Stanza X. line 194. 'A large ruinous castle on the banks of the
Tyne, about ten miles from Edinburgh. As indicated in the text, it
was built at different times, and with a very differing regard to
splendour and accommodation. The oldest part of the building is a
narrow keep, or tower, such as formed the mansion of a lesser
Scottish baron; but so many additions have been made to it, that
there is now a large courtyard, surrounded by buildings of different
ages. The eastern front of the court is raised above a portico, and
decorated with entablatures, bearing anchors. All the stones of this
front are cut into diamond facets, the angular projections of which
have an uncommonly rich appearance. The inside of this part of the
building appears to have contained a gallery of great length, and
uncommon elegance. Access was given to it by a magnificent stair-
case, now quite destroyed. The soffits are ornamented with twining
cordage and rosettes: and the whole seems to have been far more
splendid than was usual in Scottish castles. The castle belonged
originally to the Chancellor, Sir William Crichton, and probably
owed to him its first enlargement, as well as its being taken by the
Earl of Douglas, who imputed to Crichton's counsels the death of his
predecessor, Earl William, beheaded in Edinburgh Castle, with his
brother, in 1440. It is said to have been totally demolished on that
occasion; but the present state of the ruin shows the contrary. In
1483 it was garrisoned by Lord Crichton, then its proprietor,
against King James III, whose displeasure he had incurred by
seducing his sister Margaret, in revenge, it is said, for the
Monarch having dishonoured his bed. From the Crichton family the
castle passed to that of the Hepburns, Earls Bothwell; and when the
forfeitures of Stewart, the last Earl Bothwell, were divided, the
barony and cattle of Crichton fell to the share of the Earl of
Buccleuch. They were afterwards the property of the Pringles of
Clifton, and are now that of Sir John Callander, Baronet. It were to
be wished the proprietor would take a little pains to preserve those
splendid remains of antiquity, which are at present used as a fold
for sheep, and wintering cattle; although, perhaps, there are very
few ruins in Scotland which display so well the style and beauty of
castle-architecture.'--SCOTT.
The ruin is now carefully protected, visitors being admitted on
application at Crichtoun Manse adjoining.
Stanza XI. line 232. 'The castle of Crichton has a dungeon vault,
called the Massy More. The epithet, which is not uncommonly applied
to the prisons of other old castles in Scotland, is of Saracenic
origin. It occurs twice in the "Epistolae Itineriae" of Tollius.
"Carcer subterraneus, sive, ut Mauri appellant, MAZMORRA," p. 147;
and again, "Coguntur omnes Captivi sub noctem in ergastula
subterranea, quae Turcae Algezerani vocant MAZMORRAS," p. 243. The
same word applies to the dungeons of the ancient Moorish castles in
Spain, and serves to show from what nation the Gothic style of
castle building was originally derived.'--SCOTT.
See further, Sir W. Scott's 'Provincial Antiquities,' vol. i.
Stanza XII. line 249. 'He was the second Earl of Bothwell, and fell
in the field of Flodden, where, according to an ancient English
poet, he distinguished himself by a furious attempt to retrieve the
day:--
"Then on the Scottish part, right proud,
The Earl of Bothwell then out brast,
And stepping forth, with stomach good,
Into the enemies' throng he thrast;
And BOTHWELL! BOTHWELL! cried bold,
To cause his souldiers to ensue,
But there he caught a wellcome cold,
The Englishmen straight down him threw.
Thus Haburn through his hardy heart
His fatal fine in conflict found,"&c.
FLODDEN FIELD, a Poem; edited by H. Weber. Edin.
1808.'--SCOTT.
line 254. 'Adam was grandfather to James, Earl of Bothwell, too well
known in the history of Queen Mary.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XIII. line 260. The Borough-moor extended from Edinburgh
south to the Braid Hills.
Stanza XIV. line 280. Scott quotes from Lindsay of Pitscottie the
story of the apparition seen at Linlithgow by James IV, when
undergoing his annual penance for having taken the field against his
father. Some of the younger men about the Court had devised what
they felt might be an impressive warning to the King against going
to war, and their show of supernatural interference was well
managed. Lindsay's narrative proceeds thus:--
'The King came to Lithgow, where he happened to be for the time at
the Council, very sad and dolorous, making his devotion to God, to
send him good chance and fortune in his voyage. In this meantime,
there came a man, clad in a blue gown, in at the kirk door, and
belted about him in a roll of linen-cloth; a pair of brotikings1 on
his feet, to the great of his legs; with all other hose and clothes
conform thereto; but he had nothing on his head, but syde2 red
yellow hair behind, and on his haffets3, which wan down to his
shoulders; but his forehead was bald and bare. He seemed to be a man
of two-and-fifty years, with a great pike-staff in his hand, and
came first forward among the lords, crying and speiring4 for the
King, saying, he desired to speak with him. While, at the last, he
came where the King was sitting in the desk, at his prayers, but
when he saw the King, he made him little reverence or salutation,
but leaned down groffling on the desk before him, and said to him in
this manner, as after follows: "Sir King, my mother hath sent me to
you, desiring you not to pass, at this time, where thou art
purposed; for if thou does, thou wilt not fare well in thy journey,
nor none that passeth with thee. Further, she bade thee mell5 with
no woman, nor use their counsel, nor let them touch thy body, nor
thou theirs; for, if thou do it, thou wilt be confounded and brought
to shame."
