line 64. Cp. closing lines of Wordsworth's 'Ode on Intimations of
Immortality' (finished in 1806):--
'To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.'
lines 65-8. Nelson fell at Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805; Pitt died Jan.
23, 1806.
line 72. Gadite wave. The epithet is derived from Gades, the Roman
name of the modern Cadiz.
line 73. Levin = lightning. See Canto I, line 400. Spenser uses the
phrase 'piercing levin' in the July eclogue of the 'Shepheards
Calendar,' and in 'Faery Queene,' III. v. 48. The word still
occasionally occurs in poetry. Cp. Longfellow, 'Golden Legend,' v.,
near end:--
'See! from its summit the lurid levin
Flashes downward without warning! '
line 76. fated = charged with determination of fate. Cp. All's Well
that Ends Well, i. I. 221--
'The fated sky
Gives us free scope.'
line 82. Hafnia, is Copenhagen. The three victories are, the battle
of the Nile, 1798; the battle of the Baltic, 1801; and Trafalgar,
1805.
lines 84-86. Pitt (1759-1806) became First Lord of the Treasury and
Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1783, and from 1785 onwards the facts
of his career are a constituent part of national history. He faced
with success difficulties like bread riots, mutinies in the fleet in
1797, disturbances by the 'United Irishmen,' and the alarming
threats of Napoleon. In 1800 the Union of Ireland with Great Britain
gave Irishmen new motives for living, and in 1803 national
patriotism, stirred and guided by Pitt, was manifested in the
enrolment of over three hundred thousand volunteers prepared to
withstand the vaunted 'Army of England.' In spite of his
distinguished position and eminent services, Pitt died L40,000 in
debt, and his responsibilities were promptly met by a vote of the
House of Commons.
lines 97-108. These picturesque lines, with their varied and
suggestive metaphors, were interpolated on the blank page of the MS.
The reference in the expression 'tottering throne' in line 104 is to
the threatened insanity of George III.
lines 109-125. Pitt's patriotism was consistent and thorough. The
anxious, troubled expression his face, betrayed in his latest
appearances in the House of Commons, Wilberforce spoke of as 'his
Austerlitz look,' and there seems little doubt that the burden of
his public cares hastened his end. This gives point to the
comparison of his fate with that of Aeneas's pilot Palinurus (Aeneid
v. 833).
lines 127-141. Charles James Fox (1749-1806) was second son of the
first Lord Holland, whose indulgence tended to spoil a youth of
unusual ability and precocity. Extravagant habits, contracted at an
early age, were not easily thrown off afterwards, but they did not
interfere with Fox's efficiency as a statesman. His rivalry with
Pitt dates from 1783. Their tombs are near each other in Westminster
Abbey.
line 146. Cp. in Gray's 'Elegy':--
'Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.'
line 153. Jeffrey, in his criticism of 'Marmion' in the 'Edinburgh
Review,' found fault with the tribute to Fox, and cavilled in
particular at the expression 'Fox a Briton died.' He argued that
Scott praised only the action of Fox in breaking off the
negotiations for peace with Napoleon, while insinuating that the
previous part of his career was unpatriotic. Only a special pleader
could put such an unworthy interpretation on the words.
lines 155-65. By the result of the battle of Austerlitz (December,
1805) Napoleon seemed advancing towards general victory. Prussia
hastily patched up a dishonourable peace on terms inconsistent with
very binding pledges, and the Russian minister at Paris compromised
his country by yielding to humiliating proposals on the part of
France. All this changed Fox's view of the position, and he broke
off the negotiations for peace which had been begun in accordance
with a policy he had long advocated.
line 161. There is a probable reference here to Nelson's action at
the battle of the Baltic. He disregarded the signal for cessation of
fighting given by Sir Hyde Parker, and ordered his own signal to be
nailed to the mast.
line 176. Thessaly was noted for witchcraft. The scene of Virgil's
eighth Eclogue is laid in Thessaly as appropriate to the
introduction of such machinery as enchantments, love-spells, &c. Cp.
Horace, Epode v. 21, and Ode I. xxvii. 21:--
'Quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
Magus venenis, quis poterit deus?'
In his 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' Letter III., Scott,
obviously basing his information on Horace, writes thus:--'The
classic mythology presented numerous points in which it readily
coalesced with that of the Germans, Danes, and Northmen of a later
period. They recognised the power of Erictho, Canidia, and other
sorceresses, whose spells could perplex the course of the elements,
intercept the influence of the sun, and prevent his beneficial
operation upon the fruits of the earth; call down the moon from her
appointed sphere, and disturb the original and destined course of
nature by their words and charms, and the power of the evil spirits
whom they evoked.'
line 181. Lees is properly pl. of lee (Fr.lie = dregs), the sediment
or coarser parts of a liquid which settle at the bottom, but it has
come to be used as a collective word without reference to a singular
form. For phrase, cp. Macbeth, ii. 3. 96:--
'The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.'
line 185. Cp. Byron's 'Age of Bronze':--
'But where are they--the rivals!--a few feet
Of sullen earth divide each winding-sheet.'
line 199. hearse, from Old Fr. herce = harrow, portcullis. In early
English the word is used in the sense of 'harrow' and also of
'triangle,' in reference to the shape of the harrow. By-and-by it
came to be used variously for 'bier,' 'funeral carriage,' ornamental
canopy with lighted candles over the coffins of notable people
during the funeral ceremony, the permanent framework over a tomb,
and even the tomb itself. Cp. Spenser's Shep. Cal., November
Eclogue:--
'Dido, my deare, alas! is dead,
Dead, and lyeth wrapt in lead.
