, humbled pride, +Shall turn the Monarch's wrath aside. +Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart, +Ellen and I will seek apart +The refuge of some forest cell, +There, like the hunted quarry, dwell, +Till on the mountain and the moor +The stern pursuit be passed and o'er,'-- + + +XXX. + +'No, by mine honor,' Roderick said, +'So help me Heaven, and my good blade! +No, never! Blasted be yon Pine, +My father's ancient crest and mine, +If from its shade in danger part +The lineage of the Bleeding Heart! +Hear my blunt speech: grant me this maid +To wife, thy counsel to mine aid; +To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu, +Will friends and allies flock enow; +Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief, +Will bind to us each Western Chief +When the loud pipes my bridal tell, +The Links of Forth shall hear the knell, +The guards shall start in Stirling's porch; +And when I light the nuptial torch, +A thousand villages in flames +Shall scare the slumbers of King James!-- +Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away, +And, mother, cease these signs, I pray; +I meant not all my heat might say.-- +Small need of inroad or of fight, +When the sage Douglas may unite +Each mountain clan in friendly band, +To guard the passes of their land, +Till the foiled King from pathless glen +Shall bootless turn him home again.' + + +XXXI. + +There are who have, at midnight hour, +In slumber scaled a dizzy tower, +And, on the verge that beetled o'er +The ocean tide's incessant roar, +Dreamed calmly out their dangerous dream, +Till wakened by the morning beam; +When, dazzled by the eastern glow, +Such startler cast his glance below, +And saw unmeasured depth around, +And heard unintermitted sound, +And thought the battled fence so frail, +It waved like cobweb in the gale; +Amid his senses' giddy wheel, +Did he not desperate impulse feel, +Headlong to plunge himself below, +And meet the worst his fears foreshow?-- +Thus Ellen, dizzy and astound, +As sudden ruin yawned around, +By crossing terrors wildly tossed, +Still for the Douglas fearing most, +Could scarce the desperate thought withstand, +To buy his safety with her hand. + + +XXXII. + +Such purpose dread could Malcolm spy +In Ellen's quivering lip and eye, +And eager rose to speak,--but ere +His tongue could hurry forth his fear, +Had Douglas marked the hectic strife, +Where death seemed combating with life; +For to her cheek, in feverish flood, +One instant rushed the throbbing blood, +Then ebbing back, with sudden sway, +Left its domain as wan as clay. +'Roderick, enough! enough!' he cried, +'My daughter cannot be thy bride; +Not that the blush to wooer dear, +Nor paleness that of maiden fear. +It may not be,--forgive her, +Chief, Nor hazard aught for our relief. +Against his sovereign, Douglas ne'er +Will level a rebellious spear. +'T was I that taught his youthful hand +To rein a steed and wield a brand; +I see him yet, the princely boy! +Not Ellen more my pride and joy; +I love him still, despite my wrongs +By hasty wrath and slanderous tongues. +O. seek the grace you well may find, +Without a cause to mine combined!' + + +XXXIII. + +Twice through the hall the Chieftain strode; +The waving of his tartars broad, +And darkened brow, where wounded pride +With ire and disappointment vied +Seemed, by the torch's gloomy light, +Like the ill Demon of the night, +Stooping his pinions' shadowy sway +Upon the righted pilgrim's way: +But, unrequited Love! thy dart +Plunged deepest its envenomed smart, +And Roderick, with thine anguish stung, +At length the hand of Douglas wrung, +While eyes that mocked at tears before +With bitter drops were running o'er. +The death-pangs of long-cherished hope +Scarce in that ample breast had scope +But, struggling with his spirit proud, +Convulsive heaved its checkered shroud, +While every sob--so mute were all +Was heard distinctly through the ball. +The son's despair, the mother's look, +III might the gentle Ellen brook; +She rose, and to her side there came, +To aid her parting steps, the Graeme. + + +XXXIV. + +Then Roderick from the Douglas broke-- +As flashes flame through sable smoke, +Kindling its wreaths, long, dark, and low, +To one broad blaze of ruddy glow, +So the deep anguish of despair +Burst, in fierce jealousy, to air. +With stalwart grasp his hand he laid +On Malcolm's breast and belted plaid: +'Back, beardless boy!' he sternly said, +'Back, minion! holdst thou thus at naught +The lesson I so lately taught? +This roof, the Douglas. and that maid, +Thank thou for punishment delayed.' +Eager as greyhound on his game, +Fiercely with Roderick grappled Graeme. +'Perish my name, if aught afford +Its Chieftain safety save his sword!' +Thus as they strove their desperate hand +Griped to the dagger or the brand, +And death had been--but Douglas rose, +And thrust between the struggling foes +His giant strength:--' Chieftains, forego! +I hold the first who strikes my foe.-- +Madmen, forbear your frantic jar! +What! is the Douglas fallen so far, +His daughter's hand is deemed the spoil +Of such dishonorable broil?' +Sullen and slowly they unclasp, +As struck with shame, their desperate grasp, +And each upon his rival glared, +With foot advanced and blade half bared. + + +XXXV. + +Ere yet the brands aloft were flung, +Margaret on Roderick's mantle hung, +And Malcolm heard his Ellen's scream, +As faltered through terrific dream. +Then Roderick plunged in sheath his sword, +And veiled his wrath in scornful word:' +Rest safe till morning; pity 't were +Such cheek should feel the midnight air! +Then mayst thou to James Stuart tell, +Roderick will keep the lake and fell, +Nor lackey with his freeborn clan +The pageant pomp of earthly man. +More would he of Clan-Alpine know, +Thou canst our strength and passes show.-- +Malise, what ho!'--his henchman came: +'Give our safe-conduct to the Graeme.' +Young Malcolm answered, calm and bold:' +Fear nothing for thy favorite hold; +The spot an angel deigned to grace +Is blessed, though robbers haunt the place. +Thy churlish courtesy for those +Reserve, who fear to be thy foes. +As safe to me the mountain way +At midnight as in blaze of day, +Though with his boldest at his back +Even Roderick Dhu beset the track.-- +Brave Douglas,--lovely Ellen,--nay, +Naught here of parting will I say. +Earth does not hold a lonesome glen +So secret but we meet again.-- +Chieftain! we too shall find an hour,'-- +He said, and left the sylvan bower. + + +XXXVI. + +Old Allan followed to the strand -- +Such was the Douglas's command-- +And anxious told, how, on the morn, +The stern Sir Roderick deep had sworn, +The Fiery Cross should circle o'er +Dale, glen, and valley, down and moor +Much were the peril to the Graeme +From those who to the signal came; +Far up the lake 't were safest land, +Himself would row him to the strand. +He gave his counsel to the wind, +While Malcolm did, unheeding, bind, +Round dirk and pouch and broadsword rolled, +His ample plaid in tightened fold, +And stripped his limbs to such array +As best might suit the watery way,-- + + +XXXVII. + +Then spoke abrupt: 'Farewell to thee, +Pattern of old fidelity!' + The Minstrel's hand he kindly pressed,-- +'O, could I point a place of rest! +My sovereign holds in ward my land, +My uncle leads my vassal band; +To tame his foes, his friends to aid, +Poor Malcolm has but heart and blade. +Yet, if there be one faithful Graeme +Who loves the chieftain of his name, +Not long shall honored Douglas dwell +Like hunted stag in mountain cell; +Nor, ere yon pride-swollen robber dare,-- +I may not give the rest to air! +Tell Roderick Dhu I owed him naught, +Not tile poor service of a boat, +To waft me to yon mountain-side.' +Then plunged he in the flashing tide. +Bold o'er the flood his head he bore, +And stoutly steered him from the shore; +And Allan strained his anxious eye, +Far mid the lake his form to spy, +Darkening across each puny wave, +To which the moon her silver gave. +Fast as the cormorant could skim. +The swimmer plied each active limb; +Then landing in the moonlight dell, +Loud shouted of his weal to tell. +The Minstrel heard the far halloo, +And joyful from the shore withdrew. + + + + + CANTO THIRD. + + The Gathering. + + + +I. + +Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore, + Who danced our infancy upon their knee, +And told our marvelling boyhood legends store + Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea, +How are they blotted from the things that be! + How few, all weak and withered of their force, +Wait on the verge of dark eternity, + Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse, +To sweep them from out sight! Time rolls his ceaseless course. + +Yet live there still who can remember well, + How, when a mountain chief his bugle blew, +Both field and forest, dingle, cliff; and dell, + And solitary heath, the signal knew; +And fast the faithful clan around him drew. + What time the warning note was keenly wound, +What time aloft their kindred banner flew, + While clamorous war-pipes yelled the gathering sound, +And while the Fiery Cross glanced like a meteor, round. + + +II. + +The Summer dawn's reflected hue +To purple changed Loch Katrine blue; +Mildly and soft the western breeze +Just kissed the lake, just stirred the trees, +And the pleased lake, like maiden coy, +Trembled but dimpled not for joy +The mountain-shadows on her breast +Were neither broken nor at rest; +In bright uncertainty they lie, +Like future joys to Fancy's eye. +The water-lily to the light +Her chalice reared of silver bright; +The doe awoke, and to the lawn, +Begemmed with dew-drops, led her fawn; +The gray mist left the mountain-side, +The torrent showed its glistening pride; +Invisible in flecked sky The lark sent clown her revelry: +The blackbird and the speckled thrush +Good-morrow gave from brake and bush; +In answer cooed the cushat dove +Her notes of peace and rest and love. + + +III. + +No thought of peace, no thought of rest, +Assuaged the storm in Roderick's breast. +With sheathed broadsword in his hand, +Abrupt he paced the islet strand, +And eyed the rising sun, and laid +His hand on his impatient blade. +Beneath a rock, his vassals' care +Was prompt the ritual to prepare, +With deep and deathful meaning fraught; +For such Antiquity had taught +Was preface meet, ere yet abroad +The Cross of Fire should take its road. +The shrinking band stood oft aghast +At the impatient glance he cast;-- +Such glance the mountain eagle threw, +As, from the cliffs of Benvenue, +She spread her dark sails on the wind, +And, high in middle heaven reclined, +With her broad shadow on the lake, +Silenced the warblers of the brake. + + +IV. + +A heap of withered boughs was piled, +Of juniper and rowan wild, +Mingled with shivers from the oak, +Rent by the lightning's recent stroke. +Brian the Hermit by it stood, +Barefooted, in his frock and hood. +His grizzled beard and matted hair +Obscured a visage of despair; +His naked arms and legs, seamed o'er, +The scars of frantic penance bore. +That monk, of savage form and face +The impending danger of his race +Had drawn from deepest solitude +Far in Benharrow's bosom rude. +Not his the mien of Christian priest, +But Druid's, from the grave released +Whose hardened heart and eye might brook +On human sacrifice to look; +And much, 't was said, of heathen lore +Mixed in the charms he muttered o'er. +The hallowed creed gave only worse +And deadlier emphasis of curse. +No peasant sought that Hermit's prayer +His cave the pilgrim shunned with care, +The eager huntsman knew his bound +And in mid chase called off his hound;' +Or if, in lonely glen or strath, +The desert-dweller met his path +He prayed, and signed the cross between, +While terror took devotion's mien. + + +V. + +Of Brian's birth strange tales were told. +His mother watched a midnight fold, +Built deep within a dreary glen, +Where scattered lay the bones of men +In some forgotten battle slain, +And bleached by drifting wind and rain. +It might have tamed a warrior's heart +To view such mockery of his art! +The knot-grass fettered there the hand +Which once could burst an iron band; +Beneath the broad and ample bone, +That bucklered heart to fear unknown, +A feeble and a timorous guest, +The fieldfare framed her lowly nest; +There the slow blindworm left his slime +On the fleet limbs that mocked at time; +And there, too, lay the leader's skull +Still wreathed with chaplet, flushed and full, +For heath-bell with her purple bloom +Supplied the bonnet and the plume. +All night, in this sad glen the maid +Sat shrouded in her mantle's shade: +She said no shepherd sought her side, +No hunter's hand her snood untied. +Yet ne'er again to braid her hair +The virgin snood did Alive wear; +Gone was her maiden glee and sport, +Her maiden girdle all too short, +Nor sought she, from that fatal night, +Or holy church or blessed rite +But locked her secret in her breast, +And died in travail, unconfessed. + + +VI. + +Alone, among his young compeers, +Was Brian from his infant years; +A moody and heart-broken boy, +Estranged from sympathy and joy +Bearing each taunt which careless tongue +On his mysterious lineage flung. +Whole nights he spent by moonlight pale +To wood and stream his teal, to wail, +Till, frantic, he as truth received +What of his birth the crowd believed, +And sought, in mist and meteor fire, +To meet and know his Phantom Sire! +In vain, to soothe his wayward fate, +The cloister oped her pitying gate; +In vain the learning of the age +Unclasped the sable-lettered page; +Even in its treasures he could find +Food for the fever of his mind. +Eager he read whatever tells +Of magic, cabala, and spells, +And every dark pursuit allied +To curious and presumptuous pride; +Till with fired brain and nerves o'erstrung, +And heart with mystic horrors wrung, +Desperate he sought Benharrow's den, +And hid him from the haunts of men. + + +VII. + +The desert gave him visions wild, +Such as might suit the spectre's child. +Where with black cliffs the torrents toil, +He watched the wheeling eddies boil, +Jill from their foam his dazzled eyes +Beheld the River Demon rise: +The mountain mist took form and limb +Of noontide hag or goblin grim; +The midnight wind came wild and dread, +Swelled with the voices of the dead; +Far on the future battle-heath +His eye beheld the ranks of death: +Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled, +Shaped forth a disembodied world. +One lingering sympathy of mind +Still bound him to the mortal kind; +The only parent he could claim +Of ancient Alpine's lineage came. +Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, +The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream; +Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast +Of charging steeds, careering fast +Along Benharrow's shingly side, +Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride; +The thunderbolt had split the pine,-- +All augured ill to Alpine's line. +He girt his loins, and came to show +The signals of impending woe, +And now stood prompt to bless or ban, +As bade the Chieftain of his clan. + + +VIII. + +'T was all prepared;--and from the rock +A goat, the patriarch of the flock, +Before the kindling pile was laid, +And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. +Patient the sickening victim eyed +The life-blood ebb in crimson tide +Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, +Till darkness glazed his eyeballs dim. +The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, +A slender crosslet framed with care, +A cubit's length in measure due; +The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, +Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave +Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave, +And, answering Lomond's breezes deep, +Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. +The Cross thus formed he held on high, +With wasted hand and haggard eye, +And strange and mingled feelings woke, +While his anathema he spoke:-- + + +IX. + +'Woe to the clansman who shall view +This symbol of sepulchral yew, +Forgetful that its branches grew +Where weep the heavens their holiest dew + On Alpine's dwelling low! +Deserter of his Chieftain's trust, +He ne'er shall mingle with their dust, +But, from his sires and kindred thrust, +Each clansman's execration just + Shall doom him wrath and woe.' +He paused; -- the word the vassals took, +With forward step and fiery look, +On high their naked brands they shook, +Their clattering targets wildly strook; + And first in murmur low, +Then like the billow in his course, +That far to seaward finds his source, +And flings to shore his mustered force, +Burst with loud roar their answer hoarse, +'Woe to the traitor, woe!' +Ben-an's gray scalp the accents knew, +The joyous wolf from covert drew, +The exulting eagle screamed afar,-- +They knew the voice of Alpine's war. + + +X. + +The shout was hushed on lake and fell, +The Monk resumed his muttered spell: +Dismal and low its accents came, +The while he scathed the Cross with flame; +And the few words that reached the air, +Although the holiest name was there, +Had more of blasphemy than prayer. +But when he shook above the crowd +Its kindled points, he spoke aloud:-- +'Woe to the wretch who fails to rear +At this dread sign the ready spear! +For, as the flames this symbol sear, +His home, the refuge of his fear, + A kindred fate shall know; +Far o'er its roof the volumed flame +Clan-Alpine's vengeance shall proclaim, +While maids and matrons on his name +Shall call down wretchedness and shame, + And infamy and woe.' +Then rose the cry of females, shrill +As goshawk's whistle on the hill, +Denouncing misery and ill, +Mingled with childhood's babbling trill + Of curses stammered slow; +Answering with imprecation dread, +'Sunk be his home in embers red! +And cursed be the meanest shed +That o'er shall hide the houseless head + We doom to want and woe!' +A sharp and shrieking echo gave, +Coir-Uriskin, thy goblin cave! +And the gray pass where birches wave + On Beala-nam-bo. + + +XI. + +Then deeper paused the priest anew, +And hard his laboring breath he drew, +While, with set teeth and clenched hand, +And eyes that glowed like fiery brand, +He meditated curse more dread, +And deadlier, on the clansman's head +Who, summoned to his chieftain's aid, +The signal saw and disobeyed. +The crosslet's points of sparkling wood +He quenched among the bubbling blood. +And, as again the sign he reared, +Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard: +'When flits this Cross from man to man, +Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan, +Burst be the ear that fails to heed! +Palsied the foot that shuns to speed! +May ravens tear the careless eyes, +Wolves make the coward heart their prize! +As sinks that blood-stream in the earth, +So may his heart's-blood drench his hearth! +As dies in hissing gore the spark, +Quench thou his light, Destruction dark! +And be the grace to him denied, +Bought by this sign to all beside! +He ceased; no echo gave again +The murmur of the deep Amen. + + +XII. + +Then Roderick with impatient look +From Brian's hand the symbol took: +'Speed, Malise, speed' he said, and gave +The crosslet to his henchman brave. +'The muster-place be Lanrick mead-- +Instant the time---speed, Malise, speed!' +Like heath-bird, when the hawks pursue, +A barge across Loch Katrine flew: +High stood the henchman on the prow; +So rapidly the barge-mall row, +The bubbles, where they launched the boat, +Were all unbroken and afloat, +Dancing in foam and ripple still, +When it had neared the mainland hill; +And from the silver beach's side +Still was the prow three fathom wide, +When lightly bounded to the land +The messenger of blood and brand. + + +XIII. + +Speed, Malise, speed! the dun deer's hide +On fleeter foot was never tied. +Speed, Malise, speed! such cause of haste +Thine active sinews never braced. +Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast, +Burst down like torrent from its crest; +With short and springing footstep pass +The trembling bog and false morass; +Across the brook like roebuck bound, +And thread the brake like questing hound; +The crag is high, the scaur is deep, +Yet shrink not from the desperate leap: +Parched are thy burning lips and brow, +Yet by the fountain pause not now; +Herald of battle, fate, and fear, +Stretch onward in thy fleet career! +The wounded hind thou track'st not now, +Pursuest not maid through greenwood bough, +Nor priest thou now thy flying pace +With rivals in the mountain race; +But danger, death, and warrior deed +Are in thy course--speed, Malise, speed! + + +XIV. + +Fast as the fatal symbol flies, +In arms the huts and hamlets rise; +From winding glen, from upland brown, +They poured each hardy tenant down. + Nor slacked the messenger his pace; +He showed the sign, he named the place, +And, pressing forward like the wind, +Left clamor and surprise behind. +The fisherman forsook the strand, +The swarthy smith took dirk and brand; +With changed cheer, the mower blithe +Left in the half-cut swath his scythe; +The herds without a keeper strayed, +The plough was in mid-furrow staved, +The falconer tossed his hawk away, +The hunter left the stag at hay; +Prompt at the signal of alarms, +Each son of Alpine rushed to arms; +So swept the tumult and affray +Along the margin of Achray. +Alas, thou lovely lake! that e'er +Thy banks should echo sounds of fear! +The rocks, the bosky thickets, sleep +So stilly on thy bosom deep, +The lark's blithe carol from the cloud +Seems for the scene too gayly loud. + + +XV. + +Speed, Malise, speed! The lake is past, +Duncraggan's huts appear at last, +And peep, like moss-grown rocks, half seen +Half hidden in the copse so green; +There mayst thou rest, thy labor done, +Their lord shall speed the signal on.-- +As stoops the hawk upon his prey, +The henchman shot him down the way. +What woful accents load the gale? +The funeral yell, the female wail! +A gallant hunter's sport is o'er, +A valiant warrior fights no more. +Who, in the battle or the chase, +At Roderick's side shall fill his place!-- +Within the hall, where torch's ray +Supplies the excluded beams of day, +Lies Duncan on his lowly bier, +And o'er him streams his widow's tear. +His stripling son stands mournful by, +His youngest weeps, but knows not why; +The village maids and matrons round +The dismal coronach resound. + + +XVI. + +Coronach. + +He is gone on the mountain, + He is lost to the forest, +Like a summer-dried fountain, + When our need was the sorest. +The font, reappearing, + From the rain-drops shall borrow, +But to us comes no cheering, + To Duncan no morrow! + +The hand of the reaper + Takes the ears that are hoary, +But the voice of the weeper + Wails manhood in glory. +The autumn winds rushing + Waft the leaves that are searest, +But our flower was in flushing, + When blighting was nearest. + +Fleet foot on the correi, + Sage counsel in cumber, +Red hand in the foray, + How sound is thy slumber! +Like the dew on the mountain, + Like the foam on the river, +Like the bubble on the fountain, + Thou art gone, and forever! + + +XVII. + +See Stumah, who, the bier beside +His master's corpse with wonder eyed, +Poor Stumah! whom his least halloo +Could send like lightning o'er the dew, +Bristles his crest, and points his ears, +As if some stranger step he hears. +'T is not a mourner's muffled tread, +Who comes to sorrow o'er the dead, +But headlong haste or deadly fear +Urge the precipitate career. +All stand aghast:--unheeding all, +The henchman bursts into the hall; +Before the dead man's bier he stood, +Held forth the Cross besmeared with blood; +'The muster-place is Lanrick mead; +Speed forth the signal! clansmen, speed!' + + +XVIII, + +Angus, the heir of Duncan's line, +Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign. +In haste the stripling to his side + His father's dirk and broadsword tied; +But when he saw his mother's eye +Watch him in speechless agony, +Back to her opened arms he flew +Pressed on her lips a fond adieu,-- +'Alas' she sobbed,--'and yet be gone, +And speed thee forth, like Duncan's son!' +One look he cast upon the bier, +Dashed from his eye the gathering tear, +Breathed deep to clear his laboring breast, +And tossed aloft his bonnet crest, +Then, like the high-bred colt when, freed, +First he essays his fire and speed, +He vanished, and o'er moor and moss +Sped forward with the Fiery Cross. +Suspended was the widow's tear +While yet his footsteps she could hear; +And when she marked the henchman's eye +Wet with unwonted sympathy, +'Kinsman,' she said, 'his race is run +That should have sped thine errand on. +The oak teas fallen?--the sapling bough Is all +Duncraggan's shelter now +Yet trust I well, his duty done, +The orphan's God will guard my son.-- +And you, in many a danger true +At Duncan's hest your blades that drew, +To arms, and guard that orphan's head! +Let babes and women wail the dead.' +Then weapon-clang and martial call +Resounded through the funeral hall, +While from the walls the attendant band +Snatched sword and targe with hurried hand; +And short and flitting energy +Glanced from the mourner's sunken eye, +As if the sounds to warrior dear +Might rouse her Duncan from his bier. +But faded soon that borrowed force; +Grief claimed his right, and tears their course. + + +XIX. + +Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, +It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire. +O'er dale and hill the summons flew, +Nor rest nor pause young Angus knew; +The tear that gathered in his eye +He deft the mountain-breeze to dry; +Until, where Teith's young waters roll +Betwixt him and a wooded knoll +That graced the sable strath with green, +The chapel of Saint Bride was seen. +Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge, +But Angus paused not on the edge; +Though the clerk waves danced dizzily, +Though reeled his sympathetic eye, +He dashed amid the torrent's roar: +His right hand high the crosslet bore, +His left the pole-axe grasped, to guide +And stay his footing in the tide. +He stumbled twice,--the foam splashed high, +With hoarser swell the stream raced by; +And had he fallen,--forever there, +Farewell Duncraggan's orphan heir! +But still, as if in parting life, +Firmer he grasped the Cross of strife, +Until the opposing bank he gained, +And up the chapel pathway strained. +A blithesome rout that morning-tide +Had sought the chapel of Saint Bride. +Her troth Tombea's Mary gave +To Norman, heir of Armandave, +And, issuing from the Gothic arch, +The bridal now resumed their march. +In rude but glad procession came +Bonneted sire and coif-clad dame; +And plaided youth, with jest and jeer +Which snooded maiden would not hear: +And children, that, unwitting why, +Lent the gay shout their shrilly cry; +And minstrels, that in measures vied +Before the young and bonny bride, +Whose downcast eye and cheek disclose +The tear and blush of morning rose. +With virgin step and bashful hand +She held the kerchief's snowy band. +The gallant bridegroom by her side +Beheld his prize with victor's pride. +And the glad mother in her ear +Was closely whispering word of cheer. + + +XXI. + +Who meets them at the churchyard gate? +The messenger of fear and fate! +Haste in his hurried accent lies, +And grief is swimming in his eyes. +All dripping from the recent flood, +Panting and travel-soiled he stood, +The fatal sign of fire and sword +Held forth, and spoke the appointed word: +'The muster-place is Lanrick mead; +Speed forth the signal! Norman, speed!' +And must he change so soon the hand +Just linked to his by holy band, +For the fell Cross of blood and brand? +And must the day so blithe that rose, +And promised rapture in the close, +Before its setting hour, divide +The bridegroom from the plighted bride? +O fatal doom'--it must! it must! +Clan-Alpine's cause, her Chieftain's trust, +Her summons dread, brook no delay; +Stretch to the race,--away! away! + + +XXII. + +Yet slow he laid his plaid aside, +And lingering eyed his lovely bride, +Until he saw the starting tear +Speak woe he might not stop to cheer: +Then, trusting not a second look, +In haste he sped hind up the brook, +Nor backward glanced till on the heath +Where Lubnaig's lake supplies the Teith,-- +What in the racer's bosom stirred? +The sickening pang of hope deferred, +And memory with a torturing train +Of all his morning visions vain. +Mingled with love's impatience, came +The manly thirst for martial fame; +The stormy joy of mountaineers +Ere yet they rush upon the spears; +And zeal for Clan and Chieftain burning, +And hope, from well-fought field returning, +With war's red honors on his crest, +To clasp his Mary to his breast. +Stung by such thoughts, o'er bank and brae, +Like fire from flint he glanced away, +While high resolve and feeling strong +Burst into voluntary song. + + +XXIII. + +Song. + +The heath this night must be my bed, +The bracken curtain for my head, +My lullaby the warder's tread, + Far, far, from love and thee, Mary; +To-morrow eve, more stilly laid, +My couch may be my bloody plaid, +My vesper song thy wail, sweet maid! + It will not waken me, Mary! + +I may not, dare not, fancy now +The grief that clouds thy lovely brow, +I dare not think upon thy vow, + And all it promised me, Mary. +No fond regret must Norman know; +When bursts Clan-Alpine on the foe, +His heart must be like bended bow, + His foot like arrow free, Mary. + +A time will come with feeling fraught, +For, if I fall in battle fought, +Thy hapless lover's dying thought + Shall be a thought on thee, Mary. +And if returned from conquered foes, +How blithely will the evening close, +How sweet the linnet sing repose, + To my young bride and me, Mary! + + +XXIV. + +Not faster o'er thy heathery braes +Balquidder, speeds the midnight blaze, +Rushing in conflagration strong +Thy deep ravines and dells along, +Wrapping thy cliffs in purple glow, +And reddening the dark lakes below; +Nor faster speeds it, nor so far, +As o'er thy heaths the voice of war. +The signal roused to martial coil +The sullen margin of Loch Voil, +Waked still Loch Doine, and to the source +Alarmed, Balvaig, thy swampy course; +Thence southward turned its rapid road +Adown Strath-Gartney's valley broad +Till rose in arms each man might claim +A portion in Clan-Alpine's name, +From the gray sire, whose trembling hand +Could hardly buckle on his brand, +To the raw boy, whose shaft and bow +Were yet scarce terror to the crow. +Each valley, each sequestered glen, +Mustered its little horde of men +That met as torrents from the height +In Highland dales their streams unite +Still gathering, as they pour along, +A voice more loud, a tide more strong, +Till at the rendezvous they stood +By hundreds prompt for blows and blood, +Each trained to arms since life began, +Owning no tie but to his clan, +No oath but by his chieftain's hand, +No law but Roderick Dhu's command. + + +XXV. + +That summer morn had Roderick Dhu +Surveyed the skirts of Benvenue, +And sent his scouts o'er hill and heath, +To view the frontiers of Menteith. +All backward came with news of truce; +Still lay each martial Graeme and Bruce, +In Rednock courts no horsemen wait, +No banner waved on Cardross gate, +On Duchray's towers no beacon shone, +Nor scared the herons from Loch Con; +All seemed at peace.--Now wot ye wily +The Chieftain with such anxious eye, +Ere to the muster he repair, +This western frontier scanned with care?-- +In Benvenue's most darksome cleft, +A fair though cruel pledge was left; +For Douglas, to his promise true, +That morning from the isle withdrew, +And in a deep sequestered dell +Had sought a low and lonely cell. +By many a bard in Celtic tongue +Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sung +A softer name the Saxons gave, +And called the grot the Goblin Cave. + + +XXVI. + +It was a wild and strange retreat, +As e'er was trod by outlaw's feet. +The dell, upon the mountain's crest, +Yawned like a gash on warrior's breast; +Its trench had stayed full many a rock, +Hurled by primeval earthquake shock +From Benvenue's gray summit wild, +And here, in random ruin piled, +They frowned incumbent o'er the spot +And formed the rugged sylvan "rot. +The oak and birch with mingled shade +At noontide there a twilight made, +Unless when short and sudden shone +Some straggling beam on cliff or stone, +With such a glimpse as prophet's eye +Gains on thy depth, Futurity. +No murmur waked the solemn still, +Save tinkling of a fountain rill; +But when the wind chafed with the lake, +A sullen sound would upward break, +With dashing hollow voice, that spoke +The incessant war of wave and rock. +Suspended cliffs with hideous sway +Seemed nodding o'er the cavern gray. +From such a den the wolf had sprung, +In such the wild-cat leaves her young; +Yet Douglas and his daughter fair +Sought for a space their safety there. +Gray Superstition's whisper dread +Debarred the spot to vulgar tread; +For there, she said, did fays resort, +And satyrs hold their sylvan court, +By moonlight tread their mystic maze, +And blast the rash beholder's gaze. + + +XXVII. + +Now eve, with western shadows long, +Floated on Katrine bright and strong, +When Roderick with a chosen few +Repassed the heights of Benvenue. +Above the Goblin Cave they go, +Through the wild pass of Beal-nam-bo; +The prompt retainers speed before, +To launch the shallop from the shore, +For 'cross Loch Katrine lies his way +To view the passes of Achray, +And place his clansmen in array. +Yet lags the Chief in musing mind, +Unwonted sight, his men behind. +A single page, to bear his sword, +Alone attended on his lord; +The rest their way through thickets break, +And soon await him by the lake. +It was a fair and gallant sight +To view them from the neighboring height, +By the low-levelled sunbeam's light! +For strength and stature, from the clan +Each warrior was a chosen man, +As even afar might well be seen, +By their proud step and martial mien. +heir feathers dance, their tartars float, +Their targets gleam, as by the boat +A wild and warlike group they stand, +That well became such mountain-strand. + + +XXVI + +Their Chief with step reluctant still +Was lingering on the craggy hill, +Hard by where turned apart the road +To Douglas's obscure abode. +It was but with that dawning morn +That Roderick Dhu had proudly sworn +To drown his love in war's wild roar, +Nor think of Ellen Douglas more; +But he who stems a stream with sand, +And fetters flame with flaxen band, +Has yet a harder task to prove,-- +By firm resolve to conquer love! +Eve finds the Chief, like restless ghost, +Still hovering near his treasure lost; +For though his haughty heart deny +A parting meeting to his eye +Still fondly strains his anxious ear +The accents of her voice to hear, +And inly did he curse the breeze +That waked to sound the rustling trees. +But hark! what mingles in the strain? +It is the harp of Allan-bane, +That wakes its measure slow and high, +Attuned to sacred minstrelsy. +What melting voice attends the strings? +'Tis Ellen, or an angel, sings. + + +XXIX. + +Hymn to the Virgin. + +Ave. Maria! maiden mild! + Listen to a maiden's prayer! +Thou canst hear though from the wild, + Thou canst save amid despair. +Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, + Though banished, outcast, and reviled-- +Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer; + Mother, hear a suppliant child! + Ave Maria! + +Ave Maria! undefiled! + The flinty couch we now must share +Shall seem with down of eider piled, + If thy protection hover there. +The murky cavern's heavy air + Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled; +Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer, + Mother, list a suppliant child! + Ave Maria! + +Ave. Maria! stainless styled! + Foul demons of the earth and air, +From this their wonted haunt exiled, + Shall flee before thy presence fair. +We bow us to our lot of care, + Beneath thy guidance reconciled: +Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer, + And for a father hear a child! + Ave Maria! + + +XXX. + +Died on the harp the closing hymn,-- +Unmoved in attitude and limb, +As listening still, Clan-Alpine's lord +Stood leaning on his heavy sword, +Until the page with humble sign +Twice pointed to the sun's decline. +Then while his plaid he round him cast, +'It is the last time--'tis the last,' +He muttered thrice,--'the last time e'er +That angel-voice shall Roderick hear'' +It was a goading thought,--his stride +Hied hastier down the mountain-side; +Sullen he flung him in the boat +An instant 'cross the lake it shot. +They landed in that silvery bay, +And eastward held their hasty way +Till, with the latest beams of light, +The band arrived on Lanrick height' +Where mustered in the vale below +Clan-Alpine's men in martial show. + + +XXXI. + +A various scene the clansmen made: +Some sat, some stood, some slowly strayer): +But most, with mantles folded round, +Were couched to rest upon the ground, +Scarce to be known by curious eye +From the deep heather where they lie, +So well was matched the tartan screen +With heath-bell dark and brackens green; +Unless where, here and there, a blade +Or lance's point a glimmer made, +Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade. +But when, advancing through the gloom, +They saw the Chieftain's eagle plume, +Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide, +Shook the steep mountain's steady side. +Thrice it arose, and lake and fell +Three times returned the martial yell; +It died upon Bochastle's plain, +And Silence claimed her evening reign. + + + + + CANTO FOURTH. + + The Prophecy. + + + +I. + +The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, + And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears; +The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew + And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. +O wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears, + I bid your blossoms in my bonnet wave, +Emblem of hope and love through future years!' + Thus spoke young Norman, heir of Armandave, +What time the sun arose on Vennachar's broad wave. + + +II. + +Such fond conceit, half said, half sung, +Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue. +All while he stripped the wild-rose spray, +His axe and bow beside him lay, +For on a pass 'twixt lake and wood +A wakeful sentinel he stood. +Hark!--on the rock a footstep rung, +And instant to his arms he sprung. +'Stand, or thou diest!--What, Malise?--soon +Art thou returned from Braes of Doune. +By thy keen step and glance I know, +Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe.'-- +For while the Fiery Cross tried on, +On distant scout had Malise gone.-- +'Where sleeps the Chief?' the henchman said. +'Apart, in yonder misty glade; +To his lone couch I'll be your guide.'-- +Then called a slumberer by his side, +And stirred him with his slackened bow,-- +'Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho! +We seek the Chieftain; on the track +Keep eagle watch till I come back.' + + +III. + +Together up the pass they sped: +'What of the foeman?' Norman said.-- +'Varying reports from near and far; +This certain,--that a band of war +Has for two days been ready boune, +At prompt command to march from Doune; +King James the while, with princely powers, +Holds revelry in Stirling towers. +Soon will this dark and gathering cloud +Speak on our glens in thunder loud. +Inured to bide such bitter bout, +The warrior's plaid may bear it out; +But, Norman, how wilt thou provide +A shelter for thy bonny bride?''-- +'What! know ye not that Roderick's care +To the lone isle hath caused repair +Each maid and matron of the clan, +And every child and aged man +Unfit for arms; and given his charge, +Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge, +Upon these lakes shall float at large, +But all beside the islet moor, +That such dear pledge may rest secure?'-- + + +IV. + +' 'T is well advised,--the Chieftain's plan +Bespeaks the father of his clan. +But wherefore sleeps Sir Roderick Dhu +Apart from all his followers true?' +'It is because last evening-tide +Brian an augury hath tried, +Of that dread kind which must not be +Unless in dread extremity, +The Taghairm called; by which, afar, +Our sires foresaw the events of war. +Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew,'-- + +Malise. + +'Ah! well the gallant brute I knew! +The choicest of the prey we had +When swept our merrymen Gallangad. +His hide was snow, his horns were dark, +His red eye glowed like fiery spark; +So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet, +Sore did he cumber our retreat, +And kept our stoutest kerns in awe, +Even at the pass of Beal 'maha. +But steep and flinty was the road, +And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad, +And when we came to Dennan's Row +A child might scathless stroke his brow.' + + +V. + +Norman. + +'That bull was slain; his reeking hide +They stretched the cataract beside, +Whose waters their wild tumult toss +Adown the black and craggy boss +Of that huge cliff whose ample verge +Tradition calls the Hero's Targe. +Couched on a shelf beneath its brink, +Close where the thundering torrents sink, +Rocking beneath their headlong sway, +And drizzled by the ceaseless spray, +Midst groan of rock and roar of stream, +The wizard waits prophetic dream. +Nor distant rests the Chief;--but hush! +See, gliding slow through mist and bush, +The hermit gains yon rock, and stands +To gaze upon our slumbering bands. +Seems he not, Malise, dike a ghost, +That hovers o'er a slaughtered host? +Or raven on the blasted oak, +That, watching while the deer is broke, +His morsel claims with sullen croak?' + +Malise. + +'Peace! peace! to other than to me +Thy words were evil augury; +But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade +Clan-Alpine's omen and her aid, +Not aught that, gleaned from heaven or hell, +Yon fiend-begotten Monk can tell. +The Chieftain joins him, see--and now +Together they descend the brow.' + + +VI. + +And, as they came, with Alpine's Lord +The Hermit Monk held solemn word:--. +'Roderick! it is a fearful strife, +For man endowed with mortal life +Whose shroud of sentient clay can still +Feel feverish pang and fainting chill, +Whose eye can stare in stony trance +Whose hair can rouse like warrior's lance, +'Tis hard for such to view, unfurled, +The curtain of the future world. +Yet, witness every quaking limb, +My sunken pulse, mine eyeballs dim, +My soul with harrowing anguish torn, +This for my Chieftain have I borne!-- +The shapes that sought my fearful couch +A human tongue may ne'er avouch; +No mortal man--save he, who, bred +Between the living and the dead, +Is gifted beyond nature's law +Had e'er survived to say he saw. +At length the fateful answer came +In characters of living flame! +Not spoke in word, nor blazed in scroll, +But borne and branded on my soul:-- +WHICH SPILLS THE FOREMOST FOEMAN'S LIFE, +THAT PARTY CONQUERS IN THE STRIFE.' + + +VII. + +'Thanks, Brian, for thy zeal and care! +Good is thine augury, and fair. +Clan-Alpine ne'er in battle stood +But first our broadswords tasted blood. +A surer victim still I know, +Self-offered to the auspicious blow: +A spy has sought my land this morn,-- +No eve shall witness his return! +My followers guard each pass's mouth, +To east, to westward, and to south; +Red Murdoch, bribed to be his guide, +Has charge to lead his steps aside, +Till in deep path or dingle brown +He light on those shall bring him clown. +But see, who comes his news to show! +Malise! what tidings of the foe?' + + +VIII. + +'At Doune, o'er many a spear and glaive +Two Barons proud their banners wave. +I saw the Moray's silver star, +And marked the sable pale of Mar.' +'By Alpine's soul, high tidings those! +I love to hear of worthy foes. +When move they on?' 'To-morrow's noon +Will see them here for battle boune.' +'Then shall it see a meeting stern! +But, for the place,--say, couldst thou learn +Nought of the friendly clans of Earn? +Strengthened by them, we well might bide +The battle on Benledi's side. +Thou couldst not?--well! Clan-Alpine's men +Shall man the Trosachs' shaggy glen; +Within Loch Katrine's gorge we'll fight, +All in our maids' and matrons' sight, +Each for his hearth and household fire, +Father for child, and son for sire Lover +for maid beloved!--But why +Is it the breeze affects mine eye? +Or dost thou come, ill-omened tear! +A messenger of doubt or fear? +No! sooner may the Saxon lance +Unfix Benledi from his stance, +Than doubt or terror can pierce through +The unyielding heart of Roderick Dhu! +'tis stubborn as his trusty targe. +Each to his post!--all know their charge.' +The pibroch sounds, the bands advance, +The broadswords gleam, the banners dance' +Obedient to the Chieftain's glance.-- +I turn me from the martial roar +And seek Coir-Uriskin once more. + + +IX. + +Where is the Douglas?--he is gone; +And Ellen sits on the gray stone +Fast by the cave, and makes her moan, +While vainly Allan's words of cheer +Are poured on her unheeding ear. +'He will return--dear lady, trust!-- +With joy return;--he will--he must. +Well was it time to seek afar +Some refuge from impending war, +When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm +Are cowed by the approaching storm. +I saw their boats with many a light, +Floating the livelong yesternight, +Shifting like flashes darted forth +By the red streamers of the north; +I marked at morn how close they ride, +Thick moored by the lone islet's side, +Like wild ducks couching in the fen +When stoops the hawk upon the glen. +Since this rude race dare not abide +The peril on the mainland side, +Shall not thy noble father's care +Some safe retreat for thee prepare?' + + +X. + +Ellen. + +'No, Allan, no ' Pretext so kind +My wakeful terrors could not blind. +When in such tender tone, yet grave, +Douglas a parting blessing gave, +The tear that glistened in his eye +Drowned not his purpose fixed and high. +My soul, though feminine and weak, +Can image his; e'en as the lake, +Itself disturbed by slightest stroke. +Reflects the invulnerable rock. +He hears report of battle rife, +He deems himself the cause of strife. +I saw him redden when the theme +Turned, Allan, on thine idle dream +Of Malcolm Graeme in fetters bound, +Which I, thou saidst, about him wound. +Think'st thou he bowed thine omen aught? +O no' 't was apprehensive thought +For the kind youth,-- for Roderick too-- +Let me be just--that friend so true; +In danger both, and in our cause! +Minstrel, the Douglas dare not pause. +Why else that solemn warning given, +'If not on earth, we meet in heaven!' +Why else, to Cambus-kenneth's fane, +If eve return him not again, +Am I to hie and make me known? +Alas! he goes to Scotland's throne, +Buys his friends' safety with his own; +He goes to do--what I had done, +Had Douglas' daughter been his son!' + + +XI. + +'Nay, lovely Ellen!--dearest, nay! +If aught should his return delay, +He only named yon holy fane +As fitting place to meet again. +Be sure he's safe; and for the Graeme,-- +Heaven's blessing on his gallant name!-- +My visioned sight may yet prove true, +Nor bode of ill to him or you. +When did my gifted dream beguile? +Think of the stranger at the isle, +And think upon the harpings slow +That presaged this approaching woe! +Sooth was my prophecy of fear; +Believe it when it augurs cheer. +Would we had left this dismal spot! +Ill luck still haunts a fairy spot! +Of such a wondrous tale I know-- +Dear lady, change that look of woe, +My harp was wont thy grief to cheer.' + +Ellen. + +'Well, be it as thou wilt; +I hear, But cannot stop the bursting tear.' +The Minstrel tried his simple art, +Rut distant far was Ellen's heart. + + +XII. + +Ballad. + +Alice Brand. + +Merry it is in the good greenwood, + When the mavis and merle are singing, +When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry, + And the hunter's horn is ringing. + +'O Alice Brand, my native land + Is lost for love of you; +And we must hold by wood and word, + As outlaws wont to do. + +'O Alice, 't was all for thy locks so bright, + And 't was all for thine eyes so blue, +That on the night of our luckless flight + Thy brother bold I slew. + +'Now must I teach to hew the beech + The hand that held the glaive, +For leaves to spread our lowly bed, + And stakes to fence our cave. + +'And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, + That wont on harp to stray, +A cloak must shear from the slaughtered deer, + To keep the cold away.' + +'O Richard! if my brother died, + 'T was but a fatal chance; +For darkling was the battle tried, + And fortune sped the lance. + +'If pall and vair no more I wear, + Nor thou the crimson sheen +As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray, + As gay the forest-green. + +'And, Richard, if our lot be hard, + And lost thy native land, +Still Alice has her own Richard, + And he his Alice Brand.' + + +XIII. + +Ballad Continued. + +'tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood; + So blithe Lady Alice is singing; +On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side, + Lord Richard's axe is ringing. + +Up spoke the moody Elfin King, + Who woned within the hill,-- +Like wind in the porch of a ruined church, + His voice was ghostly shrill. + +'Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, + Our moonlight circle's screen? +Or who comes here to chase the deer, + Beloved of our Elfin Queen? +Or who may dare on wold to wear + The fairies' fatal green? + +'Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, + For thou wert christened man; +For cross or sign thou wilt not fly, + For muttered word or ban. + +'Lay on him the curse of the withered heart, + The curse of the sleepless eye; +Till he wish and pray that his life would part, + Nor yet find leave to die.' + + +XIV. + +Ballad Continued. + +'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, + Though the birds have stilled their singing; +The evening blaze cloth Alice raise, + And Richard is fagots bringing. + +Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf, + Before Lord Richard stands, +And, as he crossed and blessed himself, + 'I fear not sign,' quoth the grisly elf, + 'That is made with bloody hands.' + +But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, + That woman void of fear,-- +'And if there 's blood upon his hand, + 'Tis but the blood of deer.' + +'Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood! + It cleaves unto his hand, +The stain of thine own kindly blood, + The blood of Ethert Brand.' + +Then forward stepped she, Alice Brand, + And made the holy sign,-- +'And if there's blood on Richard's hand, + A spotless hand is mine. + +'And I conjure thee, demon elf, + By Him whom demons fear, +To show us whence thou art thyself, + And what thine errand here?' + + +XV. + +Ballad Continued. + +"Tis merry, 'tis merry, in Fairy-land, + When fairy birds are singing, +When the court cloth ride by their monarch's side, + With bit and bridle ringing: + +'And gayly shines the Fairy-land-- + But all is glistening show, +Like the idle gleam that December's beam + Can dart on ice and snow. + +'And fading, like that varied gleam, + Is our inconstant shape, +Who now like knight and lady seem, + And now like dwarf and ape. + +'It was between the night and day, + When the Fairy King has power, +That I sunk down in a sinful fray, +And 'twixt life and death was snatched away + To the joyless Elfin bower. + +'But wist I of a woman bold, + Who thrice my brow durst sign, +I might regain my mortal mould, + As fair a form as thine.' + +She crossed him once--she crossed him twice-- + That lady was so brave; +The fouler grew his goblin hue, + The darker grew the cave. + +She crossed him thrice, that lady bold; + He rose beneath her hand +The fairest knight on Scottish mould, + Her brother, Ethert Brand! + +Merry it is in good greenwood, + When the mavis and merle are singing, +But merrier were they in Dunfermline gray, + When all the bells were ringing. + + +XVI. + +Just as the minstrel sounds were stayed, +A stranger climbed the steepy glade; +His martial step, his stately mien, +His hunting-suit of Lincoln green, +His eagle glance, remembrance claims-- +'Tis Snowdoun's Knight, 'tis James Fitz-James. +Ellen beheld as in a dream, +Then, starting, scarce suppressed a scream: +'O stranger! in such hour of fear +What evil hap has brought thee here?' +'An evil hap how can it be +That bids me look again on thee? +By promise bound, my former guide +Met me betimes this morning-tide, +And marshalled over bank and bourne +The happy path of my return.' +'The happy path!