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MARMION:
A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD
IN SIX CANTOS
BY
SIR WALTER SCOTT
EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY THOMAS BAYNE
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
I. SCOTT AT ASHESTIEL.
Sir Walter Scott's love of the country induced him, after his
marriage in 1797, to settle in a cottage at the pretty village of
Lasswade, near Edinburgh. Four years after leaving this district he
took Mr. Morritt of Rokeby to see the little dwelling, telling him
that, though not worth looking at, 'it was our first house when
newly married, and many a contrivance it had to make it
comfortable.' He then enumerated various devices, by which he had
secured for Mrs. Scott and himself what seemed to both, at the time,
additional convenience and elegance in and about their home. His
reminiscences culminated in an account of an arch over the gate-way,
which he had constructed by fastening together the tops of two
convenient willows and placing above them 'a cross made of two
sticks.' This is very beautiful and characteristic; and there is
much freshness and charm in the further picture of the young
cottagers rejoicing over the success of the arrangements. 'To be
sure,' Scott concluded, 'it is not much of a lion to show a
stranger; but I wanted to see it again myself, for I assure you
after I constructed it, Mamma (Mrs. Scott) and I both of us thought
it so fine, we turned out to see it by moonlight, and walked
backwards from it to the cottage-door in admiration of our own
magnificence and its picturesque effect.' It was his way to invest
his circumstances with an interest over and above what intrinsically
belonged to them, and to prompt his friends to a share in his
delight.
When, in 1804, Scott was appointed Sheriff of Selkirkshire, a
condition attaching to his post was that he should reside during
part of the year within the bounds of his sheriffdom. He then
removed from Lasswade, and settled at Ashestiel on the Tweed, seven
miles from Selkirk. This is his own account of the new home:--
'We found a delightful retirement, by my becoming the tenant of my
intimate friend and cousin-german, Colonel Russell, in his mansion
of Ashestiel, which was unoccupied during his absence on military
service in India. The house was adequate to our accommodation, and
the exercise of a limited hospitality. The situation is uncommonly
beautiful, by the side of a fine river, whose streams are there very
favourable for angling, surrounded by the remains of natural woods,
and by hills abounding in game. In point of society, according to
the heartfelt phrase of Scripture, we dwelt "amongst our own
people"; and as the distance from the metropolis was only thirty
miles, we were not out of reach of our Edinburgh friends, in which
city we spent the terms of the summer and winter Sessions of the
Court, that is, five or six months in the year.'
The functions of the Sheriff of Selkirkshire admitted of
considerable leisure, and Scott settled at Ashestiel full of
literary projects, as well as heartily prepared to meet his new
responsibilities and to add to his numerous and valuable
friendships. An enterprise that early engaged his attention was a
complete edition of the British poets, but the deliberations on the
subject came to nothing except in so far as they helped towards the
preparation of Campbell's 'Specimens of the British Poets,' which
appeared in 1819. Writing Scott regarding his project of a complete
edition of the poets, his friend George Ellis said, 'Much as I wish
for a corpus poetarum, edited as you would edit it, I should like
still better another Minstrel Lay by the last and best Minstrel; and
the general demand for the poem seems to prove that the public are
of my opinion.' The work of editing, however, he seemed at the time
determined on having, and he finally abandoned the idea of an
exhaustive issue of the British poetry previous to his own time and
settled down to edit Dryden. This was a work much needed, and Scott
did it extremely well, as may be seen by comparing his own issue of
Dryden's Life and Works in 1808 with the recent reproduction of it,
admirably edited by Mr. George Saintsbury.
He had likewise, as he mentions in the General Preface to the
Novels, begun Waverley 'about 1805,' and other literary engagements
received their share of attention. He wrote articles for the
Edinburgh Review, besides doing such minor if useful literary
service as editing for Constable 'Original Memoirs written during
the Great Civil Wars,' and so on. At the same time, there were
prospects of professional advancement, an account of which he gives
in the following terms, in the 1830 Introduction to 'Marmion':--
'An important circumstance had, about the same time, taken place in
my life. Hopes had been held out to me from an influential quarter,
of a nature to relieve me from the anxiety which I must have
otherwise felt, as one upon the precarious tenure of whose own life
rested the principal prospects of his family, and especially as one
who had necessarily some dependence upon the favour of the public,
which is proverbially capricious; though it is but justice to add,
that, in my own case, I have not found it so. Mr. Pitt had
expressed a wish to my personal friend, the Right Hon. William
Dundas, now Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, that some fitting
opportunity should be taken to be of service to me; and as my views
and wishes pointed to a future rather than an immediate provision,
an opportunity of accomplishing this was soon found. One of the
Principal Clerks of Session, as they are called, (official persons
who occupy an important and responsible situation, and enjoy a
considerable income,) who had served upwards of thirty years, felt
himself, from age, and the infirmity of deafness with which it was
accompanied, desirous of retiring from his official situation. As
the law then stood, such official persons were entitled to bargain
with their successors, either for a sum of money, which was usually
a considerable one, or for an interest in the emoluments of the
office during their life. My predecessor, whose services had been
unusually meritorious, stipulated for the emoluments of his office
during his life, while I should enjoy the survivorship, on the
condition that I discharged the duties of the office in the
meantime. Mr. Pitt, however, having died in the interval, his
administration was dissolved, and was succeeded by that known by the
name of the Fox and Grenville Ministry. My affair was so far
completed, that my commission lay in the office subscribed by his
Majesty; but, from hurry or mistake, the interest of my predecessor
was not expressed in it, as had been usual in such cases. Although,
therefore, it only required payment of the fees, I could not in
honour take out the commission in the present state, since, in the
event of my dying before him, the gentleman whom I succeeded must
have lost the vested interest which he had stipulated to retain. I
had the honour of an interview with Earl Spencer on the subject, and
he, in the most handsome manner, gave directions that the commission
should issue as originally intended; adding, that the matter having
received the royal assent, he regarded only as a claim of justice
what he would have willingly done as an act of favour. I never saw
Mr. Fox on this, or on any other occasion, and never made any
application to him, conceiving that in doing so I might have been
supposed to express political opinions contrary to those which I had
always professed. In his private capacity, there is no man to whom
I would have been more proud to owe an obligation, had I been so
distinguished.