O heavie herse!'
The gloss to this is, 'Herse is the solemne obsequie in funeralles.'
Cp. also Ben Jonson's 'Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke':--
'Underneath this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse.'
line 203. The 'Border Minstrel' is an appropriate designation of the
author of 'Contributions to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'
and the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.' In the preface to the latter
work, written in 1830, Scott refers to the two great statesmen as
having 'smiled on the adventurous minstrel.' This is the only
existing evidence of Fox's appreciation. Pitt's praise of the Lay
his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, reported to W. S. Rose, who very
naturally passed it on to Scott himself. The Right Hon. William
Dundas, in a letter to Scott, mentions a conversation he had had
with Pitt at his table, in 1805, and says that Pitt both expressed
his desire to advance Scott's professional interests and quoted from
the Lay the lines describing the embarrassment of the harper when
asked to play. 'This,' said he, 'is a sort of thing which I might
have expected in painting, but could never have fancied capable of
being given in poetry.'--Lockhart's Life of Scott, ii. 34.
line 204. Gothic. This refers to both subject and style, neither
being classical.
line 220. Lockhart quotes from Rogers's 'Pleasures of Memory':--
'If but a beam of sober reason play,
Lo! Fancy's fairy frostwork melts away.'
lines 233-48. In these lines the poet indicates the sphere in which
he had previously worked with independence and success. Like Virgil
when proceeding to write the AEneid, he is doubtful whether his
devotion to legendary and pastoral themes is sufficient warrant for
attempting heroic verse. The reference to the tales of shepherds in
the closing lines of the passage recalls the advice given (about
1880) to his students by Prof. Shairp, when lecturing from the
Poetry Chair at Oxford. 'To become steeped,' he said, 'in the true
atmosphere of romantic poetry they should proceed to the Borders and
learn their legends, under the twofold guidance of Scott's "Border
Minstrelsy" and an intelligent local shepherd.'
line 256. steely weeds = steel armour. 'Steely' in Elizabethan times
was used both literally and figuratively. Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI.
ii. 3. 16, has 'The steely point of Clifford's lance,' and Fisher in
his 'Seuen Psalmes' has 'tough and stely hertes.' For a modern
literal example, see Crabbe's 'Parish Register':--
'Steel through opposing plates the magnet draws,
And STEELY atoms calls from dust and straws.'
WEEDS in the sense of dress is confined, in modern English, to
widows' robes. In Elizabethan times it had a general reference, as
e.g. Spenser's 'lowly Shephards weeds' in the Introduction to 'Faery
Queene.' Cp. below, Canto V. line 168, VI. line 192.
line 258. The Champion is Launcelot, the most famous of King
Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. See Tennyson's 'Idylls of the
King,' especially 'Lancelot and Elaine,' and William Morris's
'Defence of Guenevere.'
line 263. Dame Ganore is Guenevere, Arthur's Queen.
lines 258-262. Scott annotates these lines as follows:--
'The Romance of the Morte Arthur contains a sort of abridgment of
the most celebrated adventures of the Round Table; and, being
written in comparatively modern language, gives the general reader
an excellent idea of what romances of chivalry actually were. It has
also the merit of being written in pure old English; and many of the
wild adventures which it contains are told with a simplicity
bordering upon the sublime. Several of these are referred to in the
text; and I would have illustrated them by more full extracts, but
as this curious work is about to be republished, I confine myself to
the tale of the Chapel Perilous, and of the quest of Sir Launcelot
after the Sangreal.
'"Right so Sir Lanncelot departed, and when he came to the Chapell
Perilous, he alighted downe, and tied his horse to a little gate.
And as soon as he was within the churchyard, he saw, on the front of
the chapell, many faire rich shields turned upside downe; and many
of the shields Sir Launcelot had seene knights have before; with
that he saw stand by him thirtie great knights, more, by a yard,
than any man that ever he had seene, and all those grinned and
gnashed at Sir Launcelot; and when he saw their countenance, hee
dread them sore, and so put his shield afore him, and tooke his
sword in his hand ready to doe battaile; and they were all armed in
black harneis, ready, with their shields and swords drawen. And when
Sir Launcelot would have gone through them, they scattered on every
side of him, and gave him the way; and therewith he waxed all bold,
and entered into the chapell, and then hee saw no light but a dimme
lampe burning, and then was he ware of a corps covered with a cloath
of silke; then Sir Launcelot stooped downe, and cut a piece of that
cloath away, and then it fared under him as the earth had quaked a
little, whereof he was afeard, and then hee saw a faire sword lye by
the dead knight, and that he gat in his hand, and hied him out of
the chappell. As soon as he was in the chappell-yerd, all the
knights spoke to him with a grimly voice, and said, 'Knight, Sir
Launcelot, lay that sword from thee, or else thou shalt die.'--
'Whether I live or die,' said Sir Launcelot, 'with no great words
get yee it againe, therefore fight for it and ye list.' Therewith he
passed through them; and beyond the chappell-yerd, there met him a
faire damosell, and said, 'Sir Launcelot, leave that sword behind
thee, or thou wilt die for it.'--'I will not leave it,' said Sir
Launcelot, 'for no threats.'--'No?' said she; 'and ye did leave that
sword, Queen Guenever should ye never see.'--'Then were I a foole
and I would leave this sword,' said Sir Launcelot. 'Now, gentle
knight,' said the damosell, 'I require thee to kisse me once.'--
'Nay,' said Sir Launcelot, 'that God forbid!'--'Well, sir,' said
she, 'and thou hadest kissed me thy life dayes had been done; but
now, alas!' said she, 'I have lost all my labour; for I ordeined
this chappell for thy sake, and for Sir Gawaine: and once I had Sir
Gawaine within it; and at that time he fought with that knight which
there lieth dead in yonder chappell, Sir Gilbert the bastard, and at
that time hee smote off Sir Gilbert the bastard's left hand. And so,
Sir Launcelot, now I tell thee, that I have loved thee this seaven
yeare; but there may no woman have thy love but Queene Guenever; but
sithen I may not rejoyice thee to have thy body alive, I had kept no
more joy in this world but to have had thy dead body; and I would
have balmed it and served, and so have kept it in my life daies, and
daily I should have clipped thee, and kissed thee, in the despite of
Queen Guenever.'--'Yee say well,' said Sir Launcelot; 'Jesus
preserve me from your subtill craft." And therewith he took his
horse, and departed from her."'