--what! said he naught +Of war, of battle to be fought, +Of guarded pass?' 'No, by my faith! +Nor saw I aught could augur scathe.' +'O haste thee, Allan, to the kern: +Yonder his tartars I discern; +Learn thou his purpose, and conjure +That he will guide the stranger sure!-- +What prompted thee, unhappy man? +The meanest serf in Roderick's clan +Had not been bribed, by love or fear, +Unknown to him to guide thee here.' + + +XVII. + +'Sweet Ellen, dear my life must be, +Since it is worthy care from thee; +et life I hold but idle breath +When love or honor's weighed with death. +Then let me profit by my chance, +And speak my purpose bold at once. +I come to bear thee from a wild +Where ne'er before such blossom smiled, +By this soft hand to lead thee far +From frantic scenes of feud and war. +Near Bochastle my horses wait; +They bear us soon to Stirling gate. +I'll place thee in a lovely bower, +I'll guard thee like a tender flower--' +'O hush, Sir Knight! 't were female art, +To say I do not read thy heart; +Too much, before, my selfish ear +Was idly soothed my praise to hear. +That fatal bait hath lured thee back, +In deathful hour, o'er dangerous track; +And how, O how, can I atone +The wreck my vanity brought on!-- +One way remains--I'll tell him all-- +Yes! struggling bosom, forth it shall! +Thou, whose light folly bears the blame, +Buy thine own pardon with thy shame! +But first--my father is a man +Outlawed and exiled, under ban; +The price of blood is on his head, +With me 't were infamy to wed. +Still wouldst thou speak?--then hear the truth! +Fitz- James, there is a noble youth-- +If yet he is!--exposed for me +And mine to dread extremity-- +Thou hast the secret of my bears; +Forgive, be generous, and depart!' + + +XVIII. + +Fitz-James knew every wily train +A lady's fickle heart to gain, +But here he knew and felt them vain. +There shot no glance from Ellen's eye, +To give her steadfast speech the lie; +In maiden confidence she stood, +Though mantled in her cheek the blood +And told her love with such a sigh +Of deep and hopeless agony, +As death had sealed her Malcolm's doom +And she sat sorrowing on his tomb. +Hope vanished from Fitz-James's eye, +But not with hope fled sympathy. +He proffered to attend her side, +As brother would a sister guide. +'O little know'st thou Roderick's heart! +Safer for both we go apart. +O haste thee, and from Allan learn +If thou mayst trust yon wily kern.' +With hand upon his forehead laid, +The conflict of his mind to shade, +A parting step or two he made; +Then, as some thought had crossed his brain +He paused, and turned, and came again. + + +XIX. + +'Hear, lady, yet a parting word!-- +It chanced in fight that my poor sword +Preserved the life of Scotland's lord. +This ring the grateful Monarch gave, +And bade, when I had boon to crave, +To bring it back, and boldly claim +The recompense that I would name. +Ellen, I am no courtly lord, +But one who lives by lance and sword, +Whose castle is his helm and shield, +His lordship the embattled field. +What from a prince can I demand, +Who neither reck of state nor land? +Ellen, thy hand--the ring is thine; +Each guard and usher knows the sign. +Seek thou the King without delay; +This signet shall secure thy way: +And claim thy suit, whate'er it be, +As ransom of his pledge to me.' +He placed the golden circlet on, +Paused--kissed her hand--and then was gone. +The aged Minstrel stood aghast, +So hastily Fitz-James shot past. +He joined his guide, and wending down +The ridges of the mountain brown, +Across the stream they took their way +That joins Loch Katrine to Achray. + + +XX + +All in the Trosachs' glen was still, +Noontide was sleeping on the hill: +Sudden his guide whooped loud and high-- +'Murdoch! was that a signal cry?'-- +He stammered forth, 'I shout to scare +Yon raven from his dainty fare.' +He looked--he knew the raven's prey, +His own brave steed: 'Ah! gallant gray! +For thee--for me, perchance--'t were well +We ne'er had seen the Trosachs' dell.-- +Murdoch, move first---but silently; +Whistle or whoop, and thou shalt die!' +Jealous and sullen on they fared, +Each silent, each upon his guard. + + +XXI. + +Now wound the path its dizzy ledge +Around a precipice's edge, +When lo! a wasted female form, +Blighted by wrath of sun and storm, +In tattered weeds and wild array, +Stood on a cliff beside the way, +And glancing round her restless eye, +Upon the wood, the rock, the sky, +Seemed naught to mark, yet all to spy. +Her brow was wreathed with gaudy broom; +With gesture wild she waved a plume +Of feathers, which the eagles fling +To crag and cliff from dusky wing; +Such spoils her desperate step had sought, +Where scarce was footing for the goat. +The tartan plaid she first descried, +And shrieked till all the rocks replied; +As loud she laughed when near they drew, +For then the Lowland garb she knew; +And then her hands she wildly wrung, +And then she wept, and then she sung-- +She sung!--the voice, in better time, +Perchance to harp or lute might chime; +And now, though strained and roughened, still +Rung wildly sweet to dale and hill. + + +XXII. + +Song. + +They bid me sleep, they bid me pray, + They say my brain is warped and wrung-- +I cannot sleep on Highland brae, + I cannot pray in Highland tongue. +But were I now where Allan glides, +Or heard my native Devan's tides, +So sweetly would I rest, and pray +That Heaven would close my wintry day! + +'Twas thus my hair they bade me braid, + They made me to the church repair; +It was my bridal morn they said, + And my true love would meet me there. +But woe betide the cruel guile +That drowned in blood the morning smile! +And woe betide the fairy dream! +I only waked to sob and scream. + + +XXIII. + +'Who is this maid? what means her lay? +She hovers o'er the hollow way, +And flutters wide her mantle gray, +As the lone heron spreads his wing, +By twilight, o'er a haunted spring.' +''Tis Blanche of Devan,' Murdoch said, +'A crazed and captive Lowland maid, +Ta'en on the morn she was a bride, +When Roderick forayed Devan-side. +The gay bridegroom resistance made, +And felt our Chief's unconquered blade. +I marvel she is now at large, +But oft she 'scapes from Maudlin's charge.-- +Hence, brain-sick fool!'--He raised his bow:-- +'Now, if thou strik'st her but one blow, +I'll pitch thee from the cliff as far +As ever peasant pitched a bar!' +'Thanks, champion, thanks' the Maniac cried, +And pressed her to Fitz-James's side. +'See the gray pennons I prepare, +To seek my true love through the air! +I will not lend that savage groom, +To break his fall, one downy plume! +No!--deep amid disjointed stones, +The wolves shall batten on his bones, +And then shall his detested plaid, +By bush and brier in mid-air stayed, +Wave forth a banner fail and free, +Meet signal for their revelry.' + + +XXIV + +'Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still!' +'O! thou look'st kindly, and I will. +Mine eye has dried and wasted been, +But still it loves the Lincoln green; +And, though mine ear is all unstrung, +Still, still it loves the Lowland tongue. + +'For O my sweet William was forester true, + He stole poor Blanche's heart away! +His coat it was all of the greenwood hue, + And so blithely he trilled the Lowland lay! + +'It was not that I meant to tell . . . +But thou art wise and guessest well.' +Then, in a low and broken tone, +And hurried note, the song went on. +Still on the Clansman fearfully +She fixed her apprehensive eye, +Then turned it on the Knight, and then +Her look glanced wildly o'er the glen. + + +XXV. + +'The toils are pitched, and the stakes are set,-- + Ever sing merrily, merrily; +The bows they bend, and the knives they whet, + Hunters live so cheerily. + +It was a stag, a stag of ten, + Bearing its branches sturdily; +He came stately down the glen,-- + Ever sing hardily, hardily. + +'It was there he met with a wounded doe, + She was bleeding deathfully; +She warned him of the toils below, + O. so faithfully, faithfully! + +'He had an eye, and he could heed,-- + Ever sing warily, warily; +He had a foot, and he could speed,-- + Hunters watch so narrowly.' + + +XXVI. + +Fitz-James's mind was passion-tossed, +When Ellen's hints and fears were lost; +But Murdoch's shout suspicion wrought, +And Blanche's song conviction brought. +Not like a stag that spies the snare, +But lion of the hunt aware, +He waved at once his blade on high, +'Disclose thy treachery, or die!' +Forth at hell speed the Clansman flew, +But in his race his bow he drew. +The shaft just grazed Fitz-James's crest, +And thrilled in Blanche's faded breast.-- +Murdoch of Alpine! prove thy speed, +For ne'er had Alpine's son such need; +With heart of fire, and foot of wind, +The fierce avenger is behind! +Fate judges of the rapid strife-- +The forfeit death--the prize is life; +Thy kindred ambush lies before, +Close couched upon the heathery moor; +Them couldst thou reach!--it may not be +Thine ambushed kin thou ne'er shalt see, +The fiery Saxon gains on thee!-- +Resistless speeds the deadly thrust, +As lightning strikes the pine to dust; +With foot and hand Fitz-James must strain +Ere he can win his blade again. +Bent o'er the fallen with falcon eye, +He grimly smiled to see him die, +Then slower wended back his way, +Where the poor maiden bleeding lay. + + +XXVII. + +She sat beneath the birchen tree, +Her elbow resting on her knee; +She had withdrawn the fatal shaft, +And gazed on it, and feebly laughed; +Her wreath of broom and feathers gray, +Daggled with blood, beside her lay. +The Knight to stanch the life-stream tried,-- +'Stranger, it is in vain!' she cried. +'This hour of death has given me more +Of reason's power than years before; +For, as these ebbing veins decay, +My frenzied visions fade away. +A helpless injured wretch I die, +And something tells me in thine eye +That thou wert mine avenger born. +Seest thou this tress?--O. still I 've worn +This little tress of yellow hair, +Through danger, frenzy, and despair! +It once was bright and clear as thine, +But blood and tears have dimmed its shine. +I will not tell thee when 't was shred, +Nor from what guiltless victim's head,-- +My brain would turn!--but it shall wave +Like plumage on thy helmet brave, +Till sun and wind shall bleach the stain, +And thou wilt bring it me again. +I waver still. --O God! more bright +Let reason beam her parting light!-- +O. by thy knighthood's honored sign, +And for thy life preserved by mine, +When thou shalt see a darksome man, +Who boasts him Chief of Alpine's Clan, +With tartars broad and shadowy plume, +And hand of blood, and brow of gloom +Be thy heart bold, thy weapon strong, +And wreak poor Blanche of Devan's wrong!-- +They watch for thee by pass and fell . . . +Avoid the path . . . O God! . . . farewell.' + + +XXVIII. + +A kindly heart had brave Fitz-James; +Fast poured his eyes at pity's claims; +And now, with mingled grief and ire, +He saw the murdered maid expire. +'God, in my need, be my relief, +As I wreak this on yonder Chief!' +A lock from Blanche's tresses fair +He blended with her bridegroom's hair; +The mingled braid in blood he dyed, +And placed it on his bonnet-side: +'By Him whose word is truth, I swear, +No other favour will I wear, +Till this sad token I imbrue +In the best blood of Roderick Dhu!-- +But hark! what means yon faint halloo? +The chase is up,--but they shall know, +The stag at bay 's a dangerous foe.' +Barred from the known but guarded way, +Through copse and cliffs Fitz-James must stray, +And oft must change his desperate track, +By stream and precipice turned back. +Heartless, fatigued, and faint, at length, +From lack of food and loss of strength +He couched him in a thicket hoar +And thought his toils and perils o'er:-- +'Of all my rash adventures past, +This frantic feat must prove the last! +Who e'er so mad but might have guessed +That all this Highland hornet's nest +Would muster up in swarms so soon +As e'er they heard of bands at Doune?-- +Like bloodhounds now they search me out,-- +Hark, to the whistle and the shout!-- +If farther through the wilds I go, +I only fall upon the foe: +I'll couch me here till evening gray, +Then darkling try my dangerous way.' + + +XXIX. + +The shades of eve come slowly down, +The woods are wrapt in deeper brown, +The owl awakens from her dell, +The fox is heard upon the fell; +Enough remains of glimmering light +To guide the wanderer's steps aright, +Yet not enough from far to show +His figure to the watchful foe. +With cautious step and ear awake, +He climbs the crag and threads the brake; +And not the summer solstice there +Tempered the midnight mountain air, +But every breeze that swept the wold +Benumbed his drenched limbs with cold. +In dread, in danger, and alone, +Famished and chilled, through ways unknown, +Tangled and steep, he journeyed on; +Till, as a rock's huge point he turned, +A watch-fire close before him burned. + + +XXX. + +Beside its embers red and clear +Basked in his plaid a mountaineer; +And up he sprung with sword in hand,-- +'Thy name and purpose! Saxon, stand!' +'A stranger.' 'What cost thou require?' +'Rest and a guide, and food and fire +My life's beset, my path is lost, +The gale has chilled my limbs with frost.' +'Art thou a friend to Roderick?' 'No.' +'Thou dar'st not call thyself a foe?' +'I dare! to him and all the band +He brings to aid his murderous hand.' +'Bold words!--but, though the beast of game +The privilege of chase may claim, +Though space and law the stag we lend +Ere hound we slip or bow we bend +Who ever recked, where, how, or when, +The prowling fox was trapped or slain? +Thus treacherous scouts,--yet sure they lie +Who say thou cam'st a secret spy!'-- +'They do, by heaven!--come Roderick Dhu +And of his clan the boldest two +And let me but till morning rest, +I write the falsehood on their crest.' +If by the blaze I mark aright +Thou bear'st the belt and spur of Knight.' +'Then by these tokens mayst thou know +Each proud oppressor's mortal foe.' +'Enough, enough; sit down and share +A soldier's couch, a soldier's fare.' + + +XXXI.. + +He gave him of his Highland cheer, +The hardened flesh of mountain deer; +Dry fuel on the fire he laid, +And bade the Saxon share his plaid. +He tended him like welcome guest, +Then thus his further speech addressed:-- +'Stranger, I am to Roderick Dhu +A clansman born, a kinsman true; +Each word against his honour spoke +Demands of me avenging stroke; +Yet more,--upon thy fate, 'tis said, +A mighty augury is laid. +It rests with me to wind my horn,-- +Thou art with numbers overborne; +It rests with me, here, brand to brand, +Worn as thou art, to bid thee stand: +But, not for clan, nor kindred's cause, +Will I depart from honour's laws; +To assail a wearied man were shame, +And stranger is a holy name; +Guidance and rest, and food and fire, +In vain he never must require. +Then rest thee here till dawn of day; +Myself will guide thee on the way, +O'er stock and stone, through watch and ward, +Till past Clan- Alpine's outmost guard, +As far as Coilantogle's ford; +From thence thy warrant is thy sword.' +'I take thy courtesy, by heaven, +As freely as 'tis nobly given!' +Well, rest thee; for the bittern's cry +Sings us the lake's wild lullaby.' +With that he shook the gathered heath, +And spread his plaid upon the wreath; +And the brave foemen, side by side, +Lay peaceful down like brothers tried, +And slept until the dawning beam +Purpled the mountain and the stream. + + + + + CANTO FIFTH. + + The Combat. + + + +I. + +Fair as the earliest beam of eastern light, + When first, by the bewildered pilgrim spied, +It smiles upon the dreary brow of night + And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide +And lights the fearful path on mountain-side,-- + Fair as that beam, although the fairest far, +Giving to horror grace, to danger pride, + Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star +Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the brow of War. + + +II. + +That early beam, so fair and sheen, +Was twinkling through the hazel screen +When, rousing at its glimmer red, +The warriors left their lowly bed, +Looked out upon the dappled sky, +Muttered their soldier matins try, +And then awaked their fire, to steal, +As short and rude, their soldier meal. +That o'er, the Gael around him threw +His graceful plaid of varied hue, +And, true to promise, led the way, +By thicket green and mountain gray. +A wildering path!--they winded now +Along the precipice's brow, +Commanding the rich scenes beneath, +The windings of the Forth and Teith, +And all the vales between that lie. +Till Stirling's turrets melt in sky; +Then, sunk in copse, their farthest glance +Gained not the length of horseman's lance. +'Twas oft so steep, the foot was as fain +Assistance from the hand to gain; +So tangled oft that, bursting through, +Each hawthorn shed her showers of dew,-- +That diamond dew, so pure and clear, +It rivals all but Beauty's tear! + + +III. + +At length they came where, stern and steep, +The hill sinks down upon the deep. +Here Vennachar in silver flows, +There, ridge on ridge, Benledi rose; +Ever the hollow path twined on, +Beneath steep hank and threatening stone; +A hundred men might hold the post +With hardihood against a host. +The rugged mountain's scanty cloak +Was dwarfish shrubs of birch and oak +With shingles bare, and cliffs between +And patches bright of bracken green, +And heather black, that waved so high, +It held the copse in rivalry. +But where the lake slept deep and still +Dank osiers fringed the swamp and hill; +And oft both path and hill were torn +Where wintry torrent down had borne +And heaped upon the cumbered land +Its wreck of gravel, rocks, and sand. +So toilsome was the road to trace +The guide, abating of his pace, +Led slowly through the pass's jaws +And asked Fitz-James by what strange cause +He sought these wilds, traversed by few +Without a pass from Roderick Dhu. + + +IV. + +'Brave Gael, my pass, in danger tried +Hangs in my belt and by my side +Yet, sooth to tell,' the Saxon said, +'I dreamt not now to claim its aid. +When here, but three days since, +I came Bewildered in pursuit of game, +All seemed as peaceful and as still +As the mist slumbering on yon hill; +Thy dangerous Chief was then afar, +Nor soon expected back from war. +Thus said, at least, my mountain-guide, +Though deep perchance the villain lied.' +'Yet why a second venture try?' +'A warrior thou, and ask me why!-- +Moves our free course by such fixed cause +As gives the poor mechanic laws? +Enough, I sought to drive away +The lazy hours of peaceful day; +Slight cause will then suffice to guide +A Knight's free footsteps far and wide,-- +A falcon flown, a greyhound strayed, +The merry glance of mountain maid; +Or, if a path be dangerous known, +The danger's self is lure alone.' + + +V. + +'Thy secret keep, I urge thee not;-- +Yet, ere again ye sought this spot, +Say, heard ye naught of Lowland war, +Against Clan-Alpine, raised by Mar?' +'No, by my word;--of bands prepared +To guard King James's sports I heard; +Nor doubt I aught, but, when they hear +This muster of the mountaineer, +Their pennons will abroad be flung, +Which else in Doune had peaceful hung.' +'Free be they flung! for we were loath +Their silken folds should feast the moth. +Free be they flung!--as free shall wave +Clan-Alpine's pine in banner brave. +But, stranger, peaceful since you came, +Bewildered in the mountain-game, +Whence the bold boast by which you show +Vich-Alpine's vowed and mortal foe?' +'Warrior, but yester-morn I knew +Naught of thy Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, +Save as an outlawed desperate man, +The chief of a rebellious clan, +Who, in the Regent's court and sight, +With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight; +Yet this alone might from his part +Sever each true and loyal heart.' + + +VI. + +Wrathful at such arraignment foul, +Dark lowered the clansman's sable scowl. +A space he paused, then sternly said, +'And heardst thou why he drew his blade? +Heardst thou that shameful word and blow +Brought Roderick's vengeance on his foe? +What recked the Chieftain if he stood +On Highland heath or Holy-Rood? +He rights such wrong where it is given, +If it were in the court of heaven.' +'Still was it outrage;--yet, 'tis true, +Not then claimed sovereignty his due; +While Albany with feeble hand +Held borrowed truncheon of command, +The young King, mewed in Stirling tower, +Was stranger to respect and power. +But then, thy Chieftain's robber life!-- +Winning mean prey by causeless strife, +Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain +His herds and harvest reared in vain,-- +Methinks a soul like thine should scorn +The spoils from such foul foray borne.' + + +VII. + +The Gael beheld him grim the while, +And answered with disdainful smile: +'Saxon, from yonder mountain high, +I marked thee send delighted eye +Far to the south and east, where lay, +Extended in succession gay, +Deep waving fields and pastures green, +With gentle slopes and groves between:-- +These fertile plains, that softened vale, +Were once the birthright of the Gael; +The stranger came with iron hand, +And from our fathers reft the land. +Where dwell we now? See, rudely swell +Crag over crag, and fell o'er fell. +Ask we this savage hill we tread +For fattened steer or household bread, +Ask we for flocks these shingles dry, +And well the mountain might reply,-- +"To you, as to your sires of yore, +Belong the target and claymore! +I give you shelter in my breast, +Your own good blades must win the rest." +Pent in this fortress of the North, +Think'st thou we will not sally forth, +To spoil the spoiler as we may, +And from the robber rend the prey? +Ay, by my soul!--While on yon plain +The Saxon rears one shock of grain, +While of ten thousand herds there strays +But one along yon river's maze,-- +The Gael, of plain and river heir, +Shall with strong hand redeem his share. +Where live the mountain Chiefs who hold +That plundering Lowland field and fold +Is aught but retribution true? +Seek other cause 'gainst Roderick Dhu.' + + +VIII. + +Answered Fitz-James: 'And, if I sought, +Think'st thou no other could be brought? +What deem ye of my path waylaid? +My life given o'er to ambuscade?' +'As of a meed to rashness due: +Hadst thou sent warning fair and true,-- +I seek my hound or falcon strayed, +I seek, good faith, a Highland maid,-- +Free hadst thou been to come and go; +But secret path marks secret foe. +Nor yet for this, even as a spy, +Hadst thou, unheard, been doomed to die, +Save to fulfil an augury.' +'Well, let it pass; nor will I now +Fresh cause of enmity avow +To chafe thy mood and cloud thy brow. +Enough, I am by promise tied +To match me with this man of pride: +Twice have I sought Clan-Alpine's glen +In peace; but when I come again, +I come with banner, brand, and bow, +As leader seeks his mortal foe. +For love-lore swain in lady's bower +Ne'er panted for the appointed hour +As I, until before me stand +This rebel Chieftain and his band!' + + +IX. + +'Have then thy wish!'--He whistled shrill +And he was answered from the hill; +Wild as the scream of the curlew, +From crag to crag the signal flew. +Instant, through copse and heath, arose +Bonnets and spears and bended bows +On right, on left, above, below, +Sprung up at once the lurking foe; +From shingles gray their lances start, +The bracken bush sends forth the dart, +The rushes and the willow-wand +Are bristling into axe and brand, +And every tuft of broom gives life +'To plaided warrior armed for strife. +That whistle garrisoned the glen +At once with full five hundred men, +As if the yawning hill to heaven +A subterranean host had given. +Watching their leader's beck and will, +All silent there they stood and still. +Like the loose crags whose threatening mass +Lay tottering o'er the hollow pass, +As if an infant's touch could urge +Their headlong passage down the verge, +With step and weapon forward flung, +Upon the mountain-side they hung. +The Mountaineer cast glance of pride +Along Benledi's living side, +Then fixed his eye and sable brow +Full on Fitz-James: 'How say'st thou now? +These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true; +And, Saxon,--I am Roderick Dhu!' + + +X. + +Fitz-James was brave:--though to his heart +The life-blood thrilled with sudden start, +He manned himself with dauntless air, +Returned the Chief his haughty stare, +His back against a rock he bore, +And firmly placed his foot before:-- +'Come one, come all! this rock shall fly +From its firm base as soon as I.' +Sir Roderick marked,--and in his eyes +Respect was mingled with surprise, +And the stern joy which warriors feel +In foeman worthy of their steel. +Short space he stood--then waved his hand: +Down sunk the disappearing band; +Each warrior vanished where he stood, +In broom or bracken, heath or wood; +Sunk brand and spear and bended bow, +In osiers pale and copses low; +It seemed as if their mother Earth +Had swallowed up her warlike birth. +The wind's last breath had tossed in air +Pennon and plaid and plumage fair,-- +The next but swept a lone hill-side +Where heath and fern were waving wide: +The sun's last glance was glinted back +From spear and glaive, from targe and jack,-- +The next, all unreflected, shone +On bracken green and cold gray stone. + + +XI. + +Fitz-James looked round,--yet scarce believed +The witness that his sight received; +Such apparition well might seem +Delusion of a dreadful dream. +Sir Roderick in suspense he eyed, +And to his look the Chief replied: +'Fear naught--nay, that I need not say +But--doubt not aught from mine array. +Thou art my guest;--I pledged my word +As far as Coilantogle ford: +Nor would I call a clansman's brand +For aid against one valiant hand, +Though on our strife lay every vale +Rent by the Saxon from the Gael. +So move we on;--I only meant +To show the reed on which you leant, +Deeming this path you might pursue +Without a pass from Roderick Dhu.' +They moved;--I said Fitz-James was brave +As ever knight that belted glaive, +Yet dare not say that now his blood +Kept on its wont and tempered flood, +As, following Roderick's stride, he drew +That seeming lonesome pathway through, +Which yet by fearful proof was rife +With lances, that, to take his life, +Waited but signal from a guide, +So late dishonored and defied. +Ever, by stealth, his eye sought round +The vanished guardians of the ground, +And stir'd from copse and heather deep +Fancy saw spear and broadsword peep, +And in the plover's shrilly strain +The signal whistle heard again. +Nor breathed he free till far behind +The pass was left; for then they wind +Along a wide and level green, +Where neither tree nor tuft was seen, +Nor rush nor bush of broom was near, +To hide a bonnet or a spear. + + +XII. + +The Chief in silence strode before, +And reached that torrent's sounding shore, +Which, daughter of three mighty lakes, +From Vennachar in silver breaks, +Sweeps through the plain, and ceaseless mines +On Bochastle the mouldering lines, +Where Rome, the Empress of the world, +Of yore her eagle wings unfurled. +And here his course the Chieftain stayed, +Threw down his target and his plaid, +And to the Lowland warrior said: +'Bold Saxon! to his promise just, +Vich-Alpine has discharged his trust. +This murderous Chief, this ruthless man, +This head of a rebellious clan, +Hath led thee safe, through watch and ward, +Far past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard. +Now, man to man, and steel to steel, +A Chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel. +See, here all vantageless I stand, +Armed like thyself with single brand; +For this is Coilantogle ford, +And thou must keep thee with thy sword.' + + +XIII. + +The Saxon paused: 'I ne'er delayed, +When foeman bade me draw my blade; +Nay more, brave Chief, I vowed thy death; +Yet sure thy fair and generous faith, +And my deep debt for life preserved, +A better meed have well deserved: +Can naught but blood our feud atone? +Are there no means?'--' No, stranger, none! +And hear,--to fire thy flagging zeal,-- +The Saxon cause rests on thy steel; +For thus spoke Fate by prophet bred +Between the living and the dead:" +Who spills the foremost foeman's life, +His party conquers in the strife."' +'Then, by my word,' the Saxon said, +"The riddle is already read. +Seek yonder brake beneath the cliff,-- +There lies Red Murdoch, stark and stiff. +Thus Fate hath solved her prophecy; +Then yield to Fate, and not to me. +To James at Stirling let us go, +When, if thou wilt be still his foe, +Or if the King shall not agree +To grant thee grace and favor free, +I plight mine honor, oath, and word +That, to thy native strengths restored, +With each advantage shalt thou stand +That aids thee now to guard thy land.' + + +XIV. + +Dark lightning flashed from Roderick's eye: +'Soars thy presumption, then, so high, +Because a wretched kern ye slew, +Homage to name to Roderick Dhu? +He yields not, he, to man nor Fate! +Thou add'st but fuel to my hate;-- +My clansman's blood demands revenge. +Not yet prepared?--By heaven, I change +My thought, and hold thy valor light +As that of some vain carpet knight, +Who ill deserved my courteous care, +And whose best boast is but to wear +A braid of his fair lady's hair.' 'I thank thee, +Roderick, for the word! +It nerves my heart, it steels my sword; +For I have sworn this braid to stain +In the best blood that warms thy vein. +Now, truce, farewell! and, rush, begone!-- +Yet think not that by thee alone, +Proud Chief! can courtesy be shown; +Though not from copse, or heath, or cairn, +Start at my whistle clansmen stern, +Of this small horn one feeble blast +Would fearful odds against thee cast. +But fear not -- doubt not--which thou wilt-- +We try this quarrel hilt to hilt.' +Then each at once his falchion drew, +Each on the ground his scabbard threw +Each looked to sun and stream and plain +As what they ne'er might see again; +Then foot and point and eye opposed, +In dubious strife they darkly closed. + + +XV. + +Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu, +That on the field his targe he threw, +Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide +Had death so often dashed aside; +For, trained abroad his arms to wield +Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield. +He practised every pass and ward, +To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard; +While less expert, though stronger far, +The Gael maintained unequal war. +Three times in closing strife they stood +And thrice the Saxon blade drank blood; +No stinted draught, no scanty tide, +The gushing flood the tartars dyed. +Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain, +And showered his blows like wintry rain; +And, as firm rock or castle-roof +Against the winter shower is proof, +The foe, invulnerable still, +Foiled his wild rage by steady skill; +Till, at advantage ta'en, his brand +Forced Roderick's weapon from his hand, +And backward borne upon the lea, +Brought the proud Chieftain to his knee. + + +XVI. + +Now yield thee, or by Him who made +The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade!; +'Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy! +Let recreant yield, who fears to die.' +Like adder darting from his coil, +Like wolf that dashes through the toil, +Like mountain-cat who guards her young, +Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung; +Received, but recked not of a wound, +And locked his arms his foeman round. +Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own! +No maiden's hand is round thee thrown! +That desperate grasp thy frame might feel +Through bars of brass and triple steel! +They tug, they strain! down, down they go, +The Gael above, Fitz-James below. +The Chieftain's gripe his throat compressed, +His knee was planted on his breast; +His clotted locks he backward threw, +Across his brow his hand he drew, +From blood and mist to clear his sight, +Then gleamed aloft his dagger bright! +But hate and fury ill supplied +The stream of life's exhausted tide, +And all too late the advantage came, +To turn the odds of deadly game; +For, while the dagger gleamed on high, +Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye. +Down came the blow! but in the heath +The erring blade found bloodless sheath. +The struggling foe may now unclasp +The fainting Chief's relaxing grasp; +Unwounded from the dreadful close, +But breathless all, Fitz-James arose. + + +XVII. + +He faltered thanks to Heaven for life, +Redeemed, unhoped, from desperate strife; +Next on his foe his look he cast, +Whose every gasp appeared his last +In Roderick's gore he dipped the braid,-- +'Poor Blanche! thy wrongs are dearly paid; +Yet with thy foe must die, or live, +The praise that faith and valor give.' +With that he blew a bugle note, +Undid the collar from his throat, +Unbonneted, and by the wave +Sat down his brow and hands to rave. +Then faint afar are heard the feet +Of rushing steeds in gallop fleet; +The sounds increase, and now are seen +Four mounted squires in Lincoln green; +Two who bear lance, and two who lead +By loosened rein a saddled steed; +Each onward held his headlong course, +And by Fitz-James reined up his horse,-- +With wonder viewed the bloody spot,-- +'Exclaim not, gallants ' question not.-- +You, Herbert and Luffness, alight +And bind the wounds of yonder knight; +Let the gray palfrey bear his weight, +We destined for a fairer freight, +And bring him on to Stirling straight; +I will before at better speed, +To seek fresh horse and fitting weed. +The sun rides high;--I must be boune +To see the archer-game at noon; +But lightly Bayard clears the lea.-- +De Vaux and Herries. follow me. + + +XVIII. + +'Stand, Bayard, stand!'--the steed obeyed, +With arching neck and bended head, +And glancing eye and quivering ear, +As if he loved his lord to hear. +No foot Fitz-James in stirrup stayed, +No grasp upon the saddle laid, +But wreathed his left hand in the mane, +And lightly bounded from the plain, +Turned on the horse his armed heel, +And stirred his courage with the steel. +Bounded the fiery steed in air, +The rider sat erect and fair, +Then like a bolt from steel crossbow +Forth launched, along the plain they go. +They dashed that rapid torrent through, +And up Carhonie's hill they flew; +Still at the gallop pricked the Knight, +His merrymen followed as they might. +Along thy banks, swift Teith! they ride, +And in the race they mock thy tide; +Torry and Lendrick now are past, +And Deanstown lies behind them cast; +They rise, the bannered towers of Doune, +They sink in distant woodland soon; +Blair-Drummond sees the hoofs strike fire, +They sweep like breeze through Ochtertyre; +They mark just glance and disappear +The lofty brow of ancient Kier; +They bathe their coursers' sweltering sides +Dark Forth! amid thy sluggish tides, +And on the opposing shore take ground +With plash, with scramble, and with bound. +Right-hand they leave thy cliffs, Craig-Forth! +And soon the bulwark of the North, +Gray Stirling, with her towers and town, +Upon their fleet career looked clown. + + +XIX. + +As up the flinty path they strained, +Sudden his steed the leader reined; +A signal to his squire he flung, +Who instant to his stirrup sprung:-- +'Seest thou, De Vaux, yon woodsman gray, +Who townward holds the rocky way, +Of stature tall and poor array? +Mark'st thou the firm, yet active stride, +With which he scales the mountain-side? +Know'st thou from whence he comes, or whom?' +'No, by my word;--a burly groom +He seems, who in the field or chase +A baron's train would nobly grace--' +'Out, out, De Vaux! can fear supply, +And jealousy, no sharper eye? +Afar, ere to the hill he drew, +That stately form and step I knew; +Like form in Scotland is not seen, +Treads not such step on Scottish green. +'Tis James of Douglas, by Saint Serle! +The uncle of the banished Earl. +Away, away, to court, to show +The near approach of dreaded foe: +The King must stand upon his guard; +Douglas and he must meet prepared.' +Then right-hand wheeled their steeds, and straight +They won the Castle's postern gate. + + +XX. + +The Douglas, who had bent his way +From Cambus-kenneth's abbey gray, +Now, as he climbed the rocky shelf, +Held sad communion with himself:-- +'Yes! all is true my fears could frame; +A prisoner lies the noble Graeme, +And fiery Roderick soon will feel +The vengeance of the royal steel. +I, only I, can ward their fate,-- +God grant the ransom come not late! +The Abbess hath her promise given, +My child shall be the bride of Heaven;-- +Be pardoned one repining tear! +For He who gave her knows how dear, +How excellent!--but that is by, +And now my business is--to die.-- +Ye towers! within whose circuit dread +A Douglas by his sovereign bled; +And thou, O sad and fatal mound! +That oft hast heard the death-axe sound. +As on the noblest of the land +Fell the stern headsmen's bloody hand,-- +The dungeon, block, and nameless tomb +Prepare--for Douglas seeks his doom! +But hark! what blithe and jolly peal +Makes the Franciscan steeple reel? +And see! upon the crowded street, +In motley groups what masquers meet! +Banner and pageant, pipe and drum, +And merry morrice-dancers come. +I guess, by all this quaint array, +The burghers hold their sports to-day. +James will be there; he loves such show, +Where the good yeoman bends his bow, +And the tough wrestler foils his foe, +As well as where, in proud career, +The high-born filter shivers spear. +I'll follow to the Castle-park, +And play my prize;--King James shall mark +If age has tamed these sinews stark, +Whose force so oft in happier days +His boyish wonder loved to praise.' + + +XXI. + +The Castle gates were open flung, +The quivering drawbridge rocked and rung, +And echoed loud the flinty street +Beneath the coursers' clattering feet, +As slowly down the steep descent +Fair Scotland's King and nobles went, +While all along the crowded way +Was jubilee and loud huzza. +And ever James was bending low +To his white jennet's saddle-bow, +Doffing his cap to city dame, +Who smiled and blushed for pride and shame. +And well the simperer might be vain,-- +He chose the fairest of the train. +Gravely he greets each city sire, +Commends each pageant's quaint attire, +Gives to the dancers thanks aloud, +And smiles and nods upon the crowd, +Who rend the heavens with their acclaims,-- +'Long live the Commons' King, King James!' +Behind the King thronged peer and knight, +And noble dame and damsel bright, +Whose fiery steeds ill brooked the stay +Of the steep street and crowded way. +But in the train you might discern +Dark lowering brow and visage stern; +There nobles mourned their pride restrained, +And the mean burgher's joys disdained; +And chiefs, who, hostage for the* clan, +Were each from home a banished man, +There thought upon their own gray tower, +Their waving woods, their feudal power, +And deemed themselves a shameful part +Of pageant which they cursed in heart. + + +XXII. + +Now, in the Castle-park, drew out +Their checkered bands the joyous rout. +There morricers, with bell at heel +And blade in hand, their mazes wheel; +But chief, beside the butts, there stand +Bold Robin Hood and all his band,-- +Friar Tuck with quarterstaff and cowl, +Old Scathelocke with his surly scowl, +Maid Marian, fair as ivory bone, +Scarlet, and Mutch, and Little John; +Their bugles challenge all that will, +In archery to prove their skill. +The Douglas bent a bow of might,-- +His first shaft centred in the white, +And when in turn he shot again, +His second split the first in twain. +From the King's hand must Douglas take +A silver dart, the archers' stake; +Fondly he watched, with watery eye, +Some answering glance of sympathy,-- +No kind emotion made reply! +Indifferent as to archer wight, +The monarch gave the arrow bright. + + +XXIII. + +Now, clear the ring! for, hand to hand, +The manly wrestlers take their stand. +Two o'er the rest superior rose, +And proud demanded mightier foes,-- +Nor called in vain, for Douglas came.-- +For life is Hugh of Larbert lame; +Scarce better John of Alloa's fare, +Whom senseless home his comrades bare. +Prize of the wrestling match, the King +To Douglas gave a golden ring, +While coldly glanced his eye of blue, +As frozen drop of wintry dew. +Douglas would speak, but in his breast +His struggling soul his words suppressed; +Indignant then he turned him where +Their arms the brawny yeomen bare, +To hurl the massive bar in air. +When each his utmost strength had shown, +The Douglas rent an earth-fast stone +From its deep bed, then heaved it high, +And sent the fragment through the sky +A rood beyond the farthest mark; +And still in Stirling's royal park, +The gray-haired sires, who know the past, +To strangers point the Douglas cast, +And moralize on the decay +Of Scottish strength in modern day. + + +XXIV. + +The vale with loud applauses rang, +The Ladies' Rock sent back the clang. +The King, with look unmoved, bestowed +A purse well filled with pieces broad. +Indignant smiled the Douglas proud, +And threw the gold among the crowd, +Who now with anxious wonder scan, +And sharper glance, the dark gray man; +Till whispers rose among the throng, +That heart so free, and hand so strong, +Must to the Douglas blood belong. +The old men marked and shook the head, +To see his hair with silver spread, +And winked aside, and told each son +Of feats upon the English done, +Ere Douglas of the stalwart hand +Was exiled from his native land. +The women praised his stately form, +Though wrecked by many a winter's storm; +The youth with awe and wonder saw +His strength surpassing Nature's law. +Thus judged, as is their wont, the crowd +Till murmurs rose to clamours loud. +But not a glance from that proud ring +Of peers who circled round the King +With Douglas held communion kind, +Or called the banished man to mind; +No, not from those who at the chase +Once held his side the honoured place, +Begirt his board, and in the field +Found safety underneath his shield; +For he whom royal eyes disown, +When was his form to courtiers known! + + +XXV. + +The Monarch saw the gambols flag +And bade let loose a gallant stag, +Whose pride, the holiday to crown, +Two favorite greyhounds should pull down, +That venison free and Bourdeaux wine +Might serve the archery to dine. +But Lufra,--whom from Douglas' side +Nor bribe nor threat could e'er divide, +The fleetest hound in all the North,-- +Brave Lufra saw, and darted forth. +She left the royal hounds midway, +And dashing on the antlered prey, +Sunk her sharp muzzle in his flank, +And deep the flowing life-blood drank. +The King's stout huntsman saw the sport +By strange intruder broken short, +Came up, and with his leash unbound +In anger struck the noble hound. +The Douglas had endured, that morn, +The King's cold look, the nobles' scorn, +And last, and worst to spirit proud, +Had borne the pity of the crowd; +But Lufra had been fondly bred, +To share his board, to watch his bed, +And oft would Ellen Lufra's neck +In maiden glee with garlands deck; +They were such playmates that with name +Of Lufra Ellen's image came. +His stifled wrath is brimming high, +In darkened brow and flashing eye; +As waves before the bark divide, +The crowd gave way before his stride; +Needs but a buffet and no more, +The groom lies senseless in his gore. +Such blow no other hand could deal, +Though gauntleted in glove of steel. + + +XXVI. + +Then clamored loud the royal train, +And brandished swords and staves amain, +But stern the Baron's warning: +'Back! Back, on your lives, ye menial pack! +Beware the Douglas.--Yes! behold, +King James! The Douglas, doomed of old, +And vainly sought for near and far, +A victim to atone the war, +A willing victim, now attends, +Nor craves thy grace but for his friends.--' +'Thus is my clemency repaid? +Presumptuous Lord!' the Monarch said: +'Of thy misproud ambitious clan, +Thou, James of Bothwell, wert the man, +The only man, in whom a foe +My woman-mercy would not know; +But shall a Monarch's presence brook +Injurious blow and haughty look?-- +What ho! the Captain of our Guard! +Give the offender fitting ward.-- +Break off the sports!'--for tumult rose, +And yeomen 'gan to bend their bows, +'Break off the sports!' he said and frowned, +'And bid our horsemen clear the ground.' + + +XXVII. + +Then uproar wild and misarray +Marred the fair form of festal day. +The horsemen pricked among the crowd, +Repelled by threats and insult loud; +To earth are borne the old and weak, +The timorous fly, the women shriek; +With flint, with shaft, with staff, with bar, +The hardier urge tumultuous war. +At once round Douglas darkly sweep +The royal spears in circle deep, +And slowly scale the pathway steep, +While on the rear in thunder pour +The rabble with disordered roar +With grief the noble Douglas saw +The Commons rise against the law, +And to the leading soldier said: +'Sir John of Hyndford, 'twas my blade +That knighthood on thy shoulder laid; +For that good deed permit me then +A word with these misguided men.-- + + +XXVIII, + +'Hear, gentle friends, ere yet for me +Ye break the bands of fealty. +My life, my honour, and my cause, +I tender free to Scotland's laws. +Are these so weak as must require +'Fine aid of your misguided ire? +Or if I suffer causeless wrong, +Is then my selfish rage so strong, +My sense of public weal so low, +That, for mean vengeance on a foe, +Those cords of love I should unbind +Which knit my country and my kind? +O no! Believe, in yonder tower +It will not soothe my captive hour, +To know those spears our foes should dread +For me in kindred gore are red: +'To know, in fruitless brawl begun, +For me that mother wails her son, +For me that widow's mate expires, +For me that orphans weep their sires, +That patriots mourn insulted laws, +And curse the Douglas for the cause. +O let your patience ward such ill, +And keep your right to love me still I' + + +XXIX. + +The crowd's wild fury sunk again +In tears, as tempests melt in rain. +With lifted hands and eyes, they prayed +For blessings on his generous head +Who for his country felt alone, +And prized her blood beyond his own. +Old men upon the verge of life +Blessed him who stayed the civil strife; +And mothers held their babes on high, +The self-devoted Chief to spy, +Triumphant over wrongs and ire, +To whom the prattlers owed a sire. +Even the rough soldier's heart was moved; +As if behind some bier beloved, +With trailing arms and drooping head, +The Douglas up the hill he led, +And at the Castle's battled verge, +With sighs resigned his honoured charge. + + +XXX. + +The offended Monarch rode apart, +With bitter thought and swelling heart, +And would not now vouchsafe again +Through Stirling streets to lead his train. +'O Lennox, who would wish to rule +This changeling crowd, this common fool? +Hear'st thou,' he said, 'the loud acclaim +With which they shout the Douglas name? +With like acclaim the vulgar throat +Strained for King James their morning note; +With like acclaim they hailed the day +When first I broke the Douglas sway; +And like acclaim would Douglas greet +If he could hurl me from my seat. +Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, +Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain? +Vain as the leaf upon the stream, +And fickle as a changeful dream; +Fantastic as a woman's mood, +And fierce as Frenzy's fevered blood. +Thou many-headed monster-thing, +O who would wish to be thy king?-- + + +XXXI.. + +'But soft! what messenger of speed +Spurs hitherward his panting steed? +I guess his cognizance afar-- +What from our cousin, John of Mar?' +'He prays, my liege, your sports keep bound +Within the safe and guarded ground; +For some foul purpose yet unknown,-- +Most sure for evil to the throne,-- +The outlawed Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, +Has summoned his rebellious crew; +'Tis said, in James of Bothwell's aid +These loose banditti stand arrayed. +The Earl of Mar this morn from Doune +To break their muster marched, and soon +Your Grace will hear of battle fought; +But earnestly the Earl besought, +Till for such danger he provide, +With scanty train you will not ride.' + + +XXXII. + +'Thou warn'st me I have done amiss,-- +I should have earlier looked to this; +I lost it in this bustling day.-- +Retrace with speed thy former way; +Spare not for spoiling of thy steed, +The best of mine shall be thy meed. +Say to our faithful Lord of Mar, +We do forbid the intended war; +Roderick this morn in single fight +Was made our prisoner by a knight, +And Douglas hath himself and cause +Submitted to our kingdom's laws. +The tidings of their leaders lost +Will soon dissolve the mountain host, +Nor would we that the vulgar feel, +For their Chief's crimes, avenging steel. +Bear Mar our message, Braco, fly!' +He turned his steed,--'My liege, I hie, +Yet ere I cross this lily lawn +I fear the broadswords will be drawn.' +The turf the flying courser spurned, +And to his towers the King returned. + + +XXXIII. + +Ill with King James's mood that day +Suited gay feast and minstrel lay; +Soon were dismissed the courtly throng, +And soon cut short the festal song. +Nor less upon the saddened town +The evening sunk in sorrow down. +The burghers spoke of civil jar, +Of rumoured feuds and mountain war, +Of Moray, Mar, and Roderick Dhu, +All up in arms;--the Douglas too, +They mourned him pent within the hold, +'Where stout Earl William was of old.'