'By this arrangement I obtained the survivorship of an office, the
emoluments of which were fully adequate to my wishes; and as the law
respecting the mode of providing for superannuated officers was,
about five or six years after, altered from that which admitted the
arrangement of assistant and successor, my colleague very handsomely
took the opportunity of the alteration, to accept of the retiring
annuity provided in such cases, and admitted me to the full benefit
of the office.'
At Ashestiel Scott systematically planned his day. He had his
mornings for his multifarious work, and the after part of the day
was given to necessary recreation and to his friends. He was an
ardent member of the Edinburgh Light Horse, at a time when
volunteers of a practical and energetic character seemed likely to
be needed, and at Ashestiel he combined a certain military routine
with his legal and literary arrangements. James Skene of Rubislaw,
one of his best friends and most frequent visitors, mentions that
'before beginning his desk-work in the morning he uniformly visited
his favourite steed, and neither Captain nor Lieutenant, nor the
Lieutenant's successor, Brown Adam (so called after one of the
heroes of the Minstrelsy), liked to be fed except by him.' Skene is
the friend to whom Scott addresses the Introduction to Canto IV,
charged with touching and beautiful reminiscences of earlier days.
They were comrades in the Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers, Scott
being Quartermaster and Skene Cornet. Their friendship had been one
of eleven years' standing when the dedicatory epistle was written:--
'Eleven years we now may tell,
Since we have known each other well;
Since, riding side by side, our hand
First drew the voluntary brand.'
With regard to the Introductions, it may now be said that they are
better where they are than if the poet had published them
separately, as at one time he seems to have intended (see Notes, p.
187). It is sometimes said by those anxious to learn the story that
these introductory Epistles should be steadily ignored, and the
cantos read in strict succession. In answer to an assertion of
opinion like this, it is hardly necessary to say more than that
probably those interested in the narrative alone could not do better
than avoid the Introductions. But it will be well for them to miss
various other things besides: will they, for example, care for the
impassioned address of Constance to her judges, for the landlord's
tale of grammarye, for Sir David Lyndsay's narrative, or even for
the many descriptive passages that interrupt the free progress of
the tale? Their reading would appear to be done on the plan of
those who get through novels, or other works of imagination, by
carefully omitting the dialogue and all those passages in which the
author pauses to describe or to reflect. It is needless to say that
this is not the spirit in which to approach 'Marmion' as it stands.
Scott wrote with his friends about him, and it was part of his own
enjoyment of his work to interest them in what for the time was
receiving the main part of his attention. His talk with Mr. Morritt
in front of the little cottage at Lasswade is highly significant as
illustrative of his attitude towards his friends. His healthy,
humorous, happy nature wanted sympathy, appreciation, sociality, and
good cheer for its complete normal development, and this alone would
explain the writing of the Introductions. But there is more than
this. He talked over his subject and his progress with friends
competent to discuss and advise, and he showed them portions of the
poem as he advanced. There are indications in the Introductions of
certain discussions that had arisen over his conception and
treatment, and surely few readers would like to miss from the volume
the clever and humorous apology for his own method which the poet
advances in the Introduction to the third canto. William Erskine,
refined critic and life-long friend, is asked to be patient and
generous while the poet proceeds in his own way:--
'Still kind, as is thy wont, attend,
And in the minstrel spare the friend,
Though wild as cloud, as stream, as gale,
Flow forth, flow unrestrain'd, my Tale!'
Further, the Introductions do not in any case interrupt the progress
of the Poem. Scott was dealing with a great national theme--a cause
he and his friends could understand and appreciate--and both before
starting and at every pause he has something to say that is apposite
and suggestive. His country's wintry state is the key-note of the
first Introduction, which is an appropriate prelude to a great
national tragedy; weird Border legends and the touching and
mysterious silences of lone St. Mary's Lake fitly introduce the
'mysterious Man of Woe'; the third and the fourth Introductions,
with their features of personal interest and their bright
reminiscences of 'tales that charmed' and scenes on 'the field-day,
or the drill,' are easily connected with the Hostel and the Camp;
Spenser's 'wandering Squire of Dames,' the vigorous description of
the 'Queen of the North,' and the tribute to the notes that 'Marie
translated, Blondel sung,' all tell in their due place as
preparatory to the canto on The Court; while the ominous record,
emanating from a Yule-tide retreat, could not be more fitly
interrupted than by a battle of national disaster. Scott, then, may
have thought of publishing the Introductions separately, but it is
well that he ultimately allowed his better judgment to prevail. It
is not necessary to dwell on their special descriptive features,
which readily assert themselves and give Scott a high and honoured
place among Nature-poets. His quick and minute observation, his
sense of colour and harmonious effects, and his skill of arrangement
are admirable throughout.