--------------------------------------------------------
buskins1 long2 cheeks3 asking4 meddle5
--------------------------------------------------------
'By this man had spoken thir words unto the King's grace, the
evening-song was near done, and the King paused on thir words,
studying to give him an answer; but, in the meantime, before the
King's eyes, and in the presence of all the lords that were about
him for the time, this man vanished away, and could no ways be seen
nor comprehended, but vanished away as he had been a blink of the
sun, or a whip of the whirlwind, and could no more be seen. I heard
say. Sir David Lindesay, Lyon-herauld, and John Inglis the marshal,
who were, at that time, young men, and special servants to the
King's grace, were standing presently beside the King, who thought
to have laid hands on this man, that they might have speired further
tidings at him: But all for nought; they could not touch him; for
he vanished away betwixt them, and was no more seen.'
Buchanan, in more elegant, though not more impressive language,
tells the same story, and quotes the personal information of our Sir
David Lindesay: 'In iis, (i.e. qui propius astiterant) fuit David
Lindesius, Montanus, homo spectatae fidei et probitatis, nec a
literarum studiis alienus, et cujus totius vitae tenor longissime a
mentiendo aberat; a quo nisi ego haec uti tradidi, pro certis
accepissem, ut vulgatam vanis rumoribus fabulam omissurus eram."--
Lib. xiii. The King's throne, in St. Catherine's aisle, which he had
constructed for himself, with twelve stalls for the Knights
Companions of the Order of the Thistle, is still shown as the place
where the apparition was seen. I know not by what means St. Andrew
got the credit of having been the celebrated monitor of James IV;
for the expression in Lindesay's narrative, "My mother has sent me,"
could only be used by St. John, the adopted son of the Virgin Mary.
The whole story is so well attested, that we have only the choice
between a miracle or an imposture. Mr. Pinkerton plausibly argues,
from the caution against incontinence, that the Queen was privy to
the scheme of those who had recourse to this expedient, to deter
King James from his impolitic war.'
Stanza XV. line 287. 'In Scotland there are about twenty palaces,
castles, and remains, or sites of such,
"Where SCOTIA'S kings of other years"
had their royal home.
'Linlithgow, distinguished by the combined strength and beauty of
its situation, must have been early selected as a royal residence.
David, who bought the title of saint by his liberality to the
Church, refers several of his charters to his town of Linlithgow;
and in that of Holyrood expressly bestows on the new monastery all
the skins of the rams, ewes, and lambs, belonging to his castle of
Linlitcu, which shall die during the year....The convenience
afforded for the sport of falconry, which was so great a favourite
during the feudal ages, was probably one cause of the attachment of
the ancient Scottish monarchs to Linlithgow and its fine lake. The
sport of hunting was also followed with success in the
neighbourhood, from which circumstance it probably arises that the
ancient arms of the city represent a black greyhound bitch tied to a
tree....The situation of Linlithgow Palace is eminently beautiful.
It stands on a promontory of some elevation, which advances almost
into the midst of the lake. The form is that of a square court,
composed of buildings of four storeys high, with towers at the
angles. The fronts with the square, and the windows, are highly
ornamented, and the size of the rooms, as well as the width and
character of the staircases, are upon a magnificent scale. One
banquet-room is ninety-four feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty-
three feet high, with a gallery for music. The King's wardrobe, or
dressing-room, looking to the west, projects over the walls, so as
to have a delicious prospect on three aides, and is one of the most
enviable boudoirs we have ever seen.'--SIR WALTER SCOTT'S Provincial
Antiquities.--Prose Works, vol. vii. p. 382.
line 288. With 'jovial June' cp. Gavin Douglas's 'joyous moneth tyme
of June,' in prologue to the 13th AEneid, 'ekit to Virgill be
Maphaeus Vegius,' and the description of the month in Lyndsay's
'Dreme,' as:--
'Weill bordourit with dasyis of delyte.'
line 291. 'I am glad of an opportunity to describe the cry of the
deer by another word than BRAYING, although the latter has been
sanctified by the use of the Scottish metrical translation of the
Psalms. BELL seems to be an abbreviation of bellow. This silvan
sound conveyed great delight to our ancestors, chiefly, I suppose,
from association. A gentle knight in the reign of Henry VIII, Sir
Thomas Wortley, built Wantley Lodge, in Wancliffe Forest, for the
pleasure (as an ancient inscription testifies) of "listening to the
hart's BELL"'--SCOTT.