Sir Thomas Malory's 'Morte D'Arthure' was first printed by Caxton in
4to., 1485. A new issue of this belongs to 1634. The republication
referred to by Scott is probably the edition published in 1816, in
two vols. l8mo. The Roxburghe Club made a sumptuous reprint in 1819,
and Thomas Wright, in 1858, edited the work in three handy 8vo.
vols. from the text of 1634. This edition is furnished with a very
useful introduction and notes.
lines 267-70. 'One day when Arthur was holding a high feast with his
Knights of the Round Table, the Sangreal, or vessel out of which the
last passover was eaten, (a precious relic, which had long remained
concealed from human eyes, because of the sins of the land,)
suddenly appeared to him and all his chivalry. The consequence of
this vision was, that all the knights took on them a solemn vow to
seek the Sangreal. But, alas! it could only be revealed to a knight
at once accomplished in earthly chivalry, and pure and guiltless of
evil conversation. All Sir Launcelot's noble accomplishments were
therefore rendered vain by his guilty intrigue with Queen Guenever,
or Ganore; and in this holy quest he encountered only such
disgraceful disasters as that which follows:--
'But Sir Launcelot rode overthwart and endlong in a wild forest, and
held no path, but as wild adventure led him; and at the last, he
came unto a stone crosse, which departed two wayes, in wast land;
and, by the crosse, was a stone that was of marble; but it was so
dark, that Sir Launcelot might not well know what it was. Then Sir
Launcelot looked by him, and saw an old chappell, and there he wend
to have found people. And so Sir Launcelot tied his horse to a tree,
and there he put off his shield, and hung it upon a tree, and then
hee went unto the chappell doore, and found it wasted and broken.
And within he found a faire altar, full richly arrayed with cloth of
silk, and there stood a faire candlestick, which beare six great
candles, and the candlesticke was of silver. And when Sir Launcelot
saw this light, hee had a great will for to enter into the chappell,
but he could find no place where hee might enter. Then was he
passing heavie and dismaied. Then he returned, and came again to his
horse, and tooke off his saddle and his bridle, and let him pasture,
and unlaced his helme, and ungirded his sword, and laid him downe to
sleepe upon his shield, before the crosse.
'And so hee fell on sleepe; and, halfe waking and halfe sleeping,
hee saw come by him two palfreys, both faire and white, the which
beare a litter, therein lying a sicke knight. And when he was nigh
the crosse, he there abode still. All this Sir Launcelot saw and
beheld, for hee slept not verily, and hee heard him say, "O sweete
Lord, when shall this sorrow leave me, and when shall the holy
vessell come by me, where through I shall be blessed, for I have
endured thus long for little trespasse!" And thus a great while
complained the knight, and allwaies Sir Launcelot heard it. With
that Sir Launcelot saw the candlesticke, with the fire tapers, come
before the crosse; but he could see no body that brought it. Also
there came a table of silver, and the holy vessel of the Sancgreall,
the which Sir Launcelot had seen before that time in King Petchour's
house. And therewithall the sicke knight set him upright, and held
up both his hands, and said, "Faire sweete Lord, which is here
within the holy vessell, take heed to mee, that I may bee hole of
this great malady!" And therewith upon his hands, and upon his
knees, he went so nigh, that he touched the holy vessell, and kissed
it: And anon he was hole, and then he said, "Lord God, I thank
thee, for I am healed of this malady." Soo when the holy vessell had
been there a great while, it went into the chappell againe, with the
candlesticke and the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not where it
became, for he was overtaken with sinne, that he had no power to
arise against the holy vessell, wherefore afterward many men said of
him shame. But he tooke repentance afterward. Then the sicke knight
dressed him upright, and kissed the crosse. Then anon his squire
brought him his armes, and asked his lord how he did. "Certainly,"
said hee, I thanke God right heartily, for through the holy vessell
I am healed: But I have right great mervaile of this sleeping
knight, which hath had neither grace nor power to awake during the
time that this holy vessell hath beene here present."--"I dare it
right well say," said the squire, "that this same knight is defouled
with some manner of deadly sinne, whereof he has never confessed."--
"By my faith," said the knight, "whatsoeer he be, he is unhappie;
for, as I deeme, hee is of the fellowship of the Round Table, the
which is entered into the quest of the Sancgreall."--"Sir," said the
squire, "here I have brought you all your armes, save your helme and
your sword; and, therefore, by mine assent, now may ye take this
knight's helme and his sword;' and so he did. And when he was cleane
armed, he took Sir Launcelot's horse, for he was better than his
owne, and so they departed from the crosse.