II. COMPOSITION OF 'MARMION.'
In 1791 Scott accompanied an uncle into Northumberland, and made his
first acquaintance with the scene of Flodden. Writing to his friend
William Clerk (Lockhart's Life, ii. 182), he says, 'Never was an
affair more completely bungled than that day's work was. Suppose
one army posted upon the face of a hill, and secured by high grounds
projecting on each flank, with the river Till in front, a deep and
still river, winding through a very extensive valley called Milfield
Plain, and the only passage over it by a narrow bridge, which the
Scots artillery, from the hill, could in a moment have demolished.
Add that the English must have hazarded a battle while their troops,
which were tumultuously levied, remained together; and that the
Scots, behind whom the country was open to Scotland, had nothing to
do but to wait for the attack as they were posted. Yet did two-
thirds of the army, actuated by the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum,
rush down and give an opportunity to Stanley to occupy the ground
they had quitted, by coming over the shoulder of the hill, while the
other third, under Lord Home, kept their ground, and having seen
their King and about 10,000 of their countrymen cut to pieces,
retired into Scotland without loss.' Fifteen years after this was
written Scott began the composition of 'Marmion,' and it is
interesting to note that, so early in life as the date of this
letter indicates, he was so keenly alive to the great blunder in
military tactics made by James IV and his advisers, and so
manifestly stirred to eloquent expression of his feeling.
In November 1806 Scott began 'Marmion,' designed as a romance of
Feudalism to succeed the Border study in 'The Lay of the Last
Minstrel.' The circumstances of the time, no doubt, to some extent
prompted the choice of subject. Napoleon was diligently working out
his ambitious scheme of a Western Empire, and plotting the ruin of
Great Britain as an indispensable feature of the arrangement. Scott
was not always intimately acquainted with the details of current
politics, but when a subject fairly roused his interest he was not
slow to take part in its discussion. This is notably illustrated,
in this very year 1806, by the outspoken and energetic political
ballad he produced over the acquittal of Lord Melville from a
serious charge. This ballad, which went very straight to the heart
of its subject, and left no doubt as to the party feeling of the
writer, not only arrested general attention but gave considerable
offence to the leaders on the side so sharply handled. It is given,
with an explanation of the circumstances that called it forth, in
Lockhart's Life, ii. 106, 1837 ed.
While, however, party politics was not always a subject that
interested Scott, patriotism was a constituent element of his
character. He had a keen sense of national dignity and honour--as
the extract from his Flodden letter alone sufficiently testifies--
and, had circumstances demanded it of him, he would almost certainly
have distinguished himself as a trooper on the field of battle.
Thus it was not only his love of a picturesque theme that inspired
him with his Tale of Flodden Field, but likewise his patriotic
ardour and his desire to touch the national heart. 'Marmion' is
epical in character and movement; and it is at the same time a
brilliant and suggestive delineation of a national effort,
illustrating keen sense of honour, resolute purpose, and pathetic
manly devotion. James IV was probably wrong, and he was certainly
very rash, in attempting to do battle with Henry VIII, but although
his people were aware of his mistake, and his advisers did all in
their power to dissuade him, he was supported to the last with a
heroism that recalls Thermopylae. This was a display of national
character that appealed directly and powerfully to Scott, prompting
him to the production of his loftiest and most energetic verse.
Mournful associations will ever cluster around the tragic battle of
Flodden--that 'most dolent day,' as Lyndsay aptly calls it--but all
the same the record remains of what heroic men had it in them to do
for King and country, where
'Groom fought like noble, squire like knight,
As fearlessly and well.'
Scott intended to work slowly and carefully through his new poem,
but, as he explains in the 1830 Introduction, circumstances
interrupted his design. 'Particular passages,' he says, 'of a poem,
which was finally called "Marmion," were laboured with a good deal
of care, by one by whom much care was seldom bestowed.' The
publication, however, was hastened by 'the misfortunes of a near
relation and friend.' Lockhart (Life, ii. 115) explains that the
reference is to 'his brother Thomas's final withdrawal from the
profession of Writer to the Signet, which arrangement seems to have
been quite necessary towards the end of 1806.' At any rate, the
poem was finished in a shorter time than had been at first intended.
The subject suited Scott so exactly that, even in default of a
special stimulus, there need be no surprise at the rapidity of his
composition after he had fairly begun to move forward with it.
Dryden, it may be remembered, was so held and fascinated by his
'Alexander's Feast' that he wrote it off in a night. Cowper had a
similar experience with 'John Gilpin,' and Burns's powerful dramatic
tale, 'Tam O'Shanter,' was produced with great ease and rapidity.