line 298. Sauchie-burn, where James III fell, was fought 18 June,
1488., 'James IV,' says Scott, 'after the battle passed to Stirling,
and hearing the monks of the chapel-royal deploring the death of his
father, he was seized with deep remorse, which manifested itself
in severe penances.' See below, note on V. ix.
line 300. 'When the King saw his own banner displayed against him,
and his son in the faction of his enemies, he lost the little
courage he ever possessed, fled out of the field, fell from his
horse as it started at a woman and water-pitcher, and was slain, it
was not well understood by whom.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XVI. line 312. In the church of St. Michael, adjoining the
palace.
line 316. The earliest known mention of the thistle as the national
badge is in the inventory of the effects of James III, Thistles were
inscribed on the coins of the next four reigns, and they were
accompanied in the reign of James VI for the first time by the motto
Nemo me impune lacessit. James II of Great Britain formally
inaugurated the Order of the Thistle on 29 May, 1687, but it was not
till the reign of Anne, 31 Dec. 1703, that it became a fully defined
legal institution. The Order is also known as the Order of St.
Andrew.--See CHAMBERS'S Encyclopedia.
line 318. It was natural and fit that Lyndsay should be present. It
is more than likely that he had a leading hand in the enterprise. As
tutor to the young Prince, it had been a recognised part of his duty
to amuse him by various disguises; and he was likewise the first
Scottish poet with an adequate dramatic sense.
line 336. See St. John xix. 25-27.
Stanza XVII. line 350. The special reference here is to the
influence of Lady Heron. See above, I. xvi. 265, and below, V. x.
261.
Stanza XIX. The skilful descriptive touches of this stanza are
noteworthy. Cp. opening passages of Coleridge's 'Christabel,'
especially the seven lines beginning, 'Is the night chilly and
dark?'
Stanza XXI. line 440. Grimly is not unknown as a poetical adj.
'Margaret's GRIMLY ghost,' in Beaumont and FIetcher's 'Knight of the
Burning Pestle,' II. i, is a familiar example. See above, p. 194,
line 25, 'GRIMLY voice.' For 'ghast' as an adj., cp. Keats's 'Otho
the Great,' V. v. 11, 'How ghast a train!'
line. 449. See below, V. xxiv, ''Twere long and needless here to
tell,' and cp. AEneid I. 341:--
'Longa est iniuria, longae
Ambages; sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.'
Stanza XXII. line 461. See above, III. xxv. 503, and note.
lines 467-470. Rothiemurchus, near Alvie, co. of Inverness, on
Highland Railway; Tomantoul in co. of Banff, N. E. of Rothiemurchus;
Auchnaslaid in co. of Inverness, near S. W. border of Aberdeen;
Forest of Dromouchty on Inverness border eastward of Loch Ericht;
Glenmore, co-extensive with Caledonian Canal.
lines 477-480. Cp. the teaching of Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner' and
'Christabel.' In the former these stanzas are specially notable:--
'O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.
The selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.'
line 487. bowne = prepare. See below, V. xx, 'to bowne him for the
war'; and 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' V. xx, 'bowning back to
Cumberland.' Cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' III. 173 (C Text):--
'And bed hem alle ben BOUN . beggeres and othere,
To wenden with hem to Westemynstre.'
Stanza XXIII. line 490. Dun-Edin = Edwin's hill-fort, poetic for
Edinburgh.
line 497. The Braid Hills, S. E. of Edinburgh, recently added to the
recreation grounds of the citizens.
Stanza XXIV. Blackford Hill has now been acquired by the City of
Edinburgh as a public resort. The view from it, not only of the city
but of the landscape generally, is striking and memorable.
lines 511-15. Cp. Wordsworth's 'The Fountain--a Conversation':--
'No check, no stay, this Streamlet fears:
How merrily it goes!
'Twill murmur on a thousand years,
And flow as now it flows.
And here on this delightful day,
I cannot choose but think
How oft, a vigorous man, I lay
Beside this fountain's brink.
My eyes are dim with childish tears,
My heart is idly stirred,
For the same sound is in my ears
Which in those days I heard.'
Stanza XXV. line 521. 'The Borough, or Common Moor of Edinburgh, was
of very great extent, reaching from the southern walls of the city
to the bottom of Braid Hills. It was anciently a forest; and, in
that state, was so great a nuisance, that the inhabitants of
Edinburgh had permission granted to them of building wooden
galleries, projecting over the street, in order to encourage them to
consume the timber; which they seem to have done very effectually.
When James IV mustered the array of the kingdom there, in 1513, the
Borough-moor was, according to Hawthornden, "a field spacious, and
delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks." Upon that,
and similar occasions, the royal standard is traditionally said to
have been displayed from the Hare Stane, a high stone, now built
into the wall, on the left hand of the highway leading towards
Braid, not far from the head of Bruntsfield Links. The Hare Stane
probably derives its name from the British word Har, signifying an
army.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XXVI. lines 535-538. The proper names in these lines are
Hebrides; East Lothian; Redswire, part of Carter Fell near Jedburgh;
and co. of Ross.