'Then anon Sir Launcelot awaked, and set himselfe upright, and he
thought him what hee had there seene, and whether it were dreames or
not; right so he heard a voice that said, "Sir Launcelot, more hardy
than is the stone, and more bitter than is the wood, and more naked
and bare than is the liefe of the fig-tree, therefore go thou from
hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place;" and when Sir
Launcelot heard this, he was passing heavy, and wist not what to
doe. And so he departed sore weeping, and cursed the time that he
was borne; for then he deemed never to have had more worship; for
the words went unto his heart, till that he knew wherefore that hee
was so called.'--SCOTT.
line 273. Arthur is the hero of the 'Faery Queene.' In his
explanatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser says, 'I chose the
historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his
person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also
furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspicion of present time.'
line 274. Milton is said to have meditated in his youth the
composition of an epic poem on Arthur and the Round Table. In
'Paradise Lost' ix. 26, he states that the subject of that poem
pleased him 'long choosing and beginning late,' and references both
in 'Paradise Lost' and 'Paradise Regained' prove his familiarity
with the Arthurian legend. Cp. Par. Lost, i. 580, and Par. Reg. ii.
358.
line 275. Scott quotes from Dryden's 'Essay on Satire,' prefixed to
the translation of Juvenal, regarding his projected Epic. 'Of two
subjects,' says Dryden, 'I was doubtful whether I should choose that
of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being further distant
in time, gives the greater scope to my invention; or that of Edward
the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful
prince, though a great tyrant, Pedro the Cruel....I might perhaps
have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at least chalked
out a way for others to amend my errors in a like design; but being
encouraged only with fair words by King Charles II, my little salary
ill paid, and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then
discouraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now age has
overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change
of the times, has wholly disabled me.'
lines 281-3. Dryden's dramas, certain of his translations, and
various minor pieces adapted to the prevalent taste of his time, are
unworthy of his genius. Pope's reflections on the poet forgetful of
the dignity of his office, with the allusion to Dryden as an
illustration ('Satires and Epistles,' v. 209), may be compared with
this passage;--
'I scarce can think him such a worthless thing,
Unless he praise some monster of a king;
Or virtue, or religion turn to sport,
To please a lewd, or unbelieving court.
Unhappy Dryden! In all Charles's days,
Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays.'
line 283. Cp. Gray's 'Progress of Poesy,' 103--
'Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear
Two coursers of ethereal race,
With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding pace';
and Pope's 'Satires and Epistles,' v. 267--
'Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine.'
line 286. To break a lance is to enter the lists, to try one's
strength. The concussion of two powerful knights would suffice to
shiver the lances. Hence comes the figurative use. Cp. I Henry VI.
iii. 2,--
'What will you do, good greybeard? break a lance,
And run a tilt at death within a chair?'
lines 288-309. The Genius of Chivalry is to be resuscitated from the
deep slumber under which baneful spells have long effectually held
him. The appropriateness of this is apparent when the true meaning
of Chivalry is considered. Scott opens his 'Essay on Chivalry'
thus:--'The primitive sense of this well-known word, derived from
the French Chevalier, signifies merely cavalry, or a body of
soldiers serving on horseback; and it has been used in that general
acceptation by the best of our poets, ancient and modern, from
Milton to Thomas Campbell.' See Par. Lost, i. 307, and Battle of
Hohenlinden.
line 294. To spur forward his horse on an expedition of adventures,
like Spenser's Red Cross Knight. For the accoutrements and the
duties of a knight see Scott's 'Essay on Chivalry' (Miscellaneous
Works, vol. vi.). Cp. 'Faery Queene,' Book I, and (especially for
the personified abstractions from line 300 onwards) Montgomerie's
allegory, 'The Cherrie and the Slae.'
line 312. Ytene's oaks. 'The New Forest in Hampshire, anciently so
called.'--SCOTT. Gundimore, the residence of W. S. Rose, was in this
neighbourhood, and in an unpublished piece entitled 'Gundimore,'
Rose thus alludes to a visit of Scott's:--
'Here Walter Scott has woo'd the northern muse;
Here he with me has joy'd to walk or cruise;
And hence has prick'd through Yten's holt, where we
Have called to mind how under greenwood tree,
Pierced by the partner of his "woodland craft,"
King Rufus fell by Tyrrell's random shaft.'
line 314. 'The "History of Bevis of Hampton" is abridged by my
friend Mr. George Ellis, with that liveliness which extracts
amusement even out of the most rude and unpromising of our old tales
of chivalry. Ascapart, a most important personage in the romance, is
thus described in an extract:--
"This geaunt was mighty and strong,
And full thirty foot was long.
He was bristled like a sow;
A foot he had between each brow;
His lips were great, and hung aside;
His eyen were hollow, his mouth was wide;
Lothly he was to look on than,
And liker a devil than a man.
His staff was a young oak,
Hard and heavy was his stroke."
Specimens of Metrical Romances, vol. ii. p. 136.
'I am happy to say, that the memory of Sir Bevis is still fragrant
in his town of Southampton; the gate of which is sentinelled by the
effigies of that doughty knight errant and his gigantic associate.'-
-SCOTT.
CANTO FIRST.
The Introduction is written on a basis of regular four-beat
couplets, each line being technically an iambic tetrameter; lines
96, 205, and 283 are Alexandrines, or iambic hexameters, each
serving to give emphasis and resonance (like the ninth of the
Spenserian stanza) to the passage which it closes. Intensity of
expression is given by the triplet which closes the passage ending
with line 125. The metrical basis of the movement in the Canto is
likewise iambic tetrameter, but the trimeter or three-beat line is
freely introduced, and the poet allows himself great scope in his
arrangement.