De Quincey records that, in his own case, his very best work was
frequently done when he was writing against time. Scott's energy
and fluency of composition are clearly indicated in the following
passage in Lockharts Life, ii. 117:--
'When the theme was of a more stirring order, he enjoyed pursuing it
over brake and fell at the full speed of his Lieutenant. I well
remember his saying, as I rode with him across the hills from
Ashestiel to Newark one day in his declining years--"Oh, man, I had
many a grand gallop among these braes when I was thinking of
'Marmion,' but a trotting canny pony must serve me now." His
friend, Mr. Skene, however, informs me that many of the more
energetic descriptions, and particularly that of the battle of
Flodden, were struck out while he was in quarters again with his
cavalry, in the autumn of 1807. "In the intervals of drilling," he
says, "Scott used to delight in walking his powerful black steed up
and down by himself upon the Portobello sands, within the beating of
the surge; and now and then you would see him plunge in his spurs
and go off as if at the charge, with the spray dashing about him.
As we rode back to Musselburgh, he often came and placed himself
beside me to repeat the verses that he had been composing during
these pauses of our exercise."'
This is wholly in keeping with the production of such poetry of
movement as that of 'Marmion,' and it deserves its due place in
estimating the work of Scott, just as Wordsworth's staid and sober
walks around his garden, or among the hills by which he was
surrounded, are carefully considered in connexion with his
deliberate, meditative verse. Scott wrote the Introduction to Canto
IV just a year after he had begun the poem, and between that time
and the middle of February 1808 the work was finished. There is no
rashness in saying that rapidity of production did not detract from
excellence of result. Indeed, it is admiration rather than
criticism that is challenged by the reflection that, in these short
months, the poet should have turned out so much verse of high and
enduring quality.
III. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POEM.
'Marmion' is avowedly a descriptive poem. It is a series of skilful
and impressive pictures, not only remarkable in themselves, but
conspicuous in their own kind in poetical literature. Scott is said
to have been deficient, or at any rate imperfectly trained, in
certain sense activities, but there is no denying his quick
perception of colour and his strong sense of the leading points in a
landscape. Even minute features are seized and utilized with ease
and precision, while the larger elements of a scene are depicted
with breadth, sense of proportion, and clearness and impressiveness
of arrangement. This holds true whether the description is merely a
vivid presentment of what the imagination of the poet calls from the
remote past, or a delineation of what has actually come under his
notice. Norham at twilight, with the solitary warder on the
battlements, and Crichtoun castle, as Scott himself saw it,
instantly commend themselves by their realistic vigour and their
consistent verisimilitude. Any visitor to Norham will still be able
to imagine the stir and the imposing spectacle described in the
opening stanzas of the first canto; and it is a pleasure to follow
Scott's minute and faithful picture of Crichtoun by examining the
imposing ruin as it stands at the present day. Then it is
impossible not to feel that the Edinburgh of the sixteenth century
was exactly as it is depicted in the poem, and that the troops on
the Borough Moor were disposed as seen by the trained military eye
of Sir Walter Scott. It would be difficult to find anywhere a more
striking ancient stronghold than Tantallon, nor would it be easy to
conceive a more appropriate scene for that grim and exciting morning
interview in which the venerable Douglas found that he had harboured
a recreant knight. Above all, there is the great battle scene,
standing alone in literature for its carefully detailed delineation-
-its persistent minuteness, its rapidity of movement, its balanced
effects, its energetic purpose--and surpassing everything in modern
verse for its vivid Homeric realism. Fifteen years before, as we
have seen, Scott had the progress of the battle in his mind's eye,
and at length he produced his description as if he had been present
in the character of a skilful and interested spectator. There are
envious people who decline to admit that Scott discovered his
scenery, and who contend that others knew all about it before and
appreciated it in their own way. Be it so; and yet the fact remains
that Scott likewise saw and appreciated in the way peculiar to him,
and thereby enabled his numerous readers to share his enjoyment. A
very interesting and suggestive account of the new popularity given
to the Flodden district by the publication of 'Marmion' will be
found in Lockhart's Life, iii. 12. In the autumn of 1812 Scott
visited Rokeby, doing the journey on horseback, along with his
eldest boy and girl on ponies. The following is an episode of the
way:--
'Halting at Flodden to expound the field of battle to his young
folks, he found that "Marmion" had, as might have been expected,
benefited the keeper of the public-house there very largely; and the
village Boniface, overflowing with gratitude, expressed his anxiety
to have a Scott's Head for his sign-post. The poet demurred to this
proposal, and assured mine host that nothing could be more
appropriate than the portraiture of a foaming tankard, which already
surmounted his doorway. "Why, the painter man has not made an ill
job," said the landlord, "but I would fain have something more
connected with the book that has brought me so much good custom."
He produced a well-thumbed copy, and handing it to the author,
begged he would at least suggest a motto from the Tale of Flodden
Field. Scott opened the book at the death-scene of the hero, and
his eye was immediately caught by the "inscription" in black
letter:--
"Drink, weary pilgrim, drink, and pray
For the kind soul of Sibyl Grey," &c.
"Well, my friend," said he, "what more would you have? You need but
strike out one letter in the first of these lines, and make your
painter-man, the next time he comes this way, print between the
jolly tankard and your own name:--
'Drink, weary pilgrim, drink, and PAY.'"