Stanza XXVII. line 557. 'Seven culverins so called, cast by one
Borthwick.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XXVIII. line 566. 'Each ensign intimated a different rank.'--
SCOTT.
line 567. As illustrating an early mode of English encampment, Scott
quotes from Patten's description of what he saw after Pinkie, 1547:-
-
'As they had no pavilions, or round houses, of any commendable
compass, so wear there few other tentes with posts, as the used
manner of making is; and of these few also, none of above twenty
foot length, but most far under; for the most part all very
sumptuously beset, (after their fashion,) for the love of France,
with fleur-de-lys, some of blue buckeram, some of black, and some of
some other colours. These white ridges, as I call them, that, as we
stood on Fauxsyde Bray, did make so great muster toward us, which I
did take then to be a number of tentes, when we came, we found it a
linen drapery, of the coarser cambryk in dede, for it was all of
canvas sheets, and wear the tenticles, or rather cabyns and couches
of their soldiers; the which (much after the common building of
their country beside) had they framed of four sticks, about an ell
long a piece, whereof two fastened together at one end aloft, and
the two endes beneath stuck in the ground, an ell asunder, standing
in fashion like the bowes of a sowes yoke; over two such bowes (one,
as it were, at their head, the other at their feet), they stretched
a sheet down on both sides, whereby their cabin became roofed like a
ridge, but skant shut at both ends, and not very close beneath on
the sides, unless their sticks were the shorter, or their wives the
more liberal to lend them larger napery; howbeit, when they had
lined them, and stuff'd them so thick with straw, with the weather
as it was not very cold, when they wear ones couched, they were as
warm as they had been wrapt in horses dung.'--PATTEN'S Account of
Somerset's Expedition.
line 578. 'The well-known arms of Scotland. If you will believe
Boethius and Buchanan, the double tressure round the shield
(mentioned above, vii. 141), counter fleur-de-lysed, or lingued and
armed azure, was first assumed by Achaias, King of Scotland,
contemporary of Charlemagne, and founder of the celebrated League
with France but later antiquaries make poor Eochy, or Achy, little
better than a sort of King of Brentford, whom old Grig (who has also
swelled into Gregorius Magnus) associated with himself in the
important duty of governing some part of the north-eastern coast of
Scotland.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XXIX. lines 595-9. Cp. the 'rash, fruitless war,' &c., of
Thomson's 'Edwin and Eleonora,' i. 1, and Cowper's 'Task,' v. 187:--
'War's a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.'
Stanza XXX. This description of Edinburgh is one of the passages
mentioned by Mr. Ruskin in 'Modern Painters' as illustrative of
Scott's quick and certain perception of the relations of form and
colour. 'Observe,' he says, 'the only hints at form given throughout
are in the somewhat vague words "ridgy," " massy," "close," and
"high," the whole being still more obscured by modern mystery, in
its most tangible form of smoke. But the COLOURS are all definite;
note the rainbow band of them--gloomy or dusky red, sable (pure
black), amethyst (pure purple), green and gold--a noble chord
throughout; and then, moved doubtless less by the smoky than the
amethystine part of the group,
"Fitz-Eustace' heart felt closely pent," &c.'
line 632. In the demi-volte (one of seven artificial equestrian
movements) the horse rises on his hind feet and makes a half-turn.
Cp. below, v. 33.
Stanza XXXI. line 646. 6 o'clock a.m., the first canonical hour of
prayer.
lines 650-1. St. Catherine of Siena, a famous female Spanish saint,
and St. Roque of France, patron of those sick of the plague, who
died at Montpelier about 1327.
line 655. Falkland, in the west of Fife, at base of Lomond Hills, a
favourite residence of the Stuart kings, and well situated for
hunting purposes. The ancient stately palace is now the property of
the Marquis of Bute.
Stanza XXXII. line 679. stowre, noise and confusion of battle. Cp.
'Faery Queene,' I. ii. 7, 'woeful stowre.'
INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FIFTH.
'GEORGE ELLIS, to whom this Introduction is addressed, is "the well-
known coadjutor of Mr. Canning and Mr. Frere in the "Anti-Jacobin,"
and editor of "Specimens of Ancient English Romances," &c. He died
10th April, 1815, aged 70 years; being succeeded in his estates by
his brother, Charles Ellis, Esq., created in 1827 Lord Seaford.'--
LOCKHART. See 'Life of Scott' and 'Dictionary of National
Biography.'
line 36. See Introd. to Canto II.
line 37. 'The Old Town of Edinburgh was secured on the north side by
a lake, now drained, and on the south by a wall, which there was
some attempt to make defensible even so late as 1745. The gates, and
the greater part of the wall, have been pulled down, in the course
of the late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city. My
ingenious and valued friend, Mr. Thomas Campbell, proposed to
celebrate Edinburgh under the epithet here borrowed. But the "Queen
of the North" has not been so fortunate as to receive from so
eminent a pen the proposed distinction.'--SCOTT.
line 57. 'Since writing this line, I find I have inadvertently
borrowed it almost verbatim, though with somewhat a different
meaning, from a chorus in "Caractacus":--
"Britain heard the descant bold,
She flung her white arms o'er the sea,
Proud in her leafy bosom to enfold
The freight of harmony."'-SCOTT.
line 58. For = instead of.
lines 60-1. gleam'st, with trans. force, is an Elizabethanism. Cp.