Stanza I. line 1. 'The ruinous castle of Norham (anciently called
Ubbanford) is situated on the southern bank of the Tweed, about six
miles above Berwick, and where that river is still the boundary
between England and Scotland. The extent of its ruins, as well as
its historical importance, shows it to have been a place of
magnificence, as well as strength. Edward I resided there when he
was created umpire of the dispute concerning the Scottish
succession. It was repeatedly taken and retaken during the wars
between England and Scotland; and, indeed, scarce any happened, in
which it had not a principal share. Norham Castle is situated on a
steep bank, which overhangs the river. The repeated sieges which the
castle had sustained, rendered frequent repairs necessary. In 1164,
it was almost rebuilt by Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, who added a
huge keep, or donjon; notwithstanding which, King Henry II, in 1174,
took the castle from the bishop, and committed the keeping of it to
William de Neville. After this period it seems to have been chiefly
garrisoned by the King, and considered as a royal fortress. The
Greys of Chillinghame Castle were frequently the castellans, or
captains of the garrison: Yet, as the castle was situated in the
patrimony of St. Cuthbert, the property was in the see of Durham
till the Reformation. After that period, it passed through various
hands. At the union of the crowns, it was in the possession of Sir
Robert Carey, (afterwards Earl of Monmouth,) for his own life, and
that of two of his sons. After King James's accession, Carey sold
Norham Castle to George Home, Earl of Dunbar, for L6000. See his
curious Memoirs, published by Mr. Constable of Edinburgh.
'According to Mr. Pinkerton, there is, in the British Museum. Cal.
B. 6. 216, a curious memoir of the Dacres on the state of Norham
Castle in 1522, not long after the battle of Flodden. The inner
ward, or keep, is represented as impregnable:--"The provisions are
three great vats of salt eels, forty-four kine, three hogsheads of
salted salmon, forty quarters of grain, besides many cows and four
hundred sheep, lying under the castle-wall nightly; but a number of
the arrows wanted feathers, and a good Fletcher [i.e. maker of
arrows] was required."--History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 201, note.
'The ruins of the castle are at present considerable, as well as
picturesque. They consist of a large shattered tower, with many
vaults, and fragments of other edifices, enclosed within an outward
wall of great circuit.'--SCOTT.
line 4. battled = embattled, furnished with battlements. See Introd.
to Canto V. line 90, and cp. Tennyson's 'Dream of Fair Women,' line
220:--
'The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow
Beneath the BATTLED TOWER.'
the donjon keep. 'It is perhaps unnecessary to remind my readers,
that the donjon, in its proper signification, means the strongest
part of a feudal castle; a high square tower, with walls of
tremendous thickness, situated in the centre of the other buildings,
from which, however, it was usually detached. Here, in case of the
outward defences being gained, the garrison retreated to make their
last stand. The donjon contained the great hall, and principal rooms
of state for solemn occasions, and also the prison of the fortress;
from which last circumstance we derive the modern and restricted use
of the word dungeon. Ducange (voce DUNJO) conjectures plausibly,
that the name is derived from these keeps being usually built upon a
hill, which in Celtic is called DUN. Borlase supposes the word came
from the darkness of the apartments in these towers, which were
thence figuratively called Dungeons; thus deriving the ancient word
from the modern application of it.'--SCOTT.
line 6. flanking walls, walls protecting it on the sides. Cp. the
use of FLANKED in Dryden's 'Annus Mirabilis' xxvi;--
'By the rich scent we found our perfumed prey,
Which, FLANKED with rocks, did close in covert lie.'
Stanza II. line 14. St. George's banner. St. George's red cross on a
white field was the emblem on the English national standard. Saint
George is the legendary patron saint who slew the dragon.
Stanza III. line 29. Horncliff-hill is one of the numerous hillocks
to the east of Norham. There is a village of the same name.
A plump of spears. Scott writes, 'This word applies to flight of
water-fowl; but is applied by analogy to a body of horse:--
"There is a knight of the North Country,
Which leads a lusty PLUMP of spears."
Flodden Field'
line 33. mettled, same as metalled (mettle being a variant of
metall, spirited, ardent. So 'mettled hound' in 'Jock o' Hazeldean.'
Cp. Julius Caesar, iv. 2. 23:--
'But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant show and promise of their METTLE.'
'Metal' in the same sense is frequent in Shakespeare. See Meas. for
Meas. i. I; Julius Caesar, i. 2; Hamlet, iii 2.
line 35. palisade (Fr. paliser, to enclose with pales), a firm row
of stakes presenting a sharp point to an advancing party.
line 38. hasted, Elizabethanism = hastened. Cp. Merch. of Venice,
ii. 2. 104--'Let it be so hasted that supper be ready at the
farthest by five of the clock.'
line 42. sewer, taster; squire, knight's attendant; seneschal,
steward. See 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' vi. 6, and note on Par.
Lost, ix. 38, in Clarendon Press Milton:--
'Then marshalled feast
Served up in hall with sewers, and seneschals.'
Stanza IV. line 43. Malvoisie = Malmsey, from Malvasia, now Napoli
di Malvasia, in the Morea.
line 55. portcullis, a strong timber framework within the gateway of
a castle, let down in grooves and having iron spikes at the bottom.
Stanzas V and VI. Marmion, strenuous in arms and prudent in counsel,
has a kinship in spirit and achievement with the Homeric heroes.