Scott was delighted to find, on his return, that this suggestion had
been adopted, and for aught I know the romantic legend may still be
visible.'
The characters in the poem are hardly less vigorous in conception
and presentation than the descriptions. It may be true, as Carlyle
asserts in his ungenerous essay on Scott, that he was inferior to
Shakespeare in delineation of character, but, even admitting that,
we shall still have ample room for approval and admiration of his
work. So far as the purposes of the poem are concerned the various
personages are admirably utilized. We come to know Marmion himself
very intimately, the interest gradually deepening as the real
character of the Palmer and his relations to the hero are steadily
developed. These two take prominent rank with the imaginary
characters of literature. James IV, that 'champion of the dames,'
and likewise undoubted military leader, is faithfully delineated in
accordance with historical records and contemporary estimates.
Those desirous of seeing him as he struck the imagination of a poet
in his own day should read the eulogy passed upon him by Barclay in
his 'Ship of Fools.' The passage in which this occurs is an
interpolation in the division of the poem entitled 'Of the Ruine and
Decay of the Holy Faith Catholique.' The other characters are all
distinctly suited to the parts they have to perform. Acting on the
licence sanctioned by Horatian authority:--
'Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum'--
Scott appropriates Sir David Lyndsay to his purpose, presenting him,
even as he presents the stately and venerable Angus, with faithful
and striking picturesqueness. Bishop Douglas is exactly suited to
his share in the development of events; and had room likewise been
found for the Court poet Dunbar--author of James's Epithalamium, the
'Thrissill and the Rois'--it would have been both a fit and a seemly
arrangement. Had Scott remembered that Dunbar was a favourite of
Queen Margaret's he might have introduced him into an interesting
episode. The passage devoted to the Queen herself is exquisite and
graceful, its restrained and effective pathos making a singularly
direct and significant appeal. The other female characters are well
conceived and sustained, while Constance in the Trial scene reaches
an imposing height of dramatic intensity.
After the descriptions and the characterisation, the remaining
important features of the poem are its marked practical irony and
its episodes. Marmion, despite his many excellences, is throughout-
-and for obvious reasons--the victim of a persistent Nemesis. Scott
is much interested in his hero; one fancies that if it were only
possible he would in the end extend his favour to him, and grant him
absolution; but his sense of artistic fitness prevails, and he will
abate no jot of the painful ordeal to which he feels bound to submit
him. Marmion is a knight with a claim to nothing more than the half
of the proverbial qualifications. He is sans peur, but not sans
reproche; and it is one expression of the practical irony that
constantly lurks to assail him that even his fearlessness quails for
a time before the Phantom Knight on Gifford Moor. The whole
attitude of the Palmer is ironical; and, after the bitter parting
with Angus at Tantallon, Marmion is weighted with the depressing
reflection that numerous forces are conspiring against him, and with
the knowledge that it is his old rival De Wilton that has thrown off
the Palmer's disguise and preceded him to the scene of war. In his
last hour the practical irony of his position bears upon him with a
concentration of keen and bitter thrusts. Clare, whom he intended
to defraud, ministers to his last needs; he learns that Constance
died a bitter death at Lindisfarne; and just when he recognises his
greatest need of strength his life speedily ebbs away. There is a
certain grandeur of impressive tragical effort in his last
struggles, as he feels that whatever he may himself have been he
suffers in the end from the merciless machinery of a false
ecclesiastical system. The practical irony follows him even after
his death, for it is a skilful stroke that leaves his neglected
remains on the field of battle and places a nameless stranger in his
stately tomb.
As regards the episodes, it may just be said in a word that they are
appropriate, and instead of retarding the movement of the piece, as
has sometimes been alleged, they serve to give it breadth and
massiveness of effect. Of course, there will always be found those
who think them too long, just as there are those whose narrowness of
view constrains them to wish the Introductions away. If the poet's
conception of Marmion be fully considered, it will be seen that the
Host's Tale is an integral part of his purpose; and there is surely
no need to defend either Sir David Lyndsay's Tale or the weird
display at the cross of Edinburgh. The episode of Lady Heron's
singing carries its own defence in itself, seeing that the song of
'Lochinvar' holds a place of distinction among lyrics expressive of
poetical motion. After all, we must bear in mind that though it
pleases Scott to speak of his tale as flowing on 'wild as cloud, as
stream, as gale,' he was still conscious that he was engaged upon a
poem, and that a poem is regulated by certain artistic laws. If we
strive to grasp his meaning we shall not be specially inclined to
carp at his method. It may at the same time be not unprofitable to
look for a moment at some of the notable criticisms of the poem.
IV. CRITICISMS OF THE POEM.
When 'Marmion' was little more than begun Scott's publishers offered
him a thousand pounds for the copyright, and as this soon became
known it naturally gave rise to varied comment. Lord Byron thought
it sufficient to warrant a gratuitous attack on the author in his
'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.' This is a portion of the
passage:--
'And think'st thou, Scott! by vain conceit perchance,
On public taste to foist thy stale romance.
Though Murray with his Miller may combine
To yield thy muse just half-a-crown per line?
No! when the sons of song descend to trade,
Their bays are sear, their former laurels fade.'