-- +And there his word the speaker stayed, +And finger on his lip he laid, +Or pointed to his dagger blade. +But jaded horsemen from the west +At evening to the Castle pressed, +And busy talkers said they bore +Tidings of fight on Katrine's shore; +At noon the deadly fray begun, +And lasted till the set of sun. +Thus giddy rumor shook the town, +Till closed the Night her pennons brown. + + + + + + CANTO SIXTH. + + The Guard-room. + + + +I. + +The sun, awakening, through the smoky air + Of the dark city casts a sullen glance, +Rousing each caitiff to his task of care, + Of sinful man the sad inheritance; +Summoning revellers from the lagging dance, + Scaring the prowling robber to his den; +Gilding on battled tower the warder's lance, + And warning student pale to leave his pen, +And yield his drowsy eyes to the kind nurse of men. + +What various scenes, and O, what scenes of woe, + Are witnessed by that red and struggling beam! +The fevered patient, from his pallet low, + Through crowded hospital beholds it stream; +The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam, + The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail, +'The love-lore wretch starts from tormenting dream: + The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, +Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail. + + +II. + +At dawn the towers of Stirling rang +With soldier-step and weapon-clang, +While drums with rolling note foretell +Relief to weary sentinel. +Through narrow loop and casement barred, +The sunbeams sought the Court of Guard, +And, struggling with the smoky air, +Deadened the torches' yellow glare. +In comfortless alliance shone +The lights through arch of blackened stone, +And showed wild shapes in garb of war, +Faces deformed with beard and scar, +All haggard from the midnight watch, +And fevered with the stern debauch; +For the oak table's massive board, +Flooded with wine, with fragments stored, +And beakers drained, and cups o'erthrown, +Showed in what sport the night had flown. +Some, weary, snored on floor and bench; +Some labored still their thirst to quench; +Some, chilled with watching, spread their hands +O'er the huge chimney's dying brands, +While round them, or beside them flung, +At every step their harness rung. + + +III. + +These drew not for their fields the sword, +Like tenants of a feudal lord, +Nor owned the patriarchal claim +Of Chieftain in their leader's name; +Adventurers they, from far who roved, +To live by battle which they loved. +There the Italian's clouded face, +The swarthy Spaniard's there you trace; +The mountain-loving Switzer there +More freely breathed in mountain-air; +The Fleming there despised the soil +That paid so ill the labourer's toil; +Their rolls showed French and German name; +And merry England's exiles came, +To share, with ill-concealed disdain, +Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain. +All brave in arms, well trained to wield +The heavy halberd, brand, and shield; +In camps licentious, wild, and bold; +In pillage fierce and uncontrolled; +And now, by holytide and feast, +From rules of discipline released. + + +IV. + +'They held debate of bloody fray, +Fought 'twixt Loch Katrine and Achray. +Fierce was their speech, and mid their words +'Their hands oft grappled to their swords; +Nor sunk their tone to spare the ear +Of wounded comrades groaning near, +Whose mangled limbs and bodies gored +Bore token of the mountain sword, +Though, neighbouring to the Court of Guard, +Their prayers and feverish wails were heard,-- +Sad burden to the ruffian joke, +And savage oath by fury spoke!-- +At length up started John of Brent, +A yeoman from the banks of Trent; +A stranger to respect or fear, +In peace a chaser of the deer, +In host a hardy mutineer, +But still the boldest of the crew +When deed of danger was to do. +He grieved that day their games cut short, +And marred the dicer's brawling sport, +And shouted loud, 'Renew the bowl! +And, while a merry catch I troll, +Let each the buxom chorus bear, +Like brethren of the brand and spear.' + + +V. + +Soldier's Song. + +Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule +Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bowl, +That there 's wrath and despair in the jolly black-jack, +And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack; +Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor, +Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar! + +Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip +The ripe ruddy dew of a woman's dear lip, +Says that Beelzebub lurks in her kerchief so sly, +And Apollyon shoots darts from her merry black eye; +Yet whoop, Jack! kiss Gillian the quicker, +Till she bloom like a rose, and a fig for the vicar! + +Our vicar thus preaches,--and why should he not? +For the dues of his cure are the placket and pot; +And 'tis right of his office poor laymen to lurch +Who infringe the domains of our good Mother Church. +Yet whoop, bully-boys! off with your liquor, +Sweet Marjorie 's the word and a fig for the vicar! + + +VI. + +The warder's challenge, heard without, +Stayed in mid-roar the merry shout. +A soldier to the portal went,-- +'Here is old Bertram, sirs, of Ghent; +And--beat for jubilee the drum!-- +A maid and minstrel with him come.' +Bertram, a Fleming, gray and scarred, +Was entering now the Court of Guard, +A harper with him, and, in plaid +All muffled close, a mountain maid, +Who backward shrunk to 'scape the view +Of the loose scene and boisterous crew. +'What news?' they roared:--' I only know, +From noon till eve we fought with foe, +As wild and as untamable +As the rude mountains where they dwell; +On both sides store of blood is lost, +Nor much success can either boast.'-- +'But whence thy captives, friend? such spoil +As theirs must needs reward thy toil. +Old cost thou wax, and wars grow sharp; +Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp! +Get thee an ape, and trudge the land, +The leader of a juggler band.' + + +VII. + +'No, comrade;--no such fortune mine. +After the fight these sought our line, +That aged harper and the girl, +And, having audience of the Earl, +Mar bade I should purvey them steed, +And bring them hitherward with speed. +Forbear your mirth and rude alarm, +For none shall do them shame or harm.-- +'Hear ye his boast?' cried John of Brent, +Ever to strife and jangling bent; +'Shall he strike doe beside our lodge, +And yet the jealous niggard grudge +To pay the forester his fee? +I'll have my share howe'er it be, +Despite of Moray, Mar, or thee.' +Bertram his forward step withstood; +And, burning in his vengeful mood, +Old Allan, though unfit for strife, +Laid hand upon his dagger-knife; +But Ellen boldly stepped between, +And dropped at once the tartan screen:-- +So, from his morning cloud, appears +The sun of May through summer tears. +The savage soldiery, amazed, +As on descended angel gazed; +Even hardy Brent, abashed and tamed, +Stood half admiring, half ashamed. + + +VIII. + +Boldly she spoke: 'Soldiers, attend! +My father was the soldier's friend, +Cheered him in camps, in marches led, +And with him in the battle bled. +Not from the valiant or the strong +Should exile's daughter suffer wrong.' +Answered De Brent, most forward still +In every feat or good or ill: +'I shame me of the part I played; +And thou an outlaw's child, poor maid! +An outlaw I by forest laws, +And merry Needwood knows the cause. +Poor Rose,--if Rose be living now,'-- +He wiped his iron eye and brow,-- +'Must bear such age, I think, as thou.-- +Hear ye, my mates! I go to call +The Captain of our watch to hall: +There lies my halberd on the floor; +And he that steps my halberd o'er, +To do the maid injurious part, +My shaft shall quiver in his heart! +Beware loose speech, or jesting rough; +Ye all know John de Brent. Enough.' + + +IX. + +Their Captain came, a gallant young,-- +Of Tullibardine's house he sprung,-- +Nor wore he yet the spurs of knight; +Gay was his mien, his humor light +And, though by courtesy controlled, +Forward his speech, his bearing bold. +The high-born maiden ill could brook +The scanning of his curious look +And dauntless eye:--and yet, in sooth +Young Lewis was a generous youth; +But Ellen's lovely face and mien +Ill suited to the garb and scene, +Might lightly bear construction strange, +And give loose fancy scope to range. +'Welcome to Stirling towers, fair maid! +Come ye to seek a champion's aid, +On palfrey white, with harper hoar, +Like errant damosel of yore? +Does thy high quest a knight require, +Or may the venture suit a squire?' +Her dark eye flashed;--she paused and sighed:-- +'O what have I to do with pride!-- +Through scenes of sorrow, shame, and strife, +A suppliant for a father's life, +I crave an audience of the King. +Behold, to back my suit, a ring, +The royal pledge of grateful claims, +Given by the Monarch to Fitz-James.' + + +X. + +The signet-ring young Lewis took +With deep respect and altered look, +And said: 'This ring our duties own; +And pardon, if to worth unknown, +In semblance mean obscurely veiled, +Lady, in aught my folly failed. +Soon as the day flings wide his gates, +The King shall know what suitor waits. +Please you meanwhile in fitting bower +Repose you till his waking hour. +Female attendance shall obey +Your hest, for service or array. +Permit I marshal you the way.' +But, ere she followed, with the grace +And open bounty of her race, +She bade her slender purse be shared +Among the soldiers of the guard. +The rest with thanks their guerdon took, +But Brent, with shy and awkward look, +On the reluctant maiden's hold +Forced bluntly back the proffered gold:-- +'Forgive a haughty English heart, +And O, forget its ruder part! + +The vacant purse shall be my share, +Which in my barrel-cap I'll bear, +Perchance, in jeopardy of war, +Where gayer crests may keep afar.' +With thanks--'twas all she could--the maid +His rugged courtesy repaid. + + +XI. + +When Ellen forth with Lewis went, +Allan made suit to John of Brent:-- +'My lady safe, O let your grace +Give me to see my master's face! +His minstrel I,--to share his doom +Bound from the cradle to the tomb. +Tenth in descent, since first my sires +Waked for his noble house their Iyres, +Nor one of all the race was known +But prized its weal above their own. +With the Chief's birth begins our care; +Our harp must soothe the infant heir, +Teach the youth tales of fight, and grace +His earliest feat of field or chase; +In peace, in war, our rank we keep, +We cheer his board, we soothe his sleep, +Nor leave him till we pour our verse-- +A doleful tribute!--o'er his hearse. +Then let me share his captive lot; +It is my right,--deny it not!' +'Little we reck,' said John of Brent, +'We Southern men, of long descent; +Nor wot we how a name--a word-- +Makes clansmen vassals to a lord: +Yet kind my noble landlord's part,-- +God bless the house of Beaudesert! +And, but I loved to drive the deer +More than to guide the labouring steer, +I had not dwelt an outcast here. +Come, good old Minstrel, follow me; +Thy Lord and Chieftain shalt thou see.' + + +XII. + +Then, from a rusted iron hook, +A bunch of ponderous keys he took, +Lighted a torch, and Allan led +Through grated arch and passage dread. +Portals they passed, where, deep within, +Spoke prisoner's moan and fetters' din; +Through rugged vaults, where, loosely stored, +Lay wheel, and axe, and headsmen's sword, +And many a hideous engine grim, +For wrenching joint and crushing limb, +By artists formed who deemed it shame +And sin to give their work a name. +They halted at a Iow-browed porch, +And Brent to Allan gave the torch, +While bolt and chain he backward rolled, +And made the bar unhasp its hold. +They entered:--'twas a prison-room +Of stern security and gloom, +Yet not a dungeon; for the day +Through lofty gratings found its way, +And rude and antique garniture +Decked the sad walls and oaken floor, +Such as the rugged days of old +Deemed fit for captive noble's hold. +'Here,' said De Brent, 'thou mayst remain +Till the Leech visit him again. +Strict is his charge, the,warders tell, +To tend the noble prisoner well.' +Retiring then the bolt he drew, +And the lock's murmurs growled anew. +Roused at the sound, from lowly bed +A captive feebly raised his head. +The wondering Minstrel looked, and knew-- +Not his dear lord, but Roderick Dhu! +For, come from where Clan-Alpine fought, +They, erring, deemed the Chief he sought. + + +XIII. + +As the tall ship, whose lofty prore +Shall never stem the billows more, +Deserted by her gallant band, +Amid the breakers lies astrand,-- +So on his couch lay Roderick Dhu! +And oft his fevered limbs he threw +In toss abrupt, as when her sides +Lie rocking in the advancing tides, +That shake her frame with ceaseless beat, +Yet cannot heave her from her seat;-- +O, how unlike her course at sea! +Or his free step on hill and lea!-- +Soon as the Minstrel he could scan,-- +'What of thy lady?--of my clan?-- +My mother?--Douglas?--tell me all! +Have they been ruined in my fall? +Ah, yes! or wherefore art thou here? +Yet speak,--speak boldly,--do not fear.'-- +For Allan, who his mood well knew, +Was choked with grief and terror too.-- +'Who fought?--who fled?--Old man, be brief;-- +Some might,--for they had lost their Chief. +Who basely live?--who bravely died?' +'O, calm thee, Chief!' the Minstrel cried, +'Ellen is safe!' 'For that thank Heaven!' +'And hopes are for the Douglas given;-- +The Lady Margaret, too, is well; +And, for thy clan,--on field or fell, +Has never harp of minstrel told +Of combat fought so true and bold. +Thy stately Pine is yet unbent, +Though many a goodly bough is rent.' + + +XIV. + +The Chieftain reared his form on high, +And fever's fire was in his eye; +But ghastly, pale, and livid streaks +Checkered his swarthy brow and cheeks. +'Hark, Minstrel! I have heard thee play, +With measure bold on festal day, +In yon lone isle,--again where ne'er +Shall harper play or warrior hear!-- +That stirring air that peals on high, +O'er Dermid's race our victory.-- +Strike it!--and then,--for well thou canst,-- +Free from thy minstrel-spirit glanced, +Fling me the picture of the fight, +When met my clan the Saxon might. +I'll listen, till my fancy hears +The clang of swords' the crash of spears! +These grates, these walls, shall vanish then +For the fair field of fighting men, +And my free spirit burst away, +As if it soared from battle fray.' +The trembling Bard with awe obeyed,-- +Slow on the harp his hand he laid; +But soon remembrance of the sight +He witnessed from the mountain's height, +With what old Bertram told at night, +Awakened the full power of song, +And bore him in career along;-- +As shallop launched on river's tide, +'That slow and fearful leaves the side, +But, when it feels the middle stream, +Drives downward swift as lightning's beam. + + +XV. + +Battle of Beal' An Duine. + +'The Minstrel came once more to view +The eastern ridge of Benvenue, +For ere he parted he would say +Farewell to lovely loch Achray +Where shall he find, in foreign land, +So lone a lake, so sweet a strand!-- +There is no breeze upon the fern, + No ripple on the lake, +Upon her eyry nods the erne, + The deer has sought the brake; +The small birds will not sing aloud, + The springing trout lies still, +So darkly glooms yon thunder-cloud, +That swathes, as with a purple shroud, + Benledi's distant hill. +Is it the thunder's solemn sound + That mutters deep and dread, +Or echoes from the groaning ground + The warrior's measured tread? +Is it the lightning's quivering glance + That on the thicket streams, +Or do they flash on spear and lance + The sun's retiring beams?-- +I see the dagger-crest of Mar, +I see the Moray's silver star, +Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war, +That up the lake comes winding far! + + To hero boune for battle-strife, + Or bard of martial lay, + 'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life, + One glance at their array! + + +XVI. + +'Their light-armed archers far and near + Surveyed the tangled ground, +Their centre ranks, with pike and spear, + A twilight forest frowned, +Their barded horsemen in the rear + The stern battalia crowned. +No cymbal clashed, no clarion rang, + Still were the pipe and drum; +Save heavy tread, and armor's clang, + The sullen march was dumb. +There breathed no wind their crests to shake, + Or wave their flags abroad; +Scarce the frail aspen seemed to quake + That shadowed o'er their road. +Their vaward scouts no tidings bring, + Can rouse no lurking foe, +Nor spy a trace of living thing, + Save when they stirred the roe; +The host moves like a deep-sea wave, +Where rise no rocks its pride to brave + High-swelling, dark, and slow. +The lake is passed, and now they gain +A narrow and a broken plain, +Before the Trosachs' rugged jaws; +And here the horse and spearmen pause +While, to explore the dangerous glen +Dive through the pass the archer-men. + + +XVII. + +'At once there rose so wild a yell +Within that dark and narrow dell, +As all the fiends from heaven that fell +Had pealed the banner-cry of hell! + Forth from the pass in tumult driven, + Like chaff before the wind of heaven, + The archery appear: + For life! for life! their flight they ply-- + And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry, + And plaids and bonnets waving high, + And broadswords flashing to the sky, + Are maddening in the rear. + Onward they drive in dreadful race, + Pursuers and pursued; + Before that tide of flight and chase, + How shall it keep its rooted place, + The spearmen's twilight wood?-- " + "Down, down," cried Mar, "your lances down' + Bear back both friend and foe! "-- + Like reeds before the tempest's frown, + That serried grove of lances brown + At once lay levelled low; + And closely shouldering side to side, + The bristling ranks the onset bide.-- " + "We'll quell the savage mountaineer, + As their Tinchel cows the game! + They come as fleet as forest deer, + We'll drive them back as tame." + + +XVIII. + +'Bearing before them in their course +The relics of the archer force, +Like wave with crest of sparkling foam, +Right onward did Clan-Alpine come. + Above the tide, each broadsword bright + Was brandishing like beam of light, + Each targe was dark below; + And with the ocean's mighty swing, + When heaving to the tempest's wing, + They hurled them on the foe. +I heard the lance's shivering crash, +As when the whirlwind rends the ash; +I heard the broadsword's deadly clang, +As if a hundred anvils rang! +But Moray wheeled his rearward rank +Of horsemen on Clan-Alpine's flank,-- + "My banner-man, advance! + I see," he cried, "their column shake. + Now, gallants! for your ladies' sake, + Upon them with the lance!"-- +The horsemen dashed among the rout, + As deer break through the broom; + +Their steeds are stout, their swords are out, + They soon make lightsome room. +Clan-Alpine's best are backward borne-- + Where, where was Roderick then! +One blast upon his bugle-horn + Were worth a thousand men. +And refluent through the pass of fear + The battle's tide was poured; +Vanished the Saxon's struggling spear, + Vanished the mountain-sword. +As Bracklinn's chasm, so black and steep, + Receives her roaring linn +As the dark caverns of the deep + Suck the wild whirlpool in, +So did the deep and darksome pass +Devour the battle's mingled mass; +None linger now upon the plain +Save those who ne'er shall fight again. + + +XIX. + +'Now westward rolls the battle's din, +That deep and doubling pass within.-- +Minstrel, away! the work of fate +Is bearing on; its issue wait, +Where the rude Trosachs' dread defile +Opens on Katrine's lake and isle. +Gray Benvenue I soon repassed, +Loch Katrine lay beneath me cast. + The sun is set;--the clouds are met, + The lowering scowl of heaven + An inky hue of livid blue + To the deep lake has given; +Strange gusts of wind from mountain glen +Swept o'er the lake, then sunk again. +I heeded not the eddying surge, +Mine eye but saw the Trosachs' gorge, +Mine ear but heard that sullen sound, +Which like an earthquake shook the ground, +And spoke the stern and desperate strife +That parts not but with parting life, +Seeming, to minstrel ear, to toll +The dirge of many a passing soul. + Nearer it comes--the dim-wood glen + The martial flood disgorged again, + But not in mingled tide; + The plaided warriors of the North + High on the mountain thunder forth + And overhang its side, + While by the lake below appears + The darkening cloud of Saxon spears. + At weary bay each shattered band, + Eying their foemen, sternly stand; + Their banners stream like tattered sail, + That flings its fragments to the gale, + And broken arms and disarray + Marked the fell havoc of the day. + + +XX. + +'Viewing the mountain's ridge askance, +The Saxons stood in sullen trance, +Till Moray pointed with his lance, + And cried: "Behold yon isle!-- +See! none are left to guard its strand +But women weak, that wring the hand: +'Tis there of yore the robber band + Their booty wont to pile;-- +My purse, with bonnet-pieces store, +To him will swim a bow-shot o'er, +And loose a shallop from the shore. +Lightly we'll tame the war-wolf then, +Lords of his mate, and brood, and den." +Forth from the ranks a spearman sprung, +On earth his casque and corselet rung, + He plunged him in the wave:-- +All saw the deed,--the purpose knew, +And to their clamors Benvenue + A mingled echo gave; +The Saxons shout, their mate to cheer, +The helpless females scream for fear +And yells for rage the mountaineer. +'T was then, as by the outcry riven, +Poured down at once the lowering heaven: +A whirlwind swept Loch Katrine's breast, +Her billows reared their snowy crest. +Well for the swimmer swelled they high, +To mar the Highland marksman's eye; +For round him showered, mid rain and hail, +The vengeful arrows of the Gael. +In vain.--He nears the isle--and lo! +His hand is on a shallop's bow. +Just then a flash of lightning came, +It tinged the waves and strand with flame; +I marked Duncraggan's widowed dame, +Behind an oak I saw her stand, +A naked dirk gleamed in her hand:-- +It darkened,--but amid the moan +Of waves I heard a dying groan;-- +Another flash!--the spearman floats +A weltering corse beside the boats, +And the stern matron o'er him stood, +Her hand and dagger streaming blood. + + +XXI. + +"'Revenge! revenge!" the Saxons cried, +The Gaels' exulting shout replied. +Despite the elemental rage, +Again they hurried to engage; +But, ere they closed in desperate fight, +Bloody with spurring came a knight, +Sprung from his horse, and from a crag +Waved 'twixt the hosts a milk-white flag. +Clarion and trumpet by his side +Rung forth a truce-note high and wide, +While, in the Monarch's name, afar +A herald's voice forbade the war, +For Bothwell's lord and Roderick bold +Were both, he said, in captive hold.'-- +But here the lay made sudden stand, +The harp escaped the Minstrel's hand! +Oft had he stolen a glance, to spy +How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy: +At first, the Chieftain, to the chime, +With lifted hand kept feeble time; +That motion ceased,--yet feeling strong +Varied his look as changed the song; +At length, no more his deafened ear +The minstrel melody can hear; +His face grows sharp,--his hands are clenched' +As if some pang his heart-strings wrenched; +Set are his teeth, his fading eye +Is sternly fixed on vacancy; +Thus, motionless and moanless, drew +His parting breath stout Roderick Dhu!-- +Old Allan-bane looked on aghast, +While grim and still his spirit passed; +But when he saw that life was fled, +He poured his wailing o'er the dead. + + +XXII. + +Lament. + +'And art thou cold and lowly laid, +Thy foeman's dread, thy people's aid, +Breadalbane's boast, Clan-Alpine's shade! +For thee shall none a requiem say?-- +For thee, who loved the minstrel's lay, +For thee, of Bothwell's house the stay, +The shelter of her exiled line, +E'en in this prison-house of thine, +I'll wail for Alpine's honored Pine! + +'What groans shall yonder valleys fill! +What shrieks of grief shall rend yon hill! +What tears of burning rage shall thrill, +When mourns thy tribe thy battles done, +Thy fall before the race was won, +Thy sword ungirt ere set of sun! +There breathes not clansman of thy line, +But would have given his life for thine. +O, woe for Alpine's honoured Pine! + +'Sad was thy lot on mortal stage!-- +The captive thrush may brook the cage, +The prisoned eagle dies for rage. +Brave spirit, do Dot scorn my strain! +And, when its notes awake again, +Even she, so long beloved in vain, +Shall with my harp her voice combine, +And mix her woe and tears with mine, +To wail Clan-Alpine's honoured Pine.' + + +XXIII. + +Ellen the while, with bursting heart, +Remained in lordly bower apart, +Where played, with many-coloured gleams, +Through storied pane the rising beams. +In vain on gilded roof they fall, +And lightened up a tapestried wall, +And for her use a menial train +A rich collation spread in vain. +The banquet proud, the chamber gay, +Scarce drew one curious glance astray; +Or if she looked, 't was but to say, +With better omen dawned the day +In that lone isle, where waved on high +The dun-deer's hide for canopy; +Where oft her noble father shared +The simple meal her care prepared, +While Lufra, crouching by her side, +Her station claimed with jealous pride, +And Douglas, bent on woodland game, +Spoke of the chase to Malcolm Graeme, +Whose answer, oft at random made, +The wandering of his thoughts betrayed. +Those who such simple joys have known +Are taught to prize them when they 're gone. +But sudden, see, she lifts her head; +The window seeks with cautious tread. +What distant music has the power +To win her in this woful hour? +'T was from a turret that o'erhung +Her latticed bower, the strain was sung. + + +XXIV. + +Lay of the Imprisoned Huntsman. + +'My hawk is tired of perch and hood, +My idle greyhound loathes his food, +My horse is weary of his stall, +And I am sick of captive thrall. +I wish I were as I have been, +Hunting the hart in forest green, +With bended bow and bloodhound free, +For that's the life is meet for me. + +I hate to learn the ebb of time +From yon dull steeple's drowsy chime, +Or mark it as the sunbeams crawl, +Inch after inch, along the wall. +The lark was wont my matins ring, +The sable rook my vespers sing; +These towers, although a king's they be, +Have not a hall of joy for me. + +No more at dawning morn I rise, +And sun myself in Ellen's eyes, +Drive the fleet deer the forest through, +And homeward wend with evening dew; +A blithesome welcome blithely meet, +And lay my trophies at her feet, +While fled the eve on wing of glee,-- +That life is lost to love and me!' + + +XXV. + +The heart-sick lay was hardly said, +The listener had not turned her head, +It trickled still, the starting tear, +When light a footstep struck her ear, +And Snowdoun's graceful Knight was near. +She turned the hastier, lest again +The prisoner should renew his strain. +'O welcome, brave Fitz-James!' she said; +'How may an almost orphan maid +Pay the deep debt--' 'O say not so! +To me no gratitude you owe. +Not mine, alas! the boon to give, +And bid thy noble father live; +I can but be thy guide, sweet maid, +With Scotland's King thy suit to aid. +No tyrant he, though ire and pride +May lay his better mood aside. +Come, Ellen, come! 'tis more than time, +He holds his court at morning prime.' +With heating heart, and bosom wrung, +As to a brother's arm she clung. +Gently he dried the falling tear, +And gently whispered hope and cheer; +Her faltering steps half led, half stayed, +Through gallery fair and high arcade, +Till at his touch its wings of pride +A portal arch unfolded wide. + + +XXVI. + +Within 't was brilliant all and light, +A thronging scene of figures bright; +It glowed on Ellen's dazzled sight, +As when the setting sun has given +Ten thousand hues to summer even, +And from their tissue fancy frames +Aerial knights and fairy dames. +Still by Fitz-James her footing staid; +A few faint steps she forward made, +Then slow her drooping head she raised, +And fearful round the presence gazed; +For him she sought who owned this state, +The dreaded Prince whose will was fate!-- +She gazed on many a princely port +Might well have ruled a royal court; +On many a splendid garb she gazed,-- +Then turned bewildered and amazed, +For all stood bare; and in the room +Fitz-James alone wore cap and plume. +To him each lady's look was lent, +On him each courtier's eye was bent; +Midst furs and silks and jewels sheen, +He stood, in simple Lincoln green, +The centre of the glittering ring,-- +And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's King! + + +XXVII. + +As wreath of snow on mountain-breast +Slides from the rock that gave it rest, +Poor Ellen glided from her stay, +And at the Monarch's feet she lay; +No word her choking voice commands,-- +She showed the ring,--she clasped her hands. +O, not a moment could he brook, +The generous Prince, that suppliant look! +Gently he raised her,--and, the while, +Checked with a glance the circle's smile; +Graceful, but grave, her brow he kissed, +And bade her terrors be dismissed:-- +'Yes, fair; the wandering poor +Fitz-James The fealty of Scotland claims. +To him thy woes, thy wishes, bring; +He will redeem his signet ring. +Ask naught for Douglas;--yester even, +His Prince and he have much forgiven; +Wrong hath he had from slanderous tongue, +I, from his rebel kinsmen, wrong. +We would not, to the vulgar crowd, +Yield what they craved with clamor loud; +Calmly we heard and judged his cause, +Our council aided and our laws. +I stanched thy father's death-feud stern +With stout De Vaux and gray Glencairn; +And Bothwell's Lord henceforth we own +The friend and bulwark of our throne.-- +But, lovely infidel, how now? +What clouds thy misbelieving brow? +Lord James of Douglas, lend thine aid; +Thou must confirm this doubting maid.' + + +XXVIII. + +Then forth the noble Douglas sprung, +And on his neck his daughter hung. +The Monarch drank, that happy hour, +The sweetest, holiest draught of Power,-- +When it can say with godlike voice, +Arise, sad Virtue, and rejoice! +Yet would not James the general eye +On nature's raptures long should pry; +He stepped between--' Nay, Douglas, nay, +Steal not my proselyte away! +The riddle 'tis my right to read, +That brought this happy chance to speed. +Yes, Ellen, when disguised I stray +In life's more low but happier way, +'Tis under name which veils my power +Nor falsely veils,--for Stirling's tower +Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims, +And Normans call me James Fitz-James. +Thus watch I o'er insulted laws, +Thus learn to right the injured cause.' +Then, in a tone apart and low,-- +'Ah, little traitress! none must know +What idle dream, what lighter thought +What vanity full dearly bought, +Joined to thine eye's dark witchcraft, drew +My spell-bound steps to Benvenue +In dangerous hour, and all but gave +Thy Monarch's life to mountain glaive!' +Aloud he spoke: 'Thou still cost hold +That little talisman of gold, +Pledge of my faith, Fitz-James's ring,-- +What seeks fair Ellen of the King?' + + +XXIX. + +Full well the conscious maiden guessed +He probed the weakness of her breast; +But with that consciousness there came +A lightening of her fears for Graeme, +And more she deemed the Monarch's ire +Kindled 'gainst him who for her sire +Rebellious broadsword boldly drew; +And, to her generous feeling true, +She craved the grace of Roderick Dhu. +'Forbear thy suit;--the King of kings +Alone can stay life's parting wings. +I know his heart, I know his hand, +Have shared his cheer, and proved his brand; +My fairest earldom would I give +To bid Clan- Alpine's Chieftain live!-- +Hast thou no other boon to crave? +No other captive friend to save?' +Blushing, she turned her from the King, +And to the Douglas gave the ring, +As if she wished her sire to speak +The suit that stained her glowing cheek. +'Nay, then, my pledge has lost its force, +And stubborn justice holds her course. +Malcolm, come forth!'--and, at the word, +Down kneeled the Graeme to Scotland's Lord. +'For thee, rash youth, no suppliant sues, +From thee may Vengeance claim her dues, +Who, nurtured underneath our smile, +Hast paid our care by treacherous wile, +And sought amid thy faithful clan +A refuge for an outlawed man, +Dishonoring thus thy loyal name.-- +Fetters and warder for the Graeme!' +His chain of gold the King unstrung, +The links o'er Malcolm's neck he flung, +Then gently drew the glittering band, +And laid the clasp on Ellen's hand. + +Harp of the North, farewell! The hills grow dark, + On purple peaks a deeper shade descending; +In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark, + The deer, half seen, are to the covert wending. +Resume thy wizard elm! the fountain lending, + And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy; +Thy numbers sweet with nature's vespers blending, + With distant echo from the fold and lea, +And herd-boy's evening pipe, and hum of housing bee. + +Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp! + Yet, once again, forgive my feeble sway, +And little reck I of the censure sharp + May idly cavil at an idle lay. +Much have I owed thy strains on life's long way, + Through secret woes the world has never known, +When on the weary night dawned wearier day, + And bitterer was the grief devoured alone.-- +That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress! is thine own. + +Hark! as my lingering footsteps slow retire, + Some Spirit of the Air has waked thy string! +'Tis now a seraph bold, with touch of fire, + 'Tis now the brush of Fairy's frolic wing. +Receding now, the dying numbers ring + Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell; +And now the mountain breezes scarcely bring + A wandering witch-note of the distant spell-- +And now, 'tis silent all!--Enchantress, fare thee well! + + + + + +Abbreviations Used In The Notes. + + + +Cf. (confer), compare. +F.Q., Spenser's Faerie Queene. +Fol., following. +Id. (idem), the same. +Lockhart, J. G. Lockhart's edition of Scott's poems (various +issues). +P.L., Milton's Paradise Lost. +Taylor, R. W. Taylor's edition of The Lady of the Lake (London, +1875). +Wb., Webster's Dictionary (revised quarto edition of 1879). +Worc., Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition). +The abbreviations of the names of Shakespeare's plays will be +readily understood. The line-numbers are those of the "Globe" +edition. + +The references to Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel are to canto +and line; those to Marmion and other poems to canto and stanza. + + + + + NOTES. + + + +Introduction. + + + + +The Lady of the Lake was first published in 1810, when Scott was +thirty-nine, and it was dedicated to "the most noble John James, +Marquis of Abercorn." Eight thousand copies were sold between +June 2d and September 22d, 1810, and repeated editions were +subsequently called for. In 1830, the following "Introduction" +was prefixed to the poem by the author:-- + +After the success of Marmion, I felt inclined to exclaim with +Ulysses in the Odyssey: + + <Greek Letters> Odys. X. 5. + + "One venturous game my hand has won to-day-- + Another, gallants, yet remains to play." + +The ancient manners, the habits and customs of the aboriginal +race by whom the Highlands of Scotland were inhabited, had always +appeared to me peculiarly adapted to poetry. The change in their +manners, too, had taken place almost within my own time, or at +least I had learned many particulars concerning the ancient state +of the Highlands from the old men of the last generation. I had +always thought the old Scottish Gael highly adapted for poetical +composition. The feuds and political dissensions which, half a +century earlier, would have rendered the richer and wealthier +part of the kingdom indisposed to countenance a poem, the scene +of which was laid in the Highlands, were now sunk in the generous +compassion which the English, more than any other nation, feel +for the misfortunes of an honourable foe. The Poems of Ossian +had by their popularity sufficiently shown that, if writings on +Highland subjects were qualified to interest the reader, mere +national prejudices were, in the present day, very unlikely to +interfere with their success. + +I had also read a great deal, seen much, and heard more, of that +romantic country where I was in the habit of spending some time +every autumn; and the scenery of Lock Katrine was connected with +the recollection of many a dear friend and merry expedition of +former days. This poem, the action of which lay among scenes so +beautiful and so deeply imprinted on my recollections, was a +labour of love, and it was no less so to recall the manners and +incidents introduced. The frequent custom of James IV., and +particularly of James V., to walk through their kingdom in +disguise, afforded me the hint of an incident which never fails +to be interesting if managed with the slightest address or +dexterity. + +I may now confess, however, that the employment, though attended +with great pleasure, was not without its doubts and anxieties. A +lady, to whom I was nearly related, and with whom I lived, during +her whole life, on the most brotherly terms of affection, was +residing with me at the time when the work was in progress, and +used to ask me, what I could possibly do to rise so early in the +morning (that happening to be the most convenient to me for +composition). At last I told her the subject of my meditations; +and I can never forget the anxiety and affection expressed in her +reply. "Do not be so rash," she said, "my dearest cousin.[FN#2] +You are already popular,--more so, perhaps, than you yourself +will believe, or than even I, or other partial friends, can +fairly allow to your merit. You stand high,--do not rashly +attempt to climb higher, and incur the risk of a fall; for, +depend upon it, a favourite will not be permitted even to stumble +with impunity." I replied to this affectionate expostulation in +the words of Montrose,-- + + "'He either fears his fate too much, + Or his deserts are small, + Who dares not put it to the touch + To gain or lose it all.' + +"If I fail," I said, for the dialogue is strong in my +recollection, "it is a sign that I ought never to have succeeded, +and I will write prose for life: you shall see no change in my +temper, nor will I eat a single meal the worse. But if I +succeed, + + 'Up with the bonnie blue bonnet, + The dirk, and the feather, and a'!'" + +Afterwards I showed my affectionate and anxious critic the first +canto of the poem, which reconciled her to my imprudence. +Nevertheless, although I answered thus confidently, with the +obstinacy often said to be proper to those who bear my surname, I +acknowledge that my confidence was considerably shaken by the +warning of her excellent taste and unbiased friendship. Nor was +I much comforted by her retraction of the unfavourable judgment, +when I recollected how likely a natural partiality was to effect +that change of opinion. In such cases, affection rises like a +light on the canvas, improves any favourable tints which it +formerly exhibited, and throws its defects into the shade. + +I remember that about the same time a friend started in to "heeze +up my hope," like the "sportsman with his cutty gun," in the old +song. He was bred a farmer, but a man of powerful understanding, +natural good taste, and warm poetical feeling, perfectly +competent to supply the wants of an imperfect or irregular +education. He was a passionate admirer of field-sports, which we +often pursued together. + +As this friend happened to dine with me at Ashestiel one day, I +took the opportunity of reading to him the first canto of The +Lady of the Lake, in order to ascertain the effect the poem was +likely to produce upon a person who was but too favourable a +representative of readers at large. It is of course to be +supposed that I determined rather to guide my opinion by what my +friend might appear to feel, than by what he might think fit to +say. His reception of my recitation, or prelection, was rather +singular. He placed his hand across his brow, and listened with +great attention through the whole account of the stag-hunt, till +the dogs threw themselves into the lake to follow their master, +who embarks with Ellen Douglas. He then started up with a sudden +exclamation, struck his hand on the table, and declared, in a +voice of censure calculated for the occasion, that the dogs must +have been totally ruined by being permitted to take the water +after such a severe chase. I own I was much encouraged by the +species of revery which had possessed so zealous a follower of +the sports of the ancient Nimrod, who had been completely +surprised out of all doubts of the reality of the tale. Another +of his remarks gave me less pleasure. He detected the identity +of the King with the wandering knight, Fitz-James, when he winds +his bugle to summon his attendants. He was probably thinking of +the lively, but somewhat licentious, old ballad, in which the +denouement of a royal intrigue takes place as follows: + + "He took a bugle frae his side, + He blew both loud and shrill, + And four and twenty belted knights + Came skipping over the hill; + Then he took out a little knife, + Let a' his duddies fa', + And he was the brawest gentleman + That was amang them a'. + And we'll go no more a roving," etc. + +This discovery, as Mr. Pepys says of the rent in his camlet +cloak, was but a trifle, yet it troubled me; and I was at a good +deal of pains to efface any marks by which I thought my secret +could be traced before the conclusion, when I relied on it with +the same hope of producing effect, with which the Irish post-boy +is said to reserve a "trot for the avenue." + +I took uncommon pains to verify the accuracy of the local +circumstances of this story. I recollect, in particular, that to +ascertain whether I was telling a probable tale, I went into +Perthshire, to see whether King James could actually have ridden +from the banks of Loch Vennachar to Stirling Castle within the +time supposed in the poem, and had the pleasure to satisfy myself +that it was quite practicable. + +After a considerable delay, The Lady of the Lake appeared in +June, 1810; and its success was certainly so extraordinary as to +induce me for the moment to conclude that I had at last fixed a +nail in the proverbially inconstant wheel of Fortune, whose +stability in behalf of an individual who had so boldly courted +her favours for three successive times had not as yet been +shaken. I had attained, perhaps, that degree of reputation at +which prudence, or certainly timidity, would have made a halt, +and discontinued efforts by which I was far more likely to +diminish my fame than to increase it. But, as the celebrated +John Wilkes is said to have explained to his late Majesty, that +he himself, amid his full tide of popularity, was never a +Wilkite, so I can, with honest truth, exculpate myself from +having been at any time a partisan of my own poetry, even when it +was in the highest fashion with the million. It must not be +supposed that I was either so ungrateful, or so superabundantly +candid, as to despise or scorn the value of those whose voice had +elevated me so much higher than my own opinion told me I +deserved. I felt, on the contrary, the more grateful to the +public, as receiving that from partiality to me, which I could +not have claimed from merit; and I endeavoured to deserve the +partiality, by continuing such exertions as I was capable of for +their amusement. + +It may be that I did not, in this continued course of scribbling, +consult either the interest of the public or my own. But the +former had effectual means of defending themselves, and could, by +their coldness, sufficiently check any approach to intrusion; and +for myself, I had now for several years dedicated my hours so +much to literary labour that I should have felt difficulty in +employing myself otherwise; and so, like Dogberry, I generously +bestowed all my tediousness on the public, comforting myself with +the reflection that, if posterity should think me undeserving of +the favour with which I was regarded by my contemporaries, "they +could not but say I had the crown," and had enjoyed for a time +that popularity which is so much coveted. + +I conceived, however, that I held the distinguished situation I +had obtained, however unworthily, rather like the champion of +pugilism,[FN#3] on the condition of being always ready to show +proofs of my skill, than in the manner of the champion of +chivalry, who performs his duties only on rare and solemn +occasions. I was in any case conscious that I could not long +hold a situation which the caprice, rather than the judgment, of +the public, had bestowed upon me, and preferred being deprived of +my precedence by some more worthy rival, to sinking into contempt +for my indolence, and losing my reputation by what Scottish +lawyers call the negative prescription. Accordingly, those who +choose to look at the Introduction to Rokeby, will be able to +trace the steps by which I declined as a poet to figure as a +novelist; as the ballad says, Queen Eleanor sunk at Charing Cross +to rise again at Queenhithe. + +It only remains for me to say that, during my short pre-eminence +of popularity, I faithfully observed the rules of moderation +which I had resolved to follow before I began my course as a man +of letters. If a man is determined to make a noise in the world, +he is as sure to encounter abuse and ridicule, as he who gallops +furiously through a village must reckon on being followed by the +curs in full cry. Experienced persons know that in stretching to +flog the latter, the rider is very apt to catch a bad fall; nor +is an attempt to chastise a malignant critic attended with less +danger to the author. On this principle, I let parody, burlesque, +and squibs find their own level; and while the latter hissed most +fiercely, I was cautious never to catch them up, as schoolboys +do, to throw them back against the naughty boy who fired them +off, wisely remembering that they are in such cases apt to +explode in the handling. Let me add, that my reign[FN#4] (since +Byron has so called it) was marked by some instances of good- +nature as well as patience. I never refused a literary person of +merit such services in smoothing his way to the public as were in +my power; and I had the advantage, rather an uncommon one with +our irritable race, to enjoy general favour without incurring +permanent ill-will, so far as is known to me, among any of my +contemporaries. + + W.S. + Abbotsford, April, 1830. + +Our limits do not permit us to add any extended selections from +the many critical notices of the poem. The verdict of Jeffrey, +in the Edinburgh Review, on its first appearance, has been +generally endorsed:-- + +"Upon the whole, we are inclined to think more highly of The Lady +of the Lake than of either of its author's former publications +[the Lay and Marmion]. We are more sure, however, that it has +fewer faults than that it has greater beauties; and as its +beauties bear a strong resemblance to those with which the public +has been already made familiar in these celebrated works, we +should not be surprised if its popularity were less splendid and +remarkable. For our own parts, however, we are of opinion that +it will be oftener read hereafter than either of them; and that, +if it had appeared first in the series, their reception would +have been less favourable than that which it has experienced. It +is more polished in its diction, and more regular in its +versification; the story is constructed with infinitely more +skill and address; there is a greater proportion of pleasing and +tender passages, with much less antiquarian detail; and, upon the +whole, a larger variety of characters, more artfully and +judiciously contrasted. There is nothing so fine, perhaps, as +the battle in Marmion, or so picturesque as some of the scattered +sketches in the Lay; but there is a richness and a spirit in the +whole piece which does not pervade either of those poems, --a +profusion of incident and a shifting brilliancy of colouring that +reminds us of the witchery of Ariosto, and a constant elasticity +and occasional energy which seem to belong more peculiarly to the +author now before us." + + + + + +Canto First. + + + + +Each canto is introduced by one or more Spenserian stanzas,[FN#5] +forming a kind of prelude to it. Those prefixed to the first +canto serve as an introduction to the whole poem, which is +"inspired by the spirit of the old Scottish minstrelsy." + + +2. Witch-elm. The broad-leaved or wych elm (Ulmus montana), +indigenous to Scotland. Forked branches of the tree were used in +the olden time as divining-rods, and riding switches from it were +supposed to insure good luck on a journey. In the closing +stanzas of the poem (vi. 846) it is called the "wizard elm." +Tennyson (In Memoriam, 89) refers to + + "Witch-elms that counterchange the floor + Of this flat lawn with dusk and bright." + +Saint Fillan was a Scotch abbot of the seventh century who became +famous as a saint. He had two springs, which appear to be +confounded by some editors of the poem. One was at the eastern +end of Loch Earn, where the pretty modern village of St. Fillans +now stands, under the shadow of Dun Fillan, or St. Fillan's +Hills, six hundred feet high, on the top of which the saint used +to say his prayers, as the marks of his knees in the rock still +testify to the credulous. The other spring is at another village +called St. Fillans, nearly thirty miles to the westward, just +outside the limits of our map, on the road to Tyndrum. In this +Holy Pool, as it is called, insane folk were dipped with certain +ceremonies, and then left bound all night in the open air. If +they were found loose the next morning, they were supposed to +have been cured. This treatment was practised as late as 1790, +according to Pennant, who adds that the patients were generally +found in the morning relieved of their troubles--by death. +Another writer, in 1843, says that the pool is still visited, not +by people of the vicinity, who have no faith in its virtue, but +by those from distant places. Scott alludes to this spring in +Marmion, i. 29: + + "Thence to Saint Fillan's blessed well, + Whose springs can frenzied dreams dispel, + And the crazed brain restore." + + +3. And down the fitful breeze, etc. The original MS. reads: + + "And on the fitful breeze thy numbers flung, + Till envious ivy, with her verdant ring, + Mantled and muffled each melodious string,-- + O Wizard Harp, still must thine accents sleep?" + + +10. Caledon. Caledonia, the Roman name of Scotland. + + +14. Each according pause. That is, each pause in the singing. +In Marmion, ii. 11, according is used of music that fills the +intervals of other music: + + "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; + Then, answering from the sandy shore, + Half-drowned amid the breakers' roar, + According chorus rose." + +The MS. reads here: + + "At each according pause thou spokest aloud + Thine ardent sympathy sublime and high." + + +28. The stag at eve had drunk his fill. The metre of the poem +proper is iambic, that is, with the accent on the even syllables, +and octosyllabic, or eight syllables to the line. + + +29. Monan's rill. St. Monan was a Scotch martyr of the fourth +century. We can find no mention of any rill named for him. + + +31. Glenartney. A valley to the north-east of Callander, with +Benvoirlich (which rises to the height of 3180 feet) on the +north, and Uam-Var (see 53 below) on the south, separating it +from the valley of the Teith. It takes its name from the Artney, +the stream flowing through it. + + +32. His beacon red. The figure is an appropriate one in +describing this region, where fires on the hill-tops were so +often used as signals in the olden time. Cf. the Lay, iii. 379: + + "And soon a score of fires, I ween, + From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen, + Each with warlike tidings fraught; + Each from each the signal caught," etc. + + +34. Deep-mouthed. Cf. Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. ii. 4. 12: +"Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;" and T. of S. +ind. 1. 18: "the deep-mouthed brach" (that is, hound). + +The MS. reads: + + "The bloodhound's notes of heavy bass + Resounded hoarsely up the pass." + + +35. Resounded ... rocky. The poet often avails himself of "apt +alliteration's artful aid," as here, and in the next two lines; +most frequently in pairs of words. + + +38. As Chief, etc. Note here, as often, the simile put BEFORE +that which it illustrates,--an effective rhetorical, though not +the logical, arrangement. + + +45. Beamed frontlet. Antlered forehead. + + +46. Adown. An instance of a purely poetical word, not +admissible in prose. + + +49. Chase. Here put for those engaged in the chase; as in 101 +and 171, below. One of its regular meanings is the OBJECT of the +chase, or the animal pursued. + + +53. Uam-Var. "Ua-Var, as the name is pronounced, or more +properly Uaigh-mor, is a mountain to the north-east of the +village of Callander, in Menteith, deriving its name, which +signifies the great den, or cavern, from a sort of retreat among +the rocks on the south side, said, by tradition, to have been the +abode of a giant. In latter times, it was the refuge of robbers +and banditti, who have been only extirpated within these forty or +fifty years. Strictly speaking, this stronghold is not a cave, as +the name would imply, but a sort of small enclosure, or recess, +surrounded with large rocks and open above head. It may have +been originally designed as a toil for deer, who might get in +from the outside, but would find it difficult to return. This +opinion prevails among the old sportsmen and deer-stalkers in the +neighborhood" (Scott). + + +54. Yelled. Note the emphatic force of the inversion, as in 59 +below. Cf. 38 above. + +Opening. That is, barking on view or scent of the game; a +hunting term. Cf. Shakespeare, M. W. iv. 2. 209: "If I bark out +thus upon no trail never trust me when I open again." + +The description of the echo which follows is very spirited. + + +66. Cairn. Literally, a heap of stones; here put poetically for +the rocky point which the falcon takes as a look-out. + + +69. Hurricane. A metaphor for the wild rush of the hunt. + + +71. Linn. Literally, a deep pool; but often = cataract, as in +Bracklinn, ii. 270 below (cf. vi. 488), and sometimes = +precipice. + + +73. On the lone wood. Note the musical variation in the measure +here; the 1st, 3d, and 4th syllables being accented instead of +the 2d and 4th. It is occasionally introduced into iambic metre +with admirable effect. Cf. 85 and 97 below. + + +76. The cavern, etc. See on 53 above. + + +80. Perforce. A poetical word. See on 46 above. + + +84. Shrewdly. Severely, keenly; a sense now obsolete. Shrewd +originally meant evil, mischievous. Cf. Shakespeare, A. Y. L. v. +4. 179, where it is said that those + + "That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us + Shall share the good of our returned fortune." + +In Chaucer (Tale of Melibocus) we find, "The prophete saith: Flee +shrewdnesse, and do goodnesse" (referring to Ps. xxxiv. 14). + + +89. Menteith. The district in the southwestern part of +Perthshire, watered by the Teith. + + +91. Mountain and meadow, etc. See on 35 above. Moss is used in +the North-of-England sense of a boggy or peaty district, like the +famous Chat Moss between Liverpool and Manchester. + + +93. Lochard. Loch Ard is a beautiful lakelet, about five miles +south of Loch Katrine. On its eastern side is the scene of Helen +Macgregor's skirmish with the King's troops in Rob Roy; and near +its head, on the northern side, is a waterfall, which is the +original of Flora MacIvor's favorite retreat in Waverley. +Aberfoyle is a village about a mile and a half to the east of the +lake. + + +95. Loch Achray. A lake between Loch Katrine and Loch +Vennachar, lying just beyond the pass of the Trosachs. + + +97. Benvenue. A mountain, 2386 feet in height, on the southern +side of Loch Katrine. + + +98. With the hope. The MS. has "with the THOUGHT," and "flying +HOOF" in the next line. + + +102. 'Twere. It would be. Cf. Shakespeare, Macb. ii. 2. 73: +"To know my deed, 't were best not know myself." + + +103. Cambusmore. The estate of a family named Buchanan, whom +Scott frequently visited in his younger days. It is about two +miles from Callander, on the wooded banks of the Keltie, a +tributary of the Teith. + + +105. Benledi. A mountain, 2882 feet high, northwest from +Callander. The name is said to mean "Mountain of God." + + +106. Bochastle's heath. A moor between the east end of Loch +Vennachar and Callander. See also on v. 298 below. + + +107. The flooded Teith. The Teith is formed by streams from +Loch Voil and from Loch Katrine (by way of Loch Achray and Loch +Vennachar), which unite at Callander. It joins the Forth near +Stirling. + + +111. Vennachar. As the map shows, this "Lake of the Fair +Valley" is the most eastern of the three lakes around which the +scenery of the poem lies. It is about five miles long and a mile +and a half wide. + + +112. The Brigg of Turk. This brig, or bridge (cf. Burns's poem +of The Brigs of Ayr), is over a stream that comes down from +Glenfinlas and flows into the one connecting Lochs Achray and +Vennachar. According to Graham, it is "the scene of the death of +a wild boar famous in Celtic tradition." + + +114. Unbated. Cf. Shakespeare, M. of V. ii. 6. 11: + + "Where is the horse that doth untread again + His tedious measures with the unbated fire + That he did pace them first?" + + +115. Scourge and steel. Whip and spur. Steel is often used for +the sword (as in v. 239 below: "foeman worthy of their steel"), +the figure being of the same sort as here--"the material put for +the thing made of it." Cf. v. 479 below. + + +117. Embossed. An old hunting term. George Turbervile, in his +Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting (A.D. 1576), says: "When the hart +is foamy at the mouth, we say, that he is emboss'd." Cf. +Shakespeare, T. of S. ind. 1. 17: "Brach Merriman, the poor cur, +is emboss'd;" and A. and C. iv. 13. 3: + + "the boar of Thessaly + Was never so emboss'd." + + +120. Saint Hubert's breed. Scott quotes Turbervile here: "The +hounds which we call Saint Hubert's hounds are commonly all +blacke, yet neuertheless, the race is so mingled at these days, +that we find them of all colours. These are the hounds which the +abbots of St. Hubert haue always kept some of their race or kind, +in honour or remembrance of the saint, which was a hunter with S. +Eustace. Whereupon we may conceiue that (by the grace of God) +all good huntsmen shall follow them into paradise." + + +127. Quarry. The animal hunted; another technical term. +Shakespeare uses it in the sense of a heap of slaughtered game; +as in Cor. i. 1. 202: + + "Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, + And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry + With thousands of these quarter'd slaves," etc. + + +Cf. Longfellow, Hiawatha: + + "Seldom stoops the soaring vulture + O'er his quarry in the desert." + + +130. Stock. Tree-stump. Cf. Job, xiv. 8. + + +133. Turn to bay. Like stand at bay, etc., a term used when the +stag, driven to extremity, turns round and faces his pursuers. +Cf. Shakespeare, 1. Hen. VI. iv. 2. 52, where it is used +figuratively (as in vi. 525 below): + + "Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel, + And make the cowards stand aloof at bay;" + +and T. of S. v. 2. 56: " 'T is thought your deer does hold you at +a bay," etc. + + +137. For the death-wound, etc. Scott has the following note +here: "When the stag turned to bay, the ancient hunter had the +perilous task of going in upon, and killing or disabling, the +desperate animal. At certain times of the year this was held +particularly dangerous, a wound received from a stag's horn being +then deemed poisonous, and more dangerous than one from the tusks +of a boar, as the old rhyme testifies: + + 'If thou be hurt with hart, it bring thee to thy bier, + But barber's hand will boar's hurt heal, therefore thou + need'st not fear.' + +At all times, however, the task was dangerous, and to be +adventured upon wisely and warily, either by getting behind the +stag while he was gazing on the hounds, or by watching an +opportunity to gallop roundly in upon him, and kill him with the +sword. See many directions to this purpose in the Booke of +Hunting, chap. 41. Wilson, the historian, has recorded a +providential escape which befell him in the hazardous sport, +while a youth, and follower of the Earl of Essex: + +'Sir Peter Lee, of Lime, in Cheshire, invited my lord one summer +to hunt the stagg. And having a great stagg in chase, and many +gentlemen in the pursuit, the stag took soyle. And divers, +whereof I was one, alighted, and stood with swords drawne, to +have a cut at him, at his coming out of the water. The staggs +there being wonderfully fierce and dangerous, made us youths more +eager to be at him. But he escaped us all. And it was my +misfortune to be hindered of my coming nere him, the way being +sliperie, by a falle; which gave occasion to some, who did not +know mee, to speak as if I had falne for feare. Which being told +mee, I left the stagg, and followed the gentleman who [first] +spake it. But I found him of that cold temper, that it seems his +words made an escape from him; as by his denial and repentance it +appeared. But this made mee more violent in the pursuit of the +stagg, to recover my reputation. And I happened to be the only +horseman in, when the dogs sett him up at bay; and approaching +near him on horsebacke, he broke through the dogs, and run at +mee, and tore my horse's side with his hornes, close by my thigh. +Then I quitted my horse, and grew more cunning (for the dogs had +sette him up againe), stealing behind him with my sword, and cut +his hamstrings; and then got upon his back, and cut his throate; +which, as I was doing, the company came in, and blamed my +rashness for running such a hazard' (Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, +ii. 464)." + + +138. Whinyard. A short stout sword or knife; the same as the +whinger of the Lay of Last Minstrel, v. 7: + + "And whingers, now in friendship bare + The social meal to part and share, + Had found a bloody sheath." + + +142. Turned him. In Elizabethan, and still more in earlier +English, personal pronouns were often used reflexively; and this, +like many other old constructions, is still used in poetry. + + +145. Trosachs. "The rough or bristled territory" (Graham); the +wild district between Lochs Katrine and Vennachar. The name is +now especially applied to the pass between Lochs Katrine and +Achray. + + +147. Close couched. That is, as he lay close couched, or +hidden. Such ellipses are common in poetry. + + +150. Amain. With main, or full force. We still say "with might +and main." + + +151. Chiding. Not a mere figurative use of chide as we now +understand it (cf. 287 below), but an example of the old sense of +the word as applied to any oft-repeated noise. Shakespeare uses +it of the barking of dogs in M. N. D. iv. 1. 120: + + "never did I hear + Such gallant chiding;" + +of the wind, as in A. Y. L. ii. 1. 7: "And churlish chiding of +the winter's wind;" and of the sea, as in 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 45: + + "the sea + That chides the banks of England;" + +and Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 197: "the chiding flood." + + +163. The banks of Seine. James visited France in 1536, and sued +for the hand of Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. He married her +the following spring, but she died a few months later. He then +married Mary of Guise, whom he had doubtless seen while in +France. + + +166. Woe worth the chase. That is, woe be to it. This worth is +from the A. S. weorthan, to become. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. +32: + + "Wo worth the man, + That first did teach the cursed steele to bight + In his owne flesh, and make way to the living spright!" + +See also Ezek. xxx. 2. + + +180. And on the hunter, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And on the hunter hied his pace, + To meet some comrades of the chase;" + +and the 1st ed. retains "pace" and "chase." + + +184. The western waves, etc. This description of the Trosachs +was written amid the scenery it delineates, in the summer of +1809. The Quarterly Review (May, 1810) says of the poet: "He sees +everything with a painter's eye. Whatever he represents has a +character of individuality, and is drawn with an accuracy and +minuteness of discrimination which we are not accustomed to +expect from mere verbal description. It is because Mr. Scott +usually delineates those objects with which he is perfectly +familiar that his touch is so easy, correct, and animated. The +rocks, the ravines, and the torrents which he exhibits are not +the imperfect sketches of a hurried traveller, but the finished +studies of a resident artist." See also on 278 below. + +Ruskin (Modern Painters, iii. 278) refers to "the love of color" +as a leading element in Scott's love of beauty. He might have +quoted the present passage among the illustrations he adds. + + +195. The native bulwarks, etc. The MS. has "The mimic castles +of the pass." + + +196. The tower, etc. Cf. Gen. xi. 1-9. + + +198. The rocky. The 1st ed. has "Their rocky," etc. + + +204. Nor were, etc. The MS. reads: "Nor were these mighty +bulwarks bare." + + +208. Dewdrop sheen. Not "dewdrops sheen," or "dewdrops' sheen," +as sometimes printed. Sheen = shining, bright; as in v. 10 +below. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10: "So faire and sheene;" Id. +iii. 4. 51: "in top of heaven sheene," etc. See Wb. The MS. has +here: "Bright glistening with the dewdrop sheen." + + +212. Boon. Bountiful. Cf. Milton, P. L. iv. 242: + + "Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art + In beds and curious knots, but nature boon + Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain." + +See also P. L. ix. 793: "jocund and boon." + + +217. Bower. In the old sense of chamber, lodging-place; as in +iv. 413 and vi. 218 below. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 58: + + "Eftesoones long waxen torches weren light + Unto their bowres to guyden every guest." + +For clift (= cleft), the reading of the 1st ed. and +unquestionably what Scott wrote, every other edition that we have +seen reads "cliff." + + +219. Emblems of punishment and pride. See on iii. 19 below. + + +222, 223. Note the imperfect rhyme in breath and beneath. Cf. +224-25, 256-57, 435-36, 445-46 below. Such instances are +comparatively rare in Scott's poetry. Some rhymes that appear to +be imperfect are to be explained by peculiarities of Scottish +pronunciation. See on 363 below. + + +227. Shaltered. The MS. has "scathed;" also "rugged arms +athwart the sky" in 229, and "twinkling" for glistening in 231. +The 1st ed. has "scattered" for shattered; corrected in the +Errata. + + +231. Streamers. Of ivy or other vines. + + +238. Affording, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Affording scarce such breadth of flood + As served to float the wild-duck's brood." + + +247. Emerging, etc. The MS. has "Emerging dry-shod from the +wood." + + +254. And now, to issue from the glen, etc. "Until the present +road was made through the romantic pass which I have +presumptuously attempted to describe in the preceding stanzas, +there was no mode of issuing out of the defile called the +Trosachs, excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the branches +and roots of trees" (Scott). + + +263. Loch Katrine. In a note to The Fair Maid of Perth, Scott +derives the name from the Catterans, or Highland robbers, that +once infested the shores of the lake. Others make it "the Lake +of the Battle," in memory of some prehistoric conflict. + + +267. Livelier. Because in motion; like living gold above. + + +270. Benvenue. See on 97 above. + + +271. Down to. Most editions misprint "down on." + + +272. Confusedly. A trisyllable; as in ii. 161 below, and in the +Lay, iii. 337: "And helms and plumes, confusedly tossed." + + +274. Wildering. Bewildering. Cf. Dryden, Aurungzebe, i. 1: +"wilder'd in the way," etc. See also 434 and v. 22 below. + + +275. His ruined sides, etc. The MS. reads: + + "His ruined sides and fragments hoar, + While on the north to middle air." + + +277. Ben-an. This mountain, 1800 feet high, is north of the +Trosachs, separating that pass from Glenfinlas. + + +278. From the steep, etc. The MS. reads: + + "From the high promontory gazed + The stranger, awe-struck and amazed." + +The Critical Review (Aug. 1820) remarks of this portion of the +poem (184 fol.): "Perhaps the art of landscape-painting in poetry +has never been displayed in higher perfection than in these +stanzas, to which rigid criticism might possibly object that the +picture is somewhat too minute, and that the contemplation of it +detains the traveller somewhat too long from the main purpose of +his pilgrimage, but which it would be an act of the greatest +injustice to break into fragments and present by piecemeal. Not +so the magnificent scene which bursts upon the bewildered hunter +as he emerges at length from the dell, and commands at one view +the beautiful expanse of Loch Katrine." + + +281. Churchman. In its old sense of one holding high office in +the church. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3. 72, where Cardinal +Beaufort is called "the imperious churchman," etc. + + +285. Cloister. Monastery; originally, the covered walk around +the inner court of the building. + + +287. Chide. Here, figuratively, in the modern sense. See in +151 above. + + +290. Should lave. The 1st ed. has "did lave," which is perhaps +to be preferred. + + +294. While the deep peal's. For the measure, see on 73 above. + + +300. To friendly feast, etc. The MS. has "To hospitable feast +and hall." + + +302. Beshrew. May evil befall (see on shrewdly, 84 above); a +mild imprecation, often used playfully and even tenderly. Cf. +Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 45: + + "Beshrew your heart, + Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me + With new lamenting ancient oversights!" + + +305. Some mossy bank, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And hollow trunk of some old tree + My chamber for the night must be." + + +313. Highland plunderers. "The clans who inhabited the romantic +regions in the neighborhood of Loch Katrine were, even until a +late period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon their +Lowland neighbors" (Scott). + + +317. Fall the worst. If the worst befall that can happen. Cf. +Shakespeare, M. of V. i. 2. 96: "an the worst fall that ever +fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him." + + +319. But scarce again, etc. The MS. reads: + + "The bugle shrill again he wound, + And lo! forth starting at the sound;" + +and below: + + "A little skiff shot to the bay. + The hunter left his airy stand, + And when the boat had touched the sand, + Concealed he stood amid the brake, + To view this Lady of the Lake." + + +336. Strain. The 1st ed. has a comma after strain, and a period +after art in 340. The ed. of 1821 points as in the text. + + +342. Naiad. Water nymph. + + +343. And ne'er did Grecian chisel, etc. The MS. reads: + + "A finer form, a fairer face, + Had never marble Nymph or Grace, + That boasts the Grecian chisel's trace;" + +and in 359 below, "a stranger tongue." + + +353. Measured mood. The formal manner required by court +etiquette. + + +360. Dear. This is the reading of the 1st ed. and almost every +other that we have seen. We are inclined, however, to believe +that Scott wrote "clear." The facsimiles of his handwriting show +that his d's and cl's might easily be confounded by a compositor. + + +363. Snood. The fillet or ribbon with which the Scotch maidens +bound their hair. See on iii. 114 below. It is the rich +materials of snood, plaid, and brooch that betray her birth. + + +The rhyme of plaid with maid and betrayed is not imperfect, the +Scottish pronunciation of plaid being like our played. + + +385. One only. For the inversion, cf. Shakespeare, J. C. i. 2. +157: "When there is in it but one only man;" Goldsmith, D. V. 39: +"One only master grasps the whole domain," etc. + + +393. Awhile she paused, etc. The MS. reads: + + "A space she paused, no answer came,-- + 'Alpine, was thine the blast?' the name + Less resolutely uttered fell, + The echoes could not catch the swell. + 'Nor foe nor friend,' the stranger said, + Advancing from the hazel shade. + The startled maid, with hasty oar, + Pushed her light shallop from the shore." + +and just below: + + "So o'er the lake the swan would spring, + Then turn to prune its ruffled wing." + + +404. Prune. Pick out damaged feathers and arrange the plumage +with the bill. Cf. Shakespeare, Cymb. v. 4. 118: + + "his royal bird + Prunes the immortal wing," etc. + + +408. Wont. Are wont, or accustomed; now used only in the +participle. The form here is the past tense of the obsolete won, +or wone, to dwell. The present is found in Milton, P. L. vii. +457: + + "As from his lair the wild beast, where he wons + In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den." + +Cf. Spenser, Virgil's Gnat: + + "Of Poets Prince, whether we woon beside + Faire Xanthus sprincled with Chimaeras blood, + Or in the woods of Astery abide;" + +and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe: + + "I weened sure he was out God alone, + And only woond in fields and forests here." + +See also iv. 278 and 298 below. + + +409. Middle age. As James died at the age of thirty (in 1542), +this is not strictly true, but the portrait in other respects is +quite accurate. He was fond of going about disguised, and some +of his freaks of this kind are pleasantly related in Scott's +Tales of a Grandfather. See on vi. 740 below. + + +425. Slighting, etc. "Treating lightly his need of food and +shelter." + + +432. At length. The 1st ed. has "at last." + + +433. That Highland halls were, etc. The MS. has "Her father's +hall was," etc. + + +434. Wildered. See on 274 above. + + +438. A couch. That is, the heather for it. Cf. 666 below. + + +441. Mere. Lake; as in Windermere, etc. + + +443. Rood. Cross, or crucifix. By the rood was a common oath; +so by the holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich. III. iii. 2. 77, +iv. 4. 165. Cf. the name of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. See +ii. 221 below. + + +451. Romantic. The MS. has "enchanting." + + +457. Yesternight. We have lost this word, though we retain +yesterday. Cf. yester-morn in v. 104 below. As far = as far +back as. + + +460. Was on, etc. The MS. reads: "Is often on the future bent." +"If force of evidence could authorize us to believe facts +inconsistent with the general laws of nature, enough might be +produced in favor of the existence of the second-sight. It is +called in Gaelic Taishitaraugh, from Taish, an unreal or shadowy +appearance; and those possessed of the faculty are called +Taishatrin, which may be aptly translated visionaries. Martin, a +steady believer in the second-sight, gives the following account +of it:-- + +'The second-sight is a singular faculty of seeing an otherwise +invisible object without any previous means used by the person +that uses if for that end: the vision makes such a lively +impression upon the seers, that they neither see nor think of any +thing else, except the vision, as long as it continues; and then +they appear pensive or jovial, according to the object that was +represented to them. + +'At the sight of a vision, the eyelids of the person are erected, +and the eyes continue staring until the object vanish. This is +obvious to others who are by when the persons happen to see a +vision, and occurred more than once to my own observation, and to +others that were with me. ... + +'If a woman is seen standing at a man's left hand, it is a +presage that she will be his wife, whether they be married to +others, or unmarried at the time of the apparition. + +'To see a spark of fire fall upon one's arm or breast is a +forerunner of a dead child to be seen in the arms of those +persons; of which there are several fresh instances. ... + +'To see a seat empty at the time of one's sitting in it, is a +presage of that person's death soon after' (Martin's Description +of the Western Islands, 1716, 8vo, p. 300, et seq.). + +"To these particulars innumerable examples might be added, all +attested by grave and credible authors. But, in despite of +evidence which neither Bacon, Boyle, nor Johnson were able to +resist, the Taish, with all its visionary properties, seems to be +now universally abandoned to the use of poetry. The exquisitely +beautiful poem of Lochiel will at once occur to the recollection +of every reader" (Scott). + + +462. Birchen. Shaded by birches. Cf. Milton's "cedarn alleys" +in Comus, 990. + + +464. Lincoln green. A cloth made in Lincoln, much worn by +hunters. + + +467. Heron. The early eds. have "heron's." + + +475. Errant-knight. Knight-errant. + + +476. Sooth. True. We find soothest in Milton, Comus, 823. The +noun sooth (truth) is more common, and still survives in +soothsayer (teller of hidden truth). Cf. v. 64 below. + + +478. Emprise. Enterprise. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 39: "But +give me leave to follow my emprise," etc. + + +485. His noble hand. The MS. has "This gentle hand;" and in the +next line, "the oars he drew." + + +490. Frequent. Often; one of the many instances of the +adjective used adverbially in the poem. + + +492. The rocky isle. It is still known as Ellen's Isle. "It is +rather high, and irregularly pyramidal. It is mostly composed of +dark-gray rocks, mottled with pale and gray lichens, peeping out +here and there amid trees that mantle them,--chiefly light, +graceful birches, intermingled with red-berried mountain ashes +and a few dark-green, spiry pines. The landing is beneath an +aged oak; and, as did the Lady and the Knight, the traveller now +ascends 'a clambering unsuspected road,' by rude steps, to the +small irregular summit of the island. A more poetic, romantic +retreat could hardly be imagined: it is unique. It is completely +hidden, not only by the trees, but also by an undergrowth of +beautiful and abundant ferns and the loveliest of heather" +(Hunnewell's Lands of Scott). + + +500. Winded. Wound; used for the sake of the measure, as in v. +22 below. We find the participle winded in Much Ado, i. 1. 243; +but it is = blown. The verb in that sense is derived from the +noun wind (air in motion), and has no connection with wind, to +turn. Cf. Wb. + + +504. Here for retreat, etc. Scott has the following note here: +"The Celtic chieftains, whose lives were continually exposed to +peril, had usually, in the most retired spot of their domains, +some place of retreat for the hour of necessity, which, as +circumstances would admit, was a tower, a cavern, or a rustic +hut, in a strong and secluded situation. One of these last gave +refuge to the unfortunate Charles Edward, in his perilous +wanderings after the battle of Culloden. + +'It was situated in the face of a very rough, high, and rocky +mountain, called Letternilichk, still a part of Benalder, full of +great stones and crevices, and some scattered wood interspersed. +The habitation called the Cage, in the face of that mountain, was +within a small thick bush of wood. There were first some rows of +trees laid down, in order to level the floor for a habitation; +and as the place was steep, this raised the lower side to an +equal height with the other: and these trees, in the way of +joists or planks, were levelled with earth and gravel. There +were betwixt the trees, growing naturally on their own roots, +some stakes fixed in the earth, which, with the trees, were +interwoven with ropes, made of heath and birch twigs, up to the +top of the Cage, it being of a round or rather oval shape; and +the whole thatched and covered over with fog. The whole fabric +hung, as it were, by a large tree, which reclined from the one +end, all along the roof, to the other, and which gave it the name +of the Cage; and by chance there happened to be two stones at a +small distance from one another, in the side next the precipice, +resembling the pillars of a chimney, where the fire was placed. +The smoke had its vent out here, all along the fall of the rock, +which was so much of the same color, that one could discover no +difference in the clearest day' (Home's History of the Rebellion, +Lond. 1802, 4to, p. 381)." + + +525. Idoean vine. Some have taken this to refer to the "red +whortleberry," the botanical name of which is Vaccinium vitis +Idoea; but as that is not a climber, it is more probably that the +common vine is here meant. Idoean is from Ida, a mountain near +ancient Troy (there was another in Crete), famous for its vines. + + +526. Clematis. The Climatis vitalba, one of the popular English +names of which is virgin-bower. + + +528. And every favored plant could bear. That is, which could +endure. This ellipsis of the relative was very common in +Elizabethan English. Cf. Shakespeare, M. for M. ii. 2. 23: "I +have a brother is condemned to die;" Rich. II. ii. 2. 128: "The +hate of those love not the king," etc. See also John, iii. 11, +etc. + + +532. On heaven and on thy lady call. This is said gayly, or +sportively, as keeping up the idea of a knight-errant. Cf. 475 +above. + + +542. Careless. See on 490 above. + + +546. Target. Buckler; the targe of iii. 445, etc. See Scott's +note on v. 380 below. + + +548. Store. Stored, laid up; an obsolete adjective. Cf. iii. 3 +below, and see also on vi. 124. + + +551. And there the wild-cat's, etc. The MS. reads: + + "There hung the wild-cat's brindled hide, + Above the elk's branched brow and skull, + And frontlet of the forest bull." + + +559. Garnish forth. Cf. furnish forth in 442 above. + + +566. Brook. Bear, endure; now seldom used except with reference +to what is endured against one's will or inclination. It seems +to be a favorite word with Scott. + + +573. Ferragus or Ascabart. "These two sons of Anak flourished +in romantic fable. The first is well known to the admirers of +Ariosto by the name of Ferrau. He was an antagonist of Orlando, +and was at length slain by him in single combat. ... Ascapart, or +Ascabart, makes a very material figure in the History of Bevis of +Hampton, by whom he was conquered. His effigies may be seen +guarding one side of the gate at Southampton, while the other is +occupied by Bevis himself" (Scott). + + +580. To whom, though more than kindred knew. The MS. reads: + + "To whom, though more remote her claim, + Young Ellen gave a mother's name." + +She was the maternal aunt of Ellen, but was loved as a mother by +her, or more than (such) kindred (usually) knew (in way of +affection). + + +585. Though all unasked, etc. "The Highlanders, who carried +hospitality to a punctilious excess, are said to have considered +it as churlish to ask a stranger his name or lineage before he +had taken refreshment. Feuds were so frequent among them, that a +contrary rule would in many cases have produced the discovery of +some circumstance which might have excluded the guest from the +benefit of the assistance he stood in need of" (Scott). + + +591. Snowdoun. An old name of Stirling Castle. See vi. 789 +below. + + +592. Lord of a barren heritage. "By the misfortunes of the +earlier Jameses, and the internal feuds of the Scottish chiefs, +the kingly power had become little more than a name. Each chief +was a petty king in his own district, and gave just so much +obedience to the king's authority as suited his convenience" +(Taylor). + + +596. Wot. Knows; the present of the obsolete wit (the +infinitive to wit is still use in legal forms), not of weet, as +generally stated. See Matzner, Eng. Gram. i. 382. Cf. +Shakespeare, Rich. III. ii. 3. 18: "No, no, good friends, God +wot." He also uses wots (as in Hen. V. iv. 1. 299) and a +participle wotting (in W. T. iii. 2. 77). + + +602. Require. Request, ask; as in Elizanethan English. Cf. +Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. ii. 4. 144: "In humblest manner I require +your highness," etc. + + +603. The elder lady's mien. The MS. has "the mother's easy +mien." + + +606. Ellen, though more, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Ellen, though more her looks betrayed + The simple heart of mountain maid, + In speech and gesture, form and grace, + Showed she was come of gentle race; + 'T was strange, in birth so rude, to find + Such face, such manners, and such mind. + Each anxious hint the stranger gave, + The mother heard with silence grave." + + +616. Weird women we, etc. See on 35 above. Weird here = +skilled in witchcraft; like the "weird sisters" of Macbeth. Down += hill (the Gaelic dun). + + +622. A harp unseen. Scott has the following note here: "'"They +[the Highlanders] delight much in musicke, but chiefly in harps +and clairschoes of their own fashion. The strings of the +clairschoes are made of brasse wire, and the strings of the harps +of sinews; which strings they strike either with their nayles, +growing long, or else with an instrument appointed for that use. +They take great pleasure to decke their harps and clairschoes +with silver and precious stones; the poore ones that cannot +attayne hereunto, decke them with christall. They sing verses +prettily compound, contayning (for the most part) prayses of +valiant men. There is not almost any other argument, whereof +their rhymes intreat. They speak the ancient French language, +altered a little."[FN#6] + +'The harp and chairschoes are now only heard of in the Highlands +in ancient song. At what period these instruments ceased to be +used, is not on record; and tradition is silent on this head. +But, as Irish harpers occasionally visited the Highlands and +Western Isles till lately, the harp might have been extant so +late as the middle of the present century. Thus far we know, +that from remote times down to the present, harpers were received +as welcome guests, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland; and +so late as the latter end of the sixteenth century, as appears by +the above quotations, the harp was in common use among the +natives of the Western Isles. How it happened that the noisy and +inharmonious bagpipe banished the soft and expressive harp, we +cannot say; but certain it is, that the bagpipe is now the only +instrument that obtains universally in the Highland districts' +(Campbell's Journey through North Britain. London, 1808, 4to, i. +175). + +"Mr. Gunn, of Edinburgh, has lately published a curious Essay +upon the Harp and Harp Music of the Highlands of Scotland. That +the instrument was once in common use there, is most certain. +Cleland numbers an acquaintance with it among the few +accomplishments which his satire allows to the Highlanders:-- + + 'In nothing they're accounted sharp, + Except in bagpipe or in harm.'" + + +624. Soldier, rest! etc. The metre of this song is trochaic; +that is, the accents fall regularly on the odd syllables. + + +631. In slumber dewing. That is, bedewing. For the metaphor, +cf. Shakespeare, Rich. III. iv. 1. 84: "the golden dew of sleep;" +and J. C. ii. 1. 230: "the honey-heavy dew of slumber." + + +635. Morn of toil, etc. The MS. has "noon of hunger, night of +waking;" and in the next line, "rouse" for reach. + + +638. Pibroch. "A Highland air, suited to the particular passion +which the musician would either excite or assuage; generally +applied to those airs that are played on the bagpipe before the +Highlanders when they go out to battle" (Jamieson). Here it is +put for the bagpipe itself. See also on ii. 363 below. + + +642. And the bittern sound his drum. Goldsmith (D. V. 44) calls +the bird "the hollow-sounding bittern;" and in his Animated +Nature, he says that of all the notes of waterfowl "there is none +so dismally hollow as the booming of the bittern." + + +648. She paused, etc. The MS. has "She paused--but waked again +the lay." + + +655. The MS. reads: "Slumber sweet our spells shall deal ye;" +and in 657: + + "Let our slumbrous spells| avail ye + | beguile ye." + + +657. Reveille. The call to rouse troops or huntsmen in the +morning. + + +669. Forest sports. The MS. has "mountain chase." + + +672. Not Ellens' spell. That is, not even Ellen's spell. On +the passage, cf. Rokeby, i. 2: + + "Sleep came at length, but with a train + Of feelings true and fancies vain, + Mingling, in wild disorder cast, + The expected future with the past." + + +693. Or is it all a vision now? Lockhart quotes here Thomson's +Castle of Indolence: + + "Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear, + From these foul demons shield the midnight gloom: + Angels of fancy and love, be near. + And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom: + Evoke the sacred shades of Greece and Rome, + And let them virtue with a look impart; + But chief, awhile, O! lend us from the tomb + Those long-lost friends for whom in love we smart, + and fill with pious awe and joy-mixt woe the heart. + + "Or are you sportive?--bid the morn of youth + Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days + Of innocence, simplicity, and truth; + To cares estranged, and manhood's thorny ways. + What transport, to retrace our boyish plays, + Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied; + The woods, the mountains, and the warbling maze + Of the wild books!" + +The Critical Review says of the following stanza (xxxiv): "Such a +strange and romantic dream as may be naturally expected to flow +from the extraordinary events of the day. It might, perhaps, be +quoted as one of Mr. Scott's most successful efforts in +descriptive poetry. Some few lines of it are indeed unrivalled +for delicacy and melancholy tenderness." + + +704. Grisly. Grim, horrible; an obsolete word, much used in old +poetry. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 30: "her darke griesly looke;" +Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. i. 4. 47: "My grisly countenance made +others fly," etc. See also iv. 322, etc. below. + + +723. Played, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Played on/ the bosoms of the lake, + / Lock Katrine's still expanse; + The birch, the wild rose, and the broom + Wasted around their rich perfume ... + The birch-trees wept in balmy dew; + The aspen slept on Benvenue; + Wild were the heart whose passions' power + Defied the influence of the hour." + + +724. Passion's. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +some recent eds. have "passions'." + + +738. Orisons. The 1st ed. has "orison" both here and in 740 +(the ed. of 1821 only in the latter); but the word is almost +invariably plural, both in poetry and prose--always in +Shakespeare and Milton. + + + + + +Canto Second. + + + + +7. A minstrel gray. "That Highland chieftains, to a late +period, retained in their service the bard, as a family officer, +admits of very easy proof. The author of the Letters from the +North of Scotland, an officer of engineers, quartered at +Inverness about 1720, who certainly cannot be deemed a favorable +witness, gives the following account of the office, and of a +bard, whom he heard exercise his talent of recitation:--'The bard +is killed in the genealogy of all the Highland families, +sometimes preceptor to the young laird, celebrates in Irish verse +the original of the tribe, the famous warlike actions of the +successive heads, and sings his own lyricks as an opiate to the +chief, when indisposed for sleep; but poets are not equally +esteemed and honored in all countries. I happened to be a witness +of the dishonour done to the muse, at the house of one of the +chiefs, where two of these bards were set at a good distance, at +the lower end of a long table, with a parcel of Highlanders of no +extraordinary appearance, over a cup of ale. Poor inspiration! +They were not asked to drink a glass of wine at our table, though +the whole company consisted only of the great man, one of his +near relations, and myself. After some little time, the chief +ordered one of them to sing me a Highland song. The bard readily +obeyed, and with a hoarse voice, and in a tune of few various +notes, began, as I was told, one of his own lyricks; and when he +had proceeded to the fourth of fifth stanza, I perceived, by the +names of several persons, glens, and mountains, which I had known +or heard of before, that it was an account of some clan battle. +But in his going on, the chief (who piques himself upon his +school-learning) at some particular passage, bid him cease, and +cryed out, "There's nothing like that in Virgil or Homer." I +bowed, and told him I believed so. This you may believe was very +edifying and delightful'" (Scott). + + +15. Than men, etc. "It is evident that the old bard, with his +second-sight, has a glimmering notion who the stranger is. He +speaks below [311] of 'courtly spy,' and James's speech had +betrayed a knowledge of the Douglas" (Taylor). + + +20. Battled. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"battle" in most others. Cf. i. 626 above. + + +22. Where beauty, etc. The MS. has "At tourneys where the brave +resort." The reference is to the tournaments, "Where," as Milton +says (L'Allegro, 119), + + "throngs of knights and barons bold. + In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, + With store of ladies, whose bright eyes + Rain influence, and judge the prize + Of wit or arms, while both contend + To win her grace whom all commend." + +Cf. 87 below. + + +26. Love's. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; most +eds. have "love." + + +29. Plaided. The plaid was properly the dress of a Highlander, +though it was worn also in the Lowlands. + + +51. The Harper on the islet beach. "This picture is touched +with the hand of the true poet" (Jeffrey). + + +56. As from. As if from. Cf. 64 and 83 below. This ellipsis +was common in Elizabethan English. Cf. Shakespeare, Macb. ii. 2. +28: + + "One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other, + As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." + + +65. In the last sound. For the measure, see on i. 73 above. + + +69. His fleet. That is, of ducks. Cf. i. 239 above. + + +80. Would scorn. Who would scorn. See on i. 528 above. + + +84. Turned him. See on i. 142 above, and cf. 106 below. + + +86. After. Afterwards; as in Shakespeare, Temp. ii. 2. 10: "And +after bite me," etc. The word is not now used adverbially of +time, though we may say "he followed after," etc. The 1st ed. +reads "that knight." + + +94. Parts. Departs; as often in poetry and earlier English. Cf. +Goldsmith, D. V. 171: "Beside the bed where parting life was +laid;" Gray, Elegy, 1: "the knell of parting day," etc. On the +other hand, depart was used in the sense of part. In the +Marriage Service "till death us do part" is a corruption of "till +death us depart." Wiclif's Bible, in Matt. xix. 6, has "therfor +a man departe not that thing that God hath ioyned." + + +103. Another step, etc. The MS. has "The loveliest Lowland fair +to spy;" and the 1st ed. reads "The step of parting fair to spy." + + +109. The Graeme. Scott has the following note here: "The +ancient and powerful family of Graham (which, for metrical +reasons, is here smelled after the Scottish pronunciation) held +extensive possessions in the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling. +Few families can boast of more historical renown, having claim to +three of the most remarkable characters in the Scottish annals. +Sir John the Graeme, the faithful and undaunted partaker of the +labors and patriotic warfare of Wallace, fell in the unfortunate +field of Falkirk, in 1298. The celebrated Marquis of Montrose, +in whom De Retz saw realized his abstract idea of the heroes of +antiquity, was the second of these worthies. And, not +withstanding the severity of his temper, and the rigor with which +he executed the oppressive mandates of the princes whom he +served, I do not hesitate to name as the third, John Graeme, of +Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, whose heroic death, in the arms +of victory, may be allowed to cancel the memory of his cruelty to +the non-conformists, during the reigns of Charles II. and James +II." + + +112. Bower. The word meant a chamber (see on i. 217 above), and +was often used of the ladies' apartments in a house. In hall and +bower = among men and women. The words are often thus +associated. Cf. Spenser, Astrophel, 28: "Merily masking both in +bowre and hall," etc. + + +115. Arose. The 1st ed. misprints "Across;" not noted in the +Errata. + + +126. And the proud march. See on i. 73 above. + + +131. Saint Modan. A Scotch abbot of the 7th century. Scott +says here: "I am not prepared to show that Saint Modan was a +performer on the harp. It was, however, no unsaintly +accomplishment; for Saint Dunstan certainly did play upon that +instrument, which retaining, as was natural, a portion of the +sanctity attached to its master's character, announced future +events by its spontaneous sound. 'But labouring once in these +mechanic arts for a devout matrone that had sett him on work, his +violl, that hung by him on the wall, of its own accord, without +anie man's helpe, distinctly sounded this anthime: Gaudent in +coelis animae sanctorum qui Christi vestigia sunt secuti; et quia +pro eius amore sanguinem suum fuderunt, ideo cum Christo gaudent +aeternum. Whereat all the companie being much astonished, turned +their eyes from beholding him working, to looke on that strange +accident. ... Not long after, manie of the court that hitherunto +had born a kind of fayned friendship towards him, began now +greatly to envie at his progresse and rising in goodness, using +manie crooked, backbiting meanes to diffame his vertues with the +black markes of hypocrisie. And the better to authorise their +calumnie, they brought in this that happened in the violl, +affirming it to have been done by art magick. What more? this +wicked rumour encreased, dayly, till the king and others of the +nobilitie taking hould thereof, Dunstan grew odious in their +sight. Therefore he resolued to leaue the court, and goe to +Elphegus, surnamed the Bauld, then bishop of Winchester, who was +his cozen. Which his enemies understanding, they layd wayte for +him in the way, and hauing throwne him off his horse, beate him, +and dragged him in the durt in the most miserable manner, meaning +to have slaine him, had not a companie of mastiue dogges, that +came unlookt uppon them, defended and redeemed him from their +crueltie. When with sorrow he was ashamed to see dogges more +humane than they. And giuing thankes to Almightie God, he +sensibly againe perceaued that the tunes of his violl had giuen +him a warning of future accidents' (Flower of the Lives of the +most renowned Sainets of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by the +R. Father Hierome Porter. Doway, 1632 4to. tome i. p. 438). + +"The same supernatural circumstance is alluded to by the +anonymous author of Grim, the Collier of Croydon: + + '-----[Dunstant's harp sounds on the wall.] + 'Forrest. Hark, hark, my lord, the holy abbot's harp + Sounds by itself so hanging on the wall! + 'Dunstan. Unhallow'd man, that scorn'st the sacred rede, + Hark, how the testimony of my truth + Sounds heavenly music with an angel's hand, + To testify Dunstan's integrity, + And prove thy active boast of no effect.'" + + +141. Bothwell's bannered hall. The picturesque ruins of +Bothwell Castle stand on the banks of the Clyde, about nine miles +above Glasgow. Some parts of the walls are 14 feet thick, and 60 +feet in height. They are covered with ivy, wild roses, and wall- +flowers. + + "The tufted grass lines Bothwell's ancient hall, + The fox peeps cautious from the creviced wall, + Where once proud Murray, Clydesdale's ancient lord, + A mimic sovereign, held the festal board." + + +142. Ere Douglases, to ruin driven. Scott says: "The downfall +of the Douglases of the house of Angus, during the reign of James +V., is the event alluded to in the text. The Earl of Angus, it +will be remembered, had married the queen dowager, and availed +himself of the right which he thus acquired, as well as of his +extensive power, to retain the king in a sort of tutelage, which +approached very near to captivity. Several open attempts were +made to rescue James from this thraldom, with which he was well +known to be deeply disgusted; but the valor of the Douglases, and +their allies, gave them the victory in every conflict. At +length, the king, while residing at Falkland, contrived to escape +by night out of his own court and palace, and rode full speed to +Stirling Castle, where the governor, who was of the opposite +faction, joyfully received him. Being thus at liberty, James +speedily summoned around him such peers as he knew to be most +inimical to the domination of Angus, and laid his complaint +before them, says Pitscottie, 'with great lamentations: showing +to them how he was holding in subjection, thir years bygone, by +the Earl of Angus, and his kin and friends, who oppressed the +whole country, and spoiled it, under the pretence of justice and +his authority; and had slain many of his lieges, kinsmen, and +friends, because they would have had it mended at their hands, +and put him at liberty, as he ought to have been, at the counsel +of his whole lords, and not have been subjected and corrected +with no particular men, by the rest of his nobles: Therefore, +said he, I desire, my lords, that I may be satisfied of the said +earl, his kin, and friends; for I avow, that Scotland shall not +hold us both, while [i.e. till] I be revenged on him and his. + +'The lords hearing the king's complaint and lamentation, and also +the great rage, fury, and malice, that he bure toward the Earl of +Angus, his kin and friends, they concluded all and thought it +best, that he should be summoned to underly the law; if he fand +not caution, nor yet compear himself, that he should be put to +the horn, with all his kin and friends, so many as were contained +in the letters. And further, the lords ordained, by advice of +his majesty, that his brother and friends should be summoned to +find caution to underly the law within a certain day, or else be +put to the horn. But the earl appeared not, nor none for him; and +so he was put to the horn, with all his kin and friends: so many +as were contained in the summons, that compeared not, were +banished, and holden traitors to the king.'" + + +159. From Tweed to Spey. From the Tweed, the southern boundary +of Scotland, to the Spey, a river far to the north in Inverness- +shire; that is, from one end of the land to the other. + + +170. Reave. Tear away. The participle reft is still used, at +least in poetry. Cf. Shakespeare, V. and A. 766: "Or butcher- +sire that reaves his son of life" (that is, bereaves); Spenser, +F. Q. i. 3. 