Shakespeare's Lucrece, line 1378:--
'Dying eyes gleamed forth their ashy lights.'
line 67. See 'Faerie Queene,' III. iv.
line 78. "For every one her liked, and every one her loved."
Spenser, as above.'--SCOTT.
line 106. A knosp is an architectural ornament in form of a bud.
lines 111-12. See Genesis xviii.
line 118. 'Henry VI, with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his
family, fled to Scotland after the battle of Towton. In this note a
doubt was formerly expressed whether Henry VI came to Edinburgh,
though his Queen certainly did; Mr. Pinkerton inclining to believe
that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier,
has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks
to his Lordship's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King
himself, AT EDINBURGH, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth
year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This
grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368.
But this error being corrected from the copy of Macfarlane's MSS.,
p. 119, to, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI being
really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander
Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable
reception of the distressed monarch and his family, called forth on
Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The English
people, he says,--
"Ung nouveau roy creerent,
Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en debouterent,
Et son legitime hoir,
Qui fuytyf alia prendre
D'Ecosse le garand,
De tous siecles le mendre,
Et le plus tollerant."
Recollection des Avantures'--SCOTT.
line 120. 'In January, 1796, the exiled Count d'Artois, afterwards
Charles X of France, took up his residence in Holyrood, where he
remained until August, 1799. When again driven from his country, by
the revolution of July, 1830, the same unfortunate Prince, with all
the immediate members of his family, sought refuge once more in the
ancient palace of the Stuarts, and remained there until 18th
September, 1833.'--LOCKHART.
line 140. 'Mr. Ellis, in his valuable Introduction to the "Specimens
of Romance," has proved, by the concurring testimony of La
Ravaillere, Tressan, but especially the Abbe de la Rue, that the
courts of our Anglo-Norman Kings, rather than those of the French
monarch, produced the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon after
mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into
Norman-French, or Romance language, the twelve curious Lays of which
Mr. Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction.
The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I,
needs no commentary.'--SCOTT.
line 141. for that = 'because,' a common Elizabethan connective.
line 165. '"Come then, my friend, my genius, come along,
Oh master of the poet and the song!"
Pope to Bolingbroke.'--LOCKHART.
Cp. also the famous 'guide, philosopher, and friend,' in 'Essay on
Man,' IV. 390.
lines 166-175. For a curious and characteristic ballad by Leyden on
Ellis, see 'Life of Scott' i. 368; and for references to his state
of ealth see 'Life,' ii, 17, in one of Scott's letters.
line 181. 'At Sunning-hill, Mr. Ellis's seat, near Windsor, part of
the first two cantos of Marmion were written.'--LOCKHART. Ascot
Heath is about six miles off.
CANTO FIFTH.
Stanza I. line 18. 'This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the
counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this
extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of
Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII and the Cornish
insurgents, in 1496, the bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked
band of archers from the rebel army, "whose arrows," says Holinshed,
"were in length a full cloth yard." The Scottish, according to
Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his
belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring
shafts.'--SCOTT.
Stanza II. line 32. croupe = (1) the buttocks of the horse, as in
Chaucer's 'Fryars Tale,' line 7141, 'thakketh his horse upon the
croupe'; (2) the place behind the saddle, as here and in 'Young
Lochinvar,' below, 351.
line 33. 'The most useful AIR, as the Frenchmen term it, IS
TERRITERR, the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being
fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I
cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too
high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it,
in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse
that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword,
strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where
divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his
time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and
discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force
upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from
their horses to the ground.'--Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p.
48.--SCOTT.
line 35. 'The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be
armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good
axe instead of a bow, if worth L100: their armour to be of white or
bright harness. They wore WHITE HATS, i.e. bright steel caps,
without crest or visor. By an act of James IV their weapon-schawings
are appointed to be held four times a year, under the aldermen or
bailiffs.'--SCOTT.
lines 40-48. Corslet, a light cuirass protecting the front of the
body; brigantine, a jacket quilted with iron (also spelt
'brigandine'); gorget, a metal covering for the throat; mace, a
heavy club, plain or spiked, designed to bruise armour.
'Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of
Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to
have been used instead of them. The defensive armour was the plate-
jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons crossbows
and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to
Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for
cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish
army! The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band--
"Who manfully did meet their foes,
With leaden mauls, and lances long."