Compare him also with the typical knight in Chaucer's Prologue and
the Red Cross Knight at the opening of the 'Faerie Queene.' Scott
annotates 'Milan steel' and the legend thus:--
'The artists of Milan were famous in the middle ages for their skill
in armoury, as appears from the following passage, in which
Froissart gives an account of the preparations made by Henry, Earl
of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV, and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Earl
Marischal, for their proposed combat in the lists at Coventry:--
"These two lords made ample provisions of all things necessary for
the combat; and the Earl of Derby sent off messengers to Lombardy,
to have armour from Sir Galeas, Duke of Milan. The Duke complied
with joy, and gave the knight, called Sir Francis, who had brought
the message, the choice of all his armour for the Earl of Derby.
When he had selected what he wished for in plated and mail armour,
the Lord of Milan, out of his abundant love for the Earl, ordered
four of the best armourers in Milan to accompany the knight to
England, that the Earl of Derby might be more completely armed."--
JOHNES' Froissart, vol. iv. p.597.
'The crest and motto of Marmion are borrowed from the following
story:--
Sir David de Lindsay, first Earl of Cranford, was, among other
gentlemen of quality, attended, during a visit to London in 1390, by
Sir William Dalzell, who was, according to my authority, Bower, not
only excelling in wisdom, but also of a lively wit. Chancing to be
at the Court, he there saw Sir Piers Conrtenay, an English knight,
famous for skill in tilting, and for the beauty of his person,
parading the palace, arrayed in a new mantle, bearing for device an
embroidered falcon, with this rhyme,--
"I bear a falcon, fairest of night,
Whoso pinches at her, his death is dight1
In graith2."
-----------------------------------------------------
1prepared. 2armour.
-----------------------------------------------------
'The Scottish knight, being a wag, appeared next day in a dress
exactly similar to that of Courtenay, but bearing a magpie instead
of the falcon, with a motto ingeniously contrived to rhyme to the
vaunting inscription of Sir Piers:--
"I bear a pie picking at a piece,
Whoso picks at her, I shall pick at his nese3,
In faith."
-----------------------------------------------------
3nose
-----------------------------------------------------
'This affront could only be expiated by a just with sharp lances. In
the course, Dalzell left his helmet unlaced, so that it gave way at
the touch of his antagonist's lance, and he thus avoided the shock
of the encounter. This happened twice:--in the third encounter, the
handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman
complained bitterly of Dalzell's fraud in not fastening his helmet,
the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion
staking in the hand of the King two hundred pounds, to be forfeited,
if, on entering the lists, any unequal advantage should be detected.
This being agreed to, the wily Scot demanded that Sir Piers, in
addition to the loss of his teeth, should consent to the extinction
of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of
Otterburn. As Courtenay demurred to this equalisation of optical
powers, Dalzell demanded the forfeit; which, after much altercation,
the King appointed to be paid to him, saying, he surpassed the
English both in wit and valour. This must appear to the reader a
singular specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the Jockey
Club would have given a different decision from Henry IV.'
lines 85-6. 'The arms of Marmion would be Vairee, a fesse gules--a
simple bearing, testifying to the antiquity of the race. The badge
was An ape passant argent, ringed and chained with gold. The
Marmions were the hereditary champions of England. The office
passed to the Dymokes, through marriage, in the reign of Edward
III.'--'Notes and Queries,' 7th S. III. 37.
Stanza VII. line 95. 'The principal distinction between the
independent esquire (terming him such who was attached to no
knight's service) and the knight was the spurs, which the esquire
might wear of silver, but by no means gilded.'--Scott's 'Essay on
Chivalry,' p.64.
With the squire's 'courteous precepts' compare those of Chaucer's
squire in the Prologue,--
'He cowde songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.
. . .
Curteys he was, lowely, and servysable,
And carf byforn his fader at the table.'
Stanza VIII. line 108. Him listed is an Early English form. Cp.
Chaucer's Prologue, 583,--
'Or lyve as scarsly as HYM LIST desire.'
In Elizabethan English, which retains many impersonal forms, LIST is
mainly used as a personal verb, as in Much Ado, iii. 4,--
'I am not such a fool to think what I LIST,'
and in John iii. 8, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' Even then,
however, it was sometimes used impersonally, as in Surrey's
translation of AEneid ii. 1064,--
'By sliding seas ME LISTED them to lede.'
line 116. Hosen = hose, tight trousers reaching to the knees. The
form hosen is archaic, though it lingered provincially in Scotland
till modern times. For a standard use of the word, see in A. V.,
Daniel iii. 21, 'Then these men were bound in their coats, their
hosen, and their hats, and their other garments.'
line 121. The English archers under the Tudors were famous.
Holinshed specially mentions that at the battle of Blackheath, in
1496, Dartford bridge was defended by archers 'whose arrows were in
length a full cloth yard.'
Stanza IX. line 130. morion (Sp. morra, the crown of the head), a
kind of helmet without a visor, frequently surmounted with a crest,
introduced into England about the beginning of the sixteenth
century.
line 134. linstock (lont, a match, and stok, a stick), 'a gunner's
forked staff to hold a match of lint dipped in saltpetre.'
yare, ready; common as a nautical term. Cp. Tempest, i. I. 6,
'Cheerly, my hearts! Yare, yare!' and see note to Clarendon Press
edition of the play.