36: "He to him lept, in minde to reave his life;" Id. +ii. 8. 15: "I will him reave of arms," etc. + + +178. It drinks, etc. The MS. has "No blither dewdrop cheers the +rose." + + +195, 196. To see ... dance. This couplet is not in the MS. + + +200. The Lady of the Bleeding Heart. The bleeding heart was the +cognizance of the Douglas family. Robert Bruce, on his death- +bed, bequeathed his heart to his friend, the good Lord James, to +be borne in war against the Saracens. "He joined Alphonso, King +of Leon and Castile, then at war with the Moorish chief Osurga, +of Granada, and in a keen contest with the Moslems he flung +before him the casket containing the precious relic, crying out, +'Onward as thou wert wont, thou noble heart, Douglas will follow +thee.' Douglas was slain, but his body was recovered, and also +the precious casket, and in the end Douglas was laid with his +ancestors, and the heart of Bruce deposited in the church of +Melrose Abbey" (Burton's Hist. of Scotland). + + +201. Fair. The 1st ed. (and probably the MS., though not noted +by Lockhart) has "Gay." + + +203. Yet is this, etc. The MS. and 1st ed. read: + + "This mossy rock, my friend, to me + Is worth gay chair and canopy." + + +205. Footstep. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.; +"footsteps" in recent ones. + + +206. Strathspey. A Highland dance, which takes its name from +the strath, or broad valley, of the Spey (159 above). + + +213. Clan-Alpine's pride. "The Siol Alpine, or race of Alpine, +includes several clans who claimed descent from Kenneth McAlpine, +an ancient king. These are the Macgregors, the Grants, the +Mackies, the Mackinnans, the MacNabs, the MacQuarries, and the +Macaulays. Their common emblem was the pine, which is now +confined to the Macgregors" (Taylor). + + +214. Loch Lomond. This beautiful lake, "the pride of Scottish +lakes," is about 23 miles in length and 5 miles in its greatest +breadth. At the southern end are many islands, one of which, +Inch-Cailliach (the Island of Women, so called from a nunnery +that was once upon it), was the burial-place of Clan-Alpine. See +iii. 191 below. + + +216. A Lennox foray. That is, a raid in the lands of the Lennox +family, bordering on the southern end of Loch Lomond. On the +island of Inch-Murrin, the ruins of Lennox Castle, formerly a +residence of the Earls of Lennox, are still to be seen. There +was another of their strongholds on the shore of the lake near +Balloch, where the modern Balloch Castle now stands. + + +217. Her glee. The 1st ed. misprints "his glee;" not noted in +the Errata. + + +220. Black Sir Roderick. Roderick Dhu, or the Black, as he was +called. + + +221. In Holy-Rood a knight he slew. That is, in Holyrood +Palace. "This was by no means an uncommon occurrence in the Court +of Scotland; nay, the presence of the sovereign himself scarcely +restrained the ferocious and inveterate feuds which were the +perpetual source of bloodshed among the Scottish nobility" +(Scott). + + +223. Courtiers give place, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Courtiers give place with heartless stride + Of the retiring homicide." + + +227. Who else, etc. The MS. has the following couplet before +this line: + + "Who else dared own the kindred claim + That bound him to thy mother's name?" + + +229. The Douglas, etc. Scott says here: "The exiled state of +this powerful race is not exaggerated in this and subsequent +passages. The hatred of James against the race of Douglas was so +inveterate, that numerous as their allies were, and disregarded +as the regal authority had usually been in similar cases, their +nearest friends, even in the most remote part of Scotland, durst +not entertain them, unless under the strictest and closest +disguise. James Douglas, son of the banished Earl of Angus, +afterwards well known by the title of Earl of Morton, lurked, +during the exile of his family, in the north of Scotland, under +the assumed name of James Innes, otherwise James the Grieve (i.e. +reve or bailiff). 'And as he bore the name,' says Godscroft, 'so +did he also execute the office of a grieve or overseer of the +lands and rents, the corn and cattle of him with whom he lived.' +From the habits of frugality and observation which he acquired in +his humble situation, the historian traces that intimate +acquaintance with popular character which enabled him to rise so +high in the state, and that honorable economy by which he +repaired and established the shattered estates of Angus and +Morton (History of the House of Douglas, Edinburgh, 1743, vol. +ii. p. 160)." + + +235. Guerdon. Reward; now rarely used except in poetry. Cf. +Spenser, F. Q. i. 10. 59: "That glory does to them for guerdon +graunt," etc. + + +236. Dispensation. As Roderick and Ellen were cousins, they +could not marry without a dispensation from the Pope. + + +251. Orphan. Referring to child, not to she, as its position +indicates. + + +254. Shrouds. Shields, protects. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 6: +"And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were fain" (that +is, from the rain). So the noun = shelter, protection; as in +Shakespeare, A. and C. iii. 13. 71: "put yourself under his +shroud," etc. See also on 757 below. + + +260. Maronnan's cell. "The parish of Kilmaronock, at the +eastern extremity of Loch Lomond, derives its name from a cell, +or chapel, dedicated to Saint Maronock, or Marnock, or Maronnan, +about whose sanctity very little is now remembered" (Scott). +Kill = cell; as in Colmekill (Macb. ii. 4. 33), "the cell of +Columba," now known as Icolmkill, or Iona. + + +270. Bracklinn's thundering wave. This beautiful cascade is on +the Keltie, a mile from Callander. The height of the fall is +about fifty feet. "A few years ago a marriage party of Lowland +peasants met with a tragic end here, two of them having tumbled +into the broken, angry waters, where they had no more chance of +life than if they had dropped into the crater of Hecla" (Black). + + +271. Save. Unless; here followed by the subjunctive. + + +274. Claymore. The word means "a large sword" (Gaelic +claidheamh, sword, and more, great). + + +294. Shadowy plaid and sable plume. Appropriate to Roderick +Dhu. See on 220 above. + + +303. Woe the while. Woe be to the time, alas the time! Cf. +Shakespeare, J. C. i. 3. 82: "But, woe the while! our fathers' +minds are dead," etc. See also on i. 166 above. + + +306. Tine-man. "Archibald, the third Earl of Douglas, was so +unfortunate in all his enterprises, that he acquired the epithet +of 'tine-man,' because he tined, or lost, his followers in every +battle which he fought. He was vanquished, as every reader must +remember, in the bloody battle of Homildon-hill, near Wooler, +where he himself lost an eye, and was made prisoner by Hotspur. +He was no less unfortunate when allied with Percy, being wounded +and taken at the battle of Shrewsbury. He was so unsuccessful in +an attempt to beseige Roxburgh Castle, that it was called the +'Foul Raid,' or disgraceful expedition. His ill fortune left him +indeed at the battle of Beauge, in France; but it was only to +return with double emphasis at the subsequent action of Vernoil, +the last and most unlucky of his encounters, in which he fell, +with the flower of the Scottish chivalry, then serving as +auxiliaries in France, and about two thousand common soldiers, +A.D. 1424" (Scott). + + +307. What time, etc. That is, at the time when Douglas allied +himself with Percy in the rebellion against Henry IV. of England. +See Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. + + +309. Did, self unscabbarded, etc. Scott says here: "The ancient +warriors, whose hope and confidence rested chiefly in their +blades, were accustomed to deduce omens from them, especially +from such as were supposed to have been fabricated by enchanted +skill, of which we have various instances in the romances and +legends of the time. The wonderful sword Skofnung, wielded by the +celebrated Hrolf Kraka, was of this description. It was +deposited in the tomb of the monarch at his death, and taken from +thence by Skeggo, a celebrated pirate, who bestowed it upon his +son-in-law, Kormak, with the following curious directions: '"The +manner of using it will appear strange to you. A small bag is +attached to it, which take heed not to violate. Let not the rays +of the sun touch the upper part of the handle, nor unsheathe it, +unless thou art ready for battle. But when thou comest to the +place of fight, go aside from the rest, grasp and extend the +sword, and breathe upon it. Then a small worm will creep out of +the handle; lower the handle, that he may more easily return into +it." Kormak, after having received the sword, returned home to +his mother. He showed the sword, and attempted to draw it, as +unnecessarily as ineffectually, for he could not pluck it out of +the sheath. His mother, Dalla, exclaimed, "Do not despise the +counsel given to thee, my son." Kormak, however, repeating his +efforts, pressed down the handle with his feet, and tore off the +bag, when Skofung emitted a hollow groan; but still he could not +unsheathe the sword. Kormak then went out with Bessus, whom he +had challenged to fight with him, and drew apart at the place of +combat. He sat down upon the ground, and ungirding the sword, +which he bore above his vestments, did not remember to shield the +hilt from the rays of the sun. In vain he endeavored to draw it, +till he placed his foot against the hilt; then the worm issued +from it. But Kormak did not rightly handle the weapon, in +consequence whereof good fortune deserted it. As he unsheathed +Skofnung, it emitted a hollow murmur' (Bartholini de Causis +Contemptae a Danis adhuc Gentilibus Mortis, Libri Tres. Hafniae, +1689, 4to, p. 574). + +"To the history of this sentient and prescient weapon, I beg +leave to add, from memory, the following legend, for which I +cannot produce any better authority. A young nobleman, of high +hopes and fortune, chanced to lose his way in the town which he +inhabited, the capital, if I mistake not, of a German province. +He had accidentally involved himself among the narrow and winding +streets of a suburb, inhabited by the lowest order of the people, +and an approaching thunder-shower determined him to ask a short +refuge in the most decent habitation that was near him. He +knocked at the door, which was opened by a tall man, of a grisly +and ferocious aspect, and sordid dress. The stranger was readily +ushered to a chamber, where swords, scourges, and machines, which +seemed to be implements of torture, were suspended on the wall. +One of these swords dropped from its scabbard, as the nobleman, +after a moment's hesitation, crossed the threshold. His host +immediately stared at him with such a marked expression, that the +young man could not help demanding his name and business, and the +meaning of his looking at him so fixedly. 'I am,' answered the +man, 'the public executioner of this city; and the incident you +have observed is a sure augury that I shall, in discharge of my +duty, one day cut off your head with the weapon which has just +now spontaneously unsheathed itself.' The nobleman lost no time +in leaving his place of refuge; but, engaging in some of the +plots of the period, was shortly after decapitated by that very +man and instrument. + +"Lord Lovat is said, by the author of the Letters from Scotland +(vol. ii. p. 214), to have affirmed that a number of swords that +hung up in the hall of the mansion-house, leaped of themselves +out of the scabbard at the instant he was born. The story passed +current among his clan, but, like that of the story I have just +quoted, proved an unfortunate omen." + + +311. If courtly spy hath, etc. The 1st ed. has "If courtly spy, +and harbored," etc. The ed. of 1821 reads "had harbored." + + +319. Beltane. The first of May, when there was a Celtic +festival in honor of the sun. Beltane = Beal-tein, or the fire +of Beal, a Gaelic name for the sun. It was celebrated by +kindling fires on the hill-tops at night, and other ceremonies, +followed by dances, and merry-making. Cf. 410 below. See also +The Lord of the Isles, i. 8: "The shepherd lights his belane- +fire;" and Glenfinlas: + + "But o'er his hills, in festal day, + How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree!" + + +323. But hark! etc. "The moving picture--the effect of the +sounds --and the wild character and strong peculiar nationality +of the whole procession, are given with inimitable spirit and +power of expression" (Jeffrey). + + +327. The canna's hoary beard. The down of the canna, or cotton- +grass. + + +335. Glengyle. A valley at the northern end of Lock Katrine. + + +337. Brianchoil. A promontory on the northern shore of the +lake. + + +342. Spears, pikes, and axes. The 1st ed. and that of 1821 have +Spears, but all the recent ones misprint "Spear." The "Globe" +ed. has "Spear, spikes," etc. + + +343. Tartans. The checkered woollen cloth so much worn in +Scotland. Curiously enough, the name is not Gaelic but French. +See Jamieson or Wb. + +Brave. Fine, beautiful; the same word as the Scottish braw. Cf. +Shakespeare, Sonn. 12. 2: "And see the brave day sunk in hideous +night;" Ham. ii. 2. 312: "This brave o'erhanging firmament," etc. +It is often used of dress, as also is bravery (= finery); as in +T. of S. iv. 3. 57: "With scarfs and fans and double change of +bravery." See also Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale, 858: "Which +oft maintain'd his masters braverie" (that is, dressed as well as +his master). + + +351. Chanters. The pipes of the bagpipes, to which long ribbons +were attached. + + +357. The sounds. Misprinted "the sound" in the ed. of 1821, and +all the more recent eds. that we have seen. Cf. 363 below. + + +363. Those thrilling sounds, etc. Scott says here: "The +connoisseurs in pipe-music affect to discover in a well-composed +pibroch, the imitative sounds of march, conflict, flight, +pursuit, and all the 'current of a heady fight.' To this opinion +Dr. Beattie has given his suffrage, in that following elegant +passage:--'A pibroch is a species of tune, peculiar, I think, to +the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It is performed on +a bagpipe, and differs totally from all other music. Its rhythm +is so irregular, and its notes, especially in the quick movement, +so mixed and huddled together, that a stranger finds it +impossible to reconcile his ear to it, so as to perceive its +modulation. Some of these pibrochs, being intended to represent +a battle, begin with a grave motion, resembling a march; then +gradually quicken into the onset; run off with noisy confusion, +and turbulent rapidity, to imitate the conflict and pursuit; then +swell into a few flourishes of triumphant joy; and perhaps close +with the wild and slow wailings of a funeral procession' (Essay +on Laughter and Ludicrious Composition, chap. iii. note)." + + +367. Hurrying. Referring to their, or rather to the them +implied in that word. + + +392. The burden bore. That is, sustained the burden, or chorus, +of the song. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp. i. 2. 381: "And, sweet +sprites, the burden bear." + + +399. Hail to the Chief, etc. The metre of the song is dactylic; +the accents being on the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th syllables. It +is little used in English. Tennyson's Charge of the Light +Brigade and Longfellow's Skeleton in Armor are familiar examples +of it. + + +405. Bourgeon. Bud. Cf. Fairfax, Tasso, vii. 76: When first on +trees bourgeon the blossoms soft;" and Tennyson, In Memoriam, +115: + + "Now burgeons every maze of quick + About the flowering squares," etc. + + +408. Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu. "Besides his ordinary name and +surname, which were chiefly used in the intercourse with the +Lowlands, every Highland chief had an epithet expressive of his +patriarchal dignity as head of the clan, and which was common to +all his predecessors and successors, as Pharaoh to the kings of +Egypt, or Arsaces to those of Parthia. This name was usually a +patronymic, expressive of his descent from the founder of the +family. Thus the Duke of Argyll is called MacCallum More, or the +son of Colin the Great. Sometimes, however, it is derived from +armorial distinctions, or the memory of some great feat; thus +Lord Seaforth, as chief of the Mackenzies, or Clan-Kennet, bears +the epithet of Caber-fae, or Buck's Head, as representative of +Colin Fitzgerald, founder of the family, who saved the Scottish +king, when endangered by a stag. But besides this title, which +belonged to his office and dignity, the chieftain had usually +another peculiar to himself, which distinguished him from the +chieftains of the same race. This was sometimes derived from +complexion, as dhu or roy; sometimes from size, as beg or more; +at other times, from some peculiar exploit, or from some +peculiarity of habit or appearance. The line of the text +therefore signifies, + + Black Roderick, the descendant of Alpine. + +"The song itself is intended as an imitation of the jorrams, or +boat songs, of the Highlanders, which were usually composed in +honor of a favorite chief. They are so adapted as to keep time +with the sweep of the oars, and it is easy to distinguish between +those intended to be sung to the oars of a galley, where the +stroke is lengthened and doubled, as it were, and those which +were timed to the rowers of an ordinary boat" (Scott). + + +410. Beltane. See on 319 above. + + +415. Roots him. See on i. 142 above. + + +416. Breadalbane. The district north of Loch Lomond and around +Loch Tay. The seat of the Earl of Breadalbane is Taymouth +Castle, near the northern end of Loch Tay. + +For Menteith, see on i. 89 above. + + +419. Glen Fruin. A valley to the southwest of Loch Lomond. The +ruins of the castle of Benuchara, or Bannochar (see on 422 just +below), still overhang the entrance to the glen. + +Glen Luss is another valley draining into the lake, a few miles +from Glen Fruin, and Ross-dhu is on the shore of the lake, midway +between the two. Here stands a tower, the only remnant of the +ancient castle of the family of Luss, which became merged in that +of Colquhoun. + + +422. The best of Loch Lomond, etc. Scott has the following note +here: + + +"The Lennox, as the district is called which encircles the lower +extremity of Loch Lomond, was peculiarly exposed to the +incursions of the mountaineers, who inhabited the inaccessible +fastnesses at the upper end of the lake, and the neighboring +district of Loch Katrine. These were often marked by +circumstances of great ferocity, of which the noted conflict of +Glen Fruin is a celebrated instance. This was a clan-battle, in +which the Macgregors, headed by Allaster Macgregor, chief of the +clan, encountered the sept of Colquhouns, commanded by Sir +Humphry Colquhoun of Luss. It is on all hands allowed that the +action was desperately fought, and that the Colquhouns were +defeated with slaughter, leaving two hundred of their name dead +upon the field. But popular tradition has added other horrors to +the tale. It is said that Sir Humphry Colquhoun, who was on +horseback, escaped to the Castle of Benechra, or Bannochar, and +was next day dragged out and murdered by the victorious +Macgregors in cold blood. Buchanan of Auchmar, however, speaks +of his slaughter as a subsequent event, and as perpetrated by the +Macfarlanes. Again, it is reported that the Macgregors murdered +a number of youths, whom report of the intended battle had +brought to be spectators, and whom the Colquhouns, anxious for +their safety, had shut up in a barn to be out of danger. One +account of the Macgregors denies this circumstance entirely; +another ascribes it to the savage and bloodthirsty disposition of +a single individual, the bastard brother of the Laird of +Macgregor, who amused himself with this second massacre of the +innocents, in express disobedience to the chief, by whom he was +left their guardian during the pursuit of the Colquhouns. It is +added that Macgregor bitterly lamented this atrocious action, and +prophesied the ruin which it must bring upon their ancient clan. +... + +"The consequences of the battle of Glen Fruin were very +calamitous to the family of Macgregor, who had already been +considered as an unruly clan. The widows of the slain +Colquhouns, sixty, it is said, in number, appeared in doleful +procession before the king at Stirling, each riding upon a white +palfrey, and bearing in her hand the bloody shirt of her husband +displayed upon a pike. James VI. was so much moved by the +complaints of this 'choir of mourning dames,' that he let loose +his vengeance against the Macgregors without either bounds or +moderation. The very name of the clan was proscribed, and those +by whom it had been borne were given up to sword and fire, and +absolutely hunted down by bloodhounds like wild beasts. Argyll +and the Campbells, on the one hand, Montrose, with the Grahames +and Buchanans, on the other, are said to have been the chief +instruments in suppressing this devoted clan. The Laird of +Macgregor surrendered to the former, on condition that he would +take him out of Scottish ground. But, to use Birrel's +expression, he kept 'a Highlandman's promise;' and, although he +fulfilled his word to the letter, by carrying him as far as +Berwick, he afterwards brought him back to Edinburgh, where he +was executed with eighteen of his clan (Birrel's Diary, 2d Oct. +1903). The clan Gregor being thus driven to utter despair, seem +to have renounced the laws from the benefit of which they were +excluded, and their depredations produced new acts of council, +confirming the severity of their proscription, which had only the +effect of rendering them still more united and desperate. It is +a most extraordinary proof of the ardent and invincible spirit of +clanship, that notwithstanding the repeated proscriptions +providently ordained by the legislature, 'for the timeous +preventing the disorders and oppression that may fall out by the +said name and clan of Macgregors, and their followers,' they +were, in 1715 and 1745, a potent clan, and continue to subsist as +a distinct and numerous race." + + +426. Leven-glen. The valley of the Leven, which connects Loch +Lomond with the Clyde. + + +431. The rosebud. That is, Ellen. "Note how this song connects +Allan's forebodings with Roderick's subsequent offer" (Taylor). + + +444. And chorus wild, etc. The MS. has "The chorus to the +chieftain's fame." + + +476. Weeped. The form is used for the rhyme. Cf. note on i. +500 above. + + +477. Nor while, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Nor while on Ellen's faltering tongue + Her filial greetings eager hung, + Marked not that awe (affection's proof) + Still held yon gentle youth aloof; + No! not till Douglas named his name, + Although the youth was Malcolm Graeme. + Then with flushed cheek and downcast eye, + Their greeting was confused and shy." + + +495. Bothwell. See on 141 above. + + +497. Percy's Norman pennon. Taken in the raid which led to the +battle of Otterburn, in Northumberland, in the year 1388, and +which forms the theme of the ballads of Chevy Chase. + + +501. My pomp. My triumphal procession; the original meaning of +pomp. + + +504. Crescent. The badge of the Buccleuch family (Miss Yonge). + + +506. Blantyre. A priory, the ruins of which are still to be +seen on a height above the Clyde, opposite Bothwell Castle. + + +521. The dogs, etc. The MS. has "The dogs with whimpering notes +repaid." + + +525. Unhooded. The falcon was carried on the wrist, with its +head covered, or hooded, until the prey was seen, when it was +unhooded for flight. Cf. vi. 665 below. + + +526. Trust. Believe me. + + +527. Like fabled Goddess. The MS. has "Like fabled huntress;" +referring of course to Diana. + + +534. Stature fair. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"stature tall" in most of the other eds. + + +541. The ptarmigan. A white bird. + + +543. Menteith. See on i. 89 above. + + +548. Ben Lomond. This is much the highest (3192 feet) of the +mountains on the shores of Loch Lomond. The following lines on +the ascent were scratched upon the window-pane of the old inn at +Tarbet a hundred years or more ago: + + "Trust not at first a quick adventurous pace; + Six miles its top points gradual from its base; + Up the high rise with panting haste I past, + And gained the long laborious steep at last; + More prudent thou--when once you pass the deep, + With cautious steps and slow ascend the steep." + + +549. Not a sob. That is, without panting, or getting out of +breath, like the degenerate modern tourist. + + +574. Glenfinlas. A wooded valley between Ben-an and Benledi, +the entrance to which is between Lochs Achray and Vennachar. It +is the scene of Scott's ballad, Glenfinlas, or Lord Ronald's +Coronach. A mile from the entrance are the falls of the Hero's +Targe. See iv. 84 below. + + +577. Still a royal ward. Still under age, with the king for +guardian. + + +583. Strath-Endrick. A valley to the southeast of Loch Lomond, +drained by Endrick Water. + + +584. Peril aught. Incur any peril. Milton uses the verb +intransitively in Reason of Church Government, ii. 3: "it may +peril to stain itself." + + +587. Not in action. The 1st ed. has "nor in action." + + +594. News. Now generally used as a singular; but in old writers +both as singular and as plural. Cf. Shakespeare, K. John, iii. +4. 164: "at that news he dies;" and Id. v. 7. 65: "these dead +news," etc. + + +601. As. As if. See on 56 above. + + +606. Glozing. That glosses over the truth, not plain and +outspoken. Sometimes it means to flatter, or deceive with smooth +words; as in Spenser, F. Q. iii. 8. 14: + + "For he could well his glozing speeches frame + To such vaine uses that him best became;" + +Smith, Sermons (A. D. 1609): "Every smooth tale is not to be +believed; and every glosing tongue is not to be trusted;" Milton, +P. L. iii. 93: "his glozing lies;" Id. ix. 549: "So glozed the +Tempter;" Comus, 161: "well-placed words of glozing courtesy," +etc. + + +615. The King's vindictive pride, etc. Scott says here: "In +1529, James made a convention at Edinburgh, for the purpose of +considering the best mode of quelling the Border robbers, who, +during the license of his minority, and the troubles which +followed, had committed many exorbitances. Accordingly he +assembled a flying army of ten thousand men, consisting of his +principal nobility and their followers, who were directed to +bring their hawks and dogs with them, that the monarch might +refresh himself with sport during the intervals of military +execution. With this array he swept through Ettrick Forest, +where he hanged over the gate of his own castle Piers Cockburn of +Henderland, who had prepared, according to tradition, a feast for +his reception. He caused Adam Scott of Tushiclaw also to be +executed, who was distinguished by the title of King of the +Border. But the most noted victim of justice during that +expedition was John Armstrong of Gilnockie, famous in Scottish +song, who, confiding in his own supposed innocence, met the King, +with a retinue of thirty-six persons, all of whom were hanged at +Carlenrig, near the source of the Teviot. The effect of this +severity was such, that, as the vulgar expressed it, 'the rush- +bush kept the cow,' and 'thereafter was great peace and rest a +long time, wherethrough the King had great profit; for he had ten +thousand sheep going in the Ettrick Forest in keeping by Andrew +Bell, who made the king as good count of them as they had gone in +the bounds of Fife' (Pitscottie's History, p. 153)." + + +623. Meggat's mead. The Meggat, or Megget, is a mountain stream +flowing into the Yarrow, a branch of the Etrrick, which is itself +a branch of the Tweed. The Teviot is also a branch of the Tweed. + + +627. The dales, etc. The MS. has "The dales where clans were +wont to bide." + + +634. By fate of Border chivalry. Scott says: "James was, in +fact, equally attentive to restrain rapine and feudal oppression +in every part of his dominions. 'The King past to the isles, and +there held justice courts, and punished both thief and traitor +according to their demerit. And also he caused great men to show +their holdings, wherethrough he found many of the said lands in +non-entry; the which he confiscate and brought home to his own +use, and afterwards annexed them to the crown, as ye shall hear. +Syne brought many of the great men of the isles captive with him, +such as Mudyart, M'Connel, M'Loyd of the Lewes, M'Neil, M'Lane, +M'Intosh, John Mudyart, M'Kay, M'Kenzie, with many other that I +cannot rehearse at this time. Some of them he put in ward and +some in court, and some he took pledges for good rule in time +coming. So he brought the isles, both north and south, in good +rule and peace; wherefore he had great profit, service, and +obedience of people a long time hereafter; and as long as he had +the heads of the country in subjection, they lived in great peace +and rest, and there was great riches and policy by the King's +justice' (Pitscottie, p. 152)." + + +638. Your counsel. That is, give me your counsel. Streight = +strait. + + +659. The Bleeding Heart. See on 200 above. + + +662. Quarry. See on i. 127 above. + + +672. To wife. For wife. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp. ii. 1. 75: +"such a paragon to their queen;" Rich. II. iv. 1. 306: "I have a +king here to my flatterer," etc. See also Matt. iii. 9, Luke, +iii. 8, etc. + + +674. Enow. The old plural of enough; as in Shakespeare, Hen. V. +iv. 1. 240: "we have French quarrels enow," etc. + + +678. The Links of Forth. The windings of the Forth between +Stirling and Alloa. + + +679. Stirling's porch. The gate of Stirling Castle. + + +683. Blench. Start, shrink. + + +685. Heat. Misprinted "heart" in many eds. + + +690. From pathless glen. The MS. has "from hill and glen." + + +692. There are who have. For the ellipsis, cf. Shakespeare, +Temp. ii. 1. 262: "There be that can rule Naples," etc. See also +iii. 10 below. + + +694. That beetled o'er. Cf. Hamlet, i. 4. 71: + + + "the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his +base into the sea." + + +696. Their dangerous dream. The MS. has "their desperate +dream." + + +702. Battled. Battlemented; as in vi. 7 below. + + +703. It waved. That it waved; an ellipsis very common in +Elizabethan and earlier English. Cf. 789 below. + + +708. Astound. Astounded. This contraction of the participle +(here used for the sake of the rhyme) was formerly not uncommon +in verbs ending in d and t. Thus in Shakespeare we find the +participles bloat (Ham. iii. 4. 182), enshield (M. for M. ii. 4. +80), taint (1 Hen. VI. v. 3. 183), etc. + + +710. Crossing. Conflicting. + + +716. Ere. The 1st ed. misprints "e'er." + + +731. Level. Aim; formerly a technical term. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. +iii. 2. 286: "The foeman may with as great aim level at the edge +of a penknife," etc. + + +747. Nighted. Benighted. It is to be regarded as a contraction +of that word; like lated for belated in Macbeth, iii. 3. 6, etc. +Nighted (= dark, black) in Hamlet, i. 2. 68 ("thy nighted +colour") is an adjective formed from the noun night. + + +757. Checkered shroud. Tartain plaid. The original meaning of +shroud (see Wb.) was garment. + + +763. Parting. Departing. See on 94 above. + + +768. So deep, etc. According to Lockhart, the MS. reads: + + "The deep-toned anguish of despair + Flushed, in fierce jealousy, to air;" + +but we suspect that "Flushed" should be "Flashed." + + +774. So lately. At the "Beltane game" (319 above). + + +781. Thus as they strove, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Thus, as they strove, each better hand + Grasped for the dagger or the brand." + + +786. I hold, etc. Scott has the following note on the last page +of the 1st ed.: "The author has to apologize for the inadvertent +appropriation of a whole line from the tragedy of Douglas: 'I +hold the first who strikes my foe.'" + + +789. His daughter's hand, etc. For the ellipsis of that, see on +703 above. Deemed is often misprinted "doomed." + + +791. Sullen and slowly, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Sullen and slow the rivals bold + Loosed at his hest their desperate hold, + But either still on other glared," etc. + + +795. Brands. A pet word with Scott. Note how often it has been +used already in the poem. + + +798. As faltered. See on 601 above. + + +801. Pity 't were, etc. Scott says here: "Hardihood was in +every respect so essential to the character of a Highlander, that +the reproach of effeminacy was the most bitter which could be +thrown upon him. Yet it was sometimes hazarded on what we might +presume to think slight grounds. It is reported of old Sir Ewen +Cameron of Lochiel, when upwards of seventy, that he was +surprised by night on a hunting or military expedition. He +wrapped him in his plaid, and lay contentedly down upon the snow, +with which the ground happened to be covered. Among his +attendants, who were preparing to take their rest in the same +manner, he observed that one of his grandsons, for his better +accommodation, had rolled a large snow-ball, and placed it below +his head. The wrath of the ancient chief was awakened by a +symptom of what he conceived to be degenerate luxury. 'Out upon +thee,' said he, kicking the frozen bolster from the head which it +supported, 'art thou so effeminate as to need a pillow?' The +officer of engineers, whose curious Letters from the Highlands +have been more than once quoted, tells a similar story of +Macdonald of Keppoch, and subjoins the following remarks: 'This +and many other stories are romantick; but there is one thing, +that at first thought might seem very romantick, of which I have +been credibly assured, that when the Highlanders are constrained +to lie among the hills, in cold dry weather, they sometimes soak +the plaid in some river or burn (i.e. brook), and then holding up +a corner of it a little above their heads, they turn themselves +round and round, till they are enveloped by the whole mantle. +They then lay themselves down on the heath, upon the leeward side +of some hill, where the wet and the warmth of their bodies make a +steam, like that of a boiling kettle. The wet, they say, keeps +them warm by thickening the stuff, and keeping the wind from +penetrating. I must confess I should have been apt to question +this fact, had I not frequently seen them wet from morning to +night, and, even at the beginning of the rain, not so much as +stir a few yards to shelter, but continue in it without +necessity, till they were, as we say, wet through and through. +And that is soon effected by the looseness and spunginess of the +plaiding; but the bonnet is frequently taken off, and wrung like +a dishclout, and then put on again. They have been accustomed +from their infancy to be often wet, and to take the water like +spaniels, and this is become a second nature, and can scarcely be +called a hardship to them, insomuch that I used to say, they +seemed to be of the duck kind, and to love water as well. Though +I never saw this preparation for sleep in windy weather, yet, +setting out early in a morning from one of the huts, I have seen +the marks of their lodging, where the ground has been free from +rime or snow, which remained all round the spot where they had +lain' (Letters from Scotland, Lond. 1754, 8vo, ii. p. 108)." + + +809. His henchman. Scott quotes again the Letters from Scotland +(ii. 159): "This officer is a sort of secretary, and is to be +ready, upon all occasions, to venture his life in defence of his +master; and at drinking-bouts he stands behind his seat, at his +haunch, from whence his title is derived, and watches the +conversation, to see if any one offends his patron. An English +officer being in company with a certain chieftain, and several +other Highland gentlemen, near Killichumen, had an argument with +the great man; and both being well warmed with usky [whisky], at +last the dispute grew very hot. A youth who was henchman, not +understanding one word of English, imagined his chief was +insulted, and thereupon drew his pistol from his side, and +snapped it at the officer's head; but the pistol missed fire, +otherwise it is more than probable he might have suffered death +from the hand of that little vermin. But it is very disagreeable +to an Englishman over a bottle with the Highlanders, to see every +one of them have his gilly, that is, his servant, standing behind +him all the while, let what will be the subject of conversation." + + +829. On the morn. Modifying should circle, not the nearer verb +had sworn. + + +831. The Fiery Cross. See on iii. 18 below. + + +846. Point. Point out, appoint. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonn. 14. 6: + + "Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, + Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind." + +The word in this and similar passages is generally printed +"'point" by modern editors, but it is not a contraction of +appoint. + + +860. Then plunged, etc. The MS. has "He spoke, and plunged into +the tide." + + +862. Steered him. See on i. 142 above. + + +865, 866. Darkening ... gave. In the 1st ed. these lines are +joined to what precedes, as they evidently should be; in all the +more recent eds. they are joined to what follows. + + + + + +Canto Third. + + + + +3. Store. See on i. 548 above. + + +5. That be. in old English, besides the present tense am, etc., +there was also this form be, from the Anglo-Saxon beon. The 2d +person singular was beest. The 1st and 3d person plural be is +often found in Shakespeare and the Bible. + + +10. Yet live there still, etc. See on ii. 692 above. + + +15. What time. Cf. ii. 307 above. + + +17. The gathering sound. The sound, or signal, for the +gathering. The phrase illustrates the difference between the +participle and the verbal noun (or whatever it may be called) in +-ing. Cf. "a laboring man" and "a laboring day" (Julius Caesar, +i. 1. 4); and see our ed. of J. C. p. 126. + + +18. The Fiery Cross. Scott says here: "When a chieftain +designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important +emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, +seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the +blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean +Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the +symbol implied, inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and +trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, +where he presented it to the principal person, with a single +word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the +symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal despatch, to the +next village; and thus it passed with incredible celerity through +all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also +among his allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to +them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years +old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to +repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of +rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of +fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the +disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike +signal. During the civil war of 1745-6, the Fiery Cross often +made its circuit; and upon one occasion it passed through the +whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in +three hours. The late Alexander Stewart, Esq., of Invernahyle, +described to me his having sent round the Fiery Cross through the +district of Appine, during the same commotion. The coast was +threatened by a descent from two English trigates, and the flower +of the young men were with the army of Prince Charles Edward, +then in England; yet the summons was so effectual that even old +age and childhood obeyed it; and a force was collected in a few +hours, so numerous and so enthusiastic, that all attempt at the +intended diversion upon the country of the absent warriors was in +prudence abandoned, as desperate." + + +19. The Summer dawn's reflected hue, etc. Mr. Ruskin says +(Modern Painters, iii. 278): "And thus Nature becomes dear to +Scott in a threefold way: dear to him, first, as containing those +remains or memories of the past, which he cannot find in cities, +and giving hope of Praetorian mound or knight's grave in every +green slope and shade of its desolate places; dear, secondly, in +its moorland liberty, which has for him just as high a charm as +the fenced garden had for the mediaeval; ... and dear to him, +finally, in that perfect beauty, denied alike in cities and in +men, for which every modern heart had begun at last to thirst, +and Scott's, in its freshness and power, of all men's most +earnestly. + +"And in this love of beauty, observe that the love of colour is a +leading element, his healthy mind being incapable of losing, +under any modern false teaching, its joy in brilliancy of hue. +... In general, if he does not mean to say much about things, the +one character which he will give is colour, using it with the +most perfect mastery and faithfulness." + +After giving many illustrations of Scott's use of colour in his +poetry, Ruskin quotes the present passage, which he says is +"still more interesting, because it has no form in it at all +except in one word (chalice), but wholly composes its imagery +either of colour, or of that delicate half-believed life which we +have seen to be so important an element in modern landscape." + +"Two more considerations," he adds, "are, however, suggested by +the above passage. The first, that the love of natural history, +excited by the continual attention now given to all wild +landscape, heightens reciprocally the interest of that landscape, +and becomes an important element in Scott's description, leading +him to finish, down to the minutest speckling of breast, and +slightest shade of attributed emotion, the portraiture of birds +and animals; in strange opposition to Homer's slightly named +'sea-crows, who have care of the works of the sea,' and Dante's +singing-birds, of undefined species. Compare carefully the 2d +and 3d stanzas of Rokeby. + +"The second point I have to note is Scott's habit of drawing a +slight moral from every scene, ... and that this slight moral is +almost always melancholy. Here he has stopped short without +entirely expressing it: + + "The mountain-shadows .. + ..................... lie + Like future joys to Fancy's eye.' + +His completed thought would be, that these future joys, like the +mountain-shadows, were never to be attained. It occurs fully +uttered in many other places. He seems to have been constantly +rebuking his own worldly pride and vanity, but never +purposefully: + + 'The foam-globes on her eddies ride, + Thick as the schemes of human pride + That down life's current drive amain, + As frail, as frothy, and as vain.'" + +Ruskin adds, among other illustrations, the reference to +"foxglove and nightshade" in i. 218, 219 above. + + +28. Like future joys, etc. This passage, quoted by Ruskin +above, also illustrates what is comparatively rare in figurative +language-- taking the immaterial to exemplify the material. The +latter is constantly used to symbolize or elucidate the former; +but one would have to search long in our modern poetry to find a +dozen instances where, as here, the relation is reversed. Cf. +639 below. We have another example in the second passage quoted +by Ruskin. Cf. also Tennyson's + + "thousand wreaths of dangling water-smoke, + That like a broken purpose waste in air;" + +and Shelly's + + "Our boat is asleep on Serchio's stream; + Its sails are folded like thoughts in a dream." + + +30. Reared. The 1st ed. has "oped." + + +32. After this line the MS. has the couplet, + + "Invisible in fleecy cloud, + The lark sent down her matins loud," + +which reappears in altered form below. + + +33. Gray mist. The MS. has "light mist." + + +38. Good-morrow gave, etc. Cf. Byron, Childe Harold: + + "and the bills + Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pass." + + +39. Cushat dove. Ring-dove. + + +46. His impatient blade. Note the "transferred epithet." It is +not the blade that is impatient. + + +47. Beneath a rock, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Hard by, his vassals' early care + The mystic ritual prepare." + + +50. Antiquity. The men of old; "the abstract for the concrete." + + +59. With her broad shadow, etc. Cf. Longfellow, Maidenhood: + + "Seest thou shadows sailing by, + As the dove, with startled eye, + Sees the falcon's shadow fly?" + + +62. Rowan. The mountain-ash. + + +71. That monk, of savage form and face. Scott says here: "The +state of religion in the middle ages afforded considerable +facilities for those whose mode of life excluded them from +regular worship, to secure, nevertheless, the ghostly assistance +of confessors, perfectly willing to adapt the nature of their +doctrine to the necessities and peculiar circumstances of their +flock. Robin Hood, it is well known, had his celebrated domestic +chaplain Friar Tuck. And that same curtal friar was probably +matched in manners and appearance by the ghostly fathers of the +Tynedale robbers, who are thus described in an excommunication +fulminated against their patrons by Richard Fox, Bishop of +Durham, tempore Henrici VIII.: 'We have further understood, that +there are many chaplains in the said territories of Tynedale and +Redesdale, who are public and open maintainers of concubinage, +irregular, suspended, excommunicated, and interdicted persons, +and withal so utterly ignorant of letters, that it has been found +by those who objected this to them, that there were some who, +having celebrated mass for ten years, were still unable to read +the sacramental service. We have also understood there are +persons among them who, although not ordained, do take upon them +the offices of priesthood, and, in contempt of God, celebrate the +divine and sacred rites, and administer the sacraments, not only +in sacred and dedicated places, but in those which are prophane +and interdicted, and most wretchedly ruinous, they themselves +being attired in ragged, torn, and most filthy vestments, +altogether unfit to be used in divine, or even in temporal +offices. The which said chaplains do administer sacraments and +sacramental rites to the aforesaid manifest and infamous thieves, +robbers, depredators, receivers of stolen goods, and plunderers, +and that without restitution, or intention to restore, as evinced +by the act; and do also openly admit them to the rites of +ecclesiastical sepulchre, without exacting security for +restitution, although they are prohibited from doing so by the +sacred canons, as well as by the institutes of the saints and +fathers. All which infers the heavy peril of their own souls, +and is a pernicious example to the other believers in Christ, as +well as no slight, but an aggravated injury, to the numbers +despoiled and plundered of their goods, gear, herds, and +chattels.'" + + +74. Benharrow. A mountain near the head of Loch Lomond. + + +77. Brook. See on i. 566 above. + + +81. The hallowed creed. The Christian creed, as distinguished +from heathen lore. The MS. has "While the blest creed," etc. + + +85. Bound. That is, of his haunts. + + +87. Glen or strath. A glen is the deep and narrow valley of a +small stream, a strath the broader one of a river. + + +89. He prayed, etc. The MS. reads: + + "He prayed, with many a cross between, + And terror took devotion's mien." + + +91. Of Brian's birth, etc. Scott says that the legend which +follows is not of his invention, and goes on to show that it is +taken with slight variation from "the geographical collections +made by the Laird of Macfarlane." + + +102. Bucklered. Served as a buckler to, shielded. + + +114. Snood. Cf. i. 363 above. Scott has the following note +here: "The snood, or riband, with which as Scottish lass braided +her hair, had an emblematical signification, and applied to her +maiden character. It was exchanged for the curch, toy, or coif, +when she passed, by marriage, into the matron state. But if the +damsel was so unfortunate as to lose pretensions to the name of +maiden, without gaining a right to that of matron, she was +neither permitted to use the snood, nor advanced to the graver +dignity of the curch. In old Scottish songs there occur many sly +allusions to such misfortune; as in the old words to the popular +tune of 'Ower the muir amang the heather:' + + 'Down amang the broom, the broom, + Down amang the broom, my dearie, + The lassie lost her silken snood, + That gard her greet till she was wearie.'" + + +120. Or ... or. For either ... or, as often in poetry. + + +131. Till, frantic, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Till, driven to frenzy, he believed + The legend of his birth received." + + +136. The cloister. Here personified as feminine. + + +138. Sable-lettered. "Black-letter;" the technical term for the +"old English" form of letter, used in the earliest English +manuscripts and books. + + +142. Cabala. Mysteries. For the original meaning of the word, +see Wb. + + +144. Curious. Inquisitive, prying into hidden things. + + +148. Hid him. See on i. 142 above. + + +149. The desert gave him, etc. Scott says here: "In adopting +the legend concerning the birth of the Founder of the Church of +Kilmallie, the author has endeavored to trace the effects which +such a belief was likely to produce, in a barbarous age, on the +person to whom it related. It seems likely that he must have +become a fanatic or an impostor, or that mixture of both which +forms a more frequent character than either of them, as existing +separately. In truth, mad persons are frequently more anxious to +impress upon others a faith in their visions, than they are +themselves confirmed in their reality; as, on the other hand, it +is difficult for the most cool-headed impostor long to personate +an enthusiast, without in some degree believing what he is so +eager to have believed. It was a natural attribute of such a +character as the supposed hermit, that he should credit the +numerous superstitions with which the minds of ordinary +Highlanders are almost always imbued. A few of these are +slightly alluded to in this stanza. The River Demon, or River- +horse, for it is that form which he commonly assumes, is the +Kelpy of the Lowlands, an evil and malicious spirit, delighting +to forebode and to witness calamity. He frequents most Highland +lakes and rivers; and one of his most memorable exploits was +performed upon the banks of Loch Vennachar, in the very district +which forms the scene of our action: it consisted in the +destruction of a funeral procession, with all its attendants. +The 'noontide hag,' called in Gaelic Glas-lich, a tall, +emaciated, gigantic female figure, is supposed in particular to +haunt the district of Knoidart. A goblin dressed in antique +armor, and having one hand covered with blood, called, from that +circumstance, Lham-dearg, or Red-hand, is a tenant of the forests +of Glenmore and Rothiemurcus. Other spirits of the desert, all +frightful in shape and malignant in disposition, are believed to +frequent different mountains and glens of the Highlands, where +any unusual appearance, produced by mist, or the strange lights +that are sometimes thrown upon particular objects, never fails to +present an apparition to the imagination of the solitary and +melancholy mountaineer." + + +161. Mankind. Accented on the first syllable; as it is almost +invariably in Shakespeare, except in Timon of Athens, where the +modern accent prevails. Milton uses either accent, as suits the +measure. We find both in P. L. viii. 358: "Above mankind, or +aught than mankind higher." + + +166. Alpine's. Some eds. misprint "Alpine;" also "horsemen" in +172 below. + + +168. The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream. The MS. reads: + + "The fatal Ben-Shie's dismal scream, + And seen her wrinkled form, the sign + Of woe and death to Alpine's line." + +Scott has the following note here: "Most great families in the +Highlands were supposed to have a tutelar, or rather a domestic, +spirit, attached to them, who took an interest in their +prosperity, and intimated, by its wailings, any approaching +disaster. That of Grant of Grant was called May Moullach, and +appeared in the form of a girl, who had her arm covered with +hair. Grant of Rothiemurcus had an attendant called Bodach-an- +dun, or the Ghost of the Hill; and many other examples might be +mentioned. The Ben-Shie implies the female fairy whose +lamentations were often supposed to precede the death of a +chieftain of particular families. When she is visible, it is in +the form of an old woman, with a blue mantle and streaming hair. +A superstition of the same kind is, I believe, universally +received by the inferior ranks of the native Irish. + +"The death of the head of a Highland family is also sometimes +supposed to be announced by a chain of lights of different +colours, called Dr'eug, or death of the Druid. The direction +which it takes marks the place of the funeral." [See the Essay +on Fairy Superstitions in Scott's Border Minstrelsy.] + + +169. Sounds, too, had come, etc. Scott says: "A presage of the +kind alluded to in the text, is still believed to announce death +to the ancient Highland family of M'Lean of Lochbuy. The spirit +of an ancestor slain in battle is heard to gallop along a stony +bank, and then to ride thrice around the family residence, +ringing his fairy bridle, and thus intimating the approaching +calamity. How easily the eye as well as the ear may be deceived +upon such occasions, is evident from the stories of armies in the +air, and other spectral phenomena with which history abounds. +Such an apparition is said to have been witnessed upon the side +of Southfell mountain, between Penrith and Keswick, upon the 23d +June, 1744, by two persons, William Lancaster of Blakehills, and +Daniel Stricket his servant, whose attestation to the fact, with +a full account of the apparition, dated the 21st of July, 1745, +is printed in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes. The apparition +consisted of several troops of horse moving in regular order, +with a steady rapid motion, making a curved sweep around the +fell, and seeming to the spectators to disappear over the ridge +of the mountain. Many persons witnessed this phenomenon, and +observed the last, or last but one, of the supposed troop, +occasionally leave his rank, and pass, at a gallop, to the front, +when he resumed the steady pace. The curious appearance, making +the necessary allowance for imagination, may be perhaps +sufficiently accounted for by optical deception." + + +171. Shingly. Gravelly, pebbly. + + +173. Thunderbolt. The 1st ed. has "thunder too." + + +188. Framed. The reading of the 1st ed.; commonly misprinted +"formed," which occurs in 195. + + +190. Limbs. The 1st ed. has "limb." + + +191. Inch-Cailliach. Scott says: "Inch-Cailliach, the Isle of +Nuns, or of Old Women, is a most beautiful island at the lower +extremity of Loch Lomond. The church belonging to the former +nunnery was long used as the place of worship for the parish of +Buchanan, but scarce any vestiges of it now remain. The burial- +ground continues to be used, and contains the family places of +sepulture of several neighboring clans. The monuments of the +lairds of Macgregor, and of other families claiming a descent +from the old Scottish King Alpine, are most remarkable. The +Highlanders are as zealous of their rights of sepulture as may be +expected from a people whose whole laws and government, if +clanship can be called so, turned upon the single principle of +family descent. 