'When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was
obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was
expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army
melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few
knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent
light-cavalry, acted upon foot.'--SCOTT.
Stanza III. line 48. swarthy, because of the dark leather of which
it was constructed.
line 54. See above, Introd. to II. line 48.
line 56. Cheer, countenance, as below, line 244. Cp. Chaucer,
'Knightes Tale,' line 55:--
'The eldeste lady of hem alle spak
When sche hadde swowned with a dedly CHERE.'
Stanza IV. line 73. slogan, the war-cry. Cp. Aytoun's 'Burial March
of Dundee':--
'Sound the fife and cry the slogan.'
line 96. The Euse and the Liddell flow into the Esk. For some miles
the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland.
line 100. Brown Maudlin, dark or bronzed Magdalene. pied,
variegated, as in Shakespeare's 'daisies pied.' kirtle = short
skirt, and so applied to a gown or a petticoat.
Stanza V. For unrivalled illustration of what Celtic chiefs and
clansmen were, see 'Waverley' and 'Rob Roy.'
lines 130-5 Cp. opening of Chapman's Homer's Iliad III.:--
'The Trojans would have frayed
The Greeks with noises, crying out, in coming rudely on
At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion
Of brutish clanges all the air. '
Stanza VI. lines 143-157. Cp. Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite,' iii.
1719-1739:--
'The neighing of the generous horse was heard,
For battle by the busy groom prepar'd:
Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield,
Clattering of armour furbish'd for the field,' &c.
line 157. following = feudal retainers.--SCOTT. To the poet's
explanation Lockhart appends the remark that since Scott thought his
note necessary the word has been 'completely adopted into English,
and especially into Parliamentary parlance.'
line 166. Scott says:--'In all transactions of great or petty
importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a
present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was
not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was
necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr.
Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on an embassy to Scotland in
1539-40, mentions, with complacency, 'the same night came Rothesay
(the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the
King both white and red.'--Clifford's Edition, p. 39.
line 168. For weeds see above, I. Introd. 256.
Stanza VII. line 172. For wassell see above, I. xv. 231; and cp.
'merry wassail' in 'Rokeby,' III. xv.
line 190. Cp. above, IV. Introd. 3.
line 200. An Elizabethan omission of relative.
Stanza VIII. The admirable characterisation, by which in this and
the two following stanzas the King, the Queen, and Lady Heron are
individually delineated and vividly contrasted, deserves special
attention. There is every reason to believe that the delineations,
besides being vivid and impressive, have the additional merit of
historical accuracy.
line 213. piled = covered with a pile or nap. The Encyclopaedic
Dict., s. v., quotes: 'With that money I would make thee several
cloaks and line them with black crimson, and tawny, three filed
veluet.'--Barry; Ram Alley, III. i.
line 221. A baldric (remotely from Lat. balteus, a girdle) was an
ornamental belt passing over one shoulder and round the other side,
and having the sword suspended from it. Cp. Pope's Iliad, III. 415:-
-
'A radiant BALDRIC, o'er his shoulder tied,
Sustained the sword that glittered at his side.'
See also the 'wolf-skin baldric' in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' III.
xvi.
Stanza IX. line 249. 'Few readers need to be reminded of this belt,
to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he
lived. Pitscottie founds his belief that James was not slain in the
battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the
iron-belt to show to any Scottishman. The person and character of
James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic
disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to
license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion.
These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont,
during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the
rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done
penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of
pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes
laughed at the superstitions observances to which he at other times
subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar,
seemingly addressed to James IV, on one of these occasions of
monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the
services of the Church of Rome, entitled:--
"Dunbar's Dirige to the King,
Byding ewer lang in Striviling.
We that are here, in heaven's glory,
To you that are in Purgatory,
Commend us on our hearty wise;
I mean we folks in Paradise,
In Edinburgh, with all merriness,
To you in Stirling with distress,
Where neither pleasure nor delight is,
For pity this epistle wrytis," &c.
See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, vol. i. p. 234.'--SCOTT.
Since Scott's time Dunbar's poems have been edited, with perfect
scholarship and skill, by David Laing (2 vols. post 8vo. 1824), and
by John Small (in l885) for the Scottish Text Society. See Dict. of
Nat. Biog.
lines 254-9. This perfect description may be compared, for accuracy
of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in 'Venus
and Adonis,' the paragon of horses in English verse. Both writers
give ample evidence of direct personal knowledge.
Stanza X. line 261. 'It has been already noticed [see note to stanza
xiii. of Canto I.] that King James's acquaintance with Lady Heron of
Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians
impute to the King's infatuated passion the delays which led to the
fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of "The Genealogy of the Heron
Family" endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford
from this scandal; that she came and went, however, between the
armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See PINKERTON'S History, and
the authorities he refers to, vol. ii. p. 99. Heron of Ford had
been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert
Kerr of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by
his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers.