As a matter of fact, there was on Scott's part no trade whatever in
the case. If a publisher chose to secure in advance what he
anticipated would be a profitable commodity, that was mainly the
publisher's affair, and the poet would have been a simpleton not to
close with the offer if he liked it. Scott admirably disposes of
Byron as follows in the 1830 Introduction:--
'The publishers of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," emboldened by the
success of that poem, willingly offered a thousand pounds for
"Marmion." The transaction being no secret, afforded Lord Byron,
who was then at general war with all who blacked paper, an apology
for including me in his satire, entitled "English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers." I never could conceive how an arrangement between an
author and his publishers, if satisfactory to the persons concerned,
could afford matter of censure to any third party. I had taken no
unusual or ungenerous means of enhancing the value of my
merchandise--I had never higgled a moment about the bargain, but
accepted at once what I considered the handsome offer of my
publishers. These gentlemen, at least, were not of opinion that
they had been taken advantage of in the transaction, which indeed
was one of their own framing; on the contrary, the sale of the Poem
was so far beyond their expectation, as to induce them to supply the
author's cellars with what is always an acceptable present to a
young Scottish housekeeper, namely, a hogshead of excellent claret.'
A second point on which Scott was attacked was the character of
Marmion. It was held that such a knight as he undoubtedly was
should have been incapable of forgery. Scott himself; of course,
knew better than his critics whether or not this was the case, but,
with his usual good nature and generous regard for the opinion of
others, he admitted that perhaps he had committed an artistic
blunder. Dr. Leyden, in particular, for whose judgment he had
special respect, wrote him from India 'a furious remonstrance on the
subject.' Fortunately, he made no attempt to change what he had
written, his main reason being that 'corrections, however in
themselves judicious, have a bad effect after publication.' He
might have added that any modification of the hero's guilt would
have entirely altered the character of the poem, and might have
ruined it altogether. He had never, apparently, gone into the
question thoroughly after his first impressions of the type of
knights existing in feudal times, for though he states that 'similar
instances were found, and might be quoted,' he is inclined to admit
that the attribution of forgery was a 'gross defect.' Readers
interested in the subject will find by reference to Pike's 'History
of Crime,' i. 276, that Scott was perfectly justified in his
assumption that a feudal knight was capable of forgery. Those who
understand how intimate his knowledge was of the period with which
he was dealing will, of course, be the readiest to believe him
rather than his critics; but when he seems doubtful of himself, and
ready to yield the point, it is well that the strength of his
original position can thus be supported by the results of recent
investigation.
Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh Review, not being able to understand and
appreciate this new devotion to romance, and probably stimulated by
his misreading of the reference to Fox in the Introduction to Canto
I, did his utmost to cast discredit on 'Marmion.' Scott was too
large a man to confound the separate spheres of Politics and
Literature; whereas it was frequently the case with Jeffrey--as,
indeed, it was to some extent with literary critics on the other
side as well--to estimate an author's work in reference to the party
in the State to which he was known to belong. It was impossible to
deny merits to Scott's descriptions, and the extraordinary energy of
the most striking portions of the Poem, but Jeffrey groaned over the
inequalities he professed to discover, and lamented that the poet
should waste his strength on the unprofitable effort to resuscitate
an old-fashioned enthusiasm. They had been the best of friends
previously--and Scott, as we have seen, worked for the Edinburgh
Review--but it was now patent that the old literary intimacy could
not pleasantly continue. Nor is it surprising that Scott should
have felt that the Edinburgh Review had become too autocratic, and
that he should have given a helping hand towards the establishing of
the Quarterly Review, as a political and literary organ necessary to
the balance of parties.
V. THE TEXT OF THE POEM.
Scott himself revised 'Marmion' in 1831, and the interleaved copy
which he used formed the basis of the text given by Lockhart in the
uniform edition of the Poetical Works published in 1833. This will
remain the standard text. It is that which is followed in the
present volume, in which there will be found only three--in reality
only two--important instances of divergence from Lockhart's
readings. The earlier editions have been collated with that of
1833, and Mr. W. J. Rolfe's careful and scholarly Boston edition has
likewise been consulted. It has not been considered necessary to
follow Mr. Rolfe in several alterations he has made on Lockhart; but
he introduces one emendation which readily commends itself to the
reader's intelligence, and it is adopted in the present volume.
This is in the punctuation of the opening lines in the first stanza
of Canto II. Lockhart completes a sentence at the end of the fifth
line, whereas the sense manifestly carries the period on to the
eleventh line. In the third Introd., line 228, the reading of the
earlier editions is followed in giving 'From me' instead of 'For
me,' as the meaning is thereby simplified and made more direct. In
III. xiv. 234, the modern versions of Lockhart's text give 'proudest
princes VEIL their eyes,' where Lockhart himself agrees with the
earlier editions in reading 'VAIL'. The restoration of the latter
form needs no defence. The Elizabethan words in the Poem are not
infrequent, giving it, as they do, a certain air of archaic dignity,
and there can be little doubt that 'vail' was Scott's word here,
used in its Shakespearian sense of 'lower' or 'cast down,' and
recalling Venus as 'she vailed her eyelids.'
MARMION
A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD
IN SIX CANTOS
Alas! that Scottish maid should sing
The combat where her lover fell!