'May his ashes be scattered on the water,' was +one of the deepest and most solemn imprecations which they used +against an enemy." [See a detailed description of the funeral +ceremonies of a Highland chieftain in the Fair Maid of Perth.] + + +203. Dwelling low. That is, burial-place. + + +207. Each clansman's execration, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Our warriors, on his worthless bust, + Shall speak disgrace and woe;" + +and below: + + "Their clattering targets hardly strook; + And first they muttered low." + + +212. Stook. One of the old forms of struck. In the early eds. +of Shakespeare, we find struck, stroke, and strook (or strooke) +for the past tense, and all these, together with stricken, +strucken, stroken, and strooken, for the participle. Cf. Milton, +Hymn of Nativity, 95: + + "When such music sweet + Their hearts and ears did greet + As never was by mortal finger strook;" + +where, as here, it used for the sake of the rhyme. + + +214. Then, like the billow, etc. The repetition of the same +rhyme here gives well the cumulative effect of the rising billow. + + +217. Burst, with load roar. See on i. 73 above; and cf. 227 +below. + + +228. Holiest name. The MS. has "holy name." + + +245. Mingled with childhood's babbling trill, etc. "The whole +of this stanza is very impressive; the mingling of the children's +curses is the climax of horror. Note the meaning of the triple +curse. The cross is of ancestral yew--the defaulter is cut off +from communion with his clan; it is sealed in the fire--the fire +shall destroy his dwelling; it is dipped in blood--his heart's +blood is to be shed" (Taylor). + + +253. Coir-Uriskin. See on 622 below. + + +255. Beala-nam-bo. "The pass of the cattle," on the other side +of Benvenue from the Goblin's Cave; "a magnificent glade, +overhung with birch-trees, by which the cattle, taken in forays, +were conveyed within the protection of the Trosachs" (Black). + + +279. This sign. That is, the cross. To all, which we should +not expect with bought, was apparently suggested by the +antithetical to him in the preceding line; but if all the +editions did not read bought, we might suspect that Scott wrote +brought. + + +281. The murmur, etc. The MS. has "The slowly muttered deep +Amen." + + +286. The muster-place, etc. The MS. reads "Murlagan is the spot +decreed." + +Lanrick Mead is a meadow at the northwestern end of Loch +Vennachar. + + +300. The dun deer's hide, etc. Scott says: "The present brogue +of the Highlanders is made of half-dried leather, with holes to +admit and let out the water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a +matter altogether out of the question. The ancient buskin was +still ruder, being made of undressed deer's hide, with the hair +outwards,-- a circumstance which procured the Highlanders the +well-known epithet of Red-shanks. The process is very accurately +described by one Elder (himself a Highlander), in the project for +a union between England and Scotland, addressed to Henry VIII.: +'We go a-hunting, and after that we have slain red-deer, we flay +off the skin by and by, and setting of our barefoot on the inside +thereof, for want of cunning shoemakers, by your grace's pardon, +we play the cobblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof as +shall reach up to our ankles, pricking the upper part thereof +with holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and +stretching it up with a strong thong of the same above our said +ankles. So, and please your noble grace, we make our shoes. +Therefore, we using such manner of shoes, the rough hairy side +outwards, in your grace's dominions of England, we be called +Rough-footed Scots' (Pinkerton's History, vol. ii. p. 397)." + +Cf. Marmion, v. 5: + + "The hunted red-deer's undressed hide + Their hairy buskins well supplied." + + +304. Steepy. For the word (see also iv. 374 below) and the +line, cf. Shakespeare, T. of A. i. 1. 75: + + "Bowing his head against the steepy mount + To climb his happiness." + + +309. Questing. Seeking its game. Bacon (Adv. of Learning, v. +5) speaks of "the questing of memory." + + +310. Scaur. Cliff, precipice; the same word as scar. Cf. +Tennyson's Bugle Song: "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar;" +and in the Idyls of the King: "shingly scaur." + + +314. Herald of battle, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Dread messenger of fate and fear, + Herald of danger, fate and fear, + Stretch onward in thy fleet career! + Thou track'st not now the stricken doe, + Nor maiden coy through greenwood bough." + + +322. Fast as the fatal symbol flies, etc. "The description of +the starting of the Fiery Cross bears more marks of labor than +most of Mr. Scott's poetry, and borders, perhaps, on straining +and exaggeration; yet it shows great power" (Jeffrey). + + +332. Cheer. In its original sense of countenance, or look. Cf. +Shakespeare, M. N. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer;" Spenser, F. Q. +i. 1. 2: "But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;" Dryden, +Hind and Panther, iii. 437: "Till frowning skies began to change +their cheer," etc. + + +333. His scythe. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.; +"the scythe" in more recent ones. + + +342. Alas, thou lovely lake! etc. "Observe Scott's habit of +looking at nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as +altered by his own feelings; but as having an animation and +pathos of its own, wholly irrespective of human passion--an +animation which Scott loves and sympathizes with, as he would +with a fellow creature, forgetting himself altogether, and +subduing his own humanity before what seems to him the power of +the landscape. ... Instead of making Nature anywise subordinate +to himself, he makes himself subordinate to HER--follows her lead +simply--does not venture to bring his own cares and thoughts into +her pure and quiet presence--paints her in her simple and +universal truth, adding no result of momentary passion or fancy, +and appears, therefore, at first shallower than other poets, +being in reality wider and healthier" (Ruskin). + + +344. Bosky. Bushy, woody. Cf. Milton, Comus, 313: "And every +bosky bourn from side to side;" Shakespeare, Temp. iv. i. 81: "My +bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down," etc. + + +347. Seems for the scene, etc. The MS. has "Seems all too +lively and too loud." + + +349. Duncraggan's huts. A homestead between Lochs Achray and +Vennachar, near the Brigg of Turk. + + +355. Shot him. See on i. 142 above. Scott is much given to +this construction. + + +357. The funeral yell, etc. The MS. has "'T is woman's scream, +'t is childhood's wail." + + +Yell may at first seem too strong a word here, but it is in +keeping with the people and the times described. Besides Scott +was familiar with old English poetry, in which it was often used +where a modern writer would choose another word. Cf. Surrey, +Virgil's AEneid: "With wailing great and women's shrill yelling;" +and Gascoigne, De Profundis: + + "From depth of doole wherein my soule dooth dwell, + . . . . . . . . . . . + O gracious God, to thee I crie and yell." + + +362. Torch's ray. The 1st ed. reads "torches ray" and supply;" +corrected in the Errata to read as in the text. Most eds. print +"torches' ray." + + +369. Coronach. Scott has the following note here: "The Coronach +of the Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the +Ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured +forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When +the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of +the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. +The following is a lamentation of this kind, literally translated +from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of which the text stands +indebted. The tune is so popular that it has since become the +war-march, or gathering of the clan. + + Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean. + + + 'Which of all the Senachies + Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise, + But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus? + No sooner had thine ancient stately tree + Taken firm root in Albin, + Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw.-- + 'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name. + + ''T is no base weed--no planted tree, + Nor a seedling of last Autumn; + Nor a sapling planted at Beltain;[FN#7] + Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches-- + But the topmost bough is lowly laid! + Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine.[FN#8] + + + 'Thy dwelling is the winter house;-- + Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death-song! + Oh! courteous champion of Montrose! + Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles! + Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!' + +"The coronach has for some years past been suspended at funerals +by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other +Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote +districts." + + +370. He is gone, etc. As Taylor remarks, the metre of this +dirge seems to be amphibrachic; that is, made up of feet, or +metrical divisions, of three syllables, the second of which is +accented. Some of the lines appear to be anapestic (made up of +trisyllabic feet, with the last syllable accented); but the +rhythm of these is amphibrachic; that is, the rhythmic pause is +after the syllable that follows the accent. + + "(He) is gone on | the mountain, + {Like) a summer- | dried fountain." + +Ten lines out of twenty-four are distinctly amphibrachic, as + + "To Duncan | no morrow." + +So that it seems best to treat the rest as amphibrachic, with a +superfluous unaccented syllable at the beginning of the line. +Taylor adds: "The song is very carefully divided. To each of the +three things, mountain, forest, fountain, four lines are given, +in the order 3, 1, 2." + + +384. In flushing. In full bloom. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 3. 81: +"broad blown, as flush as May." + + +386. Correi. A hallow in the side of a hill, where game usually +lies. + + +387. Cumber. Trouble, perplexity. Cf. Fairfax, Tasso ii. 73: +"Thus fade thy helps, and thus thy cumbers spring;" and Sir John +Harrington, Epigrams, i. 94: "without all let [hindrance] or +cumber." + + +388. Red. Bloody, not afraid of the hand-to-hand fight. + + +394. Stumah. "Faithful; the name of a dog" (Scott). + + +410. Angus, the heir, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Angus, the first of Duncan's line, + Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign, + And then upon his kinsman's bier + Fell Malise's suspended tear. + In haste the stripling to his side + His father's targe and falchion tied." + + +439. Hest. Behest, bidding; used only in poetry. Cf. +Shakespeare, Temp. iii. 1. 37: "I have broke your hest to say +so;" Id. iv. 1. 65: "at thy hest," etc. + + +452. Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, etc. Scott says here: +"Inspection of the provincial map of Perthshire, or any large map +of Scotland, will trace the progress of the signal through the +small district of lakes and mountains, which, in exercise of my +imaginary chieftain, and which, at the period of my romance, was +really occupied by a clan who claimed a descent from Alpine,--a +clan the most unfortunate and most persecuted, but neither the +least distinguished, least powerful, nor least brave of the +tribes of the Gael. + +"The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duncraggan, a place +near the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Achray +from Loch Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callander, +and then, turning to the left up the pass of Leny, is consigned +to Norman at the Chapel of Saint Bride, which stood on a small +and romantic knoll in the middle of the valley, called Strath- +Ire. Tombea and Arnandave, or Adrmandave, are names of places in +the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass along the Lake +of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district of +Balquidder, including the neighboring tracts of Glenfinlas and +Strath-Gartney." + + +453. Strath-Ire. This valley connects Lochs Voil and Lubnaig. +The Chapel of Saint Bride is about half a mile from the southern +end of Loch Lubnaig, on the banks of the River Leny, a branch of +the Teith (hence "Teith's young waters"). The churchyard, with a +few remains of the chapel, are all that now mark the spot. + + +458. Until, where, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And where a steep and wooded knoll + Graced the dark strath with emerald green." + + +465. Though reeled his sympathetic eye. That is, his eye reeled +in sympathy with the movement of the waters--a poetic expression +of what every one has felt when looking into a "dizzily dancing" +stream. + + +478. That morning-tide. That morning time. Tide in this sense +is now used only in a few poetic compounds like eventide, +springtide, etc. See iv. 59 below. For its former use, cf. +Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 29: "and rest their weary limbs a tide;" Id. +iii. 6. 21: "that mine may be your paine another tide," etc. See +also Scott's Lay, vi. 50: "Me lists not at this tide declare." + + +483. Bridal. Bridal party; used as a collective noun. + + +485. Coif-clad. Wearing the coif, or curch. See on 114 above; +as also for snooded. + + +488. Unwitting. Unknowing. Cf. 367 above. For the verb wit, +see on i. 596 above. + + +495. Kerchief. Curch, which is etymologically the same word, +and means a covering for the head. Some eds. print "'kerchief," +as if the word were a contraction of handkerchief. + + +508. Muster-place. The 1st ed. has "mustering place;" and in +519 "brooks" for brook. + + +510. And must he, etc. The MS. reads: "And must he then +exchange the hand." + + +528. Lugnaig's lake. loch Lubnaig is about four miles long and +a mile broad, hemmed in by steep, and rugged mountains. The view +of Benledi from the lake is peculiarly grand and impressive. + + +530. The sickening pang, etc. Cf. The Lord of the Isles, vi. 1: +"The heartsick faintness of the hope delayed." See Prov. xiii. +12. + + +531. And memory, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And memory brought the torturing train + Of all his morning visions vain; + But mingled with impatience came + The manly love of martial fame." + + +541. Brae. The brow or side of a hill. + + +545. The heath, etc. The metre of the song is the same as that +of the poem, the only variation being in the order of the rhymes. + + +546. Bracken. Fern; "the Pteris aquilina" (Taylor). + + +553. Fancy now. The MS. has "image now." + + +561. A time will come, etc. The MS. reads: + + "A time will come for love and faith, + For should thy bridegroom yield his breath, + 'T will cheer him in the hour of death, + The boasted right to thee, Mary." + + +570. Balquidder. A village near the eastern end of Loch Voil, +the burial-place of Rob Roy and the scene of many of his +exploits. The Braes extend along the north side of the lake and +of the Balvaig which flows into it. + + +Scott says here: "It may be necessary to inform the Southern +reader that the heath on the Scottish moorlands is often set fire +to, that the sheep may have the advantage of the young herbage +produced, in room of the tough old heather plants. This custom +(execrated by sportsmen) produces occasionally the most beautiful +nocturnal appearances, similar almost to the discharge of a +volcano. This simile is not new to poetry. The charge of a +warrior, in the fine ballad of Hardyknute, is said to be 'like +fire to heather set.'" + + +575. Nor faster speeds it, etc. "The eager fidelity with which +this fatal signal is hurried on and obeyed, is represented with +great spirit and felicity" (Jeffrey). + + +577. Coil. Turmoil. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp. i. 2. 207: + + "Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil + Would not infect his reason?" + +C. of E. iii. 1. 48: "What a coil is there, Dromio?" etc. + + +579. Loch Doine. A lakelet just above Loch Voil, and almost +forming a part of it. The epithets sullen and still are +peculiarly appropriate to this valley. "Few places in Scotland +have such an air of solitude and remoteness from the haunts of +men" (Black). + + +582. Strath-Gartney. The north side of the basin of Loch +Katrine. + + +583. Each man might claim. That is, WHO could claim. See on i. +528 above. + + +600. No law but Roderick Dhu's command. Scott has the following +note here: + +"The deep and implicit respect paid by the Highland clansmen to +their chief, rendered this both a common and a solemn oath. In +other respects, they were like most savage nations, capricious in +their ideas concerning the obligatory power of oaths. One solemn +mode of swearing was by kissing the dirk, imprecating upon +themselves death by that, or a similar weapon, if they broke +their vow. But for oaths in the usual form, they are said to +have had little respect. As for the reverence due to the chief, +it may be guessed from the following odd example of a Highland +point of honour: + +'The clan whereto the above-mentioned tribe belongs, is the only +one I have heard of which is without a chief; that is, being +divided into families, under several chieftains, without any +particular patriarch of the whole name. And this is a great +reproach, as may appear from an affair that fell out at my table, +in the Highlands, between one of that name and a Cameron. The +provocation given by the latter was, "Name your chief." The +return of it at once was, "You are a fool." They went out next +morning, but having early notice of it, I sent a small party of +soldiers after them, which, in all probability, prevented some +barbarous mischief that might have ensued; for the chiefless +Highlander, who is himself a petty chieftain, was going to the +place appointed with a small-sword and pistol, whereas the +Cameron (an old man) took with him only his broadsword, according +to the agreement. + +'When all was over, and I had, at least seemingly, reconciled +them, I was told the words, of which I seemed to think but +slightly, were, to one of the clan, the greatest of all +provocations' (Letters from Scotland, vol. ii. p. 221)." + + +604. Menteith. See on i. 89 above. + + +607. Rednock. The ruins of Rednock Castle are about two miles +to the north of Loch Menteith, on the road to Callander. +Cardross Castle (in which Robert Bruce died) was on the banks of +the Clyde, a few miles below Dumbarton. Duchray Castle is a mile +south of Lochard. Loch Con, or Chon, is a lakelet, about three +miles northwest from Lochard (into which it drains) and two miles +south of Loch Katrine. + + +611. Wot ye. Know ye. See on i. 596 above. + + +622. Coir-nan-Uriskin. Scott has the following note here: "This +is a very steep and most romantic hollow in the mountain of +Benvenue, overhanging the southeastern extremity of Loch Katrine. +It is surrounded with stupendous rocks, and overshadowed with +birch-trees, mingled with oaks, the spontaneous production of the +mountain, even where its cliffs appear denuded of soil. A dale +in so wild a situation, and amid a people whose genius bordered +on the romantic, did not remain without appropriate deities. The +name literally implies the Corri, or Den, of the Wild or Shaggy +Men. Perhaps this, as conjectured by Mr. Alexander Campbell +(Journey from Edinburgh, 1802, p. 109), may have originally only +implied its being the haunt of a ferocious banditti. But +tradition has ascribed to the Urisk, who gives name to the +cavern, a figure between a goat and a man; in short, however much +the classical reader may be startled, precisely that of the +Grecian Satyr. The Urisk seems not to have inherited, with the +form, the petulance of the silvan deity of the classics; his +occupation, on the contrary, resembled those of Milton's Lubbar +Fiend, or of the Scottish Brownie, though he differed from both +in name and appearance. 'The Urisks,' says Dr. Graham, 'were a +sort of lubberly supernaturals, who, like the Brownies, could be +gained over by kind attention to perform the drudgery of the +farm, and it was believed that many families in the Highlands had +one of the order attached to it. They were supposed to be +dispersed over the Highlands, each in his own wild recess, but +the solemn stated meetings of the order were regularly held in +this Cave of Benvenue. This current superstition, no doubt, +alludes to some circumstance in the ancient history of this +country' (Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire, p. 19, +1806). It must be owned that the Coir, or Den, does not, in its +present state, meet our ideas of a subterraneous grotto or cave, +being only a small and narrow cavity, among huge fragments of +rocks rudely piled together. But such a scene is liable to +convulsions of nature which a Lowlander cannot estimate, and +which may have choked up what was originally a cavern. At least +the name and tradition warrant the author of a fictitious tale to +assert its having been such at the remote period in which this +scene is laid." + + +639. With such a glimpse, etc. See on 28 above. + + +641. Still. Stillness; the adjective used substantively, for +the sake of the rhyme. + + +656. Satyrs. "The Urisk, or Highland satyr" (Scott). + + +664. Beal-nam-bo. See on 255 above; and for the measure of the +first half of the line, on i. 73 above. + + +667. 'Cross. Scott (1st ed.) prints "cross," as in 750 below. + + +672. A single page, etc. Scott says: "A Highland chief, being +as absolute in his patriarchal authority as any prince, had a +corresponding number of officers attached to his person. He had +his body-guards, called Luichttach, picked from his clan for +strength, activity, and entire devotion to his person. These, +according to their deserts, were sure to share abundantly in the +rude profusion of his hospitality. It is recorded, for example, +by tradition, that Allan MacLean, chief of that clan, happened +upon a time to hear one of these favorite retainers observe to +his comrade, that their chief grew old. 'Whence do you infer +that?' replied the other. 'When was it,' rejoined the first, +'that a solider of Allan's was obliged, as I am now, not only to +eat the flesh from the bone, but even to tear off the inner skin, +or filament?' The hint was quite sufficient, and MacLean next +morning, to relieve his followers from such dire necessity, +undertook an inroad on the mainland, the ravage of which +altogether effaced the memory of his former expeditions for the +like purpose. + +"Our officer of Engineers, so often quoted, has given us a +distinct list of the domestic officers who, independent of +Luichttach, or gardes de corps, belonged to the establishment of +a Highland chief. These are, 1. The Henchman. 2. The Bard. See +preceding notes. 3. Bladier, or spokesman. 4. Gillie-more, or +sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gillie-casflue, who +carried the chief, if on foot, over the fords. 6. Gillie- +comstraine, who leads the chief's horse. 7. Gillie- +Trushanarinsh, the baggage-man. 8. The piper. 9. The piper's +gillie, or attendant, who carries the bagpipe (Letters from +Scotland, vol. ii. p. 158). Although this appeared, naturally +enough, very ridiculous to an English officer, who considered the +master of such a retinue as no more than an English gentleman of +œ500 a year, yet in the circumstances of the chief, whose +strength and importance consisted in the number and attachment of +his followers, it was of the last consequence, in point of +policy, to have in his gift subordinate offices, which called +immediately round his person those who were most devoted to him, +and, being of value in their estimation, were also the means of +rewarding them." + + +693. To drown, etc. The MS. reads: + + "To drown his grief in war's wild roar, + Nor think of love and Ellen more." + + +713. Ave Maria! etc. "The metrical peculiarity of this song is +that the rhymes of the even lines of the first quatrain (or set +of four lines) are taken up as those of the odd lines in the +second, and that they are the same in all three stanzas" +(Taylor). + + +722. We now must share. The MS. has "my sire must share;" and +in 725 "The murky grotto's noxious air." + + +733. Bow us. See on i. 142, and cf. 749 below. + + +754. Lanrick height. Overlooking Lanrick Mead. See on 286 +above. + + +755. Where mustered, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Where broad extending far below, + Mustered Clan-Alpine's martial show." + +On the first of these lines, cf. i. 88 above. + + +773. Yell. See on 357 above. + + +774. Bochastle's plain. See on i. 106 above. + + + + + +Canto Fourth. + + + + +2. And hope, etc. The MS. has "And rapture dearest when +obscured by fears." + + +5. Wilding. Wild; a rare word, used only in poetry. Cf. +Tennyson, Geraint and Enid: "And like a crag was gay with wilding +flowers." Spenser has the noun (= wild apples) in F. Q. iii. 7. +17: "Oft from the forrest wildings he did bring," etc. Whom is +used on account of the personification. + + +9. What time. Cf. ii. 307 and iii. 15 above. + + +19. Braes of Doune. The undulating region between Callander and +Doune, on the north side of the Teith. The Doune of 37 below is +the old Castle of that name, the ruins of which still form a +majestic pile on the steep banks of the Teith. It figures in +Waverley as the place where the hero was confined by the +Highlanders. + + +36. Boune. Prepared, ready; a Scottish word. Cf. 157 and vi. +396 below. + + +42. Bide. Endure; not to be printed 'bide, as if a contraction +of abide. Cf. Shakespeare, Lear, iii. 4. 29: "That bide the +pelting of this pitiless storm," etc. + +Bout. Turn (of fortune). + + +47. Repair. That is, to repair. + + +55. 'T is well advised. Well thought of, well planned. Cf. +advised careful, well considered; as in M. of V. i. 1. 142: "with +more advised watch," etc. + +The MS. reads: + + "'Tis well advised--a prudent plan, + Worthy the father of his clan." + + +59. Evening-tide. See on iii. 478 above. + + +63. The Taghairm. Scott says here: "The Highlanders, like all +rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into +futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in +the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain +bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a +precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, +where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of +horror. In this situation, he revolved in his mind the question +proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted +imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied +spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses. In some of the +Hebrides they attributed the same oracular power to a large black +stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain +solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their +own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the +tutelar deity of the stone, and, as such, to be, if possible, +punctually complied with." + + +68. Gallangad. We do not find this name elsewhere, but it +probably belongs to some part of the district referred to in +Scott's note inserted here: "I know not if it be worth observing +that this passage is taken almost literally from the mouth of an +old Highland kern, or Ketteran, as they were called. He used to +narrate the merry doings of the good old time when he was +follower of Rob Roy MacGregor. This leader, on one occasion, +thought proper to make a descent upon the lower part of the Loch +Lomond district, and summoned all the heritors and farmers to +meet at the Kirk of Drymen, to pay him black-mail; i.e., tribute +for forbearance and protection. As this invitation was supported +by a band of thirty or forty stout fellows, only one gentleman, +an ancestor, if I mistake not, of the present Mr. Grahame of +Gartmore, ventured to decline compliance. Rob Roy instantly swept +his land of all he could drive away, and among the spoil was a +bull of the old Scottish wild breed, whose ferocity occasioned +great plague to the Ketterans. 'But ere we had reached the Row +of Dennan,' said the old man, 'a child might have scratched his +ears.' The circumstance is a minute one, but it paints the time +when the poor beeve was compelled + + 'To hoof it o'er as many weary miles, + With goading pikemen hollowing at his heels, + As e'er the bravest antler of the woods' (Ethwald)." + + +73. Kerns. The Gaelic and Irish light-armed soldiers, the +heavy-armed being known as gallowglasses. The names are often +associated; as in Macbeth, i. 2. 13: "kerns and gallowglasses;" 2 +Hen. VI. iv. 9. 26: "gallowglasses and stout kerns;" Drayton, +Heroical Epist.: "the Kerne and Irish Galliglasse," etc. + + +74. Beal'maha. "The pass of the plain," on the east of Loch +Lomond, opposite Inch-Cailliach. In the olden time it was one of +the established roads for making raids into the Lowlands. + + +77. Dennan's Row. The modern Rowardennan, on Loch Lomond at the +foot of Ben Lomond, and a favorite starting=point for the ascent +of that mountain. + + +82. Boss. Knob; in keeping with Targe. + + +83. Verge. Pronounced varge, as the rhyme shows. In v. 219 +below it has its ordinary sound; but cf. v. 812. + + +84. The Hero's Targe. "There is a rock so named in the Forest +of Glenfinlas, by which a tumultuary cataract takes its course. +This wild place is said in former times to have afforded refuge +to an outlaw, who was supplied with provisions by a woman, who +lowered them down from the brink of the precipice above. His +water he procured for himself, by letting down a flagon tied to a +string into the black pool beneath the fall" (Scott). + + +98. Broke. Quartered. Cf. the quotation from Jonson below. +Scott says here: "Everything belonging to the chase was matter of +solemnity among our ancestors; but nothing was more so than the +mode of cutting up, or, as it was technically called, breaking, +the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted portion; the +hounds had a certain allowance; and, to make the division as +general as possible, the very birds had their share also. 'There +is a little gristle,' says Tubervile, 'which is upon the spoone +of the brisket, which we call the raven's bone; and I have seen +in some places a raven so wont and accustomed to it, that she +would never fail to croak and cry for it all the time you were in +breaking up of the deer, and would not depart till she had it.' +In the very ancient metrical romance of Sir Tristrem, that +peerless knight, who is said to have been the very deviser of all +rules of chase, did not omit the ceremony: + + 'The rauen he yaue his yiftes + Sat on the fourched tre.' [FN#9] + +"The raven might also challenge his rights by the Book of St. +Albans; for thus says Dame Juliana Berners: + + 'slitteth anon + The bely to the side, from the corbyn bone; + That is corbyns fee, at the death he will be.' + +Jonson, in The Sad Shepherd, gives a more poetical account of the +same ceremony: + + 'Marian. He that undoes him, + Doth cleave the brisket bone, upon the spoon + Of which a little gristle grows--you call it + Robin Hood. The raven's bone. + Marian. Now o'er head sat a raven + On a sere bough, a grown, great bird, and hoarse, + Who, all the while the deer was breaking up, + So croaked and cried for 't, as all the huntsmen, + Especially old Scathlock, thought it ominous.'" + + +115. Rouse. Rise, stand erect. Cf. Macbeth, v. 5. 12: + + "The time has been, my senses would have cool'd + To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair + Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir + As life were in 't." + + +119. Mine. Many eds. have "my." + + +128. Fateful. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"fatal" in some recent eds. + + +132. Which spills, etc. The MS. has "Which foremost spills a +foeman's life." + +"Though this be in the text described as a response of the +Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury +frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often +anticipated, in the imagination of the combatants, by observing +which party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders +under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that on +the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a +defenceless herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to +secure an advantage of so much consequence to their party" +(Scott). + + +140. A spy. That is, Fitz-James. For has sought, the 1st ed. +has "hath sought." + + +144. Red Murdoch, etc. The MS. has "The clansman vainly deemed +his guide," etc. + + +147. Those shall bring him down. For the ellipsis of who, see +on i. 528 above. The MS. has "stab him down." + + +153. Pale. In the heraldic sense of "a broad perpendicular +stripe in an escutcheon." See Wb. + + +155. I love to hear, etc Cf. v. 238 below. + + +156. When move they on? etc. The MS reads: + + "'When move they on?' |'This sun | at noon + |'To-day | + 'T is said will see them march from Doune.' + 'To-morrow then |makes| meeting stern.'" + |sees | + + +160. Earn. That is, the district about Loch Earn and the river +of the same name flowing from the lake. + + +164. Shaggy glen. As already stated, Trosachs means bristling. + + +174. Stance. Station; a Scottish word. + + +177. Trusty targe. The MS. has "Highland targe." + + +197. Shifting like flashes, etc. That is, like the Northern +Lights. Cf. the Lay, ii. 86: + + "And red and bright the streamers light + Were dancing in the glowing north. + . . . . . . . + He knew by the streamers that shot so bright + That spirits were riding the northern light." + +The MS. reads: + + "Thick as the flashes darted forth + By morrice-dancers of the north; + And saw at morn their |barges ride, + |little fleet, + Close moored by the lone islet's side. + Since this rude race dare not abide + Upon their native mountain side, + 'T is fit that Douglas should provide + For his dear child some safe abode, + And soon he comes to point the road." + + +207. No, Allan, etc. The MS. reads: + + "No, Allan, no! His words so kind + Were but pretexts my fears to blind. + When in such solemn tone and grave + Douglas a parting blessing gave." + + +212. Fixed and high. Often misprinted "fixed on high." + + +215. Stroke. The MS. has "shock," and in the next line +"adamantine" for invulnerable. + + +223. Trowed. Trusted, believed. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 34: +"So much is more then [than] just to trow." See also Luke, xvii. +9. + + +231. Cambus-kenneth's fane. Cambus-kenneth Abbey, about a mile +from Stirling, on the other side of the Forth. The massive tower +is now the only part remaining entire. + + +235. Friends'. Many recent eds. misprint "friend's." + + +250. Sooth. True. See on i. 476 above. + + +261. Merry it is, etc. Scott says: "This little fairy tale is +founded upon a very curious Danish ballad which occurs in the +Kaempe Viser, a collection of heroic songs first published in +1591, and reprinted in 1695, inscribed by Anders Sofrensen, the +collector and editor, to Sophia, Queen of Denmark." + +The measure is the common ballad-metre, the basis of which is a +line of eight syllables followed by one of six, the even +syllables accented, with the alternate lines rhyming, so as to +form a four-line stanza. It is varied by extra unaccented +syllables, and by rhymes within the longer lines (both of which +modifications we have in 263 and 271), and by "double rhymes" +(like singing and ringing). + + +262. Mavis and merle. Thrush and blackbird. + + +267. Wold. Open country, as opposed to wood. Cf. Tennyson, In +Memoriam, 11: "Calm and deep peace on this high wold," etc. See +also 724 below. + + +274. Glaive. Broadsword. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 38: "laying +both his hands upon his glave," etc. See also v. 253 below. + + +277. Pall. A rich fabric used for making palls, or mantles. Cf. +F. Q. i. 7. 16: "He gave her gold and purple pall to weare." + + +278. Wont. Were accustomed. See on i. 408 above. + + +282. 'Twas but, etc. The MS. reads: + + "'Twas but a midnight chance; + For blindfold was the battle plied, + And fortune held the lance." + + +283. Darkling. In the dark; a poetical word. Cf. Milton, P. L. +iii. 39: + + "as the wakeful bird + Sings darkling;" + +Shakespeare, Lear, i. 4. 237: "So out went the candle, and we +were left darkling," etc. See also 711 below. + + +285. Vair. The fur of the squirrel. See Wb. + + +286. Sheen. See on i. 208 above. + + +291. Richard. Here accented on the final syllable. Such +license is not unusual in ballad poetry. + + +298. Woned. Dwelt. See on i. 408 above. Scott has the +following note here: + +"In a long dissertation upon the Fairy Superstitions, published +in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the most valuable part +of which was supplied by my learned and indefatigable friend, Dr. +John Leyden, most of the circumstances are collected which can +throw light upon the popular belief which even yet prevails +respecting them in Scotland. Dr. Grahame, author of an +entertaining work upon the Scenery of the Perthshire Highlands, +already frequently quoted, has recorded with great accuracy the +peculiar tenets held by the Highlanders on this topic, in the +vicinity of Loch Katrine. The learned author is inclined to +deduce the whole mythology from the Druidical system--an opinion +to which there are many objections. + +'The Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace, of the Highlanders, though not +absolutely malevolent, are believed to be a peevish, repining +race of beings, who, possessing themselves but a scanty portion +of happiness, are supposed to envy mankind their more complete +and substantial enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy, in their +subterraneous recesses, a sort of shadowy happiness,--a tinsel +grandeur; which, however, they would willingly exchange for the +more solid joys of mortality. + + +'They are believed to inhabit certain round grassy eminences, +where they celebrate their nocturnal festivities by the light of +the moon. About a mile beyond the source of the Forth, above Loch +Con, there is a placed called Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men +of Peace, which is still supposed to be a favorite place of their +residence. In the neighborhood are to be seen many round conical +eminences, particularly one near the head of the lake, by the +skirts of which many are still afraid to pass after sunset. It +is believed that if, on Hallow-eve, any person, alone, goes round +one of these hills nine times, towards the left hand +(sinistrorsum) a door shall open, by which he will be admitted +into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said, of mortal +race have been entertained in their secret recesses. There they +have been received into the most splendid apartments, and regaled +with the most sumptuous banquets and delicious wines. Their +females surpass the daughters of men in beauty. The seemingly +happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in dancing to +notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins +in their joys or ventures to partake of their dainties. By this +indulgence he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound +down irrevocably to the condition of Shi'ich, or Man of Peace.'" + + +301. Why sounds, etc. "It has been already observed that +fairies, if not positively malevolent, are capricious, and easily +offended. They are, like other proprietors of forests, peculiarly +jealous of their rights of vert and venison. ... This jealousy +was also an attribute of the northern Duergar, or dwarfs; to many +of whose distinctions the fairies seem so have succeeded, if, +indeed, they are not the same class of beings. In the huge +metrical record of German chivalry entitled the Helden-Buch, Sir +Hildebrand, and the other heroes of whom it treats, are engaged +in one of their most desperate adventures, from a rash violation +of the rose-garden of an Elfin or Dwarf King. + +"There are yet traces of a belief in this worst and most +malicious order of fairies among the Border wilds. Dr. Leyden +has introduced such a dwarf into his ballad entitled The Cout of +Keeldar, and has not forgot his characteristic detestation of the +chase. + + 'The third blast that young Keeldar blew, + Still stood the limber fern, + And a wee man, of swarthy hue, + Upstarted by a cairn. + + 'His russet weeds were brown as heath + That clothes the upland fell, + And the hair of his head was frizzy red + As the purple heather-bell. + + 'An urchin, clad in prickles red, + Clung cow'ring to his arm; + The hounds they howl'd, and backward fled, + As struck by fairy charm. + + '"Why rises high the staghound's cry, + Where staghound ne'er should be? + Why wakes that horn the silent morn, + Without the leave of me?"-- + + '"Brown Dwarf, that o'er the muirland strays, + Thy name to Keeldar tell!"-- + "The Brown Man of the Muirs, who stays + Beneath the heather-bell. + + '"'T is sweet beneath the heather-bell + To live in autumn brown; + And sweet to hear the lav'rock's swell, + Far, far from tower and town. + + '"But woe betide the shrilling horn, + The chase's surly cheer! + And ever that hunter is forlorn + Whom first at morn I hear."' + +"The poetical picture here given of the Duergar corresponds +exactly with the following Northumberland legend, with which I +was lately favored by my learned and kind friend, Mr. Surtees of +Mainsforth, who has bestowed indefatigable labor upon the +antiquities of the English Border counties. The subject is in +itself so curious, that the length of the note will, I hope, be +pardoned: + +'I have only one record to offer of the appearance of our +Northumbrian Duergar. My narratrix is Elizabeth Cockburn, and +old wife of Offerton, in this country, whose credit, in a case of +this kind, will not, I hope, be much impeached when I add that +she is by her dull neighbors supposed to be occasionally insane, +but by herself to be at those times endowed with a faculty of +seeing visions and spectral appearances which shun the common +ken. + +'In the year before the great rebellion, two young men from +Newcastle were sporting on the high moors above Eldson, and after +pursuing their game several hours, sat down to dine in a green +glen near one of the mountain streams. After their repast, the +younger lad ran to the brook for water, and after stooping to +drink, was surprised, on lifting his head again, by the +appearance of a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag covered with +brackens, across the burn. This extraordinary personage did not +appear to be above half the stature of a common man, but was +uncommonly stout and broad-built, having the appearance of vast +strength. His dress was entirely brown, the color of the +brackens, and his head covered with frizzled red hair. His +countenance was expressive of the most savage ferocity, and his +eyes glared like a bull. It seems he addressed the young man +first, threatening him with his vengeance for having trespassed +on his demesnes, and asking him if he knew in whose presence he +stood? The youth replied that he now supposed him to be the lord +of the moors; that he offended through ignorance; and offered to +bring him the game he had killed. The dwarf was a little +mollified by this submission, but remarked that nothing could be +more offensive to him than such an offer, as he considered the +wild animals as his subjects, and never failed to avenge their +destruction. He condescended further to inform him that he was, +like himself, mortal, though of years far exceeding the lot of +common humanity, and (what I should not have had an idea of) that +he hoped for salvation. He never, he added, fed on anything that +had life, but lived in the summer on whortleberries, and in +winter on nuts and apples, of which he had great store in the +woods. Finally, he invited his new acquaintance to accompany him +home and partake his hospitality, an offer which the youth was on +the point of accepting, and was just going to spring across the +brook (which if he had done, says Elizabeth, the dwarf would +certainly have torn him in pieces), when his foot was arrested by +the voice of his companion, who thought he had tarried long, and +on looking round again, "the wee brown man was fled." The story +adds that he was imprudent enough to slight the admonition, and +to sport over the moors on his way homewards, but soon after his +return he fell into a lingering disorder, and died within the +year'" (Scott). + + +302. Our moonlight circle's. The MS. has "Our fairy ringlet's." + + +306. The fairies' fatal green. "As the Daoine Shi', or Men of +Peace, wore green habits, they were supposed to take offence when +any mortals ventured to assume their favorite color. Indeed, +from some reason, which has been, perhaps originally a general +superstition, green is held in Scotland to be unlucky to +particular tribes and counties. The Caithness men, who hold this +belief, allege as a reason that their bands wore that color when +they were cut off at the battle of Flodden; and for the same +reason they avoid crossing the Ord on a Monday, being the day of +the week on which their ill-omened array set forth. Green is +also disliked by those of the name of Ogilvy; but more especially +it is held fatal to the whole clan of Grahame. It is remembered +of an aged gentleman of that name that when his horse fell in a +fox-chase, he accounted for it at once by observing that the +whipcord attached to his lash was of this unlucky color" (Scott). + + +308. Wert christened man. Scott says: "The Elves were supposed +greatly to envy the privileges acquired by Christian initiation, +and they gave to those mortals who had fallen into their power a +certain precedence, founded upon this advantageous distinction. +Tamlane, in the old ballad, describes his own rank in the fairy +procession: + + 'For I ride on a milk-white steed, + And aye nearest the town; + Because I was a christen'd knight, + They give me that renown.'" + + +312. The curse of the sleepless eye. Cf. Macbeth, i. 3. 