Lilburn and Heron of Ford were delivered up by Henry to James, and
were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former
died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford's negotiations with James
was the liberty of her husband.'--SCOTT.
line 271. love = beloved. Cp. Burns's 'O my love is like a red red
rose.'
line 273. '"Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King
of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered
much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed
surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly
support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an
army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake.
To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen
thousand French crowns to pay bis expenses." PITSCOTTIE, p.110.--A
turquois ring--probably this fatal gift--is, with James's sword and
dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.'--SCOTT.
lines 287-8. The change of movement introduced by this couplet has
the intended effect of arresting the attention and lending pathos to
the description and sentiment.
Stanza XI. line 302. The wimple was a covering for the neck, said to
have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer's
'Prologue,' 151:--
'Ful semely hire wympel i-pynched was.'
line 307. Cp. 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 9, 'By yea and nay, sir.'
line 308. Cp. refrain of song, ''Twas within a mile o' Edinburgh
Town,' in Johnson's Museum :--
'The lassie blush'd, and frowning cried, "No, no, it will not
do;
I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too."'
Stanza XII. The skilful application of the anapaest for the
production of the brilliant gallop of 'Lochinvar' has been equalled
only by Scott himself in his 'Bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee.' Cp. Lord
Tennyson's 'Northern Farmer' (specially New Style), and Mr.
Browning's 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.' 'The
ballad of Lochinvar,' says Scott, 'is in a very slight degree
founded on a ballad called " Katharine Janfarie," which may be found
in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," vol. ii. Mr. Charles
Gibbon's 'Laird o' Lamington' is based on the same legend.
line 332. 'See the novel of "Redgauntlet" for a detailed picture of
some of the extraordinary phenomena of the spring-tides in the
Solway Frith.'--LOCKHART.
line 344. galliard (Sp. gallarda, Fr. gaillarda), a lively dance.
Cp. Henry V, i. 2, 252, 'a nimble galliard,' and note on expression
in Clarendon Press ed.
line 353. scaur, cliff or river bank. Cp. Blackie's 'Ascent of
Cruachan' in 'Lays of the Highlands and Islands,' p. 98:--
'Scale the SCAUR that gleams so red.'
Stanza XIII. line 376. Cp. Dryden's 'Aurengzebe':-
'Love and a crown no rivalship can bear.'
line 382. Sir R. Kerr. See above, line 261.
line 383. Andrew Barton, High Admiral of Scotland, was one of a
family of seamen, to whom James IV granted letters of reprisal
against Portuguese traders for the violent death of their father.
Both the King and the Bartons profited much by their successes. At
length the Earl of Surrey, accusing Andrew Barton of attacking
English as well as Portuguese vessels, sent two powerful men-of-war
against him, and a sharp battle, fought in the Downs, resulted in
Barton's death and the capture of his vessels. See Chambers's
'Eminent Scotsmen,' vol. v.
line 386. James sent his herald to Henry before Terouenne, calling
upon him to desist from hostilities against Scotland's ally, the
king of France, and sternly reminding him of the various insults to
which Henry's supercilious policy had subjected him. Flodden had
been fought before the messenger returned with his answer. Barclay a
contemporary poet, had written about seven years earlier, in his
'Ship of Fooles':--
'If the Englishe Lion his wisedome and riches
Conjoyne with true love, peace, and fidelitie
With the Scottishe Unicornes might and hardines,
There is no doubt but all whole Christentie
Shall live in peace, wealth, and tranquilitie.'
But such a desirable consummation was to wait yet a while.
Stanza XIV. line 398. 'Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus,' says
Scott, 'a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the
popular name of Bell-the-Cat, upon the following remarkable
occasion:--James the Third, of whom Pitscottie complains that he
delighted more in music, and "policies of building," than in
hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill advised as
to make favourites of his architects and musicians, whom the same
historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His nobility, who
did not sympathise in the King's respect for the fine arts, were
extremely incensed at the honours conferred on those persons,
particularly on Cochrane, a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar;
and, seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the King had convoked
the whole array of the country to march against the English, they
held a midnight council in the church of Lauder, for the purpose of
forcibly removing these minions from the King's person. When all had
agreed on the propriety of this measure, Lord Gray told the assembly
the apologue of the Mice, who had formed a resolution, that it would
be highly advantageous to their community to tie a bell round the
cat's neck, that they might hear her approach at a distance; but
which public measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being
willing to undertake the task of fastening the bell. "I understand
the moral," said Angus, "and, that what we propose may not lack
execution, I will bell the cat."'
The rest of the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie:--
'By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the
Earl of Mar, came from the King to the council, (which council was
holden in the kirk of Lauder for the time,) who was well accompanied
with a band of men of war; to the number of three hundred light
axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they
might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar's men. Himself was clad
in a riding-pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about
his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing
horns, with both the ends of gold and silk, set with a precious
stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his
heumont born before him, overgilt with gold, and so were all the
rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk,
and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon his
pallions were double overgilt with gold.