Stanza X. line 146. The angel was a gold coin struck in France in
1340, and introduced into England by Edward IV, 1465. It varied in
value from 6s. 8d, to 10s. The last struck in England were in the
reign of Charles I. The name was due to the fact that on one side of
the coin was a representation of the Archangel Michael and the
dragon (Rev. xii. 7). Used again, St. xxv. below.
line 149. brook (A. S. brucan, to use, eat, enjoy, bear, discharge,
fulfil), to use, handle, manage. Cp. Chaucer, 'Nonnes Prestes Tale,'
line 479,--
'So mote I BROUKEN wel min eyen twey,'
and 'Lady of the Lake,' I. xxviii--
'Whose stalwart arm might BROOK to wield
A blade like this in battle-field. '
For other meaning of the word see xiii. and xvi. below.
Stanza XI. line 151. Pursuivants, attendants on the heralds, their
TABARD being a sleeveless coat. Chaucer applies the name to the
loose frock of the ploughman (Prologue, 541). See Clarendon Press
ed. of Chaucer's Prologue, &c.
line 152. scutcheon = escutcheon, shield.
line 156. 'Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present
romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In earlier times,
indeed, the family of Marmion, Lords of Fontenay, in Normandy, was
highly distinguished. Robert de Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, a
distinguished follower of the Conqueror, obtained a grant of the
castle and town of Tamworth, and also of the manor of Scrivelby, in
Lincolnshire. One, or both, of these noble possessions was held by
the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors
of Marmion had formerly been to the Dukes of Normandy. But after the
castle and demesne of Tamworth had passed through four successive
barons from Robert, the family became extinct in the person of
Philip de Marmion, who died in 20th Edward I without issue male. He
was succeeded in his castle of Tamworth by Alexander de Freville,
who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin de Freville,
Alexander's descendant, in the reign of Richard I, by the supposed
tenure of his castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal
champion, and to do the service appertaining; namely, on the day of
coronation, to ride, completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into
Westminster Hall, and there to challenge the combat against any who
would gainsay the King's title. But this office was adjudged to Sir
John Dymoke, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another
of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion; and it remains in that
family, whose representative is Hereditary Champion of England at
the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged
in the Earls of Ferrars. I have not, therefore, created a new
family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary
personage.'--SCOTT.
'The last occasion on which the Champion officiated was at the
coronation of George IV.'--'Notes and Queries,' 7th S. III, 236.
line 161. mark, a weight for gold and silver, differing in amount in
different countries. The English coin so called was worth 13s. 4d.
sterling.
line 163. 'This was the cry with which heralds and pursuivants were
wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights. Stewart of
Lorn distinguishes a ballad, in which he satirises the narrowness of
James V and his courtiers by the ironical burden--
"Lerges, lerges, lerges, hay,
Lerges of this new year day.
First lerges of the King, my chief,
Quhilk come als quiet as a theif,
And in my hand slid schillingis tway1,
To put his lergnes to the preif2,
For lerges of this new-yeir day."
1two 2proof
'The heralds, like the minstrels, were a race allowed to have great
claims upon the liberality of the knights, of whose feats they kept
a record, and proclaimed them aloud, as in the text, upon suitable
occasions.
'At Berwick, Norham, and other Border fortresses of importance,
pursuivants usually resided, whose inviolable character rendered
them the only persons that could, with perfect assurance of safety,
be sent on necessary embassies into Scotland. This is alluded to in
Stanza xxi. p. 25.'--SCOTT.
line 165. Blazon'd shield, a shield with a coat of arms painted on
it, especially with bearings quartered in commemoration of victory
in battle. See below V. xv, VI. xxxviii, and cp. Tennyson, 'The
Lady of Shalott,' Part 3:--
'And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung.'
line 174. The Cotswold downs, Gloucestershire, were famous as a
hunting-ground. Cp. Merry Wives of Windsor, I. i. 92, 'How does your
fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he was outrun on Cotsall.'
line 185. The reversed shield, hung on the gallows, indicated the
degraded knight.
Stanza XIII. line 192. Scott writes:--'Were accuracy of any
consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan's name ought
to have been William; for William Heron of Ford was husband to the
famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to have cost our James
IV so dear. Moreover, the said William Heron was, at the time
supposed, a prisoner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII,
on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of
Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the Court
of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford.--See
Sir RICHARD HERON'S curious Genealogy of the Heron Family.'
Ford Castle is about a mile to the north-east of Flodden Hill. It
was repaired in 1761 in accordance with the style of the original
architecture. Latterly the owner, the Countess of Waterford,
utilizing the natural beauty of the property, has enhanced its value
and its interest by improvements exhibiting not only exquisite taste
but a true philanthropic spirit. It was at Ford Castle that James IV
spent the night preceding the battle of Flodden.
line 195. Deas, dais, or chief seat on the platform at the upper end
of the hall.
line 200. Scott mentions in a note that his friend, R. Surtees, of
Mainsforth, had taken down this ballad from the lips of an old
woman, who said it used 'to be sung at the merry-makings.' He
likewise gave it a place in the 'Border Minstrelsy.' These things
being so, it is unpleasant to learn from Lockhart that 'the ballad
here quoted was the production of Mr. R. Surtees, and palmed off by
him upon Scott as a genuine relic of antiquity. 'The title of the
ballad in the 'Border Minstrelsy' is 'The Death of
Featherstonhaugh.'
line 203. 'Hardriding Dick is not an epithet referring to
horsemanship, but means Richard Ridley of Hardriding.'--SCOTT. The
families named all belonged to the north and north-east of
Northumberland. Scott adds (from Surtees), 'A feud did certainly
exist between the Ridleys and Featherstons, productive of such
consequences as the ballad narrates.' In regard to the 'Northern
harper,' see Prof. Minto's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' p. 121.