19: + + "Sleep shall neither night nor day + Hang upon his pent-house lid," etc. + + +313. Part. Depart. See on ii. 94 above. + + +322. Grisly. See on i. 704 above. + + +330. Kindly. Kindred, natural. See Wb., and cf. Shakespeare, +Much Ado, iv. 1. 75: + + "that fatherly and kindly power + That you have in her," etc. + + +345. All is glistening show. "No fact respecting Fairy-land +seems to be better ascertained than the fantastic and illusory +nature of their apparent pleasure and splendour. It has been +already noticed in the former quotations from Dr. Grahame's +entertaining volume, and may be confirmed by the following +Highland tradition:--'A woman, whose new-born child had been +conveyed by them into their secret abodes, was also carried +thither herself, to remain, however, only until she should suckle +her infant. She one day, during this period, observed the +Shi'ichs busily employed in mixing various ingredients in a +boiling caldron, and as soon as the composition was prepared, she +remarked that they all carefully anointed their eyes with it, +laying the remainder aside for future use. In a moment when they +were all absent, she also attempted to anoint her eyes with the +precious drug, but had time to apply it to one eye only, when the +Daoine Shi' returned. But with that eye she was henceforth +enabled to see everything as it really passed in their secret +abodes; she saw every object, not as she hitherto had done, in +deceptive splendour and elegance, but in its genuine colours and +form. The gaudy ornaments of the apartment were reduced to the +walls of a gloomy cavern. Soon after, having discharged her +office, she was dismissed to her own home. Still, however, she +retained the faculty of seeing, with her medicated eye, +everything that was done, anywhere in her presence, by the +deceptive art of the order. One day, amidst a throng of people, +she chanced to observe the Shi'ich, or man of peace, in whose +possession she had left her child, though to every other eye +invisible. Prompted by maternal affection, she inadvertently +accosted him, and began to inquire after the welfare of her +child. The man of peace, astonished at being thus recognized by +one of mortal race, demanded how she had been enabled to discover +him. Awed by the terrible frown of his countenance, she +acknowledged what she had done. He spat in her eye, and +extinguished it for ever.' + +"It is very remarkable that this story, translated by Dr. Grahame +from popular Gaelic tradition, is to be found in the Otia +Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury. [FN #10] A work of great +interest might be compiled upon the original of popular fiction, +and the transmission of similar tales from age to age, and from +country to country. The mythology of one period would then appear +to pass into the romance of the next century, and that into the +nursery tale of the subsequent ages. Such an investigation, +while it went greatly to diminish our ideas of the richness of +human invention, would also show that these fictions, however +wild and childish, possess such charms for the populace as enable +them to penetrate into countries unconnected by manners and +language, and having no apparent intercourse to afford the means +of transmission. It would carry me far beyond my bounds to +produce instances of fable among nations who never borrowed from +each other any thing intrinsically worth learning. Indeed the +wide diffusion of popular factions may be compared to the +facility with which straws and feathers are dispersed abroad by +the wind, while valuable metals cannot be transported without +trouble and labour. There lives, I believe, only one gentleman +whose unlimited acquaintance with this subject might enable him +to do it justice,--I mean my friend Mr. Francis Douce, of the +British Museum, whose usual kindness will, I hope, pardon my +mentioning his name while on a subject so closely connected with +his extensive and curious researches" (Scott). + + +355. Snatched away, etc. "The subjects of Fairy-land were +recruited from the regions of humanity by a sort of crimping +system, which extended to adults as well as to infants. Many of +those who were in this world supposed to have discharged the debt +of nature, had only become denizens of the 'Londe of Faery'" +(Scott). + + +357. But wist I, etc. But if I knew, etc. Wist is the past +tense of wit (Matzner). See on i. 596 above. + + +371. Dunfermline. A town in Fifeshire, 17 miles northwest of +Edinburgh. It was long the residence of the Scottish kings, and +the old abbey, which succeeded Iona as the place of royal +sepulture, has been called "the Westminster of Scotland." Robert +Bruce was the last sovereign buried here. + + +374. Steepy. Cf. iii. 304 above. + + +376. Lincoln green. See on i. 464 above. + + +386. Morning-tide. Cf. iii. 478 above. + + +387. Bourne. Bound, limit. Cf. the quotation from Milton in +note on iii. 344 above. + + +392. Scathe. Harm, mischief. Spenser uses the word often; as +in F. Q. i. 12, 34: "To worke new woe and improvided scath," etc. +Cf. Shakespeare, K. John, ii. 1. 75: "To do offence and scathe in +Christendom;" Rich. III. i. 3. 317: "To pray for them that have +done scathe to us," etc. + + +393. Kern. See on 73 above. + + +395. Conjure. In prose we should have to write "conjure him." + + +403. Yet life I hold, etc. Cf. Julius Caesar, i. 2. 84: + + "If it be aught toward the general good, + Set honor in one eye and death i' the other, + And I will look on both indifferently; + For let the gods so speed me as I love + The name of honor more than I fear death." + + +411. Near Bochastle. The MS. has "By Cambusmore." See on i. +103 and 106 above. + + +413. Bower. Lodging, dwelling. See on i. 217 above. + + +415. Art. Affectation. + + +417. Before. That is, at his visit to the Isle. Cf. ii. 96 +fol. above. + + +418. Was idly soothed, etc. The MS. has "Was idly fond thy +praise to hear." + + +421. Atone. Atone for. Shakespeare uses the verb transitively +several times, but in the sense of reconcile; as in Rich. II. i. +1. 202: "Since we cannot atone you," etc. Cf. v. 735 below. + + +433. If yet he is. If he is still living. + + +437. Train. Lure; as in Macbeth, iv. 3. 118: + + "Devilish Macbeth + By many of these trains hath sought to win me + Into his power." + +Cf. the use of the verb (= allure, entice); as in C. of E. iii. +2. 45: "O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note;" Scott's +Lay, iii. 146: "He thought to train him to the wood," etc. James +was much given to gallantry, and many of his travels in disguise +were on adventures of this kind. See on i. 409 above and vi. 740 +below. + + +446. As death, etc. As if death, etc. See on ii. 56 above, and +cf. 459 below. + + +464. This ring. The MS. has "This ring of gold the monarch +gave." + + +471. Lordship. Landed estates. + + +473. Reck of. Care for; poetical. + + +474. Ellen, thy hand. The MS. has "Permit this hand;" and +below: + + "'Seek thou the King, and on thy knee + Put forth thy suit, whate'er it be, + As ransom of his pledge to me; + My name and this shall make thy way.' + He put the little signet on," etc. + + +492. He stammered, etc. The MS. reads: + + "He stammered forth confused reply: + 'Saxon, | I shouted but to scare + 'Sir Knight, | + Yon raven from his dainty fare.'" + + +500. Fared. Went; the original sense of the word. Cf. farewell +(which was at first a friendly wish for "the parting guest"), +wayfarer, thoroughfare, etc. + + +506. In tattered weeds, etc. The MS. has "Wrapped in a tattered +mantle gray." Weeds is used in the old sense of garments. Cf. +Shakespeare, M. N. D. ii. 1. 256: "Weed wide enough to wrap a +fairy in;" Id. ii. 2. 71: "Weeds of Athens he doth wear;" Milton +L'Allegro, 120: "In weeds of peace," etc. See also v. 465 below. + + +523. In better time. That is, in better times or days; not in +the musical sense. + + +524. Chime. Accord, sing; a poetical use of the word. Cf. vi. +592 below. + + +531. Allan. "The Allan and Devan are two beautiful streams--the +latter celebrated in the poetry of Burns--which descend from the +hills of Perthshire into the great carse, or plain, of Stirling" +(Lockhart). + + +548. 'T is Blanche, etc. The MS. has: + + "'A Saxon born, a crazy maid-- + T is Blanche of Devan,' Murdoch said." + + +552. Bridegroom. Here accented on the second syllable. In 682 +below it has the ordinary accent. + + +555. 'Scapes. The word may be so printed here, but not in +Elizabethan poetry. We find it in prose of that day; as in +Bacon, Adv. of L. ii. 14. 9: "such as had scaped shipwreck." See +Wb., and cf. state and estate, etc. + + +559. Pitched a bar. That is, in athletic contests. Cf. v. 648 +below. + + +562. See the gay pennons, etc. The MS. reads: + + "With thee these pennons will I share, + Then seek my true love through the air; + But I'll not lend that savage groom, + To break his fall, one downy plume! + Deep, deep, mid yon disjointed stones, + The wolf shall batten his bones." + + +567. Batten. Fatten; as in Hamlet, iii. 4. 67: "Batten on this +moor." Milton uses it transitively in Lycidas, 29: "Battening +our flocks with the fresh dews of night." + + +575. The Lincoln green. "The Lowland garb" (520). Cf. also 376 +above. + + +578. For O my sweet William, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Sweet William was a woodsman true, + He stole poor Blanche's heart away; + His coat was of the forest hue, + And sweet he sung the Lowland Lay." + + +590. The toils are pitched. The nets are set. Cf. Shakespeare, +L. L. L., iv. 3. 2: "they have pitched a toil," etc. "The +meaning is obvious. The hunters are Clan-Alpine's men; the stag +of ten is Fitz-James; the wounded doe is herself" (Taylor). + + +594. A stag of ten. "Having ten branches on his antlers" +(Scott). Nares says that antlers is an error here, the word +meaning "the short brow horns, not the branched horns;" but see +Wb. Cf. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i. 2: + + "Aud a hart of ten, + Madam, I trow to be;" + +and Massinger, Emperor of the East, iv. 2: + + "He'll make you royal sport; he is a deer + Of ten, at least." + + +595. Sturdily. As Taylor notes, the "triple rhymes" in this +song are "of a very loose kind." + + +609. Blanche's song. Jeffrey says: "No machinery can be +conceived more clumsy for effecting the deliverance of a +distressed hero than the introduction of a mad woman, who, +without knowing or caring about the wanderer, warns him by a song +to take care of the ambush that was set for him. The maniacs or +poetry have indeed had a prescriptive right to be musical, since +the days of Ophelia downwards; but it is rather a rash extension +of this privilege to make them sing good sense, and to make +sensible people be guided by them." + +To this Taylor well replied: "This criticism seems unjust. The +cruelty of Roderick's raids in the Lowlands has already been +hinted at, and the sight of the Lowland dress might well stir +associations in the poor girl's mind which would lead her to look +to the knight for help and protection and also to warn him of his +danger. It is plain, from Murdoch's surprise, that her being out +of her captors' sight is looked on as dangerous, from which we +may infer that she is not entirely crazed. Her song is not the +only hint that Fitz-James follows. His suspicions had already +twice been excited, so that the episode seems natural enough. As +giving a distinct personal ground for the combat in canto v., it +serves the poet's purpose still further. Without it, we should +sympathize too much with the robber chief, who thinks that +'plundering Lowland field and fold is naught but retribution +true;' but the sight of this sad fruit of his raids wins us back +to the cause of law and order." + + +614. Forth at full speed, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Forth at full speed the Clansman went, + But in his race his bow he bent, + Halted--and back an arrow sent." + + +617. Thrilled. Quivered. + + +627. Thine ambushed kin, etc. The MS. transposes this line and +the next, and goes on thus: + + "Resistless as the lightning's flame, + The thrust betwixt his shoulder came." + +Just below it reads: + + "The o'er him hung, with falcon eye, + And grimly smiled to see him die." + + +642. Daggled. Wet, soaked. Cf. the Lay, i. 316: "Was daggled +by the dashing spray." + + +649. Helpless. The MS. has "guiltless." + + +657. Shred. Cut off; a sense now obsolete. Cf. Withal's +Dictionary (ed. 1608): "The superfluous and wast sprigs of vines, +being cut and shreaded off are called sarmenta." + + +659. My brain, etc. The MS. has "But now, my champion, it shall +wave." + + +672. Wreak. Avenge. Cf. Shakespeare, R. and J. iii. 5. 102: + + "To wreak the love I bore my cousin + Upon his body that hath slaughter'd him;" + +Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 13: "to wreak so foule despight;" etc. + + +679. God, in my need, etc. The MS. reads: + + "God, in my need, to me be true, + As I wreak this on Roderick Dhu." + + +686. Favor. The token of the next line; referring to the +knightly custom of wearing such a gift of lady-love or mistress. +Cf. Rich. II. v. 3. 18: + + "And from the common'st creature pluck a glove, + And wear it as a favour," etc. + +See also the Lay, iv. 334: + + "With favor in his crest, or glove, + Memorial of his layde-love." + + +691. At bay. See on i. 133 above; and for the dangerous foe, +cf. the note on i. 137. + + +698. Couched him. Lay down. See on i. 142 above. + + +700. Rash adventures. See on 437 above. + + +701. Must prove. The 1st ed. has "will prove." + + +705. Bands at Doune. Cf. 150 above. + + +711. Darkling. See on 283 above. + + +722. Not the summer solstice. Not even the heat of the summer. + + +724. Wold. See on 267 above. + + +731. Beside its embers, etc. The MS. reads: + + "By the decaying flame was laid + A warrior in his Highland plaid." + +For the rhyme here, see on i. 363 above. Cf. 764 below. + + +741. I dare, etc. The MS. reads: + + "I dare! to him and all the swarm + He brings to aid his murderous arm." + + +746. Slip. A hunter's term for letting loose the greyhounds +from the slips, or nooses, by which they were held until sent +after the game. Tubervile (Art of Venerie) says: "We let slip a +greyhound, and we cast off a hound." Cf. Shakespeare, Cor. i. 6. +39: + + "Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, + Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, + To let him slip at will;" + +and for the noun, Hen. V. iii. 1. 31: + + "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, + Straining upon the start." + + +747. Who ever recked, etc. Scott says: "St. John actually used +this illustration when engaged in confuting the plea of law +proposed for the unfortunate Earl of Strafford: 'It was true, we +gave laws to hares and deer, because they are beasts of chase; +but it was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock +foxes or wolves on the head as they can be found, because they +are beasts of prey. In a word, the law and humanity were alike: +the one being more fallacious, and the other more barbarous, than +in any age had been vented in such an authority' (Clarendon's +History of the Rebellion)." + + +762. The hardened flesh of mountain deer. "The Scottish +Highlanders, in former times, had a concise mode of cooking their +venison, or rather of dispensing with cooking it, which appears +greatly to have surprised the French, whom chance made acquainted +with it. The Vidame of Chartres, when a hostage in England, +during the reign of Edward VI., was permitted to travel into +Scotland, and penetrated as far as to the remote Highlands (au +fin fond des Sauvages). After a great hunting-party, at which a +most wonderful quantity of game was destroyed, he saw these +Scottish savages devour a part of their venison raw, without any +farther preparation than compressing it between two batons of +wood, so as to force out the blood, and render it extremely hard. +This they reckoned a great delicacy; and when the Vidame partook +of it, his compliance with their taste rendered him extremely +popular. This curious trait of manners was communicated by Mons. +de Montmorency, a great friend of the Vidame, to Brantome, by +whom it is recorded in Vies des Hommes Illustres, lxxxix. 14. ... +After all, it may be doubted whether la chaire nostree, for so +the French called the venison thus summarily prepared, was +anything more than a mere rude kind of deer ham" (Scott). + + +772. A mighty augury. That of the Taghairm. + + +777. Not for clan. The 1st ed. has "nor for clan." + + +785. Stock and stone. Cf. i. 130 above. + + +787. Coilantogle's ford. On the Teith just below its exit from +Loch Vennachar. + + +791. The bittern's cry. See on i. 642 above. + + +797. And slept, etc. The MS. has "streak" and "lake" for beam +and stream. + + + + + + +Canto Fifth. + + + + +1. Fair as the earliest beam, etc. "This introductory stanza is +well worked in with the story. The morning beam 'lights the +fearful path on mountain side' which the two heroes of the poem +are to traverse, and the comparison which it suggest enlists our +sympathy for Roderick, who is to be the victim of defeat" +(Taylor). + + +5. And lights, etc. The MS. has "And lights the fearful way +along its side." + + +10. Sheen. See on i. 208. + + +14. The dappled sky. Cf. Milton, L'Allegro, 44: "Till the +dappled dawn doth rise;" and Shakespeare, Much Ado, v. 3. 25: + + "and look, the gentle day, + Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about + Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray." + + +15. By. The word is used for the rhyme, but perhaps gives the +idea of a hurry--muttered off the prayers. + + +16. Steal. The word here is expressive of haste. + + +18. Gael. "The Scottish Highlander calls himself, Gael, or +Gaul, and terms the Lowlanders Sassenach, or Saxons" (Scott). + + +22. Wildering. Bewildering. See on i. 274 above. For winded, +see on i. 500. + + +32. Bursting through. That is, as it burst through--"a piece of +loose writing" (Taylor). + + +36. At length, etc. The MS. reads: + + "At length they paced the mountain's side, + And saw beneath the waters wide." + + +44. The rugged mountain's scanty cloak, etc. The MS. reads: + + "The rugged mountain's stunted screen + Was dwarfish | shrubs | with cliffs between." + | copse | + + +46. Shingles. Gravel or pebbles. See on iii. 171 above. + +Taylor says: "Note how the details of this description are used +in stanza ix.--shingles, bracken, broom." + + +51. Dank. Damp, moist. Cf. Shakespeare, R. and J. ii. 3. 6: +"and night's dank dew;" Milton, Sonnet to Mr. Lawrence: "Now that +the fields are dank, and ways are mire," etc. + + +64. Sooth to tell. To tell the truth. See on i. 476 above. +Sooth to say, to say sooth, in sooth, in good sooth, etc., are +common in old writers. Cf. the Lay, introd. 57: "the sooth to +speak." + + +65. To claim its aid. The MS. has "to draw my blade." + + +78. Enough. Suffice it that. + + +81. A knight's free footsteps, etc. The MS. reads: + + "My errant footsteps | far and wide." + A Knight's bold wanderings | + + +86. I urge thee not. The MS. has "I ask it not," and in 95 +"hall" for Doune. + + +106. Outlawed. The 1st ed. has "exiled." + + +108. In the Regent's court, etc. Cf. ii. 221 above. + + +124. Albany. The Regent of 108 above. He was the son of a +younger brother of James III., who had been driven into exile by +his brother's attempts on his life. He took refuge in France, +where his son was made Lord High Admiral. On the death of James +IV. he was called home by the Scottish nobles to assume the +regency. + + +126. Mewed. Shut up. The word seems originally to have meant +to moult, or shed the feathers; and as a noun, "the place, +whether it be abroad or in the house, in which the hawk is put +during the time she casts, or doth change her feathers" (R. +Holmes's Academy of Armory, etc.). Spenser has both noun and +verb; as in F. Q. i. 5. 20: "forth comming from her darksome +mew;" and Id. ii. 3. 34: "In which vaine Braggadocchio was mewd." +Milton uses the verb in the grand description of Liberty in Of +Unlicensed Printing: "Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her +mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday +beam." In England the noun is still used in the plural to denote +a stable for horses. Pennant says that the royal stables in +London were called mews from the fact that the buildings were +formerly used for keeping the king's falcons. + +Scott says here: "There is scarcely a more disorderly period of +Scottish history than that which succeeded the battle of Flodden, +and occupied the minority of James V. Feuds of ancient standing +broke out like old wounds, and every quarrel among the +independent nobility, which occurred daily, and almost hourly, +gave rise to fresh bloodshed. 'There arose,' said Pitscottie, +'great trouble and deadly feuds in many parts of Scotland, both +in the north and west parts. The Master of Forbes, in the north, +slew the Laird of Meldrum, under tryst' (that is, at an agreed +and secure meeting). 'Likewise, the Laird of Drummelzier slew the +Lord Fleming at the hawking; and, likewise, there was slaughter +among many other great lords.' Nor was the matter much mended +under the government of the Earl of Angus; for though he caused +the King to ride through all Scotland, 'under the pretence and +color of justice, to punish thief and traitor, none were found +greater than were in their own company. And none at that time +durst strive with a Douglas, nor yet a Douglas's man; for if they +would, they got the worst. Therefore none durst plainzie of no +extortion, theft, reiff, nor slaughter done to them by the +Douglases or their men; in that cause they were not heard so long +as the Douglas had the court in guiding." + + +150. Shingles. Cf. 46 above. + + +152. As to your sires. The target and claymore were the weapons +of the Ancient Britons. Taylor quotes Tacitus, Agricola: +"ingentibus gladiis et brevibus cetris." + + +161. Rears. Raises. The word was formerly less restricted in +its application than at present. Cf. Shakespeare's "rear my +hand" (Temp. ii. 1. 295, J. C. iii. 1. 30), "rear the higher our +opinion" (A. and C. ii. 1. 35), etc.; Milton's "he rear'd me," +that is, lifted me up (P. L. viii. 316), "rear'd her lank head" +(Comus, 836), etc. Spenser uses it in the sense of take away +(like the cant lift = steal); as in F. Q. iii. 10. 12: + + "She to his closet went, where all his wealth + Lay hid; thereof she countlesse summes did reare;" + +and Id. iii. 10. 53: + + "like as a Beare, + That creeping close among the hives to reare + An hony-combe," etc. + +Wb. does not give this sense, which we believe is found only in +Spenser. + + +165. Shall with strong hand, etc. Scott has the following note +here: "The ancient Highlanders verified in their practice the +lines of Gray (Fragment on the Alliance of Education and +Government): + + 'An iron race the mountain cliffs maintain, + Foes to the gentler genius of the plain; + For where unwearied sinews must be found, + With side-long plough to quell the flinty ground, + To turn the torrent's swift descending flood, + To tame the savage rushing from the wood, + What wonder if, to patient valor train'd, + They guard with spirit what by strength they gain'd; + And while their rocky ramparts round they see + The rough abode of want and liberty + (As lawless force from confidence will grow), + Insult the plenty of the vales below?' + +"So far, indeed, was a Creagh, or foray, from being held +disgraceful, that a young chief was always expected to show his +talents for command so soon as he assumed it, by leading his clan +on a successful enterprise of this nature, either against a +neighboring sept, for which constant feuds usually furnished an +apology, or against the Sassencach, Saxons, or Lowlanders, for +which no apology was necessary. The Gael, great traditional +historians, never forgot that the Lowlands had, at some remote +period, been the property of their Celtic forefathers, which +furnished an ample vindication of all the ravages that they could +make on the unfortunate districts which lay within their reach. +Sir James Grant of Grant is in possession of a letter of apology +from Cameron of Lochiel, whose men had committed some depredation +upon a farm called Moines, occupied by one of the Grants. +Lochiel assures Grant that, however the mistake had happened, his +instructions were precise, that the party should foray the +province of Moray (a Lowland district), where, as he coolly +observes, 'all men take their prey.'" + + +177. Good faith. In good faith, bona fide; as often in old +writers. + + +192. Bower. See on i. 217 above. + + +195. This rebel Chieftain, etc. The MS. reads: + + "This dark Sir Roderick | and his band;" + This savage Chieftain | + +and below: + + "From copse to copse the signal flew. + Instant, through copse and crags, arose;" + +and in 205 "shoots" for sends. + + +208. And every tuft, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And each lone tuft of broom gives life + To plaided warrior armed for strife. + That whistle manned the lonely glen + With full five hundred armed men;" + +and below (214): + + "All silent, too, they stood, and still, + Watching their leader's beck and will, + While forward step and weapon show + They long to rush upon the foe, + Like the loose crag whose tottering mass + Hung threatening o'er the hollow pass." + + +219. Verge. See on iv. 83 above. + + +230. Manned himself. Cf. Addison's "manned his soul," quoted by +Wb. + + +238. The stern joy, etc. Cf. iv. 155 above. + + +239. Foeman. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"foeman" in many recent eds. + + +246. Their mother Earth, etc. Alluding to the old myths of the +earth-born Giants and of Cadmus. + + +252. Glinted. Flashed; a Scottish word. Jamieson defines glint +"to glance, gleam, or pass suddenly like a flash of lightning." + + +253. Glaive. See on iv. 274 above. The jack was "a horseman's +defensive upper garment, quilted and covered with strong leather" +(Nares). It was sometimes also strengthened with iron rings, +plates, or bosses. Cf. Lyly, Euphues: "jackes quilted, and +covered over with leather, fustian, or canvas, over thick plates +of yron that are sowed to the same." Scott, in the Eve of St. +John, speaks of "his plate-jack." For spear the 1st ed. has +"lance." + + +267. One valiant hand. The MS. has "one brave man's hand." + + +268. Lay. Were staked. + + +270. I only meant, etc. Scott says: "This incident, like some +other passages in the poem, illustrative of the character of the +ancient Gael, is not imaginary, but borrowed from fact. The +Highlanders, with the inconsistency of most nations in the same +state, were alternately capable of great exertions of generosity +and of cruel revenge and perfidy. The following story I can only +quote from tradition, but with such an assurance from those by +whom it was communicated as permits me little doubt of its +authenticity. Early in the last century, John Gunn, a noted +Cateran, or Highland robber, infested Inverness-shire, and levied +black-mail up to the walls of the provincial capital. A garrison +was then maintained in the castle of that town, and their pay +(country banks being unknown) was usually transmitted in specie +under the guard of a small escort. It chanced that the officer +who commanded this little party was unexpectedly obliged to halt, +about thirty miles from Inverness, at a miserable inn. About +nightfall, a stranger in the Highland dress, and of very +prepossessing appearance, entered the same house. Separate +accommodations being impossible, the Englishman offered the +newly-arrived guest a part of his supper, which was accepted with +reluctance. By the conversation he found his new acquaintance +knew well all the passes of the country, which induced him +eagerly to request his company on the ensuing morning. He +neither disguised his business and charge, nor his apprehensions +of that celebrated freebooter, John Gunn. The Highlander +hesitated a moment, and then frankly consented to be his guide. +Forth they set in the morning; and in travelling through a +solitary and dreary glen, the discourse again turned on John +Gunn. 'Would you like to see him?' said the guide; and without +waiting an answer to this alarming question, he whistled, and the +English officer, with his small party, were surrounded by a body +of Highlanders, whose numbers put resistance out of question, and +who were all well armed. 'Stranger,' resumed the guide, 'I am +that very John Gunn by whom you feared to be intercepted, and not +without cause; for I came to the inn last night with the express +purpose of learning your route, that I and my followers might +ease you of your charge by the road. But I am incapable of +betraying the trust you reposed in me, and having convinced you +that you were in my power, I can only dismiss you unplundered and +uninjured.' He then gave the officer directions for his journey, +and disappeared with his party as suddenly as they had presented +themselves." + + +277. Flood. Flow; used for the sake of the rhyme, like drew +just below. Wont = wonted. + + +286. And still, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And still, from copse and heather bush, + Fancy saw spear and broadsword ruch." + + +298. Three mighty lakes. Katrine, Achray, and Vennachar. Scott +says: "The torrent which discharges itself from Loch Vennachar, +the lowest and eastmost of the three lakes which form the scenery +adjoining to the Trosachs, sweeps through a flat and extensive +moor, called Bochastle. Upon a small eminence called the Dun of +Bochastle, and indeed on the plain itself, are some intrenchments +which have been thought Roman. There is adjacent to Callander a +sweet villa, the residence of Captain Fairfoul, entitled the +Roman Camp." + + +301. Mouldering. The MS. has "martial." + + +309. This murderous Chief, etc. Cf. 106 above. + + +315. All vantageless, etc. Scott says: "The duellists of former +times did not always stand upon those punctilios respecting +equality of arms, which are not judged essential to fair combat. +It is true that in formal combats in the lists the parties were, +by the judges of the field, put as nearly as possible in the same +circumstances. But in private duel it was often otherwise. In +that desperate combat which was fought between Quelus, a minion +of Henry III. of France, and Antraguet, with two seconds on each +side, from which only two persons escaped alive, Quelus +complained that his antagonist had over him the advantage of a +poniard which he used in parrying, while his left hand, which he +was forced to employ for the same purpose, was cruelly mangled. +When he charged Antraguet with this odds, 'Thou hast done wrong,' +answered he, 'to forget thy dagger at home. We are here to +fight, and not to settle punctilios of arms.' In a similar duel, +however, a young brother of the house of Aubayne, in Angoulesme, +behaved more generously on the like occasion, and at once threw +away his dagger when his enemy challenged it as an undue +advantage. But at this time hardly anything can be conceived +more horridly brutal and savage than the mode in which private +quarrels were conducted in France. Those who were most jealous +of the point of honor, and acquired the title of Ruffines, did +not scruple to take advantage of strength, numbers, surprise, and +arms, to accomplish their revenge." + + +329. By prophet bred, etc. See iii. 91 fol. above; and for the +expression cf. iv. 124. + + +347. Dark lightning, etc. The MS. has "In lightning flashed the +Chief's dark eye," which might serve as a comment on Dark +lightning. + + +349. Kern. See on iv. 73 above. + + +351. He yields not, etc. The MS. has "He stoops not, he, to +James nor Fate." + + +356. Carpet knight. Cf. Shakespeare, T. N. iii. 4. 257: "He is +knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier and on carpet +consideration." + + +364. Ruth. Pity; obsolete, though we still have ruthless. Cf. +Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 50: + + "to stirre up gentle ruth + Both for her noble blood, and for her tender youth;" + +Milton, Lycidas, 163: "Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with +ruth," etc. + + +380. His targe. Scott says: "A round target of light wood, +covered with strong leather and studded with brass or iron, was a +necessary part of a Highlander's equipment. In charging regular +troops they received the thrust of the bayonet in this buckler, +twisted it aside, and used the broadsword against the encumbered +soldier. In the civil war of 1745 most of the front rank of the +clans were thus armed; and Captain Grose (Military Antiquities, +vol. i. p. 164) informs us that in 1747 the privates of the 42d +regiment, then in Flanders, were for the most part permitted to +carry targets. A person thus armed had a considerable advantage +in private fray. Among verses between Swift and Sheridan, lately +published by Dr. Barrett, there is an account of such an +encounter, in which the circumstances, and consequently the +relative superiority of the combatants, are precisely the reverse +of those in the text: + + 'A Highlander once fought a Frenchman at Margate, + The weapons, a rapier, a backsword, and target; + Brisk Monsieur advanced as fast as he could, + But all his fine pushes were caught in the wood, + And Sawny, with backsword, did slash him and nick him, + While t'other, enraged that he could not once prick him, + Cried, "Sirrah, you rascal, you son of a whore, + Me will fight you, be gar! if you'll come from your door."'" + + +383. Trained abroad. That is, in France. See on i. 163 above. +Scott says here: "The use of defensive armor, and particularly of +the buckler, or target, was general in Queen Elizabeth's time, +although that of the single rapier seems to have been +occasionally practised much earlier (see Douce's Illustrations of +Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 61). Rowland Yorke, however, who +betrayed the fort of Zutphen to the Spaniards, for which good +service he was afterwards poisoned by them, is said to have been +the first who brought the rapier-fight into general use. Fuller, +speaking of the swash-bucklers, or bullies, of Queen Elizabeth's +time, says, 'West Smithfield was formerly called Ruffian's Hall, +where such men usually met, casually or otherwise, to try +masteries with sword or buckler. More were frightened than hurt, +more hurt than killed therewith, it being accounted unmanly to +strike beneath the knee. But since that desperate traitor Rowland +Yorke first introduced thrusting with rapiers, sword and buckler +are disused.' In The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, a comedy, +printed in 1599, we have a pathetic complaint: 'Sword and buckler +fight begins to grow out of use. I am sorry for it; I shall +never see good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking +fight of rapier and dagger will come up; then a tall man and a +good sword and buckler man will be spitted like a cat or rabbit.' +But the rapier had upon the Continent long superseded, in private +duel, the use of sword and shield. The masters of the noble +science of defence were chiefly Italians. They made great mystery +of their art and mode of instruction, never suffered any person +to be present but the scholar who was to be taught, and even +examined closets, beds, and other places of possible concealment. +Their lessons often gave the most treacherous advantages; for the +challenged, having the right to choose his weapons, frequently +selected some strange, unusual, and inconvenient kind of arms, +the use of which he practised under these instructors, and thus +killed at his ease his antagonist, to whom it was presented for +the first time on the field of battle. See Brantome's Discourse +on Duels, and the work on the same subject, 'si gentement ecrit,' +by the venerable Dr. Paris de Puteo. The Highlanders continued +to use broadsword and target until disarmed after the affair of +1745-6." + + +385. Ward. Posture of defence; a technical term in fencing. +Cf. Falstaff's "Thou knowest my old ward" (1 Hen. IV. ii. 4. +215), etc. + + +387. While less expert, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Not Roderick thus, though stronger far, + More tall, and more inured to war." + + +401, 402. And backward, etc. This couplet is not in the MS.; +and the same is true of 405, 406. + + +406. Let recreant yield, etc. The MS. has "Yield they alone who +fear to die." Scott says: "I have not ventured to render this +duel so savagely desperate as that of the celebrated Sir Ewan of +Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, called, from his sable +complexion, Ewan Dhu. He was the last man in Scotland who +maintained the royal cause during the great Civil War, and his +constant incursions rendered him a very unpleasant neighbor to +the republican garrison at Inverlochy, now Fort William. The +governor of the fort detached a party of three hundred men to lay +waste Lochiel's possessions and cut down his trees; by in a +sudden and desperate attack made upon them by the chieftain with +very inferior numbers, they were almost all cut to pieces. The +skirmish is detailed in a curious memoir of Sir Ewan's life, +printed in the Appendix of Pennant's Scottish Tour (vol. i. p. +375): + +'In this engagement Lochiel himself had several wonderful +escapes. In the retreat of the English, one of the strongest and +bravest of the officers retired behind a bush, when he observed +Lochiel pursuing, and seeing him unaccompanied with any, he leapt +out and thought him his prey. They met one another with equal +fury. The combat was long and doubtful: the English gentleman had +by far the advantage in strength and size; but Lochiel, exceeding +him in nimbleness and agility, in the end tript the sword out of +his hand; they closed and wrestled, till both fell to the ground +in each other's arms. The English officer got above Lochiel, and +pressed him hard, but stretching forth his neck, by attempting to +disengage himself, Lochiel, who by this time had his hands at +liberty, with his left hand seized him by the collar, and jumping +at his extended throat, he bit it with his teeth quite through, +and kept such a hold of his grasp, that he brought away his +mouthful; this, he said, was the sweetest bit he ever had in his +lifetime.'" + + +435. Unwounded, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Panting and breathless on the sands, + But all unwounded, now he stands;" + +and just below: + + "Redeemed, unhoped, from deadly strife: + Next on his foe his look he | cast, + | threw, + Whose every breath appeared his last." + + +447. Unbonneted. Past tense, not participle. + + +449. Then faint afar. The MS. has "Faint and afar." + + +452. Lincoln green. See on i. 464 above. + + +462. We destined, etc. Cf. iv. 411 above. + + +465. Weed. Dress. See on iv. 506 above. + + +466. Boune. Ready. See on iv. 36 above. + + +479. Steel. Spur. Cf. i. 115 above. + + +485. Carhonie's hill. About a mile from the lower end of Loch +Vennachar. + + +486. Pricked. Spurred. It came to mean ride; as in F. Q. i. 1. +1: "A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine," etc. Cf. 754 +below. + + +490. Torry and Lendrick. These places, like Deanstown, Doune +(see on iv. 19 above), Blair-Drummond, Ochtertyre, and Kier, are +all on the banks of the Teith, between Callander and Stirling. +Lockhart says: "It may be worth noting that the poet marks the +progress of the King by naming in succession places familiar and +dear to his own early recollections--Blair-Drummond, the seat of +the Homes of Kaimes; Kier, that of the principal family of the +name of Stirling; Ochtertyre, that of John Ramsay, the well-known +antiquary, and correspondent of Burns; and Craigforth, that of +the Callenders of Craigforth, almost under the walls of Stirling +Castle;--all hospitable roofs, under which he had spent many of +his younger days." + + +494. Sees the hoofs strike fire. The MS. has "Saw their hoofs +of fire." + + +496. They mark, etc. The to of the infinitive is omitted in +glance, as if mark had been see. + + +498. Sweltering. The 1st ed. has "swelling." + + +506. Flinty. The MS. has "steepy;" and in 514 "gains" for +scales. + + +525. Saint Serle. "The King himself is in such distress for a +rhyme as to be obliged to apply to one of the obscurest saints in +the calendar" (Jeffrey). The MS. has "by my word," and "Lord" +for Earl in the next line. + + +534. Cambus-kenneth's abbey gray. See on iv. 231 above. + + +547. By. Gone by, past. + + +551. O sad and fatal mound! "An eminence on the northeast of +the Castle, where state criminals were executed. Stirling was +often polluted with noble blood. It is thus apostrophized by J. +Johnston: + + 'Discordia tristis + Heu quotis procerum sanguine tinxit humum! + Hoc uno infelix, et felix cetera; nusquam + Laetior aut caeli frons geniusve soli.' + +"The fate of William, eighth Earl of Douglas, whom James II. +stabbed in Stirling Castle with his own hand, and while under his +royal safe-conduct, is familiar to all who read Scottish history. +Murdack Duke of Albany, Duncan Earl of Lennox, his father-in-law, +and his two sons, Walter and Alexander Stuart, were executed at +Stirling, in 1425. They were beheaded upon an eminence without +the Castle walls, but making part of the same hill, from whence +they could behold their strong Castle of Doune and their +extensive possessions. This 'heading hill,' as it was sometimes +termed, bears commonly the less terrible name of Hurly-hacket, +from its having been the scene of a courtly amusement alluded to +by Sir David Lindsay, who says of the pastimes in which the young +King was engaged: + + 'Some harled him to the Hurly-hacket;' + +which consisted in sliding--in some sort of chair, it may be +supposed--from top to bottom of a smooth bank. The boys of +Edinburgh, about twenty years ago, used to play at the hurly- +hacket on the Calton Hill, using for their seat a horse's skull" +(Scott). + + +558. The Franciscan steeple. The Greyfriars Church, built by +James IV. in 1594 on the hill not far from the Castle, is still +standing, and has been recently restored. Here James VI. was +crowned on the 29th of July, 1567, and John Knox preached the +coronation sermon. + + +562. Morrice-dancers. The morrice or morris dance was probably +of Spanish (or Moorish, as the name implies) origin, but after +its introduction into England it became blended with the Mayday +games. A full historical account of it is given in Douce's +Illustrations of Shakespeare. The characters in it in early +times were the following: "Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, +Maid Marian (Robin's mistress and the queen or lady of the May), +the fool, the piper, and several morris-dancers habited, as it +appears, in various modes. Afterwards a hobby-horse and a dragon +were added" (Douce). For a description of the game, see Scott's +Abbot, ch. xiv., and the author's note. See also on 614 below. + + +564. The burghers hold their sports to-day. Scott has the +following note here: + +"Every burgh of Scotland of the least note, but more especially +the considerable towns, had their solemn play, or festival, when +feats of archery were exhibited, and prized distributed to those +who excelled in wrestling, hurling the bar, and the other +gymnastic exercises of the period. Stirling, a usual place of +royal residence, was not likely to be deficient in pomp upon such +occasions, especially since James V. was very partial to them. +His ready participation in these popular amusements was one cause +of his acquiring the title of the King of the Commons, or Rex +Plebeiorum, as Lesley has latinized it. The usual prize to the +best shooter was a silver arrow. Such a one is preserved at +Selkirk and at Peebles. At Dumfries a silver gun was +substituted, and the contention transferred to firearms. The +ceremony, as there performed, is the subject of an excellent +Scottish poem, by Mr. John Mayne, entitled the Siller Gun 1808, +which surpasses the efforts of Fergusson, and comes near those of +Burns. + +"Of James's attachment to archery, Pitscottie, the faithful +though rude recorder of the manners of that period, has given us +evidence: + +'In this year there came an ambassador out of England, named Lord +William Howard, with a bishop with him, with many other +gentlemen, to the number of threescore horse, which were all able +men and waled [picked] men for all kind of games and pastimes, +shooting, louping, running, wrestling, and casting of the stone, +but they were well sayed [essayed or tried] ere they past out of +Scotland, and that by their own provocation; but ever they tint: +till at last, the Queen of Scotland, the King's mother, favoured +the English-men, because she was the King of England's sister; +and therefore she took an enterprise of archery upon the English- +men's hands, contrary her son the King, and any six in Scotland +that he would wale, either gentlemen or yeomen, that the English- +men should shoot against them either at pricks, revers, or buts, +as the Scots pleased. + +'The King, hearing this of his mother, was content, and gart her +pawn a hundred crowns and a tun of wine upon the English-men's +hands; and he incontinent laid down as much for the Scottish-men. +The field and ground was chosen in St. Andrews, and three landed +men and three yeomen chosen to shoot against the English-men,--to +wit, David Wemyss of that ilk, David Arnot of that ilk, and Mr. +John Wedderburn, vicar of Dundee; the yeomen, John Thomson, in +Leith, Steven Taburner, with a piper, called Alexander Bailie; +they shot very near, and warred [worsted] the English-men of the +enterprise, and wan the hundred crowns and the tun of wine, which +made the King very merry that his men wan the victory.'" + + +571. Play my prize. The same expression occurs in Shakespeare, +T. A. i. 1. 399: "You have play'd your prize." Cf. also M. of V. +iii. 2. 142: "Like one of two contending in a prize," etc. + + +575. The Castle gates. The main entrance to the Castle, not the +postern gate of 532 above. + + +580. Fair Scotland's King, etc. The MS. reads: + + "King James and all his nobles went ... + Ever the King was bending low + To his white jennet's saddle-bow, + Doffing his cap to burgher dame, + Who smiling blushed for pride and shame." + + +601. There nobles, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Nobles who mourned their power restrained, + And the poor burgher's joys disdained; + Dark chief, who, hostage for his clan, + Was from his home a banished man, + Who thought upon his own gray tower, + The waving woods, his feudal bower, + And deemed himself a shameful part + Of pageant that he cursed in heart." + + +611. With bell at heel. Douce says that "the number of bells +round each leg of the morris-dancers amounted from twenty to +forty;" but Scott, in a note to The Fair Maid of Perth, speaks of +252 small bells in sets of twelve at regular musical intervals. + + +612. Their mazes wheel. The MS. adds: + + "With awkward stride there city groom + Would part of fabled knight assume." + + +614. Robin Hood. Scott says here: "The exhibition of this +renowned outlaw and his band was a favorite frolic at such +festivals as we are describing. This sporting, in which kings +did not disdain to be actors, was prohibited in Scotland upon the +Reformation, by a statute of the 6th Parliament of Queen Mary, c. +61, A. D. 1555, which ordered, under heavy penalties that 'na +manner of person be chosen Robert Hude, nor Little John, Abbot of +Unreason, Queen of May, nor otherwise.' But in 1561, the 'rascal +multitude,' says John Knox, 'were stirred up to make a Robin +Hude, whilk enormity was of mony years left and damned by statute +and act of Paliament; yet would they not be forbidden.' +Accordingly they raised a very serious tumult, and at length made +prisoners the magistrates who endeavored to suppress it, and +would not release them till they extorted a formal promise that +no one should be punished for his share of the disturbance. It +would seem, from the complaints of the General Assembly of the +Kirk, that these profane festivities were continued down to 1592 +(Book of the Universal Kirk, p. 414). Bold Robin was, to say the +least, equally successful in maintaining his ground against the +reformed clergy of England; for the simple and evangelical +Latimer complains of coming to a country church where the people +refused to hear him because it was Robin Hood's day, and his +mitre and rochet were fain to give way to the village pastime. +Much curious information on this subject may be found in the +Preliminary Dissertation to the late Mr. Ritson's edition of the +songs respecting this memorable outlaw. The game of Robin Hood +was usually acted in May; and he was associated with the morrice- +dancers, on whom so much illustration has been bestowed by the +commentators on Shakespeare. A very lively picture of these +festivities, containing a great deal of curious information on +the subject of the private life and amusements of our ancestors, +was thrown, by the late ingenious Mr. Strutt, into his romance +entitled Queen-hoo Hall, published after his death, in 1808." + + +615. Friar Tuck. "Robin Hood's fat friar," as Shakespeare calls +him (T. G. of V. iv. 1. 