'This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords
to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door.
The council inquired who it was that perturbed them at that time.
Sir Robert Douglas, Laird of Lochleven, was keeper of the kirk-door
at that time, who inquired who that was that knocked so rudely; and
Cochran answered, "This is I, the Earl of Mar." The which news
pleased well the lords, because they were ready boun to cause take
him, as is before rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to
the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, there to
receive in the Earl of Mar, and go many of his complices who were
there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl
of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from
his craig, and said to him, a tow1 would set him better. Sir Robert
Douglas syne pulled the blowing horn from him in like manner, and
said, "He had been the hunter of mischief over long." This Cochran
asked, "My lords, is it mows2, or earnest?" They answered, and said,
"It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find; for thou and thy
complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt
hare no more credence, but shalt have thy reward according to thy
good service, as thou hast deserved in times bypast; right so the
rest of thy followers."
-------------------------------------
1rope. 2jest.
-------------------------------------
'Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain
armed men to pass into the King's pallion, and two or three wise men
to pass with them, and give the King fair pleasant words, till they
laid hands on all the King's servants and took them and hanged them
before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought
forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to
take one of his own pallion tows and bind his hands, for he thought
shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief.
The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and,
for despight, they took a hair tether3, and hanged him over the
bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices.'--PITSCOTTIE, p.
78, folio edit.
-------------------------------------
3halter.
-------------------------------------
line 400. Hermitage Castle is on Hermitage water, which falls into
the Liddell. The ruins still exist.
line 402. Bothwell Castle is on the right bank of the Clyde, a few
miles above Glasgow. While staying there in 1799 Scott began a
ballad entitled 'Bothwell Castle,' which remains a fragment.
Lockhart gave it in the 'Life,' i. 305, ed. 1837. There, as here, he
makes reference to the touching legendary ballad, 'Bothwell bank
thou bloomest fair,' which a traveller before 1605 heard a woman
singing in Palestine.
line 406. Reference to Cicero's cedant arma togae, a relic of an
attempt at verse.
line 414. 'Angus was an old man when the war against England was
resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its
commencement; and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated
so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the King said to him,
with scorn and indignation, "if he was afraid, he might go home."
The Earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired
accordingly, leaving his sons, George, Master of Angus, and Sir
William of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both
slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of
Douglas. The aged Earl, broken-hearted at the calamities of his
house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died
about a year after the field of Flodden.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XV. lines 415-20. Cp. description of Sir H. Osbaldistone,
'Rob Roy,' chap. vi.
line 429. 'The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock
projecting into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North
Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is
rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large
extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the
sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks.
Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the
Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out
against James V. The King went in person against it, and for its
reduction, borrowed from the Castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the
Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie
informs us with laudable minuteness, were "Thrawn mouth'd Meg and
her Marrow"; also, "two great botcards, and two moyan, two double
falcons, and four quarter falcons"; for the safe guiding and re-
delivery of which, three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet,
notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the
siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by
treaty with the governor, Simon Panango, When the Earl of Angus
returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained
possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an
English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described
in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler,
who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the
failure of his negotiation for matching the infant Mary with Edward
VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of
such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his
enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger. (His State
papers were published in 1810, with certain notes by Scott.)
'There is a military tradition, that the old Scottish March was
meant to express the words,
"Ding down Tantallon,
Mak a brig to the Bass."
'Tantallon was at length "dung down" and ruined by the Covenanters;
its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favourer of the royal
cause. The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the
eighteenth century to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by the
then Marquis of Douglas.'--SCOTT.
In 1888, under the direction of Mr. Walter Dalrymple, son of the
proprietor, certain closed staircases in the ruins were opened, and
various excavations were made, with the purpose of discovering as
fully as possible what the original character of the structure had
been. These operations have added greatly to the interest of the
ruin, which both by position and aspect is one of the most imposing
in the country.
line 432. 'A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas,
bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a
heart which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1329, being the
year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart
to the Holy Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which is
quoted by Godscroft, as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed
around the emblem:--
"So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beinge,
Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.
I will ye charge, efter yat I depart,
To holy grawe, and thair bury my hart;
Let it remane ever BOTHE TYME AND HOWR,
To ye last day I sie my Saviour.
I do protest in tyme of al my ringe,
Ye lyk subject had never ony keing."
'This curious and valuable relic was nearly lost during the Civil
War of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of
those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been
made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of the Stuart,
it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the
usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.'--
SCOTT.
Stanza XVI. line 461. Scott quotes:--
'O Dowglas! Dowglas
Tender and trew.'--The Houlate.
line 470. There are two famous sparrows in literature, the one
Lesbia's sparrow, tenderly lamented by Catullus, and the other Jane
Scrope's sparrow, memorialised by Skelton in the ' Boke of Phyllyp
Sparowe.'
line 475. The tears of such as Douglas are of the kind mentioned in
Cowley's 'Prophet,' line 20:--