Stanza XV. line 231. wassail-bowl. 'Wassell' or 'wassail' (A. S.
waes hael) was first the wish of health, then it came to denote
festivity (especially at Christmas). As an adj. it is compounded not
only with bowl, but with cup, candle, &c. Cp. Comus, line 179:--
'I should be loth
To meet the rudeness and swill'd insolence
Of such late WASSAILERS.'
Cp. also note on 'gossip's bowl' of Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. I.
47, in Clarendon Press edition, and Prof. Minto's 'Lay of the Last
Minstrel,' p. 174.
line 232. Cp. Iliad i. 470, and ix. 175, and Chapman's translation,
'The youths CROWNED cups of wine.'
line 238. Raby Castle, in the county of Durham, the property of the
Duke of Cleveland.
line 254. As a page in a lady's chamber. 'Bower' is often contrasted
with 'hall,' as in 'Jock o' Hazeldean':--
'They socht her baith by bower an' ha'.'
Cp. below, 281.
Stanza XVI. line 264. For Lindisfarn, or Holy Island, see note to
Canto II. St. i.
Stanza XVII. line 284. leash, the cord by which the greyhound is
restrained till the moment when he is slipt in pursuit of the game.
Cp. Coriolanus, i. 6. 38:--
'Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash.'
Stanza XVIII. line 289. bide, abide. Cp. above, 215.
line 294. pray you = I pray you. Cp. 'Prithee,' so common in
Elizabethan drama.
line 298. Scott annotates as follows:-
'The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well
known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland; and James
IV, after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the Lady
Catharine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions.
To retaliate an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into
Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated,
after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his
Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this
inroad:--
"SURREY.
"Are all our braving enemies shrunk back,
Hid in the fogges of their distemper'd climate,
Not daring to behold our colours wave
In spight of this infected ayre? Can they
Looke on the strength of Cundrestine defac't;
The glorie of Heydonhall devasted: that
Of Edington cast downe; the pile of Fulden
Orethrowne: And this, the strongest of their forts,
Old Ayton Castle, yeelded and demolished,
And yet not peepe abroad? The Scots are bold,
Hardie in battayle, but it seems the cause
They undertake considered, appeares
Unjoynted in the frame on't".'--SCOTT.
line 301. Ayton is on the Eye, a little above Eyemouth, in
Berwickshire.
Stanza XIX. line 305. 'The garrisons of the English castles of Wark,
Norham, and Berwick were, as may be easily supposed, very
troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of
Ledington wrote a poem, called "The Blind Baron's Comfort," when his
barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was HARRIED by Rowland Foster, the
English captain of Wark, with his company, to the number of 300 men.
They spoiled the poetical knight of 5000 sheep, 200 nolt, 30 horses
and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100
pounds Scots (L8. 6s. 8d.), and every thing else that was portable.
"This spoil was committed the 16th day of May, 1570, (and the said
Sir Richard was threescore and fourteen years of age, and grown
blind,) in time of peace; when nane of that country LIPPENED
[expected] such a thing."--"The Blind Baron's Comfort" consists in a
string of puns on the word BLYTHE, the name of the lands thus
despoiled. Like John Littlewit, he had "a conceit left him in his
misery--a miserable conceit."
'The last line of the text contains a phrase, by which the Borderers
jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Maxwells, in 1685,
burned the castle of Lochwood, they said they did so to give the
Lady Johnstone "light to set her hood." Nor was the phrase
inapplicable; for, in a letter, to which I have mislaid the
reference, the Earl of Northumberland writes to the King and
Council, that he dressed himself at midnight, at Warkworth, by the
blaze of the neighbouring villages burned by the Scottish
marauders.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XXI. line 332. Bp. Pudsey, in 1154, restored the castle and
added the donjon. See Jemingham's 'Norham Castle,' v. 87.
line 341. too well in case, in too good condition, too stout. For a
somewhat similar meaning of case, see Tempest, iii. 2. 25:--
'I am in case to justle a constable.'
line 342. Scott here refers to Holinshed's account of Welsh, the
vicar of St. Thomas of Exeter, a leader among the Cornish insurgents
in 1549:--
'"This man," says Holinshed, "had many good things in him. He was of
no great stature, but well set, and mightilie compact. He was a very
good wrestler; shot well, both in the long-bow, and also in the
cross-bow; he handled his hand-gun and peece very well; he was a
very good woodman, and a hardie, and such a one as would not give
his head for the polling, or his beard for the washing. He was a
companion in any exercise of activitie, and of a courteous and
gentle behaviour. He descended of a good honest parentage, being
borne at Peneverin, in Cornwall; and yet, in this rebellion, an
arch-captain, and a principal doer."--Vol. iv. p. 958, 4to edition.
This model of clerical talents had the misfortune to be hanged upon
the steeple of his own church.'--SCOTT.
'The reader,' Lockhart adds, 'needs hardly to be reminded of
Ivanhoe.'
line 349. Cp. Chaucer's friar in Prologue, line 240:--
'He knew wel the tavernes in every toun,' &c.
The character and adventures of Friar John owe something both to the
'Canterbury Tales' and to a remarkable poem, probably Dunbar's,
entitled 'The Friars of Berwick.'
line 354. St. Bede's day in the Calendar is May 27. See below, line
410.
Stanza XXII. line 372. tables, backgammon.
line 387. fay = faith, word of honour. See below 454, and cp.
Hamlet, ii. 2. 271, 'By my fay, I cannot reason.'