36), who figures in the Robin Hood +ballads and in Ivanhoe. Scarlet and Little John are mentioned in +one of Master Silence's snatches of song in 2 Hen. IV. v. 3. 107: +"And Robin, Scarlet, and John." Scathelocke is a brother of +Scarlet in Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, which is a "Tale of Robin +Hood," and Mutch is a bailiff in the same play. + + +626. Stake. Prize. + + +627. Fondly he watched, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Fondly he watched, with watery eye, + For answering glance of sympathy, + But no emotion made reply! + Indifferent as to unknown | wight, + Cold as to unknown yeoman | + The King gave forth the arrow bright." + + +630. To archer wight. That is, to any ordinary archer. Scott +has the following note here: + +"The Douglas of the poem is an imaginary person, a supposed uncle +of the Earl of Angus. But the King's behavior during an +unexpected interview with the Laird of Kilspindie, one of the +banished Douglases, under circumstances similar to those in the +text, is imitated from a real story told by Hume of Godscroft. I +would have availed myself more fully of the simple and affecting +circumstances of the old history, had they not been already woven +into a pathetic ballad by my friend Mr. Finlay. [FN#11] + +'His [the King's] implacability [towards the family of Douglas] +did also appear in his carriage towards Archibald of Kilspinke, +whom he, when he was a child, loved singularly well for his +ability of body, and was wont to call him his Gray-Steill. +[FN#12] Archibald, being banished into England, could not well +comport with the humor of that nation, which he thought to be too +proud, and that they had too high a conceit of themselves, joined +with a contempt and despising of all others. Wherefore, being +wearied of that life, and remembering the King's favor of old +towards him, he determined to try the King's mercifulness and +clemency. So he comes into Scotland, and taking occasion of the +King's hunting in the park at Stirling he casts himself to be in +his way, as he was coming home to the Castle. So soon as the King +saw him afar off, ere he came near, he guessed it was he, and +said to one of his courtiers, "Yonder is my Gray-Steill, +Archibald of Kilspindie, if he be alive." The other answered +that it could not be he, and that he durst not come into the +King's presence. The King approaching, he fell upon his knees +and craved pardon, and promised from thenceforward to abstain +from meddling in public affairs, and to lead a quiet and private +life. The King went by without giving him any answer, and trotted +a good round pace up the hill. Kilspindie followed, and though +he wore on him a secret, or shirt of mail, for his particular +enemies, was as soon at the Castle gate as the King. There he +sat him down upon a stone without, and entreated some of the +King's servants for a cup of drink, being weary and thirsty; but +they, fearing the King's displeasure, durst gave him none. When +the King was set at his dinner, he asked what he had done, what +he had said, and whither he had gone? It was told him that he +had desired a cup of drink, and had gotten none. The King +reproved them very sharply for their discourtesy, and told them +that if he had not taken an oath that no Douglas should ever +serve him, he would have received him into his service, for he +had seen him sometime a man of great ability. Then he sent him +word to go to Leith, and expect his further pleasure. Then some +kinsman of David Falconer, the cannonier, that was slain at +Tantallon, began to quarrel with Archibald about the matter, +wherewith the King showed himself not well pleased when he heard +of it. Then he commanded him to go to France for a certain +space, till he heard further from him. And so he did, and died +shortly after. This gave occasion to the King of England (Henry +VIII.) to blame his nephew, alleging the old saying, That a +king's face should give grace. For this Archibald (whatsoever +were Angus's or Sir George's fault) had not been principal actor +of anything, nor no counsellor nor stirrer up, but only a +follower of his friends, and that noways cruelly disposed' (Hume +of Godscroft, ii. 107)." + + +637. Larbert is a town about ten miles to the south of Stirling, +and Alloa another seven miles to the east on the north side of +the Forth. + + +641. To Douglas gave a golden ring. Scott says: "The usual +prize of a wrestling was a ram and a ring, but the animal would +have embarrassed my story. Thus, in the Cokes Tale of Gamelyn, +ascribed to Chaucer: + + 'There happed to be there beside + Tryed a wrestling; + And therefore there was y-setten + A ram and als a ring." + +Again, the Litil Geste of Robin Hood: + + 'By a bridge was a wrestling, + And there taryed was he + And there was all the best yemen + Of all the west countrey. + A full fayre game there was set up, + A white bull up y-pight, + A great courser with saddle and brydle, + With gold burnished full bryght; + A payre of gloves, a red golde ringe, + A pipe of wine, good day; + What man bereth him best, I wis, + The prise shall bear away.'" + + +648. To hurl the massive bar. Cf. iv. 559 above. + + +658. Scottish strength. The MS. has "mortal strength." + + +660. The Ladies' Rock. A point in the "valley" between the +Castle and the Greyfriars Church. It was formerly the chief +place for viewing the games, which were held in this "valley," or +depression in the hill on which the Castle stands. It must not +be confounded with the Ladies' Lookout, a favorite point of view +on the Castle walls. + + +662. Well filled. The MS. has "weighed down;" and in 664, +"Scattered the gold among the crowd." + + +674. Ere Douglas, etc. The MS. has "Ere James of Douglas' +stalwart hand;" and in 677, "worn" for wrecked. + + +681. Murmurs. Some eds. have "murmur." + + +685. The banished man. The MS. has "his stately form." + + +724. Needs but a buffet. Only a single blow is needed. + + +728. Then clamored, etc. The MS. and 1st ed. have "Clamored his +comrades of the train;" and in 730 the MS. has "warrior's" for +Baron's. + + +735. Atone. See on iv. 421 above. + + +744. But shall a Monarch's presence, etc. The MS. reads: + + + "But in my court injurious blow, And bearded thus, and +thus out-dared? What, ho!" etc. + + +747. Ward. Guarding, confinement under guard. Cf. Gen. xl. 3. + + +752. Misarray. Disorder, confusion. Neither Wb. nor Worc. +gives the word. + + +754. Pricked. Spurred, rode. See on 486 above. + + +755. Repelled, etc. The MS. has "Their threats repelled by +insult loud." + + +768. Hyndford. A village on the Clyde, a few miles above +Lanark. + + +790. Widow's mate expires. An instance of prolepsis, or +"anticipation" in the use of a word. He must expire before she +can be a widow. Cf. Macbeth, iii. 4. 76: + + "Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, + Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal;" + +that is, purged it and made it gentle. + + +794. Ward. Ward off, avert. + + +796. The crowd's wild fury, etc. The MS. reads: + + "The crowd's wild fury ebbed amain + In tears, as tempests sink in rain." + +The 1st ed. reads as in the text, but that of 1821 has "sunk +amain." + +The figure here is a favorite one with Shakespeare. Cf. R. of L. +1788: + + "This windy tempest, till it blow up rain, + Held back his sorrow's tide, to make it more; + At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er;" + +3 Hen. VI. i. 4. 146: + + "For raging wind blows up incessant showers, + And, when the rage allays, the rain begins;" + +Id. ii. 5. 85: + + "see, see, what showers arise, + Blown with the windy tempest of my heart;" + +T. and C. iv. 4. 55: "Where are my tears? rain, to lay this wind, +or my heart will be blown up by the root;" and Macbeth, i. 7. 25: +"That tears shall down the wind." + + +808. The rough soldier. Sir John of Hyndford (768 above). + + +811. He led. The 1st ed. has "they led," and "their" for his in +813. + + +812. Verge. Note the rhyme with charge, and see on iv. 83 +above. + + +819. This common fool. Cf. Shakespeare's "fool multitude" (M. +of V. ii. 9. 26). Just below Lockhart quotes Coriolanus, i. 1. +180: + + "Who deserves greatness + Deserves your hate; and your affections are + A sick man's appetite, who desires most that + Which would increase his evil. He that depends + Upon your favors swims with fins of lead + And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? + With every minute you do change a mind, + And call him noble that was now your hate, + Him vile that was your garland." + + +821. Douglas. The reading of the 1st ed., as in 825 below; not +"Douglas'," as in some recent eds. + + +830. Vain as the leaf, etc. The MS. has "Vain as the sick man's +idle dream." + + +838. Cognizance. "The sable pale of Mar." See on iv. 153 +above. + + +853. With scanty train, etc. The MS. has "On distant chase you +will not ride." + + +856. Lost it. Forgot it. + + +858. For spoiling of. For fear of ruining. Cf. Shakespeare, +Sonn. 52. 4: + + "The which he will not every hour survey, + For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure; + +T. G. of V. i. 2. 136: "Yet here they shall not lie for catching +cold;" Beaumont and Fletcher, Captain, iii. 5: "We'll have a bib +for spoiling of thy doublet," etc. + + +887. Earl William. The Douglas who was stabbed by James II. See +on 551 above. + + + + + +Canto Sixth. + + + + +"Lord Jeffrey has objected to the guard-room scene and its +accompanying song as the greatest blemish in the whole poem. The +scene contrasts forcibly with the grace which characterizes the +rest; but in a poem which rests its interest upon incident, such +a criticism seems overstrained. It gives us a vigorous picture +of a class of men who played a very important part in the history +of the time, especially across the Border; men who, many of them +outlaws, and fighting, not for country or for king, but for him +who paid them best, were humored with every license when they +were not on strict military duty. The requirements of the +narrative might have been satisfied without these details, it is +true; but the use which Sir Walter has made of them--to show the +power of beauty and innocence, and the chords of tenderness and +goodness which lie ready to vibrate in the wildest natures--may +surely reconcile us to such a piece of realism. + +"The scene of Roderick's death harmonizes well with his +character. The minstrel's account of the battle the poet himself +felt to be somewhat long, and yet it is difficult to see how it +could be curtailed without spoiling it. It is full of life and +vigor, and our only cause of surprise is that the lay should only +come to a sudden stand when it is really completed" (Taylor). + + +6. Scaring, etc. The 1st ed. reads: "And scaring prowling +robbers to their den." + + +7. Battled. Battlemented; as in ii. 702 above. + + +9. The kind nurse of men. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 5: + + "O sleep, O gentle sleep, + Nature's soft nurse," etc. + + +23. Through narrow loop, etc. The MS. has "Through blackened +arch," etc.; and below: + + "The lights in strange alliance shone + Beneath the arch of blackened stone." + + +25. Struggling with. Some recent eds. misprint "struggling +through." + + +47. Adventurers they, etc. Scott says: "The Scottish armies +consisted chiefly of the nobility and barons, with their vassals, +who held lands under them for military service by themselves and +their tenants. The patriarchal influence exercised by the heads +of clans in the Highlands and Borders was of a different nature, +and sometimes at variance with feudal principles. It flowed from +the Patria Potestas, exercised by the chieftain as representing +the original father of the whole name, and was often obeyed in +contradiction to the feudal superior. James V. seems first to +have introduced, in addition to the militia furnished from these +sources, the service of a small number of mercenaries, who formed +a body-guard, called the Foot-Band. The satirical poet, Sir +David Lindsay (or the person who wrote the prologue to his play +of the Three Estaites), has introduced Finlay of the Foot-Band, +who after much swaggering upon the stage is at length put to +flight by the Fool, who terrifies him by means of a sheep's skull +upon a pole. I have rather chosen to give them the harsh features +of the mercenary soldiers of the period, than of this Scottish +Thraso. These partook of the character of the Adventurous +Companions of Froissart, or the Condottieri of Italy." + + +53. The Fleming, etc. The soil of Flanders is very fertile and +productive, in marked contrast to the greater part of Scotland. + + +60. Halberd. A combination of spear and battle-axe. See Wb. + + +63. Holytide. Holiday. For tide = time, see on iii. 478 above. + + +73. Neighboring to. That is, lying in adjacent rooms. + + +75. Burden. Alluding to the burden, or chorus, of a song. Cf. +ii. 392 above. The MS. has "jest" for joke; and in the next line +"And rude oaths vented by the rest." + + +78. Trent. the English river of that name. Cf. 231 below. + + +84. That day. Modifying cut shore, not grieved. + + +87. A merry catch, I troll. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp, iii. 2. 126: +"will you troll the catch," etc. + + +88. Buxom. Lively, brisk; as in Hen. V. iii. 6. 27: "of buxom +valour," etc. Its original sense was yielding, obedient; as in +F. Q. i. 11. 37: "the buxome aire" (see also Milton, P. L. ii. +842); and Id. iii. 2. 23: "Of them that to him buxome are and +prone." For the derivation, see Wb. + + +90. Poule. Paul; an old spelling, found in Chaucer and other +writers. The measure of the song is anapestic (that is, with the +accent on every third syllable), with modifications. + + +92. Black-jack. A kind of pitcher made of leather. Taylor +quotes Old Mortality, chap. viii.: "The large black-jack filled +with very small beer." + + +93. Sack. A name applied to Spanish and Canary wines in +general; but sometimes the particular kind was specified. Cf. 2 +Hen. IV. iv. 3. 104: "good sherris-sack" (that is, sherry wine); +and Herrick, Poems: + + "thy isles shall lack + Grapes, before Herrick leaves Canarie sack." + + +95. Upsees. "Bacchanalian interjection, borrowed from the +Dutch" (Scott). Nares criticises Scott for using the word as a +noun. It is generally found in the phrases "upsee Dutch" and +"upsee Freeze" (the same thing, Frise being = Dutch), which +appear to mean "in the Dutch fashion." Cf. Ben Jonson, +Alchemist, iv. 6: + + "I do not like the dullness of your eye, + It hath a heavy east, 't is upsee Dutch;" + +that is, looks like intoxication. See also Beaumont and +Fletcher, Beggar's Bush, iv. 4: "The bowl ... which must be upsey +English, strong, lusty, London beer." + + +98. Kerchief. See on iii. 495 above. + + +100. Gillian. A common old English name (according to Coles and +others, a corruption of Juliana), often contracted into Gill of +Jill, and used as a familiar term for a woman, as Jack was for a +man. The two are often associated; as in the proverbs "Every +Jack must have his Jill," and "A good Jack makes a good Jill." + + +103. Placket. Explained by some as = stomacher; by others as = +petticoat, or the slit or opening in those garments. Cf. Wb. It +is often used figuratively for woman, as here. Placket and pot = +women and wine. + + +104. Lurch. Rob. Cf. Shakespeare, Cor. ii. 2. 105: "He lurch'd +all swords of the garland;" that is, robbed them all of the +prize. + + +112. The drum. The 1st ed. has "your drum." + + +116. Plaid. For the rhyme, see on i. 363 above. + + +124. Store of blood. Plenty of blood. Cf. Milton, L'Allegro, +121: "With store of ladies," etc. See also on the adjective, i. +548 above. + + +127. Reward thy toil. The MS. goes on thus: + + "Get thee an ape, and then at once + Thou mayst renounce the warder's lance, + And trudge through borough and through land, + The leader of a juggler band." + +Scott has the following note here: "The jongleurs, or jugglers, +as we learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr. Strutt, on +the sports and pastimes of the people of England, used to call in +the aid of various assistants, to render these performances as +captivating as possible. The glee-maiden was a necessary +attendant. Her duty was tumbling and dancing; and therefore the +Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states Herodias to +have vaulted or tumbled before King Herod. In Scotland these +poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have been +bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by +Fountainhall: 'Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his +lady for stealing away from him a little girl, called the +tumbling-lassie, that dance upon his stage; and he claimed +damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her +mother for œ30 Scots. But we have no slaves in Scotland, and +mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested the +employment of tumbling would kill her; and her joints were now +grown stiff, and she declined to return; though she was at least +a 'prentice, and so could not run away from her master; yet some +cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee +against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not deliver him +up. The Lords, renitente cancellario, assoilzied Harden on the +27th of January (1687)' (Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. +439)." + + +136. Purvey. Provide. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 10: "He all +things did purvay which for them needfull weare." + + +147. Bertram, etc. The MS. has + "Bertram | his | + | such | violence withstood." + + +152. The tartan screen. That is, the tartan which she had drawn +over her head as a veil. + + +155. The savage soldiery, etc. The MS. has "While the rude +soldiery, amazed;" and in 164 below, "Should Ellen Douglas suffer +wrong." + + +167. I shame me. I shame myself, I am ashamed. The very was +formerly used intransitively in this sense. Cf. Shakespeare, R. +of L. 1143: "As shaming any eye should thee behold;" A. Y. L. iv. +3. 136: "I do not shame to tell you what I was," etc. + + +170. Needwood. A royal forest in Staffordshire. + + +171. Poor Rose, etc. The MS. reads: + + "'My Rose,'--he wiped his iron eye and brow,-- + 'Poor Rose,--if Rose be living now.'" + + +178. Part. Act; used for the rhyme. The expression is not +unlike "do the part of an honest man" (Much Ado, ii. 1. 172), or +"act the part," as we should now put it. + + +183. Tullibardine. The name of an old seat of the Murray +family, about twenty miles from Stirling. + + +199. Errant damosel. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 19: "Th' +adventure of the Errant damozell." + + +209. Given by the Monarch, etc. The MS. has "The Monarch gave +to James Fitz-James." + + +218. Bower. Chamber. See on i. 217 above. + + +222. Permit I marshal you the way. Permit that I conduct you +thither. + + +233. The vacant purse, etc. The MS. reads: + + "The silken purse shall serve for me, + And in my barret-cap shall flee""-- + +a forced rhyme which the poet did well to get rid of. + + +234. Barret-cap. Cloth cap. Cf. the Lay, iii. 216: + + "Old England's sign, St. George's cross, + His barret-cap did grace." + +He puts the purse in his cap as a favor. See on iv. 686 above. + + +242. Master's. He means the Douglas, but John of Brent takes it +to refer to Roderick. See 305 below. + + +261. Wot. Know, understand. See on i. 596 above. + + +276. Rugged vaults. The MS. has "low broad vaults;" and in 279, +"stretching" for crushing. + + +291. Oaken floor. The MS. and 1st ed. have "flinty floor;" and +below: + + "'thou mayst remain;' + And then, retiring, bolt and chain, + And rusty bar, he drew again. + Roused at the sound," etc. + + +292, 293. Such ... hold. This couplet is not in the 1st ed., +and presumably not in the MS., though the fact is not noted by +Lockhart. + + +295. Leech. Physician. Cf. F. Q. iii. 3. 18: "Yf any leaches +skill," etc.; and in the preceding stanza, "More neede of leach- +crafte hath your Damozell," etc. + + +306. Prore. Prow (Latin prora); used only in poetry. + + +309. Astrand. On strand (cf. ashore), stranded. + + +316. At sea. The MS. has "on main," and "plain" for lea in the +rhyme. The 1st ed. and that of 1821 have "on sea." + + +334. Has never harp, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Shall never harp of minstrel tell + Of combat fought so fierce and well." + + +348. Strike it! Scott says: "There are several instances, at +least in tradition, of persons so much attached to particular +tunes, as to require to hear them on their death-bed. Such an +anecdote is mentioned by the late Mr. Riddel of Glenriddel, in +his collection of Border tunes, respecting an air called the +'Dandling of the Bairns,' for which a certain Gallovidian laird +is said to have evinced this strong mark of partiality. It is +popularly told of a famous freebooter, that he composed the tune +known by the name of Macpherson's Rant while under sentence of +death, and played it at the gallows-tree. Some spirited words +have been adapted to it by Burns. A similar story is recounted +of a Welsh bard, who composed and played on his death-bed the air +called Dafyddy Garregg Wen. But the most curious example is +given by Brantome of a maid of honor at the court of France, +entitled Mademoiselle de Limeuil: 'Durant sa maladie, dont elle +trespassa, jamais elle ne cessa, ainsi causa tousjours; car elle +estoit fort grande parleuse, brocardeuse, et tres-bien et fort a +propos, et tres-belle avec cela. Quand l'heure de sa fin fut +venue, elle fit venir a soy son valet (ainsi que les filles de la +cour en ont chacune un), qui s'appelloit Julien, et scavoit tres- +bien jouer du violon. "Julien," luy dit elle, "prenez vostre +violon, et sonnez moy tousjours jusques a ce que vous me voyez +morte (car je m'y en vais) la Defaite des Suisses, et le mieux +que vous pourrez, et quand vous serez sur le mot, 'Tout est +perdu,' sonnez le par quatre ou cing fois, le plus piteusement +que vous pourrez," ce qui fit l'autre, et elle-mesme luy aidoit +de la voix, et quand ce vint "tout est perdu," elle le reitera +par deux fois; et se tournant de l'autre coste du chevet, elle +dit a ses compagnes: "Tout est perdu a ce coup, et a bon +escient;" et ainsi deceda. Voila une morte joyeuse et plaisante. +Je tiens ce conte de deux de ses compagnes, dignes de foi, qui +virent jouer ce mystere' (OEuvres de Brantome, iii. 507). The +tune to which this fair lady chose to make her final exit was +composed on the defeat of the Swiss of Marignano. The burden is +quoted by Panurge in Rabelais, and consists of these words, +imitating the jargon of the Swiss, which is a mixture of French +and German: + + 'Tout est verlore, + La Tintelore, + Tout est verlore bi Got.'" + + +362. With what, etc. This line is not in the MS. + + +369. Battle of Beal' au Duine. Scott has the following note +here: + +"A skirmish actually took place at a pass thus called in the +Trosachs, and closed with the remarkable incident mentioned in +the text. It was greatly posterior in date to the reign of James +V. + +'In this roughly-wooded island [FN#13] the country people +secreted their wives and children and their most valuable effects +from the rapacity of Cromwell's soldiers during their inroad into +this country, in the time of the republic. These invaders, not +venturing to ascend by the ladders along the lake, took a more +circuitous road through the heart of the Trosachs, the most +frequented path at that time, which penetrates the wilderness +about half way between Binean and the lake by a tract called Yea- +chilleach, or the Old Wife's Bog. + +'In one of the defiles of this by-road the men of the country at +that time hung upon the rear of the invading enemy, and shot one +of Cromwell's men, whose grave marks the scene of action, and +gives name to that pass. [FN#14] In revenge of this insult, the +soldiers resolved to plunder the island, to violate the women, +and put the children to death. With this brutal intention, one +of the party, more expert than the rest, swam towards the island, +to fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to +their asylum, and lay moored in one of the creeks. His +companions stood on the shore of the mainland, in full view of +all that was to pass, waiting anxiously for his return with the +boat. But just as the swimmer had got to the nearest point of +the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get on shore, +a heroine, who stood on the very point where he meant to land, +hastily snatching a dagger from below her apron, with one stroke +severed his head from the body. His party seeing this disaster, +and relinquishing all future hope of revenge or conquest, made +the best of their way out of their perilous situation. This +amazon's great grandson lives at Bridge of Turk, who, besides +others, attests the anecdote' (Sketch of the Scenery near +Callander, Stirling, 1806, p. 20). I have only to add to this +account that the heroine's name was Helen Stuart." + + +376. No ripple on the lake. "The liveliness of this description +of the battle is due to the greater variety of the metre, which +resembles that of Marmion. The three-accent lines introduced at +intervals give it lightness, and the repetition of the same rhyme +enables the poet to throw together without break all that forms +part of one picture" (Taylor). + + +377. Erne. Eagle. See Wb. + + +392. I see, etc. Cf. iv. 152 above. + + +396. Boune. See on iv. 36 above. Most eds. misprint "bound." + + +404. Barded. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"corrected" in all the recent ones into "barbed." Scott +doubtless wrote barded (= armored, or wearing defensive armor; +but applied only to horses), a word found in many old writers. +Cf. Holinshed (quoted by Nares): "with barded horses, all covered +with iron," etc. See also Wb. Scott has the word again in the +Lay, i. 311: + + "Above the foaming tide, I ween, + Scarce half the charger's neck was seen; + For he was barded from counter to tail, + And the rider was armed complete in mail." + + +405. Battalia. Battalion, army. The word is not a plural of +battalion, as some have seemed to think. See Wb. + + +414. Vaward. In the vanward, or vanguard; misprinted "vanward" +in some editions. Shakespeare has the noun several times; as in +Hen. V. iv. 3. 130: "The leading of the vaward;" Cor. i. 6. 53: +"Their bands i' the vaward;" and figuratively in M. N. D. iv. 1. +110: "the vaward of the day," etc. + + +419. Pride. Some eds. misprint "power." + + +429. As. As if. See on ii. 56 above. + + +434. Their flight they ply. The reading of the 1st ed. and that +of 1821. Most of the eds. have "plight" for flight, and Taylor +has the following note on Their plight they ply: "The meaning of +this is not very clear. Possibly 'they keep up a constant fire,' +but they seem in too complete a rout for that." Cf. iii. 318 +above. + + +438. The rear. The 1st ed. has "their rear." + + +443. Twilight wood. Cf. 403 above. "The appearance of the +spears and pikes was such that in the twilight they might have +been mistaken at a distance for a wood" (Taylor). + + +449-450. And closely shouldering, etc. This couplet is not in +the MS. + + +452. Tinchel. "A circle of sportsmen, who, by surrounding a +great space, and gradually narrowing, brought immense quantities +of deer together, which usually made desperate efforts to breach +through the Tinchel" (Scott). + + +459. The tide. The 1st ed. has "their tide." + + +473. Now, gallants! etc. Cf. Macaulay, Battle of Ivry: + + "Now by the lips of those ye love, + Fair gentlemen of France, + Charge for the golden lilies,-- + Upon them with the lance!" + + +483. And refluent, etc. The MS. reads: + + + "And refluent down the darksome pass + The battle's tide was poured; + There toiled the spearman's struggling spear, + There raged the mountain sword." + + +488. Linn. Here the word is = cataract. See on i. 71 and ii. +270 above. + + +497. Minstrel, away! The MS. has "Away! away!" + + +509. Surge. Note the imperfect rhyme. See on i. 223 above. + + +511. That sullen. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; +"the sullen" in many eds. + + +514. That parts not, etc. Lockhart quotes Byron, Giaour: + + "the loveliness in death + That parts not quite with parting breath." + + +515. Seeming, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And seemed, to minstrel ear, to toll + The parting dirge of many a soul." + +For part = depart, see on ii. 94 above. + + +523. While by the lake, etc. The MS. reads: + + "While by the darkened lake below + File out the spearmen of the foe." + + +525. At weary bay. See on i. 133 above. + + +527. Tattered sail. The 1st ed. has "shattered sail;" not noted +in the Errata. + + +532. Saxons. Some eds. misprint "Saxon." + + +538. Wont. See on i. 408 above. + + +539. Store. See on i. 548 above. Bonnet-pieces were gold coins +on which the King's head was represented with a bonnet instead of +a crown. + + +540. To him will swim. For the ellipsis, see on i. 528 above. + + +556. Her billows, etc. The 1st ed. has "Her billow reared his +snowy crest," and "its" for they in the next line. + + +564. It tinged, etc. The MS. has "It tinged the boats and lake +with flame." + +Lines 561-568 are interpolated in the MS. on a slip of paper. + + +565. Duncraggan's widowed dame. Cf. iii. 428 fol. above. + + +567. A naked dirk. The 1st ed. has "Her husband's dirk." + + +592. Chime. Music. Cf. iv. 524 above. + + +595. Varied his look, etc. The MS. has "Glowed in his look, as +swelled the song;" and in 600, + + "his | glazing | eye." + | fiery | + + +602. Thus, motionless, etc. Cf. the Introduction to Rob Roy; +"Rob Roy, while on his death-bed, learned that a person, with +whom he was at enmity, proposed to visit him. 'Raise me from my +bed,' said the invalid; 'throw my plaid around me, and bring me +my claymore, dirk, and pistols: it shall never be said that a +foeman saw Rob Roy MacGregor defenceless and unarmed.' His +foeman, conjectured to be one of the MacLarens, entered and paid +his compliments, inquiring after the health of his formidable +neighbor. Rob Roy maintained a cold, haughty civility during +their short conference; and so soon as he had left the house, +'Now,' he said, 'all is over--let the piper play Ha til mi +tulidh' [we return no more], and he is said to have expired +before the dirge was finished." + + +605. Grim and still. Originally "stern and still." In a note +to the printer, sent with the final stanzas, Scott writes: "I +send the grand finale, and so exit the Lady of the Lake from the +head she has tormented for six months. In canto vi. stanza 21,-- +stern and still, read grim and still; sternly occurs four lines +higher. For a similar reason, stanza 24,--dun deer read fleet +deer." + + +608. And art thou, etc. The MS. has "'And art thou gone,' the +Minstrel said." + + +609. Foeman's. Misprinted "foeman's" in some eds. + + +610. Breadalbane. See on ii. 416 above. + + +614. The shelter, etc. The MS. has "The mightiest of a mighty +line." + + +631. Even she. That is, Ellen. + + +638. Storied. Referring to the scenes depicted on the painted +glass. Cf. Milton, Il Penseroso, 159: "And storied windows, +richly dight." The change of tense in fall is of course for the +rhyme; but we might expect "lighten" for lightened. + + +643. The banquet, etc. The MS. reads: + + "The banquet gay, the chamber's pride, + Scarce drew one curious glance aside;" + +and in 653, "earnest on his game." + + +665. Of perch and hood. That is, of enforced idleness. See on +ii. 525 above. In some eds. this song is printed without any +division into stanzas. + + +670. Forest. The 1st ed. and that of 1821 have "forests," but +we suspect that Scott wrote forest. + + +672. Is meet for me. The MS. has "was meant for me." For the +ellipsis, cf. 540 above. + + +674. From yon dull steeple's," etc. The MS. has "From darkened +steeple's" etc. See on v. 558 above. + + +677. The lark, etc. The MS. has "The lively lark my matins +rung," and "sung" in the rhyme. The omission of to with ring and +sing is here a poetic license; but in Elizabethan English it is +common in many cases where it would not now be admissible. Cf. +Othello, ii. 3. 190: "you were wont be civil;" F. Q. i. 1. 50: +"He thought have slaine her," etc. + + +680. A hall, etc. The MS. has "a hall should harbor me." + + +683. Fleet deer. See on 605 above. + + +707. At morning prime. Early in the morning. Prime is properly +the first canonical hour of prayer, or 6 a.m. For its looser use +here, cf. F. Q. ii. 9. 25: "at evening and at prime." + + +712. Stayed. Supported; not to be printed "staid," as in some +editions. + + +716. Within, etc. The MS. reads: + + "Within 't was brilliant all, and bright + The vision glowed on Ellen's sight." + + +726. Presence. Presence-chamber. Cf. Rich. II. i. 3. 289: + + "Suppose the singing birds musicians, + The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd" + +(that is, strewn with rushes); Hen. VIII. iii. 1. 17: + + "the two great cardinals + Wait in the presence," etc. + + +727. For him, etc. The MS. reads: "For him who owned this royal +state." + + +737. Sheen. Bright. See on i. 208 above. + + +740. And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's King. Scott says: +"This discovery will probably remind the reader of the beautiful +Arabian tale of Il Bondocani. Yet the incident is not borrowed +from that elegant story, but from Scottish tradition. James V., +of whom we are treating, was a monarch whose good and benevolent +intentions often rendered his romantic freaks venial, if not +respectable, since, from his anxious attention to the interests +of the lower and most oppressed class of his subjects, he was, as +we have seen, popularly termed the King of the Commons. For the +purpose of seeing that justice was regularly administered, and +frequently from the less justifiable motive of gallantry, he used +to traverse the vicinage of his several palaces in various +disguises. The two excellent comic songs entitled The +Gaberlunzie Man and We'll gae nae mair a roving are said to have +been founded upon the success of his amorous adventures when +travelling in the disguise of a beggar. The latter is perhaps the +best comic ballad in any language. + +"Another adventure, which had nearly cost James his life, is said +to have taken place at the village of Cramond, near Edinburgh, +where he had rendered his addresses acceptable to a pretty girl +of the lower rank. Four or five persons, whether relations or +lovers of his mistress is uncertain, beset the disguised monarch +as he returned from his rendezvous. Naturally gallant, and an +admirable master of his weapon, the King took post on the high +and narrow bridge over the Almond river, and defended himself +bravely with his sword. A peasant who was thrashing in a +neighboring barn came out upon the noise, and, whether moved by +compassion or by natural gallantry, took the weaker side, and +laid about with his flail so effectually as to disperse the +assailants, well thrashed, even according to the letter. He then +conducted the King into his barn, where his guest requested a +basin and a towel, to remove the stains of the broil. This being +procured with difficulty, James employed himself in learning what +was the summit of the deliverer's earthly wishes, and found that +they were bounded by the desire of possessing, in property, the +farm of Braehead, upon which he labored as a bondsman. The lands +chanced to belong to the Crown; and James directed him to come to +the palace of Holyrood and inquire for the Guidman (that is, +farmer) of Ballenguich, a name by which he was known in his +excursions, and which answered to the Il Bondocani of Haroun +Alraschid. He presented himself accordingly, and found, with due +astonishment, that he had saved his monarch's life, and that he +was to be gratified with a crown charter of the lands of +Braehead, under the service of presenting a ewer, basin, and +towel for the King to wash his hands when he shall happen to pass +the bridge of Cramond. This person was ancestor of the Howisons +of Braehead, in Mid-Lothian, a respectable family, who continue +to hold the lands (now passed into the female line) under the +same tenure. [FN#15] + +"Another of James's frolics is thus narrated by Mr. Campbell from +the Statistical Account: 'Being once benighted when out a- +hunting, and separated from his attendants, he happened to enter +a cottage in the midst of a moor, at the foot of the Ochil hills, +near Alloa, where, unknown, he was kindly received. In order to +regale their unexpected guest, the gudeman desired the gudewife +to fetch the hen that roosted nearest the cock, which is always +the plumpest, for the stranger's supper. The King, highly +pleased with his night's lodging and hospitable entertainment, +told mine host, at parting, that he should be glad to return his +civility, and requested that the first time he came to Stirling +he would call at the Castle, and inquire for the Gudeman of +Ballenguich. Donaldson, the landlord, did not fail to call on +the Gudeman of Ballenguich, when his astonishment at finding that +the King had been his guest afforded no small amusement to the +merry monarch and his courtiers; and to carry on the pleasantry, +he was thenceforth designated by James with the title of King of +the Moors, which name and designation have descended from father +to son ever since, and they have continued in possession of the +identical spot, the property of Mr. Erskine of Mar, till very +lately, when this gentleman with reluctance turned out the +descendant and representative of the King of the Moors, on +account of his Majesty's invincible indolence, and great dislike +to reform or innovation of any kind, although, from the spirited +example of his neighbor tenants on the same estate, he is +convinced similar exertion would promote his advantage.' + +"The author requests permission yet farther to verify the subject +of his poem, by an extract from the genealogical work of Buchanan +of Auchmar, upon Scottish surnames (Essay upon the Family of +Buchanan, p. 74): + +'This John Buchanan of Auchmar and Arnpryor was afterwards termed +King of Kippen [a small district of Perthshire] upon the +following account: King James V., a very sociable, debonair +prince, residing at Stirling, in Buchanan of Arnpryor's time, +carriers were very frequently passing along the common road, +being near Arnpryor's house, with necessaries for the use of the +King's family; and he, having some extraordinary occasion, +ordered one of these carriers to leave his load at his house, and +he would pay him for it; which the carrier refused to do, telling +him he was the King's carrier, and his load for his Majesty's +use; to which Arnpryor seemed to have small regard, compelling +the carrier, in the end, to leave his load; telling him, if King +James was King of Scotland, he was King of Kippen, so that it was +reasonable he should share with his neighbor king in some of +these loads, so frequently carried that road. The carrier +representing these usage, and telling the story as Arnpryor spoke +it, to some of the King's servants, it came at length to his +majesty's ears, who shortly thereafter, with a few attendants, +came to visit his neighbor king, who was in the meantime at +dinner. King James, having sent a servant to demand access, was +denied the same by a tall fellow with a battle-axe, who stood +porter at the gate, telling there could be no access till dinner +was over. This answer not satisfying the King, he sent to demand +access a second time; upon which he was desired by the porter to +desist, otherwise he would find cause to repent his rudeness. +His Majesty finding this method would not do, desired the porter +to tell his master that the Goodman of Ballangeigh desired to +speak with the King of Kippen. The porter telling Arnpryor so +much, he, in all humble manner, came and received the King, and +having entertained him with much sumptuousness and jollity, +became so agreeable to King James, that he allowed him to take so +much of any provision he found carrying that road as he had +occasion for; and seeing he made the first visit, desired +Arnpryor in a few days to return him a second to Stirling, which +he performed, and continued in very much favor with the King, +always thereafter being termed King of Kippen while he lived.' + +"The readers of Ariosto must give credit for the amiable features +with which James is represented, since he is generally considered +as the prototype of Zerbino, the most interesting hero of the +Orlando Furioso." + + +743. Glided from her stay. The MS. has "shrinking, quits her +stay." + +Ruskin asks us to "note the northern love of rocks" in this +passage, and adds: "Dante could not have thought of his 'cut +rocks' as giving rest even to snow. He must put it on the pine +branches, if it is to be at peace." Taylor quotes Holmes, +Autocrat of Breakfast Table: "She melted away from her seat like +an image of snow." + + +780. Pry. Look pryingly or curiously. In prose on would not be +used with pry. + + +784. To speed. To a fortunate issue; unless speed be the verb, +and = pass. + + +786. In life's more low but happier way. The MS. has "In lowly +life's more happy way." + + +789. The name of Snowdoun. Scott says: "William of Worcester, +who wrote about the middle of the fifteenth century, calls +Stirling Castle Snowdoun. Sir David Lindsay bestows the same +epithet upon it in his Complaint of the Papingo: + + 'Adieu, fair Snawdoun, with thy towers high, Thy chaple- +royal, park, and table round; May, June, and July, would I +dwell in thee, Were I a man, to hear the birdis sound, +Whilk doth agane thy royal rock rebound.' + + +"Mr. Chalmers, in his late excellent edition of Sir David +Lindsay's works, has refuted the chimerical derivation of +Snawdoun from snedding, or cutting. It was probably derived from +the romantic legend which connected Stirling with King Arthur, to +which the mention of the Round Table gives countenance. The ring +within which justs were formerly practised in the Castle park, is +still called the Round Table. Snawdoun is the official title of +one of the Scottish heralds, whose epithets seem in all countries +to have been fantastically adopted from ancient history or +romance. + +"It appears from the preceding note that the real name by which +James was actually distinguished in his private excursions was +the Goodman of Ballenguich; derived from a steep pass leading up +to the Castle of Stirling, so called. But the epithet would not +have suited poetry, and would besides at once, and prematurely, +have announced the plot to many of my country men, among whom the +traditional stories above mentioned are still current." + + +798. My spell-bound steps. The MS. has + + "Thy sovereign back | to Benvenue." + Thy sovereign's steps | + + +800. Glaive. Sword. See on iv. 274 above. + + +803. Pledge of my faith, etc. The MS. has "Pledge of Fitz- +James's faith, the ring." + + +808. A lightening. Some eds. have "A lightning." + + +809. And more, etc. The MS. reads: + + "And in her breast strove maiden shame; + More deep she deemed the Monarch's ire + Kindled 'gainst him, who, for her sire, + Against his Sovereign broadsword drew; + And, with a pleading, warm and true, + She craved the grace of Roderick Dhu." + + +813. Grace. Pardon. + + +825. Stained. Reddened. + + +829. The Graeme. Jeffrey says: "Malcolm Graeme has too +insignificant a part assigned him, considering the favor in which +he is held both by Ellen and the author; and in bringing out the +shaded and imperfect character of Roderick Dhu as a contrast to +the purer virtue of his rival, Mr. Scott seems to have fallen +into the common error of making him more interesting than him +whose virtues he was intended to set off, and converted the +villain of the piece in some measure into its hero. A modern +poet, however, may perhaps be pardoned for an error of which +Milton himself is thought not to have kept clear, and for which +there seems so natural a cause in the difference between poetical +and amiable characters." + + +837. Warder. Guard, jailer. + + +841. Lockhart quotes here the following extract from a letter of +Byron's to Scott, dated July 6, 1812: + +"And now, waiving myself, let me talk to you of the Prince +Regent. He ordered me to be presented to him at a ball; and after +some saying, peculiarly pleasing from royal lips, as to my own +attempts, he talked to me of you and your immoralities: he +preferred you to every bard past and present, and asked which of +your works pleased me most. It was a difficult question. I +answered, I thought the Lay. He said his own opinion was nearly +similar. In speaking of the others, I told him that I thought +you more particularly the poet of princes, as they never appeared +more fascinating than in Marmion and The Lady of the Lake. He +was pleased to coincide, and to dwell on the description of your +James's as no less royal than poetical. He spoke alternately of +Homer and yourself, and seemed well acquainted with both." + + +842. Harp of the North, farewell! Cf. the introduction to the +poem. + + +846. Wizard elm. See on i. 2 above. + + +850. Housing. Returning to the hive. + + +858. The grief devoured. For the figure, cf. Ps. xlii. 3, lxxx. +5, and Isa. xxx. 20. + + +859. O'erlive. Several eds. misprint "o'erlived." + + + + + +Addendum. + + + + + +Since our first edition appeared we have had the privilege of +examining a copy of Scott's 2d ed. (1810), belonging to Mr. E. S. +Gould, of Yonkers, N. Y. This 2d ed. is in smaller type than the +1st, and in octavo form, the 1st being in quarto. A minute +collation of the text with that of the 1st ed. and our own shows +that Scott carefully revised the poem for this 2d ed., and that +the changes he afterwards made in it were few and unimportant. +For instance, the text includes the verbal changes which we have +adopted in i. 198, 290, 432, ii. 103, 201, 203, 534, iii. 30, +173, 190, 508, v. 106, 253, 728, 811, iv. 6, 112, 527, 556, 567, +etc. In vi. 291 fol. it reads (including the omissions and +insertions) as in our text. In i. 336, 340, the pointing is the +same as in the 1st ed.; and in i. 360, the reading is "dear." In +ii. 865, 866, it varies from the pointing of the 1st ed.; but we +are inclined to regard this as a misprint, not a correction. In +ii. 76 this 2d ed. has "lingerewave" for "lingerer wave," and in +ii. 217 it repeats the preposterous misprint of "his glee" from +the 1st ed. If Scott could overlook such palpable errors as +these, he might easily fail to detect the misplacing of a comma. +We have our doubts as to i. 336, 340, where the 1st and 2d eds. +agree; but there a misprint may have been left uncorrected, as in +ii. 217. + + +Jan. 25, 1884. + + + + + + +Footnotes: + + + + +[FN#1] One of Scott's (on vi. 47) has suffered badly in +Lockhart's edition. In a quotation from Lord Berners's Froissart +(which I omit) a whole page seems to have dropped out, and the +last sentence, as it now stands, is made up of pans of the one +preceding and the one following the lost matter. It reads thus (I +mark the gap): "There all the companyons made them [ . . . ] +breke no poynt of that ye have ordayned and commanded.,' This is +palpable nonsense, but it has been repeated without correction in +every reprint of Lockhart's edition for the last fifty years. + +[FN#2] Lockhart says: "The lady with whom Sir Walter Scott held +this conversation was, no doubt, his aunt, Miss Christian +Rutherford; there was no other female relation DEAD when this +Introduction was written, whom I can suppose him to have +consulted on literary questions. Lady Capulet, on seeing the +corpse of Tybalt, exclaims,-- + + 'Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!'" + +[FN#3] Lockhart quotes Byron, Don Juan, xi. 55: + + "In twice five years the 'greatest living poet,' + Like to the champion in the fisty ring, + Is called on to support his claim, or show it, + Although 't is an imaginary thing," etc. + +[FN#4] "Sir Walter reigned before me," etc. (Don Juan, xi. 57). + +[FN#5] The Spenserian stanza, first used by Spenser in his +Faerie Queene, consists of eight lines of ten syllables, followed +by a line of twelve syllables, the accents throughout being on +the even syllables (the so-called iambic measure). There are +three sets of rhymes: one for the first and third lines; another +for the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh; and a third for the +sixth, eighth, and ninth. + +[FN#6] Vide Certayne Matters concerning the Realme of Scotland, +etc., as they were Anno Domini 1597. London, 1603. + +[FN#7] See on ii. 319 above. + +[FN#8] Hallowe'en. + +[FN#9] To the raven that sat on the forked tree he gave his +gifts. + +[FN#10] "This story is still current in the moors of +Staffordshire, and adapted by the peasantry to their own +meridian. I have repeatedly heard it told, exactly as here, by +rustics who could not read. My last authority was a nailer near +Cheadle" (R. Jamieson). + +[FN#11] See Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads, Glasgow, +1808, vol. ii. p. 117. + + +[FN#12] A champion of popular romance; see Ellis's Romances, +vol. iii. + +[FN#13] "That at the eastern extremity of Loch Katrine, so often +mentioned in the text." + + +[FN#14] "Beallach an duine." + + +[FN#15] "The reader will find this story told at greater length, +and with the addition in particular of the King being recognized, +like the Fitz-James of the Lady of the Lake, by being the only +person covered, in the First Series of Tales of a Grandfather, +vol. iii, p. 37. The heir of Braehead discharged his duty at the +banquet given to King George IV. in the Parliament House at +Edinburgh, in 1822" (Lockhart). + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Lady of the Lake +by Sir Walter Scott + diff --git a/old/llake10.zip b/old/llake10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03583a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/llake10.zip |