That Scottish Bard should wake the string,
The triumph of our foes to tell!
LEYDEN.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY, LORD MONTAGUE
&c. &c. &c.
THIS ROMANCE IS INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR
ADVERTISEMENT
* * *
It is hardly to be expected, that an Author whom the Public have
honoured with some degree of applause, should not be again a
trespasser on their kindness. Yet the Author of MARMION must be
supposed to feel some anxiety concerning its success, since he is
sensible that he hazards, by this second intrusion, any reputation
which his first Poem may have procured him. The present story turns
upon the private adventures of a fictitious character; but is called
a Tale of Flodden Field, because the hero's fate is connected with
that memorable defeat, and the causes which led to it. The design
of the Author was, if possible, to apprize his readers, at the
outset, of the date of his Story, and to prepare them for the
manners of the Age in which it is laid. Any Historical Narrative,
far more an attempt at Epic composition, exceeded his plan of a
Romantic Tale; yet he may be permitted to hope, from the popularity
of THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL, that an attempt to paint the
manners of the feudal times, upon a broader scale, and in the course
of a more interesting story, will not be unacceptable to the Public.
The Poem opens about the commencement of August, and concludes with
the defeat of Flodden, 9th September, 1513.
Ashestiel, 1808,
MARMION.
INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FIRST.
TO WILLIAM STEWART ROSE, ESQ.
Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.
November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear:
Late, gazing down the steepy linn,
That hems our little garden in,
Low in its dark and narrow glen, 5
You scarce the rivulet might ken,
So thick the tangled greenwood grew,
So feeble trill'd the streamlet through:
Now, murmuring hoarse, and frequent seen
Through bush and brier, no longer green, 10
An angry brook, it sweeps the glade,
Brawls over rock and wild cascade,
And, foaming brown with double speed,
Hurries its waters to the Tweed.
No longer Autumn's glowing red 15
Upon our Forest hills is shed;
No more, beneath the evening beam,
Fair Tweed reflects their purple gleam;
Away hath pass'd the heather-bell
That bloom'd so rich on Needpath-fell; 20
Sallow his brow, and russet bare
Are now the sister-heights of Yair.
The sheep, before the pinching heaven,
To sheltered dale and down are driven,
Where yet some faded herbage pines, 25
And yet a watery sunbeam shines:
In meek despondency they eye
The withered sward and wintry sky,
And far beneath their summer hill,
Stray sadly by Glenkinnon's rill: 30
The shepherd shifts his mantle's fold,
And wraps him closer from the cold;
His dogs no merry circles wheel,
But, shivering, follow at his heel;
A cowering glance they often cast, 35
As deeper moans the gathering blast.
My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild,
As best befits the mountain child,
Feel the sad influence of the hour,
And wail the daisy's vanish'd flower; 40
Their summer gambols tell, and mourn,
And anxious ask,--Will spring return,
And birds and lambs again be gay,
And blossoms clothe the hawthorn spray?
Yes, prattlers, yes. The daisy's flower 45
Again shall paint your summer bower;
Again the hawthorn shall supply
The garlands you delight to tie;
The lambs upon the lea shall bound,
The wild birds carol to the round, 50
And while you frolic light as they,
Too short shall seem the summer day.
To mute and to material things
New life revolving summer brings;
The genial call dead Nature hears, 55
And in her glory reappears.
But oh! my Country's wintry state
What second spring shall renovate?
What powerful call shall bid arise
The buried warlike and the wise; 60
The mind that thought for Britain's weal,
The hand that grasp'd the victor steel?
The vernal sun new life bestows
Even on the meanest flower that blows;
But vainly, vainly may he shine, 65
Where Glory weeps o'er NELSON'S shrine:
And vainly pierce the solemn gloom,
That shrouds, O PITT, thy hallow'd tomb!
Deep graved in every British heart,
O never let those names depart! 70
Say to your sons,--Lo, here his grave,
Who victor died on Gadite wave;
To him, as to the burning levin,
Short, bright, resistless course was given.
Where'er his country's foes were found, 75
Was heard the fated thunder's sound,
Till burst the bolt on yonder shore,
Roll'd, blazed, destroyed,--and was no more.
Nor mourn ye less his perished worth,
Who bade the conqueror go forth, 80
And launch'd that thunderbolt of war
On Egypt, Hafnia, Trafalgar;
Who, born to guide such high emprize,
For Britain's weal was early wise;
Alas! to whom the Almighty gave, 85
For Britain's sins, an early grave!
His worth, who, in his mightiest hour,
A bauble held the pride of power,
Spum'd at the sordid lust of pelf,
And served his Albion for herself; 90
Who, when the frantic crowd amain
Strain'd at subjection's bursting rein,
O'er their wild mood full conquest gain'd,
The pride, he would not crush, restrain'd,
Show'd their fierce zeal a worthier cause, 95
And brought the freeman's arm, to aid the freeman's laws.
Had'st thou but lived, though stripp'd of power,
A watchman on the lonely tower,
Thy thrilling trump had roused the land,
When fraud or danger were at hand; 100
By thee, as by the beacon-light,
Our pilots had kept course aright;
As some proud column, though alone,
Thy strength had propp'd the tottering throne:
Now is the stately column broke, 105
The beacon-light is quench'd in smoke,
The trumpet's silver sound is still,
The warder silent on the hill!
Oh, think, how to his latest day,
When Death, just hovering, claim'd his prey, 110
With Palinure's unalter'd mood,
Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
Each call for needful rest repell'd,
With dying hand the rudder held,
Till, in his fall, with fateful sway, 115
The steerage of the realm gave way!
Then, while on Britain's thousand plains,
One unpolluted church remains,
Whose peaceful bells ne'er sent around
The bloody tocsin's maddening sound, 120
But still, upon the hallow'd day,
Convoke the swains to praise and pray;
While faith and civil peace are dear,
Grace this cold marble with a tear,-
He, who preserved them, PITT, lies here! 125
Nor yet suppress the generous sigh,
Because his rival slumbers nigh;
Nor be thy requiescat dumb,
Lest it be said o'er Fox's tomb.
For talents mourn, untimely lost, 130
When best employ'd, and wanted most;
Mourn genius high, and lore profound,
And wit that loved to play, not wound;
And all the reasoning powers divine,
To penetrate, resolve, combine; 135
And feelings keen, and fancy's glow,--
They sleep with him who sleeps below:
And, if thou mourn'st they could not save
From error him who owns this grave,
Be every harsher thought suppress'd, 140
And sacred be the last long rest.
HERE, where the end of earthly things
Lays heroes, patriots, bards, and kings;
Where stiff the hand, and still the tongue,
Of those who fought, and spoke, and sung; 145
HERE, where the fretted aisles prolong
The distant notes of holy song,
As if some angel spoke agen,
'All peace on earth, good-will to men;'
If ever from an English heart, 150
O, HERE let prejudice depart,
And, partial feeling cast aside,
Record, that Fox a Briton died!
When Europe crouch'd to France's yoke,
And Austria bent, and Prussia broke, 155
And the firm Russian's purpose brave,
Was barter'd by a timorous slave,
Even then dishonour's peace he spurn'd,
The sullied olive-branch return'd,
Stood for his country's glory fast, 160
And nail'd her colours to the mast!
Heaven, to reward his firmness, gave
A portion in this honour'd grave,
And ne'er held marble in its trust
Of two such wondrous men the dust. 165
With more than mortal powers endow'd,
How high they soar'd above the crowd!
Theirs was no common party race,
Jostling by dark intrigue for place;
Like fabled Gods, their mighty war 170
Shook realms and nations in its jar;
Beneath each banner proud to stand,
Look'd up the noblest of the land,
Till through the British world were known
The names of PITT and Fox alone. 175
Spells of such force no wizard grave
E'er framed in dark Thessalian cave,
Though his could drain the ocean dry,
And force the planets from the sky.
These spells are spent, and, spent with these, 180
The wine of life is on the lees.
Genius, and taste, and talent gone,
For ever tomb'd beneath the stone,
Where--taming thought to human pride!--
The mighty chiefs sleep side by side. 185
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear,
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier;
O'er PITT'S the mournful requiem sound,
And Fox's shall the notes rebound.
The solemn echo seems to cry,-- 190
'Here let their discord with them die.
Speak not for those a separate doom,
Whom Fate made Brothers in the tomb;
But search the land of living men,
Where wilt thou find their like agen?' 195
Rest, ardent Spirits! till the cries
Of dying Nature bid you rise;
Not even your Britain's groans can pierce
The leaden silence of your hearse;
Then, O, how impotent and vain 200
This grateful tributary strain!
Though not unmark'd from northern clime,
Ye heard the Border Minstrel's rhyme:
His Gothic harp has o'er you rung;
The Bard you deign'd to praise, your deathless names has sung.
Stay yet, illusion, stay a while,
My wilder'd fancy still beguile!
From this high theme how can I part,
Ere half unloaded is my heart!
For all the tears e'er sorrow drew, 210
And all the raptures fancy knew,
And all the keener rush of blood,
That throbs through bard in bard-like mood,
Were here a tribute mean and low,
Though all their mingled streams could flow-- 215
Woe, wonder, and sensation high,
In one spring-tide of ecstasy!--
It will not be--it may not last--
The vision of enchantment's past:
Like frostwork in the morning ray, 220
The fancied fabric melts away;
Each Gothic arch, memorial-stone,
And long, dim, lofty aisle, are gone;
And, lingering last, deception dear,
The choir's high sounds die on my ear. 225
Now slow return the lonely down,
The silent pastures bleak and brown,
The farm begirt with copsewood wild
The gambols of each frolic child,
Mixing their shrill cries with the tone 230
Of Tweed's dark waters rushing on.
Prompt on unequal tasks to run,
Thus Nature disciplines her son:
Meeter, she says, for me to stray,
And waste the solitary day, 235
In plucking from yon fen the reed,
And watch it floating down the Tweed;
Or idly list the shrilling lay,
With which the milkmaid cheers her way,
Marking its cadence rise and fail, 240
As from the field, beneath her pail,
She trips it down the uneven dale:
Meeter for me, by yonder cairn,
The ancient shepherd's tale to learn;
Though oft he stop in rustic fear, 245
Lest his old legends tire the ear
Of one, who, in his simple mind,
May boast of book-learn'd taste refined.
